Nigerian Woman Develops App To Reduce Mortality Rate In Africa

LEADERSHIP NIGERIA/AGENCY REPORT

SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016

Miss Kesandu Nwokolo, a young Nigerian, has developed a mobile phone application to help reduce infant and maternal mortality in Africa.

In a statement obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Lagos, the innovative healthcare app would revolutionise the health sector in Nigeria and Africa.

It said that the innovative healthcare application developed by Nwokolo and her team is called ”CradleCount”.
It noted that about six out of 10 women have their babies at home, where the delivery was not supervised by a skilled birth attendant.

The statement said that errors in estimating the expected date of delivery could lead to the baby being delivered supposedly unexpected.

“This is the problem faced by pregnant women in Nigeria and Africa, if this is not addressed, there will be increased pregnancy related complications resulting in more maternal and infant mortality.

“This is where technology and innovation come in.
“Seeing these shocking statistics and challenges faced by pregnant women led to the development of the mobile phone application, CradleCount.

“CradleCount helps pregnant women and also health practitioners to calculate accurately the expected date of delivery using the last menstrual period.

“The app informs pregnant women how many days to the delivery of the baby and has alerts that remind pregnant mothers to register and follow up with their antenatal care.

“It also sends regular pregnancy and health tips to expectant mothers and the app can also work without an internet connection,” it said.

According to the statement, the app is well designed with good aesthetic values and background colours that mothers can change the background of the app depending on the sex of the baby they are expecting.

The statement said that it was no longer news that Africa was faced with great challenges.

“What is interesting is that many young Africans with technology and innovation are beginning to provide the needed solution to the problems of the continent,” it said.

According to the statement, the health sector in Africa is such that needs a lot of innovative ideas to reduce poor health related deaths like maternal and infant mortality.

It quoted UNICEF as saying that, every single day, Nigeria loses about 2,300 under-five year olds and 145 women of childbearing age.

“UNICEF noted that it makes the country the second largest contributor to the under-five and maternal mortality rate in the world.

“Several research and statistics from organisations like WHO, UNICEF, National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) have shown that everyday about 90 women in Nigeria die of pregnancy related conditions.

“A woman’s chance of dying from pregnancy and childbirth in Nigeria is one in every 13. Nigeria has the 10th highest maternal mortality in the world.

“Although many of these deaths are preventable, the coverage and quality of health care services in Nigeria continue to fail women and children.

“Presently, less than 20 per cent of health facilities offer emergency obstetric care and only 35 per cent of deliveries are attended by skilled birth attendants,” the statement said.
It said that the reasons were hinged substantially on the fact that skilled birth assistants were not usually present during delivery.

According to the statement, even when eventually they are present, it happens late, due to delays at home or in the community.

It said that CradleCount was free to download and easy to use, as a pregnant woman or health practitioner for pregnant women could download it through Google Play store, by searching for CradleCount.

The statement said that the app could also be downloaded through this link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nwokolo.kesandunwokolo…. (NAN)

Conquering Africa; What The Story Of South African Firms In Kenya And Nigeria Teaches Those Looking For Riches

BY MORRIS KIRUGA

MAIL & GUARDIAN JANUARY 3, 2016

At the arrival of democracy in 1994, South Africa was only making $11 million from Nigeria. Within a decade, that had gone up to $11 billion.

The battle to sell a brand in Africa: Pharrell Williams performs on September 21, 2015 in Cape Town, partof Woolworth's partnership with the artist on their 'Are You With Us' campaign. Image: Zyaad Douglas/Gallo Images/Getty Images.

IN JUNE 2015, Nestle, the world’s biggest food company, announced it had 15% of its workforce in sub-Saharan Africa amid slower growth of the continent’s middle class.

Cornel Krummenacher, chief executive officer of Nestle’s equatorial Africa (as sub-Saharan Africa is sometimes called) unit, caused a stir after he was cited as saying by the Financial Times famously saying; “We thought this would be the next Asia, but we have realised the middle class here in the region is extremely small and it is not really growing”.

Krummenacher’s comments typified the frustration both non-African and African businesses often have coming to grips with doing business on the continent.

But there are those who fallen many times, picked themselves, and finally succeeded. Many of them are to be found in South Africa. They offer some lessons on how to hit pay dirt on the continent.

Early knocks and hits

After the United Nations lifted sanctions on South Africa in the early 1990s, the country’s companies flooded north, eager to take advantage of post-apartheid and Mandela-good-feelings business opportunities. 

Retailers, banks, telecommunications companies, and others all looked to the path carved out by SABMiller, South Africa’s most successful brand. Even during the apartheid period, SABMiller had expanded across the continent, snapping up new alcoholic drink markets.

One market that they failed to come to terms with was Kenya, in part East Africa’s most advanced economy had entrenched brands and was base to a host of multinationals. It’s for that reason that Kenya is interesting, because also being an open economy, it represents one of the most extreme barriers to entry placed by strong competitors, not government as in many parts of Africa. The Nigerian example is instructive too, beyond of the way the country forms loyalties to brands.

In the 1990s, Kenya became a graveyard of South African companies, unlike for example the greater success they had in Uganda, Tanzania (though quite turbulent), and parts of West Africa.

The failures made South African companies wary, but that is dissipating as investors learn from others’ mistakes, and hone adaptable strategies to break into African markets.  There are many insights other businesses, therefore, can glean from the fortunes and misfortunes of South African companies in Kenya.

In 1998, an aggressive SABMiller launched its first full investment in Kenya, a production unit for its Castle brand in Kenya. Like South Africa where SABMiller’s predecessor had dominated the market since the 19th century, Kenya’s beer market is old. 

The dominant brewer, East African Breweries Limited (EABL), has been making its word famous signature Tusker brand since the 1920s. The entry of SABMiller, more experienced and better funded, did not deter Kenya’s brewer, instead triggering a beer war to end all beer wars. 

The war, surprisingly, hurt SABMiller more than it had anticipated, forcing it to pull out and sell Castle to its competitor. The only consolation prize was the distribution rights that EABL ceded to it in Tanzania. It was another decade before SABMiller thought of entering the Kenyan market again.

That early failure derailed the first post-apartheid wave of investments by South African companies into East Africa. 

Very few companies had survived in Kenya in particular even during apartheid, and those that did, like Old Mutual, continue to grow rapidly to date. Coupled with the failure of brands such as Nando’s, Nu Metro, Telkom SA and Metro Cash & Carry, South African companies had reason to have headaches over East Africa. 

Often, the main problem, as noted earlier, was a more locally-established competitor with a bigger market and better networks. The costs of competition became too high to continue, forcing a quick turnaround, sale of assets to the competitor, and a move to “friendlier” countries.

Nigeria, Uganda pain and joy

The same confluence of factors seems true for companies with franchise models too. Nandos, for example, has not only left the Kenyan market but also Lesotho, Malawi, Uganda, and Nigeria. Nandos’ exit from Nigeria is particularly interesting given the successes of companies such as MTN and Naspers in Africa’s most populous country. It probably points to poor adaptation of strategies, especially in marketing. 

Woolworths, for example, floundered in Nigeria because it failed to read its would-be customers accurately. As wealthy Nigerians are famously brand savvy, they recognised the UK brand (also called Woolworths) that eventually closed shop, more than the South African one because the latter failed to make a mark.

Compare that to South African Airways’ special $90-a-piece rate for excess luggage for its routes to and from Nigeria. About 50,000 passengers fly the Jo’burg-Lagos route every year, most of them business class. On this specific route, passengers can carry three 32kg bags in economy and business class. 

Wealthy Nigerians do not mind paying more for brands, service, and luggage. The brands that have understood this and shaped their message within the country around it have met monumental success. At the arrival of democracy in 1994, when Nelson Mandela was elected, South Africa was only making $11 million from Nigeria. Within a decade, this had gone up to $11 billion.

An emerging complication in the performance of South African abroad is legislation and tax regimes. MTN, South Africa’s most successful brand overseas after SABMiller, was slapped with an R56 billion fine in Nigeria and R9.3 million one in Uganda in the span of less than six months in 2015. 

Nigeria is MTN’s largest market while MTN is Nigeria’s sixth highest non-oil source of revenue. The devastating fine crashed the telecommunication juggernaut’s share price and rattled the market. This mainly seems to affect already established companies more than new entrants, although the costs of entry have more often than not played a role in investment decisions.

And the rewards come in…

The aggressive investments into other sub-Saharan countries, despite the challenges, have had many rewards. Since 2013, sub-Saharan Africa has contributed more to SABMiller’s profits than Europe. In some cases, the successes have been far much higher than within the home market. Just five Shoprite stores in Angola, for example, sold more Red Bull Cans than all of Shoprite’s 382 stores in South Africa. Nineteen ShopRite’s in Angola also sold more bottle of JC Le Roux, a sparkling wine, than the South African stores. Another good example is DSTV subscriber numbers in Nigeria who are double the numbers in South Africa.

To figure Kenya out, South African companies experimented with several strategies. Instead of greenfield, start-from-scratch investments, they instead began to snap up already established entities thus acquiring managers with local knowledge, and avoiding some of the gropping in the dark that would come with a clean start-up. 

South African investment giant, Sanlam, bought listed Pan Africa Life in 2005. In the brewing industry, 26% of Kenya Wines and Alcohol Limited (KWAL) was sold to Distell Group in 2013.  MTN Business acquired UUNet Kenya while Altech increased its share in Kenya Data Networks.

Massmart, before its entry into the market, had unsuccessfully tried to buy family-owned Naivas Supermarket. 

In manufacturing, Tiger Brands currently has a 51% stake in Haco industries and also bought Rafiki Mills and Magic Oven Bakeries. In banking, Old Mutual, which has been in Kenya for more than a century, launched an aggressive acquisition campaign where it bought, among others, the hugely successful Kenyan micro-lender Faulu Kenya. Stanbic Bank bought CFC Bank, giving birth to the CFC Stanbic Holding and Liberty Kenya Holdings.

Brave greenfield efforts

There are still a few companies using the greenfield investment strategy. In Kenya’s lucrative real estate sector, property services provider Broll entered the market in 2013. Sea food diner Ocean Basket also opened an outlet to take advantage of Kenya’s growing consumer culture.

Even the American brand Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) made its entry into Kenya through South African franchise holder Simon Schaffer. Other franchises such as Mr. Price, Steers, and Debonairs’ Pizza have met with mixed success in the Kenyan market. Mr. Price launched into an expansion programme that has seen it stamp its presence in almost all malls, new and old, within and around Nairobi.

South Africa’s success in Kenya and other countries has not been matched by a reverse success. A key problem seems to be apartheid-era caps and tariffs that South Africa retained for countries outside its regional blocs. Tea, Kenya’s most successful export to the world, attracts a four-rands-per-kg tariff to access the South African market. Soda ash attracts a 12% levy, making the market prohibitively expensive for Kenyan exporters.

According to the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Index, South Africa is the second highest ranking country in Sub-Saharan Africa, after Mauritius. Kenya places 15th. The world ranking is of little consequence to Kenyan companies and exporters who have found it near impossible to penetrate the South African market. 

The trade deficit between South Africa and Kenya stood at $33 million at the resumption of relations in 1992. According to the 2014 Economic Survey, South Africa exported 70.7 billion shillings worth of goods to Kenya while the latter only managed 3.277 billion shillings.

Not looking beyond East Africa

Kenyan companies generally show less hunger for investments outside the East African region while South Africa has been aggressively investing across the continent as its home market becomes more crowded. This explains why, while there are over 40 successful South African companies in Kenya, there are very few Kenyan companies in South Africa. ARM Cement set up its South African subsidiary in September 2004. The arm has a capacity of 30, 000 tonnes per year, half of what the main plants in Kenya produce. 

Olympia Capital, the NSE listed investment holding company, has struggled to make headway in South Africa. Its two subsidiaries, Plush Products Ltd. and Natwood Limited, were liquidated in 2009.  Plush Products was a manufacturer of blinds and window decorating accessories while Natwood made wooden lifestyle products. Their successor, Tiespro Trading, was closed in 2013. The company made bathroom and kitchen fittings. Kenyan giants such as Safaricom, Kenya Commercial Bank, and Nakumatt are yet to show interest or capacity to invest beyond East Africa.

The battle to access the South African market heated up in 2015, with diplomatic tiffs over visa regulations and trade agreements. In March, Kenya was particularly miffed over a 2010 ban on avocadoes after some exports to South Africa were found to be infested with fruit fly. 

Although the 120 million shillings a year worth of exports was relatively small, the concern is that most countries in the region will follow suit. South Africa’s lucrative market remains elusive for Kenyan exporters and investors. Kenya’s market, like many other Sub-Saharan markets, is still a working experiment for South African companies.

'The Looting Machine' Explains Why Africa Isn't Rising

BY JAMES GIBNEY

BLOOMBERG NEWS, JANUARY 3, 2016

In one of Africa’s most celebrated surprises of 2015, Nigerian voters unseated President Goodluck Jonathan. The election of Muhammadu Buhari defied expectations of electoral fraud and violence, and his anticorruption platform sparked hopes for reform and economic growth.

Yet progress on both fronts has been slow and uneven. To understand why, pick up Tom Burgis’s The Looting Machine, a bracing look at why a continent blessed with one-third of the world’s hydrocarbon and mineral wealth remains mired in poverty and dysfunction.

A former Africa correspondent for the Financial Times, Burgis goes beyond the tales of spectacular venality among Africa’s “Big Men” – the world’s four longest-serving rulers are in African countries bursting with oil or minerals – to explain how the continent’s “resource curse” is sapping its development.

Nigeria is a case in point. Africa’s biggest oil producer gets more than 90 percent of its foreign earnings and two-thirds of its tax revenue from oil exports. Yet there are many reasons why that hydrocarbon bounty is a mixed blessing.

For starters, it can drive up the value of a nation’s currency, making other exports less competitive and imports more attractive. As Burgis points out, textiles used to be Nigeria’s most important manufacturing industry. But cheaper Chinese imports smuggled in by Nigerian gangs (an illicit trade worth more than $2 billion a year) have devastated the industry – one example of why Africa produces just 1.5 percent of global manufacturing output, despite its abundance of cheap labor.

Billions of dollars in oil revenues are also a tempting pot of money for bent politicians. One 2012 report said corruption had swallowed up $37 billion worth of Nigeria’s oil money over the last decade. That surpasses the annual economic output of more than half of the nations in Africa as well as Nigeria’s annual federal budget.

Such corruption has other toxic effects. Dirty money from bribes and kickbacks has to be laundered, and because those doing the cleaning don’t care so much about profit or productive investment, their infusions of cash distort the value of assets.

Nigeria’s reliance on oil for tax revenues also creates a perverse political dynamic: As Burgis puts it, “the ability of rulers of Africa’s resource state to govern without recourse to popular consent.” Instead of having to do right by taxpayers to win their votes, politicians focus on controlling and dispensing mineral wealth to bolster their patronage networks.

“Politics becomes a game of mobilizing one’s ethnic brethren,” Burgis notes – a contest with dangerous destabilizing effects in Nigeria’s fractious polity. In fact, as one Nigerian governor explains, if he failed to share the wealth, ill-gotten or otherwise, “I’ve got a big political enemy.”

Nigeria is far from the exception. At least 20 African countries are what the International Monetary Fund calls “resource-rich”: that is, their natural resources account for more than one-quarter of exports. Risking limb if not life, Burgis gamely takes readers around some of them, from the coltan mines of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Guinea’s rich bauxite and iron ore deposits to the diamond fields of Zimbabwe.

Even as the names and histories of the different predatory leaders blur, one thing is clear: Their looting depends on an all-too-willing cast of outside partners, whether Western mining and oil companies that plunked down bribes and abetted massacres, shady Israeli middlemen or shell companies in the British Virgin Islands.

Particularly disquieting is Burgis’s description of the unsavory role played by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, which backed visibly corrupt, environmentally destructive, or just plain inequitable oil and mining ventures in Chad, Guinea and Ghana – all countries it was supposed to be helping.

If Burgis’s book were to be made into a movie, though, the star villain would have to be Samuel Pa, the bespectacled, bearded Zelig behind some of the continent’s most dubious recent resource deals. Over the course of several decades, Pa parlayed the connections he made as a Chinese intelligence operative and arms merchant into a sprawling, secretive consortium based in Hong Kong known as the 88 Queensway Group, not to mention a spot on the U.S. Treasury’s sanctions list.

Western criticism of China’s growing presence in Africa, Burgis writes, nonetheless carries a “distinct whiff of hypocrisy” that might make even King Leopold blush. Moreover, ordinary Africans stand to gain much from the $1 trillion or so that Chinese entities will reportedly plow into their continent by 2025.

That said, the tale of Pa and Queensway, which has its tentacles wrapped around oil holdings in Angola and Nigeria, diamond mines in Zimbabwe, and agriculture in Mozambique (to name just a few of its ventures), reeks of sulfur and brimstone. As several seasoned African mining executives told Burgis, the Queensway Group reminded them of Cecil John Rhodes, the forerunner of those who “use the conquest of natural resources to advance political power and vice versa.”

One of the best hopes for curbing this rapacity and corruption may be to impose greater transparency on Africa’s outside business partners. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, for instance, recently proposed a rule requiring U.S.-listed oil, gas and mining companies to publish details of their payments to governments.

Even China may see the writing on the wall. A few months after Burgis’s book came out this year, he reported that Pa had been detained in one of China’s deepening anti-corruption probes. Guess that scotches the prospect of any Pa Scholarships in the future.

Doing Business In Nigeria Riskier Than Fighting Boko Haram -- Eric Umeofia

VANGUARD INTERVIEW

BY JIMOH BABATUNDE

VANGUARD JANUARY 3, 2016

Talking  to  the Chief Executive Officer of Erisco Foods Limited, Chief Eric Umeofia, you will feel   the pains of   a   man that has high hopes for the country’s manufacturing sector, but feels dejected   by the activities of   those holding the economy down. His tomato paste plant in Lagos, one of the biggest in Africa, provides jobs for many Nigerians   and he believes   he can create more jobs if the system is clean.  Today, the industry is plagued by importation of substandard but cheap tomato paste from China, so,   Umeofia is left to fight to keep  his local plant afloat  and has become a  strong advocate for the manufacture of goods locally as against  importation. In this interview, Umeofia shares his pains and hopes for the manufacturing sector.

On the manufacturing sector

The sector is not doing well for now because of the bad foundation laid by previous governments.

There is no pretence about it, the manufacturing sector anywhere in the world is given due attention.

Manufacturers are respected anywhere in the world ,except Nigeria because we have not realized the importance of the real sector to grow the economy.

The English people know why they call it the   real sector. In some clime, manufacturers have estates   where they are provided   everything from roads to water, they can even buy  cars on loan. There is no sector of the economy that creates employment more than the manufacturing sector anywhere in the world. Before the advent of this government, some of us manufacturers felt we made the greatest mistakes of our lives by being investors. If not for President Buhari, I would have shut down this business by now or take it   elsewhere.

The previous governments, particularly that of Jonathan, allowed importation, to the detriment of manufacturers. They were interested in making more money than paying attention to quality by allowing substandard goods to come into the country.

For  example, a tomato paste should at least   have 40% real tomato; other ingredients are water and salt. So it means that in each tank you are mixing , you need to use six to eight drums of tomato; it depends on the quantity you are producing.   That will make it to be concentrated, but in  some countries, they use a drum of tomato  and add starch , colour to make it look like real tomatoes.That colour they are adding is dangerous to our health as it blocks  blood vessels. We found out the Chinese tricks, we reported to NAFDAC, but NAFDAC   has not done anything about it.

If not that CBN came to help us with the foreign exchange policy that triggered our sales, we would have gone under. Now, these people have found means of smuggling these products  across our borders. So as manufacturers in this country, even  criminals on the street are more respected than us. Sometimes I ask myself why am I wasting my time manufacturing as those who went into trading are  richer than me all because I chose to help my country. It should not be so. Nigeria is not a manufacturing nation.

Foreigners come here saying they want to invest, but all they are interested in is to exploit the system. If you know the damages they are doing to our economy, you will not believe it. If we have good economic policies, no Nigeria will be out of work as there will be enough for all in the next four years except you are lazy. A situation where a foreigner comes to invest N100 million, after 2-3 years takes out N1 billion out of the economy is unacceptable. That person is wounding the economy the more. There is no country that its economy is driven by foreigners.

But  in our country, government policies  favour foreigners, whatever they say is law. And in  their countries, that is  not  possible. They will jail you, but here because of corruption, they are free. The foreigners bleed our economy, criminalize our people, introduce  corruption to  government agencies, yet nobody is imprisoned. In their countries, Nigerians are imprisoned for flimsy excuses.

Government needs to do something urgently on our  immigration policy to stop  these people.

Britain just did that. The Nigerian government should ensure that any foreigner  that comes here has a good reason   to be here. I have businesses in Angola and UAE, all the nonsense they are doing here, they cannot try it in Angola.

Last year, about 21 of them were sent  packing from Angola with their properties confiscated.

They are making our people slaves in their country. A time will come when the people will revolt.

On the reason for still remaining in manufacturing 

The passion to grow my country’s economy is what is keeping me going . I read a book on how five

people made America what it is today, so I said to myself if people can achieve that in America, I want to be among those that will make Nigeria great. In 1994, my company gave every state government one utility car when we launched Erisco Bonpet, that will show you the type of   love I have for my country. By the grace of God, we are very contented   and that contentment made me to come back home to establish companies despite the successes we are making in Angola and UAE.

But, little did I know that it was a risky venture doing business here in Nigeria. It is riskier than going to fight Boko Haram in Maiduguri to be an indigenous manufacturer here. Because your government agencies work against you as they support foreigners to the detriment of their people.

If I produce with six drums of tomato  and someone in China does so with one drum, how can we compete with them? 

I wrote a  petition to the House of Reps on this and they are working on it . We are creating jobs for their people, I will continue to appeal to Nigerians to avoid foreign foods and other products for the economy to grow. The government agencies did not   listen to us, but now they are seeing why we have been shouting.

My life and business  are  at risk because I am saying what I am seeing. I know reports have been submitted to NAFDAC on the activities of these people, but they will not do the  right thing. Indian government recently confiscated $50 million worth of goods belonging to  a multi-national  and other charges filed  in  court against it. For infractions. Here, in Nigeria who will do it?

NAFDAC boss will not do it, because he says all is well, but we know it is not.

How  do you relate this to some of our governors going abroad  to look for investors?

About three years ago in Ogun State, I bought land wanting to expand my factory, I paid everything payable to government after buying land from some people, just to get C of O, but two and a half years after,  no C of O. I wrote petitions and yet they say they want investors. How can investors come when you can’t issue ordinary C of O?   What is good about industrialization in this country? There is  frustration  left and right . If not that I have courage, I would have been frustrated out of this country.

On      policies   that   can assist manufacturers

The CBN governor is doing well now.  I have come to realise that not that they don’t know what is good, it is because the person at the helm  of affairs was not interested then. By the action of the CBN governor now, you will realize that he was interested   in performing but didn’t get the support and so he is performing now.   I can tell you now that they are listening to advise and by the time they follow the advice step by step, you will see how the government will be praised by those making noise. I want to draw your attention to this again, before now they will create  an intervention fund but after six weeks, the whole fund is in India or Lebanon as these people manipulate documents to take the money out of the system. They frustrate Nigerians.

On access to bank facilities

Our  commercial banks are opportunistic, they don’t have conscience. They will tell you their board wants them to make profits, but must they kill to make profit?They steal people’s money through agreement, but when you discover they will tell you it was a mistake. It will take them over 90 days to correct the mistake, but if you owe them a dime, they will put all kind of pressure on you to recover their money. The commercial banks are killing the economy because of their selfish interest, none of them is interested in supporting industries. I wanted to build a tomato concentrate  plant in Kano in 2009, but a big bank in this country advised me to import instead of investing in the country. They are not interested in committing to development all they are after is buying and selling.

On his company’s backward integration plan

We have 460 hectares of tomato plantation in Jigawa, we are about having same hectares in

Sokoto  now. In this business   it has been our target to have tomato grown everywhere, though the money is not there. When you want to do backward integration of tomato in this country, you need a minimum of

one line to process tomato into concentrate; and it costs $30 to $50 million to do one line. In China, 95 per cent of the factories are owned by government. The same machine that will work 60-90 days a year, will

work just 35 days in China. So, getting the money isn’t easy. We grow tomato twice a year here in Nigeria. In China, they grow just once a year, the same China that produce once in a year we are importing from them. That shows we don’t know what we are doing. This is why I made up my mind to produce   tomato here. When we started producing tomato in can here they said it was not possible, but today we are doing it. Some people are still deceiving Nigerians that it is still not possible all in a bid to continue importing .So with our backward integration on course, I pray God gives us the power to produce everything about tomato here from planting to packing very soon. We are going into tractor project now as you cannot do agriculture without tractorization.

This is my area, agriculture spare and machinery. So, I am doing everything possible for Nigeria to be rich in agriculture machineries as this is where the world is going now.

There is none in the country that is  functioning   now, we are the only one, so we plan with our  backward integration to support export from this country.

I want to impact my society and this informed my building churches and mosques, I don’t want people to use religion to deceive the people all in the name of tithe. I am a Christian, but I don’t support  this idea of tithe. I give what I have to people who need them.  I will rather pay my staff  well than give tithe  to pastor and and also those that come my way.

On  his company’s  market share in the tomato business

If the CBN   gives us N100 billion loan and the market is not here, I will not be able to  pay back, even without interest . We have a plant for  about 450,000 metric tons of tomato paste in a year. As a   matter of fact, myself and Dantata can meet the demand needs of Nigeria and export more, but there is no market. Now in the factory, we manage to operate one line. Everywhere is filled up with products, so I have the capacity to produce, but the  substandard products from China have taken over the market. Smuggled products have taken a  large chunk of our market share .But, I have the confidence that with this new government things will turn around. I  tell Chinese when they come  that if you want to do business here bring the plants to Nigeria.

If you give me anything to import for N20 billion and make profit  of N18 billion, I will tell you no, let us produce here. That is why I am going back to Sokoto in the first quarter of next year to start production of 20-30, 000   tractors per year.

The government of Sokoto is  willing to assist us and we are also doing tomato there.

New Collaboration Between Nigeria And US

By Gbubemi God's Covenant Jr., NAN

Daily Times, Nigeria,

December 30, 2015

The U.S. Government is ready to assist Nigeria to fight terrorism acts by Boko Haram.In a statement issued by the U.S. Embassy in Abuja on Wednesday.

However, said that much still needed to be done to ensure that the people of Nigeria and its neighbours lived in peace. The United States remains committed to helping Nigeria and its neighbours counter Boko Haram’s senseless acts of terror.

Despite much progress over the past year—due in large part to newly bolstered Nigerian and regional efforts—more work remains to ensure the people of Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria can live in peace.

The conflict has affected the lives of communities across the Lake Chad Basin region with some 2.5 million internally displaced people and more than 170,000 Nigerian refugees forced to flee their homes,’’ the statement said.
It said the U.S. had provided various forms of support for Nigeria and its neighbours in the fight against the Boko Haram insurgency.

The United States provides advisors, intelligence, training, logistical support and equipment to our African partners as they work to defeat Boko Haram. We also support those affected by Boko Haram’s violence through on-going humanitarian aid and victim support services.

“The United States will continue working with our partners in the region to identify new opportunities to support their efforts to stop Boko Haram’s wanton violence and restore order in the Lake Chad Basin region,” it said.

The U.S. condemned the terrible attacks carried out by Boko Haram in Nigeria from Dec. 25 to Dec. 28 as well as other recent attacks in Cameroon, Chad, and Niger.

It also extended condolences to the families of the victims.

“Boko Haram killed dozens of innocent people who were targeted as they went about their daily lives—attending service at a mosque, shopping in a neighbourhood market or simply travelling down a road.

“We extend our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims and we stand with the people of Nigeria and the region in the fight against Boko Haram,” it said

I Played In The NFL, And Here's Why You Need To Go See 'Concussion'

'Concussion' Provides Reality Check, Inspiration For A Sounder Football Future

BY BRENDON AYANBADEJO

FOX SPORTS, DECEMBER 29, 2015

I absolutely love football. It's a game that taught me so much about life.

Playing football taught me about teamwork, sacrifice, and the fact that nothing lasts forever. It taught me about leadership and the importance of always living your truth no matter what the consequences.

And because of this, I've spent my entire life playing football.

From playing as a kid in the Lathrop housing projects on the North Side of Chicago to playing 13 professional seasons -- 10 in the NFL with the Miami Dolphins, the Chicago Bears and ultimately winning a Super Bowl championship with the Baltimore Ravens in 2013.

As an NFL player, I had the honor of serving as a players union representative, an NFL Play 60 ambassador and utilized (and continue to utilize) my influence on and off the field to speak out on issues of equality and justice.

I've dedicated my career to doing everything I can to protect my fellow players who gave so much to the game that has given so much to us.

For years, we put our body in harm's way, and for many of my current and former NFL colleagues, the physical damage done in pursuit of winning a championship is often permanent and can be life threatening.

Unfortunately, my NFL fraternity brothers and I didn't know this information until it became public in the last five years or so.

It was with this understanding and this experience that I went to see "Concussion," the Will Smith movie about the incredible courage and resiliency of Dr. Bennet Omalu, who just like my own father, immigrated from Nigeria to the United States to start a new life.

Dr. Omalu was the scientist who put his life's work on the line to take on the NFL after he uncovered chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in athletes with a long history of repeated brain trauma.

As someone who gave my life to the game of football, this movie was not only a wake-up call, but also a disturbing walk down memory lane.

I remember feeling dizzy after tackling an opposing player and never leaving the field. Every player has seen stars, experienced vision going all black or white and kept on keeping on. These no-concussion type of hits are some of the most dangerous ones. Repetitive blows to the head are in fact the ones that do us in.

The NFL has changed the way it teaches players how to hit. In years past we were taught to use the screws on the front of our helmets right above our brow line, hit the opposing player hat-to-hat, and drive through them like an arrow through snow.

These teachings and techniques permeate all the way down to college, high school, and Pop Warner. Players are taught as much as they can to initiate contact with their shoulder pads. Equipment needs to continue to improve, as well as staunch rules preventing players from going after each other with their helmets as we recently saw when the Carolina Panthers played the New York Giants.

I remember having my heart broken as I learned about Junior Seau, a former teammate and one of the greatest people to have played football, committing suicide in 2012 because of what was later found to be CTE. Would things be different if Junior played a lifetime of football with today's equipment and rules? We can only hope so.

As I sat in the movie theater, I had mixed emotions as the film showed the hypocrisy of the NFL and how the league cared more about making billions of dollars, rather than caring about the physical health and well-being of myself and my teammates. A former teammate of mine, Bernard Pollard, believes the NFL is not sustainable and it's only a matter of time before the league attrits. 

To me, my teammates were, and will always be, my family.

And as family, we have a responsibility to stand up for each other and do everything we can to protect not only ourselves, but also the game that brought us together.

Research and awareness surrounding brain injuries is growing and "Concussion" is helping to make the issue of CTE more accessible and well known to the general public.

This will make the game better and hopefully help ensure that no family has to go through what the families of legendary Steelers players Mike Webster, Justin Strzelczyk and Terry Long, and so many others, went through.

I'm glad that the NFL has been taking the steps to make the game safer. The NFL also needs to admit it turned a blind eye after being presented with Dr. Omalu's findings.

I personally have four close friends, all NFL alums, with ALS, including my dear friend Fred McNeil who left us too soon in November of this year. OJ Brigance, Steve Gleason, and Tim Shaw all suffer from ALS, a disease that only affects two out of every 100,000 people. At any given time there are 2,000 players in the NFL -- there is a disproportionate risk of ALS in football players versus the general population.

The NFL must take responsibility for its lack of action and do more to make the game better and safer for everyone. Coming generations need to be protected when they are young, contact must be scaled back on the level of high school and older children.

The NFL can also do more for those that it's too late for. I don't want to see another teammate die too soon and I don't want to see another child lose out on the lessons that football teaches.

And that's why I'm urging parents, players and coaches from Pop Warner to the NFL to go watch "Concussion."

It's an inspiring movie about the players and for the players. It's a film that teaches us that together we can make a difference.