The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has emerged the preferred host of the 22nd Annual Conference of the African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA) scheduled to hold from 25 to 27 November, 2018, at the Oriental Hotel Lagos. NSE won a similar hosting right for the 2009 edition which was held in Abuja.

The Annual Conference is ASEA’s flagship event, and Africa’s foremost capital markets. Themed “Champions On The Rise: Africa’s Ascension To A More Sustainable Future”, the 2018 edition has a robust agenda and an impressive array of thought leaders as speakers.

The two-day conference will feature keynote addresses and presentations, panel discussions and interactive sessions on burning issues around Africa’s global competitiveness, emerging technologies and inclusive growth, within the broader perspectives of sustainability. It will also provide a platform for networking and business opportunities.

Mr. Oscar N. Onyema, CEO, NSE and ASEA President stated that “the ASEA conference will continue to be a major platform of cooperation for the African business community. The conference will provide a great opportunity for investors, policy makers, Government, leaders of African exchanges, media and other market stakeholders to network, share valuable experiences, as well as discuss the future development of financial markets in Africa, with the goal of mapping a route to a sustainable future for the African economy.

“About 1,000 delegates are expected at the event which is considered one of the most important financial conferences of the continent due to its attraction to eminent thought leaders, important decision makers and investors interested in the African market”.

“We will leverage the opportunity to reinforce the position of The Nigerian Stock Exchange as a sophisticated bourse, energize the Nigerian capital market eco-system, and showcase Nigeria as an attractive tourism destination amongst others, added Onyema.”

It will also be recalled that NSE successfully hosted the 5th Building African Financial Markets (BAFM) seminar from 28 to 29 April, 2016.  It was the first time the capacity building seminar will be hosted outside of South Africa.

About ASEA

ASEA is the premier Association of 28 securities exchanges covering 32 countries in Africa. It aims at developing its members, enhancing the global competitiveness of member exchanges and providing a platform for networking and exchange of information.

Established in 1993, ASEA works with African member exchanges to unlock the potential of the African Capital Markets by providing an authoritative information portal on African capital markets, and providing aggregated statistics and information on African exchanges. 

ASEA’s vision is to enable African Securities Exchanges to be key drivers of the economic and societal transformation of Africa by the year 2025.

Its mission is to provide a forum for mutual communication, exchange of information, co-operation and technical assistance among its members to facilitate the process of financial integration within the region, for the effective mobilisation of capital to accelerate the economic development of Africa.

L – R Shows Mazi Alison Ukonu, Chief Executive Officer / Co-Founder, RecyclePoints Limited; Bola Adeeko, Head, Shared Services Division, The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and Olumide Orojimi, Head, Corporate Communications Department, NSE during the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with RecyclePoints Limited for the collection and recycling of waste materials generated at The Exchange’s offices at the Exchange recently.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) is pleased to announce that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with RecyclePoints Limited for the collection and recycling of waste materials generated at The Exchange’s offices. This initiative is also a demonstration of the Exchange’s effort to ‘End Plastic Pollution’, which is the theme of this year’s Earth Day, celebrated globally on April 22, every year.

The Exchange, as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) drive, is always seeking innovative ways to reduce its environmental footprint. In line with this objective, NSE has engaged RecyclePoints for the collection and recycling of waste materials generated at its offices, starting with Lagos and Ibadan, under RecyclePoints’ Corporate Recycling Program. The NSE commenced an internal workplace recycling program in 2013.

Speaking at the signing ceremony of the MoU, Mr. Bola Adeeko, Head, Shared Services Division, NSE said, “As a sustainable stock exchange, we are committed to supporting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals as it relates to responsible production and consumption. In addition, environmental sustainability is one of our key CSR pillars and we believe that reducing the waste we send to the landfills through effective recycling is good for the environment and for the economy as well. By sorting our waste and sending applicable items such as paper, plastic and glass etc. for recycling, we are creating jobs for the recycling sector and helping industries save cost on essential raw materials, while actively protecting the environment.

More importantly, as a leader in the African business space, we are confident that this move will encourage other businesses to embrace corporate recycling, thereby igniting a good waste management culture across board.”

Commenting on the signed agreement, the Chief Executive Officer, Recyclepoints Limited, Mr. Mazi Ukonu said, “We at RecyclePoints are very delighted that The Nigerian Stock Exchange, as a responsible corporate citizen, has taken this bold step to implement a Corporate Recycling Program through our platform, thus further strengthening the achievement of its sustainability and environmental commitments. There has been a global call for corporate entities to create shared value and explore solving social issues as opportunities for competitive advantage. Signing this MoU exemplifies NSE’s strategic plan in finding innovate avenues of helping to solve social problems.”

He also called on entities quoted on the Exchange to emulate NSE by subscribing to RecyclePoints’ Corporate Recycling Program.

RecyclePoints is a waste recycling and social benefit company that motivates people to recycle their everyday waste by creating value from recycled products and operating incentive based schemes.

The business world is changing, and those who do not stay ahead of the curve are sure to be left behind. It is no longer sufficient to take a profit-first business approach: not only is it not sustainable for the long term, but consumers at all levels are now demanding that the business world develop a conscience. Government regulations are slowly following suit, outlining development criteria to begin this critical shift – but is this enough?
The Shared Value business model is the key to unlocking the business growth and profit in addressing social issues. By identifying challenges that intersect with the business’ purpose and then integrating solutions into the business’ operations at every level of the value chain, doing good becomes part and parcel of doing good business. In essence, Shared Value reconnects the business agenda and the social agenda, intertwining profit and progress.
Corporate social responsibility has become entrenched in our public mindset. Business, having played a role in creating some of the challenges faced by society and the environment today, is now expected to lead the charge in facing and solving them.

The instinctive response is often external policies – good works that rely on allocated resources, often as ephemeral as the feel-good PR they generate. This has its place, of course, but in order to make a real change, business must rewrite its strategic DNA.
This is not about ticking a box, doing just enough to get by. This is about going above and beyond to set new standards, and embedding the profit with purpose model in the core business strategy.
This approach is at the centre of the 2018 Africa Shared Value Summit taking place from 24-25 May 2018 at The Maslow conference centre in Sandton, Johannesburg. The Summit brings together business thought leaders, executives and changemakers, including keynote speaker and co-author of the ground-breaking Harvard Business Review article that first outlined the Shared Value strategy, Mark Kramer, to share insights from their business’ Shared Value journey.
Headline sponsor Absa is just one of the notable businesses throwing their weight behind the Summit – other sponsors are Nando’s, Old Mutual, Enel, Discovery, Woolworths and the World Food Programme. Tiso Blackstar, JCDecaux and SAfm are media partners, while OneTravel and The Maslow are travel partners.

The programme (which can be found on the Summit website) features highlight speakers from across the African continent, sharing insights and case studies that focus on the implementation and impact of Shared Value – and how it can align business to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Despite expectations that growth will be robust in the near term, developing countries face challenges to keep up the pace of progress and ensure inclusive, sustainable growth amid structural changes to the global economy.

The World Bank Group is uniquely placed to address global challenges and help countries achieve their goals in today’s increasingly complex development landscape.

This was a key message from the Development Committee, a ministerial-level forum of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund, in a communiqué issued at the close of the institutions’ Spring Meetings in Washington.

The committee reiterated its support for the Bank Group’s twin goals of eliminating extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity, while recognizing that the Bank Group must strengthen its financial capacity to meet the aspirations of its shareholders, mobilize capital at scale, and respond to global development challenges.

The committee agreed to a capital increase for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) as part of a package of fundamental reforms that will allow the Bank Group to deliver development results more effectively while becoming more financially sustainable and efficient. It will help the Bank Group continue to lead on global public goods and scale up its support in fragile and conflict-affected situations.

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, in his remarks at the press conference that opened the Spring Meetings, also highlighted the financial strengthening of IDA, the World Bank’s fund for the poorest countries, through an inaugural bond issue that raised $1.5 billion from investors around the world this week.

“IDA’s entry to the global capital markets is historic – the latest transformational shift in how we approach development finance,” he said, adding that “IDA will be able to dramatically scale up financing to help countries meet the 2030 development goals, and deliver greater value to shareholders.”

Both the committee’s communiqué and Kim’s speech at American University prior to the meetings emphasized that the Bank Group must continue to crowd in private sector resources for development, as the main driver of investment, innovation, and jobs. The committee called on the World Bank, IFC, and MIGA to work closely together to mobilize private investment as part of maximizing finance for inclusive growth and poverty reduction.

Kim also underscored the importance of building human capital as the foundation for long-term development progress in the Bank Group’s client countries. At the upcoming Annual Meetings, scheduled for October in Indonesia, the Bank Group will release an index measuring countries’ human capital to help inform government leaders’ decisions on investments in health and education.

While acknowledging a range of pressing challenges for developing countries – a rise in public debt levels for low-income countries, climate and disaster risks, and major gaps in gender equality, among others – the committee reiterated its support for the Bank Group’s role in building global solutions. The committee’s communiqué also noted that the capital increase is tied to adjustments that will update the balance in shareholding among the Bank Group’s member countries.

In his speech, Kim noted that optimism has defined the vision of the World Bank Group from the outset. He quoted U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, who stated the new organization’s objective at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944: “A dynamic world economy in which the people of every nation will be able to realize their potentialities in peace, to raise their own standards of living and enjoy increasingly the fruits of material progress. For freedom of opportunity is the foundation for all other freedoms.”

From Left: Director of Transport in the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mallam Aliyu Maigari (who represented the Director General of BPE, Mr. Alex A. Okoh); Chairman of the Technical Committee (TC) of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP), Alhaji M.K Ahmed and a  representative of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Dr. Sokonte Davies (Executive Director, Marine Operations)  at the Financial Bids  Opening  for the concession of Terminal ‘B’ Warri Port in Abuja.

Ocean and Cargo Terminal Services Limited has emerged the preferred bidder for the concessioning of Terminal B Warri Old Port in Delta State.

At the financial bids opening for the Port Terminal held by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) in Abuja on Wednesday, April 18, 2018,Ocean and Cargo offered the sum of USA $25, 510,000.64 to emerge the preferred Concessionaire after its rival-Ecomarine Consortium- was disqualified for improper submission of its bidding documents.

Consequently, Ecomarine’s bid price was not announced. However, Ocean and Cargo Terminal Services Limited emergence is subject to the approval of the National Council   on Privatisation (NCP).

The event which was chaired by Alhaji M. K Ahmed,Chiarman of the Technical Committee of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP  was attended by many stakeholders, including the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) which was represented by Dr. Sokonte Davies (Executive Director, Marine Operations) who stood in for the Managing Director, Ms. Hadiza  Bala Usman.

Ecomarine had scored 87.84% and Ocean and Cargo Terminal Services Limited, 82.70% in the evaluation of the technical proposals of the prospective bidders.

Speaking at the occasion, Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mr. Alex A. Okoh, who was represented by the Director, Transport Department, Mallam Aliyu Maigari, noted that modest achievements have been recorded at the ports since the port concession programme commenced in 2005, hence the Government’s determination to concession the Terminal ‘B’ Warri Old Port.

He said the objectives of the port concession are to, among others:

• Increase the efficiency of ports operations;
• Reduce cost of doing business for ports users;
• Reduce dependence on the treasury for support to an otherwise economically viable ports sector; and
• Boost economic activity, increase the GDP and accelerate development to make the Nigerian ports the hub of international freights in west and Central Africa.

Okoh maintained that Government expects much from the preferred bidder for the Terminal “B” Warri Old Port and urged it to focus on the objectives of the port reforms as it goes about its businesses.

He commended the bidders who by their participation in the privatisation programme up to the point of the financial bids opening have demonstrated unalloyed faith in the economic reform programme of the present administration; and by extension, strengthened the Bureau’s resolve to see the bidding process to its conclusion.

The Director General apologised to the bidders for the unduly and unintended long process it took to get to the stage of the financial bid opening and noted that the  terminal has a new quay wall, fenders and apron with a backup space where the concessionaire will develop other infrastructural facilities for efficient port operations.

He thanked all the investors that expressed interest in the Terminal ‘B’ Warri Old Port for their belief and interest in the concession process and pledged to work with the preferred bidder to help create a more broad-based, private sector-led and a prosperous Nigeria.

In his speech, the Chairman of the occasion and Chairman, Technical Committee (TC) of the National Council on Privatisation, Alhaji M. K Ahmed, said that the reform and restructuring of the Transport Sector which commenced in 2000, led to the concession of 26 ports terminals out of the 28 in 2006.

He said the NCP advertised for Expressions of Interest (EOIs) from prospective concessionaires interested in taking over and managing Terminal B Warri Old port on June 23, 2014 and at the deadline for the submission of EOIs, 13 applications were received, out of which seven were pre-qualified for the issuance of bidding documents.

It would be recalled that Associated Maritime Services Limited (AMS) was the concessionaire that won the Warri Old Port Terminal B in 2006. However, when AMS took over the terminal in 2007, it could not operate the facility because the entire terminal was in total disuse. The quay wall had collapsed; the stacking/operation areas caved in and were unable to withstand any crane. All the warehouses and stalls were in bad state.

On 25^th April, 2008, NPA temporarily relocated AMS to Warri New Port to enable it undertake the necessary repairs, rehabilitation and reconstruction of the facilities at the terminal. However, this did not materialise as NPA did not have the necessary funds.

Consequently, AMS applied to NPA to convert its stay at the new terminal to a permanent one. BPE and NPA jointly considered the application and with the approval of the NCP, AMS was relocated to the New Warri Terminal ‘A’ to complete the remaining period of its 10 – year concession.