NACCIMA opposes signing of West Africa-EU agreement

Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), has urged the Federal Government to refrain from signing the West Africa-EU Economic Partnership Agreement until the country’s infrastructure and productive capacity has improved such that exports would benefit from the agreement and output from the sensitive sectors would be able to compete with import from EU.
Giving this hint in a statement over the weekend in Lagos, the President of the association, Dr. Edem Bassey, cautioned government not to sign the agreement, but rather confront headlong the current economic crisis and find a way to pull out of economic recession through appropriate policy measures.
He said that to return Nigeria to the path of economic growth, the country needs to strengthen infrastructure and stimulate aggregate demand for its output. With the policy focus of Nigerian Government on the diversification from crude oil to other sectors of the economy, the Economic Partnership Agreement offers a ready market for Nigerian products that will be the output of the

Stakeholders set agenda for new electricity board

Frank Jacobs

As the Senate prepares to screen nominees to the board of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), some stakeholders have set an agenda for the new management.
Experts, consumers and other stakeholders who spoke at the weekend urged the incoming board of NERC to be more proactive in holding operators in the power sector to account.
The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) particularly wants electricity distribution companies to be made efficient. The industrialists want a stop to cost-cutting measures and threats of cutting off electricity, while they seek the enforcement of the provisions of the Electricity Power Sector Reform Act (ESPR 2015).
To effectively manage the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), MAN charged NERC to “begin to operate as an impartial judge that enjoys the confidence of all stakeholders.”
“NERC should establish an all-encompassing stakeholders consultative platform with representation from all stakeholders on the NESI value chain. The incoming board should treat the decisions of the Customers Forum as mandatory,” President of MAN, Dr. Frank Udemba Jacobs

Nigeria loses N6.33trn to Naira devaluation

Nigeria will spend an equivalent of its 2016 budget to service debts as its currency, the naira, continues to lose value against the United States dollar.
Devaluation has put the real value of the country’s debt stock at around N18.9 trillion, when considered at the official rate of N307.79 per dollar, according to figures from the Debt Management Office.
The additional naira stock (per dollar) that would be needed to service existing debt will cause the country to lose about N6.33 trillion, a near-equivalent of the 2016 budget, when compared to N12.6 trillion at N197 per dollar as at December 31, 2015. It is also a disincentive for future external borrowing despite a positive debt-to-GDP ratio.
“Hiding under the mantra of low debt-to-Gross Domestic Product is deceitful,” a public sector financial analyst, who asked not to be named, said in Lagos at the weekend. “The economy is in recession and cannot churn out those activities anymore.
“If we compare our debt service bill without revenue earnings ratio, it is not sustainable and that is where foreign investors will be looking at to price our international bonds,” the public sector