BusinessDay 22 May 2018

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news you can trust I **tuesDAY 22 may 2018 I vol. 15, no 59 I N300 @ g 

Catholics 

protest killings 

in Nigeria 

... As Pope leads 50 bishops to bury 

Benue slain priests, parishioners 

James Kwen, Abuja 

The Catholic faithful 

across Nigeria are embarking 

on peaceful protest 

over continued killings in 

the country today. 

The protest which holds simultaneously 

in all states and 

dioceses in Nigeria is not for 

Catholics alone but other Chris- 

Continues on page 4 

MTN Nigeria forecasts 

strong performance 

ahead of IPO 

…EBITDA up 24% to 

N104bn in Q1 2018 

…margins expand to 41.8% 

DIPO OLADEHINDE 

As the days of its potential 

listing draws closer, investors 

are already getting a 

taste of what to come as MTN 

Nigeria, forecasts strong financial 

performance in the coming 


Inside 

Negative trade growth 

slows Nigeria’s Q1 2018 

GDP to 1.95% 

P. 2 

Nigeria needs 5 Vice 

Presidents, six-year single 

term for Presidents 

– Soludo 

P. 2 

Ajaokuta, Aluminium 

Smelter, coal mines 

lie idle as Fayemi 

leaves office 

Nigeria’s minister of solid 

minerals development 

Kayode Fayemi will be 

leaving office any moment from 

now to pursue his governorship 

ambition in Ekiti State, but he is 

L-R: Ernest Ebi, former deputy governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)/chairman, Fidelity Bank plc; Gbenga 

leaving behind a trail of mori- 

Olaniyan, chairman/CEO, Olaniyan and Associates/Estatelinks, and Oluseyi Bickersteth, former chairman, 

KPMG Africa, at the 25th anniversary of Estatelinks in Lagos. 


CBN sacks E-tranzact directors 

FRANK ELEANYA 

The Central Bank of Nigeria 

(CBN) has asked 

the chief executive 

officer, Valentine Obi, 

and two executive directors, 

Sulivan Akala and Ike 

Eze of e-Tranzact an electronic 

payment platform, to resign, 

BusinessDay can reveal. 

The move also saw the immediate 

termination of the appointment 

of the chief technology 

officer (CTO), Richard Omoniyi 

and chief operating officer, Kehinde 

Segun. 

According to a source familiar 

with the matter, the management 

were asked to resign following 

allegations of N11 billion 

fraud perpetrated through its 

platform. 

The CBN has appointed auditors 

from PricewaterhouseCoopers 

(PwC) and Ernst & Young to 

go through the books of e-Tranzact, 

sources told BusinessDay. 

The Economic and Financial 

Crimes Commission (EFCC), Lagos 

Zonal office, in April arrested 

Michael Osasogie Obasuyi, Managing 

Director, Platinum Multipurpose 

Cooperative Society 

Limited, for alleged offenses 

bordering on conspiracy, cybercrime 

and money laundering to 

the tune of N 11.498 billion. 

Obasuyi, who is also the Managing 

Director of Smartmicro 

Systems Limited, had written 

a petition in March 2018 to the 

Commission against e-tranzact. 

However, in a twist, e-tranzact 

had also written a counterpetition 

against Smartmicro and 

Obasuyi, which led the Commission 

to begin investigations into 

the activities of Obasuyi. 

Smartmicro was alleged to 

have approached e-tranzact in 

2012 for the deployment of bulk 

purchase solution called “Corporatepay” 

to facilitate payment 

of salaries of Delta State employees 

in microfinance banks. 

E-tranzact then allegedly 

configured an additional outbound 

fund transfer solution 

called “Fundgate” in 2017, which 

required Smartmicro to maintain 

a pre-funded settlement 

account with a first generation 

ODINAKA ANUDU 

Over N11bn fraud perpetrated on its payment platform 

Fayemi 

bank for settlement of account 

it had initiated. 

However, the first generation 

bank, sometime in March 2018, 

revealed to e-tranzact that the 

settlement account was in debit 

to the tune N11, 498,944,038.29. 

Sources say Obasuyi, in his 

statement to the Commission, 

confessed to having committed 

the crime, stating that he created 

fraudulent and imaginary monies 

through the aid of Fundgate 

financial application from the 

company. 

The Commission, in the 

course of an investigation, has 

recovered a paper version of the 

programme called MicroSwitch- 

Server1, which he allegedly used 

Continues on page 2

Tuesday 22 May 2018 

2 BUSINESS DAY 

C002D5556 

NEWS 

Negative trade growth slows 

Nigeria’s Q1 2018 GDP to 1.95% 

... non-oil sector contribution declines as oil spikes 

BUNMI BAILEY & OLALEKAN IPELE 

First quarter 2018 GDP 

growth slowed by 

0.16 percent to 1.95 

percent, compared to 

2.11 percent expansion 

recorded in Q4 2017, according 

to the National Bureau 

of Statistics (NBS) GDP report 

released yesterday, contrary to 

continuous quarterly growth 

expectation of analysts. 

Analysts have attributed the 

decline to the fall in the contribution 

of the trade sector to GDP. 

The trade sector declined by -4.64 

percent, falling from 2.07 percent 

in Q4 2017 to -2.57 percent in Q1 

2018. Equally, the services sector 

growth fell by -0.57 percent from 

0.10 percent in Q4 2017 to – 0.47 

percent in Q1 2018. 

BusinessDay analysis of the 

NBS report shows that GDP 

grew year-on year by 2.87 percentage 

points to 1.95 percent 

in Q1 2018 from -0.91 percent in 

Q1 2017 when the country was 

still in recession. 

“Attention should be focused 

on the growth of the trade sector. 

It accounts for more than 50 

percent of Nigeria’s total GDP. 

So long as this sector remains in 

the negative territory in terms of 

growth; our overall GDP growth 

is going to remain stunted. The 

sector’s contribution to GDP 

dropped from 2.07 percent in 

Q4 2017 to -2.57 percent in Q1 

2018 which is why we have seen 

this slowed growth,” Ibrahim 

Tajudeem, Head of Research, 

Chapel hill Denham said on 

phone. 

“The industrial sector, a sub 

sector of the manufacturing 

sector is doing very well, reflecting 

the priority of the monetary 

policy authorities to ensure that 

manufacturers have access to 

Foreign Exchange to import raw 

material for their production. 

However, traders are not feeling 

the recovery yet. Bear in mind 

the 41 items are still under ban. 

Traders do not manufacture, 

they likely just buy and sell.” 

“The agricultural sector and 

the industrial sector grew by 

3 percent and 6.86 percent 

respectively, had these growth 

rates been recorded by the trade 

sector, we would have seen a 

better GDP growth figure,” Tajudeem 

concluded. 

CBN sacks E-tranzact... 

Continued from page 1 

to create and post the imaginary 

monies. 

He also admitted having 

diverted to his personal use 

the sum of N7, 519, 381, 202 

out of the total sum of N11, 

498,944,038.29. 

“Part of the money has been 

recovered,” sources told BusinessDay. 

The EFCC statement confirmed 

that the sums of N2, 

Johnson Chukwu, CEO, Cowry 

asset management limited 

said that the slowing growth rate 

should be a major concern to 

the government and managers 

of the economy. 

Despite the decline, analysts 

are optimistic about the prospects 

of the economy since this 

is the fourth quarterly consecutive 

positive expansion Africa’s 

largest economy is witnessing 

since exiting recession in Q1, 

2017, driven by increased oil 

production and prices. 

Further improvements in 

foreign exchange liquidity and 

a rebound in non-oil activity 

especially the manufacturing 

and agricultural sectors are also 

a contributing growth factor. 

Ayodeji Ebo, MD, of Lagosbased 

financial advisory, Afrinvest 

said, “On a year on year 

basis, we expect the economy 

to be upward steady. We have 

seen continuous stability in FX 

market, good business environment, 

manufacturing companies 

are improving, Purchasing 

Managers’ Index (PMI) has 

been improving etc. so on the 

back of these we expect positive 

momentum in Q3 to Q4.” 

Chukwu said that the econo- 

my will improve but depends on 

the stability of the political environment 

as the country nears 

pre-election activities in Q3 and 

the budget implementation. 

Sector contribution to GDP is 

classed into the oil and non-oil 

sector. The Real growth of the 

oil sector increased by 30.37 

percentage point’s year-on-year 

to 14.77 percent in Q1 2018 from 

15.6 percent recorded in the 

corresponding quarter of 2017. 

On a Quarter-on-Quarter basis, 

the oil sector grew by 13.24 percent 

in Q1 2018. 

The oil sector contributed 

9.61 percent to total real GDP 

in Q1 2018, up from 8.53 percent 

and 7.35 percent recorded 

in the Q1 2017 and Q4 2017, 

respectively 

“Nigeria’s Oil GDP was 14.77 

percent in Q1 2018 compared to 

non-oil GDP of less than 1 percent. 

A testimony to the impact 

of higher oil price, we expect 

robust Oil GDP growth for the 

first three quarters of 2018, due 

to higher oil price and low base 

effect,”Jubril Kareen, energy 

analyst, Ecobank said in a tweet. 

The non-oil sector grew by 

0.76 percent in real terms during 

the reference quarter. This 

is higher by 0.04 percent point 

compared to the rate recorded 

same quarter of 2017 and 0.70 

percent point lower than the 

fourth quarter of 2017. 

This sector was driven mainly 

by Agriculture (Crop production); 

other drivers were financial 

institutions and insurance, 

Manufacturing, Transportation 

and Storage and Information 

and Communication. 

In real terms, the Non-Oil 

sector contributed 90.39 percent 

to the nation’s GDP, lower 

than 91.47 percent recorded 

in the first quarter of 2017 and 

92.65 percent recorded in the 

fourth quarter of 2017. 

In the 2018 budget, the government 

projected a growth rate of 3.5 

percent but some analysts have 

said that with the current growth 

figure GDP recorded in Q1 2018, it 

might not be achievable. 

“With this 1.95 percent 

growth rate, I don’t think we 

will achieve the 2018 budget 

growth rate projection. The 

build up to the 2019 general 

elections may not allow us 

enjoy the full benefits of some 

of the economic policies but I 

see us ending around 2.2 or 2.3 

percent,” Chukwu said 

L-R: Emmanuel Ikazoboh, group chairman, Ecobank Transnational; Oscar Onyema, CEO, Nigerian Stock 

Exchange; UK Eke, GMD, FBN Holdings plc, and Anthony Okpanachi, CEO, Development Bank of Nigeria, 

at the Africa Development Bank annual general meeting at Busan, South Korea. 

903,737,563.92, $37,992.87 and 

€18,538.09 found in Obasuyi’s 

accounts in various banks in the 

country were recovered. 

“However, several watchers 

are also thinking that CBN 

has not been fair to e-Tranzact 

because they were not the perpetrator 

of the fraud,” another 

source said. 

E-Tranzact CEO, Valentine 

Obi told BusinessDay in a phone 

conversation that “There is nothing 

like that please.” 

BusinessDay also reached out 

to Africa Capital Alliance (ACA), 

one of the major shareholders in 

e-Tranzact, for a statement on 

the development. An ACA representative 

said the firm was not 

in the best position to respond. 

The Acting Director of Corporate 

Communications Department 

(CCD) at the CBN, 

Isaac Okorafor, said that he was 

unaware of the development 

when BusinessDay contacted 

him seeking a statement on the 

report. 

Other FinTech sources tell 

BusinessDay that the CBN may 

have asked majority shareholders 

to take out the management 

of E-transact. 

The sources added that discussions 

are currently ongoing 

on a golden parachute - a 

compensation package for top 

executives who are terminated 

- pay package to compensate 

the founder/CEO and other top 

executives asked to resign. 

Nigeria needs 5 Vice 

Presidents, sixyear 

single term for 

Presidents – Soludo 

... would compound 

Nigeria’s problems, not 

restructuring -Stakeholders 

Iniobong Iwok with agency report 

Former Governor of Central 

Bank Charles Chukwuma 

Soludo, yesterday called for 

a single term of six years for the 

country’s presidents. 

Soludo who is a Professor of 

economics, made the call at the 

Alex Ekwueme Square, Awka, 

Anambra State, while speaking at 

the South East summit on restructuring 

Nigeria. 

He also suggested that the 

country should have five vice 

presidents, each representing a 

geopolitical zone. 

Pointing out those presidents 

should serve for a single term and 

the years of the term should be extended 

from four years to six years, 

Soludo said: “The tenure of office of 

the President shall be a single term 

of six years. 

“There shall be five Vice Presidents, 

one from each of the six 

geopolitical zones.” 

Soludo’s comments come as 

a reawakening of calls by notable 

Nigerians for the restructuring of 

the country. 

Also speaking at the summit 

was the President of the Ohaneze, 

John Nwodo, who called for equality 

in the affairs of the nation. 

The summit was attended by 

the Deputy Senate President, Ike 

Ekweremadu; former Minister 

of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana; 

Governor of Anambra State, Willie 

Obiano; Senator Enyinnaya 

Abaribe, former APGA Chairman, 

Victor Umeh; Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu 

and Niger Delta leader 

Edwin Clark, amongst others. 

But reacting to the suggestion 

by Soludo, some political stake 

holders in the country who spoke 

in separate telephone interview 

with Business day dismissed the 

former central bank Governor’s 

statement, noting that the suggestion 

was not the long term solution 

to the nation’s woes as it was meant 

to benefit some individuals. 

Leader of Pan Yoruba cultural 

organisations, Afenifere, Ruben 

Fasoranti said that what the organisation 

had been agitating for 

was a complete restructuring of 

the country. 

He said: “Six years single tenure 

may be ok, in this current system 

but for me restructuring is the 

solution.” 

Speaking in similar vein, the 

Lagos state chairman of Action 

Democratic Party, (ADP) Adewale 

Bolaji, said Soludo’s suggestion 

would only increase rivalries 

among the states in the regions 

that may be fighting to present 

candidates for the vice president 

position, stressing that Soludo’s 

suggestion was not restructuring 

but satisfying some individuals. 

He said: “ I don’t agree with him 

, that may be his opinion I think 

it is to satisfy some people, this 

would increase rancour among the 

Continues on page 4

Tuesday 22 May 2018 C002D5556 BUSINESS DAY 3 

The future of banking is digital - Temenos 

ENDURANCE OKAFOR 

Temenos, the banking software 

company, in its fifth 

series on the future of retail 

banking disclosed that the future 

of banking is digital, as there is a 

significant shift in the strategic 

concerns of banking executives 

worldwide. 

“Technology is now the enabler, 

which will empower banks 

to build digital ecosystems and 

capitalize on the open banking 

opportunity. IT renovation 

is key to banks’ strategy and, 

indeed, their very existence; as 

they will need to redefine their 

business models in the new API 

economy,” David Arnott, Chief 

Executive Officer at Temenos, 

stated. 

The is based on the introduction 

of new digital technologies 

and the rise of the smartphone 

which has replaced post-financial 

crisis regulation as the drivers 

of strategic thinking at banks 

around the world. 

Therefore, Integrating open 

banking that allows apps to initiate 

payments and other financial 

transactions is core to adapting to 

the digital banking age. 

The report, conducted for 

Temenos by the Economist Intelligence 

Unit (EIU), offered 

a global investigation into the 

strategic concerns of retail banking 

executives. 

It revealed that 78 percent 

of bankers worldwide believe 

Nigeria loses N1.493trn to lottery operators 

KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja 

Nigeria’s House of Representatives 

on Monday 

threatened to recommend 

revocation of licences 

of lottery operators over loss of 

N1.493 trillion revenue. 

Bello Maigari, acting executive 

secretary of National Lottery 

Trust Fund (NLTF), who spoke 

during an investigative public 

hearing held at the instance of 

House Committee on Inter-Governmental 

Affairs, said meagre 

sum of N7 billion was realised by 

the Fund over the past 13 years. 

Maigari, who cited lack of effective 

regulation in the industry 

as a major factor hindering 

improved revenue drive, said, 

“The Nigerian lottery market 

according to industry experts 

is the most attractive market 

in the whole of Africa. 

”The industry is worth over 

N1.5 trillion as we speak. Lottery 

and gaming businesses 

have continued to flourish 

without proper regulation.” 

YOMI AYELESO, Akure 

Senator representing Ondo 

North Senatorial District, 

Ajayi Boroffice, has called 

on the Inspector General of 

Police, Ibrahim Idris, and Ondo 

state commissioner of Police, 

Gbenga Adeyanju, to arrest 

and prosecute those that attacked 

some journalists during 

the Saturday’s All Progressives 

Congress (APC) state congress 

in Akure, the Ondo State capital. 

It would be recalled that 

political thugs attacked some 

journalists during a parallel state 

congress of the party in Akure. 

Boroffice stated this during 

that platformisation of banking 

will steer the market according 

to the in-depth survey released 

yesterday, May 21, 2018. 

A breakdown of the report 

shows that for the first time in 

its 5 year retail banking survey 

history, technology and digital 

are bigger trends than regulation, 

as product agility is now the top 

strategic priority for 52 percent of 

the survey respondents. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) was 

also becoming a key part of the 

new technology mix, but uncertainty 

however remains over the 

user experience, as compiled 

from the report. 

A further breakdown of the 

report revealed 71 percent of 

respondents are focusing their 

digital investment on cyber security, 

up from only 34 percent 

reported last year. 

“Banking has reached a watershed 

moment with changing 

customer behaviours, disruptive 

new technologies and a dramatic 

increase in competitors from 

within and outside of banking. 

The most enlightened banks 

understand that to become truly 

digital they need to update their 

systems front-to-back. This will 

fulfil their business need for product 

agility; they can offer the right 

products, over the right channel, 

and at the right time,” Arnott said. 

Although the impact of open 

banking and tighter security and 

data rules is not clear, according 

to the report, 71 percent are 

focusing their digital investment 

While noting that lottery 

has significantly contributed 

to the gross domestic product 

of many countries across the 

continent, Maigari added that 

about 7.5 million to 22 million 

Nigerians engage in lottery and 

sport betting daily. 

“Records at our disposal 

indicate that cumulative returns 

of about five years stood 

at about 7.2 billion, and this is 

unacceptable in a nation with 

so much potential like Nigeria. 

“We’ve lost N1.43 trillion to 

defaulting lottery operators that 

refused to pay their remittances 

since the inception of the lottery 

gaming system,” he said. 

According to Maigari, “operators 

are expected to remit 20 

percent of their earnings in the 

first five years and subsequent 

five years but thereafter they 

are expected to pay 27 percent. 

“But for 13 years now the 

operators have failed to adhere 

to relevant laws governing lottery 

operations in Nigeria.” 

In his remarks, Lanre Gbaa 

solidarity visit to the members 

of NUJ Correspondents’ Chapel 

office on Monday in Akure, noting 

that the attacked was very 

crude, barbaric and uncalled for, 

considering the important roles 

journalists play in the society. 

He said: “I call on Inspector 

General of Police and Commissioner 

of Police in the state to 

investigate and bring to book 

those found culpable in the 

dastardly act. It is disheartening, 

embarrassing and suspicious 

that such attack could happen in 

the presence of security agents. 

“The journalists were merely 

doing their work to give fair and 

equal reportage to the faction 

on cyber security, only 17 percent 

are thinking about the risks from 

third-party relationships as a 

result of open banking. 

Temenos however advised 

that banks can take the fintechs 

on by building all-encompassing 

platforms that are seamless with 

other products and services, as 

digital investments are being directed 

to digital channel delivery 

capabilities such as mobile (cited 

by 54 percent of respondents), 

cloud-based technologies (48 

percent), and in modernising 

front- and back-end systems 

(37percent). 

The future of retail banking 

as projected by Temenos might 

have already started rubbing off 

on Nigerian banks, considering 

the last National Bureau of Statistics 

(NBS) banking sector report 

for the first quarter of 2018, which 

had more digital transactions 

than the traditional banking. 

A total volume of over 457.2 

million transactions valued at 

N32.48 trillion were recorded in 

Q1 2018 as data on electronic 

payment channels in the Nigeria 

banking sector. 

The report indicated Automated 

Teller Machine (ATM) 

transactions as being the dominant 

or the highest volume of 

transactions in the banking sector. 

It showed that 212.3million 

volume of ATM transactions 

valued at N1.568 trillion were 

recorded in the first quarter of 

this year. 

jabiamila, director-general of 

National Lottery Regulatory 

Commission (NLRC), admitted 

that the Commission had 

a lot of work to do in bringing 

the sector to an acceptable 

international pedestal. 

To achieve the feat, he 

harped on the need for immediate 

overhaul of the obsolete 

legislative framework on lottery 

in Nigeria. 

According to Gbajabiamila, 

President Buhari approved total 

number of 21 operators recommended 

by the Commission. 

”A lot has been said from 

the speeches of the chairman 

and Mr Speaker, which I concur 

with, and we still have lots of 

work to do, as our laws are outdated 

and need to be re-jigged. 

”We need this House, especially 

the committee to help 

us in updating the lottery and 

gaming laws, they are outdated 

and a lot of things are going 

on out there that need to be 

tapped into using enabling 

legislations. 

Attack on journalists: Boroffice urges IGP to prosecute culprits 

and by extension to enable 

member of public to know the 

outcome of the exercise. Every 

civilised society respect journalists 

even during the war because 

any society that shuns journalists 

is dead.” 

Boroffice, who is also chairman 

of Senate Committee on 

Science and Technology, said 

that his visit was to show solidarity 

and salute the courage 

and commitment of journalists 

despite the intimidation. 

He therefore urged all journalists 

to continue playing their 

statutory roles, saying time 

would come when they would 

operate without molestation. 

NEWS 

Exchange rate unification to move Nigeria 

to a more diversified economy - IMF 

ENDURANCE OKAFOR 

International Monetary 

Fund (IMF), an organisation 

whose aim is to 

ensure the stability of 

the international monetary 

system, has urge Nigeria to 

scrap the multiple exchange 

rate in order to help move 

Africa’s largest economy to 

a more diversified state. 

The Washington-based 

organisation made this 

known through its representative 

in Nigeria at the 

Regional Economic Outlook 

held in Lagos yesterday, 21 

May, 2018. 

“Full exchange rate unification 

would help reduce 

the parallel market premium 

in a sustainable manner 

and help Nigeria move 

towards a more diversified 

economy. This would be 

achieved through increased 

market confidence, reduce 

distortions and increased 

transparency, including in 

financial market reporting,” 

Amine Mati, Senior Resident 

Representative and 

Mission Chief for Nigeria 

Africa Department, IMF told 

BusinessDay. 

Multiple exchange rate 

and foreign exchange re- 

strictions as explained by 

IMF, creates distortions in 

private and public decision 

making, discourage 

long-term investment, and 

provide opportunities for 

corruption. 

The organisation however 

applauded the recent 

progress made towards unifying 

some of the exchange 

rate windows and said it is 

very welcomed. 

The Investors’ & Exporters’ 

(I&E) FX window established 

by the Godwin 

Emefiele led CBN in April 

2017 on the aftermath of 

the foreign exchange crisis 

that hit the country following 

the 2014 global crash 

in the prices of crude oil, 

topped the BusinessDay’s 

list of policies and ideas 

that impacted positively on 

the economy in general and 

Nigerians in particular in 

the year 2017. 

I&E, the new FX window 

for investors and exporters 

quickly lifted investor 

confidence in the foreign 

exchange market, improved 

price discovery, helped to 

attract dollar inflows from 

Foreign Portfolio Investors 

(FPIs), initiated the 

gradual re-introduction of 

a liquid inter-bank market 

and boosted production 

capacity in the manufacturing 

sector. 

Meanwhile, Bismarck 

Rewane, MD of Financial 

Derivatives said a unified 

and flexible exchange rate 

can lead to a single exchange 

rate window. 

“When policy rigidity is 

eliminated in regards to exchange 

rate, it will increase 

both domestic and foreign 

investment, as a market 

driven exchange rate makes 

both exit and entry into the 

market an easy transaction 

which can restore investors’ 

confidence,” Rewane said in 

a telephone response. 

This is coming after the 

Presidential Enabling Business 

Environment Council 

(PEBEC) announced its 

2018 ease of doing business 

outlook where it pointed 

out the implementation of 

a Single Window Platform 

(SWP) as one of its project 

it wish to achieve by the end 

of 2018. 

An analyst who preferred 

to be quoted anonymously 

however said it is above the 

pay grade of the PECEC, 

that it is the decision of the 

central bank of Nigeria.



C002D5556 

NEWS 

Catholics protest killings in Nigeria... 


L-R: Ijeoma Anadozie, associate director, Nigeria, Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (CIMA); 

Badibanga Badi Promesse, regional vice president, CIMA; Ismaila Zakari, president, ICAN, and Razak Jaiyeola, vice 

president, ICAN, during the signing of MoU between CIMA and ICAN in Abuja, yesterday. Pic by Tunde Adeniyi 

Ajaokuta, Aluminium Smelter, coal mines... 


bund Ajaokuta Steel Complex, 

troubled Aluminium Smelter 

Company of Nigeria (ALSCON) 

and coal mines that are lying idle. 

Fayemi had, in March this year, 

restated the federal government’s 

intention to concession the Ajaokuta 

Steel Complex, saying the 

country would no longer waste 

public funds on the complex. 

“Some people will say Ajaokuta 

is 98 per cent completed, or that it 

is 90 per cent completed, but if you 

probe further, you will discover that 

you would not get any response 

from the campaigners,’’ he said at 

an interactive session with newsmen 

in Abuja on March 8. 

At an earlier 2nd Nigeria Mining 

Week held in October 2017 in 

Abuja, he had disclosed government’s 

resolution of the conflict 

tian denominations. 

This will be the first time the 

Church known for its perceived 

conservative disposition unlike 

other churches is embarking on a 

protest as the Church always take 

the dialogue approach to issues. 

The protest apart from being in 

response to the continued killings, 

particularly that of Christian minorities 

in the north, is in solidarity with 

the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi 

which today buries two priests and 

17 Parishioners killed recently by 

armed Fulani herdsmen. 

Two priests of the Catholic 

Diocese of Makurdi, Rev. Fathers 

Joseph Gor and Felix Tyolaha 

were killed on the altar during 

early morning mass along with 17 

parishioners at St. Ignatius Mission, 

Mbalom Gwer- East Local 

Government, Benue State late last 

month by armed Fulani herdsmen. 

Representative of Pope Francis 

to Nigeria (Papal Nuncio), Archbishop 

Antonio Guido is leading 50 

Catholic Bishops to the mass burial 

of the two priests and the parishioners 

at the Se Suu Maria Pilgrimage 

Centre, Igbor, Benue State. 

Director of Communications, 

Catholic Diocese of Makurdi, Rev. 

Father Moses Iorapuu who disclosed 

this to newsmen said the date of the 

funeral which was chosen during 

the bishops’ conference in Rome coincided 

with the date the anti-open 

grazing law was passed by the Benue 

State House of Assembly. 

“The local church here (Benue) 

was under attack as the bishops 

were in a conference in Rome; so 

the Pope got primary information. 

“It was there the decision was 

taken with the local church and they 

fixed the burial for May 22. All the 

bishops agreed, the divine coincidence 

of this is that it was May 22, 

2017 that the anti-open grazing bill 

was passed by the state assembly. 

“Exactly after one year, this is 

what we have to show; the priests 

and many others who were killed. 

The bishops will be here in their 

numbers but what they have done 

is to be sure that the burial has 

wider coverage and wider participation,” 

Iorapuu said. 

According to Iorapuu, all dioceses 

across the country have been 

directed to organise vigils at 10am 

on Tuesday, there will be a simultaneous 

ceremonies across the country 

as a mark of solidarity with the 

Makurdi diocese over those killed. 

“Some bishops will be leading 

ceremonies, others will be coming. 

The Pope’s representative in Nigeria 

will be present. The Abuja Archbishop, 

John Cardinal Onaiyekan, 

has also arranged that there should 

be a well-organised procession in 

Abuja,” he added. 

Meanwhile, John Cardinal 

Onaiyekan, Archbishop of the 

relating to the ownership of Ajaokuta 

Complex with Global Steel 

Holdings Limited. 

However, the minister will likely 

leave office this May without a 

concession agreement for the steel 

complex considered as vital for 

Nigeria’s industrial development. 

According to the Manufacturers 

Association of Nigeria (MAN), the 

current state of Ajaokuta in Kogi 

State remains one key reason why 

many inputs and machinery are 

imported as, naturally, the complex 

could have provided a huge percent 

of manufacturing raw materials. 

BusinessDay checks show that 

Ajaokuta Complex has the capacity 

to produce one million metric 

tonnes of steel, one million metric 

tonnes of coal, manganese and 

limestone, among others. 

In a move that shocked economists 

and finance experts, the 

Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja has 

convened a peace protest with 

the theme: “peaceful march and 

prayer for Nigeria.” 

Onaiyekan in a statement he 

personally signed said, “because 

of the barbaric killing of human 

beings in Nigeria, and erosion of 

the perception of life as sacred 

and in union with the Diocese of 

Makurdi, we want to express our 

deepest displeasure over the ugly 

happenings in our country and 

pray for the nation.” 

According to the statement, the 

protest commences at 10am and 

starts from National Christian (Ecumenical) 

Centre and ends at Our 

Lady, Queen of Nigeria Pro-Cathedral, 

Garki with Rosary procession, 

Mass, address to local and international 

media and benediction. 

“Priests will all be in Cassock, others 

will come in their Parish or group 

uniforms or black attire. Please wear 

shoes or sandals. Priests should also 

take note that white is the colour of 

vestment for mass. 

“We invite others who are not 

of the Catholic Faith to also join 

us. Let us make it a joint project. 

We must all peacefully fight for a 

better Nigeria. 

“Trouble makers should please 

keep-off. I want this March and 

prayer to be peaceful from the 

beginning to the end and to send 

a powerful message to the Government 

of our country and the rest of 

the world for positive change,” the 

Archbishop stated. 

federal government budgeted N3.9 

billion in 2016 and N4.27 billion 

in 2017 for the resuscitation of the 

moribund Ajaokuta Steel Company, 

despite an earlier business case 

in the last administration showing 

that the complex could only work 

if properly privatised. 

Next on the list is the state of 

coal mines in Enugu. 

During a tour of African Foundries 

steel factory in Lagos in 2016, 

the company had appealed to the 

minister to allow it have access 

to iron ore and coal mines in the 

country, in line with its Backward 

Integration Programme. The company 

was particularly interested 

in the coal mines in Enugu from 

where it could access inputs and 

power directly. 

The company said the mines 

would solidly support beneficiation, 

pelletising and Directreduced 

iron (DRI) processes and 

power efficiency in the firm. 

Nigeria needs 5 Vice Presidents, six-year... 


people in the tribes who would be 

fighting to present candidate for 

Vice president the infighting would 

continue, more over this is not restructuring 

that we urgently want.” 

It was earlier reported that 

the Indigenous People of Biafra 

(IPOB) threatened to disrupt the 

summit on the grounds that Biafra 

is non-negotiable. 

The statement released by the 

MTN Nigeria forecasts strong performance... 


five years, according to a May 

Pre-IPO presentation by the firm 

seen by BusinessDay. 

The largest subsidiary of MTN 

Group is forecasting upside to revenues 

from subscriber growth (due 

to population and mobile penetration 

increases), as well as Average 

Revenue per User (ARPU) upside 

from increase in data usage and 

economic expansion in Nigeria. 

Having recorded highest ARPU 

of $4.24 in the industry, MTN Nigeria 

had a strong net income of N32 

billion in first quarter 2018 alone, 

compared to N81 billion recorded 

for the full year 2017 showing the 

company is in pole position for a 

positive year in 2018. 

In first quarter 2018, the presentation 

showed that MTN Nigeria showed 

stronger financial performance as 

revenues rose faster than costs. 

Despite recording a cost increase 

of 8 percent year on year 

to N145 billion in first quarter of 

2018 compared to N134 billion in 

first quarter in 2017; the company 

recorded strong revenue growth of 

15 percent to N249 billion in first 

quarter 2018 compared to N218 

billion in Q1 2017. 

MTN Nigeria, who controls 57 

percent of market share in the country 

also had an improved earnings 

before interest taxes, depreciation 

and amortisation (EBITDA) of 

N104 billion in Q1 2018 compared 

to N95 billion in Q4 2017, implying 

that MTN Nigeria had a stronger 

operating performance. 

EBITDA essentially is a way of 

evaluating a company’s performance 

without having to factor in 

financing decisions, accounting 

decisions or tax environments. 

Also, MTN Nigeria’s EBITDA 

margin which provides investors 

with a clear view of a company’s 

operating profitability and cash 

flow increased to 41.8 percent in 

first quarter 2018 compared to 40.3 

“We have a lot of projects that 

will employ thousands of people 

and bring billions of Naira investment 

into the country, but they 

cannot take off until there is an 

allocation of these mining sites,” 

Parduman Kurmar Gupta, the then 

chairman of the company, told 

Kayode Fayemi. 

However, stakeholders as the 

minister plans his exit say coal 

mines are still lying idle in Enugu, 

constituting a major waste to the 

economy. 

The Aluminium Smelter Company, 

located in Akwa Ibom State, 

is also not in operation due to the 

tussle between Bancorp Financial 

Investment Group Divino Corporation 

(BFIG), a consortium of 

U.S.-based Nigerian investors led 

by Reuben Jaja, and the United 

Company RUSAL, a Russian firm. 

Fayemi had earlier stated that 

the government was resolving this 

crisis, but as he plans his departure, 

IPOB spokesman, Emma Powerful, 

in Enugu state read in parts: “All we 

want is referendum not restructuring; 

we want Biafra not Nigeria. 

“We have buried too many people; 

we have lost too many souls; we 

are pained by the innocent people 

that are still languishing in illegal detention 

all over Nigeria and we are 

enraged by the betrayal of those we 

call socio-political leaders. Only the 

total restoration of Biafra will suffice; 

anything else is mere waste of time.” 

percent in last quarter of 2017. 

In the first quarter of 2018, 

MTN Nigeria recorded Adjusted 

Cashflow Margin of 19 percent 

compared to full year 2017 of 16 

percent showing how efficiently the 

company can convert sales to cash. 

Capital investment expenditure 

stood at N57 billion in Q1 

2018 compared to N203 billion 

for full year 2017 showing the 

company’s strong commitment 

towards growth and expansion in 

the remaining months of 2018. 

Compared with its other competitors 

in the telecom sector, MTN 

Nigeria boasts of over 54.5 million 

subscribers as at first quarter 2018 

and 14.1 million active data users. 

MTN Group has continued 

to make good progress with the 

preparations for the IPO and has 

been engaging with capital market 

regulators –the Securities and Exchange 

Commission (SEC) and the 

Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), 

sources tell BusinessDay. 

According to a valuation carried 

out by BusinessDay Research & 

Intelligence Unit (BRIU), which is 

the first major pre-IPO valuation 

attempted by a research firm using 

publicly available data, MTN 

Nigeria is forecasted to have values 

ranging from $8.56 billion to $10.88 

billion. BRIU used various valuation 

methodologies including the 

discounted cash flow valuation 

(DCF) and relative valuation to 

estimate the Value of MTN Nigeria. 

MTN wants to achieve a “retail 

friendly” offer price for the IPO, it said 

in the pre-IPO document, of around 

N80 naira per share, the average 

price for shares listed on Nigeria’s 

bourse which would split its nominal 

value to 2 kobo from one naira. 

Analyst have said the share sale 

will go a long way in deepening the 

Nigerian financial market especially 

since the market has not recorded 

any initial public offers for two years 

since the January 2015 listing that 

saw the birth of Transcorp. 

the plant is still under lock and key. 

“We need that resolved. Aluminium 

Smelter Company needs 

to be re-started so that we can 

get ingots for local roofing sheets 

manufacturers,” Oluyinka Kufile, 

chairman, Basic Metal, Iron and 

Steel Group of the Manufacturers 

Association of Nigeria (MAN), told 

BusinessDay earlier in an interview. 

The Federal Government 

launched a N30 billion mining fund 

in May 2017 and another N5 billion 

in August managed by the Bank of 

Industry (BoI) for artisanal and small 

–scale miners, but players have not 

been able to access the funds due 

to the stringent conditions attached 

to them, which involve presenting 

landed property and other liquidity 

assurances, players say. 

“We are not accessing it. Not 

one of us has accessed the fund,” 

Shehu Sani, president of Miners 

Association of Nigeria, told BusinessDay 

on the phone.


Stabilising Niger-Delta region remains 

key priority for Buhari - Kachikwu 

HARRISON EDEH & 

CYNTHIA EGBOBOH, Abuja 

Minister of state for 

petroleum, Emmanuel 

Ibe Kachikwu, on 

Monday said stabilising the 

Niger Delta remained a key 

priority to the Buhari’s administration. 

Kachikwu, at the ongoing 

Sustainability in the Extractive 

Industries Conference in Abuja, 

listed seven key priority areas 

the government was focusing 

on in the region geared towards 

ensuring long lasting stability in 

the Niger Delta. 

Kachkwu listed the projects 

to include: deploying the 

Niger Delta development programme; 

pursuing regular engagement 

in the Niger Delta; 

implementing; modular refinery 

initiative, implementing 

community based pipeline 

framework and elevating Nigeria 

gas flare commercialisation 

programme. 

The minister, represented 

by Isa Baba, director for oil 

services, Federal Ministry of 

Petroleum Resources, said, 

“Conflict in some instances 

can be attributed to scarcity of 

developmental project in the 

areas. The Niger Delta development 

is targeted at ensuring the 

realisation of such projects.” 

He pointed out that proj- 

ects targeted at improving the 

standard of living in this area 

would be monitored, thus fostering 

completion, stressing 

that unemployment and underdevelopment 

were the issues 

causing conflict, as people are 

more likely to be restless. 

Speaking further on commercialisation 

of flared gas in 

the country, Kachikwu said: 

“The Nigerian gas flare is a 

market driven program that will 

provide an avenue for gas flare 

to economically utilised, the 

presence of this gas flare has adverse 

effect on the health of the 

individuals and community. 

He revealed further that the 

programme would allow for 

companies to utilise the wasted 

gases towards more productive 

means in the region. “It will 

provide job, reduce pollution 

in the environment and increase 

the standard of living,” 

he said. 

Other factors of the new developed 

policy and investment 

drive, he said were also targeted 

at addressing the high level of 

inadequacies experienced with 

extractive projects. 

“We are also developing 

a community based pipeline 

project that is targeted towards 

fostering community relation, 

while ensuring the protection 

of our resources and income,” 

he said. 

FG renews AfDB’s Nigerian Trust 

Fund for 10 years – Adesina 

Federal Government has 

renewed its agreement 

with the African Development 

Bank (AfDB) on the 

Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF) for 

additional 10 years. 

President of the bank, Akinwumi 

Adesina, announced the 

renewal on Monday in Busan, 

South Korea, at the inaugural 

news conference of the bank’s 

44th annual general meetings 

in the Asian country. 

Adesina said the development 

was communicated to 

the bank on Monday by the 

minister of finance, Kemi Adeosun, 

before the expiration 

of the NTF agreement in 2018. 

The Fund was created in 

1976 by an agreement between 

the Bank Group and 

Nigeria as a self-sustaining 

revolving fund. 

It is meant to assist the 

development efforts of the 

bank’s low-income regional 

member countries, which 

economic and social conditions 

and prospects require 

concessional financing. 

Its initial capital of $80 

million was replenished in 

1981 with $71 million. In 2008, 

Nigeria and the bank agreed to 

a 10-year extension of the NTF. 

According to Adesina, the 

bank is evaluating the programme 

in appreciation of 

Nigeria’s gesture in assisting 

many countries and people 

across Africa. 

On the theme of the meeting: 

‘Accelerating Africa’s Industrialisation,’ 

the president 

said the right skills were 

needed by African countries to 

drive industrialisation. 

He urged Africa to invest in 

ICT, science and technology as 

well as make strong innovation 

to achieve knowledgebased 

economy. 

He called on African universities 

to make fundamental 

changes in their curricula to 

provide competent and specific 

skills needed by labour 

and key industries. 

“Insecurity arising from 

poverty and lack of employment 

in Africa must be addressed 

toward achieving 

rapid industrialisation on the 

continent,” he said. 

He said local governments 

and communities had fundamental 

roles to play in this aspect, 

adding that industrialisation, 

if not properly managed, 

could increase inequality. 

Adesina stressed the need 

for African governments to 

accelerate their economic 

growth through real industrial 

development, not just mere 

wage-based development. 

C002D5556 BUSINESS DAY 5 

NEWS 

Edo to fill civil service vacancies with 

more technical manpower 

Edo State governor, 

Godwin Obaseki, 

says the state is set 

to strengthen the civil service 

with the injection of 

new blood and more technical 

manpower through 

the ongoing recruitment 

exercise into the service. 

Obaseki said this 

when he received the 

2017 Annual Report from 

the chairman, Edo State 

Civil Service Commission, 

Ekiuwa Inneh, at the Government 

House in Benin 

City on Monday. 

Noting that the state 

government would continue 

to prioritise recruitment 

of skilled hands to 

beef up the capacity of the 

civil service to respond to 

the demands of a fastchanging 

world, he commended 

the commission 

for aligning with the focus, 

in its latest advertisement 

to fill vacancies in the 

service. 

The state government 

is committed to building 

capacity of civil servants 

for optimal service delivery, 

noting that it plans 

to strengthen relationship 

with the State Civil 

Service Commission to 

train workers in line with 

modern trends, he said. 

Plans have been concluded 

to digitalise the 

workings of the state civil 

service, as the deployment 

of equipment and upgrade 

of skill sets will allow for 

improved data analysis 

and information dissemination 

within the civil 

service structure, he said. 

He governor noted, 

“We are deploying technology 

in the State Civil 

Service to digitalize our 

human resources data for 

easy analysis. The state 

would fill vacant positions 

in the commission to 

address the needs of the 

commission and not on a 

routine basis.” 

Earlier, chairman of 

the Commission said its 

staff audit showed that as 

of December 31, 2017, the 

state had 2,822 staff comprising 

1,660 males and 

1,162 females, noting that 

there were 11,001 vacancies 

in the service. 

She expressed optimism 

that the report 

would assist government 

in planning how to move 

the Civil Service Commission 

forward.


C002D5556 

NEWS 

Lagos’ Q1 monthly IGR averages N34bn 

… targets N50bn, as debts stand at N874bn 

JOSHUA BASSEY 

With an average of N34 

billion earned monthly 

in the first quarter of 

2018, Lagos State government is 

hopeful it will make the target of 

N50 billion with time. 

This is also as the debt profile 

of Nigeria’s biggest economy 

stood at N874.38 billion by end 

of 2017, making it one of the 

most heavily indebted sub nationals. 

The debts are made of 

48 percent local and 52 percent 

foreign. 

The 2018 first quarter average 

IGR is an improvement on 

previous years’ earnings, which 

hovered around N22 billion, 

N24 billion and N30 billion, 

respectively, in 2015, 2016 and 

2017. 

The state’s optimism about 

further improvement in the IGR 

as the year progresses is fuelled 

by what Akinyemi Ashade, the 

commissioner for finance, described 

as “ongoing reforms and 

growth in the state’s economy” 

driven by technology, which 

serve the dual purpose of convenience 

in tax payment/collection 

as well as plugging of leakages. 

“The target we set for ourselves 

is N50 billion, but we all 

know the kind of push backs 

we have experienced including 

people going to court and 

all that. Our commitment is 

not only in the immediate but 

also for the future of Lagos. We 

know it is a marathon; we will 

win some and lose some. But 

we remain committed towards 

Melaye set to resume plenary 

OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja 

After about one month in 

police detention, the embattled 

chairman, Senate 

Committee on FCT, Dino Melaye, 

is set to resume plenary. 

The lawmaker, who represents 

Kogi West Senatorial District and 

was in police custody at the National 

Hospital Abuja, was granted bail 

last week by a Lokoja High Court, 

having been arrested and detained 

by the police since April 24, 2018, on 

charges of gun running. 

But in a message on Monday, 

the controversial All Progressives 

Congress (APC) senator said he 

would continue to speak the truth. 

In a statement titled: ‘Thank 

you Nigerians,’ Melaye said he 

would continue to speak the truth, 

no matter whose ox was gored. 

“To my people, I promise you 

this and this only. I have taken my 

position, I will not hold back, I will 

not hold my peace, I will not be 

shut down, neither will I shut-up, 

not as long as injustice and falsehood 

continue to reign, as long as 

I will live, I will not bow to Baal,” 

the statement personally signed 

by the senator read. 

He commended his immediate 

constituency; Senate president, 

Bukola Saraki; speaker of the 

House of Representatives, Yakubu 

Dogara; federal lawmakers; 

Kogi State chapter of the Peoples 

Democratic Party (PDP); lawyers; 

leaders of the diplomatic corps as 

well as religious groups who stood 

by him during his ordeal. 

“I know many of you worry 

ensuring that we meet the target, 

we believe we would succeed in 

the target we set for ourselves,” 

Ashade told journalists, Monday, 

at a media briefing. 

The state government, according 

to Ashade, also received 

N327 million from the Federal 

Government as derivation since 

Lagos joined the league of oil 

producing states in 2017 

“The state government has 

received a total of N327 million 

revenue, comprising N197 million 

and N130 million received 

in 2017, and first quarter of 2018, 

respectively. 

“There are also discussions 

ongoing with the Federal Government 

towards a refund for 

expenditure totalling N51 billion 

incurred by the state government 

on behalf of the Federal Government 

for infrastructure projects 

developments in the state. 

“We are optimistic of successful 

discussions that will 

result in the approval and payment 

of the amount owed to the 

state government by the Federal 

Government,” he said. 

On the state’s debts, he said 

the debt service charge to total 

revenue ratio, which stood at 

17.61 percent, was within the 

World Bank threshold of 30 

percent. 

He noted that state had continued 

to maintain a positive 

credit rating, however, adding 

that a downgrade of Nigeria’s 

sovereign rating would lead to a 

corresponding action on Lagos’ 

international drawing rights. 

“As Nigeria continues to 

about my safety and life in this 

new dispensation where life is no 

longer sacred in Nigeria. But do 

not be troubled. My bond of love 

for you, my good people, makes it 

impossible for me to consider my 

self-risk, safety, comfort or opportunity 

in my unflinching commitment 

to stand up for you, to stand 

up for truth and if necessary die for 

the truth and the emancipation 

of our people from the chains of 

poverty and oppression. 

“Though they raise spurious 

allegations against me, bear false 

witness against me, though they 

seek to frighten me and lure me into 

their bounty of evil, I will fear no foe. 

“Yes, my traducers and torturers 

wish that I keep quiet; though 

they seek to seal my lips, to silence 

my voice forever, I remain ever 

more resolute and committed. I 

am committed to this cause for 

which I am a politician; the cause 

of the down trodden, to speak truth 

to power and stand against oppression 

and injustice. On these issues 

there will be no compromise. I owe 

no apologies and I tender none. 

“Like I have always said, you 

speak the truth, you die, you don’t 

speak the truth, you die. I have 

chosen to speak the truth, dead or 

alive. Rev. Martin Luther King Jnr., 

once said, “Cowardice asks the 

question - is it safe? Expediency 

asks the question - is it politics? 

Vanity asks the question - is it 

popular? But conscience asks the 

question - is it right? And there 

comes a time when one must take 

a position that is neither safe, nor 

politic, nor popular; but one must 

take it because it is right,” he said. 

improve on its credit rating, we 

would be able to achieve better 

rating as we currently have 

because no amount of revenue 

generation, no amount of employment 

growth of Lagos State 

can make us surpass the sovereign 

rating,” he said. 

He said that the state government 

has taken some strategic 

steps to help Nigeria improve 

on its ratings including adhering 

to fiscal discipline, improved 

revenue generation, reforms 

in infrastructure development, 

transport and embedded power. 

Giving an update on the 

revised Land Use Charge (LUC), 

the commissioner said the state 

had continued to engage critical 

stakeholders in line with its tradition 

of inclusive governance, 

adding that a wide range of 

responses had been received. 

He said the extensive discussions 

led to several concessions 

on the LUC on property, adding 

that a revised bill to further 

amend the LUC law to incorporate 

the additional concessions 

was presently before the 

House of Assembly and would 

be passed soon. 

Besides, the commissioner 

said the government through 

the LUC Assessment Appeal 

Tribunal, received a total of 

1,503 complaints, out of which 

1,113 were successfully resolved 

administratively and through 

mediation, adding that an additional 

263 property owners/ 

agents had their grievances 

resolved in the last two weeks 

and more still ongoing. 

Wike disagrees with Kukah on how 

to react to threats, impunity 

IGNATIUS CHUKWU 

Governor Nyesom Wike 

of Rivers State sprang to 

his feet and countered 

his special guest, the Bishop 

of Sokoko Catholic Diocese, 

Hassan Kukah, saying vehement 

‘no’ to the cleric’s call for 

patience in a democracy. 

Wike said he cannot accept 

the recommendation in the face 

of impunity and clear attempts 

by his opponents to use federal 

might to overthrow him. 

The drama took place at 

the public lecture delivered on 

invitation by the Catholic cleric 

and known critic in Nigeria 

to mark Wike’s third year in 

office, which held at Obi Wali 

International Cultural Centre 

in Port Harcourt. 

Kukah had theorised that 

though democracy was not 

the best form of government, 

but urged Nigerians to show 

patients so that the inner structures, 

values and disciplines of 

democracy would take shape 

and help Nigeria to experience 

real democracy. 

He said putting civilian uniform 

on past military leaders 

would not make them democrats 

because those who spent 

many years of their active lives 

as soldiers imbibing single 

command systems of governance, 

and would hardly embrace 

democratic values of 

broad consensus approaches. 


L-R: Banke Alawaye, CEO, Rock Salt Services; Reze Bonna, founder, Rezsolution; Papa 

Omotayo, founder, A White Space Creative Agency (AWCA)/creative director, Moe+art 

Architecture; Lekan Oladunwo, group head art, Insight Communications; Yoanna “pepper 

Chikezie,” founder, The Assembly Hub; Simi Esiri, founder/editor in chief, Schick Magazine; 

Adenike Ogunlesi, founder/CRO, Ruff ‘n’ Tumble; Fade Ogunro, executive TV producer/ 

founder, Bookings Africa; Michael Ugwu, general manger, Sony Music Africa/founder, FreeMe 

Digital, at the Level Up event for creative mentorship organised by The Assembly in Lagos. 

Lufthansa’s Frankfurt-Lagos flight makes 

emergency landing over electrical fire 

IFEOMA OKEKE 

Lufthansa’s Frankfurt- 

Lagos flight with flight 

number LH569 on Sunday, 

precautionary diverted to 

TMR due to an unusual smell 

in the cabin as a result of electrical 

smoke. 

Passengers inside the aircraft 

alleged that there was 

an electrical fire on board on 

Sunday and the pilot made an 

emergency landing in southern 

Algeria. The passengers, 

mainly Nigerians, were still in 

Algiers when this report was 

He however observed that 

unless democracy was prepared 

to heal the wounds in 

the land and solve the basic 

problems facing the people, 

it would not be respected as a 

form of government. 

Kukah seemed to trigger the 

volcano when he said his position 

was that unlike the Americans 

that handed the power of 

self-defence to the citizens, the 

Nigerian and British constitutions 

insisted on all weapons 

to reside with the sovereign 

who must defend the people 

through the security agencies. 

He called on Nigerians to continue 

to invest their confidence 

and support to the security 

agencies and trust them to protect 

the people. 

Wike, as chief host, who 

invested huge values to bring 

Kukah as lecturer and the 

professor, Ben Nwbueze, as 

chairman, rejected outright 

the recommendation of the 

man of God. He said the police 

escorted members of the All 

Progressives Congress (APC) in 

the state to shut down a Rivers 

State High Court on March 11, 

2018, to stop an injunction. He 

called it attempt to overthrow 

his administration, saying if the 

people did not mobilise to reinstall 

the court, the hoodlums 

would have had their way and 

many Rivers citizens who had 

cases in that court would have 

been denied their rights. 

filed in yesterday. 

According to the airline, 

“The Airbus A330 aircraft with 

204 passengers on board has 

landed safely in TMR and 

is currently being examined 

by technicians. The safety of 

passengers and crew is Lufthansa‘s 

number one priority 

at all times. 

“Passengers will continue 

their journey to FRA today 

(May 21) with another Lufthansa 

aircraft sent from Germany. 

Lufthansa apologises for the 

inconvenience caused.” 

This incident is happening 

barely three months after the 

Benin River Port: Obaseki tours Edo waterways, 

assures investors of security, communal support 

As plans for the commencement 

of the Benin 

River Port Project 

reach advanced stages after 

preliminary work by the 

China Harbour Engineering 

Company (CHEC), Edo State 

governor, Godwin Obaseki, 

has assured investors that 

the state government will not 

relent in strengthening security 

on the waterways and 

ensuring communal support 

for projects in riverine areas. 

Obaseki said this after a 

three-and-half hour tour of 

riverine communities, including 

Gelegele, Kolokolo, 

Ajoke, Ajamogha, Koko, Abiala 

1, Abiala 11, and Ologbo, 

in the state, at the weekend. 

He said the tour was in 

furtherance of the survey of 

the waterways around the 

state, which kicked off some 

weeks back and aimed at 

strengthening security to 

protect lives and properties 

on the waterways. 

The governor said more 

investors were interested in 

the project and would want 

to know how the Benin River 

Port project would connect 

the Benin Industrial Park, 

noting that the two areas were 

connected by water, even as 

enough provision was being 

made for road network. 

He said discussions with 

airline had steep and sudden 

descent of the airplane that left 

passengers stomachs churning. 

The flight, which took off 

from Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, 

was said to have descended rapidly 

from 35,000 feet to 5,000 feet 

but did not give their source. 

Trouble started shortly after 

take-off when the plane 

descended so rapidly that 

passengers feared it was going 

to crash. 

A passenger, who was onboard, 

said the aircraft crew, 

however, declined to make a 

stop at a nearby airport in spite 

of pleas from passengers. 

… makes case for second Marine Police post at Osiomo River 

investors and partners about 

the Benin River Port had 

reached a critical stage where 

critical issues were raised and 

addressed, noting, “Some of 

the issues have to do with 

the actual location of the Port 

vis-a-vis the extent of road 

network to connect the Port 

with other facilities like the 

Industrial Park.” 

He said, “We will not 

underestimate security on 

the waterways. Security is 

of prime importance to us 

as an administration, as we 

work to attract investors to 

the state. We will not relent in 

working very hard to create a 

conducive environment for 

investors to do business. 

“We have decided to establish 

a Marine police post 

in Gelegele. The construction 

for the post will commence 

soon as the design is ready. 

We will also have another 

Police post at Osiomo River. 

That is why we are at Ologbo 

to look for a suitable location 

for the post.” 

According to Obaseki, 

the state will leverage the 

huge economic potentials in 

water transportation, as the 

waterways offer the state a 

unique economic opportunity 

for transporting goods 

and people from one place 

to the other.

Tuesday 22 May 2018 C002D5556 BUSINESSDAY 7 

NEWS 

Double tax compliance to GDP ratio to 50%, IMF tells Nigeria 

… private investment at 13% remains low 

HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE 

International Monetary 

Fund (IMF), an arm of the 

World Bank Group tells 

Nigeria to double her tax compliance 

to GDP ratio from 25 

percent to 50 percent. 

Amine Mati, head of IMF 

in Nigeria, said this in Lagos, 

at the presentation of the IMF 

Regional Economic Outlook 

for Africa titled: ‘Domestic Revenue 

Mobilisation and Private 

Investment.’ 

“If you look at all the various 

forms of taxation, you can take 

another look of property tax, 

then you can have tax administration 

and improving compliance. 

You know, in Nigeria, 

complying with many of the 

taxes is still very low. 

“We think that for the region, 

there needs to be 3 to 5 

percent GDP growth. How do 

you get there? In Nigeria you 

can remove a lot of exemptions 

and expand income taxes. 

“Those are the types of measures 

that, as part of a comprehensive 

package, can make the 

tain diverse ecosystem and 

other organisms that benefit 

from our peculiar biological 

makeup.” 

He maintained that it was 

time to recognise the roles 

of local communities and 

local governments in driving 

government policies on the 

protection and preservation 

of our natural world. 

“Most times the disruptions 

recorded in biological 

communities result from the 

poor knowledge of the long 

term value of the balance in 

our ecosystem. 

“The current danger posed 

by human activities can be 

mitigated if more stakeholders 

are identified and carried 

along in the campaign to save 

the diverse, interconnection 

and harmonious relationship 

among the various animals, 

plants, the physical environdifference 

in increasing revenue 

mobilisation,” Mati said. 

He said Nigeria’s growth 

rate really needed to surpass 

its population growth to make 

a difference, saying, “Raising 

growth is really key for the 

challenges ahead in Nigeria 

and sub-Saharan Africa. For 

the region as a whole, we can 

say the average growth rate on 

a per capita base is low. 

“And a third of African 

countries, in 2017, with Nigeria 

as one of them, has seen a 

decline per capita GDP level. 

And we expect some of that 

to continue. To really make a 

difference, that trend needs to 

be reversed.” 

IMF said private investments, 

at about 13 percent in 

the region, remained too low, 

noting that the interesting 

characteristics were that nonresource 

countries had higher 

private investments. 

Oil prices have gone up and 

this is an opportunity for these 

countries to really use the opportunity 

provided by the pick 

up to initiate some reforms that 

2019: NLC vows to mobilise against El-Rufai 

JOSHUA BASSEY 

Nigeria Labour Congress 

(NLC), an umbrella body 

for millions of Nigerian 

workers, is waiting for the 2019 

general elections to pay Governor 

Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State, 

in his own coin in show of detest 

for the massive sack of teachers 

in Kaduna. 

The NLC is also warning 

other northern states’ government, 

especially those controlled 

by the ruling All Progressives 

Congress (APC) not to toe the 

path of El-Rufai and risk workers’ 

similar anger. El-Rufia, it would 

be recalled, sacked 22,000 teachers 

in Kaduna State’s employ, in 

2017, dubbing them unqualified 

and incompetent. 

Ayuba Wabba, the NLC president 

in a statement titled “Joke 

Taken Too Far,” which he issued 

on Monday, said El-Rufai was 

travelling an ignoble path by 

seeking to get other northern 

state governments to also sack 

teachers in their employ. 

Wabba in the statement said: 

“It has been brought to our attention, 

statements credited to 

the Governor of Kaduna State, 

Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai, over plans 

by other northern governors’ 

to imitate his ruinous path of 

sacking teachers in their state 

employment. 

“These reckless statements 

were reported by a number of 

national dailies on Friday, May 

18, 2018. There is really no doubt 

that Nasir el-Rufai mistakes notoriety 

for popularity. The two are 

millennia apart. 

“Unfortunately, the governor 

of Kaduna State has decided not 

only to continue in his favourite 

past time of inflicting pains and 

sorrows wherever he goes, he 

is also bent on marketing such 

profound proclivity for mischief 

to his fellow governors. 

“We need to remind Governor 

El-Rufai that there is a limit 

that man can play God. By announcing 

that other northern 

state governors will replicate 

his callous and insensitive retrenchment 

of teachers and other 

cadre of workers in Kaduna State 

post-2019 election, El-Rufai has 

already declared his own election 

and those of the governors 

he is purportedly speaking for a 

fait accompli. 

Biological Diversity Day: Edo implores stakeholders to deepen awareness 

Edo State governor, Godwin 

Obaseki, has implored 

environment 

activists, community leaders 

and local councils to deepen 

the crusade to preserve the 

pristine features in Nigeria’s 

forest belt, noting that more 

stakeholders are needed in 

the crusade for the protection 

of the country’s unique flora 

and fauna. 

The governor made the 

call on the occasion of the 

commemoration of the 

World Biological Diversity 

Day marked every May 22, 

by the United Nations and its 

various organs. 

According to Obaseki, “On 

this day, it is important to 

stress the need to conserve 

nature and preserve the defining 

features of our pristine 

flora and fauna, not just for 

the sake of humans but to sus- 

will encourage more private 

sector investments. 

Speaking at the event, Patience 

Oniha, director-general, 

Debt Management Office 

(DMO), explained that the 

decline in interest rate meant 

that there were about N200 

billion out there in the market 

for private sector to invest in. 

“You will also notice that 

we are retiring some of the 

treasury bills as they mature. 

The main challenge I am giving 

to the private sector is that why 

is all these money still sitting 

where it shouldn’t be? Why 

has it not reached the private 

sector because that was the key 

objective of our strategy. 

“We borrow because there 

is revenue shortfall. The National 

Assembly passed the 

budget last week and we know 

it was higher than what the executive 

presented. So, as a debt 

manager what I am looking 

for is to see where the funding 

of that incremental size may 

come in from. Am I supposed 

to be borrowing to make up for 

that shortfall,” Oniha said. 

“Organised labour wishes 

to remind El-Rufai that he is 

not God, after all. He and other 

northern governors possess a 

voter card each. Citizens at the 

receiving end of their unpopular 

and de-humanising policies are 

in the majority. In 2019, we will 

ensure that the votes of the oppressed 

and victimised count all 

over Nigeria.” 

He said further, “While Nigerians 

continue to watch the 

open desecration of the rule of 

law, human rights, constitutionally 

guaranteed freedom and 

collective cum individual dignity 

in Kaduna State, we urge other 

northern governors especially 

those in the same political party 

as El-Rufai not to be deceived into 

copying his failed policies. 

“The truth is that the logjam 

that has trailed El-Rufai’s phony 

reform of the education sector in 

Kaduna State has overshadowed 

the public outcry that greeted his 

unjust sack of teachers and other 

cadre of workers. 

“We also urge President Muhammadu 

Buhari to call El-Rufai 

to order. A stitch in time might still 

save nine.” 

ment and other elements of 

the ecosystem,” he said. 

He described the theme 

for the 2018 celebration, ‘Celebrating 

25 years of Action 

on Biodiversity,’ as germane, 

adding that the partnership 

with ProForest would enable 

the state properly manage 

and conserve the defining 

features of its biodiversity. 

He said the state government 

was working with the 

Federal Government to preserve 

the Okomu Forest Reserve, 

noting that the Okomu 

National Park is a national asset 

that must be promoted to 

boost tourism receipts for the 

state and the country at large. 

“The commemoration also 

demands that we synergise to 

protect wildlife and other elements 

of the ecosystem that 

benefit from conserving the 

environment,” he said.

8 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556 

NEWS 

TradeDepot secures $3m Series-A funding 

to digitise FMCG distribution in Africa 


TradeDepot, the SaaS 

platform for FMCG distribution 

in Africa, has 

announced $3 million in funding. 

Partech’s recently launched 

Africa Fund led the Series-A 

round, expected to support 

the expansion of TradeDepot’s 

footprint in Nigeria and development 

in other countries. 

Since its founding in 2016, 

TradeDepot has successfully 

developed a 360° solution, integrating 

all participants in the 

trade value chain - manufacturers, 

distributors and retailers. 

The solution has quickly convinced 

first-rank FMCG companies, 

and has been deployed 

all over Nigeria in distributors’ 

warehouses. 

This first external funding 

round of investment will enable 

the team to drive aggressive 

product development and further 

deployment of the solution 

among FMCG companies and 

their customers. 

Through TradeDepot’s platform, 

small retailers have a 

real time view of all prices and 

discounts available from every 

major brand; they can directly 

order products, which are then 

delivered to them as the order 

is routed to the appropriate 

nearby depot. 

At the same time, manufacturers 

have full visibility over 

their distribution and can leverage 

the platform to optimise 

deliveries to their distributors, 

improve their pricing and have 

a direct channel towards their 

end-retailers. 

According to Onyekachi 

Izukanne, co-founder/CEO of 

TradeDepot, “This first external 

funding round was critical for 

us: we have proven that there 

is a strong demand for such a 

distribution platform among 

consumer goods companies 

and retailers in emerging markets, 

and we now wish to use 

these funds to support our 

growth strategy. 

“For a very long time, consumer 

goods distribution in 

emerging countries with millions 

of small and informal 

retailers at the end of the supply 

chain has been very poorly ad- 

Wike uncovers plot to assassinate him 

through accidental discharge 


Governor Nyesom Wike 

of Rivers State has raised 

another alarm, as he says 

he had got evidences that there 

was plot to assassinate him 

through what he called accidental 

discharge. 

Governor Wike also celebrated 

his recent court victory that 

stopped security agencies from 

searching his houses anywhere 

in Nigeria. 

He told the Christian community 

in Rivers State that the 

proof got to him Saturday, May 

19, 2018. 

The governor spoke at a 

thanksgiving church service 

to mark his third year in office 

at the Winners Chapel in 

Port Harcourt. He did not give 

nor explained how the plotters 

planned to get him to a crowd 

and shoot him. 

The governor however said 

the plot would fail because he 

dressed by existing tech platforms. 

We want to change this 

status quo. In Nigeria alone, 

this $340 billion market loses 

more than $4 billion every year 

due to a lack of visibility and the 

resulting waste in logistics, making 

retailers in African countries 

subject to some of the highest 

product distribution costs in 

the world. 

“Our goal is to enable every 

convenience store in Africa to 

consistently receive their supplies 

at the best possible prices; 

to be the supply partner for 

Africa’s retail outlets.” 

On his part, Cyril Collon, 

general partner at Partech, 

said, “This is a game changer 

in the industry. We couldn’t be 

happier to have TradeDepot 

as the first investment of our 

African fund, as it characterises 

what we want to do in Africa 

in the coming years - support 

extraordinary entrepreneurs 

who leverage tech to solve pan- 

African problems.” 

Furthermore, Tidjane 

Deme, general partner at 

Partech, noted, “At Partech, 

we are strong believers in tech 

platforms that digitise the huge 

informal markets that are present 

in Africa. TradeDepot is one 

of them: they are addressing the 

largest market in Africa, that is 

today 98 percent informal and 

99 percent offline. The opportunity 

there is massive. 

“Partnering with TradeDepot 

was a no-brainer for us 

after the first meeting. We were 

fully convinced by the founders’ 

vision, their strong understanding 

of the market and their 

ambition to transform this 

industry. 

“The deep market experience 

of Kachi, Michael and 

Ruke has proven to be very 

efficient in their first two years 

of development, and we are extremely 

proud to come onboard 

and support them in this next 

phase of growth.” 

TradeDepot is an integrated 

SaaS platform for consumer 

goods distribution in emerging 

markets, founded by Michael 

Ukpong, Onyekachi Izukanne, 

Ruke Awaritefe in 2016, with a 

mission to build the engine of 

retail distribution in Africa. 

had the churches and the Holy 

Spirit with him, saying, “We 

just got hint yesterday that they 

now want to use accidental discharge, 

but I said, no way. What 

is in me is greater than them.” 

He reminded the people that 

somebody once promised to get 

the state from him by blood or by 

crook, saying many plots were 

being hatched everyday against 

his administration. 

Listing his victories against 

those he called his enemies, 

he said there was once plot 

to orchestrate crisis in Rivers 

State so as to declare a state of 

emergency, and that the Federal 

Government refused to respond 

to his appeals for help to stop 

massive kidnapping and killings. 

He said the Christians prayed 

and the entire Nigeria was 

caught up in crisis such that the 

Federal Government removed 

their eyes from the state to face 

worse situations in other parts 

of the country. 


$40bn investment over 10 years in Niger Delta not 

commensurate to developmental strides - panellists 

… suggest review of project implementation modalities 

HARRISON EDEH & 

CYNTHIA EGBOBOH, Abuja 

ing concern on poor impact of the 

huge sums invested in the region, 

suggested modality review of the 

projects in the region. 

According to Achodo, “Close to 

$40 billion is what has been invested 

by the Niger Delta Development 

Commission (NDDC), and the 

Ministry of Niger Delta in that region 

for the past 10 years. These agencies 

for instance, if you check them, have 

close to about 11,000 contracts. 

The 11,000 contracts is mostly held 

by people from the region, yet the 

region is that way. You could also 

understand we are the ones holding 

ourselves hostage. 

“You also go to the Ministry of 

Niger Delta, it is the same thing. 

There must be urgent review of the 

way we do projects in the Niger-Delta 

sub-region. We have to change 

the strategy being adopted.” 

Making suggestions, he said, 

“Get organisations like Julius 

Berger and release those resources 

to them, I bet you they will 

deliver, provided that people in 

the region do not argue that that 

money should be given to them, 

for this is what is always causing 

the problem.” 

Achodo further suggested 

that, in the region also, there must 

be an attitudinal change on how 

Osinbajo to meet over 11,000 GEEP MarketMoni loan beneficiaries in Kano 

According to Toyin Adeniji, 

executive director of BoI, the programme 

is aimed at reinvigorating 

the economy at the base of the 

pyramid, the hotbed of Nigeria’s 

financially vulnerable. 

“GEEP MarketMoni is unprecedented 

in Nigeria’s history, 

granting interest-free credit facilities 

to existing microenterprises 

of market women and traders, 

artisans, enterprising youth and 

agricultural workers. It is critical 

to the Federal Government’s 

objective of inclusive growth,” 

Adeniji said. 

To benefit from the scheme, 

applicants just need to apply 

through their registered market 

associations and cooperatives, 

have a Bank Verification Number 

(BVN), and a mobile phone. 

The loans range from N10,000 

to N300,000, tied to applicants’ 

BVNs, and are expected to be 

repaid within six months period 

without interest. 

we address concerns on regional 

problem. 

Also, Kemi Aremu, a panellist 

at the session, said government 

had already come up with glorious 

policies, but had expressed 

worry about implementation of 

such policies. 

“The gas flaring issue is a major 

source of worry in the region. 

Despite government’s efforts to 

commercialise the gas flaring issues, 

the speed is low,” Aremu said. 

She suggested however that 

the Federal Government must put 

in a pool of fund as a ‘surety,’ which 

would enable private investors 

go further deeper into gas flaring 

commercialisation investment 

options. 

“Government must put in the 

first foot down with a surety pool of 

fund to attract gas commercialisation 

investment into the sector. 

“Time is very key, and detoxification 

exercise in the region 

is imminent. The environment 

has been greatly polluted, and as 

a result many lives are threatened. 

The Federal Government must be 

able to take urgent steps. Most of 

the steps taken so far are snail speed. 

The government must speed up actions 

in these areas,” she said. 

Ngozi Ochonogor-Ochibe, 

L-R: Oge Mochie, chief of staff to the minister of state for petroleum resources; Simbi Wabote, executive secretary, NCDMB; 

Bekeme Masade, SITEI convener/chief executive, CRS-in-Action; Omude Ochonogoro, guest speaker, and Chris Onosode, 

country director, Stakeholder Democracy Network, during the 7th Sustainability in the Extractive Industries (SITEI) 

Conference in Abuja, yesterday. 

ADEOLA AJAKAIYE, Kano 

As part of activities lined 

up for his official visit to 

Kano State, Vice President 

Yemi Osinbajo will 

on May 24, meet with a section 

of the over 11,000 beneficiaries 

of the Federal Government Enterprise 

and Empowerment 

Programme (GEEP) MarketMoni 

in Kano, to assess the impact of 

the scheme. 

GEEP MarketMoni is a Federal 

Government Social Intervention 

Programme (SIP) that 

provides loans of up to N300,000 

to segments of the society with 

the greatest difficulty accessing 

credit. The scheme is executed 

by the Bank of Industry (BoI), 

and it directly impacts traders, 

market women, artisans, and 

farmers in all 36 states of the 

country, and the Federal Capital 

Territory. 

Uloma Ike, group head (microenterprise) 

of BoI, said over 

11,861 people had benefited 

from the GEEP MarketMoni loan 

scheme and over N583 million 

had been disbursed so far in 

Kano State alone. 

“The beneficiaries and representatives 

of various market 

associations whose members 

have received loans will be able 

to interact with the Vice President, 

talk about the scheme and 

the impact of the loans on their 

businesses. It will also be an opportunity 

for the Vice President 

to experience first-hand, the 

impact of the programme which 

today has touched the lives of 

thousands of beneficiaries nationwide,” 

Ike said. 

“We are looking forward to 

a robust discussion with the 

Vice President at the upcoming 

MSME clinic in Kano. At the 

event, attending beneficiaries 

will receive their disbursement 

women leader, Host Communities 

of Nigeria Producing Oil and Gas, 

Delta State chapter, also suggested to 

the government to utilise the reward 

of the gas flaring fines to address concerns 

of the communities directly 

affected by the menace. 

She suggested to the Federal 

Government to ensure the host 

communities got 10 percent equity 

stake in the oil resources to ensure a 

deeper sense of belonging, which 

she argued would address some of 

the concerns of the region. 

Becoming a gas-based economy 

is at the heart of Nigeria’s government 

‘7 big wins,’ which is a key 

driver geared towards enabling 

growth in Nigeria’s oil and gas resources 

sector. 

However, gas is still being flared, 

although the Federal Government’s 

gas commercialisation policy is 

kicking off at a snail speed, experts 

therefore want the Federal Government 

to put in a ‘surety’ investment 

to speed up investments in the gas 

sector. 

“Government’s targets of actualisation 

of the gas revolution 

plan wound ensure improved gas 

production, which currently stands 

at 5.2 billion cubic feet, but requires 

deeper investments to address 

concerns of gas flaring,” Aremu said. 

Panellists at the ongoing Sustainability 

in the Extractive 

Industries (SITEI) conference 

on Monday in Abuja 

were worried that investments 

worth about $40 billion expended 

in the Niger-Delta region was not 

commensurate to the level of development 

in the region. 

The panellists however suggested 

that the Federal Government 

review and possibly change 

institutional mechanisms for the 

implementation of the projects in 

Nigeria’s oil rich Niger Delta, which 

contributes largely to the revenue 

base of Nigeria. 

The region, located in Nigeria’s 

South South, is richly blessed with 

oil and gas resources, but has been 

bedevilled by various forms of 

agitations and poor developmental 

strides that have been largely attributed 

to poor governance structure in 

addressing key concerns in the area. 

Speaking at the first plenary 

session of the conference, with the 

theme: “Managing Conflict and 

Security in the Extractive Industries,” 

Charles Achodo, technical 

adviser to Nigeria’s minister of state 

for petroleum resources, while raiscertificates,” 

she said. 

Besides the Vice President, 

other dignitaries expected at the 

Kano event include the Governor 

of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, 

and special adviser to the 

President on Social Investment 

Programmes, Maryam Uwais. 

The GEEP MarketMoni interactive 

session has been previously 

held in several states across the 

country. Two of the most recent 

are Onitsha, Anambra State on 

April 11, and Akure, Ondo State 

on May 3, 2018. 

In Anambra, over 2,000 traders 

and artisans met with the Vice 

President, the special adviser to 

the President on Social Investments, 

Maryam Uwais, and the 

minister of trade and investment, 

Okechukwu Enelamah. Topperforming 

GEEP beneficiaries 

in Anambra were selected to 

display their products at the 

exhibition grounds and interact 

with the Vice President.

Tuesday 22 May 2018 C002D5556 BUSINESS DAY 

9



C002D5556 

COMMENT 

MAZI SAM OHUABUNWA OFR 

sam@starteamconsult.com 

Since the proclamation of the 

8th Assembly, I have noticed 

a consistent effort to emasculate 

the National Assembly, 

particularly the Senate. First 

effort was the challenge to the power of 

the Senate to confirm certain executive 

appointments. Both the constitution 

and other extant laws gave powers to 

the Senate to approve, confirm or ratify 

certain appointments by the President. 

But we have seen some effort to deny 

this power of the Senate. The classical 

and subsisting case is the refusal of 

President Muhammadu Buhari to replace 

Ibrahim Magu as the Chairman 

of EFCC after the Senate rejected his 

nomination twice due to adverse reports 

from a sister security agency-DSS. Three 

years down the line, the President has 

ignored the Senate and has kept Magu 

on the job, effectively rendering the Senate 

irrelevant and impotent. 

Second, there has been an effort to 

deny the National Assembly the power 

to appropriate. The executive along 

with its cronies like Prof Itse Sagay have 

insisted that the National Assembly’s 

power is only limited to rubber stamping 

the budget submitted to it by the 

executive. It cannot add or remove. That 

argument almost stopped the signing of 

the 2017 Budget as the executive stubbornly 

stuck to its gun .In fact, perhaps 

encouraged by this erroneous view, 

President Buhari paid 496 million US 

comment is free 

Send 800word comments to comment@businessdayonline.com 

Lame duck Senate & the advance of autocracy 

Dollars to the United States of America 

for the purchase of Tucano aircrafts 

without the approval of the National 

Assembly. This decidedly unconstitutional 

action was carried out brazenly. 

Nigerians were alarmed. The National 

Assembly was scandalized. 

Some Senators stated that the 

President should be called to order for 

this breach. There were suggestions on 

the need to proceed on impeachment 

notice to the President. The executive 

felt incensed and took very unusual 

steps to humiliate the Senate and the 

Senators who raised the issue of the 

constitutional infringement. Senator 

Mathew Urhoghide was attacked by 

sponsored thugs at Benin Airport for 

daring to ask that the constitutional 

provisions for spending the nation’s 

money without legislative approval 

be invoked. While individual senators 

were being targeted for punishment, 

a decision was taken to completely 

humiliate the Senate. A team of thugs 

was commissioned to spit on the faces 

of all the senators. They walked majestically 

into the chambers, took the 

mace, walked out from the chambers 

and drove away through the Aso Rock 

Villa gate of the National Assembly into 

safety. And that ended the entire story 

about constitutional infringement 

or impeachment. Emasculation and 

humiliation in double dose! 

Third, the power of the Senate to 

summon public officers to the senate 

has been variously challenged 

and it looks like the executive has 

succeeded in removing that power 

completely. Custom CG Hameed Ali 

was summoned severally, he refused 

to come, but showed up once or so 

and when he was requested to come 

dressed in his official uniform, he flatly 

refused to return to the Senate, and as 

we write, more than a year after, the 

guy continues to run the Customs, 

completely ignoring the senate and 

nothing has happened to him and 

...it must be said that the 

National Assembly is such a 

critical democratic institution 

that any attempt to erode its 

power and influence is an 

attempt to diminish democracy 

and promote autocracy or 

dictatorship 

nothing may ever happen to him, given 

the apparent impotence of the Senate. 

The Senate invited Prof Itse Sagay and 

this law professor said he would not 

honour the invitation and he did not and 

nothing has happened as this senate has 

become completely powerless. 

It is therefore not such a great surprise 

that they have invited IGP Ibrahim 

Idris to the Senate three times to come 

and discuss the rapidly deteriorating 

security situation in Nigeria. Three times, 

Idris ignored the Senate, sending a deputy 

instead. I was really miffed by his third 

refusal, because two days before this, the 

leaders of the National Assembly had met 

with the President during which they 

complained about Idris’s intransigence. 

Thinking that it was a fence-mending 

meeting where the President appealed 

to them to get the 2018 passage passed, I 

had hoped that he would reciprocate by 

ordering Idris to honour the invitation. 

As it turned out, the President may never 

have talked to Idris or Idris may have ignored 

the President’s directive as he was 

wont to doing. For me this was the height 

of humiliation for the Senate. What did 

the senate do in response? Issue a lame 

statement saying Idris was an enemy of 

democracy and was not fit to hold public 

office in Nigeria. What does that come 

to? Idris is holding a critical public office 

right now as IGP. What would have 

happened to these apparently subdued 

senators if they had mustered the courage 

to ask the President to remove Idris 

as IGP as a minimum. By this lame 

lamentation, it is clear that this Senate 

is completely emasculated and has 

become a lame duck. 

The lameness of this Senate got 

me almost shedding tears last week, 

when I saw the senate President sitting 

on the senate floor, yielding the 

Chair to his deputy as his complaint 

about a plot by the police to link him 

and the kwara State Governor to some 

incident of murder in Kwara State was 

being discussed. I felt sorry for him, 

the No 3 citizen of the country lamenting 

like a powerless baby. But tears 

actually rolled into my eyes, when 

one senator who was contributing 

to the debate on Saraki’s complaint, 

described how his police escort team 

was unceremoniously withdrawn in 

the middle of the night in Jos, as a 

reprisal for his criticizing IGP Idris 

for his repeated refusal to honour the 

Senate’s invitation. I cried, not for the 

Senator, nor for the Senate President. 

I cried for Nigeria. 

The question must then be asked, in 

whose interest is this deliberate effort to 

make the Nigerian Senate and by extension, 

the National Assembly impotent? 

For me, it is certainly not in the interest 

of democracy. The National Assembly 

is the essential governance institution 

that differentiates civilian democracy 

from military rule. It is set up to check 

executive recklessness and prevent the 

country from becoming a dictatorship. 

In Nigeria’s long history of military 

rule, it was always the independent 

legislature that was missing as both 

the executive and judiciary remained 

in operation, even if in some distorted 

forms. Yes, some Nigerians do have issues 

with the legislature- high pay, low 

productivity etc or with specific legislators 

for poor representation & sundry 

misdeamanours but it must be said that 

the National Assembly is such a critical 

democratic institution that any attempt 

to erode its power and influence is an 

attempt to diminish democracy and 

promote autocracy or dictatorship. 

When an executive wants to begin to 

spend money without seeking legislative 

appropriation or appoint people to 

offices without any senate clearance or 

borrow money externally without any 

legislative endorsement, then we are on 

the road to impunity and dictatorship. I 

do not see how this can be in the interest 

of the ordinary Nigerian, because if it 

were, Nigerians would not have given 

their lives to return their nation from 

military rule to democracy. 

I know for sure that part of the reason 

for the onslaught on the National 

Assembly, particularly on the Senate 

is that the current leadership emerged 

against the wishes of the ruling party- 

APC. And that’s why the executive has 

done everything possible to remove 

Saraki from office and to humiliate 

his supporters. Everybody knows 

why Senator Melaye is being dragged 

through the streets of Abuja and being 

taken to court in a stretcher- vengeance. 

But should an arm of government 

go out or allow another arm to be 

humiliated or destroyed just to get even 

with one or two members of that arm? 

Should we allow the baby to be thrown 

away with the supposedly dirty water? 

Must we destroy Nigeria’s hard-earned 

democracy to satisfy the ego of a few 

‘gods’? But in all these, our politicians 

must learn the lessons that what goes 

round, comes round; that no condition 

is permanent and that whatever one 

sows, that he will also reap. But for the 

peace of Nigeria and the sustainability 

of our democracy, this siege on the National 

Assembly, particularly the Senate 

must be lifted now. And the Senate 

must wake up to assert its power with 

courage and check the emerging drift 

to dictatorship. 

Send reactions to: 

comment@businessdayonline.com 

STRATEGY & POLICY 

MA JOHNSON 

Johnson is a marine project management 

consultant and Chartered Engineer. He is 

a Fellow of the Institute of Marine Engineering, 

Science and Technology, UK. 

On April 30, 2018, President 

Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) 

of Nigeria made history as 

the first African president to 

meet with United States of America’s 

President Donald J. Trump in Washington. 

Highlights of agreements reached 

during the visit include cooperation and 

collaboration between the two countries 

on security in which the USA confirmed 

the sale of twelve Super Tucano jets, 

including other military software and 

hardware required in the continued 

fight against terrorism in Nigeria. Nigeria 

however, lost the American market for 

sale of its crude oil. While the USA got a 

deal to sell agricultural produce to Nigeria. 

Nigeria is to create a level playing ground 

through removal of trade barrier while the 

USA under the principle of reciprocity is 

to provide aid to the tune of US$1 billion 

to Nigeria. Simply put, products from the 

Buhari’s visit to Trump: A missed opportunity? 

USA can come into Nigeria unhindered 

for an aid of only US$ 1 billion. In what 

form will the aid come into Nigeria and 

how will Nigeria pay back? Overall, some 

Nigerians say that PMB’s visit to the 

USA is not worth celebrating. But PMB 

got aid, food and sophisticated military 

equipment. So Buhari’s visit to Trump 

wasn’t a missed opportunity particularly 

to those in the government. 

If we are sincere to ourselves, we 

should not forget that in world affairs, it 

is known that Nigeria is a less developed, 

conflict-infested and raw material supplying 

country. The USA, on the other 

hand, is a developed and industrialized 

country. So, one would have expected 

the bilateral relationship between the 

two countries to be of more strategic 

importance to Nigeria than the USA. It 

would have been worthwhile if Nigeria 

designed its relations with the USA or 

any nation for that matter as a vehicle to 

systematically accomplish its economic 

and democratic development. Unfortunately, 

Nigeria’s history of failed efforts to 

develop as a nation since independence 

on 1 October 1960 is of grave concern. 

Currently, Nigeria faces several domestic 

challenges in security, economic 

and political spheres. Despite these 

challenges one may argue that Nigeria is 

still the “giant of Africa” bearing in mind 

its population, oil wealth, and political 

influence in the region. Some say that 

Nigeria’s domestic stability is poor with 

high unemployment and underemploy- 

ment rates, and thus, it has lost its status as 

the “giant of Africa.”Whatever position is 

taken, Nigeria is expected to put its house 

in order by ensuring that the fight against 

terrorism, corruption and impunity is progressing 

rapidly in the positive direction at 

state and federal levels. 

This writer is of the view that it would 

have been in the interest of the USA that 

Nigeria, the most populous black nation in 

the world, become truly an economic giant 

and a democratically vibrant nation. When 

Nigeria assumes this hegemonic position, 

it would serve as a reference for regional 

security, stability and growth. It would have 

equally, been a thing of joy for Nigeria to 

maintain a strong and mutually beneficial 

bilateral relations with the world’s most 

powerful economy and democracy. 

So what is PMB’s trade policy towards 

the USA? Honestly, this writer does not 

know. What then is Trump’s Africa trade 

policy? Africa’s trade not a priority for 

Trump because of his “America first” policy. 

It is only African countries with stable polity 

and good governance, economic prosperity, 

technological advancement, moral 

authority as well as visionary leadership 

that may find it easier to influence Trump’s 

decisions in a bilateral relationship with 

the USA. 

So is the USA willing to trade with 

Nigeria? Yes, but certain conditions must 

be fulfilled. Those conditions are spelt out 

in the African Growth and Opportunity 

Act (AGOA). This is a USA trade legislation 

seeking to open markets to African exports 

particularly fabrics, fashion and agricultural 

products duty free. Under the AGOA, 

Sub-Saharan African countries will take 

part with some technical assistance and 

support provided by the USA so that they 

can fully realize the gains of the Act. 

Sub-Saharan African countries will 

be eligible when they must have “shown 

progress made towards a market-based 

economy through removal of subsidies, 

price controls and privatization, respect 

for the rule of law, embracing general 

democratic principles, human and workers’ 

rights issues, and set a minimum age 

for child labour.” Such countries must also 

show progress in such areas as “elimination 

of barriers to US trade and investment; 

protection of intellectual property; 

efforts to combat corruption; policies 

to reduce poverty, increase availability 

of health care and educational opportunities.” 

Also, to be eligible, beneficiary 

countries should ensure that US national 

security and foreign policy interests are 

not undermined. 

The above stated conditionality can 

hardly be met by most African countries. 

For instance, Nigeria is not a marketbased 

economy as oil, education, health, 

and agriculture sectors amongst others 

are still enjoying subsidy. Overtime, most 

government officials (appointed and 

elected) have demonstrated contempt 

for the rule of law. Due process is not 

followed most times before withdrawing 

funds from either the federation account 

or excess crude accounts by the executive 

arm of government. Political parties lack 

internal party democracy which is a disease 

to sustainable democracy as seen in 

the recently concluded ward congresses 

of the All Progressive Congress in a few 

states. Transparency and accountability 

are not common features of government 

institutions while child labour still exists 

in Nigeria. These are teething problems 

that Nigeria needs to address before 

earning respect from other countries in 

the international community. 

Trump takes AGOA’s eligibility requirements 

seriously. He has suspended 

the deal with Rwanda after finding 

that the country “unfairly” blocked US 

exports of used clothing while keeping 

that of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania as 

they promised to reduce or eliminate 

import barriers. Nigeria’s domestic 

challenges are numerous but they can 

be overcome. Perhaps, this is the time 

for Nigeria to reconsider its stance on 

the African Continental Free Trade Area 

(AfCFTA) if it plans to export locally 

manufactured goods and agricultural 

products. Regional integration is critical 

to accelerating growth on the African 

Continent. The best way Nigeria can 

prove to the USA and the rest of the world 

that it can be a reliable global player is to 

show capacity to establish good governance, 

prevent corruption and promote 

human rights at home. 


comment@businessdayonline.


COMMENT 

RAFIQ RAJI 

“Dr Raji is chief economist at Macroafricaintel. 

He was previously an 

Africa Economist at Standard Chartered 

Bank, London, UK. (Twitter: @ 

DrRafiqRaji)” 

The smart city vision of 

the state government 

was discussed extensively 

at a conference 

it sponsored during 

its “Lagos at 50” celebrations in 

May 2017.Themed “Towards a 

Smart City: Preparing for the next 

50 years of prosperity”, it had as 

keynote speaker a top thinker on 

African issues, Oxford professor, 

Paul Collier. He had a more engaging 

definition of what a smart 

city is. “Smart does not mean elite. 

Smart means a city that works for 

everybody in it. A city that works 

means that ordinary people can 

become productive and so earn a 

decent living.” 

The envisioned smart city 

offers opportunities in transportation, 

ICT, tourism, hospitality, 

entertainment, and sports 

for excellence. The Lagos state 

government envisions the city 

to be the most attractive to live 

GARBA SHEHU 

Garba Shehu is Senior Special Assistant 

to the President (Media & Publicity) 

Top opposition Peoples 

Democratic Party (PDP) 

members have been 

granting press interviews 

and addressing zonal political 

rallies talking about “Changing 

the change” in next year’s general 

elections, without defining what 

exactly that means. 

As the governing All Progressives 

Congress (APC) gears up to 

celebrate the completion of three 

years of the Buhari government in 

the centre on May 29th, Nigerians 

need to be reminded of what the 

reversal of the achievements of 

this administration will amount to. 

The real meaning and cost of 

the “Changing the Change,” is 

that if they win the next election, 

they will not take us back to where 

we were in 2015, they will mostly 

reverse the progress the APC has 

brought to the nation. The main 

reason for the defeat of the PDP in 

2015 was corruption. The present 

administration at the centre led 

by President Muhammadu Buhari 

has so far presented a corrupt-free 

image of itself. It has also succeeded 

in abolishing grand corruption 

at the top and as attested 

to by the American President, 

Donald Trump. The government 

has significantly brought down the 

level of corruption in the whole 

country. It has, however, warned 

over and again that corruption was 

fighting back. 

Many who are discerning 

C002D5556 

comment is free 

Send 800word comments to comment@businessdayonline.com 

Smart Lagos (3): Status, prospects & opportunities 

and do business in Africa. This 

is an exaggeration, of course. 

Even so, the government’s confidence 

is underpinned by what 

Mr Ambode dubbed an “urbanisation 

dividend” in a speech in 

February 2017.Despite its many 

deficiencies, and even before the 

authorities started making the 

needed effort to transform the 

city, which coincided with the 

birth of the country’s most recent 

democratic experiment in 1999, 

Lagos has always been attractive 

to Nigerians elsewhere. At 86 immigrants 

every hour, it has the 

highest inward migration rate of 

any city in the world. 

The Lagos Development Plan 

(2012-2025) embodies what the 

authorities hope to achieve over 

the next decade. The “smartness” 

in Lagos Smart City or Lagos, the 

smart city, is in seeing technology 

as an enabler for development, 

whether it is in the provision of 

infrastructure, security or investment 

incentives, with the goal 

being to make Lagos attractive to 

investors who would then create 

much needed jobs. There have 

been some laudable initiatives 

by the government with regard to 

transport infrastructure, like the 

completion of one of the phases 

of a city railway (albeit not yet 

operational), reform of the bus 

mass transit system, expansion 

and tolling of a key highway in 

conjunction with the private 

sector (at first) and so on. But 

the pace and reach of the government’s 

infrastructure programme 

are grossly inadequate. Strained 

finances are one reason why. True, 

the state government earns more 

revenue than other states. But the 

revenue is inadequate for the huge 

spending bill of needed development 

programmes. And the private 

sector has not always had a good 

experience with public-private 

partnership (PPP) projects with the 

state government. 

To fund its programmes, the 

government sometimes resorts to 

extreme means. Recently, the state 

government announced a land 

use charge that was considered 

hugely insensitive. Naturally, it 

was met with uproar from the 

general public. Consequently, the 

state government had little choice 

but to revise the charges downwards. 

Even so, some grumbling 

remains. This also typifies what 

tends to happen when what are 

ordinarily acceptable infrastructure 

financing and maintenance 

measures – road tolling, for instance 

– are attempted. But the 

authorities are getting it right 

in other areas. Its support programme 

for technology entrepreneurs 

in the state is exemplary. 

In December 2017, the Lagos 

State government launched 

“Lagos Innovates” to support 

tech entrepreneurs. Through the 

programme, small and mediumsized 

enterprises (SMEs) would 

be provided the infrastructural 

support, training, capital and networks 

they need to succeed. The 

initiative copies similar models 

in Chile, India and Singapore. 

Targeted at tech entrepreneurs 

residing and working in Lagos 

whose businesses are less than 

three years old, Lagos Innovates 

aims to facilitate access to “high 

quality workspaces and infrastructure”, 

“learning”, “early stage 

investment capital” and “investor 

and peer networks”. Bottomline, 

Lagos Innovates is “a set of programs 

aimed at making it easier 

to build a successful tech startup 

in Lagos”. It is perhaps the greatest 

demonstration yet of the government’s 

recognition of the tech 

opportunity in Lagos. 

The initiative currently has 

The real price of “changing the change” (1) 

would have read this from President 

Buhari’s speech when he 

inaugurated the impressive new 

headquarters building of the 

Economic and Financial Crimes 

Commission (EFCC) a week ago. 

He narrated how and why he was 

overthrown as a military Head of 

State in the 80s. 

In that speech, he said not 

only was he kicked out because 

he fought corruption, the ones 

who took power freed all those 

that he had jailed, and whatever 

they stole was returned to them. 

He took their place in prison and 

stayed there without trial for 36 

months, until that day when a 

journalist in Benin, now in Edo, 

broke the story that he had lost 

his mother. That was when he was 

allowed to go home. 

The real difference between 

the PDP and the current APC 

administration is that although 

they mouthed a flood of rhetoric 

against corruption, in fact rightfully 

lay the claim of founding 

the institutions now in the forefront 

of fighting corruption as a 

government, the EFCC and the 

Independent Corrupt Practices 

Commission, ICPC, they had intended 

to keep them as toys, or 

bulldogs which teeth had been 

removed. No, they never intended 

that the war against corruption 

would be taken this far. 

To change the change would 

mean that the teeth of the bulldog 

will be removed. It would then 

only bark but not bite. 

In this country, politics is 

often considered as synonym of 

Lagos Innovates aims to 

facilitate access to “high 

quality workspaces and 

infrastructure”, “learning”, 

“early stage investment 

capital” and “investor and 

peer networks”. Bottomline, 

Lagos Innovates is “a set of 

programs aimed at making 

it easier to build a successful 

tech startup in Lagos”. 

corruption. The previous government 

came under huge criticism 

for scandals like that discovered in 

arms procurements in the office of 

the National Security Adviser, NSA 

which transformed itself into a 

major source of funding of the PDP; 

NNPC crude oil thefts, broadband 

spectrum licensing scandal, oil 

subsidy scam and so many others 

but the present government has 

not faced any such corruption allegations. 

Although he said he was unafraid 

and would not bend, the President’s 

concern, and fear on the part 

of many is that if a corrupt leader 

takes over, it will be happy days all 

over again for former Oil Minister 

Diezani Allison-Maduekwe who 

has so far forfeited USD 153 million, 

N23.4 billion, and USD 4m and USD 

5m in separate accounts. “Change 

the Change” would mean she will 

get the money back. So would the 

former Managing Director of the 

maritime agency, NIMASA get back 

GBP 578,080 seized from him and 

the Ikoyi apartment owners have 

back their USD43.4m; N23m and 

GBP 27,800. 

The hidden owner of the Lagos 

cash shop may then step forward 

to reclaim their N449.6 million; the 

ex-Naval Chiefs will have returned 

to them the already forfeited N1.8 

billion; the Governors Forum paid 

back their N1.4 billion and the 

major oil marketers, from whom 

the EFCC has so far seized N328.9 

billion will smile their ways to the 

bank. 

The banks themselves will 

equally join the party, happily getting 

back N27.7 billion they “ate” 

from taxes they failed to remit; 

the scion of the Akinjides, Jumoke 

will have N650 million awarded 

to her while those scammers in 

INEC who coughed out N1 billion 

will equally get money back and 

charges standing against them in 

court may be dropped. 

But the happiest of them all 

will be Mrs. Jonathan, who will get 

the first priority when the refunds 

start coming for obvious reasons. 

The former First Lady would not 

anymore need lawyers to keep 

her mountain of gifts, counted in 

huge millions of dollars, billions of 

Naira, hotels and buildings. 

The list of people who oppose 

the Buhari government and 

yearning to ‘‘change the change’’ 

include a number of parliamentarians, 

policemen, customs officials, 

immigration officials, civil 

servants now rooting for other 

political parties, not leaving out 

those various businesses and 

platforms owned by these political 

parties directly or indirectly. 

The Buhari win in 2015, and 

the possibility of four more years 

have crumbled their dreams of 

endlessly looting the state and 

the growing list of achievements 

of the administration is not doing 

any good for them. 

“Change the change” means 

also that the biggest tax revolution 

since independence, the 

Voluntary Assets and Income 

Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) now 

being implemented, and about 

which many of our rich citizens 

are unhappy may be scrapped. A 

BUSINESS DAY 

11 

three major programmes. The first, 

“workspace vouchers”, would enable 

budding tech entrepreneurs 

secure funding support to acquire 

a workspace at one of the numerous 

innovation hubs in the city. For 

access, the tech entrepreneur need 

only apply online. The second, 

“hub loans”, provides capital to 

hub operators looking to expand 

or for those looking to invest 

in hubs. And the third, “events 

sponsorship”, provides support to 

enable tech entrepreneurs organize 

events to seek talent, publicize 

products and so on. Other 

programmes to be offered in due 

course, include “co-investments”, 

“program vouchers”, and “accelerator”. 

In early May 2018, Lagos 

Innovates will be sponsoring the 

“Secure Lagos Hackathon” event. 

Other upcoming events include 

“The Coworking Conference” in 

late July 2018. 

• The author, Dr Rafiq Raji, is an 

adjunct researcher of the NTU- 

SBF Centre for African Studies, 

a trilateral platform for government, 

business and academia to 

promote knowledge and expertise 

on Africa, established by Nanyang 

Technological University and the 

Singapore Business Federation. 

This article was specifically written 

for the NTU-SBF Centre for African 

Studies 


comment@businessdayonline.com 

recent report shows that there are 

four million new taxpayers, including 

companies and individuals, 

resulting in N700 billion increase 

in tax revenue in 2017. 

The early casualties of ‘‘changing 

the change’’ may include initiatives 

like the Whistle Blower policy 

by which the government is able to 

recover stolen or concealed assets 

through information provided by 

citizens. This has changed the ethical 

and moral tone of the business 

transaction space in the country. 

The whistle blower is entitled to 

between 2.5%-5.0% of amount 

recovered. 

Sometime last year, the Minister 

of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, told 

the world, “we are going after those 

who have stolen our money. We 

have put in place a very successful 

whistle-blower programme that is 

delivering results and allows those 

who report illicit activity to receive 

up to five per cent of any funds 

that we recover.” The response 

has been so fabulous that in just 

four months, it yielded N17bn, as 

revealed by the Acting Chairman 

of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu. 

Another formidable group unhappy 

with the change and wish it 

reversed are the importers of diesel 

and generators. Nigeria ranks as 

the second biggest importer of 

generators all over the world. 

Note: the rest of this article continues 

in the online edition of Business Day 

@https://businessdayonline.com/ 


comment@businessdayonline.com

12 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556 Tuesday 22 May 2018 

Editorial 

PUBLISHER/CEO 

Frank Aigbogun 

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF 

Prof. Onwuchekwa Jemie 

EDITOR 

Anthony Osae-Brown 

DEPUTY EDITORS 

John Osadolor, Abuja 

Bill Okonedo 

NEWS EDITOR 

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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, 

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CIRCULATION MANAGER 

John Okpaire 

GM, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (North) 

Bashir Ibrahim Hassan 

GM, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (South) 

Ignatius Chukwu 

HEAD, HUMAN RESOURCES 

Adeola Obisesan 

Welcome the revised CAMA 

Nigeria’s aspiration 

to 

improve the 

ease of doing 

business, 

which appeared to have 

been driven by the executive 

branch of government, 

has now received a significant 

boost from the legislature. 

The Senate on May 15 

passed the revised CAMA, 

which when operational, 

will reform the business 

environment in many ways 

which are unprecedented. 

It is expected to improve 

on the reforms currently 

in place, by making business 

registration faster and 

more seamless. 

Achieving the CAMA 

amendment could be attributed 

to the National Assembly 

Business Environment 

Roundtable (NASS- 

BER) which was created as 

a platform for the legislature 

and the private sector 

to engage, deliberate and 

take action on a framework 

that will improve Nigeria’s 

business environment 

through a review of relevant 

legislations and provisions 

of the Constitution. 

It is a partnership between 

the National Assembly, Nigerian 

Economic Summit 

Group and Nigeria Bar Association’s 

Section on Business 

Law, supported by the defunct 

ENABLE II programme 

of the UK Department for 

International Development 

(UK-DfID). It is expected that 

this framework will support 

reforms designed to make 

Nigeria’s economy globally 

competitive, achieve inclusive 

growth and sustainability, 

create jobs, and cater to 

the wellbeing of Nigerians. 

It therefore became imperative 

to have an effective 

legal framework of company 

law, which is a critical building 

block of a modern and 

business friendly economy. 

A genuinely modern and effective 

legal framework can 

promote enterprise, enhance 

competitiveness and stimulate 

investment. Conversely, 

an ineffective or outdated 

framework can inhibit productivity 

and growth and 

undermine investor confidence. 

Nigeria ranks 145 out of 

190 countries in the World 

Bank’s Ease of Doing Business 

ranking, which rates 

countries for the ease at 

which one can open, conduct 

and perhaps close down 

businesses. The WBDB Index 

offers a useful and measurable 

assessment of economies 

around the world; and 

also serves as a resource 

for private sector and other 

stakeholders interested in 

investing in Nigeria. One 

of the indicators the WBDB 

team measures is the relative 

ease or difficulty in establishing 

and running a 

business in Nigeria. In this 

regard, Nigeria is ranked 

on the Starting a Business 

indicator as 130 out of 190 

economies and for the first 

time was also recognized as 

one of the top ten (10) most 

improved economies in the 

world. 

This landmark reform by 

the Bukola Saraki-led Senate, 

coming 28 years after 

the passage of the original 

Companies and Allied Matters 

Act, will provide significant 

benefits to companies 

by reducing bureaucratic red 

tape and making it easier to 

comply with regulatory obligations. 

Most of the changes 

are aimed at encouraging 

investments that will allow 

small businesses and startups 

thrive, lower costs and 

ease regulatory burdens. 

The present administration 

has given a lot of attention 

to improving Nigeria’s 

ease of doing business. The 

government indicated its 

seriousness by establishing 

the Presidential Enabling 

Business Environment Council 

)PEBEC), chaired by vice 

president Yemi Osinbajo. 

It is commendable that the 

legislature is now fully on 

board. 

Before the executive 

and legislature roll out the 

drums to begin celebrations, 

they must realise the 

work isn’t complete yet. 

The House of Representatives 

need to also pass the 

bill and after assent by the 

President, there will be a 

sustained period of enlightenment 

campaign to secure 

the buy-in of all critical 

stakeholders in the business 

and investment community. 

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www.businessdayonline.com

Tuesday 22 May 2018 BUSINESS DAY 13 

COMPANIES 

& MARKETS 

Company news analysis and insight 

LAPO boss seeks greater 

commitment to poverty 

alleviation in Nigeria 

Pg. 14 

Top five PFAs account for 64.84% of 

total pension contributions 

…as least 10 receives N418.46bn 

Modestus Anaesoronye 

The ranking of 

Pension Fund 

Administrators 

(PFA) by total 

pension contributions 

show that top five 

received 64.84 percent of 

the total contributions as 

at the end of the fourth 

quarter 201, while the top 

10 ranking PFAs accounted 

for 87.90 percent of the total 

contributions. 

Ina document made 

available by the Nation Pension 

Commission (PenCom), 

the bottom 5 and 10 PFAs 

received N77.98 billion and 

N418.46 billion contributions 

of their members, representing 

1.70 percent and 

9.14 percent of the total con- 

tributions received as at the 

end of the fourth quarter of 

2017 respectively. 

According to the Commission, 

the total monthly 

pension contribution made 

by contributors from both 

the public and private sectors 

into their RSAs was 

N4.49 trillion as at the end 

of fourth quarter, 2017. 

This shows an increase of 

N147.92 billion representing 

3.41 percent over the 

total contributions as at the 

end of the previous quarter. 

A review of the aggregate 

total contribution shows 

that the Public sector contributed 

51.20 percent of 

the total contributions, 

while the Private sector 

contributed the remaining 

48.80 percent. However, 

during the fourth under 

review, the Public sector 

contributed 51.39 percent 

of the total contributions 

received while the Private 

sector contributed 48.61 

percent. 

In terms of scheme membership, 

the pension industry 

recorded a 1.46 percent 

growth in the scheme membership 

during the fourth 

quarter of 2017, moving from 

7.78 million contributors 

at the end of the preced- 

ing quarter to 7.89 million. 

The growth in the industry 

membership was driven by 

the Retirement Savings Account 

(RSA) Scheme, which 

had an increase of 113,347 

contributors representing 

1.47 percent. 

A breakdown of the RSA 

registrations indicates a 

0.62 percent (21,306) increase 

in membership of 

the public sector over the 

third quarter of the same 

year to stand at 3,478,867. 

This figure represents 

44.46 percent of the total 

RSA registration as at the 

fourth quarter of 2017, as 

shown in Table 3.2. 

The private sector shows 

a continuous dominance 

in RSA membership with 

55.54 percent (4,345,044) 

of the total RSA registration 

as at the reporting period, 

moving from 4,253,003 in the 

previous quarter. The sector 

also witnessed a growth of 

2.16 percent (92,041) in the 

quarter under review. This 

can be attributed to the increase 

in the level of compliance 

by the private sector as 

a result of the various steps 

taken by the Commission 

to improve compliance and 

coverage, as well as marketing 

strategies of the PFAs. 

Shell safeguards 60,000 bpd with 900 community jobs 

Ignatius Chukwu 

Shell Petroleum Development 

Company 

(SPDC) says it has safeguarded 

60,000 bpd of 

crude oil with 900 community 

jobs for pipelines surveillance 

in three clusters in the Land 

East Hub. The company said 

it is prepared to carry out a full 

roll-out of the system to all land 

areas based on the near zero 

incident free outcome of the 

pilot scheme. 

The declaration was made 

recently by Boniface Nongo, 

SPDC’s Wells Reservoir & Facilities 

Lead, Manager for the 

Land East Asset at the ‘Youth 

Summit for Land East Hub 

Host Communities (Rivers, 

Abia, Imo) in Port Harcourt, 

Rivers State capital. 

It was aimed at creating 

a sustainable environment 

for businesses to grow and to 

attract investors that would 

create jobs. So, when you are 

giving peace a chance, when 

you are creating peaceful environment, 

you are creating jobs. 

Nongo stood in for Sam 

Ezugworie, the Assets Manager 

for the area. The event was attended 

by about 70 youth leaders 

from the host communities 

of the Land East Asset who 

were being made to learn the 

new ways of getting fulfilment 

in life to reduce violent tendencies 

by oil host youths. 

In an interview after his 

presentation, the Benue expert 

said the demand by some 

youth leaders for Shell to hand 

over surveillance contracts to 

community youths had just 

been approved, after a pilot 

scheme proved it more viable. 

Nongo said “Shell has already 

approved what we call 

enhanced surveilance strategy 

already pilotted in three clusters 

of Ukwa West, Agbada and 

Ikwerre cluster development 

boards where we work with the 

landlord community contractors 

to provide surveillance 

on our pipelines. We engage 

four persons per km, so two in 

the day and at night. That way, 

we were able to generate jobs 

for 900 persons in Imo and 

Agbeda communities. That has 

safeguarded over 60,000 bpd 

in the past eight months with 

near-zero incident. It is an affirmation 

that their suggestion 

has already been accepted.” 

He also said ‘Management 

has approved a go-forward 

plan that we should deploy 

to the whole land assets by 

July 2018. Our youths will be 

directly employed to oversee 

our assets. We hope that things 

cannot happen except there is 

an insider. We now give them 

the responsibility to look over 

our assets. 

On what is in it for the community 

youths, Nongo said “We 

have deployed a system called 

the consequence managemnet 

system where you do not have 

an incident and get a bonus 

and stay (on the bonus) until 

when there is incident, you 

go back to zero. When there is 

repeated incidents, you can be 

challenged in the community 

and be removed. We pay them 

above minimum wage. We are 

getting value for that.” 

Explaining more, Evans 

Krukrubo, the community interface 

manager, who represented 

the GM External Relations, Igo 

Weli, said in an interview that 

it was not true that Shell jettisioned 

the community contract 

system at any point as peddled 

by some non-governmental 

organisations (NGOs). 

He said in some places 

where there were community 

surveillance contractors, vandalism 

still went on. He said 

Shell adjusted the strategies 

from area to area depending 

on their circumstance. He 

said Ogoni where Shell was no 

longer doing oil business has 

350 community surveillance 

workers paid every month. 

Union Bank gets Business Continuity 

Management certification 

Union Bank in 

compliance with 

International 

Business Continuity 

Management Systems 

(BCMS) standard has 

received a ISO 22301:2012 

certification. 

The Bank was certified by 

the British Standards Institution 

(BSI) in partnership 

with local capacity building 

firm, Digital Jewels following 

its successful fulfillment of 

the rigorous requirements 

for this internationally recognised 

standard on Business 

Continuity Management 

Systems. 

In a statement by the International 

Organisation for 

Standardisation (ISO), the 

ISO 22301:2012 certification 

specifies requirements to 

plan, establish, implement, 

operate, monitor, review, 

maintain and continually 

improve a documented management 

system to prepare 

for, respond to and recover 

from disruptive events when 

they arise. 

Compliance with the 

BCMS standard ensures efficient 

response when the 

organisation encounters 

threats. In order to achieve 

certification to the standard, 

an organisation must demonstrate 

clear commitment 

towards assessing both internal 

and external threats 

and vulnerabilities and prioritizing 

relevant risks while 

implementing preventive 

measures. 

Kandolo Kasongo, chief 

risk officer while commenting 

on the Bank’s recent certification, 

reiterated the Bank’s 

commitment to benchmarking 

its processes and operations 

against international 

best practices. 

According to him, “Our 

attainment of the new Business 

Continuity Management 

certification follows rigorous 

auditing of our internal 

processes. Therefore having 

successfully satisfied all the 

requirements for this international 

standard, we assure 

our valued customers of our 

readiness to continue delivering 

quality banking services 

even in the face of significant 

disruptions.” 

He further stated that 

over the years, the Bank has 

focused on benchmarking 

its processes against global 

standards. In 2014, the Bank 

became the first Nigerian 

financial institution to be 

awarded the Payment Card 

Industry Data Security Standard, 

PCI DSS – Version 3.0 

which it recently upgraded 

to PCI DSS Version It has 

also recently attained the 

ISO9001:2015 Quality Management 

Standard (QMS) 

and Information Security 

Management Standard ISO/ 

IEC 27001:2013. 

Attaining the BCMS standard 

highlights Union Bank’s 

commitment to its customers; 

to maintain effective 

measures for business continuity, 

risk management 

and resilience as it continues 

to deliver on its promise of 

being Nigeria’s most reliable 

and trusted banking partner.

14 

BUSINESS DAY 

COMPANIES & MARKETS 

C002D5556 


LAPO boss seeks greater commitment 

to poverty alleviation in Nigeria 

Idris Umar Momoh 

Leading micro finance 

company, 

Lift Above Poverty 

Organization 

(LAPO) has reaffirmed 

the commitment of 

the company and its staff to 

the fight against poverty. 

Godwin Ehigiamusoe, 

who gave the charge at the 

2018 staff awards ceremony 

held in Benin-City noted that 

the challenges of poverty in 

the country is enormous and 

requires the commitment of 

men and women to address 

its multi-faceted dimensions. 

Ehigiamusoe who said the 

organization currently has a 

staff strength of 7,150 added 

that a total of 407 staff were 

rewarded for their uncommon 

commitment and loyalty 

to the LAPO brand. 

While assuring that LAPO, 

the financial institution is 

poised to face challenge 

ahead urged them to make 

positive mark in their various 

responsibilities. 

“If you look at your right 

and left, the challenge of poverty 

is still enormous. Many 

people as we speak still go 

about hungry, many women 

and indeed parents watch 

their children dying because 

they cannot afford to provide 

the financial resources to 

meet medical services. 

“ Many of our children 

would have paid their ways 

through schools some of 

them have been at home 

for five, four to three years 

without anything to do, 

and therefore we see that 

there is so much for us to 

do in the area of boosting 

businesses, health services. 

It is for that reason that in 

Benin we are capitalizing 

investing in very huge and 

sophisticated medical facility 

that would provide 

medical services and true 

outreach programmes to 

rural communities. 

“It is also to be an excellency 

Centre for cancer 

screening and treatment 

in Benin-City. So these are 

parts of many things we 

need to still do. What that, 

therefore means is that all of 

us and indeed many others 

who will join as well must 

redouble our commitment 

to ensure that the task before 

us we are able to accomplish 

them”, he said. 

He said the staff are being 

recognized for twenty to ten 

years of unbroken services as 

well as excellence in service 

delivery awards 

Ehigiamusoe, who opined 

that the pro-poor financial 

institution has just begun 

as a development organization, 

however demanded for 

constant performance and 

commitment from the staff. 

“LAPO’s exponential 

growth over the years can be 

attributed to the commitment 

of members of staff who go 

for and near to ensure that 

the economically active poor 

enjoy our unique financial 

products and social empowerment 

serivices. 

“Our people are our best 

ever asset. They beat the 

odds, they run with passion. 

They never rest until lives 

and businesses are enriched. 

They never rest until they see 

that our extensive footprints 

across Nigeria prompt our 

name-LAPO- to become a 

part of life changing conversations 

in many households”, 

he added. 

Mutual Benefits Assurance pays N5.15bn in claims 

…to pay dividend to shareholders 

L-R: Ben Langat, MD, FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc; Roel Van Neerbos, president, 

Consumer Dairy, Royal FrieslandCampina, The Netherlands; Jacobs Ajekigbe, chairman, Friesland 

Campina WAMCO, and Oyinkan Ade-Ajayi, non-executive director of the company at the 45th 

annual general meeting of the company in Lagos. 

Pic by Pius Okeosisi 

Mutual Benefits 

Assurance Plc 

has released 

its audited accounts 

for the year ended 

December 31 2017, showing 

a significant increase 

in profit after tax to N1.02 

billion from a loss position 

of N1.35 billion in 2016. The 

result also show a gross premium 

written growth of 16 

percent from N12.14 billion 

in 2016 to N14.03 billion in 

the review year. Underwriting 

income also grew by 10 

percent to N11.78 billion in 

2017 versus the 2016 figure 

of N10.70 billion. 

Commenting on the results 

the Akin Ogunbiyi, 

chairman of the Company 

stated that, “Despite the 

tough business environment 

we have been able to bounce 

back to profitability and delight 

our shareholders.” Dividend 

of 2 kobo per share 

will be paid to our esteemed 

shareholders who have stood 

by us over the years”. 

The Net Claims paid by 

the Group in 2017 stood at 

N5.15 billion fromN3.35 billion 

in 2016, resulting in a 54 

percent increase from the 

previous year. 

In a statement on the 

claims paid in the year ending 

December 2017, the 

Managing Director, Segun 

Omosehin said “This is an attestation 

of our firm resolve 

to consistently honour our 

obligations to our esteemed 

customers while improving 

our claims administration 

processes and procedures.” 

The recently released 

2018 first quarter financial 

results also show impressive 

performance compared to 

the same period last year. 

This shows a 27 percent increase 

in gross premium 

written of N4.75billion from 

N3.75 billion during the first 

quarter of 2017, and a 4.22 

percent increase in net premium 

income from N3.71 

billion in the first quarter of 

2017 to N3.87 billion in the 

first quarter of 2018. 

Underwriting income 

also grew at 5.50 percent 

from N3.81 billion to N4.01 

billion in the same period. 

While profit after tax for 

the quarter stood at N672 

million from N655 million, 

representing a 2.60 percent 

growth. 

Mutual Benefits has in 

the last year embarked on a 

strategic roadmap geared at 

repositioning the Company 

to lead the insurance industry 

in growth, profitability, 

operational efficiencies and 

innovation come 2021. 

BDCs, NFIU embark on capacity 

building for anti-money 

laundering, terrorist financing 


In compliance with the 

anti-money laundering 

and terrorist financing 

(AML/CFT) regulation, 

Bureaux De Change Operators 

of Nigeria and Nigeria Financial 

Intelligence Unit (NFIU) 

have embarked on a capacity 

building. 

The two institutions recently 

concluded a three-day 

joint training/sensitization 

programme on anti-money 

laundering and terrorist financing. 

The programme, attended 

by head offices/zonal 

secretariats staff of ABCON 

and key personalities from 

the NFIU was held at the 

ABCON Secretariat, in Ikeja 

Lagos. . 

Speaking to financial journalists 

at the end of the training, 

ABCON President, Aminu 

Gwadabe, said the anti-money 

laundering training is intended 

to familiarize Bureaux de 

Change (BDC) operators with 

the process of money laundering 

— the criminal business 

used to disguise the true origin 

and ownership of illegal cash 

— and the laws that make it a 

crime. 

The training, he said, will 

create awareness on the need 

to check money laundering 

and terrorist financing in this 

period of electioneering; ensure 

that BDCs are not used 

to launder funds by Politically 

Exposed Persons (PEPs). It will 

Phase3 telecom bags Beacon 

of ICT industry award 

Phase3 Telecom in recognition 

of its unfailing 

commitment to 

delivering world class 

connectivity and network solutions 

has bagged the fibre optic 

company of the year at the Beacon 

of ICT Awards 2018 for four 

consecutive years. 

The award does validate 

of the company’s unwavering 

dedication to top notch service 

provision and a laudable addition 

to its ever growing sea of 

prominent local and international 

accolades and acknowledgments. 

Stanley Jegede, chief executive 

officer, Phase3 Telecom 

says the award confirms 

the company’s inimitable approach 

to amplifying regional 

connectivity that put the customer’s 

need first. With a consistent 

drive to give access and 

enhance the availability of fast 

also upscale BDCs’ compliance 

with the Anti-Money Laundering 

and Combating the Financing 

of Terrorism (AML/CFT) 

for Banks and Other Financial 

Institutions in Nigeria Regulations, 

2013. 

Gwadabe explained that the 

NFIU is the arm of the global financial 

Intelligence Unit (FIU) 

and the joint training is part of 

the efforts of the Federal Government 

in combating money 

laundering, and financing of 

terrorist activities within the 

country. The training is in line 

with BDCs commitment to 

meeting their obligations towards 

the Financial Action Task 

Force (FATF) Recommendations. 

He said the core role of 

the FIU is that it serves as the 

country’s central agency for 

the collection, analysis and 

dissemination of information 

regarding money laundering 

and the financing of terrorism 

and the training was 

an opportunity to get more 

acquainted with the role of 

NFIU and have a better understanding 

on how to file 

their transaction reports to 

regulatory agencies. 

He said the trainings will 

enable BDCs to understand 

how to raise the Suspicious 

Transaction Reports (STRs) 

and Currency Transaction 

Reports (CTRs) to know when 

to submit such reports. He 

said these reports are raised 

by operators on suspicious 

activities of individuals and are 

submitted to Financial Intelligence 

Unit. 

and reliable internet to the unserved 

and underserved parts 

of Nigeria and the West Africa 

sub-region. 

According to him, “The company’s 

growing realization of its 

strategic insight and blueprint to 

limiting the current digital divide 

in Africa’s telecommunications 

industry is being validated by 

such honours and is certainly 

not taken for granted. “These 

praises are both humbling and 

encouraging of the fact that 

Phase3 is on the right course 

however must not rest on its oars 

as much is expected of it still” 

Jegede further said that 

Phase3’s network of strategic 

partners continues to allow it to 

extend its reach thus solidifying 

its space as an indigenous telecom 

service provider of repute 

and one of the broadband champions 

of Africa’s socio-economic 

development.



Shell’s joint venture on 

GMoU invests N14.86bn on 

host community 

Business Event 

Olusola Bello 

As part of the 

plans to improve 

the economic 

lives of its host 

communities, 

Shell Petroleum Development 

Company (SPDC)has 

invested a total of N14.86 billion 

through its Joint venture 

on Global Memorandum of 

Understanding (GMoU) clusters 

in Rivers State. 

The communities are given 

a highly-valued opportunity 

to decide and implement 

projects and programmes 

that have a lasting impact on 

people’s lives. 

The funding, since the 

GMoU concept took off in 

2006, has enabled the 19 clusters 

in Rivers State to embark 

on projects covering health, 

education, water and power 

supply improvement, sanitation 

and infrastructure development. 

“The GMoU initiative has 

opened a new and exciting 

chapter in the relationship 

between SPDC JV and communities 

and empowered 

the people at the grassroots 

to take charge of their own 

development,” said SPDC’s 

General Manager, External 

Relations, Igo Weli at a presentation 

of the 2018 Shell 

Nigeria Briefing Notes to journalists 

in Port Harcourt. Weli, 

who was represented by the 

Manager, Social Investment/ 

Social Performance Gloria 

Udoh, said the success of 

the GMoU initiative proves 

what can be achieved when 

government, international 

oil companies, communities 

and NGOs work together for 

the common good. 

Under the terms of the 

GMoU, SPDC JV provides 

secure five-year funding for 

communities to implement 

development projects of 

their choice, which are managed 

by Cluster Development 

Boards (CDBs) under 

the guidance of mentoring 

NGOs. There are 37 active 

GMoU clusters in Rivers, Delta, 

Bayelsa and Abia states, 

which have been funded to 

the tune of more than N41 

billion since 2006. 

GMoU clusters in Rivers 

State have recorded landmark 

achievements, including setting 

up a Community Health 

Insurance Scheme (CHIS) at 

Obio Cottage Hospital in Port 

Harcourt, where the average 

number of patients increased 

from about 600 to about 7,500 

per month in 2017, making 

it one of the most utilised 

health facilities in the area. 

Other clusters have awarded 

foreign and Nigerian tertiary 

scholarships, set up transport 

schemes and built roads. 

In another social investment 

initiative in Rivers 

State, SPDC JV has trained 

more than 800 young men 

and women under the Shell 

LiveWIRE programme which 

was introduced in 2003 to 

help young entrepreneurs 

to convert their bright ideas 

into sustainable businesses, 

creating wider employment 

and income opportunities 

for communities. SPDC JV 

also implements a robust 

health intervention scheme, 

supporting 10 hospitals in the 

state. In 2017, SPDC JV established 

Nigeria’s first centre of 

excellence in Marine Engineering 

and Offshore Technology 

at Rivers State University 

in Port Harcourt, which 

has commenced programmes 

leading to the award of Masters 

degrees in Marine Engineering 

(Power Plants), Naval 

Architecture and Offshore and 

Subsea Engineering. This and 

other educational interventions 

build on a pioneering 

scholarship programme that 

was introduced by SPDC since 

the 1950s. 

Weli added: “We’re proud 

of our extensive social investment 

footprints in Rivers 

State, which in some 

cases even stretch beyond 

the SPDC joint venture. For 

example, to mark Nigeria’s 

centenary anniversary, Shell 

exclusively donated a modern 

public library to the Port 

Harcourt Literary Society 

in November 2016 at a cost 

of N1.58 billion. While we 

will continue to work with 

government, communities 

and other stakeholders for 

the development of the Niger 

Delta, we strongly appeal for 

a conducive operating environment 

since this is only 

way we can do business and 

implement the needed social 

investment projects and programmes.” 

L-R: Sam Jegede, Chief Executive Officer, Omokhoje Sam-Jegede & CO (Management Consultant) 

presenting Certificate toThe National Librarian, Prof. Lenrie Olatokunbo Aina during the Public 

Sector Management Course organised for The Nigeria National Library held at Administrative Staff 

College of Nigeria (ASCON) Badagry, Lagos 

R-L: Aminu Gwadabe, president, Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON); 

Adewunmi Adewale, national accountant, ABCON and an official of Nigeria Financial Intelligence 

Unit (NFIU) at the end of a three-day joint training/sensitization programme on anti-money laundering 

and terrorist financing organised by ABCON and NFIU at the ABCON Secretariat, in Ikeja, Lagos. 

Reliance Infosystems gets recognition 

for promoting cloud tech uptake 

MIKE OCHONMA 

For its effort which has 

immensely contributed 

towards the promotion 

of cloud technology uptake 

in Nigeria, Reliance Infosystems 

was recently given an 

award as the ‘ICT Innovations 

Company of the Year’ by the 

Lagos chamber of Commerce 

and Industry at its 2018 Award 

night held in Lagos 

The Nigeria Communications 

Week Journal also awarded 

Reliance Infosystems as the 2018 

ICT Business Integrator Company 

of the Year at its recently 

concluded awards. 

Commenting on the 

awards, Oghor Akpenyi, Business 

Transformation Director; 

Reliance Infosystems said: 

“Today, Reliance Infosystems 

is assisting early adopters to 

win and lead with cloud technology. 

The commoditization 

philosophy of cloud that allows 

businesses to replace heavy 

investments in technology 

platforms with pay-as-youuse 

investment model helps 

businesses consolidate their 

resources on their core activities 

for maximum returns” 

On his part, Ken Ogujio, chief 

executive officer, Communications 

Week, noted that the 

award is attributed to the role 

which Reliance Infosystems is 

playing in creating integration 

possibilities between business 

platforms and consumer’s devices. 

According to Ogujio, “Reliance 

Infosystems is heavily 

leveraging Microsoft IoT platforms 

to empower telecoms, 

logistics and smart cities.” 

Receiving the award, Olayemi 

Popoola, managing director, 

Reliance Infosystems; 

promised to extend similar 

integration to healthcare, education, 

transportation and B2B 

interplays. 

He said “This award is a 

recognition to the tremendous 

effort the team at Reliance is 

putting in delivering the best 

of services to our clients. I 

especially thank all our clients 

and all the people that voted, 

for their confidence in us. Our 

clients and business partners 

are the reason for our consistent 

growth and success in our area 

of business.” 

L-R: Wale Odufelo, DMD, Alpha Mead Group; Kunle Osilaja, group head, real estate, Ekobank 

Plc; Udo Okonjo, CEO/vice chair, Fine & Country West Africa; Femi Akintunde, GMD, Alpha mead 

, and Tokunbo Talabi, CEO, Superflux International, at The Nigerian FM Roundtble 2018 in Lagos 

L-R: Wale Odufelo, DMD, Alpha Mead Group; Kunle Osilaja, group head, real estate, Ekobank 

Plc; Udo Okonjo, CEO/vice chair, Fine & Country West Africa; Femi Akintunde, GMD, Alpha mead 

, and Tokunbo Talabi, CEO, Superflux International, at The Nigerian FM Roundtble 2018 in Lagos

16 

BUSINESS DAY 

C002D5556 

Tuesday 22 May 2018


Harvard 

Business 

Review 

Tips 

& 

Talking Points 

TALKING POINTS 

Rapid Code Deployment at Facebook 

2: Last year, it took about 3.5 hours for an 

engineer’s code to be put into production 

at Facebook, down from 14 hours 

in 2016. This year, the company’s goal 

is two hours. 

+ 

Don’t Work Too Many Hours 

50-55: Research has shown that work 

engagement and skills connected with 

problem-solving decline when people 

work more than 50-55 hours a week. 

+ 

Our Personality Roots 

40-50%: Based on studies of twins, researchers 

have posited that about 40-50% 

of our personalities can be attributed to 

our genes. 

+ 

Doctors Say Health Care Is Too Expensive 

in the US 

89%: About 89% of doctors surveyed in 

a University of Utah study said that they 

believed the cost of health care in the U.S. 

was too high. 

+ 

Few Black Women Are Running 

Companies 

1.3%: Black women represent 12.7% of 

the U.S. population, but just 1.3% of senior 

management and C-level executive 

positions at S&P 500 firms. 

Opt out of that networking event 

We’re all familiar with networking events. 

They start out as promising, careerboosting 

meetups, but tend to end with 

you in the corner talking to someone you 

already know. This scenario of being stuck 

in your comfort zone is challenging for 

introverts and extroverts alike. So how 

can you overcome it? The answer may 

be to stop trying to make new contacts 

at events. Here’s why: Mixers are limited 

to low-stakes conversations with people, 

and we’re more likely to forge relationships by 

participating in shared activities. In order words, 

we need to look beyond social events to grow 

our networks. Opt for higher-stakes activities 

such as organizing charity events or playing in 

an amateur sports league. Look for hobbies that 

attract diverse people. You may find you’re better 

off sharing activities than schmoozing. 

(Adapted from “Go Ahead, Skip that Networking 

Event,” by David Burkus.) 

Consider 0nline memos 

for board meetings 

A common issue in board 

governance is lacking the information 

to make strategic decisions. 

Netflix overcomes this 

with an online memo system 

that makes board communication 

between directors and employees 

more transparent, and 

meetings more efficient. The 

quarterly memos take a narrative 

format — they emphasize 

discussion within the document 

and enable the reader to 

access business performance, 

industry trends, among other 

company insights. By focusing 

on shared discussion over presentation, 

Netflix has allowed 

information to flow more freely 

between its board and the company’s 

day to day — ultimately 

allowing managers to face challenges 

with confidence. 

(Adapted from “How Netflix 

Redesigned Board Meetings,” 

by David Larcker and Brian 

Tayan.) 

Set boundaries to work more 

productively with perfectionists 

If you have 

a perfectionist 

on 

your team, 

you may 

find that his 

rigid standards 

hinder 

productivity 

and cause 

unwanted 

conflict. His 

inability to 

put the larger 

goal before the details 

can even result in missed 

deadlines. So how can you 

collaborate with perfectionist 

colleagues to be more 

productive as a team? Setting 

clear boundaries is one place 

to start. Perfectionists tend 

to send numerous emails 

detailing questions or helpful 

suggestions, especially 

when they are feeling over- 

whelmed. Don’t ignore the 

emails. Instead, try limiting 

your responses to one per 

day. Or you can decide not 

to respond to emails that a 

perfectionist colleague sends 

over the weekend. These 

boundaries will help both of 

you be more productive. 

(Adapted from “How to Collaborate 

with a Perfectionist,” 

Alice Boyes.) 

c 

Invest in your global team 

to keep it engaged 

With global teams 

comes the potential 

for organizations 

to tap new markets 

and create relevant 

brand experiences 

for customers from 

different cultures. 

But in order to reap 

the benefits, your organization 

will need to 

ensure that global team 

members are integrated 

in the broader company. 

Keep in mind that employees 

who work away 

from headquarters must 

deal with a lack of access 

to their leaders, communicate 

in non-native 

languages, and accommodate 

the schedules 

of colleagues at the company’s 

center — all of 

which can make a global 

team feel removed from 

the picture. Managers can 

remedy this by scheduling 

off-site meetings to bring all 

teams together. Try personally 

checking in with remote 

employees to develop crosscompany 

norms. You can 

even take a trip to visit global 

teams where they are. The 

effort will send the message 

that you care. 

(Adapted from “How to Keep 

a Global Team Engaged,” by 

Andy Molinsky.) 

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

CEOs should see shareholder activists 

as opportunities, not threats 

Many companies view shareholder 

activists as a shortterm 

presence that will leave 

after turning a profit. Firms 

are also often wary of activist 

intervention because CEOinvestor 

tensions can arise 

early on and put constructive 

dialogue out of reach. Consider 

activists who push for the 

sale of firms and the removal 

of CEOs. However, research 

shows that the holding period 

of a median activist is over a 

year. Most importantly, firms 

should remember that activist 

shareholders are there to help 

undervalued companies boost 

their worth. If an activist does 

approach your firm, the best 

initial strategy is to be clear 

about strategic goals and balance 

any input with your interests and 

those of other stakeholders. 

(Adapted from “What CEOs Get Wrong 

About Activist Investors,” by Frank 

Partnoy and Steven Davidoff Solomon.)



Underage drinking: Guinness embarks on 

campaign to secure Nigeria’s future 

Stories by Daniel Obi 

Media Business Editor 

There are serious concerns 

for underage (below 18 

years) alcohol drinking 

globally. This is because 

of its effects on the society 

and the teens such as brain 

damage, assault and sexual activity 

among others. 

The concerns are genuine as 

Nigeria’s youth population, under 

24 years accounts for 63 per cent of 

about 190 million Nigerians. This 

huge number represents a formidable 

bulge of untapped potential and 

opportunities, which well harnessed 

would guarantee the nation’s economic 

sustainability. Therefore, this 

population deserves the necessary 

help from government and corporate 

organizations to ensure that Nigeria’s 

posterity is preserved. 

This is why Guinness Nigeria, 

a member of Diageo group has 

embarked on a campaign tagged 

‘Smashed’ to reveal the consequences 

of alcohol drinking on the underage 

and curtailing the trend. 

The Smashed Project is a live 

theatre/drama performance delivered 

to 14 – 17 year olds (SS1 – SS3 

students) in government and private 

schools across Lagos State by professional 

actors, along with follow-up 

interactive workshops. The initiative 

took into consideration the Nigerian 

culture by engaging young people 

in a safe and motivational learning 

environment, enabling them to understand 

the consequences of underage 

and binge drinking. 

Managing Director/Chief Executive 

Officer, Guinness Nigeria Plc, 

Re-election of Badejo-Okusanya as 

APRA president honour to Nigeria, 

says Re-Ignite firm 

The management of Re- 

Ignite Public Affairs 

Limited congratulate 

Group Managing Director 

Yomi Badejo-Okusanya on 

his re-election as the President of 

African Public Relations Association 

(APRA) for two-year tenure 

at the just concluded 2018 annual 

conference of the association 

in Gaborone, Botswana. 

In a statement signed by the 

Executive Director/Chief Operating 

Officer of Re-Ignite Public 

Okusanya 

Affairs in Abuja, Franklyn Ginger-Eke, 

the management also 

commended the flagship firm in 

the group, CMC Connect Burson- 

Marsteller for winning a competitive 

laurel of the Holmes Report’s 

continental SABRE Awards at the 

conference. 

Badejo-Okusanya‘s re-election 

by the delegates to the annual 

congress of member nations 

of Africa Public Relations Association 

is a show of confidence 

on the capacity and tremendous 

values he has brought to the association. 

His re-lection is also a 

mark of honor and recognition of 

Nigeria as one of the few nations 

propelling the frontiers of growth 

for the professional practice of 

public relations in Africa. 

Speaking on this outstanding 

feat, deputy director of Re-Ignite 

Public Affairs, Adetola Odusote 

who is also the Secretary General 

of the Public Relations Consultants 

Association of Nigeria, PR- 

CAN, exalted the newly re-elected 

President. “YBO”, he said, “has 

done so much for PR profession 

not only in Nigeria but across Africa. 

Peter Ndegwa, said that the company’s 

Underage Alcohol education 

programme is aimed at reducing the 

incidence of alcohol related harm 

amongst young people. “Between 

the ages of 14 and 17, young people 

are most vulnerable to different societal 

burdens such as peer pressure 

and the need to fit in; this sometimes 

causes them to make uninformed 

decisions ,” Ndegwa said. 

Plans for 2018 African Brand Congress, 

Leadership Merit Awards gather momentum 

DIPO OLADEHINDE 

The African Brand Congress 

2018 will be holding 

its annual edition of the 

African Brand Leadership 

Merits Awards in Lagos on May 31 

aimed at celebrating leadership, 

innovations and creativity in Africa. 

The congress also will celebrate 

brilliant minds and institutions 

that are delivering positive change 

and shaping Africa’s future. 

Company CEOs, business managers 

from leading brands across 

According to him, schools are an 

important setting for interventions 

aimed at shaping behavior among 

youths because no other community 

or institution has as much 

continuous and intensive contact 

with young people. “And this is why 

Guinness Nigeria decided to implement 

the SMASHED programme in 

28 government and private schools 

across Lagos state,” Ndegwa reiterated. 

He added: “In every country, Diageo 

works with reputable local organizations 

to deliver the SMASHED 

programme as our Diageo Marketing 

Code restricts us from engaging 

with persons under the legal purchase 

age of 18+. As a result, Guinness 

Nigeria did not interface directly 

with any of the schools during the 

implementation of the SMASHED 

programme as we partnered with 

Collingwood Learning and Rue 14 

Studios in Nigeria to deliver the programme.” 

On her part, local implementing 

partner and Founder/Artistic Director, 

Rue 14 Studios, Keke Hammond, 

commended Guinness Nigeria for 

delivering such a unique initiative, 

which was at no cost to schools 

across Lagos during the 3-week tour 

of the pilot programme. 

Africa are expected at the event 

according to Desmond Esorougwe 

Secretary Organising Committee 

of the event. He said the participants 

will find a full year’s worth 

of thought provoking, insightful 

and learn how branding operates 

in some of the world most successful 

businesses, the future trend 

in brand leadership and how to 

implement new brand strategy 

and technique in organizations. 

Esorougwe revealed that the 

event, an annual ‘Fiesta to Best 

Brains’ is behind most successful 

and sought after African Brands. 

Modion 

Communications 

partners Leadway 

Assurance to provide 

cover for Photo- 

Journalists 

Modion Communications, 

an integrated 

marketing communication 

agency based 

in Lagos said it has partnered with 

Leadway Assurance, a principal 

player in the Nigerian insurance industry 

to provide personal accident 

insurance cover for all the 100 member 

of the Photo Journalists Association 

of Nigeria (PJAN). 

The partnership and presentation 

ceremony officially took place 

at the Modion Communications office 

in Maryland, Lagos, recently as 

part of the activities lined up towards 

celebrating the 40th birthday of the 

company’s Chief Executive Officer, 

Odion Aleobua. 

The Leadway Assurance personal 

accident insurance policy procured 

by Modion Communications 

for PJAN, assures the 100 members 

of the association a compensation 

package of up to N500,000 in the 

event of bodily injury solely and independently 

of any other cause by 

accident, violence, external and any 

visible means resulting in death or 

permanent disablement or temporary 

total disablement as well as up 

to N100,000 in medical expenses 

cover. 

“It is meant to stimulate, motivate 

and excite the creative lobe of kind 

of thinking and exercise that we 

use in our workshop.” 

The Congress is designed to 

educate, engage and inspire brand 

managers and professionals in the 

pursuit of best practice in brand 

building and value creation. “ It is 

an appropriate platform for all b 

rand owners and industry players 

to discuss how brands in Africa 

can increase their global competitiveness”, 

he said. 

Businesses that have excelled 

would be recognised at the event 

with the theme ‘Africa is the Future 

of great brands” 

Epoch-making event which is 

liaising with relevant government 

and non-government agencies 

has been uplifted to a high international 

profile in order to ensure 

that participants get their money’s 

worth. 

The one day event provides 

the ideal opportunity for interaction 

among leading companies, 

keynote interactive discussion 

and quality up to date case studies 

from leading organizations 

who provides a close look at the 

improvement that the biggest 

companies in the market are currently 

implementing worldwide.


C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

19 

Marketing&Pr 

Nigerian Railways Corp concessions assets 

for outdoor advertising purposes 

…Tranxeon wins bid, invites advertisers to platform for consumer engagement 

Daniel Obi 

There is a new thinking in 

Nigeria’s railway system. 

Collaborating with the 

private sector, managers 

of the railways are giving 

the system a facelift through branding 

purposes. They are not only 

bringing new couches but they have 

incorporated interior and exterior 

outdoor advertising by top brands 

on the fixed and moving assets of 

the railway. 

This development, analysts believe 

will not only assist in decorating 

and beautifying the poor 

perceived Nigerian’s railway system 

but it will enhance its status, create 

traction to commuters who 

originally were not using trains and 

boost the system’s income. 

Outdoor advertising on railway 

assets is a new phenomenon in 

Nigeria as this development will 

change the outlook for trains and 

stations as how people perceive 

the system. 

How it started 

Last two years, management 

of NRC threw open the pitch to 

concession its fixed and mobile assets 

for outdoor advertising. Some 

outdoor advertising firms bided but 

Tranxeon Nigeria, a young Nigerian 

outdoor advertising agency won 

the bid. 

The concession is a major deal 

for Tranxeon and the young firm led 

by Ayomide Ogunjobi, who was a 

pioneer staff of Lagos State Signage 

and Advertisement Agency, LASAA 

and its Oyo counterpart, OYSAA 

promises to deliver value to the 

concessioners and to advertisers 

through advertising on the Nigerian 

Railway corporation assets. 

Leveraging trains for consumer 

engagement 

Ayomide sees the new thinking 

to advertise on railway assets as 

novel. With confidence, he strongly 

believes that advertising on railway 

assets both internal and external 

trains and also in and outside the 

stations will deliver value to advertisers 

as the trains move within 

populated areas in Lagos and move 

from Lagos to Kano and Abuja to 

Kaduna. 

“Some people still think that 

when you refer to trains, you are 

talking of trains that people sit on 

top of the roof. There are two new 

trains now that have been deployed 

in Lagos. They are called Lagos Diesel 

Multiple Units. DMU come with 

factory fitted air conditioners , well 

organised and cater to the working 

class of low earned strata of the society. 

The old trains are being faced 

out soon”, Ayomide said. 

For the Abuja new trains, they 

look good with ambience and 

comfort for the passengers. Abuja 

trains are designed with seats like 

in aeroplanes while Lagos trains 

have more spaces for easy drop off 

of passengers. 

He explained to BusinessDay 

that Lagos has two DMU trains 

with three human carriage couches 

each. Abuja has two trains with five 

and six couches respectively while 

Lagos- Kano train has 10 couches. 

“These are within Tranxeon purview 

for purpose of advertising”, he said. 

“For Lagos trains, we envisage 

that almost one million people can 

view advertisement on the couches 

daily. In the morning, the trains 

move from Ijoko in Abeokuta and 

come down to Lagos through Apapa 

–Oshodi expressway. It passes 

through Alimosho with highest 

population in Lagos where people 

can see the advertisement. The 

number of people that pass through 

this route is amazing”, he said. 

According to him, the rail lines 

in Lagos is used by 22,000 commuters 

daily; and “we intend to 

park the train at either Oshodi or 

Ikeja Stations at least once a week. 

Oshodi boasts of one million commuters 

passing through daily while 

Ikeja boasts of not less than 500,000 

commuters daily. 

“In addition to internal and external 

advertisement on the trains, 

we will be playing advertisers’ jingles 

inside the trains. Organisations 

who brand also have opportunity to 

put their marketers and promoters 

inside the train to engage the customers 

as they go. It is a comprehensive 

consumer engagement package 

for advertisers”, Ayomide promised. 

Ayomide assured advertisers 

who are looking for demography of 

low to medium income earners, any 

mass product from FMCG, telecom 

for that population, that the train 

advertising is the hub. 

He said Abuja trains are boarded 

by the elitist class who travel on the 

trains to Kaduna.With advent of train 

advertising, he said some companies 

targeting those populations will get 

mileage. In Abuja, ministers and 

governors use the train principally 

because of ambience and insecurity. 

It goes to Kaduna from Abuja. It is 

precise and the timing is right as 

there are eight trips daily. Amount 

of people using train in the Abuja is 

multiplying, he said. 

Companies who take on interior 

and exterior advertisement of the 

trains have opportunity to allow their 

brands engage with commuters as 

long as they seat in the trains or the 

stations. This is enhanced with promoters 

in the same trains. According 

to him, clients are already making 

inquiry to occupy the limited space. 

“Some are on the final stage of signing 

the deal of coming on board” for 

World Cup and brands promotion. 

The partnership 

Ayomide did not disclose the 

sharing formular between NRC 

and Tranxeon but said it is win-win 

arrangement. It is a 10 year deal 

with initial three years first instance 

agreement. 

The new platform in the outdoor 

advertising space is likely to offer 

marketers who are always searching 

for new cost effective ways of engaging 

consumers, great opportunity. 

Marketing: Lucozade brand sets 

aside N200m airtime for consumers 

SEYI JOHN SALAU 

In line with its commitment of 

rewarding loyal consumers, 

Suntory Beverage and Food Nigeria 

Limited (SBFN), maker of 

Lucozade, has set aside N200million 

worth of Instant Airtime to reward 

consumers in the 3rd edition of its 

“Lucozade Under-the-Cap Airtime 

National Promotion”. 

Chinedum Okereke, Managing 

Director, SBFN, kicked off the 2018 

Lucozade Airtime promotion recently 

in Lagos. 

According to him, the promo is 

an avenue for Suntory to rewards 

Lucozade consumers across the 

country. “We are proud to announce 

the return of the successful Lucozade 

Airtime Promotion for the third time 

since its launch in 2016. The promotion 

is an avenue for us to attain 

nationwide reach as far as rewarding 

our consumers is concerned, and the 

modality of the promotion gives us a 

great opportunity to target millions of 

consumers,” said Okereke. 

Rosemary Akpo, Marketing Director, 

SBFN said the promo is important 

to Suntory because it creates an avenue 

to connect with target audience 

on a large scale. “The uniqueness of 

this promotion lies in the fact that 

every participant who sends in a valid 

code, stands a chance to win instant 

airtime, regardless of geographical location 

or mobile network,” said Akpo. 

Top 50 Brands Nigeria begins 2018 brands rating 

As a way of encouraging 

strong brand performance 

and healthy competition, 

Nigerian brand watchdog 

and rating agency, Top 50 Brands 

Nigeria has begun the process of 

measuring, scoring and selecting 

best 50 brands for 2018 in Nigeria. 

Top 50 Brands Nigeria is an annual 

selection, analysis, rating and 

celebration of top corporate brands 

that have consistently maintained 

leadership position in their categories 

and lived up to their brand 

promises. 

Although with different parameters 

for rating, Top 50 Brands Nigeria 

seems like a Nigeria’s version of the 

America’s Fortune 500 Companies 

measurement. 

Making the announcement for 

this year’s brand measurement process 

in Lagos, Top 50 Brands Chief 

Executive Officer, Taiwo Oluboyede 

said in a statment that one of the 

essence of the annual rating is to 

make brand owners appreciate the 

importance of brands, which has 

now become the most valuable asset 

of their corporate entity and a major 

success factor to their businesses. 

“At this very important time in our 

nationhood, there is no overstatement 

of the important roles these 

brands play in our business space. 

They provide the much-needed jobs, 

goods and services, as responsible 

corporate citizens they pay tax, create 

wealth and also are socially responsible, 

with many interventions 

endearing them more to the people,” 

Oluboyede said. 

Oluboyede explained that Top 

50 Brands Nigeria followed a set 

of parameters in measuring and 

evaluating the strength of brands, 

using the Brand Strength Measurement 

(BSM) Index, a model that tests 

brand’s ability to perform its promise 

to the consumers. He listed Brand 

Popularity, Category Leadership, 

Innovation, Quality Elements, Online 

Engagement, National Spread 

and Corporate Social Responsibility 

as the factors that go into the BSM 

model, adding that the outcome is a 

statement of the strength of brands 

in Nigeria. “The model shows how 

strong a brand is from the consumer 

point of view and in a way indicates 

its weakness. The 50 brands with 

the highest cumulative will be the 

top brands in Nigeria for the year,” 

Oluboyede said. 

He went further to state “that the 

first step to the model is the popularity 

evaluation, which is done with 

the top on the mind (TOM) survey, 

where respondents are asked relating 

to brands that easily come to 

their mind or which they can recall,” 

adding that “from this, hundreds of 

brands are harvested which are further 

subjected to the other factors” in 

the BSM model. “From experience, 

people often easily recall brands 

they relate with or have some form 

of affinity with. For a brand to stand 

a good chance in the annual ratings, 

it must have considerable mentions 

in the TOM survey,” Oluboyede said.

Managing 



C002D5556 

GOVERNMENT 

BUSINESS 

Interview with Public Sector Leaders 


C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

BISI ADEGBUYI 

A seasoned Lawyer with huge business experience is the Post Master General of Nigeria 

21 

We will leverage on technological innovations to drive e-commerce, financial 

inclusion and diaspora remittances of over $20billion – Post Master General 

BISI ADEGBUYI, a seasoned Lawyer with huge business experience is the Post Master General of Nigeria. He spoke to BusinessDay crew of JOHN OSADOLOR, HARRISON EDEH and CYNTHIA EGBOBOH on wide range of ongoing reforms in 

the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) and the mail delivery sector. The Post Master General stated that the NIPOST is leveraging on Technology and its offices across the country to facilitate e-commerce and financial inclusion. Excerpts: 

Talk us through your 

idea of a 21st Century 

NIPOST and 

your ongoing restructuring 

NIPOST fell short of the expectation 

of the 21st century postal 

administration and we decided 

to restructure its facilities. In the 

process, we created six commercial 

business units, and the 

financial service is one of the 

commercial units. Under the financial 

service, you have agency 

banking, remittances, mobile 

money and financial inclusion 

initiatives. In line with our determination 

to occupy the driver’s 

seat in financial service journey, 

we have come up with innovation 

and new game changing products 

that are aimed at deepening 

financial services. One of such is 

electronic money order. From 

time immemorial, we have been 

involved in money transfer that 

we call money order of old; but 

because of the destructive nature 

of technology although offering 

unbelievable opportunity for a 

better postal administration, we 

have to leverage on these opportunities 

to create electronic 

money order; domestic electronic 

money order through which 

money can be transferred within 

any part of Nigeria electronically. 

What are the challenges thus 

far? 

One of the major issues confronting 

this operation is poor 

addressing system. In that respect, 

we have commissioned 

young Nigerian experts to come 

up with solutions to work on address 

validation concern. There is 

need for addresses to be verified, 

hence we came up with NIPOST 

address verification system. As a 

postal administration, NIPOST is 

When people send 

money from all over 

the world, they use 

Western Union Money 

Transfers, Money 

Gram which are 

limited to banking. 

But if the NIPOST is 

involved, we will not 

only reduce the cost 

but enlarge the reach. 

Those in the rural areas 

will not have to go 

to the urban areas to 

collect their money, 

and they could go to a 

nearby post office and 

collect their money 

determined to leverage on new 

technology in order to compete 

favourably with other postal administrations 

in the world and 

subscribe to global best practice. 

When I became the Post Master 

General coming from the 

background of a politician and a 

businessman, I thought it would 

be necessary for me to use the 

post to create wealth and end 

poverty, but never knew that, 

that was the aim of the financial 

inclusion policy of the government. 

I just set it as a mandate 

for myself; so I began to think on 

ways to actualize it? So we decided 

to leverage on ICT to create 

e-employment. So we embarked 

on projects sponsored by communication 

and world summit 

on information. 

In that respect, we will engage 

the services of young men and 

women who can operate smart 

phone to become our address 

verification agents to verify 

address and each person will 

earn N100 to N150 per address 

verified that is the price for that 

initiative. 

The Central Bank of Nigeria 

has awarded NIPOST international 

money transfer operator 

license and NIPOST can play 

in the remittances ecosystem where 

World Bank just reported that in 2017 

Nigerians in Diaspora remitted $22,000 

to Nigeria at 9.5% which is high in our 

opinion. When people send money 

from all over the world, they use Western 

Union Money Transfers, Money 

Gram which are limited to banking. 

But if the NIPOST is involved, we will 

not only reduce the cost but enlarge 

the reach. Those in the rural areas will 

not have to go to the urban areas to 

collect their money, and they could 

go to a nearby post office and collect 

their money. 

When are you starting the implementation 

of your plans? 

In the next one or two months, NIPOST 

will go live on remittances, money 

order, knowing that the greatest challenge 

of e-commerce is cost which is 

about 30%. If we can reduce that cost 

to a barest minimum, that will be good 

news for the operators. 

Currently, we are training our 

people, the technology is ready, and 

it is workable. Our intention is that 

each verification agent will be able to 

make more money than UBER’ driver 

because as volume of the address they 

verify increase so will their income 

increase. 

When exactly is the starting date? 

We have not fixed a date for the proper 

launch of this initiative; we need 

to get the various stakeholders like 

the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), 

various financial institutions, Federal 

Road Safety Corp (FRSC) to key into 

it because they are inter-related and 

interwoven. 

The banking statutory responsibility 

of ‘Know Your Customers (KYC)’ 

requires the bank to know where their 

customers live and verify their addresses. 

You and I know what the position is, 

even the identity we are talking about 

will be meaningless, if it does not have a 

specific address. We have also identified 

technologies that we will leverage on to 

enable us verify identities also. 

We are going live with Ecobank 

within two weeks. Ecobank, Keystone 

Bank have fully bought into the initiative 

regarding agency banking. When 

the digital address system is ready, 

the protocard will be ready in the next 

one or two months, wherein anyone 

can download NIPOST App on 

his phone and be given a digital 

address. We have succeeded in 

dividing Nigeria into 330 billion 

by 3 meters, which even 

comprise of under the waters 

address. The digital address encompasses 

states, local government, 

state codes and a unique 

identifier. We may have to ask 

individuals to pay a token for 

each address and such address 

paid to become the person’s 

own. It is the primary responsibility 

of the government to 

give address to its citizens and 

provide fundamental infrastructure. 

Are you partnering with any 

organization on these initiatives? 

We are partnering with Galaxy 

Backbone and advocating for 

collaboration of other private 

institutions to enhance our collection 

of data. 

As a businessman, you invest 

on where you will get money 

from. We don’t get subvention 

from the Federal Government 

of Nigeria; we are going to 

make money from the verification 

process. There are billions 

of addresses to be verified as 

whoever wants an address to 

be verified must pay for it. Also, 

Telecom providers as they demand 

addresses of customers 

will pay as they give Sim cards, 

e-commerce transactions will 

also be enhanced via this development, 

and such services will 

be delivered and paid for. 

We would get involved in the 

National Cash Transfer scheme 

of the Federal Government. We 

at NIPOST are scattered all over 

the country and most people 

who use this medium are poor 

people in the rural areas where 

there are no banks. We have the 

bulk payment solutions in our 

offices across the country. 

Sixty to 65 percent of Nigerians 

are youths who do not engage 

in postal service because it 

is not attracted to them, hence 

we have come up with “Post 

YES” which means “Post Youth 

Engagement Strategy”, which 

will make post office attractive 

to the youths through digital operations 

like electronic stamp. 

So we think more of digital 

products that they can get and 

use with their phones. 

How do you intend to train 

your Staff? 

Experts are currently training 

our staff on this electronic 

processes and new technology. 

Training is a continuous process 

and we will continue in the 

training process. 

We are going to have NIPOST 

e-commerce platforms to deal 

with locally produced goods. 

We are also signing a Memorandum 

of Association with 

the Bank of Agriculture (BoA) 

to make it easy to create access 

to products, different products, 

the possible price and where to 

get them and also help traders 

to sell their products. 

NIPOST should not be afraid 

of competition, and that is why 

we are surrendering our regulatory 

power. When they pass 

the Postal Reform Bill, NIPOST 

will cease to be regulatory authority 

for courier companies 

and that is a way of making us 

more competitive because the 

government will set up a new 

regulatory authority, and it is 

the responsibility of government 

to get those that will drive 

it as it is done in other jurisdictions 

of the world. 

What type of NIPOST do you 

hope to see in the next few 

years? 

In the next 18 months with our 

various innovations, we hope to 

see a NIPOST that is not stagnant, 

static and a NIPOST that will 

satisfy customers, give reliable 

addresses to Nigerians, and a NI- 

POST that is globally competitive. 

As we speak today, we have 

more volume in terms of transactions 

and we charge at low prices 

because we have been subsidizing. 

So when we improve on our 

processes we should be able to 

break even in revenue. 

Let us into your thoughts on 

the Postal Reform Bill 

The Postal Reform Bill is the commercialization 

of NIPOST, which 

the National Council on Privatization 

and Bureau of Public Service 

are driving. It is also to attract 

foreign and local investments 

into NIPOST. It also aims at bringing 

people from the private sector 

to collaborate with NIPOST. 

The bill will help us in harnessing 

the economic value of our real 

estate property that are scattered 

everywhere across the country. 

These are some of the benefits 

tied to the passage of the Postal 

Reform Bill and it will soon be 

going for the final reading. 

Is there any government funding? 

Funding is always a major challenge, 

but we are seeking and 

looking out for other means of 

raising fund.

22 BUSINESS DAY 

C002D5556 Tuesday 22 May 2018 

Energy Report 

Oil & Gas Power Renewables Environment 

Industries boost production as Shell increased gas supply by 32% in 2017 

OLUSOLA BELLO 

As part of the 

efforts at enhancing 

Nigeria’s 

economic 

growth through 

optimisation of natural gas, 

Shell Nigeria Gas (SNG) up 

it gas supply in 2017 as it 

distributed an average of 41 

MMscf/d of natural gas compared 

to 33 MMscf/d in 2016 

to industries and factories 

around the country. 

The increase in supply 

volume in 2017 representing 

a 32% increase over gas sales 

in 2016 was due to an increase 

in new customers and 

less gas supply disruptions. 

SNG currently supplies 

natural gas to 90 industrial 

and commercial customers 

in the states where it operates, 

driving industrialisation 

and its positive chain 

effects in addition to direct 

internal generated revenues 

in these states. These 

benefits have led Bayelsa, 

Lagos and Ondo States to 

express interest for SNG 

to expand its distribution 

network into their states. 

Other states where it is very 

active are Ogun, Abia, and 

Rivers States 

Among its customers are 

four compressed natural gas 

companies that make the gas 

available to other companies 

outside the SNG pipeline 

network. 

The company in fiscal 

year 2017 signed an agreement 

with an indigenous 

company, Shoreline Energy, 

to explore opportunities 

to market and distribute 

natural gas to wholesale and 

retail customers in Victoria 

Island, Ikoyi, Lekki and Epe 

areas of Lagos. 

It will help finance and 

develop a transmission and 

distribution network from 

a 20-year gas concession, 

originally owned by Gasland 

Company, in which Shoreline 

took a 75% interest in 

2005. The gas will be transmitted 

through the Escravos 

Lagos Pipeline System from 

various producers in the 

western Niger Delta. 

At the end of 2017, executed 

a memorandum of 

understanding (MoU) with 

the Rivers State Government 

for the distribution of gas to 

industries in the Greater Port 

Harcourt area and its environs. 

The agreement is an 

opportunity to further promote 

gas as a more reliable, 

cleaner and cost-effective 

alternative to liquid fuels in 

the Niger Delta. 

According to Osagie 

Okunbor, Shell in country 

chairman and managing director 

of Shell Petroleum Development 

Company(SPDC 

)continues to make progress 

in close collaboration with 

its joint venture partners and 

the Federal Government of 

Nigeria towards the objective 

of ending the continuous 

flaring of associated gas. 

Many of the new Shell 

facilities are designed to 

eliminate continuous flaring 

of associated gas. In parallel, 

a multi-year programme has 

been successfully implemented 

to install equipment 

for capturing associated gas 

from older facilities. 

As a result, flaring volume 

from it facilities was reduced 

by 90% between 2002 and 

2016 and flaring intensity 

(flare divided by total hydrocarbon 

produced - tCO2e/t) 

decreased by 78% over the 

same period. Divestments also 

resulted in a further reduction. 

However, flaring from 

SPDC JV’s operations in 2017 

increased by 61% compared 

to 2016 and flaring intensity 

also increased by 28% 

from the previous year. The 

increase in 2017 is partly 

attributed to the restart of 

certain SPDC JV facilities, 

e.g. Forcados export terminal, 

that were offline for 

most of 2016. 

There are several SPDC 

JV facilities where flaring still 

takes place. Some only have 

non-routine operational 

flaring e.g. Soku, Bonny, 

Gbaran and Agbada because 

they have fully functional 

solutions to address routine 

flaring. Others have routine 

flaring and the SPDC JV 

has identified solutions by 

capturing the associated gas 

and commercialising it for 

the domestic market. 

The Bonny Associated 

Gas Solutions (AGS) facility 

was commissioned in 2016, 

while Adibawa and Otumara/ 

Saghara AGS projects 

came on stream in November 

and December of 2017 

respectively. However, the 

planned start up dates for 

two gas gathering projects 

have historically been delayed 

due to lack of adequate 

joint venture funding. Nevertheless, 

with funding now 

restored, the projects are 

planned for completion in 

2018-19. The remaining sites 

are located in remote areas 

with low volume flares. Since 

late 2016, SPDC has been 

working with third parties to 

develop small-scale projects 

to capture the associated gas 

from these remaining sites 

for domestic utilisation. 

Nigeria must address constant power system collapses to boost economic productivity 

KELECHI EWUZIE 

Power sector in Nigeria 

continues to battle with 

the debilitating effect of 

perennial national electricity 

grid collapses that 

threaten economy development 

across the country. 

These collapses have 

in no small ways cost the 

Nigeria economy a sizeable 

amount of revenue. As recent 

as in March report indicated 

that Nigeria’s Power 

sector lost an estimated N1, 

042,000,000 in just one day 

owing to system collapse 

occasioned by insufficient 

gas supply, distribution infrastructure, 

transmission 

infrastructure and water 

reserves. 

According to the report 

the loss was as a result of 

the shutting down of some 

gas turbines which led to 

insufficient gas supply, limitations 

in distribution and 

transmission infrastructure 

and water management 

constraints in some of the 

hydro plants. 

Technically, transmission 

capacity is expected 

to double that of transmission, 

but in the Nigeria 

Electricity Supply Industry, 

distribution capacity is 

a far cry from the transmission 

capacity of about 

7,000Megawatts (Mw). 

Smart Omo Omoragbon, 

Assistant General Manager, 

Operation of the Transmission 

Company of Nigeria 

((TCN), only recently 

warned about the imminence 

of another system 

collapse as a result of the 

volume of idle power waiting 

for evacuation. 

Omoragbon observed 

that despite TCN’s existing 

capacity, load rejection 

from the DisCos, which 

causes high frequency and 

system collapses could still 

persist unless the DisCos 

are ready to distribute their 

loads. 

In February a report 

from the Power Advisory 

ing plants produced zero 

megawatts of electricity.” 

“On February 20 2018, 

average power sent out was 

3,835MWh/hour (down by 

134MWh/h from the previous 

day) “1175MW was not 

generated due to unavail- 

Team, Office of the Vice 

President, stated that “despite 

Federal Government’s 

efforts to address the nation’s 

power crisis, as well 

as mitigate the constant 

system collapse by the 

grid, about seven generatability 

of gas”. 

“29MW was not generated 

due to unavailability 

of transmission infrastructure, 

while 969MW was 

not generated due to high 

frequency resulting from 

unavailability of distribution 

infrastructure” the 

source said 

Those who know in the 

power sector insist that the 

solution to tackling the incident 

of incessant system 

collapse is for adequate 

investment to be made in 

order to stabilise the grid. 

They also observed that 

another solution to power 

system collapse is reduction 

in tripping of critical 

tie lines by having a well 

maintained transmission 

line trace as well as properly 

coordinated and discriminative 

line protection 

schemes. 

Ayodele Oni said replacement 

of vandalised 

sky wires that expose the 

lines to lightning strikes 

and replacement of obsolete 

transmission equipment 

to reduce the incidence 

of equipment failure 

to the barest minimum is 

vital to resolve the problem. 

It will be recalled that 

after the collapse in February, 

Babatunde Fashola, 

Minister of Power, Works 

and Housing insisted that 

the Federal Government 

was working hard to fix the 

power sector, stressing that 

despite the country’s electricity 

challenges, Nigeria 

was still exporting power 

to Republics of Benin, Niger 

and Togo. 

Fashola, observe that 

in terms of population as 

a function of energy need 

of a country, “Niger is running 

on 80MW; Republic 

of Togo, 200MW, less 

than Abuja; Ghana is about 

3,000MW installed capacity 

and they are not producing 

all of that. Lagos alone is 

getting 1,200MW; one state, 

half of another country. So 

we must understand the 

dynamics of electricity use.” 

Olusola Bello, Team lead, Analysts: Kelechi Ewuzie, Isaac Anyaogu, Graphics: Joel Samson. Email: energyreport@businessdayonline.com, Tel: +234-8023020011; +234-7037817378; +234-8036534708


Energy Report 

C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

23 

Lack of political will to deregulate, bane of Nigeria’s downstream sector - Olawore 

OBAFEMI OLAWORE, a former executive secretary, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) an elite petroleum products 

trading group, is retiring after over 35 years in the oil and gas sector. As he plans for another career in the agric sector, he tells 

BusinessDay’s ISAAC ANYAOGU, how deregulation can solve Nigeria’s petroleum product supply hiccups. 

What would you say are 

the organisation’s biggest 

accomplishments yet? 

We have been 

able to set 

up an association 

which is a 

force to reckon with in sector. 

We started from scratch 

and have set up some standards, 

not yet to the level 

we want, but we have set up 

some standards; standards 

in terms of corporate behaviour, 

in terms of dispute 

resolution among our various 

members and what the 

market perceives as value. 

The perception of the market 

is that there are some good 

traders and bad ones; we believe 

that among the players, 

the association that I work 

for is considered among the 

good ones. 

Right from inception, 

there is no serious government 

policy that doesn’t 

have our input. We state our 

views as strongly as we can, 

sometimes they are heard, 

and sometimes they are not. 

But that is the nature of life, 

you can’t win all the time. 

We believe that our core 

objective, even though we 

have not achieved it, we 

are working towards it and 

one day we shall achieve. 

Our objectively, principally 

is to have a free market, no 

government interference, 

except providing regulatory 

framework to govern 

behaviour. 

Even without anti-trust 

law, my association members 

have been able to internally, 

avoid collusion, 

especially in the area of 

product price fixing. We do 

not discuss prices in any of 

our meetings, we discuss 

operational matters only. 

Nobody can accuse us of 

colluding to cheat, it is one 

of our cardinal principles not 

to fix prices. 

We have developed standards 

for our retail outlets 

and I daresay, they compare 

with the best in the world in 

terms of quality and aesthetics. 

We would have done 

more had we met our objective 

of deregulation. 

We have been instrumental 

to what has been 

achieved in terms of performance 

of the Petroleum 

Product Pricing Regulatory 

Agency (PPPRA), Petroleum 

Equalisation Fund (PEF), 

Department of Petroleum 

Resources (DPR) and such 

similar government agencies. 

We have been instrumental 

in setting up the 

pricing template and all 

associated practices like 

petroleum support fund and 

other things. 

NNPC is still doing the bulk 

of importation, what is MO- 

MAN doing to break this 

cycle, as it brings its own 

problems? 

I think instead of crucifying 

the NNPC for being the sole 

importer, they should be 

commended. How did we 

get to this point? 

Between January – July 

1999 NNPC didn’t bring in 

one litre of petrol. During the 

tail end of General Abdulsalami 

Abubakar’s regime, 

there was deregulation and 

Obafemi Olawore 

we were the ones bringing 

in the products. 

When things went haywire 

and civil government 

came, we were still doing 

major importation, at a point 

we were doing 70% and 

NNPC was doing 30%. It 

went to 60-40, meanwhile 

government was paying subsidies. 

Remember our agreement 

with government was 

that we would be paid subsidy 

at the end of 45 days of 

importing the product but 

now, it got to point where 

marketers having borrowed 

money to import, stayed for 

several months, at a point we 

stayed for two years, without 

getting paid. 

This is discouraging because 

banks are always 

charging their interest, 

always on your neck looking 

for their money and if 

government doesn’t pay, 

where do you get the money? 

I need to correct a notion, 

subsidy is not free money, 

people think it is free money. 

Those businessmen that 

came into importation with 

the sole aim of getting free 

money have all gone, they 

couldn’t stay, because they 

came to see what is happening 

make money and go, the 

real players are still there 

and are being hold billions 

of naira. 

What is the current debt after 

the last reconciliation? 

It is in the neighbourhood 

of $2billion dollars and because 

they are being owed, 

marketers are not importing 

and because the market 

must be satisfied, NNPC 

has to import. Their primary 

objective is to make product 

available and they have 

their means to collect their 

money. 

A lot of marketers are 

heavily indebted to banks, 

what are your bankers saying? 

I said at a forum some 

time ago that for many of 

the marketers especially the 

small ones, the only thing 

you find in their bags are 

anti-hypertensive drugs. The 

Asset Management Corporation 

of Nigeria (AMCON) has 

seized their tank farms because 

they borrowed money 

to build them and import 

products but government is 

not paying. So they cannot 

pay their banks and their 

banks have resorted to using 

other ways to collect their 

money. 

What is the government 

saying about resolving this 

debt, what kind of engagements 

are you having with? 

We have had several meetings 

with government at the 

highest level; we have been 

promised that after the reconciliation 

exercise we will 

be paid. But the reconciliation 

exercise appears to be 

an unending one. It started 

during the tail end of the 

government of former president 

Jonathan, when the 

current government came 

in, we did reconciliation 

again, now we have done 

another one but no one is 

paying. The banks are on us, 

AMCON is on us, it is a very 

terrible situation. 

What is the way out? 

Deregulate and get a strong 

regulator. It should happen. 

We started thinking about 

deregulation right from the 

administration of President 

Babangida but any attempt 

to increase fuel prices is a 

feeble attempt to deregulate, 

the political will is not there. 

Other countries have deregulated 

and it didn’t take 

them two years. Ghana has 

deregulated, they came to 

Nigeria to study the PPPRA 

model and they have gone 

back and they are doing fine. 

Commendably, MOMAN 

has helped to clear tankers 

from Apapa road, how did 

you achieve this? 

MOMAN’s style is engagement 

with all the parties, we 

have a good understanding 

with the National Association 

of Road Transport Owners 

(NARTO), the Petroleum 

Tanker Drivers (PTD) and 

various groups. We engaged 

them and they listened to 

us. One major thing that has 

also helped is that there is 

product. Other stakeholders 

including the Navy have 

helped too. We have had 

meeting with Federal Road 

Safety Commission (FRSC) 

and that is why you see some 

civil approach towards the 

treatment of these tanker 

drivers. 

‘Urban dwellers must include Solar Energy as part of energy supply mix’ 

OLUSOLA BELLO 

Using Solar Energy 

as part of an effective 

energy mix 

option for critical 

and basic household needs 

would go a long way in solving 

the problems associated 

with irregular supply 

of electricity to residential 

consumers. 

This is because while 

power supply remains a 

major issue in the country, 

residents in urban communities 

lead the park in the 

adoption of very expensive 

and climate-damaging option 

for generating power 

compared to solar energy 

solutions which are cheaper, 

safer and an environmental 

friendlier option in the energy 

supply mix. 

According to Olufemi 

Ashipa, vice president, Lumos 

Nigeria adaptation of 

Solar Energy would help 

solve to a very large extent, 

the Nigerian energy crisis 

that currently needs immediate 

scalable solutions. 

“Data shows that 61% of 

Micro SMEs in Nigeria spend 

between N500 to N1000 per 

day on fuel and as many as 

85% of micro and small businesses 

rely on generators 

for the supply of electricity. 

As a result, it is critical to 

note that the explosion in 

generator sales is driven by 

urban Nigeria and not the 

rural areas and the bottom 

line is, we spend a lot more 

in trying to solve our power 

issues”, Ashipa said. 

Olufemi Ashipa who 

spoke at the Solar future 

Nigeria 2018 conference 

said: “With 60m generators 

in Nigeria, mostly held in 

the urban environments, 

Nigeria’s electricity sector 

continues to lose N24 billion 

monthly to the electricitygenerator 

market. Yet if we 

carefully look through the 

issues surrounding power 

in Nigeria, we would understand 

better that solar power 

solutions can solve half of 

the problems we currently 

face in the sector”, he added. 

He argued that with Lumos 

Nigeria committed to 

improving the quality of life 

of Nigerians, through access 

to reliable, accessible electricity, 

it is plausible to state 

that solar solutions can best 

solve half of the problems 

we have in the sector in a 

sustained and affordable 

manner. 

However, he believes that 

Nigerians need to unlearn 

the way they approach solar 

power generation for 

optimised results. “The first 

principle of solar power is for 

people to first understand 

what it can or cannot do. If 

we remember clearly the 

revolution in the banking 

system through the credit 

and debit cards years ago, 

it took a while for people 

to trust the system. After a 

while, we became used to 

the system. This is the same 

for solar solutions, although 

it is more complex considering 

the fact that consumers 

wonder why they should 

pay for the sun that is free,” 

Ashipa stated. 

He noted further that; 

“even though most solar solutions 

come with an initial 

financial commitment, users 

can save more in the medium 

and long-term compared to 

the cost of running generators; 

reducing drastically the 

average monthly spend on 

electricity. Our energy consumption 

paradigm must 

shift to understanding the 

fact that we can actually do 

more with less as we learn to 

make choices. We can better 

understand this if we carefully 

calculate the amount 

of power we consume daily. 

This would become clear 

to us to realize if we really 

do need to switch on every 

appliance at the same time.” 

In ensuring that more 

Nigerians get the opportunity 

to access and benefit 

from its unique mobile solar 

electricity solution known as 

the Y’ello Box, Lumos Nigeria 

recently launched a price 

reduction window on its 

Lumos Solar Power Systems 

for prospective consumers 

across the country. The move 

is also aimed at empowering 

more small business owners 

and households to lead 

an improved quality of life 

and run profitable enterprise 

through the adoption of 

cleaner, affordable, noiseless 

and environment-friendly 

solar power generation system, 

“one Y’ello box at a time”. 

The initiative will also 

afford new subscribers the 

opportunity to join Lumos 

Nigeria’s league of over 

90,000 subscribers for only 

N20,000 set up fee, which 

has bundled into it, one full 

month of mobile electricity 

subscription; previously, 

that would have come at a 

cost of N36,500. 

The Lumos Y’ello Box 

Mobile Solar Electricity Service, 

which comes with a 

5-year after-sales repair service 

on the solar panel and 

the indoor display unit (IDU) 

provides smart, reliable, 

accessible and affordable 

electricity through convenient 

payment plans, using 

airtime from mobile phones 

to pay for the service. 

To benefit from the price 

reduction, small business 

owners and individuals can 

walk into participating MTN 

stores to join the Lumos Mobile 

Electricity Service with 

just an initial payment of 

N20, 000 inclusive of a onemonth 

subscription.



C002D5556 

BD 

Markets + Finance 

‘Providing proprietary research, commentary, analysis and financial news coverage unmatched in 

today’s market. Published weekly, Markets & Finance provides all the key intelligence you need.’ 

FirstBank Plc: Resurrection of the King lender 

…Efficiency improves as NPLs drops to record low 

…Declares dividend of N8.97 bn in 2017 

BALA AUGIE 

Re surrection 

was when Jesus 

Christ woke from 

the dead on the 

third day after being 

crucified on the cross of 

Calvary, according to Apostle 

Paul in 1 Corinthian 15. 

The son of man had to die 

to make atonement or reparations 

for the sins, follies 

and inequities of humanity, 

so that we can have an eternal 

life. 

This is not a bible class 

or the preaching of a fresher 

from the school of theology. 

However, there is a thin line 

between spiritualism and the 

corporate world. 

One lender that has 

awakened from the slumber 

and surmounted the headwinds 

caused by exposure 

to the oil and gas is FirstBank 

Nigeria Holdings (FBN Holdings) 

Plc. 

One of the largest lenders 

in Africa’s most populous 

nation and largest economy, 

through an excellent 

risk management strategy, 

saw Non Performing Loans 

(NPLs) decline to 21.50 percent 

in the first quarter of 

(Q1) 2018 from 26.0 percent 

the previous year. 

Impairment charge otherwise 

known as loan loss 

expenses declined by 12.1 

percent to N25.3 billion on 

the back of improving risk 

governance. 

Cost of risk (COR) declined 

to 4.5 percent in Q1 

2018 from 4.80 percent the 

previous year, reflecting improvement 

in assets quality. 

FBN Holdings Plc has 

diversified risk assets base 

across strategic business line 

and groups while contemporaneously 

maintaining 

effective profiling and management 

of the loan book 

portfolio. 

Analysts are of the view 

are upbeat about future 

Urum Kalu Eke, managing director, FBN Holdings Plc 

earnings of FBN Holdings 

Plc as a gradual improvement 

in the economy will pave the 

way for customers owing the 

lender to pay back interest on 

money borrowed. 

If interest on loans are 

repaid expeditiously, future 

profit will spike hence resulting 

in a higher return on 

investment for shareholders. 

The gross domestic product 

of Africa’s largest oil producer 

expanded for three 

straight quarters last year after 

a 1.6 percent contraction 

in 2016, with year-on-year 

growth reaching 1.9 percent 

in the final three months of 

2017. 

An increase in crude 

prices and the introduction 

of a new foreign-exchange 

system that ended a crippling 

shortage of dollars helped attract 

more investment flows 

into the country, while improving 

liquidity for the nation’s 

lenders. 

FBN Holdings Plc’s investment 

in latest technology 

with a view to achieving 

cost optimisation has yielded 

fruit as total operating expenses 

grew by 1.20 percent 

to N56.05 billion in the period 

under review, which is 

lower than the 12.10 percent 

May inflation figure. 

Regulatory costs otherwise 

known as AMCON 

charge constitute 14.3 percent 

of operating expenses 

in Q1 2018. 

However, cost to income 

ratio (CIR) increased to 56.10 

percent in the period under 

review from 53.30 percent 


Gross loans and advances 

dipped by 4 percent 

to N1.90 trillion in Q1 2018 

from N2.0 trillion the previous 

year, driven by moderated 

risk asset creation. 

Gross earnings fell slightly 

by 1.60 percent to N138.9 

billion in the period under 

review, on the back of declining 

yields on investment 

securities. 

Interest income declined 

marginally by 3.40 

percent to N110.9 billion 

in Q1 2018 from N114.10 

billion the previous year, 

due to the constrained 

lending environment as 

well as lower yields in 

treasury assets. 

Non-interest income 

increased by 2.5 percent to 

N24.8 billion as the lender 

continues make efforts in 

diversifying from traditional 

banking activities, and sustained 

contributions from 

non-commercial banking 

businesses. 

As a result of the declining 

asset yield and volume in 

Q1 2018, interest margin fell 

to 7.20 percent in the period 

under review from 8.20 percent 


FBN Holdings capital adequacy 

ratio of 18.0 percent 

and liquidity ratio of 54.80 

percent in the period under 

review are well above the 

regulatory limit of the 15 

percent and 30 percent regulatory 

limit. 

The Nigerian lender rewarded 

its shareholders with 

a total dividend of 25 kobo 

per share on every N0.50 ordinary 

shares. This translates 

to total dividend of N8.97 

billion. 

First Bank’s profit 

growth was the best among 

peers in 2017 

First Bank Nigeria Holdings 

(FBN Holdings) Plc’s 

profit growth was the best 

among peers in 2017, thanks 

to lower impairments, cost 

curtailments, and income 

from short term government 

securities. 

FBN Holdings’ profit after 

tax surged by 226.80 percent 

to N40.11 billion in December 

2017, the fastest bottom 

BD MARKETS + FINANCE (Business Team lead: PATRICK ATUANYA - Analysts: BALA AUGIE and LOLADE AKINMURELE) 

line growth in five years. See 

Chart. 

This compares with the 

year on year (YOY) profit 

growth of Zenith Bank, 

(37.23 percent); United 

Bank for Africa (UBA), 

(8.75 percent); Guaranty 

Trust Bank (GTBank) Plc, 

(28.86 percent); Fidelity 

Bank Plc, (93.72 percent); 

Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, 

(69.63 percent); and Sterling 

Bank Plc; (65.03 percent), as 

shown in their 2017 audited 

financial statement. 

On the flip side, Access 

Bank Plc recorded a 13.22 

percent drop in net income, 

First City Monument Bank 

Plc, (-34.43 percent); and 

Wema Bank Plc, (-11.91 percent). 

This means only three 

out of 10 banks under our 

coverage recorded a profit at 

the bottom lines (profit), signaling 

the gradual economic 

recovery is beginning to show 

face in their numbers. 

For the year ended December 

2017, after tax profits 

for the 10 lenders that have 

reported results spiked by 

44.28 percent to N693.92 billion 

from N478.19 billion the 

previous year (2016). 

For the full year period 

ending 2016 the 10 banks 

saw their profits increase by 

21 percent, while there was 

a 12.32 percent decline in 

profits in 2015 a period when 

the sudden drop in crude 

oil prices from above a $100 

per barrel to near $40 forced 

banks with heavy exposure 

to the sector to write off loans 

that began to go bad. 

The unprecedented 

growth at the bottom line 

(profit) means these lenders 

have surmounted some of the 

issues that undermined earnings 

in the crisis period as a 

gradual economic recovery 

helped bolster earnings since 

customers are paying back 

some the money borrowed. 

Also, some lenders have 

taken a haircut in 2016 on 

Non-Performing Loans 

(NPLs), a proactive strategy 

that validated their risk management 

strategy. 

Between 2014 and 2015, 

the number of banks with 

NPL ratio in excess of the 5 

percent threshold rose from 

3 to 8.


BUSINESS DAY 25 

BD 

TECH 

In association with 

iSON technologies, Oracle advocate 

cloud computing security 

JUMOKE AKIYODE LAWANSON 

PETER OLUKA 

iSON technologies and Oracle 

have urged organisations to 

adopt cloud computing security 

for business transformation. 

The companies made the call at 

an event themed: ‘Modernizing Security 

on the Cloud’. 

The event highlighted the need 

for organisations to implement and 

manage consistent security policies 

across hybrid data centers and explained 

that data security has become 

an increasing concern now that cloud 

storage has become more common. 

Commenting on the need for organisations 

to guard against threats, 

vulnerabilities and fraud events in the 

cloud, Hamilton Iyoha, pre sales consultant 

IT security at Oracle, CISM 

said, ‘’ With each passing day, organisations 

are being exposed to an evergrowing 

list of threats, configuration 

oversights, vulnerabilities and fraud 

events. Visibility to risks and real-time 

attacks, and the ability to rapidly respond 

will be among your key success 

metrics in 2018. In order to contain 

these threats and have a visibility into 

the security posture of your applications 

across multiple cloud platform 

and on-premise, you need an Identity 

Centric and intelligent Security Operation 

Center (Identity SOC). Oracle is 

proud to introduce to you the Industry’s 

first identity-centric framework 

for security operation centers known 

as Oracle Identity SOC.” 

Sharook Hussain, vice president 

sales & Bus Dev. iSON, ME & Africa, 

further outlined the importance of 

cloud security saying “Enterprises 

today are exposed to a growing volume 

of threats, both in scale and 

sophistication, with increasing regulatory 

norms being enforced upon 

them. It is essential for companies to 

ensure confidentiality, integrity and 

WIITSoN at Confab seeks improved policy to address digital divide in Nigeria 

L-R: Tayo Odunowo; marketing communications manager, Infinix, Jay Liu; country manager, Infinix, David Adeleke (Davido); 

Nigerian music artiste and Asa Asika; Davido’s manager, at the contract signing and unveiling of Davido as the new brand 

ambassador for Infinix Mobile, held in Lagos recently. 

As portals to essential services 

move on online, people without 

digital skills or internet 

access risk further social and 

economic exclusion, speakers at the 

fourth Women in Information Technology 

Society (WIITSoN) conference 

have said. 

WIITSoN formerly known as Nigeria 

Women in Information Technology 

(NIWIIT) is an advocacy group under 

the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) 

that focuses on bridging digital divide 

among women and girl-child across 

Nigeria. 

Re-echoing the pronounced inequalities 

in digital skills which have 

been documented in both developing 

and developed countries, Philip Shaibu, 

the Deputy Governor of Edo State, 

described the Conference theme; ‘Skills 

for a Connected World: Closing Gender 

Digital Divides’, as apt and relevant to 

discussing way forward on bridging the 

divides. 

Shaibu said that considering the 

fact that the world is becoming universally 

connected, with an estimated 95 

percent of the global population living 

in an area covered by at least a basic 2G 

mobile-cellular network, African women 

should be supported to key into the 

emerging technological trends. 

The Deputy Governor represented 

by the SSA, Women, Health and Sports, 

Sabina Chikere, said the government 

has passion to empower the people, especially 

the girl-child which metamorphosis 

to women empowerment. 

This, the Deputy Governor, informed 

the decision of the State to 

leverage technologies in training and 

retraining ladies who recently returned 

from Libya and re-integrate them to the 

society. 

“It is important we have realised 

there is a gap and we shall make efforts 

to bridge that gap. That is one of the 

things WIITSoN is trying to do. We need 

to come out; we have the capacity to do 

it. I just want to encourage WIITSoN 

because Edo State Government is interested 

in partnering with you on this 

matter. We have to leverage technology 

to transform the lives of our people, especially 

in mentoring them to embrace 

digital economy. 

“As a State on our part will not relent 

on encouraging women participation 

in technology, because that is the way. 

We do need skills to be relevant in the 

digital world. It will not be out of place 

to have our female taking after the likes 

of Steve Jobs (late); Mark Zuckerberg; 

Bill Gates; Michael Dell and others who 

are trail blazers. 

Ibukun Odusote, the Permanent 

Secretary (Political Affairs), Office 

of the Secretary to the Federation, 

stressed the importance of creating 

enabling environment for the girlchild 

to develop confidence in the 

digital economy. 

She identified women are the backbones 

of Africa’s digital development, 

but require modern skills to thrive. 

“Let our children mirror us technologically. 

Artificial intelligence, 

robotics, machine learning, amongst 

others are the trending topics. Unfortunately, 

we still have women or 

mothers who are yet to appreciate the 

relevance of the emerging trends in 

the lives of our young girls. We need 

to speedily address that”, she said. 

availability of vital information and 

data through a robust information 

security framework. iSON’s Cyber 

Security Services follow a holistic 

approach in responding to multidimensional 

cyber security risks and 

providing total visibility and intelligence 

on new developments within 

business infrastructures, applications, 

data and people. We offer total 

Security solution aligned tightly with 

Oracle and committed to the Middle 

East and African region.” 

Cloud computing has the potential 

to improve the way businesses 

and IT operate by offering fast, flexible, 

scalable and cost efficient methods 

of operating. Companies however 

need to minimise risks associated 

with cloud computing by adopting 

standards and procedures to protect 

systems data and funds. 

iSON Technologies’ Next Generation 

Intelligent Identity Security 

Operations Center, which will combine 

advanced technology to ensure 

proper security of data and swift 

identification of threats will allow 

a complete turn-around for businesses, 

ensuring implementation of 

consistent security policies. 

In a keynote address, Yuwa Naps, 

Director, Edo State Information 

Technology and Communication 

Technology Agency, said womenfolk 

must embrace digital productive 

tools to better their worth. 

She asserted that women must 

enmesh themselves with modern 

(digital) skills, transferring the 

knowledge to their children as 

means to enhance their capacity and 

relevance in modern work place. 

“Your smartphone is not just for 

selifes, rather an ‘office’. Your Facebook 

wall is your modern (online) 

shop; engage in productive gossips. 

IT/ICT tools are not for luxury- you 

can monitor your children and your 

home remotely”, Naps added. 

Peter Oluka is the Editor of TechEconomy.

26 

BUSINESS DAY 

BDTECH 

E-mail: jumoke.akiyode@businessdayonline.com 

The relationship between technology 

and CSR for organisations in Africa 

The times companies viewed corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes as burdensome have passed, Jumoke Akiyode-Lawanson 

writes that today, businesses around the world, spurred by technologically inclined consumers as well as a rising generation of more 

socially conscious business leaders, are making CSR a priority, embedding it into their operations and using it to attract and keep talent. 

Yaniv Natan, founder, Tek Experts 

To these companies the 

desire to be known for 

doing good and giving 

back drives their 

core business strategy 

as opposed to merely donating to 

worthy causes. 

The corporate social responsibility 

stories that make headlines 

are large-scale, organisation-wide 

efforts and some of them are really 

remarkable. 

In the next five years, Google 

plans to give $1 billion in grants 

and 1 million employee volunteer 

hours, IBM’s travel programme 

sends their best employees to 

developing nations to use their 

talents on pro-bono assignments, 

Patagonia’s Action Works initiative 

supports grassroots environmental 

activism by pairing individual 

volunteers with non-profits 

in their communities, and Microsoft 

gavenon-profits $1.2 billion in 

services and software last year. 

The above named companies 

have made remarkable success 

because they started to look at 

CSR as a creative opportunity to 

fundamentally strengthen their 

businesses while contributing 

to society at the same time. They 

view CSR as central to their overall 

strategies, helping them to 

creatively address key business issues. 

Because of their scale, these 

corporate programmes have a 

deep and obvious impact on the 

planet. But they can have a staggering 

effect on a smaller scale 

too. 

This year, the technology landscape 

in Nigeria witnessed a major 

shift, one that will further improve 

the practice of CSR in Africa, as 

Tek Experts and Microsoft joined 

forces to establish a Customer 

Service and Support (CSS) centre 

in Lagos. 

Tek Experts debut in Nigeria 

follows the successful establishment 

of similar centres in 

other global locations. From the 

time of its launch, the company 

strongly expressed commitment 

to supporting talented individuals 

around the world and providing 

them with long and rewarding careers 

with partners such as Microsoft 

Nigeria. 

Speaking on the commitment 

of the company to investing in 

people, Yaniv Natan, founder of 

Tek Experts, said: “We are delighted 

to collaborate with Microsoft 

in developing talent that will improve 

the technology landscape in 

Nigeria and leverage the skills and 

expertise of Nigerians to provide 

great levels of service to customers 

as we have done in other locations 

around the world. We are committed 

to investing in the region and 

the people, and to raising the profile 

of Nigeria as an exceptional location 

for technical talent.” 

Elsewhere in Cameroon, just 

one person and 20 computers 

were enough to transform the future 

of the several youths in the 

country. Yembe Nfor, a young 

man from Cameroon with a vision 

for bringing technology to his 

country had a dream, he wanted 

a space where people in his city 

could access the internet. 

Several factors, however, stood 

between Yembe and his desire, 

economic development in Cameroon 

is slow, in part because of a 

lack of access to technology. Just 

18 percent of its 24 million citizens 

have access to the internet, and 

even fewer own a personal computer. 

Without technological resources, 

young people in Yembe’s country—and 

more than 60 percent of 

Cameroonians who are under the 

age of 25—struggle to get the education 

they need to provide skilled 

labour to employers and better 

their lives. 

A chance meeting through a 

mutual friend introduced Execs In 

The Know co-founders, Chad and 

Susan McDaniel to Yembe Nfor, 

and his story and vision inspired 

them so much, they asked him to 

share his message with their children. 

His vision for these Digital 

Spaces inspired Chad and Susan, 

and they started exploring the 

EITK community for a corporate 

partner that could bring his ideas 

to life. They shared his story with 

Aileen Allkins, Microsoft corporate 

vice president, Customer Service 

and Support. Aileen reached 

out to her network and contacted 

Tek Experts, which uses an expert 

workforce to provide business and 

IT outsourcing services. 

The company pledged their 

support: Tek Experts would donate 

20 laptops to Yembe’s Digital 

Spaces project. In addition, Susan 

would bring her expertise to Digital 

Spaces as a board member. 

Yembe has worked very hard 

to change the trajectory of Cameroon’s 

future, and his efforts have 

made an impact. In 2017, he was 

awarded a Mandela Washington 

Fellowship, which brings promising 

leaders in sub-Saharan Africa 

to the US to study at a college or 

university. After their education 

ends, Fellows like Yembe return to 

their home countries and receive 

continued professional development 

support. 

Speaking on the link between 

a company’s values and its CSR 

strategy, Raymond Murray, global 

marketing director, Tek Experts, 

said, “The most successful CSR 

programs are inextricably linked 

to organisations’ core values. 

“Tek Experts built its business 

on offering exceptional career and 

development opportunities to our 

employees around the world and 

whenwe heard Yembe’s story, we 

really wanted to help.” 

As the likes of Tek Experts 

and Microsoft consolidate their 

CSR activities in Africa and on 

the global stage, it is worthy of 

note thatcommitting to socially 

responsible practices is not just 

about addressing challenges, 

there are also huge opportunities. 

Unlike corporate philanthropy, 

the rewards of real CSR go way beyond 

reputational risk mitigation 

or a getting out a good PR story, 

it involves a deliberate attempt at 

making impact, building trust and 

credibility. 

For tech companies, especially 

at a time when brand trust is becoming 

increasingly difficult to 

earn, successful CSR today must 

be meaningful,relevant and transparent 

at heart. 


GBAM deepens 

competition in Nigeria’s 

lottery industry 

... introduces social media gaming 

JUMOKE AKIYODE-LAWANSON 

GBAM, a new and innovative 

lottery and gaming company 

is positioned to further 

drive competition in Nigeria’s 

lottery and gaming eco-system as 

it launched its new website with multifunctional 

features which allows customers 

to play, win and engage with 

the brand via social media. 

The newly licensed lottery company 

says its new website and innovative 

offering that give customers the opportunity 

to engage and play on Facebook, 

Twitter, Instagram and YouTube 

simplifies gaming with success to 

simple scratch cards in paper form or 

online (www.gbam.ng), whilst seamlessly 

replacing the grueling experience 

of betting and waiting on games, 

or having to pick lucky numbers. 

In a press statement from the Gbam 

corporate headquarters in Lagos, Segun 

Macaulay, chief sales officer, explained 

that ‘’through the GBAM website, 

players have access to an exciting 

array of game themes in: food, fashion, 

and sports; with denominations from 

N100 Jade, N200 Emerald, N500 ruby, 

to N1,000 diamond cards. Each card 

denomination and game theme has 

a jackpot prize which is 10,000 times 

the value of a card’s denomination. 

For example, the N100 jade games 

has a jackpot of N1,000,000 in cash, 

while the N1,000 diamond games has 

N10,000,000 as its jackpot.” 

Macaulay said that there are 

other cash prizes in each game 

theme asides the jackpot and players 

can win these as well. 

“A player can win same value of the 

card played, double the value of the 

card, five times the value of the card, 

ten times the value of the card, fifty 

times the value of the card, five hundred 

times the value of the card, one 

thousand times the value of the card 

and up to the jackpot of ten thousand 

times the value of the card,” he said. 

Up to N7 billion cash is expected to 

be won by GBAM players annually. 

Another appealing benefit to customers 

is that as long as you scratch 

their card, there is something for you. 

To compensate those who may 

not hit the big winnings, GBAM has 

other exciting offers in partnership 

with some other Nigerian brands. 

Players will be able to get N1,000 

off their next ride on Taxify; or get up 

to 10 percent discount from any City- 

Dia store; or also get free food items 

at SPAR retail store. 

The quintessential GBAM experience 

is that anybody above 

18years can play and anybody can 

win on GBAM. 

According to GBAM, its newly 

launched website is easy to use; offers 

an excellent array of games to select 

from, can be played using mobile 

phones, with a user-friendly interface 

and it operates within legal regulations. 

GBAM, with its explicit pay off 

“Just Like That” represents unequalled 

gaming and winning experience. 

The company is licensed by the Nigerian 

Lottery Commission (NLRC) 

and Lagos State Lottery Board (LSLB).


BUSINESS DAY 27 

EDUCATION 

Weekly insight on current and future trends in education Primary/Secondary Higher Human Capital 

Perfect storm: ageing boardrooms 

meet restless millennial workforce 

STEPHEN ONYEKWELU 

Boardrooms are ageing 

and a new workforce is 

emerging comprising 

people born between 

1980 – 2000, who are 

known for their gipsy-like tendencies 

of wanting to be constantly in 

motion, changing positions and 

companies. 

Experts suggest the average age 

of the youngest boardroom of a 

medium to big size company is 

48 years. Otherwise, the average 

age of boardrooms in big Nigerian 

companies is about 60 years old. 

What this points to is the need 

for many companies to refresh 

its workforce by injecting some 

new blood, which abound, into 

the mix. 

“An ageing workforce calls for 

succession planning amid technological 

and digital transformations, 

which are changing the way we live 

and work” Ben Afudego, West Africa 

advisory leader at Ernst and Young 

(EY), said at the inaugural human 

resource directors breakfast meant 

to find solutions to contemporary 

Nigerian talent management challenges. 

“New key performance indicators 

(KPIs) would be needed to capture 

the new trends at the workplace. The 

workplace of the future begins now” 

Afudego said. 

In the United States, 25 percent of 

workers already belong to millennial 

generation, while in India that 

percentage has already doubled. 

In fact, it is expected that by the 

year 2020, 50 percent of the global 

workforce will be in the hands of 

millennials. 

In addition to being more numerous, 

millennials will also be more 

valuable and the generation will 

work long to support a significantly 

larger generation as life expectancy 

increases. 

It means companies have to be 

deliberate in attracting and retaining 

this ubiquitous new generation 

in their workforce. This is important 

because corporate directors say age 

is a big factor than race or gender in 

Students of Caleb British International School, Lekki Lagos, anticipating Fun Day in commemoration of Children’s Day. 

Nigeria will be better with Alumni support-UI DVC 

AKINREMI FEYISIPO, Ibadan 

Alumni of Nigeria’s public 

varsities have been 

called upon to assist and 

support in meeting infrastructure 

and funding needs of 

their Alma Mata. 

Adeyinka Aderinto, the Deputy 

Vice Chancellor (Academic) of the 

University of Ibadan, who made 

this call, said world class universities 

attained their present statuses 

owing largely to the contributions 

of their alumni in infrastructural 

development, endowments and 

funding. 

He said if alumni wakes up to 

their responsibilities, Nigerian 

varsities will be better. 

Aderinto made the call when 

the set of 1998 graduates of the 

Department of Sociology, University 

of Ibadan presented the sum 

of five hundred thousand naira to 

the 54-year old Department for 

upgrading the postgraduate classroom 

as part of activities lined up 

to mark the 20th anniversary of 

their graduation. 

Aderinto a Professor who led 

four other members of the set Wole 

Atere, Gbenga Adediji and Niyi 

Bello to make the presentation 

urged graduates of Nigerian universities 

to return to their schools 

and assist in the delivery of quality 

education to modern learners. 

“The likes of Havard, Yale, London 

School Economics did not get 

to their present world class positions 

by joke. They benefit largely 

from the support of their alumni. 

We cannot sit back and watch our 

institutions go into state of disrepair 

without plough back to where 

we were made. We promise to 

make this annual contribution as 

long as we live and we hope to rally 

more people to support Ibadan 

Sociology.” 

Ifeanyi Onyeonoru, the head 

of department, Sociology, while 

achieving diversity of thought in the 

boardroom. Yet, boards of the biggest 

Nigerian companies are actually 

getting older. 

The EY human resource directors’ 

breakfast themed “Workforce 

disruption: creating a better 

world working world” strove to 

drive home the global understanding 

that businesses are now 

about teams that are diverse, 

collaborative and global. And the 

workplace place of tomorrow will 

seamlessly integrate technology, 

nature and design. To achieve 

these, millennials have a great 

role to play. 

“Seventy-four percent of EY staff is 

millennial. This comes with unique 

challenges. For instance, this generation 

consists of digital natives, 

who want flexible work hours and 

environment” Roderick Wolfenden, 

Africa Advisory Leader at EY said at 

the HR Breakfast. 

“EY’s new vision statement is 

‘building a better working world’ and 

we are committed to this in practice” 

Wolfenden said. 

Millennials have been transforming 

the workplace for the past decade 

or so, emerging on the scene with 

new attitudes and striking characteristics 

that inspired excitement 

and resentment from previous generations. 

“Our brand is synonymous with 

innovation because it is a nest of 

very young restless millennials. Our 

philosophy is inspired by the belief 

that intelligence is evenly distributed 

but opportunity is not. Millennials 

are hungry and ambitious. 

We provide outlets for this massive 

flow of energy” Taiwo Judah Ajayi, 

the global senior director of people 

at Andela, a tech incubator for startups 

said at the EY HR directors’ 

breakfast. 

For the first time in history, we see 

five generations of employees working 

together under the same roof. But 

traditionalists are leaving, and Baby 

Boomers are looking towards their 

retirement ventures, taking years of 

experience with them. Generation 

X are replacing them, slowly moving 

up in the hierarchy, but the bulk of 

the people on the ground, the do-ers, 

are millennials. 

thanking the 1998 set for their support 

to the department promised 

that the fund will be used judiciously 

to uplift the postgraduate 

classroom. 

Onyeonoru noted that Nigerians 

give money in churches and 

mosques but not to public institutions 

urged for a change in behaviour. 

Olanrewaju Olutayo, a professor 

of Development studies, 

challenged those who have been 

insensitive to the needs of their 

former schools to wake up to give 

back to their schools to enrich the 

standards of education similar to 

that which they enjoyed. 

Saraki commissions 

8 blocks classrooms 

in Kwara 

SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin 

Abubakar Bukola Saraki, 

the Senate President, has 

commissioned eightblocks 

of classrooms at 

Mandate Junior Secondary School. 

He equally distributed instructional 

materials during the brief 

but colourful ceremony held in the 

school premises at Adeta, Ilorin the 

state capital. 

Saraki had through the Universal 

Basic Education Commission 

(UBEC) attracted the project to the 

beneficiary basic school. 

Speaking through the Director 

General, Abubakar Bukola Saraki 

(ABS) Mandate Office, Musa Abdullahi, 

Saraki said the gesture was 

aimed at enhancing conducive 

learning environment for both the 

pupils and their teachers and also 

in continuation of his intervention 

in the education sector and in fulfilment 

of his promises to the people. 

He expressed optimism that 

the commissioning of the project 

as well as the distribution of 

instructional materials would go 

a long way in ensuring the growth 

and development of educational 

institutions in the state, particularly 

at the basic level. 

“This block of eight classrooms 

that is being delivered, to be accompanied 

with distribution of 

instructional materials to further aid 

learning, is a clear testimony of the 

priority placed on “total education” 

by the Senate President. 

“While the block of classrooms 

will add to the infrastructural development 

of the school and provide 

the students with conducive 

learning environment, the added 

materials will provide the students 

with useful learning aid for their all 

round development. 

“The Senate President believes 

that our educated youths are the 

leaders of tomorrow and gestures 

such as this will no doubt put the 

Ilorin community in the forefront 

of academic pursuit. 

“This is the reason why the Senate 

President has devoted huge 

resources through his constituency 

office to education programmes. 

“The recent payment of JAMB 

fees for applicants and sponsoring 

of examination for Arabic students 

in the state is a course that Saraki is 

very committed to and will continue 

to do more on this front to uplift the 

educational pursuit of the people, 

especially those who cannot afford 

it due to no fault of theirs. 

“During the 2018 WAEC registration, 

the Senate President paid 

WAEC fees for 554 students. He also 

paid school fees for 47 indigent students 

of Kwara State Polytechnic”, 

Abdullahi said. 

In her remarks, the Principal of 

the School, A.H. Shuaib, applauded 

the Senate President for his kind 

gesture.

C002D5556 



EDUCATION 

HUMAN CAPITAL 

‘We’ve set up students’ support unit to help 

indigent, physically challenged students’ 

Igbekele Amos Ajibefun, professor of Agricultural Economics, is the Vice Chancellor of Ondo State Government-owned Adekunle Ajasin 

University, Akungba Akoko. In this interview with BusinessDay’s ‘Yomi Ayeleso, he spoke on the hike in fees payable. Excerpts: 

I will like you to start with 

a review of the situation after 

the students’ protests over 

the increase in school fees. 

Thank you very 

much; the protests 

didn’t take us unaware. 

They happened 

as expected. 

Anywhere there is increase in 

fees, even if it is a marginal 

increase, students will expectedly 

protest. 

So, the students went to 

protest in Akure, the seat of 

government of Ondo State. 

And the government listened 

to them. In fact, the government 

invited the leadership 

of the students’ union, as well 

as the Management of the 

University, and the Chairman 

of the Governing Council, for 

deliberations on the issue. It 

was discussed and ways of 

reducing the fees were tabled 

and deliberated. 

With the intervention of the 

Governor, the fees payable by 

the students were drastically 

reduced. After the reduction, 

the students’ leadership took 

it back to their Congress where 

it was decided to accept the 

reduction, having seen the 

commitment of government 

to reduce the fees by almost 

50 percent. 

The students immediately 

commenced registration for 

the new academic session. 

Now the University is settled 

and students are registering for 

the new academic session. Activities 

are now going on well 

and peacefully on campus. 

Igbekele Amos Ajibefun 

The management pledged 

to provide some support to 

the students in coping with 

the payment of the new fees. 

How about that, sir? 

With the increase in school 

fees, the University Governing 

Council approved some 

financial support to assist the 

students to cope with payment 

of the new fees. These include 

introduction of loan scheme; 

scholarship scheme as well 

as expansion of the existing, 

Work-Study Scheme, in addition 

to other forms of support. 

Just last week, a new office, 

Students’ Support Centre 

was created under the Vice 

Chancellor’s Office, with a 

Coordinator appointed to 

coordinate the activities of the 

office. A Committee has also 

been set up to work out the 

modalities and criteria for the 

implementation of all forms 

of financial support to the 

students. One of the categories 

of students to get support from 

the University is the physically 

challenged students. 

The application forms for 

financial support for this category 

of students are already 

out. The University will support 

the physically challenged 

students with as much as 50% 

of their school fees. 

Another area of financial 

support for students is the 

provision of scholarships for 

brilliant students, as it is done 

all over the world. This will 

promote academic excellence, 

as students will compete for 

the scholarships. There will be 

criteria to determine who benefits 

from the scheme, but I can 

tell you that the main criterion 

will be academic performance. 

The Committee set up to 

attend to all that has to do with 

students’ loans, scholarships 

and other forms of financial 

support is already working on 

detailed criteria for selecting 

beneficiaries for the available 

support schemes. 

What have you done to 

boost the rating of AAUA 

locally and internationally 

since you came on board 

as VC? 

Since coming on board, I 

have built on the solid foundation 

I met on ground. The 

University has continued to 

make steady progress in all areas. 

In terms of infrastructural 

development, the University 

has progressed. 

When one moves round 

the campus, you will come 

across over ten huge projects 

that have been completed 

since my arrival in January 

2015. And we have over eight 

other projects that are ongoing 

and at different completion 

stages. 

Two of the projects nearing 

completion are the Faculties of 

Arts and Education buildings. 

These are gigantic projects 

that are well over 90 percent 

completion. So, in terms of 

infrastructural development, 

the University is making commendable 

progress. 

The University is working on 

generation of its electricity supply 

through solar power. The 

University is trying to establish 

four Megawatt solar power 

project on campus. Once this 

is achieved, the challenges 

associated with epileptic electricity 

supply in the University 

will be over, and this will save 

the university huge amount of 

money on diesel and purchase 

and maintenance of generating 

sets. Akungba has been without 

public electricity supply for 

years. 

The University had recently 

established its radio station, 

Radio AAUA 90.3 FM, which 

was commissioned in December 

2017. The radio station is a 

big addition to infrastructural 

development in the University, 

and this will enhance the 

academic programmes of the 

University as well as socioeconomic 

life of the University 

host communities. 

Some members of our 

academic staff have been to 

Auburn University for courses 

and trainings on the basis of 

the collaboration between 

the Institutions. So in terms 

of partnership and staff development, 

we are making good 

progress. 

The University has also 

made progress in terms of 

academic programme accreditation. 

There was a major 

NUC accreditation exercise in 

the University in November 

2015, when 26 programmes 

of the University were visited 

for accreditation. At the end 

of the exercise, the University 

had excellent performance 

with 25 out of the total 26 

programmes having full accreditation 

and only one with 

interim accreditation. That was 

a commendable outcome. In 

the year 2017, we had another 

major accreditation visit with 

the same success story. 

What more should the 

university community expect 

in the years ahead? 

The University Community 

should expect more progress 

and better things in the years 

ahead. I also have the belief 

that once we have a peaceful 

campus, better things will 

continue to roll in. 

For instance, the University 

is moving in the direction of expanding 

the academic horizon 

more. We are coming up with 

new academic programmes 

within the next few months. I 

think they are part of developments 

that will promote the 

University. 

We are already in touch 

with some well-to-do individuals 

who can support the 

University in terms of financing 

the new programmes. We 

are also in touch with some 

international organizations 

and some of them have already 

shown interest. 

HRM gets boost through digital tools 

TUNDE OYADIRAN 

With the digital 

revolution in 

overdrive, everything 

is 

changing, and fast. Nowhere 

is this change more obvious, 

nay significant, than in the 

workplace. So much so, that 

Deloitte, one of the world’s 

leading professional services 

network and a major authority 

on human capital trends, has 

called for a complete overhaul 

of the rules of Human Resources 

Management (HRM). 

“Organizations face a radically 

shifting context for the 

workforce, the workplace, and 

the world of work, Deloitte 

argued in its 2017 report on 

HRM, aptly titled Rewriting 

the rules for the digital age. 

“These shifts have changed 

the rules for nearly every organizational 

people practice, 

from learning to management 

to the definition of work itself,” 

it added. 

However, it is one thing 

to appreciate that the digital 

revolution has fundamentally 

changed HRM, it is another to 

understand what exactly that 

change means. To understand 

the impact of the digital revolution 

on HRM, it is imperative 

to, first of all, contextualize the 

fundamentals of HRM. 

It comes down to two main 

parts: Personnel and Organizational 

goals. Traditionally, 

the marriage of these two 

parts have been officiated by 

a group of human resource 

managers whose size and skill 

sets were often limited, largely 

inadequate and too slow in 

responding to internal and 

external dynamics. 

Now, with virtually every 

organization’s workforce becoming 

more digital, more 

global, automation-savvy and 

social media proficient, only 

a digitized HRM can keep 

up with the pace of radically 

changing personnel expectations. 

The same goes for 

driving organizational goals 

in an age where companies 

are evolving faster than ever 

and becoming more nimble in 

their strategy and operations. 

With the fundamentals of 

HRM, Personnel and Organizational 

Goals, changing at 

such a rapid pace, the initial 

and most obvious effects of the 

rapid change are of course the 

struggles of HR managers and 

organizational leaders to cope. 

For example, not many are attuned 

to the fact that employees 

increasingly do not just want a 

career, they want an experience 

and they want to be engaged in 

their work and their company. 

Sabine Lauria, a leading 

scholar in HRM, provides 

one of the best analogies for 

this: “The digital revolution 

started impacting companies 

through customer service as 

it created new connections 

between product culture and 

customer experience culture. 

But employees were forgotten! 

Yet the stakes are the same for 

HR. More than ever, HR has to 

adapt its approach to match 

the expectations and diversity 

of its employees. It’s not just 

about meeting a company’s 

expectations. You have to understand 

employee expectations 

if you don’t want to risk 

losing high-profile talent.” 

The next big challenge that 

the digital revolution throws up 

for HR Managers is its gradual 

obliteration of the so-called 

work structure. Now, more than 

ever, communication happens 

in real time, talent pool has 

become highly mobile and 

the flow of ideas, freed up by 

technology, is no longer linear. 

This has not only transformed 

lifestyle, it has also 

turned the approach to work 

on its head. As leading HR 

company, Morgan Phillips, 

notes; “Working environments 

have moved on from a time 

when work was performed 

according to a fixed schedule 

and always in an office. More 

often than laptops, it is tablets 

and smartphones which 

accompany us everywhere 

and offer us an increased and 

previously unheard of level of 

control and autonomy in the 

way we organize work.” This, 

surely, makes on-the-desk and 

by-the-counter HR Management 

obsolete. 

There is also the challenge 

of talent acquisition, which is 

being exacerbated by the fact 

that as jobs and skills change, 

driven by the digital revolution, 

finding and recruiting 

the right people has become 

more difficult than ever for 

HR. According to Deloitte, 

talent acquisition is now the 

third-most-important challenge 

companies face, with 81 

percent of respondents calling 

it important or very important. 

Closely related to this is the 

challenge of talent retention, 

which has become one of the 

biggest headaches of HR managers 

who, lacking the tools 

for effective people analytics 

cannot fully understand staff 

talent factors nor leverage the 

requisite tools for employee 

engagement. 

However, the biggest challenge 

thrown up by the digital 

revolution on HRM is an 

existential one. As Enrique 

Rubio, an HR Specialist at 

Inter-American Development 

Bank, rightly notes; “HR has 

been historically slow to understand 

and respond to business 

demands. And, although 

the digital transformation of 

everything in the world is unstoppable 

and obvious, HR is 

not waking up and getting on 

the bandwagon as quickly as 

it needs to.” 

Tunde Oyadiran is a Human 

Resource expert. 

Continues on www.businessdayonline.com


C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

29 

In association with 

Land Use Charge: Lagos yields more ground, 

engages estate firms for proper valuation 

…as NIESV marks 2018 estate week 

CHUKA UROKO 

In addition to the recent 

50 percent reduction 

in charges, Lagos State 

government has also 

engaged estate surveyors 

and valuers to carryout 

enumeration and valuation 

of all real estate assets in the 

state in line with its determination 

to fairly implement 

the controversial Land Use 

Charge (LUC). 

This involves counting 

of buildings, visitation of 

individual units, capturing 

of details and getting data 

for the government. After 

the exercise, the valuers are 

supposed to value the assets 

and make presentation to 

the government. This is done 

in the hope that it will calm 

frayed nerves and assuage 

contending forces against 

the LUC. 

A major cause of the protest 

that greeted the LUC 

when it was introduced in 

February this year was what 

was seen by many as government’s 

arbitrary, improper 

and unprofessional property 

valuation which saw property 

values raised to as high 

as 400 percent. 

Property owners, individuals 

and even professional 

bodies protested the introduction 

and implementation 

of the charge, describing it as 

both insensitive and punitive. 

Rogba Orimalade, chairman, 

Nigerian Institution of 

Estate Surveyors and Valuers 

(NIESV) Lagos branch, who 

disclosed the engagement 

of estate firms by the state 

government last Wednesday 

at a press conference to 

announce the 2018 Estate 

Week, commended the state 

government for the move 

which, he said, would help to 

rest the issue of property not 

being valued properly. 

“The exercise is currently 

ongoing and the state government 

has given a very short 

timeline to the valuers to 

get the job done and submit 

report”, Orimalade said, appealing 

to Lagos residents to 

open their doors to the valuers 

because the exercise is for 

their benefit. 

He disclosed that the institution 

will be forwarding a 

technical report to the state 

government by next week, 

stating their position on the 

LUC. The report, he said, 

captures the key foundations 

of the law and also advised 

the government on the best 

way to amend the law. 

“We have consulted with 

the state government to look 

at the protest against the 

Land Use Charge, not from 

the angle that people do not 

want to pay taxes, but from 

the angle that people want 

to pay taxes that are fair,” 

he said. 

According to him, the protest 

against the LUC was due 

to lack of clarity around the 

formula used in computing 

the charges. “For us at NIESV, 

the formula used in computing 

the charges was clear but 

the challenges were in the 

interpretation. Is it right to 

tax unimproved property or 

property with just a fence?” 

he queried. 

He noted that the formula 

used in computing the 

charge has been used in other 

countries even in Africa. “Our 

position is that government 

has the right to come up with 

property tax and it also has 

the right to determine how 

the tax should be assessed. 

Though we agree with all of 

this, they are not enough; 

ours is to tell government 

of a fairer way of arriving at 

the rates. 

The NIESV Lagos State 

branch is a very vibrant institution 

with enviable track 

record. Orimalade pointed 

out that the institution, under 

him, is trying to rebrand 

the branch by changing its 

public perception. He added 

that the branch is also trying 

to upgrade and totally 

revitalise its website just as it 

is perfecting plans to launch 

a new website during their 

Estate Week. 

“We came in at a time 

when the institution was 

not given due recognition in 

terms of public acceptability. 

As a result, we created an 

action document with five 

key areas including branding, 

public enlightenment, 

membership expansion, 

strategic engagement and 

training,” he said. 

The branch, according to 

him, has created a resource 

center and an e-library, 

which they are yet to furnish 

but will be launched during 

the Estate Week. “It is going 

to be an 11-seater e-library 

where trainings can be done 

on weekly basis. This will differ 

from the usual trainings 

but it will encompass specialist 

trainings that can only be 

gotten abroad. 

Noting that builders in developed 

countries presently 

make use of technologies 

such as robots and drones 

that capture the efficiency of 

everything done on construction 

sites, he stated, that the 

resource center will be bringing 

in people that will teach 

members the application of 

such technologies. 

This, he said, means that 

people will not need to go 

abroad for such trainings 

and, at the end of the day, 

companies will save foreign 

exchange that ought to have 

be spent on training and 

building capacity among 

staff. “The center will enable 

us to not only build capacity 

among our members, but 

also better the society because 

we are going to open it 

up to involve multi-discipline 

programmes. 

He said that the Estate 

Week will involve visiting 

schools that are offering Estate 

Management and some 

media houses among other 

events. He further revealed 

that they will be hosting 

the national conference in 

March, 2019 and it’s going to 

be the biggest gathering of 

the players in the real estate 

industry. 

Infrastructure 

Maintenance 

With 

TUNDE OBILEYE 

Enabling positive experiences 

World Facility Management 

Day was 

celebrated a week 

ago with the theme ‘Enabling 

Positive Experiences’. The 

idea, I believe, was to highlight 

the impact of facilities 

management on the various 

aspects of life in recreational, 

residential and corporate 

landscapes that has made the 

involvement of FM practitioners 

worthwhile. Despite the 

challenges, even in Nigeria 

where a lot of awareness is 

still needed, the excitement 

of these positive experiences 

drives the determination to 

go to the next level. 

To emphasize the role of 

FM in today’s world, I remember 

how a difficult job at a 

client’s facility was handled to 

ensure exceptional customerexperiences 

when not much 

was expected at the time. 

There was chaos all around 

due to the lack of effective and 

efficient system to deal with 

the day-to-day operations and 

the needs of the end-users of 

the facility. 

Being a new residential development, 

it is fair to say that 

some of the challenges were 

not unexpected, however the 

approach to dealing with the 

issues required a well thought 

out plan that would yield immediate 

positive results. 

The issues faced by the tenants 

were multi-dimensional 

in nature, ranging from electrical, 

plumbing, roof leakages, 

faulty door-locks, power, 

security etc. The estate was 

developed with the upscale 

market in mind and this made 

the whole situation even more 

difficult to accept. 

The first step taken was 

to acknowledge that the issues 

exist and to reassure the 

tenants that solutions would 

be provided as quickly as 

possible. An assessment of 

the problems and the extent 

to which each one impacted 

the end users individually 

and collectively was done to 

determine short, medium and 

long term solutions. 

A system was designed and 

immediately put in place to 

capture, deal and resolve the 

challenges in order of priority. 

For instance, all the door 

locks were replaced to prevent 

further complaints. In the case 

of security, a visitor’s record 

book was introduced to process 

visitors entering and exiting 

the estate. Identification 

cards were also introduced 

to monitor domestic staff 

movement in and around the 

estate including identifying 

strangers. 

Major issues such as electrical, 

plumbing and roof leakages 

were handled by experts 

with proven record of accomplishment. 

With roof leakages, 

the short term solution was 

to identify areas of leakage or 

possible leakage and apply 

roofing felt for extra protection 

to repel water until the roof 

was replaced. 

The result of our actions 

was a renewed confidence 

and trust in the maintenance 

team by the tenants who started 

to appreciate the effort and 

improvement to their living 

conditions. Whilst all the 

problems were not immediately 

fixed, there was a sense 

of belief that a plan had been 

put in place to find solutions. 

The lessons learned included 

having a communication 

plan to disseminate 

information as required and in 

good time by engaging the end 

users. Another lesson learned 

was to ensure only knowledgeable 

and competent personnel 

were engaged to provide FM 

services, providing training 

where necessary. Having a 

well thought-out system to 

ensure planned and preventative 

maintenance service was 

critical to delivering superior 

service delivery. 

Going forward, a shared vision 

amongst all stakeholders 

is important to integrate end 

user’s individual expectations 

and approach of the FM team. 

This gives a chance to discuss 

shortcomings, strengths and 

difficulties with the stakeholders 

particularly end-users. 

Another step to be taken 

is the promotion of positive 

culture change which creates 

a belief that goals can and 

will be accomplished when 

people work together. When 

there is a positive culture, 

multiple solutions are sought 

for every challenge. This positive 

culture provides the basis 

for moving forward towards 

greater accomplishments. 

Obileye is a UK-trained lawyer and CEO, 

Great Heights Property and Facilities 

Management Limited 

Email: 

Tundeobileye@greatheightslimited.com



The Margaret: Nigeria’s first all-female 

real estate development 

Stories by CHUKA UROKO 

In an industry where 

women represent 

only 33 percent of 

professionals, the 

idea of a development 

where all the designers are 

female professionals excites 

interest and also throws a bit 

of a challenge to budding 

female built environment 

professionals. 

This simply underscores 

a shift in mindset among 

investors and developers in 

an environment where traditional 

and cultural beliefs 

often transcend western 

education and socio-economic 

accomplishments. 

This apparent shift is 

what saw Okwi Onuzo, 

critically acclaimed female 

architect, work in collaboration 

with London-based 

Landscape Architect, Moji 

Adeniran and Sicily-based 

interior architect, Martina 

Pardo to design and produce 

an iconic development 

known as The Margaret. 

This has sparked a revolution 

in Ikoyi’s Banana Island 

and represents one of the 

very few truly luxury developments 

owing, perhaps, 

to the female-dominance 

which brings about an increased 

attention to detail. 

The Margaret is an apt 

name for this modern- 

English residential enclave 

which draws inspiration 

from the values of Margaret 

Thatcher, former British 

Prime Minister fondly referred 

to as the ‘Iron lady’. 

In spite of its hard exterior 

which is fashioned 

out of concrete, glass and 

steel, this development 

harbours much softer interior 

of hand-polished wood, 

natural Carrara marble and 

other organic materials that 

The use of Public Private 

Partnership (PPP) has 

become recognized 

globally as an effective option 

for implementing public 

infrastructure and providing 

services, and all this comes 

with immense benefits. 

In economic growth and 

development considerations, 

infrastructure is everything. 

It is the engine that drives 

any economy and that is why 

emerging economies like 

Nigeria need to scale up their 

infrastructure investment 

and development to drive 

their economy to growth. 

In all, power or electricity 

is critical and, according 

to Femi Akintunde, GMD, 

Alpha Mead Group, Nigeria 

has a pathetic case when 

compared to even African 

countries. Ghana, for in- 

reflect features extremely 

pertinent to women. 

This is to be expected 

from an all-star female team 

of architects, engineers and 

designers which betrays 

Gilead Global, the developers 

of the project as being 

on a mission to close the 

gender equality gap in the 

fields of construction and 

architecture in Nigeria. 

“The goal is not just 

about filling in the blanks 

but really about the meaningful 

inclusion of Women 

in senior decision-making 

positions on major real 

estate projects such as this. 

It is about slowly transforming 

the institutional 

culture and the mind-set 

that Women should be 

relegated to the backseat 

when it comes to such projects”, 

Ololade Babalola, co- 

Founder of Gilead Global, 

explained to BusinessDay. 

Women make up 49 

percent of the Nigerian 

population and one out 

of every four women in 

Sub-Saharan Africa is a 

Nigerian. This represents 

enormous human resources 

potential, which can 

be harnessed to increase 

economic productivity but 

the disparities in job opportunities 

between men 

and women have never 

been starker. 

stance, has a population of 28 

million but has installed electricity 

capacity of 82kW per 

one thousand people. The 

country has GPD per capital 

of $1,513 and life expectancy 

rate of 62 years. 

South Africa, another African 

country, has a population 

of 57 million; installed electricity 

capacity of 885 kW per 

one thousand people; GPD 

per capital of $5,273; and a life 

expectancy rate of 73 years. 

These contrast sharply 

with what obtains in Nigeria. 

The country which prides 

itself as the giant of Africa, has 

a population of 180 million; 

installed electricity capacity 

of 36.45kW per one thousand 

people; GPD per capital of 

$2,178, a life expectancy rate 

of 53 years on the average. 

“This becomes all the 

The development of 

The Margaret marks the 

beginning of closing the 

existing gap. The development 

itself is a stunning 

collection of four and 

five-bedroom townhouses 

located in Banana Island, 

Ikoyi. 

Over the last two decades, 

Ikoyi has witnessed 

massive growth and transformation, 

growing from an 

old, sleepy, residential area 

into a modern, mixed-use 

community. Its streets have 

moved from being lined 

with colonial duplexes with 

expansive gardens to displaying 

some of the most 

ambitious office complexes 

and high-rise residences. 

Nestled in the heart of 

Ikoyiis the gated fortress 

known as Banana Island, 

Nigeria’s most affluent 

neighbourhood. Its beautifully 

tarred roads and picturesque 

green areas make 

it the destination of choice 

for multi-millionaires both 

at home and abroad looking 

for the security, serenity 

and service which the estate 

offers. 

The townhouses are 

now up for sale off-plan. 

The development will offer 

residents a botanical 

oasis of peace amidst the 

surrounding hustle and 

bustle of Lagos. Gardens 

more disappointing when 

compared to the United 

Kingdom which has a population 

of just 65 million, but 

installed electricity capacity 

of 1500kW per one thousand 

people; GPD per capital of 

$40,000 and a life expectancy 

rate of 82 years”, said 

Akintunde, who spoke at this 

year’s edition of FM Roundtable 

organised by Alpha Mead 

to mark 2018 World Facilities 

Management Day. 

Therefore, involving private 

sector operators in public assets 

development and maintenance 

makes a lot of sense 

particularly if that involves 

large complex infrastructure 

projects that require highlyskilled 

workers and a significant 

capital outlay to execute. 

Experts recommend that 

as emerging PPP markets 

and communal areas will 

be maintained by UK-based 

New Era Gardens making 

sure residents don’t have 

to worry about forgetting to 

prune or water the plants. 

Its interiors feature 

an earthy palette with an 

abundance of natural light 

seeping through the oversized 

French windows. Each 

townhouse and penthouse 

have their own private 

“vitality” swimming pool, 

which would also be maintained 

by the facility managers 

present on site. 

Residents will also have access 

to a Private Home Cinema, 

where they would be able 

to watch current box-office 

movies from the comfort of 

their home. The townhouses 

come starting at a price tag of 

N280million ($800,000). The 

penthouses are not up for sale 

at this time and construction 

is set to commence in the 

coming weeks. 

For the very few who are 

able to afford it, residents 

of The Margaret, will have 

access to the most luxurious 

of amenities such as private 

gardens and courtyards, 

individual “vitality” swimming 

pools for each residence, 

high ceilings, hand 

finished brass fixtures, a 

private home cinema for all 

residents, yoga classes, 24hr 

concierge and valet parking. 

evolve, it is vital to utilize the 

knowledge and experience 

from mature PPP markets in 

order to benefit from lessons 

learned and embed best 

practice. 

However, “across Africa, 

PPP model has become increasingly 

critical as a funding 

and operational mechanism 

for social infrastructure 

such as hospitals and schools 

or economic infrastructure 

including ports, railways, 

roads and airports”, Chidi Izuwah, 

acting director general/ 

CEO, infrastructure concession 

regulatory commission 

(ICRC), revealed. 

“PPPs have been a growing 

and an increasingly important 

part of public sector 

investment in infrastructure 

and service”, added Izuwah 

who also spoke at the FM 

Investment opportunity in hospitality 

sector as Rovic seeks investors 

…52-room hotel up for grabs, 10% annual ROI assured 

For savvy investors, especially 

the patient 

ones who have long 

term view of the market, the 

hospitality sector is now a 

compelling investment destination 

and, increasingly, 

offering opportunities. 

The hotel sector in Nigeria 

is deeply dependent 

on the fortunes of the oil 

sector, just like the prime 

office space and high end 

residential properties. This 

means that the improvement 

that has been seen in oil 

price signposts increase in 

demand and a rise in room 

occupancy rate. 

As at January this year, 

room occupancy stood at 

48.5 percent with a pickup 

to 64 percent by February 

which compares favourably 

to the February 2017 occupancy 

rate of 56 percent. 

This is a reflection of pickup 

in the wider economy, 

meaning that investors may 

not have a long time to wait 

for returns. 

In the Abuja real estate 

sub-market, an investment 

opportunity is beckoning as 

a 52-room state-of-the-art 

hotel in a prime location is 

up for grabs and Rovic Hotels 

and Resort Limited, a firm 

established with the aim of 

building a profitable hospitality 

investment portfolio 

for stakeholders, is perfecting 

plans to acquire the hotel 

from a bank. 

The current value of the 

hotel is N1.6 billion, but the 

bank is currently asking for 

N500 million as the forced or 

distressed sale value. 

Rovic is seeking for 200 

investors with a minimum 

commitment of N1 million 

investment each into this 

project, assuring that this 

initial investment of N200 

million will trigger the negotiations 

on the acquisition of 

the hotel. 

Understanding benefits of implementing facilities management using PPP model 

Roundtable. 

Bringing private capital 

into the development and 

maintenance of public infrastructure 

helps both government 

and public assets in a 

number of ways and, in the 

opinion of Aliko Dangote, 

the President/CEO, Dangote 

Group, private sector operators 

should intervene in 

infrastructure development 

in order to relieve the government 

of the burden of building 

same and at the same 

time to enable it to provide 

other needs of the people. 

A major benefit of implementing 

FM services through 

PPP model is the whole life 

cost consideration given to 

the assets. PPP facilitates 

whole life cost approach that 

takes account not only of 

the cost of constructing and 

The company is assuring 

prospective investors 

that with its experience in 

managing hotels which 

dates back to 2007, their 

investment will be in good 

hands. Rovic has managed 

a 20-room hotel in Kebbi 

under the trading name 

‘Real Suites’. 

The current portfolio of 

hotel investments being 

managed by the company 

includes four hotels in Kebbi 

and two in Nasarawa. 

The six hotels now have a 

cumulative 120 rooms and 

other facilities. Authorities if 

the company assures further 

that this experience will be 

leveraged in undertaking 

and managing the current 

project. 

The purpose of any investment 

is to get returns 

and Rovic says investors 

in this hotel will earn a 10- 

percent yearly dividend on 

their investment as well as 

a yearly 10 percent capital 

appreciation on their investment. 

This will be paid at the 

point of divestment by any 

investor as from the end of 

the second year. 

The hotel, which has a 

minimum of two years lock 

up period for investors, also 

assures on security of investment. 

A trust deed will be 

executed to secure investors’ 

interest in the hotel while 

a special purpose company 

will be established and 

vested with the ownership 

interest in the hotel. 

maintaining the building 

but also the optimization of 

operational efficiency. 

The model provides access 

to private sector expertise. 

It allows the public 

sector to benefit from the 

introduction of private sector 

technology and innovation, 

thus providing services to 

the public through improved 

FM processes. The public 

sector, naturally, is characterized 

by obsolete systems 

and processes that impede 

productivity and output. 

A suitably structured PPP 

projects have the potential 

to deliver better value for 

money compared with that of 

equivalent services procured 

conventionally. It ensures 

structured and comprehensive 

risk management approach.

Tuesday 22 May 2018 C002D5556 BUSINESS DAY 

31



STRATEGYBRIEFING 

IDEAS THAT POWER HIGH PERFORMANCE 

Nigerian companies rarely have strategy 

Considering the 

more than 70,000 

management 

books on the subject 

according to 

Kiechel, strategy is an issue of 

great interest to business. No 

enterprise can survive without 

a strategy. You’re probably 

acquainted with the stories of 

companies like HiTv and Konga 

of late. Sad as those cases 

may be they clearly illustrate 

the fact that Nigerian companies 

as with their counterparts 

elsewhere still struggle with the 

understanding of what strategy 

really is. So what makes 

a decision strategic? How do 

you determine whether some 

set of decisions constitutes a 

strategy? And why does strategy 

matter? 

I speak to thousands of business 

executives in Africa annually 

on the subject of strategy 

and the unfortunate truth remains 

that Nigerian business 

leaders still have a hard time 

distinguishing strategy and operational 

effectiveness. Some 

that seem to make strategic 

moves struggle with operational 

effectiveness which apparently 

impedes the effectiveness 

of the strategy. Many others 

confuse operational effectiveness 

with strategy and wonder 

why their efforts did not pay 

off. As usual they blame their 

failure on the Nigerian circumstances. 

Before you run off and endorse 

that idea let me quickly 

remind you that the very purpose 

of strategy is to master the 

environment. Is is it the job of 

the strategist? Famed British 

banker and financier, Nathan 

Rothschild affirmed this when 

he said, ‘great fortunes are 

made when cannon balls fall 

in the harbour not when the 

violin play in the ballroom’. 

Strategy is a serious thing. It is 

the act of a general in the battle 

front. If you can imagine how 

the President of a nation will 

look at a General who excuses 

loosing a battle to harsh battle 

field, you will understand what 

it looks like when a business 

general blames his failure on 

external issues. 

This is serious because 

businesses that ought to create 

jobs, pay taxes and develop the 

economy are failing everyday 

and who knows which will 

follow tomorrow. After all from 

outside everything seemed 

okay with Konga but here we 

are now. So I will like to provide 

a working definition of strategy 

but first let me clarify some 

dark issues around strategy. 

First, strategy can not make 

you the best. I know this will 

come as a shock since many 

executives are simply trying to 

be the best. The focus on being 

the best is a pretty dangerous 

one since by the way that’s 

something impossible. Superior 

performing companies 

do not compete to be the best. 

Their strategic focus is rather 

on being unique. Providing a 

unique set of values to target 

segment of the market. 

Consider Netflix, Reed 

Hastings did not start out trying 

to be the best video on 

demand company. Instead the 

competitive strategy employed 

by the company was to deliver 

movies to the consumer in the 

easiest, most cost effective 

and convenient way possible. 

That’s seeking a unique position, 

not trying to be the best. 

You see, the drive to be the best 

locks companies in on competing 

on the same dimensions 

and nothing kills a company 

faster than that. Competing on 

the same dimensions means 

targeting the same group of 

customers and trying to create 

the same values to satisfy the 

same set of needs through the 

same channels at the same or 

slightly different price points. 

That’s strategic myopia and 

the path to corporate suicide. 

Don’t try to beat your competition 

on the same dimension es- 

pecially if you’re trying to take 

on a well established business 

with a robust financial base. 

Blockbuster LLC, though began 

operations before Netflix 

began competing with Netflix 

on thesame dimension in 2004 

because at this time they understood 

Netflix has become 

a threat to their business, they 

paid for that costly mistake by 

filling for bankruptcy in 2010 

Next is that operational effectiveness 

is not the same as 

strategy. Operational effectiveness 

means adopting industry 

best practices and using the 

latest technology. Now the best 

this can do for you is improve 

short term results. Operational 

effectiveness also include reorganisation. 

Reorganisation involves 

adjustmens in the legal, 

operational, ownership and 

other structures of a company 

for the purposes of making it 

more profitable or organising it 

better to suit it’s circumstances. 

But if your strategy needs 

adjustment or you don’t even 

have a strategy at all, improving 

your operations is even a faster 

way to fail. 

Sadly this just doesn’t register 

in the mind of many executives. 

In the case of Kodak, 

they opted to reorganisation in 

the face of digital photography 

threat- a total of seven reorganisations 

in ten years! That 

didn’t save them and you will 

be unwise to follow thesame 

route. 

Thesame thing goes for operational 

efficiency. You see 

this when firms turn to overhead 

cost reduction programs. 

What this means is to do the 

wrong thing more efficiently. 

Again that’s suicidal. 

Operational effectiveness 

and efficiency may improve 

short term results, but the real 

danger is that it turns the firms 

focus away from outside where 

the real issues are to inwards, 

and make them even more 

blind to the need for strategic 

adjustment. Strategy is not 

about improving operations, 

it’s about being unique and 

distint. 

Brian Reuben(@brianoreuben) is an advisor on 

strategy and leadership. He regularly conducts 

keynote presentations and senior executive 

workshops with companies around the world on 

strategy and leadership. He heads BusinessDay 

Training 

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Politics 

& 

Policy 


C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

33 

Is Tinubu’s political influence waning? 

Last Saturday’s state congress of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) produced two factions of the party in 

Lagos State which was unprecedented since the emergence of the Fourth Republic, Iniobong Iwok, examines 

the issues and asks if it was an indication of a receding political influence of Bola Ahmed Tinubu. 

Perhaps, regarded as one of the 

greatest politicians and political 

strategists of this generation, Bola 

Ahmed Tinubu, national leader 

of the All Progressives Congress 

(APC), has illuminated the political space in 

the country since the Third Republic. 

Beginning his political career in 1992 

on the platform of the Social Democratic 

Party (SDP) joining the faction led by the 

late Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua, he was elected 

to represent Lagos West Senatorial district in 

the botched Third Republic. He also was very 

much around during the power play in the 

June 12, 1993 presidential election. 

Tinubu became a founding member of 

the National Democratic Coalition (NA- 

DECO) along with several other activists and 

democrats. They fought for the restoration of 

democracy in the country, a fight that drove 

him and some others on exile in other to 

escape the military brutality. 

His political breakthrough came at the 

dawn of the Fourth Republic in 1999 when 

he was elected the governor of Lagos State on 

the platform of the Alliance for Democracy 

(AD). Since then, Tinubu has dictated the 

political space in Lagos and indeed the South 

West geo-political zone of Nigeria. 

Surviving the ‘tsunami’ which swept 

away almost all the governors of the southwest 

states in 2003, he was re-elected for 

another four year-term. During this period, 

he was on collision course with the People’s 

Democratic Party (PDP)-controlled Federal 

Government headed by Olusegun Obasanjo. 

The crux of the matter was the creation of 37 

Local Council Development Areas (LCDA) 

which the then government tagged as illegal 

and withheld federal allocations to Lagos 

State throughout his remaining part of his 

tenure as governor from the point the impasse 

started. 

In 2011, Tinubu led the Action Congress of 

Nigeria (ACN) to sweep the southwest states 

from the hands of the then ruling People’s 

Democratic Party, (PDP) except Ondo State. 

Perhaps, his greatest political achievement 

was the leading of four major opposition 

parties into a merger that metamorphosed 

into the APC, which produced the 

current government at the centre, having 

defeated the then ruling PDP in a historic 

presidential election in 2015. 

Since 2003, Tinubu has single-handed 

installed over 90 percent of political holders, 

starting from the ward level to the representatives 

of the state at the National Assembly. 

His word is law in the ‘City of Excellence’ 

and he tolerated no challenge. Some politicians 

who had in the past few years challenged 

him have since been consigned to the 

dustbin of history, politically. Their political 

careers ended abruptly. 

Tinubu’s influence in politics received a 

massive boost after the APC he midwived 

became the ruling party at the centre. He 

could determine who became what in the 

party, at least, to a large extent. 

Up till last Saturday, Tinubu was seen 

as a thin-god in Lagos. However, while his 

political profile continues to rise, there are 

some politicians who have seriously begun 

Tinubu 

to question the enormous powers he wields 

and have determined to boldly ask why? 

Some of his former political associates 

have also taken steps to demystify Tinubu’s 

supposedly over-bearing political influence. 

Observers say that signs of the challenge 

Tinubu is receiving now began to show when 

factions began to emerge at the national 

level of the party, with some members being 

tagged “Abuja Boys” and “Home Boys”. 

Until now, parallel congresses in Lagos 

were never contemplated let alone a possibility. 

But today, anger and discontent 

appeared to have run deep and wide that 

factional state executive that emerged 

last Saturday is led by the former Director 

General of the Akinwunmi Ambode 2015 

Governorship Campaign Organisation and 

the out-going Vice Chairman central of the 

party, Fouad Oki. 

Speaking after the factionalised state congress, 

Oki accused the Tinubu-led faction of 

manipulating the ward and local congresses 

to favour some individuals and holding the 

congress in 20 local government and the 37 

LCDAs which was against the electoral law 

and guidelines for the congress, stressing that 

several members of their faction were marginalised 

beginning from the ward congress. 

“The congress held at Airport Hotel is the 

only legitimate one. I’m not aware of any parallel 

congress; what we did here was the election 

of one party, the APC. This is a coalition 

of different groups, namely; Justice Forum, 

the Mandate and United Group,” he said. 

“We asked them that election must be 

conducted in only recognised 20 local government 

areas and they said no it must be 

57 and we said ok, and we saw the consequences; 

people have been killed in the last 

LG congress. They said we want to do state 

congress and we said no, you cannot do that 

when there are issues pending from the last 

Local government exercise. And when they 

are electing the national delegates they reverted 

to the 20 local governments, why did 

they do that if they know they are not wrong. 

“The people that were sent from Abuja 

were chased away with teargas. We made 

several attempts to do reconciliation but it 

was met with brick wall, it is only the NEC of 

the party that can resolve this,” Oki further 

said. 

Talking tough, Oki said he was committed 

Oki 

to reconciling all aggrieved members and 

reposition the party in the state, adding that 

the era of impunity was over. 

“Under our watch, internal democracy 

will be strictly adhered to with a deliberate 

policy to return ‘real’ power to the people. 

No more imposition, no more impunity. 

Every member of this party can from this 

moment, consider him or herself, an equal 

shareholder in our common destiny. I enjoin 

all well-meaning Nigerians of goodwill, to 

embrace and support this new Executive 

Committee in this quest for a new APC. In 

particular, I reach out to our old members 

who for one reason or the other are deeply 

aggrieved to please be rest assured that a new 

dawn is here,” he said. 

According to him, the congress conducted 

by his faction was the duly recognised one 

which was carried out in the 20 local government 

areas in Lagos, which he said was 

in accordance with the electoral law and 

constitution of the country, adding that 

INEC was in attendance and had certified 

the congress legal. 

“The constitution and electoral law recognise 

20 LGAs in Lagos and that is where we 

had our congress, it is illegal for anybody to 

hold congress outside what the law says and 

that is what they did; holding congresses in 

20 LGAs 37 LCDAs in Lagos which is illegal”. 

“The way and manner our congresses were 

conducted is indeed tribute to the resilience 

The constitution and 

electoral law recognise 

20 LGAs in Lagos and 

that is where we had our 

congress, it is illegal for 

anybody to hold congress 

outside what the law says 

and that is what they did; 

holding congresses in 20 

LGAs 37 LCDAs in Lagos 

which is illegal 

of the democratic temper of respecters of the 

rule of law, sticklers to the Constitution and 

guidelines for the conduct of the Congresses,” 

he further said. 

According to him, “The thrust of this assignment 

therefore, is to rebuild and rekindle 

the progressive energy of our members with 

the freedom to choose their leaders, fair play, 

equity and justice as the principle to move 

the party forward. Let me assure you great 

members and leaders of our party, that by the 

grace of God and with all hands on deck, we 

shall take the party to greater height transparently, 

without let or fear or favour. We have hit 

the ground running and we are determined 

for genuine reconciliation of all members.” 

But the newly elected state chairman of 

the Tinubu- led faction, Tunde Balogun 

said in an interview with newsmen that 

whichever congress held outside the party 

office was null and void; adding that only 

congress held in the secretariat of the party 

was legitimate. 

“This is the only recognised congress in 

the state any individual or group holding 

congress outside this venue is null and void, 

you can see the presence of officials from 

the headquarters of the party and INEC,” 

Balogun said. 

Since the Fourth Republic when Tinubu 

emerged as the political leader in the state, 

his decisions and actions have largely gone 

unchallenged; he dictated and decided who 

held key public offices and party positions. 

But if what happened last Saturday is anything 

to go by, it means that Tinubu political 

relevance is now in question and it also goes 

to suggest crumbling political empire of the 

Jagaban, a political juggernaut. 

Analysing the situation, David Bayesha, 

a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said it 

was natural that long time political dominance 

is challenged eventually, adding that 

with the renewed political consciousness, 

people were seeking opportunity to express 

themselves. 

“Well nothing lasts forever; people are 

looking for self expression too, even the 

dominant influence of America in world 

politics is been reduced. Personalities with 

such political power should be looking for 

such because the people are now becoming 

conscious; they want to express themselves 

that is what is playing out. But again, we need 

to ask the question, can they survive on the 

current reality? This is what we should consider, 

people would fight for independence 

but how far they would go is left to be seen,” 

Bayesha said. 

Bolaji Oshinowo, a politician and former 

secretary of Labour Party (LP) in Lagos, 

noted that the challenge of Tinubu was 

expected with time, stressing that politics 

had evolved over the years from the era of 

imposition of people on the party which is 

no more fashionable as a brand of politics. 

“Politic is evolving; you don’t continue 

to do things same way for years. People are 

getting wiser that is what is happening. Fine, 

he made these people, but they are professionals 

today; his brand of politics is expiring; 

he has lost out in Ondo, Ekiti, and some other 

states in South West,” Oshinowo said.



C002D5556 

Live @ The Stock Exchange 

Top Gainers/Losers as at Monday21 May 2018 Market Statistics as at Monday 21May 2018 

GAINERS 

Company Opening Closing Change 

FO N38.75 N40.65 1.9 

NB N123.2 N123.7 0.5 

UNILEVER N50 N50.5 0.5 

ETI N20.6 N21 0.4 

UACN N15.5 N15.85 0.35 

LOSERS 

Company Opening Closing Change 

FLOURMILL N34.95 N34 -0.95 

GUARANTY N44 N43.5 -0.5 

STANBIC N48.95 N48.5 -0.45 

FBNH N11.05 N10.75 -0.3 

OANDO N8.25 N8 -0.25 

ASI (Points) 40,425.07 

DEALS (Numbers) 4,052.00 

VOLUME (Numbers) 271,274,775.00 

VALUE (N billion) 2.303 

MARKET CAP (N Trn 14.643 

Foreigners stage impressive 

return to Nigerian stock market 

Stories by 

Iheanyi Nwachukwu 

Foreign stock buyers 

showed impressive 

return 

to Nigerian equities 

market accounting 

for 57.74percent of 

transaction in April against 

42.26percent by domestic 

investors. 

From January to April this 

year, the cumulative transactions 

in equities were valued 

at N1.091trillion according 

to Nigerian Stock Exchange 

(NSE) data obtained from 

about 98percent of active 

Dealing Members of the Exchange. 

Out of the said value 

of stocks traded in four 

months to April, transactions 

worth N504.35billion 

were by foreign investors 

while transactions valued at 

N586.85billion were done by 

domestic investors. 

In April alone, stocks 

valued at N212.23billion 

were traded –foreign investors 

(N122.53billion) 

and domestic investors 

(N89.70billion). 

In first four months of 

2018, returns from Nigerian 

equities market stood 

positive at 7.91percent. 

Likewise, the value of listed 

equities rose to record high 

of N14.95trillion as at April 

30, from N13.62trillion on 

January 2, 2018; representing 

an increase of about 

N1.33trillion. 

While outlook for the 

stock market in the nearterm 

remains largely positive, 

impressive first-quarter (Q1) 

2018 earnings helped trigger 

bargain hunting in mid-cap 

stocks, which buoyed stocks 

performance in April. 

On monthly basis, the Nigerian 

Stock Exchange polls 

trading figures from major 

custodians and market operators 

on their Foreign Portfolio 

Investment (FPI) flows. 

The total transactions 

at the nation’s bourse decreased 

by 22.11percent, 

from N272.48 billion recorded 

in March 2018 to N212.23 

billion (about $70 million) in 

April 2018. 

Foreign investors outperformed 

domestic investors 

by 15.48percent in 

April 2018. Total domestic 

transactions reduced by 

36.05percent from N140.27 

billion in March to N89.70 

billion in April 2018. Foreign 

transactions also reduced by 

7.32percent from N132.21 

billion to N122.53 billion 

within the same period. 

There was a 7.79percent 

decrease in foreign inflows 

from N69.71 billion in March 

2018 to N64.28 billion in April 

2018. Foreign outflows also 

reduced by 6.8percent from 

N62.50 billion to N58.25 billion 

within the same period. 

Though there is still a 

higher participation by institutional 

investors over their 

retail counterparts, but the 

institutional composition 

of the domestic market reduced 

by 49.04percent, from 

N91.27 billion in March to 

N46.51 billion in April 2018; 

while the retail composition 

also decreased by 11.86percent 

from N49 billion to 

N43.19 billion within the 

same period. 

BusinessDay trend watch 

revealed many stocks that 

helped sustain the record 

N1.33trillion gain in four 

months to April 2018. 

They include Cement 

Company of Northern Nigeria 

Plc (115.3percent), Unity 

Bank Plc (88.7percent), 

Skye Bank Plc (68percent), 

Caverton Offshore Support 

Group Plc (86percent), NEM 

Insurance Plc (68.7percent), 

Wema Bank Plc (61.5percent) 

and FCMB Group 

Plc (66.9percent) –all these 

stocks surpassed the NSE 

ASI recording returns in excess 

of 60 percent. 

Stock Exchange lifts suspension on 

trading in Ikeja Hotel shares 

The Nigerian Stock 

Exchange (NSE) 

notified its dealing 

members on 

Monday May 21, 2018 that 

the suspension of trading 

in the shares of Ikeja Hotel 

Plc has been lifted. 

The Nigerian Bourse 

had in its market bulletin 

of November 10, 2016 notified 

dealing members of 

the suspension of trading 

in the shares of Ikeja Hotel 

Plc. The share price had 

remained at N1.78kobo 

while shares outstanding 

are 2,078,796,399 units. 

The lifting of the suspension 

of trading in the 

shares of the company 

follows approval by the 

Quotations Committee of 

the National Council of 

The Exchange on Friday 

May 11, 2018, according to 

a circular signed by Godstime 

Iwenekhai, Head, 

Listings Regulation Department, 

NSE. 

Dealing Members will 

recall that the new board 

members of Ikeja Hotel 

Plc had on Friday May 

18, 2018 provided a status 

update to the market at 

a “Facts Behind the Restructuring” 

event. 

At the event, the 

board of directors of Ikeja 

Hotel Plc led by led by 

Anthony Idigbe assured 

investors its immediate 

readiness to complete 

the forensic audit on the 

company and its investee 

companies, Capital 

Hotels Plc and Tourist 

Company of Nigeria 

Consequently, trading in 

the shares of the Company 

has resumed on The 

Exchange. The Securities 

and Exchange 

Commission (SEC) 

has been notified of this 

development. 

$1bn inflows into Malaysian stocks said 

at risk of being wiped-out 

The gains in 

Malaysian equities 

since 

Mahathir Mohamed’s 

shock election 

win have not stopped an 

exodus of foreign money 

from gathering pace 

- with this year’s almost 

$1billion of overseas inflows 

into the market at 

risk of being wiped out, 

according to Bloomberg 

report. 

The nation’s stock 

market had a volatile 

start following a 

three-day holiday for 

the election, before 

the benchmark inched 

up 0.4 percent for the 

week. But alongside 

that advance, overseas 

investors have been 

taking flight, selling 

$625million of stocks 

last week, Malaysia’s 

biggest stock outflow 

since August 2013, according 

to data from 

Bursa Malaysia Bhd., 

the nation’s stock exchange. 

“The main transactions 

are being done 

by the local funds to 

support the market 

along with retail investors,” 

Danny Wong Teck 

Meng, chief executive 

officer at Areca Capital 

Sdn. said by phone in 

Kuala Lumpur. “The local 

guys are much more 

confident for the prospect 

of the country than 

foreigners.” 

Mahathir’s attempt 

to soothe investor jitters 

has not staunched the 

flows. The new prime 

minister introduced a 

team of five advisers 

well-known in official 

and business circles in 

Malaysia and intensified 

efforts to seek evidence 

of wrongdoing 

at the 1MDB sovereign 

fund. Foreign inflows 

had dwindled to just 

$10.3 million as of Friday, 

down from $937.8 

million on April 30, the 

data show. 

The Bursa Malaysia 

Consumer Product Index 

rallied 7.9 percent 

last week to a record 

after the government 

said it would effectively 

remove a consumption 

tax effective June 1. The 

gauge rose as much as 1 

percent Monday, while 

the FTSE Bursa Malaysia 

KLCI Index climbed 

0.6 percent.


BUSINESS DAY 

35



THE BIG HEART DIGEST 

In association with Delta State Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Developement Agency (DEMSMA) 

Okowa not ready to abandon any project 

•Assures of quick returns on investment 

MERCY ENOCH, Asaba 

Delta State Governor, 

Ifeanyi 

Okowa, is confident 

that the 

various developmental 

projects embarked 

upon by his administration 

would stand the test of time 

but he wants the people of 

the state to be part of the 

monitoring of the projects just 

as he allayed fear over project 

abandonment. 

The projects are numerous 

to mention ranging from 

infrastructural projects including 

193 roads, building 

of markets and schools as 

well as entrepreneurship and 

vocational centres, upgrading 

of technical/vocational 

schools, reconstructing of 

secondary schools and even 

establishing more. 

Others are constructing 

of storm water drain to tackle 

flooding and its effects, construction 

of regional water 

schemes, constructing of 

fish feed mills, constructing 

of garri processing centres, 

multi-billion dollar refinery 

through Public Private 

Partnership (PPP), establishment 

of agro-industrial parks 

amongst others. 

Across the nation, history 

reveals projects that are 

abandoned once the initiator 

bows out of office as his successor 

often comes in and 

refuses to continue with the 

projects. Gov Okowa seems 

to be different as he continued 

where his predecessor, Emmanuel 

Uduaghan stopped 

by completing the projects 

he (Uduaghan) started. Now, 


This is the conclusion 

of the budget 

of Delta State in 

2018 which is aimed at 

moving the economy 

of the state forward. 

The review is aimed at 

helping the citizens and 

investors understand 

the fiscal policies of the 

Ifeanyi Okowa administration 

for effective 

citizenship. 

Review of the preformance 

of 2017 

budget (January – September) 

Mr Speaker, a review 

Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa (l), and Hostcom State 

chairman, Delta State Chapter, Gabriel Isibeluo, during a courtesy 

call on the governor, by the chairman and exco of Hostcom in 

government house Asaba. 

he wants the people to believe 

his word that the numerous 

projects embarked upon by 

his administration must be 

completed. “We will not abandon 

any project”, he assured. 

He gave the assurance 

during the empowerment 

programme organized by the 

member representing Okpe 

Constituency and Speaker of 

the Delta State House of Assembly, 

Sheriff Oborevwori 

at Osubi, Okpe Local Government 

Area of the state. 

“We are aware of the numerous 

projects going on in 

different parts of the state, for 

every project that we set out 

to execute, we will complete 

it, we will not abandon any 

project because, every project 

is as a result of well thought 

out process, I am passionate 

about the development of the 

state.”, he stressed. 

Okowa also clarified why 

his administration embarked 

of the 2017 approved 

budget shows that the 

budget (B) EXPENDITURE size was based 

•Urges industrialists to invest in Delta State 

on massive construction of 

roads across the state, asserting, 

“road is very important 

for the development of any 

community.” 

The governor however 

believes that monitoring of 

projects being executed by his 

administration should be collective 

as the projects should 

stand the test of time. 

He was addressing members 

of the Host Communities 

of Nigeria Producing Oil and 

Gas (HOSTCOM) led by Gabriel 

Isibeluo, an engineer, when 

they paid him a courtesy call 

at Government House, Asaba. 

Okowa expressed confidence 

that the contractors 

handling the different projects 

are capable of delivering 

projects in line with job 

specifications. 

While urging Deltans to 

freely reach him or his aides 

if they notice any project being 

executed shoddily, just 

Editorial coordinator’s corner: 

Understanding Delta’s 2018 fiscal direction: 

Review of 2017 budget 

(A) REVENUE 

S/N Sources Approved % 

2017 Budget Appropriation 

I 

Ii 

Internally Generated 

Revenue 70,165,959,503 23.83 

Statutory Allocation 

Including Mineral 

Revenue Derivation 148,939,012,121 50.58 

Iii Value Added Tax 10,515,786,230 3.57 

Iv Other Capital Receipts 64,836,282,623 22.02 

Total 294,457,040,472 100.00 

on revenue projections 

from the State’s Fiscal 

Strategy Paper (FSP), 

as he described HOSTCOM 

as a voice to the various oil 

producing communities or 

communities that are impacted 

by oil. 

The state government, he 

said, would continue to partner 

with HOSTCOM, hoping 

that the body would be 

involved in the monitoring of 

the projects. “We have a lot of 

projects across the state and I 

want to see my projects done 

rightly”, the governor insisted. 

On the other hand, the 

governor has urged industrialists 

to utilize opportunities of 

quick returns on their investments 

to do business in Delta 

State. 

Raw materials for the 

manufacturing of different 

products abound in the state, 

he said, adding that apart from 

the fact that the state is peaceful 

and conducive for business 

activities, (A) REVENUE skilled and unskilled 

labour are readily available in 

the oil and gas rich state. 

He said this when Babatunde 

Savage, chairman Guinness 

Nigeria PLC, led manage- 

I Internally Generated 

ment of the company to pay 

him Ii a courtesy Statutory visit Allocation Government 

House Including annex, Mineral Warri. 

 

 

which is a key element 

in the Medium Term 

Economic Framework 

(MTEF) and annual 

budget process that determines 

the aggregate 

resources available to 

“Delta State is a peaceful 

state, any investor coming this 

way will have a lot of skilled 

labour because our people 

value education a lot, we also 

have unskilled labourers to 

feed the Labour needs of the 

companies, as we are sure 

they will have quick returns 

on their investments, “ the 

Governor said. 

He went on, “we are trying 

to scale up the employment 

of our youths in the state and 

any meaningful venture that 

can take out our youths from 

the streets will be welcomed.” 

Gov Okowa disclosed that 

his administration embarked 

on different programmes to 

equip the youths of the state 

to be entrepreneurs, observing 

that the population of 

the country was growing at 

an alarming rates and efforts 

should be made to proactively 

work to ensure that it did not 

lead to crisis in the country. 

He commended Guinness 

2017 Nigeria Budget Plc for Appropriation adding a new 

brand of beer to its stock and 

S/N Sources Approved % 

urged the company to meet 

Revenue 70,165,959,503 23.83 

with its social responsibilities 

and also, create more job opportunities 

for the youths. 

Revenue Derivation 148,939,012,121 50.58 

Iii Value Added Tax 10,515,786,230 3.57 

Iv Other Capital Receipts 64,836,282,623 22.02 

Total 294,457,040,472 100.00 

(B) EXPENDITURE 

S/N Details Approved % 

2017 Budget Appropriation 

I Recurrent Expenditure 158,013,660,828 57.16 

Ii Capital Expenditure 136,443,379,649. 42.84 

Total 294,457,040,472 100.00 

fund the Government’s 

projects and programmes 

from a fiscally 

sustainable perspective. 

The profile of the 2017 

budget is as follows: 

Hope alive for 

Delta Youths: 

Job creation 

scheme to be 

sustained 

MERCY ENOCH, Asaba 

Delta State Governor, 

Ifeanyi Okowa has 

said that efforts are on 

ground for a legislation that 

would establish the Job and 

Wealth Creation Programme 

initiated by his administration, 

to be sustained beyond the current 

tenure. 

There is also hope that the 

STEP and YAGEP Business Fair/ 

Exhibition which maiden edition 

held last December specifically 

for STEPrenuers and 

YAGEPrenuers, would now be 

an annual event as process is 

being put in place by the Office 

of the Chief Job Creation Officer 

for the 2018 edition of the event. 

Already, the governor said 

the state executive council last 

week Tuesday, began the finetunning 

of the process to commence 

the 4th cycle of the Skills 

Training and Entreprenuership 

Programme (STEP) and Youth 

Agricultural Entreprenuers Programme 

(YAGEP), considering 

the success stories of the first 

and second cycles which had 

caused World Bank State Employment 

and Expenditure for 

Result (SEEFOR) to have a level 

of confidence that has led to it 

partnering with the state government 

in funding the 3rd cycle of 

the programme. 

Okowa made the disclosure 

during the induction ceremony 

of the 745 beneficiaries of the 

STEP and YAGEP 3rd cycle 

2017/2018 at Orchid Hotel, Asaba, 

Wednesday last week. 

“I am truly very excited that I 

have had this opportunity to talk 

with you. And because we are 

confident that you will do well, 

we are already starting the process 

of a 4th cycle.” He explained 

that the state’s executive council 

would by this Tuesday, give approval 

for the fourth cycle. 

According to him, there are 

new introduction in this 4th 

cycle because communities, religious 

bodies and other persons 

would be involved. 

He added: “We are also looking 

forward to engaging those 

who have been trained even before 

now but they have not had 

opportunity to start their own 

lives. Such people, he said the 

state would take them up and 

have them go through refresher 

course and then establish them. 

“We will not relent in our 

efforts to continually engage 

the youths of the state in such a 

manner that would keep hope 

alive in these very difficult times. 

But by God’s grace, the difficult 

times are getting over. Delta 

State is getting more peaceful 

and our youths are getting more 

fruitful and we would not dash 

their hopes. We will work with 

them in partnership to ensure 

that we will bring meaning to 

their lives and that those who 

bite their fingers would not 

bite their fingers anymore”, He 

asserted. 

S/N Details Approved % 

2017 Budget Appropriation


BUSINESS DAY 

37


38 BUSINESS DAY


BUSINESS DAY 

39


FT FINANCIAL TIMES 

C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

A1 

World Business Newspaper 

US states move to close 

carried interest loophole 

Private equity group Blackstone says it faces higher 

tax bills if proposals become law 

MARK VANDEVELDE AND 

LINDSAY FORTADO 

Private equity group Blackstone 

has warned investors that it faces 

a growing risk of significantly 

higher tax bills because of efforts by US 

states to end a lucrative tax break that 

Washington lobbyists have fought hard 

to preserve. 

A California proposal to levy state 

tax on carried interest — the share of 

investment profits that hedge fund 

and private equity managers are paid 

as an incentive to hit higher returns — 

faces its second key legislative hurdle 

this week. 

Under federal law, carried interest 

is taxed as a capital gain, rather than 

as personal income, enabling hedge 

fund and private equity executives to 

pay lower tax rates on some of their 

earnings than salaried workers. California 

would eliminate that tax break 

by levying extra state tax to make up 

the difference. 

The carried interest tax break, 

worth billions of dollars, has become 

emblematic of a tax system that campaigners 

criticise for favouring the 

rich while many ordinary Americans 

struggle with rising costs and stagnant 

incomes. Last year’s sweeping federal 

tax reform bill did not change the status 

quo — something that was seen as a 

victory for industry lobbyists. 

Lawmakers in New York — the only 

state with more hedge fund managers 

than California — have introduced 

legislation to curb the tax break, which 

could raise nearly $1.1bn annually for 

the state, according to Governor Andrew 

Cuomo. 

To avoid an exodus of fund managers, 

the proposed New York tax increases 

would be delayed until similar 

proposals pass in Connecticut, New 

Jersey, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. 

All told, at least 10 jurisdictions are 

considering such a move, according to 

the Hedge Clippers, a group campaigning 

to end favourable tax treatment of 

carried interest. 

Pompeo says Tehran must withdraw from Yemen and Syria and curb missile development 

“To some of these states, a few 

billion dollars is a lot of money,” said 

Morris Pearl, the chair of the Patriotic 

Millionaires, which is working with the 

Hedge Clippers in campaigning in favour 

of the legislation. “Whereas at the 

federal level, it doesn’t really move the 

needle, but it’s just an issue of fairness.” 

Blackstone has long told investors 

that its tax rate “could increase significantly” 

if it abandoned the partnership 

structure that allows it to pay less tax on 

carried interest. 

In a regulatory filing earlier this 

month, it added new language flagging 

the draft California law and stating that 

several states were giving “heightened 

consideration” to a carried interest levy. 

Blackstone cited the federal tax cuts 

signed into law last year by President 

Donald Trump as the impetus for the 

state initiatives. 

The new federal law cut the tax bills 

of many wealthy Americans while failing 

to change the treatment of carried 

interest, despite its being a loophole 

Mr Trump criticised for allowing hedge 

fund and private equity managers to 

“make a fortune” and “pay no tax”, 

which he called “ridiculous”. 

The American Investment Council, 

the lobby group for the private equity 

industry, said it “strongly opposes” proposals 

that seek to change the tax treatment 

of carried interest capital gains to 

ordinary income. 

“We also oppose efforts in states to 

enact punitive additional state taxes on 

carried interest capital gains,” the group 

said. “Private equity is responsible for 

pumping hundreds of billions of dollars 

into the US economy and strengthening 

thousands of businesses each year in 

all 50 states. Raising taxes on carried 

interest capital gains would remove 

a key incentive for entrepreneurial 

risk-taking.” 

The Managed Funds Association, an 

industry group that represents hedge 

funds, has spent $27.8m in its lobbying 

efforts on issues including carried 

interest since 2007, according to data 

compiled by Hedge Clippers from Senate 

lobbying disclosures. 

US sets out demands for new nuclear treaty with Iran 

KATRINA MANSON 

Stocks gain as US 

and China pull back 

from trade war 

Page A3 

The US would seek a new international 

treaty with Iran to 

re-establish full diplomatic 

ties and waive all sanctions if Tehran 

gave up its “malign behaviours”, said 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. 

The US would demand a dozen 

concessions to secure such a treaty, 

including Iran withdrawing from 

Syria and Yemen, admitting the 

true scope of its former nuclear 

programme, releasing US and allied 

hostages and halting development 

of nuclear-capable missiles. 

Mr Pompeo described the US 

demands as “very basic requirements” 

that were not “unreasonable”. 

But analysts said they were so 

far-reaching that it would be hard if 

not impossible for Tehran to agree 

to them. 

Mr Pompeo said that in return, 

the US would end sanctions against 

Iran, re-establish full diplomatic 

and commercial relations, allow 

Iran access to advanced technology 

and support the modernisation and 

re-integration of Iran into the international 

economic system. 

“A treaty is our preferred way 

to go,” said Mr Pompeo. He added 

that he wanted to enlist bipartisan 

support from Congress to codify 

any deal into US law, unlike the 

2015 nuclear deal negotiated by 

Continues on page A2 

Blackstone, headed by Stephen Schwarzman, warned about the impact of state tax law changes in a regulatory filing © Bloomberg 

Trump defends China trade detente 

Administration accused of giving in to Beijing in pursuit of quick deal 

SHAWN DONNAN 

President Donald Trump has 

fired back at critics of his weekend 

trade deal with China, 

saying it would bring down Chinese 

barriers to US goods “for the first time” 

and be a boon to US farmers who had 

been worried about becoming collateral 

damage in a trade war. 

US Treasury secretary Steven 

Mnuchin on Sunday said that the US 

was putting tariffs and its trade war 

with China “on hold” after Beijing 

agreed to do what it could to increase 

imports of US farm products and 

energy. The move has prompted criticism 

that the administration was too 

intent on cutting a quick deal and had 

given in too easily to Beijing. 

On Monday, Marco Rubio, the 

Republican senator, warned: “If we are 

desperate for a deal #China is going to 

kill us in negotiations.” 

Mr Trump, who has portrayed 

himself as the first American president 

to take on China over trade, focused 

his ire on the Democratic criticism, 

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg agrees to have EU hearing live-streamed 

Members of parliament had balked at prospect of closed-door session on use of data 

ALIYA RAM AND 

CAMILLA HODGSON 

Mark Zuckerberg will face his 

second public grilling over 

Facebook’s use of personal 

data this week, after bowing to pressure 

from European members of parliament 

to live-stream a hearing on Tuesday. 

Antonio Tajani, president of the 

European Parliament, said in a tweet 

on Monday that a meeting with Mr 

Zuckerberg would be publicised after 

MEPs revolted against plans to keep 

it private. 

“I have personally discussed with 

Facebook chief executive Mr Zuckerberg 

the possibility of webstreaming 

[our] meeting with him,” the tweet 

said. “I am glad to announce that he 

has accepted this new request.” 

Facebook has been engulfed in a 

scandal after revelations that the data 

of up to 87m of its users were passed 

to Cambridge Analytica, a UK analytics 

company, without explicit consent. 

American politics: The 

‘herbal tea party’ stirs 

up Democrats 

Page A4 

which has come largely from Senate 

minority leader Chuck Schumer. 

“I ask Senator Chuck Schumer, 

why didn’t President Obama & the 

Democrats do something about Trade 

with China, including Theft of Intellectual 

Property etc.? They did NOTH- 

ING! With that being said, Chuck & I 

have long agreed on this issue! Fair 

Trade, plus, with China will happen!” 

the president tweeted. 

He also linked the deal to his upcoming 

summit with North Korea’s 

Kim Jong Un, urging Beijing to respect 

international sanctions and maintain 

the pressure on Pyongyang. 

“China must continue to be strong 

& tight on the Border of North Korea 

until a deal is made,” he said. “The 

word is that recently the Border has 

become much more porous and more 

has been filtering in. I want this to 

happen, and North Korea to be VERY 

successful, but only after signing!” 

The president sought to appease 

US farmers, who had been worried 

that they would be collateral damage 

in any trade war between the 

Mr Zuckerberg testified before the 

US Congress in a two-day hearing 

last month but has rebuffed calls to 

give evidence in the UK, sending the 

company’s chief technology officer in 

his stead. MPs criticised Facebook’s 

responses to its queries last week, saying 

Mr Zuckerberg was free to testify via 

video link if he was unwilling to appear 

in person. 

However, the Facebook founder 

agreed last week to give evidence 

in Brussels, which is on the cusp of 

introducing tough new rules on data 

protection. 

European officials are expected to 

revisit questions about the company’s 

data protection arrangements and ask 

how the social network tackles hate 

speech and disinformation. Up to 

2.7m EU citizens may have had their 

Facebook profile information shared 

with Cambridge Analytica. 

The European Parliament’s Conference 

of Presidents format gives 

attendees the chance to ask only one 

world’s two largest economies, with 

Beijing threatening to slap tariffs on 

soyabeans, pork and other agricultural 

imports. “China has agreed to buy 

massive amounts of ADDITIONAL 

Farm/Agricultural Products — would 

be one of the best things to happen to 

our farmers in many years!” he said. 

“On China, Barriers and Tariffs to 

come down for first time.” 

In fact, China agreed to drop a substantial 

number of barriers to trade as 

part of its 2001 accession to the World 

Trade Organization, although critics 

say it has failed to follow through on 

many commitments. 

Mr Trump’s Monday morning 

retorts also came amid continuing 

signs of a divide in his administration 

over how best to deal with China and 

as senior officials said much work remained 

to be done to nail down a deal. 

In a statement that appeared to be 

at odds with Mr Mnuchin’s hopeful 

message on Sunday, US trade representative 

Robert Lighthizer, a longtime 

China hawk, warned that the US 

wanted substantial change in China. 

question with one possible followup. 

Mr Zuckerberg will meet leaders 

of the European Parliament’s main 

political groups, at least seven MEPs 

and Claude Moraes, the UK Labour 

MEP who chairs the civil liberties 

committee. 

Mr Zuckerberg’s US testimony was 

seen as a success for the company. 

Facebook saw its share price jump after 

he deftly sidestepped criticism about 

the company’s business model and 

approach to protecting user privacy. 

British MPs have collected evidence 

from various other people 

linked to the events, including the 

whistleblower Christopher Wylie 

whose evidence triggered the scandal. 

This week the General Data Protection 

Regulation will come into effect 

across the EU and alter how companies 

can collect, store and delete data. The 

rules will raise the bar for consent and 

introduce fines up to €20m or 4 per cent 

of annual turnover for companies that 

fail to comply.

A2 BUSINESS DAY 


FT 

NATIONAL 

How ‘HRTech’ spreads feel-good vibes around the office 

New services claim to democratise rewards, but can they improve the annual appraisal? 

EMMA JACOBS 

Andrew Goodman has overhauled 

how employee rewards 

are doled out at his company. 

Instead of rewarding only a 

small group of high-performers, 

Openlink, a trading and financial 

risk technology company, decided 

to redistribute the same budget. 

Hundreds of his 900-strong workforce 

can now receive a spot award 

(on top of their annual bonuses). 

What is more, decisions about who 

receives the awards are no longer 

in the hands of managers alone. 

Now everyone has a say — and 

praise is published for all to see. 

“It recognises folks who 

wouldn’t get much recognition,” 

says Mr Goodman, Openlink’s 

head of human resources. Staff 

were hesitant at first because 

they were not used to praising 

peers publicly. Now the scheme is 

popular. “People enjoy gratitude,” 

he says. 

Employees do not only like the 

small rewards, he says, but also 

the public messages of praise that 

accompany them, deployed by a 

service called Bonusly, a software 

program that encourages employees 

to reward their peers for good work. 

Each month, every member of 

staff receives points that they can 

award to teammates. The points 

can then be redeemed for Amazon 

vouchers, Starbucks cards or donations 

to charities. They come with 

a public message of praise and — 

with the aid of a hashtag — can be 

tied to a company value, such as 

#teamwork or #learning. 

US sets out demands for 

new nuclear treaty... 

Continued from page A1 

the Obama administration, which 

Congress overwhelmingly opposed 

and which was treated solely as an 

“agreement”. 

As he announced America’s new 

Iran strategy in his first major foreign 

policy speech on Monday, Mr 

Pompeo said the US would “apply 

unprecedented financial pressure 

on the regime” unless it met American 

demands. 

“They may end up being the 

strongest sanctions in history by 

the time we are complete,” he said. 

Recent sanctions were just the beginning, 

he added. 

Mr Pompeo said the US would also 

“crush” Iranian operatives and Hizbollah 

proxies operating around the world. 

Donald Trump fulfilled an election 

pledge earlier this month when 

he withdrew from the multi-party 

nuclear agreement, which promised 

Iran limited sanctions relief in 

exchange for mothballing its nuclear 

programme. He has since reimposed 

sanctions against Tehran that 

are likely to deter European companies 

from investing in Iran, despite 

EU efforts to protect companies 

from the impact of the measures. 

“As President Trump said two 

weeks ago, he is ready, willing and 

able to negotiate a new deal. But 

the deal is not the objective,” said 

Mr Pompeo, adding the goal was to 

protect the American people. 

He called on European countries 

alongside a list of 12 other US allies 

including Australia, India, Japan 

and Saudi Arabia, to support the US 

strategy and squeeze Iran. 

“I ask that America’s allies join us 

in calling for the Iranian government 

to act more responsibly,” he said. 

Experts were sceptical of the 

strategy, claiming it made unreasonable 

demands and that the US 

was unable to deliver on its threat 

to squeeze Iran. 

“It’s completely unrealistic and 

a total pipe dream — he’s asking for 

unilateral surrender by the Islamic 

Republic of Iran,” said Barbara Slavin, 

Iran expert at the Atlantic Council. 

Ms Slavin said the US was also 

“delusional” to believe it could spearhead 

the toughest sanctions regime 

ever against Iran given it lacked 

global support for its policy both from 

European partners and China. 

Mr Pompeo acknowledged his 

demands might seem “unrealistic” 

but claimed what the US was pursuing 

was the global consensus before 

the 2015 deal. 

Washington is aware of how upset 

Europeans are with the Trump 

administration for reimposing sanctions 

that target their companies 

and for abandoning a deal they 

spent months trying to save. 

Senior figures at Goldman believe Lloyd Blankfein may suggest that he stay on as chairman © Getty 

Why Blankfein should not stay on as Goldman chairman 

Bank succession under way as rival Citi carries out similar debate over top jobs 

PATRICK JENKINS 

Lloyd Blankfein seems reluctant 

to surrender the reins of Goldman 

Sachs. After 12 years as 

chairman and chief executive of 

the sharpest-clawed of Wall Street’s 

financial beasts, that is not surprising. 

The job gives him huge influence 

politically and across the business 

world. He basks in the glow of a share 

price that is 50 per cent higher than 

when he took over. And he earns an 

annual $24m for his trouble. 

Mr Blankfein has been working 

on a succession plan — lining up 

Goldman’s president David Solomon 

to be the next chief executive. 

But we do not know for sure when 

a handover might take place. (December 

has been mooted.) And 

we also do not know whether both 

the chairman and chief executive 

roles will transfer. Senior figures at 

the bank believe Mr Blankfein may 

propose splitting his job and staying 

The result was never in doubt: 

Nicolás Maduro won Sunday’s 

presidential election in 

Venezuela by a mile, thanks to a 

tried-and-tested mixture of coercion, 

propaganda and possibly outright 

fraud. What is far less predictable is 

what happens next. 

With Mr Maduro seemingly intent 

on clinging to power for another six 

years, the onus is on the international 

community to come up with a response 

to his increasingly authoritarian 

rule, disregard for even the most 

basic tenets of democracy and the 

drastically deteriorating humanitarian 

situation in Venezuela. 

The US says it is considering 

further sanctions against Caracas 

including, possibly, against its oil 

industry. Speaking in Buenos Aires 

at the weekend US Deputy secretary 

of state John Sullivan acknowledged 

that would be “a very significant step” 

on as chairman, at least until next 

year when Goldman will celebrate its 

150th anniversary. A board meeting 

in June may decide the way forward, 

insiders say. 

This would go against the US 

norm, mimicking to an extent the 

European tradition of a split function. 

But it would transgress European 

best practice, codified for 

example in the UK, that frowns on 

chief executives moving to chairman 

roles and overseeing their successor. 

Over at Wall Street rival Citigroup, 

a mirror-image debate has been 

festering over the top jobs. 

Mike O’Neill, the bank’s chairman, 

is due to step down by the 

year-end and has suggested that 

Mike Corbat, chief executive, might 

himself take on the extra role of 

chairman, reuniting the posts and 

signalling business as usual. 

The jobs were split at Citi back 

in 2012, reflecting the problems the 

bank was in. It had needed a $45bn 

US ponders further sanctions against Venezuela after election criticised as a sham 

but that it was on the table. 

“We’ve heard threats of oil sanctions 

for so long that it’s easy to conclude 

this is mere sabre-rattling, but 

now that the elections are over . . . this 

threat needs to be taken seriously,” 

said Geoff Ramsey, assistant director 

for Venezuela at the Washington 

Office on Latin America. 

Analysts say Washington is unlikely 

to choose “the nuclear option” 

of imposing a full embargo 

on Venezuelan oil exports, not least 

because the Opec nation’s output is 

falling so quickly that it is becoming 

less and less relevant as a supplier. 

Although Venezuela was the world’s 

fourth-largest exporter of crude to 

the US last year, sales hit their lowest 

level in almost three decades and are 

continuing to fall. 

“The US almost doesn’t need to 

impose an oil embargo. We’re imposing 

a self-embargo of our own in the 

form of rapidly falling production,” 

said Luis Pedro España, a Caracasbailout 

from the US government 

in the crisis and spent the next few 

years shrinking drastically and dealing 

with a litany of scandal. Mr Corbat 

can argue with some justification 

that huge progress has been made 

and that emergency governance arrangements 

need no longer apply. 

He would like to be in the same 

category as Morgan Stanley and 

Bank of America, whose chiefs have 

taken on the chairman role, too, 

after their own rehabilitations. Or 

Goldman and JPMorgan, where Mr 

Blankfein and Jamie Dimon have 

been longtime CEO-chairmen. 

At the same time, Mr Corbat 

would rather distance himself from 

the only other big bank with a split 

role. Wells Fargo, where the 2016 fake 

accounts scandal led to the abrupt 

departure of John Stumpf, the old 

chairman-CEO, now has Betsy Duke, 

a former Federal Reserve governor, 

as chair, and Tim Sloan as chief 

executive. 

International community considers response as Maduro digs in 

GIDEON LONG 

based political scientist. 

Aside from oil, the US and the EU 

might re-visit their sanctions against 

individuals close to the Maduro regime. 

But such measures have only 

a limited impact and could prove 

counter-productive. “As these lists 

expand, and more people are added, 

more and more officials in power 

will lose their incentive to split from 

Maduro,” Mr Ramsey argued. “Why 

risk supporting a transition when 

you could end up in a jail cell in 

Miami?” 

Mr Maduro faces threats to his 

rule from inside Venezuela that are 

likely to increase following the election. 

Although he won easily, in part 

by suggesting to poor, hungry voters 

that if they backed him they would 

receive “prizes” and one-off cash bonuses, 

turnout was sharply down from 

his election victory in 2013. Even if the 

official results are to be believed, he 

garnered only 5.8m votes compared 

with 7.6m then. 

Italian assets hit hard by 

political risk over new 

government 

Heavy trading as populist parties prepare to 

take power with little known candidate for PM 

KATE ALLEN, PHILIP STAFFORD AND 

CHLOE CORNISH 

Italian bond and equity markets 

were hit hard in heavy trading 

volumes on Monday as investors 

prepared for heightened political 

uncertainty as the country’s nascent 

coalition between populist parties 

was set to form a government. 

Luigi Di Maio, the leader of the 

anti-establishment Five Star Movement, 

and Matteo Salvini, the head 

of the far-right League, were due to 

meet the Italian president on Monday 

to secure his approval for their 

alliance to govern Italy. 

Giuseppe Conte, a little-known 

53-year-old professor who specialises 

in public administration law and 

has hardly any political experience, 

has emerged as the frontrunner to 

be prime minister for the alliance, 

according to Italian media. 

The hectic trading volumes on 

Italian debt and equity markets 

seen late last week took hold again 

on Monday as investors reacted to 

the rising prospect of the anti-euro 

parties taking political power. 

Nicola Mai, sovereign credit 

analyst at Pimco, said the coming 

weeks would see a stand-off between 

Italian politicians and the markets, 

as the nascent coalition government 

tested investors’ tolerance for 

its policies. 

The market sell-off had “obviously 

been a factor” in the populist 

parties’ retreat from some of the 

more radical policies set out in a 

draft coalition agreement leaked last 

week, which sparked the ongoing 

bout of market turbulence, he said. 

“The key constraint is going to be 

the market, which will react to how 

confrontational the government will 

be with the EU,” Mr Mai said. “There 

could be some volatility but as reality 

hits their promises will have to be 

reined in.” 

The 10-year bond yield rose 

10 basis points to 2.316 per cent, 

taking its total rise in the past two 

weeks to 53.7bp. The premium over 

equivalent German debt — a widely 

watched indicator of eurozone political 

stress — hit 180bp, its highest 

level since last July. 

Rating agency Fitch warned on 

Monday that the populist coalition 

posed a risk to Italy’s credit profile. 

Political risk had been “a key factor 

in our downgrade” of Italy to BBB 

last year, Fitch said in a statement 

on Monday that highlighted “fiscal 

loosening and potential damage to 

confidence” as key factors it would 

be watching in the coming months. 

“This is blood-letting now,” said 

James Athey, senior investment 

manager at Aberdeen Standard 

Investments who has been short 

selling Italian debt since February.


FINANCIAL TIMES 

C002D5556 


@ FINANCIAL TIMES LIMITED 

Stocks gain as US and China 

pull back from trade war 

Dow Jones Industrial Average at two-month 

high but Italy misses out on rally 

MICHAEL HUNTER AND STEPHEN SMITH 

What you need to know 

• US-China trade war truce 

bolsters most equities 

• S&P 500 joins rally with 0.5% gains at 

Wall Street opening bell 

• Italy misses out as anti-establishment 

coalition moves nearer power 

• Benchmark Italian bond yield touches 

2.3%, a level last seen in July 2017 

• London’s FTSE 100 touches new record 

intraday high above 7,800 points 

• Turkish lira stands out as emerging 

market currencies hit by stronger 

dollar 

• Euro falls to its lowest level since 

November 

“With tensions between China and the 

US now in at least temporary abeyance, 

markets should react positively to a 

situation which had threatened to derail 

the synchronised global economic 

recovery,” said Richard Hunter, head of 

markets at Interactive Investor. 

“Meanwhile, the political wrangling 

in Italy and the concomitant possibility 

of major financial engineering 

which could put the country on a collision 

course with the ECB is something 

of a drag on sentiment.” 

Hot topics 

The plight of Italian assets is a reminder 

of the vulnerability of markets 

to political disruption as wider sentiment 

improves on news that the trade 

dispute between the US and China is 

easing. 

Italy’s stocks are missing out and 

its bonds are being sold with the prospect 

of a meeting between populist 

coalition partners, and the president 

bringing the anti-establishment Five 

Star and League parties closer to 

Italian bond yields have taken 

another step upwards, with the 10- 

year paper posting a double-digit 

basis point rise for the second trading 

day in a row. 

The 10-year yield hit 2.362 per cent 

on Monday according to data from 

Thomson Reuters, up 14 basis points 

since Friday’s close. 

After four successive days of sharp 

increases it is now trading at levels last 

seen in March 2017, having risen by 

58 basis points in the past two weeks. 

Investors are bracing for heightened 

political uncertainty as the 

country’s populist parties prepare to 

form a government. 

Luigi Di Maio, the leader of the 

anti-establishment Five Star Movement, 

and Matteo Salvini, the head of 

the far-right League, are due to meet 

the Italian president on Monday to 

secure his approval for their alliance 

to govern Italy. 

Investors have experienced a 

“dawning reality that this is not a 

positive market scenario”, said James 

Athey, a senior investment manager at 

Aberdeen Standard Investments who 

has been underweight Italian debt 

since February. 

government. 

Elsewhere, the risk-on mood was 

helping equities to make gains with 

the S&P 500 gaining 0.8 per cent in 

early Wall Street trading while the 

Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a 

two-month high, rising 1.4 per cent. 

A brisk sell-off in Italy’s bonds, 

known as BTPs, is sending the yield on 

benchmark 10-year paper back up to 

2.36 per cent, higher by over 14 basis 

points on the day to levels last seen 

in the summer of 2017. At the start of 

last week before the coalition proposals 

were published, the yield stood at 

1.894 per cent. 

The selling is lifting the premium 

investors demand for Italian benchmark 

debt over its German equivalent, 

which is seen as Europe’s safest, to 

over 170 basis points and the widest 

in seven months. 

Sentiment toward BTPs is not being 

helped by talk that the incoming government 

could issue “ mini-BoTs ” — 

small euro-denominated, non-interest 

bearing Treasury bills to finance looser 

fiscal policy. 

Milan’s FTSE MIB is down 1.6 per 

cent. 

There is also pressure on the euro 

amid a wider trend for a stronger dollar. 

The shared currency was falling by 

as much as 0.5 per cent at one point, 

its weakest since November, before 

recovering to stand just 0.1 per cent 

softer at $1.1763. 

Equities 

Wider sentiment improved after US 

Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin 

said Washington had halted plans to 

impose tariffs on up to $150bn of imports. 

“We’re putting the trade war on 

hold,” Mr Mnuchin said in a television 

interview on Sunday. 

Italian bond sell-off continues 

as populists set to rule 

Five Star and League prepare for government as investors brace for turbulence 

KATE ALLEN 

He suggested that much of the 

selling comes from investors who had 

bought into Italian debt to enjoy the 

“carry trade” - the higher yields available 

in the Italian market compared to 

other European debt markets - and had 

been wrongfooted by the sharp upward 

moves in yields, which triggered 

the ceilings at which they must sell out. 

“People [were] saying that [Italian 

bonds] were cheap relative to Spain 

or credit spreads,” Mr Athey said. “But 

that was the 2017 zeitgeist - since 

January we have seen that liquidity has 

changed but Italian bonds have been 

slow to catch up.” 

Simon Bell, a portolio manager at 

Legal & General Investment Management 

who has also been underweight 

Italian debt for some time, said that 

the selling could go on for “a bit longer” 

as “we still think there are people 

out there with positions they are not 

comfortable with”. 

Investors were experiencing a 

“reassessment of the carry trade” 

which “people had bought into quite 

strongly in the past year or so”, he said, 

in part due to the European Central 

Bank’s cautious and gradual approach 

to unwinding its quantitative easing 

programme of bond-buying. QE has 

widely been seen as supportive to 

bond prices. 

SARAH NEVILLE 

Takeda Pharmaceutical’s 

£46bn acquisition of rare 

diseases specialist Shire will 

strengthen the Japanese group’s 

focus on innovative medicines and 

make it more “resilient” to pricing 

pressures in the US, its chief executive 

has said. 

Speaking after President Donald 

Trump launched an initiative to lower 

drug costs this month, Christophe 

Weber said he was convinced that the 

US would remain “a pro-innovation 

market”, but added: “It will be a more 

demanding market, like many other 

countries — like Japan, as an example 

— where price and reimbursement 

will be more stringent.” 

The planned takeover of Shire, 

Mr Weber said, had been designed 

“in a way” that meant the combined 

company “would be very resilient 

and prepared for an environment 

which will become tougher”. The 

Japanese drugmaker has said it 

expects roughly 50 per cent of its 

sales to be in the US, assuming the 

acquisition goes ahead. 

In 2017, the US accounted for 

66 per cent of Shire’s $15bn sales. 

The Dublin-based drugmaker has 

annual operating profits of $6bn 

versus Takeda’s $2bn, while sales 

at its rare diseases division grew 10 

PAN KWAN YUK 

BUSINESS DAY 

A3 

US Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, left, and Chinese vice premier Wang Yang, right, at a meeting in 2017. Mr Mnuchin 

said on Sunday that Washington was putting its trade war with China ‘on hold’ © AFP 

Takeda says Shire deal will boost 

resilience against price pressures 

Christophe Weber says focus on orphan drugs will help combined group in ‘tougher’ environment 

per cent in the first quarter of 2018, 

to more than $2.7bn, with a margin 

contribution of 48 per cent. 

Mr Weber emphasised that 

Takeda, too, had a substantial focus 

on so-called orphan drugs in its 

pipeline. “About 30 per cent of our 

programmes have an orphan drug 

designation,” he said. 

He pointed to “an R&D model 

which focuses on highly innovative 

medicines, because highly innovative 

medicines will secure better 

reimbursement and price”. 

This approach could involve 

disposing of non-core or poorly performing 

assets. The list of potential 

candidates was “quite long, when 

you combine” the Takeda and Shire 

portfolios, he added. 

Some Takeda investors have 

expressed concerns at the high level 

of debt that the company is taking 

on to fund the deal: about five times 

earnings before interest, tax, depreciation 

and amortisation. 

However, Mr Weber emphasised 

that it could meet its commitment 

to reduce these debt levels to two 

times ebitda within three to five 

years without the need for disposals, 

describing these as “a safety 

net”, should the company decide 

it wanted “to deleverage faster, or 

more”. 

As Takeda seeks to win the support 

of both companies’ shareholders, 

the chief executive claimed to 

scent “a shift . . . We are starting to 

see very much more support.” He 

added that he was “very confident” 

the necessary level of backing from 

both sides would be achieved. 

The drugmaker has been able 

to overcome two specific concerns 

by disclosing that the combined 

company would have a listing in 

New York, as well as Tokyo, and 

would maintain its dividend policy, 

despite the new share issuance necessary 

to fund the deal. 

Takeda’s aggressive pursuit of 

Shire has been widely seen as reflecting 

Mr Weber’s mission to propel 

the company into the ranks of 

the world’s top drugmakers. Three 

years ago, the Frenchman became 

the first foreign chief executive to 

run what is one of Japan’s flagship 

companies. 

However, he insisted: “I don’t 

see my role as to push something 

to the board, it’s more bringing the 

facts, having a very open debate 

about what it looks like, what are 

the pluses and minuses . . . and let 

the board come to its conclusion.” 

He added: “Our mindset is 

to . . . be very clear about what can 

go wrong, the downside, so be very 

eyes open, but it’s also important to 

move forward.” 

Dow back above 25k as blue chips rally on China trade truce 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average 

climbed back above 25,000 

for the first time in two months 

on Monday, as the trade war truce 

between China and US triggered a 

sharp rally in blue chip stocks. 

The Dow jumped as much as 

1.3 per cent to 25,030.48 within 

minutes of opening trade. The 

move - the biggest intraday rise in 

over two weeks - takes the index to 

its highest level in over nine weeks. 

The gains were led by Caterpillar 

and Boeing, up 3.3 per cent 

and 2.5 per cent respectively. 

Intel, United Technologies and 

3M - three other stocks that have 

been knocked back by the tit for tat 

tariff threats that were being traded 

between US and China - tacked on 

between 2.1 and 1.6 per cent. 

The Dow was also boosted by 

General Electric. Shares in the 

industrial conglomerate are 2.8 per 

cent higher after it struck a $11.1bn 

deal to merge its transportation 

unit with Wabtec. 

Industrials also drove the gains 

on the S&P 500. The sector is up 

1.1 per cent and helped push the 

benchmark S&P 500 to a 0.8 per 

cent advance. Within this, tractor 

maker Deere & Co., which had 

been hurt by worries that Beijing’s 

threat to impose tariffs on soyabeans 

and other agricultural products 

would hurt US farm income, 

was 2 per cent higher. 

Steel stocks - which had surged 

following the Trump administration’s 

proposed tariffs on steel 

and aluminium imports in March 

- gave back some of their recent 

gains however. US Steel was down 

3.3. per cent, AK Steel dropped 3.2 

per cent and Nucor traded 1 per 

cent lower. 

The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.9 

per cent.

A4 BUSINESS DAY 


FT 

It was 12 days before her primary 

in Texas’s seventh district when 

first-time candidate Laura Moser 

got the message: a powerful 

Democratic political action committee 

wanted her out of the race. 

A tall and gangly progressive activist, 

Ms Moser was one of seven Democratic 

candidates vying to take on Republican 

incumbent John Culberson 

in the district, which cuts across the 

Houston metropolitan area. Worried 

that Ms Moser would win the nomination, 

the Democratic Congressional 

Campaign Committee in February 

published a memo that outlined the 

sorts of character attacks the Republicans 

were sure to make against Ms 

Moser. It also took the unusual step 

in a party primary of endorsing one of 

her more moderate opponents, Lizzie 

Pannill Fletcher. 

“[Laura Moser] is a Washington 

insider, who begrudgingly moved 

to Houston to run for Congress,” the 

DCCC said, citing an article Ms Moser 

wrote for Washingtonian magazine 

when she said she would rather have 

her tooth pulled without anaesthesia 

than move to Paris, Texas, a 25,000-person 

town more than 300 miles north 

of Houston. 

“Unfortunately, Laura Moser’s outright 

disgust for life in Texas disqualifies 

her as a general election candidate, and 

would rob voters of their opportunity 

to flip Texas’s seventh in November,” 

a DCCC spokesperson said in a statement 

to the Texas Tribune. 

If the move was intended to knock 

Ms Moser out of the race for Congress, 

it has had the opposite effect. In the 

March primary, Ms Moser won 24.3 

per cent of the vote — a close second to 

Ms Fletcher’s 29.3 per cent, propelling 

the two women to a run-off that is set 

to take place on Tuesday. 

The race is important not just for 

Texas, where Democrats are hoping to 

win at least three House seats from the 

Republicans, but it also strikes at the 

heart of the dilemma facing the opposition 

Democratic party as it prepares for 

a crucial election year. 

The establishment in Washington 

is pushing aggressively for the sorts 

of centrist candidates it believes have 

a chance of winning in November’s 

midterms. But much of the party’s 

energy is on the left flank, which is 

still smarting from the 2016 presidential 

primary when the Democratic 

National Committee was seen to be 

actively backing Hillary Clinton over 

Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator. 

In some circles, the progressive 

activists have earned the nickname 

the “herbal tea party” — a reference to 

the Republicans’ own insurgency during 

the 2010 midterms, which helped 

Republicans take back the House, and 

nudged the party to the right, arguably 

paving the way for Donald Trump. 

Ms Moser rejects the notion that 

ANALYSIS 

American politics: The ‘herbal tea party’ stirs up Democrats 

As it prepares for midterms, the party faces a schism between its establishment and its left flank 

COURTNEY WEAVER 

she and other progressive activists 

represent a fringe of the party. While 

the DCCC and other Democratic 

groups had portrayed her and other 

progressives as too “risky” to win their 

general election races, putting forward 

milquetoast, centrist candidates for 

the party had proven not to be a winning 

strategy either. 

“I think it’s risky not to stand for 

anything, to kind of give people a 

nothing-burger and expect them to 

feel full afterwards,” she says. 

“I know you don’t get what you 

want all the time. But you have to let 

people know where you stand. You 

don’t surrender the fort before anyone’s 

marched on it . . . We’re always 

letting the other party define the terms 

of the argument.” 

Even as Democrats predict a “blue 

wave” in November spurred by strong 

opposition to Mr Trump, which could 

help them take back the House, some 

in the party worry that stories like Ms 

Moser’s could stir resentment among 

the party’s base, particularly young 

voters, who feel that the Democratic 

leadership is once again out of step 

with its supporters. 

“The problem is you can’t superimpose 

your views on voters from 

Washington,” Howard Dean, a 2004 

Democratic presidential candidate, 

says, referring to the DCCC’s memo. 

Even if Ms Fletcher, the committee’s 

preferred candidate, does win on 

Tuesday, there is sure to be a backlash, 

adds Mr Dean, who founded 

Democracy for America — one of the 

country’s leading progressive groups. 

“Voters do not like to be told what to 

do by the political class.” 

While it was important, he says, 

for Democrats to win all the races in 

which they are competitive in November 

and take back the House of 

Representatives, “the way to do that 

is not to issue edicts and push people 

out of the race publicly”. 

To take back the House in November, 

Democrats must flip 24 

Republican seats. According to the 

Cook Political Report, 30 seats held 

by Republicans are classed as the 

most competitive, where either party 

could win, compared with just three 

for Democrats. 

In the seven special elections 

for US House seats since Mr Trump 

became president, Democratic candidates 

have outperformed the Cook 

Political Report’s partisan voting index 

by six to 12 points, and even taken 

seats in the case of Conor Lamb in 

Pennsylvania and Doug Jones in the 

Alabama senate race. 

Centrist Democrats argue that the 

special election and recent primary 

results support the theory that moderate 

candidates are beating progressives. 

In the party’s Ohio gubernatorial 

primary, Richard Cordray, a staid 

bureaucrat who led the Consumer 

Financial Protection Bureau, trounced 

liberal populist Dennis Kucinich. Five 

of the seven congressional candidates 

backed in the Democratic primaries by 

Mr Sanders’ Our Revolution have lost 

their races; six of the seven congressional 

candidates backed by the DCCC 

have won. 

“In Washington at least there continues 

to be this massive conflation 

between resistance energy and this 

demand for Sanders-style policy,” says 

Matt Bennett, a strategist who worked 

in Bill Clinton’s White House. “Those 

two things are not the same. The same 

reason you’re seeing these gargantuan 

turnouts is because the resistance to 

Trump is strong and vital and huge. 

But these aren’t people demanding that 

Democrats all sound like [Sanders].” 

For some progressive activists, 

winning a primary is not necessarily 

the objective. The presence of such 

candidates in the race could help to 

push other Democratic candidates to 

the left, especially when it comes to 

issues such as universal healthcare or 

free college tuition. 

“These are conversations that 

wouldn’t happen if you didn’t have [a 

progressive in the race],” says Melissa 

Byrne, a former staff member for Bernie 

Sanders. “[The Democratic party’s] 

job isn’t to support the person who has 

an easy win.” 

At times, the schism has turned 

ugly. Last November, Democracy for 

America attacked Ralph Northam, the 

then Democratic candidate for Virginia 

governor, days before the election, accusing 

him of not doing enough to 

stand up for immigrants and other 

minorities. While Mr Northam went 

on to win his race, the move outraged 

many in the party. 

“My sense is that groups like DFA 

want to be the ‘herbal tea party’,” says 

Mr Bennett, the Democratic strategist. 

“They want to be feared inside our party 

like the Tea party has been or was in the 

Republican party and the way to do that 

is to make examples of people and not 

care about the outcomes.” 

Mr Dean calls the DFA’s attack 

“juvenile” but declined to speak more 

about his views on its current activities, 

citing “the interests of family unity”. 

(His brother Jim currently runs the 

organisation.) 

In Texas, DFA has been active in 

supporting Ms Moser, while in the 

New York governor’s race it has backed 

actress Cynthia Nixon’s challenge to 

unseat the current governor and fellow 

Democrat, Andrew Cuomo, who was 

once seen as one of the party’s potential 

2020 presidential candidates. 

While most polls show a substantial 

lead for Mr Cuomo over Ms Nixon, the 

actress’s endorsement by the Working 

Families party has spurred speculation 

that she could mount a third-party run 

in the general election. That has raised 

concerns among some Democratic 

leaders that she could act as a spoiler, 

handing the election to Mr Cuomo’s 

Republican opponent. 

General Electric to combine transport 

unit with Wabtec in $11.1bn deal 

Industrials group sells assets to shore up balance sheet and simplify structure 

ED CROOKS AND ERIC PLATT 

General Electric has agreed to 

combine its transportation 

unit with Wabtec, the maker 

of passenger and freight locomotives, 

in a $11.1bn deal that provides the 

US blue-chip company with a $2.9bn 

cash infusion. 

The transaction is part of planned 

asset disposals worth about $20bn 

by the industrials group as it seeks to 

shore up its balance sheet and simplify 

its business structure. The asset 

sales are expected to bring in between 

$5bn and $10bn this year. 

GE will take a 50.1 per cent stake 

in the combined company as part of 

its deal with Wabtec, which traces its 

roots to 1869 and is worth about $9bn. 

The disposal strategy is being driven 

by John Flannery, who took over 

as chief executive last August with the 

aim of simplifying GE’s structure. He 

has argued that under his predecessors 

Jack Welch and Jeff Immelt, GE 

became too sprawling and complex, 

and has said he intends to focus on 

just three core divisions: aviation, 

healthcare and the power industry. 

The company is at work on a 

number of other transactions. ABB is 

buying GE’s industrial solutions business, 

which makes electrical equipment, 

for $2.6bn. GE announced last 

month the sale of a healthcare technology 

business to Veritas Capital for 

$1.05bn. It is selling its lighting businesses, 

with Chinese groups including 

MLS and Foshan Electrical and 

Lighting reported to be interested, 

according to Reuters. Two aviation 

businesses are also up for sale, the 

company has said. 

GE has suffered a severe squeeze 

on its cash flows because of the weakness 

of its power equipment division 

and its operations serving the oil 

and gas industry, forcing it to cut its 

dividend last year. Raising cash from 

selling businesses helps ease that 

problem. 

The transport division, which also 

provides equipment for the mining 

industry, has suffered a difficult 

couple of years. Its profits dropped 

16 per cent in 2016 and a further 34 

per cent last year. But the most recent 

Russian owner of Chelsea football club is subject to extra procedural checks 

Roman Abramovich, the Russian 

oligarch and owner of Chelsea 

football club, has not had his UK 

visa application rejected but it is still 

being considered, according to British 

officials briefed on the issue. 

Mr Abramovich’s investor visa is 

thought to have expired in early April 

and his application for renewal is 

undergoing extra procedural checks 

because he is applying from Russia, 

not from the UK. 

Downing Street declined to comment 

on Mr Abramovich’s case, but 

Theresa May’s spokesman said extra 

checks were being carried out on 

people applying for investor visas. 

The spokesman said there had 

been an 84 per cent fall in the number 

of investor visa applications after 

reforms were introduced in 2014-15 

where extra checks were introduced 

to make sure funds “had not been 

quarter showed an upturn, with profit 

up 37 per cent at $130m for the three 

months to March. 

“We are seeing growth in rail traffic 

and recent promising orders for 

new and modernised locomotives 

from . . . international railroads, and 

are confident in the compelling longterm 

opportunities and synergies 

before us,” said Rafael Santana, chief 

executive of GE Transportation. Mr 

Santana will become president and 

chief executive of Wabtec’s freight 

division. 

Wabtec chairman Albert Neupaver 

was reappointed as the executive 

chairman of the locomotive 

manufacturer, and chief executive 

Raymond Betler will continue to lead 

the company. 

The number of locomotives sold 

in the quarter dropped sharply to 60, 

from 157 in the equivalent period of 

2017, as a result “continuing challenging 

market conditions” in North 

America, the company said in its 

quarterly filing to the Securities and 

Exchange Commission. However, the 

slow sales were offset by increased 

activity in servicing and supplying 

parts for older equipment. 

Questions have been raised over 

the long-term future of GE’s transport 

business, which makes diesel locomotives, 

given global pressure for rail 

electrification. GE last year clashed 

with India over a $2.6bn locomotive 

contract, when the country’s new 

railway minister Piyush Goyal said 

he wanted its rail network to become 

fully electrified. 

The deal with Wabtec is expected 

to be completed early in 2019. The 

train manufacturer has received 

financing commitments to fund its 

$2.9bn cash payment to GE, which 

it expected to eventually bankroll 

with longer term debt. Wabtec said 

it was “committed to maintaining a 

strong investment grade credit rating 

profile”. 

GE estimated the deal created a 

tax benefit of $1.1bn for the combined 

company, which it included in the 

$11.1bn deal value. Morgan Stanley 

and Dyal Co acted as financial advisers 

to GE. Goldman Sachs advised 

Wabtec. 

Abramovich UK visa application still 

being considered, officials say 

GEORGE PARKER 

obtained unlawfully”. 

Mrs May’s spokesman added: 

“Further checks are being made on 

investors who came to the UK through 

this route before the reforms were 

introduced.” 

Asked whether Mr Abramovich 

had been affected by these additional 

checks, Mrs May’s spokesman said: 

“We don’t discuss individual cases.” 

Russia said on Monday the nonrenewal 

of Roman Abramovich’s UK visa 

could be linked with London’s unfriendly 

stance towards Russian business. 

Dmitry Peskov, Russian president 

Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, said he 

had no information on the visa issue. 

“I can’t say anything, I don’t have 

this information. Indeed, there have 

been such reports. I’ve said already: 

our business has faced various manifestations 

of unfair and unfriendly 

treatment,” he told reporters on a 

conference call as reported by local 

newswire Interfax.

BUSINESS DAY 

Insight 

NEWS YOU CAN TRUST I TUESDAY 22 MAY 2018 

C002D5556 

How lack of auto-component industry stalls Nigeria’s new auto assembly plants 

ers, an estimated 40 

percent of local content 

would have gone into the 

local assembly of vehicles 

and cheap to buy. 

There are reports that 

yearly, not less than 20 

million vehicle batteries 

are imported into Nigeria 

from China and other 

parts of the world. This 

is simply because, successive 

government have 

failed in their responsibility 

to make the local components 

industries work. 

Imagine the number of 

jobs these would have 

created if this number of 

batteries is made locally 

as was the case before 

things fell apart. 

In one of the auto component 

firms located on 

the Eastern part of Nigeria, 

checks by Business- 

Day reveal that, there are 

an estimated five thousand 

direct and indirect 

Nigerians could be working 

inside the assembly 

plants including other 

spin-off ancillary businesses 

springing up within 

the vicinity. This is one 

what just one component 

automaker can do alone 

in an economy where 

there are over 50 of such 

companies as captured by 

the NADDC. 

It would be recalled 

that presidential approval 

for the policy was given 

on December 30, 1992 

and later endorsed by the 

transitional council on 

August 10, 1993, followed 

by the formal launch of 

the policy document on 

August 23, 1993. 

The document provided 

for the establish- 

ment of the National Automotive 

Council as a 

parastatal of the Federal 

Ministry of Industry (now 

called National Automotive 

Design and Development 

Council, NADDC). 

Act No. 84 of August 25, 

1993 backed up the establishment 

of the council. 

Simply put, the thrust 

In 2013 when the 

then government 

of former President 

Goodluck Jonathan 

came up with the 

ambitious 10 year National 

Automotive Industrial 

Development Plan 

(2013-2023) policy measures 

aimed at reviving the 

moribund automotive 

assembly plants, every Nigerian 

including those in 

the Diaspora and indeed 

the Original Equipment 

Manufacturers (OEMs) 

welcomed the move. 

The 2013 new national 

automotive policy had 

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the 

then Minister of Finance 

and Olusegun Aganga, 

former Minister of Industry, 

Trade and Investment 

some of the best brains 

in government and two 

of the major key drivers 

of the amended version 

of the previous one introduced 

in August 1993. 

Its major thrust is to 

encourage local manufacturing 

of automobiles 

by offering protection/incentives 

to potential and 

existing local investors, 

while at the same time 

discouraging importation 

by raising the bar against 

all those who will rather 

export to Nigeria. 

On the other hand, 

the move triggered reactions 

and divergent opinions 

from many industry 

players. While some 

welcomed the development 

as one that would 

once again bring back 

the idle auto assembly 

plant back on track to 

assemble cheap and affordable 

vehicles to meet 

the needs of the goring 

middle class, others argue 

that the announcement 

was made without proper 

consultations. 

These schools of 

thought a favoured that 

the time is ripe enough to 

bring back the assembly 

plants to its lost glory of 

the 1970s and 1980s, also 

reasoned that for Nigeria’s 

automotive assembly 

plants to bounce back, 

there is the urgent need to 

revive and establish more 

automotive component 

clusters. 

With adequate attention 

on establishing more 

automotive component 

clusters that will produce 

auto parts and accessories 

such as clutch cables, 

wipers, windscreens, 

brake pads and linings, 

lubricants amongst otha 

view to enhancing the 

industry’s contribution 

to the national economy, 

especially in the areas of 

transportation of people 

and goods. 

Among other imperatives, 

the elements of 

the objective included: 

provision of automotive 

vehicles for urban and 

With adequate attention on establishing 

more automotive component 

clusters that will produce 

auto parts and accessories such 

as clutch cables, wipers, windscreens, 

brake pads and linings, 

lubricants amongst others, an 

estimated 40 percent of local 

content would have gone into 

the local assembly of vehicles 

of the national automotive 

policy was to ensure 

the survival, growth of 

the Nigerian automotive 

industry using local, 

human and material 

resources. This is with 

and cheap to buy 

human areas. Accelerated 

technological development 

of the economy, increased 

employment opportunities 

for Nigerians, 

conservation of scarce 

foreign exchange and es- 

tablishment of integrated 

Automotive Industry in 

Nigeria. 

Other positive elements 

included standardisation 

and rationalisation 

of the local 

automotive industry, 

increased private sector 

participation in the establishment 

of the auto 

industry, technology acquisition; 

and creating 

conducive operational 

environment through the 

introduction of appropriate 

fiscal policy and monetary 

incentives. 

In any part of the 

world, for every country 

that is committed and desirous 

of making meaningful 

impact on producing 

vehicles locally for 

local consumption and 

even for export, common 

sense demands that the 

already built auto plants 

should be encouraged 

to start with spare parts 

production. 

The collapse of the 

country’s automotive 

components parts or 

spare parts has made 

the running and maintenance 

cost of vehicles 

by the low income and 

the middle class very expensive 

because of nonproduction 

of such basic 

elements locally. 

As it is presently, it 

will be very expensive to 

produce cars in Nigeria 

for now because every 

single part is sourced 

from outside. The Federal 

Government has failed on 

many attempts to check 

the influx of grey imports 

into the country. The uncontrolled 

importation of 

these spare parts has also 

made it impossible for 

those that made attempts 

to produce components 

parts locally to survive. 

Presently, the grey 

market for ageing and 

rickety automobiles made 

worse by the proliferation 

of over 1000 poorly 

manned illegal entry 

points by the authorities’ 

concerned accounts for a 

larger percentage of the 

country’s auto market. 

Indeed, if the Federal 

Government gives the 

right and serious attention 

to the auto sector and 

pursue the policy with the 

utmost rigour Nigerian 

will see the difference in 

four years. Concerned 

industry followers have 

at various for a called 

the setting up technical 

schools to address the 

manpower problem and 

issue of quacking in the 

auto sector. 

Few years ago, the only 

quoted transport company 

on the Nigerian Stock Exchange 

donated luxury 

buses for technical teaching 

in mechanical engineering 

departments of Imo State 

University (IMSU), University 

of Nigeria (UNN), 

Federal Polytechnic Nekede 

and the Lagos State 

University (LASU). 

For these groups of 

people, they believed that 

when this part is followed 

religiously, the auto sector 

will move faster with 

the utmost speed it requires 

in no distant future. 

The issue of manpower 

must be addressed 

by ensuring the setting up 

of technical schools like 

in some African countries 

like Ghana, Angola, 

Rwanda, Kenya and Benin 

Republic that is not as 

large economically and in 

terms of manpower and 

population size. 

In some countries with 

viable automotive manufacturing 

base, courses 

are offered in automotive 

engineering with topics 

from mechanical and 

electrical engineering 

combined together to expand 

and create research 

areas related to automobiles, 

aimed at improving 

the lives of world citizens 

and lead to an environmentally 

friendly, sustainable 

mode of transportation. 

This should 

be the new direction that 

Nigeria must embrace 

and must do so to its logical 

end. 

Published by BusinessDAY Media Ltd., The Brook, 6 Point Road, GRA, Apapa, Lagos. Ghana Office: Business Day Ghana Ltd; ABC Junction, near Guinness Ghana Limited, Achimota – Accra, Ghana. 

Tel: +233243226596: email: mail@businessdayonline.com Advert Hotline: 08116759801, 08082496194. Subscriptions 01-2950687, 07045792677. Newsroom: 08169609331 

Editor: Anthony Osae-Brown. All correspondence to BusinessDAY Media Ltd., Box 1002, Festac Lagos. ISSN 1595 - 8590.

BusinessDay 22 May 2018

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