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Tag: money

  • Dawaki: Legislators rejecting committee membership are after money

    Dawaki: Legislators rejecting committee membership are after money

    House of Representatives member from Kano State Hon. Mustapha Dawaki, in this interview with VICTOR OLUWASEGUN and dele ANOFI, says that legislators rejecting committee appointments are unpatriotic.

    Four party members are rejecting their appoitments as Chairmen and Deputies Chairman of committees. How do you feel about the development?

    Any member of the House of Representatives, who rejects his appointment to chair any committee, is after money and not service because the primary motive of members should be service to the nation, not their personal interest. No committee is useless and it is not the right of any member to chair specific committees. The leadership reserves the right to place members of parliament into committees. So, if their primary motion is service, they have no reason to reject such appointment. If any member who thinks he or she is in the House to make money will be in for a shocker as the Speaker will not tolerate such behaviours and will wash its hands off anyone found wanting.

    The complaint was that the distribution was not fair to the majority party that has the responsibility to assist the government in power.

    Mr. Speaker wants this Assembly to work and pass a record number of bills. Members must sit up and do the right thing. It will no longer be business as usual. That said, we only need to look at the breakdown to see whether the Speaker was fair or not. Ninety six committee Chairmen and their Deputies were appointed. APC got 48 while PDP 45. APC got 55 Deputy Chairmen while it wws 38 for PDP. Of the 48 APC Chairmen, 26 are Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila’s supporters. Of the 54 Deputy Chairmen, 29 are Femi Gbajabiamila’s supporters

    Furthermore, some of the grade A committees allocated to Hon. Femi’s supporters include Customs and Excise with both Chairman and Deputy coming from Femi’s group. They are Faleke and Hon. Chanchangi. Agriculture and many others are also Grade A committees that went to Gbajabiamila’s group.

    There are some committees that naturally belong to some zones as obtained in previous Assemblies, which include Petroluem Resouces and Gas, those committees were retained in those zones. Again, the APC got Grade A committees such as Agriculture, Appropriation, Finance, Police Affairs, Navy, Defence, Interior, FCT, Basic Education, Tertiary Education, Customs, Judiciary, Electoral Matters, Emergency and Disaster Management, Housing, Land Transport, Marine,  Pensions,  Public Safety and Intelligence,  Rules and Business, House Services, Telecommunications, Water Resources and Solid Minerals.

    The grouse was that, if so much was given to the opposition, won’t your governemnt have problems later from these Chairmen?

    I don’t think so. Unlike in the previous Assemblies, this time around, the ruling party, the APC, does not have two-third majority in the House. The PDP  has the numerical strenght to block or frustrate any bill or motion, which requires two-third majority vote. The implication is that they must be carried along in the scheme of things as we cannot afford to run an all exclusive government. And that is why they too must be given committees to chair. As i said earlier, if the motivation of these lawmakers is service, why are they insisting on chairing certain committees? Why are they rejecting some committees? It means that their primary motivation is not service but personal interest. It should be noted that there 360 members in the House,10 are principal officers, while 192 are either chairmen or deputies leaving out 158 others who do not have any position to hold. It is, therefore, a great favour and privilege for any member to be appointed into position of Chairman or Deputy as 158 of his/her colleagues wont have any responsibility. Are they saying that they are better than those ones? Hon. Gideon Gwani is a third termer and is nether a Chairman nor Deputy and he remained loyal and supportive of the leadership and did not raise any issue. Are they better than him? To tell you that the Speaker is not a selfish person, his region or zone of the North East has the least number of committees just about eight. Kano State, my state, has six Chairmen and eight Deputies. These Chairmen include Appropriations, House Services, SDGs, Housing, Poverty Alleviation, Tertiary Education. No Speaker has ever given Kano this much in the past.

  • ‘I don’t sing for money or fame’

    ‘I don’t sing for money or fame’

    Her early childhood was spent practicing Islam, but Abiola Ibrahim, a gospel musician, is now a born-again Christian. Popularly known as Haybee Rock because of her love for rock songs, the budding gospel artiste tells JOE AGBRO JR. how she got into singing and why she is more concerned about using her music to evangelise

    It’s a genre many people generally associate with noise, drugs and rebellion disposition. But to Abiola Ibrahim, rock music is her preferred mode of praising God. And following Nigerian gospel artistes like Rooftop MCs and Eben, at 23, Haybee Rock, as Ibrahim is popularly known, is an up and coming gospel musician.

    Born in Lagos on November 21, 1991 to a Malian father and a Nigerian mother, Abiola, for the first ten years of her life, practiced Islam. She could not have done otherwise. Though her mother is the first wife, her father, a Muslim versed in Islam, married three other women. And Haybee Rock is the last of three daughters from the union.

    But Abiola’s story could be likened to a twist of fortune. Born with a silver spoon, her circumstances changed when she was about seven years old. Her dad, who worked with NAHCO, lost his job and things became hard for her family. Her dad having four wives and lots of children didn’t help matters.

    “Taking care of us was hard,” Abiola recalled of her dad’s turn of fortune. “He called all of his wives together and informed them of plans to relocate the entire family back to Mali.”

    While the other wives and their children agreed to the plans to relocate to Mali, Abiola and her siblings stayed behind with their mother. In 2002, her dad left for Mali but Abiola and her siblings from her mother stayed behind. Had she gone with her dad, she may never have stepped in a church. And Christian gospel music would probably have been out of the question.

    “It was hard for her (her mother) to leave her family,” she said.

    It was after this period that Abiola started attending church. Her father got to know this through some of his family members that squealed about her new religion.

    “They didn’t know how we were feeding but they had time to see us whenever we were going to church.”

    Being a staunch Moslem, Abiola said her father was angry when he called over the telephone. Her mother stood by the decision to attend church. And for the young Abiola, church was a better place of worship because, instead of being flogged as she remembers enduring while going to the mosque, she got biscuits at the church. In 2006 when her dad came to Lagos, she and her siblings still had not changed their minds. “We stood our ground. We told him, ‘we can’t go to mosque again.’”

    Again, there were plans for her and her remaining siblings to relocate to Mali. But this time around, courtesy of her principal who advised her mum to check out the condition before taking her kids there, it was her mum that went to Mali first. However, after spending a year there, her mother felt her daughters were better off remaining in Nigeria. Though she was excited to be off to Mali then, now she looks back and is thankful she didn’t go.

    Finding Christ

    HER life had always been a bit rocky. Up till 1999, she schooled in Lagos before going to Ilorin to finish primary school. The girls together with their mother spent one year there before relocating back to Lagos for her secondary school education.

    After secondary school, she worked for a year before heading back to study for IJMB at Ilorin. She passed the IJMB, scoring eight points and got admission several into state and private universities but the high fees scared her off. That was the cycle for the four years she spent in Ilorin after passing her IJMB.

    “You know, we’re not financially buoyant like that,” she said of her family.

    To keep her time, she studied fashion designing for one and a half years. It was a consolation for the four years spent in Ilorin. Succour came her way when she got a job as a front desk officer at a Lagos-based hotel. Working three days on and taking three days off, the job afforded her time to practice and money, too, to fund not just her education, but also her music.

    “My plan is to work and gather money and open a shop and be a fashion designer and be able to help my music career through the salary I earn,” says Haybee Rock who is single but in a relationship.

    This year, she got admission to study Mass Communication at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). “I’ve gotten to a stage where I don’t rely on anybody again. They’ve disappointed me a long time. The only person that has been helping so far has been God.”

    Music from the church

    ABIOLA remembers singing by age seven. Her dad was away on a trip to Mali. And Abiola’s mum, having a Christian background, saw nothing wrong in her own younger sister taking Abiola to church.

    “She couldn’t try it if my dad were around because then we were always going to mosques,” she said of her aunt taking her to a Redeemed Church.

    “When I got to the church, I had never opened a bible before.”

    But her participation, opening and reading from bible passages impressed the pastor who enquired about her.

    “My dad stayed long and I started going to church. I joined the children’s choir. From there, they turned me to children’s choir leader.”

    She became teenage choir leader and, later, youth choir leader while she was in Ilorin. Her mother knew her love for singing and prayed for her. Perhaps, music was a sort of balm from the harsh life. She recalls playing and writing 2Face’s songs on his first album in an exercise book. “I would pause the song, write the lyrics and replayed till all the lyrics were written down,” she said.

    However, it was not until 2010 that she started out professionally in music. She met Solo Soft, a Niger State-based video producer in Ilorin. Though Abiola had known she wanted to do music, she didn’t know how to break into the industry. Solo Soft took her to the studio. “He said, ‘it’s time you started doing music professionally.”

    She started writing songs and eventually did three songs but only one, Scream, was uploaded online. That was in September 2010. “Lots of people heard it and they were like, ‘we’ve been expecting this for long. Where have you been hiding and all that?’”

    The compliments egged Abiola on.

    “I felt like this was what I was meant to do.”

    It would take four years before she came out with another gospel rock song, Erupe Ile (Dust of the Earth), in December. On April 1, this year, she came out with No One which has a reggae tinge to it. Abiola places singing rock and reggae as being versatile.

    “I don’t actually care about genre. I actually care about the message I’m passing across. Sometimes I might just sit down and a song in form of R and B will come to me. I start to wonder, is gospel a particular genre? I can do anything. I can do R and B, I can do jazz, I can do hip hop, so far as I am passing a message. I love most genres. In fact, I want to rap.”

    But rock is the genre she’s naturally inclined to. In fact, her name, Haybee Rock, is a play on the first two alphabets  AB  in her name, Abiola, and ‘rock.’

    “I love rock,” she gushes.

    “I listen to so many rock artistes.” But it is Mark Schultz that spawned that love.

    Haybee Rock who loved Celine Dion a lot while growing up even started learning the guitar because of her love for rock but stopped due to time constraints.

    As per the reggae song, it was just providence that turned it so. She got the inspiration for the song and recorded it with her phone. In the studio, she wanted to a do a rock number, but the producer thought reggae. “There is no way the song can be done as rock,” she remembers the producer telling her. The producer got his way.

    Another single, No Shade Of Grey, featuring Abiodun Arogunmaya, was released November 1. It is also a rock song. According to Haybee Rock, the song, which is about taking a stance on how to relate with God,  is to celebrate her birth month.

    “Instead of receiving gifts, why don’t I give people gifts?”

    Since 2010, it’s been a slow but steady rise. Her second single, Erupe Ile, a popular local gospel folklore gets a rebirth with a tinge of gospel. She confesses that her schedule has made her a bit reclusive.

    “I don’t even have friends anymore because they will get angry that I don’t visit them anymore.”

    Going gospel

    MAYBE, that is so for Abiola, because to her, music is really a form of evangelism.

    “If not for God, I wouldn’t be where I am today,” she said.

    “I believe as a Christian, our purpose in life is to reach out to people and let them be aware that God loves them. And that should stick to everybody’s memory.

    “And we can’t all be preachers. Some people actually pass a message by acting. And because I know mine is the ability to sing and it has been there right from my childhood and the only way I can preach out this message is by singing.”

    However, she admits that she likes to be in church. And if she’s bored, the studio is also another choice destination. But Haybee Rock also knows that music will take her beyond churches. And she is ready for it.

    “In fact, very soon, I would be doing a dancehall song that can be played in clubs,” says Haybee Rock, poising to trail Winans Phase 2 whose gospel song, It’s Alright (Send Me), also became a club banger. “It’s going to be gospel too.”

    “Reaching out has been so encouraging. When I released No One, the bloggers accepted the song and said, ‘this song is good.’ And so many people identified with the song and said ‘your song blessed me.’ The song talks about no one being like God.

    “I am not in it for the money or the fame. I am in it because I want to pass a message. And the only way I can do it is by singing.”

    By 2017, should she continue, Haybee Rock would have spent seven years in the music industry. It is also the year she looks at coming out with an album.

    “They say seven is a number of perfection. I don’t just want to release an album. Actually, I’m not interested in just releasing an album. I’m interested in reaching out, for people to know me, to hear my song.”

  • Money motive and multinationals….From Enron to MTN

    Beyond the hard façade of law and economics, good (corporate) governance ultimately comes down to the soft but “real” issues”.

     

    “When beggars die, there are no comets seen” according to Shakespeare, but then added, “heavens themselves blaze forth the death of a prince”. Suffice that there are beggar businesses in town and there are the princes. By their clout they define what corporate governance is. For when a member of the Fortune 500 drops out of the business skyline definitely there must be some buzz in the media and a telling reverberation in the business community. Exactly what definescorporate governance from “company management.”

    After the earth-shaking news about MTN’s $5.2billion sanction on tax remittance fraud hit Nigeria’s news stand last week, there was firsta shrill that felt like many hearts sinking and then a sigh, before the little whimpers began and the comments that definitely jolted the businesscircuit back to institutional memory… yes, to Enron!Does anyone still remember? And that underlines the mammoth baggage of disappointments that rang through the Nigerian socio-political and economic spheres. It is unprecedented, second only to the global impact once of Enron and the domino effects that followed in the 1990s.

    Icons and crashes

    Enron (U.S.) of the 1990s and MTN (Africa) in the 2000s were the big “mascot” companies of their times respectively. Both reigned and raked-in accolades for global best practices. Both were/are savvy, the defining culture for the term “corporate”, they were involved in CSR that showed great human/earth considerations. They provided ideal trajectory for corporate profiles both for HR and company, became practically the swear word in growth industry, they represented the icon and hope and raised the bar of aspiration for the next generation. So the thought of crash for them was not just undesirable it was unconscionable.

    But Enron crashed into the exacting hands of corporate governance and now MTN is teetering from its foundation that is terribly undermined. Ironically one goodof their mutual fate is thatnow either canplay the role of the corporate goon to illustrate many of the winding issues under Ownership and Control for the remaining “Fortune 500” companies still in the market. Moreover the Nigerian polity is still totting on the steps of an emerging economy trying to grapple with the waves of micro-macro market interlocks, the MTN debacle will come as a timely beau to explain how corporate governance works.

    Premium Times, the online news channel claimed to have followed the investigation for 11 years and wrote, “In a rare disclosure in 2013, MTN admitted it made unauthorized payments of N37.6 Billion to MTN Dubai between 2010 and 2013. The transfers were then “on-paid” to Mauritius, a shell company with zero number of staff and which physical presence in the capital Port Louis is nothing more than a post office letter box. The disclosure amounted to a confession given that MTN made the dodgy transfers without seeking approval from the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), the body mandated to oversight such transfers.”

    Corporate scandals don’t just happen like accidents, they are “planned”. They begin like seeds in the mind of men, sometimes from the gestation of the company. But most often they are sheened in some assemblage of words that encode the agreements as men sit down to conceive the end of that matter from the beginning. That is why as the structure progresses in a system there is naturally a differential of growth which no one can perfectly predict, hence the need of a progressive interpretation, but while in transit the motives of men dilute the process and the end-result is affected. The issue of Motive is very crucial at every level in corporates set-up.And the motives of a venture-capitalist minded corporate can be so dangerously tilted in carrying out even great policies.

    We are reminded about the case study on Enron, “In October 2001the company admitted there had been a number of accounting irregularities over the period 1997 to 2000. It became clear that a number of complex partnership structures had not been recognised in the balance sheet. In effect these structures had been used to keep debt off the balance sheet. Although the accounting treatment complied with the accounting rules in the US at the time they were clearly intended to mislead investors.”

    Last week as the regulator’s hammer went up in Nigeria against MTN, there were more comparisons flooding back from those archives, “In 2000 Enron was an energy trading, natural gas and utilities ….top ten largest companies in the US.. a market capitalization of over $70 million; revenues of over $100 billion and for five consecutive years had been named “America’s Most Innovative Company” by Fortune Magazine. It had over 20,000 employees around the world”

    Locally in Nigeria, the Premium Times went on: “MTN has consistently prided itself as the foremost telephone company that is getting Nigerians talking the most. Now….it has routinely been shipping billions of naira overseas to avoid paying its fair share of tax in Nigeria… MTN has been running circles around Nigerian revenue authorities using a complex but noxious tax avoidance scheme called Transfer Pricing.”

    Competence or diligence is no respite, Enron was serviced “by one of the top five professional firms in the world”, Arthur Andersen, with revenues in excess of $9 billion and notably “a reputation for outstanding auditing integrity and competence”. They were imperiled along with Enron, losing reputation, clients and business. Princely corporations don’t ever fall alone they carry collateral damages that are most often transferred onto friendly companies and collaborators.

    Before their scandal corporates do often start with the rule but soon step aside for a ruse that could yield a crude advantage. What MTN devised as Transfer Pricing was a creative genius, “For any economy, it is a slow death.” Just like it was for Enron which Chief Financial Officer, Andrew Fastow devised “a series of complex partnership structures known as special purpose vehicles (SPVs) through which the assets of Enron were sold out variously for cash, borrowed from a third party bank, but those partnerships were not reflected on the balance sheet.

    In the end, “although the partnerships generally met the strict legal requirements they were outside the ‘spirit’ of the regulations and were clearly designed to mislead shareholders. As for MTN Premium Times informs, “The red flag was raised the moment it was revealed that MTN Nigeria has been making payments to two overseas companies – MTN Dubai and MTN International in Mauritius – both located in tax havens….. In 2013 for example, MTN set aside N11.398billion from MTN Nigeria to pay to MTN Dubai. A similar transfer of N11.789billion was made by MTN Ghana to the same MTN Dubai, making it a total of N23.187 billion that was shipped to the Dubai offshore account.

    The reach and spread of corporations across nations which is an element of globalisation, and now terribly enhanced by ICT is probably more terrible in the hands of a communications trader. “In a rare disclosure in 2013, MTN admitted it made unauthorised payments of N37.6 billion to MTN Dubai between 2010 and 2013. The transfers were then “on-paid” to Mauritius, a shell company with zero number of staff and which physical presence in the capital Port Louis is nothing more than a post office letter box.”

    Growth must come else the economy die.But there is a price to pay for the differential of growth. Strategy of traction is therefore very important to the works of a  Regulator especially in a knowledge economy as the world is right now, but the undoing of a young emerging economy as Nigeria’s and most of Africa mentioned in the MTN network, is the start-up structure. Callous macro-economic players take undue advantage to introduce out-large instruments from that environment, often in collusion with unpatriotic local player to defraud the local economy and create more gaps in growth.

    MTN made those dodgy transfers without seeking approval from the stakeholder involved which is the ”National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), the body mandated to oversee such transfers.The disclosure amounted to a confession” unwittingly.

    As it is often said, “Beyond the hard façade of law and economics good (corporate) governance ultimately comes down to the soft but “real” issues”. Evidently the two corporates, Enron and MTN ran/run  a good structure on paper and the system was celebrated as world best practices, however their strategy or devices of achieving their strategic goal was tinctured to provide what was unseen outside of the system. Hence the so-called “core concepts” as is preached about Corporate Governance for now, stressing “the codes of corporate governance” often brought together by players themselves in tacit approval of public departments, will only serve as per what is concealed in the structure and system but not what is hidden in the heart of the managers. This returns the unraveling of motives beyond the commitment of crimes of corporate governance to much higher ways of ethics, the philosophical teaching of morality in the academia.

    However pecuniary benefit may be the commonest motive for malfeasance in the marketplace for in the expanded horizon where transaction now takes place in the 21st Century there could be sundry other motives leading to capital not directly cash-money. Power, relationships and many other kinds of kicks have come in, and so are the varying means of meeting them some of which are now the subject of neurotic analytics. Meeting these avenues has expanded the ambit of information seeking, gathering and re-use, and ultimately how man plans to react to maximise their benefits.

    All above is the latest preoccupation of curriculum developers in seeking to integrate vistas of knowledge in other to prepare a programme of education that will be fit for would-be professional/practitioner of corporate governance.

     

    • Ogunsakin can be reached on: 08037250343                                           greenhavenfoundation@gmail.com
  • Bring back our money

    Bring back our money

    •The West must respond to this cry; but Africa too must provide it with accurate and adequate details

    Although no one knows its exact size, almost everyone is agreed that vast fortunes, stolen by political officials in Africa from the very people they claim to serve, lie domiciled in European  and American banks; and in Caribbean safe havens for funds of questionable origin.

    The practice goes back to the 1960s, when a majority of African countries won independence from their colonizers; and governance passed into the hands of indigenous leaders, who had led or participated actively in the independence struggle.

    Some of the new leaders ran their states as fiefdoms.  The most notorious of them, President Mobutu Sese Seko, was rumoured to be wealthier than Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo).  It was, therefore, not unusual for him to lend some money to the national treasury whenever it was empty, so that Zaire could keep up the appearance of being a thriving state.

    Jean Bedel Bokasa thought it beneath his dignity to be a mere president of the Central African Republic.  So he renamed it the Central African Empire and crowned himself emperor in an orgiastic festival that drained the state treasury; while his vast personal fortune lay secure in the vaults of the most secretive banking institutions in France and Switzerland.

    The loathsome Nigerian dictator, General Sani Abacha pursued the twin goals of personal enrichment and self-perpetuation with maniacal frenzy.  Funds so far recovered from his secret accounts – a fraction of his loot, according to the best authorities – is bigger the budget of some African countries for an entire year.

    Only a vast fortune stashed offshore can sustain the obscenely lavish lifestyle of Teodorin Obiang Mangue, son of the president of Equatorial Guinea.  He lives in a five-story 101-room mansion, a monument to excess, on the fashionable Avenue Foch, in the French capital, Paris.  Last year, he forfeited to the United States assets worth $30 million that government officials say was looted from his country.

    His father the president, Teodoro Nguema Mbasogo and his family are widely believed to be at least as wealthy as their oil-rich country.

    It is paradoxical that Western nations that will not tolerate any fiddling with public funds all too readily serve as hospitable depositories for the pillage that political officials in Africa systematically visit on their countries.

    According to informed estimates, if just a fraction of it were repatriated and used judiciously, the impact on the economic and social development in Africa would be nothing short of transformative.

    The church, public-spirited organizations and persons of conscience worldwide have called again and again on Europe and the United States to move their financial institutions to repatriate this wealth, as have the United Nations and the African Union.

    The chair of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Abubakar Lamorde, who has been leading investigations into money laundering and illegal financial flows, recently joined the call for repatriation of Africa’s stolen wealth.

    The call is warranted.  But it does not go to the heart of the matter.

    Those who looted the funds must be identified.  The amounts looted should be documented as far as possible, and their location should be ascertained.

    These are complicated tasks requiring a great deal of expertise.  No effort should be spared in procuring such expertise.  Armed with the data amassed by the experts, African countries can then confidently face the authorities of the nations where the funds are domiciled to demand repatriation.

    It is an indictment on the systems of checks and balances in African countries that such vast sums were ferreted out undetected in the first place.

    African countries must devise a robust mechanism of accountability; and enforce it to prevent such illegal flows, and to convince a skeptical world that they are serious about fighting corruption in its many guises and disguises.

  • ATM cards as new ways of laundering money

    ATM cards as new ways of laundering money

    The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) recently  arrested two suspects in connection with the smuggling of Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards through the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.

    NDLEA’s spokesman Ofoyeju Mitchell said 40-year-old Nweke Pauline Osita and Egesiokwu Frank Chukwudi, 41, were arrested with ATM cards of different banks.

    “We arrested Nweke Pauline Osita with 65 debit cards and Egesiokwu Frank Chukwudi with twenty-four (24) debit cards during screening of passengers on an Ethiopian airline flight to China,” a statement quoted NDLEA chairman Ahmadu Giade as saying.

    According to Giade, the suspects conspired with others to evade scrutiny from government agencies by opening various bank accounts with the aim of using the debit cards for daily withdrawals abroad.

    Osita, an Onitsha-based trader, who was caught with 65 debit cards said the cards found on him belong to friends and business partners.

    “I am a trader. I sell men’s clothes at Onitsha. I was on my way to China to buy goods when NDLEA officers arrested me with 65 debit cards. The cards belong to my friends, relatives and business partners” Nweke stated.

    The NDLEA chairman has directed that the suspects be transferred to the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) for further Investigation.

    Officials of the NDLEA also arrested another trader, Udeh Onuora Pascal, who was travelling to China with 108 debit cards.

    “The arrests is an indication that smuggling of debit cards abroad is one of the latest money laundering techniques employed to evade financial regulations,” the NDLEA said.

    Last month, the NDLEA arrested six persons, including a Bureau de Change (BDC) operator, allegedly trying to swallow $156,000 in a money laundering bid.

    The NDLEA Joint Task Force (JTF) smashed the money laundering syndicate in a hotel on Airport Road, Ikeja, Lagos. The suspects are: Kingsley Nwokenta, the BDC operator, who is also known as Buchito, Augustine Onwuasoanya and Christian Ifor, who are based in Brazil, Emmanuel Nwokenta (Amazon BDC manager), Ikenna Ezenwa and Uzoma Ezenwa, the hotel manager.

    Responding to the development, the Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) suspended Amazon BDC. The ABCON Executive Council also suspended directors and employees of the company, pending the outcome of the investigations by its Disciplinary and Investigative Committee, the NDLEA,  EFCC and the CBN.

    ABCON President, Aminu Gwadabe, who announced the measures, said the group was shocked and highly embarrassed by the discovery and the involvement of a BDC operator in such an illegal act.

    Gwadabe said: “While this is not to pre-empt the outcome of these investigations, the suspension is to serve as strong warning to all ABCON members that any case of illegality and unethical conduct will be severely dealt with by the association. “We call on all BDC operators not to allow anyone to use their services or license for money laundering or any act of illegality and criminality.”

    He said ABCON has a zero tolerance for non-compliance with regulatory requirement and unethical conduct amongst its members.

    “It for this purpose that the association created the office of Compliance Officer at its National Secretariat and in all its zonal offices and also provided vehicles for the compliance officers to regularly visit BDCs under their jurisdictions,” he said.

    Analysts attributed the rising cases of money laundering through ATM cards to the tight regulatory policy on forex.

    A BDC operator, Michael Abiodun, said that many traders who have naira but are not able to transfer their funds to their foreign suppliers have taken to illegal approaches to get the funds transferred to their foreign business partners.

    He said the ongoing ATM card abuse will continue until the CBN loosens its tight forex policies.

  • Follow the money

    Follow the money

    Northern governors should work with the DSS to flush out Boko Haram sponsors

    There is no terror without money. This seems the maxim that has informed the decision of the Northern Governors Forum to inaugurate a committee to flush out Boko Haram sponsors in the North, especially in the Northeast.

    Under the chairmanship of the Borno State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, the forum that comprises 19 states has drafted the attorneys-general and commissioners for  justice of the member-states as members of the committee.

    “The days of the deadly sect are numbered, considering the current bombardments of the insurgents by the troops,” commented Governor Shettima when the committee was being inaugurated.

    We commend the establishment of the committee.  Though a bit late in coming, it is better now than never. This is because we expected that this committee should have revved into action years ago, especially when the fanatics were making quick work of the cities and villages in the region. Many families were displaced. Infrastructure was paralysed and the effectiveness of government was curtailed as the bandits roared from town to town and hoisted flags.

    The committee has been given a two-month deadline to accomplish its tasks. Although the identification and mechanics of funding of the sponsors form its major assignment, the committee will also extend its searchlight to the ancillary surge of evil in the region. They include cattle rustling, armed robbery and kidnapping.

    The Borno State governor-chaired committee would also analyse the “various emergent security challenges confronting the northern states and determine how best to incorporate them into the penal code for proper and effective administration of justice.” But it is not intended to conflict with the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    This involves, according to Governor Shettima, a review of the Penal Code with a view to identifying the weaknesses and strength of the existing arrangement of the criminal justice system. He noted that while the committee should “look at the condemnable activities of the sponsors of the insurgency,” it should “come up with legally pragmatic, appropriate and proportionate punishment.”

    The committee is also expected to probe the complicity of families. Said the Borno State governor: “The committee should also focus on parents who because of some pittance sacrifice their children as suicide bombers. Such parents must be made to face the full wrath of the law.”

    During the Jonathan administration the issue of who backed the insurgents never enjoyed any systematic attention. Rather, it fell into the web of politics and ethnic recriminations. So while politicians and tribal warlords bickered over who fuelled the militants, the innocents in the region groaned. Many women were whisked away from their homes and numberless maidens raped and taken as wives. Young men were drafted into their ranks while the reach of government power shrunk.

    Governor Shettima was at odds with the Jonathan government and he was made to look like an alarmist when he observed that the insurgents were better armed than the Nigerian Army. This disconnect between local politicians and the Jonathan administration that hardly visited the region could have partly explained the belated setting up of the committee.

    Now that the committee has swung into action, we expect results. There are good signs from the recent campaigns of our military. The President, Muhammadu Buhari, moved the command from Abuja to Maiduguri. That has perhaps explained the successes so far, and the military has set a deadline to dispatch the goons.

    Still,  the insurgents seem to be regrouping. They have found it difficult to coalesce into standing armies and can no longer conquer territories and dislodge the Nigerian Army. So they now resort to guerrilla tactics. Suicide bombs have become their new staple.

    The twin bomb blasts in Abuja; and the double bomb blast in Maiduguri, killing 42 worshippers during evening prayers on Thursday October 16, and a follow-up attack  on Friday morning, on October 16, underscore the need for the Nigerian political elite and governments to rejig strategies for dealing with the scourge.

    But while the state governments in the North have a responsibility to examine the roots and whereabouts of the sponsors, the real tasks lie with the federal intelligence agencies, especially with the Department of State Security (DSS).  It is their duty to monitor, track and locate the sponsors.

    But from arrests made in recent months, it is clear that a variety of persons in the North back the terrorists, and that shows that a lot of work needs to be done to root out the collaborators. In August, for instance, 30 shop owners were arrested in a raid at Benishiekh and Mainak towns of kanga Local Government Area of Borno state.

    More recently, one Mohammed Maina was arrested with money and stimulants. These arrests should be not be ends in themselves but means to an end. They can be used to track their comings and goings and their associations so as to reach their centres of organisation.

    The Northern Governors Forum has done a good thing, but they have to work with the intelligence agencies to subdue the insurgency.

  • Making money from bee byproducts

    Making money from bee byproducts

    Bee keeping is a sustainable income generation business to farmers. It offers invaluable nutrition as honey, protein and other byproducts. But there are money spinning opportunities from the herbal use of bees, DANIEL ESSIET reports.

    Chief Executive,Centre for Bee Research and Development, Oyo State, Bidemi Ojeleye, is one  of the biggest  producers of quality honey and honey products in Oyo State.

    Bidemi Ojeleye
    Bidemi Ojeleye

    He owns about 4000 hives. If his  income from the business blossomed, he might not be consider other ventures, he said.

    But this expectation depends on one factor: the quality of his harvest.

    Breeding queen bees for sale and bee-keeping training courses have also provided extra income for the business. Oyeleye provides training in bee-keeping and assists agro entrepreneurs  in developing organisations and management skills, basic record-keeping, and farm economics competency in honey business.

    Based in Igbeti, Oyo State, his  honeybee ambition has grown into a fully-fledged farming enterprise. It is among the top honeybee firms in the country.

    Ojeleye said honeybees can make a significant contribution to agriculture through the critical roles they perform in producing honey, pollinating vegetables and fruit orchards.

    Apiculture is the art  of beekeeping. It has provided many entrepreneurs  business  opportunities.  He  has  taken  all components of apiculture, including scientific colony management, bee breeding, bee pathology, bee products, bee flora,  value-addition and bee equipment.

    He is keen to see more farmers maximise their potential of bee-keeping to provide income for their families and contribute to rural development.

    According to him,  the industry produces honey, wax and  pollen. Few  people, he claimed,  are  making money from selling honey for  medicinal products. His training  enables people to harvest and process bee products, such as royal jelly, propolis, and bee venom. These products are safe and organic.

    He wants to see more Nigerians  produce  quality  beeswax, which  is an important ingredient in the preparation of beauty and healing products, medicinal skin creams, and ointments. The bee wax are highly efficacious in the treatment of dry and chapped skin and lips, cuts, abrasions,and grazes. Recognising the value of these products, he  is  ready  to train more Nigerians  in harvesting,  processing, and use of beeswax for manufacturing healing and cosmetic p r o d u c t s.

    Prospective entrepreneurs will  also be trained to produce royal jelly, also known as ‘bee milk’, rich in protein, vitamins and minerals and used for convalescence and fatigue, growth problems, ageing, stress, and infertility.The other area is the production of bee propolis used to fight plant viruses in crops, such as tobacco and cucumber.

    Ojeleye said he was ready to  work with prospective entrepreneurs  to  create new opportunities to sustain the bee sector’s contributions to agricultural development  and  job  creation.

    Though honey is its main product, he  wants to see honey used for the pollination of crops in greenhouses. Also, he wants propolis and bee venom used for treating acute and chronic non-surgical ailments. This means more money for  bee keepers. So many  bee keepers  are becoming involved in cosmetics production. Cosmetics are good business. Many Nigerians  are  getting  involved in the production of  cosmetics using bee products. Those in the business use pollen and propolis extractions.

    Jim Herbal Products Managing Director, Mikail Jimoh,  said cosmetics are probably the most easy to produce and sell. At the moment, the market for small entrepreneurs appears to be large. The product is good for small scale starters. Quality and marketing are easily adapted to increasing experience and increased business size.

    The key ingredient for  some  entrepreneurs is propolis, a natural resin gathered by bees from the bark and leaf buds of trees, which they then use to protect and maintain their hives. They combine this with herbs to make natural products for skin and hair.

    Bee venom is used to combat multiple sclerosis, pollen for indigestion and  honey to heal wounds.

    The  bee has been a key source of alternative medicine and many  entrepreneurs are working to keep the apitherapy alive. An  apitherapist and beekeeper, Mr Ayodele Salako,  is  on the  mission to  encourage people  to  take  up bee-keeping as a secondary activity to supplement their income.

    He hopes to develop the habit of consuming honey as a daily diet to stay healthy. He assures that beneficiaries will be trained. Narrating his success story, he emphasised that training is vital to anyone who veered into the business to avail himself of the huge job opportunities in the subsector.

    According to him, there are  many things bees produced that farmers haven’t really tapped into. whereas there are other aspects of honey, such as pollination and bee venom therapy.

    He wants Nigerians to explore the health benefits of bee venom therapy.

    A force in the medical honey business, Salako is ready to train people who are interested in apitherapy,  honey and other bee products to treat sicknesses.

    His aim is to help the villagers he meets to transit from subsistence to commercial farming through apitherapy. He  is being supported by various local organisations to conduct training on apicultural  entrepreneurship. He said the programme offers the best opportunities in self-emploment.

    At the moment, he promotes  honey as an effective medical therapy  for  eye, nose and throat and wound care products.

    One, he said, can start the business with N30,000.

    He has a programme for training small holder farmers in apiculture techniques. It enables farmers to purchase beehives and provides the marketing outlet to sell their honey. Salako  produces high-grade honey in various containers.

    More farmers have joined his network, he said, while others are  purchasing his  hives.

    On small-scale rural farmers, who embrace bee keeping, he said  he provides  them training, extension services, and a guaranteed market.

    Other benefits include cash payments for the products they sell.

     

  • No winner, no money

    When writers don’t get it right, they get it wrong. Apart from a failure of craft and art, it was a poor outing for 109 writers who had their eyes on the 2015 Nigeria Prize for Literature (NPL) sponsored by Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG). None of them was considered worthy of the $100,000 prize money for children’s literature, the focus of the contest this year.

    According to the jury at a September 25 press conference in Lagos, “Language plays a major role in literary production. Creative writers are normally expected to pay special attention to the use of language and aesthetics. The Prize demands stylistic excellence as manifested through an original and authoritative voice, narrative coherence and technically accurate writing.”

    The judgement:  “Unfortunately, the entries this year fall short of this expectation as each book was found to manifest incompetence in the use of language. Many of them showed very little or no evidence of good editing.” The event proved to be a non-event.

    The head of the panel of judges, Prof. Uwemedimo Enobong Iwoketok, said 89 entries failed from the beginning of the assessment process. According to her, “A disturbingly large number of entries were dropped at the initial stage of short-listing because of grave editing and publishing errors.”

    The international consultant for the prize, Prof. Kim Reynolds of the Newcastle University, United Kingdom, said: “The entries lack the lyricism, vision, and authority to become classics that will be handed down from generation to generation and that have the potential to reach out across cultures.”

    It is interesting that the organisers interpreted the anticlimax as the result of what may be described as a knowledge issue. In other words, Nigerian writers of children’s literature who participated in the literary competition were perceived as literary illiterates who don’t understand the particular form and don’t know how to create it.

    Also interesting is the response by the organisers. The General Manager, External Relations, Nigeria LNG, Dr. Kudo Eresia-Eke, reportedly spoke about the organisation’s plans to invest in a capacity-building workshop on children’s literature. He said: “NLNG is determined to promote excellence by investing the prize money, which would have been won, back into the process for a creative writing workshop for Nigerian writers of children’s literature. The proceedings would be collated, published for reference and guidance.”

    It sounds simplistic. The magic bullet is not magical. In the circumstances, a workshop may be useful and helpful, but the work required is wider. In Unless It Moves the Human Heart, an eye-opening 2011 book about teaching writing and learning writing, Roger Rosenblatt made a striking observation about writing programmes in America. Rosenblatt said: “Since 1975, the number of creative writing programs has increased 800 percent. It is amazing… all over America, students ranging in age from their early twenties to their eighties hunker down at seminar tables like this one  in Iowa, California, Texas, Massachusetts, New York, and hundreds of places, avid to join a profession that practically guarantees them rejection, poverty and failure.”

    How many creative writing programmes are available in Nigeria? How many would-be writers in the country would be interested in such programmes? What about the cost of learning? What about the cost of teaching? These costs may not necessarily be monetary, though money may be a factor.

    Talking of money, a report quoted an “Enugu-based literary activist,” Adaobi Nwoye: “We have been complaining about the dearth of qualitative writing in Nigeria for a while now. This is the result. Nowadays many people are not writing because they are passionate about literature. Instead, they are writing because they want to make money. I think this is one of the reasons why none of the entries for the 2015 Nigeria Prize for Literature failed to win.” Her observation deserves contemplation.

    A thought-provoking excerpt is relevant, especially considering the context of children’s literature.    It is from a 2015 book by Brian Grazer, A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life. The writer in focus:  Theodor Seuss Geisel, an American writer and illustrator who authored popular children’s books under the pen name Dr. Seuss. Dramatically, his first book was published after 27 publishers had rejected the manuscript.

    Grazer wrote:  ”Being determined in the face of obstacles is vital. Theodor Geisel, Dr. Seuss, is a great example of that himself. Many of his forty-four books remain wild bestsellers. In 2013, Green Eggs and Ham sold more than 700,000 copies in the United States (more than Goodnight Moon); The Cat in the Hat sold more than 500,000 copies, as did Oh, the Places You’ll Go! and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. And five more Dr. Seuss books each sold more than 250,000 copies. That’s eight books, with total sales of more than 3.5 million copies, in one year (another eight Seuss titles sold 100,000 copies or more). Theodor Geisel is selling 11,000 Dr. Seuss books every day of the year, in the United States alone, twenty-four years after he died. He has sold 600 million books worldwide since his first book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, was published in 1937. And as inevitable as Dr. Seuss’s appeal seems now, Mulberry Street was rejected by twenty-seven publishers before being accepted by Vanguard Press…”

    He continued:”The story of Geisel being rejected twenty-seven times before his first book was published is often repeated, but the details are worth relating. Geisel says he was walking home, stinging from the book’s twenty-seventh rejection, with the manuscript and drawings for Mulberry Street under his arm, when an acquaintance from his student days at Dartmouth College bumped into him on the sidewalk on Madison Avenue in New York City. Mike McClintock asked what Geisel was carrying. ‘That’s a book no one will publish,’ said Geisel. ‘I’m lugging it home to burn.’ McClintock had just that morning been made editor of children’s books at Vanguard; he invited Geisel up to his office, and McClintock and his publisher bought Mulberry Street that day. When the book came out, the legendary book reviewer for the New Yorker, Clifton Fadiman, captured it in a single sentence: ‘They say it’s for children, but better get a copy for yourself and marvel at the good Dr. Seuss’s impossible pictures and the moral tale of the little boy who exaggerated not wisely but too well.’ Geisel would later say of meeting McClintock on the street, ‘[I]f I’d been going down the other side of Madison Avenue, I’d be in the dry-cleaning business today…’

    This is not only a story of literary success but also of literary failure. Twenty-seven rejections cannot be a laughing matter. Twenty-seven rejections must be a mirthless matter. Concerning the writers who suffered rejection in the NLNG 2015 literary contest, isn’t it possible that their rejected books may be redeemed elsewhere? Or are these rejected books irredeemably defective?

  • FAMILY MORE IMPORTANT THAN MONEY–KEMI LALA AKINDOJU

    FAMILY MORE IMPORTANT THAN MONEY–KEMI LALA AKINDOJU

    Since 2005 when she came into the acting world, Kemi Lala Akindoju has not looked back in her quest for excellence. Having concentrated on stage plays, the thespian decided to take her game a notch higher when she broke into Nollywood. With over 70 stage productions and lead roles in some of Nollywood’s highly rated movies to her credit, the young Kemi speaks with DUPE AYINLA-OLASUNKANMI on her passion for womanhood, her life’s goals and a host of other issues

    YOU have always been a stage person; tell what was it like coming to TV production?

    I started my career on stage, because I wanted a certain level for my career. And because I wanted to be a certain kind of actor. I did strictly theatre for five years. Working in front of the camera has always been part in the plan; it was just a means to an end. I believe an actor should be able to perform on any platform; be it stage or TV. Right now, I am an actor who performs on every platform. And every platform has different techniques and styles; in each one, you have to apply the techniques. There is no transformation or transition, because when you are transiting, it is like you are moving from one to the other.

    Tell us about the V-monologue production?

    It was my first production on stage. I am passionate about women issues; I have done similar productions twice before that in 2008 and 2010. The third was in 2013. Being passionate about women, I felt the story about the African woman would be a good one with the support of an NGO. These are the things that motivate me.

    What was it like working with top actresses on the production?

    Because people are yet to understand the theatre, I felt it was just best to bring in the gurus; and you know theatre is where they started. For Taiwo Ajayi Lycett, I just went to her and introduced myself and explained to her what I wanted to do. It was my first time and she hasn’t done stage in Nigeria for a long time. It was after that period that people realized that she was back. It wasn’t easy, but because I believe that if I think of something, I can actually do it, it wasn’t difficult.

    They were wonderful. You know there is this myth that top actors are difficult, I haven’t had that experience.  They are always ready; I mean they won’t want to spoil the image of the legacy they have set in the industry. What I mean is that if you package it and they see it is good, they are always ready. In fact, I have more friends as senior colleagues; because they are more supporting and encouraging.

    As one who is passionate about women, are you planning to float an NGO?

    Honestly there are so many NGOs around. Where I stand right now, I don’t plan to run one. But what is on my agenda is to support as many NGOs as I can; to practically help the girl child. I am still finding my way. It is not like I have money kept somewhere. But I believe in mentorship, because I was mentored and I’m still being mentored. So anybody that I see is ready to work, I bring them closer and show them how things are done. And with the art we have, which is a powerful tool, there are so many stories to tell. For me I would think of a story where the woman is the lead first, before thinking of the man. Call it being partial, but there are a lot of scripts where the female characters are strong. In my little way I would try.

    Tell us about your desire to be different?

    I believe so much in purpose; there are things that I can do that you can’t do and vice versa. God has placed a special gift in everyone. I found myself in the arts and I have to use my talent. Money is physical; I have gotten to the level that I know hunger cannot kill me. I am certain that if I don’t have money in my account and no food in the house, hunger cannot kill me. The fear of dying from hunger is not there, so I must aspire for more. There has to be more to everything we do. There is more to money, life and purpose. For me, I don’t do anything for doing sake, because if it is not going to be great, then there is no need doing it.

    There are lots of mediocre out there. I am a very passionate person and there are some things that you must try to change. You have to be true to yourself; ‘know yourself’ is the 11th commandment. It is not a curse. And I am not knocking down anybody that is after money, because money is good; it helps. Kunle Afolayan told me about the journey of his movie, Figurine; what they went through while shooting the movie. You know how you are forced to press on when you hear some stories. There is this glory; it is like the word in the scripture that says, for the suffering we going through now, nothing compares to the glory that awaits us. So there is more.

    How do you set these goals for yourself?

    It is not as if I am from a rich home; lately I thought about the kind of parents that I have, and how they taught me and made me understand that love and family are more important. Those things matter to me more than money. So I insist on being the best in everything I do. And my parents are amazing, because if they hadn’t allowed me to do what I wanted to do, I wouldn’t be here today. I mean, I started doing things for myself very early; I have been in the industry for 10 years now, and I am not yet 30. So there is a level of freedom that my parents had to give me. I studied Insurance, so it is not like I set out to be an actor. These things just happen with the help of God and the Holy Spirit. When I discovered that I wanted to be an actor, I had a list of actors that I wanted to be like and they are all presently in my life now. All these people, I walked up to them, introduced myself and told them I wanted to work with them.

    How have you always gotten your roles?

    Working with Uncle Tunde Kelani, I went to his office when he was shooting Maami, but they were done with casting. So when they started work for Dazzling Mirage, he cast me without seeing me. He did it by following his heart. That is one thing about this work; you follow your heart. Anybody that treats his cast on the surface won’t last. Every step of the way, I just put myself in God’s hand. I have had my years of praying and confessing what I wanted, and favour has always been the answer.

    Do you still go for auditions?

    Yes, there is nothing wrong in it. I have done my years of that. There is a level you get to, that they cast you, but you will still need to go to audition for them to see if you fit the role; to find out if you understand the lines.

    Kunle wasn’t trying to find out if I had talent; he wanted to see how I can fit into the role. For me, I was honoured. If I didn’t get the role, it won’t mean that I am not talented. It could just be that maybe I didn’t interpret the role well enough.

    How do you feel when you don’t get a role?

    I feel disappointed. I’m also a casting director. I have learnt over the years that casting is not just about talents; there are features that you have to look at for a particular role. Any time I am going for audition, I try to put in my best, because those few minutes are like my whole career is coming to an end. There is this role I lost this year, but I know that it was not because I wasn’t talented that I was not picked. It just didn’t work out. And I know that what is mine won’t pass me by. The role that will take me to the next level will surely come.

  • Going for alternate mobile money channels

    Going for alternate mobile money channels

    Banks are abandoning telecommunication networks to create alternate channels to support mobile money platforms and give subscribers value for their money. This new digital platform may define the success of mobile payment in future without involving telcos, writes COLLINS NWEZE.

    As 45-year-old lawyer,  Moshood Rasaq, waited  outside the courtroom for his colleagues, his smartphone beeped with a familiar SMS message alert. It was another reminder for him to pay his electricity bill.

    In three minutes, he opened his mobile money platform on his phone and the payment was done. A few years ago, he could only have imagined making such payment with ease without going to the bank.

    With mobile money, instead of paying with cash, cheque, or credit cards, a consumer uses a mobile phone to pay for goods and services, and it is now  the new face of banking but not without some hitches.

    Expectedly, mobile money is yet to be fully embraced by the banking populace because of poor connectivity by telecommunication operators (Telcos).

    In many cases, poor connectivity hinders seamless completion of transactions. Some customers explained that the fear of getting transactions completed at record time without hitches has prevented them from doing banking the mobile way.

    For instance, Chinyere Okafor, a sales girl in Lagos, lamented her experiences in using mobile money platforms. “I tried to send money to my brother in Aba using a mobile platform but the transaction was stalled because of poor network. I went to my bank to make the deposit. Until banks solve connectivity challenges and build confidence in the network, I will not try it again,” she said.

    Cases like this have prompted banks to rethink their mobile money strategies. Hence, to achieve a seamless mobile money services, a consortium of six banks and Unified Payments have inaugurated PayAttitude, an electronic payment scheme that allows transactions in online and offline platforms.

    Chairman, PayAttitude, Victor Etuoku, who listed the participating banks as FirstBank of Nigeria Ltd, Zenith Bank Plc, Access Bank Plc, Diamond Bank, Skye Bank Plc and United Bank for Africa Plc, said the lenders are commitment to making the project succeed.

    He said the collaboration with Unified Payments on PayAttitude is expected to drive innovation in service delivery, convenient mobile payment system and making Nigeria’s financial system the “safest and fastest growing amongst emerging markets.

    “PayAttitude guarantees subscribers the confidence and comfort of successful mobile payment for goods and services at merchant locations at all times, notwithstanding the challenges of telecommunication or unavailability of network in the merchant’s bank or the customer’s bank,” he said.

    Managing Director/CEO, PayAttitude, Agada Akpochi, reiterated that challenges of telecommunication or unavailability of network in the merchant’s bank or the customer’s bank will no longer delay transactions.

    The GMD/CEO, FirstBank, Bisi Onasanya, affirmed that no doubt Unified Payments and PayAttitude would redefine the domestic payments ecosystem that had been plague numerous challenges.

    The bank chief said the lender is working to constantly provide dynamic and relevant solutions that will improve the lifestyle of its customers whilst ensuring the safety and security of their funds.

    He noted that with the developments in the electronic money industry, it became imperative for the payments industry to look inward for a solution that will guarantee successful retail payments of Point of Sale (PoS) terminals without depending where online real-time communication is not required between the acceptance device and the customers’ accounts in the bank.

    Besides being part of the PayAttitude platform, Access Bank Plc went a step further, by inaugurating a new multi-banking payment solution, PayWithCapture.

    The platform, a mobile payment solution, allows customers to make payments by scanning a merchant’s pre-generated code using the camera of their mobile device.

    The product, the lender explained, can be linked with different payment cards, giving users options on payment instrument of their choice.

    • GMD Access Bank Plc Herbert Wigwe
    • GMD Access Bank Plc Herbert Wigwe

    The bank’s Group Managing Director, Herbert Wigwe said: “Forging growth in mobile payment solutions requires inclusiveness. For the potential of mobile payment technologies to truly explode, it is important that we begin to see it as more than a bank initiative but more of a consumer initiative. That is where inclusiveness comes in”.

     

    Telcos react

    Managing Director, Airtel Nigeria, Segun Ogunsanya, has called for a review of the current mobile money model, saying a telco-led model will help expand retail banking, thereby driving financial inclusion in the unbanked segment.

    Telecoms companies are not permitted to provide their own mobile money services as the current model approved by the financial regulator, CBN, empowers banks to provide mobile money services while telecoms companies play only a supporting role.

    Speaking, at the yeraly lecture of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Nigeria (CIBN) in Lagos, Mr. Ogunsanya, said for the mobile money market to reach its full potential, it is important that restrictions on telcos activity in mobile money are lifted.

    CEO, MTN Nigeria, Michael Ikpoki, urged banks to expand its retail footprints; they must seek to develop simple products, push for transparency and ensure that their products and services are relevant to the target segment.

     

    CBN defends policy

    The CBN has also admitted that its mobile money expectations are not met, despite N5 billion annual turnover recorded by operators. CBN Director, Banking Supervision, and Chairman, Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF), ‘Dipo Fatokun, defended the bank-led model, saying the CBN does not regulate telcos and will not give them total control of the project. He said the CBN will continue to monitor progress being made in the mobile money space.

    He said: “It is not correct that we have not made progress in mobile money. It is right that our expectations on mobile money has not fully been met and probably because we were very ambitious in setting the target.”

    He regretted that most of the mobile money transactions are for subscription payment, and remittances, like mobile wallet sending money to account in the bank, or account in the bank sending money to mobile wallet.

     

    NDIC’s connection

    The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has called on stakeholders in the mobile money business to seek ways of extending the service to a larger proportion of the population.

    • NDIC MD Umaru Ibrahim
    • NDIC MD Umaru Ibrahim

    NDIC’s chief, Umaru Ibrahim, who made this known during a roundtable discussion on mobile money services in Lagos, said there are over 100 million mobile phone lines in the country.

    He said: “According to Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFiNA) survey, the rural population is 71 per cent, while 76.2 per cent of the population remains unbanked. Mobile phone ownership is 55.6 per cent in the rural areas.”

    He explained that effective rendering of mobile banking financial services can be a key mechanism in achieving the objective of National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) based on the huge success recorded by Kenya, Uganda and South Africa in enhancing financial inclusion through mobile financial services.

    Ibrahim said mobile banking subscribers will soon get deposit insurance coverage, with each subscriber guaranteed up to N200,000, or N500,000 as applicable to Microfinance Banks/Primary Mortgage Banks and Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) respectively, in the event of bank failure.

    He said if a bank fails, the insured mobile account can be transferred to another sound bank, to further engender public confidence in the system and promote financial stability.  According to him, the framework for extending deposit insurance to individual customers of mobile payment services is being finalised.