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A presence in more than 130 countries and factories in more than 80 research centres brings many global benefits. We believe in long term career development and appreciate how challenges and motivation will help you reach your potential. Nestle Nigeria Plc upholds the principle of Non- Discrimination and Equal Employment Opportunities in its recruitment processes.
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The Nigerian Navy wishes to inform the general public and all interested candidates that the online registration for 2016 Recruitment Exercise will commence on 5 March 2016 and close on 2 April 2016.
2016 Nigerian Navy Recruitment Exercise
Basic Qualifications
Applicants must:
Possess a minimum of 5 credits in not more than 2 sittings in WASSCE/GCE/NECO/NABTEB (English and Mathematics inclusive).
Be between the ages of 18 – 22 years while 24 – 26 years are the acceptable limit for those with OND, NCE, Nurses and Motor Transport Department (MTD) respectively. Candidates with higher qualifications than those specified in the guidelines should not apply.
Applicants must be single and of Nigerian origin by birth.
Required height of 1.70 metres for Male and 1.67 metres for Female.
The recruitment exercise will commence with an aptitude test and screening of certificates of candidates at designated centres for various states nationwide from 9 April 2016. You are advised to carefully read the instructions on the website or call the following support lines from 9am to 4pm on working days: 08124511398 and 08159999011.
Candidates are advised in their own interest not to give any form of gratification or inducement to any person or group of persons to assist them on the recruitment exercise.
Candidates are advised in their own interest not to submit multiple online applications. Any candidates with multiple submissions will be disqualified.
Application Closing Date
2nd April, 2016.
Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should APPLY
The African Basketball League has officially tipped off on Saturday March 5th 2016 at the Landmark Event Centre with the Dakar Rapids of Senegal making history by winning the first game in the season.
Vector, CDQ and a host of other entertainers bounced around a giant stage and entertained fun lovers who came in their hundreds to support the new big thing in Nigeria, ABL.
In his opening speech, the CEO of ABL, Ugo Udezue welcomed the six participating teams; Lagos Islanders, Stallions and Lagos Warriors from Nigeria, Dakar Rapids from Senegal, Abidjan Ramblers from the Cote d’Ivoire and Izobe Basketball Club from Libreville.
The double header weekend was well attended by Senator Ben Murray Bruce, Jeffery Daniels, Jay Jay Okocha, Sasha , Sexy Steel ,Sound Sultan ,Matthew Ohio of Industry nite and VJ Adams.
Stallions’ player J. Felando made history by becoming the first player to score a point in the league. He made a 2pt field goal 23secs into the game.
Felando ended up playing for 34mins with 29points and 11 rebounds. He ties the record of most points in a game with Dakar-Rapids’ Gavin Schuman
Felando alongside his team mate and captain Akin Akuntunde had double doubles – 29pts,11reb and 17pts,18reb – respectively.
Dakar Rapids had two players who made 20+ points – Schuman 29, Niang 26. Stallions had the most 3points as they made 8 out of 20 attempts. The visiting team won with just one point (69-70) and became the first team to win a game in the league.
In the second game played on Sunday, Afam Muojeke and Mark Hill combined for 51points to lead the Lagos Islanders past the visiting Abidjan Ramblers.
It was an electrifying atmosphere at the Landmark Event Centre as the Lagos Islanders rallied in the fourth quarter to cut the lead and eventually win the game. Lagos Islanders scored the first point and 2.16sec into the first quarter, Jacobs made a 2pts layup shot to tie the game 4-4. Afam Muojeke emerged leading scorer for Lagos Islanders with 28pts, 7 rebounds while Jourdain led for Abidjan Ramblers with 22pts, 8 rebounds.
The next game is between Lagos Warriors vs Libreville Izobe on Thursday 10 March at the Landmark Event Centre. Tip off time is 7pm.
The ABL is proudly supported by TRACE, Union Bank, Wakanow, Cornerstone Insurance, Cruz Vodka, Lagos State Government, BEAT 99.9FM and ASKY Airline.
Trading activities on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange,NSE, appreciated further on Monday, March 8, as the All Share Index (NSE ASI) appreciated by 0.27% to 25,890.94 points, compared with the marginal appreciation of 0.01% recorded last Friday.
on the Nigerian Stock Exchange as investors continued to take strategic positions in some value stocks ahead of their corporate earnings and dividends declaration.
Year-to-date (YTD), the Index depreciated by 9.61%.
Similarly, the Market Capitalization appreciated marginally by 0.27% to close at N8.91trn, compared with the marginal appreciation of 0.01% recorded last Friday to close at N8.88trn.
The appreciation recorded in the share prices of Oando, UBA, Stanbic IBTC, FBN Holdings, and Transcorp were mainly responsible for the gain recorded in the Index.
The total value of stocks traded on the floors of The NSE today was N1.31bn, down by 12.09% from N1.49bn traded last Friday. The total volume of stocks traded was 186.37mn in 3,106 deals.
The three most actively traded stocks were: Zenith Bank (25.45mn), Fidelity Bank (25.31mn) and FBN Holdings (19.86mn). The most actively traded sectors were: Financial Services (146.51mn), Conglomerates (19.23mn) and Consumer Goods (13.22mn).
Stocks quoted on the Nigerian stock market has dropped by 16 per cent since December 2015, even as the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN says that weakening the naira would raise inflation, already close to 10 per cent, Control Risks Services West Africa has disclosed.
Commenting the impact of devaluation on business environment, Control Risk stated “Uncertainty about the timing and extent of any devaluation will remain a significant risk, particularly those whose operations rely on large quantities of imported goods, as well as to investors and prospective investors.
Many potential investors are likely to stay shy of Nigeria until the fears surrounding the possible devaluation of the currency have been alleviated. File photo: The floor of Stock exchange Continuing, it said.
“As assets in Nigeria continue to slide in value, investors who are prepared to take a longer term perspective will find there are buying opportunities.”
Daniel Magnowski, Senior Analyst, Control Risks said: “A lot more clarity is needed about Nigeria’s Fiscal and monetary policies before people regain the confidence to invest.”
According to him “Meanwhile, the central bank says that weakening the naira would raise the inflation rate, already close to 10%. Nigerian stocks have fallen 16% since the end of December 2015, the biggest drop in sub-Saharan Africa.” Commenting further on devaluation, he said.
“After falling to a record low of N390 to the US dollar on 18 February the naira (currency)’s gained value on the black market this week to trade at around 364 to the dollar.”
Nigerian oil servicing firms are struggling to offset their dollar-based bank loans as demand for the U.S. currency leaped amid a plunge in crude oil prices and foreign exchange restrictions by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
Consequently, banks were said to be considering lowering their lending bases to oil service companies, Daily Trust learnt.
Service companies are those providing support services to oil and gas companies, ranging from drilling, surveying, cementing, casing (treating wells) among others.
Many have embarked on an aggressive capital-cutting plan that involved cancelling or delaying projects and reducing headcounts.
The effect of these, according to the CEO of Oildata Energy Group and Chairman of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN), Emeka Eneh, was the continuous drop of Nigeria’s rig count and declining reserves.
Eneh, in a presentation, last Thursday in Abuja, said: “From the service companies’ perspective, it is brutal. We have PETAN members who are virtually under the weather because they have to pay back serious dollar-based bank loans at a time when they can’t even source the dollar.
“Our reserves and production is declining, if you take out deep water production the story is quite dismal. Ever since I got into this country, we have been about 2 million barrels it hasn’t changed by much.”
There was also mounting pressure by oil companies for service firms to crash their prices by 40 percent.
But Eneh said cost reduction needed to be industry wide, adding that service companies should not carry the brunt alone.
“Dollars per barrel is made up of not just service company costs but you have development cost, opex, infrastructure cost and something that is hidden there in the middle called the high systemic cost which are prevalent in our industry. For example, if a Nigerian technician needs to go offshore, he buys an ID card for close to $1,000, he renews that every year, it adds up after a while.
The International Energy Agency, IEA has said that despite Nigeria’s lobbying of some Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, to cut production, to shore up global crude oil prices, cutting production may not resolve the current oil glut.
However, production outstrips consumption by around 2 million barrels a day, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD’s energy arm of the IEA.
However, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, believes all hope is not lost as oil producing countries are beginning to find solution to the low price.
He said: “I don’t need to tell you about the price of oil despite the shuttle diplomacy here and there. It is still very challenging but at least we are inching up and for the first time, we are beginning to have both the Saudis and the Russians come back to the table.
“When I started that whole move, I was criticised and told that it would not hold but I am happy that over the last few weeks, we see that everybody has bought into that and we are beginning to see prices inch up very slowly.
“But hopefully, if the meeting that we are scheduling to happen in Russia between the OPEC and non-OPEC members happens on the 20th of March, we should see some dramatic movements, though we are not likely going to see the prices of many years ago.
“I think we are very humbled today to accept that if we hit the price of $50 we will be celebrating and that is the target that we have.” But the IEA forecast that “stockpiles will continue to build until the end of 2017, even if demand rises. Once the market rebalances supply and demand, there is still going to be more than 3 billion barrels of oil in storage tanks that will take years to clear.”
The Agency also expects non-OPEC production to fall by 600,000 barrels a day in 2016, and global demand to rise by about twice that amount.
The IEA further noted: “On the assumption, perhaps optimistic, that OPEC crude production is flat at 32.7 million barrels per day, mb/d in the first quarter of the year, Q1 16, there is an implied stock build of 2 mb/d followed by a 1.5 mb/d build in Q2 16.
The minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige has in the past couple of weeks met several times with workers in the oil sector under the auspices of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) in an attempt to assure them of job security despite threats from oil companies to lay off workers.
However, despite assurances by the minister of labour, there is great anxiety amongst workers in the oil sector about the looming mass sack. The question is just a matter of when and who may be affected.
Recent reports suggest that Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell, have unveiled plans to sack 18,500 of thier employees globally, including those in their services in Nigeria in 2016.
While Shell revealed its plans to sack 10,000 staff and slash direct contractor positions in the company’s unedited full year 2015 results, Chevron announced it would continue the process that began in 2015, and complete the sacking of 8,500 staff in its services globally by the end of 2016.
The United States oil company revealed it would lay off 7,000 staff before 2016 ends in addition to the 1,500 it announced early in 2015, according to a 2015 last quarter report published by New York Times.
NUPENG in a statement by its president, Igwe Achese, described the planned sack as alarming, warning that it may be forced to embark on industrial action if the federal government fails to stop the companies from sending oil workers in Nigeria to the unemployment market.
The apprehension forced NUPENG and PENGASSAN to petition the minster of labour and employment raising issues bordering on industrial and employment relations – retrenchment, casualization, redundancy as well as unfair treatment of Nigerians in the employ of the oil majors.
But despite appeals from the government, the oil majors appear determined to cut their work force.
After a scheduled meeting between the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, and a majorirty of oil companies in Nigeria, the minister called on operators in the sector to shelve such plans so as to avoid throwing the nation into a huge social upheaval.
The minister emphasised that the nation was already facing a lot of social security problems and could not to afford more problems through job cuts; assuring that the scheduled meeting will look at all the issue.
“The oil majors in Nigeria must therefore bend backwards and see what they can plough back from their profits to keep Nigerian workers on their duty posts,” the minister said.
Speaking further, Ngige assured the oil majors that the current economic downturn would not last forever.
According to him, “keep the existing jobs. We have a downturn today but you can be sure it will not last forever. If you are not creating new jobs, let us keep the ones we have. That is what this government is pleading and we must emphasise that is what we want.”
He said because oil and gas sector remained the financial backbone of the country’s economy for now, any threat of industrial unrest therein should be nipped in the bud.
Speaking on behalf of the International Oil Compananies (IOCs) at the meeting, which included Agip, Mobil producing, Chevron Addax and Total, the Director of Human Resources and Medical, Chevron Nigeria Limited, Ihuoma Onyearughe, appealed for understanding and collaboration on the part of the government in view of the current challenges facing the industry.
“The issue of laying people off is not a decision that comes lightly. I will not come here to tell you that people are being laid off or not. The situation in the oil company is dire. We want to ask for more understanding in appreciation of the challenges we face.
“Nevertheless, we have heard the minister and we will take your message back to our various companies,” she said.
The United Nations Resident Coordinator in Nigeria,Fatima Samoura, on Monday, March 8 said Africa’s population has been projected to be two billion.
Samoura added that out of this figure one billion would be below 25 years in the next 34 years.
The official disclosed this at opening of Regional Leadership Summit on the African Demographic Dividend in Abuja. The three-day summit is organised by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Samoura said the idea of the regional summit is to transform the huge population into an opportunity for economic and scientific development. She said the summit would also ensure that the outcome of the discussions and other documents did not stop on the economy but also goes to education and other disciplines.
She said some universities in Africa do not adjust their curricular to the needs of science, technology and economy but remain very traditional and vertical in the way they are approaching demographic dividends.
“The concept of demographic dividend, which is integral to inclusive growth and poverty reduction; is not new, but dates back to Reverend Thomas Malthus (1798).
“Issues of the demographic dividend have gained prominence in international development arena due to the increasing and obvious relationship between population dynamics and sustainable development.”
“This has also resulted in many international affirmations on population and development including the `Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”.
She said the Agenda 2030 underlines the importance of integrating population dynamics into development interventions. She stressed the need to take population projections and trends into consideration in development policies planning and implementation.
The Federal Government has said it will terminate the funding of a $7.39 billion, about N1.478 trillion per annum Joint Venture, JV cash call obligation before 2016.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, made this known at the Oloibiri Lecture Series and Energy Forum organised by the Society of Petroleum Engineers, SPE Nigeria Council, last week in Abuja.
He said the discontinuation of the cash call obligation, will give the oil majors a free hand to source for funding from financial institutions or other sources to execute their projects.
NCS Raises Alarm over Arrival of Six Containers of Poisonous Iranian Tomato Paste
The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, has stated that Nigeria spends N11.7billion annually on the importation of tomato paste.
MAN President, Frank Jacobs said Nigeria is the second largest producer of tomato in Africa and 13th in the world. It still spends N11.7billion yearly on the importation of tomato paste.
Jacobs said: “Sadly, about 750,000 of the tomatoes harvested in Nigeria go to waste as a result of poor Food Supply Chain (FSC) management, price instability, and the supply preference of farmers and middlemen for urban markets than processors due to low farm gate prices.”
The country’s Purchasing Managers’ Index, PMI, has plunged to a record low of 45.5 in the month of February from the 47.2 in January for manufacturing sector, and equally slowed to 44.3 in February, down from 46.9 in January for the non-manufacturing sector.
Analysts attributed the reason to the fact that manufacturers now have little access to power and dollar to import raw materials.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), last week, released its Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) Report for February 2016, which captures the PMI for both the manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors.
“Both sectors’ PMIs dropped sharply to 45.5 (previously 47.2) and 44.3 (previously 46.9) respectively for the second consecutive month,” analysts at Cordros Capital said.
They also said that it is worthy of note that the below 50 PMI results recorded year-to-date suggest that economic activities have generally slowed down since December 2015 (where 51.2 and 53.4 manufacturing and non-manufacturing PMIs were recorded).
“This, in our view, is a pointer to a slower gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the first quarter of this year. It is also in line with the view already hinted by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) at the January 2016 meeting that “growth in the first quarter of 2016 is expected to be less robust than in the corresponding period of 2015 (first quarter GDP of 3.96 per cent) and therefore adds to pressure on the committee to provide further decisive policy support at this month’s meeting,” they said.
The 45.5 manufacturing PMI in February is at a record low level (since the CBN commenced the survey in January 2015). All the sector’s five diffusion indices, save the supplier delivery time index which improved, declined.
Uninterrupted rally on the Nigerian stock market continued as trading for the week opens positively with market capitalization opening at N8.882 trillion and gaining N24 billion to close at N8.906 trillion.
Market analyst said that the sustained optimism in the bourse was on account of positive sentiments toward banking stocks.
Reviewing sectoral indices showed that the Insurance Index went up 0.9 per cent to top sector performance while the oil & gas and banking indices trailed up by 0.5 per cent each, while Consumer Goods Index ended trading flat.
Also, market breadth closed positive with 20 gainers and 12 laggards.
Tiger Brand recorded the highest price gain of 9.88 per cent to close at N1.89 per share. Sterling Bank gained 7.36 per cent to close at N1.75 while International Breweries appreciated by 4.96 per cent to close at N19.05 per share. Mansard Insurance went up by 4.90 per cent to close at N2.14 while Oando appreciated by 4.87 per cent to close at N3.66 per share.
On the other hand, Union Dicon led the losers’ chart by 4.98 per cent to close at N11.25 per share. Vitafoam shed 4.82 per cent to close at N4.15 while Ikeja Hotel declined by 4.76 per cent to close at N2.60 per share. Learn Africa depreciated by 4.65 per cent to close at 82 kobo while Dangote Sugar went down by 3.55 per cent to close at N5.70 per share.
President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has made a projection that his conglomerate would be selling foreign exchange to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) by year 2020.
Dangote, also said the problem with Nigeria should not be blamed on oil, noting that oil traded at $9 per barrel in 1998.
The business mogul, who spoke at The Nigeria Summit hosted by The Economist, said his company is expected to generate 12,000 megawatts of electricity for Nigeria by 2018.
“We are looking at a situation that by 2020 we are the one selling foreign exchange to CBN. Our projects are mainly import substitution. We are working to be self-sufficient to grow about a million tonnes of rice over the next five years,” he said.
“Our gas project would have our gas pipelines on the sea bed. The output should be able to provide about 12,000MW power. We see a lot of transformation when we are done with most of our projects by 2018.
“We have 15 countries in the ECOWAS community that is duty-free. Export market is big and profitable if you have capacity. Players in the manufacturing should be encouraged to export if they have the capacity. We must also meet local consumption.”
He called on the leaders of the economy not to forget diversification of the economy even when oil bounces back to the $80 region.
Africa Prudential Registrars Plc has proposed N1.2 billion for ordinary shareholders of the company if the proposed final dividend of 43 Kobo per share is ratified at the coming Annual General Meeting.
The company’s audited results for 2015 was released to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) last week.
It showed that this final dividend rounds up to 60Kobo total dividend for 2015 financial year, having paid an interim dividend of 17 Kobo on August 31 last year after releasing its half year financial results.
According to a survey on financial literacy released by the Central Bank of Nigeria on Monday, March 8, more than 70 per cent of Nigerians have not heard of mobile money.
The survey which took a sample of 13,286 respondents across the country showed that more Nigerians are still not financially literate.
The survey which was to illustrate current levels of awareness and understanding of various financial and economic terms and levels of knowledge of financial processes also showed that very few people, 7.6 per cent have heard of Point-of-Sale, and of terms like bonds, stocks and mortgages.
Also more than a third of Nigerians (35.9 million) have not heard of pensions or a current account, while a third (32.8 million) have not heard the terms interest or current account.
Stating that one out of four people have not heard of a savings account, the survey report said “if people have not even heard of these terms, they are a long way from understanding these terms and ultimately using these products.”
With 50.7 per cent of the adult population having no formal educational qualifications or has only completed primary education, the survey report says “this calls for the use of simple language in financial documents and financial education initiatives.”
It also noted that the youths that drop out of school or never enroll will not benefit from financial education interventions embedded in school curricula, and will have to be reached through other means.
Three Nigerian oil and gas firms have tendered bids in the final round of Uganda’s first oil licensing.
The government received seven bids for the six exploration blocks on offer, Ugandan newspaper, the Daily Monitor reported.
A statement by the country’s Ministry of Energy gave the three Nigerian companies as, WalterSmith Petroman Oil Limited, Oranto Petroleum International Ltd and Niger Delta Petroleum Resources Ltd.
The other four are, Armour Energy Limited of Australia, Rift Energy Corporation of Canada, Glint Energy LLC of USA and Swala Energy Ltd of Australia.
The winners of the blocks are expected to be announced before the end of June. The six blocks they are competing for include the Ngassa, Tai Tai and Karuka, Mvule, Turaco, Kanywantaba, and the Ngaji.
In October, 2015, the government announced that it had qualified 16 firms to submit bids for the blocks in the Albertine Graben.
“The attraction of seven bidders is significant taking into consideration the current low global oil and gas prices,” the statement said according to the Daily Monitor.
Data has always been a silent, almost indiscreet part of our lives. In the very near future, it is going to define how we live, and the quality of the decisions that we take.
As much as 80% of all the data in the world has been created in past three years. I also read an article recently which said as much as 500 million DVDs worth of data is currently being generated daily. The present challenge for today’s data and information professionals is how to extract value from the humungous and growing reservoir of data around the world.
Ongoing investments in technology assets, bank records and customer data need to be protected. These are some of the enterprise-level issues companies and consumers are grappling with. IBM’s way of responding to these ‘business information management’ challenges in commerce and industry is to keep making organic investments in cloud, analytics and mobile technologies, in addition to strategic alliances and acquisitions in these areas.
Analytics will be key to the future growth of the African business environment. Having data and not being able to properly use and mine it to help you operate more efficiently will be dangerous because analytics will soon become the soul of every business. Collating and consistently analyzing the traffic to a firm’s website, for instance, will be an instructive exercise. Analyzing this sort of data for trends and insights on customer behavior and preferences will always be useful information for any company keen on retaining and growing its market share.
Big Data is no longer a reference for a growing pool of useless techno-junk – it’s fast becoming the single most effective way to drive your business forward.
Not a day goes by, in my job at least, when someone isn’t talking about Big Data. And whether or not that stands true for you, too, it’s certainly a trend that impacts everyone today.
Big Data has therefore become an extremely under-utilized phenomenon. I believe there are several reasons for this; one is that Big Data isn’t a technology we can pinpoint in the physical sense. We can’t point to a single product and say, “that’s Big Data”. And in the same sense, we can’t listen to a customer’s issue and say, “why don’t you just have some Big Data”.
What Big Data really represents is equal measure of trouble and opportunity. The trouble is that we are producing an exponential amount of data – files, file copies, images, videos, admin, details, emails, etc. – and all of it needs housing. Moreover, the pace of technology evolution means that we’re constantly looking to upgrade systems and devices, leaving us with a bunch of data that needs rehoming.
But on the other hand, while we’ve got this data lying around, we might as well use it. This surge of information is hiding endless insights that can benefit your business.
Let me give you an example: Many of us should by now be used to receiving cold calls and spam mail offering us several types of services weekly – sometimes daily. You might get a call or email from your bank about a credit or debit card that you’re fully aware you don’t want. You might tell them you’re not interested. At the same time, a different type of credit or debit card might be offered through a letter in the post, for those who still receive snail mail. At the same time someone else might call you to offer you a loan. And at the same time, you might be searching the internet for the best mortgage, or for the best place to get a new or used car. The constant barrage of unrelated and inconsistent information is enough to drive you away from your bank and seek new services.
However, imagine that your bank could analyze all the data gathered from your information, needs and concerns and consolidate that into a valuable chunk of insight. That information could be used to personally serve you more directly. In fact, your bank would have the ability to see your mortgage concerns, your lack of interest in a debit or credit card and the fact that you had received countless letters regarding loans and cards that you’re not interested in. It could tailor-make a call or email designed just for you. It could approach you with the sole purpose of offering you the ideal mortgage package, possibly gaining business, as opposed to frustrating you with wasted time and offers you’re not interested in.
This consolidation of information and data is exactly where Big Data services come in useful. And many companies are taking advantage of these by taking the necessary steps to crunch their unstructured data into tangible business insights. This trend will most certainly push the economy forward, but only if it’s managed and used quickly and accordingly.
Unstructured data is building up at a scary rate, and it’s essentially inexplicable text. Letting that get the better of you and your company is going to cause a strain on your storage, management and effectiveness of business. However, breaking it down and using it for business insights will offer up opportunities previously unheard of.
Operators in the banking and insurance sector are looking to improve insurance penetration by using bancassurance network
According to the Director General/Chief Executive Officer of West Africa Business School, Mr. Obasi Ngwuta, said the successes recorded by various bancassurance operations had attracted the attention of the financial services sector, with new operations being set up.
He stated that, “As bancassurance is becoming important throughout Africa and globally, the first Africa Bancassurance Academy has been opened by the West Africa Business School to enhance the efforts of regulators in nurturing sustainable bancassurance solutions in financial market in Africa,”
He also explained that the objective of the Africa Bancassurance Academy was to provide quality training for employees and managers of banks and insurance companies either actively involved or considering being involved in bancassurance.
He also added that Participants at the inaugural programme this month, would acquire new knowledge, insights and the encouragement to implement the best practice bancassurance business model.
Mr. Obasi Ngwuta included that there are advantages for banks and insurers to jointly drive insurance penetration and financial inclusion to increase their revenue, build sustainable relationships with current and prospective customers, and provide professional development for managers.
He globally added that, one of the most significant changes in the financial services sector over the past few years had been the appearance and development of bancassurance.
He said banking institutions and insurance companies had found bancassurance to be an attractive and often profitable complement to their existing activities.
Although bancassurance had been growing rapidly in Africa in recent years, he said the shortage of professional talent was a challenge to the development of the new distribution channel.
He concluded that, “Both employees of cooperating banks and insurers will benefit from the West Africa Business School’s five plus years of consistent international bancassurance training experience by attending the academy.”
