BusinessDay 31 Oct 2017

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Tuesday 31 October 2017 28 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556 Energy Report PIND, MADE put Niger Delta development in focus at Nigerian Economic Summit based conflicts in the Niger Delta, remains a key sector for unlocking growth for both the region and the country as a whole, employing approximately 45% of the workforce. “It is no coincidence that this panel is happening this year, following one of the worst economic recessions that Nigeria has seen,” said Tunji Idowu, PIND’s Deputy executive director. “The Nigerian government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) to put us back onto the path of sustained economic growth and presents a unique opportunity for non-oil sector development in the Niger Delta that both tackles youth restiveness and employment. We can only ensure the sustainability of the Nigerian economy by focusing on sectors with high-growth potential. That is why agriculture is so important.” This breakout session, co-sponsored by PIND and MADE, took advantage of the national conversation on economic diversification (spurred by the ERGP) to drive attention to agricultural sectors in the Niger Delta with high-growth potential. Present at this event were representatives from energy companies such as Oando; Royal Dutch Shell’s All On; agribusiness firms like Syngenta and Olam; the German development organization Heinrich Boell Foundation; and state and federal government representatives from Rural Electrification Agency, Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIR- SAL), the Presidency and Ministry of Environment, among many others. Before participants broke into groups, there were brief presentations from representatives of government and the private sector. Dr. Princewill Ekanim, Director of Special Duties at the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), gave a brief presentation on the Commission’s work and willingness to partner with private sector on notable projects as it plans to improve broadband access across the Niger Delta and increase agricultural lending On October 11, 2017, the Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND) and the Market Development Project in the Niger Delta (MADE) teamed up with the Nigerian Economic Summit’s Sustainability Policy Commission to sponsor a breakout session at Transcorp Hilton in Abuja themed “Low Carbon Investment Opportunities for Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) in Niger Delta Communities”. This year’s edition of the annual Nigerian Economic Summit was themed “Opportunities, Productivity, and Employment: Actualizing the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan”, which was a direct response to the Nigerian government’s plan to strengthen and diversify the Nigerian economy. From each of the ten policy breakout sessions will come short, medium and long-term plans that address the challenges on economic inclusion, access to capital, legislation, skills building, and local production. This edition also marks the first time that the Nigerian Economic Summit will hold a session on Niger Delta development; and the Niger Delta is important for national development for many reasons. Nearly 32 million Nigerians representing over 40 different ethnic groups live in the Niger Delta. Even though the oil-rich region is the source of 75% of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings, over 70% of the population in the region live on an average of less than US$ 2 a day and are beset by diverse development challenges, making the Niger Delta one of the world’s leading development puzzles to be solved. The region’s importance has typically centered on oil but the sector provides only 0.01% of Nigeria’s total jobs. Agriculture, while still hampered by low productivity and landthrough the establishment of a Niger Delta Development Bank. Eze Wakanma, Union Bank’s Unit Head of Corporate Agriculture, discussed the Bank’s plans to improve farmers’ access to improved technologies and set up Agricultural Finance Centers and locally-based agency banks in farming communities. Eze Wakanma also challenged NDDC to seek partnerships with already-established banks such as theirs. Participants in this session broke into groups and came up with policy recommendations for such issues as: fluctuations in monetary policy following the devaluation of the naira, improving access to power in local communities, and improving agricultural output in the Niger Delta using technology. Osagie Okunbor, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC) and country chair praised the session and the organizers following the discussions. “I have been listening in on the different group sessions, and was very impressed with the quality of the recommendations. This was top notch, and I give credit to PIND and MADE for organizing this worthwhile session.” “This was a very efficient session,” enthused Dolapo Kukoyi of Details Solicitors and one of the lead discussants on the access to power discussion group. “From our brief time together we were able to come up with short, medium and long-term plans, and the quality of the solutions provided here speaks to the quality of participants we had in the room.” “What this event has further crystallized for me is that the problem of access to energy will have to be fixed with solutions that are homegrown,” says Sola Abulu, External Relations Communications Manager for Shell Petroleum. “It is all about innovation and coming together to deliver value.” This event also brought the opportunity for participants to form partnerships. Among the outcomes of this session, NDDC and Union Bank agreed to work together on agricultural development in the Niger Delta. “As a financier, we are willing to finance, but it has to viable,” says Eze Wakanma. “NDDC today has agreed to bankroll a pilot program that will focus on funding agricultural lending. And we now want to use that to test the theories we have propounded today. We are more than ready to work with them.” Niger Delta focused organizations at the session expressed pleasure at the outcome of the event and hope that it will begin a larger effort to mainstream the region into the national conversation on economic diversification. “The Niger Delta is crucial to Nigeria’s development, and not just because of oil,” opined Fidelis Ekom, Advocacy Manager for MADE “and partnerships like ours with PIND and now NESG are important because no organization can address the development challenges facing the Niger Delta alone. With this and the upcoming Niger Delta Development Forum (NDDF), we are supporting PIND to plan on November 14-15, we are hoping to fully mainstream a regional framework for economic diversification and development in both the Federal Government’s plans and in each of the Niger Delta states as well.” The Nigerian Economic Summit will harmonize all the action plans drawn up in different sections and share them with all private and public sector stakeholders. These plans will be reviewed by the Federal Executive Council and will be adopted to form part of policy guidance towards improvements in diversification in the Nigerian economy. Make energy plans bankable to attract investment experts urge FG KELECHI EWUZIE The federal government aspiration to achieve sustainable power supply in the country can only materialise to the extent that the plans are bankable. Industry experts have observed. To them the only way to attract investment to the power sector is for public policies to be strategic, transparent, consistent and have longevity. According to experts, Nigeria’s challenges have nothing to do with situating the problem but everything to do with implementing a solution. Experts in their various summations are worried that despite Nigeria’s large deposit of gas and a bankable amount of wind and sunshine in the north with water everywhere, the country cannot still boost of sufficient power supply. Ayodele Oni, an energy expert observes that Power generation and supply continue to pose challenges on different fronts in Nigeria. For many decades, successive admin- istrations have made “concerted efforts” to tackle the many challenges that have plagued the sector. Oni observes that a lot of the challenges in the power sector are largely occasioned by poor infrastructure, lack of sufficient funding, failure by the executive arm of government to pay for power, security issues and the uncertainty surrounding the present foreign exchange regime. Tony Elumelu, chairman of Transcorp at a recent interview believes that the right mind set must be in place first to address the crises in the power sector. He highlighted the liquidity challenges in the sector to be the results of non-settlement of debts owed Gencos and gas constraints worsened by government’s refusal to liberalise the sector. “There’s a lot of debt being owed to us. The sector is challenged, debt, liquidity is a challenge. “There is also gas issue. Of course, gas you will not blame government so much for the vandalisation going on in that sector. Gas pricing should be market driven; price fixing does not really work. Gas is important and we should allow market forces to determine gas prices” The Transcorp chairman proposed that government should create enabling environment for gencos to harness idle gas fields to provide gas for their operations. “If you put invoice, you get paid about 15 or 20 per cent. The accumulated debt today is over N50bn and they started owing us when dollar was N168/$1 today, it is over N300/$1 so you can imagine the depletion, the erosion of value to shareholders of Transcorp.” He also said that since the assumptions that led to the tariff structure agreed in the 2013 privatisation exercise such as exchange rate, inflation rate, gas prices have all changed the tariff cannot remain the same.
C002D5556 BUSINESS DAY 29 Tuesday 31 October 2017 HOMES&PROPERTY In Association Infrastructure Maintenance With TUNDE OBILEYE Customer feedback in FM Facilities management (FM) has gone beyond taking care of the built environment and the day-to-day running of the maintenance mechanism associated with it. At some point, the question of who is truly satisfied with the service being provided must come to mind. Most times, businesses are measured not only by profit generation, but also by its level of customer satisfaction. A business is not said to meet its target if the client involved is not satisfied. Satisfaction in this context means the client is comfortable with the state of things and there is little or nothing to complain about. Customer feedback in FM helps the growth of the business in terms of improving how the various activities are carried out, cost savings, profit generation and referral to new clients. Providing FM services seem to be hardest in pushing for the growth of the business as the requirements of each client are different and how satisfied they can be. Ways to work with clients and end-users: Understand their needs As facilities managers, our main focus must be to ensure customer satisfaction which can be measured by how well the end users can enjoy the use of the facilities and how efficient the FM personnel responds to problems when they arise. How well facilities managers understand their client’s requirements should clearly help in designing the appropriate systems, processes and work schedule to achieve the objectives. Communication Understanding their needs is as good as implementing them. This makes it easier to bring changes that would not only benefit the end users but also the FM business. Bear in mind it is a two way satisfaction. Their needs are understood and this makes the job of the facilities managers easy to deal with. Also, the facility managers should ensure that the need of one does not clash with that of another.someone else’s. There should be room for balance at all times. Adjustment may be required from time to time but must be communicated so no one feels out of place or cheated. Allow complaints and be open to improvements FM services will fail if management does not pay attention to their clients’ complaints and in turn make every effort to improve the services being provided. The end users must always feel their well-being is the main priority. Ways you can get their feedback/complaint •Get a feedback form. •Get a customer care operator(s). •Routine one-on-one conversation is desirable. While trying to pay attention to the needs and opinions of clients/end users, the following should be avoided. 1. Pretentions: As subtle as I try to make this sound, there’s a problem if facilities managers get feedback just to fulfill all righteousness. There must be a genuine desire to really care about what they think. 2. Impartiality: There’s no need to have an unhealthy client or end user relationship. Facilities managers must avoid being impartial where there are conflicting interests between two or more end users. Placing the needs of one over the other is wrong without due consideration of all material factors. It must be in the best interest of everyone. Opinions should be taken, considered and then executed if useful. There is a chance that changes may not always be welcome. The effect can always prove a change in thought. Getting the customer’s satisfaction right is a factor in realizing profit. However, there should also be a balance where there’s an unrealistic expectation from the client/end user. The unrealistic expectation must be professionally managed. Reasons for a No must be politely explained. Obileye is a UK-trained lawyer and CEO, Great Heights Property and Facilities Management Limited Email: Tundeobileye@greatheightslimited.com Lagos, NMRC partnership seen repositioning state’s Rent-to-Own initiative … housing affordability, accessibility for residents assured CHUKA UROKO There are strong indications that the partnership which Lagos State government entered into recently with the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) and some estate developers will reposition the state’s new homeownership initiative known as Rent-to-Own. Rent-to-Own is the state government’s initiative aimed to make homeownership easy for many of the citizens who, on account of affordability, cannot buy or build their own homes. The initiative enables a subscriber to rent a house, pay rents on it for a minimum of 10 years and thereafter own the house. Lagos is Nigeria’s largest economy and the 5th in Africa. It has a very large population estimated at 22 million crammed in a relatively small land mass. The city state accounts for about 34 percent of real estate activities in Nigeria, but majority of its residents are ‘homeless’. A recent report by Pison Housing Company estimates the state’s housing deficit at 3 million units. The report adds that the housing deficit in the state is both qualitative and quantitative, pointing out that about 65 percent of the state’s population lives in rented ac- commodation. The recent memorandum of understanding the state signed with NMRC and developers, which is premised on the financing, development and delivery of the 20,000 housing units Lagos Affordable Public Housing (LAPH) initiative, is therefore meant to address all these and more. “The LAPH home ownership initiative and this collaboration is an opportunity for the state and its citizens to leverage the benefits available under NMRC; this refinancing agreement will assist the supply side as well as the demand side of the value chain”, said Gbolahan Lawal, the state’s commissioner for housing, who spoke at the signing event. Lawal hopes that the refinancing agreement will set in motion a revolving pool of funds for mortgage origination which will assist developers and provide them access to construction finance and help scale up housing delivery. “This will also avail citizens of the state the affordability and accessibility that NMRC provides through the refinancing of long-term mortgages thereby unlocking its multiplier effects on the state’s strong economy, including jobs and wealth creation”, he assured. Examples of these efforts, the commissioner said, include the effective re-positioning of housing provision institutions in the state and the successful implementation of the Rent- To-Own scheme which has driven the growth of the sector and enabled many Lagosians, as a matter of fact over 2,000 Lagosians, realize their dreams of affordable home ownership. Charles Inyangete, MD/ CEO of NMRC, described the day’s event as a watershed for his company, explaining that the signing of the MoU was a journey on the path to making homeownership for Nigerians a reality alongside Lagos State. A private sector-driven company with the public purpose of developing the primary and secondary mortgage markets by raising long‐term funds from the domestic capital market as well as foreign markets, NMRC was established in January 2014 with the mandate to promote wider spread of home ownership, accessibility and affordability in Nigeria. Its mission is also to break down barriers to home ownership by providing liquidity, affordability, accessibility and stability to the housing market in Nigeria which explains the CEO’s passion for this partnership. “Lagos is at the frontiers and, indeed, at the leading edge of making homeownership a reality; it is creating the enabling environment for business to invest in housing and the signing of the MoU is on the path to doing that”, he noted. According to him, the state will be making sure that titles exist for the properties and the land on which the development will take place and done timely just as it will be committing to allocating to developers appropriate land for the purpose of the development while NMRC is committing to stand at the back end of the transaction to ensure that all the primary mortgage banks have funding available for the refinancing of the project. As a secondary mortgage market and consistent with its mission, NMRC is part of what is called the Mortgage Warehouse Fund that will provide funding for mortgage institutions to be able to actually create mortgages in the first place. It is hoped that this will be part of the process for driving the actualization of the new partnership on the part of the developers. Inyangete said the signing of the agreement is a convergence of all the parties housing delivery with Lagos as the driver and the provider of land and titles; NMRC as the provider of finance, and the developers without whom his company wouldn’t be providing financing.
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BusinessDay 31 Oct 2017

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