Author: The Nation

By Lucas Ajanaku

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said local content in the technology sector will contribute to the growth of the economy, adding that the local production of smart cards at the highest quality is not only viable in Nigeria but also brings a plethora of opportunities with it for Africa.

Osinbajo spoke yesterday during a visit to the manufacturing facility of SecureID Limited on the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, Isolo, Lagos.

He lauded the smart card manufacturing and digital solutions firm for creating jobs and bringing the country to the fore of global competitiveness with its world-class smart card manufacturing plant in Lagos.

He said the recent GSMA certificate and other global certificates the company has bagged bore glowing testimony to the level of high standards demonstrated in its production of quality smart cards in the country.

Osinbajo said: “Today marks a momentous occasion in the history of the technology and manufacturing sector, and I am delighted to be a part of it. SecureID Limited has proved to us with this state-of-the-art manufacturing plant that local production of smart cards at the highest quality is not only viable in Nigeria but also brings a plethora of opportunities with it for Africa.

“I must commend this indigenous company for laying the precedent for other local manufacturers to follow. I must also congratulate the founder and CEO, Kofi Akinkugbe, who through her grit and passion to contribute to the growth of the economy, has committed innumerable resources and manpower to bring this factory to fruition. It warms my heart to see a woman take charge and create something indelible for other young women to emulate. She is an attestation to the fact that women are dependable collaborators in our quest for nation building.”

He lauded Akinkugbe for creating copious jobs for Nigerians, stating that this would bolster growth through local content.

Also, Akinkugbe said SecureID upholds high quality standards and protocols to manufacture an array of smart cards in line with global best practices, emphasising that the company worked resolutely, to attain the GSMA certificate and other certificates.

According to her, the company is demonstration that local production of smart cards at the highest quality is possible in Nigeria.

She said: “As an indigenous company, we are able to produce high quality SIM cards and at the same time, providing job opportunities for Nigerians. The government has seen it, its volume, value and growth that we are able to contribute is something we would showcase and further prove that this can be done locally. On our journey, we sought and received support from many institutions, agencies, and initiatives that have been established to encourage startups SMEs and enterprises.

“Some forward looking organisations also bought into our dream, early on and we must thank the Bank of Industry, in particular for the instrumental and continuing role.

“First Bank of Nigeria Plc, was also an early financial assistance, and they remain our primary lender.

“We are extremely grateful and proud of the patronage, that we received from most of the retail buyers, some of whom are represented here,not just in Nigeria, but across the continents, she said.

Also speaking at the event, Executive Director, Bank of Industry (BoI), Mr Simon Aranonu, said the bank was excited about SecureID because it was a pioneer project led by  a woman.

“We are happy to be part of this journey which started 10 years ago, the BoI will continue to support the company because it is a good innovation,” Aranonu said adding that the company would help safe foreign exchange in Nigeria.

The company recently bagged the esteemed Global System of Mobile Applications (GSMA) making it the first in Nigeria and third in Africa; adding to its other global certifications including Visa International, MasterCard Incorporated, Verve, Card Quality Management (CQM) and ISO 9001/2015 for Smart Card Manufacturing and Personalisation of credit and debit cards for all banks in Nigeria and clients in 21 countries across Africa. SecureID also manufactures subscriber identity module (SIM) cards for telecom companies, loyalty cards for retail and security documents for public sector: driving license, national identity cards, international passports and more.

By Grace Obike, Abuja

Fibre to the Home (FTTH) broadband provider, FiberOne Broadband, has extended its service to Abuja its success in providing Lagos with superfast broadband services.

Group Head of Business, FiberOne Broadband, Tajudeen Adeniyi, said the extension is in furtherance of its commitment of deepening Fibre-to-the-Subscriber (FTTx) service all across country, adding that a customer experience centre was also inaugurated in the city.

He said FiberOne Broadband’s range of SmartHome plans will transform the home broadband experience with superfast data speeds enabling HD video streaming, heavy file downloads and uploads in a multi-device environment (over Wi-Fi). Not leaving out businesses, the Enterprise plan comes with unhindered internet access, increased reliability and a dedicated IP address to connect businesses to the world.

Adeniyi said: “We are delighted to bring our services to residents of the Federal Capital Territory, as part of our endeavor to provide best-in-class broadband experience to Nigerians. With our SmartHome and Enterprise Plans, we are set to offer an altogether seamless and transformed experience to digitally savvy homes and businesses.

“FiberOne Broadband will deliver speeds up to 35Mbps to home users as a way of leaving her broadband footprint in the city.”

Also, Head of Customer Experience, Sola Ogunnusi, said in preparation for the rollout in Abuja, the company saw the need to setup an experience centre in Wuse 2, Abuja.

Ogunnusi said: “The Wuse 2 Customer Experience Center will provide seamless onboarding services to our new subscribers and significantly strengthen our presence in the vicinity. The center is our way of reiterating that FiberOne Broadband is committed to offering our esteemed customers convenience and unlimited access to world-class support and services.

“The Wuse 2 FiberOne Experience Centre is ergonomically designed for efficient interactions between the FiberOne and its customers, the design element of the Experience Centre is geared at providing a seamless and educative experience to the customers. “The new expansion and the experience center are important milestones in solidifying FiberOne Broadband’s stance on the Nigerian map.”

FiberOne Broadband is the foremost FTTX provider in Nigeria and has been connecting people and businesses to the world, earning a reputation for being a reliable broadband provider. The company’s product offerings include Residential fiber, SME fiber and dedicated fiber.

By Muyiwa Lucas

The Nigeria’s electricity transmission system, also known as the National grid, has suffered another system collapse, plunging Lagos, country’s commercial capital, Kano and other major cities into blackout.

The collapse, which occurred about 11.00 am yesterday, was confirmed by two of the country’s electricity distribution companies in separate messages to their customers.

“We regret to inform you that the power outage being experienced across our franchise – Kaduna, Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states – is as a result of the collapse of the national grid,” Kaduna Electric said on Twitter.

Eko Electricity Distribution Company Plc, in a text message to its customers, said: “Dear customer, there is a partial system collapse on the national grid. Our TCN partners are working to restore supply immediately. Please bear with us.”

The grid, which is being managed by government-owned Transmission Company of Nigeria, has continued to suffer system collapse over the years amid a lack of spinning reserve that is meant to forestall such occurrences.

Spinning reserve is the generation capacity that is online but unloaded and that can respond within 10 minutes to compensate for generation or transmission outages.

By Okwy Iroegbu­-Chikezie

To equip its staff members with requisite knowledge and increase their capacity for best practices, the Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority (LASRERA) has held a five-day in-house staff learning and development programme on customer service professional ethics and practice.

The objective of the training, according to the Special Adviser to the Governor on Housing, Mrs. Toke Benson-Awoyinka, is to build a team of well-trained and dedicated  staff for the agency.

The Special Adviser stated that the training provides ample opportunity for the staff members of LASRERA to review and reflect on the changes being witnessed by the agency to continue to sanitise the real estate industry towards engendering best professional practices in the Sector.

Benson-Awoyinka said: “As a team member of LASRERA, practitioners in the sector are bound to ask us many questions, lodge complaints and make different requests from us including the public, hence the need to be prepared to provide answers to all these enquiries as much as possible. This is one of the benefits of this in-house training.”

She stressed the need to follow the template of a customer-friendly approach for effective service delivery of the government’s T.H.E.M.E.S. Agenda, especially the “Making Lagos A 21st Century Economy” pillar of the agenda where the activities of the agency fall.

In her words, “As representatives of this Agency, we must give adequate information needed to instill public confidence in our activities. We must maintain positive dispositions when dealing with Real Estate Practitioners and the general public.”

The Special Adviser expressed the hope that the training session will further build the abilities of the participants on how to drive the present Administration’s vision policy of safeguarding and protecting investments and investors across the state.

One of the Facilitators during the training session, Mr Nduka Mba-Uzoukwu who spoke on Customer Service Excellence stressed  that sustaining the State Government’s goals in service delivery would ensure a great experience for the Stakeholders in the State’s Real Estate Market.

He commented that customer experience across all service points of the Agency must be excellent, adding that emotions must be guarded when dealing with stakeholders to achieve the Agency’s desired vision.

Oil prices rose after the release of the International Energy Agency’s (IEA)  closely-watched Oil Market Report, with WTI Crude trading at above $66 a barrel and Brent Crude surpassing the $69 per barrel mark.

Prices jumped even though the agency revised down its full-year 2021 oil demand growth forecast by 270,000 barrels per day (bpd) from last month’s assessment, expecting now demand to rise by 5.4 million bpd. The downward revision was due to weaker consumption in Europe and North America in the first quarter and expectations of 630,000 bpd lower demand in the second quarter due to India’s COVID crisis.

The excess oil inventories of the past year have been all but depleted, and a strong demand rebound in the second half this year could lead to even steeper stock draws, the IEA said yesterday, keeping an upbeat forecast of global oil demand despite the weaker-than-expected first half of 2021.

However, the upbeat outlook for the second half of the year remains unchanged, as vaccination campaigns expand and the pandemic largely comes under control, the IEA said.

Moreover, the global oil glut that was hanging over the market for more than a year is now gone, the agency said.

“After nearly a year of robust supply restraint from OPEC+, bloated world oil inventories that built up during last year’s COVID-19 demand shock have returned to more normal levels,” the IEA said in its report.

In March, industry stocks in the developed economies fell by 25 million barrels to 2.951 billion barrels, reducing the overhang versus the five-year average to only 1.7 million barrels, and stocks continued to fall in April.

“Draws had been almost inevitable as easing mobility restrictions in the United States and Europe, robust industrial activity and coronavirus vaccinations set the stage for a steady rebound in fuel demand while OPEC+ pumped far below the call on its crude,” the IEA said.

The market looks oversupplied in May, but stock draws are set to resume as early as June and accelerate later this year. Under the current OPEC+ policy, oil supply will not catch up fast enough, with a jump in demand expected in the second half, according to the IEA. As vaccination rates rise and mobility restrictions ease, global oil demand is set to soar from 93.1 million bpd in the first quarter of 2021 to 99.6 million bpd by the end of the year.

“The widening supply and demand gap paves the way for a further easing of OPEC+ supply cuts or even sharper stock draws,” the IEA said.

The agency’s assessment for oil demand is similar to that of OPEC, which expressed optimism in its monthly report on Tuesday that accelerating vaccination programs and rising fuel demand would raise global oil demand by 5.95 million bpd this year despite the COVID crisis in India.

By Grace Obike, Abuja 

The Federal Government is set to track constituency projects in Kaduna valued at N6 Billion in the 2020 and 2021 budgets.

The Ministry of Budget and National Planning said it will be working with accountability partners to track the effectiveness of project implementation at State and local levels.

It said that it has agreed to partner with leading social accountability initiative, Follow The Money on open government partnership in relation to constituency projects in Kaduna.

Follow the Money is a project under the Non Governmental Organization Connected Development (CODE).

Communications Associate CODE Adaora Okoye in a statement, stated that the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba said this while receiving Follow The Money activists in his office.

Okoye stated, ” The Ministry of Budget & National Planning has agreed to partner with leading social accountability initiative, Follow The Money on open government partnership in relation to constituency projects in Kaduna valued at N6bn in the 2020 and 2021 budgets.

“The Honourable Minister of Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba, who is also co-chair of the Open Government Partnership, while receiving Follow The Money activists in his office, stated that the Ministry was receptive to working with accountability partners to track the effectiveness of project implementation at State and local levels where OGP can further be enhanced within grassroots communities.

“CODE’s Programs Associate, Kingsley Agu, who led the team revealed that through a campaign to deepen citizens interest in government’s spendings and address accompanying corrupt practices, CODE in collaboration with MacArthur Foundation was setting the pace to initiate reforms that will promote government’s transparency, accountability and citizens’ participation in government budgeting system.

“CODE seeks to partner with the Ministry of Budget & National Planning to further enhance service delivery and infrastructural development for grassroots communities particularly, through budget information-sharing and providing data on constituency projects. Through this, the Community Monitoring Teams can ensure projects are effectively completed.

“Agu added that collaboration with the Ministry was a strategic move to collectively combat corruption, illicit financial flows and track to completion, development projects in rural areas so people can have access to potable drinking water, standard healthcare and even primary education.

“Assuring to partner with CODE, the Honourable Minister revealed that “The Eye Mark App”, a web and mobile-based application with geo-meta tags that is secured and easily accessible will be launched by the ministry to enable citizens update information about community projects in real-time, with the inclusion of photos to show the current status of the project.

“CODE has now urged the release of budget details to enable citizens track public projects effectively. The Organisation is committed to supporting government initiatives that provide the dividends of democracy to improve the lives of the people whom the government serves.”