Jonathan Canvasses Speedy Diversification of Economy

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

Oil Shock: FG Moves to Shore Economy with Building, Construction Industry

The Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and her counterpart in the ministry of Housing, Land and Urban Development, Mrs. Akon Eyakenyi, on Thursday urged stakeholders in the housing and construction sector to use the opportunities in the sector as a catalyst to drive the economy.

Okonjo-Iweala pleaded with stakeholders to

Operators advocate overhaul of privatisation laws

Some capital market operators have called on the Federal Government to intensify effort towards amending the existing privatization laws that would transform the Nigerian economy.

They attributed the nation’s stunted growth, limited skilled human capital development and paucity of need infrastructure to the subsisting privatization legal framework.

The operators, who said on the sidelines of the just concluded forth annual capital market retreat that government needed urgently overhaul the privatization laws to maximize the fruits of the exercise in terms of sustainable economic growth and employment.

According to most of them,

Potentials of five major sectors of the Nigerian Economy

Agriculture contributed 41.84 percent to Nigeria’s GDP in 2009, and employs about 70percent of its workforce. Investing in profitable, high growth and sustainable agribusiness in Nigeria is seen as a way to drive youth employment.

Nigeria is blessed with an agriculture friendly climate, coastal and marine resources of over 960 kilometres of shoreline, expansive rivers and lakes covering 120,000 square kilometres and a large consumer market.

“The potential for growth is quite remarkable and agriculture, in itself, is a major contributor to the national Gross Domestic Product. Research shows that Nigeria has over 80 million hectares of arable land. This accounts for about 23 percent of arable land across all of West Africa. Thus, in terms of production, the potential for West Africa to leap forward is immense as the region possesses not only land, but the lowest levels of irrigation in the world,” said Kola Masha, Managing director, Doreo Partners.

He also noted that

National Competitiveness Council of Nigeria (NCCN) Challenges WEF competitiveness ranking

The World Economic Forum (WEF) 2015 Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) rankings which placed Nigeria 127 of the 144 countries assessed is based on lagging indicators, according to the National Competitiveness Council of Nigeria (NCCN).

“The underlying analytical framework of the GCI is based upon lagging indicators that do not reflect one of the most fundamental changes for Nigeria: the rebasing of our economy,” said Chika Mordi, CEO of the NCCN, in a statement made available to BusinessDay.

“It is instructive to note that Nigeria’s rebased GDP, which the WEF report declared as Africa’s largest economy, was not used in their computations, with negative consequences for our scores,” said Mordi.

Nigeria rebased her GDP statistics earlier this year, showing it had

New BDC guidelines to conserve Foreign Reserves — CBN

THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has reiterated that the Bank’s modifications to the guidelines on the regulation of Bureaux de Change (BDCs) in Nigeria are aimed at conserving the country’s foreign reserves, among other objectives.

This position was made known by the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, on Wednesday, July 16, 2014, during an interactive session with the House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Currency.

Addressing members of the Committee, Mr. Emefiele explained that modifications had to be made to the guidelines following observations that the current operations of BDCs in Nigeria had deviated from the objectives for which they were lisensed in the first place.

According to the CBN Governor,

LCCI urges NERC to urgently address outrageous bills

The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, has called on the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to urgently address the growing concerns over the outrageous bills to consumers.

The Chamber also called for review of the concept of fixed charges.

In a parley with the media, the President of LCCI, Alhaji Remi Bello, said there is need for NERC to urgently address the growing concerns over the outrageous bills to consumers as most SMEs spend considerable sum on payment for public power supply, adding that, often, these firms never get the power supply commensurate to payments made.

“The power situation is still a major problem for business across all sectors. Energy cost remains a major threat to business sustainability. Expenditure on diesel and other fuels continued to increase.

The power sector privatisation is yet to

Earnings outlook, equities at risk as Boko Haram claims Lagos presence

Corporate earnings, equity markets and growth prospects face downside risks as Islamist terrorist group, Boko Haram, over the weekend claimed responsibility for a bomb attack in Lagos, says Damina Advisors, a frontier market-focused research firm.

“The presence of Boko Haram terrorist operations in Lagos means the fundamental risks to the Nigerian economic outlook in 2014 have multiplied exponentially,” Damina says in a note released July 14.

“A major bomb attack in Lagos will accelerate capital market flight, weaken the naira, dent economic growth, reduce corporate earnings and slash equity market values,” says the research firm.

Stocks have risen just

DMO to raise N100 billion in bonds

The Debt Management Office (DMO) plans to raise N100 billion ($615.8 million) in three local currency debt issues on July 16, including its new 20-year bond.

The DMO will issue N35 billion in the 20-year bond and issue N15 billion  in the three-year paper and N50 billion in the 10-year paper.

The three-year and 10-year bonds are reopenings of previous issues.

BusinessDay