Category: Business

The Nigerian Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ahmed Mohammed Kele, has said Arik Air operations in Kinshasa, Congo, will boost the economic opportunities of Nigerians living in that country, and strengthen the good relationship between both countries.

Speaking at a ceremony to mark the inaugural flight of Arik Air at the Aeroport International De N’ Djili Airport, Congo, Kele, who was represented by the First Secretary of the Nigerian Embassy, Ibrahim Adamu Miringa, said Nigerians in Congo have been grappling with connectivity of flights to facilitate businesses due to the absence of a Nigerian airline.

He explained that since Nigeria Airways Limited was liquidated many years ago, the facilitation of business between the two countries has been a great challenge.

He said: ”The Nigerian Embassy in Democratic Republic of Congo has been eager to have a Nigerian airline in Congo, with the defunct of Nigeria Airways been out of the air, it makes Nigerian businesses to become handicap here in Congo.

“Some of them even turn their routes to Dubai because of lack of regular flights from Nigeria, so with the coming of Arik Air, it will boost Nigerian economy and the relationship with the DRC Congo,” he added.

The management of Dangote Cement Plc has concluded arrangements to temporarily close down its four million metric tons per annum’s Gboko Plant, as a result of glut in the cement market.

The Group Head, Corporate Communication, Dangote Group, Anthony Chiejina who confirmed this in Lagos, said the move was necessitated by the glut in the market arising from the success being recorded in local production.

He said the situation is compounded by the continued importation of subsidised cement into the country, adding that the production figure for the first eleven months of the year showed increased local production level with supply now surpassing demand.

Chiejina said total supply of cement to the market as at the end of November, when compared with the same period of last year, has showed a record increase of 11.4 per cent.

He said it was therefore disheartening to note that despite the glut in the local cement market, cement is still being imported, a development, Chiejina said, is at varience with government’s backward integration policy.

Giving the reason for the choice of BCC for a temporary shutdown, the Dangote Group’s image maker, said: “With the dumping of subsidised imported cement in the South Eastern market, there is no way our Gboko Cement plant can survive. In fact, staff have been put on forced leave pending when the situation improves.

“Inventory of finished products is beginning to build up at our plants. Don’t forget that projects from our investments of about N280 billion in additional capacity are already on stream, with lines 3 and 4 at Ibese and line 4 at Obajana, coming on stream early this year.”

Chiejina said other manufacturers are also experiencing the same problem of low sale and high inventory, and called for an urgent solutions to the development.

Besides, he advised that government should vigorously implement the provisions of the cement backward integration policy that are needed to protect local manufacturers from dumping.

He said part of the solution lies in government consigering a total ban on the importation of cement in view of the fact that local production now surpasses demand, or in the alternative, increase duty and levy on imported cement.

The Nation market survey revealed that a 50kg bag of cement sells for N1,850.

Nigeria’s financial system is not under threat from speculative investments valued at about $10 billion, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), LamidoSanusiLamido, has said.

He said Nigeria would still have $36 billion in reserves if the investments left the country.

Sanusi who spoke yesterday at a conference in Abuja, said the high interest rates have kept inflation below forecast, stabilised the naira and helped raise foreign currency reserves,

“The policy is working” in providing price stability, the core mandate of the bank, he said.

The Monetary Policy Committee, led by Sanusi, has left its policy rate unchanged at a record 12 percent this year to help support the naira and curb inflation. Inflation rose to 11.7 per cent in October, staying below the apex bank’s forecast of as much as 15 per cent after the government cut a subsidy on gasoline in January.

There’s no evidence that lower interest rates will spur economic growth, as the biggest obstacles to borrowing and credit are lack of power supply, roads and other infrastructure that the private sector needs, he added.

The Infrastructure Bank is to issue N1.5 billion rights issues to its existing shareholders, opening from December 17 to January 28, next year.

The shareholders of the Bank include federal and state governments; local governments and trade unions, according to its Managing Director, Mr. Adekunle Oyinloye.

At a completion board meeting of the Bank held at its headquarters in Abuja, the Chairman of the Bank, Alhaji Lamis Dikko, said the rights issue comprised of 1,551,500,000 ordinary shares of N1.00 each.

Alhaji Dikko said the additional shares were being offered shareholders on the basis of one new ordinary share for every ordinary share held as at June 30, 2012.

The current authorised share capital of the Bank is N3.1 billion comprising of 3,103,000,000 ordinary shares of N1.00 each.

The proceeds of the right issues will be used to provide additional funding for facilitating project finance, debt payment and also enhancing capital working requirements of the Bank.

There is currently no specified minimum capital base provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria for the Bank.

Also present at the meeting were representatives of the lead and joint issuing houses – APT Securities and Funds Ltd and WSTC Financial Services Ltd – and the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In a brief remark after the meeting, the managing director said that the bank was re-positioning itself to bring greater impact to bear on the nation’s infrastructural development sector in the coming year.

Mr. Oyinloye said that the nation must redress its infrastructural deficit if its goal of joining the league of the world’s top 20 industrialised nations by year 2020 must be achieved

The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) has restricted petroleum products importers to those who own coastal storage facilities.

The Executive Secretary, Reginald Stanley, who stated this in Abuja, said the measure was taken to halt fuel subsidy scam and reduce participants in the Petroleum Subsidy Fund (PSF) Scheme.

He said his action is in support of government’s decision to address the issue of pervasive malpractices prevalent in the oil and gas sector, as well as absence of actions directed at enforcing transparency and accountability in the administration of the subsidy regime.

These reforms are aimed at engendering pubic trust and belief in government’s sincerity in the Downstream oil sector, he stated.

He enumerated the reforms to include restricted participation of petroleum products’ importers to only owners of coastal discharge/depot facilities, thus substantially reducing participation in the PSF Scheme.

He explained that this move has further induced more investments in the development of petroleum handling facilities, as well as ensure beter management of participants in the PSF Scheme, while promoting local content development, adding that the step has saved N671billion in subsidy claims.

Stanley said this was made possible by stringent and proactive reform initiatives put in place in line with President Goodluck Jonathan’s Transformational Leadership agenda in the oil and gas sub-sector.

He said the figure represented 49.7 per cent when pitched against the October, 2011 subsidy payment of N1.3 trillion on premium motor spirit (PMS), adding that the figure is likely to rise by the end of the year.

He said the agency has been able to shrink the size of briefcase marketers from 128 to 38. “In other words, we successfully cleaned out 90 companies, while setting stringent regulatory conditions which would make it difficult for marketers to short-change the system.

“Our efforts have not stopped here as we are more than determined to refer any matter to the EFCC, should we notice any infraction,” he said.

“The Federal Government has done extremely well in the area of halting fuel subsidy scams in the country. Today, such efforts at transparency and accountability are beginning to yield positive results,” he stated.

Stanley said the new PPPRA remains a model organisation that is alive to its responsibilities, as its activities within the past year, have pointed to the fact that a lot is being done to sanitise the sector and make it both sustainable and profitable for honest operators.

He said out of the N679 billion subsidy payment made between January and October, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), got N337.7billion, while other marketers received a combined figure of N342 billion. adding that this is against the N1.351 trillion paid within the same period of last year.

Stanley debunked the news making the rounds about the ‘jumbo salaries and allowances of PPPRA staff, describing it as a gross mis-representation of what he said while appearing before the Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Representatives on Petroleum (Downstream).