Tell Magazine

We Will End Milk Importation – Bob Steetscamp, managing director, FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria On July 10, 2011, the management and staff of FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria, watched helplessly as flood caused by heavy rainfall within the Lagos metropolis wrecked havoc on its Ikeja, Lagos premises. The company’s perimeter walls collapsed under heavy pressure from the flood. All the factories and warehouses were affected, forcing the company to shut down operations temporarily. “The loss was significant; we lost so much,” Bob Steetscamp, managing director of the company, said. Given the magnitude of the disaster caused by the flood, many operators would probably have closed shop and joined the growing list of dead companies, which now litter the manufacturing landscape in Nigeria. Not so for FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria, which came out of the disaster looking stronger barely one year after. Thanks to the skilful engineering, hard work, effective crisis management and exceptional leadership of Steetscamp and his team. The company also overcame other challenges that plaque operators in the manufacturing sector of the Nigerian economy such as infrastructure decay, increase in price of raw materials, vulnerability of the exchange rate of the naira to the dollar, banks’ high lending rate, low purchasing power of consumers, and insecurity, among others. Unlike many manufacturing outfits swimming against the tide, which are either closing shop or merely struggling to survive, FrieslandCampina WAMCO still holds the aces with its financial performance and market share remaining satisfactory despite the challenging operating environment. For instance, to the delight of…

‘Babies Born With Severe Jaundice Are More Likely To Be Deaf’ – Bola Olusanya, coordinator, Hearing International Nigeria By FOLASHADE ADEBAYO   You have done extensive work on hearing impairment in Nigeria. What is your interest in hearing screening for babies? My interest in newborn hearing screening originated from my work on the developmental profile of Nigerian school entrants 16 years ago as a postgraduate dissertation. Hearing impairment was identified in almost 14 per cent of children in mainstream schools and it was in the range of slight to moderate. And I did a follow-up study among children in the largest schools for the deaf in Lagos with astonishing results. Unfortunately, there were little or no audiological services to properly cater for these children. At that point I made up my mind to address the problem of hearing impairment in Nigeria. And as a child health physician I deeply recognised the impact of this condition on early child development. Why is hearing loss a huge developmental problem in Nigeria? Unlike blindness, hearing loss isolates the child completely. I have a 19-year-old just coming for help. He was detected as a baby but his parents could not afford hearing aids. An adult that cannot communicate is like a monster and most parents don’t like sign language. Now these children with severe hearing loss have been found to be among the delinquents in the society. They can commit crime, even kill. Now the problem is that many parents and even health care…

‘We Are Making Efforts to Remove the Shipwrecks’ – Patrick Akpobolokemi, director-general, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, says it will cost billions of naira to clear the wrecks By ARUKAINO UMUKORO The number of shipwrecks on the Lagos coastline seems to be increasing. What has your agency done or planned to do to ensure that they are removed to prevent environmental disaster? One of our core functions is to receive and remove wrecks from the entire maritime domain because the wrecks are a danger to human lives, they aid criminal activities, affect smooth navigation and can cause erosion and so many other problems. We are in the concluding stages of awarding contracts for the removal of all these wrecks. We made advertisement in the print media calling for reputable companies to come and remove them. It has been a tedious process because the capital that is involved is usually huge and is a procurement system that the rules must be obeyed from the beginning to the end.  Very soon, the efforts will start to yield results. However, if you go to the NIMASA Act, receiver of freights is our jurisdiction. Removal of wrecks is our jurisdiction, in line with Nigerian laws and also in conformity with international obligations and conventions. Therefore, no local or state government or other agencies has the right to remove wrecks. This is not to say that the state government cannot partner with our agency. So, we are surprised that Lagos State government gave contracts…

‘NIMASA Should Rise Up to its Responsibilities’ - Adesegun Oniru, commissioner for waterfront and infrastructure development, Lagos State, speaks on the effort the Babatunde Fashola administration is making in clearing the coastline   By ARUKAINO UMUKORO Over a year ago, you were at the erosion site and promised to deal with the problem. How far have you gone in keeping to that promise? I was there to address the issue of (abandoned) beach vessels and we have issued contracts out to contractors to remove those vessels and the ones the owners claim they would remove themselves, they commenced work almost immediately. That is what the ministry and the state government have done so far to avert disaster. If we haven’t done that then, the situation in Alpha Beach would be worse today. All vessels that come into our ports pay their dues to the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, which also has a sister agency called NIMASA (Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency). It is NIMASA’s business to remove and attend to any beach vessel, not Lagos State government. But the state government would not sit down and see environmental disaster happening in our state and see the national boundary being eroded and not do anything about it. So, there is very little you can do as a state government when it comes to disasters like this because of the financial implications; you need the help of the federal government.   But some of the affected communities have blamed the contractors…