Business

Emefiele Shuns Reps’ Summons As Banks Ration New Notes

Published

10 months ago

January 26, 2023

Eric

An ad hoc committee set up by the House of Representatives to investigate the scarcity of the new naira at commercial banks on Wednesday has frowned at the failure of the management staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria to appear before it on Thursday just as the House has insisted on January 31 deadline set for the exchange of the old notes with the new ones

This came barely two months after the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, failed to appear before the House over issues relating to the naira redesign.

The House had on Tuesday called on President Muhammadu Buhari over the brewing crisis occasioned by the January 31 deadline.

Apart from asking the CBN to extend the window for swapping the old notes with the newly redesigned one by six months, the House had invited the banks to a meeting on Wednesday over the scarcity of new naira notes.

The managing directors/chief executive officers of the banks, under the auspices of the Bankers’ Committee, were to meet with an ad hoc committee of the House to be chaired by the Majority Leader, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa.

On Wednesday, the CBN failed to appear before the committee.

However, Ado-Doguwa, at the inaugural investigative hearing of the committee, stated, “For the purposes of clarification, I want to say without any fear of contradiction, that the parliament is always an institution that represents the Nigerian people. For an invitation to any government employee, like it is the case here with the CBN, the governor of the CBN, his directors, deputy directors, all departmental heads, I believe, are employees of the Nigerian people; and when there is a kind of summons from the institution of the parliament like this, we expect every up-and-doing employee to only respect that invitation.”

“On this note, I would like to convey to this committee and members of the public and the press here with us that we have conceded to allow the CBN officials to come tomorrow by 1pm, so that we would engage them. And immediately after the engagement with them, we would engage the bank operators.”

Meanwhile, there was palpable discontent among bank customers in Lagos on Wednesday after some commercial banks shut down their Automated Teller Machines, ostensibly due to paucity or unavailability of new naira notes.

The development came in the wake of threats by the Central Bank of Nigeria that it would sanction any bank that dispensed old naira notes on its Automated Teller Machines.

When our correspondent visited four banks — Zenith Bank, United Bank for Africa, Access Bank and Stanbic IBTC along Iju road in the Ogba area of Lagos State, it was observed the bank ATMs were neither dispensing the new naira notes nor the old ones.

Meanwhile, a myriad of disgruntled customers were seen lamenting the frustration of not being able to withdraw cash from any of the ATMs in the area.

Our correspondent proceeded to visit Zenith Bank, Access and UBA along Ogunnusi road in the Ojodu axis of the state. The story was no different as a small crowd of frustrated customers was seen lamenting their inability to withdraw cash.

While some of the banks cited technical difficulties for their inability to dispense money via the machines, others said their ATMs had developed faults and could not temporarily dispense cash.

Business

Cooking Gas: FG Intervenes, Set to Crash Price

Published

3 days ago

November 27, 2023

Eric

The Federal government has intervened over the increasing price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), with the Minister of Petroleum (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, urging International Oil Companies (IOCs) and other producers to fulfill their domestic obligations before export.

At a meeting in Abuja, Ekpo told the producers that Nigeria has to find a way to surmount the challenges in the country’s domestic market, expressing President Bola Tinubu’s concerns over how unaffordable the product was becoming. The intervention is coming as the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its latest report said in October, LPG prices rose by as much as 14 per cent for a 12.5 kg cylinder.

But a statement by the minister’s media aide Louis Ibah, on Sunday, said the intervention on the LPG issue, better known as cooking gas, followed the rise in recent months in the price of the product per kg from about N700 to above N900 in some parts of the country.Key challenges identified as responsible for LPG price increase, Ekpo said, include FX sourcing for imports and insufficient supply to the domestic market by producers.

The meeting, at the instance of the minister, was held at the NNPC Towers and had in attendance top officials of Chevron Nigeria Limited led by Sansay Narasimi.Others included: The Nigerian Midstream Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) led by its Chief Executive Officer, Farouk Ahmed and officials from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC).“Ekpo expressed the concerns of President Bola Tinubu over the astronomical increase in the price of cooking gas and the attendant hardship on majority of citizens,” the statement added.

The minister who noted that Nigeria is abundantly endowed with gas reserves, said the situation where some of the multinational firms were more concerned with gas exports without dedicating huge volumes for the domestic market was unacceptable and should be discouraged.

“With the exponential increase in the price of LPG, there is the need for the federal government to intervene and I am representing this at this moment. We acknowledge that some producers are exporting while we are faced with the challenges of importation.

“Public interest is the overriding interest all over the world for the government, the demand for LPG will increase as we approach December…you have a public service obligation to collaborate with the government to ensure security of gas supply.“We need to therefore bend backwards and find solutions, to ensure that we have sufficient supply and stability in-country and that Nigerians have gas,” said Ekpo.

The gas minister thereafter constituted a committee headed by the chief executive of NMDPRA with a mandate to come up with recommendations on how to boost supplies and crash LPG prices within a week.

However, the NBS in its latest report said the average retail price for refilling a 5kg cylinder of cooking gas increased by 8.89 per cent on a month-on-month basis from N4,189.96 recorded in September 2023 to N4,562.51 in October 2023.However, on a year-on-year basis, this increased by 1.76 per cent from N4,483.75 in October 2022, it added.On state profile analysis, Kano recorded the highest average price for refilling a 5kg of LPG, with N5,181.43, followed by Adamawa with N5,142.86, and Ogun with N5,093.75.

On the other hand, Ebonyi recorded the lowest price with N3,971.43, followed by Osun and Edo with N4,000.00 and N4,025.00 respectively.In addition, analysis by zone showed that the North-west recorded the highest average retail price for refilling a 5kg cylinder of LPG, with N4,738.20, followed by the North-central with N4,662.62, while the South-east recorded the lowest with N4,088.65.

Also, the average retail price for refilling a 12.5kg of cooking gas, increased by 14.04 per cent on a month-on-month basis from N9,247.40 in September 2023 to N10,545.87 in October 2023.

On a year-on-year basis, this rose by 4.93 per cent from N10,050.53 in October 2022. On state profile analysis, Edo recorded the highest average retail price for the refilling of a 12.5kg cylinder of cooking gas, with N12,536.88, followed by Jigawa with N12,050.00 and Delta with N11,987.50. Conversely, the lowest average price was recorded in Zamfara with N9,050.00, followed by Lagos and Oyo with N9,071.05 and N9,407.14 respectively.

Analysis by zone showed that the South-south recorded the highest average retail price for refilling a 12.5kg cylinder of cooking gas, with N11,480.60, followed by the North-central with N10,683.97, while the South-east recorded the lowest price with N9,847.42.

Business

Despite Buhari’s Rice Pyramid, Nigeria to Become Top Rice Importer Globally in 2024 – USDA

Published

2 weeks ago

November 15, 2023

Eric

… to import 2.1 million metric tons of rice in 2024

Nigeria is projected to import 2.1 million metric tons of rice in 2024, which may make the country the top rice buyer globally.

This is according to the latest Rice Outlook report by the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The report notes that global rice trade will hit about 52.85 million tons (milled basis) by 2024, with more exports expected from Brazil and South Korea, and more imports expected from Burkina Faso, Indonesia, and Nigeria.

It read:

“Global rice trade in the calendar year 2024 is projected at 52.85 million tons (milled basis), up 345,000 tons from the previous forecast but 460,000 tons smaller than the year-earlier revised forecast of 53.3 million tons. Export forecasts for 2024 are raised for Brazil and South Korea, while import forecasts are raised for Burkina Faso, Indonesia, and Nigeria, with Indonesia’s import forecast raised 600,000 tons to 2.0 million tons.”

Weaker Crops in Nigeria

According to the report, weaker rice production is expected in Nigeria and seven other countries.

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The report noted: “Rice production is projected to continue to decline in Japan and South Korea due to diet diversification and declining and aging populations. Weaker crops are also projected in 2023/24 for Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mali, Nigeria, Turkey, and Uzbekistan.”

It added that global rice production in 2023/24 is projected at a record 517.8 million tons (milled basis), which is a decrease of 340,000 tons from last month’s forecast but 4.4 million tons larger than a year earlier.

Out of the projected rice production figure, Nigeria is expected to produce about 5.23 million tons.

Top rice importer

Data from the report also showed that Nigeria will likely be the leading importer of rice in 2024.

The country will be followed by Indonesia with an import projection of 2 million metric tons and Brazil with a projection of 900,000 metric tons.

It noted that the import forecast for Nigeria was raised by 100,000 metric tons from the earlier projection in October.

On the reason for the increase, the report noted: “Import forecast is raised based on stronger-than-expected demand for imported rice due to both high prices for domestic rice and quality concerns.” 

More insight

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) recently lifted the foreign exchange restrictions it placed on importers of rice and 42 other items eight years ago.

This will likely encourage the importation of more rice, among other items, into the country.

There have been mixed reactions following the removal of the restrictions, with some farmers recently showing support for the lifting of the foreign exchange ban on rice importation.

According to this group of farmers, the lifting of the forex ban breaks the monopoly of the processing and marketing of grain by local millers.

Prior to the bank, there appeared to be a decrease in rice import, with data from the Thai Rice Exporters Association (TREA), showing a decrease of 98.4% between the first seven months of 2022, and that of 2021.

However, there is also a likelihood that foreign rice is likely smuggled more than it is officially imported into the country.

About a week ago, the Nigeria Customs Service said it seized 13 trailer loads of foreign parboiled rice, among other items.

Recall that in January 2022, former President Muhammadu Buhari unveiled a rice pyramid in Abuja, saying that the price of rice will fall drastically after the commissioning.

The price of rice has however, continued to hit the roof top ever since, going beyond the reach of the average Nigerian.

Source: Nairametrics

Business

Morgan Stanley Downgrades, Reclassifies Nigeria’s Index to Stand Alone

Published

4 weeks ago

November 1, 2023

Eric

Morgan Stanley Capital International, a provider of benchmark indexes and multi-portfolio analysis tools, has announced the reclassification of MSCI Nigeria indexes from Frontier Markets to Standalone Market Status.

This means MSCI will delete each Nigerian security from the MSCI Frontier Markets Indexes at a price that is effectively zero.

This comes after FTSE Russell reclassified Nigeria’s equity country classification to unclassified from frontier markets on September 8, 2023.

The implication for Nigeria is that whoever brings in his money is on his own due to persistent fx liquidity issues and difficulty in repatriating investments. This is in spite of the CBN’s assurances that foreign investors will be able to repatriate their funds after investing in Nigeria.

The MSCI Nigeria Index is designed to measure the performance of the large and mid cap segments of the Nigerian market.