Worldwide tablet shipments, inclusive of slates and detachable reached 38.7 million in the second quarter of 2016 (2Q16) according to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker.
Growth continues to decline with the market receding 12.3% year over year as vendors begin to refocus their product lines and consumers hold off on purchases.
An overwhelming majority of tablets shipped this past quarter were Android-based systems (65%) followed by iOS which captured 26%, and Windows for the remaining share.
Though this trend has been constant for years there are early signs of change as the Android vendor list has contracted and champions of the OS have begun to offer Windows-based products, hedging against the decline of Android slates.
“The market has spoken as consumers and enterprises seek more productive form factors and operating systems – it’s the reason we’re seeing continued growth in detachables,” said Jitesh Ubrani, Senior Research Analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Device Trackers.
“At present, it’s difficult for Android to compete with iOS or Windows detachable products. However, the next 12 to 18 months will be very interesting as Google launches the next version of Android with better multi-tasking support and as they begin to bring together their two operating systems.”
Despite the continued decline in slates, the form factor still accounts for over three-quarters of the market. “While growth in the detachable category is undeniable, slates continue to represent the vast majority of the segment. Vendors like Amazon, with a very focused approach to positioning, price, and purpose, managed to capture a considerable share of the market. Slate sales are declining but they still serve a purpose and will do so for a long time to come,” said Jean Philippe Bouchard, Research Director, Tablets at IDC.
Tablet Vendor Highlights
Apple’s launch of its second detachable helped lessen its year-over-year decline to 9%, but more importantly it helped raise Apple’s average selling price (ASP) and revenue.
Price reductions on previous generation iPads and the latest Pro-iterations are expected to have the same effect for the remainder of 2016 as the consumer and enterprise audiences evaluate their needs.
Samsung continues to hold the number 2 position in IDC’s ranking with methodical coverage of price bands, features, and screen sizes. Samsung’s results should get better as it arguably leaves the detachable category still untouched. It is also important to note that Samsung’s Galaxy View is not included in IDC’s Tablet taxonomy and therefore not included in the presented results.
Lenovo’s strength is primarily in Asia/Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East & Africa (MEA). The company has managed to grow its share on the backs of unique, sometimes esoteric designs.
Tablets like the Yoga Tab 3 Pro offer a built-in projector and have allowed Lenovo to differentiate themselves from other premium media-focused tablets. However, the majority of its shipments still come from the low-cost Lenovo Tab 2 and Lenovo Tab 3 lineups.
Huawei’s Matebook has been off to a rocky start as the specs have not been reflective of the price. The company’s first foray into the detachable segment seems half-hearted and it’s imperative for this to change should Huawei expect to make any headway in this space. Meanwhile, Huawei’s slates continue to perform well in the Asia/Pacific and MEA regions.
Credit goes to Amazon as its performance this quarter has been reflective of the aptly named Fire tablets. The low price combined with the company’s online presence has once again afforded Amazon a spot in the top 5 vendor list. Given the growing popularity of Amazon’s Prime Day Sale, it would not be surprising if Amazon performs similarly in the next quarter.
It is important to note that the unprecedented growth is partially attributed to the fact that IDC did not include the 6-inch tablets offered by Amazon in 2Q15.
Mr. Eddie Efekoha Chairman Nigerian Insurers Association
The Nigerian Insurers Association [NIA] will hold an investiture luncheon in honour of its 22nd Chairman, Mr. Eddie Efekoha, on Tuesday, August 16, 2016 at the Grand Ball Room, Eko Hotel & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos at 11.30 am prompt.
According to a statement by the Director – General of the Association, Mr. Olorundare Sunday Thomas, the investiture ceremony presents yet another wonderful opportunity for the Association to showcase the insurance industry and forge closer ties with the government, investors and other critical stakeholders.
He stated that Insurance Chief Executives, Investors, stakeholders and other corporate players are expected to grace the occasion.
They include Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, the honourable Minister of Finance, Alhaji Mohammed Kari, Commissioner for Insurance, and members of Insurance Committees of both Chambers of the National Assembly. Dr. Layi Fatona, the Managing Director of Niger Delta Exploration and Production Company will be the Chairman of the event.
The formal investiture ceremony follows the election of Mr. Efekoha for a two-year tenure at the Association’s 45th Annual General Meeting [AGM] which was held on Thursday, June 30th 2016.
Other executive members of the Association elected at the AGM include Mrs. Yetunde Ilori, Deputy Chairman, Messrs. Tope Smart and Ganiyu Musa as Honorary Treasurer and Assistant Honorary Treasurer respectively.
In preparation for this edition of International Telecommunication Union (ITU) yearly event, ITU Telecom World 2016, the Local Organisation Committee (LOC) for Nigeria has put in place plans to host a Stakeholders Forum.
The forum which is slated for Monday, September 5, 2016 at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Ikeja, is expected to enlighten and throw more light on the benefits that will spring from participation of
stakeholders.
The forum is for Policy Makers, Regulators, Telecommunication Operators, Service Providers, Equipment Vendors, Banks and Financial Institutions, Small and Medium Enterprises(SMEs), Innovators, Software Developers, Original Equipment Vendors, Value Added Service providers among others.
Keynote speakers include the Minister of Communications, Chief Adebayo Shittu; Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta; Managing Director of Galaxy Backbone, Mr. Yusuf Kazaure, his counterpart at Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT), Ms Abimbola Alale; Acting Director General of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr. Vincent Olatunji among others.
This year’s ITU Telecom event will hold in Bangkok, Thailand from November 14 – 17, 2016.
ITU Telecom World 2016 will provide participants the opportunity to network and showcase their innovations and tap new business models in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) terrain.
Participants will explore importance of collaboration with the digital economy through best approaches, business models and technologies to forge flourishing inclusive ecosystem.
Nigeria has adopted “Smart Communities: The Key to a Digital Nigeria” as theme.
The general theme for ITU Telecom World 2016 is “Collaboration in the digital economy”.
This year’s theme will feature compelling formats ranging from top-level CEO/Ministerial round tables to frank, open dialogues between Governments and Small & Medium business leaders and interactive panel debates.
Inspenonline Media has given awards to seven insurance firms, one pension fund administrator and the Lagos State Pension Commission (LASPEC) for their contributions in their sectors and the economy.
The Award ceremony, which took place at the 2015 Nigerian Insurance & Pension Awards organised by Inspenonline Media in Lagos over the weekend, saw Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited winning the Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) of the Year award; FBNInsurance Limited, the 2015 Insurance Company of the Year, while its Managing Director, Mr. Val Ojumah was awarded the 2015 Inspenonline Insurance Man of the Year.
Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc got the Corporate Brand of the Year Award, even as Corporate Social Responsibility of the Year award went to Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc and Royal Exchange Plc.
Plum Insurance Brokers Limited went home with the Insurance Broker of the Year award, while the Association of Registered Insurance Agents of Nigeria (ARIAN), for the second year in a row, won the Best Professional Group of the Year Award, with Excellence Award going to Lagos State Pension Commission (LASPEC) on behalf of the Lagos State Government.
Speaking on the motive of the award, which started four years ago, the Editor, Inspenonline, Mr. Udo Chuks Okonta, said the award was designed to celebrate organisations and individuals who have helped to reshape activities in the insurance and pension industries and by extension, the economy.
This year’s award, according to him, was organised by setting high standards to judge the operation of companies and state governments that have helped to foster growth and developments in insurance and pension business operations.
“Having harmonised the votes which came from different parts of the world, we benchmarked the scores with the set standard to arrive at the winners we are celebrating today. The award, which is in seven categories, had 25 nominees of which eight winners emerged, even as a state (Lagos) government was recognised for its contribution to the growth of pension business in the country.”
On the theme of the Award ceremony, which is ‘Robust Pension: Key to Better Life After Work’, he said the topic was chosen to help proffer solutions to the challenges presently confronting the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) in the country.
He said the Federal Government has accumulated over N140 billion pension liabilities in recent times, even as some states were unable to remit contributions for the past two years, whilst some private sector employers are finding it difficult to remit or embrace the scheme.
Operators in the Nigerian insurance industry will commence an industry branding campaign on October 1, 2O16. The initiative is designed to increase public awareness of the benefits derivable from patronising insurance products and services.
This was one of the key decisions taken at the Insurers Committee meeting which held in Lagos yesterday.
Mr. Oye Hassan-Odukale, Managing Director/CEO of Leadway Insurance Company Limited, who briefed the media after the meeting said the branding concept is to improve penetration for insurance businesses in the country.
Odukale said the insurance industry is also finalising discussion with the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System [NIBSS} on a common technological platform to reduce the cost of servicing the policies of customers. He added that the effort is to learn from what NIBSS did for operators in the banking sector.
MainOne, the premier connectivity and data center Solutions Company, yesterday announced that its Data Center subsidiary, MDXi is now an SAP-certified provider of Infrastructure Services for SAP® solutions. This new certification confirms the ability of the company to deliver high-quality cloud and infrastructure operations services for customers running SAP solutions and recognises the company as the region’s first SAP Certified Data Center.
The certification will enable MDXi to host and manage SAP applications utilizing the company’s enterprise cloud platforms, across its private, public and hybrid cloud solutions, via a consumption-based delivery model.
As a SAP-certified provider of hosting services, MDXi will offer a cost-effective yet reliable delivery model for mission-critical applications for customers of SAP. SAP customers that rely on MainOne’s data center for hosting services will be empowered to focus on the business value of their solutions and benefit from reduced operational expenses that a commercial data center provides.
Receiving the certificate, the Chief Executive Officer of MainOne, Funke Opeke stated: “We are pleased to receive the SAP certification for Infrastructure Operations Services, as it validates our commitment to providing world-class data center and cloud solutions in Nigeria. With this certification from SAP, it is now possible for Nigerian enterprises and businesses to host SAP applications in-country on MDXi’s Cloud platform and optimise their accounting processes, data analytics and sales chain management. This will improve response times for SAP applications, ensure data security and assure more cost effective subscription charges.”
In his comments during the certificate presentation to MDXi, Managing Director of SAP West Africa, Kudzai Danha said: ”More than ever, SAP Africa is excited about the SAP HANA® certification of partners like MainOne. The current market demand for attractive business applications in the cloud presents great business opportunities and through SAP HANA, customers can innovate and redesign business processes, capitalising on the agility of this unique platform.”
SAP HANA Cloud is an in-memory platform that runs analytics applications smarter, business processes faster and data infrastructures simpler! It is the foundation for all the data needs of a business, removing the burden of maintaining separated legacy systems and siloed data, so business can run simple in this new digital economy.
The SAP certification process is rigorous and culminates with an onsite audit session to determine that the provider meets all the local and global requirements as stipulated by SAP to run its applications. Some of the criteria include quality and knowledge management, data center, network and connectivity, back up and data recovery, IT service management and project management.
In order to meet this certification requirements, MDXi demonstrated its professional competence in all aspects of infrastructure operations including possessing a comprehensive operations manual, system landscape diagrams, security guidelines, OS access, required technical skills amongst others.
Climate finance totalling $81 billion was mobilised for projects funded by the world’s six largest multilateral development banks (MDBs) in 2015. This included $25 billion of MDBs’ direct climate finance, combined with a further $56 billion from other investors.
The latest MDB climate finance figures are detailed in the 2015 Joint Report on Multilateral Development Banks’ Climate Finance, prepared by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) together with MDB partners: the African Development Bank (AfDB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Inter-American Development Bank Group (IDBG), and the World Bank Group (WBG).
This important contribution to the global climate change challenge was reinforced last year by pledges from all of the MDBs to significantly increase their climate finance in the coming years. They made these pledges in the run up to the COP21 Paris Agreement, the world’s first universal climate accord adopted in December last year by 195 countries.
The report covers the 2015 year and shows that MDBs delivered over $20 billion for mitigation activities and $5 billion for adaptation. Mitigation activities involve the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency measures and the use of clean, renewable energy sources, while adaptation measures reduce climate vulnerability and increase resilience to climate change through, for example, investing in climate-resilient land-use and water resource management. Since 2011, MDBs have jointly committed more than $131 billion in climate finance.
Among the regions, non-European Union (EU) Europe and Central Asia received the largest share of total funding at 20%; with South Asia receiving 19%; Latin America and the Caribbean 15%; East Asia and the Pacific 14%; the EU 13%; Sub-Saharan Africa 9%; and the Middle East and North Africa 9%. Multi-regional commitments made up the other 2% of the total.
On a sectoral basis, the largest recipient of adaptation funding was for water and wastewater systems (27%), followed by energy, transport and related infrastructure (24%), and crop and food production (18%). Renewable energy received the bulk of mitigation finance (30%), lower-carbon transport received 26%, and energy efficiency activities 14%.
In Africa, where basic energy services remain scarce region-wide, countries are increasingly working to develop their substantial renewable resources to help reverse this trend. To support these efforts, in 2015 AfDB has provided $905 million of its own resources in climate change mitigation finance, backed by $58 million in external resources.
As African countries also look to increase their resilience against climate impacts, particularly in the forestry, agriculture and land use sectors, AfDB has provided $305 million of its own resources, bolstered by $91 million in external funding, to support their adaptation efforts. The Bank is continuously looking for concrete ways to catalyze private sector engagement such as through equity financing, partial risk guarantees, and climate risk insurance.
“At AfDB, we believe that Africa stands at the threshold of an exponential shift in clean energy access, and that over the coming decades African citizens can benefit from a widespread increase in climate-friendly energy use and green development. We have set ambitious goals for our institution to help ensure this happens, supporting innovative projects in solar, wind, geothermal, and water,” said Alex Rugamba, Chair of the Bank’s Climate Change Coordination Committee (CCCC). “In line with our member countries’ requests in preparation of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) regime, we have particularly focused on institutional capacity building, increasing our support for technical assistance (TA) five-fold from seven projects to thirty-five projects in one year. As countries work to align their development goals with their pledged NDCs in the Paris Agreement, we believe this focus on strengthened capacity is an early signal of commitment to meet these goals. Going forward, this could be an important new area of engagement.”
Given the role of MDBs in catalyzing finance, the inclusion in this year’s report of a common tracking approach for climate co-financing is a significant step forward in making the reporting of climate finance flows more robust and transparent.
MDBs have also been working closely together to harmonize reporting on greenhouse gas emissions and the use of proceeds from MDB green bonds.
Moving forward, the report notes that the MDBs will scale up climate finance activities across multiple sectors, in particular in renewable energy and energy efficiency; low-carbon and climate-resilient cities, regions and industries; low-carbon transport; natural resource efficiency; and climate-smart agriculture and food security.
These efforts will help countries meet their commitments under the Paris Agreement, moving to a low-carbon, more resilient future.
Kaspersky Lab has launched Kaspersky Anti-Ransomware Tool for Business –a free software that offers complementary security to protect corporate users from ransomware. To identify ransomware behaviour patterns and protect Windows-based endpoints, Kaspersky Anti-Ransomware Tool for Business leverages two groundbreaking technologies: Kaspersky Security Network and System Watcher [1]. System Watcher’s unique capabilities include the possibility to block and roll-back harmful changes.
Malicious programmes such as ransomware, that infect computers and encrypt critical corporate data, present a serious problem, especially for small businesses.
According to Kaspersky Lab’s global IT Security Risks 2016 survey, nearly 42% of SMBs fell victim to ransomware in the last 12 months. 34% of these paid the ransom and one in five weren’t able to recover their data, even after the demands of cybercriminals were met.
While businesses are encouraged to utilise many additional protection technologies and approaches to achieve efficient security, Kaspersky Anti-Ransomware Tool for Business provides complementary security to those companies that do not have advanced Kaspersky Lab security solutions. Kaspersky Anti-Ransomware Tool for business is a fast, lightweight solution, able to solve one of the greatest security pain points that leads to financial losses for SMBs – ransomware, and in particular, its most dangerous form – Cryptomalware. Cryptomalware activity results in unrecoverable encryption of valuable business documents and forces businesses to pay a ransom to attackers to get their data back. To address this problem and protect Windows-based endpoints, Kaspersky Lab Anti-Ransomware Tool for Business combines two core technologies:
Kaspersky Security Network, a cloud-based service dedicated to processing depersonalised cybersecurity-related data streams from millions of voluntary participants all over the world. With Kaspersky Security Network, delivery of Kaspersky Lab security intelligence happens in a matter of seconds, ensuring fast reaction times and maintaining high levels of protection.
System Watcher is an advanced proactive security technology that scans all important system events, including the creation and modification of operating system files and configurations, programme execution and data exchange over the network. Events are recorded and analysed, and if there is evidence that a programme is performing malicious operations, those actions can be blocked and reversed, preventing further infection.
“In 2015 Kaspersky Lab’s solutions protected 443,920 users and corporate customers worldwide from crypto-ransomware, depriving cybercriminals of nearly $53 million in illegal earnings. Our experts are monitoring the rising problem of cryptomalware and have developed this simple tool, available free of charge, to help combat the increasing threat of ransomware to business-critical assets. Small and medium sized companies do not usually have the profound security expertise required to evaluate or compare dozens of security tools on the market. Kaspersky Anti-Ransomware Tool for Business is compatible with third-party security solutions, and is a complementary measure against ransomware. We decided to distribute it free of charge to give companies the opportunity to evaluate the power of Kaspersky Lab technologies”, said Konstantin Voronkov, Head of Endpoint Product Management, Kaspersky Lab.
The free Kaspersky Anti-Ransomware Tool for Business is compatible with the third-party protection solutions installed on PCs and can serve as second opinion software for the most advanced crypto-ransomware protection.
As a complementary anti-ransomware solution, Kaspersky Anti-Ransomware Tool for Business provides core corporate users with advanced protection from ransomware.
For organisations that demand the best protection for each network level, including security technologies to protect workstations, file servers and mobile devices from all types of malware and today’s sophisticated attacks, Kaspersky Lab recommends using specialised business solutions:
If an organisation has had its data locked, it is worth checking whether it is possible to recover it by visiting the new online portal, No More Ransom.
The No More Ransom project provides users with several decryption tools to help recover files that have been locked by some types of the ransomware, without having to pay the cybercriminals.
Brazilian plane manufacturer, Embraer announced plans to reduce its workforce by 20% through voluntary layoffs of around 4000 employees, mainly in production and administration units due to global economic recession.
The company noted that around 90% of its revenue comes from exports and the economic crisis has affected demand in mid-sized passenger jets market. In order to reduce the negative impact on the development of new aircraft, such as KC-390 tanker or E190-E2 jet, the reduction of engineering division workforce will be minimal.
Most of the job eliminations will come in Brazil, but there will be layoffs in Embraer’s plants in China and Portugal as well. Through voluntary layoff program, the company expects to save around $200 million per year.
Recently, Embraer lowered its financial results forecast for 2016. The company‘s consolidated revenue will be lower by $200 million and is expected to be $6.2 billion. Planemaker expects delivery of 80 light and 45 large aircraft, compared to 85 and 50 originally planned.
• The initial financial results from Q2 2016 point to another solid quarter for industry profitability and cash flow;
• Global airline share prices increased by 5.9% in July, but they remain well down on where they started the year;
• Brent crude oil prices fell back sharply in July, driven largely by a near-term glut in supply. The futures curve has shifted down in recent weeks, with oil prices now expected to remain below $55/bbl for the foreseeable future;
• Yields have fallen by around 6.5% year-on-year in constant exchange rate terms in 2016. Ongoing downward pressure on yields is expected to provide further stimulus to demand during the rest of the year;
• The premium segment continues to offer an important buffer for overall airline financial performance. Premium airfares have held up better than their economy counterparts on many of the main premium routes so far this year;
• The global air passenger market grew solidly in annual terms during H1 2016. That said, the upward trend has eased in recent months on the back of modest economic growth and cumulative impacts of terrorist attacks;
• The latest freight volumes data point to an improvement from the weak conditions seen earlier in 2016. But familiar headwinds persist, and low freight loads are keeping downward pressure on cargo yields and revenues.
At the recent Annual General Meeting [AGM] of Niger Insurance Plc in Abuja, Business Journal had a chat with Mr. Kolapo Adedeji, Group Managing Director/CEO of the company on various issues in the insurance sector and national economy.
How is Niger Insurance able to pay dividend to shareholders despite the harsh operating environment?
ANS:
To every company, you have important stakeholders. One, the people that have put this company together and give us the opportunity to run it and that is the shareholders. They are very important. Another set of important stakeholders to us are the employees. They are very important set of stakeholders.
Most important are the customers and again the government. When you talk about the customers, it is a subset of the society. So you have to also have consideration for the society and that is why we talk about corporate social responsibility.
We don’t give money to the shareholders. We deliver value to all stakeholders including government in the area of taxation, giving back to the society through Corporate Social Responsibility, for employees, you have to make them happy so that they can bend down and do the work for shareholders- they are the ones that have put the company together and given us the opportunity to have a stake.
So- we have been very consistent in rewarding them over the years because they are diverse; you have retirees, working class people, you also have people that are there for the purpose of growing their businesses.
The Board considers these and tried to maintain the tradition of rewarding them consistently. We try to make their reward unbroken over the years-that is the tradition we have decided to follow. It also makes them to identify with the company and continue to give their support.
We know that times are hard but it is a passing phase. After the rain come the sunshine; so we believe there is still light at the end of the tunnel.
Nigeria is now officially in a recession. How will that affect insurance business in the country?
ANS:
To me, you know in economic circle, you have a period of boom and period of bust. As a country, we had our period of boom when the price of our major source of revenue that is oil went as high as $120 per barrel.
Now, we are in recession and government is facing a major challenge. I believe that running government is about spending money. I believe in making savings but part of the spending should be spent on infrastructure that can also lead to greater generation of income by the masses.
We are in recession and government’s earning is coming down but government is still the biggest spender, meaning that what will flow from government into the economy is driven by what government has been able to save before now and what it is making at present.
But is also a challenge really because whether we like it or not is part of our revenue may be in the short run, because government is still the biggest spender. But to cushion that effect, that is why we said there is need to empower ordinary citizens but again, if the disposable income of the ordinary citizen is also going down because-one, am not saying the salaries are being delayed but what l am saying is that purchasing power is weakened now because there is also inflation, especially if you look at the foreign currency exchange rate, you see that purchasing power has really dropped and if that happens, it will affect insurance business.
You know insurance is always last in the scale of preference. Because- first, you talk about food, children’s school fees, housing, you know today’s landlords among others, before you talk about insurance.
So you have to attend to these basic needs of life. So, if inflation has eroded items one and two, you know what will be left for insurance. So it is going to present a lot of challenges to come out of it because this is a service, now you are trying to project better in terms of awareness, creating new products. So I want to believe that it will really affect the industry because if you look at it, talk about the performance of the budget, all of us are sitting on the national economy now that they have capital vote being released, about N248 billion, if you look at that, is between 55, 60 percent of the budget because of the dwindling revenue, so if budget is not going to perform 100 percent, it is really going to be difficult to set target. The honorable minister has just told us that we should expect a turn-around from third quarter.
The government is looking at alternative ways of growing the economy. How can the government enhance performance of the insurance sector?
ANS:
Well, let me first of all say that government has taken the right step when you talk about repositioning the economy.
You must have read about the creation of municipal pool, this is meant to increase capacity to underwrite big ticket businesses. Also, I want to believe that the local content development policy of the federal government is doing a lot. Most businesses that before now go abroad are now insured here.
But we too must grow capacity, especially as the honorable minister of finance was talking about recapitalisation-because your business terms are sometimes a function of your capital. But I don’t want it to look like contradiction because government is looking at other sources of income other than oil and gas- what they should look at again is the taxation. I don’t want it to look as if we are complaining but government’s taxation regime is not too favorable to attract investors because if you are looking in the direction of this industry, it means that the ones that are supposed to bring in money to grow the industry- the taxation problem is discouraging them. If you have a taxation regime that is too far from ideal, because what we are paying in the industry now is different from what you have in the manufacturing sector. I want to believe that there is an error somewhere and government should look into it.
A member of the Senate has also promised to help us and see that it is looked into. I am not saying that government should not collect tax but if it allows the industry to thrive, government will even make more money from the industry in the area of taxation and the industry will also benefit.
But like I said, the local content policy is working. Our regulator is also trying. What they are doing now is to ensure that every company that is licenced is also participating in all these businesses that must be domesticated. It is not a question of whether a company is weak. If it is weak, you have not withdrawn its licence. It is also not a question of whether a company is not paying claims promptly because you have not even complained.
But it is good to allow everybody that is so licensed to try. So that is what the regulator is doing to ensure that there is a spread. As you know, insurance business is all about sharing of risk. Again, if that happens, you can be sure it will reduce unbridled competition.
For instance, if company A knows that company B is stronger, what will happen is that it will allow company B to bid, especially in oil and gas, without necessarily bringing down the rate knowing fully well that whether you like it or not at the end of the day, the bidding company cannot carry the risk alone.
You must get your share of the business. A larger chunk will still go out going by the structure we have on ground now- majority go offshore, so there is no point charging low risk in order to get the business. So from what they have done now really, there will be a fair spread and again, every company has been so recognised and that will enable many companies to grow. Because you can only grow if you are taking in more and more businesses and gain experience on whatever class of business you are underwriting. After gaining experiences, you can now have capacity and begin to underwrite bigger tickets. Like I said, all we are seeing now is a passing phase. All the pains we are passing through and I know insurance will be better for it at the end of the day.
Are you saying that the municipal pool will stop all the negative practices going on in the industry like rate cutting, unhealthy competition?
ANS:
Yes, I want to believe so because we have pools in the past, oil pool and is helping us to conserve business within each other. Whether you like it or not, all of us can combine, cede all the capacity together to underwrite big businesses.
That is what is happening in the oil and gas business now despite the recession. Because I believe that the price of oil is stabilising-I am sure it will also get back to a point where it will also enable more investors to go back to the risk because now they don’t want to go back to the high sea but as it is now, all these glut from wherever-lam sure is being addressed.
As the president has said, if you can produce little at higher price, why do you want to produce more and sell at lower price? l am sure they are reaching out to the countries in the Middle East concerned because there are some political angles to those countries.
Look at the American companies, still growing and creating new employment. Definitely, we have capacity problem but if things improve, I want to believe in two months time that is the beginning of winter, they will start stockpiling oil-those of them that will not want to be caught up with higher prices and that will also drive the market.
It is left for us to learn lessons from what has happened to us in the past and be more prudent in the management of our resources because our life style has not changed as Nigerians.
We are still wearing expensive things all of which we are not producing, expensive handsets, if they bring in a container load of handsets into the country, it will finish within a short time and you start wandering that salaries have not been paid yet people have money for all these. But I believe that in terms of rot, Africa is not an exception and Nigeria is not alone; because, if you get infrastructure right, the large population is enough to engender growth. Over 100 million people-you can just work on the middle class. Trading among ourselves alone can engender growth. You can travel from here to Jalingo, infact, you can travel on Nigerian roads for 14 hours without a single boarder control.
At the AGM, you talked about foreign investment into the company. Have you identified a particular investor and what level of equity are you likely to hand out?
ANS:
When you are talking about foreign investors, let me tell you, the minister said that all of us will recapitalise.
You know that your retention is a function of your capital. Don’t forget that we attempted to go to the market in 2008 but what happened at the capital market happened. We had put together all parties concerned, planned to have the first meeting, sequel to August 14, 2009, it was Friday, the market started having issues.
If you look at our balance sheet, because of the job, because of our equity and portfolio, it just created a kind of imbalance, so the business we do, liquidity is key. If you look at companies that are doing very well, just check their balance sheet, you will see they have huge capital.
Some of them are very lucky because they went to the market just immediately before the problem. Why am I saying they were lucky, they would have invested the money in the capital market and the shares would have also lost value.
But we have been around before some of them- several years and we have seen all these kinds of businesses together with regulations. So when the crisis happened, that time, even if you had wanted to sell, nobody was ready to buy.
Because you can buy Cadbury at N50 and you know tomorrow it is going to be N48, so someone can say why do I have to buy when I know tomorrow, it will come down to N48.00. So we were having more offers than people who were ready to buy.
Honestly, we had thought that the period of drop in value of shares would have been for a short period. Nobody had thought that it will extend for so long-not that it can still not go back because before the confidence will come back, it will take time.
So that has happened. Talking about foreign investment, liquidity is very key. If you look at Niger Insurance, historically, we have not done anything public, or special placement or what you call IPO, what we have been doing over the years is rights issues to the existing shareholders.
But when the market went the way it did, they became fatigued and if you want to raise big capital, you find it difficult to get it from them. So that is why the Board is looking at foreign investors for two reasons.
You know if you are still looking for money from Nigeria outside the existing shareholders, if you are not going to make it rights issue, you can still get significant figure but we have looked at the trend in the industry, what competition is doing.
If you look at image, you look at the likes of AXAMansard when you just mention the name, they are global, they are multinational, they have better technology, if you look at Custodian & Allied before IFC came in, if you look at Leadway, now you have Swiss Re coming into the company.
So in terms of visibility, to be very visible, it will be good to also have foreign linkage. It is a Nigerian company agreed, probably acting globally and thinking Nigerian. What the Board is looking out for in a nut shell, is capital.
Yes, we want to raise capital but let it be both capital and expertise. But if you are looking for money, in Nigeria, we can get good investors but we are saying okay, if anyone is bringing money, what else-because for Nigerians, if they bring in the money, they might not have the kind of skill and knowledge required.
Aligning with foreign investors has a lot of advantages, in the area of product development, the skill set, knowledge, we want them to blend and we need greater exposure so that we can innovate. We can’t do it on our own but I must tell you there is a lot of interest in Nigerian insurance industry from outside the world-a lot.
Anytime you go out you meet enquiries. So the Board decided that we bring in foreign investors for reason of more exposure.
Globacom, Nigeria’s data grandmasters, has again bested other operators to the top position in the segment of acquisition of new Internet subscribers in the month of June.
This is conveyed in the latest figures released by the industry regulator for the month of June.
According to the figures, Globacom ended the month of June with a total of 26,628,065 Internet subscribers up from 26,355,391 in May. This showed that the operator added a total of 272,674 new subscribers during the month.
The figure represents a remarkable improvement from the total number of subscribers gained between April and May. Glo recorded 49,124 new subscribers in April.
Airtel is the closest operator to Globacom with 45,334 new Internet subscribers by recording a total of 17,325,423 subscribers in June, up from 17,280,089 recorded in May.
Conversely, Etisalat had a total of 15,253,513 Internet subscribers at the end of June, down from the 15,508,024 Internet subscribers the operator had in May, effectively losing a total of 254,511 Internet subscribers in one month.
MTN Nigeria on its part recorded a total of 32,974,177 in June, down from the 33,108,786 Internet subscribers that the operator had in May.
Consequently, MTN lost a total of 134,609 within a month.
Generally, a total of 318,008 new Internet subscribers were gained in the industry and Globacom alone had 272,674 new Internet subscribers out of this figure.
From the foregoing, Globacom is responsible for about 86 percent of the total Internet subscriber acquisitions in the industry in the month of June.
Observers believe that Globacom’s consistent rise in the area of acquisition of new Internet subscribers may be attributed to the recent introduction of panoply of innovative products and services by the company.
Among the offerings currently exciting subscribers is Jollific8 which gives subscribers eight times the value of their recharge. It is widely acclaimed to be the best value for money in the industry.
MTN, a leading emerging markets mobile operator, connecting 233 million people in 22 countries across Africa and the Middle East has unveiled its financial results as at June 30, 2016. The company said it is committed to continuously improving customers’ experience and delivering a bold, new Digital World to them.
Financial results snapshot for the six months ended 30 June 2016
• Group subscribers remained flat at 232,6 million from 31 December 2015
• Revenue increased by 14,0% (1,5%*) to R78 878 million
• Data revenue increased by 32,2% (19,7%*) to R19 849 million
• Voice traffic and data traffic increased by 7,9% and 135,3% respectively
• EBITDA decreased by 3,3% (25,9%*) to R29 273 million
• EBITDA margin decreased 6,6 percentage points to 37,1%
• Headline loss per share of 271 cents**
• Interim dividend of 250 cents per share
• Capex increased by 26,9% (15,4%*) to R13 772 million
• Nigeria regulatory fine re-measurement impact of R10,5 billion
The Group’s results are presented on a regional basis in line with the Group’s new operational structure. This is comprised of South and East Africa (SEA), West and Central Africa (WECA) and Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
The SEA region includes: South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, Rwanda, South Sudan, Botswana (joint venture – equity accounted) and Swaziland (joint venture- equity accounted). The WECA region includes: Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Benin, Congo Brazzaville, Liberia, Guinea Conakry and Guinea Bissau. The MENA region includes: Iran (joint venture – equity accounted), Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Afghanistan and Cyprus.
Although Iran, Botswana and Swaziland form part of their respective regions geographically and operationally, they are excluded from their respective regional results due to being equity accounted for by the Group.
Overview
MTN continued to operate in a challenging environment for the six months ended 30 June 2016. The financial performance for the period reflects the confluence of a number of material issues, which created the “perfect storm”. The Group has made strides towards resolving these challenges although many of these factors fall outside of its control.
The Group’s reported results were significantly impacted by the Nigerian regulatory fine. On 10 June MTN Nigeria resolved this matter with the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and agreed to pay the FGN a total cash amount of 330 billion Nigerian naira (US$1,671 billion, using the exchange rate prevailing at the time) over three years in a full and final settlement.
This was agreed in addition to complying with certain other regulatory conditions imposed as part of the settlement reached. The 50 billion naira (US$250 million) paid in good faith and without prejudice by MTN Nigeria on 24 February 2016 forms part of the monetary component of the settlement, leaving a balance of 280 billion naira (US$1,418 billion, using the exchange rate prevailing at the time) outstanding. In June 2016 the first scheduled payment of 30 billion naira (US$124 million) was made. The remaining cash payable at 30 June 2016 amounted to 250 billion naira (US$882 million).
The Group has accrued the present value of 280 billion naira (US$1,418 billion, using the exchange rate prevailing at the time), which in total had a negative impact of R10 499 million on reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation and impairment of goodwill (EBITDA) and a R8 632 million negative impact on the Group’s reported headline losses, or 474 cents on reported headline losses per share.
The reported impact on the Group’s statement of cash flow for the period amounted to R5 870 million, which equates to the 80 billion naira paid during the period.
During the period, R1 324 million costs were incurred on a range of professional services relating to the negotiations that led to a reduction of R34 billion in the Nigerian regulatory fine to 330 billion naira (US$1,671 billion, using the exchange rate prevailing at the time).
The Board has exercised its judgement and approved the quantum of the professional fees incurred taking into account global benchmarks and the value delivered culminating in the final settlement of the Nigerian fine.
Apart from the Nigerian regulatory fine, the depreciation of local currencies against the US dollar had a substantial impact on the Group’s results. This resulted in foreign exchange losses amounting to R3 606 million during the period.
MTN South Sudan reported an impairment on property, plant and equipment (PPE) of R259 million** (using a Rand/ Sudanese pound exchange rate of 0.376). When the impairment write-off is presented on an organic basis the impairment amounts to R2 632 million* (using a rand/Sudanese pound exchange rate of 3.837). This organic impairment write-off had a significant negative impact on organic EBITDA.
The Group’s underlying performance was impacted by weak macro-economic conditions affecting consumer spending, the withdrawal of regulatory services in MTN Nigeria from July 2015 until May 2016 and disconnections of subscribers related to subscriber registration requirements, mainly in Nigeria.
MTN Nigeria disconnected the last batch of 4,5 million subscribers in February 2016. MTN Uganda and MTN Cameroon were also impacted by subscriber registration requirements. This resulted in significant free minutes provided for subscriber re-registration campaigns,
contributing to a 12,2%* decline in the effective voice tariff. The Group’s performance was further impacted byaggressive price competition and under-performance of MTN South Africa.
MTN Irancell (joint venture – equity accounted), MTN Ghana and MTN Cyprus delivered strong operational and financial performances for the period.
EBITDA reconciliation
EBITDA, excluding the impact of the Nigerian regulatory fine (R10 499 million), hyperinflation (R90 million) and the realisation of the deferred profit from the sale of towers in Ghana (R18 million), declined 3,3%.
This was positively impacted by foreign exchange movements (23%). Organic EBITDA declined 25,9%*, negatively impacted by R1 324 million in costs incurred on a range of professional services relating to the negotiations that led to a reduction of R34 billion in the Nigerian regulatory fine and the impairment of PPE in South Sudan of R2 632 million*.
The impairment for PPE of South Sudan impacted organic EBITDA by 8,7%*. MTN South Sudan’s full results impacted organic EBITDA by 9,8%*. Excluding the impact of professional fees relating to the Nigerian regulatory fine negotiations and the MTN South Sudan impairment, EBITDA declined 12,8%*.
The Group EBITDA margin declined 6,6 percentage points (pp) to 37,1%. This excludes the impact of the Nigerian regulatory fine, hyperinflation and the realisation of the deferred profit from the sale of towers in Ghana.
Losses from joint ventures and associates amounted to R1 692 million**. This included a charge of R1 039 million** incurred by MTN Irancell, mainly relating to the depreciation and amortisation of hyper-inflated assets that were historically written up under hyperinflation reporting.
Upon the discontinuation of hyperinflation accounting in Iran, effective 1 July 2015, hyperinflation adjustments are limited to the depreciation and amortisation charges on previously hyper-inflated assets until 2033.
The Group reported losses of R2 463 million in relation to MTN’s share of Nigerian TowerCo losses, which were mainly as a result of foreign exchange losses incurred on US dollar-denominated loans. In addition, the Group also reported short-term losses on MTN’s share in Africa Internet
Holdings (AIH), Middle East Internet Holdings (MEIH) and Iran Internet Group (IIG)(R494 million).
The Group reported a headline loss per share of 271 cents**, which was mainly as a result of the Nigerian regulatory fine (474 cents**).
Excluding the impact of the Nigerian fine, headline earnings per share (HEPS) declined 69% to 203 cents. In addition, the headline number was negatively impacted by losses from joint ventures and associates, which were negatively affected by hyperinflation of 20 cents** (positive impact of 40 cents** in 2015), losses from the TowerCo’s of 136 cents** (3,5 cents** in 2015), AIH, MEIH and IIG of 27 cents** (18 cents** in 2015) and net forex losses of 135 cents** (52 cents** in 2015).
This was further negatively impacted by a range of professional services relating to the negotiations that led to the reduction in the Nigeria regulatory fine (73 cents**). Excluding the impact of the fine, hyperinflation, losses from the TowerCo’s, AIH, MEIH and IIG, forex losses and a range of professional fees relating to the fine negotiations, basic HEPS declined 11,7% to 594 cents.
Financial performance summary
The Group continued to benefit from its significant scale and footprint, maintaining its leadership position in 15 markets. Group subscriber numbers remained flat at 232,6 million following 6,6 million subscriber disconnections over the six month period in Nigeria, Uganda and Cameroon.
Since October 2015 approximately 18 million subscribers across the Group were disconnected to ensure compliance with the subscriber registration processes. MTN South Africa reported a decline in subscriber numbers mainly as a result of strong competition and economic pressure in a highly penetrated market.
Group revenue increased by 14,0% to R78 878 million, benefiting from the average exchange rate movement of the rand against the naira.
On an organic basis, Group revenue increased by 1,5%*, impacted by a decline in outgoing voice and data revenue in Nigeria following the withdrawal of regulatory services from MTN Nigeria until May 2016.
This had a significant negative impact on MTN Nigeria’s revenue growth for the first four months of the period. This was partly offset by higher revenue growth by MTN South Africa, supported by strong device sales and an increase in data revenue during the period.
The Group benefited from healthy double digit data revenue growth in the majority of the markets in which it operates.
Group data revenue increased by 32,2% (19,7%*) and contributed 25,2% to total revenue despite a 46,9% decline in the effective data tariff (in constant currency US dollar terms). Digital revenue, including Mobile Financial Services revenue, contributed 32,1% to data revenue. This was supported by a 135% increase in data traffic and the increased take up of digital lifestyle services.
Outgoing voice revenue increased by 8,0% and decreased by 5,4%* on an organic basis. This was negatively impacted by a 12,2%* decline in the effective voice tariff (average price per minute, in constant currency US dollar terms) as a result of continued price competition, subscriber disconnections and free minutes used for subscriber re-registration campaigns.
The use of multiple SIM cards, increased substitution for data services and increased pressure on consumer spending also negatively impacted outgoing voice revenue.
MTN Nigeria’s competitiveness was compromised by the mandatory disconnection of subscribers and the suspension of regulatory services until May 2016.
Nigeria’s hospitality revenue should reach $507 million by 2020 thus beating 2015’s $321 million. This was revealed in a report on Nigeria’s tourism from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) released last week, local media said.
In its report, PwC associates the increase to that of overnight stays and of corresponding average price. In addition, new hotels are being built across the nation. Nigeria is in fact expected to get 4,700 additional hotel rooms within the next five years.
It should be recalled that PwC has reviewed the Nigerian tourism industry in the 5th edition of its “Hospitality Outlook: 2015-2019” released in May 2015. In the report, the American firm said Nigeria’s hospitality market had been greatly affected by the Ebola-related health crisis and the 2014’s terrorist attacks. Earnings from room booking thus fell 2% while the three-four star hotels market recorded a 7.7% decrease in revenues.
However, according to the report, due to its economy growing, Nigeria’s hospitality sector attracted many investors and the number of hotel rooms should double in the next five years with most part of this growth coming from Lagos.
Also, overnights stays should record an average annual growth of 6.6% reaching 2.2 million in 2019 against 1.6 million in 2014.
In delivering on its commitment to meet the needs of small and medium enterprises in Nigeria, MainOne has introduced into the market a new service called SME-in-a-Box, a converged solution of high-speed internet, fixed-voice and cloud solution designed to offer its world class services to smaller businesses in affordable packages.
SME-in-a-Box is a simple, plug and play service poised to drive business growth, productivity and profitability without compromising quality and value for money. It will help businesses deliver robust services to their clients because of the high quality experience and value the solution offers. This service is especially practical in today’s economic environment where businesses have to adapt to the new financial regime in order to remain viable.
Speaking during the product launch, the Product Manager, Value Added Services, Adeyemi Tanimomo, discussed the value of SME-in-a-Box.
“MainOne understands the challenges small businesses face especially in terms of costs and quality of service. You will find that the typical business is always changing service providers because of these two issues. This is why we created this solution, to enable businesses increase their operational efficiency and ultimately their bottom-line. SME-in-a-Box provides business owners a viable solution to meet their objectives of growth, improved efficiency and good service delivery.”
Tanimomo further explained that from MainOne’s perspective, SMEs are key drivers of the economy because of the vital role they play in alleviating poverty, providing job opportunities and building wealth. However, an SME is unlikely to be able to fully attain its potential without being powered by reliable internet connectivity.
“SME-in-a-Box is an expression of MainOne’s commitment to constantly innovate as we continue to provide the best connectivity and data network services in West Africa. We also want to provide SMEs access to the same quality of services enjoyed by big organisations to drive their growth and sustainability. The service is especially recommended for startups, professional services companies, architectural firms, law firms, schools, hotels, hospitals, e-commerce firms, retail malls and other businesses that require business support connectivity solutions from one, single provider.”
SME-in-a-Box is affordable and currently available in Ikeja and Apapa, with planned phased launches throughout Nigeria.
