The Nation Newspaper

Category: Business

  • Seeds company targets 5,000 tonnes annually

    A firm, Da-all Green Seeds, Zaria, will produce 5,000 tonnes of seeds annually before the winding down of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA), Mr Steven Attah, Chief Executive Officer of the company, has said.

    Attah disclosed this in Abuja in an interview. He praised the Federal Government’s ATA policy, noting that it was capable of improving agricultural production.

    Da-all Green seeds’ chief executive, said his company produced 1,200 tonnes of seeds during the ATA’s first year as against the 500 tonnes it used to produce. He said the company would produce 2,500 to 3,000 tonnes of seeds this year. He futher said the ATA had built the confidence of the company in the area of trade channels and relationship with agro-dealers. ‘’We have been able to also increase our farmers’ population and our employees have been increased.

    ‘’We now have agro-dealers that we can trust to some extent because we know that they are under check and we also believe that only credible people will be sustained under this agenda. ‘’Before the winding down of the agenda, we are targeting the production of 5,000 tonnes of seeds per annum, which is 10 times our production level two years ago.’’

    Attah explained that even though the mobile phones might not be the ultimate thing the farmers need, it would be a platform to ensure that the government’s fertiliser reached them on time.

    “The mobile phones for farmers is not a luxury, it is a platform being developed to yield billions in the future.’’‘’It should not be looked at as if the seeds and fertiliser are more important because these things cannot get to the farmers without the e-wallet.’’

  • ‘Nigeria needs quality soil survey’

    Nigeria needs a dependable soil survey which will create a database of soil types to aid land use planning and agricultural expansion, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Development), University of Agirculture, Abeokuta, Prof Felix Salako, has said.

    In an interview with The Nation, Salako said such surveys will help farmers, planners and developers to better evaluate the potential of soils for agriculture.

    He said a quality soil survey is an immense undertaking, driven by minute scientific detail and extensive field work .

    He explained that the project involves survey and analysis of the makeup of the soil, water availability, surrounding vegetation, and a variety of other factors including suitability for irrigated agriculture of soils.

    According to him, a soil survey is an accurate and robust inventory of natural resources and information from the survey can be used by the farming community, decision makers and environmental-impact assessors.

    He said various soils respond different to crop rotation, tillage and fertiliser as such,soil scientists need to inform farmers about how to correct problems and provide information and recommendations to them about plants to avoid or the best use of land.

    He said the survey will enable the government to analyse thousands of soil samples and draw up a “chemical content map of the land.

    Such sampling, he noted, becomes a regular part of monitoring resources and will feed into climate change and biodiversity-related studies and assessments of soil degradation.

    Hard data on soil quality, Salako explained, was particularly valuable for soil protection that a directive on soil is necessary in managing issues such as climate change, biodiversity and water pollution.

    Stressing the importance of soil biodiversity in agriculture,the don said mismanaging soil biodiversity could jeopardise agricultural production.

    He said land degradation and associated pressures are threatening soil biodiversity, hence, the ability of the soil to perform its basic ecosystem functions and services.

  • ‘Agriculture, central to industrial development’

    The Kogi Deputy Governor, Mr YomiAwoniyi, has said agriculture is the fulcrum that will drive the industrial development of the state.

    Awoniyi spoke at the presentation of 10 tractors purchased by the government for rice farmers as part of its flood recovery programme.

    He said the government was resolute to tap into the Federal Government’s agenda for rice farming.

    He said 10,000 hectares of land had been cleared for rice farming while another had been set aside for cassava.

    Awoniyi said the concentration of government on agriculture had become imperative to ensure that farmers affected by flood in the state got back on their feet.

    He stated that the Korean Government had helped the state in establishing rice mills, while an approval for the purchase and erection of four cassava mills was in progress.

    Earlier, Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr. Femi Abolarin, commended the administration for its determination to reposition the sector.

    He noted that the end result of the efforts would ensure self sustenance and improved economy.

  • AGCO Africa summit holds in Berlin

    AGCO, an American tractor company, set to invest massively in the agro business sector in Nigeria held its 2nd annual AGCO Africa Summit in Berlin.

    The AGCO Africa Summit gathers politicians, CEOs and industry experts to help Africa move in the right direction by developing a new vision for agriculture and sustainable investments.

    The summit is a joint initiative of AGCO, Bayer CropScience, DEG – Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH and Rabobank.

    Speaking during the ceremony, AGCO Chairman, President and CEO, Martin Richenhagen, said “Africa’s population is set to rise to two billion by 2050.” “But food security in Africa is by no means where it needs to be to face this challenge. It is a global responsibility to develop agriculture in Africa to meet the growing demand for food security and better nutrition.”

    To meet the growing needs of Africa’s rapidly growing population, he said farm productivity must increase.

    According to him, Africa is estimated to hold more than 60 per cent of the world’s remaining uncultivated arable land. This untapped reserve of farmland holds the key to ensuring a sustainable food supply.

    “Large areas across Africa have suitable soil and climate for farming, but are not used,” explained Richenhagen. “We need to support agricultural mechanisation in Africa to create better food security.”

  • NCAN to improve cashew quality for export

    The National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN) plans to improve the quality of cashew nuts leaving the country, by 70 per cent.

    Addressing stakeholders forum in Lagos, its President, Pastor Tola Faseru, said the annual production of raw cashew nuts is 120,000 metric tonnes valued at N23 billion.

    With the support of the government, Faseru said the association hoped to increase the volume from 120,000 tons to 240,000 tonnes within the next six years.

    He said the cashew Industry provides livelihood for over 300,000 families and has created over 600,000 jobs.

    Faseru said Nigeria was home to 15 cashew processing factories whose combined production capacity was not enough to meet local demand.

    With a population of over 160 million, Faseru said the market for edible cashew kernel is very huge, hence, the need to grow the business.

    He said over 90 per cent of raw cashew nuts are exported to India, Vietnam and other countries.

    In the last 13 months, Faseru said the executive committee of the association has worked at ensuring that cashew takes its rightful place in the economy. He said the efforts had yielded positive results and attention.

    He said the association has stopped the use of polypropylene bags while farmers are encouraged to use jute bags in packaging cashew nuts. He added that producers are advised to dry the nut properly.

    According to him, the association has taken a number of initiatives to develop the industry. These include the memorandum of understanding for the Nigerian Cashew Cluster Finance Scheme (NCCFS) signed with Nigerian Export Import Bank (NEXIM), Ecobank Plc, Abod Success Investment Limited, ACET Limited, KD Foods Limited, National Cashew Association of Nigeria, African Cashew Alliance, West African Trade Hub and AIMS Limited. The MoU is to facilitate access to over $2 million in financing to three Nigerian Cashew processing Firms to enable them increase cashew kernel production.Other initiatives of NCAN are: Special Cashew Production (Scp) Scheme, Kogi Cashew Corridor (KCC) and N10 billion Cashew Intervention Fund.

  • ‘Pesticides cause of dwindling honey bees colonies’

    A former apiculture expert with the National Root Crops Research Institute, Umudike, Imo State, Mr Victor Obi, has cautioned on the use of pesticides to halt the dwindling honeybee colonies.

    In an interview, Obi, now chief executive, Obi-de-bee Farms, said farming was becoming highly dependent on the use of chemicals to control insects pests and weeds.

    According to him, honey bees are killed by powerful insecticides.

    Besides, he said dangerous pesticides posed “high acute risks” to pollinators. Where spraying is done, he advised that it should be on the field and not on plants.

    He said indiscriminate spraying of field chemicals have wiped out bee farms. Obi said herbicides destroy the flora, depriving the bees of natural source of feed.

    He said: “Use of sophisticated equipment, such as aircraft, in spraying chemicals has not helped matters as such chemicals expand their impact beyond a given environment.”

    According to him, government must ensure that farmers use only pesticides that are approved whose use would not have a detrimental effect on bees.

    His words:”Use of biological rather than pest control should be encouraged. I advocated a legislation against indiscriminate use of chemicals and continued education of farmers. Honeybee colonies have disappeared in most parts of the country. Insects such as honey bees and wild bees help pollinate crop species and vegetable varieties, contributing to food production growth.”

    He expressed concern about bee health and investing heavily in research to minimise the impact of crop protection products on bees and supporting the responsible and proper use of pesticides.

    Agric expert, Mr Abiodun Adedeji also alerted that fraudulent pesticides are threatening farmers, land and produce. He said there are illegal pesticides and insecticides, which pose a potential threat to public health. According to him, many counterfeit pesticides sold in the market violate safety standards.

    Illicit suppliers fraudulently use packaging and trademarks from agribusiness and chemicals companies that include Syngenta, BASF, DuPont and Dow to mask sales of fraudulent agricultural products.

  • Experts back full disclosure on food products

    A Food expert, Prof Tola Atinmo, has expressed support for the inclusion of information on country-of-origin on food labels.

    Atinmo, president, Federation of African Nutrition Societies (FANUS) and of the Department of Human Nutrition University of Ibadan, said this in a chat with The Nation.

    He said fresh meat, poultry, fish and dairy products, fruit and vegetables, and other single-ingredient products should carry labels indicating their country of origin. This, according to him, would help government agencies address the challenges of food safety.

    It would also ensure that consumers know where their meat or dairy products come from. It will also help to know if foods were transported over a long distance so consumers can avoid buying them.

    He said people have the right to know what’s in the food they buy and they need to be able to do it easily and quickly so that they can make healthy choices.

    He said all kind of edible products were being imported into the country without proper examination of the potential for negative consequences. Consequently, Atinmo advocated a regulation that will compel food companies to add key data on food labels, including name, list of ingredients, ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ dates.

    He canvassed stronger rules against deceptive labeling of ‘fake’ foods. Atinmo said consumers must be concerned about welfare and the environment and should know where the meat they buy comes from, including those in processed products .

    Food safety advocate Prof Stephen Fapohunda welcomed “improvements” on origin labelling and fake foods.

    Fapohunda, of Department of Biosciences, Bacbock University, Ogun State, said there was no good justification for ‘hiding away’ core health information on food packaging.

    He said every piece of information should be legible, adding that the origin country of products is a key criteria for consumers when buying food. He said that it is not easy for consumers to find out where their food comes from as origin information remains absent from many foods sold in the markets.

    According to him, when manufacturers do declare the origin on a voluntary basis, writing “made in” or “product of”, it’s often also impossible to figure out if a product was only processed, transformed or farmed in the given country.

    He said most consumers are interested in the origin because they relate this to the quality and the safety of the food.

    He advocated that origin labelling should become mandatory for all meats, milk, unprocessed foods, single-ingredient foods such as flour and sugar and ingredients that represent more than 50 per cent of a food.

  • What is killing indigenous Pay TV?

    What is killing indigenous Pay TV?

    Many Pay TV companies have come and gone, probably because of poor planning, negligence and lack of experience. Raji RotimI Solomon reports.

    The commercialisation of television stations has created competition in terms of content delivery and signal clarity.

    In the past, only government owned television stations were available. Signals were bad; stations worked between 4 p.m and midnight.

    The privatisation of the broadcast media especially television, advancement in technology and a crave for more entertaining and educative content gave birth to pay televisions.

    Over the years, many pay TV companies have come and gone; some died because of poor strategic planning, negligence and lack of market.

    In 1994, DsTV, a South Africa based pay TV company launched its operation in Nigeria. It controls 85 per cent of the country’s pay television market. At inception, the market was a virgin land for it to grow its business. It was an alternative for the rather boring local stations who had nothing to offer. In no time, it became a matter of status symbol to own a satellite dish.

    Not to have a satellite dish in your home meant that you are not in the calibre of the high and mighty. For a decade, DsTV monopolised the market. Then came the first indigenous pay TV company. Frontage satellite television (FsTV) in 2004. It had a poor marketing strategy and not too highly rated content for viewers. It did not survive.

    Trend TV was launched about the same time. It didn’t survive beyond its test-run days. The mortality of these companies affirms the words of Caroline Creasy, former head of Corporate Affairs Multichoice Africa: “Nigeria is a difficult market to ingress and it takes lot of sound strategies to prevail. We believe there is still room for growth.”

    In 2007, DsTV had a competitor, who gave it a run for its money. HiTV was launched in 2007, was the brainchild of a lawyer, Toyin Subair. He worked with DsTV as legal adviser before proceeding to establish his own pay TV company. HiTV surpassed other defunct indigenous companies. By 2009, HiTV had hit 200,000 subscribers base.

    HiTV’s acquisition of the Champions League and Premiership viewing right was the goose that laid the golden egg for it. The competition gave room for objective evaluation of both companies and their offerings. HiTV dominated the sport channels and the competition became stiffer as people began to buy DsTV for the sake of African Magic, Movie Magic, Channel O; they bought HTV for sports.

    Niyi Akinola, a banker said: “I enjoy football a lot and that’s the only way I relax. So, I had to buy HiTV for myself, since the only time I am around to watch TV at weekends, I had to buy DsTV for my wife and kids who are not interested in football. The two decoders became necessary evils to have at home.”

    HiTV relied on the Premiership and Champions League viewing right, which made its sport station premium. DsTV took the time off to build its other stations, which was all it had then. When the next bid was called for the Premiership and Championship viewing right, HiTV knocked DsTV out with an incredible figure of $130 million for just Nigerian right. DsTV bid $100 million.

    Of course, the right was given to HiTV, but, it couldn’t pay the money. When HiTV couldn’t pay, DsTV swung into action and got the right for $100 million. That was the deal that spelt doom for a promising indigenous pay TV which was a threat to DsTV. The irony is that while DsTV built its channels with local content with African Magic and all, HiTV focused mainly on its sport station, not giving a chance to local content to grow. This would have added a cushion aid to the fall they had.

    Daarsat, a pay TV owned by media mogul, Dr. Raymond Dokpesi, started in 2008. It came introducing high definition (HD) programming into Nigeria, the first of its kind. It enjoined viewers to catch the fever. Iiterally, Daarsat went down with fever and never recovered.

    StarTimes is now a major competitor in the market. The Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and its Chinese partner are faring well in the market. Their target are the low-income earners. Many people find it convenient to get a pay TV subscription for as low as N1,000. The rush was high until lately when Multichoice decided to hit the low earners market with its GoTV product which is competing with StarTimes.

    Despite its growing market, the question is, why are indigenous pay TV stations dying? What is killing them? Why should foreign brands dominate the market and make so much from it? A media practitioner, Abraham Oyedele, traced the problems to poor managerial and content management skill.

    People may complain about DsTV’s incompetence in terms of signal disruption during stormy weathers, inefficient customer service centres, connection and reconnection troubles, but there is no doubt that it is strong. This is because it feels the pulse of its customers. It knows content management and how to sell its brand well. If only we can have such too, then we are sure to have a pay TV that would match DsTV well”

  • Reps move to curb airlines’ excesses

    Reps move to curb airlines’ excesses

    The House of Reprentatives is taking steps, through the amendment of the Civil Aviation Act, 2006, to empower air travellers. The bill scaled second reading, yesterday

    The sponsor of the bill, Femi Gbajabiamila (ACN, Lagos) argued that history has shown that airlines have little regards for passengers, which has made it imperative to compel them to adopt best practices as prescribed by international protocols.

    The bill is seeking to prescribe penalties for delay and cancellation of flights by airlines in the country.

    “We are all witnesses to emotional trauma our passengers are going through in our airports. What is more disturbing is the fact that most of these delays are not just for one hour or two, but sometimes it takes up to six to seven hours, without any genuine reasons”, he said.

    Though he noted that delays and cancellation of flights was not peculiar to Nigeria, he however frowned at the nonchalant attitude of airlines and the regulatory authorities

    He said: “What can be deduced from this, is a total lack of respect for the flying passengers, which most times result to lost of important appointments. These things happen in Europe, the US and other places around the world, but penalties are applied in line with international best practices,” he argued.

    The amendment seeks to compel the erring airlines to pay 30 per cent of the cost of the airfare to the passengers for up to three hours of delay, 50 per cent for four hours, or seven days suspension, as the case may be.

    He however explained that the proposed penalties do not preclude aggrieved passengers from seeking damages for specific complaints.

    In her contribution, Aisha Ahmed (PDP, Adamawa), said though the penalties prescribed in the bill were in the Aviation policy, the need to back them with legislation has become imperative.

    “All airlines in this country are guilty of this, with long history of inappropriate penalties. Even foreign airlines are not excluded.”

    She posited that rather than protect aggrieved passengers, authorities responsible for enforcing the rules back the airlines to the detriment of the passengers.

    Patrick Ikhariale (PDP, Edo), supported the bill, saying: “Not that flights can not be delayed or canceled, but they should not be on reasons other than technical.”

    Nnenna Okeje ( PDP, Abia), however explained that since the penalties were contained in the Aviation policy, it might not be necessary to legislate on it.

    When the Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal put it to voice vote, it was unanimously supported for second reading. It was referred to the Committee on Aviation for further legislative input.

     

  • Fed Govt, Indonesia sign MoU on SMEs

    Fed Govt, Indonesia sign MoU on SMEs

    The Federal government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Indonesia government on technical cooperation for the development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in Nigeria.

    The Director-General, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (SMEDAN) Alhaji Muhammad Umar Nadada,  signed on behalf of Nigeria while, Director-General, Small and Medium Industries (SMI) Directorate of Indonesia, Mrs. Euis Sedah, signed on behalf of Indonesia.

    “This MOU will enable Indonesia exchange technical know-how with Nigeria on all dark areas, especially on cassava processing and training. This partnership is very historic, as it will open a new vista in the bilateral relationship of the two countries,” Alhaji Nadada, said.

    “We expect Indonesia to invest in textile manufacturing,” he said, adding that this would help in the actualisation of the federal government’s goals in job creation.

    He said the MoU between SMEDAN and the Directorate of SMI of Indonesia, offers tremendous business opportunities, especially for Nigerian Entrepreneurs.

    The Indonesian Ambassador to Nigeria, Sudriman Haseng, in his remarks, said the cooperation would strengthen the relationship between the two countries.

    We are both regional leaders, the cooperation would increase the benefit of the two nations in their relationship with other nations, he added.

    He noted that small and medium entrepreneur development is key to economic development of any country, the envoy called on the Nigerian government to focus more on strengthening the SME’s sector in the country.

    Speaking, Mrs Euis Sedah said the two countries are blessed with both human and natural resources, which she described as factors that will help in facilitating the goal of partnership.

    The director general believed that government alone cannot solve the problem of unemployment but if it could put more efforts in strengthening the SMEs sector it will gradually tackle the problem with short period of time.