₦airaland Forum

OP pls capitalise that SAN abeg, it is an acronym.

Governor of the Central Bank Hisham Ramez announced
Monday the opening of a new bank account under the number
037037, a reference to the date on which President Abdel
Fattah Al-Sisi declared the ouster of former president
Mohamed Morsi.
The account, Ramez said, will be known as the “Long Live
Egypt Fund”, borrowing from Al-Sisi’s election campaign
slogan, and has been set up to collect donations to support the
economy.
A number of businessmen launched an initiative to support
Egypt following the events of 30 June under the 306306 Fund,
headed by Farouk El Okda, former governor of the Central
Bank. The fund amassed close to EGP 1bn, including a
donation of EGP 300m from the armed forces.
The idea of creating funds or opening accounts to support the
economy flourished following the 25 January Revolution,
including the 2512011 account, as well as the 333-333 Egypt
Renaissance account.
Economic researcher at Stanford University Amro Adly said
that the establishment of a fund to collect donations is a
“populist measure” that falls short of an economic solution, as
the idea is not sustainable and fails to address the issue of
accumulating government debt. Solving the problem requires
a restructuring of state revenues and expenses, he said.
“The president is employing his popularity, utilising a national
speech to pass austerity measures that do not always enjoy
popular support, such as decreasing subsidies and increasing
taxes, and marketing these measures to public opinion at a
time when the country is embroiled in political turmoil,” said
Adly.
Al-Sisi announced Tuesday he would forego half of his
monthly salary and half of his wealth and property, which he
would cede “to Egypt”.
The remarks came during a speech at a graduation ceremony
for a new group of students from the National Military
Academy, in which he also called on Egyptians to avoid
extravagance during the month of Ramadan.
Sisi said that that he receives a salary of EGP 42,000, the
maximum government wage, and as this is more than what he
needs currently, he is willing to cede half. He pointed out that
he issued directives for no government employees to receive
more than this amount.
Sisi said that he “will not respond to any sectarian demands
to increase wages,” pointing out that these demands “do not
recognise the nature of the current economic situation in
Egypt”.
He asked Egyptians at home and abroad to take similar
measures.

source: http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2014/06/24/central-bank-egypt-establishes-long-live-egypt-fund-support-economy/

chucky234: Lagos get hope die

Absolutely! Imagine this--" With 7 million residents, only seven percent of the land is covered with roads." 7% ! that's crazy and pathetic. Bangladesh is sure a poor nation; that pic shows the capital Dhaka.

I don't think the Governor of Adamawa, Murtala Nyako, is medically fit to run the state again- he is senile! Shutting down all government activities in the state, for TWO DAYS, because of one silly politics is a callous and greedy thing a leader would do to his people. Imagine how much the state would lose for this silly action of a silly Governor; these leaders/politicians don't care what happen to the masses, all they ever care about is their selves and their family.

Imagine the silly, dumb and senseless reason (see below) for declaring a public holiday in a state that needs investment; would you invest in the state where arbitrariness and whimsicality is the order of the day- mad people.
(quoted from chief of staff to the Governor)
“This [the holiday] is to enable the people of the state to reflect on the current happenings in the country and to use the period to offer special prayers for peace in the state and the country."
“The period is to also allow Adamawa workers reflect on their
current challenges. It is also a thanksgiving period for the
citizens to appreciate God’s protection despite all challenges.”

Biolah: Assets n resource Manegemnt (arm) Invites u fr a chat @ 95b opebi rd, ikeja. Date: fri 11/7/14. Time 10am. (come wt ur c.v, if interested). Pls are they for real before I waste my T.fare down dere. Pls urgent replys would b highly appreciated. Tnx

Googled the address, they are into insurance biz...check the site http://www.armlife.com.ng/

Dhaka, Bangladesh is among the world's most congested
cities. With 7 million residents, only seven percent of the
land is covered with roads. (As comparison, about 25
percent of the land in Paris is covered in roads, as is about
40 percent of the land in Washington, DC.) The whole city
only has 60 traffic lights — and they don't all work.
Michael Hobbes works on human rights in Bangladesh,
among other places, and in an essay for The New Republic ,
he says that "whenever I ask people in Dhaka what their
main priority is, what they think international organizations
should really be working on, they tell me about the traffic."
Traffic, he argues, isn't just a nuisance. It's "one of the
defining development challenges of our time."
Much of the problem in Dhaka comes from the rickshaws
crowding the road. But any attempt to herd them into a
single lane, or limit their use, will be a political nightmare.
"One and a half million people drive rickshaws for a living,
plus another few hundred thousand own and repair them."
Another option might be making cars pay more to use
special roads — and then using that money to build the
necessary infrastructure. But, Hobbes writes, "car owners
are a small part of the population, but a highly influential
and politically necessary one. Having a car-and a driver, of
course-is a major perk of being a government official or
business executive." They don't take well to higher taxes.
Meanwhile, there's the paradox of infrastructure investment
to worry about: major transportation projects take a long
time to complete, and during that period, they often make
traffic much, much worse.
The result is that little can be done. But Hobbes' piece
makes an important point (and don't miss the photos!): too
often, people hear about "development challenges" and they
imagine the horrors of extreme poverty, like malaria and
starvation. But the world has more than halved the number
of people living in extreme poverty since 1990 — and
experts increasingly believe it's possible to end extreme
poverty altogether by 2030. Most of the world now lives in
middle-income countries, and a large majority of the world
will soon live in cities. If those middle-income countries are
to become rich, and if their residents are to have good lives,
then traffic is one of the central developmental challenges of
the coming decades.

Source: http://www.vox.com/2014/7/7/5869717/traffic-congestion-is-one-of-the-defining-development-challenges-of?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=ezraklein&utm_content=monday

FG Withdraws N1.9tn From Excess
Crude Account – Exclusive
Document Reveals

The Federal Government withdrew N1.99tn from the
Excess Crude Account in the 2013 fiscal year, documents
obtained Exclusively by PUNCH Newspaper from the
Budget Office of the Federation have revealed.
The office, in its 2013 consolidated budget
implementation report jointly signed by the Minister of
Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and the Director-
General, BoF, Dr. Bright Okogu, said the amount was
used to settle various obligations of the Federal
Government owing to its inability to meet its revenue
targets.
The withdrawals for 2013 were marginally lower than the
N2.07tn taken in the 2012 period by N800m or 3.86 per
cent.
The BoF said while N1.99tn was the total outflows from
the ECA, the government was able to ensure that within
the 2013 period, the sum of N855.41 was transferred
into the account.
However, the total inflow for the period under
consideration was lower than the N2.30tn received in
2012 by N1.29tn or 56.19 per cent.
The report, a copy of which was obtained exclusively
shows that, “The ECA was set up to serve as a
stabilisation and savings account. Inflows into the ECA
in the fourth quarter of 2013 amounted to N156.03bn.
“The inflow into this account in the fourth quarter was
lower than the N181.34bn and N474.8bn recorded in the
third quarter of 2013 and fourth quarter of 2012 by
N25.31bn and N318.77bn, respectively.
“Similarly, the total inflow for 2013 was lower than the
N2.30tn received in 2012 by N1.297tn (or 56.19 per
cent).
“A total of N510.98bn was withdrawn from the account
in the fourth quarter of 2013 to bring the cumulative
drawdown from the account as of December 31, 2013 to
N1.99tn.”
The report stated that of the N1.99tn withdrawn in 2013,
N1.08tn was used to augment statutory revenue to the
three tiers of government, while N505bn was used for the
payment of subsidies on petroleum products.
It added that the balance of N405.6bn was transferred
into the Special Intervention Fund.
Giving a breakdown of how the N1.08tn revenue was
shared among the three tiers of government, the report
stated that N485.02bn was withdrawn in the first quarter
of 2013.
For the second, third and fourth quarters, the report put
the augmentation made to the three tiers of government
at N434.82bn, N12.02bn and N154.75bn, respectively.
On how the payment for petroleum subsidy was made, it
stated that N50bn was paid to oil marketers in the first
quarter, while the second, third and fourth quarters had
N110bn, N110bn and N235bn paid, respectively.
For transfers into the SIF, the report stated that N71.1bn
was moved into the account in the first quarter, while
N106.65bn, N106.65bn and N121.23bn were paid into
the account in the second, third and fourth quarters in
that order.
The nation experienced huge revenue shortfall in the
2013 fiscal year, which saw the ECA experiencing
massive withdrawals by the government in order to
augment the depletion in revenue.
For instance, crude oil sale, which accounts for about 90
per cent of the government’s revenue, recorded a decline
of N1.43tn or 33.69 per cent from N4.24tn in 2012, to
N2.81tn in 2013
Similarly, findings revealed that gas sales of N255.12bn
and rent of N180m fell below their corresponding annual
projections of N359.58bn and N880m by N104.46bn
(29.05 per cent) and N0.70bn (or 79.67 per cent),
respectively.
The drop in crude oil revenue, according to the BoF, was
due to massive theft, illegal bunkering and pipeline
vandalism, which persisted during the period under
review.
Similarly, the non-oil revenue receipts recorded huge
decline of N637.93bn (or 22.37 per cent) to N2.21tn as of
December 31, 2013, below the annual projected estimate
of N2.85tn.
For instance, Value Added Tax of N795.60bn; Company
Income Tax of N985.52bn and Customs and Excise
Duties of N432.64bn fell short by N149.68bn (or 15.83
per cent), N6.52bn (or 0.66 per cent) and N360.31bn (or
45.44 per cent) when compared with their annual
projections of N945.28bn, N992.04bn and N792.95bn,
respectively.


Source: http://newswirengr.com/2014/07/03/fg-withdraws-n1-9tn-from-excess-crude-account-exclusive-document-reveals/

Thirteen Nigerian banks have been named in the list of
1000 top lenders across the world, according to the
Banker magazine of the Financial Times Group in its
2014 report on banks released on Sunday 6 July.
The Nigerian banks attained this feat for the second year
in a row which makes the Financial Institutions among
the 1000 world best if your’e looking to bank in Africa or
your’e worried about the capacity of your bank.
The Country Representative of The Banker Magazine,
Kunle Ogedengbe, said the ranking is based on Tier-1
capital, which has Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank,
First Bank, Access Bank, United Bank for Africa, Fidelity
Bank and Ecobank Nigeria.
Others are: Skye Bank, First City Monument Bank,
Diamond Bank, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Standard
Chartered Bank Nigeria and Union Bank of Nigeria.
Zenith Bank was ranked top in Nigeria at 293 position
while Guaranty Trust Bank was placed 415. First Bank
and Access Bank were ranked 424 and 532 respectively.
UBA was listed at 539 and Fidelity, occupied 622
position.
The Banker said the profit on capital of three Nigerian
banks that are not foreign-owned subsidiaries increased.
First Bank’s profit on capital increased to 25.32 per cent
from 25.13 per cent, Access Bank, from 21.19 per cent to
21.24 per cent and First City Monument Bank, 15.77 per
cent from 15.07 per cent.
The magazine said the share number of local banks that
made the ranking “underlines Nigeria’s number one
position in Africa, as no other African country had up to
13 banks in the Top 1,000 World Banks”.

Source http://newswirengr.com/2014/07/07/13-nigerian-banks-among-worlds-1000-is-your-financial-institution-included-details/?utm_source=&utm_medium=twitter

"...the more women we have on the board[of a company], the more likely their performance would rise." Gbam! DO YOU NEED ANY STATISTICS?

Well, you might say she is saying this because she is a woman, Aruman Oteh, is dead-on in this assertion; " Performance is higher in companies with women board
members". You better not ask me for a prove, I will surely floor you with them. Read her interview with The Punch's IFEANYI ONUBA.

You recently said SEC would work with Corporate Affairs
Commission on some regulations as it concerns having more
women directors of companies. What format will it take?
It is important to have more women on board. We have about
190 listed companies today, 73 of them have no woman on
their boards, 10 per cent have 20 per cent women on their
boards and I think there are only 15 female chief executives of
the 190 listed companies.
What we have found recently is that there is now some link
between the performance of companies and the number of
women they have on their board. And that linkage is very
positive that the more women we have on the board, the more
likely their performance would rise.
There is a catalyst organisational study that companies which
had more women on their board, at least 19 per cent of their
board members being women, did better in terms of Return on
Investment and in terms of other profitability indicators.
My suspicion is that the reason for that is that first if you have
got women on the board, it opens up the market to the broader
range so when you are crafting your policies, when you are
reviewing how you are doing as a board, the questions will
point you to something that may not have come out if you had
just one gender, if you had a board that is solely men.
The other thing is that diversity inspires innovation. There is a
linkage between diversity and innovation because people come
from different directions. So we think that something should
be done. The Companies and Allied Matters Act was last
reviewed in 1990. There was a recent amendment which was
very specific. We think that one of the things which should be
looked into is certainly having a clause that encourages
greater participation of women.
We are the custodian of the SEC code of corporate governance.
So through that we can also influence that issue. But I think
that the best way is that the companies too should look at that
issue as something that is most beneficial to them because it
opens up the space and market for them.

FULL INTERVIEW... http://www.punchng.com/business/sundayceo/performance-is-higher-in-companies-with-women-board-members-oteh/

HNosegbe: Well the Oba is supposed to be apolitical, so I didn't expect him to take sides.

Anyway...

I do not think there is any traditional ruler in Nigeria who is apolitical; most of them does have inclination to a political party or political office holder/appointee.

We might get to this stage if care is not taken; so sad!

ayukdaboss: I must make am for this life

lol...amen

Check out the latest invention of the famous car brand 'Mercedes-Benz'.....

The 2014 Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG is the marque’s
flagship, the vehicle that every other car aspires to be. Its
exterior lines have been given an elegant smoothing-
over in the face of the previous generation’s explicit
flared-fender aggression. But, as we learned with the 2014
Porsche Cayman S , the devil’s in the details, and there are
plenty of interesting little bits scattered around the S63 AMG.
The S63’s exterior needs to be classy (it’s not a toy like the
Cayman was), so there aren’t too many stand-out details –
except for the headlights. Nowadays, with LED strips thinner
than the kale your weird hippie coworker eats, headlight
design can incorporate all manner of interesting shapes and
angles. The S63’s lights are pretty restrained in that regard,
save for the big ol’ LED eyebrows just above the projectors.
However, if you look closer, you’ll see that Mercedes felt the
need to inscribe the name of its lighting system inside the
headlamp (along with its own name, natch)....FULL ARTICLE BELOW

SOURCE: http://m.web2carz.com/article/article.php?articleId=3338&w2caf=f43a5fe59188a24c

Why all this commendation, is the President not doing his duty? should someone be praised for doing the work he/she is being paid to do? Moreover, is this bill an executive bill?

Nigerians should stop all this act of mediocrity and sentimentalism; we should demand more from these leaders. This is not to trivialise anybody's achievment or effort.

God bless Nigeria!