The Nation Newspaper

Category: Business

  • Firm donates seedlings to college

    IN its quest to develop other cheap sources of energy, Sparkle Key Business Solution Limited has donated 1,100 seedlings of Jatropha seedlings to Osun State College of Technology, Esa-Oke in Osun State.

    The move, according to the organisation, was to further complement the institution’s effort in her drive for the development of biotechnology in the country.

    Earlier this year, the college signed a partnership agreement with Sparkle Key Business Solution Limited and Oriade Local Government on the development of biodiesel from Jatropha.

    Justifying the gesture, Mr. Titilayo Oluwadunsin, the Project Coordinator, said the plant will further add nutrients to the soil as well as produce a minimum of 6000litres of biodiesel by the end of 2014.

    The Rector of the College, Engr. Dr. Augustus Oluyemi Oke who was elated by the step taken by the company further reiterated the partnership agreement between the two entities and stated that the college will do her best to ensure the success of the arrangement.

  • Advertising quality standard (part 2)

    THE following is a beautiful contribution of one our readers, Oladipo Akinkugbe, a PR practitioner. This is a beautiful and insightful piece, no doubt, and we do hope our readers will add the contents here to enrich their knowledge of Public Relations as holistic approach to brand building.

    I know for a fact that some advertising practitioners are likely to argue over some of the issues raised and position taken by writer, but we at MC&A DIGEST will be like to see such level of reader’s interaction on this page. So, let’s keep our inks flowing.

    Thank you all.

    Just to mention first of all that I work as a copywriter in a PR agency. However, I’ve always been in love with the art and trade of advertising as far back as I can remember long before I began to understand the dynamics of the trade. My place of work influenced me to look closer at the benefits and strengths of a public relations approach.

    I’ve been studying through the fourth edition of Advertising and Integrated Brand Promotion (O’Guinn, Allen, Semenik, 2006) where some aspersions were made about Public relations replacing advertising as the lead approach in brand promotion/marketing communications efforts. In their words:

    “Corporate advertising will never replace brand-specific advertising as the main thrust of corporate communications. But it can serve a supportive role for brand advertising”

    “To say that you can base the entire launch of a brand on an uncontrollable technique like publicity is indefensible”

    There are 3 reasons I wasn’t surprised by the myopia and bias of these statements. One, the fact that the book is titled “Advertising and Integrated Brand Promotions”; two, the book was written by advertising professors; and three, these statements were made in response to books such as The Fall of advertising & the Rise of PR amongst many.

    From what we are seeing in advanced marketing communications climes Mr. O’Guinn, Mr. Allen, and Mr. Semenik should be revising these statements in the current edition of their book. Kye Strance of Vocus Consulting writes “PR suddenly has a newfound respect, which is the result of the growth of social media’s importance to marketing”.

    “Madison Avenue is increasingly recognizing the ‘higher strategic importance’ of PR”, writes Stuart Elliott in the New York Times, noting that “public relations agencies are excelling in ‘understanding the changing dynamics of the marketplace.’

    The battle of PR versus Advertising has evolved into a bitter turf war and it is always hard for the waning party to gracefully concede ground. From my vantage point the divide between PR and Advertising is not a strict dichotomy. There is advertising in public relations the same way there is public relations in advertising. Either can be used as support for the other. The question is which one is best suited as the lead approach to building a brand.

    Advertising approach to brand promotion looks more like public relations these days. The interactive approach to marketing communication has always been the way public relations professionals approach brand promotion. ‘Viral’, ‘relationships’, ‘Brand Stories’ and ‘Buzz’ are now the ‘buzz’ words in advertising Lingo. PR proponents are actually guilty of the same. Public relations also use advertising techniques to create buzz and generate publicity for a brand. Examples are the United Colours of Benetton Clothing Company with their provocative ads and most notably the richest company in the world Apple with the 1984 Ads and its think Different slogan. The difference is that PR is essentially the same yesteryears and today while advertising practice seems to shifting at its core.

    What makes them really different though is approach to brand promotion through message packaging and propagation.

    When you hear advertisements what comes to mind? It revolves around creative copy lines and images, you think amusing 30 second TV ads and radio jingles that have been paid to broadcast. Or you think of the intrusive nature of their hard sell tactics. Advertising is so obvious, upfront and a lot of the time patronising and outright insulting. Consumers have learnt to build up a wall of cognitive resistance to advertisements.

    The thing about PR is that when it is done right you don’t even know it is PR. This promotional technique passes as credible, worthwhile information, education or entertainment and not a mere intrusion on your media consumption. What’s more it doesn’t cost as much as advertising because media placements have to be earned and not bought, albeit, the peculiar nature of the practice in Nigeria is-shall we say-less than the ideal. The social nature of marketing and media consumption on the web, thanks to social networks such as facebook, twitter and video sharing sites such as You Tube makes public relations approach ideal to gaining awareness and developing a brand image.

    Advertising is still going to be what it is and is still going to be as significant to brand promotion as ever. I won’t go as far as to declare that advertising is falling but what is beyond doubt is that Public Relations have risen to new heights in a new age of brand promotion.

    PR has earned its place as brand promotion leader in similar style to earning brand exposure and messaging. It is a more integrated approach to brand promotions because it has a wider scope of practice with media relations, industrial relations, investor relations, lobbying and so on. It’s the only branch of marketing communications that comfortably integrates all other branches such as advertising, events and experiential marketing, interactive, social media engagement and sales promotions.

    Any brand worthy of the title and its name is one that connects deeply not just with its direct consumers but the entire public. That connection is established in various ways using creative methods from the different branches of marketing communications old new and yet undefined. These connections cannot be built with an advertising led approach because it is obviously not sufficient or suited to the task. The focus of advertising is getting the message out there. On the other hand, the focus of Public relations as the name implies is establishing and building relationships between a business or brand and the publics concerned. It is better suited because it considers the selling, the image building, and management of the brand and relationship of the brand/business with its immediate community and society at large.

    Advertising is still and would continue to control a larger budget in brand promotion spending due to the cost implications involved with buying media space. The reality is, it is no longer at the forefront of brand building. Public Relations, is a more holistic approach and any business executive serious about building a brand has to take note and consider this earnestly

  • Crackdown on currency traffickers

    Crackdown on currency traffickers

    There has been an upsurge in currency trafficking and money laundering activities with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) recording over $10.2million (N1.6billion) seizures in Lagos alone in the last three months, reports Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf

    To say that trafficking in hard currencies has gone full circle is clearly stating the obvious. From being a mere pastime of hitherto privileged few who enjoyed the status symbol it conferred on them, currency trafficking has become a bourgeoning industry so much so that it is now an all-comers affair.

    From students to upwardly mobile executives, to the barely literate, everyone is desperately willing to take the risk in their quest to make an easy kill!

    The result is that at present, there is an alarming rate of arrests of different currency traffickers at the nation’s airport by law enforcement agents, most of who have been kept on their toes in the last few months as they spread the dragnet for many of these desperate couriers who have since devised ingenious means and ways of evading arrest.

    Investigation by The Nation further revealed that security agents at the airports have had a running battle with some of the syndicates whose stock-in-trade includes serving as couriers for illicit money.

    The latest culprit, who has swelled the ranks of several others like him now under the dragnet of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, is an official of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Akinyele Adetula, who was arrested at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, for being in possession of $1.4 million, about N218 million naira.

    Adetula said he was given the money by one Mr. Ifeanyi Urama, a bureau de change operator who was recently granted bail by the EFCC after he was arrested with $996,000, about N155million. The money allegedly belonged to a yet-to-be- identified person and Adetula was to help the unknown person get the money past security.

    Upsurge in currency trafficking

    Adetula’s arrest is coming on the heels of that of Abubakar Sheriff Tijjani, a bulk cash smuggler intercepted with $7,049.444million, at the same Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, on Thursday, 27 September, 2012.

    Tijjani, 25, had at the point of arrest also declared that he had a total sum of $4.5million on him but thorough screening and search showed that he was actually carrying $7,049,444, which he confessed was owned by 20 individuals who reportedly hired him to convey the money to Dubai to purchase goods for them.

    Tijjani was reportedly convicted last Wednesday as the court asked him to forfeit 25 per cent of the sum he failed to declare.

    Also on Wednesday October 17, 2012, the EFCC arrested the duo of Idris Hamza and Umar Musa Kibiya at the Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, for false declaration of fund and illegal possession of $107,000.00. They were arrested at the airport during a special task force operation.

    Hamza who was caught with $27,000.00 claimed he was a student and was en-route to Egypt, while Kibiya had $80, 000, 00 concealed in his bag and said he was on a business trip to Dubai.

    While Hamza declared only $3,000.00, Kibiya declared $40,000.00.

    The suspects were, however, unlucky when they got to the EFCC final check point at the airport and were caught up by the eagle eye of the operatives.

    It is, however, instructive to note that by far Lagos has recorded more cases of currency trafficking compared to other airports across the country due largely to the volume of air passenger traffic at the airport.

    A staff of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak with the press, confided in The Nation that there are many unreported cases of currency traffickers arrested at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

    “I can tell you in all honesty that the regularity of seizures made at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, is mindboggling. In most cases, the culprits are cohort whose mainstay is money laundering abroad,” the source said.

    Mrs. Ngozi Isintume, PRO, Special Anti-Fraud Unit (SFU), Lagos, in a telephone chat with The Nation also acknowledged the fact the unit has also handled cases of money laundering and currency trafficking in the past.

    Probed further on what was the regularity of offenses, she was non-committal but nonetheless argued that the SFU was already to deal with any of such matters brought before its attention.

    Further checks on the EFCC’s website revealed that the Commission has seized over $10.2, totalling about N1.6billion, in Lagos alone in the last three months.

    Complicity of airport officials

    The arrest of Mr. Akinyele Adetula, some security operatives have argued, may have confirmed growing suspicions that unscrupulous airport officials are part of the money laundering syndicate.

    One of those who holds this view and very strongly too, is Mr. Iliyasu Kwarbai, Head of Operations EFCC.

    Kwarbai, who relived the episode leading to Adetula’s arrest last weekend, said the suspect cleverly hoodwinked all security checks because he was wearing his FAAN identity card.

    “The suspect is a FAAN security guard. He wore his tag and was thus able to move freely in the airport without drawing any suspicion. He was carrying a bag and it went through the scanner. The suspect passed through NDLEA, and Customs and he went to the waiting area; but he started making phone calls instead of proceeding to board his flight. We accosted him and noticed that his bag was heavy. When we searched him, we saw the large sum of money, which he said did not belong to him and that he was only trying to telephone the owner who never showed up,” Kwarbai said.

    Not fully convinced, Kwarbai said for the suspect to have passed the bag containing the cash through the scanner without security agents raising the alarm, clearly implies that officials at the airport were beginning to connive with criminals.

    But Yakubu Dati, General Manager, Corporate Communications, FAAN, would rather the EFCC treat the case involving its staff in isolation without necessarily maligning the management.

    Speaking in an interview with The Nation over the weekend, Dati said the management is not one to condone any infraction by any of its staff, no matter highly placed.

    “The staff in question has since been suspended by management in line with FAAN Disciplinary code. The full weight of our disciplinary code is applied to any staff who impinges on our ethics without exception. Further action will be taken pending the outcome of investigations by the EFCC. We are availing the security organisation of all our support in unravelling this despicable incident and we are going the whole hog,” he declared.

    On allegations that airport officials in recent times have been conniving with couriers passing through the airport, he said, “FAAN, under the leadership of Mr. George Uriese is in the process of staff restructuring which involves staff auditing which is already yielding results as the searchlight has caught its first victim. The ongoing staff restructuring is already repositioning the Authority to adapt to the new wind of change, that is already yielding fruits with the commissioning of the General Aviation Terminal (GAT) at the Murtala Muhammed airport, Lagos.”

    While commenting on the collaboration with security agents at the airport, Dati noted that “The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria is complementing security at the four operational international airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt with the introduction of sniffer dogs and anti-terrorism squads in order to enhance safety and security at these airports, as contained in the aviation road map of the Ministry of Aviation.”

    These measures, he stressed, will be extended to the other airports in the country later, in line with the transformation agenda of the Federal Government in the aviation industry, designed to provide world-class facilities and service at all Nigerian airports.Expatiating, he said: “A comprehensive audit of security and surveillance has been conducted on aircrafts, terminals and security personnel to align them to standards in the industry. The airport security personnel have been trained in crowd control, body search and other specialised areas, while undercover surveillance is conducted by plain coloured crack team.

    “At present, all Nigerian airports have a full complement of modern security equipment, hand-held metal detectors, CCT cameras, x-ray screening machines to the 3D scanning machines. This is in addition to 24hours security patrol on the airside by the aviation security personnel and the presence of Police Bomb Disposal Units in the terminals.”

    International best practice

    There is no legal limit of cash that a person can carry or transport from city to city and state to state in the country.

    However, this rule changes the minute one is travelling outside the country.

    The cash limit allowed under the law is $10,000 or more in cash/bonds/etc, which must be declared to the Customs.

    Customs regulations specify what kind of items, including cash, you can take out of the country when you travel. The $10,000 limit applies not only to cash but also to monetary instruments such as travellers’ checks, money orders and investment securities where the payee’s name has been left blank.

    Position of the law on money laundering

    According to EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, the Section 12 of the Foreign Exchange (Monitoring and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act Cap.F34 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 and Section 2(5) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011, stipulates punishment for offenses related to money laundering.

    Wilson, who spoke with The Nation over the weekend, said the Commission, in its quest to stem money laundering crime in the bud across the country’s national exit points, now has a designated checkpoint for her operatives to forestall any failure or/ and false declarations of fund as cash export constitute a criminal offence punishable under the Money Laundering Act, 2011.

    In search of political will

    The war against currency trafficking and other related offenses has not been a tea party.

    That much was admitted by the EFCC’s Executive Chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde, last Thursday, when he desperately appealed for a strong political resolve to deal with money laundering and terrorist financing.

    According to Lamorde, support of an enduring political will is the solution to the understanding of the objectives of anti-money laundering campaign in the country.

    The EFCC boss made this declaration while speaking at an event organised by DataPro Nigeria Limited, on the theme, “Fighting Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in Nigeria: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.”

    Lamorde was represented by Hanafi Baba-Ahmed, an official of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the EFFC. He said lack of political will is one of the key problems confronting the country today.

    “The absence of a centralised statistical data on Anti-Money Laundering/ Control of Financial Terrorism investigations, freezing, seizure, forfeiture and confiscation, are responsible for the dismal performance of Nigeria during the mutual evaluation process conducted by the Inter-Governmental Agency Against Money Laundering (GIABA), in 2007,” he said.

    He blamed the situation on the absence of an inclusive anti-terrorism legal structure, lack of fair sanction regimes, fragile national and international dexterity in anti-money laundering regime and nonexistence of a centralized authority with the accountable for the execution of terrorist financing.

    He said seizing and exclusion measures, in addition to lack of clear requirements in the laws for reporting transactions relating to terrorist financing or terrorist acts, are other hitches.

    Responding, the Managing Director, DataPro Nigeria Limited, Abimbola Adeseyoju confirmed the need to put in place capable outfits with indispensable legal backing to freeze , seize and confiscate any laundered assets or earnings, including instruments used or anticipated to be used for money laundering or terrorist financing.

    Adeseyoju stressed that the country must attract best practices in handling offenders as enclosed in the 2012 review of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) laws.

    Lack of synergy among security agents

    At the centre of the crisis of rising wave in money laundering is the inability of the law enforcement agents to work in sync.

    Unlike other climes where interagency cooperation is a norm, rather than the exception, the growing level of animosity among law enforcement agents around here is partly responsible for the upsurge in money laundering crimes.

    Making this assertion was Mr. Fidelis Odum, a public analyst based in Lagos.

    According to him, “A situation where the law enforcement agents don’t work in harmony, there is little or anything that can be done to ensure crime control in the society.”

    Echoing similar views, Mr. Malik Onadua, a lawyer, said it was in the public interest for the law enforcement agents to gird up their loins in the fight against all forms of crimes and should be guided by purely altruistic motives and nothing else.

    Pray, hope, someone is listening?

  • Council partners firm on non-oil export

    IN its determination to shore up the country’s economy, the Federal Government has set machinery in motion to boost non-oil as well as reduce Nigeria’s over dependence on oil.

    To achieve the Federal Government objective, the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) is collaborating with the private sector, including Koinonia Ventures Limited, to among others sensitise exporters and government agencies at the ports, to help accelerate the wheel of progress by allowing perishable exportable products to move out of the ports on time so as to meet target and standards.

    The Nation learnt that the NEPC is willing to partner with well-meaning partners who share its aspiration and vision geared towards achieving the set objectives of Nigeria’s vision 20:2020.

    It is expected that many of the participants at the forthcoming summit of the Nigerian Non-Oil Export Conference, Exhibition and Award NNECEA in Abuja, will aid this process.

    Confirming this to The Nation, Director, Special Duties at the NEPC, Olajide Ibrahim noted that product diversification is the key to Nigeria’s sustained economic development, hence the continued dependence on crude oil as Nigeria’s main foreign exchange earner must be discouraged given that it was an exhaustible commodity characterised by price fluctuation.

    He said, “This brings to fore Nigeria’s abounding potentials in human and natural resources including solid minerals, agricultural commodities and manufacturing were highlighted as veritable areas of investment, which would guarantee sustainable development, since they would provide wealth, create jobs and alleviate poverty.

    “NNECEA is an avenue to improve on private, public dialogue, creating a platform for government and industry to communicate about trade policies, export incentive and industries wide challenges. This is also a way to propel Nigeria into the world top twenty economies by the year 2020. This is a way of attracting all in the non-oil sector to come together and network in creation of new export opportunities.”

    According to him, the Council is partnering with the Koinonia Ventures Limited not only because it is a wholly-owned indigenous export consultancy firm but also for the latter’s expertise and experience in the sector.

  • Telecom service providers in stiff promo battle

    Telecom service providers in stiff promo battle

    Promotion has become the latest advert tool used by telecommunication companies in Nigeria to secure customers’ attention. The promos are aimed at getting new customers and retaining old subscribers. It is interesting to observe the race going on in the telecom industry as they try to lure consumers with different promos in order to out-do each other. These promos are quite amazing: for the new mobile users, it is the real deal. But for the first generation of GSM users, they feel cheated. Some of the promos thrown out by the telecoms companies would have sounded impossible some eight years ago.

    I spoke with an Airtel subscriber, Mrs. Esther Raji. She said: “I bought my Econet SIM card for N50,000 and I was spending N35 per minute on every call I made. There was no consideration for intra-network calls. I never knew a day would come when the same SIM card would be sold for N200”.

    The telecoms industry in Nigeria has grown exponentially after the GSM mobile operators were licensed in 2001. Mobile Telecommunication Network (MTN) was the first mobile operator to set up shop on Nigerian soil. The rush for mobile phone acquisition was not so high but it was a big relief for the Nigerian middle class. Prior to the arrival of the mobile phone operators in Nigeria, telephones, and more specifically, mobile phones were strictly for the upper echelon, the high and mighty. The Nigerian telecommunication Limited (NITEL) was the only service provider and its operation and services can best be compared with our present day Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN). Epileptic network service, poor customer relations, embezzlement, and clumsy telephone wires, characterized the organization’s operations. Power soon changed hands when the telecommunications sector was deregulated.

    MTN came in and erased all of the flaws that NITEL exhibited. For starters, you no longer needed to bribe an engineer to fix your telephone line; all you needed to do was to call the customer service line. Wireless technology was introduced, putting an abrupt end to scattered NITEL poles and wires. Though signals were not at their best then, it was much better than what NITEL offered. Within six months of operation in the country, MTN had 350,000 subscribers with their coverage strong in Lagos, Port-Harcourt and Abuja. At present MTN Nigeria is the market leader, with a subscriber base forty-one million strong. It also has the widest network coverage in Nigeria. Subscribers’ major complaint is congestion and high tariff, said Bisi Ilori, a former subscriber.

    Econet Wireless Nigeria flagged off in 2001. From Econet to Vmobile, Vodacom, Celtel, Zain and now Bharti Airtel; the company has had its share of troubles. Customers got weary of the constant change of name and tariff plans. They go to bed at night as subscribers of one company, and wake up the following day as customers of another. According to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Airtel presently has slightly above 20 million subscribers.

    On August 29, 2003, Globacom Limited entered the market to become the first indigenous mobile telecommunications company after the defunct NITEL. Its arrival was much anticipated because of its promise to reduce tariffs. Glo came in with the per-second billing plan which today has become the most used billing plan. Presently it has over 25 million subscribers.

    So, telecommunications in Nigeria has come a long way. But is all well? Are consumers really getting the best service possible? What do we make of the many promos that are launched by the telecom companies? Are these promos intended to benefit subscribers like these companies claim they are? Promos, of course, are effective tools for gaining customer loyalty in any kind of business- if they are done with the interest of the customer at heart. Presently, virtually all of the telecoms companies have a use airtime-and-get-free credit promo. Good. But what do we make of those that encourage subscribers to recharge and win airplanes? Airplanes! Luxury buses! These promos are so spectacular, they almost border on nonsensical. Does anybody really think that they’ll win airplanes by using a recharge card of two hundred naira? The companies of course, make no such claim. They just leave out a few details.

    The question is: Are these promos necessary? Promos, by nature, are short-term solutions to long-term problems. All promos eventually come to an end- tariff cuts, bonus airtime, and yes; the chance to win airplanes. The major, long-term problem in our part of the world is quality of service. The long race usually goes to the tortoise, not the hare. According to a telecom expert, Idowu Aina, team lead, microwave transmission unit Huawei telecommunication company Nigeria said “telecom companies should focus more on delivering quality service to their customers. This is bound to win in the long-term than any promo play could”.

  • Osun opens cattle ranch

    Osun opens cattle ranch

    THE Osun State government has opened a cattle ranch where a new agro-based industry is emerging.

    This is part of a plan to assist livestock farmers to improve milk and meat production.

    Governor Rauf Aregbesola,who opened the beef farm , said it would boost self-reliance in food production as well as create economic bases and job opportunities for the people.

    The Oloba Farm Settlement at Iwo, according to the government, is primarily targeted at boosting agriculture, meat and food production, food processing and mass agro-based employment.

    Aregbesola’s theory is that given the huge market for cattle in Lagos and other southwest states, animal rearing has become a lucrative business for Osun.

    The governor described the potential of the beef market in the Southwest as huge, adding that it could not be waved aside by visionary government.

    For instance, he disclosed that in Lagos alone, about 6,000 cattle are slaughtered daily in the abattoirs, while the remaining five states combined conservatively accounts for another 6,000 based on their total population.

    This translates to a huge N4.4 billion per annum. This huge market demand for beef, the governor argued, carries the potential to empower the state and the entire Southwest people economically through wealth creation.

    ”It is the objective of this administration in the State of Osun to create the enabling environment that will make this happen.

    “We will be dedicating and developing hundreds of hectares of land into grazing reserves, cattle markets, breeding centres, and fattening hubs. This will be in addition to the new central abattoirs that we are developing in selected towns across the state,” Aregbesola said.

    It is against this backdrop that the government began a study of the process to come up with a programme that will be indigenous to the state and the region.In February 2011, this assignment took them to the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Ibadan, where they discussed about building partnerships to help the state develop a robust framework for implementing an innovative programme that focuses on Beef Chain Development in Osun. What came out of the interactions between the Osun team and the ILRI is the abattoir-linked enterprises that include fattening, breeding and marketing activities.

    Hence, government decided that the strategic option for the state is to adopt the value chain approach to developing the beef sector in the state, with a preliminary target, excluding production for local consumption, of serving a minimum 10 per cent of the Lagos 6,000 cattle per day market. This, it was gathered, would be achieved through a strategic initiative incorporating activities such as cattle genetics improvement, breeding, fattening, slaughter and beef marketing.

    With the resulting strategic discussion with the ILRI, between December 11th and 16th, 2011, Aregbesola led a delegation of selected state government officials on a tour of the Zambian agricultural industry. Research revealed that Zambia has practised what could be achieved through agriculture as a means for creating jobs and wealth for the people.

    The first, it was gathered, hinged on gaining a first hand understanding of the Zambian success story in agricultural development, as well as to begin the development of the beef sector in Osun. The programme hit the ground running and this result is the Oloba cattle ranch, which the governor revealed would not be the only one in the state as efforts are on to establish more in viable locations in the state.Oloba Cattle Ranch is about 78.8 hectares in size.

    Plans are afoot to establish others in Ede (400 hectares) and Ejigbo (1,000 hectares). Land has been acquired for this purpose and the location would have grazing reserves and cattle hub – including markets, feed mills. The grazing reserves will help us to tackle the recurring feud between the Fulani pastoralists and the crop farmers usually caused as a result of cattle grazing on farms.

    At present, the ranch, which is being managed by a South African expert in conjunction with International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and Faculty of Agriculture, Obafemi Awolowo University, has 1500 cattle sourced locally. The farm is being run with the technical direction of foreign Technical Partners from Zambia and South Africa.

    According to the governor, 30 foreign species of cattle called the Zambian Boran, would be introduced to the ranch with a view to genetically crossbreeding them with local ones to get new indigenous species.When fully in operation, the ranch, which will be run on public private partnership basis, will have modern abattoir that offers services to the people at a lower rate. Government also intends to promote the establishment of cattle and ram feedlots and as such, efforts are in progress to put the feedlot infrastructure in place to accommodate 1,500 cattle. At the maximum capacity, this ranch will accommodate up to 10,000 cattle being fattened at the same time.

    Not only that, the Oloba Cattle Ranch would act as a breeding centre for a foreign breed of cattle known as the Boran, so as to develop a new breed of cattle that is indigenous to the South-West by cross-breeding the Zambian-Boran with local breeds such as the White Fulani and Sokoto Gudali.

    The resulting cattle, it is expected, will have greater capacity to produce meat, making cattle fattening and beef production a very profitable endeavour for the state.

  • Expert warns on adulterated food products

    Economically motivated adulteration (EMA) costs the food and consumer products industry millions yearly, food safety expert Prof Stephen Fapohunda has said.

    EMA is the fraudulent, intentional substitution or addition of a substance in a product to increase its value or reduce the cost of its production.

    Internationally, the cost of one adulteration incident averages between two and 15 per cent of yearly revenue.

    In an interview with The Nation, Fapohunda,who is of the Department of Biosciences and Biotechnology, Babcock University, Ilishan Remo, Ogun State, said EMA is a serious issue because people who perpetrate it defraud the public for economic gain, making it a criminal act.

    He said there were cases of Nigerians going to China to fake products, misrepresent food, food ingredients, and repackage a legitimate product fraudulently.

    Fapohunda said the economy and the health of Nigerians were at risk with high rate of counterfeiting.

    While all incidents of EMA will not result in a public health risk, he noted that they have the potential to negatively impact brands.

    According to him, EMA is fraudulent because it involves substituting a lower cost product for a higher one.

    Many are involved in the act, and the adulterants used may be unconventional and difficult to detect.

    Therefore, access to legitimate products must be sufficiently protected and monitored within the production facilities from visitors and unauthorised employees to prevent diversion of products for illegitimate means.

  • Free 50m ID cards coming

    Free 50m ID cards coming

    The Federal Government has promised to bear the cost of providing the first 50million national identity cards for Nigerians, the Director-General, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC),DrChris Onyemenan, has said.

    Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting in Lagos, he said the cards would be issued free to Nigerians to ensure the success of the project.

    “The first N50million cards would be free as the Federal Government will pay for them. Most of the projects undertaken for the successful management of the national identity scheme are at the implementation stage. We will issue the national identity number (NIN) that would not only be 11 digits but would be randomly generated to safeguard the identities of Nigerians,” he said.

    He added: “The government has released N12billion out of N30billion budgeted for NIMC.”

    Onyemenan said every Nigerian would have a national identity card to ascertain their nationalities, as well as help them to curtail fraud in the country.

    He said the national identity card does not confer citizenship on foreigners, arguing that foreigners who manipulate their ways into the country would be fished out as soon as they arrive.

    Onyemenan, while responding to an allegation that there are many foreigners residing illegally in Nigeria, said the cards have a lot of biometric features that can easily detect untoward practices.

    “If a foreigner manipulates the ID Card, NIMC would get him because it would ask for certain valuable information that he would not be able to provide answers to,” he added.

    Onyemenan said efforts were on to integrate the database between the private and the public sector, adding that the development would assist in complementing the objectives which the commission was set up for.

  • New executives for PRCAN

    A new executive committee for the Public Relations Consultants Association of Nigeria (PRCAN) has assumed office to deliver “Bigger and better association that articulates and serves the overall best interest of members in key areas of advocacy, professionalism and support for growth of PR business”.

    Led by Mr Chido B Nwakanma of Blueflower Limited as President, members of the executive committee include Mr John Ehiguese of Mediacraft Associates, Vice President; Mr Muyiwa Akintunde, Leap Communications, General Secretary; Mr Tola Odusote, CMC Connect, Assistant General Secretary; and Mr Israel Jaiye Opayemi, Chain Reactions Limited, Publicity Secretary. The two past presidents, Mr Emeka Maduegbuna and Dr Phil Osagie are ex-officio members.

    The executive emerged at the second Annual General Meeting of PRCAN held at Hotel 1960 Eagles Park in Ikeja. Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) Registrar Dr. Steve Adebayo observed the elections.

    According to the new PRCAN president, “deliberate policy actions and legislation have underpinned growth of professions; Public Relations needs policy and legislative support to grow.” As such, PRCAN would adopt advocacy visits to key government officials at Federal, state and local government levels to raise awareness and the right policy environment that would create jobs for member firms. The visits would also enable these key stakeholders realise as well as implement the law.

    PRCAN is a creation of a bye law of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations. It groups together agencies that render public relations consultancy services. By the NIPR Act, only persons registered with NIPR are eligible to practise public relations in Nigeria. For companies, only those registered with PRCAN, whose key executives must be members of NIPR, are eligible to offer public relations services and earn income for it.

  • Odigbo wins firm’s Brand Personality crown

    As part of Marketing Edge’s mission of promoting the brand idea, plans have been concluded to confer chairman of Casers Group, Enyi Odigbo with the award of Brand Personality of the Year 2011.

    The award ceremony, which was held on October 23 at Sheraton Hotel and Suite Lagos, displayed pomp and pageantry at its peak. Over 300 top corporate leaders in the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) sector and the clients’ side were in attendance.

    Odigbo was crowned in recognition of his numerous achievements in the brand building business and for his contributions to the growth of creativity in advertising business in Nigeria.

    Former Managing Director of Samsung, Nigeria Enang Idonrenyen delivered a dinner talk on contemporary marketing issues at the event. He said: “positioning is one major tool for personal branding and these four elements are key to achieve an enviable height. Authenticity, staying power, consistency and relevance. All these are characteristics clearly displayed by Odigbo both in his personal life and business world”.

    Publisher/Chief Executive Officer, Marketing Edge Publications John Ajayi, said the doggedness and incomparable but admirable entrepreneurial spirit demonstrated by Odigbo in championing the cause of advertising and marketing practice over the years was second to none.

    He further said the choice of Odigbo as the 2011 Brand Personality of the Year was very significant in view of the fact that this was the second time in the magazine’s eight-year history that a practitioner would be so nominated for honour and recognition.