Uber is facing an old problem but in a new place.
The ride-hailing company has faced lawsuits from drivers who argue they are employees rather than independent contractors in several cities where it operates and it can now add one more city to the list: Lagos.
Two drivers representing other drivers on the platform have started a class action suit in Nigeria’s economic hub arguing that they should receive employee benefits from Uber. The suit poses that “by virtue of the nature of the defendant’s control over the claimants and members of their class, they are not meant to be classified as independent contractors.” The suit also wants Uber to be mandated to provide its drivers with health insurance and pension benefits. Uber launched in Lagos in August 2014.
Uber’s classification of drivers as independent contractors is fundamental to how it operates as it allows the company avoid paying any employee benefits, a guaranteed minimum wage or be liable for any extra expenses incurred by the drivers. Employing all its drivers as staff will prove expensive even for a company possibly valued at over $100 billion.
Uber’s company’s relationship with its drivers has long been subject to lots of scrutiny—and lawsuits—with mixed results. In one of the most prominent cases, back in April 2016, Uber reached a prominent $100 million settlement in a class-action suit which included nearly 400,000 drivers in Massachusetts and California which let it to continue classifying them as independent contractors. (The settlement was later rejected as being unfair by a US district judge). Elsewhere, in June, New York’s state labor department ruled that three former Uber drivers were eligible to receive unemployment benefits.
Across Africa where it has now operated for four years, Uber’s challenges have often come more in form of protests than lawsuits. Local taxi drivers have claimed that ride-hailing company and its driver have an unfair advantage as they don’t have to pay taxi union levies and fees. In South Africa, the face-off has spurned violent protests and, to better protect drivers, Uber launched in-vehicle SOS buttons. In Nigeria, the company has also faced strike actions from its drivers who claim fares are too low.
Friday, November 10, 2017
Nigerians warned about investing in bitcoins
It stated that such currencies were yet to be approved by Nigerian regulators.
Chief Executive Officer, NDIC, Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim spoke on Thursday at the ongoing Lagos International Trade Fair.
Represented by the Director, Claims Resolution, Mr. A.S Bello, the CEO said: “The protection of the depositor remains our top priority.
“That is why we continue to stress the need for depositors to patronise only financial institutions that are licensed by the CBN and which display the NDIC Sticker with the words ‘insured by NDIC’ in their banking halls or entrances.
“It is for this reason that I must sound a word of warning against patronising dubious fund managers, otherwise known as “Wonder Banks”. They persuade their unsuspecting victims to part with their hard earned money with promises of interest rates that are unrealistically high as the returns on their investments.
“The result is the loss of vital savings and sometimes disastrous consequences to the lives of the victims.
”Also, the emerging trend of investing in digital currencies popularly known as Bitcoins is equally dangerous because just like the “Wonder Banks’, the digital currencies are not licensed by the CBN and are therefore not insured by the NDIC.”
Ibrahim disclosed that the corporation had paid over N100 billion to depositors of liquidated banks, adding that the payments were announced via newspapers, radio and television.
“We implore those depositors who have not responded to our calls to come forward to collect their insured deposits and liquidation dividends already declared for uninsured deposits,”
he added.
$43.5m discovered in flat in Lagos, Nigeria linked sacked Director General
A Nigerian judge has ordered the seizure of a flat linked to the former head of the country’s National Intelligence Agency after more than $43m in cash was found during an anti-corruption raid.
Judge Saliu Seidu, sitting at the federal high court in Lagos, said the apartment in the upmarket Ikoyi area of the city should be temporarily forfeited to the government, pending any challenge within 14 days.
Acting on a tip-off, agents from Economic and Financial Crimes Commission raided the property on 12 April this year and discovered just under $43.5m (£33.1m).
They also found £27,800 as well as 23.2m naira (£49,600), the court was told.
Documents established the flat was bought in 2015 by Folashade Oke, the wife of Ayodele Oke, who at the time was director general of the NIA.
It was alleged she bought the property using $1.66m from government funds to which her husband had access.
President Muhammadu Buhari was elected in 2015 on a promise to cut endemic corruption in government and has vowed to recover what he said were “mind-boggling” sums of stolen public money.
Oke, who had been suspended for keeping an unauthorised stash of cash in a private home, was sacked last week along with the country’s most senior civil servant, Babachir Lawal.
Lawal was accused of awarding deals for reconstruction in areas of north-east Nigeria hit by Boko Haram’s Islamist insurgency to companies in which he had a personal interest.
Buhari’s handling of the two cases has been seen as a litmus test for the extent of his anti-corruption drive, given that most of those arrested and charged so far have been high-profile members of the main opposition.
The Oke case was adjourned until 30 November.
Judge Saliu Seidu, sitting at the federal high court in Lagos, said the apartment in the upmarket Ikoyi area of the city should be temporarily forfeited to the government, pending any challenge within 14 days.
Acting on a tip-off, agents from Economic and Financial Crimes Commission raided the property on 12 April this year and discovered just under $43.5m (£33.1m).
They also found £27,800 as well as 23.2m naira (£49,600), the court was told.
Documents established the flat was bought in 2015 by Folashade Oke, the wife of Ayodele Oke, who at the time was director general of the NIA.
It was alleged she bought the property using $1.66m from government funds to which her husband had access.
President Muhammadu Buhari was elected in 2015 on a promise to cut endemic corruption in government and has vowed to recover what he said were “mind-boggling” sums of stolen public money.
Oke, who had been suspended for keeping an unauthorised stash of cash in a private home, was sacked last week along with the country’s most senior civil servant, Babachir Lawal.
Lawal was accused of awarding deals for reconstruction in areas of north-east Nigeria hit by Boko Haram’s Islamist insurgency to companies in which he had a personal interest.
Buhari’s handling of the two cases has been seen as a litmus test for the extent of his anti-corruption drive, given that most of those arrested and charged so far have been high-profile members of the main opposition.
The Oke case was adjourned until 30 November.
Thursday, November 9, 2017
Video - Nigeria partners with China to start business exchange program
Nigeria has partnered with China in opening a way for small and medium sized businesses to interact through an exchange program. According the country's statistics bureau, there are more Chinese construction companies operating in Nigeria, than anywhere else in Africa. And expansion is expected in other sectors too. But some experts argue Africa's most populous country must do more to protect its local industries.
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
70% percent of medication in circulation in Nigeria are fake
At least 70 per cent of pharmaceutical products circulating in Nigeria are fake, says Andrew Nevin, the Financial Services Advisory Leader and Chief Economist, Project Blue PWc Nigeria.
Mr. Nevin said this in his keynote address at the opening of the 90th Annual National Conference of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) in Umuahia, the Abia capital.
According to him, Africa records at least 100,000 deaths, arising from fake drug-related ailments, annually.
He, therefore, underscored the need for the federal government, National Agency for Foods and Drugs Administration and Control, NAFDAC, and other relevant agencies to intensify the war agianst fake and counterfeit drugs in the country.
“This will go a long way in reducing the harmful effects of the menace on the citizenry and the nation’s economy.”
Mr. Nevin expressed delight that Nigeria had achieved “significant progress” in reducing sexually transmitted diseases and infant mortality.
He, however, expressed concern that Nigeria’s population had been on a steady rise while its Gross Domestic Product is on the downward trend.
In his speech to declare the week-long event open, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu also tasked NAFDAC to check the perceived abuse in the certification of traditional medicines.
Mr. Ikpeazu called on the agency to withdraw “its stamp of authority from all producers herbal medicines that it cannot vouch for their efficacy.
“I am worried at the use of herbal drugs. NAFDAC has not helped matters also.
“It is amazing to see different concoctions with label from NAFDAC and to an average Nigerian, once you see NAFDAC number on a product, it means a seal of authority.”
He appealed to the federal government to regulate the importation of drugs as a means of encouraging indigenous pharmaceutical firms.
He also urged drug manufacturers in the country to take steps to make their products affordable to the ordinary Nigerian.
In an address of welcome, the National President of PSN, Ahmed Yakasai, said that the association had embarked on an advocacy for the local manufacturing of pharmaceuticals.
Mr. Yakasai, however, underscored the need for governments at all levels to create the enabling environment for the pharmaceutical sector in Nigeria to thrive, stressing that “PSN believes in Nigeria-made medicines.”
He mentioned the donation of drugs worth over N50 million to Internally Displaced Persons in the North-east, among others, as some of the key achievements of the association under his watch.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that major highlights of the conference were the conferment of awards to some eminent Nigerians, including Ikpeazu, the unveiling of new products and products exhibition.
Mr. Nevin said this in his keynote address at the opening of the 90th Annual National Conference of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) in Umuahia, the Abia capital.
According to him, Africa records at least 100,000 deaths, arising from fake drug-related ailments, annually.
He, therefore, underscored the need for the federal government, National Agency for Foods and Drugs Administration and Control, NAFDAC, and other relevant agencies to intensify the war agianst fake and counterfeit drugs in the country.
“This will go a long way in reducing the harmful effects of the menace on the citizenry and the nation’s economy.”
Mr. Nevin expressed delight that Nigeria had achieved “significant progress” in reducing sexually transmitted diseases and infant mortality.
He, however, expressed concern that Nigeria’s population had been on a steady rise while its Gross Domestic Product is on the downward trend.
In his speech to declare the week-long event open, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu also tasked NAFDAC to check the perceived abuse in the certification of traditional medicines.
Mr. Ikpeazu called on the agency to withdraw “its stamp of authority from all producers herbal medicines that it cannot vouch for their efficacy.
“I am worried at the use of herbal drugs. NAFDAC has not helped matters also.
“It is amazing to see different concoctions with label from NAFDAC and to an average Nigerian, once you see NAFDAC number on a product, it means a seal of authority.”
He appealed to the federal government to regulate the importation of drugs as a means of encouraging indigenous pharmaceutical firms.
He also urged drug manufacturers in the country to take steps to make their products affordable to the ordinary Nigerian.
In an address of welcome, the National President of PSN, Ahmed Yakasai, said that the association had embarked on an advocacy for the local manufacturing of pharmaceuticals.
Mr. Yakasai, however, underscored the need for governments at all levels to create the enabling environment for the pharmaceutical sector in Nigeria to thrive, stressing that “PSN believes in Nigeria-made medicines.”
He mentioned the donation of drugs worth over N50 million to Internally Displaced Persons in the North-east, among others, as some of the key achievements of the association under his watch.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that major highlights of the conference were the conferment of awards to some eminent Nigerians, including Ikpeazu, the unveiling of new products and products exhibition.
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