Economic News Update

Economic News Update: 23rd January, 2017

news-brief

MPC meets today, to discuss inflation, exchange rate

The Central Bank of Nigeria’s Monetary Policy Committee will hold its first meeting for the year today (Monday) and Tuesday to review developments in the economy and probably set a new direction for growth this year.

The 11 members of the MPC meet once in two months to evaluate the economy and make adjustments in key variables to set direction for economic growth.

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FG inaugurates steering committee on recapitalisation of BoA

The Federal Government, last week, inaugurated the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) Steering Committee on the restructuring and recapitalisation of the Bank of Industry (BoI) and the Project Delivery Team to revitalise the operations of the Bank of Agriculture (BoA).

Inaugurating the Steering Committee and Project Delivery Team on behalf of the Vice President, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, who chairs the committee, informed that the approach was to make the BoA more responsive to its mandate of serving as a veritable platform for providing loans to MSMEs, rural farmers, cooperatives and agro-allied industries, among others.

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SEC Committee commences action against multiple stock accounts, N80bn unclaimed dividend

The Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC has set up a committee to fix the deadline for account consolidation by investors who have multiple accounts which were part of the reasons why unclaimed dividend   had risen to over N80 billion.

Vanguard gathered that the committee members were selected from the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, Central Securities Clearing System, CSCS Plc and stock broking firms.

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Reps uncover ‘secret’ account by infrastructure commission

A secret account allegedly being operated by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) has been uncovered by the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts. According to the committee, the account is not among the three statutory ones being operated by the commission.

The discovery is contained in the three queries raised against the commission by the Office of Auditor General of the Federation for the year ended December 31, 2010.

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Manufactures Beg FG to Review 41 Banned Items

The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has once again pleaded with the federal government to review foreign exchange policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which placed ban on 41 items from accessing the forex market. Speaking exclusively to LEADERSHIP, the president of the association, Mr Jacob Frank said some of the items that were restricted from accessing the forex market could not be sourced locally.

He said: “The association has done an analysis on the banned items and we broke the 41 items into 110 and of the 110, 75 are raw materials for our members. It is this 75 items we ask the federal government to remove from the list so that our members can source foreign exchange to buy their raw materials.’’

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Investments in green energy hit $338b

Former Director-General, United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), Dr Kandeh Yumkella, said investments in green energy have grown six times to over $338billion.

Yumkella who was a special guest at the launch of N1billion Solar Energy Fund for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) by the Bank of Industry (BoI) in Lagos at the weekend, advised the Federal Government not to miss out in ongoing green energy revolution. Government, he said, should encourage and invest heavily in renewable energy such as solar.

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Naira to remain below 500/dollar this week —Experts

Currency retailers and experts have said the naira will trade slightly below 500 per United States dollar this week despite the commencement of the sale of foreign exchange to Bureau De Change operators by the Central Bank of Nigeria last week.

The CBN had through the International Money Transfer Organisations resumed the sale of dollars to BDCs on Thursday, after stopping it for almost a month due to the Yuletide holiday.

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Why SMEs are not attracted to list on the Nigerian Stock Exchange

The Small and Medium Enterprises, SMEs, are not attracted to list on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE for a number of reasons. Firstly, many of them do not have adequate capital base and structure that will attract investors to invest in them. Secondly, many of the SMEs are struggling with the economic recession and harsh operating environment which had made it difficult for them to break-even let alone declaring profit.

Again, many of the SMEs don’t have financial records that the NSE may require prior to listing. Even those that are listed in NASD OTC market are not doing well and that is why investors are not attracted to invest in them.
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Fashola: Taking DISCOs to task on supply, metering

It was some moments of home truth last week at the 11th Monthly Stakeholders’ Meeting of the energy sector, held at the Ikeja West Transmission Station, Ipaja-Ayobo, Lagos State, where the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, warned power firms in the country to deliver better services to electricity consumers or exit the industry.

Giving the charge, Fashola said in spite of the challenges facing operators in the sector, “you will have to sacrifice, perhaps, more than what you have done, because as pioneers, you will carry some burden, but I am optimistic that it will get better; I am optimistic that we can win together and we can win for the Nigerian people.”

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FG spends N2.58trn on petroleum products import

The latest report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on petroleum importation released last weekend indicates that the total value of imported petroleum products for 2016 stood at N2.58 trillion. The report revealed that products imports into the country gulped N790.4 billion in the fourth quarter of the year 2016 while a total of 18.8 billion litres of premium motor spirits (PMS) were imported during the year.

According to the report, the premium motor spirits (PMS) or fuel recorded the highest volume of 18.8 billion litres, valued at N2.01 trillion, while 4.89 billion litres of automotive gas oil (AGO) valued at N505.8 billion were imported. In addition to total of 713.79 million litres of household kerosene (HHK), valued at N70.7 billion were also imported into the country last year.

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External reserves increase by 15% in three months

The nation’s external reserves have risen by 15 per cent in the past three months, the latest data from the Central Bank of Nigeria have shown. Specifically, the foreign exchange reserves increased by $3.6bn from $23.8bn on October 19, 2016 to $27.4bn on January 19, 2017, the CBN data showed on Sunday.

The statistics also indicated that the balance in the reserves had increased by $1.6bn during the first 19 days of this year. The increase is estimated at 6.2 per cent.

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Petrol: Anxiety over Supply, As Marketers Swap Deposit For Diesel

Despite assurances by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that it has put enough measures in place to forestall another fuel scarcity, there are strong indications that the country may be plunged into another round of scarcity of the product soon. At the weekend, LEADERSHIP learnt that marketers were running out of stock. A dependable source in the industry revealed that scarcity of the product is imminent.

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Clear policy on exchange rate will bring back foreign investors – Sanni

The lull in the Nigerian stock market saw a drop in foreign portfolio investment inflow by 67.7% year-on-year in 2016. What do you envisage this year? The drop in Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) is closely linked to foreign investors perception of our policy response to dwindling oil revenues in the last two years (caused both by falling price of the product as well as reduced production).

Areas of concern for foreign portfolio investors range from our foreign exchange policy and its implementation as it affects ease of exit, the state of our foreign reserves and general sense of our willingness to deal pragmatically with our changing fortunes.

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‘How to expand debt capital market for sustainable GDP growth’

Capital market stakeholders have stressed the need for maximum collaboration between regulators and operators in an effort to support debt issuers to double the size of the market in the short to medium term for enhanced gross domestic product, GDP.

Besides, they suggested that the federal government must reduce activities in the domestic debt capital market to avoid crowding out the corporate and sub-national segment.

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Allianz: macroeconomic conditions, others are major risks to business

Nigeria may face macroeconomic challenges, including low commodity prices, due to Chinese slowdown and the tightening of US monetary policy. The economy may also suffer from inflation, weak domestic demand and socio-political tensions, Chief Executive Officer, Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) Africa, Delphine Maïdou has said.

She made this known at a press conference organised by the body in Lagos. She said these wre the key findings of the Sixth Allianz Risk Barometer, where corporate riskswere analysed globally, as well as by region, country, industry and size of business.

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Interest in NAHCO shares heightens as Arc Bello emerges new chairman

Investors’ interest in the shares of National Aviation Handling Company, NAHCO Plc heightened last week as its price went up by 6.27 per cent or 18 kobo per share. The company recorded the fourth most gained equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE last week as its share price opened last week at N2.86 per share to close at N2.86 per share at the end of trading last Friday.

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Bell tolls for power investors over revenue shortfalls, debts

Except the federal, state, local governments, residential, commercial and industrial users take urgent steps to settle outstanding arrears owed electricity  distribution companies (Discos), which presently is about  N200 billion, the country may be thrown into total darkness. The development would then mean that the essence and gain that ought to have been derived from the power sector privatisation would have been eroded, thus leading to massive job losses across the entire value chain.

The power sector is a tripod that needs the support of each leg to remain relevant if it must continue to survive. They are; generation, transmission and distribution. But, ironically, each leg of the tripod in the country’s power sector is not self-sustaining not to talk of providing support for one another.

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Power firms exploiting Nigerians with estimated billing – NLC

The Nigeria Labour Congress has said that the estimated billing of consumers by electricity distribution companies is a deliberate ploy to exploit the citizens.

The General Secretary, NLC, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, said that it was inconceivable for the electricity firms to bill consumers who travelled and shutdown everything in their homes as if they were around.

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NASD: Why investors prefer shares of CSCS, WAMCo, few others – Ajomale


The Managing Director/CEO of NASD OTC Securities Exchange Plc, Mr. Bola Ajomale, has said that investors’ preference for few of the companies trading on its platform, particularly, the Central Securities and Clearing System, CSCS, Friesland Campina Wamco Nigeria Plc, the producers of Peak milk, Niger Delta Exploration and Production, NDEP Plc and Afriland Properties Plc is borne out of availability of information on the stocks.

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Interbank lending rates soar over N215b bond payments

Nigeria’s first effort this year to raise money for the budget deficit through local bond auction worth N214.95 billion, has also resulted in increased cost of lending among banks. Bond auctions, which also serve as a mean to control the quantity of money in circulation, caused the rate at the weekend, as commercial banks scramble for cash among themselves for payments that were due Friday.

The rates rose to 11.5 per cent for Overnight, a 0.58 per cent increase from Thursday and 4.5 per cent from seven per cent of last week’s record, while the Open Buy Back reached 10.67 per cent, as payments for treasury bills’ purchases added more pressure.

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Respite for floundering currency?

As the International Monetary Fund(IMF)sings Nunc Dimmittis dismissing all efforts to save the Naira recent accruals to the nation’s external reserves, ever longed for by experts as the final elixir to Nigeria’s current economic woes, seems to hold a ray of hope at the end of the long tunnel. But will it be sufficient enough to go round the long list of foreign exchange (forex) demands by end users? Nigerians believe so if the oil price maintains its current level and ramp up in oil production.

Recall that experts have all along been calling on the Federal Government, without avail, to find a way of shoring up the reserves to serve as a buffer at a time of recession like this. In the absence of such steps, IMF then writes off both fiscal and monetary authorities’ measures to save the Naira as a farce.

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