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  • Kwara debt portfolio hits N30.2b

    The Kwara state government on Tuesday put its current debt profile at N30.2 billion. It added that the debt has a monthly repayment of N496.3 million.

    The Commissioner for Finance, Alhaji Demola Banu said the debt stood at N31.5 billion in 2017 and N30.8 billion at the end of 2018 as opposed to social media speculation of N50.2 billion.

    Giving a breakdown of the current indebtedness, Banu explained the N30.2 billion includes N15.3 billion as the balance of the Federal Government restructured loan, N4, 003 billion as salary bail out, excess crude account loan outstanding of N9.3 billion and vehicle loan balance of N128.9 million.

    READ ALSO: Polls: Activists urge EFCC to probe Kwara govt over alleged N1b loan

    Others are the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS) and Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) agriculture scheme with respective balances of N646.2 million and N679.2 million as well as International Aviation College loan balance of N96.1 million.

    He clarified the repayment of N496.4 million is deducted from the state’s monthly federal allocation.

    Banu added the figure includes a monthly deduction of N39.6 million as repayment for foreign loans obtained by the government in the 1970s.

    Giving a further breakdown,  Banu explained that the federal government restructured the state government’s short- and long-term bank loans to reduce monthly repayment, while the state also benefited from N5b salary bailout loan in 2015.

    The commissioner stated the excess crude account loans were federal government-backed bank facilities, which served as seed money for the Kwara State Infrastructure Development Fund (IF-K) and payment for ongoing projects in the state while CACS and ABP are state-government guaranteed Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) loans to farmers in the state.

  • Obaseki makes case for NIFOR’s revival

    Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has made a case for the revival of the Nigerian Institute of Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) to strengthen the country’s capacity to produce quality, high-yielding seedlings and boost oil palm production.

    The governor made the case during a meeting in Abuja between Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele and governors of states in oil palm production belt of the country.

    He said the revival of NIFOR will improve investment in research and production of quality oil palm seeds.

    Noting that the state government has extended support to oil palm production companies in the state to boost production, Obaseki said Edo State was currently cultivating oil palm on about 70,000 hectares of land.

    On his part, the CBN governor said that the country intends to become the third largest producer of oil palm in the world ahead of Thailand and Columbia, and would extend support to states to realise the plan.

    READ ALSO: College of Agric Iguoriakhi: 48 students commence internship at NIFOR

    According to him, “As some of you may know, the usual life cycle for optimum palm production is 25 years. If we had kept pace with our peers in supporting improved cultivation of palm oil, at the current global market price of $600 per tonne and an assumed production level of 16 million tonnes, Nigeria could have generated close to $10 billion worth of foreign exchange from palm oil.”

    “This analysis does not take into consideration the amount of jobs that could have been created in our rural communities from large scale and small holder developments,” he explained.

    He said the CBN’s package to ensure Nigeria records accelerated jump in oil palm production include using part of the bank’s Anchor Borrower Programme (ABP), to grant loans at nine per cent interest rate and work with off-takers.

    “On our part, the ABP and our Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (the CBN will work with large corporate stakeholders and small-holder farmers to ensure availability of quality seeds for this year’s planting season and agro-chemicals in order to enable improved cultivation of oil palm,” he said.

  • CBN, SEC green light for Access, Diamond merger

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have approved the merger of Access Bank Plc and Diamond Bank Plc, the last major regulatory hurdle for the consummation of the business combination.

    Both banks at the weekend confirmed receipt of the final approval from the financial services authorities.

    The final go-ahead came on the heels of the recent approval of the merger by shareholders of both banks at a meeting specially convened by the order of the Federal High Court (FHC). The CBN and the SEC had earlier granted “approval–in-principle”, a no-objection approval, to the merger.

    With the final approval of the scheme, the banks will now submit the scheme of merger to the FHC for its judicial sanction, which seals the merger.

    Under the merger terms, Diamond Bank will transfer all its assets, liabilities and undertakings to Access Bank and the entire issued share capital of Diamond Bank shall be cancelled and Diamond Bank shall be dissolved without being wound up.

    In exchange, Diamond Bank’s shareholders shall receive a cash consideration of N1 per share and two ordinary shares of the enlarged Access Bank for every seven ordinary shares of Diamond Bank held as at the effective date.

    Access Bank will be the post-merger entity with its Group Managing Director Herbert Wigwe continuing to lead the post-merger management as chief executive. The business combination is expected to leapfrog post-merger Access Bank as Nigeria’s largest bank by total assets and one of Africa’s largest retail banks.

    At the separate court-ordered meeting in Lagos, shareholders had overwhelmingly approved the scheme of merger for the business combination and authorised the directors of the banks to take such actions as may be necessary to give effect to the scheme including listing of the scheme shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

    Directors and management of the banks believed the merger will create significant values for all stakeholders, underlining the inherent synergies and value accretion in the business combination.

    The combination is expected to form a leading Tier 1 Nigerian bank and the largest bank in Africa by number of customers, spanning three continents, 12 countries, 3,100 Automated Teller Machine (ATM), more than 33,000 Point of Sales (PoS) terminals, 27 million clients and more than 10 million mobile customers.

    Diamond and Access bank share many of the same areas of focus, including women, youth, entrepreneurs and the financially excluded and will be able to further develop their positioning and market leadership in these growth sectors. Diamond Bank’s corporate customers will also be able to benefit directly from Access Bank’s corporate expertise in trade finance, cash management, treasury and corporate finance.

    Wigwe said the two banks share several common values and technologies that make the business combination a seamless one.

    According to him, the merger of the banks will create significant opportunities and benefits to customers, shareholders, staff and other stakeholders.

    He noted that the combination of Diamond Bank’s strong retail customer franchise and Access Bank’s proven risk and capital management expertise will create a post-merger bank with strong value creation potential.

    Wigwe pointed out that while the merger will lead to 19 per cent shareholding dilution, the business combina

  • CBN: $42.5b foreign reserves cover 13-month imports

    The $42.5 billion foreign reserves as at December last year is enough to guarantee 13-month import cover for the country, a report by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has shown.

    The stock of external reserves as at end-December 2018 stood at $42.5 billion,  indicating a depletion of 0.03 per cent when compared with the level in the preceding quarter. However, when compared with the corresponding period of 2017, it indicated an accretion of 8.2 per cent.

    According to the CBN, the level of external reserves could finance approximately 13 months of imports, compared with 10.3 and 15.6 months of imports cover recorded in the preceding quarter and corresponding period of 2017, respectively. These were however, above the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) and global benchmarks of six and three months, respectively.

    It said portfolio investments inflow to the economy decreased significantly to $1.38 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018 from $1.79 trillion and $3.78 trillion in the preceding quarter and the corresponding period of 2017, respectively. However, other investment liabilities increased to $1.42 trillion when compared with a reversal of $3.07 trillion recorded in the preceding quarter.

    Direct Investments inflow decreased by 28.3 per cent to $314.44 million when compared with the preceding quarter of 2018. It however, indicated a decline of 67.2 per cent when compared to the corresponding period of 2017.

    Provisional fourth quarter 2018 Balance of Payment estimates for the Financial Ac- count showed a overturn from a net incurrence of financial liabilities of $4,615.17 million recorded in third quarter 2018 to a net acquisition of financial assets of $2327.91 million in the review period. This is also significantly lower than the net acquisition of financial assets of $3,528.62 million recorded in the corresponding period of 2017.

    Net out-payments for services during the review period in- creased by 16.5 per cent to a deficit of $8,287.57 million when compared with the level recorded in third quarter 2018. When compared with the corresponding period of 2017, it indicated a much higher increase of about 76.9 per cent.

    However, the deficit in the income account (net) decreased by 10.8 per cent to $3,713.84 million in the review period from a deficit of $4,161.76 million recorded in the preceding quarter. When compared with the level in the corresponding period of 2017 it indicated an increase of about 24.5 per cent.

     

     

     

  • CBN, EFCC tackle economic crimes

    Officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and their counterparts in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) met yesterday to strenghten fight against economic crimes.

    The meeting, which took place at the Head Office of the CBN in Abuja, provided an opportunity for the two entities to share experiences and peculiar challenges in the fight against economic-related crimes.

    The Director, Corporate Communication of the CBN, Isaac Okorafor, said two agencies adopted strategies aimed at curtailing the unwholesome activities of economic saboteurs which include smuggling of commodities like rice, textile materials, fertilizer, wheat and other items on the prohibition list for accessing foreign exchange through official window, as well as tracking illicit financial flows.

    Other areas which the two agencies are collaborating include anti-money laundry and the monitoring of politically exposed persons in the country.

    The inter-agency meeting, chaired by the Director, Governors’ Department of the CBN, Jeremiah Abue, also agreed to improve the level of information-sharing and surveillance of the financial sector. It would be recalled that the CBN under the auspices of the Bankers’ Committee had said that any individual or corporate body found to complicit in economic crime or attempts to circumvent economic laws and regulations of the country may be barred from operating a bank account in any bank in Nigeria.

  • CBN: MfBs in 774 local councils coming

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday said it plans to establish Microfinance Bank (MfBs)  in all the 774 local government areas of the country.

    Its Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, disclosed yesterday at Gwagwalada, Abuja while on a facility tour of Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) MfB, an agribusiness initiative which provides risk for framers.

    He said the capital base of the new NIRSAL MfB will  initially be N5 billion, stressing that the new initiative which is a collaboration among the Bankers Committe, NIRSAL and NIPOST will see to the establishment of seven MfBs in the six geo-political zones and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    Thereafter, he said, the number will be scaled up to 50 MfBs which are expected to become operational in the second phase of the launch of NIRSAL MfB.

    The first seven branches to be opened will be located in Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Bauchi, Kaduna, Enugu and Lokoja in addition to the one in Gwagwalada Abuja.

    Emefiele said: “We are just inspecting one out of the first seven and we are scaling up to the next 50 in the next phase. We believe that before the end of this year, we would have moved substantially in making sure that they are set up and be able to provide finance to small businesses.  This is a collaboration  between NIRSAL, Bankers Committee and NIPOST and I want to say that we really need to set up MfB that will reach out to the unbanked.”

    The CBN chief lamented the lack of access to cheap finance by small businesses but noted that with the presence of an MfB branch in each local government across the country, the problem would be tackled.

    “The biggest problem small businesses always have is access to credit; and I am happy that with the establishment of this MfB which would be in at least one local government and we are talking about the 774 locations in all the country, we would be able to have a financial institution that will help deepen financial inclusion to make it easy for people to access credit particularly the small and unbanked people because we have always said that these are the very weak,” he said.

    The creation of NIRSAL MfBs across the country, he said “is to improve access to credit and the technology that would be used will be a FinTech.

  • RenCap: multiple exchange rate stays despite who leads CBN

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will retain its multiple exchange rate policy, whether the apex bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele’s tenure is renewed or a new Governor emerges, Renaissance Capital (RenCap), an investment and research firm, has said.

    RenCap’s Global Chief Economist, Charles Robertson, said that in the immediate term, ahead of the CBN governor’s term expiring on June 2, fixed income investors are probably assuming short-term currency stability.

    This, he said, is based on decent forex reserves figures over $40 billion, a current account in small surplus and high domestic interest rates.  “Our base case is that whoever the governor is, the currency will end-2019 at N395/$. We have no reason to believe that if there is a change of CBN governor, we will see an end to the multiple exchange rate regime,” he said.

    Robertson said to double Nigeria’s investment climate, the country needs to remove the implicit fuel subsidy which costs about 0.5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product, adding that such policy supports consumption and not investment.  He said that Morocco after 2012, Egypt since 2014 and even the Gulf countries are cutting fuel subsidies.

    Robertson said there is need to encourage foreign direct investment, which in 2018 fell to $2.2 billion according to United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

    He said that Ghana got $3 billion and that to match Ghana (per capita), Nigeria should be getting $24 billion a year.

    “A change of approach to MTN, the oil majors and others may be required. Boost domestic savings and bring down interest rates which will probably require a smaller budget deficit and higher taxes. Allow the currency to trade closer to fair value which we estimate today at N440/$, N470 by year-end and N670 by end-2023.   Note that in the immediate term, ahead of the CBN governor’s term expiring on 2 June, fixed income investors are probably assuming short-term currency stability, based on decent FX reserves figures (over $40 billion), a current account in small surplus and high domestic interest rates.”

    The good news is that President Muhammad Buhari has already declared his second term will be “tough” – so perhaps he will take his four million vote victory margin to push through difficult reforms. The cabinet should be in place soon after the new presidential term starts on  May 29  – unlike 2015 where it took six months. There should be less of a learning curve than we saw in 2015 to 2017″.

    “The precedent of 2015 to 2019 tells us equity investors will not assume rapid, deep reforms. Even if nationwide progress is hard to achieve, we may see localised success stories, such as in Lagos – which has the biggest adult population of any state in Nigeria, high adult literacy (over 80 per cent) and is now planning to get 3GW of electricity over the next few years (total nationwide distribution is around 4GW”.

  • CBN to establish Microfinance Banks in 774 LGs

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is targeting to have Microfinance Bank branches in all the 774 local governments of the country.

    The capital base of the new NIRSAL Microfinance Bank will initially be N5 billion and as a first step, the apex bank said this new Microfinance banks which is a collaboration between the Bankers Committee, NIRSAL and NIPOST will see the establishment of seven Microfinance banks in the six geopolitical zones and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    Thereafter the number will be scaled up to 50 Microfinance banks which are expected to become operational in the second phase of the launch of NIRSAL Microfinance bank. The first seven branches to be opened will be located in Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Bauchi, Kaduna, Enugu and Lokoja in addition to the one in Gwagwalada Abuja.

    Governor of the CBN Mr. Godwin Emefiele made this known on Wednesday at Gwagwalada, in Abuja when he embarked on a facility tour of Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) microfinance bank, an agribusiness initiative which provides risk for framers.

    According to Emefiele, “we are just inspecting one out of the first seven and we are scaling up to the next 50 in the next phase. We believe that before the end of this year, we would have moved substantially in making sure that they are set up and be able to provide finance to small businesses. This is collaboration between NIRSAL, bankers Committee and NIPOST and I want to say that we really need to set up Microfinance Bank that will reach out to the unbanked.”

    The CBN Governor lamented the lack of access to cheap finance by small businesses but noted that with the presence of a Microfinance bank branch in each local government across the country, the problem would be tackled.

    Emefiele told journalists that “the biggest problem small businesses always have, is access to credit; and I am happy that with the establishment of this microfinance bank which would be in at least one local government and we are talking about the 774 locations in all the country, we would be able to have a financial institution that will help deepen financial inclusion to make it easy for people to access credit particularly the small and unbanked people because we have always said that these are the very weak”.

    The creation of NIRSAL Microfinance Banks across the country he said “is to improve access to credit and the technology that would be used will be a fintech technology. We have already set a target for ourselves that by 2020, the rate of financial inclusion must increase to 80 percent from about 48 percent a year and a half ago. So this is just part of our initiative to deepen financial inclusion in Nigeria.”

    Mr. Emefiele said the hurdles of collateral for loans and interest rate, have been removed as the asset being financed will serve as collateral.

    According to him, “we know that those who are weak in terms of those who are unable to access credit, the big issue for them is inability to provide collateral. So they will be able to access credit without providing collateral. The asset that we are financing for them will act as the collateral which will be registered in our national collateral registry as something that is eligible to serve as collateral for loan”

    He added that “the loan is going to be disbursed from our AGMEIS scheme which is five per cent of profit after tax that is being set aside by the banks to support the small and medium enterprises that will be in agriculture or those that are into different type of small businesses that badly need to raise finance to be able to set up and earn livelihood. Interest rate for this will be at five percent and the loan will be for tenure of seven years with two years moratorium.”

    Reacting to concerns raised in some quarters that the creation of NIRSAL Microfinance Bank across the country will crowd out other Microfinance Banks, the CBN Governor assured that the fear of crowding out is unfounded stating that “the existing microfinance banks are doing their best. I have heard this is an attempt to crowd them out. This is not an attempt to crowd them out, but to complement their services and see to it that whatever service is being provided by these microfinance banks should be seen to be fair to their customers.”

    Emefiele also said he has heard about “the rural communities where the microfinance banks charge very prohibitive interest rate. But here, we are talking about making funds available to these people. This will help to create some form of competitive landscape so that those kinds of practices will no longer arise.”

  • CBN bans sale of forex to textile importers

    The Central Bank of Nigerian ( CBN ) has moved to revive Nigeria’s moribund textile and clothing industry with foreign exchange restrictions on importers of textiles and clothing materials.

    Speaking at the at the Textile Industry stakeholders Meeting in Abuja on Tuesday, the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele announced that the apex bank has decided to implement a few steps that will support the revival of the textile sectors.

    These steps he said include; financial support to textile manufacturers with the provision of funds at single digits rate, to refit, retool and upgrade their factories in order to produce high-quality textile materials for the local and export market.

    “Effective immediately, the CBN hereby place the access to FX for all forms of textile materials on the FX restriction list. Accordingly, all FX dealers in Nigeria are to desist from granting any importer of textile material access to FX in the Nigerian Foreign exchange market.”

    In addition, the CBN he said “shall adopt a range of other Strategies that will make it difficult for recalcitrant smugglers to operate banking business in Nigeria. The details of those strategies will be unfolded in due course.”

    Also the CBN “shall, initially support the importation of cotton lint for use in textile factories, with a caveat that such importers shall begin sourcing all their cotton needs locally beginning from year 2020.”

    As part of its Anchor Borrowers Program, the CBN he said will support local growers of cotton to enable them meet the needs of the textile industries in Nigeria. To this end, the CBN “shall also support efforts to source high yield cotton seedlings so as to ensure the yields from our cotton farmers meet global benchmarks.”

    As regards provision of stable electricity, the CBN has also offered to support the creation textile production centers in certain designated areas in Nigeria where access to electricity shall be guaranteed.

    Emefiele noted that in 2016, the CBN began discussions with the Kano and Kaduna State Governments to establish textile industrial areas in a bid to guarantee stable electricity in those industrial areas. “We would intensify efforts with these governments and others that may show keen interest to see to the quick actualization of such programmes.

    On the FX restrictions specifically which will take effect from today, Emefiele insisted that “banks or FX authorized dealers are prohibited from granting or selling Forex to anybody who wants to import textiles, clothing, textile materials whether through valid and non-valid, I would just advice that there is no need for anybody to talk about whether it is valid or non-valid format we need to close it.”

    “Once we close it, it will make it difficult for them to import those garments into Nigeria so that all those garments that are sitting in the factories, the people will be forced to go and buy them whether the price is right or not they will be forced to buy them and the fact that they are forced to buy, they create opportunities for more people to go into that business and over time the price will stabilize that is the idea.”

    He said talked about 2020 because “I felt that the cotton association talked about time from planting to harvesting cotton and whether it will be in the kind of quantity that you may need and the rest so that is why we are saying for now subject to speaking to these stakeholders behind closed doors, we may say ‘you can import your cotton that is needed by the industry to gin and then convert into their textiles on the condition that by 2020 this will stop in which case our farmers would have gotten into the rhythm to produce the cotton that we need for our textile production.”

    These measures the CBN governor said “will discourage smuggling, resuscitate this critical industry, and support efforts at creating jobs for Nigerians.”

    The CBN was moved to take these critical steps to save the textile industry because according to Emefiele, “today, Nigeria currently spends above $4 billion annually on imported textiles and ready-made clothing. With a projected population of over 180 million Nigerians, the needs of the domestic market are huge and varied, with immense prospects, not only for job creation, but also for growth of the domestic textile industries.”

    One example that highlights the potential of this local market, he pointed out includes “the need to support provision of uniforms and clothing apparels for school students, military and paramilitary officers as well as workers in the industrial sector. In addition, when we consider the amount spent on outfits for religious and social events such as weddings, naming and funeral ceremonies on a weekly basis, the potential market size is well over $10 billion annually.”

    Emefiele told the textile industry stakeholders that the CBN is ready “to change this narrative today. I believe that if the CBN along with other critical stakeholders are able to address some of the challenges facing this key industry, given the high domestic demand for textiles, we will be able to create jobs for our economy, while increasing production of textiles in Nigeria.”

    During the interactive session with journalists and textile industry stakeholders, the CBN governor assured the group from the mining sector of the industry as well as textile groups generally that “regarding the loans from the Bank of Industries (BoI), we will be engaging the BoI, a substantial portion of the loans that they have lent out to you are our own Central Bank interventions so we will be talking to see how these loans can be properly restructured so that you now have a new beginning.”

    He said he was “optimistic that they will agree for the restructuring given the attempts we are now making to get this industry back to life. Once this is done I believe you shouldn’t have any problems about restructuring the facility.”

    Emefiele also assured the cotton and textile stakeholders that “before the planting in May we would have gone round and made funds available because we have development finance officers in all CBN branches and we have an anchor borrowers template for recognizing genuine farmers to access the funds under the auspices of the association recognized cotton farmers not just anybody who will just come to take money and not pay we want people who genuinely are farmers who genuinely want to go into cotton farming business so that they can help to produce the badly needed raw materials for the textile mills to produce.”

    With regards to textile factories that have stockpiles of inventories flooding their warehouses and storage facilities, the CBN helmsman said the CBN “will make things difficult for those things to come in, don’t worry, in our closed door session we will talk about dealing with smuggling and you know the Central Bank does not carry guns or arms we do not have lorries to be at the border post, but we know what we will do to make it difficult for those smugglers to bring those things into Nigeria and we will unfold those things to you so when we make life difficult for them to smuggle this items into the country what does that do, it opens the market for you so that those who would have gone to buy those smuggled or imported goods will be forced to come to the Nigerian. That is one immediate economic solution that I can see and since the president has signed an executive order that will now compel everybody flow in your direction.”

    In his address, President of National Cotton Association of Nigeria Mr. Anibe Achimugu expressed delight that the CBN’s latest offensive against textile smuggling and desire to revive the textile industry now signals “better days are ahead of us under the anchor borrowers’ project for members of Cotton and Textile Group (CTG).

    He said members of the group were grateful “for the points the CBN governor highlighted in terms of the CBN interventions but want to appeal to the governor that in as much as we have started the journey of the anchor borrowers programme, time is of essence, what has been happening in the past is that we have been missing our planting seasons. We are urging (of course we have our own work as well) that at least within this month we will get the approval that we are seeking under the anchor borrower programme for cotton production to fast track the process of planting and training members.

  • My tenure ends in June, says Emefiele

    The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, on Tuesday in Abuja said that his tenure will end in June, 2019.

    Emefiele who stated this while responding to questions surrounding his ‘sack’ from office, said “at least you can see me, I am doing my work, my tenure expires in June and at least let’s continue.”

    He noted that even if he leaves at the end of his first tenure “the intervention programmes of the CBN has been on since 1978 and it has moved from one governor to another I am very optimistic that even if another governor comes, no right thinking person will abandon an initiative that is laudable and that is meant to create jobs for the good of our country.”

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Tuesday dismissed claims that the CBN governor has been sacked.

    Responding to inquiries from The Nation Tuesday, the Director Corporate Communications of the CBN Mr. Isaac Okorafor told The Nation that “the governor is in his office working.”

    Read Also; Emefiele still in office, says CBN

    Another official of the CBN also told The Nation Correspondent that “there is nothing like that, the governor is here, his tenure expires in June.”

    An online media had reported on Monday afternoon that the CBN governor has been sacked by the presidency and given two weeks to clear his table and “handover to an unnamed successor.”

    President of National Cotton Association of Nigeria Mr. Anibe Achimugu at the textile stakeholders meeting in Abuja told the CBN governor that “we give God the glory that you are sitting here today. You have done well; we are praying that even with our own intervention, that you will do a lot more by the grace of God.”