Pictures: NCC Number Portability Launch In Nigeria

The Nigerian Communications Commission today in Lagos formally launched the Mobile Number Portability. The event held at the Muson Centre in Lagos was a beehive of activities and was attended by stake holders in the Industry. Some of those that attended were the Chief Executives of Airtel, Etisalat, Globacom and MTN.

Others were members of the National Assembly, the Chairman of Intercontinental Clearing House Ltd who was also a former Chief of Naval Staff and husband to current Minister of petroleum, Rear Admiral Allsion Madueke Rtd.The Chairman ,Board of NCC, Engr Igho,EVC NCC,Mr Eugene Juwah, former EVC NCC ,Ernest Ndukwe and a host of other dignitaries..

To switch to any other network without losing your number, all customers are expected to walk into any GSM operator office of their choice, feel a form and send PORT to 3232 and the number network will change within 24 hours,but a customer can only change once in every 90 days.

There you have it

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Number Portability Now In Nigeria Mobile Market

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - To know what it is like to make a mobile phone call in Nigeria, ask anyone to turn out their pockets or upend their purses. One, two, three and sometimes even four phones tumble out into view, all with different carriers in hopes of being able to connect a call without it dropping out in Africa's most populous nation.

Nigeria's four biggest telecommunications companies have faced federal fines and complaints from customers for years, though no one could drop their service out of fear of giving up their number. That changed Monday, when the Nigerian Communications Commission started a number exchange between the country's four main carriers, allowing customers to keep their number and switch carriers every 90 days for free.

Customers and those in the business believe the new program will force the carriers to provide better service at the risk of losing their customers. And at greatest risk is South Africa's MTN Group Ltd., whose long dominance in the market could be challenged as it faces increasing problems with poor service and attacks on its equipment.

"It means deepened competition, it means freedom for the subscribers," said Lanre Ajayi, the president of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria. "It means if you're unhappy with an operator, you can easily move to another one without losing your telephone number - which is essentially your identity."

Mobile phones are essential for communication in Nigeria, for consumers and even security forces alike. The state-run telephone company in Nigeria collapsed years ago. Internet access comes over routers with mobile phone SIM cards inside.

In Nigeria, there are some 95 million mobile phone lines, making it one of the world's top markets. In traffic and everywhere else, hawkers wave mobile phone recharge cards. While voice calls carried the majority of the network, data is increasingly being used across the country as well, as many use their phone as their primary device to reach the Internet.

While there are a number of providers, the dominant force in Nigeria remains MTN, which was one of the first companies to enter the market when it opened. Today, the company has some 47.4 million customers in Nigeria and has revenues there into the billions of dollars a year, according to its 2012 annual report.

However, the market has become more fluid in recent years. Bharti Airtel Ltd. of India has initiated a price war, slashing call costs to pennies. Abu Dhabi-based Etisalat also has made a big push for customers, mostly for their data speeds. Local firm Globacom Ltd. also remains a force.

Those lower costs, as well as cuts on its fiber lines and bombings of mobile phone towers by Islamic extremists in north Nigeria, hurt MTN's quality in the last year, said Brett Goschen, CEO of MTN's Nigerian subsidiary. Speaking to The Associated Press on Monday, he acknowledged the new number exchange system likely would see customers leave MTN in the short term.

"The price decreases in the market in the last couple of years has increased the traffic enormously and it has put pressure on our network," Goschen said. "I think the market realizes that and that's why we've been investing so significantly. ... We're slightly behind the curve from where we want to be, so that is a bit of issue."

Yet it remains unclear how well the service will take off, as some may believe it costs extra or don't want the hassle. It takes as long as two days for the number to clear and the new network to begin service. An AP journalist who attempted to carry his number over to a new provider Monday also got an error message.

But the competition for the lucrative and growing mobile market in Nigeria likely will become even more intense, as signaled by company official after company official who urged an audience in Lagos celebrating the service's start to switch to their carrier.

"It's a survival instinct," said Segun Ogunsanya, the CEO of Airtel's Nigerian subsidiary. "You must make sure your service is good."

Online:

Nigerian Communications Commission: www.ncc.gov.ng

Bharti Airtel Ltd. in Nigeria: bit.ly/HZKjNU

Etisalat in Nigeria: www.etisalat.com.ng

Globacom Ltd.: www.gloworld.com

MTN Group Ltd. in Nigeria: www.mtnonline.com

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Dangote Set To Build $8 Billion Oil Refinery In Nigeria

The Nigerian entrepreneurial icon and Africa’s richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, plans to invest up to $8bn to build a Nigerian oil refinery with a capacity of around 400,000 barrels a day by late 2016, the tycoon told Reuters on Tuesday.

This will almost double Nigeria’s current refining capacity.

“This will really help not only Nigeria but sub-Saharan Africa. There has not been a new refinery for a long time in sub-Saharan Africa,” Dangote said in a telephone interview.

The country currently has the capacity to produce some 445,000 barrels per day among four refineries, but they operate well below that owing to decades of mismanagement and corruption in Africa’s leading energy producer.

Nigeria, the continent’s second-biggest economy, relies on subsidised imports for 80 per cent of its fuel needs.

A surge in domestic capacity would be welcomed by investors in Nigeria, but it would cut into profits made by European refiners and oil traders who would lose part of that lucrative market.

Dangote said the country’s ability to import fuel would soon be challenged.

“In five years, when our population is over 200 million, we won’t have the infrastructure to receive the amount of fuel we use. It has to be done,” he said.

Past efforts to build refineries have often been delayed or cancelled, but analysts have said Dangote should be able to build a profitable Nigerian refinery, owing to his past successes in industry and his strong government connections.

The Dangote Group’s cement manufacturing, basic food processing and other industries have helped lift his personal fortune to $16.1bn from $2.1bn in 2010, according to the latest Forbes estimate.

Nigeria has two refineries in its main Port Harcourt oil hub, one in the Niger Delta town of Warri, and one in Kaduna in the North that serve 170 million people. Not one of them functions at full capacity.

Analysts have said previous attempts to get the refineries going have been held back by vested interests such as fuel importers profiting from the status quo. Dangote said this concerned him.

“The people who were supposed to invest in refineries, who understand the market, are benefiting from there being no refineries because of the fuel import business,” he said. “Some … are going to try to … interfere.”

Nigeria’s government subsidises fuel imports to keep pump prices well below the market rate at a cost of billions of dollars a year. Fuel subsidies are the single biggest item on the country’s budget.

Dangote said making a new refinery run at a profit would work even if the government failed to scrap the subsidised fuel price that has deterred others from investing.

“We’ve done our numbers and the numbers are okay,” he said.

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"China Capable of Same Exploitative Practices As Old Colonial Powers" - Lamido Sanusi On Financial Times

It is time for Africans to wake up to the realities of their romance with China. Nigeria, a country with a large domestic market of more than 160m people, spends huge resources importing consumer goods from China that should be produced locally. We buy textiles, fabric, leather goods, tomato paste, starch, furniture, electronics, building materials and plastic goods. I could go on.

The Chinese, on the other hand, buy Nigeria’s crude oil. In much of Africa, they have set up huge mining operations. They have also built infrastructure. But, with exceptions, they have done so using
equipment and labour imported from home, without transferring skills to local communities.

 

So China takes our primary goods and sells us manufactured ones. This was also the essence of colonialism. The British went to Africa and India to secure raw materials and markets. Africa is now willingly opening itself up to a new form of imperialism.

The days of the Non-Aligned Movement that united us after colonialism are gone. China is no longer a fellow under-developed economy – it is the world’s second- biggest, capable of the same forms of exploitation as the west. It is a significant contributor to Africa’s deindustrialisation and underdevelopment.

My father was Nigeria’s ambassador to Beijing in the early 1970s. He adored Chairman Mao Zedong’s China, which for him was one in which the black African – seen everywhere else at the time as inferior – was worthy of respect.

His experience was not unique. A romantic view of China is quite common among African imaginations – including mine. Before his sojourn in Beijing, he was the typical Europhile, committed to a vision of African “progress” defined by replicating western ways of doing things. Afterwards, when he became permanent secretary in the external affairs ministry, the influence of China’s anti-colonial stance was written all over the foreign policy he crafted, backing liberation
movements in Portuguese colonies and challenging South Africa’s apartheid regime.

This African love of China is founded on a vision of the country as a saviour, a partner, a model. But working as governor of Nigeria’s central bank has given me pause for thought. We cannot blame the Chinese, or any other foreign power, for our country’s problems. We must blame ourselves for our fuel subsidy scams, for oil theft in the Niger Delta, for our neglect of agriculture and education, and for our limitless tolerance of incompetence. That said, it is a critical precondition for development in Nigeria and the rest of Africa that we remove the rose-tinted glasses through which we view China.

Three decades ago, China had a significant advantage over Africa in its cheap labour costs. It is losing that advantage as its economy grows and prosperity spreads. Africa must seize the moment. We must encourage a shift from consuming Chinese-made goods to making and consuming our own. We must add value to our own agricultural products. Nigeria and other oil producers need to refine crude; build petrochemical industries and use gas reserves – at present often squandered in flaring at oil wells – for power generation and gas-based industries such as fertiliser production.

For Africa to realise its economic potential, we need to build first-class infrastructure. This should service an afro-centric vision of economic policies. African nations will not develop by selling
commodities to Europe, America and China. We may not be able to compete immediately in selling manufactured goods to Europe. But in the short term, with the right infrastructure, we have a huge domestic market. Here, we must see China for what it is: a competitor.

We must not only produce locally goods in which we can build comparative advantage, but also actively fight off Chinese imports promoted by predatory policies. Finally, while African labour may be cheaper than China’s, productivity remains very low. Investment in tec nical and vocational education is critical. Africa must recognise that China – like the US, Russia, Britain, Brazil and the rest – is in Africa not for African interests but its own. Th romance must be replaced by hard-nosed economic thinking. Engage ent must be on terms that allow the Chinese to make money while developing the continent, such as incentives to set up manufacturing on African soil and policies to ensure employment of Africans.

Being my father’s son, I cannot recommend a divorce. However, a review of the exploitative elements in this marital contract is long overdue. Every romance begins with partners blind to each other’s flaws before the scales fall away and we see the partner, warts and all. We may remain together – but at least there are no illusions.

The writer has been governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria since 2009. The views expressed in this article are his own.

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Dana Air Refutes Claims Of Paying Celebrities To Board Its Inaugural Flight

Is it a coincidence all these celebrities were on the inaugural flight of Dana Air? Just pondering out loud here folks.

Dana Air have responded to the critics via their Facebook page about the celebrities that were on board their inaugural flight from Lagos to Abuja on Friday January 4th.

Our attention has been drawn to some online media reports suggesting that celebrities BasketMouth, DIPP, Harrysong, and Buchi, who were among guests on board the Dana Air inaugural flight of Friday, 4th January, 2013, boarded the airplane for financial gains.

We would like to state that these claims are completely untrue. Like all other esteemed guests of the airline, many of which are notable personalities from Nigeria’s entertainment scene, these celebrities have always been a part of the Dana Air family.

Their decision to be part of the airline’s re-launch was purely out of goodwill, having personally experienced the unrivalled hospitality and world-class services offered by the airline many times before.

We also want to use this opportunity to express our sincere appreciation to all our guests, many of whom have sent congratulatory messages and best wishes on the airline’s return, while pledging our commitment to the provision of safe, reliable and world-class air transport services.

Dana Air Management

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We Now Have The Right To Sell Our User’s Photos - INSTAGRAM

Instagram said yesterday 18^th December 2012 that it has the perpetual right to sell users' photographs without payment or notification, a dramatic policy shift that quickly sparked a public outcry.

First time I scanned through the head I thought I saw users can now sell their instagram photographs, how greedy ridiculous can this corporate entities get? How the hell can you have right to sell my photographs without my consent/notification or payment? If I dint put it there, will you have access to sell it. Rhipplemedia finds it annoyingly inappropriate.

The new intellectual property policy, which takes effect on January 16, comes three months after Facebook completed its acquisition of the popular photo-sharing site. Unless Instagram users delete their accounts before the January deadline, they cannot opt out.

Under the new policy, Facebook claims the perpetual right to license all public Instagram photos to companies or any other organization, including for advertising purposes, which would effectively transform the Web site into the world's largest stock photo agency. One irked Twitter user quipped that "Instagram is now the new iStockPhoto, except they won't have to pay you anything to use your images."

"It's asking people to agree to unspecified future commercial use of their photos," says Kurt Opsahl, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "That makes it challenging for someone to give informed consent to that deal."

That means that a hotel in Hawaii, for instance, could write a check to Facebook to license photos taken at its resort and use them on its Web site, in TV ads, in glossy brochures, and so on -- without paying any money to the Instagram user who took the photo. The language would include not only photos of picturesque sunsets on Waikiki, but also images of young children frolicking on the beach, a result that parents might not expect, and which could trigger state privacy laws. 

This is just insane. These just lose their common sense in pursuit of money.

CNET

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Missing Ship Belonging To Ifeanyi Uba Located, Seized By London Court

The world of billionaire mogul behind Capital Oil, Ifeanyi Ubah is getting more complicated by the day...and his assets in Nigeria and across the globe are under threat of seizure and sale!

 

While Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), which sued him over N28 billion indebtedness, is asking the Federal High Court in Abuja to sell his assets, the London court has made a major breakthrough.

 

Last week, one of the ships under surveillance belonging to the 41 year-old business was located in the Netherlands, and seized. The ship,  Mongolia was listed in the order of the London court, which contained wide ranging demands, including the itemization of Ubah's worldwide assets.

 

Three ships, belonging to business associates of Ubah (who are defendants in the london case with claim No. 2012 folio 1300- ROFOS NAVIGATION LIMITED, HELI NAVIGATION LIMITED and TUTBURY MARTIME LIMITED) had earlier been seized, while the search for Mongolia intensified across the globe. And Mongolia was seen last week(but the ship"s insignia had been removed, and located by radar and identification details).

 

The case in london, instituted by Access Bank, which through Coscharis Motors' Cosmas Maduka had advanced capital oil a loan totalling N21 billion for PMS importation last year, was again heard on Monday December 3, 2012.

 

Reportedly admitting that the said Mongolia was his, Uba was quoted as saying that the product on the ship does not belong to his company. On Monday, December 3, the court was to decide what should happen to the content of the ship.

 

Meanwhile, in Abuja where justice Abdu Kafarati is presiding over the case (Suit NO. FHC/ABJ/CS/714/2012) between AMCON and Ubah, the next point of determination is either to allow AMCON go ahead and sell the assets of Capital Oil or grant Capital Oil access to its premises so as to continue its business unhindered. This new condition came as a surprise last week when many had thought that the parties were discussing peace and how to ensure that Capital Oil's operations was restored. The peace meeting reportedly broke down, and both parties are maintaining opposing views.

The trouble of Capital Oil's Ifeanyi Ubah began on October 9, 2012, when he was a guest of special Fraud Unit, Nigeria Police (on Milverton Road, Ikoyi, Lagos). The businessman was detained on allegations of being involved in subsidy scam totalling of N22.4 billion. A report by Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede led committee on Presidential Committee on Verification and Reconciliation of Fuel Subsidy Payments, had indicted him, alongside many oil marketers. And the committee had forwarded details of its findings to the Special Fraud Unit. Ubah spent about 11 days in detention, and was released on October 19, 2012.

 

His problem multiplied at Special Frauds Unit when Coscharis Motors' Cosmos Maduka submitted a petition against Ubah, alleging a N21 billion default in an oil deal. Promising to seek justice by all legal means to recover the loan (granted through Access Bank), the matter took a different turn when the case was instituted in London. And the London Court granted a freezing injunction, among which was listing Ubah's worldwide assets, and only permitted him a $10,000 allowance per week (which was later varied to $15,000). The intention of the applicants is to get all Ubah's assets across the globe, to eventually use them to offset the loan.

 

As the case in London raged, AMCON got an interim order from the Federal High Court in Abuja permitting it to take over Capital Oil premises and many of its assets, including his Omole Phase 2, Lagos home. Ubah is fighting back to rescue his empire and save his business.

 

Ubah, who came into the public attention in 2011, with lavish adverts in pages of newspapers and a fabulous gig at Eko Hotel and Suits, has two private jets ( an Embraer 650 legacy and another smaller plane) with two grand Rolls Royce marques. The Nnewi (Anambra) born businessman has scores of properties in Nigeria and across the globe.

 

Source: Encomium Magazine

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Folorunsho Alakija Replaces Oprah Winfrey As The World’s Richest Black Woman

Thats some news..

Folorunsho Alakija,61, was named by  Forbes Africa as one of the richest women in Africa,  a few days ago. Now, another online publication, Ventures Africa has ranked her as the World’s Richest Black Woman. According to the report, she has ousted Oprah Winfrey from the position.

Ventures Africa claims that contrary to  the Forbes Magazine ranking which pegs her net worth at only $600 million, Alakija is actually worth at least $3.3 billion. 

The Ventures Africa report also claimed that Alakija has a real estate portfolio worth over $100 million. Earlier this year, Nigerian and British media announced that Alakija acquired a property at One Hyde Park for $102 million.

She owns a Bombardier Global Express 6000 which she bought earlier this year for a reported $46 million. She is the founder of the Rose of Sharon foundation, a Christian-based charity which gives out small grants to widows.

Alakija is married to Modupe Alakija and they have four grown-up sons together.

See their full report HERE

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Dangote And Elumelu Nominated For Forbes Africa Person Of The Year

Entrepreneurs exploits in Nigeria always has the image of Dangote on its list. Forbes has recognized him a couple of times before to attest to that.

Aliko Dangote, Tony Elumelu, and 3 other Africans have been nominated for the 2012 Forbes Africa Person of the Year award. The other three nominees are: Joyce Banda, President of Malawi, Dr. James Mwangi, Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director, Equity Bank Limited, Kenya, and Stephen Saad, Co-founder, Aspen Pharmacare.

Forbes Africa said the Person of the Year award would go to the person who has had the most influence on events in 2012. The 55 year-old Dangote is listed as #76 on the Forbes list of billionaires with an estimated net worth of $11.2 billion made in commodities trading and he is also the “cement king’ of Nigeria.

Elumelu is a respected banker and philanthropist who has been quoted as saying, “No one can develop Africa but us [Africans].” His philosophy is that of “Africapitalism.”

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NIGERIA's OIL RESERVE WILL BE DEPLETED IN 41 YEARS - World Bank

Nigeria’s oil reserve will be depleted in 41 years, according to a World Bank Group’s twice-yearly analysis of the issues shaping Africa’s economic prospects called Africa’s pulse. The report which was presented by the World Bank’s chief economist for Africa, Shantayanan Devarajan, yesterday said Nigeria’s and Angola’s oil reserves will be depleted in 41 and 21 years respectively.

“Nigeria, the largest regional producer, can keep supplying at 2011 levels for another 41 years, while Angola, the second largest producer in the region, has about 21 years remaining at current production levels before its known reserves are depleted.

“Given the size of these reserves, it is likely that the dependence on oil resources in these countries are likely to continue in the near to medium term. Production in newly oil-rich countries such as Ghana and Uganda could also last for several years.”

According to the World bank’s chief economist, Mineral wealth in African countries including Nigeria don’t translate to prosperity because the money accruing from it doesn’t pass through the citizens, and the citizens don’t see the wealth as theirs.

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