10.04.2018 Views

BusinessDay 10 Apr 2018

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

Tuesday <strong>10</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

C002D5556<br />

BUSINESS DAY<br />

33<br />

NEWS<br />

CBN sees external reserves hitting $50bn...<br />

Continued from page 4<br />

Monday at the ongoing seminar<br />

for finance correspondents and<br />

business editors in Uyo, Akwa<br />

Ibom State.<br />

Nigeria’s external reserves currently<br />

stand at $47.3 billion as of<br />

<strong>Apr</strong>il 5, <strong>2018</strong> up <strong>10</strong>5 percent from<br />

a low of $23 billion in October 2016.<br />

Foreign exchange supply has<br />

improved since the CBNs establishment<br />

of the Investors and<br />

Exporters (I&E) Window, with<br />

autonomous inflows of over US$20<br />

billion through this window alone<br />

from <strong>Apr</strong>il 2017 to date.<br />

Exchange rate has appreciated<br />

significantly from over N525/US$1<br />

in February 2017 to about N360/<br />

US$1 today, tapering premium<br />

across various windows and segments<br />

of the market.<br />

The inflation rate has declined<br />

from a peak of 18.7 percent in January<br />

2017 to 14.3 percent currently.<br />

“As the sentiments improve<br />

in the macro economy and supported<br />

by proactive monetary,<br />

Shell paid FG $4.32bn for 2017 production...<br />

Continued from page 1<br />

for production entitlement.<br />

According to the corporation’s<br />

sustainability report released yesterday,<br />

the company through its<br />

Nigerian affiliate, Shell Petroleum<br />

Development Corporation (SPDC)<br />

Joint Venture said it has contributed<br />

$23 billion to the Nigerian<br />

government from 2013–2017.<br />

Shell further said the share of<br />

royalties and corporate taxes it<br />

paid to the Nigerian government<br />

in 2017 amounted to $1.1 billion,<br />

it subsidiaries, SPDC paid $0.4<br />

billion while Shell Nigeria Exploration<br />

and Production Company<br />

SNEPCo paid $0.7 billion.<br />

When contacted, Ndu Ughamadu,<br />

NNPC spokesman said he<br />

would confirm the claims but was<br />

yet to get back to <strong>BusinessDay</strong><br />

before publication.<br />

However, if NNPC were a real<br />

company accountable to shareholders<br />

including the Federal government<br />

and States , its reported<br />

loss of N6billion in December<br />

alone should raise eyebrows and<br />

concern . However, this pattern of<br />

losses has been the norm for the<br />

past 30 years.<br />

Between 2012 and 2016, NNPC<br />

generated N15.5 trillion in revenues<br />

but it also recorded a deficit<br />

of N3.1 trillion, and recorded<br />

expenses valued at N18.6 trillion<br />

in the same period, according to<br />

an investigation by a senate committee.<br />

Former Central Bank governor,<br />

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, raised<br />

alarm in September 2013, that between<br />

January 2012 and July 2013,<br />

NNPC had diverted the sum of $20<br />

billion meant for the Federation<br />

Account.<br />

Probes carried out by PwC Nigeria,<br />

a professional service firm,<br />

revealed unaccounted oil sales,<br />

including $20 billion established<br />

for 2014 alone.<br />

NNPC claims the bulk of its<br />

losses comes from subsidy on fuel<br />

importation which Ibe Kachikwu,<br />

minister of state for petroleum<br />

resources recently put at over N1.4<br />

trillion in a year.<br />

Rafiq Raji, chief economist at<br />

Macroafricaintel, said the NNPC<br />

is in the best position to explain<br />

to Nigerians what it does with the<br />

revenue it gets.<br />

trade, industrial and fiscal policies,<br />

we expect a continued uptick in<br />

GDP growth with a positive spill<br />

over to improved unemployment<br />

rate,” Emefiele said.<br />

Emefiele noted that GDP recovered<br />

after five quarters of continuous<br />

contraction recording positive<br />

growths of 0.7 and 1.4 percent in<br />

quarters two and three of 2017,<br />

respectively, and signalling an exit<br />

from the recession.<br />

“We expect a re-doubling of<br />

strong policy coordination and cooperation<br />

which flourished during<br />

the very difficult times. To sustain<br />

our recovery, the need is greater<br />

now than ever for a robust collaboration<br />

between the key members<br />

of economic policymaking space,”<br />

Emefiele added.<br />

This he said would include<br />

fiscal, monetary, exchange, and<br />

trade policies, which must be targeted<br />

at protecting farmers to boost<br />

agricultural outputs, supporting<br />

local companies and enhancing<br />

manufacturing and industrial ca-<br />

But the organisation is unwilling.<br />

While it claimed over the<br />

weekend that it has completed<br />

outstanding audit on its financial<br />

statements from the years 2011<br />

to 2016, it has refused to make it<br />

public. Scrutiny from the lawmakers<br />

has made as much impact as a<br />

wink in the dark.<br />

Value realised from the sale of<br />

Nigerian crude have had little impact<br />

on Nigerians. The life expectancy<br />

in Africa’s biggest economy is<br />

a paltry 53 years, in Norway a fellow<br />

oil producer, it is 82 years and 64<br />

years in Rwanda. Nigeria has the<br />

fourth worst maternal mortality<br />

rate in the world, ahead of only<br />

Sierra Leone, Central African Republic,<br />

and Chad and one in three<br />

Nigerian children is chronically<br />

malnourished.<br />

“Tragically, 40 years after Beko<br />

Ransome-Kuti helped other countries<br />

set a course for the future,<br />

the Nigerian primary health care<br />

system is broken. The evidence for<br />

this can be found in the epidemic<br />

of chronic malnutrition, or stunting.<br />

As the name suggests, chronic<br />

malnutrition is not a disease children<br />

catch. It is a condition that develops<br />

over time because they are<br />

deprived of a diverse diet and the<br />

services a strong primary health<br />

care system provides,” Bill Gates<br />

told Nigerian leaders in a recent<br />

address at the National Executive<br />

Council meeting.<br />

Africa’s biggest economy relies<br />

on donor assistance to fund and<br />

immunise its children and equip<br />

primary health centres.<br />

“Your national income level is<br />

about to make you ineligible for<br />

certain kinds of development assistance<br />

and loans that you’ve been<br />

relying on to fund your health system<br />

and other priorities. Without<br />

more and better spent domestic<br />

money, investment in your people<br />

will decline by default as donor<br />

money shrinks—a lose-lose scenario<br />

for everyone,” said Gates.<br />

Rising from its 260th Monetary<br />

Policy Committee (MPC) and the<br />

first for <strong>2018</strong>, on <strong>Apr</strong>il 4, the Central<br />

Bank of Nigeria warned that the<br />

country’s penchant to eat all the<br />

proceeds from its oil resources<br />

without a robust savings programme<br />

to wade-off future shocks<br />

from falling oil prices, would be<br />

pacities, with a view to diversifying<br />

the economy away from oil and<br />

fossil fuels.<br />

In his address, Okafor Nwokoro,<br />

branch controller, CBN, Uyo said<br />

the naira which had exchanged for<br />

as high as N540 per dollar a year ago<br />

has since stabilised at N360 per dollar<br />

in a record time proving wrong<br />

the notion that in Nigeria, when<br />

prices go up they don’t come down.<br />

The Central Bank of Nigeria<br />

(CBN) is also in the process of<br />

finalizing the creation of a N500<br />

billion fund in partnership with<br />

the Nigeria Export- Import Bank<br />

(NEXIM) to assist local manufacturers<br />

interested in non-oil exports,<br />

Emefiele revealed.<br />

This is part of the regulator’s<br />

efforts towards providing access<br />

to much-needed credit to sectors<br />

with the potential to create jobs on<br />

a mass scale.<br />

Nigeria has recorded persistent<br />

increase in unemployment rate to<br />

16.2 percent in the second quarter<br />

of 2017, from 8.2 percent at the same<br />

period of 2015, according to National<br />

Bureau of Statistics (NBS), data.<br />

We did not take money from FG for tomato...<br />

Continued from page 1<br />

policies in the manufacturing<br />

sector are inconsistent and<br />

mean only death for local<br />

manufacturers.<br />

“Government should decide<br />

whether they want tomato<br />

to be made-in-Nigeria or made<br />

in other countries. If they want<br />

indigenous manufacturers to<br />

shut down, then we are ready<br />

to shut down and join importers,”<br />

Umeofia says.<br />

According to him, foreigners<br />

are deeply interested in<br />

the Nigerian economy and<br />

are ready to sabotage it because<br />

they want to perpetuate<br />

importation and kill local<br />

investors.<br />

The Erisco chairman says<br />

he restrained himself from<br />

retrenching workers (but even<br />

added more staff) during recession<br />

and when times were<br />

tough in the country, but may<br />

be forced to retrench workers<br />

if things do not change.<br />

“This system has made a<br />

contract with poverty. The<br />

truth is that President Muhammadu<br />

Buhari wants to chase<br />

out poverty but the MDAs<br />

have signed a contract with<br />

poverty,” he states.<br />

He stresses that government<br />

agencies have refused to curb<br />

importation of cheap tomato<br />

pastes into Nigeria, thereby<br />

killing the factories built by<br />

people like him that have<br />

invested billions into local<br />

manufacturing in the country.<br />

“Who will see cheap items<br />

from China and buy Nigerian<br />

products?” he asks.<br />

“I have advised the government<br />

to support indigenous<br />

manufacturers to develop this<br />

country but all policies seem<br />

to be in favour of importation,”<br />

he added.<br />

Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Power, Works and Housing (2nd r); Okezie Ikpeazu, governor of Abia State (r);<br />

Eze Uhuegbu, traditional ruler of the host community, Ohiya (l), and Emeka Nwachukwu, former commissioner<br />

for Works (2nd l), during the commissioning of 40MVA, 132/33kv mobile power transformer, shortly before the<br />

26th meeting with operators in the power sector hosted by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), at the<br />

Ohiya Transmission Substation, Umuahia, Abia State, yesterday.<br />

disastrous.<br />

“MPC observed increasing<br />

monetization of oil proceeds as<br />

evident in the growing Federation<br />

Accounts Committee (FAAC)<br />

distribution, relative to the 2017<br />

level of disbursements. The Committee<br />

urged the Government<br />

to initiate strong stabilization<br />

programmes and to freeze the<br />

growth in its aggregate expenditure<br />

and FAAC distributions in<br />

order to create savings; needed<br />

to stabilize the economy against<br />

future oil price related shocks,”<br />

said Godwin Emefiele, the CBN<br />

governor.<br />

Shell Petroleum Development<br />

Company (SPDC) in the 2017 sustainability<br />

report also stated that<br />

oil spills in its operational areas<br />

are caused by oil theft, sabotage<br />

of pipelines as well as illegal oil<br />

refining.<br />

“In 2017, close to 90% of the<br />

number of oil spills from SPDC JV<br />

facilities were due to illegal activities.<br />

Regrettably, spills also occur<br />

due to operational reasons,” it said.<br />

It stated that regardless of the<br />

cause, it cleans up and remediates<br />

areas impacted by spills that come<br />

from its facilities and in the case of<br />

operational spills, it also pays compensation<br />

to people and communities<br />

impacted by the spill once<br />

the clean-up and remediation are<br />

completed, the work is inspected,<br />

and, if satisfactory, approved and<br />

certified by Nigerian government<br />

regulators.<br />

Crude oil theft from SPDC JV’s<br />

pipeline network amounted to<br />

around 9,000 barrels of oil a day<br />

(b/d) in 2017, an increase from<br />

around 6,000 b/d in the previous<br />

year. The increase in 2017 can<br />

partly be explained by the militantinduced<br />

shutdown of the Forcados<br />

export terminal in 2016, which reduced<br />

opportunities for third-party<br />

interference.<br />

The number of sabotage-related<br />

spills in 2017 increased to 62<br />

from 48 in 2016. In 2017, 92 sites<br />

were remediated and certified<br />

(out of 251 identified f), with 32 in<br />

Ogoniland. During 2017, 84 new<br />

sites requiring remediation were<br />

identified, of which eight were in<br />

Ogoniland. In total, there are 243<br />

oil spill sites that require remediation,<br />

according to Shell.<br />

On the Ogoni clean up, the reports<br />

said the company is working<br />

with the relevant stakeholders to<br />

implement the 2011 UN Environmental<br />

Programme (UNEP) report<br />

on Ogoniland.<br />

“Over the last six years, SPDC<br />

has taken action on all the UNEP<br />

recommendations addressed<br />

specifically to it as operator of the<br />

joint venture and has completed<br />

the majority of these recommendations”.<br />

The UNEP report recommended<br />

the creation of an Ogoni Restoration<br />

Fund with $1 billion capital,<br />

to be co-funded by the Nigerian<br />

government, the SPDC JV and<br />

other operators in the area. SPDC<br />

is supporting and contributing its<br />

share to the fund and on behalf<br />

of the SPDC JV made $<strong>10</strong> million<br />

available in 2017 to help set up<br />

the Hydrocarbon Pollution and<br />

Remediation Project (HYPREP), a<br />

government-led body to clean up<br />

contaminated sites.

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!