The Nation Newspaper

Tag: convenience

  • Doctorcare247 brings convenience, access to healthcare delivery

    Doctorcare247, an integrated telehealth platform that enables doctors and other healthcare specialists to diagnose and treat patients online, has been launched in Lagos. At  the heart of the telehealth package are features to provide access, aid service delivery, and bring convenience to users, thus promising to bring about a revolution in the way healthcare is accessed and delivered in the country.

    At the formal unveiling of the service, Chucks Chibundu, chief executive officer of Doctorcare247, said the platform is designed to change the landscape of healthcare delivery in Nigeria. According to him, the primary reason for creating the online platform is to bring convenience to the people, especially now that patients clamour for convenience and quick access instead of spending their precious time on endless queues in hospitals waiting to access treatment.

    It provides round-the-clock e-health consultations through doctors and specialists certified by the Nigerian Medical and Dental Council, the professional health regulatory body for the professions of medicine and dentistry in the country. What this means is that the platform provided by Doctorcare247 can help users to break the barriers of distance, travel time, logistics and long waiting hours in hospitals because its features allow patients to access quality healthcare services from medical providers online, anytime and anywhere.

    “What we have done is to make sure that patients can get healthcare services whenever and wherever they need them. People are searching for convenience; they want everything delivered to their doorsteps. So, imagine you don’t have to go to the hospital and wait for hours just to see a doctor. That is what Doctorecare247 will do for you. You can easily consult your doctor via audio, video calls and text, instead of going to the hospital,” Chibundu said.

    While acknowledging that telehealth is an entirely new thing in Nigeria, Chibundu said he is optimistic that Doctorcare247 is an idea whose time has come because experience has shown that Nigerians, like their counterparts abroad, want convenience in everything they do, including shopping. When the idea started two years ago, the health technology expert and former banker said he decided to travel around the world to learn more about the features and drivers of their telehealth industry and how these can be localised in the country to the benefit of everyone. “I remember two years ago, when the idea came, people questioned why I wanted to go into something that had not been done. Why not?  That was my response, because I was convinced of the efficacy of the solution and the need and gap it was going to fill,” he said.

    Through the use of information and communication technology, Doctorcare247 seeks to bring virtual access to its users for treatments such as general wellness, child wellness, mental wellness, lifestyle management and remote patient management. Its features show that the doctor-patient consultations are done via a secure high definition video chat, texts or calls with all records held in a secure cloud storage. With a mobile device such as computer, laptop or phone, a patient can schedule consultation sessions at his or her convenience through a branded application on IOS, Android or via the web. Its promoters said consultations will be done via a secure communication channel in high definition video, audio and text chat between patients and remote healthcare providers such as doctors and consultants. The platform is built to transmit images, data and sound in real-time, while patients can also post questions about simple health conditions under text consultations.

    At the unveiling ceremony, Foluke Akinniranye, chief retail officer of HealthPlus Ltd, a fast-growing pharmacy chain, said her company has investigated Doctorcare247 and can confirm that it is credible, adding that it is what Nigeria needs at this time to address issues of lack of access to healthcare, self-medication and self-prescription. Akinniranye, who said she has worked in the United States’s health sector for 20 years before returning home last year, attested to the efficacy of telehealth and stressed that Doctorcare247 can help the government in fulfilling its mandate of providing quality healthcare services to citizens. She enjoined hospitals, laboratories, pharmacy stores and health management organisations in the country to exploit the opportunities provided by the platform to further bring succour to their clients.

    Her position aligned with the views and experiences of people – both doctors and patients – who have used the service and provided testimonials and endorsements for the telehealth platform. An elated Charles Odibo, a public relations expert who compered at the ceremony, also applauded the innovation as a platform that is set to take Nigeria’s healthcare delivery to its next level where citizens will be empowered with access to healthcare delivery at the best convenience possible, instead of spending time agonising in hospitals. “Doctorcare247 is about accessing healthcare anytime and anywhere. It is about giving convenience and access to medical practitioners 24 hours in a day and seven days a week. It is exciting because you can easily reach a pharmacy, a doctor, even a laboratory from your phone. This will help the overall healthcare of the country,” he enthused.

    Thanks to the rising popularity of telehealth, which has contributed to the widespread use of apps by clinicians and their patients, a transformation in the delivery of health information and services is fast taking place around the world – a development Doctorcare247 seeks to bring to the fingertips of all Nigerians. In the United States, for example, the platform has triggered a swift shift in the country’s healthcare landscape. Studies suggest that two-thirds of health IT executives in the US believe that the use of mobile technology will substantially or dramatically impact the delivery of healthcare in the future and that the use of mobile devices by physicians to view patient information or access non-protected health information is widespread, and the percentage of clinicians using apps to actively engage in direct patient care has grown in the past years.

    With about 169 million mobile phone subscribers and penetration rate of more than 84 per cent, Chibundu believes Nigeria is Africa’s undisputed largest mobile phone market and a goldmine waiting to be tapped. “The Nigerian digital health space is largely virgin. Government is currently pushing technology and healthcare policies that are aimed at ensuring Nigeria takes advantage of global trends to align and enhance local efforts for desired benefits to Nigerians. Our initiative through Doctorcare247 is to complement efforts of government at building capacity that supports universal healthcare for all, albeit driven by technology.

    “We hereby enjoin all stakeholders in the healthcare space: medical practitioners, corporate organisations, government and individuals to embrace this new and convenient cost-effective solution that would provide opportunity for prompt access to deserving healthcare services. Hospitals and healthcare providers can conveniently extend their services to patients beyond the walls of their locations, using our virtual platform,” Chibundu said.

    To further drive the platform’s acceptability among the populace, a popular Nollywood actress, Roselyn Meurer, was unveiled as Doctorcare247’s brand ambassador. The Doctorcare247 founder said she possesses the right profile and personality that fit “what we are doing here and what we look to achieve.” As the brand ambassador, Meurer promised to use her huge followership on her social media handles and her presence in the film industry to propagate the gospel of Doctorcare247 to all Nigerians “because I am also passionate about any platform that brings access and convenience to healthcare delivery in my country.”

     

  • Mobile bank apps offer convenience, safety

    Mobile bank apps offer convenience, safety

    A bank customer’s experience with kidnappers underscores how early adoption of mobile app service can prevent loss of money, writes ADEDEJI ADEMIGBUJI

    As the banking sector continues to introduce convenience into its offerings for customers, aside the onus of meeting up with its regulator’s cash-less policies, many customers are still wary of adapting to the convenience being marketed.

    Most of the banks, in recent time,  have introduced various conveniences to the market through mobile app, automated teller  machine (ATM) cards and online banking, among others, in an attempt to ensure safe custody of their customers’ money, and ease of transaction without barriers.

    However, one of the factors that always prevent banking customers from adopting this technology is errors on the part of the banks. Some customers have complained of erroneous deductions without early reversal, jammed network and, ultimately, online fraudsters and internet hackers now on the prowl.

    Confirming their fears, a report by the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) disclosed that 1,461 cases of electronic frauds were recorded in Nigeria in 2014. The figure, NIBSS said, represented an increase when compared to the 822 reported cases in 2013

    NIBSS said internet banking, ATMs and other electronic platforms are responsible for the increase in fraudulent activities. Specifically, NIBSS said internet banking and ATM were the lead channels for perpetuating e-fraud in 2014. These, however, made more customers to be afraid of the risk of hooking up with online or mobile banking.

    A recent experience of a member of the National Youth Service Corps, Kelechi Raymond (not real name), at the hands of kidnappers, has given an insight into the good side of customer’s experience with mobile App.

    The Corps member, whose story was online, narrated his ordeal and how bank mobile app saved his bank deposits from being withdrawn by the kidnappers. “I have never been a fan of mobile banking app because of its conditions in Nigeria. The many hitches like connection error, service time out and too many charges, deductions from accounts always make me frown at mobile banking,” he said.

    However, what turned out to be his hatred for using mobile apps later saved him from having his savings withdrawn by kidnappers. On a certain day after his sister had sent a huge amount of money to one of his two bank accounts, FirstBank, the vehicle he boarded was attacked on his way to Port Harcourt and he was accosted by kidnappers.

    He said the kidnappers took possession of all the ATM cards of passengers and collected their passwords. His FirstBank ATM card where he had N265,540, which was transferred to him by his sister for him to start a business after service, was also collected.

    He had left his GTBank debit card where he had N23,000 behind. By providence, when his phone rang, one of the kidnappers, who was waiting for one of their men who had gone to an ATM machine to empty the account of all the kidnapped passengers who had  released their ATMs and passwords under duress, asked the Youth Corps member to show him his ringtone folder. In the process, he was able to log into his FirstBank mobile app and transferred the money into his GTBank account.

    “As I was swiping to get to the folder, I came across the Firstmobile app. something in me said, ‘why don’t you transfer your money in FirstBank to your GTB account?’ At first I was scared, I didn’t know if the ones that had gone to withdraw had already completed the transaction. Or if in the process I might be caught! I had to summon courage to work on my network as fast as possible. I logged in and my N265,540 was still there in my FirstBank account. I transferred the money to my GTBank account. Barely after 15 minutes, they received a call from the ones that went to withdraw that my account had only N540. ‘Nothing dey there’, he told them. They said they were going to hold me there. I began pleading that I was just a Corps member,” he said, adding that he was released three hours later with others.

    As a result, marketing experts believe most banks are offering convenience and safety to customers beyond mere product.  This, according to experts, curbed incidences of fraud in banking transactions in 2015 as mobile money transaction volume grew to N4 billion during the year, the CBN said.

    The Director of Banking and Payments System Department of the CBN, Dipo Fatokun, said the actual loss as a result of fraud in bank transactions dropped from N6.2 billion recorded in 2014 to about N2.3 billion in 2015.

  • Marriage of fiscal convenience

    Marriage of fiscal convenience

    Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele has promised to marry price and financial system stability with economic growth and development. So far, key intervention projects including the N300 billion Real Sector Support Facility and the Development Finance Department (DFD) project are designed to boost the economy and the investment climate, writes COLLINS NWEZE.

    The strength of every economy is in its ability to broaden the scope of development financing to create wealth to ensure better life for the people.

    When Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele came on board on June 3, last year, he recognised the crucial role to be played by the Development Finance Department (DFD) in stimulating the growth of the real sector.

    The apex bank chief was determined to reposition the developmental financing initiatives of the apex bank so as to boost specific enterprise areas in agriculture, manufacturing, health, oil and gas.

    Emefiele also promised to establish Secured Transaction and National Collateral Registry as well as a National Credit Scoring System that will improve access to information on borrowers and assist lenders to make good credit decisions. He equally promised to build resilient financial infrastructure that serves the needs of the lower end of the market, especially those without collateral.

    However, some analysts have challenged the CBN for raising the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) on public sector deposits from 12 per cent to 75 per cent before it was harmonised at 31 per cent for both private and public sector deposits.

    Again, when the falling Brent crude oil prices hit the Nigeria economy, analysts spoke on its implications for the economy. Manufacturers were no longer funding the importation of raw materials because of dollar scarcity and the CBN was urged to further devalue the naira instead of using so much forex in defending the local currency. Despite these resistances, the CBN has continued with policies it believed would boost economic development.

     

    Real sector facility

    Emefiele explained that the N300 billion Real Sector Support Facility (RSSF) was established as part of efforts to unlock the potential of the real sector to engender output growth, value added productivity and job creation. The facility, he said, will support large enterprises for start-ups and expansion of the financing needs of N500 million and a maximum of N10 billion.

    “The real sector activities targeted by the facility are manufacturing, agricultural value chain and selected service sub-sectors.  The facility is expected to improve access to finance by Nigerian Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to fast-track the development of the manufacturing, agricultural value chain and services sub-sectors of the Nigerian economy; increase output, generate employment, diversify the revenue base, increase foreign exchange earnings and provide inputs for the industrial sector on a sustainable basis,” he said.

    Also, N213 billion Nigerian Electricity Market Stabilisation Facility was aimed at settling certain outstanding debts in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI). The facility covers legacy gas debts and the shortfall in revenue during the Interim Rule period (IRP). It is expected that this will guarantee the take-off of the Transitional Electricity Market (TEM). Already, over N56.68 billion disbursed to five generating companies (Gencos) and five distribution companies (Dicos). For Emefiele, the challenges in the power sector  are interconnected with the unexpectedly large revenue shortfalls in the industry, which needed to be fixed.

    Also, the CBN in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMA&RD) established the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS) in 2009, to fast track the development of the agricultural sector, generate employment, and reduce the cost of credit for agricultural production by providing credit facilities for commercial agriculture at a single digit interest rate.

    Already, N38.65 billion has been disbursed to 113 projects while N24.91 billion representing 64.45 per cent of disbursements focused on commodities.

    Also, the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund (ACGSF) was established to provide credit guarantees on facilities extended to farmers by banks up to 75 per cent of the amount in default net of any security realised. In the period under review, there has been an increase of loan limits for unsecured lending from N20,000 to N50,000. There has also been an increase of loan limits for secured lending to corporate bodies under the ACGS from N10 million to N 0 million.

    Agricultural Credit Support Scheme (ACSS) is aimed at developing the agricultural sector of the economy by providing credit facilities to farmers at single digit interest rate to enable large scale farmers exploit the untapped potentials of the sector.

     

    Naira volatility

    Emefiele assumed office at a time there was visible pressure on the naira as well as decline in the country’s foreign reserves. The volatility of the naira has continued, despite several policies aimed at pursuing a gradual reduction in key interest rates, and include the unemployment rate in monetary policy decisions and maintain exchange rate stability and aggressively. The policy of the CBN was als directed at shoring up foreign exchange reserves; strengthening risk-based supervision mechanism of banks to ensure overall health and banking system stability; building sector-specific expertise in banking supervision to reflect loan concentration of the banking industry among others.

    For instance, the CBN closed the Retail Dutch Auction System (RDAS) foreign exchange window at the CBN in order to check further pressure on the country’s foreign exchange to avert the emergence of a multiple exchange rate regime and preserve the country’s foreign exchange reserves.

    Emefiele also proposed to abolish fees associated with limits on deposits and reconsider ongoing practice in which all fees associated with limits on withdrawals accrue to banks alone.

    In spite of all the challenges, chief of which has been the fall in the global price of crude oil, Emefiele and his team at the CBN, have regulated the operations of Bureaux de Change (BDCs) to check rent-seeking among operators, depletion of the nation’s foreign reserves, unauthorised financial transactions, dollarisation of the economy, prunning down the unwieldy number of the BDCs and the unenviable position of Nigeria as the largest importer of dollars in the world.

    Towards achieving the CBN’s mandate of ensuring the safety and soundness of the financial system, it conducted a Risk-Based examination of all banks with High and Above Average Composite Risk Rating in June last year and those with Moderate and Low Composite Risk Rating in September last year.

    Among other examinations, the apex bank also carried out foreign exchange examination of all banks in September last year as well as the routine examination of all discount houses and financial holding companies in October last year. In January this year, it carried out the risk asset examination of 24 banks as at December 31, last year.

    In the period under review, the bank commenced the implementation of the Basel II Accord aimed at promoting financial system stability by ensuring that banks are adequately capitalised and have enhanced risk management systems.

    The apex bank within the period facilitated the refund of over N4 billion to bank customers based on the complaints resolved and directives communicated to them following the Consumer Compliance Examinations and a spot-check conducted on the banks. It also concluded full deployment of the Consumer Complaint Management System (CCMS) with the migration of all banks to the live –platform of the system.

     

    Reforms in Primary Mortgage Banks

    The apex bank also carried out further reforms of Primary Mortgage Banks (PMBs) where 32 PMBs had fully capitalised as at June 30, last year while 10 were in the category given up to December 31, last year. Licences of 21 PMBs, which failed to recapitalise or had remained technically insolvent were revoked on November 12, last year. The CBN partnered with the Federal Government and Development Partners to midwife the Development Bank of Nigeria that is envisaged to address the paucity of low interest and long-term funding for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria.

    The CBN also established a governance structure for National Financial Inclusion Strategy and completed the geo-spatial mapping survey of all financial access points across the country. It has also engaged seven State Governments on the implementation of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy and ensured the gradual reduction in percentage of financially excluded adults from 46.3 per cent in 2010 to 39.5 per cent by December, last year. “Other schemes include the Power and Airline Intervention Fund (PAIF), Capacity Building programmes through the existing Entrepreneurship Development Centres (EDCs) and the CBN/NYSC Entrepreneurship Training held in four centres,” it said.

     

    Banking, payments system

    In conjunction with the office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), e-collection element of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) took off on September 15.       Real time remittance of government receipts directly into the Consolidated Revenue Fund Account (CRF) to enthrone transparency and accountability in management of government receivables began. The policy was also designed to promote effective monetary policy and reduce cost of liquidity management borne by the bank.

    The MDAs under the TSA platform has increased from 340 to 543. In continuation of the bank Verification Number (BVN) for banks customers, enrollment increased from 15,000 as at June 3, last year to over 20 million presently.

     

    Inflation refuses to abate

    Nigeria’s consumer inflation was at 9.4 per cent year-on-year in September, up 0.1 per cent from August, and staying above the central bank’s target upper limit, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

    Food inflation rose marginally to 10.1 percent year-on-year in August versus 10.0 percent in July. “The marginal increase was as a result of slower increases in alcoholic beverages, tobacco and kola, health, transport and recreation and culture divisions.

    “On a month-on-month basis, the pace of increases of food prices … has slowed, contributing to the relatively slower (overall)pace of increases,” the NBS said.

    Nigeria’s inflation rate rose above the CBN’s upper limit of nine per cent in June and is at the highest level since February 2013. Nigeria has been hit hard by the slump in global crude prices, which has sent its currency, the naira, spiralling. The CBN has imposed increasingly stringent foreign exchange measures to prop up the naira but investors are losing confidence.

    National Gross Domestic Product more than halved in the second quarter year-on-year and JP Morgan dropped Nigeria from its influential emerging market bonds index due to foreign exchange controls.

    Financial analyst, Michael Okafor, said  under Emefiele’s watch, there have been improvement in corporate governance as well as risk management processes in many of the lenders. He explained that the beauty of the banking reforms, which Emefiele inherited, remains that no bank has failed, no depositor lost money with the entire process executed with minimal cost.

    • Gwadabe
    • Gwadabe

    President, Association of Bureau de Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, the confidence in President Muhammadu Buhari and the peaceful conduct of the general elections have helped to stimulate the economy. He explained that some of the steps taken by the CBN has led to dollar glut in the market, in spite of the tight liquidity squeeze in the money market.

     

  • Ladoja and Oyo marriage of convenience

    Ladoja and Oyo marriage of convenience

    It is true that the history of political alliances in the country had never been pleasant to human memory. But while that is true, however, what is even truer is that never in the history of political alliances in the country had the spirit of such coalition been betrayed or abused in anyway near the contempt and disdain to which Rasidi Ladoja had subjected the recent or current working relationship between his Accord Party and Governor Abiola Ajimobi.

    I deliberately avoid the dragging of the ACN into the deal because it was a personal risk taken by Abiola Ajimobi.

    On the part of the ACN leadership, although it was circumspect enough about the unreliability and unpredictability of the so-called ally, going by his political antecedent, it was, however, magnanimous enough to have conceded some level of executive discretion to the governor on the administration of his government. It was in the exercise of that discretion that Ajimobi entered into that deal with Ladoja. So the question of him disobeying his party on the accord does not arise.

    In the case of the NPC/NCNC alliance of 1959, which was the first in the country, the two parties remained faithful until the alliance was voluntarily collapsed by the two parties on the approach of another general election in 1964. The collapse of that alliance, caused by the new radical leadership of the NCNC under Michael Okpara, who felt more at home and comfortable with the progressive forces in the country, especially the Action Group against the conservative nature of the NPC, the senior partner of the alliance. Even at that level of the political ineptitude of the NPC, Okpara never spoke openly against the seeming pedestrian style of Balewa until his party formally pulled out of the alliance.

    Coming nearer home, in the case of the UPP/NCNC marriage of convenience in the old western region between Akintola and Fani Kayode, individual members of the alliance like Adeoye Adisa, who was not comfortable with the merger plan, who was Minister for Information, pulled out of the government before the coalition metamorphosed into NNDP.

    I have read in some social media, some feeble defence based on Ladoja’s right of expression in spite of his rapport with Ajimobi. But where such postulates missed the point is that the rapport is not personal affairs between ‘two brothers’. Rather, the product which both agreed to sell on coming together is the government. It is on this basis that Ladoja nominated his men, which included his younger brother into that government. By virtue of the position, some of them as Commissioners and Special Advisers are in the highest decision making organ of government, which is the State Executive Council, which by both convention and statute is guided by top secrecy in its deliberations.

    Given the importance of that organ in governance, it is not supposed to be or even safe to be peopled by anybody of suspected loyalty. In view of the prevailing scenario, anybody keeping supporters of Ladoja in that sensitive body should submit his brain for psychiatric examination.

    Still on Ladoja, if he is now criticising the government because Ajimobi is derailing in governance, does he want his people to be consumed by the ‘impending’ doom. It is unethical of him to adopt an ‘eat and have cake’ strategy. The path of honour for him is to first ‘rescue’ his men by pulling them out of the ship ahead of the doom of his imagination and dream.

    That he did not do that can only be attributed to the fact that he knows within himself that the government is popular among the people; and will want his team to benefit from the gain of that popularity. The truth, however, is that to Ladoja, the 2015 campaign had begun in earnest. The main obstacle he sees on his way, rightly speaking, is Ajimobi and the ACN. Hence he cannot see anything good in the government of that party and especially the governor. As an astute politician and former governor himself, he should not have waited until the avoidable disgrace to which he and his party were subjected.

    With the exit of the fifth columnist in his government, what is left for Ajimobi is to remain focussed and consolidate on the success so far. The only way to do that is to put his house in order by ensuring that the ACN under his leadership remain well organised and united. He should remain purposeful and unshaking in his current will to move the state forward.

     

    • Sanni wrote in from Ibadan