News Reports

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AFRICA MUST CONTROL GLOBAL COCOA PRICES
Osun state Deputy Governor Erelu Olusola Obada has stated that it is unfair for the price of cocoa to be dictated by western economies, when Africa accounts for over 80 percent of global cocoa output. Obada who is also the Chairperson of the Nigeria Cocoa Development Committee’s subcommittee on alternative cocoa uses, was speaking after the just concluded Africa Cocoa Summit which took place in Abuja.
She noted that Africa consumes only 2 percent of the cocoa it produces, while pushing the rest out into the international market and blamed low local consumption of cocoa for poor prices. Speaking earlier on the issue, President Olusegun Obasanjo faulted the Libreville Production Management Plan (PMP), which required cocoa producing countries to cut production in order to shore up the price, saying that the plan did not consider the local scene. President Obasanjo said joint action by African cocoa producers was needed to counter moves by consumer countries to reduce cocoa dependence.
In the same vein, he said various trade barriers such as escalating tariffs were being put in place in addition to the introduction of Minimum Residue Level and the introduction of the cocoa crop to some countries that were not traditionally cocoa producers.
Cote D’Ivoire is the continent’s leading cocoa producer, producing 1.2 million tons, followed by Ghana with 800,000 tons and Nigeria 400,000 tons.

Experts list ways to micro small-scale industrial growth
To solve the myriad of problems confronting micro and small-scale industries in the country, the need for sector operators to be creative and innovative in the management of their businesses has been emphasised.
Speaking at a seminar on Micro Finance and Investment for Business Advancement organized by a non-governmental organisation, Women and Youth Advancement Foundation (WOYA) in Lagos, an economist and financial analyst, Mr. Lukman Raimi described innovation and creativity as seeing what everyone has not seen, thinking what no one else has thought and doing what no one else has done.
Raimi who is a lecturer at the Yaba College of Technology (Yabatech) added: “Innovative thinking is the key to becoming successful micro-entrepreneurs in competitive and challenging business environment or an environment where opportunities abound but people cannot see them.
“Whether you actually invent a new product or market existing products or services, you will need to learn how to think like inventor. Thinking process provides them with clues to fund sourcing, networking, aggressive promotion and overcoming other problems that present themselves”
He also identified misplaced priority and inadequate attention to needs and demands of business as the major cause of collapse of micro and small scale enterprises in the country.
His words: “emerging entrepreneurs or owners of new businesses instead of putting all their time and attention on their fledging business disengage themselves from it in its early days to do other things thereby leading to the collapse of the business”
He however, urged entrepreneurs to focus on business areas where they had core competencies and ensure that they nurtured it to fruition before leaving it for other credible people to manage.
Speaking also at the event the President of WOYA, Ms Judith Ogunniran tasked government on the need to invest in capacity building to ameliorate the challenges facing small-scale industries in the country.
According to her, capacity building is the springboard for invention and creative innovation that could lead to sustained development and growth in the sector.
Culled from Guardian

“Multiplicity of taxes thwarts growth of businesses”
The Executive Officer of the Honey meals Restaurant, Prince Emmanuel Soyemi, has said that small and medium scale industries are groaning under heavy and inordinate tax system of the government.
“The most important thing a government should do is to grant small and medium enterprises tax holiday, encourage perspective investors and create employment, which has been a big challenge for the government” he added.
Besides the multiple taxes, he said his restaurant had battle with the dearth of infrastructure ranging from poor power supply to lack of adequate access roads.
But in spite of the challenges confronting the outfit Soyemi said the company had managed to break even and was now offering world standard cuisine.

FDI: Boost to economy- Tura MD
The Managing Director of Tura International Limited, Nigeria Mr. Piyush Nair, has lauded the Federal Government for its economic liberalization policy, which foreign direct investment into the country.
He said that FDI had helped in boosting the economy and in introducing global best practice and standards into the business sector.
He described FDI as a milestone for the President Obasanjo administration.
Nair said FDI had elicited a positive effect on the economy and improvement in the lives of the ordinary citizens of the country.
He said,”many foreign companies that hitherto operated from their oversea headquarters had now opened manufacturing operations in Nigeria, leading to greater job opportunities. It also saved foreign exchange formerly used for the importation of these products into the country” he added.
Nair who led a launch in celebration of the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (ISO) quality management system award granted to Tura after only two years of Operations in Nigeria also noted that by virtue of FDI, many product that were originally imported into the country were now cheaper, affordable and within the reach of the masses.
“As you are aware, Tura’s operation in Nigeria was a response to the Federal Government’s ban on importation of personal care products. Lorna mead Group, United Kingdom, responded to the call for FDI as an alternative to importation by investing over N600m in establishing a world class, state-of-the art manufacturing facility at Aba, Abia State, Nigeria’ Nair said.
The quality standard award categorized as ISO 9000/2000 is an acclaimed worldwide standard, which is applicable to all organisation, industries and companies in the service delivery category and requires companies to submit to SON’s rigorous audit process.
While unveiling the award to journalists in Lagos, Nair said the award was a vindication of the company’s earlier promise to deliver quality and affordable products and to remain committed to standards in all areas of its service to the Nigerian people.

Africa suffers major crop losses
Food and cyclones have destroyed thousands of hectares of crops and infrastructure in Southern Africa, with the greatest damage in Mozambique, Madagascar and Zambia.
However, the heavy precipitation may have beneficial effects in other parts of these countries, compensating partly for crop losses.
Food and Agriculture Organisation FAO in its statement on the situation has requested for close to $3.8 million to provide assistance to flood-affected communities in Mozambique and Madagascar, as part of joint UN humanitarian appeals launched in the past week.
In Mozambique, heavy rainfall throughout the month of January and the first half of February, compounded by persistent, heavy rains in neighbouring countries, has led to flooding throughout the Zambezi river basin with estimated 285000 people affected.
In a separate incident farther south in the country, cyclone Favio struck the province of Inhambane in February, affecting an estimated 150,000 people. Infrastructure and thousands of hectares of crops were destroyed.
FAO’s main proposed response targets approximately 87,000 agricultural households which have been made food insecure due to loss of assets, food stocks and new production. Assistance will involve urgent rehabilitation of productive assets and replanting of crops for the secondary agricultural season (April-July). FAO is also seeking to provide assistance to affected fishing communities and livestock owners. The total assistance requested is US$2.9 million.
Families who lost part or all of their agricultural assets will be given vouchers that can be redeemed for seeds, tools and other implements, as well as small livestock, at input trade fairs organized by FAO and the government of Mozambique in affected districts.
A series of severe cyclones and tropical storms over the past four months have damaged agricultural production in several regions of Madagascar. An estimated 200,000 farmers have been affected, with the potential loss of up to 80 percent of crops in some locations.
FAO is appealing for US$850 000 to restore agricultural production for up to 200 000 vulnerable flood-affected farmers in Madagascar during 2007 farming year through the provision of agricultural inputs and related assistance.
Zambia has experienced exceptionally high rainfall since early January which has provoked flooding in many parts of the country. Crops are reported to have been swept away by the water, while the remaining crops are stunted. In the short medium term, poor harvest and outbreaks of livestock disease are expected to increase the food insecurity of vulnerable households.
Farmers in Zambia will also require assistance and FAO will be appealing for funding in the coming days to provide the needed support.

Govt. plans N80 Million Cassava Plant
The kwara state Government has announced plans to acquire N80 million worth of cassava processing plants to be located in offa, Ilorin and kaiama areas of the state. The plants will be acquired in partnership with Dangote Flour mills, in line with the Federal Government directive on including 10 percent cassava content in the nation’s flour production.

FG, Oxfam Partner on Fair Trade
Minister of Commerce, Ambassador ldris Waziri, has expressed Federal Government’s desire to raise a high caliber team of negotiators to represent Nigeria at future sessions of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in order to secure a better deal in its multilateral trade relations with developed and industrialized nations of the world. He stated this at a capacity building programme for prospective trade negotiators organized by Oxfam GB in collaboration with the Nigeria Trade Network. The programme was meant to familiarize participants with the current state of play in the negotiations and impart deeper technical insights on the critical issues at stake.
In a goodwill message to participants, Oxfam’s country programme manager in Nigeria, Mr. Cecil Nartey underlined the essence of having a formidable team of negotiators at the WTO, Stating that international trade had become a vehicle for the indiscriminate liberalization of the economies of developing countries and imposition of harmful conditions instead of supporting sustainable development, poverty reduction and gender equality.

Don Cautions Nigeria, Others on Globalization
Nigeria and other African countries have been warned against totally opening up their economies to the forces of globalization, to avoid unsavory consequences. The advice was given by Prof. Milton Iyoha University, USA in a paper he delivered at a recent lecture organized by the Economics Institute, Abuja.
Iyoha noted that though globalization has expanded world trade, it has also tended to reduce the share of global trade accruing to developing countries, adding that developing countries should” only implement the beneficial aspects of the WTO and other globalization policies”.

Cassava, Nigeria yet a Player
Special Assistant to the President on Food Security, Mrs. Toyin Adetunji has said that the country was not yet a player in the cassava international market. She said even as the largest producer of cassava in the world compared to Thailand, Brazil and Europe, Nigeria is yet to attain in the market power”.
She stated that the annual production output was 45 million metric tones which stood at 19 percent of the world’s production. The government, she said had identified some constraints to tapping the potential that abound in cassava production and processing and that the government had intensified efforts to commercialize cassava through funding of research projects on yield improvement, awareness creation and market opportunities

 

 

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