Sell national assets to stimulate economy – Abuja Chamber tells FG

Tony Ejinkeonye

Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry, ACCI, yesterday expressed support for the call on the Federal Government to sell some national assets and use the proceed to get the country out of its current recession.
The Chamber’s President, Mr Tony Ejinkeonye, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
Ejinkeonye said Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote’s recent advice to the Federal Government to sell some national assets, instead of borrowing to get the country out of the recession, was apt.
He said the advice was a veritable option which would be able to stimulate the economy. The chamber’s boss said for countries that had experienced economic recession, some fiscal measures were taken to drag them out during the period.
“The fiscal tools can be in form of tax cut for low income earners, business incentives, federal spending cuts, provision of market exchanges or support for faster movement of goods.
“Increase in trade, selling-off of national assets, increasing government spending to absorb

Swiss traders blame governments for dirty fuel in Africa

Swiss commodity traders accused of deliberately blending toxic fuel and dumping it in West Africa say African governments are to blame for failing to invest in refineries and newer vehicles to lower exhaust emissions that cause respiratory and other diseases.
“What is very clear is that the role of improving fuel quality in Africa clearly rests with African governments, not with the fuel suppliers,” the Geneva-based African Refiners Association representing many traders said in a letter obtained by The Associated Press on Monday.
It was responding to allegations from Swiss watchdog Public Eye accusing traders of deliberately adding toxic products that lower fuel quality to increase profits at the expense of Africans’ health.
Public Eye said traders including Vitol and Trafigura provide Europe with fuel meeting European Union standards of 10 parts per million of sulfur while creating what’s called “African Quality” fuel that has 2,000 ppm or more of sulfur. Nigeria, for example, allows up to 3,000 ppm of sulfur in petrol.
Nigeria’s Department of Petroleum Resources called the Public Eye report “grossly exaggerated.”

Empowerment: BoI trains 2,500 young entrepreneurs

A nationwide capacity building for 2,500 successful applicants under the Bank of Industry (BoI) N10 billion Youth Entrepreneurship Support (YES) programme has taken off, the bank said on Monday in Lagos.
YES is a federal government initiative aimed at addressing youth unemployment in the country through capacity building and funding of their business ideas.
Mr Waheed Olagunju, the Acting Managing Director of BoI, said at the flag-off of the programme at the Pan Atlantic University, Enterprise Development Centre, Lagos, that it would help to boost industrialisation and job creation in the country.
He said: “We are trying to derisk the applicants and that is why we are linking them with 12 of the best enterprise business development providers in the country to train them and help them develop bankable business proposals.
“If they succeed, the sustainability of the programme will have multiplier effects on the economy

Aviation expert advises domestic airlines to form alliances

Mr Gbenga Olowo, the President, Aviation Round Table (ART) has advised domestic airlines to form alliances to enable them surmount their current challenges.
Olowo gave the advice while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Monday.
He noted that most of the airlines were faced with multiple taxation, scarcity of aviation fuel, and difficulty in sourcing foreign exchange for their operations.
According to him, the problem is compounded by unhealthy competition among the airlines which makes them unable to earn enough revenue to cover cost.
“The competition in the place is suicidal. There are about seven or eight airlines doing Lagos-Abuja and Lagos-Port Harcourt routes.
“So, most of the time, they fly their aeroplanes half-filled or empty. Thus they are not earning enough because of the unhealthy competition.
“We don’t need more than two or three airlines in this economy. If you have two or three, that is

How Nigeria was plunged into recession – CBN

A failure to save for the rainy day as well as poor monetary and fiscal policies were partly responsible for the country’s current recession, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele who disclosed this at an interactive session with media managers in Lagos at the weekend noted that a number of external factors, particularly the crash in global oil prices, also contributed to the nation’s economic woes.
“I must confess that what is happening today is a result of a global crisis in the sense that we’ve seen commodity prices dropping, we’ve seen geopolitical tensions all around the world,” he said.
Emefiele recalled that when it was very buoyant, Nigeria frittered away about $66billion or an average of $6billion per annum funding Bureau de Change (BDCs) operations over 11 years period, beginning from 2008, when the country’s foreign reserves stood at $62billion, and oil price about $120/barrel.

Interbank rates expected to drop on FAAC disbursement

Having risen to 36 per cent last week, overnight rates at the Nigeria Inter Bank Offer Rates (NIBOR) is expected to moderate this week as the market anticipates disbursement from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) and N350 billion capital expenditure fund.
NIBOR rates which is the rate at which lend to one another rose sharply last week amidst tight liquidity as N304.23 billion was mopped up from the financial market last week. N121 billion was raised at an auction of local currency bonds while N183.23 billion was raised through the sales of Treasury Bills.
Overnight rates had risen during the three-day trading week from 16.54 per cent to 36 per cent while 1-, 3- and 6-month rates rose to 20.45, 21.52 and 25.07 per cents from 19.96, 20.83 and 23.84

Fraudulent claims raise concerns in insurance sector

Amidst economic recession in the country, some insuring public have devised various means of making fraudulent claims from insurance companies, in a bid to make quick money, it was learnt over the weekend.
Though, the issue of fraudulent claims is not new in the nation’s insurance industry, findings have shown there has been massive increase in the number of fake claimants since the beginning of the year.
While some underwriters had already fallen victims of these people thereby losing millions of Naira in the process, few were able to detect on time before granting such claims.
Investigation shows that comprehensive and third party motor insurance has the highest fraudulent claims requests, with other types of insurances suffering similar fate, although not as high as motor insurance.
To this end, it was learnt that insurance companies are now rising up to the occasion by ensuring

FSDH Merchant Bank establishes N30bn commercial paper programme

Following the successful establishment of its N30billion commercial paper programme, FSDH Merchant Bank Limited has launched its debut commercial paper (CP) issuance to raise up to N15 billion in the Nigerian money market with the issue of N814.12 million series 1 90-day and N14.17 billion series 2 269-day CP.
The CP offers were open to investors on August 24th and subsequently closed on August 29 with subscription levels of over N17 billion.
The Bank elected to allot N14.98 billion to investors across both series, in line with its initial target amount.
The Managing Director of the bank, Rilwan Belo-Osagie, explained that the CP programme would