The Nation Newspaper

Tag: base

  • Boko Haram may shift base to Southern Kaduna

    •Police repel fresh attack on Tsonje 

    Senator Danjuma La’ah (Kaduna South) has expressed fear that Boko Haram insurgents might shift base to Southern Kaduna.

    He spoke as suspected Fulani herdsmen at the weekend reportedly launched an attack on Tsonje, but the attack was repelled by policemen after almost 24 hours of gun battle between the attackers and the security agents, supported by arms bearing youths.

    Two people were said to have died during the gun battle and and two others missing.

    Senator La’ah who confirmed the incident in a statement yesterday, said, “death of the two men, identified as Ephraim Ezekiel, 19, and Joshua Ladi, 41, occurred after an almost 24-hour gun battle between the terrorists on one hand and the Nigeria police and local vigilante as the Fulani terrorists tried to overrun a village called Tsonje”.

    The Senator who likened the Southern Kaduna incidents to Boko Haram insurgency in the North East, said the insurgents were likely to shift base to Southern Kaduna.

    According to him, “I have been reliably informed that after the terrorists retreated to their well known camp behind Pasakori community at the foot of Kagoro mountain, a few kilometres away, two other persons have also been declared missing.

    “Information reaching me from around the troubled areas have affirmed that despite the large presence of troops of the Nigeria Army that have been drafted to assist the Police in battling these terrorists, not a single soldier was drafted to assist the police and the local vigilante, in spite of sporadic gun fire that could be heard for kilometers away and throughout the onslaught from Friday morning to Saturday morning.

    “This is a very sad development. I had earlier praised the Federal Government when these troops were first deployed to Southern Kaduna sometime last week. I had absolute confidence that the Nigeria Army will quickly put an end to this wild and cruel onslaught which have not only ravaged but laid to waste peaceful and law abiding communities; and as I speak, Fulani terrorists are still occupying several villages in Southern Kaduna.

    “Instead, I only get reports of soldiers brutalising Southern Kaduna natives; intimidating and threatening our brave young ones with arrest as they lay watch over their communities.

    “I am bringing this curious development to the attention of the Nigeria Army authority and to the public to appreciate the grave condition under which parts of my constituency have found themselves.

    “As you may have been informed, Ninte, Akwa, Golgofa, Gada Biyu, Anjul have already been dominated and inhabited by these Terrorists after many of the villagers were killed, the villages plundered before being  set ablaze since May last year. As of Today, the terrorist have moved in to these communities – The unharvested crops of the villagers that have fled, have become food for their cattle.

    “Also, Passakori, Mile 1 and Unguwan Missisi all on the ever busy Kagoro-Gidan Waya road in Jema’a LGA have been annexed and are now abodes of the terrorists.

    “That is not all, the world has remained silent or has forgotten the killings of persons and the subsequent displacement of communities likeý Kirim, Zakum,  Mayit, Agwom, Zakai Gira,  Telak Tunga and  Magwot.

    “Fulani Terrorists have since taken over these villages located strategically on the Attakad hills, in Moroa Chiefdom, Kaura LGA.

    “I am making this public to alert the world of a possible re-grouping of Boko Haram Terrorists with Fulani herdsmen terrorists in Southern Kaduna. They are now conquering large swaths of lands, and have now established a base behind Passakori. This was how Boko Haram started in 2009.

    “I am appealing especially to the Nigeria military, whose gallant achievements in dislodging Boko Haram terrorist is being praised and hailed nationwide, to step in and assist the Police.

    “Again, I call on all Southern Kaduna residents to give their maximum cooperation to the police, security operatives, the Nigeria military and all personnel legitimately deployed to secure us.

    “Southern Kaduna natives and all residents must understand that the threat to take over their lands by force is not mere speculation or rumour. Everyone must be ready to sacrifice and assist in securing his/her community through committed cooperation with the constituted authority in place,” he said

  • Fed Govt plans N1tr capital base for Bank of Agriculture

    Fed Govt plans N1tr capital base for Bank of Agriculture

    •Lender to begin deposit taking

    The Federal Govern-ment is planning to capitalize Bank of Agriculture with N1 trillion ($3.2 billion) and will allow the lender to take deposits.

    The move becomes exigent as Nigeria seeks to boost farming output and reduce food imports.

    “We are looking at N25 million farmers” as stakeholders or depositors, Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Audu Ogbeh told Bloomberg in Abuja.  “We are probably going to take a major step by the end of this year, and by February, March, have a structure in place for the changes we want to carry out,” he said.

    Nigeria’s economy contracted in the first nine months of the year as output of oil, the government’s main source of revenue, dropped due to attacks by militant groups on pipelines in the Niger River delta and prices remained low.

    Farming, which mostly consists of crops including cocoa, accounts for more than 25 percent of gross domestic product, and has expanded every quarter of 2016, while factory output and mining, which includes the oil industry, shrank, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

    The Bank of Agriculture will start lending for farming projects at an interest rate of less than 10 percent, or less than half of commercial market rates, Ogbeh said.

    The bank, created in 1972 to provide credit and technical support to farming projects, lent at least N41 billion to 600 businesses across Nigeria over 10 years, according to information on its website.

    “It’s good to invest in the bank, but they should ensure they have proper management to improve its performance and efficiency,” Musa Tarimbuka, the division head for agriculture at Fidelity Bank Plc, said by phone. “They have disbursed a lot of money over the past 40 years, and the non-performing loans are very high.”

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) kept its benchmark rate unchanged at 14 per cent on November 24 as it seeks to support an economy forecast by the International Monetary Fund to contract 1.7 percent this year.

    It’s also trying to curb inflation, which quickened to an 11-year high of 18.3 percent in October. Food prices rose 17.1 per cent from a year earlier, partly due to the high price of imported food after the naira lost almost 40 per cent of its value against the dollar following the abandonment of a currency peg in June.

    The government plans to distribute 110 rice mills across the country over the next two months at a subsidy of 40 per cent, Ogbeh said. These measures will help boost production and reduce food imports, which were worth about 1.2 trillion naira last year, according to statistics bureau data, he said.

  • N100m capital base: CBN, Finance Houses hold emergency meeting

    N100m capital base: CBN, Finance Houses hold emergency meeting

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday met with finance houses operators to enable both parties discuss the way forward for the industry.

    The emergency meeting, it was learnt, followed last week’s expiration of the December 31 deadline given by the regulator to operators to either meet the new N100 million capital base for the subsector or suspend operations. The initial September 30, last year deadline was shifted to allow more operators comply.

    The Nation gathered that with tight liquidity in the market, many operators are yet to secure funds to continue their business and this may lead to the exit of several fringe players.

    A source at the Financial Houses Association of Nigeria (FHAN), an umbrella body for the sector, said many of the operators had not secured the funds required to stay afloat.

    “The N100 million minimum capital base looks small, but surprisingly, not many operators have been able to get it. I see many of them closing shop after the deadline lapses,” the source said.

    CBN Director, Other Financial Institutions Supervision Department, Ahmad Abdullahi had instructed that operators that fail to meet the deadline will be forced to close shop, or move into new business requiring low capital base.

    He said the subsector also operates on a ratio of non-performing loans to total loans now pegged at maximum of 10 per cent. He said Finance Houses shall consult at least two licensed credit bureaux to obtain credit information on borrowers.

    He said the finance companies’ sub-sector was envisioned to operate at the middle tier of the financial system, to cater for the financial needs of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), adding that they were also expected to leverage on the resources from the banking system among other sources of funding.

    He explained that the CBN had in a bid to sanitise the sub-sector, revoked the licences of 208 finance companies and cancelled the approvals-in-principle of 462 others due to the distress in the sub-sector.

    By 2012, there were 116 FCs in the records of the CBN; 51 licences were revoked by the CBN in September, 2012 thus leaving a balance of 65 FCs with valid licences.

    “The idea is to have finance companies that are strong and virile to perform the functions they were set up to per form. The objective of shareholders in the operation of finance companies is to make profit, but for the CBN, it is to have stable and strong finance companies,” he said.

    Abdullahi said the CBN will continue to sanction finance companies that do not have the licences, but are in operation as such would ensure that the subsector is run efficiently to the benefit of the economy.

    He advised finance companies to maintain a database of their customers and generate quarterly risk management reports to be submitted to the CBN. “Finance companies shall be permitted to participate in accessing and disbursing funds to SMEs via relevant vehicles/ intervention funds set up by the CBN, the Federal/State Governments and other relevant bodies. The CBN shall continue to provide support towards capacity building in the Finance Company sub-sector,” he said.

  • CBN sets N100b capital base for DFIs

    CBN sets N100b capital base for DFIs

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has set N100 billion as the minimum capital base for Wholesale Development Financial Institutions (WDFI).

    The guideline for the sector released by the apex bank yesterday said at least N20 billion of the capital shall be paid before grant of Approval in Principle (AiP).

    The CBN also put the minimum capital for Retail Development Finance Institutions (RDFI) at N10 billion and a non-refundable application fee of N100, 000 for RDFI while N250, 000 is for WDFI.

    The CBN expalined that the DFIs were established in order to accelerate the pace of development of the Nigerian economy and the realisation of the key roles of some critical sectors in the process.

    It said the DFIs will provide financial interventions in enterprises in the identified sectors to complement the efforts of banks and other financial institutions (OFIs).

    It explained that due to limited access to long-term and low-interest funds, in addition to other factors, the DFIs have recorded limited success.

    “Consequently, the Federal Government in collaboration with development partners and international financial institutions (IFIs) decided to sponsor the establishment of a WDFI to bridge the gap and to increase the availability and access to finance, in particular, for micro-, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) being the engine of growth, without excluding Large Enterprises (LEs). The benefits of WDFIs are documented and acknowledged in both developed and emerging markets,” the apex bank said.