The Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria, OAAN, alongside the Rivers State Signage and Advertisement Agency, RISAA, are working towards a partnership with the aim of promoting a conducive business environment for members.
At a meeting which held in the office of the OAAN’s President, Emmanuel Ajufo on Friday, August 2, 2019, which had the Managing Director, MD, of RISAA, Chief Tony Okeah who came in company of one of his senior management staff during an official visit, the OAAN boss had presented some of the issues affecting members in the state, and had requested that the RISAA leadership should look into them.
Some of the issues mentioned include billing for vacant billboards and allowing companies that are not registered either with APCON nor OAAN to practice.
In responding, the MD of RISAA made a promise to consider the issues and further solicited the cooperation of the executive council of OAAN, particularly in the area of payment of outstanding permit fees.
Chief Okeah also made the promise that the Agency would cooperate with the members of OAAN.
The RISAA boss equally assured the OAAN leaders that the ongoing enforcement exercise in the state was to rid it of illegal and unkempt structures.
Chief Okeah asked members to contact the Agency for reconciliation of their bills and promised to review such as far as possible.
While the meeting lasted, it was agreed that the OAAN Membership Forms should be made available at RISAA’s office to encourage willing and qualified companies in the State to regularise their practice by joining the Association.
In Malaysia, regulatory reforms are beginning to shape the trajectory of the digital economy to unleash ultrafast internet. The result has been beneficial to Malaysians, especially within the confines of a market with low adoption of fibre internet services in the past decade, compared to its regional peers. But now things are changing. The country’s broadband market is rapidly moving to become more accessible, with increased competition and better quality services – which could potentially expand the digital economy to provide the benefits of economic growth, job creation and social inclusion.
Last year, the country saw a major undertaking of regulatory reforms, leading to a drop in prices of fixed broadband services and triggering a shift in consumer demand for faster Internet. This is important as recent World Bank analysis found that Malaysia’s lag in Internet speed was partly due to limited competition in the broadband market – marked by the dominance of one company holding a 90% market share as of December 2017. At that time, Malaysia had the most concentrated fixed broadband market in all of Asia Pacific for a country with a population larger than one million. Limited competition and difficulties in network deployment constrained alternative internet service providers (ISPs) from rolling out networks or offering services on competitive terms.
A key reform to address this has been the introduction of the Mandatory Standard on Access Pricing (MSAP) by the country’s telecommunications regulator, the Malaysian Communications and Media Communication (MCMC). The MSAP regulates the prices and terms for alternative ISPs to access the incumbent’s wholesale broadband capacity. Similar measures have had positive impacts on broadband markets in other parts of the world, allowing alternative ISPs to offer lower-priced and higher quality services to their subscribers.
Fixed broadband connection quality, including fibre internet services, rapidly responded to these regulatory changes. Within three months of the reform in 2018, many local service providers announced new broadband subscription plans with faster speeds at lower prices. The impact was evident for what is globally becoming the norm for basic broadband services (30 Mbps services), with average prices for those plans falling by over 30% in 2018. Notably, the average price of plans for speeds in excess of 1 Gbps (the emerging speed target for high-income economies) fell by 40%. Price drops were seen across all plan types.
As a result, Malaysian subscribers have begun the switch to broadband plans with faster speed. Data from MCMC shows that the number of fixed-broadband subscriptions with download speeds of more than 100 Mbps grew by a factor of eight to 1.2 million subscribers by the end of 2018.
After these reforms, we see that Malaysia is now starting to close the gap in internet speed with leading countries. In December 2017, the average speed of fixed broadband services in the five countries with the fastest connections in the world was over six times faster than the average speed in Malaysia. By March 2019, this had narrowed to just over two times. Looking at the bigger picture, Malaysia’s average fixed broadband speeds have trebled in the span of a year (see Table).
Malaysia’s experience shows that policy reforms can have an immense impact on market outcomes in a short space of time, as recent events have proven. The implementation of regulations that boosted competition has had positive effects on subscriptions and affordability. This demonstrates the potential gains from regulatory reforms and the demand for high quality and affordable internet services. Regulatory reforms are a first, but critical, step in a long journey to providing all Malaysians with access to ultrafast and affordable broadband services that will position local businesses and the economy for growth in an increasingly digital world.
One year ago today, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) recorded the first case of Ebola virus disease – its tenth outbreak since 1976. Since then, the Government, UN agencies and health NGOs have battled to contain the deadly virus but cases continue to be reported. The outbreak has added yet another layer to one of the world’s most complex humanitarian crises in which 13 million people – or one in 10 people in need across the world – now require emergency assistance to survive. Yet humanitarian partners have received just 27 per cent of the over $1.6 billion needed to reach the most vulnerable 9.6 million people in DRC this year.
Here we outline five of the biggest challenges facing the DRC and what is being done about them.
A complex battle against the deadly Ebola virus
DR Congo is going through its longest and most complex battle against Ebola. This is the largest Ebola outbreak in the DRC so far with 2,687 total confirmed or probable cases and 1,806 deaths recorded in North Kivu and Ituri provinces as of 29 July.
North Kivu is one of DRC’s most restive provinces. Insecurity, combined with a history of disaffection with national authorities and foreigners are a major hindrance to health response efforts. So far, 198 attacks have been recorded against responders and health facilities, causing seven deaths and 58 injured health workers and patients.
Despite this, the World Health Organization, DRC Ministry of Health, UNICEF and NGOs have made heroic attempts to contain the virus. As well as administering Ebola vaccines to at-risk communities, they are isolating all suspected and confirmed cases so they can get the best possible care; tracking down people they have come into contact with; treating the sick, carrying out safe and dignified burials; and engaging with communities to try to build trust in the Government-led response effort.
So far the disease has been prevented from spreading across the region. But to end the outbreak, partners in the Government-led response urgently need a number of things, including: more progress in gaining the trust and full engagement of the communities affected by the virus; an enabling, safe environment for responders to work and for patients to seek care; and a more united approach in which NGOs and UN partners work to their comparative advantages under the Government’s leadership. They also need the world’s political and financial support: hundreds of millions of US dollars are needed to support every aspect of prevention and response.
Ongoing conflict and mass displacement
Clashes between non-state armed groups, militias and the Congolese armed forces continue, particularly in the Kasais, North Kivu, South Kivu and Tanganyika provinces. Civilians in these areas are at the mercy of repeat attacks, which have led approximately 4.5 million people to be displaced across the country. This displacement causes food insecurity, disrupts children’s education, puts women and minors at risk of sexual violence, and destroys people’s livelihoods, forcing people to rely on humanitarian assistance to survive. Year-round, UN agencies and NGOs are delivering aid to displaced communities, including cash transfers, food aid and emergency education, although they themselves are often victims of the attack.
Measles continues to spread
In June, the DRC Government declared a measles epidemic, with close to 100,000 cases recorded from almost every province. The Health Ministry and the World Health Organization have vaccinated over two million children against measles since the beginning of 2019, and hygiene and sanitation projects are being rolled out throughout the country. However, health and sanitation systems are severely weakened, and poorly equipped to address the outbreak. And continued insecurity, as well as community mistrust, has meant millions of children have not yet been vaccinated.
Cholera hard to contain
Parallel to measles, families across the DRC have been hit hard by water-borne cholera resulting from poor access to clean water. As of mid-July, some 13,700 reported cholera cases and 280 deaths have been recorded this year. WHO, UNICEF, the Ministry of Health and partners are undertaking epidemiological surveillance, prevention programmes including mass vaccination campaigns, risk communication and treatment to try to contain the crisis.
The world’s second-worst hunger crisis
Though DRC has 80 million hectares of fertile, farmable land, decades of conflict continue to have a devastating impact on people’s ability to harvest or access sufficient food, leaving 13 million people food-insecure. The hunger crisis has rapidly deepened in the conflict-ridden Kasai region, where one in four people are at risk of going hungry and infant acute malnutrition rates have reached 14 per cent. Aid agencies run large-scale cash distribution, food relief and infant nutrition programmes, but are chronically under-funded and able only to reach the most vulnerable.
Humanitarian agencies are doing all they can to relieve the suffering. But to scale up, the Humanitarian Response Plan needs to be fully funded.
We recall that Egypt signed an economic reform program with the IMF about 3-years ago in a bid to salvage the economy from the throes of the economic and political crisis. The IMF program came with requirements to implement some reforms which included the introduction of value-added taxes, cuts to energy subsidies and a currency devaluation.
With the medium to long term gains overshadowing short-term pains, the country holistically implemented all the above policies. Today, the benefits of the program range from a decline in the unemployment rate which fell to 7.5% in Q2-19 (vs 12.6% in Q3-16, pre-IMF reforms) to slimmer budget deficits as well as a stronger Egyptian pound (+8.3% YTD).
At the start of the fiscal year in Jul-19, Egypt received the final tranche of loan from the IMF and announced a fresh round of subsidy removal which created some fears of an uptick in inflation. However, according to the Jul-19 inflation report released yesterday, consumer prices in the urban parts of Egypt slowed to its lowest in almost four years, to 8.7% from 9.4% in Jun-19. Also, the core inflation sub-index fell to 5.9% from 6.4% in Jun-19. The high base effect from the prior year drove this as well as the success of government efforts to contain food prices. Meanwhile, with inflation already within the Central Bank of Egypt’s target (9.0% +/-3ppts), we expect the Egyptian monetary policy committee to take a more accommodative stance as it gets ready to meet by the end of the month.
Fears concerning the direction of South Africa’s economy resurfaced as the Q2- 19 unemployment rate published during the week edged higher by 1.4%, to 29.0%, the worst performance recorded since the global financial crisis in 2008.
Further analysis showed a distinct disparity in the number of persons who secured jobs compared to individuals who lost employment. Specifically, while those who secured jobs increased 21,000 q/q, those who lost their jobs grew 455,000 q/q, more than doubling jobs created during the period.
Youth unemployment continued to remain the bone of contention, as more than 56.4% of the young workforce were unemployed. In what seemed to be a contradiction to the norm, a lower unemployment rate was seen amongst individuals with little education, as the Agric sector remained the largest employer, requiring mainly labour-intensive production. On a sectoral level, the Mining, Transport, Construction and Banking sectors recorded massive lay-offs, as they struggled to remain profitable, amid a challenging business environment.
This mounts further pressure on President Cyril Rampahosa’s government, an administration already saddled with avoiding another recession. In Q1-19, GDP contracted -3.2% due to weaker consumer demand as well as lower activities in the Agric, Mining and Manufacturing sectors. Also, the government continues to the battle crisis in the power sector, as the ailing state-owned Power utility company, Eskom, reported a monumental loss (R20.7bn or $1.5bn) in its 2018/2019 integrated annual report, despite recent efforts of the government. The above is almost similar to that of Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, also struggling with high unemployment rate, faltering GDP growth and power sector crisis. Accordingly, to change this narrative, both economies have to find a way to rejig their ailing power sector, boost job creation and create an enabling environment for businesses to thrive. This is critical for faster growth across the region.
To mark her 5th year on national digital terrestrial television, RAVE TV will be re-positioning her stand in the digital broadcast space as Nigeria’s first so exciting, interactive youth-focused television with the relaunch and unveiling of her “New Logo” that is, youthful, approachable, timeless and fit for the 21st century audience; to leave a top of the mind Rave experience amongst her viewers, online and offline.
To celebrate the feat the following activities lined up are;
A Football Re-Match with TVC, 9th August @DBI, Oshodi
CSR Initiative themed “Traffic Safety” 15th August @Odi-olowo LGA, Ilupeju
And a wrap up with a “Mentoring Series” 9th September
The relaunch is set to host heads of media agencies, brand managers, content producers and celebrities to a 2hour luncheon to feel the Rave.
TV just got so exciting…
RAVE TV is Nigeria’s first exciting multi broadcast interactive channel poised to educate, entertain and inform the young and young at heart with rich contents that cuts across the African borders. She prides herself on her interactive and engaging programming time belts of participatory live and recorded TV show and her ever-busy social media network.
RAVE TV is available on GOTV 113, MYTV Africa, FREE TV 745 and live on the RAVE TV mobile app (available on Google play store for Android, IOS, Windows and Blackberry platforms).
Tolaram Group, a conglomerate with a wide range of consumer goods in its portfolio and best known for its Indomie noodles has entered the Nigerian fruit juice market with the launch of Goodlife Majik fruit drink.
The product was unveiled on Monday in the presence of dignitaries and stakeholders at the Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.
The company said that GoodLife Magik, is a healthy fruit drink that rides on three unique selling propositions of “Healthy, Nutritious and Great Taste”.
L-R: Mr Folorunso Coker, Director General, Federal Ministry of Tourism; Hon Tolulope Sodipe, Member Federal House of Representative, Oluyole Constituency; Mrs Bamidele Abiodun, First Lady of Ogun State; Chief Haresh Aswani, Managing Director,Tolaram Group and Dr Bartholomew Brai, President Nutrition Society of Nigeria during the Formal Launch of Goodlife Magic fruit drinks in Lagos. www.brandspurng.com
According to the company, the new fruit drink is targeted at children who require all the beneficial nutrients they can get, to grow and function optimally.
The brand comes in three variants: Orange, Watermelon & Mango and is fortified with key nutrients such as Vitamin-C and Glucose that improve immunity and give energy.
The new product offers a great natural taste and comes in unique and attractive packaging.
Speaking on the launch Harkishin Aswani, Managing Director, Tolaram Group, said “Tolaram Group is one of the largest manufacturers in Nigeria and the group has consistently produced strong household brands keeping in mind the consumers’ we hope to create another success stories, the fruit drink is targeted at children with key nutrients such as Vitamin-C and Glucose that improves immunity and offers a great natural taste and comes in unique and attractive packaging,” he said.
Aswani, however, appealed to Nigerians to continue to support the group as it grows, while assuring them of its commitment towards creating another Nigerian success story with the GoodLife Magik fruit drink brand.
Wife of Ogun State Governor, Mrs. Bamidele Abiodun, who was special guest, praised the group for its efforts in putting smiles on the faces of Nigerians through the introduction of numerous brands which have over the years expanded so large and are actively topping the charts in their respective categories.
“There is hardly anyone in this hall who has never consumed the Indomie brand,” she said, describing it as an evidence of a brand’s success.
“It must also be mentioned that the Tolaram Group’s marketing doggedness and product innovation culture is quite admirable and strong, hence, I am confident that this latest addition; GoodLife Magik fruit drink will also grow big and perform well in the Nigerian market just like the rest of the brands from the group“ Bamidele said.
Also speaking at the launch, President, Nutrition Society of Nigeria, Dr. Bartholomew Brai, said: “We are excited to be a part of the launch of the GoodLife Magik, which has come with the proposition of healthy nutrition for Nigerians.
“Nutrition Society of Nigeria has always been in support of the Tolaram group brands not because of their market dominance, but because they have consistently demonstrated interest in the promotion of health.
“We are always happy and open to support any brand that promises to promote healthy nutrition which is what the society largely stands for.”
Attendees to the event included Mrs. Bamidele Abiodun, wife of the Executive Governor of Ogun State; Mr. Folorunso Coker, Director-General, Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation; Hon. Mrs. Tolulope Sadipe, Federal House of Representative Member, Oluyole Constituency, Oyo State; Dr. Bartholomew Brai, President Nutrition Society of Nigeria; stakeholders, the press and children.
GoodLife Magik is being manufactured by Tolaram Nutri Beverages Ltd under the Tolaram Group.
CNN International’s African Voices is entering a new era in its quest to profile outstanding individuals across the continent. Having celebrated ten years of the show, this new chapter focuses on the stories of Changemakers – people doing positive and innovative things that impact communities and change lives and is hosted by AritOkpo.
This week the programme highlights the work of Crystal Chigbu, a Nigerian who is changing lives by providing prosthetic limbs for amputated children. The cause is close to her heart after dealing with her own daughter’s limb loss. Chigbu tells CNN about the emotional decision to amputate her daughter’s leg, “It wasn’t an easy decision at all, and I would cry every day.”
During this worrying time, Chigbu learned that many people in Nigeria were going through the same situation and many of those had far fewer resources than her family, she explains,“In all of this I realised that the concern that most (families) had was how they were going to be able to fund the prosthesis.” This realisation made Chigbu think about what she could do to help these other children, “What if I’m able to put resources together from my friends and give those children limbs.”
Chigbu started by helping just one child, but the experience was profoundly affecting. She describes how this inspired and motivated her to help more children, “For me, that was life-changing and transforming and all I wanted to do was put a smile on another person’s face.”
The IREDE Foundation was established through Chigbu’s ambition to help others. To date, the charity has provided 82 children with 115 prosthetic limbs and expects to have provided 50 more limbs by the end of the year. Chigbu tells host AritOkpo the meaning behind the foundation’s name, “Irede means goodness has come. And my daughter’s cultural name is Irededouaude that means the goodness of the Lord has come. So, basically, it was coined from her name and also thinking what happens to you once you get a prosthetic limb and you can now walk again or use your hand again, then goodness has come to you.”
Chigbu’s work is providing an essential service for children and their families and giving them hope. She describes the feeling she gets seeing children use their new prosthetic for the first time, “The exciting moment is when the child gets the limb eventually because they really can’t believe it and then they are thinking about what they can do. It’s priceless.”
African Voices also meets another Changemaker – Dr Gbolahan Ayo Sasonaa Nigerian who makes prosthetics. He works in the United States but felt a duty to provide his services to his home country. Dr Sasona explains his decision, “The need for prosthetics is so high, not only in Nigeria but probably in the whole African continent. So, it was my way of giving back to Nigeria.”
These prosthetics are still expensive and Dr Sasona is working hard to try and help those who can’t afford his products. He tells CNN about his hopes for the future, “My dream is for one-day prosthetic devices to be available at a much lower cost. (Losing a limb) should not stop anybody from trying to achieve whatever it is they have in mind. So, my goal is to be able to bring the cost of prosthetics down and make it affordable to the generality of the public.”
Chigbu also has big ambitions for the future and she talks about her foundation’s aims, “Our goal is to have ten thousand people basically in the next three years talking about the inclusiveness of children that have been amputated around the world and raise champions of child amputees.”
The airing of season 5 of the Cowbellpedia Secondary Schools Mathematics Television Quiz Show begins on Saturday, 10th August 2019.
The TV Quiz Show which is in its 21st edition is sponsored by Cowbell Milk, the flagship brand of Promasidor Nigeria Limited.
The show will be serialised into 13 episodes and aired on some television stations across the country. The stations include: Africa Magic Family; AIT Network, STV, Jos; CRB Calabar; TVC Lagos; NTA Ibadan and ABS, Awka
In all, 108 students (54 each for junior and senior categories) will contest at this stage of the competition, who will go through preliminary and semi-final phases with the best six in each category emerging to compete for the ultimate prize at the finals.
This week on Brotherhood, our pioneers continue their conversations on the creative mavericks’ ring of fire.
As the conversations get deeper with a series of different twists, the OGs speak about the fundamental and societal values system and the unfortunate lack of it in Nigeria today.
From the history of Nigeria to the political landscape, entertainment and even the lifestyle of the average man, the men on the table deliberate on the decadence that has affected the different industries in Nigeria as a whole and goes further to proffer possible solutions to these problems.
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