The energy sector also had its fair share of the good
run last year. Texaco
Overseas Petroleum Company of Nigeria and Statoil
discovered their second
oil well which pushed up the country's crude oil
reserves. The country also
signed a mega-dollar (N56 billion) contract with four
(4) Western oil groups
to build a third unit in the Liquefied Natural Gas
plant. The plant
commenced lifting of its gas product last year. The
Eleme Petrol Chemical
Plant, the multi-million naira project was also
commissioned last year to
enhance the country's industrial base.

The manufacturing sector, however, had a not-too-rosy
year. With epileptic
infrastructure like public power supply, many
manufacturers still had their
warehouses stocked with finished products, a situation
which made the sector
to lose about 46 per cent of its production output as
far back as August.
Although the pharmaceutical industries enjoyed a great
deal of offshore
relief last year as the Ghanaian government lifted a
five-year-old ban on
Nigerian pharmaceutical products, the manufacturing
sector suffered a severe
setback with technical partners divesting from
companies like Leventis, UTC,
CFAO, among others.

For the whole of last year, the entire country was
engulfed in the riddles
of the Ajaokuta debt back scandal involving former
ministers of finance and
power and steel, Chief Anthony Ani and Dr. Bashir
Dalhatu respectively.
Accusations and counter-accusations were freely traded
in the multi-million
naira scam.

However, the notorious energy crisis persisted
throughout last year and
almost became worse towards the end of 1999 contrary
to the promise of the
Power and Steel Minister, Chief Bola Ige. Power
outages became a common
phenomenon, even as the initiative being worked out by
the Lagos State
government to arrest NEPA's glaring inefficiency is
reportedly being
thwarted.

The Lagos State government signed a multi-million
naira power generation
pact with Enron, a foreign firm late last year. Though
the necessary
equipment to put the scheme in place have arrived
Nigerian shores, NEPA is
said to be reneging on its own part of the deal.

Expectedly, the encouraging picture of the economy
last year appears to be
creating a new wave of excitement and hope in many
Nigerians. Mr. Femi
Ekundayo, a former president Chartered Institute of
Bankers of Nigeria
(CIBN) and chairman/Chief executive, Resort Groups
Limited said last week
that the economy was showing signs of improvement"
based on several
yardsticks of measuring the performance of the
economy. Ekundayo posited
that the confidence brought about by the change of
leadership and the
implicit determination of the Obasanjo administration
to pursue an economic
agenda hinged on probity and accountability is fast
endearing foreign
investors into the country. "In a developing economy,
unless there is
confidence by the international community, the economy
cannot grow. If the
international community denounces the economic
situation in a particular
country, not only will they not invest, they will also
divest and even
citizens of that same county will follow suit," he
said.

Some operators of the economy, however, view the
positive development that
happened last year as that which would likely stretch
the economy this year.

This perhaps, explains why most of them have resorted
to measures that would
not only keep them in contention with their
competitors but also offer value
to the customers.

The News Business findings show that banks in
particular are becoming more
pro-active in their approach to meeting the challenges
of globalisation.
Already, banks like First City Merchant Bank, (FCMB),
Wema, Afribank, UBA,
Union Bank among others are taking giant strides in
this respect.

According to Primrose Tower Digest, a quarterly
economic review by FCMB, the
bank's customers stand to gain from the bank's array
of financial services
that are designed to cope with the emerging
challenges.

Wema Bank's Managing Director, Alhaji Ibrahim Dosumu
puts it more succinctly
when he stressed that "given the stiff competition
that now obtains in the
banking industry, we have no choice than to
continually improve on quality
of service to our customers." It is perhaps, in
realisation of this that the
bank is said to have invested heavily on connecting
its branches under the
Wide Area Network (WAN) project.

Afribank on its own recently launched the Afribank
National Data Centre that
allowed for the processing, storage and retrieval of
data for all its
customers irrespective of location. So also has Union
Bank of Nigeria PLC
which has fashioned out a new branch layout,
retraining and re-orientating
its staff to provide a " fitter, swifter and more
responsive bank," the For
now, the challenges are enormous. So too are the
expectations of Nigerians
who hope for a better condition of living.

The realisation of this goal depends to a larger
extent on how well the
government's economic agenda is implemented. Already,
President Obasanjo is
said to have fashioned out a fresh N10 billion poverty
alleviation programme
designed to create new job opportunities and a better
day package that will
ultimately enhance the people's purchasing power.

Publication date: January 17, 2000





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International Coordinating Secretariat
P.O.Box 8582
Madison, WI 53708-8582
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"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." -- Einstein
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