BusinessDay 19 Oct 2017

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NEWS YOU CAN TRUST I **THURSDAY 19 OCTOBER 2017 I VOL. 14, NO 463 I N300 @ g 

Ownership tussle: SEC orders 

forensic audit of Oando Plc 

Places shares on technical suspension 

IHEANYI NWACHUKWU & HOPE-MOSES-ASHIKE 

The Securities and Exchange 

Commission 

yesterday announced 

it has ordered a forensic 

investigation into 

the operations of Oando Plc. 

This follows its investigations 

of two petitions “received from 

Alhaji Dahiru Barau Mangal and 

Ansbury Incorporated” 

Mangal and Ansbury Investment 

Incorporated, had petitioned 

SEC, citing gross abuse 

and mismanagement by the 

management of Oando. 

In a statement issued 18 October, 

SEC said it ‘carried out 

a comprehensive review of the 

petitions and made the following 

findings amongst others; 

Breach of the provisions of the 

Investments & Securities Act 

2007; Breach of the SEC Code 

of Corporate Governance for 

Public Companies; Suspected 

insider Dealing; 

Related party transactions not 

conducted at arm’s length; Discrepancies 

in the shareholding 

structure of Oando Plc among 

others.’ 

SEC said that its findings were 

weighty and therefore needed to 

be further investigated. 

“After due consideration, the 

Commission believes that it is 

necessary to conduct a forensic 

audit into the affairs of Oando 

Plc.” 

SEC says a ‘consortium of experts 

made up of auditors, lawyers, 

stockbrokers and registrars’ 

will carry out the forensic audit. 

No date has yet been given as 

to when this consortium will 

be set up, or how long they will 

be given to complete the audit, 

but sources at SEC said that the 

auditors have already been appointed. 

Though no name has 

been given, sources have told 

Appoints auditors 

BusinessDay that the odds are 

in favour of Pwc. 

However, SEC also gave a directive 

to the Nigerian Stock Exchange 

(NSE) to suspend trading 

on the shares of Oando Plc for 48 

hours, after which a full techni- 

Continues on page 4 

L-R: Adebayo 

Shittu, minister 

of communications 

; Kayode 

Fayemi, minister 

of Solid 

minerals, and 

Ibe Kachikwu, 

minister of 

state for 

petroleum 

resources, 

during the 

Federal Executive 

Council 

meeting at 

the Council 

Chambers, 

Presidential 

Villa, Abuja 

yesterday. 

Inside 

Nigeria’s steel 

makers extend 

footprints to 

African market 

P. 4 

Indigenous oil 

firms step up 

production by 

200% in June 

P. 4 

Apapa gridlock: 

70% of trucks 

carry empty 

containers 

P. 33 

Samsung 

Verdict: Five 

useful lessons 

for Africa 

– Uche Ewelukwa 

Ofodile 

P. 25

2 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556 

NEWS 

UBA emerges best bank in support 

of Real Sector at Banking Awards 

United Bank for Africa 

(UBA) plc, at 

the weekend, was 

recognised for its extraordinary 

support of the real 

sector as it won best bank in 

the category, ahead of its peers. 

The award, the organisers 

noted, is in recognition 

of UBA’s leadership role as in 

expanding access to funds for 

the support of the real sector 

in Nigeria and the rest of Africa 

where it operates. This feat they 

further said has brought about 

unprecedented growth to the 

sector and by extension, the 

nation’s economy and that of 

Africa. 

Speaking while receiving 

the prestigious award on behalf 

of the bank, head strategic 

business group, Usman Isiaka, 

expressed appreciation to 

BusinessDay for recognising 

the distinctive role UBA was 

playing in Nigeria as well as the 

African continent in driving 

financial inclusion coupled 

with its role in supporting the 

growth of critical sectors. 

“The Real sector is pivotal 

to economic development in 

Nigeria and all of Africa as it 

forms the main driving force 

of any economy and its development. 

We are pleased with the 

acknowledgement of our support 

to the sector. It is worthy 

to note that our expansion to 

Africa has not only helped di- 

versify our earnings base, it has 

provided us with the opportunity 

to grow economies and 

partake in the development 

of Africa. We are grateful to all 

stakeholders for their support 

and are stimulated to do even 

more” he said. 

Frank Aigbogun, publisher, 

BusinessDay, emphasised 

that the BusinessDay Banking 

Awards was the product of 

a rigorous process by BusinessDay’s 

Research and Intelligence 

Unit, designed to feed 

the editorial and also drive 

commercial research. 

“We are motivated by philosophy 

that, Great institutions 

and leaders deserve to be recognised 

so as to boost healthy 

competition in their sector” 

that is why we make it a point 

of duty to celebrate those who 

make the conscious effort to 

stand out”, Aigbogun noted. 

UBA was incorporated in 

Nigeria as a limited liability 

company after taking over the 

assets of the British and French 

Bank Limited who had been 

operating in Nigeria since 

1949. The United Bank for 

Africa merged with Standard 

Trust Bank in 2005 and from 

a single country operation 

founded in 1949 in Nigeria - 

Africa’s largest economy - UBA 

has become one of the leading 

providers of banking and other 

financial services on the African 

continent. 

Banks remit N128bn to CBN 

over Senate investigations 

… as panel identifies 32 revenue leakages 

OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja 

Joint Senate Committee 

on Customs, Excise 

and Tariff and Marine 

Transport on Wednesday, 

claimed that some 

Nigerian banks had so far remitted 

N128 billion to the Central 

Bank of Nigeria (CBN) due 

to its investigations. 

This followed the interim 

report of the Committees on 

Customs, Excise and Tariffs and 

Marine Transport at plenary. 

Chairman of the joint 

panel, Hope Uzodinma, revealed 

that since the Senate 

mandated the committee to 

carry out a holistic investigation 

into the activities of the 

Nigerian Customs Service 

with a view to identifying the 

leakages and irregularities as 

well as the causes of the declining 

revenue profile of the 

Service, banks had remitted 

N128 billion to the apex bank. 

He, however, did not list 

the specific number of banks 

involved and their names. 

“As a result of this exercise, 

some collection banks have 

made additional remittances 

to the CBN to the tune of N128 

billion, and evidence of payment 

and receipt have been 

received by the committee. 

“From the selected 60 companies, 

over N12 billion payments 

have been made to the 

government voluntarily by the 

companies based on their own 

internal self-audit after receiving 

documented evidence 

of their culpability from our 

committee,” he said. 

He called for extension of 

the committee’s assignment 

by eight weeks to enable it 

conclude its work and present 

a comprehensive report. 

The nine-page report obtained 

by BusinessDay identified 

32 channels as major 

sources of revenue losses in 

the import/export value chain 

to include: wrong tariff classification, 

misuse of procedure 

codes, undervaluation, abuse 

of diplomatic cargo and personal 

effects privilege to clear 

consignments meant for commercial 

use, abuse of waivers 

and concessions, and abuse 

of temporary importation by 

conversion to home use without 

payment of import duties. 

Others are abuse of fasttrack 

Blue Lane, illegal creation, 

amendment and cancellation 

of Single Goods Declaration 

(SGD), Pre-Arrival Assessment 

Reports (PAARs), multiple issuance 

of Tax Identification 

Number (TIN) to importers by 

Federal Inland Revenue Service 

(FIRS), multiple ownership of 

Customs Clearing Agency Licenses 

by individuals as a result 

of poor Licensing and Permit 

System, among others. 

According to the panel, 

the infractions distort the 

economic profile of the country 

and place extensive pressures 

on the nation’s scarce 

foreign exchange. 

“It also negates all CBN initiated 

foreign exchange management 

plans. This is because a 

distorted forex requirement 

does not essentially reflect the 

actual forex needs of individuals 

and businesses in the country. 

This situation benefits only 

the purveyors of capital flight 

from the country and adds absolutely 

no value to the nation,” 

the report stated. 

The committee said it discovered 

that over 65 percent of 

forex allocation had no impact 

on the Nigerian economy, 

saying this has endangered ‘a 

Thursday 19 October 2017 

thriving money laundering and 

forex round tripping racket.’ 

The committee also identified 

a huge mismatch between 

the actual remittances to the 

apex bank and the duty, taxes, 

and levies collected by the approved 

collected banks. 

It observed that the turnover 

of trained operatives of 

the Nigerian Customs Service 

due to retirement has eroded 

the levels of expertise within 

the Service. 

“A situation where the Central 

Bank of Nigeria, who is the 

administrator of the Comprehensive 

lmport Supervision 

Scheme (ClSS), is handicapped 

by its inability to access empirical 

records of the country’s 

actual trade volumes, and have 

no concrete programme for 

ensuring the monitoring and 

compliance of their foreign exchange 

manual, prevents them 

from providing a concise forex 

utilisation profile of the companies 

that source forex from 

them. This is our view indicates 

a much deeper problem than 

what has been uncovered,” the 

lawmaker said. Twelve out of 

the 20-member committee 

signed the report.


C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

3

4 BUSINESS DAY 

C002D5556 


NEWS 

Nigeria’s steel makers extend footprints to African market 

ODINAKA ANUDU 

Even though Nigeria’s 

steel sector is riddled 

with challenges, some 

players are beginning 

to expand investments 

and export simple products to the 

African market. 

African Industries, the country’s 

biggest steel maker, now 

exports iron rods to Morocco, 

Egypt, and Ghana and is currently 

looking beyond the continent. 

African Industries has 12 

subsidiaries, including six big 

steel plants, such as African Steel 

Mills, Ikorodu Steel Mills, African 

Foundries, and Abuja Steel Mills. 

“We already produce one million 

tonnes of steel per year and 

our target is to export between 

200,000MT and 400,000 MT by 

next year. You can see we are 

earning foreign exchange when 

others are demanding it from the 

government,” Uche Iwuamadi, 

group executive director, African 

Industries, told BusinessDay. 

In a recent interview, Raj Gupta, 

chairman of African Industries 

Limited, said: “We have invested 

Ownership tussle: SEC orders forensic audit of... 

Continued from page 1 

cal suspension should be placed 

on the shares until the forensic 

investigations are completed. 

The SEC directive “implies that 

investors would not be able to 

execute a Buy or Sell mandate on 

Oando Plc shares, till Friday the 

20th of October 2017. Every transaction 

done from Friday, will be at 

the same price, as there would be 

no price change on Oando shares 

untill the technical suspension is 

lifted, or until a further directive is 

issued,” said Capital Bancorp Plc 

analysts, in their note to clients. 

Uche Uwaleke, Associate Professor 

and Head, Banking and 

Finance department, Nasarawa 

State University, noted that the 

measures SEC has taken are in the 

overall interest of investors, the 

market and the economy.’ 

Industry operators however 

told BusinessDay, that the suspension 

of Oando from trading does 

not have immediate impact on 

its business activities, as regards 

crude oil production, drilling 

and other exploration activities. 

“There is no much of an effect 

now “, said an oil and gas industry 

watcher. But if the controversy 

is not cleared on time, industry 

watchers warn that it could impact 

on its capacity to raise fresh funds 

to sustain its operations. 

“Already, the investigations 

could trigger banks to place cautionary 

notice on lending more 

money to the company, which 

could impact on its working capital 

position.” 

Oando’s troubles started in 

connection with a controversy 

surrounding the ownership 

of some Oando shares bought 

through an investment vehicle 

at the time the company bought 

ConocoPhillips’ Nigerian business 

for $1.65 billion in 2014. 

Sources close to the company 

told BusinessDay that the petitioners 

are not satisfied with the 

shareholding structure which has 

emerged post acquisition, and 

have petitioned SEC accordingly. 

$500 million in Nigeria. We believe 

that the steel sector is the 

backbone of any major economy 

in the world. Without steel, there 

cannot be any other industry in 

the real sector of any economy.” 

Aarti Steel Nigeria Limited, 

which recently completed a 

120,000- tonnes capacity coldrolled 

mill in Ota, Ogun State, is 

already exporting steel to West 

African countries such as Togo 

and Mali, and is expanding to 

Central Africa, Ivory Coast and 

Benin, to boost capacity, earn 

more foreign exchange and tap 

the growth potential in the continent’s 

market. 

Aniket Singal, Aarti’s vice chairman, 

told BusinessDay that the 

company is looking at expanding 

its export footprints, but stated 

that infrastructural challenges 

presently at the Apapa and Tin 

Can Island Ports, remain a big 

threat, as several cargoes of imported 

raw materials lie at the 

port. 

“One key thing, that is important 

is a policy that will keep substandard 

roofing sheets at bay,” 

Sighal said. 

At Oando’s 40 th annual general 

meeting, which held in Uyo 

on Monday, September 11, 2017 

the shareholder disagreement 

resulted in protests and counter 

protests from different shareholder 

groups. 

The petitioners, Dahiru Mangal 

and Ansbury Inc, had requested a 

postponement of the company’s 

40th Annual General Meeting, 

pending the close of the investigation 

but SEC had allowed the 

AGM to hold, while it carried on 

its investigations. 

Speaking at the AGM, shareholders 

requested a quick resolution 

of the issues with the petitioners, 

to enable Oando’s management 

focus on building the brand. 

Oando auditors, Ernest & 

Young, in their report at the AGM, 

had also expressed concern over 

the company’s going concern 

status. 

“We are drawing attention 

to note 45 in the financial statements, 

which indicates that the 

company reported a comprehensive 

loss for the year of N33.9 

billion ( 2015: loss N56.6 billion) 

and as at that date, its current assets 

exceeded current liabilities by 

N14.6 billion (2015: N32.8 billion 

net current liability). The group 

recorded a comprehensive income 

of N112.4 billion for the year 

ended December 31, 2016 (2015: 

loss N37.8 billion) and as at that 

date, its current liability exceeded 

current assets by N263.8 billion 

(2015: N260.4 billion). As stated in 

the notes, these conditions, along 

with other matters, indicate that 

a material uncertainty exist that 

may cast significant doubt on the 

company (and Group’s) ability to 

continue as a going concern.” 

But a source at Oando had told 

BusinessDay that since the 2016 

report, Oando had sold down 

significant assets, in a bid to pay 

down its debts and put it in a 

strong position to compete again. 

As at half year 2017, Oando had 

short term debts of N455 billion, 

long term debts of N331 billion, 

Sun Metal Industries Limited 

has a combined installed capacity 

of over 350,000 metric tonnes 

per annum. 

The steel maker currently exports 

to Africa and has its products 

registered with the London 

Metal Stock Exchange (LMSE). It 

likewise operates two subsidiaries 

which are major suppliers of 

export products to some of the 

major auto manufacturers in Asia 

and South America. 

It manufactures ferrous and 

non-ferrous ingots made from 

aluminium, copper, stainless and 

lead, utilising secondary sources 

as raw materials. 

The new steel maker, HongXing 

Steel Company Limited, 

which is pumping $100 million 

into scrap and billet manufacturing 

plants in Aba, Abia State, has 

registered at the Manufacturers 

Association of Nigeria, as an 

exporter and is planning to be 

dominate the ECOWAS market. 

Standard Metallurgical Company 

Limited (SMC) is set to 

launch a billet mill to produce 

standard wire rods in Nigeria for 

the local and ECOWAS market. 

and a cash balance of N73 billion. 

The company’s net debt position 

of N712 billion was slightly 

less than half of the N1.79 trillion it 

stood at, as at the end 2015. Oando 

also had total equity position of 

N650 billion, resulting in a total 

debt to equity ratio of 1.09:1. 

Some protesters at the AGM 

“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 demand and the 

surplus can go to the ECOWAS 

market,” Mohammed Saade, 

managing director, SMC, told 

BusinessDay. 

Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy, 

spends about $3.3 billion on 

steel imports every year. Eighteen 

of the 30 steel manufacturers in 

Nigeria produce about 2.2 million 

tons a year with scraps and billets 

imported mainly from China. 

An average of steel products 

such as standard plates, hot-rolled 

coil, cold-rolled coil and rebar 

is $464.7 using Chinese prices, 

which means Nigeria imports 

about 7.1 million metric tonnes 

of steel annually. 

The publicly-owned Ajaokuta 

Steel Complex is in disrepair, after 

government put in over $5 billion 

into the plant. The government 

has been slow to hand it over to a 

private investor, despite interests 

from foreigners. 

had demanded that Wale Tinubu 

step down and allow competent 

hands to manage the affairs of 

the company to save millions of 

Nigerians from further loss of their 

hard-earned money. 

However, some other shareholders 

demanded that the management 

reconcile with aggrieved 

Indigenous oil 

firms step up 

production by 

200% in June 

ISAAC ANYAOGU 

Sixteen Nigerian indigenous 

oil producers who operate 

in partnership with international 

oil companies called independents, 

accounted for over 

7.486 million barrels of crude 

oil in June, which represents an 

over 200 percent increase from 

May production volumes of 

2.387 million barrels, according 

to data released by the Nigerian 

National Petroleum Corporation 

(NNPC). 

This is significant because the 

highest production volume ever 

attained in the last one year, by 

the group, is 2.7 million barrels 

last March and it represents the 

biggest crude addition by the 

various arrangements through 

which crude oil is produced in 

Continues on page 33 

L-R: Pai Gamde, acting head, corporate services division, The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE); Oscar N. Onyema, chief 

executive officer, NSE; Kashim Shettima, governor, Borno State; Abimbola Ogunbanjo, president, NSE, and Bola Adeeko, 

interim chief executive officer, Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) plc, during the commissioning of Maisandari 

Alamderi Model Nursery and Primary School, in Abuja Talakawa District of Maiduguri, which was donated by The Nigerian 

Stock Exchange to Borno State Government as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. 

Oando Timeline 

June 23 2014- Reuters reported that Oando shares surged 10 

percent, extending a 20 percent rise over two days after the oil firm 

said it had won government approval to complete a long delayed 

$1.65 billion buyout of ConocoPhillips’ Nigerian assets. 

July 23 2014- Financial Times reported that ConocoPhillips said 

it had completed the sale of $1.5 billion of Nigerian oil assets to local 

player Oando PLC, as Nigerian companies take an increasingly 

assertive role in the running of their country’s hydrocarbons riches. 

June 6 2016- Oando, said that it has obtained a N94.6 billion 

loan facility from 10 Nigerian banks as part of a strategic debt 

restructuring plan to enhance profitability. 

July 17, 2017 -Oando Nigeria confirms it is under the investigation 

of the Securities and Exchange Commission over allegations 

gross mismanagement by shareholders. 

October 18, 2017- The Securities and Exchange Commission, 

SEC, orders forensic investigation of Oando’s operations. 

investors and majority shareholders, 

so as to save the company 

from collapse. 

National Coordinator of Progressive 

Shareholders Association 

of Nigeria (PSAN), Boniface 

Okezie said, “We are aware of the 

petition written to the Securities 

and Exchange Commission (SEC) 

by the majority shareholders of 

this company. We demand that 

the management reconcile with 

them and give them the three 

vacant positions on the board. 

This will save this company from 

collapse.” 

In his response Wale Tinubu 

stated that the protests were uncalled 

for. 

But on September 21, the 

House of Representatives Committee 

on Capital Market and 

other Institutions, had issued 

a two-week ultimatum to the 

Securities and Exchange Commission 

(SEC) to resolve the impasse 

over Oando. This was after 

holding separate meetings with 

the management team of SEC, 

Continues on page 33


C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

5



C002D5556 

NEWS 

Over-regulation, multiple taxation bane 

of ease of doing business in Nigeria 

DAVID IBEMERE 

Multiple taxation, 

overregulation, 

government 

bureaucracy 

and unnecessary taxes are the 

major reasons businesses in 

Nigeria are suffering. 

This was the submission of 

a panel of experts at a policy 

dialogue meeting on government 

regulation of the private 

sector, with a special focus 

on tobacco industry, titled: 

Moving from regulation to 

policy action - the challenge, 

organised by the Initiative for 

Public Policy and Analysis in 

Lagos, Tuesday. 

Decrying the nation’s business 

environment low ranking 

in various global rankings, 

two of which are unenviable 

169th position out of 

the 170 countries sampled in 

the World Bank ‘Ease of Doing 

Business’ index and the 

Economic Competitiveness 

Index 124 of 140, among others, 

the experts pointed out 

that Nigeria must begin to 

stop paying lip service about 

diversification of the economy 

and formulate policies that 

Police bows to pressure, transfers CP Gwandu out of Edo 

After the outcry by Edo 

State indigenes and 

residents recently, 

the force headquarters, 

Abuja, Wednesday yielded 

to reason and transferred 

Haliru Gwandu Abukar, the 

embattled commissioner of 

police, Edo State, who despite 

initial transfer by the Police 

Service Commission (PSC) in 

July, refused deployment to his 

new station. 

Abukar’s posting order, issued 

on Tuesday, October 17, 

2017, by the secretary, Office 

of the Inspector General of 

Police, has the reference: TH. 

5361/FS/FHQ/ABJ/V.2/532, 

with the title: Posting Senior 

Officers. 

The order, which was obtained 

by this reporter, directed 

him to move to his new duty 

post with immediate effect. 

Other police commissioners 

Probe of $2bn obtained by TCN underway 

KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja 

House of Representatives 

during 

Wednesday plenary 

session resolved 

to initiate investigation into 

the $2 billion loan obtained 

by Transmission Company of 

Nigeria (TCN). 

Simon Arabo (PDP-Kaduna), 

who sponsored the motion, 

alleged that TCN wholly 

owned by Federal Government 

obtained the facility in-breach 

of relevant provisions of the 

1999 Constitution, Fiscal Responsibility 

Act as well as the 

Public Procurement Act (PPA). 

The privatisation of the 

power sector under Section 

8 of the Power Sector Reform 

Act of 2005 gave birth to the 

would help improve ease of 

doing business. 

One of the panellists, Vincent 

Nwani, director of Research 

and Advocacy of Lagos 

Chamber of Commerce and 

Industry (LCCI), noted that 

multiplicity of taxes, security, 

and contract sanctity were 

key issues affecting the diversification 

of Nigeria economy. 

“On an estimate, companies 

suffer a loss of up to 25% 

due to regulatory infractions 

in Nigeria, hence the need 

to review the tax structure 

and streamline the number 

of taxes/levies and their rates 

with a possibility of having 

a one-stop-shop model,” he 

said. 

For Damilola Olajide, a 

health economist, the overly 

regulated tobacco industry 

was depriving manufacturers 

of their social responsibility 

to the society, which include 

funding cancer research in 

health institutions. 

Speaking on the topic 

‘balancing regulations and 

product health hazards, he, 

therefore, called on the Federal 

Government to pay attention 

to reducing inequalities 

in smoking-related diseases, 

TCN, as one of the successor 

companies in the sector. 

The privatisation also notes 

that under Section 9 of the 

Act, the TCN is wholly owned 

by the Federal Government 

through the Ministry of Finance 

Incorporated and the 

Bureau of Public Procurement 

(BPP), which holds the shares 

on its behalf. 

Arabo noted that the “TCN 

has taken loans amounting to 

$1.5 billion from the World 

Bank and other International 

Lenders over a period of time 

without complying with the 

provisions of section 44 of the 

Fiscal Responsibility Act 

“The House is also aware 

that the loans were utilised 

without the appropriation of 

the National Assembly conaffected 

by the posting order 

are Moses Ambakina Jitoboh 

and Johnson Babatunde Kokumo. 

In July, Abukar, along with 

other CPs like Fatai Owoseni, 

formerly of Lagos State, Garba 

Umar, formerly of Bayelsa, 

were all redeployed. Owoseni, 

initially, was belligerent and 

would not give way for Egdal 

Omohinmi, his successor, 

claiming that there had not 

been signal from the IGP. 

The matter was however 

smoothened later. While 

Owoseni and Umar have since 

moved to their new stations, 

Abukar adamantly refused to 

budge, allegedly citing directives 

from the IGP to stay put. 

The breakdown in the relationship 

between the police 

and Edo people was amplified 

by members of the public, 

who alleged many infractions 

especially targeting the poor 

segments where prevalence 

was relatively high rather than 

burden the tobacco companies 

with unnecessary taxes 

and levies. 

Despite the serious health 

concerns often raised by 

health experts and civil society 

groups about tobacco due 

to health consequences for 

consumers, Olajide noted that 

the tobacco companies had a 

significant role to play just like 

every other industry in the 

manufacturing sector, in the 

nation’s economic recovery 

and growth. 

“Tobacco being a lifestyle 

product, even with incremental 

tax hikes on the product 

may do very little or nothing 

to dissuade people from 

smoking. Imposition of a 150 

percent hike in the tax paid 

by tobacco companies while 

imports attract only 60 percent 

implies that imported tobacco 

will be more affordable than 

those produced in Nigeria, and 

there will be an immediate impact 

on government revenue, 

and the longer-term impact of 

factory closure and job losses 

will make an already bad situation 

worse,” Olajide said. 

against the state police command. 

Crime rate, especially, kidnapping 

and robbery, spiked 

in Edo and the state police 

command appeared helpless 

in the matter. There was 

the brazen kidnap of Andy 

Ehenire, a brother of minister 

of state for health, Osagie 

Ehanire, after three policemen 

were cold bloodedly killed by 

the abductors. Andy has since 

been released by his abductors, 

though, but his captors 

are yet to be apprehended. 

Till date, the whereabouts 

of Osayomore Joseph, a popular 

musician from Benin, is 

unknown after being plucked 

from public view almost a 

month ago. The police are still 

clueless on the matter. Till date, 

too, the brutal killing of Paul 

Otasowie, a UNIBEN professor, 

is yet to be unravelled. 

trary to Sections 80-83 of the 

Constitution of the Federal 

Republic of Nigeria, 1999 

“The House is further aware 

that TCN is currently negotiating 

another loan of $500 million 

with Islamic Development 

Bank and has been violating 

the provisions of the Public 

Procurement Act in contract 

procedures as its contract 

processes are opaque.” 

While ruling, the speaker, 

Yakubu Dogara, mandated the 

Joint Committees on Power, 

Public Procurement and Aids, 

Loans and Debt Management 

to investigate the activities of 

the TCN since the past 10 years 

in respect of foreign loans and 

contract awards, and report 

back within eight weeks for 

further legislative action.


C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

7



C002D5556 

NEWS 

World Bank denies disagreeing with 

Adeosun on foreign borrowings 

The World Bank 

Group, on 

Wednesday, denied 

disagreeing 

with Minister of 

Finance, Kemi Adeosun, 

over the borrowings by the 

Nigerian Government to 

stimulate the economy and 

finance infrastructure projects 

in the country. 

In a mail to the Minister 

by the Senior Communications 

Officer of the World 

Bank, Rachid Benmessaoud, 

the bank averred that the 

media misrepresented and 

quoted out of context, the 

comments made by its Senior 

Economist for Nigeria, 

Gloria Joseph-Raji, at an 

event in Abuja. 

Benmessaoud said, “On 

October 11th, during the 

launch of Africa’s Pulse, 

the World Bank’s biannual 

analysis of African economies, 

World Bank Senior 

Economist for Nigeria, Gloria 

Joseph-Raji, was asked by 

a reporter to share her views 

on the Federal Government’s 

plan to increase external 

borrowing. 

“At no point did she mention 

that the World Bank and 

the Federal Government of 

Nigeria (FGN) disagree on 

the need to rebalance the 

country’s debt portfolio. 

Where expenditures exceed 

revenue, governments will 

need to borrow. 

“In doing so, the Federal 

Government is trying to rebalance 

its portfolio towards 

more external borrowing 

with lower interest rates and 

longer maturities.” 

The World Bank Senior 

Economist was quoted by 

Benmessaoud to have commended 

the Nigerian Government’s 

effort to rebalance 

its portfolio in order to lower 

the cost of its borrowing, as 

outlined in its 2016-2019 

medium term debt management 

strategy released 

last year. 

“The use of IDA concessional 

financing, among 

others, is supportive of the 

FGN’s effort in this regard, 

with the added focus on poverty 

alleviation and building 

shared prosperity in Nigeria. 

“The latest issue of Africa’s 

Pulse points out that 

growth is Nigeria is projected 

to pick up from 1.0 per cent 

in 2017 to 2.5 per cent in 

2018 and 2.8 per cent in 

2019. While Government 

debt in 2017 is projected to 

rise, it remains low in Nigeria,” 

Joseph-Raji was further 

quoted to have stated. 

The World Bank spokesman 

expressed the Bank’s 

full commitment to help 

the Nigerian Government 

restore macroeconomic resilience 

as well as strengthen 

the ongoing economic recovery 

and achieve sustainable 

inclusive growth. 

The Finance Minister, 

Kemi Adeosun, who led the 

Nigerian delegation to the 

2017 Annual Meetings of 

the International Monetary 

Fund and the World Bank 

Group, had in Washington 

on Sunday, said the Federal 

Government would be prudent 

in the management of 

its foreign borrowings. 

She noted that the Government 

adopted an expansionary 

fiscal policy with an 

enlarged budget in order to 

deliver a fundamental structural 

change to the economy, 

thereby reducing the country’s 

exposure to crude oil. 

“Why are we borrowing? 

Mobilising revenue aggressively 

was not advisable, 

nor indeed possible, in a recessed 

economy. But as Nigeria 

now reverts to growth, 

our revenue strategy will be 

accelerated. 

“This is being complimented 

by a medium-term 

debt strategy that is focusing 

more on external borrowings 

to avoid crowding out the 

private sector. 

2019: INEC to recruit 1m ad-hoc staff 


Chairman, Independent 

National 

Electoral Commission 

(INEC), 

Mahmood Yakubu, says 

one million ad-hoc staff 

would be recruited by the 

Commission for the conduct 

of the 2019 general 

elections. 

The INEC boss, who 

made the declaration at 

an interactive session with 

Senate Committee on INEC 

on Wednesday, assured 

Nigerians that the main 

electronic device for the 

election - the smart card 

readers – would function 

effectively as users would 

be adequately trained on its 

Expect more infrastructure, Okowa tells Deltans 

MERCY ENOCH, Asaba 

Governor Ifeanyi 

Okowa of Delta 

State says Deltans 

should expect 

more infrastructure as his 

administration is committed 

to making life better for the 

people. 

Okowa gave the assurance 

during the commissioning of 

Ovwian Road in Udu Local 

Government Area of the state 

on Tuesday. 

According to Governor 

usage before the election. 

According to Yakubu, 

the one million targeted 

ad-hoc staff for the election 

would be about 300 higher 

than the over 700 ad-hoc 

staff engaged for the 2015 

general elections. 

“The projected increase 

in the number of ad- hoc 

staff to be engaged in the 

elections by the Commission 

arose from the need 

to make provisions for 

adequate manpower for 

the exercise on a general 

template and specifically 

to take care of peculiar 

needs for that purpose in 

some polling units across 

the federation,” he said. 

On the Smart Card 

Readers which caused a 

Okowa, who was accompanied 

by his deputy, Kingsley 

Otuaro, speaker of the Delta 

State House of Assembly, and 

political aides, were received 

by a crowd of Udu people 

who were excited to see the 

governor commissioning 

projects in the LGA. 

The governor had inspected 

the construction of Grace 

Road, Ekete Waterside in the 

area before commissioning 

the road project. 

“I am glad that this project 

has been fully delivered. 

lot of controversies during 

the conduct of the 

2015 general elections 

due to malfunctioning, 

Yakubu said such controversies 

cannot arise in the 

forthcoming 2019 elections 

based on plans for 

adequate training already 

provided for those to be 

saddled with responsibility 

of using the device 

during the election. 

“Controversies and challenges 

raised on the Smart 

Card Readers in the 2015 

elections to us in INEC were 

over magnified because the 

problem was not technological 

on the part of the 

device but attitudinal on 

the part of the users due to 

lack of adequate training. 

We are here to rejoice with 

the people, the government 

is doing a lot to provide infrastructure, 

and I want to 

reassure you, all Deltans that 

we will deliver more projects 

that will impact on the lives in 

the course of this administration,” 

the governor said. 

The governor lauded the 

collaborative efforts of the 

people of Udu, which led 

to the speedy delivery of 

the project, noting that the 

people did not disturb the 

contractor.


Moghalu 

confirmed as guest 

speaker at GJF 2017 

public lecture 

STEPHEN ONYEKWELU 

Former deputy governor, 

Central Bank of 

Nigeria (CBN), Kingsley 

Moghalu, has been 

confirmed as guest speaker 

at the 2017 edition of Goddy 

Jidenma Foundation (GJF) biannual 

public lecture. Scheduled 

to take place on November 

15, at the Nigerian Institute of 

International Affairs, Lagos, 

Moghalu would speak on ‘The 

Challenge of Economic Growth 

in Nigeria.’ 

The GJF, a non-profit, nongovernmental 

organisation, 

was founded in 2007, in memory 

of Goddy Nwaolisa Jidenma, 

an architect that lived most of 

his life in service to humanity. 

Jidenma was a typical servant 

leader, while he lived. He 

was a student leader, served 

Anambra State in the capacities 

of commissioner for works and 

housing and commissioner for 

commerce and industry. 

The objectives of the Foundation 

are to promote the spirit 

of selfless service and support 

ethical leadership initiatives, 

to celebrate the human essence, 

promote self-discovery 

among the youth, support 

philanthropic activities and 

significantly contribute to 

thought leadership in Nigeria 

and Africa. 

A Board of Trustees comprising 

members who are visible 

in the Nigerian society and 

share these ideals leads the 

Foundation. Pat Utomi, chairman 

of the Foundation, is a 

renowned political economist, 

public personality and founder/CEO 

of Centre for Values in 

Leadership (CVL). 

The Foundation has embarked 

on several projects 

since its incorporation such as 

instituting prizes and awards in 

excellence and public speaking 

in several schools across the 

country. The schools include 

Loyola Jesuit College, Abuja, 

Birch Freeman High School 

Surulere, Pacelli School for 

the Blind, NnamdiAzikiwe 

Secondary School Abagana 

and Ezike High School Nibo, 

in Anambra State. It is engaged 

in philanthropy. It promotes 

thought leadership through its 

bi-annual Public Lecture series, 

which focuses on strategic and 

contemporary issues. 

Moghalu served as chairman 

of the Board of Directors 

of the Nigerian Export-Import 

Bank (NEXIM) and the Financial 

Institutions Training Centre. 

He was also member of the 

Board of Directors of the CBN, 

the Securities and Exchange 

Commission (SEC), the Asset 

Management Corporation 

of Nigeria (AMCON) and the 

global Alliance for Financial 

Inclusion (AFI). 

The 54-year-old professor 

of practice in International 

Business and Public Policy 

previously worked with the 

United Nations for 17 years 

at duty stations in New York, 

Cambodia, Croatia, Tanzania 

and Switzerland. 

C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 9 

NEWS 

Rivers government releases ‘evidence’ against SARS 

IGNATIUS CHUKWU 

Rivers State government 

has reacted 

to the call by police 

authorities for 

any citizen with 

evidence that the Special 

Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) 

in the state headed by Akin 

Fakarode to submit same for 

investigation and evaluation. 

The call by the police and 

by Fakarode himself came 

after ceaseless accusations by 

Governor Nyesom Wike who 

said SARS was positioned to 

whittle him down at the moment 

and remove him from 

power in 2019. 

Addressing a crowded 

press conference on Monday, 

October 16, in Government 

House in Port Harcourt, the 

newly appointed commissioner 

of information and 

communications, Emma 

Okah, said the state was here 

to give the Police the evidence. 

Okah said the first one was 

Fakorede himself. He said the 

SARS boss was specifically deployed 

to hand power to their 

opponents in the state. “On 

12thDecember, 2016 Fakorede 

with his men stormed the 

Rivers East INEC Collation 

Centre in Port Harcourt Local 

Government Council and 

beat up the Returning Officer 

despite the cry from a woman 

who was also threatened. 

Fakorede also beat up the PDP 

Agent Chinyere Igwe then 

Commissioner for Urban Development 

and inflicted severe 

internal injuries on him. 

This incident was recorded on 

video and shown to the whole 

world by television channels. 

We complained but the IGP 

refused to act properly. Mr 

Akin Fakorede was given a pat 

on the back.” 

The government also said 

earlier in March 2016 after 

the legislative rerun elections, 

operatives of SARS led by 

Fakorede in company of the 

giber opponent went to abduct 

the Returning Officer 

and hijack the result sheets 

from Ikwerre and Emohua 

LGAS. “SARS operatives 

opened fire near Omagwa 

airport roundabout and the 

pick-up van used by the returning 

officer was forced 

into the bush. We complained 

against this ugly action of 

SARS and Mr Fakorede but 

as usual, nothing happened.” 

The government said these 

acts made the governor’s opponents 

to win at the court. 

Since the elections, he said, 

the SARS have been committing 

alleged crimes perfecting 

what they would do in 2019. 

“On 11th September, 2017 

operatives of SARS kidnapped 

one Azumana Ifeanyi and 

one of them dropped him 

at Fidelity Bank in GRA 2, 

Port Harcourt to withdraw 

N500,000.00 to save his life 

while others waited in his 

house. Acting on a tip off, 

the IGP’s X-Squad, picked 

the man from the bank and 

went to his house and met the 

SARS men waiting in battle 

readiness. 

“Inspector Justice Nyeche 

who led the X-Squad was shot 

by a SARS Sergeant and in 

the process, the Sergeant also 

killed his Boss a SARS Inspector. 

The hunter became the 

hunted and pandemonium 

ensued. The remaining SARS 

officers ran away leaving their 

Inspector soaked in his own 

blood. Arrests of the complainant 

and the X-Squad 

men were made and instead 

of SARS to own up and apologise, 

they accused the men of 

X-Squad of killing the SARS 

Inspector.



C002D5556 

COMMENT 

CHRISTOPHER AKOR 

Chris Akor, a First Class 

graduate of Political Science, holds an 

MSc in African Studies from the University 

of Oxford and is BusinessDay’s 

Op-Ed Editor 

christopher.akor@businessdayonline.com 

Last week, I talked about 

government’s desperation 

to retake control of 

the commanding heights 

of the economy by getting 

the Central Bank of Nigeria to continue 

to print money relentlessly for 

it to spend while crowding out the 

private sector to prevent run-away 

inflation. But I feel there is a deep 

and strategic political reason why 

the government or the major political 

power brokers in the country 

will want the state to retake control 

of the commanding heights of the 

economy. It is, I strongly suspect, so 

that private individuals with deep 

pockets (aided of course, by the liberalisation 

of the economy) do not 

become so powerful as to neutralise 

their powers to determine who gets 

what, when and how in the country 

and to consequently capture and 

retain political power. This is no 

mere wishful thinking. It is drawn 

from the thesis of one of Africa’s foremost 

political economist, Claude 

Ake, who argued that power is the 

established way to wealth in most 

of Africa and those who win state 

power can have all the wealth they 

comment is free 

Send 800word comments to comment@businessdayonline.com 

Why is Buhari desperate for the state to command the controlling heights of the economy? 

want even without working and 

those who lose the struggle for state 

power cannot have security even in 

the wealth they have made even by 

hard work. 

The only way this works is when 

the economy is under state control. 

And that explains why most African 

leaders desperately seek to control 

their economies upon coming to 

power. They seek to determine 

who gets what, when and how; who 

deserves to be helped to flourish 

and who must be smothered and 

crushed. That was the motivation 

for the policies of economic 

controls or what some scholars 

refer to as the ‘control regimes’ 

practised all around Africa. These 

basically include state control and 

regulation of trade, state distorting 

and manipulation of interest and 

exchange rates and state industrial 

regulation through creation of 

monopolies or oligopolies. These 

policies do not only reduce the 

rate at which economies could 

grow and distort key prices in the 

macro economy, but they are also 

economically very costly and could 

lead – and indeed led - to many 

state collapse in Africa. 

But how do these leaders care? 

Despite succeeding regimes knowing 

of the disastrous consequences 

of these ‘control regimes’, most of 

them still choose to retain them 

for, as Robert H. Bates, a Harvard 

renowned political economist 

argues, the policies generate huge 

political benefits for African authoritarian 

regimes, provide elites 

with sources of income and furnished 

means for transforming 

even declining economies into 

political organisations, enabling 

politicians to recruit political dependents, 

willing to fight – if neces- 

He has resorted to the Idi-Amin 

and Abacha style of economic 

management – getting a pliant 

and spineless CBN governor to 

continue to print cash illegally to 

fund government spending while 

depriving the private sector of 

funds to operate 

sary – to keep them in power. 

Like I argued on this page many 

months ago, in Nigeria particularly, 

this control regime, as against the 

popular belief that discovery of oil 

and the oil boom, was responsible for 

the gradual decline of the agricultural 

sector and the stoppage of cash crop 

exports. This can be seen from a careful 

study of the management and collapse 

of the commodity marketing boards. 

Like I mentioned earlier, the ‘control 

regimes’ so dear to most African 

leaders is particularly destructive to 

African economies. Besides the terrible 

inefficiencies it engenders, it 

prevents the inflow of private capital 

to develop the economies and provide 

jobs even when it is clear that no 

African government has the resources 

to provide all the infrastructure, jobs 

and social needs of its society. 

The sharp economic declines 

of the 1970s, 80s and 90s and the 

insistence of multilateral Western 

financial agencies on privatisation 

and a private sector led economy has 

resulted in the gradual weakening of 

state control in Africa. But some authoritarian 

and dictatorial regimes in 

Africa, such as Museveni’s in Uganda 

and some other smart leaders in East 

and Central Africa have been able to 

warm themselves to these multilater- 

al institutions, allowing semblances 

of reforms but devising ingenious 

ways of maintaining tight control 

over their economies. In Southern 

and Western Africa, where some 

leaders genuinely implemented the 

structural adjustment programmes 

prescribed for them, the reforms 

unwittingly unleashed forces that 

led to the toppling of longstanding 

dictatorial regimes. 

Nigeria, on its part, due to the oil 

boom in the 1970s – at a period when 

most African economies were a rapid 

decline – refused to join the trend 

and even went further to take control 

of most private enterprises and positioned 

itself as the sole economic 

player in the country. That was the 

period when a former president said 

Nigeria’s problem was not money but 

how to spend the money. 

Being one of the staunchest proponents 

of state control of the “commanding 

heights of the economy”, 

Obasanjo attempted to continue 

with that trend on coming back to 

power in 1999. However, it soon 

dawned on him that Nigeria did 

not just have the resources to go on 

such grand ambitions. He was wise 

and flexible enough to liberalise the 

economy and his 8 year rule coincided 

with the blossoming of the private 

sector in Nigeria. While oil and 

gas exports accounted for more than 

98 percent of export earnings and 

about 83% of government revenues 

in 1999, the oil and gas sector now 

accounts for just about 14 percent 

of Nigeria’s GDP. The private sector 

has clearly taken over and ensuring 

prosperity for Nigeria. 

Enter Buhari in 2015 and he attempted 

to bring in the era of state 

control of the economy that is now 

clearly outdated and impracticable. 

Mr Buhari has never hidden his 

residents of the Lagos West District, 

where the first Town Hall meeting was 

held, the Governor, in response to the 

proposal made by the Alimosho people 

pledged to provide more schools 

within the area, improve better traffic 

control to reduce travel time on roads 

and construct a fly over bridge around 

Abule Egba junction among other 

promises. Most of these he has done 

with attendant positive impacts on 

the life of the people. Today, the Abule 

Egba axis has one of the two Golden 

Jubilee Bridges. 

The main issue that took the 

centre stage at the second Town Hall 

meeting was security, especially as it 

concerns the increasing number of 

street urchins within the area. The 

issue was addressed spontaneously 

and today, the ‘Area Boys’ menace 

has been systematically dealt with in 

the State. This trend continued at Ojo, 

Badagry, and Ikorodu among others. 

At the 8th Quarterly Town Hall 

meeting held at the Badore Ferry 

Terminal, Lagos State, Governor 

Ambode announced that the reconstruction 

of the Oshodi-International 

Airport Road would commence in 

earnest. Characteristically, the 10- 

lane Oshodi-Int’l airport road was recently 

flagged off with the assurance 

that the project would be completed 

in record time. 

While reporting about this at the 

latest 9th Quarterly meeting, the 

Governor promised construction of 

Pen Cinema flyover and rehabilitation 

of 43 major link roads affected by 

rain before the end of the year. On the 

Pen Cinema Bridge, work is currently 

on going. In same manner, the Govdislike 

for the private sector despite 

the marvellous job done by his 

campaign handlers to hide that fact 

during the campaigns. Last year, Mr 

Buhari said matter-of-factly that he 

was averse to the inclusion of members 

of the private sector in his administration’s 

economic management 

team because such persons 

frequently steer government policy 

to suit their own narrow interests. 

He came to power therefore with 

a vengeance; to reverse what he 

may have likely considered as the 

mortgaging of Nigeria’s patrimony 

to private and selfish individuals by 

previous administration. 

Although most key watchers of 

Nigeria’s economic affairs thought 

that the president’s earlier plans 

have failed mainly due to the decline 

in the prices of crude oil and decline 

in federally distributable revenue 

and that the government will be 

forced to turn to the private sector 

to provide jobs for the millions of 

jobless Nigeria and to partner the 

state in building and maintaining 

the huge infrastructure needed 

for the economic takeoff of the 

country, Mr Buhari isn’t giving up 

on his dream. He has resorted to 

the Idi-Amin and Abacha style of 

economic management – getting a 

pliant and spineless CBN governor 

to continue to print cash illegally to 

fund government spending while 

depriving the private sector of funds 

to operate. If history is anything to go 

by, we already know the end result 

of such actions. I just hope by the 

end of Buhari’s four or eight years, 

the damages wrought would not be 

permanent or irredeemable. 

Send reactions to: 

comment@businessdayonline.com 

RASAK MUSBAU 

Musbau is of Features Unit, Lagos 

State Ministry of Information and 

Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos 

A 

New York Times bestselling 

author, Richard Paul Evans, 

once said”: “Broken vows 

are like broken mirrors. They 

leave those who held to them bleeding 

and staring at fractured images of 

themselves.” 

Making promises and keeping 

them is definitely a good virtue that 

people must embrace in all walks of 

life. In the Nigerian political scene it 

is, however, obvious that promising a 

bright future in convincing manners 

works better than actually delivering 

on it! It is rampant among the political 

class to make promise without actually 

thinking about how to fulfil them. 

Hence, promises are often broken 

with tenable and untenable excuses. 

The consequence of broken promises 

accounted for one of the reasons why 

many display apathy towards certain 

basic civic duties, especially tax payment 

and the electoral process. 

In Lagos State, however, the leadership 

seems to place high premium 

on the sanctity of promise in every 

sphere of life. To the State Government, 

a promise made should always 

be a promise kept. In other words, 

the process of a promise made isn’t 

completed until it is fulfilled. This is, 

perhaps, why the State is relatively 

doing better on the index of economic 

growth and development. The State 

Ambode: Promise as a virtue 

Government’s virtue of delivering 

on promises is a practical lesson for 

others to emulate. 

Creating an atmosphere in which 

citizens and investors have no option 

but to stand by his government, 

the Akinwunmi Ambode administration 

has continually been proving 

that fulfilling of promises is possible, 

and that it is a virtue a responsible 

government should not toy with. 

The administration has injected 

new hope and energy into a broken 

morale, scattered systems and 

altered old mindsets that Nigeria’s 

ruling class is full of liars. 

In an inaugural speech he delivered 

after performing the sacred 

duty of oath-taking as the Governor 

of Lagos State on May 29, 2015, 

Governor Ambode promised to run 

an open government of inclusion 

that will not leave anyone behind. 

This was promised based on sincere 

belief that the essence of a representative 

democracy is continual engagement 

of all stakeholders in the 

society. His administration wasted 

no time in creating various channels 

of engagement with government. 

The administration created the 

Office of Civic Engagement for the 

purpose of listening to the people 

and ensures their concerns are adequately 

addressed. 

The Office has been engaging 

communities and various stakeholders 

in the State to rub minds 

on several issues, especially as it 

pertains to the overall development 

of the State. Many of the issues raised 

at such engagements were referred 

to the appropriate Government 

MDAs and action promptly taken. The 

result of this is the various giant strides 

being recorded at the various sectors 

of the State. 

The Office of Civic Engagement has 

positively resolved a host of conflicts 

that could have degenerated into crisis. 

This include peaceful resolution 

of the dispute between the Motor 

Cycle Operators Association of Lagos 

State (MOALS) and the Motor Cycle 

Transport Union of Nigeria (MTUN), 

the rift among Students’ Joint Campus 

Committee of the Lagos State Tertiary 

Institutions, the thorny issue between 

NURTW and RTEAN and the Nagari 

Nakowa Motorcycle Owners and the 

Riders Association of Lagos (NNAMO- 

RAL), Ojodu Community Development 

Association and the NURTW 

among others. 

Also, one cannot but commend the 

tenacity with which the Ambode administration 

is employing Stakeholders 

Engagement, Quarterly Town Hall 

Meetings, People’s Perception survey 

and social and conventional media 

to deepen the process of inclusive 

governance. Through the Governor’s 

addresses and reports of promise made 

and kept at the series of the Town Hall 

meeting, the Ambode administration 

has, no doubt, brought the common 

man closer to its social responsibilities. 

From the first Town Hall meeting at 

Abesan mini stadium, Alimosho, to the 

latest edition held at SUBEB proposed 

permanent site in Kosofe, one thing is 

vital. The government is not just listening 

to the people but actually demonstrating 

that it is a government that 

truly believes in working for the people. 

For instance, while interacting with 

ernor reported another promise kept 

which is the newly commissioned 

DNA Centre, the first of its kind in 

West Africa. 

The truth is that the Ambode 

administration is able to share and 

discuss its plans and programmes 

with the people because it is actually 

fulfilling campaign promises by 

making Lagos work for everybody 

in consonance with the administration’s 

mantra of “Itesiwaju Ilu Eko 

loje wa logun”. 

Whether it was a promise made in 

the heat of the 2015 campaign or in 

the process of engagement with the 

people, the government is proving its 

authenticity credential. Authenticity 

is indeed everything. Authentic leaders 

are self-aware and genuine who 

are self-actualized individuals that 

are aware of their strengths, limitations 

and emotions. They are also not 

pretenders. 

The Akinwunmi Ambode administration 

has so far able to manage the 

Lagos economy through prudent and 

stringent management of available 

resources to the satisfaction of the Lagos 

people he is reporting to. This has 

qualified him as an authentic leader 

and has put him in good stead. According 

to German writer and statesman, 

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 

‘not the maker of plans and promises, 

but rather the one who offers faithful 

service in small matters is the person 

who is most likely to achieve what is 

good and lasting’. 


comment@businessdayonline.com


COMMENT 

EJIKE NWOLISA 

Nwolisa is a Lagos based economist 

Consumption is the 

blood line of any economy 

but the real issue 

is its pattern and effects. 

The consumption 

pattern of a country depicts 

the aggregate demand for goods 

and services in the country and in 

most cases constitutes about 60% 

of the total GDP. In Nigeria, at 61%, 

household consumption remains 

the largest single component of 

GDP as at 2016. 

The more developed a society 

becomes, the less it spends on food 

and the more its consumption is 

skewed towards non-food items. In 

a developing country like Nigeria, 

the consumption pattern is often 

dominated by food. To provide an 

insight, in 2009/2010, Nigeria’s total 

expenditure on food and non-food 

is N24trillion with about 64% spent 

on food and 14% on clothing and 

footwear. 

Over the years, economists 

found it methodologically difficult 

to explain the causal relationship 

(which may be 2-directional) between 

consumption pattern and 

economic growth. Price and income 

are the only determinants of 

consumption behaviour addressed 

by orthodox economic theory. The 

unexplained residuals are often 

attributed to “taste”. 

The reason for the little understanding 

of this complex reality 

is not far-fetched. Behavioural 

economists have found that all sorts 

of psychological or neurological biases 

cause people to make choices 

that seem contrary to their best 

interest. People tend to copy others. 

They do not act in every instance in 

their long term self-interest. They 

may not have weighed all the costs 

and benefits of their action before 

taking decisions. This explains why 

some of the simplifying assumptions 

of economics are not always 

C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

11 

comment is free 

Send 800word comments to comment@businessdayonline.com 

The tragedy of the consumption patterns of the very rich & the really poor 

correct. 

Despite the difficulties in 

achieving empirical robustness 

in the study of consumption pattern, 

the fact that the consumption 

patterns of all income levels matter 

is not in dispute. This is crucial 

because they will ultimately determine 

the pattern of production. 

Research suggests that consumption 

patterns are an important 

factor in explaining economic 

performance. For instance, the 

economic success of Japan can be 

partly attributable to their slower 

speed of preference shifting - they 

did not closely follow the path of 

consumption behaviour marked 

out by rich western nations. On 

the opposite, the collapse of the 

Puerto Rican economy has been 

attributed to the reshaping of the 

island’s consumption into the 

‘American way of life’. 

The consumption patterns of 

the rich matter. The rich believe 

that consumption is an evidence 

of wealth and the failure to consume 

is an indication of poverty. 

With this mindset, most of our 

rich people tend to embark on 

consumption pattern that will 

either publicly display their economic 

power or provoke the envy 

and admiration of other people. 

This “my Mercedes is bigger 

than yours” mentality has serious 

consequences for the economy. 

Consumption motivated by the 

desire for prestige and public 

display of social status rather 

than by the intrinsic utility of the 

goods and services is not only 

socially irresponsible but also 

unnecessarily reduces the natural 

resource base for the future generation. 

This behaviour is evident 

in our rich people’s “society” 

weddings, burials and birthdays. 

It is also evident in their preference 

for designers’ products and 

exotic wines. To give an idea on the 

magnitude of this expense on the 

aggregate level, in 2016, Nigeria 

spent N6.7trillion to import consumables 

and household items of 

which food and drinks alone account 

for N1.09trillion. Currently, 

Nigeria is occupying the second 

position on the list of the world’s 

biggest drinkers of Champagne 

and Cognac (Moet and Hennessy) 

far above several advanced nations 

like Canada, UK, and Russia. 

This is absurd for a country where 

majority is still struggling to meet 

The more developed a society 

becomes, the less it 

spends on food and the more 

its consumption is skewed 

towards non-food items. In a 

developing country like Nigeria, 

the consumption pattern 

is often dominated by food 

the basic needs of life. 

It would be naive to imagine that 

these rich people will voluntarily reduce 

their consumption and change 

their wasteful habits out of deference 

to the sustainability of our planet and 

the conditions of the poor. However, 

Nigerian billionaires can be persuaded 

to emulate the American 

billionaires’ style of conspicuous 

consumption. The authors of the 

best seller “Millionaire Next Door” 

revealed that billionaires in USA are 

now pursuing a variant of consumerist 

behaviour which denotes the 

practice of publicly donating great 

sums of money to charity as a means 

of enhancing the social prestige of 

the donor. Through this method, the 

personal satisfaction associated with 

public display of their wealth will be 

met while contributing to humanity. 

The consumption patterns of the 

very poor equally matter. If they are 

rational, they are expected to use 

their meagre resources efficiently. 

But in most instances, their ‘traditional’ 

consumption patterns are far 

from optimal. 

Research findings have shown 

that poor people behave in ways that 

are imprudent and counterproductive. 

Literature search highlights 

that lower socioeconomic status 

is associated with a range of selfdefeating 

behaviours, including 

more risk taking, non-compliance 

to rules and regulation and poor 

financial management (impulsive 

and credit purchases etc.). The 

poor are perpetually in a reactive 

mode. Among the non-food items 

that the poor spend significantly on 

are alcohol and tobacco. They also 

spend more on festivals (weddings, 

funerals, traditional and religious 

festivals). Nigeria is one of the few 

countries in the world where three 

marriage ceremonies (court, church 

and traditional) are required for one 

to be properly married. The willingness 

of the poor to participate in 

these ceremonies represents huge 

economic loss to them considering 

their lean resources. 

The poor are more likely than 

other people to make bad economic 

decisions. This is not because 

they are irrational or foolish but 

because of the economic pressure 

they are under. They are likely to 

lack the basic information needed 

to make good choices. They are also 

more likely to live in communities 

which hold mistaken or harmful 

views such as the belief that girlchild 

should not go to school. 

The poor simply live on bargain 

purchases. They often make second 

hand market their first choice for 

almost all non-food items. Without 

a doubt, the importation of second 

hand goods harm the economy 

and weaken companies (especially 

the manufacturing industry). The 

potential for second hand markets 

to decrease demand for new goods 

has been observed in textile industry, 

automobile industry, electronics 

market amongst others. 

Analysts say textile industries 

are relatively easy to develop and 

the success stories from South 

Korea, China and other Asian 

countries confirmed that. The 

industry can provide the first step 

in the ladder towards economic 

growth. A booming clothing sector 

is labour intensive and generates 

national revenue through taxes. 

Unfortunately, Nigeria lost all the 

benefits of having a thriving textile 

industry in a developing economy 

mainly because of the penchant 

of the nation’s poor majority for 

second hand clothing. It is therefore 

not surprising that the demise of 

Nigerian textile industry preludes 

the national economic downward 

slide. According to a 2006 report, 

Nigeria‘s textile industry direct employment 

drop from over 200,000 

to an insignificant number in 2002. 

Today, Nigeria rank 15th among 

the top 50 destination countries 

for used cloths export from OECD 

countries despite the official ban on 

used cloth importation. As second 

hand clothing market continues 

to grow, local manufacturers lose 

growth opportunities and the nation 

loses its ability to protect our 

own clothing industries. Our citizen 

seems to forget that though the 

second hand t-shirts may be cheap, 

it is far better to buy a locally manufactured 

t-shirt in order to keep the 

money within the economy and 

help generate jobs. 

Apart from strangulation of the 

local industries and associated loss 

of jobs and government revenue, 

some of the second hand goods 

may have faults which are not apparent 

even if examined. Some 

may even cause problems beyond 

their value. In fact, second-hand 

goods can benefit the purchaser 

only if the reduction in price more 

than compensates for the possibly 

shorter remaining lifetime. But 

according to Interpol, much of the 

second hand goods falsely classified 

as used goods are in reality 

non-functional. The importation 

of second hand items could actually 

be the transfer of waste from 

developed to developing countries. 

In the end, the poor becomes the 

ultimate loser struck in the vicious 

cycle of poverty. 

The poor must desist from behaviours 

which will not only keep 

them poor but are also likely to keep 

their children poor. The government 

has role to play in reducing the 

transmission of poverty from one 

generation to another by spending 

on common needs. For instance, 

it is an aberration that agriculture 

which engages the majority of 

workforce receive small and declining 

share of our commercial banks’ 

lending. 

The likes of John Kenneth Galbraith 

have shown that increase in 

public wealth and infrastructure 

help everyone including the rich 

and poor. Unfortunately, this economic 

reality is often relegated to 

the background by the politicians 

in government. Under the guise that 

“man matter more than the market”, 

our government now pursues the 

policy of “stomach infrastructure” 

for the sake of electoral success. The 

neglect of key public goods contributes 

to societal decays including 

increased crime which affects both 

the wealthy and the poor alike. 

The ultimate goal of national 

development is improved welfare 

for the citizens. This implies 

changing consumption patterns 

as well as attaining higher levels of 

consumption. To achieve this goal, 

what happens in the palace of the 

billionaire and in the thatch house 

of the labourer matters. The top 1% 

might have the best houses, education 

and lifestyles but their fate is 

tied up with how the other 99% live. 


comment@businessdayonline.com 

EDOZIE ONYEKACHUKWU 

Onyekachukwu, a commentator on national 

issues, writes from Ikeja, Lagos. 

Aishah Ahmad: A breath of fresh air at CBN 

When news broke 

recently of the nomination 

of Mrs Aishah 

Ahmad as deputy 

governor of the Central Bank of 

Nigeria (CBN) by President Muhammadu 

Buhari, though elated, 

I was conscious of our antecedents 

as a people. One will think 

after all these years we would 

have found it in us to rise above 

political and ethno-religious 

sentiments on matters of national 

importance, but alas, somehow 

we continue to get it wrong. Not 

surprisingly, this nomination 

has, like many before it, good or 

bad, been greeted with dissenting 

voices that tend to betray nothing 

other than political emotions. 

Some people parading as 

well-meaning Nigerians have 

alluded to the fact that the CBN 

requires an older person in the 

role of deputy governor. To my 

mind, Mrs Ahmad’s appointment 

represents a breath of 

fresh air, considering the level 

of financial experience she has 

garnered even at such a young 

age. Her over 20 years cumulative 

experience if brought to bear 

can contribute immensely to the 

much-needed fresh perspective 

at the apex bank. 

Further noise in the social 

media speaks to her experience 

and competence. Section 

8 (1) states that “The Governor 

and Deputy-Governors shall be 

persons of recognized financial 

experience and shall be appointed 

by the President subject 

to confirmation by the Senate on 

such terms and conditions as 

may be set out in their respective 

letters of appointment.” 

Some legal practitioners have 

made social posts contrary to this 

express provision of the law. This 

borders on intellectual fraud. Taking 

undue advantage of ordinary 

people that trust their knowledge 

as lawyers is tantamount to defrauding 

those following them 

and invariably conspiring against 

Nigeria. 

This nomination can be viewed 

in the context of appointments 

over the years by successive Nigerian 

presidents dating back to 

Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. I can 

safely compare this to the emergence 

of Chukwuma Soludo as the 

governor of the apex bank under 

Chief Obasanjo. Soludo was an 

academic as at the time he was 

appointed. 

If a young Nigerian woman 

gets the presidential nod to occupy 

a position, Nigerians are 

right to ask if she is qualified. 

And this is irrespective of who is 

involved. That would be serving 

national interest. But to deliberately 

trade falsehood is rather 

sad. Having a 41-year-old female 

as deputy governor to support a 

56-year-old male governor of the 

CBN can only portend a bright future. 

Specifically, if a young lady 

of 41 has served her sector for 

almost two decades, she should 

be eminently qualified to aspire 

to any position in that industry. 

Mrs Ahmad is well educated 

– she holds two Masters Degrees 

and belongs to leading professional 

bodies in the banking and 

finance industry, which, to my 

mind, means that she is of “rec- 

ognized financial experience” as 

provided by the CBN Act 2007. 

In addition, her path has crisscrossed 

the financial services sector, 

meaning she can bring from 

each bit of experience to bear on 

her position as deputy governor 

of the CBN. That can only serve 

national interest better. 

Given the plethora of attacks, 

informed, uninformed and dubious 

comments in the social media 

since the news of her nomination 

broke, one wonders why – with 

erroneous representations like 

these making the rounds – political 

leaders will not continue 

to ignore public outcry, knowing 

most of it is borne out of mischief. 


comment@businessdayonline.com



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A retrogressive auto policy 

From independence in 

1960 to the early 1980s 

Nigeria grew a solid 

and robust middle 

class of professionals 

– Doctors, teachers, professors, 

Engineers etc – who were 

financially secure, lived in GRAs 

around the country, could afford 

to educate their children 

up to university levels (then our 

universities were still centres 

of excellence), visited cinemas 

and prestigious restaurants and 

social clubs often, shopped in 

exclusive shopping malls and 

could buy new cars easily. 

Then came the structural 

adjustment programme (SAP) 

and the devaluation of the 

naira. The unintended consequence 

was the decimation 

of the salaries of the middle 

class. Imported goods became 

expensive and out of the reach 

to all but the elite. New cars automatically 

went out of the rich 

of the middle class and they 

had to resort to buying used 

vehicles popularly known as 

Tokumbo in Nigeria. 

Gradually, those professionals 

(majority of them) who 

had the opportunity to relocate 

abroad left and those who 

couldn’t leave or didn’t want 

to leave were demoralised. 

Also, the desired locations of 

the middle class became run 

down and shabby. By the time 

Nigeria returned to democracy 

in 1999, the middle class had all 

but vanished. 

However, by the turn of the 

21st century, a noticeable change 

occurred. Through the great 

work done by the democratic 

regime of President Olusegun 

Obasanjo, the middle class was 

gradually restored and began to 

grow in leaps and bounds to such 

an extent that Nigeria became an 

attractive investment destination 

to many auto firms (to set up 

assembly plants) and large chain 

super-market stores. 

However, the progress has 

now firmly been cut short. Due to 

the deliberate policy choices and 

inactions of the government, of 

course, sparked by low oil prices 

and scarcity of foreign exchange, 

the naira has taken such a severe 

hit that the country was thrown 

into recession. 

Expectedly, the economic 

recession with its attendant suffering 

is not affecting the poor 

alone. True, prices of consumer 

goods and services consumed 

mostly by the poor have tripled. 

But the steep decline in the value 

of the naira has also affected the 

prices of luxury and aspirational 

goods and services demanded 

by the middle class also. 

Just like it happened in the 

late 1980s and 90s, Nigeria’s robust 

but fragile middle class that 

expanded greatly from 2002 due 

to deliberate government policy 

is now shrinking and at the risk 

of disappearing entirely. Their 

fat salaries have been eroded by 

the steep decline in the value of 

the naira and they can hardly afford 

to shop in foreign boutiques 

and stores in Victoria Island and 

Ikoyi again. Even the fanciful 

cars they had always bought is 

now largely above their reach 

and they had to make do with 

imported used (Tokunbo) cars. 

To drive the nail into the coffin 

of the middle class, a deliberate 

government policy has now 

priced Tokumbo cars out of the 

reach of the middle class. The justification 

was the implementation 

of the National Automotive Industry 

Development Plan (NAIDP) of 

2013 meant to grow the volume of 

locally assembled vehicles by raising 

tariffs on imported cars. 

However, the devaluation of 

the naira has made rubbish of 

that policy. But how does the 

government care? It has gone 

ahead with the implementation 

of the policy charging 35 percent 

import duty and another 35 percent 

surcharge, making it a total 

of 70 percent of the market price 

of the vehicle. The new charge, 

which applies to a unit of any 

imported vehicle, irrespective 

of the model or brand, makes 

importation through the land 

borders (smuggling) far cheaper 

than through Nigerian seaports. 

But it is not only the people 

that are suffering. By implementing 

such punitive tariff regime 

on imported vehicles, the government 

has ceded most of the 

revenues it should be making 

to Benin Republic, which has 

taken advantage of the Nigerian 

government’s irrational policy 

action to lower its duty on imported 

vehicles. What is more, 

the current structure now provides 

a rich avenue of corruption 

to customs’ officials who give 

genuine customs’ documents 

to these smuggled vehicles for a 

fee while turning Nigeria into a 

dumping ground for accidented 

vehicles – the major types of vehicles 

being imported into the 

country via the seaports 

We are baffled that the government 

can be so retrogressive 

and almost irrational in policy 

decisions. The lack of effective 

demand for new cars has stymied 

any plans to establish vehicle 

assembly plants in Nigeria. 

The plan is now helping to price 

out used cars from the reach of 

Nigerians. That is most retrogressive 

and should be stopped. 

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Thursday 19 October 2017 C002D5556 BUSINESS DAY 13 

COMPANIES 

& MARKETS 

Company news analysis and insight 

‘Crowdfunding programs 

can be very risky for 

both investors and those 

looking for funding’ 

P14 

SIM Properties elevates NHF scheme, unveils 

1000 housing-unit estate for subscribers 

CHUKA UROKO 

Sim Properties and 

Homes Limited, a 

renowned real estate 

developer and 

construction company, 

and owner of one of the 

largest landmarks in Lagos/ 

Ogun mega city, has lifted 

up the crippling National 

Housing Fund (NHF) with the 

unveiling of the third phase of 

its Masters Golden City which 

will deliver 1,000 housing 

units to be sold to people who 

have subscribed to the NHF 

scheme. 

An integrated company of 

qualified professionals who 

are actively engaged in the 

business of real estate development, 

property management, 

planning, architectural 

design, surveying, project engineering, 

etc, SIM Properties 

is piloted by Ahonsi Simeon 

Ohiren, a seasoned Professor 

of Housing Development and 

Management, and a believer 

in sustainable development. 

For the past 10 years of the 

company’s existence, their 

slogan, ‘Housing all Nigerians’ 

remains their driving force 

and bedrock in the provision 

of affordable housing within 

Nigeria that suits global standards 

for their subscribers 

who cut across various sectors 

of the economy. 

These include cooperatives, 

telecommunication 

companies, public officers, 

government parastatals, private 

institutions, etc., who are 

connected through the NHF 

scheme and other in-house 

payment plans. 

The company has completed 

phases 1 and 2 of the 

Masters Golden City in Ofada, 

Ogun State, delivering to the 

market over 300 housing units 

comprising 1, 2, 3 bedroom 

semi-detached bungalows 

and 3 bedroom fully-detached 

bungalows. 141 units are 

already fully developed and 

keys handed over to subscribers 

through NHF in collaboration 

with Federal Mortgage 

Bank of Nigeria (FMBN). 

Basic infrastructure facilities 

are also being put in place 

in the estate such as a dedicated 

500KVA transformer, 

Pipe borne water, stone-based 

motorable roads, shopping 

mall, etc. 

“The principal constraint 

in housing development 

remains project finance or 

funding. We are calling on 

Angel Investors and Financiers 

and the Federal Government, 

through the Federal 

Mortgage Bank of Nigeria 

(FMBN) to, once again, extend 

their hands of partnership 

and look into the lifting 

of the suspension placed on 

Estate Development Loan 

(EDL) to private Developers 

who have a proven track record 

on using that loan well”, 

said officials of the company 

in a statement in Lagos. 

This, they said, was to ensure 

that the phase 3 of their 

Masters Golden City project 

was completed within the 

next 2 – 3 years as construction 

has already commenced on 

the project, assuring investors 

and financiers of good returns 

on their investment. 

The company commends 

the immediate past MD/CEO 

of Federal Mortgage Bank of 

Nigeria (FMBN), GimbaYa’u 

Kumo, and the incumbent 

MD/ CEO, Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, 

his board members and 

the entire management staff 

of FMBN for their role in the 

delivery of the Phase 2 of the 

project. 

It also commends the 

Federal Government for the 

L-R: Opeyemi Ajayi, executive vice president , Genesis Group; Andrew Torre, president, Visa Inc. Sub- 

Saharan Africa, and Olufunmi Fagbulu, head, acquiring and corporate e-services, Fidelity Bank, at the 

unveiling of the Genesis Deluxe Cinema mVisa partnership, for exclusive discounted movie tickets. 

unveiling of the Federal Integrated 

Staff Housing (FISH) 

programme through the office 

of the Head of the Civil 

Service of the Federation 

(OHCSF). This, indeed, is 

another landmark and reas- 

surance of the commitment 

of FG to the provision of affordable 

housing to federal 

civil servants who make up the 

bulk of their clients. 

SP Homes is also imploring 

the Federal Government, 

through the Ministry of Power, 

Works and Housing, to consider 

giving tax holiday key 

players in the housing sector so 

as to increase housing delivery, 

thereby ensuring affordability 

and sustainable development. 

CSR: Lafarge Africa, OBF commits to developing 

capacity for next generation leaders 

KELECHI EWUZIE 

Lafarge Africa Plc as 

part of its sustainability 

strategy to develop capacity 

for the next generation 

of Nigeria leaders has announced 

the commencement of 

its 4th Annual National Literacy 

Competition for public primary 

school pupils across the country. 

The competition is annually 

carried out in partnership with 

Ovie Brume Foundation and 

support from the respective State 

Universal Basic Education Board 

(SUBEB) and represents the 

company’s vision of enhancing 

the quality of life for all. 

Temitope Oguntokun, head 

of sustainability and corporate 

brand at Lafarge Africa, while 

speaking about the competition 

in Lagos, said it is geared towards 

helping to create more literacy 

enhancement opportunities for 

several indigent students across 

Nigeria. 

She said: “We have been 

doing this successfully for the 

past four years and we are quite 

pleased with the positive impact 

we have made so far. It’s all 

about touching the lives of all 

our diverse people in a sustainable 

way.’ 

Oguntokun said that Lafarge 

Africa Plc understands the key 

role education plays in the development 

of any society hence 

the need to engage the leaders 

of tomorrow on critical literacy 

skills at an early stage. 

Situating the Lafarge Africa 

National Literacy Competition in 

the overall sustainable development 

strategy of the company, 

Oguntokun said, “This initiative 

is in line with the LafargeHolcim 

2030 Plan, which articulate 

our efforts to improve the sustainability 

performance of our 

operations focusing on developing 

innovative and sustainable 

solutions for better building and 

infrastructure”. 

The competition will have re- 

gional run-offs in October while 

the grand finale for this year 

will hold in November in Lagos 

where six winners (three boys 

and three girls) will be awarded 

national prizes. 

She further said that Public 

school students from the 109 senatorial 

districts in the country are 

taking part in the competition. To 

evaluate the reading and writing 

abilities of the pupils, tests would 

be conducted on essay/summary 

writing and spelling bees. 

For the past four years, Lafarge 

Africa Plc has held the 

National Literacy Competition 

to support government efforts 

in raising the standard of English 

Language in public primary 

schools. Primary school students 

between the ages of 9 and 13 

years are the primary target for 

this competition. 

Since the inception of the 

competition, over 200,000 primary 

school pupils across 244 

local government areas (LGAs) 

have been impacted. 

NNPC, BUK Pledge Collaboration 

on Frontier Basins 

HARRISON EDEH, Abuja‎ 

The Nigerian National 

Petroleum Corporation 

(NNPC) and 

Bayero University 

Kano (BUK) have pledged 

to partner in the on-going 

exploratory activities in the 

frontier basins across the 

country. 

Maikanti Baru, group managing 

director of NNPC, made 

this known when the Vice 

Chancellor of BUK, Muhammad 

Yahuza Bello, paid him 

a visit at the Corporation’s 

headquarters in Abuja. 

Baru said the Corporation 

would always identify with 

the Ivory Towers because its 

work force was drawn from the 

universities. 

“Your visit would open up 

opportunities for collaboration 

between NNPC and your 

university and we are looking 

forward to receiving your inputs”, 

Baru said in a statement 

issued by the Corporation on 

Friday. 

He said while the Corporation 

was not keen on setting up 

a university, it had nonetheless 

established the NNPC Learning 

Academy which trains high 

level manpower for the Oil and 

Gas Industry, adding that it 

offered short term high level 

technical courses capable of 

enhancing the oil industry 

operations. 

Baru said NNPC already 

had an established relationship 

with Petronas on shipping, 

saying further collaborations 

with the company are 

underway. 

Bello had earlier said that 

BUK is partnering with Petronas, 

calling on other industry 

stakeholders to join NNPC 

by showing interest in education. 

Bello noted that Petronas 

had awarded Ph.D scholarship 

to 13 staff members of 

BUK in different areas of 

Civil Engineering, Chemical 

Engineering, Petroleum 

Engineering, among others 

in recent times. 

“Bayero University Kano 

has being given permission by 

the National University Commission 

(NUC) to commence 

degree programmes in Petroleum 

Engineering and Chemical 

Engineering. The students 

are in their fourth year now 

and we believe that it would be 

a good idea for us to establish 

a relationship with NNPC in a 

number of areas, in particular, 

we want to appeal to NNPC to 

support BUK in implementing 

the Memorandum of Understanding 

(MoU) we signed 

with Petronas’ University of 

Technology,” Bello stated.

14 

BUSINESS DAY 

COMPANIES & MARKETS 

C002D5556 

‘Crowdfunding programs can be very risky for 

both investors and those looking for funding’ 

PAUL BARKES is Senior Counsel, Hogan Lovells, a leading global law firm providing businessoriented 

legal advice and high-quality service across its exceptional breadth of practices to 

clients around the world. In an interview with FRANK UZUEGBUNAM, he talks about funding 

for Nigeria’s creative industry amongst other issues. Excerpts 

What type of international 

capital, if any, can Nigeria 

tap into? 

Outside of Nigeria, 

a significant 

portion of 

financing in the 

creative industry 

still comes from traditional 

banks. In terms of cost, banks 

probably provide the lowest 

cost option. For regulatory 

reasons, it is not easy for foreign 

banks to lend outside of 

their jurisdictions, so foreign 

banks are not a realistic option 

inside of Nigeria. In the past 

few years, private investment 

funds have been established 

that focus on the entertainment 

industry. These private 

funds do not face the same 

regulatory issues as banks so 

have more flexibility in where 

they invest their funds. They 

also have a higher risk tolerance 

than banks, but this flexibility 

and willingness to take a 

risk comes at a cost in the form 

of higher interest rates. For 

these reasons, these private 

funds are a more likely source 

of international capital for the 

Nigerian creative industry. 

But, even though these funds 

are willing to take a higher 

risk than banks, it does not 

mean they will take any risk, 

and it will take some time to 

get these funds comfortable 

with the risks involved when 

investing in Nigeria. 

How is currency fluctuation 

impacting investments; 

and what are can be done to 

mitigate this perceived, and 

real, risk? 

Unfortunately, currency 

fluctuation risk is a very real 

risk with any cross-border 

investments. This applies 

whether that investment is 

into Nigeria or any other country. 

Because of the higher risk, 

investors will want a higher 

return on their investment, 

which will reduce the amount 

of investment that will be 

made. There are ways of addressing 

these risks, but there 

are costs to do so. To compensate 

for these additional 

costs investors, again, will look 

for higher returns which will 

reduce the amount of investment 

to be made. 

One way of addressing 

this risk for foreign investors 

is through currency exchange 

hedging agreements, which 

are used very regularly in 

Paul Barkes 

cross-border transactions. 

These hedge agreements reduce 

the risk to the investor, 

but do not eliminate the risk. 

Instead the risk is shifted to 

the other party to the hedge 

agreement, who gets paid to 

take on that risk. These agreements 

involve a cost to the 

investor, which the investor 

will expect to recover through 

its investment, so the investor 

will want higher returns on its 

investment. 

Another way of addressing 

the currency exchange risk, is 

to identify investors who are 

looking to invest in Nigeria for 

the long term. When funds are 

expected to be transferred out 

of Nigeria in a short-term, a 

minor fluctuation in currency 

exchange rate can have a dramatic 

effect on the investment, 

thereby requiring a higher 

return for the investor to compensate 

it for the increased 

risk. Longer term investments 

can minimize the risk of short 

term fluctuations in the currency 

exchange rate. 

Certain investments in 

the creative industry, by their 

nature, are long-term investments, 

such as investments 

in constructing cinemas and 

other infrastructure projects. 

There is a need to also finance 

shorter term investments, 

such as production of a film or 

television content. If investors 

in these shorter-term investments 

structure the investments 

so that funds can be 

re-invested in Nigeria instead 

of being transferred out of 

the country then they would 

also be less likely affected by 

short-term fluctuations in the 

currency exchange rate. 

What are the latest models 

in creative and intellectual 

property funding? 

One of the more interesting 

recent developments in creative 

and intellectual property 

funding has been crowdfunding. 

With crowdfunding, instead 

of one person or a small 

group of people investing a relatively 

large amount of money 

in a project, a larger group 

of people, usually through 

a web-based platform such 

as Kickstarter, invest smaller 

amounts of money. 

The crowdfunding programs 

can have a number of 

different structures. In some 

cases, there is no expectation 

of a profit return on the investment. 

Instead the “investors” 

will get certain gifts for particular 

levels of funding. 

For example, for a small 

investment in a film, the investor 

will get a digital copy, 

or a DVD, of the film when it’s 

completed. For a larger investment, 

the investor may get an 

autographed copy of the script 

or a chance to visit the set. 

These types of funding can be 

particularly successful where 

there is a large fan-base or 

where the project addresses an 

issue of wide concern, where 

people want to be involved 

with the project for reasons 

other than making a profit. 

In other cases, investors are 

expecting a financial return on 

their investment if the project 

is profitable. It can be a bit 

more difficult to raise funds 

through crowdfunding for 

projects where the investors 

are looking for a financial return 

as the investors may look 

for more information as to the 

likely success of the project. 

Crowdfunding programs 

can be very risky—for both 

investors and those looking 

for funding. For investors, the 

creative industry is inherently 

risky and there is no assurance 

that any project will do well. 

Additionally, the crowdfunding 

model can lend itself to 

fraud, so investors should 

do their diligence. For those 

looking for funding, there may 

be laws regulating their ability 

to raise funds through crowdfunding, 

so it is not something 

to try without proper legal and 

professional advice. 

What is the best way for 

stakeholders in the creative 

industry to navigate the digital 

space? 

The digital space is very 

exciting as it opens up tremendous 

opportunities for 

the creative industry. It provides 

a new means for content 

creators to deliver content to 

consumers, and also provides 

a means for all stakeholders 

in the creative industry to 

connect with their audience 

and engage their audience 

in ways not previously available. 

A simple way of looking 

at the digital space is that it 

is a new tool for doing the 

same thing that those in the 

creative industry have already 

been doing—it’s a new way of 

delivering content, but is still 

just delivering content, or it’s 

a new way of advertising to 

consumers, but is still just a 

way of advertising. In some 

ways this view is correct but 

if that’s how you look at the 

digital space you will miss the 

opportunity to really succeed 

in the digital space. To succeed 

in the digital space, you 

need to appreciate how the 

digital space is different. 

As an example, let’s look at 

content delivery. Historically, 

content was delivered in theatres, 

or broadcast over television 

or radio, or delivered on 

fixed media. The digital space 

may be a new means to deliver 

content, but you cannot necessarily 

deliver the same content 

over this new medium. The 

differences between how the 

content is consumed needs to 

be taken into account, and the 

content adjusted accordingly. 

Looking at YouTube as 

an example. The average 

length of a video on YouTube 


is around 4 to 4 ½ minutes. 

You cannot take what would 

have been a 90 minute film 

presented in a theatre or on 

broadcast television and expect 

it to succeed on a platform 

like YouTube. However, 

if you take the same story line 

and break it down into smaller 

4-5 minute segments it may 

work. On the other side of 

the spectrum you have platforms 

like NetFlix and Amazon 

where multiple episodes of 

a program that would have 

been broadcast on television 

over a number of weeks are 

being made available at one 

time to allow consumers to 

“binge” watch the episodes. 

For those producing episodic 

content, they need to consider 

whether, if presenting in the 

digital space, it makes sense 

to make all episodes available 

at the same time. 

Looking now at marketing 

and advertising. Traditional 

means of marketing 

and advertising are one-way. 

Commercials are broadcast 

to consumers over television 

or the radio, or signs and billboards 

are posted to deliver 

messages to consumers. You 

can move a traditional oneway 

marketing campaign 

to the digital space but, unless 

you appreciate how the 

digital space is different from 

traditional marketing and 

advertising tools, you miss 

all the value the digital space 

provides. The digital space 

allows for feedback from the 

consumer. With that feedback, 

marketing campaigns 

can be adjusted. The digital 

space allows for back-andforth 

interaction and interaction 

among consumers, 

which allows consumers to 

become part of the marketing 

efforts and creating the “word 

of mouth” promotion that can 

be extremely valuable. 

One other unique aspect of 

the digital space is the speed 

with which it changes. New 

Apps and platforms are being 

developed, or suddenly 

become popular. To succeed, 

you need to be flexible and 

able to adapt to these rapid 

changes. It does not work 

to do things a particular way 

because that is what worked 

last time. It is important to try 

to identify where the digital 

market is going and try to say 

with it.

Thursday 19 October 2017 C002D5556 


COMPANIES & MARKETS 

Value creation for customer satisfaction 

earns Sujimoto recognition, award 

Business Event 

CHUKA UROKO 

Sujimoto Construction 

Limited is 

today holding its 

head high among 

its peers because 

of international recognition and 

award which value creation for 

customer-satisfaction has earned 

it from The International Property 

Awards. 

Though the awards body 

drew a highly competitive measuring 

yard, Sujimoto was chosen, 

bringing it in league with 

such developers as Emaar Group 

in Dubai, One Hyde Park in 

London, the biggest real estate 

company in Asia - Dalian Wanda 

Group, the prestigious Legacy 

Development Management Limited 

in South Africa – developers 

of the Michelangelo Towers, and 

Drawcock Estates—the developers 

of Nestoil Towers, Nigeria’s 

best office complex. 

All these are the kind of 

companies that the referees of 

Real Estate Construction and 

Hospitality recognize and the 

authorities of Sujimoto attribute 

their recognition to an inherent 

competitive spirit driving the 

management of the company. 

“Thanks to The International 

Property Awards for drawing a 

highly competitive measuring 

yard and choosing us. You have 

ignited in us a fire to remind 

us that the starting point for 

customer satisfaction is value 

creation and we promise to never 

stop. To our critics, thank you for 

all the checks because without 

them, we would not have pushed 

ourselves harder and this would 

never have happened”, said Sujibomi 

Ogundele, the CEO of 

Sujimoto. 

This award, according to the 

chief executive, did not come as 

an accident given the company’s 

track record of creating value and 

paying attention to details. “The 

same approach to excellence 

and attention to detail that went 

into the Medici development 

that earned us this award is 

what we intend to deploy for our 

new project – The GiulianoBy- 

Sujimoto, situated in Africa’s 

most exclusive and expensive 

neighbourhood, Banana Island”, 

he assured. 

He also attributed the award 

to the team spirit in the company, 

saying, “this would never have 

happened without the help of 

our brilliant team, engineers like 

Lamid & Seyi, Project Managers, 

the dedication of Damilola 

and, of course, Christy Cole who 

played a persistent role in making 

sure we prepared adequately by 

making sure everything was in 

order”. 

Ogundele believes that report 

cards don´t deceive, rather, they 

are key indicators of a strong 

performance; reminding people 

of what they have done right, 

where they are now, and how 

they can do better. 

He assured that innovation 

must be the foundation of their 

projects while diligence should 

be embedded in their DNA because 

that explains why they 

stand shoulder to shoulder with 

renowned companies from Asia 

to Africa and Europe. 

He recalled how, growing up, 

his father implanted competitive 

spirit in his young mind by 

always interrogating his position 

in class. “Today, I appreciate my 

Dad´s lessons as these have given 

me an edge in the world of business, 

amongst local and international 

competitors, reminding 

me that right from the stages of 

planning and architectural design, 

mediocrity isn´t an option; 

and if we want to be top three in 

Africa and top 10 in the world, we 

need to think customers first”, he 

enthused. 

L-R: Gbolahan Yishawu, chairman, hose committee, water front infrastructural development, lagos 

State House of Assembly; Babatunde Rusewe, deputy president, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and 

Industry (LCCI); Agnes Shobajo, vice president/chairperson, LCCI Women Group, and John Odeyemi, 

past president, LCCI at the 3rd edition of LCCI Women Group conference, with the theme “Women as 

Change Agents: Towards a Tax Complaint Society” and “The Boy Child” in Lagos. Pic by Olawale Amoo 

FBN Merchant Bank Partners with NESG at the 

23rd Nigerian Economic Summit 

In line with its commitment 

to drive economic growth 

strategies and national development, 

FBN Merchant 

Bank, the merchant banking 

subsidiary of FBN Holdings 

Plc, participated and sponsored 

the 23rd Nigerian Economic 

Summit. 

The summit which held in 

Abuja from Tuesday October 

10th to Thursday, 12th October, 

2017 brought together 

national policy makers, regulators, 

government officials and 

industry experts to facilitate 

discussions around private 

sector led investments approach 

and how this is key to 

providing sector opportunities 

in a manner that becomes a 

holistic national strategy for 

growth and development with 

measurable outcomes. 

The Conference, themed, 

“Opportunities, Productivity 

& Employment: Actualizing 

the Economic Recovery and 

Growth Plan” provided an 

enabling platform to discuss 

SUMEC to showcase its timer switch & hybrid power technology at fair 

Sumec Machinery and 

Electric Company Limited 

will use the opportunity 

of this year’s Lagos 

International Trade Fair to 

enlighten visitors of its Timer 

Switch technology which enables 

generators to be timed 

when started to turn off automatically 

as at when required. 

It will also educate visitors of 

the advantages of its recently introduced 

Hybrid Power technology 

generators which offer the 

flexibility of switching between 

fuel and gas anytime to save cost. 

Also to be paraded are its 

state-of-the-art Home Appliances 

developed with green 

and deliberate on strategies 

from model markets and subject 

matter experts, towards 

re-emphasizing the value 

of public-private partnership, 

in driving the Nigerian 

economy. 

In his opening remarks Kyari 

Abba Bukar the Chairman of 

NESG described the summit 

as the most robust and credible 

platform to interrogate National 

policy direction. Kyari said since 

its first summit in 1993, the 

NESG has evolved into a leading 

advocate for national economic 

growth. 

According to a statement by 

Taiwo Okeowo, deputy managing 

director of FBN Merchant 

Bank, he bank is committed 

to enhancing growth and development 

in the industry by 

supporting platforms that offer 

opportunities for interchange 

of ideas, knowledge and capacity 

building in order to create 

jobs and improve productivity 

in all sectors of the Nigerian 

economy. 

technology and its award- winning 

Sumec Firman and Firman 

generator models such as SPG, 

FPG, RUBY, RD and ECO for all 

capacities. 

According to the Head of Sumec 

Team in Nigeria, Mr. Thomas 

Tao, “We will be parading our 

internationally tested and trusted 

Home Appliances which were 

carefully designed by our worldclass 

Engineers to improve the 

standard of living of Nigerians”. 

These include Fridges, Freezers, 

Air-Conditioners, Gas Cookers, 

Television set, Washing Machine 

and Standing fan. 

He added that “they are not 

only eco-friendly, beautifully 

Okeowo commended the 

NESG for creating a platform 

that gave the opportunity for 

close interactions between 

the public and private sector 

players. He further emphasized 

that FBN Merchant 

Bank will continue to play 

a significant role in the development 

of the Nigerian 

economy. 

Topics discussed at the event 

were: Agriculture & Food Security: 

Building the Competitiveness 

of Nigerian Agribusiness; 

Financial Inclusion & Financial 

Markets: Enabling Accessibility 

to Capital through Financial 

Inclusion and Alternative 

Funding; Human Capital Development: 

Job Creation and 

Economic Growth Through 

Human Capital Development; 

Infrastructure: Unlocking Opportunities 

Through Infrastructure 

and Urban Development; 

Science & Technology: Science 

& Technology as Key Drivers 

in Actualizing the Economic 

Recovery and Growth Plan. 

crafted and in compliance with 

international quality standard 

but they are also designed with 

durability, comfort, elegance and 

affordability in mind”. 

Also being introduced at this 

year’s fair is its SDG29KS heavy 

duty diesel model which is powered 

by Kubota and Fanmar upper 

engine for high performance 

and durability. 

All these will be available 

at the stand of its On-Site Fair 

Representative, Estendo Power 

Products Co. Limited. 

All Sumec products are 

backed by after sales parts to 

avoid buying fake service parts 

in the market. 

L-R: Sumeet Singh, general manager, commercial and business development, Powergas Africa; Aloy 

Duru, director, engineering & operations, Powergas Africa, and Thorsten Preugschas, chief executive, 

Soventix Power Returns, at Powergas Virtual Gas-to-power Summit in Asaba, Delta State. 

L- R: Temilade Ashogbon and Latifat Lumous, Glo subscribers; Godwin Komone (Gordons), Comedian; 

Tosin Bello and Afeez Adewale, Glo subscribers, at the 27th edition of the mega comedy show, Glo 

Laffta Fest, in Ajah, Lagos. 

L-R: Riaz Amna, regional director, RB; O.O. Oladiran, H.O.D Environmental Health, 68 Nigerian Army 

Reference Hospital; Joel Okei-Odumakin, president, Women Arise Initiative; Aliza Leferink, marketing 

director, RB West Africa; Rahul Murgai, managing director, West Africa, RB; Tijani Tajudeen, education 

secretary, Lagos Mainland Education Authority (ILGEA), and David Atamewalen, chief of party, Stop 

Diarrhoea Initiative, Save the Children International, during the RB Dettol Global Handwashing 2017 

event in Lagos.


C002D5556 Thursday 19 October 2017 

I NVESTO 

Helping you to build wealth & make wise decisions 

NSE Lotus II NSE Ind. Goods Index NSE Pension Index 

Week open (06 – 10–17) 

Week close (13 – 10–17) 

Percentage change (WoW) 

Percentage change (YTD) 37.11 44.86 

IHEANYI NWACHUKWU 

NSE All Share Index 

36,320.93 

36,848.17 

R 

In association with 

NSE Premium Index The NSE-Main Board 

Market capitalisation 

NSE ASeM Index NSE 30 Index NSE Banking Index NSE Insurance Index NSE Consumer Goods Index NSE Oil/Gas Index 

Year Open 26,874.62 N9.247 trillion 1,695.51 1,203.79 1,189.69 1,195.20 274.32 

1.45 

N12.502 trillion 

N12.684 trillion 

2,395.53 

2,456.06 

2.53 

1,644.91 

1,658.10 

0.80 

1,156.70 

1,156.70 

0.00 

1,667.38 

37.74 -2.77 41.25 

454.14 

1,688.19 460.56 

Nigeria’s Mutual Funds assets 

reach new high of N368bn 

…rise by N20bn in one week, money market funds account for 66% 

The value of Nigeria’s 

mutual fund assets 

reached record high 

of N368billion, after 

rising by N20billion 

in the trading week to October 

6. It stood at N347.7billion as 

at preceding trading week to 

September 29. 

Mutual Funds, which are 

collective/pooled investment 

vehicles, are gradually becoming 

investors delight as they allow 

investors with limited resources 

to own diversified investment 

portfolio managed by seasoned 

investment managers. 

Data on the Net Asset Values (NAV) 

and unit prices of fund management 

and collective investment scheme 

(CIS) as at the review week show the 

record value growth of mutual fund 

assets was boosted by N18.8billion 

growth seen in SEC-regulated money 

market funds which closed the period 

in review at N242billion. 

It represented 66percent of the 

total value of Mutual Fund assets, 

after rising from N223.3billion as at 

the preceding trading week. Stanbic 

IBTC Money Market Fund asset 

value at N139.8billion accounted 

for 57.8percent of the total value of 

money market fund in the review 

period. 

Other money market funds 

captured in the data and their 

assets value are: FBN Money 

Market Fund (N59.6billion); 

United Capital Money Market 

Fund (N386.76million); 

AIICO Money Market Fund 

(N697.101million); ARM Money 

Market Fund (N24.08billion); and 

Meristem Money Market Fund 

(N413.26million). 

The basket of Money Market 

funds also includes: AXA 

Mansard Money Market Fund 

(N7.49billion); Greenwich 

Plus Money Market Fund 

(N1.970billion); Cordros Money 


PACAM Money Market Fund 

(N193.819million); Chapel Hill 

Denham Money Market Fund 

(N167.110million); Abacus Money 


EDC Money Market Fund 

Class A (N1.667billion); EDC 

Money Market Fund Class 

B (N522.47million); and 

Kedari Investment Fund (KIF) 

N251.710million. 

Equity-based funds which 

account for 3.64percent of the 

total value of Mutual Funds 

assets also grew to N13.386billion 

from N13.045billion. Though it 

represents 2.71percent of the value 

of mutual funds, Bond Funds value 

declined to N9.965billion from 

N10.068billion. Ethical Funds 

asset value grew to N5.419billion 

from N5.374billion. 

Meanwhile, Real Estate Fund 

assets value grew by N106million. 

It closed the week at N46.109billion 

as against N46.003billion the 

preceding week. Mixed Funds 

asset value grew by N414million, 

from preceding week level of 

N25.314billion to N25.728billion. 

Fixed Income funds closed 

the period with assets valued at 

N25.167billion which represents 

6.84percent of the total value of 

Mutual Funds assets as at that 

date. It stood at N24.781billion at 

the close of the preceding trading 

week. 

126.29 

138.04 

148.94 

712.65 

934.84 

935.29 

1.25 1.41% 7.90% 0.05% 

312.68 

285.89 

291.09 

1.82% 

67.89% 17.93% 31.24% -6.90% 

1,841.59 

2,260.25 

2,297.60 

1.65% 

24.76% 

2,176.44 

2,106.22 

2,120.18 

0.66% 

32.90% 

810.04 

1,256.59 

1,273.34 

1.33% 

57.19% 

Vetiva presents Q3 review of Nigerian banking sector, 

performance of Vetiva Banking Sector ETF 

Vetiva Fund Managers 

Limited (Vetiva) 

recently presented 

its review of the Nigerian 

Banking Sector and the 

performance of the Vetiva 

Banking ETF for the 

third-quarter (Q3) ended 

September 30, 2017. 

Olalekan Olabode, head 

of research at Vetiva in the 

presentation noted that 

“Nigerian banks continue 

to report impressive 

performance across the Tier- 

1 banks despite the tough 

operating environment”. 

“Although credit growth 

has been tepid in the sector, 

the elevated interest rate 

environment continues to 

support top line - particularly 

for top Tier banks. However, 

earnings from Tier II and 

Tier III banks have been less 

impressive,” he said. 

Speaking on the impact 

of the macro-environment 

on the sector, Olabode 

said “With a rebound in oil 

prices, production levels and 

stability in FX liquidity, the 

banking sector has managed 

to overcome the peak of 

the crisis, supporting our 

expectation of a moderation 

in NPL (Non-performing loan) 

formation. We believe that 

earnings run rate is on track to 

beat the modest performance 

recorded in FY’16.” 

In addition, Oyelade 

Eigbe, head, investments 

at Vetiva noted that the 

Vetiva Banking ETF, which 

replicates the yield and price 

performance of the Nigerian 

Stock Exchange Banking 

Sector Index, returned 

approximately 12percent in 

the third quarter of the year 

and circa 59percent yearto-date 

(outperforming the 

broader equity market). 

She stated that “the 

performance was driven 

majorly by a rally in the 

banking index in July amidst 

investor positioning for 

impressive performance 

across Tier 1 banks, an 

improved sector outlook, and 

a softening macroeconomic 

environment. On the other 

hand, the months of August 

and September were muted 

as investors began to take 

profit on stocks that had 

previously seen buying 

momentum”. 

The Vetiva Banking ETF 

tracks the top 10 banks 

listed on the Nigerian Stock 

Exchange in terms of market 

capitalization and liquidity. 

In response to questions on 

how to access the ETF, Eigbe 

indicated that investors could 

purchase units of the Vetiva 

Banking ETF on the floor of 

the Nigerian Stock Exchange 

(“NSE”) through any broker. 

Vetiva Fund Managers 

Limited is a wholly owned 

subsidiary of Vetiva Capital 

Management Limited and is 

registered with the Securities 

& Exchange Commission to 

carry on business as Fund/ 

Portfolio Manager.

Thursday 19 October 2017 C002D5556 


I NVESTOR 


United Capital Investment View 

Q3 earnings prospects drive equities higher 

…ASI up 1.5% week-on-week 

With the thirdquarter 

(Q3) 

earnings 

season set to 

commence 

fully, the local equities market 

sustained a bullish momentum 

last week. 

Although the market opened 

the review week bullish, profittaking 

activities in two successive 

sessions dragged return lower. 

However, momentum picked 

up in the last two trading days 

as the All Share Index (ASI) 

advanced 1.5percent weekon-week 

(w/w) to settle at 

36848.2 points. This drove 

YTD return to 37.1percent 

with the market capitalisation 

adding N181.5billion to settle at 

N12.7trillion. 

In the money market, 

liquidity conditions were tight 

at the beginning of the week 

as the opening balances of 

banks/discount houses stood at 

N95.6billion, with OBB and O/N 

rates printing at 29.2percent and 

32.1percent respectively. 

System liquidity was under 

severe pressure as CBN’s FX 

interventions in the wholesale, 

SME and invisible segments 

of the currency market, as well 

as OMO mop-ups estimated 

at N166.0billion which were 

carried out on all trading days 

of the week, against N46.8bn 

maturity starved the market of 

liquidity. 

Sentiment was mixed across 

tenor bills in the fixed income 

space. In the T-Bills market, selloffs 

were observed on the short 

and medium end of the curve 

as traders were constrained by 

the tight liquidity in the market, 

however, the long end of the 

curve was slightly bullish due 

to continued demand for long 

dated bills. 

Overall, average T-bill yield 

increased by 6basis points (bps) 

w/w to close at 18.3percent 

(91-day (up 112bps to 

17.8percent), 182-day (up 85bps 

to 19.1percent) and the 364-day 

(down 180bps to 17.8percent). 

In the week ahead, we expect 

the market to close in the green 

as speculators continue to hunt 

for bargains in expectation of 

an impressive Q3-17 earnings 

scorecard. Additionally, the 

CBN will be conducting the 

bi-monthly Primary Market 

Auction (NTB), wherein it 

seeks to refinance a total of 

N101.3million. Therefore, 

we expect players to trade 

sentiments around the auction. 

Global and Macroeconomic 

market update 

Global equities sustain 

bullish streak 

In the U.S. market, equity 

benchmarks continued to rally 

in the week to 13th October on 

the heels of the IMF’s recent 

publication which indicated 

that the global economy is 

strengthening. Also, impressive 

Q3-17 earnings releases and 

better than expected economic 

data reports in the US 

supported demand for equities. 

Accordingly, the Dow Jones 

Industrial Average Nasdaq, 

Composite Index and S&P 

500 Index, all inched higher 

by 0.4percent, 0.2percent, and 

0.2percent respectively. 

European benchmarks 

also held-on to gains after 

Spain’s Catalonia suspended 

independence declaration. 

Consequently, UK’s FTSE rose 

0.2percent, the Pan-European 

STOXX 600 added 0.5percent 

and Germany’s DAX advanced 

0.3percent while France’s CAC 

closed the week 0.2percent 

lower. 

Emerging markets equities 

performance was largely 

bullish as all indices trended 

northward save the India’s BSE 

Sensex (-0.1percent) which 

declined. The South Africa’s JSE 

(+11.7percent), Russia’s RTSI 

(+2.0percent) Brazil’s IBOV 

(+1.2percent) and China’s 

SCHOMP (+0.5percent) closed 

the week in the green. 

Domestic Financial 

Markets Review and Outlook 

Q3 earnings prospects 

drive equities higher 

The local equities market 

sustained the previous week’s 

bullish momentum as Q3- 

17 earnings began to filter in. 

Although the market opened 

MANSARD (+25.5percent) 

and NEM (+12.3percent). 

In a similar theme, the Oil & 

Gas index rose 1.8percent on 

SEPLAT (+1.6percent) while the 

Industrial Goods and Consumer 

Goods indices improved 66bps 

and 5bps respectively amid 

demand for DANGCEM 

(+2.7percent) and NESTLE 

(+1.4percent). 

Investor sentiment 

measured by market breadth 

improved further to 1.9x (relative 

to 1.5x) in the previous week) as 

41 stocks appreciated against 

22 decliners. Contrarily, activity 

level closed the week bearish 

as average volume and value 

traded declined by 13.4percent 

w/w to 323.2million units and 

30.4percent w/w to N2.6bn 

respectively. In the week ahead, 

we expect the market to close 

in the green as speculators 

continue to hunt for bargains 

in expectation of an impressive 

Q3-17 earnings scorecard. 

Money Market: CBN 

continues its assault on system 

liquidity 

Liquidity conditions were 

tight at the beginning of the 

week as the opening balances 

of banks/discount houses stood 

at N95.6bn, with OBB and O/N 

rates printing at 29.2percent 

and 32.1percent respectively. 

RSA fund price of PFAs as at October 6, 2017 

S/N PFAs CURRENT PRICE 

5 CrusaderSterling Pensions 3.5951 

17 Premium Pensions 3.5470 

3 ARM Pension Mgrs. 3.5176 

19 Stanbic-IBTC Pensions 3.3940 

13 Legacy PFA 3.2940 

14 NLPC PFA 3.1431 

16 PAL Pensions 3.0734 

7 First Guarantee Pension 2.9997 

20 Trustfund Pensions 2.9905 

18 SigmaVaughn Pensions 2.8724 

12 Leadway Pensure PFA 2.8440 

1 AIICO Pension Managers 2.7686 

2 APT Pensions 2.5489 

6 Fidelity Pensions 2.4955 

8 FUG Pensions 2.4305 

4 AXA Mansard 2.4198 

15 OAK Pensions 2.3512 

11 Investment One Pension Mgrs. 2.2152 

9 IEI Anchor Pension Managers 2.1427 

10 IGI Pension Fund Managers 1.8441 

21 NPF Pensions 1.3388 

the week bullish, profit-taking 

activities in two successive 

sessions dragged return lower. 

However, momentum picked 

up in the last two trading days 

as the All Share Index (ASI) 

advanced 1.5percent w/w to 

settle at 36848.2 points. This 

drove YTD return to 37.1percent 

with the market capitalization 

adding N181.5billion to settle at 

N12.7trillion. 

Performance across the 5 

sectors we track was bullish 

as all sector indices closed 

the week in the green. Most 

notably, the Financials [Banking 

(+1.4percent); Insurance 

(+7.9percent)] sector led the 

gainers’ camp, accruing a total of 

9.3percent consequent on gains 

in GUARANTY (+3.2percent), 

ZENITH (+2.0percent), 

System liquidity was under 

severe pressure as CBN’s FX 

interventions in the wholesale, 

SME and invisible segments of 

the currency market, as well as 

OMO mop-ups estimated at 

N166billion which were carried 

out on all trading days of the 

week, against N46.8bn maturity, 

starved the market of liquidity. 

Overall, money market 

rates closed the week higher 

compared to the previous week; 

OBB (up 7.5% to 33.3percent) 

and O/N (up 9.3percent to 

35.3percent) w/w. In the week 

ahead, we expect N107.4billion 

OMO bills to mature into the 

system on Thursday. Given 

the CBN’s aggressive stance on 

liquidity, we expect more OMO 

auctions and FX intervention 

funding this week. 

Investor’s Square 

•Have you been shabbily treated by your registrar, stockbroke r or 

other capital market operators? 

Let us know and investor will help you investigate and report back. 

E-mail: investor@businessdayonline.com 

Africa investor index 

Company Ticker Sector Country Price Price MKT P/E Shares 

US$ Chan. on Cap in issue 

the week SMn Mn. 

SAB Miller SAB SJ Beverages South Africa 59.50 -2.7% 95,837.67 34.8 1,610.64 

Anglo American AGL SJ Mining South Africa 16.79 3.3% 21,467.93 -10.5 1,278.50 

Sasol SOL SJ Oil & gas South Africa 30.78 -0.1% 20,046.78 9.7 651.39 

MTN Group MTN SJ Telecommunications South Africa 8.75 -4.9% 15,730.46 15.6 1,797.23 

Standard Bank SBK SJ Banking & finance South Africa 12.47 -2.0% 19,911.87 12.0 1,596.58 

Anglo Platinum AMS SJ Mining South Africa 25.23 2.1% 6,769.03 140.5 268.30 

ANGLOGOLD ASHANTI LTD ANG SJ Mining South Africa 9.21 -9.2% 3,761.03 -80.7 408.22 

Tullow Oil plc TLW GN Oil & gas Ghana 4.07 -0.1% 3,706.24 381.7 911.38 

Maroc Telecom IAM MC Telecommunications Morocco 14.46 -0.3% 12,707.53 20.9 879.10 

DANGOTE CEMENT PLC DANG NL Building Materials Nigeria 0.67 -9.1% 11,365.72 17.9 17,040.51 

Orascom Construction OCIC EY Construction Egypt 12.23 0.5% 2,530.25 74.0 206.92 

Attijariwafa Bank ATW MC Banking & finance Morocco 47.95 1.0% 9,759.68 17.0 203.53 

Nigerian Breweries NB NL Breweries Nigeria 0.98 -9.5% 7,385.83 28.4 7,562.56 

Banque Marocaine du Commerce BCE MC Banking & finance Morocco 21.89 1.2% 3,929.13 16.3 179.46 

Telecom Egypt ETEL EY Telecommunications Egypt 0.61 0.5% 1,045.31 8.2 1,707.07 

VODAFONE EGYPT VODE EY Telecommunications Egypt 4.04 -8.2% 968.55 7.1 240.00 

Banque Centrale Populaire BCP MC Banks Morocco 30.97 0.1% 4,006.41 19.0 182.30 

Lafarge LAC MC Building materials Morocco 229.72 -2.4% 5,382.73 25.1 23.43 

Douja Prom Addoha ADH MC Real Estate Morocco 5.06 -0.5% 1,632.87 13.5 322.56 

Sonatel Sn SNTS BC Telecommunications Brvm 43.57 2.6% 4,356.63 12.9 100.00 

Guaranty Trust Bank GUARANTY NL Banking & finance Nigeria 0.11 -13.9% 3,244.64 8.9 29,431.18 

Zenith Bank ZENITH NL Banking & finance Nigeria 0.07 -13.9% 2,180.62 6.5 31,396.49 

CGI CGI MC Real Estate Morocco 45.16 1.2% 831.30 14.4 18.41 

Guinness Nigeria PLC GUINNES NL Beverages Nigeria 0.20 -2.1% 315.75 -52.0 1,591.13 

Commercial International Bank CIB EY Banks Egypt 4.68 -1.9% 5,398.79 15.4 1,153.87 

First Bank FIRSTBAN NL Banks Nigeria 0.02 -4.8% 615.35 3.9 35,895.00 

Abu Kir Fertilizers ABUK EY Chemicals Egypt 9.13 -37.6% 1,152.31 10.0 126.19 

East African Breweries EABL KN Breweries Kenya 2.61 1.1% 2,066.42 24.8 790.77 

Safaricom Ltd SAFCOM KN Telecommunications Kenya 0.23 -4.1% 9,214.95 19.8 40,065.43 

Mauritius Comm. Bank MCB MP Banking & finance Mauritius 6.77 1.5% 1,613.18 7.5 238.19 

Mobinil EMOB EY Telecommunications Egypt 7.11 14.4% 711.08 - 100.00 

T M G HOLDING TMGH EY Real Estate Egypt 0.42 -0.1% 876.05 17.6 2,063.56 

Poulina Group Holding PGH TU Holding Companies-Divers Tunisia 3.44 1.3% 618.31 14.5 180.00 

Ecobank Transnational Inc ETIT BC Banks Brvm 0.03 1.3% 519.09 2.0 15,952.70 

STANBIC IBTC BANK PLC IBTCCB NL Banks Nigeria 0.10 -11.6% 1,033.55 11.2 10,000.00 

State Bank Mauritius SBM MP Banking & finance Mauritius 0.03 1.5% 1,035.11 11.2 31,000.00 

Barclays Bank Kenya BCBL KN Banking & finance Kenya 0.09 -2.1% 510.37 7.6 5,432.00 

Banque De Tunisie BT TU Banking & finance Tunisia 3.39 -1.3% 508.98 13.7 150.00 

Equity Bank Limited EQBNK KN Banking & finance Kenya 0.39 -4.2% 1,468.10 9.3 3,773.67 

Kenya Comm. Bank Ltd KNCB KN Banking & finance Kenya 0.40 -1.2% 1,199.13 6.4 3,025.21 

Africa investor Ai40 Weekly Commentary – 7 August 2017 

After notching gains for 

four consecutive weeks, 

the Ai40 Investor’s 

Index finally cooled off and 

ended last week in negative 

territory. Telecoms and mining 

stocks tracked by the Index 

performed exceptionally well, 

while Nigerian-listed equities 

experienced a heavy sell-off. 

The Index fell 2.15 points, a drop 

of 2.13% from last week’s value 

of 100.58, to close Friday at a 

value of 98.43. 

In US markets, the strongerthan-expected 

non-farm 

payroll numbers gave stock 

markets a boost on Friday. 

According to CNBC, “the U.S. 

economy added 209,000 jobs 

last month, according to the 

Labor Department, well above 

the expected gain of 183,000.” 

The Dow Jones Industrial 

Average broke the 22000 point 

for the first time ever, led by 

gains in large-cap banking 

stocks. Reuters analysts suggest 

that the jobs report may pave 

the way for the Fed to announce 

plans to cut down its $4.2 trillion 

bond portfolio in September, 

and could reinforce its case 

to hike rates for the third time 

this year in December. Global 

markets were mixed at Friday’s 

close, as the pan-European 

Stoxx 600 gained 0.95% while 

“Shanghai’s index fell amid 

news that U.S. is considering 

investigating China’s demands 

that American companies 

share more of their advanced 

technology” according to Times 

Colonist. 

At Friday’s close, the Dow 

Jones Industrial Average was up 

0.30%, or 66.71 points, to close 

the week at a value of 22,092.81. 

The Nasdaq Composite Index 

gained 0.18% or 11.22 points, 

to end the week at a value of 

6,351.56. The S&P 500 closed 

the week higher by 0.19% or 4.67 

points, to close Friday on a value 

of 2,476.83. 

Gainers 

Orange Egypt enjoyed huge 

gains last week (coming from 

being the worst performer 

in the last review). The stock 

gained 14.4%. JSE-listed miners 

Anglo American and Anglo 

Platinum also enjoyed upward 

price movements last week, 

with increases of 3.3% and 2.1%. 

Anglo American’s diamond 

mining arm De Beers, reported 

a 5.7% rise in diamond sales on 

Tuesday. 

Shares for Sonatel – a BRVMlisted 

telecoms company – and 

Mauritius Commercial Bank 

closed off the Gainers List with 

increases of 2.6% and 1.5% 

respectively. 

Losers 

Nigerian equities tracked by 

the Index dominated the Losers 

List last week as the country 

“missed its best chance in 13 

months to overtake Egypt in 

stock-market capitalization 

as an expansion of the new 

foreign-exchange window 

spurred a plunge in the naira” 

according to Bloomberg. 

Amongst the banking stocks, 

Zenith and Guaranty Trust 

Bank both fell by 13.9%; while 

Stanbic IBTC Bank was down 

by 11.6%. Shares for Nigerian 

Breweries ended the week in 

red with a 9.5% drop. 

However, last week’s worst 

performing stock on the Index 

was Cairo-listed Abu Kir 

Fertilizers as the share price 

dropped by a hefty 37.6%.



I R 

NVESTO 


Investor Analysis 

Coronation Mutual Funds: Guaranteeing 

investors competitive returns 

IHEANYI NWACHUKWU 

For many investors, it is 

not always easy to decide 

what Mutual Fund to 

buy. Meanwhile, what 

is a Mutual Fund? These 

are collective/pooled investment 

vehicles that allow you (an 

investor) with limited resources 

to own a diversified investment 

portfolio managed by a seasoned 

investment manager. 

There are several SEC regulated 

mutual funds dedicated to 

investing in various asset classes. 

Most of them with different 

investment objectives include 

real estate funds, fixed income 

funds, equity funds, money market 

funds etc. 

Just recently, the Nigerian 

capital market welcomed more 

Mutual Funds, when within its 

first year of operation; Coronation 

Asset Management a subsidiary 

of Coronation Merchant Bank 

Limited listed three mutual funds 

on the Nigerian Stock Exchange 

(NSE) for trading and accessibility 

by retail and institutional investors. 

The three listed funds are 

Coronation Money Market Fund; 

Coronation Fixed Income Fund 

and Coronation Balanced Fund. 

Their Initial Public Offering (IPO) 

was done from July 10, 2017 to July 

28, 2017. 

Abubakar Jimoh, chairman, 

Coronation Asset Management 

and Managing Director, 

Coronation Merchant Bank 

Group had described the fundslisting 

as “yet another milestone 

in the history of our company and 

validation of our expertise in asset 

management.” 

He said: “By listing the 

N2.168billion raised from the 

three funds on the stock exchange, 

we are demonstrating to our 

investors that we are determined 

and committed to offer better 

prospects on their investments 

across all market conditions” 

Mutual Fund investors want 

active engagement, efficient 

management of their funds, and 

quality reporting of Mutual Fund 

performance –all these Coronation 

Asset Management said it got 

answers to. 

In its value propositions to 

investors of these Mutual Funds, 


said; “We have developed a 

technology base that supports 

efficient and seamless service, as 

well as promote transparent and 

real time reporting of portfolio 

holding and performances. We 

believe in building a sustainable 

relationship based on trust with 

our clients by ensuring we deliver 

on our promise of achieving 

their financial goals as well as 

committing to quality and excellent 

service,” 

They recommend investing 

in the Mutual Fund which fits 

best with investor’s long term 

savings goal and tolerance for risk. 

For example, the asset managers 

would recommend an investment 

in the Money Market Fund to an 

investor who has a short-term 

investment requirement and is 

also apprehensive towards taking 

risk 

Ẇhile 479 subscribers 

pooled N1.654billion through 

the Coronation Money Market 

fund, Coronation Fixed Income 

had 39 subscribers and yielded 

N315.205million; and Coronation 

Balanced Fund with 64 subscribers 

achieved N198.615million. 

“These funds will guarantee 

investors’ competitive yields as 

the business has put together a 

strong investment management 

team who will be guided by an 

investment committee with over 

50years combined experience to 

ensure the funds deliver on the 

expectations of investors,” said 

Aigbovbioise Aig-Imoukhuede, 

a director in Coronation Asset 

Management. 

He added that “while the 

Coronation Money Market Fund 

offers investors the opportunity 

to maximize return on their liquid 

savings, the Coronation Fixed 

Income and Balanced Funds 

provide the best opportunity to 

realize medium to long term 

investment goals.” 

The funds offer all categories 

of investors, three viable options 

in line with domestic economic 

and financial market conditions, 

an opportunity to diversify their 

investment portfolios while 

relying on the experience and 

performance track record of the 

Coronation Brand to ensure their 

investments attain its required 

financial outcome. 

The funds and their investment 

objectives 

Coronation Money Market 

Fund: The aim of the Money Market 

Fund is to provide for preservation 

of capital and moderate income, 

and will make regular income 

payment on a quarterly basis. The 

fund will invest in safe short-term 

instruments such as Treasury 

Bills, Certificates of Deposit, 

Commercial Paper (CP) and 

Inter-Bank Call Money, and will 

be optimally managed to generate 

competitive returns in line with 

the interest rates prevailing in the 

market. The return benchmark 

is to outperform the average 

yield of the 90days Treasury Bills. 

This fund is ideal for short term 

focused investors. Interestingly, 

Coronation Money Market Fund 

provides group personal accident 

insurance cover for investments 

above N100,000. 

Coronation Fixed Income 

Fund: The aim of the Fixed Income 

Funds is to provide regular and 

steady income which is payable 

on a semi-annual basis. The fund 

will invest in a diverse pool of fixed 

income securities such as FGN 

bonds, State Bonds, Sub-national 

Bonds, Corporate Bonds, and 

Money Market securities. Though 

capital appreciation in the fixed 

income funds may be limited, the 

risks are typically lower than that 

of equity biased funds. The fund is 

more suitable for investors looking 

to invest for the medium to long 

term. The return benchmark is to 

outperform the average return of 

the FMDQ bond index. This fund 

is ideal for medium to long-term 

focused investors. 

Coronation Balanced Fund: 

The aim of the Balanced Funds 

is to achieve capital appreciation 

over time while mitigating volatility 

associated with investments 

in equities by investing in fixed 

income securities. The fund will 

provide a combination of income 

and moderate growth by investing 

in a diverse pool of equities, and 

fixed income securities such as 

FGN bonds, State Bonds, Subnational 

Bonds, Corporate Bonds, 

and money market securities. The 

fund is more suitable for investors 

looking to invest for the longer 

term. The return benchmark is 

to outperform the composite 

average return of the 90-day 

Treasury Bill and Nigeria Stock 

Exchange 30 Index. This fund is 

ideal for medium-term focused 

investors with a relatively higher 

appetite for risk. 

Take the Coronation Mutual 

Funds advantage 

In addition to maintaining a 

mandate to deliver excellent and 

efficient services under an ever 

changing economic environment, 


has a diverse team of experienced 

investment managers, who create 

innovative financial solutions 

which are easily accessible to 

investors. 

Target Investors: Coronation 

Mutual Funds are suitable for 

individual and institutional 

investors seeking to invest for 

capital preservation, capital 

gains and regular income, 

regardless of your investment 

time horizon as the funds provide 

immediate liquidity to fund cash 

requirements. 

About the asset managers: 


is a subsidiary of Coronation 

Merchant Bank Group. The firm 

provides investment solutions 

to help their clients achieve their 

financial goals. Target clients 

include retail and high net worth 

individuals, corporations, state 

or federal government entities, 

insurance companies, amongst 

others. Coronation Merchant 

Bank, the parent company of 

Coronation Asset Management, 

is an emerging merchant banking 

franchise with industry leading 

financial stability indicators and an 

“A+” rating from Agusto & Co. The 

credit rating is a valid testament to 

the bank’s strong capitalisation, 

good liquidity profile and robust 

risk management framework 

evidenced by the zero NPL ratio 

as at December 2016. 

The banking group was 

established to fill the gap in a longunderserved 

market segment, 

seeking to address the need for 

long term capital across key sectors 

of the economy. The Group 

offers investment and corporate 

banking, private banking/ 

wealth management and global 

markets/treasury services to 

its diverse clients. It also offers 

securities trading/brokerage, 

asset management and trustees 

services via its subsidiaries; 

Coronation Securities Limited, 


Limited respectively. 

Driven by its vision of 

becoming Africa’s premier 

investment Bank and with an 

asset base of over N100billion, 

the Banking group is certain to 

leverage its privileged direction 

by some of Nigeria’s individuals 

who excelled and rose to the 

top of merchant banking sector 

at its height of excellence to 

become the industry model for 

risk management, corporate 

governance and responsible 

business practices. Coronation 

Merchant Bank’s quest for 

industry distinction is evident in 

its corporate identity which has 

been designed to communicate 

the Group’s vision, ambition and 

inner strength 

How to invest in the Coronation 

Mutual Funds Offer 

The asset managers have 

created a seamless and easy 

process for investments in the 

Coronation Mutual Funds by 

domestic and foreign investors, 

through the development of 

online and in-person channels for 

investment requests. Investment 

requests can either be completed 

on its website www.coronationam. 

com or investment requests 

and payments can be done in 

person at any Access Bank branch 

nationwide. 

Minimum amount to invest 

To ensure the Coronation 

Mutual Funds are also easily 

accessible by every investor, 

the asset managers placed the 

minimum investment into the 

fund at N10,000 with additional 

multiples of N5,000 thereafter. 

How to redeem investments 

from the Coronation Mutual Funds 

The asset managers’ 

redemption process is in line 

with their mandate to deliver 

excellent and efficient services 

to investors. Domestic and 

Foreign investors can initiate 

redemption requests through 

the same channels as investment 

requests, and payments are 

expected to be completed within 

five business days of the receipt of 

the Redemption notice. 

Minimum balance available 

following redemption 

The Coronation Mutual Funds 

allows investors to withdraw all 

funds as they see fit, however, there 

are different minimum balances 

required across the funds to ensure 

the investor continues to receive 

interest on their balance. 

Summary 

Aside that your money is 

managed by fund managers with 

global exposure and experience, 

across the various asset classes, 

the asset managers diligently 

focus on always creating value 

for investors in line with their 

promised investment objectives. 

Open-ended mutual funds are 

priced daily and fund managers 

are always willing to buy back units 

from investors. This means that 

investors can sell their holdings in 

mutual fund investments at any 

time and not worry about finding 

a buyer at the right price. Investors 

can get access to their funds within 

48 hours. 

In managing your investments 

efficiently, Coronation Asset 

Management targets the best 

execution price when dealing 

with counterparties and brokers. 

They are able to leverage the 

benefit of investing large funds 

which have been pooled together 

from many investors. Their 

investments are designed to limit 

loss to capital through proper 

and efficient diversification of 

Coronation Mutual funds 

investment portfolios. The asset 

manager aims to reduce the 

volatility of returns by investing in 

a number of companies across 

a broad group of sectors. Hence, 

investor irrespective of the size 

of the investments can enjoy the 

benefits diversification brings in 

minimizing any potential loss to 

the investments. 

The asset managers operate 

a system where all information 

regarding their investments and 

performance are readily and 

easily accessible to their investors. 

While daily prices of their funds 

are available on various platforms 

reports on investor’s holding and 

valuation can be obtained through 

their online account.


BUSINESS DAY 

19 

CITYFile 

Heap of refuse at 

Mushin in Lagos 

on Tuesday. NAN 

Okowa inaugurates 

market, roads in Delta 

IDRIS UMAR MOMOH 

Govorern Ifeanyi Okowa of 

Delta State has inaugurated 

a N284 million modern market 

and road projects in 

Opke and Udu local government 

areas of the state. 

The governor inaugurated the projects 

as he began the third phase of his administration’s 

project inauguration and town 

hall meetings in the state. 

Okowa, at Oreropke, Okpe, charged 

the people to put the modern market into 

maximum use to boost commerce and 

create wealth for the people in the local 

communities. 

He said that the modern market was the 

first to be completed of the three proposed 

across the three senatorial districts in the 

state, assuring the people that the other 

two would be completed before December. 

The governor said that the market was 

2 convicted for vandalising electric cables in Kaduna 

Two persons have been convicted 

for vandalising cables belonging 

to Kaduna Electricity Distribution 

Company in northern part 

of Kaduna State. 

Abdulazeez Abdullahi, the corporate 

communications manager of the company, 

said on in Kaduna. Abdullahi said 

that the convicted persons – Danazumi 

Musa and Haladu Abubakar – were arrested 

in Kubau local government area 

of the state and later arraigned in court 

by the police. 

He said that Musa resided at Pambegua 

village while Abubakar lived in Zuntu 

village, both in Kubau local government 

area. 

“They were arrested in Pambegua on 

September 26 after vandalising and carting 

away aluminum conductors worth 

over N600,000 on the Zaria-Soba 33KV 

power line. 

built and transferred to the local government 

free of charge and urged the council 

chairman not to allocate the stalls at 

exorbitant fees to traders. 

“If the market is not put into maximum 

use, the essence is defeated. 

“We built the market and handed it 

free to the council; the project is for the 

people, the traditional institution must 

have input in the decision to allocate the 

stalls and preference must be given to 

traders from the old market,’’ Okowa said. 

The Okpe monarch, Orhue I, Orodje of 

Opke Kingdom, thanked the governor for 

keeping his campaign promise to build 

the market. He called on the traders at the 

old market to relocate to the new market 

within three months. 

According to the monarch, the old 

Orerokpe market ceases to exist with the 

inauguration of the ultra modern market. 

“I give all the traders operating in 

containers and attachments in Orerokpe 

“The two persons were later transferred 

to Zaria area command of the 

Nigeria Police on September 30, 2017. 

“Further investigations led to the 

discovery of some of the vandalised 

conductors in the houses of Danazumi 

Musa and Haladu Abubakar while their 

co-conspirator, Ribadu Skido, is still at 

large,’’ the manager said. 

He said that the convicts were arraigned 

before a Chief Magistrate Court, 

Kofar Fada, Zaria, on October13, 2017. 

According to him, the offences are 

punishable under sections 58, 312,302 

of the Penal Code, Law of Kaduna State. 

He said that the accused admitted 

committing the offences and the Chief 

Magistrate, Ummaru Bature, convicted 

them on counts of conspiracy. 

“Bature sentenced them to six months 

imprisonment each with an option of 

N20,000. The chief magistrate also found 

three months to come over, take a form 

and get a stall in this market; we must put 

the market into maximum use,’’ he said. 

Mary Iyasere, the commissioner for 

commerce, said that the modern market 

has over 100 lock up stores, 28 open 

stores, four offices, toilet facilities, electricity 

and other state of the art facilities. 

“The project was awarded in July 2015 

and cost a total sum of N284 million, and 

the project was completed on schedule 

because the governor released the funds 

as and when due,’’ she said. 

The governor had earlier inaugurated a 

3.1 kilometre Ovwian road project in Udu 

local government area with a charge on 

the people to sustain the existing peace 

to attract more projects in the area. 

The governor inspected other road projects, 

visited the Ugbokodo-Okpe Fish Farm 

with 154 ponds, and pledged to rehabilitate 

a skill acquisition centre to empower 

youths, women and the men in the area. 

the first accused person, Danazumi Musa, 

guilty of vandalism of power supply infrastructure. 

“He was sentenced to a year imprisonment 

with an option of N50,000 fine. 

The second accused person, Halidu 

Abubakar, was further convicted on the 

third count of receiving stolen items,’’ the 

manager said. 

He said that Abubakar was sentenced 

to one and a half years imprisonment 

for the offence with an option of 

N75,000 fine. 

According to Abdullahi, the chief 

magistrate also ordered the duo to pay 

N300,000 each as compensation to Kaduna 

Electric Distribution Company for 

the damaged electric cables. 

“Failure to pay, according to the magistrate, 

will attract another two and half 

years jail term. All sentences are to run 

concurrently,” he said. 

Briefs 

Police destroy drugs worth 

over N50m in Lagos 

The police in have destroyed drugs 

worth more than N50 million. 

Edgal Imohimi, the state Commissioner 

of Police, led others to destroy 

the hard drugs at Ojota, on Tuesday. 

Imohimi told journalists at the Ojota 

dumpsite that the destruction of the hard 

drugs marked the beginning of the move 

by his command to rid the state of the 

activities of drug peddlers. 

“You will recall during the town hall 

meetings I held recently that I promised 

to rid Lagos state of drug peddlers. This 

exercise is to clamp down on drug peddlers 

and also to assure members of the 

public that our youths will no longer have 

access to hard drugs. 

“Drug fuels crime and deviant behaviors, 

which is why the police have decided 

to rid every nooks and crannies of the 

state of hard drugs. Amongst the hard 

drugs to be destroyed is Codeine, which 

is supposed to be a cough syrup. 

“Codeine can be gotten easily at any 

pharmacy shop, which makes it worrisome. 

We hereby urge all pharmacists to 

sell the cough syrups only to those with 

doctor’s prescription.” he said. 

Kebbi flood victims get 

relief materials 

National Emergency Management 

Agency (NEMA) has provided relief 

assistance to the recent Kebbi 

State flood victims. 

About 100 households were affected 

by the flood in Dole-Kaina Area of Dandi 

local government area of the state sometime 

in September. 

The items provided included 750 

bundles of roofing sheets, 1,000 pieces 

of textile materials, 2,000 blankets, 1,000 

ceiling boards and 1,200 bags of cement. 

Others are 500 mattresses, 1,000 bags 

of Guinea corn, 1,000 bundles of brocade 

materials, 1,000 rubber mats and 2,000 

cartons of detergent. 

The director-in-charge of search and 

rescue, Paul Ohenmu, who presented the 

relief materials to the victims in Birnin 

Kebbi, said the assistance was meant to 

alleviate their sufferings. 

“This is just a token to alleviate your 

suffering; we know that it will not be 

enough to take care of the disaster, but just 

for you to know that the Federal Government 

sympathises with you,” Ohenmu 

Wanted persons: Rivers police 

appeal for information 

The police in Rivers have appealed 

to the public to provide useful information 

that could lead to arrest 

of eight wanted persons. 

Nnamdi Omoni, spokesman of the 

police command in the state, said in Port 

Harcourt that the command had mapped 

out strategies to arrest the suspects. 

The command had last week declared 

eight persons wanted for their alleged 

involvement in the murder of ten persons 

in Mgbuoshimi, in Obio/Akpor local government 

area. 

Omoni, however, said police could 

not work in isolation, but in collaboration 

with the public to achieve success in 

crime prevention. 

“Such information could be given to 

the Commissioner of Police,” he said, 

assuring that the information would be 

treated with utmost confidentiality.

C002D5556 



BUSINESSTRAVEL 

Emirate to commence Nigeria-Asia route 

as more businesses, investments sprout 

Stories by IFEOMA OKEKE 

Emirates airline have 

commenced flights 

from Nigeria to Asia 

(China) just as Nigeria 

has continued 

to experience an increase in 

businesses and investments 

opportunities in China. 

As the federal government 

reels out more plans to support 

the Made-in-Nigeria 

products, China lends itself to 

partnerships with small and 

medium businesses in Nigeria 

who buy machineries and raw 

materials for local production 

in Nigeria. 

In addition to this, China 

is also positioning itself as a 

tourist attraction for families 

and tourists to explore during 

holidays. 

China is by far the biggest 

destination for importers 

all over the world. Different 

kinds of goods ranging from 

personal effects to industrial 

machinery are manufactured 

and sold very cheap in China. 

Speaking during a press 

conference to announce the 

airline’s commencement of 

the Nigeria-China destination, 

Afzal Parambil, Emirates 

country manager, and regional 

manager for West Africa said 

more people are now going to 

Delta Airlines has 

reported financial 

results for the 

September quarter 

2017. Adjusted pre-tax 

income for the September 

2017 quarter was $1.7 billion, 

a $182 million decrease from 

the September 2016 quarter. 

Pre-tax income includes a 

$120 million reduction from 

the operational disruption 

following Hurricane Irma that 

hit the Caribbean, Florida, 

Georgia and, specifically, 

Delta’s hub in Atlanta. 

“While we faced a number 

of challenges this quarter, 

including multiple hurricanes 

and an earthquake in 

Mexico, I am proud of how 

Delta people responded and 

still delivered an outstanding 

performance this quarter. 

“Having just completed 

the busiest summer travel 

season in our history, we 

have good momentum, a 

determined team and a solid 

pipeline of initiatives to grow 

earnings and margins”, Ed 

Bastian, Delta’s chief executive 

officer, said. 

China from Nigeria for both 

business and leisure purposes. 

“Families are now travelling 

to China. This tells you 

that people are now trying to 

understand China from a different 

perspective. We want to 

ensure that we are in the forefront 

to take the market share. 

“China is very popular for 

visitors from across the world, 

including Nigeria, not just for 

leisure travellers, but also for 

business and trade. 

“Our network in Asia including 

China is extensive. 

We fly to over 20 destinations 

in 13 countries, some of 

which include Beijing, Shanghai, 

Guangzhou, Yinchuan, 

Zhengzhou, Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei, 

Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, 

Hong Kong, and many others. 

“Many of these cities are 

major business and trade hubs 

and are also served by multiple 

Delta post $1.7bn pre-tax 

income for September 2017 

To assist customers and 

employees in affected regions, 

Delta operated nine humanitarian 

flights, added more 

than 12,000 additional seats to 

impacted cities and shipped 

more than 600,000 pounds of 

relief supplies. 

In addition, Delta and the 

Delta Air Lines Foundation 

made $2.75 million in contributions 

to Red Cross organizations, 

while Delta employees 

contributed $250,000 to 

the American Red Cross and 

another $250,000 to the Delta 

Care Fund that directly supports 

fellow employees. 

Delta’s operating revenue 

of $11.1 billion for the September 

quarter was up 5.5 percent, 

or $577 million versus prior 

year, despite a $140 million reduction 

from Hurricane Irma. 

Passenger revenue increased 

$328 million, including 

$160 million from Delta’s 

Branded Fares initiatives. 

Passenger unit revenues increased 

1.9 percent on 1.6 

percent higher capacity. 

Cargo revenue increased 

11.5 percent, driven by higher 

Emirates’ flights a day, ensuring 

our customers have more 

choice and convenience when 

planning their travel,” Parambil 

said. 

He disclosed that many of 

the airline’s Asian destinations 

are served by Emirates’ Iconic 

A380 double decker aircraft, 

which is very popular amongst 

its customers, adding that destinations 

to which the airline 

flies the A380 include again 

L-R: Afzal Parambil, regional manager west Africa, Emirates; Chuks Iwelumo, chairman, 

League of Aviation and Airports Correspondents and Aderonke Adebule, executive director, JSP 

Communications at the media chat with the new Emirates regional manager and promotion of 

Guangzhou, China destination held in Lagos. Photo Lamidi Bamidele 

…operating revenue up by 5.5%, losses $120m to Hurricane Irma 

volumes in freight and mail. 

Other revenue increased 

18.4 percent primarily due 

to higher loyalty revenue and 

third-party refinery sales. 

Speaking on the report, 

Glen Hauenstein, Delta’s 

president said, “Three of four 

entities reported positive unit 

revenues, and we see continued 

opportunity in business 

yields. We expect fourth quarter 

unit revenues to be up two 

to four percent with all entities 

in positive territory by year 

end,” “Our commercial platform 

of delivering network 

efficiency, driving customer 

innovation and improving 

customer choice should allow 

us to deliver sustained 

positive unit revenue, while 

maintaining our industryleading 

revenue premium.” 

Cost Performance 

Adjusted fuel expense4 

increased $230 million compared 

to the same period in 

2016 as market fuel prices increased 

throughout the quarter. 

Delta’s adjusted fuel price 

per gallon for the September 

quarter was $1.68, which includes 

$0.03 of benefit from 

the refinery. 

CASM-Ex, including profit 

sharing increased 4.8 percent 

for the September 2017 quarter 

compared to the prior 

year period which includes 

pressure from Hurricane 

Irma-related flight cancellations. 

Normalized CASM- 

Ex, including profit sharing 

increased 2.6 percent versus 

the prior year period, driven 

by employee wage increases, 

product investments, and 

accelerated depreciation associated 

with Delta’s narrow 

body fleet initiatives. 

Non-operating expense 

declined $35 million for the 

quarter due to foreign exchange 

favorability. 

“For the full year we expect 

non-fuel unit costs to be up 

approximately four percent 

as harmonization of profit 

sharing plans, accelerated 

depreciation of narrow body 

aircraft and pressure from 

weather-related cancellations 

have added over a point 

of pressure to costs from our 

previous guidance. 

Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, 

Taipei and Hong Kong, 

as well as Bangkok, Singapore, 

Seoul and Kuala Lumpur. 

“At Emirates we are able 

to offer Nigerians real global 

connectivity with just one 

convenient stop at our modern 

hub Dubai. Part of my role is 

to ensure that Emirates is the 

airline of choice for Nigerian 

travellers and that we offer the 

best possible experience in the 

air and on the ground. 

“As an award winning airline, 

including being named 

the world’s best airline according 

to TripAdvisor 2017, 

Emirates offers its customers’ 

value for money with excellent 

products and services, and a 

global network that currently 

extends to 156 destinations in 

84 countries. 

“Emirates is the world’s 

only airline to operate an all 

Boeing 777 and Airbus A380 

fleet. We currently have 97 

A380s and 165 B777s in service,” 

Parambil explained. 

He disclosed that when it 

comes to travel from Lagos to 

the East, Emirates has travellers 

covered with an extensive 

network and multiple flight 

options to key cities, allowing 

for shorter connectivity and 

convenience. 

He listed some of the products 

and service of the airline 

Etihad to commence 

flight to Azerbaijan 

Etihad Airways has 

announced plans 

to launch scheduled 

flights between 

Abu Dhabi, the capital of the 

United Arab Emirates, and 

Baku, the capital city of the 

Republic of Azerbaijan, effective 

March 2, 2018. 

The new route is being 

introduced to capitalise on 

the strong and growing demand 

for flights between the 

United Arab Emirates and 

Azerbaijan. 

The airline said the service 

would be operated three 

times a week using a 136-seat 

Airbus A320, configured with 

16 seats in Business Class and 

120 in Economy. 

The airline explained that 

Azerbaijan introduced a visa 

waiver programme for UAE 

nationals in November 2015 

and expanded it to other Gulf 

Cooperation Council (GCC) 

nations in early 2016. This 

prompted a surge in travel 

from across the GCC to the 

emerging tourist destination 

located at the crossroads of 

Europe and Asia, which offers 

visitors access to vast areas of 

unspoiled nature and centuries-old 

culture. Baku, which 

sits on the Caspian Sea, is the 

country’s primary gateway 

and commercial centre. 

which customers enjoy onboard. 

Some of them include: 

More than 2500 channels of 

on demand audio and visual 

entertainment on Emirates ice 

system, from the latest movies, 

music, games and audio books 

and luxurious private suites 

in first class, spacious and flat 

seats in Business Class and extra 

legroom in Economy Class. 

In addition to these, the airline 

offers fresh, chef prepared 

gourmet meals, representing 

regional and international 

menus for all classes of travel, 

including free beverages and 

service and hospitality from its 

highly trained, multi-national 

and multi-lingual cabin crew 

from over 130 countries. 

First class and business 

class passengers have access 

to our exclusive Emirates 

Lounges at 41 international 

airports (including seven in 

Dubai). Emirates also offers allowances 

for checked baggage 

for travel from points in Africa, 

including Entebbe 

Emirates also offers a range 

of family friendly travel services 

and products, such as 

free toys, dedicated entertainment 

channels and meals for 

children. 

These are all designed to 

make the travel experience 

for families easier and convenient. 

Peter Baumgartner, Etihad 

Airways chief executive 

officer, said, “The creation 

of the first ever air corridor 

linking the two capital cities 

demonstrates the importance 

of strengthening business, 

tourism and cultural 

ties between the UAE and 

Azerbaijan. 

“The newest destination 

on Etihad Airways’ global 

network also reflects our 

commitment to linking Abu 

Dhabi with emerging markets 

that seek direct flights 

and onward connections to 

other parts of the world. 

“Based on the growth 

witnessed in recent months 

from the UAE and neighbouring 

Gulf countries to 

Azerbaijan, we are confident 

that the new route will boost 

traffic from the UAE, and 

in turn we look forward to 

welcoming Azerbaijanis on 

our flights to Abu Dhabi and 

beyond.” 

Etihad said during the 

first nine months of 2016, 

foreign tourists visiting Azerbaijan 

totalled 1.7 million. 

The number of visitors from 

the UAE and GCC increased 

30 times on the same ninemonth 

period in 2015, fuelled 

by the easing of visa 

restrictions.

BUSINESS DAY 

21 


BDLegalBusiness 

C002D5556 

Research Intelligence Practice Management Industry Report Partnerships 

INSIDE 

‘LIM roundtable on consumer 

protection timely’ – stakeholders 

Pg 22 

IBA SPECIAL 

Pg 24 

Samsung Verdict, Corporate 

Governance, and the Fight Against 

Bribery and Corruption: Five 

useful lessons for Africa (Part I) 

Pg 24 

OAL Partner wants President Buhari restrained 

from carrying on as petroleum minister 

THEODORA KIO-LAWSON 

Development Law expert and Senior Partner, OAL, 

Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, SAN has gone to court to 

challenge President Muhammadu Buhari’s office 

as Minister of Petroleum Resources. 

In his application, which has the Attorney 

General Of The Federation (AGF) as defendant, Dr. Agbakoba 

who is a former President of the Nigerian Bar association (NBA) 

is asking the court to determine “whether by virtue of Section 

147(2) of the 1999 Constitution, the President can hold the 

office of the Minister of Petroleum Resources without confirmation 

by the Senate of the National Assembly. 

He further contends that Section 138 of the 1999 Constitution 

forbids the President from “holding any other executive 

office or paid employment. 

It “By virtue of Section 138 of the 1999 Constitution of 

the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999 Constitution), which 

disqualifies the President of Nigeria from holding any other 

executive office or paid employment, can the Nigerian President 

simultaneously serve as Minister of Petroleum Resources, 

which is an executive office?” Agbakoba questioned? 

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria stated in his affidavit that 

he was greatly concerned about the recent management crisis 

in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), particularly 

disagreements between Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, the Minister 

of State for Petroleum and Maikanti Baru, the Group Managing 

Director of the NNPC, over the administration of the NNPC. 

“I verily believe that the governance chaos of NNPC could 

not have occurred if the President is not also the Minister of 

Petroleum Resources.” 

According to him, with over 40 years of experience as a legal 

practitioner and having checked the constitution, he was convinced 

that Buhari could not legally hold the office of the Minister 

of Petroleum Resources and prayed the court to sack him. 

The 14-paragraph affidavit, which he deposed to in support 

of his suit, Agbakoba explained that the lawsuit was informed 

by the recent management crisis between the Minister of State 

for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, and the Group 

Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, 

Dr. Kaikanti Baru. 

“I am aware that the NNPC provides up to 90 per cent of 

the revenue accruing to Nigeria. I am worried that the crisis 

in the NNPC will greatly reduce Nigeria’s revenue-generating 

capacity and will affect the revenue distributable to federal, 

state and local governments in Nigeria. This will gravely affect 

development nationwide and drastically impact one and 

all Nigerians, including those in Anambra State (my state of 

origin) and Lagos State (my state of residence). 

“I looked at Section 138 of the 1999 Constitution and I verily 

believe that it disqualifies the President from holding executive 

office, including that of the Minister of Petroleum, during his 

tenure of office as President. 

“I also know that the President did not go through nomination 

process and confirmation by the Senate, before holding 

the office of Minister of Petroleum Resources. 

“I again looked at Section 147(2) of the 1999 Constitution 

and I verily believe that it prohibits anybody from holding the 

office of a minister of the federation without confirmation by 

the Senate.” 

Dr. Agbakoba thus asked the court for a declaration that 

Section 138 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic 

of Nigeria disqualifies the President from holding the office of 

Minister of Petroleum Resources, which is an executive office; 

an Order Restraining the President from continuing to hold 

the office of Minister of Petroleum Resources, while in office 

as the President of Nigeria; a Declaration that by virtue of Section 

147(2) of the 1999 Constitution, the President purporting 

to hold the office of the Minister of Petroleum Resources, 

cannot lawfully do so without confirmation by the Senate of 

the National Assembly; as well as an Order Restraining the 

President from continuing to hold the office of Minister of 

Petroleum Resources. 

No date has been fixed for hearing. 

Court gives decision in case 

between NBA and its former 

assistant publicity secretary 

• Decides in favour of the plaintiff, John Unachukwu 

The High Court of the Federal 

Capital Territory sitting 

in Jabi and presided 

over by Justice Halilu, on Tuesday 

declared John Unachukwu, 

the law editor of the Nation 

newspaperandsubstantivenational 

publicity secretary of the 

NigerianBarAssociation (NBA) 

the sole candidate for the office 

ofNationalPublicitySecretaryat 

the2016NBAGeneralElections 

andthusdulyelectedasNational 

PublicitySecretaryoftheNBA. 

Giving its judgment in suit 

No.FCT/HC/CV/2411/2016BetweenJohnEchezonaUnachukwuvs.IncorporatedTrusteesof 

the NBA, the court held that: 

“It has jurisdiction to hear and 

determine the suit before it 

because the Dispute Resolution 

Committee had not been 

constitutedatthetimethecause 

of action arose so the Plaintiff 

could not have complied with 

Section16oftheNBAConstitution, 

2015. 

“Thedecisionofthe3rd-7th 

Defendants disqualifying the 

PlaintifffromcontestingtheNBA 

election as National Publicity 

Secretarywasnullifiedbecause 

it was done without affording 

the Plaintiff an opportunity to 

be heard. 

“TheCourtalsodeclaredthe 

Plaintiffasthesolecandidatefor 

the office of National Publicity 

SecretaryoftheNBAinthe2016 

General Elections and consequently 

declared the Plaintiff 

as the duly elected National 

Publicity Secretary of the NBA 

thoughtheCourtobservedthat 

thepositionofNationalPublicity 

Secretary was filled during 

thependencyofthesuit,parties 

were absent in court. 

Unachukwu had been disqualifiedfromcontestingelection 

into the office during the 

associations general election 

held in July 2016 after he had 

campaigned and emerged the 

only candidate for the office. 

He was disqualified by the then 

Ken Mozia - led NBA Electoral 

Committee on grounds of being 

an editor in a national daily 

and not in active law practice 

as envisaged by NBA constitution 

and he went to court to 

seek redress. 

Executive Secretary of the Consumer Protection Council (CPC), Babatunde 

Irukera in a handshake with John Unachukwu.

22 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556 Thursday 19 October 2017 

INDUSTRYFILE 


‘LIM roundtable on consumer protection timely’ 

– Stakeholders 

Determined to influence policy changes in the country’s economic development, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Lawyers in the Media (LIM) Forum assembled a number of eminent lawyers, learned scholars and entrepreneurs 

at its quarterly roundtable in Benin, the Edo State capital recently to discuss the role of the media in the protection of consumers in Nigeria. 

Participants at the roundtable which included the immediate past President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Augustine Alegeh, SAN, whose firm, Augustine Alegeh & Co. partnered with LIM to promote this engagement; 

the Director-General of the Consumer Protection Council (CPC), Tunde Irukera; the Chief Judge of Edo State, Ho. Justice the Vice Chair of the NBA Section on Business Law, Seni Adio, SAN; three Professors of Law, 

Professor Afeisimi Badaiki; Nathaniel Inegbedion and Dr. Job OdIon; the Solicitor- General of Edo State; Oluwole Iyamu; Senior Special Adviser to the Governor of Edo State on Sustainable Development Goals, Ifueko Alufohai, 

among others, were unanimous that the NBA-LIM programme was timely and critical for economic development in the country. 

Hon. Justice Esohe Ikponwen, Chief 

Judge of Edo State 

Oluwole Iyamu, Solicitor 

General, Edo State 

Theodora Kio-Lawson, Chair, Nigerian 

Bar Association Lawyers in the 

Media Forum 

Augustine Alegeh, SAN, Immediate 

Past President of the NBA 

Babatunde Irukera, Director General, 

Consumer Protection Council 

Dr. Job Odion, Acting Head, Dept 

Of Business Law, UNIBEN 

Hon. Justice Esohe Ikponwen, Chief 

Judge of Edo State 

Expounding the importance of the event, the 

state Chief Judge, Justice Esohe Ikponwen in 

her goodwill remarks said the theme of the 

roundtable “Consumer Protection and Economic 

Development: Need for Media Intervention’ 

was apt and thoughtful. 

She stated, “It is noteworthy that there are 

a lot of lawyers in the media now unlike in the 

olden days. We are happy at this development 

and we expect very high standards from every 

lawyer in the media. 

The CJ whose remarks was punctuated intermittently 

with applause from the audience, 

which, included law students and members 

of the academia in the state, observed that in 

recent times, consumers hardly ‘get good and 

quality representation in their cases’ in the 

law courts. 

This, she lamented was worrisome as such 

litigants who had paid for quality legal services 

often lose their cases. 

Against this backdrop, Justice Ikponwen 

eloquently said NBA-LIM had a responsibility 

to ensure consumers were well protected 

through enlightenment and adequate marketplace 

information. 

Oluwole Iyamu, Solicitor 

General, Edo State 

In his remarks, The State Solicitor- General, 

Oluwole Iyamu, who represented the State 

Attorney General, Prof. Yinka Omorogbe and 

Governor Godwin Obaseki, stated that if consumer 

protection was not given a pride of place 

in the society, the people would be victims of 

poor legal service delivery. 

“That is why this roundtable is important for 

the development of law, our economy and the 

society,” he added. 

Theodora Kio-Lawson, Chair, Nigerian Bar 

Association Lawyers in the Media Forum 

Earlier, in her Welcome Address, the Chair, 

NBA-LIM, Theodora Kio-Lawson informed 

participants that the LIM Forum was one of 

the specialist fora of the NBA, set up to drive 

policies that affect media practice and media 

practitioners in Nigeria.’’ 

She described the challenges of consumer 

protection in Nigeria as enormous, ranging 

from the abuse of consumers rights, to unsatisfactory 

customer services across sectors 

including banking, telecommunications, 

manufacturing, aviation, etc. This, she said 

was the reason for the forum’s partnership and 

engagement with stakeholders, policymakers, 

regulators, and the government; with a view 

to influencing change and development in 

the society. 

Her words “With an appreciation of global 

trends, a strategy for building strong media 

partnerships and institutions, and a commitment 

to serve, the LIM Forum is set to make an 

impact and bring about change in Nigeria.’’ 

Kio-Lawson was confident that the discourse 

which emanated from the roundtable 

not only brought to light critical issues and 

challenges in consumer protection but has 

proffered some vital solutions and will thus 

drive change. 

She added that LIM would work with the 

Consumer Protection Council (CPC) to create 

awareness for the passage of competition bill 

into law. 

Augustine Alegeh, SAN, Immediate Past 

President of the NBA 

In his In his welcome remarks, the ex-NBA 

President succinctly recounted the various 

challenges of Consumer Protection in 

Nigeria.“These issues range from inadequacies 

in electricity distribution across the country, 

billing systems, poor telecommunication services, 

and several shortcomings in the manufacturing 

sector, as well as the aviation industry. 

Alegeh believed that the discourse held at this 

roundtable ideas from the roundtable would 

the basis for transformation in some of these 

sectors and also “enable lawyers learn how to 

transform every potential cause of action into 

viable cause of action, when handling consumer 

protection matters.” 

Babatunde Irukera, Director General, Consumer 

Protection Council 

Director General of the Consumer Protection 

Council (CPC), Babatunde Irukera, who was 

the lead speaker, touched on the main theme, 

‘Consumer Protection and Economic Development: 

Need for Media Intervention’. 

He stressed the importance of consumer 

protection to economic development. 

According to him, adequate protection of 

consumer rights and interests would serve as 

veritable tool and catalyst that ultimately build 

confidence and affect consumption patterns in 

any economic environment. 

The DG further highlighted the impact of 

technology in economic development in the 

country, observing that “where there is no fair 

regulation, then there is bound to be problems 

in the system.” 

Irukera therefore urged the participants and 

members of the public to focus on the diversification 

of the economy in a bid to protect the 

consumers. 

Affirming that the CPC maintains an opendoor 

policy and always receptive to fresh ideas, 

he argued that the introduction of regulators 

in the market was the only way to sustain an 

emerging or existing market. 

Recounting scores of complaints on abuses 

of consumer rights, Irukera observed that instances 

ranged from defective products from 

manufacturers, to excessive bank charges being 

imposed on customers, and prolonged Doctors’ 

strike leading to loss of lives in hospitals’. 

“These challenges abound and I therefore 

urge members of the NBA Lawyers in the Media 

(LIM) Forum to partner with the CPC in order 

to put these issues in the front burner of public 

domain.” 

The DG hoped also that the NBA-LIM 

through its media intervention programmes 

would hold manufacturers, marketers, regulators, 

other key players; and the government accountable 

by virtue of their role as the watchdog 

of the society. 

Dr. Job Odion, Acting Head, Dept Of Business 

Law, UNIBEN 

Another speaker at the event, an Associate 

Professor and Acting Head of the Department 

of Business Law, University of Benin (UNIBEN), 

Dr. Job Odion, in his paper titled, “Best Practices 

for the Implementation of Consumer Protection 

Policies and Regulation in a Converging 

Environment’’ said consumer protection was 

very fundamental to the economy especially 

on the demand and supply side of the basic 

principles of Economics. 

He spoke about the operational and correlation 

of the theme “Consumer Protection 

vis-à-vis Economic Development” arguing that 

consumer protection itself being a contract 

between two or more parties, should not be 

dependent on the intervention of the State. 

Odion further stressed that consumers were 

entitled to quality goods and service and thus 

needed to be protected against unreasonable 

prices and the vagaries of the market forces 

in the economic environment. He predicated 

this submission on the premise that existence 

of consumer rights had necessitated the need 

to provide information to the consumers 

about certain goods and services to enable 

them make informed choices and decisions. 

To do otherwise, he argued, would amount to 

entrapping the consumers into a contract not 

anticipated. 

The speaker further x-rayed various approaches 

to enable lawyers enforce consumer 

protection regulations in the court, notably, 

contract –based remedy; product-based liability 

as enunciated in the locus of DONOGUE-V- 

STEVENSON, and however note that a claimant 

must also discharge the burden of proof on him 

by proving the particular acts of negligence 

complained of against the defendant. 

His words, “Lawyers should endeavour 

to navigate through the various approaches 

though remedies might not be readily available 

in the statute.” Odion further canvassed 

the strict liability rule to deal with this situation 

against an offending manufacturer. 

In summing up his presentation, he advocated 

as best practices, the passage of competition 

bill into law, in order to prevent cartels 

from dominating the market and determining 

the pricing trends in the economy. Maintaining 

also that only a competition law could cure the 

imperfections in the existing consumer protection 

law and the market system. 

Chinwe Odigboegwu, Head, Litigation 

And Dispute Resolution, Nigeria Bottling 

Company 

In her paper titled: Regulation and Legislation 

in the manufacturing Industry: Ensuring 

fair trade and consumer protection, the head, 

litigation and dispute resolution, Nigeria Bottling 

Company (NBC), Chinwe Odigboegwu, 

highlighted the exiting legal framework guiding 

consumer protection in the manufacturing 

industry. 

This, she said, included, Consumer Protection 

Act, Bill on competition law, SON Act, 

NAFDAC Act, Tobacco Smoking Control Act, 

and Manufacturing an Trade practices Act 

among others. 

Odigboegwu stated that while many complaints 

often made by consumers were frivolous, 

she listed some practical steps that could 

be applied to deal with the issues to ensure 

fair trade practices and consumer protection 

in the society. 

Echoing the thoughts of the earlier speaker, 

Dr Odion, the NBC Dispute Resolution Head, 

canvassed the need to improve consumer information 

awareness. She commended the quick 

intervention of regulators, such as the CPC, 

but nonetheless encouraged the use of ADR 

mechanisms for the resolution of consumer 

protection disputes, 

She said, “It is imperative to ensure that 

complainants exhaust the internal machineries 

available for dispute resolution, such as 

mediation, arbitration, etc., before resorting 

to litigation. 

“We also hope for some level of protection of 

manufacturers from frivolous and exaggerated 

claims and lastly, most importantly, more training 

for regulatory bodies,” Odigboegwu said. 

Seni Adio, SAN, Vice Chair, NBA Section 

on Business Law 

In his appraisal of the papers by the lspeakers, 

Seni Adio, SAN supported the recommendation 

of pre-action protocol by Chinwe 

Odigboegwu. 

He said the National Assembly should take 

note of this while considering the competition 

bill. 

On the other hand, Adio suggested that 

manufacturing companies that show themselves 

responsive by entering into dialogue with


INDUSTRYFILE 

LIM roundtable on consumer... 

C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 


23 

Chinwe Odigboegwu, Head, Litigation 

And Dispute Resolution, Nigeria 

Bottling Company 

Seni Adio, SAN, Vice Chair, NBA Section 

on Business Law 

Edosa Eghobamien, Chairman, Edo 

State chapter Institute of Strategic Management 

and CEO, Amena Academy 

PROF. AFEISIMI DOMINIC BA- 

DAIKI, Former Dean of Law and of 

Post Graduate School, Ambrose Alli 

University, Ekpoma 

Ifueko Alufokhai, Senior Special 

Adviser to the Edo State Governor 

on Sustainable Development Goals 

Prof. Nathaniel Inegbedion, 

Dean of Law, University of Benin 

(UNIBEN) 

consumers (with complaints) and arrive at fair 

settlement as being done in other jurisdictions, 

should be rewarded for such act. 

He however disagreed with Odion that strict 

liability should be applied against offending 

manufacturers or service providers. “I am of 

the view that even where such products are 

found defective, a claimant must establish his 

claim in order to secure a remedy,” the Senior 

Advocate said. 

Edosa Eghobamien, Chairman, Edo State 

chapter Institute of Strategic Management 

and CEO, Amena Academy 

Chairman, Edo State chapter Institute of 

Strategic Management, Edosa Eghobamien 

hinged the integrity of any manufacturer or 

service provider on the attainment of best 

practices in the industry. 

He said if this was religiously adhered to 

consumers would be adequately protected. 

He noted however that the impact of social 

media might adversely the efforts of some 

manufacturers and service providers towards 

attaining the best practices in the industry. 

PHOTOFILE 

FASHION & ENTERTAINMENT LAW EVENT 

The chairman, Air Peace Airline, Allen 

Onyema, represented by the company’s Corporate 

Communications Manger, the head of 

corporate communication Chris Iwarah said 

that despite obvious challenges besetting the 

aviation industry in the country, Air Peace had 

been responsive to the needs of its passengers. 

He however said that occasional flight delays 

being encountered might be due to regulatory 

factor and VIP movements, beyond the control 

of the airline. 

Iwarah went on to make a case for more 

dialogue among stakeholders, stating all the 

parties - regulators, consumers, manufacturers 

and government representatives would need 

to dialogue to resolve the issues in the aviation 

industry. 

PROF. AFEISIMI DOMINIC BADAIKI 

Former Dean of Law and of Post Graduate 

School, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, 

Prof. Afeisimi Dominic Badaiki adopted 

the arguments of Dr. Odion on why consumers’ 

actions might not succeed. 

He also supported the application of strict 

Photos from the maiden edition of Fashion, Entertainment & Law event organised 

by Olisa Agbakoba Legal in Lagos. 

From Left to Right are, Koye Sowemimmo, Head of sports, Temple Management 

Company; Beverley Agbakoba, Head, Regulatory & Compliance Practice, Olisa 

Agbakoba Legal and Samson Adamu, CEO, Kinetic Sports. 

liability rule because consumers are weak in 

the market place. 

He challenged NBA-LIM to explore section 22 

of the Constitution to justify media intervention 

on the issue. 

IFUEKO ALUFOHAI, Senior Special Adviser to the 

Governor on Sustainable Development Goals 

Ifueko Alufokhai, Senior Special Adviser 

to the Edo State Governor on Sustainable 

Development Goals, spoke of consumer 

protection awareness and the communication 

challenges faced by consumers. According to 

her, an average consumer was bereft of knowledge 

as to how best to get make complaints or 

even compensation for the violation of their 

rights. 

She called on regulators to work with groups 

such as the NBA Lawyers in the Media (LIM) 

Forum to do more in the area of awareness, 

while she urged manufacturers and service 

providers to develop a team of skilled personnel 

to respond timely to complaints. 

Prof. Nathaniel Inegbedion, Dean of Law, 

Photos from the recent Nigerian Bar 

Association (NBA) Lawyers in the 

Media (LIM) Quarterly Roundtable 

held in partnership with Alegeh & 

Co. in Benin City 

University of Benin (UNIBEN) 

In his brief intervention, Prof. Nathaniel 

Inegbedion, Dean of Law, University of Benin 

(UNIBEN) disagreed with his colleagues in 

the academia on the application of strict liability 

rule. 

He said, “If you apply this rule, you will 

be shutting out the manufacturers and that 

is not the objective of consumer protection. 

Their should be room for fair trade. While it 

may be easy to apply strict liability in criminal 

law, it cannot be so in consumer protection 

matters.” 

The NBA Lawyers in the Media Forum has 

been commended for this engagement and its 

timely intervention by stakeholders in the legal 

and business communities. 

Earlier, goodwill messages were received 

from various personalities including the Governor 

of Edo state, Governor, Godwin Obaseki, 

Chief Arthur Obi Okafor, SAN who was represented 

by Professor Ikpeazu, Mazi Afam Obi, 

the immediate past General secretary of the 

NBA and Paul Usoro, SAN, Founding Partner, 

Paul Usoro & Co. 

L-R, Adam Adedimeji, Ifueko Alufohai and Seni Adio, SAN 

LCA/CPPA Policy Dialogue on Evolution 

of Institutions in Nigeria 

Executive Secretary of the Consumer Protection Council (CPC), Babatunde 

Irukera with Augustine Alegeh, SAN 

L-R, Yemi Candide-Johnson 

SAN, President, 

LCA; His Majesty, 

Nnaemeka Alfred 

Ugochukwu 

Achebe, the 

Obi of Onitsha; 

Vivienne Edozie, 

Executive Secretary; 

and Babajide 

Ogundipe, 

Partner, Sofunde, 

Osakwe, Ogundipe 

& Belgore. 

DR. O. B. AKINOLA 

Chief Judge of Edo State, Hon. Justice Esohe Ikponwen (L) in a handshake 

with the Vice Chair of the NBA Section on Business Law, Seni 

Adio, SAN 

Augustine Alegeh, SAN (L) WITH Dr. Ogugua Ikpeze 

L-R, Douglas Ogbankwa Mobolaji Ojibara, former chairman, NBA 

Ilorin branch, Wumi Obabori, Vice Chair, NBA Lawyers in the Media 

Forum and Ede Asenoguan, chairman, NBA Benin Branch.

24 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556 Thursday 19 October 2017 

GLOBALREPORT 

IBA SPECIAL 

The 2017 Annual Conference of 

the International Bar Association 

(IBA), the largest gathering of international 

lawyers from all over 

the world has just ended in Sydney 

where several lawyers from Nigeria and various 

parts of the world gathered from October 

8 – 13, 2017 to discuss virtually every aspect 

of law and justice. This week-long event had 

more than 200 working sessions covering all 

areas of practice relevant to international legal 

practitioners. 

The Conference kicked off with the traditional 

opening ceremony on Sunday October 

8, 2017 at the International Convention Centre 

Sydney Theatre with a showcase of Australian 

performances by the Sydney Lawyers Orchestra, 

Yantri & Gavi, Wuruniri Aboriginal 

dance group and the Australian Girls’ Choir. 

Addresses were given by President, Martin 

Šolc, President, International Bar Association, 

Susan Keifel AC, Chief Justice of Australia 

and Senator the Hon George Brandis QC, 

Attorney-General, Leader of the Government 

in the Senate. 

In his welcome address, Martin Šolc, President 

of the IBA, had spoken of the opportunities 

for knowledge exchange at the IBA and the 

need to create and renew a global network of 

colleagues and business contacts. 

Šolc stated that long-held cherished societal 

and legal values are being challenged 

in today’s difficult times. He pointed to the 

French example, where anti-terrorist laws 

that would give police sweeping powers to 

arrest and detain without due process are 

compromising the rule of law. He therefore 

called upon delegates to speak openly and all 

legal practitioners to remember their hallowed 

responsibilities. 

“There will be exceptional showcase sessions 

presented by the LPD, SPPI, BIC and 

IBAHRI and the committee sessions will offer 

the chance to hear from the best experts in the 

field, benefiting all delegates, whichever your 

area of practice,” 

In her address, the Chief Justice of Australia, 

Susan Kiefel touched on the issue of 

independence of lawyers, and declared that 

those practicing must be able “to exercise independent 

judgment and the ability to act free 

from external pressures.” While the Attorney 

General of Australia, Senator George Brandis, 

spoke on the need to uphold the current global 

order, pointing out that the institution of nation 

states is under peril, as the global order 

faces its existential threats. 

He said, “Lawyers have a role to play, to 

ensure that those trends do not derail the rule 

of law. They must recognize their obligations 

to defending the pillars on which society itself 

is built, beyond their mere obligations to their 

clients. “Upholding the rule of law may involve 

…controversy, it may extend to the powerful, 

or to those thinking above the law, the marginalized 

or the despised. Lawyers who do so, 

serve the finest traditions of our profession.” 

At IBA Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) 

showcase session, tagged “WOMEN FIRSTS” 

chaired by IBA Human Rights Institute cochair 

Hans Corell, participants had examined 

laws which empowered or hindered the success 

of women across the globe. Speaking at 

this session, Baroness Helena Kennedy, made 

a case for women o stop self- deprecating, 

“Get into positions and make a difference,” 

she urged. While a former Justice of the High 

Court of Australia, Hon. Mary Gaudron made 

critical observations on the pay gap between 

men and women all over the world. “It is time 

to about euphemisms and call it what it is: 

discrimination, pure and simply,” she stated 

emphatically. 

Speaking at a session titled, Partnership – 

Time For A Change, the Chairman, Nigerian 

Bar Association (NBA) Section on Business 

Law, Olumide Akpata who was also at the 

conference spoke about sub-Saharan law 

President, Martin Šolc, President, International Bar Association 

Senator the Hon George Brandis QC , A ttorney-General, Leader of the Government 

in the Senate 

firms and how getting into a partnerships was still the best way 

to go for a fulfilling and rewarding career in the practice of Law. 

He noted however, that there was an emerging appeal of younger 

practitioners to go for the option of “in-house Counsel” as an accelerated 

path towards Partnership. 

“The desire for work-life balance and flexible career goals is 

also making many to choose the option of one-person Law Firm. 

Without a doubt, Partnerships will remain in the legal profession 

but perhaps not as we know it,” the business lawyer said. 

Another session on Lawyer’s Duty Of Confidentiality – Handle 

With Care, awakened the consciousness of lawyer to the dangers 

of cyber-crimes, cyber attacks and the impact of electronic crime 

in a law firm. It addressed the leakage of private information into 

public hands and increasing government scrutiny, and the role of 

lawyers in maintaining confidentiality in the wake of cyber-crimes 

has come under the spotlight. The need for lawyers and Law firms 

to be adequately prepared for cyber- attacks before such eventuality 

happens was further highlighted at this session. 

After the Opening Ceremony, delegates were taken on a boat 

from the International Conference Centre across the world famous 

Sydney Harbour to Luna Park, the venue for the Welcome Party. 

The Luna Park which is is at the foot of the Harbour Bridge offered 

conference delegates a stunning view of the Bridge, the Opera 

House and the Harbour itself. Was an awesome introduction to the 

most famous sights of Sydney. History has it 

that thePark was built in 1935 for the inhabitants 

of Sydney to celebrate the completion of 

the Harbour Bridge. 

Throughout the evening conferees were 

taken on a journey through the richness of 

the outback to the beauty of Bondi Beach 

with true Australian performances and culinary 

experiences throughout. 

The 2017 IBA Annual Conference in Sydney 

featured about 200 conference sessions. 

Most of these sessions organised by substantive 

committees cut across virtually every 

sector and practice area known to law. 

The IBA Annual Conference attracts many 

distinguished speakers who in recent years 

have included: Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary- 

General; Jose Maria Aznar, former President 

of Spain; José Manuel Barroso, former 

European Commission President; Fatou Bensouda, 

International Criminal Court Chief 

Prosecutor; Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former 

Secretary-General of NATO and Prime 

Minister of Denmark; Jeh Johnson, former 

United States Secretary of Homeland Security 

(2011-2017); Christine Lagarde, Managing 

Director of the International Monetary Fund; 

Loretta E Lynch, former Attorney General of 

the United States (2011-2017); Robert S Mueller 

III, former Director of the Federal Bureau 

of Investigation; and General Colin L Powell, 

former US Secretary of State. 


President, Martin Šolc, President, International Bar Association 

L-R: Secretary General of the Nigerian Bar Association, Olagunju Isiaka ; Secretary General 

of the International Bar Association, James Klotz; Senior Partner, Paul Usoro & Co, 

Paul Usoro, SAN, and the Chief of Staff to NBA President , Muritala Abdul-Rasheed, at the 

IBA conference in Sydney, Australia. 

L-R: Secretary General of the International Bar Association (IBA), James Klotz; President, 

Nigerian Bar Association, Abubakar Balarabe Mahmud SAN and Senior Partner, Paul 

Usoro & Co, Paul Usoro, SAN, at the IBA conference in Sydney, Australia. 

Law Rocks! 

As part of conference social events, 

Law Rocks! a series of ‘battle of the 

bands’ style rock concerts in which 

law professionals battle it out on 

stage for charity at legendary music 

concert took place at the Metro Theatre 

Sydney. The event, which dates 

back London, 2009 has held in various 

venues around the world, with 

the first IBA edition taking place at 

the Paradise Rock Club in Boston in 

2013. 

IBA Conference Feedback 

“The opportunity to rub minds and 

share ideas with members of the 

bar from across the world is always 

a welcome privilege and I particularly 

relished this year’s edition of IBA 

conference. 

This year’s IBA reinforced my position 

that the Nigerian bar is one of 

the most vibrant bar associations in 

the world with tremendous capacity 

and potentials. 

More Notes From The 2017 IBA Conference 

In Sydney 

“ 

Brexit will be more of a catalyst than driver in 

financial markets in the region. 

” 

PAUL YUEN 

Head of Market Conduct at the Monetary 

Authority of Singapore 

“ 

More banking jobs will be lost to artificial intelligence 

rather than to the sole event of Brexit.” 

Both Paul and Michael were speaking on a 

panel which examined how Britain’s exit from 

the EU will benefit financial markets in the 

Asia-Pacific region. 

“ 

MICHAEL DUIGNAN 

Senior Director of corporate finance at the Hong 

Kong Securities and Futures Commission 

“ 

With increased access to robotics and analytics, 

there are concerns about the impact of 

technology on access to justice so that it is 

not only big Law Firms that can access some 

of the best tools and commission programs 

while solo and small law Firms are left at a 

disadvantage. 

“ 

STEVEN RICHMAN 

of Clark Hill


C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

25 

LEGAL INSIGHT 

Samsung Verdict, Corporate Governance, and the Fight Against 

Bribery and Corruption: Five useful lessons for Africa (Part I) 

UCHE EWELUKWA OFODILE 

On August 25, 2017, 

Lee Jae-yong, vice 

chairman of Samsung 

Electronics 

Co. and the heir to 

the Samsung empire, was convicted 

of bribery and sentenced to 

five years in prison. Lee’s conviction 

immediately sent shockwaves 

throughout the corporate world. 

To put Jae-yong’s verdict in context, 

Samsung powers the South 

Korean economy and is, without 

doubt, South Korea’s greatest economic 

success. Samsung contributes 

about a fifth of South Korea’s 

gross domestic product. Most 

South Koreans eat, live and breathe 

Samsung. As Chico Harlan put it in 

a recent article in The Washington 

Post, “[s]o sprawling is Samsung’s 

modern-day empire that some 

South Koreans say it has become 

possible to live a Samsung-only 

life.” Harlan adds that in South 

Korea, Samsung “acts more as a 

do-everything monolith,” building 

roads and oil rigs, operating hotels 

and amusement parks, selling 

insurance, and making one of the 

world’s best-selling smartphones. 

According to Zahra Ullah, writing 

for CNNtech, in South Korea, Samsung’s 

businesses “reach deep into 

many parts of people’s lives, from 

the cradle to the grave.” 

What can countries in Africa 

learn from the Samsung verdict? 

This question is important because 

although some countries in 

Africa have stepped up their anticorruption 

efforts, few countries 

have succeeded in changing the 

culture of bribery and corruption 

in the continent. Furthermore, 

few countries have attempted to 

prosecute let alone convict business 

titans engaged in bribery or 

the public officials that accept the 

bribes. Moreover, penalties for 

bribery and corruption are generally 

weak in most jurisdictions in 

Africa and rarely reach corporations 

and other business entities. 

Rarely do judicial penalties consist 

of mandatory dissolution of a 

business, complete or partial cessation 

of a business operation, or 

disqualification of a business from 

receiving government-sponsored 

incentives, loans, and subsidies. 

Bribery undermines accountability 

and transparency in the 

management of public affairs, is 

a major impediment to sustainable 

development, and is a threat 

to national and continental security. 

According to Alexandra 

Wrage the founder and president 

of TRACE International, Inc., “[b] 

ribery undermines security when 

police, military, customs officials 

and border guards can be bought. 

Bribes are paid to ensure building 

inspectors look the other way, 

health officials approve unsafe 

products, toxic waste is disposed of 

inappropriately, and government 

contracts are awarded for inferior 

products at inflated prices.” According 

to Australia’s Attorney- 

General’s Department, foreign 

bribery “is a threat to democracy 

and the rule of law, corrosive of 

good governance and an impediment 

to economic development.” 

Bribery is not only bad for a 

country but is also bad for businesses 

and is particularly harmful 

to small- and medium-sized enterprises. 

Bribery introduces uncertainly 

and lack of predictability in 

the marketplace and increases the 

cost of doing business for everyone. 

Bribery can have a damaging 

effect on a firm’s reputation and 

frequently create regulatory headaches 

and significant legal risks 

for businesses. One study found 

that bribery negatively affected 

a firm’s operations across four 

dimensions of competitiveness: 

its external business relations, 

its interaction with regulators, its 

public reputation, and the morale 

of its employees. 

What can countries in Africa 

learn from the Lee/Samsung saga? 

Five lessons at least: 

• When it comes to fighting 

bribery and corruption, there 

should be no “sacred cows” whatsoever. 

No individual should be 

considered too big to jail and no 

business should be considered too 

big to fail. South Korea’s recent 

bribery scandal has brought down 

many of the country’s political and 

business elites and the very future 

of the chaebols – conglomerates 

that dominate South Korea’s 

economy – presently hang in the 

balance. South Korea’s first female 

president, Park Geun-hye, was 

impeached in December 2016, and 

has since been formally indicted 

on corruption charges. 

• The fight against bribery and 

corruption must go beyond tracing 

and recovering stolen public 

assets to prosecuting individuals 

and businesses that are implicated 

in bribery. In April, Shin Dongbin, 

chairman of Lotte Group, a 

South Korean conglomerate that 

consists of over 90 business units 

and employs over 60,000 people, 

was indicted on bribery charges. 

In June, Choi Soon-sil, a close 

friend and unofficial adviser of 

Park Geun-hye, was sentenced to 

three years in prison for corruption. 

Eike Batista, a Brazilian oil 

and mining magnate, is presently 

under house arrest (after spending 

two months in prison) and is 

awaiting trial for bribery. Batista 

will stand trial with Sergio Cabral, 

the ex-governor of Rio de Janeiro, 

who allegedly took $16.5million in 

bribes from the former billionaire. 

• Effective fight against bribery 

and corruption requires strong 

domestic institutions including 

stricter domestic and foreign 

bribery laws, effective corporate 

governance laws, strong and independent 

anti-corruption authorities, 

and a very strong judiciary. 

Anti-bribery law must be made 

to apply to companies, regardless 

of their corporate or legal 

form. Furthermore, civil liability 

should explicitly extend to the directors, 

officers, employees and 

agents of corporate entities who 

commit, participate, or aid in the 

commission of bribery. Laws currently 

used to fight the corruption 

scandal in South Korea include: 

the Act on Anti-Corruption and 

the Establishment and Operation 

of the Anti-Corruption & Civil 

Rights Commission, the Improper 

Solicitation and Graft Act, the Financial 

Transaction Reports Act, 

the Proceeds of Crime Act, and 

the Government Procurement Act. 

• It is not enough to promulgate 

laws criminalizing bribery. Bribery 

laws must be effectively enforced. 

In this regard, it is imperative 

that countries in Africa adopt 

legislative and other measures to 

create, maintain and strengthen 

internal accounting, auditing 

and follow-up systems as regards 

custom and tax receipts, custom 

administration, procurement, and 

the management of public goods 

and services. 

• Efforts to tackle bribery must 

go hand in hand with effects to 

address other systemic corporate 

wrongs including tax evasion, 

money laundering, insider trading, 

and other anti-competitive 

business practices. In the Samsung 

saga, Mr. Lee, along with four other 

Samsung executives, were charged 

on five offences: bribery, illegally 

transferring assets overseas, embezzlement, 

concealing criminal 

proceeds, and perjury. 

Countries in Africa must take 

the lead in efforts to stamp out 

bribery and corruption in the continent 

and must not depend other 

countries to prosecute their white 

collar criminals. A growing number 

of developing countries and 

emerging economies are stepping 

up their fight against bribery and 

corruption. Underway in Brazil is a 

sweeping corruption investigation 

that has yielded multiple convictions 

and has resulted in jail terms 

for many business and political 

titans in the country. 

Responsible businesses in Africa 

must take steps to identify 

and mitigate the risk of bribery 

and must implement credible antibribery 

programmes. Launched 

in 2003 by Transparency International 

and Social Accountability 

International, the Business Principles 

for Countering Bribery (Business 

Principles) assists companies 

in the design and implementation 

of effective anti-bribery policies. 

The Business Principles declares 

that “[t]he enterprise shall prohibit 

bribery in any form whether direct 

or indirect” and “shall commit to 

implementing a Programme to 

counter bribery.” Addressed to 

companies, the Organization for 

Economic Cooperation and Development’s 

Good Practice Guidance 

on Internal Controls, Ethics, and 

Compliance, offers useful guidance 

to companies desiring to 

establish effectiveness of internal 

controls, ethics, and compliance 

measures for preventing and detecting 

the bribery. 

Ultimately, the Samsung verdict 

teaches that it is never too 

late for a society to embark on an 

effective fight against corruption. 

Park Geun-hye is South Korea’s 

first democratically-elected president 

to be forced from office. In 

June, Brazil’s President Mechel 

Temer became the first sitting 

president in the country’s history 

to be indicted on multiple charges 

including charges of accepting 

millions of dollars in bribes from 

the chief of JBS, the world’s biggest 

meat processor. 

Professor UCHE EWELUKWA OFODILE, 

SJD (Harvard) 

E.J. Ball Professor of Law at the University 

of Arkansas School of Law

26 

BUSINESS DAY C002D5556 Thursday 19 October 2017 

Retail & Consumer Business 

Luxury Malls Companies Deals Spending Trends 

This jump in US retail sales and inflation isn’t what it seems 

Bloomberg 

Two important U.S. 

economic indicators 

due Friday probably 

posted a solid rebound 

in September. Rather 

than a sign the economy is gaining 

new-found momentum, the 

reports will show hurricanes Harvey 

and Irma are playing havoc 

with the data. 

Retail sales rebounded 1.7 

percent, the most since early 2015, 

after an August decline that was 

related to Harvey, according to the 

Bloomberg survey median ahead 

of Commerce Department figures. 

A replacement-driven surge 

in automobile purchases was a 

big part of the story last month, 

though economists project sales 

also recovered in the so-called 

retail control group that’s used to 

calculate gross domestic product 

and excludes food services, auto 

dealers, building-materials stores 

and gasoline stations. 

Inflation got a boost from rising 

Global Retail Update 

gasoline costs as Harvey forced the 

closing of Houston-area refineries. 

The consumer-price index 

rose 0.6 percent, the most since 

January, the Bloomberg survey 

shows ahead of Labor Department 

figures. 

Compared with a year earlier, 

the CPI is projected to rise 2.3 percent. 

Excluding food and energy, 

the core CPI probably advanced 

1.8 percent from a year earlier, its 

first acceleration since the start of 

2017, adding to signs of stabilization 

after a recent slowdown. 

In past years, the fallout from 

storm-related disruptions was 

reversed by rebuilding in following 

months. So it may well be early 

2018 before the swings dissipate 

from data ranging from employment 

and housing to construction 

and manufacturing. Beneath the 

September volatility, analysts say 

the reports probably will affirm 

that the economy and job market 

are making progress and inflation 

is moving toward the Federal Reserve’s 

goal. 

Store openings 

UK grocer Waitrose has 

opened its fourth shop 

in Dubai, as it continues 

its partnership in the 

Middle East with Fine Fare Food 

Market. Russian retailer Lenta 

continues its aggressive ambitions 

for growth, opening its thirty seventh 

supermarket in Moscow and 

another two in St. Petersburg to 

total twenty in the city. 

Ramping up 

Walmart has big plans to open 

30–40 hypermarkets in China every 

year including more compact 

hypermarkets. Japanese drugstore 

brand Matsumotokiyoshi will expand 

into Taiwan, after a survey 

showing its cosmetics are popular 

with consumers there. 

Facebook to deliver in USA 

The social media heavyweight 

has launched a food order and 

delivery service across America. 

Restaurants including Chipotle 

Mexican Grill, Jack in the Box and 

Five Guys have all partnered with 

the company, which announced 

its plans in this space a year ago. 

Focus on key banners in Europe 

X5 Retail Group will put all of 

its Moscow-based Perekrestok 

Express convenience stores up 

for sale as the Russian leader sees 

its main growth opportunities in 

proximity stores, supermarkets 

and hypermarkets. The group has 

just opened its first Karusel outlet 

(paywall) with a new foodservicecentric 

concept. 

Delivery debut 

Carrefour has introduced ‘Merci 

Voisin’ (Thanks, neighbour) in 

France. It is a delivery platform, 

which allows customers to have 

their online orders delivered by 

other shoppers. The retailer has 

also named former Fnac Darty 

manager Matthieu Malige as its 

new CFO, effective immediately. 

Lidl gears up 

The discount giant is creating 

500 new jobs in Britain when it 

will open its largest distribution 

centre in Peterborough, central 

England. It is part of its GBP 1.45 

billion investment in the country 

over the next two years. The new 

site is the retailer’s 15th warehouse 

in the UK. 

Increasing investment 

Germany’s Rewe Group wants 

to accelerate its efforts to modernise 

its store network and logistics 

as well as spending more 

on digitisation and training. The 

Cologne-based retailer will ramp 

up its investments to more than 

EUR 2 billion in 2018, says CEO 

Lionel Souque. 

Cost-cutting drives 

Loblaw is laying off 500 of its 

office workers but expects to create 

more jobs this year. The Canadian 

retailer is making major investments 

in omnichannel, financial 

services and other growing areas. 

Last week, fellow retailer Sobeys 

announced it would cut executive 

positions. 

The last mile 

Pittsburgh-based Giant Eagle 

debuts with home delivery in central 

Ohio and partners with Deliv 

to expand its click-and-collect service. 

Meanwhile, Amazon is working 

on a ‘smart doorbell service’ 

as well as on a solution for directto-trunk 

delivery in collaboration 

with plate maker Phrame. 

Privatisation on hold 

US department store chain 

Nordstrom has abandoned plans 

to take itself private this year, because 

of difficulties in arranging 

debt financing. The iconic company 

wants to restart the process 

of going private after the holiday 

season. Shares have dropped as 

a result. 

Looking beyond homes 

While Amazon’s Alexa and 

Apple’s Siri are fighting for dominance 

in the household market 

for voice-activated assistants, 

its Chinese competitor Alibaba 

wants to grow the footprint of its 

smart speakers in sectors such 

as retail, hotel and air travel industries. 

Considering options 

New Zealand-based T&G Global 

is mulling over a potential sale 

of its Enzafoods unit as it wants 

to focus on growing, sourcing and 

marketing fresh produce. Staying 

in the island state, meat-packing 

giant Hilton Food is set to invest 

EUR 33 million in a processing 

factory in Auckland. 

Good sport 

Speculation is mounting that 

Amazon is getting into sportswear, 

with the e-commerce giant reportedly 

speaking to a number of major 

activewear suppliers. The news 

has sent an already-tumultuous 

industry reeling, with the shares of 

many large sporting brands taking 

a tumble. 

How convenient 

A coalition representing nearly 

7,000 7-Eleven franchisees is suing 

its parent company for failing to 

fulfil its promise to treat franchises 

as independents. Wisconsin-based 

convenience chain Kwik Trip has 

taken control of 34 PDQ Food 

Stores across the state in a deal 

worth about US$ 14 million. 

Final chapter 

Woolworths has closed the 

book on its costly foray into home 

hardware, with the completion 

of its AU$ 830 million sale of its 

portfolio of ex-Masters properties 

to Home Consortium. It plans to 

convert the Masters stores into 

large format retail centres. 

Generous spirit 

Former Esprit chair Michael 

Ying Lee-yuen has transferred 

HK$ 900 million worth of shares 

to his two daughters, making them 

jointly the brand’s second-largest 

shareholder. In what could be the 

last Diwali sale for 2017, Flipkart 

and Amazon India are hosting 

four-day long festivals with discounts 

of up to 80%. 

Haves and have nots 

The European Commission has 

found further evidence of the alleged 

practice of dual food quality 

in Central Europe, reinforcing the 

view that the continent is divided 

into first and second-class consumers. 

LZ Retailytics points out 

that the often used ‘produced in 

Germany’ tag may now be more 

than post-communist hype. 

Fashion first 

Luxury brand Gucci is going 

fur-free from next year, bowing 

to pressure from animal rights 

activists and consumer demand. 

Zara UK has recorded its first fall 

in profits despite record sales. The 

company blames its extensive 

investment programme which 

includes store refurbishments. 

Compiled by Chinwe Agbeze


C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

27 

Retail & Consumer Business 

LG Electronics promotes lifelong learning in an Information Age 

The strength of any 

education system 

depends on how 

well a country executes 

its education 

policy plan and also on the 

extent to which it manages the 

interplay among them paying 

very close attention to equity. 

The right policy framework 

for the educational sector 

must be put in place by government. 

The bedrock of every society 

is built on a solid educational 

foundation which 

will guarantee a brighter tomorrow 

for teeming youths 

around the world. A wellrounded 

education is typically 

tied to the quality of a school’s 

available resources, assess a 

student’s progress and facilitate 

the learning process. 

It is important to create the 

right environment for learning 

to take place, LG perfectly 

understands the significance 

of an effective learning environment, 

that is why its HVAC 

systems which is aimed at 

creating the climate for education 

by reducing distractions, 

increase attention spans 

and boosting motivation for 

teachers and students alike is 

a welcome development. 

Education today embraces 

Information and Communications 

Technology (ICT) to 

offer flexible learning environments 

that are not possible 

in classrooms or other traditional 

learning spaces. Students 

of today can tailor their 

learning experience to how 

they best absorb new information 

and are free to access 

a wide range of educational 

resources to keep themselves 

intellectually engaged. 

LG has clearly shown its 

understanding of the principles 

of establishing air conditioning 

training academy in 

institution of higher learning 

across the world. This is in 

furtherance to the company’s 

strong belief in investing heavily 

in the future of tomorrow’s 

leaders who require all the 

necessary tools to live out 

their dreams. 

Taeick Son, managing director, 

LG Electronics West 

Africa operations, said: ‘‘The 

importance of education cannot 

be overemphasized in the 

life of every corporate entity. 

‘‘This is why we will go 

to any length to impact the 

educational with whatever 

we have at our disposal be it 

educational friendly products, 

educational grants and 

scholarship and what have 

you. LG is indeed committed 

to funding educational initiatives 

around the world.” 

It went further to offer free 

classes and vocational training 

to professionals in the 

industry; this has helped in no 

small measure in stirring the 

lives of students. The knowledge 

acquired from these 

training will no doubt help to 

create the much desired value 

in the students. 

“We will continue to support 

the educational sector 

with the required resources 

and equipment to encourage 

students on whose shoulders 

lies the future of any country,’’ 

Son said. 

The world has only become 

more inter-connected 

since 2005 with more innovative 

technologies being 

developed yearly are finding 

widespread applications in 

classrooms across the globe. 

LG has through its CSR 

activities continue to promote 

the interest of students by 

churning out student-friendly 

products. Accessibility to 

qualitative education has over 

the years received the attention 

of the company with particular 

interest in advancing 

the course of every student 

aimed at helping them attain 

their potential to the fullest. 

As part of LG Electronics 

Corporate Social Responsibility 

(CSR) activities with 

the sole aim of empowering 

young people as well as 

developing the educational 

sector, ensuring that youths 

who are the future leaders 

are adequately empowered 

with the required funds and 

assistance to enable them 

achieve their dreams and 

aspirations. LG Electronics’ 

partnership with the University 

of Lagos has been 

longstanding as the company 

has continually contributed 

to the growth and development 

of the university. 

LG’s portable projectors 

are excellent additions to 

the modern classroom with 

their ability to create an ideal 

environment for effective 

learning by keeping students 

engaged and improving 

information retention. 

A perfect use for students in 

the classroom is the Gram 

PCs, MiniBeam projectors 

which provide hassle-free 

convenience with an inbuilt 

battery, wireless connectivity 

that stands out from the 

competition. These products 

if fully embraced are capable 

of boasting intuitive capacity 

of the students necessary to 

revolutionize learning. 

LG Electronics has an 

outstanding record when 

it comes to CSR activities 

in and around Nigeria. On 

the whole, the company is 

committed to making a positive 

impact in the markets it 

enters. It believes in giving 

back to the communities 

it operates in and seeks to 

leave an indelible mark in the 

educational sector through its 

CSR initiatives. 

In a bid to address educational 

barriers, LG organized 

a Global IT challenge 

for Youth with disabilities 

(GITC) in collaboration with 

the Korean Society for Rehabilitation 

of Persons with 

Disability (KSRPD), aimed at 

giving those with disabilities 

more opportunities to utilize 

and access information and 

communications technology 

(ICT). With this initiative LG 

hopes to provide youths with 

disabilities the tools necessary 

to build a better future. 

Life below Poverty line 

How Nigerians are struggling to survive 

If you want to contact the writer of this story 

call: +234(0) 803 889 1567, +234(0) 802 223 8495. 

chinwe.agbeze@businessdayonline.com 

Motorcyclist needs help to pay for daughter’s surgery 

Name: Wasiu Jimoh 

State of Origin: Oyo 

Dependents: Five children 

Occupation: Motorcyclist 

I am a motorcyclist and 

a part-time vulcaniser. The 

business is profitable but 

my daughter’s sickness has 

emptied my pockets. My 

wife is a tailor but patronage 

has been very poor. 

What is wrong with 

your daughter? 

It all started in 2015. I 

got a call from my wife who 

lives in Ogbomoso, Oyo 

State with my children, that 

my 13-year old daughter- 

Sukurat was very sick. According 

to my wife, Sukurat 

fell ill in November 2015 

and my wife rushed her to 

the hospital. The doctor 

told my wife that Sukurat 

had typhoid but at a point, 

the doctor said he cannot 

handle my daughter’s case 

anymore. 

Wasiu Jimoh, motorcyclist and Sukurat Wasiu, his daughter 

My wife took her from 

one hospital to another and 

was told my daughter’s case 

was beyond them. When the 

hospitals started rejecting, 

my wife decided to notify 

me. 

So, I left Sango Otta, 

Ogun State for Ogbomoso. 

On arrival, I saw my daughter 

in a pathetic state. Her 

stomach was bloated like a 

pregnant woman. I sought 

advice from people and was 

directed to Lautech Teaching 

hospital Ogbomoso in 

Oyo state to see a doctor. 

A scan was done which 

showed that my daughter’s 

intestine had punctured 

and she was defecating inside 

her body instead of 

excreting through her anus. 

I deposited N100,000 and 

she was taken to Central 

hospital Aroje-Abaa, Ogbomoso 

where the surgery was 

carried out. 

So, what’s the problem 

now? 

Doctors have affirmed 

that my daughter is fine 

but they need to return her 

anus to the rightful position 

so she can excrete like 

a normal human being but 

sadly, I cannot afford to pay 

for the surgery. 

How much is the bill? 

The total amount given 

to me by Central hospital 

Aroje-Abaa for both the 

surgery and my outstanding 

bill from the previous 

surgery is N1.1million. 

Challenge: These past 

two years have been a terrible 

one for me and my 

entire family. My daughter 

who is just 13years old has 

been through hell and back. 

She carries this bag on her 

waist where her faeces are 

emptied. I want her internal 

organs returned to its 

rightful position so she can 

be normal again. The fact 

that I don’t have the means 

to make this happen is saddening. 

Analysts: Chinwe Agbeze, Stephen Onyekwelu

28 BUSINESS DAY Thursday 19 October 2017 

Harvard 

Business 

Review 

Global Business Perspectives 

CONNECTING THE WORLD ONE BUSINESS AT A TIME 

A Marine, a Machine and a $700 Million Fund 

It was 9 p.m., and about 60 

financial executives chattered 

nervously outside a 

barrack full of bunk beds at 

a United States Army training 

post in Fort Indiantown Gap 

in central Pennsylvania. 

They had come from New 

York, Toronto, Philadelphia and 

beyond, at the behest of Wesley 

R. Gray, an investment manager 

and former Marine Corps officer, 

to trek 28 miles through the 

mountains. 

“We are here to march for the 

fallen,” Gray shouted. 

He described the next day’s 

hike as a “haze ex,” Marine jargon 

for a hazing exercise, and 

distributed dog tags that had belonged 

to troops who had died 

in battle, ordering that they be 

worn on the march. 

In the cult-like world of machine-driven, 

systematic investing, 

chasing the latest philosopher 

king up a mountain counts 

as just another day at the office. 

Gray runs a $700 million asset-management 

company and 

has published three books about 

his conviction that quantitative 

investing is superior to the human 

variety. He has attracted 

an intense following among billionaire 

investors, pension funds 

and exchange-traded-fund junkies 

who reject the old Wall Street 

way of mutual and hedge-fund 

managers charging steep fees for 

mediocre returns. 

That the 37-year-old Gray 

was once an embedded adviser 

to the Iraqi Army, works out of 

a garage in suburban Philadelphia 

and uses the Marine Corps 

motto “Semper Fi” to sign off on 

emails has only added to his mystique. 

With its reliance on trading 

algorithms that replicate a wide 

range of investment strategies, 

Gray’s firm, Alpha Architect, represents 

the knife edge of perhaps 

the biggest trend in finance today: 

the replacement of human beings 

with machines and models. He’s 

up against some of the world’s 

biggest financial institutions, including 

the likes of Blackrock. 

Since his days studying finance 

in college, Gray has been 

trying to devise computer models 

that can unearth stock-market 

winners more efficiently than 

fund managers. The explosion in 

popularity of exchange-traded 

funds, which track market indexes 

while trading like a stock on a 

public exchange, has allowed him 

to put his theory to the test. 

Instead of a retail investor 

scratching his head over which 

fund manager might be best at 

picking value or growth stocks, 

Gray is promoting his own fleet of 

E.T.F.s that provide maximal exposure 

to these investment “themes” 

on the basis of his computer models. 

While traditional E.T.F.s track 

indexes, a new breed has a different 

goal: using machines to replicate 

what traditional fund managers 

do, minus the high fees and 

unreliable performance. 

“Everything we do is based on 

how we get rid of the human and 

how we program instead,” Gray 

said. 

By design, Gray’s funds are volatile. 

His algorithms target stocks 

that appear deeply undervalued 

or poised for explosive growth. 

Those are the same types of stocks 

that tend to be susceptible to violent 

price movements. 

His four funds’ records are 

mixed. An international value 

fund returned 30% during the past 

year. A momentum fund, though, 

was up by only 9% during the 

same period. By comparison, the 

Standard & Poor’s 500 index is up 

about 17%. 

The September trek is an annual 

event, organized by the Pennsylvania 

National Guard to honor 

fallen troops. For the past two 

years, Gray has used it as a venue 

for like-minded investors to gather 

in an unconventional setting. 

At 8 a.m. on the day of the hike, 

Gray was among a swarm of about 

500 civilians and enlisted personnel 

pushing up the mountainside. 

His group included a few clients 

and a collection of investment advisers 

and E.T.F. specialists who, 

beyond their shared interest in 

high finance, wanted to see if they 

could keep up with Gray. 

Gray was walking briskly, and 

he bore his 40-pound pack with 

ease. He is a compact, wiry man 

who wears his hair military-style 

short. He livens up long riffs on 

efficient-markets theory with persistent 

profanity. 

In contrast to his interviewer, 

his conversation was not interrupted 

by heavy breathing. 

Growing up on a ranch in Colorado, 

Gray had a gift for numbers 

as well as a desire to serve 

his country. In 2004, two years 

into a finance Ph.D. program at 

the University of Chicago, he enlisted 

in the Marines and became 

a ground-intelligence officer. In 

2007 he spent eight months fighting 

with Iraqi soldiers in western 

Iraq, an experience he detailed in 

one of his four books. 

He left the Marines in 2008 

and eventually landed a job as a 

finance professor at Drexel University. 

His academic writings focused 

on themes such as whether 

hedge-fund managers are any 

good as stock pickers: The answer, 

Gray concluded, was “not really.” 

In 2011 he fielded a telephone 

call from Edward J. Stern, son of 

the billionaire investor Leonard 

Stern. The younger Stern was responsible 

for investing the family 

fortune, and he had grown frustrated 

with humans as investors, 

having seen firsthand the losses 

his fund managers had racked up 

during the financial crisis. He was 

taken with Gray’s musings about 

building computer models that, 

in theory, would be cheaper and 

more efficient than paying high 

fees to a fallible hedge-fund hotshot. 

“He opened my eyes to the systematic, 

quant, get-the-humanelement-out 

style of investing,” 

Stern said. “It made a lot of sense 

to me.” 

After a few years of consulting 

with Stern, Gray persuaded him 

to seed a fund that would deploy 

these strategies with $20 million. 

Today his fund manages more 

than $700 million on behalf of 

pension funds and wealthy individuals 

and families. He is holding 

true to the sell-your-brain, 

not-your-product philosophy that 

got him started as an investor — 

churning out books, papers, blog 

posts and tweets. 

Alpha Architect bills itself as an 

educator first, promoting to the 

masses the merits of computer- 

driven investing. Gray says that, 

when he hires, the first thing he 

looks for are people skilled in explaining 

arcane financial topics to 

a broader audience, via white papers, 

podcasts and various forms 

of social media. 

In other words, don’t bother 

asking him how he markets his 

funds. 

“You know, there is this saying 

on Wall Street that products 

are sold, not bought,” he said. “We 

said, ‘Screw that. Our products are 

bought, not sold.’ In fact, we antisell. 

People call me up and I say, 

‘Hey, go read my book or this 50- 

page blog post.’” 

While he has attracted sophisticated 

institutions and multimillionaires 

to invest in his main 

fund, it remains unclear how successful 

he will be at persuading 

smaller, less-knowledgeable investors 

to purchase his E.T.F.s. 

His largest fund, U.S. Quantitative 

Value, launched in 2014 and 

still has assets of only $74 million, 

making it a minnow compared 

with other multibillion-dollar 

E.T.F.s. 

“They are not for everyone,” 

said Ben Johnson, an E.T.F. expert 

at Morningstar who participated 

in the march. Indeed, Johnson 

said, referring to the volatility of 

Gray’s funds, “you have to be willing 

to have your face ripped off 

from time to time.” 

In a way, it was that willingness 

that led 60 middle-aged finance 

professionals, and one senseless 

reporter, to march up and down 

mountains, with heavy packs, in 

80-degree heat — on a Saturday, 

no less. The hardier among us finished 

the course in eight hours. 

That group did not include 

Gray. He brought up the rear, 

cajoling the last of his followers 

to stumble across the finish line 

nearly two hours later. 

A good money manager, after 

all, never leaves a client behind. 

(Landon Thomas Jr. is a New 

York-based business reporter for 

The New York Times.) 

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


C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

29



GARDEN CITY BUSINESS DIGEST 

How Aba shoes dominate West African markets, now in Dubai 

- As PH-based investors group moves to upgrade Aba products with foreign partners 


Aba shoes and other 

leatherworks are about 

to join global brands to 

compete with the best 

on shoe shelves around 

the world. For now, the shoes dominate 

the West African market and 

are now a toast of the glamorous 

Dubai market, but the shoes are 

stamped ‘Made in Italy’. Now, a 

group based in Port Harcourt, the 

Rivers Entrepreneurs and Investors 

Forum (REIF) has concluded 

arrangements to upgrade the technology 

and materials base in Aba to 

churn out world class products that 

would proudly be stamped ‘Made 

in Nigeria’. This was exclusively 

disclosed to BusinessDay by the 

president of REIF, Ibifiri Bobmanuel, 

who just concluded a tour of shoe 

clusters around the world to find 

out what is lacking in Aba. 

REIF is a body of serious-minded 

entrepreneurs and investors 

located in Nigeria, made up of both 

Nigerian businessmen and foreign 

investors that are based in Nigeria. 

Initially it began in Port Harcourt, 

Rivers State, and many understood 

it to be a forum for Rivers Statebased 

entrepreneurs but now many 

have accepted the real concept and 

message that Rivers represents 

‘flow’ and waters. In this case, REIF 

is the body of business people who 

see the need to up their game, to 

increase production and boost the 

Nigerian economy. It represents the 

flow of businesses around Nigeria. 

It also represents the fact that shipping 

is the backbone of commerce 

and trade and this activity flows 

on water; be it the ocean, rivers or 

steams. On that note, REIF is now 

a nationwide body that caters for 

genuine businesses and investors 

around Nigeria. 

REIF has affiliates outside Rivers 

State. Trade groups affiliate with 

REIF and on that ground, they benefit 

from the advocacy role which 

leads to defending their group when 

threatened by obnoxious actions 

and laws by state of federal governments. 

They also benefit from 

investment openings discovered 

by REIF especially from its partnership 

with various international 

blocs such as the European Union 

REIF members (front row) flanked by leaders of Aba leatherworks in a meeting in Aba 

and the ECOWAS. REIF mobilizes 

entrepreneurs and investors in various 

regions of Nigeria and together 

they create better business and 

investment opportunities for their 

affiliates and direct members. 

REIF says it has taken the EU 

to Aba to see, inspect and assess 

the Aba Shoe and Leather Cluster 

called LEPMAAS. The immediate 

past EU ambassador to Nigeria 

and leader of delegation to the 

ECOWAS, Michael Arrion, visited 

Ariaria and saw things for himself. 

He said; “We in REIF can say that 

the EU is now fully committed to 

supporting the development of the 

Aba Shoe Cluster into a world class 

cluster to compete favourably with 

any other shoe centre in the world. 

The leather works groups spoke 

directly with the Ambassador and 

this motivated them. 

Hear Bobmanuel more; 

What the EU/REIF saw: 

The size of the Aba leather works 

centre is huge, over 17,000 workmen, 

well organized and departmentalized. 

This is added to over 

80,000 indirect workmen serving 

or supporting of deriving from the 

core leatherworks people. So, Aba 

offers over 100,000 in labour force 

in leatherworks alone. This means 

that you have a huge export potential 

there alone that gives Nigeria 

what it looks for in terms of foreign 

exchange earnings away from oil. 

This is what the nation may be 

toying with. 

In Aba shoe cluster, one section 

makes the souls, another makes the 

frame, another couples and sews, 

etc. Look, the finishing is world 

class and the designs are wonderful. 

What is lacking is quality. We 

have tested them and found that 

Aba shoes lack quality to compete. 

Another thing we discovered 

is that Aba shoes dominate the 

West African coast and are now in 

Dubai. Many shoes you see in these 

markets and in the almighty Dubai 

are made in Aba. The makers in Aba 

simply label them with Italian logos. 

We found that they want the world 

to think the shoes were imported 

from Italy. This told us that Aba 

shoemakers are hungry to compete 

with Italy and with the best in the 

world. We now surveyed it and 

found that what they lack is world 

class machines and materials to 

measure effectively with other shoe 

clusters in the world. 

What REIF is offering: 

In fact, it is the leadersship of the 

leather works that contacted REIF 

after the visit of the EU ambassador 

and his team. They wanted us to accommodate 

them and open them 

up to EU businesses and partnerships. 

We have made the second 

visit to perfect these initiatives. REIF 

also went to different leatherworks 

clusters in the world; Europe, US, 

and China to see what they have to 

offer that Aba needs. 

What REIF is offering is partnership 

that would bring down world 

class machines and materials to 

Aba entrepreneurs at a price that 

would help them (Aba) remain 

competitive both in quality and 

prices of heir products. We will bring 

in these machines and materials for 

test-running and see the difference 

they make in the final output. The 

products from this exercise would 

be tested very well. When satisfied, 

the foreign cluster that is chosen by 

the Aba cluster would become the 

agreed suppliers, and Aba would 

pay gradually and order fresh ones 

after retirement of old stock. 

Opportunities: 

This would make Aba leatherworks 

experts to proudly stamp 

‘Made in Aba’ on their products 

and these products would sit along 

products from other clusters around 

the world. This way, Aba becomes 

a brand that can be trusted and 

promoted by our embassies and 

international business partners. 

The next opportunity is transfer 

of technology. The partnership with 

foreign partners would gradually 

help improve the knowledge-base 

in Aba. The new machines would 

offer new challenges and they 

would overcome them, thereby 

acquiring fresh and updated technical 

knowledge. It would also put 

huge wealth in the hands of the 

over 100,000 persons involved in 

this industry in Aba. 

The most important aspect is 

that nobody would be left behind. 

We hear of other proposals that 

involve selection of 100 persons to 

be trained in a foreign country to 

be employed for mass production. 

The cluster leaders feel threatened 

that the new foreign company 

would throw them out of business 

with only 100 workers absorbed. 

We feel that the Aba shoe cluster is 

well organized and they have accumulated 

skills over the decades 

and nobody or government should 

destabilize that. Rather, whatever 

anybody wants to do should be 

to upgrade them and to eliminate 

those hindrances that make them 

not to be competitive in the international 

market. The danger of the 

100 trainees concept is that because 

they are not even from the core of 

the Aba leatherworks, they would 

go through the learning curve that 

the core has mastered an probably 

fall back in time. They may not 

progress to the level where the core 

shoe experts are today. 

Abia Govt: 

We made efforts to visit the 

state governor and lay our plans 

on the table but on the date of the 

appointment, it did not hold; no 

fault of ours. We believe that the 

state government should view the 

opening coming to Aba as a very 

serious one and therefore play 

background roles by providing 

the enabling environment such as 

roads, control of crime, electricity 

boost, tax harmonization, local 

council administration that works 

with the Ariaria leadership, etc. This 

should make any investor who steps 

into Aba or Ariaria from any part of 

the world to fall in love with the trade 

zone. This helps business a lot. 

National outlook: 

REIF wants to upgrade Aba 

leather products such that they 

would be some of the best in the 

world. This would target the Nigerian 

shoe demand which is estimated 

at one shoe per citizen per year for 

180 million Nigerians, making 180m 

shoes sold per year. These people 

are capable of making and selling 

20 million pairs per month. This 

is huge market. The moment one 

shoe can last between three and 

five years, we can then say Aba shoe 

centre has arrived. 

Since REIF is a nationwide body, 

we would use our contacts to open 

more markets for them around Nigeria. 

We have strong links with Aba, 

Kano, Kaduna, Lagos and the West 

for now, and we are expanding. This 

is important. 

International outlook and 

EPA: 

REIF has taken time to study 

the proposal from the EU called 

Economic Partnership Agreement 

(EPA) and our objection has reduced 

and even transformed to 

enthusissm. We find that there are 

many openings in the package that 

would promote local manufacture 

and export especially into the EU 

market. We think that if Aba products 

are improved to European 

standards, these products would 

lead the way to the partnership 

into Europe and the international 

market. 

There are many international 

brands that would bring down their 

production centres to Aba centre. 

Some will place massive orders for 

Aba products in their warehouses 

around the world. This is how business 

works. 

This is why REIF is supporting 

any discussion around West 

Africa that would help the business 

sector evaluate once again 

the EPA package and point out 

fears that can be eliminated to 

enable the package be adopted. 

All other West African countries 

have signed on. The only one 

left, Gambia, says the moment 

Nigeria signs on, their signature 

is automatic. This leaves Nigeria 

as the only nay-saying country 

in the ECOWAS bloc whereas 

Nigeria ought to take the lead 

and dictate the pace. 

If this is not done, other 

ECOWAS products would enter 

EU market at low or zero tariff 

while Nigeria’s would enter 

with up to 12 per cent rates. That 

would be a huge setback. 

Why would any gang massacre PH innocents? 

Port Harcourt by Boat 

With 


Mgbuosimini is the destination. 

It is a community 

in Port Harcourt 

close to the sea. The 

seafront is inhabited mostly by 

visitors other than the Ikwerre. Nigerians 

woke up last week Monday 

to hear that 12 persons had been 

massacred by a band that raided the 

waterfront. The Rivers State reacted 

angrily and mobilised the police 

to go on an immediate manhunt. 

Soon, eight persons were declared 

wanted and their photos displayed. 

The residents are still in fear. 

Police takes over the area in the 

evenings. Residents coming back 

from work a little late are frisked 

and questioned in many ways. The 

killers are gone; the innocents are 

facing the heat. 

The question on the lips of 

Mgbuosimini residents is why the 

massacre. Yes, killings have been 

going on in Rivers State but the motive 

in each killing is usually easy to 

see; often rivalry or revenge killing. 

For the massacre, what did babies do, 

what did pregnant women do, what 

did sleeping partners do? What did 

strangers from different parents of 

Nigeria do? 

What is known is that there was a 

revenue collection rights rift. In Rivers 

State, whichever gang that captures 

power in any community begins to 

lord it over everyone especially right 

over revenue collection; collection 

levies from Keke people and others. 

This is why most gangs seek political 

relevance so as to belong to the winning 

side. 

It was gathered that a man in 

charge of collecting levies was asked 

to stop for another group to take over. 

He allegedly objected and at last 

threatened that they would see. The 

next thing, two persons were killed on 

Thursday last two weeks. 

While all eyes were on him, 

just the next Monday morning, 

a gang came by sea and attacked 

those living along the waters. A 

man noticed that armed men 

were jumping into his compound 

and called the gateman who 

whispered that he too had seen 

them and that he was hiding. The 

man locked his doors well but one 

burst of AK-47 and the doors shattered. 

The gang went from house 

to house killing people; men, 

women, children. They met a 

man with his wife, killed both. The 

three-month old baby was found 

suckling the late mother’s breasts 

in a pool of blood. Another man 

was killed but his wife had gone to 

see her parents and so lives. 

The strange thing is that they 

victims were all strangers: Ogoni, 

Calabar/Akwa Ibom, Igbo, Hausa, 

Delta, etc. Some residents ask if nonindigenes 

were no longer wanted 

in that part of the city. The kind of 

persons that wee killed were no cult 

people and were not in any contention 

for power or revenue collection. 

They too were victims of the law and 

oppressed people. The man who 

made threats is said to be nowhere to 

be found, but may say he may have no 

links with the massacre because the 

victims were not his problem. 

Killings may have been taking 

place but unraveling the motive 

behind this dastardly massacre is important 

for the public. The police owes 

this much to the masses, even if they 

do not end up capturing the killers. 

They will catch them, so long as they 

were able to catch the rapist/murderer, 

Dike of Uniport.


C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

31



C002D5556 

Live @ the Stock exchange 

Prices for Securities Traded as of Wednesday 18 October 2017 

Company 

Company 

Market cap(nm) Price (N) Change Trades Volume Market cap(nm) Price (N) Change Trades Volume 

PRICES FOR MAIN BOARD SECURITIES (Equities) 

BANK 

ZENITH INTERNATIONAL BANK PLC 826,041.75 26.31 -0.53 313 13,611,865 

313 13,611,865 

OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS 

FBN HOLDINGS PLC 217,525.47 6.06 -0.66 197 9,706,799 

197 9,706,799 

510 23,318,664 

BUILDING MATERIALS 

DANGOTE CEMENT PLC 3,748,911.63 220.00 - 24 36,299 

24 36,299 

24 36,299 

534 23,354,963 

CROP PRODUCTION 

FTN COCOA PROCESSORS PLC 1,100.00 0.50 - 0 0 

OKOMU OIL PALM PLC. 62,004.15 65.00 - 29 27,454 

PRESCO PLC 68,000.00 68.00 0.74 15 925,712 

44 953,166 

FISHING/HUNTING/TRAPPING 

ELLAH LAKES PLC. 511.20 4.26 - 0 0 

0 0 

LIVESTOCK/ANIMAL SPECIALTIES 

LIVESTOCK FEEDS PLC. 2,670.00 0.89 -2.20 14 812,125 

14 812,125 

58 1,765,291 

DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIES 

A.G. LEVENTIS NIGERIA PLC. 1,456.01 0.55 - 6 119,406 

JOHN HOLT PLC. 198.47 0.51 - 2 2,710 

S C O A NIG. PLC. 2,111.93 3.25 - 1 335 

TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION OF NIGERIA PLC 57,326.44 1.41 -4.73 131 10,635,010 

U A C N PLC. 32,558.65 16.95 - 39 316,162 

179 11,073,623 

179 11,073,623 

BUILDING CONSTRUCTION 

ARBICO PLC. 711.32 4.79 - 0 0 

0 0 

INFRASTRUCTURE/HEAVY CONSTRUCTION 

JULIUS BERGER NIG. PLC. 38,715.60 29.33 - 12 34,770 

ROADS NIG PLC. 165.00 6.60 - 0 0 

12 34,770 

REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT 

UACN PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT CO. LIMITED 7,119.60 2.74 - 9 56,899 

9 56,899 

REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUSTS (REITS) 

SKYE SHELTER FUND PLC 2,000.00 100.00 - 0 0 

UNION HOMES REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST (REIT) 11,305.89 45.22 - 0 0 

UPDC REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST 26,682.70 10.00 - 0 0 

0 0 

21 91,669 

AUTOMOBILES/AUTO PARTS 

DN TYRE & RUBBER PLC 2,386.33 0.50 - 1 3,120 

1 3,120 

BEVERAGES--BREWERS/DISTILLERS 

CHAMPION BREW. PLC. 19,338.86 2.47 -3.52 12 137,426 

GOLDEN GUINEA BREW. PLC. 242.22 0.89 - 0 0 

GUINNESS NIG PLC 152,094.71 101.00 0.25 51 1,293,272 

INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES PLC. 145,968.19 44.31 - 25 36,167 

NIGERIAN BREW. PLC. 1,288,478.89 162.50 0.30 45 110,034 

133 1,576,899 

BEVERAGES--NON-ALCOHOLIC 

7-UP BOTTLING COMP. PLC. 57,653.13 90.00 - 8 11,532 

8 11,532 

FOOD PRODUCTS 

DANGOTE FLOUR MILLS PLC 34,400.00 6.88 -0.43 78 1,117,076 

DANGOTE SUGAR REFINERY PLC 171,000.00 14.25 0.64 142 10,656,445 

FLOUR MILLS NIG. PLC. 76,627.73 29.20 -2.67 63 444,073 

HONEYWELL FLOUR MILL PLC 15,860.40 2.00 - 5 37,720 

MULTI-TREX INTEGRATED FOODS PLC 1,861.25 0.50 - 0 0 

N NIG. FLOUR MILLS PLC. 1,028.21 5.77 - 1 1,000 

NASCON ALLIED INDUSTRIES PLC 34,972.59 13.20 -4.69 30 541,811 

UNION DICON SALT PLC. 3,676.41 13.45 - 0 0 

319 12,798,125 

FOOD PRODUCTS--DIVERSIFIED 

CADBURY NIGERIA PLC. 19,157.66 10.20 - 45 302,945 

NESTLE NIGERIA PLC. 951,187.50 1,200.00 - 32 45,105 

77 348,050 

HOUSEHOLD DURABLES 

NIGERIAN ENAMELWARE PLC. 1,766.22 23.23 - 0 0 

VITAFOAM NIG PLC. 2,814.40 2.70 -1.10 20 402,819 

20 402,819 

PERSONAL/HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS 

P Z CUSSONS NIGERIA PLC. 95,291.45 24.00 - 22 109,645 

UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC. 166,465.04 44.00 - 39 145,536 

61 255,181 

619 15,395,726 

BANKING 

ACCESS BANK PLC. 274,815.73 9.50 -2.16 255 20,539,706 

DIAMOND BANK PLC 25,476.43 1.10 1.85 68 11,864,480 

ECOBANK TRANSNATIONAL INCORPORATED 322,768.61 17.59 2.21 33 1,150,939 

FIDELITY BANK PLC 42,882.70 1.48 0.68 197 19,742,939 

GUARANTY TRUST BANK PLC. 1,227,280.17 41.70 0.02 156 37,055,624 

JAIZ BANK PLC 20,624.97 0.70 2.94 13 485,002 

SKYE BANK PLC 6,940.15 0.50 - 26 2,510,606 

STERLING BANK PLC. 28,790.42 1.00 -0.99 335 26,892,114 

UNION BANK NIG.PLC. 102,122.91 6.03 2.20 52 2,553,992 

UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA PLC 309,846.76 9.06 -1.52 190 7,035,985 

UNITY BANK PLC 6,312.24 0.54 - 5 221,280 

WEMA BANK PLC. 19,287.23 0.50 - 2 185,117 

1,332 130,237,784 

INSURANCE CARRIERS, BROKERS AND SERVICES 

AFRICAN ALLIANCE INSURANCE COMPANY PLC 10,292.50 0.50 - 1 400,000 

AIICO INSURANCE PLC. 4,088.82 0.59 1.72 15 495,754 

AXAMANSARD INSURANCE PLC 26,040.00 2.48 - 11 73,400 

CONSOLIDATED HALLMARK INSURANCE PLC 3,000.00 0.50 - 0 0 

CONTINENTAL REINSURANCE PLC 14,729.30 1.42 - 5 53,200 

CORNERSTONE INSURANCE COMPANY PLC. 7,364.75 0.50 - 0 0 

EQUITY ASSURANCE PLC. 7,000.00 0.50 - 0 0 

GOLDLINK INSURANCE PLC 2,411.47 0.53 - 0 0 

GREAT NIGERIAN INSURANCE PLC 1,913.74 0.50 - 0 0 

GUINEA INSURANCE PLC. 3,070.00 0.50 - 0 0 

INTERNATIONAL ENERGY INSURANCE COMPANY PLC 642.04 0.50 - 1 200 

LASACO ASSURANCE PLC. 3,661.72 0.50 - 0 0 

LAW UNION AND ROCK INS. PLC. 3,308.17 0.77 -4.94 3 118,000 

LINKAGE ASSURANCE PLC 7,040.00 0.88 - 4 56,548 

MUTUAL BENEFITS ASSURANCE PLC. 4,000.00 0.50 - 0 0 

N.E.M INSURANCE CO (NIG) PLC. 7,128.68 1.35 -2.88 13 289,724 

NIGER INSURANCE CO. PLC. 3,869.74 0.50 - 0 0 

PRESTIGE ASSURANCE CO. PLC. 2,759.15 0.50 - 0 0 

REGENCY ALLIANCE INSURANCE COMPANY PLC 3,334.38 0.50 - 0 0 

SOVEREIGN TRUST INSURANCE PLC 4,170.41 0.50 - 2 1,000 

STANDARD ALLIANCE INSURANCE PLC. 6,455.52 0.50 - 0 0 

STANDARD TRUST ASSURANCE PLC 4,670.54 0.50 - 2 1,000 

UNIC DIVERSIFIED HOLDINGS PLC. 1,291.15 0.50 - 0 0 

UNITY KAPITAL ASSURANCE PLC 6,933.33 0.50 - 0 0 

UNIVERSAL INSURANCE COMPANY PLC 8,000.00 0.50 - 0 0 

WAPIC INSURANCE PLC 6,691.37 0.50 - 42 1,319,137 

99 2,807,963 

MICRO-FINANCE BANKS 

FORTIS MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 11,799.67 2.58 - 0 0 

NPF MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 2,949.76 1.29 - 7 53,790 

7 53,790 

MORTGAGE CARRIERS, BROKERS AND SERVICES 

ABBEY MORTGAGE BANK PLC 5,460.00 1.30 - 0 0 

ASO SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC 7,370.87 0.50 - 0 0 

INFINITY TRUST MORTGAGE BANK PLC 6,005.46 1.44 - 0 0 

RESORT SAVINGS & LOANS PLC 5,664.87 0.50 - 0 0 

UNION HOMES SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC. 2,949.22 3.02 - 0 0 

0 0 

OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS 

AFRICA PRUDENTIAL PLC 7,400.00 3.70 0.27 84 3,227,209 

CUSTODIAN AND ALLIED PLC 21,586.44 3.67 4.86 11 77,200 

DEAP CAPITAL MANAGEMENT & TRUST PLC 750.00 0.50 - 1 200 

FCMB GROUP PLC. 21,188.90 1.07 -0.93 56 2,393,273 

NIGERIA ENERYGY SECTOR FUND 411.91 552.20 - 0 0 

ROYAL EXCHANGE PLC. 2,572.69 0.50 - 0 0 

SIM CAPITAL ALLIANCE VALUE FUND 3,313.67 103.24 - 0 0 

STANBIC IBTC HOLDINGS PLC 432,000.00 43.20 - 15 52,647 

UNITED CAPITAL PLC 18,660.00 3.11 -0.32 50 777,077 

217 6,527,606 

1,655 139,627,143 

HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS 

EKOCORP PLC. 1,680.29 3.37 - 0 0 

UNION DIAGNOSTIC & CLINICAL SERVICES PLC 1,776.57 0.50 - 0 0 

0 0 

MEDICAL SUPPLIES 

MORISON INDUSTRIES PLC. 95.87 0.63 - 0 0 

0 0 

PHARMACEUTICALS 

EVANS MEDICAL PLC. 366.17 0.50 - 0 0 

FIDSON HEALTHCARE PLC 5,130.00 3.42 -2.29 12 159,410 

GLAXO SMITHKLINE CONSUMER NIG. PLC. 27,684.54 23.15 4.99 12 113,757 

MAY & BAKER NIGERIA PLC. 2,773.40 2.83 -1.06 40 539,936 

NEIMETH INTERNATIONAL PHARMACEUTICALS PLC 1,070.43 0.62 - 3 26,600 

NIGERIA-GERMAN CHEMICALS PLC. 556.71 3.62 - 0 0 

PHARMA-DEKO PLC. 487.85 2.25 - 3 2,430 

70 842,133 

70 842,133 

COMPUTER BASED SYSTEMS 

COURTEVILLE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS PLC 1,776.00 0.50 - 1 200 

1 200 

COMPUTERS AND PERIPHERALS 

OMATEK VENTURES PLC 1,470.89 0.50 - 0 0 

0 0 

IT SERVICES 

CWG PLC 6,413.06 2.54 - 0 0 

NCR (NIGERIA) PLC. 716.04 6.63 - 1 100 

TRIPPLE GEE AND COMPANY PLC. 524.65 1.06 - 0 0 

1 100 

PROCESSING SYSTEMS 

CHAMS PLC 2,348.03 0.50 - 0 0 

E-TRANZACT INTERNATIONAL PLC 21,000.00 5.00 - 0 0 

0 0 

2 300 

BUILDING MATERIALS 

AFRICAN PAINTS (NIGERIA) PLC. 865.88 2.35 - 0 0 

BERGER PAINTS PLC 2,086.73 7.20 - 3 3,085 

CAP PLC 22,750.00 32.50 - 16 31,311 

CEMENT CO. OF NORTH.NIG. PLC 12,164.64 9.68 - 8 79,568 

FIRST ALUMINIUM NIGERIA PLC 1,097.39 0.52 - 2 5,000 

LAFARGE AFRICA PLC. 307,468.78 56.00 - 61 557,498 

MEYER PLC. 355.93 0.67 - 0 0 

PAINTS AND COATINGS MANUFACTURES PLC 467.82 0.59 - 0 0 

PORTLAND PAINTS & PRODUCTS NIGERIA PLC 1,666.17 2.10 - 3 36,978 

PREMIER PAINTS PLC. 1,277.97 10.39 - 0 0 

93 713,440 

ELECTRONIC AND ELECTRICAL PRODUCTS 

AUSTIN LAZ & COMPANY PLC 2,256.91 2.09 - 0 0 

CUTIX PLC. 1,937.45 2.20 9.09 26 1,162,129 

26 1,162,129 

PACKAGING/CONTAINERS 

BETA GLASS PLC. 28,423.41 56.85 - 2 8,683 

GREIF NIGERIA PLC 387.60 9.09 - 0 0 

2 8,683 

121 1,884,252 

CHEMICALS 

B.O.C. GASES PLC. 1,573.40 3.78 - 1 19,114 

1 19,114 

METALS 

ALUMINIUM EXTRUSION IND. PLC. 2,124.77 9.66 - 0 0 

0 0 

MINING SERVICES 

MULTIVERSE MINING AND EXPLORATION PLC 2,130.97 0.50 - 1 200 

1 200 

PAPER/FOREST PRODUCTS 

THOMAS WYATT NIG. PLC. 110.00 0.50 - 0 0 

0 0 

2 19,314 

ENERGY EQUIPMENT AND SERVICES 

JAPAUL OIL & MARITIME SERVICES PLC 3,131.35 0.50 - 1 12,000 

1 12,000 

INTEGRATED OIL AND GAS SERVICES 

OANDO PLC 74,464.16 5.99 - 0 0 

0 0 

PETROLEUM AND PETROLEUM PRODUCTS DISTRIBUTORS 

11 PLC 56,919.96 157.85 - 29 24,520 

CONOIL PLC 19,430.66 28.00 - 13 36,538 

ETERNA PLC. 4,525.38 3.47 -0.86 15 232,823 

FORTE OIL PLC. 62,519.09 48.00 - 63 227,571 

MRS OIL NIGERIA PLC. 6,974.53 27.46 - 11 28,042 

TOTAL NIGERIA PLC. 83,322.05 245.41 -3.00 16 44,106 

147 593,600 

EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION 

SEPLAT PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT COMPANY LTD 270,453.39 480.00 - 5 21,105 

5 21,105 

153 626,705 

ADVERTISING 

AFROMEDIA PLC 2,219.52 0.50 - 0 0 

0 0 

AIRLINES 

MEDVIEW AIRLINE PLC 14,820.99 1.52 - 1 200 

1 200 

AUTOMOBILE/AUTO PART RETAILERS 

R T BRISCOE PLC. 588.18 0.50 - 0 0 

0 0 

COURIER/FREIGHT/DELIVERY 

RED STAR EXPRESS PLC 2,923.90 4.96 - 6 17,614 

TRANS-NATIONWIDE EXPRESS PLC. 157.07 0.79 - 1 3,000 

7 20,614 

HOSPITALITY 

TANTALIZERS PLC 1,605.81 0.50 - 0 0 

0 0


Apapa gridlock: 70% of trucks carry empty containers 

JOSHUA BASSEY & AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE 

As the search for solution 

to the notorious Apapa 

traffic gridlock continues, 

stakeholders have 

pointed out that over 

70 percent of the trucks waiting on 

the roads daily, convey empty containers, 

and that removing them 

would go a long way to resolving 

the problem. 

The stakeholders further observe 

that truckers convey empty 

containers with a view to avoiding 

penalties and demurrage imposed 

on them in the event of failure or 

delay to return empty containers 

to the ports. 

This revelation comes as Hadiza 

Bala-Usman, managing director of 

the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) 

confirmed plans to BusinessDay, 

to reach out to willing private investors 

to develop truck holding-bays 

through a Public Private Partnership 

(PPP) arrangement, to facilitate 

the introduction of an effective 

call-up system which would allow 

only the trucks cleared to come 

forward, to enter the ports. 

The stakeholders who met in 

Lagos, said it was improper for 

cargo owners to be responsible 

for returning empty containers. 

They said this task should be the 

responsi bility of the shipping 

companies. 

They further blamed the situation 

on the failure of the NPA and 

the Nigerian Shippers’ Council 

(NSC) to get registered shipping 

companies to provide holdingbays 

for their empty containers 

outside the ports, from where such 

containers can then be moved in 

an orderly manner (preferably at 

night) to the ports. 

Presently, importers are mandated 

to pay Container Deposit 

Charges to shipping companies, as 

an indemnity to cover for the cost 

of the empty container, in the event 

of loss or not being able to return, 

and the imposition of demurrage 

in the event of late return of the 

empty containers. 

They also faulted the concessioning 

of Federal Government 

owned truck terminals and holding-bays, 

including Lily Pond, AME 

Truck Terminal and Jakande Truck 

Park, to private uses. 

The stakeholders, in a document 

obtained by BusinessDay, said “The 

NPA and NSC, being the regulatory 

bodies, must enforce the dropping 

of empty containers in holdingbays”, 

noting that “only shipping 

companies should be allowed to 

bring empty containers from their 

holding bays into the ports.” 

They also agreed that shipping 

companies must get approval in 

advance, from the NPA and port 

managers, through operators at 

Apapa and Tin-can Island Ports, for 

the number of containers expected 

into the port on a daily basis. 

The document was endorsed by 

Anofi Elegushi, Lagos State acting 

commissioner for transportation, 

Elijah Adele, chairman, Apapa Local 

Government, Godwin Eke, federal 

controller of works, and representatives 

of the NPA, NIMASA, 

Federal Road Safety Commission 

and the Nigeria Police Force and 

other stakeholders. 

They noted that all tank farm 

operators should also provide 

holding-bays for their trucks, and 

henceforth “terminal operators 

issuing Equipment Interchange 

Report (EIR) must indicate the 

destination point outside the port, 

for the return of empty containers.” 

While agreeing to the restriction 

of truck movement to Ogere 

Truck Terminal in Ogun State, the 

stakeholders in the document, also 

agreed to open a discussion with 

the Ogun State Government, for 

the provision of a larger expanse of 

land to accommodate more trucks. 

Meanwhile, the NPA said it 

would not be constructing any 

holding-bay or trailer garage. Rather, 

the authority will be granting licenses 

to operators of holding-bays 

using a call-up system that would 

be domiciled in the NPA. 

Hadiza Bala-Usman, managing 

director of NPA, responding 

to enquiry from BusinessDay on 

how to decongest Apapa, said 

that the authority was planning to 

invite private investors to build and 

run trailer parks, using the Public 

Private Partnership (PPP) model. 

“We call on the private sector to 

develop holding-bays and trailer 

garages, and then obtain licenses 

from the NPA, to enable the trucks 

that are parked in their garages 

to gain access to the nation’s seaports. 

This will enable the NPA to 

use the call-up system to control 

the movement of trucks from the 

holding-bay to the ports,” she said. 

According to her, the NPA has 

taken over the initial plans which 

the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) 

started with an entity that got World 

Bank funding to develop trailer garages 

using the call-up system. 

“The challenge we had with that 

plan was that the company submitted 

a very skeletal document, without 

being able to draw an outline 

business case for the project. The 

promoters insisted that drawing 

an outline business case with 

financials, would be selling very 

confidential information, which 

was unacceptable,” Hadiza stated. 

She further said: “The outline 

C002D5556 

…as NPA to engage private investors to develop holding-bays 

business case is a mandatory requirement 

for the Infrastructure 

Concession Regulatory Commission 

(ICRC), to grant approval for 

any form of Public Private Partnership 

(PPP). NPA was forced to wait 

for the company for six months, 

without any meaningful result and 

this is why we are now looking at the 

option of issuing operating licenses.” 

She further disclosed that the 

authority would be streamlining 

the requirements expected in a 

standard trailer park, including the 

level of IT deployment that must 

be in it. “If we have five licensees 

that would build trailer parks, NPA 

would permit them to leave the 

call-up system with us for effective 

traffic management. 

Remi Ogungbemi, chairman, 

Association of Maritime Truck 

Owners (AMATO), said that having 

an effective traffic management 

system in Apapa, involves building 

standard holding-bay and truck 

parks which would make use of 

electronic call-up systems for all 

trucks coming to the Apapa and 

Tin-Can Island Ports. 

Ogungbemi, who solicited the 

support of the NSC and NPA to 

enable its association secure a 

park worth billions of naira in Orile 

Igamu area of Lagos State, said that 

the facility is located 2-3 kilometers 

away from the two major seaports 

in Apapa and has the capacity to 

accommodate 1,500 trucks. 

L-R: Pat Utomi, chairman of the occasion; Godwin Ehigiamusoe, founder, Lift Above Poverty Organisation 

(LAPO), and Adim Jibunoh, president/CEO, Transcorp plc, representing Tony Elumelu, keynote speaker, at 

the 24th annual LAPO development forum, with the theme, Galvanising SMEs for Inclusive Development in 

Lagos. 

Pic by Pius Okeosisi 

BUSINESS DAY 

33 

NEWS 

Ownership battle: SEC... 


and representatives of Concerned 

Shareholders of Oando Plc, Nigeria 

and Proactive Shareholders 

Association. 

Tony Nwulu, deputy chairman, 

House Committee on Capital 

Market and other Institutions, had 

threatened that the Committee 

would be compelled to conduct 

open investigative public hearing 

if the Commission fails to resolve 

and reconcile the parties within 

the timeline. 

Some shareholders had written 

a six-page petition to the Committee, 

frowning at the purported 

flagrant disregard for corporate 

governance, and insider abuse. 

Olufemi Timothy, President, 

Renaissance Stakeholders Association 

of Nigeria Incorporated, who 

accused the regulators, including 

SEC and the Financial Reporting 

Council of Nigeria (FRCN) of being 

complacent in the discharge 

of their constitutional mandates, 

called for an independent probe 

of the accounts of the company. 

Timothy alleged that the company 

has not been paying dividends 

to the shareholders since 

the 2013 financial year, adding 

that the “external auditor’s report 

reported expressed strong doubts 

about the going concern of the 

Group. 

“The Group has negative working 

capital of over N263 billion, 

consequence of current liabilities 

above, lighter than current assets, 

meaning that the management 

was unable to service its obligations 

financially.” 

“Claim of creditors is higher 

than the owners shareholders 

equity, meaning that the group 

could be liquidated by the creditors 

anytime, if urgent action is 

not taken. 

“With accumulated losses of 

over N159 billion, shareholders 

could not get a dime as cash 

dividend. No hope of redeeming 

these reserved losses. 

“Court cases as projected by 

the management may take claims 

of over N608 billion, which is for 

greater the assets of the entire 

group, meaning that the group is 

at a very high risk of liquidation if 

the court cases against the company 

succeeds. 

“Cost of litigations is very high. 

Litigation has damaging consequence 

on our company’s reputational 

risk under the current 

management. Management was 

increasing entitlements, remunerations, 

despite lack of working 

capital. 

•Continues online at www.businessdayonline.com 

Indigenous oil firms step up production by 200%... 


Nigeria – joint ventures, marginal 

fields, service contracts and 

production sharing contracts. 

“The success story is credited 

to a semblance of normalcy in 

the Niger-Delta region, following 

the Federal Government’s 

sustained engagement with 

the various stakeholders and 

resumption of export activities 

at the Forcados Terminal, after 

many months of non– operational 

activities,” said the NNPC 

in its July 2017 Financial and 

Operations report. 

Topping the biggest group of 

producers, is the Nigerian Petroleum 

Development Company 

(NPDC) which raised production 

from 1.052 million barrels 

in May to 4.478 million in June. 

Others are Neconde, whose 

production shot up to 423,999 barrels 

within the period from 6,347. 

Seplat Petroleum Development 

Company also raised production 

from 43,870 barrels to 684,581, Elcrest 

and Shoreline also saw their 

production advance from 19,689 

to 137,834 and from 115,376 to 

444,240 barrels respectively. 

Analysts say this portends 

well for the Nigerian economy 

which sputtered out of a bruising 

recession in the second 

quarter of 2017, after contracting 

for six quarters. The extractive 

sector, grew 1.6% year-on-year, 

as against -11.6% YoY last year, 

on the back of an increase in 

oil production, to an average of 

1.8mn b/d. 

“Increased production by 

Nigerian independents is rightly 

attributed to better security situation 

in the Niger Delta and this is 

good for the economy. It is helping 

the economy to recover and 

growing Nigeria’s GDP (Gross 

Domestic Product),” says Emmanuel 

Afima, an energy analyst 

and CEO of Afima Consulting. 

Improved crude production 

too is helping Nigeria’s stock 

of foreign exchange, helping 

to ease dollar challenges for 

the manufacturing sector and 

shrinking the dollar difference 

between the interbank and the 

parallel market. 

A subsidiary of NNPC, NPDC 

which is involved in 29 concessions 

which comprise 22 OMLs 

and seven Oil Prospecting leases, 

seeks to grow its equity production 

from the current 180,000 barrels 

per day to 300,000 bpd by 2018 

and by 2019 and 2020 its production 

is expected to hit 400,000 bpd 

and 500,000 bpd, respectively. 

Yusuf Matashi, NPDC managing 

director, at an event in 

Benin last month, attributed 

the company’s increased equity 

production to the ongoing transformation 

in the NNPC. 

Marginal field operators also 

contributed over 250,000 barrels, 

helping to boost Nigeria’s 

production to 1.9million barrels 

per day in June (including 

condensate). Joint venture producers 

and production sharing 

contracts saw their volumes 

shrink in the period.



Live @ the Stock exchange 

Top Gainers/Losers as at Wednesday 18 October 2017 

GAINERS 

Company Opening Closing Change 

GLAXOSMITH 22.05 23.15 1.1 

PRESCO 67.5 68 0.5 

NB 162.02 162.5 0.48 

ETI 17.21 17.59 0.38 

GUINNESS 100.75 101 0.25 

LOSERS 

Company Opening Closing Change 

TOTAL 253 245.41 -7.59 

FLOURMILL 30 29.2 -0.8 

NASCON 13.85 13.2 -0.65 

ACCESS 9.71 9.5 -0.21 

NAHCO 3.6 3.4 -0.2 

Market Statistics as at Wednesday 18 October 2017 

ASI (Points) 36,641.52 

DEALS (Numbers) 3,543.00 

VOLUME (Numbers) 198,634,942.00 

VALUE (N billion) 2.936 

MARKET CAP (N Trn 12.612 

GTBank fails to impress as nine 

months earnings drop by 5.88% 

… PBT rises by 8.73% to N150.03bn 

Stories by 

Iheanyi Nwachukwu 

GTBank Plc has 

released its 

scorecards for 

the unaudited 

nine months 

period ended September 

30, 2017 which shows that 

gross earnings dropped by 

5.88percent. 

The bank’s gross earnings 

at N309.91billion in the review 

period showed a decline from 

N329.28 billion as at same 

period in 2016. 

Profit before income tax 

(PBT) increased by 8.73percent 

to N150.032billion from 

a low of N137.99billion in 

9M’16; while profit for 

the period under review 

stood at N125.577billion 

N117.081billion, an increase 

of about 7.26percent. 

The share price of GT- 

Bank stood at N41.7 at the 

close of trading Wednesday. 

Interest income rose to 

N248.270billion as against 

N181.909billion in nine 

months period of 2016, up by 

36.48percent. Fee and Commission 

Income dropped 

to N39.676billion, from a 

high of N50.410billion in 

9M’16, down by 21.29percent. 

Personnel expenses 

rose by 13.12percent to 

N24.629billion, from a low 

of N21.77billion in 9M’16. 

“Despite the year-on-year 

(y/y) decline in earnings, we 

expect the market to focus 

on the broad positives, particularly 

the y/y decreases in 

operating expenses (opex) 

and loan loss provisions. Notwithstanding, 

the weakness 

in non-interest income and 

the quarter-on-quarter (q/q) 

decline in funding income 

will concern investors”, according 

to Olubunmi Asaolu 

team of research analysts at 

Lagos-based FBNQuest. 

“Based on our computation, 

gross earnings for the 

nine month period failed 

to impress. Impressively, 

impairment charge significantly 

dropped by 85.36 

percent significantly supporting 

profits for the period. 

Fee and commission 

income failed to impress for 

the period. 

The bank continue to report 

high efficiency levels as 

PBT and PAT margin stood at 

48.41percent and 40.52percent 

(versus 41.91percent 

and 35.56percent respectively 

in 9M’16). Profit before 

tax crossed N150 billion. 

Total loans and advances 

to customers dropped by 

12.80percent to N1.43 trillion 

against N1.64 trillion 

as at 9M’16 as the bank cut 

down on lending”, research 

analyst at Capital Bancorp 

said in their note to investors 

on GTBank results. 

Stock market records further decline 

Nigerian stock 

market declined 

further 

by 0.08percent 

on Wednesday as Total 

Nigeria Plc and Flour Mills 

Nigeria Plc led the laggards. 

Thirteen (13) stocks 

gained as against 21 losers. 

The Nigerian Stock Exchange 

(NSE) All Share 

Index (ASI) closed at 

36,641.52 points against 

the preceding day close 

of 36,669.61 points while 

Market Capitalisation 

closed at N12.613 trillion 

against preceding day 

close of N12.622 trillion, 

down by N9billion. 

The Year-to-Date (ytd) 

return stood at 36.34percent. 

Total Nigeria Plc lost 

N7.59, from N253 to 

N245.41; while Flour Mills 

Nigeria Plc followed with 

80kobo loss from N30 to 

N29.2. Meanwhile GSK Nigeria 

Plc led gainers after 

its share price rose from 

N22.05 to N23.15, adding 

N1.1; while Presco Plc rose 

from N67.5 to N68, adding 

50kobo. 

The volume of 

stocks traded decreased 

by 6.25percent 

from 211.87million to 

198.63million, while the 

total value of stocks traded 

decreased by 38.08percent, 

from N4.74billion 

to N2.93billion in 3,543 

deals. 

The Financial Services 

sector led Wednesday activity 

chart with 162.94million 

shares exchanged for 

N2.35billion; Consumer 

Goods followed with 

15.39million shares traded 

for N402 million. 

NSE donates school to help internally displaced persons in Borno State 

The Nigerian Stock 

Exchange (NSE) 

has donated a 

school to the Borno 

State Government as part of 

its Corporate Social Responsibility 

(CSR) programme, 

to help Internally Displaced 

Persons (IDPs). The school, 

Maisandari Alamderi Model 

Nursery and Primary 

School, located in the Abuja 

Talakawa District of Maiduguri, 

comprises two blocks 

of nine classrooms that will 

accommodate 330 students 

and an administrative block, 

housing the staff room, sick 

bay, security room and restrooms. 

The school will be managed 

by Bridge International 

Academies, a renowned 

global educational firm that 

specializes in providing robust 

technology driven education 

system to low income 

households in developing 

economies. Other partners 

for the school intervention 

programme are Central 

Securities Clearing System 

(CSCS) Plc, Oando 

Foundation, AXAMansard 

Insurance Plc and MTN 

Foundation. 


Exchange undertook this 

project in support of the 

recovery effort articulated 

in the Recovery and 

Peace Building Assessment 

(RPBA) Report for North- 

East Nigeria, by the Federal 

Government of Nigeria, 

North-East State Government, 

the European Union 

(EU), the United Nations 

(UN) and the World Bank 

(WB) which highlights education 

as one of the strategic 

areas requiring urgent 

attention. 

Speaking at the commissioning 

ceremony held 

today in Maiduguri, Borno 

State, Oscar N. Onyema, 

OON, Chief Executive Officer, 

NSE, noted that the 

Exchange is committed to 

providing quality education 

and improving the financial 

literacy of the communities 

it serves. “Education is one 

of the key foundational elements 

to building a peaceful 

and sustainable society. The 

donation of the Maisandari 

Alamderi Model Nursery and 

Primary School aligns with 

commitment to providing 

an inclusive, safe and positive 

teaching and learning 

environment, and we are 

pleased that this gift will support 

the educational system 

in the state to mould the next 

generation of leaders”. 

The Governor of Borno 

State, Kashim Shettima, 

commended The Nigerian 

Stock Exchange for complementing 

government efforts 

in the delivery of robust 

and quality education in 

the state. “It is very heartwarming 

to have NSE make 

such a significant contribution 

of providing physical 

infrastructure and human 

resources for the newly 

built school we are commissioning 

today. With 

this gesture, The Exchange 

is addressing the challenge 

of providing a conducive 

learning environment 

which forms the bedrock 

of qualitative education. 

We are indeed grateful and 

we hope that this partnership 

continues for the long 

t e r m”. 


Exchange leverages its 

unique position as one 

of the leading Exchanges 

in Africa, to promote sustainability 

along the four 

key impact areas of Marketplace, 

its platform for 

promoting market-based 

approach to Environmental, 

Social and Governance 

(ESG) imperatives; Community, 

where it makes 

contributions to positively 

impact lives; Workplace, 

through which it facilitates 

diversity, wellbeing 

and harnesses the talent 

and skills of its people; 

and the Environment as 

it focuses on reducing the 

Exchange’s environmental 

impact. 

The donation of Maisandari 

Alamderi Model Nursery 

and Primary School, 

will support the actualization 

of the United Nations 

Sustainable Development 

Goal (SDG) 4 which seeks 

to achieve inclusive and 

equitable quality education 

for all by 2030.


NEWS 

Reps recommend death penalty for perpetuators of extra-judicial, jungle justice 

KEHINDE AKINTOLA, ABUJA 

Members of House 

of Representatives 

on Wednesday 

unanimously 

expressed support for the bill 

that seeks to outlaw all forms of 

extra-judicial killing and mob 

action across Nigeria. 

The bill is coming on the 

backdrop of recent rising cases 

of mob action against suspected 

criminals across the 

country. Recall that four young 

men were burnt to death during 

the Alu killing through mob 

action, while some policemen 

in the case of Apo 6 killing 

scandal also murdered six 

young Nigerians. 

According to Section 6(1 

& 2) of the Senate bill which 

was transmitted to the House 

for concurrence, “any person 

who is a primary agitator in the 

lynching or unlawful killing by 

mob action or riotous assemblage 

or extra-judicial killing, 

either as a party or parties to 

the lawful acts, shall be guilty 

of an offence and liable upon 

conviction to death.” 

Femi Gbajabiamila, major- 

Executive chairman, 

Federal Inland Revenue 

Service (FIRS), 

Tunde Fowler, has 

been elected as 1st vice chairman 

of the United Nations 

Committee of Experts on International 

Cooperation in Tax 

Matters. This was disclosed in 

a statement signed by Wahab 

Gbadamosi, Head of Communication 

and Servicom 

Department, FIRS. 

According to the statement, 

the election took place on Tuesday 

in Geneva, Switzerland, 

where the global UN Committee 

of Tax Experts is holding 

its meeting. The committee is 

meeting for the first time after 

the appointment. 

UN Secretary-General, Antonio 

Guteress, announced the 

appointment of the 25 members 

in a United Nations Economic 

and Social Council notification 

dated 10 August 2017. The 25 tax 

experts were headhunted across 

the globe to sit on the Committee 

and proffer solutions to 

issues on international taxation 

Buhari wants ICAN to review curriculum to address cyber security concerns 

President Muhammadu 

Buhari on 

Tuesday urged 

members of Institute 

of Chartered Accountants 

of Nigeria (ICAN) to 

review its curriculum in order 

to address threats and 

concerns posed by cyber 

security to the Nigerian and 

global economy at large. 

The President gave this 

charge as he declared open 

the 47th annual conference 

of ICAN in Abuja. 

He explained that the 

curriculum review by the 

professional body would 

address huge amount of financial 

crimes running into 

billions of dollars, mostly 

undertaken by cyber criminals. 

ity leader, who led the debate 

on the Senate bill that passed 

through third reading on September 

28, 2017, emphasised 

the need to criminalise all forms 

of unlawful killings without subjecting 

the suspects to justice. 

According to sections 2, 

3, 4 and 5 of the bill, provide 

that: “It shall be a criminal 

offence for any a security officer 

or any other paramilitary 

organization to deprive any 

person of his life or engage in 

the extra-judicial killings of 

any person within the Federal 

Republic of Nigeria without 

lawful authority. 

“A state or Local Government 

shall be responsible for 

the protection of lives of every 

person within its jurisdiction 

and shall exercise such powers 

so as to prevent loss of lives of 

persons through lynching or 

unlawful killings by mob action, 

riotous assemblage or by 

extra-judicial killings. 

“Any State or Local Government 

thereof that fails, or 

refuses to provide and maintain 

protection to the life of any 

person within its jurisdiction 

against a mob or riotous as- 

Fowler elected 1st vice chairman, UN Tax Committee of Experts 

HARRISON EDEH, Abuja 

and cooperation. 

Five out of the 25 new entrants 

into the prestigious Committee 

are Africans. They are 

Fowler, who is also the Chairman 

of African Tax Administrations 

Forum (ATAF); Elfrieda 

Stewart Tamba, Chairman of 

the Liberian Revenue Authority 

and Chairman of West African 

Tax Administrators Forum 

(WATAF); Margaret Moonga 

Chikuba, Chairman of the 

Zambian Revenue Authority. 

Others are Eric Nil Yarboi Mensah, 

Chairman of Ghanaian 

Revenue Authority and George 

Omondi Obell, Chairman of 

the Kenyan Revenue Authority. 

The appointment is in accordance 

with the United Nations 

resolution—the Economic 

and Social Council resolution 

2004/69, which established that 

“only 25 tax experts selected 

from among all countries of 

the world are needed to join 

the Committee of Experts on 

International Cooperation in 

Tax Matters, within an interval 

of every four years”. 

“The present administration 

is not aloof to the issue 

to what is happening in 

Nigeria’s economy and the 

global economy, we are living 

in a dynamic world and 

changes are coming very fast 

particularly in science and 

Technology. The request on 

the institute to review its curriculum 

is for them to focus 

on matters of the moment, 

and also re-direct attention to 

cyber-crime,” President Buhari, 

represented by Anthony 

Mkpe Ayine, the auditor general 

of the Federation, said. 

The president noted that 

the dynamics of modern 

financial fraud had necessitated 

the need to review 

financial managers’ curriculum 

to address modern 

trends and concerns. 

The President said: “Cyber 

semblage, such State or Local 

Government shall by reason of 

such failure, neglect, or refusal, 

be said to have denied to such 

person the equal protection of 

the laws of the State as guaranteed 

by the Constitution of the 

Federal Republic of Nigeria. 

“Any person or persons 

who is or are identified as the 

primary agitator for lynching 

or unlawful killings by mob 

action, riotous assemblage 

or by extra-judicial killings, 

which results in the death of 

a person is said to have committees 

an offence. “Section 

6(2) further stipulates 15 years 

imprisonment for the party/ 

parties involved in any mob 

action that does not result in 

the death of a person. 

“Section 6(3) also provides 

that: “any security officer acting 

under the authority of the 

law, having in his custody or 

control, a suspect, who conspires 

with any person to out 

such suspect to death without 

authority of the law, as a 

punishment for some alleged 

offence, shall be guilty of an 

offence and upon conviction 

be sentenced to death.” 

crime alone have cost most 

nations billions of dollars. 

The review of the curriculum 

is to ensure our accountants 

and managers forestall such 

negative occurrence.” 

It would be recalled that 

Nigeria loses N127 billion 

annually to cyber-crime, according 

to Adebayo Shittu, 

Nigeria’s minister of communication’s 

technology at 

a Cyber Security conference 

recently. 

Speaking further, the President 

said,” The review of the 

curriculum is to ensure we 

build capacities of our financial 

managers, accountants 

and other public financial 

managers in the financial 

sector to address the realities 

of Cyber fraud based on 

the dynamics of modern 

realities.” 

The Industrial Training 

Fund (ITF) in 

collaboration with 

the Edo State government 

on Wednesday empowered 

467 unemployed 

youths in the state with starter 

packs equipment. 

The equipment presented 

to the youths who have 

been trained by the ITF includes 

150 sewing machines, 

142 ovens and cylinders, 50 

welding machines and 125 

complete computer sets. 

Joseph Ari, director-general 

of ITF, in his address, 

noted that the ceremony, 

which marked the end of the 

second phase of the National 

Industrial Skills Development 

Programme (NISDP), was one 

C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

Edo, ITF empower 467 unemployed youths with start-up entrepreneur packs 

35 

Reps probe termination of Intels contract by NPA 

... monopoly itself is not a crime but the abuse of it - Dogara 

KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja 

House of Representatives 

on Wednesday 

resolved to set 

up an ad-hoc 

committee that would investigate 

whether due process was 

followed before termination 

of the multi-billion naira contract 

between Nigerian Ports 

Authority (NPA) and Intels. 

The contract for the monitoring 

and supervision of pilotage 

districts in the exclusive 

economic zone of Nigeria permits 

Intels to receive revenue 

generated in each pilotage 

district from service boat operations 

in consideration for 

28 percent of total revenue as 

commission to Intels, which 

was signed in 2000, was terminated 

September 27, 2017. 

Diri Douye (PDP-Bayelsa), 

who sponsored the motion, 

explained that the “agreement 

included the construction and 

operation of Apapa, Warri, 

IDRIS UMAR MOMOH, Benin 

Federal Ocean Terminal Port 

and Onne in Port Harcourt, 

which Intels spent $900 million.” 

According to Douye, 

the implementation of the 

contract has absolved 7,000 

Nigerians and their dependants, 

who are employees of 

Intels Nigeria Limited since 

the inception of its services 

to NPA at the maritime sector. 

Other lawmakers who 

spoke in favour of the motion 

including Simon Irabo (PDP- 

Plateau), Chris Azubogu 

(PDP-Anambra), Ahmed 

Kaita (APC-Katsina), Rita 

Orji (PDP-Lagos), Mohammed 

Munguno (APC-Borno), 

Sergius Ogun (PDP-Edo) 

In his contribution, Johnson 

Agbonayima (PDP-Edo), 

who urged the House not to 

take side in the matter, noted 

that the company should 

institute legal action against 

NPA. On his part, Sergius 

Ogun, who lamented series 

of agitations by workers over 

concessioning of Murtala 

Muhammad International 

Airport, Lagos, and Nnamdi 

Azikwe International Airport, 

Abuja, expressed worry over 

the fate of workers that would 

be affected by the termination 

of the Intels contract. 

However, Ali Madaki (APC- 

Kano), who frowned at the 

level of impunity within the 

industry, alleged non-remittance 

of revenue accrued to 

government as provided for 

by Sections 80(1) and 162(1 & 

10) of the 1999 Constitution (as 

amended). In his brief remarks 

on the motion, the speaker, 

Yakubu Dogara, noted that 

monopoly itself was not an offence 

but the abuse of it. 

The House resolved to set 

up an ad-hoc committee that 

would investigate the crisis 

with the view to ascertain if 

due process was followed in 

the termination of the existing 

agreement and other related 

matters on the contract. 

The committee, which is to 

be constituted, is expected to 

report back within two weeks 

for further legislative action. 

L-R: Kola Garuba, executive director, sales and marketing, BusinessDay; Adeola Ajewole, advert manager; Bisola Sarumi-Edache, manager, 

CSR, Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc; Anthony Osae-Brown, editor, BusinessDay, and Samuel Iboroma, corporate communication manager, Flour 

Mills, during a courtesy visit by Flour Mill management to BusinessDay head office in Lagos, yesterday. 

Pic by Olawale Amoo 

of the initiatives by the agency 

to key into the President Muhammadu 

Buhari-led government’s 

policy on job and 

wealth creation. 

“With these equipment, 

you will place food on the table, 

you will grow to become 

entrepreneurs, and some 

of you, God willing, will be 

employers of labour. But for 

this to happen, you must be 

committed and dedicated to 

your chosen trades and crafts 

and also show commitment, 

loyalty and integrity in your 

business,” Ari said. 

The initiative is also aimed 

at ensuring that majority of 

youths are meaningful engaged, 

sustainable empowerment, 

grow by equipping 

youths with hands-on skills 

and unleashed the entrepreneurship 

spirit in the beneficiaries, 

he said. 

He added that the trainees’ 

empowerment with 

starter-up packs was to enable 

them set up their businesses. 

He solicited for the cooperation 

and support of 

all stakeholders to ensure 

that the agency continued 

to deliver on its mandate of 

providing, promoting and 

encouraging the acquisition 

of skills among Nigerians in 

order to fast-track the rapid 

industrialisation and sustainable 

development of Nigeria. 

The ITF boss noted that for 

Nigeria to be among the 20th 

most developed countries by 

year 2050, government and 

institutions must do more in 

terms of skills acquisition.


Curiosity as Blue Swift birds migrate to Lagos 

OBINNA EMELIKE 

Curious Lagosians 

have been reporting 

the sightings of the 

Blue Swift birds in 

Lagos, which is a rarity. The 

Swift and its relatives form a 

group called Apodidae, a very 

ancient group of birds as well 

as the fastest of all birds in 

level flight. 

They are known to spend 

three months of the year 

in Britain, arriving in early 

May and leaving in early August. 

Following the summer 

months, they are known for 

spending their winters well 

south of the Sahara. They have 

been seen in the Congo Basin, 

Malawi, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, 

Mozambique, and South Africa, 

but this is the first time 

sightings have been reported 

in Nigeria. 

Until recently, their routes 

were unknown until the last 

few months where sightings 

Organised labour 

has called on the 

Federal Government 

to tread 

cautiously with regard to 

the cancellation of Intels 

Nigeria Limited Vessel Pilotage 

Service contract with 

the Nigerian Ports Authority 

(NPA), warning on implications 

for jobs and contract 

integrity. 

The NPA, following a 

directive to that effect by 

the Federal Government, 

recently terminated the 

contract that has allowed 

Intels to receive revenue on 

behalf of NPA for 17 years, 

saying the contract violates 

the Nigerian Constitution, 

especially in view of the 

implementation of the Treasury 

Single Account (TSA) 

policy of government. 

Intels, however, reacted, 

saying the NPA acted without 

due recourse to the 

terms of the agreement that 


FG embarks on enforcement of driver’s licence violation in FCT 

Federal Road Safety 

Corps (FRSC) is organising 

a special 

operation targeted 

at detecting drivers without 

proper driver’s licence. The 

commission says it is set to 

clamp down on violators with 

sanctions, as it has observed 

high-level of disobedience to 

the regulation on the use of 

driver’s licence by some vehicle 

owners in the country, 

particularly in the Federal 

Capital Territory, Abuja. 

Boboye Oyeyemi, corps 

marshal of the FRSC, stated 

this while receiving Kayode 

Opeifa, secretary of transportation 

for the FCT, during 

a courtesy visit to the Corp’s 

headquarters in Abuja, recently. 

The corps marshal said 

have been reported, thereby 

leading to speculations that 

these birds have migrated to 

Nigeria. 

Of the three species of 

swift breeding in Europe, 

the one with the most southerly 

breeding range (the pallid 

swift) has the most northerly 

winter quarters, while the one 

which breeds furthest north in 

Europe moves furthest south 

in Africa. David Lack, an ornithologist, 

did the most work 

on Swift’s recorded swifts that 

travelled over 6,000 miles to 

reach South Africa. 

One reason it is hard 

to know much about their 

whereabouts and what they 

are doing during winter is 

that they look like other swift 

species, especially the African 

black swift. 

The birds are not dangerous 

and these quintessential 

summer visitors, with their 

mostly aerial lifestyles, are a 

delight to watch. 

Intels: Labour cautions FG on 

job security, contract integrity 

JOSHUA BASSEY 

MIKE OCHONMA 

specify conditions precedent 

before a party could 

exit the contract. 

But workers in the maritime 

sector under aegis of 

Maritime Workers Union 

of Nigeria (MWUN) have 

emphasised the need for 

both parties to resolve the 

disagreement without hurting 

the economy. 

Adewale Adeyanju, president 

general of MWUN, 

said on Wednesday that 

Intels was a major employer 

of labour in the sector, and 

cautioned that any massive 

job losses could spark off 

uprising in the volatile Niger 

Delta region. 

“As a major stakeholder 

in the nation’s maritime 

sector, our utmost concern 

is the job security in Intels 

Nigeria Limited. Today, we 

are aware that Intels has 

under its employment over 

5,000 direct employees and 

over 6,000 indirect employees 

bringing the number of 

employees to over 11,000. 

the practice of driving vehicle 

without proper driver’s licence 

was illegal and unacceptable 

to the FRSC, stressing that the 

perpetrators would be sanctioned 

accordingly. 

According to Oyeyemi, 

traffic regulation requires that 

every driver must be properly 

licensed to operate a motor 

vehicle, and whoever violates 

this basic requirement will be 

apprehended and meted with 

appropriate sanctions to serve 

as deterrence to others. 

To this end, the FCT sector 

commander of the FRSC has 

been directed to commence 

a special operation that could 

fish out the perpetrators of 

the act and sanction them accordingly. 

On his part, Opeifa commended 

the leadership of the 

FRSC for the success recorded 

by the nation in the international 

recognition of the Nigeria 

driver’s licence. 

He noted that due to the security 

features introduced into 

the licences, which make their 

validity to be verifiable online, 

many states in the USA had 

given reciprocal recognition to 

the holders of the licence from 

Nigeria, adding that the feats 

achieved by the FRSC over 

the years were made possible 

because of its adoption of technology 

and huge investment in 

information technology. 

He expressed support for 

the idea of establishing FCT 

Road Traffic Management 

Agency, noting that in view 

of the growing volume and 

sophistication of motor transportation 

business in the FCT, 

there was the need for the 

establishment of the agency 

to handle road traffic management 

in the municipality. 

Edo State government 

has warned 

that it will no longer 

fold its arms while 

mischief makers instigate 

pensioners into embarking 

on needless and stage-managed 

protests in order to put 

the state government in bad 

light and undermine efforts 

at resolving pension issue. 

In a statement signed by 

the head of service, Gladys 

Idahor, the state government 

said it was not only committed 

to clearing the backlog 

of pension arrears but also 

instituting a new regime 

where retiree’s entitlements 

are not delayed. 

According to Idahor, not 

less than N6.2 billion has so 

far been paid to retirees between 

January to September 

2017, and explained that the 

C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

Edo warns against sponsored pensioners’ protests 

A1 

NEWS 

Shell funds GMoU with N10bn in 2017 

… as community cluster boards take turns to defend projects 

Shell Petroleum Development 

Company 

(SPDC) says 

it has so far transferred 

over N10 billion 

to the accounts of host 

communities in the Global 

Memorandum of Understanding 

(GMoU) in 2017 

mandate year. The general 

manager said this new push 

took effect in recent year 

when the communities got 

their allocations fast, just to 

ease tension in communities. 

SPDC’s general manager, 

external relations, Igo Weli, 

disclosed this in the presence 

of the finance officer 

at the Shell Residential Area 

Recreation Club on Monday, 

when the clusters and 

boars turned out to defend 

their projects before a panel 

which included government 

officials and top journalists. 

Weli said it was important 

for the experts to hear what 

>>> 

… pays retirees N6.2bn in 9 months 

was released to communities 

in such a short time and 

what they did with the funds; 

in the face of massive denials 

that “Shell did nothing in the 

communities.” 

The Akuku-Toru Board 

got the highest (N2.3bn) 

while some others such as 

RA Cluster and Abual/Odual 

got between N300m and 

N500m within the mandate 

years. Two major issues 

stuck out, litigations and 

insecurity hampered progress 

in some clusters. Some 

chairmen even pleaded for 

special provision for litigations 

but Weli turned down 

the request, saying issues 

would b looked at individually. 

On demands for increase 

in funds, the GM made it 

clear that such demands 

were in the hands of the host 

communities. “If vandalism 

and bunkering reduce and 

income of Shell increases, 

we will increase your mandate. 

In that case, that aspect 

is in your hands”. 

Over 20 clusters and 

boards from Rivers State 

and Abia (Owaza) alone 

testified that production had 

increased in their respective 

areas due to the GMoU 

activities and urged Shell to 

do more. 

Some of the communities 

showcased up to 42 

projects while some had 

only 12, showing the volume 

of oil extracted in their areas. 

The most exciting were 

the Ogoni communities 

who stopped producing oil 

since 1993 but who still got 

GMoU grants and LiveWire 

projects. 

The GM thus warned 

oil communities to get the 

best they could from crude 

oil while it lasted because it 

may no longer be a proud 

product. He also said if 

Shell is drive out, as a global 

brand, it could adjust, but 

wondered if the communities 

could also adjust. 

Most of the board chairmen 

put in strong words for 

Shell, saying most of those 

condemning SPDC do not 

come from oil bearing communities. 

“Do not listen to 

them. They are professional 

agitators. They cannot come 

to our communities to stop 

our GMoU projects.” 

Some cluster chairmen 

said some persons who 

mocked the GMoU concept 

at the beginning were now 

making trouble to join while 

some communities that vandalized 

oil facilities are now 

begging Shell to return to 

their communities due to 

the avalanche of projects 

that are being executed and 

commissioned almost on 

weekly basis. 

They said the new approach 

must be sustained 

and boosted in the coming 

years, saying this was the best 

way to engage with the host 

communities. 

L-R: Omoh Anenih Mordi, past secretary general, Interior Designers Association of Nigeria (IDAN); Ekuah Abudu, chairman, board 

of trustees, Interior Designers Association of Nigeria (IDAN); Titi Ogufere, president, Interior Designers Association of Nigeria; 

Tola Akerele, secretary general, and Tomi Ajakaiye, head of communications, Sterling Bank plc, during the briefing to formally 

announce the African Culture and Design Festival (ACDF), in Lagos. 

protest on Monday, October 

16, was an orchestration by 

some disgruntled elements 

and their political allies designed 

to undermine the 

effort of the state government 

to sustainably resolve 

the pension issue once and 

for all. 

She said “the state government 

would henceforth 

prevent miscreants who 

under the guise of agitating 

for pension payment, 

disrupt law and order in the 

society, particularly when 

there is sufficient evidence 

showing that they are being 

sponsored by some antidevelopment 

agents and 

mischievous members of the 

opposition who have refused 

to accept the verdict of the 

people.” 

She emphasised: “Governor 

Obaseki, who is extremely 

vast in pension matters 

having served as a member 

of the Presidential Taskforce 

which established the new 

pension order currently in 

operation in Nigeria, has 

always been very empathetic 

to the plight of pensioners, 

hence he made a commitment 

during the presentation 

of the 2017 budget 

to resolve the problems of 

pensioners in Edo State in a 

sustainable manner.” 

She further added that 

despite resistance, Obaseki 

saw through the implementation 

of the Contributory 

Pension Scheme, which has 

now ensured that future 

generations of workers never 

again suffer the plight, which 

pensioners are currently 

facing.

A2 

NEWS 

STELLA ENENCHE, Abuja 

BUSINESS DAY 

C002D5556 

Elumelu, Utomi call for public, private 

sector harmonisation to galvanise SMEs 

HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE 

Chairman, Heirs Holding, 

Tony Elumelu, 

and Pat Utomi, professor 

of political 

economy and management 

expert, have identified government 

and private sector 

harmonisation, and strengthening 

of institutions as the 

way forward to galvanise the 

Small and Medium Enterprises 

(SMEs) for inclusive 

development. 

This is coming after a forum 

identified unfriendly business 

environment, over dependence 

on oil, poor funding, 

and inconsistent government 

policies as some of the major 

factors responsible for the 

gross under performance of 

the SMEs sub-sector. 

They spoke Wednesday in 

Lagos at the 24th annual LAPO 

development forum with the 

theme, “Galvanising SMEs for 

Inclusive Development.” 

“It is hoped that government 

places greater priority 

in creating and encouraging 

enabling environment for 

entrepreneurs and SMEs to 

thrive, making them the centre 

of economic policy and turning 

out policies from time to 

time on how to encourage, and 

Police arrests over 3,000 kidnappers nationwide - IGP 

Inspector General of Police 

(IGP), Ibrahim Idris, 

on Wednesday disclosed 

that over 3,000 suspected 

kidnappers had so far been 

arrested across the country. 

Idris, who stated this during 

the monthly Commissioners 

of Police (CPs) conference 

in Abuja, expressed support 

for the recently passed antikidnapping 

bill by the National 

Assembly. 

“Between 2,000 and 3,000 

suspects have been arrested 

in connection with kidnapping 

across the country,” he said. 

Idris, who frowned at the 

rising cases of abduction of 

police officers, threatened to 

hold commissioners of police 

responsible for the kidnap of 

support them,” Elumelu said, 

while delivering a keynote address 

at the forum. 

Represented by Adim Jibunoh, 

president/CEO, Transcorp 

Group, he said, “For this 

galvanisation of SMEs can 

only be achieved when the 

government and private sector 

work in shared purpose to 

create an economic and social 

well-being for our people. We 

therefor advice both the public 

and private sector leaders to 

threat the issue of SME development 

with the urgency that 

it truly deserves.” 

The participants were impressed 

and commended 

LAPO for supporting SMEs 

through the provision of 

N96.1billion as loans to over 

three million micro entrepreneurs 

as well as providing employment 

opportunities for 

over seven thousand Nigerians. 

Godwin Ehigiamusoe, 

managing director/CEO of 

LAPO Microfinance Bank 

Limited, said the Lift Above 

Poverty Organisation had 

since recognised the all-important 

place of SMEs in the 

economy. “Thus, we have 

over the years mobilised credit 

facilities to support business 

men and women operating 

SMEs. 

CBN gives further clarification on use of 

GIFMIS for TSA revenue collection 

HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE 

Central Bank of Nigeria 

(CBN) on 

Wednesday gave 

further clarification 

on Government Integrated 

Financial Management 

Information System 

(GIFMIS) revenue reference 

number (RRN) at the point 

of revenue collection into 

TSA, which took effect from 

October 1, 2017. 

In a letter to all banks, 

the CBN stated that not all 

payments by revenue payers 

required the use of RRN, 

revenue collections that require 

the RRN would have a 

mandatory field for such on 

the remita system. 

The CBN also clearly stated 

that the use of GIFMIS 

RRN applied only to payment 

going into the Consolidated 

Revenue Fund (CRF) 

on behalf of ministries, 

departments and agents 

(MDAs) under the GIFMIS 

platform. 

The Federal Government 

had mandated the use of 

electronic means for all its 

revenue inflows into TSA 

as part of efforts to boost 

revenue collection. 

The CBN had last month 

directed deposit money 

banks to ensure mandatory 

use of the government Integrated 

Financial Management 

Information System 

(GIFMIS) revenue reference 

number at the point of revenue 

collection into TSA, with 

effect from October 1, 2017. 

This was contained in 

officers, saying, “CPs should 

impose it on DPOs to deploy 

their men to flashpoints. Kidnapping 

of Police officers is 

becoming an embarrassment, 

you cannot move any how as 

an officer. 

“Police officers should be 

careful about their personal 

safety and movements. CPs 

will be vicariously liable for 

any officer kidnapped in his 

command like fowls. Be very 

serious on the protection of 

DPOs and heads of formations 

in their commands.” 

He therefore charged CPs 

to view seriously issues of illegal 

deployment of police’s 

special units, especially Police 

Mobile Force (PMF). 

“All CP commands must 

address the issue of illegal 

deployment of special units; 

conduct physical assessment 

of deployment of special units, 

PMF, to ensure that all those 

special units deployed, which 

is not in consonance with the 

Force, should stop forthwith. 

“We are going to have absolute 

control of our men, 

who we deploy. Anywhere you 

observe, as a CP, the PMF personnel 

were deployed illegally, 

it is your responsibility to act,” 

he charged. 

As part of measures to alleviate 

the plights of families 

of deceased officers, the police 

said a total of N3.75 billion 

had been released as death 

benefits. It was disclosed that 

a total of 1,285 next-of-kins of 

deceased personnel, had been 

screened for payments. 


Kidnap of British nationals rekindles 

Niger Delta militancy concerns 

ISAAC ANYAOGU 

Kidnap of four 

British nationals 

carrying out missionary 

activities 

in Enukorowa 

community, Burutu Local 

Government of Delta State 

last week, is raising concerns 

about resumption of militancy 

in the volatile region. 

This is despite the Nigerian 

army operations codenamed 

‘Operation Crocodile Smile 

II’ in the Niger Delta that 

seeks to eradicate militancy 

and criminal activities in the 

region, but has sputtered 

after accusations of unauthorised 

vaccination campaign 

muddles its reputation. The 

missionaries were giving free 

medical treatment in the area 

when they were assaulted. 

Intense engagement by 

the Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria’s 

vice president, and Ibe Kachikwu, 

minister of state for 

petroleum resources, and 

Federal Government’s seeming 

commitment to clean up 

the Ogoni oil spills have done 

... pays N3.75bn death benefits 

much to douse tensions in the 

Niger Delta. 

However, cracks are beginning 

to emerge. According to 

a 2017 International Chamber 

of Commerce’s (ICC) International 

Maritime Bureau (IMB) 

study, a total of 20 reports 

against all vessel types were 

received for Nigeria, 16 of 

which occurred off the coast 

of Brass, Bonny and Bayelsa. 

The report further said 

that guns were reportedly 

used in 18 of the incidents 

and vessels were underway 

in 17 of 20 reports. 39 of the 

49 crewmembers kidnapped 

globally occurred off Nigerian 

waters in seven separate 

incidents. Other crew kidnappings 

in 2017 have been 

reported 60 nautical miles 

off the coast of Nigeria. 

“In general, all waters 

in and off Nigeria remain 

risky, despite intervention in 

some cases by the Nigerian 

Navy. We advise vessels to 

be vigilant,” said Pottengal 

Mukundan, director of IMB. 

“The number of attacks in 

the Gulf of Guinea could be 

National Assembly 

members on 

Wednesday lamented 

that Nigeria 

was at the brinks and 

required divine intervention 

from God to prevent the country 

from total collapse. 

Attributing the situation 

in the country to poor governance, 

the lawmakers under 

the aegis of Christian Legislators’ 

Fellowship, set aside 

Thursday, October 26, 2017, 

as a day of national prayers for 

divine intervention. 

Briefing journalists on 

the planned national prayer 

breakfast, the chairman of 

the prayer warriors, Barnabas 

Gemade (APC, Benue State), 

said the prayer with the theme: 

even higher than our figures 

as many incidents continue 

to be unreported.” 

Yakubu Dogara, speaker 

of the House of Representatives 

in July said Nigeria loses 

an estimated sum of $1.5 billion 

to piracy monthly while 

opening a public hearing on 

the bill to amend the maritime 

operations coordinating 

board act. 

“The increasing level of 

attacks and violence in the 

gulf of Guinea have given 

Nigeria and other countries 

in the sub-region very damaging 

and negative image 

in addition to an estimated 

monthly loss of $1.5 billion 

to the country,” Dogara said 

at the time. 

Nigeria’s economy was 

plunged into a recession 

last year when an upsurge in 

militancy led to shutting in of 

a million barrels of crude oil 

production in Nigeria. The 

Federal Government lost a 

third of its earnings and local 

oil firms whose crude flows in 

affected pipeline infrastructure 

reported huge losses. 


36 states spend 

N2.67bn servicing 

foreign loans - report 

The 36 states of the federation 

spent N2.67 

billion to service external 

debt in September. 

The amount is contained 

in a report obtained on 

Wednesday by the NAN from 

the office of the Accountant- 

General of the Federation. 

Figures from the Debt Management 

Office also showed that 

as of June 30, the 36 state governments 

and the Federal Capital 

Territory had a debt stock of about 

3.94 billion dollars (N1.2 trn). 

According to DMO, the 

states and the FCT are currently 

servicing loans with multilateral 

agencies like the World 

Bank and Agence Française de 

Développement (AFD). The 

breakdown of the figure are as 

follows: Analysis of the above 

data shows that the top10 external 

debt paying states are: Lagos, 

Cross River, Kaduna, Oyo, 

Akwa Ibom, Katsina, Osun, 

Ogun, Edo and Kano states. 

The data also shows that the 

10 states that paid the least on external 

debt servicing for September 

are: Taraba, Borno, Plateau, 

Benue, Delta, Kogi, Jigawa, Nassarawa, 

Gombe and Niger states. 

L-R: Akin Akeredolu-Ale, vice chairman, Association of Stockbroking Houses of Nigeria (ASHON); Ifi Ejezie, public relations officer; 

Patrick Ezeagu, chairman, and Rasheed Yussuff, former official, at breakfast meeting of chief executive officers of stockbroking 

firms on financing of proposed Commodity and Futures Exchange in Lagos, yesterday 

Mis-governance: National Assembly seeks God’s intervention 

“Reconciliation: God’s Power 

and the New Pathway to National 

Unity”, is aimed at convening 

people of all faith, tribe 

and creed to appeal to God for 

righteousness and godliness in 

leadership. He said: “The past 

seven years, our political and 

socio-economic landscape has 

been characterised by threats 

which have both regional and 

international implications. 

“To Nigerians, those years 

could have seen our dear 

country emerge stronger from 

the shocks and effects of the 

global economic crisis. We 

have, however, weathered 

these storms; we are still at 

present, a reflection of a country 

at the brinks. 

“Recently, hate speech, divisive 

and secessionist quests 

raise their ugly heads, but we 

fortunately overcame. 

“The delivery of public 

values has seized to be the 

essence of governance as our 

fellow countrymen can barely 

access basic social necessities. 

These challenges have 

shaken the very foundation of 

the Nigerian people’s faith in 

leadership”. 

He disclosed that the 

National Prayer Breakfast, 

which started seven years ago 

took its cue from the American 

Prayer Breakfast put on 

ground by President Dwight 

Eisenhower in 1953. He however 

added that President 

Muhammadu Buhari would 

serve, as the Special Guest 

of Honour at the prayer session 

while the Vice President, 

Yemi Osinbajo, would deliver 

the keynote address.

Friday 20 October 2017 

FT FINANCIAL TIMES 

C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

A3 

World Business Newspaper 

Austrian far-right 

poised to enter 

government after 

election gains 

RALPH ATKINS 

• Boost for Europe’s nationalist 

movements; Mainstream Conservatives 

set to top poll 

Austria’s far-right nationalist 

Freedom party has 

scored its best result in a 

national election for two 

decades and is likely to 

join the country’s next government, 

in a significant boost for Europe’s 

anti-establishment movements. 

Sebastian Kurz, the 31-year-old 

leader of the mainstream conservative 

People’s party, looked set to become 

Austrian chancellor - and the 

EU’s youngest leader - after topping 

yesterday’s poll with 31.6 per cent of 

the vote, according to projections. 

He said the vote was a “clear contract 

to change the country”. 

But the exit polls showed 26 per 

cent of the vote went to the Freedom 

party, which has earned international 

notoriety for its hardline stance 

on immigration and airbrushing of 

Austria’s Nazi past. If confirmed, that 

would be its strongest performance 

since the 26.9 per cent it won in 

1999 when the party was led by Jörg 

Haider. 

Heinz Christian Strache, Freedom 

party’s leader, hailed a “great 

success” but refrained from immediate 

comment on any possible 

coalition. 

Its strong showing means the 

Freedom party could demand a high 

price to join a coalition led by Mr 

Kurz. That would almost certainty 

result in a more aggressive position 

from Vienna on many EU topics - 

including immigration - and the 

Freedom party occupying top government 

posts such as the foreign 

• Rumoured bid to kill political contender 

reveals tense battle to succeed 

93-year-old Mugabe 

Emmerson Mnangagwa was allegedly 

targeted with a poisonlaced 

vanilla cone. The bizarre 

details of the alleged plot to murder 

Zimbabwe’s vice-president would 

have been comical if they were not 

so potentially destabilising for the 

southern African nation. 

The airing in public of the supposed 

plan to assassinate Mr Mnangagwa, 

who became violently ill in 

August after eating the ice cream, has 

thrown into the open a vicious battle 

to succeed Robert Mugabe. Hints by 

The US puts the World 

Bank under renewed fire 

and interior ministries. 

“It is certainly a very strong 

message for Europe,” said Thomas 

Hofer, a political analyst in Vienna. 

The Freedom party had a “fabulous 

campaign”. 

Mr Kurz could, however, seek a 

different coalition with the centreleft 

Social Democrats, who, according 

to exit polls, came second with 

26.8 per cent. Such an arrangement 

would continue the “grand coalition” 

between Austria’s two mainstream 

parties, which Mr Kurz had 

promised to overhaul. 

Christian Kern, Social Democratic 

leader, said Austria had seen 

a “massive slide to the right”, but 

hinted he hoped his party would 

remain in power, saying it took its 

responsibilities seriously. 

The Social Democrats’ share of 

the vote was better than many in the 

party had feared and was a slight improvement 

on its 2013 result, which 

had been its worst in the postwar era. 

Mr Kurz triggered the collapse of 

the government in May and sought 

to present himself as a young reformist 

in the style of Emmanuel 

Macron, the French president. 

However, yesterday’s result suggests 

that Mr Kurz had less success than 

expected in blunting the challenge 

from the Freedom party, which 

during the campaign had warned of 

Austria’s “Islamification”. 

Mr Kurz adopted a similarly 

tough line on stopping illegal immigration, 

limiting foreigners’ access 

to Austria’s generous welfare system 

and pushing for a stronger defence 

of the EU’s external borders. 

But in the final days of the campaign, 

Freedom party leaders “hammered 

home the idea that Mr Kurz is 

not for real”, said Mr Hofer. 

Presidential Challenge - Alleged poison 

ice cream plot exposes Zanu-PF rift 

JOSEPH COTTERILL AND DAVID PILLING 

Page A4 

Mr Mnangagwa that deliberate poisoning 

lay behind his illness brought 

a ferocious response last week from 

Grace Mugabe, the ambitious wife of 

the president and, as it happens, the 

owner of an ice cream dairy. 

“Why should I kill Mnangagwa? 

Who is Mnangagwa on this earth?” 

Mrs Mugabe said in a fiery appearance 

on state television. Behind her 

denial lies a violent history in Zimbabwe 

of political figures dying in 

suspicious circumstances. Solomon 

Mujuru, a feared former army chief 

who helped Mr Mugabe rise to power, 

died in a 2011 fire that many doubted 

was an accident. 

Mrs Mugabe in turn accused Mr 

Continues on page A4 

Sebastian Kurz 

Trump faces choice between upheaval 

and continuity at the Federal Reserve 

SAM FLEMING 

• Handing Yellen another term would 

frustrate conservatives who want hardline 

financial deregulation 

Donald Trump must choose 

between embracing continuity 

and propelling the world’s 

most important central bank into a 

potentially market-jarring change of 

direction when he decides on the next 

Federal Reserve chair. 

The Fed’s future leadership was 

one of the uncertainties lurking 

behind a largely benign global economic 

backdrop during meetings of 

central bankers and finance ministers 

in Washington over the weekend. 

Two of the candidates to chair 

the Fed from February - governor 

Jay Powell and incumbent Janet Yellen 

- are likely to continue following 

a monetary policy strategy that has 

been laid out with meticulous detail 

over recent years. 

By contrast, John Taylor and Kevin 

Warsh, both outside candidates and 

Stanford academics, are vocal critics 

of that approach. Mr Warsh has long 

questioned the Fed’s quantitative 

easing programme and wants the institution 

to pursue a more hands-off 

approach to economic management. 

Mr Taylor has a hawkish reputation, 

Nature of Work - Italy jobs 

surge sparks debate about 

recovery 

Page A4 

given his embrace of strict policy 

rules, and has called for a much 

smaller Fed balance sheet. 

“Their bias would be very different 

from the one we have known for the 

past 10 years,” said Diane Swonk of DS 

Economics. “It could be more of a 180- 

degree turn for the financial markets.” 

The potential for upheaval does 

not stop at the Fed chair. The resignation 

of Stanley Fischer as vice-chair 

has given Mr Trump an extraordinary 

opportunity to reshape the leadership 

of the central bank in the coming 

months, with up to four seats open. 

“Fed leadership is one of the downside 

risks to the very upbeat forecasts” 

for global growth, said one European 

official. “There is enough uncertainty 

around with [factors such as] Brexit, 

and you don’t want to add to it.” 

Asked by the Financial Times 

about the process on Saturday, US 

Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin 

said that while he hoped a decision 

would be made within a month there 

was no set deadline. He and Mr Trump 

are interviewing a range of candidates 

as the expiry of Ms Yellen’s term grows 

nearer. 

The stock market is at record highs, 

US growth is running at 3 per cent and 

unemployment is at its lowest since 

the George W Bush years - an obvious 

argument against rocking the boat. This 

would point to reappointing Ms Yellen, 

who said yesterday that the “ongoing 

strength” of the US economy would 

warrant further gradual rate increases. 

But handing Ms Yellen another 

term would frustrate conservatives who 

want aggressive financial deregulation. 

Mr Powell is the other continuity 

candidate. A former George HW Bush 

official, he is a Republican who is well 

regarded by Mr Mnuchin and some in 

the White House. He is unlikely to jettison 

the ultra-gradual approach set in 

place by Ms Yellen. 

However, Mr Warsh and Mr Taylor 

would be welcomed by conservatives 

who warn the central bank has used its 

broad discretion to conduct hazardous 

policies that risk inflation or asset price 

bubbles. Mr Taylor is famed for his 

“Taylor Rule” that guides rate-setting, 

and he has argued that if the Fed had 

followed it during the boom of the 

2000s it would have lifted rates more 

aggressively and quelled the pre-crisis 

boom. 

House Republicans have been urging 

the Fed to pay more attention to 

rules espoused by Mr Taylor, something 

the institution’s leadership has vociferously 

opposed. He has also called for 

the Fed to pare back its asset holdings, 

which have long worried conservatives.

Friday 20 October 2017 

A4 BUSINESS DAY 

C002D5556 

FT 

Alleged poison ice cream... 

NATIONAL NEWS 

Nature of Work - Italy jobs surge sparks debate about recovery 

JAMES POLITI 

• Labour market picks up but is driven 

by fixed-term contracts rather than 

permanent hires 

Antonio Bonardo is almost 

giddy as he glances down 

at his laptop to check the 

latest data for his business. 

Late last month, 27,000 

people were working under contracts 

Continued from page A3 

Mnangagwa of plotting a coup. The 

vice-president, whose influence 

in the ruling Zanu-PF goes back 

decades, is said to have support 

from veterans of Zimbabwe’s war of 

independence, as well as parts of the 

armed forces. 

Last Monday, Mr Mugabe weakened 

Mr Mnangagwa further in 

a cabinet reshuffle, removing the 

justice ministry from his control and 

firing an ally, the finance minister 

Patrick Chinamasa. 

The open warfare between Mr 

Mnangagwa and Mrs Mugabe comes 

in the run-up to next year’s presidential 

election when the 93-year-old Mr 

Mugabe, who has ruled the country 

for nearly four decades, is due to 

stand again. Elections must be held 

by next July at the latest. Zimbabweans 

have given the two contenders 

- neither of whom is expected to 

make a move while Mr Mugabe is 

still alive - monikers. Mrs Mugabe is 

“DisGrace”, while Mr Mnangagwa, 

a former security chief of fearsome 

repute, is the “Crocodile”. 

The tussle within Zanu-PF, as 

well as among a fragmented opposition, 

comes as Zimbabwe’s weak 

economy faces further strain. Several 

banks have buckled under a shortage 

of cash in Zimbabwe’s dollarised 

economy, the result of money flowing 

abroad to pay for imports. The 

central bank last year began issuing 

“ bond notes” - nominally of equal 

value to the dollar - to inject liquidity 

into the system. But in practice, the 

black-market rate between US dollars 

and so-called “bollars” is widening. 

The stock market has hit a high as 

investors race to find a store of value 

in case the central bank restores 

the Zimbabwe dollar, which was 

scrapped in 2009 after the economy 

fell into hyperinflation. 

Mrs Mugabe, 52, has been associated 

with a younger generation 

of firebrands in Zanu-PF, while 

the 75-year-old Mr Mnangagwa is 

linked to vague promises of reform 

aimed at enticing international 

lenders, although there has been 

little to show for it. “Is Mnangagwa’s 

power a phantom or not? That is the 

question now,” says Piers Pigou, an 

analyst at the International Crisis 

Group. 

“Most people think he’s not going 

to make it,” he said, referring 

to Mr Mnangagwa’s presidential 

ambitions, although he may maintain 

enough support in the security 

services to avoid being purged. An 

attempt to push him out, says Mr 

Pigou, risks violence between the 

two factions, which would force the 

army to pick sides. 

Mrs Mugabe wields a “shadow 

power” in her husband’s presidency, 

says Nkosana Moyo, who once 

served in Mr Mugabe’s cabinet, but 

who plans to run against him in 

next year’s poll. 

arranged by Gi Group, the Italian employment 

agency where he is a senior 

director - a 25 per cent increase on the 

same week in 2016. 

In some regions the hiring figures 

were growing “like a beast”, he says, 

speaking at the company’s offices 

in Rome. “Our numbers are really 

strong, they are explosive.” 

His enthusiasm highlights the 

brightening prospects for Italy’s 

labour market, which has been a 

Luca Paolazzi 

• President does not want Congress 

to reimpose sanctions that would 

cause nuclear deal to unravel, says 

secretary of state 

Rex Tillerson, secretary of state, 

yesterday stressed that it was 

in the US national interest to 

remain in the Iran nuclear deal that 

is aimed at preventing Tehran from 

building nuclear weapons. 

While defending Donald Trump’s 

decision not to endorse the accord 

because of its perceived weaknesses, 

Mr Tillerson said he and the US 

president did not want Congress to 

reimpose sanctions on Tehran that 

could lead to the deal unravelling. 

“Let’s see if we cannot address 

the flaws in the agreement by staying 

within the agreement, working 

with the other signatories, working 

with our European friends and allies 

within the agreement,” he told CNN. 

Mr Trump on Friday angered 

constant source of worry for Italian 

and EU policymakers after being 

ravaged by the financial crisis and a 

“triple-dip” recession. 

The International Monetary Fund 

expects the economy to grow by 1.3 

per cent this year, with the Italian 

government forecasting 1.5 per cent. 

While this still lags behind the eurozone 

average, confidence in the recovery 

increased further this week on the 

back of a new batch of strong monthly 

Tillerson says Iran accord is in US national interest 

DEMETRI SEVASTOPULO AND MICHAEL PEEL 

other signatories by refusing to 

certify that Iran was in compliance 

with the landmark nuclear deal - a 

determination that the president 

is required to make every 90 days 

under US law - in a move that puts 

the onus on Congress and US allies 

to attempt to find ways to save 

it from collapsing. It was signed in 

2015 by Iran and the five permanent 

members of the UN Security Council 

- the US, China, Russia, France and 

the UK - in addition to Germany 

and the EU. 

Mr Trump, who during the presidential 

race said he would tear up 

the deal on his first day in office, on 

Friday did not abandon it. However, 

he warned that if Congress and US 

allies did not find a solution to fix 

what he said were weaknesses in 

the deal he would walk away from it. 

Mr Tillerson said he agreed with 

Jim Mattis, secretary of defence, that 

it was in the US national interest to 

remain in the deal. He added that 

the new approach was aimed at 

figures on industrial production. 

And at the very least, the Italian rebound 

is not jobless. Employers have 

added about 1m jobs in Italy since a 

trough in autumn 2013. Some 273,000 

were created in the first eight months 

of this year, bringing the total above 

23m and back to 2008 levels. 

The unemployment rate is still 

well above pre-crisis levels at 11.2 per 

cent. But it has been held back by an 

encouraging factor: more economically 

finding other ways to tackle weaknesses 

in the deal, which Iran and 

the European signatories say cannot 

be renegotiated. 

General HR McMaster, White 

House national security adviser, told 

Fox News that Mr Trump had “set out 

a marker” to Iran and US allies that 

the “weak” deal needed fixing. 

“It is a weak deal that is being 

weakly monitored, and so the 

president has made clear he will not 

permit this deal to provide cover for 

what we know is a horrible regime 

to develop a nuclear weapon,” Gen 

McMaster said. 

One European diplomat said EU 

foreign ministers would discuss Iran 

in Luxembourg today to “show European 

unity . . . and support for the 

JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan 

of Action] in a session chaired by 

Federica Mogherini, the EU foreign 

policy chief, who on Friday said the 

deal did not belong to one country 

and could not be terminated by one 

country. 

The best way to recover from a technological bungle 

PILITA CLARK 

The other day when I got to 

work I found an email from 

a PR woman I have never 

met, congratulating me on my new 

job at City AM, a newspaper I have 

never worked for. 

“Sorry,” she wrote in a hasty 

follow-up mail. “Clearly not concentrating.” 

I would have ignored this, except 

it came within hours of another 

email from someone who 

wondered if I would be interested 

to know that, as a result of the 

soaring stock market, the value of 

employee share schemes “has shit 

a 10-year high of £2.5bn”. 

Before I had a chance to say I 

did find that quite interesting, this 

writer also emailed back to apologise 

for “the very unfortunate typo 

in my last email”. 

Things did not end there. The 

next day I heard from two men, 

one from an investment bank, the 

other a credit-rating agency. Both 

had made email muck-ups they 

needed to correct. 

These people are far from alone. 

The idiotic mistakes we make at 

work are awful and getting worse. 

I know this, because I make 

so many myself. The other week, 

I gave one colleague a mis-typed 

email address for someone she 

needed to contact and another the 

wrong date for a meeting. Then I 

nearly filed a story with the name 

of one person spelt two different 

ways. None of this is surprising 

considering the relentless digital 

distraction that afflicts working life. 

Researchers have been warning 

for years that people who 

constantly juggle emails, texts 

and messages do not memorise or 

manage their work as well as those 

who pay attention to one thing at 

a time. Digital overload is said to 

cost as much as $997bn a year in 

lost productivity and innovation, 

just in the US. No wonder, when it 

is claimed we tap, swipe and click 

our phones an average of 2,617 

times a day. 

I was not remotely surprised 

to read this month that even the 

tech designer who invented the 

fiendishly addictive pull-to-refresh 

system worries about its impact 

and is trying to wean himself off 

the digital onslaught. I am more 

astonished that the levels of office 

bungling are not far worse. 

inactive Italians are returning to the 

labour market in the hope of finding 

work. Women are having particular 

success: female employment reached 

a historical high of 48.9 per cent in 

August. 

“The labour market is certainly 

not the Cinderella of the recovery. In 

fact, it has almost leapt ahead of it,” 

says Luca Paolazzi, chief economist at 

Confindustria, Italy’s largest business 

lobby group. “This builds confidence.” 

The US puts the 

World Bank under 

renewed fire 

• The institution should stand firm 

on its carefully-established principles 

It cannot be much fun running 

the World Bank these days. 

Apart from the complaints of 

the institution’s perennially fractious 

staff, the multilateral lender 

has seen increased competition 

from other sources of finance over 

the past two decades. Now it faces 

rising criticism from its largest 

shareholder. 

Donald Trump’s administration, 

never likely to be a great fan of a 

global institution that sends American 

money abroad, has complained 

that the bank lends too much to 

countries such as China, which can 

borrow elsewhere. 

In the past, the response of the 

bank’s president, the American Jim 

Yong Kim, has been to roll with the 

punches rather than standing up 

for the institution’s founding principles. 

This year he tried to win over 

Mr Trump by helping to create and 

administer a fund for women’s development 

set up by Ivanka Trump, 

the president’s daughter. 

But the charm offensive seems 

to have had little effect. The US is 

objecting to the fact the bank continues 

to lend a large amount of 

money to middle-income countries, 

and is threatening to withhold its 

contribution to a general capital 

increase unless changes are made. 

There is a debate to be had about 

exactly what holes in Beijing’s financing 

the bank needs to fill. But 

Mr Trump’s objections are almost 

certainly motivated, at least in part, 

by the desire to not give money to 

what he sees as the US’s economic 

enemy number one. If the bank 

folds and gives Mr Trump what he 

wants, its credibility will be badly 

damaged. 

In an odd twist, it is China itself 

that has represented the biggest 

threat to the World Bank’s 

dominance of providing subsidised 

credit to emerging markets. By 2010, 

the activities of huge institutions 

such as the China Development 

Bank and the China Export-Import 

Bank meant that China’s overseas 

development lending outstripped 

the World Bank’s for the first time. 

More recently, the advent of 

institutions such as the Asian Infrastructure 

Investment Bank, of which 

China is the biggest shareholder, 

has raised the possibility that the 

centre of development finance has 

moved from Washington to Beijing. 

This puts yet more pressure on Mr


C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

A5



C002D5556 

Read Ambitiously 

Machines took over the stock 

market. Next up, bonds 

TELIS DEMOS 

Ford door-latch issues expand to trucks 

CARA LOMBARDO 

Ford Motor Co. F -0.48% continues 

to be plagued by faulty 

vehicle-door latches as the 

auto maker on Wednesday 

expanded the lineup of affected 

models for the second time this year. 

Ford said it would recall roughly 

1.3 million F-150 trucks from the 

2015 through 2017 model years and 

F-250 Super Duty trucks from 2017. 

The company expects the fixes to 

cost $267 million and will record the 

charge in its fourth quarter. 

Earlier this year, the company 

recorded a $295 million charge to 

repair latches in 211,000 vehicles 

that included Fiesta, Fusion and 

Lincoln MKZ cars and fix a problem 

with engines that could result 

in them catching fire. 

Last year, a campaign recalling 

830,000 vehicles for similar issues 

cost $640 million in third-quarter 

operating profit. Those vehicles 

included some Focus, Escape SUVs 

and Mustang models. 

Ford said latches used in the 

recalled trucks can freeze and the 

springs can bend, causing a door 

to appear closed when it isn’t fully 

latched. Dealers will install water 

shields to prevent freezing and repair 

cables if needed in the affected 

cars at no cost, the company said. 

Ford said it isn’t aware of any 

accidents or injuries related to the 

recalled cars. 

While the Detroit company 

doesn’t expect the latest recall to 

affect its full-year per-share earnings 

guidance of $1.65 to $1.85, it is 

the latest in a series of costly quality 

problems in recent years. Faulty 

door latches have caused problems 

for Ford since 2015, when it 

recalled 692,000 small and midsize 

cars for similar issues. 

This week the Center for Auto 

Safety, a nonprofit group founded 

by Ralph Nader, called on Ford to 

recall more than a million Explorer 

SUVs to address an alleged risk of 

carbon-monoxide poisoning after 

the auto maker offered to repair 

vehicles to give “peace of mind” to 

customers. But Ford hasn’t resorted 

to recalls and re-emphasized that its 

offer wasn’t due to safety concerns. 

Vivo Energy bets on Africa with $3bn IPO 

BEN DUMMETT 

Vivo Energy Investments 

B.V., a major licensee of 

Royal Dutch Shell RDS.B 

+0.14% PLC’s fuels and 

lubricants in Africa, is eyeing an 

initial public offering that could 

value the company at more than 

$3 billion, according to people 

familiar with the matter. 

The planned offering represents 

a bet that Africa’s improving economic 

growth prospects in part due 

to a rebound in commodity prices 

and a growing middle class in parts 

of the continent will help drive retail 

and consumer fuel demand. 

Based in the Netherlands, Vivo 

distributes and markets Shellbranded 

products across 16 African 

countries, including lubricants 

and liquefied petroleum gas to 

customers in the aviation, marine 

and mining industries. It also operates 

a network of more than 1,780 

fuel stations across the continent 

under the Shell banner. 

Africa’s economy is expected 

to generate real economic growth 

of 3.7% in 2018, according to estimates 

from the International Monetary 

Fund. In some of the countries 

where Vivo operates such 

as Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana 

economic growth next year is expected 

to range between 5% and 

8.9%, depending on the specific 

country, according to the IMF. 

Vivo is working with a group of 

global investment banks as underwriters 

for the offering and is looking 

at the London Stock Exchange 

for a listing, according to some of the 

people familiar with the matter. Details 

about the issue’s potential size 

couldn’t be learned, but it would 

likely value the entire company at 

more than $3 billion, according to 

people familiar with the effort. 

Will machines take 

over the bond 

market too? 

Banks including 

Credit Suisse 

Group AG CS -0.62% , Goldman 

Sachs Group Inc., GS +2.38% and 

Morgan Stanley MS +2.54% are 

all making bets in that direction, 

unleashing new trading software 

systems in recent months to pick 

up share in the $6 trillion market for 

investment-grade corporate debt. 

In part because of its complexity 

and relatively low liquidity, that 

corner of Wall Street has been one 

of the more resistant to technological 

changes sweeping trading, 

lending and just about everything 

else in banking. A recent study by 

the Bank for International Settlements 

estimated that only 40% of 

investment-grade corporate bond 

trading was executed through 

computers rather than over the 

phone, compared with 75% in 

Treasury-debt trading, 80% in 

stocks and 90% in a broad array of 

futures contracts. 

Now, investment banks are 

pushing to stoke more electronic 

trading in the market, especially 

with small trades that otherwise 

might fall through the cracks. It is 

yet another example of banks turning 

to technology to try to generate 

revenue growth at relatively low 

cost. 

Starting with smaller trades, 

those under $1 million, is a safer 

route for the banks because it 

doesn’t threaten the profit margins 

on the big trades they do with 

institutions. 

Saudi oil minister plays down prospect of Aramco abandoning IPO 

BENOIT FAUCON 

Saudi Arabia still plans 

to publicly list a portion 

of its state oil company 

in 2018, the kingdom’s 

oil minister said Tuesday, after 

reports that the effort may be 

abandoned. 

“We are on track,” Saudi oil 

minister Khalid al-Falih said 

While the banks are taking it 

slow, the smaller trades eventually 

may be a precursor to fully 

automating some bigger trades, 

which are often trickier to execute 

and require more human hand 

holding. 

“Banks see an opportunity 

to take advantage of trading opportunities 

they were missing in 

the past,” said Richard Schiffman, 

head of open trading at MarketAxess 

Holdings Inc., operator of an 

electronic bond-trading network. 

Some past efforts to change 

the patterns of bond trading have 

met resistance or petered out. 

Platforms offered several years ago 

by Wall Street players including 

Goldman and money manager 

BlackRock Inc. were shelved or 

integrated into other efforts. 

But more recent initiatives, 

such as networks connecting bond 

investors to trade with each other, 

have started to show traction. 

Credit Suisse launched its system, 

called CSLiveEx, earlier this 

year, making the decision to fully 

automate the smallest trades in the 

on Tuesday outside the Oil and 

Money energy conference in 

London. 

Doubts about the IPO of Saudi 

Arabian Oil Co., better known 

as Aramco, have grown in recent 

days as news organizations including 

The Wall Street Journal 

have reported that the kingdom 

may not go forward with the 

plan. The Journal reported last 

U.S. market for bonds of corporations 

with top credit. That means 

the trades have no direct human 

involvement. 

In corporate bonds, traders 

working the phone still dominate 

the market, in part because there 

are so many various bonds to 

follow, all with different permutations 

such as maturity and yield. 

Some corporate bonds also don’t 

trade that often after their initial 

sale, even for major companies 

like Apple Inc. In that type of market, 

human salespeople who can 

wheedle buyers and sellers still 

add value. 

“We are running with the machines, 

rather than letting them 

do the running on their own,” 

said Samik Chandarana, a veteran 

credit trader who was recently 

named head of analytics and data 

science at J.P. Morgan Chase JPM 

+0.88% & Co.’s investment bank. 

J.P. Morgan and its peers, which 

tend to have bigger balance sheets 

and trading desks, have invested in 

technology as well, primarily to aid 

human traders. 

week that Aramco was interested 

in selling a stake to a private 

investor and that a Chinese company 

had made an offer. 

Asked if Saudi Arabia still 

planned a local listing for Aramco 

in Riyadh and an international 

listing, Mr. Falih said, “No 

change.” 

“You will know the venue and 

the exact date in due course,” 

said Mr. Falih, who also is Aramco’s 

chairman. 

Prince Mohammad bin 

Salman, the kingdom’s heir apparent, 

announced the IPO of up to 

5% of Aramco in January 2016 and 

estimated the company’s value at 

between $2 trillion and $3 trillion. 

If that valuation held true, the IPO 

could fetch over $100 billion—by 

far the largest ever. 

The Journal has reported 

that the IPO has been delayed 

by questions over the valuation 

and difficulty untangling the vast 

state company from the government.


C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

A7 

Mnuchin has an 

important warning for 

stock-market investors 

MARK DECAMBRE 

Beware, stock market investors! 

Tax cuts are crucial 

to maintaining their 

record-setting ways, according 

to Steven Mnuchin. 

The Treasury secretary made 

his comments during a recent 

interview with Politico and said 

stocks could take a significant 

tumble if tax cuts aren’t implemented 

soon. 

“There is no question that 

the rally in the stock market has 

baked into it reasonably high expectations 

of us getting tax cuts 

and tax reform done,” Mnuchin 

told Politico Money in a podcast. 

Wall Street equity benchmarks 

have been on a tear since 

President Donald Trump’s surprise 

election victory in November, 

on a campaign promising 

Wall Street-friendly policies, including 

infrastructure spending 

increases, loosening of crisis-era 

regulations and the aforementioned 

changes to tax policy, 

which includes cuts. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average 

DJIA, +0.66% has gained more 

than 26% since last year’s presidential 

election, the S&P 500 index 

SPX, +0.13% has rallied nearly 

20%, the Nasdaq Composite Index 

COMP, +0.14% has climbed 

almost 28%, while an index of 

small companies, the Russell 

2000, the most likely to benefit 

from tax reform, has gained more 

than 25% over the past 11 months, 

according to FactSet data. 

It isn’t clear, however, that 

the hope of tax cuts have been 

the sole cause of those gains. 

Corporate earnings have so far 

been healthy and the global 

economy is taking part in a rare 

synchronized uptick that has 

seen Germany’s stock market, 

the DAX 30 index DAX, +0.25% 

and the Nikkei Stock Average 

NIK, +0.13% trade at or near 

record territory, market participants 

point out. 

An unscientific Twitter poll 

by MarketWatch showed 68% of 

respondents believe tax-policy 

changes are baked into markets, 

while 32% say the rise to records 

is a function of better-thanexpected 

quarterly results. 

Read Ambitiously 

Stocks climb, putting Dow back 

on track to close above 23000 

RIVA GOLD & AMRITH RAMKUMAR 

The Dow Jones Industrial 

Average rallied 

Wednesday and was 

back on course to close 

above 23000 for the 

first time. 

The Dow industrials rose 136 

points, or 0.6%, to 23133. The 

S&P 500 climbed 0.1% and the 

Nasdaq Composite advanced 

0.1%. The Dow industrials closed 

about three points shy of 23000 

on Tuesday after briefly climbing 

above that level during the day. 

Shares of International Business 

Machines propelled the 

blue-chip index higher Wednesday, 

rising 9.2% after exceeding 

Wall Street’s profit and sales 

expectations in the most recent 

quarter. Gains in its hardware and 

artificial-intelligence divisions 

encouraged analysts even though 

George Soros transfers $18bn to his 

foundation, creating an instant giant 

JULIET CHUNG & ANUPREETA DAS 

George Soros, who built 

one of the world’s largest 

fortunes through a 

famous series of trades, 

has turned over nearly $18 billion 

to Open Society Foundations, 

according to foundation officials, 

a move that transforms both the 

philanthropy he founded and 

the investment firm supplying its 

wealth. 

Now holding the bulk of Mr. 

Soros’s fortune, Open Society has 

vaulted to the top ranks of philanthropic 

organizations, appearing 

to become the second largest in 

the U.S. by assets after the Bill and 

Melinda Gates Foundation, based 

on 2014 figures from the National 

Philanthropic Trust. 

Soros Fund Management LLC’s 

87-year-old founder now shares 

influence over the firm’s strategy 

with an investment committee of 

Open Society. Mr. Soros set up the 

committee and is its chairman, but 

it is meant to survive him, people 

familiar with it said. 

A new chief investment officer 

at the Soros firm is less a trader than 

an allocator of capital to various in- 

revenue and earnings declined. 

Robust earnings growth 

around the world has propelled 

major indexes throughout the 

year. With the world’s major economies 

growing in sync for the first 

time in a decade, many analysts 

and investors say conditions are 

favorable for stocks to continue 

ternal and external asset managers. 

Unlike past investment chiefs, the 

official, Dawn Fitzpatrick, doesn’t 

report to Mr. Soros or others at 

his firm but to the philanthropy’s 

investment committee. 

Mr. Soros doesn’t plan to trade 

the billions that now belong to 

Open Society, according to the 

people familiar with the situation. 

Mr. Soros was trading his own 

money, held separately within the 

Soros firm, as recently as last year, 

when he bet—wrongly, it turned 

out—that stocks would slump 

after Donald Trump was elected 

president. 

“It’s an ongoing process of migration 

from a hedge fund toward 

a pool of capital deployed to support 

a foundation over the long 

term,” said Bill Ford, a committee 

member and the chief executive 

of General Atlantic LLC, a firm that 

invests in growth-stage companies. 

Though the $26 billion Soros 

Fund Management was a pioneering 

hedge fund, it returned outside 

investors’ money several years ago 

and became a family office—a type 

of structure, largely free of regulation, 

that is increasingly popular 

with wealthy clans. 

to rise. 

“We finally have everything 

clicking at once,” said Ryan Detrick, 

senior market strategist at 

LPL Financial. “What we’ve seen 

this year is really a global resurgence,” 

he said. 

In the U.S., third-quarter earnings 

season has gotten off to a 

DANIEL STACEY 

strong start, investors say. Of the 

S&P 500 companies that have 

reported third-quarter earnings 

so far, more than 80% have beat 

analyst expectations, compared 

with the five-year average of 69%, 

according to FactSet. 

Expectations for U.S. tax cuts 

have also delivered a boost to Wall 

Street in recent sessions, according 

to some analysts. 

“We now think there’s an injection 

of risk and enthusiasm 

because people are starting to 

price in corporate tax reform,”said 

Michael Thompson, managing 

director at S&P Global Market 

Intelligence. “People are generally 

feeling a little bit better about 

the broad-based economy and 

therefore investing,” he said. 

The financial sector was among 

the best performers Wednesday, 

buoyed by big banks that recently 

reported strong earnings despite 

a slowdown in trading revenue. 

Investors’ response to bank earnings 

has been mixed. 

Morgan Stanley shares rose 

1.9% Wednesday and Goldman 

Sachs Group advanced 1.8%, after 

Goldman shares fell following 

earnings the previous day. 

New ‘Smart City’ hatches 

solutions to India’s urban chaos 

The government planners 

now dreaming up India’s 

first “smart city” realize 

they have a problem. 

To solve it they are planning to 

dispatch a fleet of drones, bury the 

power grid and link a biometric 

database to every square foot of 

land here in India’s newest state 

capital. 

The problem is that none of 

India’s modern-day planned cities 

have lived up to their hype. 

Instead, they have succumbed to 

slums, crowding and chaos. 

Amaravati was named the new 

capital of Andhra Pradesh after the 

Telangana region broke away as a 

new state in 2014. Since then, $1 

billion in loan pledges from the 

World Bank and Asia Infrastructure 

Investment Bank, alongside 

another $2.3 billion from state 

and federal government agencies, 

have breathed life into the project. 

Planners envision a city of 3.5 

million people on land currently 

home to 100,000 farmers and rural 

laborers living in 29 villages. 

Farmers are exchanging their 

land for smaller, more valuable 

plots in the new city. Poorer farm 

hands who don’t own land have 

been promised a place in new government 

housing. For low-income 

business owners such as small restaurants 

and retailers, government 

developers plan to offer “microplots” 

as small as 50 square meters 

in size for $3000 and up. 

Two of Singapore’s largest 

developers, Ascendas-Singbridge 

and Sembcorp Industries , have 

signed on to build the city’s commercial 

district, while British 

architects Foster + Partners are 

designing a sprawling government 

complex to spread over two 

square miles. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi 

has pledged to build or redevelop 

100 “smart cities” in coming years, 

sparking a wave of interest from 

offshore developers, and skepticism 

from those who view the 

plans as unrealistic. 

Mr. Modi and other leaders 

are striving to avoid the mistakes 

of past grand urban development 

plans. In Navi Mumbai, a satellite 

city of 1.1 million next to financial 

capital Mumbai, the latest 

national census determined that 

around one of every five residents 

now lives in a slum—defined in 

India as at least 300 people or 

about 60-70 households living in 

poorly built, congested dwellings 

without basic infrastructure such 

as drinking water. 

Gurugram, a new city previously 

known as Gurgaon south 

of the capital Delhi, is likewise 

dotted with slums and struggles to 

provide services such as sewerage, 

water, drainage and firefighting. 

Efforts to provide such services 

to slum residents—who rarely pay 

for property taxes or for utilities— 

have left many cities financially 

crippled, unable to do more or 

raise money to upgrade infrastructure. 

Only one Indian city 

has managed to raise a municipal 

bond in the last decade.


C002D5556 Friday 20 October 2016 

TechTalk 

Innovation Apps Fin-Tech Start-up Gadgets Ecommerce IOTs Broadband Infrastructure Bank IT Security 

Dell redefines future of smart systems 

through new IoT strategy (2) 

CALEB OJEWALE 

Last week in New York, the 

Dell IQT day was a full 

demonstration of endless 

possibilities for a smart, 

interconnected world. 

IoT is offering newer ways of doing 

business, interacting with customers, 

meeting market needs and increasing 

profitability. As previously 

emphasised, Dell Technologies is at 

the fore front of a new IoT strategy 

which it calls IQT and places emphasis 

on “making systems smarter”. 

“A smarter system doesn’t hurt 

anyone, if anything it makes things 

better,” said Michael Dell, chairman 

and chief executive officer of Dell 

Technologies. 

Dell further noted that there 

will soon be 100 billion connected 

devices and then a trillion, implying 

enormous data which will 

be available for harnessing. The 

availability of more data will afford 

businesses the opportunity to make 

more informed and intelligent decisions, 

efficiently managing business 

processes and invariably yielding 

better results. 

Christopher Wilder, IoT lead at 

Moor Insights & Strategy, noted that, 

“Today, there are real IoT solutions 

available to enterprises that increase 

efficiency, reduce risk, improve 

customer experience, and create 

new revenue streams and business 

models for their specific use cases. 

“Moor Insights & Strategy recommends 

enterprises looking to 

identify, design, and deploy IoT 

solutions strongly consider Dell 

Technologies as a collaborative 

partner. Their experience, broad 

infrastructure portfolio, well curated 

partner program, world-class service, 

support and global scale make 

them uniquely positioned as one of 

the only tier one, end-to-end, IoT 

solutions providers in the industry,” 

Wilder said. 

Investments in IoT Future 

through Dell Technologies Capital 

Some Dell-backed companies 

which had use cases in IoT such 

as Moogsoft, Foghorn, Zingbox, 

Graph Core, and Edico Genome 

were presented during the IoT day, 

showing potentials for optimized 

operations and processes across 

different sectors. 

Dell Technologies Capital, the 

venture arm of Dell Technologies, 

is partnering closely with the new 

IoT division, providing industry 

insight and relationships to support 

its strategic agenda. Through its 

investments in promising startups 

and founders, Dell Technologies 

Capital provides a valuable link to 

the external innovation ecosystem, 

effectively accelerating the development 

and deployment of new IoT, AI 

and ML technologies and solutions. 

In healthcare for instance Zingbox 

which specialises in IoT security 

showed there was some vulnerability 

in IoT powered healthcare. 

Hackers could manipulate hospital 

administration and even medicine 

dispensing for patients, causing life 

threatening damage if the systems 

are not fortified. 

Edico Genome which has a 

product for the processing of DNA 

sequencing data, also showed 

healthcare applications through its 

Bio-IT processor which diagnoses 

diseases faster in infants, and helps 

to achieve more accurate diagnosis 

and treatment decisions. 

The possibilities for a smarter 

future also extend to Agriculture 

which has Aero farms running what 

it calls the world’s largest vertical 

farming facility. 

“AeroFarms is redefining agriculture 

by combining world-class 

expertise for horticulture, engineering, 

food safety, nutrition, and data 

science to set a new standard for 

product quality and production,” 

said David Rosenberg, co-founder 

and chief executive officer, Aero- 

Farms. 

“We are as much a capabilities 

company as we are farmers, utilizing 

science and technology to achieve 

our vision of totally-controlled agriculture. 

We have worked closely 

with Dell Technologies to develop 

the tools to wirelessly track and 

monitor our product throughout 

the growing process from seed to 

package. Dell Technologies understands 

our IoT infrastructure and 

integration needs, and we see the 

opportunity to collaborate on additional 

solutions as we build our 

indoor vertical farms in major cities 

around the world,” Rosenberg said. 

Also announced were new 

product development initiatives 

which include: 

• Dell EMC ‘Project Nautilus’: 

Software that enables the ingestion 

and querying of data streams from 

IoT gateways in real time. Data can 

subsequently be archived to file or 

object storage for deeper advanced 

analytics; 

• ‘Project Fire’: a hyper converged 

platform part of the VMware 

Pulse family of IoT solutions that 

includes simplified management, 

local compute, storage and IoT applications 

such as real-time analytics. 

‘Project Fire’ enables businesses 

to roll-out IoT use cases faster and 

have consistent infrastructure software 

from edge to core to cloud; 

• RSA ‘Project IRIS’: Currently 

under development in RSA Labs, 

Iris extends the Security Analytics 

capability to provide threat visibility 

and monitoring right out to 

the edge; 

• Disruptive technologies like 

processor accelerators will increase 

the velocity of analytics closer to the 

edge. Collaboration with industry 

leaders like VMware, Intel and 

NVIDIA and the Dell Technologies 

Capital investment in Graphcore 

reflect opportunities to optimize 

servers for AI, machine learning and 

deep learning performance. 

• Project ‘Worldwide Herd’: for 

performing analytics on geographically 

dispersed data – increasingly 

important to enable deep learning 

on datasets that cannot be moved 

for reasons of size, privacy and 

regulatory concern. 

Customers can also now visit 

one of the newly designed Dell 

Technologies IoT Labs. 

New IoT services initiatives 

include: 

• IoT Vision Workshop – identifies 

and prioritizes high-value 

business use cases for IoT data – essentially 

how and where to deploy 

IoT analytics that drive business. 

• IoT Technology Advisory 

– develops the overall IoT architecture 

and roadmap for implementation. 

IoT is creating new revenue 

models for customers and, in 

turn, Dell Technologies is offering 

new financing options to support 

those customers. In particular, 

Dell Technologies provides cloudlike 

payment options through 

Dell Financial Services flexible 

consumption models. These payment 

solutions are available across 

the Dell Technologies family of 

business and allow customers flexibility 

in technology acquisition and 

consumption. 

Peanut producer wins $15,000 #NES23 startup prize 

FRANK ELEANYA 

L&L Foods have been 

named winner of the first 

ever Nigerian Economic 

Summit Group pitch contest. 

The non-tech startup peanut 

producer beat seven other 

startups to emerge winner of 

the maiden contest and secure 

$15,000 in funding. 

Accounteer, a cloud accounting 

tech startup was 

the first runner and winner of 

$10,000 prize. Mypaddy.ng a 

platform that helps students 

find campus accommodation 

got the third position and a 

$5,000. 

There were a total of 263 

startups that applied to take 

part in the competition via 

Ventures for Africa platform. 

The number was later narrowed 

down to eight start-ups. 

Six of the eight were tech 

solution providers such as 

African-based e-library Aca- 

demix, Accounteer, ed-tech 

firms Insight Africa and Edusko; 

Mypaddy.ng and fintech startup 

Piggybank.ng. 

The two non-tech startups 

were L&L Foods and condiments 

producer Ojoro Kitchen. 

Team: Frank Eleanya, frank.eleanya@businessdayonline.com; Caleb Ojewale , caleb.ojewale@businessdayonline.com

BUSINESS DAY 

Fact Check 

NEWS YOU CAN TRUST I THURSDAY 19 OCTOBER 2017 C002D5556 

TopfiveFacts 

Trivial 

32.3% 

The corruption survey by the National 

Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows 32.3% 

of adults reported paying bribes to a 

public official or that they were asked 

to in the year before. 

Factsheet: Everyday corruption in Nigeria 

– who is on the take? 

In winning Nigeria’s 

2015 election, President 

Muhammadu 

Buhari successfully 

cast himself as an 

anti-corruption crusader. 

But as our factsheet shows, 

Nigerians’ experience with 

everyday bribery shows he 

has his work cut out. 

Nigeria’s first nationwide 

survey on bribery 

has shed light on the extent 

of corruption in Africa’s 

largest economy. 

The country’s statistics 

agency interviewed a 

nationally representative 

sample of 33,067 households 

across Nigeria in 

April and May 2016 on 

their experiences with 

bribery in the previous 

year. 

Nearly a third (32.3%) 

of adults reported paying 

bribes to a public official 

or that they were asked to 

in the year before. Those 

who did, parted with at 

least six bribes in the period, 

paying about N5,300 

(about US$17), or nearly 

a third of the average 

monthly salary in Nigeria. 

The survey estimates 

82.3 million bribes were 

paid. These were worth 

N400 billion (US$1.31 

billion), or nearly 40% of 

Nigeria’s combined federal 

and state education 

budget for 2016. 

(Note: The current 

official Central Bank of 

Nigeria exchange rate is 

N305/US$. When the cost 

of living is factored in, the 

survey placed the value 

of the bribes at US$4.6 

billion.) 

What counts as corruption 

The United Nations Of- 

fice on Drugs and Crime, 

which helped fund the 

survey, defines corruption 

as crime committed 

by private or public officials 

for personal gain. 

Examples of this include 

bribery and embezzlement. 

It is a crime to give 

or take bribes, Nigeria’s 

Criminal Code Act stipulates. 

Other domestic 

laws also seek to prohibit 

corruption. 

Nine in 10 bribes were 

paid in cash, with the 

rest made either as food 

and drinks or exchanged 

for another service of favour. 

Of the respondents 

interacting with a public 

official in the period, 

67% of respondents said 

they were not asked for 

bribes. But 27% said they 

paid regularly, 4% did so 

periodically, while 1.3% 

refused to pay. 

Who received the 

most bribes? 

The police topped the 

public institutions taking 

the most bribes. Nearly 

half of respondents said 

they had paid at least 

one bribe to police officers. 

Prosecutors, judges 

and immigration officials 

were also cited among the 

most bribed. 

Who demanded the 

most bribes? 

Customs officers solicited 

the most bribes, 

ahead of immigration 

officials and elected state 

and local representatives. 

The top reasons bribes 

were paid was to speed 

up procedures, evade 

fines or to avoid losing a 

key utility such as power 

or water. 

What is the attitude to 

bribery in Nigeria? 

Less than 10% of bribery 

incidences were reported 

to the authorities, 

despite 90% of respondents 

being aware of the 

Nigeria Police. Four in 

10 respondents (39.2%) 

did not think the police 

was effective. But nearly 

twice as many (78%) 

thought anti-graft agency 

Economic and Financial 

Crimes Commission was 

competent. 

Nearly 70% said they 

failed to report bribery 

as it would be “pointless” 

or because it was such 

common practice that 

doing so would not make 

a difference. 

Mega corruption not 

captured 

One limitation to the 

survey is that it only captured 

low-level bribery 

cases in the country, 

Nicholas Ibekwe, a Lagos-based 

investigative 

journalist who has widely 

reported on high-profile 

bribery, told Africa 

Check. 

“I don’t think it captures 

the kind of bribery 

that goes on in this country. 

I think N400 billion is 

a far cry from the actual 

amount,” he said. 

In recent years, Nigeria 

has witnessed major 

bribery scandals. An oilfield 

scandal implicated 

a former minister who is 

alleged to have received 

hundreds of millions of 

dollars in kickbacks. 

Another was the 

US$180 million Halliburton 

bribe scandal that 

in 2010 entangled two 

former heads of state. 

The survey also focused 

only on public institutions, 

even as it noted 

that bribery in private 

firms was also significant. 

Need to study why 

public officials are susceptible 

Bayo Okunade, a professor 

of political science 

at the University of 

Ibadan in Oyo state said 

the findings highlighted 

the complexities of the 

problem. 

“Many institutions 

were implicated and what 

we can do is it to first 

study the basic underlying 

factors,” he told Africa 

Check. 

A broad effort is needed 

to counter corruption, 

but Okunade warned it 

would not be easy. “It 

is an endemic problem 

that will [require] a sort 

of breakthrough to really 

address.” 

Development and 

corruption risk analyst 

Tunde Oluajo agreed it 

was important to tackle 

the reasons why public 

officials were susceptible 

to graft. 

“What that report has 

done is to give us like a 

baseline, so that in the 

anti-corruption effort 

government knows what 

to focus on. Before now, 

there was no report of this 

type telling us [about] the 

prevalence of bribery,” 

Oluajo, who also advises 

anti-graft watchdog Integrity 

Organisation, told 

Africa Check. 

Researched by David 

Ajikobi 

Source: Africa Check 

N5,300 

Nigerians parted with at least six 

bribes within a year, paying about 

N5,300 (about US$17), or nearly a 

third of the average monthly salary 

in Nigeria. 

82.3 million 

The survey estimates 82.3 million 

bribes were paid. These were worth 

N400 billion (US$1.31 billion), or nearly 

40% of Nigeria’s combined federal 

and state education budget for 2016. 

9 

Nine in 10 bribes were paid in cash, 

with the rest made either as food 

and drinks or exchanged for another 

service of favour. 

10% 

Less than 10% of bribery incidences 

were reported to the authorities, 

despite 90% of respondents being 

aware of the Nigeria Police. 

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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BusinessDay 19 Oct 2017

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