COVID-19: FirstMonie leads pace in agent banking - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

In this COVID-19 era where movement is restricted in some major parts of the world - including Nigeria - with many Banks and business reengineering efforts to improve the adaptability of their customers to electronic ways of carrying out business, Firstmonie Agents, an agent banking initiative from First Bank of Nigeria Limited is bridging the gaps and helping people to meet their needs of accessing the funds to buy food items and groceries as well as to send money to their loved ones.

This is one of the many measures by the premier financial institution in Nigeria to support the need to promote social distancing and the reduction of physical interactions of people in large numbers, thereby guarding against the spread of the coronavirus.

FirstBank introduced this innovative channel three years ago, with the aim of bringing banking to close those who live

in the rural areas and to every Nigerian -regardless of where they are in the country.

Firstmonie Agents also ensure individuals in the suburbs do not have to travel for long hours to the city for their banking activities. The gap between the tech-savvy and the low literacy clients has been bridged as Firstmonie Agent network represents the convenient and comfortable alternative for customers that are unacquainted with the sophisticated digital channels.

With over 53,000 Firstmonie Agents spread across 99% Local Government Areas in the country, the laudable initiative by FirstBank is another way to bank - without visiting a Bank - which allows you to make cash deposit, transfer money to any bank and enjoy other banking services like bills payment and purchase of recharge card amongst others.

Recently, Halima, a FirstBank customer who is a housewife and petty trader, residing in a remote area in Abuja expressed her delight on the Firstmonie Agent initiative as she was able to easily get cash from an agent nearby to procure groceries for herself and her three children. Her bank being far away in Garki was too far to visit to get money. Thanks to Firstmonie which she discovered through her co-tenant, her joy knew no bounds as Halima was able to access her money at the Firstmonie Agent outlet close to her, as well as send money to her mother in far away, Maiduguri in Borno State.

Another customer in Lagos, Adeoye, a civil servant also lauded this brilliant initiative from FirstBank and narrated his experience when he visited the stand of Firstmonie in Ojota area of Ogudu, Lagos. He explained that he was able to do his transaction with ease.

According to Mrs. Sadia Folorunsho, she said ‘I did not know FirstBank has this wonderful service within my area as it actually saved my family from hunger as I was able to perform banking activities without being in the bank,’ she stated.

These are what the management of First Bank of Nigeria Limited, led by its CEO, Dr. Adesola Adeduntan has been able to make available well ahead of time, since no one knew there might be a pandemic that will warrant a lockdown.

Its Firstmonie Agents at every nook and cranny in Nigeria has been able to remove the burden from the shoulders of Nigerians and allow many to carry out several transactions at Firstmonie Agent locations, within close proximity of their home.

Firstmonie Agent banking is a channel specifically designed by FirstBank to bring financial services closer to the unbanked and underbanked segment of the society whilst promoting existing businesses within the communities to deliver their services and contribute to the growth and development of the economy.

With the spread of its Agent Banking network, FirstBank has been able to indirectly create over 150,000 jobs as the Firstmonie Agents have had to employ the services of other individuals to build their businesses and meet the financial needs of individuals in its community.

So far, the Bank has deepened financial inclusion through Firstmonie Agents with 237.3 million transactions processed through the network at a monetary value of over 4.08 Trillion Naira.

*Contributed by Bolatito Adebola

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Asiwaju Tinubu condoles Gov. Uzodinma, mourns Anumudu - ITREALMS

ITREALMS: 

The All Progressives Congress National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has joined family, friends and business associates of Chairman of Globe Motors Holdings (Nigeria) Limited, Chief Willie Anumudu, as well as the Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma, to mourn his passing, reports ITREALMS.

Anumudu suffered some health challenges a few days ago and was tested for COVID-19 but the result turned out negative. He, however, died early on Wednesday as he was to be flown to Germany for further treatment.

In his condolence message, Asiwaju Tinubu described the late Anumudu as a prominent businessman reputed for his industry and humanitarian activities.

“Anumudu was a renowned philanpropist and businessman. As Chairman of Globe Motors Nigeria Limited, he was reputed for his industry, business expertise and philanthropist activities.

“He was very close to me. His death is a personal loss. But it is also a distressing loss to the country. Apart from his contributions in the business sector, the country needs people like Anumudu at this critical time when government and private sector players are putting minds and resources together to halt the spread of the coronavirus pandemic and mitigate its effects on our people and economy.

“I commiserate with his wife, Nkiru, and children as well as with his friends and associates. May Almighty God comfort them at this time. May the soul of the late Anumudu also find eternal rest.

“My condolences to Governor Hope Uzodinma, the government and people of Imo State. I also sympathise with the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) for they have lost an illustrious member”.

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*Pix: late Chief Willie Anumudu

COVID-19 and Placebo effect - ITREALMS

Commentary@ITREALMS: 

Covid-19 pandemic has struck so much fear in the psyche of humans all over the world because there is no known antidote to the infection as yet. For the first time in modern times, the world has been assailed by an infection that has humbled humanity. Suddenly, our existential reality has become so tenuous that nobody is sure of what tomorrow may bring.

In a situation such as this, we are left with nature’s own resource to tide us over; our immunity.

In modern medical science, there is a procedure used to bolster immunity, it is placebo. A placebo is an inert substance or treatment which is designed to have no therapeutic value. Placebo effect, therefore, is a non-therapeutic procedure designed to help the body achieve a therapeutic benefit.

How does this procedure relate to COVID-19?

For now, it is a fact that the most potent defence against the infection is body immunity. Anything we can do to bolster this process is the right antidote. A placebo can come in form of tablets, injection, lotion or cream. It is not these substances that exert therapeutic effect but the assurance that using them would lead to healing. What the placebo does is to induce the subject to invest in optimism that he would be healed. It has been found that it really works about 50percent of the time. The physiological process involved is that when we are optimistic about a cure to an ailment, the body releases some hormones that enables antibodies to flood the system and combat the infection successfully.

Placebo effect is what you find in prayers. Often times, when a sick person is taken to a spiritual master, he is told that the master is “powerful”; that induces some form of optimism in the patient which helps him to mobilize his immune system to fight the infection. He begins to feel well. It is the placebo effect.

How do we apply this concept to manage the current pandemic? We should invest in optimism; the positive notion that we cannot be victims whilst observing all prescribed precautions. Reading and sharing negative posts about the pandemic is antithetical to placebo effect because it generates a feeling of doubts and fear, which in turn, leads to lower immunity. When you come across posts that tend to induce fears such as many people dead, corpses being buried and so on, ignore and delete. They are not part of the antidote to self-preservation. How does watching corpses being gathered or people being whipped by soldiers help anybody to boost immunity?

Be positive, is the language of placebo effect. Invest in it.

*Contributed by Olatunji Agunbiade, Consultant Psychologist based in Lagos.
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Google Africa developer scholarships opens - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

Google has opened application for the next of scholars of African descent for software developers, reports ITREALMS.

This set, ITREALMS gathered would add some 30,000 training scholarship opportunities and a further 1,000 grants for the Google Associate Android Developer and Associate Cloud Engineer certifications.

The training will be delivered by our partners, Pluralsight and Andela, through an intensive curriculum designed to prepare learners for entry-level and intermediate roles as software developers.

Across Africa we continue to see developers who have successfully gone through the scholarship program grow their careers and also use their skills to benefit their communities. Boutheina Bouchahda, a middle-school teacher from Tunisia, went through the training program last year and is building an application for her students to teach them how to program. Boutheina credits the scholarship program for her skills and confidence growth. Ayeah Godlove Akoni from Cameroon completed the web development skills track and immediately got a job as a web developer. He is also one of the 1,000 developers across Africa who qualified for the developer certification grants. .

Throughout this journey, we have seen the value of peer-to-peer learning as a catalyst for deeper learning thanks to the in-person meetups facilitated by our community leads in multiple cities across Africa. Developers accepted into the scholarship will gain access to our network of over 250 Google Developer Groups and Developer Student Clubs in 150 cities across Africa. This connection to communities focused on Google technologies will provide access to extra skills and help inspire the next generation of software developers in Africa.

Chuks Egbune/DoP

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Deadlier than COVID-19: Should Nigerians isolate from 'Killer Security Agents'? - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

Caveat: There is difference between upholding and protecting Nigeria’s defence and security institutions of which advocacy for sustained reforms must be upheld, and holding individual personnel accountable for their alleged crimes.

Therefore, the focus of this article is to condemn the barbaric and atrocious acts of the few bad eggs and criminals in uniform--whose penchant to kill fellow Nigerians at the slightest provocations--has left an ugly stain on their agencies and undermined the commendable efforts of their professional colleagues. Is it not tragic to note that from the latest figures, Nigerians who were felled by the bullets of the law enforcement officials as a result of the lockdown order, are more than those that have so far died from the Coronavirus pandemic.

This is what happened...

"E go better" is a popular phrase in broken English used by Nigerians to express hope and optimism in the face of adversity. Even though it is good to be optimistic but the sad reality today is that Nigerians are increasingly becoming endangered species cornered by the deadly trio of COVID-19 pandemic, hunger and the 'killer security agents'/insecurity. The deadly chokehold of these murderous elements on Africa's most populous nation is odious.

The reports emanating from human rights groups, especially the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), CLEEN Foundation and International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) about the extrajudicial killings of Nigerians in this trying time is alarming. It therefore, calls for urgent reforms and inquiries about the suitability of the current policing system in the country because the prevailing reality has made mockery of the slogan: 'Police is your friend'. The question however, is how can you be friends with those you would kill at the slightest trigger? It beggars belief.

Of this triumvirate threatening Nigerians, there is a race to the finishing line as to which of them will emerge the fastest killers of the people. As at the time of writing, the trigger-happy law enforcement agents reportedly account for the death of over 24 Nigerians since the lockdown began. This is even more than that of the dreaded Coronavirus that boasts a heightened figure of 21 fatalities so far. This is where the danger lies, as a careful observer will note that with the strict measures being adopted by the governments, we can only but concluded that the more COVID-19 persists, the more will be the aggressive enforcement of the lockdown order. Even though, it may not be entirely the fault of the erring security operatives, it is nevertheless, their responsibility to eschew high level of discipline and self control in the face of provocation.

Apart from the Federal Government imposing a total lockdown in the mega city-state of Lagos and its conurbation-state of Ogun as well as the Nation's Capital Abuja, there are different levels of restrictions enacted in other states in a bid to contain the virus. Against this backdrop, the security and law enforcement agencies, including the Nigerian Police, Nigerian Army, Department of State Services (DSS), Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) among others, were being dratted to enforce the stay-at-home orders, sparking deadly confrontations in some states.

As at today, Nigeria had a total of 627 confirmed cases with 21 deaths and 171 discharged but the geographical spread of the new cases is worrisome. The latest is Borno State-the epicentre of Boko Haram terrorists in North East Nigeria. The reported case and the tracing of other 99 possible infections, have sparked fears that the virus might spread to the overcrowded Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the state with vengeance.

Expectedly, the public attention has been captured by the terrifying onslaught of the security officers and COVID-19 pandemic because the duo belong to what the Bible described as the "noisome pestilence", forgetting that the havoc being wrought by the silent killer called hunger on a number of already malnourished citizens are yet to be unravelled. The scary part is that possible deaths by hunger has not come into the equation as people are busy responding to the battle cry of "to your tenths o'Israel". They are busy with their personal survivals to even take note of how many of their neighbours are being slaughtered by hunger in their respective homes.

However, the focus of this gospel is to address what is fast degenerating into an unofficial assassinations order on Nigerians by the renegade elements within the law enforcement agencies with the ugly events in the South East as a reference point. What is even scarier is that over 22 of these deaths were recorded between 30th March and 17th April 2020, which was when the security agents were deployed to enforce a draconian restriction measures being put in place to curb the spread of COVID-19 across the country. The dreadful implication is that if the oppressive method of policing is not reformed urgently more hapless citizens may be gunned down before the end of the lockdown.

It was the NHRC that first rang the alarm bell when four days ago, its report indicted security agents in the death of 18 people, a figure higher than the documented 12 death toll inflicted by Coronavirus as at then. The Commission said it received and documented “105 complaints of incidents of human rights violations perpetrated by security forces” in 24 of Nigeria’s 36 states and Abuja; and that of these complaints, “there were eight documented incidents of extrajudicial killings leading to 18 deaths". Since then we have seen many horrific videos and pictures as well as read stories of how security agents have maximised the unbearable lockdown order to punish Nigerians whose subsistence level of capitalism forces them to eke out a living on daily basis. From the viral video of a woman being beaten to stupor in Oshogbo, Osun State, to those being legitimately tried at a Mobile Court in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, the situation is the same.

Subsequent reports from CLEEN Foundation, Intersociety and National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), have updated the number of those killed by either the law enforcement agents or the COVID-19 pandemic. CLEEN Foundation in particular, have led the way in documenting these atrocities and fatalities, which "brought to the fore the need to re-examine police response in COVID-19 affected countries and to possibly shape police agenda for pandemic policing", as was articulated by the Programme Director of the Non-Governmental Organisation, Ms. Ruth Olofin, in her article entitled: 'Policing the COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria: Matters Arising'. Olofin expressed concerns about "disturbing reports of some personnel of the Nigeria Police who have been involved in corrupt practices, extra-judicial killing of citizens and the use of force on those who have violated COVID-19 directives." The issues she raised was also accentuated in the subsequent report by the Head of Public Safety and Security Department of the Foundation, Ms. Teresa Okoro, who facilitated the documentation of gross human rights violations by security agencies particularly in the South East geopolitical zone of Nigeria.*By Senator Iroegbu

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PixIfeanyi Arunsi, killed by the Police in Abia State. Photo Credit| Teresa Okoro, CLEEN Foundation

ITU, WHO collaborate on BeHe@lthy, BeMobile Initiative - ITREALMS

ITREALMS: ​​​​​

The World Health Organization (WHO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), with support from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)​, are set to work with telecommunication companies to text people directly on their mobile phones with vital health messaging to help protect them from COVID-19, reports ITREALMS.

These text messages, ITREALMS gathered is expected reach billions of people that are not able to connect to the internet for information.

Now more than ever, technology must ensure that everyone can access the information they need. The collaboration will start in the Asia Pacific region and then roll out globally. The goal is to reach everyone with vital health messages, whatever their connectivity level. 

An estimated 3.6 billion people remain offline, with most people who are unconnected living in low-income countries, where an average of just two out of every ten people are online.

ITU and WHO call on all telecommunication companies worldwide to join this initiative to help unleash the power of communication technology to save lives from COVID-19. This initiative builds on current efforts to disseminate health messages through the joint WHO-ITU BeHe@lthy BeMobile initiative.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is the first pandemic in human history where technology and social media are being used on a massive scale to keep people safe, productive and connected while being physically apart.

Health workers are utilizing telemedicine to diagnose patients and hospitals rely on being connected to coordinate and triage them. Resilient and trustworthy telecommunication networks and services are essential, as more countries, companies and individuals turn to digital technologies to respond to and cope with the impact of COVID-19.

Building on their longstanding collaboration, ITU and WHO are committed to identifying and scaling best evidence-based digital health solutions and to leveraging frontier technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data to diagnose, contain and predict outbreaks better and faster.

Chuks Egbune/DoP

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COVID-19: Verraki urges business leaders to embrace disruptive innovation - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

Proudly African company with business and technology solutions offering, Verraki, has urged business leaders in Nigeria to embrace disruptive innovation to thrive and generate future income even as the world struggles with the COVID-19 global pandemic, reports ITREALMS.

As at the time of filing this report, ITREALMS gathered that COVID-19 has spread footprint in about 192 countries globally.

In a newly published report, COVID-19 and Nigerian Businesses: From Survival to Thriving in a Changing World, Verraki expounded the ripple effects the coronavirus may likely have on the Nigerian economy, its expected impact on Nigerian businesses and people, as well as the course of action for businesses, focused on staying afloat. 

According to the company, though a public health crisis, the pandemic requires an integrated health, social, economic and security response by the government supported by the private sector. Verraki predicts that there will be a collapse in national development indices, negative economic growth and a decline in revenues for non-essential services, discretionary consumer products and services and export-dependent firms with the pandemic affecting various industries and locations differently. This, Verraki asserts, calls for expediency at both strategic and operational levels in every organization as the effects and recovery time will differ across sectors.

Beyond the steps taken by the government to cushion the impact of the lockdown at different levels, Verraki advises businesses to embrace more technology by increasing their deployment of online collaboration tools, business applications based in the cloud and leverage the opportunity provided by the pandemic in accelerating their digital transformation journey, to remain viable and relevant during COVID-19 period and beyond. Business leaders must empower employees with the tools needed to work remotely as they transition to digital ways of working and also keep staff morale from flagging by organizing digital events to ensure the wellbeing of their employees.

As part of long term reactions to the economic fallout, Verraki advises businesses to embrace digital, “uberise” their assets and services, shorten their cash cycles; liquidate non-income generating assets to free up cash for more expedient use; pay up foreign currency-denominated debt as soon as possible and hedge themselves against exchange rate hike and possible interest rate fluctuation.

To manufacturing companies who now face uncertainties and volatilities brought upon by disrupted supply chain, the report advises that this is the time to look beyond China to explore vertical integration within Africa and explore postponement and fulfillment options within the region that would help to strengthen the capacity of their supply chains to withstand global upheavals as currently experienced. A local and regional supplier capability development strategy that helps to secure input materials has now become key. With the new African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) and creation of the world's largest free trade area, covering over 1.2 billion consumers with a projected $3trillion+ in GDP, Nigerian manufacturers can dramatically lessen their dependence on advanced country markets and begin to produce convenient and ultimately cheaper substitutes. The experience of the lockdown of a few states in Nigeria also presents an opportunity for businesses to look at geographical redundancy beyond Lagos.

COVID-19 reveals the dearth of modern educational and health systems in Nigeria and an opportunity for companies to introduce innovative services, affordable payment schemes including health insurance and digital offerings for the millions of Nigerians who lack adequate access to healthcare.

Business Leaders must deliberately look for opportunities amid the adversity – new consumption habits, new products, new services – and rapidly innovate around new needs to create future income streams. Business leaders are encouraged to act fast with a minimum viable product mindset and quickly launch new offerings at existing or new customer verticals.

Addressing the need to innovate amid the crisis to be relevant in a post-COVID-19 world, Verraki pointed out that business leaders can work on identifying and pursuing opportunities and niches that will surface even as consumers’ lifestyles and spending patterns begin to evolve. This will be imperative to ensure the continued existence of some businesses who now have to learn to not only manage but to grow in periods of uncertainty as we are faced with. Verraki also reiterated the need for companies to exercise prudence in spending its scarce resources, pointing out that while many businesses will be driving for cash at the expense of profits, smart organizations must skillfully drive for both.

“Those who succeed will be leaders who can creatively lead the organization to navigate the crisis of today while also next-sensing and exploring the opportunities of tomorrow. They will not waste the opportunities presented by the crisis to streamline and reorganize to improve operating efficiency and to also capture opportunities to improve competitive agility”, the report concluded.

Nenye Dom/Editor

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Cloud-computing solutions to significantly reduce banking costs in Africa - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

Over 700 million Africans lack access to a bank or mobile money account and only 41 per cent of the continent is financially included, reports ITREALMS.

This, experts at Genesis Analytics said is due to the high cost of providing financial services in Africa which forces many  providers to remain focused on serving wealthier customers.

These are some of the many insights from the report Cloud Banking in Africa: The Regulatory Opportunity by Genesis Analytics (www.Genesis-Analytics.com) and Orange Business Services (www.Orange-Business.com/en) on how the application of cloud computing in financial services can help financial services providers reach and serve the poor. Download the full report from the Genesis Analytics (https://bit.ly/2zj5PnD) site.

Part of the cost problem is that financial institutions in Africa are so much smaller than elsewhere – the biggest bank in Africa (SBSA with assets of $148 billion) ranks 296th globally; most banks in Africa have assets of less than $5 billion. But African consumers are increasingly expecting these banks to provide the same range of digital services as banks in other countries. This is why consumers have been turning to mobile banking in such numbers. The telecommunications companies have been much more successful at delivering affordable financial services than banks are, but also need to find new ways to reduce costs if they are to reach out to even poorer customers.

Cloud computing creates an opportunity for providers of financial services to rethink their technology spend and significantly reduce costs. Cloud computing involves using internet technologies to provide virtual infrastructure that is scalable and delivered as a service. Fixed costs can be converted into a subscription-based approach and upfront capital investments are converted into operational costs. Cloud computing allows banks to pay less for ICT infrastructure and services and achieve higher utilisation on ICT spend. Particularly for small banks in small markets where specialised ICT skills are in short supply, cloud computing can ease a critical operational constraint.

The most compelling reason to move to the cloud is undoubtedly cost savings, but there are other business reasons too. The flexibility of cloud-based operational models allows financial institutions to experience shorter development cycles for new products, which supports a faster and more efficient response to the needs of customers. Cloud computing provides the computer power necessary to deliver analytical insights in real time, which enables financial institutions to move towards a customer-centric model where the financial needs of customers are fully understood. Financial institutions can also gain a higher level of data security, resilience, fault tolerance and disaster recovery from cloud computing.

A few international and African banks have already realised the value of cloud banking. WeBank is China’s first digital bank that is based in a private cloud and uses innovative technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence and blockchain, to effect an extraordinarily high volume of transactions at a very low cost. WeBank has been able to run at 95% lower cost than that of traditional banks’ IT operations and has passed this cost saving onto their customers in the form of low account fees. TymeBank is a new digital entrant to the South African banking sector and has made a 56% cost saving compared to other startups by using cloud services from AWS.

Before financial service providers can adopt cloud banking, regulators need to support and approve the use of cloud technology within the financial sector. Some international regulators are already allowing the use of cloud banking in the financial sector. The European Union has been at the forefront of defining an enabling regulatory environment for cloud banking services, which has involved both the regulation on the use of data and privacy and protection of data. Under the regulations, financial institutions have to ensure that consumer personal data is gathered legally and under strict conditions and that consumer data is fully protected. Other developing markets like Turkey and Argentina have adopted similar legal and regulatory environments, which has enabled the use of cloud banking in their financial sectors.

Africa’s financial sector regulators’ approaches are very much work in progress. The report urges African regulators to develop clear policy positions and regulations on data privacy, risk and security; data sovereignty; cybercrime; protection of intellectual property; vendor risk; and migration complexity and operational risk to enable financial institutions to reap the benefit of cloud banking.

Genesis Analytics is a global African firm that has worked in more than 74 countries across the world, 41 of which are on the continent, and Orange Business Services is a network-native digital services company and the global enterprise division of the Orange Group, connecting, protecting and innovating for enterprises around the world.

Nenye Dom/Editor

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COVID-19: A New World Set to Emerge - ITREALMS

Commentary@ITREALMS:

Since its emergence in Wuhan in December 2019, the coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to impact country after country. Today, it is causing disruptions all over the world. While there is uncertainty about how long the pandemic would continue to ravage, experts posit that it would eventually fade out like other viruses before it, such as Ebola. The timeframe, however, is indeterminate.

In the meantime, the world groans under the burden of the lockdown that the virus has precipitated. In America, Trump is threatening to reopen the economy on May 1, 2020., against the advice of medical experts. In developing countries, where the bulk of the population earn and live on daily pay, the challenge is that of hunger. If people can’t go out, they can’t eat. Unrest in on the rise.

When it COVID-19 finally fades away the damage would be incalculable. And the world that would emerge would be a whole new world. Here are four things that would change and opportunities for the discerning:

Leadership – Currently, there is over a hundred thousand COVID-19 death. Several government officials and business leaders from across the world are among victims of the pandemic. In Nigeria, the Chief of Staff to the President Abba Kyari, a power broker in the Buhari administration has died of the virus. It is creating a power vacuum that would take time and a bit to fill.

So new younger leaders would be required to step up and fill the plate. The positioned, the prepared and the favoured would take the opportunities as they become available.

Job – The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that COVID-19 could trigger roughly 195 million job losses across the world. This is plausible. Millions have already lost jobs. Millions more may still be lost.

The resilience of whole industries has been tested and found wanting. The food supply and logistic industries have proven indispensable. The touted progress of the electronic and online payment sector is on trial. Luxury and hospitality segments are reeling. Marketing communications and Public relations, digital solutions providers among service providers are finding the joy of working from home.

Undoubtedly, new industries will emerge from this. Existing firms would be forced to rethink their operations and more importantly staffing. The future of work would change, irrevocably.

Health - COVID-19 has tested and stretched the world’s health systems and personnel. It has revealed the rot, exposed the inadequacies and uncovered the failings in the national and global health care industry. Health care will never be the same again.

At the least, it would force greater attention on the sector, but better yet, it should lead to total reform of the health sector. This would serve the people best. Medical and health care workers would get the compensation that they deserve, basic and essential care kits would be provided and infrastructure would be upgraded massively. Imagine all the ICU equipment been deployed in the isolation centres now redeployed in the existing health care centres and hospitals.

The infectious disease training, empowerment and enhanced capacity developed and built during this period would come in handy going into the future. The biggest hope is that now that politicians and other power brokers have found that they can’t always run abroad for treatment, perhaps they will be motivated to invest conscientiously in the health system.

Economy - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that gross domestic product (GDP) per capita will shrink across 170 nations due to the coronavirus pandemic. This is definitely an optimistic projection.

Experts are cautious in talking of a global contraction. Many object to the word, “recession,” for now. The argument is that the label requires at least two consecutive quarters of declines in a country’s real GDP. But, if the facts on the ground are anything to go back, a recession is on the horizon.

Globally, the slow-down in manufacturing and the great lockdown has led to a massive drop in the price of crude. The low prices are expected to persist for a while. Countries that depend on oil, like Nigeria, are tottering. Importantly, The Economist notes, “Countries that rely on oil exports should brace themselves for a long period of pain.” Ouch!

Businesses will also have to rethink the siting of factories. COVID-19 has exposed the weakness in putting all the world’s manufacturing eggs in the basket of China. Africa may provide the base for a new manufacturing hub. This would counter the weight of everything been made in China.

Experience, like they say, is the best teacher.

Conclusion: COVID-19 will pass. The effect of the pandemic will not be forgotten. A New World will emerge. The future will be reshaped completely.

In the political space, there are whispers of the emerges of China as the new leader of the new world. Only time will show how this will play out.

In the meantime, nation-states, businesses and individuals must prepare for change. it would definitely not be business as usual. Each one must be effectively positioned to thrive in the new world - the world that COVID19 will build.

*Contributed by Elvis Eromosele, a Corporate Communication professional and public affairs analyst lives in Lagos.

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JIFORM Online Summit loading: NIS, IOM Gambia, Zambia Immigration, NIDCOM confirmed - ITREALMS

ITREALMS: 

All is now set for the forthcoming second online summit of the Journalists International Forum For Migration (JIFORM), reports ITREALMS.

This is coming as the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Editor-In-Chief of The Sum Newspapers, Zimbabwe, Willie Mponda, Zambia Immigration Authority and the Nigerians In Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) have confirmed participation for the 3-day event billed for April 24-26, 2020.
ITREALMS recalls that on April 4, 2020, JIFORM with over 150 members across the continents championing advocacy against irregular migration, human trafficking and crisis leading to the internal displacement of citizens held its maiden edition of the conference.

The President and Executive Director of JIFORM, Ajibola Abayomi, disclosed this to ITREALMS saying “we're keeping our members abreast of the changing dynamics in human migration amidst global economy striving to defeat the dreaded coronavirus.

“In ensuring that, it is obvious there is need to rejig the understanding of issues and reappraise the strength to cope with the changing world order post Covid-19. Thus, we have assembled first class brains to interface with JIFORM members in order to enhance our capacity as journalists.

“We have come to terms with the reality of refreshing our knowledge about the challenges ahead so we are tapping into technology to advance our course by keeping hope alive that Covid-19, soonest will be history through adherence to the laid down health procedures and fervent prayers.”

Formed in 2018, JIFORM had hosted an international migration summit in Abuja, Nigeria, between November 26-28, 2019 and have participated in several conferences across the world.

Ayo Midele/Editor
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