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Tag: Funding

  • Local content: NCDMB, BoI mull funding increase to $200m

    Local content: NCDMB, BoI mull funding increase to $200m

    The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) may increase its loanable funds to qualified oil and gas operators under the Nigerian Content Intervention Fund (NCI Fund) from $100 million to $200 million.

    The Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Simbi Kesiye Wabote, made this known yesterday during a visit to the newly appointed Managing Director of the Bank of Industry (BoI),  Olukayode Pitan, in Lagos. NCDMB appointed BoI as the custodian and manager of the fund.

    The NCDMB and BoI launched the NCIFund in July 2016 with $100 million, but its implementation was delay because of the need to fine-tune its governance process.

    The NCI Fund replaced the former model that required the Nigerian Content Development Fund (NCDF) to provide partial guarantees and 50 per cent interest rebate to service companies that obtained facilities from commercial banks for asset acquisition and projects execution. The NCDF had about $600 million in its custody.

    In the previous order, industry stakeholders experienced difficulties in accessing funds, a development that necessitated the change of strategy by the board. Wabote said the new governance framework for the Fund has been finalised, saying the updated Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with  BoI will be signed within the next few weeks to signal the take-off of the scheme.

    Key features of the NCI Fund, he said,  are that the loans will be disbursed directly by  BoI at single digit interest rate and repaid within five years, adding that only contributors to the Nigerian Content Development Fund (NCDF), with bankable proposals in the oil and gas industry can approach the lender for the facility.

    Wabote said unlike agriculture, aviation, and mining, among others were various intervention funds are provided,  there was none for the oil and gas sector before now.

    Industry stakeholders, including the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN) and Oil and Gas Trainers Association (OGTAN), described the NCI Fund model as a great initiative that would address the paucity of funds, creating huddles for operators to access credit which often beset manufacturers, service providers and other key players in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.

    The Board was set up by an advisory committee in 2012 for the NCDF with a view to deepening transparency and ensure involvement of key stakeholders in its administration.

    Representatives of the international oil companies (IOCs), PETAN, OGTAN and BoI make up the advisory committee.

    The BoI chief expressed delight at the partnership between the Bank and NCDMB. He said BOI has presence in 21 states of the federation and is well positioned to support the Board achieve its objectives in effective loans disbursement and management for the oil and gas industry. He assured that BoI will work with NCDMB to source additional pool of funds for this vital sector of the economy.

    He said intending beneficiaries from the Fund must have evidence of having previously executed contracts in the industry and must be up-to-date with their remittances to the NCDF, adding that Bol will obtain confirmation from the NCDMB before any application can be successful.

    BoI said the NCI Fund will attract a single digit interest rate of eight per cent with a tenor ranging from one to 10 years, with a maximum moratorium of 12 months from date of loan disbursement, and $10 million maximum obligor limit.

    The NCI Fund is sourced from the statutory NCDF which is funded from one per cent that is deducted from the value of all upstream contracts. The NCDF is underpinned by Section 104 of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, which provides that the funds be used for developing capacity in the oil and gas industry.

  • Funding the anti-AIDS war

    •Nigeria gets a vote of confidence from the US

    As Nigeria struggles to overcome the numerous development challenges confronting it, the need to ensure that its development partners have confidence in its ability to properly manage donor funds is critical to the achievement of success. The recent signing of a U.S. $469 million Nigeria HIV/AIDS Country Operational Plan (COP) for 2017 between Nigeria and the United States is testimony to this fact.

    The 2017 COP, which runs from January 2018 to December 2018, is the latest iteration of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), established in 2003 under ex-President George W. Bush. Aimed at curtailing the spread of HIV/AIDS and managing the treatment of those afflicted with the disease, it has become the main source of external financing in the battle against HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.

    The COP outlines programme activities which include voluntary male circumcision, preventing mother-to-child transmission, HIV testing and counselling, facility and community-based care and support, breaking the connection between tuberculosis and HIV, and adult and pediatric treatment, among others.

    There can be little doubt that PEPFAR funds are vital to the anti-AIDS fight. As at 2014, Nigeria had the second-largest number of people living with HIV in the world. In 2015, the figure was about 3.5 million, of which 3.2 million were 15 and older. The prevalence rate for adults between 15 and 49 was 3.1 per cent in the same year, and 180,000 people died of AIDS during the same period.

    Although much of the initial stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS has thankfully been overcome, there is still a considerable amount of ignorance and prejudice to deal with, especially as they affect monitoring and treatment. The anti-retroviral drugs required to treat the disease are expensive, and the intervention provided by PEPFAR is vital to ensuring that they are available to those who need them.

    In the recent past, matters were made worse by allegations of corruption against the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), which is the main government anti-AIDS body. In May last year, the Global Fund, an international health financing organisation, accused NACA of “grants not achieving impact targets, poor quality of health services, treatment disruptions and fraud, corruption and misuse of funds.” The agency was also accused of financial indiscipline and refusing to retire money used in the procurement of health and non-health commodities.

    It is clear that the new COP is a sign that NACA has apparently cleaned up its act and is now worthy of continued constructive engagement by international donor agencies. Given the fact that 70 per cent of all HIV/AIDS treatment funding comes from such agencies, NACA and similar local bodies would do well to ensure that they maintain the highest standards of ethical practice.

    NACA must ensure that the targets contained in the various programmes of the current COP are met. Funds should be disbursed in strict accordance with laid-down guidelines, programme timelines should be adhered to conscientiously, and transparency should govern all aspects of the agency’s work.

    Ultimately, however, Nigeria must seek to take greater responsibility for the anti-AIDS fight in the country. The first duty of a sovereign nation is the care of its own people, and while external assistance is welcome, there can be no substitute for a Nigerian-led resolution of what is an essentially Nigerian problem.

  • NDDC to explore new funding patterns to boost devt

    The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has declared its willingness to explore new funding patterns to boost the capacity of the interventionist agency to tackle the development challenges of the region.

    Mr Ibitoye Abosede Director Corporate Affairs of The Commission, made this known in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja.

    Abosede quoted the Managing Director of the Commission, Mr Nsima Ekere, as saying this when a delegation from a South Korean firm paid him a courtesy visit at the Commission’s headquarters, Port Harcourt on Wednesday.

    Ekere reaffirmed the Commission’s resolve to do things differently in its drive to fast track the development of Nigeria’s oil-rich region.

    He told the South Korean delegation: “What you are offering is slightly different from what we are used to but we are ready to explore the opportunities in the new area.”

    The NDDC boss thanked leaders of the Korean firm for showing interest in Nigeria and the Niger Delta, noting that the oil-producing region was in dire need of world class infrastructure.

    “Building infrastructure is an expensive venture and our access to fund is limited.

    “Yet, we need funds to move faster. We are interested in working with you to provide the financing needed for our projects,” he said.

    Ekere said both the Commission’s Executive Director Finance and Administration, Mr Mene Derek, and the Executive Director Projects, Mr Samuel Adjogbe, would interface with the Korean company to work out the details of a mutually beneficial relationship.

    “We have no problem with the structure that you propose. We will sit down with you to work out the details,” he told the delegates.

    Earlier, the leader of the delegation and Chairman of Kunwon International Construction Company Ltd. in Nigeria, Chief Chris Anyiam, said that they were interested in bringing international funding to ensure that NDDC projects were executed promptly and at record time.

    According to Anyiam, the current NDDC board is blessed that we are bringing a new team that will bring their funds to develop the Niger Delta.

    “Nigeria should be beyond where it is today.”

    He noted that South Korea possessed the technology and resources to help in developing the Niger Delta.

    He said they are willing to bring in the funds and are interested in bringing positive change to the region.

    In his remarks, the Chief Executive Officer of the South Korea construction company, Mr Chris Kim, stated that as a global player, his firm was adept in project financing.

    “We have a functional structure for putting funds together for projects. We need concrete projects and cash flow analysis to be able to access the funds at our disposal.

    “We only need to be given an opportunity to prove our mettle as we already have a financing structure in place,” Kim declared.

    He assured NDDC that his firm had the capacity and a special technology that would help to execute projects faster.

  • APC governors, NWC to meet on funding

    APC governors, NWC to meet on funding

    Governor selected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) will today meet with the party’s national leadership.

    Although the agenda of the meeting was not known as at the time of filing the report, it was gathered that the second anniversary of the APC-led government and efforts to get the party out of its financial mess will top discussions.

    This is the second time the governors will be meeting with the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) this year.

    At the last meeting, which took place in April, the governors promised to hold regular consultative meeting with the leadership and help it source for funds to finance its activities.

    The party has been facing acute shortage of funds, which made it impossible for members to hold constitutionally mandated meetings such as the National Executive Committee meeting and the mid-term convention.

    It was also not clear as at press time whether the governors have fulfilled their promise to help the party source for funds from within.

    But the party was said to have installed a software that will automatically deduct N100 from the phone of members monthly as membership due.

    The meeting, which will be presided over by the National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, is expected to be attended by the governors.

  • Nigeria moves for climate change funding

    Unable to still access the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Nigeria has commenced moves to get the cash to battle the effects of climate change.

    The GCF is part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to assist developing countries to counter climate change.

    The Department of Climate Change (DCC) in the Federal Ministry of Environment, is the nation’s Designated National Authority (DNA) to the GCF, and is saddled with driving funding proposals to the GCF to source concessionary funds for implementing sustainable climate adaptation and mitigation projects in the country.

    Intended to be the centrepiece of efforts to raise Climate Finance of $100 billion yearly by 2020, the GCF is supporting projects, programmes, policies and related activities using thematic funding windows.

    With the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the DCC last week held a Stakeholders Forum in Abuja to iron out some notty areas.

    As part of the preparation for the future funding allocation, the DCC, it was gathered, has adopted an all-inclusive process for project identification across the length and breadth of the country to ensure optimal projects which fall into one or more of the three chosen sectors identified and targeted for funding.

    Managing Director of Messrs Kazona Maycroft, the consultants to the project, Mr. Olu Ajayi, wondered why Nigeria, despite being a leading economy on the continent and also one of the most vulnerable nations, has been unable to access the fund.

    Stakeholders said conditions to access the funding is very strigent. This is why the Prof Mobolaji Aluko and Bolade Soremekun, consultants on the project, want the nation’s priorities to be well identified and articulated.

    “We should look at our country’s vulnerable areas, and develop projects related to our vulnerability, with our national circumstances taken into consideration,” they stated.

    However, an erstwhile director of the DCC, Dr Samuel Adejuwon, cautioned that there should be a careful consideration of what has been done before in this regard, in relation to what is to be done.

    “Let us make it somewhat open-ended, such that other consultants can come in to implement, or take to a different level,” he said.

    The Forum comprised stakeholders from various interest groups who explored topics such as coastal resilience, renewable energy and energy efficiency, environmental, social and gender issues, legal and regulatory issues, as well as financial issues/barriers.

    The Africa Finance Corporation and African Development Bank are accredited entities to the GCF.

     

  • Chinese bank reduces funding on speed rail project

    Chinese bank reduces funding on speed rail project

    Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi yesterday said the Chinese Exim Bank, which promised to provide 85 per cent of the funds for the Lagos-Ibadan rail project, has reduced its exposure by seven per cent.

    The ground-breaking for the standard gauge rail project, which will stretch to the Apapa Port, was done by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo last month.

    He said the bank, which was to fund 85 per cent of the project, is now funding 78 per cent.

    The minister said the bank insisted it would not pay for land, survey and tax, stating that with the foreign exchange rate and extension to the ports, the project could not be completed as scheduled in 2018.

    Amaechi spoke at a meeting with four committees of the House of Representatives, which threatened to cut funding for the ministry, if it failed to spend the N243billion in its vault.

    Spokesmen of the committees made the threat after condemning the non-implementation of the 2016 budget.

    They are Committees on Aviation; Land Transport; Maritime Safety and Administration; Ports, Harbours and Waterways.

    The committees, which visited the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja on oversight function, threatened to give a zero allocation to the ministry in 2017.

    Chairman, Committee on Maritime Safety and Administration Mohammed Bago, said the ministry presented various documents to the committees, which did not contain facts.

    He said the ministry received N243 billion and was yet to spend it, adding that if the money was not used before April 30, it would receive a zero allocation in 2017.

  • Why we’re funding SMEs, by Fidelity Bank

    Fidelity Bank Plc has reiterated its commitment to  funding Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), including operators in the entertainment industry.

    The bank’s Chief Executive Officer, Nnamdi Okonkwo, who disclosed this at the ‘Fidelity SME Forum’ monitored on Inspiration FM, said the lender has strategy for SMEs sector.

    The programme was attended by popular comedian, Atunyota Akporobomerere, whose stage name is Ali Baba.

    Okonkwo said the bank was interested in adding value to the SMEs sector. “For about seven years , our strategy has been to focus on segments. A lot of people get entertained by musicians, they see people in the movie industry and get entertained. But as bankers, we look at the business components of what people do and how to transform those talents into business,” he said.

    “In the past, comedy was like people wearing funny clothes, dressed like clowns and made people laugh. But later, certain people like Ali Baba began to refine things and people realised that you can actually make a living out of comedy. The same thing with music and the movies. In the past, a lot of people did not see the business side of these things”.

    Fidelity Bank, he said, has  the Managed SMEs Unit ensuring that SMEs are supported.

    The lender, he said,  was planning to run a free seminar for operators in the industry.“We have seen superstars go down to penury, from being millionaires and billionaires and we don’t want that to happen to our entertainment industry players. So, that seminar would look at people who succeeded in the past and suddenly became poor because of management of their finances. Whether you are an Ali Baba, a Don Jazzy, P-Square, among others, what matters at the end of the day is how you are going to sustain your brand,” he added.

    Akporobomerere said: “First you must understand that showbiz is dynamic and you are as good as your last joke. So, like in every other kind of business, if you rely on old landmarks, you will lose the footprints of the future”.

    “So, for me, it is that I continue to make sure that I improve myself, I try to get better and that I am never complacent in my career. I try to make sure that I press the refreshal button all the time. For me, it is a case of trying to make sure you understand what the needs are. The current needs are what a practitioner in the entertainment industry should do”.

     

  • MAN, RMRDC, others to promote resource-based MSMEs,funding

    MAN, RMRDC, others to promote resource-based MSMEs,funding

    The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has put down adequate resources to ensure the success of its yearly Nigeria Manufacturing Expo.

    The event is targeted at Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) by equipping them with information on new processes of boosting their output, reducing costs, improving product quality and manufacturing for new markets,  MAN President Dr. Frank Udemba Jacob has said.

    Jacob said the infusion of the Nigeria Raw Materials Expo (NIRAM) into the event would afford exhibitors and visitors an opportunity to see the entire manufacturing value chain, including machinery, equipment, financial services, professional consultancy and information on raw materials.

    He said the expo would be one of the best things for the manufacturing sector as there would be on display the latest models of manufacturing equipment, machine tools, technologies, spare parts and raw materials.

    The event is supported by over 3,000 manufacturing concerns in Nigeria and Clarion Events West Africa, the main conduit for the event.

    Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) Director-General, Dr. Hussaini D. Ibrahim, who was represented by the Director, Investment Consultancy Services Department, Dr. Zainab Hammanga, at a forum to unveil the expo, said the event provides a unique platform for the resources and raw materials producers to showcase and network with the members of the Organised Private Sector (OPS).

    He said the expo would also serve to sustain local procurement of available raw materials in line with the mandate of the Council to promote the development and utilisation of Nigeria’s abundant natural resources as industrial inputs for manufacturing.

    He said: “The expo also promotes the diversification of the economy in line with the agenda of the Federal Government by encouraging the growth and development of resource-based micro, small and medium scale manufacturing industries involved in the agricultural and mineral sectors.”

    He said the theme “Attaining sustainable industrial development in Nigeria through efficient utilization of resource endowments’’ is apt for the economy as the expo is targeted at assisting in the sustenance of a resource-based economy.

    Clarion Events Managing Director, Mr. Dele Alimi said the uniqueness of the expo include conferences on access to finance and capacity building where the SMEs with challenge of financing would meet investors and development partners who will support them. He said the expo would enable women entrepreneurs to better understand their challenges, adding that they already have over 100 international and local exhibitors with over 5,000 registered visitors.

    Sterling Bank PLC, Head, SMEs, Mrs. Omolara Akintoye, said given where the economy is it is only fair to support MSMEs, agric start-ups and build capacity for women entrepreneurs.

    She pledged the preparedness of her bank to ensure that SMEs and start-ups have access to equipment by financing the process.

     

  • Funding the amnesty programme

    The Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) was formally set up on June 15, 2009, by the then President, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. He decided to take the bull by the horns after the years of indecision and foot-dragging by the Obasanjo administration, which had won notoriety for the way it treated the Odi people in Bayelsa State and the Zaki Biam community in Benue State, with unprecedented strong-arm tactics and bestial vehemence.
    Due to the novelty and unprecedented nature of this stratagem that the federal government was introducing to solve a nagging violent confrontation with the various groups of militants purportedly fighting on behalf of the larger Niger Delta common-wealth, many people expressed scepticism about the sincerity of the federal government in introducing the amnesty deal. As the case was, the Doubting Thomases did not only beam their searchlight on the perceived insincerity of the Yar’Adua administration, they also placed little premium on the reliability of the die-hard militants abandoning their safe havens in the impenetrable creeks of the Niger Delta, surrender their sophisticated weapons and embrace a set up that may, on the long run, prove to be a large-scale ambush.
    Having experienced the unfulfilled promises and engagements of the outgone Obasanjo administration, many observers took the initiation of the amnesty programme with a pinch of salt and adopted a “siddon look” attitude to the novel intervention, at the embryonic stage.
    These dark clouds of doubts appeared in the horizon due to the half-hearted implementation of the interventionist Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs and the Niger Delta Development Commission, which many believed were not fully energised or adequately funded to perform the roles they were meant to play. Others were of the belief that the institution of these agencies of government amounted to a glaring duplication of efforts and hence a waste of scarce funds which never impacted on the larger mass of the Niger Delta people.
    It is no gainsaying the fact that the coming on stream of the Presidential Amnesty Programme greatly reduced the uncertainty and danger in doing business in the Niger Delta, which hosts the oil and gas exploration and exploitation on which the Nigerian nation depends for its economic survival. Comparatively, whereas in the 2006/2008 period, a maximum of 800,000 barrels per day production was attainable because of the strident dangerous environment in which the multi-national petroleum companies were working in the militants-infested creeks, the figure rose to a peak of 2.3 million barrels per day after the setting up of the amnesty programme. This increment of 1.5million barrels per day brought the nation’s oil and gas daily revenue to $120.45m.
    In spite of the direct consequence of the new conducive environment in the creek that commensurably increased the nation’s revenue earnings, there was the largely-held view (which persists to this day) that the funds allocated for the amnesty programme annually is mainly used to offset the monthly stipends of the ex-militants whose number runs into almost 30,000 persons. Not many are aware that the programme is more than a veritable social welfare scheme designed to sate the anger of militant warlords and their foot soldiers
    The programme was designed, partly, as a holistic package of human capital development modem to train the teeming but unemployed restive youth and to tap their latent energy and employ it for avenues of human endeavours.
    At inception, the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) was divided into three segments viz: Disarmament, Demobilisation and Re-integration (DDR), which were implemented sequentially with the ongoing reintegration of the disarmed and demobilised militants into the larger society so that they can participate fully and actively in the economy and consequently eke out a living.
    It is gratifying to note that that the federal government has earmarked the sum of N65bn in the 2017 budget for the re-integration of the transformed ex-militants under the amnesty programme. Though it is not true that the Buhari administration has set aside the sum of N29bn to tackle the resurgent militancy in the region, it is pertinent to say that the federal government should increase the allocation to the amnesty programme which has, to a large extent, curtailed militancy and pipeline vandalism in the hitherto volatile Niger Delta region. With the emerging scenario of some ex-militants who were not captured in the first phase of the programme and the rising cost of training those in institutions of learning here and abroad, there cannot be a more appropriate time for the operational allocation to the Presidential Amnesty Programme, to be increased to meet the exigencies of the current dire economic situation in the country.
    As a further mark of government’s sincerity and commitment to the implementation of the tenets of the programme, it directed that the monthly stipend due to all the ex-militants be paid directly to them in order to eliminate diversion and misappropriation, as was the case in the past. In addition to the monthly stipend, the eligible ex-militants were also entitled to the human capital development segment of the PAP, which has, undoubtedly, created a new cadre of Niger Deltans who will drive the economy of the region and engender better living conditions and standard among the people which has worsened since oil was discovered in Oloibiri on January 15, 1956.
    This cadre of ex-militants were enrolled in many schools and institutes in Nigeria and abroad i.e. Russia, United States of America, United Kingdom, Malaysia, South Africa etc., to learn some technical trades, acquire vocational skills and liberal education that will be useful in the general uplift of the people of the region and even beyond. These includes welding, fitting, diving etc. while some others with basic educational qualifications were trained (or undergoing studies) as marine engineers, welders, flight attendants, divers, pilots etc. By this, it has become evident that the Niger Delta has begun to earn due respect and accolades for academic brilliance and technical know-how, rather than notoriety for pipeline vandalism, bunkering and kidnapping of foreigners and other acts of economic sabotage which impacted negatively on the nation’s economy.
    It is gratifying to point out that many ex-militants such as Nicholas Goodness, Lucky Azibanegein and Terubein Fawei, among others have made Nigeria proud in Public Relations, Network Engineering and Telecommunication, in the United Kingdom by coming out in the First Class Honours grade while other made the second class honours grade in Robotic System and Mechanical Engineering.
    The fact that they were capable of noble endeavours helped to establish the vision and positive nationalism of late President Umaru Yar’Adua who set up the Presidential Amnesty Programme in the first instance.
    The commitment and roadmap of the present administration to increase the budgetary allocation to oil the greater responsibilities being borne by the Presidential Amnesty Programme is, therefore laudable. But beyond the allocation of more funds to the PAP, the government should also focus on the total transformation of the Niger Delta to put an end to the perennial agitation of the people of the region.

    •Agho, a lawyer sent in the piece from Port Harcourt

  • Centre seeks increased funding

    National Productivity Centre Director-General Kashim Akor has called for increased funding of the centre to make  it actualise its mandate of promoting socio-economic growth and development through productivity improvement.

    He spoke while addressing members of the House of Representatives Committee on Labour, Employment and Productivity, who were on an oversight visit to the centre.

    Akor said the budgetary allocation was inadequate in view of the mandate, programmes and activities designed by the centre to stimulate and promote productivity growth in the economy, as well as engender competitiveness.

    He said the centre’s greatest challenge was low funding from the budgetary allocation over the years, which manifests in the lack of a corporate head office and accumulated debts to landlords, inability to enhance the centre’s human resources capacity through training and retraining,