Nigeria Content Online

Bank customers are still worried at returning queues to the banking halls and the pace at which they are attended to.

The apprehensive
customers who spoke to our reporter expressed irritation that despite
the efficiency that technology brings, banks are yet to get it right in
rendering swift service. The introduction of Automated Teller Machines
(ATM), e-banking, and all other banking alternatives have done little
to decongest the banking halls.

Dayo Aribigbe, a bank customer, said he stood in a queue in one of Nigeria’s banks for hours.

“Our banking system
in Nigeria is so poor. There is a need for a change. I can’t imagine
myself standing for hours in the bank’s branch at Abule Egba. Please,
we need solution providers,” he said.

“I thought they
said all this e-payment stuff would help reduce these queues? I can’t
seem to see how much these have helped. Besides, is it the e-payment
stuff that would also train the bank staff to be polite? asked Mercy
Atoyebi, another bank customer.

Cecelia Babatunde said she dreads doing transaction with a particular new generation bank.

“The thing is I
don’t know what the problem is. To me, I think they are just not
efficient, or maybe it is shortage of staff, I really don’t get it. GTB
too is another bank that is struggling to manage its customer turnout,
but I think they are better. I think their own case is that of having
to manage increasing customer base,” Ms. Babtunde said.

Visits to some banks in Lagos confirmed customers’ complaints of longer time spent in performing transactions.

No need to trade blame

While some
customers said the massive bank layoff may have been responsible for
the queues, some finance experts are of the view that these
organisations would have to rise up to the challenge of efficiently
utilising the available hands working with them at the moment.

A source at Zenith
Bank said the pressure on the available staff is much, as new customers
patronise the banks and no other employment is made to balance the
additional customer flow.

“In some instances,
some people even go on maternity leave, some on their usual annual
leave, and no one is brought to cover in for them,” the source said.

Experts say
employers and decision makers in human capital management functions
must seek new ways to build successful organisations with high
performing employees, amidst declining training budgets, wages and
remuneration packages.

Performing employees

Emmanuel Tarfa, a
human resource manager with Ciuci Consulting, a management consulting
firm, said the ability of a company to develop high performing
employees is a direct function of the company‘s human resource strategy.

“In order to
improve the productivity of employees within organisations, we have
identified three areas that companies in Nigeria should focus on. They
include continuous training and development, improving working
conditions and the atmosphere of the work environment, implementing the
appropriate performance management system, among others,” Mr. Tarfa
said.

According to him,
banks and other organisations facing performance challenges must focus
on personal development of employees, cultivating a culture of good
leadership and mentoring in the workplace, and a fair compensation plan.

“From the CEO, to
the managers, down to the other supervisors and managers, there should
be an understanding of what is required at each level, including
subordinate levels, and training programmes should be designed based on
this,” he added.

Akinbamidele
Akintola, a research analyst at Renaissance Capital, an investment
bank, said banks need to ensure that they deploy robust information
technology facilities to support an increase in customers’ activities
in the banking halls, and adequate human capital development for its
staff, in terms of skills.

“I don’t believe these long queues are here to stay. They would
disappear in the near future, as high standard customer service is what
would become a distinguishing factor, especially for end users of
banking products and services,” he added

Desperate
to see the end to the controversial sale of the Nigerian
Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and its mobile subsidiary, MTel, the
Presidency has granted another extension to the deadline earlier
granted bid winner, New Generation Consortium, to make the initial bid
security payment for the national telecoms carrier.

Following
Presidency’s approval last October for the Bureau for Public
Enterprises (BPE) to take steps to conclude the privatization process,
New Generation was, on October 25, asked to pay the initial bid
security of $750 million (about N112.5billion) within ten calendar days
from the date of its receipt of a demand letter conveying its
acknowledgment as winner.

But,
following a request for 30 days extension to enable it mobilise funds
for the transaction, the National Council on Privatization (NCP) on
November 5 granted the consortium 20 days extension, which BPE
spokesman, Chukwuma Nwoko, said was to help the consortium “clarify all
compliance and due diligence issues and also to remit the funds into
BPE’s account.”

However,
contrary to high expectations that the payment would be done on or
before the deadline yesterday, NEXT gathered that the consortium was
granted another extension till December 23 to pay up.

Extension granted

The
director general, BPE, Bolanle Onagoruwa, said in a telephone interview
in Abuja that the extension was granted by the vice president and
chairman of the privatization council, Namadi Sabo, based on the
recommendation of the management technical committee of the NCP “so as
not to fall into any technical trap.”

“They
(New Generation Consortium) have an extension from the Presidency till
22nd of December, 2010. The issue is that the letter that they got was
dated 19th of November. But, we (BPE) immediately announced the
extension on the 5th of November based on a verbal approval from the
vice president as the chairman of the National Council on Privatization
(NCP). The formal approval did not come until the 19th of November, and
they collected the letter approving the extension on the 23rd of
November.

“Basically,
what they (New Generation Consortium) were saying was that their
bankers wanted a written confirmation, as they could not rely on verbal
directives, to continue the process. That is why they wanted the
extension to start counting from the 23rd of November, when they
actually received the letter.

“Everybody
is anxious to see the transaction come to an end, so that we can pay
NITEL staff who have been pressurising for their entitlements,” Mrs.
Onagoruwa said.

Too long a transaction

Executive
secretary, Africa Telecom Development Initiative (ATDI), Kenneth
Ugbechie, told NEXT that most Nigerians are anxious for the transaction
to be brought to a close as soon as possible.

“Everybody’s
expectation is that they (New Generation) take advantage of the
deadline and pay up. The transaction has dragged on for far too long,
to the point that it has become an embarrassment to everyone, including
the government itself,” Mr. Ugbechie said.

According
to him, the negligence NITEL has suffered over the years has inflicted
grievous injuries on the workers in a manner that has affected their
families, psyche, and personality, adding that apart from not getting
any other jobs since they lost the ones they had in NITEL, many of the
workers are entitled to some unsettled benefits.

“What most people are asking for is government to ensure that the old
NITEL workers are paid off, so that the new owners can start on a clean
slate; so that tomorrow nobody can carry placards to the gates of the
new owners protesting their unpaid benefits,” Mr. Ugbechie said.

South Africa will
start a much-delayed plan to buy electricity from green energy plants
next year under a new subsidies programme to help boost private
investment in renewable power, a senior official said on Monday.

Africa’s biggest
economy is struggling to meet fast rising demand for power, and
state-owned utility, Eskom, said supply would remain tight until 2015,
and especially over the next two years, until its two new power plants
come on stream.

Private producers
and industry have long said they could supply thousands of much-needed
megawatts – either through greenfield projects or via cogeneration at
their plants – but have been blocked by a lack of power purchase deals.

Renewable energy
feed-in-tariffs have long been anticipated to stimulate large-scale
investments, but the country has yet to sign a deal with one of the
independent producers already putting money into renewable projects
after the first phase of subsidies was announced in March last year.

“We are targeting
the first quarter of 2011 for the release of the procurement
documentation,” Ompi Aphane, acting deputy director general at the
energy ministry, told a media briefing.

The tariffs set out
the price per unit of electricity to be paid for energy from renewable
sources. They cover the cost of power generation and allow for a
reasonable profit to tempt private developers to invest in renewable
energy.

South Africa is
increasingly looking towards renewable energy sources to help plug a
chronic power shortage and decrease its dependence on the coal-fired
power stations that provide most of its electricity.

The country expects
to have 7,200 MW of electricity supplied by renewable projects over the
next two decades under a new energy resource plan currently under
development.

South Africa’s power demand is expected to more than double from levels of around 37,000 MW by 2030.

Financial
Derivative Company, a finance and research firm, in its bi-monthly
economic and business update, says the upward adjustment in interest
rates have helped to reduce pressure on the nation’s reserves.

“The
nation’s external reserves declined for the 12 consecutive months in
November to $33.1billion from $43billion a year ago, representing 23
percent depletion. Year to date, reserves have dwindled by 21 percent
from $42.1bn. However, the rate of depletion has slowed, thanks to
upward adjustments in interest rates that indirectly helped to reduce
the pressure on the reserves”.

The
report stated that the rate of decline started to slow down in
September when the Central Bank of Nigeria increased the benchmark
interest rate from 6 percent to 6.25 percent.

“On
a month-on-month basis, reserves declined by 1.3 percent in November,
compared to 3 percent and 5 percent decline in October and September
respectively.”

This is in spite of high oil price prices (averaging $87pb) and high oil production (above 2.1mbpd) in November.

“Also, forex demand and CBN intervention in the forex market dropped significantly during the period,” the report stated.

According
to the firm, the Central Bank, which had earlier stated that, “the
continued dependence of the country on imported food and energy is one
of the main sources of erosion of our foreign re-serves”, should move
fast to rescue what is left of the reserves.

Way out

According
to the report, high interest rates will encourage capital inflow which
will further reduce forex and reserve pressures.

“If
an increase in interest rate can have the effect of slowing the pace of
depletion, it could also be supportive of accretion and increase the
propensity to save, as most economic agents would prefer to delay
consumption and earn interest on their income, as long as the interest
rate is higher than the rate of inflation”.

Nigeria’s
foreign exchange reserves fell by almost a quarter to just under $33
billion by December 2 from $43 billion a year ago, the Central Bank
said on Monday. The figure was also around 4 percent down on the $34.3
billion recorded in mid-November. Increased government spending in the
nation’s economy has put pressure on reserves.

Dollar
demand at the bi-weekly forex auction has also forced the Central Bank
to dip into the reserves to defend the local currency for months.
According to the report, compared to last month’s trading values, the
naira has depreciated marginally against the US dollar by 30K to
N148.6/$ at the official market. At the inter-bank market, it
depreciated by 43k to trade at N150.71/$. The naira, however,
appreciated marginally in the parallel market by 50k to sell at N153/$.

Samir
Gadio, emerging markets strategist, Standard Bank, said the growth
money supply continued to decline to 13.2 percent year-on-year in
October, from 18.7 percent year-on-year in September and 21.6 percent
year on year in August, reflecting a sharp contraction in net foreign
assets and sizeable deceleration in Net Domestic Credit growth in
annual terms. “Broad money was broadly flat in October, at
N11.2trillion ($74.7billon), down from N11.5trillion ($76.7billion) in
August.

Net foreign assets shrank 13.9 percent year-on-year in October, from
negative figures of 7.5 percent year-on-year in September and 13.1
percent year-on-year in August. This probably primarily mirrors the
downward trend in the Central Bank’s foreign reserves,” he said.

The sum of $500m
(about N75m) has been provided to the Bank of Industry to boost access
to funds by small and medium-scale enterprises(SMEs) as well as small
growing businesses (SGBs).

The minister of
finance, Olusegun Aganga, who spoke in Abuja during the formal launch
of the initiative last week at the unveiling of Federal Government
support plan for SMEs and small growing business, said the National
Economic Management Team has identified the two groups as the best
institutions for job creation and economic growth in most economies
around the world.

“These sectors have
the potential to become a major contributor to our gross domestic
product and productive capacity. We must leverage the entrepreneurial
strengths of our people to help them to become successful,” he said.

Though government
has been investing in the promotion of the SMEs and SGBs, the minister
identified lack of business training and capacity, which constituted a
major constraint to access to business credits, as the bottlenecks to
the growth of the sectors.

Holistic development

To reduce the high
cost of business, increase the quality of training and capacity
building for businesses, and the access to credit and other finance for
SMEs and SGBs, he said the launch of the three-pronged programme would
act as catalysts for their holistic development.

Mr. Aganga said the
Enterprises Development Services of the Pan-African University, an
affiliate of the Lagos Business School, would coordinate the capacity
development programme in liaison with other centres nationwide to
provide business-practicals, classroom-based trainings, and business
advisory support services to improve the managerial capability and
bankability of businesses.

He warned that
government will have zero tolerance for non-performance of loans by
businesses, stressing the importance of paying back on time monies
borrowed from banks to enable others benefit from the scheme.

Besides, the Bank
of Industry (BoI) would collaborate with international development
partners, like the United Nations Development Programme and the United
Nations Industrial Development Organization to fix some of the market
infrastructure failures in industrial parks, including shared amenities
and services, such as access roads, electricity, water, sewage,
telecoms, and security.

Nationwide support

The national
coordinator of the programme, Peter Bankole, said a website that will
call for applications from businesses from all the geo-political zones
in the country is to be launched in two weeks, while the applications
are to be processed within four to six weeks for the commencement of
management training for the small and growing businesses.

“We will continue
to support them on an ongoing basis for about a year. Alliances with
various centres nationwide have already started. We hope to work with
the IDCs around the country as the focal point of the programme. We
will leverage upon the comparative advantage of each geo-political
zone, which has already been identified by the World Bank,” Mr. Bankole
said.

Managing director,
BoI, Evelyn Oputu, who identified the existing capacity gap as one of
the most difficult aspects of doing small business in Nigeria, said the
bank would strive to make access to fund for business possible at
single digit rates to help realise government objectives.

“BOI has in the
last five years tried to dedicate more than 85 percent of its resources
to support the small and medium-scale business sector.

“Government’s
decision to provide support through the programme will go a long way to
change the landscape of business in the country. There is no point the
country growing in double digits if the people continue to be poor,”
she said.

Mauritius’ annual
average inflation rate rose for the fifth straight month in November to
2.5 percent from 2.3 percent a month earlier, official data showed on
Monday.

The rate was up
mainly on account of a 5.9 percent jump in the prices of alcoholic
beverages and tobacco, the Central Statistics Office said in a
statement.

“The headline
inflation rate for the 12 months ending November 2010 works out to 2.5
percent, compared to 2.9 percent for the 12 months ending November
2009,” the statement said.

According to the statistics office, the consumer price index rose to
121.9 from 121.0 in October and 117.3 in November 2009, pushing the
year-on-year rate to 3.9 percent.

World oil prices are at a good level, Algerian energy minister, Youcef Yousfi, said on Monday.

Oil ministers from
members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries are to
meet on December 11 in Ecuador. Several member states, including
Algeria, have said there is unlikely to be a change in production
quotas at the meeting.

“They are good.
They will stay at their current level, God willing,” Mr. Yousfi told
reporters when asked about oil prices. Algeria is the world’s eighth
biggest exporter of crude oil.

Tanzania’s coffee
prices fell at the latest weekly auction in line with global trends,
but traders said on Monday that prices were likely to rise in the
coming weeks.

“The decline in
coffee prices … followed the international markets. But coffee prices
in Tanzania remain very high,” said a trader at a leading coffee
exporting company.

“The outlook is
that there is not a lot of coffee left to sell, so the volumes are
going down. The prices in the auction should maintain their current
high levels,” he added.

The office of the Millennium Development Goals has established 60 community farms in the Federal Capital Territory.

Nancy Narthen, the
MDGs Task Manager, Women and Youth Empowerment in the FCT, said in
Abuja on Sunday that 10 farms were established in each of the six area
councils in the territory.

“We know that most
of the youth in the rural areas cannot access vocational training in
the city centres. And because of the absence of these vocational
centres and with the support of the MDGs, we decided to start the
community farms.

“Since their main occupation is farming, we decided to find a way of
making it attractive for the youth so that they can come back to
farming,” she said.

Nigerian interbank
interest rates climbed to 9.91 percent on average this week from 5.83
percent last week, on a liquidity crunch triggered by a big cash
withdrawal by state energy firm, NNPC, traders said on Friday.

The secured Open
Buy Back rose to 8.25 percent from 5.0 percent, 200 basis points above
the Central Bank’s 6.25 percent benchmark rate and 4 percentage points
higher than the Standing Deposit Facility rate.

Overnight funds closed at 10.5 percent from 6.0 percent, while call money traded at 11 percent from 6.5 percent.

“We expect
interbank rates to climb further because there are going to be more
cash outflows from the system next week,” one trader said.