VOL .4 NO.202 Monday, , 2022January 31–Feb. 6

E X T R A...Partnering for development

www.nationalbusinessextrang.com

N200@nationalbizxtra @nationalbusinessextraplux

CBN moves to check bad loans in banks

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu (middle); First Lady of Lagos State, Dr. (Mrs) Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu (fourth left); President, Nigerian Army Officers’ Wives Association, NAOWA/wife of the Chief Of Army Staff, Mrs. Salamatu Yahaya (third left); Special Adviser to the Governor on SDGs & Investment, Mrs. Solape Hammond (left); wife of Grand Officer Commanding, GOC 81 Division, Mrs. Oghenerukvewe Fejoku (fourth right); Secretary to the Lagos government, Mrs. Folasade Jaji (third right); Commissioner for Women Affairs & Poverty Alleviation, WAPA, Mrs. Bolaji Dada (second right) and members of NAOWA, during NAOWA’s courtesy call on the Governor, at the Lagos House, Marina. PHOTO SUNDAY ESHIET

Top 10 price losersas at January 28Top 10 price gainers as at January 28

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Fitch affirms Ecobank Nigeria stable outlook

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Excise duty on carbonated beverages: In whose interest?

2023 Presidency: PDP battles self in Supremacy war

• Releases operational framework on Global service instruction• Cuts bank charges, removes ATM maintenance fee

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MONEY MARKET

TRANSPORT

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CRIME/LAW

NCAT will conduct more trainings locally, internationally –Rector

EFCC docks manfor alleged N84mfraud in Lagos

IMF urges developing economies to prepare for unstable loan markets

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INVESTMENT TIPS

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Exchange, the larger Nigerian capital market and the economy as a whole with presentations from the Chief Executive Officer, NGX, Mr. Temi Popoola, CFA, and Global Chief Econ-omist and Head of Macro-strategy, RenCap, Mr. Charles Robertson.

There will, also, be a fireside chat with the Director General, Budget

Office of the Federation, Mr. Ben Akabueze, on the Growth Drivers for 2022 – A Finance and Budgetary Per-spective.

Members of the stockbroking community, investors, analysts, media, and other stakeholders in the capital market who wish to attend the

Wema bankexpects

outstanding earnings

growth

igerian Exchange Limited (“The Exchange” or “NGX”) will hold its annual 2021 N

Market Recap and 2022 Outlook in collaboration with Renaissance Capi-tal (RenCap) on Thursday, 3 Febru-ary 2022.

The virtual event will facilitate conversations around The

DUE DILIGENCENGX to review 2021 market activities, provide 2022 outlook

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Union Bank of Nigeria Plc,‘NSE 30 stockof the week’

Company Open Close Gain (N) % Change

ECOBANK TRANSNATIONAL INCORPORATED 9.05 13.10 4.05 44.75

ACADEMY PRESS PLC. 0.66 0.94 0.28 42.42

COURTEVILLE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS PLC 0.46 0.60 0.14 30.43

INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES PLC. 5.00 5.90 0.90 18.00

GUINNESS NIG PLC 42.20 48.10 5.90 13.98

NPF MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 1.94 2.20 0.26 13.40

JULIUS BERGER NIG. PLC. 22.80 25.20 2.40 10.53

AIRTEL AFRICA PLC 1,155.50 1271.00 115.50 10.00

VITAFOAM NIG PLC. 22.20 24.40 2.20 9.91

LIVINGTRUST MORTGAGE BANK PLC 1.04 1.14 0.10 9.62

Company Open Close Loss (N) % Change

C & I LEASING PLC. 4.20 3.78 -0.42 -10.00

UNIVERSITY PRESS PLC. 2.94 2.65 -0.29 -9.86

PRESTIGE ASSURANCE PLC 0.51 0.46 -0.05 -9.80

LINKAGE ASSURANCE PLC 0.56 0.51 -0.05 -8.93

DANGOTE CEMENT PLC 284.90 260.60 -24.30 -8.53

CADBURY NIGERIA PLC. 9.50 8.70 -0.80 -8.42

CONSOLIDATED HALLMARK INSURANCE PLC 0.65 0.60 -0.05 -7.69

AIICO INSURANCE PLC. 0.82 0.76 -0.06 -7.32

NEIMETH INTERNATIONAL PHARMACEUTICALS PLC 1.98 1.85 -0.13 -6.57

NEM INSURANCE PLC 3.70 3.49 -0.21 -5.68

2 Monday, January 31–Feb. 6, 2022 NEWS

he Management of BEDC Electricity Plc. (BEDC) has Tcommended Illah Commu-

nity in Oshimili North Local Govern-ment Area of Delta State for its role in the arrest of electricity vandals stressing the rising cases of vandal-ism across its franchise areas which it says aside being an economic crime is an act of sabotage against the good purpose and intents of the company.

The management said, the power sector has been the most hit in the most devastating manner and the effect of vandalism cannot be over emphasized as residential cus-tomers, industries, small and medium scale businesses are being starved of power as a result of the activities of vandals.

It will be recalled that the anti-cult group of illah community had assisted BEDC in apprehending van-dals who vandalized transformers in the community.

Present at appreciation cere-mony organized to honour the mem-bers of the anti-cult group who caught the vandals and handed them over to the police for prosecu-tion at the Ogbeleani Palace are BEDC Management team led by the Head, Community Relations, Mr. Simple Ugherakpoteni and mem-bers of the Asaba business unit tech-nical team while the community was represented by His Royal Majesty, Obi Sylvester Jugai, the Ogbelani of Illah, Chairman Illah Electricity Com-mittee, Ogbuenyi (Chief) George Ofuokwu, the Odogwu of Illah, Sec-retary to Ogbelani and Illah Electric-ity Committee, Eddy Ojidoh , mem-bers of the anti-cult group and com-

munity youth leadersMr. Simple Ugherakpoteni, who

spoke on behalf of MD/CEO, Mrs. Funke Osibodu, commended the community for its vigilance over BEDC network, saying vandalism of electricity distribution network and other forms of electrical thefts are serious threats to power sector sustainability and economic growth, insisting that increasing vandalism will force the company to spend money meant to improve electricity infrastructure to repair or replace damaged and stolen installations. “the fight against electricity vandals is a collective responsibility that can only be sustained through collective effort and increased partnership.” he said.

The Head, Community Rela-tions while appreciating the effort of Illah Community, presented a life insurance policy for 5 members of the anti-cult group and cartons of energy saving bulbs saying it will help them pay less for power usage and also enjoined other communi-ties to emulate and take ownership of BEDC assets in their various local-ities, “since they are the direct users of these facilities.”

The Ogbelani of Illah, HRM, Obi Sylvester Jugai thanked the man-agement of BEDC for its gesture and reiterated the community's commit-ment in ensuring the electricity facili-ties and equipment are well secured and protected to avoid being thrown into blackout, insisting on improved community and neighbourhood rela-tions with BEDC staff in order to col-lectively fight against electricity van-dals.

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu flanked by the immediate past Lagos Commissioner of Police, Assistant Inspector General (AIG) Hakeem Odumosu (right) and his wife Mrs. Folashade Abiodun Omotade (left), during a Farewell/Pull-out Parade in his honour at Police College, Ikeja, Lagos.

By Kenneth Madueke

he Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has released opera-Ttional guidelines on the Global

Service Instruction (GSI) meant to check the rising cases of bad loans within the nation's banking sector.

This is contained in a circular, FPR/DIR/PUB/CIR/001/039 to banks and other financial institutions, dated January 19, 2022 and signed by the CBN's Director, Financial Policy and Regulation Department, Mr Chibuzo Efobi.

According to the statement, the initiative was conceived essentially to address the recurring instances of will-ful loan default in the industry.

He stated that the guidelines would 'watch list recalcitrant loan defaulters as well as enhance loan recovery from all eligible and funded accounts/wallets in the banking industry.

The move, he added, would improve credit payment culture and reduce non-performing loans (NPLs) in the banking system.

In his words, “consequently, please be informed that the frequency of recovery attempts via the GSI plat-form has been amended from a spe-cific number to continuous and unre-stricted.”

According to him, this means that the GSI automated loan recovery fea-ture applicable to all loans in the industry shall remain perpetually in place throughout the life of the loan and/or until the loan is fully repaid.

Mr. Efobi, nonetheless, urged members of the banking public to check the CBN website for proper understanding of the guidelines.

National Business recalls that the GSI initiative was approved by the Bankers Committee at its February 2020.

Consequently, the apex bank with relevant stakeholders to develop nec-essary protocols to facilitate the implementation of GSI for eligible loans granted since August 28, 2019.

National Business further recalls that for years, the CBN has sus-tained fight against delinquent loan defaulters through collaboration with banking sector operators.

The relentless effort prompted the order to banks to adopt “Name and Shame” strategy involving publi-cation of names and addresses of indi-vidual and corporate bad debtors in the media.

And the rising cases of NPLs in banks which hit N1.3 trillion as at November 2021 informed the estab-lishment of Asset Management Com-pany of Nigeria (AMCON) as a Spe-cial Purpose Vehicle (SPV) about 12 years ago to recover toxic assets that have reduced profitability of banks as well as hurt their operations.

...Cuts bank charges, removes ATM maintenance fee

The Central Bank of Nigeria has reviewed charges and rates for bank-ing activities in the country.

This was disclosed in the CBN new 'Guide to Charges by Banks Other Financial and Non-Financial’.

The apex bank said the guideline applies to charges by Banks, Other Financial and Non-Financial under its licence or regulation.

The document revealed that the CBN has reduced the charges on some transactions including Stand-ing Order Charge (In-Branch); ATM Maninance Fees; Electronic Fund Transfers and Bulk Payments among others.

In the latest guideline, CBN said

standing Standing Order Charge for intra-bank will be free compared to the N300 in the 2017 guideline.

For Interbank Transfers, the CBN cut the charges to a maximum of N50 per transaction compared to the N300 held in 2017.

Bills Payment (Including Bills Payment through other E-channels) is Negotiable subject to a maximum of N500 per beneficiary payable by sender, a review from the N1,200 or 0.75 per cent for a biller or merchant to pay.

Electronic Funds Transfer has also been reviewed downwards to N10 charge for a transaction below N5000; N26 for transaction of N5001 to N50,000 while transac-tions above N50,000 will be charged N50.

Withdrawals on other banks' ATMS have been reduced from N65 to N35 after the third withdrawal within the same month.

The CBN also reduced ATM Bill Payment from N100 to N50. Debit card maintenance charges that were N100/Month have been removed in the new guideline.

The CBN however stated that financial institutions that breach any of the provisions in the new guide would face a fine of N2,000,000 per infraction or as may be determined by the CBN from time to time.

The CBN said, ” Where a bank is found to have wrongfully imposed a particular charge on its customers, the provision of Section (i) above shall apply for the charge on each cus-tomer.

“Failure to comply with CBN's directive in respect of any infraction shall attract a further penalty of N2,000,000 daily until the directive is complied with or as may be deter-mined by the CBN from time to time.

“Banks are required to log every complaint received from their cus-tomers into the Consumer Com-plaints Management System and must generate a unique reference code for each complaint lodged, which must be given to the customer.”

CBN moves to check bad loans in banks• Releases operational framework on Global service instruction• Cuts bank charges, removes ATM maintenance fee

CSR-in-Action partners IBWU Foundation, launches cleaner communities initiative

ing for longevity of life. Goal 6 has par-ticularly been adopted by Nigeria for national development.

Speaking on the partnership, Bekeme Masade-Olowola, Chief Exec-utive, CSR-in-Action, said in a state-ment that, “We chose to partner with IBWU because we share the common vision that leadership is driven by citi-zens and CSR-in-Action is constantly pursuing innovative ways of positively influencing the values of the wider grassroots community in Nigeria.” As a sustainability consulting and advo-cacy company, we are keen on enhancing sustainable values and hab-its that contribute to the development of the country.

Mr. Michael Emeka Dibua, the Board Chair of IBWU, explained that the Cleaner Community Initiative is aimed at “ridding our communities, throughout Nigeria, of filth, by push-ing for the return of simple, cleaner habits, and the removal and disposal of waste, especially as we are aware of the effects dirt and pollution has on our lives, climate, health, wellbeing and so much more.”

IBWU is a not-for-profit organisa-tion whose mission and values are inspired by simple acts of charity and by working in partnerships with com-munities as participants and encour-aging social and community responsi-bility, beginning with each individual.

The CSR-in-Action Group is a con-glomerate of three sustainability-driven businesses: Consulting, Train-ing and Advocacy.

By Olusegun Obisanya

ub-Saharan Africa's foremost sustainability consulting, advo-Scacy and training enterprise,

CSR-in-Action, has entered a part-nership with It-Begins-With-U (IBWU) Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation based out of Canada, led by a volunteer team passionate about bringing about positive attitu-dinal change in Nigerian communi-ties.

The team are working on a col-lective passion to give back to the com-munity through sustainable environ-mental project leading to the birth of a core initiative of the partnership, inclusive of Junior Chamber Interna-tional (JCI), a not-for-profit interna-tional non-governmental organiza-tion of young people between 18 and 40 years old, the Cleaner Communi-ties Initiative (CCI).

The Cleaner Communities Ini-tiative is aimed at driving cleaner neighbourhoods through encourag-ing individual acts of humanity. The initiative will run for 12 months dur-ing which participants embark upon and complete community cleaning exercises of their choice, and upload before and after videos of two min-utes or less, in order to stand a chance of winning N100,000 per month.

The Cleaner Communities Ini-tiative aligns with Goal 6 of the Sus-tainable Development Goals (SDGs) which is centered on sanitation, a green environment and healthy liv-

BEDC commends Illah community over vandals' arrest

CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele

3NEWSMonday, January 31–Feb. 6, 2022

o fewer than 245 youths from Dangote Cement Ibese Plant’s N

16 host communities have been trained and empowered till date in different skills since the commencement of opera-tions in Ibese with significant impact on the local economy.

This disclosure by the Plant’s Director, Azad Nawabuddin came just as the Ogun state government com-mended the organization for the economic value it has been adding to the people and gov-

ernment of the state.Speaking in Ibese during

the distribution of started packs for 30 trainees at the end of a three-month intensive tai-loring and fashion designing training for youths from its host communities in partner-ship with the Industrial Train-ing Fund (ITF), the Ibese plant Director said the training was in furtherance of the com-pany’s Community Youth Empowerment programme designed to improve the econ-omy of the local communities

by making the able youths self-employed.

A c c o r d i n g t o Nawabuddin, the successful completion of the training programme marked another milestone in the journey of com-munity investment by Dangote Cement Plc. with the cardinal objective of contributing towards long term improve-ment of the local communities by delivering and sustaining value to them.

He said “the thirty benefi-ciaries have joined the league of self-employed in our locality. These carefully selected male and female entrepreneurs have undergone intensive training in Tailoring and Fashion designing for three months, under the tutelage of the Indus-trial Training Fund and are receiving their certificates and startup packs, and by exten-sion, their means of livelihood.

According to him; “this

empowerment programme is another demonstration of the commitment of Dangote Cement Plc. Ibese Plant, to improving the social-economic condition of the neighbouring communities. We are commit-ted to continuous implementa-tion of impactful social invest-ments that will eradicate pov-erty and improve the standard of living in our host communi-ties.”

The Plant Director explained that the Dangote Cement, Ibese has carefully designed its youth empower-ment scheme, knowing fully that Government and the pri-vate sector alone cannot meet fully the employment expecta-tions of the youths, especially in a densely populated and youth dominated country like Nige-ria.

“The most plausible alter-native therefore, is for the youths to acquire adequate skills in various trades to become entrepreneurs and s e l f - d e p e n d e n t . T h i s programme is therefore timely and most auspicious as its intended impact cannot be over-emphasized.”, he added.

The Dangote Cement boss recalled that that so far 245 youths from the Ibese Plant’s host communities have been trained and empowered in dif-ferent skills since the com-mencement of operations in Ibese with significant impact on

Self-employment: Dangote cement empowers 245 youths in host communities

C L A S S I F I E D

I formerly known and addressed as ELIZABETH OGBENE OKOOLAH. Now wish to be known and addressed as ADIE ELIZABETH OGBENE. All former documents remain valid, general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

All payments should be made into Zenth Bank 1015522903Business Extra Printing & Publishing Limited

the local economy.He stated that Dangote

Cement did not just stop at training only but also providing the trainees with tailoring mate-rials including machines and other materials needed for them to start off immediately and become their own boss. Quoting a Russian writer, Anton Chekhov, who once said ‘’knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice’’ Mr. Nawabuddin urged the graduands to make effective use of the great opportunity given to them to become entre-preneurs and by implication employers of labour by hitting the ground running.

“You should be focused and ensure you harness the full ben-efits of the skills gathered dur-ing the programme. The world is dynamic, I therefore urge you to always keep tab on latest developments in Tailoring and Fashion Designing to remain relevant for a long time to come and imbibe the spirit of contin-uous learning, unlearning, and relearning.

“Community Leaders and Representatives here present, I want to also congratulate you for selecting the best among your teeming youths for this programme, as reflected in the way and manner they comport themselves during the training. I urge you to continue to pro-vide necessary support that will aid the growth of their trade as well as improvement of their lives and the society in general.

National Business Extra (NBE), a daily online and weekly hardcopy newspaper based in Lagos, has vacancies for:

Correspondents to cover ICT, Oil/Gas, Property/ Environ-ment and Capital Market

Production and online Editors

Business development Managers and Advertisement executives

Requirements: Applicants for (A) and (B) positions must possess analytical minds and big nose for news. Those interested for positions © must be goal-getters and aggressive.Above all, the applicants must be teachable and computer literate.Fresh graduates, experienced journalists and marketers are free to apply for any of the positions.Holders of at least Bsc, BA, HND, NCE and OND in any discipline with modest experience and contact.

Send Applications to: editor.nationalbusextra@gmail.com

Nigeria eyes $40bn investments in digital infrastructureoutlined to the media recently.

According to the docu-ment, the 2017-2020 period recorded increased investment in infrastructure development, higher internet penetration and technology start-ups. “Ni-geria accounts for over 29 per cent of all internet usage in Africa, and much of this internet access is via mobile devices, powered by service

provision from telecommuni-cation and internet service pro-viders (ISPs).

“The contribution to GDP (Gross Domestic Product) from these telecommunication and ISP companies increased from 1.0 per cent in 2003 to 11 per cent in 2020. Further, Nige-ria's mobile penetration has grown to over 80 per cent, and broadband penetration increased from 27 per cent in 2017 to 46 per cent in 2020,” the document stated.

Furthermore, the telecom-munications sub-sector recorded a growth rate of 15.9 per cent. It is the highest growth rate in the last 10 years. This strong growth was driven by the innovative activities of entrepreneurs, but also enabled by recently introduced policies which include the National Digital Economy Pol-icy and Strategy (2020-2030), the Nigerian National Broad-band Plan (2020-2025) and E-Government Masterplan to mention a few”.

By Olusegun Obisanya

he Federal Government is targeting $40bn pri-Tvate capital invest-

ments in digital infrastructure and facilitating the formation of up to $1bn in private equity. The government estimates public investment of N150bn, according to the National Development Plan 2021-2025

L-R: Chidozie Mbah, Software Engineer, IT, Governance & Risk Management, Leadway Assurance; Peter Ejiofor, Chief Executive Officer, Ethnos IT Solutions Limited; Adetola Adegbayi, Executive Director, Technical Services, Leadway Assurance Company Limited; Mosunmola Momah, Lead, IT Strategy & Projects, Leadway Assurance and Olusakin Labeodan, Group Chief Marketing Officer, Leadway Holdings during the presentation of the ISO Certification for Information Security Management System to Leadway Assurance Company Limited in Lagos.

CONTINUED FROM P 1 Index (ASI) closed the year in the green settling at 42,716.44 points with a Year-to-Date return of 6.07%. Being a multi-asset Exchange, NGX also recorded gains in other asset classes, with the total market capitalisation closing at N42.05Tn.

It will, therefore, be excit-ing to see what other achieve-ments were made in 2021 and what potential NGX seeks to unlock in 2022.

e v e n t c a n r e g i s t e r https://ngxgroup.com/ngx-2022-outlook/. In line with previous years, the event will provide an opportunity for par-ticipants to interact with speakers and the Manage-ment of The Exchange to gain more information on what stakeholders can look forward to.

National Business recalls that the NGX All Share

NGX to review 2021 market activities, provide 2022 outlook

I formerly known and addressed as FOLORUNSHO BASHEERAT OLOLADE. Now wish to be known and addressed as HAMZAT BASHEERAT OLOLADE. All former documents remain valid, general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

SIFAX Group spends N250m on CSR In 2021received financial support.

Youth and women eco-nomic empowerment also took a large chunk of the bud-get with skill acquisition trainings organized for unem-ployed youths and women across the country. Business grants were also extended to those who completed the training programmes. Some targeted and disadvantaged poor households were also catered to as food items were donated to them on a monthly basis.

Various initiatives tar-geted at the physically-challenged children living with conditions like autism, down syndrome and the blind were also supported by the company in the course of the year.

Most of these projects were executed through its philanthropic arm, Ajoke Ayisat Afolabi Foundation (AAAF) which has offices in Lagos, Zaria and Umuahia.

Speaking on the 2021 CSR projects, Dr. Taiwo Afolabi, Group Executive Vice Chairman, SIFAX Group, said one of the key pillars of the company's busi-ness philosophy is to posi-tively impact humanity and the society in any economy where the company carries out its operations.

programmes across Nigeria in 2021.

The company's CSR is focused primarily on educa-tion, health, economic empowerment (youth and women) and the physically-challenged.

On education and health, hundreds of indigent stu-dents enjoyed full scholar-ship while equipment and facilities were donated to pub-lic educational and health institutions. Individuals with medical emergencies also

IFAX Group, a con-glomerate with invest-Sment in Maritime, Avia-

tion, Logistics, Oil & Gas, Financial Services and Hos-pitality, has spent over N250 million on corporate social r e s p o n s i b i l i t y ( C S R )

…Ogun thumbs up cement company

I formerly known and addressed as OSIPITAN OLUWASEUN AYODEJI. Now wish to be known and addressed as AJIBOLA OLUWASEUN AYODEJI. All former documents remain valid, general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

4Monday, January 31–Feb. 6, 2022

L-R: Judge, Nigerian Idol S7, Obi Asika; Assistant Brand Manager, Beverage and Bakery, Rite Foods Limited, Boluwatife Adedugbe; D'Banj a.k.a Koko Master, Judge, Nigerian Idol S7; Executive Head of Content, Dr Busola Tejumola; West Africa Channels, Multichoice and IK Osakioduwa, Host of Nigerian Idol S7, during the press conference to officially launch the Nigerian Idol Season 7, sponsored by Bigi, Naija's leading range of carbonated soft drinks from the stable of Rite Foods Limited in Lagos. PHOTO SUNDAY ESHIET

L-R: Deputy National President, Nasrul-Lahi-L-Fatih Society (NASFAT), Alhaji Abdulrauf Ayodeji; National President, NASFAT, Mr. Olaniyi Yusuf; Chief Missioner, Imam Mahroof Onike; Women Affairs Secretary, Nasirl-Lahi-l-Fathi Society (NASFAT), Alhaja Suwebat Bola Kupolat; Chairman Council of Elder, NASFAT, Alhaji Soliu Olalekan; Chief Missioner, Imam Mahroof Onike and Chairman, BOT, NASFAT, Alhaji Wale Olasupo, during the Inauguration Cermony of New National Executive Council of NASFAT, in Lagos PHOTO SUNDAY ESHIET.

L-R: Winner of Glo Car Picanto Car Prize, 28 year old, Egbepe Japhet Onogwu; Regional Manager, Sales Victoria Island Gloworld, Olumide Oguntimehin; and the Eti-Osa East Local Council Development Area (LCDA) Council Leader, Hon. Eletu Sulaiman Owolabi; at the final prize presentation of Picanto Car to the Winner in Glo Joy Unlimited Extravaganza Promo, held at Victoria Island, Lagos. yesterday. PHOTO SUNDAY ESHIET

L-R: Tanko Mohammed, Head, Monitoring & Enforcement, Lagos State Lotteries and Gaming Authority; Osita Ede, Head, Product Development, Fidelity Bank Plc; Cynthia Ogbonna, Team Lead, Brand Management, Fidelity Bank Plc; Meksley Nwagboh, Divisional Head, Brand & Communications, Fidelity Bank Plc; and Susie Onwuka, Head, Lagos Office, Federal Competition & Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC); at the second month draw of the Get Alert in Millions Season 5 (GAIM 5) Savings Promo held in Lagos.

PHOTO NEWSNigerian nutritionist unveils health-focussed children instant cereal, NutraboomBy Olusegun Obisanya

ealthy food produc-t i o n c o m p a n y , HNutraboom, has

unveiled a new set of product packaging for its range of chil-dren's health-focussed nutri-tious products, as part of the c o m p a n y ' s o n g o i n g rebranding project.

Founded in 2019 by O l u w a k e m i L a n i y a n , Nutraboom aims to be the lead-ing provider of child nutrition in Africa with wholesome.

She said, "As a Nutrition-ist, I came up with a natural instant cereal using local ingre-dients, introducing the cereal to my baby and she grew solely on the meals. Later, I began to sell to young mothers like me who needed the same help with their children."

The founder said in state-ment that the product contains all the essential nutrient needed for child development between six months and five years of age as recommended by the World Health Organisa-tion.

According to the state-

ment, the rebranding is part of a brand support services pro-ject provided by foremost Nige-rian brand strategy firm, Zenera Consulting as a Corpo-rate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative.

The Nutritionist was a win-ner in a special entrepreneur-ship competition at the 'Made for More' women's conference organised by The Jewels, an organisation founded by Bolarinwa Akinlabi with the vision of empowering women. This qualified her for a whole-some pro-bono rebranding service by Zenera Consulting.

“Our commitment to pro-moting inclusive enterprise has become a vital component of our business philosophy, and this has stimulated our partnership with Nutraboom, a female-led brand,” said Meka Olowola, Zenera's Managing Partner.

According to Olowola, the encouragement and empow-erment of female entrepre-neurship in Nigeria have sig-nificant positive impact on the country's economy as women make up around half of the

country's population. Further-more, women have been proven to be better leaders and managers in certain situations.

“We believe having worked to help develop her brand, Kemi Laniyan is in a better position to monetize her full potentials and we hope this will encourage other women to become amazons in their respective fields,” he added.

The Nutraboom brand focuses on improving con-sumers' health through nutri-tion. The company uses natu-ral food materials to develop nutritious products for the nourishment of both children and adults. Nutraboom's cur-rent product series is in four separate flavours made from different combination of popu-lar nutritious fruits, grains and vegetables.

The Nutraboom flavours include the Foodies Cereal made of sweet potatoes and carrots, Yummy Tummy made of bananas, Tummy Wize made of vegetables and nut cereal, and Baby Brainy made of oats and carrot meal.

annually and plans to increase its output 33% by 2020. Dangote also owns stakes in publicly-traded salt, sugar and flour manufacturing compa-nies,” Forbes added.

Other billionaires listed:Behind Dangote is Nige-

rian oil magnate Mike Adenuga whose wealth was estimated at $9.2 billion.

South Afr ican Nicky Oppenheimer, Egyptian Nassef Sawiris and Johan Rupert completed the top five list with $7.3bn, $6.3 bn and $5.3bn respectively.

The eighth slot had five persons with one of them being Isabel dos Santos, Africa's richest woman whose wealth is estimated at $2.3 bil-lion.

She is daughter to former Angolan president Jose Edu-ardo dos Santos and was at a point during her father's reign head of state oil company. She was fired by new President Joao Lourenco on allegations of financial impropriety – she flatly denies all the allegations.

Others on the eight slot of the list are Zimbabwean telecoms tycoon Strive Masiwiya and South African mining magnate Patrice Motsepe.

lhaji Aliko Dangote still maintains his spot as AAfrica's richest man

according to Forbes Magazine. The magazine disclosed that as at January 11, 2019, the 61-year-old was worth $9.9 bil-lion.

Forbes listed him as the number one on Africa's list of billionaires for the year 2019. The Kano State indigene has held the richest man tag for the past few years.

He was ranked the 100th richest man in the world in 2018 and number 66 on the Powerful People 2018 list – both released by Forbes.

Forbes put much of Dangote's wealth to his cement business – the continent's larg-est producer straddling most sub-Saharan African coun-tries.

“Dangote Cement pro-duces 44 million metric tons

Aliko Dangote still Africa's richest man -Forbes

Police helicopter crash: Six sustain serious injuriesaround 7.30pm (local time) at Bauchi Airport.”

According to the state-ment: “On 26th January, 2022, Accident Investiga-tion Bureau, Nigeria was notified by Nigerian Air-space Management Agency (NAMA) about an accident involving a Bell 429 heli-copter with registration marks 5N-MDA owned and operated by Nigeria Police Force (NPF).

“The accident occurred on 26th January, 2022 around 7.30pm (local time) at Bauchi Airport.

“The NPF helicopter d e p a r t e d A b u j a a t 16:54UTC for Bauchi with six persons on board main-

taining 5,500ft. There were some injuries but no fatal-ity.

“The investigating agency, AIB-N, needs and hereby solicits for your assistance.

“We want the public to know that we would be ame-nable to receiving any video clips, evidence or informa-tion any member of the pub-lic may have of the accident that can assist us with this investigation.

“The Bureau will appre-ciate that the general public and press respect the pri-vacy of the people involved and not assume the cause of the accident until a for-mal report is released.”

By Pearl Ngwama

ix persons were reported to have sus-Stained serious inju-

ries at the recent Police heli-copter crash at Bauchi air-port.

Spokesman for the Acci-dent Investigation Bureau, Nigeria (AIB-N), Mr. Tunji Oktunbi, disclosed this in a statement issued to news-men recently.

He said the Bell 429 heli-copter marked 5N-MDA d e p a r t e d A b u j a a t 16:54UTC adding that the accident occurred at Bauchi Airport at 7.30pm.

“The accident occurred on 26th January, 2022

Alhaji Aliko Dangote

5Monday, January 31 - Feb. 6, 2022

ecent report of the travails of Inspector Hilary Okorie who was orally ‘suspended’ from the RNigeria Police Force (NPF) 25 years ago for

arresting a high profile robbery suspect in Delta State is like a fiction. The cadet Inspector, now 52, was enlisted into the Police Academy on May 13, 1992 at age 22.

According to reports, Okorie's 'offence' was at the instance of official order of the then Commissioner of Police in-charge of Federal Anti-Robbery squad in 1997. His team leader, CSP Muhammed Laden, was said to have assigned Okorie as part of a four-man team to arrest a prominent chief, a dismissed soldier but, well connected person wanted by FSARs. Ofcourse, they were provided with official vehicle and armed with a petition and weapons to carry out the onerous task that later turned to be a snare.

National Business is pained to note that the offi-cial assignment was well executed but usual orders from above, no, Lagos was what released the arrested suspect from the police net. But the bizarre story is how the case was upturned against the police officers including Inspector Okorie as they were conse-quently locked up for 13 months without trial. As vic-tims of circumstance, these officers were later arraigned for robbery while their employer, the NPF, along the line apparently abandoned the case at the courts. Okorie who separated his case from co-accused and engaged a lawyer to defend his funda-mental human rights, became the sacrificial lamb such that despite his innocence. He has neither been re-absorbed into the service nor his entitlements paid him. This ugly development is in spite of judicial judgment in his favour and intervention of the eight Senate.

According to suit No, FHC /L/CS/541/2007, the embattled Inspector had order of a Federal High Court in Lagos to be reinstated as a police officer, among others. But despite the fact that the case had passed third Inspector Generals of Police (IGPs) and the Force duly served with the judgment, it declined to obey the court order. Worst still, the N50,000 awarded to the plaintiff as the cost of filling the action had not been paid let alone the police force unfrozening Okorie's account as directed by a court of competent jurisdiction.

At present, the Police Force did not appeal against

the judgment and there is no pending appeal in respect of this strange case. And by implication, Inspector Okorie remains a serving and subsisting police officer with mere worthless court judgment and appointment letter on the police file.

National Business is worried by this gross abuse of human rights which represents man's inhuman-ity to man in this era of democracy. This is upon the intervention of the 8th Senate during which its Eth-ics and privileges committee reviewed several peti-tions pertaining to this pathetic experience of a com-mitted officer with dreams to serve his motherland. Reports indicate that the then IGP was represented at the public hearing and a firm order was made for the Force to obey the court order and reinstate the officer.

From all indications, the Human Rights Lawyer, Barrister Monday Ubani, who took the matter to the Senate seems to be frustrated as the relevant authorities refused to do the needful. Must every-body be 'connected' to who before he gets justice in Nigeria? The injustice meted to Inspector Okorie through trumped up allegations, incarceration, delayed legal service, police impunity makes one to wonder if Nigeria is a banana republic. Who, there-fore, will give this poor Inspector justice — the Pres-idency, the National Assembly (NASS), the Police Service Commission (PSC)? Will that come when he is gone or now that he is aging fastly due to artificial denial of his rights? No doubt, his ordeal is a disin-centive to youthful and sincere Nigerians who have the dream to join the force to make any difference. Are we not encouraging crimes and criminality if any officer legally sent on a dangerous hunt of the societal villain becomes the hunted? Is the current IGP or his subordinates reading this piece? What of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the religious leaders and other opinion leaers who make things happen? Are the State Governor of Abia State, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, as well as Senator repre-senting Inspector Hillary Okorie, still alive to their responsibilities? This is the auspicious time to take up his matter or else, posterity and God will not be happy for their negligence. The future of Inspector Okorie and his dependents stand the risk of being bleak unless the cry of his injustice gets justice now.

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From left: The Akarigbo of Remo land, HRM Oba Babatunde Ajayi; Lisa of Ode Remo, High Chief (Engr.) Abiodun Oyemala; Alaye of Ode, Ode-Remo, HRH Oba (Surv.) Adetunji Osho and the Alaperu o f Iperu-Remo, HRH ObaAdeleke Basibo, during installation of Chief Oyemala as Lisa ofOde-Remo in Ogun State at the weekend.

PHOTO: SUNDAY ESHIET

PHOTO NEWS

L-R: Chieftains of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Otunba Funmi Bushra Alebiosu; Prince Tajudeen Olusi; Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, during the inauguration of the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (ABAT) Movement Working Committees, at the Haven Event Center, G.R.A Ikeja recently.

Inspector Okorie’s injustice cries for justice

6 NEWSMonday, January 31–Feb. 6, 2022

L-R: Principal Consultant, Emaka Eriobuna and Co-Estate Surveyors, Mr. Emaka Eriobuna; Husband of the Late Uche Regina, Dr. Ben Emeasoba; Retired Air force Officer, Dr. Offodile Chukwuezugo; Guest Speaker, Prof. Obiamaka Oby Eriobuna-Opara and CEO, Allapril Global Limited, Mr. JohnPual Nlemadim, during the Dedication of the Building in honor of their late mother Dr. Uche Regina in Lagos.PHOTO SUNDAY ESHIET

Capacity building: AIB-N, NCAT strengthen synergy

he Accident Investiga-tion Bureau, Nigeria T(AIB-N) and the Nige-

rian College of Aviation Tech-nology, Zaria (NCAT) have announced their move for a stronger collaboration in the area of capacity development and other aviation industry projects.

The Bureau has also announced that it will launch its world-class training facility that will be the first in Africa before the end of 2023.

The Commissioner/CEO, AIB-N Mr. Akin Olateru, dis-closed this when the Rector of the College, Capt. Alkali Modibbo and his top manage-ment team paid him a courtesy call at the AIB corporate head office in Abuja recently.

The two aviation agencies also discussed areas of mutual benefits and collaboration that would further improve avia-tion safety and development.

The Commissioner said the AIB-N Training Centre located close to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja is about 90 per cent com-

pleted and should be ready at about the third quarter of 2022.

"AIB is setting up a train-ing school which is the first of its kind in the history of Africa.

"That will be the first. It is a welcomed initiative. We have been talking to NCAT among great institutions in the world that teach aircraft accident investigation courses.

"We have worked on a cur-riculum and we will want us to revisit that because the train-ing school is about 90 per cent completed," he stated.

He also said the essence of the facility is to deepen training as AIB-N prioritises man-power development, adding that the NCAT visit will deepen their collaboration on training.

Olateru urged the NCAT to create a platform for training all non-technical personnel of the aviation industry on avia-tion awareness appreciation programme.

He said: "This visit is in the spirit of collaboration. Training is extremely important in any organisation and that is what

makes the organisation grow."Training is what has been

central to what we do. So far, in the AIB, we have trained 48 of our staff at NCAT.

"Before the end of this year, we will be training 16 of our staff to have a private pilot license (PPL).

"The programme is start-ing 14th February this year. So far, we have trained 17 of our aircraft engineers at NCAT. We are currently having nine of our of staff on students review.

"We have trained two of our air traffic controllers and two dispatchers at NCAT.

"Recently, one of the new units we set up, the Command and-Control Centre also had seven staff trained on radiote-lephony. So, it is a partnership that is growing," he noted.

Olateru urged the states and federal government to be sponsoring students in NCAT as they used to do adding that this would enable children of poor background to benefit from NCAT training services.

Earlier in his opening

remarks, Moddibo said it is significant that continuous syn-ergy is maintained among asso-ciate agencies, considering the global challenges facing the aviation industry that requires tremendous innovation and dedication.

He said AIB-N's commit-ment to acquiring modern facilities and manpower devel-opment resonates positively with NCAT adding that NCAT has been re-equipping to remain at the forefront in avia-tion education.

The Rector urged more patronage from AIB-N even as he appreciated the synergy between the two agencies in the area of capacity develop-ment.

He also stressed the efforts being made by the aviation col-lege to enhance security in its campus adding that more than 40 armed security operatives have been deployed to man the institution's security system.

According to him both the Kaduna State and the federal government were working hard to ensure adequate secu-rity in the area.

lates the removal of petrol subsidy, was initially meant to commence in February 2022, but it was later shifted to July 2022.

However, due to pressure and threat of protest by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the removal of subsidy was suspended on Monday.

sum at its weekly meeting in Abuja. The N3 trillion now budgeted to sustain the pay-ment of subsidy in 2022 alone, amounts to 17.5 per cent of the total of N17.126 trillion 2022 budget that was signed into law on the last day of 2021.

Already, the approved 2022 budget has a deficit of N6.39 trillion, which is 37 per

cent of the N17.126 trillion. This is a clear indication that the government may borrow more this year than it had ear-lier projected.

The N3 trillion approved by FEC is 55 per cent and 43 per cent of the capital com-ponent and recurrent expen-diture of the 2022 budget, respectively. Implementa-tion of the PIA, which stipu-

Ogun LGs share N3.587bn in Januaryhe 20 local government areas in Ogun State Tshared a sum of N3.587

billion, being the amount they received from the Federal Allo-cation for January, 2022.

The State Commissioner for Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs, Afolabi Afuwape, disclosed this dur-ing the

January 2022 Joint Account Allocation Commit-tee (JAAC) meeting held in Abeokuta, the State capital.

Afuwape who said, pres-ently, the statutory allocations from the federal government may not be sufficient for the council areas, advised them not to be discouraged but rather look inward on how to improve on their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

The Commissioner charged the Chairmen to see the monthly JAAC meeting as an official engagement that requires utmost attention, in order to improve welfare and infrastructural development at the grassroots.

He added that the meeting was an avenue to equip the Chairmen with information regarding the monthly alloca-tions, for them to be able to answer questions that may arise to that effect.

In his presentation at the

meeting, the State Commis-sioner for Finance and Chief Economic Adviser, Mr. Dapo Okubadejo represented by Director of Inspectorate and Monitoring, Finance, Mr. Kolapo Ilori said, the sum of N4,058,660,832.72 billion is expected to be paid as first line charges which include, pri-mary school teachers' salary, Local Government Staff sala-ries, traditional rulers and other charges.

Okubadejo noted that the gross deficit stood at the sum of N470,901,128.69, which covers PAYE, contributory pension, five percent bond on pension and cooperative and loans.

In his remarks, the Chair-man, Ijebu Ode Local Govern-ment, Hon. Tunde Emiola-Gazal appreciated the the state government for harmonizing payment of the first line charges which had allowed all the councils to meet up with salary payment.

On their parts, Onimeko of Imeko, Oba Benjamin Olanite and Odofin of Shoyindo, Oba Lasisi Gisanri in their contributions called for formidable and effective distribution of wealth across the Local Government Areas in order to justify the current distribution formula.

he federal government has announced its Tplan to delay imple-

mentation of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and retain payment of petrol subsidy for 18 months, the government yesterday approved N3 tril-lion for the new subsidy regime.

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the

FG approves N3trn, 17.5% of 2022 budget to sustain subsidy

FAAN embarks on expansion of Lagos Airport GATmoment from now, will only hamper passenger facilita-tion minimally at the termi-nal, as normal passenger check-in will not be affected in any way.

However, the Protocol and VIP lounge at the termi-nal will be affected, as the facilities will be relocated tem-porarily till the end of the pro-ject because major construc-tion works will be carried out

By Pearl Ngwama

s part of efforts to improve on infra-Astructure and service

delivery at the General Avia-tion Terminal, Lagos, the Fed-eral Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has said it is set to expand the Zulu wing of the terminal.

The expansion project, which will commence any

in that axis of the terminal.Meanwhile, the Author-

ity said it is already making arrangements for temporary spaces to be used as Protocol and VIP lounges, while the project is being executed.

“When the expansion project is completed, the ter-minal would have been enhanced in terms of capac-ity, aesthetics and passenger comfort, as the expected and

expanded new lounges will be twice what is presently on ground.

“The Authority will like to appeal to passengers and other airport users to please be patient and bear with us for any inconvenience, while the project will last.

“We will continue to give more updates on the project, as the need arises,” said FAAN.

2021 Performance: We achieved over 100% of our target –FIRS

espite the global eco-nomic challenges occa-Ds i o n e d b y t h e

Coronavirus pandemic, as well as the disruption of business activities in 2020 by nation-wide protests, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) achieved over a hundred per-cent of its collection target for the year 2021.

“Notwithstanding the limi-tations faced in 2020/2021, the Service achieved over a hun-dred percent of its collection target,” Executive Chairman, Muhammad Nami stated in the FIRS 2021 Performance Update signed by him.

“The FIRS, in the year 2021 collected a total of N6.405 tril-lion in both oil (N2.008 trillion) and non-oil (N4.396 trillion) revenues as against a target of N6.401 trillion. Companies Income Tax amounted to N1.896 trillion; Petroleum Prof-its Tax amounted to N2 trillion; Value Added Tax amounted to N2.07 trillion; Electronic Money Transfer Levy amounted to N114 billion; Ear-marked Taxes amounted to N208.8 billion; among others.

“Non-oil sector contributed 68.64% of the total collection in the year, while oil sector's con-tribution was 31.36% of total collection.

“The Service issued certifi-cates for the sum of N147.8 bil-lion tax credit to private inves-tors and NNPC for road infra-structure under the Road Infra-structure Development Refur-bishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme created by Exec-utive Order No. 007 of 2019.”

The report explained that “in line with the law, 2021 income tax revenue is a func-tion of the outcome of business activities in 2020.

“In that year, the country entered into a second economic recession within 5 years. The recession was occasioned by 5-months of lockdown caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. To compound the economic chal-lenges of COVID-19 pandemic, business activities were dis-rupted by the End-SARS pro-tests.”

It further stated that the deployment of technological tools was a game-changer for the Service.

“Upon the coming into office of the current manage-ment, the Federal Inland Reve-nue Service (FIRS) began stra-tegic administrative and opera-tional reforms; and the imple-mentation of new policies that would improve its capacity towards the fulfilment of its mandate.

“The deployment of a new automated tax administration system, the “TaxPro Max” in June 2021 was a game-changer. With the solution, tax-payers experienced ease of reg-istration, reporting, payment and issuance of Tax Clearance Certificates while the Service experienced greater efficiency in the deployment of resources thereby leading to improved revenue collection.”

The FIRS stated that strong opposition to its statutory man-dates by certain interests posed a major setback in the full implementation of its reforms.

... AIB-N training centre on 90% completion –Olateru

Monday, January 31 - Feb. 6, 2022

Finance 7

Money market | Capital Market | Personal Finance | Pension & Insurance | Leasing & Asset Finance

ema Bank Plc have announced the appointment of two inde-Wpendent Non-Executive Direc-

tors by the Board of Directors.The announcement was made via a

disclosure signed by the company's sec-retary, Johnson Lebile and filed with the Nigerian Exchange Limited.

The newly appointed Independent Non-Executive Directors are Dr. (Mrs) Oluwayemisi Olorunshola and Mrs. Bolarin Okunowo.

Dr. (Mrs) Oluwayemisi Olorunshola is a supply chain professional and a busi-ness associate with over 15 years' experi-ence in multinational organization and over 10 years as a business manager. She possesses a B.Sc. Education degree in education and Economics from the pres-tigious Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, a Master of Business Administra-tion degree from University of Liverpool, UK, and a Doctorate degree in Business Administration from Walden Univer-sity, USA.

Dr. Olorunshola is a fellow of the International Institute for African Schol-ars and a Chartered member of the Nige-rian Chartered Institute of Personnel Management. An ardent believer in com-munity development and in pursuant of this interest, she is a volunteer in many civic activities where she has contributed greatly to the development of her com-munity and other areas of influence.

Mrs Bolarin Okunowo, on the other hand, is a seasoned business leader and finance specialist with over 17+ years' experience in a range of roles spanning investment banking and financial ser-vices, manufacturing, oil and gas, real estate, and hospitality. She is the Manag-ing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Chemical and Allied Products Plc (“CAP Plc”), a subsidiary of UAC of Nigeria Plc (“UACN”), and the manufacturers of leading paint brands – Dulux, Sandtex and Caplux in Nigeria.

Prior to her executive appointment at CAP Plc, Bolarin served as the imme-diate past Managing Director/CEO of Portland Paints and Products Nigeria Plc (“Portland Paints”), a subsidiary of UACN. At Portland Paints, she led a turn-around of the business and the imple-mentation of the successful merger with CAP Plc in July 2021.

Prior to joining the UACN Group, she was the Head, Energy & Infrastruc-ture Finance at Stanbic IBTC Capital (“Stanbic”) with responsibility for the oil and gas, power, and infrastructure debt finance portfolio. Prior to Stanbic, she worked with ARM Investments Manag-ers and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

STORIES BY OLUSEGUN OBISANYA

he International Monetary Fund (IMF) has advised Nigeria and other Tdeveloping economies with large for-

eign currency borrowings and external financing need to prepare for turbulence in financial markets.

The Washington-based lender also said countries such as Nigeria should consider extending their debt maturities as a means to contain foreign exchange fluctuations.

IMF said, “As the monetary policy stance tightens more broadly this year, econ-omies will need to adapt to a global environ-ment of higher interest rates.

“Emerging markets and developing economies with large foreign currency bor-rowing and external financing needs should prepare for possible turbulence in financial markets by extending debt maturities as fea-sible and containing currency mismatches. Exchange rate flexibility can help with the needed macroeconomic adjustment.

“In some cases, foreign exchange inter-vention and temporary capital flow man-agement measures may be needed to pro-vide a monetary policy with the space to focus on domestic conditions. With interest rates rising, low-income countries, of which 60 per cent are already in or at high risk of debt distress, will find it increasingly diffi-cult to service their debts.

“The G20 Common Framework needs to be revamped to deliver more quickly on debt restructuring, and G20 creditors and private creditors should suspend debt ser-vice while the restructurings are being nego-tiated.”

According to the IMF, as the policy space diminishes in many economies, fiscal deficits are expected to shrink in most coun-tries. It added that fiscal priority should be given to the health sector, and medium-term fiscal frameworks should ensure that public debt remains sustainable.

It said national policies should be tai-lored to country specific circumstances and both fiscal and monetary policies must work in sync to achieve economic goals.

The Washington-based lender in its

world economic report notes that less accommodative monetary policies in advanced economies are set to pose chal-lenges for central banks and governments in Nigeria and other emerging markets.

It said, “Less accommodative mone-tary policy in advanced economies will pose challenges for central banks and gov-ernments in emerging markets and devel-oping economies.

“Higher returns elsewhere will incentivize capital to flow overseas, putt-ing downward pressure on emerging mar-kets and developing economy currencies and rising inflation. Without commensu-rate tightening, this will increase the bur-den on foreign-currency borrowers, both public and private. But the tighter policy also brings costs at home, as domestic bor-rowers will find credit harder to come by.

“Overall, tighter policies will likely be

appropriate in many emerging markets and developing economies to stave off the threat of persistently higher inflation.”

The IMF said while emerging markets were more resilient with higher reserves, financial vulnerabilities would remain, especially in countries that have higher public and private debt.

It added that debt service burdens could rise significantly in the year as inter-est rates rise.

It said, “Public finances will come under strain in the coming months and years, as global public debt has reached record levels to cover pandemic-related spending at a time when tax receipts plum-meted. Higher interest rates will also make borrowing more expensive, especially for countries borrowing in foreign currencies and at short maturities.”

•Kristalina Georgieva, President, IMF

irst City Monumental Bank, FCMB, has reported a Profit After Tax (PAT) Fof N20.8 billion for the year 2021. This

is according to an unaudited financial report filed to the Nigerian Exchange on the financial report of the bank.

The amount represents a 53 percent increase from the N13.8 billion in the last quarter and a 6.5 percent rise from the N19.6 billion reported same period the pre-vious year.

Further analysis shows that the bank generated the highest profit in the last quar-ter of the year at N7.09 billion more than N6.2 billion it generated in third quarter, N3.98 billion in second quarter and the N3.57 billion in the first quarter.

According to the financial report, gross earnings stood at N208 billion, represent-ing N4.5 percent dip at N9 billion from the N199 billion reported the previous year, net interest income at N90.47 billion fell slightly by N288 million in 2021 as that of the year 2020 was valued at N90.75 billion

Net fees and commission income rose significantly by 42 percent, reaching N27 billion from the previous year value at N19.7 billion. This was driven by fees commission income which rose to N35 billion from N30

billion and a consequent drop in commis-sion expenses to N7 billion from N10 billion during the period.

The report also disclosed that the net trading income which recorded N7.1 billion in 2020 saw a trivial dip to close at N6.89 billion in 2021 while other revenue fell sig-nificantly to close at N3 billion from the N10.5 billion. Notably, the bank was able to reduce the impairment losses on financial instruments greatly from N22.3 billion to N9 billion in 2021.

Personnel expenses increased in 2021 recording 31.2 billion compared to the 29.5 billion the same period in 2020 while gen-eral and administrative expenses also went the same route, recording N34.6 billion from the amount reported same time the previous year and other operating expenses was N23 billion in 2021 from N16.8 billion in 2020

Profit before tax totalled N23.926 bil-lion and was cut down by minimum and income tax expenses at N900 million and N2.1 billion respectively causing the profit for the year to close at N20.9 billion in 2021. earnings per share increased by 0.06 to close at N1.04 in 2021.

IMF urges developing economiesto prepare for unstable loan markets

Wema Bankappointsnon-executivedirectors

FCMB rakes in N20.89bn profit in 2021, 6.5% increase YoY

8 MONEY MARKET

gricultural stakeholders have claimed that the Central Bank of Nigeria's (CBN) forex exclusion A

list has engendered a virile agricultural sector in the country in spite of its chal-lenges.

Some experts observed that the policy has forced farmers and agri-business men to embrace backward integration projects for local cultivation of raw mate-rials. The apex bank has continued to sus-tain the policy despite complaints and pressures to review the list, and this is be-lieved to have contributed meaningfully to the agricultural sector.

The National President, Potato Farm-ers Association of Nigeria, Mr. Dan Okafor, said: “It is true that the forex re-strictions contributed to food production in Nigeria.”

The Governor of the CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, has consistently de-fended the restriction of foreign ex-change access to more than 41 import items.

Emefiele argued that it is necessary to protect the economy from the importa-tion of items that could dampen local pro-duction and economic growth. He noted that the implementation of forex policy on certain items had led to improve-ments in the domestic production of those items and a reduction in Nigeria's import bill.

The forex-restricted items prohibi-tion list includes rice, cement, marga-rine, palm kernel, palm oil products, veg-etable oils, meat and processed meat products, vegetables and processed vege-table products.

BY OLUSEGUN OBISANYA

he House of Representatives has resolved to set up an ad hoc com-Tmittee to investigate the “suspi-

cious and unclaimed funds” in various accounts in commercial banks in Nigeria.

The House mandated the committee to also investigate the unremitted funds collected on behalf of Ministries, Depart-ments and Agencies of the Federal Gov-ernment by the banks.

The House further mandated the com-mittee to look into the alleged “several infractions by the Central Bank of Nigeria against the provisions of the enabling Act and Laws of the Federal Republic of Nige-ria and the good people of Nigeria, espe-cially in the area of intervention projects and programs.”

The committee is to report back within eight weeks for further legislative action.

These resolutions were based on a mo-tion moved by a member, Dachung Bagos, titled 'Need to Investigate Un-

claimed Funds in Nigerian Commercial Banks and the Infractions by the Central Bank of Nigeria,' which the lawmakers unanimously adopted.

Moving the motion, Bagos noted that the Bank Verification Number was intro-duced in the banking system by the CBN in 2014 to check and combat money launder-ing, illicit financing, and duplicitous own-ership of bank accounts used for fraud.

He also noted that almost seven years after the introduction of the BVN, about 45.85 million bank accounts across Nige-ria were yet to be linked to BVNs.

According to him, data released by the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement Systems on June 23, 2021, disclosed that the total number of bank accounts in Nigeria, as of May 2019, was at 122.071 million and the active accounts, as of May, 2020, stood at 72.936 million.

Bagos said, “The House is worried that despite the introduction by the CBN of the BVN to curb the menace in the financial sectors, about 71 million customers still use their accounts without the compulsory

identification, per data from the NIBSS.“The House is concerned that the lack

of legal regulatory framework and politi-cal will to deal with the unclaimed assets, especially funds abandoned and trapped in commercial banks will continue to put Nigeria behind so many countries in the world that have developed the legal frame-work to deal with these assets.

“The House is also worried about the recent disclosure about the funds col-lected by commercial banks on behalf of some key MDAs of the Federal Govern-ment to the tune of N1.2tn, in revenues they generated but failed to remit to the federation's account since 2016, as re-quired by law.”Little wonder FirstBank was named “Most Valuable Bank Brand in Nigeria” six times in a row (2011 – 2016) by the globally renowned “The Banker Magazine” and “Best Retail Bank in Nige-ria” for seven consecutive years (2011 – 2017) by the Asian Banker International. FirstBank also bagged the Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards and “Best Bank in Nigeria” by Global Finance for 15 years.

a n a g i n g D i r e c-tor/Regional Execu-Mtive, Ecobank Nigeria,

Patrick Akinwuntan has de-scribed the recently launched Pan-African Payment and Settle-ment System (PAPSS) as a criti-cal enabler for intra Africa trade. Akinwuntan who spoke on Arise TV on the launch of the payment settlement system regulatory framework, emphasized that the new payment method will serve as a backbone through which all the countries in Africa are able to actualize transactions done within the free trade area, adding that it will also create employ-ment, wealth, and deliver values to exporters on the continent.

“This common payment plat-form will enable Africa to move intra trade from the current 16%, representing $70 billion to the range of 50-55% in the next two to three years. This is huge be-cause we could be talking about $300 billion dollars intra African trade close to 15% of Africa GDP. Besides, PAPSS will also elimi-nate payment delays, third party currencies as well as benefit households, small businesses, and financial institutions. This is positive developments for intra Africa trade. It is a step in the right direction. It will promote cross border trade for African exporters, liberalize payments and will deliver payment that de-livers value. Africa is here for real business. Africa is ready. Let's go for it”, he said.

Mr. Akinwuntan disclosed that “Ecobank is a supporter of this initiative. Today, we can reach up to 35 countries because we already have a Pan African switch, and we are already con-nected to PAPSS. I call for collab-oration of all stakeholders to achieve the desired objectives; we have the key industry sectors that deals on Pan African trade. We need to go through with them, helping them to see the practical possibilities. We have a responsibility to take this mes-sage to them that if they want to

do any transaction across Africa, they don't need to look for an in-ternational bank. PAPSS will work the same way NIBSS works in Nigeria.”

P A P S S , d e v e l o p e d b y Afreximbank, is expected to boost intra-African trade by transforming and facilitating pay-ment, clearing and settlement for cross-border trade across Africa. At the launch, Prof. Benedict Oramah, the President and Chairman of the Board of Direc-tors of Afreximbank, said “we are eager to build upon AfCFTA's cre-ation of a single market through-out Africa. PAPSS provides the state-of-the-art financial market infrastructure connecting Afri-can markets to each other, thereby, enabling instant cross-border payments in respective local African currencies for cross-border trade.

“Afreximbank as the main

settlement agent for PAPSS, pro-vides settlement guarantees on the payment system and over-draft facilities to all settlement agents, in partnership with Af-rica's participating Central Banks. “PAPSS will effectively eliminate Africa's financial bor-ders, formalise and integrate Af-rica's payment systems, and play a major role in facilitating and accelerating the huge AfCFTA-induced growth curve in intra-African trade”, he stated.

Also speaking at the event, PAPSS's Chief Executive Officer, Mr Mike Ogbalu, emphasised that the payment system was not designed to compete with or re-place existing payment systems. He said it would facilitate the con-nectivity level that brings all pay-ments systems together into one network that was interoperable, efficient and affordable. “PAPSS is designed to make our curren-

cies regain value to domesticate intra-Africa payments in this jour-ney toward African prosperity. This is done while providing the superhighway which connects others to reach every part of this continent as we seek to create the Africa that we want.”

The PAPSS pilot in WAMZ central banks has been completed and all six central banks have tested and gone through the trial operations. In the last week of Au-gust 2021, all the central banks became live on the system and have since been sending through live transactions across the WAMZ region. PAPSS has been successfully piloted in the six countries of the West African Monetary Zone, and promises to deliver multiple advantages and efficiencies to intra-African trade payments. As a major supporter of this initiative, Ecobank is al-ready connected to PAPSS.

Monday, January 31 - Feb. 6, 2022

•Patrick Akinwuntan, Managing Director/CEO

•Gbajabiamilla, House of Reps. Leader

Reps probe banks over dividends, unremitted funds

PAPSS is critical enabler for intra-Africa trade – Ecobank MD

•Patrick Akinwuntan, Managing Director/CEO

Farmers, agribusiness men back CBN’s forexexclusion list to boost agric development

9MONEY MARKET Monday, January 31 – Feb. 6, 2022

trust funds worth millions of naira, Stanbic IBTC ensures these young people can live a normal and productive life like their counterparts.

The Organisation under-stands the need to make an impact in the lives of children living with missing limbs, either by birth or via accidents, and is determined to do so through its signature CSI. It is important to give these children hope for the future, and enable them see the endless possibilities for great-ness in life, irrespective of soci-etal prejudices they face owing to their circumstances, which could pose a threat to the achievement of their dreams and aspirations. The educa-tional trust support provides a platform for young people to access quality education needed to enable them maximize their

potential and become whatever they want to be.

The signature CSI comes with an awareness drive, “Together4ALimb charity walk”, which is designed to draw attention to this health challenge and hopefully garner financial and government sup-port for survivors. The annual Together4ALimb walk has recorded over 5,000 partici-pants since inception.

Stanbic IBTC reiterates its commitment to empowering and creating better narratives for communities in Nigeria. In 2021, the Organisation took on several value-driven charitable initiatives such as school reno-vations, orphanage, nursing homes and special needs centre visitations, , all targeted at empowering and enriching the lives of less privileged Nigeri-

s a socially responsible organisation, Stanbic AIBTC Holdings PLC is

positively impacting lives within its host communities in Nigeria through its Corporate Social Investment (CSI) initia-tives.

Stanbic IBTC's CSI is hinged on three core pillars: education, health, and economic empow-erment, and aims to meaning-fully contribute to enhancing the wellbeing of Nigerian com-munities, especially at the grassroots.

O n e o f s u c h i s t h e Together4ALimb initiative, where the company provides support to enhance the quality of life of children with missing limbs. Through the provision of prosthetics and educational

the participants of the para table tennis that this game is capable of helping them to keep healthy and fit.

H e c o m m e n d e d t h e Para–division of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federat ion (NTTF), Sunday Odebode's Para Table Tennis Foundation for organizing the competition as well as the Lagos State Govern-ment for playing a leading role in the development of sports in the country.

Sekibo who was represented by Ozena Utulu, the Ag Group Head, Corporate Communica-tions also recalled the support it received from the Lagos State government when it organised the Skoolimpics, its signature sporting event with more than 6,000 students from over 600 public and private secondary schools from the six educational districts of Lagos Sate in atten-dance at the three-day sporting fiesta held in 2017.

A c c o r d i n g t o h i m , Skoolimpics is an idea conceived to bring into being a national sports festival for young people

in secondary schools aimed at helping the country discover young talents who will re-ignite the spirit of excellence in compet-itive and recreational sports.

“The idea was intended to be a holistic development of young people in order to foster their physical, social and emotional wellbeing. It is a well-known fact that physical education and sports help in character and com-munity building, delinquency reduction, community safety, economic and social develop-ment,” Sekibo stated.

In similar manner, First Lady of Lagos State, Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu reiterated the government's commitment to continually put measures in place to play-up the welfare, wellbeing and interests of the physically challenged.

Sanwo-Olu represented by Grace Igbokwe advised the par-ticipants to continue investing the right energy and zeal into training, whilst cautioning them to take their education even more seriously and equally draw inspi-ration from great Table Tennis players who are making waves nationally and internationally.

ans.A memorable CSI initiative

taken on last year by the organi-zation was a visit to the Ketu Spe-cial Children Centre, where the organisation presented medical and physiotherapy equipment to the facility. The donations made will go a long way to help improve the wellbeing of chil-dren living with cerebral palsy, a condition which causes other health issues like vision impair-ment, hearing and speech prob-lems, and learning disabilities.

Other CSI initiatives taken on by Stanbic IBTC last year include the presentation of hos-pital equipment to Batagarawa Primary Health Care, Katsina; presentation of a CT Scan room and other medical facilities to Mother and Child Hospital, Kano State; the donation of medical items to Mother and

Child Hospital, Ebonyi State; the commissioning of a bore-hole donated to the LEA Pri-mary School FCT Abuja; reno-vation of the Antenatal Care Unit at General Hospital, Mushin, Lagos, as well as empowering young people via financial knowledge on the World Savings Day in various schools nat ionwide and mentoring sessions for students at Estate Senior Grammar School, Ilupeju, amongst others

Stanbic IBTC is focused on d e l i ve r i n g re l e va n t a n d impactful CSI projects in com-munities where development is most needed. In 2022, Stanbic IBTC promises to deliver more social and economic initiatives to facilitate growth and improve the welfare of the Nigerian com-munities, especially those in rural areas.

eritage Bank plc has reit-erated its commitment to Hpromoting sports in Nige-

ria, in partnership with Lagos State Government to back the 3rd Edition of the annual Lagos Value Jet Para Table Tennis champion-ship.

The three-day para table ten-nis championship hosted 45 table tennis games, held in the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere Lagos.

Speaking to the media during the games, the Managing Direc-tor/Chief Executive Officer of Her-itage Bank stated that the bank's commitment to sports and its partnership with Lagos ValueJet Para Table Tennis resonates from the institution's brand passion to support sports, especially for the physically challenged that would help in wellbeing, health and by extension nation building.

According to him, Heritage Bank believes in development and having the tenacity to develop Nigerians both young and old, whilst encouraging the physically challenged especially

itch Ratings has affirmed Ecobank Nigeria Limited's (ENG) Long-Term Issuer F

Default Rating (IDR) at 'B-' with a Stable Outlook. Fitch has simul-taneously upgraded the bank's National Short-Term Rating to 'F2(nga)' from 'F3(nga)'.

According to Fitch, the IDRs of Ecobank Nigeria are driven by its standalone creditworthiness, as expressed by its Viability Rat-ing (VR) of 'b-', stating that the bank has a moderate market shares of Nigeria's banking-sector assets but its franchise ben-efits from being a subsidiary of Ecobank Transnational Incorpo-rated, a large pan-African bank-ing group with operations span-ning 33 countries across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

The rating agency reported that Ecobank's loans have declined in recent years, stressing that it does not see a high risk of the largest Stage 2 loans, which are concentrated within the oil and gas sector, of becoming impaired.

It noted that its asset-quality assessment is positively influ-enced by a substantial amount of non-loan assets, largely compris-ing government securities and cash reserves at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Fitch expects profitability to improve moder-ately with receding asset-quality pressures and lower LICs.

Fitch observed that “ENG's total capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of 19.6% at end the first quarter of 2021 maintains a com-fortable buffer above the 10% reg-ulatory requirement for a bank with a national licence and the bank's tangible leverage ratio of 10.7% at the end of first quarter of 2021 which compares favourably with that of peers.

Impaired loans net of specific loan loss allowances represented a significant 46% of Fitch Core Capital at end of first quarter of last year but risks to capital are mitigated by strong collateral cov-

erage and recovery expectations of the two large upstream impaired loans.” “ENG's low gross loans/customer deposits ratio of 67% at the end of 2021 largely reflects a small loan book. Large cash reserves at the CBN, net interbank placements and unpledged central-government securities represented 33% of total assets and 50% of customer deposits at end the first quarter of 2021 providing healthy liquidity coverage.

Our funding and liquidity assessment also considers the ben-efits of ordinary liquidity support from ETI”, the report stated.

Fitch's view of support for Ecobank Nigeria considered the high propensity of ETI to provide support, given the former's importance to the parent's pan-African strategy as its largest sub-sidiary and it is operating in sub–Saharan Africa's largest econ-omy. It also considers the material reputational damage to ETI that would accompany ENG's default, the 100% ownership, a high degree of management and opera-tional integration and a record of capital support.

L-R: NESG Chairman, Asue Ighodalo; Chairman, Conference of Speakers and Speaker, Bauchi State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Abubakar Suleiman; NESG Board members, Mrs Amina Maina and Nnanna Ude; Senior Fellow, NESG Non-Residential Fellowship, Professor Risikat Dauda and NESG CEO, ‘Laoye Jaiyeola, at the launch of the NESG 2022 Macroeconomic Outlook in Abuja recently.

BY OLUSEGUN OBISANYA

Heritage Bank, LASG show commitmentto sport development

CSI: Stanbic IBTC supports children with missing limbs

Fitch affirms EcobankNigeria’s stable outlook

10 Monday, January 31 – Feb. 6, 2022 BUSINESS ANALYSIS

he implementation of the Finance Act, 2021 is one of the several avenues Tdeployed by the Federal Government

to deepen its revenue base for sustainable economic development.

A review of the tax laws introduced by the Finance Act, 2021 was to affirm govern-ment's commitment to raising tax to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio to higher lev-els needed to provide more social amenities for the people.

The reviews showed that while the Finance Act, 2021 gives gas utilization com-panies tax-free regime, their counterparts in the educational sector will now pay more taxes.

According to the latest changes effected in the Finance Act, 2021, the Federal Gov-ernment has limited companies involved in the trade or business of gas utilisation in downstream operations in the country to a, “once in a lifetime” tax-free regime.

The new tax law states that additional investment, re-organisation or other forms of corporate restructuring shall not qualify for a further tax incentive under the gas investment programme.

While such companies are further barred from similar incentive under any other sec-tions of the Companies Income Tax Act (CITA) or other law, those engaged in upstream petroleum operations would con-tinue to have obligation to withhold Value Added Tax (VAT), even when they have not commenced commercial operations or have not reached N25 million turnover.

Profits of companies engaged in educa-tional activities in the country are now liable to tax due to the removal of educational activ-ities from the exempt provisions of Section 23(1)(c) of CITA. The rate of tertiary educa-tion tax has been increased from two per cent of assessable profits to 2.5 per cent.

Capital allowance on qualifying capital expenditure incurred in generating tax-exempt income is not deductible from the assessable profits arising from income not exempt from tax under CITA.

According to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the new tax law further stipu-lates that capital gains from the disposal of stocks and shares in Nigerian companies, for aggregate proceed amounting to N100 mil-lion or more in any period of 12 consecutive months, is liable to Capital Gains Tax (CGT) at 10 per cent where the proceeds have not been reinvested within the same year of assessment in the acquisition of shares in the same or other Nigerian companies.

Also, profits of companies from the exports of goods produced in upstream, mid-stream and downstream petroleum opera-tions are also liable to tax as clarified in sec-tion 23(1)(q) of CITA.

The FIRS reiterated that non-resident companies liable to tax on profits arising from providing digital goods or services to Nigerian customers under the Significant Economic Presence (SEP) Rule may be assessed on fair and reasonable percentage of their turnover in the event that there is no assessable profit, the assessable profit is less than what is to be expected from that type of trade or business, or the assessable profit can-not be ascertained.

The new amendments to the Finance Act states that capital allowance on qualifying capital expenditure incurred in generating tax-exempt income was not deductible from the assessable profits arising from income not exempt from tax under CITA.

It stated that capital allowances accruing in respect of qualifying capital expenditure employed for both taxable and tax-exempt income shall be pro-rated where the tax-

exempt income constitutes more than 20 per cent of the total income of the com-pany.

Capital allowance on qualifying capital expenditure incurred by small companies are deemed utilised during the periods such companies are tax-exempt in accor-dance with Section 31(1C) of CITA.

However, minimum tax rate was reduced from 0.5 per cent to 0.25 per cent for any two consecutive accounting periods falling on 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2021, as may be elected by the taxpayer.

The Finance Act also states that any company that claims the reduced 0.25 per cent rate under the minimum tax rule in section 33 of CITA but filed its tax returns late would be liable to penalty equal to the benefits or reduction claimed.

The FIRS also stated that taxpayers may pay tax due in installments provided that the final installment shall be paid on or before the due date of payment.

Under the current regime, Withhold-ing Tax (WHT) deducted from payments to a Unit Trust shall be the final tax on such income provided the said deduction is fully remitted to FIRS.

Moreover, companies engaged in the business of banking, mobile telecommuni-cation, ICT, aviation, maritime and oil and gas with turnover of N100 million and above, are liable to pay National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) Levy at 0.25 per cent of their profits before tax and the tax is to be administered by FIRS.

The Finance Act also vested the FIRS with the duty to assess, collect, account and enforce the payment of the Nigeria Police Trust Fund Levy.

The levy is 0.005 per cent of the net profit of companies operating business in

Nigeria as provided under Section 4 of the Nigeria Police Trust Fund (Establishment) Act.

While also strengthening the service, the Act stipulated that any person who fails to grant FIRS access to its information process-ing systems to deploy its automated tax administration technology after a 30 days' notice, or such extension granted by the ser-vice, is liable to a penalty of N25, 000 for each day it continues to fail to grant the access.

Also, any bank that fails to prepare and submit quarterly returns of new accounts or any information requested by the relevant tax authority, or submit incorrect returns or information, under section 28 of FIRSEA or sections 47 and 49 of PITA, is liable to a pen-alty of N1 million for each quarterly return or information not provided or incorrect returns or information provided.

The law further provided that, “Any per-son employed in the service or otherwise that has access to taxpayer information is under a strict legal obligation to keep such informa-tion confidential. Leakages of taxpayer infor-mation by such person is liable to fine, imprisonment or both fine and imprison-ment.”

The FIRS said, “It is an offence, punish-able by a fine of N10 million imprisonment or both, for any agency of the federal govern-ment (other than FIRS) or any of their staff or consultant, to demand for books or returns for the purposes of tax, or carry out the func-tion of assessment, collection or enforce-ment of tax, or pay any portion of tax revenue to any person or into any account, other than the relevant accounts designated by the con-stitution or relevant laws of the National Assembly.”

Meanwhile, other agencies of the Federal Government are under statutory obligation to report cases requiring tax investigation,

enforcement or compliance, encountered in the course of performing their function, to the service for necessary action; they are for-bidden from carrying out tax monitoring, audit or investigation.

Fiscal Policy Partner and Africa Tax Leader, PwC Nigeria, Taiwo Oyedele noted that the Finance Act 2021, which has com-menced is expected to generate an estimate of N60 billion in revenue yearly for the fed-eral government warning however, that the development will have impact on tuition fees and further degenerate human capital in Nigeria in the long run.

He spoke at the Nigerian Economic Out-look 2022 webinar organised by the Redeemed Christian Church of God's The Kings Court parish.

The Finance Act 2021 amended tax on Tertiary Education Trust Fund from two per cent to 2.5 per cent, which the tax expert noted that with human capital being a major deficit to Nigeria, tax increase towards edu-cation shouldn't have occurred.

He said: “I struggle to understand why we are trying to tax educational institution, I don't understand why when every plan that we have speaks to the fact that we need more education not just in terms of the quantity, but the quality and depth of education for us to lead in this new age.

“So, the implications would be that you have increased funds and my estimation is that educational tax will go up by about N60 billion in a year, so that we agree is signifi-cant, but it means that higher burden for com-panies that have to pay this. Tuitions are likely to go up because if I have a school and I have to pay tax now I have to do my calcula-tions, I need to still pay salaries of staff, I need to do so many other things like infrastructure that you need to maintain, so I'll just adjust my tuition."

On the implication it would have for Nige-ria in the long-term, he said: “We may have long-term impacts on human development if we don't find other safeguards to ensure that these does not create a bigger problem than the solution we are hoping to address.”

Also, Special Adviser to the President on Finance and Economy, Sarah Alade also at the webinar noted that the federal govern-ment was committed to ensuring growth across all sectors.

She said: “We want to see prioritisation and implementation of critical infrastruc-ture, physical, digital, financial infrastruc-ture. We are deficient in infrastructures and we give priority to this.

“There must be measures to diversify our revenue base, we are hoping in this plan that by 2025, the present revenue to GDP which is about a less than eight per cent, we would be able to grow it to 15 per cent of GDP and then there must be continuous support and inter-ventions for manufacturing, for agriculture and for MSMEs.”

She added: “We are also looking at a mar-ket-driven economy movement to a unified liberalised foreign exchange market, to guide what we do in the next four years. We want to enhance non-oil forex earnings and promote institutional reforms in public sector, law enforcement, judiciary, secure property rights, and many other things which we also have in the in human development as we are prioritising quality education, health research and skills generally for our people.

“Then the philosophy of government for this plan, national development is the high-est priority of government and we're hoping government will unlock all constraints to ensure that economic growth is enhanced, inclusive, sustainable over the plan period and beyond to generate employment and reduce poverty.”

“There must be measures to diversify our revenue base, we are hoping in this plan that by 2025, the present revenue to GDP which is about a less than eight per cent, we would be able to grow it to 15 per cent of GDP and then there must be continuous support and interventions for manufacturing, for agriculture and for MSMEs”

Key changes to the tax laws introduced by the Finance Act, 2021 indicated diverse impacts on different sectors of the economy. The reviewed tax laws showed that companies engaged in the business of banking, mobile telecommunication, ICT and aviation with turnover of N100 million and above, are liable to pay National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) Levy. Likewise, profits of companies engaged in educational activi-ties are liable to tax due to the removal of educational activities from the exempt provisions of Companies Income Tax Act. However, companies involved in the trade or business of gas utilisation in downstream operations now enjoy tax-free regime among other recommendations.

•Zainab Ahmed, Finance Minister

Finance Act: How key changes impact businesses, economy

Wema Bank Plc is one of the few banks from which an outstand-ing earnings growth can be expected as the operating results for the 2021 financial year begins trickling in. The bank closed the third quarter opera-tions with an after tax profit of N6.2 billion, which is already well ahead of the full year figure of N4.6 billion in 2020.

The profit figure for the nine months of operations is a top record growth of 138.5 percent year-on-year from the corre-sponding figure of N2.6 billion in the prior financial year.

Based on the strong growth records in the interims, Wema bank could come close to dou-bling the closing profit for the just concluded financial year. The bank's shareholders can hope to see one of its most impressive earnings perfor-mance with the 2021 result.

The bank's exceptional growth came from three major developments on both sides of cost and income with cost reduc-tions leading the way.

Major cost savings were achieved from interest expenses as well as loan impairment charges and management is con-verted same into profit. Defying the rising cost of funds in the financial markets, the bank cut interest expenses by 12 percent year-on-year to N23 billion at the end of September 2021.

The reduction in cost of funds amounts to more than N3 billion over the review period.

This is a reduction in interest expenses for the bank for the sec-ond year after a 23 percent cut at the end of 2020.

Another major cost saving was recorded was recorded in loan impairment expenses with the appearance of a net write back in the quarter. That reversed the bank's position from a 12 percent growth in loan impairment charges at half year to a drop of 56.5 percent year-

on-year at the end of the third quarter.

The bank closed the third quarter trading with a loan impairment charge of N811 mil-lion. It closed the preceding financial year with a loan loss expense of N5.6 billion. The drop in credit losses represents a reduction of over N1 billion over the review period.

There were equally big strides by the bank on the side of earn-

ings growth. Three income lines held up the bank's reve-nue performance in 2021. One is net fee and commission income, which grew at a cruis-ing speed of 69 percent year-on-year to close at N8.7 billion at the end of September 2021.

The second is other income, which advanced by over 52 per-cent to N1.6 billion year-on-year at the end of the third quar-ter. Thirdly, the bank's main revenue line – interest income also grew by 11 percent to N51.5 billion over the period.

A drawback in revenue per-formance however came from net trading income, which diluted the increases with a drop of 76 percent to close at a little over N1 billion. That low-ered the year-on-year growth in gross income of the bank to 9 percent to close at over N63 bil-lion at the end of September.

It is nevertheless a step up in gross earnings for the bank from 8 percent improvement at half year. Wema Bank sus-tained a rebound at the end of the third quarter from a drop of 11 percent in gross earnings at the end of the preceding finan-cial year.

With the drop in interest expenses against an improve-ment in interest income, the bank achieved a robust growth in net interest earnings. Net interest income rose by 41.5 percent year-on-year to over N28 billion at the end of the third quarter.

The impressive growth was still improved by the drop in loan impairment expenses, leading to a top record growth of 51.5 percent in income net of loan loss charges, amounting to N27.6 billion at the end of the third quarter.

The bank maintained a good combination of improv-ing revenue and generally declining costs, which pow-ered its multiplying profit in the year. It is able to retain a good part of the gains in reve-nue as interest and loan impairment expenses dropped over the review period.

The favourable cost-income balance stretched out margins further for the bank in the third quarter. Net profit margin improved from 4.6 per-cent in the same period in 2020 to almost 10 percent at the end of the third quarter operations in 2021.

It is also a further improve-ment in net profit margin from 9 percent at half year. The bank has not attained profit margin that high in many years. That seems to set the stage for one of the most improved corporate earnings stories from the banking industry to come from Wema Bank in 2021.

The bank earned over 21 kobo per share at the end of the third quarter operations, improving from 9 kobo per share in the same period in the prior financial year.

11Monday, January 31 - Feb. 6, 2022

D U E D I L I G E N C EBY MIKE UZOR

•Ademola Adebise, Managing Director/CEO

he fourth edition of the Interna-tional Day of Education took Tplace on January 24, 2022, all

over the world with theme “Changing Course, Transforming Education.”

In Lagos State, the Youth Orienta-tion for Development, YOD, (a UNESCO NGO) in collaboration with Coker Secondary School Alumni Asso-ciation celebrated the day with a special event at Coker Secondary School, Lagos, to sensitize the students and other stakeholders on the importance of education and the need for govern-ment to provide required teaching and learning facilities.

Stakeholders who spoke at the event included the Hon. Commissioner for Education, Lagos State, Mrs Folashade Adefisayo, who was represented by Mrs Adebambo Mosunmola Rita, Director (Non-Governmental Organisation); Ambassador Emmanuel Ejiogu, Presi-dent, YOD; President of the Alumni Association/first Head Boy of the school, Mr Canice Opara; Mrs Sanni Adepeju Idowu, Principal, Coker Senior Secondary School.

They called on the government, par-ents and other stakeholders to encour-age young people to take education seri-ously.

According to the representative of the Lagos State Commissioner for Edu-

cation, Adebambo, the theme of the programme is a call for changing the course of poverty; changing the course of ignorance; changing the course of soci-etal menace, changing the course of affliction and sickness, and of course, changing course of untimely death.

“Why we are here today is to pass across the message of the significance of education in the life of every citizen glob-ally,” she added.

She said the Lagos State Government is doing everything within its powers to ensure that every child of school age in Lagos is in school during school hours.

“In various parts of the country, espe-cially in the North, We have a lot of out of school children, but in Lagos State, the Lagos State Government is trying its best possible to make sure that this becomes a thing of the past by next year.

“It is in the agenda of Lagos State Gov-ernment to ensure that children that are of school age are not seen on the roadside selling or hawking. If children are not in school when they are supposed to be in school, this is the denial of their rights. It is your right for you to be educated. Lagos State is committed to the well-being and education of all Lagosians.

“Lagos State Government is working assiduously to make sure that schools across the state are provided with ade-quate teaching and learning facilities to

Wema Bank: Expect outstanding earnings growth

make sure that the classrooms are con-ducive for effective teaching and learn-ing. The process is ongoing and I'm very optimistic that it will be com-pleted”, she stated.

The President, YOD, Ejiogu, the organizers of the event said “This year's International Day of Education presents a platform to showcase the most important transformations that have to be nurtured to realize every-one's fundamental right to education and build a more sustainable, inclusive and peaceful future.”

He said the programme will gener-ate debate around how to strengthen education as a public endeavour and common good, how to steer the digital transformation, support teachers, safe-guard the planet and unlock the poten-tial in every person to contribute to the collective well-being of every citizen globally.

“Education is a human right, a pub-lic good and a public responsibility. The United Nations General Assembly pro-claimed 24 January as International Day of Education in celebration of the role of education for peace and devel-opment. Without inclusive and equita-ble quality of education and lifelong opportunities for all, countries will not succeed in achieving gender equality and breaking the cycle of poverty that is

leaving millions of children, youth and adults behind.

“Today, 258 million children and youth still do not attend school; 617 mil-lion children and adolescents cannot read and do basic math; less than 40% of girls in Sub-Saharan Africa complete lower Secondary School and some four million children and youth refugees are out of school. Their right to education is being violated and it is unacceptable. This is why our organization is relentless in her effort to call the attention of the government and other corporate organi-zations to do something very urgently, to see that these identified needs in educa-tion is met, ” YOD President said.

Also speaking, Opara traced the his-tory of the School, which he said was established in 1982.

He said the school has produced many professionals who are doing very well in their various professions, he men-tioned Obafemi Martins, the former member of the Super Eagles of Nigeria as one of the old students of the school.

“We the old students of this school are proud to have passed through this school. I want to challenge you today, wherever you will be after your studies in this school, be proud of being an old stu-dent of Coker Secondary school and do everything possible to identify with the Alumni Association.

International Day of Education: Stakeholders harp on need for conducive learning environment

12 Monday, January 31 - Feb. 6, 2022

he Managing Director, Morgan Capital Securi-ties Limited and an eco-T

nomic analyst, Mr Rotimi Olubi, has said that electioneer-ing for 2023 general elections in Nigeria will further increase foreign portfolio outflows and cause Foreign Portfolio Inves-tors (FPIs) to remain on the sidelines.

Olubi said this at a forum organised by the Capital Mar-ket Correspondents Associa-tion of Nigeria (CAMCAN) in Lagos on Wednesday.

Speaking on the theme: "A review of 2021 Market Perfor-mance and Factors that will shape it in 2022", he listed other factors expected to cause further outflow to include rate hikes and capital controls by the monetary authorities.

Olubi? added that the for-eign exchange (FX) would likely come under strong pres-sure as interest rate hikes in advanced economies would result in portfolio outflows from emerging markets.

He noted that domestic investors would be the key play-ers responsible for the move-ment of the market and liquid-ity. "Electioneering, rate hikes, and capital controls by the mon-etary authorities are expected to cause further foreign portfo-lio outflows and cause FPIs to remain on the sidelines.

“Even as the economy con-tinues its recovery, corporate earnings of companies in the consumer goods and industrial goods sector are expected to be impacted by high input costs caused by high inflation and higher cost of capital due to interest rate hikes.

CAPITAL MARKET

"Interest income of financial services institutions such as banks is expected to rise in Nige-ria if interest rates rise as expected. This is because the U.S could decide to raise inter-est rates.

"This act by the U.S could lead to downward pressure on commodity prices, drop in global liquidity, increase in the cost of funds from the interna-tional debt market and due to the fact that Ukraine and Russia are still having conflicts, oil prices might go up and produc-tion could decrease.

“Companies in the oil and gas sector are expected to have a solid year driven by strong oil prices, increasing global oil demand and OPEC+ cuts,” Olubi said.

He said that with relatively low infection rates and fatalities from the pandemic, the likeli-

hood of an economic shutdown was non-existent.

" T h e G D P g r o w t h i s expected to grow by 3.86 per cent in 2022 supported by fur-ther improvements in agricul-ture, manufacturing, services and the oil sector and increased government spending in areas such as advertising, printing, media, among other campaign related sectors.

"Major downside risk to this outlook is the security situation in several parts of the country, capital controls in the FX mar-ket and any unexpected severe mutation in COVID-19", Olubi said.

According to him, being an election year, government spending is expected to be at its highest complemented by improved oil revenues. He said that this would lead to wider fis-cal deficit and further increase

in an already elevated debt-servicing cost.

On the removal of oil sub-sidy, Olubi said the suspension would dampen the impact of high oil prices in the global mar-kets to the Federal Govern-ment's purse. "The Federal Gov-ernment will need to focus on making reducing the leakages associated with the current sub-sidy/under recovery regime," he said.

Olubi said that inflation was expected rise further following a direction reversal in December 2021 where inflation rose after an eight month downward trend. "Although the MPC retained all parameters, they could still be forced to raise interest rate to combat inflation and reduce the negative real interest rate and that is if the U.S decides to raise their inter-est rate.

"Accordingly, the MPC could be forced to raise Interest rates to combat inflation and reduce the already negative real interest rate," he added.

Speaking on the 2021 per-formance of the Nigerian econ-omy as well as its markets, Olubi, noted that the country witnessed its largest quarterly growth (5.01 per cent) in over six years in the fourth quarter of 2021 due to positive perfor-mance recorded in the non-oil, agric and services sectors.

He pointed out that foreign investors remained on the side-lines as domestic investors, which stood at 77 per cent, domi-nated the Nigerian capital mar-ket (NCM).? According to him, this was because foreign inves-tors could not access FX due to policies eked out by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) while adding that there would be more decline in foreign partici-pation in 2022.

rdova Plc held a ground-breaking ceremony to Acommemorate the ongo-

ing construction of its new world-class Liquefied Petro-leum Gas (LPG) storage facility at the company's Ijora-Lagos Campus. The LPG facility which will sit on 8.8 hectares and have a combined storage capacity of 20,000 metric tonnes, under-scores Ardova's commitment to grow revenues from cleaner fuels.

Olumide Adeosun, Chief Executive Officer, Ardova Plc, said “This event marks an important step in our evolution to an integrated energy com-pany, as it draws us closer to our projection of a future where renewables and cleaner fuels represent a considerable seg-ment of our product offering and balance sheet.”

Mr. Adeosun also noted that “This facility, when completed will be West Africa's largest LPG storage complex, placing Ardova at the top of the industry in receiving, blending, storing, and distributing the product to both commercial and retail cus-tomers.

It also indicates the direc-tion of travel for our company, as it spotlights our confidence in LPG as the fuel of the future in Nigeria, in congruence with both the Nigerian government's gas expansion plan which seeks to make LPG mainstream at the end of the decade and the pres-ent growing rate of in-country consumer adoption of the prod-uct.

Ardova's investment in this facility supersedes the expected commercial returns, as the com-pany is equally focused on the positive environmental and human impact that increased access to gas will create.

Mr. Adeosun noted that “We are also particularly interested in the improved soc io-economic prospects it portends for citizens of our beloved coun-try, especially rural consumers whose reliance on biomass such as firewood makes them vulner-able to attendant health risks and reduces much needed ground cover provided by trees at alarming speed.” Mr. Adeosun added that “By December 2022, when con-struction is completed, we will have a facility that will be both best in class and future ready.

STORIES BYKENNETH MADUEKE

•Rotimi Olubi

he Nigerian debt capital market (DCM) provides Tthe opportunity for insti-

tutions looking to unlock the required financing in Nigeria's agriculture sector. In keeping with its mandate to continu-ously enhance its service offer-

ings and generate long-term value for its stakeholders in the Nigerian DCM, FMDQ Securi-ties Exchange Limited (FMDQ Exchange) through its Board Listings and Markets Commit-tee, has approved the registra-tion of the Babban Gona Farmer Services Nigeria Lim-ited N15.00 billion Commercial Paper (CP) Programme on its platform.

Babban Gona Farmer Ser-vices Nigeria Limited (“Babban Gona” or “the Issuer”) is a social enterprise that seeks to sustainably improve the lives of smallholder farmers in Nigeria through the provision of com-prehensive farming services. Speaking on the successful reg-istration of the CP Programme, the Managing Director, Babban Gona Farmer Services Nigeria Limited, Mr. Bukola Masha, stated “we are an agricultural franchise committed to curbing the growing trend of poverty and violence in Africa by creat-ing opportunities of dignified and fulfilling work for the rural farmer youths. We aim to make farming more profitable for

smallholder farmers as we sup-port them across the entire pro-duction chain. With the suc-cessful registration of this ? 15.00 billion CP Programme, we are a step closer to achieving this goal; we are delighted at the opportunity to diversify our short-term funding sources and look forward to the participa-tion of the investment commu-nity when we launch Series 1 of the CP Programme”.

Also commenting on the r e g i s t r a t i o n o f t h e C P Programme, the sponsor of the CP Programme and a Registra-tion Member (Quotations) of the Exchange, FCMB Capital Markets Limited, through its Ag. Managing Director, Mr. Abimbola Kasim, stated “FCMB Capital Markets is pleased to have sponsored the registration of the Babban Gona CP Programme. Babban Gona is an impact company, operating in the agriculture space by providing practical and innovative solutions to smallholder farmers, leverag-ing technology to make farming more profitable by creating mil-

lions of youth jobs (“agri-preneurs”) and stimulating strong economic growth. We pro-vided the required support that has enabled the Issuer to comply with the requirements for regis-tering its debut CP Programme with which it will make an entry into the Nigerian DCM. Given the critical role of agriculture to the country and Babban Gona's innovative delivery approach, we will continue to support the company's objectives”.

FMDQ Group is Africa's first vertically integrated financial market infrastructure group, strategically positioned to pro-vide registration, listing, quota-tion and noting services; inte-grated trading, clearing & cen-tral counterparty, settlement, and risk management for finan-cial market transactions; depos-itory of securities, as well as data and information services, across the debt capital, foreign exchange, derivatives and equity markets, through its wholly owned subsidiaries – FMDQ Exchange, FMDQ Clear Lim-ited, FMDQ Depository Limited and FMDQ Private Markets Lim-ited.

•Bola Onadele Koko, Chief ExecutiveOfficer, FMDQ •Olumide Adeosun

2023 elections will increase foreign portfolio outflows

FMDQ Exchange admits Babban Gona Farmers Services CP programme

Ardova Plc toconclude construction of W/A largest LPGstorage facility inDecember 2022

Monday, January 31 - Feb. 6, 2022 13DOCUMENT

across the country. All excess output aggregated from the financed farmers will be released to the Nigeria Commodity Exchange (NCX) to help moderate the prices of food in the market. The Bank also released N1.76 billion to finance two (2) large-scale agricultural projects under the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS).

In addition, the Bank disbursed the sum of N151.23 bil-lion under the Real Sector Facility to 15 additional projects in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and services. The funds were utilized for both greenfield and brownfield (ex-pansion) projects under the Covid-19 Intervention for the Manufacturing Sector (CIMS) and the Real Sector Support Facility from Differentiated Cash Reserve Requirement (RSSF-DCRR). Cumulative disbursements under the Real Sector Facility currently stood at N1.40 trillion disbursed to 331 projects across the country. As part of its effort to sup-port the resilience of the healthcare sector, the Bank also dis-bursed N498.00 million to two (2) healthcare projects under the Healthcare Sector Intervention Facility (HSIF), bringing the cumulative disbursements to N108.85 billion for 118 projects, comprising of 31 pharmaceuticals, 82 hos-pital and 4 other services.

To support households and businesses affected by Covid-19, the Bank disbursed N20.29 billion to 40,521 bene-ficiaries, comprising 35,340 households and 5,181 small businesses under the Targeted Credit Facility (TCF) within the period. The cumulative disbursements under the TCF stood at N369.78 billion to 777,666 beneficiaries, compris-ing 648,052 households and 129,614 small businesses. To further promote entrepreneurship development among Nigerian youths, the Bank disbursed N293 million to 59 ben-eficiaries under the recently introduced Tertiary Institutions Entrepreneurship Scheme (TIES).

Under the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP), the sum of N47.83 billion was disbursed for the procurement and installation of 858,026 electricity meters across the country under the Scheme’s Phase-0. The Committee also noted the improved collections by DisCos as a result of increased meter installations. The Bank released N274.33 billion to power sector players, as part of its effort to support the sector under the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trad-ing Payment Assurance Facility (NBET-PAF). This was in addition to the N20.58 billion released to Distribution Com-panies (DisCos) under the Nigeria Electricity Market Sta-bilisation Facility - Phase 2 (NEMSF-2). To further support the development of enabling infrastructure in the gas indus-try, the Bank released additional N3.00 billion for the aug-mentation of an existing infrastructure, bringing the cumu-lative disbursements under the Intervention Facility for National Gas Expansion Programme (IFNGEP) to N42.20 billion for six (6) projects.

Furthermore, under the 100 for 100 Policy on Produc-tion and Productivity (PPP), which was introduced to stimu-late the flow of finance and investments to enterprises and projects with potential to kick-start a sustainable economic growth trajectory, accelerate structural transformation, pro-mote diversification, and improve productivity, the Bank has received 224 applications, valued at N294.91 billion for real sector projects in agriculture, energy, healthcare, manu-facturing and services. The applications are currently being processed and the first batch of beneficiaries under the intervention will be announced on 31st January 2022, with their names published in national dailies. These projects have been carefully selected in line with the approved selec-

will further aggravate exchange rate pressures with a pass-through to domestic prices.

Global financial markets data show significant sell-off, as investors continued to rebalance their portfolios with the shift from assets such as gold and emerging market securities to securities of Advanced Economies suggesting market response to the impending interest rate hike. Thus, global financial conditions are expected to tighten as risk averse port-folio investors reassign their portfolios from perceived riskier emerging market securities, to less risky advanced economy securities with the expectation of improved yields.

Domestic Economic DevelopmentsStaff projections showed that the economy is expected to

remain on a path of positive growth, given the impressive per-formance in the third quarter of 2021 and continuing rebound in economic activities. The Committee noted with satisfac-tion, the significant improvement in the Manufacturing Pur-chasing Managers' Index (PMI), which rose to 52.0 index points in December 2021, compared with 50.8 index points in November reflecting the continuing economic recovery. This expansion was driven largely by increasing business activities in the economy, leading to increase in new orders and uptrend in employment and production levels. The Non-Manufacturing PMI, however, declined marginally to 48.0 index points in December 2021 from 48.6 points in Novem-ber, largely reflecting a decline in services.

The Committee noted with concern, the slight increase in headline inflation (year-on-year) to 15.63 per cent in Decem-ber 2021 from 15.40 per cent in November following seven consecutive months of decline. The unexpected increase was attributed to both the food and core components, which rose to 17.37 and 13.87 per cent in December 2021 from 17.21 and 13.85 per cent in November, respectively. The Committee, however, expressed confidence in the Bank's sustained inter-vention programmes, noting that inflation will continue to abate as food supply improves. Members also noted that the seasonal drive in price development associated with the December festive period was largely contributory to the mar-ginal increase in price levels, and as such, believe that this epi-sode of increase may be temporary.

Reviewing the developments in monetary aggregates, the Committee noted that broad money supply (M3) rose further to 13.77 per cent in December 2021, compared with 10.10 per cent in November 2021. This upthrust was largely driven by the growth in Net Domestic Assets (NDA) of 15.58 per cent in December 2021, compared with 9.40 per cent in November 2021. Net Foreign Assets (NFA), however decreased to 6.06 per cent in December 2021, compared with 14.98 per cent in November 2021. The sharp growth in Net Domestic Assets (NDA) was largely attributed to an increase in claims on the Federal government and other sectors. The slowdown in growth of Net Foreign Assets (NFA) resulted from a decrease in foreign assets holdings of the banking system in favour of more domestic investments.

The Committee reviewed the performance of the Bank's intervention programmes aimed at stimulating productivity i n m a n u f a c t u r i n g / i n d u s t r i e s , a g r i c u l t u r e , energy/infrastructure, healthcare and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). Between November and December 2021, under the Anchor Borrowers' Programme (ABP), the Bank disbursed N75.99 billion to support the culti-vation of over 383,000 hectares of maize, rice and wheat dur-ing the 2022 dry season, bringing the cumulative disburse-ments under the Programme to N927.94 billion to over 4.5 million smallholder farmers cultivating 21 commodities

he Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) held its first meeting for the year 2022 on the 24th and 25th of Janu-ary 2022 in the light of waning optimism for a robust T

rebound in global recovery in 2021. This resulted from the persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic and emergence of new variants of the virus; persisting supply bottlenecks; global inflationary pressures; and the imminent commence-ment of monetary policy normalization by some major cen-tral banks. In the domestic economy, output growth recovery was relatively strong in 2021. It is however, expected to con-tinue reasonably in 2022, following considerable improve-ment in the third quarter of 2021 and a positive outlook for the fourth quarter. This was hinged on the continued support of the monetary and fiscal authorities to sustain the current momentum. The Committee reviewed the developments in the global and domestic economic and financial environ-ments in 2021, as well as the outlook and risks for 2022.Ten (10) members of the Committee attended this meeting.

Global Economic DevelopmentsThe Committee noted that while the recovery of the

global economy in 2021 fell below the initial forecast, final estimates showed considerable improvements over the 2020 outcome, evidence that the global economy was pulling out of the doldrum associated with the pandemic. Consequently, the recovery is gaining momentum with increasing con-sumer spending, upswing in investments and soaring world merchandise trade, above pre-pandemic levels. This reflects the resilience of economic agents in the face of new strains of the virus and rising infection rates. The Committee, however, took cognizance of significant headwinds confronting the global economy in 2022, largely associated with the persist-ing threats of new variants of the coronavirus. The Advanced Economies are however, in a strong position to offset the impact of these headwinds with stronger policy support and better access to COVID-19 vaccines. Consequently, this group of economies have shown better resilience towards disruptions to the recovery. In the medium term however, the rising inflationary pressures and the gradual withdrawal of both monetary and fiscal stimuli may dampen the recov-ery in 2022.

In the Emerging Market and Developing Economies (EMDEs), poor access to vaccines and limited policy support meant that this group of economies have been harder hit by the Covid-19 health crisis and its associated macroeconomic downturn. In China, one of the few countries that stayed out of recession in 2020, output weakened in the third quarter of 2021 and has continued to weaken as the Covid infections continue to rage amid power supply shortages and a turbu-lent property market. Following the containment of the infections in India, the economy has commenced a sharp recovery and is set to continue on an upward trajectory. Over-all, growth in the EMDEs is expected to slow in 2022 due to the low level of vaccination and limited policy support in sev-eral economies in this group.

On price development, the MPC observed that inflation, in most Advanced Economies remained high and unlikely to abate in the short to medium term. This is driven by the per-sistence of supply side disruptions and pent-up demand asso-ciated with economic recovery. In the EMDEs, inflation has remained high due to a combination of persisting exchange rate pressures and supply bottlenecks associated with the lockdown restrictions. With the US Fed and central banks of other advanced economies now moving towards monetary policy normalization, the eventual interest rate hike may likely trigger huge capital outflow from the EMDEs which

•Godwin Emefiele, Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN

CBN Communique No. 140 of the MPC Meeting - Jan 24-25, 2022

Cont’d on page 14

14

tion criteria as contained in the guidelinesqMoney market rates fluctuated within

and above the asymmetric corridor, reflect-ing prevailing liquidity conditions in the banking system. The monthly weighted aver-age Open Buyback (OBB) rate increased to 12.75 per cent in December 2021 from 10.61 per cent in November 2021. The increase in the Open Buyback (OBB) rate reflected the tight liquidity conditions in the banking sys-tem.

The MPC noted the continuing positive performance in the equities market in the review period, with the All-Share Index (ASI) and Market Capitalization (MC) increasing by 1.61 and 1.63 per cent to 42,716.44 and N22.30 trillion on December 31, 2021, from 42,038.60 and N21.94 trillion on October 29, 2021, respectively. This positive perfor-mance reflected improved corporate earn-ings as investors participation increased in the market.

The MPC also noted the sustained resil-ience of the banking system, following the progressive improvement in the Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) ratio from 5.10 per cent in November 2021 to 4.85 per cent in December 2021- a first in a long time. The Committee also noted that the liquidity ratio remained well above its prudential limit at 41.3 per cent, though Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) declined marginally to 14.53 per cent in December 2021 from 14.90 per cent in the previous month. The Committee thus, urged the Bank to sustain its firm regulatory sur-veillance.

Members also noted the continued improvement in the external reserves despite ongoing foreign exchange market pressures. The reserves stood at US$40.20 billion as at December 2021.

Outlook: The broad outlook for the recovery in both the global and domestic economies is clouded with uncertainty such as the resurgence of the COVID-19 pan-demic, driven by new and mutating strains of the coronavirus; persisting supply bottle-necks; high and rising inflationary pressures; and dwindling monetary and fiscal stimuli.

The Emerging Markets and Developing Economies are likely to experience a sharp downturn as a result of the identified head-winds confronting the outlook. This is hinged on the back of the ongoing two-speed recovery of the global economy, driven by continued disparities in the administration of vaccines between the Advanced Econo-mies and the Emerging Markets and Devel-oping Economies. While the Advanced Econ-omies will also experience a downturn in 2022, this group of economies are expected to take a less severe hit as most of them have achieved significant high levels of vaccina-tion.

Staff forecast project output growth at 3.10 per cent in 2021 with an expected better outcome in 2022, consistent with the expected improved macroeconomic perfor-mance. The economic recovery is therefore expected to progress gradually with the ongo-ing support by the monetary and fiscal authorities, progress in COVID-19 vaccina-tions and continued high crude oil prices.

After a moderate increase in December 2021, headline inflation is expected to trend marginally upwards in the short-term before moderating towards the end of the first quar-ter of 2022. This is expected as food harvests progress towards the end of the first quarter of 2022 and improve food supply. In general, with the Bank sustaining its intervention programmes through the year, food inflation is expected to trend downwards in 2022.

Available forecasts for key macroeco-nomic variables for the Nigerian economy, indicated expected rebound in output growth for most of 2022, sustained by ongo-ing broad monetary and fiscal stimuli. Accordingly, the Nigerian economy is fore-cast to grow in 2022 by 2.86 per cent (CBN), 4.20 per cent (FGN) and 2.76 per cent (IMF).

The Committee's ConsiderationsThe Committee accessed the balance of

risks confronting the domestic economy in the near term as they impact output growth

and price stability. Members noted the unre-lenting effort by the monetary and fiscal authorities in mitigating the impact of the virus on the economy. It observed the con-tinued moderate recovery of the domestic economy but requires further concerted pol-icy effort by both the monetary and fiscal authorities to improve the momentum and strengthen the recovery. Members were thus of the view that, building on the improved growth in the third quarter and the positive PMIs in the fourth quarter of 2021, output growth is expected to strengthen into 2022.

On the Pandemic, the MPC reviewed its continued impact on the domestic economy as Members collectively agreed that the down-side risks were still hindering the recovery. In this light, it commended the efforts of the Pres-idential Task Force on COVID-19 for procur-ing vaccines and continuing the drive to ensure that most Nigerians are fully vacci-nated.

On price development, Members contin-ued to express concerns about the impact of insecurity in farming communities on food inflation. Whereas headline inflation had been moderating for several months, the com-mittee believed that its recent uptick was asso-ciated with increased demand during the fes-tive season and was thus of the view that prices will return to the downward trajectory given the Bank's ongoing interventions in the agriculture sector. On this note, Members applauded the efforts of the Bank with the recent launch of the rice pyramids, noting that these efforts to increase food supply and stem food inflation were in the right direction. Members, however, reiterated the key role of the Federal Government in providing the nec-essary security around the country, and par-ticularly in the farming communities, to ensure that farmers and their produce remain safe, and food supply is both boosted and unin-terrupted. The Committee noted that the ongoing dry season farming would further improve food supply and dampen prices.

Members noted the ongoing debate around the removal of fuel subsidy and sug-gested a robust engagement with relevant groups in the country, and afterward follow a stepwise and gradual approach, to ensure its moderate impact on cost of transportation and energy for individual, households and firms. The Committee also noted the need to encourage the take-off of private refineries across the country to provide alternative com-petitive local supply source and reduce the need for government intervention to manage fuel prices for domestic consumption. In addi-tion to this, the Committee called for the speedy conclusion of the government gas-powered vehicle conversion scheme and other alternative sources of fuel.

On the exchange rate, the Committee

applauded the Management's efforts at main-taining stability over the short term with increasing demand as the economy continues to reopen. Members noted the dwindling pro-ceeds from oil sale, despite rising crude oil prices. They further noted the need to address the persistent reduction in remittance of oil revenue to the Consolidated Revenue Fund and urged the NNPC to urgently address this anomaly. The improved foreign exchange supply will thus support the Bank's demand management strategy in the foreign exchange market and consolidate macroeconomic per-formance, especially those that promote export, reduce dependence on import and reduce foreign exchange demand pressure. The MPC welcomed the improvement in for-eign capital inflow through diaspora remit-tances and urged the Bank to further extend the incentive scope to attract more remit-tances to official channels.

The Committee noted the rising govern-ment debt profile and the concentration of the funding sources and its implications for fiscal sustainability and macroeconomic stability, including its impact on financial system per-formance and growth. The MPC continued to urge the Government on the need to harness other sources of revenue to reduce its depend-ence on oil as a single revenue source. In addi-tion, it reiterated the need for government to seek alternative, more viable, and efficient infrastructure financing sources, in order to ease its expenditure burden. To this end, Members called on the fiscal authorities to take advantage of InfraCorp, the private sec-tor driven infrastructural vehicle and transfer viable infrastructure projects for consider-ation by the Corporation as this would ease pressure on Government. that would other-wise have to raise revenue through taxes from an already burdened private and household sector.

The improved performance of the equi-ties market in the review period, signposted continued investor confidence in the Nigerian economy. This in the view of Members was a positive sign that the economy remained on a path to a more robust medium-term recov-ery.

The banking sector indices, in the consid-eration of Members, showed no less resilience as other macroeconomic indicators reviewed; even as obvious downside risks associated with the Pandemic continued to impact the business environment. Members thus applauded the Management's efforts in ensuring the continued downward trend of Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) ratio, signify-ing improving conditions in the banking sys-tem. Nevertheless, Members emphasized the need for the Bank to closely monitor develop-ments in the sector and swiftly respond to any emerging challenges.

DOCUMENT

The Committee's DecisionThe MPC observed with concern the mod-

erate rise in inflation in December 2021, not-ing that this was typical of increased aggregate demand associated with the end-of-year fes-tive activities. Members, however, expressed their continued commitment to drive down domestic prices by putting in place relevant policy measures to curb the rise in inflationary pressures, while also supporting the fragile growth recovery.

In its determination as to whether to hold or loosen or tighten its policy stance, the MPC was mindful that, whereas the US and some Advanced Economies have signaled their intention to commence policy normalisation which may result in capital flow reversal for EMDEs, the major focus at these climes were targeted mainly at reining in the high level of inflation which had been unprecedent in the last four decades in those climes.

For Nigeria, members were of the view that Nigeria is confronted with, not only infla-tion but also fragile output growth. As a result, MPC believes that its current stance of price and monetary stability conducive for growth remain desirable. The MPC is convinced that various measures being implemented were helping, not only in boosting output growth, but also in moderating inflation. The MPC therefore, enjoyed Management to continue to use its development finance tools to accelerate output growth, which will also help in boosting manufacturing output that would ultimately aid moderation in prices. It also requested Management to continue its use of adminis-trative measures, including discretionary tools at its disposal through CRR to control money supply in the economy.

In its final consideration, the Committee was clear that a loosening option was not desirable because it would trigger liquidity sur-feit and fuel inflationary pressure as available funds may outstrip the economy absorptive capacity or domestic capacity utilization. It also feels loosening could trigger foreign exchange demand pressure, as the excess liquidity would be channeled to either frivo-lous importations or speculative holding of foreign exchange as alternative investment channels narrow; leading to foreign exchange depreciation and or inflation.

The MPC also dropped a tightening option at this meeting in view of the fragile state of the current GDP growth rate and potential exter-nal and domestic headwinds confronting the economy. The Committee opined that tighten-ing could truncate the steady improvement in credit performance, including other financial soundness indicators, and reverse the declin-ing trend in NPLs. Moreover, tightening could counteract the CBN's credit expansion motive as a necessary condition for improved eco-nomic growth and employment generation.

The MPC, therefore, concluded that a HOLD stance remains desirable at this time, as this would indicate a conservative but cautious and consistent policy choice given the prevail-ing economic conditions and outlook, thus strengthening policy credibility and focus. It also feels that a hold would signal MPCs reali-sation of the fragility of the growth recovery and its sensitivity to emerging global and domestic uncertainties. Hence the need to sus-tain the current policy trajectory.

After a careful balancing of the benefits and downsides of each policy option, the MPC decided to hold all policy parameters constant; believing that a hold stance will enable the con-tinued permeation of current policy measures in supporting the recorded growth recovery and further boost production and productiv-ity, which would ultimately rein-in inflation in the short to medium term.

The Committee thus decided by a unani-mous vote to retain the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at 11.5 per cent.

In summary, the MPC voted to retain:1. The MPR at 11.5 percent;2. The Asymmetric Corridor of +100/-

700 basis points around the MPR;3. The CRR at 27.5 per cent; and4. The Liquidity Ratio at 30 per cent. Thank you. Godwin I. EmefieleGovernor, Central Bank of Nigeria25th January 2022

Monday, January 31 - Feb. 6, 2022

CBN Communique No. 140 of the MPC meeting...

•Godwin Emefiele, Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria

Cont’d from page 13

15

nion Bank of Nigeria PLC emerged the NSE30 stock of the week ended December 24, 2021. UShare price and market capitalization appreci-

ated by 20.65% W-o-W to close at market capitaliza-tion of N161.62bn.

The Index dipped by -0.31%; a net loss of –N55.29bn. Total market capitalization therefore

INVESTMENT TIPS By IDIKA AJA

prises, and commercial and corporate clients primarily in Nigeria and the United Kingdom. Total market capi-talization as at January 27, 2022 stood at N173.168b with 129.121b shares outstanding. Individual insiders own 0.8% (235,144,124) shares, general public owns 8.7% (2,539,664,906) shares, VC/PE firms own 25.5% (7,471,752,753) shares while private companies own 65.0% (19,017,923,071) shares. Top 10 shareholders own 91.32% of the bank's shares.

MANAGEMENT EFFECTIVENESS: Earnings have grown by 13.3% per year over the past 5 years, but over the past year had negative earnings growth of -1.3%. Diluted net income stood at N18.535 million in 2020 against N15,617 million in 2016. Consequently, closing at a normalized EPS of 0.80 in 2020 compared to 0.71 in 2016. Its return on average equity (Annual) at 9.93% is considered low, so also is its assets to equity ratio at 9.7%. Typically a good rate is anything above 10.

As at January 27, 2022, its 1-year return was +9.55% with a 30-day average trading volume of 2,599,846; trading on an average price of N5.23, a 52 week high price of 6.12 and a 52 week low price of 4.50. It closed trading for the year ended 31/12/21 at a price of 5.90 and opened the 2022 trading at a price of 5.80 (4/1/22) and by the close of trading on January 27, 2022, the stock traded at N5.95.

The quality of the bank's earnings is not too good, because it has a high level of non-cash earnings. Non-cash earnings are reported profits not backed by cash which a company has received. The current net profit margin (23.3%) is low compared to last year (25.8%). Though its EPS growth (Quarterly and TTM YoY) are negative (-10.97) and (-1.07) respectively, its Free Cash flow (TTM) at N151.122b, is good. With this, the bank will be able to pay its monthly dues and decide on future expansions that would improve the shareholders' value. The FCF shows the money the company has left after deducting all its cash payments towards capital expen-diture, debt and other operating expenses.

The stock is a dividend paying stock with a last reported dividend of 0.25. The bank has only paid divi-dends for 2 years within 10 years and payment was not increased within these periods. Investing in a dividend

Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, ‘NSE 30 stock of the week’

08034003768

paying stock is very good, especially if you want to hold the stock for a long period of time. Investing in it gives you a two-way profit; appreciation in the price of the stock and through distributions in the form of divi-dend to the shareholders. Based on its current divi-dend yield (TTM) of 4.27%, the simple rate of return in the form of cash dividends to shareholders is 4.27%. The payout ratio (Annual) and (TTM) are 29.27% and 29.65% respectively. This means, the company paid out only 29.65% of its earnings.

FINANCIAL HEALTH: Total debt to total equity (quarterly) is 101.38, (Annual) – 104.31, and assets to equity ratio of 9.7x, while capital structure ratio stood at 12.04% in 2020, the highest in 5 years. This means that 12.04% of the bank's assets were financed by external debt.

The bank's total deposits increased by 27.54% in 2020 compared to 2019, while net loans increased by 25.81%. By the end of the 3rd quarter of 2021, net loans have increased by 16.79% (63.22%) compared to its position as at December 31, 2020. Its 5-year aver-age loan to deposit ratio stood at 46.05%; recording; the highest loan to deposit of 67.74% in 2016 and low-est in 2018 (49.47%). By 2019, it moved up to 62.12% and dropped to 61.25% in 2020, and currently at 63%, which is considered appropriate, though below the CBN set ratio of 65%. The bank has a sufficient allow-ance for bad loans (116%). Loan to assets ratio (32%) is considered appropriate. But its level of bad loans at 4.7% is considered high, typically a bad loan ratio of more than 2% is considered high.

VALUATION: The bank's price to book value (MRQ) 0.84 and Annual (0.7x) is good, though higher than industry average of (0.5x). Traditionally, any value under 1.0 is considered a good P/B value for value investors. The price earnings ratio (7.1x) of 27/1/22 is higher than the industry P/E ratio (3.4x) but lower than the NG market P/E ratio (7.7x). Based on its P/E and P/B ratios compared to the Industry, UBN is overvalued, but compared to the NG market it is not.

Idika A. Aja, ACS, writes from Lagos and can be reached via idikaaja@yahoo.com and 08034003768

Monday, January 31 - Feb. 6, 2022

•Emeka Okonkwo, Group Managing Director

TABLE 1 – NSE30 COMPONENTS

dropped to N17,555bn from N17,610bn on December 17, 2021.

Union Bank of Nigeria Plc provides investment, cor-porate, commercial, and retail banking products and services for individuals, small and medium sized enter-

TABLE 2

TABLE 3

he Nigerian Association of Cham-bers of Commerce, Industry, M i n e s a n d A g r i c u l t u r e T

(NACCIMA) has appointed the 1st Dep-uty President Abuja Chamber of Com-merce and Industry (ACCI), Chief Emeka Obegolu as a National Vice Pres-ident of the Association.

Chief Obegolu (SAN), who also dou-bled as the Governing Council Chair-man of the Nigerian Chambers of Com-merce Dispute Resolution Centre ( NCC-DRC) in a congratulatory letter signed by the National President, John

Udeagbala on behalf of NACCIMA Coun-cil members was recently elevated to the position of the Senior Advocate of Nige-ria.

Udeagbala said the decision to have a National Vice President in Abuja was due to the enormity of assignments at the Presidency level, a decision which was reached during the last quarter Council held on 18th November, 2021 at Benin, Edo State.

“We have no doubt that you will con-tinue to bring your wealth of experience to bear on the Association for positive

transformation.”The President ACCI, Dr Al-Mujtaba

Abubakar, the EXCO and Council mem-bers received the appointment of Chief Obegolu as a laudable one while praying for strength and wisdom in the delivery of his assignment at NACCIMA.

Dr Abubakar said, he knows that Chief Obegolu will bring his wealth of experience to bear in the discharge of his duty at NACCIMA the same way he has always delivered at ACCI.

NACCIMA appoints ACCI 1st Deputy, Chief Obegolu, as national Vice President

•Emeka Obegolu, National Vice President

n the 60s to the mid-80s, Nigeria manu-facturing companies were producing Igoods for not just West African coun-

tries but East Africa and Central African countries.

Far away countries were sending their trucks and trailers to Nigeria who had so many industrial estates scattered across the country.

In Lagos alone, there were industrial estates at Oregun, Ogba, Ikeja, Apapa, Kirikiri, Amuwo, Ojota, Olusjosu, Ericmore, Ikorodu, to mention but a few.

These estates had so many manufactur-ing concerns that had hundreds if not thou-sands factory workers and other trained workers working in them.

The industrial estates were not just in Lagos affairs, Enugu for instance, had Eleme industrial estate, Ogui, Akpapa industrial estate and others that housed many manufacturing concerns in that city.

Ditto for Kano, Kaduna, Bauchi, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Warri, Owerri and other major cities of the country which had, at least, one or two industrial estates.

The story today is quite different from what it was then, as most of the factories and the warehouses have either overgrown with weeds or have been converted to places of worship.

Most of the West African countries such as Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal and others that formally depended on Nige-ria for their manufactured products have taken over those manufacturing compa-nies.

Those firms like Dunlop, Michelin, Cad-bury, Unilever Plc have relocated their pro-duction lines to those countries and left the marketing and sales deports in Nigeria due to the country's huge market.

Those that relocated their production firms out of Nigeria cited poor electricity supply, multiple taxes and governments' inconsistent policies as some of the many reasons why they have to relocate to coun-tries where power supply is stable, govern-ment's policies were stable and the taxes they are made to pay are not too many unlike in Nigeria.

Despite these complaints by local manu-facturers and the multinational manufac-turing firms , government and it's MDAs have continue to look for every avenue available to introduce more and more taxes and new policies to stiffle manufacturing experience in the country.

The umbrella body of the country's man-ufacturing sector, the Manufacturers Asso-ciation of Nigeria ( MAN) has consistently bemoaned the challenges its members daily face.

MAN has used its advocacy to consis-tently engage the government to plead the plights of the country's manufacturing con-cerns to the government.

The local media are always awash with various complaints by the MAN's leader-ship and the success is little as sucessive administration have continued to impose one tax or new policy after another despite the MAN's leadership efforts .

When the Minister of Finance and National Planning, Mrs Nandi Usman, muted the idea that the government will introduce excise duty of N10/ litre on non- alcoholic carbonated beverages, MAN spoke loudly against the new duty.

Its President, Engr Mansur Ahmed, even led a delegation to the Also Rock to meet President Muhamadu Buhari to oppose the new tax. Despite that effort by

the leadership of MAN to halt the new tax regime, it was a case of " too little, too late".

The government went ahead to imple-ment the policy as from January 2, 2022 to charge of MAN and players in the non- alcoholic carbonated beverages sub- sec-tor. Some operators in that sector have even threatened to either layoff some of their workforce or even shut their plants as a result of this new tax regime.

Addressing the press after the new tax regime has commenced, MAN felt the gov-ernment doesn't seem to feel the pains its members are going through is disappoint-ing.

“The introduction of excise duty of N10 /liter on non-alcoholic, carbonated and sweetened beverage, despite it's potential overwhelming negative impact on the affected sector is rather unfortunate.

“There is no doubt that potential reve-nues gains are the reason why government went ahead to implement it despite our objections.

“It would appear that the goose that lays the golden eggs is being led to perdi-tion, especially as the sub-sector has con-tributed greatly to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the real sector more.

“The sector has contributed greatly to the economy and paid huge taxes to the government despite the debilitating impact of Naira devaluation, inadequate

Monday, January 31 - Feb. 6, 2022 16IndustryICT | Energy | Entrepreneur

forex and the COVID- 19 pandemic.“The food and Beverage contributed

the highest 38 per cent of the total manu-facturing sector to the GDP. It contrib-uted 22.5 per cent of the manufacturing jobs and generate more than 1.5 million jobs. This new tax would certainly cast a sunset to this performance”, he stressed.

Speaking to National Business recently through telephone, MAN' s Director General, Mr Segun Ajayi- Kadir, disclosed that the recent study by his orga-nization has shown that the new tax is likely to cause a 0.43 per cent contraction in output and about 40 per cent drop-in total industry revenues in the next five years .

He added that the revenue aspirations of government in introducing this excise may not be justified in the long run.

“The government is estimated to gen-erate an excise tax of N81 billion between 2022- 2025 from this group.

“This would not be sufficient to com-pensate the corresponding government's revenue's losses in other taxes from this group.

"For instance, corresponding effect of reduced industry revenue to be N142 bil-lion contraction in Value Added Tax ( VAT) raised by the sector and N54 billion reduction between 2022- 2025, this is not to mention the potential negative

impact on manufacturing / supply chain," he stressed.

The MAN DG added, “What govern-ment is not realizing is that excise duty begets high production costs which in turn adversely affect production levels and ulti-mately result in dwindling profits.

“This will grossly impact the small and emerging business owners in the sector", he stressed.

He flayed the claims in some quarters that the new tax refund will lead to reduc-tion of soft drinks in the country, as Nigeri-ans are consuming too much sugar, which is detrimental to their health.

Segun- Akadir said the claim is cheap and doesn't holds water, as only few Nige-rians were consuming the products.

"Yes, Nigerians are the 6th highest con-sumers of soft drinks in the world, but per capital consumption is low.

"Introducing excise duty will easily reduce production capacity causing manu-facturers to struggle to meet investors com-mitments, as well as cause investors to take investment to other countries," he stated

While the manufacturers are in arms against the government's decision, some stakeholders in the health sector had come out to hail the government for the move as been long over due

Stakeholders in the management of diabetes in Nigeria has welcome the gov-ernment move as been in the best interest of the country, adding that more and more Nigerians were becoming diabetic due to the excessive consumption of soft drinks and refined sugar.

The group, however, asked govern-ment to channel the N81 billion revenue it hopes to get from the tax yearly to the health sector especially those responsible for treatment and management of diabetes in the country .

The group disclosed that many Nigeri-ans were becoming addicted to the con-sumption of soft drinks daily.

“It is true that MAN and the local manu-facturers are not happy about this new tax on soft drinks and other non-alcoholic bev-erages, but, if they are privileged to know the number of Nigerians developing diabe-tes monthly in Nigeria, they will react dif-ferently.

“There is need to regulate the con-sumption of soft drinks and other non - alcoholic beverages in the country.

“I will appeal to the government to channel the revenues to be made from the tax to the management of the diabetes in the country," the group pleaded.

Respondents to National Business appeal to the government to be careful on revenues drive to the country's real sector that could cripple it.

They asked government to take a cue from other countries that encourage the growth of their real sector through intro-duction of favourable policies

According to them, many manufactur-ing companies have been forced out of the country due to too many taxes.

They called on President Muhammadu Buhari's administration to support the country's manufacturing sector as a way of providing jobs for the teeming Nigerian youths yearly graduating from the various schools and the higher institution.

Respondents say lack of job opportuni-ties is partialy responsible for the worsen insecurity situation in the country.

The years ahead will show if the new tax is in the country's best interest.

Nigeria used to be Africa's manufacturing hub, as its manufacturing firms were producing for most of the other African countries. That time has since gone. As most of those firms have either collapsed, shutdown, relocated out of the country or are barely surviving due to challenges they daily grapple with. Yet, the government and it's myriads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) continue to roll out policies, most of which stiff the firms. The government recently introduced N10 / litre on non- alcoholic, carbonated beverages”, effective January 1, 2022 prompting JOHNMARK UKOKO to find out if the new policy is meant to kill the goose that lays the golden egg?

•Ahmed Mansur, President, MAN

“Those firms like Dunlop, Michelin, Cadbury, Unilever Plc have relocated their production lines to those countries and left the marketing and sales deports in Nigeria due to the country’s huge market. Those that relocated their production firms out of Nigeria cited poor electricity supply, multiple taxes and governments' inconsistent policies as some of the many reasons why they have to relocate to countries”

Excise duty on carbonated beverages: In whose interest?

STORIES BY JOHNMARK UKOKO

he Bank of Industry (BOI) has been berated Tfor not supporting the

country's Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) sector in credit facilities.

The Managing Director of Liberty Industries Nigeria Limited Mr Anil Jamal, dis-closed this recently in an in-terview with National Busi-ness in Lagos recently.

Jamal disclosed that his firm has applied for credit fa-cilities to BOI on many occa-sions without success, adding that the conditions the lender set out for SMEs firms are hard to be met

The Liberty Industries boss opined that the bank mandated to give long term credit facilities to the coun-try's manufacturing sector and SMEs continue to intro-duce conditions very difficult to meet, thereby had discour-aged many SMEs operators for not wasting their time in applying for the credit facili-ties, knowing how difficult it's to qualify for the credit facil-ity.

“I no longer waste my time, energy and funds in ap-plying for credit facilities from BOI due to their very tough conditions.

“I have applied for their loans on many occasions to im-port machines from abroad, but each time my applications is refered due to one reason or the other.

“I no longer waste my time in trying to apply as I already know the outcome of what they will say.

"Despite the double digits interest rate of the commercial banks, each time I apply I am almost certain that they will grant my request, but not so

17Monday, January 31 - Feb. 6, 2022COMMERCE & INDUSTRY

with BOI for whatever reasons," he said.

Jamal lamented that the is-sue of lack of long term credit fa-cilities is one of the main chal-lenges confronting the country's SMEs sector.

He appealed to the manage-ment of BOI to relax some of their conditions attached to their credit facilities to enable more and more SMEs firms to access their credit facilities.

He noted that it doesn't do the country's economy any good

if credit funds are locked up in the BOI's banks volts while the local manufacturers especially SMEs promoters borrow from the com-mercial banks or even the Micro Finance Banks (MFBs) whose credit facilities are highly prohibi-tive.

He called on the government to caution the BOI to make their conditionalities achievable for the interest of the economy.

“I will appeal to the federal gov-ernment to call BOI to order to en-able more and more SMEs firms

he President of Lagos Chamber of Commerce Tand Industry ( LCCI) Dr

Michael Olawale-Cole, has said that the signing of the Memoran-dum of Understanding ( MoU) with China Africa Business Coun-cil (CABC) would improve bilat-eral and diplomatic relationship between the two nations.

Olawale-Cole made the dis-closure during the signing of the MoU between LCCI and CABC recently in Lagos

The LCCI boss said the part-nership between the two organi-zations was holistic and signifi-cant, nothing that the agreement would strengthened the interna-tional trade relation with China which dates back to the early 70s, adding that the trade has pro-gressed significantly in the recent

years.He noted that Nigeria is one

the China's largest trading part-ners in Africa.

“Over the years, China has been a strategic import hub for Nigeria's manufacturers, and trade activities between both countries have seen dramatic im-provement.

According to the boss of the LCCI, the trade volume between both countries has grew remark-ably to about $16billion in 2019 from about $7 billion it was in 2018 .

“Bilateral relation have also expanded growing endlessly on growing bilateral trade and stra-tegic cooperation till date.

“The Chinese have shown in-terest in the Nigeria market, pres-ence across various sectors of the economy, including finance, tech-nology, construction, retail, and e- commerce, manufacturing and other areas.

"As at May 2019, China in-vestment in Nigeria was above $20 billion, given Nigeria status as a competitive estimation for the establishment of small and medium sized firms,” he stressed.

The LCCI boss said that ac-cording to China Chamber of Commerce in Nigeria about 200,000 Nigerians were working in over 150 Chinese companies operating in Nigeria, adding that till date China remains a major financier of several development projects in Nigeria.

Olawale- Cole stressed that there were vast potentials in both countries that can be employed by

Nigeria and the China investors.The LCCI boss said that the

MoU would unlocked invest-ment opportunities for both countries and would strengthen relationship between the two countries.

He added that LCCI was pleased to work China Africa Business Council towards the actualization of the objectives of the betterment of Nigeria and China.

Responding, the Chairman of CABC Chief Diana Chen, said the partnership between LCCI and CABC would position members of the Chambers primary bene-factors of these trade and invest-ment alliance offered by the fo-rum of China - Africa Coopera-tion ( FOCAC) and Africa conti-nental Area Free Trade Agree-ment (AfCFTA).

Chen said that driving the eco-nomic advancement and indus-trialization of the countries through deliberate partnership and collaboration fostered by the agreement.

“As the representative of CABC in Nigeria, we are commit-ted to driving the execution of these nine point programmes , such as the medical and the Health, program,, poverty reduc-tion, agricultural development program, the trade promotion, investment promotion, the digi-tal innovation, the green devel-opment, the capacity building , the cultural and people exchange and the security program amongst other objectives .

nilever Nigeria Plc has scaled through its operat-Uing challenges and re-

turned to profit in the second quar-ter ended June 2021. It was a big leap forward for the company from a loss of N491 million in the first quarter to a profit of N1.2 bil-lion in the second quarter.

It was also a hope raising re-sult for the consumer goods manu-facturer after trading in losses for the preceding two years. Last year, the company reduced its net loss of over N4 billion in 2019 to N1.6 billion and is stepping for-ward to profitable operations in 2021.

With the profit generated in the second quarter, the company has overwritten its first quarter loss and closed half year opera-tions with an after tax profit of N715 million. This is a rebound from a loss of N519 million at half year in 2020.

From building losses for the third straight year, Unilever is back on track for building value for shareholders. There is a fun-damental strengthening of opera-tions that reflects in stepping up sales and stepping down costs. This is the major change in the company's earnings story that en-abled the return to profit in the second quarter.

Improving sales was observed in the first quarter, which was sus-tained in the second. This is a ma-jor change of direction for the com-pany from a slight increase in turn-over in 2020. The gains in reve-

nue were boosted by significant costs moderation that elevated margins at the end of half year operations.

The ability of management to keep sales growing despite the challenges in the marketplace is a strong positive signal for Unilever Nigeria in the current financial year. The company re-corded an increase of 41 percent in sales revenue quarter-on-quarter in the second quarter, which follows a 46 percent in-crease in the first quarter.

Growing sales was rein-forced by moderated cost – which was a major operating strength the company gained in the second quarter. An increase of 27 percent in cost of sales was significantly below the sales reve-nue growth of 41 percent in the second quarter.

to access their credit facilities.“It appears BOI is there only

for the big local firms and the mul-tinational firms who are easily able to access their credit facili-ties, while the local SMEs into pro-duction contend with credit facil-ities from the commercial banks and MFBs, this is not good for the growth of the country's SMEs sec-tor," he opined.

The Liberty boss opined that the country's SMEs firms into manufacturing go through many challenges which have stifflled their growth.

He added that if the local SMEs has financial assistance and stable public power supply, it could compete with SMEs firms from anywhere in the world.

“The SMEs firms in the coun-try are going through many chal-lenges, such as the issue of high interest rates from the commer-cial banks, erratic power supply, government inconsistent policies and a host of other issues.

“As if the above listed issues are not enough, the local manu-facturing firms also contented with smuggled cheap products from above, substandard prod-ucts, multiple taxes and a hosts of other issues , " he stated

The Liberty Industries which produced PVC, plastics, and other related products has its fac-tory in Ketu, area of Lagos with over 200 staff Manning two shifts daily.

SMEs operator flays Bank of Industry

LCCI signs MoU agreement with CABC

•Dr Michael Olawale-Cole

•Olukayode Pitan, BOI CEO

•Carl Cruz, Managing Director

Unilever Nigeria returns to profitin second quarter

Bukola Saraki

18 Monday, January 31–Feb. 6, 2022 SPECIAL SECTION

2023 Presidency: PDP battles self in a war of supremacyBY OSONDU EMEKA

o doubt that on paper, the People's Democratic Party, (PDP), parades the Nhighest Presidental materials with

intimidating profiles for the 2023 presidential election, compared with the All Progressive Congress, APC.

They are Governors of Sokoto, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal and Bauchi, Bala Mohammed and Seyi Makinde of Oyo State.

Also, former Senate President, Bukola Saraki and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, former Governor of Kano State; former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, former Senate President and ex-secretary to the government of the federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, and others.

But the party seems to be at war not even with the ruling party, the APC, or with any other lesser parties but with itself.

The war of attrition is between the old horses in the party and the new ones, most especially, the governors elected under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party.

The reports making the rounds claim that the Governors of the opposition party are jarring to make sure that one of them emerges, as the party's flagbearer in the next year's Presidental election.

The 'General' leading the war on the side of the PDP Governors is the Rivers State Governor, Nysom Wike. It was gathered that the Governors are strongly behind him in their attempt to have one of them fly the party's flag during the 2023 presidential election.

Desperate to play gods, Wike recently hosted the PDP governors at the Government House, Port Harcourt, capital of Rivers State. It was gathered that the Port Harcourt meeting came after Wike's recent visits to Bauchi, Adamawa, Sokoto, Abia, Enugu, Oyo, and Bayelsa States, where he campaigned vigorously to stop Atiku.

Wike is believed to have the support of governors of Benue, Enugu, Oyo, Abia and Adamawa States. Atiku and his state's Governor are at daggers-drawn.

The 'General' on the other camp, is the High Chief Raymond Dokpesi, Chairman, DAAR Communications, leading Atiku's camp across the country negotiating for the presidential ambition of the former vice president.

Last week, Dokpesi -led team visited Anambra State after many other states across the country.

While the committee was in Anambra State, Dokpesi told them that Atiku will hand over power to Southeast after his regime and described Atiku as the only aspirant that can lead PDP to victory.

Former Vice President and PDP's presidental candidate in the 2019, election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Turaki Adamawa, is leading the old horses comprising his former Vice Presidental candidate in the 2019, election, Peter Obi, former Senate President and ex-secretary to the government of the federation, Anyim Pius Anyim.

The camp, also, parades the former Senate President, Olusola Saraki, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and couple of others, including the sacked National Chairman of the party, Uche Secondus.

The Governors had, before now worked out plans and took over the strategic positions of the party after sacking Secondus ahead of the PDP convention and armed with the positions shared among themselves and their loyalists, are said to be in contention for the presidency for the PDP primaries.

The 13 PDP Governors are said to be controlling 18 out of the 21 positions in the party and were able to fill the positions through consensus.

The reasons the Governors gave for dominating the party was their argument that the party needs a younger mind and a sitting

Governor to takeover the leadership of the country after the geronotocratic presidency of President Muhammdu Buhari and wouldn't want another oldies to mount the saddle of leadership of the party and the country.

The camp of Atiku, Obi, Anyim and Saraki is jittery knowing the powers of the incumbent Governors of the PDP and what they represent. The Governors are currently the huge financiers of the party and can throw funds around to get their aspirations done.

But those in the know are talking to those who care to know that no matter the political strategies that the PDP governors may have wished to adopt in upstaging the old horses in the party, their plans to have one of them fly the party's flag in 2023, is going to collapse like

packs of cards.The PDP Governors' choiced candidate,

the Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, is a youthful breed politician and he is expected to declare his Presidental ambition in a month today after his consultations with the leaders of the North.

It was gathered that Tambuwal has selected February 14, 2022 to announce his entry into the Presidental race. Tambuwal is at the end of his eight years term of four years each.

The Governors are said to be relying on the clamour by Nigerians for younger mind to push Tambuwal, the Sokoto State governor, as their Presidental hopeful.

But Atiku, desperate now more than before

is also not sitting akimbo and is making sure that this period does not elude him.

With the APC allegedly zoning its Presidency to South, the coast is now clear for the PDP, to move to the left of the political divide in their desperate disposition to clinch power in 2023 by hook or crook, in denying the South the chance to go for Presidency.

But the trouble that will rear it's head against Tambuwal is the fact that he is coming from the same zone of the Northwest, the same region that produced the incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari.

Atiku is fighting it, coming from the North east and he is hopeful that PDP will do Justice to that. Atiku is working on repeating with Obi who incidentally is from the Southeast, unarguably, the zone that is entitled for the 2023 presidency under the PDP.

Wike, coming from the South South, that had called the shot at both the Presidency and vice Presidency under Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, is angling for Vice presidency under Tambuwal and may not have his way at the end.

But close sources to Wike is alluding the fact the Wike is preparing for the position of the Senate President under the PDP in 2023.

Analysts are warning PDP that any attempt to zone its 2023 presidential ticket to the Northwest in 2023, could be met with strong resistance from electorate in other zones.

The Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, also working on vice Presidency project but is Presidental candidate pretender may not have his way because the Southwest also had had their shots at the Presidency under Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and vice Presidency under Yemi Osibajo's near eight years and cannot fly.

Besides, Makinde is still in his first term, and he is fighting Wike to Vee Peeship and may not be projected ahead of the likes of Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, who is in his second-term and the alleged sole financier of the party.

However, Wike's possibilities are limited because of the hatred the North bore against him for his vocal criticism of Buhari's government. Wike has been the only strongest opposition to the government of Buhari.

Last week, he won Buhari in court over the Federal government's deduction from the federation account for consolidated security, an action viewed by the Presidency as a set back.

Also, it was learnt that the transportation Minister, Chibuike Amaechi, has sworn not to be alive for Wike to be vice President.

Political analysts are strongly warning the PDP not to bungle it's 2023 chances by zoning the Presidency to Northwest or to the North if they want to win the 2023 presidential election.

Investigation revealed that unless the PDP Governors support Atiku- Obi candidacy, again, to get PDP ticket, the party may not return to power in the nearest future.

National Business gathered exclusively that Wike is fighting Atiku because Atiku was not keen on picking him as his Vee Pee

A source with knowledge of the permutations said the Rivers State governor is all out to zone the party's presidential ticket to the North so as to have his dream of vice Presidency come to fruition.

It was learned by National Business that the strongest weapon of the Governors, was the plot to use consensus during the primaries and that the PDP Chairman, Iyorchi Ayu, was played into accepting the option because that's why the Governors of Benue and Rivers States agreed to bring him on board.

But while Wike and company are seriously working on dropping Atiku, the Turaki Adamawa, and other contenders are said to have continued with consultations, with other party elderstatesmen and Northern leaders.

Meanwhile, the former Commissioner of Information in Edo State, Kassim Afegbua, is not happy that Atiku is still available for the 2023 presidency and urged him to dump his

the strongest weapon of the Governors, was the plot to use consensus during the primaries and that the PDP Chairman, Iyorchi Ayu, was played into accepting the option because that's why the Governors of Benue and Rivers States agreed to bring him on board.

Anyim Pius Atiku

Tambuwal

Continued on page 19

PDP Chairman, Ayu

19Monday, January 31–Feb. 6, 2022SPECIAL SECTION

Ekiti 2022: Why Oni lost PDP primaries

played out before and during the primary were the factors that ended Oni's second missionary journey to the Ekiti State Government House.

His fallout with Fayose and decamping to APC, as PDP, governor were the factors that worked against him. Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State, a governor and a close ally of Fayose was made the returning officer in the primary election.

Fayose had sworn not to allow Oni return to power because of the alleged secret probe said to have been conducted by Oni government that led to the arrest of Fayose by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC).

Fayose never hid his plans to endorse Kolawole for the governorship election. According to him, Kolawole is a bridge-builder

He endorsed the election as transparent, devoid of any manipulations, and called on the winner to be magnanimous in victory, while those who lost should be strong in defeat.

In his acceptance speech, Kolawole, said, “It is God's design to make me the winner of this election. I want to willingly accept it. The result has been very clear, the process has been very clear, credible and it makes everybody happy".

Recall that Kolawole resigned his position as Ekiti PDP chairman to contest the governor-ship election. He is a former lawmaker repre-senting Efon constituency in the state House of Assembly and also as a Commissioner of Envi-ronment between 2015 and 2018, during the regime of Fayose.

The powerplay and the intrigues that

By OSONDU EMEKA

he Ekiti State People's Democratic Party, (PDP), governorship primaries for the TJune 18 2022, governorship election

process has been concluded with the emer-gence of the flagbearer, Otunba Bisi Kolawole.

Other aspirants who contested the primary are Senator Biodun Olujimi, Yinka Akerele, Deji Ogunsakin, Lateef Ajijola, Wale Aribisala, Ayodeji Kazeem, Kayode Adaramodu and Wale Aribisala.

However, the underground politics of the former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, in stopping the former governor, of the State, Engr Segun Oni, made the major headlines.

Fayose had before the election told Oni to leave him out of the contest and concentrate on Otunba Bisi Kolawole, his fellow aspirant.

Oni, while campaigning, told delegates not to vote tyranny as represented by Fayose, but should reject tyranny, adding, “the delegates to equally shun political desperados, whose time in politics is already spent.”

But responding, in a statement Fayose's Spokesperson, Lere Olayinka, said it was important that Engr Oni should be told to drop the All Progressives Congress (APC) spirit in him that is making him approach a contest within PDP as an inter-party contest.

According to him, "it's laughable that a for-mer governor, who only returned to the PDP after sojourning in APC for over six years is referring to people he left in the party as tyrants".

“Ayo Fayose is not an aspirant and methinks all these vituperations from Engr Oni should stop. He should rather face his contest and his fellow aspirants.

“He is saying PDP delegates should shun tyranny and I wonder who among those of us that he met in this party he is referring to.

“As for me, he (Oni) should be reminded that our great party, PDP, has gone beyond that level where people reap where they did not sow as it happened when a number three was made to become number one", he stated.

Otunba Bisi Kolawole was declared winner by the chairman, electoral committee of the party, Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State. Kolawole won having scored the highest number of votes cast.

Kolawole scored a total of 671 votes to defeat his closest rival, Oni, who polled 330 votes.

The primary recorded 13 void votes, while Adekemi Adewumi, scored one; Biodun Olujimi, two; Lateef Ajijola, one; Ayodeji Kazeem, six; Kayode Adaramodu, 10; Kolapo Olusola, 93 and Adewale Aribisala, 56.

Governor Udom thanked party members for their display of maturity and cooperation, which led to the success of the poll.

who will usher in a better future for Ekiti and the PDP.

“The man you have come to honour, Bisi Kolawole, is our collective project. I made him my preferred candidate in the overall interest of our party, but this does not foreclose due process of nomination in PDP,” Fayose said.

Fayose stole the show to have his anoited candidate emerge as the winner of the primary when the two warring factions in Ekiti State PDP, reconciled their differences by entering into secret agreement between them.

The factions, Osoko political assembly led by former Governor Ayo Fayose and the Reposi-tioning group led by Senator Abiodun Olujimi allegedly met in Lagos on December 27, 2021 and agreed on a sharing formular should PDP go ahead to win the governorship election.

It was gathered that the two factions agreed that the group that produces the governorship candidate would select the deputy governorship candidate from the other group.

Also, Fayose was said to have agreed for shar-ing of party positions between the two groups. There was, also, acceptance of executives pro-duced by the 2020 ward, local government and state congresses.

A competent source told National Business that it was on that premise that Senator Olujimi "stepped down" from the governorship race.

Her "stepping down" was a blow to Oni's camp who had relied on her to slice the vote of the Kolawole but that never happened.

Even though Senator Olujimi, representing Ekiti South, had alleged that the governorship primary was marred by irregularities and accused Ayo Fayose's camp of being given dele-gates for four out of the six local governments in her senatorial district. But sources said her pro-test was a political gimmick to exonarate herself and maintain modest in the election.

Unconfirmed reports said that Olujimi may return to be deputy governorship candidate and possibly fulfill her hope to be the first PDP gover-norship candidate from Ekiti South in 2026, after Kolawole.

Political pundits are also alluding the fact that Senator Olujimi is going to be the running mate of Kolawole from her zone in line with that agreement, reached with Fayose's camp and through that way becomes the Ekiti State gover-nor.

Whatever happens at the end, the issue of whether Fayose will keep his side of aggrement, is a matter of conjunctures.

“The man you have come to honour, Bisi Kolawole, is our collective project. I made him my preferred candidate in the overall interest of our party, but this does not fore-close due process of nomination in PDP,” Fayose said.

Otunba Bisi KolawoleSegun Oni

According to Omeire, there are numerous younger aspirants with great credentials within the party and should be highly utilised by the PDP.

But contrary to the group's position, former spokesperson to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, PDP 2019 presidential candidate, Segun Sowunmi, in a letter to the party' s governors, called for the rejection of what he described as a "kindergarten president and commander in chief" for PDP.

But Omeire responded to Sowunmi and said Atiku lacks the requisite for the public or private sector.

According to him, "talking about the experience on the job, maybe Sowunmi should have also talked about his boss's attitude on abandoning ship mid- sea, the way he did to PDP after the 2019 Presidential election".

Whatever props up in the PDP, in the weeks ahead, what the party needs is to shelve it's internal crisis and bury individual interests before their primaries.

In a statement signed by its national chairman, Mr. Rufus Omeire, it said the PDP should beam its searchlight on aspirants in their 50s.

ambition and support a southern candidate.Afegbua, a member of the Technical

Committee for Atiku's presidency, in a statement, said the ambition of Atiku will not fly.

“Nigerians in their millions are tired of seeing the faces of persons who have dominated the political space in the last forty years and yet, unwilling to take a bow. In the spirit of the new thinking and paradigm shift, please tell them to allow us to breathe,” Afegbua said.

Wike is alleged to be the brain behind a pressure group affiliated with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, which warned against the issuance of the party's presidential ticket to anyone older than 70-year-old.

According to the release by the group, in its suggested age limit for whoever would win the PDP's presidential ticket, the group called Action 2023, said having an aged person as the party's candidate would cost the party victory at the poll.

2023 Presidency: PDP battles self in a war of supremacyContinued from page 18

Monday, January 31–Feb. 6, 2022

Transport20

Aviaition | Maritime | Motoring

ometime in July last year, the col-lege through the Kaduna State Urban Planning and Develop-S

ment Agency (KASUPDA), reclaimed its landed property through the demolition of about 160 houses. What have you put in place to prevent illegal encroachment in the future?

This college is about 58 years old and the col-lege was here before the illegal occupants became the residents of that area and the land allocated to the college is mapped. Now, if you encroach on a land, the government has the right to take it back. We are trying to secure that area by building a perimeter fence to cover those areas that were recovered and we have armed and unarmed security personnel patrolling that area to keep people away from coming back to restart construction of building or farming in the areas.

For those who want to go to the court or are already in the court, it is left for the court to decide on the issue. We have some cases brought to us, which we have forwarded to the Ministry of Avia-tion. The Ministry has a legal department that is in charge of taking court cases against it or its agencies to the right places.

NCAT will not be the legal department that will be attending the court cases, but, we will be there as observers and give some advises and information whenever they are required. So, the matter is going to court, we will not say so much about it. We leave the court to decide.

About three years ago, NCAT was upgraded into a regional training cen-tre of excellence (RTCE), while NCAA endorsed it as an Approved Training Organisation (ATO), what has changed in the institution since then?

This is an Approved Training Organisation (ATO) and we have been having renewals yearly and the Regional Training Centre of Excellence (RTCE) is a certification by the International Civil Aviation Oragnisation (ICAO).

The benefits of this certification is that we can increase training activities like the ICAO training courses and conventional courses in the college. In 2021, we had over 50 courses conducted in this college in spite of the COVID-19 Pandemic and we are still doing those courses. That will give us more visibility internationally and locally by having the RTCE. You cannot train if you don’t have the reviewer of the ATO. So, these are the benefits of the RTCE and ATO.

How do you think the issue of unem-ployed pilots and engineers can be resolved to create more jobs for quali-fied personnel?

I always say college is for experience and knowledge. If we take in students, after certain time they are delivered to the public as graduates. At the end of the training, some will be pilots, engi-neers, cabin crew, air traffic controllers and oth-ers. When you go out as a fully graduated person with the certificate, you look forward to get a job.

The only way to get jobs as a pilot or an engi-neer is to get more aviation industrialisation by having more airlines, ATOs and they can also work in the agencies and the ministry as a pilot or an engineer. It is not necessary that you must fly or repair an airplane. You can work in any of the agencies as a pilot.

If you look at Capt. Rabiu Yadudu, the Man-aging Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), he is a pilot, the immediate past Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, Capt. Fola Akinkuotu, was a pilot and same applies to Capt. Musa Nuhu, the Director General of the Nigerian Civil

Aviation Organisation (NCAA). Also, the current Commissioner of Accident Investigation Bureau, Engr. Akin Olateru, is an aircraft engi-neer and several others.

NCAT recently took delivery of a fire simulator equipment, when will it be put into use?

The equipment is an automated firefighting simulator, which gives room for simulating inci-dent and accident activities that require fire. The firefighting simulator is undergoing process of certification; we are in stage two of the process and NCAA is responsible for issuing certification for the equipment and it cannot give you the cer-tificate until you are through with all the pro-cesses, which we are working hard on to get. As soon as the second phase is completed, the machine would be put to use.

Sir, how come the contract for the construction of a fire simulator was awarded without provisions for access roads, power and fire tenders taken into cognisance?

The firefighting tender (E1) we have is one of the best equipment you can find anywhere. It is so big that, that fence and the access road and the culvert are giving more challenges for that machine to be used at that place and NCAT is coming out with another provision of a smaller fire tender, which I know before we put it to use, we will have another fire tender. Also, the elec-tricity at that part of the college is being worked on. In essence, we are going to take electricity from the completed simulator Boeing 737 air-craft and we will deliver it to the firefighting simu-lator side. I think we are almost done with that.

The year 2022 is still new, what are your priorities for NCAT in the year?

We are going to try as much as possible to conduct more training locally and internation-ally and we intend to get the certification of the automatic rescue firefighting training provider certificate from the NCAA, which I told you about.

Also, we are working on the B737 equipment certification. It is taking us longer than we intended, but we will keep trying all our best to ensure that by March this year or April, we will

have the B737 simulator equipment and put it to use.

You need to have the international accredit certification before NCAA will now give you its own certification. For an example, you must have the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) or EASA certification and then NCAA based on one of those certifications, will now issue you its own certificate.

We are looking for becoming an Approved Maintenance Organisation (AMO); we started last year, but we put it on hold and we intend to continue. Hopefully, we will get the AMO certifi-cation this year.

NCAT about three years ago com-menced off-campus Post-Graduate Degree (PGD) programme in Lagos and Abuja, what is your assessment of the programme since you started?

The course was intended to be a year course in Zaria as a full-time, but requests from a lot of quarters, stakeholders and others, wanted it to be done at their doorsteps. We considered two places; Lagos and Abuja. So far, we are doing very well with the post-graduate courses.

The courses started in 2013 in Zaria, but was extended to Lagos in 2019. Initially, when you look at the number of participants, you will be discouraged, but I can tell you right now, we have more than 100 participants. In Abuja, we have about 38 students and in Lagos, we had 100, but we lost one of them. So, there are 99 participants in Lagos.

The programme is growing daily and people are applying and seeking for a way to get admis-sion into the programme. The programmme is tailored to suit your way of life. Most of those who participate in the programmes are workers, avia-tors who work in different establishments in the sector, but they still find time to participate to take part in the programme. If you miss a mod-ule, you can always take it later. We are doing very well with the programmes.

To what extent do you intend to har-ness partnerships under your watch to move NCAT forward?

No man is an Island. Partnership is our sec-ond name, we will always partner with organisa-

NCAT will conduct more trainings locally, internationally –Rector

NCAT’s Rector, Capt. Alkali Modibbo

tions in order to move forward. International African Association for Approved Training Organisations (AAATO), we are a full member of that association and other international associa-tions. Also, we partner with all the agencies under the ministry, military, paramilitary organisations and others, we partner with them and we also send our people to these organisa-tions to be trained on some of their technologies.

Even, with the airlines, we work hand in hand; we as a training institution, we cannot be on our hand. Every airline and organisation that has anything to do with aviation, they come here and get trained. We also send out people out to get more knowledge and information.

On partnership with the agencies, they are our number one customers. Some of those courses they were sending their staff to do out-side the country are now being done here at NCAT. There are courses we run for NAMA and NAMA is our number one client. They are always here year in year out. Also, NCAA, and FAAN come here for one training or the other.

Since you were appointed the Rector of NCAT, what has been your major chal-lenge running the institution?

Life is never straight; it composes of ups and downs, nothing is straight forward in life. We do have challenges here, but the most pressing issue here just like somewhere else is fund. The funds are not sufficient for our day-to-day running and the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) is also inadequate. So, we try to see if we can get more IGRs to carry out our mandates and expend them on our facilities and hostels.

I must apologise on behalf of the college the conditions of the hostels if these hostels. I went out myself and I saw the state of some of the rooms. I called the Minister of Aviation myself and I said to him that the room he stayed when he was doing his engineering; the same building, room and toilet are still in existence. Some are 30 years old, but we are working hard to ensure that we renovate the ones that we can and then build new ones.

There is an executive hostel near the rector’s house, a contract has been given and the contrac-tor is working to complete the hostel, which will be a very good one to our students when they come for training. Also, the contract to renovate the AA Hostel has been approved by the minis-try. So, we will start working on it. We are going to make sure you have more standard rooms whereby when you come, you will love the place.

Also, I must tell you that the Federal Execu-tive Council (FEC) has approved 150 new hostel rooms in the budget and another one will be com-ing in the next budget, which is for 100 rooms. So, we are working towards getting good and better accommodation for all our students.

How has the insecurity in the North and COVID-19 pandemic impacted your operations?

The issue of insecurity is a nationwide and I am sure that there is no nation, community and an environment, which doesn’t face this chal-lenge. The country is going through some chal-lenges, which governments at all levels are work-ing hard to address.

At NCAT, we have formidable security equipment and gadgets, which are installed everywhere. If you walk into this college, some-one is seeing you going and coming. We have advanced security gadgets in every nook and cranny of this college for 365 days a year.

Also, we have armed policemen, Civil Defence officers and we have our own internal

Capt. Alkali Modibbo, the Rector of the Nigeria College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), in this interview unveils plan to propel the institution to another level. He says that in 2022, among others, the school intends to get the certification of the automatic rescue firefighting training provider certificate from the NCAA and that of the B737 equipment also. The college is, also, optimistic of becoming an Approved Maintenance Organisation (AMO), PEARL NGWAMA reports.

Continued on P. 21

21Monday, January 31–Feb. 6, 2022TRANSPORT

L- R: Capt Elisha A. Bahago Director Operations, Licensing & Training Standards (DOLTS), Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) , Alh Ahmed A. Sanusi former Director Human Resources and Administration (DHR&A) handing over to Alh Wakili Adamu as the new DHR&A while Mr Anthony Ayasal GM (HR) looks on. during the Handover Note at NCAA Headquarter Abuja.

a n a A i r h a s announced that it will Dreintroduce its early

morning flights from Abuja to Lagos from February 1, 2022.

A statement from the air-line said it is introducing more flights with the return of its aircraft back to full service after comprehensive mainte-nance.

"We are introducing addi-tional flights but most impor-tantly our early morning flights from Abuja to Lagos and other destinations from February 1, 2022.

"The introduction of this service is a precursor to our intention and strategic plan to expand further up north while consolidating on our existing route network," the statement read in part."

In another development, the airline announced the retirement of one of its pilots, Captain Kolawole Shokumbi.

''We are also pleased to

announce the retirement of one of our captains on our B737 aircraft - Captain Kolawole Shokunbi after an illustrious 44 -year highflying career abroad and in Nigeria," the statement read.

Speaking at a brief retire-ment ceremony organised for him, Shokunbi said, ''this grand welcome on my retire-ment will linger for a long time in my memory and I have noth-ing but love for you all at Dana Air.

“I must state here that in my 44 years of flying, Dana remains the best for me.''

Also speaking at the event, Dana Air's Director of flight Operations, Captain Segun Omole said "Shokunbi is one of our very experienced hands and we will tap from his wealth of experience to train the young Nigerian pilots that we shall be recruiting soon as part of our expansion drive to con-nect more cities in Nigeria.

Stories by Pearl Ngwama

he Director General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), TCapt. Musa Nuhu, has said that

the agency would support Air Peace should it encounter any challenge in car-rying out its flight operations into the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Nuhu said this following the recent unbanning of Nigeria and other 11 Afri-can countries from operating flights into the UAE, stressing that the regulatory body owes Air Peace its support just any other Nigerian carrier.

He said: “We cannot choose for Air Peace whether it’s Dubai or Sharjah it wants to fly into. It depends on the airline to choose the airport it wants to fly into and the approval given by the UAE gov-ernment based on our Bi-lateral Air Ser-vice Agreement (BASA) arrangement with them.

“We will support Air Peace and if Air Peace is having some issues there, we will see how we can help with the authorities there too so that they won’t have any prob-lem and the airline can resume flight ser-vices to the airport.

“Air Peace is a Nigerian carrier and it is our responsibility to ensure that they get any support we can give them like any other Nigerian carrier. We see a lot of countries that their airlines come here and how their governments support them.

“For instance, when United Airlines wanted to resume flight services to Nige-ria, the American government supported them through their embassy in Nigeria. Everybody is supporting its own and we should support our own airlines.”

On UAE unbanning Nigeria, Nuhu disclosed that the Country Manager of Emirates Airlines came to his office and submitted a letter showing the release by Dubai Airport lifting the ban on Nigeria and 11 other African countries.

However, the NCAA boss noted that there were still some protocols that have to be complied with. I think it is accept-able, stating that UAE Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) needs to officially inform him through government to gov-ernment channels. “So, when we get that it becomes official.”

His words: “The Country Manager of Emirates Airlines came to my office yes-terday and he submitted a letter showing us a letter of release by Dubai Airport lift-ing the ban on Nigeria and 11 other Afri-can countries. Of course, we still have some protocols that have to be complied

with. I think it is acceptable.“But, what I told him is that the issue

of flight operations between Nigeria and UAE is based on BASA. Nigeria as a gov-ernment, we don’t deal with an airline, we deal with the authorities of UAE.

“So, what I told him is that the Civil Aviation Authority of UAE should write to us officially through diplomatic chan-nels. When we have that, it means the Nigerian government is in official com-munication with UAE.

“As soon as that letter comes in, I’m sure it is going to come may be today or tomorrow, we will act on it.

“Unofficially, we are not aware because I need the UAE CAA to officially inform me through government to gov-ernment channels. So, when we get that it becomes official.”

According to Nuhu, the Authority was yet to take decision on when and where the Emirates Airline is going to resume flight services to Nigeria from.

“When we receive their letter, then, the federal government will have to take a decision on that. We have the Ministry of Aviation, which deals with matters of poli-cies and also, we have the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on Covid-19.

“However, we don’t think it will take time to take a decision once we receive the letter officially,” he explained.

On the restriction of Emirates Air-lines to Abuja Airport alone, the NCAA director general said it was based on the initial treatment the UAE gave to Air

Peace in its country.“The whole idea was because they

didn’t give Air Peace what it requested for. Air Peace requested for three frequencies and they gave it just one and the reason they gave was that Sharjah Airport was overstretched.

“Believe you me; there is nobody that will tell you its airport is operating above capacity at the moment. But, if you look at Lagos Airport now, it is operating at above capacity. Lagos was launched in 1978 or 1979, how many people were trav-elling then and how many people are trav-elling now?

“If there is any airport that is operat-ing above capacity it is Lagos Airport. But now, they said they have given Air Peace the slots it said it wanted and we have given them same back.

Dana Air reintroduces early flights from Abuja Feb 1

UAE: We will support Air Peace -NCAA

...as Captain Shokunbi retires

ollowing the Nigeria Civil Aviation Author-Fity's (NCCA's) recent

approval of the Anambra Air-port to operate B737-700 and its equivalent aircraft, Air Peace has announced the deployment of its brand new Embraer 195-E2 and Boeing 737 aircraft on the route.

The airline has also increased flight frequencies on specific domestic routes, including Anambra.

Spokesperson of the air-line, Stanley Olisa, who made the disclosure in a news release, yesterday hinted that the carrier's brand new Embraer 195-E2 and Boeing 737 aircraft, with more pas-senger capacity, will be deployed on the route, adding that frequency has been

increased to daily flights for Anambra.

According to him, this new development means more flight availability for passen-gers flying the route, which is reflective of the airline's resolve to ease the burden of air travel in Nigeria.

He stated that flights to Yola and Ibadan will also now be operated daily while Gombe flights will now be operated five days a week.

"Passengers can now con-nect Owerri with three daily flights from Lagos and Abuja on the brand new Embraer 195-E2.

"These additional fre-quencies will take effect from January 28, 2022”, Olisa added.

Air Peace deploys E195-E2, B737 on Anambra route…announces more flights on Owerri, Gombe, Ibadan, others

‘We’ll conduct more trainings locally, internationally’security personnel who help them to ensure total security is maintained. However, people that want to commit havoc are not sleeping and we also are not sleeping. We will continue to improve on our security discretion and day-to-day arrangement.

On the issue of COVID-19, it is a pandemic and we have been coping with it by following the proto-cols laid down by the federal government, the Nige-rian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Although, we know that we have very limited cases of COVID-19, but Nigeria and other coun-tries have been mandated to make sure it follows all the protocols laid down.

We cannot take it as a guarantee and let loose our guards. We have to keep on obeying the proto-cols until the pandemic is over. Even with the pro-tocols, there are a limited number of students you can have in a class at a go, but I want to tell you that we are doing very well with that.

How many trainer aircraft do you

have at the moment and which fuel are you using for them now?

So far, we have Diamonds, Tampicos and Beech Baron 58. We are looking at getting more Diamond aircraft; seven of the Diamond aircraft were supplied in 2020 and this year, we will be tak-ing delivery of two of the Diamond aircraft; double and single engine. At a given time, you have at least five to six serviceable airplanes. Presently, we have about 20 serviceable aircraft at the college, but whatever we have, are enough to train students at any given time.

Like I said earlier, we intend to take delivery of more airplanes this year. We will take one in Feb-ruary and another in April. The Diamonds will be about 15 in all. They are advanced cockpit; we have the latest technology that you can find in any machine in it and it uses Jet A1, which is cheaper than the Aviation Gas (AvGas). Aviation gas is not easy to come back, we have to import it into Nigeria and that is what the Tampicos are using.

It will gladden me to tell you that we are mov-

ing another step higher. We are thinking of getting Magnus, which is another airplane that is manu-factured in Hungry. We have been to their factory with NCAA and the Ministry of Aviation. We con-ducted our technical inspection; sooner or later, we will start to have those machines here.

The advantages of that machine are that; one, it is made from carbon fibre, very light and it uses Premium Motoring Spirit (PMS) like the one you use in your car. So, from AvGas, we want down to Jet A1 and we are also going into PMS. It is going to be less expensive to run with that aircraft.

How many students do you have from outside the country in NCAT at present?

Currently, we have about six foreign students now; students from Niamey and Niger are coming to the school very soon. But, it is expensive for stu-dents outside Nigeria to enroll in this college.

When you want to be a pilot, you will need about $50,000, but for Nigerians, we have serious subsidy for pilots and engineers, but we still encourage foreigners to come also.

Continued from P. 20

Director General, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Capt. Musa Nuhu

CRIME LAW&22Monday, January 31–Feb. 6, 2022

Court adjourns deceased Malaysian's alleged €250,000,000 fraud trial till March 4

Limited and Dr. Sawang Jana (still at large), on or about the 27th Sep-tember, 2018 at Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with intent to defraud, con-spired to commit felony, to wit: forgery of Swift Telex Advice dated 27th September, 2018, indicating t r a n s f e r o f t h e s u m o f €250,000,000.00 (Two Hundred and Fifty Million Euros) to Coastal Asia Investments Limited account with Polaris Bank Plc (formerly Skye Bank Plc), from HSBC Bank Plc, London, United Kingdom.”

Consequently, Justice Dada adjourned till March 4, 2022 for continuation of trial, as the defen-dant was not represented in court.

(Two Hundred and Fifty Million Euros).

He had pleaded "not guilty" to the charges, thereby prompting commencement of trial, which had seen the prosecution calling a wit-ness.

However, in the course of the trial, Richard reportedly died in prison custody, necessitating the need to amend the charges.

At January 28, 2022, proceed-ing the prosecuting counsel, E.S. Okongwu, informed the Court that the charges had been amended as ordered by the Court.

One of the amended charges reads: “Tan Ah Chai Richard (De-ceased), Coastal Asia Investments

he €250,000,000.00 fraud trial involving a Malaysian, TTan Ah Chai Richard (now

late), and his company, Coastal Asia Investments Limited, before Justice Mojisola Dada of the Spe-cial Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos has been adjourned till March 4, 2022 for continuation of trial.

Richard and his company were first arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commis-sion, EFCC, on May 22, 2019, on a five-count charge bordering on forgery, use of false document, con-spiracy to forge and an attempt to obtain money by false pretence to the tune of €250,000,000.00

ustice S.Y. Abubaka of the Bauchi State High Court, JBauchi last week, sentenced

one Mohammed Magaji Ali to two years imprisonment for an offence bordering on criminal breach of trust to the tune of Six Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira (N650, 000.00) brought against him by the Gombe Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

The defendant was allegedly entrusted with three cows to tend by the complainant but he fat-tened the animals, sold them and converted the proceeds.

The offence is contrary to and punishable under Section 311 and 312 of the Penal Code.

Upon arraignment, the defen-dant pleaded guilty to the one count charge. The prosecution reviewed the facts of the case and

urged the Court to convict the defendant in line with his plea and the evidence tendered in court.

Justice Abubakar conse-quently convicted and sentenced him to 2 years in jail. He however gave the defendant the option of Fifty (N50, 000) fine and ordered him to pay the victim the sum of Three Hundred and Sixty Thou-sand Naira (N360, 000) as resti-tution.

Cow thief bags 2 year jail term in Bauchi

Hotel, Abeokuta, Ogun State at a pur-ported Awards Night party on Novem-ber 28, 2021 ,following intelligence report obtained by the EFCC.

Upon his arrest, an iPhone 13 mobile phone was recovered from him and the fraudulent documents con-tained therein, which he used to perpe-trate internet fraud, were printed out.

Maxwell was arrested on August 12, 2021 at the Iju-Ishaga area of Lagos State by operatives of the EFCC, fol-lowing actionable intelligence received by the Commission about the activities of suspected internet fraudsters around the area.

he Lagos Command of the Eco-nomic and Financial Crimes TCommission, (EFCC), on Jan-

uary 28, 2022, secured the convic-tion and sentencing of two internet fraudsters, Sunday Gbenga and Ayomikun Jide Maxwell, for internet fraud before Justice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos.

Gbenga, who pleaded "guilty" to the amended one-count charge bor-dering on the use of fraudulent docu-ments to perpetrate internet fraud, was among the suspected internet fraudsters arrested at the Conference

Court jails two internet fraudsters in Lagos

Alleged N206.5m fraud: Court dismisses Aluko-Kola's no-case submissionustice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court sit-Jting in Ikeja, Lagos, on Fri-

day, January 28, 2022, dismissed the no-case submission filed by one Osho Aluko-Kola, who is standing trial on a nine-count charge bordering on conspiracy and stealing to the tune of N206, 502,490.02 (Two Hundred and Six Million, Five Hundred and Two Thousand, Four Hundred and Ninety Naira, Two Kobo).

Aluko-Kola, who was first arraigned on July 4, 2020, is standing trial alongside six com-panies: Centurion Registrars Lim-ited; United Securities Limited; Evolution Construction & Engi-neering Design Limited; Cities & Towers Logistics Limited, Conti-nental Exim Nigeria Limited and Diffusion Impex Limited.

One of the counts read: “That you, Osho Aluko-Kola, Alake Olatokunbo (now at large), Centu-

rion Registrars Limited, United Securities Limited, Evolution Con-struction & Engineering Design Limited, Cities & Towers Logistics Limited, Continental Exim Nige-ria Limited and Diffusion Impex Limited, between 2015 and 2019 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, conspired to commit felony, to wit: stealing the sum of N206,502,490.02 (Two Hundred and Six Million, Five Hundred and Two Thousand, Four Hundred and Ninety Naira, Two Kobo), property of Chief Chukwudozie Nwanneka Daniel, and committed an offence con-trary to Section 411 and punish-able under Section 287 (5) & (9) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.”

He pleaded "not guilty" to the charges preferred against him.

The prosecuting counsel, Franklin Ofoma, had, on June 23, 2021, closed the case of the prose-

cution, after calling four witnesses and tendering several documents to prove the case.

However, rather than open defence on October 4, 2021, as ordered by the Court, the defen-dants chose to apply for a no-case submission.

Ruling on the various argu-ments canvassed by the defence in support of the application during today's proceedings, Justice Dada held that a prima facie case had indeed been established against the defendants.

Justice Dada held that: "I am satisfied that enough evidence link-ing them to the charges has been established and so prima facie case is made against them.

"The no-case submission is hereby overruled and they are called upon to put in their defence.”

The case has been adjourned till February 14, 2022 for defence

which he pleaded "guilty".Subsequently, Justice Dada found

them guilty as charged and sentenced them to one year in prison.

They were both given an option of N250, 000 as fine.

In addition, they are all to sign a bond with the EFCC upon their release to be of good behaviour and not to engage in any form of economic and financial crime within and outside the shores of Nigeria.

The items recovered from them were also ordered forfeited to the Fed-eral Government.

Upon his arrest, an iPhone 6 was also recovered from him, from which incriminating materials confirming his involvement in internet fraud were printed out.

Specifically, he poses as a white female sex worker who charges $150 per hour and whose services can only be procured after paying 50 per cent of the charges.

However, as soon as he receives the payment, he blocks the person, thereby cutting off any further com-munication.

He was charged with an amended four-count charge, to

23Monday, January 31–Feb. 6, 2022

CRIME & LAW

Three bag jail terms for internet fraud in Lagosonline as "Tina Moore" and "Jessica", to defraud his victims to the tune of $2,000.

Upon arrest, an iPhone 11 Pro Max was recovered from him.

Okpala, who also approached the EFCC for a plea bargain, was charged with a one-count amended charge in which he was accused of posing on Facebook as Jane Michelle Gregor living in Texas, through which he pro-fessed love to one Roberto, who was actually living in Minnesota, United States.

He lured Roberto into a

amended count in which he was accused of defrauding his victim through deception to the tune of $2,000 and another N54, 000 as a picker.

Under interrogation, he admitted to have purchased a Toy-ota Camry 2013 model in the name of his mother, which was recovered from him. An iPhone 7x was also recovered from him.

On his part, Ademola who was also charged with an amended one-count charge, following a plea bargain agreement with the pros-ecution, was accused of posing

he Lagos Command of the Economic and Financial TCrimes Commiss ion,

(EFCC), last week, secured the con-viction and sentencing of the trio of Raheem Sodiq Morenikeji, Adetunji Stephen Ademola and Okpala Samuel for internet fraud before Justice S.O. Solebo of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos.

The convicts were arrested sometime in May 2021 at the Sangotedo, Alagbado and Meiran areas of Lagos State, respectively.

Raheem was charged with an

he Lagos Command of the Eco-nomic and Financial Crimes TC o m m i s s i o n , ( E F C C ) ,

onJanuary 27, 2022 arraigned one Oluremi Philips before Justice S.O. Solebo of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos.

Philips, alongside her company, Omritas Energy Limited, is facing a five-count charge bordering on stealing and issuance of dud cheques to the tune of N57, 690,000.00

One of the counts read: "Oluremi Ebun Philips and Omritas Energy Limited, sometime in 2016 at Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Hon-ourable Court , fraudulently con-verted and stole the sum of N57,690,000.00, property of AYM Shafa Limited meant for the supply of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), which you failed to supply."

Another count read: "Oluremi Ebun Philips and Omritas Energy Limited, on or about the 10th of April 2017 at Lagos, within the juris-diction of this Honourable Court, knowingly issued a Diamond Bank cheque for the sum of N14, 298,075.00 payable to AYM Shafa Limited, which when presented for payment was dishonoured on the grounds that no sufficient funds were standing to the credit of the account."

She pleaded "not guilty" to the charges.

In view of her plea, the prosecut-ing counsel, T.J. Banjo, prayed the Court for a trial date and for the

remand of the defendant. Defence counsel, Akin Olatunji,

however, informed the Court of the bail application of the defendant, which he said had also been filed and served on the prosecution.

Responding, Banjo confirmed receipt, noting that, "we intend to react to same and to file a counter-affidavit".

Thereafter, Justice Solebo adjourned till February 14 and 15, 2022 for "trial and ruling on the bail application".

The defendant was also ordered to be remanded at the Correctional Centre till the next adjourned date.

EFCC arraigns businesswoman for alleged N57.6m dud cheque in Lagos

conditions," he said, adding that Ididia was again arrested by operatives of the EFCC upon his release.

In opposing the bail application, Hussain told the Court that the prosecution had filed a nine-paragraph counter-affidavit, and further argued that the defendant constituted a flight-risk.

He said: “Indeed, the defendant was granted bail before the Federal High Court.

EFCC docks man for alleged N84m fraud in LagosThe Lagos Command of the Economic and

Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), on Wednesday, January 26, 2022, arraigned one Edrian Osagie Ididia before Justice S.O. Solebo of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos.

Ididia is facing a two-count charge bordering on stealing and obtaining money by false pretence to the tune of N84 million.

One of the counts read: "Edrian Osagie Ididia, between the 13th day of September 2019 and the 29th day of October 2019 at Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with intent to defraud, fraudulently obtained the sum of N84, 000,000 (Eighty-four Million Naira) from Mr. Mark David Umeh on the false representation that you had three Sports Utility Vehicles for sale to Mr. Mark David Umeh, which representation you knew was false."

Another count reads: "Edrian Osagie Ididia, between the 13th day of September 2019 and the 29th day of October 2019 at Lagos , within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, dishonestly stole and converted to your own use the sum of N84,000,000 (Eighty-four Million Naira), prop-erty of Mr. Mark David Umeh."

He pleaded "not guilty" when the charges were read to him in Court.

In view of his plea, the prosecuting counsel, M.K. Hussain, prayed the Court for a trial date and for the remand of the defendant.

Defence counsel, Victor Chinedu, however, informed the Court of the bail application of the defendant, which he said had also been served on the prosecution.

"The defendant had earlier been granted bail by the Federal High Court, and he has fulfilled the

Internet fraudster bags two years imprisonment in Benin Citythe internet with the intent to obtain money.

Upon arraignment the defendant pleaded guilty to the charge. In view of his plea, the pros-ecution counsel, K. U.Udus prayed the court to convict and sentence the defendant in accor-dance with the plea bargain agreement between the parties.

Justice Shuaibu convicted and sentenced the defendant to two years imprisonment with option of a fine of N500,000.

The defendant is also to forfeit his laptop and undertake in writing to be of good behav-iour.

ustice S.M. Shuaibu of the Federal High Court sitting in Benin City on Wednesday, JJanuary 26, 2022, convicted and sen-

tenced one Omo-Ogbebor Uyioghosa to two years imprisonment on one count charge of impersonation and obtaining by false pretence brought against him by the Benin Zonal Com-mand of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

The defendant was said to have fraudu-lently impersonated the identity of Zhong Jiaming, a Chinese national, by sending his pic-tures to unsuspecting Chinese ladies through

Ademola got N1million option of fine, and Okpala was given an option of N400,000 fine.

In addition, they are all to sign a bond with the EFCC upon their release to be of good behaviour and not to engage in any form of economic and financial crime.

Raheem and Ademola were also ordered to serve 500 hours of community service, while Okpala got 400 hours.

They were also ordered to for-feit to the Federal Government all the items recovered from them.

romantic relationship and was able to receive $600 from him pur-portedly for feeding and payment for school fees. An iPhone 11 and bontel phone were recovered from him upon arrest.

They all “pleaded guilty” to the charges, and also pleaded with the Court to temper justice with mercy.

Subsequently, Justice Solebo found the defendants guilty as charged and sentenced them to one year in prison.

While Raheem was given an option of N500,000 fine,

EFCC, Nigerian Air Force Institute of Technology sign training MoUhe Economic and Financial Crimes Commis-sion, (EFCC), and the Nigerian Air Force Insti-Ttute of Technology, NAIT, have, Wednesday,

January 26, 2022, signed a Memorandum of Under-standing, MOU, for cooperation in specialized train-ing, especially in cybercrime and digital forensics.

Speaking at the ceremony which took place at the Commission's headquarters in Jabi, Abuja, the Exec-utive Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa expressed delight that the MoU is centered on areas of the Com-mission's core competence.

“I am quite elated to observe in the MOU, that the areas of your interest are actually the areas we thrive in, issues of cybercrime, issues of forensic account-ing, issues of digital forensics; we are willing to collab-orate with you and, God willing, our country will be better for it,” he said.

Bawa urged the Commandant of NAIT and Nige-rians to report cases of economic and financial crimes, assuring that the Commission will do its best in ridding the country of economic and financial

crimes.The Commandant of NAIT, Air Vice Marshal M.

A Yakubu, in his remarks, appreciated the EFCC for the privilege of signing the MoU, adding that the arrangement will be beneficial to the institute.

“I am delighted because this area of partnership we are going into is going to help us significantly. We have a huge infrastructure and equipment deficit and the only way to meet this deficit is to collaborate with institutions that have the capacity and the competen-cies and EFCC being of these key organizations, we felt it will be in our interest to collaborate.

“Beyond equipment, you have highly qualified manpower; we hope to leverage on that as well, to have reputable people who are working here to be visiting lecturers in our institution. We also hope to have our students come to make use of your facilities here as part of their training programme, this will help us bridge the gap of not having those facilities in our institution,” he said.

"However, the defendant is resident in Can-ada and does not have any known address in Nige-ria.

"Even though the defendant spent the whole of last year in Nigeria, there is no residential address, which the defendant can be traced to.

"He is living from one hotel to the other." Thereafter, Justice Solebo adjourned till Feb-

ruary 11, 2022 for ruling on the application and ordered the remand of the defendant at the Cor-rectional Centre pending the ruling.

VOL .4 NO. 202 Monday, January 31 , 2022 –Feb. 6

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Executive Editor: Kenneth Madueke08059100364

FACTS & FIGURES

NATIONALB USINESSE X T R A...Partnering for development

www.nationalbusinessextrang.com

$699.8bnTotal amount shared by the three tiers of

government for December 2021 at the

FAAC.

Opinion expressed in this column is not that of National Business Extra but author’s

Oil is owned by Niger Delta, not Nigeria

or the record and for posterity, it is imperative to state that oil found in the Niger Delta F

region belongs to the people of the area. It is not owned by Nigeria. God provided every habitat with natural resources, including agricultural crops for subsistence. Oil, among others, is one of the natural deposits God provided for Niger Delta people for existence.

The region had existed before Nigeria was created, and the oil was never part of sovereignty it ceded to bring about the country. This explains why other regions in the country have control over natural resources in their domain.

Therefore, it is morally wrong for the government to single out the most valuable resource of a particu-lar region for confiscation, while leav-ing other regions to enjoy their resources exclusively. That the Fed-eral Government has oppressively expropriated the oil in the Niger Delta region by transferring owner-ship to itself, and using the law to legitimize the process, does not make it morally right.

The obnoxious Petroleum Act of 1966 which now forms part of Sec-tion 44(3) of the 1999 Constitution was used to legitimize this illegality. It confers on the Federal Govern-ment, ownership and control of all petroleum resources found in, under or upon all land or waters in the coun-try.

However, this is at variance with practices in advanced democracies where host communities, states or regions own the resources and pay taxes and royalties to government.

In law, whoever owns the land, owns the resources therein, and this principle is supported by the Ad Coelum Doctrine. Why singling out petroleum resources in a particular region for acquisition? If the inten-tion of government was sincere, the law should have been extended to cover all natural resources, including food and cash crops across the coun-try.

The Niger Delta people believe strongly in their soul, spirit and body, that the oil belongs to them but that the federal government has unjustly used its might to seize it because of their helpless polyethnic minority condition. It is most likely this could not have happened in a monolithic majority group in the country for fear of resistance.

Depriving the Niger Delta region of its oil while leaving other regions or communities to exploit natural resources found in their areas, amounts to injustice. Zamfara and Osun states, for example, are cur-rently enjoying the benefits of gold mining, just as other states or regions in the country are reaping from their agricultural crops.

Yet, the Niger Delta people are not only deprived of their oil resource, they also bear the brunt of oil exploration, including destruc-tion of their ecosystem. Fish, crops, weather, water and other organisms in the region suffer pollution and con-tamination. Oil has brought miser-ies to the people to the extent that even basic agricultural and fishery activities which provide succour for the people are no longer generative, due to environmental degradation.

When you complain, those whose only contribution to the econ-omy is their population are quick to remind you that the region is already enjoying 13 percent derivation pro-ceeds, in addition to input from intervention agencies like the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, thus, does not deserve fur-ther support. This is population-induced arrogance.

When groundnut, cocoa and palm produce were Nigeria's eco-nomic mainstay, the parts of the country where these produces were derived, namely, the North, West and East separately received 50 per-cent of the revenue in line with the derivation principle as contained in the 1963 Constitution.

Why then is the government reluctant to raise the derivation reve-nue that should accrue to the Niger Delta region to 50 percent when the 1999 Constitution has given a win-dow for upward review. The 13 per-cent derivation principles as con-tained in Section 162, Sub-section 2 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) is intended to adequately compensate the people of the region for confiscation and damages arising from oil exploration and production.

While the region is still contend-ing for an upward review of the 13 percent, about 59 Northern lawmak-ers in the House of Representatives lately had vexatiously pushed for a bill to expunge the derivation princi-ple under the 1999 Constitution.

Obviously, the intention of the 59 legislators is to deny the Niger Delta

region of the 13 percent derivation revenue to enable redistribution of the proceeds to shore up revenues in their region. This motive is not only thoughtless and heartless, it smacks of parliamentary hypocrisy and insincerity, capable of plunging the region into pointless crisis that could worsen the country's economic woes.

Are these lawmakers bereft of ideas that can shore up revenue pots in the northern states or they are just being mischievous? Rather than channel and expend energy on how natural resources that are spread across the northern states can be explored and harnessed for growth of the region, they are ridiculing the legislature and exposing the limit of their intellectual capacity for good governance.

It was these same northern legis-lators that contributed to the delay in the passage of the Petroleum Indus-try Bill (PIB) over their insistence that allocation to host communities from oil companies operating expen-diture must be reduced from 10 to 3 percent. They had opposed the ini-tial 10 percent as recommended in the original draft. The PIB was even-tually passed into law on August 16, 2021.

Now, they have not only suc-ceeded in this overbearing trajectory; they have introduced 30 percent fron-tier exploration fund in the Petro-leum Industry Act (PIA) despite pre-vious records of unsuccessful geo-physical exploration efforts, includ-ing seismic surveying, by interna-tional oil companies (IOCs) in the region. Is there any exploration magic they expect the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), a subsidiary of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to perform in place where the IOCs could not find oil in com-mercial quantity?

It is a clear demonstration of pur-suit of sectional interests aimed at commuting the exploration fund into advantage for the North.

In what way has the Niger Delta region offended the Nigerian state and their leaders? Why the show of zero tolerance for development and comfort in the region? Projects meant for development in the area are not only sometimes diverted and moved to other regions, even statu-tory privileges are occasionally aborted.

For example, former President

Olusegun Obasanjo relocated the West Niger Delta LNG, Escravos to Olokola in Ogun State and changed the name to OK LNG. Protest by the Delta State House of Assembly that the LNG be returned to Escravos, Delta State, were rebuffed by the gov-ernment.

Former late President Musa Yar'Adua attempted to relocate the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun to Kaduna until he was pressured to halt the plan by Niger Delta governors. Rather than establish one in Kaduna, he pre-ferred to strip the region of the uni-versity.

The proposed Oil and Gas Indus-trial Park designed for fertilizer, methanol, petrochemicals, and alu-minium plants earmarked for Ogidigben, Delta State, has been abandoned by the Federal Govern-ment. It is hoped there are no plans to move it outside the region.

The Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF) which was established to administer uniform fuel prices across the country has consistently failed to extend coverage to the riverine oil communities in Niger Delta in their network, causing fuel to sell above pump price in these areas.

The unending construction of the East-West Road stretching from Effurun, Delta State to Calabar, Cross River State has lasted over 16 years with no hope in sight on com-pletion date.

It is imperative to calm frayed nerves in the Niger Delta by sincerely compensating the people through measures earnestly designed to develop the area for their oil that have been commandeered by the Federal Government

Template used in developing Abuja can be adopted. Direct the IOCs and the indigenous oil compa-nies to relocate their headquarters to Niger Delta, just as ministries, departments and agencies of gov-ernment (MDAs) moved to Abuja. This will accelerate development of the region.

Also, just as NNPC has directed oil companies to make annual bud-get provision for funding of rehabili-tation of schools, houses, roads, hos-pitals and other infrastructure destroyed by terrorists in Borno State and other parts of the North East Region, similar measures can be extended to oil communities whose properties have been impacted by seismic blasting and corrosion aris-ing from activities of oil exploration.

This way, enduring peace can be achieved in the Niger Delta region, rather than see it as a conquered ter-ritory whose oil has been taken over as spoils of persecution.

Owhoko, journalist and author, is the publisher of Media Issues, an online newspaper based in Lagos.

By Michael Owhoko, Ph.D

Why then is the government reluctant to raise the deriva-tion revenue that should accrue to the Niger Delta region to 50 percent when the 1999 Constitution has given a window for upward review. The 13 percent derivation principles as contained in Section 162, Sub-section 2 of the 1999 Consti-tution (as amended) is intended to adequately compensate the people of the region for confiscation and damages aris-ing from oil exploration and production.