Nigeria Content Online

The NITEL, Ikeja territorial district at Cappa, Oshodi, Lagos,
was once the training school of NITEL in the early 1980’s. In 2007, the NITEL
training school was handed over to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)
to manage, under the name of Digital Bridge Institute (DBI).

Some of the unused office space has been transformed into living
quarters by some NITEL workers due to non-payment of salaries for over two
years.

Nasah-Palan Fagwam, a NITEL staff (works in the Customering
Engineering Department), said he has been living in one of the NITEL offices
since April 2009 because he was driven out from his previous apartment after it
was handled over to the commission, along with the training school.

“In April, 2009, I moved into this room. We were initially
allowed to stay here for three months, pending when our salaries would have
been paid to enable us get accommodation outside the office.

“As you can see, the space is so small; because of that, I had
to move my wife and children to Plateau State, where my wife is also schooling.
Things have been difficult for us. If you look around, so many workers live
here with their families in the same tiny room like mine. Some have been here
longer than I have been, and some workers have divided their family amongst
extended families and friends,” said Mr. Fagwam.

When NEXT visited the NITEL office, a storey building of about
twenty-four office spaces are occupied by the workers as homes, and the only
kitchen in the block has been constructed into a room. Wood planks are used to
make rooms along the path way of the building. Each room has their kitchen on a
table outside their rooms, and the occupants share just two bathrooms and eight
toilets on that building.

According to some workers, NITEL staff houses were sold to the
workers in 2007 and they were given 60 days to pay particular amounts to the
NITEL Pension Fund, controlled by Olushola Adekanola & Co., while others
were evicted from their houses, as these were also handed over to the NCC along
with the training school.

Another worker, Henry, said the archives that were in the
building had to be moved to another office space that has not been opened for
years.

Mr Henry said the situation of the workers living in the NITEL
office is the same other workers face in their various homes. He added that
some of the workers live off their wives in order for them to stay alive.

“This is just not only happening here. Some workers have divided
their families, some have moved into smaller places, just to have a place to
lay their heads. We now live off our wives’ businesses; we do chores at home in
order for us to get transport fees to come to work. This morning, I had washed
clothes and plates in my house before coming to work and I only come to work
when my wife gives me money to leave the house,” Mr Henry said.

The cry of the women

According to Rosemary Emmanuel, a NITEL casual worker, the
hardship they are going through is unimaginable.

“We are suffering here; government should pay us and our
husbands their salaries. You cannot even imagine your enemy to be in this situation;
this hardship is too much.”

Ms Emmanuel said that her late husband worked for NITEL and
passed on in February, 2000 and she has seven children, who all live with her
in a room at the NITEL office, Cappa. She said she got appointed as a cleaner in
NITEL after she lost her husband. She added that her first child is nineteen,
while the last is eleven, and none of them attends any school.

“You see this fish (she held up a tilapia fish) and this guinea
corn with so many weevils in it, is what I want to cook to feed my seven
children. We are suffering, our children are suffering, no money to train them
or feed,” said Ms Emmanuel.

“See my body, you think that I am old, which is not true but
because there is no money for me to take care of myself, wear good clothes or
make my hair, so I look older than my age. We live in fear here as snakes and
scorpions always enter our rooms. The government should please pay us our money
so that we can leave this place and get a better life,” added Ms Emmanuel.

Government, what is going
on?

NITEL workers say they do not understand why the federal
government has failed to pay them over 27 months arrears.

Kenneth Joshua, another NITEL staff, said, “Honestly, we don’t
even understand the situation any longer and what is really happening now.
Since after the sale of NITEL, government has not really come out to say their
own part of the issue. All we hear is that they are working toward paying the
workers. There have been so many panels or committees set up to looking into the
workers’ issues, but still, nothing has come out of it,” he said.

Mr Joshua added that because of his financial situation, his
father still contributes to his family’s upkeep.

“It is sad to say that my father still sends me money and some
friends always help me out with money too. In order to still stay in my house,
I had to get a lawyer and my pastor to write to my landlord assuring him that
once government pays me, I would not owe him one kobo and that I would pay my
rent and not run away.”

However, NITEL management said that they are not aware that the
some workers live in the office premises.

In a telephone interview, Sule Shedu, the spokesperson of NITEL,
said, “I am just hearing about this development. I need to find out from the
zonal public relations officer in Lagos. I do not know anything about this
development because I have never heard about it. The NITEL management is not
aware that some workers live in the NITEL offices. I am just hearing this for
the first time”.

However, Mr Fagwam said that the workers were given permission
to live in the offices by Engineer Kamalu, the former general manager of NITEL,
Lagos zone, who retired in July, 2010.

The many controversies of
NITEL

NITEL, the nation’s commmunications agency, has become synonymous
with many controversial issues resulting from mismanagement and fraud. The
federal government, potential bidders, NITEL management, and workers are the
key players in the whole saga.

Since 2001, the federal government has made a fifth attempt to sell
off NITEL and has failed to keep the establishment operational.

On February 16, 2010, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE)
released a NITEL bid result that New Generations Telecommunications Consortium
had bided $2.5 billion for 75% percent equity of NITEL to emerge as the
preferred bidder.

Few days after the result was announced, China Unicom Limited, a
member of the New Generations Telecommunication Consortium, denied any
involvement with the bid of NITEL. In March, 2010, the federal government set
up a committee to investigate the NITEL bid, said to have been concluded by the
BPE.

As at the time of this report, the bid result of NITEL has not
been approved by the National Council on Privatization (NCP) and is still under
investigations.

However, some workers are hoping that the federal government
pays all outstanding arrears before October 1, 2010, as they have threatened to
disrupt Nigeria’s 50th Independence celebration if government fails.

It is important that retirees invest in a
diversified manner across all asset classes. By spreading your investments
across various asset classes, you will be less vulnerable where a particular
class underperforms.

Mrs Gomez is 72 years old. She has always been a
diligent, disciplined saver, and planned ahead for a secure and comfortable
retirement. She is a conservative investor and retained most of her savings in
the money market so that she could earn regular income. When the stock market
plummeted in 2008, she sold off the last of her shares, which she had held for
decades and thereafter placed all her hard-earned money in a bank deposit. Her
investments had traditionally earned her about 15% per annum; this made it
possible for her to take care of her monthly expenses.

Everything changed in June this year; Mrs Gomez
received a letter from her bank informing her that the interest rate on her
investment had been reduced to 3%. This came as a huge shock and she wondered
how she would cope with such a drastic reduction in her income. As she is
completely dependant on the interest on her savings, she sees her long-term
capital dwindling and fears that her living standards will soon be affected.
Her worst nightmare is that her money may run out well before she does!

Seek professional advice

It is important to seek professional financial
advice. A financial advisor will take a holistic view of your current financial
circumstances, and then devise an investment strategy that is in line with your
own unique situation. Taking into account your age and lifestyle, it will be
possible to determine how far you can stretch your funds, given certain
assumptions.

Don’t put all your eggs
in one basket

Senior citizens are usually discouraged from
taking risk and are more likely to be advised to hold most of their money in
‘safe’ investments that are capital protected. Cash is a most tempting asset
class, particularly in volatile times, yet it holds little promise of long-term
wealth creation, with inflation eating away at the principal and eroding the
value of their funds. With interest rates this low, it is difficult to earn any
meaningful income from your money without assuming at least some degree of
risk. It is thus important to invest in a diversified manner, spreading your
money across various asset classes. By doing this, you will be less vulnerable
where a particular class underperforms.

Whilst stocks have historically outperformed
other asset classes over the long term, for most old people the priority is to
preserve what they have. Without the advantage of a long period of time,
assuming such risk at this stage may not be appropriate as this is sure to
increase the risk and volatility of your returns over the short and medium
term.

If you are uncomfortable with, or cannot afford
to take any risk whatsoever, then it is important to remain in cash and hope
that rates will eventually recover. In the meantime, you may need to dip into
the principal to tide you over the volatile period, which could well be for an
extended period of time. In this regard, you may need to revisit your lifestyle
requirements, and cut back on your expenses for some time.

Dividend yielding stocks

Dividend yielding stocks, that is, stocks that
provide a decent cash flow, are one of the keys to a successful retirement
portfolio. The inclusion of such stocks can go some way to protect investors
from stockmarket volatility by compensating with dividends. Dividend yields on
some stocks are fairly predictable and can be as high as 5% and more, which is
higher than current money market rates. In addition, the growth prospects of
some of the companies present capital gains.

A cautious investor may prefer to invest in
equity mutual funds, which pool investors’ funds to invest in the stock market.
They are more diversified and as such, not as risky as direct investments in a
handful of individual stocks.

Can bonds help?

Bonds play an important role in any portfolio,
either through the purchase of individual bonds or via bond mutual funds.
‘Laddering’ bonds involves buying an assortment of bonds of various maturities
and then staggering the maturities over say one, two, and three, years. As each
bond matures, it may be re-invested for another period thus helping to set a
base level of income that can be relied upon to support retirement spending
needs.

Consider purchasing an
annuity

Another way to potentially receive regular income
and address the prospect of longevity, is to purchase an annuity from a
leading, reputable insurance company. Insurance companies in exchange for an
amount of money should be able to provide you with guaranteed income for a
specific period of time or sometimes for life. After determining how much
income you will receive from your pension and other investments you might
consider purchasing an annuity to make up the shortfall.

Annuities come with different terms and
conditions and can be quite complex for the lay investor. It is important that
you fully understand the terms and carefully weigh your options to be sure that
the fees and charges are not excessive and remove the advantage of such a
strategy.

Whilst low interest rates are generally viewed as
being detrimental to savings and of concern to those that rely on fixed income,
a low interest rate regime is expected to spur economic growth. In an ideal
world, companies and businesses should be able to borrow at affordable rates,
thus lowering their costs of production contributing to their profit margins.
As they invest in new factories and plants, and production increases, they hire
more workers with a reduction in unemployment. Consumers can also borrow at
cheaper rates than they ordinarily could and are able to reduce their personal
debt.

As a retiree focused on capital preservation and income generation, it is
easy to ignore the possibility of bonds, high-quality, dividend yielding
stocks, and other asset classes in a portfolio. Yet, there is the increasing
prospect of having to fund a 20-year post retirement period. By regularly
reviewing your retirement strategy, and ensuring diversification and exposure
to the various asset classes, you should be in a better position to navigate
market volatility and ensure your capital lasts for the rest of your life.

When Eunice Okeke bought shares of MTech Plc in July, 2009,
through her stockbroker, she thought she was making a worthy investment. The
shares had been listed by introduction on the daily official list of the
Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), under the information and communication
technology subsector, at N2.50 a few weeks earlier. At that point, investors
who had participated in its private placement barely a year before at the price
of N1.50, had already reaped a handsome 66.7 percent returns on their
investment.

MTech Communications had, in May 2008, raised N3.5 billion by
offering to prospective investors 2,333,333,334 ordinary shares of N1.00 each
at N1.50 per share. The offer was fully subscribed, proceeds of which was to
expand its business and enhance returns to its shareholders.

It was the hope of such returns that prompted Mrs Okeke to
invest in the firm, which was the first Value Added Services (VAS) company to
be listed on the exchange. On June 9, 2009, a total of 4,966,666,668 ordinary
shares of 50 kobo each were offered at N2.50 kobo per share, bringing its
market capitalisation to N12.42 billion. Chika Nwobi, cofounder and managing
director of the company, said of the listing, “we decided to list by
introduction so that those who have invested in the business can have an option
of liquidity.”

Unfortunately, the listing was done at a time when the stock
market was in turmoil due to the global financial meltdown, which had began to
take its toll on the Nigerian economy. By November 23, the share price had
slipped to 91 kobo, a depreciation of over 63 percent. Initial investors were
already making profit.

False declaration

However, any further hope that the shares would appreciate
according to the dynamics of market forces were dashed finally when, on
December 14, the NSE council suspended trading on the shares in order to
protect the investing public. In a letter dated December 11, 2009, and signed
by the former director general of the stock exchange, Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, the
council accused some parties in the offer of tampering with the register of
members, overstating of the share capital of the company, as well as false
declaration of compliance filed with the exchange prior to listing of the company.

The letter, which was copied to the CBN governor, managing
directors of the Central Securities Clearing System, Platinum Capital,
Greenwich Trust, and MTech, stated, “We are aware that the Securities and
Exchange Commission and the Central Bank of Nigeria are considering matters
arising from the dispute between MTech Communications Plc and members of the
Bank PHB Group.”

The letter was in reaction to an earlier communication by MTech
to the exchange to the effect that these discrepancies had occurred. “Upon the
conclusion of action by the commission on the matter, the exchange proposes a
comprehensive review of the listing status of the company with a view to
delisting it from the official list.”

Sola Oni, spokesperson of the NSE, said MTech had some challenges
with Bank PHB over its private placement.

“Upon listing of the company, there were some discrepancies in
the register of shareholders and the council decided that until they make
clarifications, the shares may be placed on full suspension,” he said, saying
although the exchange did not give the parties a deadline to respond, it did
not also foreclose further investigation as the issues involved borders on
criminal intent. “We should get to the bridge before we cross it. For now, we
have not received any response from them,” he said.

Indebtedness

However, NEXT investigation revealed that directors of Mtech
were indebted to Bank PHB, through its subsidiary, PHB Asset Management Company
Limited. A source in the company, who spoke off record, said the directors of
the bank who were involved in the transactions had been relieved of their
employment, following the intervention by the Central Bank of Nigeria in the
troubled bank last year. Bank PHB is owed a total of N170.1 billion by 149
individuals and firms.

According to the source, at the conclusion of MTech’s private
placement in 2008, which was fully subscribed, Bank PHB failed to remit the
full N3.5 billion. The bank instead opted to deduct the amount owed it by the
directors and remit the balance. MTech is refusing to accept this arrangement,
as it was outside the terms of the placement agreement.

Kayode Falowo, managing director of Greenwich Trust, which acted
as stockbroking to the listing, said his firm was not involved in the
discrepancies mentioned. “I have repeatedly said that we are not involved with
these accusations. We wish to reemphasis that Greenwich is not involved with
the falsification of figures or tampering with shareholders register,” he said
in a text message.

MTech reported

Efforts to speak with Mr Nwobi was unsuccessful, as he refused
to respond to calls to his mobile. A source close to the company, however, said
it was the company that discovered the discrepancy and decided to notify the
regulators. In addition, the MTech had taken the PHB Group to court alleging
that its register of shareholders had been tampered with. The company insisted
that it reported the case to SEC and CBN and sought protection for its
shareholders by requesting the suspension of trading in its shares from the
NSE, pending resolution of the matter.

“MTECH’s directors have not been involved in (1) falsification
of figures (2) tampering with shareholders register. The directors and MTECH
Plc do have a dispute with BankPHB, PHB Asset Management, and PHB Capital and
Trust over irregularities in the handling of MTECH’s private placement and
listing,” a statement from MTech said. “The matter is before the Federal High
Court so no further comment can be made on it.”

An insider to the transactions, however, said MTech was being
economical with the truth. He said the directors, who were indebted to Bank
PHB, were looking for ways not to pay back their loans.

“We gave some individuals loans. They have not paid. If they say
we tampered with their register of members, there are documents, signed off by
MTech, which is still available. We have the list of people that subscribed to
the private placement. So when the time comes, there are documents to show the
true position of things,” she said.

However, while this corporate battle lingers, hapless shareholders of the
company are left in the lurch. They cannot get value for their investment for
all they are worth. When the shares are eventually delisted by the NSE, the
shareholders would have recorded a loss of about half the value of their
initial investment as at the time the shares were listed.

The Nigerian
content policy is not about allocation of marginal oil blocks to
Nigerians, but the promotion of the Nigerian service companies’
capacity to participate effectively in the development of the country’s
oil and gas industry, a senior official has said.

Ernest Nwapa, the
executive secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring
Board (NCDMB), said this in Kaduna, Kaduna State, at the Nigeria Bar
Association (NBA) conference.

Mr. Nwapa noted
that with international oil companies controlling over 80 percent of
the petroleum industry business in Nigeria, government is not satisfied
that indigenous operators are left to be contented with some left over
jobs outsourced from their service arms.

He said the board
has agreed to partner with the NBA towards the effective implementation
of the Nigerian Content Act, recently approved by President Goodluck
Jonathan.

A new mindset is necessary

He added that the
effective implementation of the Act required a change of mindset by
Nigerians, some of who still believe that it is impracticable for
Nigerians to perform on the major jobs in the oil and gas industry,
pointing out that only through collaboration with bodies like the NBA,
Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), and Nigerian Maritime
Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) that the provisions of the
Act would be successfully implemented.

He urged lawyers to
always show national interest when handling briefs for clients,
pointing out that some unpatriotic elements would want to manipulate
documents on their ownership of equipment used for work in the industry
as required by the Act. This, he argued, is capable of impeding the
achievement of the objectives of the law.

The board will also
involve the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the Nigerian Customs
Service (NCS) and other relevant government agencies in the
verification of the personnel and assets of all operating and service
companies in the Nigerian oil and gas industry as a way of ensuring
that beneficiaries are up-to-date in their obligations to government.

Nwapa also harped
on the need for the building of standard pipe mills in Nigeria to
service the oil and gas industry, to provide pipes for future projects
like the planned Nigerian Gas Master Plan (NGMP) and the Trans Saharan
Gas Pipeline.

To demonstrate
government’s commitment to support local investors, he said the NCDMB
is insisting that operating and service companies must not be allowed
to import pipes for their projects until the combined capacity of
existing and prospective developers of local pipe mills has been
exhausted.

The Nigerian
Content Act, he emphasised, was not government’s attempt to drive away
the multinationals from the country’s oil and gas industry. Rather, it
is to attract more investments into the industry, adding that the
provisions of the Act expects the multinationals to do the jobs in
Nigeria, which will ultimately be cheaper for their operations and
yield mutual benefit for the companies and the Nigerian economy.

George Etomi, chairman of the section on Business Law of the NBA,
said it was critical for the NBA to support the implementation of the
Nigerian Content Act, saying this was a strategic effort to raise the
capacity and standards of the indigenous operators to compete globally,
citing the examples of countries like Malaysia and Brazil where such
laws have been used to develop their economies in the recent past.

It is sad that the
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) that ought to be an arbiter
in cases of environmental and human rights abuses has become a partisan
at a price tag of $10 million at the behest of Shell. Just imagine what
that amount of money could have done if it had been deployed towards a
serious environmental audit and remediation.

UNEP is preparing a
report claiming that 90 percent of the oil spills in Ogoni are caused
by the locals in the process of stealing crude from the pipes and that
Shell’s aged pipelines and ill maintained installations account for a
mere 10 percent of the spills.

What period was
covered by this study? Does it include the spills over which the
Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) complained and
resisted further degradation? Does it include the degradation that
pitched Ken Saro-Wiwa and MOSOP against oppressive dictators and Shell?

This attempt to
rewrite the history of environmental violence visited on the Niger
Delta by transnational oil corporations sounds like a story from outer
space. UNEP has simply lent itself to become Shell’s pet parrot. What
they are saying is in line with what Shell used to claim in the 1980s
and at any given opportunity.

Then, they claimed
that about 80 percent of the oil spills were caused by vandalism or
sabotage. The claim of sabotage is particularly attractive to oil
corporations because they are exempted from payment of compensations.
In order to maximise profits, it makes sense for oil to spill into the
creeks, swamps, and farmlands, destroy the means of livelihood of the
locals; and then turn around and blame the victims.

Anyone who wishes
to gain more insight into the story of Shell in Nigeria, the book,
‘Where Vultures Feast – Forty Years of Shell in Nigeria’ written by
Oronto Douglas and Ike Okonta is worth reading. It clearly shows that
the story of Shell and its records of oil spills are not new.

Expert assessment

Another specialist
who has done significant work on the Ogoni and the Niger Delta
environment is Richard Steiner. An international expert on oil spills,
Steiner, a professor, participated in two studies on oil damage in the
Niger Delta, and was contracted to write the manual on oil damage
assessment and restoration by UNEP in 2004.

When Shell hired
UNEP to carry out the present study, Steiner offered to provide
scientific advice and guidance to the UNEP Ogoni study, but his offer
was declined. When asked what he thought of the UNEP report, Steiner
said,

“The conclusions
from the Shell-financed UNEP study on oil damage in Ogoniland are
simply incorrect. Our earlier results suggest that much of the oil
spilled there was due to poor practice by Shell, rather than bunkering
and sabotage. I will need to review their methodology and expertise,
but it is entirely implausible that 90 percent of the oil spilled was
due to bunkering.

I suspect this was
not peer reviewed. This is not an independent, credible assessment, and
is a real disservice to the environment, the people of the Niger Delta,
and environmental justice globally. I suggest that the study be
recalled by UNEP, a credible independent peer review process be
implemented, and then reissued, if there is anything left to report.”

Environmental field
monitors have compiled a catalogue of spills by oil companies operating
in Nigeria. The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency
(NOSDRA) reports a total of 3,203 oil spills in the Niger Delta region
in the last four years, while the records of the Directorate of
Petroleum Resources’ show that 4,835 incidents resulted in the spillage
of at least 2,446,322 barrels of crude oil between 1976 and 1996.
Seventy seven percent of that quantity was not recovered and was lost
to the environment. The list continues to lengthen everyday.

Some notable past
spills include the Escravos spill of 1978 in which 300,000 barrels of
crude oil was spilled into the coastal waters and another 1978 spill
caused by tank failure at Forcados Terminal in which 580,000 barrels
were spewed into the environment. Their spill in 2008 at Ikot Ada Udoh
went unattended to for months before it was stopped.

The matter of their 2004 spill at Goi, Ogoni, is in the courts in The Netherlands.

A victim testimony

On June 6, 2001,
Shell oil pipeline, which passes through the Baraale community,
ruptured and started spilling crude oil into nearby forests, farmlands,
and houses. Aseme Mbani, chief of the community, was in his farm when
the pipeline ruptured, he told environmental field monitors.

Mr. Mbani said he took steps to ensure that Shell repaired the ruptured pipeline.

“I reported the
matter to the Shell contractors in charge of the pipeline and also to
the police that the pipeline is leaking. After that, we wrote Shell a
‘Save Our Soul’ letter. When there was no response, I went to Shell to
report at a section they call ‘Ogoni Re-entry.’ They told me they have
seen the letter I wrote. They said we should suffer the spillage
because we caused it. They said we have been cutting pipelines and we
should reap what we sow. Disaster struck on October 1, 2001, when the
leaking oil caught fire.”

Detection of causes
of oil spills does not require rocket science. One of the first steps
is the conduct of the Joint Inspection Visits (JIVs) by teams having
oil company representatives, relevant government agencies such as the
DPR and community representatives. There are allegations that these
visits have been used to bribe and divide communities. It will be
interesting for UNEP to produce the JIV reports, with identifiable
signatures of community representatives to back up the claims of a
clean bill of health for Shell in the matter of oil spills.

Bassey is Chair, Friends of the Earth International

At
the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Wednesday, Access Bank posted
significant improvement in its audited financial result for the second
quarter ended June 30.

The
bank, which recorded a loss after tax of about N11.952 billion in the
period in view, 2009, posted a profit after tax of N6.666 billion this
year, reflecting a 155.77 percent increase. Access Bank also recorded a
3.61 percent growth in its total net asset during the quarter, from
N168.346 billion to N174.429 billion.

However, the bank’s gross earnings for the period declined by 19.47 percent, from N61.351 billion to N49.408 billion.

Meanwhile,
the company’s board of directors has proposed an interim dividend of 20
kobo per share for its shareholders. The bank’s share will be marked
for payment on September 3 while the cash will be disbursed on
September 14. The stock price of Access Bank went up yesterday by 4.12
percent, “most probably on the back of the dividend declared,” some
analysts said.

Also
on Wednesday, Royal Exchange, an insurance company, released its
audited accounts for the period ended 31st December, 2009. The result
shows a 9.60 percent increase in turnover, from N3.314 billion to
N3.632 billion. The profit after tax inched up by 106.57 percent from a
loss of N2.435 billion to N160.07 billion, just as net asset for the
period went up by 29.27 percent from N6.084 billion to N7.865 billion.

Decline continues

The decline in the value of equities at the nation’s capital market on Wednesday cuts across all sectors of the bourse.

The
resilient nature seen in sectors like the breweries, conglomerates,
food and beverages, since the current downturn started last week, could
not be sustained after yesterday’s trading session.

The
All-Share Index declined by 1.60percent to close at 24,111.51 basis
points, from the previous day’s figures of 24,503.61. Market
capitalisation also followed with N96 billion losses, to close at
N5.896 trillion from Tuesday’s N5.992 billion.

The
number of gainers at the close of trading session closed at 20,
compared with the 16 gainers recorded on Tuesday, while losers closed
lower at 50, compared with the 57 losers recorded the previous trading
day.

Egbo
Amaechi, an executive member of the Shareholders Association of
Nigeria, attributed the current poor performance at the Exchange to
“profit taking by institutional investors.” Mr. Amaechi, however,
expressed satisfaction with efforts by some companies to give their
shareholders returns on investment.

The
NSE, yesterday, marked down the share price of Honeywell Flourmills for
a dividend of 11 kobo per share, declared by the board of the company.

The
banking subsector led the market transaction volume on Wednesday with
115.437 million units, valued at N909.02 million exchanged in 3,387
deals. Transactions in the shares of First Bank, Access Bank, Diamond
Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, and Zenith Bank, boosted the volume traded
in the sector.

The
total volume of 62.346 million units, valued at N677.413 million,
traded in the shares of the five banks, accounted for 54.01 percent of
the entire sector volume.

The crisis rocking
African Petroleum continued yesterday with some shareholders and staff
staging a protest at the head office of the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) in Abuja.

The protest was in
support of the petition written by the company’s former executive
director, finance and IT, Clement Aviomoh, against the chairman, Femi
Otedola. Otedola’s company, Zenon Petroleum and Gas limited, is the
major investor in AP.

A press release
signed by Lanre Oloyi, the head of corporate affairs of SEC, said “some
persons claiming to be shareholders and staff of the African Petroleum
Plc (AP) staged a peaceful demonstration in front of the commission
head office in Abuja this morning (yesterday).”

Mr. Oloyi also said
in the statement that the commission is in receipt of Mr. Aviomoh’s
allegations against Mr. Otedola. “The commission has launched a formal
investigation into these allegations,” the statement added. The
Nigerian Stock Exchange has also said it will make public its findings.

Mr. Aviomoh, in the
petition, insisted that he has facts and data which show that Otedola
has been milking AP for his private gain for the past two years.

“AP made a loss of
N15 billion in 2009 due to the fact that Otedola’s companies started
selling products to AP at higher prices than normal, at times higher
than the retail pump price at gas station.”

Mr. Aviomoh also
alleged that for daring to challenge his style of administration, Mr.
Otedola forced Tunde Falasinnu, the managing director of AP, to resign
his office, and suspended the company secretary, Elizabeth Idigbe, and
himself.

No knowledge

However, Mr.
Aviomoh denied knowledge of yesterday’s protest. When NEXT contacted
him on the phone, he said. “I have sent my petition and SEC is
investigating. The last I heard from them was they asked for some
clarifications and I have replied concerning an annexure to the
petition.”

When NEXT contacted
Tajudeen Adeyemi, the spokesperson for AP, he insisted members of staff
at AP were not involved in the protest. “How can our staff be involved.
Yes, some shareholders hired by the sacked director (Aviomoh) staged a
protest. We did our investigation and found out that he is in Abuja. He
is based in Lagos, so what was he doing in Abuja?”

Mr. Adeyemi said
the company is not bothered about the development as it is awaiting the
conclusion of SEC investigation of the petition.

Lately, AP has been
in the eye of the storm in the aftermath of the allegation s and
counter allegations between the sacked former Executive Director, Mr.
Aviomoh and the Management of AP. .

A statement
released by AP, a fortnight ago, said that Mr. Aviomoh’s petition is
unfounded and was triggered by an earlier petition written by Mr.
Otedola in June to SEC about how N24.5 billion, which was due to be
paid to AP, is still outstanding. Mr. Otedola himself is on self exile
apparently because according to sources close to him, he fears for his
life.

Some finance
analysts have said that the recent change in leadership of the Nigerian
Stock Exchange (NSE) would bring stability to the market soon, despite
the current unsteady performances at the Exchange.

The NSE measuring
parameters, which recorded gains in three of the five trading days last
week, depreciated at the close of Monday’s trading by 0.51 percent.

Laoye Jaiyeola,
president of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, said the
recent action taken by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to
regulate the Exchange is similar to that which the Central Bank took
over the banking industry.

“I believe what the
SEC is trying to do is to ensure a strong, stable, and safe capital
market for all investors,” Mr. Jaiyeola said.

He said the regulatory measures the Exchange Commission has taken will soon boost investors’ confidence in the market.

David Adonri, chief
executive officer of Lambert Trust and Securities Company Limited, a
stock broking company, is also optimistic that the market “may firm
stronger as we approach the end of the third quarter.

“The past weeks
have been very turbulent in the market but there is calmness now,” he
said, adding that investors’ confidence is gradually picking up.

Market performance

Meanwhile, at the
close of trading on Monday, the NSE market capitalisation recorded
about N32 billion losses on Friday’s figure of N6.140 trillion, to
close at N6.108 trillion; while the All-Share Index lost 130.21 units
down from 25,106.86 basis points to close at 24,976.65.

A total of 27
stocks appreciated, yesterday, in price while 38 stocks depreciated.
Evans Medicals, Spring Bank, and Northern Nigerian Flourmills topped
the gainers chart for the day with five percent price appreciations.
However, Union Homes topped the losers chart for the day with five
percent depreciation.

The banking sector
led the market transaction volume today with 133.895 million units
valued at N1.001 billion exchanged in 3,000 deals.

Transactions in the
shares of Zenith Bank, UBN, FCMB, and Fidelity Bank boosted the volume
traded in the sector. The total volume of 78.92 million units valued at
N534.637 million traded in the shares of the four banks accounted for
58.40 percent of the entire sector volume and their value represented
53.39 percent of the sector’s value.

The downward trend dominated trading activities in the banking
sector on Monday as the sector records four gainers to 13 losers.At the
Exchange’s floor yesterday, Goldlink Insurance, in its second quarter
financial result of 2010, recorded 10 percent growth in gross earnings
and a 22.11 percent decline in profit after tax.

If you are one of
those always-wanting-to-spend-the-money types who work in the IT
department of a multinational that has billions to spend on IT, you can
stop reading now. This article is not targeted at you.

But if, on the
other hand, you belong to one of the small or medium enterprises that
constantly need to justify cost, the question must have arisen before:
where can I get XYZ program that will not cost an arm and a leg? Truth
is that, in Nigeria, some just plunk down to Otigba and buy the
software for N300.

But that is piracy, deemed to be a crime, and a serious business cannot afford to take that route any more.

But before you pay
another kobo to Microsoft or another software publisher, consider
whether you can use a free or open-source application instead. Just
about every commercial application you use on a daily basis has an open
source alternative.

The most well known
open source software is the Operating System which serves as an
alternative to the almost ubiquitous Microsoft Windows operating system, Linux. However,
because of the fact that just about every computer you buy from a
vendor already has Windows pre-installed, there is no need to switch
from that. You have already paid for it when buying the computer, and I
am not quite sure that PC Outlet or any of the other major computer
vendors in Nigeria would refund the N12k plus that a Windows license
costs nowadays. In any event, there are a lot of other applications
that need to be installed, and paid for.

Whether you are
looking out for your small business or personal computing needs, the
open source community delivers excellent applications that are
completely free of charge. In most cases all you need is a working
Internet connection to download the software and you are home free.
Using these applications can save you loads of money. The poster child
for free and open software in the Windows world for the past few years
has been Mozilla’s popular browser, Firefox. Ahh, those young ones who
spend a lot of time on Facebook must be nodding their heads in
agreement right now. No other open-source software has taken the world
of software by as much storm as the little browser, and none has been
as successful in winning converts. But in an office environment, a
browser is not the most important thing so let us start from the basics.

Anti virus

In my experience,
this is the single most important piece of software that you need to
have on your computer, and quite often, the most overlooked. A lot of
people on popping their new computer out of the packaging take a look
at the Norton or McAfee that ship with the computers, and believe that
they have protection.

Rain check here,
these factory installed anti-viruses while having their own merit have
one fatal flaw; they are time-bound. In almost no time at all, you’ll
find that your copy of Norton has expired, and to continue to receive
protection from software you have to subscribe, for a fee. To get
around this,I advice
uninstalling those software and getting either AVG or Avast
anti-viruses. They are very good programs (AVG has been ranked highest
at Cnet.com forever now). AVG has an integrated spyware suite. Another
program that is fit for purpose is Google’s anti-spyware offering.

Office and Productivity Software

The next thing you
will need in your office is your productivity software, and this is
where Microsoft’s Office Suite is king. But the question is can you
afford the licence to buy six copies of Office for your computers? No
worry needed here-OpenOffice.org (OOo) has been around for many years
as a feasible substitution for just about any operating system. It
includes Writer for word processing, Calc for spreadsheets, Impress for
presentations, Draw for illustrating, and Base for databases.

OOo is pretty much
a copy of MS Office 2003, with a few improvements such as support for
Microsoft’s OOXML format that later versions of MS Office default to.

However, unlike MS
Office, OOo does not include an email client (Outlook). For an email
client like Outlook, you can download and use Mozilla Thunderbird. You
may even consider Mozilla’s SeaMonkey, an all-in-one Internet suite
which includes a browser, email and newsgroup client, HTML authoring
program (Dreamweaver), and chat client.

Scribus is an open
source substitute for Microsoft’s Publisher. It does offer page layout
control and provides professional publishing features, such as CMYK
color, separations, ICC color management, and PDF creation. Some people actually use it as a replacement for CorelDraw.

Photo/Video Editing

For an open source
alternative to Adobe Illustrator, there exists Inkscape. It’s a vector
graphics editor similar to Illustrator and CorelDraw. For those who are
Adobe Photoshop users, there is the GIMP.

Kino can substitute
for the video editing application Adobe Premiere, while PiTiVi is an
excellent video editing program for those who just want to do the
simple stuff.

Again for amateur video producers, try Avidemux. It still supports editing AVI, MPEG files, MP4, and ASF using a variety of codecs.

Money Management and Accounting

My personal
favourite in this category is Eqonomize, but I’m not quite sure there
is a Windows version. Grisbi is more for simple personal accounting,
suitable for the family budget, similar to the commercial products MS
Money and Quicken.

GnuCash is a
personal and small-business financial accounting application. It offers
more-advanced features, as in PeachTree and QuickBooks. GnuCash
supports import from both Microsoft Money and Quicken. Also it can
communicate with your bank accounts, though this feature is hardly used
in Nigeria.

With eight months
to the deadline, banks are already gearing up for compliance with the
new uniform accounting system recently introduced by the Central Bank
of Nigeria (CBN).

In a circular
issued to the 24 commercial banks by the banking and payment system
department of the CBN and dated July 14, the banks were given a nine
month compliance period to migrate to the new system, which ends on
April 2011.

To be known as the
Nigerian Uniform Bank Account Number (NUBAN) system, the aim is to
standardise account numbers in banks in order to eliminate delays that
come with filling wrong account numbers for clearance.

Under the new
format, every bank is required to create and maintain a NUBAN code for
every customer account in its customer records database, which should
be the only account number to be used at all interfaces with a bank
customer. The Central Bank said the new format is in line with
international best practice and is expected to enhance the e-payment
system.

“We expect every
bank to maintain their present account numbers and use them for their
internal operations only as from the effective date of NUBAN, but every
such account number would have to be mapped to a NUBAN code as an
alternate account number,” the bank said in the circular. The new
number format will comprise 13 digits which includes the three-digit
bank code and a 10-digit NUBAN code.

Banks’ compliance

Moshood Isamotu,
Afribank spokesperson, said the bank had put in place modalities to
meet the deadline. “We have started implementing, even though we have a
nine month period. Our technology platform is flexible and can
accommodate such change,” he said. He added that Afribank would comply
with the CBN directive and begin to issue compliant account numbers to
its customers as soon as possible.

Frank Barde, head
of corporate affairs of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, said the bank was
still studying the directive and would ensure that its customers are
carried along. “We have nine months to comply. We will look at the
document and follow up as directed by the CBN,” he Barde said.
Intercontinental Bank on its part said the deadline period gives it
enough time to ensure compliance. “We are understudying and looking at
the implementation within the timeline given by the central bank,” said
a source in the bank who spoke off record.

Migration

The Central Bank
said banks are to submit their comprehensive migration plan to the new
system one month from the release of the circular. Compliance
monitoring will commence six months from the release of the circular.
“Any infractions to the dictates and stringent timelines provided in
this document shall attract severe sanctions as may be determined by
the Central Bank of Nigeria from time to time,” the circular stated.

The bank noted that
the upsurge in automated direct credit was as a result of the January
2009 directive that all ministries, departments, and agencies should
replace all forms of cheque payments with electronic payments, hence
the need to adopt a new cheque number system to make clearing and
settlements of cheques less cumbersome.

“As the Automated
Clearing House volume increased, so have complaints of banks and bank
customers resulting from the incidents of abuse of the clearing
system.”

The Central Bank
said the change would enable Nigeria to fully comply with the 10-digit
Account Number structure required by the West Africa Monetary Institute
(WAMI) towards the economic integration of ECOWAS countries.