BusinessDay 21 Aug 2018

usinessday market monitor 

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CBN Official Rate 306.10 11.58 13.32 14.78 14.87 14.93 

Currency Futures ($/N) 

NGUS OCT. 

31, 2018 

NGUS JAN. 

30, 2019 

NGUS JUL. 

24, 2019 

0.00 0.00 0.00 

362.23 362.68 363.58 

news you can trust I **TUESDay 21 auGUST 2018 I vol. 15, no 122 I N300 @ g 

Nigeria’s economy 

struggles as NBS sees 

GDP flat in Q2 2018 

ENDURANCE OKAFOR 

Nigeria’s economy is still 

growing sluggishly almost 

15 months after 

exiting recession, according to 

the National Bureau of Statistics 

(NBS). 

The economy is in its second 

stage of recovery after it contracted 

in 2016, the statistics office 

said in a statement posted on 

its Twitter account on Monday. 

The growth rate in the second 

quarter was “very similar” to the 

reading for the first three months 

Continues on page 34 

Tinubu nursing 

presidential ambition 

in 2023 – Saraki 

OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja 

Senate President Bukola 

Saraki has accused a 

former governor of Lagos 

State, Bola Tinubu, of nursing 

presidential ambition in the 

2023 elections. 

Inside 

Stanbic IBTC 

sees politics as 

‘Key Risk’ to 

second-half 

income P. 2 


Investors slam Buharinomics 

as markets flat since 2015 

Lags ex-Presidents OBJ, Jonathan performance 

Stocks fall again by 1.7% on Monday 

Emeka Ucheaga 

Economic policies embraced 

by the current 

administration has 

failed to significantly 

lift stock prices as the 

Nigerian Stock Exchange broad 

index is up only 1 percent since 

President Muhammadu Buhari 

came into power in May 29, 2015. 

The Buhari administration 

has tremendously underperformed 

both the Jonathan and 

Obasanjo administrations which 

returned 29.7 percent and 904.2 

percent respectively during their 

time in power. 

The stock market index is 

popularly used as a proxy for 

the performance of companies 

in a country as stock prices are 

determined by estimating the 

present value of future cash flow 

of a business. 

If investors feel that companies 

will do well over a foreseeable 

future, stock prices typically 

rally. The index tends to retreat 

when risks are higher and the 

tendency for companies to perform 

well financially is lower. 

In 3 years since President 

Buhari was sworn in as president 

of Nigeria, the stock market 

returned just 1 percent 

making it the worst market performance 

by any democratic 

President of the federal republic 

of Nigeria excluding former 

President Musa Yar’Adua who 

died in power. 


L-R: Udoma Udo Udoma, minister of budget and national planning; Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and Ade Ipaye, deputy chief of staff, during the 

Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) Focus Labs Central Steering Committee at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday. 

Insight: How Oando, Seplat, Sahara, others navigated 2014-2016 oil crash 

DIPO OLADEHINDE, ABIMBOLA HASSAN & 

SOBECHUKWU EZE 

Crude oil prices started 

falling in mid-2014 to 

touch multi-year lows 

of $26.01 per barrel 

(pb) in January 2016, and ever 

since there have been a significant 

amount of uncertainty in 

the oil and gas industry, as it has 

remained well below the average 

of $103.43 pb and peak of $128 

pb that was seen from the start 

of 2010 to September 2014 when 

the abrupt decline set in. 

Business Day analysis into the 

operations of major indigenous 

oil firms during the industry 

turndown revealed how they 

performed, major investment 

made and how they survived 

the period. 

Oando 

The 2014-2016 oil slump of hit 

Oando energy resources hard, 

as it recorded a working capital 

deficiency of $835.8m in 2015 

compared to $567.2 million in 

2014 while accumulated deficit 

increased to $638.1 million in 

2014, from $621.2 million in 

2013. 

The volatility in oil prices impacted 

the balance sheet of oil 

companies globally which was 

evident in a decline in Oando’s 

crude oil and natural gas sales 

as revenues in the fourth quarter 

of 2015 were $99.8 million compared 

with $174.0 million in the 

same quarter of 2014. 

The $74.2 million decrease 

was the result of the significant 

reduction in crude oil and 

natural gas prices, which were 

partially offset by additional 

revenue from Qua Ibo coming 

on-stream in the first quarter 

of 2015. 

“Low crude oil prices have 

taken a toll on the corporation’s 

finances, therefore, in response 

to the low prices, the corporation 

cooperated with its JV partners 

to cut operating costs and take 

steps to decrease its monthly 

general and administrative expenses 

through employee reductions 

and the intended delisting 

of the corporation from the 

Toronto Stock Exchange upon 

completion of the OER share 

buyout,” the company said in its 

2016 report. 

Oando recorded a N49.7 billion 

loss for its Full year 2015 

operations. 

In order to survive, the chief 

executive officer, Pade Durotoye, 

was quoted in 2015 to have said 

the company, would be focusing 

on maintaining its production 

levels through low cost rig less 

activities and intensifying its 

efforts on cash and cost management. 

“Also, our acquisition of Con- 

Continues on page 35

2 BUSINESS DAY 

C002D5556 

Tuesday 21 August 2018 

NEWS 

Bank credit to private sector 

down 1.69% in Q2 2018 

... loans to oil/gas sector dominate 

CyntHIA IKWUETOGHU 

Credit facilities allocated to 

the private sector by Nigerian 

banks declined by 1.69 

percent to N15.34 trillion in 

the second quarter (Q2) of 2018 from 

N15.60 trillion in Q2 2017 as shown 

in the most recent Nigerian Bureau 

of Statistics (NBS) report. 

The credit allocation to private 

sector divided into three sectors 

namely; Agriculture, Industry, and 

Services showed that the Oil and 

Gas sector with 30.57 percent of the 

total credit had the highest allocation 

of N4.69 trillion inclusive of both 

service and industry bound credit. 

Manufacturing sector came second 

with N2.02 trillion, 13.16 percent 

of the total lending by banks. 

Agricultural sector received 3.41 

percent which is N523.08 billion of 

the total credit allocated by banks, a 

slight increase of 0.22 percent from 

its Q2 2017 sectoral share of 3.19 

percent. 

Agriculture which contributed 

about 21.65 percent of the Gross 

Domestic Product (GDP) in Nigeria 

in Q1 2018, attracted about 3 percent 

of the total credit in Q2 2018. 

“Our findings show that the Agriculture 

sector in Nigeria is faced 

with many problems. Thus the sector 

is unable to attract the required 

credit,” analysts at FSDH Research 

said in a report. 

Some of the problems are: inadequate 

storage facilities; poor transport 

network; inadequate research 

to develop improved seedlings; and 

weak integration between the sector 

and the manufacturing sector 

in providing manufacturing inputs. 

The industrial sector gulped 38.5 

percent of the total credits to the 

private sector, credit to the same sec- 

742,455 get at 

least 5 credits 

as NECO releases 

June/July results 

Godsgift Onyidinefu, Abuja 

Out of the 1,041,536 

candidates who sat for 

the 2018/2019 June/ 

July Senior School 

Certificate Examination (SSCE) 

conducted by the National Examination 

Council (NECO), only 

742,455 got at least five credit 

passes including Mathematics 

and the English Language. 

This was contained in the 

result of the exams which NECO 

released on its official website 

www.mynecoexams.com on 

Monday. 

According to a statement 

signed by the acting Registrar 

of the Council, Abubakar Gana, 

there is a 0.63 per cent improvement 

in the general performance 

of candidates in 2018 compared 

to the 2017 results. 

He added that a total number 

of 20,181 candidates were involved 

in examination malpractices, 

less than the figure of 2017. 

tor stood at N 5.90 trillion. However, 

credit to the industrial sector fell by 

5.18 percent compared to the corresponding 

period in 2017. 

The components of industry 

which include Oil and Gas (production) 

and manufacturing dominated 

credit facilities by 22.52 percent and 

13.16 percent with an increase of 

0.06 percent point and a decrease of 

0.95 percent points from 22.46 and 

14.11 percent respectively. Power 

and Energy had N416.34 billion (2.71 

percent), and Mining and Quarrying 

N10.18 billion (0.07 percent). 

The service sector had a sectoral 

share of 58 percent down from N6.22 

trillion in Q2 2017 to N5.90 trillion 

in 2018. 

Government share of credit facilities 

was N1.47 trillion (i.e. 9.61 

percent), oil and gas (Services) 

N1.24 trillion (8.05 percent), trade/ 

general commerce N1.04 trillion 

(6.81 percent). 

Finance, Insurance & Capital 

market received N991.22 billion 

(i.e. 6.46 percent), Information and 

Communication 814.57 billion (5.31 

percent), Real estate N744.56 billion 

(4.85 percent), construction N612.85 

billion (3.99 percent) among others. 

Data on all electronic payments 

channels in the Nigerian banking 

sector revealed that Automated 

Teller Machine (ATM) transactions 

dominated the volume of transactions 

with a record of 217.42 million 

valued at N1.60 trillion out of the 

total volume of about 509.67 million 

transactions valued at N32.90 

trillion that were recorded in Q2 

2018. 

The total number of banks’ staffs 

increased by 13.67 percent quarter 

on quarter (QoQ) and 34.72 percent 

year on year (YoY) from 89,608 and 

75,607 in Q1 2018 and Q2 2017 respectively 

to 101,861 in Q2 2018. 

The political environment, 

declining yields 

on government securities 

and low deposit 

growth are “key risks” 

to income in the second half of 

2018, Stanbic IBTC said yesterday 

in a presentation on its website 

following the release of Half Year 

(H1) results. 

The second tier lender revised its 

Full Year deposit-growth target to 5 

percent – 10 percent, from 20 percent 

– 25 percent in 2017. 

This comes after deposits increased 

by 2 percent to N767.4 billion 

in H1. 

The lender also forecast net interest 

margins at 6 percent this year, 

compared to 6.9 percent in 2017. 

The Stanbic Group posted gross 

earnings of N114.21 billion in H1 

2018, up by 17.5 percent from N97.20 

EXPLAINER: Lagos embarks on geographic 

information mapping, here’s why it matters 

JUMOKE AKIYODE - LAWANSON 

Business Day reported 

last week that the Lagos 

state government has 

just commenced what 

is said to be the biggest 

geographic information system 

project to capture orthophotogrammetric 

data of the state. 

The State government through 

its Lagos Enterprise Geographic 

Information Systems, (e-GIS) upgrade 

and Integrated Land Administration 

and Automation 

System Project, (Lagos eGIS project) 

signed a memorandum of 

understanding (MoU) with Asseco 

Software Nigeria, a leading IT company, 

to procure Unmanned Aerial 

Vehicles, (UAVs) that will capture 

and update orthophotogrammetric 

data. 

What is orthophotogrammetric 

data? 

An orthophotograph is an aerial 

image that has been geometrically 

Stanbic IBTC sees politics as ‘Key 

Risk’ to second-half income 

MICHEAL ANI 

billion recorded in the corresponding 

period of 2017. 

Profit before tax (PBT) grew by 

73.9 percent to N50.73 billion from 

N29.17 billion, while PAT incresed 

by 78.7 percent to N43.08 billion from 

N24.11 billion. 

Non-Interest revenue grew by 

33.6 percent to N53.83 billion in 2018 

from N40.29 billion posted in 2017. 

Net income likewise, had a growth 

of 73.6 percent to N41.63 billion from 

N23.98 billion. 

Its balance sheet snapshot reflected 

a marginal increase in total 

assets by 7.8 percent year on year 

(YoY) to N1.37 trillion for the period 

ended June 2018 from N1.27 trillion 

in 2017. Total liabilities also grew by 

4.47 percent to N1.16 trillion from 

N1.11 trillion. 

Shareholder’s fund, also known 

as total equity increased by 30.3 

percent to N210.47 billion from 

N161.47 billion posted in half year 

corrected (orthorectified), such 

that the photo has the same lack 

of distortion as a map, and can be 

used to measure true distances, 

because it is an accurate representation 

of the earth’s surface. 

This data collected from this 

advanced large scale mapping process 

is then used for road mapping, 

structural planning and accurate 

representation of the surface area, 

which is in this case, Lagos state. 

Geographic information systems 

have been accepted all over 

the world, as an essential tool for 

effective decision making in urban 

and regional planning 

How the data is collected 

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles 

(UAVs), commonly referred to as 

(Drones), which is an aircraft piloted 

by remote control or onboard 

computer will be flown to capture 

imagery and provide accurate 

representation of Lagos State’s 

geography. 

The mapping is used in cartography 

(particularly in photogrammetric 

surveys, which are often 

the basis for topographic maps), 

land-use planning, archaeology, 

environmental studies, power line 

inspection, surveillance, commercial 

advertising, conveyancing, and 

artistic projects. 

Why Lagos state needs the 

data 

Orthophotos have a variety of 

uses, and once in digital format, 

they can be viewed and printed at 

various scales, which are extremely 

valuable in the development of 

land information systems and land 

use planning issues such as zoning, 

transportation, and agriculture. 

Things like natural resources 

management, land use and allocation, 

water inventory, environmental 

planning and management, 

natural hazards monitoring and 

modeling are better managed with 

accurate representation of the area 

through updated orthophotogrammetric 

data. 

2017. Capital remained strong with 

Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) of 27.4 

percent in spite of the implementation 

of IFRS 9. 

Return on Equity which measures 

a corporation’s profitability by revealing 

how much profit a company 

generates with the money shareholders 

have invested stood at 19.8 

percent in H1 2018 from 14.9 percent 

in half year 2017. 

Return on Asset (ROA) a profitability 

metrics that measures how 

well a company is generating profits 

from its total assets stood at 3.0 percent 

from 1.9 percent in 2017. 

Earnings per Share (EPS) increased 

to N4.16 in H1 2018 from 

N2.30 in H1 2017, representing 80.9 

percent growth year on year. 

Stanbic shares trading in Lagos 

are up 32 percent in the past year, 

compared to -0.24 percent return 

for the NSE all share index for the 

same period. 

Adam Nuru 

(r), managing 

director, First 

City Monument 

Bank (FCMB), 

with Abdurrazaq 

Balogun, 

executive 

secretary/CEO, 

Lagos State 

Security Trust 

Fund (LSSTF), 

during a courtesy 

visit to the 

management 

of FCMB by 

LSSTF at the 

bank’s head office 

in Lagos. 

Technological developments 

of recent years in the digital photogrammetry 

field have facilitated 

invention of reliable digital orthophotos, 

essential for various 

surveying and Geographic Information 

(GI) applications. These 

developments are driven by the 

demand for high resolution data for 

research and engineering projects 

-properties that digital orthophotos 

provide. 

The deal to procure Unmanned 

Aerial Vehicles for accurate representation 

of Lagos State’s geography 

was signed by Simon Melchior, 

chief executive officer of Asseco 

Software and Hakeem Fahm, Lagos 

State Commissioner for Science 

and Technology. 

As part of Asseco’s delivery of 

the UAVs, six UAV operators from 

Lagos State Ministry of Science and 

Technology will be trained and certified 

in Poland, to fly and maintain 

the UAVs in Lagos after delivery. 

With this development, a simulation 

environment has been deployed 

by Asseco in Lagos to train 

these operators in preparation for 

the training and certification in 

Continues on page 34

Tuesday 21 August 2018 BUSINESS DAY 3


4 BUSINESS DAY

Tuesday 21 August 2018 BUSINESS DAY 5



C002D5556 

NEWS 

Investors beam searchlight on viable 

infrastructure projects in Africa 

MIKE OCHONMA 

Investec Bank of South 

Africa is considering investment 

in renewable 

energy, water desalination 

and treatment 

projects, and transportation 

infrastructure and speciality 

buildings in Africa. 

This new thinking is investor 

appetite for well-structured 

infrastructure projects 

on the continent, but needs 

clarity from governments on 

regulations and the various 

projects earmarked for development, 

Andre Wepener, 

head, specialist banking company, 

Investec Bank power 

and infrastructure finance 

sub-Saharan Africa, says. 

Wepener believes that 

Relief as Nigeria escapes FIFA ban 

ANTHONY NLEBEM 

The world football 

governing body, 

FIFA, yesterday suspended 

its planned 

ban of Nigeria from participating 

in its football activities. 

“FIFA received confirmations 

that the legitimate 

leadership of the NFF under 

President Amaju Melvin Pin- 

government’s social infrastructure 

development initiative 

to build schools, hospitals 

and clinics and prisons 

through PPPs will create investment 

opportunities for 

private investors. 

He says Investec has an 

appetite to provide debt funding 

and investment in renewable 

energy, water desalination, 

treatment and bulk 

water projects, transportation 

infrastructure, fuel infrastructure, 

and specialised buildings. 

They are also exploring 

opportunities to invest in alternative 

technologies such as 

energy from waste and utilityscale 

energy storage. 

He highlights the bankability 

of off-takers as a key 

risk associated with investnick 

and General Secretary 

Mohammed Sanusi has been 

given back effective control 

of the NFF and its offices. 

“In view of these circumstances, 

FIFA deems that the 

conditions set by the decision 

of the Bureau of the FIFA 

Council have now been met 

and consequently the suspension 

of the NFF will not 

take effect,” a statement from 

FIFA website read. 

ment in an infrastructure 

project as, if the off-taker fails 

to fulfil their contractual obligations, 

the project can ultimately 

fail. 

“As the procurement of 

infrastructure projects is becoming 

more competitive, 

developers have to structure 

their projects in more innovative 

ways, both technologically 

and financially to 

reduce costs and compete in 

the market,” Wepener says. 

Governments in Africa, 

he insists, must have to create 

a conducive environment 

in terms of a clear regulatory 

framework, policy certainty 

and transparent processes 

without corruption to unlock 

opportunities for private investment 

in infrastructure projects. 

FIFA also confirms that 

it would continue to closely 

monitor the situation in order 

to ensure that FIFA’s rules 

and regulations are fully adhered 

to. 

The Federal Government 

also yesterday issued statement 

recognising the Amaju 

Pinnick-led Nigeria Football 

Federation (NFF) board as 

the legitimate and recognised 

board.


Smallholder farmers get NIRSAL 

improved insurance scheme 

ONYINYE NWACHUKWU, Abuja 

Nigeria Incentive-Based 

Risk Sharing 

System for 

Agricultural 

Lending (NIRSAL) has developed 

a new insurance 

product to better safeguard 

farmers against risks along 

the agric value chain. 

The product is especially 

targeted at smallholder 

farmers - the most vulnerable 

segment in the agricultural 

sector and the Nigerian 

population as a whole. 

The deployment of the 

product, which improves 

on its pioneering Area Yield 

Index Insurance (AYII) 

mechanism introduced last 

year, begins immediately 

with a pilot phase as part of 

NIRSAL’s operations in the 

CBN’s Anchor Borrowers 

Programme. 

While the cover provided 

by the earlier product was 

limited to yield insurance, 

the new insurance product, 

NIRSAL Comprehensive 

Index Insurance (NCII), is a 

combination of Yield Index, 

Price Index and Life Insurance, 

Anne Ihugba, head, 

corporate communications 

at the NIRSAL, said in a 

statement. 

“It is designed to mitigate 

the impact and losses of both 

yield risk and market price 

risk – fundamental risks 

associated with possible 

production shortfalls and 

the uncertainties of the marketplace,” 

Ihugba explained. 

The new insurance product, 

an innovative form of 

revenue insurance, is unique 

in Africa. It is also the first of 

such product to be achieved 

without government subsidies 

on the premium. 

Beyond the benefits to 

farmers, NCII’s comprehensive 

cover will also encourage 

financial institutions to 

lend more to primary production 

and ensure reduced 

premiums in comparison 

with the earlier version. 

This will also lead to an 

additional benefit – the 

eradication of premium 

subsidy, to free up government 

funds for intervention 

in other areas. 

Leveraging on its $30 

million insurance facility, 

NIRSAL’s goal is to expand 

insurance products and 

coverage for agricultural 

lending across the entire 

value chain by growing coverage 

from about 500,000 

to 3.8 million primary producers. 

Speaking on the development, 

Aliyu Abdulhameed, 

managing director, NIR- 

SAL, said the new insurance 

product was a testament to 

NIRSAL’s focus on expanding 

the frontiers of innovation 

in Nigerian agriculture 

in pursuit of practical and 

effective benefits. 

“At NIRSAL, our focus is 

on making positive impact at 

key points of the agricultural 

value chain that can trans- 

late to significantly higher 

and sustained productivity 

and food security for the 

country. In line with our 

mandate to de-risk Nigerian 

agriculture, this innovative 

insurance product will help 

to secure farmers against 

key risks in order to make 

agriculture more attractive 

and more profitable,” Abdulhameed 

said. 

He expressed his appreciation 

to NAICOM, NAIC 

and the insurance companies 

who collaborated with 

NIRSAL on the project. 

NCII was developed by 

the Corporation in conjunction 

with key partners 

- NAICOM (regulator of the 

insurance industry), NAIC 

(lead of the consortium 

of insurance on NIRSAL 

Anchor Borrowers Programme), 

and members of 

the consortium (Axa Mansard, 

IGI, Leadway, Royal 

Exchange), and Pula Advisors 

(consultant to NIRSAL 

on agricultural insurance). 

L-R: Oghenevwoke Ighure, executive director, digital services, BusinessDay; Chiamaka Osuchukwu, a participant; Feyi Olubodun, 

CEO, Insight Publicis/speaker; Gbenga Omolokun, COO, VFD Group/speaker, and Hameed Salman, a participant, at The CEO 

Apprentice, an entrepreneurship programme for teenagers organised by BusinessDay Media in Lagos. Pic by Pius Okeosisi 

Customs seizes 11,232 pieces of imported military outfit 

IGNATIUS CHUKWU & INNOCENT ETENG 

Customs officials in 

Onne, Rivers State, 

have impounded not 

less than 11,232 pieces 

of illegally imported military 

outfit and arrested an importer 

said to be under watch. 

The 11,232 is the total 

of a combination of different 

types of military wears 

ranging from t-shirts to caps, 

jungle boots and others hidden 

in a container that also 

contained civilian wears and 

other materials. 

Sanusi Umar, Custom’s 

assistant comptroller general, 

revealed this last week, 

while inspecting the seized 

materials at the Command’s 

office in Onne. 

Umar emphasised that 

the materials were seized 

because private individuals, 

groups and companies were 

legally prohibited from importing 

such. 

He said investigations into 

an earlier seized container of 

same materials imported by 

the same importer, in June, 

gave way to the recent seizure. 

The importer, identified 

as Ongwatabo Jerry, has been 

arrested and is under investigation, 

Umar said further. 

“After profiling the importer’s 

transactions, I am 

happy to inform you that 

we have arrested another 

container MRKU 4909151 

(1×40ft) belonging to the 

same company, Ehigocho Nigeria 

Limited with Ogwatabo 

Jerry as the prime suspect. 

“On examination, it was 

found to contain the following: 

620 sets of complete 

sewn military camouflage 

uniforms and caps, 10, 000 

pieces of inner military t- 

shirts, 512 pairs of military 

jungle boots. The said Ongwatabo 

is the sole importer 

that opened the form M for 

the importation of these two 

containers. 

“Let me use this opportunity 

to draw the attention 

of Nigerians (to the fact) that 

importation of any kind of 

military wears by any individual, 

company, or group 

is prohibited by Nigerian 

law under the Customs and 

Exercise Management Acts 

(CEMA),” he said. 

Governor Governor 

Obaseki of 

Edo State says the 

establishment of 

production centres across 

the state, which will share 

support infrastructure such 

as electricity, security and 

low-cost financing, will 

boost economic growth. 

Obaseki said this at a 

meeting with leaders of the 

All Progressives Congress 

(APC) in Edo South Senatorial 

District on Sunday 

in Benin City, the state 

capital. He told the party 

leaders that his administration 

was partnering private 

investors to establish production 

centres across the 

state beginning with Edo 

South Senatorial District. 

“This will boost economic 

growth, reduce cost 

of operations and create 

employment opportunities 

while enhancing econo- 

National Social Investment 

Office 

of the Presidency 

has disassociate 

the office from a message 

currently circulating on social 

media, conveying the 

impression that the disbursement 

of the repatriated 

money by the Swiss government, 

otherwise referred to 

as Abacha Loot, will commence 

in October with the 

TraderMoni Micro-Credit 

Loan Scheme. 

According to the message 

signed by Maryam 

Uwais, special adviser to 

the President on social 

investment, the ‘grant,’ derived 

from the recovered 

looted fund, is being anchored 

by Access Bank. 

The statement read in 

part: “The Federal Government 

had deemed it fit to 

grant it to Nigerians, especially 

small-scale business 

owners. The money will be 

paid to your account and 

you are to pay back within six 

Ogbeh lauds CBN’s single-digit interest on agric lending 

Minister of agriculture 

and 

rural development, 

Audu 

Ogbeh, has described as 

laudable the announcement 

last Thursday by the Central 

Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on the 

agreement between the CBN 

and the Bankers’ Committee 

to offer single-digit interest 

rate loans to operators in the 

agricultural and manufacturing 

sectors of the economy 

from commercial banks’ 

Cash Reserve Requirement 

(CRR) with the apex bank. 

Considering the idea by 

the CBN, Ogbeh observed 

that this was a remarkable 

progress in government’s 

efforts towards boosting the 

real sector to which agricul- 

C002D5556 

Edo unveils strategy to mitigate operational cost 

for MSMEs, boost production scale, employment 

NSIO debunks fake news on Abacha loot 

ture was pivotal. This is expected 

to boost food security, 

employment creation and 

agro-industrial development. 

The minister also congratulated 

Vice President 

Yemi Osinbajo on the new 

policy reducing lending rates 

to Micro, Small and Medium 

scale Enterprises (MSMEs), 

noting that the CBN’s move 

was in compliance with the 

Presidential directive to 

lower lending rates to the 

productive sectors of the 

Nigerian economy, on which 

the minister had repeatedly 

assured Nigerians. 

That the central bank 

considered working with 

the Bankers’ Committee to 

finance agriculture from the 

commercial banks’ huge 

BUSINESS DAY 

7 

NEWS 

mies of scale,” he explained. 

He assured that efforts 

were being made to “expand 

opportunities for 

micro-credit of single-digit 

interest rate for women to 

encourage entrepreneurship 

and boost disposable 

income while improving 

the quality of lives of the 

beneficiaries.” 

In attendance were cabinet 

members, members 

of the Federal House of 

Representatives and leaders 

and representatives of 

the seven local government 

areas that make up the 

senatorial district, including 

women. 

The party leaders commended 

the focus of the administration 

and described 

the Ward Development Committees 

(WDCs) as a game 

changer, which they said were 

bringing the dividends of 

democracy to the grassroots. 

months. So, the programme 

is designated for small-scale 

business owners. 

“You are to walk into any 

Access Bank Branch ask 

them for Trade Form, which 

the Federal Government 

say they should give. Please 

note, it is free of charge, but 

Access Bank will ask you to 

pay N1200, for those who 

do not have Access Bank account, 

if you have an Access 

Bank account you don’t have 

to pay for any account opening 

and they will give you the 

form and fill. 

“It’s an instant form that 

you can fill and submit there 

immediately. Pls, go with a 

passport photograph, and 

your BVN number. I repeat, 

the form is free of charge. 

Don’t pay to anybody unless 

you want to open an Access 

Bank account, which is 

about N1,200 in other (sic) to 

make it fast. But if you have 

an account with access before 

its easy, they will link up 

your account with the form.” 

reserves, running into billions 

of naira, is a cause for 

optimism in the agricultural 

sector. This is more so as the 

single-digit interest rate of 9 

percent on long-term credit 

of a minimum tenor of seven 

years will support stable agricultural 

investment and 

predictable increase in food 

production. 

The multiplier effect of 

this initiative at a time of 

a restructured and recapitalised 

Bank of Agriculture 

(BoA) will be a reduction in 

uncertainties and avoidable 

risks in agricultural investments, 

where farmers will 

enjoy wider latitude of access 

to loans from either commercial 

banks or BoA with 

less hassles.

8 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556 

NEWS 

World Mosquito Day: Nigeria slowing 

global fight to wipe out mosquitoes 

ANTHONIA OBOKOH 

Nigeria suffers 

the world’s 

greatest malaria 

burden and 

accounts for a 

quarter of the burden of malaria 

epidemic globally with 

97 percent of the population 

at risk of contracting malaria, 

according to latest report by 

the World Health Organisation 

(WHO), indicating that 

the country is slowing down 

global efforts to control the 

spread of mosquitoes. 

Nigeria has made enormous 

strides in lowering the 

national impact of mosquitoes, 

which is responsible for 

spreading the diseases like 

malaria, dengue, chikungunya, 

zika, and encephalitis. 

According to the WHO, 

mosquitoes are the world’s 

deadliest animals, as these 

diseases cause a million 

losses (deaths) every year, 

worldwide. 

However, health experts 

say the major problem with 

the prevalence of malaria 

is that the mosquitoes and 

parasites that cause and 

spread the disease are developing 

resistance to the 

insecticides and antimalarial 

drugs used in fighting them. 

WHO defines resistance to 

insecticides as “an ability to 

tolerate doses of toxicants, 

which would prove lethal to 

the majority of individuals in 

a normal population of the 

same insect species.” 

Resistance arises from the 

selection of individuals able 

to survive and reproduce in 

an insecticide-treated environment 

or after being in 

contact with insecticides. 

World Mosquito Day is 

observed on August 20 to 

commemorate British doctor 

Sir Ronald Ross’ 1897 discovery 

that female mosquitoes 

were responsible for transmitting 

the malaria parasite. 

The yearly event creates 

awareness about the causes 

of malaria and how it can be 

prevented, as well as fundraising 

for research into the 

cure of malaria. 

Laz Eze, a public health 

expert, told BusinessDay that 

Nigeria could learn from the 

United States of America on 

how they tackle the spread of 

mosquitoes, saying it should 

be a joint effort to eradicate 

mosquitoes in the country. 

“The key is prevention, 

that is how it can be wiped 

out. The Federal Government 

need to increase its political 

will in support of the global 

effort, and also the masses 

complying on behavioural 

change in there various environments 

will help reduce 

the spreads of mosquitoes 

causing the huge burden of 

malaria in the country,” Eze 

said. 

Studies conducted by the 

Nigerian Institute of Medical 

Research (NIMR) reveal that 

there is high level of resistant 

mosquitoes in several states 

in Nigeria. 

Chris Bode, chief medical 

director, Lagos University 

Teaching Hospital (LUTH), 

Idi-Araba, Lagos, says Nigeria 

is among the countries that 

are still unable to eradicate 

malaria, although there has 

been renewed interest in researches 

and innovations in 

diagnostics methods, drugs 

productions and the developments 

I control measures 

to eradicate malaria. 

“Increase in the number 

of people who sleep under 

long-lasting insecticidal nets, 

or protected as well as diagnostic 

testing of children 

and treatment of pregnant 

women will contribute to significantly 

lowering incidence 

and mortality in Nigeria. 

Abduction of workers, cultism 

threaten businesses in Eket - Group 

AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE 

Small and big businesses 

situated in Eket, 

Akwa Ibom State, are 

closing down their operations 

due to increasing insecurity 

in the area, Dominion 

Akpan, chairman, Eket 

Business Forum (EBF), says. 

Akpan, who disclosed this 

on Monday, said the recent 

abduction of ExxonMobil 

workers; incessant cultism, 

protests and other security 

concerns, had made Akwa 

Ibom’s second largest city 

none conducive for business. 

According to Akpan, “In 

July, the Police had to rescue 

19 ExxonMobil staff travelling 

from Port Harcourt for a 

crew change of duty at Qua 

Iboe Terminal. The abduction 

of the workers was very 

worrisome because it was 

said to have the blessing of 

some community leaders in 

the area. The suspected kidnappers 

reportedly draped 

sacks over their victims’ 

heads as they took them to 

their hideout, but were rescued 

by the Police. 

“Cultism is also a huge 

blight on Eket. Eket, which 

has significant presence 

of workers of ExxonMobil, 

is among the four local 

government areas mostly 

affected by perennial cultkillings 

and related violence 

in the state. In June, 

cultists in the area killed 

three people. A contract 

worker with Mobil was 

among those killed. He was 

reportedly shot in the head 

at close range while drinking 

at a pub, somewhere in 

the city.” 

He said the cultists had 

also been terrorising businesses 

and residents of the 

area before 20 of them were 

arrested recently. 

“Earlier this year, youths 

under the aegis of Nigeria 

Youth Initiative Forum 

(NYIF) in Akwa Ibom State 

threatened ExxonMobil, demanding 

the employment 

of youths within the catchment 

area in contracting 

firms under the management 

of the multinational 

company or suffer disruption 

of their activities. 

“The youths threatened to 

barricade the Qua Iboe Terminal 

road and the Mobil airstrip 

should the company ignore 

their demand,” he said. 

The EBF chairman further 

disclosed that many businesses 

were moving out of 

Eket to other parts of the state 

and in some cases, to other 

parts of the country. 


NECA lauds CBN’s 

single-digit loan 

to real sector 

JOSHUA BASSEY 

Nigeria Employers’ 

Consultative Association 

(NECA) 

has lauded the 

Central Bank of Nigeria 

(CBN) on agreement reached 

with the Bankers’ Committee 

to offer single-digit interest 

rate loans to operators in the 

manufacturing and agricultural 

sectors of the economy, 

from commercial banks’ 

Cash Reserve Requirement 

(CRR) with the apex bank. 

Olusegun Oshinowo, director-general 

of NECA, applauded 

the scheme, noting 

that it would aid the development 

of the real sector. 

Oshinowo, however, 

pointed out the need to extend 

the scheme beyond the 

real sector, saying, “Though 

the scheme is commencing 

with manufacturing and agricultural 

sectors, it should 

be extended to other sectors 

of the economy, especially 

sectors that would create jobs 

for the teeming youth population. 

We believe that the 

focus is to ensure the growth 

of the economy, especially 

now that we are out of recession 

and have achieved some 

stability.”

Tuesday 21 August 2018 C002D5556 BUSINESS DAY 9



C002D5556 

COMMENT 

MAZI SAM OHUABUNWA OFR 

sam@starteamconsult.com 

I 

have been in the United States 

of America attending family 

events and attempting a vacation. 

Before I left Nigeria, I was 

really downcast with the turn of 

events in country, especially the show 

of shame happening in the political 

circles: Rumours of planned decamping, 

mass decamping and some descamping; 

threats of impeachment and 

attempted impeachments in the midst 

of worsening insecurity and growing 

poverty. Nigerian politicians seem to 

be taking the people for a ride. For me 

the political environment in the country 

was unpleasant especially the high 

display of impunity and rascality by 

the security agencies. Naturally many 

people were blaming President Muhammadu 

Buhari (PMB) and his ruling 

APC party for fouling the environment. 

However, when I arrived the USA 

and turned on the TV and listened to 

what people were saying about President 

Donald Trump (PDT), I realized 

that the social and political environment 

in the USA was also agitated and 

for some very unpleasant, though for 

different reasons and circumstances. 

Just as many Nigerians were blaming 

PMB, so were many Americans that 

I spoke to or watched on TV pissed 

off with PDT. That got me thinking. 

Are there parallels, coincidences 

and differences between these two 

leaders who though are being heavily 

criticized by many today, also seem to 

enjoy cult following by group of others 

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. 

“The transmission of knowledge and the 

capacity to sustain excellence, to produce 

relevant research results and to offer the 

society convincing and intelligent social 

criticism has been dwindling rapidly 

in our universities. This has resulted in 

societal stagnation rather than national 

development.” – Professor Eyitope 

Ogunbodede, Vice Chancellor, Obafemi 

Awolowo University, Ile Ife 

The above quote was sourced 

from a presentation delivered 

by the erudite professor of 

Preventive and Community 

Dentistry, Eyitope Ogunbodede at the 

First Rehoboth Dream Solid Foundation 

Annual Lecture 2018 edition which 

took place on 9 August at the Admiralty 

Conference Centre, Lagos. The paper 

titled “Public Education in the 21st 

Century: A Reappraisal of the Nigerian 

Education System since Independence,” 

generated a debate regarding 

comment is free 

Send 800word comments to comment@businessdayonline.com 

Is there a common destiny between Buhari & Trump? 

who seem unfazed by the criticisms? 

First I noticed that both PMB and 

PDT are not mainstream politicians, 

though they have long nurtured the 

desire to rule. They are not chartered 

politicians like my sibling- Senator 

Mao. Yes, they have had long political 

affiliations but seem to lack 

normative political skills. Trump 

has been a real-estate businessman 

and TV personality while Buhari 

has been essentially a soldier. Even 

in their political affiliations, they 

have moved around. PDT was a 

Democrat at some point (up till 1987, 

2001-2009), Reform Party (1999- 

2001), Independent (2011-2012) and 

Republican (1987-1999, 2009-2011, 

2012-Present). He also had made 

some attempts to join the presidential 

race at three previous times and 

actually went through Reform Party 

primaries before dropping out and 

then finally making the bold and 

audacious bid in 2016 that brought 

him to the Presidency. PMB we know 

seized power through a military coup 

in December 1983 and was, in turn, 

overthrown in August 1985. He contested 

three times under two political 

platforms (2003-ANPP, 2007-ANPP, 

2011-CPC) before making the 4th 

and ultimate bid in 2015 on the APC 

platform that finally brought him to 

the presidency. 

Second, PDT is the oldest and 

wealthiest person to become President 

in America at age 70 just as PMB 

is the oldest person to become Nigeria’s 

civilian President at age 73. PMB 

was supported to become Nigerian 

President by Obama and he was the 

first African President to be invited 

to the White House by Trump. Third, 

both PMB and PDP won elections 

to the presidency against the run of 

play- coming from opposition parties 

and were heavily de marketed 

because of their past records. 

Fourth, both are strong willed 

and profess populist, protectionist 

Are there parallels, 

coincidences and 

differences between 

these two leaders 

who though are being 

heavily criticized by 

many today, also seem 

to enjoy cult following 

by group of others who 

seem unfazed by the 

criticisms? 

and nationalistic world views and currently 

have poor domestic ratings mostly 

for different reasons- PMB for poor 

security management, struggling and 

post-recession economy, one-sided 

anti-corruption fight and a rancorous 

political environment, while for PDT 

it is for his largely anti-American stand 

on many issues, his romance with Putin 

of Russia and the repudiation of global 

agreements- WTO, Paris climate agreements, 

Iran nuclear deal etc. He seems 

to be turning American values upside 

down, restricting freedom of speech 

and press freedom and currently has 

grave integrity challenges. Fifth, both 

have scant respect for diversity. In 

PMB’s security architecture and discretionary 

appointments, he has ignored 

the Southeast Nigeria and has focused 

heavily around his catchment area. The 

gains made by women in Jonathan’s era 

have been grossly eroded. Similarly, 

PDT has expressed racial preferences 

and in his White House, most of the 

faces are white and the colour and 

gender diversity built by Obama has 

been fully annihilated. PDT is accused 

of trying to re-establish white 

supremacy while PMB is accused of 

trying to establish a Fulani empire. 

On the flip side, PDT is loquacious 

but PMB is taciturn though both have 

to be kept on point, to avoid accidental 

discharges, which happens more with 

PDT as he often feels obliged to comment 

on every issue from his twitter 

account. PDT is very active, pushing 

his agenda and fighting through 

several unpopular policies, executive 

orders and social commentary, but 

PMB is restrained and seems more 

strategic than tactical. 

As it stands, both seem to be fighting 

battles for political survival. Both 

men are in their first terms and from 

all indications want to do second 

terms as allowed by their respective 

country’s constitutions. PDT is facing 

tough challenges. He is at logger 

heads with most of the international 

community, except perhaps Russia 

and Israel. He regards the European 

Union (EU) as adversaries or even 

enemies. He is at war with closest 

Neighbours - Mexico and Canada and 

has problem with NATO allies. He is 

currently undertaking an economic 

warfare with China using unheard of 

tariff spikes with China struggling to 

retaliate. He has exacerbated the Middle 

East tensions with his unilateral 

recognition of undivided Jerusalem 

as the capital of Israel, moving the US 

embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. 

He has repudiated the Iran nuclear 

deal and is currently on a shouting 

match with Tehran, recently opening 

another shouting frontier with Turkey. 

The international community would 

wish for a change of leadership in 

America by 2020 or preferably earlier. 

Naturally they share similar views 

with the Democratic Party and now 

An appraisal of public education in Nigeria 

the poor state of public education in 

the country. 

The gist of Ogunbodede’s presentation 

is that Nigerian educational 

institutions at all levels must undergo 

critical reforms and restructuring to 

enable them make meaningful contributions 

to national development in the 

Twenty-first Century. Certainly, this is 

not the first time one of our brilliant 

and intellectually gifted academic has 

drawn attention of policy makers to 

the fact that with technology changing 

rapidly, and the world becoming 

increasingly knowledge based, education 

has emerged as a key determinant 

of a nation’s economic development. 

The truth is that a country with low 

educational standard can never join 

the league of industrialized nations. 

As an observer and beneficiary 

of public education in Nigeria, one 

could assert that things have never 

been this bad with public primary, 

secondary and tertiary institutions in 

the country. Admittedly, it is not all bad 

news because the number of primary, 

secondary, and tertiary educational 

institutions have increased in the past 

four decades. These institutions have 

produced many brilliant students and 

outstanding teachers in the country. In 

the 1980s, Nigeria had 16 universities. 

Today, there are a total of 162 universities 

in Nigeria comprising 41 Federal, 

47 State and 74 private, at various levels 

of development and growth, according 

to Ogunbodede. There is no state 

of the federation that does not have 

more than one university. So whilst we 

‘ 

’ 

concede that progress has undoubtedly 

been made, serious question still remains 

about the quality of public education in 

Nigeria. A visit to any public primary, 

secondary, and tertiary institution will 

expose the level of decay and inadequacies 

of facilities. Yet, students are enrolled 

beyond the capacity of classrooms and 

other structures without a corresponding 

increase in the number of teachers. 

Budgetary allocation to public education 

is poor and on a downward trend in the 

past few years. 

Lecturers in public universities are 

neglected because of inadequate funds 

for research, conferences, and capacity 

building workshops. We now have a situation 

where competent and dedicated 

university administrators are endangered 

species. Teachers and lecturers are poorly 

rewarded such that most people consider 

academic work as the job of last resort. 

That is why most teachers and lecturers 

engage in parallel time consuming 

occupations which undermine their 

performance. For public education to 

thrive, every aspect of the society must 

be involved. Education is the prime 

mover of any given society and a critical 

factor for improving the quality of human 

resources. Education, either in private or 

public institutions takes input from several 

factors of the society and gives outputs 

to these factors. These factors include but 

not limited to culture, human and natural 

resources, nation’s historical background, 

industrial development strategy and 

leadership amongst others. These factors 

must be of higher standard before Nigeria 

can have quality education. What a na- 

tion provides as inputs into education 

is what she gets as outputs. It is a case 

of garbage-in, garbage-out (GIGO). 

Each factor, though discrete are at the 

same time mutually interdependent 

with other factors. Thus, a progress 

within any factor on its own or indeed 

a combination of a limited number of 

factors will not give rise to national development. 

The chances of success will 

rather increase if all factors including 

education are married together with the 

precision of a good orchestra. 

In order to have a high standard of 

public education, Nigeria must parade 

visionary leaders across the entire 

spectrum of the society. No nation can 

develop without visionary leaders. All 

things being equal, the probability of 

getting visionary leaders is higher in 

societies where the people are more 

educated and gifted than one peopled 

by dullards. Hence, the truism that nations 

get the leaders they deserve. 

When the culture is poor and investment 

in human resources is low, 

Nigeria cannot have quality education. 

The standard of education will not be 

high when there is disjointed national 

development strategies and policies. 

Therefore, national development is 

not merely the function of economic 

conditions alone but arises from the 

total situation within the society. Have 

we ever asked ourselves why poor societies 

remain poor? It is because those 

societies have neglected the cultural 

dimension to economic development. If 

a nation’s value system is poor, then she 

remains backward ad infinitum. Nigeria 

many conservative Republicans are 

even sharing this view. Last week 

President Jimmy Carter spoke, following 

earlier comments by George 

Bush and Ronald Reagan’s daughter 

and several other leading Republicans 

like Senator John McCain. Even the 

intelligence community has joined in 

raising the red flag against PDT. Everybody 

is waiting for special counsel, 

Robert Mueller’s report on Russia and 

related matters! 

Fortunately, PMB does not seem to 

have much problem with the international 

community, though Nigeria is 

holding Africa back in many respects, 

more so now with its reluctance to 

sign the African Continental Free 

trade Area (AfCFTA) pact. He is widely 

respected abroad and has been made 

the anti-corruption champion by the 

African Union (AU). 

But PMB has plenty of issues domestically, 

the greatest of them being 

his patent inability to secure the lives 

of Nigerian civilians. Life has always 

been cheap in Nigeria since 1966, 

when the Military, of which he was a 

key player, turned Nigerians against 

themselves. But in the last three years, 

life has become completely worthless 

in many parts of Nigeria. This coupled 

with the inability of his ruling party 

APC to either unite its members or 

cause the government to unite the 

people of Nigeria. 

Many Nigerians say that the country 

has never been as divided as it is 

today under PMB as ever it has been 

since the end of the Nigerian civil war 

in 1970. Coincidentally Many Americans 

say that America has never been 

as divided as it is today under PDT 

since the end of the American Civil 

war in 1865. 

Would this be worthy legacies for 

PMB & PDT? I would rather not. 

Send reactions to: 

comment@businessdayonline.com 

cannot be an industrialized economy 

without adapting its culture to modern 

industrial realities. 

Nigerians generally have not imbibed 

the culture of using scientific 

means to solve industrial, medical, 

governance and managerial problems 

etcetera. Many Nigerians have not accepted 

science, and technology as a 

way of life. Rather, most Nigerians have 

remained superstitious and animistic. 

We want miracle to happen in national 

development. But there is no short 

cut, the people must work diligently 

to achieve national development. As 

primary, secondary and tertiary institutions 

increase, education has 

not significantly changed how most 

Nigerians relate to the natural world. 

Public education can improve in Nigeria 

provided all other factors of the 

society mentioned above are of higher 

standard. Otherwise, Nigeria will not 

be able to develop highly skilled and 

technologically adroit citizens that will 

enable her transit from backwardness 

to industrialization. Time has come 

for state and federal governments to 

overhaul curricula of public schools, 

and provide adequate funds to enable 

these institutions prepare students who 

are pro-industry. Contributions from 

families, communities and the Organized 

Private Sector will go a long way to 

improving public education because 

state and federal governments cannot 

do it alone. 


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)” 

Four years ago, Fidelity 

Bank aimed to be Nigeria’s 

top tier 2 bank. 

It succeeded. Fidelity 

now aims to be a tier 

1 bank by 2022. Rated B- by Fitch 

and S&P Global Ratings, Fidelity 

has a total asset base of $4.4 billion, 

4.1 million bank accounts, 

1.5 million mobile customers, 

and more than 3,000 professional 

staff. It is ranked amongst the top 

10 banks in Nigeria, albeit with a 

market share of about 5 percent. 

C002D5556 

comment is free 

Fidelity bank: Steadily aiming high 

It is also reputed to be one of six 

Nigerian banks that conducts an 

interim audit of its financials and 

was the first to adopt a market 

reflective exchange rate for preparing 

them. Fidelity was also 

recently rated the 4th best bank 

in the retail segment by KPMG, 

a consultancy, in its 2017 Banking 

Industry Satisfaction Survey 

(BISS).The bank already maintains 

high standards for some 

regulatory metrics: its capital 

adequacy ratio was unchanged 

at 16 percent in its most recent 

reporting, above the regulatory 

minimum requirement of 15 

percent. Chief executive Nnamdi 

Okonkwo attributes the successes 

under his four-year stewardship 

thus far to a strong management 

team and well-motivated 

employees. In fact, Fidelity staff 

are believed to be one of the best 

remunerated in the industry. It 

also has perhaps the most genderfriendly 

top management team 

of any Nigerian bank, with three 

female executive directors. 

‘ 

In fact, Fidelity staff are 

believed to be one of 

the best remunerated in 

the industry. It also has 

perhaps the most genderfriendly 

top management 

team of any Nigerian 

bank, with three female 

executive directors 

’ 

Organic growth strategy 

How does Fidelity plan to operationalise 

its tier 1 ambitions? 

Okonkwo prefers an organic strategy, 

but would also consider acquisition 

opportunities if they align 

Send 800word comments to comment@businessdayonline.com 

with the bank’s strategy. Does 

Fidelity plan to raise new capital? 

There are no immediate plans to 

do so, the chief executive says in 

response. But it could seek funding 

in the local debt market during 

the course of the year. In any case, 

it sold a $400 million Eurobond 

in the 2017 financial year. Asked 

what his strategies for growth 

are, Okonkwo highlights three 

things: Digitisation, especially 

via its“Fidelity Mobile” platform, 

has attracted more than 1 million 

new customers in the past three 

years. In fact, digital banking now 

accounts for over 25 percent of 

the bank’s fee income. The bank 

is also counting on its digital 

banking platform to drive down 

the cost-to-income ratio to 50 

percent (72.7 percent in Q1 2018) 

by ensuring at least 90 percent of 

total transaction volumes are via 

digital channels.“We will enhance 

our robust electronic banking 

processes and products thereby 

deepening our hold on the retail 

and commercial markets, small 

BUSINESS DAY 

11 

and medium scale enterprises and 

niche corporate clientele”, Okonkwo 

told shareholders in May at the 

bank’s 30th Annual General Meeting 

(AGM) meeting in Lagos. For 

its SME clients, the bank plans an 

“SME Funding Fair” where it aims 

to fund as many SMEs as possible 

to the tune of N500 million. If successful, 

it would become an annual 

event, Okonkwo says. Bottomline, 

Fidelity aims to be the “go-to 

bank for SMEs”. Fidelity also sees 

growth potential in the fast moving 

consumer goods, manufacturing, 

retail and agriculture sectors and 

has set a 2018 loan growth target 

for these sectors of 10 percent. 

• The column is a partner statement 

I wrote for Fidelity Bank Plc following 

a business editors’ meeting with 

chief executive Nnamdi Okonkwo 

in June 2018. It was published by 

African Business magazine in July 

2018 


comment@businessdayonline.com 

KEHINDE BAMIGBETAN 

BAMIGBETAN is Commissioner Ministry 

of Information & Strategy, Lagos state 

The set theory is a commonsensical 

heritage of 

arithmetic. By defining a 

selection from a universe 

as a set, it makes value judgments 

that could relate to the mass. The 

Economist Intelligence Unit, the 

research arm of the highly prestigious 

Economist newsmagazine experiments 

with the set theory every 

year. To execute its livability survey, 

it selects 140 cities out of millions of 

cities across the world. This means a 

set of 140 cities out of a million plus 

universe of cities. 

That a city qualifies to be among 

this chosen few is a loud announcement 

of its arrival in the league 

of international destinations of 

commerce, industry and tourism. 

It means it is being benchmarked 

in its region as the most important 

place people are likely to visit and 

companies are likely to open shop 

in that region. That is the positive 

message for Lagos: that its struggle 

to modernize its infrastructures and 

services has attracted the attention 

of the international players so much 

that is has been recommended for 

this study. 

Curious to know why and how 

Lagos got into the select group of 

140 cities, I sent a tweet to Roxanna 

Slavcheva, the head of the 

City Practices Unit of the EIU, who 

put together the research. Her reply: 

When the worst of the best is better than the rest 

“To answer your question simply, 

the inclusion of Lagos in the survey 

was motivated by client demand. 

Currently we have a fixed list of cities 

that we conduct the live ability 

survey for. The ranking is globally 

focused on business centres around 

the world. That is why our survey is 

global and seeks to quantify tangible 

challenges to lifestyle according 

to the same set of criteria across all 

140 locations.” 

The live ability report is an advisory 

data motivated by the need to 

give multinational companies seeking 

to send their staff to locations 

across the world a guide on what 

to pay them while there. How does 

the rating work? Read the EIU: “The 

concept of live ability is simple: it 

assesses which locations around 

the world provide the best or the 

worst living conditions. Assessing 

live ability has a broad range of uses, 

from benchmarking perceptions 

of development levels to assigning 

a hardship allowance as part of 

expatriate relocation packages. The 

Economist Intelligence Unit’s live 

ability rating quantifies the challenges 

that might be presented to 

an individual’s lifestyle in any given 

location, and allows for direct comparison 

between locations. 

Every city is assigned a rating 

of relative comfort for over 30 

qualitative and quantitative factors 

across five broad categories: 

stability; healthcare; culture and 

environment; education; and infrastructure. 

Each factor in each 

city is rated as acceptable, tolerable, 

uncomfortable, undesirable or intolerable. 

For qualitative indicators, 

a rating is awarded based on the 

judgment of in–house analysts and 

in–city contributors. For quantitative 

indicators, a rating is calculated 

based on the relative performance 

of a number of external data points. 

The scores are then compiled 

and weighted to provide a score of 

1–100, where 1 is considered intolerable 

and 100 is considered ideal. 

The live ability rating is provided both 

as an overall score and as a score for 

each category. To provide points of 

reference, the score is also given for 

each category relative to New York 

and an overall position in the ranking 

of 140 cities is provided.” 

The EIU, a private research consultancy, 

did not survey all the cities 

in the world. Rather, it looked at 

locations “around” the world. Therefore, 

it couldn’t have reported on an 

assignment it did not undertake. It 

chose 140 cities across regions and 

ranked them based on its live ability 

indicators such as social stability, 

healthcare, culture, environment, 

education and infrastructures. This 

report is an annual research product 

or book sold to countries, companies 

and individuals. In marketing the 

report to attract the patronage of this 

global clientele, the EIU put a nice 

spin on it by branding it as a “world” 

report. 

That is not the problem. The 

problem is that the media gullibly 

swallowed it hook, line and sinker 

and misrepresented a survey of 140 

cities as a survey of the world’s millions 

of cities. This hasty generalization 

is logically fallacious and calls to 

question the failure of rigour among 

the gatekeepers who are responsible 

for interrogating information disseminated 

by a company in a bid to 

sell its product before uploading for 

public consumption. 

It is more depressing that no 

controversy over the indices used 

is trending on Facebook, blogs and 

twitter handles of the country’s commentariat. 

For instance, this report 

uses New York, United States as its 

reference city. To demonstrate the 

contradictions of this modernization 

model which has been criticised by 

Third World scholars such as Samir 

Amir, Bade Onimode and others, 

resource mobilization influences the 

provision of infrastructures and services 

by cities. Considering prudent 

management as a constant factor 

between Lagos and New York, the 

massive difference in the resources 

available to both cities already 

shows which lags behind the others. 

In 2017, New York City Council 

budgeted $82.2 billion (N29.5 trillion). 

Same year, Lagos budgeted 

N7.2 trillion. 

Or consider population. With 

hourly migrant figure of 186 persons, 

Lagos chokes under a population 

weight of 22 million people. 

New York’s most current census 

of 2015 puts its population at 8, 

556,405. Let us add the increase over 

the years generously to estimate as 

10 million today. Matching both 

resource and the population for 

both cities, we can see where the 

pendulum swings. Vienna, the best 

of the report’s 140 countries, spent 

4 million US dollars to service its 

population of 1,800,000 residents 

in 2017. 

The failure to critically review the 

report from the perspective of economic 

development and appreciate 

the location of each of these cities 

in the international system of trade 

and development is a recent handicap 

of Nigeria’s media scholarship. 

It is indeed surprising that few, if 

any has bothered to read the report 

.The drawbacks in Lagos’ strive to 

catch up with the world such as 

the neglect it has suffered since the 

movement of the federal capital to 

Abuja and the denial of resources 

needed for its development due to 

its political distance from the party 

controlling the federal government 

for 16 years of the current democratic 

dispensation are well known. 

Today, 37 of the 57 local authorities 

of Lagos State still demand and 

deserve federal allocation. 

Despite these challenges, the reality 

is that Lagos is not resting on its 

oars. With the bold and daring push 

of its helmsmen-Bola Tinubu and 

Raji Fashola- since the resumption 

of democratic rule, the megacity has 

been experiencing transformation 

in all spheres and playing catch up 

with centuries –old metropoles. This 

momentum has been scaled up in 

the last three years under Governor 

Akinwunmi Ambode with the massive 

investment in infrastructures 

earning the city the description of “a 

huge construction site”. 

Lagos not only means business, 

it is reforming its processes digitally 

and humanly to set up shop as the 

most desirable destination for commerce, 

industry and tourism. The 

emerging landscape of the 10-lane 

Murtala Muhammed Airport Road, 

Oshodi Transportation Interchange, 

the JK Randle Cultural Centre, the 

development of waterways and rail 

infrastructures, Oshodi-Abule-Egba 

Bus Rapid Transport route and first 

DNA centre in West Africa gradually 

rises into view. 

But it is not all about brick and 

mortar. More powerful testimonies 

are being recorded in entrepreneurship 

as billions of credit to small and 

medium scale businesses through 

the Lagos State Employment Trust 

Fund drive the jobless from the 

streets to factories. The deployment 

of massive security personnel and 

equipment, including CCTV technology 

and street lights elongate the 

city’s business into the wee hours 

of the morning. Social inclusion 

policies have brought the disabled, 

the youth and the women closer to 

public resources. Town hall meetings 

have shown an administration 

committed to good governance and 

transparency. These have contributed 

to the resilience that was globally 

acknowledged last year. 

Ranking 138th among business 

locations across the world is the 

recognition that Lagos has left behind 

millions of many other cities, 

including the federal capital, Abuja, 

to be among the 140 demanded by 

businessmen. And that is enough 

reason to conclude that the allegedly 

worst city among the world’s best 140 

is, indeed, better than the rest. 


comment@businessdayonline.com

12 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556 Tuesday 21 August 2018 

Editorial 

PUBLISHER/CEO 

Frank Aigbogun 

EDITOR 

Anthony Osae-Brown 

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Chuka Mordi 

Sim Shagaya 

Mezuo Nwuneli 

Emeka Emuwa 

Charles Anudu 

Tunji Adegbesan 

Eyo Ekpo 

When a government adopts falsehood as policy 

When the global 

corruption 

watchdog, 

Transparency 

International 

(TI) released its 2017 

Corruption Perception Index 

(CPI), which ranked Nigeria 

148 out of 180 countries despite 

the efforts of the Buhari 

administration to tackle corruption 

in the country, the 

federal government went into 

denial mode, accusing TI of 

bias. After reeling off its own 

facts on fighting corruption 

in Nigeria, the presidency 

dismissed TI’s report as “a 

political distraction” given 

that some critics of his administration 

are patrons of 

the watchdog. It did not matter 

to the government that as 

an opposition party, it had 

consistently relied on TI’s 

ranking to discredit the previous 

government and position 

itself as a better alternative. 

The rational thing for the 

government to do if it disagreed 

with Nigeria’s ranking, 

is to fault the integrity of the 

primary data source (methodology) 

- which was not 

generated by the watchdog 

anyway – used for the study. 

But no, it did not. It couldn’t 

have anyway. Instead, it went 

the lazy way – attacking TI 

just because some of its board 

members, who are Nigerians 

and are within their rights to 

hold their personal views, are 

critics of the Buhari administration. 

What a shame! 

But if we thought that was the 

lowest the government could go, 

it descended further into outright 

lies when the Brookings Institution, 

drawing its data from the 

World Poverty Clock, released its 

report, showing that Nigeria has 

overtaken India as the country 

with the most people living in 

extreme poverty in the world. 

Details of the report shows that 

Nigeria now has over 87 million 

of its citizens living in extreme 

poverty compared to India’s 

with just 73 million. But whereas, 

India, with a population of 1.35 

billion, has continued to see a 

rapid decline in the number of 

its population leaving under 

extreme poverty, Nigeria, with 

just a population of under 200 

million, has continued to see its 

desperately poor population rising 

at an alarming rate. According 

to the report, extreme poverty 

is growing by six people every 

minute in Nigeria while poverty 

in India continues to fall. 

Pronto, the government 

rolled out its propaganda machines 

to counter the report 

with otherwise intelligent ministers 

coming to voice inanities 

and outright lies to refute a fact 

that is as clear as daylight. It did 

not bother the government that 

every rational individual with 

basic knowledge of economics 

can see clearly how its illconceived 

policies since 2015 

have been throwing millions of 

Nigerians into extreme poverty. 

Now, even more insulting to 

Nigerians is government’s feeble 

attempts to deny and fault a UN 

report that the Nigerian government 

had paid “huge ransom” 

for the release of the kidnapped 

Dapchi school girls in February. 

The report identified these 

ransom payments as the major 

factor fuelling the nefarious activities 

of Boko Haram and other 

terrorist groups in the region. 

Now, virtually everyone with 

knowledge of Boko Haram activities 

and the negotiations that 

went into the release of some 

of the Chibok and later Dapchi 

girls know that the Nigerian government 

has been paying ransoms 

to Boko Haram – and it is 

indeed these ransom payments 

that is fuelling further kidnaps 

by the sect and largely funding 

the activities of the terrorist sect. 

It therefore beggars belief that 

the government is trying to deny 

the obvious! 

From these instances, what 

is becoming clear is that the 

government has adopted a 

policy of deliberate falsehood 

and disinformation as a means 

of communication and it is doing 

great damage to the image of 

the country. These reports are 

results of carefully conducted 

research and facts gathered 

on the field by respected and 

apolitical international/global 

agencies. The reports are respected 

and accepted worldwide 

and most countries rely on 

them to formulate policies and 

or programmes. It therefore 

does not show us in good light 

when the Nigerian government 

tries to deny these reports just 

because they reveal inconvenient 

truths. 

The government may have 

come to power through propaganda, 

but it cannot continue 

to govern through propaganda 

while labelling all critical voices 

liars and agents of corruption. 

It may rely on propaganda to 

keep its support base, but it 

cannot rely on propaganda to 

gain international support and 

recognition. It’s rather making 

a mockery of the country and its 

intelligent people. 

Besides, the government’s 

belligerent attitude to factual 

reports and data about the 

country questions its capacity 

to listen to genuine criticisms 

and change course when it’s in 

the wrong. With a government 

that is impervious to criticism 

and accepts no wrong, Nigeria 

may be headed for the rocks 

except a miracle happens! 

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C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

13 

APCON board re-constitution litmus 

test for Ikechi Odigbo-led AAAN 

… Industry practitioners expecting actions 

Stories by Daniel Obi 

Media Business Editor 

Nigeria’s Integrated 

Marketing 

Communication 

industry 

is relying on 

Association of Advertising 

Agencies of Nigeria, AAAN to 

lead the pack in negotiating 

and convincing Buhari administration 

to re-constitute 

the board of Advertising Practitioners 

Council of Nigeria, 

APCON. 

The absence of the AP- 

CON board in the last three 

years has not allowed the advertising 

apex body to function 

at full capacity and this 

has cold implications for the 

advertising industry valued 

at about N150 billion. 

Statutorily, AAAN has the 

largest number of 10 members 

in the 21 board membership 

of APCON. Though, 

out of the 10, it has ceded one 

each to OAAN and MIPAN 

respectively. 

Recently, the new president 

of AAAN, Ikechi Odigbo 

promised that there are plans 

to push for the proper constitution 

of APCON council. He 

did not elaborate. 

When he took office at the 

association’s general meeting 

in Abeokuta last month, 

Ikechi said “there are plans 

to push for the proper constitution 

of the Advertising 

Practitioners’ Council of Nigeria 

(APCON) Council”. The 

statement is however not 

certain whether he is leveraging 

the previous president, 

Kayode Oluwasona’s plans or 

he wants to construct another 

strategy for this purpose 

under his administration. 

According to sources, 

the statement will amount 

to rhetoric if there are not 

enough influence and sway 

on the presidency in Abuja 

since government sees the 

constitution of APCON council 

as a political decision. 

Another possible move 

could be to wrest APCON 

from the tight fist of government, 

move for the amendment 

of the law and allow 

it to operate independently 

with industry funds, the 

source said. The industry is 

therefore watching on which 

way Ikechi goes to realize industry 

expectation. 

For over three year, AP- 

CON, Nigeria’s advertising 

apex regulatory body is yet 

to function at full capacity 

due to absence of a board. 

During his tenure, Kayode 

pushed the agenda for AP- 

CON council re-constitution 

vigorously. In July last year, 

Kayode led a delegation to 

the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo 

to plead with him for 

the board to save advertising 

practitioners from undue exposure 

and protect the country’s 

image by re-constituting 

APCON council. 

Oluwasona recognized 

that the absence of APCON 

made it difficult for the country 

to achieve descent and 

progressive advertising. He 

recognised that the non-constitution 

of the council has 

had grave implications for the 

industry. 

“So you can imagine in 

the last three years APCON 

Rotary Club of Akowonjo earmarks project 

for execution, commissioning 

Rotary Club of Akowonjo, 

one of the 

clubs under the Rotary 

International, 

Nigeria, is set to commission 

various projects in the 

Alimosho Local Government 

Area of Akowonjo the club’s 

immediate catchment community 

which also is the 

largest local government in 

Lagos State. This is in line 

with the club’s promise to execute 

impactful projects for 

the 2018 to 2019 Rotary year. 

This revelation was 

Ikechi Odigbo 

made by the President of 

Rotary Club of Akowonjo, 

Rotarian Olabisi Taiwo 

during her investiture as 

the 3rd female president of 

the 33- year old club chattered 

by late Past Governor 

of Rotary International 

District 9110, Martin Itotoi 

recently at the Westown 

Hotels, Ikeja, Lagos. 

In an interview after the 

event, the president said 

all was set for the commissioning 

of some of the club’s 

projects in the Alimosho/ 

Ijedi Iyoha 

Akowonjo area of the state by 

the District Governor, Rotarian 

Kola Sodipo. 

She identified the projects 

for commissioning 

to include the ICT facility 

at Abati/Rauf Aregbesola 

Primary School, Alimosho; 

Flag off of the 2018 

Adult Literacy Programme; 

launching of a new Adult 

Literacy Signage erected for 

the school by her club; Tree 

Planting at the school’s 

premises and donations to 

the Little Saints Orphanage, 

had barely had a council for 

longer than four months. 

And when the council is not 

there, our trade, our business, 

our industry actually 

suffers over exposure. The 

kind of campaigns, communication 

that is responsible, 

decent, progressive advertising 

cannot be achieved 

because it is the council that 

is set up to drive it.’’ 

Kayode attributed the unwholesome 

campaigns seen 

in the last national elections 

happened because there was 

no regulatory body to control 

political advertising. 

Kayode has however 

handed over the baton to 

Ikechi to continue where he 

stopped. Advertisers are waiting 

for the next move on this 

objective. 

Shasha, Alimosho, Lagos. 

According to Taiwo, the 

District Governor’s visit will 

give the club an opportunity 

to raise funds towards further 

execution of other projects 

within the Rotary year. As 

she puts it, “after the day’s 

projects commissioning, 

the evening fellowship with 

the District Governor will 

culminate in an auction sale 

with the immediate proceeds 

going to District 9110 Educational 

and Welfare Endowment 

Fund (DEWEF)”. 

‘GEM’s mission is to 

enhance growth in light 

manufacturing industry’ 

The last few decades 

have given birth to 

the rise of light manufacturing 

and this has 

in turn resulted in a dramatic 

rise to the country’s national 

income. 

It is not news that laborintensive 

industries provide 

growth opportunities and have 

become key economic drivers 

of many nations, this is why it is 

key to capture the opportunities 

arising from the relocation 

of light manufacturing from 

higher-income countries to 

lower income nations. 

To support this effort, GEM 

Project said it is investing in a 

number of initiatives including: 

Leather: Recognizing the 

important role of the leather 

sector to the Nigerian economy, 

the GEM Project said it 

is providing huge support in 

the development of the first 

Nigerian leather policy. 

“In line with Government’s 

commitment to diversifying 

the economy from oil to nonoil 

economy, and the position 

of leather as both domestic 

industrial raw material and 

export commodity, the GEM 

Project provided some expertise 

and funding to the multistakeholders’ 

effort to produce 

the much overdue policy that 

will govern the operation of 

the leather industry in Nigeria. 

The draft policy, which was 

validated in Sokoto and Aba 

by relevant stakeholders has 

been submitted to relevant 

Ministries and awaits presentation 

at the Federal Executive 

Council for consideration and 

approval. 

Automotive Industry: One 

of the key sectors of development 

is transportation; GEM, 

in a statement said it provided 

support to this indus- 

try due to its huge potential 

for growth and job creation. 

“The current intervention is 

restricted to the automobile 

spare parts sub-sector, to assist 

the ever-growing need for 

vehicle spare parts across the 

country and government’s 

drive for import substitution 

responsibility. In a bid to start 

up the intervention with clear 

understanding of the value 

chain, GEM implemented an 

industry mapping of Nnewi 

automobile spare parts hubs, 

concluded a study on legality/licensing 

of replacement 

auto parts manufacturing in 

Nigeria (using Anambra and 

Kaduna as key areas of field 

research). The result of the 

survey reveals that most of 

the replacement parts produced 

by MSMEs in the Nigeria 

automobile spare parts 

industry are generic and do 

not infringe on the Original 

Equipment Manufacture’s 

(OEMs) Intellectual Property. 

In addition, GEM further 

said that it commissioned 

additional study in some 

other sub-sectors within the 

light manufacturing industry, 

aimed to spur investments and 

enhance their performance. 

The key objectives of the studies 

is to identify opportunities 

and market failure(s) for each 

sector with the focus of uncovering 

the potential areas for development 

through public and 

private sector investments. The 

study is therefore, expected to 

produce a market assessment 

report for the automotive / 

spare parts sector, the renewable 

energy industry and six 

(6) value chains in the Agroprocessing 

industry, which 

includes; Cocoa, Citrus, Cassava, 

Sugarcane, Tomatoes and 

Sesames. 

Star Beer extends 

millionaires campaign 

Star Lager Beer, has 

extended the Star 

United We Shine 

Millionaires Promo 

by another 30 days to allow 

for more consumers in 

more regions of the country 

to partake in the promo 

and win. 

The promo which was 

launched on the 15th of June, 

2018 will now end on 15th 

of September, 2018 a month 

after the original end date. 

Consumers will continue 

to win prizes and millions of 

Naira from the crown corks 

of Limited Edition Bottles 

Of Star Lager with a winning 

code that is redeemable via a 

USSD dial of *566*20# . 

The Star Lager promo 

has on offer cash prizes 

of N1 million, N2 million, 

N5 million and the mega 

dream cash of N10 million 

for Star consumers across 

Nigeria. These are in addition 

to millions of free 

drinks and other items 

available for win. 

Designed to reward loyal 

consumers, Star Lager with 

this move, is reinforcing its 

commitment as a consumer 

focused brand.



C002D5556 

‘Experiential marketing is biggest tool 

to engage consumers for value’ 

Owolabi Mustapha is the CEO of Maxxconnection, a five year old experiential marketing agency based in Lagos. 

Within five years of operation, it has made great strides in creating platforms for brands and consumers to interact 

with results to show. Owolabi said CMOs now appreciate the value experiential activity has brought to the marketing 

mix. He discussed other advantages and challenges the industry faces. Experts 

What is your assessment of 

the experiential marketing industry 

so far? 

Experiential marketing 

industry started 

very small some years 

back. Advertising and 

other segments of 

IMC had led the pack until about 

a decade ago when experiential 

took the center stage. Before experiential, 

CMOs of multinational 

were skeptical, about the value 

of experiential. But it is interesting 

to see these days that everybody 

now appreciates the value 

of what experiential has brought 

in the mix of marketing. Today, 

multinational now invest more 

in the experiential industry. 

Experiential was a major 

form of brands connection in 

70s, then it disappeared to resurface 

again in late 90s, what 

happened? 

It was not experiential that 

time. It was just promotional activity 

as part of advertising. The 

traditional advertising used to 

have promotional part. At that 

time, there were not really media 

independent agencies. The practice 

then used to be a one-stop 

shop where advertising agency 

used to have media and promotion 

department among others. 

With the evolving and dynamic 

world, the media has to change 

direction. Because of the evolution 

of media in conventional 

advertising, they had to carve out 

their niche out of advertising. 

It is argued that experiential 

activity is expensive in the basket 

of media, PR, advertising 

and digital, do you agree? 

Experiential is about value 

and value comes with cost. The 

argument whether it is expensive 

or not should not arise because 

experiential gives the most value. 

Others don’t translate to target 

engagement as experiential 

does. The value of experiential is 

not quantifiable. 

Another challenge is that 

experiential is limited in scope 

and operates in a particular 

area, what is your comment on 

this? 

In marketing, you need to 

identify the challenges that you 

want to address. After that you 

still need to distil your target audience. 

If my target audiences 

are in a particular area, I don’t 

need to waste time and resources 

being everywhere. If your target 

Owolabi Mustapha 

audience is the entire nation, of 

course experiential marketing 

can address it. There are different 

strategic approaches to address 

different challenges. Majority of 

multinational companies have 

more of experiential agencies 

working for them than the other 

agencies. This is global phenomenon. 

You can employ advertising 

to reach to mass audience and 

use PR to allow people read about 

the product but when it gets to 

the point that the product needs 

to be dropped directly to the people 

that need the service, it is experiential. 

The value comes when 

the people engage the product or 

buy it. 

To what level would you say 

the government has engaged 

experiential firms to deliver services 

to the citizens? 

It is interesting to know that 

some of the biggest campaigns 

from government are handled by 

experiential firms. For instance 

one of the biggest campaigns 

in Lagos is the count-down in 

December. This is a multi-million 

naira project. The activities 

around it are driven by experiential 

firms. For us, we have worked 

with a couple of state govern- 

ments in Nigeria. We have done 

lots of political campaigns. Other 

experiential firms are doing other 

activities for other states. Experiential 

marketing is one of the biggest 

tools to engage people for 

value. 

What is the place of measurement 

in experiential marketing 

activity as clients are 

passionate about impact? 

There are different approaches 

to measurement. It depends 

exactly on what you are measuring. 

If it is data, experiential 

marketing delivers it and that is 

why multinationals are engaging 

experiential agencies. Secondly, 

there is the connection and the 

experience which experiential 

gives. We are bringing experience 

that is uniquely designed for a 

particular product on the table. 

I repeat that experiential is not 

about cost but the value. Unique 

experience that comes with experiential 

marketing lives with the 

people and it leads to uptake. In 

terms of creativity, experiential 

agencies are doing very well. They 

come up with ingenious creativity. 

We have done job for a client 

that involves brand engagement, 

sales and CSR at the same time. 

Any other IMC segment will address 

just one of them but we 

addressed the three challenges. 

The Nigerian Bottling Company 

campaign of taking people off the 

street was conceptualized by us. 

It was an idea of taking people off 

the street without applying force 

by giving them opportunity to 

sell NBC products and rewarding 

them with N1m. 

You established Maxxconnection 

5 years ago, so what actually 

motivated you to start the 

firm? 

Movement is normal occurrence 

in human life either 

through challenges, the creative 

ingenuity and other couple 

of indices will determine movement. 

We looked at the industry 

and there were some quacks 

within the industry space, others 

are not tech driven and we 

thought that there was need for 

a unique agency that prides itself 

on creativity and technology. 

Our campaigns exhibit 

these features. Our Coca Cola 

campaign was example of really 

driving engagement. 

Your work on Campari drink 

was marvelous with Tuface as 

the ambassador. Could you talk 

more about it? 

In Maxxconnection, we take 

In marketing, you need to identify 

the challenges that you want to 

address. After that you still need to 

distil your target audience. If my 

target audiences are in a particular 

area, I don’t need to waste time and 

resources being everywhere 

research very seriously. Before 

any campaign, we engage thoroughly 

on research. Research 

gives you insight of what you 

want to do in the short, medium 

and long term period. We did 

extensive research on Campari 

as a brand. We looked at the journey 

of Campari and found that 

it was perceived as drink for the 

old. But these days, youth mix it 

with their beer. The campaign 

was driven on proper positioning 

of the drink as a youthful brand. 

Again, Trophy Beer is now everywhere 

but some years ago, it was 

perceived as Yoruba, Illesa drink. 

We are part of the success story of 

that brand today. The consumers 

are telling the story. 

How do you see experiential 

business in the next 5 years and 

where is the place of Maxxconnection? 

A whole lot of things will 

change for us and for the industry 

in the next 5 years. There will be 

a lot of strategic association and 

affiliation either local or foreign. 

Experiential will be placed in a 

better position as it is happening 

globally. There will be a lot of 

mergers and acquisitions in the 

industry. Also there will a lot of 

tech driven activities in the industry. 

Could you to talk more of 

your strength and challenges? 

We pride ourselves to be very 

young and this reflects on the 

employees. We believe that the 

power belongs to the youth and 

that is one of the strengths. We 

have also tried to retain most 

of our staff since inception. The 

challenges are enormous. It is 

a systemic and national problem. 

For instance the forex is not 

bringing strategic investment 

into the country. If this does not 

happen, it then limits most of the 

activities and number of clients 

for agencies. We have two clients 

that ought to have come in 

three years ago, and they are not 

certain about Nigeria’s system. 

Secondly electricity is a major 

challenge. It is costs us heavily 

to fuel the generator. There are a 

lot of unprofessional agencies in 

the industry and unfortunately, 

some clients still work with them 

because they charge ridiculous 

fees and some clients have got 

their fingers burnt. Financing 

and funding is a major challenge 

for the business as single interest 

rate is difficult.

Tuesday 21 August 2018 BUSINESS DAY 15 

COMPANIES 

& MARKETS 

Company news analysis and insight 

Nigerian Development 

Finance Institutions total 

assets up 36.8% to N1.3trn 

Pg. 16 

Ugandan authorities demand MTN listing 

on local bourse for license renewal 

CYNTHIA IKWUETOGHU 

Just like Nigeria, the 

Authorities in Uganda 

have asked MTN’s 

group to list some of 

its shares on the local 

stock exchange, Uganda Securities 

Exchange (USE) as 

a condition for renewing its 

operating license that is set 

to expire in October. 

Godfrey Mutabazi, head 

of Ugandan Communication 

Commission (UCC) 

told Reuters that Ugandans 

should be able to own a 

stake in MTN Uganda which 

has been in operation for 20 

years in the country. 

“We are evaluating the 

conditions of the license 

renewal and that is one of 

the points we are discussing.” 

Mutabazi said referring 

to a possible listing on USE. 

In addition, when he was 

asked if the condition was a 

prerequisite for prolonging 

MTN’s license, he replied 

saying it was right. 

“The firm had not shown 

any resentment to that proposal”, 

Mutabazi added. 

The firm has dominated 

the market in Uganda 

throughout its two decades 

in the East African country. 

It is the largest telecommunications 

firm by subscribers, 

followed by a unit of 

India’s Bharti Airtel and other 

smaller players. 

Adesola Adeduntan, managing director/chief executive officer, First Bank of Nigeria Limited (third right) flanked by some FirstBank 

customers, Ayo Daniyan (left), Mayowa Daniyan (second left), Onyejekwe Nnaemeka (third left), Nicholas Okonkwo (second right) 

and Safiyanu Faisa (right) at the FirstBank Voice of Customer held with the Retail Youth segment in Lagos recently 

The listing of MTN’s 

shares would cause a boost 

to the local stock exchange 

which is still quite small, 

with 16 firms as of July 2014. 

The local stock exchange had 

not attracted an Initial Public 

Offering (IPO) in Six years 

since its last IPO of Umeme 

(UMEM), a power distribution 

company on the USE in 

2012 until this month when a 

local drugs maker was listed 

on the exchange. 

“MTN is an investor here 

and they have been here for 

20 years...to go beyond, I 

would argue that they have 

been here long enough 

they should be identified as 

Ugandans and the only way 

to do that is to list so that 

Ugandans can have a stake 

in that company,” Mutabazi 

said. 

“They should warm to the 

government desire to have 

some of their shares listed.” 

Mutabazi concluded. 

Recently, MTN Uganda 

has faced criticism on social 

media platforms like Twitter 

and Facebook from some 

subscribers about data bundles 

getting used up quickly, 

does not download music 

and the firm not responding 

to their complaints. 

In May UCC said it 

would investigate MTN 

after criticism on social 

media about its mobile 

money policies. Mobile 

Money is a cell phoneborne 

service popular in 

Uganda and across East 

Africa that allows individuals 

to transmit cash 

between themselves and 

also quickly pay for goods 

and services. 

An extra headache for 

MTN and other telecoms 

in the country is also coming 

from a new tax measure 

on access to use of popular 

social media platforms like 

Facebook and WhatsApp 

which some analysts think 

will hurt growth in the sector. 

As part of the conditions 

of relinquishing part 

of MTN’s $5.2 billion fine, 

the company is expected to 

list on the Nigerian Stock 

Exchange. The Securities 

and Exchange Commission 

said recently it is awaiting the 

papers of MTN. 

According to the group’s 

financial results in 2017, 

MTN Uganda has a subscriber 

base of 10.7 million. 

It’s revenues for the year 

also surged by 10 percent to 

$356.34 million. 

Lifemate offers 55% discount on products 

in celebration of Eid El Mubarak 

MICHEAL ANI 

Nigeria’s leading furniture 

manufacturing 

company, Lifemate 

Furniture is 

offering 55 percent discounts 

on its products as part of activities 

to mark celebration of Eid 

El Mubarak. The Ileya promo 

which is promises to reward 

customers this celebration 

period, from range of products 

carefully designed to make life 

better for Nigerians. 

Derek Dai, managing director 

of Lifemate Nigeria 

Limited, while unveiling series 

of exciting packages to celebrate 

the Eid El Mubarak in 

Lagos said the company will 

continue to put the interest of 

the Nigerian people first as the 

company itself is a Nigerian 

company even though owned 

by Chinese investors. 

The furniture giant reiterated 

its commitment and 

determination to setting the 

pace in pushing for economic 

and social development in 

Nigeria through job creation 

and quality training to its staff 

across board. 

“We are relentlessly committed 

to unemployment 

reduction as we currently 

have over three thousand 

employees on our payroll” 

said Dai 

According to Dai, potentials 

of Nigeria are clear for the 

world to see. “The country is 

blessed with natural resources 

that aids production and we as 

a company will remain here 

contributing our quota to 

ensuring that Nigeria achieve 

her development and growth 

objectives” he concluded. 

The company in its culture 

of moving round major Nigerian 

cities for trade exhibitions 

is currently in Abeokuta, the 

Ogun state capital for trade 

exhibitions tagged “2018 Lifemate 

Abeokuta Trade Fair” 

The exhibition took off 17th 

August and will run till 31st of 

August and as usual with trade 

exhibitions, all products on 

display comes with 50 percent 

discount during the fair. 

On his part, Midian Nanle 

the Ogun state chairman of 

union of civil engineering, 

construction, furniture and 

wood workers in Nigeria described 

Lifemate as a leader in 

the furniture space in Nigeria, 

offering quality office and 

home products that can stand 

the test of time. 

In the last 18 years the 

company since its entry into 

the Nigerian market has not 

looked back in driving innovation 

for the development 

and manufacturing of high 

quality home, office and 

outdoor furniture; sanitary 

wares; kitchen cabinets, 

massage chairs and other 

interior décor materials. 

Lifemate in line with its 

policy of easing access to its 

products has showrooms in 

Oregun, Lekki and Shoprite 

in Ikeja all in Lagos. Other 

showrooms are in Abuja, Port 

Harcourt, Ibadan and Warri. 

Use, payment for music royalties to be 

enforced in new copyright agreement 

Efforts to ensure that 

creative and talent 

is adequately 

rewarded in Nigeria’s 

music industry has 

received a boost with the 

reaching of a pact and signing 

a copyright contract for 

the exploitation of music in 

broadcasting and payment 

of royalties. 

The Broadcasting Organisations 

of Nigeria (BON) 

and the Musical Copyright 

Society Nigeria (MCSN), recently 

reached a pact and 

signed a copyright contract 

for the exploitation of music 

in broadcasting and payment 

of royalties. 

The contract was signed 

at a ceremony in Lagos between 

the managements of 

the MCSN led by its chairman, 

the legendary reggae 

Artiste, Pupa Orits Williki, and 

the chairman, BON Copyright 

Committee, Kenny 

Ogungbe, who stood in for 

BON chairman, John Momoh 

respectively. 

Ogungbe explained that 

by the agreement, BON has 

been granted what can be 

described as a blanket licence 

by MCSN for the use 

of music in broadcasting by 

its members. 

“BON as a law abiding 

organisation has signed this 

agreement today in fulfillment 

of the law regarding 

the use and payment of royalties 

for the exploitation 

of music on our platforms. 

And it is hoped that by this 

agreement,a glorious dawn 

is here for our musicians 

who have lived in penury for 

too long”. 

On his part, the chairman 

of MCSN, Orits Williki 

described the event as historic 

and declared that by the 

signing of the agreement the 

good times are here for musicians 

who have hitherto lived 

in penury. 

“I have always maintained 

that Nigerian musicians 

have no business with 

poverty if our copyrights 

are properly enforced. By 

this agreement,MCSN will 

ensure that all musicians 

are adequately rewarded 

for the exploitation of their 

w o r k s ”. 

The CEO, MCSN there 

invites all Musicians, including 

owners and managers 

of works as well as young, 

established and rising Artistes 

to join the Premier and 

Authentic copyright society 

with the largest Repertoire 

as it restructures to connect 

creativity with prosperity.

16 

BUSINESS DAY 

COMPANIES & MARKETS 

C002D5556 


Nigerian Development Finance Institutions 

total assets up 36.8% to N1.3trn 

HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE 

The total assets 

of the even Development 

Finance 

Institutions 

(DFIs), including 

Development Bank of Nigeria 

(DBN) and the Nigeria 

Mortgage Refinancing Company 

(NMRC), increased 

significantly by 36.8 percent 

on a year-on-year basis, to 

N1.3 trillion at the end of 

December 2017. 

The other DFIs include 

Bank of Industry (BOI), the 

Federal Mortgage Bank of 

Nigeria (FMBN), Development 

Bank of Nigeria (DBN), 

the Nigerian Export-import 

Bank (NEXIM), the Bank of 

Agriculture (BOA), the Nigeria 

Mortgage Refinancing 

Company (NMRC) and The 

Infrastructure Bank (TIB). 

Analysis of the asset base 

by institutions indicated that 

the BOI accounted for 54.2 

percent of total assets, FMBN 

19.5 percent, the DBN 11.6 

percent, the NEXIM 5.6 percent, 

the BOA 5.3 percent, 

NMRC 3.2 percent, and TIB 

accounted for 0.6 per cent of 

total assets. 

Similarly, the paid-up 

capital of the sub-sector increased 

by 2.7 per cent (yearon-year), 

to N236.99 billion, 

at end-December 2017. 

The net loans and advances 

of the institutions also 

increased by 21.3 percent to 

N693.75 billion in 2017, above 

N571.85 billion in 2016. The 

proportion of the industry net 

loans and advances, attributed 

to each institution, were: 

BOI, 73.3 percent; FMBN, 19.3 

percent; NEXIM, 5.6 percent; 

NMRC, 1.1 percent; BOA, 0.6 

percent; TIB, 0.1 percent; and 

DBN, 0.03 percent. The shareholders’ 

fund increased to 

N247.31 billion in 2017, from 

N205.35 billion in 2016 due, 

mainly, to the consolidation 

of the financial data of the 

NMRC and the DBN. 

The draft annual report 

of the Central Bank of Nigeria 

(CBN) noted that the 

3rd Bi-annual Consultative 

Forum for the stakeholders 

of the Development Finance 

Institutions was held in Abuja 

in 2017. 

The Forum identified 

weak corporate governance, 

poor risk management and 

inadequate capital as major 

challenges confronting the 

sub-sector. The Forum recommended 

policy options 

to address the challenges, 

enjoined stakeholders to 

guard against mission drift 

and reiterated the need for 

them to pay-up outstanding 

equity contribution. 

The report disclosed that 

the total assets of the Nigeria 

Mortgage Refinance Company 

(NMRC) stood at N42.26 

billion at end-December 

2017, compared with N41.57 

billion at end-December 

2016. Similarly, refinanced 

mortgages increased by 

N0.15billion to N8.15 billion 

in 2017, above N8.0 billion in 

2016, reflecting the creation 

of additional mortgages. 

The adjusted capital of 

N9.693 billion was higher 

than the minimum capital 

requirement of N5.0 billion 

for the Company. Similarly, 

the capital adequacy ratio 

and adjusted capital to net 

credit were 139.83 and 1:1.84 

at the end of December 2017 

and complied with the regulatory 

minimum and maximum 

of 10 per cent and 1:10, 

respectively. 

Darling Nigeria street Catwalk across various locations in Lagos showing their new innovative range of hair products. 

Air Peace will unite Nigeria with flight operations - Onyema 

IFEOMA OKEKE 

Air Peace, one of Nigeria’s 

leading carriers, 

says it’s embarking on 

massive expansion of 

its domestic flight operations to 

close the gap in air travel across 

Nigeria and also build bridges of 

unity in Nigeria. 

Allen Onyema, chairman/ 

chief executive officer of Air 

Peace made the remark in Kaduna 

in an address to mark the 

commencement of Air Peace’s 

daily flights from the Murtala 

Muhammed Airport, Lagos to 

the Kaduna International Airport. 

The launch of the airline’s 

Lagos-Kaduna service came 

exactly a week after the carrier 

started scheduled flights from Lagos, 

Abuja and Accra to Roberts 

International Airport, Monrovia, 

Liberia. 

Onyema, who was represented 

by Chris Iwarah, corporate 

communications manager, 

Air Peace described the launch 

of the carrier’s Lagos-Kaduna 

service as a “significant milestone 

in our vision to unite our 

dear country, Nigeria through 

air travel and lift the nation’s 

economy through trade facilitation 

and massive job creation.” 

He said the airline, which also 

launched its daily flights to Kano 

and Yola on February 12 and 15, 

2018 respectively, was working 

on setting up mini-hubs across 

Nigeria and the West Coast of 

Africa to strategically fix the challenges 

of air travel. 

“Our plan”, he said, “is to 

massively expand our operations 

from our base in Lagos 

into mini-hubs across all regions 

of Nigeria and the West 

Coast of Africa. We assure you 

that the North of Nigeria will be 

one of the biggest beneficiaries 

of the massive expansion of 

our route network and fleet 

capacity. Since the first quarter 

of 2018, we have begun to take 

delivery of the six 50-seater Embraer 

145 aircraft we recently 

acquired to serve cities with air 

transport difficulties under our 

subsidiary Air Peace Hopper. 

“There is no doubt that as 

the leading and biggest airline 

in Nigeria with a fleet size of 24 

aircraft, we are now more positioned 

to transform air travel 

experience in Nigeria, the West 

Coast of Africa and beyond. 

But more importantly, we are 

proud to use our flight services 

to build bridges of unity in Nigeria. 

We are not just achieving 

this by extending our flight op- 

erations across Nigeria without 

restriction, we also are doing so 

with our employment policy 

that does not discriminate on 

the grounds of religion, tribe 

and creed.” 

Onyema assured air travelers 

on the Lagos-Kaduna route of 

efficient, on-time and safe flight 

operations. 

“We are coming into the Kaduna 

route with a reputation for 

on-time performance and uncompromising 

stand on matters 

of safety. We promise to leverage 

the experience of our skilled staff 

and excellent business model to 

end the challenges of air travel on 

the Kaduna route and make Kaduna 

more accessible to leisure 

and business travellers,” he said. 

On his part, Shehu Idris, the 

emir of Zazzau, praised Air Peace 

for commencing flight operations 

to Kaduna. 

FBNQuest Merchant 

Bank assigned “A” 

rating by Agusto & Co 

MICHEAL ANI 

FBNQuest Merchant 

Bank, the investment 

banking and 

asset management 

subsidiary of FBN 

Holdings Plc has been assigned 

‘A’ rating by Agusto & 

Co. Limited, according to a 

statement published Friday, 

on the website of the rating 

agency. 

The rating agency said the 

rating reflects the bank’s affiliation 

with FBN Holdings, 

the non–operating holding 

company of one of the largest 

banking and financial services 

organisations in Africa with an 

asset base of N5.2 trillion(N15.7 

billion @ 358;331/$) as at 31 

December 2017. 

The bank was ranked first 

on local currency deposits of 

the five merchant banks operating 

in Nigeria as at FYE2017, 

but ranked fourth by total 

assets and contingents due 

to its experienced and stable 

management team which 

provides oversight of its daily 

operations. 

The rating recognises FB- 

NQuest MB’s good capitalisation 

and good profitability 

during the period, supported 

by its acceptable asset quality, 

investment banking expertise 

and trading activities. 

“Nonetheless, FBNQuest 

MB’s rating is constrained 

by concentration in its loan 

portfolio which renders it 

vulnerable to adverse changes 

in the performance of its lending 

sectors and obligors. The 

opinions expressed in this 

rating release do not represent 

investment or other advice 

and should therefore not 

be construed as such.” The 

rating agency said in a press 

statement. 

Agusto & Co is Nigeria’s 

first Credit Rating Agency and 

a Pan African leader in credit 

ratings and credit reports. 

It has assigned well over 

1,500 ratings across various 

sectors. Our ratings are globally 

accepted, and a wide client 

base utilizes our ratings as 

benchmark for business. 

FBNQuest Merchant Bank 

recently acted as Lead Financial 

Adviser & Issuing House 

on the Listing by Introduction 

of the entire issued and paidup 

ordinary shares of Notore 

Chemical Industries Plc on 

the Main Board of the Nigerian 

Stock Exchange (NSE). 

The transaction added to 

FBNQuest Merchant Bank’s 

impressive portfolio of clients 

it had supported. It also highlights 

its capabilities in the successful 

execution of sizeable 

capital market and commercial 

debt transactions. Kayode 

Akinkugbe, Managing Director 

of FBNQuest Merchant Bank 

said: “We are proud of the 

instrumental role FBNQuest 

Merchant Bank played in this 

transaction, and appreciate 

the trust Notore placed in us 

to assist them. Our clients 

remain our priority, and we 

strongly believe their success 

is our success. 

Lagos Digital Academy commits to 

empowering business professionals 

HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE 

The Lagos Digital Academy 

has launched a 

wide range of intensive 

and immersive digital 

marketing courses that empowers 

business professionals 

to make their products and 

services acceptable to potential 

consumers. 

Lagos Digital Academy is a 

social enterprise that is strongly 

committed to teaching and 

inspiring a new generation of 

digital professionals and entrepreneurs. 

Dotun Babatunde, founder/ 

managing director, said digital 

marketing was key to the success 

of any organisation. He admitted 

that the emergence of the 

mobile phone in the Nigerian 

market had changed the ways 

and patterns of doing business. 

“How best can you reach 

your customers? No other platform 

can give you that direct 

personal access to consumers 

like the mobile phone. We have 

over 180 million Nigerians and 

averagely, people hold two to 

three network lines. In order to 

reach your consumers today, 

you have to be able to communicate 

with them on one-on-one 

basis,” Babatunde said. 

At the Lagos Digital Academy, 

participants are taught, 

guided and certifies by experienced 

practitioners from the 

digital marketing industry. 

Kunle Shittu, chief marketing 

officer, said training in digital 

marketing will lead to business 

growth, boost economic growth 

and enhance job creation. 

“We will be organising a free 

boot camp for Babcock University, 

University of Lagos and University 

of Ibadan. For us, we will 

not be charging them any fee; it 

is our own giving back initiative. 

They will make the necessary 

provision and we will take the 

training to their doorsteps. We 

will not rest until we have toured 

every university and polytechnic 

in Nigeria”, Shittu said.


18 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556 Tuesday 21 August 2018 

Harvard 

Business 

Review 

Tips 

& 

Talking Points 

TALKING POINTS 

Shopping Spree 

$20 billion: In the past year, China’s 

retail giant Alibaba and internet giant 

Tencent have invested more than a 

combined $20 billion to change the 

country’s consumer shopping habits. 

+ 

A Digital Transformation 

Two-thirds: Nearly a decade ago, 

Xerox had begun heavily investing 

in new products and services for 

the digital age. By the end of 2011, 

two-thirds of the company’s revenues 

came from recent innovations. 

+ 

Personal Development 

$11 billion: The thriving U.S. self-help 

industry is valued at an estimated 

$11 billion. 

+ 

Women’s Worth 

$1.6 trillion: A study conducted by 

S&P Global reported that the American 

economy would be $1.6 trillion 

larger than it is today if female participation 

in the workforce had grown 

at the same pace as other advanced 

countries like Norway. 

+ 

Looking Inward 

10%: Although 95% of people consider 

themselves self-aware, only 10% 

to 15% actually are, according to 

research from author Tasha Eurich. 

Does your team’s work style inconvenience remote employees? 

Life on a global team isn’t necessarily equitable. 

Employees far from headquarters 

often have less access to the team leader, 

and have to deal with regular inconveniences 

such as late night calls because they’re in a different 

time zone. As a manager, it’s your job to 

ensure that remote employees aren’t carrying 

an extra burden. Consider rotating the time of 

weekly team calls so that everyone takes a turn at 

having the meeting during regular business hours 

(or at the very least, find the least inconvenient 

time for your remote employees to participate.) 

Even small courtesies can help distant team members 

feel noticed, such as translating meeting times into all 

the time zones that your people work in. And schedule 

periodic off-sites for the whole team to get together and 

connect. If your budget allows, you can even hold these 

meetings in different locations around the globe. 

(Adapted from “How to Keep a Global Team Engaged,” 

by Andy Molinksy.) 

Solve Complex 

Problems by 

Expanding Your 

Thinking 

Too many leaders approach 

complex problems with eitheror 

thinking: The answer is right 

or wrong, good or bad, win or lose. 

To cultivate a nuanced perspective, 

challenge your understanding of the 

problem. Ask yourself, “What am I not 

seeing here?” and “What else might 

be true?” Don’t seek out answers that 

just confirm what you already know. 

It’s also helpful to tackle this kind of 

challenge first thing in the morning, 

when your mind is fresh. Spend at 

least an hour on it without interruption. 

The dedicated time ensures that 

you give a complex issue the attention 

it needs — attention that might 

otherwise be consumed by less intellectually 

demanding tasks. And as 

you work, pay attention to how you’re 

feeling. Embracing complexity is an 

emotional challenge in addition to a 

cognitive one. You’ll need to manage 

tough emotions like fear and anger 

and get yourself out of flight-or-fight 

mode so that you can think more 

expansively. 

(Adapted from “What It Takes to 

Think Deeply About Complex Problems,” 

by Tony Schwartz.) 

Set boundaries when collaborating with a perfectionist Read the room before your next meeting Instead of complaining about a colleague, talk to them 

It can be exhausting 

to work with 

perfectionists. 

Their unrelenting 

standards can lead 

to unnecessary 

stress, conflict and 

missed deadlines. 

So how do you collaborate 

productively 

with them? To start, 

don’t internalize their expectations. 

Perfectionists 

tend to equate time with 

quality, so when you think 

a project is good enough to 

be considered done, you’ll 

need to be thoughtful and 

diplomatic in explaining 

why. Talk about the 

benefits of spending time 

on other tasks instead of 

getting every detail right 

on this one. You should 

also set boundaries so that 

your colleague’s nitpicking 

doesn’t interfere with your 

progress. For example, if 

the person sends you a lot 

of emails, each with a different 

question or suggestion, 

you might decide to 

respond once per day, but 

that’s it. And finally, focus 

on building your working 

relationship. Having 

a strong relationship will 

assuage your colleague’s 

anxiety, which is often the 

root cause of perfectionism. 

(Adapted from “How to Collaborate 

With a Perfectionist,” 

by Alice Boyes.) 

c 

In every conversation 

at work, 

there’s the explicit 

discussion (the 

words being spoken 

out loud) and the 

tacit one — the 

things being communicated 

subtly. 

It’s important to know 

how to read a room so 

that you can understand 

what’s not being said. 

The best way to do this 

is to pay attention to the 

people in it. Note who’s 

next to whom, who’s relaxed, 

who’s not, who’s 

standing and who’s sitting. 

Look at their facial 

expressions, posture and 

body language. Does the 

mood in the room feel 

tense or relaxed? Then 

think about possible reasons 

for your colleagues’ 

emotional states. What’s 

happening in their lives and 

jobs? This can be tricky if 

you don’t know the people 

in the room, but you can still 

come up with hypotheses. 

Then check those hypotheses 

by talking to colleagues in 

private. You might say something 

like, “In the meeting I 

saw you furrow your brow 

when discussion turned to 

the big project. How do you 

feel about it?” 

(Adapted from “Tips for 

Reading the Room Before a 

Meeting or Presentation,” by 

Rebecca Knight.) 

Let’s be honest: 

Sometimes 

complaining 

about a 

co-worker feels 

good. But although 

it helps you release 

pent-up emotions, 

venting is a sideways 

move. In 

other words, we 

usually complain 

to a friend or col- 

league — and we rarely confront the 

person we’re complaining about. So 

the next time you want to complain, 

try taking it to the source of the 

problem. For example, let’s say a 

co-worker yells in a meeting. Your 

first instinct might be to complain to 

another colleague about their brash 

behavior. Instead, take some time 

to calm down. Think about exactly 

what bothered you and what you 

want to complain about (it’s not 

OK to yell and disrespect others in 

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

a meeting). Decide what you can 

do to shift the person’s behavior 

or improve the situation (perhaps 

saying, “Please don’t shout in meetings 

— let’s respect each other in our 

conversations”). And then follow 

through by speaking to the person 

directly. 

(Adapted from “The Next Time You 

Want to Complain at Work, Do This 

Instead,” by Peter Bregman.) 

Are you 

travelling abroad 

for vacation 

or studying abroad? 

We have you covered through CBN’s special 

intervention for specified retail invisible 

transactions. 

Visit any of our designated branches nationwide 

for your following invisible trade transactions: 

School Fees 

Pilgrimage & Other Travel Allowances (PTA and BTA) 

Medical Allowances 

We are here to serve you. 

*Terms and conditions apply 

www.firstbanknigeria.com 

FirstBankofNigeria @FirstBankngr Firstbankngr FirstBankofNigeriaLtd @firstbanknigeria +FirstBankNigeria


BUSINESS DAY 19 

BD 

TECH 

In association with 

IBM introduces AI-powered solution in Nigeria 

...Descassio deploys for employee productivity 

Stories by 

JUMOKE AKIYODE-LAWANSON 

IBM, one of the world’s leading 

technology companies, 

has made available its Watson 

Workspace, artificial 

intelligence (AI) powered 

solution that helps improve work 

productivity in Nigeria. 

The messaging application 

which is newly introduced in the 

country is said to substantially 

improve workplace efficiency 

through its integrated employee 

collaboration capabilities, such 

as enabling users to hold group 

conversations and share data files, 

can now be used by companies in 

Nigeria. 

Through its built-in artificial 

intelligence (AI) capabilities, the 

solution enables sales and technical 

teams to create workspaces 

where they can collaborate on all 

sales activities. Watson Workspace 

also enables companies to significantly 

reduce the time group 

members spend reading through 

conversations to obtain information 

relevant to them. 

Descasio, a leading cloud services 

provider in West Africa, has 

adopted IBM Watson Workspace 

to enhance its existing email services 

and provide a smart employee 

collaborating tool on desktop 

and mobile devices. The company 

was looking for an application that 

could enable smarter and seamless 

communication, helping their 

teams to focus on the strategic aspects 

of their business. 

”One of the things that really 

excites us about this platform is 

the ease with which we can build 

new solutions using APIs. We are 

now thinking about ways we can 

use IBM Watson APIs to create 

value-added solutions such as virtual 

assistants, which could help 

to automate repetitive tasks,” says 

Dele Nedd, Co-Founder and CEO, 

Descasio. 

“As a new reseller of the IBM’s 

Watson Workspace Essentials in 

West Africa, Descasio plans to 

sign on clients for this solution. 

To achieve this, the company is 

working with a team from IBM to 

integrate IBM Watson Workspace 

Microsoft launches app for secure group communication, staff management in Nigeria 

Microsoft has made 

available in Nigeria, 

a mobile application 

designed for large 

group communication, workflow 

management, reporting and analytics, 

integrated with Office 365, 

called ‘Kaizala Pro’. 

The app aims to improve the 

way businesses communicate and 

collaborate, as workers can interact 

whilst on the field, by sending 

messages, photos, video files, audio 

files, documents, polls, surveys, and 

other data which is protected by 

encryption in-transit through the 

mobile app. 

Akin Banuso, country general 

manager, Microsoft Nigeria, says 

the app addresses several challenges 

faced by many businesses across 

the country who manage field staff 

remotely. 

“Mobile technology is enabling 

businesses to embrace the fourth 

industrial revolution and digitally 

transform their operations. Microsoft 

Kaizala is ideal for organisations 

that need to communicate with 

large numbers of task workers to 

enhance business agility, collaboration, 

and organisational productivity,” 

Banuso says. 

Unlike other chat-based apps in 

the market, Kaizala extends beyond 

a mere communication function. 

Because many workers in the region 

often don’t have an email address, 

Kaizala only requires a mobile number 

to sign a user up. The appis also 

optimised to work on any network – 

including slow 2G networks. 

Kaizala provides actionable information 

through analytics and 

reports, while complying with industry 

security best practices. Managers 

can decide who has access 

to company data. All Kaizala data 

is stored in Microsoft Azure data 

centres,which adhere to industry 

standard security and compliance 

certifications. 

“This means only you and the 

people with whom you are communicating 

can see what you have sent 

them,” says Akin. “Microsoft Kaizala 

is currently Tier-A compliant and 

our engineers do not have access to 

any customer data.” 

“As we roll out Microsoft Kaizala 

in Nigeria, we hope to connect the 

complete value chain, including 

the unconnected parts of organisations. 

Microsoft’s vision for Kaizala 

is to empower every organisation 

and community to achieve more 

through purposeful chat,” Banuso 

adds. 

Some of Kaizala’s other unique 

features include the ability to communicate 

with and manage an 

unlimited number of users. This 

includes employees, front-line 

workers, customers, suppliers and 

citizens. Organisations can create 

flat,hierarchical or discoverable 

public groups in minutes from contact 

lists, directories or ad hoc sharing. 

For users in remote areas, the 

app is optimised to work on slow 

into its cloud services portfolio— 

enabling it to deliver the solution 

as a service to clients across the 

region” he adds 

Watson Workspace helps companies 

turn conversations into 

actionable insights, summarised 

information, prioritise next best 

actions and make recommendations 

enabling its employees to 

connect and collaborate with their 

teams and other work groups on 

any device. For example, the solution 

has enabled teams save up to 

30 minutes per team member on 

responding to issues relevant to 

their role. It also provides a full, 

searchable history of all conversations 

and one central place for all 

shared images and resources. 

“Organisations have seen a 

proliferation of tools and applications 

that employees use to get 

their jobs done at the workplace 

which has often caused information 

overload, interruptions and 

difficulty getting back into the 

flow of productivity. What IBM 

Watson Workspace does, is take 

away these pressures, allowing 

employees to focus on the activities 

that really matter,” says Dipo 

Faulkner, the Country General 

Manager of IBM Nigeria. 

2G networks and users don’t need 

an email address to sign up, only a 

mobile number. 

The app is also able to broadcast 

and collect information in a structured 

way through action cards. This 

includes sharing announcements - 

photos, videos or documents; hosting 

polls or surveys; assigning tasks; 

providing training content; marking 

attendance; and tracking workforces 

using location tracking. 

In addition, organisations are 

able to gather rich insights from 

data with built-in analytics. Organisations 

can view results in realtime, 

organise large amounts of information 

with an aggregated view 

of user responses and get reports at 

each level of the organisation.

20 

BUSINESS DAY 

BDTECH 

E-mail: jumoke.akiyode@businessdayonline.com 

Could a tech-enabled GIG economy unlock 

solutions to Nigeria’s employment deficit? 

BINA IDONIJE Guest writer 

18.8%. That is the 

official unemployment 

rate in Nigeria 

as of 2017 according 

to the National 

Bureau of Statistics. Anecdotal 

data off the street have 

long contested the accuracy 

and methodology of deriving 

the country’s unemployment 

numbers. Be that as it may, 

what cannot be contested 

is the fact that unemployment 

and underemployment 

contribute massively to the 

country’s socio-economic 

challenges. 

Across the world, a 

new type of labour force is 

emerging. They are termed 

“gig workers”; a derivative 

categorization for persons 

who make a living from the 

“gig economy” ecosystem. 

At a macro level, the gig 

economy, refers to work carried 

out outside the ambit 

of what is considered traditional 

employment, i.e. the 

equivalent of an 8- 5 job in 

Nigeria. It is mainly characterized 

by the following key 

attributes: i) short- term economic 

arrangement between 

the worker and the client; 

ii) Compensation is tied to 

specific tasks or projects, as 

opposed to a regular salary, 

and; iii) significant autonomy 

on the part of the worker. 

Taking these characteristics 

into consideration, it would 

seem disingenuous to postulate 

that this is an emerging 

labour force, as indeed, 

these characteristics are 

reflective of how work has 

been carried out in the informal 

labour sector since time 

immemorial. So, you may 

ask, what then is all this fuss 

The federal government 

has urged 

youths to leverage 

the knowledge of 

Information Communication 

Technology (ICT), to 

become employers of labour, 

so as to help tackle 

the issue of unemployment 

in the country. 

This call was made in Ile 

Ife, Osun state by the the 

Permanent Secretary, Federal 

Ministry of Labour and 

Productivity, Ibukun Odusote, 

while declaring open 

3rd Ife Youth Economic 

Summit and handover ceremony 

of Ife Digital Job 

L-R: Chioma Iwuchukwu-Nweke, general manager, Personal Health, Philips West Africa; Nicole Dix, 

business marketing manager (Kitchen Appliance Africa), Philips Personal Health; Nneka Agbata, Philips 

marketing officer, Personal Health West Africa and Justin Ugboro, partner account manager, Philips 

Personal Health, at the Philips 2018 Resellers event held in Lagos recently 

about a workforce which already 

existed prior to being 

attributed a fancy name like 

“gig work force”? 

The game-changing factor 

is Technology. 

Digital platforms are creating 

online marketplaces 

that efficiently connect providers 

of services with buyers 

of those services, in ways 

that have the potential to 

exponentially propel economies. 

McKinseyestimates 

that online talent platforms 

could improve global GDP 

by 2% by the year 2025, or 

put financially, add $2.7 trillion 

to global GDP. Global 

platforms that are already 

proving the ‘hype’ about the 

gig economy include: Uber, 

Deliveroo, Upwork, Task- 

Rabbit and Catalant. These 

platforms provide services 

ranging from transport, to 

food delivery, to profes- 

Nigerian youths urged to create jobs from ICT 

... As FG hands over Ife digital job centre to Ooni 

BOLADALE BAMIGBOLA, Osogbo 

sional services. Pretty much 

anyone can sign up to render 

their services, determine 

their own working hours, 

and earn money while being 

their own boss. 

Here in Africa, there are 

digital market places such 

as South Africa’s getTOD (an 

innovative mobile application 

offering on-demand 

services for electricians, 

plumbers, handy-men, tied 

to the clients locality); Kenya’s 

Mr. Green Africa (a 

waste recycling venture that 

leverages technology to empower 

waste pickers to earn 

a living); and Nigeria’s Jumia 

J-Force (independent sales 

consultants and logistics officials 

who help to bridge the 

internet access and e-commerce 

gap by bringing the 

online shopping experience 

offline to those without access). 

The ubiquity of mobile 

Centre constructed by the 

Federal Government. 

Speaking at the event 

with the theme: “Youth Unemployment 

and the Challenges 

of Enabling Empowerment 

-The way forward 

for Nigeria”, held in Oba 

Okunade Sijuwade Memorial 

Hall, Enuwa, Ile-Ife, 

Odusote enjoined the participants 

at the summit to 

tap into the golden opportunity 

that the ICT training 

offers them to become entrepreneurs. 

She disclosed that the 

administration of President 

Muhammadu Buhari would 

continue to support innovation 

and technology, stressing 

that the priority encouragement 

the administration 

is giving to Science, Technology, 

Engineering and 

Mathematics is aimed at using 

technology to stimulate 

the economy. 

Assuring the youth of 

the federal government’s 

preparedness to give them 

social protection, she described 

those ones among 

them following politicians 

as thugs as “compound 

fool”, adding that government 

would also ameliorate 

the sufferings of the 

unemployed youth by creating 

more jobs. 

Odusote then charged 

the trainers on the need 

devices amongst Nigerians 

makes technology-enabled 

marketplaces an even more 

attractive venture. Picture 

a courier delivery services 

platform, where freelancers 

can sign up to deliver packages 

around their neighborhood 

on the back of their own 

transportation arrangements 

and get paid a portion of the 

delivery fees. Such a service 

will likely provide cheaper 

rates and faster delivery times 

as compared to traditional 

courier, given the factors of 

scale and proximity. 

Imagine a platform that 

provides you as a client with 

a repository of artisans such 

as painters and carpenters 

in your vicinity, gives you an 

upfront view of their potential 

fees, and shows how well 

or poorly other users of their 

services have rated them, to 

assist you in making an informed 

choice. Imagine also, 

to teach the youths how to 

market their products online. 

She further disclosed 

that government and its 

agencies would purchase 

products of Ife ICT to encourage 

the participants. 

In his remarks, Ooni 

of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, 

charged youths in 

the country to focus on 

the new trends of technology, 

adding that everybody 

looks onto them for a better 

future for the country. 

The monarch reminded 

the participants that the 

era of total reliance on 

government is gone, and 

opined that, with focus and 

resolve to be employers of 

the improved reach such a 

digital marketplace would 

afford those artisans, who, 

today, mostly rely on word 

of mouth of their relatively 

small circles, to get ‘gigs’. 

Think of this arrangement 

as the “organized informal 

sector”. 

In the midst of this optimism, 

one must reckon that 

for the average Nigerian, internet 

access remains a significant 

hurdle to meaningfully 

participate in a digital 

marketplace, and for startups, 

the incessant malaise 

of insufficient broadband 

persists. Nigerian digital 

platforms may want to consider 

the opportunities that 

lurk in leveraging sms/text 

messaging as an alternative 

tool in cognisance of the 

aforementioned connectivity 

constraints. Laudable 

contributions from the likes 

of Google Nigeria in looking 

to provide access to free wifi 

connection in over 200 locations 

in the country are welcome 

developments in this 

regards. 

The Gig economy, even 

in advanced countries, is 

still at nascent stages. Researchers 

and Scholars 

predict that the forthcoming 

decades will see the 

gig economy take a more 

dominant spot in global labour 

markets. The informal 

labour sector in Nigeria is 

overflowing with untapped 

opportunities to create a cohesive 

digital marketplace 

for artisans, masons, hair 

braiders, makeup artists and 

the likes. 

Bina Idonije is GE’s legal 

counsel responsible for the 

full spectrum of Labour & 

Employment matters in Sub- 

Sahara Africa. 

labour by the vast youthful 

populace Nigeria has, the 

challenge of unemployment 

could be effectively 

contained. 

In his goodwill address, 

the Director General/CEO, 

NITDA, Isa Ali Ibrahim 

Pantami, established link 

between ICT and employment, 

saying the success 

story of the Asian Tigers 

could be traced to revolutionary 

development in ICT. 

He added that acquisition 

of ICT skills has become 

a global requirement 

in employer-employee relations, 

while the growth 

and stability of the Nigerian 

economy is dependent 


Patricia launches 

innovative 

e-commerce service 

JUMOKE AKIYODE- 

LAWANSON 

Patricia.com.ng, 

an information 

and communications 

technology 

firm has introduced a new 

e-commerce solution into 

the Nigerian market. 

The innovative service 

allows individuals to 

swap gift cards for cash 

while also giving them the 

opportunity to send gift 

items to loved ones in the 

United Kingdom, United 

States of America,Canada 

and some selected African 

and European countries. 

The ICT Company, 

which recently opened 

Room 19, an online luxury 

clothing store, has been 

described by industry 

watchers as one of the 

fastest growing e-commerce 

firms in Nigeria 

and Africa. 

Speaking at the launch 

of the new service in Lagos, 

Hanu Agbodje, CEO/ 

founder of Patricia, said 

the company would continue 

to do things differently, 

question the norms, 

come up with innovations 

tailored to make life easier 

for Nigerians through 

technology. 

“At Patricia, we work to 

change the world because 

if we are to succeed, we 

have to change how online 

businesses are perceived 

in Nigeria. Simply 

put, our vision is to make 

the e-commerce systemsafe 

for all; to offer peace 

of mind to people who do 

business with Patricia”, 

Agbodje assured. 

on the employment of the 

youths. 

He advised participants 

in the training to realize 

that digital connectivity 

would expose them to opportunities 

in the global 

economy and urged them 

to tap into it. 

Earlier, in his welcome 

address, the Special Assistant 

to Ooni Ogunwusi on 

Youth Development and 

Wealth Creation, Olamide 

Awosunle disclosed that 

this year’s 6 weeks ICT training 

would afford 100 youth 

selected across the state to 

acquire ICT and business 

skills that will make them 

globally competitive.


BUSINESS DAY 21 

EDUCATION 

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

Why science, technology education must 

drive much needed economy growth 

KELECHI EWUZIE 

The advancement 

in science and 

technology education 

across the 

globe has no doubt 

thrown up a lot of opportunities 

for forward looking 

economies to grow their human 

capital. 

It is quite obvious that 

without science and technology 

education, no country will 

forge ahead with advancement 

in innovations and state 

of the act discoveries that is 

shaping the future of virtually 

every sector of the economy. 

It is also true that the quality 

of science tech education a 

country has determines her 

economy as no country can 

grow more than the quality 

of her specialised education 

system. 

Education today more importantly 

as it relates to science 

and technology has assumed 

an entirely new frontier 

and approach, such that from 

an early stage of learning, it 

has become a norm to tutor 

next generation of leaders to 

embrace this 21 century learning 

style. 

While managers of the economy 

in Nigeria may claim to 

be funding development of 

education in the country, it is 

however important to note that 

building capacity in science 

and technology represents the 

driving forces in the current 

21st century and a such needs 

to be catered for. 

For meaningful development 

to take place in the economy, 

those who know in the 

field of education insist the 

issue of funding this specialised 

form of learning need to 

adequately taken care of by 

government. 

They observe that science 

and technology aspect of education 

has a repository of potentials 

capable of transforming 

economies and has been 

behind the advancements in 

developed countries. 

According to them, science 

and technology aspect 

of education has not received 

adequate attention needed 

to push the growth in Nigeria. 

Tolu Odugbemi, former vice 

chancellor, Ondo State university 

of Science and Technology, 

Okitipupa (OSUSTECH) said 

there is need for Nigeria to pay 

adequate attention to sciencebased 

education in order to 

achieve the needed develop- 

ment in the country. 

Odugbemi opines that universities 

and other higher 

institutions as innovation hubs 

have major roles to play in using 

science and technology to 

drive development in Science, 

technology , engineering and 

Mathematics. 

According to him, “Developing 

economies, such 

as ours, can only fast-track 

and/or leap frog their growth 

through targeted research and 

development. A practical way 

to do this is to do what is generically 

referred to as reverse 

engineering. It is these institutions 

that must provide the 

roadmap to circumvent those 

roadblocks to indigenous technology 

enhancement necessary 

for driving innovation and 

development of the nation. 

“The nation must be prepared 

to invest heavily in 

the higher education cutting 

across both the public and private 

the research facilities must 

orchestrate the brain power of 

the staff, take responsibility 

for training new generation of 

talents and participate in the 

transformation of the nation’s 

science and technology base.” 

He noted that the world 

has moved from commoditybased 

and military power 

ranking to knowledge economies/societies, 

adding that the 

paradigm shift is propelled by 

advancements made through 

science and technology innovations. 

Isaac Adeyemi, former vice 

chancellor, Bells University 

of technology, opines that 

universities in Nigeria must 

focus on the modernising of 

forces of the society, for the 

promotion of the “values of 

science and technology” and 

for mediating between the political 

and industrial spheres of 

national life. 

He called for a coherent 

national Science and Technology 

strategy with framework 

developed in consultation 

with the National Academies 

of Science to specify the national 

priorities for research 

and development with the 

appropriate funding commitment, 

while disclosing that 

countries like China followed 

this path some 50 years ago to 

transform their economy. 

NBC partners Rise networks to 

empower Nigerian Youths 


Nigerian Bottling 

Company Limited, 

(NBC), has partnered 

with RISE 

Networks- Nigeria’s leading 

social enterprise to celebrate 

Nigerian youths as they join 

the rest of the world to celebrate 

2018 United Nations International 

Youth Day which 

was held in Lagos. 

George Polymenakos, 

managing director, Nigerian 

Bottling Company while 

speaking at the event with 

the theme: Safe Spaces For 

Youth” said the partnership 

with RISE Network in the 

celebration of the 2018 International 

Youth Day is an 

affirmation of the company’s 

unflinching commitment to 

youth empowerment. 

Polymenakos who was 

represented by Sade Morgan, 

director, Legal, Public Affairs 

and Communications said 

that the youths lack no excuse 

not to unleash their potentials 

to bring about needed change 

and innovation given the level 

of endless possibilities that has 

been aided by the rise of technology 

in this era and time. 

Morgan stated that though 

there are challenges in the environment, 

it is imperative for 

them to brave the odds if they 

are keen on achieving their 

dream. She added” In the Nigerian 

Bottling Company Ltd 

and indeed, the entire Coca- 

Cola system, we believe in 

the power of young people. 

The theme of this year’s International 

Youth Day is “Safe 

Spaces for Youth”. Safe spaces 

motivate young people to 

engage in sports and leisure, 

governance issues and crossborder 

interactions, especially 

because of internet and digital 

penetration and convergence. 

As a company, we will 

continue to demonstrate our 

unwavering commitment to 

youth development in unequivocal 

terms. Our annual 

Management Trainee Programme, 

the Technical Training 

Centre, Summer ship 

Programme and the Youth 

Empowered Programme 

are all platforms open for 

Nigerian youths to explore 

opportunities for their personal, 

career and economic 

advancement” 

Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji, 

founder of Rise Networks and 

convener of the conference 

said that youths cannot afford 

to fold their arms in the 

face of limitless opportunities 

around urging them to 

get involved politically and 

invest their energy in productive 

causes that would bring 

about economic empowerment. 

In his own remarks, 

Tunji Bello, Secretary to the 

Lagos state Government who 

represented the Governor 

of Lagos state, observe that 

there cannot be meaningful 

development if government 

fails to invest in its youth. 

UNIDO reviews vocational training curriculum 

to boost employability in Ogun 

RAZAQ AYINLA, Abeokuta 

United Nations International 

Development 

Organisation 

(UNIDO) has 

moved to review vocational 

training curriculum operational 

in Ogun state with a 

view to boosting youth’s employability 

and self reliance. 

The need to review teaching 

methodology and logistics 

required in grooming and 

teaching world standard skills 

that boost self reliance, employability 

and ease of doing 

business becomes necessary 

as UNIDO partners Ogun 

state government to rejig 

instructions, practicals and 

demonstrations embedded in 

vocational training 

Francis Ukoh, UNIDO’s 

National Project Co-coordinator 

courses while speaking 

during a working visit to 

Ogun state on the proposed 

partnership noted that effort 

was ongoing to review vocational 

and entrepreneurial 

skills suitable for international 

standards that would not 

only boost employability and 

self reliance among youths, 

but would also improve ease 

of doing business in the state. 

Ukoh however, applauded 

State government’s initiative 

in the areas of skills and 

vocational acquisitions and 

its current efforts to review 

and modernize the curriculum, 

practicals and demonstrations 

applicable to entrepreneurial 

and vocational 

studies, just as he pledged 

the organisation’s support 

towards attaining its core 

objectives of human capital 

development. 

Modupe Mujota, commissioner 

for Education, Science 

and Technology expressed 

the State government’s readiness 

to partner with United 

Nations International Development 

Organisation (UNI- 

DO) on skills acquisition for 

its teeming populace. 

Mujota while addressing 

the UNIDO’s National 

Project Co-coordinator and 

members of the Association 

of Skilled and Vocational Artisans 

of Nigeria (ASVAN) in 

Abeokuta, said the proposed 

partnership would cover areas 

of logistics, such as venue, 

curriculum development for 

the training and resource persons. 

The commissioner observed 

that government’s 

support towards the initiative 

was borne out of its interest 

in promoting skills and vocational 

acquisition among 

the people, adding that the 

establishment of Institute of 

Technology, Idi-Aba, Abeokuta 

and investment in Technical 

and Vocational Education 

Training (TVET) through 

the State–owned Science and 

Technical Colleges, are all attestations 

to government’s 

effort to human capital development.

C002D5556 



EDUCATION INSIGHT 

OYIN EGBEYEMI 

Ho mework 

time may be 

viewed as the 

most daunting 

part of 

the day, both for children 

and parents. This period 

comes in towards the evening 

when all that children 

may want to do is play, sleep 

or watch television. At this 

time, some parents have 

only just returned from 

work and just want to have 

their dinner and relax, especially 

after a long stressful 

day and many hours in traffic. 

Some other parents who 

work longer hours may even 

miss this activity altogether. 

The importance of 

homework cannot be overemphasised. 

In addition 

Homework should be a collaborative effort 

to academic development, 

children stand to gain many 

benefits from this practice of 

taking a bit of school back 

home, and these benefits 

help develop life skills that 

can be applied in the real 

world. 

They learn some level of 

independence from carrying 

out tasks on their own; 

they build retentive memory 

by repeating activities 

from the day and applying 

the knowledge gained to 

additional exercises; they 

build organisational skills 

and learn to manage time 

effectively; they develop 

a sense of ownership and 

responsibility, and gain that 

feeling of accomplishment 

when they return to school 

after having completed their 

tasks; and so many more. 

From the schools’ and 

teachers’ perspectives, apart 

from it being an integral part 

of the curriculum, giving 

homework provides some 

form of feedback on the 

quality of the style of teaching 

and the effectiveness of 

delivery. It also forms an 

additional means of identifying 

children who may 

have learning challenges 

or those who may not be 

getting enough support 

from home. 

As great as the benefits 

that children stand to gain 

from homework are, they 

will only be achieved if this 

activity is carried out and 

monitored properly. From 

schools, setting appropriate 

assignments is key towards 

the children’s development. 

Appropriateness may be a 

broad concept, but it is up 

to the schools and teachers 

to determine what this is 

in line with the curriculum 

they apply, the level 

of their students’ development 

and educational standards. 

Homework should 

be stimulating enough to 

ensure that the children 

are exposed to a healthy 

challenge, which would 

task them, further aiding 

their learning abilities and 

knowledge growth. 

After children return 

their homework to school, 

follow up is also important. 

Corrections need to 

be made and delivered 

effectively. Wrong answers 

should not be punishable 

offences. Rather, children 

should be taught how to receive 

and accept constructive 

feedback. 

Support from the home 

is also extremely important 

when it comes to homework. 

Our current times 

are rather challenging, as 

parents spend more hours 

at work and may not be 

able to make enough time 

to help their children with 

their homework. While 

parents should strive to 

find this time, the reality 

is that they may not always 

be available. 

If they are not, it is imperative 

that a responsible 

adult or educated superior 

who is sufficiently 

knowledgeable supervises 

the homework sessions 

at home (grandparents, 

older siblings, afterschool 

services etc.). These support 

people should be able 

to assist with homework 

sessions, but also have to 

be mindful that they allow 

the children to do most of 

the work themselves. They 

should be patient with 

them and ensure that they 

do not give excessive leeway 

to the children such 

that they themselves end 

up answering the questions 

without getting the 

children to think for themselves 

and get the work 

done largely as a result 

their own abilities. 

When it comes to homework, 

a support tool that has 

recently become common 

and is of growing concern 

is the Internet. Google has 

literally become everyone’s 

best friend, for the reason 

that it has the answers to 

most questions. 

So people have gradually 

delegated their thinking 

process to computers. 

This same practice applies 

directly to homework. We 

need to be very careful that 

we ensure that our children 

do not abuse the availability 

of information online, and 

make more use of their own 

cognitive power to do their 

homework 

Additionally, giving children 

access to computers 

in general can be tricky 

because we may not be fully 

aware of what they get up 

to. Distractions from games 

and other leisure activities 

on the Internet may impair 

the children’s concentration 

on their homework. 

In order to minimise 

this, parent may contact 

Internet Service Providers 

to discuss restriction 

options on such websites. 

They could also ensure that 

computers at home are well 

placed in central areas so 

that children’s activities can 

be monitored whilst they 

use the computers. 

In order to reap the full 

benefits, homework should 

be a collaborative effort 

involving children, teachers 

and parents; with support 

of resources and other 

tools which add value to the 

process. Close attention and 

supervision are paramount 

in order for this to work the 

right way. 

Oyin Egbeyemi is an executive 

administrator at The Foreshore 

School, Ikoyi, Lagos. 

WOWBii Interactive deepens 

21st century learning in ABUAD 


As part of its contribution 

to promote 

21st Century 

Learning in the institution 

across the country, 

the management of Wowbii 

Interactive has donated an 

Interactive Touch Screen 

to Afe Babalola University, 

Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD). 

Gbolahan Olayomi, 

founder, WOWBii Interactive 

while speaking at the 

presentation ceremony at 

the school said the company 

recognises ABUAD as an 

early adopter of technology 

and knows that the WOWBii 

experience will transform 

learning in the institution. 

Olayomi observes that 

as educational technology 

(EdTech) adoption drives 

new and more efficient 

learning styles, Wowbii 

Interactive is partnering 

with African institutions 

to change the narrative 

by introducing interactive 

touch screen displays in 

EdTech. 

Designed and built as 

a multi-touch interactive 

screen, the WOWBUD- 

DTM is an internet-ready 

platform offering a whiteboard 

and remote learning 

functionality with in-built 

Android and Windows operating 

systems. 

The WOWBUDDTM 

promotes real-time collaboration 

for Educators 

and Learners; allowing for 

flexibility in learning styles 

and techniques whilst encouraging 

creativity leveraging 

Technology. Wowbii 

Interactive seeks to transform 

the way Africa learns, 

one interactive panel at a 

time. 

Afe Babalola Founder 

of the university while acknowledging 

receipt of the 

WOWBUDDTM appreciated 

the WowBii team for 

their kind gesture towards 

ABUAD stating that the visit 

was timely. 

Babalola reiterated his 

commitment to transforming 

tertiary education in 

Nigeria and accepted the 

partnership offer; assuring 

both organisations of full 

adoption by Afe Babalola 

University. 

Afe Babalola University 

Ado Ekiti (ABUAD) is 

among innovative tertiary 

institutions in Nigeria that 

have adopted the WOWBii 

Touch screens alongside 

Covenant University, Ota 

and Mountain Top University, 

Ibafo. 

WASSCE’s outstanding 

student gets N9m 

scholarship to pursue 

academic goals 


The Bridge House 

College, Ikoyi, Lagos 

has awarded 

a full scholarship 

worth N9 million to David 

Okorogheye Orisheneye, a 

15-year old May/June 2018 

West African Senior School 

Certificate Examinations 

(WASSCE) outstanding student 

to pursue a two-year 

Cambridge A’ Level course 

in the College. 

The scholarship award 

according to the sixth form 

college was in recognition 

of the brilliant performance 

of the prodigy, who 

in addition to obtaining a 

parallel A1 in all the nine 

subjects he wrote during 

the May/June 2018 West 

African Senior School 

Certificate Examinations 

(WASSCE), conducted by 

West African Examination 

Council also scored 332 in 

his JAMB. 

Carmen Latty, college 

administrator, in a letter 

conveying the news of the 

scholarship award to the recipient 

said the scholarship 

award was in fulfillment of 

BHC’s tradition to celebrate 

academic success and to encourage 

students to pursue 

academic goals. 

According to Latty, “Your 

very brilliant performance 

in the May/June 2018 WAS- 

SCE where you obtained 

9As in subjects including 

Mathematics, Chemistry 

and Physics and went on 

to score 332 in JAMB all at 

the age of 15 caught our 

attention. 

The N9 million scholarship 

will cover boarding, 

tuition, books and uniforms 

while the programme lasts 

from September 10, 2018 to 

June 20, 2020. 

“The Board of Directors, 

management and staff 

of Bridge House College 

heartily congratulate you 

and hereby offers you a 

full scholarship to pursue 

the two-year Cambridge 

A’ Level Course in the College 

effective September 10, 

2018 to June 30, 2020”, the 

letter read.


23 

C002D5556 BUSINESS DAY 

Energy Report 

Oil & Gas Power Renewables Environment 

Ibadan Disco to start another phase of supply pre-paid meters 

… invests over N11.5bn in metering, network upgrade, rehabilitation 

OLUSOLA BELLO 

Electricity consumers 

under 

the jurisdiction 

of Ibadan Electricity 

Distribution 

Company ( IBEDC), 

who have paid for pre-paid 

meters but are yet to get, 

would be serviced latest 

by December this year, the 

management of the company 

says . 

The company says it is 

ready to meter all those that 

have paid for pre- paid meters 

but they must provide 

evidence of payment. The 

management stated this 

while conducting stakeholders 

and journalists round 

some of it facilities that had 

been upgraded to enhance 

steady power supply. It also 

showed them the over 11, 

000 pre - paid meters it said 

would be deployed to customers 

starting from this 

week. 

According to the company 

over N11.5billion has 

been invested in major capital 

projects such as metering, 

network upgrade and rehabilitation 

last six months. 

According to John Ayodele, 

the chief operating 

officer who represented 

John Donnachie, managing 

director/ceo of the company 

said:“As part of our 

unwavering commitment 

to our mission, distributing 

power, changing lives, we 

have in the past 6 months 

invested over N11.5 Billion 

in major capital projects. 

These span across our franchise 

area covering – Oyo, 

Ogun, Osun, Kwara; parts of 

Kogi, Niger and Ekiti States. 

These projects are major 

game changers for IBEDC 

as a business and for our 

esteemed customers, which 

have significantly improved 

our service delivery, quality 

and quantity of power 

supply”. 

He said recently, the 

company commenced the 

procurement and supply of 

10,000 Distribution Transformer 

(DT) Meters at a 

cost of N4 Billion. These DT 

Meters will greatly reduce 

the challenge of estimated 

bills and ensure customers 

without meters are billed 

more accurately through 

its energy audit, accounting 

functionalities, and above 

all, assist in our Technical, 

commercial and collection 

(TC&C) losses. 

To further reduce safety 

related accidents and top 

achieve the vision Zero and 

Safety culture of IBEDC, 

the board awarded a whopping 

sum of N1.47 Billion 

for a major overhaul of the 

Health, Safety and Environment 

department. 

How inefficient grid management is killing power generating plants 

The power sector is 

made up of three 

mutually exclusive, 

but necessary parts 

– generation, transmission, 

and distribution. Nigerians 

are all very much conversant 

with the operations 

of the electric generator 

or generating set (I better 

pass my neighbour or 

other bigger ones) which 

is made up of three parts 

– the generator itself (machine), 

an electrical cable 

or wire (transmission) that 

connects the generator to 

a control panel or fuse box 

through which the generated 

power is distributed to 

equipment (distribution). 

All electrical appliances 

have set conditions under 

which they function at optimal 

levels. Any fluctuations 

in these conditions can 

cause the appliances to run 

at a lower efficiency. Power 

generators,like the Hydros 

and thermals used in Nigeria, 

are no exception to this. 

Thermal power plants, like 

the gas turbines (GTs) are 

designed to operate optimally 

and efficiently at base 

load. Operations of these gas 

turbines at operating points, 

far away from their baseloads 

implies a reduction in 

efficiency or in other words 

an increase in consumption 

of gas by as much as 15- 

20%,a cost not recognized 

by NBET nor captured in 

the MYTO. 

This reduction in operating 

efficiency is in addition 

to the huge fatigue damage 

leading to higher O&M cost 

meted out on turbines due to 

ramping up and down over 

wide temperature swings. It 

is common knowledge that 

GenCo power stations have 

been used by TCN, via its 

subsidiary SO/NCC to stabilise 

the national grid with 

no compensations. 

Generally, the damaging 

effects includes: thermal 

stress on Steam Turbine 

Blades, creep of compressor 

and turbine blades, Cracks 

on exhaust sleeves, Irregular 

heating and cooling cycles 

of hot gas path components, 

Cracks in ceramic tiles of 

the combustion chamber, 

Defective gas control valves 

due to wear and tear etc. 

It is a no brainer that the 

grid cannot conveniently 

take over 4500MW without 

rejecting load. Generation 

above 5,000 MW may either 

be lost or rejected either 

by DisCos or transmission 

service provider (TSP) due 

to their inabilities largely 

caused by infrastructural 

challenges (Line cuts, Transformer 

faults and unavailability 

etc.) causing grid 

frequency to be very high. 

Furthermore, Power 

Generation Companies are 

increasingly facing lower capacity 

utilization (dispatch) 

being forced to operate their 

dispatched Turbines/machines 

far from the baseload 

settings sometimes even 

lower than 50% of rated 

capacity. On the plant level, 

less than 53% of average 

available power capacity is 

dispatched to the grid. For 

the month of April, 2018 

for instance, on a daily basis, 

GENCOS had an average 

available capacity of 

7485 MW but TCN could 

only transmit an average of 

3985MW which is about 53% 

of the available capacity. This 

data as published by TCN 

(SO/NCC) is presented in 

the table below. 

The project will deliver on 

over 60 critical need areas 

with major focus on procurement 

and deployment of 

PPEs, IPEs, signages, Labels 

and symbols. This project 

is expected to map the layouts 

of 114 Substations in 

order to develop conceptual 

site models, training 

on emergency techniques, 

solid waste and hazardous 

management programme, 

production of occupational 

health and safety environmental 

policies and framework 

for all technical and 

non-technical staff. In addition, 

it will ultimately aid us 

in attaining the certification 

required, thereby making 

us an internationally recognized 

health hazard compliant 

organisation. 

“In line with reducing 

the incidence of estimated 

bills, we have commenced 

our meter roll out with a 

1st batch of 48,470 Energy 

Meters of various ratings 

and capacities. This includes 

35,000 Single-Phase, 12,000 

Three-Phase, 1,470 Whole 

current, C.T-Operated and 

Statistical Meters all at a sum 

of N3.1 Billion, ahead of the 

MAP initiative currently being 

finalized by NERC and 

the Discos,” he said. 

The continuous metering 

of Maximum Demand customers 

is also in place with 

the development of 13 High 

Voltage Energy Meters and 

delivery of 912 Low Voltage 

Maximum Demand Energy 

Meters at a cost of N405 Million. 

To further support the 

huge metering expenditure, 

we have invested extensively 

in the supply and installation 

It is inexplicable that a 

country of over 180 million, 

is unable to utilise the 

GenCos available capacity 

of 7500MW, what then is the 

incentive for further capacity 

recovery and expansion? 

Despite GenCos efforts 

to increase their available 

capacity effectively nominating 

same on a daily basis, 

the SO has the “grid 

right” to instruct any GenCo 

to reduce or cut down on 

its nominated capacity. It 

should also be noted that 

for a GenCo to nominate 

Power utilisation for the month of April, 2018 for six thermal and two Hydro plants 

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

of Advanced Metering Infrastructure 

(AMI) Systems at 

over N1 Billion, this investment 

is critical to optimally 

implement the functionalities 

of DT Meters”. As we 

speak, we have recently received 

95% of CAPMI meters 

for deployment for those 

that paid. 

The managing Director/ 

CEO informed that the ongoing 

Asset and Customer 

Enumeration (ACE) exercise 

estimated at a N5 Billion, 

is now fully rolled out 

across the franchise and is 

scheduled for completion 

early next year. The project 

on completion will greatly 

enhance service delivery 

by providing critical data 

needed for planning and 

provision of infrastructure, 

reduce estimated bills, improve 

the accuracy, enhance 

quality of power supply and 

quicker fault response rates. 

The pilot exercise at Elebu, (a 

community within Ibadan) 

has already identified additional 

customer population 

which is yielding fruits in 

terms of efficient customer 

service delivery. 

any capacity, it means effective 

commitments has been 

made as per gas and other 

equivalent overhead costs. 

This is a legitimate cost that 

must be recovered! 

Compelling a generator 

to ramp up and ramp down 

at unscheduled time affects 

it equivalent operating hours 

(EOH) and also stresses the 

internals of the machine 

thereby reducing the plants 

lifespan as well as attracts an 

associated costs, incurred 

in making such capacity 

available. Generating plants 

can no longer sustain these 

costs alone given the level 

of remittance in the market, 

which barely covers the operating 

cost. 

The only sane thing to 

do and save the sector from 

collapsing is for GenCos to 

shut down until when the 

networks (transmission and 

distribution) are efficient 

enough to take power and 

fully pay for both outstanding 

and current liabilities 

to GenCos. Section 12.6.6 

of the Grid code allows the 

Generator to disconnect the 

Generating Unit for reasons 

of safety of personnel, Apparatus, 

and/or Plant.



C002D5556 

Aramco charges Nigeria, other 

OPEC members to turn on the taps 

ISAAC ANYAOGU 

Saudi Aramco has 

charged other oil 

producers to ramp 

up production to 

offset $1 trillion investment 

loss since the market downturn 

began address declining 

production in matured 

fields. 

In the organisation’s 

latest report, Saudi Aramco 

Annual Review, Khalid Al- 

Falih, chairman of Aramco’s 

board said mature oil 

fields are seeing an increase 

in declining production 

rates, and this must be 

offset by continued investments 

in the industry if 

the world is to meet what 

is thought to be an 1-1.5 

million barrel per day annual 

demand growth rate 

in coming years. 

“To respond to this situation, 

significant new investments 

are required in 

additional capacity and 

expanded and upgraded 

infrastructure, as well as 

the development of pioneering 

technology to 

make petroleum energy 

more sustainable and accessible,” 

Al-Falih said in 

his opening message to the 

42-page report published 

on Friday. 

Aramco’s annual report 

cites the International Energy 

Agency’s World Energy 

Outlook 2017 New Policies 

Scenario estimates that call 

for a 30 percent increase 

in global energy needs between 

now and 2040. 

Saudi Aramco, for now 

the world’s top oil producer, 

is doing its part to meet this 

future demand, according 

to the report. 

“Saudi Aramco is committed 

to playing its unique 

part in meeting the world’s 

energy needs today and 

tomorrow by continuing 

to invest wisely throughout 

the cycle and across the 

value chain, reinforcing 

our preeminent leadership 

position in the industry,” 

Energy Report 

Nigeria ignores coal as Trump sets new emission rules to boost use 

…environmentalists fear rise in emissions 

STEPHEN ONYEKWELU 

Nigeria’s vast 

coal resource 

wastes away 

for inefficiency 

as 

the Trump administration 

plans to formally overhaul 

climate change regulations 

that would allow individual 

states to decide how, or even 

whether to curb carbon dioxide 

emissions from coal 

plants, come August 21, according 

to three people who 

have seen the full proposal. 

The plan would also relax 

pollution rules for power 

plants that need upgrades. 

That, combined with allowing 

states to set their own 

rules, creates a serious risk 

that emissions, which had 

been falling, could start 

to rise again, according to 

environmentalists. 

The proposal, which 

President Trump is expected 

to highlight August 

21at a rally in West Virginia, 

amounts to the administration’s 

strongest and broadest 

effort yet to address 

what the president has long 

described as a regulatory 

“war on coal.” 

It would considerably 

weaken what is known 

as the Clean Power Plan, 

former President Barack 

Obama’s signature regulation 

for cutting planetwarming 

emissions at coalfired 

plants. 

Back to Africa’s most 

populous and energy hungry 

nation, Nigeria’s coal 

industry suffered a blow 

in the 1950s when oil was 

discovered. Up until this 

point, the Nigerian Railway 

Corporation was the largest 

consumer of coal in the 

country. 

However, after the discovery 

of oil, the Railway 

Corporation began to replace 

its coal burning trains 

with diesel-powered engines. 

An additional negative 

impact came when the 

Electricity Corporation of 

Nigeria began converting 

its power generation equipment 

from coal to diesel and 

gas as well. 

The Nigerian Civil War 

also negatively impacted 

coal production; many 

mines were abandoned 

during the war. Following 

the war, production never 

completely recovered and 

coal production levels were 

erratic. 

Attempts at mechanising 

production ended badly, as 

Al-Falih added. 

Aramco referenced its 

new discoveries in the Sakab 

and Zumul oil fields, as 

well as its gas reservoir find 

in Sahba field. Other projects 

in 2017 that Aramco has 

invested include Khurais 

field (300,000 bpd by 2018), 

Fazran field (75,000 bpd 

by 2020), Dammam field 

(25,000 bpd by 2021; 75,000 

by 2026). Fadhili Gas Plant 

(start up 2019, 2.5 billion 

scfd), Hawiyah Gas Plant 

(1.1 billion scfd). 

However for OPEC producers 

in Africa especially 

Nigeria and Libya, this will 

be a tough call considering 

the internal crises in 

these countries. Libya has to 

check activities of different 

groups fighting for political 

and economic power. 

The challenge for Nigeria 

is to raise production by attracting 

new investments. 

But in order to do this, it 

must embark on deep reforms 

in a sector that is 

beset by challenges. 

both the implementation 

and maintenance of imported 

mining equipment 

proved troublesome, and 

hurt production. After the 

civil war, the Nigerian coal 

industry was not able to return 

to its peak production, 

this is hurting industries 

because the cost of electricity 

eats away profit margins. 

Against the backdrop of 

severe shortages in much 

needed supply of electricity, 

it is inevitable that Nigeria 

must move from rhetoric 

to concrete action in the 

OLUSOLA BELLO 

Following public 

scepticism over the 

execution of the 

Ajaokuta Kaduna – 

Kano gas pipeline projects 

the group managing director 

of the Nigerian National 

Petroleum Corporation 

(NNPC), Maikanti Baru has 

directed the Chinese Consortium 

and the NNPC team 

working on the Project to 

ensure timely finalization 

of the term sheet for the 

project’s contractor financing 

agreement 

The Chinese consortium 

is made up of Bank of China 

and Sinosure. 

Baru maikanti, who had 

to cut short his trip to Saudi 

Arabia for a stop-over in 

Dubai to meet with the Chi- 

NNPC want timely delivery of gas project 

development and addition 

of coal-fired electricity to 

the nation’s electricity supply 

mix. 

Two of the biggest cement 

markers in Nigeria, 

Dangote Cement Plc and 

Lafarge Plc have been investing 

massively in coal as 

source of energy to power 

its plants. 

“Companies are turning 

to coal for their energy 

needs. What we tend to forget 

is that coal as a major 

source of energy might not 

be clean and it is ultimately 

cheaper to use liquefied 

natural gas (LNG) rather 

than coal because of social 

and environmental 

concerns” Eddy van Den 

Broeke, founder of Abujabased 

Greenville Oil and 

Gas Limited said at a gas 

development roundtable 

in Lagos. 

Dangote Cement 

switched to using coal at its 

cement plants in response 

to disruption to gas supplies 

and to lower input 

costs. The cement producer 

uses 12,000 metric tonnes 

(MT/day) of coal. Ashaka 

Cement, a fully-owned subsidiary 

of Lafarge Africa, 

said coal accounted for 82 

percent of its power usage 

over the period, while work 

is ongoing on its 16-megawatt 

lignite-fired coal power 

plant at its factory in Gombe 

State. 

“Coal business is booming. 

I have some Chinese 

companies that need about 

a million metric tonnes 

(MT) of coal from me every 

month and I don’t meet up 

with the demand. Dangote 

Cement Plc is ready to buy 

up every piece of coal we 

excavate in Kogi state for its 

Obajana cement factory” 

Leo Nwankwo, a commodities 

analyst and trader told 

BusinessDay. 

“There are jobs to be 

created, when we develop 

our coal industry. I trade in 

commodities and coal is just 

one of the many commodities 

I trade in. When you visit 

our coal excavation sites in 

Kogi state and see the level 

of unemployment and poverty, 

I fear for this country. 

Let us focus on developing 

our economy and not let the 

shouts about clean energy 

deter us from creating jobs 

for our bulging youth population” 

Nwankwo said. 

Trump’s plan is the latest 

move in a string of efforts, 

including prodding 

grid operators to purchase 

more electricity from coal 

plants and asserting that 

coal plant retirements are 

threatening the reliability of 

the national power grid, to 

end what Trump has called 

his predecessor’s war on coal 

and a sure sign to the industry 

that the Trump administration 

still has its back, even as 

coal production continues 

to decline. 

nese consortium reiterated 

the need for both parties 

to ensure speedy conclusion 

on the details of the 

agreement towards its full 

execution during President 

Muhammadu Buhari’s state 

visit to China next month. 

The is scheduled to attend 

the Forum of China-Africa 

Cooperation (FOCAC) 

Summit holding from the 

1st to 4th September, 2018 in 

the Chinese capital, Beijing 

and it is expected that AKK 

Project will be top on Mr. 

President’s agenda. 

The NNPC had earlier 

clarified that the execution 

of the AKK gas pipeline 

project is progressing under 

the original concept of 100 

percent contractor financing 

model contrary to some 

media report of a possible 

resort to ‘’proceed of gas tariffs’’ 

as new means of funding 

because of purported 

collapse of negotiation with 

Chinese lenders. 

The Corporation noted 

that the successful conclusion 

of the contractor 

financing terms would pave 

way for the historic groundbreaking 

ceremony which 

would take place after the 

conclusion of the front-end 

activities. 

Already the Corporation 

had concluded the 

vital Front End Engineering 

Design (FEED) and the 

Environmental Impact Assessment 

(EIA) report while 

work on the detailed engineering 

design is nearing 

conclusion. 

Upon completion within 

a projected 24-month 

window, the NNPC stated 

that the AKK gas pipeline 

would enable connectivity 

between the East, West and 

North, which is currently 

non-existent. 

It would also enable gas 

supply and utilization to key 

commercial centres in the 

Northern corridor of Nigeria 

with the attendant positive 

spin-off on power generation 

and industrial growth.


C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

25 

In association with 

RoI in prime office space under pressure 

as market continues to struggle 

…rich development pipeline means investors in for stiff competition 

CHUKA UROKO 

For investors in prime 

office market in the 

main cities of Nigeria 

notably Lagos, Abuja 

and Port Harcourt, 

improvement in macro-economic 

environment means 

little or nothing as the market’s 

continued struggle piles downward 

pressure on the return on 

their investment (RoI). 

Whereas increased supply 

from project completions and 

the rise and rise of co-working 

space is exerting a pull on demand 

in the Lagos market, security 

risks and environmental 

hazards in Port Harcourt sent 

office rents to their lowest in 

over five years. 

Grade-A office vacancies 

remain high and it appears 

the economy would need to 

strengthen much more to reverse 

this trend. The wait for the 

global brands looking to open 

up shop in Grade-A signature 

addresses worthy of their presence 

may be taking too long. 

As at the first half of this year 

(H1 2018), there was an average 

of 28 percent decline in office 

rents per square metres across 

the major cities. In the Central 

Business District (CBD) of Abuja, 

rents dropped 30 percent to 

N40/$0.11 per square metre per 

month down from N57/$0.16 

per square metre per month. 

On Olu Obasanjo Way in 

Port Harcourt, rents declined 

from N16/$0.04 per square 

metre per month in 2017 to 

N12.5/$0.03 per square metre 

per month in H1 2018, representing 

-23 percent drop. 

This is slightly better than the 

situation in Ikoyi, Lagos, where 

rents dropped -33 percent to 

N207/$0.57 per square metre 

in H1 2018, down from 

N309/$0.85 per square metre 

per month in 2017. 

The implication of this is that 

investors will be under pressure 

from their financiers who are 

no Father Christmas and so, 

would get their agreed repayment 

sum plus the interest in 

spite of the market situation. 

Those who are not exposed to 

bank credit may decide to stick 

to old rents, leading to high 

vacancy factor which, in turn, 

leads to depreciation and high 

maintenance cost. 

But, on the other hand, 

demand for grade B and smaller 

office space remained stable 

when compared with last year 

and, according to a new report 

by Northcourt Real Estate, coworking 

spaces continue to 

grow in popularity with a few 

service providers opening more 

locations. 

The report hopes that with 

increased flexibility in pricing 

and terms, a renewed focus on 

volume, partnerships and programmes 

will drive profitability. 

“The development pipeline 

remains rich and is much more 

active in comparison to H1 

2017. With over 100,000 square 

metres of office currently available 

for lease on the market, 

completions scheduled for 

2018 already have significant 

competition for the few multinationals 

and big brands that 

can afford grade-A space, not 

accounting for the brands that 

are willing to settle for the more 

flexible and affordable co-work 

option”, said Tayo Odunsi, 

Northcourt’s CEO. 

The retail market also continued 

to struggle with shrinking 

middle class and dwindling 

purchasing power of the 

customer. It however, differs 

from the office market because 

stable exchange rate regime 

makes planning around operational 

costs and profit projections 

much more feasible 

for retailers. Local investors, 

emboldened to make further 

investments, softly opened the 

Next Mall in Port Harcourt and 

The Atlantic in Lagos and the 

Novare Central Mall in Abuja. 

Unlike the office market 

again, vacancy rates reduced 

largely across the Grade-A 

malls. For instance, The Palms 

and Ikeja City Mall had the 

lowest vacancies at 0 percent 

and 2 percent respectively. 

Novare Mall came in at 28 percent, 

down from 47 percent at 

the end of 2017. Artee’s Port 

Harcourt Mall, Big Treat and 

Genesis Centre had 8 percent, 

15 percent and 25 percent respectively. 

But whereas Ceddi Plaza 

and Gateway Mall in Abuja 

recorded 21 percent and 38 

percent respectively, Abuja’s 

largest mall – Jabi Lake 

(20,000square metres) recorded 

the highest vacancy rate in city 

at 40 percent and this was due 

to a number of stores that closed 

down in Q1 2018 coupled with 

high rentals. 

These high vacancy rates 

find explanation in some international 

investors finding 

business conditions in Nigeria 

less favorable and are instead 

pursuing retail interests in 

Eastern Europe and Eastern 

Africa, local HNI’s (High Networth 

Individuals) who are 

not disturbed by currency risks 

amongst others, are moving 

into the retail space to make 

large-scale investments. 

“Outside purpose-built and 

A-grade malls, high street retail 

within central locations continue 

to experience high demand. 

Larger malls, though more appealing 

to international retailers 

due to better infrastructure, are 

less attractive to local brands 

due to higher rents and service 

charge costs, Odunsi noted. 

“Events, entertainment 

and leisure features continue 

to be a traffic pull for large 

malls with car park payments 

remaining a key income 

stream and a counter-weight 

to the pain of declined rents 

in major malls,” he added. 

Data from the Nigeria Bureau 

of Statistics (NBS) shows 

that payment channel transactions 

reached an all-time 

high of ₦86.1 trillion in 2017, 

representing a 32 percent 

increase from ₦65.1trillion 

recorded in 2016. Within this 

period too, online transactions 

came up thick, rising by 39.5 

percent from ₦132 billion in 

2016 to ₦185 billion a year later. 

“As such, it was only reasonable 

that online retailer, 

Konga, join forces with Yudala, 

an e-commerce company to 

become one of the largest online 

and ecommerce firms in 

Africa”, Odunsi said, pointing 

out however, that Jumia, a 

prominent player in Nigeria’s 

online retail space saw its adjusted 

loss before interest, tax, 

depreciation and amortisation 

widen to €80.7 million in the 

first nine months of 2017 even 

though revenues moved up to 

€57.3 million. 

Infrastructure 

Maintenance 

With 

Tunde Obileye 

Importance of key performance indicators in FM 

The role of a facilities 

manager in determining 

a facility’s performance 

is dependent on a holistic key 

performance indicator (KPI) 

approach and this is important 

for performance assessment. 

There are many KPIs that can be 

applied. However, the selected 

ones must be fit for purpose and 

must be calculated, analyzed and 

evaluated to allow for the future 

state of the facility to be acceptable 

to all stakeholders. 

A useful maintenance KPI 

drives reliability growth whilst 

guiding the choices for improving 

maintenance effectiveness 

and efficiency. The application 

of these KPIs allows the facilities 

manager to identify issues 

and helps in selecting the right 

strategy to support or correct the 

activities producing the results. 

Maintenance KPIs are of two 

types – those that improve maintenance 

impact on business 

performance and those that drive 

reliability. The KPIs assist the 

facilities manager to understand 

what maintenance is doing, what 

it is achieving and what more they 

can do to improve operational 

performance. 

Efficient maintenance is 

doing maintenance right so that 

higher equipment reliability 

and operational risk reductions 

are achieved with minimum 

resources and time. It is important 

that when a variety of maintenance 

KPIs is selected, they 

improve equipment reliability 

and maintenance performance 

and not simply indicate that 

problems exist. 

The facilities manager’s maintenance 

plan needs to support 

the business objectives and operating 

strategy. The best way 

to demonstrate this is to have 

a maintenance performance 

linked to the reasons for the 

company’s business. To develop 

maintenance KPIs require the 

creation of a KPI pathway from 

top to bottom which connects 

the operational activities with 

corporate goals. 

This clear connection enables 

everyone to see the benefits these 

maintenance activities bring to 

the built environment. In applying 

these KPIs, a facilities manager 

is able to identify opportunities 

as well as errors. As a result, the 

facilities manager in conjunction 

with senior management can 

correct problems expediently and 

take advantage of the opportunities 

to reduce cost. 

Some FM related 

KPIs to consider are: 

1)Preventive Maintenance Programme 

Compliance: This KPI 

gives a clear understanding of 

how much time is spent on completing 

preventive maintenance 

activities rather than constantly 

fire-fighting issues. It allows the 

facilities manager to recalibrate 

the work to become less reactive. 

A disciplined PM programme 

managed by a competent maintenance 

team will produce results 

and success may be measured 

by a 99 percent PM activities 

completed on time. This may be 

measured on a monthly basis to 

make changes in real time and 

reduced cost. 

2)Average Time To Complete 

Work Order: This helps the facilities 

manager to understand 

where gaps exist in the processes 

if a work order takes more than 

reasonable time to complete. For 

instance, a job of few hours takes 

two days to complete. 

It may also be used to determine 

skill gap within the maintenance 

team if a plumbing issue 

takes much longer to fix whilst 

an electrical issue is fixed on time. 

This KPI may indicate where work 

orders are held up in a process. 

Improvement can, therefore, be 

made. 

3)Total Number Of Work 

Orders: Tracking the number of 

completed work orders in a given 

period will assist in determining 

the maintenance team’s workload 

and overall productivity. It 

can also assist in justifying budget 

requests where there’s a need to 

increase staff strength as a result 

of increase in work orders. 

KPIs can answer numerous 

questions which, in turn, will 

make a facilities manager to 

continually improve and create 

business value. Finally, a facilities 

manager can help make facilities 

management a key partner in 

achieving organizational goals by 

knowing which KPIs to consider 

and how to relate them to overall 

business goals.



Why Nigeria’s 17m housing units deficit is no longer tenable 

…NBRRI sees need to rethink approach to housing 

Stories by CHUKA UROKO 

Nigeria and 

South Africa 

are Africa’s largest 

economies 

that differ significantly 

in terms of basic 

necessities of life including 

power supply and housing 

provision. This is why, for 

South Africa’s over 20,000 

mega watts of electricity, Nigeria 

is struggling with 5,000 

megawatts, and for the country’s 

2-3 million housing deficit, 

Nigeria has as high as 17 

million units. 

The federal mortgage bank 

of Nigeria (FMBN), the country’s 

apex mortgage, recently 

estimated the deficit at 17-20 

million units with potential 

cost (value) of N6 trillion ($16 

billion) and 900,000 annual 

unit deficit increase. 

But analysts argue that 

whether it is 17 million or 

20 million or whatever figure, 

the deficit as paraded by 

government and other housing 

sector stakeholders is no 

longer tenable, citing population 

growth and lack of data 

that captures annual housing 

deliveries and demolition/ 

destruction. 

Nigeria’s population as 

at 2006, when the last headcount 

in the country was 

conducted, stands at 170 million. 

But World Bank’s annual 

growth rate estimates 

put Nigeria’s at 2.6 percent, 

meaning that from 2006 to 

date, the country’s population 

has increased significantly. 

“The 17 million units deficit 

is no longer tenable”, the 

Nigerian building and roads 

research institute (NBRRI) 

affirms, quoting findings by 

Worldometer, 2017, which 

notes that from 2012 to date, 

Nigeria’s population has increased 

from 168,240,403 to 

191,835,936, showing a significant 

increase of 23,595,533 

people to the population. And 

Expectation as Trinity Towers sets for market with innovations, standards in architecture 

Expectation is high in 

the commercial office 

market as more 

pipeline developments get 

ready to come to the market 

to offer new opportunities 

and viable options in terms 

of quality and variety 

One of such developments 

is the Trinity Towers 

which is getting set for the 

market with its new innovations 

and standards in 

architectural designs. 

An ultra modern office 

complex located in Oniru, 

Victoria Island extension 

in Lagos, Trinity Towers 

is a flagship project being 

promoted by The City of 

David, a parish of the Redeemed 

Christian Church 

that is five years ago. 

“The housing deficiency 

has, therefore, climbed and is 

likely to worsen in the nearest 

future if urgent steps are not 

taken by the government in 

conjunction with all stakeholders 

to address the problem”, 

Danladi Matawal, DG/ 

CEO of the institute, said at a 

forum in Abuja. 

The World Bank in 2013 

stated that in order for Nigeria 

to keep up with the demand 

for housing, 700,000 houses 

annually are required to 

match growing population 

and urban migration but, 

according to Chudi Ubosi, 

an estate surveyor and valuer, 

annual housing delivery 

is less than 100,000 units. 

Erejuwa Gbadebo, CEO, 

International Real Estate 

Partnership (IREP), says 

Nigeria needs dependable 

data on its housing sector. 

“One of the biggest problems 

that we have is lack of data. 

People still quote 17 million 

units because there is no other 

data to prove or disprove it. 

We talk of homes demolished, 

burnt or new ones built, but 

the question is who is taking 

of God (RCCG) and it’s 

designed to provide space 

for a blend of worship, work 

and recreation. 

The edifice, which sits 

on 10,000 square metres, 

will have three towers 

each linked together and 

separated by corridors. Its 

special features include a 

helipad, garden terraces, 

gymnasium, 5000- seater 

auditorium, wellness center, 

and parking spaces for 

over 650 cars. 

Trinity Towers will be 

Nigeria’s first three-tower 

building, each tower rising 

13 floors to give what will 

be an integrated family 

centre in a neighbourhood 

steeped in history, yet at the 

record of the number of houses 

that are being built and the 

ones we are losing?”, Gbadebo 

queried in an interview. 

One of the first things the 

industry should do, she advised, 

is to start taking stock 

of what is available—what 

house-types are there and 

what they change hands for. 

“There should be a central 

system either online or from 

bodies such as Nigerian institution 

of estate surveyors 

and valuers, she said, adding, 

“there must be a way of 

capturing this data so that 

people can have accurate 

number so that we should 

not continue to fight a battle 

we may have won or will 

never win”. 

Housing data, which is 

taken for granted in other 

economies including South 

Africa, is still a big issue in 

Nigeria and that is why foreign 

direct investment in the 

housing sector, especially in 

the residential segment, is still 

in fits and starts because there 

is virtually nothing to guide 

potential investors. 

As a part of solutions to the 

deficit, Matawal canvasses a 

forefront of the future. 

Space, light and aesthetics 

make it a functional 

work of art, and its environmental 

credentials are 

impeccable with designs 

that maximise the use of 

natural light and ventilation 

with high efficiency 

glazing to reduce heat loss 

and reflect ultra-violet rays 

which will reduce demand 

on energy consumption. 

“This is a remarkable 

project for ITB Nigeria. The 

design and scope of the 

project with its attendant 

structural requirements 

speaks to our ability as a 

company to deliver excellent 

projects that set the 

standards for architecture 

paradigm shift in approach 

to providing housing from a 

conventional process base to 

more compartmentalised and 

adaptable strategies. 

“Conscious and timely 

efforts are required to adopt 

strategies that will significantly 

reduce the cost of building 

houses and I recommend 

the provision of affordable 

housing by harnessing and 

integrating alternative building 

technologies and building 

materials to reduce the cost 

of building houses in Nigeria”, 

he said. 

Building houses are highly 

capital intensive projects and 

a bulk of this capital is gulped 

up in procuring building materials 

which alone have been 

estimated to constitute 60 

percent of the construction 

cost. According to Matawal, 

besides the cost implications 

of undertaking high volumes 

of construction projects, there 

is also the sustainability issue, 

hence the need to consider 

alternative building materials 

and technologies that would 

be substitutes or complementary 

to conventional building 

materials. 

in Nigeria. It also reaffirms 

our position as leaders in 

the construction industry”, 

said George Makhoul, project 

manager at ITB Nigeria 

Limited. 

ITB Nigeria, an innovative 

construction company 

providing full and 

advanced integrated engineering 

and construction 

solutions to both private 

and public sectors, is the 

contractor on the Trinity 

Towers development. 

This iconic development 

boasts unequaled features 

and amenities. It is essentially 

a work of art brought 

to life with eco-friendly 

materials and proper utilization 

of natural light and 

Economics of concrete roads underpins 

need for more govt investment 

The economics of concrete 

roads pavement 

as reflected in their 

durability, safety, strength 

and cost-effectiveness in 

the long run underpins 

need for more governments’ 

investment in that 

type of roads infrastructure 

provision. 

Concrete roads are exceptionally 

durable and 

mostly maintenancefree 

with expected life of 

30 - 40 years compared to 

2-15 years for bitumen or 

asphalt roads. Such roads 

are also easier to maintain, 

more eco-friendly and more 

economical in the long run 

as attested to by independent 

reports from multilateral 

organisations such as 

the World Bank. 

The need for government 

to make the switch to 

concrete roads pavement 

arises from the pitfalls of 

other alternatives which 

have very high failure rate 

and short lifespan. 

Available records show 

that Nigeria has the largest 

road network in West Africa 

and second largest in Sub- 

Saharan Africa (SSA). The 

total road network in the 

country is estimated to be 

between 195,000 kilometres 

and 198,000 kilometres and 

about 2,627 kilometres of 

the roads are dualised. 

Roads are owned by the 

three tiers of government in 

the country. Approximately 

18 percent is by the federal 

government, 16 percent by 

the state governments while 

66 percent is owned by local 

governments. The condition 

of these roads are so 

poor that only about 35 

percent of the network is 

motorable. 

This is why AG-Dangote 

Construction Company 

has called on governments 

ventilation. “We employed 

high efficiency glazing that 

reduces heat loss and reflects 

ultra-violet rays for 

lower energy consumption. 

Upon completion, Trinity 

Towers will, no doubt, be 

the ideal place for business 

and relaxation in Victoria 

Island”, Makhoul assured. 

The entire project is 

valued at N2 billion and 

it’s positioned to raise the 

bar for contemporary office 

and relaxation space 

in Nigeria. It boasts an interior 

that will position it 

as a prime residential and 

commercial property. 

Its 5000-seater concert 

hall will have automated 

and integrated lighting, 

at all levels to invest more 

in rigid pavement for road 

construction, emphasizing 

that concrete roads are 

more affordable, durable, 

safer and stronger. 

Ahmed Mansur, Dangote 

Group’s executive director, 

stakeholders management 

and corporate 

communications, made 

that call at this year’s Engineering 

Assembly of the 

Council for the Regulation 

of Engineering in Nigeria 

(COREN) with the theme, 

‘The Nigerian built industry: 

Building a sustainable 

structure with allied professionals’. 

Representative of the 

AG-Dangote at the event, 

Tunde Jimoh, pointed out, 

however, that the pavement 

type chosen depended on a 

number of factors, including 

expected traffic wheel loads, 

load repetition, cost of construction, 

and maintenance, 

among others. 

He said the AG Dangote 

was constructing the longest 

concrete road in the 

country located in Kogi 

State. The road, known as 

Obajana-Kabba Road, is a 

43-kilometre concrete road 

project due to be commissioned 

in December while 

another one, the 24km Itori- 

Ibese concrete road, has 

since been delivered. 

Jimoh, who is the company’s 

project manager, 

said the firm would also be 

delivering the concrete dual 

carriage Apapa Wharf Road 

in Lagos this month.“This 

vision of the development 

of concrete roads in Africa is 

being shared by more leaders 

and governments. The 

implementation of concrete 

roads can revolutionise infrastructural 

development 

in Nigeria and Africa as a 

whole,” he assured. 

sound and video system and 

state-of-the-art audiovisual 

facilities suitable for live 

broadcast. There are also 

indoor amusements for the 

kids, retail facility and cinema 

experience for all the 

family from the two cinema 

halls, recreational theme 

park and shopping Centre. 

Expectation is that when 

this property will be coming 

to the market, the economy 

should be on its way back to 

recovery. Gbenga Olaniyan, 

CEO, Estate Links, whose 

company is the project’s 

leasing agent, believes that 

in the next few months the 

economy won’t be what it 

is today, else Nigeria and 

its people will be in trouble.


C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

27 

FEATURE 

What happened to party’s internal democracy? 

Political stakeholders and Nigerians have in recent time expressed concern about the eroding internal democracy 

in the nation’s political parties, Iniobong Iwok, examines the issue and it implications for the country. 

In the recently concluded state 

congress of the ruling All Progressives 

Congress (APC), one 

of the grievances of some members 

of the APC in Lagos state 

for holding a parallel state congress 

was because of the refusal of the party 

leadership to give equal opportunity 

for all aspirants vying for positions in 

the party, imposition of candidates by 

the party’s leadership and abuse of the 

congress guidelines. 

Since the advent of the fourth republic 

in 1999, which also marked a 

return to democratic rule, after about 

fourteen years of military rule, there 

has been a return to party politics, 

while political parties have become 

a platform for politicians to contest 

elections in the country. 

However, one worrying trend over 

the years that has characterised party 

politics in the country is the party’s lack 

of internal democracy; which can be 

seen in the way candidates who becomes 

the flag bearer for these political 

parties during election are chosen. 

This trend often lead to crisis, 

distrust among party members; party 

structures have been hijacked by political 

leaders and state governors who 

turn themselves to semi –god, dictating 

who occupy a position, while party 

members seeking elective positions 

must get their support and blessing 

before clinching the ticket. 

In some cases the governor or few 

part leaders, and individuals who are 

classified as financials of these parties 

are often consulted when important 

decisions are to be taken. 

For instances , over the last three 

years since the APC assumed power, 

several state chapters of the party have 

been ploughed into internal crisis over 

control of party structure mostly by the 

governors and some chieftains of the 

party often leading to factionalisation 

of the party and eventual defection of 

the aggrieved members. 

Political researcher and Scholar, 

Michael Egbosiuba, accused state 

governors of hijacking political parties 

in the country to perpetuate their 

selfish agenda. 

“Some of the state governors have 

unprecedented sway over their state 

party machinery to the point of mandating 

the delegates to vote for a particular 

candidate. The governors highhanded 

approach over their state party 

has made it difficult for democracy to 

take root at the state and local level. 

Some House of Assembly members 

who disagrees with their state governors 

faces impeachment, suspension 

or expulsion from the House. 

“Some dissolves Local Government 

Areas where the chairman appears 

to be too independent even though 

they are supposed to be the third tier 

of government with separate budget. 

All Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) 

governors won re-election. Those who 

are term limited went as far as hand 

picking their successors”. 

Political scholar and writer, Michael 

Egbosiuba, berated state governors in 

the country for personalising and hijacking 

political party’s structures to 

perpetuate their selfish agenda. 



Adams Oshiomhole 




















However, political analysts, Idowu 

Omolegan however believe political 

parties in the country have always 

lacked internal democracy from the 

first republic, stressing that it was kind 

of politics the early politician encouraged 

but had worsen in recent times. 

“Internal democracy with in political 

parties in Nigeria is nothing to write 

home about; I actually think over the 

years it has been institutionalised by 

our fore-fathers. In those days the likes 

of Azikiwe, Awolowo and co, may be 

with the exception of some northern 

politicians, they often handpicked 

those they want in positions. In the 

days of UPN if Awolowo wanted anybody 

to occupy any position he just 

point to who he want. 

“If you look at the history of the 

country, most of the political parties 

in the first republic were controlled 

by individuals and leaders, Akintola 

and co were in control. So the issue 

has been there since the country take 

over from the colonial masters. Except 

there is a change of approach and 

orientation among the political class; 

we may not be able to grow with this 

kind of politics. 

“Look at what happened in Ekiti; 

Fayose put his Deputy in office because; 

he was the one that would protect 

his interest when he leaves office. 

In the first republic the Sardauna of 

Sokoto choose Tafawa Balewa as the 

prime minister of the country against 

other people if Tafawa wanted to take 

any decision he run to Sardauna for 

consultations. 

Uche Secondus 

“Presently people take about Awoism 

what kind of ideology is that? And 

that is why you see them moving from 

one party to another. What is happening 

now is a minus to us. We need to 

change if we are to grow. 

However, former Deputy Speaker 

of the Lagos state House of Assembly 

Honourable, Toun Adediran, attributed 

greed and lack of contentment 

among the political elites for the 

scenarios, but stressed that the trend 

would change as democracy take it 

root in the country. 

“Everything depends on self-discipline, 

personally, I think a lot of our 

politicians are self-centred, they lack 

contentment, a lot of them believe everything 

should be for me alone, they 

are not patient and don’t think of the 

masses. That is why you see cross -carpeting 

everyday within the system, because 

when of you think you are qualify 

for a position and rather someone less 

qualified is chosen by a god-father; you 

would want to defect and go to a place 

where you are appreciated. 

“Thing are changing and would 

change as democracy take it root in the 

country. You saw what happened in 

the recent Ekiti governorship election, 

and now we have Osun governorship 

election coming soon, that is why the 

National chairman of the party have 

directed that we have an open system 

for the governorship primaries. 

“This is how things would change 

in the party; I think it would change 

gradually. But when you start favouring 

some people, they would say let us 

move to another party that is why we 

are having many political parties some 

of them should merge”. 

Also Lagos state chairman of the Alliance 

for Democracy (AD), and chairman 

of inter party alliance (IPAC), Kola 

Ajayi, attributed the increasing lack of 

democracy within political parties in 

the country, stressing that it had contributed 

to poor governance and make 

elected public office holders arrogant. 

“The internal democracy may not 

be there as you think, but we have it in 

the smaller parties; it is in our smaller 

parties, the major parties may not have 

it; if you complain they may hold the 

primaries and manipulate it to favour 

their loyalist”. 

“The trend portends danger, the 

future of the country look bleak, 

because it is through the parties that 

leaders that govern the country are 

emerge from. That is why a lot of them 

are misbehaving after winning election 

and assuming office; because they 

think they can only be answerable and 

loyal to the god-fathers only” 

Political scholar and writer, Michael 

Egbosiuba, berated state governors in 

the country for personalising and hijacking 

political party’s structures to 

perpetuate their selfish agenda. 






















However, political analysts, Idowu 

Omolegan however believe political 

parties in the country have always 

lacked internal democracy form the 

first republic, stressing that it was kind 

of politics the early politician but had 

worsen. 

“Internal democracy with in political 

parties in Nigeria is nothing to write 

home about; I actually think over the 

years it has been institutionalised by 

our fore-fathers. In those days the likes 

of Azikiwe, Awolowo and co, may be 

with the exception of some northern 

politicians, they often handpicked 

those they want in positions. In the 

days of UPN if Awolowo wanted anybody 

to occupy any position he just 

point to who he want. 

“If you look at the history of the 

country, most of the political parties 

in the first republic were controlled 

by individuals and leaders, Akintola 

and co were in control. So the issue 

has been there since the country take 

over from the colonial masters. Except 

there is a change of approach and 

orientation among the political class; 

we may not be able to grow with this 

kind of politics. 

“Look at what happened in Ekiti; 

Fayose put his Deputy in office because; 

he was the one that would protect 

his interest when he leaves office. 

In the first republic the Sadauna of 

Sokoto choose Tafawa Balewa as the 

prime minister of the country against 

other people if Tafawa wanted to take 

any decision he run to Sadaruna for 

consultations. 

“Presently people take about Awoism 

what kind of ideology is that? And 

that is why you see them moving from 

one party to another. What is happening 

now is a minus to us. We need to 

change if we are to grow. 

However, former Deputy Speaker 

of the Lagos state House of Assembly 

Honourable, Toun Adediran, 

attributed greed and lack of contentment 

among the political elite for the 

scenarios, but stressed that the trend 

would change as democracy take it 

root in the country. 

“Everything depends on self-discipline, 

personally I think a lot of our 

politicians are self-centred, they lack 

contentment, a lot of them believe everything 

should be for me alone, they 

are not patient and don’t think of the 

masses. That is why you see cross -carpeting 

everyday within the system, because 

when of you think you are qualify 

for a position and rather someone less 

qualifies is chosen by a godfather; you 

would want to leave and go to a place 

where you are appreciated. 

“Thing are changing and would 

change as democracy take it root in the 

country. You saw what happened in 

the recent Ekiti governorship election, 

and now we have Osun governorship 

election coming soon, that is why the 

National chairman of the party have 

directed that we have an open system 

for the governorship primaries. 

“This is how things would change 

in the party; I think it would change 

gradually. But when you start favouring 

some people, they would say let us 

move to another party that is why we 

are having many political parties some 

of them should merge”. 

Also Lagos state chairman of the Alliance 

for Democracy (AD), and chairman 

of inter party alliance (IPAC), Kola 

Ajayi, attributed the increasing lack of 

democracy within political parties in 

the country, stressing that it had contributed 

to poor governance and make 

elected public office holders arrogant. 

“The internal democracy may not 

be there as you think, but we have it in 

the smaller parties; it is in our smaller 

parties, the major parties may not have 

it; if you complain they may hold the 

primaries and manipulate it to favour 

their loyalist”. 

“The trend portends danger, the 

future of the country look bleak, 

because it is through the parties 

that leaders that govern the country 

are emerge from. That is why a lot 

of them are misbehaving after winning 

election and assuming office; 

because they think they can only 

be answerable and loyal to the godfathers 

only”



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.’ 

FBN Holdings Plc: Profit growth driven by 

increase in non-interest income 

BALA AUGIE 

First Bank Nigeria 

(FBN) Holdings 

Plc just released 

its half year ended 

June 30th 2018 financial 

results that showed 

improvement in key ratio 

as the lender is gradually 

surmounting the headwinds 

caused by an economic 

downturn of 2016. 

For example, there have 

been remarkable improvements 

in asset quality as non 

performing loans (NPLs) 

and impairment on financial 

assets dropped, thanks to an 

excellent risk management 

strategy. 

Electronic banking was 

also a major driver of revenue 

growth as FirstBank opened a 

digital laboratory as part of its 

strategy to drive innovation 

in the digital banking space. 

The stellar performance 

means shareholders will 

drink from wine poured from 

a flagon into a golden goblet 

as the company’s consistent 

earnings growth in 2918 will 

result in share appreciation, 

hence magnifying earnings. 

Growth in non interest 

income underpins revenue 

For the first six months 

through June 2018, gross 

earnings grew by 1.60 percent 

to N293 billion from N288.8 

billion as at June 2017; driven 

by a 21.40 percent growth in 

non interest income. 

On the other hand, interest 

income declined by 3 percent 

to N225.40 billion in June 

2018 from N232.37 billion the 

previous year. The drop was 

due to declining yields on 

investment securities as short 

term government securities 

have fallen to around 11 percent 

and 13 percent from an 

all time high of between 18 

percent and 22 peecent in the 

most part of 2017. 

Noninterest income (NII) 

rose by 21.4 percent year on 

year (y-o-y) to close at N61.3 

billion as at June 2018. 

Adesola Kazeem Adeduntan, managing director, 

CEO, FBN Holdings Plc 

The primary drivers were 

improved revenue from electronic 

banking fees (+40.8 

percent), accounts maintenance 

(+40.7 percent), net 

insurance premium (+9.8 

percent) as well as foreign 

exchange income (+158.5 

percent). 

Fees and commission income 

(F&C) grew by 13.3 

percent y-o-y to N41.7 billion 

in June 2018 from N36.80 billion 

the previous year. 

Excluding FX revaluation 

gain, non interest income 

was up by 15 percent y-o-y 

indicating the underlying 

revenue generating capacity 

and reflecting the results of 

the ongoing digital banking 

initiatives. 

Fx gains, growth in E 

banking underpins profit 

Profit before tax increased 

by 14 percent to N38.90 billion 

in June 2018 from N35.60 

billion as at June 2017. Profit 

after tax increased by 22.70 

percent to N33.50 billion in 

June 2o18 as against N29.50 

billion as at June 2017. 

The growth in profit was 

largely driven by a reduction 

impairment charge and 

gains from foreign exchange 

transaction. 

Total operating expenses 

increased by 2.30 percent 

to N119.30 billion as at June 

2018, which is lower than 

the headline inflation rate of 

11.20 percent. 

Net interest margins decreased 

to 7.10 percent in 

the period under review from 

8.50 percent as June 2017 on 

the back of drop in short term 

government securities. 

Improvement in key 

profitability ratio 

FBN Holdings Plc has utilized 

the resources of shareholders 

in generating higher 

profit as return on average 

equity (ROE) increased to 

10.0 percent in June 2018 

from 9.90 percent the previous 

year. 

Similarly, return on average 

assets moved to 1.30 percent 


2018 as against 1.2 percent as 

at June 2017. 

Excellent risk management 

strategy pays off as 

asset quality improves 

The lenders, nonperforming 

loans (NPLs) to gross 

loans reduced to 20.80 percent 

in June 2018 from 22.0 

percent as at June 2017, 

thanks to strong recovery 

and mediation. 

Nonperforming loans fell 


2018 from N520.0 billion in 

the previous year. 

There has been improvement 

in loan book as impairment 

charges on financial 

charges reduced by 52.80 

percent to N52.80 billion in 

June 2018 as against N62.40 

billion the previous year. 

Cost of risk declined to 4.7 

percent in June 2018 from 5.5 

percent June 2017. 

Net gross loans and advances 

declined by 7.10 percent 

to N1.85 trillion in June 

2018 from N2.0 trillion as at 

June 2017; 

The reduction in loans was 

due to moderated risk asset 

creation and pay down on 

existing facilities • 

98 percent of the Group 

loans and advances is accounted 

for by the Commercial 

Banking business, while 

the balance of 2% is from the 

Merchant Banking and Asset 

Management business • 

Deposits from customers 

were up 4.10 percent to N3.20 

trillion in the period under 

review from N3.10 trillion as 

at June 2017. 

“The Commercial Banking 

Group reported a relatively 

strong set of results 

and I am pleased to report 

consistent improvement towards 

our strategic objectives. 

This is reflected in a strong 

28.5% y-o-y increase in noninterest 

income, 15.5% y-o-y 

reduction in the impairment 

charge and a marginal increase 

of 0.9% y-o-y in operating 

expenses, despite the high 

inflationary environment. It 

is clear that our efforts to enhance 

our revenue generating 

capabilities, strengthen the 

risk management and control 

environment as well as to 

optimise efficiencies within 

our business are paying off,” 

said Adesola Adeduntan, the 

MD/CEO of FirstBank and its 

Subsidiaries. 

“We remain focused on 

maximizing the potential of 

our business, innovating to 

expand access to new markets 

and increasing the contribution 

of our international subsidiaries, 

using technology 

as a key enabler. We expect 

further improvements in the 

coming periods, from growth 

in the quality and yields of 

the loan book to enhanced 

remediation efforts, service 

delivery excellence and the 

risk and control environment. 

I am confident in the capacity 

of our business to deliver the 

expected results,” summed 

Adeduntan. 

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




C002D5556 

Live @ the Stock exchange 

Prices for Securities Traded as of Monday 20 August 2018 

Company 

Company 

Market cap(nm) Price (N) Change Trades Volume Market cap(nm) Price (N) Change Trades Volume 

PRICES FOR MAIN BOARD SECURITIES (Equities) 

BANKING 

ACCESS BANK PLC. 274,815.73 9.50 -1.04 159 32,685,162 

UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA PLC 278,725.28 8.15 -2.40 359 42,720,793 

ZENITH INTERNATIONAL BANK PLC 686,013.39 21.85 -3.10 374 36,664,571 

892 112,070,526 

OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS 

FBN HOLDINGS PLC 344,594.81 9.60 -2.04 233 15,581,441 

233 15,581,441 

1,125 127,651,967 

BUILDING MATERIALS 

DANGOTE CEMENT PLC 3,663,709.09 215.00 4.32 86 1,147,239 

LAFARGE AFRICA PLC. 241,121.31 27.80 - 15 26,678 

101 1,173,917 

101 1,173,917 

EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION 

SEPLAT PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT COMPANY LTD 382,488.96 650.00 - 13 3,513 

13 3,513 

13 3,513 

1,239 128,829,397 

CROP PRODUCTION 

FTN COCOA PROCESSORS PLC 440.00 0.20 - 0 0 

OKOMU OIL PALM PLC. 71,113.99 74.55 - 19 4,927 

PRESCO PLC 60,000.00 60.00 - 14 8,194 

33 13,121 

FISHING/HUNTING/TRAPPING 

ELLAH LAKES PLC. 511.20 4.26 - 0 0 

0 0 

LIVESTOCK/ANIMAL SPECIALTIES 

LIVESTOCK FEEDS PLC. 1,830.00 0.61 - 2 10,100 

2 10,100 

35 23,221 

DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIES 

A.G. LEVENTIS NIGERIA PLC. 1,164.81 0.44 - 4 7,432 

JOHN HOLT PLC. 225.71 0.58 - 7 46,686 

S C O A NIG. PLC. 2,111.93 3.25 - 0 0 

TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION OF NIGERIA PLC 45,525.75 1.12 -2.61 67 3,749,757 

U A C N PLC. 36,304.34 12.60 - 34 189,048 

112 3,992,923 

112 3,992,923 

BUILDING CONSTRUCTION 

ARBICO PLC. 711.32 4.79 - 0 0 

0 0 

INFRASTRUCTURE/HEAVY CONSTRUCTION 

JULIUS BERGER NIG. PLC. 33,000.00 25.00 - 14 34,975 

ROADS NIG PLC. 165.00 6.60 - 0 0 

14 34,975 

REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT 

UACN PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT CO. LIMITED 4,079.48 1.57 -8.19 14 668,896 

14 668,896 

REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUSTS (REITS) 

SKYE SHELTER FUND PLC 1,900.00 95.00 - 0 0 

UNION HOMES REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST (REIT) 11,300.89 45.20 - 0 0 

UPDC REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST 24,014.43 9.00 - 1 300 

1 300 

29 704,171 

AUTOMOBILES/AUTO PARTS 

DN TYRE & RUBBER PLC 954.53 0.20 - 0 0 

0 0 

BEVERAGES--BREWERS/DISTILLERS 

CHAMPION BREW. PLC. 14,406.27 1.84 - 5 13,840 

GOLDEN GUINEA BREW. PLC. 242.22 0.89 - 1 35,944 

GUINNESS NIG PLC 197,134.45 90.00 - 21 131,079 

INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES PLC. 302,574.34 35.20 - 19 56,458 

NIGERIAN BREW. PLC. 799,690.21 100.00 -2.91 65 1,998,911 

111 2,236,232 

FOOD PRODUCTS 

DANGOTE FLOUR MILLS PLC 38,500.00 7.70 - 31 225,509 

DANGOTE SUGAR REFINERY PLC 177,600.00 14.80 -1.35 57 954,454 

FLOUR MILLS NIG. PLC. 88,158.16 21.50 -2.27 36 561,266 

HONEYWELL FLOUR MILL PLC 11,578.09 1.46 -7.59 28 1,180,725 

MULTI-TREX INTEGRATED FOODS PLC 1,340.10 0.36 - 1 500 

N NIG. FLOUR MILLS PLC. 1,158.30 6.50 - 1 279 

NASCON ALLIED INDUSTRIES PLC 52,988.77 20.00 - 19 320,938 

UNION DICON SALT PLC. 3,676.41 13.45 - 0 0 

173 3,243,671 

FOOD PRODUCTS--DIVERSIFIED 

CADBURY NIGERIA PLC. 18,969.84 10.10 1.00 15 355,592 

NESTLE NIGERIA PLC. 1,188,984.38 1,500.00 - 15 111,100 

30 466,692 

HOUSEHOLD DURABLES 

NIGERIAN ENAMELWARE PLC. 1,680.31 22.10 - 0 0 

VITAFOAM NIG PLC. 3,377.28 3.24 - 3 2,278 

3 2,278 

PERSONAL/HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS 

P Z CUSSONS NIGERIA PLC. 51,814.73 13.05 -7.12 32 193,443 

UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC. 301,612.78 52.50 -4.55 34 322,127 

66 515,570 

383 6,464,443 

BANKING 

DIAMOND BANK PLC 25,708.03 1.11 1.83 63 4,104,629 

ECOBANK TRANSNATIONAL INCORPORATED 376,165.80 20.50 -2.61 63 2,707,180 

FIDELITY BANK PLC 46,939.17 1.62 -2.41 65 3,178,892 

GUARANTY TRUST BANK PLC. 1,087,482.07 36.95 -2.76 199 15,398,087 

JAIZ BANK PLC 15,616.05 0.53 -1.85 13 534,137 

SKYE BANK PLC 6,940.15 0.50 4.17 56 18,319,528 

STERLING BANK PLC. 37,427.54 1.30 3.17 22 3,349,572 

UNION BANK NIG.PLC. 161,620.18 5.55 - 26 293,685 

UNITY BANK PLC 9,234.58 0.79 -2.47 23 1,682,115 

WEMA BANK PLC. 25,073.40 0.65 - 15 80,645 

545 49,648,470 

INSURANCE CARRIERS, BROKERS AND SERVICES 

AFRICAN ALLIANCE INSURANCE COMPANY PLC 4,117.00 0.20 - 0 0 

AIICO INSURANCE PLC. 4,851.14 0.70 2.94 24 3,335,155 

AXAMANSARD INSURANCE PLC 26,775.00 2.55 - 9 137,898 

CONSOLIDATED HALLMARK INSURANCE PLC 2,100.00 0.30 - 2 500,000 

CONTINENTAL REINSURANCE PLC 14,521.84 1.40 - 4 354,500 

CORNERSTONE INSURANCE COMPANY PLC. 3,387.79 0.23 - 6 73,265 

GOLDLINK INSURANCE PLC 2,411.47 0.53 - 0 0 

GREAT NIGERIAN INSURANCE PLC 1,913.74 0.50 - 0 0 

GUINEA INSURANCE PLC. 2,149.00 0.35 - 0 0 

INTERNATIONAL ENERGY INSURANCE COMPANY PLC 539.32 0.42 - 0 0 

LASACO ASSURANCE PLC. 2,343.50 0.32 3.23 7 250,710 

LAW UNION AND ROCK INS. PLC. 3,480.03 0.81 - 0 0 

LINKAGE ASSURANCE PLC 5,920.00 0.74 - 2 103,000 

MUTUAL BENEFITS ASSURANCE PLC. 2,400.00 0.30 - 6 199,018 

N.E.M INSURANCE CO (NIG) PLC. 15,049.43 2.85 - 15 456,734 

NIGER INSURANCE CO. PLC. 3,095.79 0.40 - 2 500,085 

PRESTIGE ASSURANCE CO. PLC. 2,175.92 0.57 - 1 1,000 

REGENCY ALLIANCE INSURANCE COMPANY PLC 1,600.50 0.24 4.35 5 1,602,173 

SOVEREIGN TRUST INSURANCE PLC 2,168.61 0.26 -3.85 13 997,100 

STANDARD ALLIANCE INSURANCE PLC. 5,422.63 0.42 - 0 0 

STANDARD TRUST ASSURANCE PLC 4,483.72 0.48 - 0 0 

SUNU ASSURANCES NIGERIA PLC. 2,800.00 0.20 - 1 50,216 

UNIC DIVERSIFIED HOLDINGS PLC. 516.46 0.20 - 1 140 

UNIVERSAL INSURANCE COMPANY PLC 7,040.00 0.44 - 0 0 

VERITAS KAPITAL ASSURANCE PLC 3,605.33 0.26 - 0 0 

WAPIC INSURANCE PLC 4,550.13 0.34 -2.86 77 10,363,046 

175 18,924,040 

MICRO-FINANCE BANKS 

FORTIS MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 11,799.67 2.58 - 0 0 

NPF MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 3,658.62 1.60 - 11 622,000 

11 622,000 

MORTGAGE CARRIERS, BROKERS AND SERVICES 

ABBEY MORTGAGE BANK PLC 4,914.00 1.17 - 1 1,170 

ASO SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC 7,370.87 0.50 - 0 0 

INFINITY TRUST MORTGAGE BANK PLC 5,922.05 1.42 - 0 0 

RESORT SAVINGS & LOANS PLC 5,664.87 0.50 - 0 0 

UNION HOMES SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC. 2,949.22 3.02 - 0 0 

1 1,170 

OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS 

AFRICA PRUDENTIAL PLC 8,100.00 4.05 - 31 368,328 

CUSTODIAN INVESTMENT PLC 30,762.15 5.23 - 10 13,742 

DEAP CAPITAL MANAGEMENT & TRUST PLC 660.00 0.44 - 0 0 

FCMB GROUP PLC. 35,644.88 1.80 5.88 38 775,089 

NIGERIA ENERYGY SECTOR FUND 411.91 552.20 - 0 0 

ROYAL EXCHANGE PLC. 1,389.25 0.27 - 1 1,000 

STANBIC IBTC HOLDINGS PLC 508,717.82 50.30 0.50 23 1,888,281 

UNITED CAPITAL PLC 16,920.00 2.82 -6.62 78 1,740,085 

ValuAlliance Value Fund 3,312.39 103.20 - 0 0 

181 4,786,525 

913 73,982,205 

HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS 

EKOCORP PLC. 1,680.29 3.37 - 0 0 

UNION DIAGNOSTIC & CLINICAL SERVICES PLC 1,030.41 0.29 - 3 104,000 

3 104,000 

MEDICAL SUPPLIES 

MORISON INDUSTRIES PLC. 544.04 0.55 - 0 0 

0 0 

PHARMACEUTICALS 

EVANS MEDICAL PLC. 366.17 0.50 - 0 0 

FIDSON HEALTHCARE PLC 9,225.00 6.15 - 2 5,700 

GLAXO SMITHKLINE CONSUMER NIG. PLC. 18,296.91 15.30 - 21 133,755 

MAY & BAKER NIGERIA PLC. 2,234.40 2.28 - 13 188,787 

NEIMETH INTERNATIONAL PHARMACEUTICALS PLC 1,035.90 0.60 - 4 20,215 

NIGERIA-GERMAN CHEMICALS PLC. 556.71 3.62 - 0 0 

PHARMA-DEKO PLC. 411.96 1.90 - 0 0 

40 348,457 

43 452,457 

COMPUTER BASED SYSTEMS 

COURTEVILLE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS PLC 710.40 0.20 - 0 0 

0 0 

COMPUTERS AND PERIPHERALS 

OMATEK VENTURES PLC 1,470.89 0.50 - 0 0 

0 0 

IT SERVICES 

CWG PLC 6,413.06 2.54 - 0 0 

NCR (NIGERIA) PLC. 680.40 6.30 - 2 598 

TRIPPLE GEE AND COMPANY PLC. 435.56 0.88 - 1 1,000 

3 1,598 

PROCESSING SYSTEMS 

CHAMS PLC 1,596.66 0.34 - 0 0 

E-TRANZACT INTERNATIONAL PLC 16,590.00 3.95 - 0 0 

0 0 

3 1,598 

BUILDING MATERIALS 

BERGER PAINTS PLC 1,898.34 6.55 - 6 28,580 

CAP PLC 19,845.00 28.35 - 4 3,015 

CEMENT CO. OF NORTH.NIG. PLC 38,831.34 30.90 - 0 0 

FIRST ALUMINIUM NIGERIA PLC 844.14 0.40 - 0 0 

MEYER PLC. 361.24 0.68 - 0 0 

PORTLAND PAINTS & PRODUCTS NIGERIA PLC 1,959.74 2.47 - 0 0 

PREMIER PAINTS PLC. 1,279.20 10.40 - 0 0 

10 31,595 

ELECTRONIC AND ELECTRICAL PRODUCTS 

AUSTIN LAZ & COMPANY PLC 2,256.91 2.09 - 0 0 

CUTIX PLC. 3,681.16 4.18 - 11 124,785 

11 124,785 

PACKAGING/CONTAINERS 

BETA GLASS PLC. 38,997.82 78.00 - 4 1,509 

GREIF NIGERIA PLC 388.02 9.10 - 0 0 

4 1,509 

AGRO-ALLIED & CHEMICALS 

NOTORE CHEMICAL IND PLC 100,754.14 62.50 - 3 1,000,500 

3 1,000,500 

28 1,158,389 

CHEMICALS 

B.O.C. GASES PLC. 1,752.39 4.21 - 1 5,400 

1 5,400 

METALS 

ALUMINIUM EXTRUSION IND. PLC. 1,803.64 8.20 - 0 0 

0 0 

MINING SERVICES 

MULTIVERSE MINING AND EXPLORATION PLC 852.39 0.20 - 0 0 

0 0 

PAPER/FOREST PRODUCTS 

THOMAS WYATT NIG. PLC. 57.20 0.26 - 4 9,033 

4 9,033 

5 14,433 

ENERGY EQUIPMENT AND SERVICES 

JAPAUL OIL & MARITIME SERVICES PLC 1,628.30 0.26 -7.14 20 712,453 

20 712,453 

INTEGRATED OIL AND GAS SERVICES 

OANDO PLC 59,049.21 4.75 -3.06 76 1,068,449 

76 1,068,449 

PETROLEUM AND PETROLEUM PRODUCTS DISTRIBUTORS 

11 PLC 64,907.15 180.00 - 5 2,266 

CONOIL PLC 16,863.04 24.30 - 7 11,869 

ETERNA PLC. 8,216.11 6.30 - 24 431,838 

FORTE OIL PLC. 29,957.07 23.00 -0.65 34 427,425 

MRS OIL NIGERIA PLC. 8,701.65 28.55 - 1 15 

TOTAL NIGERIA PLC. 62,132.50 183.00 - 10 5,472 

81 878,885 

177 2,659,787 

ADVERTISING 

AFROMEDIA PLC 2,219.52 0.50 - 0 0 

0 0 

AIRLINES 

MEDVIEW AIRLINE PLC 18,818.75 1.93 - 0 0 

0 0 

AUTOMOBILE/AUTO PART RETAILERS 

R T BRISCOE PLC. 541.12 0.46 - 0 0 

0 0 

COURIER/FREIGHT/DELIVERY 

RED STAR EXPRESS PLC 3,360.13 5.70 - 0 0 

TRANS-NATIONWIDE EXPRESS PLC. 365.70 0.78 - 0 0 

0 0 

HOSPITALITY 

TANTALIZERS PLC 674.44 0.21 - 0 0 

0 0 

HOTELS/LODGING 

CAPITAL HOTEL PLC 4,801.22 3.10 - 0 0 

IKEJA HOTEL PLC 5,799.84 2.79 - 5 201,200 

TOURIST COMPANY OF NIGERIA PLC. 7,862.53 3.50 - 0 0 

TRANSCORP HOTELS PLC 51,302.73 6.75 - 1 600 

6 201,800 

MEDIA/ENTERTAINMENT 

DAAR COMMUNICATIONS PLC 5,280.00 0.44 - 0 0 

0 0 

PRINTING/PUBLISHING 

ACADEMY PRESS PLC. 302.40 0.50 - 0 0 

LEARN AFRICA PLC 864.02 1.12 - 3 57,000


BUSINESS DAY 

31



STRATEGYBRIEFING 

IDEAS THAT POWER High PERFORMANCE 

How to make your strategy work: 

Why 90% of strategies fail and what you can do about it 

BRIAN REUBEN 

Marketing forklore has it that 

years ago a new manager 

took over Parker Pens. His 

first action was to assemble 

the management board 

and ask them a very simple question: who 

is our major competitor? 

One by one the board members began 

to educate the boss with what they thought 

the answer was. One answered Shaeffer, 

since Schaeffer was in the ball pen business 

as they were. The boss shook his head, it was 

not Schaeffer. Shaeffer produced a pen very 

similar to the Parker. It had a good reputation 

for quality, had a similar stylish finish 

and quite expensive like Parker. The boss 

explained that although they compete to 

an extent with Shaeffer, they were not their 

main competitor. 

Another stepped forward and offered his 

opinion, ‘it is Biro’. Although Biro Swan was 

not marketing at the top of the market like 

Parker, this person thought that they both 

served the same purpose, which is writing 

and that way can be seen as their direct 

competitor. So now the market definition 

has now moved from quality fountain pens 

to writing implements. Under this consideration 

makers of pencils might also be 

considered as part of the competition. The 

new director was impressed. His people 

were beginning to think out of the box. But, 

no, Biro Swan was not. 

The board members became confused. 

One look at another. Minutes passed, the 

room was filled with much silence you could 

hear a pin drop. Another man summoned 

courage and stood up. Every eye was set 

on him. ‘Its the telephone! We are in the 

communication business. The telephone is 

fast gaining more wide spread use in recent 

years. People can either write with their 

pen or make a call.’ Everyone nodded, this 

must be it. 

The director looked up and smiled, apparently 

happy that his people were making 

use of their mind. Under this new model, 

typewriters and word processors form part 

of the competition. But again, it was not the 

telephone. 

Then the director offered his view of who 

their major competitor is. His answer will 

shock you. It was Ronson cigarette lighter! 

His explanation was that Parker was in the 

quality gift business rather than writing implement 

business. An analysis of the Parker 

sales revealed that people purchased the 

pens primarily as gift to other people.When 

they considered what to buy often a major 

alternative was a quality cigarette lighter and 

hence the definition of the market. 

The definition was the controlling factor 

in everything Parker did and how they did 

it. Packaging assumes a more important 

role, as does the development and maintenance 

of a superior quality image. Price 

is perhaps less important than might have 

been thought under alternative market 

definitions. Distribution (through the outlets 

where potential customers buy gifts) also 

becomes more important. 

The most important element of a marketing 

strategy is the definition of the market 

in which a business is. If you miss this, your 

business is going to be a matter of trial 

and error. There are three basic question 

every business leader must find the accurate 

answers to if strategy must be done right. 

The first one is who are we? What defines 

us? What do we call ourselves? This is the 

starting point. Clearly all high performing 

businesses have an accurate definition of 

themselves. It is the purpose of your business 

that defines your business. First you have to 

understand what business you are into and 

why you are in that business. This purpose 

is what is called mission, often summarized 

in a mission statement. 

But the mission itself is defined by the 

business you are into in the first place. The 

definition of the business you are in is what 

defines your whole strategic direction. You 

have to get this right if you are going to build 

a high performing business. The clearer your 

view of what business you are in, the wider 

your chances of building that business into 

a global giant. 

Consider Google(now officially Alphabet), 

in the beginning they set out to 

‘organize the world’s information and make 

it universally assessable.’ By this difinition 

Google could not consider Yahoo, Ask or 

AOL as its major competitor. They did not 

define themselves a search company and 

that has seen them go from the core search 

business to the android operating system 

to nascent businesses like self-driving cars. 

That also defined how they pursued their 

mission which is what is called strategy. 

In all situations and under all circumstances 

in any environment, any business 

can thrive. When businesses fail, its an 

indication that the leaders of that business 

have disconnected from what they should 

be about. As we recite the mantra of change 

in the business world everyday, its important 

we understand that there are things which 

cannot change after all. The basic drivers 

of business success are timeless. They are 

not affected by disruption or business uncertainties. 

In fact, it is the understanding 

of these basic principles that empowers a 

business to conquer the challenges in its 

environment and win as it ought to. 

So before you pay for another TV advert, 

before you bring in another business consultant 

or roll out a new product, sit down 

and ask yourself, ‘what business are we in?’ 

And think this through. Don’t be in a haste. 

You can’t get any strategy right neither can 

you know who your competitors really are 

nor how to draw your strategic map except 

you have the accurate answer to this. 

The book Profit from the Core by 

Chris Zook and James Allen revealed that 

between 1988 and 1998, seven out of eight 

companies in a global sample of 1,854 large 

corporations failed to achieve profitable 

growth. This means that these companies 

were unable to deliver 5.5% annual real 

growth in revenues and earnings while 

earning their cost of capital. Yet 90% of the 

companies in the study had developed 

detailed strategic plans with much higher 

targets. Is it any surprise to know why business 

leaders have a problem with executing 

strategies? Forming strategies is not as 

important as defining your business in the 

first place. Interestingly no one else can do 

this for you. This is what you sit down with 

your board and resolve once and for all. 

No matter how long it takes to figure it out, 

it will always worth the while. 

Brian is an author, advisor to business leaders, 

keynote speaker and an entrepreneur. He has 

trained and advised senior executives at renowned 

organizations including Africa Reinsurance Corporation, 

UAC, United Securities Limited, Business- 

Day among others. 

Brian is the Director of BusinessDay Training and 

sits on the board of a number of organizations in 

Africa. 

This Page Is Open For Sponsorship, for details call 0708 234 5251.


Nigeria’s population: Asset or liability 

Continued from back page 

in the world, and yet, for 

much of the 19th and 20th 

Century, it lagged behind 

the West, and even its Asian 

neighbours, Japan and South 

Korea. Over the thirty-year 

period between 1960 and 

1990, China’s GDP per capita 

grew at an annualized rate 

of about 4.3% from about 

$90 to $318 despite having 

a population of over 1.1 billion 

by 1990. In fact, despite 

China’s superior population 

size, it was slightly poorer 

than Nigeria, which had a 

GDP per capita of $322 in 

1990. Additionally, Nigeria’s 

annualized GDP per capita 

growth rate, at 4.2%, was very 

similar to China’s. In effect, 

the Chinese and Nigerian 

economies performed very 

similarly over the 30-year 

period from 1960 to 1990 

and both countries were in 

a nearly identical position by 

the end of that period. Clearly, 

China’s large population 

was not enough to magically 

make it a prosperous nation. 

However, by 2016, China’s 

GDP per capita had grown to 

about $8000 while Nigeria’s 

was only a little over $2000 

- about a quarter of China’s 

(see Figure 1). How did the 

gap between two countries 

that were at par only 26 years 

ago become so large? The 

secret behind China’s spectacular 

economic growth 

over the last quarter century 

is in certain economic reforms 

that China took beginning 

in the late 1970s. After 

the death of Mao Zedong 

who had ruined China’s 

economy with disastrous 

policies and his tyrannical 

rule, Deng Xiaoping came 

to power in 1978 and soon 

after, he began to liberalize 

and modernize the Chinese 

economy. 

Among the important 

reforms that Deng Xiaoping 

undertook were de-collectivizing 

the agricultural sector, 

allowing private production 

by farmers; establishing Special 

Economic Zones (SEZs) 

such as Shenzhen where new 

free-market policies could 

be tested; allowing foreign 

investment; privatizing some 

state owned companies and 

removing price controls on 

some products. In addition 

to liberalizing the Chinese 

economy, Deng Xiaoping 

also reformed the Chinese 

educational system - increasing 

the focus on science and 

technology research and 

sending pupils to study 

abroad to develop skills that 

China did not have. 

Furthermore, these economic 

and education reforms 

and policies were underpinned 

by spectacular 

infrastructural development. 

According to the National 

Bureau of Statistics of China, 

railway mileage increased 

by about 39,000 km between 

1978 and 2010 while highway 

mileage more than tripled 

over the same period. Additionally, 

electricity consumption 

increased from 281 kWh 

per capita in 1980 to 3927 in 

$9,000 

$8,000 

$7,000 

$6,000 

$5,000 

$4,000 

$3,000 

$2,000 

$1,000 

$0 

1960 

1962 

1964 

1966 

1968 

1970 

1972 

1974 

1976 

1978 

1980 

1982 

1984 

1986 

1988 

1990 

1992 

1994 

1996 

1998 

2000 

2002 

2004 

2006 

2008 

2010 

2012 

2014 

2016 

Figure 1: China’s GDP per capita diverged from Nigeria’s starting in 1990 leading 

to a large gulf in wealth between the two countries. 

Source: World Bank 

GDP Per Capita 

China 

Nigeria 

2014. More recently, in 2001, 

China has joined the World 

Trade Organization (WTO) 

in order to increase its exports 

and enable it to fully take part 

in the global economy. 

China’s extraordinary 

growth from a sleeping dragon 

to the second biggest 

economy in the world holds 

lessons for Nigeria - a large 

population is only an asset 

if proper investments are 

made, and the right policies 

are implemented. In contrast 

to China since 1978, Nigeria 

has failed to invest in the 

right areas. In comparison to 

China’s electric power consumption 

per capita growth 

of 1298% between 1980 and 

2014, Nigeria’s consumption 

only grew by 111%. From 

Figure 2, the divergence in 

real income per capita that 

occurred after 1990 is no 

surprise - China invested 

in increasing its productive 

capacity while Nigeria did 

not. Instead, Nigeria has 

mostly squandered its oil 

wealth on expanding the 

civil service and on paying 

debts, which did not build 

the infrastructure they were 

purportedly incurred for. The 

situation has not improved 

in recent years - Nigeria’s 

capital expenditure in 2016 

was only N173 billion or only 

3.9% of the total expenditure 

of N4.4 trillion. 

Nigeria’s record on human 

capital development 

is just as bad as its record 

on physical capital development. 

According to the 

NBS’s 2016 Social Statistics 

Report, in 2014 the number 

of children in primary 

school fell to 23.1 million 

from 24.19 million in 2013. 

We find this incredible, that 

in a country with a growing 

population of primary-school 

aged children, the number of 

children in primary school is 

dropping. Just as alarming 

is that, according UNICEF, 

there may be as many as 10.5 

million children out of school 

in Nigeria. 

The story is similar in the 

secondary and tertiary stages 

of education in Nigeria. The 

Social Statistics Report shows 

that in 2015 there were only 

1.475 million applications 

into a Nigerian university, a 

tiny fraction of the youth population 

in the country. Even 

worse, only 401,996 or 27.2% 

of these people gained admission 

into university. In a 

country with a population of 

180 million and a median age 

of 18.3 years, admitting only 

about 400,000 students into 

university in a year shows a 

criminal underinvestment 

in human capital. Worse, 

many argue that the quality of 

education, skills and learning 

acquired in these institutions 

is at best suspect, and 

at worst, non comparable to 

institutions in African countries 

such as South Africa 

and Egypt. According to the 

World Bank, Nigeria’s tertiary 

school enrolment in 2011 was 

10% of the eligible population. 

In Brazil, China, and 

India enrolment was 43%, 

25% and 22% respectively. 

% 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

1981 

1983 

Gross Capital Formation as a % of GDP 

1985 

1987 

1989 

1991 

1993 

1995 

China 

1997 

1999 

2001 

Nigeria 

BUSINESS DAY 33 

INSIGHT/INNOVATION 

2003 

2005 

2007 

2009 

2011 

2013 

2015 

Figure 2: Gross capital formation (the net increase in physical assets) as a percentage 

of GDP in Nigeria and China from 1981 to 2015. 

Source: World Bank 

If Nigeria fails to reverse 

its current spending trends 

and redirect its spending 

towards the requisite areas 

- education, infrastructure 

and health - it will fail to take 

advantage of its expected 

population boom. The Nigerian 

economy will be unable 

to provide enough jobs for 

the rapidly growing numbers 

of young people, which could 

lead to an increase in criminal 

activities and the number 

of people seeking to migrate - 

both legally and illegally - out 

of Nigeria. 

The population bomb 

Nigeria’s population 

gerians aged 15 to 34 were 

either unemployed or underemployed. 

Looking at just 

those aged 15 to 24, the numbers 

are even worse with up 

to 67.3% either unemployed 

or underemployed. 50% of 

people with post-secondary 

qualifications in the labour 

force are either unemployed 

or underemployed (although 

this data is for the total labour 

force, not just the youth). 

The result is an army of 

out-of-school, out-of-work 

young men and women with 

no marketable skills and 

few prospects for improving 

their situations. This “army”, 

growth (quantity), without 

corresponding growth in productivity 

and income (quality), 

will continue to drive 

up competition for existing 

natural and fiscal resources. 

While there is a direct relationship 

between population 

and food, clothing, and 

housing challenges, there 

is an inverse relationship 

between rising incomes and 

those challenges. As incomes 

are squeezed, competition for 

available resources rises. 

Many of the conflicts we 

see today, though not caused, 

are underpinned by the competition 

for resources. In the 

context, unemployment is 

an indication that Nigeria’s 

young population is losing 

out. Following recession in 

2016, and subsequent slow 

recovery, 52.7 percent of Niwith 

hopelessness as their 

weapon, are responding with 

migration, both legally and 

illegally, robbery, advance 

fee fraud (419), and kidnapping; 

by abusing drugs such 

as codeine and Tramadol; 

or by engaging in militant 

activities in order to demand 

a larger share of government 

revenues. These outcomes 

are predictable in the context 

of “economics of conflict” that 

have been studied by economists 

such as Paul Collier of 

Oxford University, United 

Kingdom, and Karl Warneryd 

of Stockholm School of Economics, 

Sweden. 

Is manufacturing still a 

viable path to growth? 

Given current global economic 

and technology shifts, 

Nigeria’s necessary investments 

in education and infrastructure, 

does not necessarily 

confer on it the pattern of 

economic growth experienced 

in China. China grew at an annualized 

rate of 13.6% between 

1991 and 2016 by becoming 

the world’s manufacturing 

centre. Although it has recently 

begun moving into more hightech 

industries, the foundation 

of China’s economic growth 

was low-cost manufacturing 

for developed economies. 

However, as a result of technological 

advancements in 

robotics, additive manufacturing, 

and artificial intelligence, 

this path to growth might be 

closed soon. 

These technologies will 

make it easier and cheaper for 

developed countries to move 

manufacturing back to their 

own countries since machines 

and software programmes 

will take the place of human 

beings in the production process. 

With less reliance on 

human labour in manufacturing, 

having lower labour costs 

and a larger labour force will 

become less of an advantage 

for developing countries such 

as Nigeria. Even jobs outside 

manufacturing are vulnerable 

to technological change. 

However, despite the 

threat presented by these new 

technologies, Nigeria’s path to 

development will still include 

investing in education. After 

all, many of these technologies 

are in early stages of development 

and there is a small 

chance that they may end up 

not fulfilling the early potential 

they have shown. More 

likely though, these technologies 

will revolutionize manufacturing 

not by completely 

removing human beings from 

the production process but 

by complementing them. In 

such a world, highly educated 

people will work alongside 

these machines and the only 

way Nigeria can compete is 

if its workforce is highly educated. 

Furthermore, even if 

all manufacturing and even 

some service sector jobs become 

completely automated, 

a creative and highly skilled 

workforce will be needed to 

design further improvements 

to these technologies, and 

perhaps create new industries 

of the future. 

Just as Uber has made it 

harder for traditional taxi drivers 

to make a living, those who 

are able to operate a smartphone 

have seen new earnings 

opportunities opened 

up to them. To readers of 

BusinessDay, operating a 

smartphone might seem like 

a simple task, but for the 10.5 

million out of school children 

who have never learned 

to read, it is an impossible 

task, which locks them out of 

participating in many simple 

activities. To enable Nigerians 

to benefit from the economic 

opportunities that technology 

opens up, all Nigerian 

students will need to be taught 

basic literacy and numeracy 

skills. For Nigerians to be able 

to create these technologies, 

the number of Nigerians in 

higher education needs to be 

increased and the quality of 

education they receive needs 

to be improved. 

Towards a bright 2050 

In 1990, Nigeria and China 

had almost equal GDP per 

capitas. Now, there is a gulf 

between the two countries, 

which is widening every year. 

But the rapid progress that 

China has made in barely 

over a quarter of a century 

shows that Nigeria can have 

a bright tomorrow if it makes 

the right choices today. There 

are 32 years between 2018 

and 2050, a similar period 

to that during which China 

transformed its economy 

and the lives of its people. If 

Nigeria invests in educating 

and providing health services 

for its people, and building 

the infrastructure that they 

need to power their homes 

and factories or to transport 

themselves or their goods 

within and outside the country, 

then the Nigeria of 2050 

will be a rising economic 

power and a land of opportunities 

for its citizens. 

However, if it continues to 

spend the same way it has 

done in the past - with most 

spending going towards the 

bloated civil service, the political 

class, and their cronies 

- then it will squander the 

potential of its people, and 

turn what should have been 

a blessing into a curse. 

•Dr. Ogho Okiti is the 

former Chief Economist of 

Businessday, holds a PhD in 

economics and has served 

at the Uk Office of National 

Statistics and the office of 

the Chief economic Adviser 

to the President of Nigeria.


C002D5556 


NEWS 

Investors slam Buharinomics as markets... 

Continued from page 1 

“The Nigerian economy has 

been very unconducive for business 

since 2015 which can explain 

why stocks have performed so 

poorly since President Buhari defeated 

Goodluck Jonathan in the 

election polls. Economic growth 

slowed, political uncertainty increased, 

Nigeria experienced a 

currency crisis and insecurity in 

the north and middle belt held 

back market performance for 

most of the past 3 years,” said Faith 

Ogedengbe, Research Analyst, 

GDL Asset Management. 

Following the current President’s 

swearing in on May 29 

2015, it took six long months for 

the Presidency to name, screen 

and approve its cabinet members, 

a process that never exceeded 2 

months since 1999. 

The political uncertainty during 

this period pulled the index down 

by around 14.87 percent before the 

ministers were finally appointed in 

November 2015. 

More trouble followed in 2016 

as the problem moved from political 

to the economy. 

The continued decline in crude 

oil prices, followed by the first 

economic recession in 25 years 

weighed heavily on stock prices in 

2016. Also in 2016, Nigeria suffered 

the biggest currency devaluation 

since 1999 in 2016 when Naira to 

US Dollar exchange rate moved 

from the official figure of 197 N/$ 

to 305 N/$. The inflation rate in 

the country doubled as a result 

of huge currency devaluation as 

inflation neared 20 percent at its 

L-R: Obinna Muogboh, faculty, Lagos Business School and Director of Programme, Management Development Institute; 

Oseyemwen Ndudi, participant at the programme; Bayo Aderiye, chairman, Health Service Commission, Lagos State; 

Rene Kiamba, senior manager, sub-Saharan Africa, Global Community Impact, Johnson & Johnson, and Nicole Zefran, 

communications and administrative officer, Global Business School Network, at the graduation ceremony for managers 

and leaders of healthcare organisations held at the Sojourner by Genesis Hotel, Lagos. 


of the year, when it was 1.95 percent, 

Nigeria’s statistician-general Yemi 

Kale said in an interview with Arise 

TV aired on Saturday. 

While the information is still being 

calculated, “it is looking quite 

flat,” Kale said. 

“I expected the numbers should 

be much better. I think the economy 

is still struggling.” 

The statistics office is scheduled 

to release its second- quarter growth 

report on Aug. 27 as compiled from 

the NBS data release calendar. 

peak in 2016. 

As a result of the economic 

headwinds, 2016 became the year 

of the great loss for companies 

on the local bourse. A total of 17 

companies from the NSE 30 index 

reported significant losses on the 

books as the economy slumped to 

a full year negative growth of -1.6 

percent. NSE bellwethers that saw 

their earnings per share decline 

by over 50 percent in 2016 include 

Nestle Nigeria, Ecobank, Seplat, 

Transcorp, Guinness and PZ Cussons. 

Lafarge Africa and Nigerian 

Breweries saw their EPS decline by 

more than 25 percent. 

The stock market fell by around 

9.41 percent in the first five months 

of 2016 as the administration delayed 

5 months to pass an economic 

stimulus budget to pull the 

economy out of recession. The stock 

market rallied 4.56 percent till year 

end after the budget signing which 

helped to offset some of the losses 

earlier in the year, bringing the total 

market loss in 2016 to 5.27 percent. 

In 2017 as the economy rebounded 

to a full year growth of 0.8 

percent, the stock market rallied 42 

percent as investors got excited by 

the economic recovery story which 

was largely supported by the strong 

rebound in crude oil price. 

The stock market this year has 

given up a significant amount of 

its gains from last year as the NSE 

index is down 9.36 percent year to 

date largely due to the political upheaval 

in the country as the general 

elections draw closer. 

Stanbic IBTC bank said in an 

investor presentation published 

Nigeria’s economy struggles as NBS sees... 

Nigeria’s economy slumped after 

a 2014 crash in oil prices. It returned to 

growth in the second quarter of 2017 after 

shrinking in the previous five periods. 

The economic recovery story of 

Africa’s largest economy has been 

a tale of fragile growth, eroded purchasing 

power of households and 

unfriendly borrowing rates which 

have inhibited economic expansion. 

The International Monetary Fund 

(IMF) however expects the economy 

of Africa’s most populous nation to 

expand by 2.1 percent for 2018, while 

the international organisation also 

projects the growth rate for Nigeria’s 

yesterday that it sees the political 

environment as a key risk to 

income in the second half of the 

year while International Monetary 

Fund (IMF) forecast economic 

growth in Nigeria this year will be 

2.1 percent a far cry from the periods 

between 1999 and 2014. 

The average economic growth 

during President Olusegun 

Obasanjo’s regime was 8.5 percent 

between 1999 and 2007. Under the 

stewardship of President Goodluck 

Jonathan between 2011 and 2015, 

Nigeria’s economy expanded an 

average of 4.7 percent, almost 

half the growth achieved by his 

predecessor. 

But under President Buhari, average 

economic growth fell to a paltry 

0.61 percent between 2015 and 

2017. If economic growth improves 

to 2.1 percent this year, average 

economic growth under Buhari 

will improve to 0.98 percent. 

In the last six months alone, the 

market is down 17.44 percent. With 

analysts expecting stock prices to decline 

further as political uncertainty 

ravages the stock market, it is not unlikely 

that come February at the day 

of election, the market performance 

under the current administration 

falls into negative territory. 

The NSE All Share Index 

dropped by around 602 points on 

Monday, representing a decline of 

1.71 percent as the market closed 

at 34,663.48 points. 

Similarly, the Market Capitalization 

decreased by N220.07 billion, 

closing at N12.65 trillion. The market 

dipped significantly on the first trading 

day since Buhari announced 

during the weekend that he returned 

to the country to jail more looters. 

GDP in 2019 to be 2.3 percent. 

The 2018 and 2019 GDP prediction 

for Nigeria is far less than the 

figures IMF forecasted for the Africa 

continent. The Washington-based organisation 

said in its World Economic 

Outlook that it expects the SSA region 

GDP to increase 3.8 percent in 2019. 

On whether or not the political 

uncertainties surrounding the forth 

coming election has effect on the 

economic growth, the statistician- 

General, Kale said the political season 

in Nigeria and for most developing 

countries always affect the economy 

and it could be positive or negative. 

“Positive in the sense that if the atmosphere 

is not too toxic, then there 

Tinubu nursing presidential ambition in... 


This, he said, explains why Tinubu 

is supporting President Muhammadu 

Buhari’s re-election bid 

in 2019, with the hope that power 

will return to the South West in 2023. 

The latest revelations seemed to 

have cast a doubt on the promise by 

the Presidency that the Igbo would 

produce the President in 2023, 

should the region vote for Buhari in 

the next general election. 

The Senate President was reacting 

to a statement credited to Tinubu 

where he accused Saraki, Speaker of 

the House of Representatives, Yakubu 

Dogara and other defectors that 

left the APC to PDP on account of 

automatic tickets promised to them. 

In a statement personally signed 

by him on Monday, Saraki traced 

the sour relationship between him 

and Tinubu to his opposition to the 

Muslim-Muslim ticket when the ex- 

Lagos State governor wanted to be 

Buhari’s running mate in the build 

up to the 2015 general elections. 

Recalling the meetings he held 

with the APC stalwart to resolve the 

crisis in the party, Saraki said: “Tinubu 

himself will recall that during the 

various meetings he had with me at 

the time he was pursuing reconciliation 

within the party, I raised all the 

above issues. I can also vividly recall 

that he himself always expressed his 

displeasure with the style of the government 

and also mentioned that he 

had equally suffered disrespect from 

the same government which we all 

worked to put in office. I also made 

the point that whatever travails I have 

gone through in the last three years 

belong to the past and will definitely 

not shape my decisions now and in 

the future. 

will be increase in economic activities; 

people will be spending, politicians 

will be spending and there will 

be a bit more money in the hands of 

consumer and the economy tends to 

benefit from that,” Kale said. 

On the other hand, when the 

political season is toxic, “foreign 

investors will get scared, they will 

be taking their money, I think that 

is what is happening in the Nigeria 

stock Exchange (NSE), and for the local 

investors, they will apply the wait 

and see approach,” kale explained. 

Comparing Nigeria with the United 

States, Kale said Nigeria is unlike 

the U.S where investors know that 

despite the election uncertainties, 

“However, during those meetings, 

the point of disagreement 

between me and him is that while 

I expressed my worry that there is 

nothing on ground to assure me 

that the administrative style and 

attitude would change in the next 

four years in a manner that will enable 

us deliver the positive changes 

we promised to our people, he 

(Tinubu) expressed a strong opinion 

that he would rather ‘support a 

Buhari on the hospital stretcher’ to 

get a second term because in 2023, 

power will shift to the South-west. 

This Tinubu viewpoint was not only 

expressed to me but to several of my 

colleagues. So much for acting in 

national interest. 

“It is clear that while my own decision 

is based on protecting collective, 

national interest, Tinubu will rather 

live with the identified inadequacies 

in the government for the sake of fulfilling 

and preserving his presidential 

ambition in 2023. This new position 

of Tinubu has only demonstrated 

inconsistency, particularly when 

one reviews his antecedent over the 

years.” 

The Nation’s Number Three 

Citizen accused the Buhari administration 

of consistently treating 

the “legislature with contempt and 

acting as if the law making body 

should be an appendage of the 

Executive.” 

According to him, the government 

excluded many stakeholders 

who worked strenuously to get the 

administration into office and treated 

them like second-class citizens. 

He pointed out that the National 

Assembly has not been constructively 

engaged or carried along in key 

policy decisions, particularly those 

that require legislative approval. 

EXPLAINER: Lagos embarks on Geographic... 


Poland and ongoing post-delivery 

training. 

Speaking at the signing of the 

MoU, Melchior said that, the 

project is currently the largest 

Geographic Information System 

(GIS) project in West Africa and a 

major export of technology from 

Europe to Nigeria. 

According to him, one of the 

key subjects discussed during 

the meeting was the pioneering 

nature of this project as the delivered 

UAVs constitute the most 

reliable, safest and cheapest way 

to accurately capture cadastral 

data less than 10cm accuracy on 

an ongoing basis. 

The Asseco CEO said that, 

“The platforms delivered have 

been internationally awarded in 

Poland, Australia and the United 

States. Their flights can be fully 

automated and they possess several 

emergency features, such as 

parachutes enabling repeated 

vertical landing. 

“The six operators of Lagos State 

Ministry of Science and Technology 

will constitute a competence hub in 

Lagos and Nigeria in this field. 

“The project is handled in full 

cooperation with the Nigerian Civil 

Aviation Authority and the Office 

of the National Security Adviser to 

ensure adherence to all applicable 

safety and control procedures,” 

Melchior said. 

Hakeem Fahm expressed appreciation 

to Asseco Software 

Nigeria for the professionalism and 

performance so far. 

“Beyond the strategic collaboration 

between Lagos State Ministry 

of Science and Technology and Asseco 

Software Nigeria, this project 

is a practical example of localisation 

of technology and knowledge 

transfer from Europe to Nigeria,” 

Fahm said. 

the economy is structured to work 

in a particular way and the system 

continues to work. 

“But in Nigeria we understand 

that the system and the virtual system 

are tied to whoever wins, so 

everybody is nervous; who is going 

to win? Will the person change the 

policy? And so when it gets toxic it 

has a way of squeezing the economy,” 

kale concluded. 

Nigeria’s rising political tensions 

leading to the 2019’s presidential 

elections and a broader emergingmarket 

sell off have taken a toll on 

its Stock Exchange. 

The local bourse has returned 

-7.59 percent year to date (YTD).


Insight: How Oando, Seplat, Sahara, others... 


oco Phillip’s Nigerian business 

in 2014 moved us from a small E&P 

player to one of Africa’s largest indigenous 

hydrocarbon producers,” 

Oando told BusinessDay by mail. 

During the industry downturn, 

Oando was protected by a $95/bbl 

hedge on approximately 50 percent 

of its oil production; the hedge was 

later reset to $65/bbl resulting in an 

inflow to the company of $238 million 

which was used to significantly 

pay down its debt. 

Going forward, Oando said it will 

continue to explore ways to protect 

its income streams against future oil 

price shocks. 

Oando major producing assets 

includes: Abo Field (OML 125), Ebendo 

OMLs 60-63, OML 125, OML 

56, Development Assets; OML 13, 

OML 90, OML 134, OML 131, OML 

122, OML 145; Exploration Assets; 

Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) 5, 

EEZ 12, OPL 321, OPL 323, OPL 236, 

OPL 278, OPL 282. 

The company current production 

rate stands at 37,814 boepd (Oil 39 

percent, Natural Gas 53percent, and 

Natural Gas Liquid (NGL) 8percent). 

“We will continue to explore ways 

to grow production on our existing 

assets whilst also looking to take advantage 

of opportunities to acquire 

more assets to grow exponentially,” 

Oando told BusinessDay. 

In an attempt to reduce exposure 

to debt and increase profitability, 

Oando has been restructuring its 

debt profile since 2014 which has led 

to a reduction in debt by 74 percent 

from $2.5 billion to $656 million 

which was made possible through 

consistent pay down of debt and 

restructuring of existing debt, the 

company told BusinessDay. 

Seplat 

Although production was up 

year on year for Seplat Petroleum 

Development Company Plc in 2015, 

the significantly lower oil price 

realisation and downtime of the 

third party operated TransForcados 

System adversely impacted revenue 

and more than offset the higher gas 

volumes and prices. 

“Having been the most active 

driller in Nigeria in 2014 when we 

drilled 23 wells, we reduced our rigbased 

activity to eight development 

wells in 2015 (four oil and four gas 

wells) and one work-over of an oil 

well, all of which were at OMLs 4, 38 

and 41,” Stuart Connal, chief operating 

officer at Seplat said in 2016. 

In 2016, Seplat’s average total 

working interest production decreased 

year on year by 40 percent 

to 25,877 boepd. Prior to this, Seplat’s 

working interest production from 

mid-2015 to February 2016 averaged 

around 52,130 boepd. 

The year 2016 amounted to a 

revenue loss of 44 percent from N113 

billion in 2015 to N63 billion in 2016 

while it also recorded a post-tax loss 

up 449 percent in the sum N45 billion 

in 2016 from a N13 billion profit 

in 2015. 

In order to survive the turmoil, 

Seplat’s board embarked on portfolio 

expansion as investment were directed 

towards the gas business and 

in particular the Phase II expansion 

of processing capacity at the Oben 

gas plant. 

“I am particularly pleased to see 

the growth in our gas business which 

in 2016 exceeded the $100 million 

revenue milestone demonstrating 

its robustness and providing a solid 

base from which to grow,” Austin 

Avuru, CEO of Seplat said. 

Also, the board accelerated various 

initiatives to diversify risk by 

reducing its reliance on a single 

export route, both in the short and 

the long term. 

One such initiative is the barging 

solution that utilises its 100,000 bopd 

capacity pipeline to the Warri refinery 

from where crude is exported 

via barge. Barging commenced in 

May 2016 and by the end of the 2016 

3 MMbbls (1.4 MMbbls working 

interest) of Seplat crude had been 

monetised via this route. Going forward, 

the target is to export a gross 

average of 30,000 bopd on a regular 

basis, according to the firm. 

“We have now established a 

longer-term alternative export route 

via the Warri refinery jetty and are 

nearing completion of upgrade 

works to the infrastructure enabling 

a doubling of barging volumes to a 

steady 30,000 bopd gross during Q2 

2017,” Austin Avuru, CEO of Seplat 

said in 2016. 

Despite recording a 160 per cent 

growth in revenue from contracts 

with customers to N105 billion in 

half year 2018 from N40 billion in half 

year 2017; Seplat announced plans 

in July 2018 to further expand profitability 

and increase operations by 

drilling it first well in its OML 53 asset. 

Shoreline Natural Resources 

In order to survive the tough 

conditions of 2016 when oil prices 

were trading below $30 per barrel, 

Shoreline Natural Resources cut 35 

percent of its nearly 2,000 workers 

while it also halted plans to issue 

$500 million Eurobonds. 

Ladi Bada CEO of Shoreline said 

during the difficult periods of 2015 

and 2016 the company reinvested every 

profit generated back into other 

businesses within Nigeria. 

“We are more comfortable working 

with other local Nigerian firms 

to obtain services which has a huge 

multiplier effect on the economy,” 

Bada said. 

In a bid to develop the Oil Mining 

Lease 30 in the Niger Delta and 

access funds to refinance its existing 

debt, Shoreline natural resources 

in January 2018 made a $530 million 

agreement with Vitol Group in 

exchange for access to some of the 

oil it produces which provided the 

company with cash to refinance existing 

debt and further develop OML 

30 in Nigeria’s oil rich delta region. 

Chairman of Shoreline Group, 

Kola Karim, was quoted as saying 

that the “transformational” deal 

would enable the company to step 

up gross production to as much as 

100,000bpd over the next year. 

“Shoreline would seek to boost 

production to between 80,000 and 

100,000bpd this year,” Karim was 

quoted by Bloomberg to have said. 

Sahara Energy 

The triumvirate of Tonye Cole, 

Tope Shonubi and Ade Odunsi at Sahara 

Energy are carving a new niche 

in the oil and gas sector through 

some shrewd investment, hires and 

acquisitions. 

The global slump in prices of 

crude oil resulted in a significant reduction 

in upstream investment and 

Asharami Energy (Sahara Energy’s 

upstream firm) was not immune 

to this. 

“In managing risks, we have 

had to look internally to ensure that 

through creativity and innovation, 

we ventured into new countries, 

commencing operations in Tanzania, 

Zambia and looking at more 

opportunities in other countries,” 

Sahara Energy said in 2016. 

In 2016, Asharami Energy total 

C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

35 

NEWS 

Late hour rush for Eid-e-Kabir ram at Diko Market, Suleja Local Government Area Council in Niger State. 

Pic by Tunde Adeniyi 

asset value at $257,392,000 was 

spent on the exploration, seismic 

acquisition and drilling of three 

commitment wells, as required by 

the production sharing agreement. 

Asharami Energy has 4 onshore 

assets and 2 deep offshore assets in 

Nigeria; a shallow offshore asset in 

Ghana and two deep offshore assets 

in Cote D’Ivoire. 

It operates all Nigerian assets 

except OML 18 where it is in partnership 

with Eroton while the company 

is also in partnership with Foxtrot 

on CI 500 asset and Petroci on CI 

502 asset in its investments in Cote 

D’Ivoire. 

“One of our major goals is to commence 

the lifting of past production 

entitlement of 1.1 million barrels in 

2017 on this asset which has proven 

reserves of 38.2 million barrels,” 

Asharami Energy said in 2016. 

Sahara Group which also has a 

downstream firm known as Asharami 

Synergy said in 2016 that the 

organization needs to improve the 

inherent inefficiencies within the 

value chain towards creating opportunities 

for continuous and lasting 

sustainability of its downstream 

business. 

“We leveraged on our capacities 

and capabilities gained through 

the operation of our independent 

affiliates to bridge the existing gap 

currently faced by the sector,” the 

CEO of Asharami Synergy Moroti 

Adedoyin-Adeyinka said in 2016. 

Reacting to how Asharami Synergy 

survived 2016, CEO of Asharami 

Synergy said the company increased 

its storage terminal located in Ibafon 

by an additional 19.5Million litre 

of tank storage for Premium Motor 

Spirit (PMS); Also, the company increased 

its aviation storage terminal 

located at Omagwa International airport 

in Port Harcourt Rivers State by 

replacing the temporary 100,000-liter 

mini tank storage with a two 

million litres tank storage towards 

increasing operations following the 

opening of the airport after a significant 

period of closure. 

“These expansions created additional 

opportunities to better serve our 

customers and deliver increased value 

to them,” Adedoyin-Adeyinka said. 

In 2015, Sahara Energy commenced 

the process of realigning its 

assets, operations, and relationships 

towards building partnerships that 

would create more synergy for its 

operations and for improved service 

delivery which continued through 

to 2016 after oil prices crashed, 

with the organization focusing on 

Governance and Compliance Management, 

Strategic Risk Management, 

Supply Chain Management 

Efficiency, Personal and Corporate 

Social Responsibility and its Future 

Investments. 

Sahara Group is a leading African 

Energy (power, oil, and gas) and 

Infrastructure Conglomerate with 

operating entities in over 10 countries 

across four continents - Africa, 

Europe, Asia and the Middle East. 

Forte Oil 

According to Julius Owotuga, 

Group Executive Director, Finance 

and Risk Management at Forte Oil 

the company managed its foreign 

exchange and subsidy exposure 

by reducing the importation of petroleum 

products for the year 2015 

which resulted to a 31 percent drop 

in the sales of fuel. 

He added further that “Other 

income increased by 190% due to 

income from investment in securities 

held to maturity, freight income 

from the 100 trucks acquired the 

previous financial year and sale of 

investment property”. 

The firm also exited its dollar denominated 

loans and converted same 

to Naira at prevailing exchange rates. 

The firm recorded a 50 percent 

decrease in 2016 profit after tax (PAT) 

to N2.9 billion from N5.8 billion in 

2015 despite growth in its revenue 

by 19 percent which rose to N148.6 

billion in 2016 from 2015 in N124.6 

billion. 

Aieto Group 

In March 2015, Aiteo Eastern E 

& P, a subsidiary of Aiteo Group, acquired 

SPDC’s interest in OML 29 as 

Total E&P Nigeria Limited and Nigerian 

Agip Oil Company Limited – the 

other joint venture partners – also assigned 

their 10 percent and 5 percent 

interests respectively to Aiteo, giving 

the company a 45 percent interest in 

OML 29. 

OML29 stretches over an area of 

983 square kilometres, and includes 

the Nembe, Santa Barbara and 

Okoroba Oil Fields, including related 

facilities such as the 97-kilometre 

Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL). It 

also has a 100 kilometres long pipeline 

with a capacity of 600 thousand 

barrels per day. 

In a little over a year, Aiteo Group, 

a leading energy company in Nigeria, 

under the leadership of Benedict 

Peters has ramped up crude production 

to 90,000 bpd from an average 

production of the 23,000 bpd after 

acquiring OML 29 for $2.8 billion 

from Shell at a time when local oil 

companies struggled to manage 

divested assets. 

Conclusion 

The collapse of the oil price from 

mid-2014 created serious economic 

crisis for oil-reliant countries, including 

Nigeria. 

It also revealed woeful weaknesses 

in many indigenous oil and 

gas firms as many of the businesses 

turned out to be little more than 

briefcase companies. 

The oil and gas space is however 

still systemically important to Nigeria’s 

financial services sector. 

Data from Nigeria Bureau of 

Statistics (NBS) revealed in Q1 2018, 

the oil and gas sector received the 

highest credit allocation by banks of 

21.9 percent compared with 13.1 percent 

for manufacturing sector, or 9 

percent to governmental institutions. 

Further analysis showed credits 

allocation to oil and gas firm as 

always gained dominance ahead of 

other segments of the economy with 

an average of 16.6 percent worth of 

credit in 2015 which grew to 20.9 

percent in 2016 while 2017 allocation 

stood at 21.9 percent. 

BusinessDay analysis revealed 

loans from Access bank to oil and gas 

companies of N533 billion accounted 

for 26 percent of its total loan of N2 

trillion in 2017. Access banks loans to 

oil and gas sector in 2017 increased 

by 7 percent when compared with 

N498billion of 2016 which had a 45 

percent increase compared to N345 

billion in 2015. 

First Bank loans to oil and gas 

firms in 2017 stood at N739 billion 

in 2017, which is 6 percent higher 

to N699billion of 2016 while Zenith 

bank loans to the oil and gas sector 

in 2017 stood at N660 billion which 

was 1 percent shy of N654 billion in 

2016 while 2015 loans to oil and gas 

sector stood at N362 billion. 

United Bank of Africa (UBA) loan 

to the oil and gas sector in 2017 stood 

at N361 billion compared to N363 

billion in 2016 while 2015 stood at 

N202 billion. 

Although the prices currently 

average within $70 to $73 per barrel, 

the apprehension about its continued 

sustainability is still substantial. 

Cees Uijlenhoed, financial director 

in First E&P in a recent interview 

with the Financial Times expects that 

by about 2020, based on a proven 

record of project development, there 

will be a handful of, maybe eight, 

strong Nigerian oil companies able to 

produce 100,000 barrels of oil a day.


Four primary school teachers get all-expense paid 

trip to showcase Edo’s education reforms in Canada 

Four teachers championing 

the Edo Basic 

Education Sector 

Transformation (Edo- 

BEST) Programme in schools 

across Edo State have clinched 

an all-expense paid trip to Canada 

to attend and showcase the 

state public education reforms 

at the 27th edition of the Edo 

National Association Worldwide 

(ENAW) convention. 

The teachers are Idehen 

Ejiye Isaiah of Eguare Primary 

School, Ujiogba in Esan West 

Local Government Area (LGA); 

Erhabor Osasumwen Priscillia 

of Aisologun-Akenzua Primary 

School in Ikpoba-Okha LGA; 

Ogboko Edoghogho Yvonne 

of Okogbo Primary School, 

Okogbo, in Orhionmwon LGA, 

and Noragbon Enogie Osaru, 

head teacher, Emotan Primary 

School, Oredo LGA. 

The trip, according to the 

special adviser to the governor 

on Basic Education and chairman-designate, 

Edo State Universal 

Basic Education Board, 

Joan Osa Oviawe, is a form of 

motivation for the selected 

teachers, who will showcase in 

practical terms the reform by 

the Governor Godwin Obaseki-led 

administration to Edo 

people in the Diaspora. 

“SUBEB created an online 

portal two weeks ago, asking 

teachers in Edo State to apply 

or nominate someone for 

the all-expense paid trip to 

Toronto, Canada. 

“The criteria included that 

they should tell us about themselves 

and why they think they 

NNPC, First E&P sign GMoU with 

host communities in Bayelsa 

As part of its commitment 

to social 

performance and 

demonstration of 

value to its neighbouring 

communities within the Niger-Delta 

communities, the 

Nigerian National Petroleum 

Corporation (NNPC) and 

First Exploration and Petroleum 

Development Company 

Limited (FIRST E&P) 

joint venture have signed 

a global memorandum of 

understanding (GMoU) with 

the KEFFES Rural Development 

Foundation (KDRF) in 

Bayelsa State. 

The KRDF is the governing 

arm of the eight communities 

that have been identified as 

the communities to the Assets. 

The KEFFES communities 

comprise of Koluama 1, 

Koluama 2, Ezetu 1, Ezetu 

2, Foropa, and Fish Town, 

Ekeni and Sangana. “KEF- 

FES” is an acronym formed 

from the initial letter of the 

names of each of the eight 

communities. 

The GMoU is aimed at 

formalising the partnership 

between NNPC/FIRST E&P, 

KDRF and the Bayelsa State 

government as critical stakeholders 

in the development 

of oil mining leases 83 and 85 

(the Assets). 

FIRST E&P is Nigerian oil 

are the best for the trip. At the 

end, we got 89 entries. After 

screening we came up with the 

semi-final list. Those picked 

were made to face a panel. One 

Head Mistress, Noragbon and 

three teachers finally got the 

slot to represent Edo State in 

Canada after the final selection. 

Their passports were processed 

on Wednesday,” Oviawe said. 

In a message to the selected 

teachers, the SUBEB boss explained 

that the trip would 

be a mixture of educational 

and sightseeing experiences, 

as the teachers will meet with 

Edo people in Diaspora, visit 

schools in Canada and also key 

government functionaries. 

According to Oviawe, “You 

are going to Toronto on the 

Governor’s entourage to attend 

the annual convention 

of Edo people in Diaspora. 

By God’s grace, we will aim to 

leave by August 29. So, prepare 

yourself. After the convention, 

you will stay behind and will 

visit schools in Toronto and 

surrounding areas. If there is 

time, we will visit Ottawa, which 

is the Canadian capital. 

“We will do a tour of the 

Canadian Parliament and visit 

the residence of the Governor 

General of the country. The 

Governor General is the symbolic 

head of state of Canada, 

representing the Queen of England. 

If there is time, we may 

also visit Montreal, the French 

speaking part of Canada. Part 

of the school visit will be to 

observe their open day among 

other events.” 

and gas company established 

in 2011 and commenced operations 

in July 2012. 

At the signing ceremony 

held at the Ministry of Mineral 

Resources, Bayelsa State, 

the representatives of the 

eight communities expressed 

their delight with the GMoU, 

which seeks to among other 

things, encourage socio-economic 

development within 

the communities. 

Speaking on the rationale 

behind the GMoU, Emmanuel 

Etomi, general manager, 

corporate services, FIRST 

E&P, said the joint venture 

partners were interested in 

the wellbeing of their neighbouring 

communities and 

wish to contribute to their 

development. 

“We are particularly happy 

with our neighbouring 

communities represented 

here today. Since we opened 

conversation and started 

engagement with them, the 

response has been good. 

At every level of our development, 

we have ensured 

that the communities are involved 

because they are critical 

to our collective success. 

“As a company, we are 

particular about our social 

performance and interested 

in the good of all our valued 

community stakeholders”. 

C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

A1 

NEWS 

Nigeria’s $3.9bn e-commerce 

industry to spur economic growth 

JUMOKE AKIYODE-LAWANSON 

Although e-commerce 

in Nigeria 

is predominantly 

urban, the industry 

recorded 

about $1.9 billion in 2016, and 

has been projected to reach 

an estimated $3.9 billion by 

2020 if the right regulations to 

guard online sales are put in 

place to match up with global 

standards, experts say. 

Electronic commerce is a 

thriving global industry and 

has become more popular 

in Nigeria with increased internet 

penetration and high 

numbers of smartphone ownership. 

In advanced climes 

where access to the internet, 

and of course, literacy levels 

stand at appreciable levels, 

e-commerce has become a 

lifestyle for many. Interestingly, 

global retail sales, of 

which e-commerce makes 

up a major part, is projected 

to rise further to an estimated 

$27 trillion by 2020. 

Osita Anthony Aboloma, 

director-general, Standards 

Organisation of Nigeria 

(SON), said earlier this year 

that Nigeria would only be 

able to benefit from the digital 

advantage of e-commerce, 

which could add a significant 

value to the country’s Gross 

Domestic Product (GDP), if 

the industry was well monitored 

to ensure optimal service. 

“With the increasing volumes 

of consumer complaints 

being received on the quality 

of products sold online by the 

SON, Consumer Protection 

Council (CPC) and other sister 

regulatory agencies, it has 

become necessary to have a 

robust regulatory framework 

in place for this sector. 

“For instance, products 

like mobile phones, electrical 

and electronic devices 

cannot be physically viewed 

and tested before purchase 

online, while the claims on 

what they can do have been 

found in many cases to be 

inaccurate or sometimes out 

rightly false,” Aboloma said. 

Also, at an e-commerce 

forum organised for government 

agency representatives 

and stakeholders earlier this 

year, the issues of lack of trust, 

security and safety and poor 

knowledge were all raised 

as challenges hindering the 

rapid growth of e-commerce 

in Nigeria. 

According to Ezekiel Oseni 

from the Bank of Industry 

(BoI) at the event, Nigeria 

does not have enough regu- 

L-R: Feyisayo Fatona-Ajayi, head of Lagos office, Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG); Lawrence Anukam, directorgeneral, 

National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA); Christian Wessels, founder, Sunray 

Ventures; Folashade Ambrose-Medebem, director, communications, public affairs and sustainable development, Lafarge Africa; 

Jide Jadesimi, executive director, business development, LADOL, and Tunde Olatunji, chairman, house committee on industry, 

Osun State House of Assembly, at the NESG stakeholders’ workshop to unlock investments for a sustainable circular economy, 

in Nigeria held in Lagos. 

Pic by Olawale Amoo 

TCN tells BEDC localised tripping not its affairs 

HARRISON EDEH, Abuja 

Benin Electricity Distribution 

Company 

(BEDC) recently alleged 

that the national 

grid was highly unstable, 

with over 2,000 tripping in 

its network between January 

and July 2018. 

In reply, the Transmission 

Company of Nigeria 

(TCN) says the alleged statement 

was clearly misleading 

because in the subsequent 

part of the same report, 

BEDC claimed significant 

improvement in its services, 

which could not have been 

possible if the national grid 

was weak as alleged. 

“BEDC has no imbedded 

generation hence it 

depends entirely on the 

national grid and could 

not have recorded such 

improvement if the national 

grid has not also improved,” 

TCN clarifies in a statement. 

According to the state- 

ment signed by Ndidi Mbah, 

general manager, public affairs 

of TCN, since the BEDC 

does not have embedded 

generation and does not own 

its own transmission network, 

achievements like improved 

electricity supply to over 54 

communities, provision of 

24-hour supply covering over 

20km in Asaba among others, 

though commendable, clearly 

cannot happen if the national 

grid was as problematic as alleged 

in the report. 

The statement further 

noted that TCN had good 

working relationship with 

BEDC management and that 

both companies were working 

towards improving power 

supply to BEDC consumers. 

TCN, hence, said it would 

not join issues nor engage 

in unnecessary blame game 

with BEDC; however, for the 

sake of clarity, most of the 

so-called 2,000 tripping were 

actually on 33/11kV feeders in 

BEDC’s network due to faults. 

MMA2 to witness disruption over 

termination of staff appointment 

IFEOMA OKEKE 

Operations of not 

less than five domestic 

airlines 

may be disrupted 

following the decision of the 

Air Transport Services Senior 

Staff Association of Nigeria 

(ATSSSAN) National Executive 

Council (NEC) to picket 

the activities of Bi-Courtney 

Aviation Services Limited 

(BASL), operator of MMA2, 

over termination of appointment 

of union members. 

In a communiqué issued 

to the media yesterday, ATSS- 

SAN states it condemns in the 

strongest terms the uncivil 

manner by which the management 

of BASL ingloriously 

terminated the appointment 

of 26 of its staff that voluntarily 

joined ATSSSAN. 

According to the communiqué, 

“The NEC commended 

the intervention of 

lation around e-commerce 

and so retailers often hide 

behind the anonymity of the 

online space to sell substandard 

goods to unsuspecting 

customers. 

“Apart from the five principles 

recently introduced 

by the CPC, which include 

among others, that any item 

to be sold online must have 

full disclosure of description 

to clearly state its colour, size 

and any relevant information; 

sellers must ensure consumer 

protection privacy, prompt 

respond time to complaints 

and redress and to ensure that 

consumers are not exploited.” 

Oseni also mentioned that 

the BoI would not support 

any substandard product to 

go into the market, unless 

it had met all the regulatory 

requirements. 

the State Security Services 

(Airport Command), the 

Airport Police Command, 

the Military Commandant 

(MMIA Airport) and the Nigerian 

Civil Aviation Authority 

(NCAA) for the roles they 

played in seeking amicable 

resolution of the issue. 

“NEC thus condemned 

the deliberate frustration of 

the efforts of above government 

agencies by the management 

of Bi-Courtney. To 

this end, the NEC resolved 

that if the management of 

Bi-Courtney does not recall 

the terminated staff and allow 

unfettered unionisation 

of wiling staff of the company 

within two weeks from 

the date of the publication 

of this communiqué, ATSS- 

SAN shall embark on a series 

disruption of operations at 

MMA2 until the management 

of BASL complies with 

its demands.”


A2 BUSINESS DAY 

Access Bank Rateswatch 

KEY MACROECONOMIC INDICATORS 

Indicators Current Figures Comments 

GDP Growth (%) 1.95 Q1 2018 — lower by 0.16% compared to 2.11% in Q4 2017 

Broad Money Supply (M2) (N’ trillion) 24.81 Decreased by 1.41% in June 2018 from N25.17 trillion in May’ 2018 

Credit to Private Sector (N’ trillion) 22.28 Increased by 0.34% in June 2018 from N22.21 trillion in May’ 2018 

Currency in Circulation (N’ trillion) 1.90 Decreased by 1.56% in June 2018 from N1.93 trillion in May’ 2018 

Inflation rate (%) (y-o-y) 11.14 Decreased to 11.14% in July’ 2018 from 11.23% in June’ 2018 

Monetary Policy Rate (%) 14 Raised to 14% in July ’2016 from 12% 

Interest Rate (Asymmetrical Corridor) 14 (+2/-5) Lending rate changed to 16% & Deposit rate 9% 

External Reserves (US$ million) 46.46 August 15, 2018 figure — a decrease of 1.30% from August start 

Oil Price (US$/Barrel) 72.98 August 17, 2018 figure— an increase of 0.87% from the prior week 

Oil Production mbpd (OPEC) 1.67 July 2018 figure — an increase of 4% from June 2018 figure 

STOCK MARKET 

Indicators Friday Friday Change(%) 

17/08/18 10/08/18 

NSE ASI 35,266.29 35,446.47 (0.51) 

Market Cap(N’tr) 12.87 12.94 (0.51) 

Volume (bn) 0.27 0.19 41.08 

Value (N’bn) 2.72 2.03 33.94 

MONEY MARKET 

NIBOR 

Tenor Friday Rate Friday Rate Change 

(%) (%) (Basis Point) 

17/08/18 10/08/18 

OBB 7.3300 8.4200 (109) 

O/N 8.3300 9.2500 (92) 

CALL 8.1250 8.4000 (28) 

30 Days 12.4103 11.1140 130 

90 Days 13.2799 12.4048 88 

FOREIGN EXCHANGE MARKET 

Market Friday Friday 

1 Month 

(N/$) (N/$) Rate (N/$) 

17/08/18 10/08/18 17/07/18 

Official (N) 306.10 306.00 305.80 

Inter-Bank (N) 353.77 352.28 347.76 

BDC (N) 361.00 360.50 361.00 

Parallel (N) 360.00 360.00 360.00 

BOND MARKET 

AVERAGE YIELDS 

Tenor Friday Friday 

Change 


17/08/18 10/08/18 

3-Year 0.00 0.00 0 

5-Year 14.41 13.96 45 

7-Year 14.74 14.10 64 

10-Year 14.52 14.01 51 

20-Year 14.79 14.33 46 

Disclaimer 

This report is based on information obtained from various sources believed to be 

reliable and no representation is made that it is accurate or complete. Reasonable care 

has been taken in preparing this document. Access Bank Plc shall not take responsibility 

or liability for errors or fact or for any opinion expressed herein .This document is for 

information purposes and private circulation only and may not be reproduced, 

distributed or published by any recipient for any purpose without prior express consent 

of Access Bank Plc. 

COMMODITIES MARKET 

Indicators 17/08/18 

1-week YTD 

Change Change 

(%) (%) 

Energy 

Crude Oil $/bbl) 72.98 0.87 13.22 

Natural Gas ($/MMBtu) 2.93 (0.68) (4.12) 

Agriculture 

Cocoa ($/MT) 2144.00 0.66 10.74 

Coffee ($/lb.) 104.75 (1.97) (19.55) 

Cotton ($/lb.) 81.39 (7.08) 5.02 

Sugar ($/lb.) 10.29 (3.65) (32.88) 

Wheat ($/bu.) 569.75 (2.86) 31.43 

Metals 

Gold ($/t oz.) 1177.12 (2.79) (10.66) 

Silver ($/t oz.) 14.65 (4.68) (14.78) 

Copper ($/lb.) 261.15 (4.90) (20.33) 

NIGERIAN INTERBANK TREASURY BILLS TRUE YIELDS 

Tenor Friday Friday Change 


17/08/18 10/08/18 

1 Mnth 10.42 9.89 53 

3 Mnths 11.67 11.30 37 

6 Mnths 13.05 12.79 26 

9 Mnths 12.93 12.71 22 

12 Mnths 13.24 12.69 55 

ACCESS BANK NIGERIAN GOV’T BOND INDEX 

Indicators Friday Friday Change 


17/08/18 10/08/18 

Index 2,637.04 2,665.95 (1.08) 

Mkt Cap Gross (N'tr) 8.48 8.57 (1.10) 

Mkt Cap Net (N'tr) 5.40 5.51 (1.96) 

YTD return (%) 7.35 8.53 (1.18) 

YTD return (%)(US $) -48.03 -47.82 

TREASURY BILLS (MATURITIES) 

Tenor Amount Rate (%) Date 

(N' million) 

91 Day 3384.18 10 15-Aug-2018 

182 Day 69,565.35 10.4 1-Aug-2018 

364 Day 20,000.00 11.22 15-Aug-2018 

(0.21) 

Market Analysis and Outlook: August 17 - August 24, 2018 

Global 

In the US, core consumer inflation accelerated to 

2.4% year-on-year (y-o-y) in July, up from 2.3% 

in June, data released by the Labour Department 

show. This is the highest in nearly 10 years and 

suggests that the Federal Reserve will remain on 

track to increase the policy rate in September. 

The acceleration in core inflation was mostly 

driven by steep increases in the rental cost of 

housing. Meanwhile, headline inflation reached 

2.9% y-o-y, similar to June and the highest rate in 

more than six years. In a separate development, 

China’s overall trade surplus narrowed to $28 

billion in July from $42 billion in June. Imports 

rose by 27.3% y-o-y, while exports increased by 

12.2% y-o-y. Steel product exports dropped by 

15% y-o-y in the wake of a 25% tariff introduced 

by the US. In contrast, aluminium products 

exports, now subject to a 10% tariff by the US, 

increased by more than 18%. On balance, 

imports were up on higher commodity 

shipments to China. One exception was soybean 

imports which fell by 26% y-o-y following the 

introduction of a 25% tariff by China on US 

soybeans. Elsewhere, in the Eurozone, gross 

domestic product (GDP) growth for the second 

quarter (Q2) was revised up as Germany and the 

Netherlands posted stronger-than-expected 

growth for the period. The Q2 GDP growth was 

revised upward to 0.4% quarter-on-quarter from 

the previous estimate of 0.3%, according to data 

released by Eurostat, the statistics agency of the 

European Union (EU). Analysts believe the 

upward revision to GDP growth in the second 

quarter will make policymakers at the European 

Central Bank more confident that they are right 

to be winding down their asset purchases. 

Domestic 

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the 

Bankers’ Committee have agreed to provide 

single-digit interest rate loans to operators in 

the manufacturing and agricultural sectors of 

the economy. These loans are expected to be 

availed from commercial banks’ cash reserve 

requirement (CRR) with the apex bank. The CBN 

Governor had, at the last Monetary Policy 

Committee meeting held in July announced that 

the apex bank was working on the modalities for 

the scheme. Speaking at the end of the 

meeting, the Director of Banking Supervision 

stated that these loans are long term loans of 

seven years with two year moratorium on 

principal. He further stated that although 

agriculture and manufacturing are the initial 

sectors that are being considered, a bank can 

apply if there is a job-creating sector that the 

bank is operating in. In a separate development, 

Nigeria’s annual inflation rate dropped further 

to 11.14% year-on-year in July 2018. The 

National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) disclosed 

this in its Consumer Price Index (CPI) report 

titled ‘CPI and Inflation Report July 2018’, 

released last week. The decline is 0.09% points 

less than the rate recorded inJune 2018 

(11.23%) and represents an eighteenth 

consecutive disinflation in headline inflation 

year-on-year. Nigeria's inflation rate has 

continued to decline since February 2017 after 

reaching more than 12 year-high. According to 

the report,food index droppedat 12.85% in July 

2018 compared to 12.98% in June 2018, 

representing the tenth consecutive decline in 

year on year food inflation since September 

2017. Meanwhile, core inflation, which excludes 

the prices of volatile agricultural produce stood 

at 10.2% in July 2018, down by 0.2% from the 

rate recorded in June 2018 (10.4%). This 

represents the 16th consecutive decline in year 

on year core inflation since March 2017. 

Stock Market 

The bearish trend in the local bourse was 

unrelenting last week as the equities market 

closed in the red owing to negative sentiment 

towards large cap stocks across sectors. 

Accordingly, the All Share Index (ASI) fell 0.51% 

week-on-week to settle at 35,266.29 points. 

Market capitalization also contracted N7 billion to 

close at N12.87 trillion. Investor sentiment 

remained shaky against the backdrop of a sell-off 

in emerging markets assets. This week, we 

expect the bearish performance to be sustained 

as investors continue to take profit following 

some less-than-stellar corporate scorecard 

releases. 

Money Market 

Money market rates trended downwards for 

th 

the week ended July 17 2018 due to net inflow 

from Open Market Operations (OMO) of about 

N300 billion. Short-dated placements such as 

Open Buy Back (OBB) and Over Night (O/N) 

rates declined to 7.33% and 8.33% from 8.42% 

and 9.25% respectively the previous week. 

Longer dated placements witnessed mixed 

direction. Call rate declined to 8.13% from 

8.45, while the 30-day and 90-day NIBOR 

closed higher at 12.41% and 13.28% from 

11.11% and 12.40% the prior week. This week, 

the liquidity seen in the market is expected to 

prevail as OMO maturity of N364 billion hits the 

market next week. 

Foreign Exchange Market 

The local currency remained unchanged at the 

parallel market at N3620/$, same as the previous 

week. In contrast, at the interbank window and 

official market, the naira depreciated marginally 

by 0.42% and 0.03% to close at N353.77/$ and 

N306.10/$ from previous week. The relative 

stability of the local currency continues to be 

supported by the apex bank’s resolve to keep the 

currency exchange rate stable. This week, we 

envisage the naira remaining at prevailing levels. 

Bond Market 

Last week, average bond yields trended higher 

largely on account of selloffs from foreign 

investors, a fallout of the current risk-off 

sentiment towards emerging markets, owing to 

the crisis in Turkey . Yields on the five-, seven-, 

ten- and twenty-year debt papers settled higher 

at 14.41%, 14.74%, 14.52% and 14.79% from 

1 3 . 9 6 % , 1 4 . 1 0 % , 1 4 . 0 1 % a n d 1 4 . 3 3 % 

respectively the previous week. The Access Bank 

Bond index fell by 28.92 points to close at 

2,637.04 points from 2,665.95 points the 

previous week. This week we expect that the 

bearish sentiment in the market will persist as 

macro fundamentals have not changed. 

Commodities 

Oil prices retreated last week after government 

data showed a jump in stockpiles of US crude. US 

commercial crude inventories rose by 6.8 million 

barrels according to an Energy Information 

Administration report. Oil prices were also 

weighed down by the ongoing trade dispute 

between the United States and China which 

continues to feed concerns that global economic 

growth will slow and ultimately shrink demand for 

oil. The OPEC basket of crudes price$2.56, or 4%, 

to $69.47. In a similar vein, precious metals prices 

edged lower amid a widespread downdraft in the 

metals sector, fueled partly by a strengthening 

US dollar. Gold fell $33.76 or 2.79%, to $1,177.12 

an ounce,silver decreased 72 cents to $14.65 per 

ounce. This week, oil prices are likely to rise 

buoyed by reports that the US and China are to 

resume trade talks at the end of the month. For 

precious metals, prices may nudge higher 

following the announcement by Turkey’s Central 

Bank of a series of measures to offer liquidity and 

cut reserve requirement for banks, in a bid to save 

lira from its crisis driven by the US sanctions and 

doubled tariffs on silver and aluminum for 50% 

and 20% respectively. 

MONTHLY MACRO ECONOMIC FORECASTS 

Variables Aug’18 Sept’18 Oct’18 

Exchange Rate 

(Official) (N/$) 346.90 347.02 348 

Inflation Rate (%) 9.34 9.00 9.00 

Crude Oil Price 

(US$/Barrel) 76.75 76.00 77.00 

Sources: CBN, Financial Market Dealers Association of Nigeria, NSE and 

Access Bank Economic Intelligence Group computation. 

For enquiries, contact: Rotimi Peters (Team Lead, Economic Intelligence) (01) 2712123 rotimi.peters@accessbankplc.com

BUSINESS DAY 


FT FINANCIAL TIMES 

C002D5556 

A3 

World Business Newspaper 

Former UBS worker calls for police investigation into alleged assault 

‘I want some form of justice — he wronged me’ 

Laura Noonan 

Too close for comfort: The 

incestuous ties that bind 

auditors and watchdogs 

Page A4 

US banks tap the brakes 

on consumer credit 

Spending is up, but concern is growing 

over credit quality and profitability 

Robert Armstrong 

This is a good time to offer 

Americans credit. Economic 

growth is solid, 

unemployment is low, 

and wallets are open. 

In July, retail sales grew at a 

sturdy 6 per cent from the year 

before, faster than analysts had 

expected. The prosperity extends 

even to dowdy brick-and-mortar 

stores: Macy’s, the struggling department 

store chain, last week 

posted its third straight quarter 

of sales growth after several years 

of declines. Walmart, the vast 

discount retailer, reported its best 

quarterly sales growth in 10 years. 

At the other end of the price spectrum, 

Nordstrom, the upscale 

department store chain, reported 

a big jump in sales which drove its 

stock up 13 per cent. 

Nor does the spending seem to 

be especially reckless. When, at the 

beginning of last year, household 

debt surpassed its last peak, in 2008, 

many pundits speculated about the 

possibility of a new financial crisis. 

But US household debt — all $13.3tn 

of it, according to the New York Fed 

— is much lower, relative to both 

GDP and disposable income, than 

it was in the run-up to 2008. 

The big card-issuing banks are 

pleased. In second-quarter calls 

with analysts, JPMorgan highlighted 

that consumer purchases using their 

cards were up 11 per cent; Bank of 

America’s purchase growth was almost 

as high. Citigroup and Capital 

One pointed out loan balances were 

growing nicely. 

If the card business is picnic, 

though, it is a late summer picnic; 

the watermelon has already been 

served, and the skies are showing 

the early signs of darkening. The 

card issuers acknowledge that, as US 

consumers have gotten their mojo 

back, the competition for their business 

has become very competitive 

indeed. Savvy Millennials shuffle 

between cards to maximise rewards 

and introductory interest rates. Big 

spenders with good credit ratings 

are the prize in a “ rewards war”. 

At the same time, the current 

economic expansion, at the grand 

old age of nine years, is the second 

longest on record. That does not 

A former UBS employee has asked UK 

police to investigate an alleged sexual 

assault by a more senior colleague 

after deciding the bank had failed in 

its attempts to deal fairly with her case. 

After leaving UBS, the woman 

emailed the head of its investment 

bank, Andrea Orcel, to complain that 

she had been let down by the bank’s 

human resources department. That 

provide any particular reason to 

think it is near an end. But trees do 

not grow to the sky. 

The competitive heat and the 

length of the cycle are making themselves 

felt in industry-wide data. 

Measure of credit quality, while not 

flashing amber, are unmistakably 

headed in the wrong direction. 

Quarterly write-offs of bad credit 

card debt at US banks peaked at 

nearly $19bn in the first quarter of 

2010 and bottomed under $5bn in 

2015, according the FDIC. Since 

then they have crept back over $8bn. 

The rate at which credit card 

holders are falling delinquent, while 

still at a low level, has also been 

creeping up since 2015. Bankers 

dismiss these trends as the natural 

“seasoning” of credit card loan portfolios 

that have been rebuilt since 

the recovery. But the numbers show 

that it is growing harder to sell cards 

to high-quality customers. 

Last month, the Federal Reserve’s 

Board of Governors released 

its annual report of credit card 

banks’ profitability. It showed return 

on assets falling in 2017, for the 

fourth year in a row. At 3.4 per cent, 

it is a full third lower than it was in 

2013. The Fed noted that a moderate 

increase in provisions for losses 

cut into profits. More important, 

non-interest revenues — which are 

made up both of payments from 

merchants and the annual fees and 

penalty fees charged to card holders 

— are declining. 

Part of this is down to big merchants 

driving harder bargains with 

the banks and pushing down on 

fees. Costco, the big discount retailer, 

moved its branded cards from 

American Express to Citi last year, 

for example. 

“The banks are giving more to the 

merchants,” said Jason Goldberg, an 

analyst at Barclays. 

Another contributor to the 

squeeze in fee revenue is generous 

rewards offers for new customers, 

which are booked against revenue 

when the customer signs on. 

Finally, the compression of noninterest 

revenue is a long-term effect 

of the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility 

and Disclosure (CARD) 

act of 2009, a law that prohibited 

many punitive fees and limited the 

ability to raise customers’ rates. 

email became public and reported 

widely, including in the Financial 

Times. 

The alleged assault took place last 

September, just before accusations 

about the abusive behaviour of Hollywood 

producer Harvey Weinstein 

became public and triggered a wave 

of activism against sexual harassment. 

The bank’s internal investigation 

took place during months of height- 

Continues on page A4 

Tesla hit as JPMorgan lops a third off its share price target 

Analyst acts after concluding funding for a buyout was not ‘secured’ 

MAMTA Badkar 

Tesla was hit on Monday after 

analysts at JPMorgan argued 

financing for a deal to go private 

has not been finalised, despite chief executive 

Elon Musk’s claim the funding 

had been “secured” earlier this month. 

Tesla shares were down about 

3 per cent at $297 in early trade on 

Monday, extending a 9 per cent drop 

on Friday. 

In a note, JPMorgan analyst Ryan 

Brinkman lowered his price target by 

37 per cent to $195. That had been 

his target before he raised it to $308 

on August 8 — a day after Mr Musk 

tweeted he had funding secured to 

take Tesla private at $420 a share, 

which sent the stock to a near record 

high. 

Now, with more information having 

come out about what Mr Musk 

meant by his statement over funding, 

the bank has moved its target back. Mr 

Stocks rally ahead of 

US-China trade talks 

and Fed minutes 

Page A5 

PepsiCo strikes $3.2bn deal to buy SodaStream 

Beverage and snacks group looks to continue health-conscious strategy for growth 

James Fontanella-Khan, Eric Platt and 

Arash Massoudi 

PepsiCo has agreed to buy SodaStream, 

the Israeli maker of 

home fizzy drink dispensers, 

for $3.2bn, just weeks after the US 

consumer group announced that its 

chief executive Indra Nooyi would 

step down this year. 

The acquisition of the healthconscious 

soda maker is a clear indication 

that Pepsi’s incoming chief 

executive, Ramon Laguarta, plans to 

continue developing the company in 

a similar direction as his predecessor. 

SodaStream fits with Pepsi’s 

broader strategy under Ms Nooyi’s 

12-year leadership, during which she 

switched the company’s focus from 

sugary sodas to healthier snacks and 

beverages. 

Nasdaq-listed SodaStream, 

which fashions itself as a health and 

wellness alternative to cola drinks, 

would complement Pepsi’s healthier 

options, which include the flavoured 

sparkling water brand Bubly and the 

fruit and vegetable snacks maker 

Bare Foods. 

“SodaStream is highly complementary 

and incremental to our 

business, adding to our growing 

water portfolio, while catalysing 

our ability to offer personalised inhome 

beverage solutions around the 

world,” said Mr Laguarta. 

Pepsi has agreed to pay $144 per 

share in cash, an 11 per cent premium 

to SodaStream’s current price of 

$129.85 after a sharp rally in the company’s 

shares since the start of August. 

The gains had been attributed to 

better than expected results, given no 

news of deal talks had become public 

before Monday’s announcement. 

The offer, which needs to be approved 

by SodaStream shareholders, 

is also a 32 per cent premium to the 

company’s 30-day volume-weighted 

average price. 

The transaction is the latest blockbuster 

takeover of an Israeli company 

since March 2017 when US chipmaker 

Intel paid $15.3bn to purchase 

Mobileye, which makes sensors 

that detect obstacles while driving 

that are critical to autonomous 

Brinkman also retained his “underweight” 

rating on the stock. 

“We are reverting to valuing Tesla 

shares on the basis of fundamentals 

alone, which entails a $113 reduction 

in our price target back to the $195 

level where it stood before our August 

8 note,” said Mr Brinkman wrote. 

“Our interpretation of subsequent 

events leads us to believe that funding 

was not secured for a going private 

transaction, nor was there any formal 

proposal,” he added. 

The Securities and Exchange 

Commission, the US regulator, has 

launched an investigation into Mr 

Musk’s tweet and a number of lawsuits 

have been filed on behalf of investors 

who bought Tesla shares in the wake of 

the founder’s Twitter pronouncement. 

“Am considering taking Tesla private 

at $420. Funding secured,” he 

wrote on August 7. 

Mr Musk’s tweet came hours after 

the Financial Times disclosed Saudi 

driving. Subsequent to that deal’s 

announcement, the US Securities 

and Exchange Commission pursued 

insider trading charges against two 

Israeli residents and two Americans 

after suspicious trading in Mobileye 

shares before the transaction. 

Global food and beverage companies 

have been carrying out a 

series of deals in recent years as they 

try to reposition their portfolios as 

health conscious consumers opt for 

fewer sugary drinks. 

Pepsi’s deal comes days after 

its main rival Coca-Cola agreed to 

buy a minority stake in BodyArmor, 

a sports drink maker backed 

by US basketball star Kobe Bryant. 

Coca-Cola’s move comes as it has 

struggled over the years to loosen the 

hold of Pepsi’s sports drink business 

Gatorade. 

SodaStream will continue to be 

led by its current chief executive, 

Daniel Birnbaum, as Pepsi aims to 

expand the Israeli company by giving 

it access to its strong global distribution, 

research and development 

firepower and marketing expertise. 

Arabia’s Public Investment Fund had 

amassed a stake of 3-5 per cent in the 

electric car maker this year. His comments 

unleashed a firestorm, with 

some critics and investors arguing it 

was time to take some pressure off 

Mr Musk. 

“The revelation the Saudi fund is 

subsequently asking Tesla for details 

of how the company would be taken 

private suggests to us that any deal is 

potentially far from even being formally 

proposed, which is different from 

our understanding on August 8 which 

was based on Mr. Musk’s statement on 

Twitter that, “Only reason why this is 

not certain is that it’s contingent on a 

shareholder vote”. 

Mr Musk, who has been struggling 

to overcome production bottlenecks 

and ramp up production of the mass 

market Model 3 vehicle, gave an 

emotional interview saying he was 

overworked. That sent Tesla shares 

sharply lower on Friday.



C002D5556 

FT 

NATIONAL NEWS 

Former UBS worker calls for 

police investigation... 

Continued from page A3 

ened scrutiny of workplace culture 

and of corporate procedures for dealing 

with allegations of misconduct. 

UBS told the FT in July that it has 

“strong policies and procedures in 

place to handle such complaints 

and approach them with the utmost 

care”. UBS, like other banks, has programmes 

to attract and retain women 

and is committed to stamping out 

sexual harassment. 

But in an interview with the FT, the 

woman said she has decided to take it 

to the police. She alleges that she woke 

up on the morning after a September 

work drinks event, in an unfamiliar 

house with a colleague who was her 

senior. She had no memory of how 

she got there, but believed she had 

non-consensual sex. She says she 

left as quickly as she could, without 

causing an altercation. 

A graduate trainee at UBS, she 

went back to work on Monday and 

attended a training session. She then 

broke down after a comment from a 

colleague which she would usually 

have brushed off. A senior colleague 

took her aside and she says she told 

him what had happened, without 

revealing the identity of the man. He 

told her she needed to see human 

resources. 

“I was like, ‘I don’t want to see HR’, it 

was escalating really quickly ... I didn’t 

know what I wanted to do,” she says. 

She did give HR her account that 

afternoon; the following day she was 

called back and someone “slid a rape 

victim brochure towards me”. “It took 

me a long time to put that word [rape] 

to it,” the woman says.“ I don’t like that 

word at all.” 

HR staff promised an investigation 

and offered support. They also 

encouraged her to go to the police, she 

says. The woman says that on UBS’s 

advice she went to a specialist centre 

for people who have been sexually 

assaulted or raped. She spoke to a 

police unit there. 

Afterwards, she says, “I told them 

[UBS] that ‘the advice the police 

themselves have given me is to let 

you [UBS] deal with it because if 

the police deal with it, it will be an 

18-month long investigation’. It’s my 

word against his word essentially. 

“The police asked me what I 

wanted to come from this ...[I said] ‘I 

need him gone, I don’t want to work 

with him, I want some form of justice 

in that he wronged me and that’s not 

OK.’” 

She soon became concerned about 

the bank’s approach. UBS interviewed 

her friends, she says, saying that they 

wanted to make sure that the alleged 

assailant could not poke holes in her 

story. “They were asking [my friends] 

for messages and screenshots and asking 

whether I’m the type of girl who’d 

have a one-night stand,” she says. 

“UBS wouldn’t have asked all his 

friends, ‘is [name removed] a rapist’? 

But they were asking mine ‘does [the 

woman’s name] sleep around?’ It was 

an investigation into me even though 

I’m the complainant.” 

UBS declined to comment on the 

investigation — or give details of company 

policies on sexual harassment 

and assault. “We will not go into details 

due to employee confidentiality,” the 

bank said in a two-line response to 

the FT’s questions. “We remain confident 

in our policies and processes, 

but following significant cases we 

conduct a review and if we find any 

improvement opportunities we will 

implement them.” 

Too close for comfort: The incestuous ties 

that bind auditors and watchdogs 

Concerns that audit market is too beholden to the clients whose numbers it vets 

Madison Marriage and Jonathan Ford 

Stephen Haddrill has the look 

of a man with the weight of 

the world on his shoulders. 

At his most recent public appearances, 

the 62-year-old boss 

of Britain’s accounting watchdog 

appeared tired and grey. 

It is no surprise, given that the 

Financial Reporting Council has 

recently faced the most intense 

criticism of its 28-year history. 

There are questions over how long 

Mr Haddrill, who has run the 

regulator for the past decade, will 

remain in his job. 

Pressure has mounted following 

the collapse in January of one 

of Britain’s largest construction 

companies, Carillion. 

This triggered heavy criticism of 

Carillion’s auditor, KPMG, which 

gave the group’s accounts a clean 

bill of health just nine months before 

it unravelled. 

It also fuelled calls from academics, 

politicians and investors 

for a break-up of the audit market 

over concerns that the industry is 

too beholden to the clients whose 

numbers it vets. 

In the eyes of its critics, the FRC is 

part of the wider problem. Observers 

highlight the regulator’s close 

ties to the firms it supervises, its 

plodding approach to investigations 

and its record of levying what are 

seen as Mickey Mouse fines. 

The watchdog is now facing the 

possibility of its own demise after 

the UK government commissioned 

an independent review of its competence 

led by former civil servant 

Sir John Kingman. Mr Haddrill, who 

earned nearly £500,000 last year, 

making him one of Britain’s bestpaid 

public officials, is clinging on. 

The FRC is hardly the first accounting 

body to face a crisis of 

public confidence. Since the second 

world war, the US has had no fewer 

than three standard setting bodies: 

the Committee on Accounting 

Procedure (1939-59); the Accounting 

Principles Board (1959-73) and 

the present Financial Accounting 

Standards Board (FASB). 

Each of FASB’s predecessors met 

their demise in part over concerns 

about their lack of independence 

from private interests. 

Karthik Ramanna, professor of 

business and public policy at Oxford 

university’s Blavatnik School of Government, 

thinks accounting bodies 

face a special set of challenges. 

“These are highly technical areas 

that concern issues with low political 

salience,” he said. “They depend 

on deep experiential knowledge 

from practitioners and are prone 

to powerful and concentrated 

commercial interests. It is a model 

that is almost perfectly designed 

for regulatory capture.” 

This charge certainly tops the 

sheet for those challenging Britain’s 

FRC. Long criticised for its 

“light touch” when monitoring 

the Big Four audit firms, which 

include EY, PwC and Deloitte, 

the watchdog has come under 

fire over its investigation into the 

failure of HBOS, one of Britain’s 

largest banks. 

KPMG gave the institution’s 

accounts a clean bill of health in 

February 2008, eight months before 

HBOS collapsed and had to 

be rescued with a £20bn taxpayerfunded 

bailout. Yet the FRC then 

took eight years, and a great deal 

of political prodding, before it even 

launched an investigation. 

Its verdict last September cleared 

KPMG of misconduct after deciding 

that the HBOS audit did not fall 

“significantly short” of the standards 

to be expected. 

It later emerged that the regulator 

had raised the bar for proving 

misconduct in 2013. Instead of 

“falling short of standards”, firms 

had to fall “significantly short”. Paul 

George, a former KPMG partner, 

was executive director in charge of 

conduct at the regulator when the 

wording was changed. 

The verdict troubled observers, 

who fear that vested interests played 

a role in the outcome. 

These conflicts are not unique to 

Britain. Financial Times analysis of 

seven authorities involved in the audit 

market underlines their reliance 

on current and former Big Four staff. 

Take the European Financial 

Reporting Advisory Group, which 

advises the European Commission 

on accountancy rules. Nearly half 

of its 17 board members are current 

or former Big Four, as are nine of 

the 16 individuals on its technical 

working group. 

At the PCAOB, the US accounting 

regulator, two of its five board 

members are ex-Big Four. Four of 

the seven advisers to those board 

members are also alumni. South Africa’s 

accounting watchdog, which 

has similarly come under heavy 

scrutiny this year following high 

profile accounting scandals, has 

four former or current Big Four staffers 

on its board of seven. 

Few question that the world’s 

top accountants should have some 

input into the rules they apply; 

the question is where the balance 

should be struck. 

Erik Gordon, professor at the 

university of Michigan, describes 

the dilemma: “The overlap creates 

regulatory capture danger but excluding 

people from the Big Four 

would deprive regulatory bodies of 

many of the most expert and experienced 

people in the field,” he said. 

“There is no easy way out.” 

So how captured are the regulators? 

One perceived index of undue 

influence is the relatively low fines 

they levy on their industry. (These 

are important because investors 

have historically been loath to 

punish auditors for sloppy or inadequate 

work by removing their 

contract). 

The PCAOB is one of the toughest 

accounting watchdogs globally, 

having secured an $8m settlement 

from Deloitte Brazil in 2016. The 

FRC issued its own record penalty 

of £6.5m in June against PwC. The 

largest fines ever handed out by the 

Dutch, German and South African 

accounting watchdogs total €2.2m, 

€50,000 and R200,000 respectively. 

These pale in comparison to 

the penalties issued to banks and 

other financial services companies. 

In 2010, the US Securities and Exchange 

Commission issued a record 

$550m fine against Goldman Sachs, 

while the UK’s Financial Conduct 

Authority meted out a record £284m 

penalty in 2015. 

Some doubt whether such penalties 

really drive behaviour. As one 

investor points out, these are largely 

paid by insurers anyway, and even 

a tripled or quadrupled fine would 

be little more than a flea bite to any 

of the Big Four. 

As with banking, the suspicion 

is that individual sanctions may be 

more important. The FRC’s recent 

decision to effectively ban Steve 

Denison, the PwC auditor who 

signed off the accounts of BHS 

shortly before the retailer went into 

insolvency, for 15 years is regarded 

as much more of a nuclear sanction. 

“If a partner faces a lengthy or 

lifetime ban from the industry, that 

cuts into their lifetime earnings,” 

says Tim Bush, head of governance 

at the shareholder advisory group, 

Pirc. “It’s a much more serious 

sanction.” 

Eurozone hails Greece’s exit 

from bailout as end of crisis 

Country received €289bn of loans over eight 

years as economy collapsed 

Jim Brunsden and Mehreen Khan 

European leaders have heralded 

Greece’s exit from eight 

years of international bailouts 

as the end of the eurozone’s 

long financial crisis — while warning 

that Athens must stick to policy 

commitments it made in exchange 

for €289bn of loans. 

Monday was the final day of 

Greece’s third successive bailout 

programme, a period of financial 

aid stretching back to 2010. EU 

officials said the end of the bailout 

showed Greece’s turnround after it 

teetered on the brink of exiting the 

currency bloc in 2015. 

Pierre Moscovici, the EU’s commissioner 

for economic affairs, said 

it was a return to normality for the 

Greek people. “From today Greece 

will be treated like any other euro 

area country”, he said in Brussels. 

Mário Centeno, the president 

of the eurogroup of eurozone finance 

ministers, said Greece had 

“regained the control it fought for” 

during years of tough negotiations 

with its eurozone creditors. 

Greece is the final eurozone 

country to conclude a programme 

of emergency assistance. Similar 

help was given to Portugal, Ireland 

and Cyprus — but Greece’s crisis 

was of a different magnitude, with 

the size of the economy shrinking 

by a quarter. Youth unemployment 

rose to nearly 50 per cent and 40 per 

cent of the working age population 

was left at risk of poverty, according 

to the IMF. 

In Germany — which for many 

Greeks came to epitomise an obsession 

with austerity as a solution 

to the country’s woes — the end of 

the programme was welcomed by 

the government as proof that the 

years of financial aid had worked. 

“Greece’s salvation is also a 

sign of European solidarity,” Olaf 

Scholz, Germany’s centre-left finance 

minister, told Handelsblatt 

newspaper. “The conclusion of the 

Greece programme is a success. 

The bleak predictions of the prophets 

of doom have not come true.” 

Greece’s plans to celebrate the 

end of the bailout programmes 

were dropped as criticism mounted 

of the state emergency services’ 

bungled handling last month of a 

devastating forest fire near Athens, 

which left 96 people dead. 

But a government official said 

Alexis Tsipras, the prime minister, 

planned a live television address 

on Tuesday from Ithaca, which 

the official said was chosen “for 

symbolic reasons”. 

In mythology Ithaca was the 

home of Odysseus, the hero who 

made a safe return after a tempestuous 

10-year journey according to 

Homer’s epic poem. 

Brussels underlined on Monday 

that Greece needed to persevere 

with reforms initiated during the 

crisis, such as a streamlining of 

civil court procedures and a new 

business licensing regime. 

The European Commission will 

lead a system of post-programme 

surveillance that will signal whether 

Greece is maintaining agreed 

deficit targets. Athens could potentially 

lose some of the debt relief 

it secured from other eurozone 

governments in a deal in June if the 

conditions are not met.


@ FINANCIAL TIMES LIMITED 

Stocks rally ahead of US-China 

trade talks and Fed minutes 

Wall Street joins global advance but its pace cools, dollar holds firm 

Michael Hunter and 

Alice Woodhouse 

There is an optimistic feel 

to trade ahead of trade 

talks this week between 

the US and China, with 

the dollar remaining in 

demand and stock markets holding 

their nerve. 

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 

is inching ever closer towards 

January’s record high. European 

markets are outperforming while 

China’s stocks bounced up off their 

lowest point in almost two years. 

The dollar index is up 0.1 per 

cent at 96.15, while oil prices have 

found support even as the currency 

in which they are denominated 

rises. Brent crude is up 0.7 per cent 

at $72.35. 

A delegation led by Wang Shouwen, 

China’s vice-commerce 

minister, will conduct two days 

of talks in Washington starting on 

Wednesday, the first formal negotiations 

since the US imposed tariffs 

on $50bn of Chinese imports. 

“Investors will be hoping that 

negotiations between China and 

the US can start to break the trade 

tariff deadlock or at the very least 

open the door to a summit between 

President [Donald] Trump 

and President Xi [Jinping], which 

might begin to ease the pressure.” 

Rebecca O’Keeffe, Head of 

Investment at interactive investor 

Attention is also starting to turn 

to the minutes of the US Federal 

Reserve’s August monetary policy 

meeting, set to be released on 

Wednesday, and the meeting of 

global central bankers in Jackson 

Hole, Wyoming, from Thursday to 

Tianqi Lithium, China’s biggest 

producer of the battery raw 

material, has chosen Morgan 

Stanley and CLSA for a listing 

in Hong Kong to fund its $4.07bn 

purchase of a stake in Chile’s SQM, 

according to a prospectus. 

The Chengdu-based company 

said 90 per cent of the listing proceeds 

will be used to “partially repay 

debt” for the deal, which was announced 

in May. The rest will be for 

general corporate purposes, it said. 

Tianqi still needs regulatory approval 

for its purchase of Nutrien’s 

24 per cent stake in SQM, which will 

make it the second-largest shareholder 

in the company after Julio 

Ponce Lerou, a billionaire Chilean 

businessman. Tianqi said it has 

borrowed a total of $3.5bn to fund 

the deal. 

The transaction has raised concerns 

in Chile about Tianqi’s dominance 

in the lithium market. In June 

Chile’s national competition authority, 

the FNE, opened an investigation 

into the deal. 

“As a result, the SQM transaction 

might be delayed, modified or 

entirely blocked if the FNE determines 

that it entails antitrust risks 

and refers the SQM Transaction to 

the Chilean Antitrust Court,” Tianqi 

FINANCIAL TIMES 

C002D5556 

COMPANIES & MARKETS 

Saturday. 

Investors will be looking for 

more information on the Fed’s 

assessment of the economy, inflation 

and its take on trade. 

Equities 

Wall Street’s S&P 500 is up 0.1 

per cent in at 2,854, leaving it less 

than 0.7 per cent shy of the record 

high set in January at 2,872.87. 

The Europe-wide Stoxx 600 is 

up 0.8 per cent, with gains for industrial 

metals and mining stocks 

setting the pace. 

Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax 30 is up 

1.3 per cent and the FTSE 100 is 

0.6 per cent stronger. 

Mainland China’s indices 

bounced up off two-year lows 

after calls over the weekend from 

regulators urging banks to support 

infrastructure projects and 

exporters to bolster economic 

confidence. 

The CSI 300 index of Shanghai- 

and Shenzhen-listed stocks 

rose 1.2 per cent, its first rise in six 

sessions. The index has fallen by 

about 20 per cent for 2018, tracking 

concerns about a slowing Chinese 

economy and the US-China trade 

war. 

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 

1.4 per cent with technology and 

telecommunications stocks in 

demand. Japan’s Topix slipped 

0.3 per cent. 

Forex 

The Turkish lira is weaker by 

2.6 per cent at TL6.1694 per dollar 

following a tumultuous week and 

a sharp fall on Friday after rating 

agencies Moody’s and Standard & 

Poor’s downgraded Turkey’s debt 

deeper into non-investment grade 

territory. 

China’s largest lithium producer set 

for HK IPO to fund SQM purchase 

Henry Sanderson 

said in its listing prospectus filed in 

Hong Kong. 

Chengdu-based Tianqi mines 

lithium in China and also at the 

Greenbushes hard rock mine in 

Australia, the largest lithium mine 

in the world. 

The company has become “a 

critical supplier in the supply chain 

system of many key battery and EV 

OEMs around the world,” according 

to its prospectus. 

Tianqi said it aims to expand its 

business into Northeast Asia and 

Europe, “to strengthen our ties with 

top-tier end customers in lithiumbased 

new energy sectors such as EV 

and energy storage systems.” 

“We plan to enter into mediumto 

long-term supply contracts with 

industry leading international customers 

which have stringent requirements 

on product quality and 

consistency with strict accreditation 

processes,” it said. 

Demand for lithium is set to grow 

by 19.8 per cent a year up to 2027 due 

to growing sales of electric cars and 

greater of use of batteries for storage 

of renewable energy, Tianqi said, 

citing data from consultancy Roskill. 

But shares in lithium producers 

have declined this year, on concerns 

about an oversupply of the battery 

raw material. Shares in SQM have 

fallen 24 per cent year-to-date in 

New York. 

BUSINESS DAY 

Staff at UK’s second busiest airport write up flight departure details for several hours 

Josh Spero 

A5 

Wang Shouwen, China’s vice-commerce minister, is leading a delegation to Washington this week to discuss US-China trade relations © 

Reuters 

Damaged cable forces Gatwick airport to switch to whiteboards 

Two days after a consumer 

survey showed UK aviation 

passenger satisfaction 

had fallen, a damaged 

cable at Gatwick, the country’s 

second busiest airport, led to 

staff writing flight departure 

gates on whiteboards for several 

hours on Monday. 

Telecoms company Vodafone 

apologised for the 

“problems”, which occurred 

in its network. It blamed it on 

“a damaged fibre cable”. 

Gatwick, which processed 

45.6m passengers in 2017, 

said: “Contingencies are 

working — we have whiteboards 

and friendly staff on 

hand to help, and tens of 

thousands of passengers have 

departed on time.” The cable 

was fixed by mid-afternoon 

after a five-hour outage. 

While some passengers 

took to social media to castigate 

the airport for the confusion, 

Chris Han, who was 

waiting at airport for a flight to 

Los Angeles, said: “It’s slightly 

chaotic, and pretty difficult to 

see what’s at the bottom of the 

whiteboards, but I think the 

Premier Oil will press ahead 

with the development of one 

of the largest undeveloped 

gas discoveries in the southern 

North Sea after the FTSE 250 

company secured backing from 

infrastructure investors. 

The oil and gas independent 

said on Monday it had sanctioned 

the development of its Tolmount 

Main gasfield, which is expected to 

produce its first gas by the end of 

2020 before reaching peak production 

by 2021. It will produce about 

500bn cubic feet of natural gas in 

total and around 58,000 barrels of 

oil equivalent a day at its peak — 

equivalent to close to 5 per cent 

of Britain’s domestic gas supplies. 

staff are doing a pretty decent 

job, all things considered.” 

The disruption came 

against a background of falling 

passenger happiness, 

according to the UK Aviation 

Consumer Survey. Overall 

satisfaction has dropped from 

90 per cent in March 2016 

to 83 per cent in April 2018, 

and satisfaction with airport 

experience has declined from 

83 per cent to 78 per cent over 

the same period. 

The Civil Aviation Authority, 

which is now carrying 

out its next survey, said that 

it was too early to tell if results 

would worsen, given a 

summer of strikes by airline 

staff and air traffic controllers 

across Europe and long 

queues at border control. 

Tim Johnson, director at 

the CAA, said: “While we note 

that some of this summer’s 

operational challenges have 

been outside of the industry’s 

control, some remain within 

industry control.” 

At Heathrow, Britain’s busiest 

airport, Border Force has 

missed its target for passport 

holders from outside the Eu- 

The field could produce gas for 

between 10 to 15 years. 

The approval of Tolmount is 

the latest in a series of new investments 

announced by oil and 

gas companies in the North Sea 

as the region, traditionally one 

of the most expensive given its 

maturity, recovers from the crash 

in oil prices. 

Tolmount’s go-ahead marked 

“a major milestone” for Premier, 

said chief executive Tony Durrant. 

The company, he added, had also 

secured “an innovative financing 

structure” for the project that 

would minimise Premier’s capital 

expenditure. 

Under the terms of the deal 

Premier, which owns a 50 per cent 

stake in the field, will spend about 

ropean Economic Area for 

three years running. In June 

2013, 99.7 per cent of non-EEA 

passengers passed through 

Heathrow’s flagship Terminal 

5 in less than 45 minutes. In 

June of this year, just 76 per 

cent cleared passport control 

in the allotted time. 

At Gatwick, which has fewer 

non-EEA passengers than 

Heathrow, Border Force met 

its targets between November 

2017 and April of this year for 

both EEA and non-EEA passport 

holders. 

Earlier this year, the Financial 

Times reported that the 

owners of Gatwick airport had 

paid themselves dividends of 

£643m in the past year as they 

issued £650m of debt. The 

dividends were an increase 

of more than half a billion 

pounds on the previous year’s 

£125m total. 

Gatwick is owned by a consortium 

comprising private 

equity firm Global Infrastructure 

Partners, with 42 per cent; 

the Abu Dhabi Investment 

Authority, with 16 per cent, and 

pension funds from California, 

South Korea and Australia. 

Premier Oil gives green light to Tolmount field 

Development to begin at one of the North Sea’s largest undeveloped gas discoveries 

Sylvia Pfeifer 

$120m on developing the site, 

comprising of project management 

and development drilling costs. 

However, a joint venture between 

its partner Dana Petroleum, which 

owns the other 50 per cent, and 

CATS Management Limited, a UK 

gas infrastructure company owned 

by Antin Infrastructure Partners, 

will pay for the construction of 

a new platform and pipeline to 

export the gas to shore. In return 

Premier will pay a tariff for the 

transportation and processing of 

Tolmount gas through the infrastructure. 

The gas will be piped to the 

Easington terminal on the Yorkshire 

coast owned by Centrica, 

the energy company, which will 

process the gas.

Politics & Policy 

A6 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556 Tuesday 21 August 2018 

INEC condemns alleged extortion 

at voter registration centres 

… Vows to prosecute erring officials 

The Independent National 

Electoral Commission 

(INEC) has condemned 

any form of extortion of 

Nigerians in the on-going Continuous 

Voter Registration (CVR), vowing 

to prosecute any of its officials 

found to be involved in the act. 

In a release to the media by the 

commission’s Lagos office yesterday, 

signed by its Public Relations 

Officer (PRO), Femi Akinbiyi, reacting 

to an online media report, 

which stated that an official of the 

commission in a registration centre 

in Ikorodu Local Government Area 

INEC office, was colluding with 

touts demanding an amount of 

money from unsuspecting members 

of the public before facilitating 

their registration. 

The commission said it had 

set up a panel to investigate the 

claim, while the official had been 

withdrawn from the centre, stressing 

that it does not tolerate extortion 

and had on several occasions 

warned its officials against the act. 

Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State and Senate President Bukola 

Saraki during a visit to the government house in Uyo 

The commissions said it recently 

arrested some touts engaging in illegal 

registration in certain parts of 

Lagos State following a tip-off, with 

the assistance of the officers from 

Department of Security Services 

(DSS), while apologising for any 

stress Nigerians may be encountering 

in the course of carrying out 

their registration. 

“Attention of the Independent 

National Electoral Commission 

(INEC) has been drawn to an online 

publication. In the said publication 

it was alleged that ‘some of 

the INEC officials in cohorts with 

touts illegally sneaked in people 

who had paid them N1,500.00 to 

fast-track their registration’ and 

one Prince Chucks was described 

as the link man.” 

According to the statement, “It 

is a fact that touts are around some 

of our CVR Centres going about 

with their nefarious activities, yet 

we have been doing everything 

possible to apprehend them and 

hand them over to law enforcement 

agencies for prosecution. 

The Commission few weeks ago 

with the assistance of the officers 

from DSS arrested some touts engaging 

in illegal registration in certain 

parts of Lagos State after tips off. 

“They will be prosecuted after 

the Police investigation. The Commission 

has zero tolerance for any 

form of extortion. Although, the 

Ikorodu matter is going through 

investigation.” 

Kwara targets 1.2m 

voters - INEC boss 

SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin 

Garba Madami, the Kwara 

State Resident Commissioner 

of the Independent 

National Electoral 

Commission (INEC), has said that 

1.2 million eligible voters are expected 

from the state for the 2019 

general election but that so far, 

900,000 (nine hundred thousand) 

have done their registration. 

Madami also disclosed that 

only 160,000 residents have so far 

taken part in the ongoing Continuous 

Voter Registration (CVR) 

exercise across the state. 

The REC, who spoke during a 

courtesy visit to the Correspondents’ 

Chapel of the state council 

of the Nigeria Union of Journalists 

(NUJ), said that about 315,000 

permanent voters’ cards (PVCs) 

are yet to be claimed by registered 

voters since 2015 in the state. 

He said that some strategies 

had been mapped out to address 

poor registration of voters. 

According to him, part of the 

strategies was to deploy officers 

to villages and rural areas of 

the state to register eligible voters 

as against local government 

headquarters where registration 

points were. 

Military commends Ortom over 

support to security operatives 

BENJAMIN AGESAN, Makurdi 

The Nigerian Military has 

commended Governor 

Samuel Ortom for timely 

and consistent support 

to enhance activities of Operation 

Whirl Stroke in Benue State. 

Force Commander of the operation, 

Major General Mutiu Yekini gave 

the commendation yesterday when 

he received Governor Ortom who visited 

the Air Force Hospital, Makurdi 

to see soldiers recently attacked by 

armed herdsmen while on operation. 

He noted with satisfaction the 

concern shown by the governor over 

the welfare of their men, stating that 

such would spur them to step up their 

operations. 

Major General Yekini assured 

the governor and the entire people 

of the state of the readiness of their 

operation to comb areas known to be 

hideouts for criminal herdsmen in the 

state and beyond. 

Also speaking, Governor Ortom 

applauded the Nigerian Army for the 

good work it had been doing since the 

operation was deployed to the state 

and urged it to maintain the tempo. 

He also acknowledged the Federal 

Government for deploying operation 

Whirl Stroke, pointing out that the 

performance by men of the operation 

had largely brought the attacks on 

Benue communities under control. 

He, on behalf of the government 

and people of the state, expressed 

sympathy over a member of the 

operation that had lost his life and 

others wounded during the attack 

and were receiving treatment in 

the hospital. 

INIOBONG IWOK 

…PDP, APC trade accusation as INEC suspends collation 

IGNATIUS CHUKWU AND INNOCENT 

ETENG, Port Harcourt 

Stop promoting violence - U.S Ambassador warns Nigerian leaders 

The United State Ambassador-at-Large 

for 

International Religious 

Freedom, Samuel 

Brownback, has warned Nigerian 

political office holders, civil 

society and religious leaders to 

avoid amplifying ethno-religious 

tension in the country but focus 

on peace building. 

Brownback stated this at a oneday 

national youths dialogue on 

ethno-religious tolerance organised 

by the U.S Consulate General 

in Lagos, which was in partnership 

with the African Youths 

Initiative for Crime Prevention 

(AYICRIP). 

Brownback, who had met with 

a group of religious leaders during 

a recent visit to Nigeria in June, 

Violence in local by-election raises anxiety in Rivers ahead 2019 

Violence took a centre 

stage at a by-election in 

Rivers State to replace 

a local parliamentarian 

but it provided a test of muscles 

for the two bitterest rival political 

parties in the fight to control the 

oil-rich state. 

The Independent National Electoral 

Commission (INEC) in the 

state suspended the election citing 

massive violence and disruption 

by rampaging groups, but this was 

at collation stage when one of the 

parties was already backslapping 

in advance. 

Both the ruling People’s Democratic 

Party (PDP) and the opposition 

All Progressives Congress 

(APC) have each accused the other 

of perpetrating violence and using 

different factions of the police to 

do its bidding. 

Observers said the preparedness 

by both parties to march for 

with force either with ‘youths’ 

or police backers points to what 

may happen in few months time 

as 2019 general elections fast approach. 

Guns began early to boom 

on Election Day around Diobu as 

youths freely moved about chanting 

slogans and carrying out 

violent actions despite ban on 

movement. 

Later in the day, more shooting 

continued and teargas was heavy 

in Emenike Junction area. The police 

battled with hoodlums. Youths 

snatched bags and phones. 

INEC Obo Effanga announced 

suspension at collation stage and 

said miscreants and hoodlums 

backed by ‘heavily armed security 

operatives’ stormed the voting 

centres and destroyed, snatched 

and ruined voting materials and 

commended increased inter-faith 

engagement and dialogue in Nigeria, 

but noted that the country can 

do more to protect citizens’ rights 

to religious freedom. 

“When I visited Nigeria in June, 

I met with communities from all 

different faiths located all over 

the country and heard about how 

interfaith groups and people from 

every religion have come together 

to begin stopping the violence at 

the community level, which is a 

great starting point,” Brownback 

said. 

“However, we need to do better 

than just achieving tolerance; we 

need to truly care for each other. 

The people who stand for peace do 

not do this because they are from 

the same ethnic group, or because 

they share a common religion. 

They believe the lives of everyone 

card readers. 

In a state broadcast Sunday 

afternoon, the governor, Nyesom 

Wike, said the police failed 

completely. “Instead of providing 

security for voters and INEC officials 

the police brazenly colluded 

with political thugs of the APC to 

subvert the democratic process 

and denied the people of Port Harcourt 

Constituency III their rights 

to free, fair and credible elections.” 

He said while voting was underway, 

armed thugs from the APC 

moved freely from one polling unit 

to the other, violently assaulted 

voters and INEC officials and 

are sacred,” he said. 

Speaking earlier, the U.S. Consul-General, 

John Bray, reaffirmed 

the United States’ commitment 

to supporting initiatives that promote 

peace, while admonishing 

Nigerians to ensure that cyclical 

communal violence does not 

threaten national unity. 

“Each of us has a role to play in 

tramping down tensions between 

communities of all kinds,” Bray 

said. 

“It is in your hands to ensure 

that this tragic violence does not 

descend into broader ethnic and 

religious fighting, and a cycle of 

reprisals. We must all make sure 

that the fighting does not eat away 

at the fabric of Nigeria, the multireligious 

and multi-ethnic tolerance 

that makes this a great and 

unified nation,” Bray said. 

carted away election materials, 

including smart card readers and 

ballot boxes.” 

He squarely accused the state 

chairman of the APC of leading 

thugs to destroy materials. 

“Consequently, the thugs and 

their police accomplices successfully 

disrupted the bye-election in 

virtually all the 142 polling units 

across the 8 wards of the Constituency 

and caused bodily injuries to 

several innocent voters and INEC 

officials.” 

On the other hand, the APC said 

the governor’s chief of staff led 

PDP thugs to disrupt the election.


C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

A7 

AVIATION 

GUIDE 

in association with 

The untold story of Dana air 

Ifeoma Okeke 

The air transport narrative 

in Nigeria over the years 

has assumed different dimensions. 

Resultantly, it is becoming 

difficult to pass a verdict without 

looking at the twists and turns operators 

continue to navigate around in the 

last few decades. 

But, Nigeria’s aviation industry 

trajectory has been replete with challenges; 

albeit culminating in the bust 

and boom circles of many domestic 

carriers. 

However, a litany of operational 

and safety challenges continue to alter 

the stakes, with Nigeria contributing 

significantly to Africa’ s poor safety 

record. 

Verdict: Many aircraft fell off the 

skies between 2005, 2006 , including 

DANA Air’s 2012 air crash in Iju Ishaga 

area of Lagos. 

But, global coalition in stepping 

up regulation; enhanced safety management 

system and other measures 

being put in place has change the 

narrative. 

Apparently trying to get its act right 

following the loss of its aircraft in the 

crash the airline has since deployed 

appropriate strategies to get on the 

turf again. 

The airline like the seam proverbial 

Phoenix has not only risen from the 

dead but is recognised as one of the 

four top competitive domestic airlines 

in Nigeria. It still thrives to fulfil its mission 

to consolidate its operations, despite 

the backlash of the 2012 air crash. 

Airlines such as Nigeria Airways, 

ADC airline, Bellview Airline, Sossoliso 

Airlines and EAS which had also fallen 

from the skies claiming the lives of 

hundreds of people, never lived to tell 

the story. 

The question resonate is: What is 

Dana Air’s winning streak? 

To players both at home and 

abroad the lingering question lingers: 

What exactly did Dana Air do differently 

to get back its market share? 

It’s only apt to situate the Dana 

Air’s narrative as: ‘Experience is the 

best teacher.’ 

Having flown over 2.7 million 

passengers in the last nine years of its 

operation in addition to receiving multiple 

awards for aviation excellence 

and corporate social responsibility, 

ducted by the Nigerian Civil Aviation 

Authority and its foreign partners – The 

Flight Safety Group, and is determined 

to reinforce our strategic route network 

within and beyond Nigeria. 

Special Services Unit/Pilot training 

Dana Air in furtherance of its 

much-vaunted customer- centric 

products, recently launched a Special 

Services Unit attend to passengers 

with special needs, urgent complaints, 

update passengers on current promos 

and benefits of Dana Miles at the airports 

in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, 

Uyo and Owerri. 

On the newly – introduced Special 

Services Unit, Obi said the airline introduced 

the Special Services Unit to 

further deepen customer service, offer 

multiple issue-solving options and 

provide seamless travel experience for 

our teeming guests.’’ 

Following industry counsel by 

AIB on the need to train its pilots and 

crew regularly, Dana Air has swung 

into action in recruiting and training 

more Nigerian Pilots in Johannesburg, 

South Africa and Madrid –Spain, as 

part efforts towards contributing to 

the growth and development of the 

Nigerian aviation industry. 

According to Mbanuzuo, “Dana 

Air is committed to the growth and 

development of the Nigerian aviation 

industry. As at 2015, more than 500 

Nigerian pilots were unemployed but 

with our recruitment and frequent 

training both locally and abroad since 

2015, we have been able to reduce the 

number, by engaging these pilots and 

paying for their training in South Africa 

and Spain. 

“We will continue to encourage 

Dana Air was also unveiled as one of 

Nigeria’s 100 Most Respected Companies 

by Business Day Newspaper’s 

Research Unit. The airline is reputed 

for its innovative online products, 

world-class in-flight service and unrivalled 

on time performance. 

Over the years, the airline has 

gained the confidence of passengers 

in its unrivaled and unmatched on 

time departure in addition to payment 

of insurance claims to relatives of 

members that lost beloved members 

in the crash in Lagos. 

IOSA Certification 

The airline is definitely not taking 

safety for granted as it passed its 

International Operations Safety Audit 

(IOSA) and was admitted into the association’s 

global safety registry. 

This is as the airline is currently the 

newest member of the International 

Air Transport Association (IATA). 

Obi Mbanuzuo, the Accountable 

Manager of Dana Air, while responding 

to the airline’s recent achievement 

said,’’ becoming a member of IATA is 

a significant milestone for us at Dana 

Air and this only demonstrates our 

level of professionalism and commitment 

to operational efficiency in 

terms of providing our guests with 

safe, seamless and world-class air 

transport service in Nigeria. 

“Apart from the fact that this membership 

will further strengthen our 

relationship with other international 

airlines, we see it as an opportunity 

to take our amazing products to the 

global stage through interline and 

code-share agreements.’’ 

NCAA audit 

Dana Air was the first airline to 

undergo an operational audit conprofessionalism 

in the industry and 

support our Nigerian Pilots to ensure 

constant growth and development in 

the industry.’’ 

Top 50 brands in 2017 

In furtherance of its innovation, 

CSR, popularity, National spread and 

online engagement, Dana Air made 

the list of top 50 brands 2017 for the 

third time consecutively, at the Brands 

Nigeria Leadership Forum held recently 

at Oriental Hotels, Lagos. 

According to Taiwo Oluboyede, the 

CEO of Top 50 Brands Nigeria, Nigeria 

is becoming more attractive to investors 

across the world in spite of our 

many challenges. 

He said :” More people are coming 

to invest and there is need to provide 

information about corporate Nigeria. 

The Brands that have made it today are 

home-grown brands that have shown 

resilience, contributed to the economy 

of Nigeria, have good national spread, 

innovative and have good online engagement 

and popularity.’’ 

Kingsley Ezenwa, the Communications 

Manager of Dana Air, while 

responding to the unveiling of Dana 

Air and Dana Group as one of Nigeria’s 

Top 50 brands for the 3rd time consecutively 

said, “we are highly honored 

to have been listed among the top 50 

brands in Nigeria. We are a responsible 

corporate citizen and giving back to the 

society, contributing positively to the 

economy of the country, and churning 

quality products are the ways we have 

shown commitment to the Nigerian 

dream. Our investment across Nigeria 

and in various sectors of the economy, 

speaks volume of our commitment to 

continue to provide jobs for our people 

and assist the government to achieve 

a positive growth trajectory in the 

economy.’ 

“We are nine years plus in the 

aviation industry and we have shown 

massive resilience in spite of the 

multiple challenges, providing value 

added services at all times and our 

guests should expect an all-round 

improvement in 2018.’’ 

On the sampling of drinks on its 

flights, Ezenwa said, Dana Air is always 

open to giving more to its guests 

and partnering Ideas House to sample 

a new brand of soft drink on our flights 

is just another way of achieving this.’’ 

Official airline of Akwa Ibom 

christmas carols festival 

The airline was also announced as 

the Official Airline of one of the biggest 

festivals in the world- The Akwa Ibom 

Christmas Carols Festival, which held 

on 22nd of December, 2017 at the Uyo 

Township Stadium, Akwa Ibom state. 

Aniekpeno Mkpanang, the Permanent 

Secretary, Akwa Ibom State 

Ministry of Culture and Tourism and 

Coordinator of the Festival, said: ‘The 

Akwa Ibom Christmas Carols Festival 

is one of the biggest and well-attended 

Festivals in the world and we are 

expecting over 20,000 artistes and 

visitors to fly in from other parts of the 

country, Africa and the world, hence 

the need to join ranks and partner 

with one of the most consistent Airlines 

in Nigeria right now to ensure a 

hitch-free, hassle free, seamless, and 

on-time travel for all our guests and 

visitors.’’ 

Other CSR activities 

Dana Air has been supporting 

worthy causes since inception in 2018. 

The airline has consistently carried 

out charity collection on board 

to support sickle cell patients, and 

has entered partnership relevant to 

carry out voluntary blood donation 

to those in need, and carrying out 

community development initiatives 

across the country. 

Dana Air has also supported the 

ravaged cities and displaced person 

in the north with household materials 

and food stuffs. 

The airline has been supporting 

various non-governmental Organisations 

(NGOs), particularly the Children 

Living with cancer foundation, 

EMAC cancer walk, Project pink Blue 

and many more for over 6 years now. 

Dana Air has been supporting their 

awareness initiatives, victims and free 

screening initiatives to date.



C002D5556 

Live @ The Exchanges 

Top Gainers/Losers as at Monday 20 August 2018 Market Statistics as at Monday 20 August 2018 

GAINERS 

Company Opening Closing Change 

DANGCEM N220 N229.5 9.5 

AIRSERVICE N4.45 N4.85 0.4 

STANBIC N50.05 N50.3 0.25 

CADBURY N10 N10.1 0.1 

FCMB N1.7 N1.8 0.1 

LOSERS 

Company Opening Closing Change 

NB N103 N100 -3 

UNILEVER N55 N52.5 -2.5 

GUARANTY N38 N36.95 -1.05 

PZ N14.05 N13.05 -1 

ZENITHBANK N22.55 N21.85 -0.7 

ASI (Points) 35,341.90 

DEALS (Numbers) 3,054.00 

VOLUME (Numbers) 220,495,783.00 

VALUE (N billion) 3.187 

MARKET CAP (N Trn 12.902 

Customs Street edges lower by 1.71% 

...investors lose N221bn in one day 

Stories by 

Iheanyi Nwachukwu 

Ni g e r i a 

stock index 

opened 

this week 

negative 

despite that some investors 

still raised wagers on 

stocks like Dangote Cement 

Plc, Airline Services 

& Logistics Plc, Stanbic 

IBTC Holdings Plc, FCMB 

Group Plc, and Cadbury 

Nigeria Plc. The Lagos 

Bourse was down by 1.71 

percent at the close of 

trading session on Monday 

August 20, 2018 as 

declining stocks outnumbered 

advancers. 

The Exchange’s trading 

statistics showed eleven 

stocks edged higher 

against 22 laggards, thus 

pushing Year-to-Date 

(YtD) negative returns 

higher to minus -9.36percent. 

“Given that the second-quarter 

(Q2) 2018 

earnings season is closing 

out, we expect geopolitical 

events and policy 

changes to impact more 

on global equity Indexes. 

However, in the near term, 

we expect the stronger 

economic outlook and 

double-digit earnings 

increases to provide support 

for rising stock prices 

in the U.S markets. 

“We also expect the 

market to remain largely 

downbeat in the local 

market due to a continued 

absence of bullish 

triggers. Also, we expect 

investors to take profit 

during early trades ahead 

of the holiday”, said the 

Kayode Tinuoye-led team 

of research analysts at 

United Capital Plc in their 

investment view for this 

week. 

The Nigerian stock 

market’s broad Index 

–the NSE All Share Index 

(ASI) depreciated by 

1.71percent to close at 

34,663.48points as against 

35,266.29 points at the beginning 

of trading while 

the value of listed equities 

measured as Market 

Capitalisation decreased 

from N12.875trillion to 

N12.654trillion, representing 

N221billion decline. 

Despite the Dangote 

Cement-driven recovery 

witnessed last Friday, 

research analysts at Lagos-based 

Vetiva Capital 

Management foresee a 

return to negative territory 

this week “given that 

underlying investor apathy 

remains in the market”. 

They had expected milder 

losses on Monday August 

20, 2018 . 

In 3,054 deals, stock 

traders exchanged 

220,495,783 units valued 

at N3.187billion. Trading 

in banking stocks helped 

buoy market transaction 

volume. For instance, 

UBA Plc, Zenith Bank 

Plc, Access Bank Plc, Skye 

Bank Plc, and FBN Holdings 

Plc were the actively 

traded stocks on the Nigerian 

Stock Exchange on 

Monday. 

UBA and Access Bank 

Plc are among stocks in 

most analysts watch list as 

they are of the last Tier-1 

banking institutions that 

are yet to release their 

first-half (H1) 2018 financial 

statements. 

Dangote Cement Plc 

led the league of gainers 

after its share price 

increased from N220 to 

N229.5, up by N9.5 or 

4.32percent; while Airline 

Services & Logistics Plc 

advanced from N4.45 to 

N4.85, up by 40kobo or 

8.99percent. 

Stanbic IBTC Holdings 

Plc increased from N50.05 

to N50.3, up by 25kobo or 

0.50percent; FCMB Group 

Plc advanced from N1.7 

to N1.8, up by 10kobo or 

5.88percent; while Cadbury 

Nigeria Plc increased 

from N10 to N10.1, up by 

10kobo or 1percent. 

Nigerian Breweries 

Plc recorded the highest 

loss after its share price 

declined from N103 to 

N100, down by N3 or 

2.91percent; followed 

by Unilever Nigeria Plc 

which declined from N55 

to N52.5, down by N2.5 or 

4.55percent; and GTBank 

Plc which lost N1.05, from 

N38 to N36.95, down by 

2.76percent. 

Likewise, PZ Cussons 

Nigeria Plc stock price 

dropped from N14.05 

to N13.05, representing 

N1 or 7.12percent loss, 

while Zenith Bank Plc 

declined from N22.55 to 

N21.85, down by 70kobo 

or 3.10percent. 

RAK Unity Petroleum intensifies efforts to boost sales 

RAK Unity Petroleum 

Company 

Plc is determined 

to achieve its 

strategic objectives by 

driving growth inorganically 

through a merger 

or acquisition; thereby 

enabling the company 

to respond competitively 

to the emerging changes 

and trends in the business 

operating environment. 

As part of RAK Unity 

Petroleum Company 

Plc five-year business 

plan that commenced in 

January 2016, the company 

aims to boost sales 

through the production 

of branded lubricants and 

increase profit margins by 

investment in direct importation 

of Diesel (AGO). 

“There are currently 

ongoing plans to lease 

four new retail stations 

and refurbish the old retail 

stations. These plans will 

be executed on the back 

of the merger or acquisition,” 

Edo-Abasi Bassey 

Ukpong, chairman, RAK 

Unity Petroleum Company 

Plc told sharehold- 

ers at the company’s 15th 

annual general meeting 

held in Lagos on Thursday 

August 16, 2018. 

He assured that going 

forward, with the anticipated 

improvement 

in the Nigerian economy 

facilitated by increasing 

oil production and revenue, 

growth in trade and 

investment, a stable and 

transparent FX market, 

“we will position your 

company to take advantage 

of opportunities and 

offer value to you.” 

“To continue to grow 

our business, despite 

the tough operating environment, 

RAK Unity 

Petroleum Company Plc 

board has begun a strategic 

review process of our 

business to evaluate all 

the options open to us to 

significantly improve our 

Moroti Adedoyin – Adeyinka, director, RAK Unity Petroleum Company Plc, James Ogungbemi, 

managing director, RAK Unity Petroleum Company Plc, Ukpong Edoabasi, chairman, RAK 

Unity Petroleum Company Plc, Oyindamola Ehiwere, company secretary, RAK Unity Petroleum 

company Plc at the company’s 15th annual general meeting in Lagos. 

company’s performance. 

Once the board has fully 

evaluated these options, 

we intend to return to you, 

our shareholders, to report 

on our new strategic 

direction,” Ukpong further 

told shareholders. 

At inception, the company 

had as its main object, 

the marketing of and 

distribution of petroleum 

products, purchased from 

the Nigerian National 

Petroleum Corporation 

(NNPC), within Nigeria 

and the West Africa sub 

region. The products distributed 

by the company 

include Petrol (PMS), 

AGO, Gas (LPG) and Kerosene 

(DPK). 

The company also distributes 

Engine Oil, Brake 

Fluid and Distilled Water. 

RAK Unity Petroleum 

Company Plc is listed on 

the Alternative Securities 

Market (ASeM) of the 

Nigerian Stock Exchange 

(NSE) and was the first indigenous 

petroleum company 

to be so listed. 

Toparte Nigeria Limited 

currently holds 85percent 

of the 56,624,893 issued 

share capital of RAK 

Unity Petroleum Company 

Plc and a diverse group 

of Nigerians hold the remaining 

15 percent. 

Robert Igwe, a shareholder 

said at the meeting 

that “the company 

has good board, management 

and staff. One good 

thing in any account is 

when retained earnings 

and shareholders fund are 

growing. With what I see 

in the account, I can only 

tell the company to keep 

it up. For the dividend, we 

will always ask for more.” 

Another shareholder 

Anthony Omojola said 

“The company revenue 

increase is a welcome 

development to us, the 

shareholders.” At the annual 

general meeting, the 

shareholders of RAK Unity 

Petroleum Company 

Plc received and adopted 

the audited accounts of 

the company for the year 

ended December 31, 2017 

together with the reports 

of the directors and the 

auditors thereon.

BUSINESS DAY 

INSIGHT/INNOVATION 

OGHO OKITI 

Dr. Okiti is the president, 

Time Economics Ltd 

@ Dr_Okiti 081.7153.0058 

A 

recent Brookings report found 

that Nigeria has overtaken India 

to become the country with the 

largest population of people 

living in extreme poverty. The 

report, authored by HomiKharas, Kristofer 

Hamel, and Martin Hofer, all associates of 

the World Data Lab (see Brookings.edu), 

claims that Nigeria has 87 million people in 

extreme poverty category and that this number 

is increasing by 6 people every minute. 

So, by the time you have finished reading 

this report, there will be 60 more Nigerians 

living in extreme poverty. 

The report was based on surveys conducted 

in April this year, recent economic 

growth data from the International Monetary 

Fund (IMF), and computed poverty 

trajectories for 188 countries in the world. It 

concluded that the rise in Nigeria’s poverty is 

driven by three parameters – low economic 

growth, high inequality, and population 

growth. Nigeria’s population growth rate, 

currently at 2.6 percent according to the 

World Bank, has been growing above Nigeria’s 

economic growth rate except for one 

quarter in the last three years. This report is 

thus one of many recent issues that demonstrate 

the seriousness of the implications of 

Nigeria’s population dynamics for poverty, 

growth and jobs. 

At the current growth rate, the United 

Nations Department of Economic and Social 

Affairs (UN DESA) estimates that Nigeria’s 

population will have grown to 410.6 million 

by 2050, making Nigeria the third most 

populous country in the world, after China 

and India. The median age of these 410.6 

million people is projected to be 22.5. 

In the past, many analysts and public 

officials have regarded Nigeria’s rising 

52.7% 

The percentage of 

Nigerians aged 

15-34 years who are either 

unemployed or under 

employed. 

population, especially young population, 

combined with its vast natural resources, 

as a concrete basis for the attraction of 

investments. This view was based on the 

notion that a rising population will feed, 

wear clothes and require shelter, all fundamental 

bases for investments. Also, a large 

and youthful population, it is argued, will 

provide a labour force that can turn Nigeria 

into the world’s next manufacturing centre. 

Expanding the argument, it is assumed 

that, with a large population, Nigeria can 

follow the established sustained economic 

NEWS YOU CAN TRUST I TUESDAY 21 AUGUST 2018 C002D5556 

10.5m 

The number of out school 

children in Nigeria, 

Africa’s 

largest oil exporter 

Nigeria’s population: Asset or liability 

growth pattern in developed economies of 

the movement of surplus labour from low 

productivity sections of the economy into 

high productivity ones, raising incomes, 

providing jobs, and provide a platform for 

sustained economic growth. 

However, that view is now being questioned. 

As Nigeria’s population continues 

to grow, the country is confronted with a 

combination of domestic and international 

developments that means that the growth of 

its population is now seen, more as a disaster 

waiting to happen, rather than a blessing. 

Technological changes, unpredictable and 

unsustainable economic policies, poor and 

weak education, out of school children, immigration 

dynamics and populist policies in 

the West are few of the dynamics that have 

the possibility of turning Nigeria’s population 

boom into an unmanageable doom. 

How many are there? 

According to the Nigeria Population 

Commission (NPC) and the National Bureau 

of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria’s population 

is currently approaching 200 million. The 

last census was conducted in 1991, following 

the promulgation of Decree 23 of 1989, 

which established the NPC. The results of 

the census, and that of the 2006 population 

and housing census that followed have 

never been widely accepted. Indeed, since 

the first Nigerian census in 1963, it is widely 

accepted that Nigeria has manipulated her 

population figures, and doubts have been 

cast on successive census. For instance, 

Yemi Kale, the Statistician General stated in 

a tweet that he doesn’t “think [the population 

figures] are correct” and has repeatedly 

called for a valid census to ascertain the 

correct population of the country. 

Nigeria’s census data figures is not only 

underpinned by irregularity, since it has 

not met the United Nations 10 year benchmark, 

but also lack of trust, due to political 

reasons, data fragmentation, poor data 

management, and Nigeria’s very week data 

on birth, deaths, and migration – three key 

parameters responsible for the dynamics 

of population. Therefore any extrapolations 

made on the assumption that Nigeria’s 

population is currently 190 million are suspect, 

given that it starts from a potentially 

inaccurate base. 

Notwithstanding, it is clear that Nigeria’s 

population is large, it is rising, growing rapidly, 

and that the majority of these people 

are young; driving up competition for scarce 

resources, and resulting in hunger, poor 

access to health care and education and 

high rate of unemployment and underemployment. 

This has been compounded by 

1.47m 

The number of applications 

Nigerian universities 

receive yearly out of which 

only about 400,000 are 

admitted. 

Zhexembayeva, a strategist and Founder 

of Chief Reinvention Officer, in her TEDx 

talk argued that “disruptive” inventions 

now happen every three and a half years, 

whereas it used to be over 30 years, just 20 

years ago. While these shifts are providing 

basis for increasing productivity and income 

growth, they are also driving the polarisation 

of the current and future of work, according 

to a May 2017 briefing of McKinsey Global 

Institute (MGI) – Technology, Jobs, and 

the Future of Work. We are now seeing a 

huge gulf of highly and lowly skilled work, 

inequality and unemployment. 

Indeed, in a developing and emerging 

economy like Nigeria with very low technology 

adoption, there are concrete examples 

that technology is displacing and changing 

the nature of work required. For instance, 

just in a matter of few years, the number 

This “army”, with hopelessness 

as their weapon, 

are responding with migration, 

both legally and 

illegally, robbery, advance 

fee fraud (419), and kidnapping; 

by abusing drugs 

such as codeine and Tramadol; 

or by engaging in 

militant activities in order 

to demand a larger share of 

government revenues 

of low skilled “recharge card” sellers that 

have been displaced by the emergence of 

the possibility to buy airtime on our phones 

from bank application platforms is huge. In 

Games Village, one of Nigeria’s largest enclosed 

estates, situated in Abuja, there used 

to be about 12 young men “fighting” for customers 

just two years ago. These days, you 

rarely see up to three, and they often sit idly. 

Similarly, the emergence of Uber, and 

its competitors such as Taxify, international 

ride sharing service providers, are driving 

unprecedented changes in commercial 

rides in Nigeria’s urban areas. Consequently, 

traditional taxi drivers, usually of middle age, 

are giving way to upwardly mobile youths 

taking advantage of the technology changes 

that underpin ride-sharing services. From a 

customer perspective, Uber and competitors 

alike such as Taxify are removing the challenges 

associated with traditional taxi such as 

haggling, unpredictable behaviour, anonymity 

and security problems associated with it. 

But technological changes do not happen 

in isolation. They are driving social, 

economic and cultural changes around the 

globe. As technological changes have made 

some jobs redundant while enabling outsourcing 

of others, there has been increasing 

discontent by working class people in developed 

countries, which has led to a marked 

cultural attitudinal change on immigration. 

The last decade has not only seen an increasingly 

hostile environment to immigration in 

Europe and the US, but this has coincided 

with rising unemployment and inequality 

in developing countries, which is in turn, 

driving up migration from these countries. 

For instance, according to Frontex, the 

European Border and Coast Guard Agency, 

between January 2016 and December 2017, 

56,120 Nigerians were detected attempting 

to illegally enter Europe. Many do not even 

reach Europe, and either die attempting to 

cross the Sahara, end up enslaved in Libya, or 

die crossing the Mediterranean. In addition 

to the Nigerians leaving illegally, increasing 

numbers of middle class professionals are 

migrating to Canada, the UK, and other countries 

where their skills are needed. According 

to the Canadian Government, the number 

of Nigerians admitted into Canada through 

its Express Entry program in 2016 was 1036, 

more than ten times the number in 2015. 

If technological changes and attitudinal 

changes in developed countries are imposed 

on Nigeria, soft, weak, and poor economic 

policies have certainly contributed to deliver 

disastrous job figures. According to the latest 

NBS unemployment report, 40% of all 

Nigerians, or 34 million people, were either 

unemployed or underemployed in the third 

quarter of 2017, demonstrating Nigeria’s inability 

to create jobs for its citizens. Worse, as 

bad as the figures look, our estimation is that 

the underemployment is double the current 

figures, when the number of redundant public 

sector employees is taken into consideration. 

For instance, whereas it is common to 

see 20 – 30 immigration officials at our Lagos 

and Abuja airports, all involved in checking 

passports, you typically find about 5 in bigger 

entry points in developed economies. 

Unemployment and underemployment 

is just one of the challenges that Nigerian 

youths face. Violent crimes ranging from 

kidnapping to robbery and terrorism have 

been on the rise in recent years. According 

to the NBS, the total number of reported 

crimes increased by 7% between 2016 and 

2017. Although there is no data available 

for the years before 2016, it is likely that the 

situation has worsened from earlier years 

given the economic deterioration since the 

data was published. As increasing numbers 

of young people look towards a bleak future 

with no light at the end of the tunnel many are 

choosing to escape Nigeria either physically 

or mentally. According to estimates by the 

Nigerian Senate, over three million bottles 

of cough syrup with codeine are consumed 

every day in just two states, Kano and Jigawa 

, while some ignoring the high possibility 

of kidnap, rape, slavery, and even death, to 

cross the Sahara and the Mediterranean for 

a chance at a better life in Europe. 

Demography is not destiny: Lessons 

from China 

In the future, therefore, population growth 

may not provide the platform for sustained 

economic growth as it did in the past. In theory, 

a young and large population should be an 

asset for Nigeria. Global manufacturing has 

tended to move from richer, more developed 

countries, which have high labour costs to 

poorer countries with lower labour costs and 

large labour forces. Therefore, given its low 

wages and large population, Nigeria should 

be able to attract a sizeable portion of global 

manufacturing from other more developed 

countries where wages are rising. Put another 

way, as countries develop, average wages rise, 

but capital becomes cheap. The movement 

of that capital towards cheap labour often 

leads to increases in growth, then incomes, 

then cheap capital in previously cheap labour 

countries. 

But this is not given. Policies matter. 

Demography is not destiny. Let us look at 

the Chinese example. In modern history, 

China has always had the largest population 

significant and serious economic shifts in 

the last two decades. 

Technology, jobs, and immigration 

Today, the economic shifts are strongly 

underlined by technology changes. More 

than ever before, these changes are having 

serious implications for the number, the 

nature, and the location of jobs. These technology 

shifts, underpinned by automation 

and digital platforms and similar innovations, 

are changing the face of work. They 

are peculiar because the shifts are faster, 

on a huge scale, and transnational. Nadya Continues on page 33 

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