Champion Newspaper’s Excellence Award Holds March 20
…Govs Ayade, Ugwuanyi, Airpeace CEO, Zenith Bank GMD, Globacom others make list
The best of the nation’s human resources and institutions will be on parade on Friday March 20, 2020 as Champion News Media, the publishers of Champion Newspapers rolls out the drums in celebration of the winners of its 2019 awards and recognitions.
Scheduled to hold at the prestigious Oriental Hotel in Victoria Island, Lagos, the Champion Newspapers Awards is targeted at acknowledging the contributions of some of the outstanding individuals, organisations, agencies and institutions of both state and federal government to the development of Nigeria in particular and humanity in general in the areas of business, politics, culture, social and infrastructural developments.
The Group Managing Director, GMD and Editor-in-Chief of Champion Newspaper, Dr. (Mrs.) Nwadiuto Iheakannwa who spoke on the preparations for the event had expressed delight at the elevation of the 2019 edition of the awards to an ‘A’ list event saying that the event will translate to a parade of stars.
“The awards and recognitions are intended to acknowledge those persons, organisations, institutions and agencies, who made outstanding contributions in reshaping the growth and fortunes of Nigeria and indeed the whole world in 2019. We took extra care in sorting out these individuals and organisations as our Board of Editors was painstaking in voting for the right candidates.
“It is our own little way of encouraging Nigerians to strive towards excellence in all their endeavours. We should have the people that we should look up to and emulate at all times. The award ceremony is Champion Newspaper’s own way of fostering a better society. We are looking forward to hosting no fewer than 500 dignitaries at the event”, she explained.
Already, the governor of Lagos Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu has accepted the role of the Chief Host at the March 20, 2020 event which will be presided over by Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Apkabio. Senator Akpabio is a two- term governor of oil rich Akwa Ibom State. The charismatic Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe will be the Special Guest of Honour.
No fewer than 10 serving senators and House of Representatives members have confirmed their attendance at the event. Also expected in attendance is the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa. Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma is expected to make a special appearance at the event.
Giving an insight into what promises to be an award like no other, Dr. Iheakanwa revealed that it took the in-depth analysis of the profiles and contributions of so many nominees for the selection committee to announce the Air Peace Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Allen Onyema as the 2019 Champion Newspapers Man of the Year.
According to Dr. Nwadiuto, Cross River State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade will be on the podium on March 20 to receive the Governor of the Year award while his counterpart in Enugu, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi is the Best Governor of the Year on Security.
Speaker of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly Rt. Hon. Ogbonnaya Nwifuru got the highest votes to emerge as the Best Assembly Speaker of the Year.
The roll of honour at this year’s annual Champion Newspapers Awards includes Zenith Bank Plc GMD/Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Ebenezer Onyeagwu who is the Bank Chief Executive Officer of the Year, Globacom Limited as Telecommunication Company of the Year, Fidelity Bank Plc as Bank of the Year, Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc emerged as Insurance Company of the year just as Access Bank Plc’s Public and Media Relations Manager, Mr. Abdul Imoyo will be honoured as the Best Media Manager of the Year.
The stars to be celebrated will also include, Universal Insurance Plc, as the Most Innovative Company of the Year, Dr. Dakuku Adol Peterside who is the out-going Director General of NIMASA will be honoured as the Best Public Agency Manager of the Year. Greenwhich Trust Limited is the Corporate Leader of the Year just as Seplat Oil and Gas Plc was voted Oil and Gas Company of the Year.
Other awardees are: Senator Annie Okonkwo who emerged Democracy Icon of the Year, God is Good Logistics will mount the podium as Logistics Company of the Year and Dr. (Mrs) Asabe Shehu Yar’ Adua Foundation who will be decorated as the Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) of the Year.
The Group Managing Director of Champion Newspapers further assured on capitalizing on the award series in encouraging the culture of excellence in both the private and public sectors of the nation’s economy in order to challenge the ingenuity of Nigerians.
“I am confident that with the appropriate policies and business environments, Nigeria will get her crop of managers to exhibit better work culture. That is why the whole nation will have to keep encouraging those who are known to be doing the right things. The reward for hard work is more work. Champion Newspapers will continue to partner with groups and individuals including corporate organisations in promoting the good values of Nigerians. This is part of the objectives behind the annual Champion Newspaper’s Awards ceremony”, she explained.
Meanwhile, letters of commendations have continued to trail the release of the list of this year’s awardees just as the recipients have confirmed their acceptance of the awards, thereby setting the tone for the hosting of the landmark event on March 20, 2020.
‘Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games to Go On Despite Coronavirus’
Yesterday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) met with all stakeholders of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and issued the communiqué below:
This is an unprecedented situation for the whole world, and our thoughts are with all those affected by this crisis. We are in solidarity with the whole of society to do everything to contain the virus.
The situation around the COVID-19 virus is also impacting the preparations for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, and is changing day by day.
The IOC remains fully committed to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, and with more than four months to go before the Games there is no need for any drastic decisions at this stage; and any speculation at this moment would be counter-productive.
The IOC encourages all athletes to continue to prepare for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 as best they can. We will keep supporting the athletes by consulting with them and their respective NOCs, and by providing them with the latest information and developments, which are accessible for athletes worldwide on the Athlete365 website and via their respective NOCs and IFs.
The IOC has confidence that the many measures being taken by many authorities around the world will help contain the situation of the COVID-19 virus. In this context, the IOC welcomes the support of the G7 leaders as expressed by Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, who said: “I want to hold the Olympics and Paralympics perfectly, as proof that the human race will conquer the new coronavirus, and I gained support for that from the G-7 leaders.”
We will continue to act in a responsible way and have agreed the following overriding principles about the staging of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020:
- To protect the health of everyone involved and to support the containment of the virus.
- To safeguard the interests of the athletes and of Olympic sport.
The IOC will continue to monitor the situation 24/7. Already in mid-February, a task force was set up consisting of the IOC, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee, the Japanese authorities and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
The purpose of the task force is to ensure coordinated actions by all stakeholders. It has the mission to keep a constant appraisal of the situation to form the basis for the ongoing operational planning and necessary adaptations. The task force also monitors the implementation of the various actions decided. The IOC will continue to follow the guidance of this task force. The IOC’s decision will not be determined by financial interests, because thanks to its risk management policies and insurance it will in any case be able to continue its operations and accomplish its mission to organise the Olympic Games.
Lloyd’s Seeks Estimate of Coronavirus Losses from Insurers
Mr. Tope Smart
Chairman
Nigerian Insurers Association
Lloyd’s of London has asked its member firms to provide estimates of their potential current and final losses from coronaviru to help the insurance market understand its possible overall losses from the impact of the pandemic.
Lloyd’s was working with British and overseas regulators to formulate its response to the spread of the virus, using its experience of previous catastrophes, the spokesman said in an emailed statement.
“The situation is fast-moving and changing daily, leading to a high degree of uncertainty about the eventual type and scale of losses that may emerge,” the spokesman said.
Lloyd’s would ask its managing agents the same question in a month’s time, the spokesman said, and could ask for the information more frequently, as it expected “the loss estimates to move over time as the situation and our understanding develops.”
Lloyd’s of London chief executive, John Neal said last week that the impact for the 330-year old commercial insurance market was likely to be felt through claims for supply chain disruption.
Lloyd’s closed its “underwriting room” in its City of London tower – where insurance deals take place face-to-face – for the first time for a day on Friday last week to see if the market was able to operate without it. The test was successful, the spokesman said.
Risk modeling firms say they are not yet able to provide estimates of the global insurance losses from the virus.
Lloyd’s made pre-tax losses of $2 billion in 2017 following large hurricanes and other natural disasters.
Allianz Nigeria Delivers on 60 Minutes Motor Claims Settlement
Allianz Nigeria makes good her promise to settle motor claims within 60 minutes.
The nationwide campaign to settle motor claims within 60 minutes which was launched on February 17, 2020 has seen a total of 53 claims to the tune of N2, 784, 225 settled in less than an hour.
Allianz Nigeria expresses gratitude to the numerous customers that have benefited from the 60 minutes campaign.
The company has also committed to continue to provide excellent service delivery of the highest standards.
Nigeria’s Smartphone Market Grew in 2019 but COVID-19 Casts Dark Shadow
Nigeria’s smartphone market grew 5.3% quarter on quarter (QoQ) in Q4 2019, according to the latest figures from global technology and consulting services firm International Data Corporation (IDC).
This growth comes on the back of a 3.2% QoQ increase in Q3 2019 after the market suffered a slow H1 2019, which translated into a 3.5% year-on-year (YoY) decline for 2019 as a whole.
The decline in Nigeria in H1 2019 was caused by the closure of airports February, which led to a considerable slowdown in imports. The extended campaigns for the 2020 general elections also impacted the market, while the dollar was also unstable during this same period, which had the effect of reducing smartphone shipments to the country.
Together, Transsion brands (i.e., Tecno, itel, and Infinix) held the biggest market share in 2019 as they launched a number of successful models with big screen sizes and mid-range prices, including the Spark 4, Phantom 8, and Camon 12, among others.
In addition, Transsion experienced strong demand for its wide range of models in low price bands ($0<$100). Huawei had a major comeback to the market, benefiting from an increased marketing budget and the launch of new products in the mid-range price bands.
Samsung benefited from its A series models, which had a wide market audience due to the affordability and rich features of these devices.
The Nigerian government raised VAT from 5% to 7.5% effective from February 1st, 2020. This new regulation is likely to lead to an increase in smartphone prices, leading to slower smartphone adoption in the market. With VAT averaging 5% in the markets directly neighboring Nigeria, gray market re-exports of smartphones into the country are likely to increase.
As per the most recent Situation Report (#56) from the World Health Organisation, there are now 167,511 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus worldwide, with 6,606 deaths. In response to the pandemic, IDC has developed three possible scenarios – Optimistic, Probabilistic, and Pessimistic – and currently believes that the Probabilistic scenario is the most likely to occur, with both supply- and demand-side concerns alleviating by the second half of 2020.
Under this Probabilistic scenario for Nigeria and Ghana combined, IDC expects smartphone shipments to decline 15.4% in QoQ in Q1 2020 and 3.9% in Q2 2020.
As most consumer devices in West Africa are imported from China, the disruption to supply chains caused by the COVID-19 outbreak will have a particularly severe impact on this sub-region. Most of the major smartphone brands (i.e., Tecno, Itel, Infinix, Xiaomi, Huawei, Oppo, and Vivo) are of Chinese origin and they control over 85% of the regional market. Other brands such as Nokia and Samsung, with their partial production outside China, cannot fill the gap as they also source parts and components from China.
The impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on Nigeria is double sided. While the supply of smartphones will inevitably be restricted on the Chinese side, Nigeria’s oil revenues are also likely to suffer as China is Nigeria’s the largest customer for crude oil and other raw materials.
“While the spread of COVID-19 presents a significant threat to Nigeria, a country with insufficient health infrastructure, the negative impact on oil revenues poses a larger threat in the short to medium term, and this will negatively impact the country’s fragile economic development and the purchasing power of consumers,” says Dr. Ramazan Yavuz, a Senior Research Manager at IDC.
“While the impact of the spread of the virus is expected to lessen and a return to normalcy is awaited in H2 2020, the volatility and uncertainty in oil markets will continue to take a bigger toll on the Nigerian economy, which will subsequently stifle demand for consumer devices, including smartphones.”
IDC expects that the shortage of smartphone supply will drive an increase in gray market imports from other markets. “If the supply chain is not back to normal and distributors run out of stocks, the average selling prices for smartphones are likely to go up because of the shortage in supply,” says George Mbuthia, a Research Analyst at IDC. “The increase of VAT to 7.5% in Nigeria will push costs further upwards, slowing smartphone penetration in the short term.”
Inflation Climbs to 22-Month High of 12.2%
The Consumer Price Index report released yesterday shows that headline inflation increased to a 22-month high of 12.2% Y-o-Y in February 2020, from 12.1% in the previous month.
A report by Afrinvest Research says the marginal rise in inflation suggests that the recent VAT increase is yet to be fully captured.
Similarly, core inflation rose to 9.4% from 9.3% and food inflation was higher at 14.9% from 14.85%. The broad-based rise in inflation was despite a general moderation on M-o-M basis for the first time since August 2019.
Afrinvest says the M-o-M moderation in consumer prices in February reflects the thinning-out effect of festive season purchases and land border closure. However, we believe this would be short-lived once consumer prices fully reflect the recent VAT increase.
‘In addition, as a fallout from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, we expect exchange rate pressures and supply chain disruptions with trade partners to impact domestic consumer prices in the coming months.’
Nigerian Fertilizer Firms to Benefit from $2.2m Financing
The Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism (AFFM) has kick-started a $2.2 million project to provide fertilizer suppliers in Nigeria with financial support to improve supply for 200,000 smallholder farmers.
The trade credit guarantee project is AFFM’s first in the West African nation and will involve 10 fertilizer suppliers, 12 hub agro-dealers and 120 retail agro-dealers. The project will also train farmers in proper fertilizer use and other agricultural best practices.
A project launch held on 3 March in the capital Abuja, was attended by senior director of African Development Bank’s Nigeria Regional Office, Ebrima Faal and government and industry partners.
Participants discussed the project and its implementation with AFFM’s local partner, the Africa Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership, or AFAP.
“We will leverage on existing networks and look for creative solutions to increase the availability of fertilizer in the country,” said Nana-Aisha Mohammed, AFAP’s representative at the ceremony.
Umar Musa, Assistant Director of FMARD’s Farm Inputs Support Services Department who represented the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) said AFAP should work with the Nigerian government and other actors in the fertilizer value chain to ensure that the project complies with Nigeria’s policies and sector strategies.
“We expect this project to support smallholder farmers and improve their productivity in order to help the country increase its local production and consumption of fertilizer,” he said.
“We are confident that the project will increase access to quality and affordable fertilizer by smallholder farmers and hence contribute to the transformation of the agriculture sector in Nigeria,” said Marie Claire Kalihangabo, AFFM Coordinator.
Kalihangabo expressed her gratitude to the Government of Nigeria for their financial support to the Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism.
The Bank’s Nigeria Regional Officer, Faal, said the National Fertilizer Quality Control Act 2019 further serves to reinforce the government’s commitment to the sector.
“This program is timely because the government has placed measures to encourage local production of fertilizer,” he said.
Danbatta Spotlights Centrality of Consumers to Telecoms Industry
As the World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) was celebrated globally yesterday, the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) and Chief Executive Officer of the Commission, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, has described telecoms consumer as the central factor in the organising principles of the Commission’s regulatory activities.
Prof Danbatta, who spoke in Abuja, said through riding on its tripartite principle of fairness, firmness and forthrightness, the NCC will continue to advance the course of protecting telecoms consumers from unwholesome practices by the service providers.
According to him, the Commission celebrates the telecom consumer every day of the year, and it is a self-evident truth that consumer is the lifeblood of the sector, adding that the efforts will be sustained in line with the theme of this year’s WCRD: ‘The Sustainable Consumer.’
“In keeping with its commitment to the tradition of celebrating the telecom consumer, the NCC is reiterating its commitment to safeguarding the interest and ensuring the satisfaction of the consumer as the central factor of the telecom ecosystem,” he explained.
Speaking further, Prof Danbatta said that the NCC has strengthened initiatives to educate and inform consumer and the Commission declared 2017 as the Year of the Telecom Consumer.
“Some of those consumer-centric initiatives, programmes, directions, policies and regulations, include the Do-Not-Disturb (DND) 2442 Short Code, to which over 24 million subscriber have subscribed to in order to be able to control unsolicited text messages; the Toll-Free Number 622 as a second level mechanism for escalating consumer complaints not satisfactorily resolved by the service providers to the Commission for effective resolutions. Over a million complaints have been successfully resolved for the consumers through these channels,” he said.
In the same vein, Danbatta said, “We have also put in place regulations to combat e-waste in the country, working in collaboration with other agency to combat influx of fake and substandard phone sin the country, developed guidelines on disaster recovery to ensure consumers do not face the negative impact of network problem on service delivery for long.
Realising that telecom consumers increasingly rely on telecom platforms to carry out financial transactions, Danbatta said the NCC has inaugurated a 26-member multi-sectoral committee to develop modalities for protecting telecoms consumers from being vulnerable to e-frauds, while it has also taken measures to review its Consumer Complaints and Service Level Agreement (CC/SLA) by the operators.
According to Prof Danbatta, the Commission developed the 112 Emergency Communication Number, which can be dialed by a telecoms consumer in an emergency situation to get help from emergency response agencies through the Emergency Communications Centres built by the Commission.
Currently, 17 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, have ECCs while efforts are ongoing to build ECC in other remaining states of the federation.
The EVC explained that the Commission has issued directions to protect telecoms consumers from being shortchanged by the service provider. Prominent among these are the direction on forceful subscription to valued-added services (VAS) and direction on data-roll over.
AERC Sets Agenda for Tackling Nutrition, Food Challenges in Africa
(L-R) Prof. Njuguna Ndung’u, Executive Director, African Economic Research Consortium; Alhaji Sani Nanono, Honourable Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and Mr. Isaac Okoroafor, Director, Corporate Communications, Central Bank of Nigeria at the opening session of the 22nd Senior Policy Seminar in Abuja.
Food and nutrition security dominated discussions at the just concluded Senior Policy Seminar hosted by the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), in partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The two-day conference which held from March 9 to 10, 2020 and was supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, had the theme: ‘Agriculture and Food Policies for Better Nutrition Outcomes in Africa’.
Prof. Njunguna Ndung’u, the Executive Director of AERC, in his opening address, emphasised that the seminar focused on Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition Outcomes in Africa because agriculture is the main stay of most economies and contributes to wealth, economic activity, employment and nutrition welfare outcomes. He added that most policies and initiatives in this area have tended to focus on, and to target, agricultural production metrics, and do not directly relate to nutrition outcome and targets or actual food consumption.
“Global Panel of Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition points out that there is a dearth of quality data to properly inform policies on nutrition. This has tended to limit the effectiveness of agricultural policies in improving nutrition outcomes. In addition to data challenges, there has been lack of high-quality policy analyses that explore the effect of agricultural policies on nutrition. We need now to combine forces to achieve the best nutrition outcomes,” he said.
Ndung’ualso reiterated that AERC will continually focus on quality research and strengthen policy influence. The AERC, known for training policy makers across Africa, is dedicated to strengthening capacity building for conducting policy-oriented research, policy analyses and informed policy. Currently, the organisation has select universities that run their programmes in Policy Making for students at both Masters Degree and PhD levels. Some of these partnering institutions are University of Ibadan, University of Benin, University of Dare Salaam, University of Cape Town and University of Nairobi.
There were various paper presentations, discussions and floor discussions on relevant topics such as agricultural growth patterns, nutrition transitions, the triple burden of malnutrition in Africa, diet diversity and how to combat malnutrition through food policies.
Although it was agreed that Africa was not yet winning the war against acute hunger and malnutrition, the policy makers commended governments across Africa for realizing the importance of increasing shares of national budgets to agriculture, health and nutrition.
There was also a Policy Roundtable where it was resolved that increasing household income can help address malnutrition. It was also said that science, technology and innovation were key in improving malnutrition.
The Senior Policy Seminar had in attendance senior policy makers and thought leaders from around the continent. They included: Alhaji Sani Nanono, Honourable Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development; Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo, Honourable Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment; Mr. Isaac Okoroafor, Director, Corporate Communications, CBN; Hon. Issa-Toure Salahaddine, Deputy Speaker, National Assembly, Togo; Hon. Onyoti Adigo Nyikwac, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, South Sudan and Hon. Marcos Alexandre Nhunga, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Liberia.
Others were Prof. Osita Ogbu, former Minister for Planning and National Development; Hon. Lucious Kanyumba, former Minister for Education, Malawi; Ms. Barbra Barungi, former Lead Economist, AfDB and Dr. Esi Colecraft from the University of Ghana.
Photo: Anchor Insurance Company of the Year Award
Right is Mr. Ebose Augustine, Managing Director, Anchor Insurance Company Limited receiving the award for the company as the Insurance Company of the Year from Mr. Sonny Irabor (m) while the MC looks on with keen interest
Anchor Insurance Bags Insurance Company of the Year award
Austin Ebose
Managing Director/CEO
Anchor Insurance Company Limited
Anchor Insurance Company Limited, a fast rising risk-bearing organisation, has emerged the Insurance Company of the Year at the annual Independent Newspapers Awards 2019 held in Lagos recently.
Mr. Steve Omanufeme, Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief of the newspaper who described Anchor Insurance Company as the “fastest growing insurance company of the year 2019, noted that “the selection committee specifically recognised the Company for its giant stride in the past one year, especially in its risk management and claims administration approach which have always been a source of delight for its teaming policyholders.”
He noted further that “we are also impressed by the company’s turnaround record of performance in the last one year. It is noteworthy to say that the company under the new Management team generated the highest premium income after 29 years of its existence, recording 72 per cent growth in one calendar year.”
According to him, “the new Management team’s ability to revitalize the Anchor Insurance brand and reposition the company for the statutorily induced recapitalisation has further proven the organization as one that is ready to shock the insurance sector of the nation’s economy.”
“It is for the foregoing reasons, among others, that we have bestowed on the company, the richly deserved award of the Insurance Company of the Year 2019,” Omanufeme noted.
Making his speech after receiving the award on behalf of the company, the Managing Director, Mr. Ebose Augustine, expressed his joy that his company was being celebrated after just a little above a year in office with his new team, stating that “we were just doing what we felt should be done to take the company to another level but we never knew people were taking records.”
He used the occasion to call on governments at the state and federal levels not to shy away from subscribing to the relevant insurance covers, pointing out that their patronage will go a long way in helping to grow the insurance business and its contribution to the national gross domestic product.
WEF Convenes Global Business for COVID Action Platform
The dramatic spread of COVID-19 has disrupted lives, livelihoods, communities and businesses worldwide.
But the sum of many individual actions by stakeholders around the world will not add up to a sufficient response. Only co-ordinated action by business, combined with global, multi-stakeholder cooperation can mitigate the risk and impact of this unprecedented global health emergency.
In response to this emergency, the World Economic Forum, acting as partner to the World Health Organisation (WHO), has launched the COVID Action Platform. The platform is intended to catalyse private-sector support for the global public health response to COVID-19, and to do so at the scale and speed required to protect lives and livelihoods, aiming to find ways to help end the global emergency as soon as possible.
The COVID Action Platform will focus on three priorities:
- Galvanise the global business community for collective action
- Protect people’s livelihoods and facilitate business continuity
- Mobilise cooperation and business support for the COVID-19 response
The COVID Action Platform is open to all global businesses and industry groups, as well as other stakeholders, including governments that wish to team up with the private sector on their response. The platform will operate a network where CEOs, organisational leaders and designated COVID-19 corporate responders can offer their help and team up on specific projects, launch actions and keep each other informed of best practices.
“COVID-19 is causing health emergencies and economic disruptions that no single stakeholder can address,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.
“Our best and only response to it should be to take concerted action. The COVID Action Platform is at the centre of our mission and we draw upon all our members and partners, communities and capabilities to make it a success.”
“The private sector has an essential role to play in combating this public health crisis through their expertise, innovation and resources,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO. “We call on companies and organisations around the world to make full use of this platform in support of the global public health response to COVID-19.”
The COVID Action Platform was conceived after a World Economic Forum conference call with over 200 corporate leaders from all over the world. It is supported by WHO and the Wellcome Trust and is the first initiative of its kind, operating globally. The Forum has established a special team to support the platform’s work.
Working with the Pandemic Supply Chain Network, one of the projects which will initially be launched on the Platform aims to strengthen supply chains to ensure that COVID-19 essential health commodities are available, accessible, affordable and of good quality.
Other actions will include supporting mechanisms for business donations to the public health response and the development of available and accessible vaccines, diagnostics, treatments and protective equipment, as well as tracking the economic impact of the virus, while pursuing collaboration to address disruptions.
Olam Grains Champions Girls to Achieve their Full Potential
L-R: Mr. Anurag Shukla, Managing Director, Crown Flour Mills Limited with female staff during the commemoration of 2020 International Women’s Day at Crown Flour Mills headquarters in Lagos recently.
International Women’s Day is celebrated annually on March 8, and the theme for the 2020 edition is ‘Each For Equal.’
As a part of activities to mark this year’s International Women Day, Olam, a leading player in the Nigerian agricultural value chain, celebrated its female employees as well as female students of the Lagos State Progressive Junior Secondary School, Surulere, Lagos State.
Mr. Anurag Shukla, Managing Director, Crown Flour Mills Ltd, a subsidiary of Olam, described the female employees of the company as a very important part of the workforce whose contributions have been monumental. The company, whose products include ‘Supreme Lite Flour’, is an equal opportunities employer and Mr. Anurag Shukla expressed his excitement that a lot of women occupy senior leadership positions in the company. He further pledged that the organization would continue to promote gender equality, adding that Olam would continue to make the environment more conducive for female employees.
Addressing the students of the Lagos State Progressive Junior Secondary School, Surulere, Mrs. Bola Adeniji, Category Head, Marketing, Crown Flour Mill Limited, said that women are now emerging as leaders in various spheres of life, adding that traditional barriers for girls are being challenged and girls are now gaining access to greater opportunities.
Also speaking at the event, Mrs. Juliet Keshinro, a Girls Coach and educator took the audience through the journey of advocacy for equality of girls. Inspiring the girls to believe that they can ascend to whatever heights they desire to attain; she reiterated the need for them to have a resolve to overcome all limitations and challenges in their way.
Mrs. Keshinro further motivated the girls to stay focused in school.
African Energy Chamber Terminates Partnership with Africa Oil & Power
| The African Energy Chamber announces its termination of its partnership with Africa Oil & Power, which it has had since 2018. Under this partnership, the Chamber has supported Africa Oil & Power in the organisation of several highly-successful international events and investment conferences.
The termination of the partnership reflects a new strategy for the Chamber to focus on key issues pertaining to the industry and implement its own investment outreach strategies. “Under our partnership, we have been able to work on very important projects and strategic conferences in South Sudan, Angola, South Africa, Equatorial Guinea and the United Kingdom. We believe their journey is only the beginning and wish them the best for the future.” From 2020 onwards, the Chamber will be allocating increasing resources to key issues that we believe are important to the oil industry such as creating an enabling environment for the energy industry to grow, attracting investment into Africa, implementing lower taxes and better fiscal regimes, supporting gas monetisation, promoting women in energy, developing local content, fighting energy poverty and developing opportunities for the African diaspora to play a role in developing our natural resources at home. About the African Energy Chamber: |