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  • ‘Banking technology can drive insurance growth’

    Can banking technology drive insurance sector to bring more people into the financial system? Head of Research at Coronation Merchant Bank Limited, Guy Czartoryski, says it is possible. Speaking with COLLINS NWEZE, he said the technology deployed by banks to get 38.5 million Bank Verification Number (BVN) registered customers can be used to deepen insurance penetration. What is needed is more investments in the insurance sector, including industry recapitalisation and right regulation. For him, as more technology is deployed to push the insurance business up, profits will follow and the economy will benefit.

    Can banking technology be deployed to increase the customer base of the insurance industry? If so, what sort of technology do you think can be used to boost the activities in the industry?

    If you look at the bank numbers, their fees and commissions are growing quite quickly because people are using Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) code on their phones. If you look at the Telco industry, it is the star of the Gross Domestic Product number because the Telco industry is going up about 11 per cent year on year on the back of the deployment of this technology. In my view, insurance companies can use technology to increase their penetration and coverage similar to the banking industry. There are lots of channels, such as mobile banking, whereby using mobile apps,  which banks use to reach out to a lot of customers. That sort of digital platform for insurance would go a long way for the insurance companies. Many people do not go into banks anymore. This sort of technology development can also be used in the insurance industry to increase the penetration. Using mobile channels, using internet platforms as a way of increasing awareness, boosting the brand and customer appreciation requires a lot of investment and that is why a lot of insurance companies have not been able to make those investment. So getting more capital would increase that process of getting access to customers directly.

    How convenient is this, considering that insurance does not have all the resources given that with the apps there is a pool of funds for the customers giving them options to choose the transaction they want to do?

    The usual way is to go to their office to fill a form. But now I can do that using my mobile app instead of me going to their office, which is the kind of technology initiatives we are talking about. If I want to do my car insurance, I can also do it using my mobile app rather than going to the office, looking at convenience. By using technology, it increases the penetration and usage. Also, constantly using all sorts of tools, using social media and you are always seeing this product it increases the awareness of insurance and trust.

    You mentioned that banking technology can drive insurance, so what is stopping it? Is it regulations or the sector is not ready for it yet?

    If you are an insurance company, you cannot walk into a bank and tell them to sell your products. For that to happen, it takes a lot of education. If you go into a bank saying I have got this great idea to sell insurance, you would get a good response but you will put a lot of debt in your infrastructure. For a bank to sell the insurance product, you will need a sales team within the bank to actually do it or at least incentivise your existing sales team to sell, which is hard to do. Although there are some markets where bank insurance works and some that it does not work. It works well in France while in the United Kingdom, it does not work. In terms of the regulator, an insurance company can only use two banks as its partner, and banks can only use two insurance companies as its partner.

    It is expected that at the end of the recapitalisation exercise, the companies would reduce from 59 to about 25, what are the indicators we are likely to see?

    One of the main discussions is to list  the other companies and we list the ones that are in capital raising exercises and assume the others cannot raise capital which means they would be bought or merged. It is kind of a guess work, but it is a question of how deep the pockets of the share holders are. Let us say 10 billion for a non life. Capital could mean only your paid up capital, it could mean your paid up capital plus your shared premium account, it could mean your paid up capital plus your shared premium account plus your retained earnings, or it could mean your paid up capital plus your shared premium account plus your retained earnings, plus your reserves with equal share holders funds.

    For instance, in 2020, there is likely to be a lot of money in insurance. The challenge is where this capital is going to be used. If you look at the purchasing power of average Nigerians, who are supposed to take insurance policies, they are mostly concerned about basic needs. So, where are the insurance companies going to deploy this money?

    If a research team goes out to conduct a market survey in outer parts of Lagos and they understand what the consumer is doing, asking the five things people want, insurance would not be one of them. So, insurance is not a product you can just advertise and sell, it does not work like that which is why micro insurance is wonderful in a way. If you are selling a micro insurance product with something like a Telco which everyone uses and you put a small slice as the Telco fee as the insurance premium, then you can grow it successfully and familiarise people to the market with that at the same time. You cannot put up advert boards and advert campaigns telling people to buy insurance. It is different for pensions because we see people paying pension advancements but insurance does not follow that rule. Therefore, I do not think people would be able to take out money from their account to pay for insurance. Making some sort of insurance mandatory is a better way of doing it. In terms of what a lot of the companies would spend the money on is most likely technology because you are going to create systems that would service a lot of clients.

    How can we address this issue of trust in the industry?

    Trust is very essential in the banking industry as well as insurance. Learning from what happened in the pre 2004 consolidation era, you could count the number of people that had bank accounts because a lot of players and a lot of people had witnessed banks in distress, making people lose interest in banks. Post consolidation, the banks reduced from 89 to 25 banks. Presently we have bigger banks with large balance sheets, huge capital for them to reach out to a lot of customers in order to create a lot of trust and we have seen a massive increase in financial inclusion. For example, Access Bank before 2004 had just about 200 retail customers but now it is about 14 million customers and it is growing by  the day. This is the type of effect we are expecting in the insurance consolidation. There are currently about 59 players and the reason people are not patronising insurance is as a result of lack of trust issues such as, them getting paid when the insurance policy matures. By the time the numbers of layers in the industry reduce and we have strong firms in the insurance industry that have huge capital base they patronage in the sector would develop.

    What is the interest of Coronation Merchant bank in the insurance industry. Secondly, the capital base of micro insurance operators as specified by the National Insurance Commission is low. So, it is not enough for them to deploy infrastructures to address the issues? 

    There are numerous ways to make sure banks can service an insurance company. It is all about liquidity, insurance companies are liquid and they can help manage it. Your liquidity might be in the wrong currency, because if someone smashes up their car you cannot go and completely repair it in naira because some of those spare parts are in dollars. Hence, that business inevitably is going to go to a bank. The approach we have had here is to have a separate licence and what I do know is that when you run micro insurance you can either have it in a separate licence which means that capital has to service that particular activity. Also I think you can have a lot of involvement, if you go into Linda Gate’s Foundation site or UK AIDS site, you would see a lot of these people are interested to support us, so you might be able to leverage that capital using Development Finance Institution’s foundation institutions data to find institutions and foundations that are active and willing to support.

    Looking at the trust you mentioned, it is a factor that is pulling down the sector so what do you have to say about using slight technicalities to deprive owners of claims?

    The profile of insurance companies is increasing in terms of trust, what you are referring to is how people refer to insurance companies in the past, in the last decade the regulators, National Insurance Corporation (NICON) has worked on this and with the help of the Insurance Brokers as well we are seeing the technicalities you have mentioned and insurance companies have become more responsible in meeting up claims.

    I do not think it is a major problem like it used to be, and that is why I am saying that the insurance industry has been plagued with this lack of trust issue. There is a lot of work that needs to be done to ensure there is a cleanup concerning this but to be honest in the last couple of years, the issues of not being able to make claims have reduced NICON alongside insurance stakeholders  have worked effortlessly to tackle it. I remember in the year 2000, to make insurance claims could take up to two to three weeks, now it can last for two to three days to make claims, and it is increasing which is what this consolidation would further increase because now you have more bigger players in the industry and the time of claims settlement would also be shortened; also, with the risks appropriately priced there would not be any issue meeting up claims so these are the technicalities that have reduced. People still have the old picture in their minds not knowing there have been drastic developments which is going to improve over the years.

    What is your view on the government’s patronage in the insurance sector?

    The government has numerous assets, such as fleet of cars, properties, which is a different scenario when you have a single car or property which makes more sense for you to insure. If you own 3000 cars you do not insure because you have other cars. The more access you have to a particular asset, the less reason for you to insure them. However, I believe that most governments in the world should have a mandatory insurance policy on all government cars, properties, businesses the same way they insure employees.

    I do not think it is a matter of trust, in my opinion I think it is a due to government bureaucracy.In the past, a lot of insurance companies used to write insurance on credit and there used to be a lot of receivables in the books of those insurance companies. We all know about the delay of government to pay up on insurance but now there is a policy of no premium no cover which means the days of receivables are gone. Even if the government by virtue of their policies needs to insure their assets but due to bureaucracy in payment, the asset that should have been insured in 2019 would extend to 2020 and by that period the insurance would have relapsed and that is why there has not been an increase in terms of government patronage in the insurance industry.

     

     

  • Calabar seaport: Reps summon Customs, NIMASA, Navy, others’ chiefs

    The ad-hoc committee set up by the House of Representative to determine why Eastern Ports are not put to maximal use has invited the heads of some key security agencies operating in Calabar seaport to appear before it in Abuja on Wednesday, September 26.

    The Committee chairman, Hon. Yusuf Buba Yakub gave the order  during the sitting of the ad-hoc committee at the conference room of Calabar Seaport, Nigeria Port Authority, Calabar at the weekend.

    He directed the clerk of the committee to immediately invite the Comptroller-General of Customs, Immigration, NIMASA, the Chief of Naval Staff and the Inspector General of Police to appear before the committee following questionable operations of illegal jetties within the Calabar port channel area, an act adjudged to be a huge economic sabotage to the country.

    The committee who was received in NPA Calabar by the Port Manager of Calabar Seaport Mrs. Marie Asien, in a meeting with stakeholders, frowned at the reports of the free operations of illegal jetties within the port area and further directed that “within one month, the security agencies responsible should ensure that no illegal jetty will be seen or reported as operating in Calabar Port area. We want to have the reports after one month in writing, address to the House of Representatives.

    “This committee came out on this national assignment. It is an ad-hoc committee formed by the House of Representative to investigate and find out why our Eastern Ports are not being used maximally. We stated from Lagos port to Warri port to Port Hart court Port, Onne Port and today we are in Calabar port.”

    He commended Calabar Port Manager for being frank in her briefing. “She has reduced most of our work. Most of the ports we visited, we had to struggle before they will open up to tell us certain essential things,” he said.

    However, the committee advised that NPA should increase the 10per cent rebate given to ships coming to Calabar port and ensure that the rebate is for all ships coming to the port, without any categorisation.

    “If the rebate can also be increased, that will be good. Our target is to see that Calabar Port is fully functional,” he said.

    The committee was also briefed about the myriads of problems hampering operations and functionality of Calabar seaport.

  • Making a living from skincare

    The challenges of many women is how to manage their skin. Debbie Ibiyemi, a Computer Scientist, has set up a skincare firm to attend to their needs, DANIEL ESSIET reports

    Debbie Ibiyemi is the founder of a skincare start-up. A graduate of Computer Science, she is not a stranger to the business. She joined the industry as a make-up artist.

    She had seen many Nigerians struggling with their skin. She researched various ingredients and tried many brands; eventually, she found solution to their problems.

    This was what inspired her to launch her business with the objective of educating people about skincare products.

    She said: “I studied Computer Science in the university, though I didn’t practise for long. Then, I  became a make-up artist for about six months before launching my skincare business.

    “My major challenge was lack of skincare education. I am a career-driven woman and I hated the fact that people saw skincare as a roadside business for women who are not that serious in life. I wanted to make a difference and the only way to do so is to study the skin. At that time, standard skincare training was scarce in Nigeria. It is still scarce but a bit better than before.”

    Her company started modestly, selling products from her home. She learnt the nuts and bolts of setting up a skincare business. Months later, she had formulated a range of products for sale.

    Her words: “In 2011, I started the business alone. I was only making natural products and selling. I did this for a year and then employed someone to dispatch my goods to several parts of the country. After I became an esthetician and specialised as a skin consultant, I decided to start teaching people safe and effective methods to take care of their skin and this birthed the skin business boot camp, a Facebook community of almost 11,000 members.

    “I went on to create online master classes on various aspects of skincare and the classes have graduated about 4,000 people in 14 months. The people have gone ahead to start their skincare businesses. Some who had businesses have also, via the training, improved on their products and services.”

    On the state of the business, she said: “It is no longer just me. We have virtual assistants who help with content, brand and media strategists; and very recently we launched a special marketing squad to render services to our online community members who have started their businesses, or are about to.”

    The beauty entrepreneur said one reason she has been successful was because of her commitment to her work. She believes it takes a certain mindset to succeed. “If you accept the word ‘fail’, you stop trying. If you never accept the word ‘fail’, you never stop trying; so you go on until you achieve success.”

    A vital part of the mentality is the refusal to see problems as setbacks.

    On her success factors, she said: “One of the things that have helped me achieved success in this business as I said is access to proper skincare education. Skincare is beyond learning a few recipes. It is a full system that you need to learn its language, understand it and communicate to each skin you meet appropriately and this is what I have dedicated myself to give to everyone that comes in contact with me.”

    In the nearest future, she sees a Nigeria where everyone is aware of their skin needs and ready to apply safe skincare practices.

  • The people’s hero kicks off

    Audiences are being thrilled to a rich and colourful experience of entertainment and culture on MTV Base as The People’s Hero talent hunts kicked off on Saturday.

    The show, which will be repeated every Wednesday, is an initiative of Hero Lager Beer, an International Brewery Plc brand.

    The Senior Channels Manager for Viacom International Media Networks Africa, Solafunmi Oyeneye, said after a series of thorough and transparent auditions in Enugu and Owerri, which attracted almost 2,000 youths from every city in the Southeast and Southsouth, the final 20 with talents in singing, dancing, the spoken word and acting have been selected. They and are in the house to contest for the grand prize of N7 million and the consolation prizes of N2 million and N1 million for the first and second runners-up.

    Solafunmi said the broadcast began with episodes of the pre-audition activations across five states in the Southeast and Southsouth. The subsequent episodes will feature the auditions in Enugu and Owerri. She described the auditions as intriguing experiences the audience cannot afford to miss. According to her, the massive turnout of raw talents and deep knowledge of culture by youths, as displayed during the auditions, were breathtaking. She noted that throughout the auditions, it was impressive to see how youths were proud to celebrate their culture.

    Assuring audience of a thrilling experience, the Marketing Manager, Hero Lager Beer, Mr. Obumneke Okoli, said the show promises not only to be entertaining and exciting, but also to further educate the populace, especially those from the Southeast and Southsouth, on the relevance of their culture to modern live.

    According to him, it is amazing to see our young ones demonstrate a detailed understanding of the Southeastern culture in diverse contemporary styles. He reiterated that The People’s Hero TV show is a platform to celebrate the culture of the people as well as giving opportunities to young talents to express themselves along the skills of singing, dancing, spoken word and acting.

  • Three gas plants shut in Akwa Ibom

    The Eket Field Office of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has shut three illegal gas plants in Ikot Ekpene Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.

    The Operations Controller, Tamunoiminabo Kingsley-Sundaye said the gas plants were shut last week.

    He said: “Last week in the course of our surveillance, we noticed three illegal gas plants within the Ikot Ekpene axis. These plants do business despite the dangers they pose to people’s property, environment and life.

    “Before the DPR will give you approval or license, there are certain engineering standards you must achieve. You just don’t come and run a facility; you must have an international standard because it is a business governed with same code and standard.” Kingsley-Sundaye said the department had written to the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to enforce law and order in the illegal plants if operational.

    He explained that any owner who does not comply with international standards would be arrested and possibly prosecuted. He also advised owners to ensure their plants meet up the minimum standard and guidelines of doing business in the state.

    The Operations Controller appealed to owners of gas plants to get details which gives impetus to DPR in order to grant them license and approval to operate.

     

     

  • New Chams management assures on good corporate governance

    The management of Chams Plc has assured the investing public that it will uphold good corporate governance by providing adequate and timely information to the investing public.

    Chams Plc’s new Group Managing Director, Mr Gavin Young, made the assurance during a courtesy visit to the management of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

    He said Chams was prepared to ensure sustainable shareholder value by focusing on innovations in its core area of identity management.

    According to him, the company would place premium on investment in innovative solutions and software across the commercial, consumer and government sectors of the economy to sustain its competitive edge.

    Young, who was accompanied by the immediate past group managing director of the company, Femi Williams, assured the Exchange that Chams would always take the issue of compliance with all the post listing requirements seriously.

    He said the company’s focus is to perfect and package innovative solutions so that it can realise value from its investments.

    As Chams is one of Nigeria’s foremost identity companies, we are also focussing on innovation in the identity space, and particularly verification, as there are now over 40 million National Identity Numbers (NIN) and BVN records to which we can link to provide such verification solutionsn,” Young said.

    He pointed out that the company has good working relationships with the National Identity Commission (NIMC) and Nigerian Inter Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) noting that Chams’ subsidiaries are making good progress in the Fintech payment segment.

    Young, who had worked with  Chams for over one decade in various capacities at both formal and informal level as well as the company’s subsidiaries, including investment companies, commended his predecessor, and his team for taking the company out of debt overhang within the last two years.

    Williams, who had worked for Chams for over two decades in various capacities, outlined many milestones recorded by the company during his four-year tenure, including declaration of dividend after three years of continuous losses, 100 percent appreciation of the company’s share price on the Exchange, balance sheet restructuring, maintenance of business relationship with Osun State Government till date, creation of Project Arise in 2017 and payment of all loans, among others.

    Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) Chief Executive Officer, Mr Oscar Onyema, congratulated the company on its tradition of seamless transition and urged the management to take advantage of opportunities created by the Exchange for ease of communication to the market.

    He emphasised the need for the company’s board to adhere to principles of corporate governance.

     

  • AfCFTA’ll open new vistas to banking sector, says Osinbajo

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday said the signing of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement(AfCTA) offered Nigeria great opportunities to extend its banking and financial services across Africa.

    He spoke at the 12th Annual Banking and Finance Conference 2019 of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (CIBN)  in Abuja.

    The two-day conference had: The Future of the Nigerian Banking Industry-360 as its theme.

    Osinbajo said there was also need for Nigeria to boost her exports which could not be achieved without improving infrastructure.

    He said:”With the signing by the President of AfCTA, there are great opportunities and challenges.

    “We  have great opportunities to  extend the reach of our banking and financial services across Africa where we are making waves, and export more where we are exporting, especially in fast moving goods, cement and now fintech .

    “But we must improve infrastructure to expand our manufacturing base, and produce cheaper; this is crucial because we are also the target market for all Africa.

    “We are faced with the threat of smuggling; we will now have to contend with the threat of dumping.

    “This is why the current stage of negotiations on the AfCTA is crucial;  I think the sum and substance of what I am saying is that, our financial service sector now has to redefine itself.’’

    He said efforts needed to be made to  lend to Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and the entire real sector.

    He said  the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had been in partnership with some banks and had successfully given loans to almost one million farmers under the Anchor Borrowers Programme but the need was far greater.

    According to him, there are  series of measures the Federal Government has taken to unlock lending to critical, labour intensive sectors of the economy.

    “In agriculture, we have seen how the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) has given the banking industry greater confidence to unlock new capital for Agropreneurs by de-risking value chains across the nation.

    “The immediate dividend of enhanced agricultural productivity is the sharp increase in the population of employed and banked Nigerians,” Osinbajo said.

    He said reducing the nation’s foreign exchange expenditure on food imports would be expended on its extensive infrastructure development and social investment programmes for further job creation and enhanced financial inclusion.

    “ We are leveraging the success, knowledge and experience of our work in NIRSAL to fundamentally reform the Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF).”

    According to Osinbajo, it is also de-risk chains in the solid minerals sector with a risk-sharing mechanism, to secure lending from the banking sector for private capital to in-flow and build new allied industries.

    “We have been in discussions with the national Pension Commission (PENCOM) on de-risking pension funds to enable lending for infrastructure development.’’

    The vice president said financial inclusion was key to realising  President Muhammadu Buhari’s promise to lift 100 million people out of poverty in 10 years.

    He said  the journey of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty started with collaboration with the Bank of Industry(BoI) to deliver the Government Enterprises and Empowerment Programme(GEEP)– Tradermoni and Marketmoni.

    He said that after emerging from a recession, Nigeria had attained a reasonable measure of macroeconomic stability.

    Earlier, in his address of welcome, CIBN’s President, Uche Olowu, said that the conference was symbolic and significant to CIBN and Nigeria in two great ways’.

    He said it marked the 125th anniversary of the emergence of banking in Nigeria.

    Olowu said it was also coming exactly a week after the 23rd World Conference on Banking Institutes hosted by the London Institute of Banking and Finance.

    In his remarks, CBN President, Godwin Emefiele, said that 21st-century banking was digital and had come to stay in Nigeria.

    Represented by Dr Joseph Nnanna, Deputy Governor, Economic Policy Directorate, CBN, Emefiele urged the Nigerian banking system to be alive to its responsibility, reminding them that the days of arm-chair banking were over.

     

  • CIS explains executive conversion programme

    The Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS) has said its Executive Conversion Programme (ECP) was introduced to attract highly-rated professionals in the academia as part of efforts to deepen the research base of Nigerian capital market.

    CIS explained that the ECP was a strategic temporary window to provide opportunity for some of the institute’s leading examiners to formally enter the professional cadre of the securities market in order to upscale the quality of human capital.

    Addressing the second batch of senior lecturers, mostly professors of accounting and finance at the brainstorming session in Lagos, President, Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS), Mr Adedapo Adekoje, said one of the strategic initiatives of the institute was to advance professionalism in order to cope with the challenges of global competitiveness.

    He pointed out that finance-related senior lecturers have enormous task of marrying theories with practice in other to improve the quality of research that would enhance investment decision by both indigenous and foreign investors.

    First Vice President, Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS), Mr. Olatunde Amolegbe, expressed satisfaction at the level of the participants’ discussion which reflected their deep knowledge of the financial market.

    “The fact that you all have significant pedigree in finance related discipline and research, we urge you to view this training as a practical approach to your theoretical background. This will further integrate you into the business of securities market and also impose on you the necessity to conduct research that will bring about an array of investment opportunities in the capital market,” Amolegbe said.

    Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS) Registrar and Chief Executive Mr. Adedeji Ajadi stated that the idea of ECP was to improve professionalism of securities dealers in research and development adding that the institute would continually collaborate with tertiary institutions to attract students into the market as part of the strategy to grow its membership base.

    “We recognised that we need to marry the intellectual side of things with the practice side of things. So, bringing top academics into the Institute will help us to integrate practice with the theoretical side of things, thereby enhancing the overall quality of our members, Ajadi said.

    Former President of CIS and one of the facilitators, Mr. Ariyo Olushekun who made extensive presentation on ethics advised the participants to uphold the highest standard of professionalism in their dealing with clients.

    Olushekun cited many case studies to demonstrate the need for integrity on the part of stockbrokers as their words must be their bonds.

    A council member of the institute and also a facilitator, Mallam Kasimu  Garba Kufri, took the participants on “ The Practice of Securities Trading and Investment”.

    Participants expressed satisfaction with the institute’s initiative and appreciated it for creating the special window for them.

    “I am very excited for the opportunity the institute has given me. I shall be glad to become a member of the institute so as to contribute to the development of the Nigerian capital market,” a Professor of Banking and Finance from Imo State University, Michael Ndugbu said.

    Another participant, a Professor of Mathematics at the Lagos State University, Professor Michael Adetunmobi described the programme as an opportunity  to join the stockbroking community.

    Also, the Dean, Faculty of Management Sciences, Bayero University, Kano, Professor Kabir Hamid said the knowledge gained from the training would help him to balance theory and practice of the workings of the capital Market.

     

  • World Bank, IFC agree to support Nigeria’s devt

    The World Bank Group and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), have promised to continue to support Nigeria in bridging its infrastructure gap.

    The two organisations gave the commitment in a statement issued by the World Bank’s Senior Communications Office in Nigeria yesterday in Abuja.

    The World Bank Vice President for Africa, Mr Hafez Ghanem, IFC Vice President for the Middle-East and Africa, Mr Sérgio Pimenta, and IFC Vice President for Economics and Private Sector Development, Mr Hans Lankes, were quoted to have discussed during a visit to Nigeria.

    The meeting discussed how the World Bank Group could help Nigeria leverage private and public investments and expertise for inclusive growth.

    According to Ghanem,  the bank can together with the private sector leverage government resources to bridge infrastructure gaps in Nigeria.

    “We have supported and seen success in transport, energy and power sectors using Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) models.

    “The Azura power project is an example of how we have attracted private sector investment in the power sector.

    “We are happy to work with the government of Nigeria on power sector reforms, which will create a better environment to attract more private sector financing,” Ghanem said.

    Pimenta said the financing needs of developing countries often surpassed their own budgets and available donor funding.

    He however, said that private sector resources and expertise could go a long way in bridging the gap.

    “In sub-Saharan Africa, we are increasingly seeing the private sector design sustainable business models that are creating jobs and lifting people out of poverty,” he said.

    According to the statement, the National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan (NIIMP), Nigeria faces a $100 billion annual investment gap in infrastructure.

    It added that the new approach to mobilise development financing, was also presented during a workshop with key business leaders and policy makers.

    According to it, under this approach, the World Bank Group’s institutions will work together to mobilise a range of financing solutions (both private and public) for projects in developing countries.

     

     

    This, it said, would help expand funding options for low and middle-income countries and enable them to benefit from global best practices and expertise.

    Participants at the workshop discussed how to crowd in private sector financing to solve Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit; identified the reforms needed to support PPPs and developed an action plan to generate future PPPs.

    The statement highlighted the World bank’s portfolio in Nigeria to be $11 billion invested across all sectors, while IFC’s portfolio stood at over $1billion in sectors including manufacturing, financial services and infrastructure.

     

    The World Bank Group delegation also met with senior government officials including Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, the Minister of Finance, Budget and Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, Minister for Aviation, Mr Hadi Sirika and the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, Gov. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti.

     

  • 100 exhibitors for auto parts show

    ONE hundred exhibitors from Nigeria and other countries are expected to converge on the Landmark Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos for the West Africa Automotive Show (WAAS) in November.

    Besides displaying the latest developments and products in the spare parts and services sector, suppliers, dealers and manufacturers will be available to discuss best practice for the industry.

    Nigerian businesses, according to the organisers, BtoB Events, will account for about 30 per cent of exhibitors.

    There will be pavilions for Morocco and China, smaller groupings from Thailand, Egypt, Tunisia and India, and other countries.

    BtoB Events’ Managing Director Jamie Hill said: “We have a wealth of international exhibitors looking to bring high-tech equipment to Nigeria for the first time and a large number of local exhibitors are looking to expand their business and increase exports to surrounding countries,” he said.

    Lagos, Hill said, was picked to launch the show because it has capacity to become the automotive hub of the African continent with over 11.5 million vehicles on the roads.

    “With over 60 per cent of vehicles on the road being over 12 years old, there is a huge aftermarket industry. The need for high quality and affordable spare parts is becoming increasingly important,” he said, adding: “There is also a real hunger to boost the local assembly of vehicles across the country with the 2013 National Automotive Industry Development plan (NAIDP). With more assembly plants being set up, this, again, significantly increases the demand for spare parts. We are committed to supporting Nigeria to reach its forecast of having 70 per cent of new cars sold being assembled or manufactured domestically by 2050.”