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Growing non-export sector with quality products

The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), under its National Quality Infrastructure Project (NQIP), funded by the European Union (EU), has moved to entrench quality culture in Nigeria. The Organisation is riding on the crest of its National Quality Award initiative to enhance the saleability and competitiveness of Nigeria’s products and services in the world market. Assistant Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA reports that this strategy could be the tonic to revitalise the non-oil export sector upon which the government has anchored its economic diversification agenda.

The intervention of Nigeria’s development partners in the area of enhancing the competitiveness of the country’s products and services in the global market is coming at an auspicious time.

This is because it is coming at a time the Federal Government, operators and stakeholders in the export business are desirous of a greater participation in global trade to drive on-going economic diversification agenda.

Through the National Quality Infrastructure Project (NQIP), which is a European Union (EU)-funded project, but implemented by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), the development partners have stepped up efforts at helping Nigeria improve the quality of its products so that they can be sold internally and in the international market.

The NQIP was established to support the development of the missing standards and accredited testing and certification bodies in Nigeria in order to improve the quality of products and services exchanged in the Nigerian, regional and international market.

The initiative, which enjoys the support of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, was aimed at boosting the competitiveness of locally made products at the international market place and ensure their global acceptance from Nigeria.

However, while the NQIP was still in place, UNIDO, last week, upped the ante by organising the first National Quality Award (NQA) to boost the quality of Nigeria’s products and services. The award ceremony held at Sheraton Hotel, Lagos, was aimed at creating the desired awareness on quality and standards and also build confidence on Nigeria’s goods and services.

At a pre-NQA media conference in Lagos, the Chief Technical Advisor, NQIP, UNIDO, Dr. Shaukat Malik, said the purpose of the award was to drive the sustainability of quality culture in Nigeria. He said UNIDO remained committed to entrenching quality culture and ensuring that Nigeria adheres to international best practices related to quality.

According to Shaukat, quality awards have proved powerful tool for boosting the economies of developed countries of the world where the awards have been in place and Nigeria will not be an exception. He said, for instance, that Japan came up with the quality award in 1951, after World War 11.

Similarly, the United States of America and the EU started their quality awards in 1988 to improve the quality of their companies and boost their economies.

“More than 40 countries in the world are running quality awards every year. It’s popular in the Middle East, China, South Africa and others because they are getting the benefits from increased productivity and competitiveness, Shaukat added.

The UNIDO Chief Technical Advisor explained that there are four levels in this year’s quality awards and that in each level there are three organisational categories.

While Category A is for larger organisations with 100 employees, Category B is for medium organisation with more than 20 to 100 employees. Category C is for small organisations with one to 20 employees.

The Quality Infrastructure & International Trade Expert for UNIDO, Mr. Simeon Umukoro, said the quality award is criteria-based. Any business operating in Nigeria is eligible to apply for an award in one of the three categories, depending on its size.

According to Umukoro, winners, who are local businesses and entrepreneurs, will be determined based on a set of criteria derived from the standards issued by the International Organisation for Standardization for quality management system requirements (ISO 9001:2015) and for performance improvement (ISO 9004).

The NQA of Nigeria also corresponds to the rules and standards of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on quality awards. The award was created in line with the ECOWAS region approved criteria for national quality awards, adopted at the 781st Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers in Abidjan in December 2013.

Umukoro said the quality awards will increase the awareness of Nigerian companies and entrepreneurs on quality and standards. He said it will also boost consumer confidence in Nigerian products and services while also promoting healthy competition among manufacturers and service providers.

“What we consume will become safer; services will improve and patronage will be high,” the Head, Quality Control, Nigeria Commodity Exchange (NCX), Dr. Khadijat Addulaziz, said. She expressed optimism that the national quality award will address the national embarrassment caused by the rejection of agric exports from Nigeria by the importing countries.

Dr. Abdulaziz is right. The United States (US) recently rejected 72 tonnes of yam exported by Nigeria due to poor quality. It was the latest in the series of rejection of export-bound agric products from Nigeria by US and European Union (EU).

Before then, five containers of beans exported from Nigeria to the Republic of Ireland were rejected and returned by the importers. The products were reportedly filled with weevil.

The season of rejection of Nigeria’s export-bound agric products is being blamed on dearth of infrastructure and Nigeria’s export regulatory agencies’ failure to adopt a quality management system approach to improve the quality of agric produce exports.

According to operators and experts, this is bad news and a major setback for an economy severely battered by recession, requiring urgent stimulation of the non-oil export sector to give impetus to the economic diversification agenda.

Recall that in the heat of the crisis over the rejection of beans exported from Nigeria, for instance, the Minister of State for Agriculture, Mr. Heineken Lopobiri, had describe it as “a national embarrassment”. He said the five containers of beans were returned to Nigeria because weevils were detected in them by the Republic of Island Quarantine Service.

He said the containers were exported without the knowledge of the Nigerian Agriculture and Quarantine Service, hinted that government would return the Quarantine Service back to the ports to partake in the examination of import and export containers.

He also said henceforth, for any agro-product to leave the country, it has to be certified by the Quarantine Service, as this is the global practice in the United States and other developed countries.

However, Lopobiri’s promises that government will put its house in order to avoid a repeat was still in place when the US authorities turned back 72 tonnes of yam exported by Nigeria to that country over issues around poor quality and packaging.

Even if Lopobiri had made good his promise return the Quarantine Service to the the ports, it still does not resolve the more fundamental issue of lack of laboratories for testing and certifying made-in-Nigeria products before export.

The lack of quality infrastructure especially laboratories to aid certification of locally produced goods for export market has continued to erode the competitiveness of locally made products in the international market.

A national quality infrastructure, according to experts, is a system of institutions, which jointly ensure that products and services produced in the country meet predefined specifications. It also provides technical support to companies so they can improve their production processes and ensure compliance with regulations or international requirements.

The lack of it is widely believed to be partly responsible for Nigeria’s rising unemployment. It is also the reason why Nigeria is not globally competitive. Her products and services lack global quality certification and are denied access to markets in developed economies.

Yet, agriculture and export are two key segments of the non-oil economy, which government is now focusing on in the hope of diversifying the economy. The sector believed to be more inclusive and growth-oriented. It is also more sustainable and characterized by high economic linkages.

However, the Director General, National Productivity Centre (NPC), Dr. Kashim Akor, blamed the sector’s under-performance on poor packaging. Speaking at the pre-NQA media conference in Lagos, Akor whose Centre is a parastatal under the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, noted that Nigeria is a country with rich, diverse agric and other non-oil export products, “but our problem is packaging.”

“So the quality award will address the issue of poor packaging and ensure salability of Nigeria’s export products. It will ensure that whatever is produced is accepted globally,” the NPC DG said, adding, “We want to promote quality consciousness and to do this, there must be constant sensitisation.”

Akor, who noted that quality is a marathon race that has no finishing point, stated that the NPC and Nigeria’s development partners particularly UNIDO remained committed to driving the quality culture in the private and public sectors in Nigeria. He said the award process is very thorough, meticulous and the jury is as transparent as possible.

It was learnt that UNIDO’s inauguration of the NQA to stimulate healthy competition that will drive quality consciousness was an addition to its long history of support and intervention in Nigeria. For instance, the Organisation, few years back, made available 12 million euros for the establishment of National Accreditation System in Nigeria.

In doing so, UNIDO, through its Country and West Africa Director, Dr. Patrick Kormawa, was emphatic that “You cannot improve on your Gross Domestic Product (GDP)) if you do not produce products in Nigeria and sell them in the international market.

“We also will not provide the needed jobs in this country if we are not able to manufacture products here and trade them in the international or regional market.”

“But for us to be able to trade, we need to at least, meet basic quality requirements; most of the products that are made in this country are rejected because they do not meet certain basic quality requirements.”

Kormawa expressed hope that the 12 million euros commitment by UNIDO will help Nigeria produce a legislation that will contain a National Quality Policy (NQP), establish an internationally recognised National Accreditation Body that will vet the activities of regulatory agencies such as Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and the National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC).

He said it will also help develop a National Metrology Institute to ensure that instruments are of international standards, improve the capacity of the Organised Private Sector (OPS) to conform to standards as well as establish conformity assessment bodies.

It will also enhance the powers of the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) and other consumer organisations to sensitise consumers on quality standards as well as ensure improved consumer protection.

December 8, 2017
How E-Wallet is changing agric sector

For over 40 years, black marketers literarily held Nigerian farmers and authorities in the agric sector by the jugular. They controlled the fertiliser distribution system and hijacked subsidised farm inputs meant for farmers. The racketeering was hurting efforts at leveraging large-scale agric for job and wealth creation. However, it took the introduction of Electronic Wallet (E-Wallet) platform and creation of a data base for farmers to reverse the trend. Assistant Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA writes that the innovation could be the wedge for a continent in search of youth empowerment, food security and industrialisation.

Of all the challenges that stood in the way of Nigeria’s quest for increased productivity in the agric sector, none was, perhaps, as frightening as the activities of black marketers. They are the powerful middlemen in the sector, who allegedly ensured that critical farming inputs from the government never got to farmers.

For instance, apart from controlling the Federal Government’s fertiliser distribution system for about four decades, the black marketers whose activities clearly verged on economic sabotage also denied farmers access to other subsidised inputs such as disease-resistant, high-yield rice seeds and palm oil seedlings.

The Nation learnt that the inputs, which would have seen farmers’ output rising and contributing to food security, job and wealth creation, were brazenly sold in the open market or in neighbouring West African countries at exorbitant prices. And the effects of the racketeering on the agric sector were telling.

For one, it was a major disincentive to Nigeria and, indeed, Africa’s efforts at diversifying the economy through commercial, large-scale agriculture. Specifically, the black marketers were hurting the continent’s efforts at empowering its youth population by making agriculture an attractive start-up sector for them.

The former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and African Development Bank (AfDB) President, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, did not mince words when he said: “We must turn rural areas from zones of economic misery to zones of economic prosperity. This requires agricultural innovations and transforming agriculture into a sector for creating wealth. We must make agriculture a really cool choice for young people. The future millionaires and billionaires of Africa will come initially from agriculture.”

This was at the 2017 G7 Summit in Taormina, Italy, in May this year. At the event, Adesina expanded on this vision, saying: “The future of Africa’s youth does not lie in migration to Europe nor should it be “at the bottom of the Mediterranean.”

He proposed rather that an agribusiness-driven economy could be one of the economic reasons Africa’s youth choose to remain on the continent.

Adesina’s vision was one backed by innovation and creativity on how to modernise agriculture, get the youth engaged in the sector and change their perception in a way that allows them to see agriculture as a viable and profitable business.

The AfDB president articulated that vision when, as Nigeria’s Minister for Agriculture from 2010 to 2015, set the stage for what is now acknowledged globally as a revolution in the agric sector through the introduction of the Electronic Wallet (E-Wallet) platform to Nigeria’s food production and distribution chain.

Through the E-Wallet, Adesina pioneered a new way for the Nigerian government to deliver subsidised farm inputs, such as fertiliser and seeds, to local farmers through private agro-dealers. The farmers, in turn, redeem these subsidised inputs from the agro-dealers, using e-vouchers, which they can access through their mobile phones.

To implement the platform, Adesina initiated a Growth and Enhancement Support Scheme (GES), powered it by orchestrating the successful registration of more than five million Nigerian farmers, whose information and mobile phone numbers were added to the GES database.

The database, coupled with the E-Wallet, now allows Nigerian farmers to receive directly from the government everything from fertiliser to high-yield rice seeds and palm oil seedlings. The platform also helped solve other previously intractable problems in the way of commercial large scale food production in Nigeria.

For instance, the E-Wallet platform was a shot in the arm of paddy rice farmers in the country. Since its introduction, not a few farmers have been receiving high yield NERICA rice varieties from the government, which saw their output rise from about five to six tons per hectare.

With thousands of paddy farmers producing a consistent grade of rice, the development was said to have created the opportunity for several agro-based companies to switch from rice importation to local rice production. And the standardisation of the country’s rice output led to large private sector investments in rice milling.

Expectedly, Adesina’s innovation in the agric sector has not gone unnoticed. He recently clinched the highly coveted 2017 World Food Prize (WFP) Laureate award in the United States of America (US).

He was announced winner of the global feat by the WFP for his dogged determination and practical commitment to boosting agriculture and food supply chain both as Minister of Agriculture and President of AfDB.

Adesina earned the laureate in Des Moines, US, where the WFP Board chose him for this year’s $250, 000 prize, highlighting his role in improving the availability of seed, fertiliser and financing for African farmers, and for laying the foundation for the youth in Africa to engage in agriculture as a profitable business.

In choosing Adesina for this year’s award, the organisation also recognised his endeavours at the Bank Group to implement the ambitious High 5 priorities (Light up and power Africa, Feed Africa, Industrialise Africa, Integrate Africa, and Improve the quality of life for the people of Africa), and the positive impact this would have in Africa and the world.

That was not all. Adesina was said to have successfully built strong partnerships that enabled commercial banks and development organisations to provide loans to tens of thousands of farmers and agri-businesses in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana and Mozambique.

While as Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture, he also created programmes to make the country self-sufficient in rice production and helped turn cassava into a major cash crop and a strategic raw material for bakeries.

More importantly, Adesina’s success in enabling Nigeria’s farmers increase farm yields through an electronic wallet system, which helped them to obtain fertilisers, led to dramatic improvement in agricultural production and enhanced food security for 40 million people in the country’s rural farm households.

The WFP was founded by Norman E. Borlaug, a native of northeast Iowa, who was awarded the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his life’s work on feeding the world through the scientific advancements of the Green Revolution.

This was why the WFP compares the spread of Adesina’s efforts in scale to the “Green Revolution” work of Borlaug, who, in the 1970s and 1980s, introduced high-yield dwarf wheat to Latin America and Asia, spawning “Green Revolutions” on two continents.

At the event, which brought together key players in the world of bilateral and multilateral development, Adesina said he was inspired by a commitment to transform African agriculture into a means for lifting millions out of poverty and is proud his work has been recognised.

“It’s vitally important to show young people in rural regions of Africa that farming can be profitable and can improve their lives…,” he said, committing himself to using the $250, 000 cash prize to set up a fund for financing African youths in agriculture.

Specifically, he said his prize money will be used to establish a World Food Prize Global Youth Institute for Africa, an organisation, he said, will support a new generation of agricultural scientists and innovators across Africa.

This organisation, he said, will nurture and produce graduates known as Borlaug-Adesina Fellows, who will become the next generation of hunger fighters.

Adesina’s feat earned him the US Government’s commendation. A statement signed by US Vice President Michael Pence described Adesina as a man whose “devotion to the cause of fighting global hunger is admirable, and deeply needed”.

Pence said: “As our global food system is stretched, and the need to feed more people grows, agricultural transformation will require persistence from leaders like you in driving change and capitalising on public and private sector expertise.”

Adesina’s revolutionary achievement was also seen as a major public relations boost for President Muhammadu Buhari. The president wasted no time in joining in the global acclaim that came in the wake of the award. Through a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, he expressed his delight at the development.

Buhari’s words: “Certainly, this did not come to me and many Nigerians as a surprise, given your antecedents and contributions to the development of agriculture across the African continent. We are very proud of you.”

Nigeria as model for other African countries

At the official announcement of the prize during a ceremony at the US Department of Agriculture in Washington D.C., hosted by its Secretary, Sonny Perdue, the Secretary said there were still huge challenges on the way.

While commending Adesina for his tireless work in securing food for Africa and the world, Perdue, however, pointed out, for instance, that as the world population grows, raising the challenge of feeding nine billion people, “Adesina knows that our work is not done”.

The statement was instructive. For one, it underscored the growing expectation that the sustainability of the initiatives that earned Adesina the coveted prize were critical to Africa’s food security, if other countries in the continent could replicate them.

The thinking is that as other African countries start to adopt E-Wallet platforms to get subsidised inputs – and even financial services – directly to their farmers, the innovation would spark a Borlaugian “Take it to the Farmer Revolution across Africa.”

Already, according to experts, Africa’s labour market is expected to absorb 11 million youth every year for the next decade. Despite rapid growth in formal wage sector jobs, the World Bank estimates that most of the continent’s young people “are likely to work on family farms and in household enterprises, often with very low incomes”.

The consensus is that creating jobs for young people in agriculture can help Africa’s economic transformation and also offer a solution to some of the challenges facing the continent and the world namely, the high rate of youth unemployment in Africa; human trafficking and the high rate of illegal migration of young Africans into Europe.

Indeed, Africa’s rapid population growth, specifically the growth of the working-age population, complicates a precarious labour market characterised by poor-quality employment, which in turn creates the urge for the youth to seek better opportunities elsewhere.

For instance, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimated that in the next four years, an additional 12.6 million youth in sub-Saharan Africa will enter the labour force. Data from the International Organisation for Migration show that more than 154,000 young Africans have so far crossed the Mediterranean to Europe in 2017.

The organisation said more than 2, 900 have died trying to make the crossing. In 2016, more than 352,000 Africans crossed into Europe and more than 4,750 died.

But with what Adesina pointed out earlier that “the agric sector (in Africa) has four times the power to create jobs and reduce poverty than any other sector,” this is expected to spur other African countries to replicate the innovations now changing the agric landscape, at least from Nigeria’s experience.

November 24, 2017
Rescuing Kaduna’s troubled education sector
Sir: It is no longer news that over 21,780 teachers in   the   employment   of Kaduna State government could not pass the primary four examination organised to assess their competence for continuous employment. What is rather baffling is the attempt of the teachers under the state chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers to blackmail the state government into condoning mediocrity in a critical sector of the polity.

The Kaduna saga again brought to the fore the rot in our educational system. The latest   discovery reveals the quality of individuals who find their way into the noble calling of teaching. It clearly indicates that those we entrusted the future of our children are not the best of us. Teaching nowadays has become the last resort for both the unemployed and the unemployable graduates. Hence, it is now a refuge for all types of charlatans.

However as deplorable as the situation is, it is only a symptom of a more fundamental cause in our educational system. We are only scratching the surface if we think we can isolate the teachers as the only problem in the entire education sector. We need to fundamentally address a situation whereby educational disciplines in our tertiary institutions are not attractive to students.

How come our faculties of education suffer perennial poor enrolments? How come teaching does not ignite passion in our youths? Are teachers accorded the same respect with the bankers or other lucrative professions in our society?

Why would landlords prefer to let their houses to bankers rather than teachers? What are the teachers’ remunerations like? How committed is the government to the training and retraining of teachers?

These posers raise fundamental issues of funding, remunerations, motivations and recognitions. These are critical issues that must be addressed.

The kind of premium placed on teaching profession in other climes is not replicated here. In Cuba, for instance, according to a 2014 report by the World Bank, the country has the best education system in Latin America and the Caribbean and the only country on the continent to have a high-level teaching faculty. Peter Dolton, Sussex University Economics Professor and author of the Global Teacher Status Index stated that attracting good quality and well-qualified people into teaching is accepted as the essential prerequisite to raising educational standards. In Finland and Singapore, teachers are recruited from the most-qualified graduates, all with a second degree. Here in Nigeria reverse is the case as recruitment into public service including teaching service is for “political settlement or compensation”. And because you cannot sow pepper and reap onions, the seed of years of inequities have now germinated and become full grown before our very eyes. Unfortunately it is the innocent children who bear the brunt of the recruitment error.

This problem needs to be tackled holistically because we cannot be paying lip service to the sector and expects a dramatic result. The compromised recruitment system whereby selections are largely based on patronage as against merit need to be revisited. Only those who are competent   and passionate about the job should be recruited. The Kaduna experience is a clarion call to refocus on the sector. The opportunity it provides to get rid of the bad eggs in the system should not be lost to political consideration. Special attention should be devoted to teachers’ training. Special incentives should be created to stimulate interests in the study of education related disciplines. Teachers should be well motivated such that they would have pride in the profession. This would ultimately attract the best brains to the profession.

As for the ‘casualties’ of the proposed reforms in Kaduna, they should assisted with training for other vocations while those who are trainable should be retained and made to undergo necessary skills acquisition to enhance their capacity for teaching.
- Babatunde M. Tijani
Isolo, Lagos State.
November 20, 2017
SON sets up team to sanitise LPG sector

•Acquires modern testing equipment

The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has inaugurated an Ad-hoc Committee of its top officials and other experts in the oil & gas sector to sanitise operations in the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) industry.

Inaugurating the team in Lagos, its Director-General, Osita Aboloma, said the objective was to address the challenges and dangers faced by sub-standard petroleum products.

“We are setting up this committee because we want them to serve as the society’s watchdogs and identify latest equipment and products that are used in the discharge and sale of LPG items.

“The committee will also certify both old and new equipment such as storage tanks, vessels, cylinders and other things to make them safer to bring about improved service delivery in that sector,” the SON boss said.

The committee’s terms of reference are to sanitise the LPG sector, ensure professional and ethical practices by operators in the filling plants and retailers’ shops; report any incident of unethical practice and substandard products to SON especially roadside and illegal fabricators of substandard LPG tanks and cylinders.

The committee is also expected to draw a strategy for the LPG cylinder re-qualification scheme, the withdrawal of old and substandard LPG cylinders from circulation, submit to the Director General within three months for consideration and approval for implementation as well as come up with recommendations from time to time to move the LPG sector forward as it relates to SON mandate.

The Director, National Metrology Institute, Obiora Manafa, said the committee’s terms of reference were very clear, adding that the committee would work relentlessly to sanitise the sector.

“We would ensure that new and obsolete tanks, vessels, cylinders are certified before use. I want to implore all of us to give our time, expertise and commitment to ensure the success of this national assignment. We are going to achieve this mandate because the terms of reference are very clear,” he said.

The Deputy President, Nigeria LPG Association (NLPGA), Nuhu Yakubu, said the committee would continue to provide its support and harness the existing partnership with SON.

The National Treasurer, Nigerian Association of LPG Marketers, Ogunrinde Adebayo, maintained that the committee would be committed to the cause of protecting lives and property of Nigerians as well as investments.

The agency has also taken delivery of modern testing equipment to tackle the incidence of gas explosions in the nation’s oil & gas industry.

SON said it was concerned by the incessant explosion, destruction of lives and property caused by substandard Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) products hence, its decisive step to acquire three state-of-the-art pressure testing equipment to reduce the menace to the barest minimum.

SON stated that the three latest equipment located in Abuja, Enugu and Lagos, would help to test the strength of materials and capacities of LPG vessels, cylinders and allied products across the country.

Aboloma stated that SON has invested heavily in human and capital resources to ensure the proper and effective use of the equipment.

“We have invested heavily in terms of human and capital resources in training and acquiring state-of-the-art LPG testing equipment. We have sent our engineers outside the country to learn what it takes to address the challenges of substandard LPG in a modern economy. I think in a matter of time these explosions will be a thing of the past,” he said.

November 17, 2017
Why govt gave N701b loan to power sector, by Fashola

The Federal Government has given reason for the N701 billion loan given to the power sector.

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, SAN, said the loan was given to save the sector from collapse under heavy debts.

The aim was to assist Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) to meet its debt obligations to power generation companies (GenCos) and by extension the gas suppliers and the financing banks.

Fashola in an exclusive interview with The Nation, explained why government took the decision it did. He said: “The N701 billion is not a loan to the privatised power sector. It is a loan by government to one of its own agencies – Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET).

“When the power sector was privatised in 2013, one of the companies created was NBET to buy bulk power from the generation companies (GenCos) in order to create a market situation. NBET entered into power purchase agreement (PPA) with any GenCo that puts power into the national grid. NBET uses the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to transport that power to the distribution companies to sell under another contract called “vesting contracts.” Go and do this retail business.

“DisCos are supposed to make a profit of about 30 per cent, return the bulk money to NBET just like any retail business – you buy wholesale, retail and send the money back to the manufacturer. So there are two contracts here – a contract by NBET with the power producers, and a contract with DisCos to vend the power. The assumption was that NBET will pay from what it collects from the DisCos in order to discharge its contract with the GenCos. But some many things happened.

“The economy tumbled and tariff increase was halted in court. There was a big gap in collection. So from collections of about 56-58 per cent dropped to about 25-29 per cent and NBET became a debtor to the GenCos. The GenCos, the thermal power plants that use gas, were owing their gas suppliers and their gas suppliers were owing their banks. In this situation, we said to the government “you are the debtor here because NBET is a 100 per cent government owned company.”

“ Before the N701 billion, NBET had tried to raise a bond of N301 billion when parliament stopped it. That was why government got the N701 billion and said to NBET go and discharge your contract. The decision was taken for many reasons, one it was a contractual obligation and NBET is a 100 per cent government company, so you must pay. This is one of the liquidity issues in the sector, so if government defaults, there will be no power sector. Secondly, don’t let this debt spiral the gas and banking sectors, otherwise, it will spiral into the entire economy. Because it was critical, Federal Executive Council approved it because it is a no-go-area. That doesn’t mean you write-off the debts owed by the DisCos because they are two separate contracts.

November 16, 2017
Afrinvest to launch banking sector report

Afrinvest (West Africa) Limited will present the 2017 edition of its Annual Nigerian Banking Sector Report at the London Stock Exchange (LSE) on October 27.

The presentation is scheduled as the anchor event of the Nigeria Banking & Investment Forum: Capital Markets Partnership, to be hosted by the LSE in collaboration with the Nigerian Stock Exchange and Afrinvest. Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Godwin Emefiele, has been confirmed as the Special Guest of Honour.

Afrinvest Group Managing Director, Ike Chioke, said this year’s report entitled: “Nigeria Reopens for Business”, is timely and instructive, as it is being launched at an important phase in the country’s economic resurgence, following the recent exit from a four-quarter long recession”.

“We are proud to launch the 2017 Nigerian Banking Sector Report before a host of international economic and financial market experts in London on the back of the nation’s recovery from economic recession, and we are confident that it would further enhance appreciation of Nigeria’s financial services sector.

“The report presents an optimistic outlook on the economy due largely to the positive performance of the banking sector. It offers critical insight on how recent gains in market performance can be consolidated to boost investor confidence and ensure sustained growth, and what possible threats can derail current positive trends,”he said.

Co-Head, Emerging Markets, London Stock Exchange Group, Ibukun Adebayo, said: “Our desire is to innovate with Nigeria, and we are keen to explore opportunities for London’s global investment community in Nigerian markets.

“The Nigeria Banking & Investment Forum: Capital Markets Partnership provides a unique platform to highlight the competitive landscape that exists, and show critical international investors, regulators and stakeholders where real value can be found in frontier capital markets.”

The Afrinvest Annual Nigerian Banking Sector Report, in its 12th edition, has come to be recognised as the leading and most incisive report on Nigeria’s banking industry, and a valuable reference for local and international investors in the Nigerian economy.

Afrinvest (West Africa) Limited is a wealth advisory firm involved in investment banking, securities trading, asset management and investment research with a focus on West Africa.

October 16, 2017
‘Fed Govt can incorporate traditional medicine into health sector’

Can Traditional Medicine and Complimentary Alternative medicine be integrated into the health sector? For experts, who held a two-day workshop in Lagos, the answer is yes. Oyeyemi Gbenga-Mustapha writes.

Why is it difficult for the government to fuse Traditional Medicine/Complimentary-Alternative Medicine (TCAM) into the main health care system?

Many factors are responsible for this, says the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) Director-General (DG), Prof Babatunde Salako.

He listed quality of herbs, quality assurance/quality control in processing and manufacturing/preparation of herbal medicines as some of the problems.

Others, he said, were herbal mechanisms of action, bioavailability, herbs chemical constituents, herb and drug interactions, efficacy measurements, and quality of life and safety issues.

Salako made this known at the international conference on indigenous traditional knowledge organised by Paxherbals Clinic and Research Laboratories and its subsidiary Ofure (Pax) Integral Research and Development Initiative (OFIRDI), which held at Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi (FIIRO), Lagos.

The theme of the event was: ‘The contribution of indigenous knowledge in stimulating integral development in Nigeria and Africa’.

Other organisations, which partnered PaxHerbals to host the conference, were: FIIRO, Oshodi, Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency, National (NNMDA) Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion and Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan.

Salako, who spoke on: ‘Western allopathic medicine and traditional African medicine: any hope for a synergy?’, said other factors which affects integration of the TCAM into modern medical practices are poor quality, adulterated or counterfeit products, unqualified practitioners, misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis, or failure to use effective conventional treatments, exposure to misleading or unreliable information and direct adverse events, side effects or unwanted treatment interactions.

Despite these challenges, Salako said no hope was lost because the World Health Organisation (WHO) has a strategic master plan for the TCAM.

WHO support for TCAM (WHO TM Strategy 2014-2023) integrates TM into national health care systems, where feasible, by developing and implementing national TM policies and programmes.

“Safety, efficacy and quality — promote the safety, efficacy and quality of TM by expanding the knowledge base, and providing guidance on regulatory and quality assurance standards. Access — increase the availability and affordability of TM, with an emphasis on access for poor populations. And Rational use — promote therapeutically sound use of appropriate TM by practitioners and consumers,” he explained.

Salako said TCAM should be incorporated as an integral part of a country’s health care with each recognised as a legitimate form of sytstem.

He said TCAM could be practised with modern medicine. ‘’Traditional and modern practices could be integrated as two branches of medical science, with the incorporation of elements of both to form a new branch.

‘’And what are needed are to make traditional medicine and evidence-based medicine (EBM) an integral part of a country’s formal health care system e.g China, Japan, Korea, India and Ghana.

“Awareness campaign and advocacy among physicians and herbal medicine practitioners on the role of scientific, cultural, educational, and legal issues in improving integration. We need to make Western medical doctors receptive to the ideas of TCAM. Africa Biomedical and traditional practitioners need to unite and be open to the idea of working with one another as peers.

‘’TCAM practitioners must be open to sharing their methods and knowledge by allowing western doctors to examine and analyse them using their own systems of fact finding. There has to be acceptable intellectual property guidelines/Memoradum of Understanding (MoU) from the beginning of collaboration.Incorporate alternative medicine practices into the training curriculum of all health care workers in all medical schools.”

The DG said the WHO has defined three types of health system to describe the degree to which TCAM is recognised as part of the national health: Integrative systems, parallel system and tolerant system.

“Integration of biomedical and traditional medicines through medical education and practice as it obtains in China. Parallel System involves separation of biomedical and traditional medicine in the national health system: Nigeria, Guinea and Ghana, Asian countries including India and South Korea, and tolerant systems where biomedical health facilities are encouraged to complement delivery of care by some traditional medicines which have been endorsed by the country’s legislation: South Africa and Ghana,” he added.

He said NIMR has a centre to assist realise some of these.

“NIMR Centre for Research in Traditional, Complimentary and Alternative Medicine is set up to research into preclinical pharmacological assessments and action mechanisms. To research into clinical efficacy, tolerability and safety assessments of herbal medicine. Ensure herbal medicine quality and standardisation. Training and improving the skills of traditional herbal medicine practitioners. Research in drug development in herbal medicine. And ensure intellectual property development among collaborating institutions and practitioners. This is because the NIMR was established by the Federal Government of Nigeria via the Research Institute Establishment Act of 1977 to promote National health and development.”

Salako said NIMR has signed an MoU with the Paxherbal Clinics and the Nigeria Council of Physicians of Natural Medicine (NCPNM) to boost natural health care.

“The purpose of the MoU with Paxherbals is to establish collaborations/cooperation between NIMR and Paxherbal for the search and development of indigenous natural medicinal products with potential health and economic benefits. The goal of the MoU is to use the strengths and expertise of NIMR to prove and develop the potential of natural medicinal products produced by Paxherbal and /or other stake-holders into scientifically sound and globally credible medicines/patents.

“While the purpose of the MoU with NCPNM is to establish collaborations/cooperation between NIMR and NCPNM for the search and development of indigenous natural medicinal products with potential health and economic benefits. The goal is to use the strengths and expertise of NIMR to prove and develop the potential of natural medicinal products produced by members of the NCPNM and /or other stake-holders into scientifically sound and globally credible medicines/patents.”

Salako reiterated that TCAM has come to stay as it has gained global attention and is being used in many countries as an option of treatment of various diseases.

“There is a need to monitor and report adverse events, including potential drug–herb interactions via clinical trials and phytochemical analysis. Integration of TCAM and EBM is practised in some countries. Therefore, when safety and efficacy of many of the herbs are further established in accordance with conventional scientific principles, the integration of herbal medicine into evidence-based clinical practice will likely improve beyond current status.”

The convener and Director Paxherbals and Pax Centre for Integral Research and Development, Revd Father Anselm Adodo described the conference as a success, saying the aims were achieved.

“The aim of this conference is to bring together researchers, scientists, research scholars, entrepreneurs, health care practitioners and health technologists to discuss, exchange and share their experiences and research results in all aspects of indigenous knowledge in health care and health policy, traditional medicine research and practice, community development, local innovations in agriculture, biodiversity, solar technology and business enterprise.

‘’There is an urgent need to critically examine approaches to education, health care, technologies, enterprise, agriculture and development in Nigeria and propose new methodologies, new approaches and new action plans.

‘’The common thread weaving these diverse topics together is the need to stimulate integral development in Nigeria and in Africa. As such, this conference focused on applying trans-disciplinary approach to issues of development in Nigeria, transcending dichotomies that have tended to impede rather than stimulate sustainable development in Nigeria.”

Notable participants at the conference were Chief Executive Officer (CEO)/Director of Bioresources Development Group, Prof Maurice M. Iwu, who made a presentation on: ‘African Traditional Medicine Research and Development’; Director general (DG), FIIRO, Prof. Gloria Elemo; guest speaker and book reviewer, Prof. Alexander Schieffer of University of St. Galen, Geneva Switzerland who spoke on-Communitalism as an African alternative to capitalism and the role of transformative education and research to actualise it.

Others were Dr. Bunmi Omoseyindemi, Mr. M. O. Lawal, Prof Omon Oleabhiele, and Dr. Femi Jegede.

On the second day, experts discussed Traditional African gynaecology: Herbs for managing infertility, impotence and ante-natal care herbs, with a special session on licensed traditional birth attendants in Lagos.

It was chaired by Oleabhiele. Dr. Atoyebi, a gynaecologist with the Agege General Hospital, Lagos and Prof. MacDonald Idu.

The speakers were Mrs. Owolabi Titilope and National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) team Dr. O. Igbo, Dr. Pogoson, director, IAS, Prof. Omoh T. Ojior, Prof. Sophie Oluwole and Dr. S. Osunwole discussed how to bridge the gap between tradition and modernity. The theme was: The role of indigenous knowledge in promoting sustainable development in education, technology, health care and culture in Africa.

October 12, 2017
N5b boost for solid minerals sector

A new lease of life may have come the way of operators in the solid minerals sector. The Bank of Industry (BoI), in partnership with the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, has unveiled the Nigerian Artisanal and Small-Scale Miners (ASM) Financing Support Fund, which is a revolving loan package of N5 billion for operators in the sector. The bank and the ministry will contribute N2.5 billion each to stimulate activities in the sector. Asst Editor MUYIWA LUCAS reports.

The Bank of Industry (BoI), in partnership with the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, has given fillip to the scattered and unregulated mining activities across the country. The bank has unveiled the Nigerian Artisanal and Small-Scale Miners (ASM) Financing Support Fund. The Ministry and the Development Finance Institution (DFI) will contribute N2.5 billion each.

Specifically, under the scheme, a certified artisanal miner can access between N100,000 and N10 million; while a small- scale miner can access between N10 million and N100 million.

The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, said the fund would address challenges of insufficient funding and access to capital, which are major factors militating against artisanal and small-scale miners who account for about 80 per cent of activities in the sector.

This gesture demonstrates the confidence reposed in the BoI, pursuant to its antecedents of experience and expertise in managing such fund. The package makes the bank the custodian and manager of the fund will be disbured to end-users at five per cent interest rate.

“This agreement is a meeting of minds between the Ministry and BoI. We are in the first instance launching a N5 billion fund. With our ministry’s pilot contribution of N2.5 billion, BoI will match our contribution with another N2.5 billion.

“Consequently, with this agreement, the FMMSD appointed BoI as the custodian and manager of the Nigerian Artisanal and Small-Scale Miners (ASM) Financing Support Fund, for the purpose of financing artisanal and small scale mining projects involving industrial minerals, precious stones, precious metal (gold), dimension stone and such other strategic minerals in Nigeria as shall be approved by the ministry and BoI from time to time,” Fayemi said.

Fayemi disclosed that the fund would be available as term loans or working capital to be utilised for the purchase of requisite items for a plant, and machinery; payment for drilling, geological and other services related to mining business as may be required, among others.

He added that proper funding would help to integrate the artisanal and small-scale miners into the formal sector, enhance their growth and development in a structured manner, and spur productivity and job creation in the sector.

The ministry had secured N30 billion from the mining sector component of the Natural Resources Development Fund of the Federal Government, to tackle the challenges of funding in the sector. In addition, it got the World Bank’s nod for $150 million to aid the ministry’s Mineral Sector Support for Economic Diversification (MinDiver) programme.

BoI is not a novice to such involvement; it has a track record of service, which aligns with the thoughts of the government in its bid to reduce poverty and hunger through the creation of jobs in every sector of the economy.

Through its interventions, the BoI had pioneered funding in the mining activities just as similar funding arrangement managed by the Bank improved the entertainment sector, thereby empowering thousands of Nigerian youths in the creative sector.

The bank’s Managing Director, Mr. Olukayode Pitan, expressed confidence that the fund will step up the rapid development if the mining sector because of its track record in funding mining activities.

Indeed, the BoI has been consistently strengthened, and has, over the years, earned a reputation as one financial institution that Nigerians can depend on as custodians of scarce but needed resources now that the nation needs economic diversification and massive employment generation.

Policy makers agree that expertise and financial resources are major constraints in government’s attempt at diversifying the economy. Right from the start, President Muhammadu Buhari had intensified commitment to shift from near-total reliance on oil as major economic earning for nation’s sustenance.

The economic decline in the face of local production cuts witnessed by pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta and global oil price fluctuations required a paradigm shift and re-structuring of policies and priorities.

Britain, France, India, Norway, including Austria, China, Denmark, Germany, Ireland and Japan have set out official deadlines for the elimination of gasoline cars to be replaced by non-emitting and environment friendly electric cars, starting as close as eight years away. The Netherlands, Portugal, Korea and Spain has followed suit. Although the United States does not set a central deadline, some of its states have made pronouncements towards that target. With nations around the world fully embracing dumping fuel consuming automotives for electric cars, it is certain that the days of petroleum products as safe haven for oil-dependent nations are few.

This is indeed a wake-up call to oil-producing nations like Nigeria on the imperative of vigilance and need to provoke thoughtful alternatives to oil, considering the absence of strategic plans for economic survival in an oil-slump era.

As if it had foreknowledge of what to come, the Buhari Government had planned ab initio to embark on aggressive investment in agriculture and solid minerals, alongside its resolve to raise the bar on accountability and taxation as alternatives to oil in its economic diversification drive.

In response to the solid mineral sector challenges, earlier in the year, a three-day summit of industry experts, organised in Kaduna by Proedge Limited and the Kaduna Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, brainstormed on how to harness the enormous investment opportunities in solid mineral resources and how to properly position the sector to attract investors.

It went further to identify four minerals adjudged to be world class in Nigeria, which include Bitumen, Coal, Gold, and Barite, estimated to be over 1 billion tons in reserve. This is massive!

But the lacklustre interest in the exploration of these resources have troubled stakeholders, most of whom blamed the inclusion of the mineral sector on the Exclusive List, a pointer that only the Federal Government has the mandate to prospect solid minerals wherever they may be found in the country; a factor many consider to be an hindrance to an all-inclusive investment and exploitation of the sector.

States in the north in particular, with huge minerals deposit, could accelerate economic diversification; create jobs and wealth through value addition but funding has largely hampered investment by vast number of artisanal and small scale miners.

Need for improved mining techniques different from the current crude, unprofitable and environmentally-hostile methods involving over 80 percent artisanal miners requires significant contemplation by the government. Again, there should be incentives in the form of grants, soft loans and financial support to small scale operators for profitable mining operations and competitive pricing.

Although funding was identified as a clog in the wheel, local banks were helpless in its exposure to solid minerals financing due to limited resources and skills. Therefore, the summit advocated the establishment of a Solid Mineral Development Bank, using part of the 13 percent Derivation Fund as seed capital in order to stimulate investment in the sector and prevent loss of revenues to illegal mining.

September 29, 2017
NCC: telecoms sector investments hit $70b

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said total investments attracted by the telecoms sector to the country have reached $70billion.

It however said a large chunk came from Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

Its Executive Vice Chairman, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, who spoke while welcoming guests to the Nigeria Pavilion in the International Telecoms Union (ITU) Telecom World 2017, Busan, South Korea, said despite these modest achievements, Nigeria’s information communications technology (ICT) sector is still, “work in progress”.

He said: “Since the Digital Mobile Licences (DML) were issued 16 years ago, investment in the sector has hit about $70billion from a mere $50million in 2001. Most of these investments are FDIs.

“Although, we have made very modest progress in the sector, we still need to deepen investments to make broadband pervasive in the country.”

He said the country comes to the ITU Telecom World every year to tell its story, share experiences and borrow a leaf from global best practices to address its concerns, engage and collaborate with the global community to strengthen the growth and impact of the Nigerian telecoms industry.

“We therefore come to enlist the support of other players, governments, regulators and the global community from whom there is always a basket of ideas to take back home to Nigeria. The implementation of these ideas will ensure a better regulatory environment, even though ours has been seen as a very robust and consultative regulatory agency right from 2001 when the DML were issued.

“The spirit of cooperation and consultation is very high at ITU Telecom World events,” he said.

He said the engagement of the delegation with the global community during the event will include creating awareness of the investment opportunities in Africa’s biggest telecom market, as well as guarantee of adequate Returns on Investments (RoIs).

“In this connection, we are here to tell the ICT community that Nigeria with a population of about 170 million is a preferred investment destination in Africa.

“With over 150 million active subscribers, in the voice segment, over 102 per cent teledensity and a little over 92 million internet connections, Nigeria is indeed a place to invest,” he told participants.

According to him, the ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for sustainable development said Nigeria now has about 21 per cent broadband penetration and conscious of the reality that broadband fuels faster data transmission speed and capacity, focus now is on how to attract the right investments to grow this critical area of the sector through broadband coverage expansion.

September 27, 2017
World Bank to support mining sector

The World Bank has said it would continue to partner the Federal Government on the mining sector development, adding it is also working with some of the states that have higher potential in the country.

Senior Mining Specialist, Energy and Extractive Industries (GEEDR), World Bank, Francisco Igualada, who gave the assurance, said establishing a strong foundation for mining sector development would enhance competitiveness and foster domestic investment in Nigeria.

In a statement at the weekend, he said the World Bank would follow a value chain that would bring together countries from non-renewable resources to a stage in which sustainable development would take place adding that each country has its own peculiarity and characteristics.

He said: “I am particularly excited about two projects; our critical involvement in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in support of the rationalisation of the sector through nearly five years as well as responsibility in managing our recently approved $150 million loan project (MinDiver) for developing the Nigerian mineral sector and diversifying it from its dependency on other sectors including oil and gas.

“I am really looking forward to contributing to transforming their potential resources into some tangible exploration and exploitation mineral projects bringing economic prosperity and jobs. Nigeria is the first African economy and really needs the employment that mining and all types of value-chain including local content can bring.”

Igualada said the message at Nigeria Mining Week next month is straightforward: “We need to get it right’ once for and all and this means that a strong sector foundation is a must, afterwards facilitating downstream sector developments and the enhancement of competitiveness need to happen as a logical result. This cannot and should not be improvised and built piece-meal.

September 25, 2017