The Nation Newspaper

Tag: UTC

  • Tomato farmers cry over poor market in Katsina

    Tomato farmers cry over poor market in Katsina

    The Kanya Hote Tomato Growers Association in Daura, Katsina State, has urged the state government to provide stable market for tomatoes.

    Malam Bako Langa, the Chairman of the association made the call when the Reporter visited his farm on Tuesday.

    According to him, the absence of regular and stable market for the product is affecting the fortunes of members of the association who have cultivated the commodity in abundance.

    Langa said members of the association alone have cultivated about 1,000 hectare of tomatoes in the current dry season farming.

    He noted with the price of tomatoes at between N400 and N500, “it is doubtful if we could recoup what we invested in the production and processing of the commodity.”

    According to him, although a tomato processing industry in Katsina is buying the commodity at between N700 and N800 per basket, a farmer require at least N500 per basket to cover the cost of harvesting, packaging and transport.

    He therefore urged the state government to situate a market in the area where factory owners can buy off the commodity from farmers.

    Read Also:  Minister inaugurates  tomato monitoring team

    A farmer, Alhaji Sani Zimbo, said tomato growers would continue to record consequential losses if the situation was not addressed.

    “I cultivated four hectares of two tomato variety called Chipli and UTC and harvest  300 baskets weekly, but the our problem is that of getting market value for our efforts.”

    He advised the state government to come up with an emergency intervention method to assist the farmers and encourage further production of tomato.

    Malam Salisu Salisu, the Irrigation Officer, Daura Local Government noted that the drastic fall in the price of tomato should elicit concern by government.

    Salisu described the situation as “distressful” with farmers at the receiving end.

    When contacted, Dr Abba Abdullahi, Special Adviser to Gov. Aminu Masari on Agriculture, advised the farmers to liaise with his office with a view to addressing the problem.

    He said the state government was doing its best to attract investors to set up tomato processing plants across the state.

    Abdullahi said already, a Spanish firm was in the process of establishing a tomato processing industry in Funtua, to provide stable market for the product in the area.

    “We have invited investors from Spain and aerial survey of where the factory would be located had been completed,” he said.

    NAN

  • Stock Exchange delists UTC, Beco Petroleum, two others

    Stock Exchange delists UTC, Beco Petroleum, two others

    Authorities at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) yesterday delisted four companies that had repeatedly failed to meet corporate governance standards set by the Exchange. The four companies included UTC Nigeria Plc, Beco Petroleum Plc, MTECH Communications Plc and MTI Plc.
    A regulatory document on the delisting obtained by The Nation indicated that the delisting took effect May 2, 2017, although the national council of the Exchange had approved the delisting in February 2017.
    The NSE stated that the delisting was pursuant to clause 15 of the General Undertaking, Appendix III of the Rule Book of The Exchange, 2015-Issuers’ Rules, which deals with the post-listing requirements and sanctions.
    The Nation had earlier reported that not less than five, including three of the four delisted companies, were undergoing final delisting process.
    A source had told The Nation that the companies were delisted under the compulsory delisting mechanism of the Exchange after their failure to meet post-listing requirements on timely disclosures and corporate governance.
    The source said the companies were being delisted for recurring and irredeemable inability to comply with the listing requirements of the Exchange, especially in the areas of timely and accurate rendition of operational and financial accounts and other corporate governance issues.
    The source noted that the delisting process of some of the companies had started almost two years ago and the authorities at the Exchange had continuously engaged the companies with the hopes that they would regularise their operations but they had failed to make any convincing move to comply with listing requirements.
    The source pointed out that some companies that had been issued delisting notices but made significant efforts to comply have been rescheduled from delisting list to companies undergoing restructuring, noting that delisting is the final stage of several efforts made by the Exchange to encourage and incentivize compliance.

  • Restructuring: UTC replaces board

    Restructuring: UTC replaces board

    UTC Nigeria Plc yesterday took a massive sweep in its ongoing restructuring exercise with the replacement of its entire six-man board of directors.

    A regulatory filing obtained by The Nation yesterday indicated that a new board of directors has been constituted to reflect the change in the ownership interests and key points of restructuring, which had saved the ailing food company from being delisted from the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

    The new board of directors included Mr Olaoluwa  Akinkugbe, as chairman, and Ms Imoni Akpofure, Mr Offong Ambah,   Ms Olubunmi Fayokun, Ms Olatoyosi Kolawole and Mr Adedotun Sulaiman, as directors.

    The new board replaced the previous board under the chairmanship of former director general of the NSE, Apostle Hayford Alile and other directors including Mr. Fola Adeola, Engr. Kadri Adebayo Adeola, Mr. Deji Alli, Mr. Bode Adedeji and Mr. Victor Gbolade Osibodu.

    The new chairman of board of directors, Mr. Akinkugbe, is currently the National President of the Nigerian American Chamber of Commerce. He is also on the boards of many companies and associations including Mouka Nigeria Limited and Lagos Business School Alumni Association.

    UTC Nigeria’s share price yesterday remained unchanged at its nominal value of 50 kobo, the price it has been for many years.

    Sources in the know said the change in the board of directors was the crux of recent restructuring initiatives.

    UTC Nigeria had last year listed among companies to be delisted by the NSE for failure to comply with post-listing requirements, including poor and late submission of earnings report, a recurring failure that had earned it sanctions and fines in the previous years.

    The company however had reached out to the NSE with details of its restructuring programme. This staved off the delisting.

    The NSE had in late June 2014 issued a three-month notice of compulsory delisting to some 24 companies for various corporate governance and post-listing failures, especially non-release of financial reports and accounts for several years.

    The affected companies included Investment and Allied Insurance Plc, Goldlink Insurance, Afroil, Rokana Industry, IPWA, West African Glass Industry, Nigeria Wire and Cable, Starcomms, Daar Communication, Mtech, Big Treat, G.Cappa, FTN Cocoa Processing and UTC Nigeria.

    Others included Stockvis, Nigeria Sewing Machine, Jos International Breweries, Capital Oil and Golden Guinea. The NSE had indicated that while the five of the companies including Stockvis, Nigeria Sewing Machine, Jos International Breweries, Capital Oil and Golden Guinea were penciled for delisting because they failed to regularize their listing status, other companies were being delisted because they have failed to submit requisite financial and operational statements.

    The Exchange however later confirmed that 14 companies have started some steps to regularize their listing status. These included Goldlink Insurance, Rokana Industry, IPWA, Daar Communication, G.Cappa, FTN Cocoa Processing, UTC Nigeria, Stockvis, Nigeria Sewing Machine, Capital Oil and Golden Guinea Brewery.

    The NSE had told The Nation then that it might consider a bouquet of waivers and incentives for ailing companies that have opted to restructure their operations in order to meet the stringent corporate governance standards required of quoted companies.

  • Anti-Amaechi protest in Rivers

    Anti-Amaechi protest in Rivers

    Scores of youths marched on the streets of Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, yesterday to protest against Governor Rotimi Amaechi and his administration.

    The protesters carried placards bearing messages, such as “Ameachi be bold to resign;” “Amaechi abuses court order;” “No CJ, No good governance;” “Amaechi stop insulting traditional rulers”; “Government House Assembly is illegal”; “Amaechi 2014 Budget is Fake” and Amaechi lied on Soku oil wells.”

    The protest caused a traffic snarl on UTC Junction-Azikiwe road and other adjoining roads for more than six hours, prompting motorists to seek alternative routes.

    Leader of the protesters Onari Awo Tariah said: “The choice of UTC Junction is deliberate and strategic because it is the terminal point of the administration’s multibillion monorail project.”

    Tariah apologised to motorists and residents of Port Harcourt for the inconveniences.

    “The temporary suffering is a delayed gratification for a better future,”he said.

    Tariah said the protesters would have stormed the Government House but chose the UTC Junction to draw attention to the monorail project.

     

  • Sheriff was blast’s target, says aide

    Sheriff was blast’s target, says aide

    The bomb blast that rocked Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, yesterday, was not from the Boko Haram sect but an act of arson targeted at former Governor Ali Modu Sheriff, his aide said last night.

    Chairman, SAS campaign organisation in Borno State, Malam Bako Bunu, said in a statement that the fact that Sheriffs’ property at the old UTC was also targeted was a clear indication that the former governor was the prime target.

    He said the fact that there had been no bomb incident in Maiduguri for the past 11 months until the former governor visited also gives the impression that the sustained opposition against his visit was a calculated move to stop him.

    “It is sad that vehicles bearing Ali Sheriff’s posters were either vandalised or burnt which further points to the fact that Sheriff was the actual target,” Bunu said.

    According to Malam Bunu, the bomb which killed about 19 people was the handiwork of a former chairman of the Maiduguri Metropolitan Council and another highly placed official of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) who has always been suspected to be the brains behind violent activities in Maiduguri.

    “It is an open secret that out of desperation to gain political control of Borno state and out of fear of the growing relevance of Ali Sheriff politically, a group of people has been hiding behind the current insecurity in the state to stop his visit.

    “We are aware that the Boko Haram incident was used as an alibi for some people to perpetrate mayhem and distract the attention of the security operatives,” Bunu noted.