The risks to South Africa’s economic growth outlook are skewed more to the downside, according to economists polled by Reuters who cited disruptions from new coronavirus variants and extended softer commodity prices as potential challenges. Forecasts collected in the past week suggested economic growth would slow next year to a median 2.4% from 4.3% this year, much the same as last month’s forecast. But a firm majority of economists – six of eight – who answered an extra question said their GDP forecast risks were skewed more to the downside in their medium-term outlook. This quarter the economy was expected…
Author: Temitope Nlewemchi
The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has signed the Petroleum Industry Bill 2021 into law. Under the DSDP scheme, which was introduced by the NNPC in 2016, selected companies are allocated crude supplies in exchange for the delivery of an equal value of petrol and other refined products to the corporation. Several stakeholders, including fuel marketers, the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria and oil unions, had expressed their opposition to the provision that limited imports to only refiners. Our correspondent gathered that the provision was altered during the harmonisation of the PIB passed by the Senate and House of…
Total fintech investment reached $98bn from 2,456 deals in the first half of 2021, according to KPMG. The company, in its ‘Pulse of Fintech H1’21’ report, said this was more than the $87bn raised in H2 2020. The report said, “A wealth of dry powder, COVID-related digital acceleration, an increasingly diverse range of fintech hubs and subsectors, and robust activity in almost all regions of the world contributed to the strong start to 2021. “Global VC investment reached over $52bn in H1 2021 — very close to the annual record of $54bn seen in 2018. The largest VC rounds of…
The Federal Government has said the establishment of a national carrier will enable Nigeria to benefit from the opportunities associated with the Single African Air Transport Market. SAATM is an initiative of the African Union to create a single unified air transport market in Africa to advance the liberalisation of civil aviation in Africa and act as a catalyst to the continent’s economic integration agenda. Twenty-three African countries, including Nigeria, adopted SAATM in 2015 to implement the Yamoussoukro Decision, which was created to lift restrictions in open skies among African countries. The Ministry of Aviation, in its recent roadmap status,…
Aside from the 12 federal highways that are already up for concession, more roads under the control of the Federal Government are going to be managed by concessionaires, our correspondent has learnt. It was gathered that the proposed tolling of roads by the Federal Government would be on the 12 highways under the Highway Development and Management Initiative as well as on other dual carriageways and bridges. Responding to an enquiry by our correspondent, officials of the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing explained that the 12 highways under the HDMI represented about 1,963km and less than 5.6 per cent…
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…
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,…