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Tag: demand

  • Police demand N20,000 for bail, businessman alleges

    The Police in Aguda, Lagos Mainland, are on the spotlight. A businessman, Tunde Adjoto, has accused them of high-headedness and corruption. He also alleged that they wrongly arrested and detained his brother.

    Besides, they demanded a  N20, 000 bribe for his release, Adjoto claimed.

    In a petition to the Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), Mr Frank Mba, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), Adjoto alleged that the station’s officer assaulted him for demanding the unconditional release of his brother, Samson, who was “falsely accused of assault,” which he described as bailable.

    The petition routed through the office of Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN), claimed that Samson, a shop owner and his customer who is simply identified as Chuks, were arrested on May 17, following which the police allegedly demanded N20,000 for their bail.

    National Coordinator of NOPRIN Okechukwu Nwanguma said: “Adjoto informed us that a lady parked her car opposite his brother’s shop, went in and slapped a customer known as Chuks for allegedly refusing to move his car backward for her to pull out. The ensuing altercation and fisticuff disrupted his brother’s business and resulted in the damage of his shop’s sliding door and other items. He further informed us that the same woman who caused the fracas went and lodged a complaint of assault against her victims – Samson and Chuks. This prompted the arrest and detention of both men at the Aguda Police Station.

    “Adjoto said he went to the station that same day and waited to see the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) to no avail, until late in the night. He informed us that the Investigating Police Officer (IPO), Corporal Rahman and the Station Officer exhibited bias in their utterances and actions and in their refusal to allow him see the DPO or take the detainees on bail. Adjoto said the IPO and the Station Officer refused to release the detainees because he refused to pay N10,000 per person demanded by them. He said the Station Officer later attempted to push him out of the station. When NOPRIN inquired from the Station Officer about the allegation of assault on Adjoto, he said, ‘if Mr. Adjoto was assaulted, then he called for it’.

    “Adjoto further informed us that the IPO and the SO ’wants to cajole the detainees to write an undertaking to foot the complainant’s medical bill’ without mentioning anything about the damage at his shop and the fact that the complainant was the first to assault the suspects. Adjoto returned to the station on May 18 at 9.20am, met Inspector Ekon Anthony and Corporal John Okpanachi on duty at the charge room. He said the detainees had been denied access to speak with their lawyers or family.  The police also said Adjoto couldn’t secure bail for the detainees unless the complainant consents and approves. He requested the phone numbers of the IPO and the DPO. But the police officers on duty refused to give him the numbers. NOPRIN requests you to call the attention of the DPO Aguda to these allegations of abuse of due process and corruption,” the petition read.

     

  • Conference: Niger Delta to demand reparation

    Conference: Niger Delta to demand reparation

    The Niger Delta will demand reparation from the Federal Government at the ongoing National Conference, a delegate, Prof. Godini Darah, said yesterday.

    According to him, the region that provides the oil, which is the mainstay of the country’s economy, is the worst victim of inequality, corruption and bad governance.

    Darah, however, did not specify the amount the region will be requesting.

    He spoke in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

    “Niger Delta states are the worst victims of inequality, bad laws, plunder, corruption and bad governance that have happened in Nigeria.

    “This is because we are the ones whose resources have been stolen for 45 years since 1969, when the petroleum Decree No 51 was enacted by the military regime of Gen. Yakubu Gowon.

    “By that degree, the Federal Government has monopoly over income and revenue that come from oil and gas and Niger Delta is floating on oil and gas.

    “So, we are the most injured, most exploited and the most dispossessed region in the country.’’

    Darah said for this reason, Niger Delta delegates were prepared “morally, philosophically and intellectually’’ not just to set the tone for the conference but also to correct the injustice that had allegedly been meted to the region.

    He said that the delegates had conducted an extensive research on all the ramifications of petroleum resources and how it had harmed and injured their people, society and territory.

    “We have documented it for over 10 years, so we are loaded with data; we took it to the national conference of 2005 which was aborted.

    “ We have now updated the research and we are going to offload them in this conference.’’

    The don said that the expectation of the Niger Delta region was that the laws, decrees and policies deliberately enacted to dispossess the region of its oil and gas wealth must be expunged from the constitution.

    “The most notorious one of them is section 44, sub-section 3, of the constitution. The section says that all minerals and natural gas found on the earth, below the earth, in the air, under the sea and wherever it is found, belong to the Federal Government of Nigeria.

    “That is the most precious wealth that we have and it is a wealth that exhausts by constant exploitation. The more voraciously they exploit it, the less will be the reserve left for those who are alive now, for the children who are coming.

    “They are also hollowing the earth and going to cause geological imbalance,’’ he said.

    Darah said that the damage these laws had done to the Niger Delta could be not repaired with any amount of money.

    However, he said the delegates came to the conference with a request for financial repatriation equivalent to the injury and damage done to the region’s ecology.

    He said that these damages ranged from the farm lands to the rivers that no longer produced fish, adding that it also extended to the children who had become vagrant and deviant, rebelling against their parents whom they felt had sold their heritage to foreigners.

    “It is a very complicated matter but it can be resolved in instalments. The first stage is for those laws to go.

    “We have a litany of the laws; we have the Land Use Act, and there are also some laws that say all of us living on the bank of rivers are tenants of the Federal Government.

    “It is in the law that any distance 100 metres from the bank of the rivers belong to Federal Government.

    “And we have 3,000 waterways in the Niger Delta; so all of us are tenants of the Federal Government.’’

    According to him, some of these laws can never be found even in developed countries.

    Darah praised President Goodluck Jonathan’s moral conviction to convoke the conference, describing it as an opportunity for any part of the country with grievances or feeling that issues affecting them had been buried, to articulate and ventilate them.

  • Pensioners demand implementation of pay rise

    The Local Government Pensioners’ Association of Nigeria (LGPAN) in Kwara State has demanded the implementation of the government’s pay rise.

    It added that the salary review carried out by the government in 2007, 2010 and 2013 were yet to reflect in their pay.

    LGPAN claimed that its counterparts in ministries, departments and agencies in the civil service had been enjoying theirs since August 2011.

    In a statement, the association’s Chairman and spokesperson, Isiaka Akanbi and Ademola Ajibade, accused the local government pension board of delay.

    “We note with concern the delay by the Pension Board, although a negotiation committee has been constituted to appraise and consider the pensioners’ demands.

    “Another striking damage caused by the non-implementation of the pension harmonised increase is the disparity between local government pensioners, who retired years ago and those recently retired, whose benefits are calculated on the basis of the contentious salary increase circulars of 2007, 2010 and 2011.

    “The association perceives the delay of the pension increase harmonisation as a dangerous trend.’’

  • EFCC: Nigerians should demand accountability from their leaders

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has said the battle against corruption and graft can only be won, if Nigerians ask their leaders to account for their actions.

    The anti-graft agency said it was not enough for Nigerians to elect leaders into various offices and just watch those in leadership positions but to “ask questions” when things were not being done right.

    The EFCC spoke at the weekend in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, through its Chief of Staff, Mr Kayode Oladele.

    He said it was by holding leaders accountable for their unfulfilled promises and agenda that an “effective leadership” culture could be instituted in the country.

    Oladele spoke during the Royal Banquet Against Corruption, organised by the Eagleping, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), which crusades against economic and financial acts of malfeasance.

    He said: “…People should not just limit their civic responsibility to going to the polls to cast votes for their leaders and turn their backs. They should be asking questions about their leaders. There are promises the leaders made to them during the election. So, they should be bold enough to ask questions.

    “The leaders too should be courageous to give them feedbacks. The price of liberty and freedom is eternal vigilance. This is because, if you vote people into offices and you don’t ask questions regarding things they have promised you or the agenda they said they were going to implement, of course, the tendency is for them to think that you don’t know. So,they will go on doing their own things.

    “For there to be effective leadership, the electorate should make sure that they task their leaders questions on promises and performance.”

    Oladele, who also addressed reporters after the programme, said the EFCC was investigating officials of the Aviation Ministry on the N255 million bulletproof cars bought for the Aviation Minister, Ms Stella Oduah.

  • Fishermen demand N250b compensation from oil firm

    Fishermen in Unyenge community, Mbo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, have demanded N250 billion compensation from an oil company, Universal Energy Resources Ltd. (UERL).

    The fishermen said yesterday that they made the demand under the aegis of the Famous Fishing Organisation (FFO).

    The Chairman of the organisation, Mr. Johnson Harry, said members were affected by the August 15 oil spill from the company’s oil field in Stubb Creek.

    According to him, the spill emptied about 2,000 barrels of crude into the Ede Akpa River in the area and had prevented them from fishing- the only source of their livelihood.

    He said the oil company should compensate farmers in the community, who were also affected by the oil spill.

    “The oil flowed to Ede Akpa River where we fished and destroyed our fishing equipment. We can no longer fish in the river,” Harry said.

    He said the oil spill also destroyed farmlands, affecting the livelihood of 5,000 farmers in Unyenge community.

    Harry said the spill caused hardship to the residents and that some of their members had died of hunger and starvation.

    “We cannot farm, and according to international standard, if there is an oil spill, you have to wait for 10 years before you can start farming again.

    “The hazardous substances coming from the spilled crude have destroyed aquatic life, raffia palms and fishing nets.

  • Soyinka to youths: demand right to sound education from leaders

    Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, yesterday urged youths to demand from the leaders, right to sound education and safety if they must enjoy a better future.

    He said although adults should bring up the issue of better education and other social services for the children before the government, the responsibility is on youths to “demand and insist on being educated” despite the stifling environment, such as the Boko Haram insurgency and restrictive cultural factors.

    Prof. Soyinka spoke in Abeokuta when he received 79 students from across the country, who participated in an essay competition to mark his 79th birthday.

    In the essay competition on the topic: ‘Memoirs for our future’, Miss Akinpelu Motolani from Oyo State emerged the winner, Cosmas Adedero from Makurdi came second and Adebisi Oluwatobi from Ibadan clinched the third position.

    Hailing the participants, the Nobel laureate said youths should pay attention to the events around them and draw inspiration from what happened on the floor of the United Nations (UN) recently when a 16-year-old girl from Pakistan mounted the UN podium and addressed the world body, demanding that she and millions of others in her country deserved to be educated as a matter of right even if the system there is averse to it.

    Soyinka, who fielded questions from the pupils, said Nigeria faces “a very critical period” and “a very difficult time” because of the growing insurgency of the Boko Haram, particularly the sect’s attack on pupils and schools in the North.

    He said the activities of Boko Haram painted a bleak future for youths in that part of the country.

    Soyinka went on: “We face a critical time as a nation. It is a very difficult time. How many of you came from Borno State? Is there any of you, who knows somebody whose school was burnt or who lost friends? In other words, some of your colleagues have experienced the practical impact of the negative things going on there?

    “So you see, it is part of what is called growing old very fast.

    “I don’t want you to feel bad about it. I don’t want you to think it is too negative or too bleak. But I want you to look at the positive aspect of life, your intellectual development, your education and cultural development because something significant is going on at the world stage.

    “Very remarkable, something very pertinent to you, which to me portends the face of the future and not what is happening around you here.

    “The true positive face of the future of the world. That event took place at the United Nations and was witnessed by leaders, ministers, functionaries, non-government organisations (NGOs) and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon. The Assembly was addressed by a 16-year-old girl. I think what was her history?

    “She was shot in the face by those people we are talking about, the Afghanistan version of Boko Haram. Those who don’t want children and youths to be educated. People who believe that a woman’s place is in the kitchen. They go to schools, set them ablaze, kill pupils as well as teachers.

    “When you see an individual standing before a world body and demanding what is being denied, saying no matter what happens, we need education, you should know there is a ray of hope because you are not a complete human being if you are not educated.

    “It is symbolic and historic because she was making a practical demand and those demands are being listened to. Some were moved to tears. She knows she has got satisfaction, certainly the leaders would act and the world body would act.

    “This is what I want you to take away. No matter what, when we adults say you attend schools with full security, you the children, as young as you are, must also stand up, demand and insist on your right to education from the governors and the President”.

    He said he never came out of the university with a third-class as was believed by many, adding that even if he had graduated with just a mere pass, which he referred to as “let my people go,” he would still have attained the height he has reached today.

    He urged youths to define themselves and not allow others do so for them so as to realise their potential.

    Governor Ibikunle Amosun described Prof. Soyinka as a “citizen of the world,” who attained that feat by dint of hard work, focus and commitment to his chosen path.

    He enjoined youths to emulate him, saying if they remained studious, focused and dedicated, they would reach a greater height.

  • Lawmakers to demand more facts on economy

    Lawmakers to demand more facts on economy

    Worried by the row over the 2013 budget, some senators and members of the House of Representatives met yesterday in Abuja on the next line of action.

    They may ask President Goodluck Jonathan to be more forthcoming on the state of the economy, a source said last night.

    Besides, the two chambers of the National Assembly may pass a joint resolution on their position on amendment to the budget and their evaluation of the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

    Some senators and House members are insisting that the “true state of the nation’s economy” has not been revealed to Nigerians.

    The lawmakers met for about two hours yesterday.

    A source at the meeting, who spoke with our correspondent, said: “Many members of the National Assembly are still in the dark on the real picture of the nation’s economy because the Minister did not provide a convincing conclusion.

    “On one side, we are talking of $1billion bond or increase in foreign reserves, but on the other, the Minister said the Federal Government might not be able to pay salaries of civil servants by September.

    “When we met today, we asked ourselves that if a government cannot pay salaries by September, doesn’t it amount to a crisis at hand?

    Some House members asked whether the government was laying the blame for the shortfall in recurrent expenditure on the National Assembly or the economy.

    A Senator said some members of the Upper Chamber were urging Senate President David Mark to allow members summon the minister to speak on the state of the economy.

    “Discussing with her might reveal a lot and whatever is our obligation, we will want to discharge it,” the source said.

    “I could recall that what we are experiencing now is similar to a warning given by the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo in 1981. The administration of ex-President Shehu Shagari, which denied any economic drift, later put austerity measure in place.”

    A member of the House at the session said the suspicion is that the economy is being run according to the dictates of some western financial institutions because the fiscal policies we are runing are not people-friendly.”

    It was gathered that the members who met later decided to return to their chambers on their decisions.

    The decisions are:

    •to ask President Goodluck Jonathan to be more forthcoming to the National Assembly on the state of the economy; and

    •to ask the President if he feels the economy is being better run than when he took over •to pass a joint resolution on 2013 budget and release an evaluation report on the Minister of Finance.

    Also yesterday, the House of Representatives would not consider the new version of the budget amendment bill forwarded by President Goodluck Jonathan unless it is a supplementary document.

    The lawmakers also allayed fears over the alleged seizure of N100b constituency projects vote by the Minister of Finance, stating that she has not told the National Assembly of that decision.

    The decision on the form of the new version of the 2013 Budget Amendment Bill will however, wait until the lawmakers examine it.

    The lawmakers are due to embark on an oversight function from next week and proceed on a two-month recess later this month.

    Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Zakari Mohammed (PDP, Kwara), briefing reporters at the National Assembly, said the position was anchored on the fact that the Appropriation Act is time specific and cannot be amended like any other law.

    He also stressed that rather than insist on a wholesome approval of the 2013 budget proposal, the Presidency should make do with what was in force and, if not satisfied, make amendments through a supplementary proposal.

    Stressing that the House cannot reject a money bill, Mohammed said: “We have made it abundantly clear that on procedure, Section 81 sub-section 1, 2, 3 of the constitution, which specifically deals with money says that we have course for the president to lay before the National Assembly the budget of that year, and that has been done.

    “Before Christmas 2012, we were able to pass it before we went on break. When we came back, the drama started unfolding. The amendment came as if no job had been done.

    “The level we are now is putting things right. If the budget, according to the Executive, has issues, there are provisions for it to come in form of supplementary budget.”

    He, however, noted that it has become imperative to remind Nigerians that there is a duly signed budget running because the issue is turning to blackmail of the legislators by the Executive.

    “I want to correct the notion that the budget has not been passed. It has been passed and duly signed. There is an Appropriation Act already; so, any other thing should come in form of a supplementary budget.

    “For instance, we are concerned the envelope system in our budgeting process that has been a hindrance and roll-over of unspent fund that we advised but jettisoned, sadly enough.

    “That is why we see abandoned projects all over the place. Our position is, let us look at how to tackle that, we are only interested in how the budget will work”.

    On the N100b constituency project fund, Mohammed explained that the vote has little impact on the implementation of the budget.

    He, however, added that being grassroots-centered projects, such as bore holes, street lights, among others that required no extensive engineering designs, the Minister has no cause to seize funds meant for such projects.

    “The Constituency project allocation is less that 10 per cent of the total budget and it was meant to galvanise activities at the grassroots as dividend of democracy.

    “The Minister has not come out to tell us that the projects would not be funded.”

  • Chevron boat mishap: Victims’ families demand answers

    Richard Egbe’s death is perhaps the most inopportune of the 11 victims in the calamitous Jascon 4 boat accident. He was enjoying his mandatory two-week off when he was recalled for a special task on May 22. Four days later, he went down with the boat. He left an expectant wife, six children, an aged, recently widowed mother, unfulfilled dreams and tons of responsibilities. Joy Esigbemi and other members of the Ogbe family spoke exclusively with our Southsouth Regional Editor Shola O’Neil.

    At the Ubeji residence of the Egbes, signs of unfinished businesses are visible everywhere: his children lay on sofas; his wife – heavily pregnant and groaning – sat on a threadbare mattress in a sparse bedroom; his younger brothers – Amaju and Oritsema – sat on the cold bare floor, all bedraggled, all garbed in black.

    Outside the bungalow, an attached store under construction stood desolate. One of his siblings said Richard had meant to complete the building and set up a provisions shop for his wife so she could stay at home and take care of the growing family.

    “He had also built one for my mother and was yet to stock it before his last journey,” Oritsema rued.

    Richard was one of the 12 men who went on tension tow expenditure at the Single Buoy Mooring (SBM) #3 of Chevron Nigeria Limited aboard the Anchor Handling Tugboat, Jascon 4 on Sunday, May 26. All but the cook of the vessel returned in body bags.

    The event leading to their deaths on that fateful morning of May 26 is still a mystery, but the grief and pains of the families, like the Egbes, are real. The management of West African Ventures (WALVIS), a subsidiary of Sea Truck Group and Chevron on whose duty the fatal accident occurred have kept mum so far.

    When Mrs Egbe spoke to our reporter, her voice was low and burdened by sorrow. There was also unmistakable bitterness and anger as she recalled how her spouse was “dragged to his death”.

    “He was on time off when he was recalled by his employer. He was asked to relieve someone who had to leave. It was the last time we saw him; if they had allowed him complete his rest period at home he would still be with us.

    “It was my mother-in-law who called me to break the sad news. When I got to the house, she was crying. I was curious because she called to send me on an errand. When they told me what happened, I said it was not possible because my husband just went to work on Wednesday.

    “See (pointing) that is his eldest son, he had just gained admission. When my husband was going to work, he asked him to come later for money to get the things he needs. Look at the daughter; she is in SS3 and preparing for her WAEC, the second son is about to learn a trade and he needs money to start off.”

    Still, as painful as his death was, the family lamented that the treatment of WALVIS, on whose duty their breadwinner died, made the pain unbearable.

    Displaying a certificate of long service given by WALVIS, Mrs Egbe said the late Richard, a boson, had served the company for over 17 years, first as a casual worker before his employment was ratified. She said he was due for another honour later in the year before his unfortunate end.

    Amaju, a younger brother of the deceased, said: “Even the death of an animal does not deserve the kind of treatment meted on us and other victims’ families by the company. They acted as if our brother was a fowl that died.”

    He lamented that the family got no formal information about the accident until the corpses were deposited at the morgue of a private hospital in Warri.

    “They (WALVIS) called us to come and identify the body so that we would collect them for burial. They want to get the matter over with as soon as possible and they think that getting the corpses out of the mortuary is one way to do this.”

    Speaking in the same vein, Mrs. Egbe said: “I feel aggrieved because since the incident, I have not heard from the company. This makes me feel very bad because my husband gave 17 years of his life to the services of this company and when he died they did not have the sensibility to come and inform us about what happened.

    “Since I got the news I have been sitting here and up till this moment there has been no official response or visit from the company. There has been no condolence visit or even a letter to say, ‘sorry about your loss’. This is most callous and irresponsible.”

    Besides, some of the deceased’ families are furious about the perceived slow rescue operation. Amaju said the late Egbe and some other colleagues would have survived if the company had reacted as soon as they got the boat’s distress call.

    Although his assertion could not be independently confirmed, he said information available to the family indicated that rescue operation did not start until about 24 hours after.

    “My brother did not drown, he died of suffocation. Drowning would have left his skin messed up but it was dry and normal when we saw his body; no bodyorpse will stay in a salt water and come out the same. We are riverside dwellers and we have seen the bodies of persons who drowned,” Amaju said.

    Another sore spot for the family is the autopsy. His wife said they were unimpressed that they were not notified or represented when the post-mortem was carried out. She said the posture indicated that the company hadn’t told the whole truth about the accident.

    The Warri Base Manager of the company, Mr. Prince Ebhodaghe, who was contacted by our reporter on telephone, refused to comment. He became very hostile when our reporter asked for information about the accident and allegations about his firm’s conduct.

    “Do you know who I am? Do you know the person you are talking to?” he thundered repeatedly before hanging up.

    Before Ebhodaghe’s telephone meltdown, our reporter had spoken with a top management staff of the company who assured that there is a package already in place for the grieving families. Our source, who asked not to be named until the package is official, said West African Ventures was picking the bills for the burial rites of the 11 victims, including a Ukrainian, whose remains had long been ferried to his home country.

    “In line with the agreement they (dead staff) signed with our company, they will get 350 percent of their annual salaries as compensation. Apart from that we also paying for the coffins, transportation, burial rites and others,” the source added.

    But angry relatives of the victims seemed unimpressed. Ochukor Idolor, a sibling of Basil Idolor accused the company of valuing money more than the deceased and the families they left behind. “WALVIS said they do not have life insurance policies for their staff, yet the sunken boat has insurance. Strange, is it not?”

     

  • Amaechi to Nigerians: demand transparent elections in 2015

    Amaechi to Nigerians: demand transparent elections in 2015

    NIGERIANS got a wake-up call yesterday from Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi.

    The governor urged them to insist on good governance and the conduct of transparent elections.

    Amaechi, who made the call at a conference of the state council on information in Port Harcourt, the state capital, blamed weak governance on laxity among the electorate.

    He said the greater percentage of blame for bad leadership goes to the voting public rather than leaders.

    Amaechi said: “`The people should demand for transparent election and good governance and where they do not, they are 80 per cent of the problem.”

    The governor said the citizens must avoid keeping quiet when things went wrong in leadership on the assumption that nemesis would catch up with bad leaders.

    He said that such belief had impoverished the nation, while the leaders continued to squander national resources.

    “Insist that election must be transparent; nobody will give you your right, demand for it and claim it,” the governor counselled.

    On the feats achieved by his six-year administration, Amaechi said the administration completed 250 modern primary schools, which would be delivered to the host communities in September.

    Besides, he said his administration tackled the problem of a large number of pupils in classrooms to ensure proper learning for the children.

    He also said the administration would deliver six new model secondary schools to communities in September.

    Amaechi spoke of plans to kit pupils in public schools with laptops, tablets, beds and provide free feeding for nine months after which the parents would take over responsibility of their training.

    He also said his administration would inaugurate the “Unity bridge“ linking two coastal communities, Opobo and Ikuru, to land transportation, in January.

    The governor said his administration had also built a new school of nursing and that students would move into the facility in December.

    He said that the cultural centre and many other projects were nearing completion, adding that his administration released money for the building of a new Rivers FM station.

    Amaechi said that the government also approved money for building a new printing press for the state-owned newspaper – Nigerian Tide and the building of a new digitalised Rivers State Television.

    According to him, the project would take off as soon as release of the funds goes through the Public Procurement process.

    Explaining why the state power project has not been able to ensure 24-hour electricity supply, the governor said the power being generated and fed into the national grid, could not be dedicated solely for the state use.

    Commissioner for Information Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, said the theme of the conference was “Public Information Management as a tool for Good Governance.“

    Mrs. Semenitari explained that the theme was chosen because the state planned to develop an information policy that de-emphasised praise-singing and sycophancy in governance.

  • Naira retreats on falling oil price, rising import demand

    Forex utilisation in percentage

     

    Weakening oil price and rising import demand have been threatening the naira’s stability in recent weeks. The local currency weakened 0.4 per cent against the dollar in the Inter-bank and has lost 1.3 per cent of its value since January based on data compiled last Friday. The depreciation reflected increased dollar demand to cover import bills and other foreign exchange obligations. The naira closed at N158.20 to a dollar.

    Ecobank Nigeria Currencies Analyst, Olakunle Ezun said that aware of the risks posed by changes in global oil prices, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is targeting smooth exchange rate changes. He added that since the CBN has several policy objectives, it is not always possible to reduce naira volatility.

    “Recent movements in oil prices pose risks to the short term outlook given Nigeria’s oil dependency. Lower oil prices have also raised concerns over Nigeria’s fiscal prospects given the high dependence on oil,” he explained.

    Ezun said given the close link between exchange rate and monetary policies, primary market yields will continue to remain strongly influenced by the monetary policy stance, CBN liquidity management efforts, and the value of the naira.

    “Yields are not expected to change significantly in the short term, as the CBN is likely to continue with its tight monetary policy stance in order to tackle accelerating inflation and underpin the naira. However, there are risks to this largely stable short term outlook. The key risk is a significant drop in oil prices, which would have a widespread, adverse effect on the economy,” he said. He said the naira depreciation was further driven by speculation that there could be a reversal of foreign portfolio inflows and falling oil prices.

     

    Return on Equity

    Guaranty Trust Bank led Zenith Bank Plc and First Bank of Nigeria Limited on delivering returns to investors in 2012, a report by Renaissance Capital (RenCap), revealed. GTBank outperformed its peers delivering Return on Equity (RoE) of 34 per cent against Zenith’s 24 per cent and FirstBank’s 18 per cent.

    In an e-mailed report obtained by The Nation, the investment and research firm, said that GTBank created N41 billion of value in 2012 against Zenith’s N25 billion and FirstBank’s N1.4 billion.

    The report also showed that that although all the three lenders showed improvement in operational performance from previous year’s levels, the underlying earnings drivers varied significantly, with GTBank having the most favourable mix.

    RenCap said GTBank’s superior returns were driven by better gross yields, a lower-than-peers impairment charge and a lower cost base.

    “We calculate that all three banks created value in 2012, although FirstBank only marginally so. We analysed last year’s result to estimate the absolute naira value creation by each bank. We measure value created as the excess return over the Cost on Equity as a percentage of the average equity for the bank. GTBank produced the highest excess return – at 16 per cent against Zenith at six per cent and FirstBank at a marginal 0.3 per cent,” it said.

    RenCap noted that in some years back, the trio created no value, and in fact, destroyed value. In 2009, GTBank had negative value creation when its RoE fell to 13 per cent about five per cent below its Cost on Equity (CoE). Aside from that year, GTB generated value each year. Zenith Bank and FirstBank fared worse, it said.

     

    Reforms

    Nigeria’s slow implementation of structural economic reforms is limiting its chances of a credit-rating upgrade, Moody’s Investors Service told Bloomberg. It said while economic growth is “resilient,” any chance of an update from its Ba3 rating, three levels below investment grade, is hindered by corruption, weak institutions and its vulnerability to oil price drops, Edward Al-Hussainy and Dietmar Hornung, credit analysts at Moody’s said.

    Nigeria’s economy expanded an estimated 6.6 per cent in the first quarter of the year, compared with 6.9 per cent in the previous three months, data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed.

    Oil contributes as much as 70 per cent of the government’s fiscal revenue, leaving it sensitive to a downturn in global prices, Moody’s said.

    “Momentum for addressing challenging structural reforms has slowed. Most critically, legislation to revise the fiscal regime in the petroleum industry and to deregulate the downstream oil and gas sector has stalled, holding up significant foreign investment while the sector’s productivity declines,” Al-Hussainy and Hornung said.

     

    Eurobond

    The Federal Government has appointed Citi Bank and Deutsche Bank to manage a $1 billion planned Eurobond, the head of the debt management office (DMO) told Reuters. “The Federal Executive Council approved the appointment of Citi and Deutsche as joint book-runners for the planned $1 billion Eurobond,” DMO Abraham Nwankwo said.

    Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minster of the Economy Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had said at the recently concluded World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF) Meetings in Washington D.C, United States, that the Eurobond will be used to finance the power sector and gas development.

    The Minister said the Federal Government will float a Eurobond before the end of this year, stressing that a time table had been put together. The minister said: “The Ministry of Finance will undertake road shows in Europe and America to attract investors to subscribe to the bond. This will be our second Eurobond on offer, the yields on Nigeria bonds are good, this is an auspicious time for us to go and launch the Eurobond and so we are continuing.”

     

    Cash-less

    The planned extension of the cash-less policy to five states as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) from July 1, is sacrosanct, Deputy Governor, Operations, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Tunde Lemo said.

    The cash-less policy, which began in Lagos in January last year is billed to be extended to six more states ( Rivers, Kano, Anambra, Ogun and Abia as well as the FCT) in July 1.

    Lemo, who is responsible for driving the policy, said the additional states were chosen because of the large volume of cash transactions in some of their major cities.

    He said: “Recall that we started this programme actually in January last year and we are only just continuing. We are only just moving to phase two, so we have learnt all the ropes in phase one in cash-less Lagos and we believe we are ready to roll out to other six locations in Nigeria.

    He said the previous challenge of the cash-less policy was connectivity. “We have over 150,000 Point of Sales (PoS) machines in Lagos area where we had the cash-less Lagos. However, only 25 per cent of them are active largely because we don’t have General packet radio service (GPRS) and connectivity alive in some of the clusters and because of that, it has affected the rate at which those machines are used,” he said.

    Lemo however, said these challenges are being overcome. He said: “We believe very much that it is getting better because we monitor the transactions on daily basis and we are beginning to record large volume and value of transactions done under the Point of Sales (PoS). We are not even looking only at the PoS as a major of channel for cashless; we are now looking at all the other major channels for cashless. We have the mobile telephone, which we will use to drive the cashless policy.

    The cash-less policy is aimed at reducing the dominance of cash in the system. It specifies penal charges for individuals and corporate organisations that want to withdraw or lodge cash above the prescribed limits.

     

    Bank to bank report

    Fidelity Bank Plc last week inaugurated ‘Managed SMEs’ business meant to address the rising mortality ratio of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country.

    Speaking at the launch of the scheme in Lagos, the Managing Director of Fidelity Bank Plc, Reginald Ihejiahi said the move to create the ‘Fidelity Managed SMEs’ was necessitated by the need to address the challenges affecting small businesses, especially in the Nigerian business environment.

    He explained that many small businesses find it difficult to sustain their operations due to inadequate information on how to harness the opportunities in the market. He said the scheme would help to guide small businesses in their efforts to penetrate the market by providing advisory support and enhancing capacity building programmes that support the survival of such businesses.

    Skye Bank last week inaugurated its business account named: Skye Business Account.The product is to cater for the banking needs of small business units, traders and other market people who otherwise may have been left out of the financial inclusion drive, which seeks to integrate the informal sector into the banking world.

    In a statement, the bank said the Skye Business Account is a current account with an affordable opening balance for traders and small business owners for whom the product was specifically created. The product also has the complement of the inscription of the customer’s name on the MasterCard issued to account holders.

    The bank’s Head of the Small Business Group, Mr Wole Aderinkomi, said that the Skye Business Account offers full internet access to the account holders in addition to the MasterCard debit card, which enables customers to carry out business internationally.

    FBN Capital Limited, the investment banking and asset management subsidiary of FBN Holdings Plc, has launched Nigeria’s manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI).

    In a statement, the bank said the product was done in collaboration with NOI Polls Limited. This adds Nigeria to the list of countries, which makes use of this economic indicator that gauges the performance of the sector at monthly intervals.

    The FBN Capital Limited PMI will join some existing surveys of business and consumer expectations and it is expected that this will develop into a core forward economic indicator for analysts, policymakers and financial market players as it is the only sector specific, monthly index.