African Banker Magazine has named Guaranty Trust Bank Plc the African Bank of the Year.

The 2013 honour was conferred on the bank on Wednesday at a well attended ceremony in Marrakech, Morocco.

A statement on Friday said the African Banker Award was for recognised financial institutions across the continent, which were considered industry leaders and continent’s trend setters.

It listed good corporate governance practices, exceptional service delivery and innovative products as major factors considered in the selection.

“Winners of the coveted award must have consistently reported strong financial performance and contributed significantly to the quality of service offered by the financial services industry within their country and across the African continent,” it stated.

The statement quoted the Publisher of African Banker Magazine, Mr. Omar Ben Yedder, as saying, “We are delighted that Guaranty Trust Bank Plc has won this award.

“Indeed it has been a good evening for Nigerian banks and GTBank has consistently played a leading role in banking in Nigeria. Prudently run, with strong values, it continues to set new standards in banking. Its successful foray in international markets reflects strong fundamentals of a leading institution in Africa.”

The Chief Executive Officer, GTBank, Mr. Segun Agbaje, attributed the bank’s selection for the prestigious award to hard work, discipline and a well defined operating strategy “that enables it to give 100 per cent, above customer expectations, every single time.”

He stressed that customer satisfaction and service excellence were the foundation of the bank’s business, adding that GTBank would continue to listen to its stakeholders and institute innovations that allow the bank to provide services that surpassed its stakeholders’ needs.

Guaranty Trust Bank was established in 1990.

Nigerian Railway Corporation has set up a panel of enquiry to look into the immediate and remote causes of two train incidents, which occurred in Lagos last week.

The first derailment, which occurred on Tuesday May 28, involved two locomotives at Agege while they were being driven back to their base at the Ebute Meta Junction (EBJ) workshop.

The second incident was a detachment of a Lagos mass transit passenger train on Thursday, May 30 between Yaba and Mushin stations.

A statement by the Assistant Director, Public Relations Department of NRC, Mr. David Ndakotsu, confirmed the probe but gave no details.

Although it stated that there were no casualties involved in both train accidents and normal train services had resumed, there was the need to investigate them in order to guide against future train disaster.

Initial unconfirmed report of the Agege derailment indicated that the incident, which occurred between 11.30pm and 12.30am, was caused by defective tracks.

The statement stated the locomotives involved were not in service and added, “There were no coaches attached to them at the time of the accident.”

It caused no disruption to the day’s train movement because it happened after the “completion of the day’s intra-city passenger train services.”

The Mushin-Yaba incident was said to have occurred on the 6pm Apapa-Ijoko train.

The locomotive reportedly detached from the fully loaded coaches at Mushin. While the engine remained at Mushin, coaches filled with passengers retreated, stopping at Ebute Meta.

Meanwhile, the corporation has allayed fears of any danger on its mass transit trains.

As a senior official of the State Department and protégé of the Rockefellers, George Kennan, in a memo in 1948 reminded his colleagues that “…we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming; and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives. We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world-benefaction.’’

The realisation of the talked-about American Century was eventually handed to Henry Kissinger, a life-long practitioner of geopolitics, whose closeness to the Rockefellers made him the symbol of the American raw realpolitik. Serving both as Secretary of State and National Security Adviser in 1974, he was alleged to have penned the controversial plan for America to use oil and food to dominate the world. In his secret memo titled, ‘’Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for US Security and Overseas Interests,’’ he declared, ‘’Control oil and you control the nations; control food and you control the people.’’ In other words, for Kissinger, besides black gold, the US needed to fully control the daily provision of bread in such a way that it could control the world’s population, particularly population growth in developing countries, since otherwise developing countries’ population growth and economic development would pose a threat to the US access to their strategic raw materials needed for keeping the US growing.

But to control global food security in a way that controls the world’s population, the Rockefellers sought to control biology, the very science of life itself, and ‘’its applications in plant and agriculture.’’ It soon became clear that to bring the world’s very basis of human survival under its sway should require the family to dominate the research and development of Genetically Modified Organisms. That’s why the story of GMO is synonymous with the story of the rigorous pursuit of American ascendency alongside the Rockefeller Foundation eugenics (increasing the quality of “superior” human species, while reducing the quantity of “inferior” beings).

That is why the creation of Rockefeller’s multinational agribusiness, which financed the agricultural ‘’Green Revolution,’’ even when it expanded the dependency of the agricultural sector of developing countries on Rockefeller controlled petro-chemical fertilisers and petroleum products, was only laying the foundation to what is now the Rockefeller-led genetically modified crops, seeds, and livestock. Like the earlier Rockefeller oil monopoly built on vertical integration with vengeance, the same vertical integration has since driven the Rockefeller agribusiness with only four giant chemical multinational companies — Monsanto, DuPont, Dow, and Syngenta — the global players controlling patents on the very basic food products that the world depends on for its daily nutrition.

Yes, the green revolution was horrendous for having converted most family farmlands into industrial agricultural production, for emptying the countryside of its valuable natural and human resources, and for devastating local agro-biodiversity thanks to excessive pesticides. But, as horrendous as the green revolution could be described, it was only there setting the stage for the most vicious revolution — genetic engineering of plants and animals entirely from new genes and combination of genes made in the laboratory by bypassing sexual reproduction itself. Jumping the natural species barriers not only makes the process not only dangerously imprecise, uncontrollable, and unreliable as it easily damages and scrambles the host genome, it also makes the process entirely unpredictable. But, what makes gene manipulation so horrifying is the fact that despite the dangers it poses, and the serious warnings from respected research scientists against how recombinant DNA (rDNA) research could result in viruses and toxins unintentionally created in the process of introducing new genes into a plant’s cell, the US government and the Rockefeller Foundation have yet to recognise the urgency to fully subject GMO to rigorous regulation let alone mandating the labeling of GMO foods.

What makes the whole thing excessively dangerous is that with the absence of labelling, GMO plants and animals seem to resemble conventional ones, and in effort to keep it that way, the US government and the Rockefeller Foundation can’t stop insisting that GMO plants and animals are ‘’substantially equivalent’’ to the ordinary plants and animals of the same variety such as ordinary corn, soybeans, rice, cotton, beef, etc. How could shoppers going to a local supermarket be assured, for example, that the beef or pork they’re buying is not GMO food? The total disregard to the fact that genetically engineered plant and animal breeding differ from traditional methods in very important aspects, could be unbelievable. It is one thing for a government to support long-term laboratory research through science grants. It’s quite another to force the opening of developing countries’ markets for the flooding of untested, potentially cancer-causing and (racially targeted reproductive-killer foods such as spermicidal corn).

First, genes from one organism could be extracted and recombined with those of another using rDNA technology without either organism having to be of the same species. Second, removing the requirement for species reproductive compatibility, new genetic combinations could be produced in a highly accelerated way. That genetic engineering’s introduction of a foreign organism into a plant in an imprecise and unpredictable process could be real, but to be ignored could show an unconcerned government. But how could such a well informed government unbelievably insist so, ignoring the qualitative internal alterations that accompany genetically engineered plant? What could be the reason for not requiring biochemical or toxological tests, and for not requiring regulatory measures in genetically engineered varieties?

But what could have been the reason for allowing giant agribusiness to have their way, notwithstanding the overwhelming evidence of potential health damage to the population? In other words, what could have caused the US government and the Rockefeller Foundation that against numerous warnings from leading scientists about the irreparable damage to the health of the entire world, including reproductive risks, particularly targeting Asian and African population control, which some leading scientists increasingly believe to be an impending racial genocide? Should it be as it is being argued by another school of thought that having the powerful Rockefeller Foundation behind it makes it difficult to for the US government to oppose the dangerous GMO-altered food crops and their proliferation worldwide?

It remains difficult to understand why such Washington policy contradiction, especially argument that genetically engineered foods are ‘’substantially equivalent’’ to their traditional varieties, and for that reason they should not be regulated beyond their conventional varieties; and then same Washington turned around to argue that the same ‘’substantially equivalent’’ plants and crops should be granted patent rights for being ‘’substantially transformed.’’ But how could Washington justify the argument that genetically modified products should not be labeled because they are ‘’substantially equivalent,’’ and then contradict the earlier argument that allowed US agribusiness to claim exclusive patent rights on their genetically modified organisms or seeds, on the ground of introducing a foreign DNA into the genome of a plant, uniquely altered the plant? On what moral grounds could the Rockefeller-controlled agribusiness claim patent rights, forgetting that it’s the Rockefeller Foundation that claims that the pursuit of GMO revolution is simply to feed the hungry world? In other words, if the US could argue against regulating and labeling genetically engineered foods for the reason that they are not substantially different, what are justifications for demanding WTO to act as the policeman, enforcing TRIPS?

Little wonder in their desperation to force their GMO seeds down the throats of developing countries around the world, besides persuasion, bribery, coercion, and illegal smuggling into countries, the deployment of the World Trade Oorganisation, the State Department, the CIA, USAID as well as the World Bank and IMF have been there for the Rockefeller-led gene multinationals to go around intimidating governments neither oppose GMO foods, plants, seeds, and livestock nor refuse to allow US multinational gene companies to impose some draconian patent rights and royalties. Isn’t it in the justification of GMO as America’s newest weapon of imperialism, that led Catherine Bertini, a protégé of the Rockefeller and formerly US Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, to arrogantly say, ‘’Food is power! We use it to change behaviour. Some may call that bribery. We do not apologise’’?

Speaking recently at the 53rd Annual General Meeting of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mine and Agriculture in Kano, Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, said, ‘’… Syngenta, Monsanto Company and DuPont Company have indicated interest in investing in Nigeria. In fact, in June 2013, Syngenta plans to set up an office in the country.’’

Was Adesina speaking out of ignorance of what these companies historically represented, or as a co-conspirator? Is he not aware that the presence of these GMO agribusiness giants in Nigeria would, as in developing countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Indonesia, Poland and Mexico lead to transfer of food production from the hands of millions of independent family farmers to the agribusiness giants; with local farmers becoming feudal serfs working for the GMO multinational agribusiness? What about telling his audience the story of Monsanto GMO ‘’Roundup Ready’’ soybeans, which while temporarily increasing the GMO soybeans’ yields, tend to make it impossible for conventional soybeans to be grown again in the soil since the insertion of Agrobacterium sp strain CP4 into the GMO soybean’s genome coupled with the spraying of non-selective herbicide in the presence of glyphosate has, in locking up the soil for Monsanto Roundup Ready soybeans, also permanently sterilised the soil?

 To be concluded next week

Two weeks ago, we looked at the possible ways to make money online and I briefly mentioned that if you want to make money online, you could start a blog.

Quite a number of people contacted me asking how they could make money from their blogs. So, I decided to explain one can make money from one’s blog.

This will particularly be of benefit to some of my readers who already own blogs and those planning to get theirs.

If making money is your primary reason for owning a blog, then you may burn yourself out because blogging is demanding. I concluded last week’s article by saying the most important piece of advice is for you to get involved in something you love doing. This holds true any day, anytime. I have decided to mention it again so that it serves as a guiding principle for any prospective blogger. Some of the ways through which you can make money from your blog are as follows:

1. Become a solution provider

2. Sell adverts on your blog

3. Launch a product or service

4. Become an affiliate (partnership)

Becoming a solution provider is basically about carving a niche for yourself and meeting the needs of the people who would most likely visit your blog in search of a solution in that area of need. Again, you must understand that all blogs providing information are actually fulfilling various needs and this is how you should always look at it. If your blog is focused on technology, then you are meeting the needs of the people who love technology. This is the same if you operate in the entertainment space. As soon as your status rises in this regard, you can simply extend to the physical world by offering consulting services or speaking at industry related events. These are some of the ways you can claim authority in the real world, so you are not regarded as an online hipster.

There are a number of ways to sell adverts on your blog. The most popular way is to sign up for a service such as Google Ad sense or Ad dynamo. These are quite popular in this part of the world. When you join, you are requested to add certain codes on your website/blog after choosing the types of ads you want to feature.

Examples of online advertising, according to Wikipedia, are contextual ads on search engine results pages, banner ads, blogs, rich media ads, social network advertising, and interstitial ads.

Others are online classified advertising, advertising networks, dynamic banner ads, cross-platform ads and e-mail marketing, including e-mail spam.

Not all these will be relevant to you as a blogger based in Nigeria, but it will be important for you to have the knowledge of them all.

It makes common sense to inaugurate a product or service when your blog grows to a certain stage. This is because, as long as you have been properly positioned from inception, people will come to regard you as an expert in your field.

As the numbers grow, you will find yourself too busy to attend to everyone. So at this point, it makes sense to start a product or service that will provide such solutions or related solutions. This is also the best time to start a business around your blog, if you have yet to do so.

Finally, it is important to consider partnerships when trying to grow an online business. This is what brought about the idea of being an affiliate of others. As an affiliate of Mrs. A, who sells service B, you earn a percentage for helping her close a deal by either placing an advert on your blog or writing an article about her service or any other strategy you use. But as long as you use your special affiliate link, then you would automatically earn from a sale.

Does this work? Yes, it does. 

Is it very popular in Nigeria? Not really, and this can be attributed to the known e-Commerce challenges. Is this an excuse? Not exactly, because I am an affiliate of a number of international businesses and I have truthfully earned from them.

Indications emerged on Friday that Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited will spend $12.35bn (about N1.96tn) on the planned drilling of 19 new oil wells as part of the expansion of Bonga deep water oil field.

A deep water oil well project, it was learnt, would cost $150m (N23.7bn), with further appraisal cost put at $500m (N79bn).

Bonga was Nigeria’s first deep water oil discovery in 2005 and has the capacity to produce more than 250,000 barrels of oil a day and 150 million cubic feet of gas a day. At the end of 2012, Bonga had produced about 450 million barrels of oil.

The Commercial Integration and Business Value Manager, Shell Nigeria, Mr. Taaj Shobayo, also confirmed that about $650m (N102.8bn) was required for each deep water exploration and production.

Shobayo, who spoke at a recent training organised for energy journalists by the oil major, described deep water exploration as an expensive and risky endeavour.

He said, “Deep water exploration and production is expensive, complex and risky with long cycle times. Current offshore projects take 10 years to 20 years from licence award to production. A typical well in a deep water cost about $150m (N23.7bn) and you will be spending another $500m (N23.7bn) for further appraisal.”

With 19 oil exploration wells planned for the Bonga deep water oil fields extension, he explained that an average of $12.35bn (N1.96tn) would be expended alone on the drilling of 19 oil wells.

Bonga is located in oil prospecting licence 212 and SNEPCO operates the field on behalf of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation under a production sharing contract, in partnership with Esso (20 per cent), Nigeria Agip (12.5 per cent) and Elf Petroleum Nigeria Limited (12.5 per cent).

Bonga also lies 120km southwest of the Niger Delta in a water depth of over 1,000m.

Managing Director, SNEPCO, Mr. Chike Onyejekwe, said Shell recorded tremendous success in its Bonga deep water oil field, saying as at December 2012, it had exported about 450 million barrels of crude oil.

The cost of the Bonga field development, including the cost of the Floating Production Storage Offshore vessel built in 2004, came to $3.6bn (N569bn)

Despite the fact that the drilling of the 19 oil wells will amount to $12.35bn (N1.96tn), the Bonga extension project, according to Shell, may gulp around $33bn (N5.2tn).

Our correspondent gathered that this might include a $21bn (N3.32bn) FPSO proposed for the new Bonga South West, $4bn (632.7bn) Bonga East, $1.9bn (N300bn) Bonga North (Aparo), and $3bn (N474bn) Bonga North East.

In spite of the fact that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation had in January 2013 directed International Oil Companies operating in the country to drastically cut over $30bn (N4.7bn) proposed for new projects, Shell said Petroleum Industry Bill, if passed “the way it is” would drive away investment in the Nigerian oil and gas industry and might stall the 19 Bonga oil wells.

The SNEPCO boss and Shobayo called for a PIB that would be investment-friendly.

They also said if the fiscal terms of the PIB were reviewed, about $3bn (N474bn) deep water revenues could be unlocked for the Federal Government.

Corroborating this,  the Commercial Manager, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited, Mr. Stefan Vas de Wael, said the development of deep water assets in the country’s  oil and gas could contribute $3bn (N474bn) to the country’s economy as well as generate about 200,000 jobs annually.

Vas de Wael said the undeveloped deep-water assets could add over 600,000 barrels per day of oil, which would amount to doubling the current deep water liquids from deep water fields in the country.

He said over $5bn (N790bn) would be required annually to develop and produce five million barrels of oil per day.

Vas de Wael said, “If all the deep water assets in Nigeria are developed, they could generate 200,000 plus jobs, $3bn in GDP and 600, 000 barrels oil per day. This is according to McKinsey Multiplier Model.

“Developing 200,000 jobs is equivalent to growing the oil and gas industry by 30 per cent. $3bn GDP will amount to additional 15 per net of projected GDP growth rate.

“The 600,000 barrels per day will amount to doubling current deep water liquids production. Annual spend of $5bn (N790bn) plus to develop and produce five million barrels of oil per day.”

Kendra Cherry, in her compilation of the works of John Watson, father of Behaviorism, quoted him as follows: “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take anyone at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select – doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief, and, yes, even beggar man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and the race of his ancestors. I am going beyond my facts and I admit it, but so have the advocates of the contrary and they have been doing it for many thousands of years.” –J. B. Watson, Behaviorism, 1930.

Watson, according to Cherry, made this statement when he conducted his “Little Albert” experiment. An excerpt from his seminal lecture at the Columbia University titled: “Psychology as the Behaviorists View It”, states: “Psychology should be the science of observable behaviour …. Psychology as the behaviorists view it is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behaviour.” (1913)

Last week, we looked at how we can develop our “Personal Impact” by consciously cultivating the ABC (Appearance, Behaviour and Communication) of personal image branding.

Appearance, which is also referred to as the psychology of dress, helps to shape people’s first impression about our personality. It is the first step in conditioning our environment to accept the new image we are consciously projecting.

Behaviour is the actionable part of psychology. Behaviourists believe that they can deliberately condition their environment to accept a particular image of them by consistently exhibiting a specific set of character traits.

This is the most important aspect of developing our Personal Impact. How we behave within our environment determines how people relate with us. It also shows our pedigree and class. You can dress up a pig in the finest and most expensive suit, but if the pig does not change his habit of dwelling in the pigsty, it will always be perceived as a pig, regardless of the expensive appearance. This analogy explains the psychology of behaviour. If the change within does not reflect the outward actions we make, we will invariably send out mixed signals, which in turn will lead to a crisis of identity. To understand the important role a conscious control of our actions play in conditioning our environment, let us look at the Titanic. The Titanic was said to have sunk because the captain of the ship underestimated the size of the iceberg. He only saw the tip without realising that there was more underneath the ocean.

This lack of observance led to one of the greatest tragedies in maritime history. Our behaviour can be compared to the tip of the iceberg the captain saw. Our personality is that part of the iceberg hidden beneath the ocean, which the captain did not see and did not realise was the most important part of the entire iceberg.

Viewed in that context, the statement by Watson that psychology is the science of observable behaviour immediately begins to make sense.  To successfully cultivate a winning image, exhibited through a conscious and consistent behavioural pattern, we must first deal with the myriad of emotions and personality crises going on within. Once this happens, the deliberate efforts made to cultivate a positive personal impact will yield a consistent result.

This also explains why politicians hire image consultants to help them cultivate a particular image different from the one they have always been associated with; which will more appropriately fit the position they are running for.

In the corporate environment, behavioural skill training in leadership, team building and emotional intelligence is being given to mid and senior level managers, to help them acquire the necessary skills and behavioural traits to manage and lead their teams. This shows that society pays attention not only to our appearance but also to how we conduct ourselves.

We conclude, therefore, that appearance helps us to build the necessary confidence we need to blend and socialise with our environment but our behaviour will make or mar how successful this social conditioning and interaction will be.

Strategy Analytics  has said now is the time for industry players to position to win the 5G race, cellular-news.com reported on Friday

The research firm recommended  that c­ompanies should start now with their strategies to influence the definition of the requirements for the new generation systems and to ensure that Research &Development spend translated  into strong 5G patent positions.

According to the research firm, momentum is building as leading companies engage in the first round of 5G technology development. Samsung is the latest industry player to have announced its 5G demonstration.

The traditional technical leaders in the radio transmission technology area, Ericsson and NTT DoCoMo, also revealed their progress in 5G research. Chinese industry players even formed an industrial group to promote the research and development of 5G technology.

Senior Analyst for Wireless Networks & Platforms,  Guang Yang,  said, “The official process of 5G standardisation should be inaugurated in 2015-2016 time frame, to be kicked off at ITU-R WRC-15. So all current ‘5G’ activities are only a warm-up before the official process.

“But these warm-up activities are important for the industry to build technical consensus and to prepare the ecosystem. It is also a key period for the technology giants in the industry to predict the core components of the future system and to secure related patents.”

 speaking in the same vein, the  Director, Wireless Networks & Platforms,Susan Welsh de Grimaldo, said, “The next two years will see significant movement between industry players as the building blocks of 5G are researched and defined.

“Big European Union companies and East Asian players (China, Japan and Korea) are already developing their 5G visions. It will be interesting to see what strategies emerge from North America. In particular, the plans of Qualcomm and Intel, the two chipset giants, should be closely watched.”

Improved data transmission rates are still a focus of the next generation 5G system, just as faster data was a focus for today’s 4G LTE.

The Chief Executive Officer, LT & C Advertising, Mr. Charles Abraham, in this interview with DAYO  OKETOLA decries the annual loss of advertising industry revenue to capital flight

 When you started your advertising agency 25 years ago, did you know it would go this far?

Though we started out as a small company with less than 250,000 share capital, if I said we knew we were going to go this far, I would not be truthful. We had a clear understanding that we wanted to build an institution that would outlast us but none of us could have imagined what had happened to us in the last 25 years.

But I am  struggling with some aspects of the industry such as the quality of manpower. I have found out that one of the areas where I had the biggest trouble was finding the right people to do the job. So if we are going to raise the advertising industry in Nigeria,  manpower deficiency must be addressed.

What will you do to transform the industry if you are given the opportunity?

Apart from the things that Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria is doing right now, which I totally subscribe to, I would also spend a lot of time and energy developing manpower. I would establish institutions that will train people properly. I would benchmark against global institutions so that we can actually produce the kind of people that can work anywhere in the world.

Are you satisfied that major advertising production jobs are still being done outside the country?

It grieves my heart and my spirit so much when I see advertising productions such as TV commercials being done  outside the country. I consider it as a travesty and I could go as far as saying it is a misplacement of priorities because Nigeria has the talents to produce the works they need to produce.

But you complained about manpower earlier. How do you reconcile the two positions?

Yes, but that doesn’t mean that we cannot produce quality work. The issue with production abroad is that most of the time, it has got nothing to do with the content of the script but with facilities. It is like post production things, which we are also beginning to develop in our nation.

So, as far as I am concerned, I don’t believe foreigners can run adverts for Nigerians. I don’t. It would take a very special advertising expert to come into Nigeria and write better adverts than Nigerian people. He would have to be a creative person  and a genius to understand our local nuances; the way we relate with one another, and the way we speak with one another.  He would have to go through a lot of immersion.

Do you have an idea of what the country loses to capital flight as a result of advertising productions being done abroad?

I don’t have the exact figure. I would only say we should be looking at 40 per cent of our annual revenue going outside.

Does government have any role in stopping this capital flight?

I believe government has a responsibility to protect all the industries in this country, advertising not being an exception. I believe the government through APCON, has taken up the responsibility of protecting this industry and I think APCON’s reforms are far reaching and groundbreaking. And if we honestly uphold and implement the APCON reform,  our industry would improve and move forward significantly. There are people who believe if we regulate and restrict the practice of advertising industry in Nigeria by not allowing foreigners to come in and practise here,  our standards will drop. I don’t believe, that because in Brazil, they regulated and the industry went from being just a mediocre industry to one of the best in the world. The same thing happened in Australia and Turkey. So there are examples all over the world about how people have regulated and have changed the industry. South Africa was contemplating it before we came up with our own. So I think we need to do that.

Creativity is always something that has to do with the local people and our business is a creative business. So if we are given more protection, I believe our industry would develop. We must also understand that we cannot let our standards drop so that clients would not begin to think that they should give our jobs to expatriates.

Are you saying all foreigners should be shut out of the advertising industry?

I am not saying they should shut them out. I am saying they should determine terms of engagement and make it not as open as it is right now. Because what is happening now is that most of the foreigners  don’t even have offices in Nigeria and yet, they come in to take the briefs, go out, implement them and send the work back to Nigeria to execute. All the talents and channels used are not Nigerians. So how is that going to develop our industry?

Are you saying foreign companies have taken advantage of the lose nature of the industry?

Oh yes, they have. And if we are not careful, they would overrun us completely because Nigeria is considered as one of the biggest investment destinations in the world at the moment. We have just been classified as part of the next eleven countries to watch out for in the area of economic development. So, everybody internationally is looking at Nigeria and the advertising agencies are not an exception. They will  overrun us if we are not careful.

But don’t  you think some people will feel you are afraid of competition?

No, we are not afraid of competition; far from it. We are not scared of competition, we are just afraid of unfair advantages. There are clients working in Nigeria today, who would not work with Nigerian agencies and this is our market. They think the  competences are not there and I don’t think they are correct.

With over 100 million mobile subscribers in the country, how do you think the mobile phone will influence advertising practice in the country?

The mobile platform in advertising is a huge potential. In fact, for me, I will  say the  mobile phone has one of the biggest reaches to consumers right now. The only problem is we do not have the infrastructure to do quality content on mobile.

First and foremost, assuming over 100 million mobile phones are in circulation in Nigeria, I will say 80 per cent of them are not smartphones. However,  for good quality advertising, you need smartphones and at least  3G or 4G network. You need to be able to do MMS and we are not anywhere near there. What we have in Nigeria is still very small and I believe  that with the expected improvement in broadband connectivity  and network expansion,  access to mobile phone advertising will also improve.

The former director-general of MI5 is to join HSBC’s board as a non-executive director in August.

Sir Jonathan Evans, who spent three decades at the intelligence service, will be paid £125,000 to work 40 days a year at the bank.

The British Broadcasting Corporation  reports that he will also become a member of a special committee HSBC created to help combat financial crime.

The unit was set up after the bank was fined $2bn (£1.3bn) in the US over money laundering and sanction breaches.

The bank has already appointed Dave Hartnett, the former head of HM Revenue and Customs, and Jim Comey, a former US deputy attorney general, as advisers to the Financial System Vulnerabilities Committee.

Bill Hughes, a former head of the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency was also recruited when the committee was set up in January.

Sir Jonathan will be paid £95,000 for his position as a non-executive director and an additional £30,000 for his role working for the committee, which meets about eight times a year.

His appointment was approved by Prime Minister David Cameron, and will be for an initial three-year term.

But he will be barred from lobbying the government on behalf of the bank or its clients for two years after he takes up his new roles.

“We are delighted to welcome Jonathan,” said HSBC chairman Douglas Flint.

The Risk and Insurance Managers Society of Nigeria has said it will empower stakeholders with the right knowledge on how to manage risks in the country.

In a statement on Friday, the body said this had become imperative due to the risks confronting organisations in the country, which have made them to continue to count their losses.

The Registrar RIMSON, Mr. Cyprian Emenyonu, said that during the coming seminar, the society would provide a platform for industry professionals to brainstorm on and understand the importance of risk management in the construction and operation of engineering facilities and projects.

“Such risk exposures will be identified with a view to proffering appropriate risk control measures to safeguard investments,” he said.

According to him, the main topic of the course has been broken into sub-topics to be facilitated by highly experienced engineering and certified risk management experts.

Emenyonu noted that large engineering facilities and projects were being confronted with several man-made, operational and natural risks such as collapse, fire, flood, abandonment, cost overrun and delayed completion, among others.

In terms of property damage, loss of lives, business interruption and non-realisation of project goals and objectives, he said the attendant losses were enormous and unquantifiable.

While noting that the effects of these on stakeholders were devastating, Emenyonu added that unless the man-made factors were systematically identified and analysed, effective control measures would not be applied.

According to him, the recurrent incidents have become worrisome to risk managers and state governments.

While the state governments are enacting legislation and regulations to curb the problem of building collapse, he said risk managers were to train and retrain the personnel engaged in the construction/engineering industry.

With over a decade of luxury real estate developments in Ikoyi area of Lagos State behind it, Cadwell is set to bring a face lift to Kofo Abayomi Street, Victoria Island, with the its latest work of art, the Sphere.

The deluxe residential development on seven floors with a unique shape, according to the firm, is fashioned in a modern classic style that comfortably complements the lifestyle of the upwardly mobile executive and family

Apartments in the Sphere are being offered to prospective buyers via electronic sales and selective marketing to the company’s preferred audience.

Cadwell said, “If you desire true lush living or a high yielding investment, the Sphere is a veritable avenue to satisfy the craving as it is well placed in the serene side of Victoria Island, Nigeria’s most prestigious district to live and work.

“This ingenuous architectural master piece designed by a renowned architect, in compliance with international standard for architectural and engineering design, combines safety, comfort, services and functionality with best-in-class finishes equally backed with distinctive facilities like none other worldwide.”

Sphere comes with unique features such as spacious living areas, extra-large windows, extensive high ceilings, tall doors, all en-suite bedrooms with quality fixtures and fully fitted kitchens with Bosch appliances.

Other features include fitness suite, “seven-star” spa, male and female massage rooms, beauty salon, games rooms, news café lounge and juice bar.

Featuring on the ground floor is a very limited luxury goods residential retail shop, office suites, and meeting room to accommodate minimum of 12 persons, to provide world class services to the residents, accessible through a private access control entrance from each wing.

The Sphere comes in two blocks of seven floors. The apartments include penthouses of four bedrooms, three living rooms, study, living and dining areas.

The total plot area is 5,101square metres with 3,259.66 square metres for building. Other features include swimming pools, pool lounge, facility management, 24-hour power supply, water treatment plant, sewage treatment plant, visitors parking, gardens, play ground and manned security with CCTV cameras.

The project, according to the company, will commence in the third quarter of 2013, with the estimated completion time set at the fourth quarter of 2015.

The Sphere was designed by Pieach Limited, winner of the Best Mixed-use Architecture Africa Award at International Property Awards 2012-2013)

To encourage buyers, Cadwell is offering prospective buyers the option of making a minimum deposit of 10 per cent as sign-on commitment fee with 15 per cent mobilisation to site and the balance in nine equal quarterly instalments to span throughout the construction period estimated at 27 months.

Andorra is to introduce a tax on personal income for the first time as it faces pressure from the its European neighbours to tackle tax evasion.

British Broadcasting Corporation reports that the head of the Andorran government, Mr. Antoni Marti,  told French President Francois Hollande that he will introduce a bill before 30 June.

The principality will “gradually meet international tax standards”, according to the office of the French president.

There is currently no income tax applied to individuals or corporations.

EU finance ministers have agreed to start talks with Andorra — along with Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, and San Marino — on swapping bank account information.

Recently, the European Commission told the European Parliament it wants EU-wide exchange of all types of income data as part of the fight against tax evasion.

EU tax authorities already automatically exchanged information for income such as employment, pensions and insurance but not for income such as dividends and capital gains.

Tax evasion costs EU states €1tn ($1.3tn; £850bn) a year, more than was spent on healthcare in 2008, the Commission has said, and some MEPs are calling for a Europe-wide blacklist of tax havens.

France and Germany have thrown their weight behind creating a permanent president for economic policy in the euro zone, a role that would mark a fundamental overhaul of how the currency bloc is managed.

Reuters reports that their backing calls into question the performance of Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who was appointed chairman of the Eurogroup of finance ministers of the 17-nation currency area in January, to serve initially for 2-1/2 years.

Dijsselbloem, who succeeded Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, has unsettled financial markets since taking office, especially with comments about Cyprus and how bank depositors could finance future bailouts.

Those views, while supported by some at the European Central Bank and the European Commission, have irked other officials in Paris, Berlin and Brussels.

At a meeting in Paris on Thursday, President Francois Hollande and Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed to propose to fellow leaders appointing a permanent Eurogroup head, which France has long favored.

“A full-time president of the Eurogroup with reinforced powers, including the possibility of delegating power to other euro zone ministers,” their joint “contribution” to next month’s EU summit said under the heading “Reinforcing euro zone governance and legitimacy”.

Merkel’s spokesman said the aim was to create a position with a much more dedicated focus on euro zone issues.

“It should not be a euro zone finance minister but a president whose job would be to coordinate work intensively,” said Steffen Seibert. “It will be a very demanding job.”

The Franco-German document said the proposal should be implemented within two years. It also said euro zone leaders should hold more frequent summits than the two annual sessions they already have and be able to instruct specialist ministers of the euro zone to work more closely on issues such as employment, social affairs, research and industry.

Both moves could widen the gap between a euro zone core and other member states of the European Union that are not in the single currency, and put national governments rather than the European Commission in the driver’s seat.

When he was appointed, Dijsselbloem, 47, had only been a minister for a couple of months and had little experience of finance. But he was seen as the best of those available from among the 17 ministers that sit in the Eurogroup.

His style has been remarkably different to Juncker’s, who held the job for nearly 8 years and was accustomed to the backroom dealing of European Union politics. Juncker once said that “when it becomes serious, you have to lie”.

Dijsselbloem, on the other hand, has been all about telling it straight, but his openness, especially over Cyprus, is what has most unsettled markets and put EU leaders on edge.

Information and Communications Technology solutions provider, Sidmach Technologies Nigeria Limited, has expressed optimism about the performance of the ICT industry this year.

The firm’s position is contained in a statement on Friday following an array of developments in the sector.

 It stated, “We expect a significant increase in the level of activities in the ICT industry in 2013 by joining forces with other ICT stakeholders.”

Speaking on the emergence of the firm as the 2012 Beacon of ICT Indigenous Software Company of the Year, the Managing Director of the company, Alhaji Hassan Alao, said, “At Sidmach, what makes us unique is that our solutions and services (particularly in the education sector) have positive impacts on virtually every family in Nigeria.

“We are humbled by this fact and have rededicated ourselves to ensure that this privileged standing of ours is maintained going forward. For us it is all about pleasing and surpassing the expectations of our customers, who are the reason why we are in business.”

Alao noted that despite all the challenges in 2012, the company did fairly well as it carried on full and uninterrupted operations.

In 2012, as was the case in the past, the company invested significantly in employee training and human capacity development in keeping with its goals of advancing creativity and innovativeness.

Speaking on Sidmach’s profile, the publisher, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek, Mr. Ken Nwogbo, said the firm had impacted positively in the continuous delivery of best-in-class solutions to the Nigerian market, adding that the company had engendered profound changes in the way ICT is deployed to serve the average Nigerian.

Nwogbo also noted that Sidmach had become endearing to the hearts of stakeholders in education, oil and gas and ICT industries, due to its various achievements, especially in pioneering the use of biometric technology for the registration, verification, and implementation of examination candidates.

According to him, the firm is also involved in the implementation of the online result verification system for WAEC and a host of other solutions that have impacted positively on the nation’s quest for the achievement of integrity, excellence in service delivery and the promotion of economic development.

Signal  Alliance,  systems integration, Information and Communications Technology company, has entered into partnership with SAP, a player in enterprise business solutions, to offer business planning and execution solutions-supporting business strategy, process design and integration, and budget implementation in government.

This partnership was consummated at a public sector forum by Signal Alliance in conjunction with SAP in Abuja to introduce the enterprise asset management software to the Nigerian market, a statement from Signal Alliance on Friday indicated.

 EAM is a solution from SAP  that  ensures operational efficiencies, improves asset usage, reduces costs, and better manages capital expenditures throughout the asset lifecycle.

This, the firm said, would help address the infrastructural gap in public sector by providing a solution for managing public physical assets ranging from dams, power grids, airports, to vehicles, and building facilities.

The Managing Director, Signal Alliance, Mr. Collins Onuegbu, described the concept of asset management as the ideal solution to help businesses and government institutions manage and maximise assets.

“A look at the current findings of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts recently showed how national resources were mismanaged through multiple allocations to various government agencies, and projects by past governments which makes the introduction of a robust EAM system like the one being introduced by SAP and Signal Alliance as both timely and of utmost importance,” he said.

Commenting on the partnership, Head, Line of Business for SAP West Africa, Mr. Oluseyi Akinyoyenu, identified Signal Alliance as a reliable and competent partner in Nigeria that would always help to deliver solutions to customers in all sectors.

Describing EAM as a key driver for the Nigerian economy, he said the unique solution from SAP covered in details all assets owned by private and public enterprise irrespective of size.

Akinyoyenu also listed some of the benefits of SAP’s EAM solution to include: Faster, more accurate asset reporting and analytics — for savvier decision making, heightened visibility into asset performance, risk and capital expenditures, improved asset utilisation with centralised monitoring and control, and superior asset performance, efficiency, and reliability with minimised disruptions.

Differentiating between EAM solution and the enterprise resource planning systems, a mutual partner of SAP and Signal Alliance, Mahindra Satyam, represented by its Regional Head, Alliance & Presales SAP Practice MEA, Mr. Ramesh Ram, stated, “While ERP helps enterprises to plan towards the deployment of resources, EAM helps them to manage the assets acquired through the implementation of budgets.”

Unemployment in the eurozone has reached another record high, according to official figures.

The British Broadcasting Corporation reports that the seasonally-adjusted rate for April was 12.2 per cent, up from 12.1 per cent the month before.

An extra 95,000 people were out of work in the 17 countries that use the euro, taking the total to 19.38 million.

Both Greece and Spain have jobless rates above 25 per cent. The lowest unemployment rate is in Austria at 4.9 per cent.

The European Commission’s statistics office, Eurostat, said Germany had an unemployment rate of 5.4 per cent while Luxembourg’s was 5.6 per cent.

The highest jobless rates are in Greece (27.0 per cent in February 2013), Spain (26.8 per cent) and Portugal (17.8 per cent).

In France, Europe’s second largest economy, the number of jobless people rose to a new record high in April.

“We do not see a stabilisation in unemployment before the middle of next year,” said Frederik Ducrozet, an economist at Credit Agricole in Paris. “The picture in France is still deteriorating.”

The Ogun State Government has concluded plans to complete structures currently at the foundation stage at the Laderin Workers’ Estate in Abeokuta.

The Commissioner for Housing, Mr. Daniel Adejobi, who disclosed this to journalists in Abeokuta on Thursday, said the government would utilise the available land in the estate to build additional two and three-bedroom flats for its workers.

According to him, interested buyers will have to make 10 to 20 per cent down payment for the houses, while the balance will be spread over a period of at least 15 years depending on the age of the buyer.

Adejobi said the existence of the estate in that area had opened it up to business activities, pointing out that with the speedy development being experienced in the estate, the government would provide more infrastructure such as drainages and good road network.

The commissioner said the government, through the Ogun Property Investment Company and Housing Corporation, had over 50 housing estates in different parts of the state, adding that the agencies were saddled with the responsibility of providing low cost houses to workers and other citizens of the state.

He reiterated government’s commitment to ensuring quality in all construction works it was embarking upon, saying, “Anytime we are having any housing construction, we are always on site to monitor and ensure that right quality materials are used and in the right quantity.”

The commissioner highlighted some of the works done in the last two years to include the construction of Nigeria Labour Congress House, reconstruction of Totoro Health Centre, construction of modern sheds at the Mechanic Village, Obada-Oko; Awowo Farm Settlement, renovation of the Cultural Centre, Kuto, Abeokuta; and completion of existing housing estates across the state.

China’s manufacturing unexpectedly accelerated in May, indicating that a slowdown in economic growth in the first quarter may be stabilising.

Bloomberg News reports that the Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to 50.8 from 50.6 in April, the National Bureau of Statistics and China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said in Beijing yesterday.

 That was higher than all estimates in a Bloomberg News survey of 30 analysts and compares with the median projection of 50, which marks the dividing line between expansion and contraction.

The report may provide some comfort to policy makers after the preliminary reading of a private manufacturing survey pointed to the first contraction in seven months.

Premier Li Keqiang said last week that government measures to reform the economy will be accompanied by tapered-off levels of growth and warned last month that new stimulus would create risks.

“Given the mixed signals, I would wait for the full set of activity data such as industrial production and electricity production to judge the momentum of the economy,” said Zhang Zhiwei, chief China economist at Nomura Holdings Incorporated in Hong Kong.

“The rise of the official PMI further reduces the chance for monetary policy easing.”

The statistics bureau will release May industrial output, retail sales, and inflation data on June 9 along with fixed-asset investment for the first five months of the year. The customs administration will report May trade figures on June 8.

The preliminary reading of a Purchasing Managers’ Index released by HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics fell to 49.6 in May from 50.4 in April. The decline, if confirmed in the final report tomorrow, will be the gauge’s first drop below 50 since October.

The federation and HSBC will also release non-manufacturing surveys for May this week, providing a fuller picture of an economy that’s increasingly reliant on service industries for growth. Both showed slower expansion in April.

President Xi Jinping said the fundamentals of the Chinese economy are “sound” and growth is on a “more stable footing,” according to the English-language transcript of a written interview he gave to Latin America media released by the official Xinhua News Agency on May 31. “We are more interested in the quality and efficiency of economic growth rather than the speed of growth only,” he said, noting that employment is stable and incomes are rising.

Xi’s comments, made ahead of his visit to Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica and Mexico, reinforce signals from policy makers that the government is prepared to tolerate a slower pace of expansion after annual average growth of 10.5 per cent in the past decade led to industrial overcapacity, rising financial risks and environmental degradation.

China’s economy grew by 7.8 per cent in 2012, the slowest pace in 13 years and the government in March set a goal of 7.5 per cent for this year.

Last month, Premier Li warned that room for stimulus policies and government investment to meet its targets “is not big” and that such action would create “new problems and risks.”

There will be no “incremental stimulus by the new government which understands the slowing potential growth and wishes to focus more on structural reforms,” Lu Ting, head of Greater China economics at Bank of America Corporation in Hong Kong, said in a research note yesterday.

Stocks in China fell by 0.7 per cent on May 31 on concern the official PMI report would also show a decline. The Shanghai Composite Index rose by 0.5 per cent for the week and has rebounded by 5.8 per cent from this year’s low on May 2.

“Markets’ fear of a furtherbv               growth slowdown will be alleviated and we expect a positive market reaction” tomorrow, Lu said.

Analysts are paring forecasts for economic growth after expansion unexpectedly slowed to 7.7 per cent in the first quarter from a year earlier.

The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey conducted from May 16 to May 21 was for a pace of 7.8 per cent in the second quarter, down from a projection of eight per cent in an April survey.

The Chairman, Heirs Holdings, Mr. Tony Elumelu, has called on Africans to consider a new approach to the continent’s development – one that involves the private sector and is capable of kick-starting the economic ecosystem that underpins all sustainable development.

Speaking at the African Development Bank’s Annual Board of Governors’ meeting in Morocco, Elumelu said the new approach called: ‘Africapitalism’, was an economic philosophy, which asserted that the private sector could solve Africa’s most pressing challenges through long-term investments that would create economic prosperity and social wealth.

He urged the private sector to take on the responsibility of development, using his personal experience at the United Bank for Africa Plc.

In a call to action for the continent’s entrepreneurs and business leaders who have not yet embraced Africapitalism, Elumelu pleaded with them to start investing in strategic sectors that would drive development.

He said, “We need to do away with short-term thinking. We should be investing in over time horizons measured in decades, rather than fiscal quarters. We must stop the practice of extracting wealth without reinvesting for growth.

“We should be strategically building domestic industries and manufacturing to support our national economies, and growing intra-African trade.”

He called on the philanthropic and charitable communities of Africa, development banks and private investors to embrace the philosophy of Africapitalism and recognise that the private sector’s role in driving economic prosperity was the solution for development.

“Economic prosperity is the most valuable and lasting gift we can give to a continent with our challenges. We need to support solutions that are catalytic and sustainable. That should be the ultimate goal of our development mission.”

Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc donated various food and other items to the Nigerian Red Cross Society and Motherless Babies Home in Yaba, Lagos in commemoration of this year’s Children’s Day celebration.

In a statement on Friday, the firm said in recent times, it had pioneered intellectual development of insurance students through its annual essay competition, support to the University of Calabar and provision of free insurance cover for journalists, among others.

The General Manager, Technical, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance, Mr. Bode Opadokun, who led the team during the visit to the Nigerian Red Cross Orphanage, said the company embarked on the project as a way of showing appreciation and giving back to the society from where it was operating.

He said the company had been consistent in the past four years in its support to various government-approved orphanages, including the Lekki Motherless Babies’ Home and Heart of Gold Hospice, Surulere.

Opadokun expressed the company’s appreciation to the authorities at the home for their efforts in giving hope to the abandoned and motherless children, and assured them of continued support in the future.

According to the statement, the Matron of the home, Mrs. Juliana Obanife, who led the Red Cross team to receive the company executives, thanked them for finding time to visit the home and for the various items donated.