Aliko Dangote bids to acquire majority stake in Peugeot Nigeria

Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, has made a bid for a majority stake in automaker Peugeot Automobile Nigeria (PAN) Limited.

Nasir El-Rufai, the Governor of Nigeria’s Kaduna state, told journalists on Thursday that Dangote is a key member of a consortium that has applied to acquire the majority stake in the company which is currently owned by Nigeria’s state-backed “bad bank”, the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).

The consortium is made up of Aliko Dangote, Kaduna and Kebbi states, as well as the Bank of Industry (BoI).

“We have submitted bids for the car-maker with Aliko Dangote on board together with BoI, Kebbi and Kaduna State, we are confident our bid will sail through,” El-Rufai told a conference, without providing further details.

Peugeot Automobile of Nigeria Ltd. (PAN), a joint venture between the Nigerian government and the French automaker, was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in Kaduna, Nigeria. The company manufactures and markets motor vehicles under the brand name Peugeot. Some of its popular models include the passenger cars 206, 306,307, 406, 607 and Partner, among others.

In the 1980s, PAN was producing 90,000 cars annually and was profitable. But before long, cheap, second-hand vehicles imported from Asia and poor manufacturing infrastructure impeded the company’s profits. The Nigerian government subsequently sold off its controlling stake in the company in 2006 to local core investors. The new investors struggled to keep PAN afloat and accumulated bad loans in the process. In 2012 AMCON acquired a controlling stake in the company and took over the company’s debt. But even AMCON has struggled with the company ever since.

In January AMCON announced it was looking to sell its stake in the company and invited bids from investors. AMCON currently owns a 79.3% interest in PAN.



Forbes


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Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote says Nigeria's economic crisis exaggerated

Nigerian Sports Commision to be dissolved

The Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung, has confirmed that the Nigerian Sports Commission (NSC), formed in 1971 as think-tank for the growth of sports in Nigeria was henceforth dissolved or simply merged with the Ministry of Sports.

The major gap in the dissolution of boards or committees in Nigeria is that it is sometimes done because of political or sectional interests and not to enhance the efficiency of the body.

In the beginning, the NSC was formed to “develop Sports Sector to a World Class Level, while “providing improvement in the quality of life for the entire citizenry”.

If we grade the establishment based on the above founding target, then by all means and purposes, the agency should be scrapped!

Mr. Dalung said, “Sports is a veritable tool for national development, it is a determinant in foreign policy and a determinant in tourism therefore should be properly harnessed to project the country in good light”.

From the above statement, it must mean that the NSC was not performing the task for which it was set up.

Sadiq Abdullahi, a former Davis Cup player for Nigeria, said Mr. Dalung had finally done what should have been done years before. “For me, this is a welcome decision that is long overdue. It is a decision that may well put Nigeria back on the right path to glory.

“Dalung seems to suggest that he has found the political will, courage and determination to finally do what is right for sports.

“The nation has experienced failure in sports for the last 30 years and the time has come uproot and begin afresh.”

“In order for ten people to have an amazing prowess, you have to have one hundred practicing intensely and one thousand just participating in the sport culture,” Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games said.

“In order to sell millions of T-shirts and basketball shoes, you have to have tens of millions of people playing sports and attributing to it a positive image,” could be added by today’s sporting good industry,” added Professor Jean-Loup Chappelet of the IDHEAP Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration.

What has happened in Nigeria is that we have not been able to get ‘one thousand just participating in the sport’ from which we would be able to pick a credible 10.

The NSC failed to provide the environment to have these ‘1000’ participate in competition against themselves thereby limiting the pool from which likely elite athletes could be discovered and groomed.

With the dissolution, the sports ministry must “be structured and organized to meet global best practices and best standards,” Mr. Abdullahi added.

“The organizational structure must be consistent with the private organizational structure if a business model is intended.

“To restore hope and confidence, the ministry would have to modify its institutional structure and operational processes in order to prevent corruption and fraud.

“This is consistent with global best practices in accountability, transparency and ethical governance.”

A word surely should be enough for those who want to give sports a lift in Nigeria.


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Video - U.S. officials say militants still control part of north eastern Nigeria

In Nigeria a contradiction has now emerged about the status of the war status of the war against the Boko Haram. Commander of the U.S. Africa Command says Boko Haram still control a significant territory in north eastern Nigeria. His comments sharply contradict Nigeria's president Muhammadu Buhari declaration earlier this year that the terrorists no longer control of any territory.

How did St. Patrick get to be the Patron Saint of Nigeria

An Irish bishop in Nigeria named St. Patrick, who is said to have died on March 17 in the year 461, as the country's patron in 1961, the same year Ireland opened its embassy in Lagos. The Irish actually have a long history in the country: Irish nationalist Roger Casement — executed in Dublin in 1916 for his role in the Irish rebels' Easter Rising — served as a British consular officer in Calabar, in southeastern Nigeria, during the 1890s. Casement's interest in and sympathy for Africans under colonial rule was unusual for a European in the Victorian era, and likely helped shape his views on social justice.

In the early 1920s, Irish priests of the Order of the Holy Ghost established their mission in southern Nigeria. Later St. Patrick's Society for Foreign Missions, dedicated on March 17, 1932, became one of many Catholic groups in Nigeria providing education both religious and secular.

These days Catholics in the country number some 20 million, and Nigerian seminaries send their ordinates all over the world to serve as priests. In fact, since numbers of clergy in Ireland have long been in decline, Nigerian priests have recently been assigned to churches there.

Though St. Patrick's Day is not an official public holiday in Nigeria, plenty of Guinness stout will be consumed anyway. It's the second most popular beer in the country, brewed with sorghum or maize instead of the European recipe's barley, and packs a 7.5 percent alcohol content.

And "Irish diplomats of course celebrate St. Patrick's Day," says Eoghan McSwiney, deputy head of mission at the Embassy of Ireland in Abuja. "The Embassy organizes high-profile St. Patrick's Day celebrations in the capital Abuja, and in Lagos, as well in Accra, Ghana. We are joined by friends and colleagues from the diplomatic corps and from the highest levels of the Nigerian public and private sector."

NPR

Nigerian teenager sentenced to 37yrs in jail for defrauding American of $40 million

A Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja has sentenced a 19-year old secondary school leaver Tobechukwu Igbokwe to 37 years imprisonment for defrauding an American of $40 million.

The presiding judge, Justice ‎Lateef Lawal-Akapo, found Igbokwe guilty of the 12- count charge bordering on forgery, conspiracy and obtaining money by false pretences as slammed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

In the statement of judgement made available to Daily Trust by EFCC Head of Media and Publicity, Wilson Uwijaren, Justice Akapo indicated that Igbokwe's cumulative sentence is to run with effect from October 28, 2013.

The court also ordered Igbokwe to return the $40 million as a restitution to the victim and forfeit a Toyota Corolla car, which is a proceed of the crime, to the Federal Government of Nigeria.

Igbokwe was arraigned on October 28, 2013 when he pleaded not guilty to the 12-count charges levelled against him. He later changed his plea and was convicted by Justice Akapo accordingly.

Igbokwe (Alias David Prince) and his accomplice, Ifeanyi Obi duped the American, M. Silva, the sum of $40 million.

The victim wired $40m in several instalments through Western Union to Igbokwe.

Igbokwe also confessed that he had duped other foreigners, including T. Bedwell $6,000 and R. Hunt $15,000.

PUNCH