All the major economic news from Nigeria in 5 minutes – 06/6/2017
by mudeerat olawunmi
Summary of the top business, economic and political news in Nigeria today.
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to return home from medical leave at the weekend, presidency sources said on Tuesday. Link
The nation's total indebtedness to foreign and local creditors now stands at N19.16tn, the Debt Management Office has said. This is N1.8tn increase from the N17.36tn recorded at the end of December 2016. Link
The Central Bank of Nigeria on Monday introduced new rules into the interbank foreign exchange market. The rules were contained in a new circular tagged, "Further liberalisation of the interbank foreign exchange market,'' and signed by the Director, Financial Markets, Dr. Alvan Ikoku. Among other things, the circular said authorised dealers in the interbank were meant to put only N1 spread on their transactions. Link
The Director-General, National Broadcasting Commission, Mr. Modibo Kawu, has said that the agency has spent $26m to procure 620,000 set-top boxes for homes as part of the digital switchover of the Nigerian Television Authority. Link
Relentless to achieve convergence of rates between the interbank and Bureau de Change segments of the foreign exchange market, the Central Bank of Nigeria has injected another $190m into the market. The acting Director, Corporate Communications, CBN, Mr Isaac Okorafor, in a statement on Monday in Abuja, said $100m was offered as wholesale interventions and $50m was allocated to the Small and Medium Enterprises FOREX window while the remaining $40m was allocated to accommodate customers requiring FOREX for business, Personal Travel Allowances, tuition and medical fees. Link
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may revoke the registration of about 400 capital market professionals who fail to comply with its directive to provide updated information of their companies by July 31, 2017. According to a circular from SEC, "any firm that failed to respond within this time frame would be considered inactive and SEC would exercise its power to revoke its registration." Link
Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) claims it has begun the implementation of the Executive Order on Ease of during Business at airports nationwide. Its Managing Director, Saleh Dunoma said the importance of the Executive Order, he said, cannot be overemphasized, especially because it will strengthen the nation's fight against terrorism, eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy which impedes business activities at the airports. Link
The nation's external reserve recorded its second monthly decline of $535 million last month. This came as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had intervened in the foreign exchange market by selling $6.84 billion from January to last month. Link
Acting President Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday asked the Senate to approve $1.5bn loan for projects in 10 states, which is part of the 2016-2018 External Borrowing Plan of the Federal Government. Link
The Federal High Court in Lagos on Tuesday ordered the permanent forfeiture to the Federal Government of the sums of $43,449,947, £27,800 and N23,218,000 recovered from No. 16, Osborne Road, Flat 7B Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos. Link
Nigeria required N31trillion annually to address the current infrastructural deficit facing the country, an economic expert, Dr Doyin Salami has said. "Available statistics revealed that Nigeria needs $100bn or N31trillion on yearly basis to fund infrastructure as against the N3trillion to N5trillion being spent by government across the three tiers on yearly basis, with attendant infrastructural deficit, high rate of unemployment and other worrying indices like over 17% inflation rate, "he said. Link
The Federal Government is yet to allot the 10 per cent equity shareholding in the privatised power distribution companies to its workers because some state governments have not responded to the request by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to provide details of their investments in the distribution companies prior to their privatization, Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mr. Alex Okoh has said. Link
Power supply to distribution companies, DISCOs, witnessed a reduction of 16,045 megawatts, MW, in May, according to the daily operational report of the Nigerian Electricity System Operation, NESO. The report shows that 82,147MW were supplied in the month of May, as against 98,192MW supplied in April. The shortfall was attributed to system breakdown, gas and water constraints. Link
Approximately 5.5 million Nigerians have become unemployed in the past two years of the current administration, figures from the National Bureau of Statistics have revealed. Link
Twenty States in Nigeria are owing workers and pensioners salaries and entitlements ranging from one to 36 months, a BudgIT nationwide survey has shown. BudgIT, in a statement on Tuesday, said the survey focused on the "frequency of salary payment of six different categories of workers in all 36 states namely: primary school teachers, secondary school teachers, local government workers, state independent workers, pensioners and state secretariat workers." Link
Etisalat Nigeria has said that it is still in discussions with its lenders regarding existing obligations under the syndicated loan agreement signed in 2013. The telecom service provider said in a statement on Monday that it had not received any formal communication from the lenders regarding the proposal to convert part of the over $1bn loan facility into five per cent equity in the company. Link
One of Nigeria's leading aviation infrastructure firms, Springfountain, and aircraft manufacturers, the Boeing Company USA, have signed a strategic agreement that would lead to a $20bn investment in the Nigerian aviation industry within the next few years. Link
United Arab Emirates helicopter company Abu Dhabi Aviation (ADA) has signed an agreement with Nigerian aircraft charter operator OAS Helicopters to provide logistics services for oil and gas operations. Link
Lafarge Africa Plc has declared a dividend of N1.05 per share for the 2016 financial year. The Chairman of the company, Mr. Mobolaji Balogun, in his address, said the proposed dividend, if approved by shareholders, is payable on June 7, 2017, and represented 34.7 per cent of net income after taxation. Link
The Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited, built at a cost $4.6 billion, may eventually collapse unless the country quickly confronts foreign and local interests working against its completion. The Sole Administrator of the company, Mr. Joseph Onobere said that should the project collapse finally, Nigeria might never be in a position to build another one. He noted, "Successive governments have been paying lip service to the project and, painfully, leave it the way they met it." Link
The management of Chemstar Paints Industry Nigeria Limited, manufacturers of Finecoat and Shield Paints said it has procured health, safety and environmentally friendly kits, valued at N5 million for its workers. This, according to the management, is part of moves to protect and ensure the safety of the members of staff, especially the factory workers, who deal with chemicals which are major raw materials in the paint industry. Link
Anti-corruption associations on Monday has threatened to take the Nigerian government to court in connection with a contract won by Italian oil major ENI to operate a neglected oil refinery. Link
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has threatened to shut down the operations of Neconde Energy Limited in Lagos and Warri for sacking five of its members that work in Neconde without following due process. Link
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has stepped up importation of refined petroleum products to address unforeseen short fall in supply following the stoppage of fuel importation by private oil marketers. The latest product supply data released by the corporation showed that the volume of fuel imported in February 2017 increased to 1.3 billion litres, which is the highest petroleum product import by the corporation since February 2016. Link
The Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) will have up to 10 years to repay the N701billion financial facility obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to guarantee payments for electricity generated by the generation companies (Gencos) for the next two years, a federal government memo has disclosed. Link
Barring any last minute change in plan, May & Baker Plc is to sell all its non-performing assets to boost its financials during the 2017 fiscal year. Its Chairman, Lt. General Theophilus Danjuma, who stated this in his address to the company's shareholders at their 66th Annual General Meeting (AGM) Thursday in Lagos, said the Board had mandated the management to review all business units and undertakings of the company with a view to pruning all non performing and non profitable ventures. Link
Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, has received approval from the FMDQ OTC PLC for the renewal of its shelf registration of N100 billion Multicurrency Commercial Paper (MCP) Programme. Link
The Anambra State Internal Revenue Service (AIRS) has sealed some branches of Eko Commercial Bank in the state over alleged N2 billion tax default. Mr Achike Emejulu, the AIRS Executive Chairman said that the agency sealed most of the bank's branches in the state after obtaining writ of execution from the Court because of non remittance of Pay As You Earn tax. Link
Despite challenges witnessed in the course of operations in the 2016 financial year, Regency Alliance Insurance Plc has declared as an after-tax-profit of N470.594million. The Acting Chairman of the company, Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe, said in view of its profitable run under the year in review, the management of the organization had approved the sum of 3k dividend per 50k share for its eligible shareholders. Link
Chi Farms Ltd has partnered with Nollywood to produce a television series that will raise awareness and boost capacity in the agribusiness sector. Courtesy of the collaboration, the company has started to shoot its first mini-series of eight episodes in Epe, with a focus on catfish farming. The series will cover the daily struggles of a catfish farmer in running its business profitably. Link
The board of the directors of International breweries, Intafact Beverages and Pabod Breweries have agreed to explore combination of three businesses via scheme of merger subject to resiquite regulatory and shareholders' approvals. Link
Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has said the six infrastructure reforms bills put together by the National Assembly would not only modernise the nation's infrastructure base, but would create at least 580,000 new jobs for Nigerians in the next five years. The bills are the Nigerian Railway Bill, Nigerian Ports and Harbour Bill, National Road Funds Bill, National Transport Commission Bill, National Inland Waterways Bill and the Federal Roads Bill. Link
CBN urges cement manufacturers to reduce prices
Tags: 2017 BudgetAjaokuta steel company limitedBukola sarakiBusiness NewsCentral Bank of NigeriaEconomic newsEtisalat Nigeriainternational brewerieslafarge africaMay and Baker PlcMuhammadu BuhariNBSNews ReviewNigerian Stock ExchangeOAS Helicopterspension fundsProfessor OsinbajoStanbic IBTC
mudeerat olawunmi
Mudeerat Olawunmi is a graduate of Business Administration with over 5 years experience in online data gathering and analysis. Wunmi is a data analysts at Nairametrics and helps ensure that our readers get some of the most important macro and micro economic data required to help make investing decisions.
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