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Sterling Bank Partners Helium Health and Ekiti State On Digital Healthcare Service

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Sterling Bank - Investors King

Sterling Bank Plc has partnered with the Ekiti State Government and Helium Health on the installation of an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system in hospitals in Ekiti State for digital health care service delivery to the people of Ekiti.

The bank and the state signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the Data Bank Building, Ministry for Health in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State.

Sterling Bank had outlined the health sector as one of the five sectors where it is focusing investments under ‘HEART’ one of Sterling programme in a bid to make an impact in the Nigerian economy. The other sectors are education, agriculture, renewable energy and transportation.

Group Head for Health in Sterling Bank, Mrs Ibironke Akinmade noted that health care will greatly improve in Ekiti by the time the EMR is fully in place.

“This will bring an end to the practice of carrying files from office to office in hospitals and clinics across the state. She added that mismanagement of data would also become a thing of the past,” Akinmade said.

enjoy better medical attention. Sterling Bank had set aside money for this project six months ago. We had already done it in other states and we plan to go to as many states as possible.

“Health is one of the five pillars of Sterling Bank. It is a sector that is very dear to us as a bank because we are very passionate about the well-being of every Nigerian. Rather than just do our traditional business, we want to enrich lives,” Akinmade said.

Head, Regional Growth, Public Sector, Helium Health, Mr. Abiola Osunniyi said the agreement will enable critical health infrastructure for digitisation of four hospitals in Ekiti that will be used as pilots before expanding to other hospitals.

“The essence is to digitise the patients’ data so that our doctors can access them easily for improved and quick healthcare delivery. One of the core mandates of the state government is the delivery of quality health care to the citizens. So, as a private organisation, we want to support the state government through the provision of technology in hospitals.

“We have done this partnership with Akwa Ibom and Lagos, primarily around bridging the existing gap that exists in patients’ data because there is usually a gap. The old days when patients’ data are kept primarily on papers are over.

“In most cases, patients’ records got lost, but with the provision of this digital infrastructure, their data can be protected. In cases of lost patient data, doctors may ask patients to repeat treatments (operations, tests, etc. ) that might be deleterious to the patients. We plan to introduce an electronic medical record (EMR) system so that at the mention of a patient’s name, the records will be displayed. Accurate health care data and storage can affect healthcare administration positively,” Osunniyi said.

Ekiti State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Oyebanji Filani said the project will remove redundancy in hospitals and inject modernity into the healthcare system in the state.

He said technology is a critical weapon that can strengthen the health sector through accurate collection, processing and storage of health care records that will improve the quality of healthcare services by providers.

“Digitisation process in health system all over the world helps to reduce wastages and redundancy as well as inject transparency and accountability into medical facilities. I know there will be a tremendous improvement in the keeping of health care records and significantly improved turnaround time in the delivery of healthcare services in our facilities with this technological intervention,” Filani said.

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Persistent Service Disruptions In Banks Paralyze Activities At Ports, Many Cargoes Trapped 

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Lekki Deep Seaport

Activities at the Apapa and Tin-Can Ports in Lagos State have been paralyzed as cargoes have remained uncleared following persistent disruption to some online services of some commercial banks in Nigeria.

It was gathered that the banks suffer network problems due to the upgrade of their electronic banking portals.

To this end, business moguls have been unable to pay the Customs duty necessary for the clearance of their cargoes at the ports.

A visit to the ports showed that many import units of containers have not been cleared because their clearance documents are still trapped in some banks due to ongoing network migration issues.

If the banking disruptions persist and cargoes continue to lie fallow at the ports, experts have said that prices of goods at Nigerian markets may soar.

Many persons who have been working at the ports have also been rendered jobless as activities at the ports remain in limbo.

Confirming the situation at the ports, the National President of the Africa Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria (APFFLON), Mr. Frank Ogunojemite said many jobs are stuck because agents have been battling to settle payment part of their clearance schedules.

Ogunojemite revealed that the clearance of cargoes at the ports usually goes through Form M and the Pre Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR), said agents have to go through a commercial bank to pay their Customs duty before any clearance process can be done.

He said if the banking system or network is down, it will be impossible for Customs duty to be paid and that container will remain in the port accumulating rent which comes with storage and demurrage payments.

According to him, prices of goods may soar if the situation persists as cargo owners spend more for clearance if their containers spend longer time in the ports.

Preferring solutions, he called on government to introduce ‘compensatory law’ where importers are given waivers when delays to their cargoes inside the ports is not from them.

Also, haulage operators bemoaned the effect of the various banking migrations on picking of containers inside the ports.Persistent Service Disruptions In Banks Paralyze Activities At Ports, Many Cargoes Trapped

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Nigerian Businesses Face Tougher Times as PMI Drops to 19 Months Low of 46.9

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Nigerian businesses continued to face headwinds as the Purchasing Managers Index published by Stanbic IBTC shows a 19-month low. 

According to the report released on Friday, business conditions took a hit and PMI dipped from 49.8 points in September to 46.9 points, the steepest decline since March 2023.

For context, a PMI reading above 50 points indicates growth in business activity. Conversely, a reading below 50 points indicates contraction, suggesting deterioration consequent to an economic downturn.

According to the report, businesses faced pressures from the local currency weakening, higher fuel prices and increasing cost of transportation.

This has also forced the hands of businesses to increase prices to sustain operations, which the report stated has led to a reduction in new orders and business activity.

Most importantly, confidence in the business sector plummeted to the worst ever since the organisation started documenting PMI in 2014.

“Overall input costs rose at one of the sharpest rates on record, with selling prices increased accordingly. This resulted in marked reductions in new orders and business activity, while business sentiment was the lowest in the survey’s history,” the report read in part.

A positive light in the report was that some companies managed to add a few new hires, extending a six-month trend of job creation. The downside to this was that the companies employed these staff on a short-term basis.

The report also stated that companies are making efforts, now more than ever, to help their staff stay afloat in the current economic situation.

“Meanwhile, efforts to help workers with rising living costs meant that staff pay was increased to the greatest extent in seven months,” the report added.

Metrics like the private sector output, volume of orders, and quantities of purchases made by customers all recorded steeper values than they did in September.

Trends showed that prices, cost of staff maintenance and input prices, on the other hand, recorded very sharp increases, with some metrics posting record hikes since March 2023.

Inflation in the general Nigerian macro environment is telling in every quarter and businesses are not exempt.

Analysts told Investors King that special interventions will help ease the pressure on companies, but warned that risky conditions attached to these measures may scare off firms from accepting them.

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Dangote Refinery Sells Petrol At N990 Per Litre to Trucks

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Dangote Refinery

Dangote refinery has finally announced the price of premium motor spirit (PMS), popularly known as Petrol, following months of back and forth.

The company said it sells to domestic marketers at N971 per litre into ships and N990 into trucks, according to a statement signed by Anthony Chiejina, Group Chief Branding and Communications Officer and released on Sunday evening.

“Post deregulation, NNPC set the pace by selling PMS to domestic marketers at N971 per litre for sale into ships and at N990 for sale into trucks. This set the benchmark for our pricing, and we have even gone lower to sell at N960 per litre for sale into ships while maintaining N990 per litre for sale into trucks”, the company said in the statement released on its X page.

On a series of accusations and counter-accusations from IPMAN, PETROAN, and other associations, Dangote refinery said it is impossible to land petrol at a lower price than Dangote refinery’s current price, except they are importing substandard products.

“Both organisations claim that they can import PMS at lower prices than what is being sold by the Dangote Refinery. We benchmark our prices against international prices, and we believe our prices are competitive relative to the price of imports.

“If anyone claims they can land PMS at a price cheaper than what we are selling, then they are importing substandard products and conniving with international traders to dump low quality products into the country, without concern for the health of Nigerians or the longevity of their vehicles. Unfortunately, the regulator (NMDPRA) does not even have laboratory facilities which can be used to detect substandard products when imported into the country.”

The company claimed it started selling at the stated rates without knowing the exchange rate that would be used to pay for the crude purchased.

Meanwhile, the company has said an international trading company rented a depot facility close to its refinery with plans to start blending substandard products and dump them into the Nigerian market to compete with Dangote refinery’s better quality.

“This is detrimental to the growth of domestic refining in Nigeria. We should point out that it is not unusual for countries to protect their domestic industries in order to provide jobs and grow the economy. For example, the US and Europe have had to impose high tariffs on EVs and microchips in order to protect their domestic industries.”

“While we continue with our determination to provide affordable, good quality, domestically refined petroleum product in Nigeria, we call on the public to disregard the deliberate disinformation being circulated by agents of people who prefer for us to continue to export jobs and import poverty.”

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