The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Business

  • Ambode woos investors at Nairobi business summit

    Ambode woos investors at Nairobi business summit

    Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode yesterday said the state is willing, able and ready to partner with investors within and outside Africa, just as he said that adequate measures have been put in place to enhance the ease of doing business within the state.

    Ambode, who spoke at the second edition of German-African Business Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, said as Africa’s model mega city, Lagos is strategically positioned to play a leading role in propelling development on the continent, adding that as a result of the growing investors’ confidence, the state is fast becoming a preferred destination for investors in Africa.

    Giving statistics about state, the governor said apart from being the fifth largest economy and fastest growing city in Africa with a population of over 22 million people comprising overwhelming proportion of middle class income earners, Lagos is also the contributor of 30 per cent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the leading contributor to the non-oil sector GDP.

    He said: “Lagos accounts for over 60 percent of the country’s industrial and commercial activities; over 70 per cent of national maritime cargo freight; over 80 per cent of international aviation traffic, and over 50 per cent of Nigeria’s energy consumption.”

  • ‘I defied odds to start my business’

    Naija Wears Ltd founder Ruth Okechukwu is a passionate entrepreneur. DANIEL ESSIET reports that she grew her business through hardwork.

    Co-Founder  Naija Wears Ltd, Ruth Okechukwu, carried a dream with her for many years. Today, she has achieved her dream through her business Naija Wears Limited.  She saw opportunities in hospitality, publishing and fashion. After a painstaking market research, she registered a business. She refined her business model, and started businesses in publishing and hospitality.

    She said:  “I started with the hospitality industry because it’s something I love so much that I will do even if I don’t get paid for it. So it’s easy to cope with disappointments.”

    Along the line, she spotted the business opportunity within the online shopping space.  She decided it would be a great business selling the nation’s incredible fashion designs. She believes the business environment provided an advantage.

    She started with N100,000, prepared a budget and worked within that budget.

    “I bought a new laptop with N70,000, WiFi router with N20,000 and miscellaneous with 10,000 (official letter-heads, receipt, stamps and others). In exchange for her knowledge in the field, a colleague agreed to share his office space with her and that was all she needed. Her online platform provides   a market place for different brands, from high end luxury, to high street fashionable wears.  Fashion lovers have a great place to check out  vintage items.

    For Ruth, it was the right idea at the right time, helping Nigerians  with the capacity to buy designer items at home or at their desk, taking away the pressure of walking. The other issue is that her site is all about affordable, up to date fashion for those who do not have a huge money.  New designs are released to keep up with changing tastes.  She has raised awareness about her platform by promoting its products on social networking sites.  She is five years old in the business world. So far, the business is striving. She has four workers now. She sees the business as still very young and full development of the business a long way off. But she is working in small steps.

    He said: “To stay afloat in the economy, you must be able to predict the ups and turns of the curve and stay ahead of it. You must be able to understand each new policy and know how it affects your customers and know what policy you also have to put in place to counter its negative effects on your business. If you can do this correctly and consistently, the sky is your starting point.

    “To truly be a competitor, you must bring in a new flavour, something they haven’t been getting from anywhere before.”

    For her, life is perseverance and that comes with patience, prioritisation and correct time management.

  • ‘Don’t expect buoyant real estate business’

    ‘Don’t expect buoyant real estate business’

    Mr. Diran Adetunji, an Abuja estate surveyor and valuer, speaks on the place of the real estate sector in Nigeria’s economy and its prospects this year, among other issues, in this interview with BUKOLA BOLAJOKO.

    How important is the real estate sector to the economy?

    All over the world, real estate is very important and crucial to the economy and to the development of the nation. The importance of real estate sector cannot be over-emphasised. Apart from the fact that it creates and generates enormous employment opportunities, it also assist in ensuring that the citizens are empowered and their living standard is enhanced. When you have a major real estate activity in place for instance, there would be opportunities for plumbers to handle sanitary works. The services of artisans, electricians, civil and mechanical engineers, and even food vendors would also be required. In other words, people would be employed and empowered economically, and when people are gainfully employed, particularly in the real estate sector, it generates some other enormous activities, with a lot of positive trickle down effects for the people.

    How would you describe Nigeria’s real estate in 2016?

    Needless to state that the economy effectively ran into recession, due to the fact that it (the economy) contracted seriously in the fourth quarter of last year. The change in the government, coupled with the worldwide change in virtually every sphere of life, financial, economic, climate and several other areas all combined to define the real estate outlook in 2016. Also, the economic meltdown of the recent past; the effects are yet to completely disappear. Unfortunately, some nations, Nigeria inclusive, were not pragmatic enough to diversify sources of income, and expectedly, they ran into economic booby traps as other mono economy nations, and subsequently cannot withstand the pace at which the developed nations introduced creativity in all spheres of their life. The developed countries are busy devising other sources of energy; hence the wholesome demand for crude oil is no longer fashionable there. When you look at what Nigeria generate from crude oil today, you ask yourself how that paltry sum can effectively finance the budget of Africa’s biggest market and most populous nation

    All these have negative effects on the entire economic outlook, and when you now look at real estate, which is volume driven, you realise that it has a much negative effect on the sector. Even a small project of two-bedroom flat will run into millions of naira, and the mortgage institutions, which are supposed to provide and offer palliative measures for people buying houses or people going into property development are not really developed or strong enough to offer such services. Most primary mortgage institutions you see are practically and fully engaged in the usual banking business. So, you don’t have solid mortgage institutions that can support property development business and enhance it further. The banks don’t want to engage in real estate financing because it is a long-term gestation project, so loans given if at all are for short term runs, and you cannot use a short term loan for a long gestation project. All these create a major crisis in real estate.

    This is not to cast aspersion or score a political point, prior to the current regime, real estate business and activities were buoyant and dynamic, perhaps due to free money here and there. Crude oil  prices were high, production levels too were sustained, demand for it was stable and consistent, and money was everywhere in all the sectors and the FDIs too were coming. Funds trapped abroad were repatriated, and all these made the difference. These funds found their way into real estate because of the traditional belief that real estate investment is the only one that has an edge against inflation. You will never get it wrong with real estate investment due to its various unique concepts of location advantage, capital growth, and returns on investment, which makes real estate investment worthwhile. But right now, we are in recession fully, and that we operate a mono-economy complicates the problems with the price of crude oil nose diving to an all-time low, high energy cost, weak exchange rate all conspired to impact on productivity and competitiveness across all sectors of nation economic activities. By the time you add this to the unrest in the Niger Delta, militancy and destruction of pipelines, leading to shortfalls in supply, the unfriendly agricultural environment occasioned by the rampaging attacks of Fulani herdsman on the farmers and their farm produce, all have affected the national income, as well as every other sectors of the economy and the real estate has its share of the problem. When you go round the major cities of Nigeria, you find out that many buildings are unoccupied, and nobody is actually requesting for them, meaning that transactions have gone down drastically.

    Should we expect a different outlook in 2017?

    It will be truly magical for real estate to bounce back to vibrancy and buoyancy in 2017. Unless there is a major policy shift in the direction of housing and infrastructure development, I don’t see the real estate sector prospering in 2017. After the World War II, the western nations embarked on the Marhall Plan, which created enormous activities in infrastructure development. This is the sector with the ability to absorb a large chunk of unemployed people. We should look at the present situation as if we are emerging from war with the need for massive infrastructure development and similar activities. The government had introduced the Single Treasury Account; I will suggest that these funds should be administered by a few credible banks for government with the mandate to allocate funds and loans to different sectors of the economy to create vibrant economic dynamics because we cannot afford to be static. I think it is important on the part of the government to look into this aspect and have a rethink, because a few notes of naira that are working are better than millions  lying idle.

    Let me quickly add that real estate sector is a highly specialised area where government must introduce and implement the right policies. The government must engage the professionals in the industry for better results because you must listen to diverse opinions at times such like this. The Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers is veritably placed to give the government the much-needed advice on how to restore the real estate business into vibrancy, structure the mortgage institutions and increase our housing stocks. Hitherto, the problems have been created by putting in place those who do not know much about real estate sector, hence you realise that most of the property developers are traders, otherwise, the issue of 17 million housing deficiency would not have arisen.

    What do you think should be done to quickly come out of the recession?

    It is a paradox that a nation like Nigeria, one of the leading nations in the comity of nations, finds itself in a recession. It is quite unfortunate. We don’t have to be in this recession in the first place because in terms of human and material resources, we have them in abundance. One would have expected a nation, such as ours to have envisaged and fully prepare for the raining day. If the right things had been done, we would not have been in recession. But to get out of the mess, the government must develop institutions. When you have strong and viable institutions, it will be difficult for people to run government as if it were their private estates and the nation would be better for it. We must begin to build institutions and stop building individuals. If you have strong institutions, funds meant for particular purposes would not disappear into private pockets.

    Another step we must take is to embark on massive investment in the construction and reconstruction of infrastructure. With this, many people will be gainfully employed. We must also diversify the economy as a matter of priority. We must invest in agriculture, this is the only country in the world where I see green grass grow on the rock, yet we spent billions of dollars importing rice from Thailand. This is shameful. Policy inconsistencies have contributed largely to this, and it is about time we harmonise our policies. We had the Operation Feed the Nation and we had the Green Revolution. The government should dust these policies, harmonise and implement them immediately.

    The tax regime should also be looked into. At the moment, it exerts too much pressure on the private sector. Mind you, it is the only sector that is employing now, and the sector must not be stifled to death. A willing horse must not be ridden to death.

    I am also of the view that those given the responsibilities of policy formulation should take proactive steps in creating enabling environment for real estate to drive the economy and ensure that mortgage institutions make cogent contributions to that extent. Granted that the government has set up the Nigeria Mortgage Refinancing Company (NMRC), we expect the mortgage institutions in Nigeria to come up with suggestions on how to revive the moribund sector and make it a driver of property acquisition, real estate and national development.

    What is the state of the Abuja property market?

    Abuja is a peculiar case because if you consider most of the rents and value of properties that are obtainable in Abuja, they do not have any economic justification because this is a civil servant city, take it or leave it. It is different from cities like Lagos, Kano, and Port Harcourt, which are laced with commercial potential and activities. You will find out that there is economic justification for rents and property values in those places. There are no industries here in Abuja; no manufacturing outfits.

    Most properties that you see here are built for opulence. With the seat of the government relocated to Abuja, with embassies relocating their operational headquarters to Abuja, with government and parastatals chief executives here, the classes and configuration of houses were constructed and tailored to meet the taste of these people. So, you realise that when there is a change in economic situation just as we find ourselves now, we are at the mercies of God to navigate through the current storm in the property business. So, basically what I am saying in essence is that coming from that perspective, it has created a big problem for us. We are the hardest hit by this economic recession and the entire change mantra.

    The crisis in Abuja is terrible. If you take a drive round the city, you will see that properties are just there, people and companies are not taking them. I can tell you categorically that some landlords are now telling the agents to reduce rents. It is as bad as that.

     

  • How to exit business, by experts

    Business exit experts have advised entrepreneurs on different ways they can not only exit their businesses but also how they can carry out business valuation if they want to sell or buy.

    The experts, who shared their views during, the CompexAfrica business exit forum in Lagos, advised technopreneurs to engage the services of experts should the need arise for them to sell or buy into any business. The experts shared their experiences on how to prepare a company for sale, and how to value small businesses too.

    CompexAfrica platform, which has over 90 businesses worth several billions of naira listed on it for sale, brought together some business buyers and sellers recently.

    A Director from Ernst & Young, Damilola  Aloba in his presentation said “business valuation is an art and not a science”. It depends largely on the aims and objectives of either the buyer or seller at a particular point in time.

    According to him, the three fundamental approaches to business valuation are asset-approach, market-approach and income-approach. He added that intrinsic and relative valuations can also be used.

    In intrinsic, the value of an asset is estimated based upon the business cash flow, growth potential and risk. While in relative valuing, assets are valued by looking at what the market prices of similar assets are.

  • Brisk business for FCT restaurants, eateries

    Brisk business for FCT restaurants, eateries

    Many restaurants and eateries in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have recorded high patronage during the Christmas and New year celebrations.

    Workers of some of the eateries visited by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday said the current recession did not stop customers from patronising their services.

    Ada Obe, a staff of Chicken Republic, said that the eatery had been very busy due to the celebrations.

    “Today has been busy for us and we are happy to have started 2017 at this pace.

    “Before the Christmas period, things were a bit slow but things changed since the season started.

    “We became very busy due to the high patronage and we are happy about it,” she said.

    Grace Iozua, a staff of Ace Diner, said, “we anticipated a low turnout of customers during the season because of the economic challenges and the fact that people have traveled”.

    “But we are happy to see the number of people that trooped in on Christmas Eve and we have been busy every day, since then.

    “I guess it is clear that no matter how bad the economy gets, food will always be an important element of celebration among Nigerians,” Iozua said.

    Samuel Obi, a staff of Charcoal Grill, said that there were more customers who came in for the New Year celebration than expected.

    “We have had many customers come in today mainly in large groups like families or groups of friends who want to have good food as they celebrate another year.

    “I don’t think I can say the economy has affected our patronage much as we know that we Nigerians save money toward celebrating the end of year in style and comfort. However, we pray that things will get better this year.”

    The FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Bello, has congratulated residents of the Federal Capital Territory as the world celebrates the New Year 2017.

    In a statement by the minister’s Chief Press Secretary, Hazat Sule on Sunday in Abuja, Bello prayed that the year 2017 would usher in continued peace and prosperity.

    He appreciated God “for sparing our lives to witness the New Year, in spite of the daunting challenges facing the nation.”

    The minister urged residents of the FCT, irrespective of religious belief, social affiliation or political inclination to continue to live in peace with one another.

    He assured that just as the FCTA embarked on completion of major on-going road projects in the city during the preceding year, the Administration would continue in

    the New Year and beyond.

    He expressed the commitment of the FCT Administration to continue to provide serene and clean environment in consonance with the Road Map of his Administration.

    The minister noted that “the Administration sees the New Year as a watershed in several respects because it is determined to provide the highest possible service to people in the territory.”

    He reiterated the administration’s commitment to ensure that the New Year

    witnessed remarkable progress in many areas of service delivery, having in mind that Abuja was the window through which the world sees Nigeria.

    He urged residents to be security conscious while the FCT Administration continued

    to work in concert with the security community to guarantee the safety of the lives and property across the Territory.

    The minister also urged residents to continue to be peace-loving, law abiding and to pray for the nation and its leader, President Muhammad Buhari for the country to surmount its challenges.

    The minister solicited the cooperation and understanding of residents of the Federal Capital Territory, to enable the Administration to build an all-inclusive capital city with services provided optimally.

  • 2016: Bad year for business

    2016: Bad year for business

    Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf in this report, attempts a review of some of the major decisions, events and policy initiatives that shaped the economy in the outgoing year

    To say that year 2016 was a very eventful year is to simply state the obvious. Truth is that the outgone year had a fair share of what you could easily call the good, the bad and the ugly in a manner of speaking.

    In retrospect, 2016 threw up a lot of issues chief among which include the fiscal policies of the federal government which had rippled effects on the economy to the new exchange rate regime of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) meant to curtail the unprecedented fall of the naira against the greenback as well as the introduction of the new pump price amongst other far-reaching policies implemented in the last 12 months.

    For the avoidance of doubt and confusion, at this juncture a few examples would suffice.

    The devil is in the details

    As always Nigerians looked forward with optimism last year following assurances from President Muhammadu Buhari in his New Year broadcast that his government remains committed towards alleviating the sufferings of the teeming populace.

    President Buhari had assured that ‘’The effective and efficient implementation of our 2016 budget proposals will address many of the socio-economic issues that are of current concern to our people. One area in which Nigerians, especially those in the northeast, have already begun to experience major change is in the war on terror.’’

    But the assurances by the president never came into fruition because the 2016 budget upon which the plank of hope rested was hamstrung by delays as a result of accusations and counteraccusations of budget padding scandal.

    Specifically, the two arms of the National Assembly, the Senate and the House of Representatives had declared that the 2016 budget was full of errors. This sparked off the budget crisis between the legislature and executive arms of government which subsisted till September that eventually led to the suspension of the erstwhile chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation Hon. Jibrin Abdulmumin for one year.

    Just as the presidency battled the budget padding brouhaha, it also faced a lot of pressures from the organised labour over increase in pump price.

    The was just as the month of March was characterised by acute shortage of fuel across the country with long queues of motorists being the common sight at major filling stations where the product was relatively available.

    Thus after several meetings and heated debates between the federal government and union leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress, the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) met and the federal government capped fuel price at N145 per litre in mid-May despite threats from the union leaders to resist the hike.

    The announcement was made by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. The increment, according to Minister of Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu would lead to improved supply and competition which would in turn boost the nation’s foreign earnings.

    Besides pump price, other contending issues the government faced include the full implementation of the treasury single account (TSA), planned sales of assets, proposed plan to borrow the sum of $29.960billion loan (approximately N14trillion) to fill the funding gaps in next year’s budget, amongst others.

    It may be recalled that the federal government proposal as presented by the Presidency to the leaders of the upper and lowest legislative chambers of the National Assembly showed that the external borrowing plan of $29.960 billion is meant to execute key infrastructure projects across the country between 2016 and 2018.

    Buhari had stated in his letter that the money would be expended on infrastructure in agriculture, health, education, water supply, growth and employment generation, and poverty reduction through social safety net programmes, among others.

    But President Buhari’s bid to borrow $29.96 billion suffered a setback as the Senate President Abubakar Bukola Saraki declared that the National Assembly was not persuaded about its propriety, a development which prompted the Presidency to ask the relevant ministers to revisit the draft proposal in order to address the grey areas highlighted by the National Assembly.

    In the course of the outgoing year, there was also a heated debate over the planned sale of some of the nation’s choice assets, an issue which was a subject of controversy.

    Alhaji Aliko Dangote, billionaire businessman, may have flew the first kite in an interview with CNBC last September when he impressed on the federal government the need to sell its assets, especially the NLNG to save the country from its current economic woes instead of going seeking fresh foreign loans.

    Speaking on a Bloomberg television interview at the US-Africa business forum in New York the business mogul suggested that the proceeds be invested into the economy to boost development. “Considering the crisis we have today, if we have $15bn and add it to $25bn; that is $40bn reserves. Confidence will come back and government will back it up with proper economic policies where people can see the roadmap. Latest, by the fourth quarter, we will be out of recession. It should be a partnership between government and the private sector. We have all the answers,” he said.

    As if acting out a written script, Dangote got the nod of some eminent Nigerians, including the Emir of Kano and former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Muhammadu Sanusi II, as well as Senate President Bukola Saraki.

    Also, speaking at an interactive session with top media executives in Lagos, the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele disclosed that the country would soon commence the sale of about 15 per cent of its oil assets held by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which is expected to yield an inflow of $10bn for the country.

    He noted that the country’s income would have been beefed up to $15bn if the assets had been sold earlier in the year.

    But the groundswell of opposition towards the planned sale of the national assets made the federal government to backpedal.

    The Senate also opened a public hearing on its intention to harmonise the functions of development finance institutions in the country towards the establishment of an apex finance house, the National Development Bank of Nigeria.

    The House of Representatives, acting the same script, raised a committee to examine the modus operandi of state-owned development finance institutions, DFIs. Listed for periscope are the Bank of Industry, Bank of Agriculture, Nigeria Export -Import Bank, Nigeria Export Promotion Council, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises Development Agency, National Economic Reconstruction Fund and Federal Mortgage Bank.

    Lending credence to the foregoing, Adeosun assured that the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) will kick-off by January 2017.

    She confirmed that her team was removing development bottlenecks and already working on the proceeds of the World Bank/IMF meetings in Washington DC.

    “DBN is very important because it is going to provide money for MSMEs; and for Nigeria, that is really important, because 50 percent of our GDP is from small, medium-sized companies, petty traders, so finding a way to get money towards them is a really important part of getting out of the challenges that we currently face.”

    Also the economic headwinds greatly affected the banks thus leading to massive job loss in the sector, a development which made the federal government to intervene by mandating the banks to stop the retrenchment exercise.

    Some heartening news

    2016 will also go down in the annals of the nation’s history as one year a sizeable number of states suffered a lot of deprivations most of them are not willing to admit. From worries over backlog of unpaid salary arrears to sectarian crisis, workers’ strikes, to mention just a few, are some of the issues states have had to contend with these past months.

    Of course, the parlous state of the economy occasioned by the fall in global crude oil prices and the attendant dwindling oil receipts further shrink federal allocation to the states.

    Faced with this grim reality most states which hitherto went cap-in-hand to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, to collect their share of the monthly federal allocation which was no longer forthcoming just had to think up more ingenious means and ways of addressing the revenue shortfall by looking inwards.

    Thankfully, the process of looking inwards have seen most of the states become a lot more innovative in recent times such that they have been able to take advantage of their comparative advantages (no pun intended).

    The Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun alluded to this fact at a public forum in Lagos last month.

    According to her, “Unlike when we had the luxury of a fantastic oil revenue and most Commissioners of Finance across the states converged in Abuja to collect their monthly allocation now we only come together to share ideas about what opportunities are available where and how others can tap from such opportunities.

    “It is this new thinking that has given rise to some positive developments we’re now seeing around us. Today, Ebonyi and Kebbi states are now growing rice on a massive scale both for local consumption and even for export. Anambra state now exports vegetables and so are other states making concerted efforts towards improving their internally generated revenue (IGR) because there is no more free oil money anywhere.”

    Expectedly, this interface and discussion sessions by the states is what has enabled Lagos State in Southwest and Kebbi State in Northwest to forge a synergy of cooperation in the area of rice production.

    There were also private sector-led initiatives which impacted the economy in the last 12 months one of which is Innoson Group, which in the course of the year partnered with a consortium of Chinese investors to pump in $1billion into Nigeria’s information technology sector of the economy. This includes $400million which will be invested in Nigeria’s DSO project Digital Satellite TV Station and an additional $600million covering other important sectors.

    The Vice President of Nigeria, Prof Yemi Osinbajo received the consortium of Chinese Foreign Investment Group, led by Liu Baoju, a Deputy Minister of Communist Party of China in Shandong Province, who is equally the Chairman of Shandong Broadcasting Group and Shandong Cable Interactive Service Ltd, the world’s biggest TV operators and Huang Gang, Senior Vice President of Inspur Group and President of its Overseas Headquarters.

  • Trump to severe business ties, focus on presidency

    Trump to severe business ties, focus on presidency

    U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has said that he would separate himself from his business and focus on governance when sworn-in as President.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Trump disclosed this in a series of tweet, amid rising concerns on conflicts between his business and the presidency.

    “I will be holding a major news conference in New York City with my children on Dec. 15 to discuss the fact that I will be leaving my great business in total.

    “This is in order to fully focus on running the country in order to ‘Make America Great Again!

    “While I am not mandated to do this under the law, I feel it is visually important, as President, to in no way have a conflict of interest with my various businesses.

    “Hence, legal documents are being crafted which take me completely out of business operations.

    “The Presidency is a far more important task!” the president-elect said.

    NAN reports that Trump reportedly has interests in no fewer than 500 businesses currently. (NAN)

  • ‘I started business with N250,000’

    ‘I started business with N250,000’

    The Chief Executive, Simply Green, Shola Ladoja, is an entrepreneur whose natural juices success story has become a source of inspiration to start-ups, DANIEL ESSIET reports.

    With national demand for juices on the rise, Chief  Executive, Simply Green, Shola Ladoja is a diligent producer.

    He started the business with N250, 000 in  May 2014.

    Little by little, the business began to grow and turnover increased.

    The company is one of the fastest growing fruit juice companies in a fiercely competitive environment, it is now worth millions.

    Ladoja started the firm primarily because he wanted to drink juice not knowing it was going to be a successful business.

    Before moving back to Lagos from New York, he drank green juice almost everyday.

    But upon returning to Nigeria, he couldn’t find any good quality juice, so he created one to cater for his needs and that of other people like him.

    Simply Green Juices is Nigeria’s first farm-to-bottle organic cold-pressed juice company promoting healthy living and sustainable agriculture at the same time.  The juice it produces is 100 per cent  natural and additives-free.

    Starting from Lagos, the  juice product without preservatives is being sold in major cities in the country. He said the  company would like to increase its reach to consumers in other states.

    To achieve this, he said the company is working hard to implement last-mile distribution models that bring juice to  the doorsteps of consumers at an affordable price.

    He said he gets his raw materials from the company’s farms and other partner farmers and  keeps everything local from bottles to labels.

    The produce, fresh from the farm field, is taken to the factory where it is first inspected and sorted. The workers wash the fruits and vegetables with a bubble washer to get rid of impurities.

    After washing, produce is disinfected to kill harmful bacteria, germs and parasites then they spin out the water left on the produce from washing and disinfecting using a high speed centrifuge. When fruits and vegetable are completely dried, it goes through the cold pressed machine which extracts the juice from fruit and vegetable in the absence of heat, retaining almost all the nutrients found in the whole fruits and vegetables without the fibre.

    After extraction, a three-mesh filter is used to make sure that all the pulp and fibre before bottling are removed and rapidly cooled to four degree celsius to stop the growth of any bacteria.

    With the market growing at a healthy rate and with changing lifestyles and rising levels of health consciousness among consumers, the demand for healthier  natural products such  packaged fruit juice is only going to increase in times to come.

    According to him, Nigerians are aware of the importance of healthy, high-quality foods.

    So far, his business has grown through  enthusiasm and determination, and he has increased the number of his employees.

    In addition to large farms, providing him 60 per cent of the raw materials, Ladoja has built a processing facility.

    Ladoja said price is a challenge because of the high cost of packaging fresh juice in a manner that can compete with foreign brands.

    But he didn’t cut his entrepreneurial teeth from the food industry.

    He runs two different firms – Real Livestock, a company which focuses on the commercial cultivation of grains and meat production and Simply Green Limited, which owns a farm and produces four flavours of Simply Green Juices.

  • ‘We are making brisk business selling dog meat’

    ‘We are making brisk business selling dog meat’

    Women in Tafawa Balewa town of Bauchi State have ventured into the selling of dog meat, once the exclusive preserve of men in the area, and are making brisk business.

    A Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) who visited the town on Sunday, reports that the business was providing financial succour to a lot of women.

    Some of them who spoke to NAN said they veered into the trade because the menfolk appeared not to be interested in the business any longer.

    They said even though in the past, meat selling business was exclusively reserved for the men-folk, it had now become an ‘all-embracing’ trade for both men and women.

    Mrs Lucy John, one of the butchers, said some women decided to take to the trade because their male counterparts were gradually abandoning it and venturing into other trades.

    She said that dog meat, being a delicacy in the area, was fast becoming a scarce commodity in the market because the male butchers were gradually abandoning the business.

    John said the neglect of the business by men had opened up an opportunity for women, not just to prepare and sell dog meat, but also breed and market the animal, especially because of the lucrative nature of the business.

    She said that during festive seasons, they made ‘good money’ because dogs were expensive, with the least price being N5000.

    “The abandonment of the trade by men created an opportunity for me and other women to make money, feed our family and satisfy other needs of our people.

    “Selling dog meat is the best as people in the community love eating the meat,’’ she said.

    John said during the celebration of an annual cultural festival in Tafawa Balewa, she slaughtered four dogs at the cost of N25, 000, sold the meat and made huge profit.

    “We need to do this for survival and since dog meat is preferred in this community, we make business out of it.

    “I used to slaughter only one dog at a time but I now kill six,” she added.

    Another woman, Mrs Blessing John, also corroborated the statement of Lucy, saying that this was ‘boom time’ because of the just concluded and impending festivities.

    She said she had slaughtered six dogs during a recently concluded cultural festival, adding that each ‘piece’ of meat was sold at N100.

    “Our men no longer do this (selling dog meat) because they are no longer interested, and for us women, we need to survive, as such had to engage in the trade since the patronage is very high.

    Madam Kyauta Illiya, a consumer of dog meat, explained that the delicacy had a unique taste as such she preferred eating it over any other meat.

    She said dog meat had become a favourite cuisine among some people of the area, and had value.

    Mr Isiaku Gambo, another consumer, claimed that dog meat had medicinal effect as it could serve as cure for some diseases.

    He insisted that eating dog meat prevented one from any attack and also served as an antidote to some diseases.

    “If you serve me varieties like fish, cow, chicken and dog meat, I will opt for dog meat because the meat is nice.

    “In this community, those who eat dog meat are the strongest,’’ he said. (NAN)

    AE/FHO/ASH

    Edited by Hawa Lawal/Controlled by Abdullahi Salihu

    ==

    Posted in Economy |

  • Airtel unveils Nigeria with Airtel Business

    Airtel unveils Nigeria with Airtel Business

    Airtel Nigeria has launched ‘Nigeria with Airtel Business’, a bouquet of services designed for global, large and medium organisations in the public and private sectors.

    The product offers end-to-end telecom and connectivity solutions to companies under one roof, thereby eliminating the challenge of dealing with multiple vendors and integration issues associated with same.

    The  solution is aimed at considerably improving the ease of setting up a business in Nigeria, given the critical role telecom and connectivity solutions play in today’s environment. Airtel’s global telecom network and integrated product portfolio is perfectly placed to offer a seamless one stop solution to companies and improve their go- to-market speeds.

    The solution offers a complete suite of ICT services Including mobile voice and data, Nnational and international network connectivity on leased line, MPLS and VSAT, IP Transit, IP Access, Data Centre, Cloud, Managed Services, M2M mobile advertising and extensive suite of Value Added Services.

    Airtel will offer global companies, particularly those in the digital space, extensive market reach through joint go-to-market programs.

    Airtel Director Enterprise Business, Tawa Bolarin said: “Given the impetus from the government’s ‘Made in Nigeria’ initiative, Nigeria is fast becoming a definite strategic market for multinationals across the globe.

    “With Airtel’s integrated product portfolio, we believe that we are uniquely placed to seamlessly serve the connectivity needs of companies looking to set up businesses in Nigeria. Also, companies can leverage Airtel’s deep understanding of the Nigeria Enterprise market and our vast customer and distribution network.”