BusinessDay 24 Aug 2018

usinessday market monitor 

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Market Spot ($/N) 3M 6M 5 Y 10 Y 20 Y 

I&E FX Window 362.60 -0.14 -0.36 -0.03 0.01 -0.07 

CBN Official Rate 306.10 11.38 12.95 14.75 14.89 14.86 

Currency Futures ($/N) 

NGUS OCT. 

31, 2018 

NGUS JAN. 

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NGUS JUL. 

24, 2019 

0.00 0.00 0.00 

362.23 362.68 363.58 

news you can trust I **FRIDAY 24 auGust 2018 I vol. 15, no 125 I N300 @ g 

Businesses puzzled by CPC’s 

move to control DStv prices 

DStv fees in Nigeria lowest in Africa 

Endurance Okafor & Harrison Edeh, Abuja 

Business owners are 

puzzled by a court 

injunction obtained 

by the Consumer 

Protection Council 

(CPC) seeking to stop a price 

increase implemented by cable 

television operator, MultiChoice 

for its DSTV service in Nigeria. 

At the request of the CPC, 

a Federal High Court sitting in 

Maitama, Abuja, on August 20 

restrained MultiChoice Nigeria 

Limited from implementing a 

recent increase in DStv subscription 

rates that took effect on August 

1. Justice Nnamdi Dimgba 

granted an injunction restraining 

the video entertainment and 

Continues on page 2 

CBN earmarks N10bn per project for agric, manufacturing under DCCR 

... sets maximum interest rates at 9% per annum 

HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE 

The Central Bank of Nigeria 

(CBN) is set to 

release N10 billion per 

project financing in 

agriculture and manufacturing 

sectors of the economy by 

deposit money banks (DMBs), 

under the corporate bond and 

Differentiated Cash Reserves 

Requirement (DCRR) Regime. 

The move underscored the 

Apex bank’s intention to increase 

the flow of credit to the 

real sector of the economy, in 

order to consolidate and sustain 

the nation’s economic recovery. 

Johnson Chukwu, managing 

directot/CEO, Cowry Asset 

Management limited, said last 

night that the N10 billion is quite 

substantial and sufficient for 

operators in the real sector of the 

economy to leverage. 

“It provides liquidity relief to 

operators in the manufacturing 

and agric sectors but does not 

completely de-risk the sectors,” 

Chukwu told BusinessDay by 


Nigerian oil exports 

to hit four-month 

high of 1.73mbpd 

in October 

…as vanished ship raises 

concern over piracy 

DIPO OLADEHINDE 

With supply of several 

larger grades coming 

back online following 

series of pipeline outages in the 

last couple of months, Nigeria’s 

oil exports are expected to rise 

to their highest in four months 

in October. Loading plans seen by 

Reuters shows that the country will 

export 1.73 million barrels per day 

(bpd), compared to 1.41 million 

bpd in September. 

According to Reuters, Africa’s 

largest oil producing country loading 

schedule for October will be the 

largest programme since June this 

year, although still smaller than last 

year’s average 1.768 million bpd 

and the 2018 budget projection of 

2.3 million bpd. 

The export plan for October 

Inside 


Nigerian firms’ capex down, 

validates slow GDP growth 

P. 2 

Dolapo Badmus 

Unswerving 

allegiance to 

selfless service

2 BUSINESS DAY 

C002D5556 

Friday 24 August 2018 

NEWS 

Earnings up in 2017 for 

Standard Alliance Insurance 

Sobechukwu Eze 

Standard Alliance Insurance 

Plc has finally released its 

2017 audited financial statement 

to the Nigerian Stock 

Exchange. From the report it was 

seen that the insurance company 

had a stellar performance as its Profit 

after tax came out of the red with an 

increase of 104 percent, making the 

company return to a profit at the end 

of the year from its loss in 2016. 

According to the 2017 financial 

statement, the company grew its 

profit after tax (PAT) to N586 million 

last year from a loss of N1.3 billion in 

the year 2016. 

This was largely supported by an 

increase in revenue of 11 percent. 

From N4.3 billion in 2016 it was able 

to grow it to N4.8 billion, which the 

company said was mainly attributable 

to its resolve for a reformed 

corporate strategy. 

The company’s financials also 

showed that although the company’s 

insurance claims went up it was not 

enough to pull down the company’s 

underwriting profit lower than the 

preceding year. The company’s underwriting 

results (which reveals the 

efficiency of an insurer underwriting 

APC holds NEC Thursday, August 30 

James Kwen, Abuja 

The ruling All Progressives 

Congress, APC is to hold its 

National Executive Committee, 

NEC meeting Thursday, 

August 30, 2018. Business Day has 

gathered. 

The NEC which is to be attended 

by President Muhammadu Buhari 

is the first since the assumption of 

office by the Adams Oshiomhole led 

leadership of APC. 

Reliable sources in the APC National 

Secretariat confided in Business 

Day that the NEC would among 

other things consider the time table 

for the conduct of the party’s primaries 

to nominate candidates for the 

2019 general elections as well as to 

determine the cost of nomination 

forms for all offices. 

Meanwhile, the National Secretariat 

of APC in Abuja remained 

shut even as the two days Eid el Kabir 

break ended Wednesday and work 

resumed yesterday. 

According to a circular signed by 

Abdullahi Gashu’a, Director of Ad- 

activities) went up by 406 percent, 

going up from N271million at the 

end of 2016 to N1.4 billion 2017 

year end. 

On the outlook for the company, 

the company stated in their financials 

that “they expect their investment 

income to grow considerably 

in the coming years as it sets to 

take advantage of the investment 

opportunities in the money market 

and capital markets still maintaining 

its focus on highly liquid financial 

instrument such as term deposit, 

equity and debt instrument.” 

“They also expect to see a number 

of significant adjustments in the year 

2018, especially to the realities of 

vastly changed government revenue 

profile and the Naira exchange rates 

against foreign currencies. The private 

sector may see intensification of 

existing and new export initiatives.” 

“Lastly the merger of the operations 

of the Company with that of its 

subsidiary, Standard Alliance Life 

Assurance Limited which has been 

concluded to leverage on the synergies 

derivable would result in the 

emerging composite company to 

take advantage of the huge potentials 

in both the General and Life segment 

of the insurance market.” 

• Shuts National Secretariat for renovation 

ministration, APC National Secretariat 

has been partially closed from Friday, 

August 17 - Monday, August 27 to enable 

staff and party members to travel 

for the Eid el Kabir celebrations. 

The circular read, “the National 

Working Committee ( NWC) has 

added additional days to allow 

members of staff to travel to their respective 

places for the celebration. To 

this end, the Secretariat will partially 

close for businesses as follows 

“ The National Chairman, H. 

E Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole and 

members of the NWC wishes all 

staff a hitch free Sallah celebration 

and safe trip while urging members 

to pray for the nation and our great 

party during the occasion”. 

However, Business Day gathered 

that the week long break is not just 

for the Sallah celebration but it gave 

room for interior renovation works 

at the Secretariat. 

This is coming barely one month 

after the John Oyegun led NWC did 

interior renovation in the National 

Secretariat days before handing over 

to the present leadership. 

Businesses puzzled by CPC’s move to control... 

Continued from page 1 

Internet Company from implementing 

the new rates. The court 

also restrained MultiChoice from 

any conduct capable of interfering 

with the regulatory process of CPC. 

In a press release stating why it 

approached the court to stop DSTV 

from implementing the new rates, 

the CPC argued that ‘it has a constitutional 

responsibility to protect the 

welfare and interest of consumers in 

Nigeria through the instrumentality 

of the “the Council.” 

However, CPC claims that the 

court injunction it got did not intend 

to regulate price, or in any way interfere 

with the commercial interface 

between Multichoice and its customers 

in fixing price. ‘Essentially, 

the Council recognizes and respects 

the fidelity in the operation of free 

market forces in arriving at prices for 

goods or services.’ 

‘The Council understands and 

appreciates that price is an acceptable 

determination of transparent and 

undistorted market operations. However, 

it is the law, that operators can by 

conduct, distort the market and, or 

otherwise compromise the integrity 

or transparency of the market, thereby 

questioning the reliability of the pricing 

methodology or mechanism.’ 

The CPC also admitted that ‘these 

principles are better articulated 

in the context of a Competition or 

Antitrust legislation and regime, 

which Nigeria does not have’. The 

CPC however insists that ‘they are 

consumer protection principles that 

are generally express or sometimes 

derived from existing consumer 

protection legislation.’ 

The organisation quotes Section 

2(i) CPC Act which expressly states 


Nigerian firms’ capex down, 

validates slow GDP growth 

BALA AUGIE 

Nigerian companies 

haven’t picked up the 

pace of their investments 

in property, 

plant and equipment, 

which means there hasn’t been a return 

to the level of nascent spending 

needed to drive economic growth. 

Firms, weighed down by sluggish 

earnings, political uncertainties, 

weak consumer discretionary spend, 

high borrowing costs, delay in the 

passage of the budget, and rising 

inflation, hunkered down and put 

spending plans on hold over the past 

three years. 

A glimpse of the financial statement 

of 42 largest firms quoted on 

the floor the bourse shows investment 

in property plant and equipment 

dipped by 21.32 percent to 

N112.86 billion in June 2018 from 

N143.45 billion the previous year. 

Company’s unwillingness to 

spend big stem from uncertain times 

as they tend to embark on aggressive 

expansion when consumer confidence 

are restored and the economy 

have gathered momentum. 

The economy is witnessing slow 

recovery and operators in the manufacturing 

sector are not generating 

enough internal cash flow for investment 

purpose, according to Johnson 

Chukwu, CEO and managing director 

of Cowry Asset Management. 

It will be recalled that when the 

country exited its first recession in 25 

years in 2017, investment in capital 

expenditure was down 3.81 percent 

to N292.25 billion in December 2017 

from N303.83 billion the previous 

year, data gathered by BusinessDay 

shows. 

Analysts say a lot of firms prefer 

to give cash back to shareholders in 

form of dividend than spend it on 

capex since household spending 

and construction activities have remained 

slow while unemployment 

rates continues to go south ward. 

“A lot of them are taking cautious 

approach because consumer spending 

is weak and there is no need to 

increase capacity. They still have 

excess capacity and their objective 

at the moment is to retain market 

share,” said Fola Abimbola, FMCGs 

analyst at CSL Stock Brokers. 

Consumer spending dipped by 

-0.99 percent in 2017, according to a 

recent data from the National Bureau 

of Statistics (NBS). 

A breakdown of the capex spend 

shows upstream oil and gas major, 

Seplat Corporation Development 

Company did not acquire plants and 

equipment despite crude oil prices 

climbing above $70 a barrel in January 

for the first time in 3 years. 

Seplat is awash with cash as 

its free cash flow from operating 

activities hit N197.60 billion as at 

June 2018, the highest since the last 

quarter of 2017 when the figure stood 

at N263.20 billion, according to data 

gathered from Bloomberg 

Dangote Cement Plc, the largest 

producer of the building material re- 

L-R: Juan Elegdo, 

vice chancellor, 

Pan Atlantic University; 

Ikechukwu 

Obiaya, dean 

School of Media 

and Communication 

Studies; Frank 

Aigbogun, publisher, 

BusinessDay; 

Chido Nwakanma, 

adjunct faculty, and 

Richard Ikiebe, 

director of the 

Centre for Leadership 

Excellence in 

Journalism, during 

a visit to the university 

yesterday 

by the publisher of 

BusinessDay. 

More facilities as Pan Atlantic School of Media 

seeks greater collaboration with industry 

The School of Media and 

Communication, Pan Atlantic 

University has added 

more facilities in digital editing, 

broadcasting and graphics 

to enhance practical training of its 

students even as it seeks greater collaboration 

with industry. 

Vice Chancellor of Pan Atlantic 

University Prof Juan Elegido disclosed 

to the visiting publisher of 

BusinessDay newspaper that the 

facilities include a dedicated newsroom, 

three editing suites for broadcasting 

and digital media as well as 

audio and visual studios. There is 

also a graphics studio equipped with 

over 70 Mac PCs. 

Elegido conducted the publisher 

round the facilities of the school and 

sought greater collaboration with the 

media and communication industry 

in student internships, training of 

staff and other exchanges including 

research. 

The BusinessDay publisher assured 

that the organisation was always 

in search of young people who 

would add value as it fully embraced 

digital publishing and the challenges 

of the new era of audience selectivity. 

He informed that BusinessDay 

was deepening its capacity to offer 

excellent insights and analyses to its 

corded a 38.08 percent reduction in 

capex to N24.86 billion in June 2018 

from N40.16 billion as at June 2017. 

Consumer goods firms have also 

scaled back on aggressive expansion. 

Nigerian Breweries Plc’s investment 


declined by 29.10 percent to 

N8.80 billion in June 2018 from N3.62 

billion the previous year. 

Dangote Sugar Plc’s investment 


fell by 43.41 percent to N5.51 billion 

in June 2018 from N9.74 billion the 

previous year. 

Julius Berger Plc, the largest 

construction firm by market value, 

did not purchase fixed assets last 

quarter; instead it is selling assets to 

realize cash. 

Transnational Corporation of 

Nigeria (Transcorp) Plc investment 


reduced by 66.12 percent to N5.92 

billion in the period under review 

from N17.50 billion the previous year. 

Analysts are of the view that earnings 

outlook has to be bright, borrowing 

costs low, and the economy has 

to gather momentum while government 

has to be keen on infrastructure 

spend before firms start to take 

decisions on replacing machinery 

and plants. 

“If the economic growth prospect 

is very strong and the lending rate 

is low, manufacturers will leverage 

to invest in capital goods with the 

expectation that they will generate 

enough cash flow to pay back interest 

on the loan,” summed Chukwu. 

audience and thus seeks the best human 

capital. BusinessDay is steadily 

growing its paid subscriptions and 

offering more reviews, features and 

in-depth insights to readers. 

Dean of the School of Media 

& Communication, Ikechukwu 

Obiaya, Director of the Centre for 

Leadership Excellence in Journalism 

Richard Ikiebe and Adjunct Faculty 

Chido Nwakanma joined the Vice 

Chancellor to guide the visiting 

publisher on tour. 

Richard Ikiebe is Chairman of 

BusinessDay Media Limited while 

Chido Nwakanma is on the Editorial 

Board of BusinessDay.

Friday 24 August 2018 C002D5556 BUSINESS DAY 3

4 

BUSINESS DAY 

C002D5556 

Friday 24 August 2018


Adopting practical approach to tackling 

Nigeria’s education challenge 

KELECHI EWUZIE 

A 

cursory look at 

Nigeria’s education 

system today, 

no doubt, 

reveals a worrisome 

situation in the process 

of knowledge impartation 

as most tertiary institutions 

award certificates to students 

who are ill equipped to perform 

optimally when faced 

with the harsh realities of life. 

As youth unemployment 

increases on daily basis, not a 

few graduates are beginning to 

realise that job-hunting is a lot 

more difficult than schooling. 

A few years ago, a good 

education was all it took to 

land a lucrative job. But that 

is no longer the case as today, 

a good number of graduates 

are forced to resort to crime 

and prostitution because they 

spend endless years waiting 

for jobs that are hard to come 

by. This dire situation is worsened 

by the fact that their senior 

colleagues are also in the 

job market, for which reason 

there are little or no vacant 

spots that they can fill. 

Recent surveys reveal that 

the curriculum used by most 

of the nation’s universities is 

not driven by entrepreneurship. 

Rather, they centre on 

producing graduates who employers 

describe as half-baked. 

Unlike most developed 

nations that make huge 

budget allocations to their 

education sectors, successive 

governments in Africa’s largest 

economy have consistently 

and consciously denied 

this sector the funds required 

to groom globally competitive 

human capital. 

Those who know in the 

education space opine that 

entrepreneurial training is essential 

now more than ever 

before, if the intellectual and 

creative capacities of students 

must be given a boost. 

Moreover, they add that 

professionals with industry experience 

should form the bulk 

of lecturers that take some 

practical-oriented courses in 

tertiary institutions. 

Aderinkomi Akinsola an 

education resource person 

notes that it is sad that the policies 

establishing most tertiary 

institutions do not provide for 

entrepreneurial education. 

This anomaly, he insists, can 

only be corrected if policymakers 

formulate procedures 

that incorporate entrepreneurial 

education into the 

school curriculum, beginning 

from primary school. 

Akinsola insist that government 

should pay more attention 

to education. It should 

be interested in what is taught 

in school by ensuring that 

the content of education is 

changed to meet present realities. 

Only then can our graduates 

and students across all 

levels of education derive 

the all-important benefits 

of education. For Harrison 

Nwanyanwu, an educationist, 

Universities’ curriculums 

today focus only on the theoretical 

aspect of education. 

They fail to address the current 

issues that will meet the 

global needs of students in 

the international market. 

While proffering suggestions 

on the way forward, 

Nwanyanwu states that an 

entrepreneurial angle should 

be employed in institutions 

of higher learning, where seasoned 

resource persons can 

share experiences and not 

necessarily teach: which will 

in turn strengthen the global 

outlook of the students. 

L-R: Oluwole Rawa, general manager, consumer marketing, MTN Nigeria; Adekunle Adebiyi, sales and distribution executive, 

MTN Nigeria; Omotayo George, senior manager, youth/teens segment, MTN Nigeria, and Henry Ojiokpota, zonal controller, 

Lagos division, NCC, at the MTN mPulse launch in Lagos. 

Pic by Pius Okeosisi 

Fight Against Human Trafficking: Edo deepens campaign, urges residents to report traffickers 

Edo State commissioner 

for justice/attorney 

general of the 

state and head of the 

State Taskforce Against Human 

Trafficking and Illegal 

Migration, Yinka Omorogbe, 

has urged Edo people and 

residents in Orhionmwon 

Local Government Area to 

report suspected human traffickers 

to the taskforce. 

Governor Godwin Obaseki 

established the taskforce 

in August 2017, to check the 

high incidence of human 

trafficking and illegal migration 

in the state. 

At an advocacy programme 

organised by the 

taskforce in Abudu, headquarters 

of Orhionmwon 

Local Government Area, 

Omorogbe said the state 

government was fully committed 

to tackling human 

trafficking by creating jobs 

for youths in the state, urging 

residents in the area to report 

suspected traffickers to the 

taskforce for investigation 

and subsequent prosecution. 

“Human trafficking is a 

bad business. Don’t get involved 

or allow yourself to be 

trafficked by those looking for 

young men and women to be 

exploited. We are informing 

you so that you won’t learn 

the hard way. Many others 

who have gone and returned 

are gnashing their teeth now. 

“Our children undergo 

slavery there. We have records 

of thousands of Nigerians 

who were killed or 

missing in the Sahara Desert, 

Libya or Mediterranean Sea. 

“But the traffickers don’t 

tell you the hard life your 

children undergo there; how 

they are kidnapped in connivance 

with them. Parents 

and other relations end up 

sending money from here 

to Libya. They only tell you 

their success stories that are 

not true. Beware of the antics 

of the traffickers,” she told 

guests at the event. 

According to Omorogbe, 

the state has received over 

3,883 Libya returnees between 

November 2017 and 

July 2018, adding that Governor 

Godwin Obaseki was 

worried that more than half 

of the returnees from Libya 

were from the state, with 

Orhionmwon Local Government 

Area taking the lead in 

the state. 

C002D5556 

Management of 

Halogen Securities 

Limited yesterday 

rewarded 

two security guards: Achi Daniel 

and Francis Emepueaku 

with N250,000 each. 

Achi Daniel and Francis 

Emepueaku had on August 18, 

2018 found and returned a bag 

containing dollars and other 

valuables items to the owner, 

a lady who just arrived Nigeria 

from the United States. 

The security firm at an event 

organised on Thursday to celebrate 

the guards for their honesty 

and exemplary conduct, 

also offered them scholarships 

that would enable them further 

acquire a diploma in Security 

Management. 

Wale Olaoye, group managing 

director of Halogen 

Securities Limited, disclosed 

the rewards in an occasion to 

SEYI JOHN SALAU 

Driven by the need to 

provide excellent financial 

knowledge 

for nonfinancial 

managers, especially those in 

marketing, sales, brand building 

and advertising, Cullwort 

Academy is organising a day 

knowledge-packed course 

tagged ‘Understanding Finance 

for Marketing, Sales 

and Brand Managers.’ 

The one-day course is designed 

to help nonfinancial 

managers in the above listed 

areas gain basic understanding 

of finance process and instil 

disciplined management 

of marketing and sales budget. 

A statement signed by Victor 

Ikem, on behalf of Cullwort 

Nigeria Limited, said the 

training would help “marketing, 

brand and sales managers 

discover smart ways of reporting 

monthly and annual 

expenditure.” 

The release added that the 

course would equip partici- 

BUSINESS DAY 

5 

NEWS 

US contributes $1bn annually on developing human capital in Nigeria - Envoy 

The US contributes 

$1 billion annually 

to develop Nigeria’s 

human capital, David 

Young, deputy head of 

US Embassy in Nigeria, says. 

Young made this known 

during a courtesy visit to the 

Nigerian Film Corporation 

(NFC) on Thursday in Jos. 

He said the US was investing 

in health, education 

and agriculture sectors 

among other as part of its 

efforts to improve Nigeria’s 

human capital to shore up 

development. 

“We give Nigerian these 

interventions to develop 

these various sectors to enable 

them participate in the 

creative industry, which is a 

potential economic drive to 

the future of the country. 

MMIA: Halogen rewards guards, 

applauds FAAN over lost, found bag 

IFEOMA OKEKE 

Non-financial managers urged to 

leverage Cullwort training opportunity 

“We are also contributing 

towards improving primary 

education, small and medium 

enterprises, and the 

agriculture sector to help establish 

agro allied industries 

to create job opportunities 

for youths,“ he said. 

The US Envoy said the 

country was also partnering 

with security agencies 

to train its personnel and 

the Independent National 

Electoral Commission 

(INEC) to strengthen it to 

conduct credible elections 

at all levels. 

He pledged US support in 

collaborative productions, 

equipping Nigerian film 

practitioners and students 

with the requisite skills to 

thrive in the industry. 

According to Young, 

honour the two security men 

at Halogen office in Ikeja GRA, 

Lagos. 

Olaoye said the action of 

the guards was a pointer that 

light could come out of Nigeria, 

appealing to other professional 

to emulate the high 

level of integrity demonstrated 

by Achi and Emepueaku. 

Commending the Federal 

Airports Authority of Nigeria 

(FAAN), he said, “Today, what 

we may see as inconsequential 

has caught global attention. 

It is work in progress and 

we are in the pursuit of excellence. 

If FAAN didn’t give opportunities 

to Nigerians who 

have caught their teeth in their 

professional endeavours, we 

will not be celebrating what 

we are celebrating today.” 

He pointed out that, if the 

two guards could make this 

positive impact at this level, 

then Nigeria must have wasted 

that capability to make change. 

pants with the tools needed to 

“measure marketing, brand and 

sales investment in financial 

terms for use by senior management 

and at Board level.” 

Ikem said that as part of 

the expected outcome after 

the course, “Participants will 

be able to negotiate well for 

a bigger marketing, brand 

and sales budget, interpret 

marketing input and contribution 

to financial growth of 

company, make convincing 

arguments in favour of incurring 

specific expenses, justify 

marketing decisions based 

on relevant financial information, 

measure returns on marketing 

investments and use 

relevant data to justify spend.” 

According to Ikem, “It 

would also enable participants 

to gain understanding of the 

financial reporting process, 

interpret basic account statements 

and balance sheet”. 

The training holds September 

21, between 9am to 

4pm at the LCCI Centre in 

Alausa - Ikeja, Lagos. 

Nollywood is next to Bollywood 

in the quantity of films 

production. Nollywood is 

Nigerian movie industry; 

Bollywood is Indian movie 

industry, while Hollywood 

is American movie industry. 

In his remarks, Chidia 

Maduewke, managing director 

of NFC, lauded the US 

for her collaborations and 

efforts towards developing 

the film industry, saying the 

action had already yielded 

positive impact. 

“We had successful 

discussions with motion 

picture companies and 

business entities in the 

US. We are engaging Studio 

schools in California, 

Silicon Valley and other 

organisations to develop 

Nigeria’s film industry.

6 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556 

NEWS 

Daystar Power to light up Nigeria’ agric 

bank branches with solar energy 

ISAAC ANYAOGU 

Bank of Agriculture 

has signed 

agreement with 

Daystar Power, 

a pan-African 

electricity company specialising 

in the generation 

of solar energy, to light up 

its 158 branches in Nigeria 

with solar energy. The 

company has also entered 

a comprehensive cooperation 

for rural electrification 

in Nigeria, it said in a release 

sent to BusinessDay. 

Daystar Power will partner 

Sunray Ventures, a venture 

builder with locations 

in Frankfurt, Dubai and 

Lagos, founded to identify 

economically attractive 

and high impact opportunities 

that address core 

growth sectors with a focus 

on renewable energy and 

circular economy in Africa 

and the Middle East, to develop 

the project including 

solar projects in rural communities 

in Nigeria. 

Established in 1972, 

the bank of agriculture a 

state-owned bank created 

As part of efforts to 

develop indigenous 

solutions to society’s 

problems, EdoJobs, 

in partnership with WeAre- 

Bits, a global Information 

Technology (IT) company, 

have completed a two-day cocreation 

workshop to map out 

the peculiar needs that will 

influence a one-year training 

for Edo youths on the use of 

Information and Communication 

Technology (ICT). 

Speaking at the end of the 

two-day co-creation workshop 

organised at the Edo Innovation 

Hub in Benin City, head of 

EdoJobs, Ukinebo Dare, said 

the programme would afford 

the youths the opportunity to 

acquire practical skills in the 

use of ICT to improve their 

employability within and out- 

The National Home 

Grown School 

Feeding Programme 

(NHGS- 

FP), which commenced in 

2016, has only been beneficial 

to 24 out of 36 states of 

the federation, and the remaining 

12 states feel they 

are being treated partially. 

As of Wednesday, the 

programme was currently 

feeding 8.6 million pupils 

in 24 states across Nigeria, 

4.9 percent growth from 8.3 

million pupils in May 2018. 

The states currently involved 

in the programme 

are Taraba, Plateau, 

Gombe, Bauchi, Borno, Jigawa, 

Kano, Niger, Kaduna, 

to lend support relevant 

activities in the agricultural 

production chain, will see 

all its branches in the country 

switch to renewables. 

This follows the growing 

realisation that solar energy 

can help firms reduce energy 

cost which the Manufacturers 

Association of Nigeria 

say represents 40 percent of 

business cost. Sterling Bank 

is also powering some of 

its branches in the country 

with solar power. 

“In Nigeria there is a 

large gap between electricity 

production and demand. 

The rural population 

in particular suffers 

from a lack of reliable electricity 

supply, which has a 

negative impact on agricultural 

productivity. By supplying 

Nigeria’s population 

with clean solar power, 

Daystar Power enables increased 

productivity and 

higher crop yields through 

better cooling. In this way 

we contribute to increasing 

prosperity for the local 

population,” Christian 

Wessels, managing director 

of Sunray Ventures, said. 

The cooperation agreement 

was signed in the 

presence of the Regina Hess 

deputy ambassador of the 

Federal Republic of Germany 

to Nigeria, and Ulrich 

Rieger, senior ministerial 

Council of the Internationalization 

Department of the 

Bavarian State Ministry of 

Economic Affairs, Energy 

and Technology. 

“The recently agreed 

cooperation offers a great 

perspective for Nigeria 

and is a forward-looking 

signal for further projects 

of this kind. We very much 

welcome projects of private-sector 

cooperation to 

promote African development,” 

Hess said. 

In remarks made the 

signing ceremony, Rieger 

said, ““The secure supply 

of electricity is central to 

Nigeria’s sustainable development. 

That is why we 

particularly support cooperation 

between Bavarian 

companies that are active 

in Africa and thus make a 

contribution to economic, 

social and ecological development”. 

Edo’s tech revolution: EdoJobs, WeAreBits to commence 1-year training for 50 Edo youths 

NHGSFP: why 24 states instead of 36 states, citizens lament 

CYNTHIA IKWUETOGHU 

side the country. 

Dare, who is the senior 

special assistant to the Governor 

on Skills Development 

and Job Creation, noted, “The 

programme was designed by 

EdoJobs and WeAreBits for 

the training of youths who 

don’t have access to computer 

education. The beneficiaries 

fall within the age range of 

15 to 35, who had little or no 

knowledge in using computers 

before now.” 

She said the co-creation 

workshop was to create a 

sense of ownership among 

stakeholders including the 

community youths, civil society 

organisations, and the 

state government. 

She said EdoBits was set 

up to benefit from the initiative 

of the We Are Bits, a 

Zamfara, Katsina, Osun, 

Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Delta, 

Anambra, Enugu, Imo, 

Abia, Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi, 

Cross River, and Benue. 

The states excluded are 

Rivers, Bayelsa, Sokoto, Kebbi, 

Yobe, Kogi, Nassarawa, 

Kwara, Lagos, Ekiti, Edo, 

and Adamawa. 

“Why not 36 states,” a 

concerned citizen asked 

on social media. “How will 

I know why my state was 

not included? Is it only 24 

states that voted for President 

Muhammadu Buhari? 

Such selective approach is 

not befitting a man of his 

approach,” another citizen 

complained. 

A citizen of Rivers State 

said for his state, “Buhari 

global organisation with 

programmes across African 

countries, aimed at availing 

the youths the opportunity 

to be part of the global tech 

movement. 

She noted that co-creating 

with stakeholders in the 

education sector is to target 

people from different backgrounds 

and ensure that 

within the space of one year, 

different communities within 

the 18 local government 

areas in Edo State would 

have benefited. 

Director, We Are Bits, lsmail 

Eltabrook, said the idea 

behind the initiative was to 

create an avenue for youths in 

Edo State to acquire training 

in the use of computer and 

assist the state reduce unemployment 

among youth. 

and APC, what has Rivers 

State done to Nigeria, as it 

is always excluded in anything 

that may bring help 

to the people. The sharing 

of Abacha loot and the 

N5,000 for the aged were 

all excluded in Rivers State, 

and now feeding of school 

children.” 

On the reason why Lagos 

is not included for 

now, deputy governor, Idiat 

Adebule, at a 2018 Ministerial 

Press Briefing of the 

Ministry of Education said 

they were planning properly 

to ensure no student 

was left out as the number 

of students in Lagos State 

schools was about the 

number of students in five 

or six states put together. 



8 

BUSINESS DAY 

C002D5556 


Highlight of the news reports on our digital platforms this week 

Best five stories this week 

Weber’s puzzle: Why is Nigeria 

so religious, yet so poor? 

A few months ago, the popular 

American preacher TD Jakes came to the 

church I attend in London. Preaching on 

leadership and wealth, he said prayer is 

not leadership and won’t make anyone 

rich. “If prayers were enough”, he said, 

“Nigeria would be one of the richest 

countries in the world”. 

Buying a car is, without a doubt, one 

of the most important decisions we have 

ever made in our lives. In order to afford a 

car, many Nigerians have to work hard and 

save up for years. 

Defections in NASS: Buhari, 

APC doomed to fail in 2019, 

Nigerians react 

that has dealt a blow to emerging market 

currencies, it will take something special 

for the Nigeria naira to weaken materially 

like in 2016. 

For more visit our website at 

businessdayonline.com to catch up on full 

news stories. 

POLL RESULTS: 

Saraki: Oshiomhole’s 

impeachment plot hits the 

rocks 

The efforts being made by the National 

Chairman of the All Progressives Congress 

(APC) to procure the impeachment 

and removal of the President of the 

Senate, Bukola Saraki and his deputy 

Ike Ekweremadu, from office, suffered 

a terrible setback on Friday as some 

senators of the ruling party. 

Following the defection of some federal 

lawmakers from the ruling All Progressives 

Congress (APC) to the main opposition 

People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and 

some to the African Democratic Congress 

(ADC)in the senate and the House of 

Representatives. 

Analysts forecast naira 

resilience amid offshore 

outflows 

Poll of the week 

BusinessDay asked our digital audience 

how the INEC centres were treating them 

in light of the Voters Registration exercise 

currently happening at all centres daily 

(including Saturdays) in Nigeria, here is 

what they had to say. 

12% say the process is seamless, 53% 

say it’s difficult while 35% say that give up. 

Write us with your opinion at digital@ 

businessdayonline.com to let us know 

what your preference is. 

How & Where to buy cheap cars 

in Nigeria 

It’s not a tale of dejavu for the most 

stable emerging market currency this yearthe 

naira. 

Despite a sustained foreign sell-off 

Video of the week Tweet of the week Cartoon of the week




C002D5556 

COMMENT 

DAN STEINBOCK 

Dr Dan Steinbock is the founder of Difference 

Group and has served as research 

director at the India, China and America 

Institute (USA) and visiting fellow at the 

Shanghai Institutes for International Studies 

(China) and the EU Center (Singapore). For 

more, see https://www.differencegroup.net/ 

After months of trade 

threats, the Trump 

administration announced 

its 25% tariff 

on $34 billion of Chinese 

imports effective in early 

July, while threatening levies on 

another $16 billion of imports. To 

defend its sovereign interest, China 

responded with 25% tariffs on $34 

billion of US imports and recently 

imposed an additional tariff of 25% 

on $16 billion of US imports effective 

on August 23. 

As Trump is escalating his tariff 

war, a total of $50 billion of goods 

on each side will be taxed as of 

Thursday. 

Not so long ago, there was still 

relatively serious talk about the US- 

China Bilateral Investment Treaty 

(BIT). After all, Chinese foreign direct 

investment soared to a record 

$46 billion in 2016. But that was in 

the pre-Trump era. 

Last year, Trump threats caused 

Chinese investment in the US to 

plunge to $29 billion, partly due to 

INWALOMHE DONALD 

Inwalomhe Donald writes from Osogbo 

via inwalomhe.donald@yahoo.com 

Pension arrears are not peculiar 

to Osun state and most 

states in Nigeria are presently 

indebted to retirees. 

There was accumulation of pension 

arrears between 1993 and 2011 in 

Osun State due to the non-payment 

of pensioners. I am worried over the 

huge pension and gratuity burden 

successive administrations had been 

battling with since the state’s creation. 

The effect of pension and gratuities 

on Osun is so high and more than 

any other state in the region. Osun 

State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola 

had disclosed that 80 percent of the 

total income generated by the state 

in the past 7 years of his administration 

was spent on payment of salary 

of workers and pension of retirees 

in the state. Aregbesola said the insinuation 

by his opponents that his 

administration spent 80 percent of 

the state income on developmental 

projects ‎against welfare and salaries 

of workers as untrue and hogwash. 

The Governor said over N220 billion 

Naira has been spent between 

November 2010 to October 2017 on 

payment of salaries and pensions. 

He held that ‎more than 70 percent 

of the income of the state of Osun 

from whatever source has been spent 

on payment of workers salary and 

How US trade war is spreading from goods to services 

deleveraging in China but mainly 

thanks to very stringent US regulatory 

reviews of inbound acquisitions. 

After months of trade war, 

Chinese investment in 2018, asset 

divestitures included, is negative 

in the US. 

In the coming weeks, things 

will go from bad to worse, as US 

tariffs are about to spread from 

goods to services. Ironically, that’s 

when much of the collateral damage 

will hit the US, however. 

Collateral damage in services 

wars 

Historically, advanced economies 

tend to enjoy service surpluses but 

goods deficits in trade, thanks to 

higher productivity and valueadded. 

And US-Chinese trade ties 

are no exception. 

According to most recent data 

(2017), US goods exports to China 

are $130 billion, whereas imports 

from China are to $506 billion. 

As a result, US trade deficit with 

China amounts to $375 billion. 

In contrast, US services exports 

to China are $54 billion, while 

services imports from China are 

$16 billion (2016 figures). Consequently, 

US trade services trade 

surplus with China is $38 billion. 

As China exports far more 

goods to US than vice versa, Chinese 

retaliations already cover 

more US goods (85%) than US tariffs 

cover Chinese imports (50%). 

So as the ongoing trade war shifts 

from goods tariffs to non-tariff actions 

in services, China is likely to 

target US services. But China will 

not be the first to do so. 

A few weeks ago, when Trump 

unleashed a tweet storm against 

Germany and the European Union 

(EU), German Chancellor Angela 

Merkel rightly pointed out that it is 

misleading to focus on goods trade, 

in which the US has deficit against 

the EU, when the US excels in services 

trade, in which it has a surplus 

against the EU. With other EU leaders, 

Merkel is backing a “digital tax” 

against US multinationals like Amazon, 

Facebook or Google, which have 

come under fire for shifting earnings 

around Europe to pay lower taxes. 

Trump tariffs undermine U.S. highmargin 

services 

Ironically, Trump’s tariffs have potential 

to undermine America’s most 

important competitive advantage 

Pension arrears and Osun state 

pensions and that less than N60 

billion naira had been spent on 

developmental projects. 

THE House of Representatives 

recently urged the Federal 

Government to intervene in the 

current crisis of unpaid pension 

arrears threatening the lives of 

Nigerians’ retired senior citizens. 

The House resolution followed a 

motion moved by Hon. Toby Okechukwu 

and six others, entitled, 

“Urgent Need for Intervention in 

the Current Crises of Unpaid Pension 

Arrears Threatening the Lives 

of Nigeria’s Retired Senior Citizens.” 

According to him, in annual 

budgetary appropriation exercises, 

no provision was made for accrued 

benefits of pensioners under the 

Contributory Pension Scheme and 

Defined Benefits Scheme (DBS). He 

averred that, under the Contributory 

Pension Scheme, retirees who 

retired since 2015 have not been 

paid their pensions due to the failure 

of the Federal Government to 

contribute its statutory share of 5% 

to the Pension Redemption Fund 

in line with the Pension Reform 

Act 2014 amounting to a total of 

N285,946,669,881.00 only. 

The lawmaker also expressed 

worries that pensioners under the 

Defined Benefits Scheme (DBS) 

which include the Police, Pensions, 

the Nigerian Customs Service, Nigeria 

Immigration Service, Nigeria 

Prisons Service, Civil Service and 

‘ 

In the coming weeks, 

things will go from bad 

to worse, as US tariffs 

are about to spread 

from goods to services. 

Ironically, that’s when 

much of the collateral 

damage will hit the US, 

however 

’ 

other parastatals are yet to be paid 

their 33% accrued arrears amounting 

to about N174 billion. He said that, 

“the delay in payment of pension arrears 

has resulted in dire situations 

where pensioners are wallowing in 

penury, sickness, hopelessness and 

regret for serving their fatherland diligently 

only to be abandoned by government 

upon retirement,” he noted. 

Some Osun Pensioners’ behaviour 

is business-as-usual in a group run 

by some Osun political “godfathers,” 

or political elites who sponsor people 

to run down the government. I am 

saddened by the mad (talking of madness) 

campaign of calumny raging 

against Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.Governor 

Rauf Aregbesola increased the 

amount being paid as pension by 500 

per cent in 2011. The problem of regular 

payment of gratuity is not peculiar 

to Osun; it is a national problem and 

the government has shown its readiness 

to pay the gratuity as soon as the 

state’s finances improve. It is on record 

that this group of pensioners had, at 

one time or the other in the past, lied 

against the Government of the State of 

Osun; and in specific reference they 

had alleged that government collected 

a tranche of the Paris Club refund and 

diverted it, only for government to wait 

for a whole month before the actual 

release of the fund. 

There has hardly been any month 

that his critics had spared him and 

his government even though no one 

can deny that he has from day one 

comment is free 

Send 800word comments to comment@businessdayonline.com 

in the postwar era – high-value, 

high-margin services, which range 

from the technology sector to big 

pharma. 

Since 2001, US services surplus 

with China has increased ninefold. 

A major beneficiary of the 

surplus is Houston, Texas. Last 

fall, Mayor Sylvester Turner led a 

Houston business delegation to 

China with energy execs, hospital 

administrators, physicians, medical 

researchers and entrepreneurs. The 

visit fostered many collaborative 

projects, including a medical center 

based on imported technology and 

consulting services from Houston. 

Much of US services trade surplus 

with China can be attributed to 

Chinese travelers’ spending on US 

business, medical treatment and 

education, as well as increasingly 

innovative Chinese companies 

spending on US licensing fees and 

royalties for intellectual property. 

Yet, in Texas, Trump’s tariffs are 

now endangering major projects 

that took years to build. 

As collateral damage will 

spread, so will the costs. If US 

metropolitan centers will take 

severe hits, the stakes will be 

much higher with US states. Last 

year, California’s trade with China 

totaled $170 billion, covering electric 

cars, engines, auto parts and 

aluminum. “A trade war is stupid,” 

warns Governor Jerry Brown, and 

for a reason. Among the US states, 

California, which is already facing 

a $1.6 billion budget deficit, 

stands to suffer the greatest pain if 

Trump’s tariff wars worsen. 

Yet, this could be only the beginning. 

If trade wars spill from 

goods to services, neither Silicon 

Valley nor Hollywood will remain 

remained very active. Across the 

state, a campaign of falsehood has 

reached a crescendo of late, from 

the laughable to the distracting; and 

everything is being thrown at it, from 

religion to national security. 

The pensioners claim they are on 

a mission to rescue Osun State. It is 

important that the people begin to 

show serious interest not only in the 

party in power but the oppositions 

too who are using pensioners. 

This is because the strength of 

a nation’s democracy is in how 

vibrant the opposition is. For many 

discerning minds, the greatest threat 

to Osun’s democratic culture and 

obstacle to a rapid socio-economic 

development is not the actions or 

inactions of the party in power. 

It is clear that the so-called pensioners 

group is obvious liars who 

were hired to stage protest during 

Governor Aregbesola’s mother burial 

and few days to Osun West Senatorial 

by- election. Their incessant political 

protests are unbecoming of a retired 

civil servant who ought to be placed 

and respected as a senior citizen. We 

know the set of pensioners that are 

protesting, it is not the entire pensioners 

of the state. Pensioners are 

being used by political blackmailers. 

Instead of engaging in dialogue 

with government on issues bothering 

their minds as to how their 

benefits would be paid, they resulted 

in militant approach known to be 

orchestrated by opposition; telling 

immune. 

Global growth no longer immune 

By upping the stakes in its trade 

war, the Trump administration is 

endangering US services surpluses 

not just with China, but with its other 

“deficit targets.” Trump’s dream 

is to defeat China in the trade war 

and then use that “demonstration 

effect” to force others – EU, Canada 

and Mexico, Japan and South Korea 

– on their knees. 

That’s the White House’s ultimate 

goal: First to shock and awe 

its trade adversaries, and then to 

negotiate the best terms for the 

US – America First. 

However, the White House 

severely underestimates the resilience 

of the Chinese economy 

and its people. Moreover, US tariff 

wars against its partners in Europe, 

North America and Asia Pacific 

are not a matter of principle, just a 

matter of time. 

This trade war will have no winners. 

Instead, expect an avalanche 

of defaults soon. 

Dr. Dan Steinbock is the founder of 

Difference Group and has served 

as research director at the India, 

China and America Institute (USA) 

and visiting fellow at the Shanghai 

Institutes for International Studies 

(China) and the EU Center (Singapore). 

For more, see https://www. 

differencegroup.net/ 

• A shorter version of the commentary 

was published by China Daily 

on August 22, 2018. 

Send reactions to: 

comment@businessdayonline. 

lies and character assassination 

capable of destabilizing the peace 

of the state. The pensioners group is 

a fraction of those who retired from 

service in 2012 to avoid being part of 

the Contributory Pension Scheme. 

They are the set of pensioners that 

are protesting, it is not the entire 

pensioners of the state, they are being 

used by political blackmailers. 

It is disturbing and unfortunate 

that the acclaimed retires have 

chosen to be blackmailing the Osun 

State Government and persistently 

constituting nuisance on the streets 

of Osogbo to the detriment of the 

peace-loving citizens through sponsored 

protest on the payment of 

gratuity and not pension. I want to 

describe the protest by some pensioners 

in Osun state as politically 

motivated. It is connected with the 

forthcoming September 2018 governorship 

election in Osun. These 

senior citizens have be hoodwinked 

by the antics of those who want to 

play on their minds and emotions 

to make them appear like tools in 

the hands of desperate political 

gladiators. 

Note: The rest of this article continues 

in the online edition of Business 

Day @https://businessdayonline. 

com/ 


comment@businessdayonline.com


COMMENT 

LEKAN FADINA 

Prince Lekan Fadina is Chairman, 

Centre for Trade Practitioners, 

an independent think tank and 

policy centre for trade, diplomacy, 

strategic studies and sustainable 

development. 

cismevision@gmail.com 

The Continental Africa 

Trade Area is a single 

Continental Market for 

goods and services with 

free movement of business, 

persons and investments. 

The objectives are, among others, 

to pave the way for accelerating the 

establishment of the Continental 

Customs Union and the African 

Customs Union; expand Intra-Africa 

Trade through better harmonisation 

and co-ordination of trade liberation 

and facilitation regimes and instruments 

across Africa; resolve the 

challenges of multiple and overlapping 

membership and expedite the 

regional and continental markets; 

enhance competitiveness at the industry 

and enterprise levels through 

exploiting opportunities for scale 

production; and provide access 

and better reallocation of resources 

across the continental market. 

Background 

The free trade started many years ago 

since the birth of African Union - in 

various discussions, comments and 

presentations at conferences such as 

the Abuja Declaration, among others. 

The 18th ordinary session of 

the Assembly of Heads of State and 

Government of the African Union 

held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 

January 2012 adopted a decision to 

establish a Continental Free Trade 

Area (CFTA). The Summit also endorsed 

the Action Plan on Boosting 

Intra-Africa Trade Area (BIAT) which 

identifies seven clusters: trade policy, 

trade facilitation, productive capacity, 

trade related infrastructure, trade 

finance, trade information, and factor 

market integration. The CFTA is 

expected to bring together all the 55 

African countries with a combined 

population of more than One Billion 

people and a combined Gross Domestic 

Product (GDP) of more than 

$3.4 Trillion. 

The CFTA was launched on 

Wednesday March 21, 2018 when the 

Agreement was signed by 44 Countries 

at an Extra-Ordinary Summit of 

the African Union in Kigali, Rwanda. 

Nigeria was absent at the Summit as 

the Head of State, President Muhammadu 

Buhari, dropped the country’s 

decision at the last minute (three 

days before the date of the meeting) 

not to sign because Nigeria is not 

ready, and that there is need for more 

consultation and buy-in from Nigerians 

especially the organised private 

sector. At the 31st African Union 

Summit in Nouakchoth, South Africa, 

Sierra Leone, Namibia, Lesotho and 

Burundi signed the Agreement. 

The main objectives of the CFTA 

are to create a single continental market 

for goods and services with free 

movement of business, persons and 

investments. This is expected to pave 

the way for accelerating the establish- 

ment of the Customs Union; expand 

Intra-African Trade through better 

harmonisation and co-ordination 

of trade liberalisation; and facilitation 

of instruments across Africa in 

general. The CFTA is also expected 

to enhance competitiveness at 

the industry and enterprise levels 

through exploitation of opportunities 

for scale production, continental 

market access and better reallocation 

of resources. It is said that the 

establishment of the CFTA and the 

implementation of the Action Plan 

on Boosting Intra-African Trade 

(BIAT) provides a comprehensive 

framework to pursue African trade 

flows from 2012 and January 2022. 

The Agreement requires members 

to remove tariffs from 90% of 

goods allowing free access to commodities, 

goods and services across 

the continent. 

It is estimated, according to the 

United Nations Economic Commission 

for Africa (ECA), that the 

Agreement will boost Intra-African 

trade by 52% percent by 2022. 

In Nigeria, there are arguments 

for and against signing the Agreement. 

It is useful to consider some 

of them but space will not permit us 

to deal extensively with the issues 

raised. 

The Manufacturers Association of 

Nigeria (MAN), the Nigeria Labour 

Congress ,some academicians, some 

stakeholders opposed Nigeria joining 

just as the Nigeria Association 

of Chamber of Commerce industry 

,Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) 

some academicians and other commentators 

supported. Their position 

can be summarised as follows: 

1. President Muhammadu 

Buhari, in refusing to sign the Agreement, 

said he was delaying signature 

to the Agreement to widen and 

deepen consultation among the 

stakeholders. He said, “Trading is 

important and the terms of trade are 

important. Therefore, there is a need 

to ensure that our national interest 

as well as our regional and international 

obligations are balanced.” 

He further said that with a country 

as big as Nigeria, with a population 

of about 200 million people, there is 

need to carry all stakeholders along 

in the process of entering such agreement. 

2. On the government side, the 

position appears to be that “There 

are advantages of our being there, 

but we must ensure to get the best 

possible terms for Nigeria. Our 

market could be a real target, our 

local manufacturing could become 

unprofitable and our agricultural 

advantage could be reversed” (Remarks 

by Vice President, Prof. Yemi 

Osinbajo, at the quarterly meeting 

of the Presidential Enabling Business 

Environment Council (PEBE) 

in Abuja, 2018). 

3. The Nigerian Traders Association 

(NTA), while agreeing that the 

Agreement has some advantages 

for Nigeria, however suggested that 

we should be mindful of legal, 

structural, operational and other 

implications. 

4. The Nigeria Labour Congress 

(NLC) described the Agreement 

as “neo-liberal policy. A statement 

credited to the NLC President, Comrade 

Ayuba Wubba, said, “the policy 

initiative, for instance, would make it 

possible for foreign airline to directly 

do local schedule flights without 

employing Nigerians.” He also raised 

the issue of the Government not 

consulting the relevant stakeholders 

on the possible impact of the Trade 

Agreement. 

5. The Manufacturers Association 

of Nigeria (MAN) rejected the government’s 

move to sign the Agreement 

until proper consultations and inputs 

from all interest groups have been 

received on issues concerning market 

access and enforcement of rules of 

origin were addressed. 

6. Some argue that the treaty would 

negatively impact government revenue 

and social welfare as elimination 

of all tariffs among African countries 

would erode the treasury of the trading 

states by up to $4.1 Billion annually 

and deepen poverty with millions of 

Africans potentially exposed to starvation 

and death. 

7. Others, particularly among the 

poorest economies, are afraid that the 

benefits in the free area may not be equitably 

distributed among economies. 

8. The Nigerian Association of 

Chambers of Commerce, Industry, 

Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) 

urged the Federal Government to sign 

the Agreement in order to maximise 

the economic benefits of the initiative. 

9. The African Development Bank 

in a presentation by its President, Dr. 

Akinwunmi Adesina said that the Bank 

fully back the Continental Free Trade 

for Africa and called for opening up of 

Africa. “Lets thrive together” he said. 

Nigeria has its challenges including 

the state of our industrial 

base, infrastructure, non-competitive 

manufacturing activities, import, and 

leadership, among others. 

The view of the writer is that we 

should note the following: 

1. The Continental Market will 

make it possible to compete with the 

big emerging countries of the South. 

These are the 

2. The current Intra-Africa Trade is 

$128.25 Billion, up by 5.6% between 

2016 and 2017. Its share in the total 

volume of the continent’s trade remains 

weak. 

For 2017, this fell to less than 15% of 

all trade on the Continent, amounting 

to $907.63 Billion (Afrexim Bank 2018). 

3. With CFTA, it is estimated that we 

can expect a growth of more than 50% 

C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

11 

comment is free 

Send 800word comments to comment@businessdayonline.com 

The Continental free trade area (CFTA) 

There is need for private 

sector involvement to 

explain their role and 

put their requests on the 

table. The private sector 

knows where the shoe 

pinches. It is evident 

that the success of the 

Agreement will, to a 

great extent, depend 

on the private sector as 

engine of growth and 

development 

‘ 

’ 

in the Intra-African trade by 2022.The 

CFTA is expected to increase GDP 

by between 1 and 6 percent, which 

is expected to broaden the tax base 

and boost revenue collection from 

other sources. 

4. If Africa speaks with one voice, 

our influence will be stronger than 

55 voices. 

5. We can change the course of 

events and have more influence in 

the affairs of the world in the new 

block of One Africa Market 

6. Nigeria cannot be an on-looker 

in a market of 1.2 Billion people with 

a combined Gross Domestic Product 

of more than $2 Trillion. 

7. On January 23,2018 Africa 

countries signed the Single African 

Air Transport Market (SAATM) as 

one of the 12 projects to deepen 

African trade and integration. 

8. There is an argument that until 

we get it right, we should not sign. But 

the question is when are we going to 

get it right? We must remember that 

he who fights and runs away, leaves 

to fight another day. We must realise 

that we have strength so we have 

weaknesses. We must do a through 

SWOT analysis to determine our 

(Strength, Weakness, Opportunities 

and Threats) 

There is need for driving inclusive 

growth and sustainable development. 

Africa is seen as the destination 

of the 4th Industrial Revolution and 

the next phase of Africa’s growth is 

expected to be driven by private sector 

investment, development, trade, 

innovation, technologies and knowledge 

that bring about broad based 

benefits to millions of its people. It 

is said that the days of aid are over 

and “Africa is now the highway to 

boosting Africa’s prosperity without 

borders among the African nations.” 

In deciding to be or not to be a 

member, Nigeria should take cognisance 

of issues such as: 

1. Industrialisation 

Industrialisation is key to the successful 

implementation of a Continental 

Free Trade Agreement. The 

Industrial policies that are needed to 

impact the Agreement must consider 

competition, diversification, productivity 

and economic issues. 

2. Human capital 

The manufacturing sector needs 

skilled, capable, healthy workers. 

Policy makers must bear in mind 

that we are in a world of knowledge, 

digital, technology, creativity, among 

others. We need to adjust our education 

curricula to ensure that skills are 

adapted to the market and should include 

special attention to the youths 

who constitute over 60 percent of 

Nigeria population. 

There should be focus on skills 

acquisition, capacity building for 

entrepreneurship, skills upgrading 

through continuous education, 

promotion of science, technology, 

engineering, mathematics and entrepreneurship 

as well as vocational 

and on the job training. In short, 

we should develop human capital 

necessary for the industrialisation 

of Nigeria and Africa. We must know 

that “Youth Unemployment is Africa’s 

Greatest Leadership Challenge 

“(Tony Elumelu). 

3. Cost of doing business 

It is necessary to bring the cost of 

doing business down – addressing infrastructural 

facilities – roads, power, 

security, financing, bureaucratic 

restrictions, corruption, dispute 

settlement, property rights, land use, 

among others. We should also ensure 

effectiveness of our special economic 

zones. 

4. Supply network 

There is need to ensure competitive 

networks, easing trade restrictions, 

integrating regional and continental 

trade networks, increasing our ability 

to develop sophisticated products, 

encouraging small and medium size 

business, enveloping, encouraging 

and addressing the informal sectors. 

5. Domestic actions/demands 

The local market is very important 

in the scheme. We have a market of 

about 200 Million and a situation 

where what will see around are imported 

goods, manufactured from 

other countries thereby creating job 

opportunities for their citizens should 

concern us. There is urgent need to 

create jobs, increase individual and 

household incomes. Higher purchasing 

power for households will increase 

the size of the domestic market 

given the rapid growth of the demand 

of manufactured goods. 

6.Knowledge and skilled gaps 

There are evidences of knowledge and 

skilled gaps in the areas of market access, 

regulations and requirements on 

global requirements on importation 

of food, product quality, assurance/ 

control-packaging, labelling, grading, 

standardization, traceability, competitiveness, 

among others. In short 

we must be ahead of what the markets 

want and realise the sovereignty of the 

consumer. 

7. Investment in human capital 

We need to train officials from relevant 

ministries, agencies, private 

organizations, academia and nongovernmental 

organizations in the 

basic skills required for international 

negotiators and practitioners. Trade 

has become an important tool for 

economic growth and sustainable 

development. Our people must be 

knowledgeable on the trading and 

operational systems, learn the ropes 

and be masters of the game. 

Trade issues must be properly 

addressed as the Agreement involves 

understanding and knowledge of the 

present and future issues. Trade can 

promote growth, reduce poverty and 

create vast opportunities especially 

in the professional and service areas. 

There is need to develop capacity to 

take advantage of available market 

access and evidence-based trade 

analysis on specific commodities and 

sectors. Professional services will be 

an area that can benefit our people 

- lawyers, accountants, doctors etc. 

8. Business engagement in continental 

integration 

We must take cognisance of business 

engagement in the Continental Integration 

and we must, in our overall 

action, consider the framework for 

business engagement in regional and 

continental Integration in the following 

areas: 

1. Continental Business to Business 

2. Advocacy for Trade within the 

Continent 

3. Advocacy for Trade outside the 

Continent. 

Note: The rest of this article continues 

in the online edition of Business 

Day @https://businessdayonline. 

com/ 


comment@businessdayonline.com

12 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556 Friday 24 August 2018 

Editorial 

PUBLISHER/CEO 

Frank Aigbogun 

EDITOR 

Anthony Osae-Brown 

DEPUTY EDITORS 

John Osadolor, Abuja 

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Bashir Ibrahim Hassan 

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Ignatius Chukwu 

HEAD, HUMAN RESOURCES 

Adeola Obisesan 

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD 

Dick Kramer - Chairman 

Imo Itsueli 

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Funke Osibodu 

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Amina Oyagbola 

Bolanle Onagoruwa 

Fola Laoye 

Chuka Mordi 

Sim Shagaya 

Mezuo Nwuneli 

Emeka Emuwa 

Charles Anudu 

Tunji Adegbesan 

Eyo Ekpo 

Adding value to Nigerian agriculture 

In various pronouncements, 

the Federal 

Government of President 

Muhammadu 

Buhari has projected 

itself as focused on the primacy 

of the development of 

agriculture. It makes the case 

with multiple claims of successes 

in crop production, often 

citing rice as number one. 

The evidence says otherwise. 

The Summit of Northern 

Groups in a communique on 

March 24, 2018, following 

a meeting at Arewa House, 

Kaduna disputed the claims 

of success in agriculture. 

The sixteen groups stated, 

among other things, “Agriculture 

shows limited 

glimpses of recovery, but almost 

entirely through efforts 

of peasants and antiquated 

processes.”The National 

Bureau of Statistics states 

that“the agricultural sector 

in the first quarter of 2018 

grew by 3.00% (year-on-year) 

in real terms, a decrease by 

0.38% points from the corresponding 

period of 2017 

and also a decrease by 1.23% 

points from the preceding 

quarter”. The contribution of 

agriculture to GDP also declined 

from 26.13% to 21.65% 

in Q4 2017. It fell by 3.0 per 

cent in 2018 compared to 4.2 

percent in Q4 2017. 

Beyond the issues of claims 

that cannot stand scrutiny, 

agriculture must be a critical 

success factor for Nigeria. 

The country must devise policies 

and actions to increase 

productivity in this vital area. 

BusinessDay recommends that 

adding value to agriculture 

should be the policy direction 

and focus of the government 

to make up for lost ground and 

realise its potential. 

Agriculture is a sector of 

prime importance in every 

economy. Its economic contributions 

flow from being a source 

of livelihood to the majority of 

workers to serving as a primary 

source for food and nutrition. 

The agricultural sector held 

sway in Nigeria from pre-independence, 

independence up to 

the end of the civil war. Its contribution 

to GDP averaged 57% 

and fetched 64.5% of exports. Oil 

took over in 1970, and the country’s 

focus shifted off the farms. 

Nigeria’s Top 5 agricultural 

products are cassava, yam, 

maize, sorghum and millet. The 

principal exports are cocoa, 

oil seeds and oleaginous fruits, 

fruits and nuts, milk, cream 

and milk products and spices. 

In turn, the country imports 

fish, wheat sugar, molasses and 

honey, milk cream and milk 

products, fixed vegetables, fat 

and oil. 

Our agricultural production is 

characterised by low yields and 

growth mainly through expansion 

of land. Productivity suffers 

from the absence of the application 

of technology. The Agriculture 

Promotion Policy (APP) of 

the Federal Government focuses 

on resolving food production 

shortages and improving output 

quantity. The Economic Recovery 

and Growth Programme 

pushes this by specifying targets. 

It projects self-sufficiency in tomato 

paste in 2017, rice in 2018 

and wheat in 2019. 

Nigeria needs more than 

buzz on agriculture. There must 

be a focused effort to enhance 

the value chain by moving into 

processing, marketing and 

other value-adding activities. 

The business of agriculture 

involves farming, supplies and 

inputs, finance, markets and 

marketing, storage, logistics 

and processing. Nigeria still 

plays mainly in farming, a low 

returns area. 

Nigeria is currently the sixth 

largest producer of cocoa, but 

the country processes only 30% 

of the 248, 000 tonnes of cocoa 

beans it generates. Experts 

say increased concentration 

on processing, creating and 

building brands, and other activities 

in the value chain would 

increase production by at least 

70%. Ghana invested in better 

processing and moved up the 

ladder as global number two 

from the fourth position. 

Research and development is 

necessary to increase the value 

of our foods. In the 80s and 90s, 

Nigerian firms such as Guinness 

and Nigerian Breweries invested 

in alternatives to barley while 

Cadbury Nigeria built a patented 

cereal conversion plant 

to convert sorghum for use in 

the production of Bournvita 

and its confectioneries. Greater 

collaboration is needed between 

industry and research. 

Agriculture also needs the 

enabling environment of macroeconomic 

stability, controlled 

inflation and peace and 

public order. It requires stable 

exchange rates based on market 

fundamentals to enable the purchase 

of inputs. Infrastructure 

is critical. We expect that given 

the challenge of desertification 

and the search for land and 

water by herdsmen, the government 

would invest considerably 

in irrigation, roads and expansion 

of water routes. 

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture 

and Rural Development 

committed to pursuing 

enabling legislation to boost 

domestic content for food so 

that there would be 10% cassava 

flour substitution for wheat 

in bread and blending of 10% 

ethanol with petrol. It has not 

happened three years later. So 

much to do in adding value to 

agriculture. Time is running 

out. 

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BUSINESS DAY 

MoneyInsight 

C002D5556 

13 

Personal Finance: Investing Retirement Taxes Credit Cards Home Buying Small Business Shopping Financing 

High PoS transactions failures keep merchants’ cashless apathy alive 

FRANK ELEANYA 

Persistent rise in failed 

transactions involving 

Point of Sales (PoS) 

has many merchants 

on the wrong side of 

the cashless project being championed 

by the Central Bank of 

Nigeria (CBN). 

Data from the Nigeria Interbank 

Settlement System (NIBSS) 

found that PoS transactions carried 

out by retailers in the country 

recorded a high failure rate 

of 11.41 per cent representing 

about 278,966 failed electronic 

payment transactions on Tuesday, 

the first day of Eid-El-Kabir 

celebrations. The numbers did 

not change much on Wednesday, 

the second of the celebrations 

as failure rate dropped 

slightly to 10.53 per cent as at 

2:20pm. 

PoS transaction failures also 

hit 14.9 per cent in mid-December, 

2017. 

PoS should ordinarily be the 

preferred payment channel for 

many merchants in Nigeria. One 

major advantage it has is that 

unlike channels like ATM with 

withdrawal limit set at N100, 000, 

customers can pay more using 

PoS. Unlike ATMs also, it is portable 

and handy which means 

it can easily be moved around. 

NIBSS had noted in a report 

in 2015 that PoS is the most popular 

non-cash payment channel, 

preferred among the non-cash 

payment options by 93.6 per cent 

of merchants, and 38.8 per cent 

of consumers usage. 

The CBN introduced the 

Point of Sale system in 2012 to 

drive home its cashless policy. 

The volume of PoS transaction 

has grown since then at a 

compound annual growth rate 

(CAGR) of 123 per cent between 

2012 and 2016, according to 

NIBSS. The PoS system was used 

146 million times representing 

a 130 per cent increase from 64 

million prior to 2016. 

It is believed that PoS transactions 

peaked when small 

businesses that already use 

their PoS machines to accept 

bank cards for payments of 

goods and services began to use 

it to debit customers’ account in 

exchange for the equivalent cash 

and a fee. 

However, at a July 2018 fintech 

conference in Lagos organised 

by Epayment Plus, stakeholders 

observed the speed 

with which most merchants 

were rejecting usage of point 

of sales for their daily transactions. 

The problem did not just 

begin in 2018; in 2016, NIBSS 

admitted that despite uptake in 

the adoption, barely half of the 

machines were in operation. Out 

of a total 120,000 PoS machines 

in Nigeria, only 62,000 were 

active, while a total of 100,000 

terminals were registered with 

the company. 

At the conference in July, top 

on the list of complaints was the 

high transaction failure rate, 

high cost of operation and the 

length of time it takes to effect 

settlement with payment pro- 

viders. 

There are several factors that 

could lead to a failed PoS transaction. 

One of the major culprits 

is poor network. Poor network 

could be a result of a bank having 

network issues, in which case the 

transaction will fail, or a malfunction 

on the NIBSS platform 

which will mean the platform 

will not function in all the banks. 

A NIBSS representative said the 

later part is very rare. 

Transaction failures have 

led some proactive commercial 

banks such as the United Bank 

for Africa (UBA) to take measures 

aimed at reducing failure 

rates. The bank in 2017 collaborated 

with INETCO Insight 

to monitor multi-protocol payments 

and service transactions 

originating from mobile banking, 

online banking, ATM as well 

as PoS channels, and proactively 

identify transaction slowdowns 

and failures before they impact 

customers. 

Nigeria’s 74m MSMEs can improve energy efficiency with renewable 

STEPHEN ONYEKWELU 

Renewable energy solutions, 

such as the solar 

hybrid inverter systems 

for offices offer Nigeria’s startup 

entrepreneurs a leeway to 

overcome unreliable electricity 

supply from the national 

grid and rising cost of operating 

generator sets. 

The total number of Micro, 

Small and Medium Enterprises 

(MSME) is put conservatively 

at 74 million businesses, 

which constitute 84 percent of 

the labour force, contribute 50 

percent to GDP and 7 percent 

to export, according a report 

by the Central Bank of Nigeria 

(CBN). 

The CBN defines MSMEs in 

terms of their asset base and 

number of staff employed. 

The criteria are an asset base 

between N5 million and N500 

million, and staff strength between 

11 and 300 employees. 

Small companies outnumber 

large companies by a wide 

margin in Nigeria and employ 

a lot more people. While they 

are the driver of innovation 

and competition in many economic 

sectors, they are also 

the highest employer of labour 

when aggregated. 

However, the have chronic 

energy-hunger that is met 

with high energy costs and 

chronic unavailability. Each 

individual business is condemned 

to generating its own 

power and this can be done 

sustainably and efficiently 

with solar based renewable 

energy solutions. 

“To keep my operations 

running requires huge energy 

costs. It is really tough starting 

and running a business in 

Nigeria” Majiri Otobo, founder 

and CEO of Kui Care, a Lagosbased 

cosmetic medium-sized 

business told BusinessDay in 

an earlier interview. 

This is changing though 

with innovations in the deployment 

of renewable energy 

solutions. Recently in Osogbo, 

Osun state, a team of renewable 

energy experts installed a 

4kw/48v solar hybrid inverter 

system at an office facility. They 

have also been engaged with 

2.5kw/36v solar hybrid inverter 

installations for an estate at 

Mende, Maryland, Lagos. 

Other installations included 

the 2.5kw/36v solar hybrid 

inverter installation for a residence 

at Gbagada Phase 2, 

Lagos, 2.5kw/24v solar hybrid 

inverter installation at Obafemi 

Awolowo University Staff Quarters, 

Ile-Ife, Osun State. 

In addition there were 

6kw/48v solar hybrid inverter 

system installations at a 2-floor 

office in Lagos, off-grid solar 

security lighting system for 

an office at Surulere, Lagos 

and 6kw/48v hybrid solar inverter 

installation at an office 

in Mowe. 

“These are the few installations, 

I can recall as recent 

for now. Before these, we have 

done quite a lot of installations 

at different Small and 

Medium offices to enhance 

their business and support 

their operations based on our 

engagements” Mustapha Alabi, 

head of systems operations, 

BTS Renewables Ltd said in 

TweetChats with the Gridless 

Africa team on “Solar Office 

Solutions for SMEs.” 

MSMEs need to be cautious 

in considering the deployment 

of renewable energy solutions. 

They need to be energy efficiency 

conscious, they need to 

consider the power consumption 

of their tools like a printer, 

fan, lighting device, and so on 

before they purchase these 

things. 

“It is important, to minimise 

their power consumption, 

which in turn will reduce their 

kWh. In short, they should 

choose the right size systems 

for their needs” Alabi said. 

This means start-up entrepreneurs 

need to engage the 

services of a company with 

track record of knowing and 

doing a good job. It may appear 

expensive, but far cheaper in 

the long run. The companies 

who know the job bring in experience 

and the right design 

for the business’ energy needs. 

Nigeria, with a population 

approaching 200 million people, 

has been unable to provide 

power to more than 90 million 

of its people. Even those connected 

to the national grid 

are mostly undersupplied, 

necessitating their recourse 

to alternative means, which 

include expensive fossil fuel 

generating sets. 

Manufacturers in the country 

said in February that their 

peak electricity demand had 

gone up to 14,882 megawatts 

(MW). But the national grid is 

only able to generate and supply 

about 4500MW at the most. 

The manufacturers do not get 

a good amount of the meagre 

4500MW from the grid, so they 

rely on self-generated electricity 

to power their operations. 

At the moment, the financial 

value of Nigeria’s off-grid power 

market, which is driven by 

solar, is about $9.2 billion, according 

to the Rural Electrification 

Agency (REA). Operators 

and investors are beginning 

to change the initial negative 

stories associated with solar 

power in Nigeria with judicious 

investments and sustainable 

projects.



Policy Investments Market Insight Influencers 

POLICY 

3,000MW rural off grid projects look promising as REA secures ICRC certification 

ISAAC ANYAOGU 

The plan by the 

Rural Electrification 

Agency 

(REA) to boost 

off grid energy 

generation in rural areas 

received a boost as the Infrastructure 

Concession Regulatory 

Commission (ICRC), 

a government agency set up 

to bridge infrastructural gap 

and regulate Public Private 

Partnerships (PPP), is backing 

REA’s mini grid and solar 

home systems (SHS) projects, 

to increase electricity 

access for rural communities 

by 3000 megawatts (MW). 

“We are glad to announce 

that the Infrastructure Concession 

and Regulatory 

Commission (ICRC) has issued 

the Rural Electrification 

Agency (REA) a Joint Outline 

and Full Business Case Compliance 

Certificate, having 

satisfied the provisions of 

the ICRC Act 2005 and the 

National Policy on Public 

Private Partnership (PPP) for 

the development of Hybrid 

Mini-Grids and Solar Home 

Systems in Rural Communities 

in Nigeria,” the REA said 

MARKET 

Global hydropower growth 

strong in 2017, IHA’s survey says 

2017 was a banner 

year for hydroelectric 

power, with a record 

4,185 TWh generated 

worldwide, according to the 

International Hydropower 

Association’s most recent 

Hydropower Status Report. 

The 2018 Hydropower 

Status Report, published in 

conjunction with the Beijing 

Forum on Hydropower and 

Future Energy Systems reveals 

the global capacity of commissioned 

hydro rose by 21.9 GW 

over the past year -- bringing 

the worldwide tally of installed 

capacity to 1,267 GW. 

“This report serves to highlight 

the vital contribution 

of hydropower to meeting 

the world’s energy needs, 

without which we could not 

hope to achieve the ambitious 

carbon reduction targets that 

underpin the Paris Climate 

Agreement,” said IHA Chief 

Executive Richard Taylor. 

Leading the way in 

growth last year was the East 

Asia and Pacific region, with 

9.8 GW of capacity added. 

South America (4.1 GW), 

Sanusi Ohiare executive director, Rural Electrification Fund receives the certification from Chidi 

Izuwah, acting director general, ICRC 

in a statement on its website. 

With the compliance certificate 

the organisation can 

commence the process of 

awarding successful bidders 

of its tender last year the 

funds required to commence 

their projects. 

On its significance, Sanusi 

Ohiare executive director, 

Rural Electrification Fund 

said, “It implies that REA 

has followed due process 

and extant laws in selecting 

South and Central Asia (3.3 

GW), Europe (2.3 GW), Africa 

(1.9 GW), and North and 

Central America (500 MW) 

followed. 

Meanwhile, China maintained 

its position as the 

world’s largest producer of 

hydro with 9.1 GW-worth of 

installed capacity, followed 

by Brazil (3.4 GW), India (1.9 

GW), Portugal (1.1 GW) and 

Angola (1 GW). 

IHA said hydro translated 

to the elimination of about 

4 billion tons of greenhouse 

gas emissions from coalfired 

sources in 2017, while 

avoiding a 10% rise in emissions 

from other fossil fuels. 

Hydropower also prevented 

the introduction of 148 million 

tons of air polluting 

particulates, 62 million tons 

of sulphur dioxide and 8 million 

tons of nitrogen oxide. 

Pumped storage also saw 

significant growth in 2017, with 

3.2 GW of new capacity bringing 

the world’s total to 153 GW. 

“Hydropower offers storage 

services which support 

growth in other renewables 

such as wind and solar, as 

well as water management 

and protection from floods 

and drought,” Taylor said. 

However Bloomberg energy 

research says investment 

in large hydro-electric 

projects of more than 50 

megawatts came to $39.6 billion 

in 2017. This figure represents 

the final investment 

decisions made in the sector 

last year, and was dominated 

by a single project – the $28 

billion committed by China 

Three Gorges Corp. to building 

the 16-gigawatt Baihetan 

dam on the Jinsha River. 

Taking large and small 

hydro together, investment 

in new capacity last year was 

just under $43 billion, far 

behind the $154 billion committed 

to solar energy, and 

the $104 billion allocated to 

wind energy projects. However, 

the investment flows 

going into hydro dwarfed 

those going to other renewable 

energy sectors, such 

as biomass and waste-toenergy, 

biofuels, geothermal 

and wave and tidal. 

private partners to benefit 

from grants offered by the 

REF, and we can go ahead 

and implement the pilot 12 

mini-grids and 20,000 Solar 

home systems advertised for 

a few months ago.” 

In his opening remarks at 

a short ceremony to present 

the certificate to REA, the 

Chidi Izuwah, acting director 

general, ICRC, said “this 

is the 2nd Joint OBC & FBC 

Compliance Certificate issued 

to an organization”, as 

he pledged to support REA’s 

bid to provide access to reliable 

and renewable electric 

power supply for rural dwellers 

through appropriate 

tariff that is economically 

responsive and supportive 

of rural and unserved communities. 

Ohiare, who received 

the certificate on behalf of 

Damilola Ogunbiyi, MD- 

CEO of REA commended the 

efforts of the ICRC for their 

support in ensuring that the 

pilot long term PPP focused 

projects for rural electrification 

remained successful 

through the observation of 

all legal regulatory frameworks. 

“Based upon an assessment 

and review of the proposal 

and all information 

available, this certificate 

confirms that the submission 

is in substantial compliance 

with the ICRC Act 2005, 

and the National Policy on 

Public Private Partnership,” 

the ICRC said in a Twitter 

post. 

“In view of the fact that 

the mitigating conditions 

for the project may change 

over time, this certificate is 

valid for 12 months,” said the 

document signed by Chidi 

Izuwa, ICRC acting director 

general. 

The REA has been on 

a drive to ramp up energy 

access in rural areas and 

underserved communities 

in Nigeria, a move that electricity 

distribution companies 

(DisCos) have kicked 

against on the ground that 

it is infringing on their franchise 

areas. 

In June Enugu DisCo 

wrote the sector regulator 

the Nigerian Electricity 

Regulatory Commission 

(NERC), asking it to sanction 

companies supported 

by REA, whom they say are 

distributing power without 

acquiring a distribution license 

for that franchise area. 

NERC responded by issuing 

the organisations licenses 

and the matter has ended 

in court in a fight for right to 

serve the disputed franchise 

area. 

Babatunde Fashola, on 

several occasions has said 

the DisCos are not granted 

exclusive rights to franchise 

areas and their license is 

subject to adequate distribution 

of power in those areas. 

However, underserved 

communities would accept 

power from whoever can 

give them regular supply 

which is why traders at Sura 

market in Lagos are calling 

for off grid intervention 

due to poor supply. The 

REA who recently received 

a $350million loan from the 

World Bank may be poised to 

meet this need through mini 

grid developments with this 

ICRC certification. 

Power stations of the future need to be hybrid and agile 

European utilities 

are seizing on the 

increasing importance 

of providing 

flexibility to the power grid. 

Not to be left behind, they 

need to not only change their 

operating strategy, but also 

modernize their generation 

fleet so it can rapidly respond 

to volatile system conditions. 

This means future large 

power stations – such as RWE 

AG’s Tilbury and Drax – will 

be hybrids, incorporating batteries 

and gas-fired peakers. 

The change will make them 

more dynamic, both operationally 

and in terms of reinventing 

their business model as market 

needs and values shift. 

These conventional generators 

have had a rough ten years 

in Western Europe’s wholesale 

power markets. And it is clear 

the need for flexible generation 

is not about to go away – on 

the contrary, it is only going 

to rise. Utilities are realizing 

that in today’s system it pays to 

be able to quickly ramp their 

own generation up or down in 

response to changes in demand 

or renewables coming online. 

As a result, they are changing 

their strategy so their power 

plants can increasingly capture 

value from providing flexibility. 

Wind and solar have 

changed the rules of the game. 

Traditional large fossil generators, 

which have historically 

provided the bulk of balancing 

services, are no longer making 

the cut due to the need for 

steeper ramp-rates, shorter 

cold- start times and operation 

at lower minimum stable levels. 

For example, a mooted update 

to frequency response services 

in Great Britain saw response 

time requirements go from ten 

or more seconds to less than 

one – a requirement that only 

the fastest technologies, like 

batteries, can meet. 

To capture the value of flexibility, 

a new breed of power stations 

is being designed. RWE’s 

Tilbury Energy Centre will include 

a 2.5 gigawatt combinedcycle 

gas turbine with a 300 

megawatt gas peaker and a 100 

megawatt battery. Drax Group 

Plc has similar plans that aim to 

convert its two remaining coal 

units into a 3.6 gigawatt CCGT 

paired with 200 megawatts of 

battery storage. Not only will 

these new power stations be 

able to stack different revenue 

from, for example, frequency 

response and energy arbitrage 

but, more importantly, they 

will have the freedom to reinvent 

their business model as 

market needs evolve and value 

is displaced. So the wholesale 

power market is having a bad 

year? No problem, focus on the 

balancing mechanism. If that 

stops working, switch to ancillary 

services – or why not try all 

three at the same time? 

There are also other advantages. 

Placing all assets in the 

same site should streamline 

planning and permitting and 

reduce grid-connection costs. 

Having a large generation asset, 

expected to run frequently, 

means you can charge batteries 

directly. This avoids having 

to modify existing generation 

licenses to allow bidirectional 

power flows – a process that 

is not straightforward and can 

be a barrier to deploying storage 

assets. 

One big challenge for these 

jacks-of-all-trades will be to 

avoid not quite being competitive 

at any one particular 

application. These power stations 

will have to compete 

across different markets where 

there will be more specialized 

and cheaper generators. But 

on the other and, less flexible 

assets are already scrambling 

to find value across different 

markets. New flexible plants 

should have a field day competing 

against them. 

Analyst: Isaac Anyaogu, Email: isaac.anyaogu@businessdayonline.com, 07037817378, 

Graphics: Joel Samson

Friday 24 August 2018 C002D5556 BUSINESS DAY 15 

COMPANIES 

& MARKETS 

Company news analysis and insight 

Debitum Network 

to drive alternative 

financing options for SMEs 

worldwide 

Pg. 16 

Shareholders jostle for Mutual Benefits 

rights issue, expresses confidence 

Modestus Anaesoronye 

Group of shareholders 

of Mutual 

Benefits 

Assurance Plc 

have expressed 

their readiness to take up 

their rights in the Company’s 

ongoing N2 billion right issues 

flagged off 6th August. 

According to them, the 

potential of the company 

for growth is huge having 

invested for a long while in 

the retail space, which holds 

the growth pot of the industry. 

They said they will take 

their rights with great optimisms, 

given that the company 

has promised to sustain 

dividend payouts. 

The underwriting firm is 

offering to its existing shareholders 

4,000,000,000 ordinary 

shares of 50 kobo each at 

50kobo per share on the basis 

of one new ordinary shares 

for every one held, targeted at 

raising N2 billion. 

The fund when released 

will enable Mutual Benefits 

carry out its recapitalization 

and growth plan, provision 

of additional working capital 

and financing the expansion 

of IT facilities to support the 

Company’s enlarged operations. 

Shareholders of the company 

had approved the Board 

of Directors’ proposal to raise 

additional equity at an Annual 

General Meeting (AGM) held 

in Ibadan on June 27, 2018. 

Acceptance List for the 

Rights Issue opens on Monday, 

6, August 2018 and will 

close Friday 14, September 

2018. The Rights being offered 

are tradable on the floor of The 

Nigerian Stock Exchange for 

the duration of the Issue. 

The insurance company, 

a general business and life 

insurer, has an authorised 

share capital of N10billion 

with a paid up capital of N4 

billion. The company provides 

insurance coverage across 

several sectors including aviation, 

oil and gas, marine cargo 

and hull business and other 

non-life insurance underwrit- 

ing, including motor, fire and 

special perils, goods-in-transit, 

engineering insurance, retail 

and micro insurance, amongst 

others. 

Speaking at the completion 

board meeting held today, 

the chairman of the company 

L-R: Olu Akanmu, executive director, retail banking, First City Monument Bank (FCMB); Bukola Smith, executive director, business 

development; Abdurrazaq Balogun, executive secretary/CEO, Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF); Yemisi Edun, executive 

director, finance, FCMB, and Adam Nuru, managing director of the Bank, during a courtesy visit to the Management of FCMB by 

LSSTF at the Bank’s head office in Lagos. 

Akin Ogunbiyi said that the 

proceeds of the offer will be 

used to fund the Company’s 

recapitalization and growth 

plan, provision of additional 

working capital and financing 

the expansion of IT facilities 

to support the Company’s 

enlarged operations. 

On plans for 2018, he said 

“We will consolidate on the 

modest achievements recorded 

in 2017 by commencing our 

IT transformation blueprint 

in 2018.” 

This he said will help to 

eliminate slack time in its 

processing and ultimately 

enable them to focus more 

on customer delights and 

satisfaction. 

He further said “Our 

strategic aspiration is to 

become the number one 

insurance company in Nigeria 

in terms of growth 

and profitability.” 

“Despite the tough business 

environment we have 

been able to bounce back to 

profitability and delight our 

shareholders. Dividend of 

N0.02kobo per share will be 

paid to our esteemed shareholders 

who have stood by us 

over the years” 

He assured that going forward 

dividend payment will 

be sustained, while urging 

shareholders to take up the 

right issue. 

Ecobank takes digital banking 

proposition to tertiary institutions 

Hope Moses-Ashike 

Ecobank Nigeria, determined 

to deepen its 

digital banking proposition 

has gone to 

tertiary institutions across the 

country targeting the youths 

and the young at heart. 

The Ecobank Xpress Campus 

Storm, which kicked off at 

Laspotech, Ikorodu campus 

has journeyed through 11 

campuses including Unilag, 

Yabatech, UNN, UI, OAU etc. 

In the words of Ikechukwu 

Kalu, head, Consumer Marketing 

“It has been a rich and 

rewarding engagement with 

youths in the campuses we 

have visited. The excitement 

and energy level have been 

indescribable. We have seen 

massive turnout at the different 

activations and high level 

of adoption including Xpress 

Account opening and banking 

transactions on campus 

via the Xpress Points (Agency 

Banking Agents). 

Thousands of students who 

have embraced the bank’s 

digital products are able to 

achieve easy transfer of funds, 

cardless withdrawals at ATMs 

and the consummation of 

other banking activities using 

their mobile phones. 

Kalu, who was responding 

to media questions in Lagos, 

stated that the campus activation 

project which is still in its 

first phase has taken officials of 

the bank to 11 tertiary institutions 

across Nigeria. 

He further affirmed that 

“the Campus Storm avails 

students of tertiary institutions 

the opportunity to open 

the Ecobank Xpress account, 

a digital account that requires 

no documentation, minimum 

balance or paperwork. 

It is simply opened by downloading 

the Ecobank Mobile 

app or using the USSD code, 

*326#. In his words “with 

the Ecobank Xpress account, 

students will be able to access 

financial services such 

as airtime top up, transfer 

and receive funds as well as 

pay bills from their mobile 

devices. I call on parents and 

guardians to transfer money 

to their children’s Xpress accounts, 

which they can withdraw 

without a card at any 

Ecobank ATM (using Xpress 

Cash) or XpressPoint”. 

“At the various campuses 

visited the bank had free WiFi 

centres tagged the ‘Xpress 

Corner’ available for the students. 

This gave them internet 

access and also afforded them 

the opportunity to win exciting 

prizes during the activation. 

We are highly impressed 

with the number of students 

onboarded to the Ecobank 

Xpress account. This has again 

portrayed us as the choice 

bank for youths. 

The campus activation is 

to empower young people 

by offering them convenient, 

affordable and accessible 

financial services anytime, 

anywhere from their mobile 

phones”, he stated. The campus 

storm pushes very strong 

and exciting value propositions 

- account opening with 

ease, banking on the go and 

ease of transaction at Xpress 

Points spread across neighbourhoods 

in the country. 

A.M. Best reaffirms IGI’s financial 

strength rating of A- (Excellent) 

Rating agency A.M. 

Best has reaffirmed 

the financial 

strength rating of 

A- (Excellent) with a positive 

outlook for International General 

Insurance Co. Ltd (IGI 

Bermuda) and International 

General Insurance Company 

(UK) Limited (IGI UK), the 

global specialist commercial 

insurer and reinsurer. 

A.M. Best said the positive 

outlook reflects “IGI’s record 

of strong operating results, 

driven by generally robust 

underwriting profitability and 

stable investment income”. 

The rating agency also said 

IGI’s balance sheet strength 

assessment was underpinned 

by its risk-adjusted capitalisation 

being at the strongest 

level, as measured by 

Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio 

(BCAR). 

In addition, A.M. Best 

praised IGI’s Enterprise Risk 

Management (ERM) framework, 

calling it “well-developed” 

and its risk management 

capabilities “aligned appropriately 

with its risk profile”. 

A.M. Best also believes that 

“IGI’s capital buffer will sufficiently 

support its strategic 

initiatives over the next three 

years (2018-2020).” 

“We are pleased to have 

received from A.M. Best the 

A- (Excellent) with a positive 

outlook rating,” said Mr 

Wasef Jabsheh, Chief Executive 

Officer of IGI. A.M. Best 

stated IGI has achieved strong 

underwriting profitability in 

challenging market conditions. 

“The positive outlooks 

reflect the expectation that the 

company will generate strong 

profitability, while maintaining 

its balance sheet strength 

at a very strong level,” A.M 

Best said.

16 

BUSINESS DAY 

C002D5556 


COMPANIES & MARKETS 

Debitum Network to drive alternative financing options for SMEs worldwide 

Endurance Okafor 

Debitum Network, 

a global 

ecosystem that 

connects small 

businesses to international 

investors has announced 

plans to drive alternative 

finance options to support 

small businesses. 

As obtaining finance from 

traditional banks for small 

businesses can be a struggle, 

particularly for startups and 

those with low credit scores, 

this move experts will help 

build capacity for small scale 

firms. 

The innovative hybrid ecosystem 

for small business 

financing, therefore wants 

to lunch a platform that will 

help bridge the finance gap 

encountered by small businesses 

around the world. 

Meanwhile, according 

to some estimates, banks 

reject more than 50 percent 

of loan applications from 

small and medium sized enterprises 

(SMEs). While in 

developing economies, the 

picture is even worse: a 2017 

report from the World Bank 

estimates that 70 percent of 

small, medium and microenterprises 

are unable to 

access the credit they need. 

Even for those lucky 

enough to have their loans 

approved, the outdated practices 

of traditional banks can 

mean a mountain of paperwork 

and onerous requirements 

– leaving business 

owners with less time to do 

what they do best: run their 

business. 

Slow approval times and 

a conservative attitude to risk 

are two more reasons why 

small business owners are 

turning their backs on conventional 

banking and opting 

for the convenience, speed 

and flexibility of alternative 

finance (AF). 

“With the launch of Debitum 

Network on September 

3rd, 2018, small businesses 

from all over the world will 

be able to access finance as 

part of a balanced ecosystem 

that will connect local 

infrastructure with global 

investors,” the company 

said in a statement. 

Last year in the UK, for 

example, business borrowing 

via AF rose 43 percent yearon-year, 

as compiled from 

Debitum Network. 

Meanwhile, recent figures 

from the World Bank estimate 

that the global alternative 

finance market for small businesses 

could grow to as much 

as $90 billion USD in 2020, 

from its current figure of $34 

billion. 

“Challenges persist in SME 

access to finance, but this 

visible growth in financing 

alternatives is very positive 

news,” Secretary-General Angel 

Gurría of the Organisation 

for Economic Co-operation 

and Development (OECD) 

said while welcoming the 

growth in AF. 

One of the most wellestablished 

forms of Alternative 

Finance is crowdfunding. 

Popularised by 

sites such as Kickstarter and 

Indiegogo, crowdfunding 

allows businesses to raise 

funds from a group of investors 

– with the offer of some 

kind of benefit in return. 

This could be early access to 

a newly-developed product 

when it’s launched, or to 

L-R: Head of human resources Seven Up Bottling Company Limited (SBC), Yinka Olufade; 7UP 

Harvard Business School MBA scholarship winner, Ulunma Izejiobi; Senior Brand Manager SBC, 

Segun Ogunleye; HR Business Partner SBC, Chinenye Irokwem at the unveiling of Ulunma Izejiobi 

as the winner of 7UP HBS 2018 in Lagos. 

some form of discount. 

Unlike other P2P lenders, 

Debitum Network is dedicated 

to serving the needs of small 

businesses. Uniquely, the service 

uses blockchain technology 

to automate its processes, 

while transactions are carried 

out in traditional fiat currency 

– making it accessible to small 

traders inexperienced in the 

crypto-currency market. 

NCRIB to publish annual gross premium 

generated by members 

The Nigerian Council 

of Registered 

Insurance Brokers 

(NCRIB) says it will 

soon publish gross premium 

generated by its members 

annually 

Shola Tinubu, president 

NCRIB , says the council will 

take appropriate steps to ensure 

that the gross premium 

generated by brokers is published 

annually. 

Tinubu, who made this 

known during a media parley 

in Lagos, said that the publication 

would start in 2019. 

He said that the council 

has rough data for commission, 

but lacked data for gross 

premium generated by the 

brokers annually. 

The News Agency of Nigeria 

(NAN) reports that the 

brokers’ gross premium is the 

total income on businesses attracted 

by brokers to insurance 

industry annually. 

The NCRIB president 

said it was a challenge that 

the council would rise up to, 

adding that it should be able 

to submit what the brokers’ 

generated annually to the 

table. 

“I think it is a challenge we 

can overcome, starting from 

next year,” he said. 

Tinubu, however, said that 

the volume of business written 

Don proffers solution to curbing plastic waste 

A 

retired university 

don, Oladele Osibanjo, 

has said that 

the ultimate solution 

to curbing plastic waste 

is for firms generating them to 

switch from non-biodegradable 

polymers to biodegradable 

polymers. 

Osibanjo, a retired Professor 

of Chemistry, said this in 

an interview with the News 

Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in 

Lagos. 

He noted that food and 

beverages companies as well 

as packaging firms were the 

greatest culprits generating 

single-use non-biodegradable 

polymers. 

The don said that because 

switching to biodegradable 

polymers would take time, 

the firms could, in the interim, 

put in place a “takeback 

or collection system” for 

the waste generated by their 

products. 

“Water sachets are the 

cheapest and handiest nonbiodegradable 

waste. Every 

minute daily about one 

million water sachets are 

thrown away to the environment. 

“Companies should transit 

by insurance companies grew 

to N363 billion in 2017 from 

N315.96 billion in 2016. 

According to him, but the 

amount generated by brokers 

cannot be ascertained due to 

paucity of data. 

“Investigations revealed 

that underwriters paid over 

N33.6 billion to brokers and 

agents as commission for premium 

generated in 2016. 

“Leadway Assurance Ltd. 

paid about N4 billion commissions; 

FBN Insurance Ltd. paid 

N1.93 billion; AIICO Insurance 

paid N1.80 billion; NEM Insurance 

paid N1.80 billion and 

Axa Mansard Insurance paid 

N1.49 billion. 

from use of non-biodegradable 

polymers to biodegradable 

polymers. 

“However, because they 

need to source for these polymers, 

they should put in place 

a take-back or collection system 

for the waste of their 

products rather than people 

throwing them anywhere. 

“The plastic waste collected 

can now be re-used in 

making new products; that 

way, you are turning it over for 

recycling and re-using. 

“That is one effective way 

of reducing nuisance and environmental 

pollution caused 

“Others are: Custodian & 

Allied Insurance, N1.37 billion; 

WAPIC Insurance paid N1.30 

billion and Zenith Insurance 

Company Ltd. paid N1.09 billion, 

among others. 

“As we see in 2016, the 

commissions were paid to brokers 

and agents, not brokers 

alone; so, we cannot deduced 

the annual broker’s gross premium 

from the commissions,” 

he said. 

Tinubu said that the council 

would henceforth keep 

track on necessary data in order 

to know the exact brokers’ 

gross premium annually to 

enable the council to deliver 

on its promise. 

by plastic wastes practiced all 

over the world.’’ 

Osibanjo said that if plastic 

wastes were taken away from 

the environment, they would 

not cause harm anymore. 

He, however, stressed that 

the ultimate solution was 

for packaging companies 

and manufacturing firms to 

change to bio-degradable 

polymers. 

According to him, this is 

because over a period, there 

will still be some that cannot 

be recycled anymore and one 

will have to look for other uses 

for those. 

Insurers could lose up to 119% of 

policyholder’s surplus on cyber risks 

A 

new collaborative report 

by A.M. Best and 

Guidewire Software 

has estimated that 

three of the top 20 cyber insurers 

could generate significant 

gross losses to policyholder 

surplus of between 15 percent 

to 119 percent, from a single 

cyber catastrophe event occurring 

in 2022, according to 

reinsurance news. 

A.M. Best and Guidewire’s 

Cyence Risk Analytics team 

extrapolated and modelled 

current cyber insurance market 

trends to 2022 in order to 

test and estimate the impact 

of future cyber-attacks on the 

industry’s capitalisation and 

ratings. This involved creating 

five typical policy profiles, 

each with specific attributes 

such as policy limits and line 

of business minimums, and 

applying Guidewire’s data 

listening application to the 

cyber portfolios of the top 20 

insurance carriers to model 

their gross loss potential. 

Two scenarios described 

in a Lloyd’s 2017 emerging risk 

report were used for the stress 

test: one in which numerous 

cloud-based customer servers 

fail and cause widespread 

service and business interruption, 

and one in which a 

common software application 

is compromised and exploited 

on a global scale. 

Additionally, an assessment 

against both events occurring 

over a 12-month period found 

that at the 1-in-200 event level, 

five companies incurred gross 

losses ranging from 11% to 

233% of their estimated 2022 

policyholder surplus. 

Although the severity of loss 

potential was identified, A.M. 

Best noted that most carriers’ 

gross losses were manageable, 

and added that projections 

under the 1-in-50 and 1-in-200 

scenarios did not consider ceded 

reinsurance arrangements 

that the companies may have. 

However, the report also did 

not take into consideration the 

silent cyber exposure of these 

companies, which A.M. Best 

warned could also potentially 

be significant. 

“For the majority of these 

companies, even the gross 

losses do not come close to the 

natural catastrophe probable 

maximum loss estimates used 

for stressing the balance sheet 

strength of the companies,” 

said Fred Eslami, an associate 

director at A.M. Best. “However, 

under these circumstances, a 

handful of companies could 

lose a significant amount of surplus, 

which potentially could 

create ratings pressure or even 

trigger a downgrade.” 

Sridhar Manyem, director of 

Industry Research and Analytics, 

also commented: “Cyber 

risk inherently will span multiple 

functional skill domains, 

requiring expertise from claims, 

underwriting, actuarial and 

enterprise risk management, 

and making the process truly 

a team effort across an insurer. 

Addressing the talent gap will 

be a critical aspect of risk management.”


PenCom reaffirms commitment 

to best practice, ethical 

standard for industry 


Business Event 

Modestus Anaesoronye 

Pension industry regulator, 

the National 

Pension Commission 

(PenCom) has said 

that one of the major achievements 

of the Pension Reform 

is the establishment of robust 

legal and institutional frameworks 

for the administration of 

pensions in Nigeria. 

The Commission said the 

reform has instituted transparent 

processes in the operations 

of the Commission and the 

Pension Fund Administrators 

(PFAs) in the retirement 

benefits payment process, enforcement 

of compliance with 

the provisions of the Pension 

Reform Act (PRA) 2014 as well 

as other operations of the industry. 

“Consistent with the above, 

the public is hereby invited to 

note that payment of retirement 

benefits under the Contributory 

Pension Scheme (CPS) 

is made by the PFAs strictly 

from the Retirement Savings 

Accounts (RSA) of pension 

contributors. “ 

“The RSA has three (3) basic 

components, namely, the 

monthly pension contributions; 

the returns on investment 

earned for the contributors by 

the PFAs; and the retirement 

benefits that accrued under 

the defunct Defined Benefits 

Scheme.” 

“Section 7 of the Pension 

Reform Act 2014 and the Regulations 

on the Administration 

of Retirement & Terminal Benefits 

demand that the three (3) 

components of the retirement 

benefit must be consolidated 

in the RSA before any payment 

is made by the PFA. “ 

“Accordingly, payments of 

retirement benefits are made 

promptly into the bank accounts 

of the retirees except 

for cases where the employer 

delays in the release of funds 

to pay the accrued rights component 

of the retiree’s benefits.” 

In the performance of its 

statutory mandate, the Commission 

issues Compliance 

Certificate to organizations 

wishing to bid for contracts with 

Federal Government institutions, 

pursuant to the requirement 

of the Public Procurement 

Act 2007. 

Furthermore, as it is the 

case with all institutions, the 

Commission engages vendors 

and services providers from 

time to time. In addition to the 

legal safeguards and institutional 

checks and balances of 

the CPS, the Commission, as 

the regulator of all pension matters 

in Nigeria, has entrenched 

good corporate governance 

practices, high ethical standards 

and zero tolerance to 

any form of malpractice in the 

conduct of its staff and the PFAs 

that manage the pension assets. 

“In this regard, the Management 

and staff of the Commission 

do not receive money or 

other forms of gratification to 

facilitate payment of retirement 

benefits, issuance of Compliance 

Certificates and engagement 

of vendors and service 

providers. “ 

“The Commission does not 

also give/accept kickbacks to/ 

from any individual or organization 

in the discharge of its 

responsibilities. The members 

of the public, particularly pensioners 

and pension contributors 

are, therefore, reminded 

that no financial or other form 

of inducement should be given 

to anybody to facilitate payment 

of retirement benefits, 

issuance of Compliance Certificate 

or engagement as vendor 

or service provider.” 

“Indeed, members of the 

public are earnestly requested 

to immediately report to the 

Commission, anyone who 

makes any demand for any 

form of inducement in whatever 

form or disguise.” 

The Commission remains 

totally dedicated to the safeguard 

of your rights and payment 

of your retirement benefits 

as and when due, PenCom 

said in a statement. 

Agric firm seeks FG’s partnership to 

enhance standard in local production 

L-R: Lanre Atobatele, commercial capability director, Nigerian Bottling Company Limited (NBC); 

Abiodun Peters, compliance manager, Nigerian Bottling Company Limited (NBC); Akintunde Oyebode, 

executive secretary, Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF); Amaka Onyemelukwe, public 

affairs and communications manager, Coca-Cola Nigeria, and Teju Abisoye, director, programs 

and coordination, Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF), at the signing of Memorandum of 

Understanding (MOU) for the Empowerment of 1000 Women in Lagos State recently. 

L-R: Tomi Ogulesi, corporate brand manager, Interswitch; Niyi Adeleke, unit head, enforcement 

& compliance, National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC); Joy Okuma, assistant director 

& head, regulation & monitoring department, NLRC; Omolola Allison, scientific officer, quality 

& assurance development, Consumer Protection Council; Boma Tai-Osagbemi, head digital 

commerce unit, Interswitch; Femi Olorunmaye, customer insight executive, Interswitch, and 

Adetayo Teluwo, group head digital payments, product and marketing management, Interswitch 

at the Quickteller Delight Promo Draws on in Lagos. 

The Nigeria Certification 

Company (NICERT 

Ltd), says it is ready to 

collaborate with the 

Federal Government to develop 

best agricultural practices and 

standards for local farmers to 

curb food rejections. 

Annabel Kamuche, managing 

director, NICERT told the 

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) 

in Abuja that the company was 

a conformity assessment and 

certification body working in 

partnership with ECOCERT 

Group. 

ECOCERT is one of the leading 

conformity assessment and 

certification bodies globally and 

though based in France have 

various offices and subsidiaries 

in different countries. 

Kamuche said that developing 

and domesticating best 

agricultural standards for farmers 

in the country has become 

necessary to save Nigeria from 

further international embarrassment 

due to agricultural 

produce rejections. 

She said the move would 

also help to protect the lives and 

health of citizens. 

According to her, we can 

help the country to create agricultural 

standards that all stakeholders 

must comply with. 

“We can work with the Federal 

Ministry of Agriculture, the 

Nigerian Quarantine Service, 

NAFDAC, SON, farmers to set up 

these standards and then, it will 

apply to people who are importing 

into the country. 

“Ghana has domesticated 

a good agricultural practice 

standard that their local farmers 

conform to even for the products 

being consumed in their 

country, but we don’t have any of 

those things operating currently 

in Nigeria. 

“Nobody is checking what 

our farmers are doing, nobody is 

checking the pesticides they are 

using, nobody is checking their 

post-harvest handling; nobody 

is checking the kind of fertiliser 

they use. 

“Nobody is checking the 

kind of seedlings they plant. 

Even if we are not exporting 

anything, what we consume 

within our country can be 

dangerous to our health. 

“Part of those products that 

were rejected in the international 

market must have been first sold 

in our local markets and our 

country men and women must 

have consumed them,’’ she said. 

Kamuche said that NICERT 

was offering free advisory services 

on international food production 

standards and market 

linkages for farmers to earn 

better living from agriculture as 

a business. 

The managing director said 

the organisation in collaboration 

with ECOCERT had trained 

no fewer than 36 persons as 

consultants and inspectors and 

they are now the first Nigerians 

to be qualified to do conformity 

assessment and certification in 

accordance with international 

standards. 

Kamuche said the certification 

was commercial and legal 

standards such as ISO, NOP, 

EU, JAS. 

She said that the company 

was offering certification services 

to exporters for different 

standards including Organic 

standards, Fair trade, UTZ, Cosmos, 

IFS, Global Gap. 

“Our target for NICERT is to 

become one of the leading third 

party conformity assessment and 

certification bodies in Nigeria. 

L-R: Soji Fagbemi, human resources manager, SONA Group; KVS Murthy, managing director, Food, 

Agro & Allied industries Ltd; Arjan Mirchandani, chairman, SONA Group; Joseph Taiwo Oguniyi, 

legal adviser, SONA Group; Michael Olayiwola Ajagbonna, assistant chief standards officer, SON 

Ogun State Office; Ajai Musaddi, group managing director, SONA Group, and Adekanbi Williams; 

Devanshu Seth, group marketing head, during Food, Agro Allied Industries inauguration of malt 

extract exportation to New Zealand in Ogun State. 

L-R: A cross section of Star United We Shine Millionaires Promo winners at a regional presentation 

in Enugu recently.

18 

BUSINESS DAY 

C002D5556 



FINTECH 

News Products Review Technology Review Personality Review Company Review 

COMPANY REVIEW 

What’s the future of physical bank branches? 

Stories by FRANK ELEANYA 

One of the notable 

achievements 

of financial 

technology 

(Fintech) is the 

speed of adapting to the new 

location of the 21st century 

customer. The consequence 

of a social media boom is that 

people spend less time offline 

and more time online. 

The growth of mobile 

phones has also contributed 

significantly to this migration 

from physical places to virtual 

platforms. 

The number of mobile 

subscribers in Nigeria reached 

150 million and internet users 

went up 97.2 million in 2017, 

according to a data from Jumia, 

Nigeria’s largest online 

retailer. Jumia said the growth 

was driven by the availability 

of lower point phones that 

enabled more Nigerians to 

own a mobile device. It also 

revealed that Nigeria has 21 

million smartphones. 

For Fintech businesses and 

players, the numbers repre- 

sent immense opportunities 

for growth. A major staple of 

fintech is the development 

of new financial technology 

products and services that are 

not limited by physical spaces. 

Fintech companies utilise 

technology as widely available 

as payment applications 

to more complex software 

applications such as artificial 

intelligence and big data. 

Unlike traditional financial 

institutions, fintech businesses 

are nimble, flexible 

and aim at providing the 

most convenient service to 

customers. These services 

have so revolutionised the 

way people perceive banking 

that even banks are adapting 

and playing at the front end 

of fintech in Nigeria. As the 

banks embrace fintech, the 

physical branches that used 

to host a lot of people are 

thinning out. 

“We are a digital bank, 

which means we don’t have 

physical branches (because 

you won’t need them),” ALAT, 

the fintech arm of the decades 

old bank Wema Bank 

Plc, boldly declared recently. 

“You’ll be able to do everything 

(sign up, request and 

activate a debit card, pay and 

save), on your phone.” 

ALAT’s sentiments on 

physical branches have also 

been echoed by GTBank’s 

CEO Segun Agbaje. At the 

Social Media Week in Lagos 

in 2017, he noted that the 

bank is already planning for 

a future where 90 per cent of 

customers’ needs will be done 

through mobile phones. 

Nearly all the Nigerian 

banks now have financial digital 

strategy and are leveraging 

new social platforms to bring 

services closer to customers. 

Safe to say each is making 

plans for a future where online 

controls the largest share of 

their revenue activities. 

What does the future hold 

for physical branches then? 

“By 2020, we expect to have 

physical branches handling 

no transactions but just advisory 

services to our customers,” 

James Mwangi, CEO of 

Equity Bank said at a recent 

conference in Kenya where 

it also launched its fintech 

subsidiary, Finserve Africa 

Limited in August. 

While physical bank 

branches will continue to 

experience less and less customers, 

it might take a little 

longer time – if at all – for 

them to become a relic for the 

museum. While the threat of 

fintech is real, what may never 

change is the customers need 

for physical contact. 

Financial advisory is a 

field that is getting more attention 

from financial institutions. 

Earlier this year, to the 

surprise of many analysts, 

JPMorgan Chase announced 

plans to open 400 new bank 

branches. The branches which 

will be rolling out in October, 

is aimed at offering advisory 

services to small businesses. 

According to some experts 

entrepreneurs place more 

value on in-person advisory 

relationships they get when 

they visit bank representatives 

in person. 

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW 

Bitcoin ETF: What it is and not 

Anxiety over the 

outcome of two 

bitcoin-based 

exchange traded 

funds (ETFs) set to be decided 

by the US Securities 

and Exchange Commission 

(SEC) has the entire virtual 

currency world on high alert. 

Whatever the decision is 

could have a deep impact on 

the direction of the market 

going forward. 

Investors who are anticipating 

a positive decision 

are already taking their positions, 

leading to a 15-day 

spectively. 

The SEC’s decision on Pro- 

Shares Bitcoin ETF and the 

ProsShares Short ETF is expected 

on Thursday, August 

23. Coindesk explains that 

the ProShares ETF proposals 

– initially submitted to the 

SEC last December – are underpinned 

by bitcoin futures 

contracts, rather than any 

physical holdings of bitcoin 

itself. In essence, the ETF’s 

value will be determined by 

the bitcoin futures contracts 

trading on CME or the Cboe 

Futures Exchange, according 

to the original filing. 

What Bitcoin ETF is 

An exchange traded fund 

(ETF) refers to a marketable 

security that tracks an index 

of funds, a commodity, or 

a basket of assets. An ETF 

trades like a stock on the Nigerian 

Stock Exchange (NSE) 

for example, but not with the 

same degree of risk. 

It is considered the future 

of virtual currencies like bitcoin. 

Prior to now, to trade 

bitcoin you must own a wallet 

with actual bitcoins depos- 

surge in the price of bitcoin 

on Wednesday. 

Back in Nigeria, the confidence 

in a favourable decision 

seem not so high as 

volume of transactions in 

the second and third week of 

August are yet to hit the highs 

they did on the first week according 

to the LocalBitcoin 

index. The first week saw 

transaction volume reach 

N1.6 billion from N1.5 billion 

the previous week. However, 

the second and third weeks 

have hovered around N1.3 

billion and N1.44 billion reited 

in it. But the ETF makes 

it possible for a people who 

do not want to own bitcoin 

to trade in bitcoin and make 

profit from it. Buying a share 

of an ETF means you do not 

actually own the underlying 

asset (bitcoin), rather you 

own a piece of the fund, how 

the fund is structured and 

where the money is going. 

What Bitcoin ETF is not 

It is not a regulation on the 

entire bitcoin market. This 

could be where the problem 

lies for the SEC. Approving 

an ETF means a high level 

of regulation. In the case of 

bitcoin ETF, SEC will only 

be regulating a part of the 

highly volatile market they 

have control over but not the 

entire market which is still 

unregulated. 

“If the bitcoin ETF is approved 

this week, the bear 

market will probably end,” 

Vinny Lingham, CEO of Civic 

Key said on Twitter. “I think 

there is a less than 20 per cent 

chance of the approval happening, 

but it certainly would 

be a very bullish signal.”



How Nigeria can improve 

on tuberculosis treatment 

ANTHONIA OBOKOH 

Nigeria has the 

seventh highest 

diseases burden 

among the 22 

countries with 

the worst cases, according to 

World Health Organisation 

and tops Africa’s ranking. Tuberculosis 

is the ninth leading 

cause of death worldwide estimated 

at 10.4 million infections 

and 1.8 million deaths annually. 

In Nigeria the estimated 

incidence of TB is 322 per 100 

000 population. 

Despite significant progress 

over the last decades, 

TB continues to be the top 

infectious killer worldwide, 

claiming over 4,500 lives a day. 

The emergence of multidrugresistant 

TB (MDR-TB) poses 

a major health security threat 

and could risk gains made in 

the fight against TB. 

Experts say more can be 

done to raise awareness about 

the effects of TB and adopting 

the World Health Organisation 

recommendations for 

treating multidrug-resistant 

tuberculosis would help the 

country improve outcomes of 

treatments. 

MDR-TB is a major driver 

of antimicrobial resistance 

worldwide and threatens hardearned 

gains made in the global 

TB response over the past 

twenty years. Diagnosis and 

treatment of MDR-TB remain 

a major challenge, with only 

one in four affected people 

currently being detected and 

even fewer being treated successfully. 

According to Peters Etete, 

president, Nigerian Thoracic 

Society, TB is a medical disease 

has a lot of socio economic 

confounders; it affects 

the economically productive 

age group in the community, 

thereby affecting productivity. 

“More worrisome is the 

fact that about one in three 

people with TB are never diagnosed 

and in Nigeria the 

proportion of missed cases is as 

high as 50 per cent. This means 

they will not be treated and 

they will continue to transmit 

the disease in the community,” 

“Nigerian has made some 

significant strides towards TB 

control, but we know we can 

do better and faster to achieve 

the End TB Goal,” said Etete. 

Tuberculosis is a curable 

disease. TB is spread through 

the air from one person to 

another. The TB bacteria are 

put into the air when a person 

with TB disease of the lungs or 

throat coughs, sneezes, speaks, 

or sings. People nearby may 

breathe in these bacteria and 

become infected. 

Meanwhile major improvement 

in treatment outcomes 

and quality of life of patients 

with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis 

(MDR-TB) are expected, 

following key changes 

in MDR-TB treatment was 

announced on 17 August 2018 

by the World Health Organisation 

(WHO). 

According to the agency, 

the first important change 

is a new priority ranking of 

the available medicines for 

MDR-TB treatment, based 

on a careful balance between 

expected benefits and harms. 

Treatment success for MDR-TB 

is currently low in many countries. 

This could be increased 

by improving access to the 

highest-ranked medicines for 

all patients with MDR-TB. 

The second important 

change is a fully oral regimen 

as one of the preferred options 

for MDR-TB treatment, with 

injectable agents proposed to 

be replaced by more potent 

alternatives such as bed aquiline 

(the first-ever medicine 

to be developed specifically 

for the treatment of MDR-TB). 

Injectable agents cause pain 

and distress to patients, with 

many experiencing serious 

adverse effects that often lead 

to treatment being interrupted. 

“The treatment landscape 

for patients with MDR-TB 

will be dramatically transformed 

for the better with the 

announcement today,” said 

Soumya Swaminathan, WHO 

Deputy Director-General for 

Programmes. 

Swaminathan added that 

“Building on the available new 

data, and with the involvement 

of a large number of 

stakeholders, WHO has moved 

forward in rapidly reviewing 

the evidence and communicating 

the key changes needed 

to improve the chances of 

survival of MDRTB patients 

worldwide. Political momentum 

now needs to urgently 

accelerate, if the global crisis 

of MDR-TB is to be contained.” 

Analysts say there is a need 

to devote more funds to Nigerians 

TB centres and also 

political, social commitment 

for further progress towards 

eliminating the disease as a 

public health burden. 

Eating mushrooms may help manage diabetes - study 


A 

new study has found 

that white button 

mushrooms, as a prebiotic 

food, could be used in 

future to manage diabetes, 

due to the role that they 

seem to play in glucogenesis. 

The study looks at how 

eating a common type of 

mushroom can affect glucose, 

or blood sugar, regulation 

which notes that results 

may have associations 

for managing diabetes and 

other metabolic conditions, 

such as obesity. 

The study was recently 

conducted in mice by researchers 

working in various 

departments of Pennsylvania 

State University; they 

wanted to investigate the effects 

of white button mushrooms 

(Agaricus bisporus) 

as prebiotics. 

The researchers wanted 

to see whether white button 

mushrooms could influence 

the production of glucose 

in the body, and if so, how. 

They report their findings in 

a paper now published in the 

Journal of Functional Foods. 

Margherita Cantorna, 

study co-author says “Managing 

glucose better has 

implications for diabetes, 

as well as other metabolic 

diseases,” she added that 

diabetes, our bodies do not 

produce enough of the hormone 

insulin, which helps 

regulate blood sugar levels. 

Insulin helps transfer glucose 

from the blood and into 

entists were able to map out 

how white button mushrooms 

modify the gut microbiota, 

ultimately leading to 

improved glucose regulation 

in the mice’s systems. 

The researchers fed all 

the mice a daily serving of 

white button mushrooms, 

which is equivalent to about 

3 ounces of mushrooms 

the cells, to provide them 

with energy. It also places 

excess glucose “into storage,” 

so to speak, so that it can be 

converted into energy as it 

is needed. 

According to the study, 

in a mouse model, the sciper 

day for humans. They 

found that the mice with gut 

microbiomes experienced 

changes in their populations 

of gut microbes. In particular, 

their guts produced more 

short-chain fatty acids, such 

as propionate synthesized 

from succinate. 

The study was conducted 

in mice with a normal weight; 

the researchers explain that 

they are also interested in testing 

the effects of this prebiotic 

food in mice with obesity. 

This, they noted, would be 

the first step toward eventually 

extending this research 

to human participants, in the 

hope that it will lead to a better 

understanding of how our 

daily diets impact metabolic 

processes and influence the 

prevention or development 

of certain health conditions. 

Cantorna and her colleagues 

believe that eating 

white button mushrooms 

triggers reactions in the gut 

microbiome that lead to the 

growth of certain types of 

bacteria, such as Prevotella, 

which, in turn, boosts the 

production of propionate and 

succinate. 

Moreover, their new study 

confirms the important link 

between the foods in our diet 

and the bacterial populations 

in our gut. 

“It’s pretty clear that almost 

any change you make 

to the diet, changes the microbiota,” 

Cantorna. 

Commentary 

Costs and social impact of Asthma 

Chiwuike Uba 

Asthma prevalence and 

incidence have been 

increasing worldwide 

in recent decades. This increase 

is not only attributable 

to genetic background but 

largely because of the effect 

of a wide number of environmental 

and lifestyle risk factors. 

Unfortunately, in many 

countries, asthma and other 

non-communicable diseases 

are yet to be considered a 

healthcare priority. 

In Nigeria, more than 

15m people are currently 

suffering from asthma with 

a projected increase to 100m 

in year 2025. Globally, more 

than 300m people are currently 

with asthma and this is 

expected to increase by over 

100m in year 2015. 

It is also estimated that 

14 per cent and 8.6 per cent 

of the world’s children and 

young adults’ experience 

asthma symptoms, while 

4.5per cent of young adults 

have been diagnosed 

with 

asthma and/ 

or are taking 

treatment for 

asthma. 

T h e 

burden of 

asthma is 

greatest for 

children 

aged 10-14 

and the elderly 

aged 75-79. Currently, 

Asthma is the 14th most 

important disorder in the 

world in terms of the extent 

and duration of disability. 

Given the well-known underdiagnosis 

of asthma, the 

above quoted numbers may 

be an underestimation. 

As a globalized and significant 

public health problem, 

which oftentimes, requires 

use of emergency care, 

hospital admission and can 

cause early permanent disability 

and premature death, 

asthma requires urgent policy 

and government attention 

to enhance the management 

of asthma in Nigeria. 

Asthma management 

comes with very huge costs. 

These costs are direct, indirect 

and intangible costs. 

Direct cost include cost of 

asthma management (visits 

to emergency services; hospital 

admissions; medications, 

including all types of 

medications, such as overthe 

counter and alternative 

medicines; outpatient visits, 

including all human resources 

involved, such as doctors, 

nurses, paramedics, psychologists), 

complementary 

investigations or treatments 

(imaging, skin and blood 

tests, lung function tests, 

pulmonary rehabilitation) 

and other costs (domestic or 

professional preventive measures, 

assistance in home 

care, transportation to medical 

visits, burial costs). 

On the other hand, indirect 

costs include work-related 

losses (temporary disability 

in terms of partial or total 

lost-days; early disability; 

permanent disability,) and 

early mortality and finally, 

intangible costs are those 

related with unquantifiable 

losses, such as the decrease 

in quality of life, increases in 

pain or suffering, limitation 

of physical activities and job 

changes. 

Asthma costs USA 

economy more than US$ 

80 billion annually in medical 

expenses, days missed 

from work and school, and 

deaths. 

The recent data from the 

USA indicates that medical 

expenditures attributable 

to asthma were significantly 

higher for those with markers 

of uncontrolled disease 

when compared with medical 

expenditures of those 

who did not have asthma. 

The above cost is more than 

thrice the Nigeria’s 2018 

budget. 

In Nigeria, 

asthma 

care imposes 

economic 

burden 

on affected 

patients; 

though, patients’ 

costs 

for asthma 

is not well 

documented 

in Nigeria and other African 

countries. 

Notwithstanding the 

above weakness, in a crosssectional 

study conducted in 

three tertiary hospitals in Nigeria 

by Cajetan Onyedum 

in 2014, it was found that the 

annual out-of-pocket cost of 

asthma incurred by patients 

in Nigeria was US$368.4 per 

patient. Medication cost accounted 

for the majority (87 

per cent) of this cost. 

This cost does not include 

other direct, indirect and 

intangible costs and is not 

related to costs incurred by 

patients with exacerbation 

and differing severity of the 

disease. This shows that in 

Nigeria, the annual average 

out-of-pocket costs incurred 

my asthma patients is US$ 5.5 

billion (N2trillion). 

It is therefore important 

for Nigerian government, in 

addition to making asthma 

a health priority, should invest 

in asthma research, develop 

national strategies and 

guidelines and action plan 

to improve asthma management 

and reduce costs. 

As a Foundation, the 

Amaka Chiwuike-Uba Foundation 

(ACUF) is working 

to carryout baseline study 

to determine the costs and 

social impact of asthma in 

Nigeria. It is our hope that 

other institutions would collaborate 

with the Foundation 

to conduct this survey as 

soon as the survey instruments 

are ready.


C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

21 

Excessive stress may increase to mental disorder 


Excessive stress may 

relapse to mental illness 

says an expert in 

psychology. 

Stress is the body’s 

method of reacting to a condition 

such as a threat, challenge or 

physical and psychological barrier. 

The Federal Neuro-Psychiatrist 

Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, witnessed 

a 111 per cent increase in overall 

patient attendance and 59 per 

cent increase in number of new 

patients from January –November 

2016. 

In absolute figures, according 

to the data, there was an overall 

46 per cent increase in number 

of admissions in 2016 (867) compared 

to 594 in 2015, while the 

community clinic attendance 

went up from 1,793 to 3,510, a 95 

per cent increase. 

Richard Adebayo, a consultant 

psychiatric and clinical psychologist, 

at Federal neuropsychiatric 

hospital, Yaba, Lagos in an interview 

with BusinessDay said that 

relapses can have overwhelming 

consequences for people with 

mental disorders such as schizophrenia, 

bipolar disorder, depression, 

or an anxiety disorder. 

“We know here that a patient 

can easily relapse into mental ill- 

Six key issues health insurance market in Nigeria needs to address 

Tunde Ladele 

As Nigerians continue to react 

to the National Health Insurance 

Scheme operations and 

services in the country, there are 

pressing issues the regulatory body 

are expected to address in order 

to guarantee access to affordable, 

cost effective and qualitative health 

care for all is a consensus pathway 

agreed and embraced by the entire 

world over. 

According to Tunde Ladele, 

Chairman Health and Managed 

Care Association of Nigeria (HM- 

CAN), No doubt some progress has 

been made in the country, some 

lessons have been learnt and the 

system is more resilient now than 

when we started. 

However, there are still some 

steps that need to be taken to ensure 

that we get to where we want to be. 

The goal is universal health coverage. 

What are some the things that 

need to be done to ensure that the 

Health Insurance market covers the 

majority of Nigerians in the foreseeable 

future? 

Here, Ladele take a look at six 

key issues health insurance market 

in Nigeria needs to address as a way 

forward for the scheme. 

Mandatory participation 

Presently only about 5-6 million 

people out of the over 180 million 

Nigerian representing about 3 per 

cent of the populace are covered 

by health insurance. To make the 

pursuit of universal health coverage 

a reality and to bring about an appreciable 

positive shift in the health 

indices of the nation; participation 

in health insurance as a veritable 

ness when they are undergoing 

severe stress. 

“Stress is one of the common 

causes of a relapse including drug 

and alcohol misuse, lack of sleep 

or irregular pattern of sleep, lack 

of social relationships and support, 

poor understanding of your 

mental disorder in general. Addressing 

these factors may help 

you to prevent a full-scale relapse” 

Adebayo said. 

Adebayo added that understanding 

the psychological mechanisms 

of how stress can lead to 

depression and anxiety can help 

prevent it. This is especially important 

for people who have had 

an earlier episode of depression 

means of health care financing to 

remove access barriers should be 

made mandatory. The NHIS Act 35 of 

1999 regulating the practice of health 

insurance in the country needs to be 

amended to make participation in 

health insurance mandatory for the 

formal and informal sectors. 

Participation by all three tiers of 

government 

In the view of the fact health is on 

the concurrent legislative list; all the 

three tiers of government should ensure 

that people within their political 

jurisdictions at the federal, state and 

local government levels are covered 

by health insurance. In enacting their 

health insurance laws they should 

make sure mandatory participation 

is a fundamental part of their 

legislation. So, that every Nigerian is 

covered by one form of insurance or 

the other. The three tiers of government 

should provide for the payment 

of the premiums of the vulnerable 

groups and indigent persons. 

Robust information technology 

platform 

There is an urgent need to put in 

place a robust IT platform to interconnect 

Regulators, health maintenance 

organizations, health care 

providers, clients, 

Stakeholders respect for service 

level agreements 

Contract fidelity – respect for and 

compliance with business relationship 

agreements is an imperative. All 

stakeholders in the health insurance 

industry MUST abide with the terms 

of the bilateral, tripartite and multilateral 

contracts they have signed 

unto. The health insurance business 

or who have a genetic tendency 

of coming down with mental disorders 

and would like to prevent 

relapse. 

“Stress is an everyday event 

that human being passes through 

due to excessive pressure and it 

can translate into deeper health 

implication on both physical and 

mental consequences either positively 

or negatively. 

Adebayo further explained 

that when an individual is undergoing 

stress, the body metabolism 

could be affected and the hormones 

get disrupted making 

the alert system in the body, the 

adrenaline and non-adrenaline to 

be on the hyper level because the 

is driven by reputational capital; 

therefore every stakeholder should 

ensure that they stay away from 

practices that will undermine the 

confidence of enrollees. For example, 

clients (public and private) should 

ensure that they pay their premiums 

in a timely fashion, so that HMOs can 

also pay their providers based on the 

claims turnaround times set forth in 

the contracts with providers. Health 

care providers should also avoid 

bad-mouthing, it is imperative that 

any gaps are discussed strictly with 

the relevant HMO and not to speak 

to enrollees. 

The tariff for services at least 

should remain stable within the 

contract period. A situation where 

some providers increase the price of 

services in the middle of the contract 

and threaten not to threat enrollees if 

the new pricing is not taken should be 

corrected through the use of lock-in 

contracts, because HMOs are not able 

to vary the premium paid by clients in 

the middle of the contract year. 

Discontinue usurpation of functions 

Each stakeholder in the health insurance 

value chain should face 

squarely their duties and obligations 

as stipulated by the law without 

crisscrossing into or usurping the 

functions of other stakeholders. 

Regulators should regulate, Operators 

should operate, Providers should 

provide and Users (enrollees) should 

use (utilize) services. The Regulator 

- NHIS should not be seen to be 

marketing or selling health insurance 

products; just as the CBN is not seen 

running commercial, merchant, 

microfinance banks or Bureau de 

change outlets, or the NCC seen 

person is always agitated. 

He added that some people 

use wrong coping strategy, when 

they are stressed up, smoking 

cigarettes, drinking alcohol. Many 

Nigerians falls in this category, 

thinking these wrong strategies 

will ease them of stress at home, 

work place. 

“These are wrong coping strategies, 

taking alcohol will not solve 

the stress but some people believe 

that is an escape route to forget 

problems. 

“Your kind of coping strategy 

when stressed is very important, 

but we should not adhere to wrong 

lifestyles.” Adebayo advised. 

marketing voice or data products as 

the Telecom providers, nor NAICOM 

seen selling life and general insurance 

policies. However, the Regulator 

may direct the industry players 

to pursue certain health insurance 

products it believes is in the best interest 

of all, i.e. after due consultation 

with all stakeholders. 

Put an end to HMO hopping 

Ensure that organizations do not port 

from one HMO to the other without 

first clearing outstanding indebtedness. 

The Regulator should ensure 

that no corporate organization or individual 

having been a health insurance 

policy holder with one health 

maintenance organization cannot 

port or change patronage to another 

HMO under any guise without first 

of all making good any indebtedness 

to the previous insurer. In practical 

terms, the Regulator should demand 

that any HMO wishing to sign on a 

client who is under another HMO 

or has been under health insurance 

cover before should request a 

Letter of Good Standing in terms of 

financial obligations from the previous 

HMO. The present situation 

were some clients disengage from 

one HMO and sign on with another 

HMO without fully liquidating their 

indebtedness to the previous HMO 

should be stopped through effective 

regulatory oversight. 

In conclusion, all hands should 

be on deck in the pursuit of universal 

health coverage for Nigeria as this is 

the only veritable means of securing 

the health asset of our populace and 

ensure a healthy and highly productive 

work force for nation building 

and achievement of individual 

prosperity. 

3 simple ways to get 

more restful sleep 

Even people without insomnia 

can have trouble getting 

a good night’s rest. Many 

things can interfere with restorative 

sleep — crazy work schedules, 

anxiety, trouble putting down the 

smartphone, even what you eat 

and drink. 

The following three simple 

steps can help you sleep better. 

Cut down on caffeine 

Caffeine drinkers may find it harder 

to fall asleep than people who don’t 

drink caffeine. Once they drift off, 

their sleep is shorter and lighter. 

For some, a single cup of coffee 

in the morning means a sleepless 

night. That may be because caffeine 

blocks the effects of adenosine, 

a neurotransmitter thought to 

promote sleep. Caffeine can also 

interrupt sleep by increasing the 

need to urinate during the night. 

People who suffer from insomnia 

should avoid caffeine as much 

as possible, since its effects can 

endure for many hours. Because 

caffeine withdrawal can cause 

headaches, irritability, and extreme 

fatigue, it may be easier to cut back 

gradually rather than to go cold 

turkey. Those who can’t or don’t 

want to give up caffeine should 

avoid it after 2 p.m., or noon if they 

are especially caffeine-sensitive. 

Stop smoking or chewing tobacco 

Nicotine is a central nervous system 

stimulant that can cause insomnia. 

This potent drug makes 

it harder to fall asleep because 

it speeds your heart rate, raises 

blood pressure, and stimulates fast 

brainwave activity that indicates 

wakefulness. In people addicted 

to nicotine, a few hours without 

it is enough to induce withdrawal 

symptoms; the craving can even 

wake a smoker at night. People 

who kick the habit fall asleep more 

quickly and wake less often during 

the night. Sleep disturbance and 

daytime fatigue may occur during 

the initial withdrawal from 

nicotine, but even during this 

period, many former users report 

improvements in sleep. If you 

continue to use tobacco, avoid 

smoking or chewing it for at least 

one to two hours before bedtime. 

Limit alcohol intake 

Alcohol depresses the nervous 

system, so a nightcap may seem 

to help some people fall asleep. 

However, alcohol suppresses 

REM sleep, and the soporific effects 

disappear after a few hours. 

Drinkers have frequent awakenings 

and sometimes frightening 

dreams. Alcohol may be 

responsible for up to 10 per cent 

of chronic insomnia cases. Also, 

alcohol can worsen snoring and 

other sleep breathing problems, 

sometimes to a dangerous extent. 

Even one drink can make a 

sleep-deprived person drowsy. In 

an automobile, the combination 

significantly increases a person’s 

chance of having an accident. 

You can also improve the 

amount and quality of your sleep 

by getting regular physical activity 

and creating and sticking to a 

regular sleep schedule and routine. 

HBL Team 

ANTHONIA OBOKOH and ANI MICHAEL / Reporters. Email: obokoh.anthonia@businessdayonline.com 

I David Ogar, Graphics

22 

BUSINESS DAY Friday 24 August 2018 

Harvard 

Business 

Review 

ManagementDigest 

A closer look at how the opioid epidemic affects employment 

Janet Currie 

The toll that the opioid 

epidemic has 

taken on the United 

States is undeniable. 

On average, 

115 Americans die every day 

from a drug overdose involving 

an opioid, and even more 

suffer the debilitating effects 

of addiction. Despite state and 

federal efforts to curb the crisis, 

there is no sign that the epidemic 

is letting up. Whichever 

way the data is sliced, things 

look bad and are getting worse. 

Inevitably, the effects of this 

crisis touch multiple aspects 

of people’s lives: their families, 

their communities and, of 

course, their workplaces. One 

narrative suggests that addiction 

leads to job loss and lower 

labor force participation. In 

fact, the Organization for Economic 

Cooperation and Development 

recently stated that the 

opioid epidemic is responsible 

for recent declines in labor 

force participation in the U.S. 

The data, however, points 

to a different reality. As the 

epidemic continues to rage, 

unemployment is at its lowest 

level in decades. Furthermore, 

the numbers suggest 

that many people taking opioids 

are actually employed: 

Comprehensive prescription 

data reveals that nearly 85% of 

opioids prescribed for working 

age people are paid for by private 

health insurance, which 

is overwhelmingly employer 

provided. While not everyone 

who uses opioids gets them directly 

from a physician, the fact 

is that many people who take 

opioids either begin by using 

or continue to use legally prescribed 

medications that are 

paid for by employer-provided 

health insurance. 

So what’s the actual connection 

between prescription opioids 

and the labor market? 

To answer this question, 

we analyzed data on all opioid 

prescriptions filled at pharmacies 

across the U.S. from 2006 

to 2014. We aimed to identify 

the causal effect of opioid prescriptions 

on employment, 

which is a difficult task for at 

least two reasons. 

First, the areas that have 

been hardest hit by the opioid 

epidemic are different from 

areas that have seen less dramatic 

rises in opioid abuse 

for many reasons other than 

employment opportunities. 

For example, West Virginia 

has higher rates of both opioid 

abuse and unemployment 

than California. While opioid 

abuse and unemployment will 

therefore be correlated when 

comparing West Virginia to 

California, this does not mean 

that opioid use causes unemployment 

or vice versa. The 

two states are different for a 

variety of reasons, such as demographic 

composition and 

educational attainment. Any of 

these factors, or a combination 

of them, could be to blame for 

both high substance abuse and 

poor labor market conditions. 

Since areas are different, we 

examined how employment 

within a given area changes 

as prescription rates fluctuate. 

That is, instead of comparing 

West Virginia to California 

at a given point in time, we 

compare West Virginia to West 

Virginia and California to California 

over time. This withinlocation 

analysis shows that 

changes in opioid prescriptions 

per capita are not associated 

with changes in employment. 

Second, while this kind of 

analysis controls for any timeinvariant 

differences across locations, 

another complication 

remains. Let’s say, for example, 

that Charleston, West Virginia, 

unveils a new public transportation 

system that safely and 

affordably connects the greater 

metropolitan area. This public 

transportation system allows 

those who were previously isolated 

to connect with employment 

opportunities, thereby 

increasing employment. It 

also reduces traffic accidents 

since fewer people opt to drive, 

thereby reducing opioids prescribed 

for post-accident pain. 

In this case we would find that 

opioid use and employment 

are correlated within West Virginia 

over time, although this 

relationship is still not causal: 

There’s really a third factor — 

the opening of the new public 

transportation system — that is 

behind the correlation. 

To identify what’s really 

going on, we need to find 

something that affects opioid 

prescribing but has no independent 

effect on employment. 

To understand how this 

might work, imagine a helicopter 

dropping a bunch of opioid 

prescriptions on a town. This 

would increase opioid consumption, 

but it wouldn’t have 

any effect on employment except 

through this channel. In 

our analysis, we treat opioid 

prescriptions to adults 65 and 

older as this helicopter drop. 

Doctors who have a high 

propensity to prescribe opioids 

to the elderly also on average 

have a high propensity to 

prescribe opioids to working 

age people — and opioid prescriptions 

to the elderly should 

have no direct effect on the 

employment of working age 

people. Even though some elderly 

people work, and opioids 

may have some impact on their 

employment, it is unlikely that 

competition from the elderly 

is a major factor affecting employment 

of prime age adults. 

We can therefore use fluctuations 

in prescriptions to the 

elderly to isolate changes in 

opioid consumption that are 

driven by fluctuations in local 

prescribing practices rather 

than by changes in local economic 

conditions. 

Our analysis demonstrates 

that there is no simple causal 

relationship between opioids 

and employment. While 

there is a positive, but small, 

relationship between changes 

in opioid prescribing and 

changes in employment for females 

in areas with low levels 

of education, this relationship 

disappears among women in 

counties with higher levels of 

education. Furthermore, regardless 

of local education, 

there is no systematic relationship 

between changes in opioid 

prescribing and changes in 

employment rates for men. 

Many observers have noted 

that regions that experienced 

the largest increases in opioid 

use over the past decade, like 

Appalachia, have had persistently 

low employment. However, 

it is important to keep in 

mind that these areas had low 

employment for decades before 

the opioid epidemic. Our 

results indicate that the correlation 

between opioid use 

and low employment in these 

areas is largely a coincidence 

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

and could be due to other factors, 

such as the prescribing 

practice styles of physicians in 

those areas. 

Similarly, some studies have 

found that a high fraction of 

people who are out of the labor 

force take pain medication. 

However, this does not prove 

that taking pain medication 

causes people to drop out of 

the labor force. For example, 

someone with chronic back 

pain might drop out of the labor 

force because of his condition 

and then be prescribed 

opioids. In this case, it would 

be the patient’s back pain, not 

his opioid use, that caused him 

to leave the labor force. 

In short, while the opioid 

epidemic has caused widereaching 

devastation, aggregate 

employment appears not 

to be one of its victims. Furthermore, 

evidence suggests 

that poor economic conditions 

cannot be blamed for the crisis 

itself. What this means is that 

we must look at the opioid epidemic 

for what it is: a self-inflicted 

perfect storm that arose 

from a combination of newly 

available opioids, new attitudes 

about the importance of 

pain management, loose prescribing 

practices and a lack 

of professional accountability. 

The solution to the problem 

lies in addressing these root 

causes. 

Janet Currie is the Henry Putnam 

professor of economics and 

public affairs at Princeton University, 

the co-director of Princeton’s 

Center for Health and 

Wellbeing and the co-director 

of the Program on Families and 

Children at the National Bureau 

of Economic Research. Molly 

Schnell is currently a postdoctoral 

research fellow at the Stanford 

Institute for Economic Policy 

Research and will be joining 

Northwestern University as an 

assistant professor of economics 

in July 2019. 

Are you 

travelling abroad 

for vacation 

or studying abroad? 

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intervention for specified retail invisible 

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24 BUSINESS DAY Friday 24 August 2018 

AgriBusinessInsight 

Market Insights 

Analysis Commentaries Experts/Industry Views Commodities watch Policy Reviews 

Send in Commentaries 

to caleb.ojewale@businessdayonline.com 

Rice dilemma: Production ‘increasing’, 

but little to show for it (1) 

CALEB OJEWALE 

Twiiter: @calebtinolu 

Rice is undoubtedly 

Nigeria’s most 

consumed staple 

food, with some 

estimates as high as 

$5 million previously spent importing 

it daily. Unsurprisingly, 

the country could not cope 

with its continued importation 

(like many other food items) as 

foreign exchange became difficult, 

particularly in the months 

leading to the 2016 economic 

recession. 

A local rice initiative since 

2015 was supposed to see the 

country “flooded with locally 

produced rice”, but that shower 

of grains is yet to take place. 

According to government’s projections, 

local rice sufficiency 

would, well, was to be attained 

this year, 2018. However, a random 

survey around Lagos for 

instance, will depict this as a 

pipe dream. 

As BusinessDay findings 

across a numbers of states visited 

in the North and South 

have shown, rice production 

has increased, no doubt. More 

farmers across the country 

Insight 

The international cocoa agreement Nigeria signed, here is what it entails 

In June 2010, the United 

Nations Cocoa Conference 

successfully concluded 

negotiations for the International 

Cocoa Agreement, following 

consensus reached between 

exporting and importing 

countries. The agreement was 

for the first time in the history of 

international cocoa agreements, 

to enter into force for a period of 

10 years. This, according to the 

United Nations Conference on 

Trade and Development, was 

“a sign of clear recognition by 

all parties of the long-term value 

of the agreement, and of their 

commitment to it.” 

The agreement took effect in 

2012, succeeding the previous 

agreement, which went into 

force in 2003. That agreement, 

which was negotiated in 2001, 

lasted five initial years and was 

continued through two, twoyear 

extensions. The new pact 

will last 10 initial years and may 

be extended for two additional 

four-year periods. 

Earlier this week, President 

Muhammadu Buhari signed 

the Instrument of Nigeria’s 

Accession to the 2010 

International Cocoa Agreement. 

Garba Shehu, the 

president’s spokesperson had 

in a statement, said, this was 

sequel to approval of the Federal 

Executive Council for Nigeria to 

accede to the Agreement. 

Women sifting particles from local rice at the Abakaliki Rice Milling Cluster. 

have gone into rice cultivation, 

acreage for cultivation has 

equally increased, and appears 

to be increasing further. Milling 

facilities are also springing up 

in different parts of the country, 

yet, the huge demand, and large 

appetite of Nigerians for rice, is 

yet to be satisfied. 

A major challenge is that, 

while the Agriculture Promotion 

Policy, 2016 – 2020, shows Nigeria 

has a rice deficit of 4 million 

metric tons, it is difficult to accurately 

determine just how much 

increase has been recorded in 

Nigeria is coming late to the 

party, but then, it is better late 

than never. The 2010 agreement 

is meant to run through 10 years, 

taking effect from 2012, and 

Nigeria, which prides itself with 

a history of coca production only 

just acceded to this agreement, 

with at most, 4 years left to 

terminate. 

The objectives of the 

International Cocoa Agreement 

signed by Nigeria are: 

(a) To promote international 

cooperation in the world cocoa 

economy; 

(b) To provide an appropriate 

framework for discussion 

on all cocoa matters among 

governments, and with the 

private sector; 

(c) To contribute to the 

strengthening of the national 

cocoa economies of Member 

countries, through the 

preparation, development 

and evaluation of appropriate 

projects to be submitted to 

the relevant institutions for 

financing and implementation 

and seeking finance for projects 

that benefit Members and the 

world cocoa economy; 

(d) To strive towards 

obtaining fair prices leading to 

equitable economic returns to 

both producers and consumers 

in the cocoa value chain, and 

to contribute to a balanced 

development of the world cocoa 

economy in the interest of all 

local rice production. The largely 

informal, uncoordinated rural 

agricultural farming system that 

depicts most of agricultural practice 

across the country makes it 

nearly impossible to determine; 

just how much progress has really 

been made, and what is left. 

In Lagos, it is common to 

hear many people express doubt 

on the reality that rice is actually 

produced within the country. 

Even when walking past some 

known brands such as Mama’s 

pride, Elephant, Labana, Unza, 

etc in supermarkets and open 

Members; 

(e) To promote a sustainable 

cocoa economy in economic, 

social and environmental terms; 

(f) To encourage research 

and the implementation of its 

findings through the promotion 

of training and information 

programmes leading to the 

transfer to Members of 

technologies suitable for cocoa; 

(g) To promote transparency 

in the world cocoa economy, 

and in particular in the cocoa 

trade, through the collection, 

analysis and dissemination 

of relevant statistics and the 

undertaking of appropriate 

studies, as well as to promote 

the elimination of trade barriers; 

(h) To promote and to 

encourage consumption of 

chocolate and cocoa-based 

products in order to increase 

demand for cocoa, inter alia 

through the promotion of the 

positive attributes of cocoa, 

including health benefits, in 

close cooperation with the 


(i) To encourage Members 

to promote cocoa quality and to 

develop appropriate food safety 

procedures in the cocoa sector; 

(j) To encourage Members 

to develop and implement 

strategies to enhance the 

capacity of local communities 

and small-scale farmers to 

benefit from cocoa production 

and thereby contribute to 

Photo by Caleb Ojewale 

markets, some still remain in 

doubt that rice is produced in 

Nigeria. 

Beyond the doubts, not 

enough volume is seen in urban 

centres, particularly in the south. 

The smuggled rice from neighbouring 

countries, especially 

Benin, adorns the shelves in 

supermarkets and market stalls. 

“If you find one local rice displayed, 

you will find 20 brands 

of foreign rice on that display 

as well,” said Ajayi Adekunle, 

manager, Double Door Limited, 

a company that has imported 

poverty alleviation; 

(k) To facilitate the availability 

of information on financial tools 

and services that can assist 

cocoa producers, including 

access to credit and approaches 

to managing risk. 

Some of the major 

innovations and changes to the 

International Cocoa Agreement 

2010 as compared to the 

previous one include: 

• Elaboration of clearly 

defined definitions and 

objectives for a sustainable 

cocoa economy; 

• Enhancement of 

market transparency through 

the collecting, processing, and 

distribution of data from both 

private and public sources, and 

through increased cooperation 

between the ICCO and the 


• Reinforcement of a 

mandate for the development 

of projects relating to the cocoa 

economy, recognizing their role 

in strengthening national cocoa 

economies and allowing them 

to better respond to evolving 

demand; 

• Recognition of the need 

to strive towards fair cocoa prices 

leading to equitable returns for 

both producers and consumers; 

• Promotion of the quality 

of cocoa and recognition of the 

need to develop appropriate 

food-safety procedures in the 

sector; 

rice into Nigeria when it was 

permitted, and now distributes 

for different local millers across 

the country. 

Adekunle further explained 

that people want the local rice, 

but it is not available. For six 

months, he has ordered for four 

trucks of Lake rice, which should 

contain 2,400 bags, but it is yet to 

be delivered. In Lagos, Lake rice, 

which is promoted (and subsidized) 

by the state government is 

perhaps the most popular brand 

of local rice. 

“I paid for this same lake rice 

February. My money has not 

been refunded, and I’ve not been 

able to get it. So it is not really 

readily available,” Adekunle said. 

According to him, when 

there is pressure on a particular 

thing, no matter how strong 

rules government puts in place 

to stop it, people will still find 

their way to get it. Like in this 

case of rice importation from 

the borders which is banned, but 

we still find it across the markets. 

People continue finding ways 

to smuggle rice into Nigeria, 

despite government’s supposed 

ban on it. 

Continues next week... 

• Clearly defined 

procedures for the establishment 

of fine or “flavour” cocoa; and 

• Codification of 

ICCO cooperation with nongovernmental 

organizations. 

The International Cocoa 

Agreement 2010 is expected to 

result in a major strengthening 

of cooperation between 

exporting and importing 

member countries and in an 

improvement of their cocoa 

economies through active 

and better focused project 

development and strategies for 

capacity-building. 

The new agreement will 

build on the success of the 2001 

agreement, by implementing 

measures leading to an increase 

in the income of cocoa farmers 

and by supporting cocoa 

producers in improving the 

functioning of their cocoa 

economies. The new agreement 

also will deliver cocoa of better 

quality, take effective account 

of food-safety issues and help 

establish social, economic, and 

environmental sustainability, 

so that farmers are rewarded 

for producing cocoa that meets 

ethical and environmental 

considerations. 

Nigeria may have signed the 

new agreement, but, it is yet to 

be seen if any practical steps 

will be taken in ensuring the 

country truly derives the benefits 

it should. 

Market 

Report on fertilizer 

market prices for 

July 2018 

Summary of local fertilizer market prices 

The average fertilizer 

prices across the 

states decreased by 

1.24% for NPK, increased 

by 0.64% for Urea and 

4.67% for SSP compared 

to average fertilizer prices 

of June, 2018. Average 

fertilizer price of NPK is 

now 8.50% lower; Urea is 

10.58% lower, SSP is 6.21% 

lower compared to June, 

2017. 

• The available fertilizer 

brands in the market were 

Golden, Tak-Agro, Solar, 

Ebonyi fertilizer, Solar, 

Notore, Wacot, Elephant, 

Indorama, Bauchi Blend, 

Dan Lawal and Springfield. 

• In the open market 

NPK sold between N5, 

500 – N9, 350, Urea N6, 

500 –N7, 750, SSP N5,775 – 

N7,000 

Farmers and Agro 

dealers’ views on fertilizer 

market situation 

• Bauchi state agro dealers 

said increased patronage 

by farmers was as a 

result of stable rainfall 

• Benue state farmers 

have started harvesting 

early maturing maize 

variety, millet, vegetables 

and fruits. 

• Ebonyi state agro dealers 

reported increase in 

patronage of fertilizers by 

farmers 

• Ekiti state agro dealers 

said demand of fertilizers 

by farmers is gradually 

increasing 

• Kaduna state farmers 

are in the second phase 

of fertilizer application to 

their crops 

• Niger state farmers 

said they buy fertilizer both 

from the open market and 

government stores, though 

the government fertilizer is 

cheaper but some farmers 

still prefer fertilizer from 

the open market because 

of transportation cost 

• Oyo state agro dealers 

said fertilizer sales have 

increased considerably 

• Rivers state farmers 

said measures should be 

put in place to regulate 

fertilizer prices in the state 

by Agro-dealers, to avoid 

indiscriminate increase in 

fertilizer prices 

• Zamfara state agro 

dealers’ fertilizer reported 

increase in fertiliser sales 

as both retailers and farmers 

buy from them with 

regular stocking of their 

stores with fertilizer. 

Source: Fertilizer Producers 

& Suppliers Association of 

Nigeria (FEPSAN)


Book ahead, save more … 

BUSINESS DAY 

25 

Hotels 

Top BusinessDay Partner Hotels 

OBINNA EMELIKE 

Hotels always 

seem to account 

for the 

largest portion 

of travel 

funds. Even when you are 

not booking a four or five-star 

property, a few days stay in a 

hotel can easily empty your 

pocket if you are not financially 

disciplined or planned 

well ahead of your trip. 

Of course, most travellers 

like good hotels, but when 

you are on a budget, especially 

now that the exchange 

rate is very high, it is best to 

make sure you have enough 

after airfare and lodging to 

actually enjoy your trip; have 

good meals, go sightseeing, 

and buy some souvenirs for 

your loved ones. 

However, there a few 

tricks and tips on how to book 

cheaper hotel rates. 

Use search engines 

The popularity of hotel 

metasearch engines is on 

the rise and for good reason: 

It is one of the most efficient 

ways to find affordable accommodations. 

If you are 

unfamiliar with this concept, 

a hotel metasearch engine 

is a website that searches 

multiple hotel booking sites 

at once. For example, instead 

of running a search on Expedia, 

Orbitz, Priceline, and the 

hotel’s website, you can use a 

metasearch engine to search 

multiple sites at once to see 

which provider offers the 

lowest rates and best value. 

Kayak, Hipmunk, Room 77, 

TripAdvisor, and Trivago 

are just a few of the options 

available. 

Call the hotel directly 

If you have a particular 

hotel in mind, calling the 

hotel directly can often 

result in better rates. Since 

you are able to speak with 

someone in real time, the 

staff will often be privy to 

rates that are not advertised 

online or, at the very least, 

they will be able to give 

you insight as to what is affecting 

hotel room pricing. 

Events like conferences, 

concerts, and conventions 

can cause hotel room prices 

to skyrocket, and of course, 

certain times of year, such 

as the holidays, will see 

more expensive rates. If you 

are traveling and found out 

there is an event causing 

hotel rooms in the city center 

to be more expensive, 

then you need to research 

hotels away from the city 

center to find lower rates. 

Book cancelable rates 

Room rates can fluctuate 

as quickly as minute to minute 

because a hotel’s inventory 

is always changing. It is 

simple supply and demand: 

the more people booking 

rooms at a hotel, the more 

the hotel can charge. One 

thing you can do if you are 

not flexible with your hotel 

Sheraton Lagos Hotel goes beyond hospitality 

…enthralls with Femi Kuti live concert 

In an effort to further 

spice its entertainment 

options for discerning 

guests, Sheraton Lagos 

Hotel will be hosting the living 

legend, Femi Kuti live in 

concert on September 22, 

2018. Curated in partnership 

with Chocolate City Group, 

media and entertainment 

company, the critically acclaimed 

singer, songwriter, 

instrumentalist, and fourtime 

Grammy Award nominee, 

is set to enthrall music 

lovers, Afrobeat enthusiasts 

and members of Marriott International’s 

award-winning 

loyalty programmes – Marriott 

Rewards, The Ritz-Carlton 

Rewards, and Starwood Preferred 

Guest (SPG), with an 

exclusive live performance 

of his seventh studio album, 

One People One World. 

Marriott International has 

been focused on stepping up 

its experiences game, creating 

exclusive Moments that 

help connect with members 

through their passions, be it 

culinary, music or sport. From 

Masterclasses with renowned 

chefs, mixologists, DJs and 

photographers to behind the 

scenes access to concerts, 

to experiences around your 

favorite sport or an immersive 

experience of the local cuisine 

or culture, there is a lot to explore 

and discover what makes 

travel more enriching. 

“We are committed to creating 

unforgettable moments 

for our loyal members, and 

what better way to do that 

than to connect with them 

through their passions,” said 

Neal Jones, chief sales and 

marketing officer, Middle East 

and Africa, Marriott International. 

“This is an opportunity 

for us to engage with our loyal 

members and build a strong 

emotional connection with 

them by creating a once-ina 

lifetime experience while 

amplifying the benefits of 

our Loyalty Programmes. 

Through this very special 

experience created by Sheraton 

Lagos Hotel, we want 

our members to carry back a 

memory that ties back to the 

destination and our brand.” 

“Chocolate City is happy 

to collaborate with Marriot 

International and Sheraton 

Lagos to give its guests and 

Marriott International loyalty 

members an exclusive live 

music experience with its 

artiste and Afrobeat legend 

Femi Kuti. His music and 

brand embody Africa’s rich 

culture and we have tried to 

replicate that in the set up, 

management and curation of 

the event. We expect guests 

to remember the event for 

the energy and excitement 

that Femi’s music brings”, said 

Edward Israel-Ayide, senior 

marketing manager, Chocolate 

City Group. 

Members of the various 

loyalty programmes can 

redeem their points for an 

experience package on the 

Moments platform which 

choice is to book a cancelable 

rate. It should be fairly obvious 

which rates are actually 

cancelable; there is usually a 

call-out that states something 

like “FREE cancellation – PAY 

LATER,” as seen on Booking. 

com. You better book this rate 

(but cross check it is actually 

cancelable) and then monitor 

the price, as well as, prices 

of nearby, comparable hotels. 

It may take a little bit of extra 

legwork, but this tactic can 

save you as much as $US100 

per night. 

Book last minute 

This is a trick best reserved 

for shorter trips, like romantic 

weekend getaways or impromptu 

get-togethers with 

friends in the city. But it is not 

good to wait till the last minute 

to book a hotel room for 

that expensive international 

trip you have been saving up 

for or leaving your lodging 

needs up to fate when there 

could be a major conference 

happening that results in a 

hotel room shortage. However, 

if you do a bit of research 

and are flexible, booking last 

minute can result in much 

cheaper rates. Last-minute 

booking apps like Hotel- 

Tonight, which works with 

hotels to negotiate deep discounts 

on unsold rooms, are 

a great starting point, and 

many of the online booking 

sites, like Expedia and Priceline, 

have their own “Tonight” 

or “Deals Tonight” section. 

includes; front row seats and 

access to special viewing 

area at the Femi Kuti concert 

at Sheraton Lagos, complimentary 

cocktails and hors 

d’oeuvres during the concert, 

VIP backstage passes, exclusive 

breakfast with Femi 

Kuti at the Club Lounge at 

Sheraton Lagos Hotel on September 

23, 2018 with a photo 

opportunity with Femi Kuti. 

The benefits also include; 

a one-night stay in the Sheraton 

Club Room for two people 

at the iconic Sheraton Lagos, 

airport transfers, and a goody 

bag and a bounce-back F&B 

voucher. 

“As a city landmark hotel 

and a hotspot for the local 

community as well as the international 

traveler to Nigeria, 

we are excited to bring this 

concert to the hotel and create 

transformative moments for 

our guests and loyalty programme 

members, through 

the reverberating rhythm of 

Afrobeat” said Barry Curran, 

general manager, Sheraton 

Lagos Hotel. 

In addition to Femi Kuti, 

there will be performances 

from five other popular artistes. 

Invited guests and loyalty 

members will be treated 

to an eclectic selection of 

expertly crafted cocktails and 

finger favorites. 

Novotel Port Harcourt 

Address: 3 Stadium Road 

Rumuomasi, Port Harcourt 

Rivers State, 

Tel: 0809 713 5734 

Protea Hotel Apo Apartments 

Address: Ahmadu Bello Way, 

Apo, Abuja 

Tel: 09 480 1818 

Chida Hotel International 

Address: Plot 224, Solomon 

Lar Way, Utako, Abuja 

Tel: 0810 871 8882 

206 Hotel 

Plot 206 Cadastral Zone B02 

Opposite Kenuj 02 Mall, Oladipo 

Diya Road, 

Durumi District, Abuja 

Tel: 08119707993 

Email: 206abuja@gmail.com 

Protea Hotel (V/Island) 

Off Ajose Adeogun Street, V/ 

Island 

Radisson Blu Anchorage 

Hotel 

1A,Ozumba Mbadiwe,Victoria 

Island. 

Transcorp Hilton Abuja 

1 Aguiyi Ironsi Street Maitama, 

Abuja 

Tel: +234-708-060-3000 

Hawthorn Suites by 

Wyndham Abuja 

1 Uke St, Garki, Abuja. 

Tel: +234 9 4603900, +234 

805 7522500 

Radisson Blu Hotel Ikeja 

#38/40 Isaac John St, Ikeja 

GRA100271, Ikeja 

Tel: +234-908-780 5555 

Protea Hotel (GRA Ikeja) 

GRA Ikeja 

Gombe Jewel Hotel, 22, Njamena 

Street, off Aminu Kano 

crescent Wuse 2, Abuja.



C002D5556 

All eyes on Trace In The City 

Stories by OBINNA EMELIKE 

If you are youthful and lover of 

entertainment on the go, you 

need to be on the Trace-In- 

The-City train. 

The train, which took 

since August 17, 2018 is on a fourweek 

tour to bring the best of life’s 

experiences to the Trace channel 

fans and youths on campuses and 

cinemas in seven cities across the 

country. 

The tour will feature fusion of 

music, movies, a concert, and games 

such as an eating competition, Indomie 

and Pepsi product giveaways, 

NTA Content Festival and take over 

a Movie theatre in each city. The 

locations for the whirlwind campus 

and city tours include: Zaria, Abuja, 

Calabar, Port Harcourt, Benin, Lagos 

and Ibadan. 

One reason to attend the event 

in a location nearer to you is the 

parade of the A-List artistes billed 

to perform on stage at the different 

locations. The artistes to rock the 

stage include; Ice Prince, Mayorkun, 

Reekado Banks, Harrysong, Falz, Dj 

Fans at a campus music fiesta 

Neptune, CDQ, MC Galaxy, Classiq, 

LAX, Teni Entertainer, Dremo, 

Peruzzi, Idowest, Yonda, Odunsi 

The Engine, Ceeza Milli, Tjan and 

many others. 

But one highlight of the tour, 

especially for upcoming artistes on 

the many campuses hosting the tour, 

is the featuring of each university’s 

popular acts on same stage with 

established artistes. 

Aside the platform to showcase 

upcoming talents on campus, 

Trace is also giving young creatives 

a chance to connect with Trace, 

meet the faces behind channel and 

submit videos or skits in a “Content 

Festival” in conjunction with 

the Nigerian Television Authority 

(NTA). 

Speaking on the rationale for 

the tour and platform, said Sam 

Onyemelukwe, managing director 

for Trace in Anglophone Africa, 

said, “We decided to embark on this 

campus tour because the country’s 

entertainment scene is dominated 

and consumed by young people 

and they are eager for opportunities 

to have their creativity recognized. 

To respond to their aspirations, we 

partnered with NTA so they can drop 

their videos and submit content to 

air on TV”. 

The city tour, which started on 

August 17, 2018 will run until September 

15, 2018. It is sponsored 

by Indomie Nigeria, refreshed by 

Pepsi, supported by Infinix Mobile 

and Clorets. 

However, interested students 

and adults alike are urged to follow 

the conversation on all Trace’s social 

media platforms using @tracenaija 

on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter 

or by using the Tag #TraceInTheCity. 

Falana looks to start her Chapter One 

Falana has truly come 

of age with her kind of 

music and growing fan 

base. 

Her electric performances infused 

with unique style and elements 

of afro-pop have created 

something different in the Nigerian 

music industry. 

She is aware that her fans are 

always on the lookout for her 

new releases and is assiduously 

working to deliver quality content. 

Recently, she hosted an exclusive 

album listening event 

for her upcoming extended play 

(EP). In her true fashion of sticking 

to her African roots and promoting 

her love for her Nigerian 

heritage, the artiste donned two 

outfits; she and her band wore 

custom made outfits by Orange 

Culture, while she ended her 

night in a Maki Oh piece from 

ALARA. The colour red was 

seemingly the artiste’s choice of 

Falana performing at Alara 

the night as both ‘homemade’ 

outfits were a fiery red which 

captivated the audience along 

with her statement shoes by 

Shekudo. 

The genius sound of Falana 

is the perfect blend of the old 

and the new- high life guitar 

riffs, amazing harmonies, distinct 

afro rhythm and powerful 

refined vocals. Her music took 

audiences on a journey blending 

contemporary sounds and truly 

compelling lyrics that promises 

to resonate with audiences upon 

release. 

She took the audience on a 

roller coaster ride, unearthing 

different emotions as she told 

her story of perseverance, love, 

patience and pain, giving listeners 

an insight into how she produced 

tracks from the EP; the 

recording and selection process. 

In all, it was an expository 

experience transcending listeners 

to another dimension with 

her depth and versatility. Her 

performance left listeners craving 

more of her unique sound, 

which she delivered to thunderous 

applause. 

From the ornately decorated 

vintage Mercedes Benz owned 

by the legendary painter Ben 

Enwonwu strategically placed 

at the entrance coupled with Falana’s 

powerful voice and mindblowing 

music, the event, which 

was supported by ALARA and 

Belvedere was a huge success 

and a night to remember. 

Kemi Akindoju bares it all in Naked 

On August 12, 29018, Naked, 

the one-woman 

play, had its last show 

for the second cycle. 

First premièred at the Lagos 

Theatre Festival in March, the play 

tells the story of failure, pain, pushing 

the boundaries and the process 

to achieving success. 

With an undertone that stardom 

is not what it seems, NAKED 

takes you on an intimate journey of 

the highs and lows of Kemi Akindoju, 

the lead and only character, 

her growing up and experiences 

as a green thumb in the entertainment 

industry. 

From the first scene to the last, 

the character played by Kemi‘Lala’ 

Akindojutakes her audience on a 

journey, in and out of her memories 

without losing them ineither 

the present or the stories of her 

past that she tells. 

Kenneth Uphopho, the director, 

says the vision of the production 

is to use NAKED as a medium 

that gives a voice and educates the 

younger generation of creatives, 

giving room for mentoring and 

empowering the young in the industry.The 

future of NAKED is, 

with adequate and proper funding 

is to go around and beyond the 

shores of Nigeria and Africa. 

The vision was kick-started with 

the first showing of NAKED free for 

young female actors to encourage 

them to face their challenges and 

steer them in the right direction. 

The play, which was hosted by 

Lamide Akintobi, begins with a 

starlet whose make-up artist and 

stylist have disappeared on her. 

She takes matters into her own 

Kemi Akindoju in Naked 

hands, with every action triggering 

a period or situation in her past. 

She keeps her audience glued 

to her every move, putting them 

at the forefront of her memories. 

There is a shift in the ambience 

every time she loops in and out of 

her memories and secret tears are 

shed along with her as she unveils 

the abuse, pains and failures. 

The play has moments of laughter 

and tears with something everyone 

can relate to. Lala wields 

the stage in a way that only a seasoned 

thespian can, piloting the 

play to victorious end. 

“I just want to let everyone 

know that our challenges are not 

that different and we shouldn’t 

feel ashamed”, Kemi ‘Lala’Akindoju 

says. 

The play also featured a question 

and answer session, which 

gave the audience an opportunity 

to ask questions, share their views 

and define the impact of the show 

and how it can be extended to the 

general public. 

The hour long one-woman play 

written by Titilope Sonuga, which 

had eight showings in total, teaches 

the values of self-worth, rediscovering 

self and self-esteem. 

NAKED is a result of collaboration 

between PAWS Studios and 

The Make It Happen Productions. 

The play is produced by Brenda 

Uphopho, Kemi ‘Lala’Akindoju 

and Oludara Egerton Shyngle as 

associate producer. 

The August 12th staging of the 

play was attended by; Joke Silva, 

Olu Jacobs, Biola Alabi, Omotola 

Jalade-Ekeinde, Shaffy Bello, Pastor 

Tony Rapu, Ini Dima-Okojie,IK 

Osakioduwa, Funke Bucknor Obruthe, 

Nancy Isime and many 

more.


C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

27 

Film Review – MOMS AT WAR 

It’s with so much 

joy and excitement 

I bring to you this 

brand new movie 

Moms at war. Its 

quiet easy to predict from 

the title to predict what this 

movie would be about, yes 

it’s about two mothers who 

wanted to fight for their 

kids to achieve the best, 

they were willing to do anything 

to protect their kids. 

It was so nice and interesting 

to see “Jennifer” Funke 

Akindele and Omoni Oboli 

together for the first time. 

They did a very good job 

and they totally killed it, 

they had a perfect storyline 

and the cast were perfect 

for each role. The movie 

was absolutely hilarious 

but yet passed the message 

across properly with a nice 

ending. The hype and marketing 

for this movie was 

really good, they spent a 

lot in promoting the movie, 

and the movie preview was 

also awesome, with loads 

of stars, comedians, nice 

Dj, music and an awesome 

after party. 

The movie was directed 

by Omoni Oboli, written by 

Chinaza Onuzo. Although 

it had a simple nice story 

that one could associate 

and relate with, they also 

had loads of lessons to pass 

across. There was something 

just nice and unique 

about this movie. They 

kept everyone entertained 

and relaxed all through the 

90mins, when it was over, 

we absolutely didn’t want 

to leave and could have 

asked for more. They paid 

attention to details and 

avoided the usual Nigerian 

syndrome of mistakes. The 

production was top-notch, 

the quality of the script was 

amazing and the cast killed 

their role totally, I felt they 

really couldn’t have gotten 

anyone better. In as much 

as they were hilarious, they 

didn’t still lose the value 

they wanted to pass across. 

The locations chosen were 

so nice and the school 

scene looked really and 

well played. 

So let me tell you a bit 

about the story, they told 

a story about two mothers 

who leaved as neighbours 

in a very high brow estate 

in Lekki. The first mother 

who was “Omoni Oboli” 

had only one daughter, 

while the second mother 

who happened to be “Jennifer” 

who is known as 

Funke Akindele had only 

one son. Omoni was a very 

hot and trendy mum, who 

felt she deserved to leave in 

that estate. To her she felt 

that Funke was one lucky 

Cast: Funke Akindele, Alvin Abayomi, Yul Edochie, 

Omoni Oboli, Michelle Dede, Eucharia Anunobi 

Ekwu, Sharon Ooja, Bukola Oladipupo, 

Director: Omoni Oboli 

Producer: Moses Babatope, Omoni Oboli, Kene Okwuosa, 

Chinaza Onuzo 

Written by: Chinaza Onuzo 

Casting: 90mins 

Genre: Drama & Comedy 

Ratings: 12 

unfortunate lady, who mistakenly 

hit millions and decided 

to move in with the 

rich. She felt the estate and 

the people who leaved in it 

were too classy for Funke. 

They hated each so much 

and didn’t want to talk to 

each other, nor allow their 

paths cross. The very funny 

part of the story was that 

their kids both attended 

the same school, yet each 

day they rode in separate 

cars. 

Some months to their 

graduating from school 

they both wrote a special 

exam, which was meant 

for the very bright minds 

and only one person would 

be chosen to represent the 

school in the international 

conference. Unfortunately 

they both passed and this 

was when the major war 

now started. The principal 

spoke to both parents 

to agree and chose one 

child as only one child 

would be allowed from 

the school, the parents refused 

and started devising 

tactic and strategy to bring 

the other down and win. 

Funke didn’t really bother 

or fight she was so confident 

that her son was very 

intelligent and would pass 

it easily again, so instead 

of choosing they opted into 

writing the second time 

and this time Funkes son 

didn’t write well to allow 

for his new found friend to 

pass and go for the conference. 

The issues and plots 

just never came to an end 

as both parents were willing 

to do anything to make 

sure their kids went on this 

trip. You would need to see 

the movie, to see the length 

these mums went to and 

how their kids finally made 

a decision. 

To my verdict I score this 

movie a 6.5/ 10, the movie 

was nice, they had a very 

good production, costumes 

were on point, set, location 

and the cast tried their best, 

it was a simple nice story, 

but there was just something 

missing at the end, 

the knots didn’t quiet add, 

I felt something was missing 

at the end that would 

have made it a perfect story. 

For the lovers of music and 

romance, then you might 

want to try this out. 

Feel free to review any 

movie of your choice in 

not more than 200 words, 

please send us a mail to 

linda@businessdayonline. 

com and stand a chance to 

win a free movie ticket. 

Linda Ochugbua 

@lindaochugbua 

Business Etiquette 

with Janet Adetu 

Are you watching 

your Image? 

“Your Image is everything” 

We all strive 

to be as 

normal as 

possible 

forgetting 

that image indeed is everything. 

Whether you are a 

professional or an entrepreneur, 

you will be perceived, 

approached and accepted 

based on what people see. If 

you consider your progress, 

level of success and career 

growth to be important then 

it is your duty to live up to 

expectation and value your 

image. Many people do not 

understand the protocol of 

maintaining a promising 

self-image or the importance 

it has in their life. 

On numerous occasions 

during my seminars with 

professionals, I have found 

that the motivation to create 

an impressive first impression 

is wanting. Good work 

ethics have become a thing 

of the past as the 21st century 

‘Generation Y’ and now 

the Millennials what I call 

Generation Z are ever on the 

go with little time for details. 

This is worrying as employers 

become more concerned 

about those they 

send out to act as the face of 

the company and represent 

them. There is now a growing 

need to invest in building 

an acceptable self and corporate 

image that gives that 

panache advantage. It is easy 

not to be aware of actions, 

behaviors and attitude that 

truly diminish ones image 

until it becomes a habit that 

is easily noticed by others. 

Below are some of the 

professional image breakers 

that I see on a regular basis. 

Are you a victim? This is 

the time to acknowledge 

and fix it. 

General Physiology 

1. Sitting in an non elegant 

and awkward manner. 

2. A woman who walks 

like a man 

3. Walking fast and 

swinging arms rapidly 

4. Walking too slow and 

sluggishly 

5. Dragging feet on the 

ground while shoulders are 

humped 

6. A fierce and inappropriate 

body language 

7. Standing in an unattractive 

and distracted 

manner 

Overall Body 

1. Constant bad breath 

2. Offensive body odour 

3. Visible sweat under the 

armpits 

4. A man who keeps long 

nails 

5. A woman with uncom- 

fortably long nails 

6. Dirty un-kept and 

chipped nails 

7. A woman with smelly 

braided hair 

8. Hair that appears untidy 

and unwashed 

9. Maintaining an ungroomed 

full head of grey hair 

10. An man with unshaven 

facial hair 

11. A man with hair overdue 

for barbing 

Fragrance/Appearance 

1. Overbearing perfume 

2. Not wearing any deodorant 

or perfume 

3. Smelly, unwashed and 

dirty clothing 

4. Excessive and unattractive 

make-up 

5. Lipstick on teeth 

Clothing 

1. Ill- fitting clothes 

2. Very short skirts 

3. Transparent clothing 

4. Revealing underwear 

5. Unflattering coloured 

(uncoordinated) clothing 

6. Old, outdated and 

worn out wear 

7. Wrinkled and un 

ironed clothing 

8. Dressing too old or too 

young 

9. Sloppy business casual 

dressing 

10. Unprofessional ensemble 

Fabulous Feet 

1. Constantly worn out 

heels. 

2. Paying little attention 

to the shine and polish of 

your shoes 

3. Wearing boots with 

short dresses 

4. Undone shoe laces 

5. Wearing uncomfortably 

high heels that disrupt 

your walk 

6. Shoes that reveal your 

un-kept toes 

7. Wearing slippers, rubber 

crocs and sandals to 

work 

8. You wear official shoes 

with jeans 

Accessories 

1. Carrying an everyday 

cheap pen 

2. Old and worn briefcase 

or handbag 

3. Cheap watch 

4. Unsuitable and excessive 

jewelry 

5. Worn out belts 

6. Wearing unmatched 

socks or having holes. 

7. Excessively big handbags 

for professional look 

8. Bulky wallets 

9. Wearing your pen in 

the breast pocket of your 

shirt 

10. Ink stains on the shirt 

pocket 

11. Not having a business 

card holder 

Language 

1. Speaking too fast, low 

or loud 

2. Talking while eating 

3. Speaking aggressively 

4. Talking to someone 

while looking at the wall, sky 

or ground 

5. Eating while talking on 

the phone 

6. Poor diction and enunciation 

This extensive list though 

not exhaustive gives a simple 

and true indication of how 

we live our lives daily. It’s 

not about changing who you 

are but making a conscious 

attempt to improve your selfimage, 

with the aim of striving 

for success. The list offers 

an insight into the many 

ways our image can have 

a negative impact. Try to 

take them in your stride and 

identify your image breakers 

then make that extra effort to 

adjust yourself. You can only 

develop professionalism by 

learning to make a difference 

each day. 

“Change surely does not 

come easy, but a step in the 

right direction lays the foundation 

for tomorrow” 

-Janet Adetu



INTERVIEW 

Spotlight Nigeria 2018 – highlighting business opportunities 

Unity Ivongbe is the director of projects for Friends of Nigeria (FON) and also the project manager for Spotlight Nigeria 2018. In this interview with BusinessDay, 

he discusses the upcoming Spotlight Nigeria 2018 in Paris, France, highlighting business opportunities in Nigeria potential investors can tap from. Excerpt: 

What is the mission of the Spotlight 

Nigeria event? 

Nigeria stands on 

the threshold of 

what could be the 

greatest transformation 

in the history 

of the African continent. 

Currently the largest economy 

on the African continent, it is 

projected by the UN to become 

the third most populous country 

in the world by 2050, ahead of 

the United States of America. 

Nigeria is a country that cannot 

be overlooked because of 

its demographic and economic 

potentials. 

Spotlight Nigeria as the name 

goes was launched in order to 

beam a limelight on investment 

and business opportunities in 

Nigeria for foreign investors 

and companies. The Spotlight 

Nigeria event holds in Paris and 

offers a platform for French (and 

European) companies to access 

first-hand investment opportunities 

in Nigeria and to meet 

with decision-makers from the 

Nigerian economy, both private 

sector and public sector participants. 

These interactions will 

also foster bilateral economic 

relations between Nigeria and 

France. 

Tell us more about the 

Spotlight Nigeria 2018 

This year’s event, which is the 

third edition, is happening at 

a very auspicious time in the 

history of the relationship that 

France and Nigeria share. 

With €3.6 billion in bilateral 

trade in 2017, Nigeria remains 

France’s leading trade partner 

in sub-Saharan Africa. The 

July 2018 visit of Monsieur Emmanuel 

Macron, President of 

France, to Nigeria underscores 

strong interest in promoting 

Franco-Nigerian trade, business, 

and social ties, through private 

sector involvement across strategic 

sectors. 

Premised on this, Spotlight 

Nigeria 2018, the last major 

event this year in the series of 

France-Nigeria engagements 

will provide a platform for companies 

to close partnership 

deals. Spotlight Nigeria 2018 

will feature government-backed 

incentives, access to funding and 

export credits, designed to support 

trade between the private 

sectors of both countries. 

Spotlight Nigeria 2018 seeks 

to further consolidate the outcome 

of these interactions by en- 

Unity Ivongbe 

suring that the cordial bilateral 

relations between both countries 

snowball into concrete business 

transactions and projects 

between companies from both 

countries. 

Is there any sector of focus 

at the Spotlight Nigeria 2018? 

The event will spotlight on 

sectors in which the Nigerian 

economy is seeking for foreign 

investors and particular sectors 

in which French Companies 

and investors can add value and 

which is in line with the French 

Government’s export strategy. 

The sectors of focus to be 

covered during the plenary and 

panel sessions include Agribusiness, 

Manufacturing and 

Processing, Energy, Real Estate 

and Hospitality, Fast Moving 

Consumer Goods (FMCG), 

Digital Technology, Creative 

Industry, Education and Capacity 

Building. 

The B2B meetings and 

match-making sessions will 

cover a larger spectrum of 

sectors and industries. These 

meetings will bring together 

companies and investors from 

both countries for the purpose 

of discussing concrete business 

opportunities and partnerships. 

Are there private sector 

and public sector participants 

to be expected from Nigeria? 

Yes; our focus is to ensure that all 

stakeholders are well represented. 

You know, the business community 

needs the government 

just as much as the government 

needs the business community 

for these kinds of interactions, 

so we expect the government 

both from the executive arm as 

well as sectoral regulators at the 

event. We will also be expecting 

the local business community 

from mid-sized companies to 

fledging SMEs who are seeking 

international partnerships both 

for their local business development 

and also for export market 

prospects. We are working with 

a couple of umbrella organizations 

and trade groups to ensure 

that we are able to ensure the 

best representation that will 

lead to valuable exchanges at 

the event. 

What can attendees expect 

to see that is different from 

previous editions? 

The expectations for this year’s 

edition are very high and we are 

working towards more concrete 

outcomes from the event; concrete 

in terms of the signing of 

MoUs, partnership agreements, 

and preliminary and advanced 

discussions on concrete project 

and business opportunities. 

The goal is to ensure that it’s 

not another gabfest, like some 

other conferences, but a forum 

where people meet and initiate 

new projects towards mutual 

benefits. That’s our running KPI 

for this year’s edition and we 

are working around the clock 

to ensure that we deliver on this 

promise. 

A number of MoUs and 

Agreements are scheduled to 

be announced and signed during 

the Spotlight Nigeria 2018. 

There will be a number of case 

studies presented of successful 

partnerships between French 

Companies and Nigerian Companies 

on concrete projects. 

These companies will be participating 

to share their stories. 

We will also have a session 

at the event that Spotlights on 

Nigerian entrepreneurs running 

successful businesses in 

France; businesses turning 

over several millions of Euros 

annually and creating employment 

opportunities for the 

working class here.


C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

29 

Sports 

Woods and Mickelson face 

off in $9m match 

Stories by Anthony Nlebem 

L-R: Shehu Dikko, NFF’s 2nd Vice President/LMC Chairman; Gernot Rohr, Super Eagles’ 

Technical Adviser and Dayo Enebi Achor, Super Eagles’ Team Administrator on the turf of the 

Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna on Wednesday, August 22nd, 2018. 

2019 AFCON: Rohr inspects Ahmadu Bello Stadium 

… to release squad list on Friday 

Super Eagles’ Technical Adviser, 

Gernot Rohr, on has inspected 

the newly –renovated Ahmadu 

Bello Stadium, Kaduna as 

preparations begin in earnest for the 

remaining matches of the 2019 Africa 

Cup of Nations qualifying series. 

Nigeria play away to Seychelles in 

Victoria on Matchday 2 of the series 

on Friday, 7th September, 2018 and 

then entertain Libya’s Mediterranean 

Knights in Nigeria on Matchday 3 on 

10th October, 2018. 

Super Eagles Franco-German tactician 

checked out the facilities at the 

Ahmadu Bello Stadium in company 

with NFF’s 2nd Vice President/LMC 

Chairman, Mallam Shehu Dikko and 

Super Eagles’ Team Administrator, 

Dayo Enebi Achor. 

Officials confirmed that former 

Germany defender Rohr will on 

Friday this week release his list of 

invited players for the away clash with 

Seychelles. 

After hosting Libya on 10th 

October, the three –time African 

champions will play away to the 

Knights three days later, before flying 

to South Africa for the return 

against the Bafana Bafana on 17th 

November. The last match of the 

series will see the Eagles hosting 

Seychelles on 22nd March 2019. 

In the opener to the series in June 

2017, the Eagles lost 0-2 to the Bafana 

Bafana in Uyo. 

The finals of the 32nd Africa Cup 

of Nations finals are scheduled to be 

staged in Cameroon in 2019. 

Alonso says 2019 decision is goodbye to F1 

Fernando Alonso says his 

decision to leave Formula 1 

in 2019 is a goodbye in one of 

the biggest hints yet that he 

will not return in the future. 

Alonso is expected to combine an 

IndyCar programme with his Toyota 

WEC commitments in 2019, having 

announced over the summer break 

that he would not continue in F1 with 

McLaren. 

“Right now, I am thinking that it’s 

a goodbye,” he said. “But life changes 

very quickly. 

“And life also taught me in the past 

how things may change, in a couple of 

months’ time, or years’ time. 

“As I said also in the press release 

when we announced the retirement 

it is to leave the door open, because I 

don’t have a crystal ball to know what 

is going to happen in the future. 

“For me it is a bye-bye, but who 

knows what will happen?” 

Alonso insisted that he wanted 

to leave F1 on his own terms, having 

wanted to see how McLaren’s 

changes for 2018 played out before 

committing to anything. 

“It was a decision that probably 

I started thinking about last year, 

and then this year, there were a lot 

of changes into the team, with the 

engine manufacturer changes and 

things like that, so I thought that it was 

worth staying one more year,” he said. 

“I enjoy driving these cars with 

these regulations, the big tyres. I was 

having fun. 

“But at the same time I make 

some changes and some priorities 

into this year with the WEC championship 

and other things also towards 

this direction. “A couple of months 

ago I decided that it was the right 

time, I feel strong, driving a good level 

and I want to say bye-bye to this sport 

when I feel strong, not when I feel not 

competitive, or I don’t have any place 

to go or whatever. 

Bayern begin title defence as new season kick off 

A 

fascinating start to the season 

is in prospect in Germany 

and StarTimes is 

gearing up to deliver some 

of the most action-packed football 

from the best players in the world 

which would air on ST World Football 

Channels 244 and 254 and ST 

Sport Premium channel 246. 

The new football season debuts 

with four games live across the 

opening weekend as the reigning 

champions, Bayern Munich battles 

the and last season’s third-placed 

side Hoffenheim from 7.30pm at 

the Allianz Arena live on StarTimes 

Niko Kovac, who spent two years as 

a player for Bayern between 2001 

and 2003, is the new man in the Bayern 

dug-out after taking over from 

Jupp Heynckes. The 46-year-old 

impressed by rejuvenating Eintract 

Frankfurt, the side Bayern demolished 

5-0 in his opening match in 

charge to lift the Super Cup earlier 

this month. 

Two golf greats, Tiger Woods 

and Phil Mickelson will go 

head-to-head in a winnertakes-all 

$9m exhibition 

match in Las Vegas. 

The Americans, who have 19 

major championship titles between 

them, will face off in the 18-hole event 

at Shadow Creek Golf Course on 23 or 

24 November. 

The contest, which coincides with 

Thanksgiving weekend in the US, will 

be screened on pay-per-view. 

Woods confirmed “The Match” on 

social media, saying: “It’s on”. 

Mickelson, who has attracted 

almost 100,000 followers in less than 

24 hours on Twitter, replied to Woods, 

saying: “I bet you think this is the 

easiest $9million you will ever make.” 

At present the US Open delivers 

the largest winning pay cheque of the 

four major championships at about 

$2.16m, though the winner of the Fed- 

ExCup - awarded for an accumulation 

of points on the US PGA Tour - can 

expect to earn a bonus of $10m. 

The possibility of a duel between 

the former Ryder Cup teammates 

has been mooted repeatedly down 

the years. 

Woods, a 14-time major winner, 

has won over £88m prize money 

on the PGA Tour in comparison to 

Mickelson’s £68m. 

“It’s an opportunity for us to bring 

golf to the masses in prime time during 

a period where we don’t have 

much going on in the world of golf,” 

LaLiga set for strike over deal 

to play matches in US 

Footballers in Spain have not 

ruled out strike action over 

a plan to stage a top-flight 

league match in the United 

States, says the players’ union. 

Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos 

and Barcelona vice-captain Sergio 

Busquets were among the highprofile 

players to attend a meeting to 

discuss their concern over the issue. 

Mickelson told ESPN. 

Despite the good-natured approach, 

there is no chance of the 

duo sharing the purse, with Mickelson 

saying that the event had to be 

winner-takes-all. 

“If you don’t do that, it undermines 

it,” Mickelson said. “The whole 

point is the winner-take-all thing. 

That’s the exciting part about it.” 

The money on offer for the fourhour 

long 18-hole round between 

Woods and Mickelson dwarfs the 

prize money available to an individual 

at any other golf tournament. 

It is also larger than the £2.25m 

figure handed to the winners of the 

Gentlemen’s and Ladies’ Wimbledon 

singles titles in Tennis. 

However, the winners of the Uefa 

Champions League in football, the 

World Series in baseball, American 

Football’s Superbowl and the Rugby 

Union World Cup could all expect 

LaLiga agreed a 15-year deal 

with US media company Relevent 

on Friday. 

The players’ union - the AFE - says 

LaLiga did not consult its members. 

Players from all of the LaLiga 

sides met in Madrid on Wednesday to 

discuss the issue with AFE president 

David Aganzo. 

Among those in attendance were 

to earn more if they were victorious. 

Real Madrid’s efforts in the Champions 

League last term for example, 

equated to in excess of €54m of 

performance-related money and 

a market pool share of over €35m 

(£31.4m) in prize money. 

The distinction of course is that 

those competition are team events. 

Whereas the Pegasus World Cup 

Invitational in Florida, the World’s 

richest horse race, offers a total prize 

fund of $16m (£12.4m). 

The Woods versus Mickelson 

showdown does not though compare 

to Floyd Mayweather’s defeat 

of Conor McGregor in 2017, which 

ranks as one of the richest bouts in 

boxing history. 

Mayweather, 40, who came out of 

retirement for the fight is reported to 

have earned around $300m (£230m) 

for stopping the Irishman in the 10th 

round. 

Ramos and Real Madrid team-mate 

Nacho, Barcelona duo Busquets and 

Sergi Roberto, Leo Baptistao from 

Espanyol, Bruno from Villarreal, and 

Atletico Madrid players Koke and 

Juanfran. 

Aganzo said: “The problem is the 

lack of common sense, a schedule 

where only the export of soccer benefits 

- nobody counts on the fans. 

“We need to fix it with the bosses. 

The captains are outraged, they’re 

against it, they are unanimous. 

“It does not make sense. We are 

talking about an agreement that has a 

validity of 15 years without consulting 

the players.” 

On the possibility of strike action, 

he added: “We will try not to reach 

that extreme but we are willing to go 

to the end if necessary.” 

Aganzo said the players would 

meet again in September. 

The AFE said players “do not 

understand the unilateral decisions”, 

adding: “LaLiga is distancing the fans 

of the players, something that harms 

the show and the essence of football.” 

After the meeting the league said 

in a statement: “LaLiga will meet 

with AFE in the appropriate forum 

to discuss the plans to play a match

30 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556 Friday 24 August 2018 

BUSINESS SOUTH-SOUTH 

COMPLETE COVERAGE OF SOUTH-SOUTH / SOUTH-EAST 

Abia Poly celebrates Nigeria’s culture, 

through food, music, dance 

…as institution holds 12th cultural festival 

GODFREY OFURUM, Aba 

Federation of Ngwa Students 

(FENS) emerged 

winners of the 2018 edition 

of the Abia State 

Polytechnic, Aba Cultural 

Festival, an annual event that 

showcases Nigeria’s rich cultural 

heritage. They were closely followed 

by Anambra/ Enugu Students Association, 

while Bayelsa Students 

Association emerged third. 

The annual event, which brings 

the student’s week to a close, affords 

the students and staff of the institution 

an opportunity to showcase the 

cultural heritage of their different 

ethnic nationalities. 

Abia State Polytechnic is a multiethnic 

institution; consequently, 

the event has become an important 

programme in the calendar of the 

institution, which the students and 

management relish. 

It has the trapping of the Calabar 

and Abuja carnivals; and this year’s 

event lived up to its billing, as the 

students, staff and friends of the institution, 

were fully clad in their different 

local attires, showcasing the 

rich culture of their different ethnic 

nationalities that make up Nigeria. 

Ezionye Eboh, a professor and 

acting rector of the institution, who 

was the chief host of the event, 

explained that the Polytechnic community 

was celebrating its being 

and culture. 

According to him, “Today in 

Abia State Polytechnic, we are 

displaying the cultural rainbow of 

different States and tribes of our 

country, Nigeria. We are celebrating 

our being and our culture. This day 

Champion Breweries rewards distributors 

ANIEFIOK UDONQUAK, Uyo 

Champion Breweries Plc, 

Uyo, Akwa Ibom State 

has rewarded its major 

distributors as part of efforts 

to spur them and ensure it 

captures a greater share of 

the market for the company’s 

products. 

More than 10 major distributors 

drawn from Uyo, Calabar 

and Aba districts went home 

with over 1,000 crates of Champion 

Beer and Champ Malta, 

among other items. 

In addition, the highest 

total combined volume winner, 

Ini Francois Ventures got 

two Champion tricycle machines, 

while the first runnerup, 

Chinonso Uba Ventures 

went home with one tricycle 

machine to help in distributing 

the products to customers and 

consumers. 

At the event, which was also 

A cross-section of Bayelsa State students at Abia Poly 

classroom activities must rest. Our 

friends are to be feasted with glittering 

spectacles that will fill their 

beings and show that we are serious 

with academics, no doubt, but that 

we do find time to play, dance and 

celebrate.” 

He however urged the students 

not to be carried away by the thrills 

of the carnival, by going back to their 

classrooms to pursue their primary 

objective in the institution, saying, 

“We would have had sufficient rest 

and captured new energy to drive 

the academic year to successful 

conclusion”. 

He thanked all guests, students, 

meant to launch the rebranded 

Champion Beer, Patrick Ejidoh, 

managing director of the 

company, expressed gratitude 

to the distributors for standing 

with the company through thick 

and thin. 

He said: “It is on record that 

we have had some of the most 

loyal and committed distributors 

and customers. That is why 

we design a day like this to say 

thank you.” 

Ejidoh said the rebranded 

Champion Beer and Champ 

Malta have been brewed to 

meet the globally acceptable 

standard since the Heineken 

group took over majority shares 

of the company. 

According to him, Champion 

Breweries today is managed by 

a group of professionals from 

the Nigerian Breweries to ensure 

a complete turnaround of 

the products. He said a new 

Champion Breweries bottle was 

launched in June this year, with 

judges, the dean and staff of student’s 

affairs division, who packaged 

this event, staff of public relations office 

for giving the pavilion-the venue 

of the event, a befitting look and the 

various units and directorates that 

worked harmoniously to deliver the 

beautiful event. 

Chris Nkoro, dean, Students Affairs, 

Abia State Polytechnic in an 

interview with BusinessDay, attributed 

the success of this year’s event 

to synergy between the student 

affairs department, the organizing 

committee and the participating 

associations. 

According to him, “for this year’s 

a premium quality beer into the 

market as part of the rebranding 

exercise. 

The MD, who also described 

the company’s Champ Malta as 

a food drink for nourishment 

disclosed that the product “is 

now the leading malt drink in 

the country.” 

He announced that over 60 

additional tricycles would be 

launched and distributed to 

enable distributors take them to 

rural areas to adequately serve 

the customers and consumers. 

One of the distributors who 

spoke with BusinessDay after 

the event, expressed deep gratitude 

to the brewing company 

for the various gift items presented 

to them to boost their 

morale. 

They assured the management 

of their resolve to redouble 

their efforts to ensure the 

progress and prosperity of the 

company through aggressive 

sales of the products. 

event, we excluded masquerades 

and then told ourselves that we have 

to be better organized, so that we 

can use singing, dancing, attire and 

our various languages to showcase 

our cultures. 

“Whether you are Hausa, Igbo, 

Yoruba, Izon, Ibibio or Efik, among 

other tribes, you must bring what 

you have in your own language and 

in your own way, to show that we are 

the same people,” Nkoro said. 

Speaking on the theme of the 

2018 event, “Culture as a Tool for 

Lasting Peace,” Nkoro observed that 

there is no culture in the world that 

teaches killing or violence. It is all 

Roasted yam, an Igbo traditional food 

Cross-section of Igbo students, Abia Poly 

peace. I am happy that irrespective 

of the rain, we still had an enjoyable 

moment.” 

He thanked the Abia State government, 

corporate organizations, 

especially 7UP Bottling Company, 

and the media for their support; and 

promised a more vibrant celebration 

in 2019. 

Stella Nwakanma, desk officer/ 

chairman Abia Poly Cultural ceremony, 

described culture as the most 

durable fruit of the Black Race; and 

more so, Nigerians. She explained 

that Abia State Polytechnic Cultural 

Festival was the best known cultural 

carnival among higher institutions 

in Nigeria and the most celebrated 

programme in the community. 

For Chinonso Alozie, president, 

student union government, Abia 

State Polytechnic, the cultural day 

celebration breeds in the students 

the spirit of unity and love, unity 

to work together and live together 

to make the country a better place 

for all. 

He urged the students to hold on 

to their culture, stressing that culture 

is of great value to a people. 

“Under no circumstance should 

anyone abandon his or her culture, 

because doing so, will amount to the 

person abandoning him or herself’. 

He also appealed to the youths 

to protect the good aspects of their 

culture and do away with negative 

aspects, especially those that infringes 

on the rights of citizens. 

In his words, “Culture is not static; 

it changes as the society evolves. 

So, let us not to be prisoners of our 

culture”. 

This year’s event, the 12th in the 

series, held on Friday, August 10, 

2018, at the institution’s pavilion.


BUSINESS DAY 

31


NEWS 

Tourist Company of Nigeria 

projects further losses 

ABIMBOLA HASSAN & SOBECHUKWU EZE 

Having recorded 

another 

loss this halfyear 

(H1), 

the Tourist 

Company of Nigeria listed 

on the Nigerian Stock Exchange 

(NSE) has forecasted 

further loss in the 

second half of the year, projecting 

a year end decrease 

of 59 percent when compared 

with 2017 year-end 

loss of N3.2 billion. 

From the 2018 H1 financial 

statement, it was seen 

that despite a 2 percent increase 

in revenue to N1.67 

billion from N1.65 billion 

H1 2017, the firm recorded 

a loss after tax (PAT) of 

N622 million, a slight improvement 

as it was 16 percent 

lower than the loss of 

N791 million the firm recorded 

in 2017 H1, a loss 

an analyst saw was largely 

due to the huge expenses 

the company incurs. 

Over time, the company’s 

expenses have always 

taken a large chuck 

from its revenue. The 2018 

H1 report showed that its 

expenses accounted for 

about 111 percent of the 

company’s revenue, although 

a decrease from the 

119 percent that it was last 

year of the same period. 

The company operates 

two business segments, 

which involves hotel and 

casino operations that 

make up the operating vehicle 

of the outfit. 

The casino operations, 

especially the gaming segment, 

has continued to 

dwindle, revenue from the 

gaming segment in H1 2018 

contributed about 39 percent 

to the total revenue, 

a reduction of 4 percentage 

points when compared 

with 43 percent in 2017 H1. 

Anthony Idigbe, acting 

chairman of the company, 

said in its 2017 financial 

statement “that the revenue 

it gets from its casino 

operations remains 

under pressure affected by 

the macro economic factors 

affecting the Nigerian 

economy. On a pro rata basis, 

the casino experienced 

decreased revenue in both 

tables and slots games.” 

The hospitality services 

of the company on the other 

hand have shown some 

degree of improvement, 

with a 9 percent growth in 

revenue with N1 billion 

reported in 2018 H1 from 

N932 million recorded in 

2017 H1. 

L-R: Pieter van Den Groen, chief operating, Eland Oil and Gas plc; Jose Manzano, president, 

Integral Capital, Argentina; Emeka Offor, manager, Chrome, Environmental Remediation Holding 

Company, and Vice Presidnt Yemi Osinbajo, during a meeting with foreign investors at Presidential 

Villa in Abuja, yesterday. 

NAN 

Osun 2019: Assembly member defects to PDP, 

as commission chairman resigns 

BOLADALE BAMIGBOLA, Osogbo 

he was forced out of the ruling 

party by some people 

that were uncomfortable 

with his approach to politics, 

adding that all promises 

made to Ila community 

by APC were never fulfilled. 

Akanni said: “Our College 

of Education used to 

have 33,000 students, it now 

has less than 2,000. APC 

promised to upgrade our 

institution to university. 

“Rather than do that, 

the current government 

through it’s policies is gradually 

killing the institution. 

When government wanted 

to downsize the workforce 

in the state-owned higher 

institutions, 73 names 

were selected from College 

of Education, Ila, while 

38 names were pencilled 

down for retrenchment 

from Ilesha College of Education. 

Member representing 

Ila State 

Constituency 

in Osun State 

House of Assembly, Clement 

Akanni on Thursday, 

dumped the ruling All Progressives 

Congress (APC) 

and defected to the Peoples 

Democratic Party (PDP). 

Also in a similar development, 

the chairman, 

Osun State Local Government 

Service Commission, 

Peter Babalola, has 

resigned his position. 

Babalola, who was one 

of the aspirants that contested 

APC governorship, 

in a letter addressed to 

Governor Rauf Aregbesola, 

said he resigned to pursue 

other endeavours. 

Speaking at the palace of 

Orangun of Ila, Akanni, said 

...59% decrease by year-end 

“I vehemently resisted 

this. I told my colleagues in 

the House of Assembly that 

Ilesha College has more 

staffers than lla, yet has 

lesser number of staffers 

that would be retrenched. 

“Whenever I tried to 

positively influence government 

policies to favour 

my constituents, some 

people in APC would say, 

no. Two of my followers 

were killed through fetish 

means. I can’t continue 

with a party full of devilish 

individuals.” 

Speaking on behalf of Ila 

community, Chief Ejemu 

of Ila, Paul Ogunrinade, 

demanded upgrade of Ila 

College of Education to 

university, urging Adeleke, 

if elected governor to also 

pay attention to all roads 

that link Ila to Ekiti and 

Kwara states. 

NIS arrests two 

impersonators, warns 

expatriates to be wary 

of fraudsters 

IFEOMA OKEKE 

Nigeria Immigration 

Services 

(NIS) has arrested 

two men parading 

themselves as officers 

of the service, attempting to 

defraud a Chinese company 

of huge sums of money using 

forged letterhead purportedly 

signed by a senior 

immigration officer. 

The fraudsters, a 66-yearold, 

Emeka John, and 

53-year-old James Ezeh, 

were arrested on August 20, 

2018. 

In a statement signed by 

Mohammed Alhaji Alfa, assistant 

comptroller general, 

zonal coordinator, it stated 

that the suspects were in the 

habit of going to companies 

to harass and extort money 

from expatriate workers. 

After investigation, Alfa 

directed that both suspects 

be handed over to the police 

for further investigation. 

He further advised 

members of the public, especially 

companies and organisations 

that employ the 

services of expatriates to 

be wary of such suspected 

fraudster and imitators as 

they were not sent by the 

NIS and their activities were 

a serious embarrassment to 

the service. 

BATN Foundation 

empowers internally 

displaced farmers 

Recently, the world 

marked the International 

Day of Remembrance 

and 

Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism. 

The British American 

Tobacco Nigeria (BATN) 

Foundation joined the global 

community in remembering 

and paying tribute to everyone 

– civilian or military – 

who is a victim of terrorism. 

On the significance of the 

commemoration, the United 

Nations Secretary General, 

Antonio Guterres, notes, in 

an official statement that, “We 

must lift up the voices of victims 

and survivors of terrorist 

attacks, who consistently call 

for accountability and results. 

“When we respect the 

human rights of victims and 

provide them with support 

and information, we reduce 

the lasting damage done by 

terrorists to individuals, communities 

and societies. The 

primary responsibility to support 

victims of terrorism and 

uphold their rights rests with 

Member States.” 

Reflecting on the occasion, 

the executive director 

BATN Foundation, Abimbola 

Okoya, remarked that, 

“Sometimes, we forget that 

our experience of security, 

peace and tranquillity is not 

shared by all. 

Chairman of the 

Edo State Civil Service 

Commission, 

Ekiuwa Inneh, has 

assured that the ongoing recruitment 

into the state’s civil 

service is being conducted 

in an open and transparent 

manner, to ensure that 

the best candidates are employed. 

Inneh, who said this in an 

interview with journalists, 

noted that the commission 

allowed for a neutral body 

to conduct the examination 

to ensure that there was no 

interference and undue pressure 

on the commission. 

According to Inneh, “We 

are in the process of recruiting 

now. We decided at the 

Commission to allow a neutral 

body conduct the examination. 

We listed the positions 

that are available and 

In a bid to drive financial 

inclusion and deepen 

financial services across 

the nooks and crannies 

of Nigeria through cost 

effective channels, First 

Bank of Nigeria Limited 

re-launched its Firstmonie 

Agent network in July 2017, 

with a pilot of the Agent 

Banking scheme in six highly 

populated states - Lagos, 

Oyo, Kano, Abuja FCT, Anambra, 

Rivers. 

After a six-month pilot 

that ended in December 

2017, the Agent Banking 

scheme was extended nationwide 

in January 2018. 

Within six months of its 

launch, the scheme has 

made appreciable progress 

with a pervasive network 

spread across every state. 

Firstmonie Agents are 

positioned within rural 

and semi-urban locations 

across the country 

to provide basic financial 

services such as account 

opening, cash deposit, 

Governor Ifeanyi 

Okowa of Delta 

State has decried 

what he described 

as “very big gap” existing in 

youths’ engagement in the 

country and called for efforts 

to fill the gap in order to check 

restiveness and criminality in 

the country. 

“We thank the World Bank 

for the efforts, but, there are 

still very big gaps in our country 

and we know that partnering 

with the private sector as a 

state, we would be able to find 

other means to attend to the 

gaps that are still existing in the 

area of youths unemployment. 

Once we are able to do that, we 

would be able to achieve and 

sustain the security and peace 

that we have in the state,” 

Okowa said yesterday. 

He made the call in Asaba 


Edo civil service recruitment: Only best 

candidates will be employed – Inneh 

Firstmonie agent now in every neighbourhood 

Okowa decries ‘big gap’ in youth engagement 

MERCY ENOCH, ASABA 

asked people to apply online. 

The test began from the moment 

you applied.” 

Noting that the commission 

will recruit the best for 

the jobs being advertised, 

she said, “If you applied 

wrongly, of course, you have 

failed. There is nothing anybody 

can do about that. By 

the nature of such failed application, 

you are weeded 

out. If the application is successful, 

then fine. After that, 

then you need to ask if you 

applied for a position you are 

qualified for. If you did not, 

that’s up to you.” 

She stressed that she has 

rebuffed pleas for interference 

in the recruitment process, 

noting, “We asked a 

neutral body to conduct that 

part of the recruitment for us. 

This is so that we can be free 

from pressure. 

cash withdrawals, airtime 

purchase, bill payments 

and much more to every 

Nigerian. 

Through this channel, 

the bank is committed to 

providing convenient services 

that endear trust, provide 

ease of access to financial 

products, thereby saving 

time and travel costs. Transactions 

carried out through 

this channel are securely authenticated 

and safe. 

The Firstmonie Agent 

network is succeeding in 

reducing the financial exclusion 

rate nationwide (a 

very critical objective of the 

Central Bank of Nigeria). In 

addition, the network has 

proven to be a reliable and 

efficient means of solving 

social welfare problems. The 

creation of extra jobs and 

sustainable income through 

the network has endeared 

Agents to the platform, while 

the ease of transacting has 

been a major factor in conserving 

customer loyalty. 

when he received a team of 

World Bank, European Union 

and Federal Government officials 

who were in the state to 

assess the level of implementation 

of State Employment 

and Expenditure For Results 

(SEEFOR) projects. 

The governor disclosed 

that getting the youths engaged 

was in line with his administration’s 

commitment 

to making the youths job 

creators through the different 

youths employment and 

wealth creation programmes 

of his administration. 

“We are happy with the 

partnership between World 

Bank and the European Union, 

we are happy that the 

youth empowerment components 

is working in Delta 

State as over 700 youths have 

been trained and empowered 

through this partnership and 

they are on their own,” he said.

Politics 

& 

Policy 


C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

33 

Buhari re-election receives boost as 

SMASEDMAN backs second term bid 

JAMES KWEN, Abuja 

The re - election 

bid of President 

Muhammadu 

Buhari in the 

2019 general 

elections has received a 

major boost despite the 

mounted opposition against 

its realisation. 

This is as the Surgical/ 

Medical, Laboratory, Allied 

and Scientific Equipment 

Dealers and Manufacturers 

Association of Nigeria, 

SMASEDMAN threw its 

weight behind Buhari’s second 

term in office. 

SMASEDMAN noted that 

the President deserves a 

second term in office in 

view of the remarkable success 

achieved in the socioeconomic 

development of 

the country, particularly in 

the fight against corruption. 

The group’s position was 

BOLADALE BAMIGBOLA, Osogbo 

The member representing 

Ila State 

Constituency in 

Osun State House 

of Assembly, Clement Akanni 

on Thursday, dumped the 

ruling All Progressives Congress 

(APC) and defected 

to the People’s Democratic 

Party (PDP). 

Also in a similar development, 

the chairman, Osun 

State Local Government 

Service Commission, Peter 

Babalola, has resigned his 

position. 

Babalola, who was one of 

the aspirants that contested 

APC governorship, in a letter 

addressed to Governor 

Rauf Aregbesola, said he 

resigned to pursue other 

endeavours. 

Speaking at the palace 

of Orangun of Ila, Akanni, 

said he was forced out of the 

ruling party by some people 

that were uncomfortable 

YOMI AYELESO, Akure 

The Inspector 

General of Police, 

Ibrahim Idris has 

organised a day 

seminar to sensitise 

stakeholders on the 

need to embrace peace and 

shun violence as the country 

Buhari 

contained in a communiqué 

jointly issued by its National 

President and Secretary, 

Nwokeafor Worthyman 

Osun 2019: Assembly member defects to 

PDP, as commission chairman resigns 

with his approach to politics, 

adding that all promises 

made to Ila community by 

APC were never fulfilled. 

Akanni said: “Our College 

of Education used to have 

33,000 students; it now has 

less than 2,000. APC promised 

to upgrade our institution 

to university. 

“Rather than do that, 

the current government 

through its policies is gradually 

killing the institution. 

When government wanted 

to downsize the workforce 

in the state-owned higher 

institutions, 73 names were 

Clement Akanni 

2019: Police hold seminar on violence-free elections 

prepares for the 2019 general 

election. 

The Principal Staff Officer 

to the IGP, ACP Bode Ojajuni 

in a statement made available 

to our correspondent disclosed 

that the one day seminar 

would hold on Thursday 

August 30th, 2018 in Oshogbo, 

the Osun State capital. 

and Mohammed Idris, respectively 

at the end of its 

Annual General Meeting 

(AGM) held in Abuja. 

selected from College of 

Education, Ila, while 38 

names were penciled down 

for retrenchment from Ilesha 

College of Education. 

“I vehemently resisted 

this. I told my colleagues in 

the House of Assembly that 

Ilesha College has more 

staffers than lla, yet has 

lesser number of staffers 

that would be retrenched. 

“Whenever I tried to positively 

influence government 

policies to favour my 

constituents, some people 

in APC would say no. Two 

of my followers were killed 

through fetish means. I can’t 

continue with a party full of 

devilish individuals.” 

Speaking on behalf of Ila 

Community, Ejemu of Ila, 

Paul Ogunrinade, demanded 

upgrade of Ila College 

of Education to university, 

urging Adeleke, if elected 

governor to also pay attention 

to all roads that link Ila 

to Ekiti and Kwara States. 

Ojajuni said: “It is meant to 

kick-start numerous security 

enlightenment programmes 

lined up to sensitise and enlist 

the support of essential 

stakeholders towards securing 

2019 general elections.” 

The seminar with the 

theme: ‘The Imperativeness 

of Police Collaboration with 

According to the communiqué, 

“all the registered 

members of the association 

should support the present 

‘Why Governor Emmanuel is seeking re-election’ 

ANIEFIOK UDONQUAK, Uyo 

Akwa Ibom State 

government, 

Udom Emmanuel 

is seeking a second 

term in office to enable 

him complete all the ongoing 

projects and to “concretise 

the industrialisation 

agenda he initiated.” 

Emmanuel, who was first 

elected in 2015 is expected 

to make his formal declaration 

of intent on Friday at 

an event scheduled to hold 

at the Godswill Akpabio 

International Stadium. 

Speaking in Uyo, the 

Akwa Ibom State capital, 

Onofiok Luke who is the 

chairman, central planning 

committee of the 

governor’s second term 

declaration, said the first 

term of the governor has 

been marked with quality 

leadership and superior 

performance adding that 

the five-point agenda of the 

state government had been 

pursued vigorously. 

“We have been fortunate 

administration of APC and 

President Muhammadu 

Buhari in the 2019 forth 

coming general election. 

“A call should be made 

on all patriotic Nigerians at 

home and in the Diaspora 

to also support President 

Muhammadu Buhari, come 

2019. 

“That President Muhammadu 

Buhari deserves a 

second term in office in view 

of the remarkable success 

achieved in the Socio-economic 

development of the 

country, viz: - Fight against 

corruption”, the communiqué 

read in parts. 

The association observed 

that Buhari’s administration 

has witnessed improved 

security especially Boko 

Haram insurgency, education, 

agriculture, healthcare 

delivery supported by adequate 

funding through the 

basic healthcare provision 

to have been led by people 

who envisioned, inspired, 

and worked assiduously 

towards the actualisation 

of our collective greatness 

and the leadership of Governor 

Udom Emmanuel is 

not an exception,” he said. 

According to him, “three 

years ago, the people enthroned 

justice, fairness, 

equity and peace when they 

voted a candidate from Eket 

Senatorial District as the 

Governor of Akwa Ibom 

State”. He pointed out that 

they refused all insinuations 

to the contrary and 

unanimously “endorsed 

that a template of each 

elected governor completing 

two terms of eight years 

be maintained without any 

selfish alteration.” 

Luke, who is also 

the speaker of the state 

House of Assembly, said 

the re-election bid has 

been fuelled by the massive 

support of the people 

across the different local 

governments and senatorial 

districts of the state, 

Essential Stakeholders: Towards 

Secured, Free, Fair and 

Credible Elections in Nigeria’ 

will be chaired and moderated 

by Prof. Eyitope Ogunbodede, 

vice chancellor, Obafemi 

Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. 

Ojajuni further revealed 

that the event will be declared 

open by the Osun State Governor, 

Rauf Aregbesola, while 

the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan 

Adeyeye Ogunwusi will be the 

Royal father of the day. 

He explained that the 

Chairman of the Independent 

National Electoral Commission 

(INEC) Prof. Mahmood 

Yakubu is expected at the seminar 

and the representatives of 

fund to the tune of N55.1 

billion among others. 

SMASEDMAN also 

stressed that in order to 

complete some of the ongoing 

projects and consolidate 

the gains so far achieved 

for the good of the entire 

Nigerian citizens, a second 

term in office becomes very 

necessary come 2019. 

The AGM of the Association 

was convened in compliance 

with the relevant 

clauses in the Articles of 

the Association as provided 

by Corporate Affairs Commission. 

Various members from 

across the country attended 

the meeting in order to 

receive the annual reports/ 

accounts, deliberate on 

matters arising, including 

the political developments 

in the country as well as 

the overall progress of the 

association. 

maintaining that no one 

part of “our state, no one 

senatorial district, not even 

the political class alone can 

produce a governor singlehandedly.” 

He called on the people 

to give their support by voting 

for the governor to enable 

him win a second term 

in office which according 

to him would usher in a 

new era of development in 

the state. 

Speaking also, Idongesit 

Nkanga, former military 

governor of the state, said 

though the state government 

has embarked on 

many projects across the 

state, the 13 percent derivation 

being paid to oil 

producing states was not 

enough, saying for equity 

and fairness true federalism 

should be adopted in the 

governance of the country. 

“We are asking for federalism, 

the governor is illequipped, 

he has created 

industries. We are pleading 

that he should go for a second 

term,’’ he said. 

political parties, sister security 

agencies, interest groups and 

other stakeholders. 

Ojajuni added that some 

foreign missions which include 

the United States, Britain, 

African Union, European 

Union, local and foreign election 

observers will also be 

part of the seminar.


C002D5556 


NEWS 

Nigerian oil exports to hit four-month high... 


will comprised 57 cargoes which is 

seven cargoes lower compared with 

48 cargoes in September’s loading 

schedule as Agbami, Bonga, Escravos, 

Forcados Okono and Qua Iboe 

will load the highest in October with 

a combined 33 cargoes while several 

smaller streams like Amenam, Pennington, 

Okwori, okwuibome and 

Antan which had no export cargo in 

September will add at least one cargo 

in October while Brass River will add 

at least 5 cargoes. 

“This is a natural consequence of 

three factors, I will say. There is relative 

peace in the Niger-Delta, that is, militancy 

has abated. A corollary of this is 

that there has been no major pipeline 

damage or declaration of force majeure. 

The third factor is pure market 

dynamics. Oil prices hover around 

$70 per barrel and this is driving supply” 

Ayodele Oni, Energy Partner at 

Lagos-based Bloomfield Law Practice 

said on a phone interview. 

Over the past few years, Nigeria 

L-R: Wale Olaoye, group managing director, Halogen Security Company; Salisu Daura, director, engineering services, 

FAAN; Francis Emepueaku, Halogen Security Hero Award recipient; Daniel Achie, Halogen Security Hero Award recipient; 

Wale Odufalu, deputy managing director, Alpha Mead Group, and Francis Ikenga, managing director/chief executive 

officer, Seymour Aviation, at the official reception and award ceremony for Halogen Hero Guards. 


phone. 

He sees the financial sector still 

carrying much of the credit risk and 

suggests that the CBN or other arms 

of the government provide some risk 

sharing with the banks. 

The facilities are to be administered 

at an all-in Interest rate/charge 

of nine per cent per annum and the 

tenor for the Differentiated CRR 

would be a minimum of seven years 

with a two-year moratorium. 

The CBN Monetary Policy Committee 

(MPC), at its 119th meeting held 

on July 23 and 24, 2018, introduced 

its revised guidelines for Accessing 

Real Sector Support Facility (RSSDF) 

through Cash Reserves Requirement 

(CRR)/Corporate Bonds (CBs). 

Uche Joe Uwaleke, professor of 

finance and capital markets/chair, 

banking and finance department, 

Nasarawa State University, Keffi, 

said, “Judging from the experiences 

of countries like China and Lebanon, 

the differentiated CRR promises to 

impact positively on the real sector 

of the economy. According to him, 

N10 billion per project financing in 

Agric and manufacturing sectors at 

single digit interest rates should help 

lower production costs and free up 

resources for research and development 

purposes leading to improved 

competitiveness. It will also lower 

inflation rate in the medium term 

and open up job opportunities. But 

all these depend on how the policy 

has been hit by swarm of problems, 

predominantly decreased crude 

production and exports, oil theft and 

pipeline attacks, stalled economic 

reforms and recovery, and the threat 

of oil price volatility as the sector 

remain cautiously optimistic about 

overcoming these upheavals in 2018. 

In May 2018, the Nigerian petroleum 

industry underwent production 

difficulties as outages at key 

pipelines supplying Forcados and 

Bonny light grade crudes were out of 

commission. In particular, the shutdown 

of the Nembe Creek Pipeline in 

mid-May, which transports 150,000 

bpd of Bonny Light to the Forcados 

terminal, caused Shell Petroleum 

Development Company of Nigeria 

to declare a force majeure on Bonny 

light crude exports. Although Shell 

declined to comment, there was 

speculation this shutdown was due 

to sabotage as Shell lifted the force 

majeure on July 13th, when repairs 

were completed. 

The shutdown, in conjunction 

with the closure of the leaking Trans- 

CBN earmarks N10bn per project in Agric... 

is implemented. 

“The CBN should put in place 

measures to check possible abuses 

such as diversion of funds to ineligible 

sectors. This is usually the major 

challenge with implementing a price 

discrimination strategy especially if 

it is difficult to clearly separate markets/sectors,” 

Uwaleke added. 

Giving further clarifications on the 

guidelines on Thursday, August 23, 

2018, Isaac Okorafor, the CBN’s acting 

director of corporate communications, 

said that the Bank hoped to achieve 

the flow of credit to the real sector 

of the economy as deposit money 

banks (DMBs) would henceforth be 

incentivized to direct affordable, longterm 

bank credit to the manufacturing, 

agriculture, as well as other sectors 

considered by the Bank as employment 

and growth stimulating. 

Okorafor disclosed that Corporate/Triple-A 

rated companies would 

be encouraged to issue long-term 

Corporate Bonds (CBs), adding 

that Corporate Bonds (CB) Funding 

Programme had been put in place. 

The programme, according to him, 

involves investment by the CBN and 

the general public in CBs issued by 

corporates subject to the intensified 

transparency requirements for participating 

corporates. He also noted that 

such requirements would include 

publishing through printing of an Information 

Memorandum spelling out 

the details of the projects for which 

the funds are required together with 

terms and conditions showing that 

Forcados pipeline, which transports 

200,000 to 240,000 bpd, led to further 

delays and an accumulation of unsold 

crude. According to S&P Global 

Platts, these factors caused Nigeria’s 

oil production to drop by 150,000 

bpd from 1.88 mbpd in April, dropping 

it to 1.73 mbpd in May and 1.72 

mbpd in June. 

But analysts are already raising 

concerns over the sustainability of 

the current rise in production as the 

incidents of piracy spike on Nigerian 

water ways. It emerged yesterday 

that a tanker vessel with 19 crew 

members on board, most of them 

Georgians, has gone missing in 

pirate-plagued waters off Gabon in 

West Africa and no word has been 

heard from it for a week, the ship’s 

managers and the crew agency told 

the media on Wednesday. 

Communication was lost with the 

Panama-registered Pantelena at about 

2 a.m. local time on August 14, at which 

time it was about 17 miles from the port 

of Libreville, in Gabon, Athens-based 

Lotus Shipping said in a statement. 

•Continues online at 

www.businessdayonline.com 

these are long term projects that are 

employment and growth stimulating. 

Furthermore, he disclosed that 

the Bank had put in place a programme 

under the Differentiated 

Cash Reserves Requirement (DCRR) 

Regime whereby DMBs interested 

in providing Credit Financing to 

greenfield (new) and brownfield 

(expansion) projects in the real sector 

(Agriculture and Manufacturing) 

could request for the release of 

funds from their CRR to finance the 

projects; subject to DMBs providing 

verifiable evidence that the funds 

shall be directed at the approved 

projects by the CBN. 

Making further clarifications, 

he said that the tenor for the Differentiated 

CRR would be a minimum 

of seven years with a two-year 

moratorium. For the Corporate 

Bonds (CBs) Programme, he said 

the tenor and the moratorium would 

be specified in the prospectus by the 

issuing corporate. He added that the 

maximum facility shall be N10 billion 

per project and facilities are to 

be administered at an all-in Interest 

rate/charge of 9 per cent per annum. 

Okorafor therefore advocated 

for a total compliance with the 

guidelines by stakeholders and 

also highlighted the eligibility 

criteria for participation in the 

facility/CP programme, as well as 

the responsibilities of the stakeholders; 

just as he reiterated the 

CBN’s determination towards the 

encouragement of projects that 

will further enhance Nigeria’s import 

substitution strategies. 

Businesses puzzled by CPC’s move to control... 


that ‘In any inquiry under the CPCA, 

the question must be whether any 

entity or individual has engaged 

in conduct that constitutes an “obnoxious 

practice”, or “unscrupulous 

exploitation”. 

‘The Council in addressing the entire 

scope of complaints and House of 

Representatives resolution, proceeded 

in the investigation. Multichoice 

initially adopted a sensible industry 

approach to regulatory oversight, 

which was to preserve regulatory 

and company resources by making 

admissions of its own in certain areas 

and welcoming additional regulatory 

initiatives to improve services and 

customer experience over a period 

of time, and supervision.’ 

According to the Council,”Over a 

period of time, during which mutual 

concerns and reservations were addressed, 

the Council and MultiChoice 

agreed and adopted a Proposed Mutual 

Joint Consent Order.” 

“The terms and obligations included 

an unopposed and undisputed 

requirement and understanding 

that Multichoice will not change, 

revise or modify any material term or 

conditions of service(s) for a period 

of 24 months. Multichoice never expressed 

any concerns or dissatisfaction 

with this clause of the Consent 

Order that required Multichoice to 

maintain status quo on its Terms 

and Conditions (which naturally 

includes pricing) for the 24-month 

period during which the company 

would have been under the Council’s 

supervision, to ensure that all 

necessary corrective measures were 

adequately implemented, and that 

consumers eventually get expected 

value for their money.” 

Some consumers BusinessDay 

spoke to seemed to echo the CPC 

position. 

A customer by the name Ola said 

“why does DSTv keep increasing 

prices every year, they should be 

able to explain to their customers the 

reason why.” 

However, analysts disagree with 

the position by CPC that Multichoice 

agreed not to raise price for 

24 months, noting that price is not 

something that any company can 

commit not to increase or reduce for 

that long considering that different 

variables go into the fixing of price. 

“Inflation has remained at double 

digits for more than two years. Which 

company can guaranty fixed prices 

for that period’ an analyst asked. 

Analysts have also noted that 

DSTV is not an essential commodity 

for which price should be fixed. 

“People have choices when it comes 

to Cable TV. There is Kwese TV, and 

TSTV just came back on stream. There 

are also different online versions. So 

why is CPC concerned about DSTV 

when the company is playing in a 

market that has competition. I thought 

DSTV should be worried more about 

the power sector where operators are 

using estimated billing to kill many Nigerians 

who genuinely have no options” 

Analysts also note that the CPC 

should have been more concerned 

if DSTV was reducing prices as that 

could have squeezed new entrants and 

constrained competition in the sector. 

“DSTV increasing prices is actually 

good for competition in the cable 

TV sector, as it means that the new 

entrants like Kwese TV and TSTV 

could become attractive for consumers 

because they are cheaper. 

Allowing them keep their low prices 

is actually not in the interest of consumers” 

said a player in the industry. 

Bismarck Rewane, managing 

director at Financial Derivatives 

Limited also warns that “Any attempt 

to control price will always end up in 

a disaster because the regulator does 

not know the cost structure involve in 

providing these technical services.” 

“The only way to bring down 

price is to allow more competition 

and create an enabling environment 

for more operators to come in,” Rewane 

told BusinessDay by phone. 

Similarly, Rafiq Raji senior macroeconomist 

at an Africa focused 

macro research investment firm 

Macroafricaintel Investment Limited 

said although government can raise 

concern about high price, it is a disservice 

for government regulators to 

attempt controlling prices for luxury 

goods in Nigeria. 

“It won’t speak well of the government 

in the eyes of foreign private 

investors,” Raji said by phone. 

Johnson Chukwu managing 

director of Crowy assets management 

limited also believes that the 

move by the CPC is ill-advised and 

not a market oriented approach by 

a government regulator. 

“The government should have 

encouraged a competitive market 

space by allowing other operators to 

compete with DSTV. This will make it 

difficult for DSTV to charge economic 

rent rather force them to reduce 

price,” Chukwu told BusinessDay. 

But BusinessDay investigations 

actually show that DSTV and GoTV 

subscription rate paid by Nigerians, 

even after the rate hike, is the lowest 

when compared to other countries 

in which Multichoice has operations. 

When BusinessDay analysed the 

subscription rate charged by the television 

and online content producing 

company, the rate given to Nigerians 

across its various packages on the 

platform was the least compared to 

what its African counterparts also 

pay for the same products. 

In July, MultiChoice raised the 

subscription rate for the DSTV Premium 

package from N14,700 to N15,800. 

This is lower than South Africa’s R809 

(N21,228) and Ghana’s GHC368 

(N27,360) for the same package. 

The Compact Plus package 

was also increased in Nigeria from 

N9,900 to N10,650. South Africa 

and Ghana pays R509 (N13,670) 

and GH245 (N18,365) for the same 

product respectively. 

The DSTv Compact package in 

the period under review was increased 

from N6,300 to N6,800, in 

Nigeria as against R385 (N10,340), 

GHc 149 (11,169) paid by both South 

Africa and Ghana. 

The Family packaged which was 

increased from N3,800 to N4,000 in 

Nigeria is also lower than what South 

Africa and Ghana pays for the product 

at R249 (N6,687) and GHC85 

(N6,371) respectively. 

The Access package subscription 

rate in Nigeria which was up from 

N1,900 to N2,000 is less than South 

Africa’s R99 (N2,656) 

Speaking on the recent DSTV rate 

hike, Uche Eze, a Nigerian customer 

said “cost of doing business in Nigeria 

keeps increasing and you expect 

DSTV to just absorb the cost. Are 

they not in business to make profit?” 

“DSTV is a business providing 

service to customers, while operating 

in a harsh environment, if their operating 

expenses increase, they have to 

raise prices. If as a customer you are 

dissatisfied, cancel your subscription 

and subscribe to Netflix or Startimes.” 

Celestine Okeke,a Lead Partner, Micro, 

Small and Medium Enterprise Advocacy 

and Support Initiative(MSME- 

ASI) believes that the CPC action is 

capable of discouraging private sector 

investment in the country. 

“I do not think it is right thing 

the CPC is doing. We are looking for 

foreign investors and we are now 

restraining them” 

•Continues online at 

www.businessdayonline.com


Pro-Dogara support group threatens APC 

caucus against speaker’s impeachment plot 

KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja 

Pa rliamentary 

Democrats Group 

(PDG) in the House 

of Representatives 

on Thursday vowed 

to resist the purported plans 

by All Progressives Congress 

(APC) lawmakers aimed at 

impeaching Speaker Yakubu 

Dogara 

The legislative pressure 

group, which has members 

drawn across party lines, also 

warned the anti-Dogara lawmakers 

to desist from all activities 

capable of distracting 

the House from carrying out 

its legislative functions with 

their 2019 ambitions. 

Timothy Golu (PDP- 

Plateau), who made public 

the position via a statement 

issued in Abuja, frowned at 

the series of accusations and 

counter accusations of various 

support groups among 

the APC caucus in the lower 

chamber. 

“We believe it is the aftermath 

of the gale of defections 

that had hit the party in recent 

times, of which more is being 

expected, in as much as we 

will not delve into their personal 

caucus matters. 

“However, any issue that 

concerns the larger House 

will not cease to get our attention, 

especially the accusation 

by one group that 

another group is contemplating 

the impeachment of 

the Speaker,” he stated. 

Golu, who chairs the 

House Committee on Legislative 

Budget and Research, 

said, “We want to warn that 

such discussions should start 

and end at the APC secretariat 

or the secretariats of the various 

APC house groups. 

“We are keeping our eyes 

and ears wide open for any 

such eventuality and to restate 

our readiness to return 

fire for fire on anyone thinking 

of it. “If they claim that 

someone is thinking of becoming 

Speaker in 2019 when 

the tenure has not ended, it 

will not be out of place to suspect 

such motives especially 

when the same people have 

been talking strongly on the 

urgent need to address critical 

legislative issues.” 

The group, which passed 

vote of confidence on the 

House leadership, maintained, 

“Speaker Yakubu 

Dogara is on top of his job. 

“He has been doing excellently 

well, respecting his 

colleagues and leading with 

the fear of God and in accordance 

with the Constitution 

and our House rules. 

“He has performed very 

well in providing the expected 

legislative leadership. If anyone 

someone is thinking of 

replacing him even when this 

tenure is not yet ended, then it 

means a lot may be happening 

underground. 

L-R: Saidu Mohammed, director-general, National Space Research and Development Agency 

(NASRDA); Bitrus Nabasu, permanent secretary, ministry of science and technology; Ogbonnaya 

Onu, minister of science and technology, and Peter Ekweozoh, chairman, technical committee 

on methanol fuel technology, during the inauguration of the committee in Abuja, yesterday. NAN 

The queen of soul is dead’: A tribute to Aretha Franklin 

Continued from back page 

struggle with cancer of the 

pancreas. 

She was a preacher’s 

daughter who sang in the 

choir, and started off singing 

gospel music. She was 

no saint, and not your prototypical 

‘choir girl’. She 

had her first baby at the age 

of twelve, and her second 

when she was fourteen. 

She was twice married and 

twice divorced. 

At the age of eighteen 

she began a professional 

career in a customized genre 

of secular music that was 

labelled at various time 

Rhythm and Blues, Pop, 

Rock, Soul and even Jazz. 

Her father was a 

cross between motivational 

speaker and gospel 

preacher. He made a 

good living giving rousing 

speeches to black Christian 

congregations across 

the land. He often took 

ple such as Carol King were 

taken over by her persona, 

once she sang them, and 

made permanently into her 

own for all eternity. Rolling 

Stone magazine in 2010 

named her the greatest 

singer of all time. 

Without carrying placards 

or joining civil rights 

marches, her voice and the 

words of her songs became 

part of the civil rights struggle, 

and the struggle for female 

empowerment. 

It was symbolic of the 

stature and meaning of her 

life that she sang at the funeral 

of Martin Luther King 

Junior – the emotional nadir 

of black -American experience, 

as well as at the inauguration 

of Barack Obama 

as the first black President 

of America – their emotional 

peak to date. 

The world, surely, is 

poorer by the absence of 

Aretha Louise Franklin. 

May her soul rest in peace. 

Kofi Annan, a profile in leadership 

Continued from back 

page 

all-round leader. 

Second, develop a thirst 

for leadership quite early. 

As a first year student of 

Kumasi College of Science 

and Technology, Annan 

became Vice-President 

of the Ghana National 

Students Association. It 

brought him to the limelight. 

At a conference of 

West African students in 

Freetown, Sierra Leone, 

he was spotted by a talent 

scout who recommended 

him for a Ford Foundation 

award. 

Third, get a good mentor. 

Ghana became independent 

in 1957 under 

the leadership of the great 

pan-Africanist statesman 

Kwame Nkrumah. A believer 

in the philosophy of 

African Personality, Nkrumah 

identified a crop of 

bright young men whom 

he nurtured and groomed. 

He aimed to raise high 

royal princes who could 

hold their own at any court 

in the world. Kofi Annan 

not only benefitted from 

this early mentoring. He 

humbled himself before 

his bosses and sought opportunities 

to work under 

those from whom he could 

learn the ropes of the business. 

He served under 

no less than four secretaries-general: 

U Thant 

of Burma (1961-1971), 

Kurt Waldheim of Austria 

(1972-1981), Javier Perez 

de Cuellar de la Guerra 

of Peru (1982-1991), and 

Boutros Boutros-Ghalli 

of Egypt (1992-1996). He 

served a rather apprenticeship 

and it paid off. 

Four, build a strong 

team. As a leader, Kofi Annan 

brought some of the 

best people to work in his 

kitchen cabinet. A great 

leader, it is said, is one 

who is confident enough 

to hire people that are 

smarter than he is. Annan 

brought in Mark Malloch 

Brown of Britain as Chief 

of Staff. He later promoted 

him to the rank of Deputy 

Secretary-General. He also 

sought the advice of brilliant 

minds such as Jeffrey 

Sachs of Columbia University 

on complex issues 

relating to sustainable 

development and poverty 

alleviation. He also 

hired the brilliant Indian 

staffer Shashi Tharoor as 

his media spokesman. He 

also brought into the cabinet 

my esteemed former 

teacher Professor Ibrahim 

Gambari as the first non- 

Western Under Secretary- 

General of the powerful 

Department for Political 

Affairs. These men did not 

disappoint. 

Fifthly, be an astute 

manager of people and resources. 

When Annan took 

over the helms of affairs 

C002D5556 

her on his travels. Through 

these, she was able to 

meet several celebrities in 

music and the civil rights 

struggle, including Martin 

Luther King. 

But all of this was mere 

detail. The real story of 

Aretha’s life was that she 

recorded one hundred and 

twelve singles that found 

their way into the Billboard 

Charts. Out of these seventeen 

were Top-Ten pop 

singles and twenty were 

Number One R&B single. 

She was the most charted 

female artist in history. 

She won eighteen Grammy 

Awards, and sold more 

than seventy-five million 

records. ‘Respect’, ‘You 

make me feel like a natural 

woman’ ‘Spanish Harlem’, 

‘Don’t play that song for 

me’ among others in her 

oeuvre have become part of 

the musical treasure of the 

whole of mankind. Even 

songs written by other peoat 

the Secretariat in New 

York, the organisation was 

on the verge of bankruptcy. 

One of the biggest contributors 

to the budget, the 

United States, felt bitterly 

alienated and refused to 

contribute for years. It also 

withdrew from such bodies 

as UNESCO. His predecessor 

Egyptian Boutrous 

Boutrous-Ghali’s hectoring 

professorial style had 

alienated several Western 

powers. Annan used his 

personal influence and his 

humble approach to persuade 

the Americans to 

resume funding. 

Sixthly, own up to your 

mistakes and learn from 

them. One of the first 

things he did as Secretary- 

General was to institute a 

commission to investigate 

failure of the DPKO to prevent 

genocide in Rwanda 

and the massacres in Srebrenica 

in Bosnia and 

Herzegovina under his 

own leadership. It was a 

damning report. Annan 

could brutally be honest 

with others as he was with 

himself. With regards to 

his failure to prevent the 

Rwanda genocide as head 

of DPKO, he lamented: 

“I could and should have 

done more to sound the 

alarm and rally support.” 

Seventh, master the 

context and adapt to new 

realities. Kofi Annan’s 

time as Secretary-General 

coincided with some of 

the most turbulent years 

in our post-Cold War era. 

The war in Yugoslavia, the 

Iraq crisis and the attacks 

on the Twin Towers in New 

York tested the institutions 

of global governance to 

their ultimate limit. He 

had a firm grasp of the 

new realities and sought 

to reposition the UN to 

adapt to a more demanding 

global situation. He 

brought those insights to 

bear upon the far-reaching 

reforms that he implemented. 

No other scribe 

has done more to reform 

the Secretariat, with the 

possible exception of the 

remarkable Dag Hammarskjöld 

of Sweden. Annan 

promoted the doctrine 

of Responsibility to Protect, 

R2P; enshrining the 

principle of humanitarian 

intervention in the jurisprudence 

of International 

Law. He also implemented 

the “One Flag” policy of 

streamlining the motley 

of competing UN agencies 

to ensure that they worked 

more harmoniously. The 

Global Compact and the 

Millennium Development 

Goals, MDGs, were 

his idea. He also created 

the Global Funds to fight 

AIDS, Tuberculosis and 

Malaria. A champion of 

peace, human rights and 

the rule of law, he set up 

the Peacebuilding Commission 

and the Human 

BUSINESS DAY 

35 

NEWS 

Rights Council. 

Eighth, be a good mentor. 

Kofi Annan, to those 

who worked closely with 

him, described him as 

“level-headed and approachable”. 

He encouraged 

those under him to 

flower and bloom. He also 

looked out for talent and 

made it a point to develop 

them to attain their highest 

potential. It is a wellknown 

fact that right during 

his first term in office 

he was already grooming 

Sergio Vieira de Mello of 

Brazil to be his successor 

as Secretary-General. One 

of the lowest moments in 

his illustrious career was 

in August 2003 when his 

protégé and friend Sergio 

Vieira de Mello and several 

colleagues were killed 

in a bomb blast in the UN 

mission building in Baghdad. 

Ninth, have moral courage. 

Kofi Annan showed 

great moral courage when 

it mattered most. He opposed 

the 2003 American 

invasion of Iraq, condemning 

it as “illegal”. To punish 

him for his effrontery, the 

Bush administration instituted 

investigations into 

alleged corruption by UN 

officials in the Iraq “Oilfor-Food” 

Programme. 

Although Annan was personally 

exonerated, his 

son Kojo was indicted for 

“unethical” dealings with 

one of the firms that had 

won the lucrative contracts. 

Tenth, give back and 

nurture a legacy. Following 

retirement in 2006, Kofi 

Annan continued to champion 

several good causes. 

He set up the Kofi Annan 

International Peacekeeping 

Training Centre in Accra 

and the Kofi Annan 

Foundation which played a 

key role in establishing the 

Alliance for a Green Revolution 

in Africa (AGRA). 

He was also Chair of The 

Elders, an organisation 

founded by Nelson Mandela 

to address some of the 

world’s most critical challenges. 

He also led several 

UN peace missions, notably 

to Syria, Kenya and 

Myanmar. He was on the 

boards of a major bank, a 

global private equity firm 

and several international 

agencies. 

Kofi Annan was neither 

a perfect person nor a perfect 

leader. He acknowledged 

his mistakes and 

was ready to learn. With a 

soft, baritone voice, he was 

a level-headed leader and a 

great listener. He was master 

of his brief. The lot fell 

on him to steer the world 

community in times of 

upheaval. History will rate 

him among the more successful 

secretaries-general 

of the United Nations. His 

rest shall be among the 

righteous and the just.

BUSINESS DAY 


FT FINANCIAL TIMES 

C002D5556 

A1 

World Business Newspaper 

Trump wades into South African land debate 

US president says there have been ‘large-scale’ killings of farmers 

Joseph Cotterill 

Saudi Arabia to tap 

banks for $12bn in loans 

after Aramco IPO stalls 

Donald Trump waded into 

an emotional debate on 

land reform in South 

Africa with claims about “largescale 

killings” of farmers that 

led to a diplomatic protest by 

Pretoria. 

South Africa said on Thursday 

it was seeking clarification from 

the US embassy about the latenight 

tweet by Mr Trump, which 

followed Fox News coverage of 

the issue. 

The US president said he had 

asked Mike Pompeo, the secretary 

of state, to “closely study” 

moves by Cyril Ramaphosa’s 

ruling African National Congress 

to consider expropriation of land 

Page A3 

Donald Trump denies breaking 

campaign finance rules 

US president says payments to 2 women 

‘came from me’ rather than campaign funds 

Josh Noble 

hardt, co-host of Fox & Friends, that 

Mr Cohen was simply “one of many” 

lawyers rather than his chief “fixer” and 

close confidant. 

“He’s been a lawyer for me. Didn’t 

do big deals, did small deals. Not somebody 

that was with me that much,” 

he said. 

On Wednesday, Mr Trump accused 

Mr Cohen of lying to prosecutors, adding 

on Twitter: “If anyone is looking for 

a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest 

that you don’t retain the services of 

Michael Cohen!” 

Lanny Davis, Mr Cohen’s lawyer, 

said his client could provide useful 

information to Robert Mueller, the 

special prosecutor investigating Russian 

meddling in the 2016 presidential 

race. However, there are no signs that 

Mr Cohen is already co-operating with 

the investigation. 

Mr Davis has signalled Mr Cohen 

would be able to testify that Mr Trump 

knew about Russian efforts to hack 

Democratic computer systems during 

the 2016 presidential campaign 

before the attacks had been disclosed 

publicly. Russian military intelligence 

agents have been charged with leading 

the cyber attacks. 

Mr Trump’s criticisms of Mr Cohen 

contrast with his vocal support for Paul 

Manafort, his former campaign manager, 

who was found guilty on Tuesday 

of tax evasion, bank fraud and hiding 

foreign bank accounts. 

Asked whether he was considering 

giving Mr Manafort a presidential 

pardon, Mr Trump said: “I have great 

respect for what he’s done, in terms of 

what he’s gone through.” 

He added: “I would say what he did, 

some of the charges they threw against 

him, every consultant, every lobbyist in 

Washington probably does.” 

The convictions of two of Mr 

Trump’s closest allies are likely to 

further complicate Republican efforts 

to keep control of both houses 

of Congress heading into November’s 

midterm elections. 

without compensation. 

The ANC believes the policy, 

which may requite amending 

the constitution, will accelerate 

the black majority’s ownership 

of the economy after apartheid. 

Under white-minority rule, 

blacks were forced off their land. 

Mr Trump tweeted that 

“South African Government is 

now seizing land from white 

farmers” after a segment on 

Fox News. During the segment, 

host Tucker Carlson claimed 

incorrectly that South Africa’s 

constitution has already been 

changed and called Mr Ramaphosa 

a “racist”. 

In a statement the South African 

government said it rejected 

Continues on page A2 

Australia bans China Huawei’s 5G rollout over security fears 

Telecoms equipment maker ZTE also prevented from providing the technology to local operators 

Businesses told to 

hire customs agents if 

there is no Brexit deal 

Page A4 

Donald Trump, speaking on Fox News, described Michael Cohen as ‘one of many’ lawyers rather than his chief ‘fixer’ 

3,453 days and $18tn later, the US bull market hits record run 

From battered banks to tech titans, the historic milestone in seven charts 

Nicole Bullock and Brooke Fox 

The US bull market is now 

officially the longest ever. 

From the depths of the financial 

crisis, revived by central 

bank stimulus, fuelled by technological 

innovation and finally 

given a shot of tax cuts, the S&P 

500 has gone 3,453 days without 

a drop of 20 per cent, the decline 

typically associated with a bear 

market. That edges it past the 

1990-2000 bull run that culminated 

in the dotcom boom. 

Like the bull market it surpasses, 

the rally from March 9, 2009, 

has also coincided with a technological 

revolution; in this case the 

rise of the digital economy and 

reflected in the reshuffled leadership 

of the S&P 500. 

In March 2009, the largest 

companies in the index by market 

capitalisation were Exxon- 

Mobil, Walmart and Microsoft, 

respectively. Now topping the 

Donald Trump has denied 

his presidential campaign 

violated election 

financing rules in his 

first interview since his 

personal lawyer struck a plea deal with 

federal prosecutors. 

The US president, speaking to Fox 

News in a television interview that will 

air in full on Thursday, said he knew 

about payments made to two women 

— porn star Stormy Daniels and former 

Playboy model Karen McDougal 

— who alleged having affairs with Mr 

Trump more than a decade ago. 

Michael Cohen, Mr Trump’s personal 

lawyer for many years, secured 

a plea deal earlier this week that implicated 

the president in a scheme to pay 

the women that could be in breach of 

campaign corporate contribution laws. 

In April, Mr Trump told reporters 

aboard Air Force One that he did not 

know about the payments, nor did he 

know where the money for them had 

come from. 

However, Mr Trump told Fox News 

that the payments had come from him, 

not from money raised to finance his 

2016 campaign, and that he found out 

about them “later on”. 

“They didn’t come out of the campaign. 

They came from me,” Mr Trump 

said. “In fact, my first question when I 

heard about it was did they come out of 

the campaign? Because that could be a 

little dicey. And they didn’t come out of 

the campaign, and that’s big.” 

Mr Trump also attacked Mr Cohen’s 

decision agree a deal with federal 

prosecutors. 

“I’ve had many friends involved in 

this stuff. It’s called flipping and it almost 

ought to be illegal,” he said. “They 

make up things and now they go from 

10 years [in jail] to they’re a national 

hero. They have a statue erected in 

their honor.” 

The president told Ainsley Earleaderboard 

are Apple, Amazon 

and Alphabet. Facebook, in the 

No 6 spot, was not even a public 

company when this bull run first 

got under way. Microsoft may have 

weathered the transition to the 

cloud to retain a top slot; IBM has 

not been so successful. 

The stock market stars of the 

digital economy were even given 

a nickname as the bull market got 

longer in the tooth: the Faangs. 

If you had dropped 99 per cent 

of the S&P 500 and focused on 

the behemoths that seem to have 

taken over consumers’ everyday 

lives — Facebook, Apple, Amazon, 

Netflix and Google’s parent 

Alphabet — you would have outperformed 

the bull market handsomely. 

Concerns about privacy, 

heightened regulation and growth 

prospects of these tech companies 

are not just important questions 

for the durability of their share 

price gains. They are now central 

to the prospects for the overall 

Jamie Smyth 

Australia has banned Chinese 

telecoms equipment makers 

Huawei and ZTE from providing 

5G technology to mobile phone 

operators due to concerns over 

national security. 

The decision marks a big blow 

for Huawei, the world’s biggest 

telecoms equipment maker, which 

has lobbied hard to retain its role in 

providing equipment in the Australian 

market. 

The company has previously 

warned that a ban would be unfair 

and severely impact its business in 

the country, where it commands 

about 55 per cent of the market for 

4G — the current generation of mobile 

technology. 

“We have been informed by the 

Govt that Huawei & ZTE have been 

banned from providing 5G technology 

to Australia,” said the Shenzhenbased 

company in a short statement 

on social media. 

“This is an extremely disappointing 

result for consumers. Huawei is 

a world leader in 5G. Has safely & 

securely delivered wireless technology 

in Aust for close to 15 yrs.” 

5G technology delivers much 

faster speeds and lower latency, a 

measure of how fast networks respond 

to requests. 

Australia is the first country in the 

world to ban Huawei from providing 

5G equipment to mobile phone operators, 

although US security agencies 

have advised operators not to use the 

company’s equipment over national 

security concerns. 

“This is a decision with global 

implications,” said Fergus Hanson, 

head of cyber policy at the Australian 

Strategic Policy Institute, a think-tank. 

“Australia concluded there is no 

way to mitigate the security risk from 

using Chinese companies’ equipment 

bull market. 

But 3,453 days ago, all eyes were 

on the banks. Brought low by excessive 

risk taking and then the bankruptcy 

of Lehman Brothers, they 

had only just been recapitalised 

with injections of taxpayer bailout 

cash and their futures were in doubt. 

Investors who picked through the 

rubble wisely beat the S&P 500 on 

some of the biggest banks. 

The market value of the S&P 

500 is up 312 per cent from March 

9, 2009, a thumping $18.4tn. But 

measured another way, the market 

is shrinking. The number of shares 

in the S&P 500 has fallen 3.1 per 

cent — a factor that some say creates 

a scarcity value that has added 

to the gains. 

After a burst of equity issuance 

in the wake of the financial crisis, 

particularly by banks rebuilding 

balance sheets, the number of 

shares has been declining sharply. 

The reason? A surge in companies 

buying back their own stock. 

in 5G, due to the technology’s critical 

role in the 21st century economy. 

Other western countries are likely to 

review their own rules now,” he said. 

The UK has set up an Huawei 

Cyber Security Evaluation Centre in 

Oxfordshire, which works closely with 

GCHQ, the UK intelligence body, to 

evaluate equipment to ensure it does 

not present a security risk. Canada has 

a similar arrangement, although three 

former intelligence agency directors 

recently warned they share US security 

agencies concerns about Huawei. 

Huawei was blocked from supplying 

equipment to Australia’s A$49bn 

National Broadband Network in 2012 

over security concerns, prompting a 

diplomatic spat between the nations. 

The ban on Huawei for 5G is expected 

to once again raise tensions between 

the two countries, which have been 

strained over a debate about alleged 

interference by Beijing in Australia’s 

internal affairs.


A2 BUSINESS DAY 

C002D5556 

FT 

Trump wades into 

South African land... 

Continued from page A1 

“this narrow perception which 

only seeks to divide our nation 

and reminds us of our colonial 

p a s t ”. 

The rand fell as much as 1.9 

per cent against the dollar after 

Mr Trump’s tweet. South Africa is 

the biggest exporter on the continent, 

benefiting from duty-free 

legislation that was passed by the 

US Congress. 

Studies have disproved claims 

of widespread farmer killings in 

South Africa, made by white nationalist 

groups in the US. 

Agri SA, a farmers’ organisation, 

said in May that farm murders 

were at their lowest level 

in two decades. There were 47 

murders between 2017 and 2018 

compared with 66 over the previous 

period, it said. South Africa, 

one of the world’s most unequal 

countries, has a high crime and 

murder rate. 

Afriforum, a far-right Afrikaner 

group whose leaders have denied 

apartheid was a crime against 

humanity, has cultivated ties this 

year to US “alt-right” activists who 

often use the “WhiteGenocide” 

hashtag on social-media content 

about South Africa. 

Kallie Kriel, Afriforum’s chief 

executive, said that the organisation 

welcomed Mr Trump’s tweet. 

He thanked “Tucker Carlson and 

every other role-player in the USA 

that took a stand”. 

Mr Ramaphosa, a business 

tycoon who became president 

after winning a power struggle 

to succeed the scandal-hit Jacob 

Zuma, is trying to balance efforts 

to revive investment in a stagnant 

economy against pressure in the 

ANC to pursue a more populist 

agenda. 

Analysts say the ruling party is 

seeking to outflank the Economic 

Freedom Fighters, a radical leftist 

breakaway from the ANC that 

proposes state ownership of all 

land, before national elections 

next year. 

Writing for the Financial 

Times on Thursday, Mr Ramaphosa 

said that land reform 

done soberly would unlock badly 

needed economic growth and 

redress historic oppression. “This 

is no land grab. Nor is it an assault 

on the private ownership of property,” 

he said. 

Mr Ramaphosa has said that 

a constitutional amendment 

would set strict limits on use of 

expropriation without compensation 

such as proof it would not 

harm food security or agricultural 

productivity. 

Some land reform activists say 

that the expropriation debate is a 

“red herring” given other thorny 

challenges such as failure to 

support black farmers, reform 

exploitative tenancy laws and 

tackle the abuse by traditional 

chiefs of land they own. 

Mr Trump has shown little 

interest in Africa during his 

presidency. This year he referred 

to African states as “ shithole 

countries” in debate with US 

senators on immigration. He is 

yet to appoint a US ambassador 

to South Africa. 

NATIONAL NEWS 

Australia’s recent line-up of prime ministers, from left: Malcolm Turnbull, Tony Abbott, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard 

‘Brutal’ Australian politics behind likely demise of PM Turnbull 

Instability fuelled by hyperpartisan culture, ideological spats and structural weakness 

Jamie Smyth 

Australia is enjoying strong 

economic growth, record 

jobs growth and has not 

suffered an economic recession 

in almost three decades. 

But the prosperous country is 

experiencing one of its greatest 

periods of political instability, with 

the Liberal party likely to dump 

Malcolm Turnbull in a leadership 

coup on Friday and ushering in 

the nation’s sixth prime minister 

in just over a decade. 

Canberra’s descent into Italianstyle 

political instability is infuriating 

business and the public, who 

link it with the continuing gridlock 

on key policies, from tax to climate 

change. But there is little sign of an 

end to the dramatic upsurge in political 

upheaval over recent years, 

which has seen no prime minister 

serve a full three-year term since 

John Howard from 2004-07. 

On Thursday Mr Turnbull 

blamed a rump of conservatives 

in the Liberal party and an aggressive 

rightwing media for bullying 

MPs into changing leaders in an 

attempt to shift the party to the 

right. This likely coup d’état echoes 

his own ousting of Tony Abbott in 

2015 — a challenge that relied on 

Sweden’s Social Democrats fear once-in-a-century election setback 

Governing centre-left party under threat over response to crime and immigration 

Richard Milne 

The last time Sweden’s Social 

Democrats failed to come top 

in national elections, the first 

world war was just two months old. 

No political force has dominated 

a European country quite like the 

centre-left party — but the era is 

coming to an end. In Sweden’s 

next election on September 9, 

the Social Democrats are almost 

certain to record their lowest share 

of the vote in more than a century 

and their record of heading the 

polls is under threat. 

A visit to Trollhattan, an industrial 

town in western Sweden, 

shows why. Once home to the 

Saab car company, Trollhattan 

used to vote in droves for the 

Social Democrats. Now, Saab is 

bankrupt, taking with it many of 

the blue-collar jobs that were the 

bedrock of the party’s support, and 

the town of 49,000 has a different 

car problem to worry about: this 

month a gang of youths set fire to 

vehicles in Kronogarden, a suburb 

with a big immigrant population, 

the support of Liberal moderates, 

who were concerned that Mr Abbott’s 

government was too rightwing 

to win public support. 

The ideological battle within 

the Liberals and conservatives’ 

dislike of Mr Turnbull — a centrist 

who critics allege would be more 

suited to the Labor party — has 

played a role in destabilising the 

previous two Liberal-National 

coalitions. It also may explain 

why the leadership battle, with 

Mr Turnbull’s allegations of intimidation 

and claims of rival 

Peter Dutton’s ineligibility to sit 

in parliament, is being fought so 

bitterly. 

“This spill is deeply ideological. 

It’s about the future direction 

of the party and that is why it is so 

brutal,” said Paul Williams, politics 

lecturer at Griffith University 

in Brisbane. 

However, this ideological factor 

does not explain the extraordinary 

volatility in previous Labor 

administrations, where Kevin 

Rudd and Julia Gillard swapped 

the leadership between 2010 and 

2013. In these cases personality 

played a role and both individuals 

— and their supporters — believed 

they could govern more effectively 

than the other, who was faltering 

in opinion polls. 

in part of a wave of such crimes 

across Sweden. 

Stefan Lofven, Sweden’s Social 

Democrat prime minister, 

lashed out at the youths, saying: 

“What the hell are you doing?” But 

Trollhattan’s discontent with the 

government is palpable. 

Julius Lundqvist, a Trollhattan 

resident who parks his car in a 

garage in the city centre, said: “The 

Social Democrats have not lived 

to what they have promised. They 

put more money into immigration 

than elderly care — they care more 

about people who have come to 

Sweden in the last two or three 

years than the people who built 

the system,” he said. 

His friend Stefan Clare, who 

is thinking of voting for a centreright 

party, added: “The Social 

Democrats are not doing a good 

job. I’m working five days a week 

and some are just staying at home 

doing nothing. The Social Democrats 

are supporting a lazy lifestyle, 

and a lot of people are fed up with 

that.” 

The Social Democrats in Swe- 

Rupert Murdoch’s stable of 

News Corp Australia titles wield 

immense power in the country, 

which some critics blame for 

destabilising Mr Turnbull and 

previous Labor governments. The 

rise of social media and the 24- 

hour news cycle have ramped up 

the pressure on political leaders 

and intensified criticism, denting 

their image and undermining trust 

among the electorate. 

“This can become a mutually 

reinforcing process, with heightened 

criticism of leaders leading 

to a revolving door leadership, 

which then further damages trust 

in politics,” said Mr Williams. 

There are also structural weaknesses 

in Australian politics, 

which have contributed to the 

febrile atmosphere in Canberra in 

the past decade. 

“The Westminster model in 

Australia hasn’t worked well over 

recent years and this makes it 

very difficult for governments and 

political leaders to succeed,” said 

Ian McAllister, politics professor 

at Australian National University. 

He identifies three-year electoral 

cycles, a strong upper house, 

compulsory voting, strong political 

parties and the trend towards 

career politicians as factors making 

leadership more difficult. 

den, like elsewhere in Europe, have 

been hurt by changes in society. 

Rising prosperity means that fewer 

voters are interested in issues such 

as labour rights, while the centreleft 

has struggled to come up with 

answers to voters’ worries such as 

globalisation and immigration. 

“Social democracy rose when industrial 

society was rising. Today, 

it’s a new society where so many of 

the old parties are doing badly with 

a rise of rightwing populists,” said 

Ulf Bjereld, a professor at Gothenburg 

University and an active Social 

Democrat. 

The Social Democrats’ support 

stands at about 25 per cent in the 

opinion polls, still the largest party, 

but well below the 31 per cent they 

received in 2014. As recently as in 

1994 they received 45 per cent. 

The current Social Democrat-led 

government is widely viewed as one 

of the weakest in decades, unable 

to push through its policies. But 

the party still has a chance to cling 

to power because the main centreright 

Moderate party is also set to 

record a worse score than in 2014. 

Facebook pulls security app 

from Apple store over privacy 

Onavo Protect said to violate iPhone 

maker’s new data collection rules 

Hannah Kuchler 

Facebook has pulled its Onavo 

Protect security app from 

Apple’s app store after the 

iPhone maker changed its rules on 

data collection, in the latest sign of 

tension between the two technology 

companies over privacy. 

The social network withdrew the 

virtual private network (VPN) app 

on Wednesday, while insisting that 

it had always been clear with users 

about what data it collected and 

how Facebook used it. 

Users downloaded Onavo Protect 

to help keep their data safe 

online. The app would warn them 

when they were visiting potentially 

harmful websites and keep their 

personal information secure when 

using public Wi-Fi. 

But Facebook also used Onavo to 

track what other apps were popular 

with users, telling them: “Because 

we’re part of Facebook, we also use 

this info to improve Facebook products 

and services, gain insights into 

the products and services people 

value, and build better experiences.” 

Apple’s new rules prohibit apps 

from monitoring which other apps 

are installed on a users’ device, saying 

it was to protect user privacy and 

data security. 

“With the latest update to our 

guidelines, we made it explicitly 

clear that apps should not collect 

information about which other 

apps are installed on a user’s device 

for the purposes of analytics 

or advertising/marketing and must 

make it clear what user data will be 

collected and how it will be used,” a 

spokesman said. 

Facebook added that it follows 

Apple’s rules. “We’ve always been 

clear when people download Onavo 

about the information that is collected 

and how it is used,” it said. 

Onavo used to be integrated into 

Facebook’s main app, for users that 

turned on the “Protect” option, but 

it no longer does. 

Apple has been critical of Facebook’s 

stance on privacy, hitting out 

as the social network copes with the 

political fallout from the massive 

data leak to Cambridge Analytica, 

the analytics firm, revealed earlier 

this year. 

Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, 

said there should be regulation 

to limit Facebook and other companies’ 

ability to use customer data. 

He has repeatedly said that Apple 

makes the majority of its money 

by selling products to customers, 

not using them as a product to sell 

to advertisers, and has described 

privacy as a “human right”.Mark 

Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, 

hit back, saying the accusation 

that Facebook did not care about its 

users was “extremely glib” and “not 

at all aligned with the truth”. 

Facebook bought Tel Aviv-based 

Onavo in 2013 for $100m-$200m. 

The acquisition was originally 

thought to be useful for Facebook 

because Onavo specialised in compressing 

data, making apps operate 

faster in emerging markets that 

are marred by slow internet connectivity.


@ FINANCIAL TIMES LIMITED 

Saudi Arabia to tap 

banks for $12bn in loans 

after Aramco IPO stalls 

Sovereign wealth fund aims to fill hole left by postponed blockbuster listing 

FINANCIAL TIMES 

C002D5556 


BUSINESS DAY 

A3 

Arash Massoudi, Anjli Raval, 

Robert Smith and Simeon Kerr 

Saudi Arabia is primed 

to appoint international 

banks to lend its sovereign 

wealth fund up to 

$12bn, filling the hole 

left by the delayed listing of state 

energy group Saudi Aramco and 

providing financing for crown 

prince Mohammed bin Salman’s 

ambitious economic reforms. 

The loans will be the first made 

to the Public Investment Fund, the 

vehicle used to drive the young 

prince’s vision for an economy 

less dependent on oil, which has 

placed bold bets on electric car 

maker Tesla, ride-hailing app Uber 

and space travel company Virgin 

Galactic. 

The loan is particularly important 

for the fund as plans to list 

Saudi Aramco, from which it was 

due to receive proceeds, have been 

postponed indefinitely. Riyadh’s 

focus has shifted away from the 

blockbuster IPO, which had been 

expected to raise in the region of 

$100bn, in favour of other means 

of financing for the PIF. 

Some of the most senior names 

in international banking, including 

JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon, 

Morgan Stanley’s Franck Petitgas 

and Goldman Sachs’s Dina 

Powell, the former official from the 

Trump administration, have been 

actively pitching for the deal. 

Banks who have spent the last 

few years courting the kingdom 

and counting on fees from the 

Saudi Aramco IPO are jostling to 

secure favour for other transactions. 

The PIF had originally hoped 

to raise up to $8bn from loans, 

but people with knowledge of the 

process said it was likely to reach 

as much as $12bn. “They should 

easily reach that target,” said one 

banker involved. “Everyone has 

Intesa Sanpaolo is set to become 

the first Italian bank to 

raise a senior bond since April, 

as it looks to reopen the country’s 

unsecured funding market after 

political turmoil drove a rout in 

Italy’s sovereign debt. 

Italian government bond yields 

spiked dramatically in May when 

the country’s two populist Eurosceptic 

political parties formed a 

coalition government. Italy’s bond 

yields still remain elevated and 

recently released data showed that 

net sales of the country’s sovereign 

debt by foreign investors climbed 

to a record level in June. 

Intesa, which is Italy’s largest 

domestic bank, on Thursday 

morning began marketing a new 

five-year senior unsecured bond. 

The deal has so far drawn €1bn 

of orders at the initial marketing 

gone in fairly aggressively.” 

As many as 16 banks are expected 

to participate in the loan 

with the lead banks to be selected 

later on Thursday, the people said. 

Several senior bankers said it 

was critical to be seen as involved 

in the loans to the PIF because the 

state fund is also planning to sell 

a $70bn stake in Sabic, the Saudi 

chemicals group, to Saudi Aramco, 

in one of 2018’s largest deals. The 

deal, which moves money from 

one state coffer to another, will 

have implications for league table 

rankings that banks use to measure 

their performance against 

rivals. 

While work on the Aramco IPO 

has dramatically slowed amid concerns 

about legal exposure and an 

inability to generate a $2tn valuation, 

some bankers have shifted 

their focus to the Sabic deal, said 

one adviser. 

Banks are vying for a chance to 

participate in a potential $40bn- 

$60bn debt financing that Saudi 

Aramco will need to finance any 

deal to buy the Sabic stake from 

the PIF. 

One adviser had previously told 

the FT that a large bond issuance 

for Saudi Aramco would achieve 

some of the same objectives as a 

listing, in terms of raising funds 

and requirements for disclosure. 

Although it could be a substitute 

for a flotation, this person said, a 

decision to list later would raise 

“extra” PIF funds. 

The PIF, led by Yasir Al-Rumayyan 

who is a close ally of 

Prince Mohammed, has more 

than $250bn of assets under management 

which it plans to expand 

to $400bn by 2020. To finance 

deals, the fund has received cash 

from the Saudi central bank, 

sought to sell stakes in companies 

it owns, issue debt and draw on 

proceeds from the privatisation 

of state assets. 

Intesa to sell first senior 

bank bond since Italian sell-off 

Robert Smith 

level of 200 basis points (2 percentage 

points) over mid-swaps, 

a commonly used benchmark in 

the euro investment-grade bond 

market. 

The deal will be Italy’s first senior 

bank bond since mid-April, when 

junk-rated lender Banca IFIS raised 

a small €300m deal. Intesa itself last 

raised euro senior debt in March, 

pricing a €1.25bn 10-year bond at 77 

basis points over mid-swaps. 

While unsecured funding markets 

have been shut to banks 

since Italy’s political upheaval, 

a number of Italian banks were 

able to raise covered bonds in July. 

Covered bonds carry much higher 

credit ratings than senior bonds, as 

they are also secured on a pool of 

the bank’s mortgages. 

Intesa also reopened this market 

to Italian banks, raising a €1bn 

covered bond at 63 basis points 

over mid-swaps at the start of July. 

Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, is seeking an economy less dependent on oil © Bloomberg 

Trade talks in focus as dollar and China stocks rise 

Washington talks set cautious tone; Wall Street set for steady start 

Michael Hunter and 

Alice Woodhouse 

Investors are watching trade 

talks in Washington after China’s 

vice-commerce minister 

began two days of meetings in the 

US capital to revive negotiations 

between the world’s two biggest 

economies. 

In the meantime, the dollar is 

strengthening after minutes from 

the Federal Reserve’s last monetary 

policy meeting pointed to 

another rate rise next month. The 

index tracking the word’s reserve 

currency is up 0.3 per cent, ending 

a five-session retreat. 

The renminbi’s advance over 

the same number of trading 

days is over, with China’s currency 

weaker by 0.4 per cent at 

Rmb6.8701 per dollar. Equity 

indices are higher in Shanghai 

and Hong Kong, while European 

stocks are steady. 

There was little optimism from 

Beijing that US President Donald 

Trump was willing to compro- 

Australian airline Qantas has 

announced record profits 

as its domestic business 

flourished. 

Full-year underlying pre-tax 

profit rose 14 per cent to A$1.6bn 

(US$1.2bn) compared with 2017. 

This was at the top end of its guidance 

from May. 

Revenue rose 6.2 per cent to 

A$17.1bn and statutory earnings 

per share increased a fifth 

to A$0.56. It also announced a 

share buyback scheme worth up 

to A$332m. However, its shares 

closed down 2.8 per cent at A$6.53. 

Alan Joyce, chief executive, said its 

domestic businesses, Qantas and 

Jetstar, “achieved a record underlying 

profit of A$1.1bn. That’s 25 

per cent up on last year and it’s 

made up of record performances 

by both airlines.” 

Mr Joyce added that Qantas 

would start paying tax again. “Qamise. 

The talks were the first to 

take place between the two sides 

in more than two months. 

The US imposed 25 per cent 

tariffs on an additional $16bn of 

Chinese goods on Thursday and 

China enacted similar measures 

in retaliation. 

Investors are also looking 

ahead to the upcoming meeting 

at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 

of central bankers from around 

the globe, at which Fed chair Jay 

Powell will speak. 

Currencies 

Political developments are setting 

the pace. 

Australia’s dollar is down 0.8 

per cent to $0.7291 as Prime 

Minister Malcolm Turnbull faces 

another leadership challenge. 

South Africa’s rand weakened 

by 1.5 per cent to R14.3475 after 

a diplomatic spat between the 

country and the White House. 

President Trump said on Twitter 

he would ask the US State Department 

to look closely at land reform 

plans in the country, which 

ntas has always paid its fair share 

of various types of tax, and now 

that we’ve exhausted our available 

tax losses, we incurred company 

tax during the second half of the 

year,” he said. 

In 2014, Qantas posted a 

A$2.8bn annual net loss after a 

massive writedown on the value 

of its fleet, tough competition and 

restructuring costs. 

Revenue per available seat 

kilometre, a standard industry 

unit, rose 3.9 per cent, and cost per 

available seat kilometre grew 2.7 

per cent, given a A$200m increase 

in fuel costs. Excluding fuel, unit 

costs still rose 2.4 per cent. 

The company pointed to higher 

fuel costs next year, saying they 

would increase by about A$690m, 

or a fifth, to A$3.9bn, and said 

capacity would be flat in the first 

half of 2019. 

Recommended 

Personal Finance Advice & 

Comment 

could involve the re-allocation 

of farms, with whites still owning 

most of the land after the end of 

apartheid. 

Sterling is down 0.3 per cent 

at $1.2873 and is steady against 

the euro with £0.8986 required 

for a unit of the shared currency 

amid a sanguine response to the 

UK government’s statement on its 

Brexit planning . 

The yen is 0.3 per cent weaker 

at ¥110.85 to the dollar. The euro 

is down 0.4 per cent to $1.1546. 

Equities 

Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax 30 is 

down 0.1 per cent, while London’s 

FTSE 100 is flat, as is the Europewide 

Stoxx 600. 

The run lower for resource 

stocks is continuing, as investors 

assess the impact of the fall in 

industrial metals prices that have 

tracked concerns from the trade 

dispute to economic growth. The 

Stoxx index tracking European 

miners is down 0.7 per cent on 

the session, taking its fall for the 

month to just over 10 per cent. 

Qantas announces record profits driven by domestic business 

Australian airline points to higher fuel costs next year and flat capacity in first half of 2019 

Josh Spero and Jamie Smyth 

Got the Ryanair blues? This is 

how to claim compensation 

Mr Joyce said the airline’s new 

17-hour, 14,500km Perth to London 

route had been the highest 

rated service on its network since 

it launched in 2018. 

At the time, the Financial Times 

wrote that Qantas was “pushing 

the boundaries of long-distance 

airline travel”. 

“With this technology behind 

them, Qantas can become a disrupter 

in global aviation,” Anthony 

Moulder, analyst at broker 

CLSA, said. “Being able to overfly 

competitors and stopover hubs 

by providing direct services from 

Australia to European and US cities 

puts them in a stronger position.” 

Mr Joyce said: “You need to 

make revenue out of these flights 

and you need a full passenger payload. 

We were significantly short 

last year but with the work done 

so far we are getting much closer.”

A4 BUSINESS DAY 

C002D5556 Friday 24 August 2018 

FT 

ANALYSIS 

How the Hong Kong Jockey 

Club exaggerates its charity 

Group has a gambling monopoly thanks to its donations to good 

causes — but FT data show it overstates its largesse 

Hudson Lockett 

So important is horseracing 

to Hong Kong life 

that Deng Xiaoping once 

reassured the population 

that “the horses will still 

run” as the UK prepared to hand 

over sovereignty of the territory to 

China. For those crammed into the 

Happy Valley stadium every race 

night since 1997, the late Chinese 

leader has been true to his word. 

Compact, noisy and filled with 

thousands of punters squeezed 

around the floodlit track, horseracing 

at Happy Valley is at the heart 

of Hong Kong island. It is also at 

the heart of the Hong Kong Jockey 

Club, the colonial-era institution 

whose members make up the city’s 

business and political elite, and 

which holds a government-granted 

gambling monopoly in the city. 

In the year to June 2017 that 

monopoly generated revenues 

of nearly HK$34bn ($4.3bn) on 

record betting turnover of more 

than HK$216bn — that is almost 

HK$30,000 gambled for every 

man, woman and child in the city. 

The monopoly is justified on the 

grounds that the club’s charity arm 

redistributes some of its profits to 

good causes — part of a deal dating 

back to 1952. 

But a Financial Times analysis 

shows the club exaggerates its 

donations, paying out only a sliver 

of the charity funds that serve to 

justify its lucrative monopoly. For 

instance last year a press release 

from the club detailing its annual 

results recorded “total charity donations” 

of HK$7.6bn but that 

counted money “allocated” to 

charitable organisations and 

community projects and thus 

earmarked for potential payment. 

The annual donations 

— defined by Hong Kong law as 

payments made, not just pledged 

— were just HK$2bn, according 

to the annual report of the Jockey 

Club Charities Trust. 

The gap between the two figures 

has the potential to become 

a flashpoint in a city where one 

in five people live below the 

poverty line — defined as half 

the median income of HK$8,000 

per month for a single person. And 

income inequality has risen to a 

record level as real estate prices 

have soared. 

“The charities trust is a fig leaf 

to justify having the monopoly 

rather than having competition 

in that space,” says David Webb, a 

corporate governance expert and 

longtime critic of the Jockey Club. 

“If they simply paid an extra 1 per 

cent of their revenue to the government 

instead and let the government 

do it, they wouldn’t have that 

moral high ground.” 

Critics have been especially 

animated by the 2016 decision by 

the charity arm to bankroll a local 

branch of Beijing’s Palace Museum 

with a HK$3.5bn grant at the request 

of club patron and member 

Carrie Lam, now Hong Kong’s chief 

executive. The move, say critics, 

highlights the trust’s role as a piggy 

bank for pet projects that would 

struggle to win legislative support. 

It also provides an insight into 

how the Hong Kong elite is managing 

its relationship with Beijing. 

Coming after the tumultuous 

“Umbrella revolution” that saw 

thousands of protesters take to the 

streets to oppose moves by China 

to extend its influence in Hong 

Kong, the Palace Museum donation 

was seen by pro-democracy 

campaigners as an attempt by the 

Jockey Club to curry favour with the 

central government. 

Supporters of the club prefer to 

emphasise its local philanthropy. 

“The strong justification for the 

monopoly is the charitable status,” 

says Andrew Li, a former club 

steward and the first chief justice 

of Hong Kong, from 1997 to 2010. 

“If you don’t understand what the 

club does, just look around you.” 

From hospital wings to university 

buildings and middle 

schools, the Jockey Club logo — 

the same one that hangs outside 

its 102 neighbourhood betting 

shops — features on wall plaques 

across Hong Kong. It is a very visible 

sign of the money that has been 

raised and spent over the past six 

decades by a club whose members 

include the likes of Li Ka-shing, 

Hong Kong’s richest man. 

Yet what the club calls “donations” 

in press releases is essentially 

grant funding that may not 

be paid out for years or, in some 

cases, ever. The FT analysis shows 

that the Jockey Club’s charity arm 

has donated HK$30.5bn since its 

creation in 1959, rather than the 

HK$51bn it has publicly claimed, 

a gap of HK$20.5bn. 

Much of that is accounted for 

by HK$17.4bn in outstanding 

donations still to be distributed. 

Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, 

the club’s chief executive, insists 

donations pledged are as good as 

money spent, as the club has never 

defaulted on its commitments. 

But the club, Hong Kong’s biggest 

taxpayer, declined to provide a 

breakdown of where that money 

was pledged. 

Leong Cheung, head of the 

charities arm and a former operating 

partner at Bain Capital, 

acknowledges that for almost every 

project supported by the club some 

money is never distributed. In 2016 

it recognised HK$340m that would 

never be paid out, freeing up those 

funds for donation elsewhere. 

Lusina Ho, a law professor at the 

University of Hong Kong who is an 

expert on trust and non-profit legislation, 

says that in the territory “a 

donation refers to an executed gratuitous 

transfer and hence strictly 

speaking does not include pledged 

donations”. By that measure donations 

did not double last year, as the 

club has said. They shrank 13 per 

cent, marking the first drop since 

the global financial crisis. 

That left charity trust assets, 

net of payments due within a 

year, at HK$43.1bn. Asked why it 

held on to so much money, Mr 

Engelbrecht-Bresges says the club 

wants sufficient reserves to honour 

its commitments and not let donations 

drop, “even if we would have 

zero income coming from the club 

into the trust”. 

Caroline Fiennes, director of 

Giving Evidence, which advises 

international clients on philanthropic 

best practices, says the 

quarter-century increase in trust 

net assets made no sense in light 

of its stable revenue from the club’s 

gambling operations. “That’s not 

hanging on to some additional 

assets waiting for a downturn,” 

Ms Fiennes says. “This is a pattern 

you might see only if a foundation 

thinks the economy goes in 30-year 

cycles.” 

Many of those contacted by 

the FT — from club members to 

non-profit organisations and charities 

— were unaware of how much 

money the trust held, or that the 

club’s definition of “donations” 

includes payments not yet made. 

Lam Cheuk-ting, a legislative 

councillor and former investigator 

with Hong Kong’s Independent 

Commission Against Corruption, 

says the club’s positive public image 

is largely due to its charitable 

donations which have not, to his 

knowledge, ever been subjected to 

serious public scrutiny. 

Businesses told to hire customs 

agents if there is no Brexit deal 

Government releases first set of contingency planning papers 

Jim Pickard and Adam Samson 

British companies exporting 

to the EU will face a blizzard 

of red tape if there is 

no Brexit deal, and should consider 

hiring customs agents to help 

them deal with it, the government 

said on Thursday. 

In a series of technical notices 

on the consequences of a no-deal 

Brexit, the UK’s Department for 

Exiting the EU said trade with the 

bloc would revert to “non-preferential, 

World Trade Organization 

terms”. 

Businesses should put steps in 

place to renegotiate contracts in 

the light of new tariffs, Dexeu said. 

It added that exporters should 

think about engaging “the services 

of a customs broker, freight 

forwarder or logistics provider to 

help, or alternatively secure the 

appropriate software and authorisations”. 

Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary, 

conceded that there would be 

“some extra regulatory” changes, 

but these would be offset by the 

on World Trade Organization rules 

is acceptable live in a world of fantasy, 

where facts are not allowed to 

challenge ideology,” he said. 

There was no technical paper 

on the Northern Ireland border, 

but in the notice on trade, there 

was a warning that work still needs 

to be done to deal with “the very 

significant challenges” of trading 

across the border in the event of a 

hard Brexit. 

A technical notice on financial 

services warned that the roughly 

1m British citizens who live in 

the EU may suffer disruption to 

their banking services as the UK is 

severed from European payments 

infrastructure, such as Target2, the 

real-time settlement system for the 

eurozone, and the Single Euro Payments 

Area, is severed. At the same 

time, however, 30m European citizens 

use British financial services 

— giving Brussels an incentive to 

strike a deal, ministers believe. 

The notice added that the cost of 

card payments is likely to increase 

for Britons buying from Europe 

because they will not be protected 

by an EU ban on credit card sur- 

Dominic Raab explains the consequences of a no-deal Brexit on Thursday © Reuters 

opportunities for companies looking 

beyond the EU. 

The technical documents go 

into great length about red tape, 

outlining the host of forms that 

will need to be filled in — such 

as customs declarations, safety 

declarations and export licences 

— and quangos to notify. 

Earlier this year, Jon Thompson, 

the chief executive of HM 

Revenue & Customs, told a committee 

of MPs that the fourfold 

increase in customs declarations 

that would occur under a no-deal 

Brexit, to 205m a year, would cost 

UK and EU businesses up to £20bn 

a year. Around £6.5bn of the total 

would be borne by EU businesses, 

but this could be passed on to UK 

consumers in higher prices. 

Mr Raab also revealed that 9,000 

more civil servants would be hired 

just to deal with Brexit, on top of 

7,000 already dealing Britain’s departure 

from the EU. 

The CBI business lobby said 

failing to reach a Brexit deal would 

“wreak havoc”. 

Companies had already spent 

millions of pounds and thousands 

of hours on getting ready for no 

deal, but smaller companies simply 

did not have the resources to 

assess the potential impact, said 

Josh Hardie, the CBI’s deputy 

director-general. 

“These papers show that those 

who claim crashing out of the EU 

charges, which came into force in 

January. Credit card surcharges 

paid by British consumers at home 

and abroad amounted to £166m in 

2015, according to the Treasury. 

As he unveiled the technical 

papers, Mr Raab said he believes a 

deal is the “most likely outcome” of 

the negotiations, and that a no-deal 

scenario is “not want we want, not 

what we expect”. 

But the 25 initial papers will be 

followed by dozens more, covering 

issues ranging from organic food to 

nuclear regulation. 

Many of the documents stress 

London’s determination to ensure 

continuity after Brexit and to avoid 

any potential chaos from leaving 

with an agreement. 

For example, the UK would 

seek to continue farm payments 

as per usual until 2022 and also 

ensure the continuation of passporting 

rights for financial services 

companies for three years. 

Employment legislation and rules 

governing issues such as GM products 

would be kept as they are in 

the medium term. 

However, the papers included 

several examples of esoteric 

changes that would be necessary 

in a no-deal situation. For 

example, the UK would need to 

introduce its own cigarette packet 

warnings because Brussels owns 

the copyright to those used at 

present.

BUSINESS DAY 

Opinion 

Kofi Annan, a profile in leadership 

There has been an 

outpouring of eulogies 

from all over 

the world for Kofi 

Annan, Ghanaian 

diplomat and former UN Secretary-General, 

who passed 

away on Saturday 18 August. 

It behoves us in this column 

to reflect on the lessons in 

leadership that his career could 

teach us. 

Kofi Atta Annan was born 

in Kumasi, Ghana, on 8 April 

1938, from a long line of Ashanti 

tribal chiefs. He had a twin 

sister, Effua Atta, who predeceased 

him in 1991. He attended 

the famous Methodist 

boarding school, Mfantsipim, 

from 1954 to 1957. In 1958 he 

enrolled as an undergraduate 

student of economics at Kumasi 

College of Science and 

Technology before transferring 

to Macalester College in 

the United States, majoring in 

Economics. 

In January 1997 Annan was 

sworn-in as the seventh Secretary-General 

of the United 

Nations, taking over from the 

hapless Egyptian Boutrous 

Boutrous-Ghali whose hectoring 

professorial style had 

alienated the Americans. The 

organisation was on the verge 

of financial bankruptcy at the 

time. He was the first to have 

risen through the ranks, having 

joined the organisation as 

a lowly Budget Officer in 1962. 

NEWS YOU CAN TRUST I FRIDAY 24 AUGUST 2018 

C002D5556 

He served two consecutive 

terms from 1996 to 2006. We 

can garner valuable golden 

nuggets about his leadership 

style not only from UN reports, 

articles and publications, but 

also from his autobiography 

(Interventions: A Life in War 

and Peace, John Wiley 2012). 

The exalted position of UN 

Secretary-General is one of 

the most influential jobs in 

the world. It is certainly the 

ultimate prize for any career 

diplomat or international civil 

servant. His decisions can save 

millions of lives or send them 

to an early grave. The other side 

of the coin is that it is pretty 

much a thankless job. The great 

conservative English politician 

Sir Enoch Powell -- perhaps the 

greatest Prime Minister Britain 

never had -- famously declared 

that “all political careers end in 

failure”. This is particularly true 

of the office of UN secretarygeneral. 

It has been described 

as “the most impossible job 

in the world”. The first incumbent, 

Trygve Halvdan Lie of 

Norway (1946-1952) resigned 

in disgust; describing it as “a 

job from hell”. 

Writing in the London 

Guardian a few years ago, Rory 

Stewart noted: “It is difficult 

to think of anyone in public 

policy who has been more celebrated. 

He has already been 

given awards for “courage” 

(the JFK Memorial Museum), 

for “freedom” (University of St 

Gallen), and for “international 

justice” (the MacArthur Foundation); 

prizes for “security, 

and development”, for “culture, 

science and education”, and 

even for the “protection of human 

rights…The governments 

of Germany, Britain, Portugal, 

Austria, the Netherlands, 

Romania and Ghana have 

pinned medals on his chest. 

And he has won the Nobel 

peace prize.” 

But he has not been short of 

preservation of peace through 

collective security, international 

cooperation and preservation 

of a world governed 

by law and internationally 

accepted norms. It also aims 

to protect universal human 

rights and advance the cause 

of global welfare such that, in 

the words of the old Hebrew 

prophet Isaiah, the nations 

shall turn their “swords into 

ploughshares”. 

The UN is the successor to 

the defunct League of Nations 

‘ 

 

 

more demanding global situation. He brought 

 

 

, 

his critics. A British commentator 

noted that, “Some people 

are given a tough job and they 

work wonders. Some people 

are given a tough job and they 

suck at it. While it’s tragic that 

casualties are to be expected, 

the body count was too high 

under Kofi Annan.” 

The UN is the first most successful 

organisation of mankind 

on a universal basis. The 

mandate of the organisation is 

which failed because it was 

neither universal in scope nor 

could it rise to the occasion 

when fascist Italy invaded 

Ethiopia in 1935 and Japan 

committed heinous crimes in 

Nanking, southern China. And 

Adolf Hitler scornfully worked 

out of the world body in his bid 

to carry out his dream of World 

Empire under the Third Reich. 

The UN recently celebrated 

70 years of its existence. It has 

a near-universal membership 

of 193 countries. Its Secretariat 

has a staff strength of 

nearly 40,000 and an annual 

operating budget of US$5.4 

billion. This does not include 

thousands of blue beret 

peacekeepers and other field 

staff engaged in numerous 

peacekeeping missions that 

also attract humungous extrabudgetary 

resources. 

The position of UN Secretary-General 

has been described 

as “the most impossible 

job in the world”. Whilst the 

permanent members expect 

the incumbent to be more of 

secretary than general, the 

demands of the job and the expectations 

of the international 

public require that he acts 

more as a general. The most 

successful have been those 

who managed to achieve an 

Aristotelian balance between 

the two opposing expectations. 

Ten lessons, in my opinion, 

underpin Kofi Annan’s relative 

success as a global leader. 

First, get a good education. 

Kofi Annan was probably not 

the brightest young man of his 

generation. But he was a keen 

learner. He made it a point to 

grab every good educational 

opportunity. The opportunity 

of a Ford Foundation award 

enabled him to attend the 

prestigious Macalester College 

in the United States. He was 

an average student, but a keen 

THE NEW WEALTH 

OF NATIONS 

OBADIAH MAILAFIA 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- 

 

learner and a good sportsman. 

An all-round education 

is extremely important. But it 

must be complemented with 

development of the human 

personality through sports 

and engagement in extracurricular 

activities. Annan also 

did a masters at the prestigious 

Geneva Graduate Institute 

of International Studies. He 

later did a mid-career masters 

in management at the MIT 

Sloan School. A broad general 

education is necessary for the 


The aficionados of 

black music would 

recognize a familiar 

ring in the title 

of this piece. It is a takeoff 

on the Nina Simone 

song‘Why? (The King of 

Love is Dead)’. 

‘The King’ referred, of 

course, to Martin Luther 

King Junior, who had just 

been murdered on a hotel 

balcony when Nina sang 

the song. The tears were 

flowing freely in those dark 

days. Passions were running 

rife, and chaos and 

death were in the air all 

over the United States of 

America. 

Nina Simone was an 

African-American diva, and 

something of a precursor 

for Aretha. She was weird, 

and she was larger than life. 

There will be another 

time to talk about Nina 

Simone, whose voice was 

deep and dark, so much so 

that it put the fear of God in 

the people who heard her 

music and were enthralled 

HumanAngle 

FEMI OLUGBILE 

 

The queen of soul is dead’: 

A tribute to Aretha Franklin 

by it, including those who 

did not like black people. 

It’s not over, the common 

saying goes, to this day, until 

the fat lady sings.The fat 

black lady. And Nina was 

not even fat. Aretha was. 

O – Aretha! 

She was the quintessential 

‘black’ voice. Her voice 

that defined – more than 

any other, your youthful 

consciousness and emerging 

artistic sensibilities, 

growing up. 

Now that she is dead, 

you feel as though you have 

known her all your life. Getting 

into boarding school 

at Government College 

Ibadan as an eleven-yearold 

stripling, going away 

from home and parents for 

the first time, you were suddenly 

an individual, 

distinct 

from everyone 

else. You were 

e x p e c t e d t o 

have – opinion. 

It was a very 

liberating feeling. 

But it was 

also a scary feeling, 

with a lot of 

gaps in choices 

and preferences 

that you found 

yourself having 

to fill, going 

forward. People 

you liked. People 

you could 

not stand. Music 

to dance to. Music 

to listen to. 

A welter of 

c u l t u re i c o n s 

with their creations hit you 

in the eye. In your boarding 

house – Grier House, as in 

the rest of the school, the 

music of James Brown had 

everybody shaking their 

heads furiously on their 

necks as if they wanted to 

throw them off and gyrating 

their hips in something 

they called the ‘Boogaloo’. It was amusing 

to watch the older boys dancing at 

the House ‘Socials’ that held – was it 

once in a month? The small 

boys would snigger in the 

corner at the seriousness 

with which some of the big 

boys practised the steps, 

especially the more studious 

ones who you might 

have sworn would have no 

truck with dancing. There 

was a fever especially when 

the end of year was approaching, 

with a date set 

for ‘Endo’ – the End of Year 

‘ She was the most 

charted female 

artist in history. 

She won eighteen 

Grammy Awards, 

and sold more than 

 

records, 

party at which the big boys 

played host to girls from St 

Anne’s School in town. Beyond 

their sniggering, the 

little boys would practice 

the steps they copied from 

their seniors in the safety of 

the communal washroom, 

or even in class, during 

break. 

But for you, Aretha’s was 

the real musical discovery 

of those early days. Her 

sharp, rasping voice belting 

out the notes and sentiments 

of ‘Respect’ made 

a powerful impression on 

you. You found the voice 

and the words reverberating 

inside your head, over 

and over again – in class, 

in lonely moments, playing 

on the field. Sometimes, 

inexplicably it brought you 

to tears. 

You would understand 

the experience later, as 

you matured. You had discovered 

The Black Voice, 

and its spell would stay 

with you. It was a label on 

a door, and as you grew in 

years, other powerful black 

women - Ella Fitzgerald, 

Nina Simone, Billie Holliday 

would walk through 

that door and inhabit your 

life and space. But Aretha 

was your first taste of that 

world, and the sound of her 

voice would always evoke 

in you complex details of 

the past and the present 

in a bitter-sweet mix that 

was difficult to explain to 

anyone, not to speak of 

sharing. Even when they hit a 

joyful note, those women, they 

spoke of a primordial pain and 

passion that you automatically 

empathized withand could 

feel in your bone. 

Aretha Franklin died on 

August 16, 2018, after a long 


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Friday 24 August 2018 BUSINESS DAY 

Women’s 

Hub 

Humans tend 

to learn the 

hard way 

8 Tips 

For Living With Depression 

The things 

I see in Apapa traffic 

Dolapo 

BadmOs 

Unswerving allegiance to selfless service 

It happened to me 

I married a monster and 

I thought he was a man

Editor’s note 

Welcome to another edition 

of Women’s Hub. 

Our cover personality and Leading 

Woman for this week is Ogun/Lagos 

zonal PPRO, Dolapo Badmos. She has 

been through tough times but it has 

only made her stronger. Her passion 

for service is indeed commendable. 

Her story will be worth your time. 

We share on the death of two great 

Icons, Aretha Franklin and Kofi Anan. 

It really is amazing what people have 

to say about them. Read it up in this 

edition. 

My daily experience plying Apapa 

route is what I shared and I trust 

you will enjoy it. 

Dr Agility U. Obi-Ihesie is the CEO 

of Ravishe Medical Skin & Haircare, 

she shares with us in details on Alopecia 

and what we must avoid to enjoy 

having healthy hair. 

This week, Chinyere says humans often 

tend to only learn the hard way. 

Find out how and why. 

Spoon to help end forced marriage 

or female genital mutilation (FGM)? 

Desmond shares information on this. 

These are some of the stories we 

have for you this week. 

Enjoy 

Kemi Ajumobi 

kemi@businessdayonline.com 

Graphics by David Ogar 

2 BUSINESS DAY Friday 24 August 2018 

Women’s Hub 7 

Where it all began 

My growing up was like the normal community setting. 

We grew up in a community where one’s child 

is another’s child. I think it has helped to shape us 

because you don’t need to see your parents before 

you behave well. I think those communities helped us because we 

lived a communal life, it helped create a kind of competition among 

your age group because you don’t want to lag behind because you 

can always get someone that you would be compared to, and I 

think it actually helped us. It shaped us because you want to be the 

best among your peers and as such become a reference point in 

every home. That’s what helped our parents to be on their toes in 

ensuring we turn out good. I grew up in a modest home, we grew up 

not really rich, but at least, we could get what we wanted. We also 

grew up in an environment where we were trained that what you 

can’t get now, you don’t need it, and what you can get is what you 

actually need. It has really shaped us and made us fit into today’s 

society. Most of those communal values are lost right now that is 

why you see kids misbehaving and no one seems to be interested. 

When and why did you decide to join the police? 

Like I say all the time, my uncle forced me to join the police; I never 

wanted to be a police officer. But while growing up, there was one 

attribute that most of my friends tend to remind me of right now. 

While we were growing up, I used to protect my peers against 

bullies. You know you will always have the ‘stronger girls’ against 

the ‘weaker ones’. But I’ve always been the in fore front of defending 

and ensuring that no one is punished unjustly, and I’ll also say 

I don’t like to see anyone go through pain or suffering. I thought 

saving lives was only the function of doctors, interestingly; we save 

and protect lives too. I have come to realize that this is my calling. I 

think I am fulfilling my own calling in the police because if what my 

friends are reminding me of now is what I have been doing, then I 

think I’m called for this, and I’m achieving it. I don’t regret it, and if 

there is another world, I’d still want to be a police officer. 

Working in an environment like Lagos with diverse kind of challenges 

Just like you will ask a sitting governor ‘how do you cope being the 

governor of Lagos?’ and they will tell you it’s been interesting is also 

how you will ask an average police officer how it feels to be a police 

officer in Lagos where you have all manner of people. Lagos is a 

cosmopolitan state, in other words, it will be more challenging to 

be a police officer here, and for the fact that everyone wants to be in 

Lagos right now, it’s really challenging. I really salute the police officers 

working in Lagos, because you can see that Lagos is relatively 

peaceful. To achieve this, you know the officers are not sleeping. As 

a police officer in Lagos you face too much of complaints to deal 

with. Members of the public are complaining about the police, the 

police are also complaining about them. We need to strike a balance 

to ensure that we coexist peacefully. So, it’s challenging. 

Delay in your promotion, was it biased? 

There are three things that drive me as a police officer. One is passion 

for the job, the second thing is dedication to duty, and the third 

is the love for the country where patriotism now comes in because 

most times, even being a police officer alone is challenging. If you don’t have these three, you can’t get in 

because in Nigeria, you are defending the citizens against criminals; the criminals are targeting you while the 

citizens are not appreciating what you are doing. So it’s tasking and it’s frustrating. But if you have these things 

I have mentioned, it will keep you going. 

Now let’s bring it back to the job itself. Let’s start with the welfare package and the take-home pay. Along the 

line, our policemen are trying to rescue lives and they get killed in the process and their families are left with 

nothing. What can be compared to that? Nothing! That’s why I’d say even if you pay five hundred thousand to 

a Constable, it does not match up to the risk that the job entails. 

The issue of promotion, if the promotion is not coming, that does not deter you from doing what you are doing. 

So keep on at it. It’s not about being a woman alone, but because we are in a male dominated organisation, 

most times, women seem to be at a disadvantage. Nevertheless, what I tell young women out there is 

that, in any organisation you find yourself, strive to show the quality you’re made of because your quality and 

your ability will give chance to you. Strive to make yourself known for positivity. There might be challenges, 

but you should be able to prove a point that you can surmount the challenges and that you can be whatever 

you want to be. 

In your years of service, what can you say you are genuinely grateful for? 

I am grateful to God for everything. It’s just 16 years for me in the job and it’s been 16 years of series of challenges. 

Immediately I joined the Nigerian police force, my life shifted from being my normal self to a life of 

selfless service. So far, I’m grateful to God for his support and because I’ve not failed and I’ve not faltered. 

What is the truth about EndSARS, and what would you like people to know? 

Let me say that people are permitted to agitate, people are allowed to bare their minds, but while doing all of 

that, they must be guided. If I ask you, ‘when last have you heard about bank robbery in Lagos?’ You’d say ‘it’s 

been a long time’. When you talk about the kidnapping that ravaged Lagos two years ago up to early last year 

and it suddenly disappeared. You think all of these happened because of a miracle? We have boys sleeping in 

the bush; we have boys moving around every time to ensure that these bad boys do not penetrate. So who are 

the boys doing all of these? It’s these boys that you call SARS. So when you are saying, end it, it means that we 

should take these boys away. Mind you, criminals are also propelling for SARS to be eradicated because these 

SARS boys are being a blockade to them. 

Leading Woman 

Dolapo BadmOs, Unswerving 

allegiance to selfless service 

DOLAPO BADMOS is the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) responsible for 

Zone Two Command. Zone Two Command covers Lagos State and Ogun State. In 

her capacity, she maintains the balance between the police and the public. It hasn’t 

been rosy all the way however, her challenges have become stepping stones to 

greatness. She shares with KEMI AJUMOBI on her duties, her desire for the Nigerian 

Police Force, family and more. Excerpts. 

We are not saying our men are not misbehaving, but I stand 

to be corrected, there is no organization in Nigeria, especially 

security organisations that bring its members to accountability 

like the Nigerian Police Force. If you misbehave, 

there are spelt out disciplinary measures to be taken –some 

dismissal, some reduction in ranks. Not that the police is 

not doing anything but when people want to press on their 

point, they bombard social media, some will even take 

pictures of an incident that happened three years ago and 

put it online. 

Nowadays, before I talk about any SARS matter, you must 

have posted your picture with evidences, if you don’t 

post it with evidences, then I’ll treat it as one of those fake 

videos. So these are the things that are happening, but 

above it all, we’ve been able to partner with the Korede 

Bello Initiative, Segun Awosanya who is the spearhead of 

EndSARS, and as the Nigerian Police Force, we used youth 

day to have a round-table, and we have been able to sell 

to them that we can’t end SARS because the criminals will 

take over. We are able to have a communiqué which has 

been released. We’ll get better, it’s a gradual process. SARS 

is a very good outfit. 

Is there a constant reorientation of the mindset of police 

officers? Are they well remunerated? 

If you are well remunerated, and everything is being well 

taken care of, and you have the vehicles that you should 

work with in good condition, you will go with a sense of 

pride and wouldn’t want to beg anybody for anything. If 

you see men doing that, what does that indicate? I want 

to say that the members of the public should really help 

talk to stakeholders to really look deep into security. It’s 

not about the police alone, because a nation that neglects 

security organization is going for a tough moment. But if 

they look for vehicles to use, or need fuel and there is none 

available, if they don’t get all of this it becomes tough. So 

where do you get all of these? Because nobody wants to 

listen to excuses, you must make it happen, and how do 

you do that? It’s either they go begging, or they go harassing. 

This is the bitter truth we must tell ourselves. 

So if we can have what the Lagos State Security Trust Fund 

is doing at the federal level, we will relieve the government 

of the needed funds, and then you can demand for accountability. 

Look at what is happening with RRS; everyone wants 

to join them because they are well taken care of Another one 

is to control their psyche; some police officers are so full of 

pride that no matter what, they will never beg. But it is very 

tough to control their psyche, when the funding is absent. 

How would you summarize your duties in Lagos State? 

I’m PPRO for Zone Two Command. Zone Two Command 

covers Lagos State and Ogun State. As a public relations 

officer, I am a bridge builder between the members of the 

public and the Nigerian Police Force. I take the fillers of my 

office to the public and I bring the news of the public back to 

the organisation. I maintain balance between the two, that’s 

basically my duty. 

Most people don’t look at what I say objectively, they just 

think I’m defending the police, that’s not me. The duty of 

a public relations officer, and as a member of the Nigerian 

Institute of Public Relations, basically is beyond defending 

your organisation. You only defend your organisation when 

it becomes necessary, but you also need to strike a balance 

between the public and the organisation you work for. That’s 

what I’ve been doing. 

What future do you see for the Nigerian Police? 

I see a beautiful future. I see that someday, the Police will 

conform with international standards of policing; that the 

police’s welfare would be paramount to each and every one 

within the country. And I see that one day; people will say 

“oh, have you checked out our police?” That’s the Nigerian 

police of our dream. But all of this will not happen without 

people trusting their police and the police delivering to the 

members of the public what is expected. Also, in the same 

spirit, I think we should do more of community policing to 

ensure that you can walk freely to me as a police officer, you 

talk to me, you don’t have anything to hide, and you don’t 

have anything to fear. I can relate with you as a member 

of the public, if for instance, a DPO approaches you, and 

you are a community leader, you should be able to tell the 

DPO the best way of policing your environment and have 

that safer environment that you desire. It’s not about state 

policing, or local government policing, it’s about trust and 

partnership. 

To anyone who has a complaint or issues with the police, 

what do you advise they do? 

What I tell people is that when you are in an area, get into 

the station and introduce yourself. What I’ve been able to 

do with my office is to break the barrier that police are not 

approachable or fashionable. I’ve been able to tell the whole 

world that I can be a police officer and be fashionable and 

enjoy my social life, and people can still approach me. So 

now I hear people say police are sociable, and even now the 

police officers are now getting to be social. 

To relate this with the police, start with your community; get 

to know the DPO, and the officers in your area. If everyone 

can do that, then we will all have access to the officer manning 

our area because every police you see in your division 

is your own, they were created there for you. 

How are you managing Lagos and Ogun States? 

When my attention is needed in Ogun State I will go there. 

Most times twice a week. It’s my duty, I’m dedicated to it, 

and I see it as building me up for the future. 

Family and work life 

It’s tough. But I have a fantastic husband, very supportive. 

My kids are wonderful. They know when I’m not around 

it’s because mummy is busy. The only thing is that, that free 

moment I have, I dedicate it to them. 

Last words 

I want people to know that security is everyone’s business. 

Inasmuch as you would not leave your door open when you 

want to sleep then it means you are security conscious. So 

you extend that to your community, then it will go in extension 

to Nigeria as a whole. So be security conscious. When 

you see something, you say something, and let’s see if our 

country will get better for it.

3 

BUSINESS DAY 


Women’s Hub 

Condolences 

as two rominent 

figures “leave” 

world stage 

Stories by Desmond Okon 

It has been a week of grief as condolences spewed from across the 

world over the deaths of two prominent figures, Aretha Franklin, 

and Kofi Annan. 

Aretha Franklin, the preacher’s daughter who was described by 

many Americans in her time as an inspiring symbol of Black equality 

is dead. 

The singer whose powerful voice made her the “Queen of Soul” for 

decades died on Thursday, 16th August, at the age of 76 at her home in 

Detroit surrounded by family and loved ones after battling advanced pancreatic 

cancer. 

On August 12, 2018, it was reported that a “gravely ill” Franklin was 

bedridden in her Detroit home, surrounded by family and friends. As news 

of her condition spread, more luminaries paid a visit to express their well 

wishes, including Stevie Wonder and Jesse Jackson. 

With hit songs like “Respect” and “Chain of Fools,” she won 18 Grammys 

and had some 25 gold records. 

Calling it one of the darkest moments of their lives, Franklin’s family 

said they were unable to find the appropriate words to express the pain in 

their hearts. 

“We have lost the matriarch and rock of our family. The love she had 

for her children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and cousins knew no 

bounds,” her family said in a statement. 

Franklin’s father was a Baptist preacher in Detroit, and the gospel 

singing she heard in his church was her musical foundation. Her uniquely 

emotional and powerful voice put her at the forefront of 1960s soul music 

along with Otis Redding, Sam Cooke and Wilson Pickett. 

On the other hand, Kofi Annan who was the former Secretary General of 

the United Nations and Nobel Peace Laureate also passed away on Saturday 

18th August after a short illness. 

Kofi Annan was a global statesman and a deeply committed internationalist 

who fought throughout his life for a fairer and more peaceful 

world. During his distinguished career and leadership of the United 

Nations, he was an ardent champion of peace, sustainable development, 

human rights and rule of law. 

After stepping down from the United Nations, he continued to work in 

the cause of peace through his chairmanship of the Kofi Annan Foundation, 

and as chair of The Elders, the group founded by Nelson Mandela. He 

was an inspiration to the young and old alike. 

“I haven’t gotten over losing Whitney Houston. In fact few days ago I 

felt so emotional just thinking about her and I’ve been watching her You- 

Tube videos since then. I’ve missed her so much! Now ‘The Queen’ herself? 

Good music is slowly fading away, and quickly too. Such sweet voice.” – 

Maranatha Ngene, Singer. 

Sadly this type of talent cannot be willed out, it goes to the grave with 

the vessel. Lesson: what we do with our God-given gifts while alive is so im- 

portant to the giver and beneficial to us. 

She utilized the gift and it was multiplied 

to her. I pray she is with the Giver. 

– Beulah-Pat Odeh 

Farewell Mama. Thank you for blessing 

the world with your voice. Rest with 

angels. 

– Rita Dominic, actress 

Aretha Franklin, Adieu. May your 

beautiful soul rest in perfect peace. May 

the peace of the Lord envelope your loved 

ones. 

– Ola Coker, Chef 

“One can only imagine the voice of an 

Angel listening to her, her voice without 

the lyrics relaxes the soul and causes the 

spirit to rejoice.” 

– Peter Joseph 

“I’ve been around long enough for 

people to know who I am and what my 

contributions are. They know me as more 

than just an artist. I think they know me as 

a woman as well.” - Aretha Franklin.Rest 

in peace Queen Of Soul” 

– Toyin Saraki, Founder/President 

of Wellbeing Foundation Africa. 

Kofi Annan was a ‘purposeful optimist’ 

who spoke for the voiceless, a diplomat 

who worked for peace in a tumultuous 

world, and a leader who dedicated his life 

to advocating for the liberty and freedom 

of all mankind. We shall miss him. 

– Bukola Saraki, Senate President 

Kofi Anan. A true African Star that 

lightened the World stage. 

– Nathaniel Bassey, Gospel Music 

Minister 

“The world has indeed lost one of its 

most celebrated diplomats and a charismatic 

symbol of the United Nations who 

rose through its ranks to become the first 

black African Secretary-General for two 

terms, Mr Kofi Annan. He was an aristocratic 

style, cool-tempered, elegant and 

politically savvy person with enormous 

compassion and a great sense of responsibility 

to the world; no small wonder 

he and the UN were jointly awarded the 

Nobel Peace Prize in 2001. My prayers 

and thoughts go out to the dear family 

members he has left behind. May God 

give you the fortitude to come through 

this season of bereavement” 

– Ifeanyi Adefarasin, Co-Pastor, 

House On The Rock 

It was a fun and emotional 

night somewhere in Victoria 

Island as youths from all 

backgrounds poured out their 

hearts on issues of both national 

and personal importance 

through music, poetry, and short 

stories at the African Artists’ 

Foundation, AAF, Open Mic. 

Tagged ‘Talk Your Own’, the 

event showcases art in its purest 

form as young artistes touched 

on topics like rape, suicide, 

governance and street life, and 

more. 

Being the fourth edition since 

it began in April, the Open Mic is 

an innovation that aims to create 

a community of like-minded 

AAF’s Open Mic: 

Young artistes shine 

light on societal ills 

young artistes who come together monthly to bare their minds on 

issues that are important to them, and of various degrees. 

As the name suggests, Open Mic is open to art of whatever form, 

and the fact that it is traditionally staged at the backyard of the foundation’s 

building, it creates a serene and relaxed atmosphere to enjoy 

art in different forms as you enjoy the cool breeze in the open air. 

“It started as our primary project for the year. So it basically started 

in April, the first edition. Since we deal mostly with visual art, we 

decided to incorporate performance art into it to be able to accommodate 

everybody. Because the aim of the African Artists’s Foundation is to 

create a space, like a culturally safe place for young artistes to relax and 

network” said Emebirido Ugochukwu 

“So very soon, we are going to incorporate visual art into it, and get 

people to speed-paint. So, it’s like a progression. Every month we check 

on our deficiencies, growth and work on them for the next edition. 

“What inspired it was to create a cultural hub for art. This is like a small 

community of like minds because for you to show up for a literary event, 

you have to have a certain understanding of things, and it is for young 

artistes to come relax and enjoy art like literature,” he added. 

Although he hinted that there are plans to take to the Open Mic project 

to a broader audience, he however expressed fear that making that move 

may impact on the intimacy effect it is intended to have. 

“There are plans to take this a broader audience. It’s going to expand 

eventually but mainly by word-of-mouth, because if we get too many 

people to come in, it would lose the intimacy effect and we might have 

technicalities issues. We plan to expand but not to the largest of scale,” he 

stated. 

One of the performances that stood out was ‘Scales’, a poem by 

Toluwanimi Ajiboye which narrates how easy it is for suicide to occur 

undetected because of the insensitivity of the society, or at times, close 

relations. 

“It was about suicide and how people tend to kill themselves. But 

it was based more on the fact that the killings go unnoticed before it 

happens. The piece was just to call the attention of the masses on how 

important it is to know that not everyone is balanced, not everyone is 

stable. That everyone has an issue or the other, to love each other and understand 

that everyone has something they are working on, that no one is 

actually perfect even though it may seem that way,” Ajiboye told me. 

Other works worthy of note include but not limited to: ‘Life’ a poem 

by Philo highlighting issues that concern life using poetic devices to paint 

images that the youths related well to; and ‘Carry’ a song by Kiddo Flex, 

filled with emotions as it details the prayers of a young man ‘hustling’ and 

praying to God to bless him quickly.

4 

5 

BUSINESS DAY Friday 24 August 2018 

Women’s Hub 

The 

things 

I see in 

Apapa 

traffic 

Kemi Ajumobi 

Oh Apapa! Wondering when the complaints 

about Apapa will end. Yes the road linking 

to the port is being fixed but I worry about 

the heavy containers and tankers that ply the route. 

Though a separate lane has been made for cars to 

pass but can you imagine how our hearts beat when 

we drive by those heavy containers? Wobbling carelessly 

without anything holding it down? While driving, 

once you have the opportunity to drive away from it, 

you speed quickly like you are being chased by a robber 

only to meet another container in front. This time, you 

can’t drive quickly for too long because the gridlock in 

front of you is 9 months pregnant. So you are caught in 

between coming down to save your life and allowing the 

container pass or you stay in your car and pray nothing 

happens. This certainly happens consistently until you 

arrive at your destination. Let’s just say that if you missed 

your prayer time in the morning, you will fervently and 

compulsorily make up for it in Apapa gridlock. 

For some reasons, people suddenly realise they are 

skilled in driving when on Apapa road, everyone struggling 

to overtake or avoid the tankers and containers, 

not wanting another car to come to their front “All of us 

wan reach house safe, me sef dey avoid trailer, no vex 

I no fit allow you pass” a driver said to a female driver 

who was trying to drive in front of him to avoid another 

trailer wobbling by her side. So I let her pass, I guess the 

driver behind her felt Christmas came early and Kemi 

was being Santa so he followed speedily but alas, his 

James Bond skills didn’t work, someone was faster and 

Picture by Pius Okosisi 

it certainly wasn’t him. I honestly do not have a problem allowing people 

drive in front of me, just ask, even if it’s the wave of hands to plead 

for space like the Danfo drivers do (quite annoying though) but just ask. 

Back at the ranch, my daily Apapa experiences going to work is 

enough to start a series, I am here wondering like Alice in wonderland 

when the roads will be free, pot holes filled, containers and tanker 

drivers shown other routes and also ensuring they comply to following 

it, when people will hear Apapa and will want to come visit without 

fear of the unknown on the road. Talking about fear of the unknown, it 

includes robbery. The hoodlums love the idea of gridlocks so that they 

can carry out their impish acts and leave their victim in confusion. In 

this confused state, the victim can’t drive forward, can’t go back, being 

robbed and left with nothing, other drivers watching in horror and 

‘minding their business’ while praying their cars are not the next, the 

list goes on. 

I was on my way to work over the weekend and I thought 

it would be at least a bit free but I guess the wannabe ‘movie’ 

was merely existing in my head, and my wishful thinking disappeared 

when I got into the unforeseen gridlock (Yes, unforeseen… 

I wasn’t expecting it, it’s weekend for God sake!). 

I had to find my way around it, luckily for me; it wasn’t as bad 

as I thought. 

Oh, before I forget, I have to give you this gist. So while 

waiting for the gridlock to ease out, the second car after the 

one right in front of me, a Benz (can’t remember the class 

now), the driver came down to check his tyre, he was a young 

boy with spiky hair but I couldn’t see the others in the car. As 

he came down to check his tyre, immediately he bent down, 

his T-shirt moved a bit and behold a black and silver pistol. 

By the time he rushed to cover it, the people behind him in 

the other car had seen it. There were about 4 people in the car. I could 

tell they were arguing about what they saw, pointing fingers and alerting 

the others in the car on what they just saw. In the midst of all that, the 

guy with the pistol looked towards their direction and perhaps because 

they were caught unawares and didn’t know what to do; they all suddenly 

began to wave at him like they knew him before. I could tell it was a wave 

of fear, so he waved back, got into his car and you could tell he couldn’t 

wait to drive off. 

Initially, the sudden and jittery wave was funny to me but as the 

gridlock took time to ease off, it was no longer funny…my mind began to 

wonder, “I hope he doesn’t get angry because he is in a hurry, hope he 

doesn’t try anything silly because he realised his gun was seen” I thought 

to myself…thankfully, the gridlock eased off…guess who sped off like a 

speed of light? Well, you know who…(Wasn’t me!). The things I see in 

Apapa traffic…hmn..God protect us o! 

Spoon to help end 

forced marriage or FGM? 

Desmond Okon 

Swedish city authorities have advised 

girls travelling in Gothenburg to tuck 

a spoon in their underwear if they 

fear being taken abroad for forced marriage 

or female genital mutilation (FGM). 

This is because; girls putting a spoon 

in their underwear will raise the alarm in 

Gothenburg Airport. 

The idea comes from British charity 

Karma Nirvana, which said the tactic had 

already saved a number of girls in Britain 

from forced marriage, and it is expected 

that activists in other cities will encourage 

the adoption of the spoon initiative to 

protect girls. 

The spoon-in-the-underwear tactic is 

being used as a last-ditch effort to save 

girls from forced marriage. The Gothenburg 

Airport staff at Sweden’s second- 

largest city has been told how to 

respond in such circumstances. 

‘The spoon will trigger metal detectors 

when you go through security 

checks,’ ‘You will be taken aside and 

you can then talk to staff in private.’ 

said Katarina Idegard, who tackles 

honour-based violence there. 

Airport staff in Gothenburg have 

been trained to respond if the alarm is 

raised. “It is a last chance to sound the 

alarm,’ Idegard added. 

The charity said hiding a spoon in 

their underwear was a safe way for 

girls to alert the authorities which can 

be difficult if they were surrounded by 

family. 

Forced marriage and FGM are illegal 

in Sweden, even if carried out abroad, 

and punishable by prison terms. 

Why celebrity fans 

like the LIKE button 

Desmond Okon 

As observed, the chances of hitting ‘like’ on a well-known figure’s 

post on social media are high, which explains why many celebrities 

in Nigeria, sometimes have a flood of likes, with little 

comments, and where there are comments, it could be requests of 

for ‘follow backs’ or help, or an opportunist who simply see it as a 

chance to advertise a celebrity’s wall, or fans bullying themselves. 

What really drives these ‘likes’ by fans remains a debate which 

reveals some personal gratification a fan gets by just hitting 

‘like’. Hence, fans have expressed their views 

and what could influence them into liking 

a post by a celebrity they follow on any 

social medium. 

A fan who preferred to remain anonymous, 

said he could like a post because 

he wants to get updates from such 

celebrity, see the flamboyant life style 

the celebrity lives because he hopes to 

one day live like that, and not because 

the picture is actually likeable (fine) or 

meaningful (if it’s just a write up). 

Singer, Adeniyi Adewoyin, also 

known as Neo Phlames told me that he 

likes Instagram posts because he feels 

that’s what everyone wants. “I just click 

like on every post I see on Instagram 

since it doesn’t cost me anything. Since 

most people only want likes on their posts I 

just click like because that’s why I post. It’s just 

a way of supporting. Most times I don’t even look at the post twice.” 

According to Cynthia Nwosu, a fashion designer; “I click ‘like’ on 

posts when I think they say something I can relate with, whether it’s 

something I’m going through or that I know someone else is going 

through. A picture of a celebrity I will like to emulate, yeah maybe. 

But some random celebrity I’ll just pass. See, people don’t do any- 

thing with the brain, it’s with the heart. We do what we feel is going to 

make us feel better inside, not what is going to teach us a lesson for 

the future”. 

In the words of Priscilla Okechukwu, OAP, and entertainer; “I like 

some, because I truly like it and the caption that goes with it 

especially when it’s insightful and gets to me. For others, it 

could be because of the celebrity and not my like for it. For 

instance, I recently liked a celebrity’s picture even though 

I hated the outfit she had on. Thought it looked really 

stupid, but because it’s her, I liked it.” 

“I rarely like celeb’s pictures because I’m not 

always on Instagram, but when I often log in and 

see good pictures, I do like them, but I don’t like 

them because others do. I like them because they 

appealed to me. Same applies to their tweets; 

I like their tweets only when they make sense. 

Generally, I don’t like their posts on social media 

simply because they are celebrities. I like a post 

because I truly like a post”, said rising rapper, Chidiebere 

Kalu. 

Adaeze Obi, a Corper said for her to click ‘like’ on 

a post means that she really likes it. “If I don’t, I just 

look and move on. But there are times where the 

bias of the person who is having the post comes to 

play. You like a post because you know the person, 

or because you like the person,” she adds. 

While Uche Ukaegbu, writer, may like a celebrity’s 

picture or post because it either makes sense 

to her, it’s funny or the picture (dressing, make up and the 

likes) is truly beautiful, another fan, Ore Oluwatosin, caterer and CEO, 

Pearlfoodiez says it is just to get news. “Or probably if I’m satisfied by the 

caption of the story. Or the picture is appealing to me,” she added. 

Another factor that could generate lots of likes based on responses is 

“if the posts is fascinating, fine or of interest” to a fan. 

8 Tips for Living 

With Depression 

Nancy Schimelpfening 

1, Build a Support Network 

One of the most important things you 

can do to help yourself with depression—other 

than medication and therapy 

is to develop strong social support. For 

some, this may mean forging stronger ties 

with friends or family. Knowing you can 

count on supportive loved ones to help 

can go a long way toward improving your 

depression. 

2, Reduce Your Stress 

When you’re under stress, your body produces 

more of a hormone called cortisol. 

In the short-term, this is a good thing 

because it helps you gear up to cope with 

whatever is causing the stress in your life. 

3, Improve Your Sleep Hygiene 

Sleep and mood are intimately related. 

A 2014 study found that 80 percent of 

people with major depressive disorder 

experience sleep disturbances. 

But, you might feel like you just can’t fall 

asleep. Or perhaps you struggle to get out 

of bed because you feel exhausted all the 

time. 

4, Improve Your Eating Habits 

Research continues to find clear links 

between diet and mental health. In fact, 

there have been so many studies that 

have shown improving nutrition can 

prevent and treat mental illness that 

nutritional psychiatry has become mainstream. 

5, Learn How to Stop Negative Thoughts 

Depression doesn’t just make you feel bad, it can also cause you to think more 

negatively. Changing those negative thoughts, however, can improve your mood. 

6, Beat Procrastination 

The symptoms of depression, such as fatigue and difficulty concentrating, make 

procrastination tempting. But putting things off fuels depression. It can lead to 

increased guilt, worry, and stress. 

7, Get a Handle on Your Household Chores 

Depression can make it difficult to complete household chores, such as doing 

the dishes or paying bills. But a pile of paperwork, stack of dirty dishes, and floor 

covered in dirty clothes will only magnify your feelings of worthlessness. 

8, Create a Wellness Toolbox 

A wellness toolbox is a set of tools that you can use to help soothe yourself 

when you are feeling down. The tools you find most helpful might not work for 

someone else so it’s important to carefully consider what things can help you 

feel your best.

Introduction 

One of the ‘gifts’ that being a doctor 

has bestowed on me is the 

ability to spot health disorders in 

people I meet everywhere outside the 

hospital. Alopecia commonly known as 

hair loss, has become one of the commonest 

medical disorders in the society 

today that is easily recognizable even to 

the untrained eye. 

What is alopecia? 

It is the sudden or chronic abnormal loss 

of hair and can be precipitated by several 

hundred disease states or events. 

Loss of scalp hair is considered abnormal 

in many societies including Nigeria. 

Hair is perceived to be important for 

many reasons. It serves as a means for 

wealth display, beauty, desirability, 

social status, and youthfulness. 

With that perception comes the reality 

that millions of naira are spent annually 

for hair care and its perceived abnormalities. 

To help us better understand hair loss, 

I will classify it simply. 

Classification of hair loss 

Clinically, hair loss is classified into: 

1. Scarring: The hair follicle is destroyed 

leading to permanent hair loss 

and there is associated inflammation, 

shrinkage, and scarring of the scalp. 

2. Non-scarring: There is loss of hair 

without destruction of the hair follicle, 

no sign of tissue inflammation, scarring, 

or shrinkage of the skin of the scalp. 

Examples include Traction alopecia and 

Androgenetic alopecia. 

The hair loss could be generalised 

or localised, complete (affecting the 

whole scalp) or partial, patterned (like 

in Female pattern hair loss) or nonpatterned. 

CAUSES OF HAIR LOSS 

Non-scarring hair Loss 

Friday 17 August 2018 

Understanding hair loss 

Dr Agility U. Obi-Ihesie 

Ravishe Medical Skin & Haircare 

This is the commonest type of hair loss. Traction alopecia 

is caused primarily by unhealthy hair care practices. 

It results from cosmetic stress due to poor knowledge 

of hair type, poor styling (untrained stylist, tight styles 

[braids, weaves, ponytails, rollers], repetition of styles, 

etc). 

Prolonged traction alopecia can lead to scarring of the 

scalp and irreversible hair loss. 

Other causes of non-scarring hair loss include chemical 

damage from relaxers and dyes, pressure-induced 

traction (from repetitive use of tight-fitting wigs, 

scarves/ turbans, and Trichotillomania (neuromechanical 

alopecia). 

Telogen Effluvium is the rapid shedding of a large 

number of hairs throughout the scalp due to a variety 

of physical or mental stressors such as: Hormonal 

imbalances after childbirth, around menopause or 

hypo/ hyperthyroidism, physical stress from anaemia, 

surgery, systemic illness, and psychological stress. The 

precipitating event precedes the telogen effluvium by 

6 to 16 weeks and removal of inciting cause leads to 

resolution over the next few months as the number 

of hairs in telogen return to normal. 

Some anti-hypertensive drugs, anticoagulants, anticancer 

agents, Anti-epilepsy drugs, Beta blockers, 

Cholesterol-lowering drugs, and so on have been 

connected to hair loss. 

Systemic diseases like Systemic Lupus erythematosus, 

secondary syphilis, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and 

adrenal diseases can cause hair loss. 

Nutrient Deficiencies including Protein, Iron, Biotin, 

Zinc, Copper, Selenium, Iodine, Calcium, Essential 

Fatty Acids (Omega 3 & 6) and Vitamins (A, Bs, C, D, ) 

6 

BUSINESS DAY 

can trigger hair loss. 

Abnormal and imbalanced diets 

like Crash Diets, FAD Diets and Eating 

disorders (Anorexia nervosa, 

Bulimia) are also causes of hair loss. 

Androgenetic (female-pattern) 

alopecia is common in postmenopausal 

women who may develop 

a receding hairline. Acne, excess 

facial or body hair, male-pattern 

escutcheon, irregular menses may 

be present in younger women. 

Scarring Hair Loss 

CENTRAL CENTRIFUGAL CICATRI- 

CIAL ALOPECIA 

This is commoner in blacks than 

whites and presents as an area of 

slowly expanding scarring alopecia 

on the vertex or crown. It may 

be asymptomatic or accompanied 

by itching, tenderness, redness or 

pustules. Chemical or mechanical 

processing of the hair may play a 

role. It is a common cause of permanent 

hair loss. 

Management 

Healthy hair practices are advocated 

to prevent hair loss; incorporating 

the appropriate products, techniques 

and styling are beneficial. 

A healthy lifestyle including appropriate 

nutrition, regular health 

checks and stress management are 

encouraged. 

Hair loss may be a pointer to systemic 

illnesses and most cases of 

hair loss can be successfully managed 

with EARLY and AccURATE 

diagnosis. 

If within the first 2 weeks to 3 

months of hair loss, there is no 

regrowth after commencing selftreatment, 

seek professional help 

from a doctor or Trichologist to 

avoid permanent hair loss. 

It happened to me! I married a 

monster and I thought he was a man 

Eseosa PRincess 

It was NE who summarized my thoughts in a few words. I didn’t even know 

that it was what I’d been thinking, but the minute he said it, it hit straight 

home. “In 2016, I don’t know what is going on, if it’s more publicity or more 

women speaking out but our men are cowardly and weak and they are seriously 

misbehaving”. I agreed. But it was while lying down and watching TV with Jaden 

Lee sitting on my head (he loves to sit on my head; he probably thinks it’s his 

personal stool. Lol) did it occur to me that this was a man stating the obvious. Not 

making excuses, not justifying what cannot be justified and standing with them 

in confused solidarity. Men like these are not many, I tell you. I should know, it’s 

the first topic of discussion with male folks these days. 

When my marriage collapsed, that was when I realized that most women were 

suffering in silence. It was amazing how confident women became to share marital 

issues with me. It was strange. Now they can tell you the shocking truths about 

their marriage. Previously, when I complained, they’d tell me that all men were 

the same. I strongly disagreed; still do. Mind you, I did not say men were perfect 

but they were not all the same. There are good men and they are bad men. Wrong 

is wrong and right is right, simple! Then they would utter some vague words and 

unsolicited advice, majoring bordering on ‘bearing it’ and praying about it and 

telling you to work on yourself. I have little patience for that these days. I usually 

just shut it down firmly. I don’t have time for nonsense. No more. I took it for 2 

years. But no more. Hug me instead if you have nothing useful to say. 

The last time I took such utterances lightly was at Iponri Police station where I 

had gone to lay a complaint and ask for the arrest of Imoh. I remember the woman. 

Leaning lazily over the counter, she had this air of ‘I don’t care’ and threw condescending 

sideway looks at me while I complained to another officer behind the 

counter. I punctuated each complaint with tears. Imoh would have been shocked 

to see me cry. I never let him see me cry; I never gave him that satisfaction. I remained 

stoic through it all, defiant. I would break down and weep in the bathroom 

when he was done hitting me but never in front of him. It was not deliberate or a 

conscious action, I guess the essence of who I was refused to bow down to him 

or allow him break me. How he had hated that stoicism and dry eyes. Maybe I 

should have cried. Maybe that was my offence but I digress. 

After a particularly lengthy pause in which I sobbed while my friend held 

my uncharacteristically quiet baby, she suddenly said, “My dear, better go back 

and beg your husband. Tell him to forgive you and forget. You are too young for 

divorce o. You don’t know what you are saying. Go back and beg my friend. All 

you young girls sef!” I looked at Omos and she looked at me. I asked “Am I also 

not too young to die?” “Na you know that one. Go and beg him. You will not die”. 

I was shocked. I was stunned. I was speechless. Me, a hyper, talkative person just 

could not remember any sound. “Ehn? What? This is the reason men beat their 

wives! Is that what you’re telling me? You, a Police officer? How can you tell me 

that? For what?” I walked out of the station, shaking with anger and called the DPO. 

Hmmmmm! Imoh had been right. He had said “if you like, go to the Police. I 

will deny everything. Is it not money? Is it not money that the Police want? Bring 

them. Go and call the police. All my friends beat their wives; it’s not a big deal. The 

wives know not to do stuff that will get them a beating. It is not a new thing. Stupid 

woman”. If the Police ask you to go beg an abusive man, then what help is there 

really? A police woman for that matter! Even as I write, I am still surprised. What was I expecting though? Compassion 

or sympathy? Did I expect them to swoop to the house and arrest him? Did I expect them to hug me and ask if I was 

okay? Should they have asked to see my bruises and injuries; old and new? What exactly did I expect them to do? In 

all honesty, I don’t know. I have never been beaten before now so I don’t know what I should have expected. I don’t 

know what I expected them to do but I sure did not expect them to ask me to go beg a man who had just beaten me 

till I passed out and continued hitting me as I laid on the floor, still and unmoving. A man who after I was revived by 

a friend brought a wire and wanted to flog me? The police asked me to go and beg him. 

So yes! There’s a lot more publicity, thank God. There are a lot more women speaking out. A lot more people are 

involving themselves in issues like this, helping the woman and giving her a voice. In some cases, helping her find 

justice. For these, I am truly grateful. I am aware that a lot of women have died. I could have died actually. He told 

me he wanted to kill me; repeatedly and at different times! He’s squeezed my neck so hard I couldn’t breathe and 

had bruises round my neck. I thought I would when he shattered the glass window upstairs with my head and blood 

poured all over me and Jaden Lee whom I was carrying. He was just 4 months old then. He’d gotten angry that he’d 

been punching my head and that ‘it refused to break’. This my head! My head happily blocked and covered my precious 

infant son when it realised that some punches were falling on him too. Remembering Jaden’s screams and the 

blood all over him still brings tears to my eyes, even as I write this. Oh, my golden, precious boy, I am so sorry! But die, 

I did not. God knew the suffering that a motherless child passes through; I know because I am one. He loves Jaden 

Lee and I too much for that to happen. 

I am aware that a lot of women are suffering same, not exactly sure who to contact or what to do. I didn’t either. 

You are not supposed to talk about these things. You are expected to stay silent; don’t let people know your business 

or what goes on in your home. You are expected to pray. A lot. A lot of women who chose to exit these bondages 

and have found life to be hard and unyielding. Some being asked, “na me say make your husband dey beat you?’ A 

lot, begging for sustenance for themselves and their children (in cases where the children were not taken away from 

them). Too many! Sadly, too many! 

It happened to me! I married a monster and I thought he was a man.

8 

BUSINESS DAY Friday 24 August 2018 Women’s Hub 

Every student has a story to tell about their experience in 

the higher institution. Mine is still being written. Shade a 

friend of mine is one of those whose story was unending. 

Recently, she just fed me one of her stories back then in 

school. “On this faithful day” she said, something usual happened, 

but with an unusual consequence. I had a roommate 

then whose name is Bisi. I had always warned her about her 

temper, but she never gave heed to me. That Monday morning, 

we woke up late and rushed off to the lecture room, but on 

getting there, the lecturer slammed the door to our faces and 

decided to give the class a test. Bisi, who easily gave in to anger 

turned to me with a smirk on her face. “This is all your fault.” She 

said. “Really? My fault? I wasn’t the one who stayed up all night 

receiving long calls” I replied, “Just shut up. You woke up almost 

10 times to pee. That is enough to describe why I’m late and why 

I’m in this situation. You should have been out here alone.” I 

stared at her as she ranted. 

She was so mean when she was angry, but can be so sweet 

when she wants to. I had never seen such a bitter-sweet person 

in my whole life. We walked home, exchanging words, until 

someone collided with her. She didn’t wait to see who it was 

before she lashed at the person. “How many more stupid people 

are out there? Can’t you look while you walk? Even if you are 

blind, are you as well foolish not to hear voices? I stared at her 

in astonishment. She was insulting a strong member of a cult 

group. Who she realised who it was, she wasn’t even the least 

bit concerned. “Oga just watch it. Be careful next time”. “Do you 

know who you are talking to? He asked? “Honestly, I don’t care. 

I’m not afraid of anything and anyone. Besides I paid school fees 

just as you did. 

There is freedom of speech. No one can take that from me.” He 

threw his head back and laughed. “This is not the end little girl, 

watch your back.” I quickly said, “She is joking. She meant none 

of it.” “Shut up” he screamed at me. “You both should watch your 

back” he said leaving me gaping at his back. Wait; did he just say 

you both? We both? “I did nothing” I screamed, but he obviously 

couldn’t hear me. I turned furiously at my roommate, “Bisi, 

you can go ahead and look for trouble for all I care, get beaten, 

raped and all, I don’t care, but don’t drag me into it.” I was 

practically shaken by what just happened. I was trembling with 

fear and anger. “When those guys threaten you, they make sure 

they fulfil it. Be silly for all I care, but do not drag me into your 

messed up life.” I said and walked out on her. We didn’t speak to 

each other for 3 days. 

On the fourth night, I had a loud noise at the door. I heard a 

louder bang this time and that jerked me off the bed. I and my 

roommate stared at each other in fear. “Who is banging at the 

door” we both whispered to each other. The next bang jerked 

the door open. We looked at the faces of the guys, they weren’t 

masked. One of the faces was familiar and it struck me. The cult 

guys. They were here for revenge. The guy we ran into pointed his 

gun at me. In fear I said, “it’s not me ooo, it’s her.” Pointing to my 

roommate. Bisi in turn said, “it’s not me oo, it’s the devil.” This got 

the guys laughing. The guy she insulted wasn’t finding it funny. 

He pulled her hair, which made her yelp in pain. He slapped her 

hard on her face; the effect sent her sprawling on the ground. 

He went for her, hitting and kicking, while she screamed and 

Humans tend to 

learn the hard way 

Chinyere Okeke 

screamed until she had no strength left to scream. He came at me, as he did, I drew backwards. 

There was anger in his eyes. As he was about to hit me, one of the guys held his hands. “She did 

nothing. Let her be”. He said. I shook my head in affirmation, “yes, please I did nothing” he looked 

hatefully at me and said, “Well, show me your friend and I will tell you who you are. She is your 

friend, so you must be like her.” I said hurriedly, “no, she is not my friend, she is just my roommate, 

infact, she is just squatting. She will leave today.” He turned to Bisi’s direction. He turned her over 

her face was covered with blood. He reached for her skirt yanking it off her waist. “Wait, what was 

he about to do? He wasn’t going to rape her…was he?” I thought. He took off his belt and that sent 

me sprawling on the floor pleading. “Please, you can’t. The beating is enough. Please don’t.” He 

pointed his gun at me, “would you rather, I do it to you?” he asked “Please, No” I said. I turned to 

his friends to beg them. “Please don’t let him do it” I begged. The leader intervened saying, “let’s 

leave. She has learnt her lesson. The bad guy wasn’t about to give in. He said, “I brought you all 

here, this is my deal, so it will be done my way”. The leader pointed the gun at him, and he in turn 

pointed his gun at him. I could hear my heart race. “This wasn’t about to turn bloody Oh Lord” I 

prayed. The last guy quickly got into their middle. “Guys we didn’t come here to waste our lives.” 

let’s just get out of here. They all left. Leaving me shaken, my friend battered and my room in a 

complete mess. I ran to Bisi’s side. I looked at her with so much pity. 

She was beaten beyond recognition. “Just see where your bad mouth and bad temperament 

has landed you.” she moaned in agreement. She was in the hospital for days. When she was fully 

recovered, you could bet that there was a change in her attitude. People surely do like to learn the 

hard way. 

Eat smaller portions. After 

significant weight loss, 

your smaller body needs 

fewer calories to function. If 

you’ve gone back to eating the 

same amounts of food that you 

ate before you were dieting, 

you may need to cut down on 

your portion size. Once you hit 

your goal weight, you’re still 

going to have a lower metabolic 

rate. As a result, you’ll need to 

eat significantly less to avoid 

gaining weight. 

Check your protein consumption. 

When you move off 

a strict weight loss diet, you 

may not be getting enough protein. 

Having a lean protein such 

as chicken with every meal will 

help build muscle and you’ll 

feel full longer. Ideally, you 

want a diet that is low in fat and 

high in protein, particularly 

lean proteins. Make sure you 

eat breakfast every day, and 

include a good protein source 

such as eggs or yogurt in your 

breakfast. 

Start cooking at home. Many 

diets are based around preportioned 

frozen dinners that 

you heat up in the microwave. 

While they are convenient, 

eating microwaveable and 

pre-packaged meals can cause 

you to gain weight. Instead, the 

How to avoid regaining weight after weight loss 

majority of your meals should consist of whole 

foods, including lots of fruits and vegetables that 

you’ve prepared yourself. 

Adjust your eating schedule. When you’ve lost 

significant weight, you may find that you feel hungry 

all the time. Eating a smaller meal every two 

or three hours rather than eating only three big 

meals a day will keep you from getting too hungry. 

Remember that losing a significant amount of 

weight has caused the hormones that tell you 

when you’re hungry to plummet. Without their 

help, you’re going to think you’re hungry all 

the time – even though your body doesn’t need 

any more fuel. This can make you regain the 

weight you lost in a hurry. 

Avoid using food as a reward. If you were 

previously on a strict diet that required you to 

forego many of your favourite treats, reward- 

ing yourself with your favourite 

sugary snack can be tempting. 

However, these indulgences 

can contribute to weight gain. 

Be aware of what you eat. 

When you were on a strict 

diet, you may have watched 

what you eat like a hawk. Once 

you’ve met your goal, though, 

you may pay less attention, and 

mindless eating can contribute 

to weight loss. You might consider 

keeping a food journal. 

Writing down what you eat 

each day keeps you honest, as 

well as making all of your eating 

conscious – since you have 

to write it down. 

Do strength training to build 

muscle. If you were focused on 

losing weight, you may have 

neglected strength training because 

you were worried about 

building bulk. However, strong 

and healthy muscles will burn 

more calories and help you 

maintain your weight loss. Ideally, 

you want to dedicate two 

days per week to your upper 

body and another two days to 

your lower body, with days of 

rest in between. 

Culled from WikiHow

BusinessDay 24 Aug 2018

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