According to its annual report, Polaris recorded a total of 134 cases of fraud in 2020 which comprise seven fraud categories, namely Automated Teller Machine fraud (43 cases), Internet bank fraud (three cases), mobile fraud (46), impersonation fraud (three cases), cheque theft (one case), outright theft (25 cases) and general fraud incidents (113). The report also revealed that ATM, Internet bank, mobile and impersonation fraud cases cost the bank N830.1m, N37.7m, N16.2m and N989,700 respectively. It said cheque theft led to a loss of N1m, while outright theft and general fraud incidents resulted N21.8m and N30.4m losses respectively. Zenith’s fraud…
Author: Temitope N.
Social Action has called on the Federal Government to release the long-awaited audit report of the Niger Delta Development Commission. The civil advocacy group said in a statement that the report from a forensic audit carried out on the operations of the NDDC after the an ad-hoc committee of the Senate inaugurated an investigation in October 2020 should be released to the public. According to the statement, the Minister for Niger Delta Affair, Mr Godswill Akpabio, said a week ago that the team of auditors charged with the audit had submitted the report to his office. Social Action said, “It…
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, on Friday, cautioned against any further legal challenge by Shell Petroleum Development Company over Oil Mining Lease 11, saying it is about time Nigeria derived the benefit of the oil block after over three decades. The NNPC announced that its subsidiary, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, had resumed operations on OML 11 after a court judgement in its favour. It said in a statement by its spokesperson, Garba-Deen Muhammad, that a recent Appeal Court judgement affirmed the oil firm’s operatorship of the OML 11. The statement said, “The Appeal Court sitting in Abuja on Monday upturned…
The Central Bank of Nigeria has warned microfinance banks against performing certain non-permissible activities, including wholesale backing and foreign exchange transactions. This was contained in a circular titled ‘Cessation of non-permissible activities by microfinance banks’ released on Friday by Ibrahim Tukur on behalf of CBN’s Financial Policy and Regulation Department. The circular read, “The Central Bank of Nigeria has observed the activities of some microfinance banks that have gone beyond the remit of their operating licence by engaging in non-permissible activities, especially wholesale backing, foreign exchange transactions and others. “Given the comparatively low capitalisation of MfBs, dealing in wholesale and/or…
Aviation unions have said the Federal Government would not succeed in its plan to concession Nigeria’s four major airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt. However, it was also learnt that the move to concession the facilities had created a division among airport workers, as those in private aviation companies were in support of concession, while their counterparts in the public service opposed the plan. On Tuesday, it was reported that the Federal Government had officially commenced the search for concessionaires to manage Nigeria’s four major airports. It made this public through the Federal Ministry of Aviation in its…
Equity investors in the Nigerian Exchange Limited gained N64.93bn on Thursday as the NGX All-Share Index rose by 0.32 per cent to 39,670.29 basis points, its highest since April 26, 2021. The market capitalisation of equities increased to N20.67tn on Thursday from N20.60tn the previous day. Trading volume jumped by 52.90 per cent from 132.01 million shares worth N2.67bn traded in 3,307 deals on Wednesday to 201.84 million shares valued at N1.68bn in 3,274 deals. By sector, the NGX Insurance and NGX Industrial indices increased by 0.77 per cent and 0.22 per cent respectively, while the Banking, Consumer Goods and…
President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed that Nigeria lost an estimated $50 billion worth of investments in 10 years, due to the uncertainty of non-passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), lack of progress and stagnation in the petroleum industry. He said this in his remarks at a ceremony on the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), which preceded the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting. According to the president, the stagnation affected the growth of the economy and the lack of political will on the part of past administrations to actualise the needed transformation, also contributed to the loss of…
•Groups partner to bring regulators, operators together To create harmonious relationships in the financial technology space, there is a need for clarity of regulations from the regulators to the players in the sector, especially Fintechs. Clarity of regulations, according to experts in the space, would not only ensure stability, bridge knowledge gaps, but also help avoid unnecessary frictions among stakeholders. These were the views of experts, who spoke to journalists in Lagos, ahead of their planned efforts to bring financial regulators closer to operators in the Fintech space in Nigeria. Besides, these experts also highlighted the importance of financial and…
Without an active conversion industry for vehicles and other machinery, the core mandate of the Nigerian Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP) might be frustrated, operators have warned. One of the downstream operators, Quest Oil & Engineering Services Limited, stated that many private sector investment seeking interest in the conversion of vehicles and other machinery would remain idle due to lack of vehicles that would utilise gas for the programme to succeed. The Group Chief Executive Officer, Quest Oil & Engineering Limited, Goke Dele, at a press briefing, said it was as a result of this that the company is keying into…
Foreign airlines operating in and out of Nigeria have complained over difficulties in repatriating accumulated funds, now in excess of $143.8 million. The airlines, under the aegis of International Air Transport Association (IATA), said the stuck funds have further made recovery difficult for struggling carriers. Though not peculiar to Nigeria, the funds were from tickets sold locally but could not be repatriated due to forex liquidity crisis IATA noted that approximately $963 million in airline funds were being blocked from repatriation in nearly 20 countries. Four countries: Bangladesh ($146.1 million), Lebanon ($175.5 million), Nigeria ($143.8 million), and Zimbabwe ($142.7 million),…
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) and FrieslandCampina WAMCO, have renewed their Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on dairy value chain development. Under the new pact, both parties will provide a networking environment for 30,000 cattle herders and transform dairy farming practices by introducing improved techniques and also providing farmers with extension services to enhance raw milk quality and farm productivity. “We will introduce commercial credit to farmers and build confidence between benefiting farmers and financial institutions for viable agri-business”, says the Managing Director of FrieslandCampina WAMCO, Ben Langat. The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sabo Nanono…
A step towards redeeming the pledge by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to intervene in the perennial electric power supply challenge in Maiduguri, Borno State, was taken on Tuesday with the execution of the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) and Equipment Procurement contracts for a 50Megawatts (MW) Emergency Power Project in Maiduguri. The project, which is an integral part of ongoing efforts to deepen the Corporation’s domestic gas utilisation plan for the nation’s socio-economic growth has China Machinery Engineering Company (CMEC) as the EPC contractor while General Electric (GE), is the equipment manufacturer. Speaking at the contract signing event…
Two firms, Quest Oil and Engineering Services Limited, owners of Ascon Oil Company Limited and Rainoil Ltd are currently having a running battle over the ownership of a petrol filling station on Admiralty Way, in Lagos. While Quest Oil announced that it has reclaimed its petrol filling station located at Block 36 Admiralty Way, Lekki Phase 1, the management of Rainoil Ltd has decried the action as an invasion. Quest Oil in a statement, said the action is in line with the earlier Order of Justice Liman of the Federal High Court in Lagos, setting aside his previous Order restraining…
Perennial underpricing and poor rates in the ground handling sub-sector of aviation yearly is costing the entire industry a shortfall of $28.35 million or N11.6 billion ($1:N410). A rough estimate in revenue, according to industry benchmark on average handling rate on the continent, showed that the sub-sector is worth at least $56.7 million in turnover, as against the half it currently records yearly in Nigeria. Stakeholders and operators alike have described the shortfall as enormous, with severe implications for safe operations and sustainability. They, again, urged the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to intervene and institute a safety threshold-handling rate…
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, says COVID-19 had helped to reduce the cost of crude oil production in the country. “We have reduced the cost of production successfully the issues of our local currency notwithstanding. “Recently, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) have launched programmes on cost reduction and it has impacted the sector “Both programmes have helped to bring down the cost of production, but what also helped us in reducing the cost of production is from a very unlikely quarter and that is COVID-19. “With COVID-19,…
The senate has ordered the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to go after companies that failed to pay their taxes in 2015. A report by the office of the auditor general of the federation (AuGF) said the FIRS lost up to N17.69 billion in 2015 to some companies whose addresses it claimed could no longer be traced. The senate ordered Muhammad Nami, the executive chairman of the FIRS, to go after the defaulters, recover and remit the revenue to the consolidated revenue fund (CRF) within 90 days. It added that all companies that failed to file their annual returns should…
The Federal Government’s total borrowing from the Central Bank of Nigeria through Ways and Means Advances has ballooned to N15.51tn, rising by 2,286 per cent in six years, data collated from the CBN have shown. The N15.51tn owed by the Federal Government to the central bank is not part of the country’s total public debt stock, which stood at N33.11tn as of March 2021, according to the Debt Management Office. The public debt stock comprises the debts of the Federal Government of Nigeria, the 36 state governments and the Federal Capital Territory. Ways and Means Advances is a loan facility…
The Federal High Court Abuja has frozen the bank accounts of some investment and trading platforms that Nigerians have been using to transact online. Justice Ahmed Mohammed made the order on Tuesday while delivering his ruling in an ex parte application filed by the Central Bank of Nigeria through its lawyer, Micheal Aondoakaa (SAN). Justice Mohammed stated that persons who were aggrieved by the order could approach the court for redress. The CBN told the court that the financial activities of the defendants were being probed for operating without obtaining licence as asset management companies and utilizing FX sourced from…
Following investors’ appetite for some high-capitalised stocks, the Nigerian stock market reversed previous losses to close on an upward note yesterday, as market capitalisation appreciated by N24 billion. Specifically, at the close of transactions yesterday, the market capitalisation of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) rose by N24 billion from N20.582 trillion recorded on Monday to N20.606 trillion. Similarly, the All-share index appreciated by 44.96 points or 0.1 per cent from 39,505.40 points to 39, 550.36 points. Analysts at Investdata Consulting Limited said: “We note that some stocks are trading within their buy ranges to become more attractive at this point…
The headline inflation slowed for the fourth consecutive month in July from a year-on-year (YoY) growth of 17.75 per cent reported in June to 17.38 per cent. This was contained in the consumer price index (CPI) released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) yesterday. The CPI measures the changes in prices of goods and services over time using a weighted average. July’s headline inflation rate is 0.37 percentage points lower than the rate reported in June, showing that the inflation rate increased at a slower speed. The month-on-month inflation rate stood at 0.93 per cent against 1.06 per cent…