Feature/OPED
13% Derivation, DESOPADEC and Oil and Gas Host Communities
By Jerome-Mario Chijioke Utomi
A cursory look at the oil and gas host communities in Delta State reveals an area tensed up with a lot of issues, intrigues and hiccups. Their anger in the present moment, going by media reports, is precipitated by the alleged opaque manner the former governor of the state, Ifeanyi Okowa, managed the 13% oil derivation fund that accrued to the state.
Correspondingly, it will not be characterized as hasty to conclude that there is presently in Delta State no agency or commission that is troubled as the Delta State Oil Producing Area Development Commission (DESOPADEC), an agency created by the enabling Act in Delta State to secure 50% of the 13% oil derivation fund accruing to the Delta State government and the received sum used for rehabilitation and development of oil-producing areas of the state as well as carry out other development projects as may be determined from time to time.
Supporting the above assertions is a recent statement by Edwin Clark, convener of the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), where he alleged that Ifeanyi Okowa misappropriated the state’s derivation fund amounting to N1.760 trillion.
Pa Edwin’s bombshell was followed in quick succession by a protest staged in Abuja by representatives of the Delta State oil and gas host communities, calling on the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) to investigate the immediate past Governor for allegedly misappropriating over N1 trillion oil derivation fund belonging to the state during his tenure.
While the coastal dwellers, in their statement, insisted that the former governor unlawfully diverted the aforementioned sum, the former Governor’s men are at work, thwarting every attempt to rubbish the reputation of their former boss.
For instance, the immediate-past Commissioner for Information in Delta State, Ehiedu Charles Aniagwu, recently told the world that all the money Okowa’s administration got from Federation Account Allocation Committee, including derivation for the whole period in office amounted to N2.1 trillion and therefore described as wild goose chase HOSTCOM’s narrative on N1 trillion.
But in all this, what this piece observed could be safely categorized into three parts; first, Senator Okowa’s led government brought to the oil and gas host communities flashes of streets/internal roads.
Beyond this acknowledgement, there also exists in the state a deeply neglected coastal area which doubles as oil and gas host communities where poverty, disease and illiteracy walked their creeks, rivers and estuaries and, as a resultant effect, forced many children out of school, not because of their unwillingness to learn, but occasioned by non-availability/provision of schools in the area by the government. These are verifiable facts!
A movement by boat from Egbema Kingdom in Warri North Local Government Council to Gbaramatu Kingdom in Warri South, from Ogulaha Kingdom in Burutu Local Government to Kabowe in Patani Local Government Area, down to Bomadi Local Government Local Councils, among others, reveals a seemingly similar experience. They are all oil and gas-bearing kingdoms and communities and play host to major crude oil platforms operated by International Oil Companies (IOCs) but they have nothing to show for it.
Secondly, without going into a critical analysis of claims by Okowa that DESOPADEC got what was due to it according to the law establishing it, this piece believes that such declaration on DESOPADEC receiving a total of N208 billion in the eight years of his administration, as its rightful statutory funds appear inaccurate and, therefore, cannot hold water when faced with embarrassing arguments.
DESOPADEC, as noted in the first paragraph, is to secure 50% of the 13% oil derivation fund accruing to the Delta State government. With this in mind, is the former Governor saying that it was only N416 billion that accrued as 13% derivation to the state in the past 8 years, which summed DESOPADEC’s statutory 50% to N208 billion? Again, instead of giving a cumulative amount received from the Federation Account Allocation Committee, what stops the former Governor and his supporters from specifying the exact amount received as a 13% derivation?
While answer(s) to the above questions raised is awaited, the third and most dramatic point is DESOPADEC-specific. The non-satisfactory development of the area within this period under review, in my view, remains an emblematic sign that the affairs of the coastal areas of the state were handed over to a bunch of politicians masquerading as leaders but lacking public leadership acumen and orientation. To use the words of a public affairs commentator, they were people that ‘spend more time with wines than with books’.
Aside from turning the coastal part of the state into an endangered species via human capital neglect and infrastructural abandonment, these ‘leaders’, in turn, neglected community relations and communication. And because of this non-participatory leadership style and engagement, each time communities ask for bread, the agency makes ‘stones’ available and when the communities ask for fish, DESOPADEC provides a ‘snake’.
This piece will highlight two recent separate but related examples to support the above claims.
In October 2022, it was in the news that in the face of grave developmental challenges confronting the coastal dwellers in the state crying for attention, DESOPADEC leadership, against all known logic, opted for the donation of 50 grass-cutting machines to the people of Okerenkoko community in Gbaramatu Kingdom, Warri South-Local Government Area of Delta state. Presenting the machines, the DESOPADEC commissioner noted that the donation of grass-cutting machines to the community was statutorily captured in the commission’s 2021 budget, adding that the project was principally influenced by him”.
Those who are not conversant with the Okerenkoko community and may be tempted to believe that the donation was a right step taken in the right direction may see nothing wrong with the donation. But for someone that is familiar with the aforementioned community, the decision to donate these machines qualifies as a misguided priority.
In fact, there is everything wrong with the development. For instance, there is evidence which points to the fact that the community was neither consulted nor carried along before the decision was made. In the opinion of this piece, the grass-cutting machine donation failed the NEEDS assessment stipulations.
The words of the youth leader from the community support this assertion.
Reacting to the development, the youth leader who spoke on behalf of the community, among other things, said, “We heard about the ongoing skill acquisition. We are appealing to the Commissioner to at least create some avenue for those skill acquisitions for our ladies, for the youth in this community so that they can go out there and learn skills to back themselves, put themselves in order.”
From the above comment, one thing stands out: if given the opportunity, these knowledge-hungry youths in the community, who will provide the future leadership needs of the country, would have opted for skill acquisition. Instead of grass-cutting machines, the youths in the community would have preferred access to good schools where they would learn and compete with their peers across the globe. They were not just asking for more; rather, they asked for something new, different and more beneficial to their future.
Similarly, in November 2022, barely one month after, It was again reported that DESOPADEC leadership invited the Local Government Chairmen of Burutu, Bomadi, Patani and Warri South West Local Government Areas of the state, to a shop in Warri City, Delta State, where it handed over relief materials purchased for the victims of the flood that ravaged almost all the communities/villages in the aforementioned local government councils.
The items distributed to the affected local governments were bags of garri, bags of rice, bags of onions, bags of beans, noodles, vegetable oil, palm oil, toiletries, and foams, among others.
While the donation to flood victims is understandable, commendable and appreciated, some questions immediately come to mind as to why DESOPADEC management decided to be compassionate by proxy. What prevented DESOPADEC management from visiting the real victims of the flood to empathize with them personally? Is DESOPADEC management unaware that, in the applied sense of the word, the real empathy lies more in the visit and emotional consolation of the flood victims than the so-called relief material sent through a proxy? What will it cost DESOPADEC to pay a visit to these villages/communities in creeks?
What is the distance from Warri to Patani, Burutu and Bomadi that DESOPADEC management cannot send a delegation? How will DESPODEC management ensure/ascertain that the relief materials get to the targeted beneficiaries without getting lost in transit or misdirected? If DESOPADEC management cannot visit the creeks in this crisis period, what time will be more/most suitable to visit these people?
Even as this ugly leadership situation ‘blossoms’ in the coastal communities of Delta State, the truth remains that if we look hard enough at the moment, we shall, as a people, discover that the challenge confronting the region is not too difficult to grasp. Rather, the challenge flourishes because agencies such as DESOPADEC and their administrators have routinely become reputed for taking decisions that breed poverty.
For me, While DESOPADEC’s new leadership must commit to mind the above admonition, this piece holds the opinion that to sustainably solve the problem of the coastal dwellers in the state, a compelling point the state government must not fail to remember is the present call by stakeholders on DESOPADEC management to emulate the Chevron Nigeria Limited template in community engagement. A template that deals directly with the host community and an approach the communities claimed has worked perfectly in the area of infrastructural provision.
On his part, Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State should, within this period, execute the oil and gas host communities’ legacy projects that will stand the test of time. It will not be out of place if a bridge is constructed to link and open these oil-bearing communities.
Utomi Jerome-Mario is the Programme Coordinator (Media and Public Policy) at Social and Economic Justice Advocacy (SEJA), a Lagos-based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO). He can be reached via *********@***oo.com/08032725374″ target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer”>Je*********@***oo.com/
By Vivian Imoh-Ita
Across African banking, the conversation is shifting from “inclusion as intent” to “inclusion as performance.” Margin pressure, recapitalisation conversations, digitisation, and tighter risk expectations are forcing a hard question: where will sustainable, low-volatility growth come from in the next cycle? One answer is hiding in plain sight: women-led enterprises, underfunded, underserved, and consistently productive.
In Nigeria’s informal economy, where cash flow is real but documentation is uneven, the institutions that win will be the ones that price risk with better signals, distribute at scale, and convert trust into long-term financial relationships. Too often, women’s economic participation is framed as a social commitment rather than a commercial imperative.
That framing is expensive: when we fail to design capital, products, and distribution around the realities of women in business, we don’t just exclude customers, we misprice opportunity and leave growth on the table. Women in Nigeria are not waiting to be “empowered” before they build.
They are already trading, employing, and sustaining households at scale. The real constraint is not capability; it is the fit between how finance is structured and how women-owned businesses actually operate: cash-flow patterns, collateral realities, and the need for speed, trust, and advisory alongside capital.
Three practical frictions show up repeatedly: Collateral versus cash-flow: many viable women-run businesses are cash-generative but asset-light, so collateral-heavy underwriting excludes the very segment banks say they want. Information gaps: when transactions happen outside formal rails, banks see “thin files.”
But thin files are not the same as high risk; they are a data problem that better design and alternative signals can solve. Time-to-cash matters: entrepreneurs often need small, fast working-capital decisions, not slow processes built for corporate cycles.
Speed is a risk tool when it is paired with the right controls. Nigeria has roughly 23 million women entrepreneurs in the micro-business segment, one of the highest rates of female entrepreneurship globally.
Women account for 41% of SME ownership, and SMEs contribute nearly half of the national GDP. Yet access to formal finance remains disproportionately low: women receive only about 10% of loans from financial service providers, and an estimated 98% of women entrepreneurs still lack access to formal credit.
An internal strategy analysis drawing on EFInA/Global Findex/SMEDAN data shows a structural gap: 41% of Nigerian women are financially excluded (vs 33% for men), and while 39% of women borrowed from multiple sources, only 4% accessed a bank loan.
Across Africa, the financing gap for women-led businesses is estimated at $42 billion. This is not a “nice-to-have” agenda. McKinsey Global Institute’s The Power of Parity estimates that advancing women’s equality could add up to $12 trillion to global GDP.
The IMF has estimated that equal participation by women could lift GDP by as much as 40% in some countries. For Nigeria, an analysis cited by the Council on Foreign Relations, drawing on McKinsey’s data, projects that closing the gender gap in economic participation could increase GDP by 23%.
For banks, the implication is straight-forward: women-led enterprises are not a niche; they are a mass-market growth opportunity. Unlocking it requires moving from “product availability” to “product usability”: cash-flow-based lending, simpler onboarding, distribution through digital and agent rails, and trust-by-design (clear pricing, consumer protection, and strong data privacy). Usage is what creates the data to lend responsibly at scale.
There is also a practical reason the returns are outsized: women tend to reinvest more of what they earn into their families and communities, often cited as up to 90%, driving a multiplier effect that shows up in education, health outcomes, and local employment.
For financial institutions, that multiplier is not just a story; it is a durable pathway to deposit growth, transaction volume, credit performance, and long-term customer value. I have seen this play out across Nigeria, in every state and market. The woman selling clothes in Balogun Market employs three other women and sends five children to school.
The general merchandise trader in Onitsha Market is the economic anchor of her extended family. Each of these women is a multiplier, and each of them started with someone, somewhere, giving her a loan, a skill, an opportunity, a chance. That is the “Give to Gain” principle made real. Giving is not a subtraction. It is, as this year’s IWD campaign puts it, intentional multiplication.
At Union Bank, we treat women’s financial inclusion as a core product strategy, not CSR, because the commercial logic is clear. When a woman builds financial capability, she doesn’t just open an account. She saves, transacts, borrows responsibly, expands her business footprint, and brings others with her.
We also understand that distribution is a strategy. Union Bank’s UnionDirect agency banking network operates over 58,000 agents across rural and underserved communities, extending access to deposits, withdrawals, and micro-lending where branches cannot cover the economics.
We have also disbursed over N50 billion in micro-lending to smallholder farmers, market women, and informal entrepreneurs, because inclusion only becomes real when it is usable, frequent, and local.
In a market where a large share of working women operates in the informal sector, bringing women into the formal financial system through savings, digital banking, micro-lending, and insurance is a material growth frontier. Multiple studies across emerging markets also show women often have lower default rates than men, reinforcing what many banks observe in practice: disciplined cash management and strong repayment culture when products are designed around real operating conditions.
That is why we created alpher, Union Bank’s women’s banking proposition launched in 2020 and aligned with SDG5 on Gender Equality. Alpher is designed for the Nigerian woman, whether she is an entrepreneur, a working professional, or managing household finances. For women in business, alpher combines tailored loans and savings plans with capacity-building, mentorship, and practical masterclasses, because capital without capability yields fragile outcomes. alpher is built around a simple promise: practical financial solutions, support systems, savings and investment options, discounted loans, personal and professional development, mentorship/coaching/networking, discounted healthcare plans, and lifestyle/business discounts.
Operationally, we segment customers into individuals (professionals and entrepreneurs), women-led organisations, and organisations that support women in their workforce and supply chains. Hence, the service is relevant, not generic.
Practically, that has meant designing access to credit with reduced collateral requirements, recognising that traditional collateral models were not built around women’s asset ownership patterns.
It has also meant investing deliberately in skills, entrepreneurship, bookkeeping, pricing, digital commerce, and personal finance, so that funding translates into resilience, not just activity.
One initiative I am particularly proud of is the alpher Fair. In this marketplace concept, we open our premises (and those of partners) to women entrepreneurs to sell directly to customers, employees, and partner networks.
It creates immediate market access, strengthens visibility, and proves a simple point: scaling women-owned businesses is often about building pipelines of customers, information, and trust, not just issuing loans. Beyond our own programmes, we partner to scale outcomes.
In May 2025, through alpher, Union Bank sponsored the Nigerian British Chamber of Commerce (NBCC) Women and Youth Entrepreneurship Development Centre (WYEDC) Cohort 2 Programme, which graduated 125 entrepreneurs who benefited from entrepreneurship training and business grants. At the graduation, we hosted a pitch segment that awarded funding to standout entrepreneurs. This is the point: capability building is not “soft.”
It is pipeline development for stronger businesses and better credit outcomes. Importantly, alpher sits within Union Bank’s broader retail and SME ecosystem, loan products, business advisory, digital payment infrastructure, and growth workshops, so customers can access funding, learn how to deploy it, connect to mentors and peers, and gain visibility for their businesses.
The objective is straightforward: build businesses that last. The next phase of banking growth in Nigeria will favour institutions that translate insight into design products that reflect customer reality, distribution that meets customers where they are, and risk models that recognise performance beyond legacy collateral. Backing women-led enterprise is not a campaign; it is a competitive advantage.
The forward-looking question is whether we will build the rails, capital, capability, digital trust, and market access fast enough to earn the growth already waiting in plain sight. If we are serious about inclusive growth, we should be equally serious about inclusive balance sheets and about building the underwriting, data, and distribution models that make inclusion commercially sustainable.
Vivian Imoh-Ita is Head, Retail & SME Business at Union Bank of Nigeria, with a focus on building retail and SME propositions that drive inclusion, growth, and long-term customer value
By Olumide Balogun
Picture this scenario. You are at a fun party in Lagos. Amidst the sea of colourful jackets and perfectly tailored pants, you spot a guest wearing a pair of striking sneakers that perfectly blend modern streetwear with traditional Aso-Oke fabric. You want to buy a pair immediately. The music is loud, and the guest is across the banquet hall. A few years ago, you would simply have to wonder who made them. Today, you pull out your smartphone, tap the camera icon in your search app, and snap a quick photo. Within seconds, the technology identifies the exact local designer, shows you product reviews, and provides a direct link to their online store.
As the great Chinua Achebe famously wrote, “The world is like a Mask dancing. If you want to see it well, you do not stand in one place.”
The modern Nigerian consumer has certainly moved. They are actively experiencing the world visually, turning their smartphone cameras into their primary shopping tool. Nigerians are highly optimistic about this technological shift. In fact, 80% of Nigerians are more excited about the possibilities of AI, versus just 20% who are more concerned. This enthusiasm translates directly to commerce and innovation. Currently, 80% of Nigerians are using AI to explore a new business or career change, nearly double the global average of 42%. For Nigerian marketers, understanding this shift is the exact key to unlocking unprecedented business growth.
We are witnessing a massive transformation in how people consume media and discover products. YouTube watch time in Nigeria recently jumped by over 55% year over year. Our incredibly young, digital native population is actively redefining the media landscape by immersing themselves in video and visual content. Consequently, they are moving rapidly toward visual and video-led discovery.
The Rise of Visual Search. The modern Nigerian shopper uses their camera to ask questions. Globally, Lens is used for over 20 billion visual searches every month. Features like Circle to Search and video understanding allow users to interact with their surroundings instantly.
A shopper can now circle a fashion item they spot in a social media video or use their camera to scan a product in real life to find out more. Gen Z consumers are leading this charge. They use visual search to effortlessly discover products they cannot easily describe with words. They see something they love, and they use their camera to find it.
Making the Real World Shoppable. This visual behaviour creates a powerful new reality for retail. Imagine a consumer walking through a busy mall and spotting a stylish backpack in a store window. They simply tap the Lens icon on their phone and snap a photo. Instantly, they see a highly helpful results page showing product reviews, price comparisons across different retailers, and direct links to buy.
Google is integrating Shopping Ads directly into these visual search results. Advertisers can now connect with highly motivated shoppers at the exact moment their interest is piqued. The opportunity for businesses is immense, considering 1 in every 4 visual search queries done using Google Lens has a commercial intent. Your product can appear right alongside the items people are photographing out in the real world, turning everyday inspiration into immediate sales.
Video as the New Storefront. This visual revolution extends directly into online video. With YouTube becoming the primary screen for many Nigerians, video serves as the new digital storefront. Consumers turn to YouTube to discover trends, learn new skills, and make confident purchase decisions based on trusted creator reviews.
Brands must capture customer interest while users are deeply engaged in this video content. Google’s Demand Gen campaigns make this process highly effective. These AI-driven campaigns take your best video and image assets and automatically serve them across YouTube and other visual platforms. The results speak for themselves. Advertisers are more likely to say Google Search and YouTube drive business growth more than any other paid advertising platforms.
Step Into the Frame The language of commerce is increasingly visual. Nigerian consumers are already using their cameras and screens to navigate their shopping journeys. Marketers who embrace this visual commerce revolution will build stronger, more profitable connections with their audiences.
By optimising your visual product assets, leveraging AI tools like Demand Gen, and preparing for ads in visual search, you position your brand right at the heart of the modern shopping experience. The camera is the most powerful tool in your customer’s hand today. It is time for your business to step into the frame.
Olumide Balogun is the Director for Google West Africa
By Chinwe Iwobi
In Nigeria, women are the backbone of our economy. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that women own approximately 40% of small and medium-sized enterprises across the country (NBS Country Data Overview 2023). Yet despite their outsized contribution to GDP, women-led businesses continue to face systemic barriers to the capital and financial infrastructure needed to scale.
The cost of that gap is not abstract. When these entrepreneurs are held back, the ripple effect runs deep, from household stability to the education of the next generation. But the narrative is shifting. Nigerian women are proving, consistently, that they are not just resilient; they are sophisticated, high-earning innovators building businesses that deserve serious financial strategy.
Here are five foundational strategies every women-led business should be deploying to build lasting, generational wealth.
- Separate Business and Personal Finances Without Exception
Mixing personal funds with business cash is one of the most common and most damaging financial habits I see among growing entrepreneurs. It obscures your true profit margins, makes tax planning nearly impossible and, critically, disqualifies you from accessing formal credit when you need it most.
The discipline of separation is not just administrative. It is the first signal you send to the financial system that your business is serious. Open a dedicated business account, maintain clean transaction records, and treat your business finances with the same rigour you would expect from any enterprise operating at scale. Clarity on your numbers is the foundation on which every other strategy here depends.
- Build Both an Emergency Fund and an Opportunity Fund
Most financial advice stops at the emergency fund, which is three to six months of operating expenses set aside for lean periods. That is necessary, but insufficient. The entrepreneurs I have watched grow most aggressively also maintain what I call an opportunity fund: accessible liquidity specifically reserved to move fast when a prime supplier deal, an expansion location, or a bulk inventory discount appears.
In an unpredictable market like Nigeria’s, the businesses that scale are rarely the ones with the best products alone. They are the ones with the financial readiness to act decisively. Products like FairMoney’s FairSave are designed precisely for this, keeping your funds accessible while earning competitive daily interest so your idle cash is working even when you are not. Build both buffers, and build them before you think you need them.
- Invest Profits Back into Revenue-Generating Assets
Surplus cash sitting in a current account is a slow leak. Inflation erodes it, and opportunity costs compound quietly. The discipline here is to consistently channel profits back into assets that grow your revenue capacity, whether that is new equipment, improved technology, better inventory systems, or staff training.
For capital you do not need immediately, consider locking it into a fixed-term savings product that offers higher interest returns. The psychological benefit is as important as the financial one: ring-fencing that capital removes it from day-to-day spending temptation and ensures it is preserved and grown for a defined purpose. Discipline in capital allocation separates businesses that plateau from those that compound.
- Diversify Your Revenue Streams Intentionally
Single-stream businesses are inherently fragile. If your sole revenue source is disrupted by market shifts, a supply chain breakdown, or a change in consumer behaviour, your entire operation is exposed. Resilience is built by design, not by accident.
If you are in retail, consider adding a service-based arm. If you are service-led, explore whether digital products or training offerings could create passive income alongside your core work. Beyond product diversification, consider how you accept payments. Building a verified, diverse transaction history through formal payment channels also quietly strengthens your credit profile, an asset that pays dividends when you approach lenders for growth financing. FairMoney’s Business POS infrastructure, for instance, allows entrepreneurs to expand their payment reach while simultaneously building that financial track record.
- Invest Beyond the Business
This is the strategy most women entrepreneurs delay for too long, and it is the one I feel most strongly about. Relying entirely on your business for your net worth is a high-risk position, no matter how well that business is performing. Businesses face cycles; personal wealth should not.
As your business stabilises, begin systematically moving a portion of your profits into personal investment vehicles such as long-term savings accounts, money market funds, or other instruments that sit entirely outside the business cycle. Automate it if you can, so the decision is made once and executed consistently. The goal is to build a personal financial foundation that remains intact regardless of what your business goes through in any given quarter. True wealth is not what your business is worth on paper. It is what you own independently of it.
The Bigger Picture
For female entrepreneurs in Nigeria, wealth-building is not simply a personal ambition; it is an economic argument. When women-led businesses scale, communities stabilise, households invest in education, and local economies deepen. The strategies above are not complicated, but they require consistency and the right financial infrastructure to execute well.
The tools exist. The opportunity is real. What remains is the decision to treat your business, and your personal wealth, with the long-term seriousness both deserve.
Chinwe Iwobi is the Head of Wealth Management at FairMoney Microfinance Bank
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