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Ethiopian Airlines flies into PHIA

Financial Street
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Ethiopian Airlines flies into PHIA

Ethiopian Airlines has commenced international operations into the Port Harcourt International Airport, instead of Enugu as the airport is undergoing renovation and temporarily closed.

The Chief Operating Officer, Mr Mesfin Tasew, said Ethiopian Airlines was dedicated to serve the South East region, hence it shifted the Enugu flight to Port Harcourt airport.

Tasew said the airline would continue operating into Port Harcourt until Enugu airport was ready.

“We will continue operating at this airport until Enugu airport becomes ready. When Enugu is ready, we will go back to Enugu,” he said.

Ethiopian airlines in a statement said it will continue to offer the usual service from PHC instead of Enugu starting from September 3, 2019, until November 23, 2019

Nigeria is the only African country where Ethiopian has opened four destinations. This demonstrates a strengthened bilateral relation between Ethiopian and Nigeria. We will make every effort to provide excellent service in Nigeria as well as across the continent to help our customers access our global network.

Manpower shortages hit aviation industry amid over 1000 unemployed pilots

Olamiposi Oluwaseyi
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Manpower shortages hit aviation industry amid over 1000 unemployed pilots

The Nigeria’s aviation industry has been hit by a huge shortage of pilots, even as over 1,000 pilots are currently not engaged.

Although, not only Nigeria is faced by this peculiar problem, but the global aviation industry is also experiencing such a crisis.

In fact, widespread deficits of pilots across all continents have affected the sector, particularly in recent years, with cases of pilot shortages regularly occurring.

A top official with the United States National Transportation Safety Board at the close of a symposium organised by Nigeria’s Accident Investigation Bureau on Safe Skies Africa Initiative established 20 years ago by former President Bill Clinton’s administration to support Africa, recently, said the situation is not limited to Nigeria, but the global aviation sector.

Nigeria’s case is ironical because while so many young pilots and aircraft engineers are seeking to fly for airlines, airline operators are looking for very experienced pilots and engineers who are not being replaced.

The shrinking size of aircraft in the fleet of airline operators has forced many Nigerian pilots to seek greener pastures outside the shores of Nigeria. Faced with a dearth of experienced crew, operators are engaging foreigners to take over the cockpit of their aircraft.

It is not out of place to find foreigners, especially from Eastern Europe, dominate aircraft cockpit in Nigeria.

Whether they are on strike due to low salaries, discouraged by increasingly challenging training courses or attracted by more competitive markets, airport and aircraft workers are decreasing in number, often leading to disruption in flights and limited service across the world.

Figures from Boeing’s Pilot and Technician Outlook 2018-2037 suggest the situation could even get worse if not urgently tackled.

According to the company’s estimates, the industry will need two million new commercial airline pilots, maintenance technicians and cabin crew members over the next 20 years.

Employee’s deficit is also being felt the most in air traffic management as there are serious air traffic controllers’ shortage.

Although, air traffic figure is very low in Nigeria compared to the United States where controllers guide 70,000 flights a day while ensuring that 736 million passengers a year arrive at their destinations safely, air traffic controllers in Nigeria still complain of shortage of hands, poor remuneration and unhealthy workplace conditions, leading to low morale and lack of concentration most times. Unfortunately, budgetary missteps and bureaucratic red tape have led to a shortage of controllers.

What has been a concern for many years has now reached a crisis level. The nation’s ATC system has the fewest Certified Professional Controllers –1,200 – in nearly three decades.

Controller staffing has fallen nearly 10 per cent since 2010, NAMA missed its hiring goals for the last seven years and there are more controllers eligible to retire today than are currently in the pipeline to replace them.

Telecom brands’ revenue grows by 15% to reach N2.25tn

Financial Street
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Telecom brands’ revenue grows by 15% to reach N2.25tn

Nigerian telecom operators grew their revenue by 15 per cent in one year to reach N2.25tn in December 2018 from N1.96trn in 2017, a report by the Nigerian Communications Commission has shown.

The 2018 network/subscriber data recently obtained from the NCC indicated that the GSM operators made up of MTN, Globacom, Airtel and 9mobile grew their revenue by 13.6 per cent from N1.57trn in 2017 to N1.78trn in 2018.

According to the industry regulator, investment of the operators in infrastructure declined by 62 per cent to stand at N32.1bn by the end of 2018.

For fixed network operators, the revenue increased by 1.5 per cent from N4.05bn to N4.11bn in the period under review.

Internet service providers also grew their revenue by 23.4 per cent to reach N43.83bn in 2018 from N35.53bn in 2017.

Other operators made up of value-added services, collocation companies, interconnect firms among others recorded 18.2 per cent revenue growth from N349.2bn to N412.77bn in one year.

The operating cost of the companies increased by two per cent from N1.72tn in 2017 to N1.76tn in 2018.

The capital investment of operators decreased from N84.7bn in 2017 to N32.1bn in 2018, the 2018 report indicated.

The commission said that the figure was based on the number of responses it received from the network operators in the country.

“The reason may be attributed to the lack of response from operators like INT Towers Limited for 2018 figures as well as low level of responses from other operators in the same market segment,” the industry regulator said.

However, the NCC said there was substantial telecom infrastructure growth as operators reported a total of 52,160 Base Transceiver Stations and co-location towers, 334,314km of the microwave, 151 gateways and 84,580.7km of fibre optics.

According to the NCC, the number of telecom towers in the country affects the quality of service experience by subscribers.

The data indicated that mobile network operators added 39 BTS in one year, from 30,598 in December 2017 to 30,637 in December 2018.

“As of December 2018, MTN owned the highest number of base stations standing at 14,715 base stations, with Airtel owning 7,966; Glo 7,244; NTEL- 562; EMTs, 9mobile 148 and Smile two base stations,” the report added.

Among the fixed telephony operators, the report said Ipnx was the only operator with base stations, having a total number of 51 base stations as of December 2018, recording a slight increase of four per cent as the number stood at 49 base stations in 2017.

For value-added services, collocation and infrastructure service providers and interconnect operators among others, a total of 22,245 base stations were reported as against 15,117 in 2017.

The top five states with the highest number of base stations, according to the report, are Lagos with 4,764; Ogun 1,931; Rivers 1,676; Federal Capital Territory 1,684 and Oyo 1,303.

States with the least number of base stations as identified by the NCC are Yobe, 205; Zamfara 223; Gombe 286; Jigawa 289, and Kebbi 298.

Apple places $7bn in return to bond market

Financial Street
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Apple places $7bn in return to bond market

Apple says it has sold $7bn of bonds at yields ranging up to 103 basis points over the equivalent United States treasury on maturities of up to 30 years, its first such debt issues since November 2017.

The company had said that it was offering the five sets of notes, the first of which matures in 2022, to fund a range of needs including share repurchases, dividend payments, capital expenditures, acquisitions and repayment of debt.

Apple had cash and cash equivalents worth $50.53bn, as of June 29 as well as tens of billions more insecurities holdings.

Aggregate net proceeds from the sale will be about $6.96bn after deducting underwriting discounts and Apple’s offering expense, the company said.

AfDB, AFAP sign $5.4m agreements to foster fertilizer market in Nigeria, Tanzania

John Chukwu
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AfDB, AFAP sign $5.4m agreements to foster fertilizer market in Nigeria, Tanzania

The African Development Bank and the African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP) have signed two grant agreements to implement trade credit guarantees worth $5.4m to support fertilizer value chains in Nigeria and Tanzania, potentially benefitting hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers.

The organisations held a signing ceremony at the African Green Revolution Forum in Accra, Ghana on Thursday.

Jennifer Blanke, African Development Bank vice president for Agriculture, Human and Social Development, said the agreements would provide the inputs needed for Africa to have “the productivity that we hope for.”

Blanke was quoted in a statement on Saturday saying, “We are just thrilled to be getting together with our partners in order to expand the efforts to make sure that we are financing the development of manufacturing and blending of fertilizer. This is an African effort, led by Africans, for Africa.”

The grants are designed by the bank’s Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism (AFFM) to provide sustainable financing solutions to boost the fertilizer value chain in Africa.

African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership CEO, Jason Scarpone, signed the agreements on behalf of the continental body, emphasising the importance of value chain financing – bringing fertilizer financing from manufacturer, to distributor, to retailer to farmer.

“Few succeed in doing it. This project will be successful,” Scarpone told reporters.

The two deals are the first agreements signed by AFFM, which is hosted by the African Development Bank, since it became fully functional last year; they pave the way for the first implementation of trade credit guarantee projects for fertilizer financing led by AFFM in Nigeria and Tanzania.

The African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership will be the implementing partner operating in the two countries on behalf of the Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism. The partnership has substantial experience in supporting the agricultural value chain across the continent.

Scheduled for implementation over a two-year period, the projects will lead to the enhancement of fertilizer value chains in the two countries and will target 10 importers, five blenders/manufacturers, and 37 hub agro-dealers as direct beneficiaries, 520 retail agro-dealers as indirect beneficiaries and 700,000 smallholder farmers as final beneficiaries.

By supporting the fertilizer value chain in the two countries, the projects will go a long way to making fertilizer available to more farmers, a key objective of the Bank’s Feed Africa Strategy.

“We have expected results that are realistic. We are here to make sure this happens,” AFFM Coordinator, Marie Claire Kalihangabo, said at the signing ceremony.

Buhari encourages more Chinese investments into Nigerian economy

Olamiposi Oluwaseyi
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Buhari encourages more Chinese investments into Nigerian economy

President Muhammadu Buhari has encouraged more Chinese companies to invest in Africa’s largest economy.
The President made the call when the Chinese President Xi Jinping’s special envoy met him on mutual exchange and bilateral cooperation in Abuja.

A statement by the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China disclosed that Xi’s envoy was Mr Yang Jiechi.

Buhari, who commended China for its strong support for the economic and social development of Nigeria stressed the needs for more Chinese investments in the country.
He, however, assured China that Nigeria would work with them to implement the outcomes of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, and take the Nigeria-China strategic partnership to a new level.
On his part, Yang said that his meeting was for both countries to further increase high-level exchanges and strengthen bilateral cooperation in international and regional affairs.

He said: “With the personal support and guidance from President Xi Jinping and President Muhammadu Buhari, China and Nigeria have enhanced political trust and our relationship has enjoyed fast development.

“China and Nigeria are the most populous and largest economies in Asia and Africa respectively. We are both big developing countries with important influence, with a bright future for development.

“China and Nigeria should further increase high-level exchanges, strengthen bilaterally cooperation in international and regional affairs, and support each other on issues concerning each other’s core interests and major concerns.

“The practical cooperation in various fields between China and Nigeria has achieved positive progress, and benefited the people of the two countries.

“The Chinese side encourages more Chinese companies to invest in Nigeria.

“We should continue to work hand in hand to develop the Belt and Road Initiative, implement the outcomes of the Beijing Summit of the FOCAC and constantly enrich the China-Nigeria Strategic Partnership.”

Nigeria’s capital importation drops by -31.41% in Q2, 2019 – NBS

Olamiposi Oluwaseyi
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Nigeria’s capital importation drops by -31.41% in Q2, 2019 – NBS

The National Bureau of Statistics has said the total value of capital importation into Nigeria in the second quarter of 2019 was $5.820bn, representing a decline of -31.41 per cent compared to the first quarter.

The NBS disclosed this in its, “Nigerian Capital Importation, Quarter Two, 2019” report released and obtained from its official website by FinancialStreet.ng.

The bureau, however, said that the figure showed a +5.56 per cent increase compared to the second quarter of 2018.

It said that the largest amount of capital importation by type was received through the portfolio investment, which accounted for 73.76 per cent which was $4.292bn of total capital importation.

“This was followed by other investment, which accounted for 22.41 per cent ($1.304bn) of total capital imported and Foreign Direct Investment, which accounted for 3.83 per cent ($222.89m) of total capital imported in quarter two, 2019.

Sectorial analysis of the NBS report showed that capital importation by banking dominated in quarter two, 2019 reaching $1.892bn of the total capital importation in quarter two, 2019.”
The NBS said that the United Kingdom emerged as the top source of capital investment in Nigeria in the second quarter with $3.13bn, accounting for 53.85 per cent of the total capital inflow.

The second on the list of top 10 was the United States, with a capital investment of $1.15bn.

This was followed by United Arab Emirates, with a capital investment of $343.59m and South Africa with a capital investment of $314.16m in the quarter under review.

It also said that by Destination of Investment, Lagos state emerged as the top destination of capital investment in Nigeria in the period under review with $4.13bn, accounting for 71.09 per cent of the total capital inflow.

The statics by bank, showed Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc emerged at the top of capital investment in Nigeria in the second quarter with $1.76bn, accounting for 30.34 per cent of the total capital inflow in that quarter.

Access Bank, LSETF partner to boost women entrepreneurship with N10bn facility

Olamiposi Oluwaseyi
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Access Bank, LSETF partner to boost women entrepreneurship with N10bn facility

Access Bank Plc has collaborated with the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund to launch the LSETF W Initiative aimed at economically empowering women in Lagos State.
The initiative, which has a total loan portfolio of N10bn, is targeted at women-owned businesses, with at least 50 per cent ownership share in operation for one to five years.

Speaking at the unveiling of the loan portfolio event in Lagos, Access Bank Group Managing Director, Herbert Wigwe said, “Access Bank is fully committed to bridging the existing gap and provide women with the support they need to successfully implement their business ideas.”
“Looking at the number of women present here today, I don’t think the initial N4bn we set aside to help women will be sufficient and based on that, the initiative fund will be increased to N10bn. Through partnerships with organisations such as LSETF, Access Bank will continue to help women break boundaries, reinvent the status-quo and take advantage of opportunities provided by technology and quality financial systems to make a significant impact on the economy of Lagos State and Nigeria as a whole.”

Delivering his keynote address, the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, expressed his delight at the timeliness of the initiative, including its immense opportunities for residents in the state.

“The LSETF W Initiative has come at a very critical time for our economy, as we believe that women have a great role to play towards achieving the developmental results that we seek in our state,” Sanwo-Olu said.

“It is important to leverage the accumulation of resources built through relationships, trust, goodwill, and the influence between the state and other private sector stakeholders to make things happen quickly. We are very proud of Access Bank as they continue to make available their financial and business expertise as well as their funds towards ensuring that our women are given adequate access to resources that will aid their successes,” he added.

Access Bank has a long history of supporting female empowerment, offering over 8,000 personal loans valued at over N10.6bn since 2018, with over 330 loans given to women in business valued at over N16.6bn.

Samsung working on smartphone that folds into square

SAMSON AYODEJI
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Samsung working on smartphone that folds into square

Samsung Electronics Co. is preparing to unveil its second foldable device early next year, a luxury phone that folds down into a compact-sized square.

The South Korean smartphone giant is working on a device with a 6.7-inch inner display that shrinks to a pocketable square when it’s folded inward like a clamshell, according to people familiar with the product’s development.

Samsung is seeking to make its second bendable gadget more affordable and thinner than this year’s Galaxy Fold, they said. The launch of the successor device may, however, hinge on how well the Fold performs after its imminent launch, one of the people said.

Samsung is collaborating American designer, Thom Browne, on its new foldable phone, endeavouring to appeal to a broader range of consumers that includes those more interested in fashion, status and luxury than a device’s tech specs. For the techies, it will sport cutting-edge display technology and the nostalgic appeal of rejuvenating the flip-phone.

The company declined to comment on the development of unannounced products

The new foldable phone will have a hole-punch selfie camera at the top of the inner display, just as on the recently released Samsung Galaxy Note 10, according to one person familiar with the device. On the outside, it will have two cameras that face the rear when the phone is open or the front when it’s flipped closed.

“I am intrigued to see if a manufacturer can deliver a clamshell design that takes the current smartphone footprint and lets you fold in half like a wallet in a similar manner to mobile phones of yesterday such as the iconic Motorola Razr,” said Ben Wood, an analyst with CCS Insight. “That’s what the world is probably waiting.”

Xenophobic: MTN outlets across Nigeria shut till further notice

SAMSON AYODEJI
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Xenophobic: MTN outlets across Nigeria shut till further notice

MTN Nigeria, South-African owned telecoms giant, has ordered the closure of all MTN stores and service centres in the wake of violent attacks on its facilities in major cities across Nigeria.

In a statement signed by the company’s secretary, Uto Ukpanah, the company confirmed attacks on its facilities in three major cities of Lagos, Oyo and Akwa Ibom states, respectively, allegedly in retaliation to the ongoing xenophobic attacks against Nigerians in South Africa.

Ukpanah explained that sequel to the attacks and the premium the firm placed on its human capital and other stakeholders, all service centres and offices will remain shut.

Ukpanah said, “MTN Nigeria Communications Plc confirms that over the last day, our facilities, customers and some of our stakeholders have been the subject of attacks in retaliation for the ongoing xenophobia situation in South Africa. We have confirmed reports of attacks in Lagos, Ibadan and Uyo.

“While we remain committed to providing uninterrupted services, the safety and security of our customers, staff and partners is our primary concern. All MTN stores and service centres will, therefore, be closed as a precaution until further notice,” he added.

The company also used the opportunity to condemn violence and xenophobia, while reiterating its commitment to ensure a peaceful relationship between African states

“MTN condemns any acts of violence, prejudice and xenophobia and remains absolutely committed to ensuring a peaceful harmonious and respectful relationship with all communities in Nigeria and across Africa.

“We are engaging all relevant authorities in this regard and we urge them to act swiftly to reduce tensions both in South Africa and Nigeria. We will provide further updates as and when possible,” Ukpanah said.

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