Shareholders of Premium Pensions Limited have approved the payment of a dividend of 60 kobo per share for the 2012 financial period.

The amount is an increase of 100 per cent over the 30 kobo per share dividend paid in the 2011 financial.

The approval was unanimously given at the company’s eighth Annual General Meeting held at its head office in Abuja.

Speaking at the event, Chairman of Premium Pensions, Mr. Aliyu Dikko, said the company recorded a profit after tax of N1.02bn for the year under review.

This, he noted, was 62.15 per cent higher than the N629.58m posted in 2011.

He said the number of Retirement Saving Accounts registered by the company both in public and private sector organisations increased from 422,572 in 2011 to 566,043.

Out of the total RSAs, he said 444,631 were funded while 121,412 were yet to be funded.

He said the active RSA fund, which had a net value of N92.702bn at the beginning of 2012, closed the year with a value of N154.771bn, indicating a growth of 66.9 per cent.

For the RSA (retiree) fund, he stated that it started the year with a net asset value of N25.225bn and grew by 37 per cent to close the year at N34.660bn.

The company’s Legacy Fund however dropped to N45.334bn from N47.19bn.

He said, “The drop in Legacy Fund was due to the steady migration of Legacy Fund to RSA by some organisations.”

On the issue of transfer window, he said the company was fully prepared for the new policy, adding that it had already improved its customer services.

 “Once the transfer window is opened, it is the PFA with the best customer care that will retain its customers and also attract others,” he added.

The transfer window would allow RSA holders to transfer their account from one Pension Fund Administrator to the other.

Also speaking at the event, the Managing Director, Mr. Wilson Ideva, said despite the challenges of the industry, the company had been able to close the year on a profitable note.

He said, “Our unit price for this year is 2.1 as against 1.6 last year, which is a significant improvement and one of the highest in the industry and we made a return of both RSAs of 12.28 per cent for the annual basis and also a return on our retiree fund of 12.75.  These are figures you cannot get from any other RSAs.”

PORTUGAL: Ten of the 12 government-funded “Portas Pilot” towns have seen a fall in the number of occupied shop units, the British Broadcasting Corporation reported on Wednesday.

They were awarded a share of a £1.2m fund, government support and access to the retail guru Mary Portas.

The High Street Innovation Fund, launched a year ago, was part of the government’s response to Ms Portas’ review of the High Street.

Results have been mixed. Vacancy rates have gone down in seven towns, but more shops overall have closed than opened.

The Department for Communities and Local Government says the pilots are breathing new life into the towns.

The 12 pilot areas are Bedford, Croydon, Dartford, Greater Bedminster, Liskeard, Margate, Market Rasen, Nelson, Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, Stockport, Stockton-on-Tees and Wolverhampton.

Launched a year ago, the “Portas Pilots” were created to showcase innovative ways of getting people back into their local shops.

But exclusive research commissioned for BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours shows that in 10 of the 12 towns, more units closed than opened in the past year, with a loss of 95 units in all.

Only two towns showed signs of improvement, with Bedminster and Margate adding units in the past year.

In total, about 700 units closed, while fewer than 600 opened in their place.

In Stockton-on-Tees, one of the pilot areas, local traders said the funding was not being spent quickly enough and their businesses could be gone by the time it is.

Cath Pillar, of Balloonatics, a party supplies shop, said she was now using her own savings to keep it afloat, adding: “ It’s like nursing a baby. We don’t want to lose it.”

The research was carried out by the Local Data Company.

Director, Matthew Hopkinson, said, “If more shops close than open, then that’s when you start to see the decay of the High Street and also a rise in vacancy rates.”

The figures suggest rapidly changing environments on the High Streets, presenting problems for shoppers confused by constant change, which makes them reluctant to return.

Cathy Parker, of Manchester Metropolitan University, says this churn can be healthy when innovators come in, but only when units are replaced and towns are not experiencing the kind of net loss outlined in the figures.

The vacancy rates in the 12 pilot towns show improvements in some areas and decline in others.

In Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, Liskeard, Bedminster, Margate, Dartford, Bedford and Wolverhampton, the number of vacant shops has fallen, suggesting new businesses have arrived and populated previously empty ones. This may be due to prolonged use or temporary usage, such as a pop-up store.

The research also revealed that Market Rasen, Nelson, Stockport, Croydon and Stockton-on-Tees all had more vacant shops, which can be seen as boarded-up or empty units.

The Minister for Local Growth, Mark Prisk, said the intention of the scheme was to harness the energy of local people.

Mary Portas told You and Yours: “There is no simple solution to the crisis on our High Streets. There are no quick fixes but 400 towns up and down the country are working on different plans to try and reinvigorate their High Street.

“Let’s celebrate their achievements so far and learn and share ideas. Real change will take time.”

The Nigerian Atomic Energy Commission and Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency have concluded plans to jointly tackle marine pollutants.

A statement on Tuesday stated that the two government agencies would monitor and control marine pollutants considered to be inimical to seafood and marine habitat.

The Director-General, NIMASA, Mr. Ziakede Akpobolokemi , and the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission, Dr. Erepamo Osaisai, were said to have concluded plan to deploy resources for the prevention and mitigation of marine pollution.

Receiving the management team of the Nigerian Atomic Energy Commission on a working visit to the agency, Akpobolokemi lamented incessant marine pollution caused by oil exploration activities and garbage discharged from ships into Nigerian waters.

The NIMASA boss stressed the need for a multi-pronged approach towards the control of ships waste disposal and oil drilling units operating on Nigerian waters.

‘The Agency is expanding capacity for marine research and investigation and atomic science solutions will be welcomed’ Akpobolokemi said.

The Chairman/Chief Executive Officer , Nigerian Atomic Energy Commission, Dr. Erepamo Osaisai, requested necessary logistics support from NIMASA to promote the deployment of nuclear analytical techniques for marine pollution assessment.

Osaisai informed that the request to NIMASA was on account of the agency’s mandate in respect of marine pollution and prevention, adding that the commission was collaborating with the Centre for Marine Pollution Monitoring, University of Port-Harcourt.

The NAEC boss said the commission had identified ‘hot spots’ of marine pollution incidents.

The Deputy Director/ Head, Public Relations, Mr. Isichie Osamgbi, said NIMASA was mandated to prevent and control marine pollution amongst other functions in line with relevant international regulatory instruments.

The agency, according to him, has in recent times encouraged inter-agency collaboration for the implementation of marine prevention and control policies.

PARIS: Commercial underwriting agency, APC, has increased the limits on most of its public and products liability risks to £10m and property risks to £50m, www.insurancetimes.co.uk reported on Wednesday.

The agency said the move was aimed at helping smaller brokers win larger clients.

According to APC, the increased public and products liability limits will eradicate the need for brokers to secure a second excess-of-loss policy to supplement the industry’s standard products, which offer cover of £2m or £5m.

It added that brokers would also benefit from the new £50m in any one location property limit.

APC director, Ian Russell, said, “Many of our brokers are competing against rivals many times their size to win large accounts. In this situation it is essential for them to be able to access the large limits required by their clients quickly and from one source.

“By both increasing the most important limits online and providing access to a dedicated London market team we believe we are significantly increasing brokers’ business conversion chances, while saving them valuable trading time.”

It reported that Commercial underwriting agency APC has launched a London market broking team to place risks for regional brokers than cannot be dealt with under its regular binding authorities.

The new team, APC London Markets, will place a wide range of risks including property, casualty, professional indemnity and directors’ and officers’ liability with both Lloyd’s and London company market insurers.

Geographically, the team will cover the majority of UK, European and international risk locations.

APC achieved Lloyd’s broker accreditation in September 2009, but so far has not used the facility to place risks for its regional brokers.

The new team will be headed by Ian Ashworth (pictured), who joins APC from rival Lloyd’s broker/MGA Holman’s, where he was a senior broker.

The team also includes Tom Murray, previously divisional director at Bowood and Mark Russell who moves internally from APC Underwriting.

APC director Ian Russell said: “While our binders enable us to place a wide range of risks immediately, we have seen a growing demand from our brokers that would like to use us for other business.

“By launching APC London Markets our supporting brokers will now have access to a one stop shop for securing cover for all aspects of their client’s operation, with a very experienced team to back it up. We have enhanced our-line trading platform to accept submissions in less than a minute, the London Market team will do the rest.”

Japan’s Topix index rose for a second day, trimming losses from the biggest weekly slide since the rally started in November, as power producers rebounded and insurers climbed on higher bond yields.

Bloomberg News reports that the Topix utilities gauge rose by 8.3 per cent, advancing the most among the broader index’s 33 industry groups after leading declines.

 Dai-Ichi Life Insurance Company gained 1.9 per cent as rising yields improved prospects for investment returns. SoftBank Corporation added 2.1 per cent after a person familiar with the situation said its Sprint Nextel Corp. acquisition will probably pass a US national-security review.

The Topix gained 0.9 per cent to 1,178.87 at the close of trading in Tokyo. The gauge rebounded for a second day after sliding almost 10 percent in the previous three days, the first significant setback in a nine-month rally that’s lifted Japan’s broadest equities gauge 61 per cent.

“The market bottom is getting stronger,” said Masaru Hamasaki, a strategist at Tokyo-based Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Company, which oversees the equivalent of $100bn. “A bigger variety of investors, such as individuals, are buying on dips.

The market hasn’t priced in the full effects of the potential recovery in the economy.”

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average added 0.1 per cent to 14,326.46. The gauge lagged behind the Topix as Fast Retailing Company and Fanuc Corporation, which together account for 15 per cent of the benchmark, declined.

 A measure of the Nikkei’s volatility was about 60 per cent above the average for the past year after retreating a fourth day from its highest since March 2011.

Futures on the Nikkei 225 dropped by 0.8 per cent to 14,250.

Contracts on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed by 0.2 per cent. The gauge rose by 0.6 per cent, extending its advance this month to 3.9 per cent, after US consumer confidence climbed to the highest since 2008 and home values jumped the most in seven years.

The Topix’s Electric Power & Gas index advanced the most in more than a month today, led by Tohoku Electric Power Company and Kyushu Electric Power Company, which each gained more than 15 per cent.

The cook onboard the Chevron-chartered offshore vessel, Jascon 4 vessel, which capsized in the early hours on Sunday, has been found alive.

The vessel, owned by West African Ventures Limited, one of Chevron Nigeria Limited’s contractors, capsized on Sunday morning and the 12 man crew on board had been feared lost.

An upstreamonline.com report on Wednesday said the cook was found alive, adding that search was ongoing  for  11 other crew members, who were onboard the Jascon 4 anchor-handling tug when it capsized in heavy seas off Delta State on Sunday.

It had been feared that all 12 onboard the unit, which was assisting a tanker at the time of the sinking, had been lost.

However, a statement from Nigerian vessel owner, West African Ventures, which lists the tug in its fleet, confirmed the unlikely rescue of one crew member.

The firm said, “We are able to report that divers have found and identified one survivor, Mr Okene Harrison. He was the vessel’s cook and of Nigerian nationality.

“Harrison was medically examined and he is currently in a stable condition and under treatment on board the diving support vessel.”

A spokesperson for WAV-related company, Sea Trucks Group, confirmed to Upstream that Harrison had been found on Tuesday evening inside the vessel ,which had capsized but not sank.

The spokesperson was not willing to confirm or deny if any of the 11 remaining crew members had been sighted, however.

“The search and rescue operation will continue until all crew members are accounted for and we are in the meantime offering all support possible to the families of the missing crew members. We have also commenced a full investigation into the cause of the incident,” WAV added.

Chevron spokesman, Kurt Glaubitz, confirmed that a local unit of the United States supermajor, Chevron Nigeria Limited, had hired the vessel.

The company added, “Initial reports indicated that heavy ocean swells caused the Jascon 4 to capsize, while performing tension tow operations of the tanker at SBM 3.

 “Emergency response has commenced, including search and rescue operation with surface vessels, helicopters and divers.”

 CNL said the vessel sank while supporting a tanker loading at Single Mooring 3, a loading point 30 kilometres offshore in the Escravos area.

 The oil major also explained that initial reports indicated that heavy ocean swells caused the Jascon 4 to capsize, while performing tension tow operations of the tanker at SBM 3.

 “Chevron Nigeria Limited, operator of the NNPC/CNL Joint Venture, confirms that Jascon 4 vessel belonging to our contractor, West African Ventures Limited, capsized and sank early this morning (Sunday), while supporting a tanker loading at Single Buoy Mooring 3, a loading point 30km offshore in the Escravos area of Delta State, Nigeria,” it said.

GERMANY: Unemployment in Germany rose during May, according to the latest set of official figures, the British Broadcasting Corporation reported on Wednesday.

The country’s Labour Office said that, on a seasonally adjusted basis, the number of people out of work increased by around 21,000 to 2.963 million, well above analysts’ expectations.

Bad weather and a relatively high number of public holidays are being blamed for the increase.

However, the jobless rate remained unchanged at 6.9per cent.

Labour office chief Frank-Juergen Weise insisted that the German job market was “fundamentally sound and is developing solidly in a difficult economic environment.”

Analysts said that while the long, harsh winter was a factor, employers were also still cautious, following concerns about the economic situation in Italy and Cyprus.

ING DiBa economist, Carsten Brzeski, said, “It is far too premature to start singing swan songs on the labour market.”

Natixis economist, Paul Beaumont, said he was confident that the German labour market would continue to remain reasonably resilient in the face of subdued economic conditions.

“All in all, we expect the German unemployment rate to remain close to a post-reunification low at 6.9per cent in 2013,” he said.

Last week, a survey showed that staffing levels fell across the private sector in May, the first time that has happened since January.

Several major German companies are cutting costs and jobs, including steel distributor, Kloeckner and chemicals giant BASF.

Nonetheless, many German workers have been able to secure themselves hefty pay rises, which the government is hoping will boost domestic demand.

Germany is weathering the eurozone’s debt storm far better than many of its peers, such as Spain and Greece, where unemployment runs at more than 25 per cent.

Analysts say that Chancellor Angela Merkel will be looking to keep unemployment below three million in the run up to a federal election in September, in which she is hoping to clinch a third term in office.

The National Planning Commission has entered into a partnership with the Chartered Project Management Institute of Nigeria to strengthen project management in both the public and private sectors of the economy.

The partnership, according to the President, CPMIN, Mr. Vincent Iroroh, will help to regulate project management in the country through a bill that will be sent to the National Assembly.

Iroroh, who addressed journalists in Abuja, said the bill, which is being finalised, would be presented to the public next week for their inputs.

Apart from getting inputs from members of the public, he said the forum would help to enlighten and provide solutions to emerging challenges in project management.

It will also assist project managers to be more proactive and productive in handling projects that will have direct impact on the country’s economy.

Iroroh said as a fast growing economy, there was a need to effectively regulate how projects were being carried out in the country to meet the objective of the transformation agenda of the Federal Government.

He said, “Our collaboration with NPC started with the submission of Council of Registered Project Managers in Nigeria Bill for domestication of project management practice in the country, which was well received by the commission.

“As a fast growing economy in Africa with huge population, regulated and domesticated project management practices have an essential role to play in our infrastructural growth. The nation needs strong commitment in project management as a way of achieving better service delivery and infrastructure development.”

There is the need for government to encourage more foreign participation in the Nigerian capital market.

This was the opinion canvassed by the Chief Executive Officer, Anchoria Investment and Securities Limited, Mr. Olusola Dada, at the ninth annual PEARL Awards lecture for capital market development in Lagos on Tuesday.

In his speech titled, ‘Enhanced capital market growth, recovery and stability: Path to sustainable national economic development’, Dada said that there was the need by the regulatory authorities to restore investors’ confidence in the market.

According to him, this can be achieved through activities that show fair and transparent transactions in the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

He also stressed that government must encourage more foreign investors to participate in the market to facilitate economic growth.

He said, “The value of transactions in the Nigerian capital market must be boosted and there should be availability of more investment instruments such as derivatives, convertibles, swaps and options in the market.

“The level of corporate governance in the stock market must be enhanced and the risk management framework strengthened.”

He also expressed the need to ensure stable macro-economic environment to attract foreign multinational companies or their subsidiaries to be listed on the nation’s bourse, adding that the supervision and regulatory framework in the financial system must be strengthened with focus on risk management.

Dada cited low level of monetisation of economy, high level of inflation and the level of private sector credits as factors still affecting stock market performance in Nigeria.

He lamented the high interest rate, adding that the level of private sector credits had also not sustained the new investments necessary to facilitate economic growth.

He noted that a developed capital market would enhance the efficiency of the allocation of financial resources, as well as play a major role on the capital account of the country’s balance sheet.

“Experience in recent decades has been that bank-based financial systems have not always been able to adequately meet the need for capital, especially long-term capital. In this regard, capital market development increasingly has been seen as a critical factor for the long-term growth prospects in emerging markets.

“The further development of a domestic market will not only provide local investors with a variety of investment opportunities, but also give them alternative instrument that can be used to substitute foreign instruments. The result is that a large share of domestic savings will be used to finance domestic investments.”

An indigenous integrated oil and gas company, NIPCO Plc, has set an accident -free target for its downstream operations.

The Managing Director, NIPCO Plc, Mr. Venkataraman Venkatapathy, who said safety and environmental friendliness remained the hallmark of the company’s operations, expressed an unwavering commitment to minimising the number of instances of occupational accidents and illnesses with the ultimate goal of achieving an accident-free operation.

The NIPCO CEO, who was on Tuesday quoted as saying this during the company’s safety week celebrations in Lagos, insisted that HSE-related matters were always of utmost priority.

According to him, a robust HSE policy fashioned by the company in line with international best practices in the industry clearly spells out how best to achieve the lofty goal.

He stated that in the policy, health and safety of the employees were of utmost importance in the scheme of things, having recognised that there is no greater value than one’s life.

Venkatapathy also informed that the policy sought to promote a safety, healthy and congenial working environment for all employees as well as stakeholders in the course of its operations.

According to him, all workers are provided with Personal Protective Equipment, adequate information training and a well-serviced clinic, in addition to several retainer hospitals in line with best global practices in the industry. Venkatapathy listed the main thrust of the policy as PPE culture and housekeeping, both of which had received tremendous support from management.

“Our well-acclaimed house-keeping tradition has been a successful tool in maintaining healthy life for the employees and other publics that had one or two things to do with the organization,” he said.

The Chairman, Fatgbems Nigeria Limited, Mr. Kabir Gbemisola, who spoke with Dayo Oketola at the recent Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Texas, United States, urged the Federal Government to fix the country’s refineries and reduce petroleum product importation.

As a downstream operator, what do you consider as the challenges in the industry?

You will agree with me that the downstream sector is also divided into so many areas. But I can only speak about the area that concerns Fatgems and that is petroleum products retail and distribution. For us, the only challenge we have at any particular point in time is during petroleum products scarcity which takes toll on our business operation.

Contrary to the general belief that those of us in petroleum retail business, especially owners of fuel dispensing stations, make more money during scarcity, this is not true. I say this because we source petroleum products at double the price during scarcity because at such time, you don’t get allocation from PPMC, so one relies on sourcing the product from middle men who are bent on maximizing profits at all cost.  And all these we do to ensure that our customers get fuel to buy whenever they come around, even to our own detriment.

Again, this is a period when we equally record massive vandalisation of our equipment, especially the fuel dispensing machines and the access gates to the fuel stations as a result of impatience. This is simply because everybody wants to get fuel at the same time. But all I can say is that government should do all it can to fix the nation’s refineries so that they can produce at optimal capacity, thereby reducing dependence on imported petroleum products.

Under-dispensing and adulteration are major challenges in the petroleum retailing business. Is your company involved in this anomaly?

Yes, I agree with you that under-dispensing and adulteration remain a major bane of the petroleum retail business, especially for Automotive Gas Oil popularly known as diesel. This problem is more prevalent at the distribution channel level.  This is where some unscrupulous business men without identity perpetrate this unpatriotic act. But for us at Fatgbems, this is not an issue. Not an issue because we have a tank farm at Kirikiri in Lagos and that gives us the opportunity to get direct allocation from PPMC while we also import.

We don’t source our products from middlemen and our customers know us for this. This is where our strength lies.

On under-dispensing of petroleum products, I can say categorically that our filling stations have not in any way been found wanting. And this claim can be verified from the records of the Department of Petroleum Resources and Standards Organisation of Nigeria. This is because we cannot afford to lower that standard because when that is done, it affects return on investment and projected sales volumes.

Business is not all about profit but customer satisfaction. It is easy to lose a customer but very difficult to convince just one. So why get involved in acts that will lead to that in the first place. Again, you need to realise the fact that the company has grown beyond the vision of the founding chairman, hence, its assets must be protected.

So how are you going to protect the company’s assets?

Though, I know I can’t do it alone but we will take practical steps to ensure the survival of the business. When I came on board, I discovered that there was drastic reduction in sales volumes and upon investigation, I discovered this was as a result of poor service delivery rendered to customers. And this somewhat led me to begin to tinker with rebranding the company. But before the rebranding process kicks off fully, we cannot afford to continue along that line, hence, we hurriedly carried out a staff re-orientation programme, pending when the full rebranding training will commence. And with this, we have recorded improved sales volume.

Now, we have a Customer Complaints Department to attend to all customer queries which are investigated within 24-hours while the customer gets a feedback via e-mail, telephone calls or a Short Message Service  and this has given us a boost in terms of patronage.

What is your sale target?

Our target is to attain an aggregate of 5 million litres on sales of petroleum products on a monthly basis compared to 2 million litres which we are doing at the moment. That sales figure to me is grossly inadequate. But before that can be done, we need to consolidate on the gains of the founding father. At the moment, we have 24 outlets while my administration has been able to add one more to the 23 existing ones. My plan is to add two to three outlets yearly to the existing facilities. In fact, we shall be adding another one before the year runs out. Majorly, we operate in the South-West but part of the plan is not to remain a regional player but a leader in sub-Saharan Africa. That is the vision. A lot of the major players in the upstream and midstream sector today started out as downstream operators. For us, part of our plan is to evolve into a major player in upstream operations and that we are working towards already.

So, what is the rationale behind the plan to rebrand the business?

Image in business is a very essential tool for development and growth. And remember that you are addressed the way you are dressed. Our rebranding process is on course. In fact, we have concluded arrangements with brand consultants to help fashion out a new brand identity for the company and very soon, our filling stations across the country will be wearing new logos and colours with new uniforms for our staffers as well.

We want to develop a new work environment which will culminate in courteous employees  dedicated to the highest level of customer service delivery.

All these we will achieve with our old members of staff.  We will retrain them to fit into the new vision, aims, and objectives of the new company. Though, you will agree with me that people are always resistant to change, especially if they are so fixed to the old order.

For me, my management style is not about sacking employees as long as the stream of income can support the overhead. Rather,  I believe in growing an entity with people that have stayed with you to build an institution during the premature stage. I equally believe in a reward system that is fair to all and commensurate with the level of ones input justified by results.

However, I would be open to fresh ideas coming either through consultants or joint venture partners aimed at moving the business forward. You know it is typical in Nigeria that once a business owner dies, the business dies with him. No. That will not be the case with Fatgbems.

So, why are you participating in the OTC when you are a downstream player?

Those who came in contact with us at the Offshore Technology Conference would want to ask why we were there. But the truth of the matter is that oil and gas business is a huge area that has a lot of opportunities.

Essentially, the thinking would be that participating in the OTC should entirely be an upstream affair. No. This is not the true.  The OTC is all about being exposed to new technologies in the area of oil production and exploration. And for every refined petroleum product, the ultimate target is for such products to get to the end–users. And we in the petroleum retail business are the link between oil producers and consumers; hence, we equally need the latest technology to dispense petroleum products after exploration and refining processes.

So, for short, we were at the OTC  to get the necessary technology needed to  move our business forward.

Also, you have to realise that this conference is a meeting point for all stakeholders and top decision makers in the oil and gas industry. This is where policy issues both at the upstream and downstream sector are discussed among stakeholders, hence the need for us to be represented and make our impacts known because it is he who wears the shoe that knows where it pinches.

Just to let you know that my coming here to the conference is not a jamboree, I have already established contacts with manufacturers of fuel dispensing machines and they are willing to partner with us to move the business forward.

Who says Fatgbems cannot be the franchise holder for fuel dispensing machines in the entire West African region since they don’t have any presence in Africa at the moment.

LONDON: Facebook has said it will review how it deals with “controversial, harmful and hateful” content after admitting current measures are not effective, the British Broadcasting Corporation reported on Wednesday.

The admission follows sustained pressure from campaign groups, advertisers and the media.

An open letter from several feminist groups urged Facebook to ban pages that they said promoted violence.

In a blog post, the social network said: “We need to do better – and we will.”

The company said it would begin rolling out changes immediately after it became “clear that our systems to identify and remove hate speech have failed to work as effectively as we would like”.

Marne Levine, Facebook’s vice president of Global Public Policy, added: “In some cases, content is not being removed as quickly as we want.

“In other cases, content that should be removed has not been or has been evaluated using outdated criteria.

“We have been working over the past several months to improve our systems to respond to reports of violations, but the guidelines used by these systems have failed to capture all the content that violates our standards.”

Facebook has been involved in a number of recent rows over content.

At the beginning of May, it reversed a decision not to remove a video which showed a man being beheaded as it did not break the social network’s policy.

Following this most recent outcry, Levine put forward several changes the social network would be making.

She said Facebook would consult lawyers and interest groups to upgrade its guidelines on removing hate speech.

Training of staff will be stepped up, again by working with interest groups to ensure coaching is appropriate.

Facebook also pledged to work to make sure the posters of such material were made to “stand behind the content they create” so that other users could hold them accountable.

Commenting on  Levine’s blog post, many Facebook users expressed annoyance at the length of time it had taken for the issues to be addressed.

“It took incredible public pressure for you to look at it… you should have had the guts and morals to do it on your own!,” wrote one user.

Facebook’s response comes off the back of a large-scale online campaign from a number of prominent women’s rights groups.

They included the Everyday Sexism Project, a site that uses social media to highlight what it sees as casual sexism in the media and other arenas.

In addition to their letter to the social network, the groups also called on advertisers to boycott the site, noting that their advertising appeared alongside user-created pages showing images of violence towards women that were “shared, boasted and joked about”.

One petition calling for action closed with 225,049 signatures.

The groups called on Facebook to take three specific actions. They were to:

“Recognise speech that trivializes or glorifies violence against girls and women as hate speech and make a commitment that you will not tolerate this content.

“Effectively train moderators to recognize and remove gender-based hate speech.

“Effectively train moderators to understand how online harassment differently affects women and men, in part due to the real-world pandemic of violence against women.”

According to campaigners Women, Action & the Media, one high-profile advertiser, Nissan, said it would withdraw advertising until it could be assured its products would not be displayed on such pages.

Others such as Dove said they were working “aggressively” with Facebook to attempt to solve the problem.

The African Development Bank has granted Nigeria a $500m loan facility in support of its agricultural activities.

The Task Team Leader, AfDB-supported Fadama II Programme, Mr. Danladi Eba, said this in Jos during a courtesy call on Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State on Tuesday.

News Agency of Nigeria quoted him as saying, “The first phase of $190m, now under processing, will be released to the Ministry of Finance  by December toward supporting the Agricultural Transformation Agenda of the present government. The grant is aimed at test-running our new project, coupled with the ATA of this country.’’

Eba added that the purpose of the visit was to know “how well the National Fadama II Project has been implemented.”

He said, “The project is one of the projects sponsored by AfDB which came on stream in December 2003 and implemented in six states, including Plateau. Plateau is one of the leading states with 16,000 participants.’’

Eba expressed worry over the sustainability of the project as the bank would withdraw funding at the end of June.

“The sustainability of counterpart funding is very important so that when we leave its sustenance can be guaranteed,” he added.

Responding, Jang, represented by his deputy, Mr. Ignatius Longjan, assured the team of the state government’s commitment toward promoting agricultural activities in the state.

He said, “I have already directed the Commissioner of Finance to hasten the release of our counterpart funding to AfDB and I’m sure very soon you shall receive it. Agriculture is very dear to this administration; it is part of our 10-point agenda aimed at providing enough food for our people and Nigerians.”

The governor said he was pleased with the encouraging reports about Plateau and attributed the feat to the support it had enjoyed from the bank.

Jang called on World Bank to give more assistance to the state in the areas of health and power generation as well as the Fadama IV project.

LONDON: If the government decides to expand Stansted or build a new estuary airport to form the United Kingdom’s major air hub, Heathrow Airport will need to close, a transport think tank has said.

The British Broadcasting Corporation reported on Wednesday that the Independent Transport Commission said a major capacity airport was needed to compete with European rivals.

It said Heathrow would have to close to give investors confidence that airlines would move their business.

Its report will be submitted to the government’s Airports Commission.

The commission’s report, which a number of bodies – including airport protest groups and airport authorities – contributed to, concluded that one major hub was needed.

It discounted the idea of a dual airport dubbed ‘Heathwick’, developing competing hubs across the UK or keeping the status quo at Heathrow.

Stephen Hickey, from the Independent Transport Commission, said, “Heathrow has now been overtaken by many of its competitors on mainland Europe and that will be a loss to the UK and London.

“At the moment we have the benefit of one of Europe’s top hub airports.

“The risk is we are losing that capacity to Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt [and] Schiphol and the airlines will want to use those airports.”

In September, the government launched a review of how the UK might expand its airport capacity in the South East.

Options included adding a third runway at Heathrow, adding a second runway at Gatwick and building a new airport in the Thames Estuary.

The report, Flying into the Future, stated: “In the event of a decision to develop a major hub airport at either locations [Stansted or the Thames Estuary], we do not see how the current Heathrow could continue to operate.

“The majority of our respondents share this view.”

It said it did not believe enough consideration had been given to the possible loss of jobs or the potential cost of compensating airline businesses which have invested in Heathrow.

Closing Heathrow would have “major impacts on the 114,000 people directly and indirectly employed by the airport as well as their families and the communities in which they live,” it said.

But it added that releasing some 1,200 hectares of land – the size of Kensington and Chelsea – could offer “unparalleled opportunity for redevelopment for housing and other uses in a prime west London location”.

Respondents to the Independent Transport Commission included residents group HACAN, Richmond Heathrow Campaign, Transport for London, Gatwick Airport and Heathrow Airport.

ONE hundred Nigerian and British companies have taken advantage of the 11th investment summit jointly hosted by Shell Nigeria and the United Kingdom Trade & Investment to forge partnerships.

A statement from Shell on Tuesday said 45 British companies met with their Nigerian counterparts to discuss potential areas of collaboration in engineering procurement installation commissioning contracts, manufacturing, fabrication and general oil and gas services.

Shell, according to the statement, expects that the partnerships resulting from the summit will help grow the capacity of Nigerian companies in the provision of goods and services in the oil and gas industry.

The Managing Director, SNEPCo, Mr. Chike Onyejekwe , said Shell was committed to further developing local content in Nigeria.

“Last year, Shell companies in Nigeria awarded contracts worth $2.4bn to Nigerian companies, $1bn more than the amount in 2011. Local content is good for Nigeria and for the business and we’re determined to raise the game,” he added.

The Executive Secretary, Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board, Mr. Ernest Nwapa, commended Shell for the sustained interest in the Nigeria/UKTI investment forum.

“Since the first summit, we’ve seen a significant number of companies participating at the event and we hope they will focus on areas that will improve their capability. It is good to see that other IOCs are beginning to follow Shell’s example by organising similar engagements,” he said.

The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, represented by Mr.Mike Purves, said, “I am overwhelmed by the quality of attendees at this event, it shows that the symbiotic commercial interest between Nigeria and Britain is profitable.”

The Group General Manager, NAPIMS represented by the General Manager, MMD, Mr. Luke Anele, said supply chain transactions accounted for 65 per cent of the total business value in the oil and gas industry and promised to support IOCs to develop local content in the sector.

The first Nigeria/UKTI investment summit was held in 2009, and since then, more than 35 business partnerships have been formed between British and Nigerian companies, with some of them executing contracts for Shell and other International Oil Corporations, according to Shell.

The incessant fire outbreaks in markets across the country have driven more petty traders to take up fire insurance covers.

The Managing Director, Niger Insurance Plc, Mr. Kola Adedeji, said there had been an increase in premium collected and claims paid as a result of market fire incidents.

He attributed the rise to the awareness among shop owners and petty traders that they could get substantial compensation if they suffered losses.

“People are seeing the need now to have that kind of financial protection, most of the small traders in the central markets now have fire insurance cover for their shops.  Sometimes, the premium they pay is as low as N16,000 per annum and we pay compensation to them in millions,” Adedeji said.

Many big markets have been shut down over the years as a result of fire incidents, which have exposed the poor safety measures and inefficient fire fighting capability in the country.

During a visit to the Ketu Market, which was recently razed by fire, the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, urged the traders to minimise future losses by taking appropriate insurance covers.

The Jankara, Ketu and Alade markets, all in Lagos, experienced fire outbreaks in December 2012, March and April this year, respectively.

The refusal of the government to compensate them for their losses is making the traders and shop owners to seek protection from insurance companies, according to underwriters.

Investigations revealed that in recent years, claims on fire insurance policies had been at the top in 10 different classes of non-life policies of many underwriting firms.

The Managing Director, AIICO Insurance Plc, Mr. David Sobanjo, said out of the total claims of N3.16bn paid on non-life policies by the company between January 2010 and December 2011, fire alone accounted for N657m.

According to him, the firm paid N6.3bn total claims on 10 different non-life policies in the 2012 financial period, with fire accounting for the highest portfolio of N950.7m.

The Managing Director, Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc, Mr. Wale Onaolapo, also said that in the second quarter of 2012, the firm paid N83.6m as fire claims out of the total N439.9m paid on different policies.

The Managing Director, Staco Insurance Plc, Mr. Sakiru Oyefeso, said the firm settled claims worth N1.3bn in the third quarter of 2012, with fire accounting for N272.04m.

The Managing Director, Royal Exchange General Insurance Company, Mr. Olutayo Borokini, said the firm paid N1.58bn as claims to clients at the end of the third quarter of 2012.

He disclosed that fire took the highest share of 39.9 per cent, amounting to N631m in the period under review.

Also, the Managing Director, Equity Assurance Plc, Mr. Ekpe Ukpbaio, stated that the firm paid N556m as total claims in the first eight months of the 2012 financial year, adding that fire took the highest with N242m of the total amount.

PZ Cussons and Wilmar International are working on a multi-billion palm produce investment that will be developed on 50, 000 hectares of land.

The investment that will cost over N100bn in the next few years is also expected to create 12, 000 direct and 33, 000 indirect jobs at various skills.

Both companies went into partnership about two years ago, creating PZ WIlmar, with a bid to revive the palm oil industry in the country. The aim is to invest in new plantation and refining facilities built to world class standards, and support the development of local agriculture and industry in line with the Federal Government’s vision 2020.

According to the Chief Executive Officer of PZ Cussons, Mr. Christos Giannopoulos, PZ Wilmar has almost completed a refinery at the cost of N10bn, and capable of processing 1, 000 tons per day.

He spoke during the PZ Cussons-Wilmar editors’ parley in Lagos on Tuesday, an event also attended by the Managing Director, Wilmar Limited, Mr. Santosh Pillai.

“The refinery will process crude palm oil in the most hygienic way to fill the significant demand gap in the Nigerian market. We are also developing a range of branded healthy, authentic palm oil-based cooking ingredients to meet the current needs of the Nigerian consumer. This gap is currently filled by imported finished products smuggled into the country,” he said.

He said both companies were working with the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Cross Rivers State to implement a palm out-growers scheme, which would be promoted under the Cross River Agriculture and Rural Empowerment Scheme.

“The aim is to develop a symbiotic arrangement between small scale farmers and PZ Wilmar for the purpose of self-support and to enhance local capacity through the transfer of world class technical skills to local farmers,” he said.

According to Giannopoulos, over 600,000 high yield palm plants have already been transplanted, with 2.1 million of seedlings at four nursery sites across the palm nursery.

He said a training school has also been built on the site to provide education and skill development in plantation management.

“We also plan to support an out-growers scheme, giving local producers access to the milling facilities which will improve extraction of oil from their fruits, increasing their quality and yield,” he said.

The House of Representatives has said the amendments proposed by President Goodluck Jonathan to the 2013 budget are not issues requiring urgent consideration.

It clarified that the non-passage of the amendments did not affect the implementation of the 2013 Appropriation Act already being executed by the government.

The Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Zakari Mohammed, told reporters on Thursday, “The issues that are being sought (by the Executive) have no spike of urgency around them. Government is already releasing first quarter and second quarter allocations.

“Where are they getting the money from? That means that they are already implementing the budget. People should not bother too much about that budget (amendment proposals), as it does not impede the implementation of the existing Act.”

According to him, it is a difficult task for lawmakers for the Presidency to send amendments that “are almost like a fresh budget; it is like saying that we have to pass a new budget.”

Findings by our correspondent indicated that lawmakers preferred that the government should continue to implement the existing budget passed by the National Assembly on December 20, 2012 to passing the amendments.

Only last week, both chambers of the National Assembly publicly said they were not in a hurry to pass the amendments.

But, Mohammed parried a question on whether the House had taken a final decision not to consider the budget.

“We have a budget that is still being implemented. What is left is the amendments; but we should not bother too much about that. At the appropriate time, the House will look at it,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Senate has said it will commence the process of amending the 2013 Appropriation Act after the receipt of an expected Presidential communication on the matter.

The amendment bill, which is currently before both chambers of the National Assembly, had appeared on the Order Paper several times without getting a mention.

There are indications that the Senate is not keen to consider the amendment bill because of the nature of the alterations being sought by the President.

Leader of the Senate, Victor Ndoma-Egba, told our correspondent on Thursday that the Senate was not responsible for the delay.

“The President promised to communicate priority areas to be addressed. We are awaiting that,” he said.

The Federal Government on Thursday said it had developed a new Victim Family Insurance Package in a bid to address the delays in payment of insurance claims by airlines whenever an air crash occurred.

The initiative, according to the government, becomes necessary following complaints by relatives of victims of the June 3, 2012 Dana Air crash in Lagos that they have not been compensated.

Speaking at a press briefing and stakeholders’ forum on aviation safety in Abuja, the acting Director-General, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Mr. Joyce Nkemakolam, said the VFAP would serve as additional assistance to families of victims of aircraft accidents.

He said the Nigerian Insurance Commission had approved the VFAP, the proposal of which was submitted by a Deposit Money Bank, and that discussions were ongoing between the government and the bank on the implementation of the insurance package.

According to Nkemakolam, the government will also create a family assistance centre where relatives of air crash victims will be able to interface with the government and get their claims without passing through unnecessary rigours.

He said, “However, passengers are required to pay a premium of N600 only, which will be embedded in the ticket charges. This initiative is something we must do because we discovered that most times, families of victims of air crashes are traumatised.

“Many of them don’t know what to do and they don’t know where to run to. So, we came up with the idea of creating a system where these people will be adequately taken care of, counselled and directed on what to do to alleviate their sorrows. It is important to state that this is a major issue that the government wants to address.”

In her reaction, the Minister of Aviation, Ms. Stella Oduah, said the Dana Air crash of June 3, 2012 remained a major blot in an otherwise remarkable two years of her stewardship.

She said, “While the nation awaits the final report of investigation into the crash from the Accident Investigation and Prevention Bureau, I wish to state unequivocally that the ministry has been working round the clock since the incident to ensure that such a sad event never happens again in our airspace.

“In the last one year, NCAA has worked closely with Dana Air, relevant insurance companies and the Lagos State Government to ensure the expeditious processing and payment of claims and compensation to families of victims,” Oduah said.

Continued smuggling of imported rice is giving stakeholders the jitters that the huge investments made in the local production of the staple and the different initiatives aimed at reducing the high import bill may come to nothing, MAUREEN AZUH writes

The modest gains made in local production of rice is being threatened by the activities of smugglers, according to stakeholders, who want the government to check the menace if its efforts and investments by the private sector are not to fizzle out.

Through the Agricultural Transformation Agenda of the Federal Government under President Goodluck Jonathan, local rice cultivation and processing has received a boost in the last few years.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, has been credited with the feats recorded in rice production in the country because of his relentless pursuit of the ATA.

Among the numerous goals of ATA is government’s plan to make Nigeria self-sufficient in rice production by 2015, so as to put an end to the N356bn yearly import bill on the commodity.

In 2012, the local rice programme introduced by the minister led to the production of about 690,000 metric tonnes of the staple, which was said to be 140 per cent higher than the target set for the year.

Through the rice programme, a United States investment company, Dominion Farms, has commenced $40bn investment in 30,000 hectares of land in Taraba State to reduce the country’s import bill by over N50bn.

To further encourage rice production, new fiscal measures were introduced by the government, like the increase in tariff on brown rice and levy on imported finished rice to encourage local production.

As a result, 13 new private sector mills, with an estimated total capacity of 240,000 metric tonnes, have sprung up between last year and now, buying and processing local paddy.

To ensure that Nigeria has in place industrial capacity for international quality grade milled rice that can compete with imports, the ministries of agriculture and finance recently concluded arrangements to facilitate the establishment of 100 large-scale integrated rice mills with total capacity of 2.1 million metric tonnes nationwide.

The mills, which will be owned and operated by the private sector, are to be financed by China EXIM Bank through a low interest rate facility of $1bn, thereby making Nigeria to have full industrial capacity to mill and replace all the rice it currently imports and become an exporter of finished rice to other African countries.

However, all these and many more initiatives in the works may not achieve the desired result if the alarming rate of rice smuggling is not addressed, according to stakeholders.

The stakeholders in the rice milling and distribution chain in the country have raised an alarm over what they described as the increasing wave of smuggling in the country, saying as much as N1.7bn worth of rice is smuggled into the country monthly.

Speaking under the aegis of the Rice Millers, Importers and Distributors Association of Nigeria, they said much of the smuggled rice found its way to Nigeria through Benin Republic.

The Chairman, RIMIDAN, Mr. Tunji Owoeye, explained that smugglers had been capitalising on the increase in levy on imported rice as well as the country’s porous land borders to illegally bring the products in, a situation that has driven genuine processors and millers out of business.

He said investment in plant and machinery by members of the association as of the middle of 2012 was over N100bn, with about 4.5 million people employed in the value chain, stressing that all of these were being threatened by the activities of smugglers.

Owoeye said, “No sector or professional group, which makes as much commitment as we have enunciated above will keep quiet and not fight determinedly for the survival of this critical sector of the Nigerian economy.

“Incidentally and in truth, these commitments and potential of the rice sector are being daily put at risk by the activities of these smugglers and their collaborators. We complained severally in the past about the negative activities of smugglers of rice and the devastating effects on the nation’s economy.

“We are losing approximately N9.7bn monthly as an estimated 80,000 metric tonnes or 1.6 million bags of rice is smuggled into the country from Benin Republic alone.”

Owoeye said it was disheartening that government’s numerous initiatives to encourage local rice production and create employment and wealth were being threatened on a daily basis by the incessant smuggling activities by a small few.

The way out, he emphasized, was to review the trade liberalisation scheme and close the borders to nations used to perpetrate the menace.

He said, “Unscrupulous smugglers find it attractive to smuggle goods from neighbouring countries into Nigeria without paying necessary duties. This affects investors’ investment in the country.

“For instance, Benin Republic consumes only white rice but imports parboiled rice with destination being the Nigerian market. If the Federal Government reviews the trade liberalisation scheme and closes the borders to smuggled goods, the neighbouring countries will take us serious.

“The quantum of rice being smuggled through our land borders from the Republic of Benin is increasing on a daily basis. Almost 45,000 MT is entering the northern part of the country from Niger and Cameroon.”

A survey at the Seme and Idiroko border posts showed that big-time smugglers now have a long queue of specially-built trailers to carry 72 tonnes of goods, mostly rice, as against the 32-tonne trailer. Apart from the huge revenue loss and hazards such products pose to Nigerians, stakeholders observe that excessively loaded trailers damage the nation’s roads, further creating huge maintenance costs to the government.

The Chairman, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Anambra, Ebonyi and Enugu states, Dr. Chike Obidigbo, who also presides over Hardis and Dromedas Limited, said, “The whole problem we had was not too much of internal competition because who are we competing with? We are competing with companies like Lever Brothers, PZ and a lot of the other big companies, and most of them are foreign companies.

“Now the competition is not coming from this people because Nigeria has a very large market, but the competition is coming from those people who bring in the products through the back door, and this accounts for about 80 per cent of products in the market. “And because they are coming in illegally, they don’t have any responsibility to the government; all they need to do is to pay little money at the border, and they move their products into Nigeria. But we, the actual producers, we have to pay so much money by way of very high duties and taxes that are all over the place.”

While calling on the Nigeria Customs Service to rise up to the challenge of smuggling, Owoeye said “The present scheme, as it is being run, is to the detriment of the nation’s industrial sector and government needs to address this as soon as possible.

“We, as Nigerian investors, have made sacrifices by paying higher duties for the importation of rice through the official channels, while some of our members have begun the backward integration process for rice value-chain. We cannot allow smugglers to keep destroying these investments. There should be zero tolerance for smuggling.”

Owoeye also urged government to invest more in the production of paddy rather than the processing of rice, saying there was a need to increase capacity in rice production rather than processing.

Nigeria’s yearly consumption of rice is about 5.5 million metric tonnes. While 1.8 million MT is produced locally, the country relies on importation to make up the balance.