The Nation Newspaper

Category: Industry

  • Averting economy’s relapse into recession

    The Economy Management Team (EMT) is worried by the economy’s poor showing on the first half of the year. It recorded a 1.95 per cent growth in the first quarter and 1.5 per cent in the second quarter. According to experts, these are indices that the economy may relapse into recession. But, real sector operators believe this is nothing to worry about once the right recovery policies are put in place and well managed. Assistant Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA reports.

    The danger was foretold. Even before the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) warned that the economy was on the brink of relapsing into recession, not a few real sector operators and development experts doubted that the country was out of recession in the first instance. Some of them, including members of the Organised Private Sector (OPS), especially manufacturers, described the purported exit as technical and fragile.

    For instance, before the CBN raised the alarm, about two weeks ago, that the economy may slip back into recession, citing weak economic fundamentals, the Chairman, Policy Committee of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Mr Reginald Odiah, faulted the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report, which suggested that the country had exited recession.

    Odiah,  a former chairman of the Electrical Group of MAN, said the economy was not completely out of recession; that the saving grace was that more money was coming in from the oil sector.

    “If you look closely, most businesses have closed down. I am not seeing clear policy direction and political will to bring the country completely out of recession, he said.

    Pointing out that the government is simply focusing attention on the 2019 general election, Odiah added that: “The truth is that at the slightest mistake, the country would plunge back into deep recession.”

    The former Director-General, Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Dr. John Isemede, also wondered how NBS could suggest that Nigeria was out of recession with the first quarter growth at 1.95 per cent, while the second quarter recorded 1.5 per cent.

    Isemede, a consultant with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), said consumers are still under pressure due to weak purchasing power, which has been compounded by inflation, high cost of goods and services, low disposable income, delays in payment of salaries in the public sector, the continued naira exchange rate effect and high import duties on many consumer items.

    Some of these earlier doubts may have been why CBN’s warning that the country’s exit from recession was under threat may not have come as a surprise. To some experts and real sector operators, the fact that it came at a time oil prices are rebounding, hitting an all time high of $83 per barrel, as at Monday, October 8, meant that more hardnosed, strategic decisions and policies are required to sustainably exit the recession.

    The CBN’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) had at the end of its two-day meeting held at the bank’s headquarters in Abuja said the economy has started showing signs of weakness. CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele said the committee was concerned that the exit from recession may be under threat as the economy recorded growth rate of 1.95 per cent and 1.5 per cent during the first and the second quarter of this year, respectively.

    According to him, the slowdown emanated from the oil sector with strong linkages to employment and growth. He also listed some of the risks to output growth to include late implementation of the 2018 budget, weakening demand and consumer spending, rising contractor debt, and low minimum wage.

    Others, according to Emefiele, are the impact of flooding on agricultural output, continued security challenges in the North-East and North-Central zones and growing level of debt.

    The CBN boss said the MPC observed that despite the underperformance of key monetary aggregates, headline inflation inched up to 11.23 per cent in 2018, from 11.14 per cent in July 2018. “The near time upside risks to inflation remain the dissipation of the base effect expected from 2019 election-related spending,” he said.

    Emefiele also lamented that continued herdsmen attacks on farmers and flooding, which destroyed farmlands, affected food supply ultimately. He, however, noted that: “Relative stability has returned to the foreign exchange market buoyed by the robust external reserves, with inflation trending downward for the 18th consecutive month.

    Already, because of what the International Monetary Fund (IMF) described as “clouds on the horizon”, induced by the afore-mentioned factors, the Bretton Woods Institution has cut the growth projections made for Nigeria to 1.9 per cent, from 2.1 per cent, noting that the country’s economy was doing poorly.

    The Deputy Director, Research, IMF, Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti, announced the downward revision of Nigeria’s growth prospects in 2018 from 2.1 per cent to 1.9 per cent this week at the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank Group in Bali, Indonesia.

    He stated that the largest economies in Africa — Nigeria, South Africa and Angola — were holding down the continent’s economic development as a result of poor growth rates.

    “The aggregate growth rate for the continent is held down by the fact that the three largest economies are not performing up to their full potential,” he said.

    The IMF research director stated that the continent could do much better once these economies are on a more solid footing, particularly South Africa and Nigeria, because they are really large and affect a number of countries in their neighbourhood.

    The IMF had at the beginning of this year projected that Nigeria’s economy would grow by 2.1 per cent in 2018 and 2.3 per cent in 2019. On its part, the World Bank had a 2.5 per cent growth forecast for Nigeria.

    However, after the GDP growth of 1.95 per cent in the first quarter, followed by a fall to 1.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2018, it became clear that the much- anticipated economic recovery was not forthcoming, as the earlier positive forecasts are now being hurriedly reviewed.

    Worse still for Nigeria, fears are now rife that the economy may slip back into recession, a possibility, which experts and real sector operators say could be averted with right and properly managed recovery policies including re-assessing the nation’s fiscal and monetary policies to ensure that they support employment and productivity.

    For instance, an Economist, Dr. Ayo Teriba, believes that bridging the gap between the parallel and the official Foreign Exchange (forex) market rates could be the wedge for an economy on the brink of plunging back into recession.

    “As severe as Nigeria’s economic problems, it can reverse itself if the government can put the right policy in place. The truth is that even if oil is still hovering around $20 per barrel, there are things we can do to avoid inflationary shocks such as bridging the gap between the parallel and the official forex market rates,” he said.

    For the Director-General of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Muda Yusuf, reversing the declining trend in the GDP required sustaining the current momentum in the implementation of the government’s ease of doing business. This, he said, would help bring down the operational cost of investors.

    He also called on the government at all levels to double their efforts to improve the state of infrastructure. According to him, the state of infrastructure has continued to take a toll on investment across all sectors, pointing out that the impact was more pronounced on manufacturing and the agric sector.

    Yusuf in his reaction to the latest report of the NBS, which showed decline in the performance of the economy in the second quarter of this year, lamented the poor performance of the manufacturing and agric sectors, despite the attention given to them by both the monetary and fiscal authorities.

    Yusuf said the decline in the performance of the agricultural sector from three per cent in Q1 2018 to 1.19 per cent in Q2 could be attributed to recent security challenges, which affected many farming communities across the country. He also said access to credit in the sector is low due largely to the nature of risk inherent in the sector.

    With regards to manufacturing, Yusuf said the real sector is still grappling with serious productivity challenges arising from the constraint of infrastructure, particularly power and logistics. He said it is imperative, therefore, that there should be greater investment and policy focus on improving logistics and enhancing the power sector.

    He said the manufacturing sector slowed from 3.39 per cent in Q1 to 0.68 per cent in Q2 because of infrastructure deficit, logistic challenges, including the Apapa gridlock, access and cost of credit, weak purchasing power and multiple taxation.

    Prof. Ademola Oyejide of the Faculty of Social Science, University of Ibadan, noted that countries that have developed did so on the back of the productivity of the manufacturing sector.

    He, however, said the manufacturing sector can only be productive and competitive with the appropriate mix of macroeconomic policies. According to him, having more than one exchange rate distorts the market and hurts the manufacturing sector.

    Although, there have been efforts at addressing infrastructure deficit particularly in the area of improving the power sector and the business environment under the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (EGRP), experts insist that macroeconomic and structural reforms remained urgent to contain vulnerability and support sustainable private sector-led growth.

    For instance, the IMF has consistently called for measures to contain vulnerabilities and achieve growth rates that could make a significant impact in reducing poverty and unemployment, which required a comprehensive set of policy measures.

    On the fiscal front, the Fund said fiscal consolidation should be accompanied by a monetary policy stance that remains tight to further reduce inflation and anchor inflation expectations.

    It added that moving towards a unified and market-based exchange rate as soon as possible while continuing to strengthen external buffers would be necessary to increase confidence and reduce potential risks from capital flow reversals.

    “Such a policy package – along with structural reform implementation, including by building on recent successes to improve the business environment, closing infrastructure gaps, and implementing the power sector reform plan – would lay the foundation for a diversified private-sector led economy,” the IMF said.

    Experts have also identified the increased patronage of made-in-Nigeria products as a viable option to halt the economy’s plunge back into recession. According to them, this will boost the manufacturing sector, resulting to increased revenue to government through taxes and employment creation, among others.

  • ‘Most Nigerians not meeting fruit intake requirement’

    A renowned nutritionist, Dr. Bisi Abiola, has identified cultural and natural restrictions as the major problems preventing a greater percentage of Nigerians from meeting the recommended daily fruit servings.

    Abiola, who is the managing director of Indulge Nigeria Limited, said this in her latest monthly healthy living discourse, a platform that reviews the positive role that fruit juice can and does play in a healthy diet

    During the series sponsored by Chivita, the nutritionist said Nigerian culture does not recognise fruit as satisfying enough to stand as a diet. This, she noted, is one of the reasons many people do not pay serious attention to fruit consumption.

    The expert regretted that the few people who have risen above the confine of unfavorable culture to embrace fruit meal are often confronted with convenience and suitability challenges.

    To enjoy the benefits of fruit all seasons, Abiola urged health-cautious and busy individuals to embrace 100 per cent pure fruit juice, which she described as a perfect substitute for whole fruits.

    She, however, cautioned consumers to pay attention to labels while shopping to ensure that they buy pure fruit juice, saying: “If 100 per cent fruit juice is not clearly written on the pack, it is likely not a pure fruit juice.

    “The truth is that 100 per cent fruit juice is proven to have similar or exactly same nutrition as fresh juice does, straight from a fruit without added sugar or preservatives.

    “In other words, 100 per cent fruit juice is nutrient-dense beverage that provides vitamins, minerals (folic acid, thiamine and magnesium) and beneficial plant nutrients like polyphenols.

    Abiola said when fruit juice is 100 per cent, it counts as one portion of fruit, which is not only convenient, but also helpful as many Nigerians do not meet their daily fruit quota for the maintenance of good health.

  • SON, society sign MoU to strengthen standards

    The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) International in Switzerland, to promote standards.

    SON Director General Mr Osita Aboloma made this known when he led a Nigerian delegation to the 2018 General Assembly of the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) in Geneva, Switzerland.

    Aboloma said the MoU would promote greater SON input and content through active participation in the ASTM International standards development process and also promote SON acceptance and use of ASTM International standards.

    ASTM Vice President, Global Cooperation, Teresa Cendrowska, representing the President, Katharine F. Morgan, stated that the organisation entered into the MoU to enhance the development of Nigerian national standards for health, safety and the environment.

    The  MoU, she said, is aimed at promoting communication between the two organisations, avoiding duplication of work efforts where possible, promoting knowledge of standard development activities of both organisations and utilising the resources of ASTM International to strengthen SON standards development system.

    SON and ASTM International have had over a decade of cooperation in standards exchange and use as part of international collaboration, in line with the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) guidelines.

     

  • ‘With right technology, Nigeria can feed 600m people’

    The Consul-General of Denmark in Lagos, Mr. Per Christensen, has said Nigeria can produce food for some 600 million people through the application of the right technology.

    Speaking at a one-day Danish Food Tech Exhibition and Seminar in Lagos, Christensen said Nigeria has a rich arable land and population for bumper food production.

    He said Nigeria, with her arable land, population and weather can  produce more food than Brazil, if the farmers engage in technology-driven farming.

    “Let me say that the agricultural development potential in Nigeria is bigger than that of Brazil when Nigerian farmers engage in technology farming.

    “Nigeria can produce food for 600 million people through the application of the right technology,” he Christensen.

    The Consul-General said it was imperative for Nigeria to rededicate herself to increasing food production for Nigerians, as well as regaining her position as a net food exporter.

    He said agriculture was an area of common interest to Denmark and Nigeria, and Danish companies were prepared to introduce farming technology to Nigerian farmers.

    Christensen said that the development of agriculture should be an important area of cooperation for Nigeria and Denmark in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

    According to him, there are currently about 30,000 full time farmers involved in food and dairy products production in Denmark.

    Christensen said the Food Tech Exhibition and Seminar was organised to expose stakeholders in Nigeria’s agriculture sector to the existing technology for food processing and value chain.

    The visiting Danish companies are active in areas of logistics and cold chain, breeding and genetics, agro-industry and processing equipment, food and grain analytical equipment, ingredient and financing.

    The Marketing Manager of BIC Electric, Ms Katarzyna Michalczyk, said she was in Nigeria to meet Nigerians and know of the existing opportunities for her company in Nigeria.

     

  • FAO advocates value addition to agric products

    The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has called on the Federal Government to ensure value addition to Nigeria’s agricultural produce to achieve zero hunger by 2030.

    The Country Representative of FAO, Mr. Suffyan Koroma, made the call in Abuja, during the week, at a walk organised to commemorate the 2018 World Food Day.

    Koroma, who stressed that agricultural production would be a waste of time without value addition, appealed to the Federal Government to also consider other complementary services which agricultural production needed to thrive.

    “Nigeria should be free of hunger by 2030, but that does not just rest on agriculture. It goes beyond agriculture because the complimentary services that agriculture needs to thrive are also as valuable as the products that we produce, he said.

    Koroma stated that for food prices to be lower, it does not just mean production; it means the value-added products, the services, the energy, the effective legislation – all of these should contribute to zero hunger.

    “It even involves transportation, knowing what to produce and for what market. If we produce without adding value, it is basically useless; it is a sheer waste of time, he said, asking, “How do we control animal diseases, pests, conflicts, climate change and issues of flooding?”

    According to him, all these are relevant in efforts to achieve zero hunger. He expressed hope that the government will continue to strive in enhancing the drive to achieve zero hunger by 2030.

  • Report: Rising temperatures ‘ll push millions into poverty

    A report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) detailing progress and pathways to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius has said climate change has literally set the planet on fire, with millions of people in Africa already feeling the impacts of poverty.

    Commenting on the report, Pan Africa Director of Oxfam International, Mr. Apollos Nwafor, said:  “…..The IPCC just showed that things can get much worse. Settling for 2 degrees would be a death sentence for people in many parts of Africa.”

    He said the faster governments embrace the renewable energy revolution and move to protect communities at risk, the more lives and livelihoods that would be spared.

    “A hotter Africa is a hungrier Africa. Today, at only 1.1 degrees of warming globally, crops and livestock across the region are being hit and hunger is rising with poor small scale women farmers, living in rural areas suffering the most. It only gets worse from here,” Nwafor said.

    He warned that to do nothing more and simply follow the commitments made in the Paris Agreement condemns the world to three degrees of warming, and that the damage to the planet and humanity would be exponentially worse and irreparable.

    He, however, noted that what gives him hope is that some of the poorest and lowest emitting countries are now leading the climate fight. “We’ve moved from an era of ‘you first’ to ‘follow me’ – it’s time for the rich world to do just that,” he added.

    According to him, Oxfam has called for increased, responsible and accountable climate finance from rich countries that support small scale farmers, especially women to realize their right to food security and climate justice.

    He stressed that while time is short, there is still a chance of keeping to 1.5 degrees of warming.

    He said there was need to reject any false solution like Large Scale Land Based Investments that means kicking small scale farmers off their land to make way for carbon farming and focus instead on stopping the use of fossil fuels, starting with an end to building new coal power stations worldwide.

    Nwafor regretted that natural disasters such as droughts and floods have been thwarting development on the African continent.  He said food insecurity was as a result of inefficient agricultural systems and an  obvious indicator of poverty on the continent.

     

  • Wanted: Value addition to drive industrialisation

    Nigeria’s population and resource endowment are key industrialisation drivers. But, the failure to add value to the abundant natural resources before export is undermining efforts at industrialisation, job and wealth creation. Now, there is a rethink in support of adding value to products before export. According to experts, the era of exporting natural resources in their raw state must give way to value addition, if the country must join the comity of industrialised nations. Assistant Editor OKWY IROEGBU-CHIKEZIE reports.

    It’s an undeniable fact: Nigeria has all it takes to join the club of industrialised nations. For instance, her estimated 200 million population and rich natural resource endowment place the nation in a vantage position to not only feed her population, but also export finished products and grow its economy through industrialisation.

    But, the inability to leverage value addition to transform the abundant natural resources into opportunities for jobs and wealth creation has continued to stand in the way. Most of the local raw materials are exported for processing and later imported back into the country as finished products, with the addition of certain additives at great cost.

    Indeed, despite boasting bountiful agricultural and mineral resources, most, if not all of Nigeria’s resources, are exported in raw form, without any value addition. The country does not process them from primary produce to secondary or intermediate products.

    The implication is that Nigeria loses the money that could have been made from locally-produced finished products. More importantly, she creates jobs for other countries’ nationals, while grappling with unsavoury socio-economic consequences of rising unemployment, particularly among graduates.

    But a new rethink in favour of value addition has taken the centre stage, with stakeholders and experts in diverse sectors insisting that Nigeria must produce, and, most importantly, add value to mineral and natural resources for export if the economy must prosper, create jobs and industrialise.

    Some of them argue that the era of exporting natural and mineral resources in their raw state is gone. To them, the time for bold, creative and strategic policies to encourage value addition to raw materials before export has come, considering the urgent need to take a greater percentage of the country’s population out of poverty.

    The Ghanaian President, Nana Addo Akufo-Addo, did not mince words when he said Nigeria should lead Africa’s industrialisation process. According to him, the country’s resources and population place it at a vantage position to grow the economy of the continent through industrialisation.

    Akufo-Addo, who was the guest speaker at the 46th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria (MAN) held in Lagos, a fortnight ago, noted that Nigeria’s and, indeed, the continent’s biggest challenge was the inability to leverage value addition to transform the abundant natural resources into opportunities for the creation of jobs and wealth.

    The Ghanaian president, who was represented by a Senior Minister, Hon Yaw Osafo-Maafo, recalled a situation where his country and Cote D-Ivoire produced 60 per cent or more of world’s annual cocoa beans, but earned less than six per cent of the global value chain activities in the cocoa industry.

    He said: “Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire, with their collective production of 60 per cent of global cocoa beans, earned only about $6.0 billion in 2016, but the chocolate industry earned, at the same time, about $120 billion.”

    He criticised what he described as the lazy approach of African countries to always rush to the international market to sell their resources in their raw state rather than add value to them. He also harped on the need to ensure that the continent, under Nigeria’s leadership, has the capacity to support effective value addition to enhance its revenue position in the international market.

    According to Akufo-Addo, this calls for policy harmonisation, coordination, and effective collaboration between the public and private sectors to drive effective and time-tested industrial framework to fully utilise Africa’s natural resources.

    He urged the continent to begin to trade among ourselves, concentrating on areas of comparative advantage. According to him, the continent must begin to break the trade barriers among its member countries and form alliances with the various countries’ associations of industries and chambers of commerce.

    While noting that through such associations, the continent may get to know the needs of the various countries and where there are opportunities of trade, the Ghanaian leader said this strategy also has the capacity to boost the continent’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

    He said, for instance, Africa has a combined population of 1.3 billion  and a GDP of $2.2 trillion, while United States with a population of about 328 million has a  GDP of about $18.3 trillion. He regretted that Africa’s population is about four times that of the US yet, US’s GDP is about eight times that of Africa.

    Akufo-Addo made a case for stock-taking of the prevailing policy frameworks, while measuring them against the current industrialisation to determine if there is need to deepen the policy initiative.

    He also urged policy makers on the need for the right mix of policies to fully unearth and develop the entrepreneurial talents that abound in Nigeria in particular and on the continent generally.

    To further underscore the need for value addition, Akufo-Addo said “It is far better to leave our resources untapped till our future generations rise up to the challenge and conscientiously develop the best policy-mix that prioritises industrialisation as the most convenient cause to drive the much-needed socio-economic development.”

    He took a swipe on Nigeria and other African countries who spend a large portion of their budgets to buy goods and services to run the state, noting that if the appropriate policies are made, procurement policies of the state should favour local production to support the social sectors such as schools, hospitals, police, army, prisons, among others.

    “We need to stop this needless drive for importation and direct our attention to protecting local businesses. We must tailor our procurement laws to favour local production,” Akufo-Addo charged.

    He said: “For every cheap item we buy from outside Nigeria, Ghana or the continent as a whole, we must bear in mind that we are providing employment to other people outside our borders and denying our people the jobs to make a living and create wealth in dignity. Africa must procure prudently to protect itself and provide labour to its youth.”

    The Ghanaian leader explained that Africa could create the champions of entrepreneurs and business giants who could stand shoulder to shoulder with foreign businesses. “We have many examples of our own to celebrate like the Dangotes.

    “What we must never stop to do is to effectively ensure that both the private and public sectors continuously engage in productive dialogues and consultations to define what is good for our industrial sustainability and I believe this meeting will deepen that process,” he said.

    For the immediate past President of MAN, Dr. Frank Udemba Jacobs, there is the need for the government to speed up actions that would lead to the quick resolution of challenges facing manufacturers to reposition and further improve the sector’s performance, especially in  value addition.

    Jacobs stated that the theme of the AGM, Mainstreaming industrial policies to catalyse industrial renaissance, was borne out of the need to appraise the performance of industrial policy initiatives, with a view to ensuring that they are positively aligned to the nation’s industrial aspirations and overall economic development agenda.

    On the controversial African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, he reiterated that MAN was not against any agreement that will facilitate intra-African trade, particularly where Africans stand to benefit.

    Jacobs, however, said: “Our concerns were principally the inadequacy of private-sector stakeholders’ consultations and the absence of a credible country-specific study that should form the basis of our negotiation as a country.

    Other experts and stakeholders, who bared their minds on the need for Nigeria to champion the continent’s industrialisation drive through value addition, said this can be achieved through the use of appropriate technology, starting from evolving strategies to upgrade existing indigenous technology.

    They also recommended that the country should not ignore the role of Research and Development (R&D) in its drive for competitiveness through value addition. This, according to them, requires developing engineering, technical and vocational skills. Besides, for a poor nation like Nigeria, R&D efforts should focus on solving local problems in industries.

     

  • ‘Health/ wellness sector’s investment’ll reach $1.8trillion’

    Business and investment opportunities in Nigeria and other African countries’ health and wellness sector will reach $1.8 trillion by 2030.

    The opportunities are primarily in risk pooling; and technological advances including remote patient monitoring and tele-health.

    This was the major highlight of the ‘African Business: Health Forum’ publication, which final report will be launched in early February 2019, at the African Union (AU) Summit.

    The Africa Business: Heath Forum 2019 will see the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), in partnership with GBCHealth, the Aliko Dangote Foundation and the Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria collaborate.

    The collaboration will bring together some African leaders, chief executives and business leaders, philanthropists, as well as high-level representatives of the AU, United Nations, and the African Development Bank (AfDB) to discuss the continent’s health challenges and opportunities for investment.

    The Africa Business: Heath Forum publication, which was accessed by The Nation,  said by 2030, business opportunities in health and wellness sector will reach $1.8 trillion, noting that the African youth bulge represented a huge potential opportunity for business across the continent.

    “Harnessing this potential into a positive force for development through investments in health, empowerment, education and employment is the greatest challenge of the next 15 years,” the publication on the state of Africa’s health sector from a macro-economic perspective, said.

    The publication also said the Africa Business: Heath Forum will launch the African Business Coalition for Health (ABCHealth), adding that this Africa led-initiative was announced at last year’s Bloomberg Global Business Forum by Aliko Dangote, the African business magnate.

    ABCHealth is a partnership between the Aliko Dangote Foundation and GBCHealth. Since the announcement, the partners have worked together to develop the foundation for a regional platform to connect African business leaders and philanthropists to mobilise coordinated action on health.

    ABCHealth helps companies and their leaderships contribute more directly to meeting national and regional health goals in the context of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Agenda 2030 and Africa Agenda 2063 — ultimately improving the standard of living, quality of life, and the overall health and wellbeing of all Africans.

    GBCHealth is committed to leveraging the full resources of the business community to meet today’s most pressing global health challenges, working together to make a healthier world for their employees, for the communities in which they work and for the world at large.

     

  • Support tech advances to boost trade, govts told

    Digital technologies could  add two percentage points to the annual growth of global trade by 2030 if governments support e-commerce and address consumers’ concerns, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has said.

    The Geneva-based organisation said in its yearly “World Trade Report” published on Wednesday that information technologies could, especially, help Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as well as developing countries boost trade.

    “IT technologies have helped reduce the global cost of trading by 15 per cent between 1996 and 2014, as they made it easier to make payments and ship goods.

    “Between 2013 and 2015, the value of internet-based commerce jumped by 56 per cent to $25 trillion,’’ the WTO said, citing UN statistics.

    According to U.S Government figures, e-commerce reached $27.7 trillion in 2016 from the WTO’s report.

    The world trade body sees artificial intelligence, internet-linked equipment, 3D printing, and blockchain technology for business transactions as the most promising developments.

    According to it, governments need to regulate intellectual property rights, data flows and privacy issues if they want to gain a competitive advantage.

    For example, the report pointed to unresolved IT security issues with so-called “smart” home appliances, and to open legal questions regarding the blockchain technology that underpins electronic currencies.

    According to the WTO Director General, Roberto Azevedo, technological advances per se are not a guarantee of greater trade growth and economic integration.

    “We can’t simply leave the evolution of our technological future to chance, or trust it to market forces,’’ Azevedo added.

  • SON ‘won’t compromise standards’

    The Standards Organisation       of Nigeria (SON) is committed to the diligent prosecution of two Chinese nationals under trial for alleged import of a huge consignment of substandard and stuffed tyres into Nigeria last year.

    This became apparent at the resumed hearing of the matter at the Federal High Court Ikoyi, Lagos before Justice C.M. A. Olatoregun, when a Counsel from Festus Keyamo Chambers, Oluwafemi Olabisi, appeared on behalf of SON to take over the prosecution of the trial.

    Also, in court for the trial of Taolung Shen and Xu Jimg Yao and their accomplices accused of importing thousands of substandard and life-endangering tyres into Nigeria were, Umaru Kawu and J. O. Olofindare, Director, Legal Services and Senior State Counsel from SON.