Chidi is the main force behind the huge GIG Group. Their GIG logistics and motors are huge market leaders. With over 4,000 Nigerians under his employ, my friend and brother deserve this accolade. Happy Birthday, Sir.
Investment documents and agreements are very key documents in investment making and portfolio management. They are documents that guide the investor /investee, borrower/lender, shareholders, and or management relationships. How effective these documents are especially in preempting, preventing, and resolving conflicts amongst the parties depends on the quality of the advisers, depth, and knowledge of the concerned parties, and transparency & good faith of all parties. I have seen some very well done agreements undone by a wrong assumption or interpretation or even greed by one party. If one party is determined to cheat the other or not meet its obligations, no matter how great the advisers are or robust the agreement is or dispute resolution clauses agreed, chaos and drama always unfold and value is destroyed. The funny thing is if you speak to both sides, each party always believes they are the aggrieved party. Investment making is tough. I have always believed that if I have to go to any of the legal documents to enforce my rights, the deal is lost and value is destroyed so I try and work with investors and people who share the same vision and mindset for the spirit, authenticity, and commitment to the relationship is usually the deciding and a major success factor in any business partnership (and in every day one’s too) and not the documents (which are very important)
One key area of agreement most people gloss over and don’t pay enough attention to is Force Majeure. In layman’s terms, it means “unforeseeable circumstances that prevent someone from fulfilling a contract or meeting its obligations under the agreement” Examples include Natural Disasters and War. While parties may not be able to control the occurrence of these unforeseen circumstances, they can prepare a clear, fair, and mutually beneficial action plan that will be triggered in a force majeure scenario. We are dealing with one of such now as one of the investments (and a major one for us) we were targeting to close in February has a Ukrainian firm as a counterpart. We have worked on this deal for over 9 months and even spent New year in some of the towns now being bombarded. Life happens! Our thoughts and prayers are with our partner and his family and the entire world at large. This war is and its undertones from racism to greed are a test for humanity.
We spent most of February engaging with our stakeholders; building alignment on plans and expectations between us and our investors, facilitating interaction between portfolio companies and investors, working with policymakers to better understand the macro context in geographies where we operate and using all these inputs to finalize our budgets and plans for the year. This slowed down our investment activity in February to 7 deals implying we have done over 20 deals in the first 2 months of the year and hence ahead of our run rate (Target is 100 deals this year)
Again, kudos to the team, let’s march on in March.
Dangote Cement’s commitment to environmental disclosures and sustainability is yielding the desired results with Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) raising its rating from C to B- even as it proposes a dividend of N20 per share for the year ended December 31, 2021.
The CDP is an international non-profit organization based in the United Kingdom that runs the global disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, states, and regions to manage their environmental impacts.
CDP explained that it raised the rating as a result of the Company’s commitment to climate change. The upgrade clearly illustrates the progress made by Dangote Cement regarding its commitment to transparency and mitigating its carbon dioxide footprint. This is one of the highest ratings in Sub-Saharan Africa and the only Nigeria company rated by CDP.
Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Cement Plc, Michel Puchercos, in his response to the development said: “We are pleased to be recognized for the progress that we are making in our environmental disclosures and sustainability. The CDP rating upgrade clearly illustrates the steps that Dangote Cement is taking in its commitment to transparency on climate and environmental issues.
According to him, the cement company is focused on making a positive difference, which is “why sustainability is at the core of every part of our business. In addition, our Alternative Fuel Project is at an advanced stage that aims to leverage waste management solutions, reduce CO2 emissions, and source material locally. This year, we co-processed 89,000 tons of waste representing a 60% increase over 2020.”
He added that Dangote Cement is focused on sound governance, saying, “we are leading the way with our commitment to sustainability and best practices. We are driven by the goal of achieving the highest level of governance and building a sustainable brand for all stakeholders. Transparency and consistency are at the core of every part of our business culture”
In its financials for full-year ended December 31, 2021, Group sales volume for Dangote Cement stood at 29.3Mt, with Nigeria accounting for 18.61Mt while operations in other countries did 10.86Mt.
Group revenue was N1,383.6 billion for the full year, made up of N993.34 billion from Nigeria while revenue from across African plants was N397.32 billion, in contrast to the group revenue of N1,034.20 billion in 2020 which constituted of N719.95 billion from Nigeria and N318.68 billion from other African operations. Dangote Cement recorded a gross profit of N538.37 billion and an after-tax profit of N364.44 billion. The directors have proposed a dividend of ₦20.00 per share.
Dangote Cement became the first Nigerian listed company to report its financial results using XBRL format with the IFRS taxonomy. Adopting the XBRL reporting format will strongly benefit Dangote Cement’s existing and potential investors. It represents another step in continuing efforts to modernize and enhance the transparency of, and access to, companies’ disclosures.
Dangote Cement Plc is sub-Saharan Africa’s largest cement producer with an installed capacity of 45.6Mta across 10 African countries and operates a fully integrated “quarry-to-customer” business with activities covering manufacturing, sales, and distribution of cement.
Dangote Cement has a long-term credit rating of AA+ by GCR and Aa2.ng by Moody’s due to its market-leading position, significant operational scale, and strong financial profile evidenced by the company’s robust operating and net profit margins relative to regional and global peers, adequate working capital, satisfactory cash flow, and low leverage.
Dangote Cement is a subsidiary of Dangote Industries Limited, a diversified and fully integrated conglomerate as well as a leading brand across Africa in businesses such as cement, sugar, salt, beverages, and real estate, with new multi-billion-dollar projects underway in the oil and gas, petrochemical, fertilizer and agricultural sectors
New Appointment at Hamilton and George. Dekola Odedina is a business development and strategy professional, with a background in investment banking and oil & gas.
A graduate of the University of Manchester who previously worked at Chapel Hill Denham and Greater Washington capital, Dekola will be leading our push into identified growth sectors like Gender-based Fintech, Health, and customized sector-specific intervention Funds.
H&G co- Founded by Joseph Edgar and Lami Adekola remains a nitch investment banking franchise with core competence in Advisory, Corporate Finance, deal structuring amongst others.
The next Nigerian president must be someone who understands all elements that shape our country – internally and externally. Someone who can make choices that will enable us to achieve our goals and objectives. he or she must also be someone who has a good understanding of our history (what happened and why?), power relations or political science (what underlying patterns and causal mechanisms are at work?), public policy (how well did policies or programs work and how could it be done better?), and economics (how are national resources produced and protected?).
Nigeria needs capable leaders to lead the country. Leaders that can at all times come up with a collection of plans and policies, that comprise the country’s deliberate effort to harness political, military, diplomatic, and economic tools together to advance our national interest. We need leaders who think and act like grand strategists. That is leaders that have mastered the art of reconciling ends and means. In essence, we need leaders with purposive action — what leaders think and want.
In essence, we need a president that can develop a comprehensive, agreed or actionable worldview that will allow Nigerians to understand and share a consensus at the leadership level of how our economy will compete, shape themselves and transform in the future.
If you want to drive a car, fly a plane, practice law, or perform surgery, you have to take a test and get a license. Unfortunately, If anyone wants to lead Nigeria today, there’s no proof of proficiency required.
When we select leaders outside politics, we don’t even consider their ideologies until after they’ve established their competencies. If you haven’t performed as a manager, you rarely make it into consideration for an executive role. Shouldn’t we hold political candidates to the same standard?
I’m generally dismayed by politics, but if someone forced me to start a political party, it would be the Capability Party. The core ideology would be anti-ideology. Before you can run for office, you’d have to demonstrate your capacity to lead and serve.
An election is a forecasting task: you’re trying to predict how well a candidate will rise to the challenges of an office. Psychologists have long found that instead of having candidates do interviews and debates, we can learn more about their competencies by getting samples of their work.
Some of the key skills involved in public service might include critical thinking, diplomacy, strategy, verbal fluency, and economic policy. It wouldn’t be hard to design war games, forecasting tournaments, and other simulations to test knowledge and skill in these areas. A friend of mine thinks we could try something simpler and more fun now that we are approaching our general election season. So, what if we challenged our presidential aspirants and candidates to play board games?
Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about friends and family by watching how they play board games. I wonder if the same is true for political candidates?
What if we have them play Clue to test their critical thinking and Risk to gauge their diplomacy. We could try chess or Settlers of Catan for strategy and Scrabble, Boggle, or Taboo to get a sense of verbal fluency. We could pick Monopoly for economic policy… and anger management. If you throw the board, you’re automatically disqualified.
If they don’t have a working understanding of key events of the past and how Nigeria works in the present, we can’t rely on them to guide us into the future. To get a sense of their knowledge of civics and history, I’d go with Trivial Pursuit or even Jeopardy.
We wouldn’t have to stop there. We might get a glimpse at cognitive deficits by asking them to play Memory. If they can’t remember where the cards are, they’re off the table.
Of course, dominating these games wouldn’t prove that an aspirant or candidate is ready to lead. But struggling at them might make it clear that they’re unfit to serve. The goal of a board game tournament wouldn’t be to greenlight the winners – it would be to surface red flags. We would be looking to screen aspirants or candidates out, not invite them in.
Now that I think of it, the Capability Party might be the wrong name. If recent history is any guide, that bar might be unrealistically high. We could call it the Anti-Capability Party.
Founder of Ogelle, Africa’s first user-generated content platform,
Osita Oparaugo has added his voice to the calls on the Federal
Government of Nigeria to lift its ban on Twitter.
Oparaugo made this appeal in a New Year’s message issued on Saturday,
saying the Twitter ban has served its purpose and needed to be
reversed.
He also called on all Africans, at home, and in the Diaspora, as well
as global lovers of African content to embrace Ogélle as the platform
continues to build Africa’s online community.
“Millions of Nigerians are still on Twitter and a lot more will join
this year using VPN. So, what use is the ban if not sending the wrong
message that Nigeria is not favorable to investors and the government
is against freedom of speech?” Oparaugo said.
Twitter has stayed banned in Nigeria since June 4, 2021, when the
The Nigerian government announced an indefinite suspension of the
microblogging site’s operations in the country.
The ban has been reported to have adversely affected economic and
business activities in the country, especially for Small and
Medium-scale Enterprises (SMEs) who do business on Twitter.
According to NetBlocks, a watchdog organization that monitors
cybersecurity and governance of the Internet, Nigeria loses N2.46
billion daily to the Twitter ban at the rate of $250,000 (N102.5
million) per hour.
But millions of Nigerians have bypassed the ban to access Twitter
through VPN. Days after the ban, ExpressVPN reported an over 200
percent increase in web traffic and searches for VPN spiked across the
country.
In his Independence Day broadcast on October 1, 2021, Nigeria’s
President Muhammadu Buhari gave five conditions that Twitter must
fulfill for the ban to be lifted. Hopes were raised that the ban was
at an end, but Twitter operations have remained banned in Nigeria into
the new year.
“The government has made its point, and Twitter should by now
understand the direction. It is time to let Nigerians enjoy the
platform and promote their work,” the Ogelle founder said.
Launched in Nigeria, Rwanda, and Ghana in 2019, Ogelle offers 100
percent African content from the six regions of the continent as well
as the Diaspora Africa. Ogelle currently boasts of over 30,000 videos
with over one million users. The platform targets 100 million general
users and 5 million premium users by 2025 and is committed to its
vision of becoming the highest aggregator of African resource and
entertainment content in the next few years.
The year is 2021, and as the video of the Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Nigeria filters into the social media space, urging people to come study with the promise of a 2-year post-study visa, I was particularly intrigued because more than anything this was more than a brag on the quality of their education system or the opportunity living in the UK brings to Nigerians who have been starved of a working viable system where they can have dreams and birth their visions
It was beautiful to watch her make the case and the video was properly done and before one could say Jack Robinson it was everywhere and spiking the number of student visa applications in fact there was over a 100% increase in the applications.
A casual glance at the UK Government website shows that Nigeria was third in the list of countries granted visas for different levels of studies, our figures double that of the United States who the previous year had more visas granted
The interesting part of it is that the top two countries with appreciable increase though have almost times five of our figure (China) and triple our figure (India)
Further deep dive into the published data shows that a total of 620,000 student visas (about three different categories) have been granted since Q4, 2019 till Q3, 2021, and of these figures Nigeria has a total of about 50,000 (do ignore my round off errors). This represents about 8% of total visas issued worldwide
Total Applications worldwide
Total Applications Nigerians
The Home Office is the government agency responsible for issuing visas and is an agency that is basically self-funded, in fact, there are reports online it made £500 million in profits in 2018. For any applicant to get a student visa, the student must pay for the underlisted:
Visa Fees – £348 This is non-refundable if unsuccessful
NHS/IHS Fees – £645 This is refundable if unsuccessful
Tuition Fees – £13,000 average fees and depending on the school about 50% of this is paid by enrolment for courses
Living Expenses – £1500 monthly approximately, can be up to £2,000 for a family of 4
Other Fees not paid directly to the home office or schools include
Covid Tests – £50 if double Jabbed and £100 otherwise
Flight Fees – £1,000 (One-way ticket on Virgin or BA)
Tuberculosis Testing – N50,000 for adults and N26,000 for children (IOM conducts all tests)
English Language Tests £200 approximately depending on whether your school requires it or not
Direct injection of cash into the UK economy from the above is £9.3Billion (620,000*£15,000), this figure goes to about £11 Billion if you consider that students are allowed to bring with them their spouses and children to the UK making average family size of 4 (Main Applicant, Spouse, and about 2 Children). Nigeria’s contribution to the above is £744 million and £880 million respectively
Each of the 620,000 successful visa applicants would have spent about £620 million on flights, either on British Airlines or other competitors in the market, with their family members included the figure almost triples and when you consider likely vacations and other family visits you can imagine how this number rises.
The number of passengers on daily flights into and out of the UK is quite mind-boggling, it is part of the reason why the UK was more flexible with Covid Controls until the recent spike brought by Omicron which resulted in some African countries being put on the red list. Air Travel Companies I believe were very instrumental in getting the UK government to eliminate the list as empty planes are not good for business or tourism and taxes for the government
Average student accommodation costs about £400 a month, including utility bills at about 100 a month, internet and TV at about another £50 pounds monthly, if your family is larger you pay more.
Due to the influx of students, there have been severe housing shortages for would-be tenants leading to hike in rental prices, this means new houses are needed and more real estate investment opportunities are being created leading to more jobs for lawyers, brokers, property agents, masons, electricians, plumbers, and the whole construction value chain, more furniture will also be purchased (IKEA is smiling) as well electronic gadgets like boilers, kitchen hobs, etc.
Overall, there is more money coming into the sector as banks can lend money to real estate developers to build who will sell to buyers who will also get mortgages from the same bankers based on their credit scores
The average person will spend about £20 on food daily, depending on the city you live you will spend about £4 on daily bus pass, although school is free up to Secondary School level you should expect to spend about £2 per child per day on school meals as well as uniforms. Visits to stores like Tesco, Morrisons, etc are not left out neither will Primark, M&S, and others do not feel the influx of cash.
Taxation
The average student is allowed to work for 20 hours during school term and up to 40 hours outside that, that gives a total of 1440 hours of work (20 hours*4 weeks*6 months) + (40 hours*4 weeks*6 months), the dependent spouse can work 40 hours for the whole period giving about 1,920 hours.
The figures above using UK average wage of £11 per hour means students can hope to earn £15,840 while their dependents earn £21,120, taxes will definitely be paid as well as a pension. This is a total of £23 Billion pounds of contributions to the economy of the UK annually, Nigerian students contribute about £2 Billion of this figure
The bulk of students, as well as dependents, also work in sectors where there is a shortfall due to Brexit and Covid, thereby providing the UK with much-needed manpower (Skilled, Semi-Skilled and Low Skilled), the UK as a serious economy has a shortage occupation list online
It is clear that the UK government strategy post Brexit will work and will attract but funds as well as skilled manpower to rival the silicon valley of California in the shortest time possible, the student visa will continue to bring a fresh influx of funds and innovative ideas to the UK for a long time to come
I strongly believe our Nigerian leaders who have constantly remained blind and always played the ostrich should wake up to their responsibilities and actively learn how a country can attract interest and stress-free FDI into their economy to create jobs and earn more money via taxation which they seem not to be able to get right till recently.
Imagine if enough investment had been made over the years into our educational system and our schools were competing on the world stage, a situation where a federal university takes months to process transcripts that are done in minutes abroad due to appropriate investment in IT infrastructure. Imagine if foreign students came back to Nigeria the way they used to come and learn at the University of Ibadan and Obafemi Awolowo University back in the days. Imagine if more buildings are being erected as hostels for students in various tertiary institutions and the jobs that would create in the economy, I can only imagine.
To the United Kingdom, I say God save the Queen, may your vision and strategy to attract the right talents and grow your homeland after Brexit and Covid continue to yield good fruits, I look forward to my OBE someday.
Sincerely
FOJ
Olusegun Obasanjo, (born March 5, 1937, Abeokuta, Nigeria), Nigerian general, statesman, and diplomat, was the first military ruler in Africa to hand over power to a civilian government. He served as Nigeria’s military ruler (1976–79) and, as a civilian, as president (1999–2007).
Olusegun Obasanjo is the father of modern Nigeria due to his contribution to national development during his two-term tenure.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war in 1990, there emerged a changed notion of the concept of development which holds that people must be the centre of all development or national development in other words national development must be to ensure the advancement of human flourishing and expanding the richness of human life.
Looking at the role of Olusegun Obasanjo in Nigeria national development we could see that Obasanjo role has helped in acquiring human wellbeing and welfare which has inspired and informed solutions and policies across the world and in Nigeria.
Let us look at these contributions and understand properly how there have impacted lives and flourish human lives…
The Obasanjo administration initiated and executed projects that positively impacted the lives of Nigerians, irrespective of status.
His administration launched Nigeria on the path of political, social and economic growth. A few of the achievements recorded during his tenure include:
anti-corruption campaign/recovery of loots from national treasury from past and serving government functionaries;
the renegotiation and eventual settlement of Nigerian debts;
consolidation of the banking industry;
the institutionalisation of transparency in the financial sector;
the opening up of the telecommunication industry;
Liberalisation of the education sector and the opening up of space for private sector participation and investment in tertiary education.
Significant improvements were also recorded in the following areas:
The space technology programme – the launch of two satellites, SAT 3 and NICOMSAT
The energy programme and nuclear programmes
Education sector
ICT programme
Biotechnology programmes
Agriculture programme
Poverty Eradication Programme
Niger Delta Development Commission
Universal Basic Education and the general improvement of infrastructure amongst others
GSM communication network: telephone services were a thing for the rich in society. I remember NOT NINE NOT (090) in those days and it cost #350,000 naira when the exchange rate of dollar to naira was under #20 to $1. It cost #50,000 monthly to maintain it. This is a time when neighbouring countries like Benin and Togo were already using GSM. Prior to 1998, one cannot even remember how we were living without phones, it was a nightmare and the fact we can even be chatting over the internet like this, networking to even put this retreat together is the direct result of Obasanjo policy thank you, sir.
Obasanjo backs agric-driven economic development
as an attempt to revamp the nation’s economy through the non-oil sector, particularly agriculture, which he said would redirect the economy of Nigeria.
He also said that it had become clear that agriculture was the only sustainable business in the country capable of withstanding any season.
This we all can testify to and am also a beneficiary to most of this agricultural plan
Emmanuel Ajao
Farm manager lightline55farm
National development would not have been better achieved without a pivotal role played and being played by Nigeria’s former president, Chief Olusegun Aremu Okikiolu, Obasanjo. 5 March 1937, Ibogun, Nigeria.
The highly-confident former president touched every aspect of Nigeria’s Nation’s development ranging from economic, political, security, peace and reconciliation, SMEs, Telecommunications, Anti-corruption, Banking reform, Power sector, Debt relief, Tax reforms, Democracy, freedom of the press, e.t.c,
A closer look at Nigeria’s development today would reveal that Chief Olusegun Obasanjo did not just lay the foundation, but he took an active part in nurturing them.
He gave licenses to telecommunication operators to roll out GSM sim cards for Nigerians thereby breaking the monopoly of NITEL The current tech development in Nigeria could not have been possible without GSM.
He established the EFCC and ICPC to fight institutional corruption which was very successful.
He established the Justice Oputa panel to reconcile Nigerians who were aggrieved and it helped in healing a lot of wounds.
Workers’ life after retirement would have remained uncertain if not for his establishment of the Pension Reform Act in 2004.
He privatized the power sector leading to the unbundling of NEPA into Generation companies, Transmission companies, and Distribution companies that we have today.
Under the leadership of President Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR), he recognized that small and medium enterprises are major contributors to the diversification of our economy, and a vital tool for the creation of wealth, poverty alleviation, employment generation, and rural development and as such created the Small and Medium Development Agency of Nigeria(SMEDAN).
In 1977, he formed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), organized the second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC ’77), established the Egbin, Ughelli, and Afam thermal power stations; set up the Corrupt Practice Bureau; and through his government’s efforts, independence was achieved for Angola and later Zimbabwe.
He introduced the National Pledge to stoke up Nigerian nationalism and indigenized the lyrics of the national anthem. He set up the Constitution Drafting Committee and the Constituent Assembly; introduced the N20 currency in honor of his friend and predecessor, the Late General Murtala Muhammed, and introduced the controversial Land Use Decree on March 29, 1978. General Obasanjo also confirmed the movement of the Federal Capital from Lagos to Abuja in accordance with the Murtala-Obasanjo policy program.
General Obasanjo was the first Head of State and Government on the African continent to ever relinquish power to a democratically elected government peacefully and voluntarily.
The single-mindedness and determination with which General Obasanjo kept to the Muhammed-Obasanjo administration’s word of handing over the reins of office to a democratically elected government and the zeal he deployed into executing the political program that terminated on October 1, 1979, impressed Nigerians and the international community at a time many military rulers elsewhere
Yekini Iskilu Ojo
Dr. Sam Amadi, Associate professor, Baze University, and Director, Abuja School of Social and Political Thoughts, and former chairman, NERC
