20- Vanguard.. MONDAy' JUNE 20, 2011
News
Financialvanguard
Brent rebtlllndr. tnwanj!j $1:14 ~ . I~ on IU .-'>. StOC t.,. OPEC worry .
O
Li rebnunded weel.en d with Brent up 0.8 per cent a ft er its seco nd large st drop in two rears th e pre1'10U5 day c rea ted buying oppor· tun itles. This d evelopment is against a backdrop of tumbling U.S crude inventones and uncert ain ty over OPEC outpu L Brent crude lor Au gust, the hontmonth contract alter Jul y e:rplred on Wednesday, gained 78 cents to 511 3.79 a barrel, while U.S crude benchmark, Y/est lexas Intermediate (Wnt- rose 35 cenu to 595.15 . Oil prices took a bre ak a lter track.ing equity markeu lower earlier this week. Asi41l stocks slid to their lowest level in nearly three months on Thursday as Greece's debt woes deepened. On Wednesday, U.S. c rud e p lunged more than four per cent to 594.8 1, th e lowest settleme nt sin ce Fe bruary 22, on signs of economic weakneu as manufacturin g un eJl. pecte dly s hrank in the state of New York and on concem aboutlhe Greek debt crisis.
Niger"3, C ina sign accord on dave oping agriculture sec 0 B Y FAVOUR NN.!~..BUGl.VUI I
N
igeria and Cruna have signed a bilateral agreement to enhance food secuIity in the country, foUo \-{ing th e rece nt visit of Chinese Government delegaUon to the country. This fact was disclosed to newsmen by Mrs. Fatima Bamidele, permanent secretary, Ministry of Ag ricuH ure and Rur al Development while addre!lSing a 15-man delegation from China led by its Vi ce-M inister of Agriculture, Mr. Zhang Taolin in Abuja. She slllld that Nigeria stands to gain [rom China's expertise In agricu ltu re . She said: 'The decline in the agricu ltural sector perfonnance has been dramatic since the discovery of 011 . The manufactunng sector has n ot performed better. Statisti cs bave illustra ted the poor performance
of the non-oil sector The share of non-oil sector decreased from 1970 to 20 10 . The decrease a ffect ed all tbe sec tors (a.gricultur e, industry, and services! but in d i fferent magn itud e "Nige ri an 15 Indeed on an aggressive campaign for FDI and C blnese Govemment was also seeking for markeb for inputs es pedally raw materiels as well III markeu for finished prodU<:b." &midele, however, underscored the Importan<:e of full Implementation of the agreement, saying; "We have a tripartite agreement with C hina In the area o f Soutb·Sou th Cooperation to help the country on agrkultural development in areas of c ro p production , li vestock, resear<:h , seedlin g wh i c h we had s ince 2009. "They are h e re primari ly 10 see
produ p Other areas which the Chmese oth'!t Meas where "-"e can Gov e rnm ent could auis t <:ollaborate and alSis t in new Nige rian, according t!) the Perm area of development. We have Sec are ; apic ulture about 56 01 their e x perts in de ve lopment, pest control, Nigeria presently a.nisting in livestock breeding , dai ry agricultur e development , a b il tto ir b y-Presently, v..-e lose about 60 per products development : seed cent of our crops or more to lack produ<:tton, certification, quality of production a nd · Iac k of control an~ bybrid technology: s torage. For you to be selfcooperiltive tractor hne sen-ice sufficient, you have to manage p rogramme and cooperative that value change and agro-proce5sing, packaging and subsequently eIport fo od to neigbbourlng <:ountries," she s t o r a g e The volume of trade between s a I d Nlge ri il a nd C hina increased She further sald: 'They have a from Si 78 million in 1996 to population of 1.4 billion and $1.44 billion in December 200t. they are self·suUicient in food. The trade figure for 2002 was We are 14 0 million and we are 51.168 billion and it rose to still trying to get there. So, it 5l.8S8 billion in 2003, In 2004, Ill/lke", good sense that we learn the figure rose to US2 billion and how to do things bet!'er. They . s tood at USS2.8J billion in 2007 . bave land a n d very' sca rce The C hinese de fegiltion visi ted resources but they h ave been South-South Cooperation site in able to feed their people through Kubwa (a rm 41Id T ropi<: Agrl <: proper man ageme nt of la nd s tations in Ahuja among others. resou rces and their agricu ltural
Banks begin selective implementation of cash withdrawal limits CoDtiDuedlrompage III
UBA ared Visa: blazing the trail for financial Inclusion In Africa
V
ila h as exp a nde d the ro ll out of debit products across Su b Saharan Africa in p a rtn ershi p w ith United Da nk fo r Arrica (UDA! , A statemeJlt from Visa said th a t t he expans ion ma rked a milestone event for UDA as it launche d in its twe lfth African market in as ma nymonthl; their aim being to continue to o(fer th e ir clien t s i n c reased con\'enie nce and security when Irans«cting electronicall y. NThe s tralegic partnership wilh Visa nlcans an increased cardholder base for UBA. a nd a lso mea ns that our c lients can Iransac t a l 1.8 million ATMs a nd at t e n s of millions o f merchants in over200 countries and terriloriC!S across Ihe g lobe. Visa also lends an internaUonal brand credibility which goes hand in hand with UB.A:s global s trategy to be the lina n clal insUtution of choice fo r Africans a nd JVrica·relllted businesses," says Luqma n 8alogun , Group Director. E.Banking a t USA. The past 12 months have seen the ro ll out of Visa produc ts across key markets includ.ing COle d'ivoire, Ca m e r oo n , Liberia, Uganda, Se n ega l, Kenya, Za mb ia, Sierra Leone, Ch ad, Gabo n , G uinea a ndlllllzania.
C BN intervention. The records avail4ble to us dearly show thai q.neof these banks was d eclared illiquid becallSe of faciliti es to three customers, two 01 which were sovereign debts. We wonder why a bank should b e declared Uliq uid for linandng gove rn men I-gu a r an Ie ed p rojects. Defore the intervention of the lender of last resort, this . b a nk h ad b een m eeting itl obligations and about 58% (N70bn! of the intervention fund given to it by the a pex bank was invested In Government b onds wblle it wed th e balan<:e to offset its inter-blllllkdebts ." Bail out , c redibility C BN· appot nte d mftnllgeme nl te ams The body said It was ve ry s urprise d that th e C BN was bragging about the fund it sunk into these banks in the name of bai lout. It said; ~As a le nder of last resort, the C BN owes it as a duty to a ny bank to assist it fi.nandalJy when in n eed. We the refore do not see the reason for all the noise about the apex bank doing its job. This happens 411 ove r tbe wo rld . Bu t the question still remains: Did al l the banks need the bailout fundi In o ur opinion, and In view of the recent rellelations, some of these b41lks did noi n eed any intervention, fin an <: iollH y or otherWise.. This is just giving a dog a bild name in order to bang i t. The ou s t e d management teams 01 the eigbt banks wer~ ol<:rused of lacki ng in corporate gove rn a n <:e, a m ong oth er <:harges . There may, undoubtedly, be some truth in th e allegations because of our human nature. But. Is th e s llua·
tion better nowl In an advertorial in a n a"tional newspaper of Friday. June 10" , 201 I , theCentral Bankboasted that it replaced the then o,ief Executive and Executive Directors of the eigh t blmla willi 'competent managers with experien <:e and integrity.' Nigerians, espedalty m embers of the Press, are In a very good position to confirm or ch allenge this claim, Nigerians must have all read the expositions in some Newipape rl in the last th ree weeks of the shady transactions being carried out in some of th e rescued banks by the 'competent managers with experien<:e and In tegrity' appointed by th e Central Bank. With 5u<:h CIpose, you wi ll not but wonder If the apex bank reall y wants these banks to survive. It is on record th a t th e Cen tral Bank took only
<
As a lender of last resoI1, the CON owes it as a duty to any bank to assist it finan'N dally when in need; we there· fore do not see tile reason for all the n oise about the apex bank doing its /ob
<
two month s (J une a nd July, 2009) to ' CIamine the books 01 24 ban ks be lore ch oosing the famous eight. but it is ye t to discuss Ule repo rt of its inves tigatio n into a n y of th e rescued
banks afret" the reports on them wet"esubmittcd. We implore you to take advantage of the Freedom of InfomlaUon Act to exhume these repom in the interest of th e pub lic. " Threa t to liquidate el gbt blinks ASSBIFI said Hln its usual cbaracteristics, the a pex bilnk declared that these banks recorded various NEGATIV E ASSET VALUES In the year e nded 31" .Dc<:ember, 20 10 . totaling NI:28.trillion, andquot- . ed the figure for each bank In the newspaper. Frightening as tbese figures may be, the question is whether they a<:tu all y repres·ent . the tru e state of th ese bantu;, or were they mani pula ted to give the impression that they are be-
Conllnues on P"geZ/