GateWayNigeria.tv » Nigeria

Nigerians abroad to establish N9bn car assembly plants

Naija4ever — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 08:41:00 +0000

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.”

Nigerian Remittance Market worth over $10bn annually

Naija4ever — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 12:20:59 +0000

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).

A New Football Culture is what Nigeria needs

Henry Kester Ewruje — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:10:54 +0000

Written by Henry Kester Ewruje

Ninety minutes on a football pitch can make a world of a difference. That the Super Eagles did not qualify from the group stage of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa is like a nightmare for most Nigerians. Football fans that have been looking over their shoulders since the match against Greece in Bloemfontein are now depressed as Nigeria ended the group matches with a 2 – 2 draw with South Korea in Durban and did not qualify for the knockout stages.

What is wrong with the Super Eagles? Many things are wrong with football in Nigeria. In truth, the Super Eagles team has never been at its best in recent years. Not all the matches played by the team in the past four years have been vintage performance. The squad only exhibited a steely determination to prevent a massacre in their 0 – 1 loss to Argentina in Johannesburg with an outstanding performance from goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama.

I talked to a hell of a lot of people. Managers, coaches, scouts, players and friends and what came back was uninanimous. They all felt that most of the players and Coach Lars Lagerback made mistakes in all their group matches. The technical ability of the Gaffer was tested in South Africa. He had to prove that his appointment was not a mistake. Personally, I doubted Lagerback’s ability to lead the Super Eagles to South Africa. He had nothing to offer because he was a spent force. He had not upgraded his coaching career in Sweden and failed to lead the Swedish national team to the world cup finals in South Africa which led to his resignation from the job showed that he was not the right coach and did not have the pedigree to take the Eagles to the next level in the world cup and beyond.

The gaffer failed technically and he adopted wrong tactics and formations in the three matches played. His starting line-ups were not the best. Not only that, in an apparent display of insufficient knowledge of the Nigerian players, he played some of the players out of their positions which affected the performance of the team. Most of the players had the reputation for shirking the grittier aspects of the game. The coach and the team made lots of mistakes. Even in the Pro Zone age of football where the coach’s team selections are influenced by the distance a player completes each game, there will always be no place for majority of the forwards he took to the world cup.

Nigeria is a country with a proud tradition of outstanding right wingers like Segun Odegbami, John Chidozie, Sam Okpodu, Tarila Okorowanta, Clement Temile, Dimeji Lawal, Pius Ikedia, Tijani Babaginda, Julius Aghahowa and Finidi George. However, the coach decided to field a player in the right wing whose lackadaisical style and a moment’s exhibition of madness earned him the red card and cost the team the match against Greece. Even the most creative elements of Lagerback’s side did not show any willingness to sacrifice themselves for the team. They could not ally graft to their craft.

.Now, the players are talking and complaining about Lagerback and his tactics as well as the playing time given to them. They are also complaining about the quality of players Largerback picked for the world cup. These same players had praised the coach after they played three friendly matches before the world cup. These players failed the nation and they are masters of the dark arts of media manipulation. These players are the delight of journalists. They are open mouths in search of a microphone. This a joke but nobody is laughing. The players to the South Africa 2010 world cup were not the best Nigeria can provide. Only the best players should don the nation’s colours in future competitions

So what is the way forward before the next world cup in Brazil in 2014?

I suggest that all the senior professionals in the Super Eagles who have been talking about throwing in the towel, should quit international football now. Most people might think that some of the senior pros are playing too well to retire from the national team. They might say this decision is a bit too hasty. But the players are big enough to be aware that they are taking a risk with football supporters because a few average performances will raise questions about their retirement from the national team.

The older players are the standard bearers. They are the ones that set the standard. The senior pros have to be the ones to show what it is all about and there is no better example than to quit now. The next world cup is in 2014. The younger players in the team should be groomed with new invitees to the Super Eagles to play in the next Nations Cup Competitions and then the world cup.

While people are taking the mickey out of some players, it is the Nigeria Football Federation, (NFF) that is mainly responsible for the problems of football and it needs a total overhaul. Every association has its values and at the moment, the NFF miss that. I think it is important for the nation’s football that the NFF should be overhauled because with the present players and coaches in the national team, we will never be a leading football country in the world in the coming years. Criticisms of the game are good for Nigerian football.

Presently, the NFF secretariat in Abuja must be littered with e-mails, faxes and letters from supporters who cover every generation. The message to the NFF is that they have failed the nation. The new chants on the streets are “give us a new NFF in the next elections”. Surely, the NFF cannot overlook the stream of correspondence. They should resign immediately and not wait until their elections in August, 2010. The NFF has failed to launch a bold plan to revolutionise the country’s football since they came to office. They have been unable to draw a strategic plan with enough concrete proposals to tackle the nation’s underachievement head-on. The plans of the NFF if any sound bland and boring. Their strategy lack obligatory buzzwords such as vision, purpose and values.

There is nothing uplifting and positive about the NFF with all its lies, deceits, crooked agents and absurd financial structure. The conduct and utterances of the NFF always send people laughing. While the zany twittering of the NFF is sending people into fits of giggles, I am not amused at the amateurishness that is rife in football coaching in Nigeria.

Amodu Shuaibu was sacked by the NFF as the coach of the Super Eagles for doing a commendable job by qualifying the team for the 2010 world cup and for winning bronze at the Nation’s Cup in Angola. He was accused of getting the results but not performing. This excuse was the cruellest joke. It will be recalled that millions of Nigerian football fans and other stake holders called for the removal of Coach Amodu. It would be remembered that the Presidential Task Force (PTF) recommended for Amodu’s sack and a sound foreign technical adviser to be employed. When Amodu was fired, the NFF sent people into reels of laughter by concluding the second-coming of former Super Eagles technical adviser, Frenchman Phillipe Troussier, whose most famous television documentary was how he spilled the blood of a hapless chicken in a bowl for his Burkina Faso players to lick ahead of a match.

The NFF is guilty of epitomizing triumph of style over substance. The NFF should be overhauled immediately. The new NFF should have an approved coaching qualification. Nigeria is the only major football country that does not have it. The new professionalism will spell the extinction of dinosaurs that prefer big talk to tactical awareness. They should launch a school for managers as part of plans to overhaul the game. Aspiring bosses should not be allowed to manage their clubs unless they have an NFF approved qualification. The important thing is to raise standards. Every other country has a mandatory coaching qualification. This scheme backed by the league managers association will also help the coaches get jobs abroad. Only Samson Siasia and Augustine Eguavon improve themselves by attending coaching courses and seminars abroad at their own expense.

Christian Chukwu failed technically during the France 1998 world cup qualifiers that the then captain of the team, Austin Okocha had to arrange coaching lessons for him under Sam Allardyce at Bolton Wanderers football club in England.

The new NFF should clamp down on agents by overseeing all transfer negotiations. Clubs should have their finances reviewed annually to make sure that all deals are above suspicion. Agents who cream millions of naira from the game should come under a bung-busting unit. Clubs should be required to tell the NFF where all the money in a transfer has gone and which agent is involved. Teams often get less than foreign clubs pay. But making all international and domestic transfers to go through the NFF will thwart such dodgy practices.

The new NFF should plan a radical shake-up of the games in the grassroots. A national football center should be opened. The quality of coaching in the soccer academies should be attacked and a professional women’s league set-up. Super clubs should be nurtured. A non-league club should have lots of sides of all ages under his wing. This will improve football at the community level and produce fantastic young players. The aim is to give the various national teams, the raw materials to be more successful. The hows, whys and wherefores should not be vague. Stakeholders should organize seminars and meetings for the NFF to go to, people to talk to and a new football culture to be introduced. The country’s youth development should be the envy of Africa. We already see the benefits of soccer academies and the youth teams of some organizations and clubs in the country.

This should be a wake-up call for an association that has been standing still. The NFF should not rest until there is a fundamental overhaul of the game. Nigerians are waiting.

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Nigerian Banks now using Credit Reference Agencies

Naija4ever — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 09:40:05 +0000

IN the recent past, it was easy for the well-heeled in the country to walk into many banks and obtain loans without collaterals or even the intention to repay.
But with the empowerment of credit bureaux by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), chronicle loan defaulters are in for it.
Credit is the oil in which business runs. There is basically nothing wrong in granting or accessing credit to run a business. Such an act becomes wrong and almost criminal when one borrows without the intention of repaying.
It becomes even worse when such borrowed funds belong to a bank that holds same in trust for the public.
Basically, that was one of the things that went wrong with the nation’s banking industry last year leading to the removal of some banks’ managing directors.
To avoid the same pitfall, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) recently gave life to its earlier directive that banks must comply with certain regulations as it concerns credit bureaux before granting loans to customers.
In order to effect the directive by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to engage the services of at least two credit bureaux before granting loans, banks have started writing to their customers seeking their consent to disclose information concerning their (Customers) banking relationship to any of the credit bureaux.
It would be noted that recently, the CBN had made it compulsory for banks and other financial institutions to partner with licensed credit bureau order to enhance the performance of their operations.
According to the circular signed by the apex bank’s Director, Banking Supervision, Samuel Oni, “following the release of the guidelines on licensing, operations and regulations of Credit Bureau, issued by CBN in October 2008, it has become imperative to issue this circulate directing banks and other financial institutions to partner with the licensed credit bureau in order to enhance the performance of their operations.
“Consequently, it is mandatory for banks and other financial institution under the purview of the CBN to comply with Section 5.4.3 and 5.4.5 of the guidelines on licensing, operations and regulations of the credit bureau in Nigeria.”
The sectors stipulated, “banks must have data exchange agreement with at least two credit bureaux, obtain credit report from at least two credit bureaux before granting any facility to their customers, and obtain quarterly credit bureaux for all previous loans/facilities granted to enable the determination of borrowers current exposure to the financial system.”
Based on the foregoing, the apex bank had stressed, “banks and their financial institutions are advised to comply with this circular with immediate effect as failure to do so will attract appropriate sanctions.”
As a fallout of this, part of banks’ consent to disclosure of information obtained by The Guardian over the weekend, explained to their customers that the information shall be used for business purposes approved by the CBN and any relevant statute, adding that as members of a credit bureau, the banks are under obligation to disclose to the bureau, credit information and any other personal information disclosed to them (banks) in the course of banker-customer relationship with them.
The banks explained to their customers also, the various implications of submitting such information to them.
Some of the implications, include that,
• Such a bank may collect, use and disclose to a credit bureau and that the credit bureau may use the information for any approved business purpose as may, from time to time be prescribed by the CBN and/or any relevant statute.
• The customer should understand that information held about him/her by the credit bureau might already be linked to records relating to one or more of his/her partners.
Such a customer may be treated as financially linked and his/her application will be assessed with reference to any associated records.
In addition, for any joint application made by the customer with any other person(s), new financial association may be created at the credit bureau, which will link the bank’s financial records.
• The customer warranty that he/she is entitled to disclosure information about any co-application or guarantor and/or any one else referred to by him/her, and to authorise the bank to search and/or record such information of a credit bureau about him/her and such co-applicant or guarantor or other person.
• You understand that an association will be created at the credit bureau, which will link your financial records. You agree to indemnify and hold the bank harmless against all claims, fees, expenses, damages and liabilities against the bank relating to or arising as a result of disclosure of information about such a co-applicant or guarantor or other persons or any use of such information by the credit bureau in compliance with the provisions of any CBN guideline and/or relevant statute.
• You hereby release and discharge the bank from its obligations under the banker’s duty of secrecy and forswear your right to any claim, damages, loss etc or account of such disclosure to credit bureau or the use by credit bureau in accordance with the provisions of any CBN guideline and/or relevant statute.
The CBN had licensed three credit bureaux to help checkmate the activities of loan defaulters in the banking industry.
The three credit bureaux are, CRC Credit Bureau, Credit Registry and XDS Credit Bureau.
Late last month, the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) policy on accessing information on borrowers before lending by financial institutions in Nigeria started yielding dividends with 21 out of the 24 banks in the country engaging the services of credit bureaus to that effect.
The CBN had in its guidelines for the licensing, operations and regulations of credit bureau in Nigeria in October 2008, issued directives to financial institutions to this effect.
A credit bureau is an institution that collates data on borrowers from various sources and makes it available to aid informed lending by financial institutions.
On the strength of this, a credit bureau can also assist financial institutions to reduce loan-processing time and cost, enhance informed lending decisions and most importantly, reduce the level of non-performing loans.
Revealing the compliance level of banks and other financial institutions to The Guardian over the weekend, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of CRC Credit Bureau, one of the three CBN-licensed credit bureaus, Tunde Popola stated that from January this year till now, the compliance level by financial institutions has been high.
Citing his firm, he said that, 21 out of the 24 banks have signed on the services of CRC Credit Bureau, adding that, those 21 banks represent about 97 per cent of the banking system credit market and also have access to about 95 per cent of the borrowers in the nation’s banking system.
The implication of this development, The Guardian gathered, is that these 21 banks must have also signed on the services of another credit bureau in line with the apex bank’s directive in order to have an elaborate and informed data on current and prospective borrowers.
Apart from that, Popoola also disclosed that, Bank of Industry (BOI), over 25 Primary Mortgage Institutions, about 50 micro finance banks have signed on, stressing that, all these happened between January this year and now.
In August last year, the CBN had announced that five banks in Nigeria had high level of non-performing loans.
The five banks are Afribank Plc, Finbank Plc, Intercontinental Bank Plc, Oceanic Bank Plc, and Union Bank Plc.
According to the apex bank, the major findings included excessively high level of non-performing loans attributable to poor corporate governance practices, lax credit administration processes and the absence or non-adherence to the bank’s credit risk management practices.
Thus, the CBN said, the percentage of non-performing loans to total loans of these banks, ranged from 19 per cent to 48 per cent, adding that, the five banks will need to make additional provision of N539.09 billion.
Based on that, the apex bank had revealed that, the total loan portfolio of these five banks was N2.9 billion.
It added that margin loans amounted to N456.28 billion, while exposure to oil and gas was N487.02 billion, stressing that, aggregate non-performing loans stood at N1, 143 billion representing 40.81 per cent.
Meanwhile, the three CBN-licensed credit bureau’s had earlier written to the CBN on the implication of non-compliance of banks to the content of the guidelines on credit bureaus.
Instructively, the heavy loan portfolios of Nigerian banks are mainly due to non-performing loans, as stated by the apex bank.
These bad loans are usually from chronic loan defaulters.
To check this trend, the apex bank had licensed credit bureaus to enable financial institutions access information on borrowers that will enable them (banks), make informed decisions before lending.
Managing Director/Chief Executive of Credit Registry Services, Taiwo Ayedun said the most effective way for the CBN to address the problem of bad loans is to enforce its guidelines that bank should use credit bureaus.
He noted that the method of publishing bank debtors names by the apex bank has its own limitations, as a much more effective way is to ensure that those information make their way into a credit bureau’s information system, and banks as a matter of choice should check everyday because it is automated.
He stressed, “information-sharing is so fundamental in clearing up the financial system, as nobody will see evidence that somebody is owing elsewhere and is defaulting and you still go ahead and grant him loan.
“It is not possible. All you do is to tell the individual to go and pay up the loan he owes. But in the absence of information-sharing, banks will just be making ignorant decisions,” he submitted.

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