HOW TO GET HELP FOR YOUR RETIREMENT PORTFOLIO

One of the most popular Nigerian Capital Market promoters and eventually the most beneficial investment facilitator, was over heard telling one of his client some times during the heat season of the capital market price crashed that the faith and successful investors employed in building fat portfolio is hundred times more deeper than those deployed by a believer to make heaven.

What an irony, but to be candid with the notable investment analyst there is no better way to counsel an investor building a retirement portfolio on stock that is endangered by market fall.

One of the most difficult advices any Pension Consultant can give to a client using today economic indices will be difficult suggesting to client this period to anchor their Retirement Option on Stock Investment.

But in all, it is still very glaring that the capital market over a longer period have always proven to be the most reliable source of wealth creation to retirees.

But looking into other investment windows I can say that there are three key major drivers to a mans wealth as a retiree includes what he earn?, how he spend his pay-packet or take home? And what he keeps and plan for his old age.

While some even believe that maximizing ones earning power is unarguably the most important driver to wealth, the more cash you have coming into your pocket the more chances you have in deploying it.

As the nation economy is in red, with the inflation rate going at nautical miles eroding into the sweat of investors it is advice that the only place or the wisest thing to do now is to seek wise counsel from men who had a deep knowledge of the market.

In a moment like this the only person capable of giving the right advice and the best person whom I can only take his advice for investment decision is the only man who I know has lost money in such session of the market once bitten twice shy, once a connoisseur is always a connoisseur.

So taking the wise counsel of one of the world acclaimed investment writer with deep understanding of market fluctuations, Michael Sincere in his book “101 Investment Lesson From Wizard of the Wall Street” wrote that it is very hard getting competent, experienced, and objective financial advisor that will create investment plan that will sooth your purpose.

Michael Sincere was a scion of the first generations of Wall Street Stockbroker, a company where he eventually worked and garners the experience he has been sharing with savvy investors through his book.

In finding solution,from notable market experts on the misfortune that hits him when he lost all his investment during a market recession.

Among his findings from the secrets of the pro’s on how to play a bullish and the winning strategies for winning in a bearish season where the lessons he packaged in the bestselling book.

For any investors who want to run with the bull without losing their shirts, must remember that when you get informed financially you’ll be deformed. don’t forget the FOUR unbeatable suggestions on how to get help in a receding economy also made by Michael Sincere which includes:

[1] Hiring or engaging an investment advisor.

[2] Enlist or Join an investment Club.

[3]Practice by making paper trading.

[4]Attend classes of financial seminars.

This is the most appropriate moment for clever investors to adjust their portfolio to reflect the circumstances around the market from one style to the other rigidity and panic will not help.

Patience has so many rewards slow and steady brings out the stars and discipline is the first rule of the game in a depress economy.

Remember that if past performance is not a guarantee of future result, investing in Stock involves risky and the market is more volatile than other forms of investment always be very careful that you have a thorough understanding of the investment objectives, risks, management fees, charges and the expenses before investing.

The ‘I Before You’ Syndrome

A System can be defined as units or parts (sub-systems) that interact with each part or unit to function as a whole. The units or parts are designed in a manner that makes its operations optimal with less grid-lock and distractions or un-necessary overlapping that will create bottle necks or tardiness to function effectively so much so that all the units that make a whole will almost automatically fit into place to give one big system.

A well managed system institutionalized becomes so functional that every body will on entry into the system know what to do and how to do it without relying on brain wave or native intelligence or worst still rely on the ‘thoughts’ of the man on the spot to carry out official functions as was the case with our military detractors, extended by our ‘Mr. know all’ General OBJ even when we claim to be operating a democratic system of government.

Some of the features of a functional system lies in its ability to be self regulatory, detects deviations from set standards which it allows for setting with ease in the first place and setting of further standards, makes planning easy and effective and gives enough room for appraisal of operations and above all brings about efficiency and professionalism because of its effectiveness. A good functional system even allow for accurate projections to be made in all the areas of society’s needs with precision.

System is so central to human activities that no plan no matter how good it may look like can function in a dysfunctional system though a functional system is a result of good planning. So total is a system that it is easy to discern a functional society viding the system in place thus allowing things to done in a particular way with character as the common denominator.

Whether in governance or business or even in our private lives, its none application gives room for dislocations through faulty assumptions that sometimes are very costly and fatal resulting to instability and social vices. A good example is our inability to have a budget on time. Inter and intra governmental conflict in the country is also another sore point of the confused situation we are into.

For a very long while now you see and hear Nigerians lamenting either through write-ups in the newspapers or comments on TV station(s) the break down of system in Nigeria or lack of it claiming that that is why nothing functions here. Often comparison is drawn between Nigeria and Europe and United States of America, places where in their reckoning things work. They are absolutely right except that no one so far has posited why theirs is working and ours is not.

What we have not been able to do like others we often refer to is that we have allowed institutions that should be nurtured and grown into functional systems to be revolved around individuals who are holders of those offices at any point in time. Rather than allow institutions to make persons we allow persons to make the institutions, a direct opposite of what obtains in the places we see and refer to as better than ours.

Bastardization of institutions started with IBB regime when the civil service was dismantled all because one man wants to remain in power at all cost and the rules will not fast track it hence total demolition of all the structures built over time that has given a semblance of system to our governance. Ask Gen. Gowon the usefulness of the civil service and see what a good system it was before IBB and all the rapacious regimes that followed later including Obasanjos’.

Now we today are celebrating the judiciary as the last hope of the common man with some even suggesting rightly too as the only institution or arm of government functioning. The fact is that is about the only institution spared by all the military regimes that has ruled this country even though it is for selfish reasons. The judiciary managed to resist or escape the over-bearing tendencies of the military for reason known to them.

Painfully though is the fact that Nigerians in more than so many ways contributed immensely to the destruction of our institutions through direct collaboration and or complacency. The attitude we exhibited in enthroning ‘me’ instead of ‘we’ that has seen individuals more powerful or relevant than the institution they head is what we are all witnessing in the case of Nuhu Ribadu and the EFCC and the police as institution.

The role of the media on this saga, who was supposed to educate on issues of this nature, is to say the least, is appalling. There is the suggestion going by the write-ups in the media that Ribadu is being given some bad treatment thus insinuating he is bigger than EFCC or that without him there will be no EFCC. And it is a shame that the watch dog role the media is supposed to play in ensuring public office holders account for their stewardship which Nuhu Ribadu has failed to do so far is being questioned shamelessly. We did it during the regimes of IBB, Sani Abacha, even Obasanjo. But they all have left office and Nigeria remains. Some sanity please.

It is my opinion that Ribadu should go and answer to questions being raised over his stewardship at EFCC. He should also realize that he is a police man first before being Chairman of EFCC and most importantly him as a lawyer ought to know and he should know that the police are an institution with its rules and regulation. The police have its own system still functioning. If for any reason he finds it difficult to operate within that system he should honourably bow out. The people urging him on knows this and will deny him soon, very soon.

By the way where is DSP Ogugbuaja?

Former Wema Assets MD Arrested

The calm that pervades the banking hall of Wema Bank was rustled last week when Mr. Bayo Ogundipe, former President of Wema Asset Management Limited, a subsidiary of Wema Bank was, according to Proshare NI, arrested.

A source close to Proshare NI confirmed that Ogundipe moved to and detained at the Special Fraud Unit (SFU) at Milverton Road, Ikoyi in Lagos, Nigeria.

The source further confirmed to Proshare NI that Ogundipe was held over an alleged fraud of about N1.0 billion perpetrated during his tenure as the Chief Executive at Wema Asset.

Wema Asset had traded as the Trustee and Corporate Finance Division of Wema Bank, and subsequently as Investment Banking, Corporate Finance and Asset Management division under Adebisi Omoyeni, the erstwhile Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Bank.

However, Proshare NI could not gather more details on this, and as at the time of filling in this report, it could not also confirm the true situation from SFU as regards the arrest of Ogundipe.

CUSTOMER CLAIMS N135MILLION EXCESS BANK CHARGES FROM DIAMOND BANK

Transnational Haulage Limited, a long standing customer of Diamond Bank Plc has filed court papers pleading a Lagos High Court to among other prayers, order Diamond Bank to refund excess bank charges totaling N74,0403,642.18 plus a mandatory Central Bank of Nigeria’s penalty for non refund of excess bank charges fourteen (14) days after they have been identified and the bank have been informed. Transnational Haulage Limited total claim against Diamond Bank amounts to N135,371,1337.74.

Transnational Haulage asserts in its statement of claim that it, indeed, took several overdraft and lease facilities from the bank which were to be charged at the CBN sanctioned interest rate in Nigeria. Transnational however notes in the statement of claim that the facilities have been paid off. But then, during the life of the facilities it had secured from the bank, it (Transnational) had cause to contest both orally and in writing the incorrectness of the contents of the statement of account the bank had periodically sent to it.

Transnational further informs the court that after noticing the arbitrary charges on its accounts, it engaged the services of Future & Bond, a firm of forensic accounting consultant to carry out a reconciliation of its accounts which it maintains with Diamond Bank.

In one of the two accounts Transnational maintained with Diamond Bank; 0512010000187, between August 2008 and December, 2007, the forensic accounting consultants identified excess-overdraft interest charged amounting to N21,655,712.81 and excess loan interest charged on the account of N12,298,953.97 on a facility of N1,194,381,994.25 the bank had granted the customer. The forensic accounting consultants also identified an excess commission on transaction on the account totaling N31,980.03 while excess management fee of N10,218,336.54 and excess commitment fee of N6,840,750 were also identified. The bank was also alleged to have charged an excess processing fee of N52,500 and an excess Temporary Overdraft Fee of N602,700. The forensic accounting consultants insists in the statement of claim that the bank charged an excess restructuring fee of N1,465,689.06 and an illegal penalty fee of N251,826.49.

The bank’s customer contends that management fee like processing fee is chargeable once upfront on a fresh credit facility or on the enhanced value of a restructured credit facility and not monthly, quarterly or half yearly as the bank charged on its customer’s account.

The customer further asserts that legal fee as a lending fee is not contained in the subsisting CBN Guide to Bank Charges while insisting that commitment fee is only chargeable back-end on the undrawn portion of a loan facility and not on a lease facility as the transaction in question is. The customer argues that whereby a loan facility is fully drawn and utilized by a customer, commitment fee cannot crystallize.

Transnational claims in the court papers that the one percent fee charged on its account cannot be justified because a commercial contract between a bank and its customer cannot contain penalty clause in whatever form or manner but simply obligations and reward which only a court of competent jurisdiction can enforce. The customer therefore affirms that commitment fee does not apply to lease facility but only loan facility. It relied on section 2.2 of the CBN prudential guidelines to argue its position.

In curious revelation in the customer’s statement claim, Transnational reveals that the bank’s decision to use the customer’s account to manage its books by advancing an unsolicited N64.5million loan credit to the customer on February 02, 2008 is unethical. The customer insists that the attendant illegal management fee charged to the account should be repudiated.

The customer further took issue with the extension fee and service charge executed on the account by the bank on the ground that these fees were never agreed with the customer even as they are alien to the subsisting CBN Guide to Bank Charges and therefore considered illegal.

The customer also insists that statement of accounts reprint fee is questionable in the light of the fact that it was due to the bank’s inability to provide the periodic statement of account that led to the demand by the customer coupled with the anxiety of excess and illegal bank charges surreptitiously laid into the account by the bank. This is just as the customer frowns at service charge deducted from the its account. The customer considers this charge as illegal.

Diamond Bank, in its statement of defence, agreed that there was an excess charge of N497,855.26, the bank explained that this was as a result of the application of two percent management fee on the sum of N510,916,827 as against N486,024,063.51 being outstanding balance on the account as at 13 October, 2006.

No date has been fixed for the hearing of the matter

MY PIKIN TEETH MIXTURE TRAGEDY: A REPEAT LIKELY IF…

I had thought of reviewing some other medication issues this week but the My Pikin Mixture tragedy kept crying’ for more attention. During this past week, accusations, counter-accusations and new revelations by different agencies and parastatals of the Federal Ministry of Health made this issue to remain on the front burner of the healthcare sector. Interestingly, some callers, in response to my last week write-up were a little bit upset, they accused me of being economical with my conclusion and position rather than asking so many questions, questions that are yet to be addressed by those concerned even as at today. These I hope to clarify in this edition by critically looking at issues that came up during the past week.

How big is this problem?

As I have already maintained, this is a national tragedy and disaster that requires an emergency response. In a country where most patients do not have access to modern healthcare, the level of reported health issues to the authorities is better imagined. This is why some of us believe that the 55 reported cases in the My Pikin mixture tragedy is just an understatement. Unfortunately, the symptoms of diethylene glycol poison are similar to what people consider as ‘spiritual attack’ in our local environment. This may have been the conclusion of some of these innocent parents by discharging their children against medical advise as reported during the week.

The statement by the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH’s) Chief Medical Director (CMD), Prof Akin Osibogun that My Pikin Mixture may not be the only cause of the infant deaths should not be taken lightly. According to the investigations of the LUTH’s team, 43 percent of the deaths admitting using My Pikin Mixture were related to the use of the drug. This, logically, suggests that something else may be responsible for the cases of the other 53 percent deaths that manifested the same symptoms as those that took My Piken Mixture. My guess is that other brands of teething mixtures are out there in the markets that may be equally Harmful.

Furthermore, according to investigations so far conducted by NAFDAC in 33 states, 2,057 bottles of My Pikin Mixture were recovered. “Out of the total, 255 bottles of batch 02008 (the contaminated batch) were recovered. A total number of My Pikin retrieved from across the country is 425 bottles; 297 from Rivers State, 81 from Kaduna State and 47 from Lagos.”

If the batch size of My Pikin was 3000 products and NAFDAC was only able to retrieve 255 bottles, we still have over 2,400 poisonous My Pikin Mixture either in circulation or already consumed. Unfortunately, drug distribution system in the country is chaotic and unstructured. This is where I will want to agree with the President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Mr. Anthony Akhimen fired from all cylinders during the week. Mr. Akhimen berated the government over the chaotic drug distribution system that does not permit an audit trail procedure for recalling spurious products.

“Unless government’s attitude is changed and the open drug markets spread across the nation are dismantled immediately, the nation would experience a repeat of the present death saga which may be worse than what we have ever experienced,” he said.

Let me deviate a little bit to respond to specifics issues by our healthcare agencies;

From Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH

According to Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH’s) Prof Akin Osiboguno “We are working with a team of epidemiologists from the FMOH and Lagos State Ministry of Health (LSMH). We do not have any problem with NAFDAC, but they did not share information with us. After coming here and got that 43 per cent of the children were taking My Pikin and with their own findings, they went to press without informing the Minister of Health or us. They are supposed to share information with us. We gave them some samples to go and test. But one thing that must be made clear is that all the federal agencies are working together.’

From Nigerian Association of Industrial Pharmacists (NAIP)

In the words of the National Chairman of Nigerian Association of Industrial Pharmacists (NAIP), Emmanuel Ekunno, the handling of the episode by everyone, including the NAFDAC, “has been unnecessarily sensational rather than being scientific.’

National Agency For Food And Drug Admin. and Control, NAFDAC

“The reporting system, whereby LUTH wrote to the Minister of Health when this situation broke out is not the best for our system when we even have pharmacovigilance centre in such hospitals. LUTH is supposed to report straight to us when the problem started, so that we will be swift in addressing it to forestall more deaths.

“Unfortunately, they wrote to the Ministry of Health. Government carved out NAFDAC from the Ministry of Health’s Drug and Food Directorate in 1993 to eliminate such administrative bottlenecks so that the agency can act swiftly and more efficiently on food and drug issues and report activities to the Minister, who can advise.

When one reads between the lines, it appears some agencies are just ready to justify their innocence in the national tradegy. LUTH in my opinion did what was right and followed procedures by laying a report to the Ministry which unfortunately did not escalate the necessary actions and processes. One good thing we can take out of this is that eveybody has realised the importance of collectively moving forward.

“Where did the ethylene glycol come from?

This was the big question asked by the Director General of NAFDAC. According to her “It is not possible to plant people in any factory. What we do is that before registration, we test and retest. After registration, we go to the factory in Nigeria and abroad in such cases on independent unannounced audits of factories.”

“We have not given any company permit to import diethylene glycol. The chemical used in My Pikin must have been smuggled. We are investigating the case and will get to the root of this matter”.

“Right now, we are testing other brands of paracetamol syrup from all over the country to ensure that none is contaminated with diethyleneglycol. NAFDAC staff have also moved to the local governments and villages for the mopping up process of My Pikin teething mixture.

“We have also put in our standard operating procedures that any diethyleneglycol for production of paracetamol and similar drugs must be screened by NAFDAC before use in production, no matter how sophisticated the company’s quality assurance system may be”.

One must commend NAFDAC for the swift way they moved into the appropriate segment to desiminate information to parents. My little boy came home with a newlsetter from his school with a well crafted alert from NAFDAC on this issue. This is highly commendable. However, it appears to be another grandstanding that the agency is known for when it talks of controlling the use of diethylene glycol. The fact that diethelne glycol is not a food or pharmaceutical excipient puts it outside the regulatory scope of NAFDAC. I wonder how they intend to do this.

What should we do?

1. We should Improve on the regulation of the sales of Pharmaceutical raw materials, both active and excipients

2. Restrict licencing for sale of chemicals to two broad groups; Food and Drugs and Industrial so that people do not play simultaneously in the two lines of Business.

1. NAFDAC should have a structured programme to survey ALL products post-registration on an annual basis.

4. NAFDAC should immediately randomely assay all Paracetamol preparation in Nigeria.

1. Compel all registered manufacturers of pcm syrup to submit their holding stock for assay,

1. All pharmaceuticals companies should immediately subject the ‘propylene glycol ‘in their possession to the appropriate test and notify NAFDAC with the quantity, date and place of purchase.

Most of us have now been vindicated that the insistence on Nafdac no, and the hologram do not prevent or deter drug adultration. These are just media and pubicity grand standing which in the long run will not benefit the common man.

While commending the effort so far made by nafdac, one thing should be made clear. And that is that no body is contesting with NAFDAC for visibility. The agency should learn to work with other agencies, parastatals of government and other stakeholders.

In all, one fact is obvious; the product and the factory of Barewa Pharmaceuticals, the company that manufactured My Pikin were certified by NAFDAC. Since the last audit was in August, it is possible that the contaminated product was manufactured around the time of the last audit. It is certain that once a product has been approved by NAFDAC, there is absolutely no reason for any pharmacy or teaching hospital to analyse it before purchase. This last saga, to my mind is a very big indictment of NAFDAC’s product licensing capacity. Millions of people have now lost confidence in the reliabilty of NAfDAC No. on any product.

ADVICE TO PATIENT

Paracetamol

For the patient, the options available are;

1. Use Paracetamol Suspension.

2. For older children (between 3-6years) one may use the tablets, sometimes broken into two depending on the age

3. Where available, use children’s paracetamol tablets

4. Stop the use of any teething formulation or paracetamol syrup until the situation is clearer.

5. Report any case of difficulties in urinating, fever etc to your nearest pharmacy or hospital