A group of Nigerians in the Diaspora have concluded plans to establish N9bn automobile assembly plants in the country under the patent called Zhope Automobiles.

The group is led by a professor of engineering systems and Director, Machining Research Centre, Faculty of Engineering Science and the Built Environment, London South Bank University, Prof. Emmanuel Ezugwu.

Displaying a model of a 15-seater air-conditioned bus at the premises of the National Automotive Council in Abuja, on Wednesday, Ezugwu said that the plants would manufacture and assemble made in Nigeria automobiles in the six geopolitical zones of the country.

He said, “This innovative project incorporates over 25 years, research and development experience in the area of advanced manufacturing technology for sustainable development.

“We are working with local resources on the ground to put forward a technology road map that will serve as a hub for vehicle export to other parts of West Arica.”

Speaking during the event, the Chairman, Zhope Automobiles, Mr. Marcel Ezenwoye, noted that the project would commence by the first quarter of 2011, adding that the plants had been structured to create about 14, 000 jobs in Nigeria.

He said, “There is a projection that not less than 4,000 jobs will be created on the line function and over 10,000 in ancillary related services centres.”

“The training policy of Zhope envisages the training of local engineers like the roadside mechanics, who will in turn train other middle level operators in Zhope automobile technology. For this reason, Zhope’s technical partners from Europe and China will come to Nigeria for the training and technical support.”

He noted that discussions were currently going on with the National Automotive Council for the domestication of Zhope brand in Nigeria.

Ezenwoye said, “We have a forecast of an average monthly sales of 100 number of buses and an annual gross of 1,200 number of buses. Zhope intends to initiate the KDK strategy with a view to reducing overall production cost per unit of the buses. Our target is to get up to 40-50 per cent local content to minimise importation by 2020 if we have the enabling environment for manufacturing.”

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Going by our research, industrial starch (whether from corn, cassava, potato or rice, etc) is one of the fast selling products in the international market.

For this product to attract very high demand and higher prices, it must be well-processed and must maintain very high acceptable international standards, and must be handled with the deserved professionalism. This is a profitable project to invest on this year 2010.

Market position
The demand for industrial starch is world wide. This product is highly demanded in Netherlands, France, United Kingdom, and Federal Republic of Germany. It is also widely demanded in Taiwan, Asia, and USA. The local demand is also encouraging. Starch can be produced in dry or wet forms. Both wet and dry starch is needed in Europe. It has a lot of industrial uses, and can be used as ingredient in the preparation of bread, custard, sauce, snacks, pap. The industrial uses include textile, book binding, glue making, paper board, batteries, cosmetics, paint and soap. Starch is also used in weaving, spinning, and dye works, paper boards, dressing paints, leather adhesive, paste stamps and carpets.

It can also be used in artificial honey, fruit juice sweets, beer, and canned fruit confectionaries and pharmaceutical industries. Because of different uses starch can be subjected to, global demand is over 18 billion metric tons per annum. The supply on the other hand has not been encouraging in the international market. Apart from Zaire and Brazil which supplied a total of 18.2 million metric tons in 1999 and 26.5 metric tons in 2001, the gap has been longing for bridging. There is a gap of about 16.3 billion metric tons of starch for industrial uses; therefore, there is plenty of cassava and other root crops or tubers in Nigeria for the production of world starch requirement.

Plants, machinery and equipment
The major equipment needed include cassava peeler, sifter, slicer, grater, extractor, pulveriser and dryer (if dry starch is required), hammer mill/disintegrator, automatic or semi automatic weighing, and packaging machine and sitches/seakers. Production capacity of the machine under consideration has a full capacity of 10 metric tons of starch per day on two shifts. This implies that about 75, 000 metric tons will be produced in a year.

Quality, packaging standards
It should be noted that this product is demanded in metric tons by end users. It is therefore advisable that the end product be packed as such and to maintain the international market water content standard of about 8 percent. The product is packaged in 100kg jute bags for export. How the products should be preserved to avoid producing irritating odours will be discussed when we are contacted for further clarifications by prospective investors.

International prices/foreign markets
The price fluctuates between $650 and $800 per metric ton. Locally, it is sold between N42, 000 and N45, 000 per metric ton. Prospective investors would be assisted in the area of getting foreign buyers at reasonable prices.

Financial implication
The project can be started on a medium scale of N10.6 million as shown below. Since the machine produces 75,000 metric tons per annum, working for 300 days, the total sales revenue at full capacity will be $18.6 million within the first year of operation. Realising however that our industrial capacity cannot be realised, the capacity is placed at 50 percent, resulting in total annual income of $9.4 million (N1.3 billion).

Having considered the availability of raw materials, convincing technological position, government encouragement to non-oil export-oriented investors and availability of human resources, as well as huge profit margin from exporting this product; we recommend this project to Nigerians to invest in. Uba Godwin’s contact: Tel: 01-4721550, 01-7349363; 08023664368, 08034494437, Email: “mailto: ubagodwin@yahoo.com

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Pam Patsley, Chairman &Chief Executive Officer of Moneygram International, visited Nigeria recently as part of  efforts to gain a better understanding of the market, customers and different cultural practices.
In a chat with Princewill Ekwujuru and Moses Nosike,  she posits that money transaction volume has increased six times in the first quarter. Read on.

How long has MoneyGram been operating in Nigeria?

MoneyGram started operating in Nigeria in 1998 and has steadily expanded its network of well established and respectable banks.

Pam Patsley

What is your assessment of the Nigeria Remittance Market?

Information we have indicates that the Nigeria Remittance Market is worth over $10bn annually. We believe the market shrank a little in 2009, as a result of the global economic crisis and its effects on employment statistics for migrant workers in key corridors. With the easing of the financial crisis, especially in the US, we expect remittances to Nigeria will experience positive growth.

Our business has experienced good growth both in terms of number of transactions, value and our network. We have been able to achieve this modest growth thanks to the support of our agent banks. With new agents and additional network, we expect our business in Nigeria to grow tremendously in the coming years.

How significant is the First Bank launch of MoneyGram service? Will MoneyGram be signing any more agents in Nigeria?

We are happy to have signed on First Bank and to have the MoneyGram service delivered through an additional 500 First Bank locations nationwide. This will make the MoneyGram service more accessible and convenient to many more customers.

In many markets where we operate, any new agent brings in its wake increased transaction growth and we expect this to be the case with First Bank.

MoneyGram will continue to forge alliances with credible financial institutions as the laws of Nigeria allow to bring our services even closer to our customers. They are a few more agreements in the pipeline which should be concluded over the next couple of months.

What is MoneyGram doing in the area of fraud prevention in Nigeria?

MoneyGram has initiated key actions to combat fraud in Nigeria; Key amongst them are;
Successfully implemented the locking down of a transaction to the location that first viewed

Have added as compulsory a receiver questions for all our transactions in Nigeria to provide additional security
We continue to provide periodic compliance training for the compliance officers and product managers of all our agents.

MoneyGram’s Director of fraud from the U.S. visited Nigeria in April this year,, organizing workshops for all our agents in Nigeria and also meeting with enforcement agencies to presents MoneyGram’s anti-money laundering and compliance efforts

The Regional Compliance Manager for Africa  also visited Nigeria to meet with the EFCC (law enforcement agency) and the agents and present MoneyGram’s efforts on anti-money laundering and compliance generally. The feedback from both events has been very positive.

MoneyGram is also working with agents to restrict locations that pay out fraud induced transactions.
We continue to collaborate with key regulatory authorities i.e. Central Bank of Nigeria, Economic and Financial crimes commission (EFCC) and Special Fraud Unit (SFU).

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