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United Bank for
Africa (UBA) said on Thursday it was making a provision of 50 million
naira for monthly losses in Cote d’Ivoire but planned to start resuming
operations there from May 2.

Foreign banks including UBA suspended operations in Cote d’Ivoire
earlier this year due to a bloody power struggle that ended with the
arrest on Monday of Laurent Gbagbo, who refused to step down after
losing a November election.

Royal Dutch Shell
said on Thursday it had resumed production at its Nigerian Bonga
offshore oil and gas facility after routine maintenance which started
in February.

Bonga has a
nameplate oil production capacity of more than 200,000 barrels per day
(bpd) — around 10 percent of total Nigerian output — but produces
less. It also has the capacity to produce 150 million cubic feet per
day of gas.

“Production will be gradually ramped up over the coming weeks,” the company said in a statement quoted by Reuters.

Bonga crude exports were expected to rise steadily to around 130,000
bpd in April and 155,000 bpd in May, from 32,000 bpd in March,
according to loading programmes.

Uncomfortably high
oil prices, unsustainable sovereign debt burdens, and Japan’s uncertain
future cloud the global economic outlook, as world finance leaders
gathered yesterday.

Group of Seven
members, who met behind closed doors in the evening, tried to assess
the economic damage from Japan’s earthquake to uprisings in the Arab
world.

“There’s very high
uncertainty about Japan’s outlook,” said Naoyuki Shinohara, deputy
managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

The larger G20 club
of advanced and developing economies held a working dinner later to
push forward a plan for building a more stable global economy less
prone to the booms and busts that have marked the last two decades.

Neither groups is expected to release a statement with the G2O waiting until it wraps up a day-long meeting today.

France chairs the G20 this year.

Military police
fired tear gas on Thursday to disperse a crowd of more than 1,000
marching to the centre of the Ugandan capital, Kampala, in protest
against steep rises in food and fuel prices, Reuters witnesses said.

Opposition leader,
Kizza Besigye, President Yoweri Museveni’s closest rival in February
elections, marched with the demonstrators, who had gathered in a
Kampala suburb and defied police attempts to scatter them before they
reached the city centre.

Opposition and
civil society groups launched their first “walk to work” protest
against steep rises in the cost of living on Monday, but it was swiftly
stifled by police, and opposition leaders were detained.

The groups had vowed to continue protesting every few days and the march on Thursday was their second demonstration.

In the most damning
official U.S. report yet produced on Wall Street’s role in the
financial crisis, a Senate panel accused powerhouse, Goldman Sachs, of
misleading clients and manipulating markets, while also condemning
greed, weak regulation, and conflicts of interest throughout the
financial system.

Carl Levin,
chairman of the Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations, one of
Capitol Hill’s most feared panels, has a history with Goldman Sachs.

He clashed publicly with its Chief Executive, Lloyd Blankfein, a year ago at a hearing on the crisis.

The Democratic
lawmaker again tore into Goldman at a press briefing on his panel’s
639-page report, which is based on a review of tens of millions of
documents over two years.

Mr. Levin accused Goldman of profiting at clients’ expense as the mortgage market crashed in 2007.

The youth segment
is now a major target of brands. Youth have become powerful due to
their adventurous and trend-setting lifestyle. Companies create
strategies aimed at connecting directly with the youth.

The telecom
companies have adopted the music platform as a verifiable channel to
tap enormously into the youth market. Banks have also developed
youth-centric products which are aimed at stimulating and sustaining
the interest of these energetic lot. Some of these products speak the
language and exemplify the dynamic, vibrant, and adventurous lifestyle
of the youth.

The rise of social
media has also redefined the importance of the youth market. The youth
market grows in leaps and bounds and they tend to experiment with
brands that align with their status. I just stumbled on information
that young people in South Africa have a mobile penetration of about 86
per cent. I know the figure can be higher in Nigeria.

With this scenario,
companies need to create strategic youth marketing plans that enable
the brand gain relevance, which translates to building brand equity.
There should be a core brand strategy that focuses on youth.

It is obvious that
any brand that ignores the youth market does so at its own peril. Brand
messages should be tailored to align with the lifestyle, culture, and
aspirations of youth. The social media has become a key tool in
aligning with the culture of youth and brands need to recognise the
impact of social media revolution on the youth.

For any brand to
effectively connect with the youth, it should understand what resonates
with them and what is popular amongst their peers. The concept of wants
and needs cannot be divorced from youth too, as priority should be
given to their needs in order to empower them. They also want brands
that are desirable and trustworthy. The Sprite Triple Slam is hinged on
drama, sports, and music platforms. It showcases the talents and skills
of youth in these areas. Through these platforms, the brand has been
able to connect and bond with youth more.

The truth is that
youth always experiment with different brands, as they are
trendsetters. Any brand that aligns with their culture automatically
wins them over. Messages should be direct and concise, as youth have
short attention span due to the immediacy of the digital world. They
want brands to provide them with up to date, improved services on a
regular basis. When a brand refuses to meet up with their expectations,
they move on to any other brand that satisfies their yearnings.

The role of word of
mouth cannot be underestimated among youth. When a brand satisfies
their yearnings, they ‘mouth’ it to others and it generates influence
and advocacy for the brand. This also underscores the edge of social
media networking amongst youth, as a community is built around this. It
explains why the youth market is seriously pursued by marketers. A
brand is not connecting with today’s youth if it is not social
networking.

Youth are shifting
to social media to connect, network, and influence one another as they
pay attention to online brand messages which appeal more to them.

There should be a
positive connection between brands and youth. There are key messages
that resonate with young people and brands should leverage on such.
When brands connect with youth, they develop long and memorable
relationships.

The world has
indeed become a digital village and the youth have embraced technology
to broadcast their opinion on a global platform. They want their voices
to be heard and they want brands to empower them to do this.

With the marketing
space being crowded, brands that deploy appropriate strategy definitely
engage and retain young consumers. Youth engagement tools should be
adopted to influence youth and their community.

It is also
important that consumer demographics is focused on from concept to
execution stage in the brand communication campaign. This ensures that
the communication approach is relevant with youth lifestyle.

The youth market
has, to a large extent, helped brands to rethink, re-work, and reinvent
their communication strategies to align with the real needs of youth.

Just
as calm seems to be returning to the capital market, a quiet war is
brewing as stockbrokers have kicked against the decision of the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to appoint members into the
council of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

Already,
the NSE council has written to SEC expressing its rejection of the
appointment. A source who was privy to the council meeting on Tuesday
when the appointment was rejected, said members were undivided in their
position.

“It
was an unanimous decision and the council has already written to the
Commission on its position. We are trying to make the Commission see
reasons,” the source said.

SEC
last week muted the idea of allowing the interim administrator and
interim president of the council, Emmanuel Ikhazobor and Balama Manu,
to remain as council members at the expiration of their tenure.

The
duo was appointed by SEC in the wake of the sacking in August of the
former director general of the NSE, Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke. Their tenure
was supposed to end with the assumption of office last week of the new
NSE chief executive officer, Oscar Onyema.

Guiding the new CEO

However,
SEC said its decision to allow its appointees remain on the council was
for them to guide the new CEO until he fully takes charge.

A
statement by SEC’s spokesperson, Lanre Oloyi, stated that the
appointment was to speed up the ongoing restructuring process and
prepare the Exchange for eventual demutualisation, which would allow
its shares to be listed and traded.

According to SEC, all its nominated members shall be on the Council pending the election of a new council.

“We
expect the restructuring exercise to be quickly concluded so that
elections can be conducted to establish a new council. We are hopeful
that by that time all the cases in court would have been disposed of,
so as to allow the interim president to conduct elections without any
legal impediment,” the commission said.

SEC
said it derived its powers from Section 35 (1) of the Investment and
Securities Act 2007 which states, “The Commission may, where it deems
appropriate, issue directives to a securities exchange, capital trade
point, or any other self regulatory organisation.”

No interference

The
source, however, said the section does not clearly state that the
Commission can make such appointments and thus interfere in the running
of the Stock Exchange.

“That
section only deals with market operations and not governance issues.
What the stockbrokers are saying is that the memorandum and article of
association (MEMART) establishing the Stock Exchange does not provide
for SEC to appoint members to council.”

On
the position of the Commission now that stockbrokers are challenging
its position, Mr. Oloyi said this was a temporary arrangement.

“This
is just an interim arrangement. We have only asked that the Exchange
should consider public interest in constituting membership of the
council.”

He
said the outgoing interim administrator has one month to fully handover
to the new CEO, after which he will serve as deputy to the interim
president.

“This
transitional arrangement is until a new council is properly constituted
by the Stock Exchange. I cannot tell you how long this will take. You
know there are a lot of cases in court,” Mr. Oloyi added.

He said SEC was committed to building a vibrant capital market that would be of benefit to the entire economy.

A new national
identity registration would begin after the elections, the National
Identity Management Commission, said on Wednesday, after the initial
efforts by the federal government years ago could not yield the desired
results.

Chris Onyemenam,
the Director General, National Identity Management Commission, the
guest speaker at the April edition of Information Value Chain Breakfast
Forum, stated this at a monthly breakfast forum organised by Digital
Jewels Limited. He said registration had already begun in Lagos and
Abuja.

In his
presentation, titled ‘The National Identity Management Scheme:
e-Commerce catalyst or encumbrance’, Mr Onyemenam spoke on the gravity
of challenges in identity management in Nigeria, and how the commission
plans to tackle the encumbrances and restore sanity in the nation’s
identity sector.

The botched project

Over eight years
ago, the contract for the implementation of the national identity card
scheme was awarded to SAGEM of France. However, the contract, which was
laden with alleged bribery scandals, did not yield the results
Nigerians expected because years after the registration, majority of
Nigerians neither had a national card nor numbers with which to be
identified.

In May 2007, the
NIMC Act established the commission and provided the legal framework
for the reforms in the sector. The reform mandate includes collecting
basic demographic and biometric data, creating, operating and managing
a National Identity Database, providing an on-line/off line cost
effective verification and authentication infrastructure in Nigeria,
integrating with ID schemes, providing standardized identity attributes
and fostering the orderly development of an identity sector in Nigeria.

“As e-commerce
catalyst, identity management has several benefits to the economy,”
said Mr Onyemenam. “These include streamlining biometric-linked
projects in the public and privates sector, eliminating multiple and
ghost identities, reducing identity theft and related fraud (advance
fee fraud), enhancing the work of law enforcement agencies, financial
inclusion and development of financial services sector, creating new
economic and employment opportunities, among others.”

The challenges

The challenges
facing the scheme include multiple identification initiatives by
institutions such as the Pension Commission, land registers, Federal
Inland Revenue service, SIM registrars, Law enforcement Agencies,
Financial Institutions, the Independent National Electoral Commission,
Immigrations, Federal Road Safety Corps and several others who have to
embark on their own personal registration and the absence of ‘core’
identity sector infrastructure.

Mr Onyemenam said that identity management is party of the federal
government desire to develop and deepen the consumer credit sector,
facilitate the enforcement of existing/extant laws and meet global
practices, facilitate financial inclusion and development of commerce
generally, harmonization of identification schemes committee in 2005.
“It would help in the enhancement of the consumer credit sector,
governance through e-governance, revenue processes, administration of
social welfare programmes and subsidies, national payment system and
improve standard of life as it would enhance national security among
others,” he said.

The management of
Intercontinental Bank yesterday denied that there was a court order to
seal up its headquarters on Danmole Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Sources however
confirmed that a former employee of the bank secured the order to seal
up the place. Two employees of the bank who work at the headquarters
corroborated that policemen came to the premises to effect the order
but they did not carry out the order after a meeting with the bank’s
management.

At about 4:30pm
yesterday there was a heavy presence of policemen at the bank’s
reception, an indication that something was amiss.

An angry man,
dressed in native attire, was also seen at reception giving orders to
the security officers to close the bank’s entrance door. When
approached and asked why he gave the order, he refused to speak on the
matter. However, it appeared his words had no effect as the officers
left the door open to visitors while staff carried on with their duties.

Eddy Ademosu, the
bank’s spokesperson, claimed that the bank was not aware of any court
order restraining it from carrying out its operation. “Our door is not
locked as you can see,” Mr. Ademosu said, adding, “It is not as if
there are no issues in court relating to shareholders, the bank itself,
or customers’ perceptive, but even issues in court are being resolved
as a responsible organisation.”

According to him,
“If there are issues, it would have been brought to our attention.
Maybe somebody will come tomorrow with a court order — I cannot say,
but as I speak we are not aware of any court injunction.”

He said the heavy presence of security personnel is not new because
“security has always been part of the bank” since the Central Bank
intervention, while he also said the persons giving orders might be
telling the officers to lock the door since it was closing time.