Nigeria Content Online

All federal
pensioners whose biometrics have been captured and claims verified,
will be paid their harmonised pensions this week.

The head of the civil service of the federation, Mr. Stephen Oronsaye, gave the directive to this effect in Abuja on Tuesday.

The affected
retirees included those under the purview of his office, who would be
paid arrears of the harmonised pension, in line with approved rates of
six percent and fifteen percent for 2003 and 2007 respectively.

Mr. Oronsaye wanted
the payments to be made without fail by Friday, according to a
statement issued by his chief press secretary, Tope Ajakaiye, and made
available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday.

He confirmed that
his office had identified and addressed the major reasons why some
pensioners, whose biometrics were captured and verified during the June
2010 exercise, had yet to be paid.

He said that such
category of pensioners would also receive their payments, including the
harmonised arrears, without fail by Friday.

Mr. Oronsaye said there would be another chance for pensioners
nationwide and those abroad, who were not available during the last
biometric capturing.

African leaders
have been urged to be more committed to the economic integration of
Africa through the coordination and harmonisation of taxes and other
trade elements.

Mr. Kamorudeen
Adigun, the immediate past president, Chartered Institute of Taxation
of Nigeria (CITN), gave the advice on Tuesday in Lagos during an
interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

According to Mr.
Adigun, although the journey may take sometime to achieve, it has
become absolutely necessary that the commitment at the leadership level
be heightened.

The CITN chief said
that to achieve the dream, internal and international integration
through harmonisation of policies, rule of law, among others, should be
attained without delay.

“This is because
these factors are necessary for the foundation for regional
integration. To surmount these challenges, governments at all levels in
Africa must be up and doing in policy making and implementation. The
present collaboration among various professional bodies and the
creation of awareness within the region is a good step in the right
direction,” he said.

Mr. Adigun said that the coordination and harmonisation of taxes and
other trade elements had become necessary because of the position of
Africa in relation to various world statistics and indexes.

The Nigerian Stock
Exchange (NSE) said the downward trend in the capital market is
traceable to the loss of N700 billion investors’ funds invested in
various Private Placement Offers (PPO).

Mr. Emmanuel
Ikazoboh, the NSE interim administrator, made the observation at the
listing of Multi-Trex Integrated Foods Plc on Monday in Lagos.

Mr. Ikazoboh said
the funds were invested during the boom period, prior to the 2008
financial crisis. He attributed the stock market decline to an
“estimated 40 percent divestment from the equity market to the various
private placements.”

The News Agency of
Nigeria (NAN) reports that Multi-Trex Integrated Foods listed by
introduction of 3.7 billion ordinary shares of 50k each at N3.00 per
share on the floor of the NSE.

“It is interesting to note that a good percentage of the trapped
money was from this exchange, as some investors sold their stocks to
invest them, as the PPO was very promising,” he said.

Four
firms have been selected to act as financial and legal advisers for
Nigeria’s $500 million Eurobond, scheduled to open before year end.

Abraham
Nwankwo, director general of the Debt Management Office (DMO), said
Barclays Capital, a leading global British investment bank, and FBN
Capital, a subsidiary of First Bank of Nigeria, have been selected as
financial advisers; while White & Case, a United States of
America-based international law firm, and Banwo & Ighodalo, a
Lagos-based commercial law firm, have been selected as legal advisers
for the bond.

Mr.
Nwankwo added that despite the downgrade by Fitch Rating, Nigeria will
successfully raise the amount from the international bond market due to
the confidence level of potential investors in the Nigerian economy.

Debut Eurobond

Mr.
Nwankwo explained that Nigeria was making her debut in order to
establish her presence at the international financial market, as well
as create a benchmark yield curve by which other debt instruments in
the country can be measured.

Speaking
at a media briefing yesterday in Lagos, the director general said
Nigeria’s total debt profile is still within sustainable level. He said
the Federal Government has taken a decision to ensure that Nigeria’s
debt does not exceed the 25 percent debt to GDP (Gross Domestic
Product) threshold.

“Nigeria’s
debt to GDPO ratio is about 16 percent of GDP, even though the
internationally acceptable level is 40 percent of GDP,” he said.

This
was affirmed by Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Christian Esters,
who says that Nigeria has a strong fiscal debt position, despite the
sharp deterioration in budgetary performance since 2009.

“As
measured by narrow net external debt, Nigeria is in a net creditor
position. This is the result of strong current account surpluses over
the past few years, as well as the reduction in gross public sector
external debt,” Mr. Esters said in his ratings report on Nigeria,
released yesterday.

Sustainability

Mr. Esters said debt sustainability is dependent on the GDP size.

“If
your GDP is growing, you can be borrowing more, and yet your debt to
GDP ratio is going down. It is the GDP that determines the capacity of
your consumption and shows that your economy is growing.

“If
we can grow economy every year, our debt to GDP ratio can even drop to
less than 10 percent even if we are still borrowing, because it means
you have more capacity to carry that debt very comfortably,” he added.

The
World Bank recently cautioned Nigeria over her rising domestic debt,
which currently stands at about N3 trillion ($21.8 billion), while
external debt stands at about N645 billion ($4.3 billion).

Mr. Nwankwo insisted that Nigeria’s debt portfolio was being managed efficiently, as the cost of servicing it was minimal.

“Even
though we are borrowing at concessionary source externally, with
maximum charge of 1.25 percent per annum and over 35 percent of your
external debts are concessionary, how can somebody say that we are
paying high interest?” he asked.

He said it was not proper for states to access funds from the bond market and divert such funds to other ventures.

“Nobody can raise money from the domestic capital market without the
approval of Securities and Exchange Commission. SEC is supposed to look
out for investors by making sure that the proceeds from that bond are
really invested in the projects which were declared in the prospectus,”
he said.

Google has always
claimed that one of its goals is to ensure the provision of relevant
content to all of its users, regardless of where they are and where
they may come from.

I am the first to
admit that they have done a very good job of mapping Lagos, such that
Google Maps has become a very useful tool. Some of the company’s
critics believe that so much data in the hands of one entity is
dangerous, but for end users faced with certain challenges, that is a
moot point. What we want is for things to be done efficiently. We can
worry about semantics afterwards.

One of the key
challenges that we have in the Nigerian online space is a lack of data
about our part of the world. Searching out “natural wonders of nature
in Nigeria”, as an example, does not give the feeling of a complete
search. Indeed, the fifth top result is actually about the Grand Canyon
in the USA! This void is one that Google aims to fill with a new
product, Baraza.

According to Lola
Masha, Google’s Business Development Manager in Nigeria, Google Baraza
is a Question & Answer solution for English and French users. Its
three key advantages are its structure, the fact that it is powered by
Google’s search engine (I agree that that is a strong advantage), and
that it offers reward points for users.

The word ‘Baraza’
is a Swahili word that is close in meaning to the English word ‘forum.’
Actually, it is an expression for ‘collaborative space’, a place where
people can come to work together and share ideas and information.

At the moment,
Google Baraza is mainly a web-based application, with a strong focus on
desktop users. What must be taken into account, though, is that in
Nigeria, and the African continent as a whole, most new Internet users
are coming on board with the aid of mobile phones.

Ms Masha’s response
to that point was that Baraza already has a mobile platform in the
works, and that those mobile features would be integrated into the
platform shortly. Pressed for a definite timeline, she declined to
answer that, as it is company policy not to tell.

I asked if users of
Google products such as the Android operating system would have some
advantages over users of other platforms. The response disappointed me
a little. Google Baraza is meant to provide a strong focus on user
experience.

As a result of
that, all Google’s products, and not just Baraza, are focused on
efficiency across all platforms so that the user will get the best that
s/he can get, regardless of what platform s/he chooses.

All well and good, but in the meantime, the team at Baraza would do well to answer my question.

First Bank, on Monday, posted significant improvement in its unaudited financial result for the third quarter ended September 30, 2010.

The bank, which recorded a loss after tax of N7.992 billion in 2009, posted a profit after tax of N32.562 billion this year, reflecting a 507.43 per cent improvement. First Bank also recorded a 20 per cent growth in its total asset during the quarter, from N2.0 trillion to N2.4 trillion. However, the bank’s gross earnings for the period declined by 10.57 per cent, from N197.988 billion to N177.065 billion.

Balance sheet strength

Commenting on the results, Bisi Onasanya, the Group Managing Director for First Bank, in a statement, said the brand and the strength of the bank’s balance sheet continued to give the bank the flexibility to maximise market opportunities and play a major role in financing key strategic sectors of the economy. “In spite of the tough lending environment, we were able to grow our loan book across different sectors, supported by our robust risk management policies,” he said. “As a result, we are well positioned to increase our market share and profitability in coming periods as we further deploy our balance sheet towards higher yielding assets.”

Other companies

Also, on Monday, nine other companies posted their financial results. Conoil, in its third quarter report, recorded negative turnover of 26.11 per cent and loss after tax of 27.66 per cent.

In its third quarter report, Afribank, one of the rescued banks, recorded negative gross earnings of 50.01 per cent and profit after tax of 103.42 per cent. May & Baker, in its audited report, posted negative turnover of 4.66 per cent and loss after tax of 42.38 per cent.

Market cap hits N8tr

Meanwhile, the market capitalisation of equities at the NSE, on Monday, hits N8.012 trillion following the listing by introduction of 3.72 billion ordinary shares of Multi-Trex Integrated Foods. As a result, the equities’ capitalisation recorded an increase of 0.37 per cent yesterday from last Friday’s figures of N7.982 trillion. The NSE All-Share Index appreciated by 0.23 per cent on Monday to close at 25,102.20 basis points from the previous day’s figures of 25,042.16.

The banking subsector led the market transaction volume for the day with 157.48 million units valued at N1.28 billion, as against the 278.98million units valued at N2.35 billion recorded on Friday. The volume recorded in the sector was driven by transaction in the shares of First Bank, IBTC, Zenith Bank, Access Bank, and Sterling Bank. The total volume of 95.58 million units valued at N952.70 million traded in the shares of the five stocks accounted for 42.38 per cent of the entire market volume.

The federal government is committed to applying biotechnology for improved fish production, said Mohammed Abubakar, minister of science and technology, in Abuja last week.

Speaking at an open forum for agricultural biotechnology organised by the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), Mr. Abubakar said it was worrisome that the country still spends huge sums of money annually on the importation of aquatic products, despite its vast fresh water resources.

“It is unpleasant to note that the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation reported that between 1996 and 2001, Nigeria spent a total sum of $11.42 million to buy 25,934 tons of aquatic products.

“In our desire to achieve food sufficiency and alleviate poverty among our people, this state of affairs cannot, therefore, be allowed to continue,” Mr. Abubakar said.

He added that while the contribution of fisheries to the Nigerian economy is significant, the nation’s domestic production, estimated at 0.16 metric tonnes, had fallen far short of the demand of 1.55 million metric tonnes.

Biotech to the rescue

Mr. Abubakar suggested that the application of biotechnology in aquaculture and fishery would improve food security and enhance the income of the farmers.

“It is clear that to achieve the much deserved fish food sufficiency, aquaculture development is the solution. We at the federal ministry of science and technology will ensure that all parastatals and agencies under us deploy all their energies and expertise to lead the light in utilising science and technology to solve the myriads of challenges that confront us as a people,” he said.

Obadiah Ando, minister of water resources, agreed with the minister. Mr. Ando, who was represented by Mike Magaji, his special assistant on technical matters, said that the ministry plans to expand the use of dams in Nigeria to include aquaculture, irrigation, and fisheries.

“The imperatives of food security are compelling us, not only to move away from conventional modes of agricultural production, but also to embrace a deeper appreciation of modern biotechnology,” he said.

Bamidele Solomon, director general of NABDA, said that the issue was of growing importance, as fisheries production is stagnant and many wild fish stocks are declining while the population grows.

“The gap between fish supply and fish demand in Africa will grow dramatically unless we do something about it,” he said.

Exhibitors from
neighbouring African countries at the ongoing Jos Trade Fair have noted
that trade fairs within the region have enhanced mutual relationship
and understanding among the people.

Some of the
exhibitors from Senegal and Benin Republic, on Sunday, said that
Nigerian Trade Fairs had increased their understanding of the country.

Ohoussou Aissetou,
an exhibitor from Benin Republic said, “I have seen that Nigerians are
very kind people. I have discovered that they are hospitable when you
go about your lawful business.”

Abdul Mohammed, an exhibitor from Senegal, said Nigeria was the largest market in Africa with lots of opportunities.

The Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN) says it has signed an agreement with the Alliance for
Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) to develop a mechanism to boost the
agricultural sector.

CBN governor,
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, made the announcement in the apex bank’s monthly
journal, ‘Cenbank News’, saying the mechanism would serve the needs of
all farmers.

According to him,
the agreement will be valuable to smallholder farmers, agro-processors,
agribusinesses, and input suppliers in the agricultural value chain.

The Federal
Government has assured the people of Borno State of adequate power
supply to boost economic activities in the state and beyond.

Vice president,
Namadi Sambo, gave the assurance on Saturday when he paid a courtesy
call on the Shehu of Borno, Abubakar Umar, in his palace in Maiduguri.

He said that the government had taken measures to address the problem of power supply in the country.

Mr. Sambo noted
that the five megawatts of electricity being allocated to the state was
grossly inadequate, and said that efforts to extend a 330 KVA
transmission line to the state had reached an advanced stage.