The Nation Newspaper

Category: Business

  • Ajaokuta, steel, NIMC get sole administrator

    President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the appointment of Isa Joseph Onobere as the Sole Administrator for Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited.

    Onobere, a metallurgical engineer, was also a top management staff of the company. He hails from Kogi State.

    Also, Abubakar Yaro Ibrahim was appointed the Sole Administrator for the National Iron Mining Company, Itakpe also in Kogi State.

    Ibrahim, a Mining Engineer, hails from Taraba State.

    Their appointments are with immediate effect.

    Minister of Mines and Steel Developmet, Musa Mohammed Sada announced the appointments yesterday.

    The Minister noted that the two sole administrators were appointed on the basis of their experiences and professionalism in the

    minerals and metals sector, that they should be able to bring about the expected turn around in the two facilities.

    The handing and taking over ceremonies between the new Sole Administrators and the former Interim Management Committee on the two companies are expected to be completed within one week.

    Arc. Sada explained that what informed Federal Government’s decision on the appointment of the new sole administrators for the two companies was to inject new ideas into the two facilities to make them operational in line with the transformation agenda on service delivery.

  • Fed Govt okays 9,555 industrial clusters

    The Federal Government has approved the establishment of 9,555 industrial clusters, the Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Ita Ewa, has said.

    Ewa spoke at the Fourth Annual Continental Conference of the Pan African Competitiveness Forum in Abuja.

    The minister said parastatals in the ministry had been sensitised and mobilised to implement the programme at pilot levels in a few locations to serve as proof of concept.

    “Subsequently, it would be replicated in all 9,555 political wards in the country based on each ward’s comparative advantage in terms of natural resource endowment,” he said.

    He said the replication of the project for other wards would be in collaboration with state and local governments, non-governmental organisations, development partners, banks and multinational companies.

    Ewa said: “The implementation of the cluster programme shall involve training of prospective Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) by deploying technologies to designated Skills Acquisition Centres, where prospective SME operators would be trained on the use of the technologies.

    “At the end of the training exercise, the ministry will coordinate support from relevant agencies to empower the graduates to acquire and use the technologies for commercial ventures”.

  • Airtel condemns NCC over distressed CDMA operators’merger

    Airtel Nigeria has condemned the approval granted three distressed Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to merge.

    The development, it warned, was capable of giving undue advantage to that segement over Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication by unleashing anti-competition practices.

    Shola Adeyemi of Airtel’s Regulatory Affairs Department, who spoke in Lagos, also faulted the non-delineation of the telecoms market before the study on the levels of competition in the industry. He argued that the action amounted to putting the cart before the horse.

    He said: “The proposed merger by the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators (Multilink, MTS and Starcomms), which will establish a single national Long Term Evolution (LTE) broadband operator is an action capable of giving the CDMA operators a competitive advantage over GSM operators who are unable to launch LTE services in Nigeria owing to the dearth of spectrum and until release of the Spectrum in 2015 as announced by the NCC.”

    He warned that the devlopment might result in the CDMA operators having a dominant position in the broadband market.

    Adeyemi, who spoke at NCC Stakeholder’s Forum, lamented the impact of interconnect debts on GSM operators.

    He said: “Some CDMA operators do not comply with the terms of the Interconnect Agreements and are owing GSM operators substantial amounts as Interconnect debts. This act has an impact on the operators’ cash flow and network expansion projects as well as increases operators’ bad debt exposure.

    “The Commission’s inability to intervene and compel the CDMA operators to pay their debts is spurring them to act with impunity thereby distorting the telecommunications market. It is noteworthy to mention that failure to comply with Interconnection obligations under the Competition Practices Regulations 2007 is a conduct deemed to be substantial lessening of competition.”

    Adeyemi recalled that the NCC informed operators in September 2012 that it was conducting a study on the level of competition in the industry and that it had appointed KPMG as its consultants.

    He said: “We are concerned that the Commission did not clearly state the specific market in focus and the purpose of the study.(Section 20 of the Competition Practices Regulations, 2007 requires the Commission before examining potential dominance in telecommunications markets to define the relevant markets).”

    Adeyemi recalled that when a similar exercise was conducted by the Commission in 2008/2009, leading to the determination on dominance in selected markets in 2010, the market areas in focus were identified prior to the examination of dominance.

    “In our view, it is only after a proper market delineation has been carried out that an in-depth market review can be conducted to enable the Commission determine the level of competition as well as whether telecoms operators hold a position of dominance, and, if so whether they are abusing this position by acting in a manner that substantially lessens competition,” he said, adding that the telco has it doors opened to discuss other anti-competitive practices directly with the regulator and consultants.

  • Base stations’closure affecting service quality, says group

    The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has faulted the closure of Base Transmission Stations (BTS) by law enforcement agencies because of its members’ refusal to pay spurious charges.

    President of the group, Gbenga Adebayo, said the development has taken a toll on quality service delivery, urging the Federal Government to stop the agencies’ illegal activities. The BTS’ closure, he said, is affecting quality of service.

    He told The Nation in Lagos that the body might be compelled to seek redress if reason is not allowed to prevail over its quest for more internally generated revenue (IGR). He insisted that resort to extra-judicial methods of employing task forces to forcefully seal off facilities is unacceptable.

    He recalled the spate of premeditated attacks on telecoms infrastructure and the losses incured due to the floods that swept across the country, which had combined to challenge quality of services.

    “In addition to the above issues faced by our industry, we continue to face closures of functional sites by agencies of government, and we hereby draw the attention of the Federal Government and the public to the continuous incessant and unlawful closure of telecommunication facility sites by some individuals, communities and indeed state authorities, in spite of the disasters that we face,” he said.

    According to him, the impunity by the task force using extra-legal means to effect such closures without regard for the inconveniences on telecoms subscribers and the socio-economic disruptions it presents gives great concern.

    “We are deeply concerned by this un-ending illegal closure of sites, as it does not enable service recovery and maintenance activities on functional sites,” he said, adding that this would affect service delivery.

  • Wanted! User-friendly Internet

    Despite the landing of three submarine cables in the country and the bandwidth provided by SAT 3, access cost and speed remain a challenge to Internet users, reports LUCAS AJANAKU

    When Joseph Akomolafe bought a modem from one of the service providers for N4,500 a few months ago, he thought his problems wth getting Internet access on his laptop at home were over.

    A resident of Ajasa Community, a Lagos suburb, he said he was compelled to buy the modem to stop constant harrassment by plain-clothe policemen who raid cyber cafes. He also thought he could work within the comfort of his home and assist his kids to do their homeworks.

    He was wrong as he learnt later that there is no network coverage in his area. “I inserted the modem and waited for it to get installed. Installation completed, I bought recharge card and signed up to a data plan. I was shocked that it could not connect to the Internet. I had to start searching for signal around the neighbourhood. When I eventually got one, the speed was slow and frustrating,” he told The Nation, adding that he had no choice but to give out the modem to his undergraduate younger brother.

    The experience of Joseph is similar to that of Richard Adeyemi, a resident of Baruwa, another Lagos suburb. According to Adeyemi, who is self-employed, he had bought the modem of a particular Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operator on the recommendation of his friend who lives and works in Ikeja, Lagos. Thinking that what was good for the goose would also be sauce for the gander, he bought the modem and took his time to install it as instructed. “After the installation, I recharged and hooked-up to a data plan. I was disappointed that the signal strenght was not good enough to open the internet pages I wanted. The speed was slow. The waiting game was painful and frustrating,” he said.

    The experiece of Akomolafe and that of Adeyemi confirmed those of other Nigerians who have subscribed to one data plan or the other from telecos. Nigerians are disappointed that they are going through this harrowing experience despite the commercial launch of three submarine cables in the country. In addition, they still pay through their noses for services they don’t get. According to them, the monopoly of bandwidth supply hitherto enjoyed by Sat 3 undersea cable through former state-run, but now moribund telco, NITEL, has been broken by the coming on stream of Glo 1, MainOne and the West Afrcan Cable System (WACS) which MTN funded substantially.

    The expectation of a new era of low cost and speedy internet access brought about by the promises of owners of the cables, meant that it would lead to a 50 per cent crash in the cost of bandwidth in Nigeria, as it is in other countries where the cables have landing points.

    The Chief Executive Officer of Etisalat Nigeria, Steven Evan, said the country has attained maturity in voice, adding that the next frontier is data. The same sentiment was shared by the Executive Vice-Chairman (EVC) of Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah.

    However, telecoms and submarine cable operators have laid the blame at the footstep of the government, citing the punitive cost of bandwidth in the country.They said submarine cable operators have tried by bringing broadband capacity to the country through their submarine cables, but lamented that the broadband capacities were being underutilised because of the absence of a national backbone infrastructure that will take broadband capacities to the nooks and carnnies of the country for last-mile connectivity.

    Director, Regulatory Affairs for Airtel Nigeria, Mr Tobechukwu Okigbo, said the government must address the situation, by fully supporting telecoms operators in taking broadband capacities from the shores of the country, to address the needs of the people in the hinterland, instead of leaving it to the operators alone.

    An official of MainOne has given an insight to what is wrong with the system. The official, who spoke in Lagos, said most consumers are yet to feel the impact of the broadband services. The official ascribed the major reason for this, as the paucity of access to infrastructure for the distribution and last mile portion of service provision from existing infrastructure owners to end users, adding that service providers are compelled to choose between developing their own backbone network infrastructure, or are compelled to purchase access from the existing last mile providers at cut throat, uncompetitive prices.

    Speaking on the development, Ismail Olubiyi, Chief Executive Officer, Geoid Telecom Nigeria, an internet service provider (ISP), said the absence of last mile infrastructure is responsible for the low speed and high bandwidth cost. “Both Glo 1 and MainOne submarine cables have landing stations, but they have not made provisions for last mile connectivity to all areas. Unless that is looked into, crash in pricing and speed may not be feasible in the forseeable future,” he said.

    On the contrary, the Chief Executive Officer, Telecoms Answers Associate, Titi Omo-Ettu, argued that the solution is not in government providing infrastructure, but in making the environment conducive for private investors to do so.

    “Many solutions have been thought out and we have identified and recommended them. One solution is the one that our firm has presented to NCC for endorsement and it has been endorsed. We are working now to mobilise the industry to raise the level of penetration of available internet capacity which must be taken from the mouths of the submarine cables in Lagos to all corners of the country.

    “Our own solution involves mobilising industry players to confront the barriers to investment and asking for government to support the needs of investors when they come forth. The major barriers are access to funding and building human capacity,” Omo-Ettu said.

    Glo 1 undersea cable, which has since gone commercial, is a-9,800km-long cable from the UK through Mauritania, Morocco and 16 West African countries with dedicated extension to New York, anchored at its Landing Station at Alpha Beach, Lekki, Lagos. The $800million undersea cable was fianaced solely by Nigeria’s second national operator, Globacom.

    Glo 1 cable is expected to deliver transmission capacity that will radically change Nigeria and Africa’s economic landscape by providing high speed internet services, thereby making telecom services much faster, more reliable and cheaper for consumers.

    With a capacity of 640 Gigabit per second and an ultimate capacity of 2.5 Terabit per second, experts say its ultimate capacity is enough to cater for the required broadband capacity of Nigeria for at least in the next 15 to 20 years.

    The facility will provide the needed opportunity for West African countries and, indeed, Africa to leap-frog economically through an excellent communication network and a cost-effective voice, data, video and e-commerce services across Africa, Europe and elsewhere.

    With 99.9 per cent up time reliability, world-class long distance voice, video and data communication services for African customers, the undersea cable will support the large bandwidth requirements of direct consumers and other service providers.

    The firm said the cable will free up resources for other forms of investments which governments and business developments need through broad market coverage at high capacity and at a fraction of cost and time, and also facilitate foreign investment and employment opportunities in the sub region.

    The Intrepid, the ship which brought the Glo 1 cable, left for Accra, Ghana to complete the Phase One of the installation in other West African countries, including Senegal and Cote D’Ivoire. Glo 1 in Ghana will also boost the nationwide launch of Glo Mobile Ghana. Glo also said the Phase two of the submarine cable project will connect South Africa through Angola.

    The MainOne submarine fibre optic cable involves, the laying of 7,000 kilometres of submarine fibre optic cable between Seixal (a suburb of Lisbon) in Portugal, Accra in Ghana, and Lagos. The system is based on a trunk-and-branch topology, and it includes branching units to the Canary Islands, Morocco, Senegal, and Côte d’Ivoire. The 1.92 Terabits per second of available bandwidth, is being leased wholesale to telecoms operators and internet service providers on an open access basis, thereby encouraging competitive pricing and large customer base.

    According to the Chief Executive Officer, Funke Opeke, with 1.92Terabites per ssecond in submarine capacity, MainOne is capable of effectively servicing the connectivity requirements of West Africa.

    Sector analysts say the investments are coming at an appropriate time as it will unlock the constrained West African telecoms market and boost the economic potential of the region. “A compelling opportunity exists to lower the restrictive cost of international telecoms and significantly expand internet access via submarine cable, which will lead to greater efficiency and more competitive business. MainOne is an important step towards realising this opportunity,” an expert said.

    WACS is 500 Gb/s initial capacity upgradable to 5.12 Tb/s, the most of any undersea cable landing in Africa to date, a capcity which is actually too much for coastal areas with direct access. In most of the nations served by the WACS cable, mobile broadband will become a reality. 4G and LTE will truly be possible. MTN Nigeria said it has rolled out a bouquet of services running on the new ultra-high capacity submarine cable. The services, according to the telco, are being rolled out and managed by MTN Business, a division of the company focused on business-to-business solutions.

  • Lafarge Cement assures consumers of quality products

    Lafarge Cement Wapco Nigeria Plc has promised to continue to innovate and come up with products that will meet customers’ needs.

    Speaking at the just-concluded 26th Lagos International Trade Fair, its Managing Director, Mr Joe Hudson, said the company’s decision to have more than one cement brand was informed by the need to providing customers with a range of alternative cement brands to pick from.

    “For us in Lafarge, we are set to re-define the cement industry in Nigeria. We have the technical expertise to do that, because we have built the biggest research cement laboratory in the world to keep us abreast in terms of innovations in cement landscape in Nigeria.

    ‘‘We are leading the required differentiation in the cement market and will continue to deliver value to our customers and stakeholders through our innovative products and services,” Hudson said.

    He said the company had invested a substantial amount of money in the provision of its other products , aimed at providing products and services to building contractors in need of large volumes of already mixed concrete to ensure faster and quality execution of products.

    On the Lafarge Readymix Nigeria Ltd, a subsidiary of the company, he said the company had decided to introduce the Readymix concrete in the market because of the huge opportunities for such products, adding that the model of Readymix was already operational in various African countries, such as South Africa, Zambia and Morocco, where the company operates.

    His wrods:“Our ReadyMix business has become a preferred solution in the concrete sector in Nigeria. We are expanding with three new plants across the nation”.

    “Lafarge Powermax has also been launched, an innovative 42.5AL high quality performance cement that is used for large construction projects like bridges, high rise structures, slabs and beams, spun pipes, garden paths and driveways and so on.”

    “ The company is building plants across Nigeria, starting from Lagos. The aim is to provide commercial Readymix concrete product, targeted at providing products and services to building contractors who need large volumes of already mixed concrete to ensure faster and quality execution of jobs.

    “We have plants located strategically around various cities, but at the moment, Lagos is where we technically mix the concrete with cement and transport it to the construction site which ensures that the strength and quality is maintained and according to specification,” he said.

  • ‘Why we want to hold specialised fairs’

    The specialised fair and exhibition slated for November 13 to 24 is to enable the country develop its local content policy, Group Deputy Managing Director, Aulic Nigeria Limited Dr Chika Ezeh has said.

    The forthcoming fair, with the theme Boosting Nigeria’s development through trade exhibition, will hold at the Lagos International Trade Fair Complex. She said the fair is the maiden edition of what would become an annual event.

    The company is the concessionaire of the complex.

    Ezeh said the fair aimed to open up the world to young Nigerians as they are targeting business development and investments through involvement of foreign and local businesses as more than 400 firms have indicated their readiness to participate.

    She identified ‘irregular government’s policy and lack of respect for agreement as the bane of businesses in the country as the public and private sectors are guilty, adding that this works against the country’s favour as foreign firms find it difficult to cope under the harsh economic climate.

    She said foreigners leave because they cannot cope with the way business is being done in the country.

    “Unlike local businessmen who have nowhere to go, foreigners bear their loss alone as because no insurance company will like to do business with them.

    On why the fair is Aulic’s first,Dr Ezeh said: “The need to study the environment and the issue raised due to the concessionaire agreement, is why this is their first trade fair and exhibition, with more to come up as from next year as, the venue will be used to its maximum capacity”.

  • Nigeria loses N36.7b to rice smuggling yearly

    THE Rice Millers, Importers and Distributors Association of Nigeria (RIMIDAN) has raised the alarm on the country losses to smuggling.

    According to RIMIDAN, Nigeria loses N36.7 billion yearly to rice smuggling and wastes in local rice processing.

    On smuggling and duty evasion, it said N20.4 billion was lost yearly, adding that there is N16.3 billion in unpaid taxes by local processors, whose investments had been crumbled by smugglers.

    The President of the association, Mr Tunji Owoeye, said in Lagos that the figure came from the monitoring and analysis of developments in the rice sector.

    According to Owoeye, the group arrived at the figure based on the simple summation that 30,000 metric tonnes of rice are smuggled into the country monthly, indicating that the government would be losing over N1.7 billion worth of revenue monthly.

    His words: “This is in addition to the problems it is causing for the local development initiatives of the Federal Government.

    “What the smugglers are riding on is the increase per tonne of rice and the porous land borders. Thus, we are faced with a situation where thousands of bags of rice are being smuggled into the country on a regularly, especially through the rivers linking Nigeria with the Republic of Benin, while genuine processors are left gloomy.”

    Owoeye said the body had been partnering the Federal Government to ensure the availability of rice in the country at very competitive prices.

    According to him, this will receive a big boost once the borders are policed. Besides, he said it would be a big incentive for the local farmers to produce more, and subsequently meet the local demand for rice.

    He said the move would also enable genuine importers to meet with their obligations to their immediate families and the larger society.

  • Fashola: Lagos accounts for 65% non-oil GDP

    Lagos State accounts for 65 per cent of the nation’s non-oil Gross Domestic Products (GDP),GovernorBabatunde Fashola has said.

    Speaking at the just-concluded 26th Lagos International Trade Fair, organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), at the Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS), Fashola said the state also accounted for 60 per cent of the value added manufacturing, adding that it is projected to be Africa’s largest megacity and the world’s third largest by 2015.

    “Despite being a relatively small state in terms of land mass, Lagos accounts for over 65 per cent of the nation’s non-oil Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and over 60 per cent of the country’s value added manufacturing. Projected to be Africa’s largest megacity and the world’s third largest by 2015. According to the UN Habitat Report of November 2010, Lagos remains the industrial, financial, telecommunications, transportation and commercial hub of the country occupying a strategic position in the nation’s economic development,” Fashola said.

    He said government was not unaware of the challenges encountered by entrepreneurs in the state, adding that to constantly address these challenges, the state government organised the maiden edition of the Lagos State Corporate Assembly tagged “BRF meets Business” in March, this year, at the State House, Marina.

    To address some of the economic challenge, Fashola said government would be meeting with the Organised Private Sector (OPS) later this month.

    “For us in Lagos State, the forging of strategic partnership with the private sector is an economic development model that has been informed by the need to embrace an economic development approach that will guarantee sustainable growth and development. Our economic development agenda has been well reasoned out and articulated to highlight our areas of focus in terms of development needs and this is why we are indeed enthused by the opportunity availed us through this forum, the Lagos State Day, to showcase the investment opportunities in the State to such a distinguished audience with a view to facilitating the creation of mutually beneficial trade and business relationships,” he said.

    Fahsola said power remained the bedrock of any meaningful development aganda.

    In his address, President, LCCI, Mr Goddie Ibru, said the state governments have to face the challenges of providing more social services demanded by citizens in order to use complaints on the dull business environment.

    He said government should consider putting in place a programme where entrepreneurship training talks/lectures on various areas are given by private sector business/ professional Associations, including the Chambers of Commerce.

  • EU, ECOWAS pact will kill real sector, says MAN

    The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has kicked against the proposed European Union-ECOWAS Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) .

    MAN described the EPA as a deadly bait, whose coming would result in the collapse of manufacturing firms in Nigeria and West Africa.

    Speaking at a forum on EPA at MAN House, Ikeja, Lagos, its President, Kola Jamodu said EPA is an instrument to perpetuate the hold of EU on economies of developing countries.

    He said EPA would not benefit West Africa because the economic performance of ECOWAS is too low for positive impact on the population’s socio-economic conditions.

    Jamodu said the key problems identified as limiting growth in the industrial sector in most ECOWAS countries, particularly Nigeria, included poor and high cost of infrastructure, particularly electricity, transportation and telecommunication, among others.

    “In summary, these constraints have combined to deprive the sub-region of the catalytic benefits usually offered by the industrial sector, particularly manufacturing as the engine to stimulate economic development similar to results in other regions such as Latin America, Asia and Far East where export-oriented manufacturing has transformed the countries.

    “It is against the background of ECOWAS’ weak industrial base and the myriad of problems and constraints affecting the industrial sector that the envisaged full liberalisation of trade between ECOWAS and the European Union under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) will pose a lot of threats and challenges to the sub-region, particularly the manufacturing sector,” Jamodu said.

    Chairman, Economic Policy Committee, MAN, Mr Gbade Giwa, said in the more than 30 years of economic and trade relations with EU, 12 out of the 16 countries in West Africa remain classified as Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

    “The implication of this trend is that the goals of EPA with regard to ‘robust’ export opportunities in EU market for ECOWAS products is very unrealistic, especially in the face of stiff and unrestrained competition expected from new entrants into the membership of EU and other trading blocs with which EU is engaging in similar trade protocols,” Giwa said.

    “However, in pursuing this initiative, caution should be adopted so as not to destroy our national economies and our shared vision concerning regional integration. The frenzy of globalization should not be allowed to deepen the wedge which had widened the lack of investment and trade cooperation among countries in our sub-region in the past,” Giwa said.