The Nation Newspaper

Category: Money

  • Fela’s Republic and Kalakuta Queens’ play spotlights prevalent social issues

    By Collins Nweze

    Bolanle Austen-Peters’ Fela’s Republic and the Kalakuta Queens, which returned to Lagos this month will continue to spotlight prevalent social issues in the country. The play will run till January 5, 2020 at the Terra Kulture, Victoria Island, Lagos.

    The critically-acclaimed stage play infuses the celebration of the unapologetic and prophetic messages enshrined in his music into the original storyline, capturing interests through the legend’s impact on music and socio-political consciousness. It has already been staged in Abuja, Cairo and Pretoria to wide acclaim.

    The play is based on real-life experiences of Fela and the Kalakuta Queens, having been adapted from the various encounters narrated by Fela’s surviving wives, Laide and Lara.

    “We hope the play will create awareness, spark conversations around the issues that we are facing in our society today and get Nigerians to act positively in fighting off corruption and injustice in the country,” Bolanle Austen- Peters said.

  • ECOWAS okays AfDB President Adesina for second term

    By Collins Nweze

     

     

    The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has endorsed the candidacy of Dr Akinwumi Adesina, the President of African Development Bank (AfDB) for a second term.

    The decision was announced in a communique signed by  the commission’s President, Jean-Claude Kassi at the end of the 56th ordinary session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS, held in Abuja.

    ECOWAS said the development was in recognition of the sterling performance of Adesina during his first term of office as President of the bank. The commission further stated that the authority had endorsed the president of AfDB’s candidacy for a second term as the president of the bank.

    Adesina is the eighth elected President of the African Development Bank Group. He was elected to the five-year term on 28 May 2015 by the Bank’s Board of Governors at its Annual Meetings in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, where the same electoral process will play out in 2020.

    Adesina is a renowned development economist and the first Nigerian to serve as President of the Bank Group.

    He has served in a number of high-profile positions internationally, including that of Rockefeller Foundation, as well as Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development from 2011 to 2015.The commission commended Adesina for the bank’s involvement in the provision of technical and financial interventions to west African region.

    It also lauded the president for the implementation of numerous projects and programmes across the region.

    News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that during the summit, Adesina announced that AfDB’s portfolio investments in ECOWAS region stood at 20 billion dollars. (NAN)

  • CBN lauds Access Bank’s sustainability leadership

    By Collins Nweze

     

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has acknowledged the sustainability leadership of Access Bank  Plc. The regulator has also presented the bank awards in all five categories of the CBN Sustainability Awards at its 2019 Bankers Committee Gala Night held in Ogere, Ogun State, Nigeria.

    At the Awards ceremony, Access Bank was awarded first position in categories such as the Most Sustainable Bank of the Year, for the third consecutive time. The bank was lauded for founding the first-ever disability-friendly inclusion hub in partnership with Project Enable – to promote the access of persons with disabilities to ICT skills and opportunities; creating a digital, toll-free platform for violated persons in partnership with HACEY Health Initiative; up-cycling waste and recycling paper to pencils, among many others.

    Access Bank also emerged first place winner for the ‘Most Sustainable Transaction of the Year in Agriculture’ and the ‘Most Sustainable Transaction of the Year in Oil and Gas’. Additional wins include the ‘Most Sustainable Transaction of the Year in Power’ and the ‘Bank of the Year in Women Economic Empowerment’.

    According to the Group Managing Director Access Bank Plc., the Awards are a “testament to Access Bank’s sustainability commitment. Our vision is to be the world’s most respected African Bank and sustainability is critical to our achieving this.”

    Read Also: CBN asks customers to reject N50 PoS fee

    The Bank’s Head of Sustainability, Omobolanle Victor-Laniyan, added that, “In our determined effort to offer more than banking, we will continue to act as a responsible business and also contribute our quota towards adding value to communities where we operate, leaving them better equipped to succeed”.

    The recognition by the CBN offers credence to a growing number of local and global awards won by the bank in recent months.

    These include the ‘Outstanding Business Sustainability Award’ at the 2019 Karlsruhe Sustainable Finance Awards; ‘Most Socially Responsible Company of the Year (Overall Winner)’ at the 2019 Sustainability, Enterprise and Responsibility Awards (SERAs); ‘Bank of the Year’ Award at the 2019 Banker Awards; ‘Best Bank in Nigeria’ and ‘Best Product Launch (Pan Africa)’ Awards at the 2019 Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Finance Awards.

     

  • CBN asks customers to reject N50 PoS fee

    By Collins Nweze

     

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has asked bank customers not to pay N50 charge to businesses for using point of sale (POS) machines.

    CBN Director payment system management department, Musa Jimoh, told The Cable that: “the stamp duty is a fee regulated by an act. The CBN doesn’t regulate the stamp duty so we can’t change anything. Stamp duty as it is today has been misinterpreted” .

    “Our circular that talks about merchants paying stamp duty according to the law does not say that the stamp duty should be paid by the consumer. That’s actually a misrepresentation of the CBN’S directive.

    “What our directive says is that merchants should pay all necessary charges as regulated by the government agency including stamp duty. When there is an electronic transaction to an account other than savings account and the transaction amount is more than N1,000, you have to pay stamp duty.

    “Our explanation to banks is that we would like the merchants to comply with this directive by ensuring that every single payment customers make to them, the merchants pay the regulated stamp duty of N50.

    Read Also: CBN lauds Access Bank’s sustainability leadership

    “What has happened is that they have transferred this fee, blatantly and openly to the consumers. This is very wrong.

    “No single individual should pay N50 in addition to the cost of the good. Stamp duty is not to be paid by individuals that are consuming the goods and services of the merchant. The merchants who are receiving the money are the ones who are supposed to pay.”

    It had earlier been reported that consumers would pay more for POS transactions after the CBN said stamp duty would be charged on individual transactions rather than previous plans where charges occurred on aggregate transactions.

  • Salary advance: Polaris disburses over N1b to customers

    Collins Nweze

    Polaris Bank has disbursed over N1billion to customers through its Polaris Salary Advance programme which was launched  four months ago.

    The beneficiaries who are mostly middle and low income earners made up of professionals accross all disciplines, are all customers whose salary accounts are with the bank.

    As one of the bank’s popular products, a collateral-free solution called “Polaris Salary Advance” enables salaried account owners to get up to 50 percent of their net monthly salary to meet basic needs before payday and right on their phones by dialing *833*12#. The service which is available on all telecommunication networks has since it’s commencement, helped many families provide short-term financing to their emergent and lifestyle needs.

    Read Also: Polaris Bank launches target loans for health SMEs

    Announcing the development which analysts described as a significant milestone in stimulating consumer confidence, Polaris Bank’s Group Head, Products & Market Development, Adebimpe Ihekuna described the development as “a thing of pride that our bank is impacting the lives of millions of families in Nigeria through the salary advance solution.”

    She noted that,  “Polaris Bank also offers  other arrays of solution ranging from auto loans, mortgages, holiday loan, rent loan, etc. These loans are bundled with convenience and flexibility for easy access.

    Expressing excitement on the response of Nigerians to the product benefits just within a space of four months, the Banker declared, “we are proud of this feat”, she further assured the bank’s customers and prospects of the readiness of Polaris Bank to disburse more funds in 2020 to enable them achieve tbeir goals and aspiration.

    Giving a breakdown of the beneficiaries of the disbursement, Adebimpe explained that the spread was pan-Nigeria with customers from every part of the country embracing the opportunity offered by the product.

    One of the beneficiaries, an Abuja-based civil servant, Ahmed Maiwada, was full of appreciation for the Polaris salary advance. In his words, “Polaris Bank has made life easy for me with the salary advance product”.

    A visibly elated Ahmed noted, “Polaris Salary Advance saved me when my wife had a medical emergency here in Maiduguri, I got credited within one minute and I paid minimal interest. Now I don’t go looking for where to borrow money again. “God bless Polaris Bank”, he concluded.

    Polaris Bank is a future-determining Bank committed to the delivery of industry-defining products, services, and platforms across all the economic sectors of the Nigerian economy.

  • Wema Bank commits N2b to agric sector funding

    By Collins Nweze

    Wema Bank Plc has committed N2 billion to fund agriculture, support farmers and agric-value chain. The investment reaffirms the bank’s commitment to applying technology in delivering excellent financial solutions to Nigerians.

    To help to develop the agribusiness value chain, the bank has signed a tripartite commodity aggregation finance scheme with Cellulant Nigeria and Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) Plc.

    Cellulant owns Agrikore Marketplace, a solution-focused on digitalising both the production and marketing segments of the agric value chain by linking all the players from the production level to the marketing and consumption level, while NIRSAL is a non-bank financial institution owned by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) created to redefine, measure and share agribusiness-related credit risks in Nigeria.

    Read Also: Wema Bank commits N2b to agric sector funding

    The tripartite partnership is focused on providing easily accessible, affordable funding to all participants in the co-created platform. The aim is to create access-to-market and access-to-finance for farmers, aggregators, retailers and other primary stakeholders in the agribusiness sector.

    Speaking at the Inaugural Partners’ Summit organised by Cellulant in Lagos, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Wema Bank, Ademola Adebise, reiterated the importance of cooperation between every player in the agric value chain.

    Speaking on the theme: “Financing the Agric Value Chain to Deliver Transactional Impact to Stakeholders,” Adebise noted that “holistic interventions across the value chain are required to achieve the desired impact and outcomes in the sector.” He identified a low level of budgetary allocation, negligible financial literacy, a large percentage of unbanked population and the limited understanding of the value chain as part of the challenges facing the agric sector.

    He added that Wema Bank has committed N2 billion in funds, which is available for immediate drawdown to commodity aggregators on the Cellulant network to facilitate trade across the value chain. The partnership will also see NIRSAL provide credit risk guarantees for all borrowers in the scheme.

    “We are collaborating to provide sustainable finance and market access for the small and medium scale agribusinesses in underbanked rural areas in Nigeria, without the need for traditional brick and mortar bank branches,” Adebise said.

    Leveraging on digital technology, Wema Bank’s suite of products including ALAT by Wema, *945#, Bankpass and Wema MoMoney, will ensure its capacity to provide financial service across the agricultural value chain, regardless of our physical presence.

  • Access Bank showcases African art at BAFEST

    By Collins Nweze

     

    The second edition of the Born in Africa Festival BAFEST, an initiative of Access Bank aimed at celebrating African creativity, held on the 15th of December 2019, at Eko Atlantic City, Victoria Island Lagos. Following a successful maiden edition last year, this year’s edition was also a massive success.  Themed “More For The Culture”, the 2019 BAFEST was a dynamic fusion of African art, film, fashion and music, attracting thousands of fun lovers from across Africa.

    The day-long festival commenced in the morning with the fashion, art and film park, where various artists, fashion designers and filmmakers showcased their works. Short films, feature-length films and Accelerate Filmmaker project films were screened in the film section; films such as ‘Black Monday’ by Adetola Films, ‘Blast’ by Tosin Ibitoye, ‘Last’ by Olabisi Akinbinu, ‘Scars’ by Miriam Dera among others were featured. Eye-catching and fascinating artworks and clothing were also on display as artists and designers were on ground to engage guests.

    The festival then got into high spirits with the fusion of music and fashion all on one stage. Fans were thrilled with captivating music performances from some of Africa’s biggest and finest acts including Niniola, Seyi Shey, Becca from Ghana, Patoranking, Teni, Joeboy, Flavour, 9ice, Mr Real, Naira Marley and Burna Boy. The stage was lit by runway models displaying the works of top-notch African designers such as Tokyo James, Emmy Kasbit, David Tlale and a host of other talented fashion designers.  A notable highlight of the festival was the electrifying opening dance performance coupled with a daring aerodynamic performance by the Drumstatic band, who were all suspended in the air.

    Access Bank Group Managing Director, Herbert Wigwe said: “BAFEST is not just a means of providing quality entertainment to Africans, but a platform Access Bank has created to spotlight Africa through its enormous creativity and talents. We believe it is time the world knows the true story of Africa. I believe that this year’s BAFEST will further strengthen this new African narrative we are creating.”

  • Inflation rises to 11.85%

    By Collins Nweze

     

    Nigeria’s annual inflation stood at 11.85 per cent in November, up from 11.61 per cent in October, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Tuesday.

    A separate food price index showed inflation at 14.48 per cent in November, up from 14.09 per cent in October.

    The NBS explained that the increases were recorded in all Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP) divisions that yielded the headline index. The NBS said in month-on-month basis, the headline index increased by 1.02 per cent in November 2019, adding that it was 0.05 per cent rate lower than the rate recorded in October 2019 which was 1.07 per cent.

    The bureau said that the percentage change in the average composite CPI for the twelve months period ending November 2019 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 11.35 per cent.

    According to the NBS, the figure represents 0.05 per cent point from 11.30 per cent recorded in October 2019. The NBS report indicated that food sub-index within the period under review rose by 14.48 per cent year-on-year and 1.25 per cent month on month basis.

    It further explained that the highest increase recorded was on bread and cereal, fish, meat, potato, yam and other tubers as well as oil and fats.

    The bureau said urban index in November 2019 rose by 12.47 per cent year-on-year and 1.07 per cent month-on- month, while rural index increased by 11.30 per and 0.98 per cent year-on-year and month-on-month respectively.

  • Ecobank, Lagos partner on waterfront clean up

    COLLINS NWEZE

     

    Ecobank Nigeria has partnered the Lagos State Ministry of Environment on Waterfront Clean Up Programme.

    The partnership is to enhance the preservation of marine ecosystem and effectively facilitate socio-economic activities, such as transportation, power generation, irrigation and habitat for aquatic life.

    The exercise, tagged: Cleaner Waterfront Our Pride,  was flagged off at the Lagos State Government Ferry Jetty, Amuwo-Odofin, Lagos.

    Special Adviser to the Governor of Lagos State  on Drainage and Water Resources, Joe Igbokwe, said the project was  dedicated to cleaning Lagos waterfronts and educating people on ways of disposing plastic waste properly rather than dumping them into the gutter and how to preserve the ecosystem in general.

    He praised Ecobank for its continual support on  environmental sustainability issues, noting that each and every citizen and corporate bodies are stakeholders and must be involved in helping to preserve the environment, as it is a call to action for all.

    Read Also: ‘Stop sand filing lagoon, waterfronts’

     

    Also speaking, the Managing Director, Ecobank Nigeria, Patrick Akinwuntan, said the partnership to clear up Lagos waterfronts is  part of the Pan African bank’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy to support environmental sustainability initiatives with a view to making the environment safer for living.

    According to him, the partnership with Lagos State government and other non- governmental organisations across the continent was in that direction.

    He noted that the water bodies are priceless gifts of nature with huge aesthetic, tourism and economic values. He lamented that these however had been subjected to all forms of abuse and degradation, including dumping and littering with solid wastes and all forms of debris.

    The Managing Director who was represented by Tunde Dawodu, a General Manager, said there should be a culture change on the way we dispose of our garbage. This, he noted starts with every one of us.

     

     

  • Taking banking to grassroots with BVN Lite

    The Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) policies on financial inclusion is yielding results. The decision of the Bankers’ Committee to classify Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) into BVN Premium and BVN Lite is expected to boost financial inclusion rate by giving more people, especially those at the grassroots, access to financial services, writes COLLINS NWEZE.

     

    The Bank Verification Number (BVN) project, which captures the uniqueness of every bank customer, is one of the most-innovative projects introduced into the Nigerian financial system in 2014.

    With 40 million bank accounts already linked to the BVN, the Bankers’ Committee at the weekend unveiled a new plan that required classification of BVN into two – BVN Premium and BVN Lite.

    Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele, who disclosed this at the end of the 11th Bankers’ Committee retreat in Ogere, Ogun State, said BVN Premium will cover customers that can provide the 18 basic requirements for a complete BVN enrolment, while the BVN Lite will require minimal documentation like name and phone number for bank customers, especially those in the rural areas that do not meet the full requirements.

    This, he said, will enable such grassroots’ customers, mainly the poor, conduct minimal financial services and reduce financial exclusion rate.

    The BVN scheme, which gives each bank customer unique identification, is to revolutionise the banking and payment systems while ensuring safety of depositors’ funds.

    The CBN boss said the Bankers’ Committee was collaborating with the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) and Mobile Money Operators (MMOs) to ensure that the project succeeds and more Nigerians brought into the financial system.

    Emefiele said the Know Your Customer (KYC) scheme would be migrated into the BVN Lite.

    “However, there are people who are currently financially excluded, like people in our rural communities that carry phones, but not having financial services. With the collaboration of NCC, we are putting this BVN arrangement to allow them conduct minimal financial services.”

     

    BVN Lite and EFInA report on financial inclusion

    Analysts have seen the new BVN policy as key to bringing more people into the financial services net. The CBN’s policies on mobile money, agency banking, Know Your Customer (KYC),  insurance, and, recently, Payment Service Banks (PSBs) expected to take off this year have helped to bring 2.6 million new customers to the financial system.

    Emefiele has continued to take steps to deepen banking services in the economy. The hope for Nigeria to achieve 80 per cent financial inclusion rate come the year 2020 received a major boost, when the Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access (EFInA) released its 2018 survey figures. The survey showed that 63.6 per cent of Nigeria’s adult population now has access to financial services and only 36.6 per cent are financially excluded.

    EFInA is a non-governmental organisation and a financial sector development organisation funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for the promotion of financial inclusion in Nigeria. The outfit conducts surveys every two years to determine the situation of things regarding financial inclusion in the country.

    Read Also: Bank loaned N1.16tr to customers in six months, says CBN

     

    EFInA’s 2018 report came after a painstaking research carried out across the country, with 750 respondents in each of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and 27,470 interviews, which represent 97 per cent of the target samples of 28,380.

    The survey was anchored on several indicators, including banked population, remittances, savings with a bank, payments, received income, loan with a bank and banking agents, among others.

    An increase of 1.4 per cent in the banked population from 2016 to 2018 was found, a decrease of 2.2 per cent in remittances between the two years, and another decrease of 6.7 per cent in saving with a bank within the period. The indicators of payments, received income and banking agents all recorded increases of 3.4 per cent, 1.3 per cent and 0.6 per cent respectably, while loan with a bank remained static at 1.3 per cent.

    The report, however, found a decrease of 1.6 per cent (from 30.1 per cent in 2016 to 28.5 per cent in 2018) in the non-bank indicators of pension, savings through other formal institutions, mobile money, mobile money agents, insurance, remittances and loans with other formal institutions.

     

    Shared Agent Network Expansion Facility

    Before the release of the EFInA report, financial inclusion report showed that NorthEast and Southeast regions have the least access to banking, a report on financial access touch-points released yesterday has shown. With five per cent financial access touch-points for the Northeast and seven per cent for the Southeast, both regions remain disadvantaged in access to financial services despite efforts by the CBN, Bankers’ Committee and commercial banks to take banking to the grassroots, the Shared Agent Network Expansion Facility (SANEF) report has shown.

    The CBN voted N20 billion for banks, Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS), licensed mobile money operators and shared agents to accelerate financial inclusion and take banking to more Nigerians.

    A member of the Technical Committee of SANEF, Bolaji Lawal, said the SANEF initiative involved on-boarding 40 million low income and un-served Nigerians into the financial system, increasing financial access points from the current 50,000 to 500,000 by 2020 and deepening access to mobile and digital financial products and services, such as savings accounts, micro-loans, insurance, pensions by Nigerians.

     

    EFInA survey lists challenges to financial inclusion

    The EFInA survey report concluded that three factors — affordability, institutional exclusion and lack of awareness — were the biggest obstacles to financial inclusion. According to EFInA, 60.1 million Nigerians do not have/use a bank account, 96.3 million do not have/use mobile money and 97.9 million do not have insurance.

    On the digital usage in the country, it revealed that mobile money, which was thought to be useful in the financial inclusion drive, was found to only deepen rather than expand financial inclusion. The report revealed that while 35.5 million Nigerians (36.6 per cent of the adult population) use bank accounts only 3.0 million adults have mobile money and bank accounts, whereas 59.4 million (60 per cent) neither have mobile money nor bank account.

    Similarly, the study showed that while 82 per cent of adults, comprising subsistence farmers and small business owners, receive their income in cash, 10 per cent of those adults receive their own income via mobile money or bank account, while another eight per cent did not receive any income at all.

    Savings in the country dropped by 13.3 per cent according to the report, while savings in assets, property, and livestock rose from 47.4 million to 54.7 million since 2016. Other decrease in respect of this indicator was that of borrowing, which went down by 2.0 per cent and remittances to one per cent.