More banks will go under in 2012 – Adeyemo

Ori Adeyemo, a forensic accountant is one man who caused some stir in the banking sector in the past with his knack for unearthing deep seated fraudulent tendencies in the banking industry. Adeyemo who is the Managing Consultant of Forensic Consulting Limited in this engaging interview with Adejuwon Osunnuyi spoke on a wide range of issues including the fuel subsidy and why AMCON will fail. Excerpt.

Can you do a brief analysis of the 2012 budget as presented before the National Assembly by the president? What is your own assessment of it?
Candidly, I think this budget would not really grow the economy. There is too much emphasis on recurrent expenditure at the expense of capital appropriation. Ordinarily, I would have thought that given the parlous state of our infrastructure, vote for the capital expenditure would be higher than the recurrent expenditure, so that we would not be seen as a consuming nation. But, the way it is, it is like we just want to consume everything that we have. Then, one would also have to look into the issue of the purported fuel subsidy. As far as I am concerned, I dont believe there is subsidy ab-initio and therefore the removal of any purported subsidy does not even arise. For instance, in the fi rst place, if you look at the fact that for this year, the budget for the purported subsidy is just about 300 billion and at the end of the day I understand that as at October 31, the government had expended over N1.4 trillion on the subsidy.
I am aware that it is as a result of the lapses in the NNPC as well as the corruption and ineffi ciency. So by the government saying they want to remove the subsidy, it is like saying whatever the ineffi ciency of the government, the ordinary Nigerians on the street should bear the brunt. This is defi nitely not very fair. As I speak to you, Nigerians do not even know how much barrels of petroleum is pumped out every day or that is being sold by NNPC. So, everything is shrouded in secrecy. For me, the question is, why are the refi neries not working? If we have three refi neries and none of them is working even at 50 per cent capacity, then there is a problem somewhere. Because if the refi neries are working, then why do we need to import fuel ab-initio.
So, that is the reason why I said I dont believe there is any subsidy anywhere. Because even at N65 per litre, Nigeria still has the highest selling price for petrol among the oil producing nations. I am also aware that the moment the purported subsidy is removed and the price of petrol goes as high as N120, then infl ation will defi nitely shoot up. So, if the infl ation level is at 13 percent presently, I see it doubling over time and the spiral effect is that the common man would be the worst for it.
The issue of subsidy is a critical factor that would determine the shape of things to come in the coming year. What effect do you think th e removal or retention would have on the economy?
You see like I said earlier, we have been hearing the same sing song over this petroleum subsidy removal over time. I can remember during the time of Abacha, he came and said when he would remove subsidy on petroleum, he was going to set up the PTF, which he did. But you see, at the end of the day, we didnt know what happened to the PTF. Later, when successive governments came in, like that of Obasanjo, it was the same old story. So, the question is this, why cant the Federal Government look for other excuses? Why are the refi neries not working? Who is sabotaging the refi neries? Why is the government not looking in that direction? Look, the N1.4 trillion which they said the Federal Government said it is spending this year as subsidy, is it not enough to build another refi nery? And then, who are the benefi ciaries of this purported subsidy? It is just a cabal, not more than 20 people. So, why should 20 people put the entire nation into trouble? As far as I am concerned, if government insists on removing the subsidy, it would defi nitely cause escalated infl ation in the country.
You seem to have suddenly maintained a low profile after the dust raised by your fraud analysis in the banking sector. Could that mean an indication that the banking sector is now being done more professionally?Are frauds now things of the past in Nigerian banks?
You see, that I have decided to maintain a low profi le is another technique that I have adopted. You know initially from 2007 to even last year, I was writing petitions, granting interviews, making presentations left right and centre, but I have found out that the more I talk, the more people ignore me. So, I had to now revise my approach by going underground. For instance, if I dont talk, it is hard for you to know what I am doing. With my silence, let me begin to deal seriously with the banking industry and that is basically what I have been doing. You see, the banking industry is fraud incorporated.
The system is still laid with high grade fraud. From the Central Bank of Nigeria to the last man working in the banking industry in Nigeria, including the microfi nance banks, discount houses, all of them are all involved in fraud. Every financial institution in Nigeria is found out to be scamming or defrauding their customers. Now, as I speak to you, I have over 400 court cases against banks in Nigeria and there is no week that I dont file an action against banks in this country. It is simply over fraudulent manipulation of the customers accounts.
A bank makes an allegation of indebtedness against a customer, when I come around, I look at the statement of account, offer letter and other relevant correspondences between both parties and I would come out with my findings. One thing I have always found out is that, rather than the customer owning the bank like they have always alleged, it is the bank that has defrauded the customer.
And I come out with my proof, which the customer takes to court to claim the fraudulent manipulations in his account in naira and kobo as well as to reclaim his properties without paying a dime back to the bank. So, it is not correct for you to say I have maintained a low profi le because there is no fraud in the system again. No. On the contrary, we are working hard behind the scene because the fraud is still there in the banks. Let me give you an example. Look at the issue of AMCON for example; when Sanusi came on board, he said he wanted to revive AMCOM, which was initially mooted by Charles Soludo, the former CBN governor. When the House of Representatives did their public hearing on the AMCON stuff, we were not aware of it. But fortunately, when the Senate was to conduct its own public hearing, we were there.
Then I told the Senate; I said dont bother yourselves setting up this AMCON because it is bound to fail and that should it fail, they should not fail to come and hold me responsible. I said the reason is very simple. Nigerians are not indebted to the banks but rather it is the banks that owe the customers. If the Federal Government is going to bail anybody out, it should rather bail out the customers and not the banks. Definitely, I am aware that you cannot benefi t from your fraud. If you are involved in banking transaction with the sole aim of defrauding your customers, with the intention of cunningly taking away the properties of your customers, if you are caught in the act, then you have lost all rights in the transaction. Let me tell you why this AMCON thing would not work. One, AMCON is not a party to the contract between a bank and a customer on.
Now lets put that aside. Lawyers may come and say that is not under privity...then we say fi ne, that the exception to privity of contract is assignment. Now, if you say that the exception to privity of contract is assignment, I agree with you. However, the question is this - for an assignment to be valid, you must have a ca pacity, in which case for AMCON to take over a purported debt, AMCON must be licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria, otherwise, AMCON cannot stand in the shoes of commercial banks.
Taking a critical look at the various reforms as initiated by the CBN, would you say it has brought any signifi cant change compared to what it was before? Which reform are you talking about?
The fact is that I have not seen any reform brought about by the CBN governor. In the fi rst instance, let me take you back to the early days of Sanusi as the CBN governor. When he came in June 2009, the fi rst policy he made was to deregulate interest rate in Nigeria by asking the banks to charge whatever rate they liked. I wrote him a petition then too. I told him that look, you met a very rotten banking or fi nancial system on the ground, and the only reason that system was rotten was because the banks were left by Soludo to do whatever they liked. They were left to charge whatever interest rate they liked. And because of that, in their quest to make stupendous profi ts, they were charging the customers outrageous rates far and above the agreement with customers. And by so doing, they were creating spurious debts, which they called assets. But now, they refer to those assets as toxic assets simply because they knew that those assets are unrecoverable.
And those are the toxic asset they said they are passing to the AMCON. Now, I told them, I said if you want the fi nancial industry to grow in Nigeria, regulate interest rate. That is when the banks can make genuine asset, valuedriven asset. That was the fi rst tactical mistake he made. When he came, he did the special audit as he said and he indicted some bank MDs, about eight of them. He sent them packing. Actually, that was a good thing and I dont have any issue with that because all along, I had known that all those bankers were crooks. But my only problem with him is that, I believe he did not do a thorough job in that bank audit because a lot of the banks that he gave clean bills of health were not truly healthy. And as I speak to you, a lot of banks in Nigeria are still terminally sick. Now, after he removed those MDs, what did he do thereafter? He brought in his own people and gave them about N620 billion. Now, where is the money? Is it not those banks that he gave N620 billion that people have come to buy over or that he has gone to nationalise? So, the question is where is the N620 billion that he gave to them?
So what are you suggesting?
The obvious thing is that they have squandered it. And who are the people that squandered the money? They are Sanusiappointed management teams for the banks. So the question is, was the Sanusiappointed team better than those he sacked? Now, lets even leave that one aside for now. Sanusi came and said he wanted to do AMCON, that it was the only solution to the problem plaguing the banking industry in Nigeria. The question is, how much has AMCON been able to collect back from the customers? Not one dime. Sanusi came; he said by the time he set up this AMCON he was going to fl oat the bond of AMCON at the capital market. Has he been able to do that? He forgot one thing that those who can subscribe to the purported AMCON bonds are the same people AMCON is alleging to have taken over their purported debt. Again, when he came, how much was the value of naira to a dollar? It was N150. How much is it now? It is N162 at the official rate.
Is he doing well or is he doing badly? Now, lets look at the reserve. How much was the reserve when he got there? How much is it now? The reserve then was about $50 billion, now it is barely over $30 billion. Look at the economy generally, how many banks did he meet when he came? How many do we have now despite the fact that he has injected billions of naira into these banks? So the question is, what can you say about his managerial capacity? For me, I dont really blame him because I understand the man only has BA in Business Administration as his fi rst degree while his second degree was in Islamic Studies.
I dont really blame him. Do you know that I know of a bank that has over 3,000 court cases with their customers? How would such a bank survive? And this is the same banks Sanusi is pumping money into. You see, I have told him he is wasting his time nationalising all those banks. I would say 2012 would be worse off for the banking industry in Nigeria because the moment the so called AMCON cannot recover debt from the customers, the banks would die. Quote me, more banks would die in 2012.
Looking at the recent merger and acquisition that have seen banks like Intercontinental and Union Bank being taken over by new owners, are you comfortable with the process and the procedures?
I dont think I am comfortable with the process. For instance, I believe the process that brought about the merger is far from being transparent. The Access Bank and Intercontinental purported merger, I dont think it has been transparent and fair enough. I want to believe that if anything at all, it should be the other way round. Intercontinental, to me, supposed to be the one to take over Access Bank. Thats what I strongly feel because the way the deal was done in such that Access Bank invested just N50 billion in Intercontinental Bank and controls over 50 percent and AMCON has less than 15 percent upon the billions of naira invested in Intercontinental Bank is very funny.
Over time, many people have been wondering over the role of auditors in corporate failure. As an expert in the industry, what roles do auditors really play in corporate failures?
I have to say something here. I am a member of Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, ICAN, but I dont practise audit. I practise fraud investigation. Though I am not speaking for ICAN, however, what I know is this, it is not the duty of the auditors to prepare the fi nancials, it is the duty of the company or maybe we can say the bank. The auditor is only to come in to give an independent opinion as to the true and fair state of the fi nancial. But that is not to remove any negligence or culpability on the part of the auditor if found to have compromised his position. So, my take is very simple. An auditor spending two weeks to do a purported audit cannot do a detail job as a forensic accountant because, he is to just state the true and fair deal and that is difference between an auditor and a forensic accountant.
A forensic accountant does a detail investigation, one hundred percent if not more investigation. Whereas an auditor would spend two weeks doing his own purported audit, a forensic accountant can do six months if not more if the pay is right. So, for me, I wont want to lay the blame totally on the doorstep of the auditors, I want to lay the blame on the doorsteps of the CBN as well as the NDIC, because they are the regulators. Everyday, the CBN relates with all the banks. So every transaction the banks are making, the CBN is aware.
If there is any transaction shrouded in secrecy, the CBN has the power to investigate such a transaction. But the auditor does not have such right. You have to call in the auditor periodically maybe at the end of the year to say come and have a look at our records. But the CBN, NDIC monitor the banking industry day by day. So, it is the CBN that would approve the published account. So, even when the auditor has completed his job, it still goes to the CBN. So, if the CBN is still not satisfi ed then it can call back the auditor to go back and do the proper thing.
So, are you saying that in most cases where corporate failures are not easily detected by auditors, they are far from being accomplices?
Definitely, it is possible for an auditor to be compromised. But I am not saying they are not compromised. Like I told you, I dont do audit. If it is something that I do, yes I can tell you but you know in Nigeria, anything can happen. But I am not indicting anybody. But for me, I know that if there is going to be any lapses in the banking industry, then the regulators should be held responsible.
So, can you throw more light on this forensic accounting of a thing?
In essence, what does it entails? Basically, forensic accounting is all about fi nancial fraud investigation with the ultimate aim of the matter being settled in court. As a forensic accountant, when you take up a brief, you are looking at the matter ending up in a civil court. The tool that a forensic accountant needs is to be strict in whatever knowledge he can gather. For example, he needs to be very strong in fi nancial accounting, fi nancial management and must be very good in law as well as Information technology.
Then, you must be a street wise man, not an ajebo to be successful. A forensic accountant who is an ajebo cannot succeed, am sorry to say that. He must be a street man because the skill that a forensic accountant deploys doing his job is far more than what auditors need because for audit, the reports are there, you are only trying to fi nd out based on information before you whether it is correct or not. But a forensic accountant goes beyond that. You have to probe every fi gure, every item. So as a forensic accountant, you dont believe anything, you dont believe anybody. Anything they tell you; you dont believe until you are able to confi rm it by yourself.
What is your take on the proposed cashless economy why the CBN is kick starting in January?
The Lagos cashless cannot work. This is because there is no alternative to cash for now. The ATMs are not working. Even the fact still remains that the banks use the ATM to defraud customers. Sanusi said he has deplored about 4,000 POS all over Nigeria. With the high level of illiteracy in this country, is he going to make all the over 50 percent of them literate overnight? The man is just dreaming. I am telling you, Sanusi is just a dreamer. Just leave the man alone. Defi nitely it cant work because the implication is that, pe ople would rather keep their cash at home and not even do business with banks. Thats what is going to happen and what he is trying to prevent would still happen.
Because you cannot say you want to encourage people to save and you are also putting in place anti-saving measure. Clearly, both of them dont go together. You cannot ask a bank to impose penalty on a customer just because the customer wants to withdraw above N150, 000 in a day. When the customer was opening an account with the bank, was there such an agreement? There was no such agreement.
So can CBN impose penalty on a customer? The answer is no. CBN can only regulate bank, it cannot regulate customers. Sanusi cannot tell me how I am going to run my business. He cannot tell me whether I should collect cash, naira, which is a legal tender in Nigeria or I should use ATM. He cannot tell me that. No bank in Nigeria can impose any penalty on any customer. According to provision of section six of the 1999 constitution as amended in 2011, it is only a court of competent jurisdiction that can impose penalty.

No longer a dumping ground

The era of Nigeria being used as a dumping ground for substandard ICT products may soon be over with the fresh moves by the ministry of communication technology to fight the scourge

By Adejuwon Osunnuyi

For a long time now Nigeria has been a dumping site for substandard goods especially information and communication technology, ICT products Scattered across the country, from Computer Village in Ikeja to Alaba electronic market also in Lagos, fake and substandard ICT products like handset and accessories; television or radio sets, computers and allied products have become common sights. While majority of them are imported, quite a large number of such products are produced locally. Importers of these products often capitalise on the poor purchasing powers of most Nigerians to offer these substandard or fake products.
But as cheap as these products may come, findings have revealed that dealing in them may just be a matter of being penny wise, pounds foolish. Worried by the influx of these substandard products, Minister of Communications Technology, Omobola Johnson, noted recently that the era of Nigeria being used as a dumping ground for substandard ICT products may soon be over as government is set to fi ght the scourge by setting standard for all IT products imported or produced in Nigeria. Omobola rightly observed that the absence of Nigerian standards or non-domestication of international standard in Information Communication Technology is largely responsible for the country being made a dumping ground for substandard products over the years.
This has to stop, she warned, adding that Our indigenous and locally manufactured products, including software applications, can hardly be exported to markets in Europe, the Americas and Asia because many of them are not certified in accordance with international standards. According to her, we can bring this unfortunate trend to an end by set- ting the standards against which the products will be tested and strictly enforcing those standards. To this end, there is therefore the need for a conscious and spirited effort to reposition the country as hub for software applications and IT-enabled services. This, the minister said, underscores the urgent need for a rigorous standardisation process for Nigerian IT products and services.
Johnson stressed that the issue of standardisation was one that was extremely important if we as a nation must be part of the global economy and for Nigerian companies to be globally competitive. It was perhaps in realisation of this that the minister inaugurated a 20-man Technical Committee charged to develop a framework for technical standards for the nations ICT industry. The committee whose members include Chima Onyekwere of Linkserve; Leo Stan Ekeh of Zinox; Barbara James, CEO of Henshaw Capital partners; Toyin Abdulmalik Ibrahim of SMEDAN; Kemi Abonta of NITDA; Emmanuel Onyeje of Microsoft; Olufunmilayo Ajayi of Oracle[ Pius Okigbo Jr, of ISPON; Juliet Ehimuan of Google; and Teemu Kijarvi of Nokia, among other has up to one year to submit its report.
The minister urged the committee to regard its work as an assignm e n t t h a t would contribute immensely to the growth of the ICT sector and the national economy. She further hinted that her Ministry would also raise a private sector led committee to develop a framework and template to establish a pilot scheme of Technology Incubation Centres for Nigeria. Olusola Teniola, an engineer and Chief Operating Offi cer of Phase3 Telecom who represented ATCON at the inauguration shares the view that there is indeed a need for experts in government, academia, and the private sector to work together to solve the issue of Nigeria being a dumping ground for substandard IT products and services. Director-General of National Information Technology Development Agency, (NITDA), Prof. Cleopas Angaye, said the agency on its part would collaborate with the Nigerian customs and immigration to prohibit unwanted software coming into the country. Angaye noted that there was need to have a strong standard for IT through a formation of legal framework that could be executed in the law court as it is obtainable across the world.
That is why we actually have the Attorney General on the committee so that we could frame a law that could be executed in the law court as it is obtainable across the world, we need a strong standard and strong law for standard to be enforced in this country like I said it has been long overdue, Nigeria is coming up in the ICT penetration, this is actually the right time for the committee to be set up he stated. To Angaye, the committee should ensure the standards to be recommended for ICT products and services would be globally accepted. If we come up with what should be standard in Nigeria, it should also be globally acceptable, he said. Ibrahim Tizhe, member of the committee, who is also the President of Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria, promised on behalf of the committee members that the team would put in its best.
We will work hard to place Nigeria where it is supposed to be when it comes to IT products and services, Tizhe said. Head, Planning Research and Information Management System, Standards Organisation of Nigeria, Tersoo Orngudwem, underscores the importance of standards in all forms of transaction and stated that standards make an enormous and positive contribution to most aspects of our lives. Standards, he said, ensure desirable characteristics of products and services such as quality, environmental friendliness, safety, reliability, effi ciency and interchange-ability - and at an economical cost.
When products and services meet our expectations, we tend to take this for granted and be unaware of the role of standards. However, when standards are absent, we soon notice. We soon care when products turn out to be of poor quality, do not fi t, are incompatible with equipment that we already have, are unreliable or dangerous. When products, systems, machinery and devices work well and safely, it is often because they meet standards. When standards are absent, we soon notice.
He added that the advent of ICT demanded a closer overall cooperation, in the standardisation arena, among the three key international standards organisations: International Standard Organisation, International Electronic Commission and International Telecommunications Union. Orngudwem further maintained that standards make the development, manufacturing and supply of products and services more effi cient, safer and cleaner; facilitate trade between countries and make it fairer .
As a matter of fact, standards provide governments with a technical base for health, safety and environmental legislation, and conformity assessment; share technological advances and good management practice; disseminate innovation. It safeguards consumers and users in general, of products and services while making life simpler by providing solutions to common problems.
In the past, waging war against counterfeit or substandard products, a number of arrest and seizures had been made by Nigerian authorities. For instance, recently authorities in Nigeria had collaborated with the global Information and Communication Technology fi rm, Hewlett Packard, to execute a large local seizure of counterfeit printing supplies made for HP printers. HP supported Nigerian law enforcement offi cials who confi scated nearly 6,500 illegal items in a highly- coordinated strike.
Authorities raided an illicit workshop and four connected retailers, seizing a total of 3,600 ready-for-sale laser print cartridge counterfeits, 1,800 fake fl at boxes and 950 empty l aser print cartridges intended for illegal use. In the same vein, police arrested four people associated with the counterfeiting operation while additional intelligence obtained during the raid led to the capture of a key figure in the local counterfeiting scene. English Africa Channel Manager, Imaging and Printing Group, HP Africa, Sherifa Hady, noted that over the last four years, HP has assisted the government in the seizure of nearly nine million pieces of fake printing supplies products and components in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
According to Hady, through HPs anticounterfeiting programme, HP actively educates its customers and partners to be vigilant against fake printing supplies. She said the company also cooperates with local and global law enforcement to detect and dismantle illegal operations that produce counterfeit HP printing components. With substandard products, the fact remains that the economy has always been on the receiving end. The high volume of counterfeit and substandard products in the domestic market has remained threat to Nigerias economy, raising serious doubts on current efforts by the Federal Government to resuscitate the real sector to contribute meaningfully to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
In Nigeria, while it is estimated that over 55 per cent of imported products are fake and substandard, an estimated N30 billion is believed to be lost annually to fake or counterfeit goods in terms of loss of tax revenue to the government, income to local manufacturers, and employment generation to Nigerians. In the ICT sector, a recent research carried out by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and the International Data Corporation (IDC) revealed that Nigeria lost more than N19.8 million to software counterfeiting and associated problems in 2009.
Obtaining similar valid data from other sectors was, however, diffi cult given the constraints in data coalition in Nigeria, but the loss runs into billions of naira annually, according to Ify Umenyi, Director- General of the CPC. Decrying the economic loss of counterfeits product to both local and global economy, Hady said the revenue loss stands at about $775bn annually and accounts for between 5 to 7 per cent of the global economy and equivalent to loss of about 2.5 million jobs.

Why I dumped bank job to sell food – Awojuyigbe

She was a banker and also a lawyer, two professions many see and regard as highly-rewarding. But not satisfied with those two areas, Gbonju Awojuyigbe decided to put her wig aside and literarily returned to the kitchen. Today, Awojuyigbe who is now the Managing Director of Wandy Foods told Adejuwon Osunnuyi why she left the banking industry to venture into the food business. Excerpt.

You read law and worked in the banks but you are now a food processor. What made you dump the bank and the wig. What was the attraction in food processing?
Drove me? What else but passion, fulfi lling a calling and job fulfi lment. For me, I think there was this passionate desire in me to satisfy the African appetite. The passion made way for the vision. I actually started it in 1997. When I started, it was just a hobby. I used to work in a bank, but this is what I now do fully. It is my calling. This is what God made me to be. That is it. It was while I was working in a bank that I discovered that I could just do a bit of milling. At that time, I will just mill one thing or the other with my grinder at home and take it to work, and people were buying. That was how I started in my house. With my small grinder, I just mill things like pepper and take it to work. I did my National Youth Service with the then First Atlantic Bank and I was retained as a staff.
I worked in the bank for about six years. During these years, I noticed that I was struggling to do the job. Although a lot of people see it as a prized job, I did not see it like that. Despite the fact that I had great people as colleagues, I hardly woke up looking forward to go to work. Each day at work was like punishment. I did not push it for too long before I resigned. My resignation however did not come until I had a dream where I was selling elubo in the market. I told a friend who took me to a place where I saw people selling processed foods. When I saw how this was done and with the inner conviction that this is what I am called to do, I swung into action. I started packaging foods like ground rice, chilli pepper and yam flour for my colleagues.
This was in 1997. In 1998, I left the bank and in 2001, I launched into business full blast having taken the necessary coaching to perfect the vision. That was how I started. Secondly, I can say that my background also contributed to what I am doing now. I come from Ekiti which is basically an agrarian community. I could remember that whenever I travelled home, I used to see the plight of the farmers especially in a situation where raw and perishable products would often rot away without being sold. So, I can say that that also made me to think fast and got inspired to process the products, move them up the value chain, and bring them to wider markets.
As an entrepreneur, using your case as an example, what advice do you have for young graduates who a re out there still roaming the streets looking for white collar jobs?
Well, there are lot of job opportunities out there. People should use mine as a case study. They should not waste their time doing things they are not fulfi lled doing even when it is assumed to be the rave of the moment. It is about the person. People should actually discover where they belong and if they do that and engage themselves meaningfully, the sky will be their beginning. No doubt, there are challenges in running a business, but people willing to be on their own should go all out to do what they love because it is very fulfi lling working for oneself such that even when the person wakes up and does not have money in his or her pocket, he is excited with the conviction that the money will come later. People should go all out to dream no matter how ridiculous it seems initially.
Taking my case for instance, people no longer laugh at me because they have now seen that my dream is achievable even though some laughed it off at the beginning. When I started my business in 2001, I always tell people, I started with less than N5, 000 then in my house. The funding actually came from the savings I had. But today, I have put in over N10 million into the business. But in actual fact, one thing I know is that today, it is impossible to start a business with N5,000 and believe me, there is nothing like a small business again. You are in business, you are in business. So there are so many things you have to put into considerations. Unlike then, not many people were doing what I am doing, but you know now, there are so many people on it.
You are a Fate alumnus, what is the level of experience you have with the organisation?
Yes, I am a Fate alumnus. I won the Fate Foundation alumni award in 2005. Now, I have the privilege of mentoring those who graduate from the Fate Foundation. To some extent, I can say Fate Foundation has helped me a lot especially in the aspect of funding. My business is listed in Fate Foundation Hall of Fame which means that I was given a clean bill of health and people are encouraged to do business with my company.
The relationship goes to the extent that I even deliver papers at some of their seminars. My association with the organisation has helped me a lot. There was a time I went for British visa and for the fact that my business was listed on the Fate Foundation Hall of Fame, I did not go for any interview and got visa without hassles.
Considering the high cost of running business in Nigeria, how do you think an average entrepreneur can weather the storm?
Honestly, you really have to be disciplined, focussed and persistent. As a businessman, you really have to have the goals at the back of your mind so that when people say you dont buy aso ebi, you dont do this, you dont do that, deep inside you, you know it is because of a course. If you dont really know where you are going, if you dont know that for instance, this is a journey and these are the prices that you need to pay before you get to your destination, in fact, there is no destination.
For instance, for me, I believe this is what I would do till I am about 90 and hand over to another generation. So, there would always be challenges and if you cannot pay the price, there is no way anybody like that can run a business now. When you are in your calling, challenges are bound to be there. If you know that it is what you want to be, the sky is the limit. For me, I know that what I want to be is to be the Nestle of Africa. Even the challenges are still not enough because you know the higher you go, the more the challenges come. So, I see it as my mission, my calling. So I am happy doing what I am doing.
What is WandyFoods all about and what are your product lines?
WandyFoods processes foods such as agro-allied products, contributing to a healthy and hygienic society. Our focus is to become the leading food processing company in Africa that sells processed food to the world. We bake; we do plantain fl our (amala ogede) which is very good for diabetics and hypertensive people. We do ground rice, whole wheat fl our, pounded yam fl our (iyan), locust bean (iru), chilli pepper, corn fl our, bean fl our, wheat fl our, plantain and natural honey. As a matter of fact, Wandy Foods fi rst products were ground rice and yam fl our. But today, we have expanded the product line to cookies and drinks.
Your factory is located in this place called Technology Incubation Centre, like I observed, there are many other businesses present here. Is there any unique thing about this place? What is it all about?
Yes, this place is managed by the National Board for Technology Incubation which is controlled by the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, so it is owned by the Federal Government. As you have seen, there are so many people here. Basically, it is called incubation centre because it is a place that when you come, you incubate and then you moved out. I have already graduate d. So, what I need to do now is to move out very soon to my permanent place. Basically, NAFDAC prompted me to stay back here when they told me that I would need larger facilities for proper food certifi cation. WandyFoods actually became an incubatee here at the Technology Incubation Center in 2004. The incubator provided not only the food production facility, but also allowed me to rub minds with other entrepreneurs, to share the solutions to challenges faced by small, fl edgling businesses and to motivate each other.
How would you assess the food industry in Nigeria? There are lot of people who seem to be running away from food business as a result of challenges they face especially with regulatory bodies like NAFDAC. Do you face any challenge and if you do, how have you been able to overcome them?
The food industry in Nigeria is massive. As they, say we are about 164 million people in Nigeria, I can assure you there are so many opportunities. Take for instance, I read law and I didnt even know much about food. But I went through some training to end up in what I am doing now. Like I can tell you, it is because of the opportunities that I found myself in this industry. I can tell you the food industry is still largely untapped. There are massive opportunities in the sector. Yes of course, I faced challenges in many areas especially in the area of registering my products with NAFDAC.
To register with NAFDAC and get approved, the process actually was a long one. You do a lot of analysis before you can get registered. It was really a herculean task and very discouraging and because of the procedure involved, I almost gave up. But I was however able to get it at the end of the day. I would tell you that the only thing that has urged me on is the vision and passion.
Also, as the business grows, more capital is required. That is another challenge. The only form of funding I have ever got is from Fate Foundation. Apart from that, I have borne the funding myself all these years. As a matter of fact, I was part of those that went for the training with Standard Organisation of Nigeria. What I am planning to do now is to do something about standardisation ISO 9,000.
There are rules and regulations you have to follow before you can do all those things but if you dont follow rules, well, if you say because of that, defi nitely you cannot grow. There is no where you go to, for instance, if you go to banking, there are rules, if you go to law, there are rules. There are rules in all spheres. So, all you need to do is to take one step at a time. That is it.
Definitely, you are not satisfied with the level you are now. In the next five to ten years, where do you hope Wandy Food would be?
I aspire to be bigger by the grace of God. I am holding onto God to open the plans for me. Like I told you, my plan is to be the Nestle of Africa, where on a particular day, during breakfast, you have one of my products, lunch, you have one of one of my products, when you have your dinner, and you have one of my products on your table. But I am holding unto God to unravel the big plans.
Talking about marketing, do you have target market for your products and how do you reach them?
Are your products in the open markets? Yes, I have my niche. I have target market. I have people like you, that is, up mobile, career women and men who are so busy that they cant run around cutting plantain and drying and everything. The diabetic patients, hypertensive patients, those who want to go on a diet and who need what is healthy to put into their stomach. Those are my target markets. I have marketers. For now, they are not in the open markets. At fi rst, WandyFoods used to sell directly to individuals, but it now supplies supermarkets as well.
What do you think Nigerian government should do in helping businesses to grow?
Nigerian government should create more of a place like this so that youths can access such opportunities. If the issue of accommodation is taken off a business, they have taken off a huge lot so that by the time you are getting yourself together, you would be able to say this is where I am going. So, if they do more of this, if power problem also could be addressed, like you can see us running around, trying to get alternative power supply.
The greatest challenge in doing the business has continued to be electricity. There is no day we do not spend money running the generator to do our production. The energy situation in this country does not encourage private initiatives. It could be frustrating. For me, I know if those two problems, that is, accommodation for businesses and power are solved, there would be more people that would want to go into businesses.

Have you won your million?

While many still battle the fact that telecoms poor quality of service in the country still persists, however, as a way of putting smiles into the faces of telecoms subscribers, operators have continued to outdo one another by dolling out millions of naira to reward them.

Many Nigerian telephone subscribers may not be happy with the level of the quality of service offered by the telecom operators. To them, though the coming of GSM to Nigeria ought to have been seen as blessing making them to connect to the rest of the world, the persistent poor quality of service across the networks has been a sort of pain to them. For that, there is no reason to cheer. But as the yuletide approaches, it appears the subscribers are really not bothered with service quality that has indeed, not improved despite threat of reprimand by the Nigerian communication commission, NCC.

What appears to have stolen the show is ongoing shower of naira offered subscribers by the GSM service providers. Apparently, in what has been described as a way of rewarding the over 90 million subscribers, telecos such as MTN, Airtel, Glo, and Etisalat have in the past few months been giving Nigerians reasons to smile, offering Nigerians chances of becoming instant millionaires through the latest register, recharge and win promos.

As a way of encouraging subscribers participate in the ongoing SIM registration exercise, telecom operators have ceaselessly dangled the carrot, in form of million naira worth of credit and in some cases, cash payments to subscribers. To subscribers, this is a season of payback. As a matter of fact, one thing that seems commendable about the promotions is the fact that unlike in the past when Nigerians complained of being fl eeced by telecom companies for charging them for taking part in such array of promos, subscribers do not need to part with any money to participate in the promo.

As a matter of fact, all subscribers who have registered their SIM cards are automatically eligible to win the mouthwatering millions of naira carrot. In the past, such a promo would have cost subscribers between N100 and N200 per text message. For etisalat, in its own 9ja Free Credit Promo, subscribers who register their SIMs were given 30 per cent bonus airtime for recharges made within 30 days, while Globacom gave out several millions of naira to a number of its subscribers, just because they registered their SIMs. A total of 36 people won in the fi rst batch of the promo meant to encourage subscribers to register their SIM cards. Some of the rewards include N1 million cash and free trips to Manchester, United Kingdom or Dubai.

The same story goes for Airtel. Just last week, while resting the promo tagged KYC, the network announced that it has made many Ni gerians millionaires.

But then, MTN subscribers seem to be having the biggest smile. In what has been described as the biggest reward so far in any sector, MTN stands out in its N1 billion promo. Under the promo, lucky ten subscribers take home N10 million each every ten days while over 900 other lucky people are being given the sum of N100, 000 each. When the promo was rolled out, it was certain that many would have been pessimistic about it not anticipating the impact it would make in the lives of many Nigerians, especially the indigent, downtrodden and unemployed.

Perhaps, the management of MTN on their own might not also have envisaged the leap and boost it was creating for the Nigerian economy particularly, in the areas of capacity building, empowerment and transformation of the lives of winners of the staggering N1 billion reward scheme. But today, the Nigerias biggest reward ever has been transforming the lives of Nigerians. From unemployed graduates to indigent students, from the artisans on the fringes and the petty traders on the urban sidewalks, MTN has been enriching lives with such fat reward for loyalty to a brand that has continued to shape the Nigeria business universe since its arrival as a colossal in the Nigeria market in 2001.

The mega reward might not have come as a surprise to many. In line with its policy and commitment of giving back to the community, MTN over the last ten years has made tremendous social and economic impact in Nigeria. With numerous support and sponsorships, ranging from health, sports, entertainment, fashion, youth development, housing etcetera; MTN has not only delight its customers, it has surpassed customers expectations in the area of corporate social responsibility and sponsorship.

To many key stakeholders in Nigeria, the ongoing MTN N1 big reward for SIM registration has been described in many ways. From the public sector to the traditional rulers, from the average men to the noble, it has been encomium and praises all the way.

At the fi rst presentation in September in Lagos, NCC, the regulatory agency, through its representative, Okechukwu Aninweke gave its backing to the leading telecoms giant for its tremendous contributions to the socio-economic development of Nigeria. In his endorsement of the MTN N1 Billion Reward scheme, Aninweke, said We have had ten years of GSM in Nigeria and many reward programs have come and gone but this is the first time I am hearing of a one billion naira giveaway.
I consider myself privileged to witness this great event. I was here yesterday for the draw which we all witnessed. I want to commend MTN for the level of this reward program, it is indeed impressive .

According to him, we are driving the telecom sector; the operators like MTN are leading the pathway for the big revolution in telecommunications in Nigeria; for this I want to thank MTN for the Big Reward to the lucky winners. Gift Azubuike, a hair dresser in Ojota, a suburb of Lagos, is one of the fi rst set of lucky winners.

She won herself a staggering sum of N10 million in the Lagos draw. When the N10 million cheque was presented to her, she could not hold her tears as she was full of emotions. At fi rst, Gift could not believe it as at the fi rst instance; can this be true? was the fi rst question that fl ew through her mind. In her words, she said. I did not believe the caller when he said that I have won N10 million from a draw which held that very day. I wanted to cut off the phone because I thought it was one of the numerous 419 tricks, but the caller, a female asked me to keep cool and hear her out .

However, despite the assurance from the caller, Gift was not done. After the call, I told my brother that someone called that I have won N10 million in the MTN draw and asked me to come to MTN offi ce the next day. My brother said that I should not go; he was against it and warned me seriously against going simply because he feared I was being set up. However, when I relayed the message of the call to my friends, against my brothers stand, they urged me on.

They told me its worth trying. They said I should pray before going, if it turns out to be fake, at least, I can return to the house and my work, the important thing is my safety, but at least I can try it. She told Megacrown Infor . It was however a new dawn for Gift as she got to the MTN office, where she was actually announced as a winner of N10 million. According to her, the N10 million would defi nitely go a long way in establishing her in the profession.

In fact, according to her, her entire life would change as she would not only build her salon to an international standard but also expand the outfi t and invest in other lucrative business. Gift has not been the only one in this state of ecstasy. It has been the same story with all the winners of the millions of naira. Oladapo Simeon, a student of University of Lagos is another winner in the Lagos draw. Like Gift, also, the call from MTN to inform him as N10 million winner came to him as a huge joke.
The 23 year old student said; I was eating at home at about 6:15pm on Sunday evening when a lady called me. The call came and after some scrutiny, the lady at the other end of the phone said congratulations, you emerged one of our winners in a draw that was held earlier today , talking about the on-going MTN Mega draw. Initially, I never believed but on checking and realizing the number calling me was the MTN call centre number 180, it reassured me and I began to imagine things. But my mind was still thumping -could it be true . It was indeed true and eventually opened a new lease of life for him as he found out, he later testifi ed to this when he said; My mum and every member of the family feel great up till this moment because this is a perfect turn around for us in the family.
In fact there will be a thanksgiving in the Church for this great miracle and favour that the Lord has shown me .

In the Benin leg of the MTN making of millionaires, the story is very emotive. The presentation in Benin threw up a very emotional story of Hannah Onaribor. Hannah until recently was a secondary school leaver. Hannah fi nished his secondary education in 2007 at St. Vincent College, Okwagbe, in Ughelli Local Government Area of Delta State.

Afterwards, she was sent to Lagos by her parents to serve as a house girl to a couple. She had gone to do this menial job so that she could raise money to further her education. A few weeks to her emergence as a winner in the MTN N1 billion big rewards, without an inkling of what lies ahead of her, she left Lagos in frustration, when after some years, her dream of a higher education seemed to have come to nought. Just as Hannah was dropping the ambition of higher education, having returned to Okwagbe her native town to join her mother, Patricia Onaribor in her petty trading, mother luck smiled on her as MTN changed her life story to from Zero to Hero .

She carted home a whooping sum of N10 million in the Benin-leg of the N1 billion big reward presentation. In an apparent display of support for the MTN, the Oba of Benin, Omo n Oba n Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Erediauwa while receiving the winners in his palace poured encomium on MTN for enriching the lives of his people. That seems to have been a great endorsement for the Telecommunications giant. As some stakeholders put it, this has demonstrated that MTN is not only developing the telecom market in Nigeria, it is fast becoming a real partner in the development of human capital and also accelerating the growth and development of the Nigerian youths through its strong bias for the youth segment.

For 17 year old secondary school student, Master Nnaechebe Ozuluoha, joining the stream of millionaires, is a life changing experience. As Ozuluoha was announced a proud owner of N10 million in the Mega Reward Promo, his parents turned the Bridge Waters Hotel, Enugu, venue of the 4th prize presentation for MTN 1 Billion Naira Mega Reward promo to another praise camp, singing and dancing to the glory of God. The teenage millionaire alongside nine others was presented with cheques for N10 million each. Describing their experience, the new winners said they were surprised and highly elated to be among the lucky subscribers to be rewarded with ten million naira each.

According to Ozuluoha, a student of Christ the King College, Onitsha, Anambra State, he received the phone call notifying him that he won with excitement: I have heard a lot about the MTN N1billion reward so when I saw a call from 180 , the MTN customer care number, I was thrilled to receive the news, he said. Another N10 million winner, Doyinmola Ayeni, a trader from Kwara State was no less excited about her win in the reward scheme. I have never seen such money in my life, she enthused.
This is certainly a life-changing experience for me and my family as I can now be rest assured that my children will have the best education available, she said. In Kano, among the lucky winners of the ten billion naira promo was Kande Waziri, a Library Science Student of the University of Maiduguri, who received a cheque of N10 million at the sixth prize presentation ceremony in the ancient commercial city of Kano, the Kano State capital. Like others, she was full of praises for MTN. Expressing her gratitude to MTN, Waziri said: I feel so loved and appreciated by this gesture because I didnt have to participate in any competition nor increase my calls. I only registered my MTN SIM and continued using it as usual and yet I was chosen to win N10 million.

Others who also won the mega prize were Funmilola Adebisi, a business man based in Kano State; Remi Odiase, an Abujabased seamstress; Stephen Umoh, a businessman also in Kano. While 15 others also won N100, 000 each, invited guests (MTN subscribers) were not left out as each was rewarded with N10, 000. MTN Master Brand Manager, Innocent Oboh, who represented the Consumer Marketing Manager, Kola Oyeyemi, while charging subscribers to register their SIM cards in order to stand a chance to win in any of the forthcoming prize presentations said, Our goal at MTN is to make Nigerians richer by creating opportunities for them to achieve their dream and the MTN N1 Billion Mega reward is a clear demonstration of that resolve He said.

The reward scheme which commenced in Lagos on September 19, this year, Oboh reaffi rmed is to say thank you to its subscribers for 10 years of patronage and to encourage them to participate in the SIM registration exercise. While Oboh revealed that the promo has since produced 60 ten million naira winners, for many other subscribers, question on their lips obviously of course has been when would my turn to become millionaire come?

Nothing to salvage in NITEL again – Omo-Ettu

Engr. Titi Omo-Ettu, President, Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria, ATCON in this interview with Adejuwon Osunnuyi bares his mind on a wide range of issues in the information and communication technology sector. He also spoke on the moribund National Carrier, NITEL and why efforts to privatise it have failed. Excerpts

Your group was part of those that advocated for the creation of the ministry of communication and technology. Now that we have it, do you think the ministry is capable of addressing most of the issues confronting the ICT sector in Nigeria?

Well, I think our attitude matters, especially when we asked for anything from government. In this case, the attitude I want us to adopt is the one that always support government to achieve results. If all of us work towards making it work, we would improve the situation. I am not expecting a situation where everything would be perfect. I am not expecting a situation whereby government would appoint the best person in the world. But whosoever is appointed, let us cooperate with the person. Let us look at the good side of what they have done and use it advantageously. Let us look at the bad side of what they have done and let us use it in a way that we can make progress. At the end of the day, the important thing for us is to make progress. I don’t want an attitude where we would say that because government has not done what we wanted, therefore, we continue to criticize government.
My own attitude is that fi rst of all, we said we wanted a change; they tried to make a change, even though what the government did was not exactly what we asked for but like I have said, don’t let the attitude be that if there is no document, then nothing would happen. No. When we asked for liberalization, and we asked for what is called NCC now, what we were asking for was NTRA, Nigerian Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, in 1992-93. That was what we wrote in our document. But they gave us what is called NCC, and we accepted it and made it work. We saw a lot of lapses, things that were not good enough, but they gave us something and we made it work. Then later on, we improved on it, and when the Communications Act came in 2003, it was a serious improvement on Decree 75 of 1992. So, I think our attitude was what mattered. And let me tell you, in the industry that we are in, it was not developed by the government; it is being developed by the players. A lot of the work that was done in the industry was the one that was done by the players, enthusiasts, professionals. It wasn’t that government did any particular thing except that it approved the things we asked for in our programme.

Let’s talk about NITEL. Why has it been difficult getting it privatised?

The problem with NITEL’s privatization is that of the temperament of those that were put in charge at the initial stages. I have said that several times. Between 2002 and 2007, I have said the temperament was wrong. We identifi ed corruption when they were trying to corner NITEL and sell it to government offi cials. We didn’t know that at fi rst. But later on, it occurred to us that corruption was involved. As a matter of fact, at a particular stage when Mallam Nasir el-Rufai was there, I was making attempt to report him. At a time, I was calling journalists to ask for Obasanjo’s e-mail address telling them I wanted to report what Nasir was doing. Later on, somebody called to tell me that I was merely wasting my time, that el-Rufai was only implementing the script of Obasanjo. He told me so many things and I was surprised. As a matter of fact, if I had continued asking such questions, they probably would have locked me up.
I was surprised. But again, we realized that we were the people who made the mistake. After corruption, the next problem is that of incompetence. In fact, we identifi ed incompetence in the BPE a long time ago. When I listened to the fl ash of the recent probe by the National Assembly, it was clear that there was incompetence. The person they put there now does not even know what she is doing. She doesn’t have any clue. She was just saying ‘I was not there’. She didn’t even say anything to convince me that even if she was there…. and in any case, she was in the system. “I was not there, I was not there,” really shows incompetence on her part. For me, in the past few years, I have stopped thinking about NITEL. The last time I talked about it was in 2009. In fact, I called a press conference and I mentioned all these things. I even said it that time that I don’t want to think about it again but each time, something would happen to make me to talk again. And I think the last thing I said was that, I want to assume that there was nothing to salvage in NITEL again.
It’s only the licence, as the First National Operator that NITEL is holding but that can be retrieved and auctioned. That is the thing that is unique in it. Maybe people don’t really know. They are just thinking NITEL is just any other company. No, far from it. That First National Operator licence is a lot and it should not be lost. It should not be given out at a price that would be a loss to Nigeria, because, that was what they were trying to do. They were trying to reduce the cost, so that they would buy it themselves or somebody would buy it on their behalf and they would go and buy it later. But it didn’t work for them. They themselves didn’t even know what they were doing. You know when you are involved in corruption, you have to tell lies, you have to just keep on muddling things all around until they eventually destroyed the acquisition. So for me, I think the entity called NITEL should be wound up. Yes, wind it up, retrieve the licence, and auction the licence. Some people are valuing assets, houses, equipment, no, that is not what you value in First National Operator licence, and it is the worth of the licence.

How much in your estimation do you think the licence is worth?

Well, it is very complex to calculate. I said that in 2009, I called all of you (journalists) and I said N2.2 billion. We did a calculation. But since then, I have not done it again.

Since the calculation was done last in 2009, wouldn’t it have increased?

No, it doesn’t increase. If anything, it reduces, but not much. Since then, the only factor that could have reduced it is the coming of Etisalat. Etisalat came in and took some of its market share. So that may reduce it a little bit, not substantially. That is the way I look at it. NITEL licence is a very expensive licence.

There is this rumour that Glo, one of the GSM telecom service providers and the Second National Operator is making attempts to ultimately acquire NITEL. What does this portend for the telecom industry?

Once you say it is a rumour, I don’t think there is anything to discuss. But if you talk about the situation, then I would say NCC should be allowed to advise federal government on that kind of issue. Considering the fact that the operator is already a Second National Operator, it offends fundamental principles of liberalization. As the second national operator, one cannot buy the other. It is not possible. Don’t let us say it is not possible, but it should not be done. The NCC should be left to advise the Federal Government on that, not for us to be talking about it when it is a mere rumour. I mean you have said it that it is a rumour, so let’s face it. It is a rumour, we don’t know what is happening, but something must be happening somewhere that people are reading to be that, but why bothering ourselves. We don’t want anything but fact. We run the industry on facts not on rumour. The purpose of setting up Second Operator is to check the First National Operator so that there must be competition. You don’t then make one to buy the other. That would defeat the very essence of having the Second National Carrier. It will kill competition

There is so much talk about broadband internet, but access to it is still very low. What is responsible?

Of course you are right. Broadband internet is an evolution. If something is evolving, won’t it start from somewhere? It is a natural thing. In America, even broadband is evolving. There are many parts of America that don’t have broadband. Just like it is happening in any other land, it has to evolve. We are now struggling to make sure that we leap-frog in broadband. This is because broadband solves problems faster than earlier technology. It is better we leap-frog and use broadband because it is cheaper but it becomes cheaper when we put access into the hands of so many people. It would be very productive and the cost would come down. When we started liberalization, some people were saying cost of telephone will go up, we said yes it would go up, but it would start coming down after some time. Do you know how much we bought SIM card when we started, it was N35,000. How much is SIM card today? It is just N200. That is what would happen to electricity if we liberalize very well. It would jump up, but after sometime, it would start coming down.
That is the natural fl ow of things. We have proved it in telecoms now and that is it. So, we are now saying that if we invest in broad band, it is advantageous. How do we invest in it? It is by making sure that many people are empowered to play so many roles, that is, people doing what we called retail sale of broadband. Right now, the retail sellers are not many and the cost of broadband is expensive. You remember at the summit, Main One said they have reduced the cost by 75 per cent at Lagos. But in Ijebu ode, nobody is getting any broadband. How do you say you reduce 75 per cent? This is because nobody is bringing it from Lagos to Ijebu ode. There are no investors who are doing that. That is why we did the Broadband Summit. Many investors would come up very soon.
They would be doing various jobs. Consultants would be having jobs, people would be fi nding jobs, and prices would be coming down. Many people would be doing many things with broadband. How do we explain to the masses, especially those who are not technologically inclined what the term ‘broadband ‘really means? The way I want to explain broadband to the common man is the fact that when you want to transfer information from one place to the other, you can transfer what is called voice, that is what we say, you can transfer text, that is what we write, you can transfer video, that is what we see, you can transfer video that is moving like fi lm.
Those ones are very complex to transfer. Text is easy, voice is easy, but video is not very easy. When it is moving, it is even very complex. But when you have broadband, those things become very easy. And many of us want to transfer things like that now. We want to be watching television on mobile, if possible. If you have iPad for example, you know it is very easy to carry, and the screen of iPad is very close to that of fl at TV screen. If you are watching television on it, it can be very mobile, and to do that, it requires additional technology. Now, that additional technology, we want to put it in the hands of ordinary people. If ordinary people have access to it, there are some things they would do which they are not doing now. Many Nigerians, no matter their social status, love football.
So if they can watch football, those guys would be very happy to do that. If they need it, why can we give it to them and make it business and let them pay for it. If Nigerians are paying N500 to watch a football match, you will make tons of money. You will just be making money. Nigerians want to do e-medicine. For example, when you are reading something on a scope here and then what is showing on the scope here can be transferred to another place to be showing on another scope there. Of course, it is a very complex technology. But it is being made easy now by broadband technology. If there is no broadband, you can’t do that at all. But people are doing that now. If we are able to share the cost such that everybody can afford it, it would be very good.

What are the strategies being put in place to attract investment in this sector so as to ensure that broadband infrastructure for last-mile option is achievable?

The first is to create awareness so that people can know that that they can even do business. That was what we did with that summit. We were about 165 that came to that summit. Almost 30 of us were probably investors. They have money. They want to invest in telecoms, but they don’t know how to go about it. Having come to that summit, there was a paper that talked about the various investment options. When they see that, they would go and meet a consultant and understand that there is this investment, how can I go about it? Out of those 30, don’t be surprised if 10 of them succeed in the next 12 months. That is how to build the market. Those are the ones who came to the summit. Don’t forget there are others who came from overseas, who already know it. They are just coming to invest. So, investment is the fi rst thing. And that is why we are creating awareness. The next is the identifi cation of funding requirement.
I mean, you want to invest; it gets to a point where you don’t have money. We can go to government. We intend to go to government to ask for fund. But we don’t want to go to the government when there is nobody to use the fund. There must be people who already want to do it before we go and say we want stimulant fund. You can see that there is funding problem. Then of course, there must be a policy of government to protect investment. That is when we say, government must now bring out broadband policy. It is not telecom policy again or telecommunication policy again, but broadband policy. We have upgraded broadband now to the level of communication itself, which is very high and it is signifi cant progress. About four or fi ve years ago, nobody was talking of broadband policy. We were not talking about it, and then if the questions of awareness, investment, broadband policy and funding are solved, you will be surprised that in the next fi ve years, you would be able to get about 200 channels on television. In US, there are about 1000 channels of television. In your room, you can watch about 1000 channels. You can do it also here. Right now, I think we have about 17, but I am saying that we can have 200 in the next fi ve years. In fact, we can have 500 if we work very hard.

The SIM card registration seems to be facing some challenges. There are fears that many SIM owners might not be captured before the end of the deadline. What does this portend?

Let me assure you, there is no cause for alarm. If you are not captured, we would still capture you; it is as simple as that. There is no way such exercise could be perfect. Such things like that are not always perfect. We would continue to improve on it. So, I don’t really see any challenge. It is just counting. Counting is one of the simple things to do. We are just counting ourselves. It is not technical. It is just logistics, but it is expensive. People don’t know that. They keep on saying, why are they spending about N6.1 billion? If you look at the cost of advert alone, if you want to communicate, it is too expensive. You know how much it costs to place an advert of a full page in newspapers. You know how much a minute cost on TV, yet they would have to communicate in various languages. So, I think it is expensive. It is complex, but it is not complex in terms of technology. It is just counting and I give you my name, put it in the data base. I don’t see what is complex about that.

The on-going tariff war among the service providers seems to be giving subscribers some good deal but can you say Nigerians are being fairly charged for services rendered?

Well, there is no fairness in business. As a matter of fact, business is a matter of what you buy is what you sell. The objective of business is to make money. So, when you people start talking about fairness, I think you can only be talking about fairness where you know that you as a consumer, you have access to alternatives. If the alternatives that you have are expensive, it doesn’t mean you are unfair. It only means that the cost of business makes it the pride that it should be. But I also know that because of poor or slack regulation, operators can do things which they should not be doing.

Reining in on software pirates

Are you buying fake or genuine software? Watch out

By Adejuwon Osunnuyi
As far as Uche Nkudu, a student of Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, is concerned, whenever it comes to buying the anti-virus or any other software for his lap-top, he knows where to go. Ever since he bought his laptop about nine months ago, the popular Computer Village in the heart of Ikeja, Lagos has always been his sure bet. But to him, since he could buy the software from the roadside dealers who, after all sell at cheaper rate, it does not make any sense buying from any of the big shops, as he thought, “they are all the same”.

While he could buy an anti-virus for just N100 from the roadside sellers, at the shops, same antivirus package goes for as much as N2, 500. But like the saying, “penny wise, pound foolish”, after purchasing an anti-virus package and got it installed in his system just last month, Nkudu learnt a bitter lesson of his life as his PC suddenly crashed as a result of accumulated virus. With the crash, he lost all the data he had saved on the system. Nkudu told Business Courage last week that he never knew those anti-viruses could be fake. “It was one engineer friend of mine that later told me that contrary to the belief that such products are anti-virus, they on the other hands are virus instead.” Besides Nkudu, many other people including students, low-income earners, lawyers, journalists, bankers, and many others are found out to also on daily basis, patronise the roadside sellers of software packages, programmes, games and so on at the Computer Village. And they all have one thing in common. In one way or the other, they have all ignorantly or out of greed, lost millions of naira and vital data to this nefarious act of software piracy as a result of counterfeit software that have been found to be vulnerable to computer viruses, malware and hackers, leaving consumers unprotected against possible data loss or identity theft. Business Courage’s investigation revealed that about 60 percent of computer users always acquire software in ways that are typically illegal, such as buying programs for one computer and then installing them on multiple machines, downloading applications from a peer to-peer network such as Kazaa or Morpheus, or buying illegally copied disks from the street markets. Roadside software seller at Computer Village, Ikeja Lagos Expectedly, many of those who sell genuine or licensed software are having diffi culty competing with pirated software that has been priced at below-market levels. Described as heist that has led to the lost of over $59 billion worth of PC software in the last one year, the Business Software Alliance, BSA, a respected industry trade organization in the world defi nes software piracy as the unauthorized copying or distribution of copyrighted software . This, it said, can be done by copying, downloading, sharing, selling, or installing multiple copies onto personal or work computers. Counterfeit software, also as defi ned by the BSA, is the illegal duplication and sale of copyrighted material with the intent of directly imitating the copyrighted product. In the case of packaged software, it is common to fi nd counterfeit copies of the CDs or diskettes incorporating the software programs, as well as related packaging, manuals, license agreements, labels, registration cards and security features. Director General of Nigerian Copyright Commission, Afam Ezekude said, “Software piracy creates an unfair market environment and in the current economic climate, every revenue is crucial to help spur economic growth, support the legitimate IT ecosystem and create jobs.” BSA said if the world’s computer users lived up to their ideals, there would be far less software piracy but it said nearly half of them do not, adding that the software piracy is more pronounced in the developing economies. For instance, the group said that Nigeria, presently basking in the euphoria of the revolution brought about by the information and communication technology, ICT boom, has been growing the business of software piracy at par with the growth in ICT. The BSA reports says about 82 percent of PC users in Nigeria acquire their software illegally most or all of the time, a record which makes it rank second in the world, coming closely after China with 86 percent as fi rst and Vietnam in the third position with 76 percent. According to the 2010 edition of its annual Global Software Survey of PC users Attitudes, 2010–2011, the report says though more than seven in 10 computer users globally (71 percent) profess support for intellectual property rights and protections, yet nearly half (47 percent) acquire their software by illegal means most or all of the time. Surprisingly, these behaviours and attitudes toward software piracy, BSA says, follow a similar pattern among the world’s business decisionmakers, a critically important group of users. The view of BSA is that many of the world’s software pirates may not even realize they are betraying their own principles and breaking the law, which underscores the importance of concerted public- education and enforcement campaigns. Seye Oloruntoba, anti-piracy manager for Microsoft Anglophone West Africa said as a world leading software manufacturer, Microsoft is working closely with the Nigerian Copyright Commission, NCC to assist them in taking enforcement action against software pirates who sell counterfeits that put consumers and businesses in Nigeria at risk. “We’ve noticed a rising number of what turn out to be ‘accidental pirates’ that is, people who unintentionally purchase counterfeit software from resellers and only later fi nd out they have been duped. In doing so, they expose themselves to a plethora of risks, which in the long-run can prove extremely costly for individuals, and often disastrous for businesses. Honest resellers, who sell only genuine software, are put at an unfair disadvantage, and ultimately the whole economy feels the effects,” he said. Oloruntoba noted that Microsoft is actively working to ensure customers and partners in Nigeria are protected from unscrupulous suppliers, adding that “This is a responsibility we take extremely seriously. When they come to us for help, we make sure they receive the necessary support and we also alert local law enforcement authorities like the NCC. There must be severe consequences for those who sell pirated and counterfeit software in Nigeria.” However, there are strong indications that the software pirates may be in serious trouble anytime soon as there has been a serious clampdown on them. Last week, the Nigerian Police raided the premises of IPS Plus Solution Limited, a computer reseller at Veterans Plaza, located in Yaba, following a consumer tip-off, an undercover test purchase and a subsequent petition to the local law enforcement authorities by Microsoft Corporation. The matter which has been handed to the Nigerian NCC for further investigation is considered as just one example of several in recent months that has found resellers to be in possession of high quality counterfeit software that is packaged like genuine software – a trend resulting in many consumers, who believe they are purchasing software from a reliable source, unknowingly becoming victims to software piracy. IPS Plus Solution Limited has offi ces in both Lagos and Abuja. A representative from Symantec Brand Protection who wanted to remain anonymous confi rmed that IPS Plus Solution Limited was a known seller of counterfeit software in Nigeria, including Norton product titles. According to him, “Symantec is very appreciative of the enforcement action taken to stop the sale of counterfeit software. This enforcement activity will help in our fi ght to protect Nigerian consumers from the known risks associated with using pirated software.” Recently, NCC offi cials also raided the premises of a local software reseller in Port Harcourt, Rivers State following the complaint made to Microsoft by a consumer after he was sold counterfeit software. The raid, which was initiated after a complaint by Microsoft to the NCC and followed an undercover test purchase of counterfeit software, resulted in the seizure of 269 units of suspected high and low quality counterfeit products, ranging from computer games, music, anti-virus software, and Microsoft Windows and Offi ce. But there has been growing concerns that it is becoming increasingly diffi cult to differentiate between genuine and non-genuine software, unless consumers are discerning and know what to look out for. Some customers who make the purchases in good faith believe that what they are purchasing is genuine when the product is in fact counterfeit. To avoid being misled when purchasing software, Oloruntoba suggested that before a consumer purchase Windows software, he/she should ask resellers to confi rm it will pass the Windows activation test. Activation and validation, he warned, are the keys to genuine software. He said PC users should beware of the common gateways of digital counterfeiting: websites advertising ‘cheap software’; online auction sites with links to download sites offering counterfeit software; and peerto- peer (P2P) networks or other fi le-sharing technologies. Advising consumers to always compare the price, he said counterfeit software is often sold at a much cheaper price, but can end up costing users hundreds or thousands of dollars. He advised consumers to be suspicious of products that lack some form of proof of authenticity – such as a hologram, CD, DVD, recovery media, manuals and Microsoft Software License Terms (MSLT) while also saying they must be extremely careful when buying from software sellers in other countries as this complicates matters if the transaction goes awry. According to a global Microsoft survey that addresses consumer’s attitudes on counterfeit software, more than 80 percent of consumers had concerns about using counterfeit software. These concerns range from risks of identity theft, virus attacks, and the fact that counterfeit products fund criminal activities. The high quality counterfeit Microsoft software currently being distributed in Nigeria includes fake hologram CDs and fake Certifi cate of Authenticity labels that look like the real thing and which are sold as complete software packages. Because of this, using the Internet to actively seek out ways to download pirated software and then circumvent software activation is said to be inherently more dangerous. Businesses and IT departments that centralize procurement or have standard software asset management (SAM) practices in place are advised to help protect themselves from the risks of counterfeit software. Microsoft noted it is committed to fi ghting piracy and reducing the risks of counterfeit software. To continue this, in November, Microsoft said it intends to hold the fourth annual Consumer Action Day, a day in which Microsoft Anti-Piracy teams around the globe spotlight Microsoft’s effort to fi ght software piracy and counterfeiting through education, engineering and enforcement. “This year’s theme focuses on the creation of a level playing fi eld -making sure businesses compete fairly and consumers learn about the value in building a strong IP environment.” said Oloruntoba who stressed that Microsoft is committed to working with the government and enforcement agencies in educating consumers on the ills of using counterfeit software and the benefi ts of using genuine. With the increasing sophistication of software pirates and cyber criminals, Microsoft said Nigerian consumers should avoid the threats to their online identity, as well as their wallets, by insisting on genuine software from their local retailers. Surprisingly, according to the study’s fi nding, it is not in all cases that counterfeit software is in low quality. Most times, they come in high quality. But businesses or individuals who were found to have purchased high-quality counterfeit software had to spend additional money in order to properly license their software. As counterfeiting increases in sophistication, the likelihood for it to enter business environments unintentionally increases. Therefore, businesses must remain vigilant to help protect their computing environments from the risks of counterfeit software by purchasing genuine software from trustworthy sources, understanding how to identify counterfeit software and implementing procurement practices. In addition to the risks of using counterfeit software within a business environment, there is additional danger in the act of fi nding pirated software to install. This is especially true for activation exploits, which are programs used to circumvent or bypass product activation. During the 2006 research study, IDC found and tested 98 unique Web sites offering access to counterfeit product keys, pirated software, key generators, and other activation exploits for Windows XP and Offi ce; about one-fourth of these sites hosted malicious or potentially unwanted software. In some cases, the Web sites visited tried to install the unwanted software automatically upon visiting the site. In other cases, the user was required to take manual action, such as receiving a prompt to install an ActiveX® control that ultimately resulted in the installation of malicious or unwanted software. Following the initial IDC research, more activation exploits have continued to be seen, and some have been discovered to contain malicious code. When a user installs an activation exploit, any code that might be within that program is installed, including viruses, malware, adware, and Trojans