Nigeria’s debt hits N17.36tr, says DMO

Nigeria’s total debt profile as at December 31 last year was $57.39 billion (N17.36 trillion), Director-General of the Debt Management Office (DMO), Abraham Nwankwo said yesterday.

He spoke during his defence of the agency’s 2017 budget before the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts in Abuja.

Nwankwo said the amount included domestic and foreign debts. Giving a breakdown, he said the external debt profile stood at $11.41 billion (N3.48 trillion), while the domestic debt stock was $45.98 billion (N13.88 trillion).

He said the N17. 36 trillion included debts of the Federal Government, the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The D-G said the difference was due to the projected debt service payments in respect of new financing that was not fully utilised, as only few loans became effective during the period.

He pointed out that the domestic debt stock of the Federal Government, 36 states and the FCT accounted for about 80 per cent of the total debt, while their external debt stock accounted for about 20 per cent.

He assured that though Nigeria’s debt profile was on the increase, it was not in a precarious economic situation that would warrant seeking for debt relief. Nwankwo added that in spite of the recession, the economic indices had not portrayed Nigeria as a weak economy to warrant seeking for debt relief.

“Nigeria is not in a position to beg for debt forgiveness. In spite of the present state of the economy, the country is still counted as a strong economy among other countries,: he said.

The economic indicators show that Nigeria has a strong economy,’’ he said.

He said if borrowing would be genuinely committed to infrastructural development, it would go a long way in the move to develop the economy.

On repayment of the debt, he said the Ministry of Finance was making effort to expand the nation’s tax base.

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Stock market continues to bleed as 25 equities record price losses

THE bearish trend in the stock market continued unabated last week as 25 quoted companies witnessed different degrees of price losses, thereby resulting in decrease in investors’ wealth by N61 billion. Among the stocks tat depreciated in price last week were Vitafoam Nigeria Plc which led other decliners by 13.04 per cent from N2.30 to N2.00 per share. This was trailed closely behind by Fidson Healthcare Plc with negative return of 11.40 per cent to close at N1.01, followed by Nigerian Breweries Plc with drop of eight per cent to close at N115.00 per share and Chemical and Allied Products, CAP, Plc which fell by 7.50 per cent to close at N29.60 per share. Other price losers include Eterna Plc, that went down by 6.70 per cent to close at N3.34 per share; Axamansard Insurance Plc, 6.25 per cent to close at N1.50; Guinness Nig. Plc, 6.23 per cent decline to close at N60.95; Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, 5.90 per cent to close at N16.75; Diamond Bank Plc, 5.75 per cent to close at N0.82, while NASCON Allied Industries Plc was down by five per cent to close at N7.03 per share.

Consequently, the market capitalisation, which represents investors’ wealth, depreciated by N61 billion, falling from N8.770 trillion during the previous week to N8.709 trillion, while the All Share Index, ASI, slumped to 25,164.91 points, representing 0.69 per cent decrease respectively. Similarly, all the other indices closed lower within the week. The NSE 30 Index also decreased by 1.11 per cent to 1,104.90 points while the NSE banking index, NSE insurance index and NSE consumer goods index fell by 4.4 per cent, 1.75 per cent and 4.63 per cent to close at 276.15 points, 122.61 points and 569.06 points respectively.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/02/stock-market-continues-bleed-25-equities-record-price-losses/

Passengers groan under dollar scarcity, hoarding at airports

Air passengers were thrown into confusion at the weekend when Bureau de Change (BDC) outlets at international airports nationwide declared foreign exchange, especially dollar, out of stock.

Notable BDCs like Travelex, Sulah, Bossy Clean Exchange and Ibro Resources that had often sold at about N400 to a dollar, all declared “no dollar” to all outbound passengers.

Intending passengers travelling on business trips were forced to devise alternative means to go on with their travel plans or simply returned home after loitering around the unyielding BDCs.

Travel agents, who blamed the BDCs for hoarding, were worried about the development, describing it as “killing” to the air travel business and loss of revenue to parties concerned.

A visit to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, yesterday revealed that though the BDCs were open to customers, none of them was ready to sell. Electronic boards indicated “we buy N398 to $1” and “sell for N400 to $1.” Except for Travelex that boldly pasted: “Sorry, we are out of stock”, others merely turned back travellers with “no dollar” response.

An official of Sulah BDC told The Guardian that they had no dollar to sell because “people have failed to sell to us.”

A Dubai-bound passenger, Elizabeth, said the BDCs had often been the most reliable source for travellers to get dollar and at comparatively good rate, but was surprised to find them with no stock since last week.

She said: “I’ve been searching for a dollar equivalent of just N4 million since last week. I was actually prepared to travel only to find that there was no dollar anywhere. Ordinarily, Traveler would still have given $1000 if you can prove that you are travelling and go on to buy from others at higher rates. This time, none of them wanted to sell a cent. It is so pathetic.”

Meanwhile, on the streets and outside the airport, mobile BDCs otherwise called mallams were selling in trickles of $100 at N510 to N550.

Eniola Adesanya, who is bound for United States, had to do “trade by barter” with some overseas-based family members planning to send some money to their relatives in Nigeria.

Adesanya told The Guardian that the method was her saving grace. “I had to start calling them to ask if they plan to send money to Nigeria. It is like giving them a loan, which I have paid to their relatives here. So, they will give me a refund in dollar in the United States.

copyright: https://guardian.ng/news/passengers-groan-under-dollar-scarcity-hoarding-at-airports/

CBN forex allocation inadequate, say manufacturers

Manufacturers have described the $567.31m allocated to the industrial sector by the Central Bank of Nigeria in the month of January as a drop in the ocean.

The President, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Dr. Frank Jacobs, said this in an exclusive interview with our correspondent.

The CBN had stated in a statement on Thursday that it disbursed $2.83bn for importation of various types of equipment to the real sector of the economy between December 2016 and January 2017.

Providing a breakdown of the allocation, the Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, CBN, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, stated that $609m and $228m were released for raw materials’ importation in December and January, adding that the manufacturing sector got $53m and $71m for raw materials, respectively in the period.

Jacobs told our correspondent that the CBN had informed him of the disbursement of $567.31m to the manufacturing sector in January, but described the amount as a drop in the ocean, adding that it was too small.

Our correspondent, however, learnt that the allocations from the apex bank for the months of December and January did not go round. Most of the manufacturers said they did not get any Forex in the months in question.

In the automotive sector, the Chairman, Nigeria Automotive Manufacturers Association, Mr. Tokunbo Aromolaran, said his firm did not get any Forex, adding that he did not know if others got.

Aromolaran, who remarked that a situation where somebody asked for $1m and got $100,000 could not be termed as Forex allocation, wondered how far $1bn could go to satisfy the needs of all the manufacturers in the country.

In the food processing sector, the General Manager, Erisco Foods, Mr. Adetokunbo Agbede, stated that the firm had not received allocation from the CBN in the past eight months, alleging that forex was being allocated to importers of frozen foods.

However, a few of the industrialists admitted that they got some forex, but said the amounts were nothing compared to what they needed.

“It was minimal compared to what we got in the past,” the Chairman, Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Group of MAN, Mr. Okey Akpa, said.

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Recession: Telcos may block Skype, WhatsApp calls, target N20tn revenue

With the economic crisis in the country hitting businesses hard, telecommunication firms are opting for drastic measures to boost revenue, OZIOMA UBABUKOH writes

Telecoms companies in the country are hoping to address concerns over revenue loss from international calls and hit a revenue target of N20tn by blocking subscribers from accessing Skype and other Over-the-Top services, The PUNCH learnt on Sunday.

It was reliably gathered that subscribers might also be prevented from performing certain functions like voice and video calls on WhatsApp and Facebook, among other OTT services.

Skype is a proprietary Voice-over Internet Protocol software for calling other people on their computers or mobile phones.

Phone calls using the Skype software can be placed to recipients on the traditional telephone networks; and calls to other users within the Skype service are free-of-charge, while calls to landline phones though reasonably priced, are charged via a debit-based user account system.

“It is an aggressive approach to stop further revenue loss to OTT players on international calls, having already lost about N100tn between 2012 and 2017,” a manager at one of the major telecos in the country said.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the manager said, “If we fail to be pro-active by taking cogent steps now, then there are indications that we may lose between N20tn and N30tn, or so, by the end of 2018.”

The source added that the increasing rise of the OTT players, who provide voice and Short Message Services, or apps such as WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook, BlackBerry Messenger and Viber, was eating deep into the voice revenue of telecommunications companies in the country by more than 50 per cent.

A United Kingdom-based research and analytics company, Ovum, stated in a report recently that $386bn loss would accrue over a period of six years – between 2012 and 2018 – from Nigerian customers using the OTT voice applications.

“Generally, the main fear of the telecoms operators here will be that customers will increasingly use Skype as a substitute for conventional international calls,” the Principal Analyst at Informa Telecoms and Media, Matthew Reed, said.

Telecoms operators in the country said that international calls made up a critical part of their revenue because of Nigeria’s large expatriate and Diaspora population.

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Ex-gov Aliyu receives Sheriff in Minna, both meet ex-dictator

Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, who was recognised as the authentic National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, on Friday, arrived in Minna, the Niger State capital, on Saturday, to see a former Governor of the state, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, and a former military dictator.

This came two days after the appeal court recognized Sheriff, a former Governor of Borno State, as the chairman of the PDP.

The appellate court, on Friday, recognized Sheriff as the National Chairman of the PDP, throwing away the claim of the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee of the party to the leadership of the PDP.

Sheriff, who arrived in Minna at exactly 2:30pm on Sunday and received by Aliyu, again described the Court of Appeal’s ruling in his favour as a victory for the PDP.

The PDP chairman stated, “My victory is a victory for the PDP all over Nigeria. There is no loser. It is just a misunderstanding within a family, and we are calling on everybody to come together so that the party can be a formidable one once again.”

Aliyu later joined Sheriff for a meeting with the former military dictator, which lasted for about 90 minutes.

The PDP chairman left the Niger State capital at about 4.30pm on Sunday.

Speaking to newsmen after a closed-door meeting with the ex-military dictator, Sheriff added, “During our meeting, he said he is happy with my statement after the court ruling. He told me to continue that way so that I can bring everybody back together to make the party a formidable opposition party.

“What we want to do now is how to put the party back in shape so that everyone, who is aggrieved, is brought back as one united family once again. Look, united we stand, divided we fall.

“I have even called Makarfi himself and I have called on everybody to come back so that we can work together.”

Aliyu said, “Now that we have a legal decision even though other people talk about going higher (Supreme Court), others are saying ‘no’, we should start widening the solution; that we don’t waste time in terms of legality.

“For the moment, Ali Modu Sheriff is the chairman of the party, and those of us who love to see the solution to the problems in this party, will continue to find ways of mending fences.

“I think we should all bury our ambition, you can’t have an ambition without a platform.

“We need to all come together and I appeal to all of us, all PDP lovers and members, to really look at the issues objectively so that we have a platform that we can call a party which can win elections. Not a fragmented party....

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Nigeria’s economy recovering fast — Presidency

The Presidency has said the nation’s economy which is currently in recession is currently on course for recovery and growth.

This was contained in the 23rd newsletter published by the Presidency Office of Digital Engagement, a copy of which was posted on the official website of the Presidency, @AsoRock.

The Presidency said there were 11 reasons to prove that the nation’s economy was gradually coming out of recession.

It said, “After two consecutive quarters of negative growth, the non-oil economy showed, in Q3 2016, a modest return to positive territory, at 0.03 per cent.

“This was partly due to the continued good performance of agriculture and the solid minerals, two sectors prioritised by the Federal Government.

“Agriculture grew by 4.54 per cent in the quarter under consideration of which growth in crop production at nearly 5 per cent was at its highest since the first quarter of 2014. Growth in the solid mineral sector averaged about 7 per cent.”

According to the document, the Anchor Borrowers Programme of the Central Bank of Nigeria substantially raised local rice production in 2016.

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