Category: Business

The naira strengthened slightly against the U.S dollar on the interbank market on yesterday, supported by dollar sales by a unit of ExxonMobil and some offshore investors buying local debt.

The naira according to Reuters, closed at N157.30 to the dollar on the interbank market, firmer than the N157.35 to the dollar it closed at the previous day.

Traders said Mobil Nigeria, a unit of ExxonMobil, sold $58.3 million to some lenders, while flows from offshore investors buying Treasury bills also provided support for the naira.

“Demand for dollars remained strong in the market, but dollar flows have continued to help reduce the pressure,” one dealer said.

Dealers said many importers had taken advantage of cheaper dollar prices to bring forward their foreign exchange obligations, which would curb any further rises in the local unit from more dollar sales going foward.

“We see the naira maintaining the present level next week because of the expected month-end dollar sales by some oil companies,” another dealer said.

The financial markets closed untill Monday because of a two day public holiday to celebrate a muslim festival.

The Federal Government is working on a N220 billion fund to guarantee financial inclusion for women.

Addressing journalists on the recently launched Nigerian National Financial Inclusion Strategy in Abuja, yesterday, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, said the fund provides that 60 per cent of the amount would be targeted at businesses owned and managed by women.

The fund, which would be launched before the year, has the objective of helping women get long term funding at single digit interest rate with specific incentives for women.

Nigeria’s leading code division multiple access (CDMA) service provider, Visafone Communications Limited and Canada-based makers of BlackBerry smartphones, Research In Motion (RIM), yesterday seal a deal in Lagos that will see the first CDMA Blackberry roll out in the country, more than a decade after liberalising the telecommunications sector.

Sector analysts say the launch of the service is a feat that marks first-time availability of CDMA BlackBerry smartphones in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, and it is a first in Nigeria.

A press statement endorsed by the two firms said the services will be available in the BlackBerry® Curve™ 9310, the BlackBerry® Curve™ 9370 and the BlackBerry® Bold™ 9930 from all the Visafone shops for pre-booking from Monday, October 29. It added that the launch will benefit any Visafone customer that wants access to email, Internet and social networking apps, including BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™), Facebook®, Twitter™ and Social Feeds.

The Nigerian Export Import Bank, NEXIM yesterday disclosed that it had disbursed over N85 billion to support 900 export projects in the real sector.

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Mr. Roberts Orya, stated this in Enugu at the Exporter Enlightenment Forum organised by the bank at the Nike Lake Hotel.

He explained that the money was used mostly in Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, noting that apart from creating and sustaining over 300,000 direct and indirect jobs, the bank would also help in generating over $1.2 billion in foreign exchange earnings for the country.

Orya added that NEXIM bank, as an official Export Credit Agency of the Federal Government, is working hard to justify its mandate of “diversification of the Nigerian economy through the provision of finance, risk bearing and policy support to the non-oil export sector.”

His said: “Giving our efforts to develop the high growth sectors and increase employment generation in the country, we have also recently developed a funding programme for the creative and entertainment industry, in addition to a special scheme for SME exporters in the ECOWAS region”.

He called on the South-Eastern states to utilise the activities of small manufacturing industries in the region to contribute towards increased value added exports in the country.

He noted that Nnewi is regarded as the Japan of Africa in view of its industrial significance, stating that the Ariaria market in Aba, has grown to become the major hub of manufacturing, while Onitsha is a trade hub together with Enugu which has become the major centre for the production of movies.

Enugu State Governor, Sullivan Chime, in his speach, commended NEXIM for organising the event in Enugu.

Chime, who was represented by the Commissioner for Finance, Godson Nnadi, said the state has provided an enabling environment for economic activities to thrive.

The Southern Electricity Distribution Company (SEDC), which was shortlisted alongside Vigeo Power Consortium for acquisition of Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), has debunked allegation of fraudulent bid by the Technical Committee of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP).

But in a swift reaction, the BPE insisted that the SEDC contravened the bidding rules.

Head, Public Communications, BPE, Chukwuma Nwokoh, said: “SEDC in their statement admitted the charge of submitting two bids and going by the provisions of the RFP that is a contravention of the bidding rules. The BPE is at a loss as to what they have refuted in their statement.”

The NCP has said last Monday that SEDC failed in the bid for the Benin Disco from the beginning having contravened the rules and requirements of the Request for Proposal (RFP) by submitting two bids for one asset.

But a statement issued by SEDC yesterday refuted the allegation of cheating levelled against it by submitting two different commercial bid proposals.

It said: “SEDC would like to state categorically that at no time did we did submit two different bids. In compliance with the investment schedule guidelines from the Request for Proposal from Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and the NERC directive on metering rollout, submitted one technical and commercial bid, but with two scenarios laying out different capital investment schedules.

“The scenarios were clearly laid out in the executive summary, with additional details on pages 52 and 53 of our technical bid (business plan). The technical bid, which was carefully studied and evaluated by the BPE was adjudged first, with a score of 898, without any complaints.

“The two scenarios proposed are: scenario one, which considered the CAPEX to be the same as in the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission multi-year tariff order (NERC MYTO), which is uniform year-on-year for the five years as required.

The Agricultural Transformation Agenda(ATA) of the Federal Government received a major boost as government of the Dutch Republic, Netherlands unveiled plans to support the agricultural sector with over 26 million euros.

Dutch Ambassador to Nigeria, Bert Ronhaar disclosed this in Abuja during the visit of Princess Maxima of Netherlands, to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina.

The support, which includes a five-year programme, is targeted at promoting the cassava and cocoa value chains expected to create over 100,000 jobs.

Ronhaar said: “The Dutch government is supporting the cassava industry and smallholders cassava growers in Nigeria with a contribution of 6 million euro developing the value-added chain in cassava, which result in creating employment and income for approximately, 100, 000 Nigerian farmers and families.

“At the same time, we are supporting the cocoa growers in the country in the cocoa industry and also the value added chain in the cocoa industry and the total amount invested in debt programme, which will last for over 5 years is approximately 20 million euros.”

Describing the financial support as important, he noted that the ideas, philosophy, drive and experience Dutch is willing to offer should be seen more significant.

He said his government will soon commence a Public Private Partnership (PPP), nationwide programme next year to support stakeholders in agro processing and horticulture. The initiative will be implemented by the International Fertilizer Development Centre (IFDC) in partnership with local companies.

Earlier, Princess Maxima said her purpose of visit was to propose a National Strategy of Financial Inclusion for the country. The initiative, according to her is aimed at advocating agricultural financing for rural farmers.

She said: “The whole reason of being here is to propose a national strategy that will be of importance for Nigeria and the advocacy to really get as much as possible stakeholders including everybody involved in agriculture rural financing.”

In line with its desire to make inormation communication technology (ICT) the cornerstone of the development of the youths of the state, Lagos State government said it has concluded plans to establish e-learning centres in all the schools in the state.

Mr Adebiyi Fatai Mabadeje, Commissioner for Science & Technology, who disclosed this Tuesday while conducting ICT editors round the magnificent state of the art E-Learning Centre, said the world is now a knowledge driven one and Nigeria must not be left behind as knowledge in virtually every human endeavour is propelled and galvanised through ICT.

According to him, as part of the state government’s ICT in Schools ptoject, e-learning centres will be built, though not in the magnitude of the one built for concessioning, in every local government area and local development councils across the state but will start by building one each of senatorial district of the state since “resources at the disposal of the state government is not infiniet.”

“We are looking at replicating the e-learning centre on a samller scale in schools across the state. We are trying to do this using the school as a hub. We will begin with about 15 schools cutting across the senatorial districts, we are moving library from the physical to the elctronic,” he said.

According to him, the Lagos e-Learning Centre built ooposite Bookshop House at the Central Business District, Lagos Island, will be concessioned out to a private company. He added that before the year runs out, a credible firm that will manage the centre will emerge.

“That is why it is still not opened for public use. School children now come on excursion to the centre to inspect the facilities. It will be opened after due diligence has been conducted,” he assured.