Business Archives - Page 78 of 83

ZENITH BANK/NFF FUTURE EAGLES PUT HUNGARY TO THE SWORD AT THE 2019 FIFA UNDER-17 WORLD CUP IN BRAZIL

Almost all the impact players for the Golden Eaglets in Saturday night’s 4-2 defeat of Hungary in the opening match of the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup tournament in Brazil are products of the annual Zenith Bank/NFF Future Eagles Championships, including the goal scorers.

The competition, sponsored by NFF’s partner, Zenith Bank Plc, was launched in 2016 and has been widely lauded for its vision, with both U-13 and U-15 competitions running side-by-side right from the states to the zones and then to the national finals.

Samson Tijani, captain of the team and playmaker, who netted two goals (Nigeria’s first and last goals), and was named Man Of The Match, is a product of the competition, as well as defender Usman Ibrahim, whose powerful header off a corner kick restored parity after several attempts by Nigeria had been foiled.

Right back Oluwatimilehin Adeniyi, whose powerful header off a cross by another substitute Ibraheem Jabaar put Nigeria ahead for the first time in the game (3-2), also emerged from the Zenith Bank/NFF Future Eagles competition. He was severely injured before the Africa U-17 Cup of Nations in Tanzania in April, and could not make the trip.

Also of note is Akinkunmi Ayobami Amoo, whose entry into the game in the second half brought more vigour into the Nigerian attack. Amoo is a product of the Zenith Bank/NFF Future Eagles Championship, alongside forward Olakunle Olusegun, who also fought like a Trojan in Saturday’s encounter.

Another player who is a product of the Future Eagles Championship and is with the Eaglets in Brazil is Divine Nwachukwu, but he did not taste action against the Hungarians.

The Zenith Bank/NFF Future Eagles Championship also supplies the players to the U-15 National Boys’ team, which finished as runner-up at a tournament in Japan few months ago. In fact, Usman Ibrahim, who netted the equalizer against Hungary before further goals by Adeniyi and Tijani, was in the squad that went to Japan.

Nigeria, five –time champions of the FIFA U-17 World Cup take on Ecuador, host of the 1995 edition, in their next match of the tournament on Thursday, also at the Estadio Olimpico in Goiania where they put Hungary to the sword. Their final match of Group B, against Australia, will take them to Brasilia, on Friday.

Zenith Bank remains the biggest corporate social responsibility (CSR) contributor in the Nigerian financial services industry. The bank regularly make donations towards the development of various sectors of the Nigerian economy including education, health, sports, etc. In addition to being a major sponsor of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBBF), Zenith Bank is the sole sponsor of the Zenith Bank/NFF Future Eagles Championship, the Zenith Bank Women Basketball League (for 15 years running), the Zenith Bank Delta Principals’ Cup, and the Zenith Bank Next Gen Tennis Championship, amongst others.

PHOTOS: Buhari, Heritage Bank, Zamfara State, others hold discussion on boosting solid mineral development

In a bid to boost the nation’s economic growth, Heritage, Zamfara State Government and the Pan African Capital, at the just concluded Russian-African Summit in Sochi, Russia, held a meeting to brief President Muhammad Buhari on the African Export Import Bank cooperation with Zamfara on solid minerals development put together by the two aforementioned financial institutions.

This is coming on the heels of the signing of $1bn Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the areas of mining, agriculture, water resources and others, between Afreximbank and Zamfara, which Heritage Bank is the banker to the project.

President Muhammadu Buhari (4th right) with Governor of Zamfara State, Bello Muhammad Matawalle (3rd right); Minister of Solid Minerals, Arc. Olamilekan Adegbite (3rd left); President/CEO AfreximBank, Prof. Benedict Oramah (4th left); MD/CEO Heritage Bank Plc, Dr Ifie Sekibo (2nd right); Managing Director, Intra-African Trade Initiative, AfreximBank, Mrs. Kanayo Awani (left); Zamfara State Official, Alhaji Bashir Hadejia (2nd left) and Managing Director, Pan African Capital, Mr. Chris Oshiafi, during a meeting to brief President Buhari on the Afreximbank cooperation with Zamfara State for Solid Mineral development put together by Heritage Bank and PAC, in Sochi, Russial, weekend.

FIRSTBANK CELEBRATES TOP PERFORMING FIRSTMONIE AGENTS NATIONWIDE

In recognition of the contribution of its Firstmonie Agents towards the Bank’s resolve at promoting access to financial services to all Nigerians, First Bank of Nigeria Limited has announced that its Agent Banking National award ceremony would hold on Friday, 25 October 2019 at the Oriental Hotel, Lagos. The event is themed “Planting Community Heroes Nationwide”.

Since its inception in 2017, the FirstBank Agent Banking scheme, popularly called Firstmonie, has recorded giant strides at promoting financial inclusion across the nook and cranny of the country. With almost 40,000 Agents in 99% of the 774 Local Government Areas in Nigeria, processing approximately 1million transactions daily, First Bank of Nigeria Limited is leading the effort at supporting the Federal Government’s objectives to deepen access to financial services.

FirstBank’s Firstmonie service is providing financial/banking solutions to rural and semi-urban locations across the country, such as account opening, cash deposit, cash withdrawals, airtime purchase, bill payments, BVN enrolment and much more. Through this channel, the Bank is providing convenient services that endears trust and provides ease of access to banking products, thereby saving time and travel costs for users of our network. During the award ceremony, the bank will be recognising top performing Agents at National, Regional, and State levels.

FirstBank’s financial inclusion activities is in line with the mandate of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to ensure the availability of affordable financial products and services to all individuals and groups of people in the country; irrespective of location, literacy levels, familiarity with technology and accessibility to modern infrastructural facilities. The Firstmonie Agent channel is amongst the Bank’s many initiatives to expand financial access in the country.

“According to Adesola Adeduntan, Chief Executive Officer, First Bank of Nigeria Limited “the unwavering efforts and remarkable contributions by our Firstmonie Agents at promoting financial inclusion in Nigeria is indeed very much appreciated. Within the past 2 years we have been able to create not only 40,000 access points, but over 150,000 indirect jobs. We remain committed to doing more, strengthening business activities, driving economic growth and development; thereby reducing poverty”

“We would not rest on our laurels because without a doubt, every individual’s contribution to national growth and development, regardless of where they are, is indeed very important to us” he concluded.

(PHOTO) Heritage Bank joined other Corporate Agencies at the Ongoing Russian-African Summit

In a bid to support the nation’s economic drive, the Management of Heritage Bank Plc joined other Corporates and government agencies to brainstorm on the way forward for the African continent

ZENITH BANK REAFFIRMS MARKET DOMINANCE AND LEADERSHIP WITH Q3 2019 RESULTS

Zenith Bank Plc has announced its unaudited results for the period ended 30 September, 2019, with numbers that clearly demonstrates its market dominance and leadership.

From the unaudited account which was presented to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), gross earnings increased by 4% percent from N474,607 billion recorded in Q3 2018 to N491,268 billion in Q3 2019. Profit Before Tax (PBT) grew by 5% from N167,307 billion in Q3 2018 to a record N176,183 billion in Q3 2019. Also, profit after tax rose by 5% from N144,179 billion in Q3 2018 to N150,723 billion in Q3 2019.

Despite a challenging macro-economic backdrop, the Group recorded a significant growth in Non-Interest Income, expanding by 22% from N128.7 billion in Q3 2018 to N156.8 billion for the current period. Our platforms and channels have been the enablers of this growth, with fees from electronic products doubling to N35.3 billion from N17.6 billion in Q3 2018.

Our cost optimization strategies and aggressive retail banking drive are yielding the desired effects as cost-to-income ratio declined from 51.2% in Q3 2018 to 50.1% in Q3 2019 with Earnings Per Share (EPS) growing by 5% from N4.58 in Q3 2018 to N4.80 in Q3 2019.

Our retail and corporate banking franchises continued its momentum with customers’ deposits growing by 7% to N3.95 trillion from N3.69 trillion recorded as at December 2018, a reflection of increasing share of the industry’s deposits and customers’ confidence in the Zenith brand. These deposit acquisitions have directly contributed to our cost of funds improving from 3.3% in Q3 2018 to 2.95% as at Q3 2019.

We have continued to deploy capital to creating viable risk assets with gross loans and advances growing by 9% from N2.02 trillion as at December 2018 to N2.2 trillion as at Q3 2019 across both the retail and corporate segments. Our focus remains the search for bankable lending opportunities to ensure the attainment of the minimum regulatory loan-to-deposit ratio (LDR) of 65% by December 31, 2019 without compromising our prudence.

Our robust risk management framework has ensured that non-performing loans (NPL) ratio declined from 4.98% in December 2018 to 4.95% in the current period. Our commitment to maintaining a shock-proof balance sheet remains with liquidity and capital adequacy ratios at 63.8% and 23.8% respectively, both above regulatory thresholds.

In this final quarter of the year, we will sustain our competitiveness and share of market in the corporate segment and build upon our digital foundations to reinforce our retail banking initiatives.

As a testament to this superlative performance and in recognition of its track record of excellent performance, the bank was recently named as the Bank of the Year and the Best Bank in Retail Banking at the 2019 BusinessDay Banks’ and Other Financial Institutions Awards (BAFI Awards).

Heritage Bank boosts Economic Growth, Empowers Young Entrepreneurs

As part of drive to contribute to the growth of economic drive, Heritage Bank Plc has continued to support The Next Titan Season-six; in ensuring that the entrepreneurial targets of the Nigerian youths are attained.

The Next Titan entrepreneurial reality TV show sponsored annually by the Heritage Bank Plc has unveiled the top 16 contenders for the season-6 of the competition.

The 16 lucky candidates were selected from among 50 contestants who made it to the Bootcamp after the auditions that saw thousands of Nigerian young entrepreneurs jostle for selection at the audition centres in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Enugu and Abuja.

The contest is out for the N7 million cash prize staked for grab by the chief sponsor, Heritage Bank, and a brand new Ford car donated by Coscharis Ford Motors.

The cash prize has been increased to N7million from N5million in the last five seasons.

Having emerged top 16 contenders, the entrepreneurs will proceed to the Next Titan House where they will be involved in a-10 week entrepreneurial and social service tasks including trainings and mentorship under the guidance and supervision of astute business leaders who serve as judges.

Speaking at the Premiere Night in Lagos on Sunday, where the top 16 were unveiled, the Regional Executive, Lagos and South West, Heritage Bank, Dimiri Dike, said the programme was one of the ways the bank drives social and economic change as a responsible corporate citizen.

Dike said: “On the economic level, you know that entrepreneurship drives employment, it drives social change, so we are really doing it for both social and economic change. And also, time it was in the past when a lot of people entered entrepreneurship without proper training. This platform, the Next Titan, offers you a very good beginning.

“Some of the advantages and benefits that entrepreneurs in the past never had are what these ones are enjoying. So this is an opportunity for them to be schooled and at least stand the fighting chance from the perspective of knowledge and experience of those that had gone before them to succeed”.

Advising the top 16 contenders, Dike said: “First, be yourself, you have to be humble. The fact that you made it to the top 16 doesn’t mean you are better than those who didn’t get here. It could have been just one thing or another. So, if you now go and be thinking that you have now arrived, that lack of humility could be your undoing.

“And more importantly, enjoy the experience because even after you have won; it is the memories of your journey to victory that will keep you going, long after you have become a successful entrepreneur”.

Giving insights into some changes in the programme, the Executive Producer, Next Titan, Mide-Kunle Akinlaja, said: “One, the prize has changed from N5million to N7million. Then two, we are improving in all areas, content-wise, trying to make the show more entertaining and at the same time not allowing the entertainment to water down the essence of the show, which is entrepreneurship. So, generally, we keep improving”.

The winner of the show will be announced in December at the Grand Finale in Lagos.

L-R: Dike Dimiri – Executive Director, Lagos & South West Region, Heritage Bank; Boladele Dipo-Thomas, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment, Lagos State; Mide Akinlaja, Executive Producer, Next Titan and Afolashade Alonge, Divisional Head, Corporate and Specialized Banking, during the selection of 16 contenders for the Season-6 of the entrepreneurial reality TV show lead sponsored by Heritage Bank Plc in Lagos, recently

“The Entrepreneurship Journey Entails Hard work, Discipline and Sacrifice”, Elumelu Says to Cape Verdean Entrepreneurs

Speaking at the Youth Konnekt Forum in Cape Verde yesterday, African investor and philanthropist, Tony O. Elumelu, Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) and Chairman, United Bank for Africa (UBA), charged entrepreneurs to embrace hard work, discipline and sacrifice on their entrepreneurial journey to success.

He addressed over young Cape Verdean entrepreneurs in a Forum themed “African Youth: Foresight and Opportunities”, where he shared nuggets from his wealth of experience as an entrepreneur with success stories investing in Africa.

He said: “Entrepreneurship is a long-term journey. There is no quick fix. You will make mistakes. You will have challenges. For you to succeed along this journey, you must be disciplined, make sacrifices and save today to achieve your goals.”

The audience included public sector leaders – the President of Cape Verde, H.E. Jorge Carlos de Almeida Fonseca OICVV and Prime Minister, H.E. José Ulisses de Pina Ceorreia e Silva, as well as development partners, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Mr. Elumelu addressed these stakeholders, emphasising the important role of the government in creating an enabling environment for small and medium scale enterprises to thrive while commending the Government of Cape Verde for the strong, deliberate reforms to boost entrepreneurship in Lusophone Africa. He stated that the future of the African continent is in the hands of the African youths and they must be empowered to achieve the ambition of a well-developed continent.

He said: “The Prime Minister spoke to me about the tax incentive they are putting in place. He spoke about out opening up the country for tourism, and air transportation, and the commitment to entrepreneurs, making sure that those interested in agriculture, ICT and other areas are supported to succeed. He spoke to me about creating the opportunity to meet with some of you and see how the Tony Elumelu Foundation can support some of you. This is what we expect from our African leaders: For them to know that the future of Africa is indeed in your hands,” Mr. Elumelu said.

In his keynote speech, the President of Cape Verde, H.E. Jorge Carlos de Almeida Fonseca OICVV, expressed gratitude to Tony Elumelu for pioneering the entrepreneurship movement across the African continent. He said: “Thank you to Tony Elumelu for what you are doing for young people in Africa especially young people in Cabo Verde”. The Prime Minister, H.E. José Ulisses de Pina Ceorreia e Silva, also commended Tony Elumelu and his Foundation’s commitment to empowering African entrepreneurs across the continent.

The entrepreneurship movement led by the Tony Elumelu Foundation has caught the attention of the African public sector and has rapidly become a defining blueprint for the accelerated development of the African economy. Its goal is to leverage the youth population to create jobs, revenue and eradicate poverty on the continent. Thus far, TEF has empowered 7,531 entrepreneurs across all 54 African countries (19 of whom are from Cape Verde), with plans to again open its application portal for the 6^th cohort of its Entrepreneurship Programme on January 1, 2020.

Organised by the National Youth Ministry and the Government of Cape Verde, Youth Konnekt is one of the many plans the country has rolled out to further cement its plans to boost entrepreneurship across the region.

Tony O. Elumelu, Founder, The Tony Elumelu Foundation and Chairman, United Bank for Africa (UBA) addresses entrepreneurs and public sector leaders at the Youth Konnect Forum in Cabo Verde on October 17, 2019.

Tony O. Elumelu, Founder, The Tony Elumelu Foundation and Chairman, United Bank for Africa (UBA) with H.E. José Ulisses de Pina Correia e Silva, Prime Minister of Cape Verde and Carlos do Canto Monteiro, Deputy Minister for Youth of Cabo Verde at the Youth Konnect Forum in Cabo Verde on October 17, 2019

MTN ICT Traning wave In Nasarawa and Rivers States

Waste Management is a lucrative business In Rivers State

How will you feel if your teacher throws a question at the class and someone he called before you gave out the answer you have in mind? Painnnn… you have to quickly think of another answer or simply rephrase what you have in mind.

There was a similar case at the ICT & Business Skills training in Port Harcourt, the two-day training organised by MTN Foundation had 500 participants comprising of business owners and ICT enthusiasts in attendance. After several sessions from Google Digital Skills Trainer, Destiny Takon and Assistant Manager, KPMG Technology Advisory, Tosin Okuselu, it was time for a brief task.

A mini competition was also organized to test business development capability of participants. They were divided into groups and asked to develop a business proposal and present their ideas after brainstorming for 15 minutes.

15 minutes later, they all had an interest in waste management and recycling and presented different tactics related to the same business plan, the hall was buzzing with laughter as to how all groups came about the same business idea.

Regardless, they were all winners! Not only did they go home with the knowledge of ICT and Business Skills, some outstanding guests left the conference hall with exciting gifts that will always remind them that MTN Nigeria cares. #MTNICTBizTrainingPH

FIRST BANK: TOWARDS REVIVING NIGERIA’S TEXTILE INDUSTRY

For many years, until the early 1980s, the Nigerian textile industry was the highest employer of labour, after the public sector. Sadly, the industry is in dire straits battling for survival in recent times.

Among the challenges that confronted the sector were policy inconsistency leading to closure of many textile companies occasioned by poor power supply, smuggling, poor access to finance and high operating cost, among others.

It is unarguable that the closure of many textile companies contributed to the rise in the country’s high unemployment rate, rising insecurity and other social vices.

It is against this backdrop that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, recently lamented the country’s descent from being a textile giant to a mediocre player in the world economy.

Emefiele said Nigeria used to be home to Africa’s largest textile industry in the 1970s and early 1980s with the employment of over 450,000 people.

“The textile industry at that time was the largest employer of labour in Nigeria after the public sector, contributing over 25 per cent of the workforce in the manufacturing sector.

“The industry was supported by the production of cotton by 600,000 local farmers across 30 of Nigeria’s 36 states.

“This sector supported the clothing needs of the Nigerian populace, as our markets were filled with locally produced textiles from companies such as the United Textiles in Kaduna, Supertex Limited, Afprint, Texlon, Enpee and Aswani Mills, among others.

“In addition, the cotton growing sector has gone dead, thereby depriving thousands of smallholder farmers the chance to earn a living.

Furthermore, a large proportion of our clothing materials today are imported from China and countries in Europe,” Emeifele stated.

It is against this background that First Bank of Nigeria Ltd, in line with its celebratory 125th anniversary , themed, “Woven into the Fabric of Society”, on Oct. 2 commemorated the country’s independence with a locally made textile attire.

Specifically, the bank set aside Oct. 2 to have all staff wear a locally made textile attire adorned in its 125 anniversary logo and over 18,000 staff across the bank and FBN Holdings participated.

The bank in a statement attributed the initiative to moves to celebrate the country’s 59th Independence anniversary and at the same time support the textile industry.

“The native attire fashion statement by FirstBank and the FBN Holdings Group is rooted in our trust in the diverse opportunities the textile industry provides.

“And indeed its contribution to national growth and development, vis-à-vis the job opportunities, youth and women empowerment, as well as the entrepreneurship driven influence its creates cannot be overemphasised.

“The bank is indeed honored to have been woven into the Fabric of Society in the last 125 years and is committed to keep promoting activities and opportunities that contribute to the growth of the textile industry.” it added.

Apart from the above intitative, FirstBank also provide access to market and provide opportunities for entrepreneurs in the Small Medium Scale Enterprise (SMEs) of the fashion industry with an initiative tagged Fashion Souk.

The bank partners with Eventful Nigeria Ltd with Fashion Souk, a platform that creates an opportunity for players in the fashion industry to exhibit and sell their wares to the thousands of event participants.

The bank also in a bid to ensure sustainability of the industry recently introduced fashion design loan specifically designed to offer financial support to the participants in the textile industry.

The bank’s fashion design loan with a single obligor limit of up to two million naira is targeted at tailors, dressmakers and traders in clothing accessories with no tangible collateral required.

To be eligible for the loan, applicants must have been in line of business for a minimum of three years.

Commenting on the development, Mr Moses Igbrude, Publicity Secretary, Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN), described the initiative as a wonderful concept.

“I hope those in the local textiles value chain will key into it and take advantage of this initiative.

“FirstBank should also ensure that the concept is properly communicated to the larger audience to ensure more patronage of locally made textile,” Igbrude said.

He noted that the Federal Government on its part should encourage institutions that are supporting our local industries by way tax incentives.

Also speaking, Mr Shehu Mikail, National President, Constance Shareholders Association of Nigeria, commended the bank’s support for local fabric and the textile industry.

Mikail said that the initiative would boost the morale of interested bodies who would like to venture into local fabric in promoting our culture to the world.

He said that the bank should focus on the fashion designers who would be ready to promote Nigerian mode of dressing to meet the world class in fashion design.

“This will help in promoting Made in Nigeria fabric and it will also encourage an interested investor to venture into textile industry business and this will tranform our economy,” Mikail stated. (NAN)

We are Considering Taxing Soft Drinks – Finance Minister

The Federal Government is considering introducing excise duties on carbonated drinks, according to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed.

Ahmed gave the indication in an interview with newsmen on Thursday on the sidelines of the ongoing World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings in Washington DC, United States.

She said the idea was one of other areas, besides the proposed increase in VAT, that the government was looking at to broaden its revenue base.

The minister explained that the government was working hard to ensure efficiency in existing revenue streams while searching for new ones.

She said the government would consult with all stakeholders on the proposal in line with standard policy formulation process.

“Any tax that you are introducing will involve a lot of consultations and also amendments of some laws or introduction of new regulations,” she said.

Carbonated drinks include soft drink brands such as Coca Cola, Sprite and Fanta, while excise duty is a tax levied on locally produced goods.

Ahmed said her ministry was working with all the agencies to ensure that collaboration was strengthened in revenue generation.

“The government is trying to ensure that the work of the agencies are complementing each other as opposed to the past where everybody is working in silos.

“Efforts are ongoing to improve the monitoring performance of the revenue generating agencies, especially government-owned enterprises.

“We have now in place a rigorous monthly reconciliation of revenues and that is ensuring that the leakages are minimised.

“There is several cost cutting measures in the SRGI and a number of cost cutting measures initiatives such as innovation and automation as well as capacity building of our people,” she said.

The minister reiterated government’s resolve to sanction revenue generating agencies that fail to meet their targets.

“Mr President has said that targets will be set for ministers as well as heads of agencies and that when targets are met there will be recommendations and when there are not met there will be consequences.

“So, what was missing in the past was that there were no consequences, so if an agencies underperformed there is no consequences for doing do.

“But now there will be consequences and we will be pushing to make sure that we provide all the support that the agencies will require to enable them perform,” she said.

(NAN)