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BETWEEN 1998 and 2010, Nigeria and other African countries attracted $554 billion Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs), according to a report just released by KPMG Africa.
The report was released yesterday, at the ongoing World Economic Forum on Africa 2012, which is expected to end today in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
According to the report titled: “African Emergence—The Rise of the Phoenix”, revealed new themes around the three mega-trends currently shaping business in Africa, specifically high demand for natural resources, increased consumerism by an emerging African middle class and large-scale investments in infrastructure.
Though the report stated that FDIs in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and other African countries increased dramatically over the last decade, from $110 billion at the end of 1998 to $554 billion at the end of 2010, it noted that the overall FDIs were still relatively small compared to other emerging market economies.
According to the report China alone attracted $578.8 billion at the end of 2010, more than all African countries combined, while Brazil had FDI worth $472.6 billion within the same time.
The report said empirical evidence has indicated that in a few years time, South Africa may no longer be the largest economy on the continent, as Nigeria and other countries are likely to close the gap.
Commenting, the Chairman, KPMG Africa Limited, Yunus Suleman said, “FDIs are essential component of Africa’s sustainable, positive future. And it’s good for investors too. There is undoubtedly money to be made in Africa, which is recognised today as one of the world’s most attractive high growth markets.”
Suleman said that improvement in the business, political and macroeconomic environments across the continent have made African economies more attractive for FDIs than ever before.
He explained that the end of the Cold War which ended in more than two decades ago brought new freedom to Africa, adding that people started to demand political representation, beside calling on governments to be more transparent.
In his own remarks, CEO, KPMG, East Africa, Josphat Mwaura said Unlike China, India and Brazil, Africa is a continent of 54 very diverse countries, each with its own natural and cultural endowment as well as regulatory environment to be navigated through. He noted that whilst regional economic integration was creating greater economies of scale and lesser complexity, doing business in Africa required a deep understanding of the landscape and experience in translating the immense opportunities into rewarding returns.
“Without this direction, many international investors have burnt their fingers and somewhat contributed to the earlier skepticism about the prospects of the continent. Those who have been guided through the complexity of Africa have realised premium returns unseen anywhere else in the world and are part of the emerging story of Africa as a priority investment destination”, he stated.
Mwaura explained that Africa still exports mainly minerals and hydrocarbons. He said the top five hydrocarbon exporters namely Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Libya and Nigeria account for 50 per cent of all exports from Africa and have experienced an 89.2 per cent increase between 2001 and 2010, mostly due to an increase of petroleum exports.
According to him, of all oil exports from Africa, Europe and the United States account for about a third, with gradually decreasing amounts during recent years, adding that China and India has most of the market share and have maintained robust economic growth rates despite the global financial crisis.
“Demand for non-oil commodities from Africa, such as gold, platinum, diamonds, iron and copper are equally shifting from Europe and the United States mainly to China. By the end of 2010, 12.9 per cent of Africa’s non-oil exports went to China, almost five times more than 10 years earlier. This dependence on exports of natural resources makes Africa vulnerable to volatility of global commodity prices”, he stated.
A report on a U.S. Internet Web site says British intelligence agents have reopened their investigation into the mysterious crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jet January 25. The Boeing 737 plunged into the Mediterranean Sea minutes after takeoff from Beirut airport, killing all 90 people aboard.
News reports initially quoted witnesses as saying the plane had broken up in the air and fallen into the sea in a ball of flames. But Lebanese officials immediately ruled out terrorism, and suggested pilot error was to blame.
The "G2 Bulletin" Web site, which calls itself an independent online intelligence newsletter reports an operative of the group al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula told interrogators the aircraft was destroyed by a suicide bomber trained in Yemen.
The operative is said to be among more than 100 terrorism suspects recently arrested in Saudi Arabia. He is reported to have told his captors the Beirut bomber trained in the same camp as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to set off a bomb in his underwear on a plane landing in Detroit on Christmas Day.
Ethiopian Airlines chief Girma Wake has been critical of what he called premature and misleading speculation about the cause of the Beirut crash. In a telephone interview, he cautioned that this latest report must be checked thoroughly. But he said it raises questions about why Lebanese politicians were so quick to rule out foul play and blame pilot error.
"The very fact the Lebanese authorities were saying the aircraft exploded in the air, or when they say there was a trace of fire as it was coming down. All this leads you to check it. I'm not saying that is the cause, but it leads you to check this," said Girma.
Girma declined to say what he thinks the cause may have been. He said, 'if you rush to conclusions, they will be the wrong conclusions.'
News reports from Saudi Arabia say the recently arrested terrorism suspects were part of a network of al-Qaida-affiliated radicals that included two suicide bombing cells.
Mahboub Maalim, head of the six-nation East African regional economic group known as IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development), says al-Qaida-linked terror cells in the Arabian Peninsula are working with like-minded groups in the Horn of Africa.
"We're almost certain in Somalia the group al-Shabab is not a Somali group any more, and we think a lot of other nationalities are there in the name of that cell, the al-Qaida cell, and definitely we feel there is also a link with the group in Yemen," note Maalim.
A statement from the Saudi interior ministry last week said the recently arrested terrorism suspects were plotting attacks on oil and security installations. Saudi Arabia is the world's biggest oil exporter.
There has been little speculation about any terrorism motive in connection with the Ethiopian Airlines crash. But experts have noted that the crash occurred almost exactly five years after the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, after whom Beirut's airport is named.
A Special Tribunal into the Hariri killing is reported nearing a conclusion that would bring the perpetrators to justice. An earlier United Nations backed probe said it had found evidence implicating senior officials of the Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services.
The Lagos State Government has ordered doctors sacked
in the wake of the crisis rocking the health sector to vacate their
official quarters.
The eviction notice dated May 8, 2012, and signed by
the Secretary of the Staff Housing Board on behalf of the Head of
Service, Mr I.A Shoyemi, directed the doctors to vacate their official
residence with immediate effect.
The doctors said they received the notice on Thursday.
The letter stated, “Consequent upon your dismissal
from the service of the Lagos State Government with effect from May 4,
2012 and in accordance with the civil service rule, “No officer shall
continue to occupy state government quarters after the date on which his
resignation or dismissal takes effect.
“I wish to request you to vacate the state government staff quarters.
“In view of the above, you are hereby requested to submit the keys to the quarters to the Secretary of Staff Housing Board.”
The affected doctors had been given until Friday (today) morning to vacate the staff quarters.
Reacting to the development, the first Vice-Chairman
of the state chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association, Dr Johnson
Emene condemned the government; saying according to the State Tenancy
Law, tenants should be given six months notice prior to eviction.
He added that the NMA had begun negotiations with the government to find a solution to the crisis in the state.
“We have told the doctors not to panic. Within the
next 13 hours and after the meeting with Governor Fashola, we are going
to know the next step to take.
“Nobody will evict the doctors between now and tomorrow,” he said.
Executive Commissioners and Directors of
the Securities and Exchange Commission confirmed on Wednesday that there
was rot in the commission. They accused the Director-General, SEC, Ms
Arunma Oteh, of taking unilateral decisions and said there was an almost
total breakdown of communication among the members of staff.
They appeared before the House of
Representatives ad-hoc committee investigating the near-collapse of the
Nigerian Capital Market on Wednesday.
Oteh, who failed to appear before the panel
on Tuesday, was compelled by the panel to do so on Wednesday. She,
however, apologised for her action before the hearing began.
“I apologise profusely if an impression was
created that I was disrespectful to the committee,” she pleaded, adding
that she opted to attend the meeting of the Economic Management
presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan.
The SEC management told the panel that
though decisions were carried out with the impression that they had the
approval of SEC executive management team, Oteh hardly involved them in
her policies and decisions.
The panel had sought their views on how to address the “dysfunction and absence of coordination in SEC.”
They also told the Ibrahim El-Sudi-led
panel that there were mutual suspicion, distrust and low staff morale in
the apex regulatory agency of the capital market. They accused Oteh of
hiring and placing contract staff above some key directors.
No meetings
The Executive Commissioner, Operations,
Mrs. Daisy Ekineh, who had spent 30 years in SEC, told the panel that
members of the management team rarely met to take decisions or discuss
issues since Oteh came in in 2010. She said meetings in SEC were either
conducted through text messages or electronic mails.
She said this was done to avoid face-to-face meetings due to the distrust and lack of cohesion in the agency.
Ekineh stated, “In the past, when (Musa)Al-Faki and other DGs were there, we met regularly to deliberate on issues.
“Unfortunately, this has been lacking lately. As a way forward, we need to do more in terms of communicating with each other.
“The way we go about it now is not working;
we need to do more face-to-face communication, instead of using text
messages and e-mails.
“Also, there should be respect for all. The
head should be respected and those under the head deserve their own
respect as well.”
Contract staff
The Executive Commissioner, Legal, Mr.
Charles Udora, said the low staff morale at SEC was caused by the DG who
sidelined regular staff, and hired “contract staff” to handle sensitive
assignments.
“The contract issue is affecting morale; the system is creating disaffection.
“People are brought in through wrong processes and occupy positions they know nothing about,” he added.
He stated, “The moment we recognise our staff, SEC will fly again.”
The Director of Legal Services and
Secretary to the commission, Mr. Edosa Eigbekaen, lamented the absence
of any “structured agenda for meetings” at the commission.
The commissioners and directors testified in the presence of Oteh, who also made submissions to the panel.
They all denied knowledge and involvement
in three major management decisions Oteh took, which she claimed that
they jointly approved. One was the seconding of two Access Bank
employees to SEC to serve as advisers to Oteh.
A member of the panel, Mr. Bimbo Daramola,
had sought to know whether the appointments would not compromise SEC
role as a regulator since the bank was a key market player.
He also asked whether there was an approval by the management of SEC.
The DG told the committee that she
discussed the matter at several management meetings with the directors
where they agreed that SEC could use outside assistance in areas the
existing staff lacked the competence.
“Yes, I discussed it with them as part of the broad-based areas that we might need assistance,” she said.
The commissioners and directors however, said the DG never discussed the issue with them.
Expressing shock over the revelation,
El-Sudi said, “Your reform to achieve a world-class capital market
regulation will have problems if schedule officers feel that they have
been sidelined or slighted,” he noted.
Project 50
Oteh and the commissioners also disagreed
on the controversial “Project 50″ event held in 2011 to commemorate 50
years of capital market regulation in Nigeria.
While Oteh told the committee that the
management team discussed and approved the project, the commissioners
again denied knowledge of how it was planned and executed.
A panel member, Mr. Buba Jibril, asked Oteh to name the sponsors of the project and how much was realised.
She replied that there were no donations in
respect of the project, but that “project partners” handled specific
aspects of the project.
Oteh said SEC, being one of the partners, used its tender’s board to execute its own part at the cost of N42.5m.
She also admitted being the “current
chairman” of the project committee, having taken over from Mr. Sylvester
Akele who had retired from service.
“There were no donations to SEC but there
were partners that funded various aspects of the celebration. SEC funded
its own part,” she stated.
Under pressure, Oteh listed the Central
Bank of Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Trade
and Investments, Association of Issuing Houses and “several other
private sector players” as the partners for the project.
She declined to speak on what the partners funded.
The panel directed her to furnish it with the names of all the partners and the details of the projects they funded.
Daramola had read a memo from the CBN
indicating that it would only make donations to SEC’ account and not a
third party account.
Oteh clarified that the memo originated from an officer, who probably thought that there would be donations toward the project.
Incidentally, the Bureau for Public
Procurement queried whether SEC paid for a venue for Project 50 at the
Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.
The BPE, according to Daramola, wrote SEC, asking for the details of the transaction.
But, when the panel sought to know whether
SEC had replied the query, Oteh said that she needed to confirm whether
the agency had responded.
Shortly after assuming duties, Oteh
released a “Road Map to World-Class Document,” a policy on how she
planned to transform the market.
When asked whether she attended any meeting
where the document was discussed, Ekineh replied, “We never met to
consider the road map.
Udora said, “I have not made any input into any road map and there was no discussion on this by the executive management team.
“It is at this hearing that I am being told that I was part of such a meeting.”
The Executive Commissioner, Finance and
Admin, Mr. Sani Stores, responded, “I have never been involved in this
framework and I have never seen it.”
The secretary to the commission, Aigbekaen, said he was not aware of the document.
On the thorny issue of 37 contract staff,
the Director of Human Resources, Mr. Hussaini Dauda, told the panel that
though using contract staff was the discretion of a DG, due process
must be followed or it would be illegal.
He said Oteh was advised to forward the
matter to a meeting of the management for deliberation and to further
seek the approval of the board but that the management, headed by Oteh,
neither deliberated on the matter nor approved it.
While the appointments of the contract
staff were still to be formalised, he said that they were already
earning salaries and allowances.
However, Oteh said that she used her
discretion to engage the staff to assist her execute her transformation
agenda, while taking steps to formalise the process.
N16bn loan
The panel attempted to resolve the
allegation that the managing director and the deputy managing director
of Access Bank took personal loans totalling N16bn from Intercontinental
Bank before Access Bank acquired the latter in 2011, but made no
headway.
Mr. Ini Udoka, who raised the question, noted, “It was a case of owing me money, I became bankrupt and you acquired me.”
Oteh simply responded, “I am not aware.”
She also declined further comments on the
transaction, promising to look at the books again and get accurate
information to the panel.
However, Udora spoke on how the Union Bank was acquired.
He informed the panel that SEC initially
opposed it because it was aware that the bank floated shares in the
market and got N8bn but did not explain how the money was spent.
However, the Asset Management Company of Nigeria later wrote SEC to say
that the N8bn would be absorbed as Union Bank’s losses.
“AMCON wrote us to assume responsibility for the loss. I felt that it was absurd for AMCON to assume the loss.
“I personally felt that somebody must account for that money,” he added.
Samsung has unveiled its latest flagship smartphone - the Galaxy S3.
The handset has a 4.8 inch (12.2cm) screen, an increase on the 4.3 inch screen of its predecessor.The device is perceived to be critical to how people view both Samsung's brand and the Android system it runs.
Analysts say the popularity of the previous Galaxy - the S2 - was a major factor in the firm overtaking Nokia to become the world's best-selling mobile phone maker.
Samsung said that the new Super Amoled (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode) display was 22% larger than its predecessor, but the actual device was not much wider since it had shrunk the size of the bezel.
The development allows Samsung to boast it has a slightly larger screen than the 4.7 inch dimensions of the HTC One X, the top of the range model from its Taiwanese rival.
t is also significantly bigger than the 3.5 inch display of Apple's iPhone 4S and the 4.3 inch screen of Nokia's Lumia 900.
Samsung may have been influenced by the popularity of its phone/tablet hybrid, the Galaxy Note, which has an even bigger screen and has proved to be more popular than many industry watchers had forecast.
Eye recognition
The South Korean firm said that a mix of "intelligent camera features" and face recognition technology should also offer owners a more natural experience.
For example, it said that the front camera would identify the user's eyes and would not go dark or lock so long as they were looking at it.
Other features on the S3 include an 8 megapixel camera on the rear, and a 1.9 megapixel front camera for video calls.
The phone also uses what is described as a "natural language user interface" dubbed S Voice. The South Korean company said it was a major improvement on the voice control features it included on earlier models.
"It is more like a good friend and listens intently and responds effectively to you," a spokesman said at the launch event in London.
The facility can be used to command the phone to play songs, adjust the volume, send texts or emails and take photographs.
The function is likely to be compared to Apple's Siri software.
Europe first
One expert attending the launch event said that the advances Samsung had made should help Google's Android continue to be the most used smartphone operating system.
"The importance of the Galaxy S3 to Samsung cannot be underestimated," said Adam Leach, principal analyst at Ovum.
"The company has built its reputation on producing the 'must-have' Android smartphone and in the process has become the poster child for the Android platform.
"However, Samsung's Galaxy S3 not only needs to stand out amongst a plethora of other Android-based smartphones, it will also go head-to-head with the next iteration of Apple's flagship smartphone, the iPhone."
Mr Leach added that Apple was not expected to release its new handset until much closer to the end of the year.
The S3 will be available in two colours, pebble blue and marble white, and the firm says that other options will be available at a later date.
Not everyone at the launch was convinced by the design."It is not an eye-catching device that will overwhelm consumers," said Francisco Jeronimo, European mobile devices research manager for IDC.
"It is a bit of a facelift of the Galaxy Nexus. It feels less 'plasticky' though."
The new handsets will be available from the end of May in Europe. Launches in Asia, the Middle East and Africa will follow.
A 4G version will go on sale in the US and South Korea in the summer.
The National Assembly has stopped all versions of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) before it.
There is no such bill as Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) before the lawmakers at both the lower and upper chambers of the legislature, it was learnt.
The former President of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), now a member of the House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Hon. Peter Ohiozojeh Akpatason, told reporters at the ongoing Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, United States that there is no PIB in House of Representatives.
He said: “People say that virtually everything in the oil and gas industry is at standstill, investment in and developments of new and old projects are stalled because of non-passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), but actually the issue is not non-passage because there is no bill in the first place. You don’t talk of passage when there is no bill anywhere.”
He said the attempt to pass the PIB by the Sixth Assembly failed because it was over-delayed by the intervention of the industry and political class. He noted that many versions came up such as the one by the inter-agency committee headed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), one from the industry, which was actually packaged by the International Oil Companies (IOCs) and the one that originally came from the Oil and Gas Industry Committee (OGIC) that was in the National Assembly. He said at the end of the day, it took so much time and effort to identify which one was the right version before the lawmakers started the process. Besides, pressure from different interest groups kept coming until the end of the Sixth Assembly, which made them unable to pass it.
“We were to start from where the Sixth Assembly stopped, but we have to start it new, which means going it all over again. But despite the willingness to do so, the new government came up with the idea of producing a fresh draft altogether. I don’t know what informed that, but that is the reality on ground at the moment,” he added.
“We hope that will be done as quickly as possible. As it stands, it is left for the executive arm of the government, the Ministry of Petroleum and the NNPC to come up with a new petroleum industry bill. As we speak right now, there is no one at the National Assembly. So, we cannot talk of non-passage, but rather the situation we have is that there is no bill at all but if one comes, we are so willing and determined to debate on it particularly with people like us who have experienced it on both sides (the industry and legislature).
Facebook has set the share price for its upcoming initial public offering (IPO) at between $28 and $35 per share, valuing the company at between $85bn-$95bn (£52bn-£59bn).
The IPO is set to be the largest ever for an internet firm, bigger than Google's valuation of $23bn in 2004.
IPOs are when companies list shares on the stock market for the first time.
Facebook is set to list on the Nasdaq and would rival Amazon's and Cisco System's current market values.
It is thought that Facebook will start promoting the share offering on Monday. Its shares are expected to start trading under the symbol "FB" on 18 May.
More than 10% of the business is being sold, which is expected to raise about $12bn for the company.
The eight-year-old social network has 900 million users worldwide and made a profit of $1bn last year.
Mobile growth
There is expected to be a huge take-up, though some investors have voiced concerns about the company's longer-term growth.
Last week, Facebook reported its first drop in revenue between quarters for two years.
But during a video presentation on Thursday Facebook executives sought to allay those concerns, pointing to mobile as an area for growth that the company will invest heavily in.
Last month Facebook said it would buy the fast-growing mobile phone photo sharing app Instagram for $1bn, its largest purchase ever.
Zuckerberg-controlled
The higher valuation still falls short of the $100bn that had been talked about for Facebook.
But it is not uncommon for IPO price ranges to move up if there is strong investor demand for the stock.
Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg will remain in control of the company even after the IPO, controlling more than 57.3% of the voting power through shares he holds and through voting agreements with other stockholders.
He will own 31.5% of Facebook's outstanding stock. At the top end of the price range, this would make his holdings worth $17.6bn.
Such a value would put him at about number 33 on Forbes' list of the world's richest people.
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