The Nation Newspaper

Category: Industry

  • Ayodeji Adewunmi quits as the CEO of Jobberman

    The Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of the biggest job site in Sub-Saharan Africa, Jobberman, Ayodeji Adewunmi has resigned to build a professional career in investment.

    Adewunmi resigned as the CEO of the company after nearly 10 years to pursue his new career.

    “I think it is great timing to say goodbye and explore what is next,” he said.

    “It is truly overwhelming but I have the comfort of knowing I leave Jobberman in better hands than my own. It is such an incredible feeling and honour to experience what you founded takes a life of its own. I will remain close to the company and have full faith in the team and new management to continue to solve Nigeria’s recruitment needs.”

    However, the company has announced the Head of Jobs of Ringier One Africa Media (ROAM), Matthew Page as the interim head.

    “We wish Ayodeji incredible success in the future and we are grateful for the impressive work he has done in building a remarkable brand.” Page said.

    Launched in August 2009, Jobberman is the biggest job site in Sub-Saharan Africa with strategic partnerships with key media companies. Since 2017 Jobberman is part of the portfolio of Ringier One Africa Media.

  • Addressing human cost of mismanagement of LADOL Free Zone

    On Monday April 8, 2019, an operative of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in the LADOL Free Zone in Lagos shot and killed his colleague during an argument.

    He then shot and seriously injured a Korean employee of SHI-MCI FZE, who later died at the hospital as a result of injuries he suffered.

    This was an entirely unprovoked attack and there would have been more casualties if the other guards and SHI-MCI employees did not display act of bravery by detaining the gunman as he tried to leave the yard.

    The NSCDC gunman was contracted to LADOL at the time of the incident. LADOL is obliged to provide security over the free-zone via its affiliate and the Zone Manager, Global Resources Management Free Zone Company, in accordance with the NEPZA regulations. However, this shooting is a major security breach by LADOL of NEPZA regulations.

    According to media reports, SHI-MCI FZE was said to have reported several security incidents to LADOL relating to disorderly and dangerous conduct of armed guards and how their employees were vulnerable and subject to any imminent life-threatening danger but no action was taken, which led to this fatal incident.

    Following the shooting, the head of the NSCDC, Abdullahi Gana, made a public statement expressing sympathy for the victims but claiming that that shooting was “an accidental discharge.”

    But eyewitness accounts showed that the position of  NSCDC boss that the shooting was “in error” was false as two people were shot by the NSCDC gunman in two different locations far apart.

    The Korean employee was performing maintenance on a crane at the time and was shot in a completely unprovoked attack inside the crane.

    This is the most serious failing yet by the Free Zone operator.  The armed guards are supposed to be properly trained to protect Nigerian and foreign workers, who should feel empowered to promote Nigeria with pride.

    It is vital that there is a thorough and independent investigation into this incident, and that those responsible for such a serious failing that has resulted in deaths are held to account. If obviously false statements, such as those issued by the NSCDC, are accepted then more lives may be lost in future occurrences.

    READ ALSO: Korean dies from LADOL shooting incident

    This incident was a violent act in a Free Zone, which is supposed to be a safe zone for foreign nationals, investors and Nigerian workers conducting their daily business.

    NEPZA Regulations clearly states: “The Authority or Management of a Free Zone shall provide security over the premises, properties and facilities within the Free Zones.”

    In the same vein, LADOL Regulations states:  “The Zone Management shall provide security over the premises, property and facilities within the Zone”.

    To avoid this kind of incident, Zone operators like GRMFZC (LADOL Group) should have measures in place to ensure the safety and security of all their subleases at the zone and if those measures fail there should be contingencies.

    There is no doubt that this incident will have a further deterrent effect on foreign businesses looking to invest in Nigeria.

    Akpan-Etukudo, an investment advisor, writes from Warri

  • Rising youth unemployment worries SMEDAN DG

    Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN) Director-General, Dr Dikko Umaru Radda, has expressed worries over the level of youth and women unemployment, urging the authorities to tackle the situation before it becomes a crisis.

    Dikko, who spoke in Kaduna, at the inauguration of sensitisation programme on Young Business Owners in Nigeria (Y-BON) in the Northwest Zone, warned that if the situation was not properly tackled through deliberate measures with sufficient job creation, civil, social and political upheaval might ensue.

    The SMEDAN boss said available data showed that only one out of every 100 graduates get employed by both the public and the private sectors after graduation.

    He noted the global population of young people between the ages of 15 and 24 was rapidly increasing with vast majority of that group living in emerging economies such as Nigeria.

    Radda, therefore, said there was the need to properly manage the group to yield positive demographic dividends rather than become a security burden. “This is the surest way to diversify the economy and employ the huge youth population,” he said.

    He identified skill shortages caused by dearth of skilled personnel and entrepreneurial competence as some of the factors responsible for unemployment in Nigeria.

    Read also: Only one of 100 every graduate gets job in Nigeria —SMEDAN DG

    “There is no doubt that unemployment situation in Nigeria has reached a crisis level,” Radda said, noting that it was in a bid to address this challenge that SMEDAN initiated the Y-BON programme.

    He explained that the programme was aimed at providing a platform where existing entrepreneurs either as stand-alone or cooperative societies will be competitively selected for further support packages to reduce some of the fundamental challenges that usual confront Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSMEs.)

    “Essentially, the target beneficiaries are young people between the ages of 20 to 45. The focus on this target is because of the need to create new opportunities for employment and enterprises growth, which are usually not easily realisable in start-ups,” he said.

    The DG noted that through a similar programme in 2018, SMEDAN supported 460 business owners with workspace in Anambra, Kebbi, Kogi, Cross River and Osun State.

  • AFAN: Gross enhancement scheme ’ll boost agric productivity

    The All Farmers’ Association of Nigeria (AFAN) has appealed to the Federal Government to re-introduce the Gross Enhancement Scheme (GES), saying it will not only benefit peasant farmers, but also boost agricultural productivity.

    Making this appeal in Zaria, Kaduna State, during the week, the AFAN Chairman in the state, Alhaji Nuhu Aminu, said it became imperative in view of the importance of GES not only to peasant farmers at the grassroots, but to the overall agricultural productivity.

    He lamented that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) Anchor Borrowers’ Loan Scheme was not yielding the desired benefits because most of the beneficiaries did not use the input-package supplied.

    Aminu said instead, the beneficiaries disposed such items instantly and collected cash. Apart from this, the input-package, he said, usually arrived very late. According to him, the package was usually supplied in the middle of the rainy season when crops cultivation had already gone far.

    Read Also: AFAN assures of rice availability

    He noted that the best way to assist peasant farmers is to re-introduce the GES to enable small holder farmers get fertilisers, seeds and chemicals at highly-subsidised rates.

    “We are not against the Anchor Borrowers’ programme, but the best way to assist Nigerians is through GES where a peasant farmer gets two bags of fertilisers, improved seeds and chemicals at half the market value,” he said.

    Aminu reminded the authorities that large scale farmers were not the ones feeding Nigerians, but small holder farmers, who farm and sell to feed Nigerians.

    He, therefore, called on the government to accord special attention to such segment of farmers, noting that large scale farmers sell their produce in bulk to food processing industries.

    “We are appealing to the President to ensure that he appoints a Minister of Agriculture, who will genuinely take the agricultural sector to next level of development.

    “There are many problems in the sector and we have actually written to the Vice President explaining some of these issues.

    “We are insisting that the best way to assist peasant farmers is to supply fertilisers to them through GES,’’ Aminu said.

    According to him, peasant farmers have no other means of getting the commodity at subsidised rates except through government policies and programmes.

    He appealed to the Federal Government to consider the possibility of re-introducing the GES programme for the benefit of grassroots farmers and the agricultural sector.

  • ‘Ajaokuta steel’s completion will create jobs, improve economy’

    President Muhammadu Buhari has been urged to sign the Ajaokuta Steel Company Completion Fund Bill, 2018, as it would help reduce unemployment and improve the economy.

    According to the two unions in the iron and steel industry: Steel and Engineering Workers Union of Nigeria (SEWUN) and Iron and Steel Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ISSSAN), signing the Bill will impact on the company and the industry.

    SEWUN General Secretary Alhaji Kasemu Kadiri and ISSSAN President Mr. Bello Itopa, who spoke with newsmen in Lagos,  said the completion and functioning of Ajaokuta will reduce unemployment and improve the economy.

    They, therefore, urged the president to assent the bill, noting that if the steel company was allowed to operate optimally, it would create more employment, earn foreign exchange and increase revenue generation.

    The union leaders’ appeal was a reaction to the president’s decline to give his assent to the bill. President Buhari had on April 2 declined assent to the bill, saying the nation could not afford to commit $1 billion to the rehabilitation of the company because of other priorities.

    The president argued that appropriating $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) was not the best strategic option for Nigeria at this time of budgetary constraints.

    Read Also: Ajaokuta Steel ’ll soon come to life, says Osinbajo

    But the two unions thought otherwise. Kadiri said, for instance, that the president and lawmakers should close all loopholes and ensure that the company begins operations.

    He said the project was envisaged to generate socio-economic benefits and increase the nation’s production capacity through linkages to other industrial sectors.

    According to him, the rehabilitation of the steel mill was stalled over the years because the Seventh National Assembly cancelled a contract between the Federal Government and Global Infrastructure Holding Ltd. (later Nig. Ltd).

    “The concession agreement was cancelled because of outstripping of assets. The government discovered that Global Infrastructure was taking away important machinery, and the matter was taken to court.

    “Both parties later agreed to settle out-of-court through the intervention of former President Goodluck Jonathan,” Kadiri said, noting that when fully revived, the company will engage over 30,000 people in its workforce.

    His ISSSAN counterpart, Itopa, also appealed to President Buhari not to delay in resolving the financial issue in the bill and ensure commencement of operations.

    He said out of the 43 component units of the company, the primary units to be completed for the steel company to function optimally are coke oven, black furnace, steel making shop and power plant.

    “If all these equipment are put in place, Ajaokuta will be set for operations and we will get raw materials to produce steel from the National Iron Ore Mining Company, Itakpe in Kogi,” he said.

    The unionist added that it was important to revive the steel company inaugurated by the late President Shehu Shagari, noting that it had important areas such as light section mill, wire rod mill, billet, medium section and structural mill.

    According to Itopa, the medium section and structural mill could be used to produce the rail lines in the country. He, therefore, urged President Buhari to sign the bill to enable the company create thousands of jobs.

     

  • ‘500,000 Nigerians involved in artisanal mining’

    Over 500,000 Nigerians are directly involved in small- scale mining operations across the country, the Department of Artisanal and Small Scale Mining, Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, has said.

    Its Director, Artisanal and Small Scale Mining Director, Patrick Ojeka, who gave the figure in Calabar, Cross River State, at a five-day training for 150 registered and performing mining cooperatives and quarry associations in the Southsouth and Southeast regions, said the number was on the increase in view of Federal Government’s strategy in harnessing mining potential to address poverty in rural mining communities.

    Represented by the Extension Service Team Lead of the training, Mr. Etido Umoakpan, the Director said artisanal and small scale mining activities could result in negative environmental impacts and other vices within the area of operation.

    He maintained that in spite of the inherent challenges, artisanal and small scale mining was a livelihood strategy adopted primarily to alleviate poverty in rural areas in most countries.

    According to Ojeka, it was in recognition of the importance of mining cooperatives that the ministry adopted a strategy termed ‘formalisation’, through ‘corporatisation’ to address the artisanal mining issue, while using it as an instrument to alleviate poverty.

    “The miners will be trained on introduction of health and safety procedures in the mines and provision of water and health facilities to large mining camps.

    “Other areas are- assist small scale miners on mine design and planning suitable for the deposit; provide mineral testing standard and determination of mineral grades among others,’’ he said.

    Cross River State Commissioner for Solid Minerals, Mr. George O’Ben-Etchi, said artisanal and small scale miners were focal to the development of the mining sector in the two regions.

    The regions, like many others in the country, he said, are richly blessed with numerous mineral reserves, a virtually untapped rich geological potential capable of supporting a healthy mining sector for generations to come.

    “This means job opportunities, wealth creation and a number of other advantages for us and the government that is working very hard to develop and reposition the mining sector,’’ he said.

    Federal Mines Officer in Cross River, Mr. Mayowa Omosebi, said the Federal Government had marked the mining sector as very critical in moving the country’s economy forward.

    Omosebi, who was represented by an official in the ministry, Mr. Emmanuel Bassey, said the workshop was timely in view of the priority and concern for the mining sector.

    One of the participants from Cross River, Mr. Obi Okon, lauded the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development for the training, noting that it would enhance their operational activities.

     

  • Women dig for gold in dairy farming

    Over 900 rural women in Oyo State have carved a niche for themselves in the dairy industry. They are riding on the back of FrieslandCampina WAMCO Plc’s Dairy Development Programme (DPP), which engages Dutch farmers to train local pastoralists on modern dairy farming practices. The budding women entrepreneurs’ success, if replicated, will help raise the level of domestic milk production and create more jobs along the milk value chain. It will also give impetus to the Federal Government’s economic diversification, Assistant Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA reports.

    Mrs Umu Abdullahi, a dairy farmer, in Iseyin, Oyo State, is in a joyous mood. When The Nation met her last week, she could not hide her excitement over the dramatic turnaround in the fortunes of her dairy business.

    The pastoralist, who once trekked long distances to sell local cheese, popularly called ‘wara’, made from raw milk crudely preserved at home, said she could now boast of steady income from a thriving dairy venture.

    “My family now makes steady income from selling raw milk from our cows,” Mrs Abdullahi said, adding that with more people coming to trade and live in the community,  sales have increased. “We also sell other things such as foodstuff to residents and transporters,” she added.

    She recalled that before her remarkable transition from unorthodox and subsistent dairy farming to a modern, commercially-driven one, she, with an estimated 900 rural women in Oyo State, had no hygienic means of preserving or processing their fresh milk.

    As a result, they only drank milk in the morning. The income from their ‘wara’ sales wasn’t commensurate to the effort they put in either. But the big break in their rather crude, unrewarding dairy businesses came in 2010 when dairy giant FrieslandCampina WAMCO Plc chose Oyo State for the implementation of its Dairy Development Programme (DPP).

    The programme was aimed at helping Nigeria achieve self-sufficiency in milk production and consumption, and create jobs along the milk value chain. It was a unique business model where certified dairy farmers from The Netherlands were engaged to train and advise their Nigerian counterparts on best farming practices.

    Under the initiative, Dutch farmers train local pastoralists on dairy farming practices like animal health and welfare, farm record keeping, feeding and watering, calf-rearing, milking hygiene, cow fertility, hoof care, housing and barn design, among others.

    The overall goal of the multi-billion naira scheme was to sustainably develop the local dairy value chain by improving milk quality and increasing milk production on dairy farms, while also supporting the Federal Government’s Backward Integration Policy (BPP) aimed at building capacity in local manufacturing to reduce imports, create jobs and drive industrialisation.

    Since 2010 when the programme kicked off, FrieslandCampina WAMCO has been investing in the DDP by establishing a Milk Bulking Centre in Iseyin and a large network of functional Milk Collection Centres (MCCs) in Fasola, Alaga, Maya and Iseyin, all in Oyo State. It also set up 10 milk collection points and dedicated 15 specialised milk trucks to facilitate the process of milk collection in the DDP area.

    That was not all. The company, alongside its partners, also provided 50 solar-powered boreholes in the milk producing communities of Oyo State, completed over 200 hectares of pasture development, and trained over 3,500 dairy farmers/milk suppliers on various topics in modern dairy production.

    The facilities literarily worked magic, providing sustainable livelihoods to over 90 farming communities where dairy farms have been made more effective. Today, Abdullahi and other rural women dairy farmers in various Oyo communities in Iseyin, Fasola, Alaga, and Maya have been testifying to the immense social and lifestyle benefits that the DDP has brought their way.

    “I now belong to a women forum they encouraged us to form and join where we learn and discuss things of great benefit to us as women, another woman dairy farmer, who identified herself as Hawawu, told The Nation.

    She said before the programme came on stream, things were very hard. “But today, my life and that of my family is easier. I have even started an additional business of selling uncooked rice. I am happy.”

    According to Hawawu, the advent of WAMCO’s DDP has significantly improved her profit margin. “My profit has improved. Every day, after the cows are milked, we go and deliver the milk to the collection centres and the company (FrieslandCampina WAMCO) pays us money very promptly,” she said.

    The DPP, The Nation learnt, drew its strength from the signing and renewal of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between FrieslandCampina WAMCO and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, as well as the Oyo State government.

    The dairy giant, which pioneered the programme, also collaborated with the Dutch Government and Sahel Capital. Its Managing Director, Mr Ben Langat, gave more details of the scheme’s milestones. His words: “Our DPP has supported four master farms where dairy projects are currently running and there are 16 more under development.

    “It has impacted over 100,000 people from raw milk supplies to the creation of job opportunities to host communities, for example – transporters, feed, veterinary supplies etc. This has engendered business development around the milk collection centres.”

    Langat said the DDP was the nucleus of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes. According to him, it transfers over 140 years of FrieslandCampina’s global expertise to Nigeria, bringing gold-standard Dutch farming practices to the nation.

    “The DDP is the second chapter of our history and a new era for the dairy industry in Nigeria,” he said, noting that studies have shown that 95 per cent of farmers in Nigeria are nomadic and they face challenges such as lack of knowledge, poor infrastructure and low financing.

    The FrieslandCampina WAMCO boss added that the DDP stimulates local sourcing of raw milk and supports the Federal Government’s initiative of improving dairy farming. He said it also enables dairy farmers to run their businesses optimally as well as raise the quality and quantity of their dairy production.

    This, according to Langat, was done through knowledge-sharing, training courses and exchange programmes with a number of partners. He said across the 90 communities in Southwest Nigeria, various dairy value chain actors were identified and training organised for them.

    Raw milk was collected and processed. Funds were made available for crossbreeding and hybrid pasture cultivation.

    Langat also said the company facilitates an annual “Farmer2Farmer” programme, where certified Dutch dairy farmers train and assist Nigerian farmers in extension services and improved dairy farming practices particularly targeted at increasing the quality and quantity of raw milk production.

    To further promote dairy development in Nigeria, he said the company hosted Nigeria’s first “Dairy Farmers’ Day” in December 2017, with over 300 dairy farmers in attendance.

    The MD stated that the company was keen to institutionalise this event as a day of honour for dairy farmers, bringing together stakeholders from the public, private and academic sectors to develop and implement a long term and inclusive national development plan for the dairy sector.

     

    Dairy co-operatives

    as game changer

    The women farmers were grouped into two co-operative societies of 30 members each, namely: Fashola Women Dairy Co-operative and Alaga Women Dairy Co-operative. They were trained on entrepreneurial and leadership skills to increase their income and sources of livelihood.

    To further expand their revenue streams, the members were also trained on vocations such as bead making, fabric designs and dress making.

    FrieslandCampina WAMCO provided shops for them to sell provisions and other items to members of their communities. These forward-looking women were also empowered to sell in these shops milk products made from the raw milk they initially supplied to the milk collection centres.

    Families living in these DDP-enhanced communities use the potable water provided by FrieslandCampina WAMCO for milking, domestic and personal hygiene such as cooking, cleaning and drinking. Some of the women have made significant socio-economic progress; a good number of them have built houses and moved out of the thatched huts they used to live in.

    Indeed, one of the key successes of the DDP was the increasing appreciation of women farmers as game changers in the communities. The programme has grown new sources of income for rural women and they now have direct control over their income. There is also increased food security for rural families.

    Also, dairy products have become more available and affordable for these women and their families in the milk producing communities. More importantly, perhaps, the overall quality of raw milk supplies have improved, with bacterial contamination reduced considerably. Farmers’ competencies have increased as a result of sustained training.

    Langat confirmed that both the DDP and the dairy co-operatives have proven to be successful business models that encouraged grassroots economic development through milk production. He said they have also increased transactional activities and improved family lifestyles in the milk producing communities.

    He also said the private sector-led push, through backward integration, to raise the level of local milk production and create jobs, has helped his company to develop new capacities, policies and practices that benefit pastoralists, small-holder farmers and Nigeria’s dairy sector as a whole.

    But as hugely successful and rewarding as the programme may have been, particularly for the new crop of women entrepreneurs that have emerged, the challenge of sustainability remains. This is so because for now, FrieslandCampina WAMCO is the only dairy manufacturer, sourcing part of its raw milk locally through the DDP.

    The thinking, therefore, is that since the scheme bodes well for the Federal Government’s backward integration policy that encourages building capacity in local manufacturing to significantly reduce imports and create jobs, more dairy manufacturers needed to come on board to expand the scope of the programme.

    More importantly, the involvement of other manufacturers will help achieve Nigeria’s milk self sufficiency target. Currently, output of milk per cow per day in Nigeria is about 1 litre, compared to other African countries like Kenya and Uganda with between 30 to 40 litres of milk per cow per day.

    This, according to experts, is because Nigeria’s dairy sector is still largely characterised by cattle ownership, belonging to nomadic Fulani pastoralists. The pastoralists go for days on long distances to graze their cattle and look for pasture and water for them. This affects the quality and quantity of their milk.

    Besides, available statistics put the annual demand of milk in Nigeria at 1.1 billion litres. The estimated annual production is 400 million litres, leaving annual demand/supply gap of 700 million litres. This is clearly an opportunity for dairy companies as well as Nigerian dairy farmers to benefit as they bridge this sizeable gap.

  • 60 SON workers get training

    No  fewer than 60 workers of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) are receiving training on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in Enugu.

    SON Director-General Mr. Osita Aboloma, represented by the Director of Human Resources, Mallam Usman Abdullahi, said the workers were being trained on efficient service delivery.

    He noted that the training would make them live above rudimentary mistakes intheir duties.

    Aboloma said: “The essence of this training is to improve the capacity of staff to deliver quality services and improve their relationship skills as they discharge their daily duty.

    “The training aimed at exploring other avenues to solve issues that concern enforcement of standards without necessarily going to the formal law courts.

    “The SON Act as amended had given SON the mandate to prosecute those that go against its mandate.

    “However, we feel that there should be other avenues apart from the courts that SON can easily achieve its mandate.

    “So, on this premise, SON is partnering with the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators (ICMC) to train some of its staff on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).’’

    According to him, the training would be beneficial to the agency’s enforcement and office workers.

    Also, a facilitator of the training, Ambassador Victor Ojaide, noted that the workers would get with ADR skills.

    Ojaide, who is also the Vice President (Training) of ICMC, said the training would enable workers understand how to settle issues harmoniously.

    “The ADR lessons will equip them on how to deal with issues and win trust and public confidence even as they discharge their duties.

    “The training will teach better ways of approaching issues and people even as they carry out their official mandates,’’ he said.

     

  • Chamber seeks improved healthcare delivery through ICT

    To improve healthcare delivery, there is the need for investment in Information and Communications Technology (ICT), the Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce (NACC) has said.

    Its President, Oluwatoyin Akomolafe, said incorporating ICT into healthcare would improve the quality of health care, safety, and efficiency of public health service delivery.

    He also said it would also improve the public health information infrastructure, support health care in the community and at home, while also facilitating clinical and consumer decision-making.

    Akomolafe, who spoke at the inauguration of the chamber’s Healthcare Sector Group in Lagos, added that incorporating ICT tools into the healthcare delivery system would boost skills and knowledge.

    The NACC Healthcare Sector Group was inaugurated at its Breakfast Meeting in Lagos. The meeting themed “Improving quality outcomes through health information” was sponsored by Flying Doctors Nigeria and Zenith Carex Limited.

    The Healthcare Sector Group is expected to provide a platform for engagement by member-companies within the same industry.

    It would also provide the needed platform for member companies to collaborate, undertake sector-focused advocacy and grow together with support from the secretariat.

    Akomolafe, represented by the Chamber’s National Treasurer, Dr. Ikenna Nwaosu, noted that the traditional way of solving health problems was outdated hence the need to leverage on ICT to improve healthcare delivery system.

    He said lack of adequate funding worsened the crisis in the health care sector in developing countries, particularly Nigeria. He, however, said access to ICT tolls would change the narrative.

    “With the significant growth in Internet access in urban areas, health-care workers can adopt its usage for communication, access to relevant health-care information, and international collaboration.

    “ICT can improve the quality of care patients receive by averting medical errors, improving communication and boosting efficiency,” he stated.

    Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) National President, Dr. Francis Faduyile, observed that the healthcare system was mostly paper-based, with manually operated documentation system.

    He noted that the system was sub-optimal, as healthcare providers lacked the right computing skills proportional to their responsibilities.

    He observed that patient information and direct clinical examination in most health institutions were still being drawn from paper–based records, which is slow and cumbersome.

    Faduyile listed other challenges associated with the analogue healthcare system to include lack of uniformity and standards, inaccessibility, and inaccuracy.

    He, therefore, said there was the need for advocacy, especially among health providers to adopt health information technology to drive health care.

    He also said there was a need for collaboration among agencies and professional associations in the sector to ensure the deployment of ICT in healthcare.

    Flying Doctors Nigeria founder Dr. Ola Brown highlighted the pillars of healthcare reform to include primary care expansion, healthcare financing, maternal/child health and centralisation of tertiary care.

    Brown identified logistics as one of the most important aspects of healthcare, adding that air ambulances would help address this challenge.

     

  • ‘Tax reform, digitalisation key to financing development’

    Nigeria and other African countries must digitalise their economies, broaden their tax base, prevent further deterioration of fiscal and debt positions, and aim for double-digit growth to achieve the United Nation (UN) 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063.

    These were the key highlights of the “2019 Economic Report on Africa,” released at the Conference of Ministers in Marrakech, Morocco.

    This year’s report, a flagship publication of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), focuses on fiscal policy. The report, which said the government revenue, which account for 21.4 per cent, was insufficient to meet countries’development financing needs, identified several quick wins in Africa’s pursuit of additional fiscal space to finance its accelerated development.

    ECA’s Executive Secretary Vera Songwe stated this at the launch of the document.

    She said: ‘’The report also focused on the  role of fiscal policy in crowding-in investment and creating adequate fiscal space for social policy, including supporting women and youth-led small and medium enterprises.”

    She added that a decade away from the SDG. “African countries continue to search for policy mixes to help accelerate the achievement of the SDGs. However, for many countries, financing remains the biggest bottleneck with implementing capacity a close second.”

    Analysing and highlighting both challenges and opportunities, the Report also recommends comprehensive macro-economic reforms aimed at building financial resilience, placing emphasis on the need for Africa to accelerate growth to double digits by 2030 and to boost investment from its current 25 per cent of GDP.

    While economic growth in Africa remained moderate at 3.2 per cent in 2018 – due to solid global growth, a moderate increase in commodity prices and favourable domestic conditions, the report emphasised that Africa needs to do more and work towards achieving a fine balance between raising revenue and incentivising investments, in order to boost growth.

    In some of Africa’s largest economies—South Africa, Angola and Nigeria – the report revealed, growth trended upwards but remained vulnerable to shifts in commodity prices. East Africa remained the fastest growing, at 6.1 per cent in 2017 and 6.2 per cent in 2018, while in West Africa, the economy expanded by 3.2 per cent in 2018, up from 2.4 per cent in 2017.

    Central, North and Southern Africa’s economies grew at a slower pace last year compared to 2017. On the issue of Africa’s debt burden, the report revealed that debt levels remained high as African countries increased their borrowing, to ease fiscal pressures most of which have been precipitated by the narrowing of revenue streams that has gone on since the commodity price shocks of 2014.

    It argued that African countries can increase government revenue by 12–20 per cent of GDP by adopting a policy framework that strengthen revenue mobilisation, including through digitalising African economies, stating that digitisation could enhance revenue mobilisation by up to six per cent.

    It said: ”Digital identification can broaden the tax base by making it easier to identify and track taxpayers and helping taxpayers meet their tax obligations.

    “By improving tax assessments and administration, it enhances the government’s capacity to mobilise additional resources.’’

    Digital ID systems yield gains in efficiency and convenience that could result in savings to taxpayers and government of up to $50 billion a year by 2020,” the report said.