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Tag: Nigerian Newspapers

  • Whither goes Nigeria?

    Sir: Until recently, bandits turned vast areas of Zamfara into ungovernable places. They would kill people with reckless abandon. Thankfully, now, the government is reining in the activities of the bandits in the North West of Nigeria.

    In addition to the afore-mentioned security challenges besetting Nigeria, the ubiquitous cattle herders, who have sanguinary proclivities, have embarked on a killing spree in many parts of Nigeria. They do kill members of their host communities, especially farmers. In addition to this, they desecrate the sanctity of womanhood by raping women, indiscriminately. Sadly, they’re seldom brought to justice.

    To make matters worse, there are suspicions that members of security outfits in Nigeria are complicit in crimes, which are committed by armed robbers and kidnappers in the country. The Hamisu Wadume’s arrest and subsequent release by soldiers at a checkpoint has become an eye-opener for us. Our soldiers and policemen’s aiding and abetting of crimes in our country signposts the fact that Nigeria is fast turning to a fragile state.

    It is this state of things that Omoyele Sowore planned to call attention to with his “Revolution Now” before he was arrested. Sowore has been clamped into detention and charged with a treasonous offence. Is it in our statute book or constitution that organizing protests is a treasonable offence? Muzzling opposition voices with high-handedness is an anti-democratic practice. It portrays Nigeria as a police state. It is an unconscionable act for the government to abridge the citizens’ right to freedom of expression and assembly.

    We are not unaware that national underdevelopment is not unconnected with bad and profligate political leadership. No nation can rise above the visions and dreams of its leaders at various levels. Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore have achieved economic prosperity and technological advancement owing to good political leadership obtainable in those countries.

    Here, although we’ve oil-wealth and humongous human resources, Nigeria is going to the dogs because we lack focused, patriotic, honest, astute, and visionary leaders, who can harness our natural and human resources to bring about our rapid economic and national development. However, we should remember that national development is a function of the existence of functional educational system in a country. Revamping our school system is key and critical to Nigeria’s achieving economic and technological greatness.Can President Buhari start to do the right things now?

    • Chiedu Uche Okoye,

    Uruowulu-Obosi, Anambra State.

  • Despite challenges Southwest is where to live, work, invest

    The Southwest region has been prominent in the news in recent times for the wrong reasons such as rising cases of kidnapping, robbery and armed banditry. In this interview with select reporters, the Director-General (DG), Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission, Mr. Seye Oyeleye, examines the raging issues of insecurity, the clogs in the wheel of socio-economic integration and how the six states in the region are handling agriculture and education. Southwest Bureau Chief BISI OLADELE was there. 

    All eyes seem to be on the DAWN Commission in recent times because of the upsurge of criminal activities, particularly kidnapping and robbery on major roads in Southwest. Has it really looked like a burden on this commission? 

    It has not been a burden. I think that the commission was created for a time like this. We’ve been here for about six years and our job has been to manage the development agenda of the region of Western Nigeria. There can be no development without security; there can be no economic growth without security. When you have six states that want to confront a challenge together, they need a body that would manage it for them or a body that can ensure that they are speaking with the same voice.

    That cannot be delegated to the six bureaucracies of the six states. For want of a better word they are lucky that they have the foresight a few years ago to have a commission such as this to speak for them, to work for them.

    When the issue of insecurity became a major challenge and they felt they needed to confront it together, it is natural that they had to only resort to the body that has been working for them over the last few years.

    When we were saddled with that responsibility, it was just an added challenge which, in conjunction with our partners, we are more than capable to address. We have not seen it as an added burden, the last two months have been hectic but we have been able to confront this and we were saddled with the task of organising a security summit.

    We organised a security summit over a three-day period. On the first day, the governors, the drummers, the royal fathers were present but for the other two days, a lot of work went on behind the scenes, addressing the issue of insecurity in Western Region. Western Region starts from Lagos to Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti states.

    After the in-depth deliberations, we came up with implementable solutions which we now submitted to the Western Nigeria Governors’ Forum.

    During that summit, what were those things you discovered as causes  of insecurity and what solutions did you proffer to the governors?

    One of the things we agreed on was that even before the challenge got to the peak, the narrative out there had been skewed against a particular ethnic group as those behind this insecurity challenge. That is what some of those giving us these narratives want us to believe, that maybe Nigeria was not experiencing these challenges before but suddenly now it is just one ethnic group that started this.

    But during the discussions, we looked at it holistically. We understood the fact that it is not just a matter of one ethnic group. In discussing with the experts we assembled, we were able to have a holistic view on why there is increase in insecurity?

    We discovered that a lot of socio-economic problems were responsible for the current situation. I will give examples. Why the sudden upsurge? We’ve had Boko Haram challenges in the North East for the past 10 years. The children of 10 years ago have grown up, nothing to do, hopeless; they too want to live a good life.

    So, you have an army of able-bodied men and women who have chosen criminality as a means of survival. We’ve had this war in the North East, we’ve neglected them, they were not catered for and a lot of them have been sectioned into Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

    For 10 years, they’ve known next to nothing, they’ve been poor, deprived. A lot of them have been exposed to carrying arms and they need to survive. So, they chose criminality. That’s just one group.

    We also discovered that the advent of technology has increased criminality and we are not even talking of internet fraudsters. If someone comes to knock on your door at 1.00 a.m. with an intent of robbing you, unless he wants to cart away your TV set, there is nothing to steal. You don’t have cash at home like before. All of us now use our Automated Teller Machines (ATM) cards or transfer money.

    Robbers of those days have moved on to something else as well. They now see banditry or kidnappings as an easy way of making money. We discovered that the face of criminality is changing. How many times have you heard of cars being snatched? It has gone down. People have moved on to other things.

    What we are confronting as a country is a different shade of criminality. When people go out there and try to say that it is one ethnic group and try not to understand the root causes, it becomes a challenge. If you don’t understand the causes of your problem, how do you then solve the problem?

    What the security summit did was to dig deep to unveil several reasons why there is an upsurge because criminality didn’t happen overnight. Add that to the army of jobless youths all over, mix it together and that’s what we have today. They are all over Southwest bushes on the highways. When that kidnapper kidnaps you, he is not going to ask what your religion is. That’s why we have an upsurge in criminality. We looked at all that and in some of the solutions that we proffered to the governors were that we must look at this thing holistically, this is not a challenge of carrying guns to go and shoot and start killing people. We are not going to solve the problem that way. We are going to solve the problem by looking at it socially, finding socio-economic solutions to this problem.

    How do you create more jobs? How do you make the hopeless have hope? What are the social things that you need to put in place? How do you decrease the number of out-of-school children? Those are the areas we offered solutions in our report. But some of the solutions are immediate, others are medium and long-term. If you want to go out there and start saying let’s prevent these people, you are chasing them to somewhere else, that’s not going to solve the problem. We need to find a holistic socio-economic solution.

    As a development agency, you have been used to education, economic, health and other development issues. Does concentration on security not taking you away from your core mandate? 

    I said earlier that there can be no development without security because they are all linked. At the commission, we are planning an investment summit for the whole region where two or more investors would be brought together over a three-day period and we will showcase our states as all the states will be actively involved. We had planned this for October, this year. We started going round, talking to one or two potential partners but suddenly the issue of insecurity took over and some of the people we have been engaging on the summit started highlighting insecurity.

    We can step down on investment summit and hold it at a later date. Let us first of all change that narrative. For us, we don’t see it as being taken away from our core duty. If you look at some of the aims of DAWN commission, they say they are to make Western Nigeria the place of choice to live, invest and to work. If you want to make it a place to live, it has to be secure. If we call ourselves the development agenda commission for the region, our primary duty is to make sure that it remains the best zone to live, to invest and to work.

    How well have you been able to identify problems that have befallen the education sector in Southwest?

    Getting six “independent” states to work together, even though they speak the same language, is not as easy as we think. Some people think it is a straightforward thing. They will say Awolowo did it but they don’t remember that there were no states then. It was a single entity. At present, they have had years of being on their own. What DAWN Commission has come to do is to try and let them see areas where there is convergence of interest to make the region move faster.

    Narrowing it down to education, we were leaders in this country and in West Africa. This was a region that had free education in 1955.  In 2019, one of our states has one of the highest out-of-school children. But what we have been able to do at the commission is to highlight what the challenges are and proffer solutions. They have all been adopting these things on a state-by-state basis. But we are promoting co-operation, because with it, integration can follow naturally.

    When we had the Southwest education roundtable about three years ago, some of the things that came up were infrastructure, automatic promotion and teacher training. One of the things that happened in Osun State is that they invested in critical infrastructure in their public schools.

    At the commission, our job is to use experts to come up with solutions, passing it down to the states. It doesn’t mean the states will adopt everything regionally but we can see a gradual movement.

    Ogun too invested on infrastructure in schools and teacher training. Lagos is up there, teachers are properly paid.

    How have you been able to help the states to leverage on agriculture and structured taxes?

    The Western region developed on the back of agriculture. It was the main stay of its economy. Free education was funded from agriculture but sadly over the years, we discovered oil. As a country, we got lazy and everybody left the farms and felt there are easier ways of making money than going to till the land.

    But with the coming of the DAWN Commission in the last six years, we decided to get our states to refocus on agriculture.

    We have had one or two agric summits here. What we have been doing and what the states have been doing is that we have made sure that we refocus on youths. We bring the youth into agriculture because we realised that a lot of the farmers that we have here are old. A survey showed the average age of farmers in Southwest Nigeria is about 59.

    So, what our governments have been doing is to purchase tractors and make land acquisition easier.

    The biggest challenge to agriculture in Southwest Nigeria today is lack of access to land. We have a lot of land owners who are sitting on a lot of thousands of hectares, they are not utilising it.

    How are you navigating through the different political parties, ideologies and philosophies in the six states?

    Development has no political colouration. If you are an advocate of development, there is no partisanship to that. Oyo State currently is governed by a different party and we have interacted with the governor here. He is a superman, you talk to him, he is a focused man. I’m not even sure he talks about his party politics when you are engaging him.

    This is a man in a hurry to bring about development.

    In his interaction with his colleagues from the other parties in the other states in the region, all they talk about is development. The classic example is how they have addressed the security issue. They dropped their hat out there to partisan politics and agreed to work together for the common good.

    Over the years, we have positioned ourselves as an organisation that is apolitical. The only politics we talk about here is development. Any governor that comes in finds it easy to key into what we do because of that. Our aim is to keep it as such. Leave politics aside; focus on how we can fast-track growth in the region.

  • Not yet time to restrict forex for food importation

    Sir: Currently, Nigeria spends about US$22 billion on food imports annually. Rice, imported from Thailand and India, accounts for about US$1.65 billion which could make Nigeria the world’s second largest importer of rice after China in 2019. Commodities like wheat, fish, milk, processed foods and palm oil are also topping the list of imported items, contributing to the depletion of the foreign exchange reserve and making the country food import dependent. Meanwhile the country has the capacity to produce many of these imported commodities and may have no business importing food with the right conditions.

    Thus, as one of the ways to conserve foreign exchange, promote import substitution and encourage domestic food production and market, President Muhammadu Buhari recently gave directives to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to restrict granting foreign exchange (forex) to food importers. Here, I highlight some of the possible consequences of forex restriction given our current realities.

    Firstly, let us recall that the policy already affects more thah 25 items ranging from food to pharmaceutical and automobile, yet, these are circumvented by smuggling and by official granting of licenses to import, with huge profits likely for those who are selling the banned imports at the inflated domestic prices. Secondly, it is important to note that restriction of forex for food importers does not mean ban on the importation of food items. It simply means that the CBN rate of 305/dollar is no longer available for food importers through the official means, so importers are still free to import food items that are not on the list of prohibited items.

    The agricultural policy of the current administration is focused on import substitution and reviving the domestic food industries.  Unfortunately, domestic production of many food items in Nigeria has never been able to meet the demand, leading to considerable imports. Nigeria domestic rice demand is in excess of six million metric tonnes but domestic production is just about four million MT leaving a huge gap of over two million. Although there are indications that the domestic production of rice has significantly increased, the validity of such claim is still in question as a huge chunk of rice comes in through the land borders.

    According to the 2019 Food Business Africa report, the country spent $1.1 billion to import 5.5 million tonnes of wheat (99% of wheat consumed) in 2018 as domestic production remained static at 60,000 tonnes. National dairy output per annum is 700,000 metric tons while the national demand is put at 1.3 million metric tons annually, leaving a gap of 600,000 MT (FMARD 2016).  For palm oil, Nigeria has a demand-supply gap of 800,000 MT in the palm oil market. Similarly, there is huge demand gap for fish, sugar, beef, tomatoes and many other food items. With these current realities, Nigeria is not on course in meeting domestic demand gap for many essential food items.

    Since these food products are not banned and the domestic gap still exist which creates a huge demand, what is likely to happen is that importers will source for their dollars from the black market and still import food at high cost and pass the cost to the consumer. Therefore, if this directive is implemented, Nigerian should expect an upward surge in food prices in the next coming weeks. Secondly, arising from the huge demands on dollar from the parallel market, there is going to be an upward surge in the black market dollar exchange rate, which will further affect the strength of the local currency.

    It is important to mention that food import is not the major source of depletion of the country’s foreign exchange reserve. Nigeria imports industrial supplies (27%), capital goods (23%), food and beverage (17%), fuel and lubricants (14%), transport equipment and parts (12%) and consumer goods (7%). About 43% of total imports come from Asia; 34% from Europe; 15% from America and 7% from Africa. Food importation represents only 17% of foreign exchange depletion and therefore all categories of imported commodities bear the brunt of foreign exchange conservation

    I would recommend a targeted gradual restriction as against a blanket directive to the CBN. By this, I mean setting a timeline and taking the implementation in phase in tandem with our current realities and comparative advantage. While we are taking it in phases, we are also building the domestic food industries by providing the critical infrastructure for the industries to thrive. Nigeria must consciously support domestic food industries with favorable policies, access to electricity, bank credit, security and access to export market for the country not to plunge into an era of food crisis.

    • Godswill Aguiyi,

    godswill.aguiyi@gmail.com

  • Why insecurity persists in Kogi, by Ibrahim

    Abubakar Ibrahim, son of former Kogi State Governor Idris Ibrahim, is a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant. In this interview with Assistant Editor GBADE OGUNWALE, he speaks on his ambition, chances at the primary and the push for power shift in the Northcentral State.

    Why do you want to be governor of Kogi State?

    It’s borne out of the passion to serve my people. You know that I come from a political family. It also dates back to yesteryears where I saw the effort of the then governments trying to solve people’s problems and at the same time to improve the quality of lives and living standard. That, coupled with the passion to serve my people and my conviction that I have what it takes to serve my people and serve them well.

    What would you do differently from what the  governor is doing right now?

    It’s not news that Kogi has witnessed so much human and infrastructural decay. Looking at it critically, healthcare, education, infrastructure, workers welfare and pensions have almost gone comatose to the point that our one and only university has become a glorified secondary school. Our healthcare system is practically non existent. Almost all our doctors have left. Our parents, brothers and sisters in the civil service are being owed salaries and pensions of many months. Looking at all these multifaceted problems, I will be coming in to rectify and make things better than they presently are.

    What measures would you put in place to address insecurity, if you eventually get elected?

    All these things are being promoted by what we call a government in the state right now. The question we should ask ourselves is how did things degenerate to this level. Something must have prompted it.

    What prompted it?

    Imagine a situation where you are not paid your salaries for months and you have to provide for your family, pay your children’s school fees. Probably you have children in the university and secondary school that have to be taken care of. Then, you have energetic youth with a lot of energy that is not being deployed in the right direction. He suddenly finds an AK 47 rifle in his hands. Isn’t that a recipe for disaster?

    But, this problem appears to have eaten deep down the fabric of the society. Would tackling it not be a daunting task for anyone?

    It’s going to be a Herculean task, make no mistake about it. But the question is, will you allow the situation to continue to degenerate? No. You must find a way to check it. What are the stop blocks? Encourage small and medium scale businesses to grow. You encourage the youths to drop the firearms and pick up the hoe. You have got to encourage them to go to the farms. You have to create job opportunities and set up vocational training centres that can train the youths in technology, farming, mining and vocational trades. There will be opportunities for them to make legitimate living.

    Where will the funding come from?

    When you talk about resources, the idea in mind is to encourage investors to come in. Every investor wants tax benefits, tax holiday, tax reductions and incentives. You provide investors with these incentives and tell them to employ our youths in return. That’s how they will get their incentives. So, the number of youths they employ will cut down their taxes. But that does not in any way stop you from getting your internally generated revenue. The more the investors come in, the better for all. The little drops increase your internally generated revenue. You give the investors tax incentives and rather than pay you, the governor, he employs your youths. So even before the youths are employed, there is value attached. In simple terms, it’s like the NYSC scheme. The NYSC employs the youths and pays them. This takes them off the streets, they have work to do. On this side, the investor is having tax incentive. On the other side, the youths are happy because they wake up in the morning and go to work. This brings food on the table. On the other side, the government is happy because the investor has taken some of our youths off the streets and we are still getting some revenue.

    You talk about investments. What sectors do you have in mind?

    I am an agriculturist, a farmer. Kogi has vast arable land and numerous mineral resources. In Kogi, one of the first cash crops that comes to mind is cashew nut. It may interest you that last year, over $100 million worth of cashew nuts left the shores of this country and 70 percent of that came from Kogi State. So literally, $70 million worth of cashew came from Kogi. What obtains presently is that the middleman comes, buys off the nuts, pays the farmer and he walks away. But we intend to add value and once you add value to that crop, you have increased the price of that crop. But most importantly, you have created labour. You create a value chain and you have not only increased the revenue of the farmer but you have also increased the workforce and the value of the crop. For cashew, it may interest you to know that the washing and the sorting of the nuts are being done in Ghanan. It’s not done in Nigeria. They take the nuts from here to Ghana for washing and sorting. Washing alone creates labour, sorting the nuts alone provides labour. After sorting, the nuts are graded depending on quality. The price of premium nut is higher than others. What I would do is to bring in the investor and tell him that I don’t only want the nuts to be washed and sorted here but also to be processed here. Now bring in your processing plant and we give you tax holiday on the condition that you employ our youths. By employing our youths, he is taking them off the streets, he is processing it here and selling at higher premium.

    Let me take you to past and present. Older men, including your own father, had been governor in Kogi and the state was relatively peaceful during their tenures. But now we have a youth, someone of your generation as governor and peace has continued to elude the state. Is this not an indictment on your generation or is it about the individual?

    It’s more about the individual. When you look at it criticality, it was not as if he was ready for election. The unexpected happened along the line and the rest is history. You can’t blame the youth population for the shortcomings of one person. There are thousands of youths out there who can do far better, if given the opportunity. We cannot all be the same so we should not be tarred with the same brush. There is a great deal of potential in the youth waiting to be tapped.

    What gives you the impression that you can defeatyour opponents?

    I am a very good student and I have studied the politics of my state. I have been with foremost politicians for some years. I come from a political family so I have learnt a lot from them. I have also been in business that will be of immense advantage.

    If your party, the PDP conducts a free, fair and credible primary election and another aspirant emerges the winner, would you support the winner or would you rather seek another platform to pursue your aspiration?

    I will definitely support whoever wins the primaries. It’s not about me. It’s about our state. It’s about our people. If someone better picks the ticket so be it. It’s not a do or die thing. That is the misconception some people have. It’s for the best man to win.

    Are you not worried by the violence in the state?

    Yes, I should be worried because this is not the usual. But I am not afraid. Abducting and intimidating political opponents is to me, cowardly. If you are sure of yourself, you will not be intimidating your political opponents. You should know that the PDP is not behind these abductions. One thing most people tend to forget is that God has already chosen who is going to be the governor even before the election and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Nobody can change that. And if you know that there is nothing anyone can do to change it, then why bother yourself. You can’t change destiny because it’s God’s ruling.

  • Financial inclusion: Pension assets hit N9.33tr

    The Micro Pension Plan (MPP) driven by the National Pension Commission (PenCom) has grown pension assets and boosted the Central Bank of Nigeria’s plan to take financial services to the grassroots. Pension assets rose from N9.12 trillion in April to N9.33 trillion in June, indicating a N21 billion increase. The CBN’s financial inclusion plan is receiving a boost from the pension industry where contributors have to open bank accounts to be enrolled into the scheme. The ongoing public enlightenment on the MPP benefits to contributors and the economy is building confidence in the financial system and securing contributors’ future, writes COLLINS NWEZE.

    Adult population that has embraced financial services is expected to hit 80 per cent by 2020, from about 65 per cent, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) statistics has shown. But achieving this mandate requires the collaboration of key stakeholders.

    The Micro Pension Plan (MPP) driven by the National Pension Commission (PenCom) is one avenue of bringing more people into the financial system.

    PenCom has taken up the challenge of providing financial products and services to the low-income population, which represents a large business opportunity for the private sector with the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).

    The scheme uses MPP to reach farmers, teachers, hair dressing saloon owners, petty traders, musician, actors/actresses, shoe shiners, bricklayers, among others.

    This is because for many people, the future remains uncertain. But for those who have planned for it through the right investment and savings, it is bright.

    And securing one’s future requires taking advantage of the opportunities that abound in the pension industry, which many people have seen as the last hope for retirees.

    The pension industry, tipped as one of the largest investment sectors, is gaining the attention the self-employed.

    At the end of last year, the global pension industry reportedly had an estimated asset under management (AuM) of $41.4 trillion, which represents 53.9 per cent of global assets under management. This significant asset size reflects the growing institutionalisation of retirement planning across the world. For Nigeria, the pension industry has in the past few years been dominated by high- investment returns, a departure from previous trends where net inflows accounted for the majority of the industry’s growth.

    PenCom exists for the effective regulation and supervision of the pension industry to ensure that retirement benefits are paid promptly.

    How much have pension assets grown?

    In the first quarter of the year, the growth of Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs) holders under the CPS led to a N29 billion increase in pension assets. This has been attributed to salient policies being implemented by the Acting Director-General of PenCom, Mrs. Aisha Dahir-Umar. For instance, data obtained from the Commission shows that AuM in the second quarter of the year increased by N21 billion.

    According to the monthly report on summary of pension fund assets and RSA registration published on its website, pension fund assets rose from N9.12 trillion in April, this year to N9.33 trillion in June, indicating a N21 billion inflow. A breakdown showed a rise of N18 billion in total RSA fund as it moved from N6.94 in April to N7.12 in June, while investment in Federal Government securities fell by N6 billion, from N6.55 trillion in April to N6.49 in June while RSA Fund 11, which has continued to attract more investments moved from N4.02 trillion to N4.10 trillion, an increase of N8 billion.

    PenCom regulates and supervises the licensed pension fund operators and Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) manage and invest the fund for contributors and retirees under the CPS. Thus, the fund had grown to N8.74 trillion in January; N8.91 trillion in February; N9.03 trillion in March; N9.12 trillion in April, N9.22 trillion in May and N9.33 trillion in June, which translates to N686 billion growth in six months.The report further showed that a major chunk of N7.21 trillion out of the N9.33 trillion recorded in June is from RSA holders.

    A further breakdown of the June report under review showed that out of the RSAs’ fund of N7.21 trillion, retirees fund, categorised under Fund IV is N751.73 billion while contributors, categorised under Fund I, Fund II and Fund III, own N6.51 trillion.

    Other contributions to the fund include N958.2 billion from schemes and N1.24 trillion from Closed Pension Fund Administrators (CPFAs).

    The PFAs, the report added, invested a major chunk of the fund, totalling N6.48 trillion into Federal Government Securities out of the N9.33 trillion in the period under review. Of the N6.48 trillion invested by the PFAs, N4.43 trillion was invested in Federal Government Bonds; N1.93 trillion in Treasury Bills; N11 billion in Agency Bonds (NMRC and FMBN); N86 billion in Sukuk Bonds; N12 billion in Green Bonds and N129 billion in state government Securities.

    The PFAs, however, invested N505.82 billion in corporate debt; N1.04 trillion was invested in local money market securities and N23 billion in mutual funds.

    Mrs. Dahir-Umar attributed the accumulation successes achieved since the inception of implementation of the CPS to the Commission’s esteemed contributors. “The achievements recorded by the Commission in the last 15 years would not have been possible without the support and understanding of all stakeholders, especially you, our esteemed contributors, who are about to retiree. I, therefore, urge you to contribute positively towards the success of the Pension Reform Programme,” she said.

    Financial analysts expect the industry’s growth to exceed 14 per cent in the year supported by an improved macroeconomic environment that would drive increased contribution. Also, investment returns are likely to improve in the year, largely driven by higher interest rates, which we expect to spike in the second half of the year.

    Analysts also view positively the commencement of the MPS, expected to increase the industry coverage ratio and help ramp up AuM.

    PenCom sustains campaigns

    PenCom is carrying out massive campaigns to enlighten the people, even at the grassroots, to embrace CPS at all stages of their business growth. The campaigns are going on televisions, radio, social media, online publications and other media platforms to get more people into the pension scheme and bring them to the financial services net.

    The campaigns are ongoing in the markets, shopping malls, private and public sectors, motor parks to ensure that all Nigerians within pensionable age embrace the CPS and secure their future, financially.

    PenCom said once a person reaches 18, such person qualifies and can contribute based on his income. The contributions can be daily, weekly, monthly, and contributions can be made through the mobile phones. Besides, should anything happen to a contributor’s business, such a person can get 40 per cent of the total contributions back to begin a new life.

    Also, in case of death, the contributor’s next-of-kin will be paid the balance in the account of the contributor. The Commission also said Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) are registering people that want to join the scheme at zero cost.

    CPS gains private-public sectors’ acceptance

    PenCom says it has enrolled more than 8.5 million people into the CPS since its inception 15 years ago. Head of Communication Department of PenCom, Peter Aghahowa, said the scheme introduced in 2004 by the Federal Government was a process where certain percentage of enrollees’ salaries was saved monthly in a pool with the employers also contributing.

    The scheme had PenCom as the regulatory body, with PFAs working at its behest. Aghahowa said the scheme had made the life of retirees much easier, unlike the defined benefits scheme, which it replaced. He said the commission will continue to protect contributors’ funds and drive compliance by private sector employers through public awareness campaigns and engagement.

    This initiative, he added, is aimed at educating employees/employers and expanding the coverage of the CPS. According to him, the commission also monitors compliance through onsite inspections to ensure that employees of private sector organisations open RSAs and pension contributions are remitted promptly.

     Drivers of pension assets growth

    PenCom led by Mrs. Dahir-Umar  has achieved  milestones in pension contribu-tions, which is projected to hit N10 trillion by year-end and N15.1 trillion by 2023.

    PenCom introduced an Enhanced Contributor Registration System (ECRS) to tackle the challenges faced with the Contributor Registration System (CRS).

    Aside helping to lift contributors confidence and bring in more people into the financial system, the enhanced application is expected to open up transfer window for RSA holders to switch PFAs.

    ”Electronic submission of employer code requests by Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) on employers and the full automation of the process of issuing employer codes. Updates and edits of contributors’ information on the National Databank maintained by the National Pension Commission by the PFAs. The deployment of the ECRS is a major step towards the introduction of the transfer widow, which will enable contributors change to the PFAs of their choice, in line with Section 13 of the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2014,” it said.

    Aside the ECRS, PenCom under Mrs. Dahir-Umar unveiled the Micro Pension Plan (MPP) that allows the informal sector contributors under the CPS to withdraw at least 40 per cent of the contributions in their RSA. The extension of the CPS to the informal sector and the flexibility of its operation is one of the incentives expected to encourage participation and growth of the   pension industry.

    According to her, Section 2(3) of the Pension Reform Act, 2014 (PRA 2014) provides that employees of organisations with less than three employees as well as the self-employed persons shall be entitled to participate in the CPS in accordance with guidelines issued by the Commission. Majority of these categories of persons are found in the informal sector and have generally low and irregular incomes. The MPP has enabled artisans, such as photographers, caterers, hairdressers, motorcycle service operators, tailors, fashion designers, carpenters, and painters to embrace CPS and protect their future and businesses.

    ”As you are aware, the informal sector workers constitute the larger percentage of the working population in the country, there is, therefore, no doubt that robust participation would result to exponential growth of the pension funds which would consequently, provide funding for allowable and relevant investments that would impact positively on the economy. The MPP would contribute immensely to achieving the Pension Industry’s strategic objective of covering 30 per cent of the working population in Nigeria under the CPS by the end of 2024,” the PenCom chief said.

  • MTN ‘mPulse Planet’ hosts 5,000 teenagers

    MTN Nigeria’s proposition, mPulse, has hosted 5000 teenagers to a summer event at the Landmark Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.

    The event, supported by Access Bank Plc, reflected the theme: Nigeria, the future in 2044, was aimed at giving the young ones a glimpse into the future in 2044.

    Commenting on the event, its Chief Marketing Officer,  Rahul De, saidd: “After last year’s launch, we have continued to improve on mPulse in accordance with the ever-evolving interests of young Nigerians aged 9-15. One of the factors that to the fore was the need to usher them into the future. This summer event is a way of introducing our future (Nigerian youth) to the future by stimulating their minds and intellect.

    “We wanted an avenue to spur their creativity and get them to think beyond what they see and experience at the moment.”

    Sharing her excitement and experience at the event, Cynthia Arinze, a 12-year-old who came along with her parents and nine-year-old cousin, Amaka Wright, said: “Everything here has been unbelievable!”

    This is another testament to the telco’s commitment to brightening the lives of young ones.  In 2018, the company launched an exciting proposition, mPulse, to equip young Nigerians between ages 9 and 15 with the resources they need to maximise their potential and be all they want to be.  The package comes with a voice plan and a fun, educative website which hosts a wide variety of courses and study aids to help children from Primary 1 to SS3 excel. The portal also provides a bouquet of single and multiplayer games as well as life skill videos. From computer programming, fashion designing, medicine and blogging to engineering, writing, data science and motivational speaking etc; there is something for every interest.

    The proposition also has parental control feature that allows a parent/guardian to safeguard the child’s internet access from harmful content.

  • Oyo Speaker: Politics should be a vocation

    The Speaker of Oyo State House of Assembly, Edward Ogundoyin, has urged the youths to perceive politics as a vocation and not an occupation.

    He said: “It is not advisable to go straight into politics without first working. It is good to have a second address.”

    Ogundoyin urged youths to emulate Governor Seyi Makinde, who he described as a dynamic governor with a new orientation.

    He said the governor worked hard to earn a living before venturing into politics.

    The speaker spoke in Lagos, shortly before the commencement of the conference of 36 Houses of Assembly Speakers organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies.

    He said: “Youths should know that the time is ripe for us to get involved in politics. But, politics should not be seen as a means of enrichment, but sacrifice and public service.

    “The perception that people go to politics to get money and become rich is wrong. That is why some people, after their tenure, become poor. Youths in politics should not focus on financial reward. They should be interested in solving the  problems of their communities. They should fight the infrastructure battle. They should empower people. The more you empower, the more those being empowered will empower others.

    “We should join politics, not for financial gain, but for the empowerment of the people.”

    Ogundoyin maintained that it is not good for youths to join politics without first establishing themselves in occupations of meaningful value.

    He said politicians who lacked second addresses exposed themselves to future risks.

    The Speaker said his expereince as a farmer has further enriched his public service experience, adding that he has utilised it to offer constructive advice to the governor on agriculture.

    He added: “I went to the Republic of Benin with the governor to study agric-business. We want to transform Oyo to African business hub. We need people with expertise and ideas.

    “I have given some input from the perspective of youths in agriculture. We should encourage youths to embrace agriculture to boost our GDP and IGR.”

  • Clarion call for people-oriented roads

    Research reports have revealed that a high percentage of road traffic deaths are pedestrians. Surprisingly, a large number of the pedestrians were knocked down near pedestrian overhead bridges.

    Looking at the general pattern of road construction, it can be confidently said that the roads and furniture are not pedestrian – friendly. It is obvious that most of the roads constructed were patterned after those in the developed countries without taking into consideration the attitudes of Nigerians.

    So many roads were constructed without Pedestrian walkways. Where walkways were constructed, measures were not put in place to prevent the infiltration of the walkways by vehicles, traders and other obstructions. Traffic officers are daily working to keep motorists safe without any provision of traffic officers dedicated to keep the walkways and pedestrians safe.

    Virtually all the pedestrian overhead bridges are very risky to use from 7pm because of pick pockets, armed robbers, rapists and kidnappers. So many pedestrians, particularly women have fallen victims thereby forcing them to abandon the footbridges from late evening, risking their lives to cross the roads. In this case, the lack of provision of security for the foot bridges is not making it to fulfil the designed purpose.

    In Lagos, Abuja and some other places, the governments have spent billions of naira to construct barricades near pedestrian overhead bridges as a measure to compel pedestrians to use the foot bridges. Research has revealed that this measure has failed and will continue to fail thereby resulting to massive wastage of money. The new costly barricades recently installed by the Lagos State government have been destroyed by desperate pedestrians and stray vehicles. I can’t remember the number of times this has been done by previous governments without achieving the desired results. There is a need to change the approach and get it right once and for all.

    Pedestrian overhead bridges were mostly constructed without taking into consideration the aged, sick, weak and the physically challenged people. With these and the fact that the number of pedestrians that do cross the roads daily are more than the number of vehicles that pass the roads, I hereby submit that the governments ( Federal and State) should experiment a pedestrian – oriented interface with vehicles.

    Black spots where more pedestrians are being knocked down should be identified and marked for restructuring. At those busy black spots, overhead bridges should be constructed for vehicles while pedestrian walkways should be marked under the overhead bridges. This suggestion will make it easy for all classes of pedestrians, the healthy and the weak,  to cross the roads with ease.

    The suggested restructuring may be costly but in the long run, it will be cheaper and more effectively promote safety at the target locations. There is a need for the Federal and State governments to embark on road audit with special focus on pedestrian safety. Very busy bus stops, school environments and market areas should be given priority in the suggested overhead bridges restructuring where they already exist and construction where necessary none yet. In every country, every life must count.

  • Cars45 unveils premium inspection service

    Nigeria’s leading automotive trading platform, Cars45, has announced the launch of a new product – Premium Inspection service – in line with its commitment to exploring new platforms that create convenience for end-users.

    This valued-added service allows Cars45 to cater to individuals who are unable to visit any of its inspection centres but would still like to use its service to sell their cars. To enjoy the premium inspection service, customers would be required to make an upfront payment of N10,000 to book an appointment. Cars45, in turn, would visit the seller’s preferred location to inspect, provide a valuation report and purchase the car.

    Speaking on the launch of the premium inspection service, Vice President, Consumer-to-Business services, Mayokun Fadeyibi said “Cars45 is a consumer-first and value-driven business as such we are always seeking new and innovative ways to make the car trading process as seamless as possible for consumers. With this premium inspection service, we are enabling convenience and offering consumers best-in-class experience.”

    The Premium Inspection Service, which is being piloted in Lagos adds to a rich variety of value-added services which Cars45 provides across Nigeria’s automotive industry. Other services include fleet liquidation, vehicle auctions, concierge services and vehicle financing which it does in partnership with financial institutions across the country.

    Known for bringing transparency to Nigeria’s marketplace for used vehicles, Cars45 has become synonymous with creating delightful consumer experiences by offering people a fast and convenient way to buy, sell or swap their cars.

  • Brazil-Nigeria relation revisited at A Night of Culture gala

    Connections Brazil shares with Nigeria were revisited when Brazilian Consulate in Lagos held A Night of Culture, reports EVELYN OSAGIE.

    It was a night of festivities marked by cultural trappings. There were drumming and singing of Brazilian and Nigerian songs.

    The night also witnessed dance of all sorts, acrobatics, art, African local drums and musical displays. But it was the rendition of Brazil’s national anthem in a Nigerian jazz-like manner that set the mood for the night.

    “Brazil and Nigeria have a lot in common, but sometimes we don’t realise how much we have in common,” Brazil’s Head of Missions in Nigeria Helges Samuel Bandeira began as he welcomed guests to the event.

    “Look at our music, listen to our Samba. Do you honestly think that we learnt to play the drums with the Europeans? Of course not! We learnt that from the Africans. And that is part of our heritage as Brazilians too. So, in some ways, being Brazilian is also being Nigerian. It is important to put it on the table,” Bandeira, who became the Head of Missions in Nigeria last month, said.

    From the Brazilian anthem to some medleys by Fritots Jazz band, performers took guests to Brazil and back and paid a special music tribute to the late singer Joao Giberto at “A Night of Culture”, organised by the Consulate-General of Brazil in conjunction with Fritos Global Communication (PTY) Limited.

    The event, Bandeira stated, was meant to bring Nigerians and Brazilians together. “We have always been having these events in the consulate. The idea here is to bring us together. And I intend to continue organising such for our Brazilian expatriates and for Nigerians so that we can enjoy our common cultures.

    “I think it is exciting to see Nigerians watch Brazilians enjoying Nigerian music and the other way round too – seeing Nigerians enjoying Brazilian music. And that is why I’m here, to bring our people together and not just to stamp visas,” he said.

    Nigeria’s rich cultural heritage also came alive as diverse cultural groups rendered energetic displays even as Olumidan Bata group thrilled guests. Other acts included famed musician Buga, Dami, C Steppers and MickyPee.

    Another highlight of the event, which drew guests from Brazilian and foreign missions and expatriates as well as dignitaries, especially from the Nigerian culture sector, was the screening of a documentary on the recent visit by the Consulate-Generals of Brazil and Spain to the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi.

    Appreciating Nigerians for their hospitality, especially to tourists from Brazil to Osun-Osogbo festival, Bandeira said: “I would love to tell Nigerian people “thank you for being so welcoming to me, to the Brazilian people that come visit Nigeria. Thank you for being yourselves”.

    In attendance were Spain Consul-General, Juan Moreda; United Arab Emirates Deputy Consul-General, Mohammed Alyammahi; Commercial Consul, the Consulate-General of China in Lagos, Li ke; UAE Public Relations Officer, Joanna Mendora; Chairman, Cross River State Carnival Commission (organiser of Carnival Calabar), Gabe Onah; Nigerian actor, Wale Ojo; founding member, Ikechi Uko and Isaac and Nneka of Goge Africa TV.

    Other guests Brazilian and American visitors who came from Osun-Oshogbo festival; representatives of Nike Art Gallery; Nigerian women artists (Omovo Ayoola, Mayen Goodluck, Aisha Idirisu and this reporter) and Jennifer Zerano of the Unity Project Nigeria.

    For the founder of Fritots Global Communication (PTY) Limited, Omooba Adesoji Talabi JP, promoting African culture and heritage was what inspired its partnership with the Consulate-General of Brazil in organising the event. “The onus is on us to do all to ensure that our culture and traditions do not die. We no longer appreciate our culture anymore as we should. We are saying this must change and are bent on promoting it so that people all over the world would know the wealth of culture that we have. And we have taken our culture to South Africa, Israel, Turkey, Egypt and Tanzania.”