ThinkBusiness Today - May 26th

E kaaro o, Ututu Oma, Barka da Safiya – Good morning, welcome to ThinkBusiness Nigeria.

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It was Africa Day yesterday, so let me share two things about Africa I have done this week.

First, I spoke at the Africa communications week 2023 excellently put together by High Stakes PR Professionals (Victoria Uwadoka) and Quadrant MSL (Ranti Olaniyan) with theme, “Telling the Africa Story”.

Let me reiterate here two points I made:

First is that is Africa is not homogenous. We are shaped by different histories and experiences (e.g., can I truly understand what it is like to live in a racially segregated country like South Africa or in a perpetually war-torn country like Sudan?). So, Africa has many stories, unique to different generations and regions on the continent. Notwithstanding, I have generally found resilience on the continent.

Second point, and I stressed this during the conversation, is that we see communication as enhancing and projecting what is true about Nigeria and Africa, and not expecting a disconnect between communications and reality. Our internal (behaviour, values, and outlook) must align with the external (communications), and that is when our communication is backed by integrity, and not hypocrisy.

Then, I have been reading Colbalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives. I share my thoughts in the section “What I read this week” today.

Markets

• NGX All-Share Index (ASI) pared 106.00 (-0.2%) points to close at 52,821.60, representing a 1-week gain of 1.37%, a 4-week gain of 1.39%, and an overall year-to-date gain of 3.06%. The negative sentiment in the market was largely driven by profit taken and sell off in CONOIL (9.92%) UNILEVER (-8.28%), ETERNA (-6.21%) and PZ (-6.11%).

• The Naira appreciated at both the I & E window and parallel market. It appreciated by 0.31% to close at N463.67/$ at the I & E window and strengthened at the parallel market by 0.67% closed at N745/$

  Natural gas futures slid about 4.71% to US$2.29 on Thursday on record U.S. output, rising Canadian exports and forecasts for milder U.S. weather and lower demand over the next two weeks than previously expected.

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National Headlines

• With Buhari, governance is a joke – Today is the last working day of disastrous 8 years of President Buhari. In eight years, he has gone about his presidency as pedestrian as it is a joke. Nothing captures that more than the extension of the implementation period of the capital component of the 2022 budget to the end of 2023, seven months after he would have left office. So, in the second half of the year, after he has retired to Daura or Niger Republic, the budget he passed 18 months ago will continue to be implemented. What a joke! It was originally extended to June 30, and now to December 2023. In addition, he has flurry of appointments, and his ministers are now finding time to constitute boards of parastatals. I expect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu not to be a fool.

• Dealing with Oil theft – There are new regulations to stem the ugly tide of crude oil theft in the country and improve revenues from crude oil sales. A key regulation, as put together by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), is the metering of crude oil. According to Guardian reports, Nigeria has lost an estimated 619 .7 million barrels of crude oil, with an estimated value of US $46 billion.

• More than food inflation – It is not only food inflation that Nigerians must worry about. We know that already, and the latest data on fuel prices have validated it. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its gas and kerosene price watch for April 2023 shows that cooking gas price is up by 22% compared to last year while that of kerosene is up by 97%, also compared to last year.

Global Headlines

• It is close, but not done – The deal to raise you US debt ceiling from the current US $31 trillion is close, according to reports, but it is not done yet. It is generally believed that a deal must be reached before June 1^st .

• Recession in Germany – The German economy entered recession, following two quarterly economic decline. It recorded – 0.3% for Q1 2023, following – 0.5% in Q4 2022.

What I read this week

Title: Cobalt Red – How the blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives

Author: Siddharth Kara, Associate Professor of human trafficking and modern slavery at Nottingham University, UK.

This is a book about the Congo, Africa, minerals, policies, leadership (responsibility), and raw capitalism.

Siddarth, following three-year research in the Congo, has provided a detailed account of how the search for a better life and environment by the world, led by developed economies and some of the biggest companies in the world, has left the Congo, and particularly the Copper belt regions of Katanga in ruins, poverty and environmental mess.

What I so much like about the book is that it provides detailed contextual and historical descriptions of how we arrived at this point in the Congo – political exploitation and instability. For many decades, from one political reign to the other, with sizeable influences from the West, political instability has provided the breeding ground for Congolese exploitation. The exploitation of children, working as artisanal miners, is not new. It is a new dimension of the rape on the country.

What I also like about the book is the documentation of how global historical business, political and policy dynamics is now shaping the demand for colbalt in the Congo. Cobalt is used in the lithium-ion rechargeable battery in the world – “The demand side is driven by the fact that colbalt is used in almost every lithium-nion rechargeable battery in the world”. This ranges from the mobile phones we use, to tablets, laptops, e – bikes, e- scooters and other forms of consumer electronic devices. But if that was not enough underlying demand, Siddarth explained how the drive for a global cleaner environment and the consequent need for electric vehicles has dramatically driven up the demand for cobalt.

I will end my review of this book with the following quote:

“For the forseeable future, there will be no avoiding cobalt from the Congo, which means there will be no avoiding the devastation that cobalt mining causes the people and environment of the mining provinces of the DRC. Even after battery designers find a way to eliminate cobalt from rechargeable batteries without sacrificing performance or safety, the misery of the Congolese people will not end. There will surely be another prize slumbering in the dirt that will be made valuable by the global economy. Such has been the curse of the Congo for generations. Unspeakable riches have brought the people of the Congo little other than unspeakable pain”.

Is this different from what has happened in the Niger Delta? For about 60 years, unbelievable amount of oil wealth has been extracted from the region to meet the world’s demand for oil and Nigeria’s successive government appetite for it, but the region continues to face environmental degradation and neglect.

So, I encourage you to read Cobalt Red, and see the effects of the failures in leadership and policy on the African continent.