The Nation Newspaper

Tag: investment

  • Six Southsouth states mull regional investment fund

    Governments of Edo, Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Delta states are considering the establishment of a regional investment fund in furtherance of the economic integration and development of the region.

    The six states had established a regional economic cooperation and integration-BRACED Commission, as a joint economic and development corporation for the region. BRACED was derived from the first letter of the name of each state in the region.

    The regional investment fund will take cue from the Nigeria’s Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF), a common investment vehicle for the federation recently constituted by the Federal Government.

    Each state within the zone is expected to contribute to the seed capital for the establishment of the regional investment fund. The oil-rich South-South states receive the highest allocations from the Federation Account.

    The idea of a BRACED’s investment fund is one of the outcomes of a retreat organised by the BRACED Commission with participations from key decision markers across the states and beyond. The BRACED Commission will serve as the coordinating centre for the establishment of the regional investment fund.

    Participants at the retreat agreed that the establishment of a regional investment fund would act as a catalyst for economic revival of the region through investments in key development areas including small and medium scale enterprises.

    They noted that the non-renewable nature of crude oil and the global clamour for alternative and environment-friendly sources of energy have made it imperative for the zone to diversify its economy.

    The regional investment fund would invest in businesses and infrastructures with immense impact on the ordinary people within the zone, thus serving as a vehicle for mass wealth creation and distribution.

    Stakeholders at the retreat recommended that each state should its financial contribution to the BRACED Commission in its annual budget with a view to grant adequate and autonomous financial capacity to the BRACED Commission.

    According to participants, all the states need to mainstream BRACED issues, policies and programmes into their strategic plans while the BRACED Commission also needs to develop a sub-regional strategic plan consistent with the priorities of the states.

    Key speakers at the retreat included Head of Delegation, Delegation of the European Union (EU) to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ambassador David MacRae, Lead Economist at the World Bank, Abuja Office, Mr John Litwack and Director General of the BRACED Commission, Ambassador Joe Keshi.

    MacRae noted that the BRACED states can learn a lot from the EU in building strong institutions, planning and public finance management.

    He drew a correlation between the governments of the 27-member nations of the EU and the six BRACED states and the commission.

    He advocated that the State Houses of Assembly of the BRACED states should provide the legal backing that transcends current and future administrations to give the commission legal perpetuity irrespective of changes in governments.

    “The leaders of the BRACED states should ensure that a legal framework is fashioned to guarantee the sustainability of the BRACED Commission,” MacRae said.

    Litwack said the BRACED states have good potential for growth and development pointing at significant government resources, port access and large and young population that stand out the region as good investment destination.

    According to him, the states can leverage on these potentials to develop sustainable economic growth through determination and effective leadership.

     

  • Q1: Foreign portfolio investment drops by N140b

    Foreign portfolio investment dropped by N140billion or 39.3 per cent in the first quarter of this year, a report by Financial Derivative Company has revealed.

    Also, foreign exchange sales at the Wholesale Dutch Auction System (WDAS) fell from $6billion in the corresponding period of last year to $3.9 billion this year.

    In its April Economic Report, the company noted that the pressure on the naira in the forex market will persist but continued Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intervention to protect the local currency will also continue.

    The report said the Sovereign Wealth Fund has a N1 billion start-up capital. He said that Nigeria will also borrow in 2013 to support its infrastructural and other capital projects.

    FDC said the monetary policy stance of the CBN has been tightening in spite of rising inflation, adding that the reserves was $49 billion in first quarter and would cover 13 months of imports and payments for the country.

    The firm said hot money in the economy is unofficially estimated at $11 billion adding that capital inflows have been trickling in after the earlier gush in late 2012. He said the decline in the inflation from a peak of 12.9 per cent to nine per cent in January before climbing to the current 9.5 per cent was due to base year effects even though the core inflation rate declined in February.

    “The major threat to price stability remains the fear of fiscal dominance and high powered money. The possibility of a supplementary budget and electioneering spending in a politically polarized environment is a clear and pre-sent danger to the explicitly stated objective of keeping inflation below 10 per cent,” he said.

    He said the markets have already discounted the interest rate as a nominal anchor, rendering it as an impotent benchmark.

    “The treasury bill auction rates have declined down to 9.2 per cent per annum. The Bond yields have gone the same way. This disconnection between the market and the benchmark is partly because of the impact of T/Bill maturities and the huge federal government disbursement of N888 billion and N400 billion capital votes last week. We expect the market to continue the trend of interest rates declining slowly until the next meeting in May,” FDC said.

    The report said the Monetary Policy Rate, the benchmark rate by which the CBN determines interest rate, has remained at 12 per cent since October 2011 when it was increased from 9.25 representing 275 basis points raise.

    It said, the CBN was advised to sustain its efforts at finding other innovative ways to unlock the credit market and stimulate the economy adding that despite implementation of the cashless policy, 90 per cent of transactions are still cash-based.

    According to the report, poor corporate governance practices, undue exposure to the capital market, oil and gas sectors, poor risk management, distress signs through the banks’ frequent resort to the inter-bank market and the Expanded Discount Window (EDW) were defining issues before the reforms. There were also matters relating to inadequate disclosure and lack of transparency about banks’ financial positions, making the reforms inevitable.

    Rewane said emerging markets also facing serious inflationary threats, which could much higher in 2012.

    Unsecured lines of credit for Nigerian banks to become more expensive to support trade finance. For Nigeria, raising new money from the Euro bond market will be more challenging. He said the gap between inflation and short term interest rates narrowed, thereby helping to stabilize the naira and reduce the rate of external reserve depletion.

  • Investment in mechanisation crucial to agricultural development, says expert

    How can agriculture productivity be enhanced?

    It is by increased investment in mechanisation,says the Execuive Director, Centre for Agricultural Mechanisation, Mr Ike Azogu.

    He spoke during the commissioning of newly completed projects and equipment in Ilorin,Kwara State.

    Azogu said improving on the use of agric mechanies is important as the sector has all of the necessary preconditions for contributing to a sufficient and sustainable food supply.

    Azogu said the centre is ready to initiate and institute programmes that will empower the existing farmers on how to improve their current levels of production and productivity.

    He said the farm sector needs support for increased land productivity and that appropriate mechanisation must be part of an agricultural growth strategy.

    He added that agricul-tural sector’s potential in rural develop-ment lies in increasing productivity through appropriate modernization ofthe production techniques, and mechanised systems to make them operational and profitable.

    To help the tractor programme of the government, the Executive Director said the centre has set up a tractortest track,the largest in Sub-Saharan Africa. Tractors ,brought into the country will be tested to ensure sub standard products are not sold to farmers.

    He said the centre is promoting sawah based rice farming,which has the potential of stimulating the long awaited green revolution. Sawah refers to man-made improved rice fields with demarcated bounded, puddle and leveled rice fields with water inlets and outlets, which can be connected to various irrigation facilities such as irrigation canals, ponds, springs or pumps.

    Azogu said the Sawah rice eco technology is in colloboration with Kinki University of technology,Japan. It was instituted in NCAM.

    He said the technique would leads to high yields and sustainable production irrespective of fertiliser use.

    Azogu said the rice production system ensures the attainment of rice self sufficiency within the shortest possible period.

    He said yields between 6-4 to 7-2 tonnes per hectare have been achieved in farmers fields.

    Azogu said the technology will support farmers to cultivate more rice annually.

    He said farmers have become successful by adopting the Sawah technology and stressed that based on the success of the project, the centre is extending it to other parts of the country.

    According to him, since the introduction of the Sawah technology, there has been lots of improvement in the lives of rice farmers.

    The NCAM boss therefore appealed to the government to support the project to make it acceptable to all farmers.

    He said the institute is currently is working with the Jatropha Farmers Association in the development of jatropha bio diesel, which is stimulating global renewable energy interest .

    According to him ,the institute has recorded modest achievement by designing and producing a bio diesel stove.”We have also developed a Jatropha sheller, oil press and filter.This project must be properly funded as it is the farmers fuel hope for the future.”

  • Telecommunication investment hits $25b, says NCC

    Telecommunication investment hits $25b, says NCC

    Investment in the telecommunication industry is in the region of $25billion, the Nigerian Communications Commission said at the weekend.

    The NCC DG Dr. Eugene Juwah, added that there are over 113million telephone lines, compared with about 450,000 active lines powered by a paltry $500million investment portfolio in year 2000.

    Juwah, who spoke during the send off dinner for the former NCC board, said the number portability project will take off by the end of the month.

    Number portability enables telephone users to retain their mobile telephone numbers when changing from one mobile operator to another.

    “Presently, investment stands at about $25billion and active lines are well over 113 million and still counting.

    “Now I can happily report that the Sim Card registration is nearly completed while the much-awaited number portability project will be taking off shortly, by the end of the month,” Juwah said.

    He also explained that the project which has already been in operation in Europe and Asia, was delayed by some factors which have now been addressed.

    “There have been obstacles to successfully implementing these projects but we have fought very hard by doing a lot of fine-tuning to achieve results.”

    Juwah also pointed out that “the telecommunication industry is a deep and delicate one with each stakeholder-consumer, industry, government and international community maintaining very voracious appetite difficult to satisfy.”

    He however said that with the support of the Communication Act, “we have always tried to strike a balance to meet everyone’s needs fairly well.”

    On some challenges confronting the industry, Juwah said: “you will agree with me that just as there were legacy projects, there were also some legacy problems. The power problem still remains, multiple taxations by various government are still hydra-headed, vandalization of infrastructure is rampant, there multiple regulations from ancillary agencies and right of way for easy service deployment and expansion still constitutes a headache, although the ministry has nearly curtailed this problem.

    “Above all, operators will always remain operators and will want to maximize gains while obeying the least of laws,” he further added.

    The NCC boss is however of the hope that fourth generation regulation will maintain a hold on the industry and ensure growth and development both I. The area of quality and service deployment.

    He also noted that the Commission wants to encourage more investment in critical infrastructure to ensure there is adequate investment by operators on each subscriber.

    Juwah praised the pioneers of NCC for the great work done towards the transformation of the industry.

  • Rector demands more investment in education

    The Rector of the Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo (RUGIPO), Prof Igbekele Ajibefun, has called for more investment in youth education to enable government achieve its developmental programmes.

    He spoke at the Excellence and Leadership Award Night organised by Sunshine State Youth Movement. The event was held at the conference hall of Solton International Hotel, Ijapo Estate, Akure, Ondo State.

    In his paper titled Leadership and youth development: The critical nexus, Ajibefun stated that investment in education was investment in future, stressing that education was crucial to socio-economic transformation and nation building. He noted that some developing nations were not releasing money to fund their tertiary education system, stating: “achievment of a functional education system requires heavy investment.”

    Ajibefun, however, praised the resolve of the Ondo State Governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, to provide fund for education at all levels, pointing to emergence of mega schools across the state and the massive infrastructural development going on in RUGIPO and state-owned institutions.

    He noted that youth development was a policy perspective that emphasised provision of services and opportunities to support young people in developing a sense of competence, usefulness, belonging and empowerment, which education must play a key role.

    The Rector said availability of opportunities for youth would help them navigate through the social, political and economic realities of the 21st century. He also recognised honour, honesty, courage, integrity and loyalty as values required for youth development. According to him, the values remain the platform to pilot youth vision for their future.

    The award night was attended by dignitaries among who were the wife of the Ondo State Governor, Mrs Olukemi Mimiko, representative of the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Prof Tolu Akinbogun, Chief Rotimi Olusanya, Asamo of Akure Land, who represented the Deji of Akure, Vice-Chancellor, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA), Prof Femi Mimiko, and Ondo State Commissioner for Health, Dr Dayo Adeyanju.

  • Kwara’s strange investment model

    Kwara’s strange investment model

    Too many strange things do happen in Kwara State. And they happen without the critical actors (often time the government) batting an eyelid about what embarrassment such events/happenings cause the people. Sometimes so glaring a lie is told about state of things and so on.

    On February 18, I read the full text of an interview Governor Abdulfattah Ahmed granted some journalists. The interview came under different headings in different dailies. Of all these headings, however, I considered the one in The Punch most catchy and, perhaps innocently, most indicting. It reads: “We’ll hand over Aviation College to investors.” Having earlier read the interview under a different heading (“We’ll make Kwara Nigeria’s agric hub”) in The Nation of same date, I did not bother to read the interview again. The content is the same.

    Now I quote a statement from the interview, as published in The Nation. “For now, the school is fully owned by the state but don’t forget that the state government is not in the business of running aviation. So ultimately we will sell off 70 per cent of that business to those who know how to do it and then the school will run on its own internationally”. Something is very clear from this statement and that is that the Kwara State government owns the Aviation College wholesale! On Monday January 14, the governor’s spokesman, Femi Akorede, made the following statement on twitter: “Kwara will eventually sell 70 per cent of its stake in Aviation College.” Today, after reading the governor’s interview, I asked my 12-year-old younger sister to tell me what Akorede’s statement meant. And without much ado, she said it means the government is selling 70 per cent of its own shares in the business. Prodded further, she said the statement meant the state does not appear to own it 100 per cent. That was the exact interpretation I had in my mind. Instructively too, I recall somebody on twitter asking Akorede whether somebody else owns some shares in the college. He has remained mute ever since. Now the governor just told us Kwara owns the college wholesale. The “its” in Akorede’s statement clearly is ambiguous and I remember somebody had alleged it was a sign of very terrible things to come on this project, citing the Shonga Farm as an example. The governor of course made some false claims about the Shonga Farm such as declaring it a huge success when Mr Irvine Reid, one of the remaining Zimbabwean farmers, said in an interview with Financial Times of London (November 1, 2012, titled ‘Nigeria seeks to beef up farming industry’) that “our farming experience has passed its sell-by date”. Recall that 13 white farmers were there initially. The governor did not disclose that five of the white farmers had since left the farm, much less explain why they left. He did not also say that Kwara State government is having its funds being deducted at source on account of unpaid debt of the “thriving” Shonga Farm which the government says now belongs to “private concern”. An article titled ‘Operation Fool the People of Kwara’, published by Newswatch of March 09, 2012 in the wake of 70m Euro rice farming agreement the state government signed with one Valsolar Consortium of Spain, had far-reaching revelations about this. Why is Kwara shouldering a burden of a venture now belonging to a private concern or where it has a paltry 25 per cent?

    Now to the Aviation College. I do not know of any decent government that spends public fund to put a project in place and then hands same to some “investors”? Where were these investors when public fund was being committed to the same project? Here I repeat a question one terrified Olabisi Ogunwale asked Akorede about this issue: is the aim solely based on future divestiture? And worst still, the governor said in the interview that government has no business in doing/running business! Is this statement an afterthought or the governor had always known this? If he knew this, why commit government fund to a business when government has no business being in business? These clearly defy common sense. Also, we do not know precisely how much of public fund has gone into putting the college (including the facilities and man power) in place. If we do not know these and the government is not the type to give such fact, how do we know it is not being dashed out at giveaway price to so-called private investors?

    I have further worries. It is my prayer that the Aviation College does succeed. Else, Kwara will pay dearly – as it is doing for Shonga Farm. The Governor, clearly attempting to douse public anger at the news of Kwara’s plans to purchase additional 10 aircraft for the college in a state with legendary dearth of basic infrastructure, used the interview to explain that the money is not from the public coffers. He said the college is benefiting from the new EXIM loan that the Federal Government has signed with the Chinese and India governments. The aircrafts are to be purchased from the loan, the governor added, to be paid back by the college over a period of 10 years. Good deal. But the governor clearly was holding back some facts about the loan: who is standing surety for this loan just in case of default? What happens, God forbid, in the event that the college is not able to pay pack? Head or tail, Kwara people would be made to pay.

    But the bad news does not end there. The Aviation College was built from the N17b bond accessed sometime in 2009 from the capital market. Last year, additional N10b loan was taken to, in the words of the government, complete projects, including the same Aviation College! That money (N17b) is due for payment next year. With the college far from yielding any profit and the hope of it doing so remaining dim as at this minute, it is fair to say that the ISPO (Irrevocable Standing Payment Order) – which the state government signed in the event of the businesses for which the bond was taken defaulting from paying – would take effect from 2014, further depleting the meagre resources of the state. Yet Kwara people will soon lose ownership of this venture whose debt would be deducted from the treasury!

    Clearly too many things are not right here. The government will hit back on this, rather than explain itself. But definitely Kwara’s investment model is quite strange. And one would be forgiven to call it an outright fraud. This is the only state I know of where public fund is used to float an enterprise and the government will wake up one morning and auction it out. If my information is right, the multibillion naira Kwara Diagnostic Centre, also built from the N17b bond, is also gone. Kwara is no estate agent.

    • Ajakaye writes from Ilorin

     

  • Uncertainty over PIB stalls Shell’s $30b investment

    Uncertainty over PIB stalls Shell’s $30b investment

    • ‘Nigeria loses 100,000bpd’

    The Country Chair of Shell Companies in Nigeria and Managing Director, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), Mutiu Sunmonu, has said the delay in the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) and other uncertainties are holding back the company’s planned investment of about $30 billion in two offshore deepwater projects in Nigeria.

    The Group Executive Director, Exploration and Production, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Abiye Membere, also disclosed that Nigeria currently loses 80,000 barrels of crude oil per day (bpd) to bunkering activities. The volume reflects in production cut of 150,000 bpd.

    Sunmonu and Membere spoke at the special sessions yesterday at the Nigeria Oil and Gas conference in Abuja. Sunmonu said SPDC would rather wait for stable and right conditions before committing funds to the undisclosed projects.

    With the uncertainties in the oil industry, which include loss of revenue through oil theft and pipeline vandalism as well as the inability to embark on new projects and non-passage of the PIB, Sunmonu warned that Nigeria’s oil and gas industry may be slipping into the era when it took Mexico about 50 years to recover from such challenges in its oil industry.

    He said: “I recall the Mexican story, it took them 50 years to recover from that loss in oil production, and my worry is that we are slipping into that; even today if we produce a modest allowance of three million bpd and just assume a modest decline rate of 10 per cent, that leaves us with 2.7mbpd.

    “What this means is that for us to maintain that level of 3mbpd, we must produce additional 300,000bpd. It means that we need at least two deepwater projects every year and then you are talking about additional $30 billion investment every year for us to remain at that level, but that is not going to be easy.

    “If we look at our onshore today, it is nowhere near the capacity we have. Most of what we have today comes from our deep offshore operations, but there is a lot more that we can get out of onshore, but that is the place that has serious financing challenges.

    “Deep water portends a huge opportunity in Shell. We have two big projects we will like to do as soon as we are sure that the environment and the conditions are right. It will cost us about $30 billion, and I am sure it is the same with the other international Oil Companies (IOCs) because each of us has projects in the pipeline, but we are all waiting for the almighty PIB to be able to make these decisions.

    “It is very clear in my mind that the potentials are there, but turning those potentials to reality requires a lot of hard work, creative thinking and genuine value creation.”

    He was of the view that all stakeholders in the industry would make sure that they minimise the leakages in the operations today because crude oil theft continues to be a menace. If our country is losing 100,000bpd to 150,000bpd, that is huge. He said that some of the countries that parade themselves as oil producers today cannot even boast of 80,000bpd and if we are filtering away that much, then it calls for urgent action.

    Membere said the government is putting security measures in place to curtail the menace of oil theft in the country. He said the measures are yielding results, adding that the passage of the PIB will equally grant host communities opportunities to further provide security around oil installations, thus reducing the menace as the sector progresses.

     

     

  • Insecurity threatens investment in data centre

    Data centre business may not flourish in the country.

    Experts in data management, who spoke on the issue, said the fear that insecurity in the cloud keeps individuals and private enterprises from chossing the option.

    Executive Director, Kitskoo Cloud, Monu Ogbe and head, Document Management, FirstBank of Nigeria Mrs Grace Oyebo, said the fear of storing data in the cloud is genuine.

    Ogbe said the fear of insecurity has led its firm to partner with Tech Mahindra of India and launch of Kitskoo Guradian, its flagship product.

    “Security of data is one reason why Kitskoo has partnered with Tech Mahindra. We are going to launch the Kitskoo Guradian which will serve as backup for customer,” Ogbe said.

    For Oyebo, the cloud is not an option on the cards for FirstBank’s electronic data management services (EDMS).

    “We have not gone to the cloud because right now, people cannot ascertain its security. As an expert that goes for international conferences at least twice a year, meeting with experts in the cloud, there are still a lot of things to be dealt with in the cloud. In First Bank, we are very careful. You have to apply technology based on your own level (of development). You don’t say because people are doing it in Japan and other places, you have to do the same. If people are saying cloud and you want to go, there are some underlining factors you must consider. I don’t think we have gone to the cloud,” she said.

    According to her, though the bank has not started, there is a plan in that direction in the pipeline “We have not started but we intend to cloud some items which we are keeping secret to our hearts but we have a lot of back up devices,” she said.

    On disaster recovery sites, she said the bank has three of such sites across the country. “We have our disaster recovery sites, the hot site and the cold site not in the cloud anyway but I will not disclose where they are because of secuiryt reasons. We have them all over so that if there is any disruption, we fall back to them but for the cloud, we are planning to go but I don’t want to disclose our plan in this respect because, “We have at least three disaster recovery sites in Lagos and outside Lagos so that even when there is a downtime, you scarcely can know. The crowd you noticed recently in our branches was because we are changing our financial system FINACO from 7 to 10 and there is no way it will not impact on our services on working days.”

     

     

     

  • Provost praises Osun investment

    Provost praises Osun investment

    Governor Rauf Aregbesola has been praised for the restructuring of the education sector of Osun State.

    The commendation was given by the Acting Provost of Assanusiyyah College of Education, Dr. Kasali Lawal, at the sixth matriculation of the institution held recently in Ode-Omu, Osun State.

    The provost of the first private college of education in the state also praised the governor for the ongoing massive rehabilitation of roads, adding that the institution is a beneficiary of the initiative.

    Congratulating the matriculating students, Lawal assured them of quality education, pointing out that within the short period of its existence, the college has put in place necessary human and material resources to achieve international standard in teaching and learning.

    “Presently, the college is operating the new Teacher Education programme that would facilitate the attainment of educational objective in line with the country’s commitment to the goals of producing effective teacher’s for the basic education sector,” he added.

    The Provost also said the newly introduced courses in Agriculture and Electrical/Electronics have been accredited by the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) while the University of Wisconsin, United States, to which the college is affiliated has approved the commencement of an online two-year post graduate programme in Early Childhood Care Education.

     

  • FBN capital offers investment products

    FBN capital offers investment products

    FBN Capital is offering a bouquet of high-yield investment products designed to meet individuals and organisations’ desire for good returns and safety of investments.

    For as low as N5,000, with no upper limit, FBN Capital, according to a statement, is offering investment window for small, medium and large scale investors seeking to secure their funds while benefitting from high returns accruable from expertise of the FBN Capital.

    FBN Capital is the investment banking and asset management business of FBN Holdings PLC, Nigeria’s oldest banking group. FBN Capital’s Asset Management products, FBN Money Market Fund and FBN Fixed Income Fund provide investment-savvy individuals and institutions access to short-term liquid money market instruments and high-grade medium to long-term government bonds and other debt instruments.

    The FBN Money Market Fund is a collective investment scheme that pools funds together for investment in a wide range of very liquid short term funds with tremendous investment benefits to all investors.

    With portfolio allocation, spread and diversification that most often may be above the capacity of an average investor, FBN Money Market Fund leverages on its portfolio size, fund management expertise and group synergies to enhance returns to investors by investing in different risk instruments including treasury bills, bank tenured deposits, commercial papers (CPs) and bankers acceptances (BAs).

    The FBN Fixed Income Fund, on the other hand, offers investors the opportunity to invest in Nigeria’s sovereign bonds and other gilt-edge long-tenor debt securities.

    With a minimum investment of N50, 000 the FBN Fixed Income Fund would provide investors with attractive long term returns by investing in a diversified portfolio of government and corporate bonds.

    A total of 17.98 million units of FBN Money Market Fund were last week admitted to the daily official list of the Nigerian Stock Exchange at par value of N100 each. Also, 1.75 million units of FBN Fixed Income Fund were admitted at N1, 000 par value.

    While the money market fund accrues its returns daily and pays it out to investors on quarterly basis, the fixed income fund distributes its returns on half-yearly basis.

    Besides the FBN Money Market Fund and the FBN Fixed Income Fund, FBN capital also offers the FBN Heritage fund which gives investors exposure to the money markets and bond markets as well as the equity and real estate markets too. The fund aims for a higher return by investing in the aforementioned markets meaning it is suitable for investors with a higher risk profile who also desire an even higher yield.

    The FBN Heritage Fund is also open ended, meaning you can subscribe to and/or redeem from the funds on any business day directly from the fund manager. This flexibility offers investors liquidity advantage.

    According to the Director/ Head, Asset Management for FBN Capital, Mr Michael Oyebola, the funds primary objective is to achieve a high level of income obtainable from investments consistent with prudent investment management, the preservation of capital and maintenance of liquidity.

    He noted that high level of professional management drives the achievement of investment results in today’s complicated volatile market. Investors would therefore benefit from FBN Capital’s cutting-edge investment process, in-depth research capabilities, experience and expertise with proven track record of performance.

    According to him, “FBN Capital Investments and management process combines top-down views on the macroeconomic environment with proprietary local bottom-up analysis of credit quality and market factors including supply, demand and liquidity by our credit analysts and markets team.

    “The FBN Capital asset management team has the experience, depth and diversity to actively manage a broad and diversified portfolio of investments. Our tactical asset allocation provides portfolio diversification as well as the offering exposure to different sectors of the economy,” Oyebola noted.

    He pointed out that “diversification across a range of investments reduces risk as often a decline in the value of any specific security may be offset by the stability or increasing value of other securities in the portfolio”.

    According to Mr Oyebola, active valuation of all sectors and individual issuers is also used in an effort to provide potential returns in excess of the overall market.

    “As open-ended funds, investors are able to subscribe to and redeem units on any business day. Investors purchase units in the fund directly from the fund itself rather than from existing unit holders exposing them to the opportunity of achieving good returns from a diversified portfolio of investment,” Oyebola said.

    He added that investors would receive regular information on the performance of the funds on a year-to-date basis and that the current net asset value of the units, which indicates the price at which an investor may purchase or redeem the units, would appear in the fund price listings of selected national newspapers.