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Motorola cell phone lovers have expressed concern over the shutdown of all Motorola mobile phone shops in the country.

Obiosa Odigie, a
consumer said, “I went to a Motorola shop at The Palms to buy a
Motorola RAZR phone for my sister last year, only to find out that the
shop has been shut down and was occupied by another business and I was
advised to go to their shop at the City Mall. But I discovered that
they had shut it down also.”

Motorola could not
be reached for official comments, but a source at the former City Mall
sales shop, who asked to remain anonymous, hinted that Motorola had
experienced a downturn as a result of the global economic recession.

“In a letter from
Motorola, we were informed that our services were no longer needed due
to the ongoing reorganisation in the company and in the light of the
recent global recession,” said the source.

Liquidation

Fred Adewale, a
mobile phone dealer at the Computer Village, Ikeja said, “Motorola
phones are liquidated in the market, people no longer come to buy
Motorola phones here. Last year, the sale of Motorola phones in my shop
was very poor, that was why I stopped selling. People only ask for the
major phones in the market, like Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson,
amongst others. But if you really want a Motorola phone, you can get a
second-hand one on the street,” said Mr. Adewale.

i-Cell Integrated
Service, one of Motorola’s partners in Nigeria, explained that its
relationship with Motorola is based on after-sales service agreement,
and not on sales or promotion.

“We have nothing to
do with the sales and promotions of our partner’s brand, as far as
sales issue are concerned. We deal only with the after-service issue
for consumers, as they bring in complaints about their mobile phones,”
Jari Ollila, the Service Director of i-Cell said.

“I do not have much knowledge about their market, as that would be for Motorola to talk about,” he added.

Shared information

In an email,
Mahmoud Sayedahmed; Head of Marketing, Middle East and Africa Motorola
Mobile Devices, said, “Let me try and address your questions in line
with the information that the corporation shares publicly with the
market, noting that Motorola does not comment on any specific market
information or financial figures. Being a publicly traded company, our
corporate results can be found on our Motorola website.

“With regards to
the Nigerian market, Motorola mobile devices have launched two devices
(WX160 and WX180) that are part of a range of six devices that were
introduced in several emerging markets around the globe in late 2009.”

Mr. Sayedahmed explained that the firm only sells its mobile devices through distribution channels in Nigeria.

“The WX series were
introduced in the market through a Motorola distribution partner that
provides national coverage for phone distribution and a 12-month
warranty service for Motorola devices. Nigeria is a key market in
Africa and we continue to have Motorola devices sold in this market
through our distribution partner across all the major cities in
Nigeria,” said Mr. Sayedahmed.

Regulator has no explanations

The Nigerian
Communications Commission (NCC) could not offer any explanation on the
exit of Motorola from the country, saying that its responsibility is
limited to ensuring that the company sold standard phones to users.

“NCC only gives out
type approval to mobile phones providers as all mobile phones must meet
the international standard of phones. All mobile phones must be type
approve, which is basic and some of the providers can have dealers who
sell their products within the country, said Reuben Muoka, the
spokesperson of the Commission.

“These providers
are vendors to telecom operators in the country too. The commission
does not regulate the sales of mobile phones in the country,” he added.

Reliable and
efficient payment systems have been identified as aiding regional
integration, especially with regard to establishing a common platform
for regional trade. Mansur Muhtar, the Minister of Finance, speaking at
the regional policy workshop on Payment Systems and Cash Couriers in
West Africa, in Abuja on Wednesday, said non-cash payment systems can
transform a financial landscape.

Intra-regional trade

Specifically, the
minister said that it is pertinent for West African countries to create
a conducive environment for the promotion of intra-regional trade, to
accelerate the journey towards regional integration.

“Indeed, the
efforts towards regional integration, especially with regard to
establishing a common platform for regional trade, can only yield the
desired results if there are reliable and efficient payment systems in
place”.

He argued that
recent developments in Nigeria provide good examples of how non-cash
payment systems can transform a financial landscape. “The phenomenal
growth experienced by financial institutions in the acquisition and use
of cards and card payments by their customers, is a testimony of
availability, reliability and acceptability of modern systems and
processes, not only in the financial sector, but also as experienced in
the telecom sector.”

Furthermore, he
said that the new tax systems introduced by Nigeria’s Federal Inland
Revenue Service (FIRS), is also a model for efficient tax collection
through modern electronic payment systems.

Financial reforms

Mr. Muhtar,
however, expressed regrets that while individual countries in the
region are making progress in reforming their financial systems, this
is not the case at the intra-regional level.

He noted that
despite the fact that indigenous banks are spearheading financial
system reforms, we are yet to make a significant breakthrough in the
acceptability, efficiency and reliability of non-cash payment systems
in the region.

“The ubiquitous
impact cash-trust people have in cash transactions has become the norm
rather than the exception in modern day commerce. This situation should
not be allowed to continue after over 30 years of ECOWAS existence,” he
said.

The minister added,
“The recent financial and economic crisis has many lessons not only for
us in this region, but the world over. One of the lessons is that the
global economy is far more integrated than we have ever imagined. What
happens in the United States has the capacity to affect our region
through a spiral effect of liquidity freeze.”

He called on
financial institutions operating in the region to demonstrate total
commitment to its development by creating efficient, reliable,
dependable payment systems, saying that money laundering, which is an
international crime, has become more compounded by globalisation and
greed and further fuelled by desperation and marginalisation of the
poor in the country.

Nigeria, he said,
is fully committed to addressing the problem of money laundering and
terrorist financing by cash dominated economies, by deepening the
reforms in the financial sector and the enforcement of relevant laws to
limit cash transactions.

Mr. Muktar said the
bill seeking the amendment of the Money Laundering Prohibition Bill
presented to the National Assembly by Acting President, Goodluck
Jonathan, will bring the country’s anti-money laundering legislation to
full conformity with international standards.

Global economies

Also speaking,
Abdullahi Shehu, the Director-General of the Action Group against Money
Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), pointed out that economies of many
countries of the world have moved away from the dominance of cash as a
medium of exchange to non-cash payment systems.

He said cash
transactions present a unique challenge in the identification, tracing
and recovery of laundered proceeds of crime, particularly in the
absence of legal frameworks limiting cash transactions, or lack of
faithful enforcement of available laws.

The workshop, he
noted, will among other things, provide a forum for concerned parties
to deliberate on the implications of cash transactions and cash
couriering in West Africa and to also consider ways of addressing the
problems, especially of how existing and emerging new payment systems
can be tailored to meet the needs of the region.

The workshop was organised by the Inter-Governmental Action Group
against money laundering in West Africa (GIABA), in collaboration with
the Economic Commission of West African States (ECOWAS).

Everybody I know
remembers where they were and what they were doing when they heard the
news that Lamido Sanusi, the Central Bank of Nigeria governor, had
summarily dismissed the chief executives of five banks for various
infractions. That date is now known by a string of colourful monikers:
Black Friday, Operation Sting, Codename Demystify and Sanusi’s Tsunami.
There may well be other more dramatic titles. Since then, it has become
normal for commentators to speak of a pre- and post- August 14, 2009.
Watersheds precipitate these kinds of mental cut off point.

I vividly recall my
precise coordinates. I was stuck in traffic that afternoon at the
Rumens Road- Kingsway junction, listening in disbelief to the news over
Wazobia FM. In front of me, a hawk-eyed LASTMA official leapt out of
nowhere to order the motorist in front of me to park for using her
phone while driving. Who knows, perhaps, she was calling to confirm the
news. I even remember what I was wearing. A light blue shirt and
burgundy tie.

A million thoughts
raced through my head. Though unsure of the market implications of the
regulator’s drastic actions, I quickly saw that public perception of
the CBN move would depend to a large extent on the competence of the
communications teams serving the governor and newly appointed chief
executives.

Habits and emergencies

What I did next
underlines the truth that habit will trump numbed senses during an
emergency. Daring the vigilance of the traffic officers, I picked up my
phone and called up my assistant. I instructed her to go to the
websites of all the affected banks and take full screenshots of every
page. In that hectic transition period, I wanted to monitor how the
institutions would use the web to communicate with the public, and
importantly, investors. After one week, my verdict was straight Fs.

Regrettably, today,
seven months later, their grades have not improved. These banks have
completely ignored their websites as effective channels for pushing out
key messages. With barely any mention of the CBN’s strategic intent for
the institutions or management’s provisional plans, their websites
might as well have been frozen on August 13, 2009. Excluding summary
biographies of the new management and generic letters to stakeholders
that were uploaded to their sites, one finds no content on a credible
roadmap at each institution, that takes into consideration its unique
challenges and opportunities.

But this is not for
lack of their discussing it elsewhere. For example, I recently watched
a CNBC Africa interview with an executive director at Oceanic Bank,
Oyinkan Adewale, and another frank video chat with the managing
director, John Aboh, on YouTube, the video sharing site. Both videos,
which were shot in December, ought to have been embedded on the bank’s
website. They have not. Sadly, the Press page at the Oceanic Bank
website is blank. The news pages on the other bailed out banks’ sites
fare no better. It is impossible for the stakeholders addressed in
those letters to buy into what they have not been sold on, and
increasingly, a lot of them use the web to search for information.

An integral part

Compare the
situation there with two UK mortgage institutions, Bradford &
Bingley and Northern Rock, which were taken over by the government. Not
long after their takeovers, both companies’ launched new sites with
dedicated sections on their new ownership. Importantly, the sites had
extensive frequently asked questions (FAQs) pages. How hard can it be
to replicate these?

Newspapers will
always be a great medium. A few even form part of the breakfast diet
for many people. But companies do not control it. Editors do. They
determine when and where stories run, the length and tone. Besides
paper, by definition, is disposable. How many people still have copies
of last month’s paper? This is where the corporate site excels. It is
always accessible, malleable to textual and video formats, archives
perfectly and is under the company’s control. What better broadcast
platform can a company wish for? None I can think of.

Gone are the days
when the corporate website was a sandbox for the IT department. Today,
it is an integral part of every institution’s corporate communications
toolbox.

Anyone who uses
tools like Google Analytics and Visistat on their sites for tracking
visitor statistics and search engine queries knows too well the gold
mine of information their dashboards reveal. Do any of these banks
monitor these? If they do, what are they doing about it? How is their
web content evolving to match search parameters?

Thinking about the
full power of a corporate website unleashed reminds me of the lyrical
US Marine recruits’ creed in Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 classic, Full Metal
Jacket: ‘This is my rifle. There are many like it but this one is mine.
My rifle is my best friend.’ No exaggeration here. At critical times,
the fully loaded website can be the choice assault weapon in the
company’s arsenal.

The writer is the managing director of a full service investor relations firm based in Lagos, Nigeria.

The International
Monetary Fund (IMF) says it anticipates that exchange rate pressures
and volatility will persist for some time in Nigeria and other
Sub-Saharan African countries, according to latest report posted on its
website:

“African economies
can expect exchange rate pressures and volatility to persist for some
time. Shifts in commodity prices as well as in portfolio and other
private capital flows are likely to continue given the highly uncertain
trajectory of the global recovery, the geographic rebalancing of trade
flows, and volatility in the exchange rate of the main currencies,” the
IMF said after an analysis of the evolution of exchange rates of
sub-Saharan African currencies in the context of the global financial
crisis.

The report, which
focused on the differences in the magnitude and volatility of the
exchange rates among countries, was drawn from a sample of seven
countries, four members of the East African Community (EAC) (Kenya,
Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda), and three others, which experienced
large exchange rate losses at the outset of the crisis: Ghana, Nigeria,
and Zambia.

External Factors affected exchange rates

The IMF cited
external factors that reflect the transmission of the global crisis
through the trade and financial channels as well as the volatility of
the U.S. dollar, the main international reserve currency.

Abrupt fluctuations
in capital flows also contributed to exchange rate movements. “A
tightening of credit conditions in global financial markets and a
decline of confidence triggered a frantic race to safety by private
investors at the onset of the crisis. As expected, the resulting
depreciation was more pronounced in those countries that had received
large portfolio inflows prior to the crisis (Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria,
Uganda, and Zambia).”

The volatility of
the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency also had a strong effect on
African currencies. The dollar rose sharply against all currencies,
amplifying the depreciations that were triggered by other external
factors.

Challenges and implications

The IMF stated that
exchange rate volatility could hinder progress with financial
integration, skewing capital flows toward short-term options at the
expense of longer-term investment.

Lydia Olushola, an
economist and a consultant at Sky Trend Limited, a finance service
firm, said that real exchange rate is one of the major relative prices
in an economy, which actually defines the rate of exchange between
domestic goods and their foreign counterparts, and as a result, its
volatility has economy-wide implications.

“Exchange rate
volatility has real economic costs on an economy. It affects price
stability, firms’ profitability, and the country’s financial stability,
as a whole. Exchange rate volatility is also influenced by and
correlated to domestic economic uncertainty.”

She added that
countries have reasons to be worried about exchange rates volatility as
it may hinder international investment flows. “Companies may also be
reluctant to establish new firms or purchase existing ones in such
countries as exchange rate uncertainty reduces the expected profits
from such projects.

“Volatile exchange
rates also create uncertainty about income expected to be earned on
international transactions. It is one of the reasons some firms add
some allowance to all they sell to be on the safe side. These costs are
then passed on to consumers in form of higher prices, and then you know
what happens. Even traders would also be reluctant in their businesses
too as the volatility in the exchange rates adds additional risks to
their expected gains,” she said.

IMF’s remedy

The IMF however,
outlined ways of escape, both for the short and long term, to the
countries that are still experiencing exchange rates volatility, adding
that the deepening domestic financial markets is key to enhancing their
capacity to handle external financial volatility over the long term:

“Broader bond
markets will allow diversification into longer-term investment
instruments—important for long-term investors. Developing forward
hedging instruments would also generate some stability in the foreign
exchange market by reducing forward settlement risks.”

Nigeria’s Naira stable

Bismarck Rewane,
Managing Director, Financial Derivatives Company, a finance and
research analysis firm and Member, National Economic Steering
Committee, is however, confident that the Nigerian Naira would remain
stable.

“The Naira is
expected to remain stable because higher oil prices will boost the
accumulation of external reserves, and this will also be supported by
increased sale of Forex by oil majors. The Naira remained unchanged at
N148.6to the dollar in the official market in February. In the parallel
market, it appreciated marginally by 0.32 per cent to N152 to the
dollar from N152.5 to the dollar the previous month. The FOREX demand
however, surged 7% to approximately $1.2 billion in February.

“The gain in
parallel market has been attributed to the increase in forex supply
from the Central Bank. The Year on Year spread between the official and
parallel rates narrowed by 87. 41% to 3.29 from 26.15 in 2009,
indicating a relatively more stable forex macroeconomic compared to
what obtained the previous year,” he explained.

Nigeria’s foreign
exchange market has remained relatively stable since the 2010 year
began. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the governor of the Central Bank of
Nigeria, in November 2009, said the Naira will trade between the N150
to $1 band till it finally regains full stability.

Kenya’s shilling eased against the dollar on Thursday but stayed within its recent range that traders expect to hold for longer.

The shilling closed at 76.70/80 against the dollar compared with Wednesday’s close of 76.60/70.

“In the days ahead
holding other factors constant, we expect the local unit to trade in
the range of between 76.50/77.00 with the CBK buying interest acting as
a barrier for more aggressive rises,” Bank of Africa said in a market
report.

MTN, Africa’s
biggest mobile operator by subscribers, aims to add another 20 million
in 2010 after strong growth last year in Nigeria, Iran and Ghana in
2009 was offset by currency movements.

The South
African-based group said on Thursday adjusted headline earnings per
share for the year to end-December dropped 16.6 percent to 754.3 cents,
but would have risen 8.5 percent but for currency-related losses.

MTN recorded a 28
percent rise in group subscribers to 116 million. Nigerian users
increased 34 percent to 30.8 million and the company expects it to grow
by 6 million new users in 2010. Iranian customers grew by 45 percent to
23.3 million and it expects 5 million more this year, while South
Africa had a 6.4 percent drop in subscribers.

A
man claiming to be the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly has
been arrested by officials of the Ogun State Police Command over
alleged armed robbery.

The suspect, identified as Idris Apena,
was on Thursday paraded at the Eleweran Police Headquarters, Abeokuta,
where the Commissioner of Police, Musa Daura, informed journalists
about the alleged misdeeds of the suspect.

The police boss said Mr. Apena
disguised himself as Speaker of the Lagos House of Assembly and sent
one of his ‘aides’ to go and find out if the Divisional Police Officer
(DPO) of Sagamu was in his office. He said the police later discovered
this to be a ploy to establish the location of the police officer to
pave way for his (the suspect’s) gang to operate.

Mr. Daura explained further that the
action of the self-acclaimed speaker arose suspicion, and the
divisional officer ordered his men to visit the suspect where he was
and subsequently bring him to the station.

The audacity of pomp

However, the ‘Speaker’s’ audacity took
a dramatic turn when, on further interrogation at the police station, a
fake assembly identity card was found on him. He later confessed to be
a fake speaker, but explained that he had contested for the Lagos State
House of Assembly seat in Lagos State on the platform of the Democratic
Peoples Alliance at Epe but lost.

“He sent an ‘okada’ rider to find out
if the DPO Sagamu was on seat and his action aroused suspicion and the
DPO mobilised team for his arrest,” Mr. Daura said. “Eventually, the
suspect confessed to be a member of an armed robbery syndicate and that
they wanted to know if the DPO was on seat so that they could operate.”

The ‘Honourable’

But the suspect, while speaking with
journalists, admitted to disguising himself as speaker of the assembly
because “after I lost the election to Action Congress (AC), people
still addressed me as ‘Honourable’ because of my popularity.”

He said what led to his arrest was that
he had gone to seek money being owed him by a debtor, and, in an
attempt to use his political influence and get the man arrested, he
sought to know whether the DPO was around to help him effect the arrest
of his debtor.

The suspect, who claimed to be a
graduate of Mechanical Engineering from Lagos State University (LASU),
however, said luck ran against him when the police discovered that he
was not an authentic Speaker.

“The DPO saw it as an insult for me to have asked to know if he was on seat, and effected my arrest,” he said.

The House of
Representatives on Thursday passed an order suspending further drafting
of fresh graduates to Plateau State to participate in the National
Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme in the state.

This order came in
the wake of the devastating violence that claimed hundreds of lives in
a neighbourhood of Jos, the state capital, last Sunday.

The legislative
resolution, the second in the week after the massacre, also called on
the management of the NYSC to re-deploy serving corps members in
Plateau to neighbouring states, even as the government attempts to
restore peace to the area.

Saving the people

“I am not a
pessimist,” said Ekperikpe Ekpo, a member from Akwa Ibom state, who
sponsored the resolution. “But we cannot say as of now, total peace has
returned to Jos. We have to find a way to save these people in the
event of reprisal attacks.”

The resolution will empower calls from Nigerians who have asked that youth corps members be re-assigned from Plateau state.

However, a few
members of the House of Representatives, mostly from the affected
state, opposed the proposal. They complained that such an order will
imply a failure of the government and a total breakdown of law and
order in Plateau state.

Leo Dilkon, who
represents Pashkin, Kanke and Kanam Local government areas of the
state, said the crisis was concentrated around Jos, and it will be
undue punishment on the rest of the state if the youths are withdrawn.

Support for motion

But the motion
gathered rapid support after the mention of several cases of slain
corps members in several parts of the north including Grace Ushang,
whose murder in Borno State last year drew international condemnation,
and three members of the scheme who died during the December 2008
fighting in Plateau State.

In the aftermath of
such deaths, the government has been advised to reconsider the
continued relevance of the scheme and the NYSC has been urged to
restrict its posting to certain states.

After the killings
of last Sunday, the NYSC Director General, Maharazu Tsiga, reportedly
announced that his office will reassign serving members from the state
pending the restoration of normalcy.

Lawmakers said
although they are aware of the decision, they will push for a
legislative resolution to compel the director general to act fast.

“I will be
surprised if anyone will oppose the fact that the situation in Plateau
poses a clear and present danger, said Patrick Obahiagbon, who
represents Oredo in Edo state. “Whether there are newspaper reports
that they will be redeployed or not, we have to rise up and make it
known that this parliament says no. We cannot send our brothers and
sisters to go and pay the ultimate price.”

Women in black

Meanwhile, hundreds
of Plateau women clad in black dresses and placards showed up at the
premises of the National Assembly, where they held hands, singing
sombre songs to protest the latest killings.

The women, who said
they will seek the intervention of the United Nations (UN) if they fail
to get justice from the Nigerian government, called on the acting
president, Goodluck Jonathan, to remove the current General Officer
Commanding the 3rd Armoured Division of the Nigerian Army, located in
Jos, Plateau State, who has been accused of negligence as the crisis
erupted.

“We want a change
of the security chiefs in Plateau State, they have not guaranteed any
security on us, we have lost confidence in them,” the group’s
spokesperson and its secretary general, Zipporah Kpamor, said.

The women also
accused the Chief of Army Staff, Abdurahman Danbazzau, as well as the
Bauchi State government of complicity in the mayhem in Jos.

“If the FG cannot stop the premeditated genocide and ensure peace in
the state, then we will be compelled to go to the United Nations (UN)
for intervention on the matter,” Ms. Kpamor said.

The Senate has approved the request of the acting president, Goodluck Jonathan, to appoint five new special advisers.

Mr. Jonathan had on Tuesday written the Senate seeking their approval for the appointment of five more advisers following his recent elevation from vice president and the attendant higher work load he has to shoulder.

Mr. Jonathan made the request less than 24 hours after he sacked Sarki Mukhtar and appointed Aliyu Gusau as the new National Security Adviser.

Needing help

In the letter to the Senate, Mr. Jonathan said the appointments are to compliment the exigencies of his new office. He however did not mention the names or offices for which he intends to deploy the new special advisers. The Senate did not also bother to ask for the names or offices because the law empowers the president to appoint and deploy advisers as he wishes.

Senate sources, however, say they believe the acting president will fix the nominees in key areas such as politics, economy, National Assembly and petroleum. The advisers are expected to hold the office as long as Mr. Jonathan is acting president.

What Uwais report?

The senators however denied reports that the acting president sent unedited copies of the report of the Mohammed Uwais-led Electoral Reform Committee to the Senate a fortnight ago.

Anthony Manzo, the deputy spokesman of the Senate, said the Senate had the unedited copies of the report since last year, before President Umaru Yar’Adua left the country.

He said the Senate got the report when it began to consider the six electoral reform bills sent to the National Assembly by President Yar’Adua.

“The various legislations that imply the amendment of the 1999 constitution accompanied the Uwais report and the Senate has already taken a lot of decisions on the various bills that are implied in the Uwais report,” Mr. Manzo said. “Already, some of these bills have been referred to the committee on the amendment of the 1999 constitution. If we got it from the acting president two weeks ago, there is no way we could act on it and pass the necessary legislations before the 2011 elections. It is not correct to say the acting president sent it two weeks ago.”