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Category: Business

  • EFCC: We Can’t Stop People From Using Cryptocurrency

    EFCC: We Can’t Stop People From Using Cryptocurrency

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says said it is not against the use of cryptocurrency in the country.

    Abdulkareem Chukkol, EFCC’s Director of Operations, stated this while reacting to questions on the agency’s Twitter space session on Wednesday evening.

    He, however, said the Commission will go after anyone using cryptocurrency for money laundering.

    “Cryptocurrency is now a global trend and we can not stop people from using it. We are training our officers to understand cryptocurrency and to be able to deal with issues accordingly,” he said.

    Chukkol, while responding to a question on how the EFCC identifies cases to investigate, he said: “We don’t only act on written petitions, we get intelligence from other sources and we act on them as soon as we establish that they are actionable intelligence.”

    “The EFCC has an app that can help Nigerians to report cases to the EFCC. We have received thousands of cases in the past few months and so many properties have been recovered. If Nigerians work with us, we will be able to do more,” he said.

    On his part, a Chief Superintendent at the EFCC, Samuel Chime, called on Nigerians to report people living above their earnings, especially civil servants.

    “Petition EFCC if you know any civil servant living above his means,” he said.

    Chime who said there were limited resources at the EFCC’s disposal, added that the Commission was doing all within its power to go after corrupt civil servants with many cases currently in court.

    Chime also warned against job racketeering and visa scams, saying everyone involved would be prosecuted when apprehended.

    “It’s a minimum of seven years and maximum of 20 years for a job racketeering without an option of fine. If you bribe to get a job, both the giver and taker of bribe will be jailed. The same with visa scam,” he said.

  • Nigeria Will Lose Tax Revenue If OECD Framework Is Signed – Nami

    Nigeria Will Lose Tax Revenue If OECD Framework Is Signed – Nami

    Muhammad Nami, the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), has stated that the FIRS has refused to sign the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECDG20 )’s Inclusive Framework solution to the taxation of the digital economy because some of its provisions would prevent some digital companies from being taxed.

    Nami said the agreement is unfair to Nigeria and developing countries because most digital companies do not generate as much revenue as the agreement proposes before being taxed.
    “For example, to tax any digital sale or any multinational enterprise (MNE), the company or enterprise must have a global annual turnover of €20 billion and a global profitability of 10%. This is something to be concerned about. Because the vast majority of MNEs operating in our country do not meet these criteria, we would be unable to tax them.”

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    “Secondly, the €20 billion global annual turnover in question does not apply to a single accounting year; rather, the enterprise must generate €20 billion in revenue and maintain a 10% profit margin for four years in a row, or it will never pay tax in our country,” the statement read.

    He pointed out that the rule requiring multinational companies to pay tax after generating at least €1 million in revenue from Nigeria within a year is unfair because domestic companies with a minimum of N25 million (€57,000) in revenue must pay company income tax.

  • Dangote outlines 7 points to boost investment, stabilize downstream sector

    Dangote outlines 7 points to boost investment, stabilize downstream sector

    Dangote Refinery, an indigenous refinery, listed seven points yesterday that could help Nigeria boost investment and stability in the downstream sector.

    Increased private sector enterprise, a competitive investment regime, a shift in government policy, the elimination of fuel subsidies, the introduction of calibrated fuel taxation, the reduction of interest rates to a single digit regime, and careful monitoring were among the seven points.

    The company stated that the downstream sector of the economy is currently hampered by a lack of private investment and inadequate infrastructure, preventing the government from meeting domestic demand for petroleum products.

    It also stated that increased product importation has resulted in a loss of foreign exchange that could have been used to complete projects and programs.
    Engr. B Soyode, Technical Consultant, Dangote Industries Limited, said this while speaking on “Dangote Refinery – Game Changer of the Downstream Industry” at the Nigerian Content Midstream/Downstream Oil and Gas Summit in Lagos, that the situation will change for the better once the refinery’s 650,000 barrels per day, bpd plant comes on stream.
    Dangote Petroleum Refinery was recently praised by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) for using world-class technology in its construction.

    The SPE and NCDMB, who recently visited the petroleum refinery project, believe that the facility has the potential to redefine Nigeria’s domestic fuel production.

    They also stated that the completion of the massive project will ensure the future of Nigeria’s young engineers and put them on par with their counterparts in the global oil and gas industry.

  • Breaking: CBN’s monetary policy committee raises the interest rate to 13% while keeping all other parameters unchanged

    Breaking: CBN’s monetary policy committee raises the interest rate to 13% while keeping all other parameters unchanged

    After two years of expansionary monetary policy, the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Monetary Policy Committee unanimously voted to raise the benchmark interest rate to 13%.

    The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, revealed this while reading the communique of the year’s third monetary policy committee meeting on Tuesday, May 24th, 2022.

    The rate, which had been at 11.5 percent since September 2020 in an effort to help the economy recover from the recession caused by the covid-19, has now been raised by the apex bank as inflation rates have risen above 16 percent.

    The CBN’s hawkish move is aimed at lowering the country’s rising inflation rate while still ensuring cautious economic growth.

    The Committee’s Decision Highlights

    1. MPR has increased to 13%.
    2. CRR was kept at 27.5 percent, with an asymmetric corridor of +100/-700 basis points around the MPR.
    3. The Liquidity Ratio was also maintained at 30%.
  • Rivers Is Home For Business, Says BUA GM

    Rivers Is Home For Business, Says BUA GM

    Mohammed Ibrahim, the general manager of BUA Ports and Terminal Limited in Port Harcourt, said the BUA group of companies is doing business in Rivers State.

    The general manager described the business environment in Rivers State as “very conducive” during a courtesy visit by Energy and Maritime Reporters (EMR) last week in Port Harcourt, Rivers state. He cited good road infrastructure, especially between the last administration in the state and the current administration.

    However, he noted that there are challenges posed by unauthorised government agencies and inappropriate community demands.
    “These are normal things,” he said, adding, “but since we’ve come to sit here permanently, we’ve also built up a team that’s able to manage all these challenges, whether from communities or government agencies asking for one thing or another, or even from people posing as government officials.”

    The GM advised those who are in the habit of cooking up demands to stop doing so and instead appreciate what businesses like BUA’s have come to do in the state, noting that the BUA group is on the ground in the state and stands up to different task forces enforcing different demands.

    Illegitimate harassment, he claims, occurs occasionally and is more common in the Niger Delta than elsewhere in the country.

    He cited the example of titled chiefs confronting the company to express their dissatisfaction with ships destroying their community’s fishing nets.

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    “There are basic things to understand here,” he said in response to counsel. Water channels are shared-use channels, and the government has the right of way over them. You don’t put fishing nets in common user channels where international cruise ships pass.”

    Ibrahim suggested that people’s attitudes toward businesses need to be reoriented.

    “They should see businesses as partners in progress, providing excellent opportunities for their employees and helping to develop their community.”

    “In terms of business, Lagos is doing well because it doesn’t face the same challenges that we do here.” People will know that these companies that are coming will bring positive economic development to the state if they are properly informed.”

    He also praised Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike for frequently cautioning communities against interfering with business operations.

    He stated, “That attitude will change a lot of things.” “We are standing and doing more because we are at home in Rivers State.”

    He claims that BUA creates a lot of jobs, both directly and indirectly, and that it is a 100% Nigerian company with many subsidiaries.

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    BUA operates flour mills and produces pasta, spaghetti, semolina, and other flour-based products in addition to its bulk cargo ports and terminals.
    It also owns sugar plants in Rivers and other states, as well as a petroleum refinery and a cement factory in Edo State, and is currently constructing a POP (Plaster of Paris) plant in Makoba, Rivers State, to serve the construction, pharmaceutical, and orthopaedic industries.

  • Breaking: CBN’s monetary policy committee raises interest rate to 13%

    Breaking: CBN’s monetary policy committee raises interest rate to 13%

    After more than two years of expansionary monetary policy, the Nigerian Central Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee unanimously voted to raise the benchmark interest rate to 13%.

    This was revealed by the CBN’s Governor, Godwin Emefiele, while reading the communique from the year’s third monetary policy committee meeting on Tuesday, May 24th, 2022.

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    The rate, which had been at 11.5 percent since September 2020 in an effort to boost economic growth after the covid-19 pandemic caused a recession in 2020, has now been raised by the apex bank as inflation rates have risen above 16 percent.

    More details shortly…

  • NNPC, Sahara Group invest $300 million in gas carriers

    NNPC, Sahara Group invest $300 million in gas carriers

    At the Hyundai MIPO Shipyard in Ulsan, South Korea, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and the Sahara Group, an indigenous energy and infrastructure conglomerate, received two 23,000 Cubic Meter (CBM) Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) vessels yesterday.

    The new vessels, MT BARUMK and MT SAPET, have increased NNPC and Sahara Group’s joint venture (JV) investment to over $300 million, bringing the JV’s gas infrastructure commitment to $1 billion by 2026 closer.
    MT Sahara Gas and MT Africa Gas previously served in the fleet. Hyundai MIPO Dockyard, a leading global mid-sized carrier manufacturer, constructed the four vessels. Africa’s transition to cleaner fuels will be aided by the addition of 10 vessels over the next ten years. WAGL and Sahara Group’s investments in the JV are MT BARUMK and MT SAPET.
    WAGL Energy Limited, a joint venture between NNPC and Oceanbed, a Sahara Group company, is driving NNPC’s five-year $1 billion investment plan announced last year to speed up the decade-long gas and energy transition agenda.
    Mele Kyari, Group Managing Director of NNPC Limited, said an order for three more new vessels was being finalised, with the partners aiming to deliver ten vessels in the next ten years.

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    “In our energy transition quest, the NNPC and our partners stand out with integrity, and our commitment to environmental sustainability is unwavering,” said Kyari.
    The vessels, he said, were critical in driving the Federal Government’s commitment to domestication of gas through a number of initiatives, as well as increasing continuous supply in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s mandate.
    According to him, the LPG Penetration Framework and LPG Expansion Plan are aimed at encouraging the use of gas in households, power generation, auto-gas, and industrial applications, with the goal of reaching five million metric tonnes of LPG consumption by 2025.

    Temitope Shonubi, Executive Director of the Sahara Group, said WAGL has operated two mid-sized LPG carriers in the region, MT Africa Gas and MT Sahara Gas, in accordance with international standards, delivering over six million CBM of LPG across West Africa.

    “We are poised to promote and lead Africa’s energy transition with the new vessels,” Shonubi said.

    The Federal Government’s representative in South Korea, Ali Magashi, said President Muhammad Buhari deserved praise for the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), which he said would reposition the NNPC to explore more projects with partners such as the Sahara Group.

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    LPG has been the fastest-growing petroleum product in Sub-Saharan Africa over the last decade, with forecasts predicting a 7% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the next 15 years.

    Increased LPG use will lower net GHG emissions and put less strain on forest reserves, improving environmental sustainability.

  • Breaking: Gov. Wike sacks entire cabinet members

    Breaking: Gov. Wike sacks entire cabinet members

    Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has dissolved the State Executive Council.

    The dissolution takes effect from today, Tuesday, May 24, 2022.

    According to a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Media, the Chief of Staff to the Governor and Senior Special Assistants have also been relieved of their offices.

    The Governor commended the members of Rivers State Executive Council for “their service and contribution to the development of the State” and “wished them the best in all their future endeavours.”

    He also directed the former cabinet members to hand over to the most senior officers in their respective offices.

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  • CBN says there’s enough forex to finance eight months importation, services

    CBN says there’s enough forex to finance eight months importation, services

    Amid the lingering forex scarcity and dwindling external reserves, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has assured that there is enough in the nation’s reserve to finance 8.3 months of imports for goods and services

    CBN revealed this in its report on ‘Foreign exchange flows through the economy’ published on its website.

    According to the report, Nigeria’s current reserves which stood at US$39.38 billion as at January 31, 2022 could finance 8.3 months of import for goods and services or 10.9 months of import for goods only.

    The report also disclosed the foreign exchange inflows into the country fell by 36.7 per cent in one month to $4.36bn in January, figures obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria have shown.

    Amid the lingering forex scarcity and dwindling external reserves, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has assured that there is enough in the nation’s reserve to finance 8.3 months of imports for goods and services

    CBN revealed this in its report on ‘Foreign exchange flows through the economy’ published on its website.

    According to the report, Nigeria’s current reserves which stood at US$39.38 billion as at January 31, 2022 could finance 8.3 months of import for goods and services or 10.9 months of import for goods only.

    The report also disclosed the foreign exchange inflows into the country fell by 36.7 per cent in one month to $4.36bn in January, figures obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria have shown.

    The CBN revealed in its report on ‘Foreign exchange flows through the economy’, that the economy recorded lower net foreign exchange inflow in January, driven, mainly, by net flows from the CBN and autonomous sources.

    It stated that, “Aggregate foreign exchange inflow into the economy declined by 36.7 per cent to $4.36bn in January 2022, from $6.89bn in December 2021.
    “

    The total foreign exchange outflow decreased by 5.1 per cent to $3.41bn, from $3.59bn in the preceding period. A net inflow of $0.95bn was recorded in the month under review, compared with net inflow of $3.29bn in the preceding period.

    Amid the lingering forex scarcity and dwindling external reserves, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has assured that there is enough in the nation’s reserve to finance 8.3 months of imports for goods and services

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    CBN revealed this in its report on ‘Foreign exchange flows through the economy’ published on its website.

    According to the report, Nigeria’s current reserves which stood at US$39.38 billion as at January 31, 2022 could finance 8.3 months of import for goods and services or 10.9 months of import for goods only.

    The report also disclosed the foreign exchange inflows into the country fell by 36.7 per cent in one month to $4.36bn in January, figures obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria have shown.

    The CBN revealed in its report on ‘Foreign exchange flows through the economy’, that the economy recorded lower net foreign exchange inflow in January, driven, mainly, by net flows from the CBN and autonomous sources.

    It stated that, “Aggregate foreign exchange inflow into the economy declined by 36.7 per cent to $4.36bn in January 2022, from $6.89bn in December 2021.

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    “The total foreign exchange outflow decreased by 5.1 per cent to $3.41bn, from $3.59bn in the preceding period. A net inflow of $0.95bn was recorded in the month under review, compared with net inflow of $3.29bn in the preceding period.

    “Further analysis shows that foreign exchange inflow into the Bank fell by 36.7 per cent to $1.82bn from $2.88bn, attributed to 45.4 per cent decline in non-oil components, mainly, TSA and third-party receipts/MDA transfers, other official receipts and swaps.”

    Also, the report noted that autonomous inflow decreased by 36.7 per cent to $2.54bn, from $4.01bn, due to a reduction in invisible purchases.

    Foreign exchange outflow through the bank fell by 18.3 per cent to $2.6bn from $3.18bn in December 2021, due, largely, to decrease in public sector/direct payment, third party MDA transfers, sales at the secondary market intervention and the Investors & Exporters’ windows.

    Autonomous outflow, however, rose to $0.81bn, from $0.42bn in January, on account of higher invisible imports.

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    The report disclosed that foreign exchange inflows into the economy declined in the fourth quarter of 2021, owing to lower receipts from the CBN and autonomous sources.

    It stated “Foreign exchange inflow into the economy fell by 31.7 per cent to $20.62bn, from $30.2bn in the preceding period. The development was driven by the 45.5 per cent and 14.4 per cent lower inflow through the CBN and the autonomous sources, respectively.

    “Foreign exchange inflow through the Bank at $9.18bn fell below the $16.83bn in the preceding quarter as both oil and non-oil receipts declined, as a result of lower receipts from interest on reserves and interbank swaps.”

  • Wema Bank is named ‘Best Overall Investor Relations’

    Wema Bank is named ‘Best Overall Investor Relations’

    Wema Bank Plc has been recognised once again for its dedication to the highest standards of disclosure, transparency, and fairness in disseminating information to investors and other stakeholders.

    The bank was recently awarded the prestigious BusinessDay Nigeria Investor Value Awards (NIVA) for its adherence to corporate governance ethics in driving its impressive performance on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX).

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    While speaking about the award, Funmilayo Falola, Head, Marketing Communications and Investor Relations, Wema Bank, praised the award’s organisers for their recognition, saying it was an affirmation of Wema Bank’s transparency and commitment to corporate governance and best practises.
    “We appreciate the organisers recognising the importance of what we’re doing, especially in terms of instilling strong corporate governance ethics in our corporate culture.” This has strengthened and instilled trust in the bank’s stakeholder base.

    “At Wema Bank, we believe in sharing relevant data with our stakeholders in a timely manner, including our earnings reports.” We don’t sugarcoat things and are always honest about the state of our company, even when times are tough. “This is why Wema Bank continues to be one of the most trustworthy banks in the country,” she explained.

    According to the organisers, the Awards Review Committee and BusinessDay’s Research & Intelligence Unit chose Wema Bank for the award because of its commitment to the highest standards of disclosure, transparency, and fairness in disseminating information to stakeholders.

    The bank was also chosen for its outstanding performance on the Nigerian Exchange in the past year under review, when profits increased by 93.72 percent from N4.58 billion in 2020 to N8.87 billion in 2021, with a profit margin of 9.71 percent.

    The NIVA Awards are a survey conducted by BusinessDay’s Research & Intelligence Unit (BRIU) and the Awards Review Committee to assess more than 150 companies listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX).

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    The awards honour public and private company executives who have generated long-term alpha for their shareholders through strategic priorities, operational efficiencies, organisational values, and market engagement activities.