The Nation Newspaper

Category: Special Report

  • The unfinished infrastructure battle

    The unfinished infrastructure battle

    How will the generality of Nigerians rate the Muhammadu Buhari administration in the provision of road infrastructure these eight years? In this special report, ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE writes that though the administration has done much in road repair and reconstruction, Nigeria still wallows in transport infrastructure deficit

    One sore fact that Nigerians have come to accept as the reality of the Muhammadu Buhari years as the President of Africa’s most populous country is the relativity of his performance rating. How people assess his administration depends largely on where they stand, which probably impacts what they are seeing from their standpoint. While government officials – and many private individuals alike – insist the administration has set an unbeatable record, many citizens may disagree with such a rating.

     Ask citizens living along the Lagos-Ogun border communities, or travelers and regular users of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway for instance, none would mince words that they would have prayed for a better deal than the nightmare they have been sentenced to by a government that once vowed to tackle the road infrastructure deficit between six months or maximum one year period. The question on their lips as the administration winds down in less than two weeks’ time is: Just how many years will it take to fix the 127.6km Lagos-Ibadan expressway? Many disappointed Nigerians still feel bad that even when the repair of Lagos-Ibadan expressway was split into two sections, it is taking Nigeria 24 years (taken cumulatively) or 10 years (the Goodluck Jonathan administration took it off the concessionaire, Bi-Courtney) to reconstruct its busiest and perhaps the most strategic highway.

     Earlier in the year, the Minister for Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), had vowed that the Lagos-Ibadan expressway would be one of the critical projects President Buhari would love to sign off on. The minister first promised April 30; then, it became May. Recently, fielding questions from reporters, he said the contractor had left the busiest part of the project, which is the Lagos end (from OPIC to Berger) for the last. For him, it is hard for the contractor to complete the project on schedule with the multiple human impact and other challenges being encountered on the ever-busy road. For many citizens, especially those in the southern parts of Nigeria, it is an embarrassing excuse that the fate of the all-important Lagos-Ibadan expressway still remains uncertain, as the advent of torrential rain makes it more unlikely for the contractor to finish the reconstruction before May 29 handover date.

     Under Buhari, like his predecessors, the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, Nigeria’s busiest road with a carriage capacity for over 450,000 vehicles per day, has become an Abiku, which in the late Prof. J.P Clarke’s poem, has suffered repeated rebirths for several seasons. But if the administration’s performance in road infrastructure in the Southwest is adjudged by critics to be below par, same cannot be said in the Southeast where President Buhari deserves veneration for eventually delivering the Second Niger Bridge, which has been on the nation’s surgical table for over 35 years. Conceived in the second republic by the late President Shehu Shagari, the Second Niger Bridge was started by military President Ibrahim Babangida before it suffered fits of abandonment for decades.

     What remains on the Second Niger Bridge, from information gleaned from Fashola, is the completion of all the connecting roads: the 4km interchange road at the Asaba end, and 2km out of a 7km link road at the Onitsha end. Last Christmas, travellers had a taste of the pudding, and were informed it would be one of the projects President Buhari would be glad to sign off with, as curtains fall on his administration.

    Nigeria’s total road network

     The total network of roads and highways in Nigeria is 195,000 km. For a population of over 200 million, this, according to worlddata.info, amounts to 0.91 metres per population. This puts Nigeria in 210th place on global ranking. According to Statista, a global statistics and research website, Nigeria has a total of 36,000kms of federal government roads (otherwise called Trunk A) as at 2018. The size and magnitude of the nation’s roads notwithstanding, Nigerians have always clamoured – and deservedly too – for more motorable roads. Incidentally, it would seem it was the Trunk A roads constructed before and shortly after independence that had weathered the wear and tear of use, as many others constructed in the 70s, 80s and 90s had become deathtraps.

     Buhari’s commitment to making a difference and delivering an improved national road network has, however, remained far and in-between, despite the huge holes financing such ambitious national transport infrastructure has dealt on Nigeria’s purse. At the last count, the Debt Management Office said the Buhari administration might be leaving with a total debt stock of N77 trillion; it also projected Nigeria may hit the N80 trillion mark by year end. Incidentally, over 70 per cent of these debts were borrowed to fix the arterial roads, called federal roads across all the six geopolitical zones.

     To stop perceived sleaze and trim down its expenditure on its roads, the Federal Government stopped all sub-national (state) governments from taking any remedial actions, insisting that no refunds would be made on any federal roads worked upon by any state government. Fashola (who, at some point in the life of this government, handled three composite ministries), once said Nigeria would require about N3 trillion yearly to fix its roads deficit. For a government that inherited roads rehabilitation obligations, it not only lacked the capacity to muster this kind of funds; it also had to face humongous debts from failed obligations to local contractors handling its projects.

     However, it has not been all gloom on the roads front. In the last eight years, the administration has tried to wriggle out of the infrastructure deficit by tackling issues of road construction and repair creatively. It established the Infrastructure Corporation of Nigeria (InfraCorp), in February 2021, with an initial capital of N1trillion, provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) and the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC). InfraCorp’s goal is to attract investment into Nigeria’s infrastructure sector, with a core focus on roads.

     A year before, the federal government established the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF), with a N14 trillion of debt capital. The PIDF, in 2020, invested over a $1 billion in three flagship projects: Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Second Niger Bridge (both of which are slated to be completed this month), and the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Expressway (with two of the three sections slated to be completed in May 2023). The year before, precisely January 25 2019, Buhari, vide Executive Order No7 of 2019, established the Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme (RIDRITCS) with complete focus on meeting Nigeria’s motorable road needs. The scheme allows companies that are willing and are able to spend their own funds on constructing critical roads to recover their construction costs by paying reduced taxes over a period of time. Under this scheme, Fashola had announced some federal roads may be tolled to assist the federal government and its private sector partners recover their investments, but largely, the attraction is on tax cut for willing companies and emphasis had been on constructing more rigid roads that would justify the intendments of tax relief for public works carried out by such business concerns.

     The Buhari administration said it was able to mobilise about N3 trillion committed by some companies for road projects across the six geo-political zones. Under the Executive Order 7, companies such as Dangote Group (which fixed Ojota-Oworonshoki-Oshodi-Apapa), MTN Plc (which is to fix Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway), BUA Group, NLNG, and NNPC Limited, had opted to mobilise resources to help fix some critical roads for tax cuts. These initiatives are apart from the public-private partnership initiative that the administration came up with under the Highway Development and Management Initiative (HDMI), which mobilised over N1 trillion of private investment into the development and maintenance of 12 roads amounting to 1,963km in length. This is further buoyed by more than N600 billion worth of Sukuk Bond raised since 2017 for more than 40 critical road projects connecting 10 states in five geo-political zones of the country.

     Fashola, at a recent performance report, said the Sukuk has helped greatly in funding road construction across the country, lamenting more strides could have been achieved had the previous government not avoided it as an Islamic-oriented funding with negative consequences. According to the minister, “the sukuk is used to fund section II of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and the Second Niger Bridge, which has been completed.” Explaining further, the minister said; “the first thing we did when we came into power was to expand the budget on road infrastructure, and sought alternative sources of funding through Sukuk, and the Infrastructure Tax Credit Scheme.”

     Fashola listed the achievements of his ministry under Buhari’s government to include the completion and inauguration of 12 road projects covering about 896km, explaining that the government is executing 83 road rehabilitation projects in federal tertiary institutions across the country with 66 projects completed and 46 inaugurated. Celebrating the strides of his principal during the nation’s 60th anniversary, Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Malam Garba Shehu, had said the Buhari administration has attempted remedial work on 600 critical federal roads since 2015. For him, within the same space of time, the administration has done more than most of his predecessors despite other competing infrastructural funding needs. The administration’s overwhelming presence is everywhere and in all the six geopolitical zones, he insisted.

     For an administration that desires to tackle all of the nation’s numerous challenges and achieve economic self-reliance and increased domestic output, the Buhari administration devised economically sound fiscal strategies to fund the redevelopment of various federal highways, including those nearing completion. A quality road network being the most critical component of a national multimodal transportation plan is the foundation of a thriving economy. Experts readily averred that good roads link up especially on the national socio-economic arteries, urban centres and hubs are enablers for citizens to move from one point to the other and perform everyday activities that would lead to the country’s prosperity. It is by the road that people earn a living, farm, or access other transportation modes like rail, air, and water. Essential social services such as education, healthcare, hospitality, community integration, neighbourhood security, religious and private interactions are majorly accessed by roads. A quality road network is, therefore, the mainstay of any thriving economy.

     Nigeria’s surface roads, put at 195,000kms of which those categorised as federal roads make up 32,000km or 18 per cent, had steadily deteriorated in the years preceding the Buhari administration through a combination of official neglect, poor maintenance culture, and perhaps more fundamentally, the absence of a legal and policy framework for private sector participation in funding, management and maintenance of federal highways. Despite the recent drop in revenues due to lower oil prices and the aftershock of the COVID-19 shutdown, experts believe Nigeria’s economic potentials are still enormous.

     Although the Buhari administration has often said that it is mindful of the pains the average Nigerian is passing through due to recession and the ravages of the global Coronavirus pandemic, it has nonetheless been resolute in continuing with its economic recovery plans, which have as a key component the rebuilding of national transport infrastructure. Many stakeholders commend the ceaseless fiscal and administrative stimulus that the administration has put into the timely completion of major roads and bridges across the six geopolitical zones of the country to stimulate economic growth.

    Inside the ambitious 600 federal roads project

     Some of the 600 on-going federal road projects whose completion will immediately impact economic activities include the Apapa-Oshodi-Oworonshoki Expressway, which is being reconstructed as a concrete road, for the first time since it was built 40 years ago, and awarded to Dangote Group for a tax cut. This vital economic gateway, which opens to Apapa Ports, can be likened to the nation’s spinal cord, the backbone of its import and export business. When this road is choked and vehicular traffic snarls envelope the metropolis, as it often does, the economy of Nigeria and, indeed that of the entire West African region, is effectively paralysed.

     The Buhari administration is committed to reconstructing the Expressway to benefit national and regional economic development. Both the Apapa-Oshodi-Oworonshoki Expressway and the Bodo-Bonny Bridges and Road, (which was conceived in the 1980s, but actual construction started in 2017), were executed under the Executive Order 7 projects. Other projects being funded under PIDF include the Second Niger Bridge. Main construction for this vital gateway into the South-South and South East regions started in 2018, and completion is scheduled for 2023. There is also the reconstruction of the 375km Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Expressway and its transformation to a six-lane configuration; reconstruction of the Benin–Ofusu–Ore–Ajebandele–Sagamu Expressway; the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway, and the Kano-Maiduguri Expressways. The Loko-Oweto Bridge, linking Benue and Nasarawa states, an important interstate project started by the Jonathan administration, is being completed by President Buhari.

     In 2017, the Buhari administration identified and marked out 63 roads across the country, including 44 federal highways. These roads, which linked up trade, commerce, port, and agricultural centres across the six geopolitical zones of the country, were classified under Critical Economic Routes and Agricultural Routes, and accorded budgetary priority. The roads include the Apapa/Tincan Port, NNPC Depot (Atlas Cove) to Mile 2 Accessed Road, Apapa-Oshodi Road, Third Mainland Bridge, Apapa/Tincan Island Port-NNPC Depot Access Road, Benin-Ofosu-Ore Ajebandele-Shagamu Road, Obajana Junction-Benin Road Phase 2: (Sections i-iv), Sapele-Ewu Road Sections 1&11, Second Niger Bridge, Onitsha-Enugu Expressway (Amansea-Enugu State Border), Yenegoa Road Junction-Kolo-Otueke-Bayelsa Palm and Bodo-Bonny Road with Bridge.

     Also included are the Abuja-Lokoja Road Sections I & IV; Suleja-Minna Road Section 11; Kaduna Eastern Bypass; Kano-Maiduguri Road Section 1-1V; Hadejia-Nguru-Gashua-Bayamari Road and Kano Western Bypass; Odukpani-Itu-(Spur Ididep-Itam)-Ikot Ekpene Federal Highway Sections 1&11; Ikom Bridge; Enugu-Port Harcourt Dual Carriageway Sections i-iv; Calabar-Ugep-Katsina-Ala Road; Vandeikya-Obudu-Obudu Cattle Ranch Road; Oshegbudu-Oweto Road; Oju/Loko-Oweto Bridge with approach roads; and the Nassarawa-Loko Road. Others are the Kano-Katsina Road (Phase 1: Kano Town at Dawanau Roundabout to Katsina State Border); Sokoto-Tambuwal-Jega-Yauri Road; Ilorin-Jebba-Mokwa-Bokani Road; Ilorin-Kabba-Obajana Road (Sections 1&11); Ibadan-Ilorin Road, Section11 (Oyo-Ogbomosho); Lagos-Shagamu-Ibadan Dual Carriageway, Sections 1&11, and Lagos-Otta Road.

     Others are the Zaria-Kano Road, Abuja-Lokoja Road (Sections i-iv), Ilorin-Jebba-Bokani Road, Ibadan-Ilorin Road (Sections `1&11), Lagos-Shagamu-Ibadan Road (Sections1&11), Benin-Ofosu-Ore-Ajebandele-Shagamu Road, and Obajana-Benin Road (Sections i-iv). The Kaduna-Zaria Road, Otukpo Township Road, Kaduna-Katsina Road, Onitsha-Enugu Road (Section 1&11), Enugu-Port Harcourt Road (Sections i-iv), Calabar-Odukpani-Itu Road (Section 1), Calabar-Ugep-Katsina-Ala Road (Sections 1&11), Alesi-Ugup (Iyamoyung-Ugup) Road, Ogoja(Mbok Junction) Abuochichie Road, Kano-Maiduguri Road(Sections i-v), among others, were also among those listed. There is no doubt the completion of the reconstruction of these roads will heighten the tempo of national economic recovery and achieve one of the cardinal objectives of the Muhammadu Buhari Administration.

     With a government determined to provide smooth and motorable roads, it is the hope that Nigeria will eventually achieve a mitigation of the wear and tear of vehicles, enhance the country’s socio-economic development, improve road safety, ensure smooth traffic, reduce travel time and traffic congestion, make for better connectivity in and around the federation. The movement of people and goods is also improving substantially, even if gradually. In this regard, Fashola said over 700 kilometres of roads spreading across 11 states in the country would be delivered to Nigerians.

     Mr Fashola said NNPCL is committing N1.5 trillion to road projects located in Edo, Delta, Kano, Kaduna, Borno and Adamawa states. “The Federal Executive Council gave approval for the construction and rehabilitation of 11 roads totalling 737.242 kilometres in the sum of N1, 535, 154, 247, 234.48 under phase II of the NNPC tax credit scheme. Recall that in January this year, the council approved a memo for the NNPC to invest N1.9 trillion on our roads. That amount was then about 44 roads that had been awarded and the balance of those roads that had to go through procurement between then and now are the 11 that have now been approved by the council,” Mr Fashola said.

     Fashola, said his mandate in the Buhari’s government is to help the government spend its funds judiciously on public infrastructure. Though he would claim he has done that to the best of his capacity, there still exists a huge gap across all the six geo-political zones that could keep the incoming administration very busy. But like in all sectors, the Buhari administration seems to have put in place structures to make rehabilitation, reconstruction and expansion of road infrastructure a lot easier than he met it.

  • Appraising the gains, pains in railway modernisation projects

    Appraising the gains, pains in railway modernisation projects

    Under President Muhammadu Buhari’s watch, Nigeria has witnessed the berthing of the biggest and most ambitious rail infrastructure development since independence. ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE and FAITH YAHAYA examine the journey and how the country may remain stunted despite the giant strides recorded in the sector

    In about 15 days, President Muhammadu Buhari would bid Nigerians goodbye, as he hands over to the President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu. One of the sectors for which it scored its greatest feat is the transportation sector, where he concentrated on the modernisation of the rail sector. In eight years, the administration gave Nigeria three standard gauge rail lines (one it revived from the archive and activated; the other, it inherited from the immediate past administration, completed and activated it and the third it birthed from scratch and delivered in four-plus years).

    The narrow gauge and the inherited railway masterplan

    Nigeria has a very rich railway history and the railway pioneered the rapid opening up of Nigeria. It represents the oldest modern form of public sector transportation in Nigeria. Railway development in Nigeria was initiated by the private interest for the purpose of easy and cheap movement of bulk goods from the hinterlands to the seaports and vice versa. It was later taken over by the colonial government and it became known as Government Railway.

     The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), which took over from the Government Railway, is about 125 years old (1898–2023) and the first rail line from Lagos to Ibadan (193km) was constructed between 1898 and 1901. Between 1898 and 1964, the Nigerian rail network grew from zero to 3,505km of narrow–gauge lines comprising 350 bridges, 20 quarries and 300 stations of two major lines named the Western (from Lagos – Kano) and the Eastern (from Port Harcourt–Maiduguri) lines.

    Rail development rather than continuing was, however, stalled in 1964 until 1986, when the Federal Government commenced the construction of phase 1 of the 326km standard gauge (1,435m) rail lines from Itakpe-Ajaokuta-Warri; an industrial line meant to exclusively service the Ajaokuta Steel Mills taking iron ore from Itakpe and moving into Ajaokuta and in return taking molten iron and flat steel from the steel complex to Onne Port in the South.

     Though the military administrations had reactivated the railway, which had gone bankrupt with the rehabilitation of the narrow gauge and the purchase of some wagons and locomotive engines, more purposeful engagement was not witnessed on the railway until the advent of the fourth democratic dispensation under the former President Olusegun Obasanjo. In 2002, the Federal Government, determined to fix the railway conundrum, came up with a 25-year Railway Development Masterplan.

     It commenced with the rehabilitation of old narrow gauges beginning from the Western Line. Under the first phase captured as system transition, which was expected to run from 2002-2007, the railway is expected to complete everything about rehabilitation, restructuring, introducing operational changes, training, investment planning, development of domestic capacity for production of rail materials and development of national technological capacity. In the second phase of the masterplan, called system modernisation expected to run from 2007-2015, the Nigerian Railway Corporation is expected to modernise its fixed and rolling stock by embracing standard gauge.

     This stage is also expected to witness the construction of new lines and extensions, private investment and the development of national technological capacity. The third leg of the masterplan, which was system stabilisation which is expected to run from 2016–2027 deals with the completion of conversion to standard gauge and construction of railway extensions.

     The Umaru Yar’Adua/Goodluck Jonathan administration began full implementation of stage two of the railway masterplan when it kicked off construction work on the Abuja Light Rail (Abuja Metro) in 2010 and on the Abuja-Kaduna Standard Gauge Rail Line in 2011. Unfortunately, it was unable to complete either before May 2015, allowing the Buhari administration to complete them and deliver them to Nigerians.

     Buhari’s commitment to rail modernisation was anchored on the belief that transportation is vital to every economy as it enables the movement of people, goods and services resulting in the creation of economic value. For him, an efficient transportation system, which is underpinned by rail development and modernisation, would help deliver improvements in quality of life and enable effective governing of the state. With a population of over 200 million, transportation directly contributes an average of three per cent to the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and this is projected to increase to five per cent in the next five to 10 years.

     Rail transportation has been identified as a nexus in the drive for a sustainable transportation infrastructure revolution in any emerging economy. Though the cost keeps mounting, the Buhari administration believed funding the country’s railway infrastructure revitalisation is a sacrifice that the administration and this generation must make to reposition the country.

     From a country with no standard gauge as of 2015, the Buhari government is leaving the country with three (it inaugurated on June 16, 2016, the 186km Abuja-Kaduna, which was almost completed by the Goodluck Jonathan administration), completed and operationalised the 326km Itakpe-Warri (Africa’s first standard gauge which commenced in 1986), which was inaugurated virtually in November 2020, and the 185.5 Lagos-Ibadan new double standard gauge lines, which began in 2016, and was completed and made operational on June 10, 2021.

      The administration also attempted to use the train modernisation to restore sanity to the perennial traffic congestion on the Apapa Port access roads by linking the Port to the new rail project with the intention to establish dry ports along the corridor, up to Kano. This significant alteration to the original design is meant to be a major catalyst to the nation’s economy as it altered the design which could have taken the new rail line to Iddo.

     The railway, as a catalyst for economic development, provided logistics support for the country’s agricultural and industrial belts, moving large cargoes of raw and finished products and goods from the ports and the agriculture and industrial clusters. It also serviced the natural mineral resources belts of the country. From a country with two narrow gauge rail mixed assets, the Buhari administration set to work under Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi to give Nigerians a new railway experience and tried to push this across the country as much as it could get.

     A rail expert and retired Director in the Federal Ministry of Transportation, who spoke to our correspondent in confidence, said the administration did well in sourcing counterpart funds for the take-off of the existing contracts with the Chinese government under its global corporation – the China Rail Construction Corporation (CRCC) and its major agency China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) and TEAM Associates, government-appointed supervising engineers. He said the Federal Government also tried to frontload other components of the masterplan such as the investment planning, development of domestic capacity for the production of rail materials, and the development of national technological capacity (all of which are contained in the first phase), and the construction of new lines and extensions, and private investments which are in the second phase, where the masterplan was when the administration came in, to change the face of railway transportation in Nigeria.

     The Buhari administration, he said, must be commended for taking the initiative to start early and make the Chinese government commit to completing the modernisation of the western line which was supposed to be the pilot phase of the modernisation agenda before other African countries woke up to approach the same country for funding options for their railway needs. Under the administration, the Federal Government attempted to handle nine railway projects with other connected economic value chains which, if it succeeded, could have altered the face of transportation forever.

     Among those projects is the Abuja-Kaduna Standard Gauge railway modernisation project, which is sourced under the preferential buyer loan from the China Exim Bank credit with a 20 years tenor, with repayment being managed by the Debt Management Office (DMO), the Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge modernisation with extension to Apapa Port Complex, also sourced under the preferential buyer credit by same China Exim Bank for 20 years, which has been fully achieved for which repayment just commenced.

     Others are the Ibadan-Minna standard gauge, and the Minna-Abuja standard gauge, both of which are to be financed under a commercial loan from China Exim Bank for a 15-year tenure, and the Kaduna –Zaria standard gauge segment to be constructed on a concessionary loan arrangement for a 20-year tenor and the Zaria–Kano standard gauge coming also under the preferential buyer credit for a 20-year tenor also by China Exim bank, with terms being arranged by the Federal Ministry of Finance and the DMO.

     There is also the Kano-Maradi standard gauge to be funded by external borrowing being sourced by the federal government on terms being managed by the FMF and the DMO, the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri Eastern narrow gauge with new branch lines and transhipment facilities, funded by preferential buyers credit and farmed to Messrs CCECC, the railway industrial park in Port-Harcourt, the deep seaport in Bonny which are being developed through direct investment by conglomerate led by Messrs CCECC Nigeria with a total investment portfolio of $703 billion.

     There is also the coastal railway project, to be funded by loan expected from Standard Chartered Bank and the Abuja-Baro-Itakpe-Ajaokuta-Warri; a new deep sea port in Warri, Delta State, which is being proposed for a concessionary period of 30 years with 90 per cent of the total investment coming from the Federal Government.

     As ambitious as the Buhari administration was to bridge the infrastructure deficit and connect all the state capitals with modern rail infrastructure to boost economic and commercial activities, the railway projects are being bedevilled by a lack of sustainable funding plan, environmental challenges, degenerated infrastructure, especially along the narrow gauge corridors, obsolete legal framework, decline of requisite railway professionals and indiscriminate disposal of refuse on railway right of way by citizens.

    While the Federal Government is already leveraging other alternative funding models, the strides have not been helped by the economic recession, the ravaging impact of COVID-19 as well as soaring insecurity that made railway investment unattractive to many foreign investors in a volatile environment such as Nigeria’s. The Federal Government has, however, recovered most of the failed locations on the narrow gauge corridors and also taken precautions regarding the environmental impact assessments (EIA) on the standard gauge corridors. The Federal Government has continued to rehabilitate the old rail lines, put them to use and modernise them in line with the 25-year strategic vision.

    The Federal Government has continued to battle with bad elements working against the government’s efforts by vandalising the railroad materials. On March 18, 2023, President Buhari signed the amendment to the NRC Act, repealing the 1955 document which removed the railway development from exclusive and domiciled it under the concurrent legislative list, thereby liberalising the sector and paving the way for more state operators to invest and help in pushing forward the modernisation agenda as encapsulated in stage two and three of the railway vision.

     To address the depletion of railway professionals, the new projects are embedded with rich clauses that promote technology transfer clauses, which make capacity building and CSR sacrosanct for the domestication of technology, skill and knowledge by Nigerians. Under this component, the CCECC has continued to blaze the trail by not only sending qualified Nigerians to China on scholarship on railway technology and engineering; it also extended to Nigeria a specialised University of Transportation, Daura, where requisite manpower to man the emerging markets of railway engineers and other arms of the transportation and logistics value chain would be produced. The CCECC also gave to Nigeria the Wagon and Parts Assembly plant at Kajola, where railway components and parts would be assembled, thereby reducing the time of shipments of such materials from China and facilitating a new economy in the railway value chain in Nigeria.

    Just like vandalism, which is still dogging the railway infrastructure however, the continued trading on rail corridors and dumping of refuse on the right of way of the railway is a major issue which the former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, thought all traditional and spiritual leaders as well as civil society groups must join the federal government to fight. For him, we cannot afford to borrow money to build a modern rail infrastructure only for citizens to aid its destruction. Recently, one of Nigeria’s leading newspapers, The Guardian, put the total debt stock incurred by the Buhari administration in its eight years on the saddle at $4.2 billion. Sadly, this loan has continued to mount because the country has not been able to optimise the operations of all the rail networks.

     While the Buhari administration earned a major lift in goodwill as a result of its strides in the construction of a Lagos-Ibadan new railway line, the project has remained a lame duck as it could not achieve its intended economic turnaround. The intended link to the ports has remained a mirage as the Nigerian Customs Service has continued to block its advance as they refused to demolish their scanning hall, which they insisted has radio-active installations which could be injurious to citizens.

     The economy of the linking to the port is being hampered because the other segments of the corridor have refused to come on-stream as a result of insecurity exemplified by the terrorist attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train which sent the “right message” down the spine of the government as it put paid to further strides as the contractor began to pull back as they cannot afford to continue to risk their lives under uncertain circumstances. While the Buhari administration might have run away with the goodwill of bringing the modern railway to the South of Nigeria, the onus to make it work and worthwhile by jumpstarting its economic potential as envisaged by that administration rests with its successor. 

    Counting the cost

    The DMO’s breakdown of investments so far in the three standard gauge assets of the country showed that $2.5 billion was expended in the construction of the Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge; Abuja-Kaduna rail line gulped $1.5 billion; while the rehabilitation of the Warri-Itakpe standard gauge cost about $121million. But this expenditure is exclusive of the loan collected from China Exim Bank for the purchase of the rolling stock. Thus far, the Federal Government has paid $1.42 billion in counterpart funding for different railway projects across the country. The DMO put the entire loan stock from the China Exim Bank as of September 30, 2021, at $2.28 billion.

     A breakdown shows that $500 million was obtained for the Abuja Light rail project. Another $500 million was obtained for the Abuja-Kaduna railway, and $1.27 billion was for the Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge railway project. Some of the benefiting projects are the Nigerian Railway Modernisation Project (Lagos–Ibadan section), Nigeria Supply of Rolling Stocks and Depot Equipment for the Abuja Light Rail Project and the Abuja-Kaduna railway construction. The Federal Government, in the last report provided on the DMO website, has an outstanding of $423.08 million for the Abuja Light rail project, $346.15 million outstanding from the Abuja-Kaduna railway and $1.042 billion outstanding from the Lagos-Ibadan railway project.

     A breakdown of the $1.42 billion counterpart funding shows that $324 million was paid for the Abuja light rail, delivered at $824 million. The government also funded the $2.5 billion Lagos-Ibadan with an extension to Apapa seaport to the tune of $200 million. In addition, $376 million was released as a counterpart fund for the Abuja-Kaduna standard gauge railway, but at the cost of $876 million, while also coughing out $314 million for the $1.2 billion Kano-Kaduna railway.

    The Buhari administration tried to look beyond China in seeking for fresh funds to drive the railway modernisation agenda. Among countries being courted for loans are Turkey and Portugal. This is because Nigeria’s indebtedness to China has increased by a staggering 209 per cent under the President Buhari administration, according to data obtained from the Debt Management Office (DMO). As of December last year, the country’s debt to China stood at $4.29 billion, up from $1.39 billion in June 2015, the DMO revealed.

     Former Minister of Transportation, Amaechi, said the Buhari administration borrowed only $3.3 billion for the railway projects, while other projects were funded from the national budget. The report put the China debt stock to include the principal and repayment charges, putting the principal fee from January 2021 to December 2022 at N69 billion ($153.85 million), while the interest charges amounted to N41.3 billion ($92.1 million). The DMO, according to the report, said the debts were incurred following the completion of the Nigeria Railway Modernisation Project (Idu-Kaduna section), the Nigeria Railway Modernisation Project (Lagos-Ibadan section) and the Nigeria Abuja Light Rail Project.

  • Appraising the basket of losses, gains of ‘costly’ naira redesign

    Appraising the basket of losses, gains of ‘costly’ naira redesign

    President Muhammadu Buhari’s naira redesign policy implementation hit families, businesses and the economy like a thunderbolt. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) redesign of N200, N500 and N1,000 notes and withdrawal of N2.1 trillion old notes from circulation created a huge cash gap in the economy. As the crisis persisted, public outrage degenerated to violent protests in some cities, with incidents of vandalism and arson at several banks’ facilities – and Point of Sale (PoS) outlets. To speedup economic recovery and prevent another round of naira scarcity, Assistant Business Editor COLLINS NWEZE writes that the way forward is for the CBN to print and circulate more redesigned naira notes ahead of the December 31 sunset for old notes

    Bernard Thompson, a computer software developer, was one of the millions of Nigerians that rejected cashless banking due to several risks associated with it. For him, digital payment has little or no place in his business given the rising volume and value of e-frauds emanating from it. That view became more pronounced after he lost N1million to e-fraudsters, who cloned his Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card and made away with his money.

    Thompson is one of the cardholders that, according to Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF), lost over N12.8 billion annually to e-fraudsters for using internet banking, mobile banking, Point of Sale (PoS), Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), web payment, Nigeria Quick Response (NQR) code, among other e-payment channels. Another victim, Michael Abiodun, a Lagos-based vehicle tyre retailer, also got a shocker from the e-fraudsters. Nothing forewarned him of the problem he would soon face on that fateful Saturday.  A customer, who bought goods worth N150,000 from him, said he had no cash and requested Abiodun’s account details to transfer the fund.

    He disclosed how he was defrauded: “The customer who was buying three new vehicle tyres typed my account number on his phone and within few minutes, I got transaction alert from my bank. The fake alert showed that N150, 000 had been credited to my account. So, the fraudulent customer took the goods and went away. The next working day, which was Monday, I went to my bank to withdraw the money but it was not there. My account officer showed me my last transaction detail, and informed me that the alert on my phone was not from the bank and that it was a fraud. That was how I lost the money and all efforts to trace the fraudster failed.”

    Abiodun said he released the goods because the fake alert captured his previous account balance and the new deposit by the customer. That, he said, was an indication that the fraudster was collaborating with an insider from the bank. “Up till today, I have not recovered that money,” he disclosed.

    That experience, Abiodun noted, made him to dump cashless banking and only release his goods after payment confirmation from his bank. Today, Thompson and Abiodun have fully returned to the use of digital banking platforms after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) introduced the naira redesign policy implemented alongside the cash withdrawal limit regime.  Both policies were meant to give substantial backing to the cashless banking and drastically reduce cash use in the economy.

    While the naira redesign policy looks great on the surface, especially after  President Mohammadu Buhari and the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, spoke glowingly about its benefits to the payment system and economy, its implementation has exposed the fragility of the e-payment system, brought a lot of hardships to the people, crumbled several small and medium-sized businesses and put the economy on speedy decline.

    Understanding the

    naira redesign policy

    The naira redesign policy was announced on October 25, 2022-three months and three weeks before the general elections. Under the policy, the CBN introduced new N1,000, N500 and N200 denominations and withdrew the old notes from circulation. But a March 3 Supreme Court verdict on a suit spearheaded by Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara state governments forced the CBN to reintroduce the rested notes.

    In its judgment, the apex court directed the CBN and the Federal Government to allow the old and the new naira notes to co-exist till December 31. Emefiele said the introduction of new naira banknotes was a deliberate step by government to check corruption and is backed by its key function as enshrined in Section 2 (b) of the CBN Act 2007. “In recent years, the CBN has recorded significantly higher rates of counterfeiting especially at the higher denominations of  N500 and N1,000 banknotes. Although global best practice is for central banks to redesign, produce and circulate new local legal tender every five to eight years, the naira has not been redesigned in the last 17 years,” he said.

    Businesses, economy quake

    The hardest hit by the policy have been the most vulnerable members of the population (the poor, the unbanked and the rural dwellers).  Given the low levels of education and exposure of a significant number of Nigerians in this category, many of whom live in rural areas with inadequate or non-existent telecommunications infrastructure, a quick and seamless transition to digital payment channels was always unlikely.

    The result of the cash crunch has been a significant loss of man-hours, logistics constraints to many businesses and individuals as cash became commoditised, hoarded by many and commanded outrageous premiums of up to 20 to 30 per cent at PoS outlets. For instance, Michael Osondu, an Abuja-based entrepreneur, said he paid  N15,000 to get N10,000 cash from PoS outlet, even as many commercial banks rationed cash to their customers.

    This was worsened by the cash withdrawal limit policy. Under the updated regime, the CBN said effective January 9, 2023, individuals and corporate entities can withdraw a maximum of N500,000 and N5 million, respectively, away from N100,000 and N500,000, respectively, which was previously announced on December 6, 2022. The ensued cash constraint and persistent scarcity of the redesigned naira notes, compelled consumers to prioritise spending on necessities, leaving many businesses, particularly small businesses, with decreased sales and heightened credit risks.

    At present, many small business operators, customers and bank customers said they have not seen or even received the new naira notes for months. Mary Okonkwo, a Lagos-based entrepreneur said all the cash receipts for goods she sold came in old naira notes. “All the cash I received for goods sold were in old naira notes and bank transfers. Sometimes, I wonder where the new notes are. This has affected our turnover, worsened cash crunch crisis and made payment for goods very cumbersome,” she said.

    Another bank customer, Michael Adebayo, said low cash position in many families made it difficult for them to buy food, clothing, and provisions, among others. “We have seen many families cut their expenditure because of low cash positions. We hope that the situation will improve when the CBN releases more new notes into the economy,” he said.

    Among the most vulnerable groups hit by cash scarcity were roadside businesses and hawkers. They expressed anxiety and frustrations over low customer traffic and patronage. Rose Okere, who sales roasted yam and plantain at the Magodo junction, Ketu, Lagos, said her sales volume dropped by over 80 per cent at the peak of the naira scarcity in February. “I incurred a lot of losses during the peak period of the naira scarcity. Many customers who usually spend N1,000 and N1,200 spent less than N400. They asked me to get a PoS machine for my business, but the cost is far beyond the capacity of my business,” she lamented.

    At the Eleko market, in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, many small business operators also complained about drop in sales volume. Abubakar Umaru, who sells fruits and vegetables in the market, expressed anxiety over what became of his business in the cashless banking era. “I have seen drop in volume of sales because  my customers said they do not have enough cash to spend. I had several customers who left because they could not make bank transfers because of bad network. They all left and made their purchases at a nearby supermarket where they can use their debit cards on PoS machine,” Umaru lamented.

    Cash swap limitations

    As part of the move to make naira redesign policy implementation seamless, the CBN unveiled a cash swap programme in partnership with Super Agents & Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) to enable those in rural areas or with limited access to formal financial services to exchange old naira notes for redesigned notes. CBN’s Director of Banking Supervision, Haruna Mustafa, explained that each agent was authorised to exchange a maximum of N10,000 per person. Amounts above N10,000 was treated as cash-in deposits into wallets or bank accounts in line with the cashless policy.

    However, the Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria (AMMBAN) had described the programme as ineffective, insisting that participation by stakeholders was minimal. AMMBAN National Publicity Officer, Oluwasegun Elegbade, said the programme has not been really effective as it should. “The CBN only set up a monitoring team in less than five states. Overall, it wasn’t an effective initiative,” he said.

    Uptick in cashless transactions

    The policy implementation has led to significant rise in cashless banking and return of many customers who abandoned the mode of banking to guarantee safety of their funds. In a report titled: Redesign gone wrong? Agusto & Co., a rating agency, said that for context, in the five years leading up to 2021, electronic payment surged by 386 per cent to N272 trillion, accounting for over 94 per cent of the entire value of transactions in Nigeria’s banking system.

    Financial institutions also responded accordingly, by upscaling digital infrastructure to support the increasing adoption of electronic banking. The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) reported a spike in the value of total cashless transactions in Nigeria to N39.58 trillion in January 2023 – a year-on-year increase of 45.41 per cent – largely on the back of the CBN’s redesign and cash withdrawal limit policy.

    “Nevertheless, on evidence, the abrupt shift to electronic payments, which the current cash shortage has necessitated, has overwhelmed the banking industry’s digital payments infrastructure. Nigerians are currently grappling with an unprecedented rate of electronic transaction failures. To further complicate matters, many transactions have not only failed, but refunds are taking days, even weeks in some instances, leaving many stranded and constraining commercial activity,” the rating agency said.

    Fintechs make inroads into e-payment space   The biggest beneficiaries of the current lapses in electronic transactions are Fintechs like Opay, Moniepoint, Paga, and Kuda, amongst others, which are reportedly far less prone to glitches and charge significantly lower transfer fees. For instance, Chief Executive Officer of Moniepoint, Tosin Eniolorunda, said the company processed $43 billion transactions for business in first quarter of this year. It has also grown its global headcount from 64 to over 1000 between 2018 and 2023. “Our operations are built on  targeting demographics previously excluded from financial systems and giving them easy access to the financial services ecosystem,” Eniolorunda said.

    The Agusto & Co. report explained that whether the upsurge in the number of people making payments through Fintechs is due to lower transaction volumes than what traditional banks charge or the capacity of their digital infrastructure, or both, remains unclear. “However, getting traditional banks to invest in expanding their digital infrastructure in a period of rapid currency depreciation (most of the required infrastructure is imported) and, just as crucially, enhancing their cybersecurity will be crucial in convincing Nigerians to go cashless. Some of the Tier-1 banks spent an average of 5.4 per cent of their operating expenses on Information Technology (IT) and related expenses annually,” it said.

    It added that raising this expense in the face of shrinking margins would become increasingly difficult, as it is likely to further impinge on profitability. However, Managing Director, SystemSpecs Technology Services Limited, Demola Igbalajobi, said there is no country that practices 100 per cent use of digital payment in settling its transactions, without a measure of cash deployment. He made case for seamless e-payment ecosystem involving banks, telcos and switches collaborating for efficiency and security of transactions.

    He said that aside switches, telcos and banks also have roles to play in seamless payment system, and believed that poor connectivity is a major challenge, which stakeholders needed to tackle. Managing Director, Remita, ‘Deremi Atanda, said currency redesign policy of the  CBN would accelerate digital payment journey for the country and help stimulate cash-less adoption. He emphasised the importance of the e-payment policy in promoting financial inclusion, reducing the cost of currency management, and enhancing the efficiency of the payment system. He warned that the policy cannot succeed without a significant upgrade of Nigeria’s infrastructure, tackling poor network connectivity and and low levels of literacy.

    Views from stakeholders

    Former statistician-general of the federation, Oyeyemi Kale, said Nigeria’s GDP would contract in the first quarter of 2023, due to the naira redesign policy. Kale, who is now Chief Economist at KPMG Nigeria, projected that the country’s GDP would reduce by about N10 trillion to N15 trillion due to the CBN currency redesign policy, which led to a nationwide cash scarcity.

    Member, Presidential Economic Advisory Council, Bismarck Rewane, said the CBN printed approximately N400 billion new naira notes following the currency redesign programme and N2.1 trillion old naira notes withdrawn from circulation.  According to Rewane, who is and economist and Managing Director, Financial Derivatives Company Limited, three of the eight naira denominations- N200, N500 and N1,000 make up 90 per cent total cash in circulation.

    Also speaking on the development, an economist and CEO, Economic Associates, Dr. Ayo Teriba explained what is playing out. He said a breakdown of the N400 billion new notes printed showed that about 700 million pieces of new notes are in circulation at present. He said the volume of the new notes, falls drastically below the 9.75 billion pieces naira notes circulating before naira reforms. He said: “The naira notes have attracted global attention at the turn of 2023 for the wrong reasons. The currency redesign policy was a needless exercise that turned out to be a chaotic wild goose chase, until the Supreme Court suspended it on legal grounds. The Supreme Court Ruling has however not completely taken the issue off the table as the N200, N500, and N1,000 currency notes may still cease to be legal tender by 31 December 2023.”

    Teriba said the policy choice Nigeria must make is whether to replace the old notes with new ones of the same face values or with new notes of larger face values.  He suggested that instead of wasting resources to print and replace every old naira notes, the 9.75 billion pieces of naira notes   can be drastically reduced by introducing larger denominations notes. Teriba said it is very unlikely that the CBN will print over nine billion pieces of new notes to totally replace the old notes by December 31.

    President, Bank Customers’ Association of Nigeria (BCAN), Dr. Uju Ogubunka, said it was very worrisome that the new notes are not available to the ordinary people on the streets. “You can occasionally see the new notes with politicians and top business executives who maintain huge account balances in banks. We have read stories of banks calling their top customers to come and take new notes. If third party intervention is needed for Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company to print the notes, let them request for such support,” he suggested.

    Ogubunka, who was former Register/Chief Executive Officer, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) said the Domestic Operations at the CBN owes Nigeria explanations on what is keeping the new notes out of reach of the people. “I know that a lot of security measures are involved in new notes printing. But whatever it is, by now, the old notes should be passing out. But what we have is that the old notes have remained the dominant means of transaction. If care is not taken, we will have another round of crises by December 31, when the old notes will cease to be a legal tender,” he said.

    Emefiele equally admitted the hiccups in the implementation of the policy. He said the apex bank was addressing “pressure areas” by redeploying cash where there are excesses. The governor dismissed the challenges as transient, promising that the issues would be overcome soon. He urged Nigerians to embrace alternative payment channels. On the scarcity, he said: “CBN is aware of the difficulty being faced by Nigerians in accessing the new currency at this initial stages of its issue and circulation but wishes to plead with all to please show some understanding as everything is being done to correct some of the observed lapses in the implementation of this ambitious programme.”

  • Tackling e-payment fraud with technology

    Tackling e-payment fraud with technology

    Banks have continued to deploy diverse products and services to tackle e-payment frauds and keep their customers’ transactions safe. To ensure security of customers’ transactions, Access Bank Plc has deployed a tech-tool that allows its customers to deactivate Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) profile automatically and lock out fraudsters from their accounts. COLLINS NWEZE captures the bank’s commitment to providing e-payment channels that are safe and secured for its customers’ transactions.

    As the world switched to social distancing and remote working, learning, shopping and electronic financial transactions, more opportunities have opened up for cyber criminals to prey on unsuspecting citizens and businesses.

    Banks have therefore come to realise that  more people will adopt e-payment channels that are safe and secured for their transactions.

    That explains why many lenders are prioritizing bank account protection and provision of right information to customers for the safety of their  transactions.

    Banks are also making more investments in technology and replacing e-payment users’ fears on adopting digital channels with confidence in their products and services.

    Access Bank Plc is therefore seeking best-in-class ways to safeguard the resources of its customers and sustain their confidence in its operations.

    To achieve this, the bank has introduced the *901*911# USSD code, a solution that allows customers act swiftly to prevent fraudulent activities on their accounts.

    According to the bank, the service allows customers of all account types to deactivate a USSD profile simply by dialing *901*911# from any phone, inputting the registered phone number for the account to be protected and this automatically locks out fraudsters from the individual’s account.

    Besides, over the years, Access Bank has remained committed to educating its customers, informing and protecting them from fraudsters.

    “We have created dedicated pages on our official website that constantly update customers on the schemes fraudsters employ to defraud them while bringing to public notice the quickest platforms to access help in the event of any suspected fraud case. In our promise to offer customers more than banking, we have not wavered in our drive to not only deliver speedy services but also security for all, the bank assured.

    Besides, Access Bank’s customers can report any suspected fraudulent activity immediately to the bank’s dedicated fraud desk or by calling  its helpline.

    Group Managing Director/CEO Access Bank Plc, Herbert Wigwe said the lender would continue to reposition its operations and payment platforms  to  serve more customers in Nigeria and across Africa.

    He said the Access Bank Group has over time, delivered growth and created value to its customers. The bank has  large customer base in Africa, with a significant share of digitally active clients.

    “The bank is becoming an aggregator in Africa by building a global payments gateway, offering holistic trade finance support and offering correspondent banking services.

    It is also focusing on key markets to support regional trade by targeting new opportunity markets and positioning as a trade and payments gateway to the world,” he said.

    More lending opportunities for SMEs

    Access Bank said it is providing more access to credit to SMEs.

    In an emailed note to customers, the bank disclosed that it understands challenges SMEs face in accessing finance at a favourable interest rate and repayment period.

    The bank is working on the intervention fund support for healthcare sector created by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, to ameliorate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria.

    It has also partnered with CBN, Lagos State, and other institutions to show commitment to giving SMEs the best advantage to grow.

    The bank said that aside its digital lending platform it created for customers’ convenience, it also offers loans at a favourable interest rate, flexible repayment period with no collateral.

    “This year, we are committed to providing finance to over 6,000 SMEs in Nigeria worth over N12 billion via the  the Creative Industry Financing Initiative (CIFI)  which  is an intervention fund from the CBN for creative businesses (Music, Fashion, Information Technology and Film) at five per cent (all interest and fees inclusive) with a repayment period of up to 10 years,” the bank said.

    The bank is also working with the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund  to provide access to discounted financing, capacity building for Women SMEs operating in Lagos State.

    The Access Bank W Power Loan is specially designed to provide financial support for female-owned businesses at a discounted rate with a flexible collateral structure while its Instant Business Loans provides finance of up to N5 million for SMEs via the Quickbucks app at a rate of three per cent with no collateral.

    Likewise, the Access Bank cashflow loans provides finance for SMEs and new to bank customers via the cashflow portal at a favourable rate with no collateral.

    Energising technology with partnership

    The African Fintech Foundry (AFF), an initiative of Access Bank, has continued to promote Nigerian startups to attract new investors.

    The AFF and Access Bank’s ‘W’ Initiative recently hosted  a fireside chat for ‘Women in Tech’ with theme ‘Women in Tech: Driving diversity in the African tech industry’.

    Head of the African Fintech Foundry, Daniel Awe, said: “The African Fintech Foundry has always been committed to leading disruptions in the fintech ecosystem by leveraging digital transformations across board. As a result, championing a cause that focuses on inclusion and diversity in the technology industry is, for us, a necessity.

    “The current trajectory of the technology industry shows that a non-proactive approach to gender diversity will lead to a reduction in the number of women involved in the tech space 10 years from now. This is why African Fintech Foundry has decided to host ‘Women in Tech’ to encourage more female participation in this sector.’’

    The Group Head/Coordinator, “W” Initiative, Access Bank, Ayona Trimnell, added: “Gender diversity and inclusion has improved in many industries but tech is still lagging behind in this regard. Considering the crucial role technological innovation will play in most sectors of the economy, the prolonged underrepresentation of women in tech will present a major challenge to the economy if left unaddressed. Hence, partnering with the African Fintech Foundry to increase the participation of women in the technology industry is timely and we are excited about the prospects this event presents.”

    Awe said the AFF runs an Accelerator Programme, which helps young and budding business enterprises form and nurture promising startups.

    He listed some companies that have gone through the Accelerator Programme.

    “We have Paystack Payment Limited, which is a company of about $200 million. For some reasons, Paystack started with Access Bank before they got to where they are. We have Flutterwave, which is valued at about $300 million,” he said.

    He continued: “It is an environment where we pick an idea, where we pick startups and put them in an Accelerator Programme of about  17 weeks, depending on what model they want to run and teach them how to run a successful business.

    Oluwaseun Babatunde of Rentgage, one of the companies that made presentations at the event, said the intention of the company was to create a company that will help people in the country and Africa as a continent to be able to afford ideal housing units.

    “We are coming with a financial solution. Instead of people finding it hard to get ideal housing units, we will help get affordable housing units where they will pay not annually but at piecemeal and at their convenience with a negligible interest”, Babatunde said.

    Love Udoma of Farm Delite, who also made a presentation, said her company, a networking platform for agriculturists, “connects all the players in the agricultural value chain from production to distribution to consumption using technology. So, you can trace what you eat right from the farmer to your table. You can trace the condition it was planted”.

    Value addition to customers

    Access bank Plc, has successfully commissioned and empowered 74,000 Access Closa agents to provide financial services to customers across Nigeria.

    This aligns with its mission to deliver superior value to its customers and provide innovative solutions for the markets and communities it serves.

    The bank in a statement stated that these Access Closa Agents are spread across the 774 Local Government Areas in the country, the bank has significantly grown access to finance and banking services to Millions of previously underbanked Nigerians, provided alternate streams of income for MSMEs, promoted financially literacy and also advanced its ambition to bank one in every two Nigerians by 2025.

    Senior Banking Advisor, Retail, Access Bank plc, Robert Giles said the bank’s agent network was part of the its promise to ensure easier and safer access to financial services for every Nigerian.

    He said: “As a bank driven by innovation, we must deliver better outcomes for customers in terms of speed, security and service to enhance customer experience in all the locations that we operate. With the recent mapping of over 70,000 Access Closa Agents, customers and non-customers of the Bank who are travelling for Business, events or to visit loved ones in any location in Nigeria will continue to enjoy uninterrupted banking services as our Closa agents are available in several rural and semi-urban locations across the country.

    “They can also access financial services from a Closa agent near them, by simply searching for “Access Closa Agent” on Google Map instead of walking long distances in search of a branch.”  Head, Agency Banking, Access Bank Plc, Tolulope Oyeyipo, said: “The Access Closa agent network is a bespoke channel through which Access Bank expresses her passion and commitment to broadening the opportunities and access to financial services for every Nigerian and African, irrespective of where they might be.”

    With over 70,000 agent locations spread across every neighborhood in the country, we are making sure our customers and indeed customers of other banks can enjoy seamless banking services close to where they live and work, in a safe and convenient manner. By offering basic financial services such as cash withdrawal, cash deposit, bill payments and account opening, our continuously growing agent network is increasingly making the need to visit a bank branch unnecessary for everyone. We are committed to being at the forefront of providing digital financial services in Nigeria,” Tolulope concluded.

    State of the industry

    Cyber-related risks have been a systemic concern for stakeholders since the turn of the century. The deepening integration of digital technologies into almost every facet of people’s lives has transformed the way they communicate, socialise, learn do business and conduct financial transactions.

    With over 50 per cent of the world’s population online and about one million joining each day, these risk exposures can only better be imagined.

    The CBN data showed that internet/online-banking and automated teller machine/card-related fraud-types reported constituted 92.68 per cent of all the reported cases worth N15 billion yearly.

    Other miscellaneous crimes such as fraudulent transfers/withdrawals, cash suppression, unauthorised credits, fraudulent conversion of cheques, diversion of customer deposits, diversion of bank charges, presentation of forged or stolen-cheques, among others, also made the list of malpractices.

    Despite these challenges, the CBN said it was committed to strengthening its regulatory and supervisory framework to boost the resilience of the financial system against cybercrime.

    The apex bank issued a Risk-Based Cyber Security Framework for deposit money banks and payment service providers, which among others, prescribes yearly cyber resilience self-assessments for proactive identification and remediation of weaknesses and mandatory incident reporting to normalise sharing of best practices across the industry.

  • Appraising health sector’s basket of gains, unmet expectations (3)

    Appraising health sector’s basket of gains, unmet expectations (3)

    Despite several unmet expectations that are still adversely affecting the country’s healthcare delivery system, there are monumental achievements in some key areas, especially in the hitherto jettisoned herbal or alternative medicine development, promotion and regulation ecosystem. Associate Editor ADEKUNLE YUSUF writes on the gains recorded in the alternative medicine sector that may redefine the fortune of the ailing sector

    Last year December, many stakeholders in the healthcare delivery system heaved a sigh of relief when Prof Mojisola Adeyeye was re-appointed as the Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). Immediately after Adeyeye’s tenure came to an end, precisely on November 3, an Acting D-G in the person of Dr Monica Eimunjeze, Director of Drug Registration and Regulatory Affairs Directorate of NAFDAC, had taken over the headship of the agency.

     However, weeks later, the federal government announced the approval of renewal of Adeyeye’s appointment – perhaps as a show of recognition of her immeasurable contributions and tremendous services in the all-important agency in the last five years. Besides, under her watch, local and international stakeholders in the pharmaceutical industry were united in their belief that the agency under Adeyeye’s watch achieved so much in terms of safeguarding public health and enthroning strong regulatory frameworks, which ultimately earned Nigeria the much-needed World Health Organisation (WHO) certifications and recognitions that some experts said were hitherto impossible. 

     During her tenure, NAFDAC was able to safeguard public health and strengthen the industry by waging a strategic war against banned and counterfeit drug peddlers, confiscation of unwholesome goods – both consumables and non-consumables – and testing and authorising of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic period. It also played a pivotal role in the growth of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), enthroned Quality Management System (QMS), and achieved the WHO’s Maturity level 3 global benchmarking for top ranking regulatory authorities, among others.

     Positively for Nigeria, a similar feat is being quietly achieved in the traditional medicine sub-sector where Dr Samuel Etatuvie has held sway in the last eight years. As the DG of the Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency (NNMDA),  Etatuvie, a pharmacist, has used his wealth of experience and competent leadership abilities to help develop and redefine the country’s herbal medicine practice and put Nigeria’s traditional medicine on a higher pedestal in a manner that is unprecedented in the country’s history. Established in 1997 to enable Nigeria, through the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, to actualise its critical and strategic mandate to research, develop, document, preserve and promote its enormous resources in natural medicines and assist in facilitating their integration into the national healthcare delivery system, NNMDA has ably helped Nigeria to think towards an alternative healthcare delivery opportunity presented by its rich herbal medicine resources.  

    ISO-certified laboratory at NNMDA – an incalculable boost for herbal medicine

    In February this year, it was a great day for Nigeria when NNMDA unveiled the much-awaited ISO-certified research laboratory complex, sited in the premises of agency’s headquarters in Victoria Island, Lagos. Stakeholders were not just ecstatic, they enthused that herbal medicines practice and production in Nigeria is about to witness a huge turnaround – a development that can facilitate global best practices among traditional medicine practitioners (TMPs) in the country.

     According to the Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Olorunnimbe Mamora, the international certification will also enhance empirical data generation for academic and industrial research in the field of natural medicine.  A medical doctor, Mamora, who spoke passionately at length about benefits of herbal medicine, disclosed that the laboratory was specifically designed with state-of-the-art equipment to support herbal medicine research and development, improve the export potential of drug raw materials, active pharmaceutical ingredients, and also support the general quality health infrastructure in the country.

     Recalling how the NNMDA laboratory project commenced in 2017, with the aim of resolving the barrage of health challenges bedevilling most nations of the world including Nigeria, Mamora expressed satisfaction with the completion of the laboratory with ISO17025-2017 certification on critical foods and drugs’ product line qualification. Other critical purposes the research lab will serve including “development of ethno medicines/herbal medicines and products; assurance of the quality and standardisation of developed herbal medicines and products. Generation of the needed scientific data to show the potentials of every developed herbal medicines/products brought to the laboratory for evaluation; a platform for collaborative research from different institutions interested in ethno medicine; and a place for the evaluation of herbal medicines/products imported into the country.”

     Also speaking at the event, Chairman, Governing Board, NNMDA, Pharm. Victor Terah Patrick, toed the line of Mamora on the need to harness indigenous medicines to the benefits of Nigerians. He urged the staff of the agency on adequate maintenance of the facility for sustainability and efficiency. Patrick also commended the NNMDA Director-General, Dr Sam Etatuvie, for his visionary leadership and efforts in repositioning the agency to perform its statutory duty of expanding the frontiers of natural medicine practice and enhancing global best practices in the field of natural medicine.

     “We must leverage global recognition and return to the use of natural medicine. Let us harness its use to prevent, manage and treat diseases and enhance health/wellness, thus promoting the activities of the agency as well as generate interest and stimulate investment in natural/traditional medicine, which is our pride and heritage. I call on the entire staff of the agency to ensure that this General Laboratory Complex is well maintained, and deployed to serve the interest of the public. I believe this complex will improve the agency’s internally generated revenue and enhance its visibility.”

     While appreciating everyone that contributed to the success recorded so far in the alternative medicine development in the country, Dr Etatuvie expressed his delight in seeing his dream for NNMDA come true with the unveiling of the research laboratory. With the ISO 17025-2017 Certification, he stated that natural medicine practice in the country can now compete favourably with those in the global landscape. The NNMDA boss also sent a patronage invitation to all practitioners in Nigeria to seize the opportunity of a standardised research laboratory in refining their local products to be viable both in local and internationally markets. “The vision of this laboratory has been on my mind since 2017; so I thank God for bringing it to fruition today. The attainment of ISO Certification is a big leap for natural medicine development in the country. I know many labs in our country, but to successfully complete and commission such a standardised laboratory is not a common feat. I think it is a very big achievement for the agency.

     “We want to encourage all natural medicine producers, all pharma manufacturers, to start to patronise the lab. We have well-trained consultants working in the lab. So you can conduct any type of laboratory test to provide data for the safety or efficacy of whatever medical or traditional therapy, useful for our people. Like the minister said, this is a very virgin land that this country must pay attention to. A lot of research has been done from the universities to other research institutes, but we need verification. If you claim that this is possible, we need a laboratory to gather the data that will convince the clinicians to be able to say yes, I’m confident that this product found the results the manufacturer claims it has got,” he said.

    ‘Explore natural medicine to improve quality of life, economy’

    Now the face of herbal medicine promotion and development in the country, Dr. Etatuvie has never missed any opportunity – either on the local or global stage – to preach the gospel of alternative medicine to anyone who cares to lend his or her ears. The governments at all levels should never be shy to explore and exploit the value chains of natural medicine knowledge for the improvement of the quality of life of the people and national economic growth, he often admonishes.

     Speaking recently, Dr Etatuvie said natural medicine has huge benefits and utility to the people and, if properly harnessed, can improve the economy, assist the health systems to deliver better services and provide employment to the bourgeoning tribe of unemployed Nigerians. As far as he is concerned, natural medicine knowledge, with its associated bio-resources, is a strategic sector for the overall development of the country, starting from the natural improvement of health, simulation of small and medium scale agro-business, small scale product industries in health, raw materials and a feedstock to the global knowledge economy in research and product development.

     While explaining that the resources of natural medicine are of particular interest due to the fact that, at each point, their value chains constitute a major feedstock to economic activities, Etatuvie admonishes that natural medicine is the heritage of the people of Nigeria and, therefore, their hope for a healthier future. He stressed that traditional medicine is the best thing that happened to mankind and has remained one of the pillars of our health and economic development, adding that government is interested in developing the sector. He also listed the monumental challenges that are impeding the development of the sector: near absence of documentation of practice outcomes and bio-resources, issues of secrecy and fear of loss of intellectual property and benefit-sharing, the needed clinical research data to validate traditional medicine knowledge products and technology necessary to transform these resources into innovative and commercialisable products with wide acceptance by clinicians and the public.

     Etatuvie observed that NNMDA, in its bid to pursue its mandate to research, develop and promote Nigeria’s natural medicine, has through various research, produced simple, safe, quality and affordable natural products for the prevention and management of various diseases affecting Nigerian people and livestock, like Amarus Herbal Tea for prevention and management of malaria, herbal mosquito repellant, Dual Action indoor residual spray and air freshener formulated as an insecticide and air freshener, as well as Ocimum Herbal Tea for management of diabetes among others.

    Resuscitation of College of Natural Medicine and Technology – NNMDA’s training arm

    The renowned pharmacist is, however, optimistic that the agency is well-positioned to play its strategic role in ensuring that the country maximises the huge potential of the natural medicine sector of the nation’s economy. One of the ways to achieve this mission was recently made possible by the government’s approval to resuscitate the College of Natural Medicine and Technology (CNMT), an institution the NNMDA had worked tirelessly to birth by collaborating with the National Board for Technical Education to ensure its accreditation as an institution that awards a National Innovation Diploma (NID) in Natural Medicine Technology (NMT) in Nigeria.

     The National Innovation Diploma courses on natural, traditional medicines’ research, products and development will enhance the professional study of natural medicines and products development, which Etatuvie said has the immeasurable potential to increase the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country, if well harnessed. While insisting that the country is overdue in studying natural medicines, he said: “Knowledge is power and in natural medicine practice today, it has the potential to increase the GDP of Nigeria looking at the knowledge-based economy. Looking at some of our products, they came from ideas, research, sharing of experience and people that have used the products.

     “With respect to the practice of natural medicine across the nation, we are looking at boosting our GDP because we have lots of natural medicine schools coming up. NNMDA has been given an approval to run Nigeria Natural Medicine College of Technology where we will be having Diploma programmes on natural medicines. The NBTE approved Natural Medicine Technology and Business Informatics in August 2022,” an elated Etatuvie said.

     If things work according to plan, the new college would serve as a platform where traditional medicine knowledge seekers would attend for professional training both for the product development and practice. Etatuvie believes that the knowledge-based economy aspect in natural medicine is too big a market that Nigeria cannot afford to ignore. ”There is the existence of practitioners in tertiary institutions lecturing both locally and internationally. We are now exporting knowledge of natural medicine that we have here and it is a form of income to the country because there will be funds transfer.’’

     The new courses in traditional medicine will also help in integrating natural medicine knowledge into the country’s health care practice, since part of NNMDA’s mandate is to facilitate the integration of natural medicine practice into Nigeria’s health care delivery system – in the people’s overall best interest. He stated that the agency had developed 14 products while five had been listed by the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC). The NNMDA boss said, “With some of our products, they will process them, convert them to capsules, tablets and syrups for easy consumption by patients. We are also working on the acceptability by the orthodox system; we are looking forward to seeing our products in community pharmacies, in hospitals being prescribed by healthcare practitioners. This is our own; nobody can do it for us. We are doing it for the country and we believe that the entire healthcare system will benefit from what NNMDA is doing,’ Etatuvie said.

    14 newly-developed herbal products waiting for patronage

    To fully achieve its mission to succeed in the collation, documentation, preservation and maintenance of botanical samples collected from different localities and ecology at various seasons for proper plants identification, taxonomy, floristic work and others, the agency has developed a herbarium, a collection of preserved plant specimens that have been stored appropriately, databased and arranged systematically to ensure quick access to students, researchers and the general public for scientific research and education. In the field traditional medicine, herbarium specimens are used to document the plant diversity of a particular geographic area, as a reference for identification, as a source of information about plant species (such as the habitats where they occur, when they flower and what chemicals they contain), as a validation or documentation of scientific research and education. It remains the only dedicated medicinal, aromatic and pesticidal plants herbarium in the country.

     Other achievements in the field of research and development (R&D) include focusing research efforts on the development of various safe, quality, effective and affordable herbal therapies for the prevention and management of common topical diseases, with many of these herbal products at various stages of NAFDAC listing and patent acquisition process for possible commercialisation – an ambitious dream to help Nigeria promote local production of standardised, affordable, safe and efficacious highly essential herbal remedies that would enable her play active part in the over USD100 global herbal products business; while reducing the importation of similar products to the country. From USD 151.91 billion in 2021 and USD 164.66 in 2022, the global herbal medicine market size is projected to grow to USD 347.50 billion by 2029, exhibiting a CAGR of 11.16 per cent during the forecast period.

    The 4 products are tea-based therapy to effectively reduce parasitemia, associated fever and increase the appetite of persons suffering from malaria; cream-based mosquito repellant to reduce man-mosquito contact, a product fortified with six hours repellence period and is specially formulated for use at home as well as outdoor, making it highly recommended specifically for use in the IDPs, for the armed forces and others working in the fields where mosquitoes are in charge. There is also dual action (indoor residual spray) and air fresher that kills both flying and crawling insects including mosquitoe; a s well as Larvicide outdoor spray, which controls the breeding of mosquitoes through inhibition of their reproductive stages in stagnant waters, thereby reducing malaria infestation. Many experts believe that the products, if properly commercialised and promoted, are potential changers in a continent where only four African countries accounted for just over half of all malaria deaths worldwide: Nigeria (31.9%), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (13.2%), United Republic of Tanzania (4.1%) and Mozambique (3.8%).

     Distressed by findings that revealed that most of the mortality attributable to diabetes mellitus is as a result of poor management practices, leading to persistently high glucose levels, which often results in acute and chronic microvascular and macrovascular complications, NNMDA has formulated an anti-diabetic product. The common complications associated with the disease include cardiovascular disease (CVD), blindness, kidney failure, and lower-limb amputation. In Nigeria, the general management of diabetes mellitus is reported to be suboptimal. To this end, the Ocimum Herbal Tea was formulated to reduce the hyperglycaemic crises by adequately controlling blood sugar in the system.

     For men suffering from erectile dysfunction, NNMDA has also offered ways to manage the crisis. Erectile dysfunction is defined as the persistent inability to achieve and maintain an erection sufficiently to permit satisfactory sexual intercourse. Erectile dysfunction is currently one of the most common sexual dysfunctions in men worldwide – a crisis that is a common medical problem affecting approximately 15 per cent of men each year. Over 150 million men worldwide were estimated to have been affected by erectile dysfunction in 1995, and this is projected to rise to 320 million by 2025. In this regard, the agency has developed three variant herbal therapies for the management of erectile dysfunction.

     It is has been proved that the human skin is a rich environment for microbes, with around 1,000 species of bacteria from 19 bacterial phyla found. Most come from only four phyla: Actinobacteria (51.8%), Firmicutes (24.4%), Proteobacteria (16.5%), and Bacteroidetes (6.3%). Propionibacteria and Staphylococci species are the main species in sebaceous areas. It has been estimated that the number of individual bacteria on the surface of one square inch (6.5 square cm) of human skin is about 50 million. In Africa, skin infection is very common among children.

     According to research, cancer estimates of the incidence of mortality and prevalence from major types of cancer are projected that there will be 26 million new cancer cases and 17 million cancer death per year and 70% of which will be from developing countries by 2030.  Over the years, as the problem evolved in magnitude, attempts have been made to proffer solutions to the perceived health, social and economic problems posed by cancer disease in the country, since Nigeria has a rich cultural heritage of herbals and herbal extracts reputed for controlling various health conditions. In Nigeria, cancer leads to over 70 000 deaths per annum (28, 414 for male and 41, 913 for female) and is estimated that breast cancer with 25.7%, cervix uteri by 14.6% and prostate cancer by 12.8% are leading causes cancer deaths in Nigeria. To this end, the agency’s home-grown cancer solutions were formulated to effectively manage breast and prostate cancer.

  • Appraising health sector’s basket of gains, unmet expectations (1)

    Appraising health sector’s basket of gains, unmet expectations (1)

    Despite unfulfilled expectations that adversely affected the country’s healthcare delivery system, there are monumental achievements in some key areas that may ultimately redefine the fortune of the ailing sector. In this special report, BOLAJI OGUNDELE writes that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration will leave behind a world-class State House Medical Centre that has a new VIP wing equipped with state-of-the-art facilities

    One outstanding episode in the eight-year rule of President Muhammadu Buhari, to many who has taken time to record it, is definitely that period when vicissitudes of nature forced the him to take a compulsory leave of absence for about three months in 2017 – a turbulent period that tested the strength of the Nigerian Presidency. Though the nature of the President’s ailment still remains a mystery, everyone knew back then that the number citizen was actually out in London to attend to his health.

     On his return after the extended medical vacation, he once said in an engagement that the nature of his ailment had to do with hearing difficulty, which he had managed for a long time. This explanation has not been able to vacate a narration claiming the ailment was as a result of poisoning – through the President has also confessed that that period was one of the most difficult times he has ever had to go through in his life; to the point that he feared for his life at some point.

     It is believed, however, that some life-threatening experiences are often the elixirs that spur strong men to embark on some unusual decisions. While this might not have exactly been the case with the decision of President Buhari, his administration is going to bequeath to the incoming administration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu a world-class medical facility right within the premises of the State House in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

     While the unforgettable episode of the President’s medical ailment was midway into his first term in office, he has consistently been keeping dates with his foreign doctors. Yet, President Buhari is a man who has consistently been averse to frittering the nation’s meagre resources on foreign goods and services. This contradiction (the frugal Buhari, champion of ‘matching production with consumption,’ having to condone consistent foreign medical trips) must have weighed heavily on his conscience all along. Therefore, when his administration decided to bring something comparable to the White House Medical Unit or the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in the United States, it was hardly surprising to many keen watchers of events in Nigeria.

     However, it must first be established that whatever brought the idea of upscaling the State House Clinic from what it was to a Medical Center, with a newly constructed VIP wing within the Presidential Villa, could not have self-serving. The thought of building a state-of-the-art facility for the sole care of the President, Vice President and their immediate families became manifest in November 2021, with the groundbreaking ceremony of the VIP wing. The project, which was scheduled to have become operational by December 2022, though completed with world-class medical equipment, is yet to be inaugurated. This is despite having just a few days to the end of the Buhari administration that conceived and built it.

    The VIP wing of the State House Medical Center

      This implies that there is yet a wing that is not designated as VIP. Prior to the recent decision to upscale the medical facility a medical center, there has always been the State House Clinic, which is located opposite the Mambilla Barracks, within the Asokoro District of Abuja. It runs a normal hospital system, but still believed not to be standard enough for the care of the number one and two citizens. This, it was believed, was reason for the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan to conceive the idea of a VIP wing in 2012.

     The new facility, which will continue to be regarded as one of President Buhari’s touches on infrastructure in the country but particularly around the vicinities of the seat of power, is a 14-bed world-class hospital that sits on a 2,700 square meters area, situated within the approaches of the main State House Complex. Describing the then-dream facilities to the Senate Committee on Federal Character and Intergovernmental Affairs during a budget defense pitch in October 2021, the Permanent Secretary of the State House, Tijjani Umar, said a N21 billion budget had been earmarked and that the construction and equipment had been assigned to the same firm that constructed and had been maintaining the Aso Rock Presidential Villa since 1991, Julius Berger Nigeria (JBN) Plc.

     Umar took time to paint a mental picture of the planned facility to the senators. According to him, it was designed to have underground facilities, first floor, two operating theatres, two executive suites, two VIP sections, two isolation areas and one of six-bed isolation area in the building. He further said the design included a laboratory, a healing garden, a pharmacy and X-ray facilities.

     “The project was conceived in 2012 by previous administration and the brief was produced. It was estimated at about N21 billion and the facility contains 14-bed space without total area of 2,700 square metres. There will be underground and first floor. Two number operating theatre, two number executive suites, two VIP, two isolation rooms and one number of six-bed isolation areas. Most of the preliminary work has been concluded. Mr. President has approved the project. We have gone to the Bureau of Public Procurement to get Certificate of No Objection,” he had told the Committee then, adding that the facility’s importance extends beyond just caring for the President, Vice President and their families; it will also serve the purposes of reversing or discouraging medical tourism. According to him, it will be opened to leaders from other African countries, as it is a world-class hospital.

     Now, the facility is completed, equipped and just a few more dotting of ‘I’s and crossing of ‘T’s being undertaken. The Permanent Secretary Umar has updated on the works when he took the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, and the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba, round the facility, showing off a completed, tastefully equipped facility. He also used the occasion to assure that the inauguration will soon hold and that Buhari will do the honours, explaining why the initial December delivery date was not achieved. He also used the occasion to announce the President’s decision to properly re-designate the facility as a medical centre.

    “I think we are putting everything that needs to be put in place, including the instrument and the equipment that have been calibrated and tested and then there’s the training of personnel that is going on here. It’s absolutely important that it’s hands on, and that when the facility is commissioned by Mr. President, it is not going to stop working. So, I think it’s really important, we’re taking the time to do that. By the time that is done, the training is concluded, and the calibration and testing of equipment is also concluded and that is going to be also on time because what is sure is that Mr. President will commission this project very soon.

     “Finally, he has just approved that, before now in 2018, he had given approval that the State House Clinic, Medical Center then, there in the other part of Asokoro, that had challenges about equipment, about aging, issues, resources, funding everything. It was scaled down from Medical Center to a State House Medical Clinic. Now he has approved with everything that has been improved in the other place and with this state-of-the-art facility, we can no longer operate this as a clinic. It is now State House Medical Center. He has just granted the approval,” Umar revealed.

     Right there and then, the facility received its first accolades and validation as both the guests (Mustapha, Ahmed and Agba) and the tour guides (the State House Staff, led by Permanent Secretary Umar) could not high their delight and showering praises on what they were seeing. To the SGF, it was a moment of nostalgia, recalling what the old clinic in Asokoro had become before approvals for its upscaling. “For me, it’s with a great sense of fulfillment that I am seeing within the period of two years this edifice standing today. Those of you that were part of the coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, when it involved the entire nation in 2020, you will notice that we have inspected health facilities in and around Abuja, particularly the State House Clinic, in Asokoro. My impression coming out of that inspection deepened my desire to see that we have a standard world-class facility, which has basically produced this with a lot of satisfaction and great joy I’m seeing this standing today. So, this money is well spent, and it will be for the good and betterment of our country,” Mustapha said.

     Continuing, Mustapha explained that the facility will address the frequency of the country’s Presidents traveling abroad to seek medical treatment. “It would to a large extent deal with it. This is a clinic; I believe that all procedures can be conducted here, if need be through modern sciences. Telemedicine now is very common; somebody can be sitting in his office in Germany, or in the United States directing diagnosis and prescriptions, and also even procedures on a patient in this place.

     “The other thing that this facility will do for us is that we receive visiting heads of state, heads of government; peradventure there is an emergency, we need a facility that will provide the kind of care that is internationally acknowledged and recognised and a standard kind of care before even that particular head of state or government is evacuated out of the country. And this facility provides for that. We have ageing former presidents; I believe that they will have access to this facility. The sitting President will have access to it, and other top government functionaries as may be prescribed by the administrative structure that will be put in place. I believe that this is money well spent,” he said.

     Also expressing her delight, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Ahmed expressed delight over the quality of work on the facility, adding that “we have supported this process in terms of making sure that the funding is provided on time. This is a project that has been delivered dead on time and on budget. So there has been no overrun and the facilities here are world class. We’re looking forward to the commissioning very soon and to put the facility to full use,” she said.

     Continuing, Ahmed expressed willingness to make herself available to be used for testing some of the equipment in the facility whenever the need arises, saying “I have donated myself as one of the people that can be tried in this facility. On test runs, I’m willing to come and do a medical here to testify that anything you can see here is what you can see anywhere you go in the world.”

     Buhari came in 2015, after a hard-fought election, promised a lot and did as much as he could, like he will usually put it, “with available resources”. In a matter of days he will be on his way out of the office of the President of Nigeria, leaving the seat for another to occupy. No one can say with an exact certainty that when he was promising, building a new hospital, with a particular intent of ending medical tourism for Nigerian leaders, was one of the things he had in mind. He came and ensured he is leaving a footprint within the precincts of the sprawling facility he lived and worked for eight years.

     Years back, precisely in October 2017, Aisha, the wife of President Buhari, followed the footsteps of her daughter, Zahra, by criticising the management of Aso Rock Clinic. Zahra Buhari had earlier taken to her Instagram page to criticise the Permanent Secretary of the State House, Jalal Arabi, for his inability to provide even Paracetamol tablets to the clinic despite a budget of N3 billion for the provision of drugs to the hospital. Mrs. Buhari said then that she recently fell ill and was advised to travel to London for treatment, but she refused.

     “I called the Aso Clinic to find out if they have an X-Ray machine; they said it’s not working. In the end, I had to go to a hospital owned and operated by foreigners 100 per cent. There is a budget for the hospital and if you go there now, you will see a number of constructions going on but they don’t have a single syringe there. What is the purpose of the buildings if there are no equipment there to work with? You can imagine what happens across the states to governors’ wives if this will happen to me in Abuja,” she said.

     The complaint then by the Aso Rock Clinic management was that the hospital was short of funds for major projects and purchases, which would necessitate the commercialisation of the clinic’s operations for efficiency. Hopefully, all this would be a thing of the past when the new VIP health facility comes on stream soon.

  • Appraising the security sector’s gains, pains (3)

    Appraising the security sector’s gains, pains (3)

    There is a recent spike in piracy incidents on the Gulf of Guinea (GoG) and, if not quickly curbed, may erode the feats recorded so far in the maritime security sector during the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. As the Nigerian Navy battles to sustain zero piracy record amidst new threats, MUSA UMAR BOLOGI looks at cases of piracy in the last five years and the successes so far

    It was a celebratory affair in March 2022 when Nigeria was delisted from piracy-prone countries by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB). The delisting led to removal of war risk premium and reduction in the cost of insurance from $5,000 to $960 for Merchant Ships coming to Nigeria.

     The IMB’s report titled, “Piracy and armed robbery against ship,” indicated that of the 58 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships recorded globally, 12 were reported in the Gulf of Guinea, but none occurred in Nigerian waters. The report chronicles any illegal act of violence or detention or any act of depredation, or threat committed for private ends and directed against a ship or against persons or property on board such a ship, within a country’s internal waters, archipelagic waters and territorial sea.

     The reports, which include among other things, the names and a description of ships attacked, position and date/time of incidents, consequences to the crew, ship or cargo, and actions taken by the crew and coastal authorities, are circulated monthly, followed by a comprehensive annual report, published at the beginning of the second quarter of the subsequent year. The delisting makes Nigeria the country with the least cases of piracy globally. The 2022 record is also the least Nigeria has had over a long period of time – in thirty years, as revealed by local and international data on maritime security.

     But while the country and stakeholders in the maritime sector were about to celebrate this achievement, two unfortunate incidents occurred within the Gulf of Guinea in the last three five weeks – a crisis that is threatening to rubbish the new feat attained by Nigeria.

    Pirate attacks in Nigerian waters in five years

    The IMB piracy index showed that Nigeria recorded 31 cases of piracy and armed robbery in 2018 out of 107 cases that were reported across international waters in the first six months of the year, and 201 cases globally at the end of the year – an increase of 87 per cent. In the following year, less cases of piracy were recorded globally, and this also affected the cases recorded on Nigeria’s waters.  Hence, the country recorded 21 cases of vessel attacks within its waters out of the 78 cases of global maritime piracy and armed robbery incidents reported to IMB from January to June and 162 cases globally at the end of 2019.

     However, in 2020 there was a global rise in piracy attacks and this equally affected incidents on Nigeria’s water.  In that year, Nigeria recorded 41 cases of piracy and sea robbery out of the 98 cases that were reported globally in the first half of the year, and 195 cases that were recorded at the end of the year, at 98.97 percent increase. But by the same time in 2021, the incidents reduced again globally, and out of the 68 cases of piracy incidents reported between January to June 2021 on international waters, only 4 incidents of the attack happened in Nigeria within the first half of the year, and 132 cases at the end of the year.

    While 2021 was good news for maritime security globally, 2022 was even better, as there was drastic reduction of cases of piracy and armed robbery on international waters. The year was also a good year for Nigeria. According to the IMB report for the year, out of 58 incidents of global piracy recorded from January to 30 June, 12 were reported in the GoG, and 10 cases were classified as armed robbery and the remaining two were referred to as “piracy attacks,” with none of them occurring in Nigerian waters.

     In a broad range of operations to increase capability and capacity to respond, check piracy, illicit trafficking and other maritime threats in the Gulf of Guinea, Nigerian Special Forces have lately taken the fight to the criminals upsetting maritime security and business activities.  Experts believe the fight against piracy being championed by the Nigerian government is already yielding positive results, as attested to by the report of the IMB), which revealed that pirate attacks in the Gulf of Guinea dropped drastically in the first ten months of 2022, indicating the lowest recorded figure in three decades.

     IMB, in its third quarter 2022 piracy report, said it received just 13 reports from the Gulf of Guinea in 2022, compared to 27 in 2021 and 46 in 2020. It stated: “Global piracy and armed robbery incidents in the maritime industry are at their lowest level in decades continuing patterns that emerged over the past two years.” However, the organisation, which tracks piracy and coordinates the reporting of incidents to the authorities, warned against complacency by calling for regional and international players to sustain their efforts to prevent piracy incidents. It also acknowledged the declining spate of attacks in the Gulf of Guinea, saying “local initiatives combined with an increased international presence contributed to a continuing decline of reports from the Gulf of Guinea expanding on a two-year trend in the region.”

     It also reported a significant decline in the number of reported incidents in the region of West Africa, which had “emerged as the world’s biggest piracy hotspot in recent years.” The IMB Director, Michael Howlett, said: “We commend the efforts of the coastal authorities of the Gulf of Guinea. While the decline is welcome, sustained and continued efforts of the coastal authorities and the presence of the international navies remain essential to safeguard seafarers and long-term regional and international shipping and trade.”

     IMB added that “while the Gulf of Guinea has seen a continuing decline in reports, incidents in the Singapore Straits are increasing, up by nearly 50 per cent so far in 2022 versus last year.” The IMB data showed that 31 vessels were boarded up from 21 in 2021. Generally, ICC IMB’s latest global quarterly piracy report detailed 90 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships in the first nine months of 2022, which reached their lowest levels since 1992. Reported incidents were down a further seven per cent versus the first nine months of 2021 when the IMB received a total of 97 reports from ships, the report said.

    However, highlighting the need for further action, the number of vessels boarded remained the same at 85 in 2022 versus 2021. In 2022, the pirates were successful in gaining access to the vessels in 95 per cent of the reported incidents. The number of the crew taken hostage increased to 27 in 2022 versus eight in 2021, but in 2021, additional crew of 51 crew members were also taken hostage versus none in 2020. The danger for the crew was nearly equal between ships at anchor (40 incidents) versus that underway (37 incidents). The fewest reports (13) came from berthed vessels. Bulkers are the most vulnerable type of vessel suffered nearly half of the reported attacks (40) this year. Tankers reported the second greatest number of attacks (23) with the least number of reports (10) on containerships. “While these are so far considered low-level opportunistic crimes, with no crew kidnappings or vessel hijackings, littoral states are requested to increase patrols in what is a strategically important waterway for the shipping industry and for global trade,” Howlett said

    New threats to Nigeria’s latest feat

    The first incident involved the hijack of Motor Tanker (MT) MONJASA REFORMER by pirates on 25 March 2023 at a location 144 nautical mile (nm) West-South West (WSW) of Pointe-Noire, Republic of Congo, with 12 crew members on board. The Dane-owned vessel registered in Liberia with IMO number 9255878, which had been in the Gulf of Guinea waters since February 14 for petroleum products-related trade, was later rescued by the Nigerian Navy adrift the Island of Principe on 31 March 2023, but the pirates had already abducted six of the crew members.

     The second piracy incident involved the hijacking of MT SUCCESS-9, with 20 crew members, about 306 nm SW of Abidjan Fairway Buoy (FWB), Côte d’Ivoire on 10 April 2023. The Singapore-registered tanker was hijacked midday local time on Monday, 10 April 2023, in the Gulf of Guinea, approximately 300 nautical miles south of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. The oil vessel was rescued, with all 20 crew members safe, on 14 April 2023, reportedly 65 nm SE of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and was taken to Abidjan the same day.

     However, to some experts in maritime security, the incidents didn’t come as a surprise because, even before they occurred, the IMB had warned in its report that Nigeria might have had no-incident record on its waters, but all waters in/off it remain highly risky, because “incidents have also been reported up to about 212 nautical miles from Nigeria’s coast.” Not to be taken off-guard, the world maritime body, therefore, urged seafarers to increase their vigilance in protecting their vessels, stating that many hijacking incidents during the year may potentially have gone undetected, and that may be one of the reasons Nigeria had no case in 2022.

    No attack will occur on Nigeria’s water, by Navy

    Spokesperson of the Nigerian Navy, Commodore Adedotun Ayo-Vaughan told The Nation that the Navy has taken steps to address the current spike. He said aside sustaining the presence of her capital ships at sea, the Navy has also directed all operation bases to enhance their efforts to dominate their areas of operations. Ayo-Vaughan also said the Navy has equally employed her surveillance infrastructure to monitor shipping activities within the Nigerian Maritime Environment (NME), and exploit intelligence to track activities of criminals in order to maintain the sanctity of the NME.

     “We are confident that our continued presence and dominance at the sea will stop any attack on our waters,” he said. While noting that since no incident of piracy has occurred within NME within the last 12 months, the area is safe for maritime and economic activities; he enjoined seafarers to continue to carry out their legitimate businesses without fear, even as he assured that the Navy would continue to sustain credible presence to deter any form of criminality. He appreciated the efforts of other players including international partners under the Coordinated Maritime Presence arrangement and other maritime stakeholders in securing the NME and GoG in general.

    Navy presence at sea not enough, says security expert

    However, Nengi James, a security expert in Niger Delta, said the dominance of the Nigerian Navy ships alone on the country’s waters cannot stop or reduce piracy, since many factors are responsible for the achievement recorded last year. “The Navy has always dominated our waters, but that didn’t stop piracy. The reason piracy has reduced in Nigeria water was because the criminals that are involved in piracy have now shifted to oil bunkering. It is the same people that are involved in the illicit activities. They have shifted to bunkering because they found it less risky at this time, and that is why it looks as if piracy has reduced. So, progress recorded is just temporary.”

     He berated security agents for aiding and abetting insecurity in the maritime environment. “The bunkering is striving now because it is in connivance with some security agents. If it is not in connivance with security agents, how do you explain the scenario that some meters to the illegal bunkering sites, there is heavy security by our security men? I believe that if our security agents begin to do what is right, oil bunkering and piracy will stop,” James added.

     Whether the Navy’s efforts at the sea will ward-off piracy and sea robbery on the country’s waters as well as sustain the record achieved in 2022 will be revealed when the IMB publishes its annual report by the end of 2023. 

  • The Buhari Years 2015-2023: Appraising security sector’s gains, pains

    The Buhari Years 2015-2023: Appraising security sector’s gains, pains

    As a retired general, President Muhammadu Buhari won many hearts when he identified the war against insecurity as one of the three key areas that his administration would focus on if voted into power in 2015. A lot has happened since then in terms of successes recorded; while many old and new challenges remain unsolved. In this special report, NICHOLAS KALU examines the security situation in the country in the last eight years

    When President Muhammadu Buhari took over the office in 2015, tackling insecurity was one of the three key areas he identified as the main thrust of his administration. The others were the economy and the war against corruption. That the Buhari administration found it necessary to ensure that insecurity formed one leg of the foundational tripod of his administration came from his background as a retired general and the then the spate of insecurity, which wreaked havoc on the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan that he succeeded.

    Since then, the government has had to deal with the problem which had grown into a monstrosity, with a new head seemingly growing whenever an old one has been cut off. Hardly any part of the country is spared of the scourge, with the crippling insurgency in the northern parts of the country and secessionist agitations in the southern parts of the country combining to heat up the polity and make life hellish for the people.

    Tackling insecurity

    The efforts of the present administration in the fight against insecurity have drawn various responses from various quarters, with a section positing that the situation has not improved from what it was during the last administration; while others feel it has recorded reasonable success. One of the main areas the current administration has prided itself on as one of its major achievements has been its ability to reclaim some of the territories seized by insurgents in the Northeastern parts of the country.

    Last week, at a Trooping and Presentation of Colours Parade 2023 by the Nigerian Army in Abuja, President Buhari commended the security agencies for their exceptional performances in the various operations across the country. According to the President, at the inception of his administration, the nation’s security situation was greatly challenged by the activities of violent non-state actors. Highlighting the efforts of his administration in the battle against insecurity, he said, “Today, I am pleased to specially note that the situation has tremendously improved and I wish to also proudly highlight that we have made remarkable progress in the fight against insurgents, militants, oil bunkers, kidnappers and other criminal elements in the country.

    “This administration has achieved a remarkable transformation of the military in the areas of fighting power, training, operations, manpower, remunerations and medical services. These are in addition to maintenance efficiency, accommodation and expansion of forces. The improvements in these areas have collectively enhanced the Army’s capacity to effectively carry out its constitutional mandate.

    “The fighting power of our Army was at a low ebb as of May 2015. However, seven years later, its fighting power has increased significantly making it fourth in ranking among African militaries as against seventh in 2015. Our interventions and yearly budgetary allocations to the Army between 2020 and 2022 alone have been able to procure hundreds of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles, Troops Carrying Vehicles, utility vehicles, tanks and Armoured Personnel Carriers to augment those earlier procured.

    “From 2017 to 2022, significant numbers of new fighting and utility vehicles along with supporting artillery guns, machine guns, rifles and corresponding ammunition were acquired and inducted into various theatres of operations. This translates to a significant increment in the Army’s equipment holding since 2015.

    “With the significant improvement in the fighting power as a result of the procurement of equipment and mission-specific training, the Army was empowered to rejig its operations. Accordingly, the Army has restructured the conduct of its operations to meet current realities. The quantum of platforms inducted into the Army since 2015 had enabled troops to take the battle to the terrorists and criminals, particularly in the North East resulting in the recapture of territories hitherto held by the insurgents.

    “The efforts of the troops leading to unprecedented successes were evident in the increased number of neutralised insurgents and those that voluntarily surrendered alongside their families for radicalization and rehabilitation through Operation SAFE CORRIDOR. This feat has continued to be replicated in other theatres of operation within the country, leading to the resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons to their ancestral homes and restoration of economic activities in addition to the contribution of the Nigerian Army to global peace through Peace Support Operations.

    “Furthermore, the creation of the Army Aviation is one of the major aspects of the ongoing expansion process in the Nigerian Army. The renewed vigour for the operationalization of the Army Aviation emanated from a strong desire to effectively tackle contemporary security challenges across the country. This unit, when fully operationalized, will provide rapid deployment, close air support, casualty evacuation, and prompt delivery of logistics supply, among other roles.

    “As an administration, we have demonstrated commitment to increasing the strength of the Armed Forces in my resolve to secure the country from all challenges. It is instructive to state that from 2015 when I was sworn in as the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces Federal Republic of Nigeria, I facilitated the recruitment of over 60,000 soldiers from Depot Nigerian Army aside thousands commissioned from the Nigerian Defence Academy Kaduna.”

    However many would disagree, arguing that despite making it one of the cardinal focuses of his government, so much is still left to be desired as the problem of insecurity continues unabated. The country’s insecurity problems range from terrorism/insurgency, armed banditry, militancy, cultism and ethnic agitations to religious fundamentalism, herder-farmer clashes, and inter-communal clashes. There are also other raging crimes as armed robbery, cultism, and electoral violence, among others. With terrorism in the North-east, banditry and terrorism in the North-west, farmers-herders clashes in the North-central, secessionist agitations and insurgency in the South-east, militancy and kidnapping in the South-south, as well as kidnapping and farmers-herders clashes in the South-west, every part of the country seems to have its fair share of the malaise.

    However, the federal government has continued to make efforts to stem the problem. Through the military and other security agencies, the federal government has conducted security operations in all the thirty-six states of the federation and established task forces specifically to deal with the raging problems. In addition, the federal government sought international collaboration through the Multinational Task Force to combat insurgency; while creating non-kinetic engagements such as humanitarian operations and Operation Safe Corridor to encourage defection within the ranks of the insurgents. The establishment of the Niger Delta Development Commission, the North East Development Commission, and the Amnesty Programme were parts of the soft approaches the federal government has embarked upon to ameliorate the effects of insecurity in Nigeria. At the state level, some state governments have enacted various legislations to prescribe stiffer punishment for kidnapping and associated crimes, and open grazing as a way of stemming persistent farmers/herders’ clashes. Some state governments established security networks such as Amotekun to complement efforts of regular security forces; while others went into dialogues with armed groups to broker peace deals.

    The Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) had set up various operations across the country. These include the Joint Task Force (JTF) North East, tagged Operation HADIN KAI covering the North-east region; the JTF SS, tagged Operation DELTA SAFE covering the South-south region; the JTF NW, known as Operation HADARIN DAJI covering the North-west region; Operation SAFE HAVEN covering Plateau, parts of Kaduna and Bauchi States; Operation WHIRL STROKE covering Benue, Nasarawa and Taraba States; JTF SW, referred to as Operation AWATSE and covering Lagos and Ogun States; Operation THUNDER STRIKE covering Abuja-Kaduna Highway and Operation WHIRL PUNCH covering parts of Kaduna State.

    Gains

    The procurement of modern platforms for the armed forces has also gone a long way in raising the level of their operational readiness and efficiency, in addition to boosting their capabilities. Among other efforts, the Nigerian Army, for instance in 2021, procured 160 Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP), 150 trucks and 60 APCs to improve its equipment holding.

    This was in addition to the provision of accommodation for troops and the recruitment of over 10,000 personnel into the Army. The Nigerian Navy (NN), inaugurated the FALCON EYE Maritime Domain Awareness Capability, the third locally-built Seaward Defense Boat, one helicopter, 4 inshore patrol boats and 90 Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats. Over 1,500 personnel were recruited into the Navy during the year. The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) took delivery of 12 Super Tucanos and 3 JF-17 Thunder Fighter Aircraft and other platforms with which it has conducted several air interdictions, provided close air support to ground troops and destroyed several illegal structures and equipment belonging to terrorists, bandits and other criminal elements.

    Still, in the fight against insecurity, the implementation of the community policing initiative of the current administration has led to the training of 25,000 constabularies in several police colleges across the country. The successful officers who were trained on basic police duties, modern intelligence gathering techniques, rule of law, etc. were deployed to their local governments of origin to aid in intelligence gathering and improve police visibility in their communities. Also, through the Police Trust Fund, 200 Buffalo branded vehicles, bulletproof vests, protective helmets, drugs, and medical equipment as well as arms and ammunition, riot control equipment, and combat equipment were procured for the Police Special Weapon and Tactical Squad (SWAT).

    Legislative interventions    

    With the problem threatening to tear the country apart with daily incidents of terrorism, kidnappings and robberies among others, the legislature felt the need to intervene as the House of Representatives took time to organise a security summit, which came up with far-reaching recommendations. While submitting the report of the summit to President Buhari in 2021, the Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, said the executive and legislative arms of government have been assigned specific roles to help address insecurity in the country.

    “As you are aware, we went through a painstaking effort for four-five days and the report came out and we have divided it into both legislative and executive recommendations. As we said from day one, we will bring the report to the President for action on the recommendations and he has graciously accepted and we are hopeful and believe that many of the recommendations, both the legislative and executive, once implemented, will go a long way into resolving some of the issues that pervade our society in terms of security, if not all.

    “And what led to the resolution of the summit was because we felt that it was time that we thought outside the box; that we begin to look at issues in a different way as opposed to the traditional ways and that is exactly what we did,” he said.

    He said the House of Representatives recommended the establishment of development commissions across the six geo-political zones of the country to help address problems caused by insecurity. “The legislature has about seven recommendations and the executive recommendations are about 19 in all. There are overlapping mandates for instance between the security agencies, which brings confusion on their lines of reporting and those overlapping mandates will be addressed by the House. We have already introduced bills to that effect.

    “There’re several recommendations; we’ve agreed to establish zonal commissions in all the zones like the North East Development Commission. We’ll have the South-west, we’ll have the South-South, we’ll have the Southeast, we’ll have the Northwest, and that goes a long way in resolving issues, regional and zonal issues. Everybody must be involved and that’s what Mr. President brought here today. He brought his whole security team and to me that gives me inspiration. It gives the leadership inspiration. We believe that that alone is a sign of good faith,” he had said.

    Funding challenge

    Despite a chunk of the 2023 appropriation budgeted for defence, the case has still been made that adequate funding remains a critical challenge in the fight against insecurity. The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Defence, Babajimi Benson, said the N2.74tn budgeted for security in the 2023 Appropriation Act is inadequate. Benson, who represents Ikorodu Federal Constituency in Lagos State at the House of Reps, said the capital component of the security budget, especially for the Armed Forces, should be pulled out of the current envelope budget system to enable it to deal with the exigencies of tackling the problem of insecurity.

    “As you are aware, the 2023 budget was signed yesterday. Of course, it is about N21tn and 13 per cent of it was earmarked for the defence sector, which came to about N2.74tn. Yes, the money is huge. In fairness, you must continue to spend (on security). Show me a prosperous nation, (and) you will see that security in that country is very high. The budget, though huge in naira terms, converting the money to dollars makes it a bit insignificant.

    “You must also be aware that personnel and other costs…the Armed Forces is one of the agencies in the world that takes care of you from when you join (them) till when you die. There is nothing that you buy from your pocket. Even your burial is taken over by the Nigerian Armed Forces. So, Mr President, in his kind wisdom, signed what we called the MAFA (Manual of Financial Administration), which is an enhancement of the welfare of men in service. These are our brothers and sisters who put their lives on the line to make us secure.”

    It is pertinent to point out that besides the 2023 budget, the security sector saw the highest allocation in 2022 with a total of N2.49 trillion, up from N1.86 trillion in 2021. A glance at the security budgets over the lifespan of this administration showed a steady increase. In 2015, N948.01 billion was allocated to the sector, with N375.49 billion to defence and N327.56 billion to the police. In 2016, the budget grew to N1.04 trillion. This was the first budget under President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. A breakdown of the budget shows that a total of N443.07 billion was allocated to defence and N312.56 billion to the police force.

    The budget for the security sector grew further in 2017 to N1.13 trillion; N469.83 was budgeted for defence and N319.01 billion for police. In 2018, N1.28 trillion was allocated to security. The total budget for the defence was N576.39 trillion, while police were allocated N335.40 billion. In the same year, President Buhari authorised the withdrawal of $1 billion from the excess crude oil account, and $496 million was used to procure 12 Tucano fighter jets. In 2019, the security sector was allocated N1.33 trillion. Of the total budget, the federal government allocated N589.95 billion for defence and N371.08 for police.            

    The budget for the sector increased to N1.69 trillion in 2020. Of the total allocation, the defence budget rose to N899.91 billion and the police force got N410.48 billion. In 2021, N1.86 trillion was allocated to the sector, out of which N964.05 was allocated to defence and N455.13 billion to the police force. The sector also got a supplementary budget of N802 billion. In the same year, the implementation of the Police Trust Fund commenced, with a total of N11 billion approved for the fund in March and another N74 billion was approved in June. In 2022, the budget almost doubled 2022 with N2.49 trillion allocated to the sector. The allocation to defence also rose to N1.19 trillion and the police sector got N783.85 billion.

    Unfinished business

    Despite the huge sums expended on the security sector, it appears the problems have persisted, albeit to a lesser degree. This, security experts, have attributed to the lack of oversight in the security sector. Some of them who spoke with The Nation blamed the seeming deteriorating situation on poor utilisation of the defence budget in addition to lack of accountability and oversight.

    “It is not about the money. The question is, how is the money spent? So much money is given to the security sector, but how is it used? This is where the gap lies. There seems to be an absence of oversight from the President and the Minister of Defence,” a source who preferred anonymity said.

    With the elections done and dusted, it is apparent the nation’s security challenges remain an ever-present malady. As noted earlier, a section of society is of the opinion that not much has been achieved in the bid by the present administration to stem the ever-present challenge. However, others believe that although it is not yet Uhuru, the country has made significant progress for instance by reclaiming some territories that were under the control of insurgents in the Northeast, as well as whittling down cases of armed robbery, kidnapping and other violent crimes.

    According to a security expert, while procuring weaponry to continually boost a state of battle readiness is essential, more attention should be paid to non-kinetic attempts to deal with the situation. “There should be a softer approach, which principally should aim at improving the lives of the people. This would automatically reduce insecurity across the country. Security agencies should be defunded not in the sense that money should not be given to them again, but they should be in the sense that the less money goes to them and more goes to improving the quality of life for the people, the less likely we would have problems with insecurity. The problem is still ravaging the country. Though the tempo seems to have dropped, it is not time for the country to drop the ball. As a new administration takes over the helm of affairs in the country, my advice is that more attention be paid to this. It is a much surer way of ensuring a secure country for all in the long run,” a security expert, Effiong Bassey, opined.

  • Tracking NDE’s novel job creation, poverty eradication model

    Tracking NDE’s novel job creation, poverty eradication model

    In Nigeria, tackling unemployment and reducing rising poverty has remained a major challenge all tiers have been grappling with over the years. Yet, unemployment crisis appears to be getting worse. Determined to arrest the poverty level in the country, the federal government has introduced the Special Public Works Programme (SPW). In this report, CHINYERE OKOROAFOR takes a look at this ad hoc programme designed to provide stop-gap jobs to mainly artisans to earn money doing public works

    Every minute, more than six Nigerians enter the extreme poverty bracket as the number of poor persons in the country races towards the 95.1 million projected by the World Bank in 2022. According to the World Bank, in its latest 2022 Poverty and Prosperity Report, Nigeria contributed three million people to global extreme poverty; while the country is “home to a large share of the global extreme poor.”

     Also, in 2022, Nigeria was ranked 103 out of 121 countries in the 2022 Global Hunger Index (GHI), a position that signifies the nation has a level of hunger that is serious. The Global Hunger Index was jointly published by the German-based Welthungerhilfe and Dublin-based Concern Worldwide in October, 2022 to mark the World Food Day. The report, which ranks countries by ‘severity,’ gave Nigeria a score of 27.3 – a hunger level falling under the ‘serious’ category.

     Last year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), owned by Nigeria, presented its Multidimensional Poverty Index, which showed that 63 per cent of Nigerians are affected by multi-dimensional poverty. This represents 133 million Nigerians that are pummelled by unemployment and poverty. Furthermore, the report stated that 65 per cent of the poor, or 86 million people, live in the North; while 35 per cent, or nearly 47 million, live in the South. According to NBS, the crisis of poverty being faced by 63 per cent of Nigerians was caused by a lack of access to health, education, and living standards, alongside unemployment and shocks.

     In order to reduce the level of poverty in the country, the federal government introduced the Special Public Works Programme (SPW). The SPW is an ad hoc programme designed by the federal government to provide stop-gap jobs to mainly artisans to earn money doing public works. The programme is a dry season/off season transient jobs and rehabilitation/maintenance of social infrastructure. It is being implemented by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.

    SPW will lift the poverty status of Nigeria

     The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo (SAN), explained how Nigeria can stop being the poverty capital of the world. The minister explained that the empowerment of people in rural areas under the SPW programme would help lift the poverty status of the country. Keyamo said countries such as India, China and Bangladesh adopted the programme to lift their countries out of the league of poor nations.

     “The programme is also expected to provide modest stipends for itinerant workers to undertake road rehabilitation and social housing construction, urban and rural sanitation, health extension and other critical services. Hence, the directive of Mr. President for the NDE to collaborate with other ministries with rural components in their mandates,” Keyamo said.

     According to the NDE, the SPW was designed to address the problem of unemployment among youths. The agency said the programme was designed to achieve its purpose through the provision of transient jobs and technical skills acquisition training that will promote skilled, semi-skilled and professional manpower/labour for self-employment and self-reliance. Serving as a part of the vehicle through which NDE is currently delivering its mandate of employment provision for Nigeria’s teeming unemployed persons, the SPW schemes components are: Graduate Attachment Programme (GAP), Graduate Special Training Programme (GSTP), Environmental Beautification Training Scheme (EBTS), Graduate Coaching Scheme (GCS), Solar Energy Training Scheme (SETS) Artisans in Collaborative Construction Employment  Scheme (ACCES), Enviroprenuership Development Scheme (EDS), Labour Based and Infrastructural Development Scheme (CDS), Community Based Business Training Scheme (CBBTS).

     With the full support of President Muhammadu Buhari, under the supervision of Keyamo, and implementing directorship of the NDE’s Director-General, Mallam Abubakar Fikpo, the SPW schemes have become an effective job creation tool and a decent job module. Not surprisingly, the schemes have been judged one of the most sustainable job provision solutions to arrest the swelling unemployment rate in Nigeria and many other countries, especially in Africa.

     Although the NDE was recently described by Keyamo as the hub of  blue collar jobs in Nigeria, the relentless trajectory of the Directorate in providing self and wage employment for millions of Nigerians indicates the NDE is ingeniously proffering solutions to the country’s unemployment challenge.

    We’re committed to reducing high rate of unemployment, says Fikpo

    According to the NDE DG, Mallam Fikpo, the result-oriented job provision schemes and continued support of the President and its Supervising Minister, NDE is geared to crash the high rate of unemployment menace in Nigeria. While testimonies of many beneficiaries of the schemes and programmes attest to the fact that SPW is a success story that should be sustained in the efforts to combat unemployment and its ripple effects, official records have also shown that the Directorate, through the SPW schemes and other job creation programmes, has provided about 4,261,308 self-employments and wage employments within a short period of time.

     The figures further showed that about 2,545,102 are male; while 1,716,206 are female beneficiaries, across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory Abuja (FCT). For the records, the NDE DG gave a brief insight into the nine different SPW schemes and explained what Nigerians need to know about them. Speaking on the Graduate Attachment Programme (GAP), Fikpo said: “The scheme is designed to provide transient employment to unemployed graduates of tertiary institutions. The unemployed graduates are recruited and attached to willing corporate organisations for a period of three (3) to twelve (12) months to gain needed practical experience that would facilitate their employability by the organisation on or before the expiration of the internship period.”

     Speaking further on the Environmental Beautification Training Scheme (EBTS), he said: “This scheme is for the training of unemployed persons in soft/hard landscaping and Plaster of Paris (POP) for a period of three months. Participants are attached to master trainers to ensure that they acquire professional skills in environmental beautification, sanitation and protection/control of the environment. At the end of the training period, the participants are empowered with working tools and equipment to start their own business. The scheme is targeted at school leavers, the unschooled and any other interested persons, graduates inclusive.”

     On the Graduate Coaching Scheme (GCS), the NDE boss said: “GCS creates transient and permanent/sustainable employment for the unemployed graduates of tertiary institutions, especially those with educational training (professional teachers) background. The graduates are recruited as instructors to prepare students who may be deficient in some subjects for various external examinations such as Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), West African Examinations Council (WAEC)/ National Examination Council (NECO), National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB), General Certificate of Education (GCE), etc. for a period of 3 months. This will enable the students to make up for their deficiency in various subjects and also qualify them for admission into higher institutions of learning.”

     Also, on the Solar Energy Training Scheme (SETS), the NDE boss said: “The scheme is one of the renewable energy training schemes employed by the Special Public Works Department for employment generation. Under the scheme, unemployed graduates of tertiary institutions (especially those with engineering/technical knowledge) are trained to acquire skills in solar energy design, procurement, installation and maintenance of solar facilities. The scheme is targeted at graduates of training institutions and other interested persons with technical background.”

     On the Graduate Special Training Programme (GSTP), he said: “GSTP is for graduates of tertiary institutions. It involves a 2-week digital skills training on specialised applications relevant to skills needed in specific careers or professional practices. The skill sets include Autodesk, project management, hardware installations (e.g. dish and satellite installations, V–Sat and internet installations and networking. At the end of the training, participants are attached to well-managed small and medium enterprises for a period of 3–6 months to develop competence in the learnt skills.

     “The training prepares participants to possess skills relevant to meet demands for the job, function effectively and succeed in the technology-based millennium workplace. Competence in these skills confers on the holder a competitive edge in securing employment and/or starting a business. Artisans in Collaborative Construction Employment Scheme (ACCES); ACCES is a scheme designed to collaborate with relevant stakeholders and organisations in the construction sector where standards of various professions are imbibed. The scheme is also targeted at imparting industry-led competency skills as well as providing required certification to artisans under appropriate professional bodies.”

     On Enviroprenuership Development Scheme (EDS), he said: “The scheme is designed to combat unemployment among youths by bringing market principles to resolve environmental problems. It is aimed at improving environmental sustainability and social contribution to the society. Business initiatives are applied to turn waste into wealth to improve the standard of living of both the end consumers and the participants.”

     On the Labour-based and Infrastructural Development Scheme, the NDE DG said: “The Labour Based and Infrastructural Development Scheme is designed to facilitate the engagement and training categories of unemployed persons in the construction, rehabilitation, and maintenance of varieties of infrastructure. This is archived by adopting the labour based method of infrastructural development, thus making optimal use of labour supported by compactable light equipment. The scheme offers participants the opportunity to develop their skills and work experience. Additional job creation, wealth creation, and infrastructure development is archived within the benefiting communities.”

     On the Community Based Business Training Scheme (CBBTS), Fikpo said:  “This scheme is designed to train unemployed persons in businesses that have comparative advantage in selected communities. It focuses on social, structural and physical environmental inequalities through active involvement of community members, organisational representatives and employers of labour. Partners/members of community-based businesses contribute their expertise to enhance understanding of a given business phenomenon and to translate knowledge into action. Community-based businesses are socially and environmentally responsible where they are driven by the desire to re-invest in the community as a way to strengthen it, where collaboration, partnership, advocacy and co- creation are top values.”

  • The Buhari Years 2015-2023: How Buhari bailed out state governments from bankruptcy

    The Buhari Years 2015-2023: How Buhari bailed out state governments from bankruptcy

    By rolling out several bailouts to save the states from financial ruins, the administration of Muhammadu Buhari has saved the state governments from insolvency more times than any other administration. Assistant Editor NDUKA CHIEJINA reports

    For the eight years of Muhammadu Buhari administration, the government has provided several bailout funds to state governments to help them overcome and address financial difficulties. For example, in 2015, the Federal Government provided a bailout package of N338 billion to state governments to help them pay salaries and offset other debts. In 2016, another tranche of N90 billion was given to the states as budget support.

     In addition to the bailout funds, the government also implemented other measures to help the states, such as the Paris Club refund, which was a refund of over-deductions from states’ accounts for the repayment of the Paris Club debt. The refunds were made in tranches, with the first tranche of N516.38 billion released in December 2016. It’s worth noting that these bailout funds and refunds were provided to state governments as a one-time solution to their financial challenges, and the Buhari government also encouraged the states to implement measures to improve their revenue generation abilities and improve on fiscal responsibility.

    COVID-19 bailout

    The Buhari government provided financial support to the states during the COVID-19 pandemic to help them respond to the economic impact of the scourge. Some of the support includes:

     Presidential taskforce: The Buhari government established a Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 to coordinate the national response to the pandemic. The task force worked with the states to provide guidance and support for their COVID-19 response efforts.

     Economic sustainability plan: The administration launched an Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) in 2020 to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on the Nigerian economy. The ESP included a number of measures to support state governments, such as the creation of a N500 billion COVID-19 Crisis Intervention Fund to support the states in their response efforts.

     Budget support: The government provided budget support to the states as part of its COVID-19 response. In May 2020, the Federal Government approved a N614 billion loan facility for the states to help them address the economic challenges posed by the pandemic.

     Conditional grants: The Federal Government also provided conditional grants to the states to support their COVID-19 response efforts. For example, in June 2020, the government announced a N2.3 trillion stimulus package, which included a N100 billion grant to states to support their healthcare and education systems.

     Tax relief: The government also provided tax relief to businesses and individuals to help them cope with the economic impact of the pandemic. The tax relief measures included a reduction of the import duty on medical supplies and equipment, as well as a 50 percent reduction in the minimum tax rate for small and medium-sized enterprises.

     The Buhari government provided significant financial support to state governments in Nigeria during the COVID-19 pandemic to help them address the economic challenges posed by the pandemic.

     Recession bailouts: The administration faced two recessions, the first in 2016 and the second in 2020, both caused by external shocks to the Nigerian economy. During these recessions, the government implemented several measures to help the states survive the economic downturns. These include bailout funds to state governments to help them address financial difficulties during the 2016 recession. The government also provided budget support and conditional grants during the 2020 recession.

     There was the infrastructure spending assistance. The government increased spending on infrastructure projects to stimulate economic activity and create jobs. For example, the government launched the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) in 2018 to fund critical infrastructure projects such as roads, railways, and power plants. There was a tax relief package the Buhari government provided to businesses and individuals during the recession to encourage spending and boost economic activity. The tax relief measures included a reduction in the import duty on food items and critical medical supplies.

     The government launched several agricultural support initiatives like the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme to provide financing to smallholder farmers, and the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative to increase access to affordable fertilizer. There was also the economic diversification programme in which the government implemented policies aimed at diversifying the Nigerian economy away from oil, which is vulnerable to external shocks. The government launched the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) in 2017, with the aim of diversifying the economy and promote private sector-led growth.

     The Buhari government implemented a range of measures to help the states survive the recessions. These measures were designed to stimulate economic activity, create jobs, and support the states during the economic downturns. During the Buhari administration, some state governments received bailout facilities from the federal government to help them offset their salary arrears and meet other financial obligations. The bailout funds were expected to be repaid by the states over a period of time.

     The repayment of the bailout facilities by the states has been mixed. Some states made significant progress in repaying the funds, while others struggled to meet their repayment obligations. Some states have fully repaid their bailout facilities, while others have made partial payments. However, there were still some states that are yet to make any significant repayment. It is worth noting that the federal government has been putting pressure on the states to repay the bailout facilities, and has also been withholding some of their monthly allocations to ensure compliance. The success of the repayment efforts by the state governments has been mixed, and there is still work to be done to ensure that all the funds are repaid as required.

    States’ Fiscal Transparency Accountability and Sustainability

      There was the popular States’ Fiscal Transparency Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) programme of the World Bank and Federal Government of Nigeria under which a total of N351,650,867,450 was disbursed to state governments since the beginning of the programme in 2018. The Sustainability (SFTAS) programme, which was designed to strengthen the fiscal transparency, accountability and sustainability in Nigerian states as a way of improving their revenue base, increasing fiscal efficiency in public expenditure and reducing debt overhang.

     Under the programme, there were two disbursements of $750 million grant to the state governments that successfully met the Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs), bringing the total SFTAS disbursements to $1.5 billion. From the first $750 million grant, SFTAS disbursed N262 billion to the state governments to encourage transparency and accountability in the state governments budgeting processes and financial management. Before leaving the position, the National Programme Coordinator of SFTAS, Mr. Stephen Okon, said “no clear position has been taken on its extension but because of the impact on the states and public finance management, it’s not impossible that such considerations may be explored moving forward.” The programme, he said, “achieved so much in building transparency, accountability and sustainability amongst the states particularly in terms of accountability.”

     The SFTAS programme, he added, has now made “all the states publish their budget and their end of year account on a timely basis and we also have had all the states improve their internally generated revenue.” He went on to say that “in terms of building a basis for comparison among the states, we have all the states currently on the same page in terms of matters that relate to the TSA, matters that relate to procurement law, matters that relate to audit law, almost all the states in the federation now have all these in place and it has really promoted accountability and transparency amongst the states of the federation.”

     Mr. Okon noted further that “as part of its strategies to ensure the sustainability of fiscal reforms, the SFTAS Programme Coordination Unit, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning is engaging stakeholders on the demand side like the CSOs who can ensure that fiscal transparency and accountability are sustained in state PFM activities.” To access the SFTAS facility, the federal government reeled out conditions state governments must meet before they can benefit from the two US$750 million International Development Association (IDA) credit facilities extended to the Nigerian Government by the World Bank.

     The 36 states of the federation bought into the programme with some states eagerly drawing from the facility. To qualify for the facility in 2022, state governments were expected to first achieve Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs) in 2021. For the states to meet the DLI II in 2021, the federal government demanded that “citizens’ inputs from formal public consultations are published online, along with the proposed FY22 budget and citizens’ budget based on approved FY21 state budget published online by end April 2021 with functional online feedback mechanisms.”

     The state governments were also required to create the Citizens Accountability Report (CAR) based on audited financial statements/reports published online for FY20 no later than end September 2021”.

     To assist the state governments meet these requirements, the federal government through the Open Government Partnership (OGP) and the World Bank organised a workshop for state governments to learn how to develop their individual state’s Citizens’ Accountability Report (CAR).” The state governments were allowed to use “the template developed by the OGP Secretariat in collaboration with FCDO/PERL, and the various processes involved in achieving the Disbursement Linked Results (DLRs) as well as collect information from the participants on how to make the template more user-friendly.”

     Mr. Okon the National Programme Coordinator of SFTAS advised the state governments to learn how to develop their states’ Citizens’ Accountability Report (CAR), and be able to publish the report on the their websites. “The CAR is designed as a SFTAS DLI with incentives to enable the government to report the utilization of public funds in the last completed fiscal year in a manner that could be digested by the citizens and used to engage the government for improved results. The idea behind the CAR is to present the audited financial statement and fiscal performance, in a way that is understandable to the public by condensing the information contained in the ‘Auditor General’s Report, highlighting the key issues that the citizens would be interested in, and seamlessly creating an opportunity for informed engagement and participation,” Okon advised.