The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has trimmed its crude oil output towards next year's global requirement, further whittling away a supply surplus that could weigh on prices.
The monthly report from OPEC also sounded an upbeat note on the prospects for the world economy in 2014.
"Signs of a recovery are already visible in rising global industrial production," OPEC said, adding that "the global economy has gained traction again."
The report kept unchanged forecasts, which point to a smaller share of the world oil market for OPEC in 2014 due to increasing supply from the United States, in the midst of a shale energy boom, and other non-OPEC countries.
OPEC expects demand for its oil in 2014 to average 29.57 million barrels per day (bpd), maintaining its previous estimate. According to secondary sources cited by the report, OPEC lowered its own output to 29.63 million bpd in November, closer to next year's forecast demand.
That suggested there would be virtually no surplus crude in the market in 2014 should OPEC keep output at November's rate. The amount of excess oil has fallen from earlier this year when OPEC output was well above 30 million bpd.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
The newly-appointed Director General of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), the professional body for insurance practitioners, Mr. Kola Ahmed, said he is committed to raise the standards of the institute to that of world class professional bodies.
He gave the commitment in a chat with newsmen in Lagos recently, saying his vision was to take the institute to “loftier heights”.
“I wish to state that, commitment to the challenges of turning the institute into a world-class professional body remains the focus of the secretariat team. These challenges include the continuous improvement of our service delivery to the teeming members of the institute, reinforcing the growth agendas rolled out by successive Presidents of the institute as well as guaranteeing the actualisation of the statutory goals and objectives of the institute,” he said.
According to him, one of the key objectives of the institute is provision of robust platforms for the determination of the skills and knowledge expected of those who hold themselves out as insurance practitioners in the country.
On the way to making the institute a world class institution, Ahmed said his administration would focus on revamping the secretariat to serve as engine room for generation of ideas and formulation of polices for consideration and ratification by the institute’s governing council.
In addition, he said the institute under him would provide appropriate and effective support for committees of council in the discharge of their assigned roles and responsibilities.
He also assured stakeholders that he would ensure that the institute and administration remain focused, responsive, proactive and effective in the discharge of its responsibilities even as he intends leading a management team that is participatory, cohesive and committed to the goals and objectives of the institute.
The new director general also assured listeners that he would strive to establish and sustain a sound, constructive and effective communication link with members, students and other stakeholders for the purpose of ensuring prompt dissemination of information about the institute’s programmes, events and activities among other things.
Ahmed also promised that he would continually promote and safeguard the image, status and pre-eminence of the institute as the umbrella body for insurance practitioners as well as its role as the sole education and training body.
This, he said, would be in tune with the institute’s mandate to determine the standards of knowledge and skill to be attained by persons seeking to become registered members of the insurance profession.
Ahmed holds a 1981 Bachelors Degree in Insurance from the University of Lagos and 2001 MBA from the Lagos State University (LASU). An Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute, London (ACII), he became a Fellow of the Institute in 2006 and became a Fellow of CIIN the following year. He is also a member of the Nigeria Institute of Management.
He started his career in Insurance in 1981 at Hogg Robinson Nigeria where he did his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) primary assignment and worked up to 1986 when he joined Koguna Babura & Company.
In 1991, he left for the Nigerian-French Insurance Company Limited which later merged with Aiico Insurance Plc from where he voluntarily retired in 2009 to found and manage Krabond Insurance Brokers.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
The Jos monarch, Gbong Gwom Jos, Da Jacob Gyang Buba, has pointed out that public misgiving about insurance business and the insurance industry were caused by ignorance and lack of proper understanding about insurance being a risk management tool by many Nigerians.
He made the observation when the management of the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), led by the Commissioner for Insurance, Mr. Fola Daniel, paid him a courtesy call in Jos recently.
He also noted that the misgivings may have been due to the activities of a few operators that had engaged in sharp practices in the past, but said such practices were not peculiar to the insurance industry.
“Just like any other sector of the economy, the activities of a negligible few may have given rise to such negative perception. But that was not enough to over look the good the industry has to offer the people. The people will derive more value from the services of insurance as the industry grows”, the Monarch said.
He therefore appealed to insurance operators to be more forthright in their dealings with the public so as to erase the negative perception of the people about the sector.
He also advised NAICOM to embark on aggressive public enlightenment campaigns to educate the people about the benefits of insurance and invited the commission to organise one of such enlightenment campaigns in Jos.
The monarch said he would not only support the campaign but would also appeal to the State Government to align with the insurance literacy awareness drive of the commission.
Meanwhile, Daniel assured the traditional council that the era of insurance companies collecting premiums and not paying claims was over.
Any policyholder who believes he has been wrongly treated by an insurance company should feel free to approach the commission for redress. NAICOM not only has the power to regulate but also has what it takes to discipline any erring insurance company, including revocation of its operating license, he stressed.
The commissioner also emphasised on the importance of risk management tool such as insurance saying, insurance is one of the “cheapest means of managing risk but it is largely misunderstood”.
Daniel said the commission was in the process of embarking on an awareness drive that would enable the people know insurance as one of the means of managing their risks.
“We believe that one of the platforms we can use to reach the people is that of traditional rulers and that is one of the reasons we have come to visit His Royal Majesty. We believe if we can get the buy-in of His Royal Majesty, we will be able to get the message across to the grassroots easily”, he said.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
With the rate of information leakage in corporate organisations on the rise, SecureData, a content security solution provider, has organised a seminar in Lagos to address the ugly situation.
The seminar, which was organised in collaboration with Websense, provided opportunity to IT experts in various organisations and multinationals to interact, network with resource persons on the threats posed by content leakages and its implication.
The Channel Manager, Securedata, Mr. Biodun Ajiboye, noted that the seminar was informed by the need to bring to the barest minimum a lot of security breaches that have become prevalent in various organisations stating that with the trainings, IT experts will be well informed to guard against any threat.
According to him, all the participants at the seminar are now better equipped to protect corporate data from hackers or unauthorised users within organisations. He said aside the training, the company would be offering enterprise solution to individuals, corporate organisations in a cost effective manner leading to the prevention of data loss.
Ajiboye said it is imperative to create enough awareness for the product with the end users across all sectors such that contents get more protected. The product entitled Triton Solution is an enterprise solution of data security, data leakage prevention and data security technologies combined on a common architecture with a variety of solution packages.
Commenting further on the training and the acceptability of the product in the market, Ajibode said it was targeted at bridging knowledge gap with the end users adding that more organisations are now beginning to develop interest.
Also speaking at the seminar, the Product Manager, Mr. Mark Linnel while analysing the product said it is a unique product structured to meet the need of the consumers.
He said: “The products are available as individual products and structured to deliver across any product. The products and solutions are world standard. They are designed in compliance with regulatory requirement. The integration is seamless. It is simple and easy to use. It is flexible”.
Offering insight on the simplicity of the product, Ajibode said the approach to security using the enterprise is somewhat different, stating that practically all of the threats get addressed from the security domain.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
The South-west geo-political zone of Nigeria, comprising Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Ondo and Osun states, is said to be leading other political zones in the country when it comes to complying with provisions of the Pension Reform Act, 2004 and contributory pension.
Comparing the performance of states in the six geo-political zones of the country in this regard, it is very clear that states in the South-west well out-performed their counterparts in the other zones.
According to the National Pension Commission (PenCom), all of the states in the zone have enacted their own versions of the pension reform law to enable them establish a contributory pension scheme for civil servants at both states and Local Government levels respectively.
The pension regulator also said a greater number of all the states in the zone have started deducting pension contributions from their workers’ salaries monthly and remitting same into their Retirement Savings Accounts (RSA) domiciled with their preferred Pension Fund Administrator (PFA).
THISDAY investigations confirmed that Lagos State has remained special in this regard, being the first state to embrace contributory pension. The state enacted a law that enabled it to start implementing the scheme in 2007 prompting PenCom to locate its zonal office within the state.
“Indeed, the choice of Lagos State to host our South-west zonal office stemmed not only from its pre-eminent position as the economic nerve centre of the country but was also justified by its record of being one of the pioneers in implementation of the CPS, having enacted its law in 2007,” the acting Director General of PenCom, Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, said.
Lagos State is fully compliant with 45,730 employees registered and pension contributions remittance of N46.50 billion as at July, 2013. It also issued retirement benefit bonds worth N18.9 billion to its retirees and these bonds have been fully redeemed and proceeds paid into the RSAs of the beneficiaries just as another 2,242 employees from the state have retired under the scheme as at August, 2013.
Osun State in the same vein has made significant progress in compliance with contributory pension. It enacted its enabling law as far back as 2009 and so far registered 45,106 employees under the scheme. It also remitted N4.15 billion as pension contributions while N1.90 billion has so far been remitted into the Retirement Benefits Bond Redemption Fund Account of retirees.
However, the state is yet to renew the group life insurance policy for its employees in 2013 and yet to carry out an actuarial valuation to determine accrued pension rights of its employees.
In the case of Ogun State, it embraced contributory pension and enacted the enabling law in 2007. It has so far registered 24,902 employees under the scheme and remitted N10.90 billion as pension contributions. It also paid another N3 billion into the Retirement Benefits Bond Redemption Fund account held at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the benefits of its retirees. Unfortunately, Ogun State is yet to put in place a group life insurance for its employees.
Ekiti State as well enacted the enabling law on the CPS in January, 2011 and registered 37,676 employees under the scheme. The state has conducted an actuarial valuation to determine its outstanding pension liabilities under the rested defined benefit scheme and has in place a group life insurance for its employees. However, it is yet to commence remittance of pension contributions into employees RSAs with the PFAs.
Oyo State enacted the enabling law in January, 2010 but it is yet to commence the full implementation of the CPS.
Ondo State has only drafted a bill on contributory pension, a copy of which had been reviewed by the commission and comments duly forwarded to the State.
Notwithstanding the zone’s leading role, Anohu-Amazu appealed to the states in the Zone that have not completed necessary processes for full implementation of the CPS to renew their commitment and fast track action on all outstanding issues in order to avail their employees of its many benefits. She said the commission’s zonal office was positioned to help states comply fully with provisions of the pension law.
Meanwhile, the South-east Zone is yet to adopt or implement contributory pension CPS, since none of the five states in the zone is fully compliant with the pension law. Three states in the zone, Abia, Ebonyi and Enugu, have not enacted the law on the CPS while Imo State, which enacted its enabling law as far back as 2008, suspended implementation indefinitely.
Anambra State only recently enacted its enabling law. It is expected that the state would soon set up the administrative structures, appoint PFAs and register its employees.
Also, the state is yet to commence deduction and remittance of pension contributions and yet to conduct an actuarial valuation to determine accrued pension liabilities and has not started funding the Retirement Benefit Bond Redemption Account resident at the CBN. “Generally, the level of implementation in the South East zone raises concern when viewed against the fact that the decision to adopt the CPS was taken by the National Council of States at its meeting of July, 2006,” PenCom noted.
Only Niger State is fully compliant with the contributory pension out of all the States in the North-Central Zone.
The Pension Reform Act, 2004 was meant to address old age poverty and the sufferings of retirees while accessing their monthly pension. The law sought to ensure that every person who has worked in either the public or private sector get their pension as and when due; establish a uniform set of rules and regulations for the administration and payment of retirement benefits in both the public and private sectors, among other things.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
In furtherance with its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities, Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc (Mutual) has sponsored the second edition of the Insurance open golf tournament.
The competition, which took place at the Ibadan Golf Club recently, featured several golfers in the insurance industry including the Managing Director of Mutual Benefits, Mr. Olusegun Omosehin, who led his organisation’s team.
The past Captain of the club and seasoned insurance broker, Chief Babajide Olatunde-Agbeja and his successor, Prince Bayo Adeleke, also took part in the competition.
The competition kicked off with a cocktail at the Ibadan club ground which afforded participants the opportunity to interact with operators in the industry and other guests participating in the competition. At the end of the competition, awards and recognition dinner was hosted by the organisers to round off the tournament.
Commenting on the competition, Omosehin said, “We are very proud to partner the Ibadan Golf Club, and to be associated with a tournament that is geared at promoting insurance. This tournament, the second insurance golf open tournament will create a platform where practitioners and the insuring public can come together to enjoy the game of golf outside their usual work environment.”
Mutual Benefits is a frontline life and non-life risks underwriting group in the country. It also has subsidiaries in other sectors of the economy. The company prides itself as a household name in golf sponsorship in the industry.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
ADIC Insurance Company Limited, one of the life and non-life risks underwriting companies in the country, has entered into partnership with the Down Syndrome Foundation Nigeria, with a view to improving the living conditions of those living with the disease.
The firm said the partnership was in furtherance with its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. The company also recently partnered the Save-A-Life Project to sponsor corrective heart surgeries for two babies diagnosed with congenital heart defects.
The head of Human Capital in the company, Mr. Stanley Nwogu, disclosed this in a statement in Lagos recently, saying the surgeries were successful. He said the desire to further improve the livelihood of the children living with this condition led the company was reason behind his firm’s decision to sponsor the fund raising novelty match and awareness week organised by the foundation recently.
Nwogu said ADIC Insurance was awake to the need to promote corporate social responsibility in ways that affect lives directly, adding that this was one character of global best places to work, which ADIC belongs to. “A workplace that provides a healthy work environment, motivates employees and contributes to the society is truly a great place to work,” he said.
According to him, the Foundation Nigeria is a non-governmental taking care of children with Down’s syndrome including parents, caregivers and other interested stakeholders.
With a mission to improve the opportunities open to young people with Down syndrome, the foundation tries to discover their potentials and identify how to support their personal development most effectively through scientific research and global communication.
Down’s syndrome is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of all or part of a third copy of chromosome 21. It’s the most common chromosome abnormality in humans and is typically associated with physical growth delays, a particular set of facial characteristics and a severe degree of intellectual disability.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
It's not every competition that pits President Obama against Pope Francis, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and singer/celebrity twerker Miley Cyrus.
But those are four of the 10 finalists for designation as Time magazine's "Person of the Year."
The winner will be named Wednesday.
In Monday's announcement, Time noted that "Obama was Person of the Year in 2008 and 2012," and "is the only person who appeared on last year's short list to make this year's."
A former president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, "is the only person to receive the title three times," Time said.
Other "Person of the Year" contenders:
• Bashar Assad, president of Syria
• Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder
• Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas
• Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services
• Edward Snowden, NSA leaker
• Edith Windsor, gay rights activist
It's possible Obama could be paired with another finalist as co-Persons of the Year. Possibilities include Rouhani, Assad, Sebelius, Snowden, and even Cruz.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
WASHINGTON — Former congresswoman Gabby Giffords' political action committees will play an active role in House and Senate races next year in a push to "change the map" in Congress after lawmakers failed to pass any significant gun control or mental health legislation, Giffords' husband, Mark Kelly, said Monday.
Their team has not identified the congressional races, but they are sifting through about two dozen competitive House contests and about a half-dozen Senate races and are likely to winnow the list, Kelly said.
"It doesn't have to be a sea change," said Kelly, a retired astronaut. "We just have to start getting members of Congress to think about their next election differently and know that there is an organization that will support them if there's a lot of money being spent against them on this issue."
Kelly's comments came as the nation prepares to mark the one-year anniversary Saturday of the massacre that killed 26 children and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Kelly and Giffords, who was gravely injured in a shooting in 2011 in Tucson, launched Americans for Responsible Solutions in January to fight for tougher gun laws.
The group's super PAC arm raised $6.5 million during its first six months and spent $600,000 on mailings, online ads and other political activity to back the successful campaign of Democrat Terry McAuliffe in last month's race for Virginia governor. Super PACs can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money, but cannot donate directly to candidates or coordinate their activity with the politicians they support.
In a separate move, Giffords last month launched the Rights and Responsibilities PAC, which can give to candidates' campaigns. She is transferring nearly $300,000 in money left over from her campaign account to the new effort and plans to donate first to several senators — Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa.; Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine; and Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C. — who voted for a measure that would have required background checks on all commercial sales of guns. It failed to pass Congress this year.
Congressional inaction on major measures to overhaul the nation's gun laws "is a testament to the influence that the gun lobby has," Kelly said. "They've done a very good job of building a lot of influence over a 30-year period in Washington, and that can't be rolled back overnight."
Erich Pratt, communication director of Gun Owners of America, said his group also is gearing up for 2014 and looking closely at competitive Senate contests in states such as Louisiana, Montana and North Carolina. All three seats are up in next year's election and are held by Democrats.
Pratt's group was among the gun rights organizations that recently helped engineer the recall of two state senators in Colorado who voted for some of the nation's strictest gun control laws. Giffords' group spent about $400,000 in TV ads in the Colorado election. Other gun rights advocates, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, invested heavily.
"The other side is going to have a tough go of it if Colorado is any indication," Pratt said.
Giffords and Kelly have become the nation's most visible advocates for reducing gun violence. Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, resigned her seat in Congress last year to focus on her medical recovery.
Nearly three years after the shooting, she continues with speech therapy and some physical and occupational therapy and is doing well, Kelly said. "She takes it very seriously, just like everything she's ever done in her life," he said.
Sunday, when a visitor stopped by the couple's Tucson home and asked to say hello to Gabby, Kelly at first hesitated. "I thought she was taking a nap," he said. "She was on the treadmill.
"She's getting better and working hard."
Though he said he "would never say never," Kelly downplayed the prospects of any future in elective office for either of them.
"You see so many congressmen and senators work really, really hard and very long hours, and a lot of the time, they aren't able to accomplish anything," he said. "It's a frustrating job."
"I come from a world that's very black and white. You work hard. You learn the systems. You practice on a simulator. You got very good at what you did, and then you went out and did it. And if you mess up, you could die," he said. "Congress isn't like that."
Kelly, who commanded two space shuttle missions, just became director of flight crew operations for a Tucson-based company that aims to take people to the edge of space via balloon.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Presidents and grandchildren will join a massive throng of mourners Tuesday for a tribute to Nelson Mandela, the embodiment of this nation's struggle for democracy and champion of human rights.
On Monday, police and the government were bracing for the crush of mourners at the soccer stadium where the service would take place. South Africans would be met with high-level security measures to protect heads of state that included President Obama, India President Pranab Mukherjee and Cuban President Raul Castro.
The stadium seats nearly 100,000 people. Overflow crowds were expected to push that number far higher. Several "overflow" stadiums had been established.
South Africans expressed pride in the respect accorded Mandela, the former president who served 27 years in prison fighting a system of white rule that has since been abolished. He died Thursday at his home at age 95.
Mandela lived "so magnificent a life that it cannot be held in a grave," the Rev. Mzwandile Molo of the Bethesda Methodist Church told The Times, a local newspaper.
Obama was to be among the handful of 70 or so dignitaries asked to speak during the tribute. Some of Mandela's grandchildren were also to share their thoughts.
Aides said Obama would spend time with Mandela's family during his visit.
Traveling with the president and his family aboard Air Force One were former president George W. Bush and wife Laura and former secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter were arriving separately.
"What we can say is … all the events and those who attend them are safe," said Collins Chabane, minister for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation.
Anticipating enormous crowds, the government said parents bringing children younger than 8 must write their mobile phone numbers in marker on the forearms of each child.
Military, police and intelligence services have all been activated for what may be the largest memorial service in decades. On local radio, broadcasters were warning of huge logistical hurdles and advising people to take public transportation as close parking would be banned.
Mandela's body will be taken in a procession to Pretoria, where he will lie in state from Wednesday through Friday. Johannesburg police said they expected tens of thousands of people waiting in long lines to get a last look at the man they call "Tata," which means "father."
Billboards put up by his political party, the African National Congress, could be seen throughout Johannesburg.
Mandela's remains would then be taken to a funeral and burial at his ancestral home in a rural part of the Eastern Cape province, far from Johannesburg.
The Mthatha airport in the Eastern Cape will only be used for the landing of heads of state, jamming up more distant airports where throngs of people and journalists were arriving, according to News24.
The Eastern Cape has a significant number of people of mixed race and Afrikaners, descendants of the Dutch colonialists who ruled this country until the early 1990s when Mandela became South Africa's first black president.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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