Nigeria Content Online

Nigeria’s economy is set to grow 6.3 percent this year and
consumer inflation should stay in double-digits through 2011 as the government
slashes fuel subsidies and increases budgetary spending, a Reuters poll showed
on Thursday.

A poll of 11 analysts forecast Nigerian inflation to average
12.6 percent in 2010 and 11.5 percent next year.

That marks an acceleration since a previous poll in January,
which forecast 11.4 percent inflation this year but did not forecast inflation
next year.

The National Bureau of Statistics last week estimated March
inflation at 11.8 percent.

“Inflation will be sustained at a high level as the effect of
fuel price deregulation and expansionary fiscal policy becomes apparent,” said
Alan Cameron, analyst for London-based Business Monitor International.

The poll forecast sub-Saharan Africa’s No. 2 economy to grow 6.3
percent this year, down slightly from 6.7 percent last year and compared with a
forecast for 6.4 percent growth in a previous poll in January.

Analysts expected the budget’s fiscal deficit to grow by 3.5
percent this year, according to the poll, below government expectations of more
than 5 percent.

Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi warned last week that
double-digit inflation was a threat, but his top priority remained stimulating
economic growth and getting credit flowing in Africa’s biggest energy producer.

The central bank last week forecast GDP growth to average 7.5
percent in 2010.

“Nigeria’s balance sheet remains strong,” said Thalma Corbett,
chief economist at NKC Independent. “Continued strong growth in the services
and agriculture sectors will boost economic growth, as will oil output
expansion.”

Fuel deregulation

Sanusi has backed federal efforts to deregulate the fuel sector,
saying it may cause a brief spike in inflation but the economy would benefit in
the long run.

Despite vying with Angola as Africa’s top oil producer, Nigeria
imports some 85 percent of its fuel needs because of the disrepair and
mismanagement of its four state-owned refineries.

Fuel subsidies cost the government more than $4 billion a year.

Analysts said increased government spending this year would also
contribute to double-digit inflation.

Acting President Goodluck Jonathan is expected to sign into law
this week a N4.608 trillion budget, which lawmakers hope will help Nigeria out
of a downturn.

The poll’s forecast that the fiscal deficit would grow 3.5
percent this year, below government expectations of more than 5 percent, was
based on weaker-than-expected capital spending projections.

“We see the fiscal deficit coming in below official expectations
given that the capital expenditure component of the budget is unlikely to be
fully implemented,” Cameron said.

More than a third of this year’s budget is for capital spending
on areas including infrastructure, the power sector and development in the
oil-rich Niger Delta.

The world’s top
cellphone maker Nokia cut its profit outlook and delayed the launch of
phones it needs to compete with the iPhone and Blackberry in the
fast-growing high end of the market.

Nokia still lacks a
top-range model to challenge Apple’s iPhone three years after its
launch. It’s last high-end hit phone was the N95, which was unveiled in
2006.

Nokia reported on
Thursday a rise in January-March earnings and sales, roughly in line
with expectations, but cut the outlook for its 2010 operating profit
margin at its key phone unit to 11-13 percent from 12-14 percent.

The average forecast of 33 analysts in a Reuters poll was 13.7 percent.

Shares in Nokia
were 14.5 percent lower at 9.64 euros by 1142 GMT, dragging the STOXX
Europe 600 Technology Index .SX8P four percent lower.

The smartphone
market continued to expand through the economic downturn, helped by
cheaper models, and research firm Gartner has forecast it will grow a
whopping 46 percent this year.

Nokia delayed the
renewal of its Symbian software — seen as crucial to improve its
position in the high-end of the market — to the third quarter from
second quarter.

“This is pretty
significant as Nokia and Symbian have lost a lot of market share in the
last few years,” said analyst Neil Mawston from Strategy Analytics.

“Psychologically it
is a blow as well as iPhone, Blackberry ad Android are surging ahead
with software updates. Symbian cannot afford any delays,” said Mawston.

Smartphone prices drop 17 pct in one quarter

Nokia slashed
prices of its cell phones across its portfolio this week, with the
deepest cuts of around 10 percent seen for some smartphone models, data
seen by Reuters showed on Thursday.

Nokia is struggling
to battle with new rivals Apple and Blackberry maker Research in Motion
(RIMM.O) at the high end of the cellphone market, and sees a cheaper
price as its strongest weapon to hold on to market share, analysts said.

Nokia is benefiting
from growth among cheap smartphones, which dragged the average sales
price of a Nokia smartphone 17 percent from the previous quarter to
just 155 euros ($208). This compares to more than $600 for iPhone.

Apple’s quarterly
results blew past Wall Street expectations on the back of record iPhone
sales earlier this week, and the company gave a strong revenue
forecast, sending its shares to an all-time high.

For Nokia,
underlying first-quarter earnings per share rose 40 percent from a year
ago to 0.14 euros ($0.19), marking the first annual rise since the
second quarter of 2008 but missing the average forecast of 0.15 in a
Reuters poll of 43 analysts.

Earnings were
boosted by massive cost cuts as Nokia slashed thousands of jobs last
year, aiming to reduce costs at its key handset unit alone by more than
700 million euros to counter recession-hit demand.

January-March sales
at the market leader, which makes one in three phones sold globally,
grew 3 percent from a year ago, also rising for the first time since
the second quarter of 2008.

Nokia shares had
gained 26 percent in 2010 prior to the result, boosted by strong
fourth-quarter results and hopes that its smartphones business was
winning back lost market share. The share remains 8 percent higher for
the year.

($1=.7439 Euro)

Stephen Covey, a motivational speaker, has said that in order
for organisations to grow effectively they need to first discover their “road
map.”

Speaking at an event with business representatives in Nigeria on
Wednesday in Lagos, organised by Zain Nigeria and tagged ‘An Evening with Dr.
Stephen Covey’, Mr. Covey said only an accurate road map will lead to great
improvement in business.

Maps and principles

“In business, there is need to practice positive mental attitude
but attitude and action is insufficient, the key is to have an accurate map,”
he said. “Every great breakthrough is a great win. If you want to make minor
involvement, work on behaviour and attitude; if you want to make quantum
involvement work on paradigms. A paradigm is like a model for assumption of a
map.

“To have an accurate map is extremely important and that can be
embodied in your mission statement. Secondly, the power of principles is very
in important in organisations. A true principle is always the same. So, the
idea is that you build your life and organisation on the correct paradigm or
map and the principles that are universal and timeless.”

Mr. Covey explained that principles are important in any
organisation or cultural environment but should not be misunderstood as values.

“Principles are not values; the key is to value principles. The
different is that values are social norms, personal, emotion and subjective
while principles are natural laws, impersonal, objective and factual,” he said.
“These principles are applied in any country and in any culture. The more you
value principles and live by principles the higher the trust become. The higher
the trust is, the lower the cost is and speeds is exalted enormously. When you
have lower trust, speed really slows down and cost goes up. So that is why it
is important to have a correct map or paradigm and live by principles. The
essence of what I teach over 140 countries around the world is to teach people
about research, strategic planning and leadership.”

Growth and impact

However, Mr. Covey said that in order for organisations to grow,
they must seek customers who can also aid in promoting their products and such
a relationship must be built on principles.

“Relationship with organisations and customers/clients must be
built on principles so that on the net promotion scores you get 9-10 scores on
the scale; people will be committed, loyal and would stay with you,” he said.
“After decade of research only one question correlative to an organisation’s
profitable growth (is relevant): how likely is it that a customer could
recommend this product to others? If they give you 9-10s, they become
promoters; anything less than eight are detractors, they would find fault with
your products and service and would not recommend you to others.”

Speaking with NEXT at the event, business participants agreed
that motivational lectures can help change and develop organisation and
governance in Nigeria.

Tunde Ayeye, a business consultant, said “I think it goes beyond
organisation effectiveness; it helps you in your life as an individual and I
think it very useful.”

Mr. Ayeye added that despite the problems in Nigeria, especially
corruption, there is a basic need to adopt principles in order to transform
society. “The truth of the matter is corruption is global and its pervasive.
You are a product of your choices, and you make choice based on principles. So,
I think other business and governance need to adopt those principles if we want
to transform our businesses and our society,” he said.

However, Ayo Akintujoye, a marketing executive at 2G Consulting
firm, said that the virtues recommended by the speaker are good, but the
cultural reality of the country has not fully allowed for change to take place.
“I have been to events like this both international and local and you discover
that there is a vacuum from what you learn and the cultural reality of
Nigeria,” he said.

The newly appointed group managing director of the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Shehu Ladan, has joined his predecessor
to state that NNPC is fully in support of the planned deregulation of the
downstream sector of the petroleum industry by the federal government.

While presenting a paper, titled, “Downstream Petroleum Sector:
The Imperatives of Deregulation,” before a coalition of legislators at the
National Assembly in Abuja, on Wednesday, Mr. Ladan, said the speedy implementation
of the deregulation policy would go a long way in encouraging inflow of private
sector and international investment in the downstream sector.

“Without mincing words, let me join my predecessor to state that
NNPC is 100 per cent in support of deregulation, not just because it will
support our business, but because this is the only way that majority of
Nigerians will derive fair deal from the abundant petroleum resources in the
country. With deregulation, consumers will enjoy fair product prices and
operators will be in a position to recover full cost and reasonable margins on
their operations,” he said.

The NNPC boss argued that implementation of the policy would
give rise to efficiency in product usage, product availability and effective
competition among investors, hence putting an end to the “NNPC monopoly.”

Investors’ fear

Mr. Ladan said it is only when a deregulated regime is put in
place that the private refineries that have been licensed can really take off,
noting that investors who have been given licenses to build refineries are
scared of venturing into the multimillion naira project because of the
regulated regime in Nigeria.

“Clearly there is the need to move away from the current ad hoc
pricing to an automatic price adjustment mechanism that is truly
de-politicised. In the transition to full market liberalisation, the regulator
has the responsibility to monitor and check anti-competitive behaviour such as
price gouging and predatory pricing,” he explained.

The Corporation head further explained that complimentary
measures have been included in the 2009 supplementary and 2010 budgets to
cushion the likely effects of the policy, adding that the measures included the
provision of intra-city rail transportation in six major cities: Lagos, Kano,
Port-Harcourt, Jos, Enugu and Maiduguri, as pilot projects. He also said plans
were underway by the federal government to commit N373 billion to massive road
rehabilitation and new construction interventions across the entire country in
addition to the procurement of 25 railway locomotives.

“Part of the complementary measures to cushion the effect of
deregulation on the low income and the poor household include the provision of
low income housing scheme and civil servants mortgage scheme and N10 billion
revolving mass transit scheme in 2009 supplementary budget,” Mr. Ladan said.

The Chairman of the Coalition, Bassey Etim Bassey, said the
corporation head was invited to outline the merits and demerits of deregulation
to members of the National Assembly, to enable them to take an informed
position about the policy.

The
South African embassy has promised to improve on the challenges faced
by Nigerian business personnel in getting visas to that country, in
order to enhance the trade relations with Nigeria.

Thandi Mgxwati, Political Counsellor/Head of Lagos
Mission, South Africa High Commission, speaking on ‘Nigeria-South
Africa Bilateral Relations – Successes and Challenges’, said efforts
are currently being made to make visa applications and processing
easier for Nigerians wishing to travel to that country.

The South African envoy, who spoke at a breakfast
meeting organised by the Nigerian-South African Chamber of Commerce on
Wednesday in Lagos, said this is one of the ways to fully explore the
investment and trade opportunities available to both countries through
their bilateral relationship.

The relationship between Nigeria and South Africa
is believed to be skewed in favour of the latter, as there are more
investments and trading activities by South Africa in Nigeria, than the
other way round.

“South Africa is looking forward to working with
Nigerian businesses to further open up trade and investment
opportunities between the two countries, and we will like to see more
partnerships and more Nigerian businesses coming into South Africa. We
are trying to respond to the imbalance business arrangement by taking
advantage of these opportunities to create a better working condition
for all parties,” she said.

Ms. Mgxweti argued that Nigeria can gain a lot in
business partnership with South Africa in terms of industries,
agriculture, among others.

Investment opportunities

Trade relations between both countries since the
launch of the South Africa- Nigeria Bi-National Commission 10 years
ago, leapt from $16.5-million in 1999, to $2.1-billion in 2008.

Although Ms Mgxweti said she did not have current
statistics on the volume of trade between Nigeria and South Africa at
the time of the briefing, she however, hoped it is good, adding that
there is still a lot of business potentials in the two countries
waiting to be explored.

Visa problems

Most of the participants who spoke at the meeting
called for a quick resolution of the visa problems encountered by
Nigerians at the South African embassy, as the situation is affecting
Nigerians intending to do business with that country.

To this, Ms Mgxweti said, “We are currently
working on a short term solution. This we intend doing by introducing
systems to perfect the turnaround time for visa applications. This will
be used to provide more information to people, as we have realised that
the lack of information on the visa requirements by the embassy has
been a deterring factor to issuing visas.

“We intend creating a website which will enable
people to read more, and this will concurrently serve as a platform to
addressing issues of business barriers. We also want to use this medium
to encourage people who intend going for the World Cup to apply on time
for their visas and not leave it to the last minute, as this will help
save all the hiccups and unnecessary stress,” she added.

Nicholas Coleman, the new Commercial Counsellor at
the South Africa High Commission, said his mission to Nigeria is to
enhance trading opportunities between both countries, by providing
relevant information to potential investors and business personnel
wanting to explore the South African economy.

Alubani Sebanda, Head, South Africa Corporate
office, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, sponsors of the breakfast meeting,
recalled that the bank started with five branch offices in Nigeria, and
has been tapping from the vast Nigerian economy, and believes they can
still do more.

“We are an international repute bank with no
crisis record during the bank auditing and repositioning carried out by
the Central Bank of Nigeria, in August last year. We are still waxing
stronger and are encouraging a growing partnership and business
investments between both countries, and we are willing to extend our
private equity external bank by looking into enterprises and help them
gather information about what is happening in South Africa and what to
invest in,” he said.

Thobi Duma, Country Manager, South Africa Airways,
used the opportunity to encourage Nigerians to book their flights to
attend the World Cup, as this will open up more business opportunities
for them, while also providing them a means of relaxation and tourism.

The use of the .ng domain for online
business transactions with other countries is said to be affecting
business negatively, due to the high level of cyber crimes in the
country.

Bunmi
Akindele, a business woman, said, “Considering the way those in Europe,
United States, and Asia, among others, see Nigerians as a fraudulent
people to do online business with, using the .ng domain for your
business will certainly affect your business with organisations abroad.

“I
cannot register my company name with the .ng domain because it will
ruin my business as I cannot order for goods with that domain’s name
because it exposes my identity. The country has been portrayed in a bad
image because of the yahoo yahoo deals (Internet fraud) in Nigeria,”
added Ms. Akindele.

IP address, not .ng

However,
in a telephone interview with NEXT, Lanre Ayaji, the president of
Nigerian Internet Group (NIG) explained that the .ng domain name is not
the cause of failed online transactions, but the Internet Protocol (IP)
addresses from Nigeria.

“I
don’t really think that is the major reason why people are not using
it. I have been using the .ng domain for over 10 years now, and I have
not had any serious problem with it. People abroad who are scared of
doing business with Nigerians online are not using the domain name to
discriminate; they usually use the IP address to discriminate. The
discrimination is not done manually; it is done by the application
system that is operated abroad, and it is on that system that they list
the IP address which they don’t want to accept.

“The
moment an IP address is identified to be that of a Nigerian, that
person is barred from doing business online with that organisation. So,
it is not the domain name that causes the problem. Anybody that has a
perception that if he or she uses .ng, they will have problem doing
business online may have to re-examine that view. I think that is just
a mere perception, and not the reality,” said Mr. Ajayi.

Blame it on cybercrime

However,
operators agree that the high incidence of cybercrime is a major issue
that has also affected online transactions with Nigerians.

Mr.
Ajayi said, “I will encourage people to take up the .ng domain as it
may not affect their online transactions. But that is not to say that
the incidence of cybercrimes have not affected online transactions from
Nigeria.”

The
absence of policy to tackle cyber crime is a major problem. Jimson
Olufuye, the president of Information Technology Association of Nigeria
(ITAN), called on the federal government and regulators to put in place
appropriate legislations on cyber security to mitigate crimes. Mr.
Olufuye urged government to key into the toolkit recently launched by
the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to reduce cybercrime
globally.

Benefits of .ng domain

Ugo
Akiri, an official of the Nigeria Internet Registrations Association
(NIRA), said the benefit of using the .ng domain are enormous,
particularly with regard to cleaning up the country’s image.

“The
.ng domain is a good instrument that will help to clean up Nigeria’s
image in terms of the negative use of the Internet these past years.
This will also help us to generate enough resources to invest in the
new generic top-level domain name (gTLDs) before foreigners overrun us
by taking up viable Nigerian geographical names for their new gTLDs.

“Access
to information is very important, as the world is developing daily by
new technologies and better ways of doing things. So, this would impact
on our access to information generally, and on education specifically,
as more Nigerian content will be available on the web,” she said.

Mr.
Ajayi also added that if Nigerians can register their businesses with
the .ng domain, it will help to improve the country’s economy without
the attendant capital flight.

“For
Nigerians, it saves foreign exchange. If you are not registered with
.ng, you would be registering with another gTLD and would be paying
dollar to the other country, but when you register with .ng, you are
paying naira to the registrar and you are saving money for the country,
instead for another country,” he said.

Transparency International, the global
corruption watchdog, wants member nations of the Group of 20 (G20) to
step up their efforts towards sustained financial sector reforms
against the background of growing corruption and negative impact on
economic recovery efforts.

Ahead of the
group’s two-day annual Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors
meetings, which begins today in Washington D.C., United States of
America, the global anti-corruption body stated that reforms would
entrench ethical corporate governance in the face of growing prevalence
of financial frauds in the financial institutions of most members of
the group.

Good corporate
governance, according to its Chairman, Huguette Labelle, is critical to
sustainable financial institutions, adding that the integration of good
governance and anti-corruption measures are critical to the
sustainability and effectiveness of the reform measures.

“The time to act is
now to entrench good corporate governance culture. It is two years
since the onset of the financial crisis and the critically needed
reforms to protect the general public from fraud must be fully
implemented. The current scandals underline the need for better
oversight and efficient law enforcement,” he said.

Group’s resolutions

Mr. Labelle
recalled the group’s resolution calling on G20 members to ensure that
they implemented the financial regulations outlined at the end of its
meeting in 2008 as the main structural solutions to averting future
economic crises, warning that the complexities in new regulations on
derivative trading, hedge funds, “too big to fail” institutions or
prudential standards should not be a reason for any delay.

Stressing the need
for regulatory agencies to strengthen the transparency of all financial
products marketed to investors, the global body said this would ensure
clear requirements for comprehensive disclosure, and prevent abuses of
off-balance sheet instruments, while individuals and firms would be
sanctioned for fraud.

“Lack of corporate
governance, weak ethics and poor regulation was at the heart of the
financial crisis. This should not be allowed to happen again. Any
corporate communication to investors and to the general public should
be designed to inform them, and not to purposely sell weak products or
publish dressed up quarterly figures.

“If anyone has any
doubt about the urgent need for the G-20 to make integrity a crucial
issue in global financial reform, then they just have to look at
today’s newspaper headlines,” Mr. Labelle said.

World Bank statistics

Available World
Bank statistics, according to Mr. Labelle, indicates that the global
financial meltdown last year directly prevented over 50 million people
in the developing world from escaping abject poverty, adding that the
Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors should use the occasion of
this week’s meeting to consider a comprehensive analysis of the G20
Action Plan to forestall a repeat of the global economic crisis.

As part of efforts
to entrench corporate governance in the nation’s financial system, the
Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) late last week
rolled out an amendment of prudential guidelines on loan loss
provisioning first issued in 1990, prescribing a set of minimum
requirements for banks and other financial institutions.

The apex bank’s
governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, said the review became necessary
bearing in mind the current dynamics in the industry to provide
measurement for loans, establishment of loan losses allowances, credit
risk disclosure and related matters.

The approved
amendment recognizes ‘Specialized Loans’ and ‘Other Loans’ as the two
provisioning categories, with the former using time-based approach,
while the current prudential guidelines for specific loans loss
provisions shall continue to be applied to other loans type.

According to Mr.
Sanusi, the time-based approach establishes longer time lines for
measuring asset quality, based on the gestational periods for projects
in sectors of the economy such as small and medium enterprises (SMEs),
agriculture and infrastructure.

The ‘Specialized
Loans’ comprise mortgage loans, margin loans, object finance, project
finance, real estate loans, SME loans and others, including corporate,
commercial and retail loans, advances, overdrafts, commercial papers,
bankers acceptances, bills discounted, leases, guarantees and other
contingencies connected with a bank’s credit risks.

First Bank of
Nigeria Plc, suffering from huge post-audit losses like every other
bank in the country, refines growth strategy for the current fiscal
year.

First Bank in its
financial report for the nine month period ended December 31, 2009, in
line with the common year end required by the Central Bank of Nigeria,
reports 29 percent increase in gross earnings and 15 percent increase
in operating income.

However, profit before and after tax nose-dived deeply by 72.64 percent and 90.5 percent respectively.

Nonetheless, the
bank appears to be already making up for the losses as its first
quarter 2010 results recorded a 62 percent quarter on quarter increase
in profit, before tax and capital adequacy of 16.6 percent.

Although gross
earnings stood at N62.4 billion for the three months ended March 3,
2010, showing a year on year decrease of 10.6 percent, from N69.8
billion in March 31, 2009, profit before tax was put at N15.4 billion,
following a loss of N9.8 billion in March 2009. However, this is an
increase of 62.1 percent quarter on quarter (N9.5 billion December
2009).

On the other hand, shareholders’ funds stood at N310 billion, a decrease of eight percent from N337 billion in March 2009.

Stephen Olabisi
Onasanya, Group Managing Director of First Bank, while commenting on
the year end results, in a statement made available to NEXT, said: “We
have also refined our strategy based on four strategic themes and
priorities: growth via the diversification of assets and revenue
streams; service excellence by developing world class processes,
systems and capabilities; performance management to create a culture of
individual accountability at all levels; and developing talent with a
view to becoming the hub for the best talent in the industry.”

Financial highlights

The group’s
financial highlights show gross earnings of N196.4 billion during the
period in review, or an increase of 29 percent compared with N152.5
billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2008.

Operating income
was put at N130.5 billion (N113.2 billion December 2008), an increase
of 15.3 percent; profit before tax of N11.6 billion (N42.4 billion
December 2008), 72.64 percent fall impacted by an increase in
provisions for loan-losses post CBN-audit.

Profit after tax
stood at N3.2 billion (N33.9 billion December 2008), representing over
90.5 percent decrease, while shareholders’ funds fell to N310 billion,
a decrease of six percent from N331 billion year on year.

Also, full and
conservative provision against loans and advances rose to N40.6
billion, as at December 31 2009, compared to N18.9 billion a year ago.
Loan-to-deposit ratio fell to 81 percent, down from 84 percent during
the period in review, while non-performing loan ratio rose to 8.2
percent from 2.1 percent in December 2008. Also, cost/income ratio rose
to 60 percent, up from 56.4 percent in December 2008.

Basic earnings per share was put at 10.99 kobo for the nine month period, compared to N1.36 as at December end 2008.

Speaking on the
result, Mr. Onasanya said, “As highlighted in our results, 2009 has
been a tough year for the Nigerian banking sector as a whole and this
is reflected in our performance. We have also made full provisions in
compliance with the CBN requirement and I am pleased to say that our
operating performance and financial stability remain solid, with
operating income up 15.3 percent, against the prior year period and a
risk weighted capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of 15.8 percent, well in
excess of the regulatory minimum.”

Strategic Themes

Despite the huge
losses, Alex Otti, Executive Director, South, noted that total deposits
for the Group continued to grow over the period, albeit at a slower
pace. “However, since the year end, there has been a flood of liquidity
into the system, which has brought fixed income yields to record lows,
dragging deposit rates down with them, and potentially lending rates as
well, albeit at a much slower rate.” However, the bank is anticipating
a pick-up in mergers and acquisition activities, in the banking sector
with further growth in infrastructure funding.

The bank also said
it will focus more on investment banking, asset management, insurance
and international expansion, and plans “to consolidate our subsidiaries
within five business groups (First Bank of Nigeria, FBN Bank
International, Investment Banking & Asset Management, Insurance,
and Emerging Ventures),” which will be overseen by a new Group
Management Committee.

Airlines around the
world began to confront a huge backlog of passengers on Wednesday,
after six days of European airspace restrictions had forced the
cancellation of more than 100,000 flights and cost the airline industry
an estimated $1.7 billion.

While officials
said it could take weeks for some travel to return completely to
normal, some airlines in Europe and Asia said they were moving rapidly
to restore flights. Eurocontrol, the agency that coordinates regional
air-traffic management, said three-quarters of the 28,000 flights
scheduled for European airspace were expected to fly on Wednesday – the
highest proportion in days.

About two-thirds of
scheduled departures and half of arriving flights were operating at
Heathrow Airport outside of London. At Frankfurt International Airport,
about half as many flights as normal were taking off and landing.

A spokeswoman said
that airlines had added 90 supplementary flights in and out of Heathrow
since Britain reopened its airspace late Tuesday, becoming the last
major European country to do so after a huge plume of volcanic ash
spreading south and east from Iceland disrupted travel over much of the
continent.

But flights were
not resuming as quickly at other British regional airports. Only 10 per
cent of scheduled flights at Edinburgh operated on Wednesday morning, a
figure that was expected to rise to 50 per cent by the evening. In
Aberdeen, only 30 per cent of morning flights operated, while 65 per
cent were expected from 5pm.

The International
Air Transport Association (IATA), said Wednesday that the crisis had
cost airlines more than $1.7 billion in lost revenue through Tuesday.
At its worst, the association said, “the crisis impacted 29 per cent of
global aviation and affected 1.2 million passengers a day.” Before
restrictions were eased, the chaos had lasted twice as long as the
three-day closing of American airspace after the attacks of September
11, 2001, which devastated many airlines financially. By midday in
Paris, Air France said that it had been able to restore almost all
service across its entire network, and had flown more than 40,000
stranded passengers back to France since Monday.

The airline said it
expected to operate all its scheduled long-haul flights on Wednesday
and many European flights except for those to northern and northeastern
Europe, where some airports remained closed.

Aéroports de Paris,
which operates Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports, said all
intercontinental arrivals and departures and 75 per cent of European
and domestic flights were expected to operate Wednesday.

British Airways
planned to operate all of its intercontinental services from London’s
Heathrow and Gatwick airports on Wednesday, although many of its
domestic and European flights remained cancelled until at least
Wednesday afternoon.

Britain’s National
Air Traffic Service said it had handled roughly 130 flights in the
airspace over England and Wales between 1am and 7am on Wednesday and 35
flights in Scotland and Northern Ireland. British airspace would be
largely open on Wednesday, except for parts of Scotland with a “dense
concentration” of volcanic ash. Aer Lingus, the Irish flag carrier,
said it expected to resume a full flight schedule by early afternoon.

With their call
centres jammed by customers trying to re-book their flights, some
airlines found innovative ways to speed the process, including social
media networks.

The Dutch carrier KLM advised passengers on its Web site that re-booking could be done via Twitter or on its Facebook page.

According to
forecasts by Britain’s Met Office meteorological agency and the
Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre in London, winds were expected to continue
blowing the highest concentrations of ash westward toward the northeast
coast of Canada. By midnight Wednesday, the cloud was expected to be
largely clear of Europe, lingering over only Ireland and parts of
northern Scotland.

The New York Times

If technology can
be considered an enabler and used to solve everyday challenges and
problems in our society, then perhaps using CCTV to combat crime either
as a deterrent or to actually investigate and solve crimes on our
streets, housing developments, housing estates and town centres etc is
quite a valid preposition.

Closed-circuit television (CCTV)

Closed-circuit
television (CCTV) which essentially refers to the use of video cameras
to transmit data (images) to a bank of monitors in a control room. All
such data can also be recorded over time and can stand up as evidence
in a court of law when prosecuting any kind of crime.

Statistics exist
certainly in more developed countries to confirm that the presence of
CCTV alone serves as a deterrent to and in solving crime.

In developing
countries such as Nigeria where armed robbery, kidnapping, carjacking,
motoring offenses etc is becoming prevalent, there is, in my view a
need to implement an efficient CCTV architecture across the country as
a whole, as mentioned earlier it will not only serve as a deterrent but
will assist in investigating and gathering evidence to recover stolen
items and prosecute such offenses to the full extent of the Law.

Successful usage of CCTV architecture

CCTV architecture has successfully been used to great effect in the following manner in other countries;

>> Used to monitor airports, roads, shopping centre, government buildings and establishments in real time.

>> Investigation even after a crime has been committed as you are relying on recorded video data.

>> Regular traffic updates and monitoring of accidents and hotspots etc

>> Number
plate recognition which when integrated with the Car Registration or
license plate database can assist in instantly identifying any
offenders.

>> Directed surveillance of suspected offenders.

>> Video data
images of any individuals on a police watch list can be processed
through an automatic face recognition system to confirm their identity.

>> Emergencies and other special events

>> Talking CCTV allows the operator talk directly to individuals committing anti social behaviour etc.

Managing CCTV

It is probably best
to implement, run and manage CCTV infrastructure independently
(preferably by private sector organisations for obvious reasons) and
put in place procedures to allow the various organisations that may
need to or are allowed to access such data in a very controlled manner
to ensure that the confidentiality and integrity of all such data is
maintained.

According to a BBC
news report, as of 2002 there were 25 Million cameras worldwide, 2.5
million in the U.K. alone and the average UK citizen is caught on
camera 300 times a day, your guess is as good as mine on the exact
numbers today.

There are arguments
against the proliferation of CCTV cameras (as postulated by civil
liberties organsations across the world) primarily on the basis, that
CCTV can be used by the government to perpetuate itself as a ‘Big
Brother’, monitoring and encroaching on people’s privacy which is quite
a valid argument when it is used in a negative way. But what about the
list of items mentioned earlier on, that CCTV can be used to combat?

Like everything
else, where CCTV architecture is implemented and used correctly, the
benefits of having such an infrastructure implemented across all major
towns certainly outweighs the disadvantages.

Implementing a
suitable CCTV infrastructure is certainly a worthwhile investment,
either by the public or private sector and will overall assist in
reducing crime, concentrating on categories of crime that are either
highest volume or that are of greatest concern to the public, reduce
levels of anti-social behaviour that blights the quality of life in our
society and ultimately reduce the fear of crime and disorder.