The Nation Newspaper

Tag: single-digit

  • Meter manufacturers seek single digit credit line

    Momas Electricity Meter Manufacturing Company Limited (MEMMCOL) Chairman,  Kola Balogun has appealed to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to create an advancement credit line of single digit to meter manufactures for effective execution of the Meter Assets Providers (MAP) scheme.

    Balogun, who spoke in Lagos, at the weekend, identified paucity of funds as a major challenge to the execution of the projects for meter manufacturers.

    He said: “Essentially, for this scheme to be successful, we will need between N10 billion and N20 billion for each of the manufacturers.

    “It’s a huge capital outlay. We urge the CBN to offer us the credit and allow us to pay back in single digit interest rate. We are more than ready to commence because we are well prepared for it.

    “It is just that for us to start execution, we still require the CBN support because of the capital outlay that is required to have efficient deployment. We need the CBN to intervene.”

    Balogun said meter manufacturers were at the position of negotiation, in terms of the execution of the MAP scheme, with the electricity distribution companies (DisCos)

    “We are just waiting for letters of engagement and the extent of the volume we are going to be deploying. The capacities are there, but the funding that it requires is the major constraint and that was the reason why we are appealing to the CBN to interven.

    “This is for providing advance credit line to meter manufactures so that they can buy raw materials ahead of time.

    “The bottlenecks on agreement of terms and condition also slow down the commencement of the projects. You know that there are so many variables involved such as insurance, ability to support the scheme in terms of infrastructure and logistic arrangement.

    “These are the things DisCos want to ascertain before they would conclude on the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to be submitted to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).

    “It is after the signing of the MoU that NERC will now give licences to the operators,” he added.

    Balogun said the project would benefit electricity consumers when it finally kicks off, adding that issues of estimated billing and over-billing would also be abolished.

    He said electricity consumers would pay exactly for what they consume and they would be able to read their consumption rates without prejudice.

    “Once the scheme commences, consumers will now pay into the joint MAP account that will be managed by the meter manufactures and DisCos under the Meter Asset provider scheme. It is expected that the scheme will commence before May and the deployment of meters to customers will commence in earnest.

    “After the signing of the MoU, we don’t know when NERC will give us the licence so that rollout schedule will be agreed upon as well as mapping of the area. What NERC wanted to do is the totality of substation; all consumers attached to the substations would be metered 100 per cent, in other to get exact value to the energy auditing process.”

  • Nigeria targets single digit inflation rate by 2020

    The Federal Government is targeting a single digit inflation rate by 2020, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Mr. Udoma Udu Udoma, has said.

    The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its Consumer Price Index (CPI) May 2017 report, released in Abuja, during the week, indicated that the country’s inflation dropped to 16.25 per cent in May, from 17.24 per cent in April.

    According to the report, this is the fourth consecutive decline in the rate of inflation since January.

    The Bureau stated that the headline index increased by 1.88 per cent in May 2017, 0.28 per cent points higher than the rate of 1.60 per cent recorded in April 2017.

    But Udoma said government was committed to containing the inflation rate so as to make life more meaningful to the citizens.

    According to him, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is saddled with the responsibility of achieving the single digit inflation rate by 2020.

    “We are targeting to bring the inflation to single digit by 2020 and it is the role of the CBN to do that,’’ Udoma said.

    He expressed optimism that the single digit inflation rate would be achieved in spite the allegations of policy inconsistencies being leveled against the CBN in some quarters.

    The minister said: “I don’t think there are inconsistencies, you have different objectives and you have to balance, it’s a balancing thing, there are no inconsistencies.’’

    On plans to submit the 2018 budget to the National Assembly by October, the minister said government was determined to return to the January-December Budget Year cycle.

    He said: “We want to move back into a January-December budget year because even though the Act that the National Assembly (NASS) passed and signed into law allows 12 months, which means that this budget just signed has a 12-month lifespan, it is not the best.

    “People need to plan carefully with the January-December budget cycle.

  • CBN eyes single digit inflation

    CBN eyes single digit inflation

    Buoyed by the rate of the economy’s recovery, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is confident that the country will return to single digit inflation rate.

    CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele, in an interview with Arise Television yesterday, said with the improvement seen in growth from the negative 1.7 per cent in the last quarter of last year to the negative 0.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2017, the inflation target “is achievable in the course of time”.

    Nigeria’s inflation rate fell for a fourth straight month in May, dropping to the lowest in a year as growth in prices of most goods, except food, eased. Inflation slowed to 16.25 per cent from 17.2 percent in April, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

    Emefiele spoke of huge success in exchange rate stability, based on some of the actions the apex bank had took in the last couple of months.

    The CBN boss said: “In 2017, with the improvement we have seen in growth, from the negative 1.7 per cent in the last quarter of last year to the negative 0.5 per cent in the first quarter of this year. We have seen exchange rate stability with some of the actions we have taken in the last couple of months. We do expect that if this trend continues, we should get better. Firstly,  with inflation trending downwards, we are hopeful that in the course of time, we will get back again back to single digit inflation.”

    He said the country had developed homegrown solutions to its economic challenges and that the feedbacks from those decisions are positive.

    “ Why needed to adopt Nigerian option, because of our peculiar reasons. On inflation, the CBN had a target of six to nine per cent, unfortunately, it grew to 18.8 per cent and I am happy it is coming down, and I am hopeful it will continue to get better. We looked at the foreign exchange market, and today we have ensured that forex is not N500/$1. It is now between N360 and N370/$1 and we will ensure it gets even better from where it is right now,” he said.

    On some of the stabilisation steps taken by the regulator, Emefiele said the apex bank had opened the market up for more people to come in. “We want more people to in and invest in the economy, and that was why we introduced the Investors’ & Exporters’ Window. We want forex market that will be determined by demand and supply. It has helped in forex flow and led to the appreciation in the naira we are seeing today,” Emefiele said.

    On the real exchange rate for the naira, he said that despite any method used in determining the value of the local currency, the real effective exchange rate should not be above N325/N330 to dollar.

    On the restriction of forex for 41 items, Emefiele said there was need to take a look at what is being imported. “Why should we import toot pick, palm oil and even rice? At a point in time, Nigeria was the largest producer of palm oil, controlling 40 per cent of the market share. Why should we set aside forex for the importation of products that we can produce in the country. My view is that forex should be devoted to critical segments of the economy and for the importation of items that we cannot produce in the country,” he said.

    The CBN boss’ logic is that when items, such as palm oil, are imported, the local producers are made poorer.

    “When we import rice, we impoverish the rice producers in Abakaliki, Kebbi, Sokoto, Katsina and other parts of the country. We need to look at that very seriously because God has blessed this country, with good climate, good weather, which should be taken advantage of. Since we can produce these things, let’s use them to feed our people so that we can save foreign exchange for the country,” he said

    Emefiele said he grew up seeing the country’s economy thriving in the 60s and 70s, adding that he owed Nigerians an obligation to ensure that the economy rebounds.

    Emefiele also said with the level of commitment shown to agriculture and rice production, many manufacturers were already indicating interest in the supporting government’s efforts.

    “As we continue this plan, we have seen some multinationals coming to say they will join us in rice production, palm oil production among others,” he said, adding that the CBN would continue to support multinational that help in building the economy by supporting government’s efforts at promoting agriculture.

    “If PZ Wilmar Nigeria needs foreign exchange because they have a little shortfall, I will give them because I have seen their contributions to the economy. Coscharis has acquired thousands of hectares of land in Anambra, trying to grow rice. And we were there last year, and this year, we will be there again to see what they have done. Dangote is also investing in rice farming,” he said.

    Emefiele said Kebbi, Jigawa, Sokoto, Anambra and Ebonyi  states were showing lots of interest in rice production, adding that with the sustenance of these efforts, Nigeria’s economy will be on the path of recovery.

  • Presidency: 1.2m Nigerians to get single-digit loans

    Presidency: 1.2m Nigerians to get single-digit loans

    The Federal Government  on Sunday  said 1.2 million Nigerians would be given soft loans at two or three per cent interest rate as part of efforts to create jobs under its social investment programme.

    Mr Laolu Akande, the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, said this when he appeared on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja.

    He said the Federal Government was synergising with its enterprise agencies with the private sector to achieve the goal.

    He named the agencies as Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Bank of Industry (BOI), Bank of Agriculture and National Directorate of Employment (NDE), among others.

    ”About 1.2 million Nigerians are going to be given soft loans, may be at two or three per cent, loans of N20,000 to N50,000, N100,000; the traders, for people that have small businesses.

    “We are going to be using co-operatives, so all these groups mentioned will be working together because we believe small and medium enterprises are very critical to the recovery and rejuvenation of the economy.

    “So, we are working to design all kind of intervention financial facilities since we are not getting the kind of affordable loans in the main banking sector.

    “So, we are using the intervention funds to release money to small and medium scale enterprises so that they can trade with the money. with very little interest two or three or four per cent.’’

    He said that the Federal Government was hoping to do more for Nigerians using the intervention fund as part of its social investment programme.

    He said that the SMEDAN, BOI, Bank of Agriculture, NDE, others had been harnessed to provide such support.

    Akande said the government would continue to use resources from the agencies to actively boost social investment programmes.

    “We are working with these agencies to have that kind of glory of affordable loan to 1.2 million Nigerians to do trading of different kinds,’’ he added.

    He gave the assurance that the Federal Government would soon generate 7000 megawatts (MW) of power.

    Akande said that government was working assiduously to step up power generation from 5000 mw to 7000 mw.

    He said that the country began to experience low electricity supply due to pipeline vandalism and the bombings in the Niger Delta.

    ”When the administration came in as a matter of fact we were doing less than 300mw.

    He said that the Federal Government had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with companies that would supply gas that would ultimately increase the output to 5000 mw.

    Akande said that by rejuvenating some of the transmission facilities and infrastructure government was doing what is called “incremental power ‘’  to bring up the megawatt.

    He said that there were plans also by government to effect public, private partnership to ensure that Mambila project came on stream in power generation.

    On the issues of idle power plants Akande explained that the truth was that “a lot of those plants, facilities are just there and not being utilized.

    “The power plants are all disconnected and we are trying to fix them so that the plants will bring significant increment to the output.

    He said that rather than new taxes the government was expanding the coverage area in its Value Added Tax (VAT) drive to generate more income.

    ”Essentially, we are not increasing VAT at this time, but what we are trying to do is to increase the coverage of VAT.

    ”So, for instance now, if  VAT is only coverable for the 10 per cent that it should cover and you know the current rate is five per cent.

    ”We want to increase the coverage to 20 per cent because we believed that by just increasing the coverage, we are going to get in more revenue.

    Akande, however, said that the council was looking at a whole lot of things happening in the business environment to encourage people to invest and to promote their businesses.

    He said the government wanted to ensure that those who want to get   all kinds of approval for business purposes could visit only a one stop shop.

    According to him, we have installed one-stop-shop government policy approach.

    ”That is if you are a businessman and you have dealings with government.

    ”You do not have to go to Ministry of Finance today, Federal Inland Revenue Service or CAC tomorrow, among others you just have to go to one agent.

    ”Whatever you need from those agencies of government, the one stop shop will be the one that will do the running around.

    ”So, things like that are going on and we are actually trying to see that people do not suffer double taxation,’’ he said.

    He assured Nigerians that the government was doing its best to ensure a conducive environment for businesses to thrive

    According to him President Muhammadu Buhari’s economic team is composed of competent and tested people with significant private sector experiences.

    ”The major problem of Nigeria’s economy is a problem of vandalism of our oil installations and also the drop in the prices in the international oil market.

    “Look at what we have been able to do in spite of all these problems. In spite of the drop in revenue we have paid out almost N800 billion for infrastructure, for capital projects, more than what was budgeted for last year.”