The Nation Newspaper

Tag: decline

  • Decline and fall of American politics

    Decline and fall of American politics

    This week’s proceedings in the US Congress will elicit a reaction of bewilderment and dismay in anyone who cherishes the democratic ideals on which the American republic was founded.

    In part that is because of the perversity of the result, in which the world’s only superpower needlessly hobbled itself by halting government services that it can easily afford to support. Even more incomprehensible was the deliberation that led to this outcome. The details of the budget, ostensibly the subject of the debate, barely figured. Instead, the sticking point was the insistence of Tea Party Republicans that no budget – not even a temporary one – would pass unless the implementation of US healthcare reform was delayed.

    There was no chance of this demand being met. The Affordable Care Act is the signature accomplishment of Barack Obama’s presidency; giving it up is a ransom he cannot afford to pay. Yet the Tea Party gloried in the futility of its cause. The nadir came in a 21-hour speech delivered by Republican Senator Ted Cruz – billed as a filibuster even though procedural rules meant it could never have accomplished even that limited purpose – in which he recited from children’s books including Dr Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham.

    The illogic of the Tea Party’s position extends to the substance of its demands. Mr Obama’s healthcare law is not one that it can in clear conscience oppose on principle. The state already provides healthcare to millions of people through Medicaid and Medicare, which the Republicans have no plans to abolish. Mr Obama’s reforms do not thrust the government into healthcare provision but subsidise broader participation in the private system. A similar scheme was introduced in Massachusetts by Mitt Romney, subsequently the Republican presidential nominee.

    The most shameful aspect of the Tea Party’s belligerence is its betrayal of the American values it claims to represent. Healthcare reform is enshrined in US law. The president who was its main champion has since been re-elected. More than 40 attempts to repeal the law have failed because Republicans do not control the constitutional levers that would enable them to succeed. Mr Obama is right to insist that “one faction of one party in one house of Congress in one branch of government” cannot, in a democracy, be allowed to change the law against the will of the people as expressed at the ballot box.

    If the Tea Party’s actions have been unprincipled, a short government shutdown is at least unlikely to do much harm. Yet worse is to come. The US Treasury is forbidden by law from borrowing more than $16.7tn, a ceiling it expects to reach in a little over two weeks.

    The government’s taxation and spending plans are mandated by laws that Congress has already passed. More borrowing is needed if the government is to comply with those laws. It is absurd that Mr Obama must appeal to Congress for permission to do what it has required of him. The debt ceiling should be abolished entirely. Yet in return for merely raising the limit, Republicans are demanding the construction of an oil pipeline, an end to regulations limiting coal ash emissions, a delay to healthcare reform and the indulgence of sundry other Tea Party fixations.

    Mr Obama should stand firm. Yet if the Tea Party sticks to its guns, the risks are huge. Failure to reach agreement could not only cripple the US government but trigger a technical default on its debts, which would unsettle the global financial system. If brinkmanship in Congress results in market turmoil, the disruption to the international financial order fashioned in the US’s image will be severe. The Republicans’ alarming disregard for their own country’s credibility has to end.

    – Financial Times

     

  • Pharmacists urged to reverse decline

    Pharmacists urged to reverse decline

    The Ag. Registrar, Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN), Mrs. Gloria Abumere has urged fresh inductees into the council to go out and halt the declining trend in the health indices of Nigeria.

    This call was made during the induction and oath taking ceremony of 156 inductees of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) at the Princess Alexandra Auditorium and Unity Hall.

    Mrs Abumere told the inductees: “I enjoin you to be good team players with other healthcare professionals in the best interest of the patients and the society at large. Set good examples of moral behaviour in your profession, home and social life, and use your knowledge and skills for the advancement of the country, especially through the promotion of healthcare delivery services of the nation”.

    She disclosed that the purpose of the ceremony was to administer the oath and admit the graduands formally into PCN without which they cannot exercise their legal rights as practitioners.

    Mrs Abumere said that as the future of the pharmacy profession, they are meant to help patients achieve and maintain good health by optimising the use of prescribed medications.

    She added that strict compliance to the code of ethics is indispensable for the practice of the profession.

    The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Bartho N. Okolo who was represented by the Director, Academic Planning, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth E. Ichoku, said “Pharmacy practice is an essential component of healthcare delivery system of any nation and by extension national economic development”.

    Okolo advised the Pharmacy graduates to realise from the onset, the integral role they are expected to play in national development, and therefore commit themselves to achieving such feat.

    The Dean, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Prof. Vincent C. Okore, thanked the Vice-Chancellor for the unprecedented level of transformation that is taking place in the university especially in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

    He also praised the academic staff of the Faculty who had distinguished themselves in the establishment of external linkages for research and scholarship, thereby attracting local, national and international recognition.

    Okore stated that this had added to the image and rating of the university and faculty.

    He counseled the inductees to practise the profession with decorum.

    The keynote speaker, Rev. Fr. Samson E. Asadu in his speech titled “Identifying with the spirit of Success” said that “success is continual. It is not an event that has come and gone but an on-going process and the positive results of steady forward movement”.

    Asadu enumerated some nuggets of success such as having a vision/plan, acting and not just planning.

    Others included the ability to cultivate the “you can spirit”, overcoming the enemy called average as well as developing the habit of regular reflection.

  • Drop in petrodollars push naira to five-day decline

    The naira sustained a losing streak throughout last week as inflows from International Oil Companies (IOCs) investors’ portfolios waned. The currency slid 0.1 per cent to 157.80 per dollar bringing a five-day decline to 0.2 per cent.

    Oil companies remain the second-biggest source of dollars after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which offers foreign currency at auctions on Mondays and Wednesdays to maintain exchange-rate stability. The apex bank sold $600 million last week, the most in nine months. “The naira has been supported by dollar sales from oil companies earlier last week, but those have probably dried up now,” Samir Gadio, an emerging-markets strategist at Standard Bank Group Ltd. in London, said.

    However, borrowing costs on local-currency debt due January 2022 rose six basis points, or 0.06 percentage point, to 11.08 per cent, according to prices compiled by Bloomberg. Yields on Nigeria’s $500 million of Eurobonds due January 2021 declined 10 basis points to 3.967 per cent on Friday.

     

    Eurobond yields

    Nigeria’s dollar-denominated borrowing costs fell to the lowest in more than nine weeks on expectations that central banks globally will provide more stimulus measures to boost their economies. Bloomberg said yields on the West African nation’s Eurobonds due January 2021 dropped 18 basis points to 4.04 per cent by, the lowest since January 31.

    “The market now expects the quantitative easing program in the United States to go on for longer and probably for rates to remain low for a more meaningful period. That should provide support for the Eurobond asset class,” Samir Gadio, an emerging- markets strategist at Standard Bank Group Ltd., said.

    Yields on Ghana’s $750 million Eurobonds, due October 2017, slipped 8 basis points to 4.76 per cent. Gabon’s $1 billion debt due December 2017 retreated 11 basis points to 3.12 per cent.

    The United States 10-year bond yields traded below two per cent for the third straight week as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke signaled in a speech on Tuesday that there was room for improvement in the economy, spurring bets the central bank will maintain asset purchases. The Bank of Japan last week announced stimulus measures.

     

    IFC/SMEs

    The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is partnering with 10 local banks to de-risk lending to the Small and Medium Scale Enterprise (SMEs) in the country. Speaking at the SME Toolkit Global Partner conference held in Lagos, IFC, Nigeria Country Manager, Solomon Quaynor said the Corporation has realised that banks do not want high risk transactions, synonymous with lending to SMEs.

    He said the SME Toolkit launched in the country by IFC, IBM and EDC Pan-African University, will enable the entrepreneurs effectively manage their businesses.

    Consequently, he said the IFC has stepped in to derisk such loans by providing financial infrastructure and developing collateral registry that will assist banks in lending to the subsector.

    Quaynor said that since a lot of the SMEs do not have landed assets, except receivables. IFC he said is working with Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Ministry of Trade and Investment to build a registry system that should include the ability of SMEs to borrow from banks.

    “We are working on getting the SMEs to use toolkit, so that banks can be more comfortable lending to the subsector. Our focus is not about giving money to the banks to lend to SMEs. It is about building their confidence in the SMEs so that that subsector can easily obtain loans from lenders,” he said.

    He said the corporation spends a lot of time training the banks to understand SMEs, by designing products for the subsector among other things. It is not about the money we are providing for banks, but that we are getting them to be more careful in lending to SMEs.

    Director, Enterprise Development Centre, Pan African University, Peter Bankole, said that minimum 80 per cent of jobs created in Nigeria are from small businesses. “The National Bureau of Statistics survey conducted last year showed that SMEs sector will continue to play dominant role in job creation in the economy,” he said.

    Bankole said the challenge remains that majority of SMEs are micro, but government is trying to move as many as possible from micro to small because that will give better multiplier effects for the economy and job creation.

     

    ICAN

    The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) has called for improved accounting standards in the country. ICAN President, Adedoyin Owolabi disclosed this during the recognition of some of its newly accredited tertiary institutions, polytechnics and training centres in the country. He said the accreditation was meant to improve the standard of learning among students in the recognised institutions.

    He said the accreditation followed the need to initiate quality control and improve the level of pass rate of students in its various ICAN examinations.

    He said the major causes of students’ poor performance remain poor preparation by students, inadequate teaching personnel in terms of number and quality, decayed infrastructural and instructional facilities in many institutions, poorly articulated curricula for accounting related programmes and poor library facilities among others.

    “Therefore, in line with its statutory mandate of setting standards and regulating the practice of accountancy in the country, the council resolved to accredit centres where its’ potential registered students could receive appropriate and qualitative technical and academic training,” he said.

     

    IMF

    Economic growth in Nigeria is likely to rise above seven per cent in 2013 with inflation slowing below double digits, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had said.

    In its 2012 review of Africa’s second largest economy, the IMF projected that the pace of growth would pick up to 7.2 percent this year from 6.3 per cent in 2012.

    It said Nigeria’s tightening of monetary policy was in line with the authorities’ efforts to contain inflation below 10 per cent. The IMF also estimated that Nigeria’s currency, the naira, was “broadly in line with fundamentals”.

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) held rates at 12 percent last week for the ninth consecutive time, citing concerns about ongoing external price pressures. Nigerian consumer inflation rose to 9.5 per cent in February from nine per cent in January, staying within the central bank’s single digit target. Food prices rose to 11 percent.

     

    West African Economic Union

    Growth in the eight-nation West African Economic and Monetary Union will hit 6.5 per cent this year thanks to a post-crisis recovery in regional powerhouse Ivory Coast but governments need to press ahead with reforms, the Central Bank chief said.

    Tiemoko Meyliet Kone said strong commodities demand from emerging economies such as China and India would help the currency bloc shrug off the effects of an economic slowdown in Europe, traditionally its main trading partner.

    The currency bloc’s $80 billion economy grew by 5.8 per cent last year as Ivory Coast – the world’s largest cocoa producer – bounced back from a brief civil war, growing by 9.8 per cent.

    “Faced with the current slowdown in global growth, Africa is an important region for both emerging and developed economies,” Kone said in an interview. “In 2013, the West African Monetary Union expects growth of 6.5 per cent despite the current difficulties in Mali and Guinea Bissau.”

    “In 2014, growth should reach seven per cent for the first time,” he said. “But despite this potential and the promising outlook, African economies are confronted by important challenges.” The central bank, which has its headquarters in Dakar, serves Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo and Guinea-Bissau.

     

    Deloitte Nigeria

    IASeminars, a UK-based company specialising in international accounting seminars around the world and Akintola Williams Deloitte have announced their collaboration in training courses on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

    “IASeminars is proud to be working with Deloitte to service the IFRS training needs of Nigeria and of the wider African market. Having provided IFRS and other financial training over the last 10 years to many clients in Europe and North America, we look forward to being of service to an African clientele,” said Marc Gardiner, CEO of IASeminars said in a statement.

    Also, Oduware Uwadiae, Partner – IFRS Services, Deloitte West & Central Africa said his firm is pleased to be working with IASeminars to provide a comprehensive range of IFRS training solutions. “Our technical IFRS knowledge added to the IASeminars international training expertise represents a premium IFRS education opportunity for the West African market,” he said.

    The statement explained that under this arrangement, a wide range of IFRS courses have been scheduled in a number of African locations, as well as abroad and also online. Topics available include IFRS Immersion, US GAAP to IFRS comparison, IFRS Updates, and industry-specific courses such as Oil and Gas, Financial Services, and Public Sector Accounting (IPSAS).

     

    Bank to bank report

    Stanbic IBTC Bank has announced the launch of Stanbic IBTC MobileMoney App for smartphones running on BlackBerry, iOS and Android operating systems. Stanbic IBTC’s Executive Director for Personal and Business Banking, Obinnia Abajue said the launch underlines the lender’s commitment to providing Nigerians with value-added products and services that suit their lifestyles, whilst giving them access to basic financial options via a secure mobile application wherever and whenever they want.

    The Board of Directors of Jaiz Bank Plc has appointment its General Manager in charge of the bank’s Business Development Group, Hassan Usman as the Acting Managing Director. This followed the resignation of the Managing Director, Muhammed Mustapha Bintube after almost 10 years of meritorious service, announced the

    The statement described Hassan as a chartered accountant and banker. He graduated with a first class in Accounting in 1985 from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and became an Associate Member of Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) in 1989. He obtained his Postgraduate Diploma in Management in 1995 from Maastricht School of Management. Hassan also attended the Oxford University Executive Management Programme in 2002.

    Six winners have emerged in Guaranty Trust Bank Plc’s (GTBank’s) ongoing ‘GTCrea8’ e-savers promo for undergraduates. The winners according to a statement, emerged from six regions namely – Lagos, Abuja, Southeast, Southwest, Port Harcourt and Northern region, at a draw in Lagos.

    Speaking during the draw held in Lagos, an official from the bank’s Communications and External Affairs Department, Oyinade Adegite said the winners were rewarded with bedside fridge, an ipod touch, a galaxy Samsung tab 2, Samsung notebook, blackberry phone and a LED television.

    She said the promo was designed to encourage students to save. According to her, all that is required to participate and benefit from the promo is for students in tertiary institutions to open a GTCrea8 e-savers account and conduct a minimum of three transactions monthly on alternate banking channels such as Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), Point of Sale (PoS) and internet banking.

    The Project Finance Magazine, a publication of the Euromoney Plc, UK adjudged Fidelity Bank Plc the winner of The African Oil & Gas Deal of the Year 2012. The bank said in a statement that the award recognises achievement and excellence in getting projects built, bought or refinanced.

    Fidelity alongside GTBank, Diamond Bank, Zenith Bank, and other International lenders and legal firms won the award with the $1.5 billion Syndicated Financing for the 2012 Drilling Programme of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation/ExxonMobil Joint Venture via their Special Purpose Vehicle RDP Funding Limited.

    This, the organisers said was the most interesting financing to emerge not only from Nigeria but also from the African upstream sector. “The $1.5 billion deal builds on the JVs earlier receivables-based deals, including the $600 million satellite field financing, which closed in 2005 and backed the development of live specified fields, and the $1.42 NGLII refinancing which closed in January 2011.”

  • Why legal profession is in decline, by lawyer

    Can you give us an insight into your university days, how ac-tive were you in the university?

    I was very active in the University of Ife, which I attended by choice, having been admitted to all the then 5 Nigerian Universities, namely, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), University of Lagos, (UNILAG), University of Ibadan (UI) and the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife. I was offered a law degree program in all the four universities except UI, which offered me political science, because it had no law program then.

    While in the university of Ife, I was an elected member of the Students Union Parliament and member of the Student Union Care taker Committee following the dissolution of the 1975/76 elected Students Union Executive.

    I was chairman X-Ray Magazine, a very powerful student publication of the X-Ray club with student members like former NBA president O.C.J Okocha, (SAN) and Justice Ejembi Eko of the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt Division. I also served as political editor of the Pan African Magazine with late Chief Obafemi Awolowo as our patron and late Tunde Agunbiade ( who was also my classmate 1973-76) as the editor of the magazine.

    The National Executive Committee Meeting of the NBA holds in Makurdi, your state capital this week, what is your message to NEC members?

    The three NBA Benue state branches of Makurdi, Otukpo and Gboko are clearly happy to host NBA NEC again at Makurdi  branch. My message to NEC members is to enjoy the hospitality and peace of Benue state and makurdi in particular.

    You seem to have interest in partisan politics from your university days, have you held any political office in the country?

    Yes, I served as a Commissioner in Benue state during the Second Republic under the government of Governor Aper Aku and as Chairman Benue state local government service commission in the government of Governor George Akume. I also served in various Federal Boards such as Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Enugu Zone and I was a member of the Presidential Technical Committee on Local Government Reform in Nigeria ( 2003)

    How would you appraise the practice of law in your early days with what obtains in the profession now?

    Legal Practice when I started and what we have now are world’s apart. The judges then were judicially predictable and protective of both the Bar and the Bench, I remember my first court appearance was in 1977 before Justice Bate in the Jos High Court against Gali Brown Peterside SAN, who was then over 25yrs at the Bar. I was holding chief Solomon Lar’s brief and Peterside SAN, knowing I was a new wig started intimidating me, when Justice Bate noticed it, he said “ John do your case to the best of your ability, this court will protect you” I then took a preliminary objection which he upheld by the Court.

    The rapidly declining standards in legal practice today is largely due to a declining Bar which has succumbed to the Nigerian factor of enthroning corruption as a way of life. The society produces the lawyers that run the administration of justice. Everybody now knows that progress either in legal  practices  or societal progression is no longer dependent on hardwork. The legal profession is in great decline, our younger lawyers, unlike in my early days have neglected learning in their youth. The result is a lost past and a bleak future.

    The conviction of John Yusuf… of the police pension fund was attributed to the laws under which he was charged, what is your reaction to this and the existence of such laws in our statute books

    The public outcry is a welcome development that will awaken the Nigerian conscience. The Catholic Bibhop of Sokoto Dioces, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah has given up and said; “Corruption, sad as it may sound, is the only thing that works in Nigeria”. The fault and error did not lie in the Criminal Code or the archaic nature of the Statute, even though there is need to update our Criminal Procedure Laws. The instant law did not outlaw a prison sentence.

    The problem of indigenship and settlers in the Nigerian state has been blamed for most communal clashes in different parts of the country what solutions do you have for this?

    The Nigerian state cannot runway from its shadows. Nigeria is an amalgamation of regions, communities, and primordial interests. Our 1999 federal constitution recognizes these differences and accomodates them in revenue allocation formular,, Ministerial slots and federal character appointments. Yet it wants to abolish indigenship because the large tribes who are more nomadic and more adventurous want to overrun the minorities and financially deprived Nigerian groups. Before and since independence, the issue of minority fears via commissions and committees have not been addressed nor protected.

    Nigeria is a federation. Note the failed attempt by Decree no 14 of 1966 by General Ironsi at unification and the after effects viz, counter coup,  and the 30 month Nigerian civil war.

    The Nigerian federation must continue to recognize and protect our primordial components.

    Nigeria’s lack of advancement is not because of “ our tribes” because countries such as Switzerland run a successful and developed federalism with its plural counties and districts, jealously guarded.

    Every Nigerian originally comes from a place/community and if there is need to change, the communal rules of such host commutes must be obeyed.

    Welfare of younger Lawyers and possibly the old ones too, has been one of the challenges facing successive NBA administrations, how do we resolve this?

    My suggested approach is pupillage, part of the problem is the unwillingness of younger lawyers to understudy the senior ones and devote their first 5years into learning the law.

    Their rush  into the open market has caused the glot and while some younger lawyers have succeeded, older ones are being displaced and thus, the disorder.

    My suggested solution is a comprehensive review of the administration of Justice system with the aim of providing more jobs within the system. A mere 100,000 Nigerian lawyers in a population of 160 million is even not a high proportion yet.

    Can you say that what we have now qualifies for the NBA of your dreams, if not, which areas will you like NBA leadership to focus in order to improve the lot of Nigerian Lawyers?

    Well the NBA of my dream is one that will become the pride of all Nigerian lawyers. Presently, less than 10per cent of Nigerian Lawyers border about the NBA. This is because the NBA is not attracting greater percentage of Nigerian Lawyers to participate in its programmes and activities. The vast majority of the lawyers are successfully living, acting and surviving outside the influence of the NBA, so, why do they need the NBA

    How then can the NBA improve on this?

    The NBA can improve on the situation by helping to create more job opportunities Nigerian lawyers within the Nigerian state and system, for example, if each of the 774 local government areas in Nigeria employ a legal officer each, that will take care of some 774 lawyers. Such opportunities will not only create employment for the lawyers concerned, but will also improve the standards of several other lawyers.

    Delay in Justice delivery has been cited as a major cause of lack of confidence in the judiciary, how do we ensure speedy justice delivery in the country?.

    We can only achieve this through comprehensive implementation of all the piles of reports awaiting action by the government. Key amongst these are recommendations for speedy trial of suspects, independent and improved funding for the Judiciary. Unless and until the Judiciary is properly funded, we cannot get the judiciary of our dream in this country.

    How do we improve the quality of judges and judicial officers in the country?

    Judicial personnel must not be allowed to run automatic promotions but subject them to input and out put and good conduct. Also, a tighter mode of appointing Judges must be put in place to make sure that the best for job gets it.

     

  • High-cap stocks sustain market decline

    The Nigerian stock market sustained its downtrend yesterday as losses by highly capitalised stocks overwhelmed widespread gains by equities, pushing average year-to-date return down by 0.39 per cent to 18.79 per cent.

    The All Share Index (ASI), the common value-based index that tracks prices of all equities at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), slipped to 33,355.54 points from its opening index point of 33,487.81 points.

    Aggregate market value of all equities dropped by N42 billion to N10.672 trillion compared with its value-on-board of N10.714 trillion.

    The negative market position reflected losses by some of the most capitalised stocks, especially Dangote Cement, Nigerian Breweries and Guinness Nigeria. Dangote Cement, the most capitalised stock with about a quarter of total equity market capitalisation, dropped for the second consecutive day. It lost N1 to close at N140. Nigerian Breweries dropped by N1.01 to close at N163. Guinness Nigeria led the decliners with a drop of N5.46 to close at N291.

    Other top losers included Total Nigeria, which lost N4.99 to close at N138.01; PZ Cussons Nigeria, which dropped by N1.25 to close at N41.85; Presco, which lost 94 kobo to close at N26.36; Forte Oil declined by 83 kobo to close at N15.80, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated slipped by 43 kobo to N14.33, while Ashaka Cement and Stanbic IBTC Holdings lost 30 kobo and 28 kobo to close at N25 and N15.72 respectively.

    On the positive side, Nestle Nigeria led the advancers with a gain of N15.04 to close at N830. Okomu Oil Palm followed with a gain of N2.79 to close at N58.70. Conoil rallied N1.10 to close at N23.10. Flour Mills of Nigeria rose by 74 kobo to close at N77.74. Cement Company of Northern Nigeria added 60 kobo to close at N12.60. Berger Paints rose by 55 kobo to close at N12.20 while CAP gathered 28 kobo to close at N36 per share.

    Meanwhile, investors increased demand for equities, with stronger inflow into low-priced stocks. Total turnover stood at 1.44 billion shares worth N5.6 billion in 9,653 deals. Unity Bank was the most active stock with a turnover of 138.89 million shares valued at N163.01 million in 515 deals. Transnational Corporation of Nigeria trailed with a turnover of 135.72 million shares valued at N287.01 million in 476 deals, while Lasaco Assurance ranked third with a turnover of 123.39 million shares worth N62.37 million in 339 deals.

    Insurance subsector was the most active stock with a turnover of 721.32 million shares totaling N545.43 million in 2,191 deals. Banking subgroup recorded a turnover of 324.66 million shares worth N2.13 billion in 3,156 deals.