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The Nigeria Customs
Service (NCS) says its main objective in 2011 is to mobilise its
workforce and resources toward surpassing the revenue generation target
achieved in the outgoing year.

Reviewing its
operations in the last quarter of the year, NCS Comptroller General,
Abdullahi Inde Dikko, said in Abuja that the various reforms initiated
in the service’s operational procedures will facilitate the realisation
of a new revenue target of more than N500 billion next year, from N450
billion set for 2010.

“Concrete steps
have been taken to reduce the corruption environment through a mixed
bag of welfare packages, including the approval of 100 percent increase
in the salaries and allowances of all officers and men in the service
to give them the new impetus to work harder to achieve the target,” Mr.
Dikko said.

The service, in its
2010 Annual Report by the Deputy Comptroller (Welfare), Mohammed
Ibrahim, indicated that in the last one and half year improved welfare
package has positively impacted the morale and wellbeing of the
officers, resulting in enhanced performance.

Areas of manifest
impact, Mr. Ibrahim claimed, include insurance, health, housing,
cooperative, pensions and training, as no fewer than 435 retired
officers and relations of about 134 others benefitted from the
insurance policy during the outgoing year.

The policy, which
commenced in 1992, has evolved and expanded into three schemes, with
the first requiring officers to contribute five percent of their annual
salary for a benefit that is three times their annual pay in event of
death, in addition to N80, 000 support for burial expenses. Besides, a
retired officer is entitled to 60 percent of his annual salary, in
addition to an interest payable on his contribution.

Though the NCS is a
self-accounting service, he said it has also initiated a Group Personal
Accident (GPA) policy since 2005, that enables claims of between N2
million and N6 million to be paid to officers who lost their lives in
violent circumstances in their line of duty.

“A premium of N800
million was secured during the year (2010), while claims for more than
40 officers were settled. In 2010, the insurance scheme should cover
assets, marine and aviation,” Mr. Ibrahim said.

Similarly, a
compulsory Group Life Assurance policy, as spelt out under the Pension
Reform Act 2004, entitles an officer to a minimum pay that is thrice
his annual total emolument as death-in-service, payable into his
Retirement Savings Account (RSA).

The NCS has also
been working with the Federal Mortgage Bank for a housing loan scheme
for a monthly contribution of 2.5 percent into the National Housing
Fund (NHF), deductible from individual officers’ monthly salary to
facilitate decent accommodation for officers.

Bank
customers are expectant that service deliveries by banks would improve
in 2011. Seething from a plethora of complaints over banking services
in 2010, many customers spoke on the need for banks to update their
services in the coming year.

Ibrahim Buba, a
Kaduna-based architect and building contractor, said there was need for
banks to modify the modalities for usage of Automated Teller Machines
(ATMs). According to him, some of the machines choose the wrong time to
malfunction while banks insist that amounts below a certain threshold
must be done via the ATM.

“Why should banks charge me for withdrawing from the counter below a certain amount. Is it not my money?”

Mr. Buba said banks should be sensitive to the needs of the Nigerian economy.

“What this economy
needs now is entrepreneurship. Banks must be willing to support young
Nigerians with brilliant business ideas. Otherwise, if they cannot
fulfill this basic function of granting loans to businesses, then there
is no need for banks. I would rather go to a money lender to get funds
to run my business,” he further said.

He said in the New
Year, banks should look at viability of business plans to grant loans
instead of seeking fabulous and fake business proposals which fail
eventually and default in payment.

Improve services

Still on ATM
service, a bank customer who gave his name as Elvis, said banks need to
improve their services in order to reduce the hardship of customers. He
wondered why banks push people to use ATMs, even when ATM services are
not optimal.

“Last weekend, I
had to visit about five banks in my neighbourhood before I could get a
functional ATM to use,” he said. According to him, banks should employ
technology more in order to improve service delivery in 2011.

“We have heard
talks about mobile money for almost forever. Banks should embrace
mobile money technology, since the focus is now on reducing cost,” he
added.

Some customers said
banks do not abide by laid down instructions, thereby costing their
business. Bayo Adeoshun, a brand and marketing communications
consultant, said banks should take customised service as important in
2011. According to him, despite making a request to his bank that that
he should be notified of any third party withdrawal beyond a specified
amount, his bank still goes ahead to pay beyond the amount without
notification.

“This has caused me
embarrassment on a number of occasions. Going forward, I expect banks
to deliver more of specialised service to cater to the needs of their
customers. They should be friendly and reduce the stress that one has
to go through,” Mr. Adeoshun said.

Banking industry challenges

Eddy Ademosu,
president of the Association of Corporate Affairs Managers of Banks
(ACAMB), said the challenges facing the banking industry were not
peculiar to Nigeria alone.

“We appreciate the
complaints, but those complaints must come against the background of
the scenario in the banking industry this year and the challenges the
industry had to contend with. Yes, in some few cases we have had
service issues, non availability of credit,” he said.

He said with the gains that have been achieved with reforms in the banking system, things can only be better.

“Service can be
better and service will be better. A lot of initiatives that the
operators and regulators have put in place will impact on service
delivery. Banks are now talking about shared platform. The moment we
are able to streamline technology, the issues relating to ATM services
will be a thing of the past,” he said.

On access to
credit, he said more credit will be available to businesses from next
year. He said documentation for loans was important before banks can
grant loans.

“Even beyond
collateral, what about character of the customer? Part of the problems
we have in the banking industry today is as a result of default on
loans by the customers themselves.

“Customers may have good business ideas but lack organisational
structure. So, how do you relate with a formal organisation like a
bank?” He queried.

Operators of phone
call centres in Lagos yesterday called on service providers to reduce
tariffs so they, ( the operators) can remain in business.

Some of the
operators who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) said the
business is no longer profitable for them because of high tariffs and
low patronage.

Both Etisalat and Airtel Nigeria have recently reduced their
tariffs. Etisalat to a 25k per second (N15 per min) charge and Airtel
to N20k per second (N12 per min), billing but the operators say this
reduction does not apply to them.

The secretary,
Bwari Area Council, Ali Kawu, said the Bwari/Kawu Road, currently being
constructed, will improve the socio-economic activities of the area.

He told the News
Agency of Nigeria in Bwari on Wednesday that the project, which was
approved by the Federal Executive Council, would transform the area and
facilitate the conduct of elections in 2011.

Mr. Kawu explained
that in the past, election results from the area were usually collated
late because of the difficult terrain in the area.

“It is important to know that there are more than 100 villages along
the road, and 99 percent of the populations are farmers. The project
will also boost agricultural activities,” he said.

The Bauchi State
Fertiliser Blending Company said it will produce about 30,000 tonnes of
fertiliser for farmers in the 2011 cropping season.

The commissioner
for commerce and industry, Ahmed Giade, said that the firm produced
only 5,000 tonnes in 2008, but had been equipped with modern machines
to meet the demands of farmers in the state.

He disclosed that
the state government had also acquired compacting equipment and modern
granulated machines, with their installation at 90 percent completion.

Mr. Giade said the
installation of the equipment was expected to be completed in the first
quarter of 2011. and that the company, expected to be the largest in
West Africa, had substantial reserves of kaolin, giving it a
competitive advantage.

The
high copper price will bring further hefty investment into the sector
in Zambia next year, keeping it on track to produce an annual 1 million
tonnes by 2012, the head of the body representing foreign miners said.

Chamber of Mines of
Zambia president, Nathan Chishimba, said the trend seen in 2010, when
Zambia attracted $2 billion in new mining investments, would continue
and would further benefit from stable tax policies in the southern
African country.

“I think the prospects for mining in Zambia… are very, very bright,” Chishimba told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.

“A high copper
price … permits flexibility by investors to plough back into
improvements in production, improvements in efficiency, and overall
improvement in output.

“We believe these
new projects, once they stabilise, will go a very long way towards
achieving the 1 million tonne mark which we have set for ourselves in
the next two years or so,” he said.

London Metal
Exchange copper rose to a record high of $9,447 a tonne on Wednesday
when trade resumed after the Christmas break, during which U.S. futures
rallied to a top fuelled by a weaker dollar and worries about supply
from Chile.

Metals prices are
expected to follow their own fundamentals during 2011, as emerging
market economies drive ahead and demand recovers in developed nations,
pushing copper above $11,000 a tonne, Goldman Sachs forecast this month.

Chishimba said the
investment of $400 million into a Zambian copper project by Brazil’s
Vale, the world’s top iron ore miner, was a vote of confidence in
Zambia’s mining sector, which is the largest copper producer in Africa.

Finance minister,
Situmbeko Musokotwane, said in November the government had agreed to
maintain the existing mining taxes for 10 years to provide stability to
mining investors.

Chishimba said
“shifting of goal posts and knee-jerk reactions” via policy changes
without exhaustive consultation of industry players could pose a risk
to the sector and he welcomed the stability in policies, which he said
reassured investors.

Chishimba said it
had taken $5 billion in investment over the last decade for Zambia to
get back to annual copper output of more than 720,000 tonnes, and the
country should strive to exceed that by attracting further investment.

Zambia should also
bring down the cost of doing business and invest in energy and
infrastructure projects to support the growing mining industry, he said.

Other mining
companies operating in Zambia include Vedanta Resources Plc, Equinox
Minerals, Glencore International AG, and Metorex.