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Two
Nordic countries, Sweden and Finland, are exploring opportunities for
green businesses in Nigeria, as part of efforts to step up their trade
and investment promotion activities in Nigeria.

The
Cleantech or Green business involves bringing in technologies that will
help in managing Nigeria’s environment to gain commercial value.

Lauri
Voionmaa, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Finland, Nigeria, and
Efraim Gómez, First Secretary of the Embassy of Sweden, in Abuja, said
Nigeria is ripe for introduction of clean technology business, adding
that it is worrisome that Nigeria, up till this moment, treats wastes
as wastages, instead of commodities with economic value.

The
two countries said they have recently paid a visit to Cross River State
which, according to them, will host the pilot stage of the project,
based on the fact finding mission.

Mr.
Voionmaa said: “Finland and Sweden are global leaders in clean and
green technology, and champions of sustainable and competitive
economies. They are vocal in the global climate change debate, pursuing
ambitious emission cuts, comprehensive assistance in adaptation
schemes, and timely forestry measures. Cross River State has made a
name for itself, in and outside of Nigeria, for its dedication to
environmental issues – protecting and turning its natural endowments
into vehicles for responsible economic development.

“Cross
River and us Nordics are a perfect match. The opportunities for Green
business between us are abundant. I look forward to explore how we can
tap into the huge potentials in clean technology, green knowledge
management, and ICT for climate change.”

Waste to energy

Their
plan is to use Cross River State as the springboard for the numerous
activities they plan to embark on in this regard in Nigeria.

“We
want to see how our business can go straight into efforts of Cross
River State, not only on the government side, but also on the private
sector level; but we have not concluded exploration. We are looking at
various aspects of Cross River State economy like waste management,”
said Mr. Voionmaa.

The
representative of the two Nordic countries said they are convinced that
with the new technology they plan to bring in, about 6kilowatt of
electricity will be generated from wastes collected in the state.

Nordic
countries are versed in waste management, because waste is a commodity
that they have learnt to turn into energy, according to Mr. Gomez, who
added that Cross River can be self sustaining on waste if they can
convert it to energy.

“For
a city of the size of Cross River, we are certainly going to produce 6
to 7 megawatt of electricity from waste management,” he said.

“There
is huge potential for waste management in Nigeria. Ordinarily, in
Nigeria, waste is disposed as waste, treated as something annoying, but
it can be actually useful, for fuels. The next step is we have to
report back to our countries and for a preliminary assessment. That
will depend on the next discussions.”

Apart
from introduction of high technology, there will be capacity building
and cooperation with Nigerian universities for technology transfer.

Nigerian
president, Goodluck Jonathan, visited Finland and Sweden in May 2009,
together with representatives of the Nigerian business community and in
company of John Odey, Minister of Environment.

Also,
Minister for Foreign Trade of Finland, Pave Väyrynen, visited Nigeria
in March 2010 and the Swedish Vice Minister for Trade, Gunnar
Wieslander, made similar visit to Nigeria in 2009. Both led large
business delegations, representing experts in energy, environment, and
information and communication technology.

Nigerian interbank lending rates
eased to 1.16 percent on average this week from 7.33 percent last week after
about 390 billion naira in monthly budgetary allocations to states and local
governments was injected into the system, traders said on Friday.

The secured Open Buy Back (OBB)
eased to 1.05 percent from 6.5 percent, after initially dropping to 1.10
percent on Wednesday when part of the funds hit the system.

Overnight placement fell to 1.20
percent from 7.50 percent, while call slipped to 1.25 percent from 8.0 percent.

The finance ministry announced
the disbursal of 750 billion naira from the federation account to the three
tiers of government — federal, state and local — on Monday, but part of the
funds meant for states and local governments came into the system between
Wednesday and Thursday, helping to ease the tight liquidity in the market.

“The system closed with a
surplus balance of about 310 billion naira, this is more than sufficient to
keep the system liquid for the coming week,” one dealer said.

Banks in sub-Saharan Africa’s
second biggest economy depend largely on monthly cash inflows from budgetary
disbursals to its agencies to fund their operations.

Africa’s biggest energy producer
shares oil revenues between federal, state and local governments each month in
order to pay salaries, fund development projects and keep government running,
providing the bulk of liquidity in the economy.

The federal government’s portion
of the funds is kept with the central bank, while that of the other two tiers
goes in the accounts with retail banks.

Dealers said the cost of
borrowing among banks could remain stable next week despite plans by the
central bank to sell treasury bills at the secondary market in a bid to reduce
the impact of excess liquidity on the economy.

The slow adoption
of Information technology by SMEs to further enhance their businesses,
automate their processes, to provide a more efficient service or to
provide quality and affordable products as it applies to the Nigerian
society, can be attributed in my view to lack of knowledge, perceived
cost implication, low levels of IT literacy, lack of access to
affordable computers, lack of affordable/reliable Internet service and
a lack of general awareness.

For an SME, the
focus should be on producing quality products that are required by the
consumer in the most cost efficient manner or to provide a targeted
service at low costs ensuring that operational and distribution costs
are minimal; which all contribute to influencing the pricing of a
product or a service and in turn, making it more affordable.

In running a
profitable business, which needs to be enhanced and made more efficient
using Information technology, an SME needs to be focussed on ensuring
that all the relevant information, from financials to HR data, through
to stock inventory, supplier information, customers details/buying
patterns etc, are captured to ensure that you can target the relevant
services or products accordingly.

Also, an SME needs
to be continuously worked to reduce operational costs or overheads,
widen the distribution/sales channels, inculcate flexibility,
innovation and the ability to react accordingly to all relevant factors
from changing government policies, new duties or taxes, competition etc.

The business also
needs to incorporate efficient processes that will assist in getting
new products or services quickly to the market in response to any
emerging or changing trends.

If we agree on all
the above then let us take a closer look at the underlying information
technologies that can be used to achieve the above objectives.

For multinational
companies and other companies who can afford to utilise expensive
technology to achieve the above objectives both bespoke and off the
shelf customised application packages exist to assist them. Examples of
such off the shelf packages will include Enterprise Resource Planning
products such as SAP, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, Data warehousing modules,
statistical applications and Siebel CRM application modules. There is
also the option of developing bespoke applications to capture the above
mentioned requirements at possibly significant costs.

For the SME who may
not necessarily be able to afford these so called off the shelf
packages or are not able to afford the significant development costs
that will be incurred in developing a bespoke application, I will go
through possibly cheaper techniques, utilities or applications that can
be used to a large in extent in achieving the same objective in the
next paragraphs.

For an SME, a
simple Excel spreadsheet or a Microsoft Access database application
with the relevant formulas and macros can be implemented to capture
expenditure, income, HR information, maintain stock inventory and
capture your suppliers details. The total cost of implementing such a
tool could be as little as fifty thousand naira depending on the exact
complexity (as both Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access, these
application environments are supplied as a standard part of the
Microsoft office suite) and so the only cost really incurred is the
cost of development or customisation which is really minimal. There are
also other inexpensive off the shelf tools such as Sage, Quicken etc
(there are even free or shareware applications that can be downloaded
on the Internet for free such as Gnumeric etc) that can all be used to
achieve the same objective. The list of relevant freeware is endless
and readily available on the Internet.

An SME may need to
capture the relevant details of his customer either in a Microsoft
Excel spreadsheet or Microsoft Access database not only to have his
contact information, but to be able to capture the consumers buying
habits or any emerging patterns which can ultimately result in repeat
sales of the same product or service or even possibly result in the
sale of other related products/services to the customer. There is also
a host of free software that can downloaded from the Internet that can
also be utilised for this purpose.

The more an SME can
use technology to streamline or automate their inherent business
processes, the less they will have to spend on operational costs, less
manpower will be required and the more efficient the operations will be
and which can all in turn translate to producing better quality,
affordable products or providing a more consumer focused also
affordable service. For example for an airline ticketing business if
the relevant applications are in place you can have only one member of
staff sell the required ticket to the customer, bank the money, issue a
receipt and still capture all the relevant details of the customer to
ensure there is a repeat sales.

Technology can also
assist in providing other avenues to sell your product or service such
as sales via the Internet, via mobile telephony technology outside your
conventional methods of selling, marketing, advertising or distributing
your product, this obviously depends on the kind of product or service
in question.

By always having a
snapshot of your business at your fingertips using the relevant
applications as earlier mentioned, it is much easier to react to any
new factors that may affect any aspect of such a business or to even
react adequately to any new competition. Also by clearly understanding
your customer and always having a full picture at your fingertips so to
say, it is easier for your business to be innovative, flexible and
adaptable in a modern society such as ours where change is inevitable.
It becomes a whole a lot easier to introduce new products and services
to market, since you know your customers and you have the aid of
technology in advertising, marketing, selling, distributing or
manufacturing your product or in providing a service.

A good business model perhaps, will be to create an all, purpose,
generic, fully managed portal that captures all these areas of
emphasis, make it available to SME’s for a small fee. Such a portal
will need to be segregated and secured using modern encryption
technology, firewalls, various forms of authentication techniques etc,
just a thought.

The Financial
Services Regulation Coordinating Committee (FSRCC) has issued stricter
guidelines to monitor margin trading and thereby avert a repeat of the
abuses and sharp practices that bedevilled margin trading in the run up
to the recent capital market collapse.

The committee
issued the new rules on trading when they met on Friday May 21, 2010
with representatives of all member agencies in attendance. Among other
issues extensively discussed, the committee noted the need to issue
clear-cut rules and guidelines on margin trading, to prevent further
abuses of the trade.

The New Guidelines

As part of the new
measures, the committee decided that banks aggregate exposure to margin
lending shall not exceed 10 per cent of total loans and advances.
“However, banks are advised to be more prudent by adopting lower
exposure limits. Banks with exposures in excess of the 10 per cent
limit are required to submit to the CBN clear plan of how they intend
to wind down their exposure in compliance with the prudential limit”.

It also stated that
bank shares shall not be used in margin trading. “For the avoidance of
doubt and clarification, the shares of banks would continue to be used
as collateral for bank lending. Thus, the restriction placed on bank
shares are only in respect of margin trading”.

It added that
operators who are interested in Margin trading are also required to
build capacity for margin trading and in this regard are to put in
place adequate technology and expertise that will facilitate on-line
real-time trading, market surveillance and prompt rendition of
regulatory reports.

Operators are
required to open dedicated margin trading account and are to observe at
all times a maintenance margin limit of 120 per cent. They are equally
expected to put in place robust framework for margin trading, which
should include definition of margin and internal rules and procedure
for trading, consistent with regulatory requirements.

Banks are also required to appoint Margin Compliance Officers.

All operators
interested in margin trading are to apply to the Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC) for re-certification while in the case of
banks and other financial institutions under the purview of the CBN,
are to apply to the CBN for such recertification.

Understanding margin trading

A margin is a
collateral that the holder of a position in securities or its
equivalent has to deposit to cover the credit. Margin trading is buying
stocks without having the entire money to do it. Margin is a high-risk
strategy that can yield a huge profit if executed correctly, just as
one can lose both the borrowed and the owned if things go wrong.

Investopedia, a
Forbes Digital Company, describes buying on margin as borrowing money
from a broker to purchase stock. “Margin trading allows you to buy more
stock than you’d be able to normally”.

To trade on margin,
a margin account, different from a regular cash account is needed, in
which you trade using the money in the account.

The Committee noted
the fact that most operators that suffered losses in margin trading
lacked the capacity, technology and framework to embark on margin
trading, factors that contributed immensely to the fate they suffered
and the spiral effect during the financial market meltdown.

The Central Bank
however stated that a comprehensive guideline is to be issued in due
course and full compliance is expected on or before September 1, 2010.

An Ibadan-based
estate consultant, Sufian Kazeem, has warned governments at all levels
in Nigeria against additional increase in workers’ wages, saying move
will further plunge the country into more crises.

“Salary increase is
not the solution to the problems of Nigeria and her citizens. In fact,
it will bloat the inflationary trend in the country. If the minimum
wage is fixed at N1 million a month today, it will not solve our
problem; it will add more to it,” he said.

Mr. Kazeem, whose
company manages late Moshood Abiola’s estate in Oyo State, made his
position known during a chat in Ibadan on Monday. He stated that rather
than increasing the wages all the time, the country should take
advantage of her rich vast land and huge population to engage in
massive farming in order to solve the ravaging hunger and boost her
foreign exchange earnings.

He said the nation
will achieve tremendous leap in its quest to solve hunger and empower
her citizens financially, if it engages in high profile farming in
which every aspect of the economy will be involved.

To achieve this, he
suggested that all government parastatals and corporate organisations
must be compelled to engage in farming to maximise the use of the
nation’s vast land, saying Nigeria has all potentials to feed her
population and produce enough food for the entire African continent.

According to him,
the government can make corporate organisation, particularly the
multinationals, which have benefited so much from the nation’s economy,
pay back to the nation by compelling them to engage in mechanized
farming, and be prepared to sanction any of them who defaults.

He wondered why the
prisoners whose terms of punishment include hard labour could not be
made to farm and produce food for themselves and the nation, adding
that rather than made them to produce food for themselves, Nigeria
still spends billions of naira to feed them, even when they have erred
the system.

Mr. Kazeem also
advised that the nation should work out a legislation that will ban
politicians from holding any political office beyond the age of 70
years as, according to him, the absence of such rule has made it
possible for the same set of people to be at the helm of affairs in the
country, to the detriment of the system and its people.

“Anybody who
reaches the age of 70 years must be retired from politics. He should be
barred from having direct involvement in decision making. They could be
allowed to participate at the advisory level. But they must be told to
leave the stage for younger ones who will inject fresh blood and ideas
to the system,” he said.

Mobil Producing
Nigeria, an affiliate of U.S. oil firm, ExxonMobil, says repairs on its
damaged crude oil pipeline at the Qua Iboe crude export terminal is
still ongoing.

Located offshore at
Ibeno coastline in Akwa Ibom, the pipeline damage has caused a decline
in crude export from the over 400,000 barrels per day to around 250,000
barrels from the crude export terminal since May 1, according to
industry sources.

It has also caused delays in crude loading, they said.

Yemi Fakayejo, the
company’s spokesperson, said yesterday that the repair work which
compelled the oil firm to declare a “force majeure” on May 12, was
still in progress but declined to say when the work would be concluded.

Mobil had in a
statement signed by its External Affairs Director, Gloria
Essien-Danner, on May 12, said that it could not meet its contractual
obligations to crude buyers due to the pipeline damage at the Qua Iboe
oil fields.

Algeria has frozen
a $750 million deal with Egypt’s Ezz Steel, and is in talks with other
investors to replace the Egyptian firm, Algerian Industry and
Investment Minister Hamid Temmar said on Thursday.

“The project has
been affected by financial crisis and problems linked to soccer,”
Temmar told parliament, referring to a dispute between Egypt and
Algeria over qualification for this year’s soccer World Cup. “This has
led to the complete freezing of the project.”

“In order to
replace Ezz, we are currently studying projects from companies
including ArcelorMittal and (Algerian private company) Cevital,” the
minister said.

Zimbabwe has banned
all diamond exports, including those from a Rio Tinto unit, until
gemstones from its controversial Marange fields are certified by
industry regulators, the mines minister said on Thursday.

Obert Mpofu accused
Western countries of using the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme,
which regulates the global diamond trade, to ban Zimbabwe from
benefiting from diamonds.

“It is true that the government has, with immediate effect, suspended all diamond exports,” he told Reuters.

He added that the
ban affected Rio Tinto’s Murowa mine, which produced 124,000 carats
last year, and privately owned River Ranch, both of which are certified
by the Kimberley Process.

Zimbabwe has been
waiting for the certification of its Marange diamonds, and on Thursday
the Kimberley Process monitor, Abbey Chikane, said he would recommend
Zimbabwe be allowed to export the precious stones.

A planned 20,000
barrel per day oil refinery in Equatorial Guinea will cost just under
300 million euros, and the nation plans to invest another $150 million
in petrochemicals, an official said.

Equatorial Guinea
is one of sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest oil producers, although crude
oil production has slipped off peaks at around 360,000 barrels per day
and is looking to expand its gas industry and boost local processing
capabilities.

A feasibility study for the refinery has been completed and the
government will take bids for the project at Mbini, on the central
African country’s Atlantic coast, over the next two months, Vicente
Abeso Mibuy, managing director of hydrocarbons in the energy ministry,
told an energy conference on Wednesday.

Forget the glamour.
It is a hard knock life for the corporate communications department.
Crisis communications, reputation management, community affairs, brand
direction, internal communications, external affairs, sponsorships,
event planning, PR, executive speech writing, corporate voice and media
relations are a short list of some of the tasks literally piled on the
head of corporate communications. Come to think of it, one would expect
that with its multi-tasking résumé, the corporate communications
department would be part of the magic circle for executive management
breeding and CEO selection. Perish the thought.

In the jaundiced
way that all-A students were supposed to go up to university to study
engineering and medicine, parents expressed their dismay when their
first-class graduating wards applied for jobs in what they deemed
PR-topia. If the department was not exactly the equivalent of corporate
Siberia, it has not been the choice career path for apparatchiks
aspiring to climb to the Soviet Central Working Committee. Should this
be the case? Has corporate communications been getting the short end of
the stick and where does the blame lie?

The past 20 months
should have been a glorious era for the communications department. The
economy was in a tailspin, the oppressive odour of executive scandal
was everywhere, consumer spending was in reverse, the stock market was
in panic, earnings had dropped sharply and employee morale was at its
lowest point. The future looked bleak. It was unthinkable that the
department would not seize this opportunity to establish its
credentials as an integral part of the corporate strategy development
process.

The issues faced by
companies were fed mainly by perceptions. The public was reading ahead
of the script. If the global economy was in freefall, then there was no
way that the local economy would escape. If Company A’s CEO was
involved in a fraud, then such practices must have been widespread
among all CEOs in the sector. If Company X in its sector had downsized,
then it was only a matter of time before Company Y would go under the
knife too. Fears ran riot and took a life of their own. Confidence was
fast evaporating.

The corporate
rationalists scratched their heads in confusion. Excel spreadsheets,
corporate finance models, risk management stress tests, and all the
other numerical kitchen sinks thrown at the problem were unsuccessful
at silencing the anxiety. These Cartesian wizards of numbers were
unfamiliar with problem-solving that depends on the right-side of the
brain. In their usual fashion, they broke the problems down to the
smallest components then lined them up. Still there were no answers in
sight.

All else tried,
they decided it was time to invite their colleagues from the
communications department to take a look at the problems. Then a funny
thing happened. The communications shamans pointed out that the way to
solve the problem was by shifting attention from its content to the
frame. The frame is just as important as the picture. If the frame is
right, then the picture becomes easier on the eye. How neat. ‘Why
didn’t we think of that before?’ they said in relief.

But when it came to
designing and fitting the frame, both sides, and they really are on
opposites, ran into their first hitch. They had spoken different
languages for so long that it was almost impossible for the number
crunchers to explain the picture to the idea munchers. This cultural
exchange of convenience was not producing the hoped for assimilation.
In the end, a sign language of sorts was adopted. The results served
but were not ideal.

This leads to the
question: is the onus on these so-called ‘serious’ departments to learn
the language of corporate communications or the other way round? Call
me partial, but I am on the side of the ‘others’: strategy, finance,
operations. The only thing that unites them is their ease with the
numbers. Figures are their native dialect. Without fluency in it,
corporate communications will always play second fiddle, no matter how
brilliant the last campaign was.

The financialization of markets makes it essential for corporate
leadership everywhere to speak the lingua franca of figures. The
numbers folk are not just another tribe in the org chart. They have
become das Herrenvolk (the ruling race) in the corporate species. To
avoid that cruel fate of mockery of mere men by the Übermensch (overman
or superman) that Friedrich Nietzsche describes in Thus Spoke
Zarathustra the corporate communications department must learn to speak
that language. Until then, its place at the head table remains
‘Reserved’.