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

CBN to resolve bottlenecks in non-oil export stimulation facility

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed its determination to resolve all bottlenecks and issues relating to the non-oil Export Stimulation Facility (ESF), including N500 billion low interest rate non-oil export loans.
As part of its efforts in achieving this, the apex has set up a committee to review its policy on the ESF. However, it is important to note that the ESF was established to support the diversification of the nation’s economy away from oil and to expedite the growth and development of the non-oil export sector.
Speaking at the Finance Correspondents Associations of Nigeria (FICAN) 2016 annual conference, held in Lagos over the weekend, the director, Development Finance Department, CBN,

Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves fall below $25bn

Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves have plummeted to a new low of $24.88 billion, indicating dwindling confidence in the economy, despite reassurances by authorities.
In the last one week, it lost $230 million, understandably due to series of interventions by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), as post recession announcement pressure continued.
The previous week, the reserves lost about $123 million, attributed to interventions in the interbank market by the regulator, and aimed at supporting the local currency.
This is in contrast with about $93 million the reserves lost in three weeks, also reflecting reactions over the flurry of negative records released recently by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics.
Since affirmation of the country’s slip into recession, last experienced more than 25 years ago, the reserves have lost about $540 million, as speculations and panic for store of value in dollar heightened.

‘New economic policy may increase inflation, forex turbulence’

The Association of Professionals for Promotion of Civic Values (APPOCV), has said the recent economic policy introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), might lead to steep rise in headline inflation rate, turbulent foreign exchange market and sharp depreciation in the Naira value at the parallel market.
APPOCV made this submission in a statement made available yesterday, signed by its president, Dr. Kunle Ashimi.
It would be recalled that the CBN, recently reviewed its policy on the economy which drew diverse reaction from the populace with a large cross section condemning it.
The professionals noted that when Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), is increased, the following are bound to happen and their effect on the larger economy will also be felt as banks will increase their Prime Lending Rate.
APPOCV, however, advised the CBN to relieve the masses of some of the continued burden

How Nigeria wasted $62bn foreign reserves – Emefiele

Godwin Emefiele, the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, on Sunday explained how Nigerian frittered the foreign exchange it earned from sale of crude oil away on frivolities at a time the commodity was selling above $100 per barrel.
Emefiele spoke to journalists in Lagos on steps being taken by the Federal Government and the apex bank to bring the country out of economic recession.
The Governor of CBN attributed the current challenges facing the Nigerian economy to its inability to save or invest the billions of dollars it earned from export of crude oil over the years in infrastructure like other countries have done.
Emefiele told journalists, “In September 2008, Nigeria’s foreign reserve stood at $62 billion. What did we do with $62 billion? At a time the crude oil price was about N120 per barrel. What did the country do?
“What we could have done was to save the money. If we couldn’t save the money, invest it in