The Nation Newspaper

Category: Business

  • MTN bags CPC’s awards

    MTN Nigeria Communications Limited has been honoured by the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) for its consistent efforts at improving customer experience on its network and for its corporate social responsibility initiatives.

    In a statement the telco expalined that the award which was given at the maiden edition of the Nigeria Consumer Awards (NiCA) organised by the CPC, followed a very rigorous selection process which included electronic voting by members of the public, surveys and focus groups and painstaking collation and moderation of results by a panel of judges, which included representatives from the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), CPC, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and other industry regulators.

    MTN emerged winner in the categories of “NiCA Award for Service Excellence” in the Telecoms category and the “NiCA Award for Corporate Social Responsibility.”

    Speaking on the awards, MTN Corporate Services Executive, Mr. Wale Goodluck, said, “Short-listing and eventual selection of MTN as the winner of the Award for Service Excellence in the telecoms category at the NiCA Awards marks a significant recognition and endorsement of our ongoing efforts to continue to improve the entire scope of service delivery to our esteemed customers despite the constraints of our operating environment.”

    “The CSR Award, on the other hand, is another salient recognition of MTN’s efforts to selflessly give back to society in a sustainable manner through carefully designed projects with measurable long-term impact.”

    He said the awards are a validation of MTN’s efforts at enriching the lives of the Nigerian consumer, adding that the company would continue to engage with its stakeholders to have a consistent view of their expectations and continue to work on exceeding them.

    NiCA was instituted last year to recognise and honour worthy contributions by businesses, non-government organisations and individuals that play important roles in protecting consumers in Nigeria. The CPC also hopes that the NiCA will remain the highest award for service and product excellence in Nigeria.

  • Ministry, ECOWAS, private sector to grow real sector

    How can the Federal Government’s transformation agenda and industrialisation goal best be achieved? It is by harmessing the National System of Innovation (NIS), says the Ministry of Science and Technology, Prof Ita Ewa.

    Speaking at the National Stakeholders’ Workshop on Innovation for the Organised Private Sector (OPS) in Lagos, he said his ministry would collaborate with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission to achieve the goal.

    According to him, the ministry with the support of the ECOWAS Commission is seeking the private sector’s partnership to drive the real sector’s growth.

    The minister said: “Science, technology and innovation are pillars of socio-economic and environmental development of any nation. Data management and the development of indicators of science, technology and innovation have been identified as major axis of the actions to be implemented in the short-term as they allow government and stakeholders to review the systems in place. It is believed that this innovation will impact on the lifestyle of Nigerians if effectively pursued.”

    He added that the ministry hoped to facilitate public-private partnership (PPP) in research and development and commercialisation of the products.

    Ewa said Nigeria was playing a leading role in the implementation of the initiative, which would contribute to its socio-economic development and that of ECOWAS.

    He said the Science and Technology Ministry is committed to driving innovation.

    “It is hoped that this National System of Innovation (NSI) framework will evolve a strategy to foster innovations at all levels of government from wards, local, state, regional to the federal level.

    “The public and private sectors must be properly engaged to drive sectoral innovation,’’ he said.

    The National Vice-Chairman, Nigerian Association of Small-Scale Industrialists (NASSI), Duro Kuteyi, praised the Federal Government on the initiative. He canvassed more funding to aid food processing in the country.

    He said: “The lack of innovation for processing has continued to affect local production and capacity utilisation in the country. Food security can only be enhanced through an effective food processing initiative. If we must avoid dumping, small and medium enterprises must be empowered for exports. We do not have adequate security to obtain loans for efficient processing of goods for export. If this can be addressed, SMEs would become more pivotal in the growth of the country’s economy, while food security would be assured.”

    Also, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) commended the ministry’s effort in driving development through innovation, noting that there was a need for frequent interaction with the private sector to enhance the innovation and effective implementation.

    MAN’s Director, Corporate Affairs, Rasheed Adegbenro, said the NSI has opened a new vista between the private sector and government and the opportunities therein should be harnessed through improved partnership with the OPS.

     

  • World Bank chief to manage $27b

    World Bank chief to manage $27b

    World Bank’s Vice-President for Concessional Finance and Global Partnerships (CFP) Joachim von Amsberg has been authorised to oversee a trust fund portfolio of about $27 billion and implementation of the $49.3 billion International Development Association (IDA) replenishment.

    The IDA is the World Bank’s fund for the poorest. Mr. von Amsberg brings to the post extensive global and country development experience. As the bank’s head of Operational Policy and Country Services (OPCS) for the past two and half years, he drove a series of institutional innovations, including the introduction of the bank’s first new lending instrument in 30 years.

    He also oversaw a major reform programme focused on improving the flexibility of investment lending and strengthening the institution’s support to fragile and conflict-affected states.

    “I am pleased to be joining the concessional finance vice presidency, a unit that plays an important connector role in helping the bank secure and leverage the resources needed to provide support to the world’s poorest countries and in areas of global public concern, such as conflict and other crises,” he said.

    “The current replenishments of IDA and the Global Environment Facility, as well as efforts to continue improving our trust fund operations and mobilise financing for other development needs, are hugely important to the well-being of billions of people around the world,” he added.

     

  • CIBN to organise risk management confab

    CIBN to organise risk management confab

    The Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Lagos chapter is organising a risk management conference for regulators and operators in the financial services industry. The conference is billed for Dubai, United Arab Emirates between February 17 and 20.

    In a statement, the body said there will be a strategic session for senior management staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Money Deposit Banks, Discount Houses, Mortgage Banks, Microfinance Banks, among others.

    The statement reads: “The event would serve as a training and strategic session for evolving best practices for the implementation of BASEL 11 and 111 in Nigeria. Bank of International Settlement (BASEL) had been developing new rules and practices to forestall re-occurrence of the global financial crisis that had put the world economies in prostrate since 2007. We are all living witness of how bad an economy could go, notwithstanding the so-called blessings of oil windfall revenue in the world.”

    According to CIBN, participants would leverage on the forum to bring about desired growth to their employers.

     

  • Banks await CBN’s nod to implement e-clearing at branches

    Banks await CBN’s nod to implement e-clearing at branches

    Electronic clearing (e-clearing), being implemented only at banks’ headquarters, will soon be extended to their branches nationwide, The Nation has learnt.

    It was learnt that the banks are waiting for the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the extension.

    The policy, which became effective last August, could not be implemented across board because of poor technical know-how and infrastructure needed for seamless take-off.

    e-Clearing involves stopping the physical movement of the cheque and replacing the physical instrument with the image of the instrument and the corresponding data contained in Magnetic Character Ink Character Reader (MICR) line.

    The cheque details are captured, typically by the bank presenting the cheque or its clearing agent and electronically presented in an agreed format to the clearing house for onward delivery to the paying bank.

    Unlike the more common form of presentment where a cheque is physically presented to the paying bank, a truncated cheque is typically stored by the presenting bank electronically.

    The banking watchdog said clearing period under the new rule would allow cheques clear on a T+1 basis such that customers receive value in the morning of T+2 even as the clearing house is also expected to operate three sessions.

    Besides, the images of all the instruments in a batch/file shall be duly captured along with MICR data using scanners set up for the purpose. The amount needs to be captured/keyed in to complete the data record.

    “The incoming images are subjected to validations. The images which fail validations are rejected with an appropriate response file. The bank may rescan the instrument and present in line with bank’s internal processes/ control procedures. The member banks have to maintain control over such re-presentments,” it said.

    Besides, banks are expected to plan transmission of their outward presentation by taking into account presentation volume, the bandwidth of network with the clearing house, and the session window.

    In the event of an exchange file being received at the clearing house within a session time but not passed to the clearing house, the clearing house would unbundle the exchange file, and reattach to a new session.

    In case validation of digital signature of presenting bank fails, paying bank may return such items with appropriate return reason codes.

    The introduction of the truncation process changes the roles and the responsibilities of the various participants in the clearing system and may lead to introduction of certain risks

     

  • ‘Don’t tax churches, mosques’

    ‘Don’t tax churches, mosques’

    A leading American cleric, Mr John Fare, has called on the Nigerian government to halt its planned imposition of taxes on churches and other religious organisations.

    Fare, who was in the country at the invitation of Our Daily Manner Prayer Ministry, said it was wrong to ask churches and mosques to pay tax to government since they are not manufacturing centres, but exist to care for the well-being of their members.

    He said rather than taxing these bodies, the government should integrate them into its poverty alleviation strategies to achieve greater results. According to him, the government should be part of the poverty alleviation and economic empowerment scheme being championed by these religious bodies. Such activities he said, are helping in the caring for widows and the aged, as practiced in the United States of America.

    The cleric’s reaction came against the backdrop of proposed imposition of taxes on religious organisations for which the Financial Reporting council (FRC) kicked off sensitation with church leaders last year.

    He said: “The US Federal government realises that churches are most effective for helping people, especially the widows and orphans and the aged. The government support what they are doing through subsidies and subventions to complement its economic empowerment programme.”

     

  • Nigeria’s, Tanzania’s T-Bills lead

    Yields are rising on Nigeria’s and Tanzania’s Treasury Bills (TBs), although demand has continued to be strong, according to data posted on the websites of both countries’ Central Bank.

    The average yield-to-maturity for Tanzania was 13.43 per cent on the 364-days bills, 12.86 per cent on the 182-days paper, 11.76 per cent on 91-days and 7.25 per cent on 35 days.

    For Nigeria, it is 12.5 per cent on the 364-days bills, 11.75 per cent on the 182-days paper, 11.6 per cent on 91-days.

    The main investors in government securities in both markets are pension Funds and commercial banks who took more than 60 per cent of the market, followed by insurance funds and a few micro-finance institutions. Treasury bills are issued regularly as part of monetary control measures to help lenders manage their liquidity.

    T-bill is issued through a competitive bidding process are used by the Central Banks to control liquidity in the financial system. It is a short-term debt obligation backed by the government with a maturity of less than one year.

     

  • Mobile payment review’ll foster growth, says NeFF

    The mobile payment system will receive a boost, after the ongoing review of its operational guidelines, the Nigerian electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF) has said.

    NeFF Chairman, Mr Emmanuel Obaigbona, said activities in mobile payment industry would take a new dimension after the review.

    The review, he said, would make the mobile payment system productive, remove certain bottlenecks impeding its growth, and make it competitive.

    He said: “The review will help in improving infrastructure, and foster an enduring relationship among telecom companies, licensed mobile payment firms, agents, among other relevant stakeholders in the mobile payment chain. When this happens, the industry is bound to improve in terms of operations and profitability.

    Obaigbona said the review is taking place years after its guidelines were released.

    “From 2003, many guidelines have been released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to bring about the necessary growth in the industry. These include Electronic banking guidelines, Point of Sales (PoS) guidelines, Switches guidelines, Automated Teller Machine guidelines, the mobile payment guidelines, among others. But what we are doing is the reviewing of mobile payment guidelines. We hope to conclude it soon. We have gone far on it. It is about to be ready. When it is ready, it would be presented to the CBN and the Bankers’ Committee,” he said.

    According to him, increased attention is being given to the development of the nation’s electronic payment system to strengthening the economy.

    A Senior Official of Shared Office Department, CBN, Mr Chidi Umeano, had earlier told this newspaper that the apex bank would tackle certain problems affecting the mobile payment sub-sector.

    Umeano said infrastructure is one of the major problems facing the mobile payment operators, stressing that there are on-going efforts to address the issue.

    In the same view, the Managing Director, Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), Mr Adebisi Shonubi, had in a review of the performance of mobile payment firms, said the value of transactions recorded by the operators has not been too impressive.

     

  • Institute seeks autonomy for state revenue services

    The Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) has called on the 36 states to grant autonomy to their internal revenue service units.

    Reviewing the states implementation of last year’s budget, in line with their internally generated revenue (IGR), CITN Registrar/Chief Executive, Abayomi Jayeoba said it was not good enough that only five states gave such units autonomy.

    He said: “As governors get busy with their onerous task of states’ building, it is becoming imperative for them to be mindful of the economic realities and focus more on redefining internal revenue drive by improving the efficiency of revenue collection and administration in their jurisdictions.”

    Evidence, he said, abounds that autonomous revenue service for states has fared relatively better than their non-autonomous counterparts.

    He cited the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) which has been the major funding arm of the government in the past 10 years as a reference point in the state’s drive to improve its IGR.

    LIRS generates over N18 billion monthly, accounting for about 70 per cent of the state’s monthly income receipts, he said.

    Since the Federal Inland Revenue Service is autonomous, it is just a matter of time for non-autonomous states to follow suit, he said.

    He said CITN had met the states on the merits of granting autonomy to their internal revenue agencies.

    He added that unless a revenue agency is independent with powers to carry out its assignments without hindrance but in compliance with dictates of the law, government will continue to lose revenue and will be incapable of performing its socio-economic functions to her citizenry.

    Government policies in increased revenue generation can be best implemented with a state internal revenue service that is autonomous and consisting of professionally competent chartered tax practitioners, he said.

    He admonished the states to look inwards for alternative sources of funding if they are serious to diversify their economy and place little reliance on monthly allocation from Abuja.

     

  • CIBN gets panel to amend law for watchdog role

    The Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) has raised a committee to amend its Act to enable it to perform certain functions.

    The amendment may not be unconnected with the House of Representatives plan to cede the banking supervisory power of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to the Institute. The Committee, The Nation learnt, is considering the inclusion of a section on privileges to empower its members.

    The CIBN Act 2007 was enacted by the National Assembly. The law stipulates that no person shall be entitled to be employed as head of any of the technical departments of a bank unless he is duly registered as a member of the Institute.

    The Act also states that the Governing Council shall consist of a Chairman, who shall be the President of the Institute; two Vice-Chairmen; National Treasurer; CBN governor or his representative; managing director of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) or his representative; six managing directors/chief executive of banks to be appointed by the Council and six persons elected by the Institute.

    Others are two past presidents of the institute; a representative each of the Ministries of Finance; Education; and Mortgage/Micro Finance Banking Institutions (alternates) among others. There is also a representative each of the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE).

    The Chairman, wHouse of Representatives Committee on Banking and Currency, Mr. Jones Onyereri told The Nation on phone that there is need to strengthen the CIBN to play more roles in the financial services sector.

    He said: “With the kind of challenges we have, the time has come that we should separate that function from CBN. Make an independent one; probably the Financial Supervisory Committee, to deal with issues of bank supervision.We need to hear from CIBN and then take it from there.”

    The legislator said it would be an integral focus of the House to ensure that it separates banking supervision function from CBN this year. “The core function of the CBN is really on the monetary policy matter and we would want the bank to intensify its efforts in that area when we separate the banking supervision role from the bank,” Onyereri said.

    He urged CIBN to rise to the challenge of contributing to monetary policy issues.

    CBN Director of Communication, Ugochukwu Okoroafor, said the apex bank was a waiting details of the members’ plan.

    Banking Supervision is being handled by a special unit in the CBN headed by a Director.

    There is a bill before the House, seeking to amend the CBN Act 2007 by transferring the power of its board to approve its budget to the National Assembly. The bill also proposes to reduce the banks’ membership from 12 to seven and to appoint another person, other than the CBN governor, as the chairman of the board.