Nigeria Content Online

Amidst concerns,
the Central Bank has issued a review of the guidelines for the proposed
specialised banking, and announced plans to discontinue the issuance of
universal banking licenses to operators in the nation’s banking
industry.

Last week, the
Central Bank published a review of the guidelines for the proposed
specialised institutions – in pursuance of its objective to promote a
sound financial system in the nation.

“In furtherance of
the strategic imperatives being implemented by the Central Bank to
reform the Nigerian financial system, the Central Bank is conducting a
comprehensive review of the guidelines for the licensing of Specialised
Institutions which include Non-interest banks, Primary Mortgage
Institutions, Microfinance banks, Development banks and Discount
Houses” the bank stated in a circular on its website.

“Accordingly, the
minimum paid-up capital requirement for the following specialised
institutions shall, by applicable regulations and guidelines soon to be
issued by the Central Bank, be revised.

Non interest bank
(Regional) N5 billion, Minimum paid-up capital, non- interest Bank
(National) N10 billion and primary mortgage institution N5 billion” the
Central Bank said.

As part of
transitional arrangements, the Central Bank says it will provide
guidelines for the recapitalisation of existing specialised
institutions that will be affected by an increase in minimum capital
requirements.

It also said that
following the recent repeal of the universal banking guidelines, and
the imminent exchange of universal banking licences by banks for
licences permissible under the Banks and Other Financial Institutions
Act, the Central Bank deemed it necessary to expound upon licensing
conditions for merchant banks, with the aim of providing clarity to the
market on the terms on which merchant banking business may be conducted.

The Central Bank
also added that the draft framework for the regulation and supervision
of Non-interest banks which was issued in March 2009 is being finalised
based on feedback received from industry operators. In addition, the
framework for primary mortgage institutions is being reviewed and
finalised in terms of operations and funding for the mortgage sector.

It said primary
mortgage institutions, microfinance banks, development banks and
discount houses shall continue to perform their specialised roles
within the framework of existing guidelines pending the issuance of
revised guidelines by the Central Bank.

Concerns abound

Even though some
finance experts say doing away with universal banking is a positive
move, bank officials say the move would not address any of the
challenges that caused the banking crisis last year and that it is not
really a realistic project at this point in time, nor will it improve
proper regulation and /or good corporate governance.

“By creating three
tiers of commercial banks alone, the Central Bank might have worsened
the regulatory space” a senior staff of the First Bank said. He added
that the major problems of the banking industry were poor corporate
governance and inadequate regulatory monitoring, which led to the
crisis.

“And because we
cannot prove that the absence of these tiers was the problem with the
industry, it is hard to understand how they may be a response to it” he
said.

However, some
finance experts say that the embargo on universal banking is not likely
to have adverse effects on Nigeria’s banking climate if the
requirements for such transitions are met appropriately.

Akinbamidele
Akintola, a finance analyst at Renaissance Capital, an investment
banking firm said that “I do not think this (specialised banking)
should adversely affect the banking industry but the concern is that
does the Central Bank of Nigeria have the man power, efficiency and
capacity to really execute this? That is the concern” he said.

Better Regulation?

In March when the
policy was announced, some finance experts said it was a good idea.
Gamaliel Onosode, a leading boardroom player in Nigeria’s corporate
environment said the policy was a welcome one as he did not think it
was a good idea that universal banking was introduced in Nigeria.

Mr. Onosode said
the practice had weaken transparency in terms of effective management
and control of the banking sector. He added that if the regulators had
improved on the quality of supervision and regulation, without
compelling all banks to comport to a business mode in terms of size, it
would have been better.

In March, the
Central Bank said it would soon discontinue the issuance of universal
banking licenses in line with the ongoing reforms in the banking sector
aimed at supporting the stability recorded so far.

Under this new
policy, operators would apply for separate licenses for each model of
banking operations, including commercial banking, micro-finance
banking, mortgage banking, and investment banking.

The Central Bank will spell out the details of the policy in a
transitional period that would last between 18 and 24 months to ensure
that normal banking operations are not disrupted.

When you are writing or updating your
will, it is important to carefully consider your choice of an executor.
This role, a largely administrative one, comes with huge responsibility
and can be extensive and time consuming. The work begins at the time of
death, from locating the will, and continues until taxes and debts have
been paid and what is left has been distributed in accordance with the
will. The objective is to ensure that all the deceased person wishes
are properly carried out.

It is important to pick someone whom
you know will be committed and wiling to accept the legal
responsibility and of course, someone you feel able to trust.
Naturally, you also want your executor to be someone who is quite
healthy and likely to survive you; for this reason it makes sense to
consider someone younger than you.

Should you choose a family member?

There are some advantages to choosing
an executor with whom you have a close personal relationship and many
people nominate a close relative to perform this role. One must be
conscious of the fact that a trusted family member is likely to be
emotionally affected by the loss and may find it unduly stressful to
handle executive responsibilities so soon. There will be a need for
absolute objectivity and impartiality without the emotional drain of
being at the centre of any potential family feud.

Where you decide to nominate one of
your adult children, you should be conscious of the fact that the
appointed child will have more power than his or her siblings; you want
to ensure that this doesn’t end up creating conflict instead of
ensuring that your family stays united after your death. An executor
should not have any conflict of interest and ideally a beneficiary to
an estate should not be the sole executor as the position can be used
to gain advantage in the distribution of property.

A common choice for many is a relative
who happens to be a lawyer. Whilst being a lawyer does have advantages
in performing an executor’s role, it is by no means absolutely
necessary. The most important thing is that it is someone that is
intellectually capable, financially responsible, and has the time to
pay attention to what could be the administration of extensive
financial and legal matters and has the respect of family members.

Or should you choose a professional?

An alternative to choosing a relation
or close friend is to engage the services of professionals that have
some expertise in estate planning such as a trust company or a law
practice; they would assign an individual or team to handle your estate
matters. There are stories abound of weaknesses in the role so it is
important to seek out a strong, credible company that comes
recommended, to protect your family from the possibility of an
unscrupulous or incompetent executor mismanaging their inheritance.

It can be expensive to hire the
services of a professional executor; indeed many will only deal with
estates above a certain value; this is appropriate for someone with
complicated intentions or a very large estate but largely out of the
reach of most people. If you choose to engage the services of a
professional, agree their fees in advance. Some will charge an up-front
fee, whilst others may arrange to take their fee from estate
distributions or a percentage of the value of the estate.

One of the benefits of a professional
executor is the existence of a somewhat formal relationship. In our
society where family relationships are so intertwined, whilst it does
help to have a little distance to make for objective decision-making, a
deep personal knowledge of the vagaries of a particular family is often
required. The family would value fairness, flexibility and sympathy
particularly where there are complex arrangements. It is important that
your executors should work closely with you during your planning stage
to develop an in depth understanding of your intentions so that they
are more able to carry out your wishes in accordance with your
instructions.

Naming multiple executors to provide
checks and balances on the decision-making process makes sense, but
remember that the executors must usually agree on all decisions and
sign off on all paperwork, which can become cumbersome.

Have a backup

Revisit your choice of executor once a
year to make sure you still want them to perform this role. Often there
might be reason why you think they may no longer be appropriate. If you
do decide to make a change, don’t forget to have the documents amended
as early as possible to reflect this to be sure that your wishes are
indeed carried out. It is also wise to have a backup in case your first
choice is unable or unwilling to perform the tasks when the time comes.
An advantage of engaging an institution to act as executor for your
estate is that it offers continuity.

Trust, Trust, Trust

Because your executor would be party to
intimate knowledge of your family’s assets, and their actions can have
far reaching consequences on the future of those assets, your primary
consideration should be to choose someone or an institution that you
can trust totally; if they disregard your wishes, they can be sued,
along with your estate, and tie it up in litigation for several years.
In the final analysis, it won’t matter to you what happens since you
will not be there, but you do owe it to your loved ones to try to leave
things as orderly as possible.

</

When you are writing or updating your
will, it is important to carefully consider your choice of an executor.
This role, a largely administrative one, comes with huge responsibility
and can be extensive and time consuming. The work begins at the time of
death, from locating the will, and continues until taxes and debts have
been paid and what is left has been distributed in accordance with the
will. The objective is to ensure that all the deceased person wishes
are properly carried out.

It is important to pick someone whom
you know will be committed and wiling to accept the legal
responsibility and of course, someone you feel able to trust.
Naturally, you also want your executor to be someone who is quite
healthy and likely to survive you; for this reason it makes sense to
consider someone younger than you.

Should you choose a family member?

There are some advantages to choosing
an executor with whom you have a close personal relationship and many
people nominate a close relative to perform this role. One must be
conscious of the fact that a trusted family member is likely to be
emotionally affected by the loss and may find it unduly stressful to
handle executive responsibilities so soon. There will be a need for
absolute objectivity and impartiality without the emotional drain of
being at the centre of any potential family feud.

Where you decide to nominate one of
your adult children, you should be conscious of the fact that the
appointed child will have more power than his or her siblings; you want
to ensure that this doesn’t end up creating conflict instead of
ensuring that your family stays united after your death. An executor
should not have any conflict of interest and ideally a beneficiary to
an estate should not be the sole executor as the position can be used
to gain advantage in the distribution of property.

A common choice for many is a relative
who happens to be a lawyer. Whilst being a lawyer does have advantages
in performing an executor’s role, it is by no means absolutely
necessary. The most important thing is that it is someone that is
intellectually capable, financially responsible, and has the time to
pay attention to what could be the administration of extensive
financial and legal matters and has the respect of family members.

Or should you choose a professional?

An alternative to choosing a relation
or close friend is to engage the services of professionals that have
some expertise in estate planning such as a trust company or a law
practice; they would assign an individual or team to handle your estate
matters. There are stories abound of weaknesses in the role so it is
important to seek out a strong, credible company that comes
recommended, to protect your family from the possibility of an
unscrupulous or incompetent executor mismanaging their inheritance.

It can be expensive to hire the
services of a professional executor; indeed many will only deal with
estates above a certain value; this is appropriate for someone with
complicated intentions or a very large estate but largely out of the
reach of most people. If you choose to engage the services of a
professional, agree their fees in advance. Some will charge an up-front
fee, whilst others may arrange to take their fee from estate
distributions or a percentage of the value of the estate.

One of the benefits of a professional
executor is the existence of a somewhat formal relationship. In our
society where family relationships are so intertwined, whilst it does
help to have a little distance to make for objective decision-making, a
deep personal knowledge of the vagaries of a particular family is often
required. The family would value fairness, flexibility and sympathy
particularly where there are complex arrangements. It is important that
your executors should work closely with you during your planning stage
to develop an in depth understanding of your intentions so that they
are more able to carry out your wishes in accordance with your
instructions.

Naming multiple executors to provide
checks and balances on the decision-making process makes sense, but
remember that the executors must usually agree on all decisions and
sign off on all paperwork, which can become cumbersome.

Have a backup

Revisit your choice of executor once a
year to make sure you still want them to perform this role. Often there
might be reason why you think they may no longer be appropriate. If you
do decide to make a change, don’t forget to have the documents amended
as early as possible to reflect this to be sure that your wishes are
indeed carried out. It is also wise to have a backup in case your first
choice is unable or unwilling to perform the tasks when the time comes.
An advantage of engaging an institution to act as executor for your
estate is that it offers continuity.

Trust, Trust, Trust

Because your executor would be party to
intimate knowledge of your family’s assets, and their actions can have
far reaching consequences on the future of those assets, your primary
consideration should be to choose someone or an institution that you
can trust totally; if they disregard your wishes, they can be sued,
along with your estate, and tie it up in litigation for several years.
In the final analysis, it won’t matter to you what happens since you
will not be there, but you do owe it to your loved ones to try to leave
things as orderly as possible.

</

When was Preon founded and what has it accomplished?

I started the
company about 15years ago. We started working mostly with users of
critical power for an application called data-serve, which is basically
on computers. So through that experience I had to understand the
concept of generation of power because that was what data-serve had all
through the United States.

In 2000, four years
after I started the company, being a chemical engineer, I became very
fascinated with the cutting edge like jet-engine. It produces power
that is very clean, quiet, and economical to run, so I thought I’m
going to develop a part of pre-odd that promotes the generation of
power on site but will be generating power continuously.

First, we will be
generating power on a stand-by mode which was what we were doing for
Data-centres. I started promoting this concept globally. The city of
Chicago was our largest client with a lot of people in the city, we
were providing them with stand-by generators and for the Chicago
Housing Authority, we provided power for the CTA, (Chicago Treasury
Authority) and we also provided all the other back-up power for the
Chicago public schools. So we know a lot of people and its being a
great door opener for us and that is really how we cut our teeth. It
took us about four years of meetings with the city of Chicago to get
them to finally accept this crazy concept of acid-generation of power

Your company is involved in the generation and distribution of power, how do you do this?

We are into
generation by using micro turbines which are quite easy to manage and
transport and we use them as cells to provide power. The advantage of
this is that if you use micro turbines you can easily manage any
problem if they arise and apart from that you don’t need a large and
expensive one to work efficiently.

The other
technology we use both in the United States and in other places where
we are involved in power generation is called Gasification. Basically,
what happens here is that you are applying heat to the garbage and it
gives off gas; t gives 10 times more gas out and converts them to
energy to keep the whole process going. It kind of sets-up a chain
reaction and as you keep taking out the heat, you keep storing it as
the process is going its gives-off a gas called bio-gas or syn-gas
(synthetic gas) then you can take that gas and burn it again, in a
micro-turbine to generate more electricity.

This concept is
really being developed right now in the United States. We are working
in Puerto Rico, which has a lot of land-fills as an Island. They’ve got
nowhere to send the garbage and this is a serious problem for them so
we are educating them to let them know that you are necessarily
restricted to bio-gas because a lot of these land-fills. There is no
gas collection system at all, so we are educating people that even the
land-fills that people thought cannot be recovered, you can just go
there, and either literally take the fresh garbage and process them or
use another technology where you can actually go into an old land-fill
and dig up. All the old garbage is sorted out to take out recyclables
and this process could be very applicable to Nigeria because those
processes are very labour intensive. It is a great process that will in
turn provide lots of jobs for people in a country like Nigeria. It’s
good for the environment, it’s got bio-energy, renewable energy.

These technologies
are available today and that’s what I spend a lot of my time on,
explaining to people that on these land-fills, there is a lot of
potential. Nigeria can get a lot from this. The fact that Nigeria is
flaring gas; is such an extreme thing that we also need to make good
use of that first. And once we (Preon international and Nigeria) are
there, with our business and personnel in there, we plan on addressing
this through a number of initiatives like dealing with land-fills
issues in Nigeria and all over the place including the US but island
countries are really-really bad because there is nowhere to go. It all
burns out itself. It’s the same combustion energy, its bio-gas so it is
very synergistic to what we are doing now.

Apart from
the US, which other country have you being able to reproduce this kind
of technology and do you have plans for others?

We really are more reactive than
pro-active as to where to go with this. If Sam hadn’t liaised with us
we wouldn’t be in Nigeria. I will wait till we find the right personnel
and atmosphere to work in any country. Your business processes is as
good as your people. We were recently approached by a company in
Croatia and we have met with some governors and mayors there who wanted
us to help address issues of land-fills, and what to do with municipal
solid waste. They have a very expensive electricity and huge gas cost.
I will not underrate the opportunity in Nigeria because of this
gas-flaring phenomenon going on. So we are going to go smart and go to
where we know we can make money and wait for the right people.