₦airaland Forum

TooNoisy:
We have heard. I only wonder why it took CBN sooo long to come to this conclusion.

However, CBN is still pumping in dollars to stabilise the naira but I wonder for how long will they do this. Pumping dollars alone will not stabilise the naira. Diversifying the economy will and I can't see any major steps in that direction.

seyema:
Who cares?

nnachukz:
Only zombies can doubt this. Being a zombie can even make you to deny your name and your father just to worship Buhari.

Zafric:
Can anyone using the Tuoda magnum s5 or a yun os enabled phone please carefully explain the os to me

citizenY:
Elections in Rivers have always been rigged right from 1999 and everybody knows this. The international observers said so very clearly and the culprits have been the PDP and the stray elements that now find themselves in APC.

What really played out was a rigging contest by erstwhile colleagues with the same strategy in a situation where there was no time to develop new strategies.. This explains the vitriol . The strategy devised by Wike was to ensure enough terror , verbally and physically to keep voters away from the polliElng booths. This explains the low voter figures. Amechi could not do much as he had no "locus" like a sitting governor.

Any repeat of the process will only produce the same outcome and more casualties.. Rivers is under siege by these politicians.

Trailblazer1:
Its PPRA on strike?

saintopus:
The Federal Government is concluding plans to probe no fewer than 23,306 federal civil servants, who have been accused by a panel of defrauding the government of millions of naira every month through an organised salary fraud.

The preliminary report of an investigative committee, set up to probe the alleged fraudulent payment of salaries to either ‘ghost’ workers or payments to multiple accounts, indicated that some banks would also be called to answer questions on the huge scam.

In a branch of one of the banks, over 300 accounts were said to have been opened in one day and all the accounts have become inactive.
A competent source on the investigative panel, who spoke to our correspondent on Thursday, said the federal civil servants and the banks, which had allegedly been indicted, had been marked down for thorough investigations and possible sanctions.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the government had begun a plan to investigate and remove the names of the indicted civil servants from its payroll.

It was also learnt that some of the affected officers had started resigning their appointments as a pre-emptive measure to avert humiliation and sanctions at the end of the investigation.

Our correspondent gathered that out of 312,000 civil servants, whose bank accounts had been checked so far in the exercise through the Bank Verification Number platform, the accounts of 23,306 workers had questionable transactions.

The exercise was said to have led to the discovery of a high level of irregularities in salary payment.

The source told The PUNCH, “Out of the accounts of about 312,000 civil servants processed so far, the ministry has uncovered irregularities in about 23,306 of them. The account holders are suspected to have been collecting double salaries.

“These indicted individuals are in two categories. In the first group, we found out that the names of some civil servants, whose salaries are being processed, are different from the names on the accounts where their salaries are paid into. What this means is either those in this category are drawing salaries from two sources (which could be different parastatals), or they are ‘ghost’ workers.”

It was gathered that the panel also discovered that salaries were being paid into some inactive accounts, which had fuelled the belief that the Federal Government had been paying salaries to ‘ghost’ workers.

The source added that the Federal Government had placed some banks under watch over their roles in the unfolding salary scam.

It was learnt that the panel had discovered that some of these inactive accounts were domiciled in a particular branch of a bank.

“The investigating committee discovered that in a particular branch of a bank, over 300 accounts of some civil servants were opened on the same day and all of them have become dormant.

“By the time the ongoing investigation is concluded, Nigerians will be shocked by the sheer number of top and other categories of civil servants, who may be forced to resign as a result of their complicity in the salary scam,” the source added.

The Special Adviser to the Minister of Finance on Media Matters, Mr. Festus Akanbi, however, refused to confirm the preliminary findings of the panel concerning the number of federal civil servants and banks that had been indicted by the committee.

Akanbi, who spoke to our correspondent on Thursday, explained that the exercise was ongoing, adding that the public would be appropriately informed when the full report of the panel was submitted.

The finance ministry had said the adoption of the BVN became inevitable due to the failure of the Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System to effectively deal with the issue of ‘ghost’ workers in the federal civil service.

According to the ministry, the strategy of using BVN rather than requiring the physical presence of each member of staff has significantly simplified and accelerated the progress of the project and at a lower cost.

The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, had, earlier in the year, said the BVN, which does not require a physical presence of a worker, would help accelerate the pace of enrolment.

“To date, despite over five years since the initiation of the project, only 20 per cent of public employees have actually been enrolled into IPPIS due to a variety of reasons,” Adeosun stated.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, recently said some top civil servants in the ministry were dismissed for collecting N400,000 each from 400 applicants whose names were then included in the IPPIS.


http://www.punchng.com/salary-scam-fg-to-probe-23306-civil-servants-banks/

INDUSTRIALFAN:
we started having these problems even before GEJ ever thought of being president.... Everybody is to blame Starting with those who fought for independence..... in my own opinion, Nigeria was granted independence prematurely.... we just were not ready to handle Nigeria just yet.... One would always wonder why SA and a few other African countries are more developed in certain core areas that in turn make their economy thrive more than the Giant of Africa...

Dee60:
There is not a lot of difference between CKDs imported to make Innoson and FBU BMWs imported by Coscharis. Both are imports and require dollars. I agree with you that Nigeria possibly do not need the 'socialist' posture at the centre now.

kayfra:
We are a victim of a mono product commodity export based economy and when prices tank, then so is our fortune and currency. We had a boat load of opportunity under the last government to structurally change our economy by building infrastructure and diversifying our exports. But we blew away the days of oil at $140 a barrel. That was lost on private jets and ridiculous properties.

Anyway, accepting our reality let's look at what will alleviate the pain.

Monetary policy - CBN (Emefiele)
1. Devalue the naira and stop wasting reserves on our ego. Naira is not worth the official rate and let's be done with that reality. Of course, inflation will rise, which is inevitable.
2. Lower interest rates. This is to make the cost of borrowing cheaper, so more naira is available to spend to keep a buoyant economy. The banks won't enjoy runaway profits but they can make up for that in fees.
3. Stress test the banks and based on the results, recapitalizate the banks. We can't afford to have weak banks that'll collapse anytime soon. If the banks are not strong enough to do real banking, then consolidate them.
4. Formulate policies for banks to increase retail lending which will grow the economy when money is available to individuals to invest in businesses and other entrepreneurial activities such as farming. We have 160 million people and can run a growth based economy internally.
5. Put more import tariffs on frivolous goods to encourage local production.
6. Prioritize the issuance of forex to companies importing industrial or agricultural machines. Anything that will foster local production should be encouraged. This will get us from being a net exporter of raw goods to a net exporter of processed or semi processed goods.


Fiscal policy (Adeosun)
Kemi is already doing most of my recommendation

1. Look for ways to seal all the leakages in parastatals.
2. Retrieve every single kobo of revenue made by government agencies which will include customs, ports, waec, jamb etc etc
3. Review the cost of governance with the aim of drastically lowering recurrent expenditure. This may involve firing redundant people.
4. Review our VAT. We have a low tax rate and we need to tax consumption of foreign goods to discourage our dependence on them.
5. Broaden the tax base with targeted taxation across the economy. Anybody with a stall or farm has to pay taxes. No exceptions.
6. Automate governance using technology. We need an ERP solution and data warehouse. This will give easy access to information and reports so we can plan and make better policy decisions.
7. Review fee structure across the board. This will include police tickets, traffic tickets, tolls, road tax etc etc


Buhari
1. Communicate a vision and hire an economic adviser that can articulate the vision as concrete plans with milestones.
2. Go after trade agreements with African countries. We have a lot to sell the less developed African countries and can effectively replace a lot of their foreign partners. This will increase dollar repatriation from the revenue we make in those countries.
3. Stop speaking so negatively about Nigeria. You kill consumer and investor confidence when the head of state sounds so negative.
4. Fight corruption but don't let it take center stage of your government. It just shows you're not capable of managing a complex country with varying priorities.
5. Strengthen our defense. It's your #1 priority as commander in chief.
6. Go get a communication coach to teach you the art leadership using verbal and non verbal cues.


NASS
1. Pass PIB bill as a matter of urgency.
2. Pass any bill that will clear roadblocks and speed up the incubation of businesses. Example. Why does it take a year to get mining license? There are other examples.
3. Do real work and pass laws that will help the common man and big business. They go hand in hand


The People
1. Work hard, pray hard and party hard.

Bevista:
You see, the Body Language of the president is completely irrelevant when market forces are at play. He needs to stop having a DEFINITIVE position on what the exchange rate should be. There are so many variables and moving pieces outside his control.
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On inflation, what do you think is going to happen when 70% of the market sources dollars at N300 to import? Are those importers not going to pass on the interest rate differential to consumers by virtue of price increase? Sooner or latter, HEADLINE inflation will increase. They may try to subdue CORE inflation for a while due to the steady nature of price of PMS.
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Devaluing the Naira will naturally curb demand and create a new equilibrium. The key will be choosing an appropriate price where supply can clear demand. That way, the bank will not have to worry about depleting Reserves. But yes, I agree, Core inflation will shoot up.

Bevista:
Blaming the CBN Governor is like blaming the management of Chevron for sacking 7,000 employees and reporting a 40% reduction in earnings - all due to record low oil prices.
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Our senators need to understand the interwoven nature of economic variables. The currency of every major oil exporting country is depreciating like hell. Even heavyweights like Saudi Arabia, Canada, Russia, Norway, etc with huge FX Reserves (in excess of $500bn) are suffering currency devaluation.
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My only grouse with the CBN Governor is that he should converge the prices at the parallel and official market by officially devaluing the Naira. The current over N100 divergence is providing banks with arbitrage opportunities for exploiting their customers. An exchange rate in the region of N240 - N260 might be appropriate for now.
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What Nigeria needs right now are real & clear Import Substitution policies to reverse our craze for foreign goods. This will reduce the pressure on the Naira. That is not the job of Monetary authorities but that of Fiscal authorities. They should be summoning Kemi and the guy in charge of Trade & Investments.