Marketers to suspend fuel importation over N356.2bn unpaid subsidy claims

Nigerians may have to brace up for another round of petrol scarcity across the coun­try by Monday, as the Major Oil Marketers As­sociation of Nigeria (MO­MAN) yesterday, said it was practically impossi­ble for it to continue with petrol import as a result of the inability of the fed­eral government to clear subsidy debts amounting to N356.2 billion.

Indeed, MOMAN said the available stock of petrol at the Apapa, Lagos depot would have been exhausted by Monday after the week­end break.

‘‘From today (yesterday) what we have left as stock can only take us for three and a half days. So what that means in effect is that, by Monday we would run out of stock,’’ Executive Secretary of MOMAN, Mr. Obafemi Olawore said.

Giving a breakdown of the N356.2 subsidy debt, Olawore explained that outstanding debt on forex and interest amounts to N215,868,237,459 while payment for Batch T of 2014 stood at N21,920,240,980.23 and Batch U 2014 at another N8,607,109,593.82 with Batch A 2015 amount­ing to N6,873,232,365.66 and Batch B 2015 at N2,911,139,639.70.

However, the MOMAN scribe said another N100 billion was equally out­standing, which the Fed­eral Government gave as post-dated Sovereign Debt Note (SDN) due to mature by end of April also formed part of the 356.2bn debt.

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Guinness Nigeria says 9-month pretax profit falls 9 pct

Guinness Nigeria said on Friday its 9-month pretax profit fell 9 percent to 7.13 billion naira ($36 million) compared with the same period a year earlier.

Revenue in the local unit of Diageo however rose to 84.75 billion naira compared with 78.01 billion, the firm said in a statement without giving a reason for the weaker profit.

Nigeria's Heineken unit Q1 pretax profit falls 2 pct

 Nigerian Breweries, a unit of Dutch brewer Heineken, said on Friday its first quarter pre-tax profit fell 2 percent to 14.43 billion naira ($73 million) from a year ago.

The brewer's gross earnings however rose to 69.92 billion naira in the period to end-March from 68.97 billion naira a year ago, it said in a statement without giving a reason for the weaker profit.

Nigeria: Fitch Predicts Growth for Nigerian, Sub-Saharan Banks

 

In consideration of the buoyant non-oil and services sectors, as well as private consumption, that are holding up credit demand in Nigeria, Fitch Ratings Limited says banks in the country should witness growth in 2015.

According to statement issued by the rating agency in London on Thursday, growth in sub-Saharan Africa should provide favourable conditions for the region's banks in 2015, despite the decline in commodity prices.
Credit growth is set to expand because there is strong demand for infrastructure financing and the private sector is buoyant.

These are likely to offset the threats from weaker commodity prices and heightened political risk and uncertainty, Fitch Ratings noted.

The agency stated that "Even banks in oil exporting countries, where low oil prices might be expected to trigger loan contraction, are experiencing continued credit demand.
"In Nigeria, buoyant non-oil and services sectors, plus private consumption, are holding up credit demand. Loan growth reached 25% in 2014."

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CBN Orders Lenders to Disclose Bad Debtors

The Central Bank of Nigeria has ordered banks to publish lists of individuals and companies with non-performing loans to curb a rise in bad debt as the industry stumbles amid low oil prices.

CBN director of banking supervision, Tokunbo Martins, who stated this in a circular, noted the rising trend of non-performing loans. The circular stated that the new rule, effective from May 1, is to “ensure that the industry NPL ratio does not exceed the prudential limit of 5 percent, and to improve the credit culture in the banking industry.

Delinquent borrowers will get three months to start repayments, Martins said in the statement. Borrowers whose loans remain non-performing after that period will be banned from Nigeria’s foreign-exchange and government bond markets, she said.

Nigeria’s banking industry is under pressure with the country’s economy, reliant on oil for 90 percent of export earnings and two-thirds of government revenue, suffering from Brent crude’s 40 percent plunge since June.

Credit losses, which, unlike NPLs, involve writedowns, will increase to as much as 3 percent from 1.8 percent in the next two years, Matthew Pirnie, a director at Standard & Poor’s, said in an interview last week in Lagos.

Nigeria govt revenue falls 21.5 pct in March due to oil outages

Nigeria's gross government revenue fell 21.5 percent to 315.04 billion naira ($2 billion) in March due to trunk and pipeline shutdowns and lower earnings from the non-oil sector, the accountant general said.

Accountant General of the Federation Jonah Otunla, told Journalists that Nigeria distributed a total 435.06 billion naira to local, state and federal government for the month of March compared with 522.05 billion naira shared in February.

FAAC constitutes panel over unremitted $1.48bn by NNPC

Worried by the inability of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to pay the $1.48bn into the federation account as directed by PriceWaterHouse Coopers in its forensic audit of the corporation, the Federation Account Allocation Committee on Monday constituted a committee to find out the reasons for the delay in making the funds available to the three tiers of government.

PriceWaterHouse was last year hired to carry out the exercise following an allegation by the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi, that $20bn was not remitted to the Federation Account by the NNPC.

Sanusi, who is now the Emir of Kano, had written a letter to President Goodluck Jonathan that $49bn was not remitted to the Federation Account by the NNPC.

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Ecobank proposes bonus issue after pretax profit rises 144 per cent

Pan-African banking group Ecobank said on Monday its 2014 pretax profit rose 144 percent year-on-year to N86.44 billion ($434 million).

Revenue also rose to N489.25 billion from N411.18 billion the previous year, the bank said in a statement, and also proposed a bonus issue of one for every five shares.

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Forex reserve plunges further to six months import cover

THE plummeting profile of the foreign exchange reserves, which has been a constant feature since the beginning of the year, has finally hit 2010 record low to $29.3 billion from $29.8 billion of the previous week.

The downward trend, which has been riding on the back of falling international oil prices and the resolve by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to defend the naira, has already resulted to about $5 billion loss, representing 16.9 per cent in 2015.

In a report from Afrinvest Securities Limited, titled: “Nigerian Reserves at Record Low…Time to Float the Naira?,” it showed that declines were at their highest on February 16 and 23  at 1.2 per cent each, which correspond to the postponement of the elections and shutdown of the Retail Dutch Auction System (RDAS) respectively.

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Nigeria's Zenith Bank says Q1 pretax profit rises 14.5 pct

Nigeria's Zenith Bank said on Monday its first quarter pretax profit rose 14.5 percent year-on-year to 33.12 billion naira ($166 million).

Turnover also rose to 113.32 billion naira compared with 94.32 billion naira the previous year, the bank said in a statement without giving a reason for the increase in earnings.

Nigeria's Sterling Bank says Q1 pretax profit rises 14 pct

 

Nigeria's Sterling Bank said on Monday its first quarter pretax profit rose 14 percent year-on-year to 4.04 billion naira ($20 million).



Revenue also rose to 27.22 billion naira in the three months to end-March from 24.71 billion naira last year, the bank said in a statement without giving a reason for the rise in earnings.

Mali gold reserves estimated at 600 tonnes in 2015: ministry

Mali's gold reserves are estimated at about 600 tonnes as of 2015, an equivalent of 12 years of production at the current rate of some 50 tonnes per year, data from the West African nation's mines ministry showed on Monday.

Mali is Africa's third biggest gold producer behind South Africa and Ghana. The precious metal is Mali's top foreign exchange earner.

Nine companies including Randgold Resources, Anglogold Ashanti, IamGold and Resolute Mining operate in the country.