Odi, a decade and half later

While drawing attention to the gross human right abuses that occurred in Odi at the close of the 20th century, OBODO EJIRO x-rays key developments that have taken place in the community a decade and half later. 

As day breaks on this sleepy town, the cool breeze makes it impossible to believe that this was the theatre of two massacres that claimed some 2,495 lives just a decade and half ago. The massacres, along with oil exploration that occur in communities it borders, make this town standout on the Nigerian map.

This is Odi, a town inhabited by some 60,000 people, deep in the rain forest of Nigeria. Located a few kilometres from Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, Odi is the second largest Ijaw town in the state. At the close of the 20th Century, it stood as the clearest symbol of human rights violation in Nigeria.

The weekend of November 19 – 20, 1999, remains indelible on the minds of those who witnessed it in the community. The scares are even more visible.

Now 30, Ereinbaifa Rebecca says “I was 15 when the army came. I was an apprentice learning to make earthenware pottery. “Everyone was under siege from some notorious criminals who had infested our community around August of that year. The leaders in the community even wrote the commissioner of police to help us flush them out,” she says, as she tried to establish her community's innocence.

“When the army eventually came, we thought they would restrict their operations to the trouble makers. But when they began shooting everyone in their path, we all had to run into the swampy forest for safety, I broke my leg in the process.”

She was taken to Yenagoa (through bush paths), by relatives, where she received treatment, but still limps till this day. Rebecca’s partial disability notwithstanding, she is one of those who made it out alive. Her mentor’s husband was not so lucky; he was hit in the head by a soldier’s stray bullet, he died instantly.

Though, at present, the Federal Government is in the process of compensating those who were alive during the crisis; little was done to help them during the Obasanjo and Yar’Adua's eras.

A landmark judgment by Justice Lambi Akanbi, 14 years after the incident (that is, last year, 2013), upheld the illegality of the action of the army in Odi.

In the words of Justice Akanbi, whose court sits in Port Harcourt, “what happened to the people of Odi was is a brazen violation of the fundamental human rights of the victims to movement, life and to own property and live peacefully in their ancestral home.”

He awarded the community N37.6 billion, but the Federal Government’s counsel resisted the judgment. The judgment came after years of suffering and offered a ray of hope to families whose rights had been so violently infringed.

“When the military pulled out of our community, we came back to meet it sacked to the ground,” says Tinowie Sortie, whose grandfather was killed in the attack.

“Only the Anglican Church, the health centre and the First Bank building were standing after the intense shelling. Most of the buildings had been destroyed. Houses which did succumb to shelling were set ablaze.” Most people had to build thatch huts to live in when they returned. Over time, some molded block and slowly began to erect more permanent structures.

“My grandfather's house that was completed with his gratuity was completely razed to the ground,” says Sortie, as he held out the photograph of the building whose roof caved in as a result of the inferno.

“At the end, all we heard from the state government were speeches. There was no assistance from them in the rebuilding effort,” he moaned, as he fought back tears. “My grandfather didn’t kill any policemen or soldier, you know, why did he have to pay so high a price.…”

After the crisis, a petition signed by 12 of the community’s foremost citizens demanded a withdrawal of the troops, emergency assistance for the displaced, payment of reparation and restoration of Odi to its former state.

The state government made cosmetic effort at ameliorating the suffering of the people. It paid enrolment fees for senior school certificate examination, and starting a water project in the community. Otherwise, nothing more concrete was done to restore the community. The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) made some effort to improve roads, but the roads it built have been criticised for their low quality.

“We cannot begin to praise the construction of roads as reparation for the damage done in Odi” says Mr. Godwin Ojo, a research analyst with the Non-Profit Organization, Environmental Rights Action (Friends of the Earth). He was part of a team which assessed the toll of the conflict on life and the environment beginning from December 8, 1999. “Can it be said that Odi has received more attention than other communities, even though it has suffered immensely,” he asks.

“In relative terms” Ojo argues, “whatever has been done in Odi, in terms of road construction, is not different from what has happened in any other community in the Niger-Delta.”

The road to justices

It was not until five months after the attack that anyone had the courage to challenge the action of the Nigerian troops in court. The final verdict was reached late this year, almost 15 years after the tragedy. The court decided that the sum of N37.6billion be paid to the community, based on resistance from the defense counsel, a settlement of N15 billion was agreed.

Currently, the central working committee of Odi community is on the verge of concluding the process of compiling the names of beneficiaries who are entitled to compensation. The exercise, which involves collating names of all those who were residents in 1999, or above 15, will also identify the loss each victims suffered.

“It was like a dream come true” says Sortie, who is now a secondary school teacher in the community. “Even though compensation does not bring back the dead, at least, those whose homes were destroyed can now erect new ones.” The legal consultant who fought the case gets 40 percent of the funds, while the community gets 60 percent.

But, like most people from Odi, Ojo thinks justice has not been done. “We are not satisfied with financial compensation. In addition to money, we need to bring the perpetuators to justice. The innocent should not be made to suffer for the crimes they did not commit,” he says.

Ojo is pained that “at the end of the day, no police investigation was done to determine what actually happened in the community, no soldier was held accountable and government continues to maintain a ghost presence in Odi.”

Prelude to a catastrophe

Understanding the conflict that engulfed Odi is quite knotty. But the crisis itself was a culmination of events that began with the general elections of 1999 (those elections ushered in the current democratic dispensation).

A number of thugs were used to perpetuate the federal and state elections in Bayelsa State. The thugs were not properly settled by their principals at the end of the elections and therefore remained and constituted a nuisance at Yenagoa.

When they were eventually driven out by the police, they settled in small communities across the state, including Odi, where they continued their nefarious activities.

This period coincided with the time a pan-Yoruba group, the OPC, clashed with some Ijaws living in Lagos. It was rumoured in military circles at the time that the thugs at Odi, were preparing to avenge their people who were being assaulted by the OPC in Lagos. Therefore, policemen were sent to Odi with a mandate to make arrests and foil the intended march on Lagos (some of the policemen sent were among those who drove the thugs from Yenagoa earlier in the year).

Unfortunately, the policemen were kidnapped and killed by the thugs. In response, Olusegun Obasanjo, president at the time, ordered the state governor to arrest the perpetrators or face imposition of emergency rule on his state.

He gave the governor an ultimatum to do this, but five days clear of the November 24 ultimatum, Obasanjo lost his patience and invoked his emergency powers. He ordered troops into Odi with a mandate to “protecting lives and property, particularly oil platforms, flow stations, operating rig terminals and pipelines, refineries and power installations….

The troops were ambushed and faced resistance from the thugs as they tried to get into Odi, but in the end they gained access. Then began the shelling, some sources say the military went into Odi with 27 five ton vehicles loaded with troops, 4 armored personnel carriers, 381mm mortal guns, 2 pieces of 105mm Howitzer artillery and conventionally equipped machine guns.

 At the end of the operation, government sources put the casualty figures at 43 (including eight soldiers). But a comprehensive research report by Environmental Rights Action (Friends of the Earth) titled “The Blanket of Silence,” put the death toll at 2,483 civilians (1,460 males and 1,023 females drawn from 109 families).”

According to Ojo, who was part of the team that visited Odi, “we moved among the people, from compound to compound conducting interviews. Families volunteered the names of relatives who were either killed or missing.” The reactions that followed the operation attest to the degree of carnage.

Reactions and counter reactions

On a tour of the community, the Senate president at the time, Chuba Okadigbo, was too shock by what he saw and heard that he could not make a statement. Senator Sulaiman Ajadi, who was in Okadigbo’s entourage, was aghast. “I don't see the reason for hitting an ant with a sledgehammer," he bemoaned,  "even a foreign invasion would not have been more devastating."

Wole Soyinka lamented the heavy high-handedness. “Nothing justified the murder of policemen, and in the same vein there is no justification for the revenge mission.” “Obasanjo,” he said, "had no reason for laying a human habitation to waste... because a crime was committed."

But government officials were not perturbed, Doyin Okupe, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the president, TY Danjuma, minister of defense, and in recent times, Femi Fani Kayode, a former aviation minister, all hailed the action of the military pointing to it as the panacea for peace in the region. But clearly, it did not end restiveness in the region.

Some analysts point to the massacre as deliberate and calculated. According to this school of thought, “the agenda was to make an example of Odi and have it stand as a reference point to those from the region who had plans to dare the government on resource control.”

“The graffiti, which the soldiers left on the walls of burnt buildings, left us wondering if all they were really interested in was restoring order,” says Sortie.

With bold inscriptions like “Odi don’t play with fire soldier go burn you o!, Bloody Civilian, Next time there will be no trees left, Who burnt this house? No be me na you, Shame to the Ijaw people, Odi people, no be our fault na una government, Where is Egbesu, Odi people come and leave in your community let us see, Don play with soldier, Bayelsa will be silent,” the invading army left a lasting signature of how brutal their revenge can be.

Will anyone be held responsible?

Though Ojo believes that “true justice will only be served when those who carried out the killings are brought to book,” when asked if this is possible, he simply says, “yes”.

 When he is confronted with the fact that most people who supported the action have either found their way into power or are too powerful, he says “power is transient but truth is constant. The final judgment which was passed on the Odi conundrum does not indict anyone for murder or the use of excessive force.

Beyond Odi

The events that played out in Odi have reoccurred repeatedly in Nigeria since the past 14 years. In 2001, the Nigerian army invaded and killed several hundred men, women and children in Hundreds of residents in Vasae, Anyii Iorja, Ugba, Sankera and Zaki-Biam, communities in Benue State following the abduction and killing of 19 of its men.

Early this year, seven unarmed civilians who were protesting the near fatal shooting of a villager, in Gboko, Benue State, where massacred by soldiers. One of the first victims, a woman, was allegedly shot in the leg first, as she crawled to safety, it is reported that her assailant ran up to her and shot her in the head.

Last week, some protesting students at the University of Jos were allegedly killed by soldiers, a charge the military denies. There seems to be no end to extra-judicial killings in the country and justice does not seem to catch up with perpetuators. This has served as an incentive.

Ojo believes that “to nip the major causes of the conflicts in the bud, communities should be allowed to control major development parameters.” Also, he says “those who have assumed the position of oppressors should be brought to book.” This will serve as disincentive to military bravado that is not guided by rules of engagement.”

Nigeria’s retail: Major successes, minor challenges

by Obodo Ejiro

 

Based on data compiled by GFK, a global market research consultancy with office in Lagos, 239,292 units of audio home theater systems were sold between January and June 2014 in Nigeria. This figure supersedes the 180,391 units sold within the same period last year.

 

In the same vein, 44% more flat panel TV sets and 30% more smart phones were sold in the first six months of this year, than within the same period last year.  

 

This trend in increased consumption plays out across several product lines and has given the country the status of Africa’s retail Mecca. There is evidence that more consumables, including toiletries, packaged food, and personal care products are sold in Nigeria, than anywhere else on the continent and the projections remain robust. 

The current state of the retail market and projections of its growth are responsible for the optimism of global retailers who have pitched their tents in the country.

 

Among other things, the average amount devoted to consumption plays a major role in elevating Nigeria to the status of a retail powerhouse. According to data provided by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the country’s over 28.9 million households expended circa N15.67 trillion on food in 2009/10 alone. By 2012, food worth N2.3 trillion was imported; apart from other consumables used by thousands of households.

 

There is therefore research evidence that points to the fact that Nigeria has capacity to support more malls across its major cities. A Rand Merchant Bank report released two weeks ago pointed to Nigeria, Egypt and Ethiopia as countries that offer “some of the best opportunities for retailers looking to invest in Africa.”

 

Underscoring the place of Nigeria on the continent, the report states that “with about 173 million people, Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation and has the continent’s biggest economy.” Also, McKinsey & Co. said in a July report that “the West African nation [Nigeria] could be one of the world’s top 20 economies by 2030 with a consumer base exceeding the current populations of France and Germany.”

 

But it takes more than a cursory view to identify where the opportunities really are. For instance, in 2008, Mr. Samuel Ejeh, fresh from business school in the United States, ventured into retail.  He established Grocery Bazaar in Akesan, a large sleepy neighbourhood near the main campus of Lagos State University.

 

Today, Grocery Bazaar is one of the most successful start-ups in local retail. “At the beginning I planned on starting the business at Ilupeju, which is a more developed part of the city of Lagos, but the rent was just too high, my research pointed to Akesan as an equally exciting opportunity, and it worked”.

 

In its first month, the 650 square-meter store made about N15 million in revenues. Currently, another branch has been opened, not too far from the first, while Mr. Ejeh plans to expand operations to a third branch as soon as possible.

 

But not only indigenous retailers are taking advantage of what Nigeria offers. Shoprite, the South African retailers, has perhaps the most aggressive expansion footprint among foreign retailers. It has already set up shop in the key cities of Kwara, Ibadan, Kano, Lagos etc. It currently operates 11 mega stores, and plans to have outlets in all major cities in the near future. Shopite plans to open another outlet in Warri later this year or early 2015.

 

Some foreign retailers specialises on specific products. An example is Cash ‘N’ Carry which is a major player in the electronics section of the market. Cash ‘N’ Carry plans to extend operations to Apapa, Festac, Lekki, Ajah, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano, Owerri, and Delta State. But these are not the only major players.

 

Equally important are outlets like Best Choice which currently has 260 small outlets, Addide with 23 outlets, Park ‘n’ Shop with 8 outlets and the Everyday Supermarkets with 6. But these are just a few of the many thriving retailers, which all have ambitious expansion plans.

 

Also equally growing is the ecommerce trend, which is fashionable among the young and the middle class, such brands as Jumia and Konga have make a reputation for themselves delivering services across Nigeria.

 

The most successful outlets in Nigeria are those that have identified their niche markets and set up shop. In which case, Nigeria has over 10 cities which have population figures in excess of one million people. The opportunity areas are those that have high population densities as well as individuals who have high purchasing power.

 

The first tier cities of Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Kano, Warri, Benin, Illorin and Onitsha are such. They are composed of a rising middle class whose lifestyle favours western values. And with improvement in Nigeria’s economic fortunes, projections for sustained consumption are ubiquitous.

 

Retail and the macroeconomic environment

 

Apart from militancy in Nigeria’s north-east, Nigeria’s stable political and macroeconomic environment in the past decade has deepened retail. Stability (and to an extent, democracy) has meant that investors are more confident about Nigeria.

 

The economy has grown consistently, sometimes surpassing projections. Real GDP growth rate was 6.21% in Q1 2014, higher than 4.45% in the corresponding period of 2013. In the past decade growth almost averaged 6.8% annually. The economy has also fared well across some other parameters.

 

While similar economies on the continent have exhibited negative vagaries in key macroeconomic indicators, Nigeria’s case has been different: in part because of the stance the country’s central bank has maintained on exchange rate and inflation.

 

A report by Renaissance Capital, a global investment bank, states that, “since 2009, the Naira has depreciated by 9% against the dollar while the Kenyan shilling fell 17%, South Africa’s Rand fell 45%  while the Ghanaian Cedi lost 166%.”

 

On the inflation score, inflation in the country fell from 14.3%, in January 2010, to 8.5% in August 2014 but the opposite was the case for most of the country’s peers in Africa. In Ghana, inflation climbed from 10% in January 2010 to 15.9% in August 2014, in Kenya it leaped from 4.5% in January 2010, to 8.36% in August 2014. South Africa’s inflation numbers have also headed north in recent times.

 

The challenges

 

Given the development and opportunities in the sector, it still faces a number of important challenges that have prevented it from attaining its potential.

 

Some of the challenges emanate from government policy while others are imposed by market mechanisms. On the government front, retailers face challenges from double taxation, poor clearing practices and unnecessary delays at the ports, security challenges at shopping centers and poor property right laws.

On the other hand, there is a dearth in key employees that are trained to manage retail floor, therefore retailers often have to train staff from the scratch. But perhaps the biggest challenge is the high cost of mortgage for retail business.

Over the past ten years, since more investment has flowed into retail in the country and more players have joined the fray, there have been efforts to solve many of the problems which ail retail.

Expectedly, government related challenges have been more difficult to tackle because of stringent bureaucratic processes. In reality, most thriving retailers have worked round these problems and recorded tremendous success in spite.

According to a report released by BusinessDay’s Research and Intelligence Unit (BRIU), “in the next decade, it is expected that the retail industry in Nigeria will further expand.” Already, the data corroborates this assertion, but those who will succeed in the market are those who are resilient and quick at recognizing the opportunity.

When Patrick Sawyer reincarnates

by Obodo Ejiro


In this article, I will attempt to draw attention to major lapses that I observed at the Seme border.
I visited Cotonou on October 1 on personal business but saw it as an opportunity to test the readiness of this country for any Ebola patient coming from any of the worst hit West African countries by road.
On this trip, I was armed with a highly concentrated hand sanitizer, long-sleeved Khaki shirt and was determined not to shake hands with anyone or make body contacts. Though I had my passport, I tried to get into Benin Republic through one of the most obvious illegal routes.
This route is on the left as you approach the border from the Nigerian side of the border. On this route (which is a wide untarred road), there are no Nigerian immigration or health workers. There are just five checkpoints (The checkpoints are shanties built with bamboo sticks). Sticks are laid across the road in front of the shanties to regulate traffic. Strangely, anyone from the Beninoise side of the border was allowed free access to Nigeria without question.
As I approached to cross into Cotonou, I was greeted in French but couldn’t respond beyond the second syllable; this gave me off as a Nigerian. Therefore, I was asked to pay to gain access. Ofcourse I refused. I was delayed but didn’t complain because being delayed meant I could stay at the checkpoint and get a better understanding of how the route operates.
In the one hour I was there, I observed men and women, bring rice, oil, etc into Nigeria. The women simply carried the rice on their heads and came across the border; a car even across. What’s amazing is that the Beninoise at the checkpoint never collected funds from their people entering Nigeria; they only collected from Nigerians going into their country. When it was obvious I would not blink first, they let me go.

Thus, I had crossed into another country undocumented. Not that its news that people move in and out of Nigeria without any form of documentation or examination, what is new and alarming is that in times like these, when Ebola is threatening the very existence of West Africa, our borders are still so porous.
On my return trip to Nigeria, I just walked into the country. Nobody asked me any question. But to fulfill all righteousness, I went [voluntarily] to some Nigerian officials, who checked my temperature and said to me you are “good to go” (I spent less than four hours in Benin Republic).”
I told them the precautionary measures I had taken. Ebola remains a big treat globally. Reports from Bloomberg indicate that “the death toll from Ebola in West Africa has risen to 3,338, a sign the outbreak isn’t abating as the first case diagnosed outside Africa was confirmed in the U.S. recently.
The outbreak has spurred 7,178 infections through Sept. 28, the World Health Organization said in a statement. “ Almost all Ebola virus disease cases and deaths are in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone with a few recorded in Nigeria (Nigeria is free), but the first case which led to our loss of Dr. Ameyo Adadevoh was the product of a lax government and ministry of health which chose to be reactive, rather than proactive.
Given the devastation that the disease has wreaked on other West African countries and the way it was “well handled” by Nigeria, have the country’s handlers thought of the possibility of relatives of dead Ebola victims coming into Nigeria by road in the belief that they have better chances of survival here?
This is a possibility which should make the border administrators more vigilant. What if another carrier like Patrick Sawyer comes into Nigeria by road and dies in a crowded area like Ajegunle?
Will Nigeria be prepared for the kind of health care emergency that situation will create? Given the laxity at Seme, what has shielded us from the disease is not our action, but the distance between us and those countries worst affected.
The way Nigeria treats most of its land borders gives the impression that the country has nothing important to secure. For, only a house that has unimportant stuff inside will have no locks. The logical thing to do therefore is to as much as possible, reduce the number of unregulated activities going on in Seme, and better manage entry and exit into the country.
Early this year, Jean-Marie Le Pen, 85, founder of France's far-right Front National suggested that the Ebola virus could solve the global "population explosion" problem and by extension Europe's "immigration problem".
He gave a time line of three months and was not challenged. Given this threat, which is currently decimating the population of West Africa, it is sad that the Nigerian government has not taken any drastic measure on its land borders.
Only God knows how those who come into the country by sea are monitored.

How Nigerians use the internet (II) | BusinessDay

How Nigerians use the internet (II) | BusinessDay

Bank Customers: Insight into the dynamics of satisfaction

Two factors are shaping how banks treat their customers: the reality of competition, and the overwhelming amount of information at the disposal of the customers. 

More than before, banks are aware that ignoring customers’ changing needs and lifestyle, can spell peril. Since, based on the two factors already mentioned, customers freely navigate to banks that meet their needs.

The strategy of engaging customers through multiple channels, including social media, is therefore a reflection of the desire of banks to continuously keep track with their customers.

Indeed, customer satisfaction has taken center stage in bank product design, media campaigns, conflict resolution, etc. Coupled with prudent financial management on the part of banks, the customer-centric strategy is defining leadership among the new generation banks. And older banks have seen the need to catching up too.

Our research on competition and preferences in the industry shows that the way banks tailour its products, branch/ATM locations and hours, online banking, and its complaint resolution strategy matter a great deal.

In two surveys we conducted late last year, respondents (especially those outside Lagos) pointed at increase in the number of ATMs as relevant to helping them access funds more easily. They asked for bank consideration of loans to a broader spectrum of credible classes in society, especially SMEs and called for more respect for customers, no matter how rich or poor.

The surveys throw up a number of complains, suggestions and preferences which seem basic, but are worth considering.

Some respondents called for increased security of online transactions, and the simplification of banking processes to enable less educate Nigerians get a shot at financial inclusion (Microfinance banks have done a lot to address the later suggestion.).

In summary, we found that, customers are interested in more efficient channels that help them access and do business with their deposits, get loans from banks and repay with minimum stress.

But the key takeaway from our enquiries was that, each class in society has its own peculiarities, expectations and needs. Winning across classes will therefore be determined by how well banks understand the needs of the various classes and meet them (And this may be impossible if detailed focus group discussions and researches are not used to gather information).

Amazingly, Ernst and Young’s global survey on retail banking came out with similar observations. “By focusing on the type of customer rather than the number of customers, banks can build a reputation for excellent customer service,” concludes the consulting firm. 

For a country like Nigeria with 56.3 million people who have never been banked and 3 million who were once banked, but left, the challenges are enormous. Lack of proper understanding of bank procedures and illiteracy still affect a considerable portion of the population, therefore, to optimize investment in customer experience, banks should deploy segment-based strategies that address different classes.

 For now, we know that most Nigerians have an average of two accounts (in different banks) and have very high probabilities of switching allegiances should their primary banks falter. 

We also know that their major dislikes include long queues in the banking hall, delay in clearing cheques, ATMs not working, prohibitive charges, unfriendly bank staff, etc.

Most of these issues (which are within the control of banks) can be resolved easily. In the case of “prohibitive charges,” bank representatives can deliberately guide customers through product documents to ensure that they understand every detail of the contract they are entering into. But where technology, which is not within the control of the banks, is to blame, the customer must be made to understand the problem.

  

Are preferences different in other climes?

The desire for efficient personalized services is ubiquitous across climes. While banks in the developed world seem to have understood and integrated personalized services into their operations decades ago, those in developing nations are catching up.

For sure, the developed world is ahead because of the amount of technology at its disposal and the efficiency of that technology. For example, it is possible to take photographs of both sides of a cheque you were given using your phone, send to your bank electronically, and have them pay into your account without even going to the bank! But this service is not available in Nigeria yet.

In the future, better technology, the extent to which banks make it easy for customers to do business faster and at low charges, will determine the competition.

Banks should continually quarry “how customers perceive them.” “What services customers expect from them” and “how well customers perceive that banks deliver on promises.” Banks that deliberately answer these questions accurately will definitely lead the pack.

What do Nigerians look out for in banks?

BusinessDay’s Research and Intelligence Unit deployed a comprehensive survey to determine the pattern of behavior, age structure, expectations and preferences of Nigeria’s banking public. The survey was conducted in the six geopolitical zones of the country.
The pattern of responses captures the traditional distribution of Nigeria’s banking public. Twelve percent of respondents are from the South-South and south-East; Fifty-eight percent from the South-West while the combination of North-East, North-West and North-Central make up 30% of respondents.

According to the National Population Commission, 167 million people live in Nigeria, of this lot 28.6 million adults have bank accounts, according to the 2012 EFInA Access to Financial Services report (39.7% of the adult population remains unbanked).

Clearly, Nigeria has the largest population of people who use banks in sub-Saharan Africa the country may also have the highest number of potential customers and there are potentials for growth.

Our survey brought to the fore the need to strengthen the traditional pillars of banking, as a vast majority of respondents drew attention to financial stability and trust as the basis of their choice of certain banks.

Major factors which turn off customers include long queues (57%), non functioning ATM machines (27%), prohibitive charges (19%), etc (please see chart 1). Recommendations from friends, and accounts opened for salary purposes dominate the choice of banks which customers patronize.

We asked respondents the question: “If you had a billion Naira, which bank would you keep it?.” A number of banks stood out from the pack, we then drilled further by asking why they chose particular institutions, 95% of respondents said they chose the banks because of security. While only 16% said they consider the interest element.

We believe that among other things, the element of stability and financial strength affect the psyche of Nigeria’s banking public, we therefore recommend the emphasis of stability in bank advertising, albeit with proof. We also see prospect for banks which can differentiate themselves by offering competitive deposit rates, both for fixed and saving deposits; though the constraints to banks are clear.

Through the data, we discovered that there is a preponderance of savings accounts in the banking system with fixed deposits representing a far smaller portion of accounts. Ninety percent of respondents have savings accounts while 63% have current accounts. Only 10% of respondents have fixed deposits with banks.

Most respondents who have current accounts also have savings account. Our conclusion is that the probability that a Nigerian who has a current account, also has a savings account could be as high as 0.8.

Preference for savings accounts may not be unconnected with the fact that these days, more savings accounts are assuming Current Account features while Current Accounts continue to maintain “prohibitive” charges (according to respondents). Respondents however stick to particular banks as their main banks.

A cloud view of the open ended question posed to respondents shows that certain words standout, chief among these words are Customer, ATM, Friendliness, long queue an Internet banking. Some of the most pointed comments made by respondents listed below (they are repeated just as they were said):

• Please increase security for online transactions.

• Zenith Bank should focus more on customers’ satisfaction and efficient and quality service delivery, there is still a lot of catching up to do

• Communicate more on why your e-services should be used

• Banks should increase the number of their ATM machines and make available loans to public servants

• keep up the good work

• The recent First Bank upgrade is not working-always, no network. Do something before we change their name to no network bank

• Banks should always respect customers, no matter how rich or poor the customer may be

• General overhaul of the banking system, training for staff, better equipments and facilities, more ATM machines and branches

• better customer services

• give loans to small businesses especially to people like me who do business with little amount

• We need more banks in Numan, Adamawa state

• GTBank should improve more on their ATM, the so called e-transact centers are nothing to write home about. One or two machines will be working out of seven machines. They really need to buckle up on their ATM terminal. It is a good bank however; especially their online banking is superb.

• My main bank being First Bank, should wean itself of civil service mentality as well as the belief that they are doing small depositors like us a favour by keeping our money, since they have the multinationals and big depositors with them.

One thing is clear; Nigeria’s bank customers more than ever are interested in performance, security, service and quality. They demand better services. But most bank customers stick to their banks for period higher than 5 years and above. A comprehensive version of the survey responses is included in our banking report 2013 which is to be published next month.

Winning in Nigeria’s evolving food market

 Inside Africa’s biggest food market

The size of Ni­geria’s popula­tion inevitably saddles it with a huge food bill. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the country’s over 28.9 million households ex­pended circa N15.67 tril­lion on food in 2009/10 alone.

By 2012, Nigeria im­ported food worth N2.3 trillion, though the min­ister of agriculture said the amount spent on food import dropped by N0.91 billion early this year.

The Nigerian Banking Award 2014

On 7th, June 2013, four state governors, top bankers, and other dignitaries gathered together at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos, for the maiden edition of BusinessDay’s Annual Banking Award.

The event was organized primarily to recognize banks and bankers who had lubricated the wheels of commerce in Nigeria through their financial intermediation work in 2012.

Tomorrow, this year’s edition of the same event, BusinessDay’s Annual Banking Award, will be held at the Civic Center, Victoria Island, but from the look of things, the event is set to be bigger than what occurred in 2013.

Unlike last year, where there were just 8 award categories, there are now a few more categories specifically to take cognizance of other financial institutions that also contribute to the growth of the economy.

It was deemed fit to acknowledge the contributions of microfinance banks, mortgage banks and other non-commercial banks that have been at the core of helping to expand Nigeria’s export portfolio. Also in this direction there will be a number of special recognition awards, to acknowledge retired bankers who contributed to deepening the Nigerian banking sector.

For commercial banks, award categories include Bank of the Year, Bank CEO of the Year, Most Innovative Bank Product of the Year, Best bank in Support of Agriculture, Best Bank in Support of SMEs, Best Bank in Support of Manufacturing, Most Customer Friendly Bank, Best Bank in CSR, Bank Deal of the Year, Best Bank in Internet Technology, Best Bank in Retail Banking, Best Bank in Consumer Banking, Best Bank in Personal/Private Banking.

One interesting thing about this year’s awards is that the criterion of selection across the categories is more sophisticated than what was used for the selection process last year. Banks have to beat the records of their counterparts across several complex parameters before being considered for any of the 16 awards.

For instance, to be considered as Bank of the Year, a bank’s Capital Adequacy Ratio, Return on Asset, Liquidity Ratio, Net Profit Margin, Percentage growth in Deposits year on year, Loan/deposit ratio has to be the best in the industry.

Apart from this, it has to be innovative, its financials and analysis on them must have to be released early and made accessible through several mediums, especially on its website. But this is not all, the bank has to have been rated high by a customer survey, set up for the purpose of feeling the pulse of bank customers regarding their experience in terms of customer care.

The Bank CEO of the Year award also has its stringent parameters. The winner will be a bank MD/CEO who steered his bank to achieve very good results in terms of the parameters already mentioned for Bank of the Year, as well as an endorsement of his leadership style and results based on an anonymous survey of staff within his bank.

The Most Innovative Bank Product award goes to that bank which introduced a unique product that made banking easier for customers in 2013. And that product has to be one which may also focus on the unbanked.

There are categories which strictly reward obvious developmental strides and sector finance. In this direction, award categories recognize support of Agriculture, SMEs, CSR and Export finance.

The Best Bank in Support of Agriculture award is aimed at recognizing the commercial bank that disbursed the most funds in support of agriculture and financed the biggest agricultural deal in 2013. The Best bank in Support of SMEs is awarded to the bank whose activities has helped finance the most SMEs and grown small businesses.

In the case of Best Bank in support of Manufacturing, the primary basis of selection is the amount a bank disbursed to the manufacturing sector in 2013. But manufacturers were also instrumental at indicating banks which have assisted them with funding. This method was also adopted in determining the Best Export Trade Financing bank.

Awards are not only based on financials and fund disbursements. Treatment of customers was also considered a major performance indicator for banks. A nationwide survey and focus group discussion was used to determine which bank should be awarded the Most Customer Friendly Bank. The survey pooled together respondents from 11 states including Lagos, Plateau, Rivers, Zamfara, Osun, Kano, Kogi, Ekiti, and Anambra.

In the microfinance category, the Microfinance Bank of the Year was selected based on the level of spread of branches or bank network of the microfinance banks, size of loan portfolio and number of depositors in each of the microfinance banks. These were used to select the best microfinance bank of the year.

Other important award categories like Bank Deal of the Year, Best Bank in IT, Best Bank in Retail Banking, Best Bank in Consumer Banking were selected using criteria which are in tune with global best practice.

As expected, the audious, complex and intellectually demanding selection process was undertaken by a team of economists, financial analyst and survey experts. Therefore, banks are expected to look forward to an interesting an exhilarating event.

Nigeria’s 100 most influential businesses

Two weeks ago, Time Magazine published its list of 100 most influential people in the world. The list, which was first published in 1999, as a result of a debate among American academics, politicians, and journalists, is now an annual event. It is made up of individuals who have distinguished themselves in several fields. It categorises them into Titans, Pioneers, Artists, Leaders, and Icons.

As is the case annually, it is made up of outstanding musicians, religious leaders, writers, artists, computer programmers, business moguls, researchers, athletes, actors, government officials (in some cases dictators); this year, even a terrorist, Abu Du’a, made the list!

But on the positive side, two of our own, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Aliko Dangote, are on it. And Time has made a deliberate effort to highlight the achievement of each of the selected 100. Something unique is written about each of them by other prominent individuals.

And indeed, most of the remarks are apt; underscoring the feats, risks and innovative endeavours each of the selected 100 undertook to improve the lots of humanity.

Such a list is something we at the Research and Intelligence Unit (BRIU) of BusinessDay have pondered over for some time now, albeit, on a different subject.

In our case, we chose to work on THE BUSINESSDAY TOP 100: A list of outstanding businesses in Nigeria.

A major reason we have pondered over this project is because of the elevated plane we place successful businesses as an organisation. We believe that highlighting exceptional companies will engender better performance and quality of service from them.

Also, we are firm believers that the performance of businesses in any country affects the quality of life of the citizenry. That is why we have put in motion mechanisms to undertake the selection. However, our approach is slightly different from Time’s.

Time’s methodology is simple though: Essentially, a list of influential individuals is exclusively chosen by Time editors with nominations coming from the TIME 100 alumni and the magazine’s international writing staff. This list is then subjected to a poll, which willing readers take part in.

The list of winners of the readers’ poll conducted days before the official unveiling is then announced to the general public with a publication. That is the publication Time released two weeks ago.

But we at BRIU thought it wise to make our selection process a little more inclusive and representative of the general population living in Nigeria, putting into consideration the peculiarities of our environment (in fact, that is one of the purposes of this article).

Our methodology involves a number of simple steps, some of which have already been carried out, while others remain in the works.

The first step we took was to decide on parameters that should distinguish between companies that are exceptional and those that are not. We asked ourselves the question, “what makes a company standout?” In response, we highlighted a number of important parameters that would guide our search. The major parameters being:

Commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability

Innovation (a company’s ability to be innovative in pricing, advertising, product quality, packaging, etc).

The internal work environment (how conducive is its work environment for employee. Are people enthusiastic to work for this company?)

Quality of customer service, and response to customer complaints; and a company’s ability to provide exceptional products/services (whether in banking, children products, etc)

We then designed a questionnaire to address these parameters and plan to administer it across 12 major cities, in the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria, in the next two weeks.

Herein lies the major difference between ours and Time’s. While the multinational magazine has adopted an online mechanism for ‘sampling and validation,’ we will visit the nooks and crannies of 12 Nigerian cities as well as use an online platform for our data collection process.

Particularly, Time’s selection process is heavily dependent on an internet survey, and that is understandable given that a large chunk of its readers live in countries where internet penetration is high. We have borrowed a leaf from this, and have gone few steps further.

But we reckon that a simple random sample could skew responses in a particular direction, we therefore decided on a stratified random sampling technique, which we deem to be more inclusive of social classes in Nigeria.

The physical questionnaires will be administered according to quota: Students (10%), Doctors (5%), Media Personnel (19%), Graduates/job seekers (20%), Bankers (5%), Civil Servants (15%), Traders/market men and women (20%), etc. This, we believe, will engender more genuine coverage. Our ambition is to reduce the element of bias to the barest minimum.

We know that there are areas a questionnaire designed for the general public cannot address (e.g. the internal workings of a company in terms of how it treats its employees and how the employees feel about the company). In this direction, we adopt the research findings of an institution that has as its primary focus that type of research.

To determine a list of the best places to work in Nigeria last year, our collaborating consulting firm surveyed over 10,482 respondents (experienced, entry level and executive management staff of different companies).

Workplace metrics that mattered to those respondents in making their choices include Company Culture, Salary, Non-Salary Benefits, Proximity to Company Location, Prestige/Company Brand, Management Integrity, and commitment to staff welfare.

At the end of our survey, we intend to assign scores to our list and that of our partner and come up with objective scores upon which we can judge. The outcome will be a list we believe would be acceptable to the generality of Nigerians and the business community.

We have made the selection process open to everyone. There is an opportunity for everyone to lend their voice to this process, and you are not an exception. The questionnaire will be just a click away soon as we will upload it to a website and make its address available to you soon.

Media turns Boko Haram into 'superstar monsters'

Editor's note: Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani is the author of "I Do Not Come to You by Chance," a debut novel set amidst the perilous world of Nigerian email scams. Her book won the 2010 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book (Africa), a Betty Trask First Book award, and was named by the Washington Post as one of the Best Books of 2009. The views expressed in this commentary are solely the author's.

Abuja, Nigeria (CNN) -- My friend's eight-year-old daughter burst into tears while watching a Boko Haram video release on TV the other evening. The terrorist group has been receiving the kind of local and international media coverage that could make even a Hollywood megastar explode with envy. At the current rate, the group's leader, Abubakar Shekau, might as well be given his own reality show.

Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

I understand the reporting of a bomb blast: the need to let the world know about 234 missing school girls is obvious. Updating us on the world's efforts to rescue the abducted girls definitely makes sense. But why should law-abiding citizens be bombarded with the megalomaniac audio and video rantings of every Shekau recording forwarded to the press?

As news organizations around the world scrambled to make amends for their belated coverage of the kidnapped school girls, Boko Haram contributed to the media frenzy by releasing a video in which Shekau boasted that he would sell the girls for the equivalent of $12 each.

Since then, many of us have had to endure, from local and international media, several replays of the villain's Idi Aminesque gloating into the camera.

The group's earlier video released days after the bombing of a bus park in an Abuja suburb (which took place a few hours before the abductions) featured Shekau barking bombastic statements such as: "We are in your city but you don't know where we are", "(President) Jonathan, you are now too small for us. We can only deal with your grand masters like Obama, the president of America ... even they cannot do anything to us ... we are more than them," and "So, because of that tiny incident that happened in Abuja, everybody is out there making an issue of it across the globe?"
Many leaders declare war on Boko Haram
U.S. forces could take Boko Haram, but ...
Nigeria: A stolen education

These taunts and other details of the video were broadly reported by international news organizations, even at a time the world was paying little attention to the missing girls -- when Nigerians were yet to know exactly how many students had been abducted, their names, and what they and their families looked like.

The media has also been sophisticating its coverage of Boko Haram's activities. What looks to me like the effort of steamy thugs to stock up on females to meet their physiological and domestic needs -- while grabbing major headlines in the process -- has been glamorised as "an attack on the right of girls to education." Additional reports that more girls were stolen from their homes -- not school, this time -- in Warabe and Wala villages of Bornu State, should have caused the media to finally acknowledge the abductions for the common criminality that they really are. Besides, anyone following the news closely might have heard that these abductions of females have been carrying on for quite some time, though never on the scale that has recently shocked the world.

Opinion: How Islam can fight back against Boko Haram

Similarly glamorous motives were ascribed to Boko Haram's bombing of two newspaper offices in Nigeria. Headlines described the April 2012 incident as "an attack on freedom of the press." However, Shekau's video release, which followed soon after, gave his actual, rather primitive reasons: "...Each time we say something, it is either changed or downplayed...I challenge every Nigerian to watch that video again. There is no place our imam either said he will crush President Jonathan or issued an ultimatum to the government in Nigeria, but nearly all papers carried very wrong and mischievous headlines."

I can imagine the AK47-clad hoodlums scrambling to Google after each fresh aggression, frantically typing their leader's name and some relevant key words. There was nothing complex about the group's motives: The newspaper office bombings were a mere act of raw revenge.
There has to be a better way of passing on the relevant information and awareness of danger about terrorists to the public, without creating superstar monsters
Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

Boko Haram is probably just a gang of plundering hoods masquerading as a group with higher motives that could warrant dialogue -- never mind that they may have attracted the alliance of more sinister sponsors with more strategic purposes. The group claims "Western education is a sin" yet records its threats with hi-tech video equipment and employs advanced ammunition to destroy; it has no clear target and attacks willy-nilly, a la Wild Wild West; and its conduct is as Islamic as that of the street preacher who kidnapped and raped Elizabeth Smart was Christian.

The media and expert analysts are the ones who seem to be supplying Boko Haram with all the grand motives they may never really have thought about in the first place. As an author, who has had expert reviewers dissect my book and ascribe to my writing various meanings of which I had absolutely no idea, I am quite familiar with how something straightforward can suddenly be accorded impressive complexity.

We may not be able to take the guns and bombs out of the hands of Boko Haram and their ilk yet, but since they are not content to take full advantage of Instagram or Facebook -- as many other attention-seekers of this age are -- the media must stop fuelling their inner psychopaths. If they won't travel to Hollywood and patiently wait tables until they get noticed by Quentin Tarantino, we must not offer them stardom on a platter. There has to be a better way of passing on the relevant information and awareness of danger about terrorists to the public, without creating superstar monsters.

By  Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

Northern Nigeria’s oil barons lap luxury as poverty spurs insurgency

by PATRICK ATUANYA

The palatial home of Ahmed Mai Deribe, the famed billionaire of Bornu, in northern Nigeria is purported to be the most expensive home ever built in modern Africa.

Fit for a king, the mansion which was completed at a staggering cost of $100 million in 1991 is today a tourist attraction for people brave enough to visit the battleground that its location, Maiduguri, has become.

Northern Nigerian oil barons like Deribe, who is now late, got their start as businessmen in the freewheeling days of military rule in Nigeria when the government, dominated by Northerners, dispensed favours by gifting off state-owned oil fields to friends and cronies.

The beneficiaries in turn controlled a disproportionate amount of the Nigerian economy through their dominance of the country’s natural resources, even as the northern regions progressively got poorer over the years.

The north-east, base of the murderous Islamist group, Boko Haram, is the poorest region in the nation, with 69.1 percent and 76.3 percent absolute and relative poverty levels, respectively, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Poverty Profile Report.

On the other hand, OML 110, with the good yielding OBE field, awarded to Mai Deribe by military dictator Sani Abacha on July 8, 1996 and operated by Cavendish Petroleum, is estimated to have proven oil reserves in excess of 500 million barrels.

Oriental Energy Resources Limited is another of such oil bloc awardees. It is a company owned by Mohammed Indimi who, sources say, is a close friend of former Nigerian military ruler Ibrahim Babangida.

Oriental Energy Resources Limited runs three oil blocs: OML 115, the Okwok field and the Ebok field. OML 115 and Okwok are OML PSC, while Ebok is an OML JV.

Perhaps the most famous northern oil bloc owner is T. Y. Danjuma, a retired general who served as defence minister during former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s stint as civilian ruler.

South Atlantic Petroleum (SAPETRO), owned by Danjuma, was awarded the Oil Prospecting Licence (OPL) 246 in February 1998 by Abacha. SAPETRO divested 45 percent of its contractor rights and obligations to China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) for $1.75 billion (N283.5 billion) in 2006, retaining a 5-percent stake.

Another northern oil baron is Sani Bello, chairman of AMNI International Petroleum and Development Company, who hails from Kontagora, Niger State.

AMNI International Petroleum Development Company owns two oil blocs, OML 112 and OML 117, both awarded by Abdulsalami Abubakar who presided over elections that ushered in Nigeria’s current civilian democracy.

The Okoro and Setu fields in OML 112 are operated by Afren Energy, a company in which  a former petroleum minister from northern Nigeria is believed to have substantial interest.

The Okoro and Setu oil fields have about 50 million barrels in reserve and currently produce/export just a little below 20,000 barrels per day.

Express Petroleum and Gas Limited floated by Aminu Dantata are owners of OML 108 awarded by Abacha in 1995, and OPL 227. The firm’s holding which contains up to 2.7 million barrels per day of oil may be valued as high as $22 million, according to research and investment firm CBO Capital.

While these indigenous energy companies are seen by some as a sign of the maturing Nigerian oil and gas industry, which has seen numerous homegrown players emerge in recent times, critics say they are only existing as a result of undue political influence.

“These companies usually lack the technical know-how to operate their oil licences and often have to partner with established international oil majors to extract either crude, gas or condensate,” said one industry source who preferred to remain anonymous. 

The Nigerian government, eager to lessen the country’s dependence on oil and gas, is pushing a marshal plan for the blighted north-east to attract investments and jobs to the area. However, there have been few takers from within the northern oil barons or elsewhere.

Many see the solution to this problem in investment that would create jobs and generate reasonably distributed wealth. “Unless we create more jobs, we won’t eliminate Boko Haram. Even if we do, another such group will come. We have to empower our people,”  said one major investor in the Nigerian economy.

by PATRICK ATUANYA , BusinessDay