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  • Pat Utomi, APCON Boss, Others To Speak At Brandcomfest 2021

    Pat Utomi, APCON Boss, Others To Speak At Brandcomfest 2021

     

    Popular political economist and Professor of Entrepreneurship, Prof Pat Utomi will be the Keynote Speaker at the 2021 Brandcomfest scheduled for Thursday, 18th November at the D’Podium Event Center, Ikeja, Lagos.

     

    In a statement made available to BUSINESS BELLS by the organisers, Utomi is billed to speak on “Dissecting the Prism of brand building in a volatile economy”, which is also the main theme of this year’s event.

     

    The event is free to attend, but interested participants are required to register at  https://www.brandcom.ng/brandcomfest/

     

    The erudite Professor is a fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants of Nigeria and founding Senior Faculty of the Lagos Business School-Pan Atlantic University, and Chairman and Chief Executive of the Integrated Produce City (IPC). He is also the Executive Vice Chairman of SmartCity Lagos, a joint holding with Dubai Holdings by SmartCity Dubai.

     

    He has served on the Africa Board of a leading global professional service firm, Deloitte, and was Director of The Centre for Applied Economics at the Lagos Business School.

     

    Utomi has served in senior positions in government, as an Adviser to the President of Nigeria; the Private Sector, as Chief Operating Officer for Volkswagen of Nigeria, and in academia. He is the author of many business and public policy books including the award-winning “Managing Uncertainty: Competition and Strategy in Emerging Economies, 1998 and the 2006 book “Why Nations are Poor”, “The Art of Leading”, 2016, as well as “WHY NOT”, 2019.

     

    He is the Chairman of PAFTRAC the Pan African Private Sector Trade and Investment Committee sponsored by AU and Afrexim Bank. He is also the Founder and CEO of the Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL). He was a candidate for President of Nigeria in 2007 and 2011.

     

    Other key speakers at the event include Dr Olalekan Fadolapo, Registrar/ CEO, Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), Emmanuel Agu, Group Marketing Director, Jotna Nig Ltd; Amaka Onyemelukwe, Director, Public Affairs, Communications and Sustainability, The Coca Cola Company; Titilope Oguntuga, Head, Sustainable Development/ Corp. Brand, Lafarge Africa; Israel Opeyemi, Chief Strategist, Chain Reaction; Femi Adelusi, President MIPAN, and many others.

     

    Some will also be speaking on various sub-themes under the following segments; Fintech, Sustainability, Insurance Marketing, SME Brand Masterclass, FMCG, Industry Standard of Practice, PR among others.

     

    Brandcomfest is designed to be the largest gathering of stakeholders in the brand and marketing communications landscape. The annual event caters to the most contemporary and topical issues in the industry, as the foremost thought-leadership platform for stakeholders within the brands and marketing communications value chain.

     

    According to Joshua Ajayi, convener of Brandcomfest and publisher of Brand Communicator, “Last year, because of COVID we could not hold the event but this year we are back, to do bigger and better than what we did at our maiden edition in 2019 which was one of the biggest events of that year. Brandcomfest is more essential at this time which is the reason for the choice of our theme.

     

     “The essence of Brandcomfest remains the same post-COVID and it is to serve as our way of linking the future, in line with the vision which we have religiously kept faith with since we hit the newsstands over a decade ago”.

     

    Brand Communicator is Nigeria’s most consistent brand and marketing communications magazine. It is also the organiser of the Women in Marketing and Communications Conference/Awards (WIMCA), the largest gathering of female marketing and communications professionals in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa. It is also a partner to the two biggest creative advertising shows on the continent, Loeries Africa Middle East and African Cristal Festival.

     

  • Nigeria Runs The Risk of Entering Another Debt Trap Over Unending External Borrowing –Pat Utomi

    Nigeria Runs The Risk of Entering Another Debt Trap Over Unending External Borrowing –Pat Utomi

    Pat Utomi, a Professor of Political Economics has warned that Nigeria runs the risk of entering another debt trap if it keeps borrowing to fill the needs of recurring expenditure spending.

     

    He urged that Nigeria develops a clear national strategy, which looks at how growth can take place in a sustainable manner in this economy.

     

    Utomi disclosed this in an interview with Channels TV on Sunday, following President Muhammadu Buhari’s letter to the Senate requesting to borrow over $4 billion from external lenders.

     

    Utomi said, “Our country is going through a very trying period. This is a time for statesmen to emerge, not people arguing partisan position on things.

     

    “The Nigerian economy, is not growing in any way or shape that can accommodate its needs, population growth, rates, location on scale of poor countries. It means that in terms of absolute numbers of people living in poverty, that this is one of the most terrible places to live in on earth.”

     

    Utomi said that even though the borrowings are sometimes justifiable, there was cause for concern seeing how much of Nigeria’s revenue goes into debt servicing.

     

    “In terms of statistic’s being said, yes, in an absolute sense, the fact of borrowing $4 billion is not necessarily something that will kill Nigeria, even though if you look at how much of our revenues going into servicing debt, you have to worry.

     

    “However, there is a converse point here. This country needs to grow like crazy, and it cannot grow unless you invest. The real issue is the targeting of borrowed funds.

     

    “Am I convinced that the targeting is enough to drive the kind of growth that will facilitate the economy to grow in a sustainable manner? I have not been given enough information to believe that it is the case.”

     

    He added that Nigeria has been in this position before, back in the 70s, when General Obasanjo was head of state.

     

    “One of the reasons Nigeria is where it is today, is that oil price dropped during the heat of last year, compounded by supply chain challenges brought about by the lockdown, which led to revenue shortfall of a significant nature because we have failed to do something we said we are doing, which is to diversify the base of the Nigerian economy.

     

    “Do I see the plans that these borrowings will facilitate the diversification of the economy? My straight answer is No, I do not see the plan.

     

    “We need to develop a clear nation strategy, which looks at how growth can take place in a sustainable manner in this economy, then we can borrow, twice or three times as much as we are borrowing, and I won’t be afraid,” he explained.

     

    President Muhammadu Buhari has last week sent a letter to the Senate requesting to borrow over $4 billion from external lenders to fund infrastructure development.

     

    The President sent the letter to the Senate on Tuesday citing European banks including Credit Suisse Group and Standard Chartered Bank as private lenders.

     

    The loans range from a grant of $125 million to a 710 million Euros loan will be sourced from the World Bank, French Development Agency, China-Exim Bank and International Fund for Agricultural Development.

     

    “The projects listed in the external borrowing plan are to be financed through sovereign loans from the World Bank, French Development Agency, EXIM Bank and IFAD in the total sum of $4,054,476,863 and €710 million and grant components of $125 million,” Buhari said.