The Nation Newspaper

Category: Jobs

  • ‘Unemployment, job losses depleting pension funds’

    ‘Unemployment, job losses depleting pension funds’

    The Federal Government is eyeing the N5.4 trillion pension funds to develop infrastructure. But the fund is dwindling because of unemployment and joblessness, according to Usman Suleiman, Future Unity Glanvills Pensions Limited (FUG Pensions) Managing Director. The number of Contributors to the Retirement  Savings Account (RSA) has reduced because of retrenchment, he notes. He tells Omobola Tolu-Kusimo that there has to be a template to take care of long term investment, safety and returns on investment (RoI) if pension funds must be used for infrastructure development.

    How would you assess the economy against the backdrop of the challenges?

    A major issue still standing as an obstacle to the overall recommencement of economic activities is the issue of power generation consequent upon lack of gas. This is because a significant number of our power generation infrastructure is based on the thermal system, which is powered by gas. The existing hydro power station cannot generate enough power to significantly improve supply to the national grid. Unfortunately, we do not have other alternative sources of power generation such as coal, which we have in abundance in this country. There should have been power plants based on coal in Enugu, Kogi and Gombe States.

    Of course, we know that Ashaka Cement is building a small power plant in Gombe based on coal, but there should have been a major plant based on coal. The construction of Mambilla power plant, which is planned to be a huge plant that will generate over 3000 megawatts should have taken off. The whole of the Sahelian region-Sokoto, Jigawa and Borno, should have had solar power plants located severally. If this had happened, we will not be so much tied to thermal plants. As it is presently, all the major plants including the biggest one, the Egbin thermal plant based in Ikorodu, Lagos, are based on gas. With what is happening now in the Niger Delta, where the gas is sourced from and along the routes where the pipes pass, it becomes a very challenging situation. The issue of vandalism of gas pipelines will have to be addressed and clearly, it is not just an issue of vandalism, it has so many sore factors both political and economic. This is a major obstacle to the forward movement of the economy. For us in FUG, we continue to maintain our optimism and sustain the expectation that we will be able to achieve our medium term goals, substantially, in the second quarter of this year.

    So far,  since we commenced business, particularly in the second quarter, we have been  able to recover part of what we were not able to fully achieve last year.

    Many organisations have closed shops. some in operation have scaled down. How have these affected pension funds administration?

    It affected our business in two ways. The first has to do with when you have a depreciation in the wealth of employment generation, it automatically affects our business in terms of the new accounts that we generate. Secondly, it affects our business in terms of having to service the employees, who are now out of job and would require to sustain themselves. The law has provided that in the event of job loss and inability to get another job for a period of four months and above, an account holder can apply to access 25 per cent of the balance of their pension account. This is an amount that would have remained in their account being invested and growing. But, because of the circumstances of being laid off, the owner of the account will come and withdraw 25 per cent of it for consumption, meaning that it will go off and it is the 75 per cent remaining that will be invested and no new inflow will come in until that retrenched employee gets another job and starts contributing again.

    If the employee fails to get another job and he is 50 years, he will then come back as a retiree to fully access that account by taking lump sum and receiving pension, which he would not have done if he was employed. So, these are the two parts in which our business is affected. It is the reality, as I stated, it is a situation that I can see improving from the third quarter of this year. We anticipate that as these companies start investing again, a lot of those in the labour market will actually be called back to employment. And the government itself is targeting employment generation as one of its core objectives with agriculture in particular and private sector employment generation as the other. For us, generating employment in all sectors is good for our business.

    The Federal Government wants to use pension funds to bridge infrastructure gaps, what are the issues?

    First of all, let me state that it is not an issue of accessing the money. The government has been accessing the money with 70 per cent of the money invested in Federal and state government bonds. When we say 70 per cent, it means that 70 per cent of N5.4 trillion is in bonds and those bonds could fund anything. But, what we are talking about here is funding capital projects and the question is: How are you going to do it? PFAs are not project managers. We don’t have the capacity of phasing, packaging and funding projects. The capacity that we have is to manage and invest the funds for long term with safety and return as our goal. We are, therefore, available and ready to fund projects that meets these reqirements. The requirements are of safety and reasonable return.  But, how do you generate those projects? It is the parties that want to implement those projects that have the responsibility of packaging the projects to meet the requirement that will enable pension funds go into the funding of those projects. What we have been saying is let project promoters, either government institutions, private sector, multilateral agencies or development finance institutions create vehicles for generating, developing and presenting the projects to us. Once these projects meet our requirements, they meet the international best practices, which are known to everybody, the funds will definitely go into funding of the projects because that’s what we want. The government could make those bonds specific by floating a bond for funding a particular bridge such as the second Niger Bridge, proposed bridge in Nasarawa across the Benue River or package a bond specifically for funding the East/West rail line. The project promoters and managers will then develop and package the projects for financing. In the absence of such projects, there is a little we can do other than to invest in whatever available classes of assets are there.

    With the situation of the economy, how confident are you in investing pension funds in the capital market?

    Pension funds will always be invested in the capital market, but the significance will depend on the strategies of the particular investment manager. Not all PFAs will have same exposure every time in the capital market. However, at present, the average is just about eight per cent exposure of the funds under management in the capital market. But you can be sure that investment managers in the PFAs are watching the market on a regular basis and carrying out analyses. We anticipate that with the deregulation of the exchange regime and deregulation of petroleum downstream, foreign portfolio investors, who play a significant role in making the markets, will start coming back. And when they come back, initially, there might be profit taking and so on and so forth, but we anticipate that the market will start looking upwards and then investing managers in PFAs will start taking positions. So, but even at present, we have pension funds in the capital market.

    How did your firm fare last year? What is its present position?

    Last year was generally a difficult one for the economy as a whole for obvious reason. The year 2015 was an election year and there was a lot of apprehension in the country in terms of the political direction and the future. There was a lot of fear about crisis arising from election, particularly when the election dates were shifted to over a period of some weeks. However, as it turned out, the elections were concluded successfully. The country avoided crisis and the new administration took off at the end of May. This doused a lot of tension and therefore, made a lot of investors and the public to realise that we could in fact, have confidence in the future. Investors and the public then positioned to look and understand the focus of the new administration. But it took a little bit of time for the administration to fully settle, get the cabinet running and come up with concise and clear policy directions. This took almost the end of the year and for that reason, the economy became very slow. For us in the pension industry, this naturally affected our performance in terms of growth and registration.

    Specifically, how was your sector affected?

    We are in the contributory pension scheme, effectively meaning that unlike the defined benefit, it is totally and completely dependent on employment generation and employees opening Retirement Savings Accoumt (RSAs).  As a consequence of slowing down of economic activities and the waiting stance of investing public, there was a lull in employment generation over that period, not only in the private sector, which is supposed to be the major employer, but in the public sector, including both Federal and states.

    For this reason, there wasn’t very significant growth in the number of employees registered into the system. However, in spite of this circumstance, we in FUG have been able to weather that storm and move into 2016 with the confidence of being able to move towards achieving our projections for the medium term strategy plan. At the beginning of the first quarter of this year, semblance of direction was being identified, particularly in relations to policies that have to do with exchange rate and petroleum pricing.

    In the second quarter, even though there is no clear cut policy statement, it is clear that the exchange rate regime is now liberalised. Therefore, investors clearly now have a direction. They can anticipate and forecast unlike in the latter part of last year. With that, we expect that in the second half of this year which are the third and fourth quarters of the year, we will see a rejuvenation of activities in the economy. We anticipate that investors now see that bringing in their funds to invest, they have a window where the liberalised exchange regime of being able to repatriate their capital and profit.

    We, therefore, anticipate that companies that have been waiting for investment and therefore, regeneration of activities will now be able to attract partners, who will come in with investment. We also expect that portfolio investors will also stage a comeback into the capital market in the third quarter of the year. We anticipate that petroleum marketers will now be ready to truly recommence importation of fuel particularly petrol and aviation fuel because they can now sell at a reasonable price. Although we are told that it will not go beyond N145, but effectively, with the pricing regime we are looking at, they have an avenue of manipulating both the import cost, transportation and their own margin. So, we anticipate less pressure in that effect.

    What is the total asset under your management?

    As at present, I will say we have total asset  of about N44 billion out of which RSA fund is N39 billion. We are looking at achieving N50 billion assets under management by the end of this year. We have recorded about N44 billion now.

  • 10 things organisations, employees should stop doing

     “The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say “no” to almost everything.”  – Warren Buffet

    2015 was a year I spent learning a lot of golden principles about success and interestingly one of the best, if not the best lesson I learnt is the significance of a To STOP doing list. Tons of books, articles, white papers, info graphics, blogs, etc. have been written on what we should start doing, how to start doing them and the importance of creating To Do lists but hardly will you find a book or anyone talking about what we should stop doing – a subject I have come to regard as completely vital in the pursuit of outstanding success.

    In his bestselling book – How the Mighty has fallen; Author Jim Collins coined an interesting phrase “the undisciplined pursuit of more,” where the pursuit of greater success leads to loss of focus and diffused results and ultimately failure. The tendency for us to continue to pile up our plate with more things to do is the reason for so much mediocrity that we find in the world today. Even the word priority has evolved into priorities which in itself is an oxymoron. It’s like saying one wants to buy new antiques. You can’t buy new antiques just like you can’t have several priorities.

    The tendency to do more and more affects organisations and individuals alike. Even when companies know that an advantage has run its course, they will still continue to defend it to the bitter end simply because they are unable to confront their brutal realities and adapt to the changing environment.  This goes for individuals too. We keep doing something that is of no value simply because we do not want to experience uncomfortable feelings usually associated with letting go of what we have become comfortable with.

    So what are the signs that you are engaged in an undisciplined pursuit of more? And most importantly, what can individuals and organisations do to help them avoid this dangerous trap going forward?

    STOP DOING LIST FOR COMPANIES

    1. Endless Pointless Meetings:com carried out a study on 500 office workers in the UK to find out how many hours are spent in meetings, on average, and what percentage of these meetings are actually useful.The results show that the average office worker spends around 16 hours in meetings each week, and that around a quarter of this time is usually wasted. That’s four hours of pointless meetings every week.

    Over a year, this works out to more than 200 hours. Over a career, the total is even more alarming with the average worker sitting through around 9,000 hours of needless meetings – a full year and ten days!

     

    1. Annual Performance Reviews- Performance reviews should be done on a regular basis; preferably after each assignment. Having regular performance reviews and feedback sessions will implement a more fluid system, in which employees receive timely feedback from their managers on an on-going basis following every assignment. What really is the logic behind having employees wait till the end of each year to get feedback on their performance? I totally fail to see how this profits the employees and organisation alike. Imagine how many blows could have been avoided throughout the year, and on the reverse, worthy matters that should have gained more focus.

     

    1. Not Evaluating Managers’ Management Styles- It is not a myth that people join organisations but leave managers. It is unsafe for any organisation to live in blissful ignorance of how its managers manage its employees, especially where they’ve had no form of preparation or training for that position. The effect of managers’ relations with employees on employee retention and performance cannot be overemphasised and should not be overlooked.

     

    1. Hiring replacements as opposed to having an effective succession planning: If nothing else, at least consider the cost of replacing a wrong hire; management, administrative and legal costs, plus the indirect cost of stolen/damaged goods, equipment, employer reputation, etc. According to a survey conducted by Right Management Consultants, the replacement cost of a bad hire is 1 to 5 times the salary of the job in question. Every forward-looking organisation should have a comprehensive succession plan.

     STOP DOING LIST FOR EMPLOYEES

     

    1. Gossip: The president of ReputationManagement.com, Bill Fish says the biggest issue he has seen over the years that causes conflict at work is gossip. “I can’t even count the amount of times I’ve had to intervene with employees who are upset that someone is talking about them behind their back, or betrayed their confidence by sharing information that they should not have,” he says. “In reality, you are going to run into gossip situations whether it is the middle school girls’ volleyball team, or the finance team at a Fortune 500 company, but I’ve seen it destroy plenty of relationships and result in people leaving their job.”

     

    Gossiping at work is toxic and does not serve anyone well. Besides, it is quite logical that if you gossip about others, people would also gossip about you! If you can’t say something nice, then say nothing at all.

     

    1. Complaining: This is the second palm of gossiping, but this time, about your employer. One of the commonest and most persistent trends is employees complaining about their employers. Some employees complain so bitterly that their co-workers and even families develop resentments against the organisation. If you have an issue with how things are done or specific procedures and rules in your organisation, make a formal complaint about it, better still, have a face to face with your HR Manager or whoever is directly concerned. Co-authors of “Crucial Conversations,” Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield found in a recent study that 56% of employees refrain from addressing troublesome issues at work for more than a year. The authors note that while this might not appear to cause immediate conflict, such silence has a long-term effect that can build up and cause problems down the road.

     

    1. Making the workplace a relationship platform: This is one thing I have completely failed to understand. People get employed into an organisation and then make friends with colleagues to the extent that these relationships grow to become more important to them than the organisation itself. They would do anything to protect those relationships, even at the expense of the organisation.

     

    1. Not speaking up/giving feedback to your boss: It is not unusual to see employees who prefer to stay quiet and have others speak out on their behalf, especially in this part of the world. Employees should begin to consider speaking up for themselves, giving feedback to their line managers and holding them accountable for goals/tasks they are responsible for.

     

    1. Taking/Venting personal frustration and anger on others: Henceforth, make it a point of duty to leave your ‘home’ troubles at home. Even if you choose to carry it around, don’t carry it on your face, or in the words you speak to others. It is absolutely wrong to take out your frustrations on people who had nothing to do with the cause in the first place. It is a fast relationship killer. Bringing bad mood to the office can spread from one person to the other. At the end of the day, no one would have a productive day.

     

    1. Unrealistic expectations from your company: People join organisations and expect everything to be perfect. This really is a mindset that has to be changed. Organisations hire primarily because there are problems to be solved! People are hired to add value to their organisations, not to come live their dream lives and earn salaries on top of that. Unfortunately, the latter is often the expectation of most employees. Unrealistic expectations are placed on organisations while the employees’ end of employment contracts are often ignored. If everything in the organisation was perfect, why then were you hired?

     

    Now pause to reflect on this ‘To Stop Doing list’; what do you think would be the result if you cannot stop any of these? More importantly, also create your own “To Stop doing list”. What would be on your list?

    Share with us. Drop a comment on www.workforcegroup.com

    Bolaji Olagunju is the Lead Consultant/CEO of Workforce Group; a Management Consulting Firm that offers diverse services in the areas of Learning, Development & Research, HR and Business Consulting, People & Task Outsourcing and Recruitment Services.

     

  • ‘Why Fed Govt must ban fish importation’

    ‘Why Fed Govt must ban fish importation’

    Nigeria spends billions of naira yearly on fish importation, despite its huge marine resources. The Executive Director/CEO, Nigerian Institute of Oceanography & Marine Research (NIOMR), Dr. Gbola Akande, in this interview with OLATUNDE ODEBIYI,urges the government to ban fish importation to stimulate domestic production, as aquaculture can enhance economic  divesrification .

    How do we bridge the gap between fish supply and demand?

    Aquaculture is the only way to bridge the gap.  All we need is more campaign and awareness on the importance of people going into aquaculture or fish farming. If we embrace aquaculture, it would help to reduce pressure on the amount of fish that we import and also reduce pressure on fishing. With our current population estimated to be about 170 million, the demand for fish is about 2.6 million tonnes annually. Locally, we produce only about 800,000 tonnes and import about 800,000 tonnes of frozen fish; this adds up to 1.6 million tonnes annually. This leaves a wide gap of about a million tonnes.

    Aquaculture is the only way to bridge the gap between fish supply and demand. For this to happen, more people should go into aquaculture. Although fish farming in Nigeria has been on the increase, for it to contribute meaningfully to the protein needs of the country, we need more campaign and awareness on the importance of people going into fish farming. This will help to reduce pressure on the amount of fish that we import and also reduce pressure on artisanal fishing.

    How should the government intervene in aquaculture?

    One area of aquaculture that is critical is feeds and this is where government must come to our aid. In aquaculture, feed accounts for about 75 per cent of the overhead cost. This is why NIOMR has been involved in carrying out research to reduce the cost of feed by looking into ingredients that can make feed come at a cheaper price. For instance, NIOMR’s research into the use of maize with cassava for aquaculture feed has brought down the cost of feed, though not drastically. Another major component of fish feed is fish meal, which is being imported. In this regard, we are researching into using some fish which species are in abundance in our water, to convert them into fish meal, to also reduce cost of feeding.

    How would NIOMR integrate Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) into fish production?

    NIOMR yearly carries out training for SMEs on aquaculture, fish processing and marketing- which is the bone marrow of the future. Currently, catfish is the major aquaculture product that we have, and it can be said that catfish takes about 90 per cent of what we produce in aquaculture while the rest are tilapia and all other fish species.

    NIOMR is researching into various tilapia species, so that there will be no problem with their growth. This would help us to have a second candidate that farmers will also be able to culture and farm with ease. Our effort to increase fish production in Nigeria has also led us into instituting a scheme known as entrepreneurship in aquaculture for young potential fish farmers. The Institute has also formed fish farmers into innovation platforms which would enable us to have marketers, entrepreneurs, manufacturers and producers. The platform would help them to get better price for their produce.

    When you culture your fish, they do not come out equal. You could put 1000 fish in a tank, but all the fish will weigh differently. This is why the Institute came up with canning of cat fish, just like we have canned sardine and geisher. With this innovative platform, farmers may now can the smaller fish and sell the big ones. We have been canning catfish and tilapia which is our value addition to aquaculture as there will be choices to either have your fish fresh, canned or smoked. Value addition is critical for us because with more value on your product, you get more money.

    Nigeria is targeting agric as the arrow-head of its renewed economic revival plan. Where does your institute fit in?

    A lot of areas. For us to shift from oil to agriculture, it means we have to produce locally. One area that NIOMR has been working on is to discover fish species that can be used to produce fish meal as an alternative to imported fish meal; this is part of our effort to reduce the cost of feed. We have discovered the fish,. It is known as “Nectar Fish,” but we are still doing the preliminary studies. We have produced fish meal from this fish, and we have done the analysis of the protein, the fat, the moisture, the proximate composition and what the fish meal contains in terms of protein. We found out that the protein level is high- over 60 per cent. So, the next stage we are in is that we are undergoing is feeding trial to compare the fish meal produced from this fish with imported fish meal. If we can source the fish meal locally through this effort, that will be our own contribution to the economy.

    Another area is that in the ocean, we have another fish called ariomma fish species, which is a good replacement for titus and the sardine. We have located where those fish are in abundance and what we have done is to can the fish and do a comparative analysis between the ariomma fish species and the imported titus. Also, we have conducted research on and already gone into the culture of marine shrimps. We earn foreign exchange from export of shrimps but because of the quantity that we are able to catch, we do not get much. We are into research to enable us culture marine shrimps properly. Our aim is to have export potential in the nearest future, rather than just bringing in and not exporting.

    We also have plans to develop fish crackers which could replace prawn crackers being imported from China. Also, our smoked fish is a good product for export. Some people are exporting smoked fish. These are some of the things NIOMR is doing to support the Federal Government in its change programme – from a net importer to exporter.

    How can aquaculture be positioned as a major contributor to the GDP?

    Government should provide the enabling environment for the fishing industry to thrive. As the fish industry is today, some  people who are interested in it are not doing the business because of some of the problems in the Niger Delta and because we have the problem of pirates and militants to mention a few. In the past, the number of vessels that were operating in the country was between 200 and 250, but now this has reduced to less than 150. These are areas that government can come in.

    Another important step to take is that the Federal Government should totally ban importation of fish. This would help to protect our fish farms. There is no point importing fresh water fish since we have a lot of farmers investing in fish farming locally. If government bans fish importation, there will be massive cultivation of agric products and this would grow the economy. We have to produce what we eat locally, otherwise, we will run into problem and that is why this government is saying that we must produce what we eat locally. We need to sit down, look inwards and make sure that whatsoever we do has local content so that with time, there will be total ban of imported frozen fish, rice, tooth pick and other agricultural produce. If aquaculture takes its rightful place with the awareness we are creating, fish importation into the country is going to be a thing of the past because we are going to do massive aquaculture.

    What challenges do you face in carrying out your duties?

    Our major challenge is funding. Whether you are given enough money or not, research is a continuous exercise, but by God’s grace, this year’s budget is going to propel us to do more than what we have done in the past. This is because the projects we are going to have this year is enough for us to propel our research to a point that we will be able to say funding is not a major problem. The more money we get for the research, the better for us and, the more we can turn out more research results the more our findings. When we do research, we do not stop at research but, we take the research into a pilot level so that we will be able to tell interested entrepreneurs whether that project is viable or not.

    What are the latest innovations and researches by the institute?

    One major thing is that we have been able to solve the problem of catfish being underpriced from the farmers. That is why we are providing smoking klins that can smoke fish in a neat way so that the end of the day, they will get good price for their products. We have being able to use the smoking klins to assist farmers to add value to their fish and also to reduce fish excess which cannot be sold at a go when harvest is much.

    How do you fund your researches and projects? Do you depend solely on government’s subvention?

    Apart from the government budget, we have some projects that are externally funded. This year’s budget will be far better than what we got last year, and we will manage it judiciously to be able to achieve our targets and further justify the establishment of the institute.

    What are NIOMR’s targets?

    For this year, part of our target is to raise farmers as much as possible. We are going to produce a good number of smoking klins to spread all over the 36 states of the federation. For this year, we have targets on the number we are going to produce and we have targets to produce fingerlings that will be sold to farmers at subsidised rates. We also have plans to make all male tilapia fingerlings in order to boost a lot of aquaculture farming from tilapia. We are doing research to make sure that catfish can be bred all year round, because at certain points of the year, they don’t breed.

  • DisCos are frustrating availability of meters

    DisCos are frustrating availability of meters

    One issue that has pitched power distribution companies (DisCos) against their customers is meter. In this interview, the Chief Executive officer, MEMCOL Nigeria Limited, a meter manufacturing company, Mr Kola Balogun, said metering problems remained unresolved because of the deliberate action of the DisCos to continue milking consumers through estimated billing regime. Balogun spoke with AKINOLA AJIBADE on this and other issues. 

    What is the state of the metering industry in Nigeria?

    The situation in the industry could be likened to happenings in the country. The industry is a reflection of the inconsistencies that has characterised the polity called ‘Nigeria’. These inconsistencies have helped in slowing down the growth of the nation’s economy. In order to contribute to the industrial growth of the country, MOMAS Nigeria Limited started investment in metering business about 20 years ago. The idea has paid off as the firm has manufactured and deployed a lot of meters to consumers, prior to 2013 when the power sector was privatised. Not done yet, the firm wants to increase its production in order to deepen the growth of the sector. To achieve this, the company has invested in meter facility in the West Africa sub- region.

    What is the capacity of the metering industry, vis-a-vis the number of meters, which local manufacturers can produce?

    The industry has capacity to absorb several millions of meters. In fact, it would be difficult for the country to exhaust the volume of meters produced locally in view of the fact that many new houses are springing up annually. Presently, five meter manufacturing firms are operating in the country, albeit at lower capacity. They are MEMCOL, MOJEK, UNISTAR, EMCON and SWEDEN Nigeria Limited. MEMCOL has the capacity to produce 50,000 meters monthly, while each of the remaining four companies can produce between 20,000 to 30,000 meters.

    What is the major threat to the growth of local meter manufacturers?

    Lack of patronage is the major threat to the growth of local manufacturers of meters in Nigeria. The power distribution companies (DisCos), which by law are required to buy meters for onward distribution to their customers, hardly buy from local manufacturers. Usually, the DisCos buy meters from manufacturers abroad.  They go outside the country to open credit facility, buy meters there and bring them to Nigeria.  Whenever the DisCos buy meters from local producers, they do so on credit. This has made it difficult for local manufacturers to survive. However, Ibadan power distribution company (IBEDC), its counterparts in Abuja and Port Harcourt are buying meters regularly from MEMCOL Nigeria Limited. It is sad that meters that are manufactured by local companies are not well patronised.

    Beyond this, what are the other problems facing manufacturers of meters in Nigeria?

    Electricity is another factor inhibiting the growth of the manufacturers. The worsening power situation and its attendant poor supply in the country is taking its toll on manufacturers of meters, and other products. In MEMCOL Nigeria Limited, access to power from the grid has not been encouraging. The reason is because power is not readily available in Mowe-Ibafo business corridor where the company is located. Many industries would have sprung up in that corridor, but for the poor electricity supply in the country. And to stay in business, we decide to run our factory on generator, albeit with pains. It is difficult for a business that is run on generators to be cost-effective. That is why I said earlier that the development of industries is a function of a nation, and not an individual. It is the nation that is expected to protect industries from collapsing.

    What is the level of capacity utilisation in the industry?

    The capacity utilisation is dropping fast. The reason is because the metering companies are operating at optimal capacity. The firms are keeping huge stocks in their factories, due to lack of patronage. Our company has a large quantity of meters in store. Since we are not producing optimally due to problems such as poor patronage, electricity and others, we decided to cut down our workforce, pending the time when situation improves. We cannot afford to keep the human resources (personnel) that would help in producing meters, when it is obvious that the micro and macroeconomic environment in which we operate is not favourable. We cannot continue to keep, having realised that they would be idle because it would be difficult paying their salaries. So this has made capacity utilisation to drop drastically. In the event that the five companies approved by the government to manufacture meters are well financed, they would not only produce a lot of meters monthly, but would assist in bridging the supply and demand gap in the industry.

    The low patronage of your meters by electricity distribution firms, may be due to their low quality?

    To the best of my knowledge, meters that are produced in the country are of good quality. The meters can compete favourably in terms of quality, with those meters that are being imported from countries like China, South Africa, among others.

    For instance, at MELCOM, we produce intelligent meters- meters that provide more than ‘two-way communication. We are designing meters that have higher integrity and standards. We manufacture meters that allow users or owners to communicate with them easily.From a distance, owners can communicate with their meters by knowing what is happening to them.We produce both pre-paid meters and smart pre-paid meters. The former can be easily by-passed by criminals, while the latter cannot be by-passed.

    What efforts are you making to convince DisCos of the quality of your meters?

    What other convictions do the power distribution companies need from us again? We have been producing meters that are not only of good quality, but can compare with the ones produced abroad. The DisCos are aware of this. They know that our meters are good. However, the issue of poor patronage suffered by indigenous manufacturers of meters is beyond quality. Two reasons suffice in this regard. First, the craze for products produced in foreign countries by Nigerians has affected the sales of meters manufactured in the country.

    Secondly, the decision by the DisCos to continue to charge consumers estimated bills make them to buy meters abroad. The DisCos know that local manufacturers have capacity to meet their metering needs, and that once they fully patronise indigenous manufacturers, they would not have any excuse of not providing meters to customers under their jurisdictions. When this happens, it would be difficult for the DisCos to charge estimated bills.

    Can you substantiate the claims that DisCos refused to buy meters from local manufacturers because they want to continue to collect estimated bills?

    It is not an allegation. It is a fact. We have found out that estimated bills are the easiest ways of generating revenue by the DisCos. The power firms are hiding their love to make money through estimated billings. The investors, who bought the assets of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), borrowed money to acquire these assets. They need to refinance the loans they got from banks. And the safer and easier way to do this is to make money, by collecting outrageous or crazy bills from customers overtly or covertly.

    What is the solution to problems such as low patronage, and poor funding facing local manufacturers of meters?

    The solution lies in the ability of the Federal Government to support local meters manufacturers with funds. The government should try and provide intervention funds for manufacturers of meters, the same way it provided funds for the power generation companies (GenCos) DisCos in order to subsidise their operation. If the government can provide funds for power generation companies, it should also provide funds for companies servicing them.

    The government should intervene in order to prevent metering industry from collapsing. Also, the government should compel DisCos to buy meters from local manufacturers since they are producing quality meters. Doing this means that the government is killing two birds with one stone. By this, the government is promoting local content initiatives, introduced to promote the growth of indigenous business operators, while at the same time, helping in conserving foreign exchange. This means that monies that are spent on importation of raw materials and finished goods, would be domiciled in the country. When we make do with what we have, we are saving the country from brain drain. The multiplier effects are industrial growth, technological advancement, unemployment generations and others.

    How will provision of intervention funds, by the government, solve the problems of meter’ manufacturers?

    Yes, the funds would improve the conditions of the manufacturers. Once the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) makes the funds available to manufacturers at a single-digit interest rate, the pressures on firms that produce meters locally would reduce. The loan portfolio of local manufacturers is too bad, because they are borrowing money at commercial rate of about 25 per cent. This is against a situation, where foreign companies are getting loans at less than five per cent. How do we compete with our foreign counterparts? The government needs to intervene urgently in the metering industry, by supporting it with funds.

  • ‘Forex sourcing is a big issue’

    ‘Forex sourcing is a big issue’

    Sourcing for foreign exchange (forex) is not easy for businesses. This is why some firms patronise the parallel market, which sells at a cut-throat price. The resultant effect, according to Mr Chinedu Nwokolo, Chief Executive Officer of Pedini Nigeria, representative of European retail brand Bosch, is the high cost of goods and services. ADEDEJI ADEMIGBUJI  met him.

    How would you assess the local economy?

    It is actually very receptive. Even though we have a downturn and the economy is experiencing a kind of stagnation now but the good news is that we have an incredible president who’s doing a marvellous job trying to turn things around. There is now a deliberate and sincere effort to revamp the  economy through diversification and other sound economic policies that will turn things around. I think with the measures that the government has put in place now and its disciplined approach to setting the economy on the right path, I can assure you that the horizon is bright in spite of what we are passing through now. Even though things are slow now, we believe there is a future in it.

    Our firm believes in the economy. On the home appliance market, it is actually a huge category. We have an emerging middle class that is growing and will continue to grow. Right now, based on J.P Morgan’s studies, we have between 24 and 30 million middle class people that can afford our products and they are growing. Most of them are urban highly educated people and they put quality first; and Bosch is synonymous with quality.

    How did the tight foreign exchange regime affect your operation?

    Foreign exchange has been a big issue. It’s actually made the products 30 per cent more expensive. Also, sourcing for the forex is a big issue; the good thing is that they at Bosch understands the economic climate of Nigeria, and they are willing to give us enough time to source for the foreign exchange to pay them. They know that the foreign exchange is only got through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), that’s when we send our repayment so there is a bit of flexibility there; so that’s helping us as well.

    How huge is the home appliance market?

    From the last data I received, about $400 million worth of goods are imported  yearly into Nigeria. And when I say appliances, I mean everything ranging from TV to freezer. For Bosch, what this means is that we have an opportunity to dominate the market. In the market, there are two types – the integrated  and the stand alone markets. The integrated version is the area I believe Bosch will be dominant because there are really no players in that industry. Those are the appliances we integrate in the kitchen but in the other one as well, we are also very strong and we are hoping that we can dominate at least 10 per cent of that market in the next one year.

    Do business men trust your products?

    The relationship between a Nigerian business man and a foreign business man is actually one that should be based on integrity. But once you have the right partner, it is easy to trade properly in spite of the negative environment we have. So I think Bosch made a good choice in selecting us as their sole distributor for Nigeria because over the years, we have taken time to build trust and integrity as a business philosophy. It is also a very good company that keeps his reward. So once they make a promise to us, we keep it and once we make a promise to them we keep it. So we have been able to have a symbiotic relationship.

    How do you intend to cope with competition?

    From my vantage point, I think LG & Samsung are going to be the major players out there and I think either LG dominates the market right now with a huge percentage of market share; so we are hoping that we will begin to distinguish our products and begin to tell our clients why our products are better and why they should purchase our products and then try to hinge it on that market share. Our ultimate competitors that we are looking at are LG and Samsung but because of the pedigree of our brand and its German heritage, there is actually no basis of comparison.

    How resistant are your products to unexpected power surge?

    Our products are actually built for life. And where other people give 12 months warranty, we give 24 months and we even give extended warranty up to five years. So we are sure of our brand; we are sure about the durability of the product so we don’t have any product.

    How long have you been in business?

    I’ve been in the furniture and kitchen industry for the past seven years but particularly in the appliance industry in the last three years.

    How will you assess the market so far in the country?

    Before I came in, I would say there were three segments of the market. There wasthe entry segment and there was also the luxury segment. Pedini as a brand operates in the luxury segment and the Bosh brand also is in the luxury segment. However, there is a product that is about to be launched into the Nigerian market which is Vurn kitchen. Pedini and Bosch have come together to leverage each other’s strength. Pedini has always been known for quality kitchen and Bosch on its own over the years has been known for its timeless, durable and reliable home appliances. These two brands coming together with a combination Pedini kitchen fitted with Bosch appliances is a redefinition of that category and I can assure you that the Vurn kitchen is going to revolutionise the market for kitchen because they are bringing in this Vurn kitchen an amazing price that is unbelievably affordable. I mean a product that is really affordable and within the reach of Nigerians.

    What effort are you making to move into other geo-political zones?

    We just launched in Lagos and we are already getting a lot of businesses because of that. Major companies have started asking for our products. In the next three months, we are going to open our Abuja branch, we just secured a location there and construction is going on right now. That should be ready in about four months. We are also going to launch in Port-Harcourt, we are hoping that would be before the end of this year if not it’s going to be early next year.  The next one we are going to launch in Ikeja, Lagos as well, in Lekki, in Ibadan. After that, we are going to begin a franchise drive that will allow us to have up to 100 stores within five years. So we want to have 100 Bosch branded stores; we want everybody to have a Bosch store.

    How achievable is that?

    On my own part, as Pedini, the proprietor of this distributorship, we intend to have retail outlets of our own apart from partnering with existing mega stores such as Mega Plaza, Spars and the rest. We are also bringing in individual entrepreneurs of like minds who are aggressive and want to see the brand evolve. We believe that a lot of people who are looking for business to do will seize this unique opportunity to partner with us and be part of these good business opportunities. There are discussions going on too in terms of the long term plan of really establishing a Bosch assembly plant here in Nigeria. Bosch is determined to play in this local market in the assembly way in the next couple of years. This is something that the board of Bosch will have to discuss and agree but there is a lot of interest in coming to Nigeria and setting up an assembly.

    In specific terms, how is your business shaped by the economic situation?

    It’s actually affected because it’s difficult to get foreign exchange, and when we get, sometimes, we get from the parallel market, and the prices are high. So goods that normally cost maybe N100,000 increased to N130,000, N140,000. So, it reduces the number of people who are interested in buying this product. So it’s actually affecting sales in terms of the general picture but we believe that sooner than later, the economy will improve. There will be more money in the pockets of many Nigerians and they can also be able to spend more.

    How prepared are you to protect your products from counterfeiting?

    What we want to do is to make sure that Bosch products are only available at certain stores. That’s why we want to build 100 stores in Nigeria so that you buy from there. We are not going to supply to the market; we are going to supply to games, stores, and mega-plazas. We are also talking to Cash and Carry to see whether we can work with them. We are working with reputable brands and we are going to let our clients know that if they want to get this product, they are in these authentic stores. Counterfeit is difficult to remove entirely but over time, we believe there is this method that can help eradicate it. We are also going to partner with Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to fight faking our brand.

    How much do you invest in quality control across your supply chain?

    Every Bosch product that is produced goes through a rigorous process before getting to Nigeria. So there is no question about the quality of the product. In terms of marketing, we have put a compelling strategy in place to penetrate the market. The younger middle class are on social media and we have hired a robust social media group to help us in this market.

    Bosch founder, Robert Bosch, said he would rather trade profit than trust. What is the import of this?

    That is the foundation of everything that I personally believe in.  I believe that integrity is more valuable than trust. It is better to lose money than to lose the trust of your friends and that is what I discuss every day with my team. You must give a 120 per cent to your clients because even though you might lose in certain aspects, in the long run you will make your profit. On the trust issue again, the Nigerian business landscape is very challenging so what we have done is to evaluate clients and offer credit with the help of our banks. In some cases we get beaten but in most cases our evaluation has been right. So we have like grade A, B, C clients. Grade A, we offer them credit, B, C, we offer them low credit.

    Tell us about Pedini Nigeria?

    Pedini Nigeria is actually an offshoot of Pedini Italy but right now we are also involved with Bosch to create a new brand called Vurn. It’s going to be the kitchen that will revolutionise the way we cook because it’s going to be assembled locally, it’s going to be fused with Bosch and the price is going to be affordable that every home will have that product. So watch out for Vurn coming to a house next to you. We intend to populate the entire environment with Vurn products. It’s actually built by Pedini and empowered by Bosch.

  • How to Develop Exceptional Leaders

    The key to exceptional leadership is understanding that Leadership is a Process.

    Leadership is the most important resource needed to improve an organisation, a community or a nation. Leaders are the ones who have a vision, take initiative, motivate and develop others, and also take responsibility for outcomes. However, the true worth of a leader is in their ability to develop and create other leaders; a legacy is created only when a person puts his organisation into the position to do great things without him.  Therefore, a key task for leaders/managers is to develop the next generation of leaders for their organisation.

    Although corporations spend huge sums per year on training, permanent change will occur only when an organisation’s infrastructure elicits, reinforces, and even demands desired leadership behaviours. Research shows that only about 10-20% of the knowledge gained from training actually transfers to the job. The challenge and opportunity is to translate knowledge and skills into practices that actually improve organisational performance.

    Roger K. Allen, Ph.D. offers some guidelines to achieve that objective. The guidelines proffered represent tested and proven ways of making desired leadership behaviours a permanent part of your organisation’s culture. The implementation of these guidelines requires deep thought and consistent hard work; leadership development is not a “quick fix”, but a process.

     The Leadership Development Process

    #1. Establish a culture of leadership

    Clearly define what your organisation means by leadership. In order to provide excellent and consistent leadership across the organisation, it is necessary that everyone be grounded in a shared understanding of the leadership role. This knowledge forms the foundation upon which an excellent leadership team is built. It provides a foundation that will create and sustain appropriate leadership behaviour over time. This is the foundation that a leadership culture builds on.

    To Do

    1. Create and stick to a master plan
    2. Establish a foundation of stability
    • Establish performance requirements and core competencies for each position

    #2. Set the example

    In truth, actions speak louder than words. It’s not what we say that informs people about what is important and how they should behave, but rather how we act. If you want your direct reports to treat people with respect, then you must treat others with respect. If you want them to empower and allow others more authority and involvement, then you must not micro-manage but allow others more authority. If you want your managers to become proactive and focused on the important instead of always reactive and attending to the urgent, then you must find a better balance between the urgent and important.

    If you don’t like what you see in your organisation’s culture, then you must look into the mirror at your own example. This requires that you continually evaluate yourselves and ask how well you have been a living example of the behaviour you want others to model.

    To Do

    1. Create a Team Charter
    2. Leaders should act as a team by setting common goals, metrics, and meeting regularly to develop plans and assess how they are doing.
    • Design systems to support high performance leadership behaviours

     

    #3.   Create a forum for feedback

    One powerful way that leaders can hold themselves accountable is to have regular feedback sessions with employees. The purpose of these sessions is to ensure that their day-to-day practices (as well as policies, procedures, and systems) are in alignment with their espoused values and philosophy.

    Feedback sessions should be scheduled for the entire year, at least on a monthly basis. Participants may be selected by some random method but every employee should participate in at least one session a year.

    To Do

    1. Hold regular personal accountability interviews
    2. Request for feedback
    • Create a personal leadership development plan

    Building Organisational Leadership Capability

    General Electric, whose motto is “imagination at work,” is famous for developing leaders who are dedicated to turning imaginative ideas into leading products and services. A GE manager can be trusted to be a strong conceptualist as well as a decisive thinker; an inclusive, competent team leader; and a confident expert in his field.

    Johnson & Johnson, whose credo begins, “We believe our first responsibility is to the doctors, nurses and patients, to mothers and fathers and all others who use our products and services,” is celebrated for developing leaders who provide scientifically sound, high-quality products and services that help heal and cure disease and improve the quality of life. A J&J manager is known for being socially responsible and a stickler for product development and differentiation. She takes a product to market in a disciplined way; she is committed to building consumer trust, to product quality, and to safety.

    One obvious connection between these firms and several others like them is that they consistently turn out strong leaders, such that their managers are well equipped to run other organisations. Instead of merely strengthening the abilities of individual leaders, these companies focus on building a more general leadership capability.

    It Starts at the Top

    It is not enough to share theory and knowledge, however correct it may be. Old habits are hard to break, especially when those habits are reinforced, albeit unintentionally, by cultural norms which are contrary to new values and behaviours. Culture change must start at the top. Not only must senior leaders clarify the kinds of practices they expect of themselves, managers, and supervisors, but they must create the processes and methods to maintain a consistent message and reinforce desired behaviours.

    An African proverb says it takes a whole village to raise a child, in the same vein; it takes a whole organisation to raise a leader.

    Courtesy Workforce group.

  • NDE disburses N1.5m to graduate trainees in Nasarawa State

    NDE disburses N1.5m to graduate trainees in Nasarawa State

    The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) on Thursday in Lafia disbursed resettlement tools and equipment worth N1.5 million to 18 graduate trainees of vocational skills programme in Nasarawa State.

    Mr Kunle Obayan, the Acting Director-General of NDE, who distributed the tools, said that the gesture was to enable the unemployed graduate trainees become self reliant and contribute their quota to national development.

    Obayan, who was represented by the agency’s Director of Special Public Works, Mr Monday Dalyop, said that the Federal Government was planning to create employment opportunities for unskilled and unemployed Nigerians, hence the need for the gesture.

    “NDE came into existence in 1986, saddled with the responsibilities of training people especially the youths and women in different skills acquisition programmes in the country in order to be self reliant and to contribute their quota to national development.

    “Today is significant to us in the NDE, in the sense that what we are witnessing was as a result of the Federal Government’s efforts toward tackling unemployment,” he said.

    Obayan said that the same gesture would be extended by the Federal Government to states that are yet to benefit in order to fight unemployment, poverty and boost socio-economic development in the country.

    Earlier, Alhaji Dauda Idris-Wase, the Nasarawa State Coordinator of NDE, said that the gesture would help reduce the high rate of unemployment in the state.

    “The Agency is resettling 18 young men and women trained in welding, GSM repairs, computer operations, electrical installations, hair dressing, barbing, catering, tailoring, plumbing and pipe, interior decoration and shoe making in the state with soft loan.

    “The repayment period of the loan is three years and six months, as the package is highly subsidised, so I charge you not to fail us, serve as good example and morale booster to those that may come after you,” Idris-Wase said.

    A beneficiary, Clementina Obele, who responded on behalf of other beneficiaries, thanked NDE for the gesture and promised to live up to expectation.

  • ‘Agro allied export, cargo boost to economy’

    ‘Agro allied export, cargo boost to economy’

    If Nigeria needs to turn around its economy, it must rethink its dependence on the export of crude oil and diversify into cargo and agro allied export. Such paradigm shift will guarantee food security and create a window for Nigerian exports to Europe and the global markets where it could earn over $52 billion yearly, in addition to creating jobs. The Managing Director of ABX World, Captain John Okakpu, in this interview with KELVIN OSA-OKUNBOR speaks on these and other issues.  

    There have been calls on the government to convert some airports to cargo airport; because of the availability of agro-allied products in the area where such airports are located. Do you agree with this?

    Who goes to Akure airport? It is not the government that would go there. So, the government can designate more than 100 airports, are they the ones that will fly there? It is the private sector. The government has a lot of role to play in this part, but as far as the 13 cargo airports are concerned, they are blue-sky projects that will not work. The only airport that I can say is fit for a cargo airport in Nigeria is Ilorin. Ilorin is at the entrance and the exit point of Nigeria. But the problem with Ilorin is the road network that will take you to other areas. There is no road network. It is easier for a cargo airline to come into Nigeria, drop its cargo in Ilorin, pick some of the produce and off it goes. If you start taking a European flight to Calabar, that is crossing the airspace, when they get to Calabar, what are they dropping there? Did they have enough cargo from their origin into Calabar to go and carry whatever you say you have there?

    What does Nigeria stand to gain if it invests in agro allied products for export?

    We have over 10 million Nigerians living outside the country. Do not forget that the market is geared towards Nigerians out there, who are looking for home food and products. So, if one Nigerian spends $100 on a particular food item for a day, multiply that by how many items he will need in a week, month and a year, all through, with the amount he will be paying for these food items if they are available. The amount will be unimaginable. Nigeria is a mono-economy country, depending on only crude oil to run its budgets. We need to wake up now that the oil price has fallen to low index. This is the time to diversify the economy and invest heavily in agriculture and agro-allied products. To focus on agriculture, you need huge number of well-trained farmers, who will in turn form co-operative societies. You also need the supply chain that will get the products to their destinations, as well as warehouses, storage and packaging facilities. Our goal is to create 20 million jobs in two years, while Nigeria will be able to generate $52b annually from the export of agro allied products alone. There should not be any reason Nigerians should suffer in the midst of plenty, especially as 70 per cent of all exportable farm produce comes from Northern Nigeria.

    What are your targeted farm produce?

    We have 75 products and out of that, one of the major and the top line product exported out of Nigeria is a leaf called Ugwu, (Pumpkin). You cannot believe that today if you bring a 40-feet container full of Ugwu, it will go on a daily basis. That is one of the high products out of Nigeria. The list goes on; Ugwu is there, bitter leaf is there, sweet potato, ginger, and garlic.

    How do you preserve them for export?

    We don’t preserve them, ours is transportation. We have experts who  do that. For example, ours is to take it from Nigeria to Europe. They get it fresh. If you go to SAHCOL, which is our processing centre, I can proudly tell you that today SAHCOL built first class world standard warehouse. And the cold room they have there today is only ABX world that is making use of it because of the dimension we are taking Nigeria to.

    Preservation is not our goal; our goal is logistics, bring in supply chain, get the farmers, put them together to be trained and certified.

    We all know today that brown beans is banned from Nigeria, you can’t take it into Europe because of the chemical used in preservation. Then in terms of cassava peel, nothing out of cassava is a waste, including the peel. If you bring 100 container of cassava peel, it will go the same day from Nigeria.

    Crude oil prices are failing and one of its spiral effects is the huge cut in revenue accruing to the government. How did we get to this stage?

    Fundamentally, as a government and a people we got it all wrong many years and decades ago when we solely depended on crude oil export as the mainstay of the economy. No reasonable government or a nation will do that considering that it would have attendant effects on her economy. Now, the reality has hit us economically and we are running around. It is time to stop complaining and strategise to move ahead. It is time government launched a serious return to the land campaign, by that I mean agriculture. That is why our firm is interested in the promotion of cargo and agro allied export.

    How does your cargo freighting and handling firm fit into this?

    My goal here is to bring Nigeria back to where we are supposed to be. To stimulate the promotion of cargo and agro allied export. It was a very painful task and journey; it has taken a lot of time and hard work, but the bottom line is that we are here now in Nigeria. In ABX world, our goal is to champion agro airline in Nigeria to create a revolution. Agro Allied has to do with agricultural products, in conjunction with transportation and logistics, mostly in aviation.

    Why did it take us this long to realise we have to go back to agro allied and cargo export promotion?

    You know the price of crude oil in the market today. Nigeria is one dimension economy, mono-economy, crude oil and import, that is it. God wants to redirect Nigeria. That is why we are now facing the issue of crude oil and falling price by the day. People like me will say let the crude oil be zero, one dollar per barrel because that will wake us up from the slumber.

    For Nigeria to balance its budget, crude oil has to be sold at a higher price per barrel. How do we make up for the difference?

    We have no choice than to go back to basics, which is agriculture. At ABX World, we have partners in Europe, around the world, we are here to make a difference, create agricultural revolution whereby we take agricultural products as long as they meet the international standard and requirements to the world.

    What strategies do you have in place to achieve good marketing of Nigerian products in Europe and other continents?

    First of all we have to engage a lot of supply chains around the world, especially in Europe because about 60 per cent of what is going out of Nigeria will target the market in Europe. What we do is to engage a lot of supply chain, bring in the supply chain, then try and liaise with the government, both state and federal and get the farmers, through their co-operative societies because most of these farmers have to be fully registered through their co-operative societies. And these farmers have to be trained on the dos and the don’ts involved in what they are into. When you bring in the farmers, you bring in the co-operative societies, then you put both of them together to be trained and certified to be able to supply the products they are into. Once you get certified you can be guaranteed about three years contract. So there is a need for the training and certification, which is the most basic.

    What is your take on efforts by the government to construct 13 cargo airport terminals across the country?

    There are some airports designated as cargo airports in Nigeria, but to me I will call that blue-sky project. What I mean by blue-sky project is that it will never work. I had some meeting with FAAN officials about two, three times in the past months and I gave them reasons why it will never work. Part of the reasons is that the projects were poorly conceptualised. The world is changing. Most of the aircraft manufacturers are changing their direction. There will be a time you will not have a cargo airline because of the new trend in technology in aircraft manufacturing. For example, Emirate is taking the lead in this direction. Some time ago Emirate ordered for a hundred and fifty Boeing 777-300ER. This aircraft takes over 400 passengers, takes their luggage plus their excess and still have the capacity to carry 30 tonnes of cargo on two engines. If you designate 13 airports in Nigeria as cargo airports, then you have to ask yourself if it is viable for cargo airline to fly there. The world is changing so much so that most of the passenger terminals have to be the cargo terminals because most of these agricultural produce have to be moved on daily basis. When you harvest them they are moved immediately to their destination within 18 hours. You cannot tell me you load a British Airways with full passengers then you tell them to stop at Enugu to carry five tons of cargo because Enugu is designated as cargo terminal. It does not make any sense.

  • LAGOS UNVEILS LOWEST EMPOWERMENT RATE IN WEST AFRICA

    LAGOS UNVEILS LOWEST EMPOWERMENT RATE IN WEST AFRICA

    Lagos State government has made goood its promise to create N25 billion  Empowerment Trust Fund aimed at granting soft loans to young entrepreurs in the state within the next four years with the interest rate of about one percent administrative charges on the loan is unrivalled all across the country and the whole of West Africa.

    The State Government also promise to make the loan accessible to every qualified Lagosian who has convincing business ideas and innovations regardless of status, loc-ations, beliefs or political affiliations, saying that the newly constituted board members in charge of the Trust Fund were compositions of impeccable individuals mainly from the private sector with just two government officials.

    Speaking in Lagos on Monday in an interview session with the Job show Africa, the State Commissioner for Wea-lth Creation and Employment, Hon. Babatunde Durosinmi-Etti expressed the belief that rate of unemployment across the State would have been reduced drastically before the expiration of the four year term of the Employment Trust Fund.

     

    The Commissioner said that it is not loan that basically prosper the business of an entrepreneur but the enabling environment provided by government would assist in making other job areas attractive through provision of good environment for business activities to thrive rather than allowing the populace concentrate on the few available job areas like the multinationals, oil companies, banking sectors and the civil service.

    Explaining how the issue of unemployment gained prominence in the country, Hon. Durosinmi-Etti traced the history of the skyrocketed rate of unemployment to non inclusive school curriculums in area of skills acquisition which according to him forms part of cognitive value that had gone into extinction.

    “When examining the issues of unemployment, it is pertinent to study it from the indices perspective. There is disaggregated unemployment, underemployment and structural unemployment. This implies that there are graduates seeking for employment where their expertise is not needed but are bent on having such jobs because of the monetary turnovers” the Commissioner explained, advocating renewed value reorientation among job seekers and young entrepreneurs.

    He said that with the determination of the present administration in the State to address the skill gap deficiency in the State through investment in skills acquisition centres to meet up with present day’s needs and demands, the influx of foreign artisans into the country would become a history.

    He described the situation where the jobs that could be undertaken by Nigerian artisans are given to artisans from neighbouring countries as worrisome, stressing that the trend could be reversed if the home-based artisans are equipped with qualitative skills that would be more attractive to the private sector.

    “Presently, about sixty to seventy per cent of skilled jobs in our country is being handled by foreign artisans, the Lekki Free Trade Zone as of today, has the deficit skill gap of almost 2,000 technicians that they couldn’t get among our artisans, contractors handling construction works in the country comes into Nigeria with their workers because they don’t have confidence in our artisans so I kept wondering that can’t we have Nigerians who have those vocational skills who could also bridge the gap of the over fifty percent unemployment rate in the State?” said the Commissioner.

    The Wealth Creation boss, however pleaded with Lagosians to give the change mantra in the State a chance, trust the present administration in the State and be progressive partners towards the attainment of a Lagos that will be the cynosure of all eyes in eradication of unemployment.

     

     

  • Enter Durosinmi-Etti: The Superman of Lagos State

    Enter Durosinmi-Etti: The Superman of Lagos State

    Superman is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books. Superman is the hero of heroes; the incorruptible ideal by which we, as the human race, should strive to be. He’s the icon that other superheroes look up to. He’s long since permeated the stories he stars in and has become an instantly recognisable symbol across the globe regardless of race, creed, gender, or sexuality. He’s a reminder that no matter how dire things look, no matter how dark and pessimistic things will get — and they will — there’s always something greater to strive towards. People consider him hope for tomorrow, because he’s strong enough to make it happen; rescuing any situation you can think of.

    Things don’t just happen, people make them happen. After four months of solely running the affairs of the state without a cabinet, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode officially constituted his cabinet with the swearing-in of 23 commissioners and 14 Special Advisers. I never took much interest in the cabinet, but immediately Mr. Ambode announced Mr. Babatunde Durosinmi-Etti as the Commissioner for Wealth Creation and Employment, I was overwhelmed with joy and soon began to imagine how this man will arrest a global problem in a state of 24million people that generates more than 14% of the country’s revenue and yet poverty, frustration and idleness looms everywhere in Lagos.

    Still thinking, if the ministry will be responsible for Establishment and Maintenance of Job Registration Centres across the State, Registration of unemployed youths in the State, Skill Acquisition programmes for unskilled applicants, Re-orientation programme for graduate applicants in both Private and Public Sector and Establishment and managing of the Job web portal or a different responsibility entirely.

    Whenever the name Nigeria is mentioned, the state Lagos comes to mind immediately. Outside the glamour and well-deserved popularity, the state is the most economically important state of the country and is arguably the largest urban area.

    Lagos is an extraordinary state: A place where people come with the hope of making their dreams and goals come true. It is a place rich in opportunities and advantages that helps the average Nigerian to become successful, a place where people can start afresh. I may not be wrong if I say that; the ample opportunities in Lagos is a major reason for the large influx of people to the Centre of Excellence.

    Undoubtedly, there are so many problems in Lagos: like overpopulation, housing, insecurity and most importantly, unemployment. The rate of joblessness in Lagos state leaves me worry without a clear focus. However, I must commend the Commissioner for accepting this offer.

    According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) the nation’s unemployment rate, in the second quarter (Q2) of 2015, rose to 8.2 per cent from the 7.5 per cent rate, which was recorded in the preceding quarter. This brings to three the consecutive percentage rise in unemployment rate in the country, since the third quarter of 2014. With Kano and Lagos leading in youth unemployment in Nigeria. About 74 percent of the registered unemployed persons are youths in the age bracket of 15 and 34 years, the adults between ages 35 and 44 represent about 17.24 percent while the elderly of aged 45 to 70 constitute about 9 per cent.

    Friends, it will only take a real-life superman with ideas, creativity, innovation and a passionate Commissioner to reduce this high rate of joblessness in Lagos; otherwise I see problems that will give rise to insecurity and put the country’s economy at further risks.

    Everyone has a dream; everyone will choose to settle in a place best for their development. Everyone knows that the Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment is new and over 10 million eyes are on the Commissioner to roll out his risky burger (plans) for consumption. Trust me, I receive an average of 75 calls daily from job seekers seeking too find out the time and date the Commissioner will address them. My shows on Topradio90:9fm, City105.1fm, Unilag103.1fm, Fresh105.9fm and in South Africa has not made me a superman because I do not have the resources to flourish in that circle. However, Mr. Commissioner must consider these few guilds below as the new Superman with a Super job in Lagos:

    Get a superman look

    Every superman needs to look passionate. The mind is powerful and therefore having a good, optimistic attitude is bound to have a positive impact. If you think spending time on your appearance for tea party is now then you need to reassess. It takes a passionate man to get down from his car in traffic and take okada to watch how Manchester United will always beat Arsenal. Mr. Commissioner must be passionate about white collar job seekers and young entrepreneurs with great ideas without funds.

    Get a superman job

    In our lives, we will probably spend more time with our colleagues than we spend with our mates. So you have to show us you love this office, by spending more time with unemployed Lagosians and engaging them physically. Feel their thoughts, encourage them and give them hope. Don’t be far away. With over five years experience in dealing with job seekers, I have met four job seekers that almost committed suicide. Mr. Commissioner please put a channel to communicate with them directly.

    Get a superman budget

    Money, money, money; a big player in empowerment. Thank God for Governor Amobode’s N25billion funds promised during his campaign. This budget can reduce unemployment rate by 50% automatically if properly considered.

    Get a superman team

    Where would superman have been without a good team? Every good guy needs other good guys. It is only a good team that can take your office to the next level, very unforgettable era. Sometimes it feels like all the right partners are hiding somewhere far, far away. To find right and genuine partners, be open-minded. Mr. Commissioner please do not fly alone; get reliable stakeholders with practical solutions.

    A real superman is always loyal, never takes credit but always rescues the situation and come out victorious. Mr. Babatunde Durosinmi-Etti, you are the superman of Lagos state to rescue us from joblessness.

    We are here waiting, counting and observing before another election year. To whom much is given, much is expected. Readers I invite you to come enjoy this week’s offering. Bon appetit!