BusinessDay 17 Apr 2018

Tuesday 17 April 2018
4 BUSINESS DAY
C002D5556
NEWS
Rising insecurity- Gunmen abduct German
in Kano as protest by Shiites turn violent
Gunmen in the
northern Nigerian
state of Kano
killed a policeman
and abducted a
Germany citizen on Monday as
they travelled to a construction
site, police told Reuters. The
gunmen’s motive was unclear.
Kidnapping for ransom is common
in parts of Nigeria.
Five gunmen ambushed a
vehicle carrying construction
workers and opened fire on
them along Sabon Titi Madobi
road at around 7:45 a.m, a police
spokesman said. The road is on
the outskirts of the state’s capital
city, also called Kano.
The vehicle was carrying staff
of Dantata & Sawoe Construction
Company, a Nigerian firm, to a
building site, Kano police said in
a statement. A police sergeant,
who was part of a protection
unit escorting the group, was
killed and the German man was
abducted, the statement added.
The “manhunt of the abductors
is ongoing,” said Kano
state police in a statement. The
German embassy in Nigeria
declined to comment. The company
also did not immediately
respond to calls and an email
requesting comment.
This is as the Nigerian police
fired bullets and tear gas to
disperse Shi’ite Muslim protesters
marching for their leader’s
freedom in one of the capital’s
most upmarket areas on Monday,
and organisers said several
demonstrators were wounded
by gunfire.
Islamic Movement of Nigeria
(IMN) leader Ibrahim Zakzaky
has been jailed since December
2015, when security forces killed
hundreds of members in a crackdown
on a group estimated to
have 3 millions followers.
The violent repression of the
group and the detention of its
leader have drawn accusations
that President Muhammadu
Buhari’s government is abusing
human rights. The IMN says
Zakzaky must be freed after a
court ruled his detention without
charge illegal.
The crackdown has sparked
fears that IMN could become
radicalised, in much the same
way the Sunni Muslim militant
group Boko Haram turned into a
violent insurgency in 2009 after
police killed its leader.
“As we started protesting they
started shooting tear gas and
using water cannons,” Abdullahi
Muhammad, an IMN youth
leader, told Reuters by phone.
“We refused to disperse and they
used bullets as well, and they
shot so many people.”
“They want to push us to violence
but they couldn’t, so that
is why they are using live ammunition,
thinking that killing
will stop us. No amount of killing
will stop us,” he added.
Muhammad said he witnessed
police dragging bullet-hit
protesters into a van and sitting
on them, adding that he did not
know if they were dead or alive.
At least eight other IMN
members were hit by bullets
and were now receiving treatment,
said Muhammad. An IMN
spokesman, who was also at the
protests, told Reuters at least
four people were injured.
Police did not immediately
respond to calls and texts seeking
comment.
Nearly all of the Muslims that
make up around half of Nigeria’s
population are Sunnis. The IMN
was founded in the 1980s after
the revolution in mainly Shi’ite
Iran in 1979, which inspired the
group’s founders.
A judicial inquiry after the December
2015 clashes concluded
that the military had killed 347
IMN members in Zakzaky’s home
base, the city of Zaria. Soldiers
buried the bodies in mass graves.
The group calls the incident “the
Zaria massacre”.
A Reuters journalist near the
scene of Monday’s demonstration
heard gunshots ring out and
was stung by tear gas in the air.
Videos uploaded on social
media showed wreaths of the gas
enveloping Abuja’s streets in the
upmarket Maitama district, near
the landmark Transcorp Hilton
hotel. Other videos showed protesters
pelting an armoured police
vehicle with rocks before it sped
away, and people fleeing the area.
“The only thing that will stop
these protests is when the government
frees our leader,” said
Muhammad.
L-R: Michel Puchercos, GMD/CEO, Lafarge Africa plc; Mobolaji Balogun, chairman, Lafarge Africa plc; Mosun Belo-Olusoga,
chairman, Access Bank plc; Herbert Wigwe, GMD/CEO, Access Bank plc; Oscar Onyema, CEO, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE);
Tony Elumelu, chairman, United Bank for Africa (UBA); Kenedy Uzoka, GMD/CEO, UBA; Austin Avuru, CEO, Seplat Petroleum
plc, and A.B.C. Orjiako, chairman, Seplat Petroleum plc, during the presentation of certificates to Access Bank plc, Lafarge Africa
plc, Seplat Petroleum Plc, and UBA on their migration to NSE Premium Board at The Exchange in Lagos, yesterday.
BusinessDay Journalist
wins Citi 2018
excellence award
ENDURANCE OKAFOR
Isaac Anyaogu of BusinessDay
has emerged the winner of
the 2018 Citi Journalistic Excellence
Award (CJEA).
Anyaogu is a financial journalist
and a resourceful researcher
with a passion for
impacting society.
His reports cover a variety of
topics including energy, health,
technology as well as human
interest news and events.
His goal is to provide actionable
financial intelligence
to help business and political
leaders take sound decisions,
show the implications of statistical
data and use his reports to
promote inclusive growth and
development for the country.
Anyaogu’s winning article “A
harvest of sunshine” focuses on
the how a small group of entrepreneurs
developed innovative
renewable energy solutions that
significantly improved postharvest
processing.
Anyaogu as part of Business-
Days investigative report series
visited Ba’awa and Kadabo farming
communities in Makarfi Local
government area of Kaduna
State. Pepper is the key crop in
this region and a source of revenue
for the communities.
The post-harvest process for
pepper farmers is to leave their
peppers to dry on roadsides and
other open spaces. The process
is wearisome and valuable cash
crop are damaged by birds,
rodents and rain, as well as polluted
by dust and debris.
In the article, Anyaogu stated
that Nigeria loses approximately
$9billion worth of fresh produce
annually, largely due to the
absence of an energy plan in its
agricultural policies.
A number of small scale farmers
depend on rain-fed agriculture
and are unable to preserve
their produce; hence, 40 percent
of their harvest is wasted.
This situation is driving some
Continues on page 34
NCC approves spectrum trading, transfer of...
Continued from page 1
players, who would only be able
to benefit if there is an opportunity
for spectrum to be shared or
transferred in portions.
“The cost of the license was
actually a big factor, especially
looking at the current exchange
rate. That is why we continue to say
spectrum management policy is
what we should be looking at right
now so that the cost can be shared,”
Lateef Akintunde, Director at Airtel
Nigeria, said while speaking at the
NCC stakeholder’s forum on the
licensing of the 2.6GHz spectrum
auction post mortem in Lagos.
Another issue arose after winning
bidders of particular spectrum
licences including the 2.3GHz
spectrum were unable to roll out
broadband services, even after
one year of issuance, as a result of
strict foreign exchange policies and
lack of infrastructure. They were
therefore stuck with the spectrum
license with no hope of trading or
transferring.
The information of memorandum
(IM) states that winning
bidders must roll out modalities
and preparation from the date of
license award and spectrum must
be used for broadband roll out in
1 year.
Although the IM also says that
winning bidders are required to
negotiate their own interference
agreements with adjacent users
particularly at collocation and
should investigate before agreeing
to all terms and conditions, Biodun
Omoniyi, Chief Executive Officer,
Bitflux Communications Limited,
winners of the 2.3GHz spectrum
told BusinessDay in an interview
that operating environments have
changed from the time of winning
several years ago and the company
did not foresee the recent foreign
exchange devaluation.
With these, the NCC took into
consideration, the importance of
broadband and resolved in allowing
operators to trade and transfer
licenses in order to facilitate the roll
out of broadband infrastructure
and deepen penetration.
Austine Nwaulune, Director,
Spectrum Administration, NCC,
said a while ago that the commission
would make sure that the 1
year deadline for service roll out is
strictly adhered to as “this industry
is so much in need of broadband
service that we cannot afford any
delays.”
Lanre Ajayi, at the time he was
President of Association of Telecommunications
Companies
of Nigeria (ATCON), said he was
of the opinion that the Nigerian
market is big enough to have a
secondary spectrum market.
“There are a large number of
idle spectrums in the custody of
some operators while numerous
investors are yearning for spectrum
to roll out services. It makes sense
to allow such owners to sell to new
buyers who may have need for the
spectrum.
“However, participation at secondary
market should be limited
to those who obtained spectrum
through competitive bidding, like
auction to avoid a scenario where
people use their contact to obtain
spectrum from the government
and sell in the secondary market,”
Ajayi said.
Meanwhile Iconnect, a subsidiary
of HIS has surrendered the Infraco
license it recently won for the
provision of broadband services to
the North Central Zone.
This was disclosed by Danbatta,
yesterday.
“Very soon we will advertise
for new firms to take up the North
Central Infraco license,” he said.
The EVC in his address to the
media also mentioned that Nigeria’s
mobile money penetration
will grow only on the back of telcos.
“Kenya has about 60 percent
mobile money service penetration,
while Ghana has about 40 percent
service penetration. Even with a
lot more population numbers, Nigeria
remains at 1 percent because
unfortunately, the Nigerian model
is bank led.
However, there are challenges
on the telecommunications infrastructure
in Nigeria, including
security, because the networks
must be secure and incorporate
measures that will ensure security
of financial transactions in Nigeria.
The networks in this country are
not secure enough to provide that
kind of service, so discussions are
going on about how we can appoint
telecommunication companies as
super agents or through the introduction
of special purpose benefits,
which is also telco dependent, in
order to improve on the level of
penetration,” Danbatta said.