Great Emma's Blog

By Lucas Ajanaku   MTN and Airtel topped the list of mobile network operators (MNOs) with the highest number of subscriber complaints over suspicious data depletion incidences, preliminary report of the forensic audit conducted by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has shown The forensic audit, which was conducted by the Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Department (CMED) of the Commission, probed the four MNOs and discovered that a total of 106 data depletion complaints had been lodged by aggrieved subscribers. Inundated by a deluge of complaints over data depletion rate in the telecoms industry, the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive,NCC, Prof Garba Danbatta, in line with its mandate of consumer protection, had promised to conduct forensic audit into the complaints the way the Commission did on short message service (SMS) in which a particular operator was found to have defrauded its customers to the tune of N100 million. According to the report, out o...

By Taofik Salako,  Deputy Group Business Editor   Nigerian governments and companies have raised some N4.6 trillion in new capital from the capital market so far this year, already more than 100 per cent above the total capital raising recorded for the whole of 2020. Preliminary report at the weekend at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited indicated that the Exchange has facilitated more than N4.6 trillion so far this year. The capital raising cut across several asset classes including debts and equities and from several issuers including the Federal Government, state governments and companies. The Federal Government has sustained the monthly issuance of its Federal Government of Nigeria Savings Bonds (FGNSBs) in addition to other intermittent debt issuances. The government, at the weekend, listed two tranches of savings bonds worth N700.5 million on the NGX. The savings bonds were issued in May. A breakdown of the fund-raising entities showed five broad categories – Feder...

  The Federal Government plans to upscale its alternative financing programme by issuing more Sukuk bonds to fund projects, building on the back of huge successes recorded on previous issuances. It had raised N362.6 billion in three previous issuances which were hugely oversubscribed. Director-General, Debt Management Office (DMO) Ms Patience Oniha, said the government recognises the need to issue more Sukuk bonds given the increasing success and strong investor’s appetite for the alternative non-interest bonds. According to her, the Sukuk initiative by DMO, which oversees national debt management, has been successful given the strong level of awareness that has been created. She attributed the success of the Sukuk issuances to the increased confidence from market participants given that the Sukuk bonds are tied to specific projects that can be tracked. “Looking ahead, we recognise the need to upscale issuances to include other standalone projects beyond road infrastructure, ...

By Taofik Salako,  Deputy Group Business Editor   Nigerian equities closed weekend with average negative return of five per cent, implying a net capital depreciation of more than N1 trillion for investors in quoted shares. The stock market capped its losing streak this month with a net loss of N35 billion last week, raising the average return so far in the month to 3.96 per cent. Benchmark indices for the Nigerian equities market showed widespread depreciation across most sectors with investors in highly influential banking and industrial goods sectors recording the highest losses. The All Share Index (ASI) – the value-based common index that tracks all share prices at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited, formerly Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) – opens the last trading session in the month today at 38,256.95 points,  five per cent below 2021’s opening index of 40,270.72 points. Aggregate market value of  quoted equities has also dropped from the year’s opening v...

Ongoing restructuring exercise will bring back Ellah Lakes Plc into profitability and commencement of dividend payment to shareholders, the management of the company has said. Its Managing Director, Mr. Chuka Mordi,  said the restructuring would make Ellah Lakes to attain profitability and further foster its vision of being the leading supplier of sustainable edible oil and starch to the consumer goods sector in Nigeria. He noted that prior to 2019, Ellah Lakes was an insolvent entity but Telluria Limited completed a reverse acquisition of the company, recapitalising the balance sheet and repositioning the business for growth with a new board and management team. “Today, we are undergoing a restructuring, which will return the business to profitability and reposition it as a leading agribusiness player across West Africa. From a corporate governance point of view, we hold ourselves to high standards of governance as expected by our shareholders and regulator, and as is befitting...

    The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seeking to collaborate with the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development to address some of the challenges faced by the solid minerals sector through the Commodities Exchanges. The Director-General, SEC, Mr. Lamido Yuguda, stated this during a meeting with the Minister of State for Solid Mineral, Dr. Uchechukwu Ogah, in Abuja weekend. Yuguda said the core function of a Commodity Exchange is to create markets by providing a setting where multiple buyers and sellers can trade commodity-linked contracts thereby reducing the costs associated with finding a buyer or seller to whom to transact. Other benefits of a Commodity Exchange include improved quality, standardisation, traceability (tracking the source of every solid mineral), price discovery, price risk management, accepted dispute resolution procedures and facilitating provision of commodity financing. He said in the last few years however, Nigeria has been confronted ...

    NASCON Allied Industries Plc has ended the 2020 financial year on a positive note with expectations that its new state-of-art salt refinery will boost revenue and returns to shareholders. At the 2020 Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the Civic Centre, Lagos at the weekend, the company announced an improved turnover of N28.01 billion, representing a two per cent increase from N27.49 billion recorded in 2019. In its 2020 annual report themed ‘Protecting our core’, the company, for the financial year ended December 31, 2020 also recorded N2.69 billion in profit after tax, a 46 per cent increase for the year, compared to N1.85 billion the previous year. Earnings per share also increased to N1.02 in 2020 compared to 70 kobo in 2019. Shareholders approved dividend payment of 40 kobo per share, totalling N1.06 billion. Chairperson, NASCON Allied Industries, Mrs. ‘Yemisi Ayeni, said last year, many manufacturing businesses faced numerous challenges from COVID-19 and the result...

  TrustBanc Holdings Limited, an investment management firm, has listed its maiden commercial paper issuance on the FMDQ Securities Exchange, further deepening the  commercial paper market. FMDQ Securities Exchange approved the quotation of TrustBanc Holdings Limited’s N200 million Series 1 Commercial Paper (CP ). It was issued under TrustBanc’s N10billion CP issuance programme. The quotation of the maiden CP series followed the successful registration of the CP programme last month. The net proceeds from the CP would be used to fund TrustBanc’s short-term financing requirement. FMDQ stated that the TrustBanc quotation further validated FMDQ Exchange as the choice platform for the registration, listing, quotation, trading and recording of financial securities in the Nigerian financial market. FMDQ noted that the CP market has continued to provide corporate entities across the various sectors of the economy avenue to raise funds to meet shortfalls in their working capital...

By Oluwakemi Dauda   More than N5 trillion non-oil export cargoes were ferried out of the country in the fourth quarter of last year. The goods were shipped out of  Lagos ports and formed part of the total export goods valued at about N6 trillion. Customs sources said some of the goods included cashew nuts, cocoa, soaps, textiles, noodles, sesame seeds, ginger, palm kernel, tiger nuts, hibiscus flower, zircon sand and other mineral resources that are valuable at the international market. A source said 1,100 ships with over 30 million tonnes called at the port during the period. Also, the statistics by the Foreign Trade Statistics (FTS) explained the bulk of export transactions was conducted through Lagos Port, 93.9 per cent of total exports. It was followed by Port Harcourt Port, which recorded N145.7billion or 4.6 per cent, Tin Can Island Port, N12.9 billion and Calabar Port, N844. 7 million It also noted that water transport accounted for N3.18 trillion or 99.42 ...

By Lucas Ajanaku   Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mallam Kashifu Inuwa, said the Federal Government is working to ensure 30 per cent in-country data hosting by 2024. In a keynote address he delivered at a Technology Forum, organised by the Nigeria Information Technology Reporters’ Association (NITRA) in Lagos at the weekend with the theme: “Achieving 30 per cent growth In local cloud hosting by 2024”, Inuwa said the government was providing the enabling environment for data hosting firms to thrive. According to him, the role of the government is to enable the environment for private and corporate bodies to invest in local hosting services, the building of more data centres. He said there had been a considerable increase in the number of cloud services providers. He added that NITDA, with mandate to regulate and develop the IT sector, has initiated several policies and programmes to ensure data sovereignty and integrity.  The...

By Daniel Essiet   The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provided agricultural development grants worth $32 million to boost the yields and incomes of millions of small farmers in Nigeria in 2020. These grants included $1.635 million, which was granted to Enhancing Financial Innovation Access for financial service for the poor. The project is to strengthen the regulatory environment and financial services ecosystem for women’s financial inclusion in Nigeria. Support for the project will last for 35 months. The Nation ‘s investigation showed that much of the funds, however, were given to International Institute of Tropical Agriculture(IITA) under the Global Growth & Opportunity to support agricultural growth. IITA alone was granted $28.419 million for various projects. These included $2.999 million given last October to advance and sustain AKILIMO, a new agronomy platform with content and decision tools for increased productivity and income of cassava growers in Africa an...

By Kelvin Osa Okunbor   French airplane maker  Airbus will continue to expect the commercial aircraft market to recover to pre-COVID levels between 2023 and 2025, led by the single-aisle segment. The company said it was providing suppliers with an update of its production plans, giving visibility to schedule necessary investments and secure long term capacity and production rate readiness, in line with the expected recovery. Chief Executive Officer, Airbus, Guillaume Faury, said the  sector has begun to recover from the COVID-19 crisis. “The message to our supplier community provides visibility to the entire industrial ecosystem to secure the necessary capabilities and be ready when market conditions call for it. In parallel, we are transforming our industrial system by optimising our aero structures set-up and modernising our A320 Family production facilities. All these actions are set in motion to prepare our future,” Faury said. Airbus confirms an average A320 Fa...

Hardball   Chelsea FC of London, England, just clinched the 2020/2021 European Champions League (UCL) — but that’s no news.  Even the stone-deaf can’t claim not to have heard the whoop and roar of victory, from Chelsea’s notoriously uproarious fans. Give it to them, Chelsea fans and embattled but now victorious manager, the German Thomas Tuchel; not to talk of owner, Roman Abrahomovich.  Losing at the final of the English FA Cup (to Leicester), being drubbed 4:0 (by Barcelona) at the final of the ladies UCL, but coming back to land the big one, against English Champions, Manchester City FC, is nothing short of plucky and gutsy. Still, this is less about Chelsea but more about another Englishman, Fred Martin, of Brentford FC.  Brent-what? Well, Brentford FC, a west London club, after getting relegated from the old English Division 1 in the 1946/47 season, are back in the English Premiership — 74 years later!  Sixty-eight, out of that 74-year odyssey, Martin ...

By Sam Omatseye   Lagos has been on my mind these few weeks. It is even more so as it stands as an oasis in a federal chaos. Lagos the necklace of islands, the city as state and state as city, the entrepot, the cauldron of ideas, refuge of migrants. Lagos where army made intrigue but only heard war echoes. But before then royals plotted. Welcome Akintoye, but no farewell to Kosoko. The state of example, the melting pot impatient not to melt down. It is envied but sought. Claimed but delegitimised. Indispensable but discarded. Inevitable in spite of detours. It’s at once Jacob and Esau. Invested in but not honoured. Everybody and everything comes here. Everybody and everything leaves a mark, but the city retains its hide. A city by a sea as though on a hill. Unsullied by tribe, unswerved by accent, it is a city of many colours but it is still Lagos, the city in the bubble and out of bubble. Here Awo and Zik dueled and laughed; Maitama Sule orated and Mbadiwe soared in bombast. T...

Emeka  OMEIHE   The position of the presidency on the 12-point resolution by southern governors elevated to the fore, government’s disposition on the festering clashes between herders’ and farmers. But more fundamentally, it gave out the primacy of herders’ welfare over other burning national issues in the overall calculations of the Buhari administration. Southern governors cutting across party lines had during their epochal meeting at Asaba, Delta State taken far-reaching decisions which if seriously and honestly addressed would offer lasting solutions to some of the debilitating national challenges that had set the country on edge. Among others, these included: a ban on open grazing of cattle across Southern Nigeria; restructuring of the country to ensure true federalism leading to the evolution of state police, review of the revenue allocation formula and all appointments into federal agencies including the security agencies in keeping with the federal character princip...

By Michael Olawale-Cole     Undoubtedly, every right-thinking Nigerian should be concerned about the state of our nation, a country we so much love known as Nigeria. Long before now, our country has been a cynosure of all eyes within the continent and beyond the shores of Africa. It has been a nation so well respected because of the quality and quantity of our contents in terms of human and material resources. Out of every 10 Africans whether in Europe or America, about six or seven might be Nigerians working in different realms of life developing the economies and atmosphere of these nations. We are a nation where the best in the world can be found in terms of intellectuality, strength, energy, productivity, integrity and all the attributes that characterizes good nation-building. Some decades ago, due to the quality of our people, I rationalized that if Africa were to be governed by a president like in a nation, that choice should come from Nigeria. Today, the question ...

By  Femi Macaulay   Herbert Macaulay (popularly known as HM) is unforgettable. He is deservedly remembered in various ways that celebrate his historical significance.  The acclaimed nationalist, widely acknowledged as the ‘Father of Nigerian Nationalism,’ died 75 years ago, on May 7, 1946, at the age of 81. He has been honoured again and again for his services to Nigeria. After the country’s independence from Britain in 1960, HM’s face appeared on Nigeria’s postage stamp, with the inscription “Championed Independence.”  The Nigerian Shipping Calendar for 1972 showed the picture of a ship called  The Herbert Macaulay . The N1 note issued in July 1979 by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to mark its 20th anniversary bore HM’s portrait. The banknote was replaced with a coin that also showed him.  When the N1 note was released, Macaulay was at first wrongly spelt as “Macauley.” The Macaulay family pointed out this embarrassing error. The then CBN Director ...

By Abachi Ungbo     Recently, I was a guest of an effervescent sexagenarian who is an ex-banker with an obsessive passion for farming. His entrepreneurial adrenaline still keeps gushing like a broken pipe. What started as a hobby has morphed into a full-time profession. He is now flirting with the idea of incorporating a goat section into his growing farm. And the Boer breed reputed for its quality meat is high on list. This formed the kernel of our long conversation on goats. Commercial goat farming is rapidly growing in Nigeria. For the most part, goats are raised under a mixed crop-livestock system by smallholder farmers on whose shoulders the nation’s food needs rest. It serves as source of income to many families.  Goats are known primarily for meat. Other products simply pale in comparison, not least goat milk, which still sounds queer owing to its unpopularity. As a result, data or record hardly exists. However, goat farming the world over is a profitable ...

By Charles Onunaiju   SIR: The article written by the U.S ambassador to Nigeria, H.E Mary Berth Leonard with the title, “Taiwan’s Exclusion from WHA undermines Global Health” and published in some newspapers is curious, because the distinguished U.S ambassador certainly know why “Taiwan remains excluded from international organizations such as the World Health Organization, WHO…”. The passionate advocacy of the U.S envoy canvassed in the article with spurious claim that “to prevent Taiwan’s participation in the WHA,” would “leave the world, the World Health Organization, and Nigeria worse off”, does not ring true, especially in the light that over 150 countries, including Nigeria, explicitly supports the one China Policy and the fact that the WHO is an international organization of only sovereign countries and Taiwan is not a sovereign country. Since the breakout of the Covid-19 pandemic, United States was among few countries to seriously turn down international cooperation to...

By Fredrick Nwabufo   SIR: Without a doubt, there are genuine grievances regarding the Southeast and national government relationship, but these grievances, whether injustice or inequality, are not circumscribed to the Southeast. Every Nigerian is aggrieved. Every region – north, southwest, south-south – has a bone to pick with the leadership. All the regions in the country are marginalised as regards the equitable distribution of resources to the people. To put it clearly, every region is marginalised. But a more factual statement will be ‘’all Nigerians at the bottom rung of the social ladder are marginalised’’. Nigerians are victims of the carnivory of the elite. It does not matter whether they come from the north or the south. We are all victims of elite conspiracy regardless of where we come from. It is agonising that the scions of the southeast are turning their region into Aleppo in Syria. Who brings violence and war to his own home? As of 2019, the southeast was repute...

Editorial   As usual, Nigerian political actors are at war over issues requiring consensus for the country to make progress. This time, the Federal Government is pitched against the states, especially those in the South whose governors met on May 18 over the recurring restructuring debate. The southern governors, joined later by the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) governors (including those from the north) 48 hours later, argued strongly for a truly federal structure and establishment of state police, among others. However, in its response, the Federal Government, speaking through the Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to the President, Malam Garba Shehu, dismissed the call and insinuated that the governors are more liable for the charges levelled against the centre. Malam Shehu’s position was later endorsed by the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, who said no one could stop the movement of cattle across the country on foot as it would violate sect...