L – R shows Temitayo Ade-Peters, CSR Lead, The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE); Olumide Orojimi, Head, Corporate Communications, NSE receiving the 2018 award for “CSR in Education” from, Asiwaju S. K.  Onafowokan, OON, JP, Past President, Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) during the 2018 LCCI Awards at the Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, on Tuesday, May 1, 2018 in Lagos.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) is pleased to announce that it has received the 2018 award for “CSR in Education” from Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) on Tuesday, May 1, 2018 at the Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.

According the Director of Advocacy & Research, LCCI, Dr. Vincent Nwani, “the objective of the annual awards is to recognise, celebrate and promote private and public institutions that have exhibited the core values of best business practices, growth through innovations, business sustainability and have positively impacted the society. This award is the outcome of a painstaking selection process from numerous entries received for this award category and backed by feedback from industry/market intelligence.”

Commenting on the award, Mr. Oscar N. Onyema, Chief Executive Officer, NSE, expressed his appreciation for the recognition and noted that the Exchange is committed to promoting quality education as a tool for development. “Our education intervention through the donation of Maisandari Alamderi Model Nursery and Primary School in Borno State arose from our understanding that without urgent steps, the emergency the North East faces in terms of access to education will have serious implications for its future stability, and by inference that of Nigeria as well, with the human capital of upcoming generations being hugely compromised. We are committed to contributing our quota in ensuring that the children of the displaced families are able to continue with their basic education”.

NSE emerged the winner of this award in recognition of its education support for Internally Displaced Persons in Borno State.

In 2017, in response to the insurgency in the North-East, which saw a huge number of people become displaced, thus affecting the ability of children to effectively continue with their education, the National Council of the Nigerian Stock Exchange approved an education intervention fund, to assist Internally Displaced Persons in Borno State with access to basic education.

Through this education intervention initiative, NSE designed and financed the construction of blocks of classrooms, including the provision of furniture, fixtures, sanitary and potable water in the local community in Maiduguri.

The school, named Maisandari Alamderi Model Nursery and Primary School, was commissioned by the Borno State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, in October 18, 2017 and started running in November 2017 and currently has 210 pupils of which 89 are girls. At full capacity, the school can accommodate 310 pupils.

Additionally, NSE will provide a yearly donation towards the running of the school over a three year period to ensure its sustainability. The school management is vested with the Bridge Academies, an international education development firm with primary focus on developing nations and Borno State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB).

L-R; Solomon Ogufere, Commercial Director, Vodacom Business Nigeria; Ernest Ndukwe, former Executive Vice-Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission and Kola Fayemi, Executive Head, Legal, Regulatory & Compliance, Vodacom, during the presentation of Internet of things Focused Company; Enterprise Broadband Services Provider and Enterprise Solution Provider of the Year awards to Vodacom at the Beacon of ICT Awards in Lagos last Saturday.

Once again this year, Vodacom Business Nigeria has been honored with three major accolades at the Beacon of ICT (BoICT) Awards 2018.

Adding to the list of accolades, Vodacom, received awards for Enterprise Solutions Provider of the Year, an award conferred on the company consistently since 2013; Internet of Things (IoT) Focused Company, owing to its pioneering and visionary endeavors in this area in the past two years. A third award was also given to Vodacom for Enterprise Broadband Services Provider of the year.

The BoICT awards is a merit-based celebration organised by Nigeria’s leading technology publication, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek, which aims to recognise outstanding contributions to the growth and development of ICT in Nigeria.

This year, over two million readers of Nigeria CommunicationsWeek voted in different categories and Vodacom emerging as the clear winners in the three categories; Enterprise Solutions Provider of the Year, Internet of Things Focused Company and Enterprise Broadband Services Provider of the Year, a new category introduced this year.

Speaking at the Beacon of ICT Award Ceremony, which took place in Lagos at the Eko Hotel & Suites, Victoria Island recently, Managing Director for Vodacom Business Nigeria, Lanre Kolade said: “Winning these three awards elicits two very distinct emotions today, pride and humility. Pride in the achievements of our dynamic and tenacious team over the years, and humility because we would be nowhere without our customers who continue to trust us to meet their total communications needs and keep them connected 24/7.”

Kolade said: “These awards are an affirmation of our diligence and commitment to delivering the highest quality enterprise-grade total communications solutions in the industry. We assure our customers that we will not relent in our pursuit of innovative technological solutions that accelerate business growth and profitability, with unwavering determination to turn their challenges into solutions.”

ABOUT VODACOM BUSINESS

Vodacom Business (Africa) Nigeria, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Vodacom Group, is a leading pan-African corporate connectivity and telecommunications provider. We provide services to the continent’s largest businesses in sectors including oil and gas, retail, banking, mining, distribution, and tourism; helping them stay connected across Africa, and to the rest of the world.

Our core infrastructure connects over 580 million people, across more than 40 African countries and includes over 50 satellite transponders, 24 dedicated teleports and access to multiple sub-sea cable landing ports. 

By utilising on-the-ground support, we provide system integration and maintenance, high-speed Internet services, pan-African data networks, Cloud and Hosting Solution, wireless broadband and international VPNs, Enterprise Voice and Internet of Things (IoT).

Saturday, April, 21, 2018 marked the one year anniversary of the CBN’s (Central Bank of Nigeria) launch of the Investors and Exporters’ (I&E) FX window.

Although the policy was pitched almost a year after the CBN originally reneged on the June 2016 announcement of a transition to a flexible foreign exchange framework, initial scepticism which greeted I&E fizzled within weeks post-introduction after FX transactions in the window cumulated to US$1.9bn by May-2017.

The singular act of a market reflective pricing of foreign exchange, coupled with the recovery in global oil prices as well as the stability in domestic production, following cessation of militancy attacks on oil installations, reset the stage for a broad based macroeconomic rebound.

Shortly afterwards, exacerbating inflationary pressures began to moderate – settling at 13.3% in March 2018, the economy slipped out of recession in Q2:2017 and grew 0.8% Y-o-Y in 2017, pressure on consumer spending power also tapered while recovery from external sector shock materialized amid improved export figures (most especially from crude oil).
Most remarkably, Foreign Portfolio Inflow (FPI) data has reflected the attraction of foreign investors into the Nigerian equities market with inflow into equities accounting for 29.7% and 49.6% of total capital and FPI flows respectively; resulting in a 42.3% equity market return in 2017 with NSE ASI as the 11th best performing index in the World and 2nd in Africa.

The equities market rally of 2017 post-FX market liberalisation saw investors taking advantage of cheap and attractive valuations which were previously jettisoned due to demand paucity from foreign investors. Particularly, tier-1 banking stocks as well as premium consumer goods and industrial goods stocks drove the positive sentiment.

In line with historical trend, domestic investors joined the bandwagon towards Q4:2017 especially after the gradual moderation in fixed income yields following the FGN’s decision to restructure debt portfolio and the CBN’s cessation of long dated OMO bill offerings.
Whilst FPI flow recovery post I&E introduction is nearing the pre-2014 shock levels of US$14.9bn with the 2017 inflow at US$7.3bn, attraction of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has been steadily slow, dwarfing the 2014 annual levels by 56.9%, notwithstanding structural reforms policy document rolled out by the fiscal Authority.

The Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), despite having a launch date preceding the I&E, has achieved very little in generating patient real sector FDI flow with long lasting impact on employment and growth; thus begging the question; Where is our FDI?

But more essentially, recent lull in foreign equity investor sentiment, post-January 2018 Bull Run, suggests more dangerously, the dominance of foreign investors in shaping market sentiments and propelling positive equity market trends or otherwise.

What do equities hold for the rest of 2018 and are there still bright spots for the market in the build-up to the 2019 General Elections? Should Investors “Sell in May and Go Away“ or are there still cherry-picks plausible for potential upsides?

Ahmed Kuru
MD/CEO
AMCON

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Ahmed Kuru, has called on agencies that are saddled with the responsibility of regulating the aviation industry and indeed other critical sectors of the economy to adopt the same template, which the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) used in streamlining banking operations in the country.

Kuru was a guest speaker at the 6^th Nigeria Transport Awards and Lecture where he presented a paper entitled: “AMCON’s intervention in Transport and Allied Sector; Achievements, Challenges and Prospects.” Explaining the proposed template, the AMCON boss said such approach will ensure stiffer corporate governance in the business of aviation and other allied critical sectors; minimize risks as well as ensure that the experiences, which necessitated AMCON intervention in Arik and Aero will not recur.

Kuru who was represented at the event by Mr. Kamilu Omokide, a Senior Vice President at AMCON, argued that the huge debt of the corporation would have been avoided if the affected companies had proper corporate governance structures that took better business decisions. But with many failed entities as a result of poor decisions that led to huge non-performing loans, he said the government had no choice then but to create AMCON to mop-up the bad loans thereby stabilising and revitalising the Nigerian economy.

To do that effectively, AMCON according to him purchased non-performing loans of about N181 billion from various banks. But of this lot, 90 per cent of the loans purchased was in the aviation sector. He said despite plans to aid their resuscitation with additional investment of N40billion on very good terms, there were still no light at the end of the tunnel, which compelled AMCON to appoint Receiver Managers over a lot of the companies including Arik and Aero airlines.

He said, “AMCON was created to be a stabilising and revitalising tool in the Nigerian economy. Towards achieving our mandate, we purchased non-performing loans of about N181 billion from various banks. Over 90 per cent of this was in the aviation sector. To place the companies in a position to recover and generate adequate cash flow, we gave additional un-lending facilities (in collaboration with Central Bank of Nigeria and Bank of Industry) of almost N40 billion on very good terms. Unfortunately, notwithstanding this support, the companies could neither pay the old nor new loans. We have therefore been compelled to appoint Receiver Managers over a lot of the companies, the biggest being Arik and Aero.”

Kuru further noted that AMCON’s intervention in sectors including the aviation industry has not come without its challenges, which stem from shareholder actions, lack of support by some trade creditors, some foreign lenders, and increased union demands but said these were not unexpected and have been professionally and transparently handled over the period.

He further said, “The new management in Arik had to take bold decisions to downsize its operations, especially cutting down all the long haul flights, due to the losses being sustained on those operations, and the lack of equity capital to absorb the losses. Generally there was the need to reassure the travelling public. AMCON is an asset management company, not a consultancy firm to run airlines. So we got professionals to do the job. They are the ones running the airlines. There were skepticism in some quarters earlier on but the narrative has changed. Nigerians are happy with our intervention in the transport sector. However, a lot still needs to be done.”

With a population currently estimated to be 180 million and with the abundant human and natural resources of Nigeria, Kuru also stated that the prospects in the transport sector of Nigeria remains huge. Nigeria he insists is naturally endowed geographically to be a global hub. And with the abundance of water and land mass it is possible to create a harmonious rail, sea, road and air transport sectors to the benefit of Nigerians and the economy.

In conclusion Kuru said, “The aviation and transport sector requires solid capital to make it deliver for the good of the Nigerian people. It will require a measure of policy consistency and governmental support to thrive. However, from our experience, no matter the capital thrown at the sector, if corporate governance is not strengthened, it will still fail. The absence of governance or quality governance and sound financial risk management systems is at the heart of the failures that are common in the sector. I urge regulators to act with courage by insisting on proper governance in airlines. I recommend they look at the work being done by CBN and Financial Reporting Council to improve the practice in airlines.”