As part of efforts to develop the economic potential of Cross River State, Governor Ben Ayade met with a cross-section of the business community in London on Monday and also secured Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) to advance the state’s educational sector.

The meeting which took place at the Le Méridien Piccadilly Hotel was also attended by Falcon Group and Footprint To Africa led by their CEOs Mr. Ani Wellington and Barr Osita Oparaugo respectively.

The state governor signed an agreement with two notable institutions from the UK: Schools Company and Construction Academy to establish Construction Academy in Calabar, a Teachers Training Institute in Obubra and nursery, primary and secondary schools in Obudu, which will be affiliated with UK universities.

Professor Ayade announced that the educational institutions will be established across the three senatorial districts of the state, stressing that his administration attaches significant importance to the value of education for the people of Cross River and indeed the over 40 per cent of Nigeria’s population made up of youths.

According to Ayade, Cross River state, with a population of four million peace-loving, highly educated and elegant people in an area of 21,000sq meter is the ideal destination for investors.

He tasked the UK partners to build quality schools that will further help to raise future African leaders. He fixed 20th of February, 2017 as official hand over date of the Construction Academy site to the investors in Cross River State.

Mr. Elias Achilleos of Schools Academy expressed delight at the signing of the agreement, particularly impressed with Governor Ayade’s passion for education and his academic achievements and promised to deliver the highest level of excellence in the schools to promote the attainment of knowledge.

Also, Footprint to Africa currently filming a documentary on the Nigerian economy in partnership with the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), agreed to partner with the state on its investment drive to produce a documentary that will showcase to the world “The Real Cross River” with massive but untapped opportunities.

Barr Osita Oparaugo commended the governor for his vision and leadership quality in conceiving and executing various landmark projects, especially the training and provision of jobs for unemployed youths.

Oparaugo noted that the economic documentary will further persuade investors to “Think Nigeria- Invest Cross River.”

The governor also met with South African project developing firm represented by Mr. Daan van Rensburg, owner and director of WAD Holdings who also represented Moravia Capital with a large portfolio committed to investing in the super high way and deep sea port projects embarked upon by the state.

The governor described the projects as economic projects with significant value to the state, Nigeria and indeed other neighboring African countries.

He noted the urgent need for new sea ports in Nigeria to ease congestion at the existing ports, caused by the massive importation for Nigeria’s market of over 170 million people.
He added that following the return of the country to agriculture and development of the mining sector, export activities were bound to experience an upsurge.

Ayade praised President Muhammadu Buhari who he said was committed and willing to see these projects succeed.

The Governor had earlier visited China and Dubai before London and is expected to continue his FDI drive with visits to three other overseas countries. www.footprint2africa.com

The Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce held a business breakfast and networking event at the Prestigious InterContinental Hotel in Lagos, Nigeria and the central theme was centred on technology, the new age entrepreneur and the solution that The Marketsquare Africa represents in building business partnerships in today’s world.

At the meeting which had the theme: “The New Age Entrepreneur: Using Technology to Break the Barriers to SME Financing”, Footprint to Africa was recognised as an innovative technology driven platform for business reports and enterprise development.

The Marketsquare Africa is one of Footprint to Africa’s investment promotion services launched in April this year to help businesses find each other and form viable partnerships.

In his opening remarks President of the chamber, Chief Olabitan Famutimi highlighted the melting pot of The Marketsquare Africa initiative and the major focus of the Nigerian-American chamber of commerce.

“What Footprint to Africa is doing dovetails into our major focus; we being the oldest bilateral chamber in Nigeria had been promoting business relationships between Nigeria and the United States of America since our inception in 1960.


Famutimi pointed out that America has been the biggest investor in Nigeria and Nigeria has also been a major exporter to the US.

However he noted that America now becoming self-sufficient in the production of crude oil, Nigeria has no choice than to look at other areas.

“And Nigeria having no other thing to export hitherto, we are now forced to go back to our roots whereby we can export things to earn foreign exchange.

“The chamber has therefore decided to wake up both the government and the Nigerian populace to the potential that has always been there to export to the United States of America, especially through the (African Growth and Opportunity Act) AGOA programme.

“We are doing everything to promote AGOA and so Footprint to Africa being an online platform that is majorly dedicated to inviting and enlightening investors about opportunities in Nigeria, seems to be a natural partner platform for us to relate with and do business with,” he said.

In his remarks the Chief Economic Officer of the United States Consulate in Nigeria, James Plasman representing the Consul General John Bray, noted that financing is a major issue that must be addressed to move small and medium businesses to big businesses and “that is why we must continue to think of new ways to address old problems.”

He said that it is important to be full of optimism and believe that one can succeed in any venture. According to Plasman, “This is therefore an opportunity to address the challenges and constraints head-on and generate new ideas.

“The US stands shoulder to shoulder with Nigeria; we have programmes for all levels, from USAID working with micro businesses to OPIC which supports big businesses and helps conduct feasibility studies.”

A New World of Business

The message of the day became amplified when the stage was mounted by the next speaker, Board member Ambassador Olufemi Ani, who in his thirties became Nigeria’s economic minister to the US in the early 70’s.

Ani started out by urging everyone in the room to be an advocate of doing business on the internet with a point-blank quote from Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft Foundation – “If your business is not on the internet, then your business will be out of business.”

“The accomplishments of people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg in today’s world at relatively young ages is a challenge to Nigerian youths, using this new area of technology to move us into the new world.

“In Nigeria today, we have the likes of Aliko Dangote, Jim Ovia and others who have created a niche for themselves in the economic space, but in the area of e-commerce I find that we are yet to take full advantage of it,” he said.

Ani noted that E-commerce is the future and the role of technology in grooming a new generation of entrepreneurs in Africa is an easily verifiable truism.

“I find that in Nigeria we tend to underestimate our natural advantages, take India for example which is hoping to create 12million jobs in 10 years through e-commerce; that is possible here too.

“We could also follow China’s footsteps by engaging village merchants in the economic sector, as many as five million village merchants could benefit from that in Nigeria going by the number of them that we have in the country.

Ani stated that in any city in Nigeria one will find traders on the streets and that there is no trader who doesn’t have a smart phone.

“For those of us who are in this business including Footprint to Africa we can if we would, spread the word and facilitate actions in the villages.

He noted that Nigeria has a growing e-commerce market powered by its population of 176 million people and expanding base of smart phone users.

He urged Nigerian small businesses in the informal sector to become formalised in order to take advantage of online transactions for making and receiving payments on business transactions as this was one factor limiting their active participation in the burgeoning global online market opportunities.

Breaking Down Barriers to Financing

Setting the stage for the presentation of The Marketsquare to Africa application was one of Nigeria’s iconic entrepreneurs and founder of the Zenith Group comprising banking, telecommunication and other diverse business interests with global presence, Mr Jim Ovia.

He fired his first salvo by saying that with technology new age entrepreneurs are gradually breaking down barriers to financing for SMEs.

“Most successful companies around the world started as SMEs, most of them are those who embraced technology or are technology companies themselves.

He likened businesses to humans who according to Darwin’s theory of species needed to adapt to the changing environment to survive or risk extinction.

“Businesses like humans and nations they are subject to change and adaptability or extinction. One of the areas that can be easily adapted to is the area of technology; hence you now have technology enabled companies.

“Nigerians are very good at innovation and they can do extremely very well. We know that SMEs are engine drivers to many world economies; statistics show that 90 per cent of businesses globally are all SMEs; however they need to be encouraged to take advantage of technology.

Ovia gave two simple reasons why SMEs should embrace technology “because it fosters inclusiveness and reveals more channels of funding.”

“It has become difficult to fund SMEs because first and foremost they don’t keep proper records, two you cannot trust their records and three they cannot audit their books, they don’t have a track record of their behavioural pattern, but if they are online it becomes easier to deal with them,” he said.

He noted that the beauty of being online can guarantee funding from the Diaspora such as angel investors, without needing to go to any bank to seek loans for business expansion, because most times SMEs are not really seeking huge amounts of money to finance their ideas.

In conclusion he informed the audience that innovators and internet entrepreneurs were today breaking the barrier of funding and were being chased and courted by big banks to accept facilities.

Bridging Inter-African Business Opportunities

It was finally time for the presentation of the novel solution called The Marketsquare Africa by its developer and Managing Director, CEO of Footprint to Africa, Barr Osita Oparaugo to the audience of business people, exporters and investors and he stated unequivocally that “in today’s business, technology is revolutionising markets across the world by providing interconnectivity, more than any time in human history.”

On the problem of funding for businesses he had a new perspective, a result of studies carried out by Footprint to Africa on the continent.

“Most people will argue that the problem of the SMEs is unavailability of funds, but I will say no, funds are accessible but SMEs are not accessing these funds, as our study have shown that African SMEs are 75 per cent family-owned in structure and that poses its own kind of problem.

“And when businesses cannot access funding and partnership opportunities because of the issue of family type ownerships they die.

“Footprint to Africa is a business and financial news platform as well as a financial bridge company promoting inter-African business opportunities and has designed an online platform called the market square Africa to help SMEs in Africa grow and access global opportunities.

“Everyone is talking about SMEs and the use of technology, but who is supporting the SMEs and how has technology improved the SME base in Nigeria and indeed in Africa?

And the reason he gave was that most of the information being disseminated about Africa didn’t quite paint a true picture of the continent’s positives.

“One of the things we are making right with our news platform – is telling Africa’s story the African way. In less than two years we have had 10 million hits on our platform; people are beginning to recognise that Footprint2africa.com will tell them the accurate business situation in Africa.

“Footprint to Africa designed the market square as a platform where businesses originate; it will provide opportunities for entrepreneurs to raise all kinds of capital such as land, vehicles, equipment, farmlands, factories, facilities and money to accomplish their dreams without going to the banks for loans.

“All it takes is to post what you have on the site and those who are looking to partner with you can then pick it up from there and you both grow the business.

The Power of Collabo

Osita stressed that for Africa to succeed, there has to be collaboration, people have to come together, as no one person can claim to be smarter than everybody.

“Interestingly some people outside Africa have a better understanding of the power of collaboration and are excitedly buying into the concept of The Marketsquare Africa.

“The manufacturers association of Israel was the first country to register and partner with the Market Square Africa after our launch as they are seeking to partner with businesses in Africa.

Osita urged African businesses to explore the potential of collaboration as the music industry has done to reap greater gains.

In Africa it is common to see musical artistes coming together to make music fusing their styles together and uniting their fan bases to reap huge album sales and sell out concerts, these collaborations is what they have termed collabo and it hasrevolutionised the way music is done today on the continent. Some African artistes have even been featured in collaboswith leading stars from the US.

“Let us bring collaboration into businesses, let us collabo, so that our various inputs can grow together faster; let us come to the Market Square platform because that is what it is all about.

“The Marketsquare Africa is a place to expand businesses because once a business is posted on the site it becomes visible to interested parties across the globe, looking for partners to do business with in Africa,” Osita said.

The Marketsquare to Africa has two categories: the general class and the premium class with provisions for pictures and live chat features.

He concluded with cheering news to the business community, by announcing that Footprint to Africa has signed a MoU with the Federal government’s agency for small and medium enterprises SMEDAN to host the SME Connect programme for the next five years.

“What we want to achieve with that, is to focus on the non-oil sector of our economy. So we will hold four events yearly – two in February and two in October, to match competitive SMEs with foreign investors,” he said.

http://footprint2africa.com/market-square-africa-application-new-age-business-partnerships/

His Excellency,
Muhammadu Buhari (GCON),
President, Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Sir,

I am Osita Oparaugo, a legal practitioner and the Managing Director of Footprint to Africa, a Pan-African company promoting intra African and foreign investments in Africa.

This letter is not to appraise your government rather it was written out of my conviction that your government needs to take proactive steps in tackling issues affecting our nation, Nigeria, head-on.

His Excellency, considering your desire and struggle to govern the Nigerian people for over 12 years and your previous effort while at the helm of the affairs as the head of state, your willingness/seriousness to succeed is not in question.

Your efforts in trying to rally the international community to support our economy and your government at this difficult time is appreciated however, I and many other Nigerians are of the view that firstly, the home front needs to be well prepared.

I feel that inadequate research around the domestic needs of the people is what has led to the very ambitious but unrealistic 2016 budget. Your government’s plan to spend more money when the country’s revenue has reduced drastically is inconceivable and raises a number of questions such as, how did your economic team arrive at the overall debt profile of 14 percent of our GDP and how that remains well within the acceptable fiscal limits. Is this acceptability subjective or a conclusion by your economic team? Is your estimate of 2.2million barrels at $38 per day realistic when oil is at all-time 11-year low whilst showing no sign of a steady rise? Did your government consider the impact Iran will have on the oil market? It is a general saying in Nigeria that you cut your coat according to your cloth, but this has not been the case with your government. Just like the old adage says, if your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep will become your downfall.

I want to use this opportunity to point out on a number of issues that have been of great concern to me and many Nigerians.

The programme of the Central Bank Governor in the last six months has drawn the attention of so many people, especially investors. If the Central Bank does not rescind its decision to restrict supply of foreign exchange to some industries like aviation and power generation companies, it will lead to a total collapse of the economy. Yes, I agree that it is good to reduce Nigeria’s dependency on importation but the stringent policies have stifled manufacturing, which is the growth generator of the global economy. It is common knowledge that the manufacturing sector drives domestic and international investment. It also serves as the backbone to any economy and as such, should be encouraged by every institution in Nigeria. This has not been the case. The factors that reduce dependency on importation are neither the exclusion of some imported goods from accessing forex from the apex bank nor the limited access to foreign exchange but, rather, the competitiveness of the locally made goods and the attitude of the whole nation.

Mr President, the country desperately needs power and infrastructural development, so much so that we need to start looking at the structure of expenditure to make it more consistent with the development initiative that you promised. I personally thought that your government would utilize the first 18 months to embark on a massive infrastructural development program that will support our industries – e.g., power to enhance manufacturing, road and rail network to transport goods from Aba to Kano. These issues and many more have to be taken care of before most of the hush hush directives can stand. With the right infrastructure in place to support the SMEs, Nigeria will thrive again. Development will not take place in Nigeria without a strong SMEs as they are critical for economic growth.

The introduction of deducting N50 naira from any cash lodgment or transfers will draw Nigeria back 10years because the most affected will be the local traders and farmers who will rather withdraw their monies and bank them under their pillows. To understand the level of self-banking in the country, a little exercise would be for the Central Bank Governor to ask all the banks and other financial institutions including registered BDC’s to report the amount of cash in their positions as at close of work 29th February 2016. You will be surprised to note that over 40% of Nigerian currency printed is not in the banking circulation. This N50 naira deduction is ill timed and will further encourage self-banking in Nigeria.

Our education system has made our graduates unemployable and contributes to the international deficit. Our education system needs a complete overhaul so that the children of Governors, Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, Directors and National Assembly members can study here. The amount of money Nigerians spend annually on the acquisition of foreign education is sickening and is putting a major pressure on the naira than toothpicks.

The government should look into the introduction of policy that will force government agencies to patronise local manufacturers. Government agencies must buy cars made or assembled in Nigeria. For example, the Government of India will not buy toilet rolls that were not made in India. The Toyota Land Cruisers and Hilux trucks that the presidency and the Ministers use are not assembled here. Mr. President, there is the need to lead by example.

The issue of the National Assembly needs to be tackled head-on. If you leave the seat as President of Nigeria without addressing the issue of the country’s expenditure on the National Assembly, many will argue that your onslaught on corruption was skewed and incomplete. His Eminence, Sanusi Lamido can attest to the amount of pressure the National Assembly puts on the naira. A former two-time House of Representatives member and a former governor of Benue State are of the view that only 20 out of 360 members of the National Assembly are useful while the rest are uneducated and immature, Vanguard December 10, 2010.

The inability of the state governors to conduct local government elections is a major cause of unemployment in Nigeria? If you strengthen the third tier of government, our youths in rural areas will be better engaged because the local government chairmen will receive their monies directly from the federal government, which will, in turn, spur competition amongst local governments. In Imo State where I come from, no local government election has been conducted for the past 5 years. Why would there not be migration of youths from the state? Why would they not join cults, robbery gangs or join the Biafra agitation?

Mr President, manufacturers are shutting down because of the harsh investment/ business environment. The export business has become too risky because prices of locally made goods are more expensive in the international market, owing to the lack of incentives and high production costs in the country. Agriculture is still majorly carried out by hand tools. Many players in the mining sector are illegal and irregular. It is, therefore, important to say, on the final note that I am still at a loss as to how you can achieve your diversification mantra and take this country out of doldrums of monolithic economy if you don’t diversify now by first creating enabling environment through massive infrastructural development and engagement of private sector heads mostly the SME’s

It is my prayer that the Almighty God will give you wisdom and keep you in good health.

Yours sincerely,
Osita Oparaugo

http://footprint2africa.com/open-letter-president-m-buhari-barr-osita-oparaugo/

By Chigaemezu Oparaugo and Emmanuel Ogbonnaya


As commodity prices plummeted globally, devastating Africa’s economy which has been touted as the next frontier of global capitalism and expansion, policy makers have taken up the din chant of economic diversification as a rallying cry to surmount the headwinds and resuscitate a continental economy in shock.

Nigeria as Africa’s number one economy and reference point for the continent’s growth has been a major casualty of dwindling oil prices, which represents over 80 per cent of its foreign exchange earnings.

Recent inability of the government to meet its 2016 budget revenue estimates due to oil output levels dropping significantly, has resulted in a depletion of its foreign reserves, weakened currency, unprecedented economic recession, job losses and rising inflation.

As Nigeria and other African governments intensely preach ‘diversification’ as a potent strategy to restore their economies to prosperous paths, a closer scrutiny shows that their strategies are not SMART (specific, measureable, attainable, relevant and time-bound), rather they are rudderless and obviously hatched in a hurry with no real intention of it being carried out to the letter.

What is obvious to the discerning mind is that policy makers still harbour a faint hope that commodity prices will sooner than later revert to prior levels and all be well again.

However, instead of this pointless expectation that the economy will rejuvenate as soon as commodity prices bounce back, akin to a drowning man clutching on a straw, policy makers should quickly evaluate the needs of their economies and devise short, medium and long-term action plans to effectively stimulate productivity.

Identifying Industrial Catalysts

Indeed while diversification will create more jobs and value-added exports from agriculture and manufacturing, it cannot be achieved overnight. A great measure of discipline must be established to prioritise the allocation of limited resources to the most critical primers, in order to achieve the needed spark that will accelerate production and decrease imports consumption.

For example, the renewed intention of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to explore for oil in Nigeria’s Lake Chad basin using scarce state resources should be discouraged for now, to avoid a wasteful venture on a commodity that has globally lost significant price value.

Rather, in the spirit of really diversifying the economy, resources should be channelled into improving power infrastructure which is the most essential foundational component for industrialisation.

Nigeria has a lot of challenges that are now so complex and needing a lot of effort to address. At this point, the right approach would be for the Nigerian government to prioritise those problems by first, looking at the catalyst that will yield the most positive impact in resolving other problems.

The challenges in Nigeria is not one that a solution can easily be proffered, however Nigeria can start tackling those problems by making sure that at least 80 per cent of the country has stable power supply and secondly, by reforming the judiciary to truly establish the rule of law.

The issue of reforming the legal system should be a discussion for another day as top on the priority list is the provision of stable power supply in the country.

According to the Electricity Commission of Nigeria (ECN) electricity peak projection for Nigeria, the nation would require 28,360MW at reference growth rate; 30,210MW and 31,240MW at high and optimism growth rate respectively in 2015.

This was categorised based on speculated Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate: seven per cent referred to as reference growth; 10 per cent (high growth) and 11.5 per cent (optimistic growth).

Unfortunately the country has a generated capacity of a mere 4,000MW, for a population of about 170 million, with energy per capita of 30 Watts.

Socio-Economic Impact of Stable Power Supply

In no particular order below, is what stable power supply can do for Nigeria:

Stable power supply will attract foreign direct investment. Investors looking for cheap labour, revenue growth and even market diversification will be attracted to set up production plants and service centres in Nigeria. This can benefit Nigeria through job creation, resource transfer for the workforce and balance of payment.

Stable power supply will encourage entrepreneurship. Nigerians are a very industrious and creative people. Give them a tool to work on and they can create means of livelihood. Stable power supply is a tool that will empower individuals to create jobs for themselves and become self-employed, like setting up salons, sewing business, food processing business etc.

It will improve security situation in the country in many ways – such as providing security forces with the necessary structure to work on, like implementation of good communication medium and systems such as CCTVs. Secondly, efficient road traffic system will result to less accidents, also more employment and entrepreneurship will keep both young and old from turning into criminals thereby fewer armed robbers to deal with which will result to improved security.

The biggest challenge the Nigerian petroleum sector has is the inability to operate refineries and the major cause is poor power supply. Steady power supply will enable functional refineries in Nigeria. In a recent interview, President Muhammadu Buhari pointed out that if all the refineries operate in full capacity, Nigeria will not have any need to import fuel. With fully functional refineries the Government will be able to make huge savings by refining crude oil locally and could also export refined products which will increase government revenue.

As the Nigerian government and other organisations import less goods and services including generators and fuel as a result of increase in production of goods and services at home, it will result to less money leaving the system. This will lead to reduction in Nigeria’s Balance of Trade deficit which in turn, will help Nigeria maintain a healthy foreign reserve, reduce inflation and increase/stabilise the value of the naira.

As stable power supply helps the government save money and generate more revenue, it will have enough money to invest into areas such as roads and drainages, seaports, airports, rail network, hospitals, schools, pipe-borne water, and storage facilities for agricultural produce and irrigation systems. Good infrastructure brings more development and attracts investment.

Stable power supply will help in the fight against fraud and corruption through the ICT sector. The ICT sector benefiting from steady power supply will create an environment that will help bring efficient management of institutions that are the building blocks of every economy. ICT will help government agencies and organisations maintain effective internal control systems for prevention and detection of fraud.

Improvement in areas such as security, infrastructure and other amenities will improve the Nigerian tourism industry which could become globally competitive considering the rich Nigerian landscape and colourful culture. This will result to more job creation and major source of revenue for the government and the general public.

Stable electricity supply will enhance the educational sector, agricultural sector, health sector, etc., creating an environment that is conducive for humans to live in, hence improving the quality of life of Nigerians.

http://footprint2africa.com/prioritising-energy-infrastructure-key-resuscitating-ailing-economy/

Prioritising Energy Infrastructure Key to Resuscitating an Ailing Economy


As commodity prices plummeted globally, devastating Africa’s economy which has been touted as the next frontier of global capitalism and expansion, policy makers have taken up the din chant of economic diversification as a rallying cry to surmount the headwinds and resuscitate a continental economy in shock...Read More [url]http://footprint2africa.com/prioritising-energy-infrastructure-key-resuscitating-ailing-economy/
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