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ICT in Nigeria

I believe that we
have not done badly. We have come a long way. I am saying this not
because I don’t realise that there is still a lot for us to do. Not
because I don’t realise that a lot of other countries are out there
very much ahead of us. But I am saying this because of where we started
and where we came from.

By 1996, when I
came back to this country, during that period, there was no access to
the Internet. Only a few banks had access to computers in terms of
having real time online experience. During that period, no bank had
ATMs; no bank had any card payment system. During that period, mobile
phones did not exist, apart from the big ones 0 9 0 and only a few
people had access to them.

But today, the
country has met the international requirement in terms of teledensity
and surpassed it. Today, mobile phones in the country is over 70
million; whereas, during that period, we had just over 400, 000 phone
lines. The few that gained access to the Internet were doing so through
a system whereby the Internet service providers go to the Internet,
download so many pages, catches them so that people can view those
pages; which means it was not live.

Policy requirement

Nigerian
Communications Commission has done very well, and it is largely as a
result of the good work they have done today that the country is
enjoying rapid development and rapid diffusion of mobile telephony in
the country.

When we talk about
ICT, it does not only has to do with telecommunications; it also has to
do with computers. In terms of computers, there is still so much that
we need to do. So, when I talk about the right kind of policy, I mean
that this country has to have a vision of where it wants to go to as a
country and know the role that ICT will play in order for us to achieve
that.

As is now widely
recognised in the whole world, there is a positive co-relationship
between the level of development in ICT and the level of economic
development. ICT plays a catalytic role in the economic development of
a country. If you have determined what you want to do in the area of
economic development, you can also sit down with the right kind of
people to articulate an ICT policy.

I am aware that
there is some sort of ICT policy in place in Nigeria, but I am also
aware that it needs to be recalibrated and brought to a level that it
really can work. We need to have the right kind of policy, and we also
need to implement 100 percent. We need to bring some good people, from
academia, from industry, and from government to sit down, look at what
is happening in the rest of the world, and say this is what we want to
achieve with regards to ICT in the next 5, 10 years, and see how it is
going to merge into our development policy.

Nigeria as Silicon Valley

It all depends on
how serious we are as a country. If we believe we can, we will
definitely because we have the wherewithal. Nigerian universities still
churn out many people in ICT and a lot of Nigerians are also studying
overseas in different areas of ICT. Outside of Nigeria, Nigerians are
achieving feats in the area of ICT. Many of them are highly recognised
and deemed to be very good with international reputation.

Here in Nigeria, as
somebody that has been in organisations where ICT professionals are
interviewed and recruited, I have seen on many occasions, people that
are fresh from Nigerian universities, yes, you can say they don’t have
a lot of practical experience, you can also say a lot of them don’t
even have some of the theoretical sophistication you are used to seeing
in some ICT people overseas. But I have also seen a lot of them, even
within six months of being exposed to how things ought to be done,
become marvelous.

As somebody in the
ICT industry, I know that Nigeria has so many good people in ICT today,
not just at the high end, middle end, but even at the very low end. So,
I know that with the right kind of policy, with the right kind of
targeting, with the right kind of focus, this country can by far become
the silicon valley of not just West Africa, but the whole of Africa,
because we have all what it takes.

All we need is just
the right kind of environment and push by both people in government and
the industry, and it can be achieved. We need people that are not just
trained in how to programme computers, but who can also create all
kinds of software. We need people that have also been trained to view
the development of software as an engineering enterprise. If you go to
a place like India, you see a lot of software factories because
software is being created almost in an automated manner with
engineering discipline.

Use of local software

As a patriotic
Nigerian, it worries me that at this point in time, given the number of
people churned out every year from our universities in the area of ICT,
that even up till now, many of the software we make use of in this
country are developed abroad. I believe that it is eventually going to
change, especially if the right kind of focus, the right kind of
polices are articulated, and that sense of urgency I am talking about
is brought to bear.

We have a lot of
talented Nigerian programmers who can come out with beautiful software.
But coming out with beautiful software that you can use to replace some
of the mission-critical software we are using in the banking industry,
it is not just the talent of how to write software that is needed.

A great deal of
entrepreneurism is needed. A great deal of project management ability
is needed so that very many people can come together to produce a
software. A lot of the software we use in the banking industry was
produced by about 100 people over a two or three year period.

Unfortunately,
here, we believe that just because somebody has studied computer
science, he can knockout software within a week; but it is not like
that. A lot of the very good software we are using were products of
team effort of 100, 200 or 300 people coming together with many
man-years in order to come up with the product. Yes, we may have the
talent in terms of software development ability, but I don’t think we
have the talent for how to manage big teams, big projects, or how to
make sure that big software development product that we are embarking
on can be subjected to international quality standards.

That’s the problem.
If you are an IT manager in a bank of any other institution, your
organisation is competing against other firms. Definitely you want the
best for your organisation.

Central switching system

At some point, when
I was the chairman of Interswitch, I felt that Interswitch was the de
facto national switch because all the banks were interconnected to
Interswitch. I felt that most other financial institutions and other
organisations that need to interconnect would do so through
Interswitch.

But somewhere along
the line, there were so many other switching companies that were
created in competition to Interswitch. Which means that because of that
need to have a national switch, not just several switch, just like in
telecommunication, there was that need for proper interconnectivity and
the way the country chose to do it was through the Nigeria Inter-Bank
Settlement System (NIBSS).

So NIBSS has come
out with a national switch that all the other companies are now
supposed to interconnect to and all the other players within the
financial industry are supposed to connect to. All the banks have now
had to connect to the national switch in addition to other switches
that they are presently connected to.

I think it is a
good thing because of the need for proper convergence. I believe that
as a result of the deadline (December 1, 2010), people are hurrying to
interconnect. From the point of view of NIBSS, the system is ready. All
they want is for others to start connecting. Once that happens, they
will start the system.

There is nothing
wrong with giving deadline. Sometimes, deadlines help us to quicken our
resolve and hasten our work, and we complete what we need to complete
within that time frame. Much of what we are doing or trying to do in
the world of ICT, especially with regards to the payment system in the
country, is very new, and as a result, it is understandable that you
might proceed on a particular path only to realise that you ought to
have done it differently. I don’t see what is so wrong that somebody
that proceeded on a particular path realiese that that path may
probably not be the best and may wish to progress on a more efficacious
path and then decides on that.

Level at Unity Bank

Unity Bank has done
very well with regards to diffusion in the use of technology. As you
know, Unity Bank is an amalgam of nine banks. Even if you bring two
organisations that have mission-critical IT systems, it is very
difficult to merge their ITs and even cultural and operational
processes. It is even most difficult to manage nine banks.

When Unity Bank
started, we found that some of the banks had legacy systems that were
good, some appalling, and some did not have any at all. There was a
bank that in each of their branches, they had different applications of
different ledgers. So, in converting them, it is almost like converting
different banks also. That is bringing about a sort of combinatorial
explosion.

You have problem
merging nine banks and only to find out that within the nine, some are
like more than 80 banks, on account of the different branches they had
that was not speaking to one application. Believe me, it has never been
done anywhere in the world. One way or the other, we were able to
achieve this.

So, we are as good as most of the other banks that you can say is
very good in ICT usage. We are one of the best in the industry, but
there is still room for us to improve. We are a level two organisation
going to level three.

I recently learnt a lesson in basic capitalism from two hawkers on the streets of Antigua, Guatemala.

The first hawker
approached me, selling wooden flutes that I had no particular interest
in. He urged me to part with US$25 for one. For a moment, I thought of
my youngest son who has a passion for playing the flute and the
trumpet.

The hawker’s basic
commercial English would tickle your ears. But then, my Spanish is not
enough to get anywhere beyond basic greetings. I offered to pay US$5,
and the guy lowered his price to 15. Eventually, I dished out $10 to
this guy who took the cash and promptly moved to search for another
‘tourist.’

The flute under my
armpit, I swaggered with friends for dinner in a beautiful restaurant.
Not too long after, another hawker caught up with me. Guess what? He
had flutes to sell and without any bargaining, he announced they went
for $1 apiece. That was the end of lesson one: never rush the
celebration of a bargain.

Some evenings
later, my friends and I decided to sample the culinary delights of
Antigua again. A young girl soon made an approach with a collection of
pendants and scarves for sale. I was not ready to be sucked in a second
time.

When she pushed her
pendants at me I showed her one I had bought earlier in the day
dangling from my neck. Next, she brought a scarf. Too bad, I already
had one around my neck to ward off the cold. She looked at me for a
while and asked in impeccable English, “Why don’t you want to spend
money?” Taken aback, my response was laughter. Then she fired a second
salvo: “open the other wallet!”

She taught me a
sound lesson in basic capitalism. First, you must spend money. Is that
not the logic about how to stimulate recovery from the financial crisis
the world has been plunged into? More money into the hands of private
sector operators is expected to bring efficiency over profligacy
caskets.

Open the other
wallet? It was later on it dawned on me that some tourists probably
always carried two wallets: one with the local currency and another
with dollars or some similar currencies, but I had only one wallet.

With the
reflections from Antigua hawkers, it was time for us to visit San Juan
Sacatepéquez, a municipality in Guatemala whose local people engage
mainly in agriculture and production of flowers. The visit to a region
of 12 communities with a population of 75,000 revealed an iconic
struggle between local peoples on the one side, and combined teams of
governments and industry on the other.

After listening to
the people at a community meeting and then to the minister of energy
and mines of the country, I saw similarities with community struggles
in Nigeria. A major source of conflict has often been the peoples
demand for dialogue.

Shattered peace

The people recalled
that peace was shattered in 2006 when Cementos Progreso moved in to
commence exploratory activities for mineral exploitation for cement
production. Cementos Progresso is embarking on this project in
partnership with Holcin, the world’s second largest multinational
cement company, which is raising environmental dusts in other
countries, including South Africa.

The people insisted
they were not consulted and that an Environmental Impact Assessment
(EIA) prepared for the project was not participatory. Also, when they
asked for consultative meetings with the company and the government,
they were rebuffed. At a point, a state of emergency was declared in
the area and initial works on the project took off under that cover.

Community people
insist that this denial of consultation violates their rights, as
established under International Labour Organisation’s convention 169,
which requires that affected communities be consulted on projects that
will affect their territories. Guatemalan constitutional court ruled in
December 2009 that licences issued by the ministry of energy and mines
for the recognition, exploration, and mining and hydropower licences
without consultation, is unlawful and arbitrary and violates the
constitutional right of consultation.

With official
rejection of dialogue, the people went ahead and voted against the
project. The official response was repression, heavy-handed attacks,
deaths, and also imprisonment of three local people.

The people believe
their territory has over 34 different solid minerals and that the
cement company’s move is a ploy to open the area to mining of these
other minerals. They fear that the dust from cement operations would
damage their flower production and cripple the local economy.

Moreover, they
believe a road the company plans to build will only benefit the company
by providing it a link to the inter-America highway and would ignore
the community’s earth road that is in sore need for upgrading and
repairs.

When the issues
were tabled before the minister, the answers were telling. Of course,
they had the best intentions. They needed to fight poverty. Poverty
causes environmental degradation. An EIA was conducted and approved by
the relevant ministry.

A United Nations
agency also reviewed the EIA and cited the potential for heavy dusts as
an impact that needed action. Then he added that there was a
constitutional gap with regard to consultations. There is no clarity
about the meaning of popular consultations and who would be involved
and what the scope of such consultations should be. The ILO Convention
169 does not confer the power of veto to any consultative forum that
may be set up.

At the moment, the
project is stalled and there is an uneasy calm in the communities. The
government said mining works would commence only when a “friendly”
agreement is reached with the community.

This reminded me of
the lesson I got from the hawker about the approach of governments to
mining and other projects: open the other wallet – exploit anything
that can be exploited, whether you need it or not.

Lesson over!

FinBank on Wednesday asked an Abuja High Court to dismiss an N850 million lawsuit accusing it of defaulting on a loan agreement.

The bank is being sued by Osino Holdings LTD, an indigenous company, for fraud and deceit over the non-payment of a loan.

At the resumed
hearing of the case on Tuesday, the presiding judge, Olasunbo Goodluck,
granted the bank an extension of time to file its statement of defence,
and a hearing fixed for September 28.

History of the case

Osino Holdings said
that on January 21, 2008, it applied for a loan of N130 million through
the bank so that it could buy the Goldstar Petroleum Station in Kaduna.
According to the chairman of the company, Emmanuel Osita Okereke, the
bank asked for a N30 million equity contribution and promised to pay
out the loan within a few days.

“I made several
trips to Lagos to hold meetings with the bank’s group head of private
banking, Chinwe Attanbansi,” said Mr. Okereke.

“It was in one of
such meetings that she assured me that as soon as the [my company] can
pay its equity contribution, the loan would be disbursed to it,” he
said.

Mr. Okereke said a
bank draft of N30 million was issued to the bank on May 13, 2008,
though it was not cashed until June 23 – over a month after the draft
was handed over. After the bank’s assurances of the disbursement of the
loan, the company started to invest in the Kaduna filling station.

However, he said
that after payment, the bank insisted on evidence of landed property as
collateral for the loan. The chairman said he complied with the request
for additional collateral, but said that as at December 2009, he had
still not received any money from the loan.

“The defendants’
refusal or neglect to disburse the loan as assured, has led to the
plaintiff’s heavy loss on investment in the said Goldstar Filling
Station in Kaduna,” read court documents.

Mr. Okereke accused
the bank of collecting the draft from his company for almost two years
to boost its profile. Osino Holdings LTD is now asking the court to ask
the bank to reimburse its N30 million equity contribution at the
current lending rate. The company is also asking the bank to pay it
N850 million as general damages for the loss it suffered during the
transaction.

Emotional appeal in advertising is known as Emotional Selling
Proposition (ESP). A brand thrives when it forges powerful emotional bond with
consumers. Emotional appeal makes consumers have intimate relationship with
brands. Since a brand comprises emotional and physical attributes that appeal
to the consumers’ minds and hearts, the use of emotional appeal inspires and
moves them into action.

Recently, brands tend to utilise emotional appeal more to
resonate with consumers. Though one does not have any empirical data to support
this claim, the way such communication campaigns inspire the audience cannot be
underestimated.

Over the years, some brands have deployed emotional appeal as a
platform to build connection and sustain brand loyalty. Through this, consumers
assume ownership of the brand and they build their lives around it. Such brand
provides desired emotional benefits for the consumers. This goes a long way in
making brands evoke feelings in consumers, which ultimately influence their
purchase decision.

Emotional appeal is a powerful thing and it creates a lasting
bond between the consumers and such brands. When the Skye Bank campaign broke
some years ago, it was one that made a unique connection with consumers. The
campaign was one that not everyone believed it revolved round a financial
institution. It was a total departure from selling service and products
offerings to the consumers. It was one that significantly leveraged emotional
appeal to arouse consumer’s interest.

It is also worthy of note that successful brands thrive because
they offer consumers something that they want and need, something that is
beneficial and relevant to their lives. This should be the thrust of any brand
campaign that is hinged on emotional appeal. This is because many consumers
increasingly use brands as a means of self expression. This was the scenario
when it was discovered that several people downloaded the Hakuna Matata song
used in the Skye Bank advert as ringing tones.

Resonance with audience

The Skye Bank campaign on Hakuna Matata, meaning ‘no worries’,
is one that resonates with the target audience, as it identified with the
yearnings and aspirations of the consumers. Hakuna Matata later became a slogan
for several people, even when they pass through life’s challenges. It is an
emotional appeal that clearly tells the consumers, ‘no matter what happens, do
not worry’. The bank hinged on this appeal to assure customers of its readiness
to make banking a stress-free activity for them. With this strong emotive
platform, the bank was able to capture the minds of the customers.

The bank, basking on the success of the Hakuna Matata campaign,
further reinforced its brand message through the ‘Say Yes’ campaign. This is
one that seeks to tell the audience in clear terms that they should be positive
in life. The bank positions itself as a worthy friend to the customers, sharing
their dreams, and telling them it is only Skye Bank that is a true friend. The
platform is hinged on Emotional Selling Proposition, which evokes feelings of
the consumers to have positive spirit all times. The radio jingle ‘I wish I
have a friend, saying Yes to My Dreams’ became a sing along for everyone.

Succinctly put, the consumer can have possibilities if only he
or she thinks about it. He should just believe everything about his life is
possible when he says YES – which means he should just believe in himself and
his potentials. The campaign, even though now rested, is one that really leveraged
on the impact of emotive appeal that can be forgotten in a hurry. The new
campaign tells the audience ‘How Can We Say Yes To You’. This also positions
the bank as a dependable friend that can shoulder the burden of the cosumers.

Diamond Bank is also joining the fray of leveraging on Emotional
Selling Proposition to reach out to all segments of the society.

Though Emotional Selling Proposition goes the extra mile in
building brand loyalty and creating emotional attachment with consumers, it
should also align with the brand promise. Such campaigns can only translate to
success when consumer experience of the brand brings satisfaction and
fulfilment.

The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) will host Nigeria’s
first non-oil exports conference, exhibition, and awards.

It is designed to provide a forum for private-public sectors
dialogue on trade policies, export incentives, and challenges aimed at
facilitating the country’s drive to become one of the top 20 economies by the
year 2020.

The expo, which is expected to come in the mould of the now
popular annual Nigeria Oil and Gas (NOG) conference/exhibitions, would showcase
the opportunities in the non-oil sector of the country’s economy, with a view
to providing incentives to local investors, as well as attracting
export-oriented international firms to the country.

“As a country that has set for itself the target of becoming one
of the world’s top 20 developed economies by 2020, Nigeria’s ranking in the
global economic development index is not going to be oil and gas-based, rather
on the quantum of its participation in world trade activities,” Femi Boyede,
the chief executive, Koinonia Ventures Limited, the collaborating export
consultancy firm for the conference, said yesterday in Abuja.

With the theme: ‘Non-Oil Exports: the Road to Nigeria’s Vision
20-2020′, it will focus on training and human development, export management
services, export incentives processing, export development, impact assessment
of government policies, as well as government policy strategies and
implementation for the non-oil export sector.

The time is now

Mr. Aboyede said the time is ripe for a platform for local and
foreign investors on an annual basis to focus global attention on the country’s
non-oil export sector, describing it as the main driver of Nigeria’s economy
and the main road towards the achievement of economic vision in the next ten
years.

“This is the only way to show that Nigeria is actually charting
a course for the realisation of the Vision 20-2020 objectives. Every year,
Nigerians spend huge foreign exchange to attend such events as INDABA, the
minerals sector development event in South Africa, and the Offshore Technology
Conference (OTC) in Houston, for the oil and gas technology.

“It is time for Nigeria to also have an annual programme that
would attract the global community to gather and talk about its vast non-oil
sector potentials and opportunities,” he declared.

The exhibition, he said, will showcase not only existing export
products, but also potential export products and services that go out of
Nigeria to the world, including an array of Nigeria’s agricultural commodities,
ethnic crafts, herbal products, foods, as well as diverse range of goods
available for exports.

“The exhibition is not for the companies to beat their chest
that they have arrived, but also a capacity building exercise, where up and
coming exporters are able to see what the more advanced and technologically
equipped ones are doing, as well as to learn from the international
participants how to move the non-oil sector forward, particularly on how to
adapt their products to suit the international market place and enhance
competitiveness,” he explained.

He stressed the need for Nigerians to begin to accord
recognition and encouragement to those companies that defy all the challenges
of infrastructural inefficiency and deficiency as well as high cost of doing
business in Nigeria, to promote the country’s name in the global export map,
saying the awards to 20 indigenous firms during the event would be to recognise
them as performers in the export industry.

Agencies of government said curbing the menace of counterfeit
products in Nigeria is difficult, but they are thinking ahead of government’s
strategies to control the situation.

Speaking at an ‘Anti-counterfeit Media Roundtable’, organised by
Nokia in Lagos last Tuesday, Adewunmi Richard, group head,
electrical/electronics, Standards Organisation of Nigeria, said that
counterfeit problem is difficult for agencies to tackle because by the time
government sets up a way to control the problem, some Nigerians are looking for
another way to outsmart government.

“Counterfeiting is an imitation that is made usually with intent
or deceptively represents its content or origin. When you look at all its
features, it looks the same as an original,” Mr. Richard said at the event.

“The SON tried to devise other means to control counterfeit products
from coming into the country via its SONCAP certificate, but I am sorry to tell
you that as at today, we discovered two weeks ago some people opened an office
in Abuja to forge SONCAP certificate.That is their business, and they know how
to formulate all the security features for the dealers,” added Mr. Richard.

Technology is worst hit

Mr. Richard explained that counterfeit issues are very
predominant in the technology and electronic sector in the country.

“There are some mobile phones, if you make a call for five
minutes, the phone is placed far away from your ears because it is very hot.
The auto speaker in your handset is made of coil; if the quality of the coil is
not good, what it means is that the more you talk the more it heats up the
coil. The heat transmitted to the body from the handset could be harmful to the
user,” he said.

Ify Umenyi, the director general of Consumer Protection Council
(CPC), said, “The ill of counterfeiting is sometimes perceived by society as a
victimless crime, with ‘fakes’ simply constituting a cheap alternative
purchase. At times, consumers are constrained by ignorance, inability to detect
counterfeit products, and poverty.

“Incidentally, consumers opt for substandard or counterfeit
mobile handsets, often referred to as ‘China phones’, because they are
seemingly cheap and look exactly like the originals,” added Ms. Umenyi.

Also commenting on the issue, Timi Bomodi, the spokesperson for
the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), said that counterfeiting is a major concern
to governments and institutions worldwide because of its implications.

The gathering agreed that government agencies and consumers must
come together to fight the menace.

“Where there is co-operation between the public and the private
sector, it becomes difficult for counterfeiters and the dealers in counterfeit
goods to thrive. We should, therefore, join forces to make Nigeria counterfeit
proof,” said Mr. Bomodi.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said yesterday that banks’
overhead costs would go down by about 30 percent in the next three years if
their managements build independent sources of power supply for their
operations.

Lamido Sanusi, the bank governor, said at the 4th annual banking
and finance conference in Abuja that Central Bank will provide support and
encouragement to facilitate this initiative.

Mr. Sanusi, who spoke on the topic ‘Evolving financial
landscape: Strategies for economic resilience”, said:

“Given the criticality of efficiency to cost of funds, the CBN
has recently started a shared services project, in collaboration with banks,
aimed at centralising back offices and the industrialisation of common
processes.

“In the next three years, we will reduce overhead costs in the
banking industry by 30 percent. We are also working towards establishing an IPP
for independent power supply for all banks operating in Lagos as a pilot
cluster.”

The governor added that the recent decision to review the
universal banking model adopted in 2001, was to enable banks re-examine their
existing business models to identify their strengths and see what opportunities
they could apply to enhance maximum returns.

He told the participants, including vice president, Namadi
Sambo; president of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Laoye
Jaiyeola; Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Ibrahim Dankwaabo, and
managing directors of banks, as well as their counterparts in the financial
services sector, that the financial system is experiencing stability, pointing
out that Nigeria is the only country that witnessed a banking sector crisis
during the global economic crisis without a depositor losing money.

More efficient industry

Mr. Sambo noted the pivotal role of the Central Bank in the
implementation of the power sector reforms, pointing out that the Federal
Government will continue to support its efforts to ensure market discipline in
the financial sector.

“The Federal Government identifies with the CBN reforms at
repositioning the banking sector, and it is our hope that a more efficient
banking industry will emerge from the whole exercise,” Mr. Sambo said,
underscoring the need for all to continue to rally round the Central Bank to
support the sector by ensuring market-driven competition, as well as bringing
greater efficiency of the banking industry and the economy at large.

Mr. Sambo assured that government would give all the support
needed to encourage the real sector achieve single digit rate, adding, “We need
to address power to ensure that power is stable. We have expended N10 billion
on thermal plants for distribution to sub stations.”

He challenged participants to take the opportunity of the
conference to take a critical look at the country’s financial system and come
up with ideas to support its safety and soundness, pointing out that this would
not only help the system withstand both internal and external shocks, but would
enhance the confidence of both the depositors and investors.

Repairs to sabotaged oil facilities in the Niger Delta will help to push exports of Nigeria’s benchmark crude oil to the highest since early-2008, trade sources said on Friday.

According to preliminary loading programmes, Bonny Light output will average 285,000 barrels per day (bpd) in November, up from 245,000 bpd planned in October.

Production of the gasoline-rich crude has long been hampered by militant sabotage on vulnerable pipelines and platforms in the oil-rich wetland region, the heartland of Africa’s biggest oil and gas industry.

Sabotage attacks heightened in intensity in mid-2008 and operator Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) has struggled to recapture prior output levels ever since.

But a government amnesty last year, which saw thousands of former militants hand over weapons in return for clemency, brought a halt to attacks, encouraging Shell to repair damaged infrastructure and build a new pipeline.

Bonny Light output reached a peak of nearly 500,000 bpd in 2005 when it accounted for nearly one-fifth of the total crude output from Africa’s most populous nation.

All efforts to stimulate direct foreign investment in Nigeria may not yield any fruit until the country adopts international standard for financial reporting, said the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN).

The view was expressed at the association’s ongoing Mandatory Continuing Professional Development (MCPD) programme, holding in Lagos.

The theme for the programme, as disclosed by the association’s national president, Iyamide Gafar, is ‘Standardisation and Accounting Ethics’, where five topics will be discussed. The topics, according to the chairman of Lagos branch of ANAN, if ingrained as practice principles, will help checkmate corrupt practices in Nigeria.

The topics are: Financial Reporting Standards; The Process of Standards Setting and its Effect on Financial Reporting; Professionalism and Ethics in Accounting; Due Process Mechanism and Reporting, and Financial Reporting in the Public Sector.

Current reporting standards

While presenting a lecture on financial reporting standards, Paul Adejona berated current standards for reporting financial statements in Nigeria, describing it as fictional. Specifically, he said financial statements, as reported in Nigeria currently, are not capable of revealing the precise financial health of organisations because issues like inflation and risks, which matter a lot to business operations, are not reported.

“Other countries like Brazil and Netherlands have a way of reporting effect of inflation in their financial statements but in Nigeria, there is yet to be a provision for reporting inflation,” he said, attributing this backwardness to low influx of foreign investments in Nigeria.

“No wonder these foreign investors that are coming with their hard currencies are still finding it difficult to invest in Nigeria because they have concluded that our financial statement is not effective enough and it is porous,” he said.

He advocated the adoption of international financial reporting standards because the standard of reporting financial statements in Nigeria allows external auditors to post a clean bill of health on a company’s financial statement while in reality, calamity and failure are knocking.

“There is no proper time that we need to adopt this international reporting standard than this period we are now,” he said.

He found it ludicrous that there are different reporting standards, some of which are obviously obsolete, when in actual fact, credit and debit mean the same thing everywhere in the world.

Adopting the international standard, he said, will not only help Nigeria’s industry, but will also enable Nigerian accountants to practice their profession anywhere in the world.

Nigeria needs a radical leader

Benjamin Jenfa, the chairman of the event, said the role played by ANAN in the country exemplifies why Nigeria needs a radical leader.

He said late general Sanni Abacha labelled the association’s executives as radicals at a meeting with him.

“He told us we write too much and that as we write, he keeps dumping our reports under the table,” he said.

But the late president advised them to keep writing because “a day is coming when Nigeria will have a radical president that will implement your reports.”

While calling for greater boldness from Nigeria’s political leaders to implement stringent accounting practice principles, he was, nevertheless, grateful to former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, for implementing some of the recommendations of ANAN.

South Africa’s
retail sales growth quickened by 7.9 percent year-on-year in July at
constant prices, compared with an upwardly revised 7.6 percent increase
in June, Statistics South Africa said on Wednesday.

Stats South Africa
said retail sales grew by 6.5 percent in the three months to July,
compared to the same period a year ago, also at constant prices.

Economists polled by Reuters last week forecast sales growth would brake to 6.9 percent year-on-year in July.