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Home Blog Page 6470

How to Combat the Corona Virus in Nigeria through the Incident Management Approach

By
Rasheed Adebiyi
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2

Like a flash in the pan, the spread of the widely reported virus, Corona, has eventually got into Nigeria. The virus which originated from the Wuhan province in China is the latest monster threatening not only high ranging mortality, but also a disruption of socio-economic life and international trade on a global scale. From Australia to Estonia, Japan to India, the deadly virus seems to be on the race to infect the whole world.

So, on the midnight of Friday 27 February, 2020, an Italian who was on a brief business trip, came into Nigeria with the virus through the International Airport in Lagos. This made the case first of its kind in Sub Saharan African. For a country that has been battling with the Lassa Fever outbreak, it seems a double tragedy for the nation. This is within the background of the failing health infrastructure in Nigeria. However, this is not time to falter. Agencies of government responsible for disease and disaster control need to rise to the occasion to ensure the spread of the deadly virus is contained and managed with no or minimal fatality.  A review of a research article brings to the fore what the health authorities must take cognizance of as the nation battles to stop the virus on its track. Lessons learnt from curtailing the Ebola outbreak six years ago must be brought to bear this time around.

Initiating the Incident Management Approach. According to the research which examined the Incident Management Approach used to manage the Ebola outbreak then in the country, this approach involves initiating four public health protection strategies which could help in weakening the spread of the virus among the populace. These strategies are examined one after the other.

#Surveillance. At this level of the emergence of the virus, surveillance is the first strategy to be deployed. This is done by contact tracing.  By this, there is an urgent need to begin to trace people who might have had contact with the Italian victim of the virus. That the novel virus was brought into the country by a foreigner was cheery news. It made the discovery faster and also minimized the number of contacts he might have had access to. However, this little good piece of news could become awry if those who have had contact with him could not be traced and quarantined. The race to prevent further spread could only be won if only government agencies such as National Centre for Disease Control could step up their surveillance game.

#Incidence Prevention & Control. This is an epidemiological approach used to study the origin and causes of disease outbreak in any community. The incidence prevention and control is a tool deployed in understanding the dynamics of any epidemics. It was employed in the combat against Ebola. It categorised individuals into susceptible individuals, hospitalized individuals, exposed individuals, infectious symptomatic individuals and isolated individuals. In the case of the novel virus in Nigeria, it is still too early to determine what is going to happen. However, the NCDC should activate the approach that was successfully used to curtail in the days coming ahead. As of today, the Italy based Nigerian footballer, King Paul Akpan Udoh is the first and only Nigerian to have tested positive for the virus. Good enough, it is outside the shores of the country.

#Education. At this stage, Nigerians need education on the virus. This would involve deploying all available means to reach the people in the language they understand. The NCDC should liaise with the Federal and State Ministries of Health as well as the National Orientation Agency to come up with educational materials that explains what the novel virus is, how it is contacted and its prevention. Local languages should be used in audio-visual materials, infographics, flyers and handbills. Being ignorant in this case could be deadly.

#Communication. This is usually at the heart of any campaign. It is the pillar upon which the curtailment of any outbreak lies. In this case, it should be well coordinated, detailed and decentralized. As it was during the Ebola outbreak so should it be now in the days ahead. Responses across the country should be coordinated by the Ministry of Health through the National Disease Control Centre by the Minister of Health. This should go down to the local health authorities. If this bottom-up approach is adopted, it would make the reportage of any suspected case of the virus robust.

Epigraphy: Dilemmas in Curbing Police Brutality in Nigeria

By
Mutiu Iyanda
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0

After the formation of the Nigeria Police Force in 1820, what could be termed as regional police sprung up in 1879 and 1896. Over 1,000 members armed paramilitary Hausa Constabulary was formed in 1979, while the Lagos Police, serving Lagos colony, was established in 1896.

Historical information indicates that the establishments of the units became necessary because of the need to protect ever expanding population and reduce crime rates in the hard to reach hinterlands.  The information further adds that members of the national and regional police departments were well coordinated towards solving various crime issues without harming non-criminals and committed to the protect and save life’s tasks.

However, the Nigeria Police known for approaching every security issue with the due diligence started derailing at the beginning of 20th and 21st centuries. The influx of personnel with bad antecedents, poor welfare programmes and the use of the Police to the individual’s advantage have been cited as the main factors by the concerned stakeholders, most especially the citizens and public affairs analysts.

Nigeria Police Officers in 1820

The outcomes have largely been legitimacy crisis and the growing distrust for the police by the public. In these centuries, scholars and public affairs analysts have documented a number of reasons for the continuous police brutality. Undemocratic political structures, and the quest by rulers to suppress opposition to dictatorship, involve the use of police to coerce or repress citizens, lack of political accountability by the rulers, which encourage lawlessness by government agents, encourage police to act beyond the law, the inequitable economic system, the deployment of the police by economic and political power-holders for the suppression of some segments of society remain the key reasons.

These have largely encouraged the ‘kill and go’ syndrome among the personnel of Police Mobile Force established to cater for special crimes containment. The Special Anti-Robbery Squad is one of the special units and remains the unit Nigerians on several occasions have noted for dismantling by the Police authority and the Federal government. Anytime members of the unit brutalized citizens or involved in extrajudicial killing, people’s interest in ending the unit usually increases. In 2018, the public outcry in online and offline spheres promoted the Nigerian government to act.

Regional Nigeria Police Officers in 1948

Dilemmas in the face of the Staggering Statistics

In their efforts of curbing crimes, the SARS has been reported on a number of times of carrying out ‘unauthorised’ inspection of young citizens and other nationals’ personal belongings. One of the affected persons says “It seems in the eyes of Nigeria’s police, any young man with a laptop, smartphone and an internet connection is likely a fraudster.” Our check shows that Nigerian media have significantly reported a series of police brutality between 2010 and 2020, which were equally sought by the citizens for better understanding of the reasons for the brutality and how it could be curbed [see Exhibit 1].

A recent study has also established that “between June 2006 and May 2014 the security forces caused fatalities in 59% of the lethal incidents where they intervened. Secondly, the more the security forces intervene, the more people are killed. This explains why from an annual average of 59% between June 2006 and May 2007, killings by the security forces peaked at 80% between June 2013 and May 2014. Thirdly, 58% of police interventions cause fatalities compared with 60% in the case of the army, an indication that killings by the police are more prevalent, while the army cause more fatalities per incident.”

Exhibit 1: Public Interest in Police Brutality 2010-2020

Source: Google Trends, 2020; Infoprations Analysis, 2020

In another study, a significant number of Nigerians interviewed revealed that police brutality on Nigerians is prevalent. Forty percent of the people interviewed have either been or know someone who has been brutalized by the Nigeria Police personnel. With the overwhelming statistics on the level of police brutality across the country, it seems that existing rules and laws are not enough to curb the act among the Police Officers. For instance, the newly passed Police Reform Bill “provides internal disciplinary mechanism for any police officer that maltreats or kills an innocent citizen.”

This has been predicated on the cases of policemen going out of control with their guns under the influence of alcohol. To address this, according to the bill, it is now criminal for a police officer to take alcohol while on duty, according to Clause 98. The punishment prescribed for such offence is a fine of ?20,000 or three-months imprisonment. Our analyst observes that the punishment is insipid when compare with what is stipulated for the citizen who assaults, obstructs or resists a police officer from performing his or her responsibility. According to clause 96, such person will pay a fine of ?100,000 or six months imprisonment. On several occasions, news reports and citizens engagement in online communities have shown that concerned police authorities and government have not done enough in punishing erring police officers.

Jumo Raises $55M and Lifestores Secures $1M Seed Fund

By
Samuel Nwite
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0

JUMO, a fintech providing loan services, has secured another round of funding in its push to extend its operation to the reach of many markets across Africa. The digital financial service company announced on Tuesday that it has raised $55 million for the expansion of its services.

“We are pleased to announce the closure of another successful funding round! We’ve secured US$55 million from a diverse group of investors to secure our expansion into new markets and the launch of new financial products,” JUMO tweeted on Tuesday.

The company had in 2018, raised $52 million, staying tops among Nigerian startups that got funding in the digital space. But this round of funding has toppled the previous record and put the Fintech’s total raised fund to $146.7 million if the $91.7m previously raised is added.

The latest round of funding has come from already existing investors, both old and new, mainly Goldman Sachs, Odey Asset Management and LeapFrog Investments. It has made JUMO the most funded startup in the African continent.

JUMO was founded in 2014 by Andrew Watkins-Ball as a digital finance platform offering mobile financial services. The platform provides loans and offers savings services to SMEs and the general public.

The platform uses algorithms to determine the credibility of its users and their credit worthiness. The higher a customer is scored the more money he will be qualified to access. The services are mainly mobile-based and are available across many mobile networks powered by USSD. It also has web and app options that offer accessibility choices to everyone.

The company partners with mobile telephone networks such as MTN, Telenor, Airtel and Tigo to power its mobile network functions while banks like Letshego Bank, Barclays Africa Group and Telenor Microfinance Bank provide the savings and loans services.

The startup said its loan services have attained the $1 billion mark across 10 countries in Africa and Asia. The CEO Andrew Watkins-Ball said the fresh funding will help JUMO to attain new heights in services by reaching more financial disadvantaged people in Africa and Asia. He said the plan is to introduce new products that will catch the attention of emerging markets.

“I’m excited for our next phase. This backing will help us build a better business and break new ground. The strong vote of confidence, along with the world-class tech talent we now have in business, means we can achieve exceptional outcomes for our partners and customers,” he said.

JUMO has about 10 million customers in Asia where it is aiming to reach more countries.

Meanwhile, another Lagos-based startup, Lifestores has raised $1 million (N365 million) in seed fund. Lifestores is a healthcare initiative led by Consonance Kuramo and other partners like Altadore Lionbear Capital, Greentree Syndicate, Startup and Health transformers Fund and Unseen Ventures.

Flying Doctors Nigeria Group, K50 ventures, Chinook Capital, Kepple Africa Ventures and some other companies were part of the fundraising. All the partners have healthcare background in common and appear to have come together to pursue a common goal, which is to facilitate easy distribution of drugs nationwide.

Founded in 2017 by Ken Ahaotu, Bryan Mezue and Andrew Garza, Lifestores is designed to disrupt the rigorous traditional system of drug distribution that enables peddling of fake drugs.

The Nigerian drug distribution system operates through a chain of tedious protocols that breeds unbalanced supply to pharmacies and many times, it keeps drugs out of the reach of those who need it.

Lifestores saw through the challenges and proffered solutions that will involve some changes in many areas of drug business in the country. It involves the acquisition of many pharmaceutical outlets in the country and establishing direct access to drug manufacturers which they have done in a space of three years.

The startup has anchored the entire supply chain of the pharmaceutical sector, and with the direct access it created to drug manufacturers, the menace of fake drugs is being minimized since it offers pharmacies the chance to buy quality drug stock at cheaper rate.

The N365 million fund became necessary because the startup developed a software that will enable it to execute its tasks. With the new software, the inclusion of new ideas into its system and managing the company’s operations will be easy as it plans to expand its reach by acquiring more pharmacy stores and going into further partnerships.

The software which was developed with the help of Andela was designed to keep track of Lifestore’s sales activities, inventory and keep patients’ record.

Non-Oil Sector Scores High As Nigeria’s GDP Hits 2.7% Growth for the Q4 2019

By
Samuel Nwite
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0

The Q4 report of 2019 indicates that the economy grew by 2.27% marking the highest increase since the recession of 2016. According to the data published by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 2.5% (year-on-year) in real terms beating the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s projection of 2.1%.

“Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 2.55% (year-on-year) in real terms in the fourth quarter of 2019. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2018, which recorded a growth rate of 2.38%, this represents an increase of 0.17% points and an increase of 0.27% points when compared with the third quarter of 2019.

“In Q4 2019, aggregate GDP stood at N39,577,340.04 million in nominal terms. This was higher than the fourth quarter of 2018 which recorded an aggregate of N35,230,607.63 million, representing year on year nominal growth rate of 12.34%,” NBS report said.

The report showed that the non-oil sector put up outstanding performance, growing 2.26% in real terms.

“The non-oil sector grew by 2.26% in real terms during the reference quarter (Q4 2019). This was lower by -0.44% points compared to the rate recorded in the same quarter of 2018 but 0.42% point higher than the third quarter of 2019. This sector was driven, during the fourth quarter of 2019, mainly by Information and Communication (Telecommunication), Agriculture (crop production), Financial and Insurance Services (Financial Institutions), and Manufacturing. In real terms, the non-oil sector contributed 92.68% to the nation’s GDP in the fourth quarter of 2019, lower from shares recorded in the fourth quarter of 2018 (92.94%) but higher than the third quarter of 2019 (90.23%). The annual contribution of the non-oil sector stood at 91.22% in 2019,” the report added.

In the non-oil sector, businesses picked up from their underperformance in the corresponding year of 2018. This is how the 10 best performing industries fared according to BusinessDay.

Air Transport

Air transport grew 13.17 percent year-on-year in 2019 to emerge the fastest expanding sector.

The growth, though below the 20.70 percent recorded last year, followed a steady increase through Q1-Q3 (9.09%, 12.31% and 15.23%) before a decline in the last quarter to 14.98 percent.

Coal Mining

A brilliant first quarter and third quarter for coal mining was enough to offset the impact of a contraction in the last quarter of the year and push sector’s growth 13.15 percent higher year-on-year. In 2019, coal mining was the second-fastest expanding sector in Nigeria.

Interestingly, the sector had contracted by almost 6 percent in 2018.

Telecommunications & Information Services

It might have been an anti-climactic year for the ICT services sector but it emerged the third best performing sector in the year, marginally surpassing its 2018 growth rate. (11.41% vs 11.33%).

Road Transport

Road Transport was the fourth fastest-growing sector in Nigeria last year after a brilliant 21.48 percent in the first quarter of the year.

Road Transport grew 11.24 percent year-on-year in 2019 although it shrunk 2.58 percent in the final quarter of the year.

Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation

This sector was the fifth fastest-growing last year with after growth printed at 4.59 percent year-on-year compared to a measly 0.97 percent in 2018.

Although the sector started the year with a contraction, growth picked up in Q2, eased in the third quarter and was more-or-less maintained in the last quarter of the year.

Arts, Entertainment and Recreation

Growth rose impressively from 2.53 percent in 2018 to 4.12percent last year.

Arts, Entertainment and Recreation started the year on steroids but quickly lost momentum in Q2 afterwards recovering in the latter quarters of the year.

Insurance

The insurance industry rose 3.59 percent to end 2019 the 7th best performing sector in terms of growth. The sector however grew below its 2018 rate of 6.12 percent.

Fishing

Fishing grew 3.33 percent year-on-year in 2019 following a brilliant Q1 that supported growth in the year. Compared to 2018’s 1.64 percent growth, 2019 is nothing short of a leap.

Cement

At 3.11 percent the cement industry is at least growing faster than the broader economy. Q3 was the best quarter for the sector last year while growth slowed compared to 2018 (4.5%).

Accommodation and Food Services

The Accommodation and Food services sector picked up from 2018, growing at 2.85 percent last year to be the 10th fastest growing sector in the economy. Growth peaked in Q1 and averaged 2.41 percent for the remaining quarters.

2019 was not a good year for the oil sector, factors ranging from climate concerns to surplus oil production kept oil prices dwindling below benchmark. But the Q4 2019 saw a little improvement compared to the Q3 2019, which added to the unprecedented growth recorded in the end.

“During the fourth quarter of 2019, average daily oil production of 2.00 million barrels (mbpd) was recorded, indicating a rise of 0.09mbpd over the daily average production of 1.91 mbpd recorded in the same quarter of 2018.

“However, it was -0.0mbpd lower than the production volume of 2.04mbpd recorded in the third quarter of 2019. Nevertheless, it is notable that oil production remained consistently at or above 2.0mbpd all through 2019.

“Real growth of the oil sector was 6.36% (year-on-year) in Q4 2019 indicating an increase of 7.98% points relative to the rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2018,” the NBS Q4 2019 report said.

Amazon Africa Ignores Ecommerce, Goes Big On Cloud With Safaricom Partnership

By
Ndubuisi Ekekwe
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3
Amazon has been investing in India

It is coming as predicted: Amazon will not invest in African ecommerce but will push more into African cloud by possibly partnering/investing in major telcos in key African markets. My thesis that investing in Africa ecommerce would be hard is purely based on the heterogeneous and disparate natures of our economies, unlike India which is one market of a “continent” or China which Amazon failed but not for lack of trying. The logistical challenge to get scale in Africa in order to reduce marginal cost might have scared Amazon on any ecommerce plan.

In Africa, you have to work really harder on pockets of economies which are so small that a small American city can give you more sales than a country! But as the journey to the cloud and broad digitization continues, Amazon Web Services (AWS) understands that Africa is a huge growth opportunity because with our infrastructural paralyses, cloud is even optimized for businesses: when you are not sure the electricity will be there, it is better to put that data in the cloud than a local data center which will require a 24/7 generator. 

So, the news that Amazon is partnering with Safaricom to sell cloud services in East Africa should not come as a shock: “In addition, Safaricom will be able to offer AWS services to East-African customers, allowing businesses of all sizes to quickly get started on AWS cloud and accelerate innovation.”

Safaricom has announced a strategic agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS), which will see the Telco become a reseller of AWS services.

The agreement is designed to accelerate Safaricom’s internal IT transformation, lower costs and provide it with a blueprint and skilled resources to assist customers with their journey to the cloud.

Safaricom Plc CEO Michael Joseph said the agreement will allow the company to accelerate its efforts to enable digital transformation in Kenya.

“We chose to partner with AWS because it offers customers the broadest and deepest cloud platform, overall commitment to security excellence, and a strong culture of customer obsession,” Joseph said.

In addition, Safaricom will be able to offer AWS services to East-African customers, allowing businesses of all sizes to quickly get started on AWS cloud and accelerate innovation.

In Nigeria, I expect either 9Mobile or Airtel to get that opportunity; MTN has a big cloud business and may not be open to such. Sure, MTN Cloud is mainly enterprise cloud, not for the startups, SMEs, etc which Amazon has built a tribe. Glo is also invested in enterprise cloud. 

Yet, while Amazon deploys the solutions, indigenous players like Layer3.cloud which are hosted in Abuja with full sovereignty blessing provide opportunities for highly sensitive businesses. You must not miss that mark.

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