Nigeria Content Online

Considering the
challenges faced by microfinance banks in Nigeria, the Small and Medium
Enterprises Development Agency, (SMEDAN), on Monday signed a memorandum
of understanding with the banks.

Explaining the
reason behind the move, Mohammed Umar, the agency’s director general
said, “the essence of the MOU is to enhance the development of
microfinance bank in Nigeria and delivery microfinance services
effectively and create access to finance by the small and medium
entrepreneurs.”

Microfinance banks,
according to Mr. Umar, are the surest ways of ensuring speedy rural
industrialization and poverty eradication. Also in the bouquet of the
MOU with the 16 banks, is training of beneficiaries of microfinance
loans on how to successfully manage their loans. Mr. Umar stressed that
there was the need to boost microfinance banks activities to enhance
economic development and rural enterprise development programme and to
properly industrialize the rural areas, hence the need for state
governments to prioritize funding of the institutions.

Operational fund challenges

He noted that
microfinance face different challenges in getting operational fund
through which they could help in developing rural enterprises while
advocating that cheap fund with at least one digit interest rate of not
more than five per cent will be possible when the state governors fund
the microfinance banks in their areas.

“I appeal to them
to see how to provide these small businesses with cheap fund,” he said.
“I will plead with state governors to help in the area of accessing
fund for the micro finance banks at a lower rate, who will in turn give
it out to the SMEs; this is the only way small businesses could grow. I
plead for understanding and cooperation of the governors in this to
help the micro finance bank and develop the SME in their areas.”

The SMEDAN boss who
equally called for the establishment of at least one MFB in one local
government believed that access to fund by the operators will provide a
platform for industrialization of the rural areas, reduce rural urban
migration and curtail the social vices in the country. He further
described microfinance as the last hope of the low income
entrepreneurs, and economically active poor who cannot meet the lending
condition of the commercial institutions.

The agency boss also said microfinance services are also an
essential tool required in achieving the millennium development goals
and Vision 2020, adding that the memorandum gives the agency an
opportunity to solidify its contribution to the economic development
process of the medium and small enterprises. The micro finance bank
representatives noted that the financial crises and other problems in
the country are as a result of the collapse of the small enterprises
stressing that there is the need for intervention in fund assessment by
the operators to ensure their speedy resuscitation.

The
National Pension Commission (PENCOM) is set to take defaulting
employers to court in its bid to force compliance to the National
Pension Scheme.

Muhammed Ahmed, the
commission’s director general, stated this at the one day conference
for directors of licensed pension fund operators held in Lagos
yesterday. He said that the commission was ready to come down hard on
employers that are refusing to remit funds deducted from their
employees.

“As you are aware,
we had issued warning letters, we had imposed sanctions, we had even
advertised their names as a sort of naming and shaming strategy
expecting that they would comply,” he said. “Unfortunately, they have
not done that. So they have to show us why legal action cannot be taken
against them.”

The act

The Pension Reform
Act 2004 which introduced contributory pension scheme in the country
demands that employers should deduct 15 per cent of the salaries of
employees to be remitted to registered pension fund administrators.
Employers contribute 7.5 per cent while employees contribute 7.5 per
cent.

Part two section
five stipulates that the employer shall deduct at source the monthly
contribution of the employee in his employment and not later than seven
working days from the day the employee is paid his salary, remit the
amount to the pension fund custodian specified by the employees’
pension fund administrator.

Mr. Ahmad said the
amount contributed has increased steadily since the scheme started
effectively in 2005. So far, over four million employees are active
participants in the contributory pension scheme, which currently has
over N1.73 trillion in contribution as at April 2010. He put monthly
contributory figure at N20 billion. According to him, the bulk of the
funds are contributed by the over 157,000 private sector employees so
far captured in the scheme. He also revealed that many state and local
governments have yet to sign on to the scheme.

Required legislation

Participants at the
conference lambasted the poor contribution from the public sector.
Joseph Sanusi, chairman, First Pension Fund Custodian called for a
legislation that would compel state and local government to embrace the
scheme.

“Many of them do
not see the immediate benefit,” he said. “They are not taking
responsibility for the past, neither are they ready to take responsible
for the future of their workers.” He added that it is in the interest
of public servants for the states and local government to embrace the
scheme.

The PENCOM Director General said adherence to the investment
guideline, which recommended investment of not more than 25 percent in
the capital market protected contributors’ funds from the capital
market meltdown. He added that the investment guideline is very
conservative in order to guide against any investment failure and that
the pension funds had only about 10 per cent exposure to the Nigerian
capital market.

The Miners
Association of Nigeria has cautioned against illegal mining, saying the
lead poisoning in Zamfara that reportedly killed 163 persons, was
regrettable.

National president
of the association, Sani Shehu, said on Tuesday in Jos, that the
incident, which occurred in Anka and Bukkuyum Local Government Areas of
Zamfara was “purely a result of illegal mining.”

“Most minerals contain one level of impurity or the other,” he said.
“Some of these impurities are radio-active in nature. Some of them
release poisonous gases that are not visible. That is why when you are
operating a formalised form of mining, issues like safety,
radioactivity, and other poisonous gases will be discussed and
addressed. At the sampling level, certain information like the safety
of the place, the associated impurities in the mineral and protection
method, if dangerous, would have been revealed in the plan and the
design before the mining process.”

The National
Association of Telecommunications Subscribers, says it will protest
against Nigerian Communications Commission’s poor publicity on SIM
cards registration.

Deolu Ogunbanjo,
the group’s president, said on Tuesday that a rally to that effect
would take place in Abuja after the World Cup. He said the rally, aimed
at challenging the commission to give adequate sensitisation to
subscribers, would be taken to the Presidency, National Assembly, and
the NCC office.

According to him,
the pace with which the registration is going on, telecoms operators
will not register up to 10 million subscribers out of the over 78
million at the end of the six months deadline.

“This is grossly inadequate, indeed, the timing of the publication
on December 31 completely diminished its effectiveness as the target
audience were well away on vacation amidst sumptuous festivity,” he
said.

A
student of Chinese University of Hong Kong on study tour to Nigeria has
lamented the high cost of living and doing business in Nigeria.

Xu Jiang, an Urban
and Regional Planning student who was among the students on the tour
complained that the high cost will discourage investors. Mr. Jiang made
the assertion while on a visit to the Nigeria Investment Promotion
Commission on Monday at Abuja.

More expensive than Hong Kong

“We are coming from
Hong Kong considered to be one of the most expensive cities in the
world but Hong Kong government is talking about how to reduce the cost
of living in order to attract more investment,” he said. “Coming to
Nigeria, one question we are talking about is that we found the
consumer goods or the cost of living here is probably and actually in
all aspects more expensive than that in Hong Kong.

We just want to
understand why, what is the major reason of being one the most
expensive cities in the world. We just want to understand why because
you have your own manufacturing industry, you have your own agriculture
and may be importing some goods but in Hong Kong we import some goods
also but it is not as expensive as the price of goods here. We want to
understand why, what is the major reason.”

Government on top of it

Mustafa Bello,
executive secretary of the commission, said government was addressing
the high cost of doing business through the various reform programmes
set up. He added that when the reform was completed, Nigeria will
compete favourably with other countries in terms of investment while
noting that despite the challenges, investors in the country smile to
the banks all the time because return on investment in the country is
high.

The team was led by Lawal Marafa, a Nigerian teaching in the Chinese
University, who hinted that the visit provides their students the
opportunity to understand more about the country; the landscape, the
climate conditions, and the economic activities as part of their field
study programmes where the students are expected to visit three
countries before graduation.

Despite
the challenge of a domestic environment struggling with the impact of
the global financial meltdown, Stanbic IBTC Bank, a member of the
Standard Bank Group, declared a dividend of N5.63 billion for its
shareholders in the 2009 financial year.

At the bank’s 21st
annual general meeting in Abuja on Monday, shareholders unanimously
approved the dividend which translated to 30 kobo dividend per unit as
recommended by the board of directors. In his address to shareholders,
Atedo Peterside, chairman of the bank, described last year as the year
that witnessed the most turbulent developments in the Nigerian banking
sector since the ongoing reforms commenced in mid-2004.

“Our audited
results for 2009 and the recent reaffirmation of our Fitch AAA rating
significantly corroborate this statement,” he said, while noting that
as the Nigerian arm of Africa’s biggest bank, Stanbic IBTC remains a
leading operator in the marketplace. In the period under review, profit
before tax stood at N10.3 billion, while profit after tax was N8.1
billion. However, total net loans and advances went up by 17 per cent
to N119.9 billion as against N102.6 billion in 2008.

At the meeting,
Mohammed Wushishi, a retired army general, resigned as director of the
bank, while Alaibi Cookey formally joined the board. As at 31 December,
2009, the group had total assets of over US$183 billion, and market
capitalization of approximately US$22 billion.

The on-going MTN
International Polo Tournament, which attracted a record 50 teams from
across the country, has received the royal blessing of the Emir of
Kano, Ado Bayero, who commended the upper ground commitment of the
telecommunications giant in the development of the king of games.

The monarch, who
received a delegation of the Nigerian Polo Federation (NPF) and MTN
Nigeria, expressed happiness at the commitment of MTN to Kano polo over
the years and urged it to do more, given the unifying and the
diplomatic credentials of sports in Nigerian political history.

“We are happy with
MTN for taking the mantle of engaging our youths positively in the area
of sports, and I would urge them not to rest on their oars as MTN
stands to gain a lot by turning our people away from negative
tendencies through sports,” he said.

He told the NPF
delegation, led by the national chairman, Lawan Kaita, that Kano
residents were grateful for MTN consistency in the promotion of Kano
polo, describing the partnership with Kano Polo Club as an enduring one
that would last for the good of the game and the people.

Top
fashion designer, Versace, has decided to spread its tentacles and
divert from its fashion business, with the manufacture of a new phone
called the Versace Unique.

The Versace phone,
which was designed in collaboration with phone makers LG and ModeLabs
Group, was unveiled on 20 May at Seoul, South Korea. The sleek and
luxury phone comes with a touch screen and has full-featured multimedia
creations. It comes in vibrant colours of purple, brown, pink and black.

Passion and innovation

“We are excited
about Versace Unique,” said Gian Giacomo Ferraris, chief executive
officer of Versace Group. “Our team has worked well with our partners
at Modelabs to manufacture a very innovative product which perfectly
blends luxury materials, craftsmanship and the advanced technologies of
LG, As we move forward in the development of our business, we are
particularly happy to be able to strengthen the offer of luxury
accessories that complement our core fashion products in line with
Versace’s DNA.”

Stéphane Bohbot,
chief executive officer of ModeLabs, said that the partnership was
driven by the passion to create something unique.

“The creation of a
mobile phone for a luxury brand is first and foremost a matter of
passion,” he said. “At the origin of a new product, a mysterious
alchemy takes form between the brand’s creative style and our own
know-how allying tradition and innovation whilst at the same time
respecting the highest criteria of design, selection of materials,
technologies and great attention to appearance. Such is the passion
that makes our mobile phones unique.”

Features

The Versace phone
functions perfectly for both individual usage and professional use. The
high-end device was brought to life with the use of finest materials,
while it is hand-assembled in France. The phone comes built with pure
high-tech ceramic or handmade lacquers, which is carefully framed with
an 18Karat yellow gold details or 316L grade stainless steel inlay.

The back of the
phone is designed with fine handcraft leather, which has been imprinted
with Versace’s famous Medusa head. The phone’s sapphire crystal screen
comes as the largest single piece of high-tech luxurious materials ever
produced for consumers. With the parts it was built with, the screen
comes as impossible to scratch and also provides precision control and
ideal conductivity of touch phone interface.

The sleek Versace
phone has got all functions and features of other high-end phones like
media player, 3G network, powerful in built 5 megapixel flash camera,
and e-mail accessibility. Other features are a Dolby Music surround
sound technology, MP3 music and video of 30 hours playtime.

The phone would be available and sold via exclusive and fine
jewellery networks, and Versace’s flagship boutiques as from early June
for yet an undisclosed price.

Angola, the world’s
fifth-biggest diamond producer, is working on a new law for the mining
sector that will regulate the way diamond companies will distribute
their revenues from projects in the African nation, an official from
state-run diamond company Endiama said.

Under the new law,
diamond companies will use 50 per cent of their revenues to pay for
operational costs. The remaining 50 per cent will be used to pay taxes,
investors and to help develop the local community, the official,
Sebastiao Panzo, said.

The current law
stipulates that mining companies in Angola pay 35 per cent of their
profits in taxes to Endiama but it does not stipulate how firms should
distribute their revenues.

Angola emerged from
a civil war in 2002 to become one of the world’s biggest diamond
exporters due to multi-million dollar investments from companies like
De Beers, the world’s biggest diamond producer, and Russia’s Alrosa.

Broad
Communications and Zain Nigeria have settled their differences,
culminating in Oba Otudeko emerging as Zain Nigeria chairman.

Mr. Otudeko,
current chairman of Broad Communications, First Bank, and a host of
other companies became chairman on the day Bharti Airtel, an Indian
company, became the new owners of Zain Africa. A statement issued by
Bharti Airtel, and signed by Sunil Bharti Mittal, the chief executive
officer of Bharti Airtel said, “In line with Bharti’s philosophy of
forging long term, strategic partnerships we are pleased to have joined
hands with our local partner in Nigeria, Oba Otudeko and his family. I
have no doubt that this partnership will ensure leadership for Bharti
in Nigeria for the benefit of all stakeholders.”

Denouement of a saga

This perhaps is the
denouement of a long saga that began years ago. Early this year, NEXT
reported in its 28 February edition, that Broad Communications had
accused the company majority shareholders, Zain Group, Kuwait, of
mismanagement, fraud, and capital flight to the tune of N16.6 billion.
Broad further accused Zain Kuwait of not paying its shareholders
dividend since the Kuwait group started managing the firm.

Further last week,
Broad again filed a suit against the directors of Zain Nigeria over the
five year lease of the company’s head office at Ikoyi for $27 million.
This latest twist is also a continuation of the mixed fortunes of the
telephone firm that started trading as ECONET Wireless in 2001 and also
the first licensed by the Nigerian Communications Commission to operate
a Global System of Mobile communication (GSM). Over the years Zain
Nigeria has been widely known for its many name change from Econet
Wireless (2001), Vodacom Nigeria and V-mobile Nigeria (both in 2004),
Celtel Nigeria (2006) and to its current name Zain Nigeria (2008).

A new dawn?

Meanwhile some
telecommunication experts have expressed the hope that this latest
acquisition and appointment might be the beginning of a new dawn for
the company.

“Well, I want to
believe that what wrong with the Econet share deal has been resolved
before this sale was concluded,” said Deolu Ogunbanjo, president of the
National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS). For
Kenneth Ugbechie, the secretary of Africa Telecoms Development
Initiative, the welfare of Nigerian staff remains paramount in this
transaction.

“As for Bharti
Airtel, my fear is that they should not send away the Nigerian
employees in the company,” he said. “We want subscribers to be involved
in the drafting of telecom policies because that way we can ensure that
Nigerians are protected. So, the government should look into the
Nigerian content concerning jobs, a certain percentage of Indians
should be allowed into company.”

Zain Nigeria in
2007 faced network congestion problem, and the Nigerian Communications
Commission (NCC) had to direct them to compensate the subscribers along
with other operators.

“If this deal
affects a name-change, then that possibly would portray instability in
business which would definitely affects subscribers confidence in their
network and they might lose five per cent to 10 per cent of their
subscribers,” said Mr Ogunbanjo.

Mr. Ugbechie,
however explained that problem with protecting Nigerian citizens was
based on the poor protective laws in the country.

“I hope, these Indians would behave well but one thing I know about
the Indians is that telecommunication service is cheap in their country
because the competition is very robust. I think this firm would bring
that competitiveness to Nigerians,” he said.