The Nation Newspaper

Tag: investment opportunities

  • NCDMB, Notore explore investment opportunities

    The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has pledged support to Notore Chemical Industries Plc to develop its industrial complex to offer integrated services to oil and gas companies, and increase its contributions to the agricultural and infrastructural sectors.

    NCDMB Executive Secretary Simbi Kesiye Wabote said this when he visited the company in Eleme, Rivers State. He also took extensive ground and aerial tour of the facilities.

    The agro-allied, petro-chemicals and power company, he said, has bigger potential for industrialisation, because it has natural gas resources, generates its electricity and has been granted free trade zone status.  Wabote added that the ample land mass and other assets positioned the complex to host allied industries. It will also serve as a logistics base for key oil and gas operations.

    He said: “This facility is just 15 kilometres to NLNG in Bonny, so there is potential to participate in the NLNG Train 7 project. There is vast land here, so you can also have accommodation for projects. This location could become a staging ground for most of the NLNG construction that would happen.”

    Wabote suggested that the Notore’s facility could also be considered for the execution of SNEPCo’s Bonga-Southwest Aparo’s deep water project. “That project would also happen and we are looking for draft and you have it here. There are potentials for ancillary factories that support the oil and gas sector.”

    Recalling that the complex suffered poor management when it operated as the National Fertiliser Company of Nigeria (NAFCON), Wabote commended the current management for revitalising the assets and expressed delight that key operations of the fertiliser plant were being run by Nigerians.

    He said: “All the people manning the operations are Nigerians. The feeling is unbelievable and this is what we talk about in NCDMB in terms of industrialisation and the synergy we must build across sectors. This is one of those companies that are changing the face of Nigeria in terms of agriculture. What the company does and the impact to our economy is unbelievable.”

    Notore Chemical Plc Group Chairman Mr. Onajite Paul Okoloko thanked the executive secretary for the visit.

    He explained that Notore’s assets straddled across the agricultural, oil and gas and infrastructural sectors, and the management was striving to build a second fertiliser plant, which would increase support to farmers with high-yield fertilisers and best practices.

    Okoloko said the company was determined to build an industrial city and commercialise some of its assets, which include the 560 hectares of land and two kilometres of water front.

    According to him, “the larger picture from one of our subsidiaries, Notore Industrial City, is to create an industrial chemical estate. Our free trade zone is rated number 1 by Pricewaterhouse Coopers in the sense that it has a deep river port, 10.5 meters of tradable draft, with direct access to the ocean. We also have 560 hectares of land and is the only free trade zone in the country that has gas and power.

    “In our estate you can have fertiliser plants and petrochemicals because we have the gas infrastructure so you can use that as raw material. At the same time we have a logistics base that can support the oil and gas industry. So, we have the logistics on one hand and the commercialisation of gas which is being flared in the country, so this becomes a gas hub.”

    He said the company would work with various stakeholders to “optimise the location to create significant amount of industrialisation, which is key to the economic growth of the country and at the same time, employ a huge amount of local skills to support the facility we have here.”

  • NBCC boosts investment opportunities

    The Nigerian-British Chamber of Commerce (NBCC) is promoting trade and investment opportunities between Nigeria and the United Kingdom (UK).

    The NBCC has therefore concluded plans to lead a trade mission to the UK where business concerns from both countries will be discussed.

    The group said it will provide platform for Nigerian and British businesses to  collaborate so as to encourage, promote and facilitate trade and investments between the two nations.

    Speaking at the pre-mission briefing in Lagos, NBCC President, Akin Olawore, said the five-day mission scheduled from June 11 will feature a series of business to business meetings with prospective partners from various British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), key policy influencers and Nigerians in Diaspora.

    Olawore said delegates will have the opportunity to participate at the international business festival in Liverpool and the London Technology Week with a working conference themed: “The Ease of doing business in Nigeria- A sound Check” included to hold at the Institute of Director, Pall mall, London.

    On volume of trade between the countries, he said the volume of trade is improving due to increase in business from both countries, adding that more will be achieved as trade relations improve and wrong narratives dealt with through accurate information dissemination.

  • Ecobank unlocks investment opportunities in insurance

    Ecobank Nigeria Limited is taking strategic steps to unlock investment opportunities in the insurance sector, Managing Director, Ecobank Development Company (EDC) Fund Management, Ibukun Oyedeji, said yesterday.

    Speaking yesterday at the ‘Insurance Roundtable’ organised by Ecobank Nigeria/Securities, Wealth & Asset Management (SWAM), Ecobank Capital, she said the lender woudcontinue to take steps that promote insurance penetration in the country.

    She disclosed that Nigerian insurance industry has huge potentials that are largely untapped.

    According to her, the insurance roundtable was set up to be a forum that would bring all insurance companies together to discuss the market and pertinent issues in the industry.

    “One of the things we know in Nigeria is that the insurance industry has lots of potentials, but has always remained in the infantry stage where the development of the market has struggled over time. So, at Ecobank Nigeria, we saw this as opportunity for them to discuss,” she said.

    Speaking further, she said: “There is need for more collaboration between the insurance and banks. Although the regulator has advised on the Bancassurance, one of the things we think is the way outside the regulator’s imposed collaboration is that  practitioners need to make sure that the collaboration comes as improved synergy to see how well we can cover the entire Nigeria, especially the masses. If you look at the demography of Nigeria, 50 per cent of Nigerians are working class and they need to be insured against loss of life, critical illnesses, among others,” she said.

    Continuing, she said that: “If a merger happens in the market, which I think needs to happen, I think in the long term, insurance would be a buy for me. I think a lot of time, what has happened in the industry is the mis-selling by the agents. A lot of agents in order to meet their targets, sell the wrong insurance and you don’t know. You keep paying for that insurance until when it is time to claim the insurance”.

    Also speaking, the bank’s Executive Director, Corporate Banking, Akin Dada, said tapping the opportunities in the insurance sector is good for the economy.

    He said there is need for the bank to work with the insurance companies to break the barriers of insurance penetration.

    “Insurance penetration has always been a major barrier. We are working with the insurance companies to see how we can unlock the opportunities in the sector. Tax incentive will enhance awareness in the sector and will help to boost insurance penetration in the country,” he said.

  • Future Project opens investment opportunities for youths

    The Future Project, in partnership with Microsoft, has announced the Demo Day for Accelerate LABS participant, during which investment opportunities will be availed to participants.

    The event will take place in Lagos on Saturday, February 3.

    Launched last August, the nationwide entrepreneurship initiative is intended to support and equip 2,160 Nigerian youths with technology-driven status required to build socially-responsible enterprises.

    With over 3,000 participants registered under the first stream, young entrepreneurs who passed through the screenings under the initiative will be provided the opportunity to exhibit their products for purchase and also pitch ideas for possible investment at the event.

    Speaking during the announcement, Project Lead, The Future Project, Bukonla Adebakin, emphasised the importance of the Demo Day, stating that it was a culmination of the training, investment, and efforts of participants, partners, and mentors under the Accelerate LABS program.

    “Trainings were held across the six geo-political zones of the country, with over 2,000 participants going through months of intensive training modules. Due to the assessment and positive feedback from classes on pitch presentation, funding proposals, client relations, and others, we are certain that these trainees will impress investors and set precedence for future participants,” she stated.

    “Microsoft YouthSpark empowers youth to imagine and realise their full potential by connecting them with greater opportunities for education, employment and entrepreneurship, helping them create a real impact for a better tomorrow said Olusola Amusan, Citizenship Lead, Microsoft Nigeria.

    Registrations into the second stream of Accelerate LABS has also been announced, with more training to be made accessible to prospective candidates across the country this year.

     

  • Experts outline investment opportunities in Nigeria

    Investments with exciting opportunities for good returns abound in listed equities with strong fundamentals and low valuations and other growth sectors of the economy. Some of them are real estate, education, health and agricultural sectors.

    There are also investment opportunities in companies that are non-import dependent as Nigeria grapples with foreign exchange constraints.

    These were part of the conclusions of investment and financial experts, who spoke at a seminar on ‘Investing in 2016, riding the storm, unearthing the opportunities’, organised by Diamond Bank in Lagos. The seminar was attended by top investors, industry captains, monetarists, financial analysts, entrepreneurs and policymakers among others.

    The chief speaker, Bode Agusto, founder of Agusto & Co and former Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation. The discussion panelists, led by Aishah Ahmad, Head of Consumer Banking, Diamond Bank Plc, agreed that there were exciting investment opportunities in the real estate, education, health and agricultural sectors of the economy.

    They also noted the huge investment opportunities in companies that are non-import dependent, critical sectors of the economy like electricity energy and Nigerian sovereign bonds especially as the borrowing level of the government to fund the budget is expected to rise.

    Agusto identified investment opportunities as listed equities with strong fundamentals and competitive valuations, private equity investments in education and healthcare and real estate.

    He said some people, who used to go abroad for routine medical care and secondary education, will look to local persons that can provide equally good service at competitive prices.

    Agusto pointed out that the key prices in every economy include interest rates, inflation rates, exchange rates and identified a fourth key price for Nigeria as the “the price of crude oil.”

    He further explained that the fundamentals that drive exchange rates are – the net flow from trade activities, net capital flows and the extent to which external reserves can act as a buffer and ability of a country to borrow to fund USD spending.

    “Currently, net flow from trade is negative, so is net capital flow; reserves are low and ability to borrow USD is somewhat constrained,” Agusto said.

    He said it would be difficult to maintain current official exchange, saying that government will try to maintain the current official rate for as long as possible, but may allow private sector suppliers of foreign exchange to do business at a different rate.

    He, however, acknowledged that if we free the markets, the macro-economic fundamentals can support an exchange rate much lower than the current rates prevailing in the parallel market.

    Other discussants included the fixed income analyst, Diamond Bank, Emeka Uzomba; real estate specialists, Paul Onwuanibe, and equity market analyst, Titi Odunfa-Adeoye, who stated that opportunities in the equities market should be treaded cautiously.

    They recommended that investors adhere to the global portfolio analysis offered by Diamond Bank’s ‘Diamond Privilege’ account, which enabled clients review their investment portfolios from a risk and return perspective to ensure that they were generating the highest yields possible.

  • Young professionals meet on investment opportunities

    A group of young Nigerian professionals in the Diaspora have said they will return home and contribute to the country’s economic growth.

    Last week, the young entrepreneurs, studying and working abroad, were hosted to an Investment and Networking Night, where they shared ideas with investors and successful entrepreneurs.

    The event, at the Oriental Hotel in Lekki, Lagos, was organised by Move Back To Nigeria (MBTN) and Young African MBAs (YAM).

    It was aimed at creating an investment platform for Nigerians overseas, who plan to return to the country to offer their expertise in diverse sectors of economy.

    The MBTN Chief Executive Officer, Adaraba Abdullahi, said: “The objective of this event is to connect Diaspora-based Nigerian professionals and investors with opportunities in the country, which range from strategic recruitment drives to investor outreach programme, relocation information, financial advice and real estate.”

    The keynote speaker and Chairman of Access Bank, Mrs. Mosun Belo-Olusoga, engaged the professionals on how to transform their ideas into reality despite the challenges facing the economy.

    She spoke about the modality for accessing soft loans to finance projects, saying there were financial institutions, including the Bank of Industry (BOI), willing to partner the entrepreneurs on funding.

    Belo-Olusoga said the country’s economy remained the biggest in Africa into which they could tap and set up successful business enterprises.

    She hailed the young Nigerians for returning to do business despite the challenges.

    The keynote speaker said: “This event gives me hope about the future of Nigeria, because it is in period of challenges that people strive to make changes. If these young professionals had said they would wait till when everything would work out fine, the opportunities will no longer arise. All they need to do is to figure out what they want to do when they are in Nigeria.

    “On funding, they can source finance from friends and family. Besides, there is BOI funds, which is about N200 billion, to help budding entrepreneurs and small-scale businesses. They can go to their BOI and check the condition for granting the loan. Because of their background, a lot can meet the conditions when they apply.”

    The event also featured a a panel of discussants, where the participants engaged successful entrepreneurs.

    The panellists included Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Agrolay Venture Ms Ada Osakwe, founder of Okadabooks.com Okechukwu Ofili, founder of Hotels.ng Mark Essien, CEO of TalentMine Dr. Femi Kuti and co-founder of SheLeads Africa Yasmin Belo-Osagie.

    Ms Osakwe, who was a special assistant to former Minister of Agriculture Akinwumi Adesina, shared how she resigned her job in the United States and returned to Nigeria to start an agriculture business.

    She said since Nigeria spent N5 billion annually on foods, she saw an opportunity to provide an alternative to boost local food production.

    She said: “It was a big investment for me to move into food processing at the time Nigerians spent N5 billion annually to import food that could be produced locally. We created products that did not need the use of electricity to consume. This is the strength of our business and since we started, we have been inundated with demands.”

    Ofili, who also returned from the U.S. in 2012, said his motivation to found Okadabooks. com resulted from a disappointment he had with owners of bookshops, who, he said, sold his first book without remitting his share of the sale.

    Ofili founded Okadabooks.c om to help budding writers market their books and literary journals through a software application, which serves as an online bookshop. He said he relocated to Nigeria to change the course of online business.

    He said: “You cannot change Nigeria from the Diaspora; you have to come back home and do that. Even, when you are back, you should not stay in highbrow neighbourhood and claim you want to make a change. You need to go to the heart of where people need assistance the most.”

    After his 11-year residency in Germany, Essien, a Computer Science graduate, returned to the country to found Hotels.ng, a fast-growing online hotel reservation enterprise.

    Sharing his start-up challenges with the participants, Essien said the idea almost failed because of lack of funding.

    Two years after, he said the Hotels.ng had become a rendezvous of hotel business for thousands of Internet users. He added that his company had more than 7,000 hotels in its database.

    More than 100 young Nigerian professionals attended the event from the U.S., United Kingdom, Germany, France and Republic of Ireland, among others.