bUSINESS
AshakaCem, Army move to rebuild northeast
By Zakariyya Adaramola
AshakaCem Plc and the Nigerian Army have scaled up efforts to rebuild the Northeast part of the country which has suffered devastating damage from the Boko Haram insurgency.
Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Yusuf Buratai and Chairman, AshakaCem Plc Alhaji Suleiman Yahaya both spoke when the latter visited the former in his office in Abuja on Wednesday.
Lt Gen Buratai commended the management of AshakaCem for its philanthropic activities in the region, saying the cement firm has supported the country’s war against the terrorists.
He described the attacks on the company last year as unfortunate, but urged its management not to relent in its effort at rebuilding the region.
Mr. Yahayah responded that his company was impressed by the security arrangement put in place around AshakCem, even as he said the attacks had cost his company N4.5 billion.
He promised that his company would step up its humanitarian efforts and would soon make a major announcement on its next move. AshakaCem, he enthused, is the largest employer of labour in the Northeast.
NSE emerges best corporate social responsibility company
From Kayode Ogunwale, Lagos
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has been named the “Best Corporate Social Responsibility Award” at the 2015 African Business Awards held in New York.
The African Business Awards, launched in 2008 by the African Business magazine, is designed to celebrate excellence in African business by recognizing the individuals and companies deemed to be driving Africa’s rapidly transforming economy and creating new economic opportunities for citizens and communities all over the continent.
Entries are assessed by a judging panel of renowned individuals who are chosen for their expertise on the African Business industry, with scores based on a set of qualitative and quantitative criteria.
Receiving the award, the Chief Executive Officer, NSE, Mr. Oscar Onyema expressed appreciation for the honour and reiterated the Exchange’s commitment to providing a platform for sustainable growth and development in the African economy.
The Corporate Social Responsibility award brings to four the number of awards received by the NSE so far in 2015.
Ecobank secures $285m loan from Deutsche Bank
Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) has received a one-year senior unsecured loan facility of $285 million from the Deutsche Bank AB. The lender disclosed this in an issuer’s announcement with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
According to the ETI, it appointed the Deutsche Bank to be its initial mandated lead arranger, book-runner and facility agent, together with a syndicate of international banks to arrange this financing. Deutsche Bank A.G has successfully closed primary syndication with an over-subscribed order book.
The pan-African lender, disclosing the final size of the facility was maintained at $285m, said it worked with the Deutsche Bank on this transaction in view of the latter’s strong distribution platform and rapid execution capabilities.
“ETI will use the loan facility to refinance existing loans,” the bank added.
Shares of ETI at the close of trading on the Nigerian bourse on Wednesday dipped by 0.32 per cent to N18.55 from N18.61 recorded the previous session, thereby losing 0.06 kobo per share.
Expert foresee genuine foreign investments under President Buhari
From Kayode Ogunwale, Lagos
Following his recent trip to France on the entourage of President Muhammadu Buhari, Chief Eric Umeofia, the President of Erisco Foods Limited has declared that with the efforts of the Buhari administration and the useful interactions of Nigerian manufacturers and investors with their French counterparts during the visit, Nigeria will soon be the preferred destination for genuine foreign direct investments (FDI) and partnerships in Africa.
Umeofia led his team to seek technical partnerships with experts in backward integration execution, as well as experts in the tomato value-chain. This is in order to kick-start his vision of developing the tomato industry from the basic modernized plantations to setting up of refinery plants for conversion of the harvested tomatoes into concentrate. The concentrate thus produced will eventually lead to the stoppage of importation of foreign concentrate for use in Nigerian tomato paste factories such as in Erisco Foods’ 240,000 tonnes per annum factory in Oregun, Lagos State. The factory is reputed to be the largest tomato paste factory in Africa. Its management disclosed there are plans for it to become the third largest in the world by the first quarter of 2016 with an increased production capacity of 450,000 metric tonnes per annum.
Erisco Foods is already in the process of launching massive tomato plantations through backward integration in Sokoto, Jigawa, Katsina and Zamfara states. Chief Umeofia has been a vocal crusader for the Nigerian government and the international community to support indigenous manufacturers and local investors as the fast and effective means of revamping the floundering fortunes of Africa’s most populous nation. It is Chief Umeofia’s firm belief that serious investors can only come into an economy such as Nigeria’s if her own nationals have staked impressive investments of their own.
