₦airaland Forum

Quazosky: Accident again?! there is no safe transportation system in Nigeria any more.

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Inside this 1950s-style American diner, waitresses softly sing along to Aretha Franklin as they sling hamburgers and whip up milkshakes. The jukebox belts out Ritchie Valens as a customer wearing a Muslim prayer cap and flowing blue robes ambles in.
This isn't the U.S., where the kitsch restaurant chain Johnny Rockets has several hundred locations, but instead Nigeria, where foreign companies have hesitated to invest because of logistical challenges, poor electricity and government corruption.
Now, however, as Nigeria's middle class grows along with the appetite for foreign brands in Africa's most populous nation, more foreign restaurants and lifestyle companies are entering the country. And the draw on Nigerians' new discretionary spending has also put new expectations on providing quality service in a nation where many have grown accustomed to expecting very little.
"It really is impressive to go out to places and see places filled with everybody from all different walks of life," said Christopher Nahman, the managing director at the Johnny Rockets in Nigeria's largest city, Lagos. "Nigerians are a very aspirational society also. Even somebody who it might be really kind of a burden on them financially, they will still do it to just have that experience.
"It's very encouraging moving forward because that's what you need to sustain an economy. ... There's no going back."
The majority of those who live in Nigeria, home to more than 160 million people, live in poverty. Just more than 60 percent of Nigerians earn the equivalent of less than $1 a day, according to a 2012 study published by the country's National Bureau of Statistics. For decades, only tiny sliver of the population either involved in the country's oil industry or its government roundly criticized for corruption had access to wealth.
The end of military rule in 1999 saw the country's economy slowly open up, with new professional jobs being added in banks and the rapidly growing mobile phone market. That gave birth to Nigeria's rapidly growing middle class, whose members earn about $480 between $645 a month and represent nearly a quarter of the country's population, according to a September 2011 study by investment firm Renaissance Capital.
Over time, those figures started to attract businesses who previously hadn't been working in Nigeria. In retail, South African firms have flocked into Nigeria, finding places in the new malls being opened around Lagos. MassMart Holdings Ltd., of which Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville, Arkansas, owns a controlling stake, has its Game department there. Supermarket chain Shoprite Holdings Ltd., considered a budget grocer at home in South Africa, draws a more-upscale crowd in Nigeria, where most still shop for food in open-air markets.
The market has drawn U.S. restaurant chains as well. KFC, owned by Louisville, Kentucky-based Yum Brands Inc., has seen a rapid expansion across Nigeria, with 17 restaurants opening across southwest Nigeria. Domino's Pizza Inc. of Ann Arbor, Michigan, recently had a franchisee open two locations in Lagos as well. Even ice cream seller Cold Stone Creamery of Scottsdale, Arizona, has opened to offer scoops and waffle cones to take the edge off of Nigeria's sweltering heat.
At Johnny Rockets, which sits on Lagos' swanky business-hub Victoria Island across the street from a major hotel frequented by foreigners and dignitaries, the restaurant has a velvet-roped waiting area in the parking lot. Inside, the stainless steel kitchen gleams and customers watch, often with open-mouth fascination, as workers dance each hour to "Hippy Hippy Shake" or another classic song.
The menu of burgers, fries and onion rings has the Nigerian addition of jollof rice, a spicy staple of tables throughout the country. Others coming in have followed — including Domino's, which puts it atop a specialty pizza for the Nigerian market. However, most come for a taste of something different.
That luxury does come at a steep price. A double bacon cheeseburger sells for 3,500 naira, the equivalent of about $22. A vanilla milkshake is 1,800 naira, or $11.25. Yet the service does come with a smile, a song and a bit of spectacle often missing in Nigeria, where customer service can quickly degenerate into exasperated shouts and curses at blank-eyed employees.
"This, obviously, is not an everyday place," said Mimi Ade-Odiachi, a landscape and garden designer dining there recently with a friend. "It's a once in a while, I want to celebrate something small in my life" place.
Despite the possible profits, challenges still remain for these companies. Stores must rely on diesel generators for electricity, as Nigeria's state-run power remains epileptic at best and blackouts can last days. Having adequate supply chains also can prove to be a challenge, as some Nigerian suppliers don't immediately meet Western standards and backlogs at the country's major port in Lagos can be weeks at a time. Corruption also remains rampant at government and regulatory agencies, analysts and private businesses acknowledge, making operating legally with proper accreditation even more difficult.
Still, there's money to be made now and perhaps even more in the future if Nigeria's economy continues to grow along with a burgeoning middle class looking for an escape from the grind of life in the country.
"People don't feel like they're in Nigeria when they come," said Andrew Nahman, a director at Johnny Rockets. "Not necessarily that they have to get away from Nigeria, but it's a different experience all together."
http://news.yahoo.com/middle-class-grows-global-brands-hit-nigeria-102927816.html

Nigerian billionaire and Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote has become the first African entrepreneur to lay claim to a $20 billion fortune as the stock value of his largest holding, Dangote Cement, leaped just about three-fourths since March when Forbes released its annual ranking of the world’s richest people.

Aliko Dangote’s 93% stake in the cement company is now worth $19.5 billion. Add this to his controlling stakes in other publicly-listed companies like Dangote Sugar and National Salt Company of Nigeria and his significant shareholdings in other blue-chips like Zenith Bank, UBA Group and Dangote Flour; his extensive real estate portfolio, jets, yachts and current cash position, which includes more than $300 million in recently awarded Dangote Cement dividends, Dangote is now worth more than $20 billion.

Put into context, the Nigerian billionaire is now among the top 25 richest people in the world, richer than Russia’s richest man, Alisher Usmanov, richer than India’s Lakshmi Mittal and running neck and neck with India’s Mukesh Ambani. He is catching up to such Americans as Google’s billionaire founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

The unprecedented surge in Dangote Cement’s share price is largely a market response to the company’s impressive 2013 Q1 results.

The cement manufacturer’s unaudited results for the three months ending March 31 showed that the company’s pre-tax profit rose to $339 million, representing an 80.6% increase from last year and a strong indicator of the company’s future earning potential. The results also indicate a 79.5 % rise in its earnings per share over the corresponding period last year.

Explaining the company’s share price boost in an email to Forbes, Carl Franklin, Dangote Cement’s Head of Investor Relations in the U.K said that in the first quarter of 2013, the company had a huge increase in demand across Nigeria, gas supply improved considerably and the capacity was much more ramped up.

“So Q1 was the first sign of just how profitable we can be in Nigeria. The amazing thing is that 66% of our gas-fired production in Q1 was done at 84% gas. Imagine what would happen to margins if we did the same amount at 95%. This has given investors a good sense of what we can really do when everything goes in the right direction,” Franklin said.

With a current market cap of $20.5 billion, Dangote Cement becomes the first Nigerian company to achieve a market capitalization of over $20 billion.

“It’s certainly a landmark for a Nigerian company and we’re proud to be the first to achieve it. Obviously we are focusing on building long-term and sustainable value for shareholders through our investments in Nigeria and Africa. Nigeria is a very entrepreneurial country and I can assure you that other companies will follow us in achieving this.”

Other companies might eventually achieve this, but it’s going to take a bit of time. Dangote Cement currently accounts for more than a quarter of the total market capitalization of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The second largest company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) is currently Nigerian Breweries, West Africa’s largest manufacturer of Alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. The company has a market cap of $8.5 billion.

Dangote debuted on the FORBES billionaires list in 2008 with a fortune we pegged at $3.3 billion. His fortune dropped to $2.5 billion in 2009 and plunged further to $2.1 billion in 2010. His fortune surged 557% in 2011 to $13.8 billion after he took Dangote Cement public. He dropped to $11.2 billion in last year’s rankings, but rebounded at $16.1 billion this year. Since March, his fortune has jumped another 30%.

Dangote was destined to shine in business. At age 8, he apparently gave packets of sweets he had made to the house servants to sell for him. His father Mohammed Dangote was a successful businessman and an associate of his maternal uncle Alhaji Sanusi Dantata. Dantata and his brother controlled the trade in kola nuts and livestock conducted by 200 agents. Dangote started building his fortune over three decades ago after taking a loan from Sanusi Dantata. He started trading in commodities like flour, sugar and cement.

He became a billionaire by later manufacturing these items. He started making pasta, salt, sugar and flour in 1997. But he found his gold mine in cement, when he was awarded a government’s state owned cement business in 2000 and began building his own plant in 2003. He listed Dangote Cement in 2010.

Today, it is Africa’s largest cement company providing cement to Nigeria and other African countries that otherwise would likely have to pay to import much of the materials.

Dangote still likely has bigger ambitions. He told Forbes Wealth Editor Luisa Kroll at Davos in 2011 that he expected his firm to have a market cap of $60 billion within five years. At $20.5 billion, Dangote Cement still has a long way to go to live up to that dream, and while it is quite unlikely that Dangote Cement could hit a $60 billion Market Cap by 2016, don’t write it off as ‘impossible’. With Dangote, you never know.

kenx1: Don't get me wrong!! Wat I'm driving @ is der r other sources of power we can invest on.....puting all eggs n one basket is quite dangerous

Goddex: Punch, The Nation, Sahara Reporters etc are still very busy reporting Amechi and PDP imaginary crisis. Foreign media will keep on embarrassing them like that.

jadepinkett: have u resumed wit glo? If yes, pls between d final intrvw and d call to resume, au long did it take

Amid falling sales, Nokia posted a loss of 368 million euros for Q2 2011, while in Q2 2010 had still a profit of 227 million euros. On September 2011, Nokia has announced it will lose another 3,500 jobs worldwide, including the closure of its Cluj factory in Romania. On 8 February 2012, Nokia Corp. said to cut around 4,000 jobs at smartphone manufacturing plants in Europe by the end of 2012 to move assembly closer to component supplier in Asia. It plans to cut 2,300 of the 4,400 jobs in Hungary, 700 out of 1,000 jobs in Mexico, and 1,000 out of 1,700 factory jobs in Finland. On 14 June 2012, Nokia announced to cut 10,000 jobs globally by the end of 2013 and shut production and research sites in Finland, Germany and Canada in line with continuing losses and the stock price falling to its lowest point since 1996. Today, Nokia's market value is below $10 billion.

In December 2012, Nokia announced that it would be putting its headquarters, Nokia House, up for sale for €170 million.[145] In the same month, Nokia announced its partnership with the world's largest cellular operator, China Mobile, to offer Nokia's new Windows-based phone, the Lumia 920 as Lumia 920T, an exclusive Chinese variant. This was in a bid by Nokia to tap China Mobile's 700 million customer base.

David ogar: mr man you better find another job else were and forget about north because all the north side is not save @ all, I have travel to all the the state in the north both maduiguri, don't ask why, cause I when there for business? If you love your life and the life of your family? Becareful my brother?