₦airaland Forum

Yamakuza and Willyblinks have touched some of the points I wanted to make.

First understand that the email you got and the links in it may be showing you anything@gtbank.com or https://www.gtbank.com or any of those authentic address that you know with your bank (be it ebank or ibank sub-domain). That is not what tells you this is a scam or not. Asking you to update or register online is not what makes it scam or original. Remember a scam may not ask you to update your record but visiting such website and loging in as usual means you are still depositing your info into scam basket. So not until they say update it.

Simple, when that scam email "seems" to come from anybody@gtbank.com with webpage links of original https://www.gtbank.com (because nobody can have that subdomain outside gtbank itself), you can only know when you:

1. click reply to that email, the true fake scam email sender will appear in your email compose reply to line. The initial anybody@gtbank.com was just phishing to you in your inbox but you will see the real sender after clicking to reply line.

2. If you click the website link that was inside the email you received, your browser will open the fake scam website. It is at this stage you can see the scammers real web address, which MUST be different from the original authentic https://www.gtbank.com they potrayed to you in heir scam email. For example the ftp://www. that was faked to this initial forum poster.

I have seen on youtube how they can edit easily a paypal webpage and you edit and put in different money value and save it and post it to people to make them believe they have money in paypal and can help you do same if you pay certain amount. It is not the real paypal online page but edited. Yet showing you https://www.paypal.com

Paypal is more popular and secure than GT bank and yet people fake others to decive them. So this has nothing to do with GTbank only. It only shows some are new to the only world as per evil that men do and so they think it is to resist change to online advances. Be watchful, be careful

Subject: FUEL SUBSIDY DEBATE




Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (SLS) responds to some Internet Inquiries on fuel subsidy and wrote: If you will patiently read this mail to the end you will understand my position. I won't be able to repeat everything I have said over the past few years on fuel subsidy, but in summary; Fraud like theft thrives not only because of the existence of greed and benefit but of opportunity. Place yourself in the shoes of the average nigerian "businessman" or "entrepreneur"-polite euphemisms for rent seeking parasites.




You establish an elcee for importing 20,000MT of PMS and the PPPRA says this is at a landed cost of N145 for example per litre. So u know that for every litre in that vessel you will get at least N85 as subsidy. Now you have a number of "possibilities":

1. You can off load 5,000 MT and bribe customs and other officials to sign papers confirming u offloaded 20k MT. Then do the same across the chain with a paper trail showing you delivered 20k MT to a tank farm, and maybe even that u transported it to Maiduguri entitling you to a share of the price equalization fund. Maybe for N20-N30 per litre u bribe all those who sign the papers. The 15k MT you take to Benin or Ghana or Cameroun and sell at market price thus making an additional
"profit" of N55/ltr on 15,000MT!

2 you can just forge documents and have them stamped without bringing in anything and collect the subsidy-PPPRA pays based on DOCUMENTS.

3 you can bring in the fuel, load on tankers, sell some at N65N some at 80 some at 100 some across the land borders.

You can do all this and no one can catch it or prove it because somebody was paid to sign off on docs. And with a high enough margin there is too much temptation to be resisted and firepower for bribing officials.

When I spoke to the house of reps I told them why I was suspecting fraud. It starts from PPPRA "allocations" based on "capacity". You will find a company like Mobil with capacity for say 60,000 MT and a relatively unknown name with a capacity of say 90k MT.

Red alert number 1.

Although PPPRA is supposed to give license only to marketers with a national distribution network you see names of companies where you have never seen a filling station in their name.

I was a chief risk officer in UBA and in FBN for many years approving loans so I know the name of every big player in every industry that nigerian banks lend to as these are among the biggest banks in the country. I see names on the list I don't recognise either from portfolios. I looked at or industry studies over the years.

Red alert number 2.

I studied the papers presented to PPPRA in a short period in 2010 (I won't tell you how I got them!). And I was surprised that on some days over 10 vessels are said to have discharged cargo in lagos on the same day-clearly the same officers stamping and "verifying" that the vessels were SEEN. Is it really realistic that on the same day 13-15 vessels can discharge in Lagos?

Red alert number 3.

Why was I interested in fuel marketing. Because the two sectors that led to the near collapse of the banking industry were capital markets and oil marketing. I am not giving any confidential info out as AMCON MD has already disclosed publicly that two companies alone-Zenon and AP-owned by the same businessman owed the Nigerian banking industry N220b. And we all saw the amount of subsidy paid to those companies published by BusinessDay.

So money had been taken, subsidy had been collected but loans were not repaid, and we couldn't see the money either as product in tank farms or in fuel stations or credit sales. So I became obsessed with trying to understand how that industry operated and the more I saw the more I hated it and I started the war against subsidies.

It is actually better to do a direct cash payout or add a line item to salaries called petroleum support or transport allowance capped at say N300b p/a than to keep paying it. It goes to pay middle men, rent-seekers and corrupt officers and there is no amount of preaching that will stop this fraud so long as the policy is so badly defined.


Everytime oil price goes up and everytime the naira is devalued and everytime the quantity of imports increases the "subsidy" and thus the "rent" increases and there is more gravy to go round. So every year we "import" more and more and deplete our reserves, and the government borrows more and more to pay for subsidy and the beneficiaries are a small group of marketers, govt officials and neighbouring countries which get fuel without losing forex! And while a person who applies intelligence can see what is happening you can't prove it in a court of law. If the man says he sighted the vessel and it was 20kMT you have to accept it. It was a year ago!


So for two years I have been convinced that this thing is a scam and that it cannot be stopped because the entire controls have been compromised. NNPC sells domestic crude, Pays whatever subsidy PPPRA says and then gives the balance after JVC to the federation account.
And while Fani Kayode is right to speak up, the truth is that it was Obasanjo who first subverted the process by allowing NNPC to make the deductions before paying into federation account. Because once money goes into that account it is to be shared among 3 tiers of government so strictly speaking the deductions have always been unconstitutional as the FG was paying subsidy on behalf of itself and state and LGs without their approval.


So yes, I am willing to take all the criticism and labels and be unpopular but this has to stop and govt can find other ways of alleviating pain. Iran removed subsidies and started cash transfers directly to the poor. It is up to fiscal authorities to figure out safety nets but from where I sit and what I know this decision is not only correct but necessary and overdue. I also confirm that I have revealed nothing here I haven't spoken about before in public and it is just that Nigerians never listen!


I am not complaining about insults I am used to that. I just believe that an insult is not an argument and when people resort to personal abuse they have run out of logic.


But to then go beyond me and extend it to my dead grandfather and his "descendants" i.e my late father his siblings etc I think goes beyond the pale. As a Nigerian-and as an economist- I can take a position on economic matters and this position is one I have had for years even before coming in to the central bank.


I have also explained the position on several occasions and criticized government for not doing this before. In 2010 at a public hearing in the House of Reps on the 25% saga I alerted the nation of what I considered a potential big scam around subsidies and urged for its removal. No one paid attention. The economics is very clear to me. That it is unpopular is also understandable. The British public is unhappy with Tory budget cuts. The Greeks went on riot over austerity. Italian parliamentarians came to blows before Berlusconi was thrown out of office. The US congress is yet to approve Obamas tax increases.


Economic decisions-by definition-ALWAYS must involve a cost or an opportunity cost since for them to qualify as economic they must involve a choice in resource allocation among competing uses. An enlightened debate is one that weighs the pros and cons of removing subsidy and continuing with it.

Removing it has costs in terms of Nigerians paying more for PMS-which by the way is not the fuel for generators, power plants, production facilities, heavy duty goods transportation trucks and even luxury buses. It is fuel used by the middle class and car owners to drive around town and from city to city not to employ workers and produce goods and services. Diesel which is critical to manufacturing and employment creation is now subsidized as the subsidy was removed years ago by Obasanjo. Nigerians said nothing then because it was blue collar workers that got retrenched by factories.


Those speaking now on the internet and facebook and twitter and newspapers are not workers but middle class elite who use PMS in their smart cars so let's stop all the ideological pretence. This is not about elite and masses but an intra-elite discourse.


I will summarise the issues and I write as a Nigerian economist and public intellectual not as a public servant:

1. I am a strong advocate for subsidies if they are for production and not consumption, and if they benefit the poor and not middle men and rent seekers. The US government subsidizes cotton and wheat farmers and nigeria spends its reserves importing wheat from america and keeping american farmers employed. The OECD countried pay subsidies to cattle farmers. Today Promasidor imports powdered milk from New Zealand and packages in nigeria using our foreign exchange while we have cattle. WAMCO imports milk from the UK and adds water and tins it and calls it "production" of Peak milk. We use our forex to import petroleum products and keep refineries and jobs open in europe. Meanwhile precisely because of market distortions there can be no private sector investment in refineries since no one can make profit seling at the regulated price unless we are going to provide private refineries with crude for next to nothing. Certainly no one can purchase crude at market price, refine it and sell at N65 without huge losses so this explains why there are no private refineries.

2. what I mention above is at the heart of the problem with government economic policy which needs to be changed. The economy since SAP is one that supports imported consumption and not local production, perpetuating dependency, non inclusive growth and insecurity. Why is it that the economy is growing at 7pct annually but the people are getting poorer. Because growth gains are not evenly distributed.


Personal income is skewed towards people in the oil industry, telecomms, high finance, stock market, real estate and yes civil servants and politicians who feed on corruption. We produce crude oil but import petroleum products (today the UKs highest exports to Nigeria are petroleum products). We have a large cotton belt but import textiles from china (thus keeping their subsidized factories open and jobs in china). We are the world's number 1 producer of cassava but import cassava starch from europe. We have a huge tomato belt in kadawa, jigawa and chad basin but are the world's largest importer of tomato paste-from China and Italy. We can produce rice but we import rice from Thailand and India-most of it from grain reserves that have been in stock for over 5


3. If above is clear then it is evident that this trajectory can only lead to disaster. We will continue to spend our resources promoting growth and employment in our trading partners. Terms of trade shift against us, we can only have foreign reserves because by the good grace of God we have Oil which will be exhausted soon and with new discoveries may become so cheap it loses value. We don't create any value added jobs as the only real production is peasant farming. Oil, telecomms, finance and real estate are not employment intensive. So everyone becomes a civil servant as the economy cannot create jobs.



Result? In 2012 budget out of a total N1.8tr recurrent expenditure for the executive arm N1.6tr is on personnel costs not overheads. To reduce this you have to cut salaries or pensions or retrench civil servants. This is the classic trajectory of underdevelopment, de-development and de-industrialisation.


4. For the above reasons I am a strong proponent of structural reform and this begins from the fiscal framework. The limited resources of government should be allocated to supporting production-especially if we are running a budget deficit. We cannot keep borrowing to support conspicuous consumption. To support a job creating economy we need to fund power, transportation infrastructure, market infrastructure and access, technical and vocational education etc. We need to build rice processing plants, produce starch and cassava flour and ethanol, process our tomato and milk locally, regenerate our textiles firms (which used to employ 600,000 workers but now employ 30,000!), refine our own crude etc. We cannot even begin to do this if 30pct of govt expenditure is on fuel subsidy, if out of the balance 70pct is recurrent spending, 10pct is debt service, 10pct goes to the niger delta and only 10pct is capital expenditure. So it is about a choice-what do we spend money on and how do we allocate resources?


5. We often compare ourselves to other oil producing countries like saudi arabia. What are the facts? With a population of over 160m we produce 2mbpd ie 1 barrel for every 80+ citizens daily. Govt share of revenues if like 50pct of every barrel so it is effectively a barrel for 160 citizens. Saudi Arabia with a 24m population produces over 8mbpd or one barrel for every 3 citizens. In fact in 2010 the nearest OPEC country to nigeria in production per capita was Algeria with a barrel for 30 and algeria is more gas than oil.


With one barrel for 3 citizens dailt saudi arabia is able to provide infrastructure, education, healthcare and social safety nets and have huge savings. It can provide subsidised fuel at a total cost that is a fraction of its savings and even export refined products. It is paying for subsidies ouy od its fiscal savings and not borrowing to pay. We are like a poor man with a rich neighbour. The neighbour buids a good house, buys several cars, eat expensive food, travel abroad every year and still have huge balances in sevral current accounts. Then you choose to live that lifestyle and mortgage your house, take an overdraft from the bank to finance it. Next year it is time to repay the bank, u don't have the money so u go to another bank, borrow enough to pay the first bank principal plus interest and also fund the continuation of the lifestyle. It continues till u can't borrow anymore and the bank throws u and your family out of your house and you everything.


A responsible father would have long since faced reality and told his family he doesn't earn as much as his neighbour and expectations need to be moderated if they to keep their roof. Of course the children won't be happy at not going to Hawaii for summer and having to take public transport rather than own cars like their neighbour's children. Maybe they will even abuse the father behind his back and call him a miser. That is the cost of leadership.


Finally: removing subsidy is not a silver bullet that solves our economic problems. And there is a huge trust deficit that government has to address. Government needs to investigate subsidy payments and punish any violations of extant guidelines. It needs to cut on unnecessary and waste ful expenditure. It needs to fight corruption and show seriousness in that. It needs to deliver on capital projects, power and infrastructure including irrigation, farm-level storage and agri-processing. These are all valid issues that are to be taken IN ADDITION to and not in place of subsidy removal.


Since someone has decided to make insinuations about my grandfather I owe it to him to defend his record. it was my grandfather as emir that repealed an obnoxious rule started from the days of Emir Usman that disenfranchised women from inheriting property. It was sanusi that built the groundnut pyramids to the point where Kano NA was contributing 40pct of the revenues of the northern region. It was emir sanusi who built the Bompai Industrial Estate, and turned kano into the industrial nerve centre of the north. He was acting governor of the northern region, minister for pilgrim affairs, chief Imam of Friday mosque, judge and leader of the Tijjaniya order. As for his "descendants" my father was one of the very first batch of 12 Nigerians recruited by the British to set up the foreign service in 1957 and he remained in public service and rose to be permanent secretary before retirement. He set up in the 60s the research dept of the ministry- the present NIA so he was the first external intelligence officer in Nigeria. As permanent secretary he was the architect of Murtala Mohammed's policy on decolonisation of Africa and oversaw the independence of Mozambique and Angola and the final push to liberate Zimbabwe and South Africa.


So yes Sanusi was not perfect. He was a feudal aristocrat. And my father was not perfect. He was also a prince and priviledged to go to Oxford and LSE. But please if you want to abuse my grandfather and father kindly tell us what contributions your own grandfather and father made to the people.

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is the governor of Nigeria's Central Bank

Is it $8500 or N8000 per day for the 3 jeeps or for each one?

If your friend can prove that he/she is not telling lie, then let your bank know that only one of the transactions sailed through so that they can do their check again. I have experienced that more than once through eTranzact platform last year and as I was writing my bank, I and they were writing eTranzact and eTranzact in turn contacted the recipient bank, which also cooperated. So, when it was then sure that it was not delivered to the recipient's bank account, eTranzact asked my bank to re-credit my account. And so my bank did. So you just follow up either by writing or by physical presence because I did by emails as I was not in town.

Kindly explain how it works or show some picture samples

Why not telling people your price so we know whether to contact you or not.

I do not think there is any Nigerian bank card that will work through Paypal payment portal. The last time it worked for me that I could remember was when I first got my Mastercard with Intercontinental bank in 2005 and I liked it to my Paypal. I was living outside Nigeria then and it worked till that card expired in 2007. By the time Paypal informed me of my expired card and I tried linking the new card I got from ICB, it did not work at all with Paypal in that 2007 anymore. In fact, other cards from from Nigerian banks did not work till now. Only my foreign bank issued cards are working and not with a Nigerian address either.

ige700@yahoo.com

As for good bargain on the rate, I do not think abokis or bureau de change will give you better than bank transfer services. If you use GTB internet banking, you can see their rate anytime you log on. It is usually the official rate rounded to nearest whole number not usually ecxceeding 1 in addition be it $, euro or pounds.

As for my DOM or card use, I never have to buy the euro as your money (dollar or naira) will be converted to the receiver at the prevailing market rate as at when you are making the transfer/payment. For instance, my DOM with Union and GTB are in dollars but with Zenith I have $, euro and pounds. So if I use my union card online or outside Nigeria, the DOM dollar will be charged at the prevailing rate but usually no charge. If it is the naira I spend (bank transfer), naira will be charged plus the usually transfer/charges (usually better than abokis rate overall).

If I use GTB DOM for the transfer, it is charged at higher than usual rates because GTB added another fee/charge that makes it be like twice the normal bank charges/fees. If you use GTB naira mastercard for the transfer/payment (now that means on the recipient website or by withdrawal from ATM outside Nigeria), it will be at the prevailing market rate plus just N1k. This is the best option if you are outside Nigeria (ATM withdrawal) or your recipient has website to receive the money from your card. Your GTB dom visa card can also be used to make the payment or withdrawal (if outside) but at less charge and official rate compared to bank transfer from the GTB DOM.

So for my DOM transfer, the bank does the remittance to my recipient in euro at the prevailing/official rate from my dollar denominated account. The only side to that is that you will have to get the dollar (or euro or pound) first before you put it into your DOM. I prefer doing the bank transfer from my Naira account. The bank will give me offical rate to euro and calculate how much Naira I will pay and the charges/fees for bank transfer, all chraged to my Naira account. In that case I do not worry about getting dollar, euro or pound to fund my DOM first. BUT that option usually requires you to produce a proof of the need to make foreign payment. e.g. school fees addmission letter, invoice from a seller of goods/services you are buying, or travel ticket & visa for a BTA or PTA (this one will only give you the euro by cash and not send it on your behalf to the recipient), etc.

That is too much at 100 naira for every 1000 naira. Is the bank going to share such loot with Lagos State govt?

I know that the bank rate you will get from bank transfer (from DOM) like GTB is around N215 and you can transfer up to $10,000 equivalent per day totaling $50,000 per week. If you log into your gtb internet banking, you will see the current rates. Only that I cannot guarantee good fees/charges from my experience but I got fair rate from euro transfers/payments I made through Union from my Naira & dom accounts. In fact, if not that you need more than card payment limit, I would have advised union because my visa card there has never being charged a dime whenever I spend from my DOM thru the attached card. Let me know how I can help if you cannot do your transfer/payment from your account.

Check up to be sure you really want the euro in cash. May be you just need it to pay for something outside the country, which you can actually use your card or bank transfer to pay for without needing aboki. First confirm the kind of usage you need it for here within country before you decide for euro cash or otherwise.

I have posted on this thread when it was just about three posts but I guess Seun's bot or the people in charge need some upgrade as it must have removed my post after restoring my posting privilege. I guess wynesas is not in Nigeria, hence he/she doesn't know that Western Union or MoneyGram is only using Nigeria as receiving ground. Like someone previously posted, wire transfer is the means of sending outside Nigeria for you to receive it in Canadian dollars as you requested and such reception will have to be into your Canadian bank account at the prevailing market rate plus the sending fees/charges (to be paid by your Nigerian sender in Nigerian Naira equivalent while sending - usually between $25 and $30) and receiving fees/charges (to be paid by you from the amount you are receiving to your Canadian bank - usually varies with your bank over there but not usually more than $25; could even be free to receive like my US account).

Now back to your question about the best or may be the cost effective method, I know that if you have a DOM account in Nigeria, you can initiate the transfer with your bank in Nigeria to send to the Canadian bank account. Wire transfer will require you pay in Naira and you must have reason/evidence to show like school fees to be paid for will require admission letter, goods/services will require company/business invoice from seller/shipper and then you will fill CBN form A at the bank. Just to show bank that govt foreign reserve is spent legitimately. Other different way could be to collect the cash dollar as BTA or PTA after showing traveling documents including visa and travel ticket to Canada ($5000 limit per quarter of the year limit). Choosing the latter will require you to collect cash that you may not still have means of sending over.

With your DOM account, you can initiate transfer abroad to the Canadian bank account you want to send to. I used my internet banking with GTB to raise the requested BUT they charged me higher than when I sent wire transfer. In fact, you chose option of paying their transfer fees/charges from your DOM or Naira account apart from the amount you are sending from the DOM itself. But I discovered that the GTB added another fee/charge that made the total fees to be about twice what it usually should be with wire transfer. I have tested sending $50 to my US account through the GTB method and equivalent of about $50 was dedcuted from my Naira account as the fees/charges whereas I always spent less than $25 equivalent whenever I wire transfer 450 or 900 euro from my Union Bank to Switzerland.

Finally, my cheapest option that I have observed from experience so far is when you (or someone in Nigeria) have the money in GTB account in Naira and you are in Canada. Just walk up to the GTB Naira mastercard to withdraw. Not all banks' ATM but few ones like Scotia Bank, TD something, , RBC, etc. I used that method in Aug/Sept. I just opened GTB before leaving Nigeria and did not have their card before leaving but my friends in Canada have their GTB. All I did was to use my Union bank internet banking to transfer money via eTranzact platform to their GTB accounts. Then we went to the ATM and cashed in Canadian dollars. I also cashed the DOM dollar that was in my Union bank card in Canadian dollar but the GTB ws from the Naira Mastercard. The advantage of this is that your GTB Naira mastercard is not limited to $4 or 5000 per quarter like many other Nigerian banks under CBN rule. You can withdraw the foreign currency equivalent of our usual daily ATM withdrawal limit over there, everyday. It was formerly N100k but now GTB makes it N150k per day from ATM. So you can withdraw the equivalent of that everyday in Canadian dollars from ATM or even spend more at the till (POS), I think up to N500k equivalent over there, everyday. So just open a GTB account here and get the card so you can be using it at ATM over there. That is the best and cheapest option I know for now.

Summarily, there are many banks in Nigeria that now offer you ability to own Mastercard or Visa card in Naira that you can withdraw foreign currency abroad from ATM. I know of GTB, First bank, Skye Bank, Fidelity, Diamond, Zenith (limited to same CBN $5000 per quarter equivalent usage) and UBA Africard. GTB, for example will give you the the withdrawal at the prevailing market rate plus N1k charge from your card. That is the best method I can advise you to use. Take care!

Is it the EIA itself you will need to be carried out on your projects or the EIA reports to be prepared/written from already done EIA? Let me know before I proceed with you.

My first experience of omo onile guys was in Effunrun, Warri.

Explain this further

Are you saying your buy and sell rates are the same N169/$1?

Tell us the specs, features and price.

The guy is asking of where online he can buy LR with credit card and you guys are mentioning your manual funding LR businesses. I would not know if the ones I know will accept Nigerian card or if the price will not be more than buying locally because they are not Nigerian sites, but just try electrumx and technocashier

I decided to go to their head office branch in marina yesterday. From the time they gave me form to fill to the issuing of personalized card (with my name on it) and the funding and activation on their ATM there was under 30 minutes. That was because of little queue. I was impressed with UBA yesterday cos that was my first account/banking with them, also my first on the spot card issuance within Nigeria and also faster than my GTB naira mastercard which took days and my GTB DOM visa card that took weeks.

I decided to go to their head office branch in marina yesterday. From the time they gave me form to fill to the issuing of personalized card (with my name on it) and the funding and activation on their ATM there was under 30 minutes. That was because of little queue. I was impressed with UBA yesterday cos that was my first account/banking with them, also my first on the spot card issuance within Nigeria and also faster than my GTB naira mastercard which took days and my GTB DOM visa card that took weeks.

usually within 24 hours, your money would be reverted from my experience. I have experienced such with my bank and other banks and it was not up to 24 hours (as the bank told me) that such money became credited back to my account when I checked my balance. A particular occasion, the machine kept counting for so long that I wished it would stop making the money-counting noise and release my card. But before the end of that day, i saw my balance without filling any complaint form inside the bank. They just said the system will auto credit my account back.

try xoom.com or any other money transfer services like travelmoneynow.com or sendmoneynow.com