The Nation Newspaper

Tag: sector

  • Africa’s private sector must play leading role in continent’s development —Tony Elumelu

    Africa’s private sector must play leading role in continent’s development —Tony Elumelu

    Idea rules the world. This certainly explains why many business men and women, upwardly mobile business executives in particular,  hold their ideas close to their chests to prevent others from stealing them and reaping from where they did not sow.

    This business mindset was however punctured last weekend when Tony Elumelu, the Chairman of United Bank of Africa (UBA) and the founder, Tony Elumelu Foundation, generously shared his business ideas and principles with 1,000 young entrepreneurs drawn from 51 African countries.

    It was a day that the celebrated business mogul lavishly  emptied  his business ideas and knowledge on the young entrepreneurs. The participants were in no small measure overwhelmed by their encounter with Elumelu who interacted with them in a camaraderie atmosphere. He enjoined them to ask  questions without holding anything back. Riding on this, the participants, threw a barrage of questions bothering on his personal life and businesses at him and had all their questions answered to their satisfaction.  They unanimously called on other established entrepreneurs to follow the Elumelu example by deploying their knowledge and resources to helping budding entrepreneurs.

    The occasion was the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme(TEEP) boothcamp held at the Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State.

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who represented President Muhammadu Buhari, Governor Nasir El-Rufai, Bishop David Oyedepo of Faith Tabernacle, Mr Lionel Zinsou, the Prime Minister of Benin Republic  among  other dignitaries graced the event.  The participants had the benefits of learning first hand from successful entrepreneurs across the continent.

    Sharing his business principles with the participants, he said:  “If you must be successful as an entrepreneur, you must have principles that you must not compromise. As an entrepreneur, I have my principles which would be of immense benefit to you if you follow them.

    The first principle is hardwork.  If you want to be successful as an entrepreneur, you must be hardworking and as they say, hardwork doesn’t kill. You have to imbibe this principle and follow it to the letters.

    “You also need discipline to excel as an entrepreneur. Any entrepreneur that is not disciplined cannot succeed. The fact that you own your business should not be an opportunity to behave the way you like, instead, it should make you to be focused and always exercise self-restraint.

    “The third principle you must have is the ability to think in the long term. You must learn to forgo short term gains in the interest of the future. Keep visualizing yourself in the long term and not in the short term.”

    He continued: “ As an entrepreneur, you must dare to dream. You must not be afraid of dreaming. Have a dream first and ask yourself what to do to achieve it. You must set milestones for yourself.

    “As an entrepreneur, you must learn how to save and make sacrifices. You must learn not to eat with you ten fingers. You must equally learn to partner with others and also close your ears to a lot of things people say because a lot of people say all manners of things in this clime. Always put issues on the table and not under the table. Be disposed to discussing issues and appreciate where the other person is coming from. By and large, you must not compromise the interest of the business in all you do. Lastly, you must make integrity your watchword in your dealings as an entrepreneur.”

    The idea of the event, Elumelu, said, was borne out of the economic philosophy “ I call ‘Africapilism’   – the belief that Africa’s private sector must drive our economy and social development. The vision is to unleash the inherent ingenuity and passion of African entrepreneurs by empowering them to create businesses that will drive the continent’s transformation.

    Africapitalism in the words of Elumelu  is predicated on the belief that Africa’s private sector can and must play a leading role in the continent’s  development.

    The foundation strongly believes that entrepreneurs are essential to Africa’s development-many Africans are already running homegrown businesses based on deep insights into local consumer demand. “They also spot unique  gaps in the market for specific products  and services, tap into local networks, and often create innovative and disruptive solutions to complex changes.The model of Africapitalist entrepreneurialism  is one that empowers individual Africans and harnesses the power of innovation, personal initiative, hard work and market driven ingenuity previously intractable problems and change our continent forever.

    “TEEP is a holistic 10-year N100 million commitment that will identify, grow, and create 10, 000 African entrepreneurs. A programme built by Africans for Africans. Africa’s destiny lies in the hands of Africans and I am a testimony to entrepreneurship in Africa. If I could succeed in this environment, then younger ones can also succeed,” he said.

    President Muhammadu Buhari, in a letter to the foundation, said he was pleased to see that the efforts aimed at promoting self-help and creating jobs and opportunities for Africa’s youths are gaining ground without overt government intervention.

    “This demonstrates that the work of rebuilding our country as well as the wider continent is one all the patriots and stakeholders must actively engage in.

    I am proud that a Nigeria and a Nigerian is taking the lead in this effort to promote self-worth, encourage entrepreneurship, create jobs, build and promote networks for intra- African trade, business collaboration and investment.”

    He added: “ Our administration is committed to unlocking all such opportunities to restore dignity to our people. This programme is one example I hope others will emulate ad I commend Tony Elumelu and his foundation for their endeavour and leadership in this area.”

    Elated that the economic transformation of Africa is starting in the country through Elumelu, former President Olusegun Obasanjo  said: “I am delighted that the spark of transformation of Africa through entrepreneurship , has been ignited in Nigeria. I congratulate the 1000 African entrepreneurs who made it to TEEP. I urge you to use the TEEP experience as a roadmap to help your entrepreneurship journey. And may the road lead you to  prosperity that benefits the entire continent.

    Commendations for the soft spoken business executive were not limited to the country. Other African leaders also appreciated the gesture and sent their words of gratitude to the foundation and its founder.

    President Boubacar Keita  of Mali in his terse  remark of gratitude said: “ Tony Elumelu, we appreciate your work supporting young Malian entrepreneurs. Thank you for this.

    His Senegalese counterpart, President Macky Sali, while expressing his unreserved delight about the programme,  spoke about his expectations from the nationals that attended it, saying: “ It was a pleasure to meet the five young men from Senegal who were selected into Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme. I know they would make Senegal proud and that collectively, the 1,000 entrepreneurs from all corners of Africa will leave Lagos with the right networks, knowledge and inspiration to make our beloved continent  a better place.”

    Aware of the impact that the programme would have on individual participants, their countries and the continent at large, Dr Nkosangana Diamini Zuma, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, said: “ As a public servant tasked with advancing African unity and cooperation,  I believe there is no stronger evidence of the potential of private sector to promote Africasn unity than self changing initiative conceived in one member state to be accessible to citizens in all member states.

    “The Tony Elumemlu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP)  embodies the spirit of African unity. Beyond that, it stands for African solutions to African problems. Congratulations to the 1000 African entrepreneurs that made it to the TEEP boothcamp in Nigeria. Through TEEP, you have been empowered and with that empowerment there are no limits to your success and no excuses. Individually and collectively, you can help create ripples and waves of economic transformation across the continent, that will be observed and felt on other shores.”

    In spite of the accolades showered on him and the foundation, Elumelu remained humble, strictly concerning himself with liberating the continent from poverty and economic dungeon.

    Defining success, Elumelu, said: “ Success to me is for young Africans to succeed.”

    One of the participants,  Anthony Nwajiugo said: “ The booth camp has added value to our businesses. We all came here with different challenges bedeviling our businesses and I can boldly tell you that we have been equipped with skills and practical ways of tackling the challenges.  For me, the booth camp will help me to transform my challenges to economic gains.

  • ‘Sector needs more support from banks’

    The agriculture sector needs more support from banks to promote sustainable farming, experts have said.

    The Director of Studies, Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI), Dr Olufemi Oladunni, said banks should be encouraged to create more capital for agriculture sector for economic growth.

    This would also increase productivity in the sector and ensure food security in future, he said.

    Oladunni said the government should encourage the banks to support farmers and traders but also gives banks confidence to lend.

    He urged the government to provide more stability to farmers by setting up government-subsidised financing programmes, and that such products should funds to farmers.

    He said banks would shy away if there’s no certainty in terms of guarantees to protect  their  lending, adding that  the  banks is still not responding to the call to support farmers citing  difficulties to get their money back.

    President, Association of Small Business Owners of Nigeria (ASBON), Dr Femi Egbesola, said the government has a huge responsibility to support agriculture

    He urged the government to empower Bank of Agriculture and other financial institutions to support agricultural industries and stimulate bank lending.

    He called on the government to implement a loan discounting mechanism would encourage banks to provide short-term, self-liquidating, secured loans to finance agricultural commodities.

    He said there was a need to create financial literacy in rural areas and banks were making their efforts.

    Meanwhile, the Managing Director, BoA, Prof. Danbala Danju, has called for the repositioning and funding of the agriculture sector to boost food production in the country.

    He said the Federal Government should inject more funds into the BoA for farmers to access.”We hope that President Muhammadu Buhari would strongly support the agriculture sector, especially by injecting more funds into the Bank of Agriculture (BoA),’’ he added.

  • Dearth of funds, others cripple tourism sector

    Paucity of funds and punitive interest rate regime have been identified as some of the problems militating against the development of the tourism sector in the country.

    President, NANET Hotels and Suites, Apapa Mr Ini Akpabio, who spoke in Lagos at the weekend, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to set up a tourism bank in the country to grow the sector for job creation and as well as serve as alternative revenue source to the government.

    He said if such a specialised bank is established for the tourism sector, it will address low access to funds and the  high interest rate that are charged by commercial banks in the country.

    He said: “The tourism sector in Nigeria has not grown as expected by operators. Globally, the industry is fast growing becoming a huge revenue source to government but in our country, its development is slow and frustrating.

    “Therefore, there is the need for government to establish a specialised bank to cater to the needs of the tourism industry.

    According to him, sectors such as aviation, textile, agric have been given financial bail-out by the government, such a gesture has never been extended to the tourism sector, lamenting that a situation where interest rate still stands at double digit of between 27 per cent and 30 per cent can never encourage private investment into the economy.

    He said the Bank of Industry (BoI) and Bank of Agriculture (BoA) were set up to take care of the special needs of the manufacturing and agric sectors, adding that setting up a Tourism Bank will be a wonderful step that will revolutionise the industry, open it up and create opportunities for development.

    According to him, part of the bank’s mandate should be to grant soft loans to both private and public investors in the tourism sector.

    He said:‘It requires huge capital to set up and run a tourism business. If the ban is established, investors will have access to soft loans to run their businesses while the government will get huge revenue in return because such investors will pay tax and other necessary levies which will increase the nation’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and also boost its Gross Domestic Products (GDP).”

    Akpabio urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to look in the direction of lowering the high interest paid on loans in the country.

    “The reduction would boost tourism in the country and also increase in-bound tourists to the country,” he said, adding that promotion of most tourism sites in the country was being hindered by paucity of funds.

    Akpabio said many people were willing to invest in tourism but that interest charged on loans was exorbitant.

    He said: “Loans in foreign countries were given out with a three to two per cent or zero interest rates. This enables rapid growth in the business, but here in Nigeria, interest rates are from 28 per cent upwards.This development is absolutely unfair and it tends to affect the growth of tourism business in the country.”

  • ‘Review power sector privatisation’

    ‘Review power sector privatisation’

    The former Director General, Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NIBRRI) Prof. Charles Ofoegbu yesterday called on President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) incoming administration to review the privatisation of power sector assets.

    He lamented that the worsening power supply situation in the country has made the competence of some of the private investors questionable, arguing that some of the firms lack the technical expertise to operate power plants.

    Ofoegbu, a Geo-Physicist and a former Head, Exploration, the  Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), spoke with reporters in Abuja.

    He raised the alarm that some of the companies that bought over the power entities may have stripped the assets and sold them alongside the spare parts.

    Ofoegbu said the privatisation of Nigeria’s public corporations has turned out to be a failure owing to some genuine and intentional mistakes  of the government. He said these mistakes needed urgent corrections so that the citizens could reap the benefits privatisation.

  • Govt to privatise transport sector

    Govt to privatise transport sector

    The privatisation of the  transport sector would soon begin, Director-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mr. Benjamin Dikki, has said.

    In a statement in Abuja, the bureau’s Acting Head, Public Communications, Mr. Alex Okoh, said the process would begin as soon as the necessary legal and regulatory frameworks were put in place.

    According to the statement, once this is done, the transport sector will become a viable investment destination for investors from across the globe. It noted that the bureau was concerned with the viability of the transport sector because it was critical to the growth of the nation’s economy.

    “We don’t want to repeat the mistake we made during the port reform. Before embarking on the reform of any sector, we will ensure that the legal and regulatory frameworks are in place.

    “That is why for the transport sector, we have all the seven draft bills undergoing approval process by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), after which they will be transmitted to the National Assembly for passage. From the assurances we are getting from the various stakeholders, these bills will be passed soon,” the statement said.

  • Lagos and the informal sector

    SIR: Whatever the standpoint, there is no doubt that the informal sector, particularly in developing economies, remains the bedrock for economic emancipation of the downtrodden. The Lagos example amply reinforces the fact that, if properly regulated and harnessed, the informal sector possesses enormous wealth creation potential. In today’s Lagos, it is difficult to ignore the sector as it has become a veritable source of prosperity and employment for many. Ttransporters, vulcanisers, mechanics, battery chargers, fashion designers, hair dressers, barbers, traders, painters, welders, carpenters, bricklayers, farmers etc have so much become an integral part of our daily lives that the formal sector cannot do without them.

    The administration Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), in Lagos, has evolved several policies and programmes that have accommodated and integrated the sector into the development process. Some of the policies have helped to regulate the activities of the sector thereby ensuring orderliness and enhanced productivity.

    In order to monitor and standardize the activities of the tradesmen and artisans, the state government enacted the Enterprise Identification Law to identify and register various trade associations in order to have a comprehensive data bank of the practitioners for planning purposes and to enable the government determine the infrastructural needs of this sub-sector so as to reduce the cost of doing business.

    The long term plan of government in respect of the project, launched on August 24, 2007, is to add value to information collected and collated by using it to produce a comprehensive business directory to be called ‘Lagos Pages’ to expose all the legitimate businesses in the state to the international investors.

    In order to improve the driving skill of commercial drivers in the state, government established the Lagos State Drivers’ Institute (LASDRI) on May 13, 2009. Also, members of the Lagos State Cab Drivers Association were assisted to secure loans to purchase brand new Nissan cars to enhance the quality and scope of their operation in the state. It should equally be stressed that all the buses being used in the BRT operation are strictly owned by informal sector operators who only enjoy the conducive operational environ provided by the state government through road segregation and upgrading of other road infrastructure. The Nigeria Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), for instance, owns some of the buses with funds secured from Ecobank while another batch of the buses is owned by LAGBUS Assets Management Nigeria Limited. Buoyed by the widespread acceptance of the BRT scheme, the state government has expanded the scope of its operation to other routes such as Yaba-Oyingbo , Ipaja- Egbeda-Igando, Oshodi-Sango Otta, Ojodu-Berger/Ikeja among others.

    Another core area of the informal sector in which the Fashola administration has achieved remarkable success is food security. In terms of meat production and distribution, the Eko Meat Vans were introduced into the state’s meat circulation process to put an end to the health hazard associated with the crude style of distributing meat in the past as well as ensuring food security through modern and hygienic mode of meat transportation.  To ensure the active involvement of butchers in the project, government introduced the Butchers Association to some commercial banks for the purpose of securing loans for the procurement of over 50 meat vans. In same vein, modern equipments have been installed into some of the state’s abattoirs to ensure that they strictly comply with global best practice.

    Similarly, in order to boost food production in the state, government conceived the rice for job scheme which is meant to assist local rice farmers to access fund and embrace modern technology which will enable them produce on a large scale. Also, government has put in place an agrinet project for farmers in the state to fast-track the dissemination of agricultural and natural resources information and technologies to farmers, upland dwellers, and rural entrepreneurs. Through this, government now makes information on all agro products in the state available electronically to provide strategic information for farmers, government authorities, and other stakeholders at the state and local government levels. Government is also developing and promoting ICT skills among agricultural extension workers and farmers.

    In the area of empowerment, through its many skill acquisition and vocational training centers, government has trained over 100,000 people across the state while many of the centres were recently upgraded into core entrepreneurship hubs. Similarly, over 24,000 entrepreneurs have been empowered with micro-credit facilities secured from the state’s EKO Micro-Finance schemes. Periodically, government doles out equipment such as pepper grinding machines, sewing machines, cameras, deep freezers, power generating sets among others to beneficiaries as a way of enhancing their socio-economic status.

    As the state government enhances the wealth generating capacity of the sector, more of its operatives are being systematically brought into the tax net, thereby improving the state’s IGR status.  At a time when national oil revenue is diminishing, rejuvenating the informal sector and, indeed, other sectors of the economy remains an enthralling option. This is the path that Lagos is toeing, and it is, indeed, a worthy path.

    • Tayo Ogunbiyi

    Ministry of Information &

    Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.

  • ‘Beverage sector can save $1.66b from PET bottles’

    Global provider of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) bottle for liquid packaging, Sidel, said its new initiative aimed at reducing the amount of PET used in beverage bottles.

    This, the firm said, would help producers save money and improve the environment.

    According to Sidel data, the average line can save between $300,000 and $1million, with faster lines or larger bottle formats capable of saving even more. This leads to an approximate average saving per bottle of up to $5 per 0.5 litre bottle or $7 per 2 litre bottle for still water, and 0.005 dollars per 0.5 litre bottle or $6 per two litre bottle for Carbonated Soft Drinks (CSD).

    According to Euromonitor forecasts for 2014-2018, releasedthis year, 216 billion PET bottles for still water and 116 billion PET bottles for CSD would have been produced by the end of the year. Assuming a minimum saving of $5 for all those bottles, the beverage industry as a whole could save $1.08 billion for water and $580 for CSD.

    In total this equates to over $1.66 billion potential cost savings for the beverage industry from water and CSD alone on a global scale. This does not include other categories such as juices, liquid dairy products and other products.”

    Service Director, Sidel, Samuel Gobbe, said: “We did the calculation exercise to show the potential that right weighting provides globally. However, we also recognised the value of producers being able to find out the specific savings that they can achieve and have therefore, introduced the packaging calculator to enable them to do so.”

    Sidel introduced an online PET savings calculator to allow beverage producers and bottlers to calculate for themselves what savings could be achieved based on their production parameters.

    “The benefits of light weighting PET bottles are well known in the beverage industry. However many producers are still not taking advantage of innovative new bottle designs that could help them make substantial cost savings,” the Zone Vice-President for the Middle East and Africa at Sidel, Clive Smith, said.

    He said great opportunities exist for the industry in terms of reducing raw material use, costs saving and improving environmental footprints by adopting new bottle designs, especially for water and CSD.

    He said in the past 18 months Sidel has launched several bottle design innovations, including its right weight bottle concept.

    On right weight, he said it was the proprietary bottle design that Sidel uses to ensure a bottle is both light while also strong enough to survive global supply chains, look good at the point of sale and offer a great consumer experience.

    On savings, Smith said studies had shown that modern bottle designs could lead to substantial savings for beverage producers worldwide. To make it easy for manufacturers to calculate their savings, he said his firm launched new PET savings calculator, that would  enable water and CSD producers to calculate how much they could save by utilising a Sidel StarLite base and a shorter neck.

    He said: “The calculator allows producers to enter their production conditions for water or CSD products, such as bottle neck format, raw material costs, annual production hours and blower speed etc. for a range of bottle formats. It then immediately calculates how much money could be saved per line by simply adapting the bottle design to use the Sidel StarLite base and shorter neck.”

  • ‘Beverage sector can save $1.66b from pet bottles’

    Global provider of polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) solutions for liquid packaging, Sidel, has announced a new initiative aimed at reducing the amount of PET used in beverage bottles. This, the firm said, would help producers save money and improve their environmental.

    According to Sidel data, the average line can save between $300,000 and US1 million, with faster lines or larger bottle formats capable of saving even more. This leads to an approximate average saving per bottle of up to 0.005 dollars per 0.5 litre bottle or 0.007 dollars per 2 litre bottle for still water, and 0.005 dollars per 0.5 litre bottle or 0.006 dollars per 2 litre bottle for Carbonated Soft Drinks (CSD).

    According to Euromonitor forecasts for 2014-2018, released in March 2014, 216 billion PET bottles for still water and 116 billion PET bottles for CSD will have been produced by the end of the year. Assuming a minimum saving of 0.005 dollars for all those bottles, the beverage industry as a whole could save 1.08 billion dollars for water and 580 dollars for CSD.

    In total this equates to over USD 1.66 billion potential cost savings for the beverage industry from water and CSD alone on a global scale. This does not include other categories such as juices, liquid dairy products and other products.

    On this, Service Director, Sidel, Samuel Gobbe, said: “We did the calculation exercise to show the potential that Right Weighting provides globally. However, we also recognised the value of producers being able to find out the specific savings that they can achieve and have therefore, introduced the packaging calculator to enable them to do so.”

    Sidel introduced an online PET savings calculator to allow beverage producers and bottlers to calculate for themselves what savings could be achieved based on their own production parameters. “The benefits of light weighting PET bottles are well known in the beverage industry. However many producers are still not taking advantage of innovative new bottle designs that could help them make substantial cost savings,” the Zone Vice-President for the Middle East and Africa at Sidel, Clive Smith, said.

    He relieved the great opportunities for the industry in terms of reducing raw material use, costs saving and improving environmental footprints by adopting new bottle designs, especially for water and CSD.

    He said in the past 18 months Sidel has launched several bottle design innovations, including its RightWeight bottle concept.

    On RightWeight, he said it is the proprietary bottle design that Sidel uses to ensure a bottle is both light while also strong enough to survive global supply chains, look good at the point of sale and offer a great consumer experience.

    On savings, Smith said studies had shown that modern bottle designs could lead to substantial savings for beverage producers worldwide. To make it easy for manufacturers to calculate their savings, he said his firm launched new PET savings calculator, that would  enable water and CSD producers to calculate how much they could save by utilising a Sidel StarLite base and a shorter neck.

    He said: “The calculator allows producers to enter their production conditions for water or CSD products, such as bottle neck format, raw material costs, annual production hours and blower speed etc. for a range of bottle formats. It then immediately calculates how much money could be saved per line by simply adapting the bottle design to use the Sidel StarLite base and shorter neck.”

  • Managing inter-professional relationships in health sector

    The past few years have seen a gradual widening of the gap between professional and operational staff within the health sector. There has been a clamour by the allied-health professionals challenging the existing roles of the medical practitioners in the sector and an increased agitation for a greater degree of participation in the decision-making process.

    Indeed serious conflict which have often degenerated into violent physical combat have occurred between practitioners who share the same physical operational space and several groups of allied-health professionals who have requested for greater degrees of autonomy in the discharge of their duties as against the dictates of the existing chain of command which places them under the supervision of the physicians. This has particularly been a nagging problem in the Laboratories and Medical Imaging Departments.

    Thus, the current state of inter-professional relationship in the Health sector is characterized by mutual suspicion, undue competition and rivalry, violation of intra- and inter-professional chains of command, sabotage of efforts of competing practitioners and at times outright hatred of other professionals.

    The PATIENT, who is the reason for the establishment of the sector, is the first casualty in this crisis.

    Several factors are responsible for the present state of things. One of which is the increasing demand for greater roles and greater authority in the management of patients by the different healthcare professionals in the hospital setting.

    The health sector, like other multi-professional systems like the aviation industry, the university system and even the manufacturing industry relies on each of the different groups of professionals contributing in different ways to the overall management of the patient. The reasons for this demand for greater roles may be too numerous to mention, but prominent among them is the desire by allied health professionals to achieve greater recognition as professionals within the hospital system and in the administrative reckoning of the civil service bureaucracy as well as in the eyes of the public. It could also be the desire by allied-health professionals for equal financial reward and recognition with the physicians, since the success of his efforts in managing an illness now depends on contributions from other professionals.

    There has also been a persistent failure of collective bargaining with all professional groups in the health sector through the years. Since the early days of the sector, aggrieved professional groups are usually engaged by government or its organs individually whenever their individual grievances were brought to the table rather than collective engagement with all groups to ensure that granting the desire of one group does not infringe on the perceived comfort or operational zones of another.

    In today’s modern healthcare system, the consequences of strained inter-professional relationships have serious implications for healthcare delivery. Imagine a patient who is admitted in a teaching hospital ward in Nigeria who by the time he spends five days on such admission would have encountered numerous healthcare workers of different professional orientation. The number of health workers to see a patient could be as many as 50 in countries with more sophisticated healthcare systems. Another immediate consequence of strained relationships is non-existent or poor communication channels between different categories of professionals. Hence the patient is confronted with conflicting instructions, suspicious practitioners which eventually affects the patient’s psyche, erodes public confidence in the health system and overall treatment outcome. Indeed whether we acknowledge it or not, the absence of these inter-professional communication lines affects patient’s morbidity and mortality because it stalls their investigation, evaluation and eventual treatment.

    The parlous state of inter-professional relationships in the sector has also encouraged the growth of a most undesirable culture of “territorialism” which has caused the decline of true, professionalism among practitioners. Each professional group converts its professional roles and even physical operating space into a “territory” that must be “guarded jealously” against any “violation” by any perceived competitor(s).

    Sadly, this odious culture of “Territorialism” is being passed to junior/up-coming practitioners. Strained inter-professional relationships have also led to the creation of complex, unwieldy organizational structures within each profession that only serves to nourish egos and reduce productivity. It has also contributed to the poor image of the public health sector among our fellow citizens and is a festering problem that requires urgent intervention.

    It stands to reason that as in many other sectors of the economy, the health care sector is also not immune to class struggle which has pitched the doctors against other professional groups in the hospital. The struggle for class distinction and leadership tussle by doctors has created acrimony among other professional which has not augured well for the overall effective discharge of their duties.

    In finding solutions to this challenge however, may involve a multi-dimensional approach.  Government at all levels must put in place policies that recognises the different roles of health professionals but at the same time encourage inter professional working relationship.

    The World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2010 defined inter-professional collaboration as a situation where: “Multiple health workers from different professional backgrounds work together with patients, families, caregivers, and communities to deliver the highest quality of care”. This is essentially a situation where Health care professionals assume complementary roles and cooperatively working together, sharing responsibility for problem solving and making decisions to formulate and carry out plans for patient care.”

    The key word here is “together”.  This model was also suggested by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) the American health policy think-tank as a veritable tool for improving multi-disciplinary care of patients. Critical components that make up this concept must however be put in place for it to succeed. These include: Clear role definition/role clarification of professionals in the health team. There should be clear, unambiguous guidelines  stipulating the roles, responsibilities and limits of all the different professionals in the sector. This surely has always existed in some form, but the lines of responsibility have been blurred in recent agitations. The Federal Ministry of Health has a role to play in this regard.

    There is considerable evidence that inter-professional team work enhances communication, reduces errors, and improves patient outcome and satisfaction as well as staff satisfaction. These outcomes also lead to enhanced patient/client self-care, knowledge and outcomes, provider satisfaction, skills and practice behaviours. It can also lead to system enhancement such as provision of a broader range of services, better access, shorter waiting periods and more effective resource utilization.

    Building effective healthcare systems does not depend on technical factors or infrastructural adequacy alone. Human factors are extremely important. We must advocate for inter-professional collaboration amongst ourselves because collaboration “divides the task and multiplies the success”. The timeless words of Mattie J.T. Stepanek may be very useful at this juncture: “Unity is strength. When there is Team work and collaboration wonderful things can be achieved”.

     

    Prof Olatinwo is Chief Medical Director, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital

  • Power sector gets 70% of domestic gas supply

    Power sector gets 70% of domestic gas supply

    TO improve electricity supply in the country, 70 per cent of total domestic gas supply put at 1.5 billion standard cubic feet per day (scf/d) is dedicated to the power sector, it was learnt.

    The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Andrew Yakubu, who made this known, told The Nation that to further harness the gas resource for monetisation and development, the corporation has established a directorate to accomplish that objective.

    He said: “The gas sector has witnessed commendable improvements in line with Federal Government’s initiative to further monetise the gas resources of the nation. This led to establishment of the Gas and Power Directorate of the corporation, which is anchoring the gas revolution agenda launched by Mr. President aimed at enhancing gas utilisation in the country.

    “We are focused on the development of and installation of new infrastructure for gas processing, transmission and distribution nationwide.

    “Also as a result of the interventions, gas supply to the Nigerian market has grown from 300 million cubic feet per day a few years ago, to an all time high of 1.5 billion cubic feet per day, of which about 70 per cent is dedicated to support the power sector.”

    He also said gas flaring in the oil and gas industry has significantly reduced from 28 per cent two years ago to 10 per cent today, adding that in the past few years, the corporation has embarked on the most aggressive expansion of the nation’s gas pipeline infrastructure for effective transmission and distribution of natural gas.

    He said: “We are in the process of completing construction of pipeline connections to all gas fired power plants. Also the construction of a second 450 kilometre Escravos-Lagos pipeline system is almost completed. The Escravos-Oben and Emuren-Itoki segments have been completed and put into use, leaving the Oben-Emuren segment, which will be completed before end of the year. The construction of 120 kilometre East-West pipeline system has also commenced.”

    The NNPC lamented the unwarranted vandalism of the corporation’s pipelines especially the major trunk lines through which crude oil is conveyed to the terminals for export. The development led to the intervention of the Federal Government with the setting up of a committee. The actions of the committee led to improvement in oil production.

    “It is pertinent to note that Nigeria’s production and export is dependent on four main crude export pipelines – the Trans Forcados pipeline to the west, the Ogbanbiri/Temidaba/Brass pipelines in the centre, the Trans Niger pipeline and Nembe creek trunk line to the east respectively. When these pipelines are compromised and vandalised, over 500,000 barrels of oil per day are potentially at risk.

    “Consequently, the Federal Government had to intervene with the setting up of a committee consisting members of the National Economic Committee. With the help of the committee, production increased slightly last year and is currently ramping up. We hope to see further improvement by year end,” he added.