The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Nigerian

  • Nigerian banks are strong, says Fitch

    Nigerian banks are strong, says Fitch

    •Downgrades economy to ‘B+’

    Fitch Ratings has said Nigerian banks are well capitalised to absorb the impact of the 40 per cent effective devaluation of the naira against the dollar. It said currency devaluation affects banks’ capital ratios largely because total risk-weighted assets are inflated when foreign currency (FC) assets are translated back into naira, while capital is denominated in local currency.

    It assigned ratings to 10 Nigerian banks and its assessment is that, with a 40 per cent effective devaluation, the majority will not face an immediate breach of regulatory capital adequacy ratios (CARs). However, if the naira continues to weaken, buffers between minimum and reported CARs may decline to a level which heightens ratings sensitivity.

    Fitch-rated banks report CARs ranging from 14 per cent to 21 per cent. The devaluation will impact ratios in different ways across rated banks, depending on the level of their FC risk-weighted assets and the size of their net open FC positions. On average, 45 per cent of net lending in the Nigerian banking sector is extended in FC. Balance sheets tend to be reasonably well-hedged, although CARs are primarily affected by the revaluation of their FC risk-weighted assets into naira. “In our view, the immediate impact of effective devaluation on CARs reported by Fitch-rated banks will be a two per cent average reduction,” Fitch said.

    Meanwhile, Fitch Ratings has downgraded Nigeria’s Long-term foreign currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘B+’ from ‘BB-’ and Long-term local currency IDR to ‘BB-’ from ‘BB’. The outlooks are stable. The issue ratings on Nigeria’s senior unsecured foreign-currency bonds have also been downgraded to ‘B+’ from ‘BB-’.

    The Country Ceiling has been revised down to ‘B+’ from ‘BB-’ and the Short-Term Foreign-Currency IDR affirmed at ‘B’. It said the downgrade of Nigeria’s IDRs reflects the following key rating drivers: Nigeria’s fiscal and external vulnerability has worsened due to a sharp fall in oil revenue and fiscal and monetary adjustments that were slow to take shape and insufficient to mitigate the impact of low global oil prices.

    Renewed insurgency in the Niger Delta in first half of this year has lowered oil production, magnifying pressures on export revenues and limiting the inflow of hard currency. Fitch forecasts Nigeria’s general government fiscal deficit to grow to 4.2 per cent in 2016, after averaging 1.5 per cent in 2011 to 2015, before beginning to narrow in 2017.

  • Nigerian Navy at 60

    Nigerian Navy at 60

    The Nigerian Navy is celebrating its 60th anniversary. It is doing it in ways to make people remember that they are safe, protected and well taken care of especially those around the naval bases.

    The Nigerian Navy Finance and Logistics College (NNFLC) Owerrinta, otherwise known as NNS Kamanu in their own celebration decided to hold a free medical program for members of the host community, where patients numbering over 500 were treated and given free drugs for various ailments.

    Speaking with The Nation at St Ephraim’s secondary school Amaise Ahaba the venue of the free medical program, the doctor in charge of the base hospital, Lt Commander Adeniyi Aduwo said that the event is part of the way they want to say thank you to the host community.

    Aduwo a medical doctor said the program will help to let the members of the community who are their landlords to know that there is a hospital at the base, which they could access in time of any form of medical need.

    He said that the program is termed ‘Medical Rhapsody’ and that the logistics for the program was approved and provided by the commander of the college, Capt Godwin Obaje.

    Commander Aduwo said that they have handled about 500 cases ranging from High Blood Pressure, fever, malaria, ulcer, arthritis, including high sugar level, “These include old men, women, children and students as well, while those with severe cases are referred to the hospital at our base”.

    He noted that during his treatment and discussion with some of the patients, “I noticed that most of them are not even aware that they have health challenges, we have been able to tell them the type of ailments they have and given advises and drugs as well”.

    Earlier the chief nurse of the naval hospital, Sub Lt Ijeoma Nwachukwu had given the patients lecture on how to take care of themselves, stressing that what they were doing is part of social responsibility to their host community.

    Sub Lt Nwachukwu told them that they were going to run tests on them to determine their state of health, “We will also give those who have health challenges drugs free of charge, while the children from five years old down will be de-wormed”.

    She also told them about HIV/AIDS saying that it is not a deadly disease as such, “But you need to take care of yourselves to avoid contracting the disease, as it is not written on the faces of those who are carriers”.

    Nwachukwu said, “The worst aspect of the HIV/AIDS is the issue of stigmatization of the patients which kills faster than the ailment and you cannot contract it through touching but through blood contacts, but if you have HIV/AIDS and take your recommended drugs regularly,

    you will live long”.

    “There are other forms of diseases that kill faster than HIV/AIDS which includes hypertension, Hyperthertise B and other dangerous ailments, but these ailments could be controlled with the routine drugs meant for them”.

    She urged the men to allow their pregnant wives to come for ante natal check-ups and treatment at the base hospital, adding that they equally run free HIV/AIDS tests on such women, “Which is to avoid transmitting the disease from mother to child”.

    The navy college chief nurse, “During this free medical program, we are going to run tests, do Blood Pressure checks and give out drugs for those diagnosed with malaria, while pregnant women should come to the base for test and anti natal care with the paltry sum of N500 only

    for card registration”.

    Reacting one of the patients who was treated, Mrs Mabel Erondu a teacher said she is short of words to describe what the navy has done for them, “I am happy with the development, we cannot thank them enough, as I was tested and given drugs free”.

    “We pray for their success in all they do and pray that they should be holding this type of program more often with the rainy season when many types of ailments come up, and for giving us free drugs at this harsh economic period, they will never lack”.

    In his vote of thanks, the traditional prime minister of Amaise Ahaba community in Isiala Ngwa South local government area, Chief Friday Iheadindu expressed the appreciation of the people to the naval authorities for coming to their aide at this hard time and urged them to hold the program at lease twice in a year”.

     

  • Nigerian oil production at historic low, says OPEC

    Nigerian oil production at historic low, says OPEC

    Militant attacks in the Niger Delta region have pushed Nigerian crude oil production to its lowest level in more than a decade, a report from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has said.

    The body, in its last month’s report, said Nigerian output slumped to levels not seen in over a decade on the back of a wave of militant activity.”

    It said the country’s crude oil production for May averaged 1.4 million barrels per day, down 15 percent from the previous month, adding that crude oil production averaged 1.8 million bpd during the fourth quarter of last yearThe International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its latest survey, said the challenges for Nigeria’s economy are “substantial” in view of the fact the country relies heavily on crude oil production for sustenance. The body estimates that Nigerian economy will decline for the rest of the year, while inflation runs close to 10 percent, adding the government’s deficit has doubled and total exports are down roughly 40 percent.

  • Nigerian Christians in U.S. seek speedy return of looted funds

    The Christian Association of Nigerians Americans (CANAN) has pleaded with developed nations to help in reviving Nigeria’s ailing economy by returning the country’s looted money stashed in their banks.

    Executive Director of CANAN, Dr. Ade Oyesile, in a statement released in New York yesterday, said the money, which runs into billions of dollars, could be handy to pay civil servants.

    While commending United States for agreeing to return about $480 million believed to have been looted by late  Gen. Sani Abacha and his family, the statement by the association’s media consultant, Williams Ekanem, pleaded that both governments should expedite action on the terms and conditions for the repatriation of the cash in the interest of the Nigeria’s ailing economy. One of the conditions is for the U.S. to advise on specific areas to spend the funds to avoid the cash being re-looted.

    The CANAN executive director urged other nations where Nigeria’s looted money is stashed to emulate the U.S. and show confidence in the financial accountability posture of the Muhammadu Buhari administration to return her looted money.

    The statement said: “CANAN has become interested in the return of this money because of the undue long process it has taken for some developed countries to act even in view of the hard economic realities Nigeria is facing in the ace of dwindling oil price at the international market, Oyeshile, who is also a financial expert, pointed out.

  • 80,000 Nigerian refugees to be repatriated from Cameroon

    The Federal Government has signed a tripartite agreement with the UN High Commission for Refuge (UNHCR) and the Republic of Cameroon for the return of Nigerian refugees from Cameroon.

    The Director-General, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Muhammad Sidi, spoke when an AU Humanitarian Mission led by Dr Aisha Abdullahi, AU’s Commissioner Political Affairs, visited the agency in Abuja.

    Sidi, in a statement signed by Sani Datti, NEMA’s Information Officer, said: “80,000 Nigerians are taking refuge in Cameroon and are being catered for by the Federal Government”.

    He hailed the Federal Government, state governments affected by the insurgency, the UN agencies, non-governmental organisations and the private sector for supporting the refugees.

    The NEMA director-general also thanked all the development partners and donor agencies for working tirelessly in supporting the Internally Displaced persons (IDPs) and the government and people of Nigeria.

    Sidi said the organisations had “done a lot in the past four years to manage large numbers of IDPs in the North-East”.

    He said with the war against Boko Haram almost over, the stakeholders in the humanitarian response “have moved from the emergency response stage to recovery and resettlement of the IDPs”.

    He urged the visiting AU commissioner to use her office to seek more assistance and support for the persons and the states affected by the insurgency.

    Abdullahi had said the AU team was in Nigeria to assess the humanitarian situation and to discuss areas of possible support.

    The statement quoted her as saying that the displaced Nigerians were of concern to the AU.

    “The records available to AU indicate that there are about 13 million displaced persons and three million refugees on the continent.

    “I commend the efforts of the Nigerian government and the military for degrading and minimising the activities of the insurgents in the North-East.

    “The AU will continue to give more attention to the issues of displacement through interaction and focus on addressing the root causes of conflicts in Africa,’’ Abdullahi said

  • Sale of Nigerian unit boosts Tiger Brands’ profit

    South African consumer goods maker Tiger Brands has said its first-half-year earnings rose to 14 per cent, boosted by the sale of its Nigerian business. It however, warned that tough trading conditions would persist for the rest of the year.

    Headline earnings per share (EPS) – including continued and discontinued operations – reached 974.6 cents from 852.9 cents a year ago, South Africa’s biggest consumer foods maker said in a statement. Excluding the sale of Nigeria’s Dangote Flour Mills headline, EPS was flat.

    Tiger Brands sold its 65.7 per cent stake in Dangote Flour Mills last year after three years of failing to stem losses, which were worsened by the oil price slump and export restrictions in Nigeria.

    The company, which makes bread, breakfast cereals and energy drinks, bought the business as part of a plan to expand elsewhere in Africa to offset slow growth at home.

    Inflation pressures, a scorching drought and slow economic growth in South Africa, are expected to continue to hurt demand, Tiger Brands said.

    “The outlook for the balance of the year remains challenging, with downside risk to the macro-economic environment, both in South Africa and in a number of African markets, likely to add further pressure on consumers,” the firm said.

    Most export markets were hit by local currency devaluations and foreign currency shortages in many African countries. The company operates in Mozambique, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, among others.

    It said total sales rose by nine per cent to 12.9 billion rand. An interim dividend of 363 cents per share was declared.

  • How indigenous is the indigenous Nigerian?

    SIR: Are there tribes in Nigeria, that have borne experiences of the type endured by Samburu, Maasai, Pokot, Turkana, Borana, Gabbra and others in Kenya where indigenous people suffer policy exclusion and marginalization?

    Can any tribe in Nigeria, hand on heart, declare that they suffer marginalization like the SAN and KHOE in South Africa? This is in a country that encourages mother-tongue education for the first three years of schooling with enough funding for development of all official languages but find it convenient to exclude the SAN and KHOE because they aren’t official languages.

    Can any tribe in Nigeria, claim to have suffered annihilation so badly that it led to the culture of assimilation into national life, as though they never had a history, away from their roots?

    The SAN people in South Africa suffered linguistic persecution leading to the extinction of their languages. Today they speak Afrikaans as a first language, and their own tongue has been marginalised to the point where only the elderly can speak SAN and KHOE.

    Apart from colonization by the British, has any tribe in Nigeria been conquered by another Nigerian tribe and then been “civilised” and de-cultured by that other Nigerian tribe?

    Is there a tribe whose members have to provide everything for themselves because there is no institutional support, deliberately denied by the government? Are they harassed like the Zapatista communities in the South East of Mexico? Zapatista communities there battle to recover lost languages, cultural values and customs due to the acculturation policy of the government.

    Which tribe can honestly claim to be persecuted to the extent that its language and culture are so undervalued that the government moves to assimilate the group on grounds of national unity?

    Does any tribe suffer discrimination and even denied access to resources for food and livelihood like the Bakola, Baka and Bagyeli indigenous forest communities of Cameroon?

    History books teach that indigenous people are nearly almost always conquered by another group, foreign or local. These minorities are discriminated against by the conquerors as people with a low level of civilization and are denied access to quality education.  Indigenous folks in turn despise the education of the conquerors and wonder how it fits into their culture. Educational output becomes very poor because teachers are unwilling to be transferred to backward communities because the population of most indigenous people is too small (the reason for the ease of conquest). Indigenous people are therefore treated as insignificant in the national scheme of things.

    Most indigenous people live in rural hinterlands where access to everything good is lacking. Policies of state have to be made by a government that cares and especially for a government that seriously campaigns for the indigenous to become part of and contribute to national statehood.

    From these same history books, indigenous people whose existence is threatened in Africa, are in the Horn of Africa and East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia,), in Cameroon and Central Africa (Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Uganda, Rwanda, The Great Lake Region, Cameroon), in Southern Africa (South Africa, Namibia, Angola, Botswana), in North and West Africa (the Toureg people of Niger and Mali, the Touareg of Southern Algeria, the Amazigh people of Morocco).

    Nowhere is Nigeria mentioned as having indigenous people suffering persecution by the state because of their allegiance to their tribe, cultural practices or as a result of accidents of birth and language.There is no policy in this country designed to alienate a group or groups of people. We only have policies that aren’t all embracing.

     

    • Simon Abah.

    Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

  • Nigerian students win at global contests

    Students of the Nigerian Turkish International Colleges, who represented Nigeria at the International Young Inventors Olympiads (IYIPO), have won a silver award.

    They defeated students from 35 other countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, to win the award.

    Muhammad Atiku Bugaje, the team leader, got the award because of his project on “Rainwater harvesting through an affordable and cheap method in remote areas”, in Biology and Ecology category.

    IYIPO, organised in Georgia since 2005, has become an international contest with 35 countries participating since 2007.

    The competition is supported by ministries of education and science of the participating countries.

    IYIPO is sponsored by the European Union Representative in Georgia, International Black Sea University (IBSU), Georgian Patent Office and Georgian 1 Channel (State TV).

    It is organised in eight categories: Physics, Chemistry, Biology & Ecology, Mathematics, Information Technologies and Engineering.

    Also, another team of students of the school won laurels for Nigeria in another international project competition, The Infomatrix Asia-Pacific.

    The competition, which was held in Kazakhstan, was organised by the Education and Commission for Science and Technology of Kazakhstan.

    The competition had participants from all over the world.

    No fewer than 315 students from 22 countries participated in the science and innovation project competition, with 183 scientific and technological projects.

    The main aim of the competition was to discuss modern technology among 10-11 grade school students.

    Informatrix consist of five categories, which include Programing, Robotics, Hardware Control, Computer Art and Movie Shorts. Nigeria was represented by NTIC in the competition.

    The students competed in the hardware control category and returned home with a silver medal.

    A third group of students from Kano State, who were in Indonesia for International Science Project Olympiad (ISPRO), were awarded a bronze medal from more than 200 projects, after contesting with 28 other countries.

  • Indian varsities woo Nigerian students

    For Nigerian students seeking to get into school on time, the resumption of Indian universities for the 2016/2017 session in July/August may be attractive to them.

    Mr Badri Prasad, Chief Executive Officer of Edusoft Associates, a leading provider of university admission services, also said Nigerians can get the best education in the best universities in India for far less than the cost in other countries.

    “Nigerians have realised that they can actually study in world class universities at a fraction of the fees charged by schools in the United Kingdom and the United States. Since degrees acquired in universities in India are at par with schools in the UK and the US, we have in the last three years seen an upsurge in the number of Nigerians studying in universities in India,” Prasad said.

    He added that students can get scholarships. Those from the same family can enjoy siblings’ discounts in which one sibling pays the full fee and the other receives huge discount; while those seeking to change from schools in the UK and U.S. can transfer course credits to continue studying in India at a fraction of the fees.

    Prasad also said Edusoft guides students in choosing their programmes of study, in addition to visa processing and post-admission  services once they possess credit level passes in five subjects.

    “What we do at Edusoft Associates is to avail our professional experience to intending students to help them chose the course that best fits their career goal, and thereafter our wide network to select the school that best meets this need,” he said.

  • Insecurity hinders Nigerian development — UNDP

    The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has said the challenge of insecurity which surfaced in the country during the last administration greatly impacted on the various development efforts of the country.

    It noted that despite efforts by this administration, insecurity still constitutes a major threat to peace and development in view of the fragile economic climate occasioned by dwindling oil earnings, compelling shift from over-reliance on oil and gas sector to other sectors.

    This position is contained in this year’s National Human Development Report for Nigeria, with the theme: “Human Security and Human Development,” launched in Abuja yesterday by the UNDP.

    Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, who made a public presentation of the report, hailed the UNDP and other development partners for their supports for the country’s effort to overcome its myriad of problems.

    Udoma, who assured that the Federal Government was committed to ensuring people-centred development, said the government has set aside N12billion in this year’s budget as part of its effort to ensure the resettlement of those displaced in the North East.

    This, he said was in addition to the N500billion Special Intervention Fund and Victims Support Fund contained in the budget.