The Ooni of Ife has put a smile on the face of an undergraduate after musical talent hunt.

In the late hours of Sunday, September 11, 2016 an undergraduate of the Osun state Polytechnic, Shina Desalu Olawale went home with a brand new Toyota Camry 2016 edition valued at N8.6 million courtesy the Ooni of Ife, Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi at the recently held Ojaja II Musical Talent Hunt and Concert.

Olawale also has a record deal with the crew in Maryland USA as part of his prize for beating other six contestants at the talent hunt which was witnessed by the Ooni, his Olori, Ooni’s three sisters and their husbands, Nollywood actress Rose Odika, two other royal fathers were also there to give Ooni moral support among other guests which include students of various higher institutions across Osun state...>>>For full details and photos, click...>>> http://www.infospreader.com/gossip/oonis-ojajaii-talent-hunt-winner/

As dollar scarcity worsens in the country, the inability of parents, whose children school abroad, to access foreign exchange (forex) is threatening the completion of their wards’ education.

Although the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, recently revealed that the apex bank spent about $2 billion annually on foreign school fees remittances, the new forex regime appears incapable of meeting such a huge demand any more..

Average weekly dollar turnover on the interbank forex market (spot) has dropped to $600 million presently compared with the $2 billion available as at August last year.

Findings by THISDAY showed that with the resumption of a new academic session in most schools abroad, a lot of parents are finding it extremely difficult to purchase dollars from the interbank forex market, with most of them left with the option of purchasing the greenback from the parallel market at N423 to the dollar as at Friday.

The development was further validated by bank’ returns on forex utilisation for the week ended September 2, 2016, that was published last week, which showed thin forex trading by the financial institutions. Only few of the banks even sold dollars to their customers for payment of school fees for their wards abroad.

For instance, the returns of forex utilisation published by Diamond Bank Plc last week showed that the bank which is one of the leading financial institutions in forex deals sold only $918,752 to 18 customers.

Also, First City Monument Bank Limited’s (FCMB) returns on forex utilisation showed that the bank sold only $452,918.26 to four of its customers. In the same vein, FirstBank Nigeria Limited, which sold dollars to a total of 434 customers in the week under review, did not record any sale to customers for the payment of school fees abroad.

However, FirstBank sold dollars to customers for the importation of petroleum products, raw materials, Bureau De Change (BDC) operators, estacode, personal travel allowance and business travel allowance.

But Zenith Bank Plc, whose returns of forex utilisation showed that the bank sold some amount of the greenback to a few of its customers for payment of tuition fees abroad, recorded reduced dollar sales in the week under review, which is a reflection of the scarcity of dollars in the system. Its returns showed that it sold $28,844,498.05 to customers, as against the about $50 million deals weekly which it used to report.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is still the major supplier of forex in the market.

Nigeria is officially in a recession as the economy contracted by 2.1 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2015. The naira has depreciated by an additional 11 per cent on the interbank forex market since the end of June, with the black market currently trading at N423/$.

Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) in the country remains weak in the absence of improved forex liquidity at the interbank market.

Oil prices are down five per cent since the end of June as activities of militants in the Niger Delta continue to disrupt oil production with average daily production dropping to 1.51 million b/d in July, one of the lowest production levels for the country. This compares with the average daily production of ...>>>For full details, click...>>>http://www.forexpot.com/blog/worsening-dollar-scarcity-threatens-overseas-education/