www.finabiz..com/2014/09/2015-general-elections-will-not-deplete.html
The Governor of the Central Bank Governor (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, has said that the 2015 General Elections would not deplete the fortunes and reserves of the country.
Emefiele gave the assurance on Wednesday in New York, at the Africa Business Summit, a high level international forum on Africa’s investment climate and market with the theme “Africa is Rising, There Are Challenges, Still We Rise.’’
He said that the nation’s economy was currently doing well and the 2015 elections would not let it take a downturn.
He further said that Nigeria currently had a reserve of about 41 billion dollars, “which is the highest in Africa.’’
The CBN governor said though people were predicting a drop in crude prices and revenues, with 41 billion dollars reserve supporting imports and production for the next seven to eight months, “Nigeria’s economy is
doing very well and 2015 will not be different.
“People are generally expecting crude prices to drop and maybe there will be reduction in production and crude prices will fall”.
He allayed the fears of investors in the stability of the economy, stressing that the country’s GDP was consistently moving up.
Emefiele said “Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves fell 18 per cent year-on-year, although it climbed 3.8 per cent in July to 38.49 billion dollars.
“Investors became nervous after the suspension of former Central Bank Governor, Lamido Sanusi in February, and ahead of presidential elections in February 2015 but I assure you we are in a comfortable position.’’
Mr Olusegun Aganga, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, who spoke at the event, said that the summit, which was a Private Public Partnership, was meant to educate and attract investors.
“This platform provides a level of advocacy for Nigeria’s economic image,’’ he added.
The Minister of Aviation, Mr Osita Chidoka, told the audience that there was currently a 73 per cent potential for aeronautical investment in the country.

www.finabiz..com/2014/09/no-to-state-creation-its-not-economical.html
On June 27, 2011, we stated that creating additional state is not economical because it will increase the cost of governance in the country without any increase in the revenue base of the nation.

Unfortunately, the just-concluded National Conference has recommended the creation of additional 18 states.

This will bring the number of states in the country to 54. Just last week, the Senate President said he is committed to seeing through state creation. Here is what I said then.

When on May 27 1967, General Yakubu Gowon announced the 12-state structure for Nigeria, it was to solve a perceived political problem threatening the continued existence of Nigeria as a single entity.

It was a political solution to the threat of secession. Gowon was humble enough to point out the economic consequences the nation was faced with if the action was not taken. He had said: “The consequence of these illegal sets has been

the increasing deterioration of the Nigerian economy.

“It has also led to increasing loss of foreign confidence in the ability of Nigerians to resolve the present problems. This has been reflected in the stoppage of the inflow of much badly needed additional foreign investment, it has put a brake on economic development so essential to the well-being of the common man and the ordinary citizen whose only desire is for peace and stability to carry on his daily work.

“The main obstacle to future stability in this country is the present structural imbalance in the Nigerian federation. This is why the item in the Political and Administrative Programme adopted by the Supreme Military Council last month is the creation of states as a basis for stability.”

The much desired unity, economic development and inflow of foreign investment have continued to elude the country several decades after the first shot at state creation. Ever since then, the politics of state creation has not taken into account the ability of these states to sustain their existence.

Of the 36 states in the country, only Lagos, Rivers and perhaps Kano states, can through internally-generated revenue pay their bills. Others have to wait for the monthly federal allocation for them to pay their bills.

The internally-generated revenue of the existing states in the country cannot even pay the monthly wage bill of teachers in the various states. Some local governments are known to have generated not more than one million naira in a year.

In the face of this, the Senate President is quoted as saying that more states will be created in the life of the seventh National Assembly. Senate President, David Mark, was quoted last week to have said that the National Assembly remained committed to amending the 1999 Constitution to give room for the creation of more states in Nigeria.

Senator Mark, who gave the assurance in his home town, Oturkpo, maintained that state creation was a certainty because the National Assembly was confident that the creation of more states would enhance development and bring government closer to the people.

It will appear that the Senate President is oblivious of the cry of Nigerians against the high cost of governance in the country that has robbed the people of the much needed funds for development. Creation of more states will further raise the already high cost of governance in the country.

When new states are created, the membership of the National Assembly will increase by the proportion of the increase in the number of states. Each additional member of the National Assembly will bring additional cost to the nation.

By CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s revelation recently, the National Assembly spends 25 per cent of the overhead cost of running the Federal Government. When more states are created, the National Assembly overhead will jump to 30 or 40 per cent of total overhead. This certainly is not economical for the nation.

Each of the states to be created will become a new cost centre to the federation account. The newly created states will need fresh civil service of their own, a legislature, governor, aides to the governor, commissioners, local governments etc. All these are new cost centres to the federation.

At the moment, both the federal and state governments spend close to 70 per cent of their annual budgets on salaries and cost of running the government. There is little or nothing left for infrastructure and other social services. The result is the high level of under-development in the country.

As at last week, existing state governments are crying out aloud that they cannot pay the N18,000 minimum wage approved for civil servants by the Federal Government. They thus call for a new revenue allocation that will allocate more resources from the federation account to them.

The big issue is: Why are Nigerian politicians not talking of how to develop more revenue channels to increase available resources for distribution but just how to share what is available by accident of nature? Revenue allocation became contentious the very day General Gowon set in motion the machinery for state creation.

In his May 27, 1967 speech he said: “As these states are established, a new Revenue Allocation Commission consisting of international experts will be appointed to recommend an equitable formula for revenue allocation taking into account the desires of the states.”

As new states are created, new revenue allocation formula is evolved. The irony is that as more states are created, the share of the states from the federation account diminishes.

Because politicians feel the big purse is always there to grab from, they continue in the agitation for state creation to placate the undiscerning citizenry, knowing full well that these states are not viable.

Nigeria does not need additional states.

Creating unviable states will create more economic problems for the nation. In fact, Nigeria should be thinking of consolidating the existing states by collapsing them into the present six geo-political zones.

This will allow for a true federalism to emerge as each zone will have to develop its internal resources to empower and develop the area in their jurisdiction, not the creation of additional states that will be perpetu

www.finabiz..com/2014/09/lagos-how-we-spent-n160bn-world-bank.html
The Lagos State Government yesterday justified the N160 billion it borrowed from the World Bank, noting that the fund was channelled to finance its light rail (blue line) project.
However, the state government expressed disappointment at the progress of the project, which it said, was not executed as smoothly as possible, but was optimistic of its completion.
The state Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, said this shortly after inspecting the light rail terminus at the Orile-Iganmu part of the state alongside some members of the state executive council.
Speaking with journalists, Fashola said the project would have been completed in another 12 months despite that the project execution was not as smooth and speedy as he wanted it.
The governor raised questions on the
intention of the federal government for publishing the state debt profile in the recent time, wondering what could have informed the decision to make it public.
He said: “I think it was the Debt Management Office of the federal government that published the report that we have a debt of about N160billion. I do not know the intent of the publication.
“But if it was to inform the public, I think we have always kept the public informed anytime we borrow money. If there are other intentions behind that, only those who make the publication would know what the intentions are.
“But you see, when people talk about debt of a state like Lagos, they forget that after Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt and one other country, we have the fifth largest economy in Africa.
“When you are talking of about a billion naira debt to a population of over 21 million people; because if you are measuring the debt, you also have to measure the responsibility. Those are the things people keep in isolation.”
He, therefore, explained that the state government already “has in place, strategies to repay the loan. The federal government was in the know of the state’s decision to take the bond and it approved it.”
He added that the truth “is that what they do not also say is that no state in Nigeria can borrow money outside, from any multilateral agencies without the approval of the federal government.
“What they did not say is that they approved it. No state can raise money by bond the way we have done without the federal government’s approval. Both SEC and NSE are all federal regulatory agencies through which we must pass. If they said okay, it means there must be something good about the debt.
“Our rating as a state is the same as that of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, BB minus-stable with a positive outlook. We are the only state in Nigeria that has that rating. The first bond that was taken during my first tenure has been paid; the first tranche has been paid.
“I think the second tranche will be settled around 2016 or 2017. We are already making provisions. The provisions that will be there will be in excess of what is needed,” the governor said
Fashola expressed satisfaction on the progress of the light rail project, though decried the petty delay that was encountered as a result funding, saying the project would have should have been completed in another 12 months.

www.finabiz..com/2014/09/nigeria-nurtures-its-once-unloved-cocoa.html
College graduate Omatayo Adeniyi stands in a humid tropical forest of southwest Nigeria and explains why he chose cocoa farming over a white collar job in the city.
“There is money in the ground. The future is bright. I hope to make one tonne of cocoa by next year,” he says from his farm in Ondo State.
Such optimism has for decades been rare among Nigeria’s cocoa farmers: Many abandoned their fields and moved to cities in search of alternative work after commodity prices collapsed in the mid-1980s and the country’s booming oil industry siphoned investment away from agriculture.
But years of focus on oil revenues has left Nigeria with a lack of
industrial diversity and made it over-dependent on energy, which uses a lot of costly equipment but employs few people. So while the economy has been growing at an average of 7 percent for the past five years, it has failed to create jobs for many of Nigeria’s 170 million people.
High unemployment and poverty levels have prompted the government to look again at cocoa with the aim of getting more people to grow a product for which prices have been rising.
Adeniyi’s trees have been supplied by the government, which is also distributing plant pods and disease resistant seeds at subsidised rates, alongside cheap fertilisers, agricultural chemicals and training to improve practices.
Agriculture Minister Akinwumi Adesina aims to boost production to 1 million tonnes a year by 2018 – on a par with current number two global producer Ghana and approaching top grower Ivory Coast’s projected 1.8 million tonnes for this year.
Nigeria says it’s already on track to produce 500,000 tonnes of cocoa next year, double what it grew in 2012, and though analysts say that target may be optimistic, it is clear that no other cocoa growing country is boosting production as fast.
Output from Africa’s top four growers – Ivory Coast, Ghana, Indonesia and Nigeria – which makes up over 70 percent of global production, is projected to rise in 2013/14 after staying flat for two years, according to Africa’s Ecobank.
“Nigeria has been underperforming for many years because of a lack of investment and the discovery of oil. But in the last two years, there’s been genuine commitment … to develop agriculture,” said Edward George, Ecobank head of research.

BIGGER, BETTER, MORE
Nigeria currently grows cocoa on less than a quarter of the 3 million hectares of land suitable to produce the beans, and the government is encouraging farmers to expand to the uncultivated savannah grassland.
With the materials the state provides, crops are flourishing. Adeniyi received his high-yield disease-resistant seeds from government two years ago and planted 800 seedlings of which 700 survived – much more than usual. The new trees flower within 18-24 months instead of 3-5 years.
“The materials will increase output more than three times from what farmers had before,” said Leila Dongo, director at Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria.
However infrastructure still poses a problem – bad roads hamper the transport of beans to market – and many producers are at the mercy of the weather because of their rudimental operations.
In a leafy plantation where rows of cocoa trees sit three inches apart to let in air and sunshine, farmer Rafiu Saliu demonstrates the problem. Picking up a pod from a just-harvested heap he shows how most of it has gone black with fungal disease.
Farmers like Saliu rely on the whims of weather for growing and drying their crops. This year Saliu faced a dilemma: leave pods on trees until the rains pass, and risk them over ripening, or harvest them and risk mould levels exceeding the maximum 5 percent allowed on the market.
“If not for the rains we should be harvesting. All the pods are ripe,” said 65-year-old Saliu, as more dark clouds spread over his four hectare farm.
To tackle this vulnerability, the government is training farmers to set up warehousing and storage, including creating shared drying spaces covered with plastic sheets that let sun in but keep rain out.
FROM TREES TO FACTORIES
When Nigeria’s government turned its back on the cocoa industry, it also scrapped the cocoa marketing board, a farmers’ cooperative that regulated farming practices, guaranteed prices to farmers, and provided subsidies through the cocoa board.
Farmers now bear the price risk themselves but have seen cocoa prices swing from a low of less than $1,000 per tonne in 1986 to a peak of $3,500 per tonne in 2011. This month cocoa is trading around $3,252 per tonne.
In Nigeria this year farmgate prices – the amount Saliu and Adeniyi will make on their beans before they go to the wider market – are around 450,000 naira ($2,779) per tonne – up 50 percent on last year. But that could fall quickly if as predicted a bumper West African crop depresses global prices.
So in an attempt to avoid a cycle of boom and bust, Nigeria is encouraging local processing and manufacturing enterprises.
Samuel Oyebade, head of the government’s cocoa reform plan in its main growing region Ondo State, told Reuters talks were afoot with U.S. chocolate manufacturer SPAGnVOLA to set up a chocolate factory in which the state would invest around 5 billion naira ($31 million) to build, while SPAGnVOLA would manage the production for export and some local consumption.
Nigeria’s beans have been deemed by the global market unsuitable for chocolate because of their high moisture content and so tend to be used more in cake, butter and soaps.
But with expert input from a U.S. chocolate expert their beans could yet make it to premium buyers, for premium prices.
“The industry says cocoa beans from Africa are inferior to those from South America and the Caribbean … (but) it’s how you treat that beans that renders the flavour … every single tree has the potential for producing fine flavour,” SPAGnVOLA Chief Executive Eric said.

www.finabiz..com/2014/09/ebola-affects-bourbons-operations-as.html
The deadly Ebola outbreak in Nigeria is affecting Bourbon SA’s operations, the supplier of ships and crew to energy producers said after reporting that it swung to a loss in the first half partly on industry cost cutting.
“The mobility of our vessels coming from Nigeria has been restricted by some countries,” Bloomberg quoted the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Christian Lefevre, to have told reporters.
“Vessels coming from Nigeria can’t go directly to Cameroon or Ivory Coast”, he said.
While Bourbon has stopped sending vessels to Nigeria for maintenance, there “haven’t been any significant disruptions” to operations, he added.
The company’s Nigerian operations are centered around
the southern oil hub of Port Harcourt. The city recorded its first death from the outbreak on August 22.
Bourbon posted a first-half net loss of €4.8 million ($6.3 million), after a €14.4 million profit a year earlier, as oil companies cut costs, delayed projects and the ship-supply industry suffered from global overcapacity, the Paris-based company said in a statement. It fell 3.4 per cent to €20.96 in Paris.
“The offshore oil and gas business environment is getting tougher for contractors,” an analyst, Raymond James wrote in an e-mailed note to investors.

Bourbon produced an “uninspiring set of results,” the analyst who rated the company ‘Underperform’ wrote.
Its sales, which were up 8.9 percent in the period under review on a “constant” basis, are expected to be at the “lower end” of a full-year growth forecast of eight per cent and 10 percent, Lefevresaid.
“Offshore markets during the first half of 2014 were affected by a slowdown in activity, partly due to cost reductions by oil and gas companies and delays on some projects,” he said in the statement.
The company, which took delivery of 23 vessels in the half to bring its fleet to 500, has sold and leased back ships to reduce debt.
A plan to sell as much as 30 per cent of its supply-vessel fleet will continue through next year, Lefevre said.
The Ebola epidemic in West Africa that has sickened more than 3,000 people may infect 20,000 more and cost at least $490 million to curb, according to a World Health Organisation plan.
THISDAY had reported that the effect of the Ebola virus is gradually taking its toll on businesses in the country as hotel occupancy in Lagos has since dropped by an average of 50 per cent.
Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Financial Derivatives Company Limited (FDC), Mr. Bismarck Rewane who confirmed this, also revealed that in the Ikoyi area of Lagos, total hotel occupancy is currently down from 65 per cent, to about 30 per cent.

www.finabiz..com/2014/09/nigeria-hits-395mmt-installed-capacity.html
The Federal Government has said that owing to its backward integration policy, the country now has an installed capacity of 39.5 million metric tons (mmt) of cement production.
This was made known by President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday at the Line II groundbreaking ceremony of UNICEM cement factory, Mfamosing, Calabar, Cross River State.
The president, who was represented by Vice President Namadi Sambo, noted that the backward integration policy in the cement industry was initiated by the Federal Government in 2002 to meet self-sufficiency in cement production.
He said, “From a paltry 2 million metric tons of cement hitherto produced locally per annum, by 2013, we have achieved 39.5 million metric tons of installed capacity.”
The president described the manufacturing industry as
the backbone of the country’s growth emphasising that government would continue to formulate policies that would galvanize the industry.
According to the president, to tackle the challenges being faced by industries in Cross River State, the 550 megawatts Calabar power plant would soon be commissioned, adding that construction work would soon commence on the rail line leading to Calabar up to Obudu Ranch, while also the dredging of the Calabar River as well as the construction of a deep sea port at Ibaka, among other infrastructural developments, were on top gear.

He, therefore, enjoined cooperation among all stakeholders as this was necessary for progress, saying, “Government will continue to cooperate with the relevant agencies both public and private to champion meaningful projects and ensure steady progress in our communities.”
President Jonathan while commending the management of UNICEM for keying into the transformation agenda, stressed the need to carry along the communities in the area of its operations, saying, “Improving the lives of the people in these communities remains your greatest business asset.

www.finabiz..com/2014/09/power-generation-hits-4044mw-improves.html
Electricity generation in the country has hit 4,044 megawatts (MW) on account of improved gas supply to generation stations and the rise in the water level at the various hydro power stations typical of the rainy season.
The generation level, according to sources in the power sector, is expected to continue to improve with more gas being supplied and incentives given to gas producers to produce more.
Reacting to the improved power situation, Frank Edozien,special assistant to the minister of power on gas, said the combined efforts of the government and the private sector had led to the current achievement, promising that
the parties involved in the power business would sustain the tempo and improve on it.
Edozien said with the co-operation of Diezani Alison-Madueke, minister of petroleum resources, there had been improved gas supply to the power generation companies.
“The government has put in place short-term measures that would ensure steady power supply to the power plants for the generation of electricity,” he said, adding that this was part of efforts to bring about sustainable gas supply so as to ensure steady power supply.
BusinessDay investigations reveal that the Egbin power plant is now generating 529 MW even though it has capacity for 1,320 MW at full throttle.
Other generation outflows are Sapele 72 MW, Sapele (NIPP) 114 MW, Delta 356 MW, Afam-4 and Afam-5 106 MW,Geregu (Gas) 136 MW, Geregu (NIPP) 200 MW, Olorunsogo (Gas) 198 MW, and Olorunsogo (NIPP) 157 MW.
Others include Omotosho (Gas) 141 MW, Omotosho (NIPP) 86.5 MW, Ihvobor 180 MW, Okpai 467 MW, Afam-6 422 MW, Ibom Power 10 MW, and EAS 19.17 MW.
As for the performance of the hydro power stations, Shiroro currently generates 417 MW, Jebba 440 MW, and Kainji 146.63 MW.

With the recent privatisation of the power sector and ongoing reforms designed to encourage investment in power generation capacity from the existing 6,000 MW installed capacity to 40,000 MW by 2020, demand for gas is expected to grow from 1.8 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) in 2012 to 7.2 bcfd in 2025, equivalent to 11.3 percent increase per annum.
With embedded power generation scheme coming on stream, industry operators are of the view that the government’s aspiration of increasing the electricity generation level far above 20,000 MW within the nearest possible time can be achieved.
Describing embedded generation as very important to the nation’s economic development, Micheal Derus, consul-general of the German Embassy, said Nigeria could benefit tremendously from the initiative when put in place, adding that it could help bridge the gap in terms of electricity supply in the country as it has done in countries like Germany.
He said it was a useful means of dedicating power to high networth customers, state and local governments, respectively.

www.finabiz..com/2014/09/weak-public-finance-lower-oil-exports.html

Nigeria, now Africa’s largest economy, continued its downward trend and fell by seven places to 127th this year on the latest World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Competitiveness report 2014-2015, largely on the back of weakened public finances as a result of lower oil exports.
According to the report, Nigerian institutions remain weak (129th) with insufficiently protected property rights, high corruption, and undue influence.
In addition, the security situation remains dire, with Nigeria ranking 139th out of 144 countries ranked this year.
“Nigeria must continue to upgrade its infrastructure (134th) as well as improve its health and primary education (143rd). Furthermore, the country is
not harnessing the latest technologies for productivity enhancements, as demonstrated by its low rates of ICT penetration,” said the WEF report.
“On the upside, Nigeria benefits from its relatively large market size (33rd), which bears the potential for significant economies of scale; a relatively efficient labour market (40th) driven by its flexibility (20th); and a solid financial market (67th) following its gradual recovery from the 2009 crisis,” it further said.
However, poor availability and affordability of finance in general and the difficulties in obtaining loans in particular (137th) remain an important bottleneck to economic growth, according to the report.
Ahead of the 2015 election cycle, the report says it will be critical to keep the ongoing reform momentum to diversify the economy and increase the country’s long-term competitiveness.
This year’s WEF competitiveness report saw mixed progress for Africa as its two biggest economies, Nigeria and South Africa, both fell on the rankings, although Mauritius, the region’s most competitive economy, rose with a six-place improvement.
Nigeria, at 127th out of 144 countries, dropped seven places this year. South Africa also fell to 56th place this year, while Kenya continued its upward trend from last year and moved up by six places to reach 90th place.
Overall, the report finds that the three most problematic factors for doing business in Nigeria are (in descending order) inadequate supply of infrastructure, corruption and access to financing.
The Global Competitiveness Report’s rankings are based on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), which was introduced by the World Economic Forum in 2004.
Defining competitiveness as the set of institutions, policies and factors that determine the level of productivity of a country, GCI scores are calculated by drawing together country-level data in 12 categories – the “pillars of competitiveness” – to create a comprehensive picture of a country’s economic performance.
The 12 pillars are institutions; infrastructure; macroeconomic environment; health; primary education, higher education and training; goods market efficiency; labour market efficiency; financial market development; technological readiness; market size; business sophistication; and innovation.

www.finabiz..com/2014/09/premier-league-transfer-spending-hits.html
Premier League clubs have spent £835m on new players during the summer transfer window, having broken their previous record of £630m set last year.

Analysis from Deloitte shows that of the money spent, £530m has gone overseas, £240m to Premier League clubs and £65m to Football League teams.

The transfer window closed at 23:00 BST on Monday, 1 September.

It was also the closing transfer deadline day in the English Football League, and in the Scottish leagues.

Dan Jones, partner at Deloitte's Sport Business Group, said: "In a summer where the world's best players were on show at the World Cup we have again seen how Premier League clubs are able to successfully compete on a global stage in terms of attracting talent.

"We continue to see the increased resources that Premier League clubs enjoy, as a result of

improved broadcast deals, translate into investment in players.

"Last season the average Premier League club received over £25m more in central broadcast distributions than they did in 2012/13, which has helped fuel a new record spend this summer."

Manchester United spent £150m on new talent in the window just closed - the highest ever gross spend by a Premier League club.

'Liquidity in market'

Simon Chadwick, professor of sport at Coventry University, said that Uefa's Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules might also be playing a part in the increased spending on transfers.

"It is ironic that we are seeing this spending given that FFP was supposed to bring a measure of caution to club spending," said Prof Chadwick.

"But it may be that clubs were holding back on transfer spending in the past couple of seasons, until they saw clear signs from Uefa about what was acceptable and what was unacceptable.

"The big threats of taking clubs to court or banning them from European competition have not really materialised, and apart from Manchester City and PSG, clubs have pretty much come out of it unscathed."

In addition, he said that the increased spending could be a knock-on effect of major clubs in Europe such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Manchester United paying out large sums for individual players.

They have paid, respectively, £60m, £75m, and £59.7m, for James Rodriguez, Luis Suarez, and Angel Di Maria.

"They have introduced liquidity into the market, which is trickling down across the European leagues. For example, Liverpool have been beneficiaries of the trickle down effect," he said.

www.finabiz..com/2014/08/ecobank-plans-additional-capital-raising.html
Ecobank Nigeria may have begun plans to riase additional capital in order to boost its tier-1 capital. Vanguard gathered that the bank’s total capital adequacy ratio at the end of the first half of 2014 stood at 13.3 per cent.

The additional capital, according to capital market operator, will be a boost as the recent Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) draft guidelines categorised the bank as a systemically important bank.

According to Adesoji Solanke of Renaissance Capital, “Considering the Central Bank of Nigeria’ (CBN’s) preference for tier-1 capital for a bank of this scale, we think the subsidiary needs a tier-1 capital injection.”

The subsidiary of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) recently raised $250 million in tier-2 capital, thereby lifting its Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) to 16.5 per cent.

It was gathered that

the management of ETI expects to invest a portion of the Nedbank top-up into its Nigeria operations to boost capitalisation level

Group Chief Executive, ETI, Albert Essien, said recently that Ecobank expects South Africa’s Nedbank to convert a $285 million loan to shares in the Lome-based bank before the end of the year.

He was confident that Nedbank would exercise the conversion option and also top up the conversion amount with $206 million to give it a 20 per cent stake in Ecobank.

After the Nedbank deal, Ecobank expects its capital adequacy ratio to hit 18.7 per cent of assets by year-end, up from the 17.5 per cent it was in the first six months of the year.

“The Nedbank stake is capped at 20 per cent. If they do convert, I think that will strengthen the business relationship that we have (had) since 2008,” Essien said. He added that: “The conversion will trigger reciprocal board seats. We see it as very positive and we expect that it will happen.”

www.finabiz..com/2014/08/who-withdraws-staff-from-sierra-leone.html
The World Health Organization has withdrawn staff from a laboratory testing for Ebola at Kailahun in eastern Sierra Leone after one of its medical workers there was infected during the worst ever outbreak of the disease, a WHO spokesperson said.
“It’s a temporary measure to take care of the welfare of our remaining workers,” WHO spokesperson Christy Feig told Reuters. “After our assessment, they will return.”
The WHO has sent nearly
400 people from its own staff and partner organisations to fight the outbreak in West Africa. It said on Sunday that a foreign health worker it had deployed in Sierra Leone had been infected.

www.finabiz..com/2014/08/poor-petroleum-contributions-may.html
Analysts at FBN Capital Limited have bemoaned the negative correlation between Nigeria’s oil output and economic development, saying the oil sector has contributed negatively to the growth of the Nigerian economy.
They also dismissed hopes for any improvement, saying, “Given the seeming indifference of the executive and legislature to these constraints, we do not assume a recovery in the sector ahead of the elections.”
The analysts in their Economic Report for June 2014, stated that the oil sector share of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP, contracted by an average of 0.8 per cent year-on-year, in the past eight quarters.
This, they said, is in contrast to the telecommunications and post, building and construction, hotels and restaurants, solid minerals, and real estate, which achieved double-digit growth in third quarter 2013.
The analysts,
Gregory Kronsten and Chinwendu Egwim, also blamed the declining fortune of the oil and gas sector on faltering production, arising from reduced investment and leakages.
According to them, underinvestment by the joint ventures, the vacuum created by the non-passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, and the steep increase in production leakages/theft since 2013, have all contributed to the disappointing oil performance.
The analysts linked the oil sector with a number of weaknesses in Nigeria’s fiscal policy. They said, “Oil continues to generate a dangerously high proportion of Federal government revenue and of foreign-exchange inflows. Oil accounted for 76 per cent of federally collected revenues in 2012 and a provisional 70 per cent in 2013.
“The collection of dues from the non-oil economy is constrained by overly generous tax exemptions, inadequate pay for the officials and a poor culture of paying tax in the population at large.
“Another weakness of fiscal policy is the inclusion of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC in the federal budget. The corporation cannot always meet its obligations to its joint venture partners (cash calls) because of delays in disbursements from the federation account. The arrangement also does not enhance accountability.
“We have already noted that the version of the PIB currently before the National Assembly does not change the financing arrangements for the corporation other than at the margins.”
In the long term, the analysts further stated that Nigeria can reduce its appetite for imports without sacrificing its dash for growth, adding that the country could make some inroads into its import bill by finally scrapping petrol subsidies and encouraging investments in refining.
In addition, Mr. Bismark Rewane, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Financial Derivatives Company Limited, projected that oil export will remain the major source of revenue for Nigeria in the months ahead.
Rewane, in his monthly economic news and views, lamented the continued pilfering of Nigeria’s crude, noting, however, dwindling Nigerian shipments to the U.S. imply that disruptions to Nigeria’s oil supplies are unlikely to trigger oil price rallies.
Despite claims of improved refining capacity in the country, he disclosed that Nigeria still imports about 50 per cent of its refined products from the United States.
On the outlook for August, Rewane stated that stock market sentiment will remain tepid pushing stock prices down, while slow external reserves replenishment will continue to $41 billion.

Vanguard

www.finabiz..com/2014/08/ebola-virus-hand-sanitisers-turn-gold.html
Since the death of the Nigerian nurse, who was among those who attended to the Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer, who brought Ebola virus to Nigeria from Liberia, panic-stricken Nigerians have resorted to ways of preventing the killer virus.
One of these, among others, is the use of hand sanitisers after health authorities advised that Nigerians should maintain hygienic lifestyle, including washing of hands frequently, to prevent the disease. Following this, the prices of hand sanitisers have gone up astronomically as people are in mad rush for the products.
There are 10 confirmed cases of Ebola disease in Nigeria while about 177 people who may have come into contact with the virus are being monitored or isolated in Lagos, health minister, Onyebuchi Chukwu, said on Monday.
The death toll from the highly contagious Ebola disease has
climbed to 1,013 since it was discovered in Guinea in February, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Antibacterial hand sanitisers are marketed to the public as an effective way to “wash one’s hands” when traditional soap and water are not available.
Uche, a supervisor at GVS supermarket located at Amuwo Odofin, said that Lagosians were in mad rush for hand sanitisers. According to him, “In the section currently, we have run out of stock especially Dettol hand sanitiser and the supplier says it is not in the market now.”
Benedicta Dickson, a supervisor at Leadmart supermarket in Festac, revealed that Lagosians have been patronising the shopping mall for hand sanitisers. Benedicta said, “For now they have Dettol which sells for N1050, 50ml as against N950 or N1000 in some other shops, Germ free sells for N980, 60ml while 250ml sells for N2900. The Lovillea jelly cologne (small size) is N420 while the big size sells for N500. Forever Living Product of hand sanitiser sells for N2500.”
Patience Ugwu, a front desk attendant at CareForte Pharmacy at Apapa, noted that the demand for hand sanitiser is on the rise.
At GB store in Ejigbo, Lagos and adjoining pharmacy the same story was relayed to BusinessDay.
At JustRite megastores, Otta, Ogun State, the attendants said the products are unavailable because people came in droves to buy out their stock.
In Benin, some pharmaceutical stores have run out of the product thereby necessitating those that are in need to ask for the product outside the state capital.
A visit to Zero Pharmaceutical Stores along Airport Road in Benin shows that the Dettol brand of instant hand sanitiser has gone out of stock while only few bottles of Temizleme Jeli brand were available in the stores.
A source at the pharmaceutical store said the product has suddenly become a fast moving consumer good following the introduction of Ebola virus into the country.
According to him, “We just finished the sales of the ones we have in stock few days ago. A bottle of Dettol brand was sold at N450. But just yesterday we bought this new brand called Temizleme Jeli instant hand sanitiser. The cost is N800 and we finished selling about two out of the three cartons we bought.”
In some major supermarkets and pharmacies in Abuja, according to an online newswire, the products are either unavailable or their prices have gone up.
At a popular supermarket and pharmacy, H-Medix, at Wuse 2, there were no hand sanitisers as at the time of visit. “We don’t have hand sanitisers now. The products are scarce. The demand for them is very high now. You know it is because of this Ebola thing,” one of the store attendants said.
“Before, the price of some of the hand sanitisers we sell was about N300, but now we sell the small bottle for N500.” At the Amigo supermarket, which is in the same axis as H-Medix, the products were also unavailable. An attendant said: “Hand sanitisers are scarce now, but we will have the products soon. One small bottle is N650 now; before, it was N350. Demand determines the price.”
The hand sanitiser scarcity is as a result of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Federal Ministry of Health’s advice on sanitary regulations as one of the preventive measures of the EVD should soap for frequent hand washing not be available.
Onyebuchi Chukwu, minister of health, said that hand sanitiser does not kill bacteria or viruses but makes the human hand inhospitable to them.

www.finabiz..com/2014/07/why-fuel-subsidy-must-go-nnpc.html
The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has said the only way to encourage investors to build more refineries in the country, is to create favourable business environment through deregulation of the downstream sector.
The Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mr. Andrew Yakubu, made the remarks while speaking at a capacity building workshop for energy journalists in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital.
He noted that the current business environment in the sector was not conducive enough to attract investors because there was no guarantee investors would make returns that are commensurate with the investments.
According to him, “the media occupy a very important position in the scheme of things in Nigeria. In fact, globally, the media are part of every nation’s development process, provide the barometer to monitor and ensure that laid down procedures and processes are adhered to in every sector.
“The oil and gas sector therefore is
not left out. The challenges are often misconstrued. However, being a major drive of the nation’s economy and contributing to more than 90% of the country’s foreign exchange; Nigerians have to contend with issues that daily emanate from us.
“There are a lot of challenges in the sector that are often misconstrued and leave room for distortions of information, therefore the workshop is organised to ensure a better understanding of the sector.”
The GMD noted that, “in line with the Federal Government’s aspiration to transform the industry and especially the NNPC into an integrated oil and gas company, on assumption of office, we evaluated the situation of the sector and set out strategies to improve crude oil production.
“It is pertinent to note that Nigeria’s production and export is dependent on four main crude export pipelines – the Trans Forcados pipeline to the west, the Ogbanbiri/Temidaba/Brass pipelines in the centre, the Trans Niger pipeline, and Nembe Creek trunk line to the east respectively.
“When these pipelines are compromised and vandalised, over 500,000 barrels of oil per day are potentially at risk. Being able to produce over 2.3 billion barrels per day in the current challenging environment can be regarded as a big feet itself.
“Consequently, the Federal Government had to intervene with the setting up of a Committee consisting members of the Economic Committee. With the help of the Committee, production increased slightly last year and is currently ramping up. We hope to see further improvement by year end.
“Interestingly, the period saw improvement in the performance of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Limited, the NNPC’s flagship exploration and production subsidiary.
“As of today, NPDC is proudly the fifth largest producer of crude oil as well as the leading gas supplier in the country.

www.finabiz..com/2014/07/sale-of-nitelmtel-assets-gears-up-as.html
The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has absolved itself of owing the Federal Government the sum of $218 million oil revenue.
The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mr Andrew Yakubu, said this while fielded questions from journalists at the workshop organised for Energy Reporters in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
The denial followed a directive by Senate to return the said amount to government.
In this regard, Yakubu said the Corporation will continue to engage the National Assembly over the non-remittance of funds to the Federation Account.
“We will continue to talk and see may be by and large they will have a change of mind,” he said.
Recall that the Senate had on Thursday, during the presentation of the Finance Committee report,
chaired by Senator Ahmed Makarfi, asked NNPC to remit to the Federation Account the sum of $218,069 million.
The sum was part of the unremitted $49.8 billion from oil sale proceeds by the NNPC for the removal of fuel subsidy alleged by the former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.
The Senate, while deliberating on the report, therefore ordered the Corporation to refund to the Federation Account about $218.069 million being the share from third party financing agreement it did not remit.
But in a swift response, Yakubu said that the Corporation would continue to engage the National Assembly on the allegation and resolutions, as the money in question was spent on operations to avert fuel crisis in the country.
He explained that the Corporation engaged in business ventures that necessitated the spending of the money, saying, “we will collect the report, we will look at it again and we will continue to explain.”
“It is left for them to judge. I am an accused. I cannot be a Judge in my case. Should I be punished for doing the right things?
“We will continue to talk to see may be by and large they will have a change of mind on any wrong doing.
“If you are to go into a profit making venture you must operate within the business environment that will enable you to make that profit. So, if you create a pricing template that does not take into cognizance some of the challenges that are faced, by virtue of the operating environment that is difficult.
“We have had challenges in Arepo, you know very well that any time that line is breached I cannot use that line, I have vessels and I am made to understand that to avert energy crisis in the country I must have strategic storage. I don’t have access to my onshore facilities, I don’t have access to my pipeline, so I have offshore storage facility, that is not reflected in the pricing template and when PPPRA is reconciling with me, they use their template”
“What we are simply saying is that if we have to do this job, this is the real and true situation of things. Senate in their wisdom looked at it and said well if it is not captured in their template, we don’t care. The question is if i did not do it last year, I don’t think I will be here to talk to you. The same Senate will summon me and ask me why there is no fuel, the only person that can do that is a magician.
“It is left for them to judge, I am the accused and not the judge. If I stated clearly that we incurred so much and is verifiable, it is there, scientific but if because of certain parameters fine, we will continue to engage to make these facts clear and let’s know, should I be punished for being the supplier of last resort?.
“Other players, if they are beaten, they stop importation, they come to us. If we decide to withdraw our strategic storage, we know what the consequences are. We cannot withstand any energy crisis in the crisis, it is not the best.”

Click here www.finabiz..com/2014/07/low-investment-poor-maintenance.html
Cumulative low investment and poor maintenance of national social and economic infrastructure over the years are responsible for the deficit in urban infrastructure estimated to run into trillions of naira, experts have said.
The experts add that rapid urbanisation, urban sprawl and poor governance traits, such as lack of transparency and accountability as well as massive corruption have deprived the country’s urban areas of the much needed hard and soft infrastructure, noting that this has
impacted negatively on economic growth, hampered progress and prosperity as well as impoverished the people.
Adegoke Akinbamide Omobayo of Osun State College of Technology, Esa-Oke, who stated this at a forum, also said that poor infrastructure has deprived most urban dwellers of access to the economic network of the city with the attendant urbanisation of poverty.
BusinessDay had earlier reported that infrastructure deficit in Nigeria puts 15 percent additional burden on the cost of doing business in the country.
Obiageli Ezekwesili, former minister of education, who made this revelation at a conference, also states that Nigeria requires sustained expenditure of almost $14.2 billion per year over the next decade, or about 12 percent of its GDP, to close this gap.
“The country also needs to spend about $10.5 billion to fix federal infrastructure alone, especially power, as against its current expenditure of about $5.9 billion per year on federal infrastructure which is equivalent to about 5 percent of its GDP”, she said.
Omobayo explained that urbanisation of poverty resulted from urban infrastructural deficit particularly electricity, transportation, telecommunication as well as water and sanitation facilities.
“Electricity supply in particular has sent many urban dwellers out of jobs, particularly artisans such as electricians, iron benders, hair dressers, fashion designers (tailors), among others, who largely depend on electricity and cannot afford the cost of generating sets”, he said.
Continuing, he said, “This has resulted in increased unemployment, underemployment and joblessness; thus, the widespread poverty in the urban areas is casting a shadow of doubt over the promise of good life cities hold for human race when they first emerged”.

Click here www.finabiz..com/2014/07/fifa-threatens-to-sanction-nigeria-over.html
Football’s world governing body has given Nigeria’s government until 8 July to reinstate the sacked Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) executive committee.
The NFF was dissolved on Thursday and replaced by a sole administrator – a move the government said was essential while legal proceedings against the country’s football authority were ongoing.
The situation was compounded 24 hours later when the NFF president, Aminu Maigari, was arrested upon his return from the World Cup. All this comes in the wake of a
high court ruling which granted ‘an interlocutory injunction’ to suspend Maigari, his executive committee and the NFF congress.
FIFA, however, has taken a dim view of the development and warned that Nigeria risked suspension if the sacked officials are not reinstated. FIFA-logo Under Fifa statutes, national football associations must not be subject to government control. FIFA has issued a strict warning to Nigeria to comply with the rules or face suspension.
“FIFA has also taken note of the detention of NFF President Aminu Maigari carried out by representatives of the Department of the State Security Service,” the Zurich-based governing body said in a statement.
The statement went on: “FIFA will not recognise any person or organ not elected in compliance with the NFF statutes (article 17, par 2 and 3 of the FIFA Statutes) and therefore it will not consider the appointment made by the Minister of Sports. An elective Congress has been duly convened by the NFF for 26 August 2014 and only decisions and persons elected then will be considered legitimate.
“FIFA is also aware that the Minister of Sport has appointed an assistant director to take charge of the NFF. It is alleged that the members of the NFF have been convened to attend an Extraordinary Congress on 5 July 2014 in Abuja.
“FIFA has reminded the NFF that all FIFA member associations have to manage their affairs independently and without influence of any third parties as clearly stipulated in articles 13, par. 1 and 17, par. 1 of the FIFA Statutes. The above mentioned actions are preventing the NFF from managing its affairs independently and are considered by FIFA as undue interference in the NFF affairs.
“The NFF has been asked to relay FIFA’s position to the relevant authorities and inform them that if the aforementioned NFF officials are not fully reinstated by Tuesday 8 July 2014 the case will be referred to the appropriate FIFA bodies for sanctions, including the potential suspension of the NFF.” Fifa rules protect its members from government interference, and a suspension bars teams and officials from taking part in international matches and meetings.

www.dreamboytobi..com/2014/01/apples-new-mac-pro.html
The new Mac Pro is an insanely powerful, expensive computer ($3,000 and up — way up). It’s designed for high-end tasks: video, photo and music editing, for example. Medical work. Scientific simulations. Designers who want to connect five or six screens.

And it has the most Applish design Apple has ever done. It’s an out-there, controversial, very brave trashing of everything we ever knew about desktop computer shapes.

It’s not beige. It’s not plastic. It’s not even

rectangular. Instead, it’s a small, silvery-black aluminum cylinder, about 10 inches tall and 6½ inches across, completely featureless except for a panel of connectors on the back.

Ask people what they think this futuristic-looking object is, and you’ll hear a lot of “ashtray,” “vase,” “trash can” and “espresso machine.” Occasionally: “the love child of Darth Vader and R2-D2.”

In the typical obsessive Apple fashion, this computer doesn’t even have a power brick; the power transformer is concealed inside for sleeker looks. All that snakes out to the wall outlet is a single black cord. (It’s worth noting, too, that this computer is manufactured in the United States. No worries about Chinese sweatshops.)

With the slide of a lock switch on the back, you can lift the shell off of the Mac Pro, revealing the crazy sci-fi guts inside (and making it easy to install more memory).

The labels for the connectors glow white for a few seconds when you move the computer — a lovely, helpful touch, especially in a dimly lit video-editing suite.

But come on: a cylinder! That’s so Apple, isn’t it? This is, after all, the company that made a transparent computer (the iMac), a computer with no keys (the iPad) and a phone with hardly any buttons.

Sometimes, Apple’s radical designs come at the expense of usability. You know, like how the MacBook Air laptop is astonishingly thin — but doesn’t let you insert a DVD or swap batteries.

That, then, is the question on the Mac Pro: Is it so artsy that it’s less useful?

In some ways, the compact, stunning cylinder is a huge improvement on the hulking, 20-inch-tall, 40-pound design of the previous Mac Pro model. The new one is desktoppable and one-hand carryable. And the cylindrical design creates an efficient chimney effect that keeps the circuitry cool but amazingly silent. (There’s only one fan — not eight, as in the old Mac Pro — and you really have to strain to hear it.)

On the other hand, the whole point of the Mac Pro has always been expandability. The old Mac Pro’s cavernous interior could accommodate added hard drives, optical drives, expansion cards and so on.

But in its embrace of the cylinder, Apple has turned its Pro computer inside out. There’s no room for anything new inside. You can’t insert a hard drive, a circuit board or a DVD burner.

You can add all of those components — externally — if they have Thunderbolt connectors. Those are tiny jacks, incredibly fast, wildly versatile; the Mac Pro has six of them. Unfortunately, there aren’t many Thunderbolt gadgets yet. (This directory lists about 150 of them, in all the usual categories — storage, video capture, chassis that can hold specialized cards, multichannel audio boxes and so on.)

So is that it, then? Apple expects you to buy the world’s most breathtaking, compact workstation and then surround it with a tangle of mismatched, cluttery, external peripherals?

Apple says that misses the point. The world is changing, it says. The “everything crammed into one computer” model is going away. Nowadays, professional creative companies install centralized storage — shared network hard drives tucked away in a server closet somewhere. That arrangement gets the bulk, heat and noise away from you, the creative genius.

Apple also points out that the old Mac Pro had room for four hard drives, two DVD drives and four expansion cards, but those were arbitrary numbers. It was far too much wasted capacity for some people, not enough for others (like video editors who need many terabytes of storage). In response, Apple designed the new Mac Pro to be only the brain, with all of its organs external, so that you can build precisely the system you need.

You might buy those arguments; you might not. And even if you agree with Apple’s assertion that external expansion is the future, you might not like it. It might mean replacing a lot of gear you’ve already invested in, or finding adapters that accommodate their new, external status.

It all boils down to whether you need what the Mac Pro offers: ridiculous horsepower. You can read all about it here, but the point is that every wire, every circuit, every chip has been designed for speed. Intel’s new Xeon processors. Up to 64 gigabytes of memory. Four USB 3.0 jacks. Two gigabit Ethernet jacks (you can connect to two office networks at once). An HDMI jack so you can connect a TV directly (a big deal for video editors).

No SD memory-card slot, though. No traditional spinning hard drive, either. Instead, the main “hard drive” is made of flash memory, of the sort inside MacBook Airs, tablets and phones. Saving files and opening them are ridiculously fast — this flash drive is 10 times faster than most hard drives. But even if you max it out to 1 terabyte ($800 more), that’s not much storage for video editors; again, external storage is going to be part of your future.

The Mac Pro’s ace in the hole is two top-of-the-line graphics cards. In the olden days, these circuit boards were dedicated to the task of displaying images on your screens. Now, though, they’re screamingly fast computers in their own right — and the Mac Pro is designed to assign them some of the work the main processing chip would normally do. Many hands make light work, you know.

So it must come as a shock to learn that the Mac Pro isn’t especially fast at many everyday tasks.

Macworld’s benchmark testing found that the new Mac Pro is actually slower than an ordinary iMac in iMovie, iTunes, Aperture, Parallels and the desktop.

Yet in tests of high-end, data-crunchy apps like Final Cut Pro X, Photoshop, iPhoto, HandBrake and Mathematica, the Mac Pro was faster than any Mac ever tested. These, of course, are precisely the kinds of programs that professionals use. For them, time is money, and the Mac Pro can save both.

In fact, the latest Final Cut version, 10.1, has been specially rejiggered to exploit the Mac Pro and its dual graphics cards. Apple says that it can manipulate and process 4K video — a new standard of video with four times the picture resolution of HDTV — fluidly and easily, without stuttering or lagging. I tried that, using a drive full of 4K video footage, and it turns out to be true. (A MacBook, on the other hand, can’t handle that 4K footage without gasping.)

You’ll be encouraged to buy a 4K TV in the next couple of years, but I’m not sold on it; when you sit at a normal viewing distance from your TV, the additional resolution is invisible to your eye. 4K may fizzle just the way 3D TV did.

But that’s just it: The Mac Pro, in every possible way, is a bet on the future.

Apple watchers should be used to this routine: Apple predicts a change in the technological tide, builds computers accordingly and enrages the masses who’ll have to adapt to (and pay for) the new ways of doing things. (See also: the time Apple eliminated dial-up modems, the time it killed off floppy drives and the time it eliminated DVD drives.)

But here’s the really maddening part: Apple almost always turns out to be right.

True, maybe those tech trends come about, or at least get accelerated, because Apple throws its weight behind them.

To justify buying a Mac Pro, it helps to have a job that calls for the Mac Pro’s kind of horsepower — like 4K video editing. And to have software that exploits its multicore processor and those high-speed graphics processors. And to have add-ons with Thunderbolt connectors. And to work at a company that uses centralized storage.

Fortunately, all of that will start coming faster now. That is, the future imagined by the Mac Pro will arrive sooner because of the Mac Pro. In the end, the Mac Pro isn’t just a shiny cylinder that’s built for the future; it’s also a nifty bit of self-fulfilling prophecy.

The NOIPolls Limited, on Tuesday, released a report of its monthly governance poll which revealed that 40 percent of the participants approved of President Goodluck Jonathan’s performance over the past month.

In comparison to the performance poll results from November 2013, these results showed a 10-point decline in Jonathan’s approval rating and was also his lowest in 2013.

Other results from the findings revealed a five-point decline in the current administration’s (the executive cabinet, ministers and state governors) rating and an eight-point increase in the number of Nigerians who had experienced some improvements in power supply (26% in November to 34% in December, 2013).

Participants in the survey were asked three questions:

1. Do you approve or disapprove of the performance of President Jonathan in the past one month?

40 percent of the participants approved of his performance, 29 percent disapproved and 31 percent were neutral, neither approving nor disapproving. The results showed a 10-point decline from the president’s November approval rating (50%) and a seven-point increase in those who disapproved of his performance from the November rating (22%).

Results based on geopolitical zones

The South East zone, with 58 percent, had the highest number of participants who approved of the president’s performance. The North West (40%), North East (38%) and South West (35%) zones had the highest number of participants who disapproved of the president’s performance in December.

“Evaluating the President’s rating over the year 2013 reveals that the President obtained the highest approval ratings for his performance in August (57%), followed by October (55%) and February (54%).

“On the other hand, the President received the lowest approval ratings in the months of December (40%) and April (42%) 2013.

“Furthermore, analyses using quarterly averages reveal that the 3rd quarter of 2013 with an average of 53% was the President’s best quarter in terms of approval ratings; while the 2nd quarter with an average of 43% was the worst quarter in terms of the President’s approval rating.

“The year round average approval rating in 2013 was 49%,” the report stated.

2. How would you rate the performance of this current administration in the past 1 month?

43 percent of the participants believed that the administration had performed averagely in December. 25 percent felt they performed well and 32 percent felt that they had performed poorly.

Results based on geopolitical zones

The North Central and South West zones, with 47 percent each, had the highest number of participants who rated the administration’s performance averagely.

The North East zone (45%) had the highest number of participants who rated the administration poorly and the South East zone (40%) had the highest number of participants who believed that the administration had performed well.

According to the report, these results showed, “a 5-point decline in the proportion of Nigerians that approve of the performance of the current administration from November (30%) to December (25%).

“Comparable to the President’s approval rating, the current administration also received its highest approval rating in August (35%); while its lowest rating was in April (16%).

“Analyses using quarterly averages reveal that the best quarter for the current administration was the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2013 with an average rating of 29% each and the worst quarter for the current administration was the 2nd quarter with an average approval rating of 20%.

“Comparing this to the quarterly analysis for the President’s ratings, both ratings mirror each other, 2nd quarter was the worst quarter for both as the 3rd was the best for both.

“This mirrors the perceptions that both ratings are closely linked to each other, if ratings are high for the President, it reflects on his Cabinet and vice versa.

“The average quarterly rating of the current administration for 2013 was 25%.”

3. How would you describe power in your area in the past 1 month?

34 percent of the participants said they had noticed slight improvements in their power supply over the past month. 29 percent said their power supply had remained bad, 21 percent said there was no difference and 16 percent said it had gotten worse.

Results based on geopolitical zones

The South East zone, with 46 percent, had the highest number of participants who had experienced improved power supply. The North Central zone (29%) had the highest number of participants who had experienced no change in their power supply. The North West zone (36%) had the highest number of participants whose power supply had remained bad and the North East zone (23%) had the highest number of participants who said power supply had gotten worse over the past month

According to the report, “Trend analysis of the Power supply in Nigeria over 2013 reveals an 8-point increase in the proportion of Nigerians that noticed an improvement in December. Furthermore, the highest power rating in Nigeria was recorded in January 2013 (47%) the while the lowest power rating was observed in November (26%).

“Quarterly analysis of 2013 shows that power supply was best over the 1st quarter with an average of 41%, and worst over the 2nd and 4th quarters with an average of 33% each. The worst quarter in terms of power supply ratings mirrors the lowest rating for the President and current administration.

“Indeed previous Governance Poll releases had suggested a loose relationship between power supply and the perception of Nigerians about the performance of the President and his administration.”
www.dreamboytobi..com/2014/01/jonathans-performance-rating-declines.html

The Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited (NLNG) has lost about $10 billion in revenue to delays in the execution of NLNG ‘Train 7’ projects.

The project which was to have been completed about four years ago was capable of earning the nation about $2.5 billion per annum and drastically reducing the level of gas flaring in the Niger Delta.

This was disclosed in Bonny, Rivers state yesterday, by the management of the company, during the inauguration of NLNG’s 3,000th cargo which was scheduled to leave for Turkey.

Making a presentation during the inauguration, Joseph Alagoa manager,technical services, who represented Babs Omotowa,managing director of NLNG, stated that

the contractual agreement entered into with those that intend to buy the product from Train 7 had been extended by one year.

On the company’s strategy to mitigate the effects of Shale gas and other major gas discoveries in Africa, Alagoa explained that the company has repositioned itself to meet these challenges in order to maintain a fair share of the world market of LNG.

He said the company which is one of the leading suppliers of LNG in the world has taken proactive steps by moving from Europe, its traditional market, to other places like Asia.

He admitted that Shale gas is global but added that the demand for LNG still outstripped supply in the world market today.

Alagoa said the company has now found markets in China , Japan Malasyia and even India, where the product is also in high demand.He said Japan which now controls 22 per cent of world demand of LNG is major customer of the NLNG, following the nuclear power plant accident of the 2012. This is followed by Europe which mostly uses the product for its power plants and industries.

The company also explained that it is selling Liquefied Petroleum Gas(LPG) otherwise known as cooking gas to local companies at the international prices, to offset its transportation and other logistics costs.

With a networth of more than $24 billion, Nigeria LNG Limited remains the single biggest private sector investment in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“We are proud to note that the investment, since the commencement of full operations in 1999, generated over $53 billion dollars to its shareholders within the first ten years. The Federal Government also earned more than $9 billion as dividends during the period”, he said.

Alagos said that before the commencement of operations, 75 percent of the 2.6 billion cubic feet of associated gas produced by oil companies operating in Nigeria was flared. This trend, he said has changed, as NLNG Limited currently converts over four trillion cubic feet of associated gas to liquefied natural gas (LNG) and natural gas liquids (NGLs) for export and domestic uses.

He said that in doing this, the company has positively impacted on the country’s gas flaring status, helping to improve the environment, whilst converting a previously wasted resource into wealth for the nation.

He said yesterday’s 3000th LNG cargo would be delivered on January 19, 2014, to BOTAS in Turkey, by one of its vessels, the LNG Lokoja. “We believe it must not go un-noticed that this vessel is manned by a workforce which is about 95% Nigerian, in line with our aggressive pursuit of technology transfer and our Nigerianisation policy”.

He added that part of the next phase of the company’s growth programme would be the addition of a seventh train to the existing sixth train NLNG infrastructure. When achieved, this will enable NLNG add some eight million metric tonnes to its current production capacity, and increase annual output to 30 million metric tonnes.
Check www.dreamboytobi..com
Source: BusinessDay