BusinessDay 26 Mar 2018

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36 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556 Monday 26 March 2018 ECONOMY Markets Intelligence Nigerian firms can tap into domestic debt market on lower rates ENDURANCE OKAFOR Domestic Debt issuances since the start of 2017 Corporate firms in Nigeria may have to consider borrowing at this time, as treasury bills yields are falling and government is cutting down on it domestic borrowing to tap in the foreign market, thereby giving room for Nigeria firms to borrow through bond issuance. The Federal Government usually issue domestic bonds at a more attractive rates than the firms in the country can beat, and as such it was a challenge for most firms to tap in the market as investors would prefer to subscribe to the government bond with ‘no risk’ to corporate firms. Analysts are however of the opinion that firms will tap into the bond market as rates which were up 15- 16 percent last year are now as low as 13 percent. The 13th consecutive decline in inflation rate, increase Source: FMDQ in FX liquidity and government repayment of domestic debt which has resulted in a precipitous drop in yields on treasury bills, were the reasons for the forecast by the analysts. In order to lower costs, government repaid N198 billion worth of treasury bills in December 2017, instead of rolling them over, The Director General of Debt Management Office (DMO) said there is money on the table; rates are lower and as such stressed on the need to encourage corporate bonds, and was also of the opinion that the reason there were no many corporate bonds in Nigeria was because interest rates were too high. However, firms like Mixta, Dufil, Lapo and Viathan Funding Plc issued corporate bonds in 2017. Mixta issued on January 17 with a 17 percent coupon, outstanding value of N4.5 billion and yield valuation of 14.59 percent, which is to mature in January of 2022. While Dufil which issued in August of the same year is expecting yield valuation of 15.32 percent to mature in September 2022 and has an outstanding value of N10 billion, while Lapo and Viathan both issued in December of last with outstanding values of N3.15billion and N10 billion respectively. They both are to mature in December of 2022. Meanwhile, Dangote Cement Plc said it got approval from Nigerian regulators to issue 300 billion naira ($833 million) in local-currency bonds as it seeks to fund expansion and refinance debt. Africa’s largest producer of building material plans to issue the debt over three years, Chief Financial Officer Brian Egan said during an investor conference call on Tuesday. The bond will be issued in tranches of 50 billion naira at a time whenever interest rates are favourable. Lists of dividend declared so far... Continued from page 35 from N156.74 billion as at December 2016. Profit after tax was up 37.20 percent to N177.93 billion in December 2017 from N129.65 billion as at December 2016. GTBank, the largest lender by market capitalization in Africa’s largest economy declared a final dividend of N2.40 per ordinary share of N0.50, which translates to N70.63 billion in absolute figure. The lender’s pre-tax profit grew by 21.25 percent to N200.24 billion in December 2017 from N165.13 billion as at December 2016. Profit after tax followed the same growth trajectory as it grew by 28.86 percent to N170.47 billion in the period under review. Access Bank declared a final dividend of N0.40 for every share of N0.50, which translates to an absolute figure of N11.53 billion. An increase in interest expense by 44.64 percent to N156.40 billion, a 57.15 percent increase in impairment charge to N34.46 billion and a loss on investment securities of N33.40 billion undermined the lender’s bottom line (profit) as net income slumped by 13.32 percent to N62 billion as at December 2017. Nestle Nigeria declared a final dividend of N27.50 per N0.5, which translates to N21.79 billion after multiplying total number of ordinary shares by dividend per share. Nestle Nigeria Plc generated Naira earnings well above the levels of the past five years as the company continues to surmount the headwinds brought on by weak consumer spending, rising input costs and currency volatility. According to the company’s 2017 audited financial statement, net income hit N33.72 billion, which represents a 325.25 surge from N7.92 billion figures recorded in the corresponding period of 2016, which is still higher than the 5.50 percent growth recorded in 2013, when profit was N22.25 billion, as the chart shows. Banks have always reward owners with bumper dividend more than companies in other sector as they continue to grow earnings amid a tough and unpredictable macroeconomic environment. The recent liquidity ease in the foreign exchange market since the introduction of a new foreign exchange policy by the central bank made dollars available for lenders and their customers. This means customers can now pay back interest on loans borrowed from bank.
Monday 26 March 2018 Start-Up Digest In association with BUSINESS DAY 37 Austin Okere’s blueprint for raising superpreneurs at Ausso Leadership Academy ODINAKA ANUDU Austin Okere is not a new name in Nigeria’s entrepreneurship space. He is widely known in the technology industry, having built the Computer Warehouse Group (CWG), which is today the largest computer security firm in the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The CWG has blossomed into a pan-African systems integrator with operations in Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda and Cameroon. It has an annual turnover of over $100 million and 600 employees across the group. Okere has mentored entrepreneurs at Columbia Business School, New York, which is why he is an Entrepreneur in Residence at the prestigious school. He teaches at the Lagos Business School and Fate Foundation. Having criss-crossed the length and breadth of the Nigerian business world, Okere, early this year, set up the Ausso Leadership Academy (ALA) to mentor entrepreneurs to institutionalise and scale their businesses geometrically. The rationale behind the academy is simple: There are many institutions catering for small and medium scale business, but there is none looking after executives in large enterprises, multinationals and conglomerates as well as founders of big businesses. He is interested in seeing small and medium businesses transform into conglomerates. Market capitalisation of Apple, American multinational technology company, is over $900 billion, twice the size of the Nigerian economy. Market cap of Johnson & Johnson, a healthcare company, is $356.89 billion, slightly below Nigeria’s GDP. Okere’s plan is to create businesses that can compete with these firms globally. Being a super entrepreneur himself, his plan is to replicate his success on others and raise superpreneurs who will build more CWGs. He was inspired to set up the leadership academy for three reasons. “I wanted to advise others the same way I would have advised my younger self. If I had that kind of advice at the time I was starting my business, I would probably have avoided some of the mistakes I made,” he says. “The second inspiration was that I wanted to be the mentor I wished I had,” he says. “The third reason, which is personal, is that we need to create something that will bring back our children who are abroad. They need to see what they are coming back for,” he adds. The academy caters for the people Okere classifies as ‘intra- Adeola Abdulrasheed Austin Okere preneurs’. These are people who work in various organisations but have high level of innovative thinking capacity. The academy also caters for the entrepreneurs who have gone out to set up their businesses. The model run by this academy is experiential. It does not pretend to be a traditional business school, but it is complementary to it. Rather than have a professor who has not run a business before teach people about business skills, this academy allows those who are already successful in their businesses to mentor participants directly. “We look at the most successful people and, every day, one of them will come and share his story. People can relate better to them than Elon Musk and Bill Gates, which do not connect. But if you say Frank Aigbogun, Tony Elumelu and Austin Okere, people begin to connect because they feel these people have something helpful to tell them. They come to the class with an open mind of absorbing rather than an educational mind just to learn,” Okere explains. “So you learn why he didn’t give up, what he did and the challenges he faced. So, the first week of the academy will be about the theory of setting one’s goals and milestones. The entrepreneurs we are talking about should be able to grow double-digits after one year of coming. And we say that the measure of success for us is that they should have imbibed the culture of corporate governance,” he says. One of the key advantages which participating entrepreneurs have is that they will have the opportunity of visiting champions in their offices. “When you get there, you see what you should be aiming at and begin to even dream. You can discuss issues with the like-minded mentor over there,” he explains. “Most importantly, we are going to expose the entrepreneurs to investment opportunities. We are looking for where to put money, but we want to be sure that the money is going to the right direction. The people that want to attract capital will pitch to these investors through the methodology that the investor wants. What we promise is exposure, but to attract capital, you have to do the due diligence,” he discloses. Small and medium businesses are not left out completely. Specialised programmes will be organised for operators. Secondly, they will feel the impact which ALA will have on executives and large enterprises. “When big businesses do well, they lift up small businesses. If you look at CWG that I founded, as a big business, we are doing businesses with about 200 SMEs that are into supplies. The big business makes the small business survive. Small businesses will not get government contracts, but they get businesses from big businesses. Two, they serve as beacons. If the high-achieving are not in a company, what happens to the company with the lowachieving?” he asks. If corporate organisations send business executives to Ausso Leadership Academy, will they not be preparing them to leave their companies to start on their own when they are needed? The super entrepreneur says it is a matter of choice. “Even when I was running CWG, people used to ask me why I was sending people to overseas to get bigger certificates. But there are always choices. I choose to give the best to my staff so that they will bring the best output that will make me stand out. “I can choose not to, but the output will be suboptimal, and when this is the situation, the other company that has put the best in its staff will lead. Businesses are about people. Not everybody wants to set up businesses; otherwise nobody will work for someone else. A lot of people have entrepreneurial minds but work for others. We call them intrapreneurs. They can do all these things but they don’t want the risk of starting on their own. If you do not invest in one of such people and he sees another fellow who is developing and making progress, he may jump out and become an entrepreneur even though that is not in his own nature. Take Satya Nadella of Microsoft. He didn’t start Microsoft but is one of the best CEOs of the company. This is the case with Google and LinkedIn. They are intrapreneurs and we need to recognise them so that we don’t lose their entrepreneurial skills. The other one is to bring them to the table so that they share their ideas. So, don’t be scared that they will move if you train them. That is a risk, but the risk of not training them is even bigger.” Okere tells Start-Up Digest that he went into entrepreneurship out of frustration. “I was upwardly mobile, I was doing well. I remember I told my then fiancée (my wife now) that I was leaving my job and she felt I was mad. “I used to sell technology and people would buy from me. A company bought from me and paid 85 percent. Yet, every day, I was avoiding the person because the boss had used the money for something else,” he discloses. He saw this as an injustice and bad business practice. He then decided to go into the business but met the shock of his life. “I was walking into organisations and collecting cheques before then, but when I started my own, they gave me excuses and told me they didn’t know me. I was disappointed but didn’t go back.” By dint of hard work, Okere started buying directly from large-scale sources. But why did his growth happen? Growth happened owing to his understanding of five letters of alphabet: Trust. “It is taken for granted in a place where the rule of law is strong. Where the rule of law is weak, trust is a competitive advantage,” he says. “So, I went into partnership with Dell; Dell introduced me to Oracle; Oracle introduced me to another firm, just because of trust.” Okere was faithful to his customers. At the time computer mouse was coming into the market, he got a contract to supply computers to Chevron Corporation. He supplied the systems alongside their mouses. The then boss at Chevron said, “I did not order the mouses.” The boss was obviously trying to avoid extra charges for the mouses. But Okere explained to him that computers came together with mouses. Other suppliers had deceived the boss, collecting extra charges for the mouses but Okere was different. “Trust is very important and takes you to the height you never expect,” Okere admonishes.
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