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On The Nigerian Doctors’ Strike

By
Samuel Nwite
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0

In an unprecedented move, doctors in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) announced on Tuesday that they are going on indefinite strike. The Association of Resident doctors (ARD) Abuja chapter said the decision is based on the inability of the FCT administration to pay their basic salaries for more than two months now.

ARD’s president, Roland Aigbovo, said in a statement that the striking doctors have been thrown into financial crisis by the FCT’s refusal to pay their salaries. He added that before embarking on strike, the doctors had repeatedly warned and issued ultimatums to the FCT authorities who remained adamant, leaving them with no choice than to take a strike action.

Aigbovo explained that the situation has been aggravated by irregularities stemming from the newly introduced Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS). He added that the authorities have 48 hours to act on their demand or watch the situation escalate, given that other health workers affected by the issue will join the striking action.

Nigeria is not new to events of medical doctors going on strike; it’s a brutal norm that the Nigerian people have come to reckon with without a choice, like in so many other sectors in the country.

In January, resident doctors working at the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital (UNIMEDTH) went on strike for being owed months of salaries by the state government. The Ondo State Government said the doctors were owed because their salaries were not captured in the 2019 Appropriation Bill and it will take the 2020 appropriation bill to settle it. The salaries ranged from two to six months.

At this same period, ARD at the Federal Medical Center, Jabi, Abuja embarked on a three-day warning strike over non-payment of shortfalls in their salaries. The non-payment shortfalls dated back to 2014, when the Nigeria Medical Association embarked on nation-wide strike.

These are few cases in many times Nigerian doctors have had to use strike action to force the government to pay their salaries. Almost every state in Nigeria has had to sit on the negotiating table with doctors now and then to avert or end strikes, that’s when it is not national.

However, the strike action this time came surprising because it happens at a time of global health crisis that Nigeria has been caught up in. Though ARD said they considered the pros and cons of the COVID-19 situation before they made up their mind to strike.

Although Abuja has not recorded any case of coronavirus, the strike action has created a vacuum that will jeopardize efforts to contain the outbreak. Moreover, Nigeria has a health personnel deficit that has put its medical services in a very poor condition. The World Health Organization recommends one doctor to 600 patients, but the ratio in Nigeria is one doctor to 6,000 patients. The gap is so wide that in normal circumstance; due medical attention is scarce muchless a time of health crisis that will likely multiply medical cases in overwhelming numbers.

Life being at stake has always been the consideration of government sympathizers in any case. And doctors are expected to work without pay because they are saving lives.

World over, Nigeria ranked among the countries with most poorly paid medical practitioners, a major reason why the doctors leave the country in droves. Yearly, over 2,000 doctors leave the shores of Nigeria in search of a better pay and better work conditions.

In the United States, 77% of black doctors are of Nigerian origin, most of them migrated due to unfavorable work conditions in Nigeria. In the United Kingdom, over 5,000 Nigerians made up the medical workforce, making them the fourth highest in the country. The Africa Check reported that over 12 Nigerian doctors join the UK’s medical field weekly.

While there is genuine concern about the medical welfare of people whenever Nigerian doctors go on strike, the situation has also been described as an avoidable embarrassment that stems from the government’s lackadaisical attitude toward Nigeria’s health sector, largely because those in positions of authority travel abroad for their medical needs.

In the 2020 national budget, only N44.49 billion was appropriated for basic healthcare. Considering the state of Nigeria’s health sector, the fund will make insignificant impact, if at all it will be fully released. It is therefore believed that Nigerian governments have mastered the art of making the country’s health practitioners, scapegoats of their poor decisions. And the Nigerian medical personnel reserve the right to fight for their rights at every given time.

The Post-Coronavirus World Looks Scary

By
Ndubuisi Ekekwe
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4

The post-coronavirus world looks exceedingly scary; here are ten things to note.

  1. Many global schools will rescind admissions to foreign students.
  2. Many scholarships will be cancelled as endowments, state funds, donors, etc try to recover from market collapse.
  3. Nations will become more isolated since pains are largely shared internally. 
  4. The vision of the rise of all will dim because pains cannot be outsourced. 
  5. In the coming months, massive dislocation in the job market will rattle nations and markets.
  6. Companies will collapse – and many startups will follow as funds become scarce; the rich losing $trillions will inhale first.
  7. Many African nations will experience nano-crises and strikes, with governments exceedingly overwhelmed to serve citizens.
  8. Crude oil and commodities will pay huge prices as nations tighten supply chains by ordinance of national security, well ahead of global trade.
  9. Coronavirus has killed thousands but its impacts will kill millions as governments cut social services, support to the poor, etc due to drying up of resources.
  10. Surveillance of citizens for better tracking will win over individual liberty: if grocery shops and farmers are required to track goats from farm to table, governments will push for more invasive tracking of humans to help containment of infectious disease. 

 

 

Can We Close Nigerian Stock Exchange Over Coronavirus? Can Wema Bank Just Become ALAT?

By
Ndubuisi Ekekwe
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1

Can the Nigerian Stock Exchange consider a temporary closure of the stock market, until we get clarity on coronavirus. Of course that would be a nightmare as you will lock many out of their assets. Yes, a mother may like to sell 100 shares of her Dangote Cement shares to pay hospital bills. Not having the market open may create a huge challenge for that “special bank account” in the family.

That noted, what is happening in NSE is confusing. After GTBank went to the mountaintop with N232 billion ($645 million) profit before tax in 2019, most expected the bank to see massive market appreciation. You know what has happened? GTBank is seeing the opposite, losing close to N100 billion since it reported that great number.  The paralysis is huge and you cannot understand what investors are looking for!

Wema Bank is now worth N19 billion ($52 million) while FCMB goes for N30 billion. Unity Bank stays smallest at N5.3 billion.  I have noted in the past that Wema should evolve to ALAT because as ALAT it has a better chance in the market. If ALAT is  the new Wema, it will command at least $100 million in the market, well above the current $52 million investors have put on Wema bank.

ALAT is the first step for Wema Bank. In the next few years, depending on its progress, ALAT can be divested from Wema Bank, to allow it to compete more aggressively in the African market without being tethered to a bank and the associated regulation. The regulation is important and there is nothing wrong with that: banks like Wema Bank take customer deposits, unlike most fintechs, and should be regulated. So, ALAT can become an operational arm of Wema Bank while the bank remains a dumb pipeline, typical of most traditional banks today (i.e. not much intelligence due to lack of deep insights), to support what that modern banking named ALAT does. Perhaps in 10 years, Wema Bank may even simply change its name to ALAT if this new modern banking solution evolves into its future.

Nigeria could lose half of the market share by the time this virus is through. We may need to have circuit breakers to protect some assets. Of course, executing that may be near impossible as some, like the mother above, may prioritize having access to $100 today than a promise of $400 in three months.

We hope we will not have another 2009!

 

The Implications of Regulating Lagos Real Estate Agency

By
Mutiu Iyanda
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0
Zenvus Boundary real estate

In Nigeria, Lagos is the only state that has country status. It attains this because of its primary roles in advancing Nigerian economy and West Africa region. For the past 50 years, the state has remained the gateway to other states in Nigeria and countries in Africa. These constitute significant reasons for having different policies and initiatives from the public and private sectors, aiming at deepening socioeconomic and political development in all ramifications.

In terms of population, the state has been projected to grow to 88 million and becomes the world’s largest city, according to the University of Toronto’s Global Cities Institute. Like other mega cities in the world, housing has been one of the main problems in Lagos metropolitan areas, especially on the Island and Mainland. Before the administration of Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, previous administrations initiated policies and provided enabling environment for the players in the real estate market towards the provision of adequate houses for the residents.

One of the actions is the promulgation of the law that established Lagos Estate Agency Regulatory Authority. Part of the responsibilities of the agency is to manage real estate transactions, prepares rules and regulations for the practice of estate agency in the state. “The authority will also maintain a register of estate agents, sanction unlicensed estate agency practitioners, collate data on property transactions, investigate complaints and petitions against licensed practitioners as well as ensure the payment of fees, taxes or charges on property transactions.”

According to Lagos State Real Estate Transaction Department of the regulatory authority, “any developer that wants to practice the business of estate agency must obtain a license from the authority and has powers to monitor completed or uncompleted structures as well as recommendations for the revocation of subsisting right of occupancy on the property that failed to comply with notices.”

After the establishment of the regulatory authority, the state government announced registration of 50,000 real estate agents and property developers with the Corporate Affairs Commission as operators in the Lagos real estate market. Despite the significant number of the operators, the recent actions of the state government on the enforcement of the established rules and regulations towards more registrations seems not to augur well with the players. Since December, 2019, the state government, through the agency and government officials, has been informing the stakeholders the significance of registering operators. The call was renewed recently and attracted mixed reactions from the stakeholders, most importantly, the estate surveyors.

In our experience, through the monitoring and analysis of real time data on the call, we understand that 1% of public interest in real estate increases the need to know the importance of regulation in the sector by 11.48%. We equally discovered that 1% interest in real estate, between March 10 and March 17, 2020, increases public consideration of regulatory agency in the sector by 8.28%.

Who Gains? Who Losses?

Like other sectors in Nigeria, real estate sector is also with a number of groups and associations, working towards positive development in the sector. These groups and associations have over the years chide governments and regulatory agencies on perceived loathsome policies or laws. While the Society for Professional Valuation supports the state government decision on the establishment of a regulatory agency, the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) and regulatory body – Estate Surveyors Registration Board of Nigeria (ESVARBON) kicked over the registration of its practitioners.  SPV believes it is necessary to regulate the practice of estate agency and development. To NIESV and ESVARBON, regulating and registering its practitioners means violations to the professional rights.

Meanwhile, evidence has shown that the sector needs regulation. This according to researchers would benefit every stakeholder and ensure that the sector is free of quacks, who are destroying the image of registered practitioners including significant reduction in rental values. For instance, analysis of quacks activities by Infoprations indicates that between October and December, 2018, 77 house seekers in Lagos were defrauded of N23.1 million. On Average, a house seeker paid N330, 000 to dubious estate agents. Analysis shows that house seekers in the Mainland area of the state were duped between N100, 000 and N500, 000, while those in the Island area paid above N800, 000.

 

Nigeria Restricts Entry from United States, United Kingdom, and 11 Other Countries

By
Ndubuisi Ekekwe
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2

It reads like a movie script: Nigeria is restricting entry into the nation from travelers from 13 high-risk coronavirus countries. The United States and UK made that list. Also, Nigeria has recorded five new cases. This coronavirus is teaching everyone one thing: the world is really about survival and when this is over, the decisions of states will shape the rule of engagement. More so, every part of the world will start looking for the well-being of the weakest link. Yes, if Chad has a public health issue, Japan cannot just be indifferent to it because if bad things happen, everyone could be at risk.

The federal government on Wednesday announced the restrictions of entry into the country for travellers from 13 high-risk Covid-19 countries.

The countries are China, Italy, Iran, South Korea, Spain, Japan, France, Germany, United States of America, Norway, United Kingdom, Netherlands & Switzerland.

These have the highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases across the world.

This is the newest update from the Presidential Taskforce on COVID19 which met on Tuesday.

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