Monday 18 June 2018 C002D5556 BUSINESS DAY 39
Lagos, Edo among states with highest average airfare in May- NBS
IFEOMA OKEKE & BUNMI BAILEY
Lagos, Edo and Abuja were the states with the highest average airfare in Nigeria in May 2018, according to the National Bureau of Statistics( NBS) transport report.
From the report, Lagos had an average fare of N40,500, Edo had N39,950 and Abuja FCT had N39,592.05, while states with the lowest airfare had N25,700.02, Osun had N24,950.05 and Kastina had N24,300.
The average airfare across the states increased marginally by 1.04 percent year-onyear to N31,659.08 in May 2018 from N31,651.02 in May 2017, and declined by 0.40 percent month-on-month from N31,833.05.
John Ojikutu, member of aviation industry think tank group, Aviation Round Table( ART) and chief executive of Centurion Securities, told BusinessDay,“ Eighty percent of air traffic emanates from Lagos and Abuja. This is followed by Port Harcourt. I think Enugu is catching up with Kano. Kano’ s traffic went down as a result of the crisis in the north.
“ We can increase the traffic is Nigerian Airspace Management Agency( NAMA) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria( FAAN) do the needful. They need to increase navigational infrastructures and the landing facilities in some of the country’ s airports so that the airlines can go there at night and this will increase traffic.”
He explained that if Ibadan, Akure and Ilorin airports’ night landing aids could be fixed, the traffic would increase in these states and about 10 to 15 percent of those travelling by road in the night could fly to these destinations.
A travel expert who craved anonymity told Business- Day that expectedly, Abuja and Lagos were the busiest airports in Nigeria, but Edo was experiencing surge due to passengers’ traffic from the state.
According to the NBS report, states with highest bus journey fare within city were Abuja FCT having N325.2, Cross River having N282.1
Glo’ s GO Russia promo winners depart for Russia
The first batch of 7 winners out of a total of 22 that will emerge in the‘ GO Russia’ promo, the on-going customer appreciation offer recently unveiled by National Telecommunications Company, Globacom, have left the country for Russia.
The winners were accompanied by a Globacom official on the trip to Russia where they will visit different tourist attractions, historical sites and monuments.
The lucky subscribers were sent off formally at the Mike Adenuga Towers’ headquarters of Globacom on Wednesday where the company congratulated them for emerging winners of the promo and urged them to be good ambassadors of Nigeria when they get to Russia.
Globacom restated the company’ s commitment towards empowering its subscribers and giving them access to the best value and pricing at all times.
The winners on the trip include Agbede Temidayo Bayodele from Ekiti state, Adeoye Adefisoye Simon from Oyo State and Olugbokiki Mukail Omolola from Ogun State. Others are Orewa Edwin Ehi from Port Harcourt, Aghaegbunem Marvel Chukwufumnaya from Abuja, Oladunjoye Joseph Babatunde from Ogun State and Kome Sunny Ikpeba from Delta State.
The Company stated that“ more winners will be unveiled from the next set of draws to be conducted soon in the GO RUSSIA promo which was unveiled to reward our amazing subscribers who have stood solidly behind the brand over the years”
Speaking at the event, one of the winners, 45-year-old Kome Sunny Ikpeba from Delta State said,” I have never won anything before, so when I got a call from Globacom to say that I qualified for a ticket, I was very happy. This is really good”. He thanked Globacom for giving him the opportunity to visit Russia.
Another winner, Oladunjoye Joseph Babatunde, a Lagos cinematographer, also commended Globacom for packaging GO RUSSIA promo. The Ogun State Indigene said,“ I feel good, it is going to be a very good experience for me. I am a loyal Glo subscriber as i started with them at inception.”
Also commenting, a final year Mechanical Engineering student of Ekiti State University, Agbede Temidayo Bayodele who said the Russian trip was his first overseas trip advised his colleagues who thought it was a scam to participate in the promo because“ it is for real!”
A total of 22 lucky winners will emerge eventually from the promo which offers an allexpenses-paid trip to Russia.
The promo which runs from May 16 to July 8, 2018, is open to all new and existing Prepaid / Postpaid customers on the Glo network nationwide. and Abia with N235.5, while states with lowest bus journey fare within city were Bauchi having N87.9, Anambra with N93.3 and Rivers having N96.36
The transport fare watch report for May 2018 covers the following categories- bus journey within the city per drop constant route; bus journey intercity, state route, charge per person; airfare charge for specified routes single journey; journey by motorcycle( Okada) per drop, and waterway passenger transport.
Average fare paid by commuters for bus journey intercity decreased by 0.05 percent month-on-month and increased by 14.9 perent year-on-year to N1,716.3 in May 2018 from N1,722.9 in April 2018. States with highest bus journey fare intercity were Abuja FCT having N4,125.5, Adamawa having N3,166.5 and Borno with N2,744.4 while States with lowest bus journey fare within city were Bauchi having N1,064.54, Enugu had N1,096.9 and Yobe with N1,125.0.
IDRIS UMAR MOMOH, Benin
Federal Government says over 350,000 Nigerians have benefited so far from the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme( GEEP).
GEEP is one of the National Social Intervention Programmes( NSIP) of the current administration, providing interest freeloans of between N10,000 and N100,000 to market women, farmers, artisans and enterprising youths nationwide through the Bank of Industry( BoI).
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who made the disclosure at the Edo State’ s edition of Micro, Small and Medium-Scale Enterprise( MSME) Clinic during his two-day working visit to the state on Thursday, said over 4,000 beneficiaries were from the state.
“ The Federal Government of Nigeria, through BoI has empowered over 4,000 Edo State people with loans, and 350,000 persons have so far benefitted from the programme nationwide,” he said.
Osinbajo said,“ The policy of the Federal Government is to support businesses, not just big business but particularly small, medium-sized businesses and micro-businesses. The whole idea is that we want to ensure that we give whatever support whether it is cash, advise or even
NEWS
350,000 benefit from FG’ s GEEP MarketMoni programme nationwide- Osinbajo
Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu, wife of Ondo State governor( r); Victor Kiladejo, Osemawe of Ondo Kingdom( l), during the Forum for Wives of Ondo State Officials( FOWOSO) Empowerment Outreach Programme for Women, Youths and Special needs people in Ondo East Local Government Area of Ondo State.
CBN’ s National Collateral Registry to aid MSMEs to access funds
GODFREY OFURUM, Aba
The National Collateral Registry, a policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria( CBN), was established to specifically reduce the issue of collateral that hampers micro, small and medium entrepreneurs from accessing funds from commercial banks and other financial institutions.
Celsus Agha, a manager in the development finance office of the CBN, said this at the zonal stakeholders meeting on the review of micro, small medium enterprises( MSMEs) policy, held in Aba, the commercial hub of Abia State.
Agha observed that com- mercial banks and other financial institutions require collateral before MSMEs could access loans from them, as they regard MSMEs as high-risk operators.
He explained that the CBN launched the national collateral registration, in which movable collateral could be used to access funds.
For instance,“ An‘ akara’ seller, who needs N50,000 to invest in his / her business, but does not have a collateral to access the fund, can use his / her phone worth N100,000, as collateral.
“ What he needs to do is to walk into a commercial bank of his / her choice, register the phone with the bank and it registration to all of our small and medium enterprises.”
According to Osinbajo, the Federal Government has concluded plans to roll out Trader- Moni scheme, a new microcredit scheme to cater for ultramicro enterprises in addition to the existing GEEP MarketMoni scheme that targets market women, traders, artisans and enterprising youths.
“ It is a different thing from MarketMoni because Trader- Moni is for the smaller traders. These are the hawkers; those who are doing little things where in many cases their inventory, the whole thing they are selling is sometimes not even more than N5,000- N10,000. We want to give those kinds of people some credit as well, and once they pay back, we will give them some more money,” he said.
Earlier, Uzoma Nwagba, GEEP MarketMoni chief operating officer, noted that GEEP was geared towards addressing one of the tough challenges of microenterprises in Nigeria, which was access to finance.
Nwagba said the pro-poor programme would improve the economic wellbeing of the beneficiaries as well as inflate the economy from the grassroots.
On her part, Toyin Adeniji, executive director of Financial Inclusion in BoI, said the pilot phase of the TraderMoni
could be used to upset a loan that has been collected.”
Camillus Ogbuagu, head, development finance office, CBN, Umuahia, observed that MSME sub-sector of the economy was faced by huge financing gap hindering the development of the sector.
He stated,“ Section 6- subsection 10 of the micro finance policy, regulatory and framework for Nigeria, stipulates that a micro-finance development fund shall be set up, to provide for the funding requirement of micro-finance institutions, to achieve the provisions of Section 4. Sub-section 2 of the policy, which stipulates that all individuals within this bracket scheme had already began, with 368 traders in Edo State, each walking home with N10,000 after the event.
She said BoI was making every possible effort to enhance the scope of the programme and bring in more beneficiaries.
She however, listed how the programme has impacted positively on the economic status of the beneficiaries to include improvement in businesses, job creations among others.
“ Beneficiaries of the GEEP loan have been able to improve their businesses. Some of them from a one-man shop now employ six people; those who buy things in small units now buy in bulk. It is a very aggressive scheme and we have a target to reach over a million. As at now we have disbursed loans to over 350,000 beneficiaries nationwide, and to scale up the scheme, we have identified and categorised a new group of micro traders who need only about N10,000 to boost their businesses.
“ GEEP MarketMoni loans are repayable over a period of 6 months with a five percent administrative charge. To ensure that the loan instalments are paid on time and conveniently, collections begin from the third week after loans are received. Beneficiaries enjoy a two-weeks grace period,” she said.
have access to funding.”
He explained that the CBN had been in the forefront of ensuring that this was done so as to bring funding nearer to this portion of the society, through participatory financial institutions.
He stated that the CBN had different funds for different groups, and appealed to participatory financial institutions to remove barriers to enable MSMEs to access these facilities.
The forum, organised by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, is aimed at removing impediments to the development of the MSME subsector of the economy.