The Nation Newspaper

Tag: quality

  • ‘Increasing quality of electrical products our priority’

    The Executive Chairman, General Electrical Dealers Association of Nigeria (GEDA), Alaba branch, Felix Nwagu, has said increasing the quality of electrical products remains paramount to the association to checkmate counterfeiting of electrical products.

    Nwagu stated that focusing on quality has become imperative considering the dangers substandard electrical products pose to lives and properties. He spoke during the launch of a historical book on the association. He noted that measures such as workshops and seminars organised in partnership with government agencies were put in place to curb the damage and influx of substandard electrical products into the market.

    He noted that some of the agencies the association collaborates with include the Consumers Protection Council, Standard Organisation of Nigeria, and the Nigeria Customs Service, among others.

    Nwagu stated that such meetings have helped broaden the horizons of members in doing business in line with policies of the government’s agencies. He also spoke on the achievements of the association at the public presentation of the ‘history book’ and award.

    “Aside the seminars and workshops, we have put in place a disciplinary committee to combat substandard electrical products, “ adding that following the envisaged improvement in the power sector, some members with international business experience are building modern and state-of –the-art facilities where electrical products could be assembled and manufactured in the country.

    Speaking on the book, he said, this was an effort to codify the efforts.

  • Quality assurance in varsities: Umudike example

    The news that 28 professors at the Michael Okpara Federal University of Agriculture in Umudike were demoted came as shock and a surprise to me as a retired university professor. Things have definitely changed in the university system in Nigeria. This watering down of standards was recently underscored when JAMB lowered admission scores into universities to 120 out of a total of 400 marks. Thank God this ridiculous admission policy was roundly condemned by the universities themselves and by parents who felt standards should be higher in the interest of academic integrity of the universities. What apparently happened in Michael Okpara Federal University of Agriculture was that 28 people who were either promoted or appointed professors were deemed unqualified by a committee of joint Senate and Council and were therefore demoted to either Readers (Associate Professors) Senior lecturers or lecturers grade one! How could this have happened in a university that has been in existence for at least two decades or so? Was there no Appointments and Promotions Committee (APC) which meets to do a final approval of an assessment and interview process when presumably papers of potential professors would have been sent out to senior professors who are experts in the fields of candidates being considered for appointments or promotions? In the old days when the university system in Nigeria was small, papers were always sent to the IUC ( inter university council) which was an outfit of the Association of Commonwealth universities (ACU) for assistance in sending papers to experts located in several commonwealth universities. All universities in the commonwealth were members of the ACU. It was therefore axiomatic that a professor in one university, say Ibadan would be accepted as professor in any Commonwealth university either on sabbatical leave or for regular appointment. The hallmark of a good university was the international make up of its staff. All this has of course changed. We do not have the money to recruit international staff anymore because a British university professor for example earns £100,000 per year which is about N50 million. Recently, the British government issued a warning to British universities vice chancellors to defend their salaries of £150,000 per year and this is about N75 million. Vice chancellors in Nigerian universities earn N12 million per year while their professor colleagues earn lower than half of that. The point I am trying to make is that it appears that people are being made professors because of the salaries attached to the category or class of appointees and not as a mark of academic distinction and excellence.

    Having said this, it is still puzzling to me why somebody who is a lecturer grade one would be appointed a professor. An extremely brilliant person could be promoted from senior lecturer to professor, but even then, his papers would have to have been assessed by external assessors suggested by his head of department or Dean of his or her faculty or college to guide the vice chancellor who will make the final decision about the external assessor. In all this process, anonymity of the external assessor is the rule rather than the exception. In extremely rare and exceptional cases, the number of years as teacher may not be relevant in appointing a person a professor.

    In the case of Michael Okpara Federal University of Agriculture, the vice chancellor and the council stand condemned and indicted and should be removed immediately if they are still in office. I am sure this travesty of the system is not limited to the university alone; the practice pervades the entire university system especially the new federal universities and some of their state counterparts. It is also a reflection of the low academic calibre of some of these vice chancellors. In the rush to establish federal universities, assistant professors (lecturers) from some American universities and senior lecturers from existing Nigerian universities were appointed vice chancellors. These unqualified people’s first action as vice chancellors was to promote themselves as professors and after doing this, they had no moral right to deny promotion to their academic colleagues and friends. I personally know of a case of a former student of mine who moved from lecturer to professor the same year by tactically shopping around and moving from one university to the other until arriving at his destination of professorship. This has been made possible by the ballooning number of universities without corresponding planning for staffing them. I know of a case of a young lecturer in a hard area of computer science applying for a job of senior lecturer in another university. As soon as he got it and without even assuming the position, made a bid as in an auction or in a market for a higher post in another university and got appointed a professor. There are professors and there are professors of course! This academic title has become like chieftainship title in the usual bad tradition in Nigeria. Academic trade unionists also sometimes blackmail their vice chancellors to make them professors and many weak vice chancellors have surrendered to these people by manipulating the appointments process to bastardize the system. If we are to be honest with ourselves, there is a systemic problem in Nigerian universities. First of all the crowding of the university system by the new mushrooms of federal universities and their private counterparts has led to too many unqualified people masquerading as academics in our universities. Any professor who is neither known by colleagues here at home and abroad is not fit to parade himself as a professor unless of course he is a band leader of one our musical groups! The calibre of people being made vice chancellors should be looked into because academic leadership in a university can only be provided by a true academic who knows his onions. Respect for academic excellence can only emanate from a boss who has gone through the academic grill and not from an academic parvenu or upstart who came to his or her position through political jobbery. The council of any university is crucial to maintaining academic integrity. A situation where failed politicians or any politician at all are routinely appointed pro chancellors and chairmen of councils does not augur well for the future. These buccaneers do not belong to universities because to them public office is for material exploitation and self-aggrandizement. Governments at state and federal levels must find other ways of compensating their colleagues after elections. There are several knowledgeable retired academics who can bring their experience to bear on supervising the universities and maintaining oversight responsibility for the good of the universities. There should be a stop to further licensing of new universities by the NUC. The more universities are established, the downward spiral the universities will experience in its academic integrity.

    Most universities in the country have units of Quality Assurance charged with ensuring academic offering in terms of good teaching and laboratory supervision of students as well as ensuring that lecturers go to their classes to teach. The unit also ensures the integrity of examinations and fairness in assessments. All this is good but any academic who has to be monitored to do what is necessary by my own book does not belong in the university system. What this Quality Assurance should also do is check the academic claims and certificates of those who are teaching. It will surprise us what we would find. In 1979 when I was director of the NUC office in Washington D.C, we found two members of staff in the Department of Business Administration in University of Lagos who falsely claimed they had PhD. from an American university. On investigation we found out that the so-called university was only a certificate-issuing one room office in California. When confronted with this fact, one of the people involved disappeared into the thin air and we never heard from him again and the other begged to go back to a regular university. I do not know why this latter person got away with this lenient treatment on the grounds that his Masters’ degree was genuine why the doctorate degree was fake. He later returned to the university and several years later became professor and head of department!

    The situation in Michael Okpara University has exposed the soft underbelly of the Nigerian universities. The federal government can set up independent audit committees of retired professors to look into the appointment and promotion processes of these universities and try to streamline them. The state universities should do the same. The NUC which has spread the joy of university ownership to all and sundry should be empowered to do the same for all private universities. Their reports should be submitted to the various councils of these universities for their implementation. Quality assurance should spread to every aspect of the university system from staff to students in order to remove the stain of low quality staff as well as people holding unmerited positions of academic leadership in our universities. This is the only way to avoid everybody in the universities being tarred with the brush of academic fraud which sadly pervades the entire university system in Nigeria and casting doubt on the quality of academic degrees and certificates awarded by Nigerian universities.

  • How poor quality threatens non-oil export target

    How poor quality threatens non-oil export target

    The United States (US) has rejected 72 tonnes of yam from Nigeria. It was the latest in the series of rejection of agricultural products from Nigeria by the US and the European Union (EU). Experts blame this on dearth of infrastructure and Nigeria’s export regulatory agencies’ failure to adopt a quality management approach to improve the quality of agric produce exports. They fear that this could hurt Nigeria’s target of $100 billion annually from non-oil export. Asst Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA reports.

    The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, is crest-fallen. Amid fanfare, his ministry flagged off the exportation of yam to Europe and the United States (U.S) on June 29. The first consignment of 72 metric tonnes of yam left Nigeria through the Apapa Port to U.S. And with the shipment, Ogbeh was euphoric.

    It couldn’t have been otherwise. To him, and indeed, other operators and stakeholders in the non-oil export business, it was an indication that Nigeria’s efforts at stimulating non-oil export to earn foreign exchange and also facilitate economic diversification was gaining traction.

    Encouraged by the feat, the Minister announced that the Federal Government targeted about $8 billion annually from yam export to other countries.

    In all, the government, under its Zero Oil Plan, which targets to replace oil as a major foreign exchange earner by boosting non-oil export, targeted the realisation of $100 billion revenue from non-oil export yearly.

    Working through the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), the government identified 22 countries as markets for Nigeria’s 11 products with high financial value to replace oil under the plan. It targets about 20 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from a repositioned non-oil sector.

    However, both the realisation of the $8 billion from yam and the $100 billion from non-oil export annually have come under threat. Three months after the widely-celebrated June 29 yam shipment to the U.S, the authorities there rejected the yam, citing poor quality of the consignment.

    A livid Ogbeh has vowed to investigate the exporting company and officials of the ministry’s Department of Quarantine for allowing such sub-standard good to leave the country.

    “Some consignment of yams was exported from Nigeria to the U.S and according to reports we have, they were found to be of poor quality. We will be investigating both the company that exported it and our quarantine department to check and find out why such a consignment left here,” the minister fumed.

    Ogbeh, in what was seen by not a few stakeholders as unnecessary blame game, sought to exonerate his ministry from the embarrassment when he said the ministry was not an exporter; the exporters are private people.

    The Nation learnt that local and international exporters involved in the yam export programme included Messrs Wan-Nyikwagh Farms Nig. Ltd, Gboko, Nigeria, and Oklanbest Limited, Ibadan, Nigeria.

    There were also off-takers including Messrs ADES African Foods and Drinks, United Kingdom, Horizon Beeps Associates Ltd., Texas, US, Glorious Expression, Georgia, US, Vine Global Import & Export, Georgia, US, Zuka Trading and Distribution Co Inc., California, US.

    U.S explains

    Although the minister said investigations had begun, the authorities in the U.S have clarified that the rejection was due to poor transportation facilities.

    According to the Consultant to United States Agency for International Development (USAID/Nigeria,) NEXTT Project, Mr. Aderemi Osijo, biodegradation of perishable foods takes place naturally unless strategies are adopted to prevent, or delay the process.

    He said yam, being a perishable good, needed to be placed in controlled-atmosphere, at a temperature significant biodegradation could not take place. Osijo is the managing director, RBS Consulting Limited.

    He explained that when product temperature rises above the threshold for carriage, the risk of biodeterioration becomes greater, and biodeterioration can begin with eventual detectable effects. According to him, the yams may have spent a long time on the road and at the container terminal, which eventually affected the quality of the cargo.

    Osijo said transporting yams entailed expensive logistical operations, transport and Customs clearance expenses which represent a significant cost of the exports. To protect the food, he said the packaging has to be suitable for the purpose, the duration and the complexity of the storage and journey.

    He was emphatic that said if the government and the industry were serious about boosting agro exports, they needed to pay greater attention to the role of transportation and logistics to mitigate the impact of climate change on cargo for exports.

    National Cashew Association of Nigeria President Mr. Tola Fateru agrees with him. He said many agro export commodities were perishable, and failure to ship them on time would cause them to perish, resulting in huge loss of income, livelihood and export revenue for exporters and the nation.

    Fateru, who spoke at a press conference on non-oil export with the theme: “Nigeria’s economic diversification under threat,” warned that if Apapa Road linking export terminals at the port were not fixed on time, exporters may stop buying agric produce from farmers.

    He said export warehouses were filled with commodities which should have been promptly shipped; and that they were rotting way.

    While suggesting that priority should be given to exportable commodities, in line with the Federal Government’s economic diversification agenda, Fateru said all roads dedicated for export should be made absolutely for export only and nothing more.

    However, last week’s rejection of Nigeria’s yam by the U.S over poor quality was not the first time rejection of export-bound agro-allied products would rob Nigeria of the benefits of a vibrant non-oil export-based economy.

    In fact, this has been the case since Nigeria started its strategic refocus on the non-oil sector, following the crisis in the international oil market where the price of crude oil has been crashing.

    For instance, the European Union (EU) ban on Nigeria’s beans is yet to be lifted. The EU had banned the beans because they contained high level of pesticides which are unhealthy.

    Although relevant export regulatory agencies said they were working to get the EU to lift the ban, the European body said it was not impressed by measures taken by the Nigerian authorities to resolve the issue. Accordingly, it extended the ban by another three years, citing the continued presence of dichlorvos (pesticide) in dried beans imported from Nigeria.

    “The continued presence of dichlorvos (pesticide) in dried beans imported from Nigeria and maximum residue levels of pesticides shows that compliance with food law requirement as regards pesticide residual cannot be achieved in the short term.

    “The duration of the importation prohibition should therefore be extended for an additional period of three years to allow Nigeria implement the appropriate risk-management measure and provide required guarantees,” the EU had said.

    About 67 processed and semi-processed food products of Nigeria origin exported to the EU were said to have been rejected in 2015 and last year. The rejected food items included brown and white beans, melon seeds, palm oil, mushrooms, bitter leaf, ugu leaves, shelled groundnut, smoked catfish and crayfish, among others.

    The Republic of Ireland also rejected and returned five containers of beans from Nigeria. The products were said to have been received with heaps of weevils. The U.S also recently banned the importation of Nigeria’s cocoa into its market.

    The U.S authorities were said to have taken the action because Nigeria’s cocoa did not satisfy the standard required for exports into the country.

     

    Lack of quality assurance remains a sore point

    While Ogbeh, and, indeed, other authorities in the Nigerian non-oil export sector are obviously embarrassed by the barrage of rejection of agro-allied commodities, the preponderance of opinion is that the rejections were, to a large extent, self-inflicted.

    Those who hold this position argue that Nigeria consistently shoots itself in the foot by refusing to put in place appropriate and adequate measures to guarantee the quality of her agric products.

    They argue that Nigeria put the wrong foot forward when it moved to leverage on the sector to grow the economy without first putting in place functional laboratories for testing and certifying products before export.

    For instance, the founder, Centre for Cocoa Development Initiative, a Non-governmental Organisation (NGO), Mr. Robo Adhuze, noted that lack of seriousness by the Federal Produce Inspection Service (FPIS), the agency responsible for checking and certifying agro-allied products leaving the country, was hurting Nigeria’s non-oil export economy.

    Adhuze said: “Quality standards have moved from physical standards to biological standards, but FPIS appears not be up to speed with this reality.”

    He recalled that for about five years, Ghana suffered the same fate as Nigeria’s when over 2,000 metric tonnes of her cocoa beans were rejected by Japan.

    He said following appeals by the Chocolate and Cocoa Association of Japan to the Ghanaian authorities to take immediate steps to reverse the excessive agro-chemical residues found in cocoa beans, Ghana, a country famous for its very high quality cocoa beans, rose to the challenge by putting in place measures to guarantee the quality of her cocoa products for export.

    He expressed disappointment that while Ghana’s standards regulatory authorities took steps to reverse the excessive agro-chemical residues found in their cocoa beans, Nigeria was unable to do so. The result, he said, was the harvest of export ban now threatening the non-oil sector, especially on agro-allied products.

    Curiously, the threat is coming despite assurances by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) that it had come out with strategies to stimulate export of agric products by ensuring that they met international standards, and would not be rejected by the importing country.

    The agency had announced that it was developing standards for select priority produce from farm to storage, cutting across soil composition, soil preparation, kind of pesticides to use, seed improvement, harvesting, packaging labelling and storage.

    SON said it had developed codes to guide producers and farmers of the selected products that are of high priority so that Nigeria could deliver safe and affordable agro allied products to the international community.

    The agency also said it had strengthened capacity for lab testing and certification of produce eant for export. It added that the products were tested only in the countries of export.

    According to the former Acting Director-General of SON, Dr. Paul Angya, Nigeria does not have control over the results, “because we don’t have much of the facilities for testing in Nigeria. The facilities are what we call quality infrastructure. The testing laboratories are one of the major components of the National Quality Infrastructure (NQI).”

    He said there were only two of such laboratories in Nigeria, with SON and National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) having one each for testing food products. Angya, however, said SON was developing a large lab complex in Ogba, Lagos, which is over 85 per cent completed, noting that when completed, Nigeria should be able to test all standards and parametres for food products.

    Apart from SON and NAFDAC, other agencies charged with ensuring that export products are properly checked and certified include Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), and Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).

    Others agencies that will come under the minister’s searchlight in the course of the investigation include NEPC, Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC).

  • Nigeria improves power quality to WAPP standard

    Nigeria’s power quality has improved tremendously. meeting the standard required by the West African Power Pool (WAPP), it was learnt.

    The Acting Managing Director/Chief Executive,  Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Mr. Usman Gur Mohammed, said the Federal Government has worked to achieve that feat. According to him, before now, the power that comes from Nigeria was allowed to mix with power that comes to the Pool from other countries such as Ghana and Benin Republic because the frequency doesn’t meet the standard required.

    Currently, the Pool has agreed to synchronise Nigeria’s supply with supplies from other member-countries that belong to the Pool because the frequency of power supply from Nigeria is at the same level as supplies from other countries.

    The Nation learnt that supply of power to the Pool earns substantial foreign exchange (forex) for the country. With the improvement in the quality (frequency) of supply from Nigeria, which makes a good buy by any country in the pool, the forex inflow from that income stream will also improve significantly.

    Mohammed said: “I came in February and from that time to date, we have worked very hard. As at May 22, we have achieved frequency control that has not been achieved in the last 20 years. Our frequency is at the same level as the frequency you get in Ghana and other West African countries and that is why the  WAPP has asked TCN to nominate some engineers to work with WAPP engineers to synchronise the supply of Nigeria and other West African countries.

    “This has never happened; all the supplies that leave Nigeria to Benin Republic and Togo were not allowed to mix with supplies from Ghana and other West African countries. But because of the efforts we have put in place in the last few months, we have been able to stabilise the frequency such that WAPP has agreed that we should synchronise our supply and the demand for Nigeria’s power has increased in other West African countries.

    “The stability of Nigeria’s power has improved to the extent that the second Ikeja Secretariat transmission line study was launched on September 12. This is to underscore the kind of demand for Nigerian power that is taking place.

    “ The governments of Togo and Benin have requested Nigeria to build a medium backbone that will move power from Kainji to Baragu, to Northern Togo and Northern Ghana, which will meet with another transmission line being built by the Government of Ghana to Northern Ghana and to Burkina Faso.

    “This is to tell you the kind of work that we have done. We have changed the way we have been doing business. We have empowered the regional offices. Most of our projects are being implemented at the regional offices now.”

  • JAMB: Quantity vs quality

    The recent announcement of the new cut-off mark by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations, UTME, in the 2017/2018 academic session, has sparked mostly unfavourable reaction from Nigerians. The outcry is not only justified, but it shows to some extent, that we have not lost our minds as a country and more importantly, that there is a will amongst the populace to see the education sector restored to past lofty heights.

    No one needs any further evidence of the rot in education in Nigeria. Employers routinely groan over the throngs of unemployable graduates that besiege them during recruitment exercises. Many of the graduates get into public offices where they continually display their ignorance with abandon. Sadly, Nigerian students who receive their instructions in English their whole lives are often required to take compulsory English Language tests to qualify for admissions into educational institutions outside the country. This is an indication that those institutions must have had experiences unflattering of Nigerians before resorting to such measures.

    Anyone of those institutions wondering why an English-speaking country with English as its official language of instruction in its schools, would produce some of the products they do would have gotten some insight into the roots of the problem if they got hold of a Nigerian newspaper last week. JAMB had announced a cut-off mark of 120 for universities and 100 for mono-technics, polytechnics and colleges of education, out of a possible 400 marks. In effect, intending university students can scale through with the equivalent of a fringe “E” grade which is 30% and a prospective polytechnic or college of education student will be qualified with what would otherwise be an outright failure or “F9” grade which is 25% under the grading scale ordinarily adopted in Nigerian educational institutions.

    JAMB was created in 1978 as a way to address a perceived problem of admissions that plagued students in the years of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s military regime. The supposed problem was that the federal universities that numbered seven in 1974 and the additional six established in 1976 conducted their own entrance examinations. That led to multiplicity of admissions. This was somehow seen as a problem and wastage of resources in conducting the examinations. JAMB was then established and lowest cut-off marks had been at 180, at least, since sometime in the 1990s.

    However, in all these years, both private and public universities had gone on to conduct their own entrance examinations known as post-UTMEs or adopt higher cut-off marks than JAMB prescribed. This is as a result of the decay in the standard and reliability of the examinations conducted by JAMB over the years. It seems JAMB, which was supposed to be a solution to a “problem” has now become the problem itself. Therefore, some warning signs have been there for us to have anticipated what finally happened last week.

    In June last year, JAMB announced the scrapping of the post-UTME tests conducted by Nigerian universities that have apparently lost faith in JAMB’s effectiveness. The decision was met with almost the same outrage by the academia at the time. That decision was only lifted the week before last, with the board admitting that the decision was a mistake. The farce unfolding would later lead to last week’s announcement of the new cut-off marks. If one did not know better, it would seem that JAMB was trying desperately to further destroy our already ruinous educational system.

    But in its response, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, the Registrar of JAMB, said the decision was made by stakeholders made up of vice chancellors of universities together with rectors of polytechnics as well as provosts of colleges of education in a vote-style decision process. This makes the announcement even more depressing to take as this explanation suggests that some heads of public institutions of education are complicit in the degrading of the educational sector. In further explanation, Oloyede stated that the cut-off marks were the minimum allowable, while 180 remained the upper ceiling prescribed by JAMB. It was also pointed out that the post-UTME examinations by the schools are still allowed and as such, the universities ultimately decide where to draw the line.

    The problem with that reasoning is that JAMB has created a leeway for exploitation of the system that was already plagued by malpractices and underhand activities. The same JAMB lamented that up to 17,000 students were illegally admitted at the last intakes after scoring less than the official cut-off marks of 180, only to turn back to effectively “legalise” the defaulting students. In the last 10 years, about 40,000 students gained admissions into Nigerian universities through this way.

    There are many ways to view JAMB’s recent decision, but one thing is certain; it is bad for education in Nigeria. Even students, under the banner of the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, who one would imagine may not be so averse to the news, took up placards to protest the decision at JAMB headquarters in Abuja, following the announcement. No matter how loudly we lament, it is obvious that the system has been rigged for failure right from its foundations. What this actually signifies is that the public school system is effectively dead and we are only just propping up its carcass and trying to pass it off as credible.

    While we are expressing outrage about the crashing of the threshold for entry into the universities, we should stop to think about the products that are going into those universities. In 2013, the lowest cut-off marks from different states for entry into the Unity Schools through the National Common Entrance Examinations was 2 (Yobe), 3 (Taraba) and 4 (Zamfara), out of a possible 200. The highest cut-off marks were 139 (Anambra). It is unclear, but it seems the highest cut-off marks now may have dipped to 68.

    It is bizarre for us to feign surprise, because some of those students are the ones that possibly need 120 and 100 to get into tertiary institutions now. Where federal character is applied in the education sector in what has been described as a “celebration of mediocrity”, what do we expect? Now, applicants with cut-off marks of 100 out of 400, will head to colleges of education and become the teachers of tomorrow in the same jaundiced and defective system that produced them in the first instance, thereby creating a cycle of mediocrity. It shows that JAMB’s move is but an effect of the rot that begins way up the line. Measures like the one taken now by JAMB are the things that ensure the system stays rotten. The much publicized Computer Based Test Centres introduced by JAMB are a welcome development, but it is ironic that some students that have never been properly instructed in the basics of computer operations will have to take tests in those centres. This may have also contributed its own quota to the “mass failure” experienced this year.

    To be frank and sincere, JAMB may have clearly outlived its relevance. A spokesperson described it as a clearing house for the public tertiary institutions and one has to wonder what use it really serves if the decisions are made by the heads of those institutions. If that is the case, the body should be scrapped, and the computers and all other resources deployed in maintaining the body should be sent to the schools where they are needed most.

    Now, the waste of resources is in maintaining JAMB itself. If it will not be scrapped, there is no reason why it cannot be reduced to a department under the ministry of education that oversees matriculation examinations conducted by the institutions themselves with resources provided to them.

    Therefore, nothing short of declaring a state of emergency in the education sector, with urgent measures put in place to correct the fault lines in the system, will do. The present administration has begun with free food in schools, but the mental rejuvenation and development of the children should take priority, even though food is also important.

  • Hubmart assures of fresh quality products,

    Leading indigenous retail giant Hubmarts stores Limited,     opened the doors of its ultra modern Ikeja GRA Shopping mall to the public, last Friday.

    The event, which witnessed a large turnout of brands who came to showcase their wares, also saw a huge number of customers throng into the mall to experience firsthand, the many offerings the new Hubmart store has to offer.

    Most customers also admitted that they were also there to take advantage of the exciting opening day specials on offer at the store.

    Chairman of Hubmart Stores Limited Dr Chris Ogbeche, in his opening address, stated that the vision of Hubmart stores is to be the clear leader in the retail industry.

    In his words, “we have a population of over 180 million people who want the good things of life and we are here to make that possible.’

    He further said that Hubmart’s penchant for always delivering fresh products to its customers is a mark of distinction that sets it apart from other retail stores. “We are known for fresh products. I think we are the leader in fresh products ranging from vegetables, fruits, seafood, and dairy food all at attractive prices. We have been able to maintain this standard because over 50 percent of our business is not reliant on foreign exchange. The other 40  percent is dependent on Nigerian businesses that produce here and only the last five to 10 percent depends on imports,” he said.

    He informed that Hubmart is committed to empowering Nigerians, creating employment and adding value to the lives of its customers through fresh products and quality service. Hubmart’s expansion plan, he revealed, is guaranteed to ensure that the footprint of Hubmart will be seen in every state in Nigeria.

    The Chief Executive Officer of Hubmart Stores Limited, Murat Bektaslar, described the store as a customer’s delight, stating that the store will serve as a one-stop shop for all customer grocery, cleaning, fresh and household needs.

    “We have created an environment where customers can find everything they want under one roof get the best quality of ultra-fresh produce, and have a delightful, fulfilling and exciting shopping trip.”

    Even the kids are not left out as very innovative kiddy- focused shopping carts and baby trucks have been deployed to delight the kids as well.

  • Shoppers embrace quality over low prices

    Shoppers embrace quality over low prices

    Shoppers now consider good quality and innovations over low price. They no longer compromise comfort for cheap items, writes TONIA ‘DIYAN

    In the past, the average shopper would go for products with low prices, but these days, good quality and innovations have become people’s main considerations.  This trend, it appears, is attributable to convincing sales/promotions, well-stocked shelves and high-quality fresh products available. Therefore, to boost sales, as well as encourage shoppers, some retail shops launch attractive sales promos frequently.

    Such promos, it was learnt, have worked for many shops over the years. According to retail experts: “Promotional offers are aimed at attracting more customers and enhancing sales. There are misconceptions that when discounts are offered by shops, such shops stock inferior products, that is why they sell at cheap rates just to do away with the so-called inferior products. It is not true.”

    While factors relating to good quality, innovations and low prices are important determinants of where to shop and what to buy, retailers and manufacturers who offer good value, either through sales and promotions or via larger-economy packaging, stand to gain the most from hard-income-earning consumers in a tough economy such as Nigeria. That is why discount offers from some shops mean a lot to an average shopper.

    Mr Todd Hale of Consumer & Shopper Insights, in a television interview, said: “For the economically challenged, low prices are a must, but convenience may trump low prices for some from discount retailers.

    “For some shoppers, the value obtained from one-stop shopping can save them time and money. Therefore, manufacturers and retailers need to place a greater focus on shoppers’ benefits to achieve the differences that go beyond prices.”

    Though price is a differentiator in any economy, store brand products, he said, must deliver a level of quality proportionate to their price points.

    “Quality, at an affordable price, is what gets consumers to buy and repeat. If quality and value are lacking, then consumers will buy fewer store brands,” Hale  said.

    People no longer fancy cheap products; they prefer to buy products based on  quality and the benefits such products have to offer. In the market today, there seems to be more new products than the old ones, especially for consumables such as canned foods which also come in sachet leaving the shopper with choices to make.

    When The Nation Shopping went round malls in Ikeja and Surulere, a large number of shoppers indicated their preference for quality and innovation over low price. Some others said they prefer innovation at low prices, and only a few of them said they prefer very low price not minding the value of the product.

    Majority believe quality is not to be compromised; therefore while manufacturers are producing slightly low quality products, they should not forget to keep prices low as it is the least favoured option among consumers because raising prices is a strategy that consumers do not embrace. Consumers typically maintain reference prices for products based on prices they have seen or paid in the past.

    A shopper, Mr Henry Nwanchukwu, said he prefers quality over low price.

    “Low pricing could be deceptive; I am usually not deceived when I want to purchase an item. I make up my mind to go for quality so I can be sure of getting value for my money.”

    Another shopper, Mr Okhiria Caleb, is of the view that good quality and innovation is better than low price if a person wants the best. “The life span of a quality product is longer than that of a cheap inferior product. You will only be buying what you need at once instead of buying the same thing twice because it is cheap,” he said.

    Some people think the new products are either not trusted or they simply do not allow for patronage of the existing ones. May be because some people who will prefer to buy the new ones will want to explore them.

    According to Mrs Kemi Badmus, a shop owner at Adeniran Ogunsanya Shopping Mall in Surulere, Lagos, bringing innovation into the market sometimes does not allow the sale of old products. “But if the new product is of a higher price than the already existing ones, then I am sure of selling my existing products. Therefore, innovations should be accompanied by low price, as it is generally known that low price is the driver of any shopper,” she said

    Mrs Nsofor Chinwe prefers existing products. To her, existing products are better trusted.

    She said: “I have come to trust existing products over the years. I can only be lured to buy newly introduced products if I can get a testimony from someone else about that product. Most times when I go shopping, I don’t check out new products, I simply pick the old names that I am used to.”

    Some shoppers are of the view that new products should be discounted rather than sold at exorbitant prices so that people can be attracted to them.

    A shopper, Mr. Stanley Omokaro, said discount offers should be attached to innovations so that shoppers can easily accept them when they are newly introduced into the market. “ It is only common with shoppers to want to buy new products at cheap rates. Some people would refuse to pay more or same amount as for an existing product for a newly introduced product,” Omokaro said.

    Mr  Odundayo  Agboola is an economist. He prefers innovation to low price stating that the country’s poor economic condition is a major challenge to innovations. “My question is, will these innovations stay? Is our economy encouraging such? Modernism has been brought into production and now we get newly introduced good items. I believe that the newer a product, the better it is. Sometimes I get tired of the old product because some of them have reduced in quality. Therefore, I look forward to new products from time to time,” he said.

  • CWAY restates commitment to quality

    •Celebrates 10 yrs of CWAY Nutri-Milk

    CWAY Nigeria has reiterated its commitment to the production of quality goods as it celebrates a decade of producing CWAY Nutri-Milk.

    The company began production in 2007.

    At a conference to mark the 10th anniversary in Lagos, the Deputy Director Administration, Tony Ojuomola, said the company will continue to build on the successes recorded in the last one decade.

    “We are happy that one of our top brands is clocking 10. The product that has stood the test of time and made us develop a good relationship with our business partners, loyal consumers and has also brought profit and growth to the company and created employment for many,” he said.

    Ojuomola said Nutri-Milk is not just a brand but a premium brand of an idea that translated into a brand in the line of production in CWAY that calls for celebration.

    On the brand impact on host communities since 2007, he said: “CWAY has been known not only for production of quality products, but also giving back to the host communities, especially in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

    “We have two caregivers home that get our support on monthly basis namely, Ijamido Children Home in Ota, Ogun State, and SOS Children Village, Isolo, Lagos,” he said.

    Ojuomola explained that the CWAY product line was established in 2007. He said shortly after its introduction into the Nigerian markets, the company was thrilled and surprised how fast it gained market acceptance

    He attributed the brand’s acceptability to the favourable government policies of both Lagos and Ogun State at that time.

    The General Manager, Figo Zheng, said: “As we appreciate our numerous partners and consumers for their unwavering belief in our products for the last 10 years, we assure everyone that we will continue to make sure that the quality of Nutri-Milk is sustained in spite of the dwindling exchange rate in the country.

    “We encourage our customers to continue to stand for a united Nigeria by joining our campaign in this time, ‘sharing Nutri-Milk, and sharing love.’

  • ‘How to promote quality tech-driven education’

    The advancement of technology has brought fundamental changes to education and teaching in the developed world, where hi-tech tools are deployed to give educational instructions and impart knowledge.

    However, this modern technique is a strange trend in many developing countries where conventional method is still being used to impart knowledge.

    While quality education remains out of the reach of millions of children in Africa, experts say it would be dangerous for developing countries to lag behind in taking advantage of modern tools to improve on the quality of education.

    Given Nigeria’s growing population of education-disadvantaged young people and out-of-the-school children, what role can technology play to increase access to quality education and efficient teaching process?

    This is the kernel of the discussion at the Social Sector Open House, a conference organised to promote application of tech tools to improve quality of education. The event was put together by Bridge International Academies in collaboration with the Lagos State Ministry of Education and Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning.

    Since its establishment in Nigeria in 2015, Bridge International Academies, a group of low-fee schools, has been championing the use of hi-tech tools to improve quality of education in rural areas.

    In his keynote speech, Special Adviser to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode on Education, Mr Obafela Bank-Olemoh, said the state’s appetite for investment in technology had increased with the aim to ensure effective governance and drive socio-economic growth. He said the state recently launched education-technology roadmap that would facilitate introduction of hi-tech tools in elementary schools to enhance teaching and learning.

    Bank-Olemoh said the recently launched CodeLagos was designed to equip one million young people with coding skills to transform the state into a hub of innovation and technology.

    He said: “Governor Ambode has set a target to push Lagos from the fifth largest economy to the third largest in Africa. To drive this goal, we need a new generation of technology-literate youngsters to help achieve the aim. Our appetite for investment in technology will continue to increase, as this has become the most viable way to feed the growth of our socio-economic indices.

    Partnership with Bridge International Academies is important at this period.”

    With more than 30 per cent of children attending school unable to read and write, the co-founder of Bridge International Academies, Ms Shannon May, said the foundation for the nation’s future had been weakened by poor quality of education, despite that its economy showing great strength for growth.

    She said: “Statistics from the United Nations Children’s’ Fund (UNICEF) shows that 40 per cent of children between ages two and 11 do not attend school in Nigeria, while 30 per cent of the children of school age cannot read and write.

    In 2050, Nigeria is projected to become third most populous country in the world, having 400 million people. That should be a power house and huge human resources. But, if its young people don’t have access to quality education, the expected future may not be attained.”

    She said the foundation for Nigeria’s economic prosperity remains in the quality of its classrooms, adding that efforts must be made to re-design the country’s approach to teaching and learning by investing in teachers’ performance.

    While sharing the Academies’ success stories after the application of teachers’ tech, May said the tool would help education policy makers and government to make decision that would transform the life of every child that hopes for quality education. The tool, she said, would help the government to check teachers’ absenteeism and also to track the quality of knowledge being imparted on children.

    May said: “Nigeria must re-design its approach to education. Efforts need to be made by the government to ensure it gets best performance from teachers. The present method of teaching, where a teacher is isolated with hundreds of pupils in a classroom must stop. Teachers now need to be connected to experts for daily capacity building through teachers’ tech tool, which contains updateable information about each subject, teacher-pupils attendance and frequency of interaction.”

    Chief Executive Officer of the Academies, Mr Jay Kimmelman, said Lagos State government’s readiness to partner with the Academies would bring about fundamental changes in learning process, noting that the partnership was targeted at building teachers’ capacity and capability to deliver quality knowledge in line with modern realities.

    He said: “In 21st Century, technology has become an enabler of better schooling and development across the globe. It is a good omen to see Nigeria in the forefront of the movement to drive change in education. Technology underpins the education provided by Bridge and there is no doubt technology would play pivotal role in empowering young Nigerians over the next decade.”

    The event featured discussion panel on the topic: “Lagos Government is Leveraging Technology to Change Lives” during which Bank-Olemoh praised the private sector and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for collaborating with the state to equip children of public and private schools with tech skills.

    Other panelists included the Managing Director of First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Mr Ladi Balogun, Chief Executive Officer of Leading Learning Limited, Mrs Folasade Adefisayo, and Founder of SystemSpecs Nigeria Limited, Mr John Obaro, among others.

  • ‘Quality of service in Nigeria poor’

    The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Admini-stration (FCTA), Malam Muhammad Bello has said that emphasis must to be placed on better service delivery if the country were to unbundle the tourism sector and make it a major revenue earner.

    Bello said this when a delegation from the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR), paid him a courtesy visit at his office.

    According to the FCT Minister, the complaint generally by most people that visit the country is that the quality of service being provided is not good enough when compared to what is obtainable in other climes.

    He said, “A lot of people get put off by the way we receive them at the airports, the way we treat them in the buses, the way treat them at the hotel reception points, the way we clean their rooms and the way we provide them service generally. I think if as Nigerians we are able to really improve on that aspect, it’s going to be a huge catalyst in trying to revamp and really get the full potential of the tourism sector.”

    Bello said operators in the sector must change their attitude towards service delivery by ensuring that the environment is clean and available facilities work to optimum standards if they were to turn around the fortunes of the industry.

    A statement issued by his Special Assistant (Media), Abubakar Sani, the Minister said: “We have to work on service delivery. It’s not really the quality or sophistication of what we provide. Some of the places you go, you find that really, the furniture is simple, locally made, the buildings are locally made. But the facilities work. The cleanliness is emphasised”.

    He reiterated the willingness of the FCT Administration to partner with the stakeholders in the tourism sector by making available accurate data of all tourist destinations in the FCT as well as facilities for the training and retraining of manpower in the sector.

    He said, “The social secretariat will provide you with all what we have in terms of tourist sites, in terms of facilities that we have that could serve as meeting points as you train, facilities that have some semblance of accommodation that you can house youngsters that you want to train for a week or two.

    “So, any requirement that will involve partnering with you and the other agencies will, we will do it. In the FCT within our agencies, we have units and departments really specifically meant to cater for this and in the past, we’ve had a lot of interventions,” the Minister emphasized.

    Bello while stressing that the FCT Administration shares the vision of achieving a massive turnaround in the tourism sector, however called for synergy among the major players in the industry.

    Earlier in her remarks, the DG, NIHOTOUR, Mrs. Chika Balogun said there is need to reposition the FCT to become a major destination that will attract conferences, not only within Nigeria but from the West African sub-region as well as the rest of the world.

    “We have to be a conference destination that is actually dedicated to going to solicit for those things and doing all the needful for us to begin to attract conferences to Nigeria. It is a sign of very big business and one low hanging fruit that we can very easily pluck.

    “We will like to partner with you in terms of training and retraining the manpower within the FCT. We would like to be your number one partner in terms of training especially within the hospitality and tourism industry,” the DG said.