The Nation Newspaper

Tag: funds

  • SEC,CBN, others plan new mutual funds network

    SEC,CBN, others plan new mutual funds network

    The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) are considering a tied-up cross-selling arrangement that would enable fund managers use banks and other financial services outlets as retail outlets for mutual funds.

    The Nation gathered that the mutual funds retail network muted by the SEC, would involve collaboration between the Commission, which is primarily saddled with regulation of mutual funds; the CBN, which oversees banks; the Bankers’ Committee, the a body of all banks and the CBN and the Fund Managers Association of Nigeria (FMAN), the umbrella body of all fund managers.

    Besides banks, the new retail network would also include the Nigerian Postal Services (NIPOST), which owns and manages all the post offices nationwide, and also inputs from the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), which lists mutual funds on its official list.

    Under the arrangement, such as bankassurance where insurance products and services are offered within banking hall or platform, investors and bank customers can buy mutual funds from their bankers, creating a seamless arrangement that combines savings with investment management.

    Existing and potential investors would also be able to buy mutual funds and access mutual funds information through post offices nationwide.

    The source said the new retail network was part of efforts to promote the development of collective investment schemes (CISs) as veritable means of pooling huge national savings into the capital market and ultimately, for long-term funding of the economy.

    The retail network is part of an all encompassing strategic plan with the objective of expanding the reach of collective investment schemes to greater percentage of the investing public.

    The strategic plan incorporates innovations into the market such as introduction of incentives to encourage retail investors back into the market through collective investment schemes, introduction of distribution and sales points, classification of schemes to cater for the investment appetite of the various classes of investors, review of minimum subscription levels for retail investors, review of the offering process for Schemes, among other strategic initiatives.

    Besides, there would be improvement of knowledge level of operators to foster professionalism. This would be done through continuous education, training and certification of fund managers and sales marketing staff.

    Net assets value of CISs or mutual funds stood at N111.21 billion as at March 8, 2013. There are 49 registered mutual funds with about 170,000 investors participating in the funds. Analysis of the components showed equity-based funds with largest base of N51.68 billion. This was followed by money market funds at N16.15 billion while real estate funds trailed with N16.04 billion. Other components included bond funds, N10.30 billion; balanced funds, N9.82 billion; ethical funds, N6.87 billion while other funds totaled N2.7 billion.

    Director General, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms Arunma Oteh, recently identified collective investment schemes as part of the priorities of the Commission for this year.

    According to her, SEC would build on the momentum of the past year, which saw the return of retail investor interest in the stock market by continuing to advocate and encourage the adoption of collective investment schemes for retail investors.

  • Sterling Capital woos investors to money market funds

    Investors seeking stable and steady incomes should take advantage of the ongoing Initial Public Offering (IPO) of ARM Money Market Funds, Sterling Capital Markets has advised.

    Asset and Resource Management Company Limited (ARM) is offering 1.0 billion units of N1 each at N1 in the IPO for its ARM Money Market Fund. Minimum subscription is 50,000 units amounting to N50,000 and subsequent multiples must be 1,000 units. The ARM Money Market Fund is an open-ended mutual fund authorised and registered in Nigeria as a unit trust scheme.

    Head, Investment Advisory and Research, Sterling Capital Markets Limited, Mr Sewa Wusu, said the expertise and experience of ARM as the fund manager would ensure the realisation of the collective investment scheme’s objective of steady stream of income to investors.

    He said the mutual fund would distribute incomes to investors quarterly with option for investors to cash in their incomes or re-invest their dividends, which make it a good investment outlet for short to medium term investors as well as long-term investors.

    According to him, as an open-ended fund, the units of the fund can be bought and sold easily, thereby providing immediate liquidity to investors.

    “Safety of investor funds is assured through adherence to the strict provisions of the trust deed and an experienced investment committee. The fund manager has impressive track records having successfully managed several funds and delivered on their forecasts,” Wusu said.

    Sewa said the fund would seek to achieve a liquid and highly profitable portfolio through active security selection consistent with the fund manager’s daily assessment of market liquidity and credit risks.

    He noted that the fund would maintain a weighted average portfolio maturity of 90 days and would only invest in high-grade instruments that have a term to maturity of not greater than 366 days at the time of issuance.

    He outlined that the high quality of the short-term money market instruments and sovereign guarantee of government securities would make investments in the mutual funds almost risk free pointing out that the fund has a risk rating of ‘Prelim Aa(f)’ by Agusto & Co, which shall be subjected to annual review throughout the life of the fund.

    “The fund provides good opportunity to investors seeking to optimise their returns at minimal risk. It’s a relatively cheap opportunity for investors to build wealth at a considerably lower risk and potential returns,” Wusu said.

    He said the fund would invest 40 per cent of its funds in short-term government securities and 60 per cent in money market instruments including bankers acceptances, certificate of deposits, commercial papers, fixed deposit placements with eligible financial institutions, collaterised reverse repurchase agreements (reverse repos), treasury bills and other approved short-term debt instrument issued or guaranteed by the CBN or Federal Government.

    He noted that Sterling Capital Markets, as the issuing house, has employed multi-channel online systems that allow investors to access information and subscription to the fund, in addition to wide distribution of the prospectuses and application documents.

    Besides, the money market fund, ARM manages the ARM Aggressive Growth Fund and the ARM Discovery Fund, which have continued to perform above market average.

    Established in 1994,ARM started operations as a traditional asset management but has over the years, metamorphosed into a diversified financial services institution with two distinct business segments – asset management and specialised funds – within which various products and bespoke asset management services are offered to its diverse clientele.

     

  • We got Eagles’ AFCON funds 48 hours to tournament — NFF

    We got Eagles’ AFCON funds 48 hours to tournament — NFF

    The Nigeria Football Association (NFA) revealed on Wednesday that it got the funds for Super Eagles’ participation in the just concluded Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in South Africa only two days to the tournament.

    Mr Emeka Inyama, a board member and Chairman of the NFA Media and Publicity Committee, disclosed this in Abuja in an interview.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that about N1.4 billion was released by the Federal Government for the Super Eagles’ participation in the tournament but the money was released in bits to the NFA by the National Sports Commission (NSC).

    According to Inyama, the team were supposed to have received the money two months before the tournament.

    “People may be celebrating the Super Eagles’ today but the team only got money 48 hours to the competition.

    “These monies were supposed to have come one or two months to the time to help them prepare for the competition.

    “Nobody cares to know how the federation borrowed and financed the team’s camping, paid players match bonuses and hotel bills before the tournament.

    “However, the federation is doing all it can to ensure that, despite the paucity of funds, football is taken to the next level in Nigeria,’’ he said.

    Inyama’s revelation comes after the NFA was criticised by some Nigerians for its poor handling and lack of trust in the Stephen Keshi-led Super Eagles.

    He said it was pertinent for Nigerians to know how the FA sources its funds and would be glad if the FG could come to their aid.

    “The resources of the FA cannot accommodate, at a time, the almost nine national teams that we cater for.

    “What the government provides for football is inadequate for things to be done; that is why sometimes we owe the coaches.

    “A situation where you have N1.8 billion from government and maybe another N1 billion from sponsors, making it N2.8 billion and the budget of the FA is over N4 billion given the number of teams, definitely it must run on deficit,’’ Inyama added.

    He, however, confirmed that in spite of the shortage of funds, the FA had released N6 million to John Obuh, the Flying Eagles’ coach, as part payment of backlog of salaries owed him by the football house.

    The NFA board member gave assurance that the balance of the money would be paid to the coach when he returned from the U-20 Africa Youth Championship (AYC) beginning on March 16 in Algeria.

  • FBN Capital floats mutual funds

    FBN Capital Limited through its Asset Management arm has inaugurated mutual fund products to enable it to enhance investors more get returns.

    These investment platform enhances financial growth both for individuals, businesses and corporations. The funds.

    The products are FBN Money Market Fund, Fixed Income Fund and Heritage Fund. They have been admitted to the daily official list of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) after successful initial offerings.

    A total of 17.98 million units of the Money Market Fund were admitted at par value of N100 each while 1.75 million units of the Fixed Income Fund were admitted at N1, 000 par value.

    The Money Market Fund invests in liquid short term instruments while the Fixed Income Fund offers investors opportunity to invest in Nigeria’s sovereign, state and corporate bonds and other long-tenor securities.

    Director, Asset Management, FBN Capital, Michael Oyebola, said the funds are expected to allow small, medium and large scale investors participate in the funds and benefit from the current high returns accruable from the market using the expertise of FBN Capital.

    He said FBN Capital would continue to offer units of the funds to investors, noting that investors can invest in Money Market Fund with as low as N5, 000 while minimum investment in the FBN Fixed Income Fund and the FBN Heritage Fund is N50, 000.

    According to him, the primary objective of the funds is to achieve a high level of income obtainable from investments that is consistent with prudent investment management, the preservation of capital and maintenance of liquidity.

    He pointed out that the high level of professional management is a major determinant of success in the volatile market.

    According to him, investors would benefit from FBN Capital’s cutting-edge investment process, which combines top-down views on the macroeconomic environment with proprietary local bottom-up analysis.

     

     

     

     

  • Kogi denies diversion of flood funds

    The Kogi State Government has denied the alleged diversion of funds for flood victims in the state.

    It described a statement by the state chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) that the Idris Wada administration has mismanaged the donations received for the Flood Disaster Management as frivolous, unfounded and an attempt at scoring a cheap political point.

    Reacting to the report published by some newspapers on December 17 and credited to the state ACN Chairman, Alhaji Haddy Ametuo, Deputy Governor Yomi Awoniyi said it was surprising that ACN could make such wild allegations against him, Wada and his administration.

    He stressed that to declare that he had bought the Grand Mirage Hotel and other properties in Abuja was pedestrian and false.

    Awoniyi said the allegation cast aspersions on his integrity and portrayed him as having light fingers.

    According to him, the onus lies on his accuser to provide the proof of the allegations.

    The deputy governor said he had not soiled his hands in any shady deal, adding that the funds for the flood victims were intact.

    Awoniyi added that he had not acquired ill-gotten assets and wealth in the state or elsewhere.

     

     

     

     

     

  • ‘Use local contractors to save funds’

    General Secretary, National Union of Civil Engineering, Construction, Furniture and Wood Workers (NUCECFWW), Mr Babatunde Liadi, has advised the Federal Government to use local contractors.

    Liadi, who gave the advice during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, added that using local contractors would assist in creating more jobs and saving it foreign exchange.

    “If the Federal Government can use more of our local engineering firms in the ongoing rehabilitation of roads, it will assist the economy and save money on foreign reserve.

    “Before now our roads were death traps, killing and maiming many Nigerians. The bad roads also give room to hoodlums and armed robbers to operate, “ Liadi said.

    He commended the Federal Government’s decision to revoke the concession agreement for the expansion, repair and maintenance of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway granted to Bi-Courtney Highway Services.

    He said though the road had been re-awarded to Julius Berger Nigeria Plc and RCC, the new contractors should hasten the re-construction and do a good job.

    “Good roads are part of the dividends of democracy. If we have good roads, the number of accidents will be reduced and more lives will be saved, “ he said.

    Liadi advised state governments to embark on repairs and maintenance of roads and other infrastructure in their areas.

    He urged governments, especially states and local governments to release funds for contracts that have been certified completed.

    He said payment of completed contracts would protect workers, reduce unemployment and the number of companies being shut as a result of inability to pay salaries.

    Liadi said from January next year, the union would protest the use of casual labour and other anti-labour practices by employers.

  • Idle funds, idle minds

    Idle funds, idle minds

    •Billions of education funds languish in Nigeria’s banks

    IN a country where barely half of the population is literate, the news that N44 billion belonging to the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme has not been utilised is truly disheartening. The revelation was made recently by the Acting Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Professor Charles Onocha, when the House of Representatives Committee on Education visited the commission.

    According to Onocha, the situation arose as an apparent result of the inability of state governments to provide the required counterpart funding that is essential to obtaining funds under the programme. In 2009, N1.3 billion was not accessed, a figure which rose to N3.5 billion in 2010. This year, about N22 billion has not been touched by states that are supposed to benefit from it.

    This is just another of the many anomalies that continue to trouble Nigeria and hamper the attainment of national progress and development. Primary and secondary schools all across the country are in dire need of rehabilitation and facilities. Pupils and students are subject to all kinds of impositions levied upon them to defray the costs of providing chalk, dusters, furnishing and other inputs. In spite of this dire situation, the funds that could have helped to resolve these pressing difficulties are lying unutilised in banks.

    The crux of the problem is the counterpart funding requirement. If a state wishes to access funds from the UBE, it has to provide funds which are either equivalent to the sum desired, or a specified percentage of such funds. While such intentions may be honourable, they do not appear to work effectively in practice, as the current UBE debacle shows. It is obvious that the emphasis on counterpart funding should have been replaced by an emphasis on transparency and efficient utilisation of funds.

    This issue harks back to the skewed structural arrangement of the country. A federation in which the central government is overly powerful is a contradiction in terms. The UBE programme is clearly demonstrative of federal overreach; its involvement in basic education amounts to an unnecessary intervention in an aspect of national life that should have been left to states and local governments. Apart from the counterpart funding requirement, it is almost certain that federal bureaucratic bottlenecks also make it difficult for states to access UBE funds, thereby providing opportunities for corruption that the counterpart funding condition is supposed to prevent.

    The tragedy is that problems like the UBE fiasco have become recurrent decimals running through all aspects of Nigerian life. The Federal Government holds tenaciously to the control of the nation’s police force when it is becoming increasingly clearer that the devolution of policing duties to the states is the way to go. Federal agencies insist on issuing vehicle licences and number plates, regardless of the fact that states are capable of doing it with greater efficiency.

    Instead of taking an objective look at the question of fiscal federalism and related issues, the Federal Government and its ministries, agencies and parastatals persist in continuing with a thoroughly-discredited process riddled with inefficiency and corruption. In the UBE situation, it is obvious that government simply does not have the administrative capacity to effectively utilise the funds at its disposal. This inability is to be contrasted with the governments of states like Lagos, Osun, Edo, Delta, Ekiti and Anambra, all of whom have highly-innovative educational policies which have transformed their states.

    If Nigeria is to move beyond the current situation of federal paralysis, its citizens must look again at the way in which their country is structured so that it can be run with greater efficiency and equity. It is only then that the UBE will cease to create idle minds the way it has generated idle funds.

     

  • Jonathan: more funds coming for education

    President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday pledged to release more funds to upgrade infrastructure in the universities.

    He said government believed the funds would be deployed prudently and wisely.

    The President spoke at the 52nd Founders’ Day lecture of the University of Nigeria(UNN), Nsukka.

    The lecture was delivered by Mr Mustafa Chike-Obi, the Managing Director of Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria(AMCON)

    Jonathan, whose speech was read by the Chairman of the occasion, and former Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Chief Arthur Mbanefo, said for Nigeria to grow, “ we must improve on the number of Nigerians that have access to good quality education at all levels”.

    He said: “This was what informed the decision of the Federal Government to establish six new universities across the six geo-political zones of the country.

    “ In addition, the older universities are being encouraged to increase their carrying capacity, while the first generation universities have also been directed to increase their ratio of post-graduate to undergraduate students.

    “ I’m aware that these additional responsibility would require additional investments in infrastructure and government would continue to make funds available to universities for infrastuctural upgrade believing that the funds would be deployed prudently and wisely” he said.

    The President advocated the transformation of a higher proportion of the population of the country from unskilled to skilled manpower, insisting that our population would not count for much if most us were uneducated.

    The UNN Vice Chancellor, Prof. Bartho Okolo said the Founders’ Day celebration was an annual event during which “ we remember and honour our founding fathers.” .

    “ The celebration also serve to remind us of the vision , foresight and courage that led Nigeria,s first President , Rt; Honourable(Dr) Nnamdi Azikiwe and his distinguished colleagues in the Easthern House of Assembly to establish this university only 5 days after our country gained independence from British Colonial rule in 1960.

    “ In addition, it is a time when we reflect on the extent to which the original vision of our university has been preserved as well as a time to strategize on how to advance this vision in our present and future development”. He said.