Nigeria to raise 120.5 bln naira in Treasury bills next week

 

Nigeria plans to sell 120.52 billion naira ($606 million) of 3-month, 6-month and 1-year Treasury bills on June 24, the central bank said on Wednesday.

The apex bank said in a statement it would sell 31.19 billion naira worth of the 3-month paper, 39.33 billion naira of the 6-month bill and 50 billion naira in the 1-year debt next week, using the Dutch auction System.

At an auction later on Wednesday, the bank is offering 143.64 billion worth of Treasury bills of tenors ranging between 3-month and 1-year. In addition, a total of 80 billion naira worth of Treasury bonds with maturities between 5-year and 20-year are also on offer at the same auction.

The results of both auctions will be published the Thursday.

($1 = 198.9000 naira)

Nigeria $5.6 bln power plants sell-off stalls on gas shortages

Nigeria's privatisation of 10-independent power plants (IPPs) that could fetch up to $5.6 billion is stalling due to a lack of gas supply, the chief executive of Aiteo Power and Gas said.

Africa's biggest economy broke up its monopoly on power generation and distribution by privatizing the sector two years ago, hoping to attract foreign investors.

Since that privatisation, the amount of power produced has stagnated, failing to reach a 2012 peak of 4,500 megawatts of electricity owing to gas constraints, plant outages and tripped circuits, according to Transmission Company of Nigeria.

About 3,346 MW of power was distributed to consumers during this year, it said.

The government also blames gas pipeline vandalism.

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NASS Members To Receive N8.64bn As Wardrobe Allowance

The National Assembly members will receive a total of N8.64billion as wardrobe allowance next week, This Day has obtained.

This is aside other allowances they are entitled to, including housing and vehicle allowances. Each of 360 House of Representatives members is to get N17.5million as a wardrobe allowance and each of 109 senators – N21.5million.

Wardrobe allowance covers the the whole four-year tenure, while housing allowances are paid on a yearly basis.

READ ALSO: N27 Billion New Residences For NASS Presiding Officers (PHOTOS)

Calculations based on the system approved by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, each senator will be paid N4,052,800 as housing allowance. The Senate president and his deputy will be provided accommodation by the Federal Government.

Each reps member will be paid N3,970,425 as housing allowance upon assumption of office. Similarly, speaker’s and deputy speaker’s is to be ensured by the government.

Furniture allowance for the senators will take away N6,079,200 from the NASS budget, N650,474,400 for each (107, excluding president and deputy president).
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Furniture allowance for each member of the House of Representatives will correspond N2,132,118,225, which makes  N5,955,637.50 for each.

OPC pulls out of NNPC pipeline surveillance

The Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) said it would pull out its men from guarding all Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) pipelines nationwide from Monday evening.

Yinka Oguntimehin, the Spokesman for Gani Adams Faction of the congress said this became necessary because the corporation had yet to start paying for the work its men are doing.

He said the corporation was, as part of the contractual agreement entered into, three months ago, expected to start payment.

The spokesman said the OPC personnel had continued to guard the pipelines with the belief that the corporation would pay as promised.

“When we were given the contract on March 15, it was agreed that they will release money for the OPC personnel for effective protection of the NNPC pipelines nationwide.”

“We lost one man last month because of the activities of the vandals here in Lagos, while some of our men were arrested in the course of protecting the pipeline.”

“We had told them to release some of our money before the new administration took over, but they kept promising us.”

“Enough is enough, three months have passed since our members started monitoring the pipeline, and we have fulfilled our part of the agreement.”

“By 10p.m today, our personnel will move out of the NNPC pipelines nationwide and this applies to other groups in the country,” he said.

The federal Government had in March awarded a multi-billion Naira contract to the OPC to secure NNPC pipelines in the South-West Zone of the country.

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NERC Issues Licences To 4 Electricity Firms

Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has issued fresh generation licences to four firms with total generation targets of 774 mega watts of electricity.

In issuing the fresh licences, NERC said it had extracted concrete commitments from the promoters of the four benefiting firms to produce power or be sanctioned.

The companies are Pan Africa Solar Limited, based in Kankia, Katsina State, to generate 24mw from solar, and Nigeria Solar Capital Partners Limited, based in Ganjuwa, Bauchi State, to generate 100mw from solar. Others are Proton Energy Limited, based in Ogorode, Delta State, to generate 150mw from gas, and Turbine Drives Limited, based in Ajaokuta, to generate 500mw from gas.

The licences were presented by Sam Amadi, chairman of NERC.

Meanwhile, the Commission also announced that it has commenced revoking many of the generation licences that it issued which are ‘non-performing.’

The NERC, which reviewed the status of the 120 licences issued since 2006, noted that government had since resolved some of the complaints of the licensees by establishing the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET or Bulk Trader) to act as the off taker for the sector.

Nigerian Banks Are Healthy - NDIC

Against fears being entertained especially by investors and Nigerian businessmen and women, the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has said that all banks operating in Nigeria are healthy and that their workings are in line with global standards.

The Deputy Director, Research, (NDIC), Hashim Ahmad, disclosed this while addressing journalists shortly after the sensitization of the 2015 Batch 'A Stream 2', National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members at the orientation camp, Paiko in Niger state.

Hashim said the corporation undertakes proper supervision of the banks in the country as insurer to ensure they remain healthy, adding that "The annual report normally summarizes the healthy or otherwise status of the industry."

"Nigerian Banks are relatively healthy in line with global standards. It is unlikely announcing the healthy status of our banks in the public but we normally say in aggregate and I think our annual report will soon be released and be made available for public scrutiny", he said

The NDIC Deputy Director, Research said, "We don't particularly say Bank A or B is distressed. We are simply saying that on aggregate basis we will tell you the industry is this or that, but we undertake supervision of the banks as insurer as you know, no insurer will sit back and allow his risk to crystallize before he wakes up.

Akpabio dragged to EFCC over alleged misuse of N3trn allocations

Immediate past governor of Akwa Ibom State, Chief Godswill Akpabio, has been dragged to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for allegedly mismanaging the sum of N3trillion allocations to the state while in office.

akpopiaThe action against Akpabio is initiated by a lawyer, Chief Leo Ekpenyong.

In his petition to the EFCC, Ekpenyong asked the anti-graft agency to investigate the former Governor for misusing the N3trillion allocations to the state government during his tenure.

Ekpenyong, in the five-page petition, dated June 8, 2015, which he addressed to EFCC Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, a copy, which he sent President Muhammadu Buhari and the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, he alleged that Akwa Ibom State received statutory allocations amounting to over N3trillion during the eight-year administration of Akpabio, which, he claimed the ex-governor spent recklessly.

Ekpenyong alleged that the amount is more than five times what the entire five states of the South-East zone received from the Federation Account within the same period.

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