Nigeria’s Financial & Business Newspaper TURNED ON CLOSING INDICES Project Syndicate Monday, December 16 - Sunday, December 22, 2019 www.businessamlive.com Africapitalism, Governance NSE ALL-SHARE 0.13% & Sustainability 45000 43500 42000 9 10 11 12 13 26,536.21 FTSE/JSE ALL-SHARE 1.53% 65000 50000 45000 9 10 11 12 13 4,095.03 FTSE 100 1.10% 7400 7300 business 7100 9 10 11 12 13 7,302.94 DOW JONES 0.012% NEW YORK – Europe has done 24500 it. The European Green Deal an- 24000 LOMÉ – The rise of digital nounced by the European Com- 23500 pay-as-you-go (PAYGo) services mission is the first comprehen- 9 10 11 12 13 28,135.38 in Africa is cause for celebration. sive plan to achieve sustainable S & P 500 0.0073% By enabling low-income popula- development in any major world 3000 tions, both rural and urban, to region... 2500 access the goods ... TOWARDS MORE EFFICIENT MARKETS Back Page 2000 Page 9 a.m. 9 10 11 12 13 3,168.80 CBN’s intervention war chest holds N317bn in reserves Summary Nigeria gets AfDB’s $124.2m Apex bank cooking up new strategies for 2020 THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (AfDB) has Targets remain critical sectors driving growth approved a $124.2 million loan to finance the MOSES OBAJEMU drawn the sum of N24 billion to intervene CBN, as part of efforts to stimulate out- Urban Water Sector Reform and Akure Water in the country’s highly critical and pre- put growth, enhance value addition and Supply and Sanitation Project in Nigeria... HE ALMIGHTY DEVELOP- ferred sectors in line with the objectives engender productivity in the economy, es- Page 2 MENTAL intervention war chest of the SIR. tablished Real Sector Support Fund (RSSF) of the Central Bank of Nigeria But the huge war chest in the SIR shows to intervene in some critical development (CBN) has N317 billion in what the effect of foot dragging by participants, issues. FINANCE & INVESTMENT it calls “special intervention re- especially banks, who since it was set up, At the inception of the fund, banks were Public finance openness serve”T (SIR) as at the end of October 2019, have not found it attractive to push it as to access the fund at three per cent and on- down from N344 billion during the same many had expected at the onset. lend it to small businesses at nine per cent. AFTER MANY DECADES OF opaque period a year ago 2018. The SIR was set up by the CBN with It was later reduced to one percent for the budgeting process and unaccountable pub- In the 12-month interval, according banks expected to contribute to the reserve banks for them to lend at nine percent. lic expenditure practice in Nigeria, presi- to CBN data obtained by business a.m., in order to qualify to access it for onward dent Muhammadu Buhari last week direct- Page 2 the CBN and the participating banks had lending to their customers. ed the office of the accountant general of the federation (OAGF) to publish... Page 10 ENERGY CBN says oil earnings slide NIGERIA’S EARNINGS FROM the oil and gas industry declined by 2.62 per cent to N3.973 trillion in the first nine months of the year, from January to September 2019, accord- ing to data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN... Page 28 TRAVELLER AND HOSPITALITY Airlines, hotels develop thick skin MOST AIRLINES AND HOTELS in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre are not do- ing promo sales despite the yuletide, checks by Traveller & Hospitality have revealed. All the airlines that responded to our in- quiries on yuletide promo answered in the Page 30 L-R: Patrick Olima, representative of the managing director of Total; Osagie Okunbor, chairman of Shell group of companies in Nigeria and managing director, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC); Tony Attah, managing director, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd TECHNOLOGY (NLNG); Mele Kyari, group managing director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC); and Masimilianao Bertona, represen- tative of the managing director of Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC), displaying the gas supply agreements documents after signing the IT innovations liberate the poor NLNG Train 7 gas supply agreement at the NNPC Towers, Abuja at the weekend. THE NIGERIAN COMMUNICATIONS Commission has expressed belief that 100 EXECUTIVE KNOWLEDGE SERIES million poor Nigerians can be lifted above ANALYST INSIGHT poverty line through collaborative efforts on Accounting policies and notes to accounts Employees as Social Media Influencers promoting information... THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS of an entity HOW ORGANISATIONS CAN get work- Page 22 as earlier mentioned comprise of Statement of ers to post more company-related content Financial Position, Statement of profit or loss willingly. and other comprehensive income including Dell is doing it. MasterCard too. Even For subscription call: Statement of cash flow, Statement of Changes universities, not exactly bastions of social 07039371360 in Equities and Notes to the accounts. media influence, are embracing it. Employee advocacy in social media is gaining currency as an effective way to promote... N250 Page 13 Page 15 No 097 News: 2 & 4 Comment: 8 Finance & Investment: 10 Commodities: 10 Technology: 22 BUSINESS A.M. MONDAY, DECEMBER 16 - SUNDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2019 2 NEWS CBN’s intervention... Page 1 However, banks more or less were indifferent to the fund be- cause of their insistence that the six per cent margin was not enough to cover the assessed risks inherent in lending to the targeted sectors, hence they shunned the funds. The RSSF is scripted to chan- nel more facilities to priority sectors of the economy, assessed to have sufficient employment capabilities, high growth poten- tials, increase accretion to foreign reserves, expand the industrial base and consequently, diversify the economy. In the new scheme, it will be used to support start-ups, as well as expand existing enterprises. The facility specifically targets improved access to finance by the agricultural value chain, manu- facturing, mining, solid minerals activities and other strategic sec- tors of the Nigerian economy. The initiative rules out any sup- L-R: Sheriff Machina, chairman, Board of Directors, Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC); Dakuku Peterside, director-general, Nigerian Maritime Ad- port for trading activities, while ministration and Safety Agency; Hassan Bello, executive secretary/CEO, NSC; and Chibuike Royimi Amaechi, minister of Transportation, at the NSC according top priority to projects stakeholders appreciation night, held at Intercontinental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, recently. with high local content, import substitution, foreign exchange earnings and huge potentials for Akure city and vicinities. At the Fe- job creation. deral level, the project’s Urban Wa- The RSSF will have a maximum AfDB approves $124.2m for ter Reform component will establish tenor of 10 years, depending on the a water and sanitation investment complexity of the project, which programme that would contribute means that each project tenor Nigeria’s urban water projects to scaling up of the National WASH would be determined in relation Action plan 2018-2030. to its cash flow and life of the un- The project, which combines derlying collateral. “hard” water, sanitation and envi- It would also allow for mora- Akure, Ondo State capital, gets lion share ronmental protection infrastructure torium of one year in the loan re- Tola Akinmutimi, in Abuja rall project cost is $222.69 million facilitate urban Water Supply and with “soft” analytical and institu- payment schedule, while interest and will span five years from 2020- Sanitation reforms. tional reform support, aligns with rate will still remain at nine per THE BOARD OF 2025. Commenting on the project, the AfDB’s Ten-Year Strategy (TYS), cent yearly. DIRECTORS OF According to the development AfDB’s senior director at the bank’s its High 5s priority areas, and the Since the SIR was set up in NEWS THE AFRICAN DE- finance institution, the project is set Nigeria regional office, Ebrima Faal, Integrated Water Resources Mana- 2016, there has been relatively low VELOPMENT BANK to address bottlenecks in critical wa- said: “The project will particularly gement (IWRM) Policy. drawdown from it because the (AfDB) has approved ter supply services to households in contribute to improving the living According to available figures on banks did not see their participa- a $124.2 million loan the densely populated project area conditions of the communities in the bank’s interventions in Nigeria, tion in the intervention business to finance the Urban Water Sector and also help to install sanitation the project area. as at December 13 2019, its active as profitable. Reform and Akure Water Supply infrastructure for schools, hospitals “Involving these communities in portfolio in the country comprised Besides, the administration and Sanitation Project in Nigeria. and markets. the public awareness and marketing 61 operations, of which 54 are natio- of Godwin Emefiele, the current The approval for the project Specifically, it would provide activities, will increase the project’s nal and seven are regional. governor of the CBN, favoured cost, which was given on Thurs- residents of Akure city (Ondo State) ownership and ensure they pay for The total commitment to these CBN’s direct participation in the day by the bank but announced at and its environs, access to safe the water supply and sanitation projects is $4.8 billion and includes intervention schemes and is be- the weekend, includes an African drinking water and sanitation and services,” Faal added. water and sanitation projects worth lieved to have disbursed over N100 Growing Together Fund (AGTF) by implication, strengthen the On completion, the project will $606.0 million. billion through its interventions loan of $20 million while the ove- Federal Government’s capacity to benefit the 1.3 million residents of in agriculture, manufacturing, SMEs, among others.