Author: Businessam Staff

By Samson Echenim

Nigeria’s largest carrier, Air Peace, has said its Boeing 737-300 5N-BQQ, which nose-wheel was reportedly damaged while landing at the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos, is airworthy and has no fault.

Following an in-house preliminary investigation, Godfrey Ogbogu, the airline’s safety manager, said the hard landing of the aircraft from Port Harcourt, which cost its nose wheel was not connected to the serviceability of the aircraft, noting that the aircraft may have been landed harder than intended.

“The landing incident of flight P4 7191 at MMIA on the 23rd of July 2019, has nothing to do with the air worthiness of the airplane.

“Our preliminary in-house investigation indicates that in a bid to make a positive touchdown as required by procedures during such wet weather operations, the pilot landed the airplane harder than intended which affected the nose-wheel,” Ogbogu said.

He maintained that there were no issues with the airworthiness of the aircraft as the airline assures of best maintenance practices at all times and spares no resources to that effect.

“The management wishes to assure the flying public that Air Peace Ltd has never stopped appraising its safety practices and procedures as demanded by industry standards,” he stated.

Air Peace’s B737 aircraft 5N-BQO piloted by Simisola Ajibola and her crew were said to have observed sudden weather changes which made them change the domestic runway they were suppose to land on to the international runway.

By Samson Echenim

Arik Air, the Nigerian flagged airline, says it is offering a 20 per cent discount to both serving and ex-military officers on any of its domestic routes on the economy class.

Arik’s economy ticket for local flights averages around N25,000 for short and immediate bookings. The discount will see both serving and retired officers of the Nigerian Armed Forces paying only N20,000 for any local flight on Arik Air planes.

Adebanji Ola, the airline’s spokesman, said in a statement that the scheme, which is part of the airline’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a way of supporting the Armed Forces of Nigeria in the discharge of their duties.

To enjoy the special fare, which is available at Arik’s ticketing offices nationwide, target passengers must present a valid military identity card plus any other valid identity card, such as driver’s license, international passport, national ID card and permanent voter’s card at point of sale and check-in.

In addition, the airline said reservation and ticketing must be made not later than 72 hours before flight.

“Arik Air is pleased to be of service to the officers of the Armed Forces of Nigeria. We are a truly Nigerian carrier and we feel the need to support the gallant officers and men of the Armed Forces who toil day and night to defend the territorial integrity of our country and keep us safe,” Roy Ilegbodu, Arik Air’s chief executive officer was quoted in the statement.

By Samson Echenim

A new report on the state of agriculture in Africa is projecting a market size of $1 trillion for the continent by 2030.

The report, jointly prepared by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and Dalberg Advisors, also stated that agriculture is likely to continue as a catalyst for sustainable development, primarily for enhanced food security, and secondarily, in the reduction of poverty and the overall growth of the continent’s economy.

According to the “State of Digitalisation of Agriculture in Africa 2019” report, technologies such as mobile telephony or blockchain have become enablers that can be used to solve some of the challenges plaguing the sector.

The report identifies online marketplace solutions such as Agrikore as significant use cases of how digital tools are being built to tackle major challenges of attracting and retaining a significant number of buyers and sellers, and in thus doing, help to solve the problem of inefficient and fragmented agricultural markets.

The study also identified Cellulant as being among only 390 active Digitalization for Agriculture (D4Ag) solution providers that are working across the continent and have the potential to not only support agricultural transformation but also the ability to do so sustainably and inclusively. The report presents evidence on how these enterprises have proven that digital tools can improve market efficiency, transparency, aggregation and integration.

Speaking on this finding, Cellulant co-CEO, Bolaji Akinboro, stated that “technology is at the heart of transformation in Africa. We believe by innovating around how supply and demand are organised, we can solve Africa’s food crisis. We are scaling up our existing payments products in the agriculture sector, this will allow us to increase access to payments for the millions of farmers who are still unbanked, despite the financial inclusion revolution”.

Unlike many of the D4Ag solution providers studied in the report, Cellulant’s Agrikore solution was noted to be one of the few marketplace players that are focusing on digitizing at both the input and produce stages by linking all the players in agriculture at the input level (farmers, agro-dealers, financial institutions, governments, development partners ) and at produce level

The report noted that the bundling of digitally-enabled Agritech solutions was gaining popularity with some enterprises incorporating either third party or proprietary payment solutions. The report cites the use of Cellulant’s Tingg payments platform which powers Agrikore, as an example.

Africa’s Agritech market netted an estimated $143-million — out of a total addressable market of $2.6-billion in 2018 according to the report. Digitalisation for Agriculture (D4Ag) is an emerging sector with an estimated total addressable market revenue of between 2.3 billion (mid-range estimate but with potential to go as high as 5.3 billion in 2019) and growing at 44% per annum.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has restated its commitment to the prompt payment of proceeds from its operations to the Federation Account and steady supply of petroleum products to Nigerians.

This was disclosed by Umar Ajiya, the chief financial officer (CFO) of the corporation, at a strategy session with the heads of account departments of the corporation’s subsidiaries at the NNPC Towers, Abuja.

In a statement by Ndu Ughamadu, the corporation’s group general manager, group public affairs division, he stated that the meeting was part of the initiatives to rally the corporation’s business leaders in support of the new management’s agenda.

Ajiya stated that the strategic role of account directorate was crucial to the realization of the new GMD’s goals and objectives, stressing that there was need for all managers of accounts to improve on deliverables.

“This important meeting is to ensure that the management of Finance and Accounts Directorate corporate wide are properly briefed on the direction of the new NNPC management and work as a team to deliver on the GMD’s commitments to the nation among which are: paying what is attributable to the Federation by way of FAAC remittances and meeting up with obligations to all stakeholders as and when due,” he said.

The CFO listed eight key areas where the Accounts Directorate can help in actualizing the GMD’s agenda to include: liquidity management; financing for growth; business process improvement, budget and budgetary controls payment system, cost control/discipline, real-time financial reporting, capacity building, autonomy for SBUs, and maintenance of pension funding.

He stated that the GMD’s mandates and commitments have financial implications and pointed out that the Directorate was looking ahead and ready to implement the Direct Debit and Cash Sweep mechanism to grow other businesses for a more viable corporation.

He explained the Direct Debit and Cash Sweep concept as system whereby “the corporate has the right to debit SBUs with excess cash flow by cash-sweeping the excess for the purpose of investing in other SBUs by way of inter-company loan or equity contribution. This way, we can grow the several businesses to their full potentials”.

U.S. negotiators will visit China early next week for trade negotiations, U.S. treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC in an interview on Wednesday, saying he was hopeful progress could be made toward a deal.

Mnuchin said he and U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer will depart for China on Monday and hold talks with their Chinese counterparts on Tuesday and Wednesday in Shanghai, followed up by more talks in Washington later.

“There’ll be a few more meetings before we get a deal done,” he later told reporters at the White House. I wouldn’t expect that we’ll resolve all the issues. But the fact that we’re back at the table at the direction of the two presidents is important.”

Mnuchin added that the United States still has a long list of big items to tackle as talks resume after being sidelined in May.

He said that Shanghai held significance for the Chinese. “I take that as good news that we’ll be making progress next week,” he said in the television network’s interview “Hopefully we’ll continue to progress.”

The United States and China are resuming negotiations as the world’s two largest economies amid an ongoing trade war that has rattled global markets.

Google, on Wednesday announced the launch of new products and features to make life better for Nigerians digitally.

Among the products was the launch of a two-wheeler (Motorbike) aka Okada, direction mode on the Google map.

Also, Google map has, for the first-time, introduced the Nigerian accent to give driving directions, making it the first African country to add their language to the map.

A street view mode for the Google map has been added to Abuja, Enugu, Benin city and Ibadan, the tech giant said.

On the light-weight app, Google Go, features like Lens, Discover and Google assistant have been added. The lens feature allows the users interact with Google using cameras.

It is an image recognition technology that helps to identify the object or read barcodes, QR codes, labels and text and show relevant search results and information. Google officially launched Google Lens on October 4, 2017 and added the feature to the Google Go app.

Google Go users can now access Google Lens, point it at a sign, and listen to the words read out loud. If they don’t speak the language, they can translate it into their own. Today, Google is also launching support for Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo.

Google Go is aimed at enabling users of low RAM mobile phones get the best experience on Google. The app was launched in 2018 and designed to work offline optimally.

Another new product, Gallery Go has been added to help organise the users’ gallery by grouping photos into categories like nature, food, animals, screenshots, documents, people and selfies.

The app could also be used by people without reliable internet connection. Gallery Go brings many of the best features of Google Photos on device to help them find, edit and manage their photos even when they are offline.

The app is only 10MB to keep the phone light and fast, so that you can spend more time capturing memories.

Nigeria is facing the risk of never recovering about 5.5 trillion naira ($15 billion) of bad loans taken over during a banking crisis more than a decade ago.

That is how much the state-owned Asset Management Corp., or Amcon, still has to collect from Nigerian companies that have failed to repay the debts they once owed lenders, Chief Executive Officer Ahmed Kuru said at a conference in Lagos on Wednesday. Delays in litigation are slowing the process, while tepid economic growth is weighing on the ability of businesses to survive, he said.

Modeled on organizations including Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency Ltd. and Korea Asset Management Corp., Amcon used bonds to bail out 10 lenders and buy more than 12,000 loans from industries including aviation, gasoline marketing and manufacturing after the 2008-09 oil price crash. It’s so far recovered 1 trillion naira, Kuru said.

Bloomberg reports that Amcon needs to recover the outstanding debts to enable it to meet obligations to the Central Bank of Nigeria, which provided the cash it used to repay holders of bonds issued to acquire the loans, he said.

The CEO said that extending the operations of Amcon beyond its 2023 deadline will do more harm than good, because that could encourage bad behavior in the financial industry and among borrowers.

“The federal government should be appropriating the money yearly,’’ required to meet its obligations should the bad debts are not recovered.

Nigerian stocks have next to no chance of success when they’re competing for capital against one of the emerging world’s highest bond yields.

Weighed down by concern over Nigeria’s economic growth, the prospect of rising bad loans at banks and thinning profit margins, stock inflows have slowed, despite valuations near the cheapest since 2011. That contrasts with the billions pouring into government bonds, which yield 14% on average.

Bloomberg notes that Nigerian stock valuations are near the lowest level since 2011

Even though Nigerian stocks look “extremely cheap,” they hold more downside than upside risks, EFG-Hermes analysts Simon Kitchen and Vinita Kotedia wrote in a report earlier this month, cutting their recommendation to underweight. low trading volumes and dwindling foreign participation are driven “by often-inconsistent macro policies that are ultimately designed to maintain dollar-naira stability,” they said.
tocks

The central bank on Tuesday defied a global trend toward dovishness and kept its key interest rate at 13.5%, safeguarding the nation’s real rate of about 2%. It also helps keep bonds attractive, aids policy makers in their quest to maintain the naira’s stability, and offsets investors’ concerns over the time it’s taken President Muhammadu Buhari to form a cabinet. His list of nominees was presented to lawmakers yesterday, five months after he was re-elected.

The naira has been close to 360 per dollar since the end of 2017

The currency has hovered around 360 per dollar since late 2017, a boon for traders, but not the economy, which is growing at a slower pace than the population. That’s why Nigerian debt has attracted about $9 billion in foreign cash for the five months through May, compared a little over $1 billion for stocks, according to data on the central bank website. Foreigners hold $15 billion worth of local-currency bonds, Goldman Sachs Group estimates.

The result is a 11% drop in the main equity gauge this year and an average 16% return for the nation’s bonds, which are among the top five performers in Bloomberg Barclays’ emerging market local-currency bond gauge.

Nigeria’s central bank governor Godwin Emefiele expressed concern on the “bearish trend” in stocks during his monetary policy committee briefing on July 23, even as he welcomed the “continued stability” of the naira, sustained by the inflow of hot money.

“The return on debt is certain, the yields are attractive,” Oluwasegun Akinwale, a banking analyst at Lagos-based Asset & Resource Management, said by telephone. “Why should I stay in equities when there is no policy clarity?”

The temporary suspension of Boeings 737 max aircrafts have negatively impacted the company’s financial performance, as results for the first full quarter released Wednesday shows a loss of $2.94 billion.

The results has begun impacting negatively on the American bourse which opened lower on Wednesday.

The planemaker is struggling with the prolonged grounding of its best-selling 737 MAX jet. This caused the recorded loss, the company’s largest in a decade. It has also sent its shares down slightly in premarket trading. 

Boeing has been unable to deliver any 737 MAX aircraft since the single-aisle plane was grounded worldwide in March after two fatal crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia killed 346 people in a span of five months.

The total cost so far of the 737 MAX crisis now exceeds $8 billion after Boeing disclosed a $4.9 billion charge last week that includes compensation the planemaker will have to pay airlines for the delayed deliveries.

Meanwhile, Boeing has embarked on a campaign to restore faith in its most popular jet and has pledged to remove any risk by reprogramming the software pinpointed as a common factor in both crashes as it faces pressure to convince MAX operators and global regulators that the aircraft is safe to fly again.

“This is a defining moment for Boeing and we remain focused on our enduring values of safety, quality, and integrity in all that we do, as we work to safely return the 737 MAX to service,” Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg said on Wednesday.

Investors on a conference call later on Wednesday morning will be eager for information on how Boeing plans to increase production, repair its image with the flying public and stem its loses.

Boeing said its first flight of the 777X is now delayed until early 2020 due to the engine problems announced last month, while its current plan for a first delivery to customers in late 2020 faced significant risk.

Weak earnings from American bellwethers Caterpillar and Boeing propelled a slide on Wall St. when trading activities opened Wednesday.

The weak earnings, pronounced concerns over slowing global growth.

Data from the American bourse showed the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 86.95 points, or 0.32%, at the open to 27,262.24.

The S&P 500 opened lower by 6.70 points, or 0.22%, at 2,998.77.

While the Nasdaq Composite dropped 24.04 points, or 0.29%, to 8,227.36 at the opening bell.