By Bashir  Ibrahim  Hassan - - It was good news the other day when United Nations Conference on Trade and Investment and Development (UNCTAD) came up with the figures that Nigeria tops the chart as the biggest destination for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Africa in 2011 with $8.92bn in its 2012 World Investment Report. Beating South Africa, which is more attractive to foreign investors historically, to the second place calls for celebrations of sorts. But it is to be a cautious celebration, if we are to look at the causes for such brilliant performance. The rising commodity prices (oil in case of Nigeria) and a relatively positive economic outlook for other sub-Saharan African countries were among the factors that contributed to the turnaround in the FDI inflow in Africa as pointed out in the report. With oil contributing up 95% of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings the question arises; is relying on sole commodity to att...

From ELEKWACHI CHINEDUM, Abuja -- Legal experts in business law from West Africa have ended a week-long workshop in Cotonou, Benin Republic on the process of examining the compatibility of 15 ECOWAS draft legal instruments with existing laws of the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA). The meeting enabled seven Anglophone legal experts in business law from non-OHADA States to discuss with their counterparts from OHADA signatory countries, focusing on areas of commercial contract, sale and carriage of goods and the security of tenure of business premises of foreign and local nationals. The workshop was held within the regional business law harmonization project, a process that was started in 1996 by the ECOWAS Commission in order to ensure the harmonization of commercial and business laws in the region. The project will ensure that the legal instruments are aligned with existing OHADA instruments an...

KADUNA  Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture (KADCCIMA)  in league with Enhancing Nigerian Advocacy for a Better Business Environment (ENABLE) has called upon the  Kaduna State Government to streamline the multiple, illegal taxation, which it said, is the order of the day in the state. Decrying the situation, KADCCIMA media consultant, Alhaji Kabir Dangogo, said the chamber identified multiple, illegal taxation through a research which provides ample evidence that businesses are being stifled, owing largely to the multiplicity of taxes people are subjected to from both the local government areas and the state, and which in most cases are duplications. The net effect, he averred, is low compliance by tax-payers, thus denying the government of vital internally-generated revenue, even as he pointed out that there is a lack of tax-payer education coupled with leakages in the collected revenue. Also speaking, at the...

For two days, community leaders were engaged in an intensive training on budget tracking, monitoring and how to take part in the governance of their affairs, as democracy is said to be government of the people by the people for the people. The training workshop which was organised and sponsored by the Community Life Project (CLP), an international recognised non- governmental organisation, received tremendous accolade from the participants who graced the programme in large number. Raymond Tedunjaye in this report chronicles the outcome of the workshop. Democracy as defined, is government of the people by the people for the people. Thus, governance is expected to be participatory, inclusive of all citizens, irrespective of status except the insane. But in Nigeria, since the return of democratic governance in 1999, only few, who belong to the wealth class and their cronies, have access and are allowed to know what transpired in the go...

By CHIKA IZUORA The issue of corrupt practices in the public sector was brought to the fore at a one day sensitization and capacity building workshop for Civil Society Organizations in Lagos at the weekend. The capacity building was organized by the Lagos state civil society partnership (LACSOP) to empower civil societies to effectively engage with the Lagos state public procurement law 2011. The event brought together stakeholders involved in the process which include the civil society, the private sector, professional bodies in particular the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply Management of Nigeria (CIPSM) and various government departments in Lagos state. Lead papers from professionals and experts all point to high level corruption in the public sector of the economy at the three tier segment of government. Professional took turns to scrutinize the Public Procurement Act 2007 a law made at the federal leve...

 [dropcap]Some[/dropcap] of them come with 48-hour battery lifewhich means that whether you have light or not, the terminals will continue to run. It has also ensured that some of these terminals come with car chargers, so that even if there is no light for a long period of time, you can charge from your car. In order to address security concerns, the CBN has set up a special team in the BPSD to monitor electronic frauds, while it remains proactive in frauds detection and control. The issues of security and frauds have been a major concern. It is something that stakeholders raise regularly and people refer to their experiences with ATM card frauds. Accordingly, the CBN in conjunction with other stakeholders in the industry are being. proactive in managing fraud, proactive in detecting fraud and proactive in putting all the litigation elements in place. The challenges should not stop the country from starting what smaller African c...

[dropcap]In[/dropcap] case you have not noticed, the entire Western world is going through economic difficulties. Western economies, that is, Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Greece, the Scandinavian or Nordic countries, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand are having economic difficulties. They all are experiencing major downturns in their economic fortune.  It is said that these difficulties began in 2007 but I would say that they have been coming for a long time. We can define economic downturn in many ways. Usually, the indices folks look at in trying to determine whether an economy is growing or slowing down are such things as rate of annual economic growth, Gross Domestic Product, National Domestic Product, level of employment and unemployment, level of industrial activities, income per capita etc.  At present, these indices are generally in negative territories in most We...

[dropcap]Investor [/dropcap]concerns over Italy and Spain eased yesterday on hopes that the eurozone authorities would act to lower borrowing costs. Spain’s 10-year borrowing costs dropped to 6.5per cent from last week’s record high of 7.5per cent, reflecting a slightly improvement in investor confidence. Italy paid a lower rate of interest at a bond auction to raise 5.48billion euros (£4.2billion). The US Treasury Secretary is also arriving in Europe for talks later. Italy’s bond auction saw it offload its 10-year bonds at an interest rate of 5.96per cent, the first time it has sold them below 6% since April. However, Richard McGuire, a rate strategist at Rabobank, said the interest rate Italy was paying to sell its debt was still too high. “While these sales do provide some indication of an easing of tensions at the periphery, they also show considerable further progress on this front is needed,” Mr McGuire added. ...