Nigeria’s power sector reportedly recorded a 450MW restoration to the national supply, offering temporary relief amid persistent outages.
The improvement underscores the need for deeper investment in grid resilience, gas supply stability and distribution efficiency.
Source: Punch, 2025-12-08
“The days of expecting Government to enrol all Nigerians to a national ID database through Government managed infrastructure, has already come and gone.”
In this first issue of Giants of Industry, the Group Managing Director/CEO of Chams PLC, Gavin Young speaks with Echotitbits’ Tobiloba Kolawole about the National Identity Number (NIN) program.
Prior to assuming the position of GMD/CEO of Chams Plc, a leading provider of integrated identity management and identity and payments transactional systems, Gavin Young since 2009, has worked (on a full-time and part-time basis) with the Chams Plc Group of Companies as Managing Director of ChamsSwitch and Deputy managing Director of Chams Mobile, among other roles.
His career cuts across 20 years at First National Bank of South Africa, seven years at Visa as Country Manager, sub-Saharan Africa. In 2007, he joined UBA as Senior General Manager, Cards.
Data as Bedrock for Efficient Public Service.
Correct and accurate data of individuals, linked to either BVN or NIN is absolutely essential to ensure that services and benefits are provided correctly, in an audited and transparent way, to those that require the benefit or service. Although BVN and NIN form the backbone of an individual’s identity, additional information from individuals is required for various purposes where BVN and NIN fields may not cater for information for specific purposes.
The BVN as Financial Enabler
BVN has an added advantage, in that it serves as an enabler for financial inclusion and therefore, both comprehensive data and an electronic means of receiving and spending funds are both very important. In addition, once a person has a BVN number, for which you don’t need to open an account, one also obtains a NIN number, negating the need to also enrol fully for a NIN.
Chams Group is working closely with Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) to expand the number of BVNs in Nigeria this year, as this Covid-19 pandemic has made this an urgent priority, particularly across the private sector. NIBSS has recently introduced an enrolment app linked to a fingerprint scanner, which makes it a lot easier and more efficient to enrol the masses.
A Case for Private Sector Driven National Identity Programme
In my opinion, we shouldn’t be relying on Government to deliver on their NIN enrolment ambitions. It should really be up to the private sector to perform this role with NIBSS, then simply have that data also ported to NIMC for the issuance of a BVN. I’m sure that the private sector would be far more efficient at performing this data collection role and also expanding financial services and other benefits through capturing additional data.
Given the current oil price, pressure on foreign reserves and the need to support people over these difficult times, I don’t believe that Government should also be expected to provide funding for a mass NIN enrolment service, when this can be private sector led with very little cost to Government. This is one of the ways private sector can further support Government and the people of Nigeria over these challenging times.
NIMC and the Struggles of NIN Enrolment
Well, it’s not for me to speak for NIMC and why the majority of student and adult Nigerians have not been enrolled to the National Identity program. However, it is right that they remain the custodians of a true national ID program. However, as mentioned before, it’s enrolment of the masses to that program that has presented a challenge for Government.
However, I am very optimistic that the private sector, and companies such as Chams PLC, in partnership with NIBSS, will expand BVN enrolments significantly this year and next. Banks have also been playing an important role from inception of the BVN program. I am very optimistic that with the technology now in place, that over 100 million Nigerians would be enrolled before the end of 2021. I believe it’s a very realistic target because it’s private sector led.
I believe that Mobile telecommunications companies will also step-up BVN enrolment initiatives so that they could achieve their financial inclusion ambitions in the informal sector.
In summary, the days of expecting Government to enrol all Nigerians to a national ID database through Government managed infrastructure, has already come and gone. Private sector will now assist to achieve this for the benefit of all Nigerians, whilst meeting NIN criteria from which many Government agencies and the people they serve, would also benefit.
A leading Nigerian conglomerate with focus on manufacturing, infrastructure and agriculture, BUA Group, has ventured into oil and gas sector and signed a deal with France’s largest hydrocarbons group, Axens, to refine 200,000 barrels per day of crude oil in Nigeria.
Located in Akwa Ibom State, South-south Nigeria, the project is expected to see Axens license key refinery technologies to BUA Group. This was contained in a contract that was signed between both parties in France on Tuesday.
Chairman of BUA Group, Abdulsamad Rabiu, signed on behalf of his company, while the Chief Executive Officer of Axens, Jean Sentenac, did same at a ceremony presided over by France’s Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade and Economic Attractiveness, Franck Riester.
READ ALSO:
Mining: Adegbite urges companies to operate within guidelines
Speaking after signing the contract, Rabiu described the project as a very viable one given the economics of fuel importation in Nigeria.
“Nigeria imports 90 per cent of its petroleum products. We spend 35 per cent of our foreign exchange on importing petroleum products.
“President Emmanuel Macron has given special determination and support to this project,” Rabiu told The Africa Report.
BUA Group chairman expressed belief in the project’s sustainability, noting that the investment would pay off in the long run, as new fuel standards continue to evolve along with the climate crisis.
According to him, “It is in the DNA of BUA Group; look at our cement plants, the most sustainable in Nigeria, same with our sugar plants. This is the hard part, we cannot get this wrong. It is like in an aeroplane, you always look at who built the engine, it is the most important thing.”
Rabiu said there’s space for another project, despite the growing international glut of refinery projects, the tapering of transport fuel use globally and the strong local competition.
His projection was based on the high rate of fuel consumption in Nigeria, saying the country today consumes about 500,000 to 550,000 barrels a day of petrol and partly because of demand in the region.
He said: “We will have the marine infrastructure for easy export, and the external market for polypropylene (the other major product from the refinery) is very strong.”
Rabiu has been serving as the Chairman of the Macron-initiated Franco-Nigerian Investors’ Club.
Also speaking, Sentenac described the technologies that Axens would be licencing as a chance to breathe easier in Nigeria, with the plant having the ability to refine biofuels.
Sentenac said: “We are the world leader in the Euro 5 fuel standard; this has already reduced car pollution in Europe by a factor of 5 or 6, and it also allows Nigeria to start using the latest generation of fuel efficient engines, the first step towards fighting global warming.”
He added that his company, which makes systems to convert oil and biomass to cleaner fuels, would provide technology for the greenfield project designed to produce Euro-V fuels and polypropylene targeted at domestic and regional markets.
In his remarks, Riester said the deal would be “one of the things that will help build up the necessary intrapersonal relationships” between industrial players in the two countries, part of a wider French strategy of greater engagement in Anglophone Africa.”
The new refinery is expected to be operational in 2024. The refinery would be built using an undisclosed mix of debt and equity, with several development and commercial banks in negotiations with BUA Group.
The new project is expected to directly compete with Nigeria’s other large refinery project, piloted by Dangote Group, which would be operational by 2021.
Axens beat the US company, Honeywell UOP, which got through to the final round, according to sources close to the bid.
The bidding process was managed by energy consultants, KBR, which would also be handling subsequent rounds for the engineering and construction phase, currently underway.
Idowu Sowunmi
By Tobiloba Kolawole
A training and development organization, Purpose Power and Lifestyle Design (PPLD) International is set to train young graduates through its Prep for Success (PFS) programme.
According to the Chief Inspiration Officer of the organization, Tunde Makun, the PFS will hold for two days, Thursday 24th and Friday 25th.
The Prep for Success programme, which is in its 13th edition, is the company’s initiative to breeding a new crop of business and thought leaders who will drive the emerging African continental growth.
Makun said: “Our young graduate population continues to grow rapidly in the job market. And while that’s going on, confusion and disenchantment deepen. For the few who are lucky to be invited for interview, most employers aren’t pleased with the quality of the interview candidates. Clearly, we have a duty to not only provide for them, but also to guide them.
“That’s why we created the hugely experiential graduate Prep for Success
PFS training program to help Young Graduates lay an amazing foundation for a fast-track into the future; securing and growing in a choice career or business”, Makun noted.
Some of the facilitators and sponsors that will attend the training are Mrs Gbemisola Adetola, a Public Relations Consultant; Mrs Adebola Fashaun, a retired Judicial Officer and Mrs Bioye Animashaun, a Legal Practitioner.
Makun added that, “The truly transformational 2-day PFS program is the code you need to navigate the future with confidence. Now in its 13th class, the testimonials from this program have been phenomenal.
Tunde Makun, a successful entrepreneur in the oil and Gas marketing industry also expressed regret that the country is not thinking much about the young ones. He noted that in 2019, PPLD will do a lot to deepen its connection with the youth especially, helping them to navigate through tortuous environment to attaining successful careers.
He said: “Our connection with the youth this year is very ambitious. We are looking at reaching to as much as a 1 million youth. The idea is to make sure that there are some key deliverables. Leadership is one of them, and helping them to redefine how to live in a community.
“We want to train the youth to lead themselves in a community where they live according to rules of engagement that works for communal living rather than individual living”, Makun said.
Notable past facilitators and mentors at PPD training programmes include Prof. Pat Utomi, Dr. Doyin Abiola, Mr Leo Stan Ekeh, Dr. Christopher Kolade and many others.
The internationally certified coach said he is collaborating with partners in the United States of America, who would become mentors and share resources to help PPLD achieve its goal of catapulting young graduates to success in Nigeria.
By Tobiloba Kolawole
The Federal Government and State governments in Nigeria are consolidating efforts to take advantage of the far-reaching potentials in the deployment of information and communications technology for social and economic gains.
At the opening ceremony of the 6th regular meeting of the National Council on Communications Technology, which held last Thursday in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, the Executive Governor of Ogun State, His Excellency, Ibikunle Amosun reinforced the need for governments at all level and the private sector to invest in ICT to fast track development and reduce unemployment rate to the barest minimum.
In his opening address, Governor Ibikunle Amosun, who was the chief host of this year’s NCCT meeting underscores the impact of communication technology on development. He said, “The interests to share and the ideas to exchange among the people have assumed a multi-dimensional proportion and have totally become driven by technology. These evolving challenges of information management have led to advancements in Big Data, Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cryptography and Robotic Engineering.”
It is imperative that a society that is desirous of continued growth and development must not only put in place necessary machinery to ensure seamless information and communication but must also place a high premium on the various means of communication. This is why the conception and hosting of the 6th National Council on Communication Technology in our dear State, is a welcome development at this critical time in our nation’s development.”
Governor Amosun further emphasized that there is a nexus between modern development and Information technology, which necessitates that any country that is desirous of achieving a turn around transformation in the economy, social welfare delivery, employment, effective agricultural process, education, and other areas must proactively invest in ICT.
Amosun said “on our part as an Administration in Ogun State, we appreciate the need to deploy technology in all our programmes and policies. Our belief is that, in Ogun State, by building an ICT ecosystem and leveraging on the benefits of technology, we will not only sustain the momentum of the achievement of our Administration, but we will also fast-track the process of development.”
The Ogun State Governor highlighted his government’s efforts to identify and help channel the exuberant energy of youths in Ogun State towards innovation. He said the aim is to encourage a crop of tech-savvy people who will deploy disruptive innovation technologies to solve society’s socio-economic challenges.
“This is one of the major reasons, amongst others, for featuring Technology in our 2018 Investors Forum and, the hosting of the 2018 TechSummit Ogun on Thursday 18th January 2018”, Amosun said.
He also said “Apart from opening up a wide range of opportunities in employment generation for our teeming youth on a macro level, the TechSummit Ogun was also conceived to explore the potential for creating new economies along the ICT value chain, such as web development and maintenance; programming; software design and hardware engineering. It is my joy that our dear State has continued to take full advantage of the expected manpower needs by facilitating ICT hubs to provide needed skills acquisitions.”
FrontPage recalls that about two weeks ago, the Ogun State Executive Council approved a new ICT policy that highlights the development of human resources; provision of infrastructure; the roles of Government and other stakeholders; and strategies to be adopted in the deployment of ICT towards the development of vital economic sectors such as education, health, Agric, commerce and industry, tourism, etc.
The Chairman of the National Council of Communications Technology and Minister for Communications, Hon. Adebayo Shittu reiterated the impact of ICT as a veritable tool for advancing the growth and economic diversification in countries. The minister noted that a World Bank econometric study carried out in 2009 showed that every 10% increase in ICT investments generates a 1.38% increase in GDP.
In his address, Shittu said that “the Nigerian ICT sector today is one of the fastest-growing despite the economic recession and contributed 9.8% in GDP in 2014. The challenge is how to address the issues of revenue, investments, cost savings, employment generation, and national productivity among others.
“In pursuit of national agenda, we have continued to reposition the ICT sector in the areas of infrastructure and industry development, local content optimization, enabling policy, legal and regulatory framework; deepening of ICT in Government and mainstreaming of ICT into all spheres of national life among others”, Shittu said.
While highlighting some of government’s efforts towards ICT integration, the Minister said that through Galaxy Backbone, internet access has been provided to about 40 MDAs, over 11,000 nodes of wireless LAN to all MDAs at the Federal Secretariat, over 40,000 email addresses for government officials under the gov.ng and mil.ng domains, which is aimed at ensuring that government data is hosted locally on a secured website with data back-up to MDAs and 200 servers hosting 94 MDAs.
“We are working to have ICT infrastructure designated as critical national infrastructure. Efforts are being made to procure additional communication satellites to complement the existing NigComSat-2 as a means of reaching areas that cannot easily be covered by terrestrial fiber”, the Minister explained.
He said further “we are also working to make more investments in building the capacity and harnessing the talents of our youth. In particular, we are increasing Accelerators and Incubator programmes as a means of building and harnessing the capacity of our increasingly ICT savvy youth population.”
“Going forward, the government will expand its investment in ICT infrastructure to extend connectivity to un-served and underserved areas. In this regard, attention will be paid to the issue of multiple taxations of ICT infrastructure. A robust, safe and resilient infrastructure is the key enabler of a digital economy.”
Also, the Special Adviser on ICT to the Governor of Ogun State, Bunmi Adebayo stressed the need for a synergy between ICT professionals and service providers on one hand with the aim to recognize problems and attendant solutions for alleviation. He further emphasized the Government’s role in creating and enacting necessary social policies to address such problems.
Adebayo highlighted some of the achievements of the Ogun State Government through the Bureau of ICT.
“We have been innovative in this end in Ogun State and it may interest you that Ogun State is the First State to provide the longest Government Sponsored 250-kilometer Fiber optic layout in the Country in partnership with MainOne Cable, a private sector company, in a “Quid pro quo” arrangement by giving concession on Right of Way fees. The first to deploy a Satellite-based ICT solution to deliver Precision Management to Agricultural potentiality of our land, Pertinent positioning of our Agro-cluster and Agricultural yields.”
The first to host the only CISCO Networks Academy Support center (ASC) for English Speaking West and Central Africa stretching to the Gambia and Southern Nigeria which is managed by the center”, Adebayo said.
The theme for this year’s meeting of the National Council on Communications Technology was Leveraging ICT as a Vehicle for Economic Recovery and Growth. It began with a technical session on Monday 19th November and ended on Friday 23rd November. The meeting focused on how the highly acknowledged potentials of the ICT sector can be used to achieve the main policy objectives of economic recovery and growth.
The National Council on Communications Technology is the highest governmental policy advisory body in the ICT sector with the Federal Minister for Communications as the Chairman.
Members of the NCC includes the permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Communications, State Commissioners and highest state official in charge of ICT matters across the 36 states of the Federation; Chief Executives of Government agencies and parastatals in charge of ICT and key private sector stakeholders.
By Tobiloba Kolawole
The Ogun State Government has on Tuesday approved a policy on information and Communication Technology with a vision to make the state IT driven and a key player in the Info-tech sector using ICT as an engine for sustainable development and global competitiveness.
In an exclusive interview, the Special Adviser to the Governor of Ogun State on ICT, Bunmi Adebayo said “the approval of the new ICT policy and implementation strategy goes a long way to show the commitment of Governor ibikunle Amosun to transforming the state into an ICT driven economy, which is part of the mission to rebuild agenda”.
Adebayo also stated that “the Ogun State government deemed it imperative to put in place an ICT policy in response to emerging global reality, to bridge digital divide and to enhance the quality of service delivery from government to the people of Ogun State and other stakeholders”.
The policy, which is tagged ‘Deploy ICT’ is designed to ensure that information and communication technology resources are available for research and development, urban and rural development, agriculture and forestry, including trade and investment for the purpose of fast tracking development in Ogun state.
“Some of the objectives of this policy are to empower Ogun residents to participate in software and IT development, integrate IT in mainstream education and build a pool of IT literate manpower in the civil and public service” Adebayo said.
The special adviser further reiterated that “In agriculture, ICT will be used to improve food production and security, in tourism, it will be used for the promotion of all our tourist potentials and in environment among others, ICT will be deployed to re-engineer and improve urban and rural development schemes”.
Since about two decades ago, information and communication technology has been a catalyst for development in a rapidly changing global environment. It has challenged nations around the world to device bold and courageous initiatives to address a host of vital socioeconomic issues such as reliable infrastructure, skilled human resources, open government and capacity building.
Meanwhile, the state government is set to host the 6th General Meeting of the National Council on Communications Technology. The event, which will begin on Monday 19th November and end on Friday 23rd November is being held at the June 12 Cultural Centre in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
By Tobiloba Kolawole
No less than 5,000 African entrepreneurs, private and public sector leaders and the broader entrepreneurship ecosystem converged on Lagos on Thursday, October 25, 2018 for the annual Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) Entrepreneurship Forum. The event is a unique opportunity for bringing together young business talent, creating dynamic networks and transmitting the message to policymakers that a vibrant and responsible private sector will deliver economic transformation.
The forum which is now in its fourth year, is the graduation of the 2018 cohort of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, after a tedious nine-month duration of training, mentorship and funding. This brought the total number of beneficiaries of the Programme to 4,470 and about 300,000 applications received since the start of the entrepreneurial initiative.
A major highlight of this year’s forum was the unveiling of TEFConnect, a revolutionary digital community that serves as a complete convergence of the entrepreneurship ecosystem across Africa and beyond. The platform includes entrepreneurs, investors and the broader business community in one digital community, connecting them with three vital elements for success – capital, market and business tools. TEFConnect brings to fulfillment a key responsibility in bringing together entrepreneurs across the Africa, a continent that is riding a wave of rapid technological driven change spreading through payment systems, education, agriculture and infrastructure.
The event commenced with a battery of goodwill messages from major stakeholders in the investment, governmental and development communities. Other important highlights were pitching competition, panel discussions, as well as a vibrant interactive session between the Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo and entrepreneurs; and moderated by TEF Founder, Tony O. Elumelu.
The event also included a marketplace exhibition where past beneficiaries of the programme showcased their products and services.
