The Nation Newspaper

Tag: BCI

  • BCI boss conferrred with Rotary International Achievers Merit Award

    The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Back ground Check International (BCI), Mr. Kola Olugbodi, will on Saturday be conferred with the Rotary International Achievers Merit Award by the Oroki Oshogbo Rotary Club RI District 905 Nigeria.

    In a statement by the Club, the conferment is part of activities lined up for the official investiture of  Dr. Eegunranti Benjamin Adekunle as the 17th President. The event will hold by 3.30pm at White Plain Hotel & Suites, Ogo-Oluwa, Oshogbo Osun State.

    According to the statement, Olugbodi would be recognised for pioneering role and setting benchmarks for background check practice in Nigeria and West African. He is the founder and managing director of Background Check International, the first of such in Nigeria and West African.

    “It is worthy of mention of his towering figure in the background check practice worldwide which is seeing him occupying leadership position in the sector’s professional bodies in Nigeria, Africa and across the globe

    “The event will hold under the chairmanship of Alhaji Kazeem Odeyeyiwa, Chairman/CEO Repton Nigeria Limited,” he said.

  • BCI develops educational products, partners firms

    BCI develops educational products, partners firms

    In its quest to support educational and professional bodies in the area of certification verification, Nigeria’s pioneer background screening company, Background Check International (BCI), has designed an innovative approach to achieve efficiency and effectiveness in educational verification.

    The product tagged: ‘EDUCHECK,’ is an online educational verification product designed to remove the bottlenecks associated with manual verification of educational certificates in higher institutions of learning and other professional bodies.

    Speaking on the new initiative, the Managing Director of BCI, Mr. Kola Olugbodi stated that Educheck is Nigeria‘s first encompassing platform for verifying educational qualifications, professional bodies membership a licenses verification, a means of verifying and obtaining  transcript of higher institutions.

    “The sole mission of Educheck is to enhance the speedy delivery of educational and professional institutions’ verification services to clients worldwide. The benefits of Educheck are enormous as the technology safeguards confidential information through bluefish encryption and ensures our users are fully Data Protection compliant. There is also accuracy as the-depth knowledge of qualification checking, multi-lingual system and personnel ensures accuracy at all times,” he explained.

    According to him, Educheck is a 24/7 online based e-commerce verification and e-transcript platform. It is an urbarnised kind of platform, i.e. linking those that need verification services of educational, professional, NYSC certifications or licenses done with the institutions or bodies that have the data of the subjects to be verified.

    Considering the uniqueness of the product, BCI will be collaborating with virtually all institutions in Nigeria. Educheck will be a platform for all higher institutions to get their verification done swiftly instead of the previous manual process that hinders administrative efficiency.  Educheck has a solid technological backbone that makes education qualification, professional membership and licenses very easy.

    The new product will also provide a solid revenue base for the higher institutions as there will be direct remittance of payment into the accounts of the institutions. This is one major area that Educheck will provide value to the partner institutions.

    Explaining further on benefits of Educheck to concerned institutions, Mr. Olugbodi stated that it is fraud-proof as it reduces possibilities of fraud amongst institutions officials, enhancement of institutions’ electronic and digital database storage, paperless operation, accountability and transparency, quick turnaround time which aids quick decision making process, cost reduction in verification exercise as well as  enhancement of institution’s brand equity.

  • BCI urges investment in infrastructure

    The Business Club Ikeja (BCI) has called on the National Assembly  to expedite action on the Development Planning and Project Continuity Bill to solve the problems of infrastructure deficit in Nigeria.

    The club has also called on the three tiers of government to make life more meaningful for Nigerians by investing on basic infrastructure that would boost industrial development.

    BCI’s President, Mr. sulaiman Tella spoke at the 22nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the  club.

    He said: “We are worried over the recent World Bank estimate that African Government s face infrastructural investment deficit of $93billion yearly, and therefore called for the quick passage of the Development Planning and Project Continuity Bill presently before the National Assembly as the Bill, when signed into law, will make it mandatory for every government in Nigeria to continue the implementation of projects initiated by the past administrations.

    “The Bill when signed into law will also make development planning compulsory for all tiers of g overnment in the country.”

    According to Tella, the BCI has presented position papers on how government should make life meaningful for the citizenly by ensuring that they provide basic infrastructure in all parts of the country.

    “The multiplier effects of availability of infrastructural facilities will be enormous as manufacturers in the sector of the economy would have an enabling environment to be used in the developmental efforts thereby keeping their factories running,” he said.

    “A lot of jobs will also be created by them for young men and women,” he added.

    The industrialist who argued that the liquidity problems experienced in the economy by BCI’s members, other manufacturers in other sectors and the public in the fourth quarter of 2013, which continued in early 2014 is still being experienced, said “We call on Government to inject more funds into system so that the much needed infrastructural development is given better attention across the federation.”

    On the recession, which is affectingentrepreneurs and manufacturers in the country, Tella noted that the activities of the club had been down played for sometime, hence the need to restrategise and reposition it to perform the objectives for which it was set up.

  • Business confidence down by 5.1%, says LCCI

    Business confidence down by 5.1%, says LCCI

    The Business Confidence Index (BCI) in Nigeria has has dropped by 5.1 per cent, a survey conducted by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has revealed.

    According to the report, it dipped in the third quarter of this year because investors and business leaders remained wary about the state of the economy and the challenging business environment.

    The survey showed that in the third quarter, aggregate BCI declined to 14.3 per cent from 19.4 per cent posted in the second quarter. This represents 5.1 per cent point drop.

    The BCI is a leading economic indicator designed to measure the degree of optimism on the state of the economy that business leaders are expressing through their activities of investing and spending.

    Decreasing business confidence is often a pointer to slowing economic activities because business owners are likely to decrease their investment.

    LCCI said  the latest drop of the BCI suggested that business leaders remained largely pessimistic about expanding their investment over the next few months.

    It said: “Nigeria’s BCI scores over the years continue to trail below the 50 per cent global business confidence threshold. Investors and business leaders remain wary about the state of the economy and the challenging business environment.

    “The key factors that mostly depressed the confidence level of business leaders at this time are: security challenges across the country, political transition/electioneering activities and associated risks, cargo clearing issues and access to and from the nation’s foremost ports – Apapa and Tin Can; policy uncertainties and regulatory concerns; and worsening public power supply.”

    The survey added that all the sectors reported positive business confidence levels in the third quarter, adding that interestingly, the manufacturing sector posted a positive confidence level of four per cent for the second time over the last seven quarters.

    “This sector has consistently remained at the bottom of the BCI league table by steadily recording negative confidence levels. Medium and small manufacturing enterprises are the most hit by the lingering challenges constraining productive activities in the country

    “The most disturbing factor for manufacturers includes: power supply challenges, logistics challenges, the influx of imported and substandard products, preference for imported goods by Nigerians, poor access to credit, high cost of doing business, infrastructure shortcoming and inhibitive activities of government regulatory/monitoring agencies,” the survey said.

  • ‘Declare state of emergency in job sector’

    Business Club, Ikeja (BCI) Lagos has called on the Federal Government to tackle unemployment.

    The group noted that one way of doing this is by declaring a state of emergency on job creation for the teeming unemployed youths in the country. The action, the group said, would help the nation’s human capital development index drive the economy

    BCI’s President, Mr  Suleiman Tella,  deplored the poor power supply in the country, noting that the development has severe impact on the manufacturing sector and Nigerians, and that many have lost their jobs as a result of this.

    He said:  ”To nip the practice in the bud, the Federal Government should consider declaring state of emergency in the job sector”.

    “One of the ways to deal with this menace is to declare state of emergency in job creation. Without job for the angry youths, the police can do little in its fight against crime.

    “The time is ripe for the Federal Government to reconsider creation of state police. State police is needed now more than ever as it will help to stem the tide of insecurity. Government should come up with more stringent penalties to punish individuals who engage in kidnapping, armed robbery, unprovoked murder and assassination as well as other heinous crimes against humanity so as to deter people from engaging in them.”

    He expressed disgust over the spate of insecurity in the country and disclosed that the development is caused by large scale youth unemployment in the land.

    While calling on power sector  investors to meet the necessary supply target that would boost the potentials of manufacturers in the year, he expressed dissatisfaction with the dwindling power generation capacity and said it is far below the target set by the Federal Government.

    He said: “It is disheartening that despite the huge sum of money that has been sunk into revamping the ailing power sector, no significant improvement has been felt by Nigerians.

    “We pray that the power sector now  in private hands will live up to expectation as poor power supply represents a major challenge to the real sector and informal sector of the economy.”