Showing posts with label Economy. Show all posts

Monday, 6 May 2019

Nigeria: Govt to Inaugurate Rail Cargo Delivery in Kaduna Inland Dry Port

The Federal Government has concluded plans to introduce cargo delivery by rail to the Kaduna Inland Dry Port.

Mr Tahir Idris, Director, Special Duties, Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) said in statement on Sunday, in Abuja, that the inauguration was scheduled to hold on May 7, at the facility's premises in Kakuri, Kaduna State.

Idris said in the statement that Mr Hassan Bello, the Executive Secretary of NSC, had disclosed that connecting the railway to the dry port "is a watershed to the facility".

Bello said that the Council would also hold an interactive session with all relevant stakeholders immediately after the event themed: "Optimising the Kaduna dry port as key to Nigeria economic diversification".

He said the rail facility would lead to the full optimisation of the Kaduna inland dry port, adding that it would also drive down significantly the cost of transporting containers from Lagos to Kaduna.

"So much cargo is coming to Kaduna, but on trucks. It takes so much money to transport goods by trucks from Lagos to Kaduna, If it is by rail, the cost will drop by over 60 per cent," he said.

He also said transporting containers by railway would eliminate the risks of diversion, goods tampering and also reduce the risks of accidents by more than 95 per cent, thus driving down the cost of insuring cargo to Kaduna as a point of entry.

Bello noted that with reduced cost of transporting the goods, the cost of goods will reduce which will further curb inflation.

According to him, hundreds of trucks will be taken off the roads thus leading to longer roads life span and less accidents due to activities of truck drivers.

He added that this should also reduce significantly the traffic gridlock on Apapa road in Lagos.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Gov. Nasir El-Rufai and Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi, will inaugurate the service.

Nigeria

Again, Boko Haram Kills Soldiers

Five soldiers have been killed as troops of the Nigerian military clashed with Boko Haram fighters in Magumeri village,… Read more »

Read the original article on Guardian

CAN WE ALSO HAVE "EXCESS GOLD ACCOUNT"?

TheEaglesVoice Economy ,

By Ekenyong Isaiah

Until the recent war in Zamfara State where a lot of citizens of that state have been killed and properties destroyed, 95% of Nigerians never knew that Nigeria is a Gold producing country with value equal to that of oil. Nigerians had no knowledge that there are a lot of gold deposits in Zamfara State and that it is privately being mined by natives of Zamfara State and some few foreigners contracted to mine it by God knows who.

For those who may not know, gold is about $41 USD per killo which makes it a high valued commodity. In fact, the South African economy is dependent on Gold and Diamond mining and 1/3 of South African export for foreign exchange is gold. South Africa is more developed than Nigeria, she has no oil but gold and Diamond and that is where other Africans including Nigerians are running to, to be killed like fowl. Nigeria has both oil and gold.

Oil was discovered in Oloibiri currently in Bayelsa State, Niger Delta in 1956 and immediately made an exclusive product and commodity that can only be mined my the federal government of Nigeria. The attempt by Nigerians in Niger Delta to either participate in mining this oil found in their land has seen to a lot of them being killed and their properties destroyed by federal trrops. The quest by Nigerian government to freely mine oil in Niger Delta without any hindrance have seen to the killing of people like Ken Saro-wiwa, Adaka Boro and other Niger Delta leaders. For the sake of oil, the Nigerian government had to cede Bakasi penisular to Cameron, for the sake of oil, elections in Niger Delta states have been so violent because every president in power wants to control Niger Delta oil. In this present dispensation, Muhammadu Buhari a farmer and president of Nigeria, have made himself minister of petroleum. Oil in Niger Delta is exclusively for the federal government and outsiders, indigenes of this areas oil is found can never go close to it else, crocodile will smile.

There is an "EXCESS Crude Account" where EXCESS money derived from sales of oil outside statutory budget appropriations are kept. One important thing about this account is that the money in it is never used to develop the place for which this oil is mined, rather, the two times we have heard about the removal of money from it, has been to fight insurgency in the north. The first being the $2billion USD Dasuki saga and the second being the $1billion USD removed by Buhari for the same purpose for which the military have told us, they have not received such money for arms purchase.

While revenues from oil has kept this country afloat over the years, while oil is still the reason why Nigeria is still one, while oil is exclusively mined by federal government and the allocation of oil blocks exclusively done by federal government to mostly non indigenes of Niger Delta, WHY IS GOLD PRIVATELY MINED IN ZAMFARA STATE? We know companies like Shell, Total and the rest mining oil in Niger Delta, WHICH COMPANIES ARE MINING GOLD IN ZAMFARA STATE? All revenues from oil goes to the federal government and is made known to everybody, HOW MUCH REVENUE IS MADE FROM GOLD IN NIGERIA AND WHERE DOES IT GO TO? Since oil blocks are mainly allocated to outsiders in Niger Delta, PLEASE CAN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ALLOCATE A PORTION OF LAND FOR ME TO MINE GOLD IN ZAMFARA STATE AS AN OUTSIDER THERE? Please, This is my notice of request.

Finally, since there is an "EXCESS Crude Account" which is mainly used to tackle problems in the north, PLEASE, can there be "EXCESS GOLD ACCOUNT" , whose funds will used to tackle problems in the south?

PLEASE, CAN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT MAKE AVAILABLE REVENUES FROM GOLD TO BE USED TO SEARCH FOR GOLD DEPOSITS IN THE SOUTH, JUST LIKE WHAT NNPC IS DOING IN THE NORTH ?

Can we have 'Nigerian National Gold Corporation (NNGC)' , whose heads will be mainly from the south?

Nigeria is for all of us, what is good for the goose, is good for the gander.

Ekpenyong Isaiah
Commander, Infantry Pen Battallion.

Lagos, Edo, Kaduna, Cross River owe over half of states’ foreign debt

TheEaglesVoice Economy ,

April 8, 2019
Everest Amaefule, Abuja

Four states of the federation — Lagos, Edo, Kaduna and Cross River — dominate the list of sub-national governments indebted to foreign bodies, statistics obtained from the Debt Management Office, has shown.

Analysis of the DMO data show that the four states have combined foreign debt of $2.12bn, out of the $4.23bn owed by the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory Administration as of December 31, 2018.

This means that the four states hold more than half of the foreign debt owed by the sub-national governments. Precisely, the four states owed 50.08 per cent of the sub-national foreign debt.

Expectedly, Lagos is on top of the list with a foreign debt portfolio of $1.43bn which represents 33.81 per cent of the foreign sub-national debt portfolio.

Lagos is followed by Edo State with a foreign debt portfolio of $276.25m representing 6.53 per cent of the sub-national foreign debt portfolio.

Following Edo is Kaduna State with a foreign debt portfolio of $227.25m representing 5.37 per cent of the country’s sub-national foreign debt as of December 31, 2018.

Cross River State completes the list of the top four on the foreign debt with a portfolio of $188.77m representing 4.46 per cent of the sub-national foreign debt portfolio.

Other top debtors in the foreign debt category include Bauchi $133.93m; Enugu $126.18m; Anambra 107.04m; Ekiti $106.21m; Oyo $105m; Ogun $103.26m; Osun $99.08m; Abia 98.58m and Adamawa $97.79m.

As of December 31, 2018, the country’s total external debt stood at $25.27bn. This means that the sub-national governments held 16.74 per cent of the country’s external debt. This leaves the Federal Government with a total external debt portfolio of $21.04bn representing 83.26 per cent.

On the domestic scene, Lagos is also the most indebted state of the federation with a total domestic debt portfolio of N530.24bn. It is followed by Delta and Rivers states with domestic debt portfolios of N228.81bn and N225.59m, respectively.

World Bank approves $2.1bn loan for seven Nigerian projects

Eje Peter Economy ,

World Bank approves $2.1bn loan for seven Nigerian projects

By Eje peter

The World Bank has announced the approval of $2.1bn loan for seven projects to be executed in Nigeria.

A statement issued in Abuja on Thursday said the loans were approved in Washington DC on Wednesday and were for seven projects to support Nigeria’s investment in nutrition, access to electricity, states’ fiscal transparency, polio eradication, women’s economic empowerment, public finance and national statistics, and reducing vulnerability to soil erosion.

The World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Rachid Benmessaoud, was quoted to have said, “The Federal Government of Nigeria’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan identifies human capital investment, restoring growth and building a competitive economy as its key pillars.

“This vision for a healthy, educated, productive and resilient population must be complemented by credible governance in order to attract private sector participation and ensure sustainable growth. The approved projects support the implementation of the government’s growth plan.”

According to the statement, the World Bank Group has extended its Country Partnership Strategy for Nigeria until June 30, 2019.

It added that during 2018 and 2019, the WBG support would focus on revenue diversification and mobilisation, addressing the binding constraints for attracting private financing, and improving social services delivery for building the human capital needed for inclusive economic growth in alignment with the ERGP.

The approved programme of support in 2018 comprises the following projects: the State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability Project, which is expected to help increase efficiency in spending, strengthen revenue mobilisation (of critical importance for the delivery of health, education, water and other services) and debt sustainability in participating states. The project will be financed through an International Development Association credit of $750m.

The Fiscal Governance and Institutions Project is expected to improve the credibility of public finance and national statistics in the country.

The project is expected to increase revenue and capital expenditure outturn; strengthen fiscal accountability, including expenditure effectiveness, and to improve the quality of statistical information, which will contribute to evidence-based policy making. It will be financed through an IDA credit of $125m.

The Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project is expected to promote innovative integrated approaches based on international best practices and community participation to tackle land degradation and major gully erosion formations in participating states. The project will receive IDA additional financing credit of $400m.

The Nigeria Electrification Project will leverage private sector investments in solar mini grids and stand-alone solar systems to provide electricity to 2.5 million people and 70,000 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. It will be financed through an IDA credit of $350m.

The Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria Project is expected to benefit over 8.7 million people, mostly pregnant and lactating women, adolescent girls and children below five years old. The financing for the project consists of an IDA credit of $225m and a Global Financing Facility grant of $7m.

The Nigeria Polio Eradication Support Project is expected to help improve immunisation coverage with oral vaccines to the national target of 85 per cent in 18 months. It is receiving IDA additional financing credit of $150m.

The Nigeria for Women Project is expected to directly impact 324,000 women beneficiaries through investments in comprehensive skills training, the leverage of financial and technical resources, and support to policy dialogue on women’s economic empowerment. The project is receiving an IDA credit of $100m.

(TEVB)

Revenue from car importation drops by 20% — NPA

Eje Peter Economy ,

Revenue from car importation drops by 20% — NPA

By Eje peter

The Nigerian Ports Authority said on Thursday that revenue on car importation into the country dropped by 20 per cent this year, a fallout of the Federal Government’s Automobile Policy.

It warned that the revenue dip was a bad omen for the government’s overall revenue take and called for the urgent review of the policy in order to reduce the losses.

The automobile policy was introduced by the government to encourage local car production/assembly plants, while cutting importation and raising import duties.

The Managing Director, NPA, Hadiza Bala-Usman, told the House of Representatives Committee on Ports, Harbours/Waterways that the policy had led to a revenue loss of 20 per cent.

Bala-Usman appeared before the committee, which is chaired by a lawmaker from Enugu State, Mr Pat Asadu, to speak on the Internally Generated Revenue of the NPA for 2017 and the projections for this year.

She stated that contrary to the government’s expectations, the policy had not achieved its objectives, while on the other hand, the agency continued to lose revenue that would have ordinarily accrued from car importation.

Bala-Usman said, “We have written Mr President on this policy and we will continue to defend our position that it (policy) should be reviewed, because the government runs the risk of losing both ways.

“We have recorded a drop in revenue by 20 per cent. How many cars are being manufactured and how many Nigerians can really afford to buy brand new cars?

“So, the implication is that while the government is losing revenue on importation, the manufacturing or assembly plants are not achieving the aims of the policy.”

The MD stated that while the NPA’s projected IGR for 2017 was N278.5bn, the actual amount generated was N288.6bn, while the overall income of the agency for the year was N302.9bn.

On the budget for operations, she said while the projected figure was N96.4bn, the actual performance was N84.6bn.

Bala-Usman also informed the committee that the N174bn budgeted for capital projects had a 53.5 per cent performance (N114.3bn).

For 2018, the NPA has projected N292bn as its IGR, but as much as N232bn will go into recurrent expenditure.

However, lawmakers queried the NPA’s capital expenditure-to-personnel cost ratio of 55 per cent to 44 per cent, describing it as unacceptable.

For instance, Asadu stated that the committee expected the NPA to have a lean personnel cost, owing to the various port reforms aimed at cutting waste.

“You are supposed to spend less on personnel cost because of the port reforms and concessions. Why is your personnel cost so high? Forty-four per cent, compared to the 55 per cent of your capital implementation?” he asked.

But, Bala-Usman replied that she inherited a system in the NPA that promoted employees to higher positions, who were not paid their dues.

She stated, “In fact, because of this problem, people did not want to be promoted. When you were promoted, your salary was reduced.

“We want to clear this backlog and there are more members of staff to be promoted. This explains the changes in the personnel cost.”

The committee later suspended consideration of her submissions to give lawmakers more time to study the documents she tendered.

(TEVB)

Auditors to get N8.7bn for recovering N58bn into Federation Account.

Eje Peter Economy ,

Auditors to get N8.7bn for recovering N58bn into Federation Account.

By Eje peter

Auditors who helped to recover N58bn into the Federation Account are to receive N8.7bn for their efforts, investigation has revealed.

The amount represents 15 per cent of the recovery, which the auditors helped the government to make from banks that failed to remit the money into the Federation Account.

The Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission recently announced that the auditors helped it to recover N58bn, which the banks collecting revenues on behalf of the government failed to remit into the Federation Account.

Investigation by our correspondent showed that the RMAFC signed an agreement that allowed the auditors to receive 15 per cent of any amount they helped the government to recover from the defaulting banks.

The commission also announced that it had issued a demand notice to the banks for another N16.4bn that had yet to be recovered from those of them appointed to collect revenues on behalf of government revenue collecting agencies.

The banks were appointed to collect revenues on behalf of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Nigeria Customs Service and the Department of Petroleum Resources.

The Acting Chairman, RMAFC, Umar Gana, had said that N48.7bn of the recovered money had been paid into the Federation Account, while N9.07bn relating to withholding tax on dividend only had been released to the benefitting states’ boards of internal revenue.

The PUNCH(correspondent) had exclusively reported that the RMAFC had in 2016 selected 111 auditors and auditing firms out of more than 150 that applied to probe the banks operating for non-remittance of taxes and duties collected on behalf of the government.

The probe of the banks covered the period July 2012 to December 2015.

The audit exercise covered taxes, levies and duties collected by the banks for the FIRS, NCS and the Department of Petroleum Resources.

The probe was sequel to a similar exercise in which the banks were investigated for revenues collected between January 2008 and June 2012. The exercise had revealed that the banks failed to remit N12bn that they collected in taxes and duties on behalf of the revenue collecting agencies.

Following the success of the first exercise, the National Economic Council at its meeting on April 21, 2016 approved that the RMAFC should appoint a good number of consultants to ensure wider coverage of the verification of the activities of the banks regarding revenue collection.

(TEVB)

How to cope when salaries are not paid —Cleric, to Kogi workers

Eje Peter Economy ,

How to cope when salaries are not paid —Cleric, to Kogi workers

By Eje peter

A cleric, Malam Musa Bello, has advised workers in Kogi State to always make alternative financial provision while in service to avoid the consequences of non payment of their salaries.

He gave the advice on Friday while preaching to Muslims who turned out to observe the special prayer commemorating the Eid-el-Fitr at the Gadumo praying ground in Lokoja.

Bello noted that many of the state’s workers who claimed that their salaries had not been paid for months had tough time coping with the reality of their situation because they failed to save for the rainy day.

“As a worker, begin to save part of your salary so that if your salary is no longer forthcoming as and when due, you can fall back on something,’’ he said.

Bello also called on the workers not to rely on their civil service job alone but to venture into other profitable vocations such as farming, to augment their salaries.

The Islamic scholar further called on Muslim workers in the state to be close to Allah, saying only Him has the permanent solution to their problems.

He also called on them to allow the lessons of the Ramadan to permeate their lives and their relationship with other members of the society, irrespective of religious affiliations.

Nigeria: IMF's Prescriptions for Nigeria

TheEaglesVoice Economy ,

In its 2018 Article IV Consultation Report which was released last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) launched an advisory on Nigeria which it based on its evaluation of the recent status of the country's economy. Perhaps the most significant take of the report on the Nigerian economy is the submission that whatever reforms that the government had launched and could have returned the economy from the last recession failed to impact on the non-oil real sectors of the economy such as agriculture and industry.
IMF's evaluation was based on statistical data provided by the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, NBS. According to NBS data, Nigeria's economy contracted for five quarters from January 2016 to the first quarter of 2017. NBS data also reported that the economy entered into a recovery of 0.05% from second quarter of last year which progressed to the reported exit from recession in the first quarter of 2018. IMF said the recovery came on the back of a cocktail of new foreign exchange measures by the government, rising global crude oil prices, attractive yields on government securities, a tighter monetary policy and increased foreign exchange reserves to a new four year high of $43 billion. Other factors which the IMF credited for the turn-around of our economy include inflation containment policies, which helped to boost economic growth to 0.8% in later part of 2017, and was driven largely by the increase in oil production capacity.

With respect to the government's much vaunted Economic Recovery and Growth Plan [ERGP] which was launched in the wake of the 2016 onset of recession, IMF commended the initiative even as it picked holes in its implementation, noting the plans' serial vulnerabilities arising from lack of coherence and comprehensiveness. IMF therefore advised government to adopt more urgency in curbing ERGP's vulnerabilities. Other areas of the report include the advice to government to increase investment in social welfare and infrastructure, reform the country's taxation regime and adopt an automatic fuel price adjustment mechanism. In other words, IMF wants deregulation of fuel pump prices, and allowing such to be determined by market forces. This particular recommendation flies in the face of the disposition of the government with respect to fuel price regime in the country as the Buhari government is determined to fix fuel pump prices.

Seen in context the IMF evaluation is a thoughtful picture of the economy even as some of the recommendations may not be helpful to the economy. Government should therefore treat the package with a pinch of salt. The best approach to the report is to resort to caution over implementing the recommendations. In this respect history provides a valuable guide to the government with respect to the experiences of several countries including Nigeria in implementing IMF recommendations. Implementing the recommendations hook, line and sinker has often proved suicidal for governments around the world, leading to much misery, riots and general political instability.

While the government may be considering IMF's report it needs to appreciate the damage already inflicted on the economy by the tight monetary policy which the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been pursuing in a cash driven Nigerian economy and in the face of the widely acknowledged failure of government's interventionist measures. As even the IMF has pointed out, the salutary recovery from the recession which the government claims to high heavens as a sign of its dexterity, came to be courtesy of factors largely outside of its control.

Therefore to prove itself as a true mover of the Nigerian economy to the next higher level, the government must refocus on promoting growth through a fresh emphasis on promoting investments in the non-oil real real-sectors of the economy such as agriculture and manufacturing especially with the informal sector as the target.