The Nation Newspaper

Category: Industry

  • Innovative, promising world of digital agri-preneurs

    BY CHIKODI OKEREOCHA

    Globally, the number of hungry people stands at 821 million, according to the 2019 State of Food and Security of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Of this number, Africa accounts for 251 million, representing 31 per cent of hungry people. But, a crusade to leverage digital agriculture to push back hunger is on course, with Nigeria leading the charge. Experts say prioritising digital agriculture will not only change how farmers farm, but also transform all segments of the agric value chain, Assistant Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA reports

    Globally, a new thinking in favour of using digital technology to boost food production, unlock the vast potential of agriculture value chains and, ultimately, push back hunger has taken the centre stage. But, in Africa, where the scourge of hunger is more pronounced, Nigeria appears to be leading the charge to change the embarrassing narrative via digital agriculture.

    The United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) 2019 State of Food and Security put the number of hungry people globally at 821 million. Of the number, the organisation said Africa accounted for 251 million, representing 31 per cent of the hungry people.

    Disconcerting, no doubt, African Development Bank (AfDB) Group President Akinwumi Adesina called for urgent and concerted efforts to “end hunger”.  He said: “In spite of all the gains made in agriculture, we are not winning the global war against hunger. We must all arise collectively and end global hunger. Hunger diminishes our humanity.”

    That was at the recent Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD7)  in Yokohama, Japan, where, in his keynote address, Adesina aligned with the position of global business leaders, investors and development partners that digital agriculture is the next frontier for economic development in Africa.

    Even before the conference acknowledged that digital agriculture is perhaps, the most transformative and disruptive of all the revolutions in agric, Nigeria had started making  strides in the use of digital agriculture, not only to change how farmers work, but also  to transform every part of the agri-business value chain.

    Some Nigerian agriculture platforms that have been recording successes in harnessing digital technologies to deliver value to various stakeholders in the sector are Farmcrowdy, Thrive Agric, Fresh Direct, Simply Green, Psaltry International, Verdant Agritech, and Kerekusk Rice.

    For instance, for his ground-breaking innovation, co-founder of Thrive Agric, Mr. Ayodeji Arikawe, was one of the top 10 finalists for the grand finale of the Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative (ANPI) scheduled to take place in Accra, Ghana, on November 16.

    The ANPI is a conference where African and global entrepreneurs, investors, educators, and leaders will convene to discuss how best to enable entrepreneurship and the digital economy across the continent.

    Spearheaded by the Jack Ma Foundation, ANPI is a philanthropic initiative aimed at supporting and inspiring the next generation of African entrepreneurs across all sectors, who are building a more sustainable and inclusive economy for the future of the continent.

    Arikawe’s Thrive Agric is an agricultural technology-enabled company that works with smallholder farmers to enable them with greater access to finance, as well as improve their income and harvest distribution.

    Today, Thrive Agric works with 22,000 smallholder farmers in Nigeria. With its platform, it has been increasing digital participation in agriculture by providing agro-based high-yield investment opportunities that guarantee profitable returns for farmers.

    The company said its aim was to build the largest network of farmers in Africa. According to Arikawe, the company’s mission is to “build an Africa that feeds the world and itself.” He added that to make sure farmers are fully secured, its farms and farming activities have comprehensive covers by Leadway Assurance.

    This must have been why the ANPI chose Arikawe among the top 10 finalists from across Africa to compete for a share of the $1 million  grant. His selection came after seven months and nearly 10,000 applications from 50 African countries accessed by the initiative.

    However, Arikawe’s Thrive Agric is not the only success story of Nigeria’s push to end hunger by leveraging digital agric space. Farmcrowdy, Nigeria’s first digital agriculture platform, has also been empowering farmers across Nigeria by offering them access to funding, quality seeds and capacity building.

    Since September 2016, when it threw its doors open for business, the platform has empowered over 12,000 farmers across 14 states in Nigeria. With farm sponsors in Nigeria and across the Diapora, Farmcrowdy is effectively growing a community of local farmers and facilitating food production in Nigeria and eventually across Africa.

    Founded by e-commerce expert Onyeka Akumah and four other Nigerians, Farmcrowdy tightened its grip on the digital agric landscape when it sealed a $1 million seed funding deal on March 21, this year. It was led by international and local investors, which included Cox Enterprises and Techstars Ventures, among others.

    On the strength of the additional funding, Akumah said the company was poised to amplify its presence in Nigeria and also explore new opportunities.

    “We are delving into the possibility of utilising drone services for field analysis, improving our farmers yield with additional research and 3D mapping. We are also entering into formidable strategic partnerships that will grow the impact of our work,” she said.

    The company is said to be working on expanding to other African countries.

    Essentially, Farmcrowdy connects smallholder farmers with investors. Nigerian “farm sponsors,” as the investors are called, select the farms they want to invest in on the firm’s website shop or on its mobile app.  Farmcrowdy, then, uses the funds to hire farmers, lease land, and provide inputs such as fertiliser, seed, and technical support from planting to harvesting.

    Farms on the website are rice, maize, poultry, cassava, and soya beans. The farm cycle can run from three to 10 months, depending on the type of farm, with return on investment hovering around 6 to 25 per cent.

    Investors can put in anything from $300 to $1,000, or even more in some cases. “What we have done successfully is introduce Nigerians to how they can come together in a pool, through a trusted platform that they can vet, and sponsor small-scale farmers to grow food,” Akumah said.

    Nasir Yammama, founder, Verdant AgricTech, another digital agriculture platform, has also thrown his hat into the ring. Since 2014 when he started, Yammama has never looked back in his resolve to use innovation in digital technology to fight hunger. He does this by helping farmers increase their productivity, earn more money, and promote sustainable farming system, which thrives largely on mobile technologies.

    To access these services, farmers buy one-time paper scratch cards containing a Personal Identification Number (PIN) for a little fee from agricultural cooperatives they belong to.

    Once a farmer obtains the card, he or she texts the command “REG” or “HELP” alongside details like their name, gender, and location to a short code created by Verdant AgricTech. This system is already running in the northern city of Kano.

    The firm validates the request and then proceeds to phone or text the farmer to schedule a visit that would enable its staff to profile the farmer. Verdant AgricTech then begins to offer periodic reminders, advisory services, weather information, and financial skills to registered farmers.

    Farmers can easily text commands like “WRT” to get weather forecast, “FINA” for financial advice, “TILL” for guidance on tillage operations, “HARV” for guidance on harvesting, and many more. The social enterprise then uses text, audio message, or phone calls to address the enquiries.

    Verdant AgriTech’s platform also links small-scale farmers to other key players in the value chain, using data to inform farmers and the stakeholders alike. The goal, according to Yammama, is to ensure that “data is available across the value chain so that the farmer is able to make better decisions in the long run”.

    He said data was crucial to modern agriculture because it makes the works of agritech start-ups, donors, policymakers, and the government easier. “We want policymakers to decide better, we want farmers to decide better, we want agribusinesses to decide better,” he said.

    Similarly, Simply Green Juices, Nigeria’s first farm-to-bottle, organic, cold-pressed juice company, is also making significant inroad into the digital space. The company grows fruits and vegetables used in the production of its various juices at a farm in Oyo State.

    Its CEO, Sola Ladoja, said his target was to cut the importation of fruits and vegetables into  the country since most of them can be grown locally. The agri-preneur said he started the business when he discovered that there were no good-quality green juices in Nigeria, compared to New York where he was living previously.

    His venture into the juice business has since paid-off. The business, which he started in 2014 with $700 ( about N250,000), is said to have grown into millions of naira.

    Even Psaltry International, another digital agric platform, which started earlier in 2005 with a focus on the marketing of cassava, has not done badly either. Founded by Yemisi Iranloye, the agribusiness has since expanded its operations into farm development and production of food-grade starch from cassava.

    Today, Psaltry supplies food-grade starch to firms in Nigeria. It also has an outgrower scheme that benefits about 2,000 farmers, labourers, processors, and other players in the cassava-to-starch supply chain.

    Also waxing strong is Fresh Direct, an organic farming start-up that uses new solutions, such as vertical farming and hydroponics (growing plants without soil and with little water). Its aim is to make farming accessible to everyone to produce food, even in cities.

    Founded by Angel Adelaja, Fresh Direct has created a stackable container farm using shipping containers, where one container can produce vegetables grown on one-and-a-half acres of land. Fresh Direct also creates low-tech affordable technologies from indigenous materials to make farming simpler.

     

    Why digital agriculture is thriving

    It is easy to see why digital agriculture is gaining traction. For one, more than 80 per cent of Nigeria’s farmers are said to be smallholder farmers, producing more than 90 per cent of domestic output.

    A 2016 report by World Bank also said half of working Nigerians are in smallholder farming, noting, however, that this group accounts for the poorest 40 per cent of the population compared to only 17 per cent of wage workers.

    According to development experts, the high poverty rate amongst small-scale farmers is as a result of low mechanization, poor agric extension systems, poor road networks, inadequate market information, and lack of access to credit and quality inputs such as fertiliser and seed.

    As if these issues are not enough to hold small-scale farmers down, the challenge of climate change, which is marked by irregular rainfall patterns and rising temperatures, has also added to their woes.

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) have, through various initiatives, sought to address some of these challenges by linked smallholder farmers to large-scale processors and facilitating access to credit by de-risking agricultural financing from banks.

    However, their efforts have not been able to close the gap. Factors such as illiteracy, cultural barriers and geography have continued to constrain the expansion of digital solutions to smallholder farmers in Nigeria hence, the intervention of digital agriculture platforms in Nigeria.

    Their collective plan was to use a range of digital tools to improve the livelihood of smallholder farmers. They unanimously agree that digital agriculture is a viable option to push back poverty amongst farmers and also end food insecurity.

    Interestingly, the Tokyo conference brought this reality to the front burner, with the Director of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), Michael Hailu, stating that digital technology is a prerequisite to advancing agriculture on the continent.

    “Without transforming agriculture you cannot envisage development,” emphasised. His comments were echoed by Regional Vice President for Middle East Africa for International Finance Corporation (IFC), Sergio Pimenta, who said the digital revolution would help unlock the vast potential of agriculture value chains.

  • Resolving LADOL’s Indigenous Ownership Confusion

    The administration of President Muhammadu Buhari from inception realised that Nigeria is in dire need of foreign and local investments to create employment and boost the economy.

    This informed the president’s aggressive drive for investments.

    Since 2015, President Buhari has introduced a lot of incentives to woo local and foreign investors.

    His efforts have paid off with the latest ranking of Nigeria in the Word Bank’s Ease of Doing Business (EoDB), which showed that Nigeria moved 15 places from 146th position  to 131 in the World Bank’s report.

    With the improvement in Nigeria’s Ease of Doing Business, many foreign and indigenous companies have shown interest in Nigeria since 2015.

    Speaking on the topic: ‘Nigeria’s Blue Economy, Potentials and Challenges,’ on Arise TV Global Business Report on October 4, 2019, the Managing Director of Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics (LADOL), Dr. Amy Jadesimi, rightly pointed out that “Nigeria is an opportunity many people in the world have missed”.

    “So, the problem is not that they don’t want to put their money here, they are trying to figure out the mechanism for putting their money here. And again, the key to success is indigenous private sector,” she explained.

    Indeed, before President Buhari came to power, many foreign investors missed the opportunity in Nigeria because of frustrations by the government agencies.

    Even when President Buhari came in and sanitised the system, many companies that parade themselves as indigenous companies have also tried to frustrate foreign investors out of Nigeria.

    LADOL, for instance, was accused of waging wars against foreign companies operating in the Lagos free zone.

    While indigenous companies build bridges and partnerships to attract investments and build their own capacity, LADOL’s unfriendly attitudes drive away investments from Nigeria.

    LADOL’s unquenchable appetite to create monopoly made other investors to question its so-called indigenous status.

    Jadesimi also assured that “we are going to be able to create hundred thousands of jobs. So, the market potential in Nigeria is what is going to attract that investment into our country”.

    The question is: How do you create jobs when you drive away investors?

    Having realised that indigenous companies are key to investment, the task before the regulatory agencies is to resolve this issue of LADOL’s indigenous status.

    When it is clarified that LADOL is not a foreign company masquerading as a local company, it will be given its rightful place as either a foreign company or a local company.

    This confusion about its ownership status came to the front burner when it was discovered that a company called LILE (LADOL Integrated Logistics Enterprise) which is a duly registered company in the British Virgin Islands owns LADOL.

    The shareholding structure is substantially made up of two foreign companies namely: SABLE OFFSHORE INVESTMENTS and ALSBA Ventures Group. Both companies are registered entities in the British Virgin Islands otherwise known as the safe haven for tax dodgers.

    SABLE Offshore Investments commands a whopping 53 per cent stake in LADOL while ALSBA Ventures Group takes an impressive 31 per cent of the shares. This only leaves a share percentage of 16 per cent for the remaining shareholders, which includes key characters currently at the helm of LADOL.

    Before this development, LADOL and its affiliates have flaunted the perception of being a company which stands for the Nigeria values and interests and enjoyed the full benefits of the Nigerian Content Law.

    This propaganda earned the company and its promoters awards and endorsements both locally and internationally.

    But with this allegation about its ownership, it is now clear that all that glitters are not gold.

    The only way to resolve this issue is to launch a probe into the ownership structure of the   company.

    • Adamu, a public policy analyst, writes from Abuja

  • NSE, CBAN renew call for access to credit by MSMEs

    By Chikodi Okereocha

    The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Credit Bureau Association of Nigeria (CBAN) have renewed the call for  access to credit facilities by Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSMEs) to unlock their growth and development.

    The Head, Trading Business, NSE, Mr. Jude Chiemeka, while receiving CBAN delegates, led by its Chairman, Mrs. Jameelah Sharieff- Ayedun, at the NSE head office in Lagos, during the week, said MSMEs needed an improved credit reporting to access capital for various projects.

    According to him, the MSME sector is the backbone of major developed economies, as well as an important contributor to employment, economic and export growth. He said MSMEs accounted for over 80 per cent of businesses and more than 70 per cent of employment in Nigeria.

    Read Also: NSE, CBAN renew call for access to credit by MSMEs

    Chiemeka added that, despite the significant contribution of MSMEs to the economy, challenges still persist that hinder their growth and development, as they find it difficult to access credit to expand and grow their business.

    He, however, said the NSE remains fully committed to ensuring that the MSMEs, which he described as the engine room for Nigeria’s economic development, have long term access to finance as it has set in motion a modality to achieve this objective.

    Responding, Mrs. Sharieff-Ayedun, who is the managing director/CEO, Credit Registry, Mrs. Sharieff-Ayedun, said there was need to promote and encourage MSMEs by providing an enabling environment where they can have access to affordable credit.

    This, she said, would add value to the economy, improve the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and correspondingly contribute to more employment and improved standards of living for Nigerians.

    According to her, Nigeria has witnessed a tremendous improvement on loan repayment by both corporate and individual borrowers, attributing this to the existence of the Credit Reporting Act in the country.

    She added that borrowers needed to be accountable to credit they collected, saying that CBAN has, over the years, engaged in education and enlightenment on responsible borrowing.

    According to her, the Sixth National Credit Reporting Conference, a yearly flagship event of the association, holding tomorrow, would discuss the accessibility of credits by the MSMEs and other issues relating to responsible borrowing.

    The event, which will hold in Lagos, will have Lagos State Governor Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu and the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, as Special Guests of Honour.

    Mrs. Sharieff-Ayedun said the conference would discuss the need to evaluatie MSMEs to unlock further growth of the sector.

    She added that such evaluation would assist in attaining a status report on the level of impact of the funding and other support strategies on the target recipients.

    It would also aid in driving policy assessment, redirection and formulation going forward, especially in this economic climate.

    CBAN is an incorporated not-for-profit and non-governmental business management organisation formed to promote a credit reporting culture towards the expansion of Nigeria’s economy through its values.

    Members of the association are the licensed private credit bureaux, including First Central Credit Bureau, CRC Credit Bureau Limited and CR Services Credit Bureau.

    CBAN promotes the use of credit information, access to finance and the success of members and stakeholders through advocacy and capacity building, among others.

  • Nigeria, Russia partner to revive Ajaokuta

    The Federal Government is partnering the Russian Government to revive the Ajaokuta Steel Company (ASC) in Kogi State, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, has said.

    He spoke at an interactive session with Senate Committee on Solid Minerals, Mines, Steel Development and Metallurgy in Abuja.

    Adegbite said the main feature of President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to Russia this week was to discuss reviving the steel company.

    He said the Russians had shown interest to help Nigeria revive Ajaokuta with their own money. “They want to put Ajaokuta back and we are looking at different methods to engage them. They would bring in some money to finish what is there and operate it for a while; realise their investment, profit and transfer it back to Nigeria.

    “I think this is the best path to revive Ajaokuta and I believe within our tenure, we will achieve this,” Adegbite said.

    The minister, however, said contrary to reports, ASC was never vandalised, but it was concessioned to a firm.

    Adegbite also noted that the invasion of the mining industry by foreign nationals was being encouraged by some state governments. “A lot of effort is going on to check illegal mining in the country,” he said.

    Chairman of the Committee Senator Tanko Almakura said efforts must be made structurally and legally to encourage states and local governments not to participate in illegal mining.

    “If you look at mining, it is in the Exclusive List. There is the need for us to come together; the Senate, House of Representatives, ministry and stakeholders.

    “Let’s get down and unbundle this to give every tier of government some level of participation without usurping the exclusive legislative right. “We can have the concurrent with the exclusive running side by side,” Almakura said.

    He urged the ministry to identify very important and lucrative solid minerals wherever they are in the country to help in diversifying the economy.

    “Unless we take the approach that was used in the ministry of agriculture in diversification, we may not be in a position to fast-track development and diversification in the solid mineral sector.

    “With the support of the Senate, we can cause the Presidency to bring about a presidential committee dedicated to the different kinds of solid minerals varieties.

    “They include limestone, tin, columbite etc to boost the economic development of the country,” Almakura said.

  • Fed Govt to grow automotive sector with right policies

    The Federal Government will initiate needed legal framework to grow the automotive sector, Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation Abubakar Malami has said.

    He spoke in Abuja at the unveiling of a competition on automotive design, rganised by the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC).

    Malami said the Federal Government was committed to putting in place necessary legal framework and right policies for the growth of the sector.

    “This will provide an enabling environment for investments in automobile sector, which will earn foreign exchange for the country and create jobs for the youths,’’ he said.

    The competition is aimed at discovering talents will promote automotive design.

    The yearly event presents automotive challenges and gives opportunity to innovative Nigerians to express their talents in applicable design solutions. The challenge focuses on the design of mini-taxi and cost-effective mini-tractor.

    Malami described the  challenge as a commendable effort in promoting innovations and solutions to the nation’s challenges in mechanical, agricultural and transportation sectors. “The Federal Government will support your efforts through provision of necessary legal framework and desired support aimed at boosting public transportation, agricultural development and food production.

    “The competition would translate to greater savings of foreign exchange earnings in relation to which Nigeria spends about $8 billion annually importing automobiles,” he said.

    He urged youths to explore the opportunity provided by the competition to showcase their creativity and their concepts relating to automobile designs.

    “The desired legal framework and policies will be provided to your ideas,’’ he pledged.

    NADDC Director-General Mr. Jelani Aliyu said the contest was to provide a platform for the realisation of abundant human capital and creative abilities.

    He said: “Apart from giving talented Nigerians the opportunity to showcase their abilities in the automotive sector, the challenge will also open exciting possibilities for them to contribute to the actualisation of innovative transportation solutions.’’

    Aliyu urged participants to submit entries of their design concepts through (https://naddcdesignchallenge.com). He said winners in the six geo-political zones would win amazing prizes. In addition, national finalists will be attached to the Council’s research and development team.

    He, however, added that designs must be original and must show advanced aesthetics, functionality and practicality for Nigerian use. The NADDC automotive design challenge jury will be evaluating entries based on design innovativeness, aesthetics and functionality, he said.

    NADDC Chairman Senator Osita Izunaso said there was the need to review the national automotive policy to address issues inhibiting the growth of the industry.

    He expressed concern that inconsistency in policies was driving away investors “because they lack confidence in the system’’.

    “We want a situation that a new car manufactured in Nigeria could be sold at most N4 million. By 2020, we are working on Made-in-Nigeria car that you can pay for over 15 years at a single digit interest,’’ Izunaso said.

  • Resolving LADOL’s indigenous ownership cconfusion

    By Mohammed Haruna Adamu

     

    The administration of President Muhammadu Buhari from inception realised that Nigeria is in dire need of foreign and local investments to create employment and boost the economy.

    This informed the president’s aggressive drive for investments.

    Since 2015, President Buhari has introduced a lot of incentives to woo local and foreign investors.

    His efforts have paid off with the latest ranking of Nigeria in the Word Bank’s Ease of Doing Business (EoDB), which showed that Nigeria moved 15 places from 146th position to 131 in the World Bank’s report.

    With the improvement in Nigeria’s Ease of Doing Business, many foreign and indigenous companies have shown interest in Nigeria since 2015.

    Speaking on the topic: ‘Nigeria’s Blue Economy, Potentials and Challenges,’ on Arise TV Global Business Report on October 4, 2019, theManaging Director of Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics (LADOL), Dr. Amy Jadesimi, rightly pointed out that “Nigeria is an opportunity many people in the world have missed.

    “So, the problem is not that they don’t want to put their money here, they are trying to figure out the mechanism for putting their money here. And again, the key to success is indigenous private sector,” she explained.

    Indeed, before President Buhari came to power, many foreign investors missed the opportunity in Nigeria because of frustrations by the government agencies.

    Even when President Buhari came in and sanitised the system, many companies that parade themselves as indigenous companies have also tried to frustrate foreign investors out of Nigeria.

    LADOL, for instance, was accused of waging wars against foreign companies operating in the Lagos free zone.

    While indigenous companies build bridges and partnerships to attract investments and build their own capacity, LADOL’s unfriendly attitudes drive away investments from Nigeria.

    LADOL’s unquenchable appetite to create monopoly made other investors to question its so-called indigenous status.

    Jadesimi also assured that “we are going to be able to create hundred thousands of jobs. So, the market potential in Nigeria is what is going to attract that investment into our country”.

    The question is: How do you create jobs when you drive away investors?

    Having realised that indigenous companies are key to investment, the task before the regulatory agencies is to resolve this issue of LADOL’s indigenous status.

    When it is clarified that LADOL is not a foreign company masquerading as a local company, it will be given its rightful place as either a foreign company or a local company.

    This confusion about its ownership status came to the front burner when it was discovered that a company called LILE (LADOL Integrated Logistics Enterprise) which is a duly registered company in the British Virgin Islands owns LADOL.

    The shareholding structure is substantially made up of two foreign companies namely: SABLE OFFSHORE INVESTMENTS and ALSBA Ventures Group. Both companies are registered entities in the British Virgin Islands otherwise known as the safe haven for tax dodgers.

    SABLE Offshore Investments commands a whopping 53 per cent stake in LADOL while ALSBA Ventures Group takes an impressive 31 per cent of the shares. This only leaves a share percentage of 16 per cent for the remaining shareholders, which includes key characters currently at the helm of LADOL.

    Before this development, LADOL and its affiliates have flaunted the perception of being a company which stands for the Nigeria values and interests and enjoyed the full benefits of the Nigerian Content Law.

    This propaganda earned the company and its promoters awards and endorsements both locally and internationally.

    But with this allegation about its ownership, it is now clear that all that glitters are not gold.

    The only way to resolve this issue is to launch a probe into the ownership structure of the company.

    …Adamu, a public policy analyst, writes from Abuja

  • Opera to empower over 40million SMEs with OLeads

    Adeniyi Adewoyin

    Opera Limited, one of the world’s major browser developers and leader in AI-driven digital content, has announced the launch of OLeads—a new online lead generation platform for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

    OLeads offers a unique tools to maximise SMEs’ visibility and online presence, increasing awareness about their business, and helping ramp up sales.

    According to the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), there are more than 40 million SMEs in Nigeria.

    However, one of their major challenges is to leverage rapid digital transformation as a means to scale their business since SME operations today are mainly offline.

    With the release of OLeads in Nigeria, Opera is taking the next leap forward in its strategy to transform Nigeria’s digital advertising ecosystem by removing barriers for these local businesses to come online and connect with the fast growing internet population in the country.

    “Nigeria is undergoing a rapid digitalization with already more than 110 million people on boarded to the internet, and its estimated to grow to 188 million within the next four years,” said Per Wetterdal, VP of Global Business Development at Opera.

    “With OLeads, we are enabling millions of businesses to participate in this digital transformation, providing them a platform with user friendly tools and a fast and easy way to come online, reaching Opera’s massive user base.”

    With OLeads, SMEs in Nigeria can easily create their first mobile websites and landing pages for their marketing campaigns.

    OLeads integrates seamlessly into the contextual advertising platform, Opera Ads, with direct access to Opera’s huge user base in Nigeria.

    With the user friendly interface of OLeads, any SME or business owner can create a mobile website from scratch in less than five minutes.

    Read Also: Cars45, Google, others empower SMEs

    The platform does not require any programming or design skills.

    Once an SME registers on the OLeads website, they will be able to choose between a wide variety of website templates that they can personalize according to the needs and goals of their business.

    By dragging and dropping text, images and call-to-action modules, the SME can have their business landing page up and running in minutes. The platform will also allow business owners to manage the data generated from their website.

    More than 3000 businesses are already on board for OLeads

    Since its soft launch in Nigeria in September 2019, OLeads has already on boarded more than 3000 businesses to the platform in just one month.

    With this milestone, OLeads is gaining a strong position in the Nigerian advertising market as a trustworthy platform that has rapidly grown its user base in a short period of time.

    “With the launch of OLeads, we are now helping more Nigerian businesses find their target audiences online,” said Wetterdal.

    “We have received very positive feedback from the SMEs we have on-boarded during the soft launch of the platform, and we are excited to now offer this service to millions of businesses in the country,” he added.

     

     

  • NIM elects new president, others

    Our Reporter

    The Nigerian Institute of Management (Chartered) has elected new principal officers to run its affairs for the next two years.
    Mrs. Pat Anabor, FNIM, the first and only female Registrar/Chief Executive of the Institute, emerged the 22nd President and Chairman of Council.

    Mrs. Anabor, an accomplished and renowned librarian, was the Deputy President until her election.

    Also elected was Engr. Ibrahim Inuwa, a former President of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) and the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) as Deputy President.
    Dr. (Mrs.) Christiana Atako, FNIM, a former acting Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), became the National Treasurer.

    The new President, a Fellow of the Institute since 2002 and its former National Treasurer, is an alumnus of California State University, San Jose, California, United States of America.

    Prior to moving her services to the Nigerian Institute of Management as the Institute’s librarian, Anabor worked with the University of Benin where she assiduously worked her way from Assistant Librarian in 1974 to become Senior Librarian in 1981, a position she held till 1985 when she joined the Institute.

    A member of the Nigerian Library Association, Mrs. Anabor who has attended many leadership and management courses in Nigeria and the business schools of Ivy League universities across the world equally belongs to some social clubs such as member of Inner Wheel Club of Satellite Town, Lagos as well as Club Unique, Benin City and Blessed Sisters, Lagos where she served as Treasurer and Assistant Secretary respectively.

    A devout Christian of the Roman Catholic denomination, she was married to Late Mr. Phillip Anabor, FNIM and blessed with children and grand children.

    According to a statement by the Registrar/Chief Executive of the Institute, Mr Tony Fadaka, FNIM, the investiture of the new President and Chairman of Council which will be witnessed by members, representatives of other professional bodies, government and corporate bodies on December 12 at MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos.

  • Who are real owners of LADOL?

    By Mohammed Haruna Adamu

    With the controversy trailing the indigenous status of Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base (LADOL), it is heart-warming that the federal government has resolved to enforce the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI’s) guideline on Beneficial Ownership register to reveal the real owners of oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria.

    The implementation of EITI’s guidelines will no doubt unmask all the faces behind the masks as far as indigenous and foreign companies operating in Nigeria’s extractive industries are concerned.

    Indeed, Nigeria has faced the challenges of Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs), due to the scam in contract awards, as well as the opaque nature of the transactions in the country’s oil and gas business.

    Citing the 2014 Global Financial Integrity Report in his address to the high-level national side-event, President Muhammadu Buhari, had at the sidelines of the 74th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York last month disclosed that Nigeria lost an estimated $157.5 billion to illicit financial flows between 2003 and 2012.

    Buhari cited tax avoidance as a major form of illicit financial flow, quoting the Tax Justice Network and the International Monetary Fund report as stating that estimated over $200 billion per year is “being lost by developing countries when multinational enterprises do not pay taxes in the countries where they made the profit.

    With the opaqueness of the oil and gas business in Nigeria, some companies claim indigenous status, to enjoy all the benefits that accrue to indigenous companies under the Nigerian Local Content Law.

    However, when it is time to pay tax, they ascribe ownership of their companies to other entities registered in tax havens to avoid payment of tax, thus validating the claim that their companies are not indigenous after all.

    But with the plan by the federal government to implement EITI initiatives, LADOL and other companies operating in the sector will be forced to disclose all their shareholders, or beneficiaries with effect from December 31, 2019, so as to expose shell companies.

    Requirement 2.5 of the EITI Standard (2016), which Nigeria is yet to implement, stipulates that by January 1, 2020, all signatories to EITI and Open Government Partnership (OGP), must ensure that their companies operating in oil and gas, as well as mining shall publish the names of their real owners.

    With the allegation that a company called LILE (LADOL Integrated Logistics Enterprise), which is a duly registered company in the British Virgin Islands owns the Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base (LADOL), it has become necessary for the federal government to implement the EITI initiative to verify the ownership status of LADOL and confirm if indeed, it is a foreign company or a local company.

    Despite flaunting the perception of being a Nigerian company which stands for the Nigeria values and interests, LADOL’s shareholding structure is said to be substantially made up of two foreign companies namely: SABLE OFFSHORE INVESTMENTS and ALSBA Ventures Group.

    Both companies are registered entities in the British Virgin Islands otherwise known as the safe haven for tax dodgers.

    Apart from the federal government’s resolve to implement the EITI guidelines, one of the challenges facing the Minister of State for Petroleum, Mr. Timipre Sylva is this issue of abuse of the local content law.

    The minister has to determine whether LADOL and other companies supposedly owned by Nigerians, but allegedly registered offshore like in the British Virgin Islands, qualified for local contents benefits.

    Having sold this indigenous ownership status to the government and other regulatory agencies, LADOL has enjoyed the full benefits of the local content law.

    However, the Nigerian people and their economy have continued to suffer losses.

    • …Adamu, a public policy analyst, writes from Abuja

  • Push underway for mining sector’s rebound

    Despite her stock of mineral resources to kickstart a boom in the mining industry, Nigeria still attracts low private sector exploration funding. Of the five per cent exploration investments flowing into the West African sub-region, she has only been able to attract a meagre 0.12 per cent. But, a renewed push to make mining attractive to foreign investors and contribute to economic diversification has intensified. This is on the strength of robust and strategic initiatives, which, according to industry stakeholders, have boosted investors’ confidence and raised hopes of reclaiming the country’s position as a hub of mining. Assistant Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA reports

    The Nigerian Mining Cadastre Office (NMCO) Director-General, Obadiah Nkom, is upbeat. Nigeria’s chances of reclaiming her position as a hub of mining and, ultimately, leveraging the sector to give fillip to the ongoing transition to a non-oil economy are getting brighter.

    This  is coming in the wake of the implementation of broad, robust and strategic initiatives aimed at addressing the challenges stunting the growth of the mining sector and postion it to drive the Federal Government’s ongoing diversification.

    Barely three months in office, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, hit the ground running by mapping out six strategic initiatives to be implemented on short, medium, and long-term timelines.

    They are development of priority minerals, strengthening institutions and governance, addressing challenges faced by stakeholders and operators, building a strong geosciences base and a business-friendly enabling environment.

    Expectedly, Adegbite’s renewed push to turn around the fortunes of the sector, via wide-ranging reforms that are steeped in global best practices, has raised the hopes of not a few industry operators and regulators, including Nkom, who believe that a new dawn is in the offing for the sector.

    “I see the narrative changing for the better in the mining sector because of this minister. What he is doing are the things foreign investors want to see. They want to see openness, transparency and sincerity. And he has demonstrated all these,” Nkom said.

    The occasion was the fourth Nigeria Mining Week in Abuja, where the NMCO chief stated that the strategic initiatives by the minister have given foreign investors’ confidence to come into the sector.

    “I spoke with some investors, particularly some Australian investors and they are encouraged by what the minister is doing and saying. The foreign investors, who came for the mining week, were quite impressed with the minister,” he said.

    The Nation learnt that one of the reforms that may have started changing the foreign investors’ perception of the sector, which  gladdens the heart of Nkom and indeed, other stakeholders, was the upgrading and automating of NMCO to enable online applications that would fasttrack processes for credible investors to apply and obtain licences and leases in and outside Nigeria.

    This, according to Adegbite, was to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of NMCO, promote transparency in mineral title administration, and reduce the burden on the investors. The ministry is also establishing NMCO offices in the six geo-political zones of the country.

    These are Jos (Northcentral), Enugu (Southeast), Ibadan (Southwest), Kaduna (Northwest), Maiduguri (Northeast), and Benin (Southsouth). According to the minister, this has the advantage of improving the ease of doing business perception among investors.

    Interestingly, strengthening of institutions and governance in the sector is one plank of the minister’s articulated strategies to woo investors and position mining as the country’s next oil.

    The ministry under Adegbite’s charge is also dangling the proverbial carrot to investors by way of building a strong geosciences base. The idea is to leverage this to enhance Nigeria’s competitiveness as a world-class mineral exploration destination that would be attractive to serious private sector investments.

    Specifically, the minister said the Natural Resources Development Fund (NRDF) is being invested into the National Integrated Mineral Exploration Project (NIMEP) to build the geoscience information for key minerals, such as gold, lead, zinc, iron ore, and rare metals.

    He added that arising from this exploration project, the ministry intends to partition the delineated areas into blocks and transparently concessioned to technically and financially competent investors

    The ministry also moved a notch, engaging the British Geological Survey (BGS) to build a national electronic geo-data archiving management system (Nigerian Geo-data Centre) at the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA).

    Under the arrangement, BGS will integrate historical geo-data of Nigeria in the UK, NGSA and the National Steel Raw Materials Exploration Agency (NSRMEA) into the system. This is to provide easy access for prospective investors to geoscience data on potential areas to target for exploration and mining within and outside Nigeria.

    Priority minerals to the rescue

    The icing on the cake of interventions targeted at forcing a quick rebound of the sector was, perhaps, the development of an industrial mineral road map. This was aimed at optimising the country’s industrial minerals to meet the standards of the manufacturing, industrial, and construction industry and to reduce import dependency.

    Adegbite listed the minerals to include calcium carbonate, kaolin, barite, gypsum, mica etc. He said evidence from the ministry’s demand/gap analysis shows that out of the total value of Nigeria’s industrial minerals imports in 2016, calcium carbonate represented more than 25 per cent, mica, 20.3 per cent, gypsum, 9.1 per cent, barite, 3.6 per cent.

    “Using spatial linkages, we intend to develop mineral resource development corridors and stimulate the development of critical mines infrastructure (roads, ports, rail, power facilities etc) that can also be used by other sustainable sectors, such as agriculture and manufacturing, thereby promoting broader economic development and diversification,” he said.

    Pushing possibilities into operators’ hands

    The Nation learnt that much of the buy-in of industry stakeholders, which the ministry’s current push to reposition the sector enjoys, came from its recognition of the challenges faced by industry operators and its determination to address them head on.

    The minister said, for instance, that a strategy for addressing the access to finance constraint being faced by industry operators was through the Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF).

    The SMDF was designed to catalyse and mobilise capital for mineral exploration, production, processing, and mines infrastructure development.

    This, according to Adebgite, is being restructured to deliver efficiently on its mandate and establish an investment fund for co-investment with Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), Money Deposit Banks (MDBs), private equity firms, commercial banks and managed possibly by fund managers.

    He announced that the ministry is also building the capabilities for downstream value addition in the gold and gemstone sub-sectors. For instance, following the issuance of Nigeria’s first gold refinery licence last year, a strategy is being implemented to develop a jewellery industry in the country.

    Opening the floodgate of investments

    By Adegbite’s admission, Nigeria’s stock of mineral resources has the capacity to kick start a boom in the mining industry. Indeed, beyond oil and gas for which Nigeria is highly ranked and known for globally, huge deposits of solid minerals abound in the country.

    Officially, there are 44 minerals found in commercial quantities in 450 locations across the country. They include gold, iron ore, tin, gemstones, columbite, topaz, limestone, uranium, laterite, gypsum and kaoline.

    In fact, there is hardly any state without the resource sufficient to power the economy, if fully exploited. The minister, however, expressed regrets that despite the country’s resource endowment, she has only been able to attract 0.12 per cent out of the five per cent share of exploration investments flowing into the West African region.

    Yet, exploration, according to experts, is critical for discovering and creating a pipeline of new mineral deposits that could lead to future mines.

    Describing the low level of investment in exploration as unacceptable, the minister said the ministry was partnering with a broad spectrum of stakeholders in the industry to deepen the reforms and foster a conducive ecosystem for private sector participation and growth.

    According to him, the target was to increase mining’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contribution from 0.33 per cent in 2016 to three per cent in 2025.

    He also said this was in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s vision for a more diversified, inclusive, and sustainable economy, which are the cardinal thrusts of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).

    The ministry’s strategic policy reforms may have started yielding fruits. The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Abdulkadir Muazu, confirmed this much when he said there has been inflow of investors from world mining jurisdictions such as Australia, China, South Korea etc.

    Muazu, who made this known at the mining week, emphasised: “In the nearest foreseeable future, the effect of their investment in orderly development and well-integrated beneficiation process (value addition) would start impacting positively on our economy.”

    Tackling informal, illegal mining

    Muazu recalled that in the past when mining was the government’s major revenue source, Nigeria was the largest exporter of columbite, eight producer of tin, and a major exporter of coal to Europe.

    He said, in addition, Nigeria also produced some industrial minerals for local industrial consumption.

    However, all these, he regretted, changed after the discovery of crude oil in 1958, which created a windfall in foreign exchange.

    To further compound the mining sector’s problems, the price of tin collapsed in the international commodities market in the 80s.

    The indigenisation decree of the late 80s forced out majority of the foreign companies engaged in the mining of cassiterite and columbite in Jos, the Plateau State capital.

    The mining sector was, thereafter, left in the hands of artisanal and small scale miners.

    The snag, however, is that these groups of miners do not have the capacity to go through the sustainable processes of the mineral value chain for the delivery of optimum economic benefits to themselves or the nation.

    As a result, much of the mineral commodities mined are exported in crude form to European and Asian Countries at give-away prices and without any value addition to the disadvantage of the national economy.

    “The consequences of this is that the economies of other nations are being developed at the expense of ours, leaving our nation import dependent,” Muazu pointed out.

    The permanent secretary, however, said the Federal Government, through the ministry, had put in place a holistic reform that could  change the narrative.

    He listed some of them to include the establishment of the Investment Promotion & Mineral Trade Department, to address investment opportunities and competitive pricing of the entire supply chains; competitive corporate tax of between 20 and 30 per cent.

    Also, royalty payable on any mineral may be deferred for a number of years (The applicable royalty rates range from three per cent to five per cent).

    There are also financial incentives, such as tax holiday for an initial period of three years, from commencement of operations and renewable for more two years.

    Operators are also exempted from customs and import duties in respect of machinery, equipment, plants and accessories imported exclusively for mining.

    They are also free to transfer foreign currency through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for servicing of certified foreign loan and for remittance of foreign capital in event of sale or liquidation.

    The offer of 95 per cent accelerated capital allowance on mining expenditure and retention of five per cent until asset is disposed is also seen as another deft move to change the mining dynamics.

    With this in place, Partner, Advisory and Mining Leader, PricewaterhouseCooper (PWC Nigeria), Cyril Azobu, said he was confident: “There is a very big future for the mining industry in the next four year because of this minister.”