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  • World Bank: Fintech has potential to transform finance, capital markets

    Financial technology (fintech) holds tremendous potential to transform finance and capital markets, the World Bank said at the weekend. It added that institutions such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an inter-governmental economic organisation with 36-member countries have been looking at data-driven financial markets and what could be learnt from that.

    The global bank said at the G20, digital financial education is a priority to ensure that fintech benefits are shared evenly by consumers as they choose financial products smartly. “Much of our work on finance and capital markets is also focused on the foundations of a digital economy that will digitally enable millions of people and small businesses to have access to finance, manage a savings account and securely transfer payments.

    “The progress we are tracking in many economies is faster where policy interventions are not interfering with market fundamentals. Regulators reaching beyond their mandates are experiencing success in protecting consumers, business conduct and laying the foundation for financial stability,” the global lender said in a report at the weekend.

    It said the next chapter in fintech regulation will emphasise proportionality and a shift from regulating institutions to regulating activities. Small fintechs, it said, have a very different risk profile from large banks. The need for new rules to cover technologies is important.

    “Rules, however, will need to accommodate the rapidly changing pace of technology. We can only succeed if the rules are tech neutral and based on principles so as not to undermine the prospects of fintech applications in many developing countries.

    “In the past few years, the emergence of fintech hubs has proven extremely valuable in convening the various stakeholders to share their knowledge, stories of success and challenge, their assessment of risks and opportunities. Engaging with the experts, investors, researchers, banks, consumers and regulators, financial institutions is facilitating the flow of new practices and applications while promoting cross border cooperation within and between jurisdictions that can potentially minimise regulatory arbitrage and fragmentation,” the report noted.

    According to the World Bank, it is true that in many developing economies the infrastructure, institutions and information technology to enable fintech are not very advanced. It is also true that fintech will not substitute for market inefficiencies. The reality, however, is that fintech can make up for many of these gaps.

    It explained that financing for development is critical, stressing that for many developing countries, these gaps undermine prospects of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and supporting vital economic sectors.

  • Policy critical for digital savings, financial inclusion, says World Bank

    Policy is critical for digital savings and for promoting financial inclusion, the World Bank said at the weekend. It said across the developing world, financial institutions have leveraged digital technologies and innovative business models to expand access to digital financial services (DFS), such as digital transaction accounts and payment services. These, it said, served as the gateway to financial inclusion. Providers are now diversifying their products offerings to newer DFS, such as credit, insurance, and savings, the bank said.

    A World Bank Group report released at the weekend, examined DFS products geared toward longer-term savings.

    Titled: Financial Inclusion Beyond Payments: Policy Considerations for Digital Savings, it looks at how these digital savings products—though not yet mature–have the potential to advance an important element of digital financial inclusion.

    Access to reliable savings products at regulated financial institutions is important for helping low-income and financially underserved segments safely meet their long-term saving goals. Yet significant gaps exist in developing regions between the proportion of adults who save and those who save at a financial institution. The gaps owe, in part, to limited access to savings products among low-income and rural populations, and to the perception among low-income individuals that their savings are not large enough to warrant a savings product at a financial institution, which may entail maintenance fees, minimum balance requirements, and high indirect access costs (e.g., transportation, time). Thus, accessible, flexible, and affordable digital savings products could bring informal saving into the regulated financial sector.

    The report analysed digital savings product deployments and relevant DFS policy issues across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and Asia and focused primarily on digital savings accounts or digitally-accessible, interest-bearing deposit accounts held by regulated deposit-taking institutions. Importantly, nonbank entities, such as non-bank e-money issuers (NBEIs), are often integral to digital savings account deployment models. Additionally, the report principally examined digital savings accounts that are accessible on basic mobile devices or agent-administered point-of-sale terminals.

    According to the report, among the 36 digital savings accounts examined, three primary deployment models have taken shape. Partnerships between banking institutions and NBEIs, such as mobile network operators (MNOs) and other fintech companies, are common in the provision of digital savings accounts.

    MNO partnerships account for a greater share of the digital savings account deployments in SSA than in Asia, which reflects the historically MNO-centric DFS approach in SSA and contrasting bank-oriented DFS patterns in many Asian countries.

    While many digital savings accounts constitute digital channels to legacy savings accounts at banking institutions, many others, such as M-Shwari in Kenya, M-Pawa in Tanzania, and MoKash in Uganda, are new accounts developed for digital savings. Moreover, new classes of institutions have emerged, such as India’s payments banks, which offer dedicated digital savings accounts. Though the report focuses on digital savings accounts, it also takes stock of alternative non-deposit digital savings products that enhance consumer choice, such as e-wallets offering customers a financial return and digitally-accessible pension products.

    The report finds that digital technology and innovative business models enable three broad product and market properties that enhance savings account accessibility. These are value chain disaggregation, which occurs when banking institutions partner with nonbanks for the technology and distribution aspects of digital savings accounts, allows for expanded access points, improvements in the economics of low-cost savings accounts, leveraging of different entities’ comparative advantages, and scaling up of micro-banking institutions.

    Another is product tailoring and customisation is made easier through digital technology and innovative business models, enabling providers to incorporate greater degrees of accessibility, flexibility, and affordability in their savings account offerings.

    Leveraging of DFS ecosystems helps foster competition in the savings product space and facilitates access through use of  infrastructure.

  • World Bank, Fed Govt to revive Ladi Kwali pottery

    The World bank is to partner with the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development to revive the Ladi Kwali pottery centre.

    Minister of State, Mines and Steel Development, Hon. Abubakar Bwari said the Federal Government will upgrade the centre to meet the demands of contemporary modern pottery production which is expected to harness the abundant mineral resources requirements of the industry available locally.

    He added that the main interest of the Federal Government was to see that its diversification efforts manifest in improved livelihood of the citizens through the creation of sustainable employment and wealth creation for all.

    Speaking at the World Bank delegation’s visit to the Ladi Kwali Pottery Centre in Suleja, the minister, who was represented by the Director steel, Imeh Ekrikpo said, he was delighted for the opportunity to lead the delegation from the World Bank to Ladi Kwali Pottery Centre, Suleja because of the genuine desire of the present administration to restore the golden pottery era leveraging on the abundant industrial mineral endowments of Niger State. The cardinal interest of the Federal Government is to see that its diversification efforts manifest in improved livelihood of Nigerians through creation of sustainable employment and wealth creation for all Nigerians.

    “It is no longer news that the once notable Ladi Kwali Pottery Centre and its training facilities have been allowed to decay by successive governments in Nigeria.

  • World Bank sees lower oil prices

    Crude oil prices are expected to average $66 a barrel this year and $65 a barrel in 2020, World Bank said in its April Commodity Markets Outlook yesterday.

    This is a downward revision from the October forecast due to the weaker-than-expected global growth outlook and greater-than-anticipated United States (U.S.) production.

    Its Director, Prospects Group, Ayhan Kose, said: “The outlook for commodity prices is sensitive to policy-related risks, especially for oil. The outlook for oil could be swayed by a range of policy outcomes, including whether the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and partners extend production cuts, the impact of the removal of waivers to the U.S. sanctions on Iran, and looming changes in marine fuel emissions regulations.”

    After a drop in late 2018, oil prices have risen steadily since the start of the year, as OPEC and partners have cut production, and output has declined in Venezuela and Iran. U.S. shale production is expected to remain robust after surging in 2018. Energy prices overall – which also include natural gas and coal   are expected to average 5.4 per cent lower in 2019 than in 2018.

    Metal prices are however  expected to continue a recovery this year that follows a sharp drop in the second half of last year. The recovery has been spurred by stabilisation of activity in China after weakness around the turn of the year, as well as various supply shortfalls.

    Its  Equitable Growth, Finance & Institutions Vice President,  Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, said: “It has become clear that the commodity price cycle has come to an end, which is causing strains for exporters but may offer opportunities for importers. Exporters may have to adapt to slower gains in commodity revenues with economic diversification, while importers could take advantage of lower commodity prices for increased investment.”

    Agriculture prices are projected to fall 2.6 per cent this year but rebound in 2020 due to lower crop production and higher costs for energy and fertilizers. An escalation of trade tensions would likely push prices lower, but higher-than-expected energy costs could lift prices more than expected.

    A special focus section shows that when countries intervene to dampen the effect of food price fluctuations on their citizens, the collective intervention of many countries can produce the opposite of the intended effect and amplify movements in world prices – to the detriment of the most vulnerable populations.

  • Ekiti gets World Bank’s support to revive farm settlements

    THE Ekiti State government’s agriculture and rural development programme has received a major boost.

    The World Bank is supporting the initiative.

    Governor Kayode Fayemi broke the news on Sunday at his Isan Ekiti country home.

    According to the governor, the initiative called Rural Access and Marketing Programme (RAMP) will connect Ekiti rural communities to the urban centres and market places.

    It will also help in the reconstruction of farm settlements; many of which were built in the fifties by the   late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, but were not put to good use.

    Fayemi explained that the initiative would help provide basic amenities at the farm settlements to encourage farmers in the areas to focus on their agricultural activities.

    The governor said: “One of my assistants is going to be focusing on agric and farmsteads because, in the course of my campaigns, I went round those farmsteads. My wife also toured the farmsteads extensively. There are things that are required by the people in those farms that will make their work a lot better in terms of social amenities, social investment, in terms of ensuring that we connect the farms to the market.

    “So, we have another initiative that is being supported by the World Bank, which is known as Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Programme (RAMP). This is meant to assist us to connect our rural communities to the urban centres and the market places in the hope that we can also reconstruct our farm settlements, provide the necessary amenities there and ensure that our people stay back in those places without missing the amenities they ought to have if they were to be in the cities,” he said.

    On the College of Technical and Commercial Agriculture, which was scrapped by his predecessor, Fayemi said a bill for the re-enactment of the college establishment law would soon be sent back to the State House of Assembly to enable the school to begin operation legally.

  • Ekiti receives World Bank support to revive farm settlements

    The World Bank has offered support for Ekiti State’s agriculture and rural development programme.
    Governor Kayode Fayemi disclosed this on Sunday at his Isan Ekiti country home.

    According to Dr Fayemi, the initiative called Rural Access and Marketing Programme (RAMP) will connect Ekiti rural communities to the urban centres and market places.

    He said it will also help in the reconstruction of farm settlements many of which were built in the fifties by the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo but were not put to good use.

    The governor explained the initiative would help provide basic amenities at the farm settlements so as to encourage farmers in the areas to focus on their agricultural activities.

    “One of my assistants is going to be focusing on agric and farmsteads because in the course of my campaigns, I went round those farmsteads.

    “My wife also toured the farmsteads extensively. There are things that are required by the people in those farms that will make their work a lot better in terms of social amenities, social investment, in terms of ensuring that we connect the farms to the market.

    “So we have another initiative that is being supported by the World Bank which is known as Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Programme (RAMP).

    READ ALSO: Ekiti community benefits from Ecological Fund Project

    “This is meant to assist us to connect our rural communities to the urban centres and the market places in the hope that we can also reconstruct our farm settlements, provide the necessary amenities there and ensure that our people stay back in those places without missing the amenities they ought to have if they were to be in the cities,” he said.

    While speaking on the College of Technical and Commercial Agriculture scrapped by his predecessor, Fayemi said a bill for the re-enactment of the College establishment law will soon be sent back to the House of Assembly to enable the school begin operation legally.

    The governor, who disclosed that the ongoing construction works in the school, would be completed before September when the school opens for academic activities, said the College was designed to train and equip young people who are interested in agriculture agric value chain.

  • World Bank: 1.7b adults lack access to financial services

    Some 1.7 billion adults worldwide still don’t have access to a bank account, according to data released by the World Bank.

    The situation is slowly improving, however, with 1.2 billion people getting access to proper banking since 2011, including over half a billion people in the last three years alone.

    Access to finance in remote areas is proven to relieve barriers to poverty reduction, economic growth and female empowerment. Fintech can help solve these challenges, but it needs the help of governments, the public sector and financial institutions to have meaningful impact. Across much of the developed world, people take their bank accounts for granted, safe in the knowledge that their money is secure and that there’s an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) close at  hand. Elsewhere, the concept of financial inclusion remains a pipe-dream.

    Banks, telcos, ministries of finance, central banks and leaders in the banking industry from 10 nations across the West African region are set to gather in Lagos at The Future Banking Technology Summit to discuss efforts aimed at increasing financial inclusion in the sub-region by 2020.

    The Future Banking Technology Summit will address over two days of panel discussions and case studies showcasing the full value chain of the region’s banking and financial sector to best achieve financial inclusion and sustainable banking sector growth.

    Commenting on the Future Banking Tech West Africa Summit, Khalila Baldwin, the Director of the summit said: “At such an exciting time for the financial space in West Africa, we knew it was imperative to launch an event capturing as many of the dynamic components of this sector as possible. A key focus of our event, and many new policies being driven within the region, is to ensure financial inclusion is increased across West Africa. We, therefore, wanted to shine a light on the leading strategies increasing access to finance with the top financial stakeholders in attendance.

    “Late last year, the Central Bank of Nigeria announced the introduction of Payment Service Banks, and amidst so much buzz around Telco’s entering the financial space in Nigeria, we also wanted to provide a platform for both the traditional and non-traditional financial entities to converge” Baldwin added.

    The event will focus on the future of digitising banking services for Central Banks in West Africa. This is as leveraging off experiences of similar regions can aid in the adoption of best financial inclusion practices, as it is becoming incumbent on banking stakeholders to be rapid, yet savvy in incorporating disruptive mobile money platforms, automated banking systems, tailored credit facilities and crypto-currencies for this dynamic market. ( The two days summit will also tackle several paramount topics including, innovation in regulation- Overcoming gaps in rural banking strategies, supporting innovative financial institutions to improve financial inclusion, improving credit facilities to underbanked and Small and Medium Enterprises, throughout main panel discussions and networking breaks.

    Future Banking Tech West Africa Summit will include case studies from nations that had similar stories, that have increased access to finance through changes in regulations such as mobile money licences for non- banks and pushing agency banking. To showcase this, the two-day summit will begin with discussions from some of the region’s regulators, including Mudashiru Olaitan, Director, Development Finance Department, Central Bank Nigeria as he describes the innovative platforms being adopted, adapted, and implemented to increase financial inclusion. The second session is a panel discussion with EFInA, Central Bank of Nigeria and Ministry of Finance, Ghana as they further examine the best strategies to enhance rural access to finance.

    Afreximbank unveils 100m Euro facility for  projects.

    The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has announced the disbursement of an 100 million Euro revolving global credit facility to Mota-Engil Engenharia e Construçáo África, S.A. (Mota-Engil Africa) to support the company to implement key developmental projects in Africa. Such projects include the construction of trade-carrying and trade-supporting infrastructure required for the acceleration of the integration process in the continent, said Afreximbank in the announcement released in Cairo. According to the bank, the facility will strengthen Mota-Engil Africa’s capacity to carry out projects critical to reducing transaction costs for businesses, growing intra-regional trade, easing movement of goods, services and people, boosting employment and stimulating economic activity in Africa.The transaction is expected to lead to increased activity in a number of economic sectors, including petroleum and petrochemicals, heavy equipment supplies, spare parts supplies, architectural services, and to increased public revenues from an expansion in economic activity in various countries.Mota-Engil Africa is a significant player in intra-African trade as evidenced by the volumes of goods and services it procures from, and distributes to African countries where it executes contracts. Some of the infrastructure developed by the company, including ports and railways, serve multiple countries.The company has a robust backlog of strategic projects in Africa in excess of EUR3 billion, covering such sectors as construction, mining, power, medical, infrastructure management, waste management and other concession businesses.Speaking on the transaction, Prof. Benedict Oramah, President of Afreximbank, said that with the easing of mobility of goods, services and people across African borders foreseen under the transaction, there would be an increase in intra-regional trade, leading to creation of jobs, increase in foreign exchange earnings and growth in government revenues.Apart from enabling African governments to improve the quality of life of their citizens in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, the expected developmental outcomes will contribute to implementation of the goals of the African Continental Free Trade Area, he added. Also participating in a ceremony to mark the transaction were Kanayo Awani, Managing Director, Intra-African Trade Initiative, Afreximbank, and Manuel Mota, Chief Executive Officer, Mota-Engil Africa.ETI debut $450 million Eurobond oversubscribed

    Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) the Lomé-based parent company of the Ecobank Group, is pleased to announce that it has successfully raised $450 million in its debut Eurobond which was oversubscribed.The proceeds will be used for ETI’s general corporate purposes and to refinance existing Holdco obligations. The Global Offering is a five-year unsecured note (144A/RegS) listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange. The bond matures in April 2024 and was issued with a coupon pricing of 9.5 per cent with interest payable semi-annually in arrears. The proceeds will be used for ETI’s general corporate purposes and to refinance existing Holdco obligations.  Investor’s interest was global, including United Kingdom, United States, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. On this debut Eurobond issuance, Ade Ayeyemi, Group Chief Executive Officer of ETI, stated: “This is another first for Ecobank and I’m very excited at the prospects for the group as we continue the second phase of our five-year ‘Roadmap to leadership’ strategy. Our efforts toward greater operational and capital efficiency are paying off, and this offer is another example of the measures we are taking to strengthen our institution and deliver value for all of our stakeholders”.

    The Group Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Greg Davis, also commenting on this Eurobond said: “The success of this Eurobond reflects appetite from high quality and real money institutional investors globally and the trust that continues to be conferred on our institution and the markets we have chosen to participate in.”

  • ‘Our Girls; Politicians and World Bank

    Our Chibok girls were kidnapped on April 15, 2014, five years ago on Monday and 112 are still missing. Leah Sharibu, kidnapped on Feb 19, 2018, one plus years ago, in Dapchi was the only one held back after a mass release of over 100, excluding five who died directly as a result of the terrorist ordeal. It is said Leah refused to convert from Christianity. During these years, over 25,000 other Nigerians have been murdered and approximately 3-4million internally displaced Nigerians, registered in underserviced IDP camps or unregistered, seeking employment countrywide.

    Unfortunately we in Nigeria are the architect of our ‘failure to thrive’. In Nigeria we must overthrow the retrogressive feudal ideology of master-servant, the deliberate under-educating ofcitizens. We must not fail to change our politicians’ mindset. Instead of Sustainable Development Goals’ strategies, they repeat the scheming about NASS officers, usually an automatic event based on party numbers. Some do not see the national political failure largely because of their own personal good fortune. Good fortune may be through hard work but professionals have been forced to give bribes, or inflate government contracts or give ‘thank you kickbacks’.

    Why can we not change the narrative that ‘No bribe=no work’ or no payment on a contract? It is difficult to imagine that many highly regarded professionals and ‘icons’ have low morals or compromised their principles to survive. Add poor supervision and zero consequence for failure and we are programmed by our own politicians to fail?

    A new president, David Malpass, appointed by the US president in keeping with tradition, is to run the US-led and mainly US funded World Bank. There will be Trump-ic, America First changes. He does have a lot of experience in development and is critical of the World Bank and IMF. So am I. For example while Ghana, to stimulate growth, is reducing and cancelling VAT in huge areas of business and consumption, Nigeria is being pushed by the IMF and perhaps the World Bank to widen the VAT pool and increase VAT, ‘remove fuel subsidy’ and weaken the value of the naira-again. The previous times we did these we were plunged further into poverty by making more poor people. This will certainly cancel the effect of any minimum wage increase.

    In Africa it appears we for the most part cannot help ourselves. We seem to be great as individuals, but collectively lack a successful forward development drive. We have great artists, scientists, professionals at home and abroad but collectively our hospitals, universities, schools and highways are collapsing. We cannot even fill potholes at level crossing consistently.  Ask the girl ‘Success’ to show you round her school – a pigsty unfortunately called after late murdered Minister of Finance the flamboyant Okotie-Eboh. His children are still in court over his assets!

    There is the perpetual African epidemic of poorly performing self-serving politicians who ‘purchased’ their posts at an unsustainably enormous cost of production through overpriced elections. Unfortunately, with too few good exceptions, politicians have placed themselves high above the people forgetting their sworn oath to serve the people. Politicians repeatedly failed to deliver timely budgets and honest accounting to deliver the full economic and societal growth potential of democracy. Rwanda stands out with its recent developmental strides under its focused leader and high female politician ratios but at the cost of 800,000 lives. We in Nigeria have a belligerent new generation born after 1970 when we also ended a civil war which cost more than one million lives. Our developmental strides should not require another civil war. But politicians do not easily change their spots. In Nigeria we must reduce our financial demands on delusional politicians.

    We need help against the apparent corrupt politicians’ agenda. I wish the World Bank and IMF, the UN, the EU,  and even Brexit-ed Great Britain refuse to negotiate any deals, give any loans, agree any diplomatic protocols, provide any contract funds with Nigeria in particular and Africa in general until Africa’s political class demonstrate and introduce a less flamboyant, cheaper, transparent, morally, ethically and economically responsible remuneration structure for themselves and better development budgets for the citizenry. The worst culprit is the shamelessly greedy NASS and now the governors further bleeding their states by insultingly high severance and pension packages. Politicians must be forced, by local and international pressure, to demonstrate a much higher sensitivity to the poor citizenry. In Nigeria all efforts have failed to get the politicians to fully disclose and cut their Salaries and Perks- SAP, which are SAPing Nigeria dry with their irresponsibly high and ‘legally illegal’ total take home pay and allowances.  Many of the countries with high poverty levels also have directly related high corruption levels. Remember many politicians come from a background which still believes in a ‘Keep citizens poor, uneducated and sheepish’ policy. No international assistance will work until that policy and mindset is changed.

    The World Bank can demand a higher personal political fiscal morality. Corruption causes poverty and poverty breeds corruption. Fighting extreme poverty, a World Bank goal, is only achievable if it neutralises an evil, demonstrably greedy elected entrenched political elite which withholds and steals its nation’s ‘responsible’ budget funding for essential development projects like improved maternal and infant mortality rates, education, training and business environment funding.  Africa’s and Nigeria’s politicians, preoccupied by selfish greed abandon their responsibility, leaving it to the World Bank and other agencies. Who is more mumu? Shame.

  • Govt, World Bank discuss $1b power sector loan

    The Federal Government and the World Bank Power Sector team yesterday met on the possibility of Nigeria accessing a $1 billion Performance Based Loan (PBL) from multilateral institutions.

    Finance Minister Mrs. Zainab Ahmed dropped the hint at a joint news conference with Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele at the end of the 2019 World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spring Meetings in the United States.

    The minister cleared the air on fuel subsidy, saying removing it is not on the cards. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been advocating the removal of fuel subsidy to free more money for infrastructural development. The Federal Government believes doing so will increase the burden of the poor.

    Mrs. Ahmed said: “We met with the World Bank Power Sector team and discussed the way forward on the proposed $1 billion PBL. We agreed to bring relevant MDAs together to ensure that we advance this operation in a timely manner. We will also discuss the Country Portfolio Performance of Nigeria, which currently stands at $9.8 billion, with the Nigerian Country team at the World Bank and how we could manage the portfolio for optimum results.”

    She spoke of plans by the Debt Management Office (DMO) to issue N15 billion Green Bond to fund agriculture, power, health and water amenities to make life better for the people, saying the Green Bond will be the second one and would be used to finance agriculture, power sector – mostly solar projects – as well as some projects in the water sector.

    She pointed out that the projects for which the funds will be applied “must be green. They must be projects that are not contributing to carbon dioxide emissions to the society. The first green bond issuance was successful and all the projects that were scheduled to have been financed have been done and the projects are at various levels of completion.”

    On fuel subsidy, Mrs Ahmed said there was no plan by the government to remove fossil fuel subsidies. “We are here to discuss with the global community on various policy issues. One of the issues that always come up, especially in the IMF Article IV is how we handle fuel subsidy.

    “So, in principle, the IMF would say fuel subsidies are better removed so that you can use the resources for other important sectors, which is good advice, but in Nigeria, we do not have any plans to remove fuel subsidies at this time because we have not yet designed buffers that will enable us remove the subsidy and provide cushions for our people.

    “So, there is no plan to remove fuel subsidy. We will be working with various groups to find out the best approach, if we have to. We discussed this very frequently at the Economic Management Team but what is the alternative? We haven’t yet found viable alternatives. So, we are not yet at the point of removing fuel subsidies.”

    On Brexit, Emefiele attributed ongoing Brexit controversy in the United Kingdom (UK) to immigration and trade opportunities.

    The CBN governor said: “I would say that though Britain and Nigeria have trade relationship, but it is not as strong as what we have with China and the United States (U.S.) For instance, China is Nigeria’s largest trading partner, followed by the U.S. And I had imagined that Britain comes quite low on the scale.

    “So, if you look at that, you would find that, in my view, there is not going to be any adverse consequences on Nigeria, but we are reviewing it to see the implication, which I expect, would naturally be positive.”

    Giving an overview of the meetings, Mrs. Ahmed said they provided an opportunity to review developments in the global economy, examine emerging and associated risks. They also offered potential policy menu to ameliorate the situations, going forward, she added.

    The meeting noted the slowing down of the global economy with a revised global growth from 3.3 per cent in 2019 to 3.6 per cent in 2020, mainly due to the heightened trade tensions, tightening financial market conditions, softening industrial activity, dampening global investment, monetary policy normalisation and geopolitical tensions, such as uncertainties over Brexit, all resulting in policy uncertainty.

    In terms of fiscal policy, Mrs. Ahmed said government debts to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratios had reached unprecedented levels and this limits the capacity of some of these countries to provide countercyclical policies; consequently, potential growth remains subdued in most of these countries, partly as other factors, such as aging populations, declining birth rates and raising barriers to immigration weigh in.

    Mrs. Ahmed said the key takeaway was that the IMF requested for a mandate to pursue some negotiations with governors for temporary financing options for ensuring that the Fund remains adequately resourced by maintaining the current resource envelope through borrowed resources.

    The minister said this arose partly due to the delay in completing the 15th general review of quotas, adding that while governors endorsed this position, “we called for an ambitious timetable for the 16th General Review of quota which should result in increased quota shares for dynamic economies in line with their relative positions in the world economy while protecting the voice and representation of the poorest members.”

    Mrs. Ahmed said: “I issued a statement calling for normalisation of trade relations among the contending parties and called for concerted efforts to support multilateralism and avoid protectionist sentiments.”

    She said Nigeria used the Spring Meetings to showcase what the government had been doing in human capital development.

    The minister said: “We have set up an inter-ministerial working group with representatives of the state governors and are currently piloting some initiatives in health, education and, of course, you are all aware of the social safety nets programmes of the Federal Government where we have 15 million people already on the register.

    “The World Bank Group was pleased with our efforts and promised to offer some assistance. Nigeria endorsed the Coalition Principles as one of the founding members.”

  • World Bank unsure of early end to extreme poverty

    The World Bank Group’s  (WBG’s ) projection to end extreme poverty in Africa is no longer feasible, its President, David Malpass, has said.

    The WBG chief, who spoke  during a press briefing yesterday at the on-going Word Bank Group/the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spring Meetings in Washington DC,  said a combination of waning structural reforms in major economies, financial stress in some large emerging markets and elevated policy uncertainty globally have altered the bank’s earlier forecast.

    He said: “On current trends, per capita income in growth in sub-Saharan Africa as a whole is now projected to stay below one per cent until at least 2021 which elevates the risk of a further concentration of extreme poverty on the continent,”  stressing that this fact is extremely troubling because “it jeopardises the World Bank’s primary goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030.”

    On the other hand Malpass said,  “extreme poverty has dropped to 700 million globally at the last count,” saying that’s down from much higher levels in the 1990’s and 2000’s.

    Against the cheering figures reported globally, Malpass said “ the number of people living in extreme poverty is on the rise in sub-Saharan Africa,” warning that by 2030, “ nearly nine in 10 extremely poor people will be Africans, and half of the world’s poor will be living in fragile and conflict-affected settings,” adding that this calls for urgent action by countries themselves and by the global community.

    He said the WBG was now in a position, given its comfortable financial status to stand in the gap to tackle the poverty scourge.

    “Fortunately, the World Bank group is financially strong. And with the capital package which was agreed to a year ago at the Spring Meetings, and which I was proud to support, the organisation is becoming even more responsive, efficient and effective,” to address the issue, stating that the World Bank’s vision and mission is poverty reduction and it can be addressed,” he said.

    On expressed fears about  China’s  credit to sub-Saharan countries, Malpass said, debt on its own does not pose a threat, saying the danger lies In its misappropriation.

    “As far as China, and as far as the buildup of debt, let me take a second – a few moments on that.  Debt is something that helps economies grow, but if it’s not done in a transparent way, with good outcome from the build-up of debt, then you end up having it being a drag on economies.  And history is full of those situations where too much debt dragged down economies.  So what we are trying to do — and The World Bank is a key part of the Debt Transparency Project and the collection of data that has been encouraged by the G20 — and so this is a project that we are working hard on, and the keys are to have transparent disclosure of the debt as it is being created, and also then have the focus on good outcomes in terms of quality projects.”

    He said this  is critical for poor countries as they try to move forward to have the projects associated with good quality programs and full disclosure of the debt.

    So I think this is an area that bilateral donors can do much better on and it is something that the world can press on and say, look, this is the way to help countries get ahead in terms of their growth.  So it is something The World Bank will be working hard on and it is very important to those countries, too many countries.  I’ve got a statistic here: 17 African countries are already at high risk of debt distress, and that number is just growing as the new contracts come in,” pointing out that these debts aren’t sufficiently transparent.

    Malpass however praised China for hugely successfully  reducing extreme poverty, saying in China, as many as 850 million people are no longer in extreme poverty.  “And, so that’s an achievement.  China has some lessons to share and insights to share with the rest of the world,” he said

    “But, having said that, I want to also take note of our previous conversation about the need for in China’s programs abroad, the importance of transparency of the debt, of the quality of the projects, the coordination with other donors. And the reason for that is because we want the countries, the borrowing countries, to do well, to have good outcomes,” he added.