The Nation Newspaper

Category: Business

  • Constitute BPP board, body urges Fed Govt

    Constitute BPP board, body urges Fed Govt

    The National President of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply Management of Nigeria (CIPSMN), Alhaji Mohammed Jimoh Aliyu, has called on the Federal Government to constitute the governing council of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP).

    Aliyu, who spoke yesterday in Abuja, said  the 2007 Act of the BPP, provides that the Minister of Finance, Attorney General of the Federation, Secretary to Government of the Federation and  Head of Service of the Federation, be appointed as members of the governing council, with the Finance Minister serving as Chairperson.

    He said the Act also provides that six part time members drawn from CIPSMS, Nigeria Bar Association, Nigeria Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Nigeria Society of Engineers, Civil Societies and the media be include in the governing council of the agency.

    He said  no council board has been constituted by the Federal Government to act as a watchdog in the awards of contracts and purchases made by BPP on behalf of the government as provided by the BPP Act.

    He alleged that rather than constitute the board, the Executive, forwarded a bill to the National Assembly to amend the Act that would empower the President to act as the Chairperson of the board.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Akwa Ibom to invest in Poland

    Akwa Ibom State is to invest in Poland to boost trade relations with the country, Governor Godswill Akpabio said yesterday.

    Speaking when the Polish Ambassador to Nigeria, Prezemyslaw Niesiolowski led a 16-man delegation to visit Akpabio in Uyo, the state capital, Akpabio said: “We are committed to cooperate with the Republic of Poland  in business relations to boost the economic hub of the country and for the future cooperation between Nigeria and Poland. I am aware that Poland is skilled on manpower with a wide range of industries in the country. I am glad that the representatives of such business companies are in the state for the trade mission.

    “Akwa Ibom State is a virgin state waiting for development. Your visit to the state signifies the fact that industrialisation is becoming a reality in the state. So, we are determined to cooperate with Poland in the business sector in the state. Nigeria still remains the most attractive place for business investment in Africa where investors all over the world come into the country to invest with tonnes of profits.

    “Poland is known for its investment in the maritime sector. So, I call on you to look towards the direction of the maritime sector in the state, through the Ibaka Deep Seaport and the power sector through the Independent Power Plant (IPP) and in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry because we are in a hurry to catch up with the rest of the world”.

    Earlier, Niesiolowski said the visit was to organise a trade mission in the country with Akwa Ibom as a business community for the mission.

    He said they would seek partnership with the state to create a momentum in bringing an administrative business idea for the growth of the society.

     

  • Importers plan to thwart new tariff regime

    MOVES by the Federal Government to help plastic manufacturers, may be scuttled by raw materials importers, The Nation has learnt.

    The importers are said to be working against the government’s plan to ensure that the manufacturers produce without hitch.

    They are scheming to frustrate the five per cent hike in tariff for imported raw materials.

    The hike is aimed at discouraging the importation of some basic raw materials that are available locally.

    “Despite what the government is doing to improve on the industrial climate, some selfish businessmen are bent on ruining the process. Just because of what some people are making through importation of these raw material, they are clamoring for a reversal of the policy, which, according to him is not in the interest of the country,” he said.

    He said those who are calling for the suspension of the new tariff are members of the group, who have international partners that manufacture the raw materials abroad.

    However, he said the operators of Eleme Petrochemicals have invested to ensure that the two basic raw materials, polypropylene and polyethylene, are made available for the use of local manufacturers.

    He said while the Federal Government through its industrial revolution initiative aims at developing businesses to grow compete at the international level, some unpatriotic Nigerians are bent on frustrating the move.

    Though he admitted that one of the groups seeking a reversal of the policy has a case, in the sense that Eleme Petrochemical does not give credit facility, he added that this is not enough reason for them to canvass a review.

    He regretted that the quantity of polyethylene produced by the firm was in excess because the importers claim that the quality of the ones produced locally was inferior. Hence, the need to import.

    This is not acceptable because the company has resulted to exporting the excess left, since they are not getting patronage, a situation, he said.

    “If, indeed, there claims are right, then the right thing to do is to approach the company to improve on its quality. Instead of importing what is available locally. I think government should move in to protect our local industries,” he said.

     

  • Quality of service still a mirage

    Quality of service still a mirage

    Subscribers are complaining daily of poor quality of service. All efforts by the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCCS) to get service providers to address the problem seem to have failed. Is there no way out? Lucas Ajanaku reports

     

    When she travelled to the east for vacation, she was shocked by the service she got from her service provider. Aside from being unable to make voice calls, all the short message service (SMS) or text messages she sent were never delivered, yet the teleco deducted money for the service.

    “I could not make nor receive calls. Worst still, all the text messages I sent were not delivered, but I paid for each message twice. The first deduction is made as soon the screen of the handset displays ‘message sending’ while another is deducted when the phone dsiplays ‘message sent.’ If it is on-net, that will translate to N10 for one message instead of N5 while if it is off-net, it will tranlate to N20 for one message instead of N10,” the lady who identified herself simply as Silverline said.

    Goodie Olanrewaju, a businessman and resident of Egbeda, a Lagos suburb, is also not happy with the quality of services he gets from his service providers. Compelled to use three different global system for mobile (GSM) communications lines, he still cannot get satisfactory services from his service providers, leading him to feel frustrated.

    “I decided to buy three lines in the hope that when I make on-net calls, I will be free from the hiccups but there is no respite. Many a time I tried to call my wife’s number and my service provider will tell me that the number I dialled was not assigned to any customer,” he lamented, adding that the problem became terrible during the last Yuletide as neither calls nor messages sailed through while money for the messages were deducted with the speed of light.

    These are but very few of the experiences of more than 100 million telecoms subscribers in the country. They work hard and pay through the nose to buy recharge cards for which they hardly get the value because of quality of service issues.

    According to telecoms sector experts who spoke on the issues of quality of service degradation (network reliability, network availability, call drop, call set-up, denial of service and others) being experienced by consumers of mobile services, are caused by network congestion. It causes poor reception, drop calls, poor voice signal as well as blocking of interconnect routes between networks. “Since GSM technology is based time division access, so when one person is talking on the network and there is no space for another call to enter, the other call will be aborted,” an official of the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), said on condition of anonymity.

    Poor service quality is not peculiar to Nigeria. Though there could be occasional service disruption in services in matured telecoms markets like that of South Africa, it is common in emerging markets.

    The issue of poor service quality recenty forced the regulator of Ghana’s telecoms sector, the National Communications Authority (NCA) to slam a ban on the sale of SIM cards to MTN Ghana subscribers.

    “Following the recent spate of service disruptions on the MTN network, the National Communications Authority (NCA) has had to engage Scancom Ltd, on several occasions, on the issues of quality of service degradation (i.e. network reliability, network availability, call drop, call set-up, denial of service, etc) being experienced by consumers of mobile services. In spite of these engagements, network performance on MTN continues to deteriorate. Consequently, the NCA has directed Scancom Ltd to, with immediate effect, cease selling and/or adding any new SIM cards/subscribers to MTN network until further notice,” a directive from the NCA read in part.

    The ban which was slammed at the twilight of last year was lifted recently. The NCA said it had monitored MTN’s quality of service and key performance indicators (KPIs), such as call drop rate, call setup time, call congestion rate, and stand-alone-dedicated control channel congestion rate since the suspension began at the end of November 2012.

    The regulator noted that there has been continual improvement in the KPIs compared to their performance prior to the ban. As a result, the NCA lifted the directive of 30 November 2012 banning MTN from selling and adding new SIM cards/subscribers. NCA added that Scancom, owners of MTN Ghana, has actively engaged with it since the ban was implemented to define and implement procedures that would improve customer experience, including 24/7 network monitoring and support services. It is also collaborating with partners in improving response time and has formed a special crisis management team.

    Analysts say the NCC should borrow a laefe from Ghana and see if that will be the right therapy for persistent drop in service quality.

    According to figures released by the NCC, active mobile subscriptions increased by a million as the figure hit 110.3 million at the end of November 2012, up from109.4 million recorded at the end of October.

    The data revealed that GSM communication contributed significantly to the increase in the active subscriber base to 110.3 million. MTN, Globacom, Airtel and Etisalat increased their combined subscriptions from 105.9 million in October to 106.8 million at the end of November 2012.

    The sick baby of the industry, the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators such as Visafone, Starcomms, Multi-Links and ZoomMobile further experienced decline in their subscriber base from 3.1 million in October, to 3 million at the end of November 2012.

    In the same vein, fixed wired and wireless network operators also recorded a decline in their meagre active subscriptions from 454,644 lines in October to 432,899 a month after.

    Deolu Ogunbanjo, president, National Association of Telecom Subscribers (NATCOMS) decried the worsening quality of service, arguing that after almost a decade of trial, the operators ought to have got it right now. According to him, the NCC should not pander to the whims and caprices of the operators and other persons, corporate organisations and group of persons that profiteer from promotion and lotteries on the network.

    “The situation has become very embarrassing. We had thought banning promotions and lotteries would help stem the ugly tide. Since it has not, I think what the NCC should do now is to stop further allocation of new number ranges to the operators until such a time that there is a measure of sanity on the network. Each of these number ranges has capacity for ten million subscribers.

    “The NCC should not listen to the various lobbyists that have been putting pressures on the NCC to unban promos and lotteries on the network. The network is for communications and not for lottery. Anybody that wants to play lottery should go play lotto or coupon. Such a person could go per three from four and win whatever jackpot but that should be allowed to ride on the telecoms network again,” Ogunbanjo told The Nation.

    While the NCC imposed a total fine of N1.17billion GSM operators in the country for failing to comply with the minimum standard of quality of service last year, it also banned promos and lotteries on the network.

    While MTN and Etisalat coughed out N360 million each, Airtel and Glo paid N270 million and N180 million respectively to the coffers of the Federal Government as fine.

    Operators have consistently blamed the development on persistent disruption to operation by unscrupulous elements in the society whose stock in trade is fibre cuts. Oyeronke Oyetunde, general manager, Regulatory Affairs, said most of the issues concerned with service quality cannot be divorced from the high incidence of fibre cuts. According to her, MTN alone suffers a minimum of seventy fibre cuts a month. She said the issue of ‘emergency calls only’ that appears when a subscriber is trying to make calls is also a function of network problem.

    She recalled that the telco is cureently undertaking equipment swap to make the network more resilient. The equipment swap will see the telco replace “obsolete” equipment with modern ones.

    Only last week, the telco reported fibre cuts in the Eastern part of the country which led to service outage in the area. It is reported that the fibre cuts are as a result of ongoing road construction of various routes around Aba, Enugu, Owerri, Port Harcourt, Eket, IkotAbasi, Ete, Uyo and Calabar.

    According to Akinwale Goodluck, MTN’s Corporate Services Executive, “In recent times, multiple cuts on our Eastern Fibre Network has impeded the delivery of consistently good quality of service in the East. These particular cuts are as a result of road construction activities, which has impacted many of our sites. However, we suffer over 70 fibre cuts monthly nationwide due to vandalization, sabotage and other criminal activities.Please bear with us as we are doing everything in our control to restore good service.”

    Efforts to get the reaction of NCC failed as calls to Tony Ojobo, director, Public Affairs at the NCC, were not picked neither was the email sent to him acknowledged, let alone replied. But an official of the NCC said the regulator may choose the option of stopping further sale of SIM cards because its mandate is to ensure that every Nigerian gets access to telephoney.

  • Govt to assist telcos with green power funding

    The Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) will give prefrential treatment to telcos that opt for green power solutions in addressing their energy challenge, its secretary Alhaji abdullahi Maikano, has said.

    According to a document entitled: “Guiding Principles: Universal Service Provision Fund Strategic Management Plan 2013-2017”, prepared by the management of USPF last September, one of the cardinal principles of the fund is that it will not be skewed in favour of any particular technology.

    “Technology Neutrality: USPF programmes and projects will be guided by the principle of technology neutrality and allow the market place to define the best technology solutions,” the document noted.

    Maikano, said the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) would give preference to companies proposing green power when it opens bidding for broadband penetration into underserved and un-served communities or locations in the country.

    “During the bidding for the clusters, companies proposing Green power would be given preference and the most subsidies. This is because aside from the need to protect the planet, the use of traditional power will make deployment in these areas uneconomic as the operational cost will outstrip the revenues that may be generated from these areas. The low operational cost of green power such as solar or wind power makes it viable to deploy in these areas over the long term,” Maikano said at a GSM/International Finance Corporation (IFC) Green Mobile Forum organised in Lagos.

    USPF is a special fund set up by the Federal Government under the Nigerian Communications Act 2003, designed to bring Information and Communications Technology (ICT) services to unserved, underserved and deprived groups as well as communities in the country. It is funded through one per cent of the total revenue of all licensed telecommunications firms in the country.

    Maiko, who represented the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, on the occasion pledged the commitment of the Commission to helping operators develop green power as solutions to the energy challenges in the industry.

    Airtel Nigeria, which co-hosted the forum, called for increased investment in green power generation initiatives as a way out of the nation’s energy supply deficit.

    Airtel’s Chief Technical Officer, Awadhesh Kalia, said an aggressive approach will be required by GSM operators in Nigeria to improve the current level of energy efficiency if the dream of realising the long-term gains of green power supply would be achieved.

    “Significant investment in green initiative is vital to maximising business in a responsible manner. There must be field competence, OEM support; institutionalisation of the curriculum on telecom power technologies and development of local competence by upgrading skills-set through training and development,” he said, adding that the telco has taken various initiatives to tackle the energy its energy problem.

    Such measures, according to him, include varying combination of solar-powered solutions, hybrid, grid and co-location, all of which have been effectively deployed to reduce energy consumption, burning of fossil fuel and carbon footprint. Airtel presently has an eco-system that powers its base stations across the nation.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Expert laments dearth of last mile infrastructure

    Dearth of distribution infrastructure and last mile portion of service provision from infrastructure owners to end users has been identified as factors responsible for poor broadband penetration in the country.

    This has compelled service providers to either embark on developing their own backbone network infrstructure or buy access from last mile providers at costs that don’t make economic sense.

    An official of MainOne, Kemi Adeyanju, who spoke in Lagos lamented that the firm had to embark on providing the infrastructure at cost.

    “Without effective distribution infrastructure, service providers are forced to choose between developing their own backbone network infrastructure, while compelled in the interim to purchase access from the existing last mile providers at un-economic prices.”

    She said in the cable market, there are other operators providing the same serviceses MainOne, arguing that these operators have core retail and wholesale businesses integrated and they also have infrastructures

    “The challenge we face regarding last mile services puts us at a disadvantage and indicates that our segment is not competitive. We have had experience where our competitors sell services in Abuja and Lagos at the same price, they refuse to share infrastructure with us, and most time give infrastructure away to other players in the market,” she lamented.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Samsung unveils brand ambassadors in Nigeria

    Samsung Electronics West Africa, has unveiled its brand ambassadors for its Mobile Division. Movie industry icon Kate Henshaw and star musician, Banky W, will work to raise awareness for Samsung mobile products and ultimately, contribute to making Samsung phones the preferred brand in the West Africa sub-region.

    Henshaw was unveiled as brand ambassador at a media breakfast meeting organised by Samsung.

    Speaking at the unveiling, Managing Director, Samsung Electronics West Africa, Mr. Brovo Kim stated that Henshaw and Banky W represent the values that Samsung has stood for over the years.

    “The Samsung brand stands for qualities of innovation, change, discovery, self-expression and excellence in performance. And these very same qualities are epitomised by Banky W and Kate Henshaw, whose quality and depth of work as well as versatility as artistes have endeared them to Nigerians today. We are indeed very proud and privileged to have them as our Brand Ambassadors.”

    Kim further described its signing of Kate Henshaw as an opportunity for Samsung to reach out to its customers through Nigeria’s movie industry. “We want to further connect with our customers at all touch points, especially through film as it is one of the passions of people in West Africa,” he explained. Samsung plans to leverage Henshaw in its brand advertising as well as product advertising for mobile phones.

    In sync with its thrust on introducing innovative, consumer-oriented, breakthrough technology products, Samsung also announced a brand new member in its Galaxy line-up with Samsung Galaxy Grand. The 5-inch display, smart dual-SIM Galaxy Grand combines the features of Samsung’s game-changing Galaxy S III and the revolutionary Galaxy Note II, which were released by the manufacturing giant last year. The device has gone up for preorder on various online stores in Nigeria, ahead of its release next month. Consumers who take advantage of the preorder campaign are entitled to a free limited edition flip cover of the device, autographed by Banky W, while those who redeem their order before Valentine’s Day stand a chance to win a ticket to the official unveiling of the device on February 15, 2013. The opportunity to spend a weekend at the prestigious Oriental Hotel and also enjoy dinner with the brand ambassadors is also open to consumers who preorder the device.

    According to Samsung Electronics West Africa’s Business Head (Hand Held Products), Mr. Emmanouil Revmatas, the Galaxy Grand is revolutionary not only in terms of the great Smartphone experience that it will provide but also in terms of its value proposition. “We feel that the Galaxy Grand will further fuel the growth of the Smartphone market in Nigeria and will especially delight consumers looking for a great Smart dual-SIM phone. The Galaxy Grand best meets the growing consumer preference for a large screen device that gives them a great multimedia experience and superior performance.”

    Samsung Electronics led both the smartphone and overall handsets market in the fourth quarter of 2012, with the company shipping 106 million handsets, of which 60 million were smartphones, according to ABI Research. Samsung had a 31 per cent share of smartphone shipments in comparison to Apple’s 24.5 per cent share, the research firm said. Having cornered 41 per cent market share, Nigeria leads other African market in the sales and adoption of various Samsung electronics devices on the continent, especially in the mobile phone segment.

    From its inception as a small export business, Samsung has grown to become one of the world’s leading electronics companies, specializing in digital appliances and media, semiconductors, memory and system integration. Today, Samsung’s innovative and top quality products and processes are recognized all over the world. The company has continued to expand its product lines and reach, following its mission of making life better for consumers all over the world.

  • Insecurity threatens investment in data centre

    Data centre business may not flourish in the country.

    Experts in data management, who spoke on the issue, said the fear that insecurity in the cloud keeps individuals and private enterprises from chossing the option.

    Executive Director, Kitskoo Cloud, Monu Ogbe and head, Document Management, FirstBank of Nigeria Mrs Grace Oyebo, said the fear of storing data in the cloud is genuine.

    Ogbe said the fear of insecurity has led its firm to partner with Tech Mahindra of India and launch of Kitskoo Guradian, its flagship product.

    “Security of data is one reason why Kitskoo has partnered with Tech Mahindra. We are going to launch the Kitskoo Guradian which will serve as backup for customer,” Ogbe said.

    For Oyebo, the cloud is not an option on the cards for FirstBank’s electronic data management services (EDMS).

    “We have not gone to the cloud because right now, people cannot ascertain its security. As an expert that goes for international conferences at least twice a year, meeting with experts in the cloud, there are still a lot of things to be dealt with in the cloud. In First Bank, we are very careful. You have to apply technology based on your own level (of development). You don’t say because people are doing it in Japan and other places, you have to do the same. If people are saying cloud and you want to go, there are some underlining factors you must consider. I don’t think we have gone to the cloud,” she said.

    According to her, though the bank has not started, there is a plan in that direction in the pipeline “We have not started but we intend to cloud some items which we are keeping secret to our hearts but we have a lot of back up devices,” she said.

    On disaster recovery sites, she said the bank has three of such sites across the country. “We have our disaster recovery sites, the hot site and the cold site not in the cloud anyway but I will not disclose where they are because of secuiryt reasons. We have them all over so that if there is any disruption, we fall back to them but for the cloud, we are planning to go but I don’t want to disclose our plan in this respect because, “We have at least three disaster recovery sites in Lagos and outside Lagos so that even when there is a downtime, you scarcely can know. The crowd you noticed recently in our branches was because we are changing our financial system FINACO from 7 to 10 and there is no way it will not impact on our services on working days.”

     

     

     

  • Mali: Army, FIIRO collaborate on food for troops

    The Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi, Lagos (FIIRO) is collaborating with the Research and Development (R&D) Department of the Defence Headquarters to produce varieties of highly nourished food that can sustain troops packaged in Mali.

    FIIRO’s Director-General, Dr. Gloria Elemo, said they would develop food for the management of malnutrition and some health challenges among the troops.

    “The institute has developed over 250 technologies since inception and 50 of the technologies have been packaged and are ready for investment by micro, small and medium entrepreneurs using the country’s agricultural endowments to sustain and quicken the pace of industrialiation in Nigeria.

    “For instance, in tuber processing, we have developed products from cassava such as high quality cassava flour for partial substitution in wheat flour, industrial starch, odourless fufu, cassava chips and pellets, cassava noodles, mechanised garri, Soy-garri and many more,” she said.

    The Chief of R&D Department, Defence Headquarters Forces, Maj.-Gen. Olufemi Adeosun, said: “We don’t really have much time. There is no time to start from scratch; we are looking for people who already have what we want on their shelf that we can collaborate with so that we give them our specifications and things start happening since we have almost 250 technologies to draw from as presented by the director-general.

    “When we were in Liberia, an organisation was with us who packaged different food for us and we enjoyed it. Now that we are moving into a very strange environment, where there is desert, where logistics support maybe a little bit difficult, we should have something that will sustain us for 24 to 48 hours before help can come and that is why this collaboration is necessary.”

     

  • Women in infotech form group

    A new group, Nigeria Women in Information Technology (NiWIIT) says it is committed to driving the future in the country by harnessing the latent growth potential of women in technology.

    According to a statement signed by Jide Awe, Chairman, Publicity, Events and Trade Services, Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), the group is committed to driving the future of Nigeria by harnessing on the strengths and contributions of women in Information Technology, in line with its motto of “Advancing the use of Information Technology amongst women”.

    NiWIT is a new Interest Group in NCS like Information Technology (Industry) Association of Nigeria (ITAN), Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria.(ISPON), Integrated Strategic Planning and Analysis Network (ISPAN) and others.

    Membership is open to female members of NCS, Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN) and any woman involved in IT, providing professional options for all women in the IT industry.