JSP Corporate Communications, a top Public Relations firm in Nigeria, has opened a full service operation overseas to support businesses and multinational brands notably in North America, Europe and China, who desire to enter, expand and succeed in emerging markets, especially Africa. JSP Canada Communications Corporation was launched to a global audience in Toronto recently.

JSP Canada, through its subsidiaries and affiliates, will also provide strategic counsel, project monitoring and new communications frame works to companies and PR/Ad agencies based in Europe, USA and China for some of their vital projects or ongoing campaigns in selected Emerging Markets, notably in Africa’s top five markets. Lagos based JSP Communications remains the main hub of reaching the key markets in Africa
JSP Canada already has a global advisory board made up of a representation of accomplished entrepreneurs, marketing and business professionals from North America, Europe, Africa, and Middle East/Asia, to provide global expert guidance. The members include Wayne Shanntz (North America), Simbo Nuga (Europe) Yemi Osilaja (Africa), Steph Brown (global strategy), Amina Baldwin (Middle East/Asia), Ekua Kariuki (Social Responsibility), Dr Phil Osagie, Global PR consultant and Emerging Markets specialist on Africa

Mr Wayne Shantz, former Vice President of the Coca-Cola Company, former Global Marketing Director of Petro Canada and founder of the Shantz team, a specialised Real Estate firm, said that: “emerging markets and Africa represent a large untapped growth opportunity for companies in North America, Europe and China, who are looking for new avenues of sustainable volume and profit expansion.”
Distinguished entrepreneur and renowned speaker, Rav Toor, at the presentation event of JSP Canada to an international business audience, stated that a business that is built around a strong value system will thrive in the long term.

JSP Communications Executive Director , Ronke AA Adebule, noted that this move is “great for the company, great for our clients and also good for the PR industry”
The Global Strategist of JSP Canada and JSP Communications, Dr Phil Osagie, summarised a number of current global statistics, as well as expert projections, that make Emerging Markets, the key to the future growth of most companies and the new battle ground in the global competitive landscape.

“The world population is expected to grow by 2.3 billion, reaching 9.1 billion by 2050. Less than 3% of this population growth will come from developed markets. The rest will come from emerging countries, which already accounts for almost 85% of the world population.
“Emerging market cities will account for 30% of global private consumption by 2015. Middle class households will rise by more than 70% over the next five years, representing great market opportunities for numerous products and services. The combined purchasing power of the global middle class is expected to surpass $56Trillion by 2030. Over 85% of this class will come from emerging markets.
“$30-40 Trillion dollars is the expected cumulative expenditure on infrastructure and housing development in emerging markets cities by 2030 (the equivalent of 60-70% of total global investment in infrastructure).
“In addition, Emerging markets will require an estimated investment of about 14 trillion$ in housing in housing investment and will need over $5 Trillion dollars worth of investment in electricity infrastructure alone, over the next 20 years, according to the BCG Group
Coming home to Africa, “the continent has the largest youth population. 45% of Africans are under the age of 15, and 65% of the population are under the age of 30. Return on investment in sub Saharan Africa, is currently higher than any other part of the world. Africa is where the low hanging trees are. Africa’s top 18 cities will have a combined spending power of almost $2 Trillion by 2030. Africa is expected to have a collective GDP of $2.6 Trillion by 2020 and over 1.1 billion Africans would be of working age within the next 30 years

“Balance of economic power is shifting from the developed world, to the emerging markets, which are poised to profit from three megatrends- globalisation, demographics and scarce resource. Emerging markets are expected to account for over 50% of global equity markets by 2050, compared to a mere 2% in 2003. Most revealing is the forecast that three out of the five largest economies in the world, will come from emerging countries, within the next 30-40 years”.

Red Star Logistic Commences Large Scale Warehouse Services

Red Star Logistics Limited, a subsidiary of Red Star Express Plc, has commenced large scale warehousing business in Nigeria. This was revealed as they opened the 800 square meter capacity warehouse facility, newly acquired by the company, in Lagos recently.

Commenting on the business expansion, Mr. Sina Lajorin, the Chief Operating Officer of the company, stated that the move is part of Red Star's business expansion strategy designed to further strengthen its capacity as a one stop total logistics solutions company. "Our overall focus is to offer warehouse services that is world class, real time and comparable to what is available in developed countries in terms of quality and value delivery to our customers. And we are investing massively and putting a lot of resources behind this."

"Though warehousing is one of the arms of our business at Red Star Logistics, the company is now taking a special interest in the warehousing business in response to the needs of customers and emerging trend in the industry. This move will enable us to specialize in special haulage and parcel handling. Our facility is now ready to handle all manners of large scale warehousing services from our client" he said.
Lajorin also revealed that the new Red Star Logistics large scale warehouse facility has been built to meet world class standards and will have sections handling different items coming into the warehouse. "There will be sections for mobile phones, wine and temperature control room for items that need to be stored under certain temperature to ensure that customers goods are well preserved and delivered in perfect conditions. All the different needs of our clients, both existing and prospective ones, were carefully put into consideration in the installation of the facility."

The Chief Operating officer of Red Star Logistics further revealed that the company is already setting up inventory management system as part of the warehouse facility. This will be deployed to sort, account and handle distribution data of all goods that come in and go out; bill the customer; and customize and generate specific kinds of reports to customers in line with their needs. "we have already commenced comprehensive training for our personnel to ensure their efficient management of the facility and quality service delivery to our customers."

Red Star Logistics Ltd. has grown to become a premium logistics firm in Nigeria in terms of revenue, network coverage and market share in the domestic and international market. It enjoys a domestic strength of 169 offices in Nigeria, deliveries to additional 1,500 communities, over 1400 highly trained personnel and over 500 vehicular fleet. It prides itself of automatic proof of delivery and advanced technology with all operations done online and real-time. The company hopes to set up more facilities for large scale warehousing services across the nation.
I care project 1

L-R: Mrs. Timmy Oyebode, Coordinator, Love Home Orphanage, explains their program to Mr. Muyiwa Olumekun, Deputy Managing Director, Red Star Express and Mr. Sule Bichi, Managing Director, Red Star Express, while others look on at the Red Star Express Plc "I Care" project's presentation of gifts to the home recently.

L-R : Mr. Muyiwa Olumekun, Deputy Managing Director, Red Star Express, Mrs. Timmy Oyebode, Coordinator, Love Home Orphanage and Mr. Sule Bichi, Managing Director, Red Star Express at the Red Star Express Plc "I Care" project's presentation of gifts to the home recently.

: L-R : Mrs. Timmy Oyebode, Coordinator, Love Home Orphanage, Mr. Sule Bichi, Managing Director, Red Star Express and Mr. Muyiwa Olumekun, Deputy Managing Director, Red Star Express at the Red Star Express Plc "I Care" project's presentation of gifts to the home recently.

Head of Africa Region, Nokia Siemens Networks, Dimitri Diliani’s interview during his visit to Nigeria in 2nd Quarter of 2011

How far has Nokia Siemens gone to make LTE’s commercially viable in Nigeria?
“Most of our customers are spending their investments on 3G and 3G plus. It will last for a long term. Where we see that opportunity in Nigerian is in our TVE spectrum and in it you can only deploy Wi-Max and TDE. For those who have that spectrum, the choice in terms of technology is unlimited which means they probably have to look into those two options. I feel LTE comes first here but that does not mean the 3G operators cannot look into what they have and go there. One of the unique value propositions we have is that base stations we 2G and 3G base stations we deploy today are also LTE base stations from a hardware perspective. Your investment is protected as you put this thing on the side today and decide to go into LTE. You simply hit the switch and the base station becomes 3G/LTE because both technologies can be sustained simultaneously. That is what we are bringing to the market.”

3G versus LTE
“From a user perspective, you will not know which network you are. Both will advance and keep growing until they distinguish one another down the line. Today the difference is the cost. Not the cost of the network, because it is the same base station from a network site. But on the end-users devices it is very mature and portable. It has been here for a few years and everything is there. LTE just started and earning from what happened during 3G in early 2000, from 600 to 700 range, it has dropped to a 100 range on the device. Because there is no volume at high prices but over time it will drop, nobody knows how the technology is evolving, but I see it being at parity with 3G devices. Affordability is the issue between the devices.”

Flexi-based stations
“Five years ago the base station was the size of a big fridge. Nokia Siemens came up with the first actual macro-based station. We shrunk the fridge to basically the size of two VCR’s. The way we did it was that instead of having different circuit parts we integrated everything in s single pack of chips. So if you open the circuit, most of it is just a heat sink to dissipate the heat with one big chip inside. It is a technology that has evolved from a big thing to a small thing. It keeps evolving and did not stop because one of the things we focused on was the customer who can put it on the side of the wall or a roof. With this we have achieved goal number one and are now working on goal number two which is how to make the flexi more energy-friendly. So from 800 kilowatts per hour, we shrunk it to 400 kilowatts compared to where we were and the first generation of flexi. With the power being under control, we have now put all technologies on it and now it is a matter of software. It is all behind us and we are now looking at what we surround the flexi with in terms of power management. Now operators are looking into rural deployment in rural Nigeria.”Read more...

Good News About Coffee

Coffee lovers may be raising their cups—and perhaps eyebrows—at the recent news (in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry) that the drink contains soluble fiber, the type that can help lower cholesterol. With about 1 gram per cup, coffee’s fiber impact is modest. But the report is the latest in a growing stream of positive news about coffee.
Some of the most promising findings come from studies of diabetes. When Harvard researchers combined data from nine studies involving more than 193,000 people, they found that regular coffee drinkers had a significantly lower risk of type 2 diabetes than those who abstained. The more they drank, the lower their risk.
And, despite coffee’s reputation for being bad for the heart, recent epidemiologic studies haven’t found a connection; some even suggest coffee can be protective. A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported that healthy people 65 and over who drank four or more cups of caffeinated beverages daily (primarily coffee) had a 53 percent lower risk of heart disease than non-coffee-drinkers.
It’s even more beguiling when you consider that the immediate effects of drinking coffee tend to go in the opposite direction, raising heart rate and blood pressure and temporarily making cells more resistant to insulin. But those effects are probably short-lived, as people develop a tolerance. In the long term, beneficial components in coffee may have stronger, more lasting effects.
How coffee might work isn’t clear; the studies weren’t designed to identify cause-and-effect relationships. Antioxidants, such as chlorogenic acid (related to polyphenols in grapes), are likely players: coffee has more of them per serving than blueberries do, making it the top source of antioxidants in our diets. Antioxidants help quell inflammation, which might explain coffee’s effect in inflammation-related diseases like diabetes and heart disease. Magnesium in coffee might help make cells more sensitive to insulin. And caffeine seems to have its own beneficial effects; the diabetes studies found that those who drank regular coffee had lower risks of the disease than decaf drinkers. Caffeinated-coffee drinking has also been linked with reduced risk of Parkinson’s disease, gallstones, cirrhosis and liver cancer.
Bottom Line: For healthy adults, having two or three cups of coffee daily generally isn’t harmful and it may have health perks. But experts wouldn’t recommend drinking coffee to prevent disease. Exceeding one’s caffeine tolerance—which varies—can cause irritability, headache and insomnia. The temporary rise in heart rate and blood pressure could cause problems for people with heart disease, and new moms should be aware that caffeine passes into breast milk.For most people who enjoy coffee, there’s no reason to cut back.

COTECCNA, Others Defend Operations At Port

As the January 2013 handover date draws closer, the three service provider companies currently running the operations of the nation’s Destination Inspection of goods under the Comprehensive Imports Supervision Scheme (CISS), recently gave account of their stewardship to Nigerians and defended their scanning operations at the nation’s sea ports.

The three companies, Cotecna Destination Inspection Limited, Globalscan Systems Limited, Societte-Generale du Surveillance (SGS) While defending their operations before the12-man House of Representative ad-hoc Committee said they had so far done well in view of the prevailing business environment in the country. Chief Executives Officers of the three companies who defended their operations before members of the committee which conducted a week-long public hearing on ‘Single Window’ contract said that despite some initial hiccups in the system, the nation’s international trade had been the better for it under the concession agreements.

In his own contribution, the Controller-General of customs, Abdulahi Dikko had announced that as part of the benefits of the scheme, the service had netted soaring Customs revenue being put at over half a trillion naira for the first half of the year.
The companies are Cotecna Destination Inspection Limited led by its Managing Director, Tayo Rabiu ; Fred Udechukwu of Globalscan Systems Limited, and Nigel Balchin, Chief Executive Officer of Societte-Generale du Surveillance (SGS).
The 12-man ad-hoc Committee chaired by Deputy House Leader, Rep Leo Okuweh Ogor, had invited the service providers to give accounts of their knowledge of the Single Window project as well as the contract performance of their respective organizations and their readiness to hand over to the Nigeria Customs Service by January 2013.

Destination Inspection Service commenced in January 2006 under a Build- Own-Operate (and)-Transfer (BOOT) arrangement for a period of seven years. With a broad-based scope of services, the Destination Inspection companies were to amongst other things, deploy a Computerized Risk Management System (CRMS), provide a Data Base for Price, carry out Customs Valuation and Classification of goods, installed Scanners at designated ports of entries, carry out physical examination of goods in conjunction with Customs officers when necessary, as well Training and Capacity Building of servicemen for the future management of the project. Earlier, the Cotecna boss had informed the gathering that his organization had successfully installed one 9.0 MeV Fixed Dual view scanner, and one 3.8 MeV Mobile scanner at Apapa port in Lagos.

He also said that the company now have in place three scanners at the Tin-Can Island port namely, 9.0 Mev Fixed Dual View Scanner; 3.8 MeV Mobile Scanner in Ashaye Terminal; and a 3.8 Mev Mobile Scanner at the RORO Terminal of the port. The two fixed scanners installed at Apapa and Tincan are of the best technology in the industry and the first to be commissioned in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Similarly, the company has a 145-180 Hi-Scan Pallet Scanner each, at both the Abuja and kano International Airports. On the land border areas, the scanner provisions include a 3.8 mev Mobile scanner at Jibiya with a fully completed office complex, while a similar project in Banki land border is on course and would soon be commissioned.