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usinessday market monitor<br />

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Biggest Gainer Biggest Loser<br />

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FOREIGN EXCHANGE<br />

TREASURY BILLS<br />

<strong>Mar</strong>ket Spot $/N 3M 6M<br />

I&E FX Window 360.20 -0.01 -0.47<br />

CBN Official Rate <strong>30</strong>5.65 14.64 14.83<br />

FMDQ Close<br />

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NEWS YOU CAN TRUST I **FRIDAY <strong>30</strong> MARCH <strong>2018</strong> I VOL. 15, NO 22 I N<strong>30</strong>0 @ g<br />

L-R: MD, Aiteo Downstream, Ewarezi Useh; Senate Majority Leader, Ahmed Lawan; Abu Ibrahim; GMD, Aiteo Eastern<br />

E&P Co. Ltd., Chike Onyejekwe; the celebrant - Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu; Fatai Buhari; Aiteo group director,<br />

Abubakar Shehu Tambuwal; chief of staff to Aiteo Group CEO, Haffner Onochie; MD, Nembe Creek Trunk Line, Tunde<br />

Akinpelu, and senior manager, corporate communications, Aiteo Group, Ndiana Matthew, at the Colloquium in honour<br />

of Asiwaju’s 66th birthday in Eko Convention Centre, Lagos, yesterday.<br />

More hotels go under<br />

receivership as loan<br />

defaults grow<br />

OBINNA EMELIKE<br />

More hospitality outfits<br />

are likely going under<br />

receivership for their<br />

growing default in paying back<br />

loans obtained from creditors,<br />

especially banks for the construction,<br />

renovation, or opera-<br />

Inside<br />

Continues on page 33<br />

Bitter Easter for<br />

air passengers<br />

as Buhari’s visit<br />

disrupts travel<br />

plans P. 32<br />

Buhari in Lagos, promises<br />

improved national security<br />

JOSHUA BASSEY & AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE<br />

President Muhammadu<br />

Buhari says the Federal<br />

Government is not<br />

shying away from its<br />

commitment to the creation of<br />

an enabling environment and<br />

improved national security in<br />

aid of new investments in the commercial city.<br />

economy.<br />

According to Buhari, the government<br />

at the centre is also<br />

He spoke, Thursday, at the<br />

opening of the Ikeja Bus Terminal,<br />

built by the Lagos State of transportation architecture<br />

working to change the narrative<br />

government, to raise the standard<br />

and quality of public trans-<br />

extending rail infrastructure. He<br />

nationally by expanding and<br />

portation services in Nigeria’s<br />

Continues on page 34<br />

Killings continue in Benue<br />

despite operation ‘Cat Race’<br />

Trend shows intention to be occupation<br />

State government overwhelmed by IDPs<br />

CHRISTOPHER AKOR<br />

Over a month after<br />

the Nigerian army<br />

began exercise<br />

‘Ayem Akpatuma’<br />

or ‘cat race’ to arrest<br />

the rising cases of herdsmen<br />

killings in Benue state and to<br />

allow the over 175, 070 inter-<br />

BD INVESTIGATIVE SERIES<br />

nally displaced persons (IDPs)<br />

currently taking refuge in ramshackle<br />

camps across the state to<br />

return to their homes, the army<br />

has been unable to stop the killings<br />

in the state and the militias<br />

responsible for the killings have<br />

only grown bolder, extending<br />

... flags off Lekki deep seaport construction<br />

their areas of attacks from the<br />

towns bordering Nasarawa state<br />

to hinterland communities in<br />

the state.<br />

On <strong>Mar</strong>ch 6, the Fulani militia<br />

invaded Omusu in Edumoga local<br />

government area of the state<br />

and killed 26 residents in cold<br />

blood. On Thursday, 22 <strong>Mar</strong>ch,<br />

the herdsmen also attacked<br />

Umenger community in Guma<br />

local government, killing two<br />

and injuring many other farmers<br />

who had gone to their farms to<br />

get food. Just two days ago, the<br />

state commissioner of police,<br />

Fatai Owoseni confirmed that<br />

Continues on page 4


2<br />

BUSINESS DAY<br />

C002D5556<br />

Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong>


Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong> C002D5556 BUSINESS DAY<br />

3


4 BUSINESS DAY<br />

C002D5556<br />

Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

NEWS<br />

Transaction advisers named for<br />

airport concession, MRO, others<br />

... include Infrata, Dentons, Proserve, Olawoyin & Olawoyin<br />

IFEOMA OKEKE<br />

The Federal Government<br />

has unveiled<br />

transaction advisers<br />

for the six projects in<br />

the Aviation Roadmap<br />

in line with the Infrastructure<br />

Concession and Regulatory<br />

Commission (ICRC) guidelines<br />

and public procurement act.<br />

This was made known by Hadi<br />

Sirika, the Minister of State Aviation,<br />

at the 4th Aviation Stakeholders<br />

Forum held on Thursday<br />

<strong>Mar</strong>ch 29th <strong>2018</strong> in Abuja where<br />

he also unveiled the logo for the<br />

59th Airport Council International<br />

Africa (ACI-Africa) Conference<br />

and exhibition next month.<br />

The six projects in the roadmap<br />

include the concession of<br />

the four major airports, establishment<br />

of Maintenance Repair<br />

and Overhaul (MRO) Centre<br />

and Aviation leasing company,<br />

development of Aerotropolis<br />

and cargo/ Argo allied terminals,<br />

establishment of national carrier.<br />

For the concession Sirika, announced<br />

Infrata, Dentons, Rebel,<br />

WSP Parsons Brinkckerhoff,<br />

Proserve as the five Transaction<br />

Advisers for the handling of the<br />

concession of the Abuja, Lagos,<br />

Kano and Port Harcourt Airports.<br />

Infrata is a United Kingdom<br />

based Infrastructure Transaction<br />

Support Consultancy which provides<br />

commercial, technical and<br />

traffic related advice on behalf of<br />

lenders, investors and sponsors.<br />

The Company has acted as<br />

advisor on many high profile<br />

transactions in Africa, America,<br />

Europe, Asia and Africa.<br />

Dentons is an international<br />

law firm based in London with<br />

experience in project advisory<br />

services across both developed<br />

Killings continue in Benue despite operation...<br />

Continued from page 1<br />

over five people were killed in<br />

various parts of the state over<br />

the weekend. He confirmed<br />

two people were killed in Agatu,<br />

another two in Tse-Semaka and<br />

another person along Lower<br />

Benue in Makurdi.<br />

“With the magnitude of the<br />

crisis we have at hand and, given<br />

the on-going killings despite Exercise<br />

Ayem A’ Kpatuma, we appeal<br />

to President Muhammadu<br />

Buhari and the federal government<br />

to convert the exercise to<br />

a full military operation to chase<br />

out the killer herdsmen from<br />

our communities,” the governor,<br />

Samuel Ortom pleaded during<br />

one of his frequent visits to the<br />

IDP camps in the state.<br />

“There is no doubt that the<br />

level of killings and destruction<br />

of property in Benue by herdsmen<br />

is comparable to what is<br />

happening in the Northeast and,<br />

with the rains fast approaching,<br />

the humanitarian crisis may get<br />

out of hand because many of<br />

the IDPs sleep outside, and we<br />

all know what that means if the<br />

rains set in.”<br />

On a visit to some of the IDPs<br />

in the state in February by the<br />

<strong>BusinessDay</strong> correspondent, it<br />

was found that although the state<br />

government and some wellspirited<br />

individuals and groups<br />

have been able to ensure that<br />

the IDPs have food to eat, the<br />

general living conditions at the<br />

camps have been pathetic, with<br />

frequent outbreak of diseases.<br />

Some of the camps were<br />

even relocated due to flood and<br />

there are fears the camps could<br />

become humanitarian disasters<br />

when the rains start in earnest.<br />

Even at that the state government<br />

has reached a breaking<br />

point and the governor is seeking<br />

for federal assistance. Governor<br />

Samuel Ortom of Benue state,<br />

met privately with President Muhammadu<br />

Buhari on Tuesday,<br />

<strong>Mar</strong>ch 27, to seek security help<br />

for the resettlement of the displaced<br />

175,000 Benue farmers.<br />

Governor Ortom who briefed<br />

State House Correspondents<br />

after meeting with President<br />

Buhari, said he was at the Presidential<br />

Villa to seek help on the<br />

plight of farmers whose homes<br />

and means of livelihood have<br />

been destroyed by the conflict.<br />

“I am here to intimate him of<br />

the plight of over 175,000 IDPs<br />

that we have in eight camps.<br />

They have expressed their desire<br />

to go back home”<br />

The crux of the crisis<br />

Although the federal government,<br />

the police and security<br />

agencies always try to portray the<br />

killings as communal clashes,<br />

the reality point to a more systematic<br />

attempt at dispossessing<br />

local communities of their lands<br />

forcefully for pastoralism.<br />

True, Benue state being predominantly<br />

an agrarian state<br />

with virtually all the population,<br />

inclusive civil servants, teachers<br />

and others, into farming, it was<br />

difficult for herders to move<br />

freely without encroaching on<br />

farmlands.<br />

Clashes therefore, with pastoralists,<br />

who move their cattle<br />

around in search of pasture<br />

along the Benue value, which is<br />

ever green, are inevitable.<br />

Fr Solomon Mfa, Parish priest<br />

of St Augustine Catholic Church,<br />

Demekpe, and one of the founding<br />

fathers of a pressure group:<br />

Movement Against Fulani Occupation<br />

(MAFO) told <strong>BusinessDay</strong><br />

that what used to be<br />

a conflict between farmers and<br />

herdsmen over grazing however<br />

soon turned to a quest for occupation<br />

of some part of Benue<br />

land.<br />

Mfa said he discovered while<br />

and emerging markets. It is present<br />

in every continent in more<br />

than 144 locations across over 59<br />

countries.<br />

Rebel specializes in economics,<br />

feasibility, financing and<br />

transaction advisory for projects<br />

in all infrastructure sectors. It operates<br />

globally with headquarters<br />

in Rotterdam (NL).<br />

WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff is<br />

a leading engineering professional<br />

services consulting firms<br />

with over 75 years’ experience in<br />

the aviation sector and based in<br />

more than 39 countries worldwide.<br />

The company has designed,<br />

developed, acted as financial<br />

consultants and managed airport<br />

development around the world.<br />

Proserve is a project coordination,<br />

construction management<br />

expert and local legal expert. The<br />

firm maintains strategic alliances<br />

with highly reputable global and<br />

L-R: President Muhammadu Buhari; Akinwunmi Ambode, Lagos State governor; James Faleke, member, House<br />

of Representatives, Ikeja Federal Constituency, and Kemi Nelson, APC South West women leader, during<br />

the commissioning of the newly built Ikeja Bus Terminal by the Lagos State government, yesterday.<br />

working as a catholic priest in<br />

Guma local government, that<br />

starting from 2013, the conflict<br />

started taking a different dimension;<br />

from just mere clashes<br />

between farmers and pastoralists<br />

for grazing land to one that<br />

is targeted at annihilation and<br />

occupation.<br />

He said from around that<br />

time, the Fulanis started arming<br />

themselves – usually with<br />

weapons like AK 47. From then,<br />

they will deliberately direct<br />

their herds into farmers’ lands,<br />

eat up their crops and kill and<br />

sack the community when they<br />

complain.<br />

Surprisingly, they will prevent<br />

the displaced communities<br />

from returning to their homes<br />

and will permanently settle in<br />

the communities. He said, the<br />

Fulani’s stopped the traditional<br />

dialogues and settlements that<br />

had always taken place between<br />

dissatisfied farmers and herdsmen<br />

and are now determined to<br />

permanently settle on the Benue<br />

partners to offer services in areas<br />

of need.<br />

Sirika said the consortium<br />

of five firms are vastly experienced<br />

and are experts in airport<br />

management, Public Private<br />

Partnership Legal Advice, Finance,<br />

Project and Construction<br />

Management and Environmental<br />

and Social services.<br />

On the establishment of an<br />

MRO Centre and Aviation Leasing<br />

company, Sirika revealed<br />

that government approved a<br />

consortium of five firms, Arup<br />

UK, Catamaran Nigeria Limited,<br />

RDC Aviation Economics UK,<br />

Aubert Business Consulting UK<br />

and Olawoyin & Olawoyin.<br />

The firms according to the<br />

minister are experienced in design<br />

and planning, especially in<br />

infrastructure development with<br />

bias for transport, international<br />

valley that is ever green and<br />

provides pasture for their herds<br />

all year round. This, he said, was<br />

accentuated by the coming of<br />

Buhari to power. “They became<br />

more brazen and acted more like<br />

an occupation force than herdsmen<br />

in search of pasture for their<br />

herds,” he charged.<br />

“The way they went about<br />

things was the complete opposite<br />

of the Fulani’s we used<br />

to know. In years past, we have<br />

Fulani’s that come to graze.<br />

They came with their wives;<br />

they came with their children<br />

and they came with sticks. This<br />

was in the time when our forests<br />

had wild animals. We saw them<br />

with no AK 47s. But those ones<br />

who come around these days<br />

that there are no wild animals,<br />

no forests, do not come with<br />

their wives, children and sticks.<br />

They come alone with AK 47.<br />

What is the threat they face that<br />

they go about with AK 47? With<br />

their superior weapons, they<br />

took people’s houses and farm-<br />

PenCom recovers<br />

N13.7bn pension<br />

liabilities from<br />

defaulting employers<br />

MODESTUS ANAESORONYE<br />

Pension regulator, the National<br />

Pension Commission<br />

(PenCom) has recovered<br />

N13.7 billion from employers of<br />

labour who defaulted in the remittance<br />

of their employee’s pension<br />

contributions as provided in the<br />

Pension Reform Act 2014.<br />

The amount covers recoveries<br />

of unremitted pensions and accrued<br />

interest penalties by Pen-<br />

Com appointed recovery agents<br />

between 2012 when they were appointed<br />

to end of December 2017.<br />

PenCom’s report accessed by<br />

<strong>BusinessDay</strong>, shows that, as at the<br />

fourth quarter 2017, the sum of N2,<br />

293,620,725.71 had been recovered<br />

by the Agents.<br />

This brings the total recoveries<br />

made by the Agents since<br />

inception of the recoveries in<br />

2012 to N13,695,155,214.88 rep-<br />

Continues on page 33 Continues on page 34<br />

lands and refused to allow those<br />

people come back to their lands.”<br />

True, after the attacks on New<br />

Years’ eve that killed 74 people,<br />

the National Vice President<br />

of Miyetti Allah Cattle Herders<br />

Association, Husaini Yusuf<br />

Bosso, speaking to the British<br />

Broadcasting Corporation, BBC,<br />

said the only way the killings<br />

would end is for the Benue state<br />

government to rescind the antiopen<br />

grazing law in the state and<br />

provide land for them to keep<br />

their cattle.<br />

Hinting at a deeper grievance,<br />

the association, in a recent<br />

online interview, claimed the<br />

Fulani ethnic group were long<br />

in Benue before the Tivs arrived<br />

and would not allow the Tivs<br />

drive them out of the place.<br />

“Before they moved into<br />

Benue, we were there, grazing<br />

our animals. They were not part<br />

of the Cororofa Kingdom. They<br />

were the last ethnic group to<br />

Continues on page 33


Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong> C002D5556 BUSINESS DAY<br />

5


6 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556<br />

NEWS<br />

Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

Land administration: Realtors differ on Land Use Act impact 40 years after<br />

CHUKA UROKO<br />

Real estate professionals<br />

and sundry<br />

stakeholders have<br />

expressed divergent<br />

views on the<br />

impact the Land Use Act has<br />

made on land administration<br />

in Nigeria 40 years after the<br />

Act was enacted by the then<br />

military administration under<br />

Olusegun Obasanjo, precisely<br />

on <strong>Mar</strong>ch 29, 1978.<br />

While some of the professionals<br />

say the Act has performed<br />

so badly that it is the<br />

reason for all the pitfalls in<br />

real estate investment and the<br />

sector’s slow growth, others<br />

insist that the land law is the<br />

UBA rewards high<br />

performance, promotes<br />

2,000 across Africa<br />

ENDURANCE OKAFOR<br />

In line with its commitment<br />

to reward excellence<br />

and high performance,<br />

Pan-African<br />

financial institution, United<br />

Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc,<br />

has announced the promotion<br />

and elevation of about<br />

2000 of its work force, representing<br />

about 17 percent<br />

of total staff strength across<br />

the group.<br />

This is in recognition of<br />

the remarkable contribution<br />

the staff members have<br />

made to the bank’s business<br />

growth as highlighted by<br />

the impressive performance<br />

recorded in its recently released<br />

2017 financial year<br />

end results.<br />

The announcement,<br />

which came on Monday, is<br />

especially heartening in the<br />

face of the numerous economic<br />

challenges faced by<br />

major financial institutions<br />

on the continent, most of<br />

who are yet to recover from<br />

the impact of the recessive<br />

business climate that rocked<br />

many companies in 2016 and<br />

a greater part of last year.<br />

It is important to note<br />

that about a year ago, the<br />

bank had promoted 3,000<br />

staff members, 25 percent of<br />

its workforce, while also doling<br />

out cash rewards to deserving<br />

staff for exemplary<br />

conduct and performance<br />

that year.<br />

This year’s promotion, as<br />

with others, have been commended<br />

by human resource<br />

analysts who have noted<br />

that UBA, which was mentioned<br />

in a recent survey as<br />

one of the “Best 100 Companies<br />

To Work For in Nigeria”<br />

has become synonymous<br />

with rewarding excellence.<br />

The announcement has also<br />

been greeted with joy and<br />

enthusiasm by the workforce<br />

of the bank.<br />

The affected staff that cut<br />

across all units, divisions<br />

and 19 countries where UBA<br />

operates were selected after<br />

the completion of appraisal<br />

system that identified high<br />

performers in the bank<br />

among other criteria.<br />

… link real estate slow growth, investment pitfalls to the Act<br />

best thing to happen to land<br />

administration in the country.<br />

“I don’t support the abrogation<br />

of the Act which many<br />

people have called for over<br />

the years,” Olufemi Babalola,<br />

CEO, Gravitas Investment<br />

Limited, the developers of<br />

Gracefield Island in Lekki,<br />

Lagos, said.<br />

He recalled that before<br />

the Act, there was the communal<br />

land ownership system<br />

which, he explained,<br />

stifled development in real<br />

estate, agriculture, industrial<br />

concerns, etc, pointing that<br />

the use of a parcel of land for<br />

any of these purposes could<br />

be stalled if there is just one<br />

dissenting voice among the<br />

native owners.<br />

“The Land Use Decree,<br />

which later became an Act,<br />

was promulgated to take care<br />

of situations like this and so<br />

rested ownership of the land<br />

on the state governors who<br />

hold the land in trust for the<br />

people”, Babalola explained,<br />

adding, “but because some<br />

of the governors are lazy and<br />

un-resourceful, a lot of things<br />

have gone wrong with the<br />

Act.<br />

Continuing, he said, “the<br />

law created a central land<br />

registry; it created a good<br />

land administration, but the<br />

governors are lazy. So, it is<br />

not the law that is bad, but<br />

the operators that make it<br />

look as if it is bad”.<br />

But Chudi Ubosi, an estate<br />

surveyor and valuer, reasons<br />

differently. According to<br />

him, though the objectives of<br />

the Act were, no doubt, lofty<br />

and well-intentioned, it has<br />

turned out to be defective in<br />

many respects, contending<br />

that “the time for its review in<br />

tune with current realities is<br />

long overdue.”<br />

Quoting a data from the<br />

World Bank’s Ease of Doing<br />

Business 2017, Ubosi point-<br />

ed out that as a result of the<br />

provisions of the Act, property<br />

registration in Nigeria<br />

takes an average of 77 days to<br />

achieve as against 59.7 days<br />

in sub-Saharan Africa and<br />

22.4 days in high income Organization<br />

for Economic Cooperation<br />

and Development<br />

(OECD) countries.<br />

“Registering properties<br />

in sub-Saharan Africa in<br />

general and Nigeria in particular<br />

is evidently tough as<br />

demonstrated by the report”,<br />

he said, adding, at an average<br />

of 10.10 percent, Nigeria<br />

is among sub-Saharan Africa<br />

countries with the highest<br />

cost of registration as a percentage<br />

of property value;<br />

the average in sub-Saharan<br />

Africa is 8.00 percent and<br />

4.20 percent in high income<br />

OECD countries.<br />

MKO Balogun, GMD/<br />

CEO at Global Property &<br />

Facilities International Limited,<br />

stressed in an emailed<br />

response to our questions<br />

that one of the biggest problems<br />

around the Land Use<br />

Act is the process of acquiring<br />

the Certificate of Occupancy<br />

from the state governor or<br />

the president in the case of<br />

the Federal Capital Territory<br />

(FCT) in Abuja.


Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong> C002D5556 BUSINESS DAY<br />

7


8 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556<br />

NEWS<br />

Ogun to jail miners around oil, gas pipelines, power lines<br />

RAZAQ AYINLA, Abeokuta<br />

Apparently disturbed<br />

by unabated<br />

sand<br />

mining around<br />

critical infrastructure<br />

and public utilities<br />

such as electricity towers<br />

and lines as well as oil<br />

and gas pipelines across the<br />

state, Ogun State government<br />

has put up a 24-hour<br />

surveillance on such utilities<br />

with a view to protecting<br />

them, arrest as well as<br />

prosecute erring miners.<br />

These security measures<br />

were taken by government<br />

in response to the<br />

perceived imminent disaster<br />

that could happen<br />

in Bun Village, along Shimawa<br />

Road located at the<br />

back of Redemption Camp<br />

of The Redeemed Christian<br />

Church of God, Mowe,<br />

where dredging around<br />

electricity towers base, as<br />

was earlier reported by a<br />

Herdsmen/farmers clash: Ex-military officer advocates regional forces by ECOWAS nations<br />

A<br />

retired colonel in the<br />

Nigeria Army, Paul<br />

Ogbebor, has called<br />

for the formation of a<br />

regional force by West African<br />

Heads of State to confront the<br />

menace of herdsmen in the<br />

sub-Saharan region.<br />

Ogbebor made the call at<br />

a press conference in Benin<br />

City, the Edo State capital, in<br />

reaction to a statement credited<br />

to Theophilus Danjuma,<br />

a retired army general, calling<br />

on Nigerians to defend themselves<br />

against herdsmen.<br />

The ex-military officer,<br />

who noted that the herdsmen/farmers<br />

clashes were a<br />

regional problem that had also<br />

plagued countries in the West<br />

African region like Ghana,<br />

Sierra-Leone, Cote d’ Ivoire,<br />

among others, described the<br />

Danjuma’s call as a disappointment<br />

taken too far.<br />

Ogbebor, who advised the<br />

national newspaper, could<br />

cause power outage and<br />

blackout in three states of<br />

Ogun, Ondo and Lagos, if<br />

not checked.<br />

<strong>BusinessDay</strong> reports that<br />

illegal mining of sand and<br />

dredging out of earth for<br />

the purpose of excavating<br />

laterites is being carried out<br />

across the three senatorial<br />

districts of the state, especially<br />

along the lanes where<br />

oil and gas pipes are buried<br />

and under electricity tower<br />

bases, which does not only<br />

stand to cause economic<br />

loss, but also poses grave<br />

danger to all residents of<br />

Ogun State and beyond.<br />

Speaking shortly after<br />

Stop Order had been placed<br />

on the illegal mining site<br />

at the back of Redemption<br />

Camp at Mowe yesterday,<br />

Bimbo Ashiru, Ogun commissioner<br />

for commerce<br />

and industry, expressed<br />

worry over the unabated<br />

Nigerian government and its<br />

citizenry to put heads together<br />

and proffer solution on how to<br />

solve the problem, however<br />

advocated for a meeting of<br />

Heads of State in West African<br />

region to fashion out ways of<br />

addressing the issue.<br />

He also called on the Federal<br />

Government to engaged<br />

the service of retired military<br />

and police officers that had<br />

retired over 10 years ago to address<br />

the challenge posed by<br />

herdsmen in the country.<br />

“Retirees from the military<br />

and police should be<br />

engaged to hold ground in<br />

their respective local governments,<br />

because they know<br />

their areas well. They don’t<br />

need to be armed; their duties<br />

as a result of their training<br />

were to give early warning<br />

signal to serving police<br />

and the military for action.<br />

“During the civil war, we<br />

recalled soldiers who fought<br />

in the Second World War<br />

dredging of sand and earth<br />

illegally, which he said,<br />

posed a grave danger to human<br />

lives and big threat to<br />

economic growth and development<br />

of the nation.<br />

“Most time when we go<br />

out monitoring, we find<br />

out that when someone got<br />

mining approval for a place,<br />

he uses the same permit<br />

to work somewhere else. I<br />

have personally gone there<br />

(Mowe) twice, I even arrested<br />

a Syrian and I locked<br />

him up for seven days. I<br />

have warned them that this<br />

is a disaster that is going to<br />

happen and they (miners)<br />

should not allow anybody<br />

to work there.<br />

“Now, we have gone<br />

there and put Stop Order.<br />

We have put a signpost<br />

there, that mining there<br />

is illegal and we are going<br />

to station security people<br />

there 24/7 to monitor them.<br />

I am going to be getting a<br />

and it work for us. We are in<br />

a state of war, we should do<br />

the same thing and engaged<br />

those that have retired from<br />

the police or military to save<br />

the situation,” he said.<br />

“Danjuma is a highly respected<br />

army general who<br />

contributed so much to the<br />

building of this country. I am<br />

sure that was why he made<br />

the statements about herdsmen’s<br />

killing, indicting the<br />

military and also asking Nigerians<br />

to take up arms and<br />

defend themselves. I think<br />

his disappointment over<br />

what is happening in this<br />

country today is taken too<br />

far,” he said<br />

While pointing out that the<br />

internal security of the country<br />

is in the hands of the police,<br />

he said the military had done<br />

their best to ensure that the local<br />

governments captured by<br />

Boko Haram had been taken<br />

back from them and should be<br />

praised for that.<br />

weekly report on this and<br />

areas where such illegal<br />

mining happens across the<br />

state. I have also told some<br />

Redeemed pastors when<br />

they came to my office to<br />

alert us when they see illegal<br />

mining going on there.<br />

“I know we will get them<br />

arrested and prosecute<br />

them. But, what I don’t know<br />

is whether our people (government<br />

staff) are compromising<br />

or not, because each<br />

time we go there to arrest,<br />

we don’t see anybody. There<br />

was a time we were there at<br />

night till 6am, we didn’t see<br />

anybody. We probably have<br />

an insider who gives information<br />

to those people.<br />

“If people have not compromised,<br />

I don’t expect<br />

this to happen. But, now we<br />

are going be firm and strict<br />

on this, any officer that is<br />

found culpable of this will<br />

be dealt with accordingly,”<br />

he said.<br />

L-R: Debola Agunbiade, president, Finance House Association of Nigeria (FHAN); Babatunde Rafiu, MD/CEO, Crownrise Finance<br />

plc; Tokunbo <strong>Mar</strong>tins, director, Other Financial Institution and Supervisory Department (OFISD), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN);<br />

Jonathan Abayomi Babalola, chairman, Crownrise Finance plc, and Elizabeth Ngozi Ehigiamusoe, board member, Equipment<br />

Leasing Association of Nigeria (ELAN), during the stakeholders luncheon in Lagos, yesterday.<br />

Pic by Olawale Amoo<br />

IDRIS UMAR MOMOH, Benin<br />

… as miners activities can cause blackout in 3 states<br />

Edo JAAC declares N2.8bn for LGAs as<br />

chairmen pledge judicious use of resources<br />

Edo State Joint Account<br />

and Allocation Committee<br />

(JAAC) has declared<br />

N2.8 billion as<br />

total allocation accrued to the<br />

18 local government councils<br />

from the Federation Account<br />

for the month of February.<br />

This was disclosed by<br />

chairman, Owan West Local<br />

Government Area, Frank<br />

Ilaboya, at the end of the first<br />

JAAC meeting attended by<br />

the newly elected council<br />

chairmen. The meeting was<br />

presided over by the state<br />

governor, Godwin Obaseki,<br />

at the Government House in<br />

Benin City.<br />

Ilaboya, who briefed journalists<br />

after the meeting,<br />

said, “The total receipt for the<br />

month of February shared in<br />

<strong>Mar</strong>ch is N2, 882,200,775.85.<br />

Salaries for teachers are N1,<br />

129,882,051.95; deduction for<br />

pension is N254, 778,771.98;<br />

while the mandatory deduc-<br />

One out of every three Nigerians experienced<br />

moderate or high poverty in 2017 – survey<br />

DAVID IBEMERE<br />

One-third of Nigerians<br />

experienced<br />

more than average<br />

poverty during the<br />

2017 fiscal year, according to<br />

a survey conducted by Afrobarometer,<br />

a pan-African research<br />

network, released on<br />

Wednesday.<br />

This means most Nigerians<br />

went without basic life<br />

necessities - food, house and<br />

clothing - during the previous<br />

year, a situation that<br />

placed them in the category<br />

of “moderate lived poverty”<br />

or “high lived poverty.”<br />

Ojewale Oluwole, dissemination<br />

manager of Afrobarometer<br />

CLEEN Foundation<br />

on Wednesday, published<br />

the variables of the survey<br />

along with its findings.<br />

Findings form the survey<br />

also revealed that majority of<br />

Nigerians who tried to access<br />

tion is N1, 583, 714, 385.70.<br />

The total distributable fund<br />

shared by the 18 local government<br />

councils is N1,<br />

284,075,386.28.”<br />

He explained that N1.2 billion<br />

had already been shared<br />

by the 18 local government<br />

councils, adding that the sum<br />

had been transferred to various<br />

councils’ accounts.<br />

“We are ready to commence<br />

work. We will ensure<br />

we do our best to deliver the<br />

dividends of democracy to<br />

those at the grassroots. We<br />

have promised to complement<br />

the efforts of the governor<br />

who has urged us to be<br />

dedicated, committed, transparent<br />

and accountable in<br />

discharging our mandates,”<br />

he said. Chairman, Esan<br />

South East Local Government<br />

Area, Victor Emuakhagbon,<br />

urged the people at the grassroots<br />

to support heads of their<br />

councils, noting,.<br />

certain public services found<br />

it difficult and time consuming.<br />

The survey also showed<br />

that payment of a bribe or<br />

favour was needed to obtain<br />

some of those services,<br />

which included health care<br />

services, electricity, pipe<br />

borne water, and police assistance.<br />

Despite government efforts<br />

to combat corruption,<br />

citizens’ responses indicate<br />

that access to basic public<br />

service remains riddled with<br />

bribery, the results of the survey<br />

suggested.<br />

Another independent<br />

survey carried out by Afrobarometer<br />

also revealed that almost<br />

two-thirds of Nigerians<br />

say the country is “going in<br />

the wrong direction,” Though<br />

harsh, this assessment represents<br />

an improvement from<br />

2015, as it recorded a 9percent<br />

increase.<br />

Nigerian states finances remain under heavy pressure<br />

MICHEAL ANI<br />

Nigerian states for<br />

some years have<br />

been under intense<br />

pressure to<br />

raise finance for the running<br />

of its activities, data<br />

from states’ fiscal operations<br />

show.<br />

“The decline in monthly<br />

distributions by the Federation<br />

account allocation<br />

committee or FAAC over<br />

three years has exposed the<br />

fiscal weaknesses of the vast<br />

majority of the 36 states.<br />

The reason, of course, has<br />

been the fall in oil revenues<br />

for distribution,” analysts<br />

at Lagos-based Merchant<br />

bank and Asset Management,<br />

FBN Quest said.<br />

“The Federal government,<br />

anxious to stem rising arrears<br />

in salary and pension payments<br />

by the states, has responded<br />

with five debt relief<br />

packages for the states since<br />

Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

mid-2015,” FBN Quest said in<br />

a <strong>Mar</strong>ch 28 note to clients.<br />

A critical look at states’<br />

fiscal operations reveal that<br />

states monthly allocation<br />

from FAAC has been declining<br />

over the past three<br />

years, leaving the states<br />

with no option than to resort<br />

to external and domestic<br />

borrowings.<br />

The external debt of the<br />

state governments and the<br />

Federal Capital Territory<br />

(FCT) amounted to $4.12bn<br />

at end-December, all of<br />

which is guaranteed by the<br />

FGN and included in the<br />

latter’s total obligations of<br />

US$18.91 bn.<br />

The states’ total external<br />

debt increased by US$550<br />

million over 12 months, according<br />

to <strong>BusinessDay</strong> calculations.<br />

Lagos is comfortably the<br />

largest debtor, which is to be<br />

expected for the state with<br />

the highest internally generated<br />

revenue (IGR) and best<br />

credit rating.<br />

The domestic bank borrowings<br />

of the states reached<br />

N3.35trn in 2017, according<br />

to data gotten from the website<br />

of the debt management<br />

office (DMO), representing<br />

a 13.2 percent increase from<br />

the N2.96 trillion recorded in<br />

the same period of the preceding<br />

year.<br />

State domestic debts are<br />

not guaranteed by the FGN,<br />

although the former benefited<br />

from its N575bn restructuring<br />

programme to convert<br />

their bank borrowings into<br />

20-year federal bonds. Other<br />

than Lagos, there have been<br />

no new bond issues by states<br />

since May 2015.<br />

Internally generated revenue<br />

by states in 2017 also<br />

increased to N931.23 billion,<br />

the highest so far since 2010,<br />

according to data released by<br />

the national Bureau of statistics<br />

(NBS).


Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

Lagos waste manager engages<br />

PSPs to deepen CLI scheme<br />

In its efforts at bringing<br />

Lagos State to its former<br />

place in environmental<br />

sanitation concerns, the<br />

state’s new waste manager<br />

– Visionscape Sanitation<br />

Solutions – has engaged the<br />

services of former private<br />

waste managers, the Private<br />

Sector Participants (PSPs),<br />

to deepen the Cleaner Lagos<br />

Initiative (CLI).<br />

This was disclosed by<br />

Motunrayo Elias, head, corporate<br />

communications department,<br />

Visionscape, at a<br />

media parley in Lagos, saying<br />

this was so because the<br />

initial brief for the company<br />

over waste management had<br />

exceeded the initial scope,<br />

and therefore it had became<br />

imperative to involve them<br />

to make the CLI scheme<br />

meaningful.<br />

It could be recalled that<br />

the temporal downing of<br />

tools by the PSP operators<br />

when they were relived of<br />

their assignment led to the<br />

state being littered with dirt<br />

across the major streets,<br />

which they all were still<br />

struggling to clean up.<br />

In February, the PSPs<br />

had insisted that reinstating<br />

them to their previous duties<br />

as domestic waste collectors<br />

in the state was the way out<br />

of their protracted dispute<br />

with the government.<br />

The operators, under the<br />

aegis of Association of Waste<br />

Managers of Nigeria at a press<br />

conference in Lagos, said<br />

the government’s decision<br />

to channel their operations<br />

solely on commercial waste<br />

collection would ruin their<br />

businesses.<br />

“Domestic waste collection<br />

forms about 80 percent<br />

of our total operations. The<br />

reason for clamouring for domestic<br />

is because commercial<br />

is just 20 percent of our operations,”<br />

Oladipo Egbeyemi, the<br />

association’s chairman, said<br />

then, saying, “Commercial<br />

waste collection will not be<br />

enough for the almost 400 of<br />

our members.”<br />

Therefore, the engagement<br />

with Visionscape is<br />

hoped to bring succour to the<br />

over 2,000 employees of the<br />

over 400 PSPs in the state.<br />

Elias said further that with<br />

this engagement Lagosians<br />

should expect a cleaner Lagos<br />

in April, as Visionscape<br />

and the PSPs would embark<br />

on total evacuation of waste<br />

from every nooks and crannies<br />

of the state, saying before<br />

the end of April, “Lagosians<br />

will see a marked difference<br />

in their environment.”<br />

However, the Lagos State<br />

House of Assembly recently<br />

took out time to look into<br />

the operations of Visionscape,<br />

which raised concerns<br />

among residents that the action<br />

might affect the operations<br />

of the company.<br />

But, at the media parley,<br />

the company assured that<br />

there was no cause for alarm<br />

over the decision of the House<br />

of Assembly, as the House<br />

was only performing it constitutional<br />

role.<br />

The House had in a resolution<br />

invited Abimbola Umar,<br />

the state accountant-general,<br />

and three members of the<br />

state executive council to<br />

brief its ad hoc committee<br />

on issues surrounding waste<br />

management and the role of<br />

Visionscape.<br />

Meanwhile, Dipo Wintoki,<br />

one of the panellists representing<br />

Visionscape at the<br />

media parley, said the House<br />

was only carrying out its constitutional<br />

duty and there was<br />

no cause for alarm since Visionscape<br />

had a valid contract<br />

with the state government.<br />

Wintoki said, “The contract<br />

was done through regular<br />

and due process. The state<br />

government has an obligation<br />

to fulfil its part of the contract.<br />

The process of awarding the<br />

contract to Visionscape was<br />

not arbitrary. This will be resolved.”<br />

The invited state officials<br />

included attorney-general<br />

and commissioner of justice,<br />

Adeniji Kazeem; commissioner<br />

for finance, Akinyemi<br />

Ashade, and commissioner<br />

for environment, Babatunde<br />

Durosinmi-Etti.<br />

C002D5556<br />

BUSINESS DAY<br />

Reps seek adequate funding for R&D in oil, gas industry<br />

KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja<br />

House of Representatives<br />

on Wednesday<br />

called for<br />

provision of 2<br />

percent of annual budgets<br />

of Federal Ministry of Petroleum<br />

Resources, Petroleum<br />

Technology Development<br />

Fund and the Nigerian Content<br />

Development and Monitoring<br />

Board (NCDMB) for<br />

research programmes in<br />

petroleum technology, and<br />

facilities in Federal University<br />

of Petroleum Resources,<br />

Effurun, Delta State.<br />

The resolution was passed<br />

sequel to the adoption of a<br />

motion sponsored by Daniel<br />

Reyenieju (PDP-Delta),<br />

who emphasised the need to<br />

boost research development<br />

in the oil and gas industry.<br />

In his lead debate, Reyenieju<br />

stated that the institute<br />

is a large one, which<br />

caters for a large cache of<br />

individuals from different<br />

parts of the country.<br />

He stated that it was in<br />

the best interest of the institute<br />

to have all its technological<br />

needs meeting international<br />

standards and on<br />

site, and not to depend on<br />

technology transfer.<br />

“The House notes that<br />

the Federal University of Petroleum<br />

Resources, Effurun,<br />

… assures on cleaner environment by April<br />

Delta State enabling Act was<br />

passed in 2017.<br />

“The House also notes<br />

that the Federal University of<br />

Petroleum Resources which<br />

is the first in Africa and sixth<br />

in the world was set up with<br />

the core mandate of producing<br />

skilled personnel with<br />

the capability to understand,<br />

use and adapt existing technology,<br />

improve on and develop<br />

new ones.<br />

“The House further notes<br />

that this specialized University<br />

is the Federal Government’s<br />

deliberate effort to<br />

strengthen capacity in science<br />

and technology with<br />

special focus on petroleum<br />

resources and other allied<br />

sectors in the Niger Delta<br />

Region.<br />

“The House is aware<br />

that Section 9 (2), (3) and<br />

(4) of the Federal University<br />

of Petroleum Resources<br />

(Establishment) Act 2017<br />

provides that the Federal<br />

Ministry of Petroleum Resources,<br />

Petroleum Technology<br />

Development Fund<br />

and the Nigerian Content<br />

Development and Monitoring<br />

Board (NCDMB) shall<br />

provide two per cent of their<br />

annual budgets for research<br />

programmes in petroleum<br />

technology, and facilities in<br />

the university.<br />

“Petroleum Technology<br />

Development Fund shall<br />

contribute at least two percent<br />

of its gross revenues<br />

for the academic and infrastructural<br />

development of<br />

the university. The general<br />

fund shall be applied for the<br />

purpose of the university.”<br />

“The House is concerned<br />

that paucity of funds will<br />

hinder the capacity of the<br />

University to conduct researches<br />

that will impact<br />

positively on the oil and gas<br />

industry which in turn relates<br />

to low specialised students’<br />

enrolment.<br />

“The House is worried<br />

that if the annual remittance<br />

is not given the budgetary<br />

attention as envisaged under<br />

the Act, it will continue<br />

9<br />

NEWS<br />

to reduce Nigeria’s locally<br />

trained human capacity in<br />

the oil and gas industry,”<br />

Reyenieju stated.<br />

To this end, the House<br />

mandated the Committees<br />

on Petroleum Resources<br />

(Upstream), Tertiary Education<br />

and Services, Finance<br />

and Local Content to ensure<br />

that the Federal Ministry of<br />

Petroleum Resources, Petroleum<br />

Technology Development<br />

Fund and the Nigerian<br />

Content Development and<br />

Monitoring Board to provide<br />

two percent of their annual<br />

budgets to the Federal<br />

University of Petroleum Resources,<br />

Effurun in the <strong>2018</strong><br />

Appropriations estimates.


Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

10 BUSINESS DAY<br />

C002D5556<br />

COMMENT<br />

OLA BELLO<br />

Dr. Oladiran Ola Bello, holds MPhil<br />

and PhD degrees from Cambridge<br />

University and is the Executive<br />

Director of Good Governance Africa<br />

(GGA).<br />

Africa’s agreement on a Continental<br />

Free Trade Area (CFTA)<br />

is aimed at delivering the largest<br />

regional trade liberalisation<br />

arrangement since the WTO. About 44<br />

African leaders initialed the agreement<br />

in Kigali, Rwanda this past week with<br />

Nigeria surprisingly pulling out at the last<br />

minute. Given the abrupt withdrawal,<br />

debates have raged about the coherence<br />

of Nigeria’s economic governance. We<br />

engaged actively in the CFTA negotiations<br />

from its inception in 2015. So why has<br />

the country – standing to win much from<br />

the agreement – failed enthusiastically to<br />

sign up?One answer lies in our lack of a<br />

national economic vision anchored in<br />

sound analysis that involves government,<br />

citizens and corporates alike.<br />

Crafted appropriately, the CFTA’s<br />

utility is incontrovertible, especially for<br />

the larger economies such as Nigeria.<br />

It will pool the strength of all 55 African<br />

countries with their 1.2 billion people and<br />

combined GDP of over $2tn. It promises<br />

expanded intra-African trade, boost to<br />

regional value chains and a qualitative<br />

African structural economic transformation.<br />

Less than one-fifth of Africa’s trade<br />

takes place among countries on the<br />

continent. Comparable figures for Europe<br />

and Asia currently stand at 67% and 58%<br />

respectively.<br />

Nigeria’s foremost business figure,<br />

Aliko Dangote, averred recently the need<br />

for the Nigerian private sector to lead in<br />

formulating a national industrial plan that<br />

will transcend elected administrations.<br />

On the CFTA and our economic diplomacy,<br />

a similarly activist and disciplined<br />

approach by the private sector will go a<br />

long way towards orienting government’s<br />

external economic actions.<br />

GBOLAHAN JOKO T.<br />

Joko T, a public affairs analyst,<br />

wrote from Port Harcourt<br />

This vexed issue of female genital<br />

mutilation, is a scourge<br />

predominant in Africa. It is<br />

often described as the ritual<br />

cutting of some of the external female<br />

genitalia. The practice is found in Africa,<br />

Asia and the Middle East.<br />

Often times this ritual [which is<br />

synonymous with physical pain] is<br />

carried out by an herbalist using a<br />

sharp object which is most times not<br />

sterilized and is conducted from days<br />

after birth to puberty and beyond.<br />

The ritual process varies from one<br />

community to the other. It involves<br />

the removal of the clitoral hood and<br />

clitoral glands; removal of the inner<br />

labia; and removal of the inner and<br />

outer labia and closure of the vulva.<br />

Recently there has been world<br />

outcry against this obnoxious practice<br />

called FGM, and it has been banned<br />

and criminalized in some countries in<br />

which it is norm. Albeit these laws are<br />

not strictly enforced<br />

In some cases a single hole of 2–3<br />

mm is left for the passage of urine and<br />

Nigeria’s failing economic governance<br />

Shared accountability, enlightened<br />

self-interest<br />

The cancellation of President Buhari’s<br />

trip to the Kigali signing ceremony<br />

was ostensibly forced by the determined<br />

opposition of the Nigerian Organized<br />

Private Sector and labour union. With<br />

an ill-informed business leadership<br />

and a government seemingly incapable<br />

of canvassing stakeholder support in a<br />

timely fashion, Nigeria looks unprepared<br />

to optimise the CFTA’s benefits. At the<br />

symbolic moment, we demurred on an<br />

important agreement which could salvage<br />

Africa from its perennial economic<br />

underperformance. Worse still, our<br />

action might have emboldened those<br />

opposed in Africa to a more enabling<br />

business environment in which our<br />

citizens could freely pursue their entrepreneurial<br />

dreams and help to drive<br />

broader African prosperity.<br />

Nigeria is especially primed to take<br />

advantage. Legions of its citizens live<br />

across the continent, oftentimes as nimble<br />

operators in some of the most stifling<br />

regulatory regimes. Thousands of small<br />

and medium-sized Nigerian enterprises<br />

should enjoy the first mover advantage<br />

in a CFTA scenario. They already have a<br />

foot on the ground, however tenuous,<br />

in key markets. Nigerian banks increasingly<br />

exert their heft across swathes of<br />

the continent too, positioned to help<br />

facilitate access for businesses seeking<br />

to expand or venture outwards.<br />

Nigeria might not be ready to compete,<br />

say with South Africa or Morocco,<br />

in some advanced manufacturing. Nevertheless,<br />

national champions in sectors<br />

such as e-commerce (Jumia, Konga and<br />

Yudala are prime examples) are suited to<br />

exploit markets opportunities beyond<br />

our frontiers. The CFTA proposes 90<br />

percent liberalisation for physically<br />

traded goods and 100% liberalisation for<br />

services. The latter is one area in which<br />

Nigeria has seen rapid growth in the<br />

past few decades. It may even be that the<br />

rewards going to bigger conglomerates<br />

like Dangote will pale in comparison<br />

to the expanded market opportunities<br />

for Nigerian players in sectors like services.<br />

Nevertheless, it appears that lack<br />

of analysis and vision and the inept economic<br />

diplomacy may conspire to help<br />

us throw away opportunities under the<br />

CFTA. The lack of situational and strate-<br />

gic awareness in our private sector seems<br />

rivalled only by the myopia and inertia of<br />

our governance and political leadership.<br />

Of motives and ambitions<br />

South Africa, adroit at exploiting continental<br />

economic expansionist opportunities,<br />

also balked at initialing the CFTA.<br />

Pretoria pointed to the legal and other<br />

instruments associated with the planned<br />

trade bloc which still need to be reviewed<br />

and ratified by its parliament and economic<br />

stakeholders. However, unlike Buhari,<br />

South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa,<br />

presented himself in Kigali where he<br />

enthusiastically declared support for the<br />

pact.Nevertheless, the non-signature by the<br />

two continental powerhouses leaves a big<br />

question mark hanging over the practical<br />

implementation of Africa’s biggest ever<br />

trade opportunity.<br />

Of significance, smaller countries<br />

such as Rwanda have led from the front<br />

as Nigeria prevaricates. Rwanda’s enthusiastic<br />

backing of the CFTA is principled<br />

and consistent. As Chairman of the AU<br />

for <strong>2018</strong>, the Rwandan President Paul<br />

Kagame has helped to propel forward<br />

such important agreements as the Single<br />

African Air Transport <strong>Mar</strong>ket. Much of this<br />

effort is not unconnected with Kagame’s<br />

clear-eyed planfor Rwanda. Following its<br />

catastrophic genocide in 1994, the country<br />

has pursued an ambitious economic vision<br />

which is advancing by the day. Kagame’s<br />

promotion of the CFTA is a logical extension<br />

of his impressive economic record at<br />

home. GDP growth of 6.1% in 2017 and a<br />

projected expansion of 7.2% this year ranks<br />

Rwanda as one of Africa’s star economic<br />

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Send 800word comments to comment@businessdayonline.com<br />

performersalongside Ethiopia.<br />

RwandAir, the national airline, steadily<br />

increased its capacity with acquisition<br />

of larger passenger jets over 2016-<strong>2018</strong><br />

to give wings to the dream of turning<br />

Rwanda into a major air travel hub. The<br />

target markets include Nigeria as the<br />

east African nation’s airline now find<br />

rich pickings on multiple Nigerian routes<br />

where the defunct Nigerian Airways<br />

and its privately-owned successors have<br />

failed. As AU chairman, Kagame with an<br />

unprecedented display of urgency is confronting<br />

the task of clearing red tape and<br />

inefficiencies across Africa which stand<br />

in the way of his country’s ambitions. For<br />

natural-resource-poor Rwanda, it is a<br />

question of economic survival.<br />

Mind the gap<br />

It is necessary to pursue the sort of<br />

extended stakeholder consultation that<br />

Buhari saw belatedly. Yet, it should precede<br />

the formal signature ceremony not<br />

the other way round. We are consulting<br />

so late that we imperil our own place<br />

at the table. If Nigeria were guided by a<br />

coherent leadership, we would have done<br />

our homework, preparing the ground to<br />

secure key concessions in the negotiations.<br />

Following that, we would happily<br />

sign off on the pact assured that we have<br />

secured sizeable concessions to justify<br />

our opt-in. This author was responsiblefor<br />

drafting the economic case in a paper<br />

prepared by the International Organisation<br />

for Migration in 2017 to facilitate<br />

inter-governmental negotiations on the<br />

freedom of movement and settlement<br />

across Africa. Some of the countries most<br />

reluctant to open up their borders to free<br />

movement – including South Africa and<br />

Morocco – are also some of the keenest<br />

free traders seeing opportunities for their<br />

conglomerates.<br />

Were we more strategic, there exist<br />

issue-linking opportunities for Nigeria<br />

to help push for freer movement of businesspeople<br />

across the continent together<br />

with greater market openness. We could<br />

even use concessions secured to assuage<br />

our domestic constituencies fretful over<br />

freer economic competition. It is true that<br />

cheaper imports pose a particular challenge,<br />

but it is neither a problem unique<br />

to Nigeria nor one that can be addressed<br />

through insularity or shielding inefficient<br />

providers that fail to compete on price<br />

or quality. Working to address structural<br />

Female genital mutilation: Societal damage done to women<br />

menstrual fluid. The vulva is closed<br />

with surgical thread, or agave or<br />

acacia thorns, and might be covered<br />

with a poultice of raw egg, herbs and<br />

sugar. To help the tissue bond, the<br />

girl’s legs are tied together, often from<br />

hip to ankle. At times when these<br />

procedures involve mistakes, they<br />

are repeated until the correct local<br />

practice is affected; this burdens the<br />

victims with unbearable pain and<br />

torture.<br />

The privates of little girls are<br />

opened for sexual intercourse, for<br />

the first time either by a midwife with<br />

a knife or by the woman’s husband<br />

with his penis. In some areas, including<br />

Somaliland, female relatives of<br />

the bride and groom might watch<br />

the opening of the vagina to check<br />

that the girl is a virgin. The woman is<br />

opened further for childbirth (defilation<br />

or DE infibulation), and closed<br />

again afterwards (infibulation).<br />

Infibulation, is cutting the vagina<br />

again to restore the pinhole size of<br />

the first infibulation. This might be<br />

performed before marriage, and after<br />

Nigeria is especially primed to<br />

take advantage. Legions of its<br />

citizens live across the continent,<br />

oftentimes as nimble operators in<br />

some of the most stifling regulatory<br />

regimes. Thousands of small<br />

and medium-sized Nigerian<br />

enterprises should enjoy the<br />

first mover advantage in a CFTA<br />

scenario<br />

childbirth, divorce and widowhood.<br />

Victims of FGM are traumatized and<br />

live like that for the rest of their lives.<br />

These oftentimes lead to serious health<br />

complications like excessive bleeding,<br />

pain, urine retention, and healing<br />

problems/wound infection.<br />

In some cases FGM can lead to fatal<br />

bleeding, anaemia, urinary infection,<br />

septicaemia, tetanus, gangrene, necrotizing<br />

fasciitis and endometritis. It is<br />

not known how many girls and women<br />

die as a result of the practice, because<br />

complications may not be recognized<br />

or reported. It has also often been said<br />

that FGM aid the transmission of hepatitis<br />

B, hepatitis C and HIV.<br />

It has been said that FGM endanger<br />

women and put them higher risk of<br />

problems during pregnancy and childbirth,<br />

which are more common with<br />

the more extensive FGM procedures.<br />

The WHO estimated in 2006 that<br />

additional 10–20 babies die per 1,000<br />

deliveries as a result of FGM. The estimate<br />

was based on a study conducted<br />

on 28,393 women attending delivery<br />

wards at 28 obstetric centres in Burkina<br />

Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal<br />

and Sudan.<br />

Many writers have surmised that<br />

Nigeria has a large population and has<br />

the highest number of female genital<br />

mutilation (FGM) worldwide, accounting<br />

for about one-quarter of the<br />

estimated 115–1<strong>30</strong> million circumcised<br />

women in the world. In Nigeria<br />

the rate of FGM is 41 percent among<br />

adult women and is on the rise.<br />

In the South-South States of Nigeria,<br />

like Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo,<br />

Akwa-Ibom, Cross Rivers States the<br />

level of practice is highest accounting<br />

for 77 percent, followed by the south<br />

east 68 percent and south west 65<br />

percent, but practiced on a smaller<br />

scale in the north. Edo State is about<br />

the worst in recent times.<br />

Recently a family of 3 [pregnant<br />

wife included] from Edo State travelled<br />

home only for family members<br />

to attack the pregnant wife inflicting<br />

series of injuries on her and she was<br />

said to have been circumcised against<br />

her will in the presence of her husband.<br />

The local natives even made<br />

constraints to competitiveness, for example<br />

electricity, will be more effective<br />

whilst driving up quality. Nigeria having<br />

abdicating its leadership responsibility<br />

in Kigali, only 29 countries signed up to<br />

the agreement on free movement and the<br />

African passport.<br />

Looking ahead<br />

Nigeria is caught in a warp in which<br />

citizens take keen interest in the politics of<br />

elections but leave the politicians grossly<br />

unchecked in the aftermath. Between the<br />

election seasons, citizens’ focus should<br />

stay squarely on the more urgent task of<br />

governance, demanding accountable<br />

management of resources and broader<br />

economic policy. Active vigilance is<br />

vital: Nigerian politicians need to face far<br />

tougher questions on their stewardship of<br />

the economy in a way that continuously<br />

puts on guard those vested with guarding<br />

the collective economic interest. When<br />

citizen show little inclination to exercise<br />

real agency, their catalytic role in sensible<br />

economic decision-making is compromised,<br />

and fiascos such as Nigeria’s<br />

no-show in Kigali will be prone to recur.<br />

Looking forward, Africa should proceed<br />

cautiously so that the CFTA does not<br />

become a giant trade zone only in name.<br />

We desperately need the arrangement to<br />

feature more than just a token of African<br />

manufactures. It cannot be a backdoor<br />

for dumping of foreign goods, stifle Africa’s<br />

industrialization, or unfairly hurt<br />

its already weak manufacturing sector.<br />

Yet, systemically important players like<br />

Nigeria risk jeopardizing the rest of the<br />

continent as wesuffer from a shortage of<br />

knowledge-generating institutions and<br />

think-tanks devoted to analyses of trade,<br />

investment and economic diplomacy.<br />

There currently exist a handful of institutions<br />

that fall into this category but they<br />

are too few and far-between for Nigeria’s<br />

economy of 180 million people accounting<br />

for well over 15% of Africa’s GDP.<br />

Without a more solid evidence base, informed<br />

policy engagement by corporates<br />

and citizens becomes impossible. And<br />

unless the outlook changes, Nigeria could<br />

lose out significantly in Africa’s emerging<br />

integration project.<br />

Send reactions to:<br />

comment@businessdayonline.<br />

attempt to circumcise their toddler<br />

daughter.<br />

The family has remained traumatized<br />

and the husband has been<br />

depressed. Their case is worsened<br />

by the incidence of ostracism as they<br />

are not allowed to socialize amongst<br />

their kith and kin in all the 36 states of<br />

Nigeria; whether in Lagos where they<br />

live, or Port Harcourt, Abuja or Kano<br />

State. They are now seen as outcast<br />

and cannot live freely amongst them.<br />

The Country has been showing little<br />

or no concern to the plight of the victims<br />

and there has been unreported<br />

of victims committing suicide!<br />

The world needs to show concern<br />

to the vexed issue of FGM before it will<br />

become an uncontrollable scourge.<br />

The West, like the UK, Canada, USA,<br />

Russia Sweden, Holland and even the<br />

giant Asian Tigers need to sit up and<br />

save the world.<br />

This is not one to turn a blind<br />

eye to.<br />

Send reactions to:<br />

comment@businessdayonline.com


Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

COMMENT<br />

C002D5556<br />

BUSINESS DAY<br />

11<br />

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Choosing between talent and attitude<br />

TAJUDEEN AHMED<br />

Ahmed, a strategy expert, with years<br />

of senior management experience<br />

in consulting, commercial banking,<br />

and FMCG, is the General Manager/<br />

Group Head Business Development<br />

at BUA Group<br />

Global Chief Executive of<br />

one of the leading global<br />

management consulting<br />

firms, McKinsey & Company,<br />

Dominic Barton,<br />

was recently reported to have said that<br />

“Today, successful companies recruit<br />

or hire for attitude and not just skills<br />

and the paper qualification”. Having<br />

considered all factors, on balance, I<br />

could not agree less with Mr. Barton.<br />

You may possibly have heard these<br />

said about a colleague at work, or<br />

elsewhere: “The Manager is brilliant,<br />

but his work attitude stinks”. “My team<br />

lead is a bundle of skills, but his work<br />

ethic is appalling”. “Only if the supervisor<br />

had complemented his huge skills<br />

with good attitude, we would have<br />

achieved a lot more”.<br />

In advising organizations to place a<br />

premium on attitude and skills, it may<br />

be helpful to briefly discuss the real<br />

meaning of attitude in this context- it<br />

is simply bad attitude! Such kinds of<br />

attitude may appear in the form of<br />

persistent lateness to work and/or<br />

absenteeism, spreading of rumors<br />

and gossips, unbridled criticism of<br />

colleagues geared toward humiliating<br />

rather than correcting, instituting<br />

a winner-takes-all approach (taking<br />

personal glory for all that is good and<br />

blaming others for collective mistakes),<br />

undermining the leadership,<br />

deliberately flouting rules, procedures,<br />

and established norms; refusing<br />

to accept criticism, deliberately<br />

denigrating the organization among<br />

external audiences, exhibiting distrust<br />

and disrespect, abject lack of commitment<br />

and professionalism, spreading<br />

of negativity among employees, etc.<br />

According to Leadership IQ, a<br />

tracking of 20,000 new hires over a<br />

three-year period showed that, within<br />

the first eighteen months, someone<br />

was a bad hire for attitudinal reasons<br />

89% of the time. Broken down into<br />

the five top groups, 26% failed due<br />

to coachability (ability to accept and<br />

implement feedback from bosses, colleagues,<br />

customers, etc), 23% failure<br />

was due to emotional intelligence<br />

(ability to understand and manage<br />

one’s emotions and accurately access<br />

others’ emotions), 17% was for<br />

motivation (sufficient drive to achieve<br />

one’s full potential and excel in the<br />

job), temperament (attitude and<br />

personality suited to the particular job<br />

and work environment) accounted<br />

for 15%, and technical competence,<br />

which is essentially functional or<br />

technical skills required to do the job,<br />

…a brilliant employee or<br />

leader with excellent skills<br />

but with a terribly bad work<br />

attitude is a potent weapon<br />

for the destruction of an<br />

organization<br />

accounted for the lowest score- 11%.<br />

From the foregoing, it was overwhelmingly<br />

shown that attitudinal issues accounted<br />

for mis-hires (poor hires, low<br />

performers) across organizations.<br />

Agreeing with <strong>Mar</strong>k Murphy, it is<br />

evident that skills matter but the best<br />

skills never matter if an employee is<br />

not open to improving or consistently<br />

alienates coworkers, and lacks drive. In<br />

fact, it was established that bad attitudes<br />

such as being negative, blaming others,<br />

feeling entitled, not taking initiative,<br />

procrastinating, creating drama for attention,<br />

and resisting change were the<br />

top characteristics of low performers in<br />

the 20,000 sample size.<br />

As expected in management theory<br />

and practice, there appears not to be<br />

unanimity regarding the plain choice<br />

between talent and attitude. For instance,<br />

Bill Fischer, co-author of The<br />

Idea Hunter, together with Andy Boynton<br />

and Bill Bole, preferred that, in cases<br />

where real change (otherwise called<br />

“innovation” by the authors) is needed,<br />

attitude was not likely to be enough to<br />

get the organization to its destination,<br />

rather; they claimed many skills are<br />

more important.<br />

Bill Fischer further harped on his<br />

conviction regarding a preference for<br />

skills over attitude in his co-authored<br />

book, Virtuoso Teams, with Andy<br />

Boynton, insisting that “the best environment<br />

for innovation occurred<br />

when the team felt it had absolute freedom<br />

to contribute their ideas, while<br />

at the same moment top management<br />

believed that it was in complete<br />

control! They also posited that “for<br />

everyday work, hire for attitude, train<br />

for skills; but when big change, such<br />

as innovation, is envisioned, then hire<br />

for skills and figure how to deal with<br />

the attitudes”.<br />

The intellectual detour taken by<br />

these respected authors notwithstanding,<br />

my experience in advisory roles<br />

and supervisory/executive management<br />

across diverse sectors clearly<br />

support my agreement with <strong>Mar</strong>k<br />

Murhpy, CEO of Leadership IQ, and<br />

many other thinkers and writers, that:<br />

all things considered, on balance, attitude<br />

trumps skills.<br />

This discourse is not an affront<br />

on skills, in fact having employees<br />

with both requisite skills and positive<br />

attitude is heavenly; it is every<br />

organization’s El Dorado. However,<br />

a brilliant employee or leader with<br />

excellent skills but with a terribly bad<br />

work attitude is a potent weapon for<br />

the destruction of an organization.<br />

When such persons, especially those<br />

in leadership positions, build their<br />

own clones among employees; the<br />

organization may have inadvertently<br />

bred a bad-work-attitude-replicating<br />

viral machine that may signal the death<br />

knell of such organizations. Such organizations<br />

can never attain their true<br />

potentials!<br />

In my view, organizations should<br />

take the middle ground between skills<br />

and attitude. They could blend the<br />

“Bless Their Hearts”, so called by <strong>Mar</strong>k<br />

Murphy as employees who try hard<br />

and genuinely want to please and do<br />

a good job but who repeatedly fail to<br />

get the job done right- they are low<br />

performers and no amazing amount<br />

of attitude is going to make up for it;<br />

and “Talented Terrors”, who being the<br />

antithesisof ‘Bless Their Hearts’, have<br />

great skills but lousy attitudes.<br />

They could train an employee with<br />

a great attitude to develop requisite<br />

skills and also tame the “talented terror”<br />

to give his best to the organization<br />

by coaching him to attain a change of<br />

attitude from ‘poor’ to ‘right’ or ‘good’.<br />

However, organizations are advised to<br />

get rid of employees who are irredeemably<br />

twined with the two extremes, i.e.<br />

dominant poor skills and compulsively<br />

bad attitude.<br />

Send reactions to:<br />

comment@businessdayonline.com<br />

AYO ONIKU<br />

Dr Oniku teaches <strong>Mar</strong>keting at University<br />

of Lagos and a Senior Consultant<br />

at Ayo Oniku & Associates<br />

Another critical factor<br />

of noteworthy is that<br />

a visit to any foreignowned<br />

superstores<br />

or supermarkets and glance<br />

at certain shelves like grocery,<br />

household equipment, and<br />

other consumables will clearly<br />

reveal that technically Nigeria<br />

is gradually entering another<br />

Dumping era. In many instances<br />

items produced locally<br />

are not found on shelves while<br />

foreign substitutes are conspicuously<br />

displayed. One strategic<br />

fact about retailing industry is<br />

that nations use it to promote<br />

local products, SMEs, emerging<br />

indigenous firms’ products and<br />

distinct traditional consumables.<br />

In other words, retailing<br />

industry serves as a platform<br />

for national trade policies and<br />

decisions to show case tradition<br />

and culture in terms of<br />

consumable items, households’<br />

utensils, fashion lines<br />

and other items from SMEs,<br />

indigenous firms and micro<br />

businesses. Equally retailing<br />

outlets project traditional and<br />

national consumption patterns<br />

and behaviours and not to project<br />

nor sell foreign culture. The<br />

contemporary example is the<br />

case of British TESCO in China<br />

where the management has to<br />

offer services in Chinese ways<br />

and not British styles. British<br />

Animal Rights raised uproar<br />

about selling life chicken and<br />

Retailing: Before the hell is let loose II<br />

other aquatic animals but<br />

the arguments that they only<br />

provided retailing services<br />

through the Chinese outlets<br />

- offering what Chinese consume;<br />

and Chinese consumers’<br />

satisfaction is paramount to<br />

the business profitability, won<br />

the case for TESCO.<br />

The indigenous retailers are<br />

not spared from the behaviour.<br />

Many indigenous retailers are<br />

platform to find items on Sales<br />

from the UK and USA on their<br />

shelves. On many occasions<br />

items denominated in British<br />

Pounds Sterling and US Dollars<br />

are found on the shelves and<br />

sharing space with substitutes<br />

produced by local manufacturers.<br />

This is antithetical to<br />

economic development and<br />

promotion of Made in Nigeria.<br />

Therefore, a situation where<br />

foreign retailers will use Nigerian<br />

outlets to project, showcase<br />

and offer their national<br />

products and consumables is<br />

not a healthy development for<br />

our national market and economy.<br />

It only reveals the weakness<br />

in the retailing regulations<br />

and policies of operation for<br />

both foreign and indigenous<br />

retailers.<br />

Secondly, there is an urgent<br />

need for a collaborative effort<br />

for the trio of Bank of Industry<br />

(BOI), Nigeria Tourism Development<br />

Corporation (NTDC)<br />

and Regulatory body for retailing<br />

(if there is any) of responsible<br />

government ministry to<br />

support viable and promising<br />

indigenous retailing firms to<br />

boost economic development<br />

and Nigerian tourism potentials.<br />

It is not farce that ‘to-do-lists’<br />

of many tourists is to visit the<br />

TESCO, Walmart, Sainsbury,<br />

Sears, Aldi, Carrefour, Macy, Lianhua,<br />

etc. of this world because<br />

they equally stand as national<br />

symbols to their respective<br />

countries. In few years to come<br />

the slogan among the potential<br />

tourists to Nigeria is ‘A Visit<br />

to ADIDE, Prince Ebeano, or<br />

Yem-Yem Superstores’ and not<br />

‘A Visit to Nigerian branches<br />

of Shoprite or SPAR’ which is<br />

gradually gaining popularity. It<br />

will only take concerted and collaborative<br />

efforts of government<br />

agencies in the areas financing,<br />

architectural design, tourism<br />

attraction policies, and firm and<br />

attractive retailing policies to<br />

achieve it.<br />

Thirdly, government should<br />

as a matter of urgency come<br />

up with policies or a regulatory<br />

bodies that design modus operandifor<br />

the various operations<br />

and activities of emerging retailing<br />

sector in the country. The<br />

major critical areas that call for<br />

regulation to guide operations:<br />

•The types and nature of retailing<br />

outlet to be promoted in<br />

the economy and the spread in<br />

order to avoid high concentration<br />

in one line. For instance<br />

while the economy is experiencing<br />

increased in the number of<br />

supermarkets and superstores<br />

there is low development in<br />

departmental stores and specialist<br />

outlet like grocery, pharmacy,<br />

etc.<br />

•The projection of local<br />

products and restriction on<br />

imported items with local substitutes<br />

should be entrenched.<br />

Policy should be in place to<br />

regulate the behaviour. Alternatively<br />

incentives should be<br />

given to outlets that promote<br />

local products and Made in<br />

Nigeria brands.<br />

•Training and development<br />

of Nigerians to handle managerial<br />

position in the newlysprung<br />

up retailing outlets is<br />

imperative so that influx of<br />

foreigners to man managerial<br />

positions will be reduced.<br />

Presently, no higher institution<br />

offers courses in retailing management<br />

and this will make it<br />

difficult to produce local manpower<br />

for managerial position<br />

in the sector.<br />

•The international practice<br />

of setting sizes, measurements<br />

and dimensions of<br />

stores should be stipulated<br />

to guide siting and volume of<br />

operations. Contemporarily,<br />

the dimensions and sizes of<br />

retailing outlet determine the<br />

location and proximity to convenience<br />

shops. The practice is<br />

strategic to save convenience<br />

stores from fierce competition<br />

they might face with big retailing<br />

outlets.<br />

•The nascent industry needs<br />

to borrow from Indigenous<br />

decree of 1970s to formulate<br />

rules and guiding policies to<br />

set the industry on right path of<br />

entrepreneurship development<br />

among Nigerians. It is strategically<br />

imperative that certain<br />

retailing specialisations should<br />

be exclusively reserved for indigenous<br />

firms so that certain<br />

heritage can be preserved; local<br />

factors will not be adulterated;<br />

development and entrenchment<br />

of entrepreneurial spirit<br />

among Nigerians; integration<br />

factor with local industries<br />

etc. Thus, specialisations like<br />

grocery, furniture; arts and<br />

artefacts, etc. should enjoy<br />

exclusive right of indigenous<br />

retailers.<br />

By and large, the population<br />

size of the country and other<br />

positive economic indices are<br />

the points of attraction to the<br />

international firms, and the sector<br />

provides opportunity for indigenous<br />

retailing firms to show<br />

case Nigerian products and<br />

culture. However, the success<br />

and sustainability of the evolving<br />

retailing sector in a way that<br />

would engender positive effects<br />

on larger economy is a function<br />

of government’s roles in policy<br />

making, strategic decisions, and<br />

importantly in implementation<br />

and execution of policies that<br />

put a right foundation in place<br />

for the nascent retailing sector.<br />

Send reactions to:<br />

comment@businessdayonline.com


12 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556 Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

EDITORIAL<br />

PUBLISHER/CEO<br />

Frank Aigbogun<br />

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF<br />

Prof. Onwuchekwa Jemie<br />

EDITOR<br />

Anthony Osae-Brown<br />

DEPUTY EDITORS<br />

John Osadolor, Abuja<br />

Bill Okonedo<br />

NEWS EDITOR<br />

Patrick Atuanya<br />

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,<br />

SALES AND MARKETING<br />

Kola Garuba<br />

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OPERATIONS<br />

Fabian Akagha<br />

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DIGITAL SERVICES<br />

Oghenevwoke Ighure<br />

ADVERT MANAGER<br />

Adeola Ajewole<br />

MANAGER, SYSTEMS & CONTROL<br />

Emeka Ifeanyi<br />

HEAD OF SALES, CONFERENCES<br />

Rerhe Idonije<br />

SUBSCRIPTIONS MANAGER<br />

Patrick Ijegbai<br />

CIRCULATION MANAGER<br />

John Okpaire<br />

GM, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (North)<br />

Bashir Ibrahim Hassan<br />

GM, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (South)<br />

Ignatius Chukwu<br />

HEAD, HUMAN RESOURCES<br />

Adeola Obisesan<br />

Northern elders on rewriting the narrative of the region<br />

Chibok girls are<br />

still missing. Now<br />

it has gone to Dapchi<br />

in Yobe State.<br />

What happened?<br />

Are we always going to be the<br />

victims? Boko Haram; see<br />

what they did to the Northeast.<br />

They have spread over<br />

to the Northcentral and even<br />

to the southern part of the<br />

country.<br />

“Should we continue to<br />

be regarded on the negative<br />

side? No. We are leaders in<br />

our own right, and we must<br />

exercise this responsibility for<br />

our people”.<br />

That was the Chairman of<br />

the Arewa Consultative Forum,<br />

Alhaji Ibrahim Coomassie,<br />

speaking on <strong>Mar</strong>ch 24<br />

as various groups aggregating<br />

interests in the North<br />

met in Kaduna, the political<br />

capital of the region. He<br />

added, “Whenever there is<br />

crisis, women and children<br />

are always the major victims.<br />

Enough is enough. Enough<br />

of killings of our women and<br />

children, enough of the kidnapping<br />

of our daughters and<br />

enough of the destruction of<br />

our property. We are proud<br />

that you have come forward to<br />

meet us to discuss this issue.”<br />

Coomassie made the remarks<br />

as the National Working<br />

Committee of the Arewa<br />

Consultative Forum received<br />

leaders of Jam’Iyya Matan<br />

Arewa, the leading socio-cultural<br />

organisation of women<br />

in the North ahead of a more<br />

extensive meeting of Northern<br />

groups.<br />

Civil society groups in Northern<br />

Nigeria have risen to articulate<br />

their concerns and<br />

aspirations for the region today<br />

and in the future. Their statement<br />

is significant for what it<br />

reveals about their mindset,<br />

the attitudinal shifts and their<br />

perception of the place of the<br />

North in the conglomeration of<br />

nations that make up Nigeria.<br />

While the tabloids feasted on<br />

their statement of non-support<br />

for current politicians, what the<br />

North is saying should interest<br />

the rest of the country in two<br />

critical areas, among others.<br />

The North desires a change of<br />

the narrative of the North from<br />

being the laggard of the federation<br />

and the one with all the<br />

negatives to an association with<br />

positive developments. They<br />

are also willing to sit with other<br />

groups in the country to discuss<br />

the terms of engagement.<br />

Representatives of 16 groups<br />

signed the communique of the<br />

Summit of Northern Groups<br />

held at Arewa House on <strong>Mar</strong>ch<br />

24 “convened to assess the security,<br />

economic and political<br />

circumstances of the North and<br />

Northern communities in other<br />

parts of Nigeria”.<br />

Primary issues of concern<br />

for the groups were the state<br />

of insecurity “under which<br />

virtually all Northerners live”<br />

and “the worsening economic<br />

fortunes of the vast majority of<br />

Northerners”.<br />

Boko Haram and armed<br />

banditry are so pronounced,<br />

the Summit stated, that “the<br />

North has rarely been so exposed<br />

to multiple and varied<br />

threats”. They asserted that “the<br />

economy of the North continues<br />

to deteriorate in spite of the evident<br />

willingness of Northerners<br />

to work hard and earn legitimate<br />

incomes” amidst deficit<br />

in necessary infrastructure and<br />

investment in human capital.<br />

Official accounts present the<br />

North as the locus of substantial<br />

improvements in agriculture,<br />

but the Summit asserted that<br />

“Agriculture shows limited<br />

glimpses of recovery, but almost<br />

entirely through efforts<br />

of peasants and antiquated<br />

processes.”<br />

The Northern leaders of<br />

thought rue the contradiction<br />

in having their people in full<br />

charge of the government since<br />

2015 but with no significant<br />

improvement in the fortunes<br />

of the region. They charge:<br />

“Weak governance, gross insensitivity<br />

and unacceptable<br />

levels of incompetence have<br />

been compounded by battles<br />

of attrition in which northerners<br />

have sapped each others’<br />

strength.” They decry the fact<br />

that politicians failed to lead<br />

but are instead “daily feeding<br />

the people with hate and resentment<br />

instead of searching for<br />

genuine and lasting solutions”.<br />

The Kaduna declaration of<br />

<strong>Mar</strong>ch 24 should interest the<br />

political leaders of the North,<br />

civil society and citizens as well<br />

as the rest of the country. It represents<br />

an increment in the engagement<br />

process vital for the<br />

sustenance of democracy in the<br />

land. Their call for peaceful resolution<br />

of all conflicts in communities<br />

in the North should<br />

resonate with all the groups.<br />

It is timely and necessary to<br />

change the story of the North.<br />

Even more impressive is their<br />

yellow card to all elected officials.<br />

The Group “WARNS that<br />

Northern politicians should not<br />

expect to be voted for in the next<br />

general election unless they<br />

demonstrate a willingness to<br />

champion a massive assault on<br />

poverty and underdevelopment<br />

in the North. In this regard, most<br />

political office holders from<br />

the North are hereby served<br />

notice that they have failed the<br />

test to lead the region towards<br />

economic recovery and growth.”<br />

Significantly for the rest of<br />

Nigeria, the leaders of the North<br />

pledge a willingness “toput our<br />

union as a nation on the table<br />

and discuss with other Nigerians<br />

the relative values of ALL<br />

options and negotiate them<br />

with responsibility and respect”.<br />

Let the engagement scale up.<br />

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD<br />

Dick Kramer - Chairman<br />

Imo Itsueli<br />

Mohammed Hayatudeen<br />

Albert Alos<br />

Funke Osibodu<br />

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Dayo Lawuyi<br />

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Wole Obayomi<br />

Maneesh Garg<br />

Keith Richards<br />

Opeyemi Agbaje<br />

Amina Oyagbola<br />

Bolanle Onagoruwa<br />

Fola Laoye<br />

Chuka Mordi<br />

Sim Shagaya<br />

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Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

COMPANIES<br />

& MARKETS<br />

Company news analysis and insight<br />

BUSINESS<br />

DAY<br />

Fidelity Bank savings base<br />

hit N170bn in 3 years<br />

13<br />

Pg. 14<br />

West Africans collaborate to move up<br />

intra-regional trade beyond 12%<br />

…as WATIF 2019 promises to be bigger<br />

ODINAKA ANUDU<br />

West Africans are<br />

collaborating to<br />

increase intra-regional<br />

trade well<br />

above its current<br />

12 percent to raise employment and<br />

gross domestic product.<br />

At the maiden edition of the West<br />

Africa Trade and Investment Forum<br />

(WATIF) held in Lagos, stakeholders<br />

said there was a need to increase<br />

intra-regional collaboration to grow<br />

the manufacturing, ICT, agriculture,<br />

education and skills development in<br />

the region.<br />

“We are not trading enough<br />

in West Africa,” Michele Branco-<br />

Aiyegbusi, visioner and promoter of<br />

WATIF, told <strong>BusinessDay</strong>.<br />

“Before the event, we went to<br />

Ghana, Togo, Mali and other West<br />

African countries, and people<br />

were very enthusiastic about us<br />

trading with each other. People<br />

have been thinking about it, but<br />

there has been nobody coming to<br />

bring everybody together,” Branco-<br />

Aiyegbusi said.<br />

Forty-four African countries<br />

recently signed the African Continental<br />

Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in<br />

Kigali to open up the continent to<br />

business and a potential $3.4 trillion<br />

opportunity.<br />

Though it was the largest trade<br />

agreement since the World Trade<br />

Organisation (WTO) in 1994, Nigeria<br />

did not sign as it wanted to make<br />

more local consultations.<br />

“I see Africa becoming the global<br />

hub, where the rest of the world will<br />

be coming to,” Branco-Aiyegbusi<br />

said.<br />

“I believe that as a nation, we<br />

need to be open and collaborate<br />

with other African countries. I believe<br />

the fear has been exploitation,<br />

but we need to begin to bring people<br />

together and trust each other,” she<br />

said.<br />

She pointed out that WATIF<br />

would go a long way to enhance<br />

collaboration for regional development,<br />

while bringing people from<br />

West African countries together for<br />

business.<br />

“We realise we should not be<br />

waiting for government. We believe<br />

that with the support of government,<br />

we will be breaking whatever barrier<br />

that hampers trade,” she said.<br />

She added that WATIF 2019<br />

would be bigger and better.<br />

Akinola Olawore, president of<br />

the Nigeria British Chamber of<br />

Commerce (NBCC), said less than<br />

five percent of Nigeria’s exports went<br />

to ECOWAS, pointing out the need<br />

to do more export to the region and<br />

take advantage of opportunities<br />

therein.<br />

Represented by the deputy president,<br />

Kayode Falowo, Olawore said<br />

in line with the vision of President<br />

Muhammadu Buhari to diversify the<br />

economy, the sectors discussed at<br />

WATIF— ICT, manufacturing, training,<br />

education, agriculture, among<br />

others—were apt and relevant to<br />

the development of the Economic<br />

Community of West African States<br />

(ECOWAS).<br />

L-R Nnamdi Onybuchi, executive director, technology and operation, Weco Systems; Hussein Adeieye, deployment<br />

engineer, Weco Systems; Funmi Coker, system engineer, Cisco Systems, and Kehinde Owolabi, Xpress Payments<br />

HOD, IT Infrastructure, during the Weco-Cisco deliver business outcome with Cisco Meraki and core refresh workshop<br />

in Lagos.<br />

Pic by Pius Okeosisi<br />

“The ease of doing business<br />

should extend to easing bilateral<br />

trade. The ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation<br />

Scheme (ETLS) should<br />

achieve more,” he said.<br />

According to the president of the<br />

NBCC, there was a need to find solutions<br />

to funding small businesses<br />

in the region to enable them create<br />

more jobs and contribute meaningfully<br />

to the GDP.<br />

Felix Ohiwerei, former managing<br />

director of the Nigerian Breweries,<br />

said Nigerian products were found<br />

everywhere in West Africa, attesting<br />

to the production potential in the<br />

country.<br />

He canvassed support for SMEs<br />

in the region, saying that they needed<br />

capacity to realise potential.<br />

“What SMEs need most in Nigeria,<br />

apart from money, is capacity.<br />

They need the expertise to manage<br />

available funds and get maximum<br />

result. The future of SMEs in Nigeria<br />

and West Africa depends on the<br />

degree to which they are able to<br />

develop. Where there is weakness<br />

in SMEs, there is weakness everywhere,”<br />

Ohiwerei said.<br />

General Electric delivers fast mobile power generating<br />

equipment to Afam 3 power project<br />

The General Electric (GE)<br />

says it has delivered its<br />

TM2500 mobile aero derivative<br />

gas turbine generator<br />

sets to Afam 3 Fast Power<br />

project site.<br />

GE said this in a statement issued<br />

by Anne Ezeh, Communications<br />

Manager Africa and Melissa<br />

Quesnel, Communications Manager<br />

on Tuesday.<br />

According to GE, the fast trailer-mounted<br />

gas turbine solution<br />

has the capacity to add 240 Mega<br />

Watts (MW) to the Afam 3 Power<br />

plant.<br />

GE and Nigeria had signed<br />

an agreement in 2014, to archive<br />

Nigeria’s additional power generation<br />

of 10,000MW.<br />

GE is providing the mobile<br />

power generation equipment,<br />

electrical balance of plant, installation,<br />

commissioning services<br />

and training to the plant operators.<br />

It is estimated that the Afam 3<br />

power plant will get to commercial<br />

operation later in the year,<br />

pending Federal Government’s<br />

execution of financial structure of<br />

the plant.<br />

The statement also quoted the<br />

Chief Executive Officer of GE,<br />

Lawrence Anagbazo as saying that<br />

“the project is a direct response<br />

to the Nigerian Emergency Fast<br />

Power intervention initiative, and<br />

we are committed to supporting<br />

the government’s strategy.’’<br />

Anagbazo said GE team in partnership<br />

with the Ministry of Power<br />

had taken previously unutilised<br />

site and turned them into viable<br />

modern Power plants.<br />

According to him, the completion<br />

of the project will provide<br />

electricity to 1.5 million Nigerians.<br />

Meanwhile, GE’s Managing<br />

Director in charge of Gas Power<br />

Systems in Nigeria, said the Afam<br />

fast power plant was valued at 186<br />

million dollars.<br />

He said the delivery of the<br />

fast mobile equipment, a crucial<br />

component of the project was<br />

designed to support Nigerians<br />

energy needs.<br />

According to him, the TM2500<br />

generator sets, which is a trailer<br />

mounted can also be installed<br />

faster than traditional power<br />

plants. This, he said was suited for<br />

Nigeria’s energy demand.<br />

According to him, GE’s TM2500<br />

fast Power solution delivers reliable<br />

and efficient Power with<br />

speed.<br />

“It can operate with gas or<br />

distillate liquid fuel and emits<br />

approximately 50 per cent lower<br />

emissions compared to diesel generators<br />

when operating on natural<br />

gas,’’ he said.<br />

The Managing Director of Afam<br />

Power PLC, Olumide Obademi<br />

said the Federal Government<br />

had signed a Memorandum of<br />

Understanding (MoU) with GE to<br />

supply Fast Power in line with government<br />

incremental Power plan.<br />

Obademi said the fast plant<br />

was a 240 MW capacity of eight<br />

turbines of <strong>30</strong> MW each.<br />

He said the installation of the<br />

turbines and generators had been<br />

completed while installation of the<br />

axillaries was in progress with 90<br />

per cent completion.<br />

He also said the job on 132KV<br />

switch yard for Power evacuation<br />

was on the verge of being completed.


14<br />

BUSINESS DAY<br />

C002D5556<br />

Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

COMPANIES & MARKETS<br />

Fidelity Bank savings base<br />

hit N170bn in 3 years<br />

Fidelity Bank Plc.<br />

on Tuesday says<br />

its savings base<br />

has increased to<br />

N170 billion in the<br />

last three years due to the<br />

adoption of retail banking<br />

strategy, “Get Alert in Millions<br />

Promo’’.<br />

Nnamdi Okonkwo, the<br />

bank’s Managing Director,<br />

said this at the fifth/third bimonthly<br />

prize presentation<br />

of the Fidelity “Get Alert in<br />

Millions Promo Reloaded’’<br />

in Lagos.<br />

Okonkwo, represented by<br />

Obaro Odeghe, the Directorate<br />

Head, Corporate Banking,<br />

said that the savings base<br />

rose to N170 billion from N89<br />

billion in 2015, an increase of<br />

91.01 per cent.<br />

“About three years ago,<br />

the savings base of the bank<br />

was about N89 billion and<br />

till date, I can tell you that we<br />

have crossed the N170 billion<br />

threshold and it is still going.<br />

Nnamdi Okonkwo<br />

“So, clearly we have really<br />

demonstrated a lot of attraction<br />

since this promotion<br />

started,’’ he said.<br />

Okonkwo said that the<br />

adoption of retail banking<br />

strategy generated a lot of<br />

deposits from existing customers,<br />

attracted new customers,<br />

and enhanced financial<br />

inclusion in Nigeria.<br />

He said that the bank<br />

would continue to embrace<br />

initiatives that would improve<br />

the lives of its customers.<br />

Okonkwo said that the<br />

promo was introduced to<br />

improve the lives of the customers<br />

as well as reward<br />

loyal customers who had<br />

been banking with the bank<br />

over the years.<br />

He said that the bank<br />

would continue to play<br />

strong in the Small and Medium<br />

Enterprises (SMEs)<br />

base to ensure growth of<br />

small businesses.<br />

Policy consistency, stable economy<br />

will boost PPP – surveyor<br />

Jide Oke, Secretary, <strong>Mar</strong>keting<br />

and Corporate Affairs,<br />

Nigeria Institute of Quantity<br />

Surveyors (NIQS), has<br />

identified policy inconsistency<br />

as a hindrance to the success<br />

of Public/Private Partnership<br />

(PPP) schemes in Nigeria.<br />

Oke said that PPP schemes<br />

would be more effective with<br />

economic stability and regularity<br />

in government directives, in<br />

Lagos on Wednesday.<br />

He claimed that successive<br />

administrations scarcely completed<br />

set projects before their<br />

tenures elapsed. “As such, the<br />

projects are usually abandoned<br />

for new ones by the successors,’’<br />

he said.<br />

According to him, government<br />

should complete projects<br />

and execute policies started<br />

by their predecessors before<br />

embarking on new ones so that<br />

PPP would record significant<br />

progress.<br />

Oke added that government<br />

should respect contractual<br />

agreements with private<br />

firms to enable successful PPP<br />

schemes.<br />

He said that government<br />

should build confidence<br />

among investors, respect contractual<br />

agreements with private<br />

firms and provide special<br />

incentives to encourage private<br />

investments.<br />

“Private individuals and<br />

firms are not charity organisations.<br />

Most times, they borrow<br />

money to execute projects and<br />

need to pay back.<br />

“Once private firms/individuals<br />

notice that the government<br />

does not keep to its<br />

promise in PPP projects, they<br />

will not be willing to partner<br />

again,” he said.<br />

Okonkwo said that the<br />

bank had a lot of initiatives<br />

aimed at supporting the<br />

growth of SMEs apart from<br />

giving out loans.<br />

According to him, the<br />

bank helps SMEs in advisory<br />

services and project analysis<br />

to ensure proper utilisation<br />

of loans.<br />

Okonkwo said that the<br />

bank had given a total of<br />

N81 million in cash and 90<br />

consolation prizes to 183<br />

winners under the “Get Alert<br />

in Millions Reloaded’’.<br />

He said that the bank major<br />

priority was to reward its<br />

customers through different<br />

initiatives to improve their<br />

living standard.<br />

Okonkwo said that the<br />

consolation prizes included<br />

television sets, generators<br />

and refrigerators, noting<br />

that the grand prize of N10<br />

million would be won by a<br />

lucky customer at the end of<br />

the promo.<br />

The new set of winners<br />

emerged from a transparent<br />

randomisation process<br />

monitored by the bank’s<br />

control team and witnessed<br />

by officials from Consumer<br />

Protection Council (CPC)<br />

and other regulators and<br />

stakeholders.<br />

Damilare Emmanuel of<br />

Saka Tinubu Branch, Lagos,<br />

and Isreal Okechi Nwaobialor<br />

of Egbeda Branch who<br />

won one million naira and<br />

two million naira respectively<br />

under the Lagos zone<br />

were rewarded at the event.<br />

Oke advised that PPP<br />

should not be politicised to<br />

avoid jeopardising it.<br />

He called for the right policies,<br />

legislation and regulatory<br />

framework that would guarantee<br />

stable macroeconomic<br />

environment for the success of<br />

PPP schemes.<br />

“If government will put<br />

in place policies and legislation<br />

to guarantee investors’<br />

confidence – assuring them<br />

that there will not be challenges<br />

with their profits/dividends,<br />

there will be respect for<br />

contractual agreements and<br />

that the macroeconomic environment<br />

will be stable – PPP<br />

schemes will thrive,” he said.<br />

Oke urged the Federal Government<br />

to focus on expanding<br />

the country’s investment,<br />

industrial and manufacturing<br />

base.<br />

Shareholders back NAICOM’s directive to insurance<br />

operators on huge management expenses<br />

Shehu Mikail, National<br />

President, Constance<br />

Shareholders Association<br />

of Nigeria<br />

(CSAN) has declared support<br />

for the National Insurance<br />

Commission’s (NAI-<br />

COM) directive to insurers to<br />

cut their huge management<br />

expenses.<br />

Mikail said on Monday<br />

in Lagos, that the cut would<br />

end unnecessary expenditures<br />

embarked on by some<br />

insurers as well as enhance<br />

dividend payment and boost<br />

investors’ confidence in the<br />

sector.<br />

He said the association<br />

was happy with the new<br />

directive by Mohammed<br />

Kari, the Commissioner for<br />

Insurance (CFI).<br />

“This means that companies<br />

would no longer<br />

spend unnecessarily to the<br />

extent that they would not<br />

be able to attend to claims<br />

settlement and give good<br />

returns on investments,’’<br />

Mikail said.<br />

He noted that a data recently<br />

obtained from the<br />

Nigerian Insurers Association<br />

(NIA), revealed that a<br />

whopping N264.15 billion<br />

was spent as management<br />

expenses in five years.<br />

“The data in 2012 financial<br />

year showed that N48.<br />

22 billion was incurred on<br />

management expenses.<br />

“About N48.59, N53.83,<br />

N52.12, and N61.39 billion<br />

in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016<br />

respectively, bringing the total<br />

amount spent as management<br />

expenses to N264.15<br />

billion in five years.<br />

“At a time the industry is<br />

targeting one trillion premium<br />

income in 2020, and<br />

15 per cent of N350 billion<br />

expected premium income<br />

annually is being expended<br />

on management expenses.<br />

“These management expenses<br />

included underwriting<br />

expenses, salaries, rents<br />

and others excluding com-<br />

missions paid to agents and<br />

dividend payments within<br />

the periods,’’ he said.<br />

The CSAN president further<br />

said that it was worrisome<br />

that four insurance<br />

firms in 2016 financial year<br />

had their management expenses<br />

higher than the gross<br />

premium generated.<br />

According to Mikail, the<br />

data showed that Old Mutual<br />

Life Assurance Company<br />

Limited, which had N1.<strong>30</strong><br />

billion as gross premium,<br />

spent N1.83 billion, Spring<br />

Life Assurance Plc, which<br />

had N32 million spent N105,<br />

282 million<br />

“UNIC Insurance Plc had<br />

N38.7 million and spent<br />

N244.9 million, and Investment<br />

& Allied Insurance Plc<br />

had N4.3 million and spent<br />

N169.4 million’’ he said.<br />

Mikail warned operators<br />

that NAICOM may still take<br />

over more insurance companies<br />

if its directive was not<br />

heeded.<br />

L-R: Olukunle Iyanda, president and chairman of council, Nigerian Institute of Management<br />

(Chartered) (NIM); Agu Onwuzuruoha, guest speaker, and Tony Fadaka, registrar/chief executive,<br />

NIM, at the <strong>2018</strong> Corporate Members’ Forum of the Institute in Lagos. Pic by Olawale Amoo<br />

Rivers launches tax management card and TIN<br />

Ignatius Chukwu<br />

Rivers State has reacted<br />

to its low ranking<br />

on the Ease of<br />

Doing Business by<br />

launching two policy actions<br />

in the form of tax management<br />

cards that may eliminate<br />

multiple taxes.<br />

The governor, Nyesom<br />

Ezenwo Wike, recently flagged<br />

off the Rivers State Tax Management<br />

(RIVTAMIS) and the<br />

Rivers State Tax Identification<br />

Number (RIVTIN).<br />

The governor received the<br />

First RIVTIN Card from the<br />

Executive Chairman of Rivers<br />

State Internal Revenue<br />

Service, Adoage Norteh.<br />

Speaking at the flag-off of<br />

RIVTAMIS and RIVTIN, Wike<br />

said the innovations were<br />

part of his administration’s<br />

commitment to entrenching<br />

platforms for the ease of doing<br />

business.<br />

He said that the new tax<br />

reform packages will identify<br />

all formal and informal businesses<br />

in the state, noting<br />

that the details would help<br />

the state government plan for<br />

development.<br />

According to the governor,<br />

with the digital platforms, tax<br />

payments can be made from<br />

anywhere. He said: “From<br />

First April <strong>2018</strong>, all businesses<br />

are required to obtain their<br />

RIVTIN to pay taxes, levies<br />

and fines to the Rivers State<br />

Government. All banks have<br />

been mobilised to generate<br />

RIVTIN for all those who want<br />

to make payments to the Rivers<br />

State Government. Any<br />

business that fails to comply<br />

by June 1, <strong>2018</strong> will be appropriately<br />

sanctioned “.<br />

The chairman, Norteh, said<br />

the tax place has been sanitised<br />

to check multiple taxes.<br />

He said that the process<br />

would facilitate the tax payment<br />

process, enhance selfservice<br />

and improve the revenue<br />

of the state. “Right from<br />

the comfort of your office, you<br />

can obtain your tax clearance<br />

certificate and tax exemption,”<br />

said Norteh.<br />

The chairman said that the<br />

tax payer has a duty to reciprocate<br />

the tax friendliness of<br />

the state government.<br />

President of Port Harcourt<br />

Chambers of Commerce,<br />

Mines and Industry, Emi<br />

Membere-Otaji, said that<br />

the business community was<br />

pleased by the innovations<br />

that have eliminated multiple<br />

taxes.<br />

Spokesman of Heritage<br />

Bank, FB Briggs, assured the<br />

state government that banks<br />

would cooperate to ensure<br />

that the programme succeeds.


Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong> C002D5556 BUSINESS DAY 15<br />

COMPANIES & MARKETS<br />

Showers Schools CEO wants education investors to<br />

focus on self-confidence and entrepreneurship<br />

• Says those who cheat in exams face challenges later in life<br />

Business Event<br />

Ignatius Chukwu<br />

The founder and<br />

CEO of Port<br />

Harcourt-based<br />

Showers Group<br />

of Schools, Ekama<br />

Emilia Akpan, wants<br />

investors in the education<br />

sector to focus on creating<br />

self-confidence and entrepreneurship<br />

in graduates<br />

of today. She said graduates<br />

must be assisted to develop<br />

self-confidence and ability<br />

to cope with the economic<br />

conditions full of strains.<br />

Akpan, who is the national<br />

vice president of the<br />

Manufacturers Association<br />

of Nigeria (MAN) told newsmen<br />

in Port Harcourt that<br />

parents need to be wary<br />

of highbrow schools they<br />

send their children to in the<br />

present Nigeria where children<br />

are destroyed by wrong<br />

values and vices.<br />

She condemned schools<br />

that condoned cheating just<br />

to post wonderful results,<br />

saying in Showers, failing<br />

is good to repeat and get it<br />

right.<br />

The MAN representative<br />

in Small and Medium Enterprises<br />

Development Agency<br />

of Nigeria (SMEDAN) said<br />

her secondary school, Christian<br />

High School, focuses on<br />

building the character of the<br />

child as well as academic<br />

performance, saying both<br />

are crucial in building the<br />

career of a child.<br />

She said she decided<br />

to set up Showers in her<br />

quest for the new child who<br />

should get the right type of<br />

education backed with selfconfidence,<br />

good value and<br />

ability to do things without<br />

external influences.<br />

She said it is wise to allow<br />

children to study up to the<br />

university level in Nigeria<br />

before proceeding abroad<br />

because most of those who<br />

go there end up not achieving<br />

their objective because<br />

of culture shock and extreme<br />

cases of discrimination.<br />

The SMEDAM committee<br />

member said the A-Level<br />

study is another way of developing<br />

the child before<br />

the journey abroad to make<br />

them strong in the university<br />

and to resist forces of coercion<br />

abroad.<br />

Akpan called on the government<br />

to encourage good<br />

private schools but must<br />

enforce ban on those merely<br />

setting up ‘miracle’ centres<br />

for the purpose of writing<br />

wonder results that people<br />

carry out without the confidence<br />

to defend them. She<br />

said children who parade<br />

such results hardly lead a<br />

meaningful life or career.<br />

Akpan, who headed<br />

MAN, Rivers/Bayelsa chapters<br />

says the group of schools<br />

is out to redeem the image of<br />

the South-South in highbrow<br />

and credible classroom feats<br />

in the South-South.<br />

The secondary school is<br />

located in Igbo-Etche area<br />

near Port Harcourt, the primary<br />

school is in Woji area of<br />

Port Harcourt, while the administrative<br />

headquarters is<br />

located on Trans-Woji Road,<br />

also in the Garden City.<br />

Akpan said at a media<br />

briefing at Grace Plaza at<br />

Number <strong>30</strong> Trans-Woji revealed<br />

how she decided to<br />

address the rot in the youth<br />

cadre of the society, saying<br />

the backbone of entrepreneurship<br />

and success of the<br />

economy depend on sound<br />

education system.<br />

She told newsmen that<br />

the hallmark of teaching in<br />

Showers is sound character<br />

of the child and ability to<br />

work independently for the<br />

highest levels of success. She<br />

tabled different results that<br />

showed that the students record<br />

very high scores at both<br />

national and international<br />

examinations.<br />

Showers CEO said her<br />

school has produced hundreds<br />

of medical doctors,<br />

lawyers, engineers and other<br />

professionals from some of<br />

the best universities in the<br />

world. She said she had sent<br />

over 1000 brilliant Nigerian<br />

students to Ghana universities<br />

alone, but said she now<br />

concentrates on Nigerian<br />

universities.<br />

The CEO said she once<br />

lost a major contract to<br />

train students on scholarship<br />

because she would<br />

not remove praying in her<br />

schools, but that some exstudents<br />

around the world<br />

have called to testify to the<br />

power of prayer over money<br />

in educational and career<br />

successes.<br />

The MAN vice president<br />

said a student had once<br />

rebuked an invigilator that<br />

urged the students in her<br />

school to cheat.<br />

L-R: Ovie of Udu Kingdom HRM Barr E.B.O. Delekpe Owhohu 1, Dr. Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa, Executive<br />

Governor of Delta State, Mr. Prasanta Mishra, CEO & MD of Premium Steel & Mines Ltd., Warri,<br />

Delta., during the Commissioning of Premium Steel &amp; Mines Ltd.<br />

L-R: Chris Umeje, acting managing director, Neimenth International Pharmaceuticals Plc; ABC<br />

Orjiako, chairman, and Florence Onyenekwe, company secretary, at the 59th Annual General<br />

Meeting of Neimenth International Pharmaceuticals held at NECA House, Ikeja Lagos.<br />

Dana Air bags Airline of<br />

the Year 2017 award<br />

Dana Air has been<br />

announced as the<br />

airline of the year<br />

2017, at the eighth<br />

edition of the Nigerian Aviation<br />

Awards and Presidential<br />

Dinner, held recently in<br />

Lagos.<br />

The airline’s CEO, Jacky<br />

Hathiramani, communications<br />

manager, Kingsley Ezenwa,<br />

also bagged the CEO<br />

of the year, and Aviation Corporate<br />

Promotions Personality<br />

of the year 2017 awards,<br />

respectively, while the airline’s<br />

crew members - Collins<br />

Ginika and Chiogo Okani,<br />

won the King and Queen of<br />

the Air contest at the event.<br />

The king and queen of the<br />

air contest is a newly-introduced<br />

initiative by the organisers<br />

of the NIGAV awards,<br />

where the various domestic<br />

airlines’ crew get to answer<br />

questions on how they handle<br />

safety issues, ensure comfort<br />

of passengers and how to be<br />

a good crew member.<br />

The duo from Dana Air<br />

also performed their first<br />

assignment at the event by<br />

presenting cash gifts to an<br />

orphanage present at the<br />

event. They have also become<br />

ambassadors of the NIGAV<br />

awards and will represent<br />

the industry at various aviation<br />

events for their intelligent<br />

display at the awards<br />

and mastery of civil aviation<br />

regulations<br />

Kingsley Ezenwa, the<br />

media and communications<br />

manager of Dana Air,<br />

who received the award on<br />

behalf of the airline, said,”<br />

We thank the organizers<br />

of the Nigerian Aviation<br />

Awards for recognising our<br />

efforts towards providing<br />

safe, reliable and affordable<br />

air transport in Nigeria, and<br />

we wish to assure our guests<br />

of our unwavering commitment<br />

towards maintaining<br />

our standards and upping<br />

the ante on all fronts.”<br />

On the CEO of the year<br />

award, Kingsley said, “A big<br />

thank you to all those who<br />

voted our indefatigable CEO,<br />

Jacky Hathiramani. Our CEO<br />

is a detribalized Nigerian<br />

and one who believes in the<br />

maxim - slow and steady<br />

wins the race. His managerial<br />

acumen is second to none,<br />

and doesn’t believe in noise<br />

making but doing things right<br />

and creatively too.”<br />

L-R: Sakariyau Babalola, deputy president-general, Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs<br />

(NSCIA); Bashir Umar, secretary, financial regulation advisory council of experts, Central Bank of<br />

Nigeria (CBN); Momodou Musa Joof, managing director, Jaiz Takaful Insurance Plc and Basheer<br />

Oshodi, group head, non-interest banking, Sterling Bank Plc, at a business luncheon on Islamic<br />

Financial System: A Panacea For National Economic Development organised by Forum of Islamic<br />

Education and Awareness in Lagos.<br />

L-R: Dolapo Coker, member, Nigerian Heart Foundation, Nutrition Committee; Kingsley Akinroye,<br />

executive director, Nigerian Heart Foundation; Moji Adeyeye, director- general, National Agency<br />

for Food and Drugs Administration and Control; Tola Atinmo, chairman, Nigerian Heart Foundation,<br />

Nutrition Committee; Dele Adetiba, director of communication, Nigerian Heart Foundation; Monica<br />

Eimunjeze, director, registration and regulatory affairs, National Agency for Food and Drugs<br />

Administration and Control, and Samson Adebayo, director of ports inspection, National Agency<br />

for Food and Drugs Administration and Control, at an interactive session between Nigerian Heart<br />

Foundation and National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control in Lagos.


16 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556 Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

FINTECH<br />

News Products Review Technology Review Personality Review Company Review<br />

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW<br />

Nigeria’s mobile money: All motion, little movement<br />

Stories by FRANK ELEANYA<br />

In 2007, mobile money<br />

was born for the first time<br />

in Africa, to provide financial<br />

services to the<br />

over 80 percent of the<br />

Kenya’s population who were<br />

excluded from the formal financial<br />

sector.<br />

The innovation which came<br />

in the form of M-Pesa allowed<br />

the growing mobile phone<br />

population in Kenya to access<br />

financial services at the click<br />

of few buttons. By so doing,<br />

it eliminated the need to first<br />

visit a bank branch to do simple<br />

tasks such as open bank accounts,<br />

make payments, transfer<br />

money, receive money and<br />

access loans.<br />

The mobile money market<br />

size is estimated to grow from<br />

$21.15 billion in 2016 to $112.29<br />

billion by 2021, at an estimated<br />

compound annual growth rate<br />

(CAGR) of 39.64 percent from<br />

2016 to 2021. According to<br />

GSMA, sub-Saharan Africa<br />

is the global leader in mobile<br />

money, accounting for almost<br />

half of all registered customers<br />

globally. In 2017, mobile<br />

money transactions within the<br />

region reached $19.9 billion, 63<br />

percent of global figure.<br />

Although, western and central<br />

African countries dominated<br />

registered accounts,<br />

Nigeria was absent from the<br />

top three countries consisting<br />

of Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire<br />

and Ghana.<br />

Nigeria does have huge potential<br />

given the large population.<br />

The country is the leader in<br />

active mobile phones in Africa<br />

with over 155 million lines according<br />

to recent data. The total<br />

active subscription and total<br />

active internet subscription in<br />

Nigeria also hit 145 million and<br />

over 98 million respectively in<br />

the fourth quarter of 2017.<br />

The authorities also seem<br />

to be paying attention to the<br />

market. Data from Nigerian<br />

Inter-Bank Settlement System<br />

(NIBSS) show that there are<br />

21 mobile money operators<br />

licensed by the Central Bank of<br />

Nigeria (CBN).<br />

Despite the potential and<br />

the regulator’s interest going<br />

as far back as 2015, in growing<br />

the market, so far mobile<br />

money transactions accounts<br />

for just 1.01 percent of the<br />

total e-payment transactions<br />

in Nigeria. A top UN official at<br />

a recent tech summit in Kigali<br />

disclosed that mobile money<br />

penetration was only one percent<br />

in Nigeria meaning that<br />

majority of the 155 million<br />

phone users in Nigeria are yet<br />

to buy into the innovation.<br />

Nigeria also possess some<br />

of the conditions that could<br />

help mobile money services<br />

to thrive. The National Switch<br />

Service under the CBN since<br />

2011, for example, serves as the<br />

gateway for payment services in<br />

the country. CBN guideline provides<br />

that every bank route their<br />

payment through the switch.<br />

Kenya just recently adopted a<br />

National Switch Service.<br />

There is some growth being<br />

recorded, to be sure. In<br />

2017 for instance, volume of<br />

transaction grew to N1.1 trillion<br />

compared to N756 billion<br />

recorded in 2016. But growth in<br />

transaction does not necessarily<br />

mean adoption is growing at<br />

same rate.<br />

For some stakeholders, a<br />

major challenge for mobile<br />

money adoption in Nigeria<br />

is the regulatory model in<br />

operation. The CBN model<br />

requires it to define the role of<br />

every player in the entire value<br />

chain. The Kenyan model is<br />

also similar in that it is also led<br />

by the Central Bank of Kenya.<br />

However, unlike the CBN, the<br />

Kenyan central bank allows<br />

even non-banks players such<br />

as mobile network operators<br />

(MNOs) to provide mobile<br />

money services.<br />

Ghana started out like the<br />

CBN - allowing only banks<br />

and deposit-taking financial<br />

institutions to provide the<br />

service while MNOs acted as<br />

agents making available the<br />

platforms. When that proved<br />

problematic, the Bank of Ghana<br />

upgraded its rules in 2015<br />

to accommodate non-bank<br />

entities under the supervision<br />

of the apex bank.<br />

Commenting on the growth<br />

of the market in Ghana, a<br />

senior official of GSMA, in an<br />

interview reemphasised the<br />

role regulation played with<br />

the introduction of a new set<br />

of rules by the central bank. Between<br />

2012 and 2017, activity<br />

rates grew from seven percent<br />

to over 70 percent.<br />

In essence, Nigeria central<br />

bank would need to evolve its<br />

framework in order to open up<br />

the sector to non-bank entities.<br />

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW<br />

When ‘Nerds Unite’ for tech infrastructure in Nigeria<br />

The quality of technology<br />

innovation is mostly<br />

determined by the<br />

quality of infrastructure<br />

powering it. To be sure,<br />

infrastructure encompasses an<br />

enterprise’s entire collection of<br />

hardware, software, networks,<br />

data centers, facilities and related<br />

equipment used to develop,<br />

test, operate, monitor, manage<br />

and support information technology<br />

services.<br />

At the second edition of<br />

NerdsUnite organised by MainOne,<br />

several experts emphasised<br />

the need for infrastructures<br />

that power the different<br />

segments of the tech ecosystem<br />

in Nigeria.<br />

NersUnite is one of the largest<br />

tech platforms that bring<br />

together entrepreneurs, big tech<br />

companies, professionals and<br />

experts every year, to discuss<br />

issues around the development<br />

of the tech ecosystem in Nigeria<br />

and Africa.<br />

One of the critical infrastructures<br />

highlighted was cloud.<br />

Cloud infrastructure aggregates<br />

hardware and software components<br />

– such as servers, storage,<br />

a network and virtualisation<br />

software – that are needed to<br />

support the computing requirements<br />

of a cloud computing<br />

model.<br />

Cloud computing alludes to<br />

the practice of using a network<br />

of remote servers hosted on the<br />

internet to store, manage, and<br />

process data, rather than a local<br />

server or a personal computer.<br />

MainOne for example, is a cloud<br />

computing provider.<br />

In cloud computing, virtualised<br />

resources are hosted by<br />

a service provider or IT department<br />

and are delivered to users<br />

over a network or the internet.<br />

Many Nigerian businesses<br />

have over time become reliant<br />

on cloud services for many<br />

reasons. To start with, adoption<br />

of cloud computing could mean<br />

big changes for small business<br />

owners whether tech start-ups<br />

or non-tech start-ups.<br />

Cloud infrastructure has<br />

lower costs implications for<br />

businesses, meaning they can<br />

make significant savings while<br />

fully maximising their hardware.<br />

It also engenders collaboration.<br />

Cloud collaboration<br />

tools like Google Drive enables<br />

employees to upload, edit, and<br />

comment on documents enhancing<br />

the workplace relationship.<br />

Another attraction to<br />

cloud computing is being able<br />

to access work-related files and<br />

information from any device<br />

in any place at any time. It also<br />

promotes simplified integration<br />

for businesses.<br />

There are different industries<br />

that are utilising cloud computing<br />

to disrupt their services in<br />

Nigeria. In the financial services<br />

for instance, the technology has<br />

been responsible for the many<br />

innovations the sector has witnessed<br />

in recent times. Wema<br />

by ALAT, for instance, has within<br />

a short time revolutionised the<br />

banking sector with its innovation.<br />

Aside from making money<br />

transfer easier, the app has a<br />

solution that offers customers<br />

loans in five minutes.<br />

A panellist on one of the<br />

sessions, explained that cloud<br />

computing is a perfect response<br />

to changing consumer appetite<br />

which demands more gratification<br />

speed and convenience.<br />

Beyond gratifying the customer,<br />

cloud adoption also means<br />

Nigerian banks are no longer<br />

thinking traditionally and waiting<br />

for somebody to bring the<br />

solution to them.<br />

One of the panellists harped<br />

on improving the user experience<br />

of mobile applications.<br />

Deji Olowe, executive director<br />

at SystemSpecs, the creators<br />

of Remita App noted that user<br />

interface is critical.<br />

“When you are developing<br />

for the mobile there is a lot of<br />

variations as against when you<br />

are developing for desktops.<br />

So when designing, you have<br />

to design it in such a way that<br />

you meet everybody at their<br />

point. Beyond the screen signs,<br />

you have to look at the different<br />

networks. A smartphone that is<br />

running on a fast network could<br />

within one minute switch over to<br />

a portion of the network that is<br />

not very fast. So user experience<br />

on mobile is like signs, you have<br />

to put in so much effort.<br />

“When you design, you have<br />

to look at the fact that when<br />

using mobile people usually<br />

just have one hand to use it,<br />

hence the form factor is very<br />

important; the speed of loading<br />

and the type of interaction for<br />

example the things you can do<br />

on desktop like Java script you<br />

have to minimise them on a<br />

mobile,” he said.


Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

BUSINESS DAY<br />

15<br />

CITYFile<br />

National<br />

Directorate of<br />

Employment’s<br />

trainees in<br />

a peaceful<br />

protest over<br />

non-payment<br />

of stipends, at<br />

the office in<br />

Asingbi Lane,<br />

Ingbi Road,<br />

Yenagoa.<br />

NAN<br />

Lagos to disagrees with court<br />

over ruling on consumption tax<br />

JOSHUA BASSEY<br />

Lagos State government has disagreed<br />

with a Federal High Court<br />

sitting in Ikoyi, which temporarily<br />

restrained it from enforcing<br />

the provisions of the 2017 Hotel<br />

Occupancy and Restaurant (Fiscalisation)<br />

Regulations 2017.<br />

To press home its rejection of the court’s injunction,<br />

the state government has appointed<br />

Lawal Pedro, a former solicitor general in<br />

the state, to lead a legal that will challenge<br />

the injunction suspending the fiscalisation<br />

regulation until the suit is concluded.<br />

A legal officer in the state ministry of<br />

justice, said while speaking journalists, that<br />

the order was an affront to a Supreme Court<br />

decision that validated the Hotel Occupancy<br />

and Restaurant Consumption Law, 2009<br />

Justice Rilwan Aikawa of the Federal High<br />

Court, in a ruling last week, suspended the<br />

fiscalisation regulation until the substantive<br />

Police recover 213 guns from herdsmen, others<br />

suit filed by the Association of the Registered<br />

Trustees Hotel Owners and Managers Association<br />

of Lagos was determined.<br />

The judge equally suspended the Hotel<br />

Occupancy and Restaurant Consumption<br />

Law Cap H8, Laws of Lagos State 2015 while<br />

restraining the state government from enforcing<br />

or implementing it in some parts of<br />

the Lagos State.<br />

But the legal officer said the state government<br />

“is aware of an ex-parte injunction granted by<br />

the Federal High Court Lagos on <strong>Mar</strong>ch 21 in<br />

respect of the new regulations the state government<br />

issued pursuant to the Hotel Occupancy<br />

and Restaurant Consumption Law.”<br />

The officer observed that the lower court<br />

delivered the injunction without taking congisance<br />

of the decision of the apex court that<br />

validated the legality of the Hotel Occupancy<br />

and Restaurant Consumption Law in 2013.<br />

The officer said after the passage of the<br />

law, the Lagos State House of Assembly<br />

had also approved a regulation, Hotel Occupancy<br />

and Restaurant Consumption (fiscalisation)<br />

Regulations, 2017 “to ensure that<br />

all consumption taxes charged by hotel and<br />

restaurant owners on citizens were duly captured<br />

and remitted to the state government.<br />

The official explained that the fiscalisation<br />

regulation was initiated essentially “to<br />

ensure transparency and accountability in<br />

the collection of consumption tax in Lagos<br />

State. The regulation does not in any way<br />

increase the burden of hotel owners.<br />

“The state government will challenge the<br />

interim orders obtained by misrepresentation<br />

of fact and pursue the substantive suit<br />

until its dismissal. Since 2009 when the law<br />

was enacted, there had been compliance by<br />

hotel and restaurant owners.”<br />

The officer said the state government had<br />

put its legal team together “to challenge the<br />

injunction of the federal high court. Pedro,<br />

former Solicitor General of Lagos State,<br />

has been engaged to lead the legal team to<br />

contest the suit.<br />

The police have recovered 213<br />

guns in Ondo and Katsina States<br />

in compliance with the directive<br />

of the Inspector General of Police<br />

(IGP), Ibrahim Idris, to mop up illegal<br />

firearms in circulation.<br />

Fifteen of the 213 guns were recovered<br />

in Ondo while 198 were mopped up in<br />

Katsina.<br />

Olugbenga Adeyanju, Commissioner<br />

of Police in Ondo, who briefed the media,<br />

explained that the submission of<br />

the guns was not, in anyway, connected<br />

with the successful amnesty programme<br />

organised by Ondo State government in<br />

December 2017.<br />

“In compliance with the IGP’s directive,<br />

I am delighted to inform you that the<br />

turnout of the people, who were submitting<br />

their weapons, has been impressive.<br />

“For this latest directive, while some<br />

people were courageous enough to voluntarily<br />

return the arms in their possession,<br />

we have also recovered some guns from<br />

cultists and armed robbers, who had been<br />

prosecuted in Owo.<br />

“Others made their submission by<br />

using one of our suggestion boxes at the<br />

Police Public Relations Officer’s (PPRO)<br />

office in Akure to inform us where they<br />

kept their arms for us to go and pick<br />

them,” he said.<br />

Adeyanju said that though, the submission<br />

date had lapsed, the command<br />

still wanted to give more opportunity for<br />

those who, for one reason or the other,<br />

could not meet up with the ultimatum<br />

but were still willing to submit their arms.<br />

“We want to reiterate that whoever is<br />

found or caught with any weapons out of<br />

the window of grace will have himself or<br />

herself to blame, so it is better late than<br />

never,” he said.<br />

In the same development, the command<br />

also paraded one Abel Joseph, a<br />

taxi driver, who was said to have been<br />

caught with 20 bags of cannabis on Owo-<br />

Akure road.<br />

The police commissioner said that<br />

the suspect would be handed over to the<br />

NDLEA officials for proper investigation<br />

and prosecution.<br />

In Katsina, Mohammed Wakili, the<br />

state Commissioner of Police, said on<br />

Wednesday that most of the 198 guns<br />

were recovered from herdsmen, cattle<br />

rustlers and other criminals.<br />

Wakili explained that the arms included<br />

20 AK47 rifles, 10 pistols, two G3 rifles,<br />

eight pump action rifles and two SMG.<br />

Others were 70 locally made pistols,<br />

one locally made rifle, 80 locally made<br />

Dane guns, five double barrelled guns, 840<br />

ammunition and 50 magazines. He said<br />

that the police would continue to recover<br />

illegally acquired arms from the public.<br />

270 IDPs, youths<br />

empowered C’ River<br />

MIKE ABANG, Calabar<br />

About 270 Internally Displaced<br />

Persons (IDPs) including women<br />

and youths in Cross River State<br />

have been empowered through a twoweek<br />

training session on fishery, poultry,<br />

entrepreneurship and information, communication<br />

and technology (ICT).<br />

The training was held at the University<br />

Of Calabar Institute of Oceanography, managed<br />

by Stones and Jones Nigeria Limited.<br />

Delta Usani Usani, minister of Niger<br />

Delta, flagging off the empowerment<br />

scheme, recently, said it was part of the<br />

President Mohammadu Buhari initiative<br />

to cushion the effect of the economic<br />

recession and put smiles on the faces of<br />

ordinary Nigerians.<br />

Usani who was represented by Ogbiji<br />

Ogbiji said the training programme was<br />

done in collaboration with Mennachimso<br />

Resources Nigeria Ltd, was to empower<br />

women and youths in fish production.<br />

He said the exercise was captured in<br />

the 2017 budget and that of <strong>2018</strong> yet to be<br />

passed by the National Assembly.<br />

Amba Bitty Bisong, one of the beneficiaries<br />

of the programme, commended<br />

the Federal Government for the empowerment.<br />

Another, beneficiary, Felicia Edema<br />

said “this is a laudable programme which<br />

started in 2016 with people being trained<br />

and empowered in different fields such<br />

as fish production, poultry, farming bee<br />

farming, ICT, and animal husbandry<br />

“We are calling on those who have<br />

not returned their illegally acquired<br />

arms to do so before the expiration of<br />

the deadline. We will continue to fight<br />

these criminal elements with a renewed<br />

vigour,’’ he said<br />

Expert urges youths to<br />

shun ponzi schemes<br />

A<br />

financial expert, Emem Udoh has<br />

urged youths in Cross River State<br />

to shun ponzi schemes and take<br />

advantage of credible investment opportunities<br />

available within the Nigerian<br />

financial market.<br />

This, according to Udoh has become<br />

necessary in view of the apprehension<br />

by many to key into the financial market<br />

because of the loss of their hard earned<br />

income through fraudulent financial<br />

schemes.<br />

“The mentality of ponzi schemes such<br />

as the MMM is still in the minds of many<br />

Cross Riverians and Nigerians at large. I<br />

appreciate their fears.”<br />

When you want to succeed in life, you<br />

move ahead. Every successful man had<br />

failed yesterday. If you are serious, you<br />

strive to get up each time you fall. This is<br />

what makes you a real man”.<br />

Udoh, who spoke in Calabar in an<br />

interview with BusinesDay, on the advantages<br />

of the Bit Club, a financial outfit of<br />

which she is a partner.<br />

According to Udoh, “Bit Club is an<br />

investment company different form networking<br />

which requires you to move from<br />

one level to another and no matter how<br />

smart you are, you can’t make it without<br />

bringing in people”.<br />

“We trade on crypto currency” adding<br />

that apart from the high return on investment<br />

(HRI), it also affords you the opportunity<br />

to travel even outside the country<br />

without carrying cash about”.


18 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556<br />

Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

Lassa fever: Nigeria records 95 deaths in thre<br />

… WHO, NCDC confirm decline in number of reported cases, deaths<br />

ANTHONIA OBOKOH<br />

Lassa fever has claimed<br />

95 lives in Nigeria with<br />

a total of 394 confirmed<br />

reported cases across 19 states<br />

within three months, in a press<br />

statement released by the Nigeria<br />

Centre for Disease Control<br />

(NCDC)<br />

NCDC’s latest data shows<br />

that the number of new confirmed<br />

and probable cases has<br />

been falling for five consecutive<br />

weeks, indicating that public<br />

health measures are proving<br />

effective, but more infections<br />

are expected until the end of<br />

the dry season, as the viral<br />

haemorrhagic fever is endemic<br />

to the area.<br />

According to the agency,<br />

since the onset of the <strong>2018</strong><br />

outbreak, 95 people have died<br />

in positive-confirmed cases,<br />

while <strong>30</strong> others have also died<br />

despite being negative, with<br />

9 probable cases still pending.<br />

The Case Fatality Rate in<br />

confirmed and probable cases<br />

is 24.1%.<br />

However, the spread of<br />

Lassa fever in Nigeria is beginning<br />

to slow but the epidemic is<br />

far from contained, the World<br />

Health Organisation and the<br />

Nigeria Centre for Disease<br />

Control (NCDC) have warned.<br />

“Between 1 January and 25<br />

<strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong>, the NCDC reported<br />

394 laboratory confirmed<br />

cases. There were 18 new confirmed<br />

cases in the last reporting<br />

week (19-25 <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong>),<br />

compared to 54 confirmed<br />

cases a month earlier (19-25<br />

February <strong>2018</strong>)” say the report.<br />

Wondimagegnehu Alemu,<br />

WHO Representative to Nigeria<br />

said, “We should interpret the<br />

recent declining trend in new<br />

cases with caution. The Lassa<br />

fever season is not yet over.<br />

We need to maintain vigilance<br />

and response operations, and<br />

ensure continued engagement<br />

with communities to help curb<br />

the further spread of Lassa fever,”<br />

said Alemu.<br />

The current epidemic is Nigeria’s<br />

largest on record, with<br />

the number of confirmed cases<br />

in January and February alone<br />

exceeding the total number<br />

reported in the whole of 2017.<br />

“By conducting research<br />

as the Lassa fever outbreak<br />

unfolds, Nigeria is pioneering<br />

a new approach. Until<br />

now, research in Africa has<br />

taken place much later in the<br />

response cycle. This is a new<br />

approach which opens the way<br />

to much more effective control<br />

of emerging and dangerous<br />

pathogens,” said Alemu.<br />

“We are researching what<br />

has led to so many people<br />

becoming infected with Lassa<br />

fever,” said Chikwe Ihekweazu,<br />

Chief Executive Officer of the<br />

NCDC. “Even with a downward<br />

trend, until we can better understand<br />

the causes behind its<br />

rapid spread, we must treat the<br />

outbreak as a priority.” Whole<br />

genome sequencing can reveal<br />

‘Healthy Diet, prevents eye problems’<br />

information that contributes to the<br />

understanding and the control of infectious<br />

disease outbreaks.<br />

Lassa fever is an acute viral haemorrhagic<br />

illness, transmitted to humans<br />

through contact with food or<br />

SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin<br />

Diet has been described a<br />

key component to protect<br />

our eyes from untimely<br />

damage. Thus, people<br />

are encouraged to watch their<br />

diet and embrace high friendly<br />

foods. Mohammed Ajia Ibrahim,<br />

founder, MAI foundation stated<br />

this while briefing newsmen<br />

shortly after the completion of<br />

the foundation’s Free Medical<br />

Outreach in Kwara State.<br />

Over five thousand Kwarans<br />

have benefited from Muhammed<br />

Ajia Ibrahim (MAI)<br />

Foundation on free eye screening,<br />

treatment and provision of<br />

eye glasses.<br />

The medical exercise which<br />

cut across the three senatorial<br />

districts of the state, within five<br />

days started at Ajia Compound<br />

in Ilorin, the state capital, covered<br />

Offa, Moro, Afon, Share,<br />

Baba nloma, Shonga, Isanlu Isin,<br />

and others.<br />

Speaking on the essence of<br />

the initiative, Ajia Ibrahim, the<br />

founder said it was borne out<br />

of concern for the people at the<br />

grassroots who cannot afford to<br />

treat their eye problems.<br />

“My foundation is borne out<br />

of concern for our people suffering<br />

and do not have means of<br />

solving their problems. We have<br />

rolled out series of pragrammes<br />

to begin in due course. So, part<br />

of it is the health outreach we<br />

embarked on to help Kwarans<br />

protect their eyes.<br />

“The eyes are essential organs<br />

in the body and a lot of people<br />

are having problems with their<br />

eyes and they cannot afford<br />

the expenses, our programme<br />

therefore is aimed at giving the<br />

less privileged the opportunity<br />

to know the status of their eyes,<br />

giving them easy consultation,<br />

and they also get treatment<br />

immediately to deter further<br />

problems ,”he said.<br />

“I know a lot of people have<br />

problems and they do not know<br />

who to talk to so they can be cared<br />

for. We are targeting 5000 Kwarans to<br />

benefit from this programme and from<br />

here, we will move to Offa, and we will<br />

continue to go round through three<br />

Senatorial districts to reach the common<br />

people.<br />

“Out of my passion, I contacted the<br />

consultants from Irawo Optical from<br />

Ibadan Oyo State which is internationally<br />

affiliated to give support so as to<br />

save the people’s vision.”<br />

Ibrahim, who expressed satisfaction<br />

with the turnout of people, disclosed<br />

that, “the turnout of people really<br />

encouraged and motivated me, by the<br />

grace of God, if I get better opportunities<br />

in life, I will establish a free eye<br />

hospital for Kwara state.”<br />

He however, revealed that the third<br />

phase which was targeted at 10, 000<br />

people will commence in a week, just<br />

as he promised to continue to render<br />

service to humanity and enjoined well<br />

meaning Nigerians to help the needy.<br />

Some of the beneficiaries who<br />

spoke to <strong>BusinessDay</strong> commended<br />

the initiator and appreciated him for<br />

the kind gesture. The exercise was well<br />

attended by the children, elderly and<br />

middle aged.


Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

C002D5556<br />

BUSINESS DAY<br />

19<br />

e months<br />

Oyo offers free TB treatment for residents<br />

AKINREMI FEYISIPO, Ibadan<br />

MIKE ABANG, Calabar<br />

address to commemorate the <strong>2018</strong><br />

World Tuberculosis Day, with the<br />

theme “Find and notify all TB cases<br />

in Nigeria” and the slogan “Wanted:<br />

Leaders for a TB free world”.<br />

The Commissioner said<br />

that every <strong>Mar</strong>ch 24th of every<br />

year was set aside by the World<br />

Health Organisation since 1882<br />

as the World Tuberculosis Day<br />

when Robert kochs announced<br />

the discovery of the germ mycobacterium<br />

tuberculosis that<br />

causes tuberculosis disease,<br />

stressing that TB is a contagious<br />

disease that affect all ages and<br />

kills nearly 5000 people every<br />

day worldwide due to lack of<br />

access to treatment.<br />

Adeduntan added that over<br />

10.4 million people had TB death<br />

in 2017 and there were 1.8 milhousehold<br />

items contaminated by<br />

infected rodents. Person-to-person<br />

transmission can also occur, particularly<br />

in hospital environment in the<br />

absence of adequate infection control<br />

measures.<br />

Obaseki to build 3 general hospitals in Edo<br />

… Assures enhanced working conditions for medical personnel<br />

Edo State Governor, Godwin<br />

Obaseki, has unveiled plans to<br />

build three general hospitals in<br />

the three senatorial districts in the<br />

state and assured medical personnel<br />

of improved working conditions for<br />

an effective and efficient healthcare<br />

system in the state.<br />

The governor gave the assurance<br />

when he received executive members<br />

of the Association of Resident<br />

Doctors with the Edo State Hospital<br />

Management Board (SHMB) at the<br />

Government House in Benin City,<br />

Edo State on Monday.<br />

Obaseki said, “This administration<br />

is aware of the challenges confronting<br />

the state healthcare system.<br />

We are working to resolve these<br />

challenges. We have held several<br />

meetings to see how to address the<br />

peculiar problems with the healthcare<br />

system in the state. We have<br />

records of medical personnel and<br />

state of facilities in the healthcare<br />

system in the state.”<br />

The Oyo State Government<br />

says it has offered free<br />

screening and treatment<br />

in all the health facilities across<br />

the state for individuals with<br />

persistent cough suspected to<br />

be Tuberculosis (TB).<br />

The State Commissioner for<br />

Health, Azeez Adeduntan, a<br />

medical doctor said that the free<br />

screening and treatment initiative<br />

of the Governnor Abiola Ajimobi<br />

administration is to reduce<br />

the spread of TB in the society,<br />

noting that all health facilities in<br />

the 33 Local Government Areas<br />

and 35 Local Council Development<br />

Areas (LCDAs) have been<br />

mandated and mobilised to effectively<br />

carry out TB screening<br />

and treatment.<br />

The commissioner enjoined<br />

any individual with persistent<br />

cough to visit health facilities<br />

for check-up, explaining that<br />

the most common symptom of<br />

Tuberculosis is persistent cough<br />

lasting 2 weeks or more which<br />

is accompanied by fever, night<br />

sweat, weight loss, chest pain,<br />

loss of appetite, coughing up of<br />

blood mixed with sputum and<br />

tiredness while the spread of TB<br />

could be attributed to living in<br />

an overcrowded environments,<br />

poor hygienic conditions, indiscriminate<br />

spitting of sputum<br />

and poor cough etiquette, malnutrition,<br />

HIV/AIDS, Diabetes<br />

mellitus and smoking.<br />

He stated this in Ibadan in his<br />

L-R: Vice President, Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), Edo State Hospital Management Board (SHMB), Ehikioya<br />

Eustace; President, Umakhine Carl; Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki; Secretary to the State Government<br />

(SSG), Osarodion Ogie Esq., and Head of Service, Gladys Idahor, during the courtesy visit by new officials of the<br />

association, to the governor at the Government House in Benin City, Edo, on Monday, <strong>Mar</strong>ch 26, <strong>2018</strong>.<br />

Obaseki, however, appealed<br />

to the medical doctors<br />

to be patient and continue<br />

to support the reforms of the<br />

state government to revamp<br />

the health sector, noting, “The<br />

state government appreciates<br />

efforts of medical doctors.<br />

lion TB deaths in 2016 making it<br />

the top infectious killer disease<br />

Worldwide, saying “Nigeria now<br />

ranks 5th among the 22 Countries<br />

of the world with highest TB<br />

burden coming up from previous<br />

4th position in 2010. This is the<br />

result of scale up and expansion<br />

of TB treatment centre as an<br />

implementation strategy across<br />

all states in Nigeria”.<br />

He allayed the fears that Individuals<br />

suffering from TB need<br />

not be isolated once they are on<br />

treatment but should be encouraged<br />

by the community to attend<br />

clinic regularly, as tuberculosis<br />

can be completely cured provided<br />

the treatment started early and<br />

drugs are taken regularly for the<br />

stipulated length of time required.<br />

The Commissioner reiterated<br />

Government is working to establish<br />

one General Hospital<br />

per local government council<br />

across the state, while one<br />

on the need to create a neat<br />

and healthier environment in<br />

the state, saying that the state<br />

government will continue to<br />

prioritise cleanliness of its environment.<br />

Adeduntan acknowledged<br />

the unflinching support of<br />

the Damien Foundation Belgium<br />

to the state on TB control<br />

programme, saying that the<br />

foundation has contributed<br />

immensely to infrastructural<br />

and capacity developments<br />

across the State.<br />

He also commended religious<br />

and occupational groups,<br />

civil society organizations and<br />

the media houses for the tremendous<br />

improvements and<br />

support for the TB control<br />

programme.<br />

super General Hospital will be<br />

sited in each senatorial district<br />

for optimal performance.<br />

Noting that the state has<br />

made plans for a health insurance<br />

scheme, he said, “A bill<br />

for a law to set up the State<br />

Health Insurance Scheme is<br />

before the State House of Assembly.<br />

The bill is structured<br />

to make provision for affordable<br />

and accessible healthcare<br />

for people in the state.”<br />

President, Association of<br />

Resident Doctors, Edo State<br />

Hospital Management Board,<br />

Karl Umakhine, said, “The<br />

visit is to enable us present<br />

the challenges confronting<br />

the health sector and to contribute<br />

to the solutions. It is<br />

not true that doctors in the<br />

state don’t report at their duty<br />

post. We work under difficult<br />

conditions but need to be<br />

motivated.”<br />

HBL TEAM<br />

KEMI AJUMOBI, Editor - kemi@businessdayonline.com<br />

ANTHONIA OBOKOH, ANI MICHAEL, Reporters I David Ogar, Graphics


18 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556<br />

Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

C002D5556<br />

BUSINESS DAY<br />

19<br />

Lassa fever: Nigeria records 95 deaths in three months<br />

… WHO, NCDC confirm decline in number of reported cases, deaths<br />

ANTHONIA OBOKOH<br />

Lassa fever has claimed<br />

95 lives in Nigeria with<br />

a total of 394 confirmed<br />

reported cases across 19 states<br />

within three months, in a press<br />

statement released by the Nigeria<br />

Centre for Disease Control<br />

(NCDC)<br />

NCDC’s latest data shows<br />

that the number of new confirmed<br />

and probable cases has<br />

been falling for five consecutive<br />

weeks, indicating that public<br />

health measures are proving<br />

effective, but more infections<br />

are expected until the end of<br />

the dry season, as the viral<br />

haemorrhagic fever is endemic<br />

to the area.<br />

According to the agency,<br />

since the onset of the <strong>2018</strong><br />

outbreak, 95 people have died<br />

in positive-confirmed cases,<br />

while <strong>30</strong> others have also died<br />

despite being negative, with<br />

9 probable cases still pending.<br />

The Case Fatality Rate in<br />

confirmed and probable cases<br />

is 24.1%.<br />

However, the spread of<br />

Lassa fever in Nigeria is beginning<br />

to slow but the epidemic is<br />

far from contained, the World<br />

Health Organisation and the<br />

Nigeria Centre for Disease<br />

‘Healthy Diet, prevents eye problems’<br />

SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin<br />

Diet has been described a<br />

key component to protect<br />

our eyes from untimely<br />

damage. Thus, people<br />

are encouraged to watch their<br />

diet and embrace high friendly<br />

foods. Mohammed Ajia Ibrahim,<br />

founder, MAI foundation stated<br />

this while briefing newsmen<br />

shortly after the completion of<br />

the foundation’s Free Medical<br />

Outreach in Kwara State.<br />

Over five thousand Kwarans<br />

have benefited from Muhammed<br />

Ajia Ibrahim (MAI)<br />

Foundation on free eye screening,<br />

treatment and provision of<br />

eye glasses.<br />

The medical exercise which<br />

cut across the three senatorial<br />

districts of the state, within five<br />

days started at Ajia Compound<br />

in Ilorin, the state capital, covered<br />

Offa, Moro, Afon, Share,<br />

Baba nloma, Shonga, Isanlu Isin,<br />

and others.<br />

Speaking on the essence of<br />

the initiative, Ajia Ibrahim, the<br />

Control (NCDC) have warned.<br />

“Between 1 January and 25<br />

<strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong>, the NCDC reported<br />

394 laboratory confirmed<br />

cases. There were 18 new confirmed<br />

cases in the last reporting<br />

week (19-25 <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong>),<br />

compared to 54 confirmed<br />

cases a month earlier (19-25<br />

February <strong>2018</strong>)” say the report.<br />

Wondimagegnehu Alemu,<br />

WHO Representative to Nigeria<br />

said, “We should interpret the<br />

recent declining trend in new<br />

cases with caution. The Lassa<br />

fever season is not yet over.<br />

We need to maintain vigilance<br />

and response operations, and<br />

ensure continued engagement<br />

with communities to help curb<br />

the further spread of Lassa fever,”<br />

said Alemu.<br />

The current epidemic is Nigeria’s<br />

largest on record, with<br />

the number of confirmed cases<br />

in January and February alone<br />

exceeding the total number<br />

reported in the whole of 2017.<br />

“By conducting research<br />

as the Lassa fever outbreak<br />

unfolds, Nigeria is pioneering<br />

a new approach. Until<br />

now, research in Africa has<br />

taken place much later in the<br />

response cycle. This is a new<br />

approach which opens the way<br />

to much more effective control<br />

of emerging and dangerous<br />

address to commemorate the <strong>2018</strong><br />

World Tuberculosis Day, with the<br />

theme “Find and notify all TB cases<br />

in Nigeria” and the slogan “Wanted:<br />

Leaders for a TB free world”.<br />

The Commissioner said<br />

that every <strong>Mar</strong>ch 24th of every<br />

year was set aside by the World<br />

Health Organisation since 1882<br />

as the World Tuberculosis Day<br />

when Robert kochs announced<br />

the discovery of the germ mycobacterium<br />

tuberculosis that<br />

causes tuberculosis disease,<br />

stressing that TB is a contagious<br />

disease that affect all ages and<br />

kills nearly 5000 people every<br />

day worldwide due to lack of<br />

access to treatment.<br />

Adeduntan added that over<br />

10.4 million people had TB death<br />

in 2017 and there were 1.8 milfounder<br />

said it was borne out<br />

of concern for the people at the<br />

grassroots who cannot afford to<br />

treat their eye problems.<br />

“My foundation is borne out<br />

of concern for our people suffering<br />

and do not have means of<br />

solving their problems. We have<br />

rolled out series of pragrammes<br />

pathogens,” said Alemu.<br />

“We are researching what<br />

has led to so many people<br />

becoming infected with Lassa<br />

fever,” said Chikwe Ihekweazu,<br />

Chief Executive Officer of the<br />

to begin in due course. So, part<br />

of it is the health outreach we<br />

embarked on to help Kwarans<br />

protect their eyes.<br />

“The eyes are essential organs<br />

in the body and a lot of people<br />

are having problems with their<br />

eyes and they cannot afford<br />

the expenses, our programme<br />

NCDC. “Even with a downward<br />

trend, until we can better understand<br />

the causes behind its<br />

rapid spread, we must treat the<br />

outbreak as a priority.” Whole<br />

genome sequencing can reveal<br />

therefore is aimed at giving the<br />

less privileged the opportunity<br />

to know the status of their eyes,<br />

giving them easy consultation,<br />

and they also get treatment<br />

immediately to deter further<br />

problems ,”he said.<br />

“I know a lot of people have<br />

problems and they do not know<br />

information that contributes to the<br />

understanding and the control of infectious<br />

disease outbreaks.<br />

Lassa fever is an acute viral haemorrhagic<br />

illness, transmitted to humans<br />

through contact with food or<br />

who to talk to so they can be cared<br />

for. We are targeting 5000 Kwarans to<br />

benefit from this programme and from<br />

here, we will move to Offa, and we will<br />

continue to go round through three<br />

Senatorial districts to reach the common<br />

people.<br />

“Out of my passion, I contacted the<br />

consultants from Irawo Optical from<br />

Ibadan Oyo State which is internationally<br />

affiliated to give support so as to<br />

save the people’s vision.”<br />

Ibrahim, who expressed satisfaction<br />

with the turnout of people, disclosed<br />

that, “the turnout of people really<br />

encouraged and motivated me, by the<br />

grace of God, if I get better opportunities<br />

in life, I will establish a free eye<br />

hospital for Kwara state.”<br />

He however, revealed that the third<br />

phase which was targeted at 10, 000<br />

people will commence in a week, just<br />

as he promised to continue to render<br />

service to humanity and enjoined well<br />

meaning Nigerians to help the needy.<br />

Some of the beneficiaries who<br />

spoke to <strong>BusinessDay</strong> commended<br />

the initiator and appreciated him for<br />

the kind gesture. The exercise was well<br />

attended by the children, elderly and<br />

middle aged.<br />

MIKE ABANG, Calabar<br />

household items contaminated by<br />

infected rodents. Person-to-person<br />

transmission can also occur, particularly<br />

in hospital environment in the<br />

absence of adequate infection control<br />

measures.<br />

AKINREMI FEYISIPO, Ibadan<br />

Obaseki to build 3 general hospitals in Edo<br />

… Assures enhanced working conditions for medical personnel<br />

Edo State Governor, Godwin<br />

Obaseki, has unveiled plans to<br />

build three general hospitals in<br />

the three senatorial districts in the<br />

state and assured medical personnel<br />

of improved working conditions for<br />

an effective and efficient healthcare<br />

system in the state.<br />

The governor gave the assurance<br />

when he received executive members<br />

of the Association of Resident<br />

Doctors with the Edo State Hospital<br />

Management Board (SHMB) at the<br />

Government House in Benin City,<br />

Edo State on Monday.<br />

Obaseki said, “This administration<br />

is aware of the challenges confronting<br />

the state healthcare system.<br />

We are working to resolve these<br />

challenges. We have held several<br />

meetings to see how to address the<br />

peculiar problems with the healthcare<br />

system in the state. We have<br />

records of medical personnel and<br />

state of facilities in the healthcare<br />

system in the state.”<br />

HBL TEAM<br />

Oyo offers free TB treatment for residents<br />

The Oyo State Government<br />

says it has offered free<br />

screening and treatment<br />

in all the health facilities across<br />

the state for individuals with<br />

persistent cough suspected to<br />

be Tuberculosis (TB).<br />

The State Commissioner for<br />

Health, Azeez Adeduntan, a<br />

medical doctor said that the free<br />

screening and treatment initiative<br />

of the Governnor Abiola Ajimobi<br />

administration is to reduce<br />

the spread of TB in the society,<br />

noting that all health facilities in<br />

the 33 Local Government Areas<br />

and 35 Local Council Development<br />

Areas (LCDAs) have been<br />

mandated and mobilised to effectively<br />

carry out TB screening<br />

and treatment.<br />

The commissioner enjoined<br />

any individual with persistent<br />

cough to visit health facilities<br />

for check-up, explaining that<br />

the most common symptom of<br />

Tuberculosis is persistent cough<br />

lasting 2 weeks or more which<br />

is accompanied by fever, night<br />

sweat, weight loss, chest pain,<br />

loss of appetite, coughing up of<br />

blood mixed with sputum and<br />

tiredness while the spread of TB<br />

could be attributed to living in<br />

an overcrowded environments,<br />

poor hygienic conditions, indiscriminate<br />

spitting of sputum<br />

and poor cough etiquette, malnutrition,<br />

HIV/AIDS, Diabetes<br />

mellitus and smoking.<br />

He stated this in Ibadan in his<br />

L-R: Vice President, Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), Edo State Hospital Management Board (SHMB), Ehikioya<br />

Eustace; President, Umakhine Carl; Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki; Secretary to the State Government<br />

(SSG), Osarodion Ogie Esq., and Head of Service, Gladys Idahor, during the courtesy visit by new officials of the<br />

association, to the governor at the Government House in Benin City, Edo, on Monday, <strong>Mar</strong>ch 26, <strong>2018</strong>.<br />

Obaseki, however, appealed<br />

to the medical doctors<br />

to be patient and continue<br />

to support the reforms of the<br />

KEMI AJUMOBI, Editor - kemi@businessdayonline.com<br />

state government to revamp<br />

the health sector, noting, “The<br />

state government appreciates<br />

efforts of medical doctors.<br />

lion TB deaths in 2016 making it<br />

the top infectious killer disease<br />

Worldwide, saying “Nigeria now<br />

ranks 5th among the 22 Countries<br />

of the world with highest TB<br />

burden coming up from previous<br />

4th position in 2010. This is the<br />

result of scale up and expansion<br />

of TB treatment centre as an<br />

implementation strategy across<br />

all states in Nigeria”.<br />

He allayed the fears that Individuals<br />

suffering from TB need<br />

not be isolated once they are on<br />

treatment but should be encouraged<br />

by the community to attend<br />

clinic regularly, as tuberculosis<br />

can be completely cured provided<br />

the treatment started early and<br />

drugs are taken regularly for the<br />

stipulated length of time required.<br />

The Commissioner reiterated<br />

Government is working to establish<br />

one General Hospital<br />

per local government council<br />

across the state, while one<br />

ANTHONIA OBOKOH, ANI MICHAEL, Reporters I David Ogar, Graphics<br />

on the need to create a neat<br />

and healthier environment in<br />

the state, saying that the state<br />

government will continue to<br />

prioritise cleanliness of its environment.<br />

Adeduntan acknowledged<br />

the unflinching support of<br />

the Damien Foundation Belgium<br />

to the state on TB control<br />

programme, saying that the<br />

foundation has contributed<br />

immensely to infrastructural<br />

and capacity developments<br />

across the State.<br />

He also commended religious<br />

and occupational groups,<br />

civil society organizations and<br />

the media houses for the tremendous<br />

improvements and<br />

support for the TB control<br />

programme.<br />

super General Hospital will be<br />

sited in each senatorial district<br />

for optimal performance.<br />

Noting that the state has<br />

made plans for a health insurance<br />

scheme, he said, “A bill<br />

for a law to set up the State<br />

Health Insurance Scheme is<br />

before the State House of Assembly.<br />

The bill is structured<br />

to make provision for affordable<br />

and accessible healthcare<br />

for people in the state.”<br />

President, Association of<br />

Resident Doctors, Edo State<br />

Hospital Management Board,<br />

Karl Umakhine, said, “The<br />

visit is to enable us present<br />

the challenges confronting<br />

the health sector and to contribute<br />

to the solutions. It is<br />

not true that doctors in the<br />

state don’t report at their duty<br />

post. We work under difficult<br />

conditions but need to be<br />

motivated.”


20 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556<br />

Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

MoneyInsight<br />

Personal Finance: Investing Retirement Taxes Credit Cards Home Buying Small Business Shopping Financing<br />

Uber applies for<br />

e-payments licence<br />

FRANK ELEANYA<br />

After revolutionising<br />

system transportation<br />

around the<br />

world, Uber Technologies<br />

is looking to vie for a share<br />

of the global e-payments<br />

market. The company<br />

formally applied to the<br />

Dutch central bank for a<br />

European payments processing<br />

licence that will<br />

enable it streamline its<br />

payment processes across<br />

businesses such as its core<br />

ride-hailing app and its<br />

fast-growing UberEats food<br />

delivery venture.<br />

UberEats is a food-ordering<br />

app, designed to<br />

leverage the company’s<br />

vast network of drivers<br />

scattered across different<br />

locations to make meal<br />

ordering and delivery faster<br />

and more efficient. Prior<br />

to becoming a standalone<br />

app, the service was available<br />

inside the regular ride-<br />

Women-run businesses in Nigeria<br />

to unlock N19.7bn by 2022<br />

To make money from agriculture devolve to states, private sector players<br />

… Stakeholders at FRANCO/NIGERIAN Chamber of Commerce and Industry advise<br />

ISAAC ANYAOGU<br />

Nigeria has 84 million<br />

hectares of arable land<br />

and less than a third of<br />

that is cultivated. Nigeria possesses<br />

nearly 279 billion cubic<br />

meters of surface water, yet<br />

potential sources of irrigation<br />

from two of the major rivers in<br />

Africa – the Niger and Benue<br />

Rivers – remain unexploited.<br />

This is why experts are urging<br />

for a new engagement with<br />

the agriculture sector.<br />

Ade Adefeko, vice-president,<br />

corporate & government<br />

relations, OLAM Nigeria in a<br />

keynote address at the Franco/<br />

Nigerian Chamber of Commerce<br />

and Industry (FNCCI)<br />

breakfast meeting held in Lagos,<br />

on Monday, said a new<br />

engagement is necessary.<br />

“The bane of Nigerian Agriculture<br />

in my view is a lack<br />

of a structured value chain<br />

that speaks to our production,<br />

processing and storage<br />

capabilities. As I have often<br />

alluded at different fora, for<br />

Nigeria to be competitive we<br />

must play to our comparative<br />

advantage. For Agricultural<br />

development to thrive and be<br />

impactful, we must devolve<br />

to the Sub-nationals herein<br />

referred to as States and Private<br />

sector players and leave<br />

the Big Elephant the Federal<br />

Government to concentrate<br />

on enabling environment as<br />

sharing app for about a year<br />

and half. In Africa, UberEats<br />

standalone app was first<br />

launched in South Africa<br />

before it came to Nigeria<br />

in 2016.<br />

UberEats may not be<br />

very popular in Nigeria,<br />

but the ride-hailing side<br />

of Uber’s business is well<br />

known to many people<br />

living in cities like Lagos,<br />

Abuja and Port Harcourt.<br />

According to an Uber<br />

spokesperson, the ridehailing<br />

company is “constantly<br />

expanding the range<br />

of products we offer and<br />

improving the experience<br />

for those who use our apps.”<br />

Sky News reports that in<br />

a bid to be classified as an<br />

electronic money institution,<br />

Uber has created a<br />

new subsidiary called Uber<br />

Payments BV.<br />

Following the setting up<br />

of the unit, the company has<br />

gone to the market to recruit<br />

a non-executive director to<br />

serve on the board of the<br />

new unit. The supervisory<br />

board will consist of two<br />

members and will operate<br />

in accordance to Dutch<br />

company law.<br />

Uber’s e-payment move<br />

is seen as efforts to clone<br />

the success of its South East<br />

Asian rival, Grab. Grab has<br />

its own peer-to-peer payments<br />

app and recently expanded<br />

its financial services<br />

offerings with the launch<br />

of a dedicated unit and the<br />

introduction of microloans<br />

and insurance products.<br />

Interestingly, Uber<br />

agreed to sell its business<br />

in South East Asia to Grab<br />

on Monday, 26 <strong>Mar</strong>ch, <strong>2018</strong>.<br />

The deal will see Grab merging<br />

Uber’s ride-hailing and<br />

food delivery businesses<br />

with its own operations.<br />

Meanwhile, Uber will acquire<br />

a 27.5 percent stake<br />

in Grab and Uber CEO Dara<br />

Khosrowashahi will join the<br />

firm’s board.<br />

FRANK ELEANYA<br />

Businesses that are<br />

set up by women<br />

could create 8.9 million<br />

jobs and unlock N19.7<br />

billion for the Nigerian<br />

economy over the next five<br />

years (by 2022), according<br />

to a new research released<br />

by Facebook.<br />

The report also revealed<br />

that 12 percent of women<br />

within the ages of 25 and 34<br />

will employ 1 to 10 employees<br />

in the next five years.<br />

Facebook announced<br />

the report findings carried<br />

out on its behalf by a<br />

firm called Development<br />

Economics, at the launch<br />

of #SheMeansBusiness in<br />

Lagos, Nigeria on Tuesday,<br />

27, <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong>. The launch<br />

was part of the company’s<br />

efforts to celebrate the role<br />

of women in driving the<br />

economy in Nigeria, coinciding<br />

with the International<br />

Women’s Day commemoration.<br />

Abi Williams, SMB Sales<br />

Manager, Facebook said the<br />

goal of the initiative #SheMeansBusiness<br />

is to help train<br />

many more women who are<br />

L-R Moses Umoru, director general FNCCI, ​Anais Fabre, head subsaharan Africa, Adepta France,<br />

Charles Akhibe, vice chairman, Benin Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, ​​Ade<br />

Adefeko, vice-president, corporate & government relations, OLAM Nigeria, ​Adekunle S​o​ nola, executive<br />

director of Union Bank at the FNCCI breakfast meeting in Lagos on Monday.<br />

selves from this shackle and<br />

more often than not policy flip<br />

flops are prevalent and states<br />

do not punt their competitive<br />

and comparative strengths.<br />

Adefeko explained that<br />

critical infrastructure like access<br />

roads, power/energy<br />

are often lacking and states<br />

expect investors to put all this<br />

in place. “Farming should be<br />

all year round and as such<br />

irrigation is critical and the<br />

states should take advantage<br />

of the dams and River Basin<br />

Authorities and this where<br />

synergy with Ministries of Water<br />

Resources and Agriculture<br />

is important.<br />

Panel members which<br />

included: ​​Adekunle S​o​nola,<br />

executive director of Union<br />

Bank,said security, finance and<br />

market access are critical issues.<br />

per policy framework,” said<br />

Adefeko.<br />

He further said, “In driving<br />

this, State Governments<br />

must identify critical success<br />

factors that will drive the process<br />

and enable same. A few<br />

that come to mind are Policy<br />

and Regulatory framework,<br />

Land Access, Infrastructure,<br />

Security, Finance, Inputs and<br />

<strong>Mar</strong>ket Access.<br />

“On a consistent basis, a<br />

framework that guides and<br />

supports the Agriculture value<br />

chain is most times lacking by<br />

the sub-nationals as the Federal<br />

government over centralizes<br />

policy and the states cannot<br />

seem to extricate themalready<br />

in business and those<br />

hoping to start one someday.<br />

“Women are constantly<br />

pushing boundaries, whether<br />

they are working for themselves<br />

or for others,” Williams<br />

said. “When you put a group<br />

of women in a room, they start<br />

to connect. Many women are<br />

just natural entrepreneurs.”<br />

Facebook also announced<br />

its partnership with She Leads<br />

Africa to ensure the success<br />

of #SheMeansBusiness. The<br />

launch of the initiative in Nigeria<br />

is the first in sub-Saharan<br />

Africa and it brings together<br />

thousands of female entrepreneurs<br />

in a series of day workshops<br />

and training sessions<br />

across six cities across the<br />

country. The cities include<br />

Lagos, Kaduna, Port Harcourt,<br />

Ibadan, Abuja and Aba.<br />

Applications opened on<br />

27 <strong>Mar</strong>ch, <strong>2018</strong> at sheleadsafrica.org/shemeansbusiness.<br />

Training sessions will<br />

be followed by post-training<br />

clinics aimed at re-engaging,<br />

advising and mentoring participants.<br />

Abi Williams noted that<br />

the involvement of women<br />

in the Nigeria economy has<br />

seen their businesses grow<br />

“There have been many<br />

interventions, like operation<br />

feed the nation, green<br />

revolution,etc, the challenge<br />

is the programmes have not<br />

achieved what they were designed<br />

to achieve. We need to<br />

stop importation of food and<br />

we need to produce food in<br />

a sustainable manner, there’s<br />

a lot of steps we need to take<br />

and financing is one of them,”<br />

said Sunola.<br />

Some states have served as<br />

hotbeds of communal clashes,<br />

herdsmen attacks and other<br />

sundry security challenges<br />

that discourage investment,<br />

this has to be tackled.<br />

Adefeko called for micro<br />

credits and low and single<br />

digit interest rates from intervention<br />

funds offered by<br />

specialist banks should be<br />

encouraged. He also called for<br />

market access for crops grown<br />

significantly. For instance, the<br />

number of businesses owned<br />

by women on Facebook has<br />

grown by 319 percent.<br />

“We know that when women<br />

do better, economies do<br />

better,” Ebele Okobi, Facebook<br />

Public Policy director, Africa<br />

said. “The study conducted<br />

by Development Economics<br />

further highlights this,<br />

with research suggesting that<br />

an estimated 7 million new<br />

businesses could be set up by<br />

women in Nigeria by 2021 –<br />

placing a greater importance<br />

on the role of women’s entrepreneurial<br />

ambitions for<br />

overall economic and social<br />

development in the country.”<br />

Commenting on the partnership<br />

and trainings Afua<br />

Osei, Co-Founder of She<br />

Leads Africa added “We’re<br />

excited to continue our partnership<br />

with Facebook to<br />

expand access to the digital<br />

skills necessary to move African<br />

businesses forward. We<br />

know that with the right tools<br />

and support, African women<br />

can compete on a global level<br />

and we look forward to taking<br />

these critical digital tools<br />

to entrepreneurs all across<br />

Nigeria.”<br />

urging state governments to<br />

guarantee produce, take excess<br />

production and store in<br />

silos as part of their Strategic<br />

reserve.<br />

“The federal government<br />

should use the states to<br />

achieve this. Farmers want to<br />

know they have a ready offtake<br />

for their crops either by the<br />

state or the investor in the<br />

value chain. And this is where<br />

the private sector comes in,”<br />

said Adefeko.<br />

Laurent Polonceaux, Consul<br />

General of the French<br />

Consulate in Nigeria in his<br />

remarks commended Nigeria<br />

for its economic diversification<br />

programme and called<br />

for sustained action. Moses<br />

Umoru, director general of<br />

the FNCCI said Nigeria can<br />

no longer delay in improving<br />

market access and growing the<br />

agricultural value chain.<br />

T. Mani chief information officer, Olam International presenting an award to Badejo Akinbamiwo, production<br />

manager, Olam Sesame for Excellence in Execution. Olam Nigeria recently held its annual Country Meet<br />

where achievements and accomplishments of outstanding employees in the previous year are recognised.


Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong> C002D5556 BUSINESS DAY<br />

21


Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

22 BUSINESS DAY<br />

C002D5556<br />

‘I get fulfillment when I am teaching,<br />

training or performing music’<br />

From following her mother to choir practices to becoming an MTNF-MUSON scholarship beneficiary, Fatima Uriame Anyekema has become one of the leading<br />

contralto voices in the Nigerian classical music scene. In this interview with OBINNA EMELIKE, the concert artiste/recitalist who has performed celebrated<br />

operas and oratorios talks about her journey into music, recent admission at University of Notre Dame, US, for Masters in Sacred Music, and expectations.<br />

How was your growing up in Benin?<br />

Benin was just a transition<br />

point for me. My father is<br />

a retired police man, so his<br />

job was the reason for our<br />

movement. I was born in<br />

Jos, Plateau State. From there we moved<br />

to Benin, Edo State where I spent a part<br />

of my childhood. I attended Eweka<br />

Primary School in Benin City. At some<br />

point, my dad was forcefully retired<br />

and to ease the pressure of training<br />

seven children, I had to stay with my<br />

uncle. That is how I found my way<br />

to Delta State where I continued my<br />

secondary school education at Ishagu<br />

College, Ogwashi-Uku between 1992<br />

and 1997. From there, I proceeded to<br />

Ondo State Polytechnic, Owo, where I<br />

studied Accounting for about four years<br />

due to many industrial actions. After<br />

graduation, I moved to Lagos, where<br />

I officially found my love for music, at<br />

least the academic part of it so to speak.<br />

How and when did you encounter<br />

music?<br />

I cannot really remember what my<br />

singing life was before age seven but<br />

from there on, I remember going to<br />

church society meetings with my late<br />

mother, Catherine and she made me<br />

and my friends to start leading songs<br />

during their events. From that point<br />

on, around 1988-1989, I discovered<br />

that I could sing and I kept singing<br />

in church mostly. That period for me<br />

was very interesting because everywhere<br />

singing was taking place, I was<br />

part of it. At some point, I became a<br />

choir mistress at a young age and had<br />

to teach songs to my mates. I had a<br />

mentor then who took interest in<br />

my voice, he would teach me songs<br />

to teach the choir. As little as I was,<br />

I was able to conduct and teach the<br />

choir new songs. That period was<br />

very eventful and interesting. When<br />

I got into secondary school, I did not<br />

sing at all for some strange reasons. I<br />

did not join the choir but then I was a<br />

member of the Scripture Union. So,<br />

when we went to other secondary<br />

schools in Asaba or Ibuzor, I would<br />

sing with my school scripture union<br />

group. It was the farthest I went with<br />

music in secondary school. When<br />

I came back to Benin, I went back<br />

to sing with the choir and I learnt<br />

responsorial psalms because as a<br />

catholic, I had to sing responsorial<br />

psalms and people always commented<br />

favourably.<br />

When I moved to Ondo State, I<br />

stopped singing again and did not join<br />

the school choir. I just faced my studies.<br />

But I still knew I had it in me even<br />

though I did not do anything about it.<br />

Eventually, I moved to Lagos in 2004<br />

for my Industrial Training and I needed<br />

something exciting and different. During<br />

my job search, I found MUSON and<br />

it ignited my passion and interest again.<br />

I never looked back and did not even go<br />

back to complete my HND.<br />

Is there any trace of music in your<br />

family?<br />

My journey into music began when I<br />

started going to the choir with my late<br />

mother, Catherine. Then, as a child, I<br />

A celebration of African modernism<br />

The Àdùnní Chair narrates traditional African aesthetics through minimalist elegance<br />

Àdùnní (meaning ‘daughter<br />

of the sweet one’ in Yoruba),<br />

is a celebration of<br />

African modernism. The<br />

chair’s frame is made from Nigerian<br />

teak wood and is upholstered in two<br />

styles of the indigenous Yoruba textile<br />

Asò-oké. The front bears Asò-oké<br />

Gboro-gidi (solid) and behind Asòoké<br />

Onja-wú ati iho (perforated),<br />

both hand-loomed in Nigeria.<br />

The thoughtful material choices<br />

of the chair combine to stage a celebration<br />

of culture and art through<br />

furniture. The Àdùnní Chair is available<br />

in seven vibrant colours, each<br />

with a matching footstool. The colours<br />

are; pupa féré (pink), osàn<br />

(orange), pón (yellow), pupa (red),<br />

elésè àlùkò (purple), ewé (green)<br />

Fatima Uriame Anyekema<br />

and búlúù (blue).<br />

As the outfit formally launches<br />

the Àdùnní Chair, it is delighted to<br />

have Chidinma Ekile as its muse.<br />

Chidinma is a Nigerian singer and<br />

songwriter who rose to stardom in<br />

2010 after winning the third season<br />

of Project Fame West Africa.<br />

“We had the pleasure of producing<br />

the advertising campaign with an<br />

amazing team of creatives to execute<br />

our conceptual approach, ‘THIS IS<br />

US _ AFRICA’. Oladotun Ojuolape<br />

Kayode served ​for the second time<br />

as our creative director. Emmanuel<br />

Oyeleke, a fashion photographer,<br />

produced the stunning images. Jane<br />

Michael Ekanem, ‘Stylist to the stars’<br />

translated our 1920’s theme into seven<br />

looks”, the managment said.<br />

usually attended practices with her at<br />

St. Monica’s Choir in Benin, Edo State.<br />

There are seven of us in the family - six<br />

girls and one boy. Interestingly, four<br />

of my siblings were also in the choir<br />

at that time but then out of all of us,<br />

I was the only one who chose to do<br />

music professionally. If you look at<br />

some other families like the Sowandes’<br />

and so on, you will see that some of<br />

them played the piano, some other<br />

instruments and they studied music<br />

unlike ours, we were just choristers<br />

singing in the choir. At some point in<br />

my life, I decided to take the decision<br />

to study music.<br />

Aside singing, do you play any music<br />

instrument?<br />

I play the piano, I teach the piano too<br />

although I am not quite proficient.<br />

During the Diploma course at MUSON,<br />

I took grade 2 piano lessons and all the<br />

vocal major students were made to<br />

take piano course. When I went back<br />

to University of Lagos for BA in Music,<br />

I had to improve on it. I teach piano to<br />

beginners now. I did other minor musical<br />

instruments like violin, clarinet, but<br />

the piano came in handy.<br />

As well, hair-stylist Gift Ekhile<br />

and makeup artist, Oriaba Wakana<br />

brought together the concept to<br />

mimic African bronze statuettes.<br />

Others are Oladayo Odunaro, cine-<br />

As an MTNF scholar, what was that<br />

experience for you like?<br />

The sponsorship support covered my<br />

tuition, buying music books and pocket<br />

allowance. I was grateful for these things<br />

because they really came in handy.<br />

Also, the opportunities that the MTN<br />

Foundation provided for me were huge<br />

because I had the chance to perform on<br />

stages and platforms that would never<br />

have been available if I did not have<br />

a scholarship. MTN Foundation has<br />

been at the centre of driving the renaissance<br />

in Nigeria’s art and music space.<br />

Every year, we have valentine concerts<br />

and recitals that provide exposure to<br />

burgeoning talents. I am grateful for the<br />

association with the brand.<br />

How excited are you with the scholarship<br />

at the University of Notre Dame?<br />

Notre Dame came with a lot of exciting<br />

packages. Until now, I cannot pay my<br />

way through a university in the US, UK<br />

or anywhere in the world. One of my<br />

priests who had studied abroad told me<br />

that there is a school in America that is<br />

tuition free and that they study Sacred<br />

Music but then it is a Catholic school. I<br />

said what do I want to do with sacred<br />

music, I am not planning to become a<br />

reverend sister or a religious personage.<br />

He convinced me that they had masters<br />

in different programmes but I did not<br />

want to have anything to do with sacred<br />

music, so I totally forgot about it.<br />

Things took different turn when I<br />

was graduating from the University of<br />

Lagos. Interestingly, my research work<br />

was on the music of the church in Nigeria.<br />

By the time I finished, the priest<br />

asked me what my plan was and I said<br />

nothing yet and he asked if I had tried<br />

the school he told me about. I was still<br />

not sure if I wanted to do it but along the<br />

line, I got an email. It was a strange happening<br />

because over the years, I have<br />

applied for some competitions abroad<br />

and sometimes, they keep sending<br />

emails as updates. I got an email from<br />

of those organisations, which I applied<br />

matographer and editor, documented<br />

the magic of the shoot with music<br />

from SMirK.<br />

Ilé-Ilà, which means House of Lines,<br />

is a lifestyle furniture line designed<br />

for the competition advertising Notre<br />

Dame University, the same school the<br />

priest told me about and I wondered<br />

why I was being followed. By the time<br />

I read through their propositions, I<br />

realized that asides the scholarship,<br />

they had a lot to offer in terms of the<br />

faculty, staff, sourced materials and<br />

master classes. I am so grateful that<br />

the foundation provided by the MTNF<br />

scholarship has propelled me towards<br />

this new adventure and I am excited at<br />

what the future holds.<br />

What is your favourite genre of<br />

music?<br />

Growing up, I did not know I was a<br />

classical singer. My dad was a collector<br />

of different kinds of music; reggae,<br />

soul, and fuji. I did not come across<br />

jazz in his collection, but he collected<br />

so much music that anytime I go back<br />

home, it hits me that this must be where<br />

I was influenced. As a child, I spent time<br />

listening to music and sometimes I go<br />

back and look through his collections.<br />

I do not have a favourite, I sing classical<br />

music, and I may want to say it is my<br />

best but I enjoy all kinds of music. None<br />

stands out.<br />

How do you make money from<br />

music?<br />

Many people are concerned about this<br />

question. My dad also had this challenge.<br />

When he knew that I was into<br />

music full time, he was worried and<br />

asked how I was coping until in 2013<br />

when I invited him to watch my performance,<br />

that was when he gave his full<br />

blessings. There are a lot of things that<br />

you can do with music. You can teach,<br />

perform, attend workshops; you can<br />

write music and so on. A lot can be done<br />

with music. I get fulfillment when I am<br />

teaching, training or performing music.<br />

Do you have any expectations?<br />

I hope that I will subsequently apply for<br />

a PhD after the programme. That will be<br />

like the ultimate goal.<br />

and handmade in Lagos, Nigeria.<br />

The brand focuses on period-conscious<br />

furniture with contemporary<br />

African content. Ilé-Ilà was created<br />

by Tosin Oshinowo, architect behind<br />

the design and execution of the<br />

<strong>Mar</strong>yland Mall Lagos, a commercial<br />

piece of architecture that captures<br />

the rapid development of the subsaharan<br />

region.<br />

As an architect, she has a natural<br />

affinity towards product design. She<br />

is particularly interested in the functionality<br />

of chairs, but also placing<br />

them in a Nigerian-African identity<br />

context. Unlike her minimalist approach<br />

to architecture, which often<br />

uses mute colours, her furniture design<br />

aesthetic is a bright explosion of<br />

colour.


Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

C002D5556<br />

BUSINESS DAY<br />

23<br />

Movie Review - MOLLY’S GAME<br />

Molly’s Game<br />

was absolutely<br />

remarkable<br />

and intriguing,<br />

one that you could<br />

connect and recon with,<br />

the movie taught us about<br />

life with its ups and downs,<br />

failures and success, and the<br />

courage not to ever give up.<br />

Although fans might quick<br />

to misjudge and write off<br />

the movie bases on the title,<br />

I was absolutely glad I made<br />

out time to watch. Haven<br />

seen the reviews and excitement<br />

about the movie, it was<br />

key that I also reviewed the<br />

movie. It was a calm movie<br />

with loads of suspense and<br />

drama, but I totally enjoyed<br />

every bit of this movie, as<br />

you couldn’t afford to miss<br />

any scene to avoid being<br />

lost. You know we always<br />

have this myth about children<br />

from strict parents always<br />

turning out good, the<br />

reverse was the case with<br />

Molly, although her dad<br />

pushed her and her brothers<br />

so hard to become the<br />

best in whatever they did, it<br />

turned out that Molly didn’t<br />

really enjoy it and wanted to<br />

just rebel against her dad.<br />

Director Aaoron Sorkin<br />

was at his best in this movie,<br />

he was also the movie writer,<br />

and he did a perfect job.<br />

He made a good blend with<br />

Molly telling her story from<br />

the end to the beginning and<br />

in between scenes, he played<br />

her past life to explain to us,<br />

where she was coming from<br />

and how she turned out to<br />

be what she was. Molly was<br />

a goal getter and one who<br />

will never give up to defeat<br />

or failure. His choice of location<br />

and crew was awesome<br />

and each blended well to<br />

their role Jessica Chastain<br />

was just perfect for the lead<br />

role as Molly. Although Molly<br />

looked weak and calm,<br />

she was very strategic and<br />

coordinated, she knew exactly<br />

what she wanted and<br />

nothing could stop her.<br />

The movie started from<br />

the end with the FBI picking<br />

up Molly and claiming she<br />

was involved with some Russian<br />

guys who played poker<br />

at her high class organized<br />

games. Molly grew up with<br />

her dad and mum is a very<br />

quiet area in the hills, where<br />

she practiced her skiing every<br />

day. Mollys father was a<br />

psychologist and a very strict<br />

dad, while her mum was<br />

very quiet, she hardly spoke<br />

except it was necessary,<br />

Molly’s mum loved her dad<br />

so much and didn’t want<br />

him to feel upset, so didn’t<br />

complain when he pushed<br />

the kids so hard to practice<br />

and when they were tired he<br />

worked on their minds and<br />

called them lazy and quitters,<br />

which they hated and<br />

they kept on with long hours<br />

of practice every day in the<br />

cold, sometimes turning<br />

blue in the cold. The push<br />

Cast: Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Michael Cera, Bill<br />

Camp, Jeremy Strong, Kevin Costner, Chris O’Dowd<br />

Genre: Drama<br />

Director: Aaron Sorkin<br />

Ratings: PG 13 (for language, drug content and some<br />

violence)<br />

Written by: Aaron Sorkin<br />

Runtime: 140 mins<br />

Studio: STX Films<br />

from her dad made Molly so<br />

tough, that she couldn’t wait<br />

to leave her father’s house<br />

and leave on her own, she<br />

did even without a penny,<br />

but she was destined to<br />

make it big and spite her father,<br />

as she couldn’t ever see<br />

herself going back to beg her<br />

father for assistance.<br />

So Molly set up her on<br />

poker game after understudying<br />

her previous boss,<br />

she was the queen of poker<br />

games and in 1 year of Business<br />

Molly made over $4m<br />

dollars, she was in business,<br />

she was in control, but she<br />

studied hard and played by<br />

all the rules and paid her<br />

taxes, she never mixed business<br />

and pleasure, she was<br />

absolutely amazing and intelligent.<br />

Molly could stay<br />

up for 4 days straight with<br />

no sleep or rest to keep tab<br />

of the games and avoid losing<br />

money. Molly was in<br />

mega funds until one day<br />

the bubble got busted and<br />

she was back to zero, with<br />

no money as all her funds<br />

were seized by the government,<br />

but you know what<br />

Molly was tough and strong<br />

willed, she wanted to protect<br />

her image, name and honor<br />

and promised to go down<br />

along without mentioning<br />

the names of her clients. I totally<br />

loved the verdict at the<br />

end by the Judge as the stars<br />

smiled on Molly and she was<br />

vindicated.<br />

I sincerely loved and enjoyed<br />

every bit of this movie,<br />

which got me thinking even<br />

after the movie, her determination<br />

and tenacity made<br />

me motivated that nothing<br />

is impossible if you believe<br />

and to succeed in life<br />

it doesn’t matter how many<br />

times you fail at something,<br />

what really matters is how<br />

many times you get up and<br />

start again, for me this is a<br />

movie with loads of lesson, if<br />

you listen attentively.<br />

To my verdict I would say<br />

an 8/10 for Molly’s Game,<br />

why because I enjoyed the<br />

suspense, thrill, excitement<br />

and storyline. The end for<br />

me was even better than<br />

my prediction, did I learn a<br />

few lessons here and there,<br />

an absolute yes, was I inspired<br />

and impressed yes off<br />

course, they kind of ticked all<br />

my boxes. Even the cast, locations<br />

and costumes were<br />

precise. I could go on and<br />

on about Molly, but I would<br />

end here for now, for those<br />

viewers who love a highly<br />

intellectual and intriguing<br />

story with a nice twist, then<br />

I am definitely recommending<br />

Molly’s Game for you<br />

this weekend.<br />

Feel free to review any<br />

movie of your choice in not<br />

more than 200 words, please<br />

send us a mail to linda@<br />

businessdayonline.com and<br />

stand a chance to win a free<br />

movie ticket<br />

Linda Ochugbua<br />

@lindaochugbua<br />

Business Etiquette<br />

with Janet Adetu<br />

Sitting Savvy<br />

Who would<br />

h a v e<br />

thought<br />

that simply<br />

sitting<br />

down could play a major<br />

role in determining one’s<br />

level of confidence, selfesteem<br />

and presence. The<br />

act of sitting down and staying<br />

positioned also communicating<br />

the right body<br />

language is all an etiquette<br />

value that should not be<br />

taken for granted. How you<br />

sit therefore tells us a lot<br />

about you, your personality,<br />

and your brand style,<br />

not to mention your level of<br />

etiquette intelligence. I discovered<br />

that many people<br />

tend to overlook how they<br />

sit, they forget the image<br />

they portray after sitting and<br />

the message or perception<br />

they leave in the minds of<br />

others who see them. Your<br />

position while seated creates<br />

a positive image of you<br />

if done correctly. You should<br />

strive to look, approachable,<br />

authoritative, friendly,<br />

assertive, confident, bold,<br />

affirmative, trustworthy,<br />

lively and humble. All these<br />

are secret traits of a business<br />

leader.<br />

As a woman your elegant<br />

position when sitting speaks<br />

to your level of elegance,<br />

personality and character.<br />

As a woman, your charming<br />

poise speaks to your strong<br />

character, your values and<br />

everyday professional practice.<br />

During my training sessions,<br />

I get to experience all<br />

manner of sitting from both<br />

men and women alike, some<br />

decently positioned others<br />

not so pleasant. Sitting well<br />

is a way of life once mastered<br />

it becomes a part of you, you<br />

will avoid breaking protocol<br />

and sabotaging your image.<br />

Sitting to a large extent is<br />

also influenced by where<br />

you are at any point in time<br />

either in a business, formal<br />

or social setting.<br />

I have included a few basic<br />

sitting protocol read on:<br />

BASIC SITTING SAVVY<br />

Prepare for sitting<br />

This is mainly directed at our<br />

women, time and time again<br />

I see our young girls and<br />

women sit on a chair directly<br />

almost sitting on bare skin<br />

when they touch the seat.<br />

Whether you are wearing<br />

trousers, a skirt or a dress,<br />

it is good to always tuck the<br />

back of your clothes in before<br />

finally sitting down. This<br />

way you prepare yourself<br />

for the seat if it is hard, soft,<br />

cushioned or cold metal.<br />

Place your hands at the back<br />

of your clothes brush down<br />

slightly then sit.<br />

Keep knees together<br />

To avoid awkward sitting, it<br />

is ideal to remember to keep<br />

both knees together at all<br />

times. It presents a decent<br />

sitting position whether you<br />

are waiting for an interview,<br />

in a board room meeting,<br />

at a social gathering or in a<br />

formal dinner reception.<br />

Lock your ankle<br />

To secure your sitting position<br />

while your knees are<br />

together, it is safer to cross<br />

your feet at the ankle. You<br />

may do this with your feet<br />

crossed in front of you or<br />

for better positioning after<br />

crossing at the ankle try to<br />

slant your feet towards the<br />

left or the right as you are<br />

comfortable. This provides a<br />

better elegant look for ladies<br />

while seated. Men may keep<br />

feet crossed at the ankle if<br />

they are comfortable with<br />

that too. There is no need<br />

howeverfor the slanting of<br />

legs to one side.<br />

Knees wide apart<br />

Gentlemen, I want you to always<br />

feel comfortable when<br />

you are sitting, however, be<br />

very mindful and vigilant as<br />

to how you look and the image<br />

you portray while seated.<br />

You may not find anything<br />

wrong with your sitting position,<br />

however, the onlooker<br />

may not be so impressed.<br />

Sadly it is very unlikely you<br />

will be told to reposition<br />

your sitting pose, you will<br />

first be mocked unknowingly.<br />

Yes you are free to<br />

open your legs at the knees<br />

but please do with extra<br />

caution, avoid opening your<br />

knees too wide when seated.<br />

Remember the posture of<br />

a leader, a CEO, a business<br />

owner as well as that of a<br />

gentleman.<br />

Crossing your legs<br />

Crossing your legs with one<br />

leg over the knees or a leg<br />

on top of the other knee is a<br />

social sitting position which<br />

is acceptable in social settings<br />

but should be avoided<br />

in a business setting. Overly<br />

crossing your legs is deemed<br />

a position of arrogance, or<br />

waning to be noticed, it is<br />

that little extra sign of over<br />

confidence. At this point it<br />

is not about your socks or<br />

your shoes or your sense of<br />

fashion and style. Beware of<br />

your environment always.<br />

Your hands<br />

Finally, while sitting where<br />

do you position your hands?<br />

This is the finishing touch<br />

of your sitting savvy skills,<br />

it seals the body language<br />

you are portraying. For our<br />

ladies, your hands should<br />

rest on top of your knees, you<br />

should have them free from<br />

holding anything. Let your<br />

hands be prepared to shake<br />

someone, gesture while talking,<br />

receive a phone call or<br />

accept a glass or something.<br />

For men it is easier to place<br />

your hands on the arms of<br />

the chair you are sitting on<br />

for ease and comfort. If there<br />

are no arms then place your<br />

hands on top of your knees.<br />

There is no room for negative<br />

body language here,<br />

that includes facial touching,<br />

hair touching, fidgeting<br />

and any form of distraction.<br />

This indicates signs of<br />

low confidence, dampened,<br />

self-esteem, unassertiveness,<br />

lack of character and<br />

personality and many more<br />

saboting images.<br />

Good luck as you reposition<br />

your image, and your<br />

sitting savvy.<br />

Everyone is looking even<br />

when you do not see.<br />

Janet.adetu@gmail.com


Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

24 BUSINESS DAY<br />

C002D5556<br />

Hotels<br />

Global Earth Hour; an hour of<br />

fanciful darkness in hotels<br />

Stories by<br />

OBINNA EMELIKE<br />

<strong>Mar</strong>ch 24,<br />

<strong>2018</strong> was<br />

a very remarkable<br />

day for<br />

many guests in some hotels<br />

in Nigeria. At 8:<strong>30</strong>pm, they<br />

joined millions of other<br />

guests in top hotels across<br />

the world to celebrate the<br />

<strong>2018</strong> Earth Hour, an observance<br />

one hour of putting<br />

off all lights in the hotels<br />

and thereby illuminating<br />

a powerful message about<br />

environmental awareness<br />

and action.<br />

Celebrated on the<br />

theme, “Let Nature Shine”,<br />

the <strong>2018</strong> Earth Hour is<br />

further enlightenment<br />

and campaign on climate<br />

change following a successful<br />

United Nation’s<br />

COP21 conference in<br />

Paris. It was created and<br />

instituted by the World<br />

Wildlife Fund (WWF) in<br />

2007, to emphasise the<br />

threat of global warming<br />

and the need to reduce<br />

carbon emissions. Since<br />

2007, the event has become<br />

an annual ritual in<br />

the hospitality industry<br />

Sheraton Abuja, tree planting to mark Earth Day<br />

across the globe.<br />

However, the observance<br />

is a sacrifice on the<br />

part of the guests who also<br />

have the right to defer. In<br />

partaking in the one hour<br />

light off, guests enable hotels<br />

not only to reduce carbon<br />

emission, but also to<br />

save money from the electricity<br />

that would have been<br />

consumed within the light<br />

off hour. Though hotels,<br />

especially in Nigeria, wish<br />

it could extend to two hours<br />

or more because of the epileptic<br />

electricity supply, the<br />

global observation was just<br />

for an hour.<br />

It is estimated that over<br />

$5 million worth of energy<br />

is saved within this<br />

one hour across hotels in<br />

the world that observed it.<br />

In Nigeria, the observance<br />

was obvious at Transcorp<br />

Hilton Abuja and Sheraton<br />

Hotel Abuja, and other<br />

Starwood hotels in Nigeria.<br />

Sheraton Abuja Hotelwill<br />

go dark for one hour on<br />

<strong>Mar</strong>ch 24 to shine a light on<br />

climate action in support<br />

ofEarth Hour <strong>2018</strong>.The hotel<br />

will join millions around<br />

the world in turning off<br />

its lights at 8:<strong>30</strong> p.m. local<br />

time to illuminate a powerful<br />

message about environmental<br />

awareness and<br />

action. The World Wildlife<br />

Fund (WWF) created the<br />

annual global environmental<br />

awareness event 11 years<br />

ago to emphasize the threat<br />

of climate change.<br />

Sheraton Abuja Hotel<br />

organized two activities<br />

on that day to mark the<br />

event. Associates planted<br />

Moringa trees at the hotel’s<br />

football pitch at 5pm;<br />

later on at 8:<strong>30</strong>pm inhouse<br />

guests and associates<br />

celebrated at the Pool<br />

Bar & Restaurant with<br />

good music as lights are<br />

turned off at designated<br />

areas to conserve energy.<br />

In 2016, nearly 600 Starwood<br />

properties around<br />

the world participated.<br />

In addition to conserving<br />

energy, many properties<br />

hosted events and activities<br />

that engaged associates<br />

and guests. Some projects<br />

and programmes included<br />

themed menus designed<br />

to highlight local and organic<br />

foods and Earth Hour<br />

inspired cocktails; special<br />

performances, tailored<br />

concerts, and displays of<br />

traditional entertainment;<br />

and distinctive campaigns<br />

devised to support individual<br />

community initiatives<br />

and conservation efforts.<br />

Top <strong>BusinessDay</strong> Partner Hotels<br />

Novotel Port Harcourt<br />

Address: 3 Stadium Road<br />

Rumuomasi, Port Harcourt<br />

Rivers State,<br />

Tel: 0809 713 5734<br />

Protea Hotel Apo Apartments<br />

Address: Ahmadu Bello Way,<br />

Apo, Abuja<br />

Tel: 09 480 1818<br />

Chida Hotel International<br />

Address: Plot 224, Solomon<br />

Lar Way, Utako, Abuja<br />

Tel: 0810 871 8882<br />

Transcorp Hilton Abuja<br />

1 Aguiyi Ironsi Street Maitama,<br />

Abuja<br />

Tel: +234-708-060-<strong>30</strong>00<br />

Hawthorn Suites by<br />

Wyndham Abuja<br />

1 Uke St, Garki, Abuja.<br />

Tel: +234 9 4603900, +234<br />

805 7522500<br />

Renaissance Lagos Ikeja<br />

Hotel<br />

#38/40 Isaac John St, Ikeja<br />

GRA100271, Ikeja<br />

Tel: +234-908-780 5555<br />

<strong>Mar</strong>riot woos guests with exciting Easter offerings<br />

<strong>Mar</strong>riot International<br />

is set to<br />

woo its teeming<br />

guests to an<br />

exciting Easter outing across<br />

its hotels in Nigeria. From<br />

Sheraton Lagos Hotel, Sheraton<br />

Abuja Hotel Four Points<br />

by Sheraton Lagos and Le<br />

Meridien Ogeyi Place, Port<br />

Harcourt, the foremost international<br />

hospitality chain, is<br />

promising an unforgettable<br />

Easter experience to loyal<br />

guests and patrons.<br />

According to Barry Curran,<br />

the area general manager<br />

for <strong>Mar</strong>riott International<br />

Hotels in Nigeria, “If you are<br />

thinking of that perfect stay<br />

at any of our venues in Lagos,<br />

Abuja or Port Harcourt this<br />

coming Easter season, you<br />

will not go wrong”.<br />

“Our well planned Sheraton<br />

Lagos Hotel room’s<br />

package commences from<br />

N63,600 only, those who<br />

book these rates will get a<br />

welcome drink on arrival<br />

and 20 percent off brunch<br />

on Easter Monday and complimentary<br />

breakfast for one<br />

kid under 12 years per paying<br />

adult”.<br />

Speaking further, Curran<br />

said, Good Friday and Saturday<br />

evening will feature<br />

a live band at the pool bar<br />

and happy hour from 7-9pm<br />

where unique cocktails will<br />

be sold. “On Easter Sunday,<br />

guests are sure to enjoy<br />

a special brunch for N16,<br />

000 per person inclusive of<br />

non-alcoholic beverages,<br />

while kids 12 and below<br />

will eat at half price. Guests<br />

can equally enjoy a perfect<br />

ambiance during brunch<br />

and kids are also in for a treat<br />

with bouncy castles and face<br />

painting activities to ensure<br />

a great time”.<br />

At Sheraton Abuja Hotel<br />

families and friends will<br />

experience an enriching<br />

Easter brunch at Papillon<br />

Restaurant for just N9,000<br />

per person, while the Easter<br />

weekend package room rate<br />

deal is perfect for families<br />

and goes for as low as N<br />

35,000 per night inclusive of<br />

breakfast, free access to the<br />

internet and the Sheraton fitness<br />

for an energizing experience<br />

from <strong>Mar</strong>ch 29 – April<br />

2, <strong>2018</strong>.<br />

As well, children are not<br />

left out as there will be lots of<br />

fun games and activities such<br />

as the “Egg-citing” egg hunt<br />

game by the Easter Bunny<br />

with lots of prizes to be won;<br />

a take home art painting<br />

activity with an instructor<br />

for kids by Art Splash Studio<br />

for NGN 3,000 per kid where<br />

the first 10 children get to<br />

paint for free (one child, per<br />

paying adult).<br />

“For those visiting Four<br />

Points by Sheraton Lagos<br />

our Easter offer is set to run<br />

from <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>30</strong>- April 2, <strong>2018</strong>.<br />

On good Friday, guests will<br />

have the opportunity to relax<br />

and unwind with a live<br />

music performance at the<br />

hotel’s famous rooftop bar,<br />

a well-known hang out spot<br />

with a fun atmosphere and<br />

panoramic view of the bar,<br />

barbeque, wine, great beer<br />

and music”.<br />

“The room’s package<br />

will start from N45, 000 per<br />

night for single occupancy<br />

inclusive of buffet breakfast<br />

for one and all taxes,<br />

high speed internet, use of<br />

the gym, swimming pool,<br />

kiddies’ playground access<br />

with a bouncy castle and<br />

PS4 game”. Also, guests can<br />

pamper themselves or their<br />

loved ones with 90 minutes<br />

of invigorating treatments at<br />

the hotel spa which includes<br />

a full body massage and mini<br />

facials.<br />

206 Hotel<br />

Plot 206 Cadastral Zone B02<br />

Opposite Kenuj 02 Mall, Oladipo<br />

Diya Road,<br />

Durumi District, Abuja<br />

Tel: 08119707993<br />

Email: 206abuja@gmail.com<br />

Protea Hotel (V/Island)<br />

Off Ajose Adeogun Street, V/<br />

Island<br />

Radisson Blu Anchorage<br />

Hotel<br />

1A,Ozumba Mbadiwe,Victoria<br />

Island.<br />

Protea Hotel (GRA Ikeja)<br />

GRA Ikeja<br />

Gombe Jewel Hotel, 22, Njamena<br />

Street, off Aminu Kano<br />

crescent Wuse 2, Abuja.


Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

Harvard<br />

Business<br />

Review<br />

ManagementDigest<br />

BUSINESS DAY<br />

25<br />

AEI’s president on measuring the impact of ideas<br />

ARTHUR C. BROOKS<br />

In the summer of 2008 I<br />

was happily working as a<br />

professor at Syracuse University<br />

when I received an<br />

unexpected phone call.<br />

For the previous year the American<br />

Enterprise Institute — one<br />

of the oldest and best-known<br />

think tanks in the country,<br />

where I had a part-time affiliation<br />

— had been searching for<br />

a new president. Was I willing to<br />

be considered for the job?<br />

I happen to know I wasn’t the<br />

first choice. For years I’d taught<br />

and written about fundraising<br />

and managing nonprofits, but<br />

I’d never actually practiced either.<br />

But I got lucky. They made<br />

the offer. I accepted.<br />

Between the time I accepted<br />

the position, in mid-2008, and<br />

when I started, the following<br />

January, the nonprofit economy<br />

imploded as a result of the Great<br />

Recession. My new colleagues<br />

and I had to show donors why<br />

their shrinking philanthropic<br />

investments should come to us<br />

rather than go to others, and<br />

how investment in our work<br />

would create tangible impact.<br />

Even before the recession,<br />

demonstrating impact was a<br />

growing concern in the nonprofit<br />

sector. For-profit businesses<br />

can quantify their impact using<br />

metrics such as shareholder<br />

returns, but nonprofits can’t.<br />

That’s doubly true for nonprofits<br />

in the world of pure ideas, like<br />

AEI. Yet modern philanthropists<br />

demand proof that their charitable<br />

dollars are doing real good.<br />

Show impact or fail — that<br />

was my initial major challenge<br />

as president of AEI. Meeting that<br />

challenge turned out to be more<br />

than a question of my personal<br />

survival in a new role. It has fundamentally<br />

changed how we do<br />

business.<br />

Nonprofit leaders typically<br />

make two mistakes when trying<br />

to answer the question “How<br />

do we know if we’re having an<br />

impact?” The first is what I call<br />

the “sui generis error.” It’s the<br />

idea that our work is unique and<br />

our organization is so unlike<br />

Ariel Zambelich<br />

anything else that exists that we<br />

can’t compare it with — or measure<br />

it against — any other organization.<br />

The second mistake is the<br />

“lamppost error,” named for the<br />

story about a guy who loses his<br />

keys in the street and spends<br />

hours looking for them under<br />

a lamppost because the light is<br />

better there. Nonprofits struggling<br />

to measure effectiveness<br />

will frequently turn to whatever<br />

is easiest to see — usually inputs<br />

such as how much they’ve<br />

received in contributions or<br />

outputs such as how busy they<br />

have been. This is obviously inadequate,<br />

because what we’re<br />

really interested in isn’t inputs<br />

or outputs but impact.<br />

The sui generis error leads<br />

to not measuring anything, and<br />

the lamppost error leads to measuring<br />

the wrong things. My colleagues<br />

and I set out to avoid<br />

both pitfalls and create a better<br />

way to understand and describe<br />

our progress.<br />

AEI’s output is pretty straightforward:<br />

books, research articles,<br />

op-eds, media appearances,<br />

public events and so<br />

on. These products effectively<br />

constitute our supply curve. But<br />

nobody contends that simply<br />

writing an op-ed guarantees a<br />

change in how leaders think and<br />

act. As a result, our output metrics<br />

are not particularly interesting<br />

in isolation. To move from<br />

output metrics to impact metrics,<br />

we had to overlay a demand<br />

curve on our supply curve. We<br />

had to find ways of measuring<br />

how much leaders wanted and<br />

sought our work.<br />

In the ideas industry this<br />

kind of demand is almost never<br />

directly observable. Instead of<br />

direct impact measures, we realized,<br />

think tanks need to develop<br />

proxy impact measures, by<br />

searching for where their supply<br />

curve intersects with competitive<br />

demand in the marketplace<br />

of ideas. We had to identify and<br />

track the products that leaders<br />

consume at some cost to themselves<br />

and in a direct trade-off<br />

with alternatives. In isolation,<br />

each of these metrics is a single<br />

point of limited utility. But considered<br />

together, they paint a<br />

pointillistic picture that helps us<br />

assess the impact of our work.<br />

Here is just one example from<br />

the suite of proxy metrics we’ve<br />

come to use:<br />

The most prestigious national<br />

newspapers each receive about<br />

1,000 unsolicited op-ed submissions<br />

every week. Editorial staffers<br />

ruthlessly reject everything<br />

except what they believe readers<br />

most need and want. That selectivity<br />

can reveal competitive<br />

demand for our product. Thus,<br />

although total op-eds written<br />

per year is just an output metric,<br />

the number of op-eds our scholars<br />

publish in a defined set of the<br />

most competitive outlets constitutes<br />

a viable proxy measure for<br />

impact. Though far from a catchall<br />

figure, this metric has one<br />

particularly useful aspect: The<br />

data is by definition public and<br />

thus allows comparison with<br />

peers and competitors. Every<br />

year to date, AEI has maintained<br />

a lead.<br />

The point is not to search for<br />

one perfect proxy. Instead, nonprofits<br />

operating in the ideas<br />

industry can build a dashboard,<br />

outfit it with a wide variety of<br />

variables, and then use it to<br />

gauge the revealed preferences<br />

of public leaders and the uptake<br />

of the organization’s work.<br />

At the same time we began<br />

constructing this impact dashboard,<br />

my AEI management<br />

colleagues and I made several<br />

complementary changes. For<br />

example, we wrote a new statement<br />

of purpose. We tried to<br />

make clear the moral goal of our<br />

ideas, which is to serve others.<br />

We then launched a series<br />

of high-profile entrepreneurial<br />

ventures designed to create<br />

impact and fulfill our new<br />

statement of purpose. Some of<br />

them are quite unusual, such as<br />

research on happiness, experimental<br />

multimedia ventures<br />

and a major collaboration with<br />

the Dalai Lama.<br />

Built and marketed like internal<br />

startups, these ventures<br />

do not displace any of our other<br />

work. We approach would-be<br />

donors as we would venture<br />

capitalists. We talk about the<br />

return on investment and establish<br />

the impact metrics that we<br />

will use to demonstrate success.<br />

Our new focus on impact has<br />

also helped us refine our audience<br />

development and segmentation.<br />

We believe that in the<br />

marketplace of ideas, we can<br />

classify potential consumers of<br />

our products into four groups<br />

according to their receptivity to<br />

a given message: true believers<br />

(who already agree), persuadables<br />

(who are open to hearing<br />

from us), hostiles (who think our<br />

perspective is stupid or evil) and<br />

apathetics (who couldn’t care<br />

less). We cross these four attitudinal<br />

groups with the five key<br />

demographic groups — policymakers,<br />

business leaders, the<br />

media, community leaders and<br />

academics — that form our target<br />

audience. This enables us to<br />

balance our strategies and offerings<br />

across these groups to<br />

maximize impact and more effectively<br />

serve our mission principles.<br />

Despite a few hiccups, our<br />

strategy has paid off. Since 2008<br />

AEI’s operating revenues have<br />

averaged annual growth of<br />

roughly 10%. More important,<br />

we’ve seen the impact of our<br />

research increase among policymakers<br />

and other leaders in<br />

dramatic ways. It’s an exciting<br />

time at AEI.<br />

(Arthur C. Brooks is the president<br />

of the American Enterprise<br />

Institute.)<br />

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


26 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556<br />

Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

Policy Investments <strong>Mar</strong>ket Insight Influencers<br />

INFLUENCERS<br />

Death from toxic generator fumes<br />

birthed Havenhill Synergy – Odunaiya<br />

Sometimes entrepreneurs are those angry enough about a problem to roll up their sleeves and find a solution. OLUSEGUN<br />

ODUNAIYE, CEO of Havenhill Synergy, tells ISAAC ANYAOGU, the inspiration behind the formation of his clean energy company.<br />

Please give us an insight into your<br />

background?<br />

I<br />

had gone visiting a friend in a<br />

semi-rural community in Lagos<br />

State. As I walked the streets of<br />

that community, I ran into a<br />

young boy of school age but who<br />

was not in school. I was able to gather,<br />

having engaged him in a conversation<br />

that his parents could not afford to fund<br />

his education and promised to come<br />

back in two weeks and do something<br />

about his plight.<br />

I returned to this same community<br />

about three weeks later and found<br />

it inordinately difficult locating this<br />

young boy as everyone I enquired<br />

from were reluctant to discuss him.<br />

Fortunately or rather unfortunately,<br />

I met someone who generously<br />

volunteered information about the<br />

boy. He said ‘the boy, his two siblings<br />

and parents are dead’.<br />

I was dazed! Not necessarily by the<br />

concept of death but by the complete<br />

annihilation of an entire nuclear family<br />

in one fell swoop. My questions began<br />

to pour; how can this be? What could<br />

have happened? These and more<br />

questions I asked and was able to<br />

gather that they died from toxic fumes<br />

from a neighbour’s generating set.<br />

Sadly, I have come to know that in a<br />

nation of almost two hundred million<br />

people, this is not an isolated incident<br />

even today.<br />

Broken, this personal experience<br />

was the turning point in my career and<br />

my life. I knew I had to do something<br />

and this was one of the motivations and<br />

driving forces that birthed Havenhill.<br />

Havenhill Synergy is a Cleantech<br />

Company that started operations<br />

in 2010. We use solar energy to<br />

generate clean, safe, cost effective<br />

and sustainable electricity in urban<br />

and rural areas in Nigeria. Our current<br />

activities span both urban and rural<br />

areas.<br />

My first degree is in Physics and<br />

Solar Energy, but I have gone ahead<br />

to take courses in Management &<br />

Business Administration (MBA),<br />

Renewable Energy and Project<br />

Management.<br />

Please tell us about some of your<br />

most important projects?<br />

All of our projects are important to<br />

us as they are helping individuals<br />

and communities end blackout in<br />

a clean way. Our first mini-grid is a<br />

20kW Solar Mini-Grid with 115kW of<br />

storage deployed to Kigbe community<br />

in Abuja. It has been providing 24 hours<br />

electricity access for basic appliances<br />

such as light bulbs, fans and television<br />

to 1<strong>30</strong> homes and 7 businesses since<br />

June 2017. We also deployed a solar<br />

powered water pumping system<br />

providing 50litres of water each to <strong>30</strong>0<br />

persons on a daily basis. Other projects<br />

are a 12.8kW off-grid Solar System in<br />

Kuje, Abuja; a <strong>30</strong>0Watts Solar Home<br />

System to 50 rural household in Dakwa<br />

Community, Dei-Dei, Abuja. We are<br />

currently constructing a 40kW Solar<br />

Mini-Grid in Kwaku community, Kuje,<br />

Abuja and will be ready in another 6<br />

weeks.<br />

How have your operations helped to<br />

improve the lives of the people?<br />

In the rural areas, the living conditions<br />

of community residents have greatly<br />

improved. There has been drastic<br />

reduction of CO2 emission due to<br />

unsafe and hazardous means of energy<br />

Olusegun Odunaiye<br />

generation (generators). We have been<br />

able to stimulate few businesses that<br />

even operate at night. School children<br />

can study at night, clean and potable<br />

water is available to all. We are steadily<br />

and critically addressing the United<br />

Nations Sustainable goals 6 & 7.<br />

We have witnessed firsthand rural<br />

– rural migration, some residents from<br />

rural communities where electricity<br />

& clean water is not available have<br />

relocated to Kigbe where there is 24<br />

hours power supply. Electricity truly<br />

brings life and development.<br />

Your mini grid project in Kigbe,<br />

Abuja, what makes it outstanding?<br />

This is a relatively new industry in<br />

Nigeria and we have tried to put on<br />

ground a system that can stand the<br />

test of time. We made use of some of<br />

the best generating assets in the world,<br />

our meters and prepaid and smart,<br />

we remotely monitor activities, power<br />

generation, electricity consumption<br />

in Kigbe from anywhere in the world.<br />

We also trained a local operator who<br />

perform basic operation and acts as the<br />

vendor within the community.<br />

The industry will continue to grow<br />

especially with the new Mini-Grid<br />

regulation that was passed in October<br />

2017. We will continue to replicate this<br />

success in other communities.<br />

I understand it cost about N40m to<br />

set up a minigrid, please clarify, how<br />

was it easy to secure funding?<br />

Funding is one of the major missing<br />

link in the industry and it didn’t come<br />

easy at. 78% of the funding for Kigbe<br />

project came as grant funding from<br />

one of our major partners United States<br />

African Development Foundation<br />

(USADF). They didn’t just dash us<br />

the money, it was a competition, due<br />

diligence was done, timelines and<br />

deliverables had to be met and we<br />

sure executed that project as if our life<br />

depended on it.<br />

This has led us to attract other grant<br />

funding from the same organization<br />

and debt funding from another<br />

organization to scale up. We are hoping<br />

to see more active investor play in this<br />

industry and the Rural Electrification<br />

Agency (REA) through the World Bank<br />

is working to bring in investment into<br />

this industry.<br />

Projects like yours have benefited<br />

from funding by developmental<br />

agencies, how can these projects<br />

scale, and secure adequate funding?<br />

Any developer going into Mini-<br />

Grid electricity development must<br />

understand that this is a business<br />

that must be proven sustainable and<br />

financial bankable before any investor<br />

or financier will put their money into it.<br />

Havenhill has a scale up plan; we<br />

have rural communities that we have<br />

assessed and profile with accurate<br />

date and site analysis. We are able to<br />

demonstrate to potential investors that<br />

the projects are viable and customer’s<br />

willingness to pay is high. There are few<br />

Mini-Grid developers in Nigeria today<br />

and I know most of them have bankable<br />

and viable scale up plans. Most of the<br />

funding for Mini-Grids development<br />

have been foreign sourced but we are<br />

gradually seeing interest from local<br />

financiers, crowd funding platforms<br />

and equity investors.<br />

Payment systems in rural areas are<br />

still rudimentary, how have your<br />

company weathered this challenge?<br />

When there is a will, there is always<br />

a way. We are constantly fashioning<br />

out ways to improve collections. I can<br />

authoritatively say that our customers<br />

have been paying for the past 9 months.<br />

We have local vendor who do revenue<br />

collection and credit customer’s<br />

meters. The best way for revenue<br />

collection in rural communities is<br />

through mobile Money.<br />

However, if you consider the<br />

development of mobile money in<br />

East Africa to West Africa, you will<br />

see a big difference in the adoption.<br />

This is largely due to government<br />

regulation on the design of mobile<br />

money infrastructure in both areas. As<br />

policies improve, collection will also<br />

improve but we will always find a way<br />

to go around this issue.<br />

What new projects are in the<br />

pipeline?<br />

We have done assessment of over 20<br />

rural communities across 3 states, we<br />

are also pushing our various embedded<br />

generation projects in urban center.<br />

We are hopeful of developing at least<br />

10 Mini-grid this year with sight on 3<br />

already that should come up stream<br />

before the close of Q2 <strong>2018</strong>.<br />

What is your view about the off-grid<br />

energy market in Nigeria? What<br />

is required to deepen the market?<br />

What policies are required when<br />

compared to East African countries<br />

with better markets?<br />

The off-grid market is growing fast and<br />

is the solution for the Nigeria off-grid<br />

power sector. Deploying mini-grids<br />

and Solar Home System to off-grid<br />

rural communities is the cheapest<br />

and fastest way of getting power to<br />

those not connected to the national<br />

grid. Generation, transmission and<br />

distribution challenges in the power<br />

sector are avoided in this situation.<br />

With respect to rural electrification,<br />

the off-grid market is off to a great start.<br />

The Federal Government through<br />

the Rural Electrification Agency have<br />

made available a comprehensive<br />

identification, mapping and<br />

assessments of viable mini-grid and<br />

SHS sites. The current NERC Mini-grid<br />

regulation we have is good for now and<br />

can be better as the years go by.<br />

To deepen the market, we will need<br />

to have a one stop shop where you<br />

have major actors (regulators: NERC,<br />

Ministry of Environment, Customs,<br />

SON, etc.) and all those involved in<br />

the value chain present to attend to<br />

issues especially as related to licensing<br />

and imports.<br />

Since you are involved in backup<br />

systems, what happens to used<br />

batteries? How are they disposed?<br />

How many do you dispose in a<br />

month/year?<br />

We have an agreement with a licensed<br />

vendor who buy back these batteries<br />

from us whenever there is need to do<br />

so. We dispose a couple of batteries<br />

yearly.<br />

Isaac Anyaogu, Email: isaac.anyaogu@businessdayonline.com, 07037817378, Graphics: Joel Samson


Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

C002D5556<br />

BUSINESS DAY<br />

27<br />

BUSINESS SOUTH-SOUTH<br />

COMPLETE COVERAGE OF SOUTH-SOUTH / SOUTH-EAST<br />

South East: 3,000 jobs lost, as Enugu Depot fails<br />

to receive products supplies from Port Harcourt<br />

BEN EGUZOZIE, Port Harcourt<br />

& REGIS ANUKWUOJI, Enugu<br />

Ministry of Niger<br />

Delta empowers 270<br />

displaced women,<br />

youths in Cross River<br />

MIKE ABANG, Calabar<br />

More than 3,000 jobs<br />

would not be restored<br />

around the<br />

Nigerian National<br />

Petroleum Corporation<br />

(NNPC) Enugu Depot after<br />

all, following failure by the national<br />

oil company (NNPC) to revive the<br />

depot in Enugu. In 2016, revival work<br />

began on the Depot, built in 1979 by<br />

the NNPC, and was expected to have<br />

completed before mid-year then; but<br />

sadly, after two years, the hope has<br />

been dashed for millions of people<br />

around the South East, South-South<br />

and North Central states.<br />

The depot has capacity to stock<br />

Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) or petrol,<br />

Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK)<br />

and Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), and<br />

was serving Enugu, Anambra, Kogi,<br />

Ebonyi and parts of Imo, Benue and<br />

Cross River states.<br />

With over 500 marketers, it supplied<br />

six million litres of petrol, two<br />

million litres of kerosene and another<br />

two million litres of diesel daily.<br />

The Group Managing Director<br />

(GMD) of NNPC, Maikanti Baru, who<br />

stated this during the 29th ongoing<br />

Enugu International Trade Fair, said<br />

they discovered 685 points of vandalization<br />

on the pipeline from Port<br />

Harcourt refinery to Enugu, which<br />

were inflicted within six months,<br />

while the corporation was trying to<br />

fix the pipeline from Aba to Enugu.<br />

He said that although Enugu<br />

Depot was so essential to NNPC<br />

distribution network, it is not only<br />

IDRIS UMAR MOMOH, Benin<br />

Lift Above Poverty Organization<br />

(LAPO) has honoured<br />

three women with its outstanding<br />

women leadership<br />

award for their various contributions<br />

to human, social progress and uplift<br />

of mankind in the society.<br />

The women honoured in the<br />

<strong>2018</strong> edition of the organization are<br />

Patience Adamu, a civil servant in the<br />

employment of Edo State Government,<br />

Oti Justina Onyenaturuchi and<br />

Esther Agbonzikilo.<br />

They were honoured in recognition<br />

of their various endeavours, in<br />

the area of business, professional<br />

and public life.<br />

Patience Adamu, the current<br />

secretary, Agency for Adult and<br />

Non-Formal Education, ministry of<br />

Education, Benin-City was awarded<br />

for her contribution to human and<br />

social progress; Oti Justina Onyenaturuchi<br />

was recognized for building<br />

the skill and capacity of young<br />

women for an empowered adult<br />

life while Esther Agbonzikilo, was<br />

awarded, through her school trained<br />

several hundreds of women and contributing<br />

to employment generation<br />

of the country.<br />

The trio, emerged winners in<br />

strategic to the South-East, but also<br />

to the North Central because it is<br />

from Enugu Depot that products are<br />

pumped up to <strong>Mar</strong>kudi and the North<br />

East up to Yola.<br />

Baru, however, noted that as far as<br />

that speed of vandalization continues,<br />

it would be quite difficult to fix the<br />

pipeline.<br />

<strong>BusinessDay</strong> learnt that the Port<br />

Harcourt refinery stopped supplies to<br />

Enugu Depot around 1996, following<br />

uncontrolled vandalism of the pipelines<br />

linking it with other facilities.<br />

The Depot has installed capacity of<br />

12 million metric tons of products.<br />

Since its inactivity, marketers had<br />

resorted to sourcing products from<br />

Lagos, Warri and Port Harcourt via<br />

trucks, with attendant diversions,<br />

loss of funds. Trucks are said to be<br />

Winners of the <strong>2018</strong> LAPO Outstanding<br />

Women Leadership Award, Justina<br />

Onyenaturuchi (l), Patience O. Adamu<br />

(m) and Esther Agbonzikilo<br />

public life, business and professional<br />

categories respectively.<br />

In his remark, during the presentation<br />

of the award, the managing<br />

director/founder of LAPO, Godwin<br />

Ehigiamusoe, said the outstanding<br />

women leadership award instituted<br />

in 2013 was geared toward reinforcing<br />

the positive image of women<br />

in Nigeria and help in reducing the<br />

influence of negative attitudes and<br />

practices that discriminates against<br />

and exclude women.<br />

Ehigiamusoe, represented by<br />

Eddy Aghimien, a board member<br />

of the organization, noted that the<br />

establishment’s contribution to the<br />

advancement of women has been<br />

most rewarding as well as witnessed<br />

women with poor socio-economic<br />

regularly hijacked.<br />

The depot had not functioned<br />

in the last 22 years, due to constant<br />

breakdown in pipelines linking it with<br />

others, and faulty machines.<br />

The NNPC GMD said as long as<br />

the vandalism continues, “it will be<br />

very difficult for us to supply products<br />

to the Enugu Depot from Port<br />

Harcourt.”<br />

He said that normally when fixing<br />

pipeline, they are subjected to testing;<br />

and that the corporation does that<br />

for six weeks. But in the case of this<br />

pipeline, it was on test, and every now<br />

and then the pipeline is breaching,<br />

and also making insertion. So, it is<br />

our greatest interest that we restore<br />

the Enugu Depot, but we need your<br />

assistance because ECCIMA is the<br />

closest to the people,” he added.<br />

LAPO celebrates 3 women’s contributions to society<br />

and health status transform to highly<br />

motivated women with more control<br />

o dr their lives, and those of their<br />

children while contributing their<br />

own quota to national growth and<br />

development.<br />

He said, the organization sensitized<br />

2,882 women in 2017 on the<br />

dangers and solutions available for<br />

abused women and girls free legal<br />

aid rendered to 32 females on various<br />

issues including spousal abuse<br />

and violence.<br />

He added that 1,115 women out<br />

of 1,457 participants graduated from<br />

the LAPO micro business and financial<br />

literacy program.<br />

Ehigiamusoe, said since inception<br />

of the program, eighteen women<br />

have won the award.<br />

The LAPO boss, who said the<br />

award coincided with the celebration<br />

of the <strong>2018</strong> International Women’s<br />

Day, however urged all stakeholders<br />

to take urgent steps towards creating<br />

a world with gender balanced leadership,<br />

respect and values that uphold<br />

the rights and dignity of women.<br />

He explained, that the organization<br />

celebrated the award winners<br />

who through sheer determination,<br />

hard work and uncommon commitment<br />

have surmounted obstacles to<br />

become successful in their various<br />

endeavours.<br />

He said the worst affected locations<br />

are Ishiagu (in Ebonyi State) and<br />

Osisioma axis (Abia State); pointing<br />

out that it is a serious task, and that<br />

was why they are asking for the support<br />

of the people to stop the vandals<br />

from sabotaging the public asset, because<br />

of the importance of the Depot.<br />

He also called on marketers of<br />

petroleum products in the South<br />

East to desist from over-profiteering;<br />

saying that all petroleum products in<br />

Nigeria today are being supplied by<br />

the NNPC at N133 per liter, and saw<br />

no reason why a marketer should sell<br />

above N145 per liter.<br />

“If the complain is cost of transportation,<br />

other marketers from<br />

the north also lift products from the<br />

same place. Last week, the same<br />

marketer who lifts from Port Harcourt<br />

sold N141 per litre in Maiduguri.” He<br />

warned that any body caught selling<br />

above the government fixed price will<br />

face the law.<br />

IDRIS UMAR MOMOH, Benin<br />

Victor Ese Foundation, a non-governmental<br />

organization based<br />

in Italy, has rolled out plans to<br />

address food insecurity by encouraging<br />

Nigeria youths to embrace agriculture<br />

as a business.<br />

The president of the foundation,<br />

Victor Ese, who gave the hint at a press<br />

conference, listed the objectives of the<br />

organization to include helping Nigeria<br />

to be a hunger-free country in order<br />

to derive income growth, accelerate<br />

achievement of food and nutritional<br />

security and transform Nigeria into a<br />

leading player in global food market<br />

to grow wealth for millions of farmers.<br />

Others are to create employment<br />

opportunities for the youth and to encourage<br />

compatriots to obey the Nigeria<br />

call to serve our fathers land with love,<br />

strength and faith.<br />

Ese noted that when hunger problem<br />

is solved every Nigerian shall have<br />

adequate access to free emergency<br />

medical care and qualitative education.<br />

While pointing out that Nigerians<br />

must collectively come together to<br />

build s better country that can be proud<br />

No fewer than 270 displaced<br />

women and<br />

youths in all the 18 local<br />

government areas of Cross River<br />

State have been empowered<br />

through a two-week training in<br />

fisheries, poultry, entrepreneurship<br />

and Information and Communications<br />

Technology (ICT)<br />

at the University of Calabar<br />

Institute of Oceanography, managed<br />

by Stones and Jones Nigeria<br />

Limited.<br />

Minister of Niger Delta Affairs,<br />

Usani Usani, while flagging<br />

off the empowerment scheme,<br />

said, it was part of President<br />

Muhammadu Buhari’s initiative<br />

to cushion the effects of the<br />

economic recession, and put<br />

smiles on the faces of ordinary<br />

Nigerians.<br />

Usani, who was represented<br />

by Ogbiji Ogbiji, said, the training<br />

programme was done by the<br />

Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, in<br />

collaboration with Mennachimso<br />

Resources Nigeria Limited to<br />

empower women and youths in<br />

fish production, among others.<br />

He said the exercise is a continuous<br />

one as the programme<br />

has been captured in the 2017<br />

and <strong>2018</strong> budget awaiting passage<br />

by the National Assembly.<br />

A beneficiary and team leader<br />

of the fisheries aspect, Amba<br />

Bitty Bisong commended the<br />

Minister of Niger Delta Affairs<br />

and President Buhari for the gesture<br />

in empowering displaced<br />

women and youths in the state.<br />

Effiom Ogwa Enang commended<br />

the Federal Government for living<br />

up to its election promises<br />

through empowerment of the<br />

youths and children in the state.<br />

Food insecurity: Group urges<br />

Nigerians to embrace agriculture<br />

of home and abroad, noted that the<br />

objectives of the foundation can be<br />

achieved with sincerity, transparency,<br />

accountability, the support of individual<br />

and that of the state and federal<br />

governments.<br />

He explained that the foundation is<br />

collaborating with international partners<br />

to provide technical support and<br />

funds to empower farmers especially<br />

the young ones to galvanize the country<br />

out of food shortage.<br />

He also added that with the international<br />

supports, famers will be empowered<br />

with the necessary farming tools<br />

such as equipment to tackle hunger.<br />

Ese, disclosed that, the foundation<br />

has gone round the 36 states of the<br />

federation to mobilize for support to<br />

ensure that all the local technocrats<br />

and fabricators of agricultural machineries<br />

are inculcated into the project in<br />

order to reduce the importation of the<br />

machineries.<br />

Ese, who said the foundation came<br />

into existence in 2010, pointing out<br />

that a lot of activities have been carried<br />

in Italy and in Nigeria by empowering<br />

people on skills acquisition, assisted<br />

orphanage homes, the physically challenged<br />

persons among others.


28<br />

BUSINESS DAY<br />

C002D5556<br />

Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong>


45<br />

Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

BUSINESS DAY<br />

C002D5556<br />

BUSINESS DAY Online<br />

Highlight of the news reports on our digital platforms this week<br />

Best five stories this week<br />

Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

BUSINESS DAY<br />

29<br />

BD INVESTIGATIVE SERIES:<br />

Nigeria’s cargo airports fail to<br />

take off after billions invested<br />

by FAAN<br />

Efforts to promote exports across the<br />

country are still a mere dream as most<br />

cargo airports have failed to take-off five<br />

years after the Federal Government designated<br />

13 airports for imports and exports<br />

of agro-allied products.<br />

Milost sued in New York for<br />

fraud, violating US securities<br />

exchange law<br />

There’s a tiny detail that Milost has<br />

deliberately concealed from the unassuming<br />

Nigerian public. Milost Global<br />

Inc, a purported US-based private equity<br />

firm, is facing six different charges in the<br />

United States after being sued for fraud by<br />

one Alexander MacGregor, according to a<br />

document filed at the New York Southern<br />

District Court and obtained by Business-<br />

Day.<br />

New import duty threatens<br />

Nigeria’s N18bn solar market<br />

Nigeria’s bourgeoning solar market<br />

valued at over N18bn is under threat,<br />

operators say, due to the imposition of up<br />

to 10% import duty on solar panels despite<br />

belonging to a classification system which<br />

grants it exemption.<br />

Unity debunks Milost claim over<br />

$1bn financing deal<br />

eries…they are not working, they are liabilities<br />

not assets, old and rusted. Nigeria<br />

is importing Petrol because her refineries<br />

are comatose….but President Buhari does<br />

not want to sell or dispose of the refineries.<br />

ON HERDSMEN, KILLINGS IN THE<br />

NORTH, TY DANJUMA & THE<br />

NIGERIAN ARMY<br />

Last weekend during the 10th anniversary<br />

and graduation ceremony of Taraba<br />

State University in Jalingo, TY Danjuma<br />

spoke candidly about the issue of the<br />

herdsmen and the clashes in the State.<br />

Exasperated and angered by the loss<br />

of lives in his immediate community and<br />

across Nigeria, respected retired military<br />

head General Theophilus Danjuma<br />

threw down the gauntlet on <strong>Mar</strong>ch 24. He<br />

doubted the neutrality and impartiality of<br />

the Nigerian defence forces. He then asked<br />

citizens to defend themselves against all<br />

the militias responsible for the mass killings<br />

across the land.<br />

He said: “The armed forces are not<br />

neutral. They collude with the armed<br />

bandits that kill people, kill Nigerians.<br />

They facilitate their movement. They cover<br />

them. If you are depending on the armed<br />

forces to stop the killings, you will die one<br />

by one. The ethnic cleansing must stop in<br />

Taraba State. It must stop in all the states<br />

of Nigeria. Otherwise, Somalia will be a<br />

child’s play. I ask every one of you to be<br />

at alert and defend your country, defend<br />

your territory, and defend your state. You<br />

have nowhere else to go”.<br />

The Nigerian Army responded, speaking<br />

through the Minister of Defence, the<br />

Federal Government dismissed Danjuma’s<br />

statement as an invitation to anarchy.<br />

Colonel Tukur Gusau, speaking for Defence<br />

Minister Mansur Dan-Ali, said, “This<br />

is highly uncalled for and is an invitation<br />

to anarchy and should be disregarded by<br />

well-meaning Nigerians”. He added, “The<br />

efforts of the Nigerian military towards the<br />

restoration of peace, security and order<br />

in Nigeria are evidently clear, and Nigerians<br />

continue to show appreciation for<br />

changing the security environment from<br />

what it was before. The armed forces is<br />

well organised and highly professional in<br />

discharging its constitutional mandate.<br />

“Therefore, if anyone has evidence of<br />

wrongdoing or dereliction of duty against<br />

our troops, (the person) should please<br />

bring forward such evidence through the<br />

channel for necessary action.”<br />

The Army issued two statements on<br />

the matter within 24 hours. The first,<br />

signed by Brigadier General John Agim,<br />

was conciliatory, voicing regard for the<br />

former Chief of Army Staff and ex-Defence<br />

Minister and affirming the commitment of<br />

the Army to best practice. In the second,<br />

Brigadier General Texas Chukwu, Director<br />

of Army Public Relations, confirmed the<br />

constitutional role of the Army in defending<br />

Nigeria’s territory and supporting civil<br />

authority. It said soldiers have died in the<br />

course of duty in Taraba State.<br />

The <strong>BusinessDay</strong> conducted a survey<br />

to see what Nigerians thought about the<br />

ensuing events.<br />

In a statement filed with the Nigerian<br />

Stock Exchange on Thursday <strong>Mar</strong>ch 29,<br />

Unity bank remained unbending on its<br />

earlier position that no investment of $1<br />

billion from Milost Global was made in<br />

Unity Bank Plc.<br />

Is Mr President Aware The Naira<br />

Has Been Devalued<br />

Another great example are the refin-<br />

Poll of the week<br />

Poll Results<br />

78% were of the opinion that TY Danjuma<br />

was right and that the job of defending<br />

self would have to be left to self. 20% were<br />

of the opinion that the Nigerian Army<br />

could be depended on, while only 2% said<br />

to depend on the police. Some comments<br />

were of the opinion that it was an insult to<br />

put the police on this list.<br />

Tweet of the week<br />

Cartoon of the week<br />

Video of the week


Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

<strong>30</strong> BUSINESS DAY


Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

NEWS<br />

Retailers slash prices by 60% over Easter break<br />

DAVID IBEMERE<br />

Festive but frugal is<br />

the order of the day<br />

for consumers, especially<br />

Christians, who<br />

are looking to keep a<br />

firm grip on their pockets despite<br />

feeling cheerier than last<br />

year’s Easter celebration.<br />

Despite most retailers in<br />

the country lowering their<br />

prices in a bid to lure shoppers<br />

with aggressive sales<br />

tactics, most retailers are suffering<br />

tepid festive sales.<br />

Online retail stores are not<br />

left out as they are also offering<br />

various incentives on their<br />

platforms with coupons on<br />

Jumai worth over N2,000 daily<br />

during this Easter period.<br />

A visit to various malls<br />

in Lagos State shows most<br />

retailers have significantly<br />

slashed their prices, especially<br />

for groceries, yet<br />

most shops are seen with<br />

no customers.<br />

At Surulere and Apapa,<br />

while most consumers<br />

thronged in with the hope of<br />

cashing in on all sectors, most<br />

consumers were seen leaving<br />

the malls with either bread or<br />

a few grocery products.<br />

Speaking with Business-<br />

Day, a clothing and sales<br />

stores attendant who gave<br />

her name as Adeola, said her<br />

company had to reduce the<br />

… yet shoppers still stay away<br />

The EPWL All Natural<br />

Therapy employs<br />

technology that provides<br />

safe, effective and<br />

detailed regimens that encourage<br />

the body to heal<br />

itself by using moving<br />

magnet energy waves that<br />

change the way body responds<br />

to pain and others.<br />

Speaking at a recent<br />

press conference, Olufunprices<br />

for most of the items in<br />

the store to sell them off, yet<br />

the sales remained the same.<br />

“There is a particular dress<br />

sold for N15,000, and it was<br />

reduced to N9,000, but most<br />

customers still left the stores<br />

without buying it.”<br />

“Nigerians are just not<br />

willing to spend, sincerely I<br />

am yet to make a sale. I made<br />

effort to announce my drop<br />

in prices, yet they only come<br />

in, see and leave,” Nonso<br />

Orji, footwear storeowner in<br />

Ogueleba, said.<br />

Ini Archibong, Shoprite<br />

spokesman, had last week said<br />

the company was planning to<br />

capitalise on various “mega<br />

sales promo” across all segment<br />

this Easter to drive sales.<br />

However, observation carried<br />

out at two of Shoprite stores<br />

in Apapa and Surulere shows<br />

most shopping is only done in<br />

the grocery department.<br />

“Over the years, Easter<br />

sales have grown in popularity<br />

over the past five years,<br />

and the Christian holiday is<br />

now seen as yet another excuse<br />

to offer heavy price cuts.<br />

These price cuts appear to be<br />

a remedy to a number of store<br />

closures, suffering from low<br />

sales,” Madu Hassan, a retail<br />

analyst, said.<br />

A visit a Pep Store in Yaba<br />

shows a good number of customers<br />

sizing up children’s<br />

wares, the attendant who wore<br />

a gloom look said she was not<br />

ready to disclose her sales record,<br />

while reluctantly screaming,<br />

“We are making efforts.”<br />

Spar is another retailer<br />

outlet offering Easter promo<br />

till April 2, and is another store<br />

experiencing low sales. One of<br />

the attendant told Business-<br />

Day on condition of anonymity<br />

Thursday that sales had yet<br />

to improved.<br />

“Our sales have not improved<br />

greatly as we had anticipated<br />

but we hope from<br />

today we get more customers<br />

paying rather than sampling.<br />

“I am still very carful on<br />

what I spend my money on,<br />

I spend not less than <strong>30</strong> minutes<br />

online browsing through<br />

different deals to be sure before<br />

I buy am yet to make a<br />

decision,” Bumni Olajide said<br />

as she works out of another<br />

store in Yaba the third without<br />

buying an item.<br />

A report by Nielsena research<br />

firm in its Africa Prospects<br />

Indicator (APi), shows<br />

that Nigerians are still concerned<br />

about their personal<br />

finances due to limited spare<br />

cash, leading to a conservative<br />

outlook on spending for<br />

first two quarters of <strong>2018</strong>.<br />

Senate rejects $350m Kaduna World Bank loan request<br />

OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja<br />

Senate on Thursday<br />

rejected approval of<br />

$350 million Kaduna<br />

State Development<br />

Policy Operation Credit Facility<br />

from the World Bank.<br />

This followed the recommendation<br />

by the Senate<br />

Committee on Local and<br />

Foreign Debts.<br />

Presenting his report,<br />

chairman of the committee,<br />

Shehu Sani, who also<br />

hails from Kaduna State,<br />

explained that the state was<br />

already indebted to the tune<br />

of $232 million.<br />

He noted that the approval<br />

of the loan would<br />

raise the debt profile of the<br />

state to $582 million.<br />

This, he said, would leave<br />

huge debt burden for the<br />

C002D5556<br />

next generation, adding that<br />

the state is the second most<br />

indebted state in Nigeria after<br />

Lagos.<br />

“The new debt stock will<br />

likely, further erode the<br />

economic viability of the<br />

State. The Committee recommends<br />

that the Senate<br />

do reject the request of $350<br />

million for Kaduna State as<br />

contained in the 2015 <strong>2018</strong><br />

External Borrowing (Rolling)<br />

Plan of Mr. President,<br />

Commander-in-Chief of the<br />

Armed Forces.<br />

“That with the high total<br />

debt stock of Kaduna State<br />

at the moment, the new borrowing<br />

sought, will make the<br />

debt service to revenue ratio<br />

high, thereby worsening the<br />

State Government’s ability<br />

to meet its other basic obligations<br />

to the people and<br />

milayo Brown, a chief medical<br />

consultant, who notes<br />

that the therapy delivers<br />

naturally-derived energy to<br />

weakens cells, says it makes<br />

for fast, safe and efficient<br />

form of treatment from broken<br />

bones and scars tissue<br />

repair.<br />

The technology behind<br />

EPWL Natural Therapy<br />

has been used extensively<br />

BUSINESS DAY<br />

further erode the economic<br />

viability of the State,” Sani<br />

stated.<br />

Beside Sani, the two other<br />

senators from the state,<br />

Danjuma La’ah and Suleiman<br />

Hunkuyi also rejected<br />

the foreign loan, saying the<br />

state finances would suffer.<br />

They emphasised that<br />

the loan request failed to address<br />

key issues that would<br />

have aided its approval.<br />

Specifically, Hunkuyi<br />

said it was unfortunate that<br />

the governor of the state, Nasir<br />

el-Rufai, only asked his<br />

commissioner for women<br />

affairs and other special assistants<br />

to approve the loan<br />

at the State Executive Committee<br />

meeting, adding that<br />

it fell short of 18 key government<br />

officials as required by<br />

the World Bank.<br />

EPWL All Natural employs technology to cure pain, others<br />

31<br />

for decades for many condition<br />

and medical disciplines<br />

fully approved by<br />

United State FDA specifically<br />

to fuse broken bones,<br />

wound healing, pain and<br />

tissue swelling, working<br />

to reduce pain, inflammation,<br />

the effect of stress on<br />

the body, platelet adhesion,<br />

fuse broken bones,<br />

she states.


32 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556<br />

NEWS<br />

L-R: Anatoly Sidrov, regional commercial manager, Africa, Omnicomm; Abdul Bamgbopa, MD/CEO, Sattrak Services Limited; Akudo<br />

Ogbonna, head, product and market development , Sattrak Services Limited, and Alex Molochkov, senior specialist, technology<br />

support group, Omnicomm, at the Omnicomm/Sattrak business breakfast workshop in Lagos, yesterday. Pic by Pius Okeosisi<br />

Bitter Easter for air passengers as<br />

Buhari’s visit disrupts travel plans<br />

IFEOMA OKEKE<br />

Passengers travelling<br />

for the Easter<br />

celebration by<br />

road and air yesterday<br />

expressed<br />

their displeasure over the<br />

‘man-made’ grid-lock, making<br />

it impossible for passengers<br />

to access the airport<br />

and major roads in Lagos.<br />

A visit by <strong>BusinessDay</strong><br />

to the General Aviation Terminal<br />

(GAT) and Murtala<br />

Muhammed Airport Two<br />

(MMA2) yesterday showed<br />

that airlines kept announcing<br />

delays in flights just to accommodate<br />

passengers who were<br />

yet to get to the airport.<br />

As a result of the unending<br />

gridlock, some passengers<br />

had to disembark with their<br />

luggage and trek a long distance<br />

just to access the road<br />

leading to the airport, while<br />

others who could not meet up<br />

missed their flights.<br />

The Lagos state govern-<br />

Reps flag off probe of N2bn, $3.8m unremitted<br />

proceeds from sale of power assets<br />

Obaseki expresses shock at killing of APC<br />

youth leader, commiserates with family<br />

Buhari promises improved national security Buhari visit: Transport fare rises 100%<br />

JOSHUA BASSEY<br />

President Muhammadu<br />

Buhari says the<br />

Federal Government<br />

is not looking away<br />

from its commitment to the<br />

creation of the enabling environment<br />

and improved national<br />

security in aid of new<br />

investments in the economy.<br />

He spoke, Thursday, at<br />

the opening of the Ikeja Bus<br />

Terminal built by the Lagos<br />

State government to raise the<br />

standard and quality of public<br />

transportation services<br />

in Nigeria’s commercial city.<br />

The new bus terminal along<br />

Simbiat Abiola Way, Ikeja, is<br />

fitted with facilities such as<br />

passenger concourse for arrivals,<br />

ticketing, waiting and<br />

departure areas, loading bays,<br />

food court, ATM gallery, tax<br />

park and parking lots.<br />

Buhari said at the event<br />

ment a few days ago announced<br />

a 2-day visit by the<br />

President and declared a<br />

public holiday to ameliorate<br />

the hardship that was bound<br />

to follow due to the massive<br />

constructions going on<br />

around the state and the fact<br />

that it had cordoned off certain<br />

areas for security reasons.<br />

Imohimi Edgal, Commissioner<br />

of Police in Lagos State,<br />

announced the temporary<br />

closure of routes including<br />

Ikeja, Agege, <strong>Mar</strong>yland, Ikoyi<br />

and Victoria Island, and affected<br />

areas around the environs<br />

from Iyana-ipaja, Egbeda,<br />

Ikotun, Airport Road, Yaba<br />

and a host of other places.<br />

A situation report in<br />

some places around the<br />

state showed that non state<br />

government workers were<br />

having a hard time getting<br />

around as security agents<br />

blocked strategic areas.<br />

The Presidential Lounge<br />

was once again abuzz with<br />

activities as armed security<br />

details were scattered in and<br />

that government at the centre<br />

was also working to changing<br />

the narrative of transportation<br />

architecture nationally<br />

by expanding and extending<br />

rail infrastructure, just as he<br />

lauded Lagos State for taking<br />

on similar projects to cater<br />

for the state’s increasing<br />

population. The population<br />

of Lagos is estimated at over<br />

21 million.<br />

Governor Akinwunmi<br />

Ambode, justifying the need<br />

for the project, said it was to<br />

meet the daily connectivity<br />

need of the people, who deserved<br />

better transportation<br />

infrastructure and services.<br />

Ambode said in line with<br />

the resolve of his government<br />

to reform the public<br />

transportation space, similar<br />

projects were being cited in<br />

different parts of the metropolis,<br />

while 820 of the 5,000<br />

high capacity buses being<br />

round the airport.<br />

There was traffic jam<br />

building around along the<br />

airport road as vehicular<br />

movements grounded to a<br />

halt, due to security presence<br />

directing and diverting<br />

traffic and the ongoing airport<br />

road construction.<br />

A commuter who spoke to<br />

<strong>BusinessDay</strong> said he trekked<br />

from Mangoro all the way to<br />

the airport despite the fact he<br />

left home 5am. According to<br />

him, there was no traffic flow<br />

as movement was halted between<br />

Ile-zik and PWD.<br />

At Cement area, Lagos<br />

state, an old woman, who<br />

identified herself as Josephine<br />

broke down in tears when she<br />

was informed she had missed<br />

her flight.<br />

“This is the first time I am<br />

travelling by air. My children<br />

pleaded with me to take a<br />

flight to my village at Owerri<br />

for the Easter celebration. I<br />

was just informed that my<br />

flight just took off. I cannot<br />

walk for a long distance, so<br />

… as Lagos injects 820 new buses into transport system September<br />

brought in to strengthen the<br />

system would arrive in September<br />

this year.<br />

“In the last three years, we<br />

have committed to revamping<br />

and providing a new integrated<br />

transport system to<br />

support our growing population.<br />

We have initiated and<br />

completed the provision of<br />

infrastructure that are scalable<br />

and would support the<br />

daily needs of our people to<br />

meet their connectivity and<br />

mobility needs,” he said.<br />

According to Ambode, the<br />

Ikeja Bus Terminal is therefore<br />

one of the flagship transport<br />

infrastructure under the<br />

State Bus Reform Initiative,<br />

as “the first phase of this<br />

programme will see 13 new<br />

bus terminals introduced,<br />

including major terminals at<br />

Oshodi, Yaba, Ojota, Agege,<br />

and the already completed<br />

Tafawa Balewa Bus Terminal.<br />

there was no way I could<br />

have managed to trek to the<br />

airport. I don’t know what to<br />

do now or where to go,” she<br />

lamented.<br />

Airlines took various initiatives<br />

to ensure their passengers<br />

travelling do not get a raw<br />

deal out of the route blockages<br />

around the state<br />

Obi Mbanuzuo, manager<br />

at Dana Air told <strong>BusinessDay</strong><br />

that they had to delay all their<br />

flights and messages have<br />

been sent to passengers on<br />

the developments they were<br />

making to ensure passengers<br />

are taken care of.<br />

“The management of<br />

Dana air has assured guests<br />

that they will be re-accommodated<br />

on the available flights<br />

for free if they miss their<br />

flights,” Mbanuzuo added.<br />

Chris Iwarah, corporate<br />

communications manager,<br />

Air Peace Limited said “The<br />

challenge we had was with<br />

guests who encountered<br />

some difficulty accessing the<br />

airport on time.”<br />

DAVID IBEMERE<br />

Lagosians yesterday lamented<br />

the high fares<br />

they had to pay to get<br />

to their destinations,<br />

as many others who could not<br />

get a bus resorted to trekking<br />

to their various destinations<br />

as a result of road closure due<br />

to the visit of President Muhammadu<br />

Buhari.<br />

The Lagos State government<br />

had on Tuesday announced<br />

that it would close<br />

some major roads in the state<br />

to ensure a hitch-free visit<br />

to the state by the President,<br />

with a promise that alternative<br />

routes would be created.<br />

However, on Thursday, residents<br />

and those working in Ikeja,<br />

Ikoyi and Victoria Island who<br />

narrated their ordeal to <strong>BusinessDay</strong><br />

in the gridlock, said the<br />

alternative routes provided were<br />

impassable from 5am.<br />

“It is not good at all, thou-<br />

KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja<br />

House of Representatives<br />

on Thursday<br />

commenced investigative<br />

hearing<br />

into alleged unremitted N2<br />

billion and $3.8 million proceeds<br />

from the sale of assets<br />

of Power Holding Company<br />

of Nigeria (PHCN).<br />

Dennis Amadi, chairman<br />

of the Ad-hoc Committee, assured<br />

Nigerians of the Committee’s<br />

resolve to work assiduously<br />

in the bid to unravel<br />

any unremitted funds from<br />

sales of power assets.<br />

Amadi said the Committee<br />

was also mandated<br />

to unravel the alleged suppression<br />

of interest element<br />

due the Federal Government<br />

from proceeds of sale of those<br />

assets. “This includes the<br />

generation companies, the<br />

distribution companies, the<br />

transmission companies as<br />

well as the banks involved.<br />

“These funds are Federal<br />

Government funds and from<br />

Governor of Edo State,<br />

Godwin Obaseki, has<br />

expressed shock at the<br />

news of the brutal killing of<br />

the All Progressives Congress<br />

(APC) youth leader in Etsako<br />

West Local Government Area<br />

of the state, Samson Sedi,<br />

who was allegedly shot by<br />

armed robbers on Wednesday<br />

night in Jattu.<br />

“I was shocked on receiving<br />

the news of Mr. Samson<br />

Sedi’s death. My heart goes<br />

out to his family. I have ordered<br />

the relevant security<br />

agencies to arrest the killers<br />

and prosecute them without<br />

delay,” Obaseki said.<br />

He described the late Sedi<br />

as “a grassroots mobiliser,<br />

a philanthropist who cared<br />

for orphans and a great lover<br />

of people, whose death is a<br />

Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

the whistle blower, which is<br />

the source of the motion, it is<br />

being alleged that the affected<br />

banks have some interest elements<br />

to remit to the federation<br />

account, which has not<br />

been done.<br />

“So, it is an issue of investigation,<br />

we have not proven<br />

them wrong yet until we get to<br />

the root of the matter.<br />

“This investigation is in<br />

furtherance of the motion<br />

moved by the House of Representatives<br />

on <strong>Mar</strong>ch 6, <strong>2018</strong><br />

and subsequently we will<br />

begin to engage stakeholders,<br />

the purported banks that<br />

are involved, owners of these<br />

banks as at today, Bureau<br />

of Public Procurement and<br />

stakeholders in the power<br />

sector. “In the cause of this<br />

investigation, this committee<br />

should be able to draw a<br />

proper recommendation to<br />

ensure that interest accruing<br />

on those monies are being<br />

calculated and remitted to the<br />

federation account,’’ Amadi<br />

said.<br />

huge loss to Edo people and<br />

the APC.”<br />

Sedi was allegedly killed<br />

by armed robbers while attempting<br />

to rescue a female<br />

petrol station attendant in<br />

Jattu, Etsako West Local Government<br />

Area, who was being<br />

robbed on Wednesday in<br />

Jattu.<br />

“I learnt he was driving<br />

into a road around a petrol<br />

station in Jattu and heard a<br />

female petrol station attendant<br />

shouting for help. The<br />

late Sedi drove into the petrol<br />

station to ascertain what was<br />

happening, only to be shot by<br />

the armed robbers who were<br />

operating at the petrol station.<br />

Sedi has been with us in<br />

our party for a long time and<br />

I sympathise with his family,”<br />

the governor said.<br />

… as Lagos residents narrate ordeal<br />

sands of Lagosians have resorted<br />

to trekking because the<br />

roads are blocked. Our driver<br />

took all alternative routes but<br />

met all blocked, we had to<br />

disembarked from the vehicle<br />

despite paying <strong>30</strong>0 against<br />

the normal N150, which I<br />

boarded at Surulere, and took<br />

to trekking to my office in Lagos<br />

Island, which you know<br />

is a good distance,” Chinedu<br />

Imobi told <strong>BusinessDay</strong>.<br />

Wearing a forlorn face,<br />

Tunde Ajao, a resident in<br />

Akowonjo Ikeja, said he had<br />

to trek for close to two hours<br />

before he could get a bus to<br />

his office in Yaba. “Wednesday<br />

night was terrible for me<br />

going home, and this morning<br />

was worst, I spent over an<br />

hour trying to get a bus, and<br />

the few buses available hike<br />

their fee to over 100 percent.”<br />

Another commuter glancing<br />

at his watch, Chinedu Onwubiko,<br />

saw it was 10.10am,<br />

told <strong>BusinessDay</strong> as he tried<br />

to catch the already occupied<br />

bus. “Honestly, my stomach<br />

is churned, you can see the<br />

amount of sweat on me. I have<br />

been trekking for hours, this is<br />

very bad, I do not know why<br />

we have to go through this<br />

pain again just like in 2015.”<br />

“Our leaders should be<br />

proactive in arresting a situation<br />

like this that is capable<br />

to subjecting citizens to hardship.<br />

It is bad,” another commuter<br />

who identified himself<br />

as Wale, a shop owner at Eko<br />

Hotel, said.<br />

“We have been trapped<br />

in this traffic and merry-goround<br />

a lot without getting<br />

to our destination. It is quite<br />

painful that our leaders are<br />

not proactive, I was forced to<br />

pay N500 from Ikeja to Obalande<br />

after many failed attempt<br />

to get a bus.


Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

Transaction advisers named for airport...<br />

Continued from page 4<br />

business management consultancy<br />

and a legal firm specialised<br />

on corporate, securities, maritime<br />

, foreign investments and<br />

litigation matters.<br />

For the development of the<br />

Aerotropolis and cargo terminals,<br />

a consortium of three firms<br />

were chosen: the Infrastructure<br />

Bank Plc, PWO GIBB and Abdulai<br />

Taiwo & co each specialising<br />

in raising and management of<br />

funds, engineering and a full<br />

service commercial and IP Law<br />

firm.<br />

Sirika also announced that for<br />

the national carrier, UK-based<br />

Airline Management Group, an<br />

airline group with keen strengths<br />

in start-up carriers as well as Aviation<br />

International and Tianerro<br />

FZE have been appointed.<br />

According to Sirika, the Transaction<br />

Advisers will be liaising<br />

with the Project Delivery Team<br />

to ensure it all comes to fruition<br />

in record time. He further stated<br />

that all the Transaction Advisers<br />

except for the National Carrier<br />

were engaged in May 2017 and<br />

have a 9 month contract.<br />

Under their terms of reference<br />

will be the preparation of<br />

More hotels go under receivership as loan...<br />

Continued from page 1<br />

Full Brief Case (FBC), support<br />

Ministry of transportation, aid<br />

in getting compliance certificate<br />

from ICRC, Federal Executive<br />

Council (FEC) approval.<br />

However, Olayinka Abioye,<br />

general secretary, National<br />

Union of Air Transport Employees<br />

(NUATE), told <strong>BusinessDay</strong><br />

that till date, the government has<br />

not made wide consultations<br />

with stakeholders to agree on<br />

the type of turnaround to expect<br />

from the airport concessions.<br />

“We are not against public<br />

private partnership. What we are<br />

complaining about is the attitude<br />

of government when such partnerships<br />

are put in place. They<br />

don’t consult adequately and<br />

even if they consult, they already<br />

have a mind-set of what to do.<br />

“Two committees set up to<br />

monitor these concessions. The<br />

committees were supposed to<br />

have sat with the minister of<br />

aviation who was supposed to be<br />

the chairman of the committee<br />

to determine how and who becomes<br />

the nominated member<br />

of the transaction adviser. How<br />

the minister chose these consultancy<br />

groups, no one knows,”<br />

Abioye said.<br />

tion of the hotels.<br />

At the moment, Lagos Continental<br />

Hotel is battling its receivership<br />

under Skye Bank, as well<br />

as, Best Western Hotel on Allen<br />

Avenue, Ikeja, The Hardley Apartments<br />

in Victoria Island and over<br />

10 hotels across the country that<br />

are awaiting court order for The<br />

Asset Management Corporation<br />

of Nigeria (AMCON) to take over<br />

their management.<br />

The difficulty in refinancing the<br />

loans is mainly due to the impact<br />

of the economic recession of 2016,<br />

which witnessed the worst revenue<br />

generation and occupancy rate of<br />

below 40 percent in the last two decades,<br />

and exchange rate devaluation<br />

that doubled both the value of<br />

the loans and the cost of building<br />

hotels in the last two years.<br />

Although the Nigerian economy<br />

is fast recovering from the<br />

recent economic meltdown, some<br />

hoteliers still lack the capacity to<br />

service their loans due to the challenges<br />

of high cost of operation<br />

amid average revenue generation,<br />

multiple taxation, and recently, the<br />

exit of some international brands.<br />

According to a lawyer with<br />

AMCON who pleaded anonymity,<br />

the Corporation is never happy<br />

taking over investments to turn<br />

them around from insolvency if<br />

the owners and managers were<br />

prudent in their management,<br />

observed financially probity and<br />

met the agreements they signed<br />

with their creditors.<br />

Speaking on the issue, Ademola<br />

Oni, an economist and hospitality<br />

consultant, noted that since the<br />

modernisation of its insolvency<br />

framework with the advent of the<br />

AMCON Act of June 2010, the Nigerian<br />

banking sector is stronger<br />

Continued from page 4<br />

join us when they came through<br />

Obudu. They were only given<br />

permission for hunting, which<br />

is how the Tiv came. The fact<br />

that we don’t domesticate the<br />

land doesn’t mean we are not<br />

indigenous to the land. We are<br />

opportunistic users. We don’t<br />

displace people to collect their<br />

land. We have never collected<br />

land anywhere throughout our<br />

history.”<br />

Explaining why they are opposed<br />

to the anti-open grazing<br />

law in the state, the secretary<br />

general said: “Go to section 19<br />

[of the law], the entirety of it,<br />

they said a herder can only hire<br />

land for ranching for one year<br />

and no land owner is allowed<br />

to sell land for the purpose of<br />

the duration of ranching. And<br />

when they seize cattle, within<br />

7 days they will auction them.<br />

Laws are created to endanger<br />

peace and development, now<br />

you design a law to exclude your<br />

citizens from participating in the<br />

utilisation of the land resources<br />

to carry out their rightful economic<br />

activities. These people<br />

are Benue citizens. Most of them<br />

L-R: Patrick Ijegbai, subscription manager; Emeka Ifeanyi, systems/control manager; Adeola Ajewole, advert<br />

manager; Gbenga Oloke, finance manager; Vwoke Ighure, executive director, digital services; Omosomi Omomia,<br />

assistant research editor; Joachim Adenusi, facilitator/CEO, Conrad Clark; Fabian Akagha, executive director,<br />

operations; Adeola Obisesan, head, human resources; Innocent Unah, managing editor, BRIU; John Okpaire,<br />

circulation manager, and Rerhe Idonije, head of sales, conferences, at the <strong>BusinessDay</strong> in house training on<br />

Risk Management for its executive management staff conducted by Conrad Clark Nigeria Limited.<br />

on recovering debts, and they do<br />

not waste time in pointing AMCON<br />

to the direction of their debtors,<br />

including hotels.<br />

“I always advise my hotel clients<br />

to offer their debtors some equity<br />

to offset part of the loans. It worked<br />

for Agura Resort, which called on<br />

one of its investors to pay off the<br />

bank loan and become a major<br />

shareholder, though other shareholders<br />

kicked,” he explained.<br />

Michael Eluma, a hotelier, said<br />

with 23 percent interest rate, nobody<br />

can borrow enough funds<br />

to complete a good hotel. According<br />

to him, instead of bank loans,<br />

hoteliers should pull resources<br />

together to put up more modern<br />

and functional hotels than having<br />

a thousand 20-room hotels on a<br />

street in Victoria Island.<br />

“To avoid bank traps and seeing<br />

your investments go under receivership,<br />

one should not invest alone;<br />

look for credible partners to share the<br />

risks, profits and success with. There<br />

C002D5556<br />

Killings continue in Benue despite operation...<br />

don’t know anywhere except<br />

there. You now create a law that<br />

either they ranch or the leave; to<br />

where? After creating those laws,<br />

which farmer would want to give<br />

them land?”<br />

“You cannot create a segregatory<br />

law and not expect a<br />

backlash, because these people<br />

have nowhere to go and if<br />

there is injustice this people<br />

will resist it, and that is what is<br />

playing out.”<br />

The Nigerian defence Minister,<br />

Mansur Dan-Ali, after a security<br />

council meeting on January 25,<br />

<strong>2018</strong>, briefed the press where he<br />

gave the position of the federal<br />

government on the conflict between<br />

herdsmen and farmers in<br />

North central states thus: “Since<br />

Independence, we know there<br />

used to be a route whereby these<br />

cattle rearers use. Cattle rearers<br />

are all over the nation; you go to<br />

Bayelsa, you see them, you go<br />

to Ogun, you see them. If those<br />

routes are blocked, what happens?<br />

These people are Nigerians;<br />

it’s just like you going to block<br />

river or shoreline, does that make<br />

sense to you? These are the remote<br />

causes. But what are the immediate<br />

causes? It is the grazing law.<br />

These people are Nigerians; we<br />

must learn to live together with<br />

each other; that is basic. Communities<br />

and other people must learn<br />

how to accept foreigners within<br />

their enclave, finish.”<br />

This position, as many keen<br />

watchers of the polity has noted,<br />

is indistinguishable from that of<br />

Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore – the<br />

group being accused of sponsoring<br />

the killings in the first place.<br />

Pouring petrol on an already<br />

rising flame, the IG of Police<br />

also described the killings as<br />

mere communal clashes and<br />

later, when invited by the Senate,<br />

claimed the killings were<br />

a direct result of the anti-open<br />

grazing law passed in Benue<br />

state and that the only way to<br />

stop the killings was to suspend<br />

the implementation of the law –<br />

a position clearly indistinguishable<br />

from those of Miyetti Allah<br />

Kautal Hore. To make matters<br />

worse, the spokesman of the police,<br />

Moshood Jimoh, launched a<br />

scathing attack on the governor<br />

BUSINESS DAY<br />

33<br />

NEWS<br />

describing him as a drowning<br />

governor on live television.<br />

Even before the commencement<br />

of the military operation,<br />

quite a number of Benue indigenes,<br />

including the Tor Tiv, Prof.<br />

James Ayatse, openly expressed<br />

pessimism over the success the<br />

mission of the army and its capacity<br />

and or willingness to stop<br />

the killings.<br />

Expectedly, even weeks after<br />

flagging off Exercise Ayem<br />

A’ Kpatuma, or Cat Race, an<br />

island community at Mbalagh<br />

in Makurdi local government<br />

was sacked by the rampaging<br />

Fulani herdsmen dispersing its<br />

5, 000 inhabitants into Makurdi<br />

town under the watchful eyes of<br />

the military. The Fulani invaders<br />

reportedly quietly ordered<br />

residents of the Island to quietly<br />

vacate their homes in order to<br />

avoid bloodshed and that they<br />

were there not to kill but takeover<br />

the land.<br />

When the scared locals left,<br />

the well-armed herdsmen razed<br />

virtually all the homes in the Island<br />

and occupied the territory<br />

which is less than five kilometre<br />

on water from the Wadata area<br />

of Makurdi town.<br />

According to Peter Tachie, one<br />

of the displaced inhabitants of the<br />

island, “They came in their numbers<br />

with their cattle into the island<br />

from Guma local government area<br />

and other places on foot some<br />

weeks ago because the water level<br />

of River Benue has dropped significantly<br />

so they could easily assess<br />

the island on foot. Four days ago<br />

they started destroying our houses,<br />

farmland and food barns and also<br />

taking over the LGEA Primary<br />

school in the island and converting<br />

same for personal use. As we speak<br />

no Tiv person is on that island at<br />

the moment, they have taken our<br />

farms and also uprooted our cassava<br />

from our plantation to feed<br />

their cattle which are also grazing<br />

freely on our farmland. They have<br />

destroyed all that we spent years<br />

to acquire, so we have all moved<br />

into Makurdi main town with our<br />

families to seek government’s attention.<br />

You know that we do a<br />

lot of dry season farming on the<br />

Island and as we speak all that we<br />

planted in this dry season have all<br />

been destroyed by the herdsmen<br />

and their cattle.”<br />

is no need for the many mushroom<br />

hotels around,” Eluma said.<br />

Oni, who is also an expert in<br />

risk analysis, said that there are<br />

lots of money that are idle in the<br />

banks and at home of some people,<br />

especially politicians and all hoteliers<br />

need do is to get closer to<br />

these people and sign watertight<br />

partnership agreement that would<br />

guarantee release of the fund for<br />

hotel projects.<br />

He however noted that the<br />

average Nigerian investors has to<br />

change the mindset of short term<br />

investment for any investment in<br />

hospitality to work.<br />

“Hotel business is long term.<br />

You have to give the business<br />

ample time bearing in mind maintenance,<br />

tax, franchise fees, management<br />

charges, training among<br />

others,” Oni said.<br />

Proffering solution, Trevor<br />

Ward, CEO, W Hospitality, noted<br />

that the challenge of finance is a<br />

genuine problem worldwide as hotels<br />

are difficult to finance because<br />

they are long term businesses and<br />

need long term debt.<br />

“Hotels will not return money<br />

to shareholders quickly, and they<br />

will not be able to pay back debt<br />

quickly. Starting a hotel project<br />

without having raised all the finance<br />

or at least half the commitment<br />

is probably not a very good<br />

idea,” Ward said.<br />

He explained further that, “Interest<br />

rates from commercial banks<br />

are very high and in fact, they are<br />

too high for a long term business. It<br />

may be alright if you are a trader who<br />

needs short term loans. Hotels cannot<br />

survive at 23 percent interest rate,<br />

it is not tenable and hoteliers should<br />

not go for such loans. If that means<br />

you cannot build your hotel, so be<br />

it. There are foreign debts available<br />

from the likes of Afrexim Bank and<br />

IFC at much lower interest rates but<br />

they are only viable and sustainable if<br />

you can raise foreign currency to pay<br />

interest and repay your debt.”


34 BUSINESS DAY<br />

C002D5556<br />

Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

NEWS<br />

PenCom recovers N13.7bn pension liabilities...<br />

Continued from page 1<br />

resenting principal contribution<br />

of N6,947,552,487.43 and penalty<br />

of N6,747,602,727.45.<br />

PenCom in 2017 filed cases<br />

against 61 employers that failed to<br />

remit outstanding pension contributions<br />

and penalty as established<br />

by the Agents, and have since<br />

continued to record success with<br />

respect to matters at the tribunal.<br />

During the fourth quarter of<br />

2017, the Commission re-engaged<br />

14 Agents to recover outstanding<br />

pension contributions and<br />

penalties for late remittances and<br />

following the re-engagement, 262<br />

employers were assigned to the<br />

Agents.<br />

“Most of the employers have<br />

requested to settle out of court,<br />

while others have remitted their<br />

outstanding pension contributions<br />

with penalty to the respective Retirement<br />

Savings Accounts (RSAs)<br />

of their employees, the Commission<br />

stated.<br />

The Commission in its latest<br />

compliance report said, it has<br />

continued to apply various strategies<br />

to ensure compliance with the<br />

provisions of the Pension Reform<br />

Act (PRA) 2014.<br />

“This included the application<br />

of sanctions and collaboration<br />

with key stakeholders on public<br />

enlightenment campaigns as<br />

well as engagement of defaulting<br />

employers via pension recovery<br />

agents employed by the Commission<br />

to recover unremitted pension<br />

contributions.”<br />

Other activities of the commission<br />

to enhance compliance was<br />

issuing of compliance certificates.<br />

“During the period under review,<br />

the Commission received<br />

1,288 applications for issuance<br />

of Pension Clearance Certificate<br />

(PCC). Out of that number, 16<strong>30</strong><br />

certificates were issued, while the<br />

sum of N73.9 billion was remitted<br />

into the Retirement Savings Accounts<br />

(RSAs) of 232,150 employees<br />

of 4,953 organizations as at the<br />

fourth quarter 2017.<br />

A review of the aggregate total<br />

contribution shows that the public<br />

sector contributed 51.20 percent<br />

of the total contributions, while<br />

the private sector contributed the<br />

remaining 48.80 percent. However,<br />

during the quarter under review,<br />

the Public sector contributed 51.39<br />

percent of the total contributions<br />

received while the Private sector<br />

contributed 48.61 percent.<br />

The aggregate total pension<br />

contribution of the private sector<br />

increased from N2.12 trillion as at<br />

the third quarter of 2017 to N2.19<br />

trillion as at the fourth quarter of<br />

2017 representing a growth of 3.40<br />

percent. Whereas, the aggregate<br />

total pension contribution of the<br />

public sector grew by 3.42 percent<br />

from N2.22 trillion to N2.<strong>30</strong> trillion<br />

over the same period.<br />

Meanwhile, total pension assets<br />

under management stood at N7.5<br />

trillion as at the end of December<br />

2017, while the number of registered<br />

employees stood at 7.9 million<br />

people.<br />

Susan Oranye, executive secretary,<br />

Pension Fund Operators<br />

Association of Nigeria (PenOp)<br />

had said “the recovery agents have<br />

done a good job when you consider<br />

the amount of money they<br />

Buhari in Lagos, promises improved national...<br />

Continued from page 1<br />

lauded Lagos State for taking on<br />

similar projects to cater for the<br />

state’s increasing population. The<br />

population of Lagos is estimated at<br />

over 21 million.<br />

Governor Ambode, justifying<br />

the need for the project, said it<br />

was to meet the daily connectivity<br />

needs of the people, who deserved<br />

better transportation infrastructure<br />

and services.<br />

Ambode said in line with the resolve<br />

of his government to reform<br />

the public transportation space,<br />

similar projects are being cited in<br />

different parts of the metropolis,<br />

while 820 of the 5,000 high capacity<br />

buses being brought in to<br />

strengthen the system, will arrive<br />

in September this year.<br />

According to Ambode, the Ikeja<br />

Bus Terminal is one of the flagship<br />

transport infrastructure under the<br />

State Bus Reform Initiative. He<br />

disclosed that the first phase of the<br />

programme will see 13 new bus terminals<br />

introduced including major<br />

terminals at Oshodi, Yaba, Ojota,<br />

Agege and the already completed<br />

Tafawa Balewa bus terminal.<br />

“We have commenced the<br />

introduction of 5,000 new buses<br />

into the Lagos economy in the<br />

next 3 years. We will inject 820<br />

environmentally-friendly high<br />

capacity buses in the first phase of<br />

this reform by September <strong>2018</strong>, <strong>30</strong>0<br />

new bus stops, three bus depots,<br />

and an intelligent transport system<br />

which will aid Lagos residents to<br />

plan their journeys on our public<br />

transport system,” Ambode said.<br />

Ambode also acknowledged<br />

the approval of President Buhari,<br />

for the import-duty waiver received<br />

on the buses in the phase one of the<br />

L-R: John Osadolor, director, <strong>BusinessDay</strong> Media Limited; Adebayo Shittu, minister of communications,<br />

Onyinye Nwachukwu, bureau chief, <strong>BusinessDay</strong> Media Limited Abuja, and Abdulaziz Adbullahi, permanent<br />

sercretary, Ministry of Communications, during the presentation of <strong>BusinessDay</strong> 2017 awards of Excellence<br />

in Public Service held in Abuja.<br />

Pic by Tunde Adeniyi<br />

have recovered.”<br />

Analysts at Investment One<br />

Pensions Managers Limited said<br />

the rate of unfunded accounts<br />

recorded in the Pension industry<br />

has become very worrisome not<br />

just to the Commission but also<br />

to the industry operators and as a<br />

result, PenCom appointed some<br />

agents to take up the uphill task<br />

of collecting unremitted contributions<br />

on behalf of the Pension Fund<br />

Administrators.<br />

The Pension Reform Act states<br />

state transport programme, adding<br />

that a further step in the implementation<br />

of the programme will<br />

see the state assemble the buses<br />

in Lagos in what should create jobs<br />

for the people.<br />

Ambode assured that that the state<br />

aside its commitment to the 27-kilometre<br />

blue line rail from Okokomaiko<br />

to <strong>Mar</strong>ina, was in discussions with<br />

various investors and stakeholders on<br />

the Red Line rail which will run from<br />

Alagbado to <strong>Mar</strong>ina.<br />

President Buhari, also on Thursday,<br />

flagged off the commencement<br />

of major construction works<br />

at the project site of the $1.53 billion<br />

Lekki Deep Seaport, 12 years<br />

after the project was announced<br />

with fanfare.<br />

The project is being promoted<br />

by Tolaram Group, the Lagos State<br />

government and the Nigerian Ports<br />

Authority (NPA).<br />

Buhari represented by Vice<br />

President Yemi Osinbajo, said<br />

the deep sea port was particularly<br />

important to the presidency because<br />

it is in tandem with Federal<br />

Government’s plans to diversify the<br />

nation’s economy.<br />

He said:”I understand that this<br />

will be one of the largest deep Sea<br />

Ports in Sub-Sahara Africa, with all<br />

that has been put in place here.”<br />

The Vice president further said<br />

that the promoters of the project<br />

were targeting about 1.5 million<br />

Twenty Foot Equivalent Units<br />

(TEUs) container capacity yearly,<br />

which is expected to grow to about<br />

2.7 million and 4.7 million TEUs<br />

when the port become fully operational.<br />

“With this, the Lekki Deep seaport<br />

will become one of the best<br />

deep water ports in our region<br />

and serve as a hub for port operations<br />

in the whole of West Africa,”<br />

Osinbajo said.<br />

“The promoters also plan to<br />

dredge the port channel to about<br />

16 meters which is not currently<br />

obtainable in any port in the country.<br />

This is an indication that ships<br />

of larger capacity, Panamax, Post<br />

Panamax ships and very large<br />

crude carriers will now be able to<br />

visit Nigerian ports, and achieve<br />

greater efficiency and economies<br />

of scale, which will generate significant<br />

revenue for the Nigerian<br />

economy,” he said.<br />

“This is important to us because<br />

it is in sync with our economic<br />

and recovery plans. Our plan is<br />

to create a private sector-driven<br />

economy, which is crucial. In this<br />

case, the Lagos State government<br />

and the Nigerian Ports Authority<br />

are the face of government. We<br />

will continue to create an enabling<br />

environment for such businesses<br />

to thrive. I commend all the stakeholders<br />

involved, I know there will<br />

be challenges but we will continue<br />

to support you,” he said.<br />

Speaking on behalf of Lagos<br />

State, the deputy governor, who<br />

represented Governor Akinwunmi<br />

Ambode, said the project became<br />

necessary so as to provide berthing<br />

for larger vessels, which is the<br />

growing global trend in container<br />

shipping.<br />

She said the Lekki port would<br />

be equipped with the best infrastructure<br />

and terminal services to<br />

attract and maintain large volume<br />

shipping line customers.<br />

On the economic potentials of<br />

the project, she said: “An estimated<br />

$2.23 billion dollars is expected to<br />

be injected into the economy in<br />

terms of construction and fixed<br />

assets, with the completion of the<br />

Lekki Deep Sea Port. This amount<br />

is expected to rise to an aggregate<br />

that the employer shall deduct at<br />

source the monthly contribution<br />

of the employee in his employment<br />

and not later than seven<br />

working days from the day the<br />

employee is paid his salary, remit<br />

an amount comprising the<br />

employee’s contribution and the<br />

employer’s contribution to the<br />

custodian specified by the pension<br />

PFA of the employee.<br />

It went further to state that any<br />

employer who fails to deduct or<br />

remit the contributions within the<br />

of $3.61 billion over a 45-year<br />

concession period in the Nigerian<br />

economy,” she said.<br />

The Deputy Governor added<br />

that the container terminal will<br />

have a 1,200m long quay, three<br />

container berths and a storage yard<br />

with over 15,000 ground slots. She<br />

added that the terminal is expected<br />

to be delivered in 2020.<br />

“The Lekki Deep Sea Port with<br />

all the facilities will ease the pressure<br />

on Apapa and Tin Can ports.<br />

This journey started in 2007 and it<br />

has been eventful and challenging.<br />

It is expected that 170,000 direct<br />

and indirect jobs will be created as<br />

a result of this project,” she added.<br />

Navin Nahata, Chief Executive<br />

Officer of Lekki Port, lauded Lagos<br />

State, NPA and the major stakeholders<br />

in the development of the<br />

Lekki port project, for unwavering<br />

support so far on the project.<br />

He said that the commencement<br />

of construction could not<br />

have been possible without the<br />

stakeholders. He also commended<br />

the federal ministry of transport<br />

and other regulatory agencies for<br />

their commitment to making the<br />

port a reality.<br />

Nahata assured all stakeholders<br />

especially the shareholders that<br />

Lekki Port and its strategic partners<br />

will work assiduously to deliver a<br />

world-class port that would make<br />

Nigeria the transhipment hub for<br />

West Africa.<br />

Rotimi Amaechi, Minister for<br />

Transportation, commended the<br />

NPA, Tolaram Group and China<br />

Harbour Engineering, the EPC<br />

contractor for the port project, for<br />

the development of the landmark<br />

project.<br />

He said the ports concession<br />

agreement covered 45 years on a<br />

build, own, operate and transfer<br />

basis. “This will be the first deep<br />

time prescribed shall in addition<br />

to making the remittance already<br />

due, be liable to a penalty to be<br />

stipulated by the Commission.<br />

The penalty referred to in the<br />

Act shall not be less than 2 percent<br />

of the total contributions that<br />

remains unpaid for each month<br />

or part of each month the default<br />

continues and the amount of<br />

penalty shall be recoverable as a<br />

debt owed to the employees retirement<br />

savings account, as the<br />

case may be.<br />

seaport in Nigeria, and will help to<br />

improve the capacity of Nigerian<br />

ports to generate both inbound<br />

and outbound cargoes.”<br />

In her welcome address, Hadiza<br />

Bala Usman, managing director of<br />

the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA)<br />

said that the funding for the Lekki<br />

Deep Seaport project is structured<br />

at equity and debt ratio of 20:80<br />

respectively.<br />

“In line with the commitment<br />

of the Federal Government to promote<br />

private sector investment, the<br />

NPA has a fully paid 5 percent minimal<br />

investment, enough to give it a<br />

stake and give the investors comfort<br />

that would enable it perform<br />

its oversight technical regulatory<br />

functions without being unduly<br />

hindered by commercial considerations.<br />

The other 95 percent<br />

interest is owned in a 18: 8 ratio by<br />

the Lagos State Government and<br />

the Tolaram Group, respectively,”<br />

she explained.<br />

Usman said that of the 75 percent<br />

owned by the Tolaram Group<br />

however, the Federal Government<br />

holds a further 15 percent shareholding<br />

to the value of $107.78<br />

million converted into shares from<br />

a pre-2002 FG grant to promoters of<br />

Tolaram Group towards financing<br />

the Viva Methanol Project.<br />

Usman said the vision of the<br />

NPA was to provide the enabling<br />

environment for Nigeria to have<br />

the best ports in Africa and the<br />

flag-off event moves the authority<br />

closer to that reality.<br />

“As statutory regulators of ports<br />

in the country, the NPA is committed<br />

to providing the technical<br />

support and regulatory environment<br />

that would see to the timely<br />

completion of construction work<br />

and ensure efficient operations<br />

and management of the port upon<br />

commissioning,” she added.


Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

C002D5556<br />

BUSINESS DAY<br />

35<br />

Sports<br />

Act of love as NFF crew visit Carl Ikeme in hospital<br />

Stories by<br />

Anthony Nlebem<br />

The Super Eagles<br />

are heading to the<br />

FIFA World Cup<br />

finals in Russia<br />

this summer, but<br />

the leadership of the Nigeria<br />

Football Federation (NFF)<br />

and the team itself have<br />

not forgotten one man who<br />

toiled for the squad in the<br />

early rounds of the qualifying<br />

campaign but is now<br />

sidelined by illness.<br />

Carl Ikeme became the Super<br />

Eagles’ number one man<br />

between the pipes months<br />

before the Russia <strong>2018</strong> FIFA<br />

World Cup preliminary fixture<br />

against Swaziland and the<br />

first match of the group phase<br />

against Zambia in Ndola.<br />

He kept goal in those three<br />

matches. But nine months<br />

ago, he was diagnosed with<br />

acute leukemia after returning<br />

“abnormal blood tests” during<br />

pre-season testing at English<br />

club Wolverhampton Wanderers<br />

and had to undergo<br />

chemotherapy.<br />

On Monday, 26th <strong>Mar</strong>ch<br />

<strong>2018</strong>, as the Super Eagles<br />

got into their paces ahead of<br />

Tuesday’s pre-Russia <strong>2018</strong><br />

World Cup friendly against<br />

Serbia in London, President<br />

of the Nigeria Football<br />

Carl Ikeme, Super Eagles goalkeeper (2nd right); Amaju Pinnick, NFF president (right); Barrister Seyi Akinwunmi, NFF<br />

1st vice president (left) and Mohammed Sanusi, NFF general secretary (2nd left) during a visit to Carl Ikeme in hospital.<br />

Federation, Amaju Melvin<br />

Pinnick led a delegation of<br />

NFF chieftains and team<br />

staff to visit the imposing<br />

goal –minder at The Christie<br />

Clinic in Manchester, where<br />

he is being treated.<br />

In the delegation also<br />

were NFF 1st Vice President,<br />

Barrister Seyi Akinwunmi,<br />

General Secretary,<br />

Dr. Mohammed Sanusi, Super<br />

Eagles’ Team Administrator,<br />

Dayo Enebi, Eagles’<br />

goalkeepers’ trainer Alloy<br />

Agu and team media officer,<br />

Toyin Ibitoye.<br />

Pinnick said: “We have<br />

come on behalf of the Government<br />

of Nigeria and the<br />

NFF to check up on you,<br />

find out how your recovery<br />

is going and to tell you that<br />

you are still very much on<br />

our minds and a member of<br />

the Super Eagles of Nigeria.<br />

“We have also come to<br />

seek your permission to be<br />

our special guest at the pre-<br />

World Cup friendly game<br />

against England at the Wembley<br />

Stadium on 2nd June.<br />

We want you to perform the<br />

customary kick-off of that<br />

game and if you approve<br />

of it, we will immediately<br />

Adepoju says Nigeria vs. Serbia result<br />

good for W/Cup preparation<br />

... confident Super Eagles would impress at the World Cup<br />

Former Super Eagles<br />

midfielder Mutiu Adepoju<br />

on Wednesday<br />

said Super Eagles’ 0-2<br />

defeat to Serbia on Tuesday<br />

night in London in a friendly<br />

achieved its purpose.<br />

He added that the result<br />

would still be useful to Super<br />

Eagles’ coach Gernot Rohr.<br />

“He will make good use<br />

of the outcome. It was a good<br />

game on both sides, and I am<br />

sure the Eagles’ handlers will<br />

be satisfied that the match<br />

opened their eyes to so many<br />

things,’’ he said.<br />

“Rohr must have seen the<br />

strengths and weaknesses of<br />

his players, which will determine<br />

their involvement during<br />

the World Cup.<br />

“It was a friendly match<br />

though, but it is still a better<br />

means of testing players to assess<br />

players and brush them<br />

up ahead of the mundial,” he<br />

added.<br />

The ex-Real Betis of Spain<br />

midfielder however expressed<br />

optimism that the Super Eagles<br />

would still make an impressive<br />

appearance at the <strong>2018</strong> World<br />

Cup in Russia.<br />

NAN reports that Rohr<br />

used the match to expose<br />

some players like goalkeeper<br />

Francis Uzoho to world-class<br />

matches ahead of the World<br />

Cup.<br />

The Super Eagles on Friday<br />

defeated Poland 1-0 in Wroclaw<br />

in another pre-World Cup<br />

friendly match.<br />

They will play three more<br />

friendly matches against Congo,<br />

England and the Czech<br />

Republic before heading to<br />

Russia for the World Cup finals<br />

slated to hold from June 14 to<br />

July 15.<br />

request this of The Football<br />

Association.”<br />

The NFF supremo further<br />

assured the goalkeeper that<br />

he would be fully captured in<br />

the team’s financial benefits<br />

for Nigeria’s qualification for<br />

the FIFA World Cup “as we<br />

all remember the role you<br />

played in helping us get off<br />

to a winning start in the final<br />

phase of qualifiers in Ndola<br />

against Zambia.<br />

“We believe this is just<br />

a phase that will pass away.<br />

You will come out of it stronger<br />

and still be able to do<br />

what you love to do the best,<br />

both for your club and the<br />

Super Eagles of Nigeria.”<br />

Team Administrator,<br />

Dayo Enebi, said: “On behalf<br />

of the team, we want<br />

to reassure you of our love.<br />

The entire team would have<br />

been here to see you if we<br />

were not playing against<br />

Serbia. Coach Gernot Rohr,<br />

the technical and backroom<br />

staff are all praying for your<br />

speedy recovery. The team<br />

asked that I present this autographed<br />

jersey, signed by<br />

all the players, to you. It is our<br />

new kit for the World Cup.”<br />

Ikeme’s immediate boss<br />

in the Super Eagles, Alloy<br />

Agu, had this to say: “As your<br />

goalkeeper coach in the national<br />

team, I know you are<br />

a fighter, you never give up.<br />

I believe these attributes<br />

will see you through. We will<br />

always be there for you as<br />

you recover from this illness.”<br />

An ecstatic Ikeme, moved<br />

by all the kind words, responded:<br />

“I am so overwhelmed<br />

by this show of<br />

love. I am indeed grateful to<br />

Nigerians who daily flood<br />

my phone with prayers and<br />

well wishes. I feel their love<br />

everywhere, everyday, on social<br />

media. I thank the Government<br />

of Nigeria and the<br />

NFF for all the support and I<br />

appreciate my teammates so<br />

much for being there for me.”<br />

Boycott by countries will not<br />

affect World Cup - Kremlin<br />

A<br />

possible diplomatic<br />

boycott of the<br />

FIFA World Cup<br />

in Russia by some<br />

countries after the incident<br />

in Salisbury is unlikely to<br />

affect the upcoming championship,<br />

Kremlin Spokesman<br />

Dmitry Peskov told<br />

reporters on Wednesday.<br />

“In this case, the refusal<br />

by officials to attend some<br />

events as part of the World<br />

Cup is unlikely to have a<br />

negative effect on the sports<br />

holiday in general since the<br />

important thing about the<br />

World Cup is not the arrival<br />

of officials or official representatives,<br />

the important<br />

thing is the game of the<br />

teams,” Peskov said.<br />

UK Prime Minister Theresa<br />

May earlier announced<br />

that none of the British<br />

cabinet or the royal family<br />

would attend the World Cup<br />

following the poisoning of<br />

former Russian military<br />

intelligence (GRU) Colonel<br />

Sergei Skripal and his<br />

daughter Yulia in Salisbury,<br />

UK on <strong>Mar</strong>ch 4.<br />

Media reports suggested<br />

that some other Western<br />

countries would boycott the<br />

FIFA World Cup in Russia at<br />

the diplomatic level over the<br />

Skripal case.<br />

The matches of the <strong>2018</strong><br />

World Cup will be held between<br />

June 14 and July 15 at<br />

12 stadiums located in the<br />

11 mentioned above cities<br />

across Russia. Two of the<br />

stadiums are located in the<br />

Russian capital.<br />

The participating countries<br />

in the World Cup will<br />

be Russia, Brazil, Iran,<br />

Japan, Mexico, Belgium,<br />

South Korea, Saudi Arabia,<br />

Germany, England, Spain,<br />

Nigeria, Costa Rica, Poland,<br />

Egypt, Iceland, Serbia, Portugal,<br />

France, Uruguay, Argentina,<br />

Colombia, Panama,<br />

Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia,<br />

Switzerland, Croatia, Sweden,<br />

Denmark, Australia,<br />

and Pe<br />

Aigbogun<br />

delighted by<br />

benefits of<br />

Egypt tour<br />

Paul Aigbogun, Head<br />

Coach of Nigeria<br />

U20 has declared<br />

that the objectives<br />

of his boys’ two-match tour<br />

of Egypt have been met,<br />

despite the Flying Eagles<br />

losing narrowly 1-2 to their<br />

Egyptian counterparts in the<br />

second match in Alexandria<br />

on Wednesday.<br />

Both teams had played<br />

out a scoreless draw at the<br />

same Borg El-Arab Stadium<br />

in Egypt’s second city on<br />

Monday.<br />

“In friendly matches, it is<br />

not the result that matters.<br />

We drew our first leg and lost<br />

the second 1-2 but I am very<br />

happy that not only have we<br />

come away with vital lessons,<br />

our objectives for the tour<br />

has been met.<br />

“We came here to look at<br />

the boys we have put together<br />

and that we are working<br />

with, and to see if we are on<br />

the right path. On the evidence<br />

of performance by the<br />

boys from the two matches, I<br />

believe we are. We also came<br />

here to see how they would<br />

cope in game situations, and<br />

we were not disappointed.”<br />

Aigbogun contended that<br />

his boys were encouraging<br />

in their output as well as onfield<br />

and off-field discipline,<br />

and that “losing narrowly<br />

against an Egyptian U20<br />

side that had been in camp<br />

for upwards of one year was<br />

not a bad performance but a<br />

message to work harder.”<br />

AFC Bournemouth of<br />

England ace Nathan Nnamdi<br />

Ofoborh, invited by Aigbogun<br />

to come and show his<br />

stuff after he opted to represent<br />

Nigeria and not England,<br />

played his first match<br />

for Nigeria in Wednesday’s<br />

encounter.<br />

Plateau United FC defender<br />

Mike Zaruma lashed<br />

a long –range strike for Nigeria<br />

with 18 minutes to go<br />

to half the deficit, after the<br />

Egyptians had scored once<br />

in each half.<br />

The seven –time African<br />

champions are due back in<br />

the country on Thursday,<br />

and will play the winner of<br />

the Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau<br />

preliminary fixture in the<br />

first round of the 2019 Africa<br />

U20 Cup of Nations qualifiers<br />

in May.


Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

FT FINANCIAL TIMES<br />

C002D5556<br />

BUSINESS DAY<br />

A1<br />

Air India offered with no<br />

state interference but<br />

much debt<br />

World Business Newspaper<br />

Donald Trump replaces<br />

veterans affairs secretary<br />

US president to nominate White House doctor to fill role that was held by David Shulkin<br />

BARNEY JOPSON<br />

President Donald Trump<br />

has removed his secretary<br />

of veterans affairs<br />

David Shulkin and<br />

nominated the White<br />

House doctor to replace him in the<br />

cabinet-level role.<br />

Mr Trump tweeted on Wednesday<br />

that he would nominate Ronny<br />

Jackson, his personal physician, as<br />

the new veterans affairs secretary,<br />

a role that includes oversight of<br />

healthcare for former military<br />

officers.<br />

Mr Shulkin had been under fire<br />

over ethics issues that included<br />

his acceptance of tickets to watch<br />

tennis at Wimbledon.<br />

His exit is the latest personnel<br />

shake-up in the Trump administration,<br />

which has been rocked by<br />

a spate of firings and resignations<br />

in the past two months.<br />

Most recently the president<br />

abruptly replaced his national<br />

security adviser HR McMaster with<br />

foreign policy hawk John Bolton<br />

last Thursday.<br />

Mr Jackson, whose appointment<br />

to the cabinet is subject to<br />

Senate confirmation, is a former<br />

naval medic who has served as<br />

the White House physician since<br />

George W Bush’s time in the Oval<br />

Office.<br />

Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat<br />

in the House of Representatives,<br />

said: “The lack of [veterans affairs]<br />

leadership experience in Secretary<br />

Shulkin’s successor at such a<br />

critical time for the institution is<br />

concerning.”<br />

Mr Trump had reportedly been<br />

considering replacing Mr Shulkin<br />

as part of a broader shake-up in<br />

SF Motors hopes investment will enable it to avoid White House tariffs<br />

SF Motors has become the latest<br />

Chinese-owned company to<br />

unveil plans to break into the<br />

US electric vehicle market, at a time<br />

when a growing tech threat from<br />

China has rattled Washington.<br />

The push by China’s EV companies<br />

comes in the face of US unease<br />

about Chinese leadership in the<br />

next big technology markets. That<br />

contributed to the White House’s<br />

decision last week to impose higher<br />

tariffs on some Chinese imports,<br />

and to threaten retaliation over the<br />

pressure American companies have<br />

faced to give up their technology to<br />

mend the deal to shareholders.<br />

It would mark the first time the<br />

same company owned the dominant<br />

markets for fixed income and<br />

foreign exchange futures, and their<br />

underlying securities. Nex operates<br />

some of the world’s largest currency<br />

and sovereign debt markets, and<br />

owns assets that process millions<br />

of derivatives, equities and currency<br />

deals.<br />

Nex shareholders will also receive<br />

a final dividend for the year to<br />

<strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong>, which will not exceed<br />

7.65p per share. Mr Spencer, Nex’s<br />

chief executive and largest shareholder,<br />

will net around £670m from<br />

the deal. He will also join the CME<br />

board, the statement said.<br />

CME said it expected to generate<br />

cost synergies of $200m by the end<br />

of 2021 and expected to incur a onethe<br />

top ranks of his administration.<br />

Mr Shulkin has been under<br />

pressure since a damning report<br />

by his department’s inspector<br />

general found that on an official<br />

trip to Europe last summer he<br />

spent much of his time sightseeing<br />

and improperly accepted tickets to<br />

Wimbledon.<br />

He also notched up notable<br />

achievements, helping to shepherd<br />

into law several pieces of<br />

bipartisan legislation to improve<br />

services for veterans.<br />

Mr Trump tweeted on Wednesday:<br />

“I am thankful for Dr David<br />

Shulkin’s service to our country<br />

and to our GREAT VETERANS!”<br />

Mr Shulkin was a holdover<br />

from the Obama era, having been<br />

appointed as undersecretary of<br />

veterans affairs for health by the<br />

previous president.<br />

Mr Jackson came to attention<br />

when he gave an energetically<br />

upbeat televised briefing on Mr<br />

Trump’s health after conducting a<br />

physical examination in January,<br />

attributing his good condition to<br />

his genes.<br />

In the past few weeks, economic<br />

adviser Gary Cohn, secretary<br />

of state Rex Tillerson and Mr<br />

McMaster have all left the Trump<br />

administration.<br />

Mr Trump said in a statement:<br />

“Admiral Jackson is highly trained<br />

and qualified and as a service<br />

member himself, he has seen firsthand<br />

the tremendous sacrifice<br />

our veterans make and has a deep<br />

appreciation for the debt our great<br />

country owes them.”<br />

Robert Wilkie, currently an<br />

undersecretary at the Pentagon,<br />

will serve as acting secretary of<br />

veterans affairs.<br />

Chinese electric carmaker sets<br />

up US assembly plant<br />

RICHARD WATERS<br />

Page A3<br />

their Chinese counterparts.<br />

Earlier this month, Tesla boss<br />

Elon Musk complained that his<br />

company was not allowed to own<br />

its own assembly plants outright in<br />

China, while there are “five 100 [per<br />

cent] China-owned EV companies in<br />

the US”. He also pointed to the 25 per<br />

cent tariff on Tesla cars exported to<br />

China, 10 times the levy on vehicles<br />

moving in the opposite direction.<br />

John Zhang, chief executive of<br />

SF Motors, a subsidiary of Chinese<br />

automaker Sokon Industry Group,<br />

claimed his company was on an<br />

equal footing with Tesla in the US,<br />

Continues on page A2<br />

CME Group agrees to buy Michael Spencer’s Nex for £3.9bn<br />

Pact places CME in pole position to shake-up vast US Treasuries market<br />

CME Group, the world’s largest<br />

futures exchange, has<br />

agreed to buy Michael Spencer’s<br />

Nex Group for £3.9bn in a<br />

deal that heralds a shake-up in the<br />

world’s bond and foreign exchange<br />

markets.<br />

The two parties had been in discussions<br />

for several weeks and the<br />

price is at the top end of analysts’<br />

forecasts. If completed, the deal<br />

would be the CME’s largest overseas<br />

acquisition and its biggest since it<br />

bought Nymex for $11bn in 2008.<br />

In a statement on Thursday,<br />

CME said it would pay £10 a share<br />

for Nex. The deal would be structured<br />

as a cash payment of £5 and<br />

0.0444 new CME shares per Nex<br />

share. Nex said it would recom-<br />

German foreign minister Heiko Maas causes waves<br />

Little known appointee shows markedly tougher approach in rhetoric on Russia<br />

Sharp dresser: Mr Maas’s diplomatic approach is starting to become clear © Getty<br />

Heiko Who?<br />

When the name of Germany’s<br />

new foreign minister was<br />

unveiled this month, it left<br />

diplomats and foreign affairs analysts<br />

scratching their heads. Despite a long<br />

career in German politics, Heiko Maas<br />

had no previous international experience.<br />

His most senior job to date was<br />

as minister for justice and consumer<br />

protection. Little was known of his<br />

views on foreign affairs — or whether<br />

he had any at all.<br />

Two weeks, five trips and a diplomatic<br />

clash with Russia later, both<br />

the style and substance of Mr Maas’s<br />

diplomatic approach are starting to<br />

become clearer. Most importantly,<br />

the new minister has been markedly<br />

tougher in his rhetoric and approach<br />

towards Moscow. On his first day in<br />

office, Mr Maas issued a frank warning<br />

about Russian “aggression” and<br />

chastised Moscow for “defining itself<br />

in antagonism to many in the west”.<br />

Russia’s stance, he added, “changes<br />

Chicago’s CME eyes<br />

pole position in biggest<br />

bond market<br />

Donald Trump listens to secretary of veterans affairs David Shulkin during a Department of Veterans Affairs Telehealth<br />

event at the White House in August © Reuters<br />

PHILIP STAFFORD<br />

TOBIAS BUCK<br />

Page A4<br />

the reality of our foreign policy”.<br />

Words were followed by deeds this<br />

week, when Mr Maas announced the<br />

expulsion of four Russian diplomats<br />

from Berlin over the Salisbury nerve<br />

agent attack.<br />

“The Russian government has<br />

so far not answered any of the open<br />

questions and has shown no readiness<br />

to play a constructive role in<br />

clearing up the attack,” Mr Maas said.<br />

Officials in the foreign ministry<br />

have been pleasantly surprised by<br />

their new boss, who seems to have<br />

lived up to his reputation as a quick<br />

and diligent learner who listens to<br />

expert advice. Coverage in the German<br />

media has been favourable and<br />

moved on from an earlier focus on<br />

his dapper dress sense (GQ voted<br />

him best dressed man in 2016) and<br />

his actress girlfriend Natalia Wörner.<br />

In many crucial areas — such<br />

as EU policy and Franco-German<br />

relations — the 51-year-old Social<br />

Democrat has promised continuity.<br />

On Russia, however, the change in<br />

tone is evident, with Mr Maas emphasising<br />

repeatedly the need to defend<br />

off cost of $285m to achieve them.<br />

A combination would put CME<br />

in pole position to potentially reform<br />

trading on the $500bn-a-day<br />

US Treasuries market — the main<br />

market for US government debt.<br />

The deal would also unite CME’s<br />

FX futures business with Nex’s currency<br />

trading venue, as CME targets<br />

the global FX swaps and forwards<br />

market, which trades a notional<br />

$3tn a day.<br />

The Chicago exchange has plans<br />

to create the first ever central order<br />

book that directly links the spot<br />

currency market and its own FX<br />

futures market. FX derivatives have<br />

also been one of the biggest growth<br />

markets in clearing. Last year CME’s<br />

big rival LCH cleared $11tn in notional<br />

contracts compared to $3.2tn<br />

in 2016.<br />

the rule of law as a guiding principle<br />

of foreign policy. In his first speech,<br />

he warned that the “erosion of liberal,<br />

rules-based, democratic order that<br />

we believe in has gone further than<br />

we thought possible five years ago”,<br />

adding: “We have to defend things<br />

that we took for granted until now.”<br />

His remarks were widely read as<br />

a rebuke to Germany’s still-sizeable<br />

contingent of Putinversteher — supporters<br />

and defenders of Russian<br />

president Vladimir Putin — and to<br />

Berlin policymakers pushing for a<br />

softer approach towards Moscow.<br />

Among them was Sigmar Gabriel,<br />

Mr Maas’s popular but erratic predecessor,<br />

who repeatedly held out the<br />

promise of an end to western sanctions<br />

against Russia.<br />

“Maas has obviously decided to<br />

distance himself from Gabriel and the<br />

Putinversteher in the German parliament,”<br />

said Constanze Stelzenmüller,<br />

senior fellow at the Brookings Institution<br />

in Washington. “He is trying to<br />

repair some of the damage inflicted on<br />

the credibility of the German position<br />

by Gabriel. That is important.”


A2 BUSINESS DAY<br />

C002D5556 Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

FT<br />

Chinese electric carmaker sets<br />

up US assembly plant...<br />

NATIONAL<br />

US subprime mortgage bonds back in fashion<br />

Yield-hungry investors turn to assets blamed for financial crisis a decade ago<br />

Continued from page A1<br />

removing the risk of retaliation from<br />

Washington.<br />

“So far we think we should be all<br />

right [as] some of our manufacturing<br />

and servicing is in the US,” Mr Zhang<br />

said just before SF Motors’ unveiling<br />

late on Wednesday of two electric<br />

vehicles it plans to launch in the US.<br />

The first, a mid-range crossover SUV,<br />

is due to go into trial production<br />

before the end of this year.<br />

The Chinese-owned company<br />

has acquired a plant in Indiana,<br />

and claims to be the only EV maker<br />

with its own assembly facilities in<br />

both China and the US. The heavily<br />

automated plant is set to bring “a<br />

few hundred” jobs to Indiana, Mr<br />

Zhang said. SF Motors follows other<br />

Chinese-owned electric carmakers<br />

to base their US operations in Silicon<br />

Valley, including Nio and Byton.<br />

SF Motors is set to benefit from a<br />

protected home market that promises<br />

to give it much better economies<br />

of scale than US competitors. China<br />

is already the world’s largest EV market,<br />

a lead that is projected to grow.<br />

Mr Zhang said his company was<br />

counting on its “global business<br />

model” to give it an edge, leading<br />

to lower unit costs and enabling it<br />

to set its prices below other electric<br />

vehicle companies. “We designed<br />

the product for the global market,”<br />

he said.<br />

The company plans to produce<br />

and launch its first vehicles on the<br />

US west coast, where much of the<br />

current demand is centred. Its US<br />

assembly facility has a capacity of<br />

50,000 vehicles a year but its plant<br />

in China can make three times that<br />

number, said Mr Zhang. At peak<br />

capacity, that points to a global production<br />

volume roughly twice what<br />

Tesla achieved last year.<br />

The spectre of Chinese competition<br />

has led to increasing scrutiny<br />

in Washington of the acquisition of<br />

important US technology. Mr Zhang<br />

said his company had developed the<br />

electric power train for its vehicles<br />

entirely in-house. It is looking for<br />

partnerships in the US to develop<br />

autonomous driving capabilities,<br />

he said, a feature it hopes to start<br />

adding to its cars in 2020.<br />

SF Motors has also acquired American<br />

technology outright, with last<br />

year’s purchase of an electric car startup<br />

established by <strong>Mar</strong>tin Eberhard, a<br />

co-founder of Tesla. The company,<br />

InEVit, “developed and patented a<br />

unique EV chassis architecture, battery<br />

module design innovations and<br />

manufacturing techniques”, SF Motors<br />

said at the time.<br />

BEN MCLANNAHAN AND<br />

JOE RENNISON<br />

Issuance of securities backed by<br />

riskier US mortgages roughly<br />

doubled in the first quarter<br />

from a year earlier, as investors<br />

lapped up assets blamed for bringing<br />

the global financial system to<br />

the brink of collapse a decade ago.<br />

Home loans to people with<br />

scratches and dents in their credit<br />

histories dwindled to almost nothing<br />

in the aftermath of the crisis, as<br />

litigation-weary lenders retreated<br />

to patch up their balance sheets.<br />

But over the past couple of years a<br />

group of specialist firms has begun<br />

to bring the loans back, navigating<br />

a dense web of new rules drawn up<br />

to protect borrowers and investors<br />

in the $9.3tn US home-loan market.<br />

Last year saw issuance of $4.1bn<br />

of securities backed by loans that<br />

would have been called “subprime”<br />

before the last financial<br />

crisis, according to figures from<br />

Inside Mortgage Finance, with the<br />

pace picking up in the latter half<br />

of the year. The momentum has<br />

continued into <strong>2018</strong>, with deals<br />

worth $1.3bn in the first quarter —<br />

twice the $666m issued in the same<br />

period a year earlier.<br />

“The market is . . . starting from<br />

such a small base that it has a lot<br />

of room to grow,” said ca principal<br />

at Axonic Capital, a New York<br />

hedge fund with about $2bn in<br />

Tim Cook: ‘If our customer was our product, we could make a ton of money. We’ve elected not to do that’ © Bloomberg<br />

Apple seeks to take advantage of Facebook’s woes<br />

Cook promotes conservative approach to using customer data amid online privacy uproar<br />

TIM BRADSHAW<br />

Apple is seeking to capitalise<br />

on its conservative approach<br />

to using customer data amid<br />

the online privacy uproar fuelled by<br />

the huge leak of Facebook data to<br />

Cambridge Analytica.<br />

When asked on an upcoming<br />

MSNBC television interview what<br />

he would do in <strong>Mar</strong>k Zuckerberg’s<br />

present position, Apple chief executive<br />

Tim Cook took a swipe at the<br />

Facebook founder. “I wouldn’t be<br />

in this situation,” he said.<br />

He also implicitly criticised<br />

Facebook for failing to review apps<br />

using its social network, like the<br />

personality test that siphoned off<br />

user data to Cambridge Analytica.<br />

“We’re looking at every app in<br />

detail,” he said, referring to Apple’s<br />

longstanding App Store review<br />

process. “We’re always looking at<br />

improving and raising the bar.”<br />

Privacy is a “human right” and a<br />

“civil liberty”, Mr Cook said, echoing<br />

the philosophical arguments he<br />

made when fighting against the US<br />

government over iPhone encryption<br />

two years ago. He also repeated<br />

his call, first made in China over the<br />

weekend, for greater regulation of<br />

personal data in the wake of news<br />

that 50m Facebook users’ information<br />

was used without their consent<br />

by Cambridge Analytica.<br />

In the past, Apple has been<br />

criticised for not being more aggressive<br />

in employing customer data<br />

to improve its artificial intelligence<br />

systems, such as virtual assistant<br />

Siri, an area where some see the<br />

iPhone maker as lagging rivals<br />

such as Google and Amazon.<br />

Now, Apple’s cautious approach<br />

to privacy is starting to look like an<br />

asset rather than a liability, as datacentric<br />

advertising businesses such<br />

as Facebook and Google come in<br />

for widespread scrutiny.<br />

Mr Cook told MSNBC that<br />

Apple was deliberately leaving<br />

money on the table by refusing to<br />

use data to target advertising to its<br />

hundreds of millions of customers.<br />

“If our customer was our product,<br />

we could make a ton of money,”<br />

he said. “We’ve elected not to<br />

do that.”<br />

Instead of giving services away<br />

for free and making money from<br />

advertising, Apple sells highly<br />

profitable hardware and software,<br />

such as its latest $999 iPhone X.<br />

“We care about the user experience<br />

and we’re not going to<br />

traffic in your personal life,” Mr<br />

Cook said.<br />

While tech stocks including<br />

Facebook and Twitter have plunged<br />

in the continuing crisis, analysts<br />

have said Apple could be insulated<br />

from any regulatory fallout.<br />

“We expect over the next year<br />

investors will look favourably on<br />

Apple given the company’s privacyfirst<br />

ethos in an age where privacy is<br />

becoming a more prevalent topic,”<br />

said Gene Munster, a former Apple<br />

stock analyst turned venture capital<br />

investor at Loup Ventures, in a note<br />

last week.<br />

Mr Cook’s comments came as<br />

Apple is preparing to push deeper<br />

into healthcare, where data protection<br />

is an even more sensitive topic.<br />

Apple is opening its own medical<br />

clinics for employees, according<br />

to job advertisements and a website<br />

dedicated to the venture, and<br />

rumours from its supply chain in<br />

Asia point to new health-tracking<br />

features in the next version of the<br />

Apple Watch, due out later this year.<br />

“Although Apple sometimes<br />

speaks of privacy on moral<br />

grounds . . . its business model<br />

makes emphasising privacy easier<br />

than for Google or Facebook,” analysts<br />

at UBS said in a recent note.<br />

“Still, Apple’s policy on not sharing<br />

data for marketing purposes could<br />

turn into a competitive advantage.<br />

People tend not to worry about<br />

privacy — until they do.“<br />

However, Apple has not been<br />

immune from criticism over how<br />

it handles customer information.<br />

Privacy activists took aim at Apple<br />

for moving its Chinese customers’<br />

iCloud data to China, which critics<br />

say could make it easier for the<br />

government there to obtain details<br />

from those accounts.<br />

The full interview with Mr Cook<br />

will air on MSNBC on April 6.<br />

assets under management. “[Investors]<br />

are definitely chasing yields.<br />

Whenever these deals come out,<br />

for the most part, they are oversubscribed.”<br />

Matt Nichols, founder and chief<br />

executive of Deephaven Mortgage<br />

of Charlotte, North Carolina, has<br />

bought about $2bn of non-prime<br />

loans from a network of 100 or<br />

so brokers, and has re-sold about<br />

$1.2bn of that into the mortgagebacked<br />

securities market. He expects<br />

issuance of nonprime MBS<br />

to top $10bn this year.<br />

“The originator appetite to<br />

produce more of it is growing,” said<br />

Mr Nichols, who spent more than<br />

a decade running the residential<br />

mortgage business at Goldman<br />

Sachs. “It’s a question of loan officers<br />

learning about the availability<br />

of the products again and . . . being<br />

willing to teach realtors and borrowers<br />

that there is more credit<br />

available.”<br />

UK businesses caught<br />

between Brexit and<br />

Jeremy Corbyn<br />

Executives unsure who they can support as<br />

politics becomes more polarised<br />

JOSHUA CHAFFIN<br />

Andrew Varga is the quintessential<br />

small manufacturer that politicians<br />

claim to love.<br />

But on a recent afternoon at Seetru,<br />

the Bristol factory his family has run<br />

for the past 69 years, Mr Varga was not<br />

feeling much reciprocal affection for<br />

Britain’s political class.<br />

Scattered around him were trays of<br />

freshly milled safety valves, the successors<br />

to products his father, a Hungarian<br />

immigrant, pioneered decades ago.<br />

One-third of its £11m of sales go to the<br />

EU and Mr Varga has petitioned several<br />

MPs over Brexit, to little effect.<br />

“There is no one that expresses our<br />

voice, I don’t think,” he said. “I feel completely<br />

disenfranchised.”<br />

Since the Thatcher era, British business<br />

has generally felt at ease with both<br />

of the main political parties. Even when<br />

they swapped power, the Conservatives<br />

and Labour maintained a centrist<br />

consensus built around free trade, free<br />

enterprise and a growing role for the<br />

private sector.<br />

But as Britain’s politics become<br />

more polarised in the Brexit era, many<br />

executives are feeling uncharacteristically<br />

shut out.<br />

Their political choice has narrowed<br />

to a Conservative party that is pushing<br />

through policies on trade and immigration<br />

that are antithetical to many businesses<br />

and a Labour party whose leader,<br />

Jeremy Corbyn, is an avowed socialist<br />

who wants to nationalise chunks of<br />

industry and raise taxes.<br />

‘Who the hell do I vote for?’<br />

It has become a parlour game among<br />

executives to debate which is worse —<br />

Brexit or Mr Corbyn. “It’s a real problem<br />

for me — who the hell do I vote for?”<br />

said one grandee who has sat on several<br />

boards and now chairs a large financial<br />

services company.<br />

Like other executives, he was loath<br />

to speak publicly for fear of damaging<br />

relations with the powers that be, or offending<br />

customers. In private, though,<br />

he and others vented their frustration.<br />

The idea, he said, that “if the economy<br />

is strong, if business is doing well,<br />

the country is doing well” was no longer<br />

so widely held. He complained not only<br />

about Brexit, which he opposed, but a<br />

sense that politicians were no longer<br />

listening to business as they drew up<br />

policies for energy, education and other<br />

areas.<br />

A senior executive in the Midlands<br />

said the Labour party under Mr Corbyn<br />

“have no appreciation and understanding”<br />

of business. Yet he was more<br />

perplexed by the Conservatives, who<br />

traditionally pride themselves on being<br />

the party of business.<br />

“The Tory party is so inward-looking<br />

at the moment and tearing themselves<br />

apart over Europe, and not worrying<br />

about creating a positive environment<br />

for business,” he said.


Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

COMPANIES & MARKETS<br />

@ FINANCIAL TIMES LIMITED<br />

Air India offered with<br />

no state interference<br />

but much debt<br />

Government looks to sell 76% of carrier with IndiGo the sole known interested bidder<br />

AMY KAZMIN<br />

India has taken the first big step<br />

towards the privatisation of its<br />

lossmaking national carrier, Air<br />

India, unveiling formal plans to sell<br />

a 76 per cent stake in the airline,<br />

which will come bundled with twothirds<br />

of the carrier’s $7.8bn debt.<br />

The ability to sell a controlling<br />

stake in the carrier — which relies<br />

heavily on requirements that all<br />

civil servants fly Air India on official<br />

trips — will be a major test of Prime<br />

Minister Narendra Modi’s ability<br />

to deal with the burdensome state<br />

enterprises conceived during the<br />

country’s socialist era.<br />

New Delhi will maintain a 24 per<br />

cent stake in the airline, but Jayant<br />

Sinha, the minister of state for civil<br />

aviation, said the new owners will be<br />

free of any government interference.<br />

He added the new airline package<br />

will come with debt of $5bn.<br />

“The winning bidder is going to<br />

have full management control and<br />

will be able to operate the company<br />

in the way that will maximise<br />

revenues, profitability and value<br />

Convivial it may have been, for<br />

a while at least, but the party<br />

is now well and truly over for<br />

drinks group Conviviality.<br />

Having failed to raise the £125m<br />

it desperately needed to cover a tax<br />

bill, pay creditors and provide working<br />

capital, the owner of the Bargain<br />

Booze and Wine Rack chains has this<br />

morning announced plans to go into<br />

administration.<br />

It said that following discussions<br />

with lending banks, it has decided it<br />

must file notice of appointing administrators<br />

for the business. So, unless<br />

circumstances change, it will enter<br />

administration within 10 business<br />

days — although secured creditors<br />

may appoint administrators without<br />

the notice period.<br />

In the meantime, it plans to continue<br />

to trade “to preserve as much value<br />

as possible for all stakeholders” as it<br />

explores a potential sale of all or parts<br />

of its business. And Conviviality raised<br />

some hopes for this, saying there have<br />

been “a number of inbound enquiries”.<br />

But it has been a rapid decline into<br />

(a lack of) alcohol(ism) for a company<br />

once valued at £800m. In a space of a<br />

few weeks, it has warned on profits,<br />

discovered a £<strong>30</strong>m unpaid tax bill, lost<br />

its chief executive, and suspended<br />

trading in its shares.<br />

It tried to prop itself up by issuing<br />

new shares through broker Investec, to<br />

raise that £125m and pay that tax bill,<br />

which was due today — plus overdue<br />

payments to creditors.<br />

However, banks said Conviviality<br />

creation,” Mr Sinha told CNBC India,<br />

after the plan was unveiled.<br />

However, he said, “we do want<br />

to participate in the value creation<br />

once Air India is with new owners,<br />

who will take it to great heights and<br />

make it a great global airline”.<br />

Air India’s share of the country’s<br />

aviation market has plummeted over<br />

the past two decades in the face of<br />

competition from ambitious private<br />

carriers and foreign rivals.<br />

But many traditional Indian politicians<br />

still oppose selling the airline,<br />

which they describe as a prized national<br />

asset, despite the huge sums<br />

of taxpayer money required to keep<br />

it afloat.<br />

The airline’s more than 21,000<br />

employees — who have insisted<br />

disinvestment was not necessary —<br />

and even former employees may yet<br />

scupper the sale, which may lead to<br />

an end of their many perks.<br />

But Mr Sinha said New Delhi<br />

was committed to “robust and substantial”<br />

safeguards of the workers’<br />

interests, and would work to build<br />

a political consensus for the sell-off<br />

and assuage doubters.<br />

Opening Quote: Conviviality’s party<br />

is over, Nex’s just starting<br />

Diana Hunter, Conviviality’s former chief executive, stepped down abruptly this month<br />

MATTHEW VINCENT<br />

had drunk enough — or, as the company<br />

put it, there was “ultimately insufficient<br />

demand to raise the full £125m”.<br />

As Kate Burgess points out in the<br />

Lombard column today, the speed of<br />

its collapse is redolent of construction<br />

group Carillion’s — even though it was<br />

shareholders rather than bank lenders<br />

who ultimately refused to buy another<br />

round.<br />

Both were asset-light — Conviviality<br />

was a distributor and off-licence<br />

operator with mainly leasehold<br />

property. Both tried to grow too fast<br />

through acquisitions. Both were overoptimistic<br />

about their profitability.<br />

Both underestimated costs and fell<br />

behind with bill payments. So both<br />

lost control of their cash.<br />

Now shareholders face another<br />

awful hangover. Yesterday, Conviviality<br />

warned its shares could be pretty much<br />

worthless.<br />

However, one wine lover whose<br />

tastes are anything but Bargain<br />

Booze will soon be able to afford<br />

a few more cases of 1982 Château<br />

Lafite Rothschild.<br />

Michael Spencer, founder of financial<br />

technology company Nex Group,<br />

has agreed to sell up to US exchange<br />

operator CME for £3.9bn — in a deal<br />

that will earn him around £670m<br />

personally.<br />

He may well toast his success: CME<br />

has been in talks with Mr Spencer for<br />

several weeks and the price is at the<br />

top end of analysts’ forecasts. If the<br />

deal goes through, it will be CME’s<br />

largest overseas acquisition and its<br />

biggest since it bought Nymex for<br />

$11bn in 2008.<br />

FINANCIAL TIMES<br />

US tech stocks fell further overnight, European equities rebound<br />

CHLOE CORNISH AND<br />

What you need to know<br />

European bourses open<br />

positively<br />

Asia-Pacific equities mixed<br />

Faangs twice bitten on Wall Street<br />

Yen steadies after sharp retreat<br />

US tech stocks are likely to continue<br />

to occupy investors attention<br />

on Thursday, as “the largest firms<br />

may be at an inflection point in<br />

terms of tougher regulation”, said<br />

Richard Hunter, head of markets<br />

at Interactive Investor.<br />

While anxiety over a full-blown<br />

trade war between the US and<br />

China have eased, the threat protectionism<br />

poses to the global<br />

economy remains a concern, said<br />

Mr Hunter.<br />

UK GDP numbers for the fourth<br />

quarter, to be released later on<br />

Thursday, will offer the latest snapshot<br />

of an economy showing signs<br />

of slowing. Trading activity could<br />

be more muted because of the<br />

forthcoming long Easter weekend,<br />

but it is also the final trading day<br />

of the quarter which might prompt<br />

fund managers to trim or add to<br />

their portfolios.<br />

Hot topics<br />

The FTSE 100 and Dax Xetra<br />

opened modestly higher after choppy<br />

trading in Asia-Pacific equities<br />

on Thursday. The mixed session in<br />

Asia follows a sell-off in big technology<br />

stocks, which rattled the wider<br />

market.<br />

Frankfurt’s Dax is up 0.3%<br />

London’s FTSE 100 is up 0.2%<br />

Pan-European Stoxx 600 is up 0.3%<br />

The Topix in Tokyo was up 0.3<br />

per cent, buoyed by a weaker yen<br />

that boosted exporter stocks and<br />

helped offset losses from the tech<br />

sector. The Hang Seng closed up<br />

0.6 per cent, while on the mainland,<br />

the CSI <strong>30</strong>0 index of major Shanghai<br />

and Shenzhen stocks jumped 1.7<br />

per cent. The Kospi in Seoul rose<br />

0.7 per cent.<br />

But in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200<br />

fell 0.5 per cent with gains from<br />

financials offset by losses from the<br />

basic materials and technology segments<br />

as well as some consumer<br />

stocks.<br />

The moves came after Wall Street<br />

closed lower on Wednesday with<br />

the so-called Faang stocks — Facebook,<br />

Apple, Amazon, Netflix and<br />

Google — still under pressure after<br />

their worst one-day drop on Tuesday.<br />

The tech sell-off, fuelled by<br />

increased regulatory scrutiny and a<br />

more defensive mindset from investors,<br />

has spooked the market.<br />

The tech-heavy Nasdaq closed<br />

0.9 per cent lower. The S&P 500,<br />

which dropped 0.3 per cent on<br />

Wednesday, is heading for its first<br />

quarterly loss since 2015.<br />

Fixed income and forex<br />

Sovereign debt markets are mostly<br />

moving sideways. The yield on<br />

10-year US Treasuries is steady at<br />

2.76 per cent. The yield on 10-year<br />

German Bunds were up 1 basis<br />

point to 0.51 per cent, while the UK<br />

10-year yield was little changed at<br />

1.37 per cent.<br />

The pound is slipping against<br />

the dollar, off by 0.2 per cent, while<br />

the euro is holding up at $1.23. The<br />

dollar index, which tracks the greenback<br />

against a basket of peers, is flat<br />

at 90.058.<br />

Commodities<br />

Oil swung back to positive territory<br />

on Thursday after it pulled back<br />

overnight from the one-month high<br />

above $71 a barrel that it touched<br />

on Monday. The international price,<br />

Brent crude, was up 0.4 per cent<br />

at $69.83 a barrel. Gold was flat at<br />

$1,324.60 an ounce.<br />

Alpine advance: Swiss National Bank shares soar 90% in <strong>2018</strong><br />

ADAM SAMSON<br />

Shares in Switzerland’s central<br />

bank have almost doubled<br />

in value this year . . . although<br />

the impetus for the sharp<br />

rally remains a mystery.<br />

Swiss National Bank shares,<br />

traded in Zurich, have zoomed<br />

higher to SFr7,440 on Thursday<br />

from SFr3,889 at the end of 2017,<br />

according to FactSet data. That<br />

gives the traditionally conservative<br />

central bank an equity valuation<br />

of SFr720m ($753m).<br />

It may come as a surprise to<br />

some investors that shares in the<br />

SNB can be bought and sold. But<br />

the institution was founded in<br />

the early 20th century as a jointstock<br />

company. Swiss cantons,<br />

cantonal banks and other public<br />

sector shareholders hold 76.4<br />

per cent of the voting shares,<br />

while private shareholders own<br />

23.6 per cent, according to the<br />

SNB’s 2017 annual report that<br />

C002D5556<br />

An Air India airliner at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel. The carrier’s share of the domestic<br />

market has plunged in the past two decades due to competition from private groups © Reuters<br />

was unveiled last week.<br />

The rationale for this year’s<br />

big advance in the SNB’s shares<br />

is unclear.<br />

The SNB posted a large jump<br />

in its gross annual profits, up<br />

to SFr54.8bn (not a typo) from<br />

SFr24.9bn in 2016. Gains were<br />

driven by large gains in the value<br />

of its foreign equity holdings,<br />

as well as the boon to its stock<br />

and bond portfolio caused by<br />

the weakness of the franc. The<br />

strength of the euro and pound,<br />

up 9.1 and 4.8 per cent last year<br />

against the franc respectively,<br />

was particularly helpful.<br />

At a typical company, this<br />

sort of earnings growth would be<br />

great news for shareholders. But<br />

it doesn’t make any difference<br />

for SNB holders.<br />

SNB pays out a maximum<br />

dividend equivalent to 6 per cent<br />

of the value of its share capital, a<br />

fixed value that equates to SFr15<br />

per share annually. That works<br />

BUSINESS DAY<br />

A3<br />

out to a dividend yield of 0.2 per<br />

cent — much worse that the 3.4<br />

per cent offered by companies<br />

listed on the Swiss <strong>Mar</strong>ket index.<br />

One argument that has been<br />

cited for the allure of SNB equity<br />

is that it provides a haven for investors.<br />

True, the dividend yield<br />

still represents a premium to the<br />

0.02 per cent offered on Switzerland’s<br />

ultra-safe 10-year government<br />

bond. However, the Swiss<br />

bond yield has actually climbed<br />

since the end of last year, denting<br />

that premium.<br />

Regardless of why shares are<br />

up so much, one man appears<br />

to have benefited handsomely.<br />

Theo Siegert, a reclusive German<br />

businessman, is the principal<br />

private shareholder, with his<br />

participation sitting in 2017 at<br />

6.07 per cent, down from 6.72 per<br />

cent in 2016. His holding of just<br />

over 6,000 shares is worth roughly<br />

SFr44.9m — up SFr21.3m over<br />

the past three months.


A4 BUSINESS DAY<br />

C002D5556 Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

FT<br />

CME’s hard-charging chief executive Terry Duffy has made an audacious approach for Nex<br />

Chicago’s CME eyes pole position<br />

in biggest bond market<br />

Deal for UK’s Nex Group would bring together cash and futures trading in US sovereign debt<br />

PHILIP STAFFORD<br />

Shake-ups are rare in the<br />

world’s largest government<br />

bond market. But a successful<br />

bid from Chicago’s CME for<br />

London’s Nex Group could herald<br />

the biggest change in the trading<br />

of US government debt in a decade.<br />

The audacious approach by<br />

the CME’s hard-charging chief<br />

executive Terry Duffy for Nex, run<br />

by veteran City entrepreneur Michael<br />

Spencer, would for the first<br />

time unite the trading of the cash<br />

bonds — dominated by Nex’s BrokerTec<br />

platform — with an interest<br />

rate futures market that is in the<br />

CME’s grip.<br />

Analysts say the CME’s contemplation<br />

of a takeover underlines<br />

how the post-financial crisis landscape<br />

has forced banks — who have<br />

long favoured keeping the two pools<br />

of trading separate — to recognise<br />

the cost benefits of a common<br />

platform.<br />

For most of its history BrokerTec,<br />

the crown jewel in Nex, only handled<br />

trading by banks before more recently<br />

allowing nimble, electronic firms<br />

like Citadel Securities, Virtu Finan-<br />

PEGGY HOLLINGER<br />

Airbus has slammed attempts<br />

by Brussels to freeze the UK<br />

out of the EU’s €10bn Galileo<br />

navigation project after Brexit, warning<br />

that British participation in European<br />

space programmes is critical to<br />

partnership on security and defence.<br />

Tom Enders, Airbus chief executive,<br />

has urged the European Commission<br />

to rethink its proposal to<br />

exclude the UK from access to Galileo’s<br />

encrypted services or industrial<br />

participation after <strong>Mar</strong>ch 2019. He<br />

called on both sides to find a longterm<br />

solution to retain Britain’s participation<br />

in all space programmes.<br />

“The UK’s continued participation<br />

in the EU Galileo programme<br />

will ensure security and defence ties<br />

are strengthened for the benefit of<br />

Europe as a whole, during a period<br />

of increasing threats to our security<br />

cial and DRW to use the platform. In<br />

contrast, the CME has for decades<br />

catered to a broader spectrum of<br />

traders and institutional investors<br />

who use futures contracts to hedge<br />

and take advantage of price swings<br />

in bonds.<br />

“There are a lot of buyside firms<br />

who trade derivatives with CME. If<br />

BrokerTec were to ever open up to<br />

the buyside, CME could provide institutions<br />

with seamless clearing and<br />

settlement for cash Treasuries,” said<br />

Jim Greco, co-founder of Direct Match,<br />

a start-up trading venue that failed to<br />

break into the Treasury market.<br />

Banks and high-frequency trading<br />

firms say a combination of the<br />

two companies should lower their<br />

overall trading costs as they will be<br />

able to make more efficient use of<br />

the capital that regulations require<br />

them to back their bond and futures<br />

trades with.<br />

According to a person close to the<br />

deal, the rationale for the acquisition<br />

lies in the tougher capital requirements<br />

banks face, their inability to<br />

offer market financing and the savings<br />

they can make from processing<br />

deals through clearing houses. Under<br />

UK takeover rules, the Chicago<br />

and geopolitical instability,” he said<br />

in a statement to the Financial Times.<br />

Describing the UK as “one of only<br />

two serious powers in Europe” on<br />

defence alongside France, Mr Enders<br />

insisted: “Maintaining and enhancing<br />

security and defence ties across<br />

Europe is vital for all citizens across<br />

the continent. Irrespective of the UK’s<br />

membership or not of the European<br />

Union, the UK is an important part<br />

of Europe geographically, economically<br />

and culturally, and must play an<br />

integral role for our mutual security.<br />

“The UK needs to be able to continue<br />

in current and future European<br />

security and defence programmes to<br />

strengthen the successful partnership<br />

that already exists.”<br />

Mr Enders comments come as<br />

London and Brussels are locked in<br />

a dispute over UK participation in<br />

Galileo.<br />

The row follows a letter to the<br />

ANALYSIS<br />

group has until April 12 to firm up<br />

its interest in Nex.<br />

If it does it will be the CME’s first<br />

overseas acquisition, its first major<br />

deal since it paid almost $10bn<br />

for Nymex, the commodities and<br />

metals exchange, in 2008 and only<br />

strengthen Mr Duffy’s position as<br />

one of the most powerful executives<br />

in financial markets.<br />

Banks and traders will be hoping<br />

a deal improves a market that even<br />

the US Treasury admits is inefficient<br />

and presents potential risks, such as<br />

non-settlement of bonds.<br />

A reshaping of the plumbing<br />

of the Treasury market comes at a<br />

pivotal time. The Federal Reserve is<br />

raising interest rates and shrinking<br />

its balance sheet, increasing the<br />

chance of divergences in the value<br />

of futures contracts and cash bonds.<br />

Many banks still perform the<br />

crucial role of underwriting the US<br />

national debt via huge and growing<br />

sales of Treasury bonds each<br />

month. But Kevin McPartland, an<br />

analyst at Greenwich Associates, a<br />

consultancy, points out that banks<br />

have also adapted their trading, and<br />

are as likely to trade futures as they<br />

are the cash market.<br />

Airbus says UK participation in Galileo project post-Brexit is critical<br />

Europe’s biggest satellite maker urges Brussels to rethink plans to kick Britain out of space programmes<br />

UK from the European Commission<br />

in January which explained that it<br />

would be inappropriate to divulge<br />

highly sensitive information about<br />

post-2019 plans for Galileo’s highly<br />

encrypted public regulated service to<br />

a departing member state. Without a<br />

security agreement allowing for the<br />

exchange of highly sensitive information<br />

this would be against EU rules,<br />

according to EU officials.<br />

The PRS which has an added layer<br />

of security, is designed to be able to<br />

function when all other navigation<br />

services are being jammed.<br />

“If the commission shared this<br />

information with the UK (which will<br />

become a third country) it would irretrievably<br />

compromise the integrity<br />

of certain elements of these systems<br />

for many years after the withdrawal<br />

of the UK,” the commission said, according<br />

to an official who had seen<br />

the letter.<br />

Who will fare worse in a<br />

China-US trade war?<br />

China seen as vulnerable, but critics say Trump has squandered a strong hand<br />

GABRIEL WILDAU<br />

Donald Trump earned ridicule<br />

for declaring on Twitter<br />

that for the US, a trade war<br />

would be “easy to win”. But economists<br />

say there is some truth to the<br />

observation that in a trade war, deficit<br />

countries hold an advantage over<br />

those with trade surpluses.<br />

China’s trade surplus swells its<br />

economy each year, while net imports<br />

subtract from the US growth.<br />

From this perspective, economists<br />

say Mr Trump is correct that he<br />

has less to fear from a decrease in<br />

trade with China than President Xi<br />

Jinping.<br />

However, White House actions<br />

to date have offered little reason<br />

to believe that Mr Trump and his<br />

advisers understand how to play to<br />

their own advantage.<br />

“In principle, trade war is something<br />

that deficit countries with<br />

diversified economies should win<br />

and surplus countries always lose.<br />

So it’s not really an even battle,” says<br />

Michael Pettis, finance professor<br />

at Peking University’s Guanghua<br />

School of Management.<br />

“That’s not to say that deficit<br />

countries can’t screw up, and unfortunately,<br />

the approach that the US is<br />

taking isn’t really going to address<br />

the deficit.”<br />

Understanding why surplus<br />

countries typically fare worse requires<br />

stepping back from a focus on<br />

specific products such as soyabeans<br />

or steel and understanding the macroeconomic<br />

forces that create trade<br />

surpluses and deficits.<br />

A basic economic principle states<br />

that the balance between exports<br />

and imports corresponds to the difference<br />

between national savings<br />

and investment. Economists generally<br />

see the latter balance as more<br />

significant: the savings-investment<br />

gap determines the trade balance,<br />

rather than vice versa.<br />

On this view, specific trade policy<br />

measures are mostly distractions. A<br />

steel tariff will cut steel imports, but<br />

if the savings-investment balance<br />

cannot adjust, other imports will<br />

rise correspondingly, leaving the<br />

overall trade balance unchanged.<br />

For the US, closing the trade<br />

gap requires more savings relative<br />

to its level of investment. Fiscal<br />

policies designed to increase US<br />

savings would help, though recent<br />

deficit-financed tax cuts and<br />

spending increases push in the<br />

opposite direction.<br />

“Tariffs won’t have much impact<br />

on a country’s overall trade<br />

balance. As long as US demand is<br />

rising while the economy is near<br />

full capacity, we’re going to be<br />

importing from somebody,” says<br />

David Loevinger, former senior<br />

co-ordinator for China affairs at<br />

the US Treasury and now managing<br />

director of emerging markets<br />

sovereign research at TCW Group.<br />

“It’s like a water balloon. If you<br />

restrict one end it just flows somewhere<br />

else.”<br />

Beyond fiscal policy, the US<br />

could restrict the ability of China<br />

and other surplus countries to<br />

finance American deficits through<br />

purchases of US Treasuries and<br />

other dollar assets.<br />

The imposition of capital controls<br />

would be a fundamental<br />

repudiation of the US commitment<br />

to financial openness and liberalised<br />

capital flows, which underpin<br />

the dollar as a global reserve currency.<br />

Yet there are few signs that<br />

Mr Trump or advisers care about<br />

such things, especially now that<br />

globalists led by Gary Cohn have<br />

been sent packing.<br />

A trade war fought this way<br />

would inflict significant pain on<br />

China and bring some benefits to<br />

the US.<br />

Wei Li, senior China economist<br />

at Standard Chartered in Shanghai,<br />

estimates that a broad-based trade<br />

war between the US and China<br />

would cost China 1.3 per cent to<br />

3.2 per cent of GDP, with the latter<br />

estimate representing an extreme<br />

scenario in which the US bans all<br />

Chinese imports. For the US, the<br />

comparable loss would be 0.2 per<br />

cent to 0.9 per cent.<br />

For an example of how a trade<br />

war using capital controls might be<br />

fought, one need look no further<br />

than China in the 2000s.<br />

Chinese foreign exchange controls<br />

are designed to restrict capital<br />

flight, while the country increasingly<br />

opens up to foreign inflows<br />

through its stock and bond markets.<br />

But when China’s surpluses were at<br />

their peak a decade ago — the current<br />

account surplus hit nearly 10<br />

per cent in 2007 before falling to 1.4<br />

per cent by 2017 — China blocked<br />

financial inflows to domestic financial<br />

markets.<br />

“Any kind of capital flow restriction<br />

is ultimately a way of managing<br />

trade imbalances,” says Mr Pettis.<br />

The difficulty for the US is that<br />

capital controls cannot feasibly<br />

be deployed only against “strategic<br />

competitors” such as China.<br />

Military allies Germany and South<br />

Korea are also big contributors to<br />

the US current account deficit.<br />

This is where China sees its<br />

protection from the ravages of<br />

global trade war. Arthur Kroeber of<br />

Gavekal-Dragonomics, a Beijingbased<br />

research group, says China’s<br />

focus is to isolate the US to prevent<br />

allies such as the EU and Japan from<br />

entering the fray.<br />

“China knows it can hold its<br />

own in a commercial conflict with<br />

any individual rival, including the<br />

US. But a concerted effort by the<br />

industrial democracies to constrain<br />

China’s mercantilist development<br />

programme would cause it much<br />

more pain,” he wrote last week.<br />

Mr Kroeber saw German Chancellor<br />

Angela Merkel’s recent agreement<br />

with Mr Xi to co-operate on<br />

steel overcapacity as a “German<br />

rejection of US efforts to bully it into<br />

an anti-China alliance”.<br />

China’s other main point of<br />

leverage is the reliance of US companies<br />

and China’s huge domestic<br />

market. Such dependence does<br />

not show up primarily in figures on<br />

goods trade but rather in services<br />

as well as corporate earnings by<br />

the local units of US companies<br />

such as Apple, General Motors and<br />

Caterpillar.<br />

US businesses are vulnerable to<br />

myriad forms of disruption, much<br />

of which would likely occur through<br />

regulatory harassment. China Inc, by<br />

contrast, remains more domestically<br />

focused, despite a recent wave of<br />

outbound investment.


WOMEN’S<br />

Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong> BUSINESS DAY<br />

HUB<br />

Celebrating<br />

International<br />

Women’s Month<br />

NADINE IBRAHIM<br />

NADINE IBRAHIM<br />

telling enthralling stories<br />

through her lens


EDITOR’S NOTE<br />

Leading Woman<br />

7 BUSINESS DAY<br />

Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong>WOMEN’S HUB<br />

This is the final edition of our International<br />

Women’s Month series<br />

and it has been an amazing experience.<br />

NADINE IBRAHIM, telling<br />

enthralling stories through her lens<br />

Our cover personality and LEADING<br />

WOMAN for this week is the young, focused<br />

and intentional Nadine Ibrahim,<br />

and she is telling enthralling stories<br />

through her lens.<br />

Adesuwa Onyenokwe, Yougkeh Tamfuh<br />

Rose and Ali Baba, shares with us their<br />

views on an opinion that asks if there<br />

are more independent women at the top.<br />

Jadesola Shawana, is the CEO of Tosh<br />

Coconuts Limited. Her expose of the various<br />

ways coconut can be used and also<br />

its financial advantage is truly enlightening.<br />

She graces our ENTREPRENEUR<br />

section for this week.<br />

KEMI AJUMOBI<br />

Coming from a multi-cultural background, she has an international<br />

outlook, which has provided her with a vast<br />

knowledge of culture and media representations. She<br />

thinks up unique ways to execute the simplest and most<br />

complex ideas.<br />

Nadine has worked on a number of media projects including her award<br />

winning short film ‘Through her eyes’ which tells the story of a young<br />

northern girl affected by terrorism in Nigeria.<br />

She has also worked on Ebonylife TV shows ‘Sons of the caliphate’ and<br />

‘Moving up’. Nadine was associate producer and assistant director on the<br />

Nigerian feature film ‘Hakkunde’, which has made it to cinemas nationwide<br />

and has been selected for a couple of international film festivals.<br />

Hakkunde is an inspirational story of a young graduate from the south<br />

who travels to the north of Nigeria in search for a job and a better life.<br />

Nadine has been featured on a number of blogs and newspapers nationwide<br />

and was listed as one out of three young Nigerian filmmakers<br />

to look out for in the internationally acclaimed film website called<br />

IndieWire, in their Shadow And Act section.<br />

Nadine has previously won awards for her short films at La Independent<br />

Film Festival and Equality Film Festival and has been selected for others.<br />

She has worked with well-known media companies in Nigeria including<br />

Filmone, Ebonylife and core productions.<br />

Nadine is currently working on her first feature film and a documentary.<br />

In our WORKPLACE PALAVER section,<br />

Bisola wonders if she has opened herself<br />

up to experience the brutal reality of first<br />

impression.<br />

How was growing up like for you and how has it helped to influence<br />

where you are today?<br />

I had a pretty privileged childhood. Both parents were inspirational in<br />

their own ways and I thank God daily for their positive influence in my<br />

life. I have learnt a lot from them. My parents, especially my mother, cared<br />

about the world and helping people so a lot of the time, I was exposed to<br />

moving stories that I wanted to shed light on through an artistic medium.<br />

Chisom Ogbumuo was at the recently<br />

concluded Global Festival of Action and<br />

her experience is worth the read.<br />

Why the choice of film making?<br />

I am passionate about telling peoples stories, it is what fulfils me as an<br />

artist. People find fulfilment doing what they love and I am glad that I<br />

am doing same. There is nothing as satisfying as doing what you love and<br />

loving what you do.<br />

These and more we have for you this<br />

week!<br />

Enjoy!<br />

KEMI AJUMOBI<br />

kemi@businessdayonline.com<br />

Do you get intimidated by those who have been in the industry<br />

longer than you have?<br />

Intimidated? No! it only motivates me to do better, set my goals higher and<br />

higher. If anything, I choose to learn from them and their experiences so<br />

I don’t make the same mistakes.<br />

Share you experience and involvement with Hakkunde<br />

I was an associate producer and assistant director on Hakkunde. It was an<br />

amazing experience. It was my first feature film so I learnt a lot. Working<br />

on a set in Nigeria is a lot harder than anywhere that I have worked. The<br />

challenges you face are much greater. I salute Nigerian filmmakers for their<br />

strength and passion for the job because, if there is no passion, you would<br />

quit on the first day. I got to meet a lot of great minds that I’m sure I will work<br />

with again on future projects. Oluseyi Asurf of course was a great director.<br />

Hakkunde is an intriguing story of a young graduate who battles everything<br />

(including love, family, discrimination, drug abuse, culture, tradition<br />

and self) on his journey to self-discovery and actualisation. The story is<br />

characterised by actions and reactions that defines the everyday Nigerian<br />

society, with its ups and downs and with a particular focus on the life of a<br />

job hunting graduate “Akande” who found himself in totality while searching<br />

for a job, and a better life.<br />

The script tells a story of the identity of an average Nigerian graduate’s<br />

struggle for an identity and livelihood.<br />

It highlights the merits of steadfastness, humility and self-denial and also<br />

espouses the gains of harnessing opportunities, delimiting the much<br />

celebrated mediocrity of high handedness, and divulging the demerits of<br />

pride, greed and inconsistency.<br />

Listed among three young Nigerian filmmakers in IndieWire’s<br />

Shadow and Act section to look out for, what has this spurred<br />

you to do?<br />

That was a very humbling moment for me. It felt amazing to be recognised<br />

by an international platform. Since then, I have gone on to make another<br />

short film called TOLU which will be out in April <strong>2018</strong>? I am also fortunate<br />

to be a part of a few projects in the works. So please watch this space, more<br />

to come.<br />

Professional challenges<br />

Age is definitely a challenge. Unfortunately, because I am so young, I know<br />

people tend to give the opportunities to older professionals with more<br />

experience. This is fine because there is wisdom with age. Being a female<br />

is also a bit more challenging because it is a male dominated industry.<br />

You have to be smart with the way you work. Having said this, I believe<br />

everything you set your mind to do is achievable if firstly, you believe in<br />

yourself. If you do not believe in yourself, no matter the age, you will never<br />

feel capable to meet up with what you want<br />

the world to know about what you can do.<br />

As long as you can think it, you can do it.<br />

Conception of ideas is where it starts from.<br />

Experience and responsibilities at Ebonylife<br />

TV and Filmone<br />

At Filmone, I was a content producer. I<br />

produced, edited and directed a number<br />

of episodes of the Filmhouse show. I also<br />

worked on some scripts at Ebonylife. I was<br />

assistant director on ‘sons of the caliphate’<br />

season 1 and ‘moving up’, a reality show.<br />

Winnings<br />

Both my short films have won awards internationally.<br />

It is great to see your films<br />

succeed because it gains you recognition<br />

and most importantly gives you a platform<br />

to share the stories that matter the most.<br />

Background<br />

My mother is British and Nigerian and my<br />

father is Syrian and Nigerian.<br />

Why the decision to stick to Nigerian<br />

films?<br />

I wouldn’t say I am ‘sticking to Nigeria films’,<br />

for me films are films. I am based in<br />

Nigeria and this is where I live so my films<br />

would portray stories from Nigeria but my<br />

audience is global. If I get the opportunity<br />

to make films anywhere else in the world,<br />

I would jump at the opportunity. Film is a<br />

universal language.<br />

What projects are you looking forward<br />

to?<br />

My first feature film as Director. I am currently<br />

working on it<br />

What day in your life is it that you can<br />

never forget?<br />

It is certainly the 24th of <strong>Mar</strong>ch 2017, the<br />

day I married the love of my life. <strong>Mar</strong>riage<br />

is indeed an interesting institution and I am<br />

glad I am in it with someone who means<br />

the world to me. I will choose him over and<br />

over again.<br />

Nollywood is doing well, in what ways<br />

do you believe they can be better?<br />

We have great stories! We just need to pay<br />

more attention to technical details, better<br />

visuals and better sounds. We need to explore<br />

our country and show the beauty in<br />

it instead of always shooting indoors. We<br />

are gifted and creative. He way our mind<br />

works tells a lot about what we have within.<br />

We can do more and I know we will. Nigeria<br />

to the world!<br />

Can piracy be truly eradicated in Nigeria?<br />

What are your suggestions?<br />

It is something to hope for but unfortunately,<br />

it is a universal issue everyone is<br />

trying to tackle. I think if we make our films<br />

more accessible it would help reduce piracy.<br />

How are you encouraging other young<br />

filmmakers like you?<br />

I say to them, ‘Never give up’. Everything in<br />

life is a journey. Learn from your mistakes<br />

and let that guide you knowing well that<br />

mistakes aren’t meant to mar you for life,<br />

but to remind you that your mistakes are<br />

in the past and that they do not define you.<br />

What is the greatest lesson life has<br />

taught you?<br />

Patience! Everything comes in God’s time.


3<br />

BUSINESS DAY<br />

Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong>WOMEN’S HUB<br />

Are there more<br />

independent women<br />

at the top?<br />

KEMI AJUMOBI<br />

Career climb is an uphill task<br />

with any woman in a marriage<br />

setting. The women,<br />

who manage to attain their career<br />

goals, must have had understanding,<br />

supportive and confident<br />

husbands. Many independent<br />

women have no shackles that limit<br />

their strides. Also, many men are<br />

late bloomers. Another angle to<br />

look at it is this, sex still sells, and<br />

many women who are married<br />

are considered by some men who<br />

would have assisted them as of<br />

no sexual benefit. They therefore<br />

believe that the assistance they<br />

would extend to them will be<br />

‘wasted’.<br />

Culturally, certain men still<br />

come from the valley of male<br />

dominance. So any sparks of<br />

ambition from their spouses, that<br />

would make them “look like” (because<br />

it’s not true) they are not the<br />

head of the home is vehemently<br />

resisted. Many men are dependent<br />

on their wives to manage the<br />

home, and that means if she has<br />

to pursue her ambitions, one thing<br />

may have to give way. However,<br />

in most cases, it’s not the man’s<br />

choice. Many of the men who believe<br />

women don’t deserve to be<br />

in places of authority, are the same<br />

one who don’t want to spend so<br />

much on training the girl child.<br />

Such men, with the collaboration<br />

of the kinds of women they marry,<br />

think being married to a man is<br />

the ultimate goal of a woman.<br />

Finally, many men believe<br />

money is power. They therefore<br />

begin to think that when a woman<br />

has it, she will take your power as<br />

the man from you. There is also<br />

the issue of child bearing. Many<br />

independent women either did<br />

not have kids early, or did but<br />

parted ways with their partner<br />

IWOW network hosts 8th global possibilities summit<br />

It was indeed three days of<br />

wow-mazing experience, at the<br />

just concluded annual IWOW<br />

Global Possibilities Summit held<br />

at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Lagos,<br />

Nigeria, on the 23rd and 24th of<br />

<strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong>.<br />

The summit started with a preevent<br />

cocktail with exceptional<br />

women of worth in attendance. The<br />

Publisher of Genevieve Magazine,<br />

Betty Irabor, shared her deeply<br />

touching story about how she decided<br />

to pick herself up and turn<br />

her life around after a very difficult<br />

experience.<br />

Day 1 of the summit was a day of<br />

learning how to deliberately ‘walk<br />

on water’ in life, business, career<br />

and other spheres of life. The theme<br />

of the <strong>2018</strong> Global Possibilities<br />

Summit is “It’s Showtime” and all<br />

the speakers came out with their<br />

stories that affirmed the fact that<br />

there is power in one’s authentic<br />

story.<br />

The CEO/Vice Chair, Fine<br />

and Country WA and Founder of<br />

IWOW, Udo Okonjo shed more<br />

light on what the <strong>2018</strong> theme<br />

represented. Showtime, she said<br />

is a state of realisation. The state<br />

ATUNYOTA ALLELUYA AKPOBOME (ALIBABA)<br />

Ace Comedian, Content Originator, Writer<br />

before facing their careers headon.<br />

This may either be a hostile<br />

parting or amicable one but,<br />

whichever happens, can be a<br />

major factor in the career climb<br />

of any woman.<br />

Another angle to look at it is<br />

pregnancy. To be pregnant may<br />

not be the issue an independent<br />

woman needs to deal with but<br />

if she is married, and she has<br />

not had a child in the maritial<br />

space she is in, it can mess up<br />

her productivity. Midweek services,<br />

night vigils, prayer meetings,<br />

special Holy Ghost services<br />

of deliberately stepping out of the<br />

ordinary into the extraordinary<br />

through self-discovery, success and<br />

sustainability.<br />

Leke Alder, Principal Partner,<br />

Alder Consulting, gave a masterclass<br />

on branding; how to craft a<br />

niche market and using uniquely<br />

defined branding strategies that<br />

will resonate with the target audience.<br />

A panel discussion followed<br />

where Udo Okonjo, Leke Alder and<br />

Ada Osakwe shared real-life experiences<br />

and strategies they have used<br />

in their various fields to present a<br />

strong and sustainable brand.<br />

Following on from building<br />

great business structures and<br />

and more, just to fulfil marital<br />

pressures of having a baby is also<br />

involved. Especially when she has<br />

started “running out of eggs”... as<br />

the in-laws will remind the son<br />

regularly. Some women actually<br />

prefer partners who don’t have<br />

either parent. They prefer them<br />

dead. That way, no in-law hassles.<br />

All that said, the X factor is actually<br />

the man. The man is the one who<br />

either supports his wife to succeed<br />

like the independent woman, by<br />

giving her all the encouragement<br />

needed, just as the independent<br />

ladies get.<br />

kicking off the second session on<br />

entrepreneurship, Fabian Ajogwu<br />

(SAN), Founding Partner, Kenna<br />

Partners & Professor of Corporate<br />

Governance at Lagos Business<br />

School, talked about the legal aspects<br />

of doing business in Nigeria.<br />

Tara Fela Durotoye, CEO, House<br />

of Tara honed on the fact that your<br />

passion for your business needs to be<br />

backed with efficient working structures,<br />

processes and procedures.<br />

The third and final session of<br />

the day was about Confidence<br />

and Power Negotiation which was<br />

anchored by Nneka Abulokwe who<br />

gave a straight-from- the-heart intelligent<br />

treatise of her journey to<br />

Women are great thinkers<br />

with innate multitasking<br />

abilities that help them<br />

do different things at the same<br />

time with little or no errors in the<br />

desired results.<br />

Women have all it takes to get<br />

to the top in any organisation,<br />

including the ability to identify<br />

and appropriately address what<br />

could constitute hindrances to<br />

their ascension to the position of<br />

their dreams.<br />

If one of these obstacles happens<br />

to be an irrational, insecure,<br />

uncompromising and unsupportive<br />

male in her life, she might<br />

be pushed by that behavioural<br />

pattern to go around it somehow<br />

and move on to the top.<br />

Let me hasten to add that the<br />

married ones who are there, either<br />

have great men giving them the<br />

moral support to excel or have to<br />

exercise patience and tolerance<br />

that are out of this world to stay<br />

focused and succeed in life.<br />

I<br />

wonder if there are statistics to prove<br />

that. With associations like WIMBIZ,<br />

we now have myriad examples of<br />

married women who have made it to<br />

the top with their marriages intact! However,<br />

it is clear that through the journey,<br />

it isn’t easy and may strain marriages<br />

to the extent that women may have to<br />

sacrifice that for their career. The strain<br />

ADESUWA ONYENOKWE<br />

Publisher/Editor in Chief,<br />

TW Magazine<br />

the top of a fortune 500 company<br />

in the United Kingdom through<br />

the power of resilience, persistence<br />

and strategic negotiation.<br />

Day 1 was capped up with another<br />

brilliant panel discussion by the<br />

speaker and renowned Media Entrepreneurs<br />

including Biola Alabi<br />

and Ola Brown- Founder/ CEO,<br />

Flying Doctors Nigeria.<br />

Day 2 morning was a Wealth<br />

and Wellbeing Breakfast Session<br />

hosted by Fine & Country and<br />

Providus Bank. The session was<br />

opened with Udo Okonjo sharing<br />

the fundamental elements of wellbeing<br />

& wealth creation and the<br />

direct relationship between both<br />

concepts. Walter Akpani- MD/CEO<br />

of Providus Bank shared his professional<br />

experience on the need<br />

for Women to develop the qualities<br />

of Teamwork, Tenacity and<br />

Entrepreneurial spirit, whilst also<br />

charging delegates to come into<br />

their spotlight. Renowned beauty<br />

entrepreneur Eryca Freemantle<br />

shared about surviving depression<br />

and making the decision to rise<br />

above it and live a phenomenal<br />

life. Arinola Adeniyi, CEO, Venivici<br />

Spa, spoke about the importance of<br />

YOUGKEH TAMFUH ROSE<br />

Former Adviser to Cameroon’s<br />

Ministers of Finance and<br />

Economy; Planning and Regional<br />

Development.<br />

CEO, REO Consulting<br />

could result from long work hours,<br />

greater financial independence on the<br />

women’s side, which could make them<br />

less tolerant of misdemeanours, and<br />

husband’s less understanding. One<br />

can make these conclusions because<br />

most women who get to the top always<br />

acknowledge the support from their<br />

spouses.<br />

Former Adviser to Cameroon’s<br />

Ministers of Finance and<br />

Economy; Planning and Regional<br />

Development.<br />

CEO, REO Consulting<br />

wellness in wellbeing and Travelstart<br />

Commercial Manager, Bukky<br />

Akomolafe was there to add to the<br />

fact that, getting away so often for<br />

some self-love and replenishment<br />

is important for mental wellbeing.<br />

Travelstart also sponsored a trip<br />

to Dubai.<br />

The morning session ended<br />

with Ndidi Nwuneli and the millennials<br />

taking centre stage to tell the<br />

whole world they are coming and<br />

they know exactly what is required<br />

of them to get exponential results.<br />

It featured inspirational stories by<br />

Seun Awolowo and Kene Rapu to<br />

wrap up the morning session.<br />

The IWOW Global Possibilities<br />

Summit <strong>2018</strong> was crowned with<br />

an exquisite dinner with inspiring<br />

and thought-provoking keynote<br />

speeches from the MD of Seplat,<br />

Austin Avuru and Fela Durotoye.<br />

There was also inspiring spoken<br />

word performance by Bikiya and<br />

comedy by Senator.<br />

Also, the presence of amazing<br />

comperes Bolanle Olakuni, Chico<br />

and Stephanie Coker who gave<br />

their professional skills in adding<br />

colour to the event, made it worth<br />

every minute.


4 BUSINESS DAY<br />

Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong>WOMEN’S HUB 5<br />

BUSINESS DAY<br />

Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong>WOMEN’S HUB


6 BUSINESS DAY<br />

ENTREPRENEUR<br />

‘The Coconut industry abounds with huge potential<br />

that must be tapped into to grow our economy’<br />

KEMI AJUMOBI<br />

Biography<br />

Jadesola Shawana, the CEO<br />

of Tosh Coconuts Limited<br />

is young lawyer with about<br />

10 years post call experience.<br />

She graduated from<br />

the University of Ilorin in 2006,<br />

and was called to the Nigerian bar<br />

in 2007. She also has a Master’s<br />

degree (LL.M) in Corporate and<br />

Commercial Law from the University<br />

Of Dundee, Scotland and is<br />

currently a student member of the<br />

Institute of Chartered Secretaries<br />

and Administrators (UK) She is<br />

happily married to Kolawole, and<br />

they have two lovely boys Oluwato<br />

and Tobiloba.<br />

The lawyer cum Business woman<br />

is a low-carb-high-fat (LCHF)<br />

advocate who lost about 15kg<br />

through her LCHF regimen and<br />

got the idea for her business in<br />

2016, when she discovered that<br />

there is high demand for coconut<br />

flour in Nigeria by low carb food<br />

lovers and weight watchers. Back<br />

then, consumers had to rely on<br />

imported coconut flour to make<br />

their meals, so she decided to<br />

make the product available locally.<br />

A few months later, she incorporated<br />

Tosh Coconuts Limited, an<br />

indigenous Company that has a<br />

range of Coconut Products such<br />

as Coconut Poundo, Coconut<br />

Flour, Cold pressed Coconut Oil,<br />

Coconut Yoghurt, Coconut flakes,<br />

Coconut Milk and Coconut Cream.<br />

The purpose of the business is to<br />

create healthy low carb meals as<br />

an alternative to the carbohydrates<br />

dense staple meals and snacks<br />

available in Nigeria. She aspires to<br />

grow her business into a multinational<br />

company and looks forward<br />

to seeing their products on major<br />

supermarket shelves, home and<br />

abroad.<br />

In the beginning<br />

I grew up with parents who were<br />

both business people and I became<br />

automatically business savvy too.<br />

Every day after school, I would<br />

go to my mom’s store called “Our<br />

Shop” where she sold fabrics. I<br />

learnt the art of buying and selling,<br />

petty accounting, customer service<br />

and so on, from my early days, as a<br />

matter of fact; I remember getting<br />

into trouble in Primary school for<br />

selling sweets to my class mates.<br />

I was always trading one thing or<br />

the other in the University which<br />

earned me the award of The Most<br />

Enterprising Student in my final<br />

year.<br />

Why the choice of coconut for<br />

your line of business?<br />

My inspiration for choosing coconuts<br />

was primarily because of the<br />

high demand for coconut flour<br />

in the LCHF (Low Carbohydrates<br />

High Fat) and Ketogenic diet community<br />

in Nigeria. This is because<br />

coconut flour is low in carbohydrates<br />

and rich in fibre which is<br />

ketogenic compliant. At the time<br />

we started in 2016, I didn’t know of<br />

any Company producing coconut<br />

flour in Nigeria, all the brands were<br />

foreign, and everyone who wanted<br />

coconut flour had to buy a foreign<br />

brand. I knew that coconut flour is<br />

produced from coconut which is<br />

abundant in Nigeria so I decided<br />

to explore that space and go into<br />

local production of coconut flour.<br />

After incorporating Tosh Coconuts<br />

Limited, the business has now<br />

grown into having more healthy<br />

products from coconuts like cold<br />

pressed coconut oil, coconut milk,<br />

coconut yoghurt, coconut cookies,<br />

coconut flakes and more.<br />

Why the decision to be a LCHF<br />

advocate? Journey so far?<br />

I had my second son in September<br />

2015 and I had added some weight<br />

which I was trying to lose. Jogging<br />

every morning for a few months<br />

did not help and so my sister introduced<br />

me to LCHF (Low Carbohydrates<br />

High Fat) diet which I started<br />

around May 2016, in less than three<br />

months, I lost about 15kg, 10kg of<br />

tion control of all classes of foods.<br />

How has the patronage been?<br />

How far do requests come<br />

from?<br />

When we started in 2016, the reception<br />

was quite shocking and<br />

that was what prompted us to<br />

register the business and increase<br />

our capacity and production. We<br />

started with an online store on<br />

Instagram and we got and still get<br />

loads of orders daily. We now have<br />

over 1,000 customers on our list<br />

and we have distributors in about<br />

10 states in Nigeria, in the UK and<br />

USA. We also get loads of orders<br />

from West Africa. We currently<br />

have our products on the shelves<br />

of about 20 supermarkets and we<br />

which I have maintained in the past<br />

two years.<br />

I believe that a lot of women are<br />

struggling with weight challenges,<br />

especially post-partum weight<br />

gain. LCHF provides a way to<br />

quickly get rid of excess fat in<br />

the body because the diet forces<br />

the body to burn fats rather than<br />

carbohydrates. However, I do not<br />

encourage strict ketogenic diet<br />

for prolonged periods of time for<br />

instance, over 6 months or a year<br />

except for health reasons as prescribed<br />

by a medical professional.<br />

Strict ketogenic diet is slightly<br />

different from LCHF because the<br />

former allows you to eat only about<br />

20 grams carbohydrates per day<br />

which I believe is too strict while<br />

the latter is more liberal. I believe<br />

that all classes of foods are good for<br />

the body and that portion control<br />

will help you manage and maintain<br />

your current weight. So you can<br />

lose weight with LCHF and then<br />

maintain the weight with good porhave<br />

staff strength of 10 people. We<br />

constantly strive to be better and<br />

we believe we can build this company<br />

into a multinational brand.<br />

What is it about coconut that<br />

the Nigerian government needs<br />

to begin to look out for in terms<br />

of economic/financial gain?<br />

There is a popular saying that “No<br />

part of the Coconut is a waste”. This<br />

statement is very true but people<br />

do not realise the extent of its truth.<br />

One coconut palm tree can actually<br />

produce at least up to 50 products<br />

and this is not an exaggeration.<br />

We already produce 10 products<br />

from the Coconut, let me mention<br />

a few more; Coconut sugar, Palm<br />

wine, bags, fan, hut roof, brooms,<br />

baskets, coconut bowls, charcoal,<br />

activated charcoal, coir fibre, soil<br />

conservator, mulch, rugs, furniture<br />

and so on. The government needs<br />

to encourage and steer people,<br />

not only into agriculture but also<br />

processing of agricultural products<br />

Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong>WOMEN’S HUB<br />

and manufacturing. Nigerians have<br />

high taste which our manufacturing<br />

industry is yet to meet up to. The<br />

Coconut industry abounds with<br />

huge potential that must be tapped<br />

into to grow our economy.<br />

Has being a lawyer helped in<br />

your line of business? How?<br />

I believe that Law is the most versatile<br />

industry. It allows you to work<br />

in any and every industry because<br />

all industries have laws governing<br />

them which must be adhered to. I<br />

have worked as a lawyer for over 10<br />

years; I also have a Masters degree<br />

in Corporate and Commercial from<br />

the University of Dundee, UK. In<br />

the course of my work and study, I<br />

have learnt a lot about business and<br />

it is certainly an edge that keeps my<br />

business grounded.<br />

There are many products in<br />

Nigeria today that makes use of<br />

coconut, what sets yours apart<br />

from the rest?<br />

I want to believe our Company has<br />

a pioneer status of novelty in coconuts<br />

because we have been able to<br />

create a lot of products from one<br />

fruit; coconuts. This sets us apart<br />

from others. We also have a thorough<br />

understanding and appreciation<br />

of Coconuts, its uses, benefits<br />

and biological composition. We<br />

have carved a niche for ourselves as<br />

the coconut connoisseurs because<br />

our brand is providing healthy food<br />

alternatives, not only to Nigerians<br />

but internationally. Our knowledge<br />

of coconuts has birthed a coconut<br />

academy that runs a monthly training<br />

on how to start a business in<br />

coconuts.<br />

In your line of business, what<br />

are you looking forward to?<br />

I have so many dreams and aspirations<br />

for the business. I want the<br />

name Tosh to be synonymous to<br />

Coconuts. I want our products to<br />

be on the shelves of all supermarkets<br />

in Nigeria and abroad too.<br />

To achieve this, we have to build<br />

a world class brand and we are<br />

constantly learning, unlearning<br />

and relearning to make my dreams<br />

come true.<br />

Why is it important as women<br />

to embrace the entrepreneurial<br />

spirit?<br />

A lot of our mothers were entrepreneurs<br />

to support their husbands in<br />

little ways. However, in our generation,<br />

we have to embrace entrepreneurship<br />

in a bigger way. I tell my<br />

students in the Coconut Academy<br />

that I am not just in this business<br />

to help my husband put food on<br />

our table, but to help hundreds<br />

of other people put foods on their<br />

own tables, build their own homes<br />

and provide for their families. We as<br />

women need to see that we also can<br />

build empires, be business moguls<br />

and create employment for other<br />

people.<br />

Final words<br />

The words of William Shakespeare,<br />

“Some were born great, some<br />

achieve greatness and some have<br />

greatness thrust upon them”. Essentially,<br />

we all can be great, we<br />

just need to identify our current<br />

position and navigate a way to<br />

greatness from there.<br />

Executive Musings<br />

INDRA NOOYI<br />

Chairman/CEO, PepsiCo<br />

“Leadership is hard to<br />

define and good leadership<br />

even harder. But if you can<br />

get people to follow you to<br />

the ends of the earth, you<br />

are a great leader”<br />

“Every year in consulting is<br />

like three years in the corporate<br />

world because you have<br />

multiple clients, multiple issues<br />

- you grow so much.”<br />

“The distance between<br />

number one and number<br />

two is always a constant.<br />

If you want to improve the<br />

organisation, you have to<br />

improve yourself and the<br />

organisation gets pulled<br />

up with you. That is a big<br />

lesson. I cannot just expect<br />

the organisation to improve<br />

if I don’t improve myself<br />

and lift the organisation,<br />

because that distance is a<br />

constant.”<br />

“Anything that’s done to<br />

address unemployment in<br />

terms of massive stimulus<br />

spending is going to<br />

exacerbate deficits. And<br />

anything that’s done to address<br />

deficits in the shortterm<br />

is going to exacerbate<br />

unemployment”.<br />

“The one thing I have learned<br />

as a CEO is that leadership<br />

at various levels is vastly different.<br />

When I was leading a<br />

function or a business, there<br />

were certain demands and<br />

requirements to be a leader.<br />

As you move up the organisation,<br />

the requirements for<br />

leading that organisation don’t<br />

grow vertically; they grow<br />

exponentially.”


BUSINESS DAY<br />

Workplace Palaver<br />

Bisola Peters is a 27 year old<br />

graduate of International<br />

relations with a Masters in<br />

Human Resource Management.<br />

She lost her parents 4 years<br />

ago and has been taking care<br />

of her brother’s welfare by the<br />

profits she makes from selling<br />

lady wears. She completed her<br />

Masters two years ago but has<br />

been job hunting. She is very<br />

optimistic about life. She lives<br />

with her brother (who is always<br />

in school, a <strong>30</strong>0 level student<br />

of Accountancy at University of<br />

Port Harcourt) in a self-contained<br />

apartment.<br />

While going through one of the<br />

dailies, she saw an application<br />

for the position of an executive<br />

assistant in a reputable firm with<br />

top notch clientele. She wondered<br />

however, why the company did not<br />

indicate their name in the ad. Nevertheless,<br />

decided to give it a try.<br />

A week later, she was called<br />

for an interview. On her way to<br />

the interview, luckily for her, there<br />

was no gridlock. The time slated<br />

for the interview was 9am. It was<br />

a quarter to nine and she was<br />

almost there. A she was about<br />

to make her turn to get into the<br />

compound, the car in front of<br />

her refused to move. She kept<br />

honking but the car was blocking<br />

the way. She got down from the<br />

car, walked up to the driver of the<br />

shamrock green 2017 Mercedes-<br />

Benz G500, all tinted in black.<br />

She got to the driver’s side and<br />

tapped the glass. The driver rolled<br />

down the glass and asked what<br />

happened? She was so furious.<br />

How dare he? “He is even claiming<br />

rights” she thought to herself and<br />

responded “Sir, you are blocking<br />

the way, I have been honking my<br />

horm but you obviously didn’t<br />

hear because the music playing<br />

in the car is loud”. The gentleman<br />

at the back seat, who was on the<br />

phone rounded up his conversation,<br />

tilted his head forward<br />

towards the driver and asked the<br />

driver to leave the road for her to<br />

pass. She saw his face briefly, and<br />

walked back to her car.<br />

She quickly parked and walked<br />

briskly into the office. It was an oil<br />

and gas company. She looks at the<br />

clock on the wall and it was 9am<br />

on the dot. She saw 6 seats and<br />

5 were occupied. She walked to<br />

the receptionist and informed her<br />

of the reason she was there and<br />

Friday <strong>30</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

WOMEN’S HUB<br />

For Bisola, experiencing the brutal reality<br />

of first impressions was inescapable<br />

I<br />

was doing a research for an upcoming<br />

project on sustainable<br />

development goals past midnight<br />

on one of my many working<br />

nights on my bed in January this<br />

year and as I researched further,<br />

information about the kind of<br />

content I was looking for on SDG<br />

surfaced. I stumbled on the Global<br />

Festival of Action for sustainable<br />

development goals slated for 21-<br />

23rd of <strong>Mar</strong>ch in Bonn city, Germany<br />

which I had heard about in<br />

time past but never paid so much<br />

attention to.<br />

I signed up because I was excited<br />

to learn and meet global<br />

communicators, social innovators<br />

and activists, change makers<br />

and sustainability experts and also<br />

experience the culture of the host<br />

city which has so much history and<br />

culture.<br />

That feeling and role lasted<br />

for only a week as I got another<br />

mail from The UN Action Sustainable<br />

development goals campaign<br />

(media team) stating that they had<br />

evaluated the most inspiring comshe<br />

said to her “You were the last<br />

person we were waiting for. Luckily,<br />

you made it on time.”<br />

They were all ushered into a<br />

room and they took their seats.<br />

One after the other, they were<br />

called into another room and were<br />

all interviewed separately. Each<br />

one asking the other how the interview<br />

session went when they<br />

got back to their seats.<br />

The Human Resource Manager<br />

, who was part of the interview process,<br />

came back to meet them <strong>30</strong><br />

minutes after to inform them that<br />

they all did well but only one person<br />

would be given the position<br />

of being the executive assistant<br />

while the others would work in<br />

other departments within the company.<br />

They were all excited about<br />

the news and couldn’t contain<br />

their joy. She later informed them<br />

the MD/CEO would like to have a<br />

brief meeting with them and asked<br />

them to remain seated.<br />

Five minutes later, the door<br />

opened, the Human Resource<br />

Manager led the way and the next<br />

person that followed was the man<br />

at the back of the seat in the G500.<br />

Steve Balogun is his name. As he<br />

stepped in, looking dapper, the<br />

Ermenegildo Zegna bespoke suit<br />

was royal blue, sharp-looking, and<br />

well-fitted. Cut to exactness, bold<br />

across the shoulders, the perfect<br />

inverted triangle. Complementing<br />

the blue suit was a plain white<br />

Tom Ford shirt, accompanied by a<br />

Charvet white tie with fuchsia pink<br />

polka dots scattered all over the<br />

tie. The pocket square was fuchsia<br />

pink, correctly folded in and taking<br />

a peep outside the square. He<br />

looked spruce! He spotted Bisola<br />

and turned his look away so fast<br />

like he never saw her. He sat down,<br />

straightened his broad shoulders,<br />

attuned his tie to a rakish angle,<br />

and said in an engaging voice that<br />

took over the room. “Good day<br />

everyone”.<br />

By this time, Bisola was sweating<br />

profusely despite sitting not too<br />

far away from an LG Floor Standing<br />

Air Conditioner (92000 Btu/h). She<br />

began to shiver. She actually wanted<br />

to get up, open the door and run<br />

faster than her legs could allow. “I<br />

am done!” she muttered beneath<br />

her breath “I am finished! Same<br />

man whose driver I harassed…but<br />

he was blocking my way…was I<br />

rude?...but I wasn’t…I merely asked<br />

his driver to leave the way…was my<br />

tone harsh?...NO, he did not really<br />

see me…” she almost went nuts<br />

thinking and revisiting the matter in<br />

her head. She was certain she was<br />

about to experience the brutal reality<br />

of first impressions. She had no<br />

choice but to pay rapt attention like<br />

everyone did. Half of the time, she<br />

was looking above his head and he<br />

did not for a second look towards<br />

her direction.<br />

“Does anyone have any questions<br />

for me?” he asked just as he<br />

ended the welcome speech. Only<br />

two people asked questions and<br />

he responded brilliantly after which<br />

he said “Thanks, the HR Manager<br />

will be with you shortly”. He got up<br />

and left to his office. Immediately<br />

he left, Bisola thought to run out<br />

instantaneously. “There is no way<br />

on earth I am going to get this job”<br />

she thought to herself and after 10<br />

minutes , as she got up to ‘escape’,<br />

the HR Manager calls out to her and<br />

informs her that the MD wanted to<br />

see her. “Ehmm…Ma, do you mean<br />

me?” she asked and the HR Manager<br />

responded “Yes you Bisola”.<br />

There was nowhere to hide or<br />

run. She fearfully and reluctantly<br />

got up but when she realised the<br />

others were looking at her and wondering<br />

why she was acting strange<br />

after such an enviable call, she<br />

adjusted herself quickly like nothing<br />

happened. As she drew closer<br />

to the MD’s office, her heart beat<br />

was almost visible. The HRManager<br />

opened the door, she walked in, the<br />

HR Manager turned around, shut<br />

the door and she stood there utterly<br />

confused. Steve was not facing her.<br />

He was looking for a document in<br />

the drawer behind his seat. “Bisola<br />

Peters, how are you?” he said as he<br />

turned his seat around and this time<br />

he was face to face with her.<br />

Observing she was petrified,<br />

He got up, opened his windows<br />

and wittily said “…or you want<br />

to jump out of the window?”<br />

and Bisola managed to fake a<br />

smile. So he continued, “I have<br />

told the HRManager to give you<br />

the position…” “What?” she<br />

exclaimed and he responded<br />

“Oh!, so you can speak?... Interesting!”<br />

And she said in a<br />

shaky voice, “Uhmm...I am sorry<br />

sir, I did not mean to exclaim, I<br />

was only shocked sir”. He gave<br />

a brief smirk on his face and<br />

continued “I am not a lion Bisola<br />

and I don’t eat people so relax.<br />

You are starting your job next<br />

week. You can leave now” to<br />

which she responded “Yes sir,<br />

thank you sir” and as she turned<br />

around rapidly to leave the office,<br />

walking towards the door,<br />

she heard his voice say “Onomatopoeia!”<br />

she knew he was<br />

definitely talking to her even<br />

though he did not mention her<br />

name. So she turned back and<br />

he said “Onomatopoeia is when<br />

a word’s pronunciation imitates<br />

its sound…`while speaking<br />

to my driver, you said ‘Honk<br />

the horn’. That is an example<br />

of Onomatopoeia…by the way,<br />

you should work on your temper,<br />

it will help you always.”<br />

“Thanks sir” she said and left<br />

so fast because she wanted to<br />

ensure there was no reason for<br />

her to turn again.<br />

When she got out, they all<br />

looked at her like “how did<br />

it go?” and she responded<br />

openly to their thoughts “I got<br />

the job!” And as they all congratulated<br />

her, she said to them<br />

“the congratulation goes to us<br />

all after all, as we have earlier<br />

been told, you all have jobs in<br />

different departments in same<br />

organisation”.<br />

Bisola started a week later.<br />

Jittery at the initial stage but<br />

soon found out that her boss<br />

was one of the easiest persons<br />

to work with. Very meticulous<br />

about his work but truly an inspiration<br />

to her on work ethics,<br />

dedication to duty and integrity<br />

on every level. 18 months and<br />

counting, Bisola has no plans<br />

to change jobs….yet!<br />

From her point of view<br />

CHISOM OGBUMUO<br />

My Global Festival of Action experience<br />

municators, storytelling and social<br />

media advocates and influencers for<br />

SDGs from all world regions and I<br />

had been chosen to be an SDG story<br />

scouter, whose role is to be the main<br />

voice capturing the voices, energy,<br />

atmosphere and tapping the most<br />

exciting stories happening at the<br />

Global Festival of Action for sustainable<br />

development goals.<br />

That automatically meant that<br />

my role in being just a delegate<br />

had vanished and work took over. I<br />

absolutely loved that and grateful to<br />

be accredited for my past jobs done.<br />

A week before the festival, we<br />

had webinar to enable us virtually<br />

meet each other as colleagues and<br />

as well Yusuf Omar, who is a CNN<br />

senior social media influencer, Tedx<br />

Speaker and co-founder of Hashtag<br />

Our Stories, trained us on storytelling<br />

and engaging communities<br />

through social media.<br />

All story scouters as well as other<br />

team members from other departments<br />

arrived at the venue which<br />

is The World Conference Centre<br />

on Tuesday morning for brief,<br />

committee meetings and trainings<br />

to yield the guide and agenda for<br />

the festival, and also collected our<br />

identification cards.<br />

The festival officially commenced<br />

with the sound of beat<br />

boxing and call for actions done<br />

at The SDG studio. Director, UN<br />

Global Festival of Action, Mitchell<br />

Toomey, addressed us about the<br />

purpose of the festival and the<br />

#leavenoonebehind which was one<br />

of the major hashtags for the festival.<br />

The festival featured an SDG<br />

studio booth for a series of dynamic<br />

discussions, cross-generational<br />

dialogues, press moments, webcast<br />

interviews and inspiring talks showcasing<br />

change-making initiatives<br />

and revolutionary solutions to key<br />

global challenges. This interactive<br />

space will serve as a platform to<br />

engage participants in constructive<br />

conversations for the achievement of<br />

the Sustainable Development Goals.<br />

An Innovation fair also took<br />

place to showcase novel approaches<br />

to advancing the SDGs. Over the<br />

course of three days, the fair invited<br />

people to get their hands ‘dirty’ with<br />

some of the best examples of immersive<br />

storytelling, data, tech and<br />

community organising.<br />

A wide array of organisations<br />

showcased some of the best new<br />

tools out there to involve people in<br />

policy decision making, mitigate<br />

the challenges revolving around<br />

the SDGs, make them more accessible,<br />

providing participants<br />

with new chances to discuss,<br />

explore and connect with the<br />

masterminds behind the latest<br />

innovations across the globe.<br />

There was an official selection<br />

of films curated by the UN SDG<br />

Action Campaign to inspire SDG<br />

actors worldwide to scale up their<br />

action.<br />

Key points I learnt at the festival<br />

includes; there is no democracy<br />

without the youth, a collection<br />

of little actions will generate the<br />

largest positive acts in history, we<br />

need more bravery, tenacity and<br />

innovation to get the message and<br />

importance of SGDS beyond the<br />

usual suspects and actors.<br />

Others include: Our voice,<br />

our power, our solidarity are the<br />

success ingredients for any global<br />

ingredients and if we want to go<br />

far, there has to be unity of inclusiveness.<br />

The festival served as a platform<br />

to share ideas and thoughts<br />

and collaborate with every participant<br />

on how to achieve the<br />

agenda 20<strong>30</strong> of the sustainable<br />

development goals.


BUSINESS DAY<br />

Insight<br />

NEWS YOU CAN TRUST I FRIDAY <strong>30</strong> MARCH <strong>2018</strong> C002D5556<br />

Thoughts from a Renaissance man<br />

Corruption, business reforms and the law. When the data don’t<br />

say what you think they will say, criticise the data<br />

We h a v e<br />

discovered<br />

that<br />

corruption<br />

ranks<br />

should not be taken too<br />

seriously<br />

Why has Bahrain shown<br />

the worst deterioration in<br />

the latest Corruption Perceptions<br />

Index (CPI), dropping<br />

from 70th place globally<br />

to 103rd? What went so<br />

wrong with Nigeria’s anticorruption<br />

campaign that it<br />

fell from 136th in the world<br />

to 148th, as its score fell<br />

from 28/100 to 27 when we<br />

thought it could rise above<br />

<strong>30</strong>? And has Kenya really<br />

been so successful in fighting<br />

corruption, such that<br />

its score and rank both rose<br />

in an election year? One<br />

answer (on Nigeria at least)<br />

is that our expectations<br />

were wrong, but obviously<br />

we want to disregard that<br />

absurd possibility. Luckily,<br />

we found a good reason to<br />

avoid self-criticism.<br />

A number of oil exporters<br />

could see dramatic rank<br />

changes in the coming years<br />

It turns out that the CPI<br />

includes an ‘error range’<br />

that reflects what can be<br />

very large variations in responses<br />

to the CPI survey.<br />

That error range narrowed<br />

dramatically in Bahrain this<br />

year, so some respondents<br />

offered virtually no change<br />

in Bahrain’s score, while<br />

others changed their view<br />

(or stopped responding).<br />

We cannot be certain that<br />

corruption worsened at all.<br />

The error range means that<br />

Kenya may have worsened<br />

in 2017 and Nigeria may<br />

have risen to 1<strong>30</strong>th place.<br />

Egypt might be ranked as<br />

highly as Mauritius, instead<br />

of being just above the worst<br />

EM performers Russia and<br />

Mexico. We find a number<br />

of countries that might in<br />

the future see a dramatic<br />

change in rank if there is a<br />

narrowing of the error range<br />

(UAE, Czechia and Egypt in<br />

EM, as well as Saudi Arabia,<br />

Oman, Azerbaijan, Zimbabwe<br />

and Belarus).<br />

Despite this discovery,<br />

we find the CPI useful, and<br />

think that marked improvements<br />

in Argentina, Morocco<br />

and Greece are helpful<br />

in attracting investor attention,<br />

while falls in Hungary<br />

and Poland or a poor score<br />

in Turkey, Russia, Mexico<br />

and Egypt are challenges<br />

governments would do well<br />

to try and address.<br />

We examine the winners<br />

and losers in recent surveys<br />

We also look again at the<br />

World Justice Project (WJP),<br />

which we find is strongly<br />

correlated to the CPI survey,<br />

and the World Bank’s Ease<br />

of Doing Business (EODB)<br />

survey. While we recognise<br />

the EODB can be ‘gamed’,<br />

we think countries such<br />

as India, Thailand, Kenya<br />

and Nigeria, which showed<br />

dramatic improvement over<br />

the past year, are at least trying<br />

to tell investors they care<br />

about the business environment.<br />

We think Ghana and<br />

Egypt will join these reformers<br />

in <strong>2018</strong>/2019. Lastly, we<br />

update our Renaissance<br />

Capital legal scores.<br />

Turkey and Egypt have<br />

a lot of work to do; Nigeria,<br />

Morocco, Argentina, Kazakhstan<br />

are improving<br />

Our theory that FDI<br />

should be attracted to North<br />

Africa and Turkey in the<br />

2020s is supported in Morocco’s<br />

scores and Tunisia<br />

to some extent, but is<br />

threatened by low scores in<br />

Turkey and Egypt. Reforms<br />

are required to improve<br />

their attractiveness. Within<br />

CE3, the Czech Republic<br />

is becoming differentiated<br />

vs Poland and Hungary.<br />

Argentina and Kazakhstan<br />

are showing more improvement<br />

than Vietnam among<br />

Frontier darlings. In SSA, we<br />

see progress in Nigeria and<br />

Kenya, and some positive<br />

surprises in Senegal and<br />

the Ivory Coast. We expect<br />

Ghana to improve in <strong>2018</strong>.<br />

SA should stop deteriorating.<br />

But we find again that<br />

investors do not necessarily<br />

pay up much for low<br />

corruption, a good EODB<br />

score, and an effective legal<br />

system. A large local<br />

pension fund industry can<br />

have more effect on valuations<br />

than improvements in<br />

corruption or the business<br />

environment.<br />

As regular readers will<br />

know, we usually focus on<br />

the strong link between<br />

per capita GDP and the<br />

annual corruption scores<br />

from Transparency International1<br />

(TI). Virtually all<br />

countries with a low per<br />

capita GDP have a corruption<br />

score of around<br />

20-40/100 and aside from<br />

Bhutan, none has a score of<br />

60/100 or more. By contrast,<br />

no rich country with a per<br />

capita GDP of $50k or more<br />

has a corruption score less<br />

than 60, and the majority<br />

have a score above 70. Or<br />

as the cynical might put it,<br />

corruption in rich countries<br />

Our serious point is that even<br />

when the surveys agree, and<br />

purport to show a tight range,<br />

we should be aware they may<br />

be few in number and not any<br />

more accurate in fact than a<br />

country with many surveys<br />

that have wide differences of<br />

views<br />

is legitimised and called<br />

lobbying instead.<br />

As a result, we don’t find<br />

low corruption scores in<br />

developing countries to be<br />

a surprise, nor high scores<br />

in rich countries. Our core<br />

thesis is that a rising middle<br />

class eventually demands<br />

less corruption because<br />

they dislike their taxes being<br />

stolen. In poorer countries,<br />

fewer taxes are collected<br />

from households, and the<br />

average voter (if they have a<br />

vote at all) has more pressing<br />

concerns than whether<br />

the small amount of taxes<br />

they pay directly are being<br />

stolen or not.<br />

What we do find interesting<br />

is the relative scores<br />

of countries at similar income<br />

levels. One obvious<br />

divergence from the average<br />

trend line is the scores of<br />

oil exporters which nearly<br />

always underperform what<br />

per capita GDP would imply.<br />

The implication is that<br />

the only way Russia will<br />

get a corruption score like<br />

Mauritius is if it runs out of<br />

oil and gas.<br />

But even taking this into<br />

account, we argued in 2015<br />

that Nigeria could improve<br />

its score to 35-36 by 2019<br />

despite being an oil exporter<br />

(although it would only<br />

reach 44 in 2050)2. It would<br />

be an impressive achievement<br />

for an oil exporter to<br />

be that close to the trend<br />

line in the graph above,<br />

but we felt that a president<br />

elected on a platform where<br />

fighting corruption was one<br />

of their top three priorities,<br />

could make it happen.<br />

So, we had a problem<br />

with TI’s CPI survey this<br />

year. Kenya’s score rose<br />

while Nigeria’s score fell.<br />

Now, we are not about to<br />

start doing these surveys<br />

ourselves, despite our numerous<br />

travelling experiences<br />

(and one arrest).<br />

However, what we hear on<br />

the ground about corruption<br />

trends suggests that<br />

while Kenya might deserve<br />

a better score than Nigeria,<br />

the trend has been getting<br />

worse, while the opposite<br />

is true in Nigeria. So why<br />

might the TI scores be producing<br />

such different results?<br />

As is so often the case,<br />

our quant analyst provides<br />

the answer.<br />

It turns out that the CPI<br />

survey has always included<br />

a standard error range. This<br />

reflects the fact that the survey<br />

is itself made up of other<br />

surveys. Sometimes they<br />

agree, often they don’t. The<br />

result is that the final CPI<br />

score (and rank) is only a<br />

base-case estimation within<br />

a range that might be 2 ppts<br />

higher or lower (eg Guinea<br />

Bissau) within the 0-100<br />

score, or 25 ppts higher<br />

or lower (Zimbabwe). So<br />

the base score, let alone<br />

the rank, might be pretty<br />

misleading. Moreover, it<br />

is worth noting that tight<br />

survey error ranges may<br />

not be that representative<br />

either. In Guinea Bissau’s<br />

case, there might be just<br />

two surveys each filled in by<br />

the only two sociologists in<br />

the country, who are both<br />

married to each other, coincidentally<br />

share the same<br />

star sign and who always<br />

agree on everything except<br />

whether the toilet seat<br />

should be left down. Meanwhile<br />

Zimbabwe’s surveys<br />

might come from more<br />

diverse institutions. Our<br />

serious point is that even<br />

when the surveys agree,<br />

and purport to show a tight<br />

range, we should be aware<br />

they may be few in number<br />

and not any more accurate<br />

in fact than a country with<br />

many surveys that have<br />

wide differences of views.<br />

In 2017, TI estimates that<br />

Nigeria’s CPI score could<br />

be roughly between 24-35<br />

while Kenya’s was somewhere<br />

between 25-31 or<br />

so. In our charts below, we<br />

broaden the error range to<br />

provide a 95% confidence<br />

interval.<br />

Therefore a two-point<br />

shift up in Kenya’s TI score<br />

and a downward one-point<br />

shift in Nigeria, should not<br />

be taken very seriously. It<br />

is possible that the moves<br />

were twice as large and in<br />

the opposite directions.<br />

When you cluster 179<br />

countries on a score range<br />

from 9-89 out of 100, or<br />

roughly two per point, then<br />

a difference of a point or<br />

two in either direction can<br />

make a big difference to<br />

ranks. So the headlines this<br />

year showed that Nigeria<br />

dropped from 136th to<br />

148th while Kenya edged up<br />

from 145th to 143rd place.<br />

But when we take the error<br />

range into account (just for<br />

individual countries), then<br />

Nigeria might actually have<br />

improved to 1<strong>30</strong>th place and<br />

Kenya may have dropped<br />

back to 154th place3. In<br />

the table below, we show<br />

that individual change for<br />

various EM, Frontier and<br />

African countries. To take<br />

one extreme example, Egypt<br />

might be ranked as highly<br />

as Mauritius or as low as<br />

the DRC.<br />

Source: Renaissance Capital<br />

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