13072019 - Buhari on new cabinet: I’ll never appoint ‘strangers’ again

Sanwo-Olu, Abiodun, Enalamah,
others seek functional PPP
*AS PwC unveils companies to inspire Africa Report
Stories by Moses Nosike
Ogun State Governor,
Dr. Dapo Abiodun;
his Lagos state
counterpart, Babajide Sanwo-
Olu who was represented by
Mr Ope George, DG Lagos
State Public Private
Partnership Office; Immediate
Past Minister of Industry, Trade
and Investment,
Okechukukwu Enelamah;
Chief Executive of the Nigerian
Stock Exchange, Oscar
Onyema and West Africa
Regional Senior Partner, PwC
Nigeria, Uyi Akpata, recently
in Lagos took turn to canvass
the importance of functional
public private partnership
(PPP) in building a sustainable
economy.
The political and business
leaders spoke in Lagos at an
event organised to celebrate
‘the London Stock Exchange
Group (LSEG)’s Companies to
inspire Africa Report 2019 in
Lagos.
Others who emphasised the
importance of private businesses
especially small and medium
enterprises as growth catalysts for the
economy at the event were the
Deputy British High Commissioner to
Nigeria, Harriet Thompson, who
delivered a message from the UK
government; Executive Secretary/
Chief Executive Officer, Nigeria
Investment and Promotion
Commission, Yewande Sadiku;
Advisory partner/ Chief Executive,
PwC Nigeria, Dr. Andrew Nevin and
Director, Co-Head Emerging
Markets, International Market Unit,
LSEG, Ibukun Adebayo.
The speakers urged public and
private sector participants to find ways
to synergize their strengths to speed
up the country’s economic growth
and reduce poverty.
The report, which features 97
Nigerian companies out of the 360 on
the list, identifies and celebrates some
of Africa’s most inspiring growth
businesses. This research project was
carried out with the support of PwC,
the Africa Development Bank Group,
Asoko Insight, CDC Group and
Instinctif Partners.
According to the report, Nigeria has
Considering the role of women in families
and our society, a Nigerian entrepreneur,
lawyer and a season book writer, Orezi Saint
Emamezi has advised the government at all
levels to commence women empowerment in
the country as a matter of urgency to reduce
unemployment rate among Nigerian women.
Emamezi who has written many books with
the recent one Victoria stresses the need for
women empowerment as is practices in
advanced countries.
According to her, the easiest way to reduce
poverty in families and our society is to
properly empower women, saying that if you
empower a woman, you have empowered a
nation.
Continuing, she said that government can
help women through skill acquisition
programmes to ensure they become self relient
and that can also help them launch into large
scale businesses nationally and
internationally. “This can be done through
grants and all is geared towards creating
employment among women.”
Saint Emamezi who is presently studying her
LLM programme said that developing
entrepreneurship skills and reading culture
help any economy to grow and if Nigeria as a
nation will imbibe on this culture better for
the country.
Speaking on her passion for writing, as an
entrepreneur and lawyer, she said when she was
young, she loved reading books that were
inspiring, motivational such as Purple
Hibiscus by Chimamanda Adichie, and also
tell a good story. Emamezi confessed that the
book gave her initial inspiration to take
interest in writing, while her passion for writing
L-R: Femi Jacobs, Actor and Author; Gbubemi Fregene, Executive Chef and Owner of
Chef Fregz; Tricia Ikponmwonba, Lead Trainer, Business Lab Africa; Funke Bucknor,
CEO Zapphaire Events and Jimi Tewe, CEO, The Jimi Tewe company at the launch of
Business Lab Africa in Lagos.
the single largest representation with
97 companies featured, building on its
leading position established in the
previous report with strong
representation from the industry and
technology & telecom sectors. Nigerian
companies showed exceptional
growth rates with a CAGR of 47% in
revenue and average employee CAGR
of 23% over a three-year period.
Looking at the executive leadership
of the firms, 22% of the local
companies featured in the
documents are led by women.
Speaking on the report Akpata
said: “We are extremely honored to
partner once again with LSEG for
the Lagos launch of the second
edition of the “Companies to Inspire
Africa” report. It is particularly
worthy to note that Nigeria made a
strong showing in the report
demonstrating the strong
entrepreneurial drive and the
opportunities the Nigerian market
presents.
“Growing a private business can
be demanding and exhilarating.
Initiatives like this that celebrates
success stories does not only expose
the companies to greater
opportunities but also serves to
Empowering Nigerian women for self-reliance
encourage other entrepreneurs,
starting new businesses or scaling
existing ones in the region.
“We at PwC are committed to
supporting private businesses and
it’s been our pleasure to host and
celebrate these 97 companies here
in Lagos along with the other
partners on the project”
Commenting on the report, David
Schwimmer, CEO, LSEG, noted:
“London Stock Exchange Group’s
‘Companies to Inspire Africa’ report
showcases inspirational and
entrepreneurial businesses from
across the African continent,
representing a wide variety of
industries and countries. It is
particularly encouraging to see the
increasing influence of women in
leadership roles in these fast-growing
companies, playing a pivotal role in
shaping the future of African business.
“These high growth companies have
the potential to transform the African
economy and become tomorrow’s job
creators. At LSEG, we are committed
to helping companies realise that
potential and we are pleased to
highlight and celebrate the
company success stories behind one
of the world’s fastest growing
markets.”
is driven by the need to develop the Nigeria child
and make him or her responsible person in the
family and society.
On her book, “Victoria”, she said is her first
book which is a story of a young girl in her teens,
who faces life challenges right inside her family,
and her father is quite the lazy man, who does
nothing more than visit friends or sit at home
doing nothing while her troublesome mother
fights to make ends meet in her home. You will
have to read “Victoria” to find out what happened
to her and her family.
According to her the book is to inspire the
reader, particularly children within Victoria’s
age not to give up and to also know that they can
change their story if they believe. Stressing the
importance of reading culture in the country, she
agreed that one of the ways to improve the reading
culture in Nigeria is by introducing reading clubs
in the nursery, elementary and basic levels of
education. “Also there is the need for school
administrators to include reading classes in the
curriculum of education. The family too should
play a role in improving the reading culture of
the children; the parents can make out specific
time to read with their children daily”.
As part of her contribution to empower teens,
she initiated Elmore Christo kids club which she
said is a project she was inspired to establish for
the benefit of children in the age of three to
eighteen years of age. “It is my way of helping
kids find their purpose in life. I also established
it in the loving memory of my mother, Mrs. Ajiri
Pearl Emamezi. She always loved to take care of
children and invest in them as the women leader
in the Anglican Communion (Diocese of Western
Izon). So by establishing the Elmore Christo kids
club, I am continuing from where my mum left
off.
SATURDAY Vanguard, , JULY 13,2019—41
Triciabiz empowers entrepreneurs
with 100% online business training
With the aim of helping entrepreneurs in Africa succeed in business, an
online business school, Business Lab Africa, BLA, has been launched.
Set up Triciabiz, the school, which offers a new approach to learning, is
subscription-based and is geared towards providing quality content at a
price MSMEs can afford.
According to its management, not only is BLA easily accessible via mobile
or web, it also offers knowledge that is practical, qualitative and locally
relevant.
Courses on the BLA curriculum, management says, are taught by business
experts from around the world covering a wide range of business subject
areas including Marketing, Sales, Global Expansion, Business Structure
and Processes, Business Models and more.
Speaking on the operations of the platform, Lead Trainer, Tricia
Ikponmwonba said that BLA’s faculty consists of trainers with deep business
knowledge having consulted and trained for several fortune 100 companies
and taught a combined pool of over 1 million entrepreneurs through their
online and in-class courses/workshops. She revealed that the school has
trained over twenty thousand people in Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, United
States, United Kingdom and the UAE.
“At BLA, we are poised towards our simple goal; helping entrepreneurs
succeed in business. We have adapted a blended learning model where we
make use of several methods that simplifies the entire process.
“One of our methods is instructor learning which is achieved via recorded
videos addressing specific sub-topics under the subject area for the month,
live classes with experts to answer burning questions and “worksheets/
templates for guidance,” she said.
The school also uses peer-to-peer learning in its online community where
fellow learners can teach one another ideas that have worked for them and
build on the belief that to teach is to learn twice.
Aside deploying real business situations as case studies, Ikponmwonba
said that BLA boasts of other differentiating factors from other learning
platforms which includes using content that is curated with the African
market as the business operating factor
“We also have a support system consisting of community coaches who
are on ground to respond to any questions learners have which can be
communicated in the comment section of each lesson”.
NTS partners Interswitch, GTBank, FBN
Insurance, others to launch Moneybag.ng.
n indigenous technology
Afirm in Lagos, Nuture
Technology Service Limited has
launched Moneybag.ng, an online
savings platform that brings
convenience and transparency to
the way people save.
A management source said that
the product was described as an
innovation and is set to gain
popularity among Nigerians
based on its expected high uptake.
According to the Chief
Executive Officer, Nuture
Technology, Mr Uchenna Okezie,
saving is an activity that is crucial
to the financial independence of
any individual and with
Moneybag.ng, we have created a
customised savings solution that
is flexible, useful for everyday and
transparent for comprehension.
“Moneybag.ng is an online
financial services platform that
can be used by anyone regardless
of age or profession with features
such as savings, investments
(“Baglocker” which helps you
lock away funds for a set period
with 9-13.5% per annum interest)
and loans. It also has a lifestyle
feature known as “Cliquebag”
designed to help friends save
together.
In addition, Chief Operating
officer of the company, Mr. Lanre
Fadayomi made it clear that low
inclusivity and limited userfriendly
financial service options
were identified as the main
difficulties people found it hard
to save and this was a critical
motivating factor when Nuture
Technology decided to create an
easy way people could save
regardless of their age,
background or qualification.
He said, “Majority of what we
do is transaction-based, so it
required us to be customer centric
with the types of savings plans
Moneybag.ng offers. We also had
to focus on a user experience that
was easy to understand and
interact with the needs of our
customers while looking for ways
to help customers better
appreciate the product.
Winner of Big Brother Nigeria
2018 Housemate, Omololu
Somuyiwa is the brand
ambassador of Monybag.ng.
CSR: Beltij constructs wall fence,
donates food items to Police, Prison
As part of its contribution to humanitarian intervention
in support to providing adequate securities in Nigerian
communities, Beltij Limited, a gold mining company has
constructed a wall fence for Ilesha Police station in Osun
State.
The company also donated about 300 bags of Rice to the
Police division and Ilesha Prison in furtherance of its pledges
to Corperate Social Responsibility (CSR) to Communities
in Nigeria.
Chief Executive Officer of Beltij, Mr. Tijani Remilekun
Usman, said, “it was the company’s desire to help in
uplifting the welfare of the security agencies in the nation”.
Usman reaffirmed that the need for urgent construction of
the wall fence around the Police station came after the Offa
Police Station robbery incident last year in Kwara State where
Police men were killed and guns stolen.
He argued that the police force should stand out as one
that will enjoy a lot of goodwill and support by both
individuals and corporate organisations in the face of
inadequate resources.
He maintained that the various CSR initiatives of
organisations and community development associations will
remain a great help to boost the welfare of security agencies
in the country.
According to him, if you take a look at this to a large extent,
this kind of donations and CSR initiatives of Beltij Limited,
will make a big difference in providing the needed conducive
environment for policemen within their base of operations.”
Usman stressed that in as much as the funding of the
Nigeria Police in the country remains inadequate and
inconsistent, the CSR initiatives of companies would
continue to be important to assist the Federal Government
in funding the securities.