Investigations have revealed that many filling stations across Benin City, the Edo state capital, on Sunday, January 3, defied the Federal Government’s directive on the new pump price for petrol as they continued to sell the product at either the old regulated price of N87 per litre or above it.
While majority of the filling stations around Ekenwan, Akpakpava were not selling fuel, only MEGA station on Sapele road was selling petrol for N86.per litre, with a relatively long queue, The Nation reports.
Also, at an NNPC retail station in Upper Sakponba road, petrol was sold for N87 despite the Federal Government’s directive.
A fuel attendant who spoke on condition of anonymity, that motorist should appreciate them after all “Others are selling for as much as N145-N 150 per litre
But other independent marketers who were dispensing the product sold to motorists and other buyers at between N115 and N150 per litre.
The Federal Government is planning to refund N5bn out N300bn owed state governments that have spent their resources to fix federal road in their respective states.
The proposal is contained in the budget document which has been submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly.
The fiscal document also indicated that the government had allocated a total sum of N60bn for special intervention and constituency projects in the 2016 fiscal year.
These amounts were provided for in the 2016 budget under the subheading of capital supplementation.
The document did not, however, provide details of the constituency projects and the states that would benefit from the refund on the federal road projects.
But as of June 2015, a total sum of N300bn was said to be owed states by the Federal Government for various road projects.
The Nigeria Governors Forum had on June 18, 2015 made a request to the President for the refund of money spent on roads belonging to the Federal Government.
Officials of the Nigerian Navy on Friday in Oteghale community, Warri-South Local Government Area of Delta State uncovered a hideout of crude oil thieves and arrested 16 suspects.
Flag Officer Commanding, Central Naval Command, Rear Admiral Augustine Suleman, who confirmed the development, said the arrest of the suspects was made possible via a tip-off.
He added that the operatives discovered a hop tap on the Trans Forcados pipeline fixed with six inches valve that allows crude oil thieves’ access to Nigerian crude unhindered.
He said: “A trip to the site revealed drums of over 8,000 tones through illegal trades.’’
Rear Admiral Suleman said the operatives realised that the Cotonou boats were not available and illegal refineries no longer existing with impunity.
He said, “What they are doing now is to connect pipes to the export line. They attach the pipes to the line and lay the pipes as far as two kilometers off shore and load directly from there.’’
Suleman, however, assured of their preparedness to end the illicit trade, disclosing that the suspects would be handed over to the police for further prosecution.
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has expressed concern about the current state of the Nigerian economy and the consequences of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s foreign exchange policy over the last few months.
In an appraisal conducted by the LCCI of the Nigerian economy in 2015 last week, it concluded that private operators in many sectors recorded losses of over N1.5trn last year as a result of scarcity of forex, especially during the last six months.
The Chamber, in a statement, bemoaned the unfriendly business environment in the country in 2015, saying it undermined the capacity of investors to maximise abundant business opportunities, in Africa’s largest economy.
“With drastic fall in oil price, heavy fuel subsidy bill, nearing N1trn in 2015, wide spread insolvency among state governments across the country, increasing sovereign debt and debt service obligation of N1.3t in 2016, the financial crisis may linger in the new year,” it predicted.
The statement or economic review and projection into the year 2016 signed by the Director General of the chamber, Mr. Muda Yusuf, described the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) forex restrictions policy in 2015 as one of the “costliest” policies in Nigeria in the recent years.
On business environment in 2015, Yusuf expressed concern over the deplorable state of roads leading to the Lagos ports (Apapa and Tincan Island), saying, “these ports account for over 60 percent of the cargo coming into the country and an estimated 70 percent of customs’ revenue. The poor state of the roads has multifarious effects on the private sector, economy and the citizenry.”
Monthly reports on the operational and financial dealings of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has revealed that the corporation recorded a loss of N14.3 billion in the month of November 2015.
The November loss came from the NNPC’s operating revenue after subsidy for the months of October and November 2015, which were N173.56 billion and N155.10 billion respectively.
This represents 56.72 percent and 50.68 percent, respectively, of the Corporation’s monthly budget.
The report also shows that the Corporation incurred operating deficits of N12.22 billion and N14.29 billion in the months of October and November 2015, respectively, as against the monthly budgeted surplus of N38.91 billion.
It further stated that the country’s refineries in Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna operated at zero capacity utilisation in the month of November.
The company said its total export proceed of $402.55 million was recorded in November 2015, with proceeds from crude oil export sales amounting to $296.99 million or 73.78 percent of the dollar payment compared with 72.97 percent contribution in the previous month of October.
It continued that gas export sales and Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas feedstock amounted to $105.53 million, which represents a 26.22 percent contribution compared with 18.97 percent contribution in the prior month of October.
Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State has disclosed that three private refinery operators have indicated interest to start operations in the state just as he warned marketers against contravening the miscellaneous code which he said, is punishable by law.
The Governor also advocated for the liberalization of the petroleum downstream sector to make room for an inter play of market forces which would regulate the cost of Petroleum products for the consuming public.
He stated this during the monthly prayer meeting at the Latter House Chapel, Government House, Uyo.
Governor Emmanuel was speaking against the backdrop of artificial scarcity of premium motor spirit (PMS) created by the marketers who have closed their stations and in the process deny motorists and the consuming public, access to the product.
He said, “Petroleum marketers are hoarding fuel on the pretext that the just concluded National Economic Council would push for the removal of Petroleum Subsidy. Let me clarify that during our last meeting, even at the Governor’s Forum, subsidy issues were not deliberated. If at all it will be removed, it’s not going to be immediately, so there’s no point hoarding fuel hoping that subsidy will be removed for them to enjoy super abnormal profits.
“Let’s not take things to the extreme. Yesterday no station was open in the state. I am of the view that if subsidy is removed, the interplay of market forces will bring down the price to where it should be.
“At present, landing cost of crude oil in the current market price is seventy eight naira, with liberalization anybody can come in, refine and sell the product. This way, the product will be cheaper, so I want to see the stations opened.”
There are indications that most of the petrol stations in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have complied with the new pump price for petrol which became officially effective on January 1, 2016.
According to a report by a correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) who went round many filling stations in Abuja on New Year’s day, not only had the stations adjusted their prices to the new regime, there appeared to be ample supply of the products, with a lot of the stations having loaded trucks on stand-by.
The Federal Government had directed that from January 1, 2016, all NNPC retail stations should sell petrol at N86.00 per litre, while independent petrol marketers were to sell at N86.50.
According to Mr. Farouk Ahmed, Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), the new pricing is a result of the implementation of the revised components of the Petroleum Products Pricing Templates for PMS (petrol) and kerosene. The new prices are expected to be in place at least for the first quarter of the year.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced that a total of 958 Micro-finance Banks (MFBs) were successful in scaling its recent recapitalization exercise, and are therefore now licensed to operate in the country. This figure is down from the over 1,200 operators that were previously in the business.
The new list of successful MFBs include those that met the N2bn capital base to operate with a national license, N100 million to operate with a state license, and those with N20million capital base to operate as a unit MFB.
In justifying the recapitalization exercise, the CBN accused the MFBs of engaging in illegal activities such as taking excessive loan risks and branching out too quickly, and against the provisions listed in their licenses.
According to the CBN, a unit MFB is authorized to operate only in one location, without any branches or cash centres, and is required to have a minimum paid up capital of N20 million. An operator with a state license may open branches within the state or the Federal Capital Territory, with a capital base of N100 million, while a national MFB license allows the operator to operate in more than one state, but with a paid up capital base of N2 billion.
According to a Financial Stability Report on the Micro-finance Bank sub-sector, signed by CBN Deputy Director, Financial Sector Stability, Dr. Joseph Nnanna, the recent re-capitalization of the MFBs brings the total paid-up capital and shareholders funds of the operators in that sector to N173.45 billion.
The 2016 edition of the Annual Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) has kicked off. The Festival, which opens on January 1 every year, and runs throughout the month, is very popular and renowned worldwide for offering shoppers exceptional deals and promotions.
The DSF started in 1996, and has since turned into a great tourist attraction for shoppers and visitors from around the world. Oher activities on parade during the Festival include: musical concerts, fashion shows and children’s events. It is therefore common during the Festival, to find travel agencies organizing special holiday deals and packages for families and shoppers to enable them participate in what is undeniably a unique shopping experience.
Although over the years the DSF has been known more for its focus on gold and jewelry, it is increasing featuring shopping malls and online retailers offering fantastic deals on electronics, arts and crafts, wrist watches, carpets and perfumes from some of the world’s most popular brands such as Versace, Gucci, Armani and so on, offered at heavily discounted prices. Discounts at the DSF have been known to run as high as 75% on some items.
One of the unique features of this year’s DSF is the “100 Winners in 32 Days” promotion that is being run by the Dubai Gold & Jewelry Group, which will involve several gold and jewelry retailers.
The Tony Elumelu Foundation, through its Entrepreneurship Programme, has announced plans to provide a total of $37 million as seed money to 1,000 budding African entrepreneurs in 2016, to enable them start up their own businesses.
According to a statement by the Foundation, each of the recipients will get a N850,000 (about $3,761) non-refundable seed capital, at the end of their training programme. In addition, they will each get an additional N850,000 ($3,761) in debt or equity.
The 1,000 successful beneficiaries will join the 1,000 from 51 countries across Africa, who were successful at the inaugural edition of the programme in 2015, bringing the total number to 2,000.
The inaugural beneficiaries of 2015 successfully underwent a 12-week training on how to set up and manage a business, with mentoring and financial support from the Tony Elumelu Foundation.
The Chairman of the TEEP, Mr. Tony Elumelu, said: “I believe in empowerment that can change the face of Africa as we know it. African entrepreneurs are our future leaders, and I am passionate about giving them the opportunity to succeed. TEEP is a major, deliberate effort on my part, to institutionalize luck and provide seed capital funding, mentoring, business training, pan-African networking and a springboard that our aspiring entrepreneurs need to leap from”.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) remitted a total of N933.1 billion to the Federation Account between January and November, 2015. The amount was for domestic crude oil and gas and other receipts during the period.
The dollar payments to the Federal Accounts and Allocation Committee for the same period amounted to $607.8 million. Total export proceeds for November 2015 was $402.55 million, with crude oil exports accounting for $296.99 million, or 73.78%.
These figures are contained in the NNPC’s financial report for November and December 2015. The report also indicated that the nation’s refineries all operated at zero capacity for November 2015. In other words, there was no processing of any crude oil by the Port Harcourt Refining Company, Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company and the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company in that month.
Meanwhile, there are indications that only two of the refineries, those of Port Harcourt and Kaduna, were able to meet the 90-day deadline given to all the refineries by the Minster of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, for them to resume crude processing. The deadline elapsed on Thursday, December 31, 2015.
The Kaduna refinery resumed production about two weeks ago, while the Port Harcourt refinery went back into operation on Sunday, December 27, 2015.
The nation’s three refineries have a combined production capacity of 445,000 barrels per day. The Warri refinery has a capacity of 125,000 bpd, the Port Harcourt refinery has a total capacity of 210,000 bpd, while the Kaduna refinery has the capacity to process 110,000 bpd.
As the deadline of December 31, 2015 passes, MTN Nigeria has declared that it has no intention of paying the N780bn fine imposed on it by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). Instead, Nigeria’s leading GSM operator insisted that its court action challenging the fine will run its full course.
It would be recalled that MTN recently went to court to challenge the fine slammed on it by the NCC for allowing over five million unregistered SIM cards on its network.
Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, agrees that the matter be put aside pending the final outcome of the court case. He said: “We cannot insist on MTN paying the fine, because the matter is already in court”.
The Lagos State House of Assembly has approved a total budget expenditure of N662.5billion for the Lagos State Government in 2016.
The figure is contained in the state’s 2016 Appropriation Bill presented to the House by the State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, which was unanimously passed by all members of the House.
It shows a recurrent expenditure estimate of N278.909, while capital expenditure will be N383.678, representing a Capital to Expenditure ration of 58:42, against 51:49 in the 2014 and 2015 budgets.
The total revenue estimate for Lagos State in 2016 is N542.873, while the balance of N119.714 will be funded through deficit financing.
President Muhammadu Buhari has again reiterated that the seemingly ‘slow and steady’ style of his government is deliberate, and designed to ensure that he does not make mistakes.
The President, who spoke while receiving a delegation of Women in Politics Forum at the Presidential villa a few days ago, said: “People say we are slow. We are trying to change structures put in place by our predecessors in office for sixteen years. If we hurry it we will make mistakes, and that will be a disaster”.
The president also used the opportunity to acknowledge the case made by the WIPF for more representation of women in his government, and promised that women would be well represented in the appointment of Boards for government parastatals which will be constituted during the first quarter of 2016.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has declared Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku of the PDP duly elected as Governor of Taraba State.
In arriving at this decision, the court’s five-man panel, led by Justice Abdul Aboki, held that Ishaku’s nomination by the PDP could not be questioned by a non-member of the party, and was therefore in compliance with Section 85 of the Electoral Act.
This ruling sets aside the judgement of the Taraba State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal led by Justice Danladi Abubakar, which had on November 7, 2015, sacked Governor Darius Ishaku of the PDP, and ordered the swearing in of the APC candidate in the state, Aisha Alhassan.
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The Theater Command of Operation Lafiya Dole of the Nigerian Army on Friday alerted Borno residents on a planned attack by Boko Haram terrorists using beggars and other strategies.
The Media Coordinator of the Theater, Col. Mustapha Anka, made this known in a statement in Maiduguri.
Anka said, “the attention of the Operation Lafiya Dole has been drawn to a terrorists’ intention to use beggars to cause mayhem in the state.
“Under the plan, concealed explosives in bundles of firewood are to be placed in crowded and strategic areas of Maiduguri and environs to cause havoc.”
He said that the terrorists had also devised a new means of attracting the public by shouting Boko Haram to create panic.
“Additionally, the general public should be weary of a terrorists plan to deceive the public by way of shouting `Boko Haram’ to create panic in order to lure unsuspecting public for maximum casualty while detonating their bombs during and after the new year celebrations,” Anka said.
He, therefore, advised residents to be extra vigilant during and after the new year celebrations.
He said “the Theater wishes to remind the public to be extra vigilant during and after the new year celebrations as the ban on bangers and fireworks is still in force.”
The World health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday, December 29, 2016, finally declared the Republic of Guinea free from the Ebola virus disease, after the country had lost more than 2,500 people to the dreaded virus. With this declaration, Liberia remains the only country which is yet to be officially cleared of the disease.
For over two years, the epidemic had ravaged the small West African country, taking a heavy toll on the country’s health and education sectors.
A WHO official at the National Coordination Centre for the Fight Against Ebola, Rene Magliani, disclosed that over 6,200 children in Guinea were orphaned by the epidemic while it lasted in that country.
He said that Guinea alone recorded over 3,800 cases of Ebola infection, out of the 28,600 cases globally that resulted in 11,300 deaths. Almost all the cases of infection and death were recorded in Guinea and its neighbours Liberia and Sierra Leone.
According to WHO, country is officially declared Ebola-free 42 days after the recovery or death of the last known patient, without any new infections recorded.
Recent reports from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) indicate that Nigeria’s foreign reserves dropped to 29.13 billion dollars as of December 29, 2015. According to the report, posted on the CBN’s website, this represented a drop of 2.43% from the figure of $29.31 billion dollars recorded on December 23, 2015.
Nigeria’s external reserves, which stood at $34.49 as of January 5, 2015, have been taking a steady dive since the second half of 2015. This is believed to be largely as a result of a severe shortage of US dollars, which saw the CBN spending more than $5 billion dollars to try and shore up the value of the Naira in the first half of the year.
Despite the efforts of the CBN however, the value of the Naira has continued to plummet at the unofficial foreign exchange market, a situation compounded by crashing global oil prices.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has diclosed that the the federal government will create no fewer than one million direct jobs in 2016.
This was contained in a statement issued by his senior special assistant (SSA) on media and publicity, Laolu Akande.
He also said that another one million poor Nigerians would benefit from the first phase of the Conditional Cash Transfer Scheme.
According to the statement, the VP made the remark during an interactive session with a cross section of the Nigerian Community in Burkina Faso.
Osinbajo was in Burkina Faso to represent President Muhammadu Buhari at the inauguration of the newly elected president of that country, Roch Marc Christian Kabore.
He said that President Buhari had announced job opportunities for 500,000 graduate-youths to be engaged as teachers.
He added that an estimated 500,000 non-graduate unemployed people would be trained as artisans.
The vice president explained that the Conditional Cash Transfer Scheme was intended to utilise the thrift system to grant loans to market women to enable them improve their businesses and earn decent living.
He said the homegrown school feeding programme would not only provide adequate nutrition to school children, but also boost agriculture and create jobs and wealth locally.
Osinbajo assured the Nigerian community that the fight against corruption is a continuous one.
He said that the Buhari administration would not only prosecute those involved but also recover all the loot that had been traced.
The federal government has set aside an extra N108 billion to completely offset subsidy payments to oil marketers for the year 2015.
Executive secretary of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Farouk Ahmed, who disclosed this in Abuja while announcing the new pump price of petrol, said the money is meant to clear payment for the month of October, November and December, 2015.
Recall that government recently paid an outstanding N407 billion subsidy claims to oil marketers which covered payments up to September, 2015. Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, said the payments included arrears from the 2014 financial year as well as payments for 2015.
Meanwhile Ahmed said the PPPRA has completed verification of marketer’s documents for the months of October and November, which would be sent to the Debt Management Office (DMO) before finally being handled by the ministry of finance.
He said, “For October, November and December, PPPRA has been verifying subsidy claims, the verification only commences when the marketers bring in their documentation. So we have been able to verify October and November and we are going to send everything to the DMO for payment.
“Already there has been a budget for that because we have appropriated about N108 billion for these three months, but I can tsell you that the figure is way below that. It has come down because of the drop in the price. So that will be processed to DMO and then the ministry of finance will handle that,” Ahmed said.
He further maintained that marketers will not have problems with payment of subsidy arrears for 2015 because the federal government is up to date with the payment.
