Motorists stranded due to fuel scarcity in Abuja

 

Due to scarcity of fuel in Abuja, hundreds of motorists have been left stranded as they spent long hours waiting to fill their cars, Punch reported.

According to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation says the fuel scarcity is caused by marketers hoarding fuel.

Although there is enough fuel to keep the country in survival mode, measures have been taken place to ensure motorists receive fuel.

The Federal Government is currently in a bid to pay petroleum marketers as subsidy arrears but this will only take place either in February or March.

Government has also promised to play a huge role in the matter and will sort out the scarcity. Motorists have been made aware to not panic as this is temporal.

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Fuel queues back in Abuja

Barely two months after the Federal Government reduced the price of petrol from N97 to N87, queues have hit most filling stations in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

The queues have already caused traffic jams in the city centre which also led to congestion in most of the roads.

A drive round town revealed that some filling stations, it was gathered that some of them weren’t selling fuel while it appeared that some were hoarding the fuel.

NSCDC, Private Tank Farm Owners Responsible For Fuel Scarcity In Rivers, Says IPMAN

The current spate of petroleum products scarcity in Rivers State has been blamed on the activities of private tank farms’ owners and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

This was the position of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), which urged the Federal Government and Directorate of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to call the NSCDC and owners of private tank farms to order to avoid worsening the situation.

Chairman of IPMAN in Rivers State, Prince Sunny Nkpe, spoke yesterday while addressing journalists at the association’s secretariat in Alesa-Eleme in Eleme local government area of the state.

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Nigeria's foreign exchange reserves fall to $31.57 bln by Feb.25

 Nigeria's foreign reserves fell to $31.57 billion by Feb. 25, down 8.33 percent from $34.44 billion a month earlier, latest data from the central bank showed on Friday.

Nigeria's central bank has been drawing down on reserves to support the ailing local currency, hit by falling global oil price and escalating tensions ahead of forthcoming presidential elections next month.

Nigeria's naira in biggest monthly fall for five years -dealers

Nigeria's currency suffered its biggest monthly fall in over five years this February, dealers said, citing concerns over political uncertainty and the central bank's ability to manage a currency hammered by weak oil prices.

The naira shed 8.3 percent to the dollar in February, dealers said, worse than a 6.9 percent fall in November after central bank devalued the currency by 8 percent in order to save its foreign reserves.

However, reserves have fallen steadily and were down 8.6 percent by February 26 from a month ago, to stand at $31.46 billion after central bank stepped up support for the currency.

The naira closed at 202 on the interbank market on Friday, a level it broadly traded at this week, dealers said.

A sale was carried out on Friday just before the interbank market closed, at 198 naira for $82.9 million, Thomson Reuters data showed. Dealers attributed the trade to a dollar sale by the central bank.

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Naira eases as oil firm sells dollars below CBN rate

The Naira fell 0.5 percent on Wednesday after an oil company sold dollars to some lenders on the interbank market below the central bank's clearing rate, dealers said.

The currency closed at 202.10 naira on the interbank market, weaker than Tuesday's close of 201.10 naira to the dollar, dealers said.

The unit traded at 221 naira against the greenback at the parallel market, operated by bureau de change agents.
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Economy: Nigeria Not Broke - Finance Minister

The Minister of State for Finance, Bashir Yuguda, says the country’s economy is resilient and still very strong, debunking speculations in some quarters than Nigeria was broke, following challenges the country’s economy is currently grappling with.

Mr. Yuguda, who briefed newsmen at the end of the February meeting of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee in Abuja, noted that the situation was a direct consequence of the drop in the price of crude oil, the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy.

The minister was reacting to insinuations that the FAAC meeting earlier scheduled for last week was postponed till Tuesday this week because the Federal Government was broke, as the Federation Account did not hold sufficient money to take care of the monthly revenue sharing among the three tiers of government.

The Minister added that the government was doing its best to improve the revenue stream, while committed to the diversification of the country’s economic base to refocus the economy away from complete reliance on imports.

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Nigeria revenue falls 15 pct in January on lower oil

Accountant General of the Federation, Jonah Otunla, says the country’s gross government revenue fell 15 percent to 416 billion naira ($2.07 billion) in January due to weaker oil prices.

The Accountant General who spoke with newsmen today, said there was substantial loss of revenue due to a further drop in the prices of crude oil, a 33 percent decrease in export volumes between November and December 2014 however translated to a loss of $159.88 million.



It would be recalled that the Federation Account Allocation Committee, yesterday shared the sum of N500.13 billion as revenue for the month of January, which is lower that N580.38 billion shared the previous month.

Senate opts for $52 for Oil benchmark, N190/$ for exchange rate

The Senate yesterday opted for a $52 per barrel oil benchmark for the 2015 budget. It also predicated the budget on an exchange rate of N190 to the dollar.

The resolution on the budget benchmark and exchange was the outcome of a one-hour closed-door session held by the senators before the commencement of plenary.

Reports say several senators who spoke at the closed-door session, expressed concern over the state of the economy, regretting that the nation would have to resort to borrowing to finance some projects.

The Senate was conscious that the naira was currently being exchanged at the rate of about N199 to $1 in the interbank market, the Senate deliberately opted to approve a lower figure for the exchange rate.

NIGERIA: Federal, States and LGs share N500.13bn for January

 

The federation Account Allocation committee yesterday shared the sum of N500.13 billion as revenue for the month of January, which is lower that N580.38 billion shared the previous month.

Briefing newsmen after the FAAC meeting, Minister of state for Finance and Chairman of the committee, Amb. Bashir Yuguda, stated that the gross revenue of N416.09 billion was received for the month of January, which indicated a decrease of N73.93 billion.

On Value Added Tax, Yuguda said the gross revenue collected for the month decreased by N9.5 billion from the N73.4 billion recorded in December, adding that N305.3 billion was generated as mineral revenue in January as against the N381.5 billion generated in the preceding month.

Speaking further the Chairman of the Finance Commissioners Forum, Mr Timothy Odah, expressed concern over the continued dwindling of the federation’s revenue.said the decline in revenue shared was as a result of the dwindling crude oil prices in the international market and subsequent devaluation of the Naira.

The next FAAC meeting holds on the 16th and 17th of March, 2015.

Listen to Audio here....https://soundcloud.com/imohrich/sets/faac-meetings

Nigeria’s Central Bank Centralises Regulation Of Islamic Banking

Nigeria’s Central Bank has become the latest regulator to opt for a centralised approach to Islamic Banking after it issued guidelines for an advisory body that will oversee the industry in the country.

Nigeria has the largest Muslim population in sub-Saharan Africa, virtually half of the country’s 170 million people.

The advisory body, known as the Financial Regulation Advisory Council of Experts, will be tasked with ensuring all banking products that are designated as Islamic conform to sharia principles.

The Central Bank guidelines, published on Friday, set out minimum requirements for the advisory body, which will comprise a minimum of five members including one of its official.

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Nigeria’s GDP dropped to 5.94% in Q4 – NBS

The National Bureau of Statistics on Sunday released the Gross Domestic Product figure for the fourth quarter of 2014, showing a drop in the economic growth to 5.94 per cent from 6.22 per cent recorded in the third quarter.

A country’s GDP is the monetary value of all the finished goods and services produced within its borders in a specific period of time.

The GDP report, which was made available to our correspondent in Abuja, also indicated the fourth quarter’s figure of 5.94 per cent was lower by 0.83 percentage points from the 6.77 per cent recorded in the fourth quarter of 2013.

A further analysis of the report showed the economy grew by 6.21 per cent in the first quarter, while the second had a growth rate of 6.54 per cent.

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