Finabiz: December 2014

Friday, 19 December 2014

FG slashes petroleum subsidy by N771bn as product landing costs slide

The Nigerian government has slashed the amount that it would pay for petroleum subsidies in 2015 by N771 billion to N200 billion, with the hope that landing costs of oil products would continue to drop as oil prices drop.

The N200 billion which is against N971 billion paid in the current 2014 fiscal year, is contained in the 2015 budget proposal awaiting appropriation before the National Assembly.

Government is also proposing to draw down about half a billion dollars (N80 billion) from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) and borrow N570 billion to finance the 2015 fiscal deficit put at 0.79 percent, which is however down from 1.24 percent this year.

This comes as

The National Council on Privatisation (NCP) on Thursday approved the sale of the liquidated Nigeria Telecommunication Plc and its subsidiary, Mtel, to NATCOM Consortium for $252 million.

Atedo Peterside, the chairman of NCP’s Technical Committee, told State House correspondents in Abuja that the approval was one of the decisions taken at a meeting of the council presided over by Vice President Namadi Sambo.

He said that NATCOM beat one other bidder to clinch the deal.

“What happened today was that

UBA Extends Banking Services to Twitter

Customers of United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc in the 18 African countries where the bank has operations can now receive transaction alerts on their twitter handle as direct messages.

It is an innovative first from the pan-African bank and currently the only bank in Africa to offer this service.

“What we have done is take social media banking to a new level. Twitter is increasingly becoming a popular means of communication especially among the young adults. As a highly innovative bank, we are giving the Millennials, who are increasingly banking with us an option to get

Poor treatment of workers in Chinese factories which make Apple products has been discovered by an undercover BBC Panorama investigation.

It found standards on workers' hours, ID cards, dormitories, work meetings and juvenile workers were being breached at the Pegatron factories.

Apple said it strongly disagreed with the programme's conclusions.

Exhausted workers were filmed falling asleep on their 12-hour shifts at the Pegatron factories on the outskirts of Shanghai.

One undercover reporter, working in a factory making parts for Apple computers, had to

Recent falls in the price of oil are likely to be temporary, says the oil minister for Saudi Arabia, Opec's biggest producing nation

Ali al-Naimi said commodity price fluctuations were to be expected and said he was hopeful for the future.

He added it was "difficult, or even impossible, for Saudi Arabia or Opec to undertake any measure that would lead to a reduction in [their] share of the market and an increase in of others".

The price of oil has halved since June.

On Thursday, the price of Brent crude was just below $63 a barrel, while US crude was near $58.

Oil prices, which were

In its latest sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) Credit Overview released December 16, 2014, Fitch Ratings says that it expects average GDP growth of 5 percent in 2015, for the 18 countries rated by the agency, up from 4.5 percent in 2014.

Growth will not be evenly spread across the region but should be resilient to lower oil prices.

Countries’ ability to grow will be impacted by their degree of commodity dependence, exposure to China, domestic challenges and capacity to invest.

Growth in Nigeria, Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest economy, has been revised down from

Sony Pictures has cancelled the planned US release on 25 December of the film The Interview, after major cinema chains decided not to screen it.

The film is about a fictional plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Hackers have already carried out a cyber attack on Sony and warned the public to stay away from cinemas screening the film.

The US government said it was considering a "range of options" on how to respond to the attack.

"We know that criminals and foreign countries regularly seek to

Switzerland's National Bank (SNB) will bring in a negative interest rate cutting the value of large sums of money left on deposit in the country.

The Bank is imposing a rate of minus 0.25% on "sight deposits" - a form of instant access account - of more than 10m Swiss francs ($9.77m).

It is trying to lower the value of the Swiss franc, which has risen recently.

Russia's market meltdown and a dramatic plunge in the oil price have led investors to

President Vladimir Putin has insisted Russia's under-fire currency, the rouble, will stabilise, but warned the economic crisis could last two years.

He is currently holding his annual end-of-year news conference.

Mr Putin blamed "outside factors" for the falling rouble but admitted the central bank could have acted sooner.

He also accepted Russia had failed to diversify its economy, which has been hit by falling oil prices and sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.

''Goods have clearly been flying off the

A leap in manufacturing’s contribution to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), huge investments in cement, sugar and automotive industries, as well as a surge in capacity utilisation within the year are indications that the sector can perform better in 2015 if the Federal Government pays more attention to broad-based, industry- specific incentives, rather than the individual-type motivations, stakeholders say.

“Majority of the members interviewed are of the opinion that once the government continues with broad-based incentives, the possibility of capacity utilisation improving further is high,” says the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), in its most recent economic review.

“What this translates to in the economic-wide aggregate, is

The Nigerian government, in 2015 hopes to raise N10.56 billion additional revenue from levies on luxury items – one of the strategies it is adopting to shore up revenue to manage the economy in the light of present shocks coming from falling oil prices.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, co-ordinating minister for the economy and minister of finance, announced that beginning next year, a 10 percent import surcharge would be imposed on new private jets and that this is estimated to yield about N3.7 billion to the federation revenue.

The government has also slammed a

Telecommunication subscribers are beginning to feel embarrassed with the avalanche of unsolicited calls and text messages that hit their mobile phones on a daily basis, in spite of warnings from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the industry regulator, to stop the action.

The subscribers have therefore called on NCC to make further efforts in addressing the situation, which they have said, constitutes distractions and overloading of their phone memory, where text messages are stored.

Although telecoms operators have

Africa Development Bank (AfDB) has imposed a three year debarment on China First Highway Engineering Co. Ltd. following its admission of fraudulent and collusive practices in an AfDB-financed project. The bank also levied a financial penalty of $18.86 million on the company to support anti-corruption projects on the continent.

A statement issued by the Bank Group said, “Ensuing from investigations conducted by the AfDB’s Integrity and Anti-Corruption Department (IACD), CFHEC admitted to

The Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA), the body in charge of the registration of Nigeria's country code Top Level Domain name (ccTLD), otherwise known as '.ng domain name', has said Nigeria is still far from meeting the set target of registering 250, 000 domain names in the country.

President of NIRA, Mrs. Mary Uduma, who gave the information in a telephone interview with THISDAY Newspapers, said NIRA had in 2013, set a target to register up to 250,000 .ng domain names, but was unable to meet the target at the end of 2013. This compelled NIRA to

These sectors include: Railway; Inland waterways; Road Authority; Roads Funds; National Transport Commission; Ports & Harbour reform; Federal Competition and Consumer Protection and Postal bill.

Mr. Benjamin Dikki, the Director General of the bureau, disclosed this during the end year workshop of the Commerce and Industry Correspondence Association of Nigeria (CICAN) in Lagos, saying “Government is riding on the success story of the previously privatised Public Enterprises, PEs, such as banking, power, telecom, marine, steel sectors of the economy, etc.

According to him “Today,

Russian consumers flocked to the stores Wednesday, frantically buying a range of big-ticket items to pre-empt the price rises kicked off by the staggering fall in the value of the ruble in recent days.

As the Russian authorities announced a series of measures to ease the pressure on the ruble, which slid 15 percent in the previous two days and raised fears of a bank run, many Russians were buying cars and home appliances in some cases in record numbers before prices for these imported goods shoot higher.

The Swedish furniture giant IKEA already warned Russian consumers that

Russia plans new measures to stabilise the rouble

Russia is planning new measures aimed at stabilising its financial markets after the rouble's slump against the dollar.

The country's central bank said that if necessary, it would provide additional capital to Russia's banks and financial companies.

It also said it would hold more foreign exchange auctions if needed.

Russia's rouble has regained ground from Tuesday's all-time low, although trading remains edgy and volatile.

It extended its gains against the dollar after the

Abullahi Babani, the Controller, Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), on Wednesday said that PAAR scheme had increased revenues by 20 per cent in 2014.

He said there was tremendous improvement on the revenue in the current year, considering the economic situation in the country when compared to the performance of NCS in 2013.

Babani explained that PAAR was the new system of Destination Inspection (DI) which transferred the assignment from the service providers to the NCS in December 2013.

The controller added that

Nigeria’s federal gross revenue yet again crashed N36.6 billion to N500.07 billion in November from N536.69 billion October figures as slump in both oil output and prices continue to take toll on Africa’s largest economy.

The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) which met Tuesday night to consider usual monthly allocations to the three tiers of government said the drop seen in revenue was as a result of the drastic 33 percent decline in export volume between September and October 2014, and a further decrease in

Finance minister and co-ordinating minister for the economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, will today present the 2015 budget estimates separately to the two chambers of the National Assembly.

The total budget figure to be presented by the minister is N4.357.96 trillion. Out of this amount, government proposed N627billion for capital expenditure and N2.622 trillion for recurrent expenditure.

The Federal Government had returned the revised 2015-2017 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) to the Senate to ratify the adjustments carried out on the document, in tandem with current realities in the oil market.

This is the second time President Goodluck Jonathan has

Plunging oil prices are not proving a sole negative for the Nigerian economy, as new investors prepare to capitalise on cheaper assets amid an economic turmoil that threatens to bankrupt at least five states.

From bankers to oil barons and profligate Nigerian state governors who refused to save for the proverbial rainy day, the 45 percent slump in crude oil this year presents opportunity as well as pitfalls.

“Nigerian oil assets are much cheaper now and present a good time to

UK unemployment in the three months to October fell by 63,000 to 1.96 million, official figures show.

The fall was the slowest quarterly fall for a year, leading some analysts to speculate that the rate of improvement may have peaked.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the jobless rate was 6%, matching its lowest level in six years.

On a quarterly basis, average earnings excluding bonuses grew by 1.6%. Including bonuses they rose by 1.4%.

For a long time, earnings growth had been lagging the inflation rate, but in the last quarter it overtook inflation for the first time in five years, and the latest figures show that

India's troubled airline SpiceJet has grounded flights after oil companies refused to refuel any of its planes, reports say.

The debt-ridden carrier owes money to creditors, including oil companies.

SpiceJet is India's fourth-biggest airline by market share.

On Tuesday, civil aviation authorities gave SpiceJet a reprieve when they said state-owned oil companies would be asked to give credit to the cash-strapped airline for up to 15 days.

The civil aviation ministry also said that

Technology giant Apple says it cannot sell products online in Russia because the rouble's value is too volatile for it to set prices.

The company stopped sales of its iPhones, iPads and other products in the country after a day in which the currency went into free-fall.

The rouble has lost more than 20% this week, despite a dramatic decision to raise interest rates from 10.5% to 17%.

Early on Wednesday, the rouble was

Following the recent decline in the price of crude oil, President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday said it had become imperative to rapidly diversify the nation’s economy away from dependency on crude oil, and focus more on agriculture.

He noted that agriculture sector remains vital for the economy of Nigeria.

The president made the remarks at the launch of Youth Empowerment in Agriculture Programme (YEAP) and Fund For Agricultural Finance in Nigeria (FAFIN) at the Banquet Hall, Presidential Villa in Abuja.

FAFIN, according to Jonathan, would deploy $100million towards providing affordable long term financing to support the development of small and medium scale agri-businesses.

He said

A U.S. bound-American Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Tokyo on Wednesday after hitting severe turbulence created by a strong winter storm, with several people taken to hospital for minor injuries.

American Airlines Flight 280, a Boeing 777-200 heading to Dallas/Fort Worth airport from Incheon in South Korea, was flying across Japan when the plane dropped suddenly and was rocked for 30 to 40 seconds, passengers said.

"We were eating and all the food just flew up in the air and pretty much bounced off and fell. There were carts all over the place," one passenger told TV Tokyo when the aircraft landed shortly after midnight at Tokyo's Narita airport.

Photos posted on Twitter showed splotches of

The Kwara State government has established micro-small and medium enterprises agency that would access N2 billion out of the N220 billion Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN's) micro, small and medium enterprises funds (MSME) development fund meant for the state.

Speaking with journalists in Ilorin yesterday after the outcome of the state government weekly executive council meeting, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communication, Dr. Femi Akorede said the agency would also see to the full implementation of N750,000 empowerment funds that wound be utilised by over 48 co-operatives societies in the state.

According to him

Jonathan finally signs National Health Bill into law

President Goodluck Jonathan has finally signed the National Health Bill into law. The Bill, which is now an Act of Parliament seeks to provide a framework for the regulation, development and management of a National Health system and set standards for rendering health service in the country.

According to Nigeria Health Watch, Reuben Abati, presidential spokesman on Twitter said that this is a

The 2022 Qatar World Cup is all about money.

Claims that millions of dollars were paid in bribes to secure the world's biggest football tournament for Qatar refuse to go away.

Qatar is spending more than £200bn ($312bn) on a building bonanza ahead of the tournament.

Everyone seems to be getting rich, except those at the bottom of the human supply chain, the migrant worker.

So what is the responsibility of the international companies awarded massive contracts in Qatar?

We have uncovered worrying testimony about pay, housing conditions and safety standards from foreign workers.

They include some employed by

The price of oil has hit another five-year low as fears of oversupply continue to mount.

Brent crude was down $1.77 at $67.30 a barrel in Monday afternoon trading, having earlier hit $66.77 - its lowest since October 2009.

US crude was down $1.44 at $64.40, after falling as low as $64.14.

Morgan Stanley predicted that Brent would average $70 a barrel in 2015, down $28 from a previous forecast, and be $88 a barrel in 2016.

The investment bank also said that oil prices could fall as low

Income inequality has a "statistically significant impact" on economic growth, according to research by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

In the UK, rising inequality cost the economy almost nine percentage points of GDP growth between 1990 and 2010, the think tank said.

The US lost almost seven points.

The OECD also found that redistribution of wealth via taxes and benefits does not

As legislators from various Nigerian political parties undergo primaries in an attempt to seek the voters mandate in 2015, one scorecard remains woeful on their respective incumbent records.

The low number of bills passed and huge sums of money expended on such unproductive legislative duties.

The 7th National Assembly (2011 -2015) inaugurated on 6th June, 2011, has managed to pass only

Nigeria is seeking Japanese Government help in recycling huge and disused vehicular carcass that littered the country’s landscape.

Speaking at a technical meeting between officials of Industry, Trade and Investment Ministry and those of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on the Development of Automobile Supplier Parks in Nigeria, the Permanent Secretary, Ambassador Abdulkadir Musa, said the ratio of new and used cars in Nigeria is between 5: 95 percent in favour of used cars.

This, he said, is so because used cars are

Capital market crash: NSE defends tight regulation

In a bid to prevent another crash of the Nigerian capital market, the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, weekend said the regulators introduced tight regulatory regime which had led to increased investor confidence and recovery of some money lost by investors during the global financial meltdown.

The Chief Executive Officer, NSE, Mr. Oscar Onyema, who spoke against the recent decline in the share prices of companies quoted on the NSE said “ Following the 2008 global financial crisis, the Federal Government of Nigeria, in conjunction with The NSE and its regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Nigeria, SEC as well as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), embarked upon several key initiatives to ensure the Nigerian capital market and the financial market emerged stronger and more resilient.

The focus of this transformation was to

The US Supreme Court has rejected oil giant BP's legal challenge to a compensation deal over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

It means BP will have to make the payments that stem from the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.

BP argued that the deal meant it could fall prey to inflated or bogus compensation claims.

BP agreed to the compensation deal in 2012, but argues it has been misinterpreted.

BP asked the Supreme Court to consider whether people and businesses seeking payments under the settlement included individuals who had not actually suffered any injury as a result of the oil spill.

The Supreme Court's rejection of this appeal by BP is the

The World Bank’s private sector arm has lent $200 million to Nigerian phone tower company IHS to help to fund its purchase of about 2,100 tower sites from the country’s No.4 mobile operator Etisalat Nigeria.

Privately-owned IHS raised $2 billion in equity and $600 million in debt in November and the money from the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) is part of this.

Construction and maintenance of mobile communications towers in Africa is

Transport services in Belgium have been severely disrupted by strikes protesting against government austerity measures.

Monday's action halted all underground trains, buses and trams in Brussels.

High-speed trains to France, the Netherlands and Germany were suspended, along with Eurostar services to London.

The strike is the latest in a series of weekly protests that will end with a nationwide general strike on 15 December.

Industrial action involving baggage handlers also resulted in

Nigeria told a large gathering of telecoms investors and the global Information and Communications Technology (ICT) community in Doha, Qatar, on Sunday of the investment opportunities that abound in the country, especially in the area of broadband.

Despite attaining active telephone line connectivity of over 134 million and a teledensity of 96 per cent, the federal government, yesterday said there is much to do to achieve an all inclusive penetration of telecommunications to every part of the country, through broadband deployment.

Speaking at the Leaders Lunch at the Qatar National Convention Centre, venue of the ongoing ITU Telecom World 2014 Conference in Qatar, the Minister of Communications Technology, Dr. Omobola Johnson said

A hacker group has claimed responsibility for attacking Sony's online PlayStation store, which is down on Monday.

Visitors to the site are greeted with a message that says "Page Not Found! It's not you. It's the internet's fault".

A group called "Lizard Squad" has taken credit for the outage, posting "PSN Login #offline #LizardSquad" as their Twitter status.

The outage is the most recent in a series of attacks on tech giant Sony.

The Japanese firm's Hollywood film studios' corporate network was hacked into last month, followed by an

Trade data from the world's second largest economy, China, came in well below expectations on Monday, heightening fears of a sharper slowdown.

China's exports rose 4.7% in November from a year ago, compared to market forecasts of 8.2% jump.

Imports fell 6.7% in the same period against predictions of a 3.9% rise.

The surprise slump in imports led the trade surplus to hit a

Japan's economy shrank more than initially estimated in the third quarter of 2014, according to revised gross domestic product (GDP) figures.

The economy contracted by 1.9% in annual terms from July to September, well above a preliminary reading of 1.6%.

It also shrank 0.5% on a quarterly basis, compared with an initial estimate of 0.4%, data showed.

A big fall in business spending plunged the economy into a deeper recession.

The revised figures, which come just days before Japan's national elections, showed that

Billionaire Nigerian business man, Aliko Dangote, was weekend named as the Forbes Africa Person of the Year 2014.

Other finalists of the most coveted award were South Africa’s Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, (SEC), Arunma Oteh and President of the African Development Bank, Donald Kaberuka.

In selecting Dangote, the panel of judges noted that

Nigeria has one of the lowest foreign-exchange reserves, among the 12-member Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), highlighting the challenge before the Central Bank (CBN), as it struggles to defend the naira amid falling oil prices.

FX reserves in Africa’s largest economy are low both in absolute terms and as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Nigeria’s $36.5 billion in gross FX reserves is only equivalent to 7 percent of its 2013 economic output of $520 billion.

This compares with

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has concluded plans to embark on a three-day warning strike in protest against the delay in the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) and other anti-labour activities of employers in the oil and gas sector.

The warning strike follows the expiration of the 14-day ultimatum issued by the National Executive Council (NEC) of PENGASSAN to the federal government and other concerned employers’ and agencies in the sector.

It said the ultimatum had

The Central Bank of Nigeria’s decision to raise the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) from 12 percent to 13 percent will likely make it more difficult for manufacturers, micro, small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) to have access to credit facilities from banks and other financial institutions.

In order to save the naira and the economy from the negative impact of declining oil prices and mop up liquidity from the banks, the CBN recently raised the MPR, which is the benchmark interest rate in the country, to 13 percent.

The decision may however make

Railway Contract Create 200,000 Jobs for Nigerians

About 200, 000 Nigerians will be engaged in the execution of the multi-billion naira railway contract awarded to China Railway Construction Corporation.

The local jobs openings in the execution of the project are expected to reduce the high number of unemployed persons presently roaming the streets for non-existent jobs.

Sources said the firm initially rebuffed attempts to

As crude oil price continues to nose-dive, the federal government has said the much-needed diversification of the economy from oil can be achieved with deliberate commitment to utilising the mass deposit of solid minerals in virtually every state in the country.

Speaking during his opening remarks at a three-day professional development workshop for mining engineers in Nigeria taking place in Jos, Plateau State capital, the Minister of Mines and Steels Development, Musa Mohammed Sada, said

Women in Europe may be better educated or work harder than men, but they are paid substantially less, according to the International Labour Organization.

The gender pay gap in Europe ranges from about 100 euros (£79) to 700 euros per month, the ILO report suggested.

In the UK, women earn about 28% less than men on average, the UN body found.

In all the countries studied around the world, a proportion of the pay gap is unexplained, implying discrimination, it said.

"The actual gap varies from

The US economy added 321,000 jobs in November, while the unemployment rate stayed at 5.8%, official Labor Department figures show.

The number of jobs created is

The Asia Pacific region has outperformed the rest of the world when it comes to wage growth, according to an International Labour Organisation (ILO) report.

Annual average incomes rose 6% in the region, compared to a global average growth of 2% in 2013.

Wages in China have risen the fastest, up 9%, according to the UN body.

But despite the

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