The NASD Over The Counter (OTC) market Securities Exchange is a market which facilitates secondary trading of all securities of public listed companies in Nigeria and the West African region. Its main focus is to act as a catalyst by facilitating access to capital by pooling stakeholders in the capital market to a secure and transparent environment. Those who trade in the exchange include issuers of equity and fixed income instruments, individual and institutional investors, accredited licensed traders and their participating institutions, settlement banks, clearing systems, capital companies and venture capital organizations.

At NASD Plc Exchange our focus is on being the hub of first call for capital formation in West Africa. This translates to us working to provide platforms for primary and secondary market liquidity. In the primary market, our focus is to ease capital raise process and provide secondary liquidity and transparency for investors who wish to play in our secondary market.

It currently has a market capitalization of about 514 billion naira. Considering the fact that the current SME finance demand is huge and largely unmet, Nigeria’s fast growing SMEs and startups need to think out of the box. They need to look at the flanks, beyond bank financing, which offers them a non-competitive interest rate, and venture capital that could dilute their shareholding.  

Largely, startups and SMEs could approach the OTC market to raise long term funding which could make them competitive in their markets by offering some equity for sale. Examples of organizations which have leveraged this capital market tool include fast rising real estate companies Afriland Properties and Mixta Real Estate, consumer foods giants Dufil Prima and Frieslandcampina Wamco, among others.

The OTC Exchange should learn from the Kenyan Stock Exchange which last year launched an incubator scheme for startups aimed at helping them grow, to become successful companies, and establish partnerships with global leading alternative exchanges like London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market, NASDAQ, and Shenzhen Stock Exchange’s Chi Next. Through this mechanism,  Nigerian SMEs and startups could tap funds to drive growth despite not being listed on the primary Nigerian Stock Exchange.

“Please be advised that the Central Bank of Nigeria [CBN] is on a drive to promote a clean note policy and ensure fit for purpose bank notes are in circulation.

As a result, you are required to deposit all over-circulated and mutilated / damaged Naira notes at any of our branches by 30 August 2019.

These banknotes must fall within the descriptions below:

• An over-circulated banknote (Naira) is one that tends to disintegrate when passed through processing machines, as such rendering handling and processing difficult.

• A mutilated banknote is a currency note (Naira) that has been partially or permanently damaged by fire, flood or soaked, dyed, torn or destroyed by natural disaster and is clearly more than one half of the original size of the banknote and may require special examination to determine its value.”

Some months ago, I received the above notification from my bank that over-circulated and mutilated money should be brought to the bank for exchange to new ones with August 31st, 2019 as the deadline and I thought that by this day, the quantity of those monies should have reduced in circulation. Alas! I still find them all around till today.

In my last article “quantum denomination” I wrote that the mistake Nigerian government often make when implementing the acceptance or non-acceptance of the naira currency is that it always uses the medium of the monetary sector only.

This we have known to always be slow in effectiveness because of the non-synchronization between the fiscal and the monetary sector in the Nigerian economy. What that means is that, whenever the monetary authority issues a circular, it does not always have that ‘fast’ effect on the economy because both the fiscal policy makers and the monetary policy makers are not always working together.

Secondly, the time lag between the execution of fiscal policy and the impact is short compared to the monetary policy because the fiscal policy is directly proportional to the level and activities of the economy while the monetary policy has to work through the deposit money bank (DMB) to have any effect. The question lies in the fact that how Nigerians transact through these banks or does the activity of these banks have any effect on the Nigerian economy? I’m still yet to find the answer within the Nigerian context.

The Nigerian market is still largely informal and any economic policy has to come to that level. This is the reason we see fiscal policy having its impact quickly than the monetary policy in Nigeria.

Come to imagine that the federal government declared that no mutilated note should be spent from 31st August 2019, that the spender will be arrested and be fined xxx amount or be imprisoned for xxx years. I can categorically tell you that the message will sink into the ears of an average Nigerian. That is just an example though it is backed by force.

Other democratic means can be used such as the use of incentives, rebates, tax payment to banks etc.

That concludes my take that for any monetary policy to have any ground in Nigeria, all government agencies must be involved.

Early this year, my colleagues and I enjoyed calculating what our new salaries will be if the new minimum wage is implemented. These guys are statisticians and they used whatever method to find out that if the minimum wage becomes N30,000, our salaries will be increased by 66%. Wow! The result was so enticing. I was already making lists upon lists of things to buy (funny, huh?). I even called a car dealer to find out the price of one car I have been eyeing for long (abeg, laugh if it presses you, no be your fault). Honestly, I fell in love with Nigerian government (that was then o).

Fast forward to April 16, when Mr. President finally signed the money into bill, it was celebration all over (I heard that people started placing orders for things). We couldn’t wait for that month’s alert. Finally the alert showed and we were wondering if our HQ made a mistake. Next alert showed, nothing. Hehehehehe, that was when we began to suspect that this minimum wage thing is a ‘scam’. And we were right, because up till now, we are yet to see anything, even the 9.5% increase for people like me (but seriously, what will 9.5% actually do for us?).

Anyway, what I want to discuss here isn’t how civil servants have been waiting unto the new minimum wage. I am here to look at how the new minimum wage can make the lives of Nigerian workers better. Well, here is the bad news – the proposed increase in our salary will not help us.

To start with, the amount is small; it will make no difference in our spending and saving power. Ok, let’s look at it. If my net monthly income is #70k, and it is increased by 9.5%, by the time you remove tax, pension, trade union fee, National Housing Fund, and any other deductibles, I may only have #5k added to #70k making my new salary #75k; and there will be noise about salary increase everywhere (mtchewww). Even the 11% increase they are dangling before us now will still give the same result, so leave that.

I want to use this opportunity to call on Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) exco to demand for better welfare for Nigerian workers. Asking for money isn’t enough, we need more than that. I will list the things we need below.

What Nigerian Workers Need
a. Housing: Every month a certain amount of money is deducted from our salaries in the name of National Housing Fund (NHF). I honestly don’t know which houses we are funding. I haven’t seen any house provided by the government for its workers that they are collecting that money for. When I asked, I was told that when I retire, the money will be released to me. Hmmm, my mother retired from civil service since 2008 and Federal Mortgage Bank hasn’t paid her till date. She followed it up and they kept doing her ‘come today come tomorrow’ until they told her they will contact her when it is ready. Till date o, nothing has shown. She later heard from one of her fellow retirees that the money that will be refunded is so small that you will wonder why you spent your time, energy and the little money you have following up NHF refunds.

Aside that, why do I have to wait till I retire to own a house? Why won’t Federal Mortgage Bank build houses and sell it to workers on mortgage? Anyway, what do I know? As far as I am concerned, NHF deductions na scam. If it is not, they should tell us publicly how they plan for us to use our money to buy our own homes while we are still in service.

Anyway, let NLC executives also demand for housing scheme for Nigerian workers. If not, the new minimum wage will go into making up money for rents.

b. Health: The government is actually doing well here through National Health Insurance Scheme. At least right now, I am not afraid of taking my children to hospital because our government got it covered. But, some hospitals are not doing well here – they collect a certain percentage of the total bills from the patients even with the NHIS coverage. I don’t know if it has something to do with the hospital or the HMO. Anyway, proper investigation and cautioning need to be done.

c. Education: There is nothing wrong with government paying for the education of their workers and their children. The government may decide that any staff that wants to go for further studies should apply for sponsorship. I know that something like this exists for some institutions and for some privileged workers, but it should be thrown open to all. This is also the same thing with paying the school fees for workers’ children. I know that some agencies and parastatals accept to pay the tuitions for maximum of four children per worker, so this isn’t new in Nigeria. My own is that such privilege should be extended to everyone.

d. Retirement: Do you really know why Nigerian workers are afraid to retire? It’s because they have nothing and nowhere to retire to. Ok, let’s be honest with ourselves. These workers have been feeding from hands to mouth all through their service years. This means they have no savings, houses, businesses, secondary source of income, or even any idea on how to survive without their salaries. A lot of people will say, “what about their pensions?” Well, meet a pensioner and he will answer that question.

So what am I trying to say here? Nigerian workers are not prepared for life after retirement. All through their service years they have been following the civil service rules rigidly and do not know that life outside the civil service world is flexible. By the time they retire, pick up their gratuity and go into the flexible world to set up something that will keep their flow of income coming in, they will be lost. Anyway, this is story for another day. There are several ways government can help its workers to prepare for retirements.

To our NLC executives, as we are getting ready for another nationwide strike action (hopefully, it won’t happen), deliberate on these demands and add them to what government should do for us. We need life, not just money.

If you had a Yahoo account anytime in 2012 through 2016, a pending class action settlement may affect you.

A Class Action Settlement has been proposed in litigation against Yahoo! Inc. (“Yahoo”) and Aabaco Small Business, LLC (together called “Defendants” in this notice), relating to data breaches (malicious actors got into system and personal data was taken) occurring in 2013 through 2016, as well as to data security intrusions (malicious actors got into system but no data appears to have been taken) occurring in early 2012 (collectively, the “Data Breaches”).

2012 Data Security Intrusions: From at least January through April 2012, at least two different malicious actors accessed Yahoo’s internal systems. The available evidence, however, does not reveal that user credentials, email accounts, or the contents of emails were taken out of Yahoo’s systems.

2013 Data Breach: In August 2013, malicious actors were able to gain access to Yahoo’s user database and took records for all existing Yahoo accounts—approximately three billion accounts worldwide. The records taken included the names, email addresses, telephone numbers, birth dates, passwords, and security questions and answers of Yahoo account holders. As a result, the actors may have also gained access to the contents of the breached Yahoo accounts and, thus, any private information contained within users’ emails, calendars, and contacts.

2014 Data Breach: In November 2014, malicious actors were able to gain access to Yahoo’s user database and take records of approximately 500 million user accounts worldwide. The records taken included the names, email addresses, telephone numbers, birth dates, passwords, and security questions and answers of Yahoo account holders, and, as a result, the actors may have also gained access to the contents of breached Yahoo accounts, and thus, any private information contained within users’ emails, calendars, and contacts.

2015 and 2016 Data Breach: From 2015 to September 2016, malicious actors were able to use cookies instead of a password to gain access into approximately 32 million Yahoo email accounts.

Plaintiffs claim that Defendants failed to adequately protect their Personal Information and that they were injured as a result. Defendants deny any wrongdoing, and no court has made any ruling in these matters.

Who’s Included? If you received a Notice about the Data Breaches, or if you had a Yahoo account at any time between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2016, and are a resident of the United States or Israel, you are a “Settlement Class Member.”

What does the Settlement provide? Yahoo has enhanced, or, through its successor in interest, Oath Holdings Inc. (“Oath”), continues to enhance the security of its customers’ Personal Information stored on its databases. Defendants will also pay for a Settlement Fund of $117,500,000. The Settlement Fund will provide: a minimum of two years of Credit Monitoring Services to protect Settlement Class Members from future harm, or Alternative Compensation instead of credit monitoring for Class Members who already have Credit Monitoring Services (subject to verification and documentation); Out-of-Pocket Costs for losses related to the Data Breaches; and reimbursement of some costs for those who paid for Yahoo premium or small business services. The Settlement Fund will also be used to pay for attorneys’ fees, costs, and expenses, and Service Awards for the Settlement Class Representatives. These are only a summary of the benefits. For complete information, dates, and details on the benefits, visit the Settlement Website www.YahooDataBreachSettlement.com.

What are my options? In order to receive any benefits, you must file a claim online or by mail by July 20, 2020. If you want to keep your right to sue the Defendants yourself, you must exclude yourself from the Settlement Class by March 6, 2020. If you exclude yourself you will not receive any credit monitoring or monetary relief from the Settlement. If you stay in the Settlement Class, you may object to the Settlement, and/or the amount of attorneys’ fees, costs, and expenses, and/or the amount of Class Representative Service Awards by March 6, 2020. If you do nothing, you will not receive any credit monitoring or monetary benefits but you will still be bound by the Court’s decisions. Complete information and instructions on Filing a Claim, excluding oneself from the Settlement, or Objecting are available on the Settlement Website at www.YahooDataBreachSettlement.com.

The Court has scheduled a hearing in this case at 1:30 pm on April 2, 2020, in Courtroom 8 of the U.S Courthouse, 280 South 1st Street, 4th Floor, San Jose, CA 95113, to consider: whether to approve the Settlement; any objections; a request for Class Representatives’ Service Awards; and attorneys’ fees, costs, and expenses for investigating the facts, litigating the case, and negotiating a settlement. The motion for attorney fees, costs, and expenses will be posted on the date it is filed or as quickly thereafter as practicable. You may ask to appear at the hearing but you do not have to.

This is only a summary. For complete information and to file a claim for benefits, visit the Settlement Website, www.YahooDataBreachSettlement.com, email info@YahooDataBreachSettlement.com or call 844-702-2788 (1-80-9344112 for residents of Israel).