Again, Emefiele Forecloses Devaluation of Naira

Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele on Friday foreclosed speculations that the apex bank may further resolve to devalue the naira in order to stabilise its value at the foreign exchange market.

He said the CBN could not continue to take indeterminate policy decisions as there was currently no need to change the current exchange positions.

He stressed that the naira was presently appropriately priced.

The CBN also yesterday resolved to leave both the monetary policy rate (MPR) otherwise known as interest rate and banks' cash reserve ratio (CRR) unchanged at 13 percent with a corridor of +/- 200 basis points around the midpoint and 31 percent respectively.

33 ships scheduled to arrive at Nigerian ports

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has said that 33 ships are scheduled to arrive at the Lagos ports with various goods.

According to the shipping position released by the NPA in Lagos, the ships are expected to arrive at the ports between July 23 and August 9, 2015.

It noted that 12 of the expected ships will sail into the ports with containers, while another 12 will bring in food products.

The NPA explained that the food products included bulk malt, bulk sugar, buckwheat and frozen fish, while general cargo will arrive in five of the expected ships and the remaining four ships will bring in petroleum products.

The document showed that six ships carrying petrol and diesel had arrived at the ports.

FAAC allocates N518bn to three tiers of govt

 

 The Federation Accounts Allocation Committee on Friday allocated a total sum of N518.54bn to the three tiers of government for the month of June.

The allocation, when compared to the N403.02bn distributed in the previous month of May, represents an increase of N115.5bn or 28.67 per cent.

Addressing journalists shortly after the meeting, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Mrs. Anastacia Nwaobia, said the allocation of N518.54bn was distributed from three major sub heads.

They are Statutory Allocation, N449.68bn; Value Added Tax, N62.39bn; and Exchange Gain, N6.46bn.

Nwaobia, who presided over the meeting, said from the statutory allocation of N449.68bn, the Federal Government received the sum of N218.92bn; states N111.04bn; local government councils N85.6bn, while the sum of N34.1bn was allocated to the oil producing states based on the 13 per cent derivation principle.

From the VAT distribution, she said the Federal Government got N9.35bn representing 15 per cent; states N31.19bn, while the local governments are to share the sum of N21.83bn.

She put the balance in the Excess Crude Account at $2.207bn, noting that the sum of N6.33bn was refunded by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation being debt owed the Federal Government.

On the revenue side, Nwaobia put the gross revenue received for the month at N485.95bn, noting that this was N161.89bn higher than the N324.06bn generated in May.

She said declaration of force majeure by Shell Petroleum Development Company, shut down of trunks and production pipeline at Nembe and Trans Forcado terminal ,impacted negatively on crude oil revenue.

Kano-Port Harcourt Train Services Begin

Nigeria-air-conditioned-trainTrain services from northern Nigerian State, Kano, to Pot Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, have started, twelve years after the Nigerian government launched a revitalisation project of the railway.

The mixed service train will leave Kano to Port Harcourt every Thursday and from Port Harcourt to Kano every Tuesday.

At the commissioning ceremony of the new trains in Kano on Thursday, the Managing Director of the Nigeria Railway Cooperation (NRC), Adesiyi Asijuwade, said train services in Nigeria was back on track.

The first Kano-Port Harcourt mixed train services was in 1914, technically carrying both passenger and goods from the north to southern part of Nigeria.

However, in view of the ongoing efforts by the NRC, train services are now being resuscitated in phases across Nigeria.

Two 68-seater air conditioned modern first class passenger couches had been put in place to traverse a rail distance of 1,139 kilometres, stretching from Kano to Port Harcourt, with stops at some cities across Kano, Kaduna and Benue among other states in the south.

Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, represented by the Speaker State House of Assembly, Alhassan Doguwa, assured the corporation of the State government’s continued support and patronage.

At the event, the Emir of Kano Muhammadu Sunusi II, urged the management of the NRC to ensure continuity of the train services at an affordable price in order to allow free flow of economic exchange between the south and northern parts of Nigeria.

During the British colonial era, train services were regular and one of the best means of transportation in Nigeria, but lack of maintenance of the infrastructure led to a huge setback in that sector, forcing business owners to rely solely on the use of trucks for the movement of goods from one part of the nation to the other.

The dearth in the sector further affected the movement of agricultural produce from farm settlements that were located in towns where the rail line traverse.

The resuscitation of the train services will no doubt bring succour to farmers that may need to move produce from Kano to states along the rail line and in southern Nigeria.

World Bank appoints first African woman Vice President

The Bank announced the appointment of Arunma Oteh as Vice President and Treasurer of the World Bank in a press statement issued Thursday July 203, 2015.

Ms. Oteh had served as the Director-General of Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission, she resigned from the position in January 2015.

According to the Bank, as Vice President and Treasurer, Arunma will manage and lead a large and diverse team responsible for managing more than $150 billion in assets.

The Bank indicated that her top priorities will be to: (i) maintain the World Bank’s global reputation as a prudent and innovative borrower, investor and risk manager; (ii) manage an extensive client advisory, transaction and asset management business for the Bank; (iii) engage, in her capacity as one of the World Bank’s key representatives, with outside stakeholders including global private sector financial institutions, the financial media and the sovereign debt and reserve managers in client countries, as well as ratings agencies; and (iv) collaborate extensively with the Finance Partners throughout the World Bank Group, including with IFC and MIGA, expanding shared approaches, in particular around innovative financing for development and for key new projects.

Prior to joining the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Nigeria, Arunma was Group Vice President, Corporate Services, at the African Development Bank Group (AfDB). In this role she oversaw a number of departments, including human resources, information and communications technology, and institutional procurement. From 2001 to 2006 she held the role of AfDB Group Treasurer, where she led AfDB’s fundraising and capital market activities across the world. Earlier roles at the AfDB, which she joined in 1992, included trading room management, investment portfolio coverage, and public sector lending. She also held other positions in capital markets and lending during the course of her career at the AfDB. Arunma began her career in 1985 at Centre Point, where she executed debt and equity offerings in the Nigerian capital markets.

She earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Nigeria and MBA from Harvard University.

Her appointment is effective September 28, 2015.

Nigerian share dealing fell in June as foreign buyers cut exposure

 

 Share dealing on Nigeria' s bourse fell to 203.45 billion naira ($1.04 billion) in June, down 9.8 percent from year ago, the stock exchange said on Friday, as foreign investors unnerved by a weaker naira currency cut exposure to equities.

The stock exchange said the value of shares traded by foreign investors in June stood at 69.65 billion naira, down from 118 billion naira during the same period last year, as domestic investors picked up the slack.

Diamond Bank H1 pretax profit falls 11.6 pct

 

Nigeria's Diamond Bank's first-half pre-tax profit fell by 11.6 percent to 14.19 billion naira ($71 million) compared with the same period last year, it said on Friday.

Gross earnings rose to 83.16 billion naira from 78.72 billion naira last year, the bank said in a statement, without giving a reason for the drop in profit.