Federal Government of Nigeria and DiFZIN Inaugurate Committee for the Establishment of Digital Free Zone for Technology and Global Service Businesses

 

PRESS RELEASE

Federal Government of Nigeria & Digital Free Zones in Nigeria (DiFZIN) inaugurate committee for the Establishment of Digital Free Zone for Technology and Global Service Businesses

Digital Free Zones foster innovation and economic expansion by leveraging cutting-edge digital technologies such as AI and Edge Computing, and a supportive regulatory environment

LAGOS, Nigeria, August 9, 2024/ -- In a bid to drive the ease of doing business for global digital, finance, knowledge- and services-oriented enterprises in Nigeria, the Federal Government of Nigeria established a steering committee chaired by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR to drive the promotion and establishment of a digital free zone in Nigeria to accommodate the peculiar needs of innovative digital trade and service businesses. This steering committee is chaired by His Excellency Mr President, supported by the Honourable Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy (“HMF/CME”) as Vice Chairman. Other members are the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice; the Honourable Ministers of Industry, Trade and Investment; Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy; and Interior; the heads of relevant Government Agencies and Committees; and the Initiative for the Promotion of Digital Free Zones in Nigeria (DiFZIN) as the private-sector stakeholders' representative and technical advisers. DiFZIN is a non-profit advocacy and policy research organisation supported by a consortium of private sector development-focused and advisory institutions including Africa Finance Corporation, PwC Nigeria, Charter Cities Institute, Future Africa, and Itana. The mission of the organisation is to see Nigeria’s free zones ecosystem fulfil its full potential as Africa’s major hub for global technology and service businesses. This Committee will work collaboratively with relevant agencies of government and private stakeholders to review and align Nigeria’s free zone policies, technology and processes with global standards, then develop and publish policy and operational frameworks to enable qualified global and local technology and service businesses to establish Pan-African or global operations from Nigeria. Businesses that take advantage of the zone will benefit from competitive business incentives provided by modernized free zones regulations, including tax, immigration and banking incentives, simplified government compliance processes, clear and predictable business regulation and an enabling business environment. As part of the Federal Government’s strategic growth objectives, it aims to boost foreign direct investment, create employment opportunities, and facilitate the capital flow into Nigeria’s economy, through an innovative and future-oriented approach to the free zones ecosystem. The HMF/CME stated that “the pivotal role of free zones to catalysing and sustaining economic growth in an emerging market such as Nigeria cannot be overemphasised. Its implementation in this digital age must not only encompass manufacturing undertakings but also integrate the central role of technology-focused businesses in attracting investments and making available to the global markets, our domestic talents under a liberal regulatory framework. These and more are what the Government aims to deliver through the digital free zones.” Dr. Olufemi Ogunyemi, MD/CEO of NEPZA (Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority), emphasized the Authority’s commitment to digital transformation. He highlighted the e-NEPZA platform, which will streamline government services and comply with the Federal Government’s ease of doing business policy. Dr Ogunyemi also noted the importance of data privacy, with data stored locally in local servers as well as the ability of small businesses to access global markets, addressing the need for digital infrastructure like fibre optics. “We look forward to partnering with DiFZIN to advance our digital processes,” he stated. NEPZA’s support for Digital Free Zones signals a move towards a digitally driven economy, unlocking new opportunities for small and medium-scale enterprises as well as large corporations in Nigeria. Mr. Luqman Edu (Executive Director of DiFZIN and CEO of Itana) and the DiFZIN consortium, aim to support the Federal Government in positioning Nigeria as a hub for regional expansion across Africa. These efforts are designed to contribute to the growth of Nigeria’s GDP, government revenue, capital importation, and foreign exchange availability, while simultaneously generating employment opportunities for the burgeoning Nigerian youth population. “DiFZIN is committed to driving the agenda for reforms to the regulatory frameworks for taxation, banking, immigration, and ease of doing business, among others, within the free zones ecosystem,” said Mr Edu. “Our goal is to create a conducive environment for global technology and services-based businesses to thrive, facilitating remote operations and banking from Nigeria for Africa, thereby positioning Nigeria as a hub for Africa, akin to what Delaware is for the US, and Dubai is for Asia.” Speaking on the partnership with DiFZIN, Banji Fehintola, Head of Financial Services at AFC said “AFC’s advisory team is uniquely skilled in providing tailored financial and technical advice to public and private sector players across Africa. We look forward to collaborating with DiFZIN and all other partners to modernize Nigeria’s free trade zones, attract much-needed investment, create local jobs, and boost trade and commerce in Nigeria and Africa.” Digital Free Zones foster innovation and economic expansion by leveraging cutting-edge digital technologies such as AI and Edge Computing, and a supportive regulatory environment. These ecosystems serve as incubators for innovation, providing a platform for businesses to drive growth and competitiveness. The supportive regulatory framework also ensures a conducive environment for experimentation, collaboration, and the seamless integration of emerging technologies into everyday business operations. For more information about DiFZIN and its initiatives, please visit www.DiFZIN.org or contact hello@difzin.org. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Africa Finance Corporation (AFC).   Media Enquiries: Yewande Thorpe Communications Africa Finance Corporation Mobile : +234 1 279 9654 Email : yewande.thorpe@africafc.org About AFC: AFC was established in 2007 to be the catalyst for pragmatic infrastructure and industrial investments across Africa. AFC’s approach combines specialist industry expertise with a focus on financial and technical advisory, project structuring, project development, and risk capital to address Africa’s infrastructure development needs and drive sustainable economic growth. Seventeen years on, AFC has developed a track record as the partner of choice in Africa for investing and delivering on instrumental, high-quality infrastructure assets that provide essential services in the core infrastructure sectors of power, natural resources, heavy industry, transport, and telecommunications. AFC has 43 member countries and has invested US$13 billion across Africa since inception. www.AfricaFC.org SOURCE Africa Finance Corporation (AFC)

Nigeria in the Vicious Circle of Anomie

"Great nations have not been built by building houses and skyscrapers, but by building lives and leaders."

- Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
Author of "In the House Dogs" and other books.

When you do a comprehensive analysis of Nigeria and degradation of the government by corruption, you will see the genesis of the Nigerian crisis and the consequences which are now the worst fears and nightmares of widespread intellectual ignorance and violence.
It is unfortunate that while the educational institutions are collapsing, the federal government is celebrating pyramids of bags of rice and state governors are celebrating building flyovers while the drainage systems have collapsed.
The local governments cannot even clean up their streets with nauseating filthy environment of dirty inhabitants.

There cannot be good governance in the state of Intellectual ignorance and incompetence.
There is an epidemic of gullibility, irrationality and stupidity in every sphere of the dog eat dog Nigerian society.

The terrible predicament of intellectual ignorance is that the ignorant don't realize their ignorance. Living in denial of the truth is a common lifestyle among them. It is an oddity to be honest and straight.
The youths and elders are equally living in conceit and deceit.
Fathers and mothers have become pimps of their daughters.
The religious leaders are partners in crime of the rogue politicians and their rogue contractors in the private sector.

The country is full whited sepulchres
of rotten people with empty lives. And they don't even realize that they are empty in the vicious circle of their anomie.

-  By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
Author of "In the House Dogs" and other books distributed by Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other booksellers worldwide.

So Where are the Jobs?

So Where are the Jobs? For The U.S. Economy, Bouncing Back Is Hard To Do
Construction, Finance, State/Local Government Holding Recovery Back

PR Newswire

NEW YORK, May 5, 2011

NEW YORK, May 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- When it comes to recessions, the U.S. economy doesn't bounce back like it used to, The Conference Board reports in an analysis released today.

By March 2011, the number of people employed in the U.S. was only 0.2 percent higher than in June 2009, when the recession ended, notes the report, entitled So Where are the Jobs?

The current recovery is the second slowest on record since 1961 – continuing a trend that began in 1991 of weak growth in both jobs and GDP. In the last three recoveries, neither GDP nor employment "roared back" as was typical after earlier downturns.

In the current recovery, some industries are doing better, others worse. "When looking across industries, the current recovery is showing some unique trends," says Gad Levanon, Associate Director of Macroeconomic Research at The Conference Board, and author of the report. "For example, employment in construction, finance and state/local government is not only declining, but declining much faster than in any other recovery since 1960. The decline in these industries is a result of forces that go beyond the ups and downs we see in typical recessions, and a strong bounce back is unlikely in the near future." Since the end of recession, total employment in construction, finance and state/local government declined by 1.06 million jobs, while the rest of the economy added only 1.3 million jobs.

The Conference Board report includes a breakdown by industry, including a listing of job recovery rates by sector and over time. For example:

* Hardest Hit : The number of jobs in construction (-8.1 percent), finance (-1.8 percent), and state and local government (-1.0 and -2.6 percent respectively) continued to decline in the 21 months after the end of the recession.
* Disappointing : Healthcare and leisure and hospitality jobs have recovered, but at a rate slower than any since 1960.
* Doing OK : Manufacturing suffered less job loss than in recent recessions, and in the last 12 months, manufacturing employment has grown at the highest rate since the 1990s.
* Shrinking Government : The growth in federal government jobs during the recovery has been historically high (38,000), but not enough to offset the unprecedented losses in state and local government jobs (-429,000).


Employment Outlook

In the near-term, employment growth will continue to be slow. The housing downturn, high oil and commodity prices, government austerity measures and limited consumer spending will prevent GDP growth from being more robust. Unemployment is likely to remain above 8 percent through 2012. The Conference Board forecasts GDP to grow at about 2.5 percent in 2011 and 2012, much lower than the rate of 3.5 to 4 percent typically reached during expansions.

Adds Levanon: "Longer-term prospects are more promising, however. In the last six months, employment outside of construction, finance and state and local government has already been growing faster than nearly any other six-month period in the last decade. Once constraints in these hard-hit sectors loosen, overall job recovery is likely to pick up pace."

Source: So Where are the Jobs? For the U.S. Economy, Bouncing Back is Hard to Do

Executive Action No. 349

The Conference Board

About The Conference Board

The Conference Board is a global, independent business membership and research association working in the public interest. Our mission is unique: To provide the world's leading organizations with the practical knowledge they need to improve their performance and better serve society. The Conference Board is a non-advocacy, not-for-profit entity holding 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in the United States. www.conference-board.org

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SOURCE The Conference Board

CONTACT: Carol Courter, +1-212-339-0232, carol.courter@conference-board.org, or Jonathan Liu, +1-212-339-0257, jonathan.liu@conference-board.org

Web Site: http://www.conference-board.org

ASUU is Unreasonable!

A Nigerian University

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will never stop asking for increments, but increase in salaries is not what is urgent in Nigerian universities, but re-engineering the entire academic system from the classroom to the laboratory.

Ineffectual lecturers in ASUU are also clamouring for increments, but they do not have the brains to overhaul and improve the outdated curriculums of their respective faculties. The increments they have been receiving over the years have not freed them from the retrogressive academic stasis that has made majority of their students clones of intellectual underdevelopment or what I call the GIGO Generation who are presently posing and posturing as the Nigerian Facebook Generation.
These lecturers should examine themselves, because many of the members of ASUU are not even qualified to teach and have been found guilty by complicity in various cases of admission racket in Nigerian universities.

The raison d'être of ASUU’s strike is not enough to waste the precious quality time of Nigerian students who need to be on campus studying and not at home!
By going on strike ASUU is making innocent students the scapegoats of their disagreement with the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN).

What is the business of the FGN with the members of ASUU employed by the state owned universities? I mean members of ASUU teaching at the state universities should not have gone on strike with ASUU. This is simple ratiocination.
Many of these lecturers are even moonlighting and have never paid a kobo of tax every time they moonlighted. So who is fooling whom?

Chidi Amuta wrote a very comprehensive analysis of the genesis of the academic crisis that has left the Nigerian academia in intellectual stasis in his “ASSU’s Untidy Robes” published in his column Engagements in This Day newspaper of Nigeria.
ASUU should grow up and stop behaving like confused junior high school pupils.

The Workable Bailout Option for the Nigerian Capital Market

The Workable Bailout Option for the Nigerian Capital Market



By A.G. Olisaemeka

It goes without resentment that only physical injection of funds, which will shore up prices, can lift the capital market from its present very low depth. Responding to the financial meltdown afflicting every facet of business in Nigeria, the Presidential Steering Committee on the Global Economic Meltdown has proposed short, medium and long term palliative measures to address these concerns. The committee recently observed:

"What is being worked out is a package of incentives that will ginger production, increase the purchasing power of the ordinary man on the street, and help generate employment opportunities"
"In the medium and long term strategies, aside infrastructural development, the government is looking in the direction of agriculture, through commercial farming clusters and value chain, not only for food security, but for employment generation."

While specific actions were to be taken in the areas of power and oil, it also noted that:

"While the economic outcome does not look promising given the price of oil, the President remains optimistic that Nigeria can seize the moment to redirect our economy and begin on the road to prosperity."

It has warned that the palliative measures will not include a salary increase. The issue for determination at this juncture is whether these short, medium and long term palliative measures are sufficient to uplift the Nigerian capital market. One has no difficulty in coming to a conclusion of an emphatic "No!"
It is clearly understandable that the focal point of the committee is on the general economy encompassing power, oil and gas, agriculture, the money and capital markets and the emphasis is on increased production, employment generation, higher purchasing power, infrastructural development and food security.

It is one's repeated conviction that although these measures are noble and promising, they do not provide urgent answers to the question of the Nigerian capital market meltdown. The answers they provide are both indirect and tangential to the needs of the capital market.

Only a direct government intervention, characterized by physical funds injection can salvage the descent of the Nigerian capital market.

This can be achieved through any of the following ways:

1. Government Bailout of Banks, Stockbrokers and Investors

Investors in the Nigerian capital market as at end of January have lost more than N9 trillion. Much of these funds came from banks that lent heavily to investors and stock broking firms. This has increased banks non-performing assets on one hand and has foisted the hangman's noose on investors and stock broking firms who have now become "slaves" of banks. The Federal Government can intervene by acquiring these toxic assets at cost, paying off the banks. This will stem the tide of possible bank failures arising from their present capital market over-exposure. It will also relieve the investors and stock broking firms of high debt burden in which they are entrapped and made incapable of making further investments. The government can gradually dispose off these acquired shares in the distant future in a way that will not overheat the market.
This position will align with the statement credited to the Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Remi Babalola:

"…but if for instance, the regulator of the banking system came out to say this is the make up for each of the banks and this is the exposure they have, then we can agree. It is not only in the capital market, there is significant exposure in the downstream. There are so many areas that people might have recorded significant downside. What we need to do is to quantify all these and try to see how we can take it out and give them fresh air to continue their business."

(The Punch, February 5, 2009. Page 15)



Indeed this fresh air, this relief, for banks, stock broking firms and investors is all we need to revive the capital market.



2. Direct Purchase of Shares by the Government on the Nigerian Stock Exchange



The Federal Government may also wish to utilize a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) or use the Ministry of Finance Incorporated to commence buying of shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). When these shares are purchased, they will serve twin purposes – being investment for the government which it can hold, earn returns and later resell on one hand and increase the demand segment of the capital market leading to market recovery, on the other hand, it is estimated that the sum of N800 billion will suffice as the chain effect will trigger other purchase mandates as investors confidence heightens, following the upward movement of both the market capitalization and the ALL-Share-Index.



Finally, the market seems to be gaining some points in both the index and capitalization, following the government announcement of palliative measures highlighted above. It is one's opinion that this appearance of market recovery is only the natural reaction of investors to new information which cannot be sustained.

On 4th February, 2009, the All-Share-Index gained 2.2% to close at 22, 838.32 points and on the 5th February, 2009, it again gained 2.26% to close at 23, 356.03 points. The market capitalization also gained the same percentage movement to close at N5.108 trillion and N5.2 trillion respectively. This is a far cry of all-time high figures of about 66000 points for the Index and about N13.5 trillion for the capitalization less than a year ago.



The euphoria of this announcement of palliative measures that triggered the current bullish trend in the market is not expected to last for the next five working days unless physical capital injection of funds is articulated and implemented. The government should be in a hurry to do this if it wishes to save the capital market.



President Umaru Yar'Adua has directed the the CBN and Finance Ministry to liaise with other agencies and do more work on some short-term palliative measures being proposed so that they could be implemented soon.

Let physical injection of funds into the capital market be part of these measures if they must succeed in changing the direction of the capital market for good, otherwise the Nigerian Capital Market is still sitting on a keg of gunpowder.



By A.G. Olisaemeka

~ A.G. Olisaemeka is a chartered stock broker and consultant on financial matters on doing business in Nigeria. He is the Author/Editor of Scientists Discover Hell: As Astronauts Find Heaven distributed by Amazon.