The Nation Newspaper

Tag: money

  • Money laundering: Metuh faults EFCC’s case

    Money laundering: Metuh faults EFCC’s case

    •We have proved our case, says agency

    Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) spokesman Olisa Metuh has faulted his trial by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), arguing that the agency failed to establish his guilt.

    Metuh is charged with criminal breach of trust, corruption and money laundering for allegedly receiving N400 million from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA)and making cash transaction of $2 million. He pleaded not guilty.

    He is being tried with his company, Destra Investments Limited at the Federal High Court, Abuja.

    Metuh argued that for the prosecution to establish a prima facie case, it must be shown that he took possession or control of funds, knowing that such funds formed part of the proceeds of an unlawful act or reasonably ought to have known that such funds formed part of the proceeds of an unlawful act.

    The PDP spokesman’s position is contained in his no-case submission  adopted last week.

    He said there was no evidence that at the time the N400 million was paid into his company’s account, he was notified directly or indirectly that the money was paid from the account of ONSA.

    Metuh said following a presentation to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan on how to shore up the image of the PDP and by extension, Nigeria, he expected to be paid to execute the presentation, but not from the ONSA.

    He argued that the idea that he ought to know that the funds formed part of the proceeds of an unlawful act did not arise.

    Metuh, who noted that the EFCC admitted he had no business with the ONSA,wondered how the commission expected him to have known funds paid to him was for Illegal purpose.

    “On yet another counter pane, Section 15(2)(d) of the Act requires proof that the money must be proceeds of an unlawful act. In this case, it has not been established the defendants knew the ONSA engaged in any unlawful act. An unlawful act must be an act, which is not authorised or approved and which has been found to be illegal.

    In a counter argument, lawyer to the EFCC, Sylvanus Tahir disagreed, insisting that the prosecution led overwhelming evidence against Metuh and expressed surprise he (Metuh) was raising a no-case submission.

    Tahir said EFCC received a complaint from the ONSA that money was paid under the ex-National Security Adviser to individuals and companies without any document supporting such payments and that the commission investigated the petition.

    He urged the court to dismiss the no-case submission and direct Metuh and his company to enter defence.

    Justice Okon Abang will rule on the no-case submission on March 9.

  • Wikki Tourists get money boost

    Wikki Tourists get money boost

    • Receive outstanding match bonuses

    The chairman of Wikki Tourists FC Bauchi, Isa Matori has confirmed that the executive Governor of Bauchi State, Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar, has approved and directed the immediate release and payment of the 2014 /2015 outstanding match bonuses of players and officials of the team.

    Matori made the revelation through the media manager of the club, Usman Abbas Shehu.

    According to him, the gesture was a positive way to motivate, encourage and appreciate the team for there outstanding performance last season where the team finished fourth on the league table.

    SportingLife gathered that the outstanding 10 match bonuses was paid on Friday before the team departed  for Katsina for their first Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) game against El-Kanemi Warriors at the Karkanda Stadium, Katsina.

    “His Excellency M.A Abubakar is determined and willing to invest much in the team as long as the players will reciprocate the gesture by giving good results both home and away,” Matori was quoted as saying.

    The chairman, therefore, challenged the technical crew and the players to live up to expectations by justifying the confidence reposed on them by the governor and the sports loving people of Bauchi State.

    “I want to use this opportunity on behalf of the team to express and appreciate the good government of the state for bankrolling the 10 outstanding match bonuses. This will surely motivate the team to start the new season in good note,” he said.

    Matori further explained that the government is also working on some other issues of the management with a view to solving them soon.

  • ‘Looters must return stolen money’

    ‘Looters must return stolen money’

    Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom recently spoke with reporters in Lagos on his efforts to recover looted funds, his projects and moves to ensure lasting peace in the Food Basket state. Musa Odoshimokhe was there. 

    hat is government doing to make Benue better than you met it?

    The challenge before us is how to pull our state out of ignorance, poverty and disease. These challenges have become acute in the face of dwindling fortunes of the Nigeria’s economy as a result of falling oil prices. As things stand now, governments at all levels have a herculean task of fulfilling their obligations. We must sincerely return to agriculture as a way of boosting our economy. Our government has put in place ingenious initiatives to boost agricultural production as listed in the 2016 budget. We must also provide the necessary infrastructure to boost our rural economy. The Ministry of Works and Transport shall be given the additional mandate of Power and Energy; this will now function as Ministry of Works, Transport and Energy.

    We met a debt of over N169 billion and still expect more as we continue to verify. We borrowed to commence the payment of salaries, implementation of minimum wage to teachers, take-off of our administration as well as the clearing of salary arrears of workers at the local government and state levels.

    The Federal Government also came to our rescue with a loan of N28 billion, which has helped in no small measure to tackle the salary arrears challenge and we hope that help shall also come for us to pay arrears of pensions and gratuities.

    Despite these, we recorded milestones which made a difference in the lives of the people. These include early composition of the state executive council. We hit the ground running, trimming the size of government and introduction of cost saving measures. We introduced amnesty program to tackle the security challenges that we met on assumption.

    How has the peace initiative introduced by your administration work out?

    The first part of the programme we embarked on to make peace return to the state was through the Carrot Approach. This yielded positive results with the surrender of over 700 youths, 500 assorted arms and thousands of ammunition. The beneficiaries, who have undergone a retreat, are being sorted out into various aspects of the programme. These include a return to school, skills acquisition and integration into the information gathering system of the security apparatus. The result of the amnesty programme has increased security of lives and property. The confrontation between herders and farmers has minimized.

    Government has sought to unite the state through other programme like projecting our dress code towards unity and and peace. This is symbolised in what we do and wear. Our dress code represents the Tiv, Idoma and Igede, the three dominant tribes in Benue. We want to govern a state where all the ethnic groups see themselves as one.  Remarkably, many people are embracing the dress code. That is a loud statement on unity.

    What is your plan for turn the economy for the state?

    We want to stimulate the economy and allow the private sector do profitable businesses. There are plans to dispose off some facilities.  Even the facilities owned by government will be sold or leased out. For instance, the tomatoes factory at Wanune, we have someone who is interested in it and we had discussed on how it could be made better. The same thing goes to other industries which can survive well in private ownership.  The People are waiting to either lease or buy them. We want these factories to become operational as quickly as possible.  This will generate employment for Benue people and stimulate the economy. These factories will also provide opportunities to local farmers and other local businesses, to supply raw materials and other things.

    The Elizabeth Kpojime Commission of Inquiry discovered that N219 billion was looted. How are you handling this?

    If I have N219 billion, I will do wonders for this state. It is a lot of money. Let them bring back the money and even the other N802 billion we are talking about. Even that one, there are issues over it.

    We want to pay salaries, we want to pay pensioners their money, we want to pay gratuity and we want to fulfill our contractual obligations, including the ones we inherited.

    With N219 billion, it is enough to solve these problems. It we get the money, nobody will talk about bailout again. I can even take from it to repay the Federal Government the amount they gave us as bailout fund.

    We need rural roads, we need electricity, and we want our hospitals to work. We want our schools to be functional. This is where this money will go. So, it is imperative we recover.

    There is no political settlement on this matter of our commonwealth. It is very important they pay back the money.

    I invited stakeholders last year and they were unanimous that refund must be made on commonwealth. So, there will be nothing like settlement.

    If you can make refund, I have no case against you. If you said you took N10 billion and you refund the N10 billion, I will tell you to go and sin no more. But, where you cannot, this is when I will have problems with you.

    All parties were invited, non-partisan people were also invited and stakeholders in Benue unanimously approved the commission’s work. I want to assure you that I’m not alone in this business of knowing how our commonwealth was spent. Those who are in doubt at least from the presentations of the chairman’s report can appreciate that over one trillion came to the state within the space of this eight years that we are talking about and over N200 billion was not accounted for. Then you can begin to appreciate why we have salary arrears, pensions and gratuity of over N69 billion out of the 219 billion.  You can now see why you have contracts and jobs that were done and were unaccounted for. You can now see why we are still having challenges. You can see why civil servants who have retired are not receiving their gratuity and pensions. You can now see why the debt profile of the state went that high. You can now understand why some people are desperate to discredit this government, for trying to bring to light what they did in the past.

    What have you achieved in terms of infrastructure development?

    Following the payment of part of the money owed the contractor of the water works in Katsina-Ala and Otukpo, the taps are now flowing in the two towns. Similar payment has ensured resumption of work on the Daudu-Gbajimba road. Work is also on-going on the completion of the House of Assembly Complex in Makurdi. The resumption of the Benue State University and payment for accreditation of its programme at the College of Health Sciences has led to the graduation of the first set of 27 pioneer doctors, who had spent 12 years at the institution. There is massive on-going renovation at the School of Nursing and Midwifery in Makurdi, preparatory to re-accreditation which the school lost for three years. We purchased and installed a new transmitter at Radio Benue which has improved its services and coverage,

    In partnership with the Federal Ministry of Communication Technology and the Rockefeller Foundation we trained over 2,000 youths for on-line job opportunities. Our commitment to the payment of counterpart funding has seen the return of development partners who were leaving the state in their numbers. These are just the major highlights of some of the things we have been able to do since the assumption of office.

    Our target in government remains the implementation of the core objectives of “Our Collective Vision for a New Benue”. This will be done in accordance with the APC manifesto, this, I reassure you of our commitment and with the fear of God. This shall translate to the entrenchment of core values that make development inevitable.

    Whenever I tell you that our administration has zero tolerance for corruption, I mean it. We shall pursue and recover for the state public money and property converted to personal use. Once we receive the reports of the various investigative panels, we shall tell you who took from the commonwealth of the people and how we shall recover every kobo and property of the people in the hands of anybody no matter how highly placed.

  • Money is not everything, provost tells doctors

    Forty-Four resident doctors have qualified as consultants at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi Araba.

    LUTH Chief Medical Director (CMD) Prof Chris Bode, represented by the Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee (CMAC), Prof Olufemi Fasanmade, at an event to honour the  consultants, said when people sit for an exam and pass, it is a wonderful thing and a good feeling.

    Fasanmade said: “Twenty of the resident doctors are from LUTH. We have 24 doctors from other institutions. We have together 44 doctors who qualified as fellows and they are now consultants.”

    The event was to recognise the resident doctors’ workers. Fasanmade added: “Last year, the management decided to make it a culture to honour the efforts of outgoing resident doctors two times a year.”

    LUTH, he said, had left a mark on the fellows, urging them to portray the learning the institution has instilled in them wherever they go.

    On employment, Fasanmade said many find it difficult to secure a job in private hospitals, noting that budding hospitals cannot employ too many.

    “Many doctors are not employed but it is not because their services are not required but it could be that the government of that state is not financially stable to retain or employ. The private hospitals are also not able to retain all because of the cost to remunerate such doctors.

    “Unfortunately, LUTH too, can only offer employment to a small percentage of the fellows. Employment opportunities may be open in departments where there are shortages or people in the retirement age bracket, he said.”

    Provost, College of Medicine, University of Lagos (CMUL), Prof Folasade Ogunsola, said the profession was facing challenges.

    Mrs Ogunsola said: “We are there to help and not necessarily about the money. Along the way, we miss the road and it becomes a job. The reward of doctors has to be more than money. It has to be with the feeling of securing a life and doing well.”

    She said the profession might have lost its glory because many doctors place money as a top priority over the patients, adding: “The field of medicine is in jeopardy.”

    The judgment, she said, is what the patients say about the doctors, stressing: “The lack of beds should not translate immediately to the lack of care. In the absence of beds, you should do something to help before you let the patient go.”

    She urged the fellows to always work as a team because teamwork gets the best result.

    Former President, Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), Olubunmi Omojowolo is one of the fellows. He said he would associate with the residents.

    He pleaded with the National Medical Postgraduate College to help the resident doctors process their proposal on time because it is one of the things that delay.

    Omojowolo added: “I think maximum of three months should be fixed to access the proposal. Some people do not get their proposal back until nine months which is not good.”

    He urged the management to communicate their actions on time so that medics could be informed and there would not be conflict.

  • My dad is using me to make money, claims girl

    My dad is using me to make money, claims girl

    •Don’t call me again, father tells reporter

    A 27-year-old woman, Funke Gbadebo, has accused her father of “using” her to make money without any benefit for her.

    She told The Nation yesterday that her father has been giving her out to work for people as maid and collecting her entitlements upfront.

    “I was 18 when my father said one of his cousins volunteered to cater for my well-being. Few months after I got there, I got to know they were not related to my father in any way and that I was hired as a maid,” she said.

    Her father, Najeem Gbadebo, denied to react to her claims, abusing our reporter who called him on phone.

    He warned the reporter against calling him again, saying his daughter is working in Agege.

    Funke said when her madam realised that she was sad about what her father did; she enrolled her in an hairdressing shop.

    She said her suffering began when her father asked her to drop out of school.

    “I was in SS2 when I dropped out of school and since then, I have been working for my father. I worked as a maid for five years and when I asked for my pay, I was told my father collected my allowance for the years I spent. Combining hairdressing training wasn’t easy because I woke up at 4am daily to take care of my bosses’ children and sometimes they called in between to send me on errands. It got to a point I felt there was no progress in my life so I left and returned to my father. I had nothing on me when I returned to him. Even the N50,000 my boss gave me when she knew I wasn’t aware of my father’s plans, he collected it from me.”

    She said in 2014, she worked in a water factory in Ogun State but when the salary wasn’t forthcoming, she left, adding: “With the money I saved from the factory, I bought few things I could use for hairdressing business. When I got home, my dad accused me of buying it saying that he was meant to spend my first salary.

    “He didn’t allow me to start the hairdressing business. He took me to a woman who sells fabrics on Lagos Island where I worked for two and-a- half years. She agreed to pay me N15,000 monthly. When I was about to leave last December, she said she wasn’t owing me adding that my father collected my allowance for the years I spent. When I returned home two weeks ago, to ask the reason for his actions, he and his wife beat me mercilessly and sent me out of their house around 12am without anything. My stepmother keeps saying I am HIV positive and it is because of the stress I have been going through. I slept in uncompleted buildings for weeks before I was saved by a Good Samaritan who knew me when I was working as a maid in Agege. My father keeps using me. He says I am bad omen. He has not done anything for me. He said he cannot empower me and that I should just bring a man I want to marry. That is not what I need now; I want to cater for myself and not be a beggar like my father.”

    When Funke was asked about her mother, she said she did not know what her mother looks like, adding that whenever she asked her father about her, “he says I shouldn’t dare to look for her.

    “I know my mother is alive but I don’t know anything about her. I don’t know the reason she left my brother and I. My younger brother ran away when he was 15 because my father kept maltreating him. I learnt my mother lives in Iperu, Ogun State but I haven’t gone to look for her. My father is an house agent and a trado-medical practitioner. He lives in Magboro. I just want him to empower me but he is not ready. Since they sent me out of the house, they haven’t searched for me.”

    Funke’s benefactor, Mrs Abosede Adegunloye, said she saw her on the road crying and took her in.

    She said:”I took her to a neighbour who works with Rural and Urban Development Initiative (RUDI) and since then, they took her case up. We have called her father but he keeps raining curses on us saying she is not a successful child. Funke is a very decent girl. I remember when she wanted to leave where she worked as a maid, her bosses children took ill. If the government can get her father, he should be questioned. She makes hair so well and she is also ready to learn. I have enrolled her in a government vocational school where she will continue to learn hairdressing.”

    RUDI Executive Director Musbau Agbodemu said Funke’s father would be summoned today, adding: “We have spoken with the man on phone thinking he would comply but he is stubborn. He says all sorts of things and dents his daughter. The matter would be looked into.”

  • Did anybody go to jail? NIS recruitment: Job, Money or Death!

    I remember sharing a bottle of drink with two of my South African friends in Randburg.  I knew the self-acclaimed largest economy in Africa would come to the table for mockery. Dr. Reuben smiled and made a joke about my country-that if he needs to choose a country in the second world, he would request to come as a Nigerian. Very unpleasant statement for me, but had to put up a cool face. He said Nigerians are human beings like any other Americans, Europeans or Asians, but they act like animals. Anything goes and no question is asked in your country, Bimboo. For example, he asked if anybody went to jail after the tragedy that happened in 2014.

    I promised myself to revisit this shameless process that took innocent souls,  refresh our minds about it and wake up authority, in case they are still sleeping like my new baby boy, Temidun.

    Saturday, the 15th march 2014 was a black Saturday for families whose loved ones set out to take part in the Nigerian immigration Aptitude test but never returned home… Killed in the stampede that ensued.

    Most of the applicants were told to arrive the venue as early as 7am but the test was supposedly originally stated for 3pm.

    Some lucky job seekers are alive to tell the story. According to our listeners, authorities of National Hospital, Abuja, confirmed seven persons among 67,000 Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) job applicants in the FCT dead.

    The applicants had converged at the National stadium, Abuja, one of the venues for the test to fill 5000 vacancies in NIS and many were said to have arrived at the centre before 6a.m.

    The service had fixed the test nationwide for 7000 available jobs. However, a Stampede ensued at the FCT  centre about 7a.m, when the screening of candidates was to start for the test scheduled for 4p.m.

    Mr. Tayo Hassstrup, the spokesman for the hospital, told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that seven, five women and two men were brought in dead and that the bodies had been deposited at the mortuary.

    The hospital received some casualties from the stampede from the ongoing Immigration recruitment at the National Stadium.

    He said the hospital was stabilizing those brought in unconscious from the stampede, while other casualties had been taken to other hospitals, including Asokoro General Hospital.

    While, in Lagos, the thousand of job seekers invited to take an aptitude test by NIS have took control of all access roads to the National Stadium, Lagos. They started chanting anti-government songs and not ready to go home, after all, they have no jobs. So what is the need to return home!

    NAN recalls that in 2008, no fewer than 20 people died in various states of the federation during a similar exercise conducted by the ministry of interior for Nigeria Prisons Service, Nigeria Immigration Service and customs Service.

     

    My questions are simple friends! Is it true people paid 1000 naira to apply to die? How much was made from this test? And where is the money? Can we have the list of the applicants that finally got these jobs? I need answers before I visit my friends soon in Randburg this January.

  • Putting more money into SWF is right thing to do, says Orji

    Putting more money into SWF is right thing to do, says Orji

    Barely three years after Uche Orji pioneered the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Agency (NSIA),  his leadership has turned around the fortunes of the agency. The additional $250 million injected into NSIA by its shareholders, he believes, is a vote of confidence in its management. He bares his mind in this chat with Group Business Editor, SIMEON EBULU. 

    You appear upbeat and not weighed down at all. What has happened?

    The development is that we have a very successful engagement with the National Economic Council which resulted in what we believe is a vote of confidence, as evidenced by the additional contribution that has been made to the Sovereign Wealth Fund of $250 million. And what makes this even more remarkable is that we are in a tough economic time. With oil price downwards and this is a very powerful signal that this administration and the National Economic Council are focused on fiscal discipline.

    They have looked at examples of other countries and how this has been implemented successfully, and want to participate in what is a very credible approach to managing the nation’s resources. Other countries  have done this successfully too but it is not every country that has recorded success. But most of them have done it successfully to varying degrees. If you look at Norway for instance, that has been a spectacular success story.

    So across the spectrum, one thing is clear, savings, or investing is a culture that must be encouraged in  good times and bad times. And this is what I take from the governors’ recent commitment.

    Secondly, it is looking into the future and being able to bequeath something into the future of Nigerians. It is disciplining ourselves to be focused at whatever resources we have. But on behalf of the Board NSIA and the management of NSIA, we are pleasantly surprised by this vote of confidence. We will work very hard to make sure we justify the faith that has been reposed on us by the government and the National Economic Council in giving us additional resources.

     

    Looking at it from the first $1billion you got at inception and the time it has taken for this second one, what was actually responsible for this change of attitude?

    The first thing is, the management of NSIA has to show that they are credible and can be trusted. You have to build credibility. And I have to tell you that it is not uncommon that many Sovereign Wealth Funds start and wait before they make more contribution, and you will notice that even in the big examples that you made, even Norway.

    At the beginning, people just can’t be sure. So we went through that phase, we had a meeting with the National Economic Council which is our Governing Council Meeting, during which we presented our status report and our strategy, and I think the governors could see that we are working very hard within a limited set of resources to show some gains, and be able to be in a position to make dividends. I think and I believe it is a commitment showed at managing things with a sense of duty.

     

    Again, given the initial opposition you had with the governors, wasn’t this a surprise?

    Yes it came as a surprise. A pleasant surprise and we are happy. But more importantly, I think we are happy because of the faith, again credibility has been earned and has to be justified every day. So the fact that you have it doesn’t mean we have to relax now, but you have to justify it every day because a reputation takes 20 years to build, but one second to destroy.

    So we want to make sure that having crossed this major hurdle of showing that we are trying very hard to keep the money safe and make returns, we’ll continue to justify it on a day-to- day basis, but I also think that when they now started to see the level of accountability, transparency, governance,  strategy and focus in managing the money, andalso commitment to justify that every day, to them, I think in some ways, that is a turning point.

    But more importantly, there is a philosophical commitment to bettering the future of all Nigerians and I think that philosophical commitment is something that precedes anything we would show them. My sense is that this would have happened, regardless. So for this to happen with us, makes me happy because to some extent, we view it as  us having tried  very hard to earn the  justification from our shareholders

    For the larger society, the surprise would be that at a time that government’s resources are dwindling, there is a willingness to invest.

    Yes.

     How do you react to that?

    It is a very powerful message. It is a powerful message that says, we are committed to this, in good times, or bad times. It is a powerful message that says to Nigerians, that there is a whole new  commitment to better management of resources. It’s a powerful message that says, in the next oil boom, you’ll see a better accountability of the revenues that accrue to this country. And I think in some ways, we are very pleased with that. That is one.

    It’s also a message to our international partners and I think it will win the country a lot of credibility, externally. To be blunt, I was blown away, because it was not the most politically conducive thing to do, but it is the right thing to do, and for that we are grateful to the governors, the National Economic Council and the President.

    It might be early in the day to ask how soon you expect the next payment, but  how do you intend to deploy the $250million?

    We are most likely going to maintain the allocation strategies that we had with the first tranche, and that is, 20 per cent go to the Stabilisation Fund, 40 per cent to Infrastructure Fund  and 40 per cent to Future Generation Fund.  We believe that strategy has worked at the beginning. The amount we are talking about is still very small, relatively, so in itself, it won’t make huge difference. So the safe thing and the rational thing to do, would be to allocate it the same way that we allocated the first one.

    But where you start to see significant likelihood of change, is when the Fund accumulates to a certain  level, and depending on the opportunities we have in the day, we might still want to do a bit more Future’s generation and a bit, Infrastructure. But this $250million is, really not that a significant number to materially change our strategy. It is a significant and powerful statement that we want to make sure is not missed out.

    Questions have been raised on  your fund allocation to the three areas you have opted to invest in. The issue is, why are you not  investing extra money where the yield is more?

    It depends on your view of the yield curve. Do you know what the yield would be in two, three, or more years! First of all, I’m open to suggestions. In the first place, we have a firm called Cambridge Associates working with us on assets allocation. They are an Investment Advisory firm, and their job is, advice firms bigger than ours, including us on how to allocate assets. So we use them as advisers, and the things that go behind an investment decision, go beyond what we see today.

    Somebody could have said to me, Uche, why didn’t you buy oil stocks last year! Oil was booming, booming, then, and today, it’s a whole different story. You could get carried out on a stretcher very easily, if you had put your money in some of these things.

    We are humble enough to admit that we don’t know all the answers, and so we are open to suggestions, and we have also hired a lot of advisers doing their job to advise us on what to do. I want people to be rest assured that the decisions we are making today are to the best of our ability and to the best of information we have available to us. Nobody is always right, we may make mistakes, but one of the commitments we gave to ourselves, is to have more wins than losers.

    I laugh because last year, the biggest criticisms I got was that we didn’t take enough risks, that we should have put more in equities, put more in this, or that. This year, we are making more money, but our peers are not, because the equities market, dipped. I am willing to take suggestions, but we have an army of smart people who are helping us. All we need to do is try and do the right thing, and we are hoping that we can do the right thing and always do the right thing.

    Back home, people are anxious  to know NSIA’s commitment to certain infrastructure projects, amongst which are the Second Niger Bridge and the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. How committed are you to these projects?

    Very committed, however we have not signed a Concession Agreement for the Second Niger Bridge, we are still in the process of actualising that. At the moment, we are Project Managers and Co-developers. We have engaged many financiers, so we are willing to put money into it.

    There is a lot of work being done and we are hoping to get the preliminary works concluded by sometimes mid next year before we get into full construction. You know this is a big project and people sometimes don’t realise that. We are working very hard, and for big projects like that, you don’t wield the magic-wand and the bridge comes up, no, we’ve been talking about the Second Niger bridge since the 1970s, so I will never mislead people to think that it will happen overnight. The plan we have is that by 2020, that bridge will be finished. That is the plan we have today, but like every project, things vary, but we are still sticking to that plan.

    Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, we have committed ourselves that we will invest $100million, subject to the structure making it comfortable for us. Now we cannot talk about that project any more because there is currently a court injunction against the development of that project.

    Second Niger bridge, we are Co-developers, Lagos-Ibadan expressway, we are investors, somebody else is developing it. When that person is through with his work and he says, NSIA, here’s the financing plan, then we’ll come in.

    What is the assurance that you will recover your financial commitment to these projects?

    We have a contract with the government, where, if we don’t get through to financial close, the government will pay us back our money. The contract is structured in such a way that we can always get our money back, and the investment return is structured in such a way that Nigerians will be very happy with.

    The NSIA is an investment company. Before we go into any project (unless it’s a social project and we have a few), but for commercial project, we structure it in such a way that it primarily protects the NSIA, because the NSIA’s money does not belong to the Federal Government, it belongs to the three-tiers, so I have to account to all these people.

    Are you confident that these projects will be seen through?

    There are still so many things that the government needs to do — like the right of way, buying, paying compensation, and such things, so lets wait and see what the budget says.

    How are you able to insulate yourself from the politics that goes with your office?

    My number one responsibility is to keep the NSIA’s money safe, and my second responsibility is to earn a return. I never lose sight of that. Politics is transient, the money is permanent.

    We are making an effort,our best possible efforts to keep the money safe and make a return, but more importantly, we have constituted the benchmark for ourselves with  global peers. So we have presented it to them at the National Economic Council and we will continue to engage with them. I think that all of that will go a long way in making sure that more faith and confidence is imposed on the management of the Sovereign Wealth Fund.

    Given the return so far on our investment,  there is every reason for everyone to believe that it is a profitable engagement. Which other sources are you considering to grow you investment funds?

    Some Sovereign wealth funds grew through cash given to them, some through assets given to them. So you know, the government will transfer certain assets to the Sovereign Wealth Fund. So we are looking at those alternatives. Of course in a Federal system, it could be very tricky because this is a wealth belonging to the federation. So if I go to the Federal Government and I say, give me a building, how do I account for that! There are many things that we would be careful about. Let’s not rush these things. You know we wake up late and then we start rushing.

    Everybody else started this thing long time ago, and many of them took many years, in some cases, decades, before they started making great impact. But we want to do everything at once, let us be realistic in our  expectation. We are working as hard as we possibly can. Don’t forget that if I don’t keep this money safe, it doesn’t matter what I built, so that if I say your money is in that bridge, you have got to show me how and why. So you have to be very careful. But we are going to do what we can.

    We are going to show you a few things in the healthcare ,let us not forget about that because that is important. We are working on forest  programme with Ogun State to reforest land that has been wasted, for the purpose of agriculture for tens  of thousands of people. So we are working on many things.

    But if you look at other Sovereign Wealth Funds, many of them took a long time before they started making great impact. And I must say that I am not trying to lose expectations but I am trying to keep it realistic.

    Are you stymied by government bureaucracy?

    I grew up in Nigeria, my father was a civil servant, a sub-treasurer in Umaiha and my mother was a primary school teacher. And I understood bureaucracy watching my father. But you have to realise it is easy to sit in the private sector and say – that government bureaucracy.

    But when you are in government, you realise that it is a lot of work. I had a new found respect for the ruling government and I understand why in some cases the bureaucracy exists, and I am not saying it shouldn’t be improved, but I understand why it exists. So we are working with them as much as we can with it. Don’t be part of the problem, be part of the solution.  That is the way I look at it. If you don’t like something, go and try to fix it.

    When I go to the Ministry of Health or this MDA, there are so many things I don’t like and I am like, hey, can I just help you this way, this is how you should do it with the Sovereign Wealth Fund. So the bureaucracy is something you will have to work with whether you like it or not.

    There is provision in NSIA to lend support to government. How soon do you see this happening?

    You know, they have just given us money, so they have not come to us to ask for money now. So let us just keep the money. Look, there are lots of demand, we will help solve problems for this is the job we are all signed up to do. So we are trying our best to solving the problems.

    You know by raising more capital, getting investors, and how do we solve these problems. Because, there is a lot of problems and we are very happy to participate. This is our country. It is how you make your bed that you lie on it. We grew up complaining about our fathers, the things they didn’t do, we say they could have done it this or that way.  But now, we are the ones in charge and it is time to do it.

    The NSIA has come a long way, give us a picture of where you want to see this Sovereign Wealth Fund in the future?

    For sure, in the near future, I will be looking at it from the outside.   But I think during one’s time, you ensure you build a house solid enough to add another layer.  In 10 years time, I want to see Nigerian Sovereign Wealth Authority punching above, sitting down amongst the committee of nations and being very influential and very powerful.

    So I think that is  the first thing I will like to see happen. It is that the Nigerian Soveriegn Wealth Authority is respected, growing and solving Nigeria’s problem. Being very effective in solving infrastructure problems of the country. I will like to see a more sovereign development, not sovereign wealth. The Infrastructure Fund is development and we cannot substitute sovereign development for sovereign wealth.

    And I am not trying to play on words here. But we have infrstucture funds, it is not big enough to really authorise big projects, but I will like to se it 10 years from now, that the Federal Government of Nigeria wants to build certain projects and that project is commissioned by the Sovereign Wealth Fund.

    Before you start calling any DFI or Donor Agency and World Bank and others, you call the Sovereign Wealth Fund first, and that is what I want to see. Ten years from now, the CEO of the Sovereign Wealth Fund is at the top table and making big decisions, that would be fantastic. You know why, because that is how it is in Abu Dabi. That is how it is in other countries. If this thing is viable and big enough for you to bring in foreign investors, let your own Sovereign Wealth Fund do it, because you said it is viable.

    So 10 years from now, that is what I am planning to see.  My greatest legacy for the Nigerian Sovereign Wealth Investment Authority is to have built the foundation for a viable, solid, strong business. And that the government has had enough confidence to grow to the point where it becomes the first point of call for large infrastructure projects that are commercially attractive.

    And let them build that platform that other countries want to come and invest in. We would start that next year in 2016, you will see more investment, you will see us being able to create funds and bring other people.   We would put that platform in place by 2016 in certain areas, but because we still have small money, that platform would be fairly small, but 10 years from now, I want to see that platform much bigger.

    Given your experience and insight of the other very successful Sovereign Wealth Fund, what limitation do you see in the Nigerian  entity?

    I think we have overcome the very first limitation, which is, should we do this. I like to again thank the Governors and the National Economic Council for having the courage to make what is a very difficult decision. And so I think that over the next few months and years, it would put us in a position where we would make the economic environment better.

    How have you managed to keep your cost low?

    We have 21 professionals in the organisation. First of all I set a cost cap, to no more than eight per cent of assets. So all I need to earn is one per cent and I am making profit. So if I earn four per cent, or five per cent, I make a whole lot of money. So with that in mind, I will say that there is no big man at the NSIA , most time when they see us flying,you will never see us on a first class. It would never happen. If you ever see me in a first class, it is because they gave me an upgrade, or it is my own money. And I will never use the Sovereign Wealth money.  It is a culture that has started with the fact that it started with no money.

    When I arrived to start the Sovereign Wealth Fund , there was not a penny in the bank. There was not even an office. After squatting in what was a storage room in the Ministry of Finance, I rented a house, a service department, from my own pocket, and I put the Sovereign Wealth Fund department at the ground floor, and my dinning table was the office.

    I borrowed resources from our partners, the FID. That is because we didn’t have any money to operate for the first three months. By the end of the fourth month, we even borrowed money, which we had to repay within a year. So we have got a small office. Even now, our offices are compact. So we learnt so honestly, it is the same way I would have started it, if it were to be my business.  For a long time, we had no official car, we had two Hondas, of which I used to drive myself on the weekends. So you do things like that and gradually, you build a name.

     

     

     

     

     

  • PZ presents prize money to Mamador winner

    PZ Wilmar has redeemed its N1 million prize money to the first winner of its Mamador consumer promo tagged: “Mamador Cook & Cruise Promo”.  The winner, Mrs. Anjola Ogunmodede, is a 2007 graduate of Business Administration from the Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State. Ogunbodede, a staff of a new generation bank, who was accompanied to the presentation by her mother, Mrs. Bola Lapite, expressed appreciation to PZ Wilmar for putting such a smile on her face.

    Recalling how the journey to winning the N1 million started, Ogunbodede said she bought a 3.1 litre Mamador oil from Alhaja Raobis at Mushin market, and was informed of the promo tied to the product. She said she would keep the money in the bank first before spending it, but obviously a part will go to God. “God is the owner of the money He has to take His own share before I spend the rest,” she said.

    The General Manager, Marketing, PZ Wilmar, Mrs Bukky Bandele, explained that Ogunbodede was very lucky to be a star winner ahead of other several participants.  She said Mamador is proud to be touching the lives of women.

    “If you empower a woman you have actually empowered the family. Mamador radiates purity and care, which could be likened to the care of a mother, it is manufactured by a reputable company and approved by NAFDAC,” Bandele said.

    The star price, which is a salon car, would be up for grabs at the grand finale. The car price will be won at the grand finale and loyal customers that have bought the product for two to three months, and have accumulated points would have their names automatically drawn and three winners will emerge for the cars just like there will be three winners for the one million naira cash.

  • How ladies tried to lure me into marriage with money after losing my wife –Trado-medical practitioner Olayemi Lateef a.k.a. Kolaq

    How ladies tried to lure me into marriage with money after losing my wife –Trado-medical practitioner Olayemi Lateef a.k.a. Kolaq

    Alhaji  Olayemi Atunda Lateef, popularly known in social circles as Kolaq, has been a trado-medicine practitioner for over two decades. According to him, the growth of that health sub sector has been remarkable and shows that Africans indeed have a divine gift to share with the rest of the world. He came into limelight back in the late 90s and was embraced by society folks, who he says were overwhelmed by his herbal products and patronised him. But more importantly also was the role of his late amiable wife, Afisat Olamide, who was well loved, as both of them were usually, favourite faces at parties. But after the death of his wife, Kolaq, seemed to have taken a leave of absence from the society scene. In this interview with Paul Ukpabio, he shares with us the passion for his work, memories of his late wife and the joy of re-marriage.

    Some time ago, you lost your wife. She was very endearing in society circles. And after that, it’s like you receded from society circles…

    Yes, the death of my wife affected me because she was supportive in many ways when she was alive. But then I thank God that the family was able to move on after that. Her death didn’t mean that I had to close down the business, though she played a major role with me while she was alive. Her death was painful.

    When was that?

    That was about 10 years ago. Hmm, Yoruba people say, ‘Olorun a fi igbagbe si’  (meaning may God give us the grace to forget.)

    At what point did you decide to re-marry?

    I re-married five years ago. If you recall, my late wife and I were very close. Her death indeed affected me because she was a humble woman. She was very supportive. A major part of my business was handled by her. I felt free to involve her in my business. I enjoyed her enthusiasm in the business. Her interest and good performance made me to gain lot of confidence in her. All that made her death to be painful when it took place.

    After waiting for five years without your late wife, you ended up marrying a much younger woman. How have you been coping with a much younger woman?

    (Laughs) But I am still young too. For me, marrying a younger woman was not much of the attraction to beauty and so on, but it was more of prayer. I particularly prayed to God to give me a good wife, my ‘own’ wife. I prayed that God should give me my best friend. And when my present wife, popularly known as ewa Islam, came, I found out that she was okay. As it is today, she is more of a friend to me. We are best friends. If you do not see your wife as your best friend and your wife does not see you as her best friend, then the marriage cannot work out well.

    Is your new wife taking part in your business?

    She is trying. She is presently involved. She is not actually the only one that is involved; my children are now well involved. There is one over here handling the business, and then there is another one in America in charge of the office there. He is handling that side of the business. He has been in America for more than 10 years now. He studied pharmacy over there.

    How have your children been coping with your young new wife?

    My children have really been good to me. I am grateful that the investments that I have made over them over the years have started paying off. I am lucky I have four boys.

    Are you expecting more children?

    Yoruba people say, ‘won ki nka omo fun olomo (meaning you don’t count children).’ If children decide to come, then they have come (Laughs). So whether I am expecting right now or not expecting, I am sure that when a child arrives, the sound will be heard and the sound of celebration will be heard too.

    Your new wife is an artiste. What kind of music does she sing?

    She sings gospel music. She has actually just finished a collabo with popular fuji musician Saheed Osupa. She was already an artiste before I met her. So I was not involved in her decision to be an artiste. And when I met her, there was nothing I could do but to support her. I had to encourage her because i didn’t want to kill the talent or discourage her. Right now she already has two albums in the market. The one she just finished will be the third one.

    What is life like living with a wife who is an artiste?

    She sings a lot around the house. It is normal being that she is an entertainer. I am comfortable with the kind of music she plays since it is religious. Her kind of music allows her to be homely as well.

    But after you lost your first wife, did ladies look out for your interest in marriage?

    (Laughs) Yes, a lot of ladies came around with interest for marriage. Some actually bribed people close to me, in order to come closer to me themselves and suggest it. There were actually two other cases that left me shocked. One lady called and said she heard about the death of my late wife and will gladly put N10m in the bank. I gladly accepted. But when she said that we should make it a joint account, I had to think twice about it. Three times she called at different times to ask for that joint account. But I declined. There were also women from America who tried to talk me into it.

    What is your style?

    I love shoes. I love my shoes to be neat, clean and attractive. So I wear stylish shoes. I believe that someone’s shoes stand the person out. I value shoes more than clothing and even jewellery. But I must tell you that shoes tell much about a person. People take more interest in clothing but shoes show more of a person’s class and taste.

    You have been in the trado-medicine world for quite some time, what is the feeling like, being one of the few successful ones?

    When I started in 1986, it was a shameful thing to call oneself a trado- medicine practitioner. But I was determined because I admired the traditions of my forebears. In those good, old days, there was herbal medicine and then there was also a religion which was largely based on traditions. So these two were perceived to work together. For instance, in those days, before medications were given to a sick person, some of the time, the medicine man had to first consult  the oracle.

    Then there wasn’t really any difference between the medicine man and the spiritual or religious head of the community. Also, most often in some cultures or traditions, the two were not found separated. That was one of the major challenges that I faced when I started the work on herbal medicine. It took some time before people could separate herbal medicine from the work of herbalists of those days. But now people know better. They now know there is a difference.

    How did you start out?

    I started out poorly. That was at Bariga area of Lagos. It was through dint of handwork and much determination. I rented a place at a sawmill and gradually started operating from there. I can say that my initial success came about through advertisement. At that time, herbal medicine practitioners used to be  located at hidden places and were only known to those who were close to them, or those who lived around them. But that changed when I met a journalist, who convinced me that I should advertise if I could vouch for my herbal therapies. I told him that I was sure of my products. So I went public. There after, I experienced an unusual patronage. People came to verify if my products were okay and from then on, I became popular among society people.

    Does that mean that high society folks patronise herbal medicine?

    Yes, they do. Even when herbal medicine was not very popular, they were patronising it. The truth is that herbal medicine is traditional to us. As Africans, we have known about it and it has  been a part of us. Also what has helped the growth of herbal medicine in the country is the increase in diseases and the inability of orthodox medicine to meet up with the demands and challenges of lasting cure for diseases and ailments. And then the high cost, non- affordability and lack of easy access to orthodox medicine; that gave us space for growth.

    You ask if high society folks  patronise herbal medicine, my reply is that since they are human and they fall sick too, then they are likely to look for cure to their sickness. You will be surprised about the large number of high society people that have benefited from the use of herbal medicine over the years. I will not be able to mention names, but suffice to say that I was a nobody until high society folks began to enjoy good patronage from me. As a matter of fact, it is the rich folks that made me.

    You mentioned that sicknesses and diseases have been increasing over the years, why is it so?

    It is unfortunate that despite the increase in the wealth in our society, the lifestyle of today’s people  has remained unhealthy. Most of the foods that people eat are either unhealthy or not properly eaten. Sometimes people eat food at the wrong time or eat greedily. All these lead to sickness and illness. Then also, multiple sexual relationships and the increase in promiscuity have led to various diseases. Take for instance, young people who drink half carton of beer at a sitting or drink three bottles of red wine at a sitting. Some people do such regularly. There is no way that such persons will not have one illness or another in the long run.

    Today for instance, young people do not sleep at night. Even the middle aged too. They stay awake most nights phone-pinging one another. Those kinds of lifestyle lead to health issues.  Some people wake at 4am and they are never back home till 11pm. These are some of the complex lifestyles of today. So for people who do not sleep properly, by the time they are 35 or 40 years old, they are definitely likely to develop hypertension. And that leads to other diseases. That is definitely not how God said that we should be using our bodies.

    So are you saying that the way we use the body determines how long one lives?

    What I am saying is that, it goes a long way to determine how long one lives. For instance, if you buy two brand new cars today, two years later, the wear and tear of each of the cars will be determined by their use. That is how the body is too. If you use your body poorly by throwing in all sorts of junk, it is likely that you will be affected in later life with illnesses.

    So how do you take care of your own body?

    I take care of my body. Anyone that does not pay attention to his body will end up being older than his actual age. I do not copy anybody and I am not envious of other people’s lifestyles. I am always contented with what I have and with what God has given me. I drink and eat in moderation. I live a free life because I do not ask God for what I cannot handle or control. People  who are rich in wrong ways cannot sleep. They end up worrying so much, age and develop illness and diseases. I live by the day!

    Then more importantly, I treat myself with natural herbs. I use my products. Anyway, before I approve a product for the public, I make sure that I have used it myself. That way I ensure that I live a healthy lifestyle. I eat what my system needs or requires. In those days, when a child wakes up in the morning, they are given ‘bitters’ which cleanse their systems. But today, you hardly see such things happening. These days what you are likely to see are children who are woken up with large sized chicken, meat-pie, carbonated drinks of various colours and so on. This happens day in and day out. That lifestyle is not healthy.

    It’s an open joke that herbal products lay spurious claims to cure. one product for instance, could be said to be able to cure a variety of diseases. Why is this so?

    No, I think that is the problem of marketing. Take for instance the orthodox medicine, analgesics cure more than one ailment; so also some products of herbal medicine may cure more than one ailment but when it is said to cure several, it may be superfluous.

    Is any of your children taking after you in your line of business?

    Funny enough, all my children are already involved in it. I live an open life and one way or the other, the children have been learning. They have been having opportunity to watch and learn under me and therefore got involved. The knowledge has been interesting and the children ignited passion and interest in it early in life. Don’t forget that I learnt from my parents. But I didn’t stop there, I got into formal education as well. However, unlike my home then when I was the only one that got the knowledge from my father among all his children, my own children are very much interested in learning and knowing from me the secrets of herbal treasures.

    Which were your boom years in your business?

    (Laughs) Every year has been my boom year. Though herbal medicine is everywhere now and much accessible. at the level that I am, there are only a few of us there, nonetheless, herbal medicine is always around the corner. Our products are sold openly in pharmacies and health wellness centres these days. Herbs which are locally called ‘agbo’ are now everywhere. They are right there in your face. I am actually proud of the distributive network that we have been able to achieve with herbal medicine. This area has become a money generating source for many in Nigeria. A lot of people are living and surviving through the production network of herbal medicine. I believe that it is time that the government should take advantage and encourage more circulation and export.

    Your most embarrassing moment?

    Can’t really remember a particular case but I recalled that in my earlier days as a herbal practitioner, there was a complaint by somebody who purchased my herbal medicine that it was used and it didn’t work. From then on, I strove harder to ensure that such a thing never occurs again. I still remember that it was painful to me because such report kills brands. So over the years I have endeavoured to ensure that such a thing never happens. It hurts. The joy of a product is to see it work.

    What has motivated you over the years?

    It is God. I cannot say that it has been my wife. I cannot even say it has been my staff. It is God that has motivated and sustained me over the years.

    Your most challenging moment?

    There have been challenges but I must tell you that there is no time that you look up in the sky in the afternoon that there won’t be a black lining in the sky. And at the same time, there is no time at night when you look up in the sky that you won’t see a white lining there. That means that there are different times and seasons in the world. There definitely will be times when things will be well, but even then, there will be challenges. There is no way a vehicle will move from one distance to another with the same speed. So for me, I do not see challenges, instead what i see is a beautiful life with ups and downs.

  • ‘Money laundering, terrorism hurt economy’

    The Director-General,   West African  Institute for Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM), Prof. Akpan Ekpo, has said money laundering and terrorism damage the political  and socio-economic life of Nigeria.

    He spoke at the 20th anniversary of DataPro, which held in Lagos. According to him, the processes, inter-connectedness and the mechanisms for laundering stolen money are so complex and complicated that  fighting against them requires committed political sagacity.

    “The perpetrators of  money laundering are sometimes those in political power or have access to  political power, thus making efforts at anti- money laundering to  be rudimentary,” he said.

    He added: “It is crucial to build capacity continuously to combat money laundering and its derivatives. It is in this aspect that DataPro and its team have excelled themselves. Men and women responsible for curtailing money laundering must be trained to identify an activity that  looks genuine on the surface, but on further analysis, may have the features of money laundering.”

    The guest speaker and Group Managing Director of Access Bank Plc, Herbert Wigwe, said: “To make any positive impact on the fight against money  laundering and  terrorist financing, there must be global commitment by all  government and  relevant institutions saddled with the responsibility for  pursuit of the  objectives.

    Founder of DataPro, Abimbola Adeseyoju, thanked the guests for their contributions during the discussions, adding: “Today, DataPro is entering another phase in its  development; the age  of maturity. We have resolved more than ever to invest in sustainable practices instead of looking for shortcuts and short term gains. We will remain committed to meeting and exceeding the expectations of   our stakeholders.”