DEADLY IMPORTATION TO NAIJA

91 percent of imported tomato paste fake say: Erisco, Dangote

— 9th June 2016

Local manufacturers of tomato paste and purée, yesterday told the House of Representatives Committees on Healthcare Services and Drugs and Narcotics, that about 91 percent of tomato paste imported into the country are of poor quality.

 Representatives of Nigeria’s top processing companies, Erisco Foods Limited, Dangote Tomato Processing Company Kano and Savannah Foods speaking at the one-day investigative hearing on the Importation of Fake, Sub-standard and Cancer Causing Tomato Paste into Nigeria, listed China and India to be the source of these products.

Chief Executive Officer Of Ericso Foods Limited, Eric Umeofia, who led the presentation of local manufacturers, stressed that his company has lost three billion naira in the last one and half years owing to the flooding of Nigerian market with dangerous, fake tomato paste.
Referring to an internal memo dated February 10, 2015 to the Director-General of the National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), by the director of Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Safety department, Umeofia listed cancer, diabetes, kidney failure as some of the negative health effects that can be caused by the consumption of 91 percent of tomato paste products sold in Lagos.
In his statement he stated“I have lost more than three billion as a local manufacturer. The regulators have failed in carrying out their duties. I was frustrated and was about closing up and going to other countries where I have interests. But President Muhammadu Buhari came in and assured manufacturers of his support, asking us to go ahead with what we are doing”, he said.
Also referring to the NAFDAC memo, Managing -Director of Dangote Tomato Processing Company, Abdulkarim Kaita and Chief Executive Officer of Savannah Foods, Abdullahi Ringim, called for a ban of products found to be sub-standard and injurious to health.
But Samson Adebayo who is NAFDAC, Director of Planning, Research and Statistics query the allegations made by the manufacturers, asked that they produce anyone whose death was traced to the consumption of imported tomato paste.
He insisted that not only was the survey restricted to Lagos, it would be wrong to ban any product based on a single study. He further accused the manufacturers of seeking the ban of imported products to create demand for their brands as according to him, the official survey of the agency showed that only 30 percent of products failed to meet set standards.
Earlier in his welcome address, Chairman of the Committee on Healthcare Services, Chike Okafor (APC-Imo) assured that the investigations of the House include the testing of products. This as he disclosed that the joint committee will visit suppliers in China, India and the United States where majority of importers procure tomato concrete for production.
Okafor equally stated that a full list of the products that fail the tests to be conducted by the House will be published in the media.

 

3 THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE STARTING A BUSINESS
Starting a business is most times complicating but having the right tips will save one a lot.
Below are three tips to consider before starting a business,

1. BUSINESS IDEA: TO  start a business, there must be a viable idea that must solve a problem and that can generate profit.
2. PASSION: Starting a business is not to be used as a stop-gap but such that draws passion from the innovator which will enables him/her to stay put even at trying times.
3. KNOWLEDGE: Never execute a business you know nothing about. There is need to research and acquire the basic knowledge about the business to execute

DULL BUSINESS MOMENT FOR JULIUS BERGER

Julius Berger Nigeria’s profit dips 70% on break in construction sector

The respite in the construction sector of the Nigerian economy has impacted pessimistically on the operations of Julius Berger Nigeria (JBN) Plc,  leading to a dip of 70 per cent in profit after tax(PAT) for the year ended December 31, 2015.  JBN is a leading construction company offering integrated construction solutions and related services. The company handles important percentage of   federal and state governments’ construction works.

Though, given the fall in the revenue of government caused by the turn down price of crude oil, most major construction works, including roads and houses, have been delay since the second half of last year.

And the audited results of JBN appear to be reflecting the negative brunt of  that as its revenue and profit declined. proceeds for 2015 stood at N133.807 billion, showing a decline of 32 per cent from the N196.808 billion in 2014.  A breakdown of the revenue showed that earnings from Civil works fell by 30 per cent from N1019.3 billion in 2014 to N75.8 billion, while revenue from Building works and Services declined by 33 per cent from N70.38 billion to N46.64 billion and from N17.088 billion to N11.32 billion respectively. Gross profit fell from N50.495 billion to N33.334 billion.

However, JBN strived to reduce charge of operations. For instance, marketing operating cost was reduced from N116.8 million to N75 million, while administrative expenses declined from N31.497 billion to N21.445 billion. Financial cost rose from N5.9 billion to N6.148 billion.

Petrol scarcity: Kachikwu, IPMAN agree on major intervention measures.

Petrol scarcity: Kachikwu, IPMAN agree on major intervention measures.

 Dr. Ibe Kachikwu the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, and members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) have reached an agreement which would see IPMAN play a major role in the distribution of petrol to the hinterlands and state capitals in Nigeria.

from the General Secretary of IPMAN, Mr. Danladi Pasali, It was gathered in Abuja that the meeting which led to the agreement was held on Tuesday.

Pasali said that parts of what was agreed at the Tuesday meeting included Kachikwu’s acceptance to grant fuel import allocation licenses to IPMAN members with capacity to import petrol; improve petrol supplies to IPMAN-operated filling stations, as well as provide credit facilities for reliable members of the association.

Good news as Naira appreciate by 0.3% against dollar.

The Naira on Friday exchanged at N321 to the dollar, an appreciation of 0.3 per cent, at the parallel market.
It was reports that the Naira gained N1 from its previous value of N322.
However, the Naira depreciated against the Pound Sterling and the Euro as it traded for N457 and N357 respectively, from N448 and N355 it had exchanged previously.

China has reduces its import of Nigerian crude oil

China has reduces its import of Nigerian crude oil

Nigeria saw its share of China’s crude oil imports shrink by 7.5 per cent last year as the world’s largest energy consumer reduced its import of Nigerian crude to 10.56 million barrels.

China’s crude import from Nigeria stood at 11.41 million barrels in 2014, data obtained on Monday from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation showed.

The country bought crude from Nigeria in five months last year, compared to nine months in 2014.

It imported its largest volume of 3.9 million barrels in October; 2.85 million barrels in February; 949,721 barrels in March; 948,024 barrels in July, and 1.9 million barrels in December.

China’s import of Nigerian crude in 2014 only hit a high of 1.96 million barrels in January, according to the NNPC data.

Last year, the Asian country imported a record amount of crude last year as oil’s lowest annual average price in more than a decade spurred stockpiling and boosted demand from independent refiners.

China increased imports last year by 8.8 per cent to a record 334 million metric tons, or about 6.7 million barrels per day, according to preliminary data released by the Beijing-based General Administration of Customs in January.

The country had earlier this month said it was seeking more crude oil exports from Nigeria in spite of the recent changes in oil prices.

The Economic and Commercial Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria, Mr. Zao LingXiang, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja.

Entrepreneurship and Business Development in Africa: Matters Arising!

Entrepreneurship and Business Development in Africa: Matters Arising!

The recent changes in the global economic terrain have instigated the need to do things differently as it affects Africa as a continent. It will be out of place for mono-economic nation to still stick to the old way of doing things when there is a hand-writing on the wall going by the trend of diversification hence the need for business development in Africa. The time has come for the government to hand-over the economy to economic managers: entrepreneurs, investors and other prime movers of the economy while the government sits at a corner as economic regulators.

The economic stakeholders: the individuals, firms, institution and government must breezed up to the need in supporting business development especially as it regard to entrepreneurship which will enhance empowerments towards economic development. The government must give it all it takes and monitors it implementation.

For now we shall be focusing on Nigeria and her economy in this discuss considering that Nigeria is the destination of the world economy.

With the myriad of unemployment, the tenet of job security is no longer attainable; hence there is need for institutions of learning to equip their candidates with the technical know-how as they face the reality of life as soon as they left the four walls of class-room.

Just 3 weeks ago, I was asking some students about their plans after leaving school. I was shock with a heart-rending concern to come to terms that over 90% of student are still talking of looking for white-collar jobs after their course of study with less than 10% of them admitting that they have heard anything about self-employment let alone entrepreneurship! What a sorry situation we are in; a time bomb waiting to explode!

How long shall we continue to mislead these youth with the phrase “study hard to secure a job”? For crying out loud this is 21^st century; hence we need to tell them the truth about economic empowerment through entrepreneurship.