The Nation Newspaper

Tag: global

  • UNIDO: global manufacturing rose 3.7% between Jan and Mar

    UNIDO: global manufacturing rose 3.7% between Jan and Mar

    •Africa’s manufacturing output hits 5.7% 

    Global manufacturing output rose by 3.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2017, compared to the same period of last year – a rate  higher than the average rise observed in 2016, a United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) report, has said.

    The report, which was signed by UNIDO Chief Statistician Shyam Upadhyaya and made available to The Nation, said global manufacturing gained strength in 2017 and the prospects for sustained industrial growth are improving in industrialised and developing economies.

    According to the report released during the week, improved growth figures were observed across all country groups. It said manufacturing output of industrialised economies rose by 1.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2017, compared to the same period of previous year.

    “Manufacturing output rose in all major industrialised economies with a significant share of global manufacturing output, namely the United States of America, Japan, Germany and the Republic of Korea,” the report said.

    It added that among the industrialised regions, Europe’s manufacturing output grew by 1.4 per cent in the first quarter of 2017, and that positive trends were widespread throughout Europe.

    “Manufacturing output rose by 3.5 per cent in Netherlands, 2.7 per cent in Belgium, 2.6 per cent in Finland and 1.7 per cent in Austria. Similarly, manufacturing output rose by 6.6 per cent in Poland, 6.7 per cent in Romania and 3.5 per cent in Bulgaria,” the report said.

    It, however, stated that the repercussions of lower global energy prices were still present in Norway and the Russian Federation, where manufacturing output was yet to achieve growth.

    The report also noted that emerging industrial economies showed much higher growth – 6.0 per cent – during the same period. For instance, Latin American economies showed early signs of recovery, achieving positive growth rates for the first time since a prolonged recession in recent years.

    Higher growth rates were achieved by developing economies in Asia, while the manufacturing output of Africa rose by 5.7 per cent.

  • Nigeria in global maritime map

    SIR: With the nation boasting of over 850 kilometers of coastline, it is a trite postulate that the Nigerian maritime industry is a gold mine that investors with foresight must take advantage of, for maximum profit.

    There are numerous incentives as income tax exemptions for infrastructural development in ship-building and there are financial incentives for ship-building and ship-scrapping with assurance of foreign repatriation of capital and profit.

    In its bid to reduce in bureaucratic red tapes impeding investment in the country, the presidential enabling business environment council approved a national action plan to be implemented across priority areas to enhance entry and exit of goods and services to spur inflow of foreign investment into Nigeria. There is also the National Trade Data Centre to promote investments in Nigeria. Further, the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) recently declared that the Kaduna Dry Port having been completed is set to commence operation.

    At the recent Offshore Technology Conference, OTC, in Houston Texas, chairman, Senate Committee on Marine Transport, Sani Yerima and the chairman House Committee on Maritime Safety, Education and Administration, Mohammed Umaru Bago assured that the legislature is committed to providing the legislative framework to enhance foreign investments in Nigeria. In keeping to this the Nigerian Senate has already passed the PIG Bill.

    It is also believed that with a more conducive investment climate, entailing amongst others, adequate security of maritime assets and elimination of corporate governance abuses, Nigeria, being the most populous country in Africa with about 183 million people will be able to take its place in world maritime map to enhance Nigeria’s per capital income and salvage the nation from the pangs of recession.

     

    Michael O. Ogunjobi Esq,

    Lagos.

  • LBS consolidates on global rating

    The Lagos Business School (LBS) has consolidated on its recent rating by the Financial Times of London as one of the leading global business school, by adding two seasoned experts to its faculty base: Dr. Oghenovo Obrimah and Marvel Ogah.

    Dr Obrimah joins the Accounting, Finance and Economics department. Obrimah holds a Ph.D. in Business & Management, with a concentration in Finance and sub-specialisation in Economics from the RH Smith School of Business of the University of Maryland, College Park US. He graduated with First Class Honors in Mathematics from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria in 1995. He was awarded a Pre-doctoral Fellowship in Economics at Yale University from 1999 to 2000, and has worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC and First City Merchant Bank PLC.

  • Global oil supply dips by 41000 bpd in April

    Global oil supply fell by 41,000 barrels per day (bpd) in April, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said in this month’s oil market report.

    The organisation said world oil supply fell by 0.41 million barrels per day (mbpd) in April to average 95.81 mbpd. However, global oil production was 831,000 barrels daily higher than a year ago and increased by 363,000 barrels per day in the first quarter of the year, it added.

    The report said: “Non-OPEC oil supply in 2016 was revised down by 18,000 barrels per day due to a downward revision of Russian oil supply in fourth quarter of 2016 to average 57.30 million barrels per day – indicating a year-on-year decline of 0.71 million barrels per day.

    “In contrast, oil supply in 2017 was revised up by 0.36 million barrels per day to average 58.25 million barrels per day – representing year-on-year growth of 0.95 million barrels per day, following changes in all quarters, mostly in the US, based on US actual production data from February and new forecasts for crude oil output.

    “In 2017, US growth forecast was revised up again, rising by 0.28 million barrels per day to average 0.82 million barrels per day. Similarly, but to a lesser extent, Canada, Brazil and Kazakhstan were revised up, while the growth forecasts for Mexico, China, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Oman and Colombia were in decline.’’

    It continued: “OPEC natural gas liquids (NGLs) and non-conventional oil production in 2016 was revised down by 34,000 barrels per day to average 6.05 million barrels per day, and indicates a growth of 0.11 million barrels per day year-on-year, while for 2017, the growth forecast was revised up by 40,000 barrels per day to 0.17 million barrels per day to average 6.22 million barrel per day.

    “In April, OPEC production decreased by 18,000 bpd, according to secondary sources, to average 31.73 mbpd. Non-OPEC oil supply in 2016 is estimated to have averaged 57.30 mbpd, representing a decline of 0.71 mbpd over the previous year, and a downward revision of 0.02 mbpd from the last assessment.

    ‘’Within the quarters, non-OPEC oil supply encountered historical downward revisions in fourth of 2016 by 72,000 bpd, only in Russia. Non-OPEC supply in 2016 saw strong declines in  Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Americas (0.47 mbpd), China (0.31 mbpd), and developing countries (0.10 mbpd.’’

    It added that preliminary March and last month’s data based on weekly figures shew a return to an upward trend with industrial, road transportation fuels, notably distillates and motor gasoline, accounting for the bulk of these increases.

  • JAMB and Africa’s place in global ICT revolution

    One of Africa’s most talked-about ICT success stories in the education sector is the adoption of Computer Based Test (CBT) for entrance examination into tertiary schools organized by the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board, a body with a core mandate to conduct matriculation examination for entry into all universities, polytechnics and colleges of education in Nigeria.

    Globally, there has been an ICT revolution since 2000. The internet economy has grown larger and faster than could have been reasonably expected back then.  In future, technology, connectedness, the internet-of-things all promise a more efficient, fast-paced economy set within an accessible global market. But how can Africa really harness all this change to its betterment?

    For a long time, ‘creativity’ and ‘innovation’ in technology were only latent concepts in Africa in general, and Nigeria in particular, until the dawn of the digital age. ICT plays an important, valuable and critical role in education development. Its usage has become very common but its full potential is yet to be discovered. Nigeria’s JAMB is now playing a critical role in ensuring that Africa maintains its pride of place in the Global ICT arena with a particular reference to education. It is heartwarming to see that fact that developing countries have now understood the importance of ICT and have started adapting to it as a basic tool for quality education.

    The trailblazing credentials of JAMB experienced a surge with the coming on board of Professor Ishaq Oloyede, who has accelerated reforms at the institution and fast-tracked innovation. JAMB is applying ICT to areas that no one would have thought possible.

    The ICT mediated examination innovation by JAMB, which replaced the Paper and Pencil Based examination system that was fraught with problems of accuracy and delay in timely results’ declaration is an effective tool for integrating and automating the activities of examination system to bring reliable, efficient, transparent and robust e-examination solutions for Africa.

    JAMB, especially under Professor Oleyede, has increased its institutional capacity and credibility since the introduction of the CBT in 2015. Determined to make the Computer Based Test all inclusive to different category of candidates with disabilities, JAMB embarked on nationwide training for visually impaired on the use of Apex Braille-note computer. This is quite commendable.

    The Apex Braille-note computer is an electronic devise invented by the board to enable visually impaired to take the Computer Based Test without stress like a normal Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination candidate.

    The machine is affixed to a desktop computer and questions are deployed to it electronically with hearing aid. No fewer than 200 visually impaired participants in the training held at designated venues across the nation; namely South West Resource Centre in Abeokuta, Lagos , Kano, Enugu and Port Harcourt.

    It is a good thing that the parliament through the House of Representatives committee on education has thrown its weight behind the JAMBs ICT drive with reference to the Computer Based Test (CBT) when it said the electronic test was in tandem with global dictates to sanitized the education system. “The paper Pencil Test (PPT) was cumbersome and characterized with several irregularities and unwholesome activities. The world is flying and we cannot be crawling”. The chairman of the House of Representatives committee on education Hon. Zakari Mohammed was quoted to have said.

    Thus, if the board’s major objective is to completely eliminate malpractices through the conduct of CBT, it may as well have achieved it because the CBT has to a large extent eliminated malpractice in the examination process. As with everything good, there are those who will lose because of the elimination of malpractices. These are the people that pick holes in the reform and tend to highlight the few teething issues.

    Irrespective of how much such people try to make a mountain out of a molehill, JAMB could compete auspiciously with any examination body in the world considering its innovation in digitizing its examination. The innovation has now restored confidence and integrity in its examination process. With the pace of the current registrar, the body is set to become a global reference point.

    From its application to obviously mundane tasks to its use for the noblest of all human endeavors, the place of information and communication technology (ICT) in today’s world cannot be over-emphasized. The fate of individuals, businesses and countries largely depends on how fast they latch on to the ICT revolution and stay ahead in the game. It is the 21st Century equivalent of the scramble for land and territory most races of humankind have been involved in from ages past.

    Against the backdrop of the importance of ICT to the present era, the effort by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) which has now phased out the use of the paper and pencil method for its examinations in favour of computer-based tests, is not only a commendable step in the right direction, it is also a pointer to the fact that Africa and indeed Nigeria is playing a very crucial role in global ICT revolution.

    A disquieting percentage of graduates in the country today are not computer literate, thus, making them unemployable. This wouldn’t have been the trend if all critical stakeholders in the education string had been proactive in espousing ICT, specifically in testing candidates over the last two decades. The contemporary workplace is ICT-oriented and anyone not trained in this direction is hopelessly unfit to take on many tasks in the corporate world, which can only get more sophisticated, as technology is being daily improved to work more for the human race. Embracing ICT for providing the robust, transparent, accurate and authenticated outputs as we have witnessed with the JAMB innovation brings substantial quality improvement in education and this needs to be extended to other examinations in the country.

    Nigeria’s JAMB has taken the lead. There is no gainsaying the fact that ICT will make exam system more efficient and transparent. This will produce competent human resources, which will contribute to the development of the country. The development at JAMB, which fully digitized and modernized most of its operation is the way to go and should be rolled across others facets of the education sector.

    A consensus has been built around the fact that today is the era of technology which is resulting in changing the life style of people. Today many African institutions are imparting education in the field of ICT, but its application in the functioning of the system is low. The meaning of computerization is limited to just typing or surfing web; full potential of ICT has not been explored. ICT is a useful tool to have transparency, reliability and efficiency in examination system. There are tremendous facilitations integrating ICT with examination system. JAMB’s ICT innovation from what we have seen will ensure efficiency and effectiveness in the examination system and effectively deal with malpractice and inefficiency thus bringing about the much needed change.

     

    • Clement, a medical practitioner, contributed this piece from Harvard University, USA.
  • ‘Aba the next global destination’

    ‘Aba the next global destination’

    His going to China was not a feel-good, sightseeing trip; it was to turn the world’s gaze on the state and the products it churns out. That was the information journalists got upon Abia State Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s return from China.

    Speaking with newsmen on the trip, Ikpeazu said the buy made in Aba campaign has been taken several notches higher. He said soon producers in the state’s commercial hub will attract buyers from all over the world and will create more job opportunities.

    Ikpeazu said that while in China he visited a shoe factory whose owner was willing to come to Aba to establish a factory where the people will work and learn the modern ways of producing shoes faster and in larger quantities in a short time.

    The governor said that 200 people from the state will be taken to China to learn shoemaking, and then supervise those who will be employed to work in the factory as the Chinese would not bring in labour from their country.

    He explained that the arrival of the Chinese will not be the end of shoe makers in Aba as they will exist side by side with the factory as every business has its target market, “So there should be no fear for our people”.

    Ikpeazu said, “We want to attract economic activities into the state and turn it into a place where people could come into a conducive environment to produce their products and sale, the era of made in Aba products has gone to the next level of come to Aba and produce”.

    He said that the owner of the shoe factory in China has a franchise to sell and produce shoes for American market and he has not been able to make up the 2% required by his customers.

    The governor said that the factory when established will cost the owner the sum of $1.5 million, “It is expected that 65% of the shoes that will be produced will be for export as he has been struggling to meet up his 2% demand in America”.

    Ikpeazu said, “The establishment of the Chinese shoe factory in Aba will even make shoemaking easier and faster for our people this is because if a customer comes to them with a design they would just take it there while the customer is waiting and have the shoes despite the quantity produced within hours”.

    The governor who recalled a theory propounded by one of his aides, Sam Hart that when Nigerian breweries arrived the country in the 60s that palm wine tappers felt threatened that they may go into extinction which is not the case today as they exist side by side, “So it will be the same case with the Chinese shoe factory and our own shoe makers”.

    He said that during the visit to China that he and his team also visited a company that produces machines for shoe making and government is ready to acquire some of the machines for its own shoe production line.

    Ikpeazu said, “We want to turn our state into a place where people would come and establish their production businesses while their customers will come and buy, thereby making our people not only busy also increase our revenue base. This is the reason behind our rebuilding infrastructure in our state such as roads, hospitals and schools so that when these people come everything would be in place, while moving around will not be difficult; we want to ensure that things are made here”.

    He said that government has established Abia State Industrial Development Strategy where large parcels of land have been acquired in all the three senatorial districts across the state.

    Ikpeazu said that such acquired parcels of land are backed up with certificate of occupancy (C of O) with the necessary infrastructure in place so that any organisation that wants to operate in the state will have a place to start from.

    He told newsmen that some of his visits abroad have started yielding fruit, adding that, while in Turkey, he paid a counterpart fund of just $25,000 which has brought in a container of goods worth well over $400,000.

    The governor said, “Another container with health equipment worth over $2 million which we paid another $25,000 we are ready to go to any length to ensure that our people get the best so long as the funds are within our reach”.

  • Nigeria can become global gas giant, says NLNG

    Nigeria can become global gas giant, says NLNG

    The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG), Tony Attah, said Nigeria can be a top gas producing country, with a potential to increase its LNG market share.

    He spoke during the public presentation of the company’s facts and figures in Lagos.

    For that transformation to be, Attah said the right business environment needed to exist. He referred to the proposed amendment of the NLNG Act by the National Assembly, which he said, would jeopardise the aspirations of making Nigeria global gas leader.

    He said: “The Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) Fiscal Incentives Guarantees and Assurances Act (NLNG Act) allowed investments to flow into the country. It provided investors the confidence that any agreement entered into would be respected and preserved. To amend the Act will not help Nigeria in developing its vast gas resources, NLNG and its hopes for expansion. It will erode investors’confidence that the Act provided in the first place.”

    Attah said opportunities, such as the expansion of NLNG’s Bonny Island Plant with Trains 7 and 8, could be a catalyst to unleashing the country’s gas potentials.

    He said it was time for Nigeria to use gas to spur industrial and economic transformation. He, however, warned that some challenges might slow down progress towards achieving the country’s dreams, citing the proposed amendment of the Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) Fiscal Incentives, Guarantees and Assurances Act (NLNG Act) by the House of Representatives as a potential show-stopper.

    “If the amendment is passed, the NLNG expansion project will be jeopardised and Nigeria will lose investments of US$ 1-3billion annually in the Upstream to enable NLNG maintain production capacity and gas developments. It means an immediate loss of foreign investment totalling US$25 billion in respect of Train 7 and 8 investments. Another impact will be the potential loss of about 18,000 jobs required for the construction activities of the Trains.

    “An amendment or change in the NLNG Act portrays Nigeria as a promise-breaker and untrustworthy, damaging the country’s reputation and hamstringing its ability to attract foreign investment,” he added.

    Attah cited Oatar’s journey into becoming a global gas giant. He said:  “Qatar started to ship LNG in 1997, two years before Nigeria. But you have to be awed by what the country has achieved since then. Today, oil and gas, and principally LNG, is the foundation of Qatar’s economy; and account for more than 70 per cent of total government revenue, and more than 60 per cent of GDP, as well as roughly 85 per cent of export earnings.

    “Qatar has LNG capacity of about 77metric tones per annum (MTPA), and generates revenues of about $91 billion per year. Gas was the catalyst for transformation of a small emirate to a global economic powerhouse. This will give you a feeling of what can happen when you focus on gas.”

    LNG, Attah said, contributed to reducing gas flaring from 65 per cent to less than 20 per cent, adding that all the benefits from Nigeria LNG, including financial contributions, among others, would be in jeopardy with the proposed amendment by the National Assembly, he said.

  • Unilever to sell spreads business in global restructuring

    Unilever to sell spreads business in global restructuring

    Unilever Group, the parent company of Unilever Nigeria Plc, has indicated its intention to divest its spreads business as part of a global restructuring of its businesses.

    Unilever Group said the divestment was part of a strategic review aimed at accelerating sustainable shareholder value creation.

    Unilever Nigeria yesterday confirmed the plan to sell the spreads business but added that the announcement has no immediate effect on the activities of the Nigerian subsidiary. Unilever Nigeria’s share price remained unchanged at N33.15 per share at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

    Chairman,   Marjin Dekkers, said the proposed sale of the spreads business and other restructurings were fully supported by the board of directors.

    According to him, the review that the board of directors of the Unilever Group has undertaken has been detailed and comprehensive and it has confirmed that the group’s model of long-term shareholder value creation has been successful and remains as valid as ever.

    Chief executive officer, Unilever, Paul Polman, said the group has decided that the sale of the spreads business would lead to accelerated development of its portfolio.

    “After a long history in Unilever, we have decided that the future of the spreads business now lies outside the Group,” Polman said.

    Nigerian shareholders had largely shunned a N43 billion share-acquisition bid by Unilever Overseas Holdings , United Kingdom aimed at acquiring a quarter of Unilever Nigeria’s shares to increase the multinational’s majority equity stake in the Nigerian subsidiary to 75 per cent.

    Unilever UK’s total shareholdings in Unilever Nigeria only increased by 8.49 per cent from 50.04 per cent to 58.53 per cent after the conclusion of acquisition bid. Besides, Unilever UK had resorted to mopping up the shares of Unilever Nigeria through the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

  • NNPC prepares for global oil trading

    NNPC prepares for global oil trading

    The Group Managing Director,  Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru, has urged oil traders under the purview ofx the Corporation to sharpen their skills for the challenges ahead as the stste-run oil firm seeks to activate its vision of becoming a global player in the industry.

    Baru spoke ysterday at the NNPC Towers, Abuja while receiving participants billed to depart for onsite customised oil traders training programme organised by the Oxford Princeton, London, for select NNPC workers.

    Its Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu in a statement , quoted Baru as saying: “Trading on the major international platforms like the London mercantile exchange, the New York NYMEX, and of course Singapore requires in-depth understanding. It also requires total loyalty and commitment to your entity, as in the oil and gas industry, the margins are small so the volume definitely matters. We rely on you to make things happen.’’

    The NNPC GMD noted that because successful trading required in-depth networking, the trainees must do everything possible to develop and sustain a rich pool of contacts within the trading world.

    He recalled that various attempts made by the NNPC management in the past to have a strong hold on oil trading had not yielded the expected dividend because the Corporation relied on the so-called big trading companies to transfer trading skills to NNPC workers during routine secondment.

    “It is our aspiration that this crop of trainees would eventually realise our dream,’’ Baru said.

    The training programme is designed to equip the participants with crude oil trading fundamentals and develop their capacity to compete in the global trading space. The course is billed to take-off on February 6.

  • Global manufacturing growth ‘sluggish’

    Global manufacturing growth remained low in the third quarter of 2016, reflecting a prolonged yet fragile recovery  in industrialised economies and weakened growth prospects in developing and emerging industrial economies, a report by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), has said.

    The report said that world manufacturing output rose by 2.4 per cent in the third quarter of 2016, compared to the same period of the previous year. It predicted that uncertainty accompanying political developments in the United States (US) and Europe with potential impact on global trade arrangements will likely create further risks to global industrial growth.

    The report accessed by The Nation stated that major industrialised economies with significant contribution to global manufacturing output – the US, Japan and Germany- remained affected by low-growth. It said that in China, the world’s largest manufacturer, comparably lower growth has now become systematic, pushing the average industrial growth of emerging industrial economies downward.

    According to the report, the manufacturing output of industrialised economies increased marginally by 0.6 per cent in the third quarter of 2016, whereas the growth in developing and emerging industrial economies dropped below 5.0 per cent. China’s manufacturing output growth reduced to 6.9 per cent in the third quarter, compared to 7.2 per cent in the second quarter.

    The lower growth rate of developing and emerging industrial economies also reflected a continuing decline of manufacturing in Latin American countries. Manufacturing output dropped in Argentina by 6.4 per cent, in Brazil by 4.8 per cent and in Chile by 0.3 per cent.

    Some Asian economies maintained higher manufacturing growth performance in the third quarter of 2016. Vietnam maintained its position as one of the fastest growing Asian economies with the double-digit growth for an eighth consecutive quarter.

    The country’s manufacturing output rose by 11.2 per cent in the third quarter.Similarly, Indonesia’s manufacturing growth rose by 5.5 per cent and Malaysia’s by 3.9 per cent. However, the growth pace of manufacturing output in India dropped in the third quarter below 1.0 per cent.

    Estimates from the limited available data showed that manufacturing output growth decelerated in Africa, with a marginal rise of 0.5 per cent. While South Africa, the continent’s largest manufacturer, had positive growth, the manufacturing output of Egypt, another large economy in Africa, dropped by 2.1 per cent in the third quarter. Higher growth rates of 8.3 per cent and 7.6 per cent were achieved in Cameroon and Senegal.

    The UNIDO report also presented growth estimates by manufacturing sectors. Production of motor vehicles rose by 6.4 per cent worldwide, thanks to higher growth of this sector in developing economies.

    Similarly, production of pharmaceutical products rose by 3.4 per cent, and computer, electronic and optical products by 4.6 per cent. The production of tobacco fell for the third consecutive quarter, declining by 8.0 per cent in the third quarter 2016.