patriots to join waiict in meeting this need. in concluding my brief remark this evening, may i state that poverty sits like an open sore on the consciences of the nigerian elite. we should remember that many of the south east asian countries who have leapfrogged their stages of development and are today, part of the emerging economies, were at the same level of development with nigeria some three decades ago. with a mono - cultural economy totally dependent on oil, the diversification of the nigerian revenue base becomes a compelling necessity and this can only be achieved through massive investments in information and communications technology ( ict ). india currently earns twice as much from software exports as nigeria earns from oil. the time for us to act is now. leapfrog ventures nigeria limited is bold to take the bull by the horn. let us therefore support this worthy endeavor to transform the nigerian economic landscape by investing in the shares of the west african institute of information and communications technology, giving grants or endowing professorial chairs. i urge waiict investors to explore opportunities in the smieis scheme which has accumulated over n14. 6 billion naira as at end - may, 2003 with these few remarks, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, i wish you an appetizing dinner. thank you for your time.

of all, no department attempted to report to the cso bottlenecks they were experiencing in carrying out some tasks. as such, some tasks were cancelled or deferred without drawing the attention of the spc or management. clearly, this is contrary to what was agreed. it was agreed that departments experiencing difficulties in implementing some tasks should report such incidences promptly without the need to follow the established reporting calendars. this was to enable management to make fast track decisions to keep planned programmes on course. second, some departments appeared to be unwilling to give these exercises the due attention they deserve regarding them as needless bother by deliberately not responding to reminders. this has resulted into late submission of pars and, therefore, a delay in the production of quarterly and annual reports. but, i should add that the problem of late submission of reports goes beyond work planning and budgeting activities. as a matter of fact, it is endemic and pervasive in the bank, and involves all other bank - wide initiatives, namely : • business continuity and contingency planning ; • staff performance appraisal exercises ; • responses to audit queries. the fact that the bank recognises the importance of these initiatives in management and that we signed up to their basic principles, means that we should devote much of our time to the processes involved to realise the benefits. this involves changing our attitudes and mindset and to recognise that we must always work as a team and deliver services promptly to derive the maximum benefits of our collective efforts. and so this coming year, i would like senior management to take much of their time and attend very seriously to bank - wide programmes. obviously, this will mean senior management devolving much of routine functions to the rank and file and concentrating on strategic functions. i also think we should introduce a system of rewards and sanctions for performing and under performing departments and functions. naming and shaming under performing departments and functions could be a useful sanctioning tool. such a system could be important because as more and more strategic functions are introduced into the bank so will the role of senior management increase to attend to those functions. very soon, the bank will be adding to the menu of bank - wide programmes, risk and performance standards management frameworks. therefore, if we do not have the right mindset to absorb these additional responsibilities, we will, definitely, not succeed. on the issue of staff performance appraisal, i am deeply concerned that senior management are persistently not app