₦airaland Forum

Nice one

The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, has expressed fears that Nigeria may slide into another recession if measures are not taken to tackle the high rate of unemployment and other economic crisis. Emefiele said this today at the University of Benin, while delivering a lecture titled “Beyond the Global Financial Crisis: Monetary Policy Under Global Uncertainty”.

According to him, Monetary and Fiscal Policy Authority must rise up to the challenge to begin to think of what can be done to tackle the the situation. The CBN governor said: “From some of my concluding remarks, you may have observed whether you like it or not, there is global uncertainty that will unfortunately most certainly, lead to another crisis,” ADVERTISEMENT “The question could be, how are we, as Nigerians, particularly our leaders, I am talking of Monetary and Fiscal Policy Authority, how are we preparing our country for the next set of crisis?” He said “we have luckily exited recession. We have seen recession pending downward to about 18.72 percent in 2017 to about 11. 37 percent today. We see reserve moving up, exchange rate stabilizing but unfortunately, we still have issue and those issues bother on unemployment rate.” He assured that CBN will continue to take proactive approach in mitigating the likely adverse effects that may emanate from external headwinds

https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/breaking-nigeria-may-slide-to-another-recession-cbn.html

Oshiomole brother

MadeInTokyo:
Which is advisable 1 year PGD or 2 year PGD

abelorode:
Several factors can play a role in making either decision. I feel it comes down to personal preference at the end.

Does any of them have a higher chance of TRV approval than the other

Commerce Association says that more than half of the surviving firms are “ailing”.

At least 800 companies closed shop in Nigeria between 2009 and 2011, due to the harsh operating business environment, the Nigerian Chambers of Commerce has said.

The companies that have survived are also having serious challenges as more than half of them have been classified as “ailing.’’

This was disclosed by the President of Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, NACCIMA, Herbert Ajayi, on Tuesday, in Asaba, in a paper he presented at a zonal workshop on economic diversification organised by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC.

Mr. Ajay said the current situation of the “surviving” industries poses a great threat to the survival of the manufacturing industry. He added that capacity utilisation in industries hovers around 30 per cent and 45 per cent on the average, with 100 per cent overhead costs.

He blamed the continued decline in the manufacturing sectors on “political and economic factors’’, citing poor infrastructure and epileptic power supply as key impediments to the industry.

“The manufacturing industry as a whole operates on more than 70 per cent of energy it generates, using generators; and operating these generators greatly increases the cost of manufacturing goods,’’ he said.

The industrialist gave other reasons for the woes in the sector as incessant increase in the price of petroleum products used by industries, multiple taxation, unabated smuggling and inadequate access to finance, both local and abroad.

He said widespread insecurity and the inability of government agencies in the ports to meet their 24-hour target, for cargo clearance, have contributed to the dwindling fortunes in the manufacturing sector.

Government efforts inadequate

The NACCIMA president, whose speech was delivered by the Vice President of the association, Mary Iyasere, described current government policies to revive the manufacturing industry as inadequate.

“For instance, in May 2010, the government announced a 1.3 billion-dollar fund to help banks extend credit to the manufacturing sector following the decline in available finance after the global economic crisis had set in.

“Notwithstanding this positive development arising from the reform process, the Nigerian economy, especially the manufacturing sector is still confronted by serious challenges, structural imbalance and lack of diversification,” he said.

“The current government policies targeted at the real sector (manufacturing) are also inadequate and preventing the manufacturing industry from flourishing,” he added.

The way forward

On the way forward, Mr. Ajayi stressed the need for the organised private sector to support the government’s efforts to revitalise the sector through the much-canvassed public private partnership.

He also called for more transparency in the ongoing government-led privatisation exercise of public enterprises.

Quoting statistics from the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mr. Ajayi said between 1999 and 2011, a total of 121 firms were privatised or commercialised, with about N250 billion realised from their sale.

“It was also reported that 81 of the privatised firms were operating at about 66 per cent and 41 at 34 per cent performance level,” he added.

The NACCIMA president, however, observed that the figures are in stark contrast to the position of the Senate ad-hoc Committee on Privatisation, which posited that 80 per cent of the firms are not performing.

In addition, he said Nigeria can borrow from the lessons of the economic policies of the “Asian Tigers” — Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan — to boost the manufacturing sector.

He, however, warned that Nigeria must exercise “caution” in trying to imitate the Asian policies. He explained that government needs to consider the peculiarities of the nation’s economy and marry it with those of Asia in areas “where policies are applicable rather than wholesale adoption”.

“This is because the casualty between growth and industrialisation could prove to be a costly mistake as seen in other countries, in pushing for rapid industrialisation,’’ Mr. Ajayi stated.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/business/99757-800-companies-shut-down-in-3-years-says-naccima.html?fbclid=IwAR342nL-dKUVY3oj1I8M2ED3TLKJpruZYo13RStZOTLzMlB3XFhrs3F3gY4

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Between November 25 and December 19, the amount in the Excess Crude Account declined by about $1.68bn, statistics obtained from the Federation Account Allocation Committee have revealed.

As of November 25 when the FAAC committee meeting was held to allocate revenue for that month, the balance in the ECA was put at $2.319bn

Wednesday at the headquarters of the ministry of finance, the balance, according to the Permanent Secretary in ministry, Mahmoud Dutse, had dropped to $631m.

Dutse, who briefed journalists shortly after the meeting, said withdrawals were made by the Federal Government from the ECA to settle the last tranche of the Paris Club Refund.

Dutse did not provide the amount withdrawn but the analysis by our correspondent showed that about $1.68bn might have been withdrawn during the three weeks period.

He said, “The balance in the ECA is $631m. The final payment for the Paris Club Refund to states was made and the figure was deducted and that’s what accounts for the difference

When reminded that it was wrong for such deductions to be made for such purpose, he replied that the committee got an approval from President Muhammadu Buhari and the Federal Executive Council before making the withdrawal.

He said, “A decision was taken to make this refund and part of that decision is that the refund should be funded from the ECA. Federal Executive Council, the President approved the money

The Accountant-General of the Federation, Alhaji Ahmed Idris, when accosted on his way out of the meeting to clarify the withdrawal, said that due process was followed before the withdrawal was made.

“You can go and find out from the National Assembly if we got approval for it but due process was followed before the fund was released.”


Meanwhile, the committee allocated a total amount of N812.76bn to the three tiers of government.

A breakdown of the amount showed that the Federal Government got N326.75bn; the 36 states are to share N203.2bn while the 774 Local Government Councils are to share the sum of N153.52bn.

In addition, the sum of N57.07bn was allocated to the oil producing states based on the 13 per cent derivation principle

The gross statutory revenue for the month of November, Dutse said, was put at N649.62bn.

This is N32.53bn lower than the N682.16bn received in the previous month of October.

https://punchng.com/fg-withdraws-1-6bn-in-three-weeks-shrinks-eca-to-631m/amp/