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It will take at
least two years for Nigeria’s banking industry to return to investment
grade rating as it recovers from the impact of last year’s $4 billion
bailout, the country’s oldest ratings agency said on Tuesday.

In a report
published this month, Agusto & Co assigned a Bb moderate risk
rating with positive outlook to the banking sector, citing weak
capitalisation and a sharp deterioration in credit quality, but said it
expected profitability to improve.

Yinka Adelekan,
Agusto’s head of financial institutions, told Reuters a re-rating to
investment grade was possible in 2 – 4 years, once banks bailed out
last year are recapitalised.

“We see a recovery in the medium term,” Ms. Adelekan said in an interview in her office in Lagos.

Global ratings
agency, Standard & Poor’s, which rates Nigerian banks in the single
B category, said in June the sector continued to be “high risk.” In
March, Fitch said it expected Nigerian bank earnings to remain under
pressure throughout 2010.

Adelekan said the
industry’s average return on equity (ROE) was expected to climb back to
17-18 percent in two years, from a negative 56 percent currently as
lending resumes and bad loans are re-financed with the assistance of
the central bank.

The central bank
said in May it would make available 500 billion naira ($3.3 billion) to
stimulate credit to the country’s troubled airline, power, and
manufacturing sectors to help firms indebted to banks to refinance
loans over a 10-15 year period.

Nigeria is also in
the process of setting up an asset management company (AMCON) which
will buy non-performing loans from banks in exchange for government
bonds and help restore credit flows in sub-Saharan Africa’s
second-biggest economy.

AMCON also aims to make the nine lenders rescued in last year’s bailout more attractive to new investors.

The central bank
said two weeks ago it had received bids for four of the nine rescued
lenders and expected bids for the remaining banks to be ready by the
end of August.

Adelekan said she
did not expect deals to recapitalise the rescued banks before 2012, by
which time the troubled lenders would be publishing full-year results
reflecting AMCON’s purchase of non-performing loans.

“I think investors
will wait to see things properly by December 2011 before they say we
are coming in,” she said, adding that many investors had burned their
fingers in the stock market crash and would be shy of returning too
soon.

Nigeria went
through a first round of banking sector consolidation in 2005, which
reduced the number of lenders to 25 from 89. Analysts have said they
expect the country to have 15 banks at the end of current reforms.

Adelekan said the experience of 2005 showed the process of consolidation would take several years to settle.

“From the
experience we had when M&A took place in the past, some banks took
three years to fully wrap up a transaction and become fully operational
to be able to post profits,” she said.

Mauritius needs to
raise some 225 billion rupees ($7.31 billion dollars or about N1.6
trillion naira) over the next 10 years to finance its public
infrastructure development, finance minister, Pravind Jugnauth, said on
Thursday.

The minister also
criticised banks’ reluctance to lend, saying this could have a
disastrous effect on the country’s capital formation and economic
growth.

The amount needed for infrastructure is expected to rise to about 1
trillion rupees once the amount required for private investment is
added, Mr. Jugnauth said.

International
consultancy firms will be involved in assessing the value of the
Algerian unit of Egyptian operator, Orascom Telecom, and the valuation
will be completed this year, Algerian government ministers said on
Thursday.

Orascom Telecom is
selling its lucrative Algerian unit, known as Djezzy, to the Algerian
government after it was hit with back-tax demands, blocked from
transferring money abroad, and prevented from selling the unit to South
Africa’s MTN.

“We have a
ministerial committee. We have also an Algerian consultancy firm
working with foreign consultancy firms to determine the financial value
of Djezzy,” telecommunications minister, Moussa Benhammadi, told
reporters.

Oil explorer,
Tullow Oil, says it is buying 50 percent stakes in six exploration
licences in Kenya and Ethiopia, as the hunt for oil in East Africa
gathers pace.

Tullow said on
Thursday that the positions it is acquiring are in the East African
Rift Basin, which has a similar geology to Uganda’s Lake Albert Rift
Basin.

The East African Rift Basin has oil fields big enough to turn Uganda into a top-50 oil producer.

London-listed Tullow will become the operator of five licences, as part of a deal with Canadian explorer, Africa Oil Corp.

Interest in East
Africa, which is much less explored than West Africa, has been rising
on the back of Tullow’s Ugandan discovery and a gas find by U.S. firm,
Anadarko, off the coast of Mozambique in February.

The chairman of
Haggai Savings and Loans Ltd., Bode Osunkoya, on Thursday, said the
bank recorded gross earnings of N712 million in the 2009 financial year
ending on December 31, 2009.

Mr. Osunkoya told
the News Agency of Nigeria that the figure represented an increase of
54 percent against its earning of N462.9 million in 2008. He said that
the bank’s profit before tax increased from N8.03 million in 2008 to
N142.9 million in 2009, representing an increase of 1,678 percent.

The bank chairman
said that a final dividend of 5 kobo per ordinary share would be paid
to the shareholders for the year ended December 31, 2008, while 15 kobo
per share would be paid to them for 2009.

Adeleye Babatunde,
one of the shareholders, urged the bank to embark on housing schemes
that would enable the shareholders to enjoy the full benefits of being
part owners.

In its effort to
reduce health hazards faced by Nigerians from vehicular emission, the
federal government has developed a draft document on “air quality
management action plan.”

Ahmed Alfa, the
deputy director, pollution control department, Federal Ministry of
Environment, in Abuja, on Thursday, said the document would be
implemented from January 1, 2011.

Mr. Alfa said the draft document had been forwarded to the Minister of Environment for approval.

He said that after
the approval, the draft would become a working document for all
organisations involved in air quality management such as the National
Union for Road Transport Workers (NURTW), among others.

“Our concern is to
make sure that it takes effect from January 1, 2011. Most of the air
pollution in Nigeria is caused by automobiles,” Mr. Alfa said.

An official of the
Alliance for Green Revolution (AGRA) has called on governments in
Africa to put in more efforts toward sustaining agriculture.

Akin Adeshina, vice
president, policy and partnership, AGRA, in Accra, on Wednesday, said
that there were many investment opportunities in agriculture, but these
could only be harnessed if comprehensive changes in its development
were made.

Mr. Adeshina said
every operator must realise that African agriculture could not be
sustained without “introducing technology, providing solutions to the
agricultural modernisation challenges, and seizing all emerging
opportunities.”

AGRA was
established in 2006 to achieve a smallholder-based African Green
Revolution, transform African agriculture into a highly productive and
sustainable system, and ensure food security in Africa.

The decline in
equities’ market capitalisation at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE)
continued on Thursday as nearly N11 billion was lost, reflecting 0.18
percent downturn. It had on Wednesday lost N5.19 billion.

The market
capitalisation closed Thursday’s transaction at N5.930 trillion, from
Wednesday’s figure of N5.941 trillion. The NSE All-Share Index also
shed 43.87 units or 0.18 percent, down from 24,247.05 basis points to
close at 24,203.18.

Market analysts at
Resource Cap, a portfolio management company, said, “The bearish trend
being experienced now is as a result of investors selling in
anticipation of another round of rebound in the market.”

Notwithstanding the
pessimistic mode in the market, Olugbenga Emmanuel, finance analyst at
WealthZone Company, an investment advisory firm, said the present value
of stocks, which are at an all time low, “poses as opportunity for long
term investment.”

Meanwhile, since
the resumption of Emmanuel Ikazoboh, the NSE interim administrator, the
Exchange has being making some trading data available to market
operators free of charge. The NSE usually charges a minimum of N11, 000
on some of this information. Sola Oni, the NSE’s spokesperson, said,
“What you are seeing in the market now is the new development of
operation.”

Mr. Oni said the Exchange wants to make more information available to the investing public.

Low gainers

Of the 130 equities
traded on Thursday, a total of 22 stocks appreciated in price, 37
stocks depreciated, while 71 closed at their previous trading prices.

African Petroleum
and Ashaka Cement topped the price gainers’ table with an increase of
N1.41 and N1.00 on their opening prices of N28.78 and N20.00 per share
respectively. PZ Cussons Nigeria and Costain West Africa followed in
the chart with an increase of 50 kobo and 31 kobo, to close at N32.50
and N6.55 per share.

On the flip side,
Chevron and Cadbury Nigeria led the price losers’ chart with a loss of
N3.90 and N1.05, to close at N81.70 and N26.35 per share. Nigeria
Breweries and UAC Nigeria followed with a decrease of N1.00 and 88 kobo
on their initial prices of N71.00 and N41.14 per share.

Banks lead

The banking
subsector maintained its lead as the most active with 143.457 million
quantities of shares, valued at over N1.280 billion. The subsector’s
volume was driven by shares of GuarantyTrust Bank, Access Bank, Zenith
Bank, First Bank, and Finbank. The five banks were also the most traded
stocks on Thursday.

The food/beverages
subsector was second in the chart with 10.251 million shares valued at
N211.043 million. Dangote Sugar, National Salt Company, and Big Treat
boosted the subsector’s volume.

Trading activities
in the information communication subsector was third highest, with
10.143 million shares valued at N7.102 million. Volume in the subsector
was largely boosted by deals in shares of Chams Nigeria and Starcomms.

At the Exchange’s
floor yesterday, C & I Leasing, an equipment rental firm, presented
its financial accounts to market operators.

The company’s
audited financial result for the year ended January 31st, 2010, shows a
22.34 percent increase in turnover, from N6.774 billion to N8.287
billion. However, its profit after tax fell by 67.93 percent from
N334.229 million to N107.185 million, while the total net asset for the
period in review also depreciated by 7.57 percent, from N2.152 billion
to N1.989 billion.

Nigeria can acquire technology

Technology
acquisition is a very complex subject matter. It covers a number of
areas. You can acquire technology effectively if your education system
is very good, meaning that you are teaching your young people how to do
things properly and, therefore, you acquire technology through
knowledge.

You can also
acquire technology if your research and development are excellent,
meaning that your laboratories are good, your workshops are perfect,
and your scientists are very well trained and, therefore, you acquire
technology originally.

If you cannot
acquire it through these strategies, you can acquire it by transfer. If
you cannot evolve it in your own institutions, you can transfer
technology by just buying it and that is called the outright purchase
method.

The other way you
can acquire technology is through licencing. You licence the technology
from a foreign country and you use it to modernise your economy. Third,
you can do joint venture to produce local goods using foreign
technology.

You can also do
technology transfer using reverse engineering: you look at what has
been done, copy it, and try to improve it a little bit based on your
knowledge. You can also acquire technology through upgrading your
indigenous technologies.

Even using the
technology transfer strategy, if you are not well-prepared, if you do
not have the critical mass of highly-skilled manpower, you cannot
absorb technology through all these methods.

Still a consuming economy

The National Office
for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) has been in Nigeria
for over 30 years, struggling to see that the indigenous technology
utilised by industries is strong. The challenges are many in trying to
promote indigenous technologies, so that we can be able to ensure
industries utilise our own technologies.

Literally, as you
can see, Nigerian industries utilise foreign technology 100 percent.
The banks use ICTs software and hardware that are completely imported.
If you look at companies like Julius Berger, they use 100 percent
German technology to construct infrastructure. People complain about
power, but there is nothing like Nigerian indigenous technology in that
sector. They are importing technology completely 100 percent.

What the office is
trying to do is to tell the industries to mop up all these foreign
technologies in terms of the expertise, the know-how, patent trademark,
all the industrial designs that are used for production in our country
and then ask universities, polytechnics, and research institutions to
look at those areas of need to do relevant research, instead of doing
low research and development that cannot be mainstreamed into the
industries.

Local technology not good enough

For industries to
remit technology fees to foreign countries, their own technology
agreement has to pass through NOTAP by law and what we see is alarming.
Every single industry imports technology into this country at a very
high price. I have seen a company paying for technology fees in terms
of consultancy over a short period of time for the design of plant,
providing due diligence on proof of the design, and supervising the
manufacture for over N20 billion. I have seen in the power sector,
consultancy for a foreign company to come here to do feasibility and
checking the status of power plants for more than $20 million. It is
alarming seeing this kind of thing.

When you see this
data, what the companies or the public institutions always say is that
Nigerians do not have the capacity and capability to do these things.
This is literally the message: that 103 universities in this country
are not bringing out engineers, doctors, and other scientists for them
to be able to do what they want; that out of 125 polytechnics, the kind
of technical manpower required in the industries is not available; and
our 200 research organisations are not bringing out the kind of
technologies they require to operate to produce their products.

Way out

We import
technology from North America, Europe, South East Asia, and in each of
those countries, you will find out that they have got a viable,
well-known national science, technology and innovation policies that
are well-researched and based on statistics. Also, in those countries,
investment in research and development is very high and varies from one
to five percent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

When you are
investing those levels of finances into science and technology research
and development, you will see its impact. In most of these countries,
you will not see poverty as it is in our country or weak infrastructure
as we have here because when you invest in research and development,
you become innovative and come up with solutions.

Again, Nigeria must
invest in and heavily deploy information and communication technology
(ICTs) for our operations. ICTs automate things. Nigeria has to improve
on its efforts to ensure that it happens. We must learn from those
countries where institutions that innovate actually partner with each
other.

Additionally, in
most of these countries where they have crude raw materials, you will
never see them exporting their crude and importing refined things. Most
importantly, their universities are very vibrant, with good
laboratories and workshops; therefore, they are able to produce good
engineers. We have to learn from that so that our education system
becomes one of the tops in the world.