Nigerian naira seen weakening on low dollar supply

 The Nigerian naira is expected to weaken in the next week after the central bank stopped offering dollars to some foreign exchange traders.

The Nigerian naira is likely to ease further next week after the central bank suspended its sale of dollars to some bureaux de change over their failure to file documentation on previous dollar purchases.

The local currency was trading at 246 to the dollar on the unofficial market on Thursday, down from 235 per dollar last week. It traded at 198.97 a dollar on the official interbank market. It had closed at 197 to the dollar last week on the market.

The central bank had on Wednesday denied about 1,599 bureaux de change agents, out of a total of 2,818 operators, access to its foreign exchange sales window, limiting supply.

"We hope by next week the issue around the suspension of some bureaux de change would have been resolved, otherwise dollar shortage may persist in the market, leading to further depreciation of the naira," one trader said.

Typo' raises reduced MTN fine by $500 million: Regulator

 South African telecoms giant MTN has had its reduced fine for failing to disconnect unregistered users in Nigeria increased by $500 million because of a mistake by the regulator in Abuja.

MTN announced on Thursday that the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) had cut the initial $5.2 billion fine to $3.4 billion after talks with the authorities in Nigeria's capital.

But the company said on Friday the fine had now been increased to $3.9 billion.

NCC spokesman Tony Ojobo admitted: "There was a typo. The reduction should have been 25 percent.

"We saw the mistake and had to fix it," he was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.

The company said it was "carefully considering" the letters it has received and that its chairman and acting chief executive Phuthuma Nhleko would hold further talks with the Nigerian authorities.

The amount has to be paid by December 31.

MTN was slapped with the hefty penalty in October after it missed a deadline to disconnect 5.1 million unregistered SIM cards.

The NCC in early August ordered all mobile phone companies operating in Nigeria to deactivate all unregistered SIM cards within seven days or face severe sanctions.

DMO to sell N50bn worth of bonds on Dec. 9

The Debt Management Office (DMO) says it will raise N50 billion worth of bonds in two categories on Dec. 9.
The DMO disclosed this in its ‘Bond Circular’ posted on its Website on Thursday.

According to the circular, the two categories of bonds are the 10-year and five-year bonds.

The DMO said that it would issue N20 billion worth of the 10-year bonds and N30 billion of the five-year bonds.

It said the two categories of bonds would mature in March 2024 and February 2020, respectively.

The DMO said that the two categories of bonds would open with different coupon rates.

“The 10-year and five-year bonds would have coupon rates of 11.85 per cent and 11.73 per cent, respectively.’’
 It said that the bonds would be auctioned on Dec. 9, while the settlement date would be Dec. 11.


    

Kachikwu Replaces Diezani At OPEC Conference In Vienna

As the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is set to meet in Vienna on Friday, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum, and head of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC) Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has been named as the new conference President of the Organisation.

Dr. Kachikwu replaces Nigeria’s former Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke who was named the first female President of OPEC in November last year.

The minister is calling for a delay in Iran’s intended oversupply of crude oil in order to control pricing that has dropped near 20 percent in 2015.

Ahead of Friday’s meeting, US crude oil price climbed 1.40 percent early today trading at 40 Dollars 23 cents per barrel, Brent was up 48 cents at 42 Dollars 97 cents per barrel.

Ahead of Fridy’s meeting analysts expect OPEC whose 12 member nations from the Middle East, Africa and Latin America pump out about one third of the world’s oil, to leave its daily oil output target at 30 million barrels.

NBS Urges Substantial Attention For Accurate Statistics

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to give substantial attention to the production and usage of accurate statistics in all sectors.

The Statistician General of the Federation, Dr. Yemi Kale, made the called while speaking at the National Stakeholders Validation Workshop in Kaduna State, Northwest Nigeria.

Dr. Kale said for Nigeria to be among the top 20 economies in the world by the year 2020, the present administration must give much consideration to the production and usage of credible data.

He stressed the importance of accurate and credible data in strategic development plans, in order to make better decisions for enhanced policy making.

The NBS boss observed that Nigeria needed robust and reliable statistics in order to effectively implement the Sustainable Development Goals and effectively monitor its socio-economic programmes.

While discrediting speculations that Nigeria’s unemployment rate was on the upsurge, he added that most of the past economic policies failed due to lack of well- informed decisions that would catalyse social and economic development.

The Director of Field Services and Methodology, NBS, Felicia Abioye, hinted that the meeting would review and update the National Strategic Development Plan for 2015- 2019.

The representative of the European Union, Professor Peter Osanaiye and Statistician General of Kaduna State, Bashir Bature, stressed the need for the Nigerian government to strengthen the nation’s Bureau of statistics in order to get an accurate data for policy formulation.

With no clear and accurate number of unemployed youths, health profile of citizens and poverty indices, the meeting was aimed at sensitising relevant stakeholders on the enormous task of data generation.

FG slashes MTN fine over SIM cards disconnections

The Nigerian Communications Commission has sharply reduced a hefty penalty slapped on South African telecoms giant MTN over unregistered SIM cards, the company said on Thursday.

The Commission is now looking for a fine of $3.4 billion (3.2 billion euros), down from an earlier $5.2 billion, after negotiations with the regulator, it said.

MTN was slapped with the hefty penalty in October after it missed a deadline to disconnect 5.1 million unregistered SIM cards.

The reduced fine has to be paid by December 31.

Africa’s largest mobile phone operator said in a statement is was “carefully considering” the revised fine by the NCC.

It said executive chairman Phuthuma Nhleko “will immediately and urgently re-engage with the Nigerian authorities before responding formally…to ensure the best outcome for the company, its stakeholders and the Nigerian authorities.”

“All factors having a bearing on the situation will be thoroughly and carefully considered before the company arrives at a final decision.”

The fine resulted in the resignation of the group’s chief executive Sifiso Dabengwa in November, after news of the penalty sent the firm’s share price plummeting.

Dabengwa has been replaced by Phuthuma Nhleko, the firm’s former chief executive who will hold the position for six months.

Meantime two senior executives at the company’s operation in Nigeria have stepped down, the firm announced.

MTN Nigeria’s CEO Michael Ikpoki and the head of regulatory and corporate affairs, Akinwale Goodluck “have tendered their resignations with immediate effect,” MTN said in a statement.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, is MTN group’s largest market where it had over 62.8 million subscribers by the second quarter of this year.

The NCC said registration of subscribers was made mandatory to ensure proper identification of users with their biometric data and in line with international best practice.

Nigerian forex reserves fall to $30.04 bln by Nov 26

Nigeria's foreign exchange reserves fell to $30.04 billion by Nov. 26 from $30.10 billion the month before, the latest central bank data showed on Monday. 

Reserves were down 18.6 percent on the year from $36.9 billion in the same period last year. Nigeria's dollar reserves have been hit by a plunge in crude prices and the central bank's decision to defend the currency.

Nigeria: Fashola Targets 5000MW Power Generation Before End of 2015

Nigeria's Minister of Power, Babatunde Fashola wants Nigeria's power generation by the end of the year to hit 5000MW.

The minister had a closed door meeting stakeholders in Nigeria’s power sector yesterday in Abuja.

Implementation of new electricity tariff drawn up by the electricity distribution companies (Discos) under the Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO.2.1) of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and complaints of regulatory uncertainty which the Discos had raised were also discussed at the meeting.

RMAFC recovers over N704.2b, goes tough on MDAs that fail to remit to Federation Account

The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) recovered over N704.2 billion in the last five years, its Chairman, Elias Mbam has said.

Addressing reporters in Abuja yesterday at the valedictory briefing to mark the end of his tenure along with that of some members of the Commission, he said RMAFC “expanded the sources of revenue to the Federation Account, with recoveries of over N704.2billion been made, revenue leakages were addressed, verification  is being carried out on the collecting banks and other collecting agencies. Generally, the Commission has addressed vigorously all its Constitutional Mandate”.

Mbam said he did not have the exact amount recovered. “I don’t have the exact figure of which and which but it is basically in all the generating agencies. A greater proportion is from NNPC. There are some from Central bank, there are some from FIRS. I don’t have the exact figure.

The Commission, Mbam said, “periodically carried out monitoring and checks on the revenue collecting agencies, including Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), and Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, among others. It also conducted monthly post-disbursement monitoring through post-mortem Sub-Committee of Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC). The Commission recovered over N704.2 billion Naira in the course of monitoring and checks within the period under review.”

To minimise leakages, the Commission, Mbam said, embarked on  the monitoring and reconciliation of collections and remittances by the collecting banks engaged by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Nigerian Customs Service (NCS). The exercise is expected to be a continuous one and over N12.6billion has been established as liability while over N1.8billion has been recovered and remitted to the Federation Account in Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Similarly, “the Commission is also collaborating with FIRS for the reconciliation and recovery of large amount of Tax Liabilities by Federal MDAs, states, and councils. Over N15 billion  has been recovered in the exercise from the reconciliation of tax liabilities of states and local government councils across the country,” Mbam said.

To enhance revenue accruals to the Federation Account (FA), the Commission, Mbam said “collaborated with the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development to ensure that Solid Mineral Sector contributed to the FA. The Solid Mineral Sector is now contributing to the FA for the first time.  Over N11.3 billion has been remitted to the Federation Account from this Sector as at July 2015.”

Mbam also disclosed that the Commission has identified other government agencies that are supposed to remit their generated revenue to the Federation Account but are yet to comply. He listed them as Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC), among others as government agencies that defaulted in making remittances to the FA.

Specifically, Mbam frowned at the NPA, NIMASA and NCC agencies, which he said, “are supposed to generate money for the federation, because of the process they generate money, they use federation assets. Take for instance, the NPA, they are using the body of water. Body of water  is not for the federal government. It’s a national asset. So the money they generate should be for the nation, for the three tiers of government, the same thing with NCC. They give licenses for using the air. Does any state own the air? It is for the nation. So those agencies that generate money using our national assets should be owned by the federation.”

The Commission Chairman expressed concern that revenue from Stamp Duties in respect of electronic transfer running into billions of Naira “is not being remitted to the Federation Account. As a result, billions of Naira are being lost on a daily basis. I am happy to report that the process of correcting these anomalies has reached an advanced stage. Revenue from stamp duty is not generated and paid to the federation account. You know we have a clearing system where all transactions, electronic transactions go”

Naira Depreciates Further At Parallel Market

The naira depreciated further at the parallel market on Monday as it lost N0.5 to exchange at N242.5 to the dollar.

It was previously exchanged at N242 to the dollar.

The naira, however, closed at N197 to the dollar at the inter-bank segment.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the naira has continued to slide in spite of the measures adopted by the apex bank to defend the exchange rate.

Traders at the market said that there was upsurge in demand for foreign exchange and this was impacting on the exchange rate of the naira.

Power firm to construct 300megawatts photo voltaic solar plant

 

In its efforts to boost power supply in the country, Shiroro Hydroelectric Power Station plans to construct a 300megawatts (Mw) photo voltaic solar power plant on the existing plant premises which was concessioned to the North- South Power Company on November 1, 2013.

The firm’s Chief Technical Officer, Mr. Roland Lwiindi, who disclosed this to the Post Privatisation Monitoring Team of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) that was on a monitoring exercise at the power station in Shiroro, Niger State, said once approval was obtained from the necessary authorities, its first phase would come on stream in 2017 and it would be the first of its kind in Africa.

According to him, when completed the plant would add 300mega watts of electricity to the existing 600mega watts. He added that the plant was at present generating 50% of its installed capacity.

Leader of the BPE monitoring team, Mr. Abdullahi Shuaibu, however commended the management for the strides achieved since take over and noted that it was an attestation to the gains of privatization.