• Urge govt to explore, widen recycling methods; not alienate industries

The ban on styrofoam and single-use plastics to curb pollution by the Lagos State government may have been welcomed by many considering the menace they cause to the environment, but implementation becomes a challenge without the involvement of stakeholders in the value chain.

Though operators, especially food vendors may have adjusted their plans and business models, there are concerns about the suddenness of the policy and implications for inflation, as production costs of re-usable plastics spike.

With no less than 2.5 million tonnes of plastic waste generated by Nigerians yearly, plastic accounts for 15 per cent of the total waste generated in Lagos State, with much of it found in drainages and small bodies of water.

With no plans for the ban as well as the short implementation timeline, there are concerns about the effect on the food and beverage industry and operators who have made financial commitments for procurement of plastics and by-products for their operations.

To address the challenges created by the ban, operators have advocated intensified recycling of such plastic wastes and also involve them in decision making.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), only nine per cent of the world’s plastic waste is recycled, as half of the world’s plastic still goes straight to landfill. Another fifth is mismanaged – meaning it is not recycled, incinerated, or kept in sealed landfills – putting it at risk of being leaked into rivers, lakes, and the ocean.

In Nigeria, the incentive to recycle is low as N70 is offered per kilogramme of scavenged plastic. With the Lagos State government focusing on single-use plastics, the challenge remains the impact of the decision of a sub-national on the federating units, considering that nylon bags and other variants have become a part of lifestyle that is not restricted to Lagos.

Though the Food and Beverage Recycling Alliance (FBRA) has been able to intensify collection and recovery of post-consumer packaging wastes, it was only able to recover about 18million kilogramme of rigid plastics at the end of the first half of 2023. Most of the collections happened in Lagos, which had more collection centres than other states.

Nigeria adopted the extended producer responsibility policy through its National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency in 2014. But it has not yet been fully implemented in all Nigerian states. Hence, reflecting the current state of plastic waste pollution.

While this announcement has generated mixed reactions from residents and stakeholders, businesses and manufacturers are scrambling to adjust to this development.

A visit by The Guardian to some fast-food restaurants yesterday, revealed that Styrofoam was not used, however, transparent plastic containers were being sold at inflated prices.

A manager of a popular fast-food chain in the Isolo area of Lagos who did not want to be named, said they had just taken delivery of the Styrofoam (popularly known as takeaway and used to sell food to customers) and the ban came to them by surprise. “We have hundreds of such packs in the store, what will happen to them? This is going to be a big loss to us and I think we should have been given some time to phase them out gradually, as against an outright ban,” he said.

Plastic waste Photo:Stefan Schweihofer / Pixabay

A major plastics retailer located around the Oshodi-Apapa expressway, Ileri-Oluwa Plastics regretted that they were not carried along before the ban was announced, adding that they are at a complete loss on what to do.

“We have hundreds of bales of those plastics in our warehouse running into millions of Naira; what is going to happen to them? Instead of outright ban, the government should encourage and incentivise recycling and they will be shocked at the way Nigerians will take it seriously. We are pleading with the government to extend the deadline, so we don’t run into debt. PET plastics and pure water nylons are not banned and yet, they constitute a nuisance as much as the SUPs the government is focusing on.”

Speaking with The Guardian, Director Recycle Points NG, Taiwo Adewole, called for a change of attitude to SUPs and styrofoam, as he called for the adoption of alternatives.

“The ban on SUPs and styrofoam is long due. When the government came up with the extended producer responsibility policy on plastic, they gave the manufacturers the opportunity to come up with Producer Responsible Organisation (PRO) and that is how feedback for the ban came up. Some tried to recover plastics in circulation but companies producing styrofoam didn’t bother to be part of the process”, he added.

On if the ban will indirectly affect plastic cutlery, straws and nylon bags, Adewole said all the above listed already have alternatives.

“There are paper plates and cutlery and even straws, there are innovations in that regard. There has been a policy in place, over 10 years, the Extended Producers Responsibilities, which gives industries the opportunity to think inwards on innovation, plastic recovery and working towards alternatives.

“However, most of them ignore the three Ps out of the 4Ps (Planet, People, Profit and Partnership) they focus more on just Profit. Now there is a ban in place, the manufacturers should go back to the drawing board with relevant stakeholders, the government and the recyclers to craft a solution.”

He added that presently, there are adequate recycling facilities for PET bottles and pure water nylons, to the extent that collectors do not even meet up with recycling demand. “We have over 100 collectors in Lagos alone (former collectors) and over 600 informal collectors for those items.”

Encouraging Nigerians to come into the recycling space, he said there is a lot of money to be made in the sector. “It is basically a waste of wealth. People can collect these styrofoam around, sell to companies that recycle them into other materials at the rate of N70/Kg. Same applies to PET bottles and pure water sachets, all there are items Nigerians use daily and dispose anyhow.”

Revealing that there are just one or two companies that presently offtake Styrofoam in Lagos, he opined that that might be the reason it is not easily taken off the streets compared to PET bottles that have higher demand and more buyers. “The economic implication of this right now is for everyone to go back to the drawing board, create more opportunities for recycling and collection rate would increase at a premium. Currently, Styrofoam is shredded and still has to be mixed with other plastics to create furniture and other materials. We however need more publicity, better awareness and public education on the importance of recycling,” he said.

Executive Director, Universal Luggage Industries Limited, a manufacturing outfit based in Lagos, and former chairperson, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Apapa branch, Frank Ike Onyebu, said the government ought to have extensively met with all the stakeholders in the sector first before taking the decision. He added that a better alternative to the ban should have been looking to strengthen recycling efforts and work within a timeframe to gradually ease SUPs out. “Yes, the government can do as it wishes but it should also be fair to manufacturers and businesses. We are already going through a lot and struggling to survive and decisions like this tend to alienate and discourage manufacturing. Government is killing business instead of encouraging us and making the environment very unfriendly to manufacturing.”

“A timeframe should have been given to us so that production stops and people can sell off available stock. These items are in the warehouses, what will happen to them? We always speak of attracting foreign investors, how does this kind of action encourage anybody to want to come in? Our economy is dying and instead of frustrating those people still trying to keep the industrial sector alive, the government should engage more with the real sector.”

Onyebu, who manufactures plastic products at the Amuwo-Odofin area of Lagos, said they do a lot of recycling but demand is unfortunately always more than supply.
He said many plastic manufacturers are ready to set up near dump sites to gain easier access to raw materials needed for production, he said no matter the quantity of recycled plastic available, they are ready to buy.

“Many manufacturers recycle these plastics themselves and if the government had met with us, we would have made them realise that banning is not the solution, rather, we need to improve upon ways we can get these materials back into factories. Sometimes, we cannot even produce because of the lack of raw materials.”

He regretted that many fancy ideas are copied from the west without considering the local environment and experiences in which we operate in, in Nigeria.

“Government cannot just wake up and ban these things because other countries did so and even with those ones, it was a gradual transition and not an overnight ban. Let us not compare ourselves to those countries and not take into consideration the businesses that are clearly going to be affected by this decision. We produce very little in Nigeria, yet, the few people trying to do something in the real sector, the government is working hard to frustrate them and send them packing. Yes, SUPs are often not disposed properly, creating environmental nuisances but there are better ways to handle this issue,” he said.

The core investors in Union Bank, Polaris Bank and Keystone Bank are contesting the takeover of those institutions by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), insisting that the process by which their respective boards and managements were removed was in violation of the rules set by the same apex bank, being the regulator of the banking sector.

The CBN had in a terse statement issued on the 11th of this month announced the dissolution of the boards and managements of the three banks over alleged corporate governance infractions and non-compliance with regulatory requirements.

The CBN had also appointed new executives, two each, to “oversee the affairs of the banks.

The apex bank had said the banks and their boards failed to comply with the provisions of Section 12(c), (f), (g), (h) of Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020.

It had also accused the boards and managements of the banks of breach of terms under which the banks got their licences and “involvement in activities that pose a threat to financial stability”.

The banking regulator’s action, according to many observers, followed the report of the forensic audit of the CBN under Godwin Emefiele, the ousted governor of the apex bank, by a special investigator appointed by President Bola Tinubu.

However, the investors in the three banks are challenging the CBN’s action, and have petitioned President Tinubu, seeking his intervention for them to recover their assets.

Allegations of foul play

Some investors in the three banks who spoke to Daily Trust on condition of anonymity, expressed concerns over the apex bank’s

“There were routine examinations of the banks and the CBN examiners, in our exit meeting in November (2023), were happy with the outcome because the issues were normal.

“Standard practice demands that every examination report is shared with the affected banks, outlining regulatory concerns and proposing necessary actions.

“In our case, the CBN deviated from this protocol, thereby violating its own laws, regulations, and established practices”, one of them said.

Another shareholder said: “The CBN, in its media release, mentioned a licence revocation. That is usually the last resort. Once you take over, the identity of the bank has to change and the liability has to be transferred to AMCON (Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria).

“In this case, there is no document today that we have telling us what this means. No shareholder is involved or engaged. We’ve seen them do similar interventions in the past with so many other players in this sector, and more recently with First Bank where the shareholders were invited to participate in the remediation process.

“When you invoke Section 12, you’re saying there’s no longer shareholding, but in CBN’s communication with the directors, they said the shareholders’ equity is intact”, he said.

Alhaji Auwal Lawan, a shareholder of Polaris Bank, who spoke to the BBC Hausa recently, in reaction to the CBN’s action, said: “I’m yet to confirm the veracity of the CBN action as I only read it in the national dailies. I am waiting for the CBN to communicate with us. Certainly, they would communicate to us to know our fate.

Asked what is the fate of the amount outstanding to be paid after they bought the bank from AMCON. He said: “It was CBN and AMCON that sold the bank. So, after we bought the bank, and were done with the handing-over procedures, there was a debt of N1.350 trillion which we should have been paid back to the Federal Government. If you buy a company, acquired both assets and liabilities. We discovered that the bank was being owed about N500 billion to N600 billion in assets and it was decided they stand at N600bn. We found out that the assets range from housing units and others in value of the said money, but we said no, they must be returned to the bank.

“We wrote to CBN and even the president (Tinubu), and we protested that all the assets/properties must be returned to us since we’re being owed more than N1.3 trillion. It was either we should get our assets back or be paid back our money. So, it was while we were dealing with this issue that this issue (of takeover) popped up.

“I repose confidence in the president (Tinubu) because he was a staff at Deloitte. He is familiar with the banking and finance sectors; so, I am unperturbed about it (the takeover).

“Now, I am waiting to see what would come from the CBN as I believe there was nothing done illegitimately. The documentation about the money (we) paid, its source, and the recipient’s account are all intact with us.

“And to this moment, CBN hasn’t yet written to us that it either seized the bank or took over our shares despite being backed by law to do so”, Alhaji Auwalu concluded.

Questions over capital adequacy

Section 12(h), cited by CBN, deals with capital adequacy ratio.

Financial statements of Union and Polaris banks show that both institutions met the regulatory requirements. Keystone Bank, on the other hand, did not publish its financial statement.

The Union Bank Plc’s unaudited financial statement for the period ending September 30, 2023, which was sighted by our reporter, showed that its gross earnings were up by 120 per cent to N309.1 billion, compared with the N140.6 billion it recorded in the comparable period of 2022.

Also, its profit before tax was up by 461.1 per cent to N102.3 billion, compared with the N18.2 billion recorded in the first nine months of 2022.

In the period under review, Union Bank’s capital adequacy ratio was 16.1 per cent, which is higher than the regulatory threshold, just as its non-performing loan ratio was only 3.7 percent, still below the industry benchmark of five per cent.

Also, Union Bank posted a liquidity ratio of 34 per cent, which was still above the industry threshold of 30 per cent.

For its part, Polaris Bank, in its financial statement, which was equally sighted by our reporter, disclosed that its capital adequacy ratio was 12.95 per cent, which is higher than the stipulated 10 per cent, while is liquidity ratio was 30 per cent and had a non-performing loan ratio of 21.4 per cent.

Another shareholder, who spoke to Daily Trust, said: “People own these businesses and you cannot extinguish the rights of the shareholders. Each of these institutions do not have less than N1 trillion balance sheet.

“If you say we don’t have capital, we are ready to bring it in. So far, no one has called us from CBN to discuss this matter”, he said.

A source hinted that the CBN excluded loan forbearance in the calculations that categorized the banks as having insufficient capital.

The source said: “Without Forbearance, the biggest banks in the country will also have capital adequacy challenges. Today, there are three banks who have negative shareholders’ funds and are still standing only because of CBN’s direct support; one of them to the tune of negative N275 billion. So, why the sudden drastic action against Union, Polaris and Keystone while the rest are left intact?”

“The way I see it, the CBN took over three healthy banks, while preparing a N600 billion liquidity support facility for one sick bank, and midwifing a merger for another sick bank.

“Somebody is dying and you rush to save him and the one that is healthy and living you kill. A CBN established in 1959 should have done better. The excuse of capital was just a smokescreen”, the source said.

CBN breached own laws

A member of the immediate past Board of Directors of the CBN said based on Section 34 of BOFIA, which stipulates the intervention powers in failing banks, the apex bank failed to comply with these provisions which outlined the processes to intervene in instances where examinations reveal growing concern issues in banks.

He said: “The powers of the CBN are not to be dispensed arbitrarily. There are precedent conditions. The CBN knows this and the banks also understand it. You cannot as a regulator cherry pick what to implement and that accounts for why the action is difficult to defend.

“Section 33 said the governor shall have the power to constitute a special examination or investigation of the books of the bank or its affairs. Section 34 talks about remediation. Can the CBN as currently constituted show proof that these processes as provided by BOFIA have been followed?”, the ex-board member queried.

Action can breed distrust – Analyst

A sub-Saharan Africa’s banking research analyst at Vetiva Capital, Olumide Sole, said the dissolution of the boards of the three banks “is not good generally for the banking system in Nigeria as it could breed distrust in the system.”

On his part, Muda Yusuf, founder and CEO of Lagos-based Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, stated: “The main pillar of the banking system is confidence. This makes the financial system very sensitive to developments that could undermine the confidence of depositors and investors.”

“This is why the handling of current investigations concerning these banks needs to be done with utmost discretion, caution and care. We cannot afford a run on any of our banks at a time like this.”

A forensic accountant, Sunday Enenche, said: “If the action of the CBN is a revocation, then return the money of the investors. If it is bank failure, the NDIC (Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation) and AMCON should move in as we have seen in previous resolutions”.

When our reporter reached out to the CBN’s acting Director of Corporate Communications, Hakama Sidi Ali, for a reaction to the allegations of breach of process and selective justice, she did not respond to the messages sent to her mobile phone line.

CBN silent on allegations

Several efforts by our reporter to speak to the CBN’s acting director of Corporate Communications, Hakama Sidi Ali, over the course of five days were not successful as she neither answered calls nor responded to the messages sent to her mobile phone line seeking the apex bank’s reaction to the allegations of breach of process and selective justice.

[DailyTrust]

A British-Nigerian minister, MP Kate Osamor has been suspended after she accused Israel of genocide on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day.

Osamor, a British-Nigerian-born MP for Edmonton, sparked resentment after claiming in her weekly newsletter that Gaza should be added to the list of ‘recent genocides’.

In a post on X handle, Osamor posted a photo of herself signing the Holocaust Education Trust’s commemoration book in Westminster.

“Tomorrow is Holocaust Memorial Day, an international day to remember the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, the millions of other people murdered under Nazi persecution of other groups and more recent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and now Gaza,” she wrote.

However, the Board of Deputies, the Jewish Labour Movement, and the Holocaust Educational Trust reacted to her controversial remarks.

Meanwhile, a Labour source told MailOnline on Sunday that the Chief Whip has suspended Osamor from the Parliamentary Labour Party pending an investigation.

[DailyPost]

The air component of Operation Whirl Punch has killed 30 terrorists on motorcycles in the Birnin Gwari Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

This was as security operatives in Katsina State on Sunday rescued 35 kidnap victims inside Dumburu forest.

The Kaduna air strikes were ordered following an intelligence report which disclosed the movement of the terrorists in the area.

A statement on Monday by the Director of Public Relations and Information,  Air Vice Marshal Edward Gabkwet, said the eliminated terrorists were responsible for the ambush of troops at Kwanan Mutuwa recently as well as several attacks and abduction of innocent civilians in the LGA. 

Gabkwet said,  “In its relentless campaign to rid the North-West and North Central region of Nigeria of the menace of terrorism and kidnapping, the air component of Operation Whirl Punch has eliminated a syndicate of terrorists in Kaduna State.

The strike followed an intelligence report of the movement of the syndicate along the Kwiga-Kampamin Doka axis in the  Birnin Gwari LGA of Kaduna State.

“The intel also revealed that the same syndicate was responsible for the ambush on troops at Kwanan Mutuwa on January 27, 2024, as well as several attacks and abduction of innocent civilians in Birnin Gwari.”

He added that when the troops arrived at the location,  two armed terrorists were sighted on 15 motorcycles.

Gabkwet noted that a precision strike was conducted which eliminated them.

He said, “On arrival at the suspected location, a deliberate and detailed scan revealed a trail of terrorists sighted moving in a convoy of about 15 motorcycles, each with at least two armed terrorists.

“Accordingly, the terrorists were trailed to a location where they converged before they were engaged and neutralised in a precision strike. The aftermath of the air strike revealed that several of the terrorists were eliminated as a result of the strike.”

The PUNCH reports that the Birin Gwari area of Kaduna is one of the areas ravaged by insecurity, with bandits killing and abducting residents.

Meanwhile, security operatives in Katsina on Sunday afternoon rescued 35 kidnap victims inside Dumburu forest.

Bandits recently kidnapped the victims from Tashar Nagulle and Nahuta communities in the Batsari Local Government Area of the state.

The 35 victims were brought to the Government House, Katsina on Monday where Governor Dikko Radda met and congratulated them.

A statement on Monday by the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Ibrahim Mohammed, said the governor gave each of the victims N100,000 in financial support to start off any business of their choice.

According to the statement, the victims were rescued on Sunday afternoon at  Dumburum forest after a fierce gun battle between troops and the bandits.

“Many bandits were being killed, their camps were destroyed and a lot of weapons were recovered through the joint efforts of security operatives in the state,” the statement added.

[Punch]