financial vanguard 27042015

CMYK

APRIL 27, 2015

BY BABAJIDE KOMOLAFE,ADERONKE ADEYERI, TUNDEOJO, OLACHI USUWA

Bank customers are dividedover the reduction in theamount of foreign exchange

that can be accessed for overseastransactions through Naira debit/credit cards.

Two weeks ago, the Central Bank ofNigeria (CBN) reduced the limit onNaira debit card for overseastransactions to $50,000 per person perannum from $150,000. It also reducedthe limit for daily withdrawal to $300per day from $1,200 per day. Thereduction is on Naira denominatedMasterCard or Visa Card, linked tobank accounts in Nigeria.

A cross section of bank customerswho spoke to Financial Vanguard onthe policy were however divided onthe necessity and impact of the policyon the economy. While some criticisedthe reduction, saying it would hurttheir businesses, others commendedthe reduction, saying it would helpcurb wastage of foreign exchange andcorruption.

Criticising the new limit, Mr.Chiedu Igwe, an importer said, “Theidea of reducing the debit card limitto $50,000 per person per annum isdiscomforting. I travel out often to getitems for my trade and that aside; Ispend money on vacations using aNaira debit card. So with this newlimit on debit card, how am I going tokeep up with my business andpersonal foreign exchange needswhile I am overseas? I wish theimplementation of the policy could bere-adjusted if possible to helpbusinessmen like me.

Another businessman, “Mr. Lekanof LakeSide Clothing said, “I am notcomfortable with the reduction,because I travel overseas to purchasemost of what I sell in my stores. Imake use of my debit card forshopping whenever I travel abroad,and I travel more than once in a year.So this new limit will disrupt mybusiness plans.”

Corroborating these views, Mr.Umaru Hassan, a customer ofDiamond Bank, Apapa, said that thereduction in limit is not good forbusiness people, as most of themalways travel abroad to purchase

Banks commence implementation

CONFERENCE - From Left, Senior Adviser on Public -Private Partnership to Oyo State Government, Folake Akinleye,Managing Director, Bank of Industry, Rasheed Olaoluwa, Deputy Governor, Oyo State, Otunba Moses Adeyemo andExecutive Director, Small and Medium Enterprises, Bank of Industry, Waheed Olagunju at the Commissioning ofZonal Office, Bank of Industry in Ibadan.

goods and conduct other businessrelated activities that involves the useof money. “The idea of reducing thelimit to $50,000 per person, per annumis an indirect way of reducing theirability to do business”, he said, addingthat the CBN should reverse thepolicy.

On the contrary, veteran producer,director and actor, Prince Jide Kosokocommended the reduction, saying itwould help curb the outrageousspending of many Nigerians. He said,“CBN has brought up the policy toredeem the value of the Naira. I know

this will not go well with someNigerians but the CBN has the powerto do it. Many Nigerians travel abroadand spend their annual savingswithin one month in the name ofholidays”.

Similarly, actress Ronke Ojo,commended the reduction saying it isanother means of eradicatingcorruption. “It is obvious thatelectronic banking has generatedsome hiccups in the economy.However, the policy is a means to curbour excesses and eradicate corruptionin the country,” she said.

According to Mr. Harrison Owoh,Chief Executive Officer, H.J TrustBureau De Change, “The reductionin limit would minimise the variousabuses associated with the use ofNaira debit card overseas, like roundtripping. He noted that some peopleuse the card to withdraw dollarsabroad at cheaper exchange rate, andthen import the dollars and exchangethem at higher exchange rate.

Banks commence implementationMeanwhile, banks have

commenced implementation of thereduction in limit on Naira debit card

Continues on page 22

Mixed reactions traillimit on debit cards

CMYK

22 — Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2015

Economy

Continues from page 22

for overseas transactions byinforming their customersabout the new limits

For example, GTBank in anemail message to itscustomers said, “We write toinform you of the CentralBank of Nigeria’s (CBN)decision to reduce the Foreignexchange spending limit onNaira MasterCard from$150,000 to $50,000 perannum.

This means that you canspend up to $50,000 in a yearusing your GTBank NairaMasterCard when abroad(shopping online at foreignstores, ATMs and POS). Inaddition, the daily cashwithdrawal limit for the NairaMasterCard has also beenreduced to $300 per day.Please see below the newlimits for both spending usingyour Naira MasterCard andcash withdrawal abroad”.

Similarly, First CityMonument Bank (FCMB),informed its customers via anemail message saying, “DearCustomer, the new foreignexchange spending limits onyour FCMB card is shownbelow. This means that whenyou are abroad, you can onlyspend up to $50,000 or itsequivalent annually(shopping online at foreignstores, ATMs and POS). Inaddition, the daily cashwithdrawal limit for FCMBcards have also been reducedto $300 or its equivalent perday.”

Limit not applicable toDomiciliary Accounts

Meanwhile, there areindications that the reductionin limit is beingmisinterpreted to include useof Naira debit cards for localtransactions and, also debitcards linked to Domiciliaryaccounts.

Indications to this effectemerged from a circularissued by the CBN, Directorof Trade and ExchangeDepartment, Mr. OlalekanGbadamosi. The circular titled,“Clarification on Circular ofApril 13, 2015. Re: Usage ofNaira Denominated CardsOverseas, stated, “It has beenobserved that some sections ofthe public are giving differentinterpretations to the recentcircular on the usage of Nairadebit denominated debit cardsoverseas. It has thereforebecome necessary to providethe following clarifications:

For the avoidance of doubt,the circular refers to nairadenominated cards (debit andcredit) to be used overseas only.Debit/Credit cards used locallyare not affected by this circular.Debit/Credit cards linked tocustomers' DomiciliaryAccount to be used overseas arenot also affected. Authoriseddealers are to take note andbring this to the attention oftheir respective customers.”

CONFERENCE - From left: Manaing Director, SKG Pharma, Mr. Okey Akpa; Director, EnterpriseDevelopment Centre, PAN African University Lagos, Mr. Peter Bankole; and General Manager,SKG Pharma, Mrs. Pat Iloba, during the company's Trade Partners' conference in Lagos onThursday.

Mixed reactions trail limit ondebit cards

35 ships laden with fuel, otherproducts, berth in Lagos

Thirty-five ships areexpected to arrive in

Lagos Ports with fooditems, petroleum productsand other goods from lastweek Thursday to May 10,according to the NigerianPorts Authority (NPA). TheNPA said in Lagos that theships would sail in withgeneral cargo, palmoilein, bulk, sugar,ethanol, bulk gypsum,bulk wheat, bulk fertiliser,bulk rice, second-handvehicles, petrol and fresh

fish. It said five ships laden withrice, crude palm oilein and bulkmalt had already arrived at theports waiting to berth. The NPAalso indicated that nine otherships had sailed in with petrol.

“Five more ships carrying baseoil, kerosene, aviation fuel anddiesel are also waiting to berth.Another 25 ships are currentlyat the ports, discharging crudepalm oilein, bulk rice, buckwheat, general cargo,containers, bulk sugar, bulkgypsum, petrol, bulk gas andkerosene,” it said.

Deutsche Bank fined record $2.5 billion inrate rigging inquiry

U.S. and Britishregulators fined

Deutsche Bank $2.5 billionand its British subsidiarypleaded guilty to criminalwire fraud as it became theeighth financial group tosettle allegations of rigginginterest rate benchmarks.

The record penalty in aseven-year investigation thathas shredded the bankingindustry’s reputation takesthe total fines imposed onsome of the world’s topfinancial institutions to morethan $8.5 billion. Twenty-one

traders and brokers facecriminal charges.

U.S. regulators finedGermany ’s largest bank$2.175 billion and Britishwatchdogs imposed a 227million pound ($341 million)penalty for its role in a scamto manipulate the LondonInterbank Offered Rate(Libor) and its Euribor cousin- together benchmarks forhundreds of trillions of dollarsof financial products andloans worldwide.

Britain’s Financial ConductAuthority (FCA) said the

misconduct involved at least29 Deutsche Bankindividuals includingmanagers, traders andsubmitters based mainly inLondon but also in Frankfurt,Tokyo and New York.

It accused Deutsche Bankof inadequate systems andcontrols, failing to providetimely, accurate informationand misleading the UKwatchdog by claiming itsGerman regulator BaFin hadprevented it from sharing areport, when this wasuntrue.

Promasidor delighted withentries for 2015 QuillAwards

Promasidor NigeriaLimited, makers of

Cowbell, Loya, Toptea andOnga and, promoters ofthe prestigious QuillAwards in Nigeria, hasexpressed delight at thenumber and quality ofentries submitted so far forthis year’s edition of theawards.

In an interview in Lagos,the company’s Head ofLegal and PublicRelations, Mr. AndrewEnahoro, disclosed thatwith barely a week left forthe entries to close,journalists working withnational and regionalnewspapers in the countryare still rushing in theirentries on a daily basis.

He noted that the trendof the entries received anduploaded since January 29

2015, when the call for entriesopened shows that journalistshave keen interest in the sevenaward categories which areBrand Advocate of the year;CSR/Industry Report of theyear; Best Photo story of theyear; Best Report on Nutrition;Best Report on Children;Education Reporter of the year;and Future Writer of the year.

Enahoro said: “For each of thecategories, a winner willemerge. Winners from each ofthe categories with the exceptionof the winner of the Best PhotoStory of the Year will be givenhigh-end laptops while thewinner of the Best Photo Storyof the Year will be given a high-end camera. The overall winnerof all categories will proceed ona four-week certificate course inJournalism at the highlyacclaimed ThompsonFoundation in the U.K.

British Airways offerssummer discountsBritish Airways has

announced discountsfor the coming summerfares in its Club World,World Traveller and WorldTraveller Plus to a range ofworldwide destinationsfrom Lagos and Abuja,Nigeria. The discountsapply to all existing andpotential customers ofBritish Airways, who wantto get great deals on flightsto the United Kingdom,Europe or North Americawhen booked from 16thApril to 15th May, 2015 andfor outbound travel from16th April to 30thNovember, 2015.

With this offer, WorldTraveller customers can flyto Europe from $257 and toNorth America from $541.Customers on the World

Traveller Plus however can flywith $1,585 to North Americaand those on the Club World canfly from $3,599.

Commenting on thediscounts, British Airways,Regional Commercial Manager,West Africa, Kola Olayinka, saidthe latest offer was in line withthe company’s desire to offergreat deals to customers desirousof spending as well ascelebrating with their familymembers and friends abroadduring the summer period.

Olayinka added, “We arealways determined to offer ourcustomers good value for theirmoney and continuously supportthem with amazing discounts,especially during the summer,when most of them will betravelling outside the country tosee their loved ones.”

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2015 — 23

Economy

CMYK

APCON to support creativity initiatives

The AdvertisingP r a c t i t i o n e r sCouncil of Nigeria

(APCON) has pledged tocontinue to support creativeinitiatives in the advertisingindustry in order toencourage talented youngindividuals. APCONRegistrar, Mr Garba Kankarofi,told the News Agency ofNigeria (NAN) in Lagos thatthe council would also supportinstitutions where advertisingpractitioners work.

“We have so many talented

youths and individuals in theindustry that need to beencouraged to bring out thebest in them. The advertising

industry is a creativeindustry that requiresvisions, ideas, concepts andtalents to carry out their

works, “ Kankarofi said. Theregistrar said that thecouncil hosted a MassCommunication student of

the University of Lagos, MissSimileOluwa Fayombo, threeweeks ago.

“The student is the awardwinner of Roger HatchuelAcademy based in the UnitedKingdom. The competitionwas organised among masscommunication students invarious institutions within andoutside Nigeria. We in APCONare proud of such a winnerfrom Nigeria and I am indeedsure that Nigeria will also beproud of her, “ he said.Kankarofi said that APCONwould not relent in supportingany individual, group andinstitutions that would makethe industry to flourish.

Gemalto launches software to protect bankcustomers from online fraud

Gemalto, a digital securityfirm launched its newly

integrated transactionmonitoring software, the EzioDynamic Fraud Manager,which is used to track fraud

related bank transactions.The company, in a statement,said that the new software hadthe capacity to protect bankcustomers from fraud and givethem a unique user

experience.“The Ezio Dynamic Fraud

Manager enables real-timecalculation of the actual riskof individual onlinetransactions.

To ensure that Nigeria’sgrowth can be wide,inclusive and

sustained, the incomingMuhammadu Buhariadministration must focus onbuilding infrastructure,institutions and people.Nigeria has big infrastructuregaps, which represented hugecosts to businesses and topeople. Over the past threedecades, per capita output ofelectricity in Nigeriaremained virtually flat. Only16 per cent of all roads arepaved, compared with 58 percent in South Asia. Theinvestment needs to addressthis is in the region of billionsof dollars.

Good enough, Buharirealises that Nigeria needs toimprove governance,transparency and createsound economic frameworksfor growth which is buildinginstitutions. Buildinginstitutions rather thanindividual office holders bythe government, would ensurethat revenues and benefitsfrom mineral resources couldbe better captured for nationalbudgets and generating morejobs. Nigeria needs to buildpeople to reap the dividendsof its rapid population growth.An increase by even onepercentage point in theworking age population couldboost GDP growth by half apercentage point. For this tohappen, however, good jobsneed to be created in theprivate sector.

Today, only one in fivepeople in Nigeria finds workin the formal sector. This mustchange. With wider access toquality education, healthcareand infrastructure services,Nigeria can change all of that.

Buhari does not need amagic wand to achieve this.In the nation’s archive arevolumes of developmentplans that long charted a pathtowards these lofty economicgoals or ideals.

The nation’s set objectives inthe third National

What Buhari must do to moveeconomy forward (2)

development plan are whatNigerians are clamouring fortoday.

The plan had envisagedincrease in real income of theaverage Nigerian; evendistribution of income amongindividuals and socialeconomic groups in thecountry; reduction in the levelof unemployment; increase inthe supply ofhigh levelm a n p o w e r ;reduction oft h edependence ofthe economyon a narrowrange ofa c t i v i t i e s ;b a l a n c e ddevelopment –t h eachievement ofbetter balancein the development of thedifferent sectors of theeconomy and variousgeographical areas of thecountry; increasedparticipation by Nigerians inthe ownership andmanagement of the productiveenterprises; greater self-reliance, that is increaseddependence on internalresources in seeking toachieve the variousobjectives of society.

What is required of theBuhari administration isincreased efforts to achieveoptimum utilisation ofNigeria’s human and materialresources; development of

technology; reduction inrural-urban migration; thepromotion of a new nationalorientation conducive togreater discipline, betterattitude to work and cleanerenvironment.

The main economic thrust ofthe Buhari administrationshould be in the direction ofincreased self-reliance and

considerable reduction ofNigeria’s continueddependence on the externalsector in general and thePetroleum sector in particular.If Buhari pursues theseobjectives rigorously, Nigeriawould no longer be playing acatch up game in the globaleconomy.

Buhari needs to returnNigeria to its roots, plans,strategies and push tobecome relevant in the eyesof other nations. This willrequire greater sacrifices ashe has told his politicalfriends and foes especially interms of establishedconsumption habits if

resources are to be freed forpressing development needs.There will be no room forsubsidy. It must free resourcesfor development. This strategywill demand a greater spirit ofinnovation, hard work, andgreater utilisation of domesticresources and in particular, theinvolvement of the massesespecially at the local level in

perceived as fairly deliveringbasic services to all Nigeriansrather than prioritising itsown constituency.Moreover, Buhari will haveto be inclusive and avoid thepitfall that many Africancountries still suffer - that ofpolitical rather than merit-based appointment togovernment positions thatrequire technical skills. Aqualified and dedicatedcabinet will have to beestablished if the social,economic and politicalchallenges of Nigeria are to beaddressed and eventuallyeradicated.

Although the Nigerianeconomy seems to be growing,the economic growth benefitshave failed to trickle down tothe larger population. Arecent study points out thatconsidering Nigeria's incomeper capita only, nothing haschanged since 1970.Nevertheless, the country hasbecome much richer thanks tothe exploitation of its oilresources. Thus, despitebeing the biggest economy inAfrica, Nigeria ranks 160 outof 177 countries on the scaleof the Human DevelopmentIndex (HDI). The wealthremains concentrated within afew individuals, most of whomhave strong politicalconnections. This has tochange and that is the realchange Nigerians areyearning for.

the developmentprocess.

Buhari must make aconscious effort tomobilise the Nigerianmasses for theimplementation of thenew Nigeria vision. IfChina couldsuccessfully mobiliseits populace to achievethe second largesteconomy position outof obscurity, yes,Nigeria can. Nigeria

and China have certain thingsin common, a growingpopulation, an emergingmiddle class that constitutesa huge market for industrialproducts and a huge landmass. Yes, Nigeria can moveinto the league of topeconomies of the world. Allthat Nigeria needs is aneffective leadership. LikePeter Drucker said: “Effectiveleadership is not about makingspeeches or being liked;leadership is defined byresults not attributes.

For Nigeria to succeed inthis regard, the newgovernment must be

Buhari needs to returnNigeria to its roots, plans,

strategies and push tobecome relevant in the eyes

of other nations; this willrequire greater sacrifices as

he has told his politicalfriends and foes


CMYK

Business & Economy

Mark OkpanachiOgah

“Buhari`s victory will boostinvestors' confidence inNigeria. In the last 16 years,the Nigerian government hasbeen ruled by highly corruptpeople in office, but with theemergence of Buhari and hiszero-tolerance for corruption,our institutions will bestrengthened.

Because Buhari is assertive,strong-willed and above all,experienced, which is themother of all lessons, there willbe very minimal if any negativeinfluence or any form ofGodfatherism, which has beena bane in the Nigerian politicalcircle.”

Glenn Davies,Singapore:

Mr. Buhari’s election is agame changer for

Nigeria and for Africa as awhole. The very nature of howthis election was won shines apositive light on Africa’s largesteconomy and sends a clearsignal to the rest of thecontinent. Not only does theelection mark the first time anincumbent president has lost are-election in Nigeria, but it hasdone so without violence,although this still remains ahigh risk. This is a great startto what I believe will beNigeria’s turning pointmoving forward.

Buhari stands for change andthis is exactly what Nigerianeeds. Nigeria’s growth hasbeen impressive to watch anda prodigious place to dobusiness over the pastfew years. More recentlythough, this growth has slowedand the country marred byharrowing violence and the riseof extremist insurgents. MrBuhari will need some ‘quickwins’ to settle the country'snerves and prove why he waselected. First priority on thecards will be to carefully andstrategically choose his team -this will be key to his success. Then shortly after look toaddress the main issuesheadlining being Security anddefeating BokoHaram, addressing falling Oilprices - countering this withnew positive stimulatingmeasures, and of course,commencing the arduousand incredibly challengingprocess of ridding the countryof corruption. I feel Mr Buharican then focus on some morepositive key initiatives such asbetter infrastructure, industrydiversification and creatingnew jobs and opportunities.

There’s no doubt that Mr

Africa CEO Forum: What does the election of MuhammaduBuhari mean for doing business in Nigeria?

Buhari’s success will havegiven Nigeria new credibilityon the African andinternational stage. This willtranslate into heightenedinterest fromneighbouring countries and international allies keen to workwith Nigeria, and willbe extremely positive for theeconomy overall.

But it won’t be an easy road -monumental challenges lieahead. I don’t think Mr Buharin e e d sto overcomplicate thingsthough to make a realdifference in Nigeria. If hesimply only focused on twoissues - Security andCorruption - he will go downin the history books andNigeria will overnight be abetter place. Getting these tworight will rev up the economyand let the world know Nigeriais open for business.

Glenn Davies is Group CEOof Inigmah

Leopold Ebegbuna

Leopold Ebegbuna: "I seeMuhammadu Buhari

struggling to redress Nigeria’smajor challenges. ThePresident-elect promised anend to the Boko Haraminsurgency that has killedthousands of Nigerians andforced over a million to become

Internally Displaced Persons,IDPs. He campaigned on areputation as an anti-corruptioncrusader, and made populistpledges such as stipends forpoor people and health care forall, etc.

The reality is that by the time

etc.Fulfilling his election promise

of change will be herculeanespecially starting with thosewho sponsored and supportedhis election within his party.My concern is that his abilityto deal with these individuals,who are perceived to becorrupt, will determine hissuccess at the macro level.

Besides, at 72 years, largelynot cerebral, and largely out oftune with the principles ofmodern day economic indicesand technology, I see himstruggling to redress Nigeria’smajor challenges. He is likelyto be overwhelmed by themleading to slowing down in theprocesses and in somecircumstances, abdicatingresponsibilities. Yes, Buharimay be pious, it remains to beseen his capability for curingNigeria’s challenges especiallycorruption and insecurity. Heis not likely to have theresources to fully execute hiscampaign promises ofuniversal health care, monthly$25 payments to vulnerablepeople and defeating BokoHaram, etc. With the oilaccounting for over 70% of totalrevenue, now around $50 perbarrel, he will battle withincreasing tax, improving thecurrency, the external reserve,etc. The result is likely to besome form of austerity - bigsocial spending programmes,such as universal health care,may have to wait, the task ofrebuilding the northeast,crucial to putting an end toBoko Haram, may be difficult.If he can reduce the wage billof politicians and civil servants,who alone account for the hugerecurrent expenditure, he willremain very popular among themasses.

Leopold Ebegbuna is MD/CEO of Rising Light GlobalCompany

Prince A. OlumuyiwaLatunde,

I campaigned and voted fora candidate with a good

pedigree in the person of Gen.Buhari. I’m glad this changehas finally come and withoutsounding too spiritual, Godhas a purpose in this and it’smy prayer that we, asNigerians will not miss itagain. His election marks a newbeginning and turning pointfor so many things, notablyaddressing the issue of stealingpublic funds with impunity andreducing waste across theboard. This must stop.

Buhari is a true Nigerian, aleader of repute; leadershipcorrects many things becauseof its features such as

prudence, integrity, boldness,calmness, good decision-making because of goodlistening, religious and mosttimes, they don’t come withtoo many words but actions.Our new President is notlacking in any of thesequalities. We haveexperienced him in “Khaki”and now “Babariga.” Heshould be a rallying point tounite Nigeria and get everyonecommitted. God bless the lateDora Akunyili, it’s time to havea genuine rebranding.

Once again, in the comity ofAfrican Nations, Nigeria willtake her place and set a goodexample for others to follow;build infrastructure andgenuine base that justifies thelargest economy in Africathrough aggressive production,mechanized farming anddeveloping human capital likeIndia that will measure up toany job in this global villageinstead of drugs and internetfraud.

Prince A. OlumuyiwaLatunde, President,Emilaug Energy

Andrew Diack, SouthAfrica

It is saddening that we asAfricans celebrate a

peaceful transition which in thisday and age, should be thenorm. In a positive light, greatprogress was made andhopefully indicates a brighterfuture. A major concern is BokoHaram and hopefully will bedealt with decisively.

I’m not that informed of thenew incoming president(Muhammadu Buhari). Whatare his aspirations/goals forNigeria and the region? Is hesomeone of honour/integritywho is committed to makingthe transition? What supportdoes he have from hisministers and are they capableof delivering? These are allquestions I currently don’thave a viewpoint on. As for medoing business in Nigeria, thatis my goal. About time westarted utilising our resourcesto make this continent thepower house it should be.”

Andrew Diack,Founding Member,Cyber Logistics

Culled from Africa BusinessPanel with over 14,000members. This is thelargest Online B2BMarket Research Panel inAfrica. Membersare guaranteed a largeamount of privileges. Ona regular basis, weconsult African CEOsabout their views onbusiness.

Mark Okpanachi

•Glenn Davies

•Leopold Ebegbuna

•Andrew Diack,

Buhari takes office at the endof May, he’ll inherit a treasurydepleted by the global drop inthe price of oil, Nigeria’sbiggest export, he will be leftto figure out how to put an endto Boko Haram insurgency,the IDPs, fighting theentrenched corrupt practiceswhich had flourished for years,

He will battle withincreasing tax,improving thecurrency, theexternal reserve,etc. The result islikely to be someform of austerity -big social spendingprogrammes, suchas universal healthcare, may have towait


Business & Economy

Seplat PetroleumD e v e l o p m e n t

Company Plc, FBN Capitaland London Stock Exchange, LSE alongside aconsortium of other Nigerianbanks have struck a $1.4billion seven years securedterm facility acquisition deal.

The new facility, alongsidea new US$300 million threeyear secured revolvingcredit facility providedconcurrently byinternational banks,refinanced Seplat’s existing

NIPC boss blames protest on directors,insists on change

BY FAVOUR NNABUGWU

The change processsweeping through theNigerian Investment

Promotion Commission(NIPC) may not have gonedown well with some directorsof the Commission whomwere alleged to haveinstigated the recent protestagainst the ExecutiveManagement of the agency.NIPC’s Executive Secretary,Mrs. Saratu Umar toldJournalists at a press briefingin Abuja Wednesday, thatsome key directors of theCommission that are not intune with her change process,are fomenting trouble in theoffice so they can cover uptheir activities in the company.

She said that some directorswere indicted by theCommission’s audit of itsaccount books and want tofrustrate her effort at all costin order to prevent beingexposed and prosecuted.

She told the Media that thefindings of the audit findingsrevealed that several millionof naira were misused by thedirectors who spurred the staffto kick against her.

She however deniedspending or contracting heroffice furniture which theprotesters alleged gulped overN30 million, adding that heroffice is still as it was whenshe assumed office

According to her “My officeis still the way I met it when Iassumed duty; I have notchanged anything. Anybodycan walk in and see forhimself. I felt there werepressing issues that neededattention, so I did not spendany N35 million furnishingmy office. That you canconfirm. Repositioning theagency for optimal servicedelivery is my top priority butthose who are used to the oldways of doing things are theones misinforming the staff.”

She also denied issuingqueries to staff, stating that itis not her responsibility to dothat whilst the Director ofAdministration is there to seeto that.

She explained that some ofthe staff members allegedlyqueried by the director incharge of Human Resources,Mr Mutawali Kukawa, wereactually those found to beperpetual late comers,pointing out that nomanagement would condoneany act of indiscipline by itsworkers.

Though, she admitted errorsin the queries issued as somestaff that had proceeded on

leave were also not spared.“The Director, Human

Resources, told me that it wasjust a memo he issued seekingexplanation on why theaffected staff should come towork late or even absentthemselves from work for days.But I pointed out to him thatthose on leave were alsoincluded, which should not beso because they have genuinereasons for being away, so itis unfair to punish them and Iasked him to go and correctthat”

“On the issue of query, I saidthey needed to make it more

explicit, that it was not a querybut memo, because we aretrying to avoid them thinkingit was a query becausesomebody will ask, if it was aquery why am I withdrawingit? But today, we wereexpecting to conclude thematter, only to come and findthe gate locked, and that tellsme that the indicted directorsare bent on causing problemsbecause the issues raised havebeen exhaustivelyaddressed.”

Umar further explained thatthe Director was working toredress that when the protest

started. “I can understand theagitation of the staff, becausethe message was wronglyconveyed; there was acommunication gap whichthe indicted directorsexploited”.

Umar further debunked theallegation that she issuedover 150 queries to staff, andthat about 600 files werelying on her table unattendedto since November 2014 notuntil she got hint of theprotest before she shed offsome of the files on her table.

Seplat , FBN Capital, others close $1.4bnloan facility

BY PRINCEWILLEKWUJURU

debt portfolio to ensure arobust capital structure andstrategically position theCompany for future oil andgas acquisition opportunitiesin Nigeria.

Commenting on thetransaction, Austin Avuru,Chief Executive Officer ofSeplat, noted “We are pleasedto have extended our bankingrelationships with severalexisting and new lenders,both Nigerian andinternational. This successfulre-financing, whichcommenced several monthsago, significantly enhancesour already robust capitalstructure and underscores thequality of our asset base”.

Kayode Akinkugbe,Managing Director of FBNCapital Limited said: “FBNCapital is very proud of theinstrumental role it playedin assisting Seplat tostructure the local financingto optimize its capitalstructure”. He went furtherto state that the FBNHoldings Group isdelighted to assist thegrowth of indigenous oil &gas companies within thesector and will continue todeploy its extensive debtarranging experience andstructuring expertise inexecuting complex androbust transactions in recordtime”.

Itua PackintroducesGerman fluxpumptechnology toNigeria

I tua Pack Limited, apioneer of product

processing and packagingtechnology industry in Nigeriahas introduced German fluxpump technology into thecountry.

Flux is a world renownedbrand for the higheststandards in pumptechnology. It all started in1950 when the Germancompany first manufacturedelectric barrel pumpsaccording to its own designsand patents. Continuallyincreasing customer demandsstimulate the company policyof ongoing development ofnew, high quality pumps tomeet various market needs.

Today FLUX-GERATEGMBH offers a wide range ofproducts which can beconfigured individually. Forinstance Flux pumps are usedin the chemical andpharmaceutical industry, inmachine and plantconstruction and in electro-plating companies, in sewagetreatment plants and in thefood industry. Whether as astand-alone or a systemsolution, Flux quality meanslong useful life, excellenteconomic efficiency and amaximum of safety.

According to the ServiceEngineer of the company Mr.Akinyemi Awodele each ofthese products has its specificfunctions, which heenumerated thus: Mixers –offers a complete range ofmixers for agitating, mixing,dissolving, stirring anddiluting low to mediumviscosity liquids. The completerange of mixers is based on amodular design, allowing theuser to select the individualcomponent part to meet itsspecific requirement; FlowMeters – maximummeasurement accuracy, ensureabsolute safety, control andreliability in liquid handlingbe it manual, automatic orcomputerized dispensingoperation of different liquids;Vertical Centrifugal ImmersionPumps – with high deliveryrates centrifugal immersionpumps combine maximumefficiency with a robust andreliable construction, resultingin a pump that provides theultimate in process security,especially for transferringcorrosive or abrasive fluids.

PARTY - From left: Sam Onyemelukwe, Managing Director, Trace; Omotayo Otitoju, 1strunner-up, Airtel Trace Music Star Nigeria; Jitey Peters, Winner Trace Music Star Nigeriaand 1st runner-up Airtel Trace Music Star Grand Finale; and Segun Aderinokun; HeadYouth Segment, Airtel Nigeria, during the Airtel Trace Music Star Grand Finale ViewingParty at the Vapors on Saturday.


Banking & Finance

COMMISSIONING - From Left: Commander, Naval Medical Centre, Rear Admiral JeremiahOnubi, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Fidelity Bank Plc. Nnamdi Okonkwo andAdmiral Superintendent, Naval Dockyard Limited, Rear Admiral Sylvanus Chinweuba at thecommissioning of the Water treatment plant, computers and other office equipment donated bystaff of Human Resources Division of Fidelity Bank Plc.

BVN will boost retail credit—NIBSS CEO

The Bank VerificationNumber (BVN)initiative will help to

boost retail credit in thebanking industry by helpingbanks to identify andblacklist fraudulentcustomers,

Managing Director of theNigeria InterbankSettlement System (NIBSS),Mr. Ade Shonubi, who isresponsible for theimplementation of the BVN,stated this in a statement,explaining that once banksare able to identify andblacklist fraudulentcustomers, they would beencouraged to extend loans to those customersthat are credit worthy and do not have any record ofbeing delinquent borrowers.

The BVN is an initiativeaimed at protecting bankcustomers and furtherstrengthening the Nigerianbanking system. It is aninitiative of the Central Bankof Nigeria (CBN), inconjunction with theBankers’ Committee meantto address the safety ofcustomers’ funds, avoidslosses through compromiseof personal identificationnumbers and other criminalactivities in the industry.

Shonubi noted that apartfrom the challenge ofidentifying customers, amajor hindrance to retailcredit in the Nigerianenvironment was theperception that mostNigerians are crooks whowould look for ways of

failing to repay loans. Hepointed out that the BVNwould address this problemby helping to identify anddistinguishing fraudulentNigerians from law abidingand honest citizens.

He said, “When the BVNproject came up, there werethree key things. First and

most important of all is for usto identify our customers andto identify them uniquelyacross banks and acrossaccounts. So, once you haveBVN, even if you have 10bank accounts, it is the sameBVN that will be tied to thebank accounts. Now, relatingto identifying is the possibility

of banks blacklisting peoplewho have committed financialinfractions. It could befraudsters; it could be peoplewho have gone to forgedocuments because whathappens today is that thesame guy will go to a bank,commits fraud, then runs toanother bank and becausethere is no way of tying allthese activities across. So, wefound out that there werequite a lot of losses related tothese individuals from onebank to another.

Consequently, he said theBVN would allow lendersbegin to build retail credit. Heexplained: “This is becausea concern for bank is, if I lendyou money now and you goaway, how do I identify you?So, you find that the entireretail consumer lending is topeople with formalemployment, that is why yousee everybody running to theoil companies to say ‘let’sgive your staff car loan; let’sgive your staff consumerloan; let’s give your staff TVloans.’ But there are a lot ofself-employed peopleworking in smallerorganisations, who shouldalso benefit. “Nobody wantsto take the risk on thembecause if they resign todayand run off, how are yougoing to get your money?Once they have bankaccounts, the BVN allows usto identify them.”

Sterling Bank partners firms to boosteducation

Sterling Bank Plc hassigned a

memorandum ofunderstanding (MoU) withsome firms in the educationsector to digitise andsimplify learning process atall levels of education.

The partnership is also tomake the learning solutionsaffordable for students inprimary, secondary andtertiary education levels.

Some of the partnersinclude HR & P Solutions,Netlibrary Nigeria Limited,QC-Investment Limited andthe DFID-DeepenProgramme.

Speaking at an event heldin Lagos, the ExecutiveDirector, Finance &Strategy, Sterling Bank, Mr.Abubakar Suleiman notedthat fundamental to the

progress of any nation iseducation.

He said the objective of theinitiative is to transformeducation and make it ‘sexy’again for people to want toinvest in education and alsofor start-up companies to seeeducation as where there is aclear demand.

The bank’s executivedirector added: “The idea isto digitise all the educationalcontents and make it cheaperfor the students to afford. Weare to develop devices thatwould provide digitalsolutions for student.

“We also recognise that thegovernment does not have theresources. There is nowherein the world where thegovernment provides all theneeds of the society. So, it isclear that as some point,financial intermediation is

required. We have alsolooked at our partners andthey have the same desire.

“Most of them are trying totake advantage of moderntechnology, firstly, to make itcheaper and more affordablefor people to access education.Secondly to also make surethat we are providing therelevant education because asthings evolve, if you stay withthe traditional educationalmethods, you will not beprepared for the new world.

“Like every partnership, thisis not charity. Sterling Bankis not a charity organisation,neither is any of our partners.The intention is notsustainable unless there is asound economic logic behindit. So, whatever we are doingis to make sure that five yearsfrom now, this partnership issomething that is stillongoing.

Fidelity staffdonate watertreatment toNigerian Navy

Staff of Fidelity BankPlc. working under the

auspices of the FidelityHelping Hands Programme(FHHP), a special vehicle forthe Bank’s Corporate SocialResponsibility (CSR) practiceconstructed water treatmentplant and donated computersand other office equipment tothe Nigerian Naval MedicalCentre, Naval Dockyard,Victoria Island. Lagos.

Commissioning the project,Managing Director/ChiefExecutive Officer, FidelityBank Plc. Nnamdi Okonkwosaid that the Bank, as asocially responsibleinstitution, takes pride in itshumble accomplishment inentrenching the culture oftrue and responsiblecitizenship among staffmembers through regulartraining programmes andintegration exercises in theBank’s various businessoffices. “It is this passion forour country and our peoplethat has motivated the staffdriven initiative which wefondly call the FidelityHelping Hands Programme”.

Commending the bank forthe donation, AdmiralSuperintendent, NavalDockyard Limited, RearAdmiral SylvanusChinweuba, who representedthe Chief of Naval Staff, saidthat the donation is ademonstration of thecommitment of Fidelity Bankto the welfare of itscommunity. He assured thatthe equipment would bejudiciously used andencouraged the bank toextend this gesture to otherareas of the armed force.

While commending the staffof the Human ResourcesDivision of the Bank, who intheir little corners,contributed their widow’smite to construct the watertreatment plant and provideoffice equipment for theNaval Medical Centre,Okonkwo noted that FidelityBank is the only bank in thecountry where staff memberscontribute their salaries toembark on projects thatimpact on the lives of theirhost communities.

“Fidelity Bank strives toreinforce strong, healthyCommunity Relations byidentifying with communitiesin activities that are mostrelevant to them.

BY BABAJIDEKOMOLAFE


Banking & Finance

Ecobank Rapid Transferhas been named the

official money transfer servicefor the 3rd Okpekpe 10kmroad race scheduled for May16th in Okpekpe town, in EdoState. The Okpekpe Race,now an InternationalAssociation of AthleticsFederation (IAAF) BronzeLabel Race will attract over3000 local and internationalprofessional athletes. Alsosports enthusiasts from acrossthe world are beingexpected.

Announcing the bank’spremium partnership inLagos, Ecobank’s DeputyManaging Director, TonyOkpanachi, said the EcobankRapid Transfer is best suitedfor the competition that hasgrown to have globalrecognition.

According to Mr.Okpanachi, the EcobankRapid Transfer is aninnovative money transferservices available withinNigeria and countries inAfrica where Ecobank ispresent. “The service wasconceived out of the need toprovide quick, convenient,accessible, and reliablemoney transfer services forcustomers and non-customersof the bank”.

Okpanachi is optimistic thatthe Ecobank Rapid Transferwill provide the much-needed ease of financialtransactions during and afterthe competition, and urged allthe participants to availthemselves of theopportunities provided by thebank.

In his words: “This is anEcobank proprietary sendand receive money transferproduct available in allEcobank branches in Nigeria.The product allows you tosend and receive moneywhere Ecobank has itsfootprint within Nigeria andin over 36 countries in Africa.It is our way of supportingthis international race to easethe burden of fund transfer. ”

The Rapid Transfer hereiterated is very suitable forsports men and women,schools/students, travelers,parents, foreign nationalsresiding in Nigeria.

The Okpekpe Race whichholds on May 16 has receivedendorsements from local andinternational athletes as wellas governments across thecontinents of the world.

Ecobank’smoney transferservice forOkpekpe RoadRace

MEETING - From left: Chidi Umeano ( Head, Shared Services, CBN), Suleiman Barau (DeputyGovernor, Operations CBN), Callistus Obetta (Standard Chartered Bank) and Niyi Yusuf, (CountryMD, Accenture) during the meeting of the IT Standards Council with the CBN Deputy Governor.

Council moves to ensure best practicein banks’ IT Standards

The Council ofInformation Technology

Standards (IT StandardsCouncil) in the bankingindustry has commencedmoves to ensure global bestpractices in the way banksdeploy and use of informationtechnology to drive theirservices.

The Council is reviewing theIT Standards Blueprint toalign with current realities andtrends and is also planning todrive an industry wideremediation exercise on thegaps identified during thebaseline assessment that wasconducted last year on thebanks.

Indication to this emergedwhen Deputy Governor,Operations, Central Bank ofNigeria, Alhaji SuleimanBarau met with the outgoingIT Standards Councilmembers to discuss theactivities of the Council andprogress made against theirmandate within the last twoyears.

The need to define IT

Standards for the industry arosein 2010 during the Industryinfrastructure transformationprogramme where the CBN inconjunction with the BankersCommittee sought to identifyways to reduce the significanthigh cost to income ratios ofBanks within the industry aswell as improve operational

efficiency. This transformationprogramme is coordinated bythe Shared Services Office inthe Central Bank of Nigeria andis the driver of the collaborativestrategic response by theFinancial Services Industry torealize reduction in theindustry annual cost base.

IT which is the key driver of

banking was however laggingglobal best practices; limitingbanking operating efficiency,cost effectiveness, regulatoryinformation and riskmanagement practices. Toaddress this gap and provideguidelines for application andutilization of InformationTechnology, Industry ITStandards were defined toarticulate and provide a pointof reference for the utilizationof IT. The IT Standards cutacross different IT capabilityareas and include those toimprove information security, ITservice management, andsystems availability andinformation exchange.

The achievements of the ITStandards Council within thelast 2 years include: the releaseand publishing of the ITStandards Blueprint to Industryin January 2014 and the hostingof the blueprint on the CBNwebsite; The development ofan aggregate rating system thatwill be used to rate thecompliance of banksindividually and as an industryto these Standards; And lLastlythe conduct of a Baselineassessment of three priorities 1IT Standards on the DepositMoney Banks (DMB) todetermine their level ofcompliance to the Standards.Barau commended the Councilon their achievements andassured them of his continuedsupport and the support of theCBN. He reiterated that themandate given to the Councilwas an important one andwould go a long way to drivethe adoption of world class ITStandards in the NigeriaFinancial Services Industry,enabling the Industry reap thefull benefits of its investmentsin Information Technology.

First City Monument Bank (FCMB) Limited,a subsidiary of FCMB Group Plc has

intensified its quest for low cost funds by acquiring500,000 new customers in its operating year endedDecember 31st 2014. Meanwhile Shareholders ofthe FCMB Group has approved the payment of acash dividend of 25 kobo per ordinary share, forthe year ended December 31, 2014.

Speaking at the AGM, the Chairman of FCMBGroup, Dr. Jonathan Long, stated that the Group,which comprises First City Monument BankLimited, FCMB Capital Markets Limited and CSLStockbrokers Limited, ‘’has achieved a strong andsustained growth over the past three years”,adding that during the past year, the Groupcontinued the profitable development of its corebanking, capital markets and stock-brokingbusinesses”. This he added is reflected in thehuge number of customers acquired by FCMBLimited during the year.

Also speaking at the AGM, the GroupManaging Director/Chief Executive of First CityMonument Bank Limited, Mr. Ladi Balogun,pointed out that the Bank made considerableprogress on the priorities it set out last year,including accelerating market share in retailbanking, primarily through consumer finance;enhanced investment in customer experience asa means of growing customer base andcontainment of operating expense.

He disclosed that following the Bank’s renewedfocus on retail banking, ‘’we acquired 500,000customers in 2014. We also supported 278,518

FCMB intensifies competitionfor low cost funds*Acquires 500,000 new customers

borrowing customers during the year withloan disbursements which demonstrates thebroad impact we are having on theeconomy”. According to him, the Bank alsoprovided greater convenience for its retailcustomers by rolling out 245 new ATMs, justas it migrated more customers to alternatechannels.

Balogun told the shareholders that, ‘’weare very much on course to build a dominantretail banking business well diversifiedacross lending, savings deposits,bancassurance and payments. Overall, weare confident this progress and momentumwill be sustained, as we continue to growour market share through service excellenceand improve our efficiency ratios”.

Commenting on the development and thefinancial statements of the Group, theCoordinator of Independent ShareholdersAssociation of Nigeria (ISAN), Sir SunnyNwosu, commended the Board andManagement of FCMB Group Plc for theperformance and dividend payment, despitethe particularly challenging operatingenvironment for banks in 2014. He addedthat, ‘’the increase in the Group’s profit fromN16b in 2013 to N22b in 2014 iscommendable. It is a clear signal that thingsare looking up. We are also happy thatFCMB has emerged as a strong player inretail banking and from what we have seenso far, we are optimistic that the Bank willcontinue to wax stronger”.

BY BABAJIDEKOMOLAFE


Corporate Finance

302 capital market operatorsmeet new capital baserequirements… 144 operators yet to comply

About 302 capitalm a r k e toperators have so

far complied with the newcapital base as directed bythe apex capital marketregulator, Securities andExchange Commission,SEC .

The commission hadannounced a new capitalbase for the variouscategories of capital marketoperators, in which

deadline for compliance wasextended from December 31,2014 to June 30, 2015.

According to the latest dataobtained from the SEC, out of449 registered capital marketoperators, 302 operators havemet the new capital base ,representing 67 per centcompliance, while 144operators are yet to meet thenew capital requirement.

Details showed that out of235 registered Broker/Dealer,135 operators have met thenew capital, representing 57per cent compliance, while 98

operators are yet to comply;For Issuing Houses, out of 72operators, 66 operators havemet the new capital,representing 92 per centcompliance, while six are yetto comply; For Registrar, outof 22 operators, 15 have metthe new capital base,representing 68 per cent,while seven are yet to comply;For Trustees, out of 28operators, 12 have met thecapital base, representing 43per cent compliance; ForRating Agency, Out of fiveoperators, three have met the

capital base, representing 60per cent, while two are yet tocomply; For Fund Managers,Out of 87 operators , 71 havemet the new capital base,representing 82 per centcompliance level, while 16operators are yet to comply.

Commenting on therecapitalisation issue, theActing Director General,SEC, Mr. Mournir Gwarzosaid, the operators are allaware of the graciousextension the SEC Boardgranted. We set up a marketCommittee comprising SEC,Nigerian Stock Exchange,NSE and Central SecuritiesClearing System, CSCSwhich have been workingwith Trade Groups to addressrelated issues. Based on thelatest returns we havereceived from operators thelevel of compliance isencouraging although wewill conduct a verificationexercise at the end of thisrecapitalisation to confirmcompliance.

Commenting on the activityof the commission in the areaof strengthening andrefocusing the SEC, he said“We are streamlining theoperations of the Commissionto focus on its core mandatesas apex regulator. We believethis will make us moreeffective and efficient. Wehave worked on a neworganisational structurewhich will be fullyimplemented this year.

On the empowerment oftrade groups and SelfRegulatory Organisations,SROs, he said “ As we focuson the big issues, we arecommitted to empoweringTrade Groups and SROs toplay more important roles inregulating their members. Anexample is the newComplaints ManagementFramework which we havereleased that ensures investorcomplaints are dealt withmore swiftly starting from theoperator, to the Trade Groupor SRO level before reaching

May & Baker returns to profitability, rewardscustomers

BY PETER EGWUATU

BY PETER EGWUATU

May & Baker NigeriaPlc, has returned to

profitability in the financialyear ended December 31,2014, just as it rewardedcustomers for theircontribution in lifting thecompany higher.

Result for the year 2014,shows that the companyrecorded a 990 per centgrowth in profit. From apre-tax loss position ofN11.4 million in 2013, thegroup recorded a pre-tax

profit of N101.1 million.Similarly after tax profit roseby 161 per cent from anegative of N103 million in2013 to a positive of N63million in 2014. This wasachieved on a group turnoverof N7 billion, against N6.3billion in 2013, a growth of10.2 per cent.

Cost containment andefficient resource utilisationwere responsible for thepositive signals by way ofreduced financing charges,distribution, sales andmarketing expenses all whichcombined to deliver healthierbottom-line.

Key extracts of the auditedreport and accounts of May& Baker for the year endedDecember 31, 2014 madeavailable by the NigerianStock Exchange (NSE)showed a growth of 10.2 percent in sales for the group.The company boosted itsoperational profitability with16.2 per cent increase whilesales and marketing expensesdropped by 3 per cent andfinance costs also dropped by4.2 per cent. However,finance cost still remains achallenge to the company.

Meanwhile, themanagement of May & Baker

Nigeria Plc has assured itscustomers that it wouldcontinue to value their inputsand feedback in the decision-making process of thecompany.

Managing Director, May &Baker Nigeria Plc, Mr.Nnamdi Okafor, gave thisassurance at the company’scustomers’ forum. Accordingto him, the company revivedthe annual nationalcustomers’ forum not only toreward outstandingperformance but to engenderbetter intimacy with andobtain feedback from itscustomers.

Fidson’s PATincreases by307%

Fidson Healthcare Plchas recorded a 307 per

cent growth in Profit AfterTax, PAT for the financial yearended December 31, 2014.

Specifically, the companyrecorded a PAT ofN631.8million in 2014 asagainst N154 .9 million inpreceding year. It alsorecorded a growth in ProfitBefore Tax, PBT by 250 percent for the financial yearunder review. The PBT stoodat N249.6 million as againstN249.6 million in 2013.

According to the resultreleased on the NigerianStock Exchange,NSE, thecompany reported a modestgrowth in revenue of 5 percent Year on Year, YoY.

The Earning Per Share, EPSof the company increasedfrom N0.10 in 2013 to N0.42in 2014.

Fidson grew its grossmargin by 7 per cent, fromN5.1 billion in 2013 to N5.4billion in 2014 whileoperating profit increasedmarginally by 5 per cent withoperating margin remainingat 15 per cent of revenue.Despite the economicchallenges, harsh marketconditions and increasingfinancing cost faced duringthe year, cash flow improvedwith the company ’s cashposition increasing by 51 percent from 2013. The increasein long term debt during theyear is as a result of theissuance of a 5-year fixed rateBond to refinance someexpensive short-term debtandaugment working capitalrequirements.

The company’s focus onextensive brand building ofits innovative and high qualityproducts enhances itsfinancial growth and itsability to maintain significantmarket share in key diseaseareas. This is supported byrobust sales and distributionchannels as well aspersistentdiligence inensuring products’ integritythrough various anti-counterfeiting initiatives.

Fidson’s ultra-modernWHO Good ManufacturingPractice (GMP) compliantplant, where she wouldmanufacture IV fluids inaddition to existing productofferings is scheduled to beoperational before the end of2015. This would broaden thecompany’s products base,increase its capacity andconsequently profitability andgrowth opportunities.

FORUM - Managing Director, May & Baker Nigeria Plc, Pharm. Nnamdi Okafor presentinga plaque to Mrs, Abosede Kazeem, Managing Director, Tanimola Pharmacy Limited at the2015 Customers Forum of May & Baker Nigeria Plc held in Lagos


CMYK

Corporate Finance

SEC set to revive corporate bondsmarket, Commodities Exchange

The Securities andE x c h a n g eCommission, SEC,

has said that it is taking stepsto address the perceiveddormancy in the corporatebonds market.

The Acting Director Generalof SEC, Mr. Mounir Gwarzo,disclosed this while briefingof capital marketcorrespondents at the end ofthe first quarter of 2015Capital Market Committee,CMC meeting in Lagos.

He stated that members ofthe CMC are alreadyconsidering suitable ways torevive that segment of thebonds market, hithertodominated by the FederalGovernment Bonds.

“We looked at the corporatebonds market, which has beenquite dormant and we lookedat ways to revive the marketbecause it has always beendominated by the FGNbonds,” he said

Gwarzo also emphasizedthe need to revitalise theCommodities Exchange,saying that the committeemandated to chart ways torevive the Exchange has comeup with a report, whichimplementation will sooncommence.

According to him, “Thehouse was very concerned bythe fact that we do not have avery vibrant commodityexchange and we are happywith the new acting managingdirector, who has been in thesystem since the inceptionand she is very excited that

she wants to get the exchangegoing.

“Happily enough, themarket already has acommittee and the committeehas submitted an extensivereport on the ways theexchange will be revived. Sothe house has mandated theCommodities Exchange to lookat that report and where itneeds any advice orintervention from the market,we will do so.”

Speaking on funding forInvestment and SecuritiesTribunal, IST, the acting DGsaid, “We have a committee

that is comprised of SEC, theNigerian Stock Exchange,NSE and the CentralSecurities Clearing System,CSCS, on the funding of IST.In the first instance, weagreed that part of our feesshould be ceded to IST; we allrecognise the importance ofIST to this market. It hasplayed a very important roleand it also play a role to theinvestors as well.

“So between the threeorganisations - SEC, NSE andCSCS, we have ceded someamount of fees that we pay toIST. But moving forward, we

have made certainsuggestions to IST. It iseither they become part ofthe judiciary so that they willbe funded from source or themarket will find a way toincorporate them. For now,we think that with the littlemoney we are giving them,we are empowering them todo their job.”

Commenting on the levelof preparedness for take-offof the Investors’ ProtectionFund, he admitted that theFund could alleviate some ofthe fears investors have thatstop them from investing inthe market, saying, “SEChas taken a giant step insetting up the investors’protection fund and somehuge amount of money hasalso been set aside for thefund. The board of the IPFhas almost been constituted.The names of the membershave been drawn. What nowremains is to constitute theboard.”

“It has been agreed thatone or two operators thathave problems and havegone through ourAdministrative ProceedingsCommittee department willbe beneficiaries of the IPF.What we are doing now isverification becauseimmediately the IPF cameon board; many peoplecame up saying they haveissues. So, immediately wefinish our verifications, weshould be able to pay someamount of money,” headded.

BRIEFING - From left: Managing Director, Skyway Aviation Handling Company Limited{SAHCOL}Mr. Oluropo Owolabi; Representative of International Air Transport Association(IATA) and Mrs. Ewemade Atake and President, Association of Foreign Airlines in Nigeria(AFAN), Mr. Kingsley Nwokoma at a press briefing marking the end of SAHCOL safetyweek held at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.

Access Bank Plc hasrecorded a growth of 21

percent in its profit before taxfor the first quarter endedMarch 31, 2015. During thequarter, profit before tax roseto N16.5 billion as from N13.6billion posted in thecorresponding period in 2014.

The bank also announcedprofit after tax of N13.7billion, which was up 11percent from N12.3 billion inrecorded Q1 2014.

Its gross earnings was up34 percent to N76.7 billion forits first quarter ended March31, 2015, compared to N57.3billion posted in the same

period in 2014.The group audited

International FinancialReporting Standard, IFRS,results for the period showedthat the bank’s net interestincome grew by 17 percent toN46.4 billion from N39.6billion in Q1 2014, benefitingfrom a loan portfolio growth in2014 and improved yields onfixed income securities.

The non-interest income ofN30.4 billion in Q1 2015compared with N17.6 billionin Q1 2014, increased by 47percent, supported by growthin net trading income.

Operating income of N54.0billion grew by 28 percent inQ1 2015 compared to N42.2billion in the corresponding

period, while the return onaverage equity (ROAE) of19.2 percent in Q1 2015,improved by 50bps from 19.7percent in Q1 2014.

Commenting on the results,Herbert Wigwe, the GroupManaging Director, notedthat the bank’s financialperformance in the firstquarter of 2015 marks steadyprogress towards keystrategic objectives. “Ourfocus remains on the deliveryof sustainable value to ourshareholders. We continue todeepen and broaden our top-tier corporate relationshipswhilst optimising andgrowing our diverse retailcustomer base to support low-cost liability growth,” he said.

Access Bank’s profit before tax up21% in Q1

By NKIRUKA NNOROM

By NKIRUKA NNOROM

Despiteearnings beats,expectationsdim for laterquarters

Most U.S. companiesso far this earnings

season have managed to beatWall Street profit forecastsdespite weak sales, butinvestors hoping corporateheadwinds have died downmay need to temper theirenthusiasm.

Of the 169 Standard & Poor’s500 companies that havereported so far, 71 percent beatearnings estimates, many ofwhich were modest to beginwith, Thomson Reuters datashowed. But they did so withhelp from share buybacks,cost-cutting and othermeasures, instead of robustsales growth.

Despite those beats, analystsare now trimming their profitand sales expectations for thesecond quarter on the beliefthat the stronger U.S. dollarand sharply lower oil prices,widely held to have hurt first-quarter results, will continueto dampen business growth fora while.

“The fact that you’re seeingsome companies beat on thebottom line is not going tochange the story. You’re goingto see some pretty uglynumbers over the next coupleof quarters,” said Dan Suzuki,senior U.S. equity strategist atBank of America-MerrillLynch in New York.

World’s biggestfor-profit collegechain plans$1bn IPO

Laureate EducationInc., the largest for-

profit college network in theworld, is interviewing banksfor a $1 billion initial publicoffering in the U.S., peoplewith knowledge of the mattersaid.

The company, whosehonorary chancellor is formerPresident Bill Clinton, hasbeen meeting with potentialunderwriters for an IPO thatcould value the educationjuggernaut at about $5 billion,said the people, who asked notto be named discussingprivate information. Thecompany, based in Baltimore,owns 84 universities, mostly inemerging markets.

Laureate was taken privatein a management-led $3.8billion buyout in 2007, backedby an investor groupincluding KKR & Co. andCitigroup Inc.


CMYK


CMYK

Homes & Housing

ByYINKA KOLAWOLE Housing microfinance: Panacea

for Nigeria’s housing deficitH o u s i n g microfinance, otherwise knownas microfinance for housingor incremental financing, isregarded as the applicationof a microfinance basedapproach to housing finance.While the concept ‘housingmicrofinance’ is relativelynew in development circles,the practice is not.

Access to housing andaccess to housing finance bylow income earners is acritical development issuefacing most countries aroundthe globe. Many householdsin Africa are unable to accessmortgage finance eitherbecause it does not exist orbecause it is inaccessible.

UN Habitat notes in areport the predominance oftwo extreme outcomes ofcurrent shelter systems thatare being witnessed today -affordable shelter that isinadequate, and adequateshelter that is unaffordable.The report goes on to statethat within the next 20 yearsit is unlikely thatconventional sources offinance will be available inmany developing countriesfor investment on the scaleneeded to meet projecteddemand for infrastructureand housing. With deficits inpublic budgets and thepersistence of weak financialsectors, the situation seemsuntenable. Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, incomelevels are such that themajority of householdscannot afford to buy the leastexpensive house, even ifmortgage finance wereavailable.

OpportunitiesNigeria represents a

potentially huge market forhousing development,mortgage and housingmicrofinance lending. At theAfrica GRI 2014 delegateshighlighted the fact thatdespite high transactioncosts, the returns are high.The Global Real EstateInstitute (GRI) is a globalclub of senior real estateinvestors, developers andlenders that runs itsactivities through a collectionof annual meetings focussedon different regions of theworld.

The delegates noted thatwhile the government and itsvarious institutions arepaying substantial attentionto the mortgage market, thepotential of the housingmicrofinance market isincreasingly beingacknowledged. With apopulation of more than 100 million low-income peopleand a small mortgage market,housing microfinance has

The Lagos StateGovernment also establishedthe Lagos State Co-operativeHome Ownership IncentiveScheme (Lagos CHOIS) toprovide housing for low andmedium income households.

The state governmententered a partnershipagreement with First WorldCommunities Limited underthe CHOIS initiative in 2005to build 10,000 houses inthree senatorial areas ofLagos namely; Abijo, Agbowaand Badagry. As part of theagreement, GovernorBabatunde Fashola recentlycommissioned CHOIS City, a460 housing unit residentialestate located in sub-urbanAgbowa-Ikosi in Epe.

In 2013, the FederalMortgage Bank of Nigeria(FMBN) launched itsInformal Sector CooperativeSociety Loan Scheme,designed to enable informal

sector participants to accessthe benefits of the NationalHousing Scheme. FMBN’sManaging Director, Mr.Gimba Ya’u Kumo, explainedthat scheme will provide aplatform for members to formhousing cooperatives toaccess loans for estatedevelopment. To qualify forthe facilities, participants areexpected to make a minimummonthly contribution of N450for at least six months. Thescheme involves the issuanceof e-collection cards tocontributors, which will inturn streamline the collectionprocess and cut outdeficiencies of manualcollection, while allowingcontributors real time accessto their contribution records.The loan facility offersborrowers a 24 monthsrepayment period at 10 percent per annum forhouses worth not more thanN5 million.

Also in the same vein,Prime Asset Housing Co-operative Multi-purposeSociety, a private initiative,was established to enablepeople pool resourcestogether for the purpose ofowning their homes. TheHome Ownership Savings(HOS) plan of theCooperative is to facilitatepooling of savings towardssecuring or meeting requireddeposit payment for aproperty (built or landed),mortgage financing or anysuch expenditure geared tofacilitate members’ houseownership drive.

Housing supplyThe private sector continues

to deliver new housing unitsfor the luxury and high-income bracket. It isestimated that the formal andinformal private sectorprovides over 80 percent ofthe housing stock in Nigeria.Though there is insufficientdata on the proportion ofprivate, government andindividual contributions tothe housing stock, it isgeneral knowledge that theincremental building byindividuals on landpurchased by private landowning families is the mostprevalent, particularly withrespect to housing low andmedium income groups.

Nigeria’s housing deficit isestimated to be over 17 million units and growing atabout 780 000 units yearly,due to the high cost ofbuilding and slowconstruction process. Of the17 million unit deficit, LagosState is estimated to have adeficit of one million.Between 1999 and 2011, thestate government built 3,766housing units in 17 housingestates, averaging 316 unitsannually. In the last fiveyears, however, the rate ofdelivery has improveddrastically. In 2012, the totalnumber of units deliveredinto the market was slightlyabove 1,500 units and thisrose by 48.2 percent with2,299 housing units deliveredin 2013. However, this is stillnot meeting the demand.

Way forwardCentre for Affordable

Housing Finance in Africa(CAHF) has undertakenvarious research initiatives toexplore the state of housingmicrofinance across sub-Saharan Africa, highlightinginnovation and providingrecommendations forattention by financialinstitutions andgovernments.

“Our work is focused onsupporting the growth of ahousing micro-lending sectorin Africa, with more playerssupported by more investors,reaching more clients,” itstated.

Generally, in Africa, highincome earners use their ownresources to build or buyhouses for themselvesoutrightly, the middle classand low income earnersfinance their ownconstruction gradually overtime. Housing microfinancemakes it possible to addresshousing needs progressively,step-by-step, towards a largerhousing vision.

With apopulation ofmore than 100 million low-income peopleand a smallmortgagemarket, housingmicrofinancehas enormouspotential inNigeria

A joint housing project between LASG and First World Communities Ltd. in Abijo, Lagos

enormous potential inNigeria.

Accessible mortgageWith an aim to ensure that

all Nigerians are able to owna home, the FederalGovernment is using threestrategies – land swapinitiatives, affordable andmass housing schemes andaccessible mortgage finance.

In addition to unveiling theNigerian MortgageRefinance Corporation(NMRC), the federalgovernment also launched anational N960 billionhousing scheme for labourunion members. Similar tothe NMRC, the Lagos Stategovernment launched theLagos Home OwnershipMortgage Scheme (LagosHOMS). A Public PrivatePartnership (PPP) initiatedby the government andadministered by the LagosMortgage Board (LMB), itaims to support first timebuyers in the state topurchase decent homesthrough accessible mortgagefinance. When the schemewas flagged off in February2014, 1,104 housing unitswere completed and 3,156units were at various stagesof completion. Both NMRCand Lagos HOMS are PPPsand this is fast becoming oneof the key strategies used bythe government to drive thegrowth of housing delivery.As well as the private sector,the government is workingwith non-governmental andnon-profit organizations todeliver homes to low-incomeearners.


CMYK

Interview

BY EBELE ORAKPO

N igeria has all the indices for greatness so one wonders why it isnot great. Some have pointed at poor leadership andfollowership, corruption, poverty etc as culprits but one tends to

agree with a popular Nollywood actor, Mr. Nkem Owoh who in one of hismovies, wondered aloud if Nigerians were made by God’s apprentice. Nigeriais blessed with abundant natural and human resources, highly talented andresourceful people, high quality natural resources, yet, it seems to be movinground and round in circles. In this interview with Professor John AroyeOkhuoya, Professor of Mycology and Director, African Centre for MushroomResearch and Technology Innovation, University of Benin, hespeaks on how Nigeria can partake of the multi-million dollarmushroom industry.

Nigeria must tap into mushroom market — ... Market forecast to reach $50,

Introduction:I had my first degree in

Microbiology here. I was one of thefirst 100 students of the Universityof Benin when it was MidwesternInstitute of Technology. Thereafter,I worked briefly in the RubberResearch Institute and then wentabroad for my PhD. I came back in1981 and started lecturing in 1983 inthe Department of Botany (nowDepartment of Plant Biology andBiotechnology, University of Benin.I became a professor in 1995. I havebeen training undergraduate andpost-graduate students in MushroomScience.

Interest in mushroom:I grew up in the rural area and we

used to go for mushroom hunting inthe village, collecting wildmushrooms for sale in the evenings.My father gave me some informationon the different mushrooms that weate. That was how the interest came.I have developed this area ofresearch over the years and at a point,we felt that this university should bea reference point. We introducedMushroom Science in ourcurriculum. At undergraduate level,we have Introduction to MushroomScience, and then I developed amaster’s and PhD programmes inMushroom Science.

Mushroom production is still verylow in Nigeria hence many of ourpeople still depend on collection ofmushrooms from the wild. This isfraught with the danger of collectingpoisonous with edible ones.Commercial farming holds the key tothe eventual elimination ofoccasional mushroom poisoning inour population.

Categories of mushrooms:There are four main categories of

mushrooms.Edible mushrooms (those you can

eat as food); Medicinal mushroomsused in taking care of certain ailments;Poisonous mushrooms (these aredeadly). There are also mushroomsthat are both medicinal as well asedible. Then the last category is theMiscellaneous group which containsmushrooms whose values are not yetestablished.

Nutritional values:Edible mushrooms are rich in

protein, B-vitamins and containmoderate amount of vitamin C. Theyare, however, low in carbohydrateand are generally preferred to freshvegetables because weight for weight,the body absorbs all of mushroomseaten without wastes. Common edible

species in Nigeria are Pleurotustuber-regium or tuberous mushroom(very common in South-East andused in cooking egusi soup. Itproduces tuber in the dry season andthen in the rainy season, they breakthe ground and begin to producefruiting bodies. The tuber, referredto as sclerotium, is the form themushroom uses to hibernate in orderto survive the harsh conditions of thedry season. In our folklores, it isbelieved that for the native doctor tosee the future, he will have to make apaste of the tuber, and rub his eyesand he will see visions.) Other ediblespecies are: Lentinus squarrosulus,Auricularia auricula, Lepiota sp,Termitomyces spp, Volvoriellaesculenta, Lycoperdon spp amongothers.

Differentiating poisonousfrom edible mushrooms:

In our traditional system, Nigerianshave always eaten mushrooms. In theSouth-East, they eat a lot ofvegetables and mushrooms. In my

they tell you that when you see amushroom with flies perching on it,it shows it is edible because it did notkill the flies. That is not reliablebecause there is a mushroom calledAmanita muscaria. Flies perch on itthough it is not edible. It is noted forits hallucinogenic properties sowhen flies eat this mushroom, theyfall into stupor, temporarily dead andat the end, they recover. So you

cannot rely on that method of identifyingedible mushrooms. But the point is theyhave been able to identify the ones they eatright from the beginning and they have stuckto those ones. Here at the centre, we haveour own ways of identifying them usingchemistry but we advise people to eat thoseones that are known to be edible.

What we do at the Centre:The essence of our research is to ensure that

own area inEdo North,we havemushroomsin ourd i e t a r ysystem, soour eldersknew thedifference.They hadtheir ownways ofidentifyingthem but werefer tothose waysas oldw i v e s ’f a b l e sb e c a u s ethey are notr e l i a b l e .F o re x a m p l e ,

Mushroomproductionis still verylow inNigeriahence manyof ourpeople stilldepend oncollection ofmushroomsfrom thewild

*Edible Lentinus squarrosulus mushroom growing on a dead mango tree

*Prof. John Okhuoya...edible mushrooms are preferred to fresh vegetablesbecause weight for weight, the body absorbs all of mushrooms eaten without wastes

Commercialfarming holds thekey to the eventualelimination ofoccasionalmushroompoisoning in ourpopulation


Interview

the multi-million-dollarPROF IKHUOYA

,034.12 million by 2019

we get the mechanism/technology to produceedible mushrooms so that our people caneasily access them. That is what is happeningin the UK and other developed countries;they cultivate and sell edible mushrooms inthe market. If you rely on collecting from thewild, you are likely to collect both edible andpoisonous mushrooms. That is why we areadvocating that in Nigeria, we have gotten toa stage where we should be eating cultivatedmushrooms. The beauty of it is that thespecies we have in Nigeria are very delicious

a n dcomparablewith anytype ofmushroomfrom anypart of theworld. Sothe purposeof thiscentre is tofirst of all,d o c u m e n tas much aspossible, alla v a i l a b l eidentifiablemushroomsin the wholeof WestAfrica Sub-

region, particularly Nigeria, and have a genebank because right now, most of themushrooms we used to eat as children aredisappearing as a result of deforestation. Thisis the best time for us to begin to store some ofthe ones that are still available so that we canhave our own gene bank for future use. Apartfrom meeting our national needs, contributingto national nutritional diet, we can also beginto export and earn foreign exchange. That iswhat we are doing here - we train people, createcapital, and as much as possible, simulatepeople to be interested in mushroom farming.

Mushrooms and health:In Ghana, there is a strong belief

that making a paste of Pleurotustuber-regium and rubbing it on amalnourished child, will make thechild fatten up. I don’t know how truethat is. Mushrooms have a highpercentage of protein, amino acidsand all other minerals that help indevelopment of our immune system.For those who want to lose weight, itis very good.

A lot of products have beendeveloped from mushrooms. Forexample, a product used in thetreatment of arthritis fromganoderma, a mushroom fromChina, and so many other suchproducts. We can produce themhere. We have ganoderma tea,mushroom tea etc.

Mushrooms have been indicated inthe treatment of HIV/AIDS. You canhave our garri, rice, bread, etcfortified with mushroom myceliumso you will not be eating ordinarygarri, but garri that is fortified with alot of protein. That is our vision. Weare developing the technology.

AIDS treatment:As a matter of fact, WHO sponsored

one of the top mushroom scientiststo develop some mushroom productsthat helped to treat an AIDS patientin South Africa. What that product

did wast oenhancet h eappetiteof thep a t i e n tbecauseone oft h et h i n g swe seew i t hA I D Spatientsis thatthey loseappetite,l o s ew e i g h ta n dgradually

die. It was found that when their foodwas fortified with mushroom, theappetite increased and they atemore, put on weight, and startedliving healthy lives.

Forex earner:Mushroom is a foreign exchange

earner for many developedcountries; a multi-million-dollarbusiness in America, Europe, muchmore in China and other Asiancountries. They use it for medicinal

and nutritional purposes. Most of themushrooms we have in oursupermarkets are imported. We canproduce them here in large quantities.Chief Olusegun Obasanjo started amushroom farm which is no longerproducing because of the technologyinvolved in producing exotic strains.

Some of our local farmers are nowtrying to produce our tropicalmushrooms. We have developed manylocal species and strains that aresucculent, sweet and delicious whichwe can recommend and assist farmersin growing if they wish to go intomushroom farming.

Environmental cleanser:The mushroom also plays a lot of

role in environmental cleansing. Wehave found that some mushrooms areable to absorb heavy metals from theenvironment and so when you growsome edible mushrooms in a pollutedenvironment, they absorb the heavymetals so you cannot eat them, theybecome agents of filtration, trying tofilter those chemicals that aredangerous to health from theenvironment.

Bioremediation:One of my students did his PhD on

bioremediation. He found out thatsome of our mushrooms when grownon soils that have been so bastardisedthrough pollution, can rejuvenate thesoil through increased biomass.

Cultivating mushrooms:It is quite easy. Like I said, we have

spent quite some time to study ourindigenous mushrooms. We havedone a lot of survey in different partsof the country, on the type ofmushroom they eat, the historybehind most of the mushrooms etc.,and we have developed thetechnology using local resources togrow them.

Mushroom cultivation involves fivemajor stages:

Bed preparation: You preparemushroom bed using differentsubstrates. We have worked outdifferent substrates using agriculturalwaste like banana leaves, stems, oilpalm fruit fibre, oil palm bunch, bananapeels and corn husks which we treatchemically.

Spawning (mushroom seedplanting). After a while, the myceliumwill grow and run through the systemand in few days, you see the whole placewhite. If you leave it like that, you maynever get fruiting bodies so we do whatis called casing.

Casing: You cover it with calciumcarbonate soil and you are by that acttelling the mushroom to stop

It tells itself, ‘before I die, let meproduce my kind.’ So it begins toproduce spores because it wants tosurvive and in the process, it begins tohave fruiting bodies which the farmerharvests.

Picking or harvesting: After a while,the mushroom is ready for harvest.

The first day you harvest, after twoor three days, you harvest again, untilthe fourth or fifth time when the yieldwill be decreasing and then you canstop.

Packaging: The final step ispackaging.

Each step requires careful handlingfor best results.

Not all mushrooms follow all theabove five steps. Some species requirespecific conditions for their growthand development.

Spent substrate:The beauty of this farming process is

that even the spent substrate can beused for growing other vegetables. Itwill become organic fertiliser sonothing is wasted.

The Centre:University of Benin was kind enough

to sponsor this centre and it wascommissioned by President GoodluckJonathan last November. Within ashort time, we have achieved so muchin the areas of capacity-building,mushroom production, and our targetis to raise farmers that can produce incommercial quantities. We willstimulate people to go into makingmushroom products for health,medicinal and nutritional purposes.

It is a simple thing but it has taken usa long time to get to where we aretoday. We are hoping that thegovernment, corporate organisationsand private individuals will come inhere, use our technology and expertiseto go into business and developwhatever product they want todevelop.

We will assist them because we havethe expertise.

vegetating andgrow up, youdivert themushroom fromvegetative top r o d u c t i v ephase. When youput that soil, themushroom isshocked, it isbeing starved ofnutrients so itstarts looking fora way of survival.

We aredeveloping thetechnology;we can fortifyour garri,bread, riceand otherfoodstuff withmushroommycelium soyou will not beeatingordinary garri

We haveworked outdifferentsubstrates usingagriculturalwaste likebanana leaves,stems, oil palmfruit fibre, oilpalm bunch,banana peelsand corn huskswhich we treatchemically

*Prof. Okhuoya (l) and his former student, US-based Prof. Omo showing off Lentinus edodes(shiitake), edible and medicinal mushroom

*Edible mushroom growing on dead part of a living tree

*Edible mushroom, Volvariellavolvacea growing on oil palm bunch

34 —Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2015

Insurance

The Association of AssetsCustodians of Nigeria,

AACN, has said that it is setto hold its fourth annualinvestor conference inLondon.

The conference which isbilled to hold on 7th of Mayhas the theme, Nigeria:Navigating changes,extracting opportunities.

Speaking to journalists inLagos, AACN President,Mrs. Kemi Adewole, said thatthe purpose of the event is toprovide expert insight onNigeria’s current markettrends, and an opportunityfor significant interactionamong the various Nigeriacapital market operators andinvestors.

She said that the 2015investor conference will host

BRIEFING - From left: Solomon Ikeanyi, Publicity Secretary; Abiodun Adebimpe, SecretaryGeneral; Akeem Oyewale, Vice President; Kemi Adewole, President; Taiwo Sonola, VicePresident; Bunmi Arowosafe, Financial Secretary; all of Association of Asset Custodians ofNigeria at the 4th Investors' Conference press briefing in Lagos.

NCRIB gains wider acceptabilitywith Limra’s recognition

The Nigerian Council ofRegistered InsuranceBrokers (NCRIB) can

now access the database ofLIMRA, a world acclaimedfinancial services researchconsultancy body, followingits admission.

Conveying the NCRIBadmission during the 2015International Business trip ofthe Council’s delegates toMalta, Europe, the OperationHead of LIMRA Europe,Middle East and Africa, CarlaBaldivia said with theadmission, NCRIB would nowhave access to the database ofthe association and be able toaccess yearly global financialreports by the body.

“As a LIMRA member, yourCouncil will now have accessto all the research, webinarsand market facts in additionto the information centre thatgathers resources from morethan 128 periodicals” Baldivianoted.

Responding, the Presidentof the NCRIB, Mr. AyodapoShoderu who led theCouncil’s delegation notedthat the NCRIB has a visionof exploring all avenues toplace the Council and itsmembers on the global plane.

He said, coming on the heelsof similar admission by theBritish Insurance BrokersAssociation (BIBA), Shoderusaid that the challenges beforeNCRIB members was nowhigher in a bid to match upwith its growing globalreputation.

Also, during a lecture oncustomer service, brokers weretold to imbibe multipleintegrated channels ofcustomer service in order tomeet the yearning needs oftoday’s clients.

According to SeniorRegional Executive of LIMRA,

Mr. Manolis Kyriacou, currentand future customers havehigh expectations for servicequality through all channelsthey could utilize to connectwith the provider.

“Insurance intermediariesthat successfully deliver theirservices competently will mostoften improve relationshipand outcomes with theirpolicy holders,” he said.

As a leading insurance andfinancial services tradeassociation, LIMRA’s purposeis to be the trusted source of

industry knowledge. Itcurrently provides research,learning and developmentprograms to more than 850financial services companiesthroughout the world.

Serving its members fornearly 100 years, thesefinancial services firms turn toLIMRA first for research,serving as a catalyst for newideas, to better understandthe industry, and plan for thefuture, learning anddevelopment programs, toassess, train, and increase

distribution productivity, aswell as develop the nextgeneration of corporateleaders and connections withindustry leaders and peersthrough study groups,committees, and conferences.

The tour was rounded offwith visits to leadinginsurance companies andbrokerage companies such asMiddle Sea and AssikuraInsurance Brokers wheredelegates had robust insightsinto operation of insurancebusiness in Malta.

AACN set to host investors’ conference in Londonspeakers representing theregulators and key marketoperators such as Governor ofthe Central Bank of Nigeria,CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele;acting Director General of theSecurities and ExchangeCommission, SEC, Mal.Mounir Gwarzo; ExecutiveDirector, Market Operationsand Technology, NigerianStock Exchange, NSE, Mr.Adeolu Bajomo; and MD/CEO of the Central SecuritiesClearing System, CSCS, Mr.Kyari Abba Bukar.

Other speakersparticipating in paneldiscussions include Dr,Abraham Nwankwo, DirectorGeneral, Debt ManagementOffice, DMO; Mr. BolajiBalogun, MD/CEO ChapelHill Denham; Mr. Bola

Onadele. Koko, MD/CEOFMDQ OTC Plc; Mr. BolaAjomale, MD/CEO NASDPlc; Mr. Bayo Olugbemi,President of the Institute ofCapital Market Registrars(ICMR), and some majorforeign portfolio investorsand global custodians.

Adewole said, “AACNcontinues to strive for greaterefficiency in Nigerian capitalmarket, with a firmunderstanding of theimportance of bringing theplayers in the markettogether. The 2015 investorconference will provide aplatform to facilitate dialoguebetween foreign investorsand Nigerian capital/financial market operators,while keeping participants

abreast of Nigerian securitiesmarket developments.”

Founded in 2009, themembers of the associationare Citibank Nigeria Limited,First Bank of Nigeria, FirstCity Monument Bank,Stanbic IBTC Bank,Standard Chartered Bankand United Bank for Africa.The association is dedicatedto establishing global bestpractice standards in allaspects of the Nigeriansecurities market and thedevelopment of the market,including promoting thecustody business in Nigeriaand making the Nigeriasecurities market moresuitable for investors.

Stories by ROSEMARYONUOHA

Real Estate DevelopersAssociation of Nigeria

(REDAN) has affirmed itsreadiness to join hands withthe President-Elect, GeneralMuhammadu Buhari, inactualising his promise of onemillion housing developmentyearly.

REDAN’s newly electedPresident, Rev UgochukwuChime, who gave theassurance in Abuja.According to him, “REDANhas set up a committee tocome up with a road map onhousing development as aposition paper to bepresented to the newadministration forimplementation. “We willalso work closely with theadministration to ensure thatthe Land Use Act is amended.REDAN will step up itsadvocacy and liaison with theNational Assembly toexpedite the passing of theLand, Housing, foreclosurelaw; Mortgage and RealEstate related laws proposedby government with theNational Assembly since2006.”

The REDAN president alsosaid its members will workwith respective governmentagencies and researchinstitutes to ensure reductionin cost of obtaining permitsand approvals relating toland for mass housingdevelopment. “We will focusefforts on land administrationin favour of real estatedevelopers; developtechnology to utilize localmaterials and achieveconsiderable cost ofconstruction; encouragegreen construction; ensuremembers adhere to standardin process and product s ofhousing development and;comply with NationalBuilding Codes and extantlaws on land and housingconstruction. We shallcollaborate with stakeholdersin the government, builtindustry and businessspheres to step up artisans,trades and craftsmen /womentraining and re-training toempower Nigerian citizenryespecially the largepopulation of youths,” hestated.

He assured that theassociation will work closelywith the National Assemblyto make REDAN an Act of theNational Assembly that willensure standard in thehousing sector.

REDAN readyfor Buhari’s1m houses

BY FAVOUR NNABUGWU

CMYK


CMYK

CMYK

Micro-Finance

“Unsold Nigeria crudegrows as buyer interest falls”.PUNCH, Thursday, April 9,2015, p 41.

The story by Femi Asu,went on to state that“Weak buying from

Asia and other regular buyersof Nigerian crude oil has lefta large overhang of March,April and May cargoes, it waslearnt”. For those who mightnot fully understand theimplications of that report, itis necessary to spell them out.

The first casualty, and it hasbeen in that position since lastyear, is the 2015 budget whichis now nothing more than anacademic exercise. With crudeoil prices hovering betweenUS$45 and US$60 per barrel,the budget which out-goingFinance Minister first basedon $78 per barrel crude oilprice, had by February beendropped in the dust bin. Now,with volume suppliedimperiled by weak demandfrom our traditional customers,it is obvious that the Age ofCrude is surely over in Nigeria– at least for a while.

Incidentally, this is not thefirst time this will beannounced on these pages. Inan article published inDecember last year, titled THEAGE OF OIL IS OVER FORNIGERIA, the point had beenmade that the forces which haddriven the global price ofcrude oil to the low levels itreached then and alsoreduced the demand forNigerian crude are not onlylong-term in nature, but theywere then just gatheringmomentum. The news report

Nigeria without oil is now areality

above only points to themajor economic crisis facingthe nation – startingimmediately. By the timePresident Jonathan handsover the leadership ofNigeria to Buhari, thecountry would have onceagain been classified as anear bankrupt economy. Ourearnings from crude oil willjust about be sufficient to payfor all the foreign loans takenby the Federal and stategovernments.

For Buhari and Nigeria,lightening has struck twicein a life time. By the time hewas propelled to the Head ofthe military junta inDecember 1983, SecondRepublic politicians, atFederal and state levels hadfrittered away the first crudeoil bonanza and left Nigeriawith a huge debt which laterbecame our debt trap. ByOctober 1985, PresidentBabangida, who toppledBuhari, was alreadylamenting that, “It is truethat we have run throughone of the greatest financialbonanzas that ever happenedto a nation in need; so fastand so recklessly that wemay wonder if ever happenedat all!”

The harsh measures whichBuhari took, which shouldhave produced salutaryeffect, were denounced by

the same Nigerians who hadbeen impoverished. Today, aswe approach a democraticchange of government, wecan surely repeat whatBabagida said about thebonanza which SecondRepublic politicians wasted.From 1999 till date,politicians representing allthe politicalparties haveonce againrun througha n o t h e rb o n a n z am o r er e c k l e s s l ythan in the1 9 8 0 s .Buhari, onceagain is fatedto inherit an a t i o n a lpurse totallydepleted bysixteen yearsof Obasanjo,Yar’Adua andJonathan, atthe centre. State governors,especially those newlyelected, will also findthemselves wishing theynever ran for office. Eventhose who are continuing inoffice face a massive revolt ofpublic servants and theNigerian populace as theywill increasingly fail to fulfilltheir election promises.

So, the second casualties ofthe impending economicdoom are the public servants.Even states which struggled

to pay salaries before theelections will now startdefaulting in payments.Governors going on May 29,2015, will simply abscondfrom their states and leavetheir successors to face theoutrage of public servants.

Unpaid contractorsconstitute the third set of

victims of thechange in thefortunes ofNigeria. It isalmost certainthat anycontractor, stillunpaid by anygovernment— Federal,State or Local– and who isnot well-c o n n e c t e dwith theP r e s i d e n t ,Governor orChairman, canforget about

being paid for a long time tocome. The in-cominggovernments, cash strappedmeet current obligations, andhaving failed to receive thekick-backs from over-inflatedcontracts will not be in a hurryto pay past debts. The greatwave of defections from PDPto APC is partly a reflectionof the desperation ofcontractors whose money istrapped as their formerbenefactors leave office.Hundreds of thousands of

contractors face personalbankruptcy; and, their banksalso risk being savaged by theconsequences of both crudeoil calamity and the changeof governments nationwide.Abandoned projects willproliferate.

Every economic catastropheinvariably manifests itself inthe banking sector – whichhad actually placed itself inharms way by financing thebuy-out of International OilCompanies, IOCs, by localinvestors. The rush for thegates by the IOCs shouldhave served as a warning toNigerians who had moremoney than sense, and theirbankers, that something mustbe wrong, if so many multi-nationals are leaving. EvenIOCs who had taken theposition of “wait and see” inthe past are no longer waiting– because they have seenenough. And, what they seeis a nation whose oilexploration is no longerattractive.

Finally, PIB is dead. Twicethe Jonathan administrationpresented the bill to theNational Assembly, NASS,and, twice government lackedthe WILL to see it through.The PIB which would havebenefited the oil-producingareas immensely will now beburied in the graveyard ofprocrastination andpresidential inertia. Decadesfrom now people from theNiger Delta will continue toshake their heads that one oftheir sons allowed thisopportunity to pass. For thefolly of leaders; peopleperish.

Every economiccatastropheinvariablymanifests itself inthe banking sector –which had actuallyplaced itself inharms way byfinancing the buy-out of InternationalOil Companies,IOCs, by localinvestors

LAUNCH - From left: Mr. Eniola Ositelu, Marketing Manager IkejaCity Mall, Mrs. Timilehin Lajubutu, and Mr. Uzoelum Chukwunalu,Marketing Coordinator and Operations Manager, Cold StoneCreamery Nigeria, Mr. Olusola Adeeko, Human Resource Manager,Eat‘N’Go Nigeria and Mrs. Temilola Akinmuda, On Air Personalitywith Cool FM Nigeria during the launch of Cold Stone Creamery atIkeja City Mall.

LAPO Micro finance Bank(MfB) has awarded

scholarship to about 750students who are children ofit's clients who meet therequirements set by thescholarship board, targeting100, 000 scholarship by 2022.

The bank conducted ascholarship ballot exerciseacross all the zones of itsoperation in the country and1000 students qualified for thescholarship but 750 who meetthe requirement would benefitthe scheme.

Speaking at the annualscholarship ballot exercise inLagos, Managing Director,LAPO MfB, Mr. GodwinEhigiamusoe, said that about5000 beneficiaries have

LAPO awards scholarship to 700 studentsStories byPROVIDENCE OBUH

emerged from the schemewhich started in 2007.

He explained that theessence of the balloting wasto make the process ofselection of beneficiaries as

transparent as possible and tojustify the confidence reposeon the organization by theclients over the years.

Ehigiamusoe said, “ wetarget in the next five to seven

years about 100,000 studentwill benefit, since we startedin 2007 we have continuouslybeen doing it on annual basisand we will continue toprovide the scholarship. We

started with 32 students in2007, by 2014 we have done5,000 students but 2015 we aredoing 700, we hope to do1000 or five thousand nextyear.

Conscious abut proximity, Cold Stone Creamery (CSC)Nigeria, makers of premium ice cream has made its début

at the Ikeja City Mall to benefit customers within the environ.CSC is owned by Eat N’ Go, a restaurant group whose mission

is to become the premier food operator in Africa, offering icecream experience including: Ice Cream, Ice Cream Cakes,Shakes, and Smoothies the way you want it.

Speaking at the shop opening ceremony, MarketingCoordinator, Cold Stone, Mrs. Timilehin Lajubutu, said thatthere are alternative cream for everybody but according todemand, “for people who are on the big side, we havesomething for them, such as: low fat yoghourt, healthy mix-in,nuts,coconuts fruits, smoothies and purely ice cream for thegenerality. She said that CSC was officially launched inSeptember 2012 and has grown to 13 stores across Nigeriaincluding, Lagos, Ibadan and Enugu.

Cold Stone Creamery débuts inIkeja City Mall


E-Commerce

LAUNCH - From left: Consultant, Digital Financial Services, Department for InternationalDevelopment (DFID), Ms. Susie Lonie; Chairman, Board of EFInA, Mr. Yemi Cardosa andConsultant, Digital Financial Services, Ms. Lesley-Ann Vaughan during the launch of EFInARequest For Proposal 6 event and workshop in Lagos.

One of the most notablefeatures of online

shops, since online retaildebuted in Nigeria, is itscheap prices of goods.Compared with the offlinemarket prices, these onlineshops, despite free shippingservices and high cost oflogistics, still manage tomaintain clear edge in termsof price while still offeringquality goods.

One of the online shops thathas maintained this traditionsince inception is Nigeria’spioneer online retailer,Jumia.com.ng. They haveconsistently maintainedcompetitive pricing in almostall items on offer. How do theyaccomplish this? How havethey been able to sustain thisdespite the recent devaluationof the Naira? Why are theirproducts always cheaper? Arethey packaging counterfeitedproducts online and selling toNigerians? This is becausemost times, their prices are soridiculously low that they can’tbut arouse suspicion.

An investigation into some ofthe prices Jumia offers for someproducts showed a consistentcompetitive pricing with eveninternational online retailerslike Bestbuy.com and Amazon.Take for instance the SamsungGalaxy S5 – Copper Gold. Thisgoes for about $569 onAmazon.com which whenconverted into the local

Lack ofaccess to bigdatahinderinge-paymentgrowth – ObiChief Executive Officer

of eTranzactInternational PLC, Mr.Valentine Obi has identifiedlack of access to big data asa threat to the growth ofelectronic payment inNigeria. He disclosed thisknow while speaking as amember of a paneldiscussion at the justconcluded Mobile WestAfrica held in Lagos.

According to him, “Onebig prerequisite for financialinclusion and fraud controlfor financial institutions is acheck called “Know yourCustomer (KYC). It is one ofthe biggest challenges weface in the paymentsindustry, and all players cancome together to help solvethis issue.”

He said: “Thet e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n scompanies own a lot of userdata and can help thepayments platforms bysharing this data. There is abig need for thet e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n scompanies to share data inorder to safeguard andprotect customers from fraudjust like banks share datawith the switchingplatforms.”

Can Jumia sustainaffordability drive withoutcompromising quality?Stories by JONAHNWOKPOKU

currency, the Naira will beabout N119, 000 depending onthe exchange rate. The sameproduct goes for $499.99,about N105, 000 on anotherinternational retailer,Bestbuy.com. These pricesexclude the shipping costincluding the customs andclearing duties, should onedecide to buy from thesestores. However in Nigeria,this same product goes forbetween N100, 000 and N105,000 in different online stores.It’s only Jumia.com.ng thatsells the product at N95, 230,according to the priceinformation available at theirwebsite at the time of thisreport.

Take also the BlackberryPassport. This could only beobtained at Jumia.com atN119, 500 against the N126,000 to N130, 000 that it couldbe obtained from other onlinestores nationwide. This pricealso comfortably beats aretailer like Bestbuy.comwhere the device goes forabout $667 which is aboutN133, 400.

Besides the electronicsegment, home appliancesalso enjoys favourable rates onJumia such as the Emel PlasticElectric Kettle-P006-Whitewhich goes for about N10, 875whereas the cheapest price itcan be bought elsewhere isabout N12, 200.

More so, in categories likefashion, their prices also beatthat of their competition by atleast 2 per cent. For instance,

a pair of Vanessa’s secret’sshoes which cannot be foundanywhere below N9, 000 inother online stores is availableat N6, 495 on Jumia.com.

About qualityThere is no gainsaying it,

that with many online retailshops springing up in recent

that one only needs somecommon sense to realise therehas been compromise onquality. In this regard, someshoppers who have shoppedfrom Jumia said from theirexperience, the quality ofgoods offered on the platformis not compromised.

Chukwudi Ozonna toldVanguard, “I was scepticalabout this online dealsespecially the quality of theproducts since they are alwayswilling to offer cheaper prices.But then one day I needed atelevision for my children’sroom. I saw a 22 inch LG TVon Jumia at N21, 900. I wassceptical about it but then afterI prized it offline and saw thatthe same TV goes for N29, 000,I decided to give it a try. Ihave used that TV for twoyears now; it has never hadany fault. It was an original LGproduct. I don’t how Jumiadoes it but I do know they dosell quality products at veryaffordable rates.”

Jumia and affordabilitySpeaking to Vanguard in an

exclusive interview on howJumia Nigeria maintained itscheap rates, Co-ManagingDirector, Jumia Nigeria, Dr.Jonathan Doerr said: “Jumiadoes not sell at cheaper ratesbecause it offers inferiorproducts. We are able to offerproducts at affordable priceswhich are less than otheronline retail companies andthose of brick and mortar storesdue to its wide assemblage ofbrand partners. You just nameit, from Apple to Infinix toLego, Samsung, L’oreal andmore, Jumia has been able toforge lasting and favourablepartnerships with the biggestbrand who are able to offerJumia their products atreduced tariffs and sometimeseven exclusively. Thesebrands are happy and alwayswilling to work with Jumia dueto a proven track record ofservice delivery, customersatisfaction and guaranteedvolume of sales.

According to him, thecompany leverages on itshuge customer base, and itsresultant economies of scale todrive down cost.

He said, “Speaking ofguaranteed volume of sale, ineconomics, there is a conceptcalled ‘Economies of Scale’.This concept explains thatthere are cost advantageswhich certain enterprisesenjoy due to their larger size,output and scale of operation.Being that Jumia Nigeria isthe biggest online retail storein Nigeria, accessible andpatronized daily by tons ofNigerians nationwide, it onlyadds up that unlike the others,Jumia Nigeria can now affordto plummet profit margins andprovide lesser priced productsto customers due to a reducedoverall operating cost.”

times, the price reduction hasbeen motivated more by thequest to beat competition. Thishas also meant somecompromises on the quality ofgoods. In some unregulatedonline marketplaces, theprices are even so ridiculous

Compared withthe offlinemarket prices,these onlineshops, despitefree shippingservices andhigh cost oflogistics, stillmanage tomaintain clearedge in terms ofprice while stilloffering qualitygoods

US technology giant Googlereported a 4 per cent increasein profits to $3.59bn, as strongadvertising sales helpedboost the firm’s bottom line.Google said advertising salesfor the first three months of2015 were $15.5bn, an 11 percent increase from the sameperiod a year earlier.

Total revenue also increasedby 12 percent to $17.3bn, butlike other US firms, thecompany was hurt by thestrong dollar.

Shares in the firm rose morethan 3 percent in trading aftermarkets had closed.

There had been fears onWall Street that profits wouldbe weaker due to investmentin new businesses andweaker advertising revenueas more people access Googlevia mobile devices, whereadvertising rates are lower.

Google profitsbuoyed by adrevenue


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Economy

•Mr Mounir Gwarzo, Acting Director General of Securitiesand Exchange Commission

Amidst concerns oversudden flattening of the

bull run in the Nigerian stockmarket, dealers arespeculating large inflows ofForeign Portfolio Investments(FPIs) on the heels of the postelection market rally.

World’s biggest sovereignwealth fund (SWF), Norway’sGovernment Pension FundGlobal (GPFG), is said to berefreshing its interests in theNigerian market after a tactical‘hold action’ late last year.Many dealers were workingon the expected surge in theFPIs after the elections but thedeals which were said to worthover USD20 billion were not yetconcluded as at last week.

Last year, GPFG added fiveAfrican states to the number ofcountries it approves asmarketplaces for trading inequities. It is keen to takeadvantage of the pace ofeconomic growth across Africato garner profitable returns onequity investments.

Its investments in Nigeria, asat the end of 2014 was USD63million (about N12 billion),which included stocks incompanies listed on theNigerian Stock Exchange(NSE).

About USD15.6 million (N3billion) or 23.5 per cent of thefund’s investments in Nigeriawent into the stock of ZenithBank while USD13.9 million(about N2.8 billion) or 21 percent of the FPI went intoGuaranty Trust Bank’s stock.The least in the allocation of itsFPI in Nigeria went into AccessBank stocks at USD2.1 million

Stories ByEMEKA ANAETO,Economy Editor

ForeignPortfolioInvestmentsexpected toincreasein Q2

Technical hitchhamperstransactions inNigeria’s BondsMarketTrade on local debt was

stalled after the glitchaffected central bank’s tradingplatform, traders said, addingthat they were concerned theproblem that started onWednesday could run into nextweek, threatening bondsettlement in the interbank,Reuters reported last weekend.

“(There is) no tradingcurrently going on in the marketas a result of the unresolvedtechnical glitch on the centralbank’s platform,” one dealersaid.

“We have seen fresh interestby some offshore investors,mostly a roll-over of maturedfunds and local pension, whichhas driven up demand for localdebt before the glitch,” a seniortraders said, referring to atechnical fault that hit trading.

Overnight lending rateshalved to an average 6 percenton Friday from 12.25 percent lastweek after central bank retiredlarge matured bonds andtreasury bills in the week,boosting liquidity in the market,traders said. However, thetechnical glitch that hit theCBN’s trading platformhindered major fund transfersand placement in the market.

“The market liquidity wasboosted by repaid maturedbonds and treasury bills worthabout 806 billion naira (USD4billion), but because of thetechnical fault, many traderswere unable to transfer or placemoney in the market,” one dealersaid.

(about N400 million) or 3.2 percent.

Other stocks that benefitedfrom this FPI includeInternational Breweries Plc,Larfarge Africa, Nestle,Nigerian Breweries, SeplatPetroleum, Stanbic IBTC Bankand UACN Plc.

The Norwegian SWF whichhas extended its FPI to includefive more African countries intotal has investment in 169companies in Africa.

Although the slump in globaloil prices has hurt Nigeria,Africa’s largest economy, the

International Monetary Fund(IMF) as well as several global

economy watchers still projectimpressive growth rates forNigeria and Sub-SaharanAfrica generally. Also, thenumber of middle-classhouseholds in the region hasgrown exponentially in the lastdecade. The Norwegian SWFis, therefore, determined topour more cash into thisemerging market, according toVentures Africa, a major Africaneconomy publication.

“Which new markets we enterdepends on which markets areavailable for investment, whatmarket opportunities there are,and market standards,” thefund said in its latest report.“We will continue to add newmarkets to the portfolio as soonas they meet our requirementsfor market standards.”

Although only 0.7 percent ofthe USD814 billion of TheNorwegian SWF’s investmentwas in the continent byDecember 2014, the fundappears poised to increase itsequity outlays in Africa. In astrategy report for 2014 – 2016released last year, NorgesBank Investment Management(NBIM), manager of theNorwegian SWF, said it wouldadd external mandates as itenters into new markets andsegments.

It said it expects to have 100external mandates by 2016,with the share of fundsmanaged by external bodiesexpected to have risen by 5percent. ”We use externalequity managers for themajority of our emergingmarkets investments and for allour investments in frontiermarkets,” the fund said.

The Nigerian Federal House ofRepresentative on Thursday passed the

sum of N4.5tn budget for the 2015 fiscal yearwith an increase of N135.4bn over initialproposal submitted in November 2014. Inaddition, the House has adopted an oilbenchmark of US$53.0, daily oil productionof 2.3mbpd, exchange rate of N190.00/US$1.00 and fiscal deficit/GDP ratio of 1.1%.Surprisingly, no provision for fuel subsidywas made in the approved 2015 AppropriationAct. A further review of the 2015 proposedbudget shows a 4.3% increase in totalexpenditure to N4.5tn in 2015 from N4.7tnin 2014. In the same vein, capital expendituredipped significantly by 50.3% from N1.1tnin 2014 to N0.6tn in 2015 despite theinfrastructure deficit in the country.

2015 Federal Budget: Matters Arising — AfrinvestIn spite of the acclaimed plan of the Federal

Government to reduce overheads, recurrentexpenditure (non-debt) increased 5.6% fromN2.5tn in 2014 to N2.6tn in 2015, accountingfor 58.8% of the total expenditure.

Debt service now accounts for 21.2% of thetotal expenditure on the back of thepersistence Y-o-Y increase in debt service(+33.9%). This will continue to be a sting inthe tail for the government in coming years.

A further breakdown of the debt serviceshows that about N894.6bn and N59.0bn willbe used for domestic and foreign debtsrespectively. Nevertheless, as a result of therebasing of the GDP, fiscal deficit to GDPstayed flat at 1.1% in 2015.

Consequently, the new Government willbe confronted with the challenge of

The least in theallocation of its FPIin Nigeria wentinto Access Bankstocks at USD2.1million (aboutN400 million) or3.2 per cent

implementing the 2015 budget in view ofthe current economic realities of lower oilproceeds. Meanwhile in anticipation thatthe Transition budget would likely becomelaw before the eventual take-over by thenew Government, the Buhari led incomingadministration has highlighted avenues toincrease the country’s revenue sources. Asa result, the next Government has proposedto run a lean government whilst blockingthe various revenue leakages.

Afrinvest, Nigeria’s leading finance andinvestment house, reasons that although,the execution of the 2015 budget may posea challenge for the incomingadministration, savings from the variousleakages and cost reduction may go a longway in supporting the successfulimplementation of the 2015 budget.

Nigeria'sNigeria's

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Agric

Aviation

The month of May is going tobe a special year in the annalsof Nigerian history as General

Muhammadu Buhari will be sworn inas the President of the country havingdefeated the incumbent, PresidentGoodluck Ebele Jonathan.

In the same month of May anotherNigerian, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina,the current Minister of Agricultureand Rural Development, might beelected the President of the AfricanDevelopment Bank as the financinginstitution is electing a new presidentto replace the incumbent PresidentDonald Kaberuka.

Dr. Adesina, who has gotten thesupport of General Buhari, will beslugging it out with a number of top-level finance officials in the regionwho have equally announced theirinterest in running for the position.

Other candidates short-listed for thepost along side Dr. Adesina,areEthiopia’s Finance Minister, SufianAhmed; Cape Verdean FinanceMinister, Cristina Kamara; currentVice President of the Islamic

MAY: Nigeria’s month with history asAdesina seeks to lead AfDBBY JIMOH BABATUNDEWITH AGENCY REPORTS Development Bank, Birama Sidibe

and Chad’s Finance Minister, KordjéBedoumra.

According to the AfDB Board, theselection of the most eligiblecandidates to succeed PresidentDonald Kaberuka was done by aSteering Committee of the Board ofGovernors at a meeting held inAbidjan on 11 Feb. Kaberuka iscurrently serving his second five-yearterm as AfDB President.

The out going AfDB President,Donald Kaberuka, many watchers ofthe financing institution said has takenthe bank to an enviable height thatanybody coming must be able to domore .

It is here that Dr. Adesina Akinwumiwealth of experience come in to totackle some pressing challenges inAfDB as many believe that the bankfaces competition for influence inAfrica from emerging players likeChina.

Realising the expectation from thebank, Adesina has promised Africa abank that will increase private sectorlending to curb widening inequalityon the continent.

“I see a bank that needs to do more

in the private sector,” Adesina said.He would focus on “new financialinstruments that can tap into thesepools of money, give us lower interestrates and long-term capital that Africacan use towards development.”

He also promise to focus the bank’sown lending on projects that havetrouble attracting private investors,such as water and sanitation in thepoorest countries. The AfricanDevelopment Bank’s private sectorlending was about $2.1 billion in 2013,up from $250 million in 2005, he said.

If elected, increasing access toenergy through infrastructureexpansion would be his top priority,followed by growing private sector jobsand industrialization, youthemployment, reviving ruraleconomies, and regional integration,he said.

For those who have followed Dr.Adesina’s career will not doubt hiscapacity to deliver when the chips aredown.

Adesina was AGRA’s Vice-Presidentfor Policy and Partnerships for fiveyears, before moving to his current roleas Nigerian Agricultural Minister.

While at AGRA, Akin Adesina helped

farmers and agro-dealers in Ghana,Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzaniaaccess over US$100 million in financethrough the use of innovativefinancing instruments.

He also worked to design the risksharing facility for the Central Bankof Nigeria, which leveraged US$3.5billion of lending from banks toagricultural value chains.

In 2011 Adesina become theNigerian Minister for Agriculture, andhas implemented a range of measureswhich have resulted in significantchanges in Nigeria’s agriculturalsector.

One of these measures is his effortsto make Nigeria self-sufficient in riceproduction.

By encouraging greater involvementof private seed companies into the riceindustry and providing farmers withsubsidized access to seed andfertilizer, since 2012, rice productionhas increased by seven million tons,while net farmer incomes have risenby $2.5 billion. Nigeria is on-track tobe self-sufficient in rice production by2018.

Adesina has also been commendedfor transforming the Nigerian fertilizerindustry by improving transparencyinto the supply and distribution offertilizer, by ending the government’srole in the buying and distribution ofseed and fertilizer.

By LAWANI MIKAIRU

The introduction of Aviation Cabotage law will saveNigeria 200 Billion Naira

annual revenue lose and stimulatethe development of indigenouscapacity and facilitate the pursuit fordeep local participation in the aviationsector. This is the view of Dr OlisaAgbakoba, a Human right Lawyer,Aviation and Maritime Consultant.

Agbakoba made this view knownduring a seminar on setting aviationagenda for incoming government ofGeneral Muhammadu Buhari. Hesaid the dwindling oil revenue hasmade it absolutely necessary for theincoming administration to focus onAviation sector for economicdiversification. And this, according tohim, calls for an Aviation Sector ActionPlan (ASAP). Cabotage law willcompel the aviation sector to reservecertain percentage of the market forlocal airlines and stakeholders.

Agbakoba said “With about 170million persons and regionaleconomic potentials, 22 airports, agrowing mass of flying middle class,Nigeria’s aviation requires massive

Aviation Cabotage will save N200bnannual revenue loss — Agbakoba

revamping in terms of infrastructure,legal, institutional and administrativeframeworks. “

“The Economic Benefits of Aviationand Performance in the Travel &Tourism Competitiveness IndexReport 2013 states that the aviationindustry supports tourism andinternational business by providingthe world’s only rapid worldwidetransportation network. Airlinestransported 2.8 billion passengers and47.6 million metric tonnes of air cargoin 2011, connecting the world’s citieswith 36,000 routes. By providing theseservices, the aviation industry playsan important role in enablingeconomic growth and providingvarious economic and social benefits.”

By DANIEL ETEGHE

The Med-View Airline said it hassigned a partnership

agreement with First bank of Nigeriafor online payment platform called“MasterCard Internet Gateway Service”(MIGS).This was contained in astatement signed by its Chairman, AlhajiMuneer Bankole and made available toaviation reporters on Thursday in Lagos

Med-view partners Firstbank on e-paymentThe statement noted that the service

would enable customers with Master/Visa cards to make payments onlineanywhere in the world.

According to the statement, this is toensure that Med-View brings its servicecloser to its numerous clients who desireto buy their tickets online within thecomfort of their home or offices withoutstress.

“This option of payment is in addition

to the Interswitch platform designedmostly for customers with Naira Mastercards.

“And the book-on-hold platform wherecustomers could walk into any bank inNigeria and pay for their reservationsmade online.To achieve this, customercan make reservation online and choosethe option “I want to pay with Master/Visa card” when they get to the paymentplatform,” it said.

COMMISSIONING - from left Mr Ishaq Naalah, Assistant General Manager,Business Development, Medview Airline; Mr Christophe Penninck, CEO, Bi-Courteney, Aviation Services Ltd; Alhaji Muneer Bankole, MD/CEO, MedviewAirline and Mr Akin Akinfemiwa, Group CEO, Forte Oil PLC during thecommissioning of the new Boeing 737 - 400 Aircraft acquired by MedviewAirline on arrival at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos on sunday.Photo Lamidi Bamidele

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Advertising & Promotions


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No doubt, companiesare increasinglyrecognising the

strategic importance of buildingbusiness practices that createsustainable economies,environments and societies. Inthe business world, CorporateSocial Responsibility, CSR is anindispensable tool for corporatelegitimacy and competitiveedge.

Even as Foreign DirectInvestment, FDI, is a keenlypursued objective ofdeveloping nations, its questhas lead to multinationalshaving access to emergingeconomies and when they areeventually admitted, thecompanies do not live up to theCSR demands of their hostcommunities.

In Nigeria for example, ShellPetroleum DevelopmentCompany, SPDC, MobileProducing, MTN, Airtel, BritishAmerican Tobacco Company ofNigeria Foundation, BATNF,Glo DHL, Promasidor,Guinness, Dufil, Nestle NigeriaPlc to mention but few, had comeup with some developmentprograms in host communitiesthrough their variousFoundations in order tomaintain their social license tooperate, with focus in areas suchas health, education andcommunity-building. Yet, whenparticularly oil companies likeShell, Mobil, Total and BATNattempt to implement a CSRagenda, they are regularly atarget for social activism onissues of malpractice.

Likewise, the water of lifeproject embarked upon byGuinness Nigeria Plc in partsof the country only ran for a fewmonths. A check at some of thewater sites in Ajegunle, Agege,Ogun state and other placesshowed that the sites are lyingfallow, this according toresidents was as a result inabilityof water to flow from the tapsafter commissioning and thatsince then Guinness have not

The good and ugly sides of CSR

returned to find out how theproject is performing.

Speaking, Franklin Emejo, aresident of Mba street inAjegunle, said water stoppedflowing few months after it wascommissioned. The story wasthe same in Agege area for theGuinness water of live project.In Ijebu-Ode consumers pay atoken to fetch the water, themoney Guinness said is tomaintain the project.

The bore hole constructed byDufil Prima Foods, owners of theIndomie brand had the samefate befall it as residents inOrile- Iganmu say waterstopped flowing longtime ago,likewise in other parts thecompany cited the project.

Speaking, Andrew Ojei, aresident of Orile -Iganmu, saidthat some of the CSR activitiesare shams. His words, “it is areap off in terms of tax reductionfrom the federal and internalrevenue offices. It’s a reap offin terms of deceit of the citizenrywho associate themselves withthe brands.” Even thoughmultinational investors or FDIinflow into multinationals ortransnational corporations withthe financial strength of somecorporations larger than that ofmany developing countries; areexpected to meet their CSR

requirements, companies stillremain adamant to plight oftheir operating communities.

A Non GovernmentalOrganization, NGO, Waterwarehouse Nigeria official,Ngozi Maduekwe, said that themajor problem is that most of theCSR projects are not the needof the people. “Communitiesshould be consulted beforecarrying out their activities, acommunity may require schoolbut construct water which maynot be their immediate need,they may require road and youbuild them clinic, these are someof the problems associated withwhat she called unplanned CSRinitiative.”

However, even when thesemultinational corporations makeso much profit, giving back totheir host communities throughthe concept of CSR becomes aproblem, asserts Igwe Odinaka,Head, Research at OrlickCommunications. He stated thatmost of the multinationals failto live up to laws governing theiroperations and activities, withregards to giving somethingback to society.

For example, Coca-Cola ismandated by USA law tocontribute no less than $100million annually towards theprogress of Hollywood, theAmerican movie industry. But inNigeria, no such initiative isavailable for Nollywood.

It was the late Senator UcheChukwumerije who tried in thiscapacity to institute the 1percent contribution for CSRwas frustrated along the line bysome the multinationals.

Even though some CSRactivities are riddled with deceitand controversy, their somecompanies that have performedwell in terms of giving back tothe society.

While Nigerian Breweries Plchas run a couple of reality TVshows and talent hunt eventssuch as AMBO box office,rested Music Quest, thesecannot be compared toHeineken’s support for theBritish Film industry as seen bythe millions of pounds itpumped into Skyfall, a JamesBond movie. Odinnaka retorted

But Adelaja Toki of TokiMabogunje and Company,argued that a company willgenerally be more proactive inits country of origin, when itcomes to living up to itsobligations. Its CSR activities inother countries would be only asmall percentage of its profit,when it looks at the huge tax itpays on revenue it generates,as well as remunerations to thelocal staff.

Thus, the establishment of abusiness integrity movementand the subsequent coming intobeing of the Convention onBusiness Integrity, CBI with thesupport of leaders of thoughtlike Dr. Christopher Kolade, Dr.Michael Omolayole, Mr.Akintola Williams, and Prof. PatUtomi, among others.

CBI has as its objective, thepromotion of ethical businesspractices, transparency and faircompetition in the private andpublic sectors, amongst otherthings. Living up to its billing,the business integritymovement has since wonconverts among illustriousNigerians and institutions.

Guinness Nigeria Plc, AccessBank, GTBank, MTN NigeriaCommunications Limited, andSAP Nigeria, among others aresignatories to CBI which aimsto move the Nigerian businesscommunity towards a state ofvisible zero tolerance forcorruption, and higher CSRperformance by companies, yetthis is lacking.

Winners have emerge from the IkejaCity Mall Promo rewarded loyalty

at its promo tagged: ‘EasterEggtravaganza.’ The promo which was inthree folds, first was the ‘Easter BunnyPromo’, to participate, shoppers droppedreceipt of N5,000 purchase with theircontact details at designated boxes placedat three entrances of the mall.

In a raffle draw, winners won giftsdonated by participating stores. The storesinclude Mr Price, Cold Stone, BheerhugzCafe, Sports World, Nike, Swatch, Da Viva,black|Up, Bruno’s Place, Jack & Jones,Seven Eagle Spur Restaurant, Harmony, V

ICM rewards loyaltyBy MILDRED IBRAHIM

Shop, Shoprite, Mango, Enzzo, DivaAccessories, Kidz Country, KFC and muchmore. Six winners emerge from this promo.

Another section of the promo was thetreasure hunt, called-’The Easter BunnyTreasure Trail’ where shoppers had tosearch twitter, Facebook and the Ikeja CityMall blog for clues about participatingtenant stores to help them locatetreasures(The Easter Eggs) strategicallypositioned inside participating stores. Theclues were uploaded on the eve of EasterSunday to ensure fairness in the wholeprocess.

Only shoppers who purchased itemsworth N5,000 on Sunday wereautomatically qualified for the second phaseof the promo.

With 21 kids that so farhave emerged in the

Indomie Independence day,IID award, search for the winnerof the 8thedition has begun.

The Group Managing Directorof Dufil Prima Foods Plc,Deepak Singhal, owners of theIndomie noodles brand,represented by Tope Ashiwaju,Public Relations/EventManager of the company, while presiding over the pressconference to usher in the8thedition of the heroes award,said the 2015 IID award wherethree kids who have braved theodds and displayed exceptionalcourage in the face of dauntingchallenges to save a situationwould be selected, recognized,rewarded and then celebratedfor their act of heroism.

The GMD went on to say thatthe three kids to be selectedwould have demponstratedremarkable acts of great couragedespite the unfavourableconditions they foundthemselves.

According to him, “so far 21children have received theawards and have their namedengraved in gold in our hall offame as heroes of Nigeria.” We are about to start theprocess of discovering anotherset of heroic children," he stated.

IID awardproduces 21winners

Communitiesshould beconsulted beforecarrying out theiractivities, acommunity mayrequire school butconstruct waterwhich may not betheir immediateneed

Stories by PRINCEWILLEKWUJURU

Knorr Taste Quest, anannual cooking

competition organized byUnilever Nigeria Plc, hasincreased its Star prize toN5miilion.The company disclosed thiswhen the Brand BuildingDirector, Foods, Mrs. NsimaOgedi-Alakwe, spoke at thethird edition press briefing ofthe competition tagged:‘Master class,’ where shestated that the winner will getN5million.According to her, the cashprize was premised on publicopinion, while stating thatwith the amount the winnercan still get a car of his or herchoice.Aside the N5million, the winnerwill receive kitchen equipmentsand cartoons of Knorrseasoning, she stated.She alsonoted that the prize of N1millionand N500,000 will be won by thefirst and second runner-uprespectively.Ogedi-Alakwe, who said thatregistrationis on viawww.knorr.ng.

Unilever increases‘Knorr TasteQuest’ prize toN5m

PRESENTATION: Barrett Kofi,Marketing Manager AGYA AP-PIAH BITTERS Company Limited;Samuel Ohemeng,ProductionManager, with Andrews Akolaa, Acting CEO, and JosephAjah,Managing Director Strategic and Pratical Nigeria Limit-ed, during the media presentaion of AGYA APPIAH BITTERS inLagos. PHOTO: AKEEM SALAU.

Business & Economy

Email:[email protected], [email protected] page:www.lesleba.com/blog2Website: www.lesleba.comTel:0805 220 1997


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Omoh Gabriel - Group Business EditorBabajide Komolafe - Deputy Business EditorClara Nwachukwu - Energy EditorPeter Egwuatu - Asst. Business EditorYinka Kolawole - Snr Bus. CorrespondentFavour Nnabugwu - Insurance CorrespondentGodwin Oritse - Maritime CorrespondentGodfrey Bivbere - Maritime CorrespondentMichael Eboh - Energy ReporterFranklin Alli - Industry/Agric. ReporterIfeyinwa Obi - Maritime ReporterRosemary Onuoha - Insurance ReporterNkiruka Nnorom - Capital Market Reporter

CONTRIBUTORSPrincewill Ekwujuru - Media/MarketingJonah Nwokpoku - E-CommerceNaomi Uzor - IndustryProvidence Obuh - Micro FinanceLAYOUT - Graphics Department

No plans to extend deadline for capital marketoperators — SEC boss

The Securities andE x c h a n g eCommission (SEC)

said that Sept. 30 deadline fornew minimum capitalrequirement for marketoperators would not beextended.

The acting Director-Generalof SEC, Mr Mounir Gwarzo,said in Lagos that thecommission had no plans toextend the deadline.

“The deadline has come tostay,” he said adding that thecapital requirement would beimplemented vigorously. Thedeadline is still Septemberand progress is being made,

Nigerians havebecome familiarwith the irregular

cycles of stable supply andintermittent scarcity in themarket for various products,ranging from essentialcommodities, such as sugar,bread and salt to the equallyimportant market for petroland kerosene. Expectedly,prices of these items spiralwhenever there is a supplydeficit, while prices willcollapse when supply levelsare once again restored.Indeed, in a free market,prices of goods and servicesfaithfully follow this pattern;curiously, however, themoney market in Nigeria (aswell as in several otherAfrican countries) is one ofthe few exceptions, where acommodity (in this casemoney) which is alleged to beconstantly in surplus,becomes increasinglyexpensive and costs well over20% to borrow!

For some unknown reason,the management of theseEconomies remains in denialof the causative link betweenthe ever-sliding rates of theirdomestic currencies againstthe dollar and the unceasing,unbridled, deliberatedomestic creation of excessivecash surpluses by therespective monetaryauthorities. In the Nigerianexperience, for example, theuninhibited increase andfailure to successfully controlmoney supply, made theattainment of a stronger Nairaexchange rate impossible,even, when we“consolidated” best everforeign reserves of about$60bn with extended importspayments cover.

Consequently, what hasbecome an abiding feature inNigeria, is the constantspectre of deliberately createddomestic cash surpluseschasing rations of dollar

When $ became cheaper in the black marketsupplies, which are controlledby the Central Bank.

Clearly, wherever productsare rationed, an insidiousblack market which willrecycle scarce supplies forresale at higher prices willevolve; ultimately the blackmarket price becomes aproduct of the extent of supplyshortage and the number of‘distributors’ in the chainbefore it reaches the finalconsumer. What is clear,nonetheless, is that a blackmarket generallycompromises supply sourcesand distorts marketdistribution to instigatehigher prices and excessiveprofiteering in the sale of anyscarce commodity.

Similarly, in the context ofNigerian’s foreign exchangemarket, the inability of ourmonetary authorities tosuccessfully modulate thebalance between Naira anddollar supply, in favor of theNaira, has led to an artificiallyinduced dollar scarcity in aclearly vibrant andinexplicable governmentfunded black market. Consequently, inconsonance with thecharacteristic feature ofhigher prices whenever thereis market scarcity, it wouldtherefore be an aberration ifthe black market price of thedollar ever falls below theofficial or interbank exchangerate.

Nonetheless, such anapparent price aberration,unexpectedly, transpired inthe recent past in our ownforeign exchange market!Indeed, barely a week beforethe Presidential polls, marketwatchers noted that the blackmarket dollar exchange ratehad fallen from aboveN220=$1 to between N212 -

N215=$1; furthermore,between the weekend of thepresidential polls and theEaster Holidays, the Nairafurther strengthened on theblack market to below N210,while the official rateremained steady at aboutN197 = $1.

The real drama, however,came in the last couple of daysbefore the state elections,when the Naira exchange ratein the black marketstrengthened below theofficial rate to sell, reportedly,for as low as N195=$1! Theunexpected appreciation ofthe Naira in the black marketwas interpreted in somequarters as an expression of

the Naira could only becomestronger, if the monetaryauthorities significantlyincreased the supply ofdollars, while keepingconstant or actually alsoreducing Naira supply anddemand. Well, there is noovert evidence that there wasany significant unusualreduction in money supply,during the period in question,although the extended EasterHolidays may have, despitethe availability of ATMs,reduced free access for hugemovements of Naira for largetransactions. So, if strongerNaira exchange rate in theblack market was not theresult of a significantdifference in the Naira supplyside of the equation, then wemay turn to the dollar supplyside for an answer. Inotherwords, was there anyapparent increase in dollarsupply or did the hoarders ofdollars decide to simplyoffload their holdings belowcost price as part of theircelebration of MuhammadBuhari’s victory?

There is nothing to suggestthat CBN spiked its dollarsupply to Bureau de Changeduring this period; ifanything, the CBN hascontinued to intermittentlyreduce the amount of forexallocations to BDCs becauseof supply challenges.Conversely, there wereunconfirmed media reports ofdollar bounties, which weredeployed to attract votesthroughout the federation bythe political class in the lasteight weeks and particularlyin the two weeks between theFederal and State elections.Evidently, the compact valueof the dollar made it thecurrency of choice for easymovement for the job that had

to be covertly done to improvethe chances of victory at thepolls.

The actual value of dollarsdeployed for this purpose isnot known, but it was certainlylarge enough to temporarilyoverwhelm subsisting Nairasupplies with BDC operatorsto make the Naira relativelyscarce against the dollar. Itwas consequently no bigsurprise therefore, that theheavy inflow of dollars intovibrant black market centresin Lagos, Kano, Ibadan, PortHarcourt, Abuja etc. quicklystrengthened the Nairaexchange rate below theofficial N197=$1.

The ready availability of asignificant Cache of dollarsfor election campaigns isprobably an indication thatCBN’s attempt to reduce themenace of bulk importation ofdollars since 2013 must havebeen an abysmal failure.

Clearly, the sales of dollarsbelow the official interbankrate is probably also reflectiveof the usual bargain pricesaccepted for prime qualitystolen goods. Thus, if theCBN did not suffocate theblack market with dollarsupply, then the politicalclass which, presumablytemporarily did so, did notcare much about receivingmarket value for the dollarsshared, probably because, inthe manner of stolen property,they did not have to put inany shift to acquire the dollarsthey liberally spread amongsttheir supporters.

Expectedly, nonetheless, thedollar surplus wasunsustainable and the Nairanow once again exchanges inthe black market for overN220=$1.

SAVE THE NAIRA, SAVENIGERIA!!

public confidence that GenBuhari will ‘make’ the Nairastronger when he assumespower.

The question, however, iswhether or not such publicsentiments are strong enoughto make any black marketforex dealer offload their stockof dollars at prices below thecost of purchase; if not so,what then could havehappened?

Well, a fall back to the solidground of the law of supplyand demand may provide uswith a plausible answer. Thus,

the level of compliance hasgone up but we aredetermined to keep to thatSeptember. 30, no shaking, nogoing back. There is no goingback and we are happy theway we are receivingresponses from all the capitalmarket operators,” Garzo said.

SEC had on December. 19,2013 issued a new capitalrequirement for capital marketoperators with December. 31,2014 as deadline for operatorsto recapitalise. SEC inresponse to numerousrepresentation from the capitalmarket community, extendedthe recapitalisation deadline

to September. 30, 2015. Thecapital market regulator hadearlier increased theminimum capital base forbroker/dealer by 329 per centfrom the existing N70 millionto N300 million.

Broker, which currentlyoperates with capital base ofN40 million, will now berequired to have N200million, representing anincrease of 400 per cent.

The minimum capital basefor dealer increased by 233per cent from N30 million toN100 million.

The question,however, is whetheror not such publicsentiments arestrong enough tomake any blackmarket forex dealeroffload their stock ofdollars at pricesbelow the cost ofpurchase

financial vanguard 27042015

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