BusinessDay 11 Dec 2017

Monday 11 December 2017
NEWS
Yuletide rush boosts port business as
importers struggle to take delivery
… naira stability, regular forex supply responsible for high volume
AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE
As Christians get
set to mark this
year’s Christmas
and New Year
celebrations, the
nation’s seaports have started
experiencing beehive of
activities, as importers and
other business owners struggle
to take delivery of their
imported consignments
ahead of the season.
Yuletide, usually characterised
by lots of social events
such as weddings, parties
and other forms of celebrations,
has helped in increasing
the demand for imported
finished and semi-finished
goods as well as raw materials
for the local industrials.
Tony Anakebe, managing
director of Gold-Link Investment
Limited, a Lagos-based
clearing and forwarding
company, who confirmed
that the volume of goods
coming into the country
had increased, especially in
preparation to the festive and
New Year celebrations, said
congestion had already started
building up at the ports
due to beehive of activities
and inability of importers to
take delivery on time.
Access Bank upgrades mobile, internet banking platforms
Access Bank Plc has
upgraded its Mobile
and Internet banking
platforms to provide
an Omnichannel experience
alongside a range of new and
exciting features.
The Omnichannel experience
simply means customers
of the 2017 Karlsruhe
Outstanding Business Sustainability
Award winner would
enjoy a seamless and consistent
interaction with the Bank
across multiple channels.
With this new upgrade, customers
can now sign-in to the
mobile and internet banking
platform with the same user
details. Also beneficiaries and
“The environment around
Apapa port city is no longer
conducive for seamless port
operation. There is increasing
volume at the ports but
the man-hour lost on the
roads by port users, container
carrying trucks and operators,
has been quiet disheartening,”
he said.
Anakebe, who attributed
the growing volume of imports
to naira stability and
improved foreign exchange
supply by the Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN), also said the
bad road was hindering free
movement of cleared consignments
out of the ports.
Currently, he said the rate
at which conventional goods
such as rice, textile, building
materials like tiles were coming
into the ports had drastically
reduced by over 80
percent. He listed the goods
coming into the ports in large
quantity to include vehicles
spare parts, pharmaceuticals
and medical equipment as
well as industrial chemicals
for Nigeria’s upcoming manufacturing
sector.
A source close to a terminal
in Lagos said volume
of business in Nigeria’s seaports,
especially in the first
half of the year, did not have
other information stored on
one channel are available for
use on the other channels.
Furthermore, additional
features have been added
with the aim of making banking
convenient as ever for
the Bank’s customers. Some
of these features include:
standing orders for recurrent
transactions like bill payments
, top up, fund transfer
and lots more.
It also enables customers
to purchase airtime directly
for a friend from the phone
contact list, manage cheque,
receive targeted product
campaigns, as well as analysis
and tracking of monthly
any significant different from
what happed all through the
previous year of 2016.
He said though statistics
showing volume of import in
the third quarter of the year was
yet to be released by the Nigerian
Ports Authority (NPA), but
throughput started growing
from July 2017 till date.
The source projected that
Apapa and Tin-Can Island
ports, the two major seaports
in Nigeria that handle over 85
percent of the imports, would
likely achieve over 1.2 million
twenty equivalent units
(TEUs) of import and export
containers by year end.
The source further said
both ports, which handled
close to 1.6 million TEUs of
import and export containers
in 2014, when business was
at its peak, handled about 1.1
million TEUs of containers in
2016, volume was down.
“The recovery of oil price
including the rebounded
volume of oil production in
Nigeria, especially since the
Niger-Delta Avengers declared
ceased fire in the oil
rich-region, has helped in
growing the volume of economic
activities in Nigeria,”
Emma Nwabunwanne, a
Lagos-based importer, said.
‘Private sector investment in infrastructure key for manpower development’
KELECHI EWUZIE
Lagos State government
says the continuous
investment by private
sector in educational
infrastructure represents the
needed resolve to ensure the
development of skilled manpower
in the state and Nigeria.
Idiat Oluranti Adebule,
deputy governor of Lagos
State, while speaking when
the Nigerian Breweries-Felix
Ohiwerei Education Trust
Fund donated a newly built
block of six classrooms and
conveniences to St. Patrick
Grammar School, Epe, commended
the company for its
commitment to the development
of education.
The deputy governor, who
was represented by Adebunmi
Adekanye, permanent
secretary of the Ministry of
Education, said the state government
was committed to
providing new structures and
rehabilitating existing ones
across educational institutions
in the state to ensure
that quality education was
accessible to all students, irrespective
of their locations.
She described Nigerian
Breweries as a responsible
corporate entity of repute.
According to Adebule,
“That Nigerian Breweries plc is
a responsible corporate entity
is not a subject of debate. Her
intervention in this school with
the provision of a block of six
classrooms, five toilets, 24 fans
complemented by the supply
of 150 dual students’ furniture
and six sets of teachers’ furniture
speaks volume about her
passion for the development
of education and production
of skilled manpower to help
the growth of the economy of
Lagos State and Nigeria.”
Kufre Ekanem, corporate
affairs adviser of Nigerian
Breweries in his remark, said
the donation was a demonstration
of its unwavering
commitment to the developmental
aspirations of the people
of the state.
Ekanem explained that
“the company’s interests in
the state and Nigeria goes
beyond doing business and
making profits to adding value
and touching lives in critical
sectors of the economy.
“As a responsible corporate
citizen, our interest in
Lagos State and Nigeria goes
beyond the pursuit of business
or profit. We believe that
the right investment in the
education of our children will
secure a bright future for our
nation.”
spend and use of MVisa.
Speaking on the development,
Maryann Ezechukwu,
Group head, Channel Services
said the upgrade revalidates
Access Bank’s focus in
creating disruptive innovation
that creates value.
“As a bank, we appreciate
our customers and we recognize
the importance of convenience
and ease of use to
them hence our continuous
engagement with customers
and creation of value which
results in regular updates of
the mobile and internet banking
platforms premised on our
customers speaking and us listening”,
she added.
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BUSINESS DAY
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