What has been on the lips of every Nigerian and those genuinely interested in governance for the past few days is the president Buhari’s failure to assent “The Electoral Act Amendment bill”. The bill in summary seeks to resolve issues regarding the use and adoption of modern technologies in the electoral process; the use of electronic voting technologies and the transmission of election results from polling units and the bill also prescribes a particular mode of primary election which is direct primaries for political parties to choose candidates seeking elective offices from their political parties.

Everyone has been asking constitutional lawyers and students of Nigerian law the one million dollar question “if the president has the constitutional power to not assent every bill sent to him after the bill has gone through the rigorous legislative process and what’s the next line of action after the bill has been vetoed”. 

This is what the law says:

After the bill was passed by the law makers, the bill was sent to the Mr. President for assent. The bill was sent to the presidency for assent  on the 19th of November, 2021 and this opens the president’s 30 days window to either assent the bill or decline his assent ie, the president had up till 19th of the December to either assent the bill and pass it into law or reject the bill. Mr. President failed to do so and the one month window (30 days) the president had to pass the bill has closed.

The constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) provides in s.58(4) that the president of Nigeria has the period of 30 days to either assent or decline a bill sent to him by the legislative house. When the president declines to assent the bill he should communicate his reason(s) for refusal to assent the bill to the law makers.

Section 58 went further to provide in (5) that when the president fails to exercise this constitutional power of assenting a bill and passing a bill sent to him by the law makers into law for the period of 30 days as granted him the power by s.58(4), the National Assembly can and shall override that power of the president by passing the bill into law by themselves but by passing the bill again by two-third (2/3) majority.

Now, as you can see that the Mr. President has the power or either assent a bill or decline his assent to a bill and that power was granted him constitutionally in section 58(4) and the lawmakers also have the power to pass a bill into law when the president fails to assent a bill within 30 days and this power was constitutionally granted to the law makers by s.58(5).

The excerpts of s.58(4&5) of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) is hereby reproduced here for your perusal:

S.58(4. Where a bill is presented to the President for assent, he shall within thirty days thereof signify that he assents or that he withholds assent.

S.58(5. Where the President withholds his assent and the bill is again passed by each House by two-thirds majority, the bill shall become law and the assent of the President shall not be required.

Oracle has announced the acquisition of Cerner, a leading provider of digital information systems used to enable medical professionals to deliver better healthcare to individual patients and communities, in an all-cash tender offer worth about $28.3 billion.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in calendar year 2022, as Cerner stockholders are expected to tender a majority of Cerner’s outstanding shares in the tender offer.

Oracle said the $28.3 billion is immediately accretive to Oracle’s earnings and will continue on a non-GAAP basis in the first full fiscal year. It is expected to contribute substantially more to earning in the second fiscal year and thereafter, the company said, adding that Cerner will be a huge additional revenue growth engine for Oracle for years to come as Oracle expands Cerner’s business into many more countries throughout the world.

“Working together, Cerner and Oracle have the capacity to transform healthcare delivery by providing medical professionals with better information—enabling them to make better treatment decisions resulting in better patient outcomes,” said Larry Ellison, Chairman and Chief Technology Officer, Oracle.

Oracle is a leader in cloud technology, driving digital modernization that has helped to lower the cost of cloud infrastructure and IT in many sectors.

Before venturing into the health sector with the acquisition of Cerner, Oracle covered industries such as Financial Services, Telecom, Utilities, Pharmaceuticals, Hospitality, Retail, Food & Beverage, Construction & Engineering, Manufacturing and Government. Oracle provides industry solutions that run the core operations for customers in the world’s largest industries.

On the other hand, Cerner is a leader in the healthcare IT industry with over four decades of experience in modernizing electronic health records, improving the caregiver experience, and streamlining and automating clinical and administrative workflows.

Both companies believe they complement each other and will work together to protect customer investments, transform healthcare and accelerate revenue growth.

“Healthcare is the largest and most important vertical market in the world—$3.8 trillion last year in the United States alone. Oracle’s revenue growth rate has already been increasing this year—Cerner will be a huge additional revenue growth engine for years to come as we expand its business into many more countries throughout the world. That’s exactly the growth strategy we adopted when we bought NetSuite—except the Cerner revenue opportunity is even larger,” said Safra Catz, Chief Executive Officer, Oracle.

Growing frictions in the healthcare industry present huge challenges to speed and efficiency of medical practitioners. A Mayo Clinic1 study quoted by Oracle says that physicians spend 1 to 2 hours on EHRs and desk work for every hour spent in face-to-face contact with patients, as well as an additional 1 to 2 hours of personal time on EHR related activities.

These companies believe, among other challenges, they work together.

“Oracle’s Autonomous Database, low-code development tools, and Voice Digital Assistant user interface enables us to rapidly modernize Cerner’s systems and move them to our Gen2 Cloud,” said Mike Sicilia, Executive Vice President, Vertical Industries, Oracle.

“This can be done very quickly because Cerner’s largest business and most important clinical system already runs on the Oracle Database. No change required there. What will change is the user interface. We will make Cerner’s systems much easier to learn and use by making Oracle’s hands-free Voice Digital Assistant the primary interface to Cerner’s clinical systems. This will allow medical professionals to spend less time typing on computer keyboards and more time caring for patients.”

Cerner’s acquisition is Oracle’s biggest transaction in 40 years. It also marks its ground-breaking move into healthcare.

FSD Africa Investments (FSDAi), the investing arm of FSD Africa, has announced a £3 million ($3.9m) investment into IMFact, to provide working capital to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

IMFact was established in 2019 by Cardano Development (CD), an incubator and fund manager based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, with financing from KfW on behalf of the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).  It received initial capital from Rockefeller Foundation and Convergence. IMFact Kenya is the first regional hub to become operational and was developed by CD with funding support from Total Impact Capital Advisors (TIC).

As a “pooled receivables” factoring business, IMFact purchases bulk invoices from MSMEs for a mix of upfront cash and deferred payments. This gives the sellers access to cash without the need to follow up or wait for invoices to be paid, freeing up capital to buy new inventory, pay suppliers, and grow the business.

IMFact’s “pooled receivables” model differs from the pre-existing invoice discounting practice where the best receivables or invoices are cherry-picked by the financing company meaning the rest of the receivables pool cannot be used as collateral. It also provides faster access to working capital than the invoice discounting usually offered by banks because it does not require an upfront deposit or guarantees.

FSDAi’s funding, the first external equity investment in IMFact, comes at a critical time, with Covid-19 having placed undue pressure on MSMEs in many sectors, most notably in the healthcare sector. IMFact’s innovative solution is particularly timely owing to its ability to release additional cash flow that hitherto was locked up.

“Building back from COVID-19, boosting Kenya’s status as a hub for financial services, and creating jobs, are at the core of the UK’s Strategic Partnership with Kenya. We’re pleased to support this investment by FSDAi into IMFact, which will support SMEs in Kenya to build back from the challenges of the pandemic,” Jane Marriott, the British High Commissioner to Kenya, said

Under current plans, and subject to further fundraising, IMFact is projected to provide funding totaling £475m to around 570 businesses over the next five years and support around 5,600 jobs.

Many of the MSMEs expected to benefit are family-owned businesses including those that distribute medical equipment and pharmaceuticals to public and private organizations. However, IMFact will also be working with supply chain businesses in other industries.

Among the first to partner with IMFact is ABC Pharmacy Ltd, which supplies pharmaceutical products to pharmacies, hospitals, and clinics across the country but had faced challenges due to inadequate working capital.

Through IMFact’s financing, ABC Pharmacy is now making a transition in its business model by extending its credit terms to clients. With the increase in capital available, the company has been able to increase sales and grow its business. Dr. John Muturi, CEO of ABC Pharmacy said: “The financing from IMFact will be a game-changer for our future business operations.”

FSDAi’s ultimate objective in making the investment is to encourage the development of technology-enabled, “pooled receivables” financing across Africa. Our analysis shows Africa lags behind global averages for this kind of financing representing less than 1% of global volumes. On the continent, only South Africa has a markedly developed factoring model while the penetration in Kenya stands at less than 2%.

Anne-Marie Chidzero, Chief Investment Officer, FSD Africa Investments, said: “We are pleased to be working with IMFact to support the rapid financing of MSMEs in Kenya at a time when many are struggling to get access to working capital from traditional lending institutions.  We particularly look forward to seeing the impact the investment has on Kenya’s medical and pharmaceutical sector and hope to encourage further scaling of fintech solutions to solve the funding gap among smaller businesses.”

Peter Fiala, Chief Investment Officer, IMFact said the deal will open further opportunities for investment.

“IMFact is extremely pleased to have passed the extensive scrutiny of FSDAi’s due diligence process which has paved the way for them to become a cornerstone investor in IMFact following the successful financial close of our third-round capital raise. This investment paves the way for further capital investors, including debt, which will support the further deployment of capital to our fast-growing list of clients.”