Stock Watch

NFIU: Ban

on cash withdrawals from public accounts NOT against governors

By Abubakar Yunus Abuja

The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) says the proposed plan to ban cash withdrawals from all federal, state, and local government accounts is not against governors.

Modibo Tukur, NFIU directorgeneral, disclosed this to journalists, according to a statement issued by Ahmed Dikko, chief media analyst, on Saturday.

Last month, the NFIU had disclosed the government’s plans to stop cash withdrawals from all public-run bank accounts.

This was later followed by an official directive banning transactions on all government accounts from March 1, 2023, with NFIU gearing for enforcement.

At a recent virtual meeting with Godwin Emefiele, governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Governor’s Forum (NGF) said the advisory and guidelines on cash transactions were simply outside the NFIU’s legal remit and mandate.

However, reacting to the NGF statement , Tukur said the plan was not against the governors.

He also said every decision made was to stop challenges in the financial system in the most “progressive manner.”

“First of all, we are ready to partner with the six-man committee they set up. We will enlighten them,” he said.

“Secondly, we acted within our functions and the law. We issued the guidelines to control the barrage of investigations that we saw coming. Our guidelines were meant to help the governors not to fight them or any public servant.”

“We reached a stage that if we allow the present scenario to continue, all public institutions will drift into structured cash withdrawals of certain amounts of money which by law, standards, and best practices, must be investigated continuously which is neither desirable nor reasonable.

“We feel communities must move on by accommodating changes and adjusting to new developments.

“Last time we issued the local government guidelines we were taken to court but we won the case.

“But more importantly, we need to understand that in the recent past, the United States FIU and United Kingdom FIU penalised Nigerian banks with fines of

DisCos blame low power supply in parts of Nigeria on ‘insufficient load allocation’

Abubakar Yunus Abuja

Electricity distribution companies (DisCos) in the country say customers will experience a reduction in power supply for an indefinite period.

This is contained in separate statements issued on Saturday by Kano, Abuja, and Ikeja electricity distribution companies (KEDCO, AEDC, and IKEDC).

According to the DisCos, the shortage of electricity supply is due to “insufficient load allocation received”.

“We apologise for the current poor power supply you have been experiencing in certain parts of our network lately. This is due to the inadequate allocation received, hence the load shedding,” IKEDC said.

“We regret the inconvenience this has caused and wish to assure that we are engaging the responsible stakeholders in the electricity value chain to improve the situation.”

Also speaking on the issue, KEDCO said the load allocation had constantly reduced, and therefore, became inadequate to supply all customers.

“This is to kindly inform our esteemed customers that the low power supply currently being experienced across our franchise is due to low power generation nationwide,” it said.

“Consequently, the load allocation to KEDCO has drastically reduced and is barely adequate to supply all our customers sufficiently, thus the massive load shedding.

“We reassure our esteemed customers of our uninhibited commitment to providing quality electricity supply as soon as generation and allocation from Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) improves.

“We sincerely apologise for all inconveniences resulting from this regrettable development.”

Peoples Daily understands that the load allocation is received by the DisCos from the generation companies (GenCos).

The load allocation formula is contained in the multi year tariff order (MYTO), which guides the power sector.

Under the MYTO load allocation, the DisCos in Nigeria share the total volume of power generated by the GenCos on a ratio based on their customer base.

It was also observed that the ‘insufficient load allocation’ being reported by DisCos had persisted for two weeks as the Port Harcourt electricity distribution company (PHED) had notified customers of low power supply in a statement dated January 14, 2023.

However, PHED blamed the decline in supply on “constrains on the grid”.

Meanwhile, some of the distribution and generation companies did not respond when TheCable contacted them for comments on the matter.

Emir of Hadejia urges CBN to increase banks working hours

By our correspondent

The emir of Hadejia Alhaji Alhaji Adamu Abubakar Maje, has urged Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to increase working hours of Banks with a view to allow people deposites their old currency notes.

Maje made the call during a town hall meeting with to him by the CBN officials in his palace Hadejia, Jigawa state on Friday.

The emir who was represented by the senior councilor of his palace and Galadima Hadejia, Alhaji AbdulAziz Zakari commended the effort of CBN for enlighten people on the importance of naira redesign.

Maje said ‘banks don’t put new currency in ATM point in Hadejia and the time is expiring’, “ CBN should address banks to immediately comply to the policy by given out new currency”.

He then urged the general public to take their old N200, N500, and N1000 notes to bank or POS and get the new ones before January 31st 2023 to avoid lost.

On her part, director human resources of CBN, Hajiya Amina Habib, said the benefits of the currency redesigned to Nigerian economy are enormous given that; “ this policy will help to control inflation as the exercise will bring the hoarding currency into the banking system, thereby making monetary policy more effective”

“It will also help with better designed and implementation of monetary policy as we would have much more accurate data on money supply and monetary aggregate”

“ We believe that this exercise would help in increasing financial inclusion, moving towards a more cashless economy, and ensuring greater formalization of the Nigerian economy” .

The head development finance department of the Apex Bank, Mr. Abdu Amadu at ‘yanleman of Kaugama local government during the enlightenment told the worshippers of the Yalleman Tijjanai Friday Mosque danger of any delay in depositing an old currency in their custody.

Mr Abdu Amadu asked the public to patronize bank share agents and Point Of Sales (POS) and other means provide and certified by the central bank.

“Today is 20th, it’s remains only 11 days from today, so the time is very limited considering the importance and urgency needed to avoid any lost of their moneys”.

He said the federal government is serious about the deadline, there is no intention of any extension as directed by Mr President.

The central bank team earlier met with the Point Of Sales (POS) operators and sensitized them of and extra responsibilities for opening bank account and depositing moneys to the people and customers.

The head of finance department appealed to those has no bank account to do so without further delay, “that would give good opportunities for so many economic and social government interventions”.

“Part of the reasons for the redesign currency is to recieved back currency. For your information

Stakeholders urge Police to not exit contributory pension scheme

By Abubakar Yunus Abuja

ANon-Governmental Organization (NGO), Contributory Pension and Happy Retirement Advocacy (COPEHRA) has said that the grievances of the police force with regards to Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) can be resolved within the system.

This was the submission of COPEHRA at a public hearing on Police Pension Board (Establishment) Bill, 2022 (Sb 1009) and Nigeria Police Special Forces (Establishment) Bill, 2022 (Sb 846) held by the Senate committee on Police Affairs yesterday.

The bill, which was jointly sponsored by Senators Ishaku Abbo, representing Adamawa North and Mohammed Ali Ndume, Borno South is seeking the establishment of a Police Pension Board that will serve as an exit plan for the Nigeria Police Force from the Contributory Pension Scheme and, establishment of Nigeria Police Special Forces for training of police officers. Member of COPEHRA) Project Advisory Team, Mahmud Ayinla while making the presentation said all the grievances of the police can be corrected within the current contributory pension scheme.

He said one of the grievances of the police is the poor monthly pension of a corresponding officer grade in CPS. He maintained that this only calls for the government to increase the funding of the Retirement Savings Account (RSA), not to take over the whole pension payment including its administration.

Stating why the police should not be allowed to exit, he cited global best practice, issues of unfunded pension liabilities; statutory government disbursements /deliverables; sustainability and cost of governance.

Ayinla explained that ever since the global crisis in pension management, which is majorly funding, Latin America has led in policy reforms that has had their pensions management and administration switch from the pay-as-you-go / Defined Benefit System to the contributory pension schemes (CPS) where, in typical cases, worker and employer partly contribute to a fund to be invested in relevant mix of portfolio of assets.

Consequently, he said, the divergence in pension administration from it being the sole responsibility of the Government or employer to a joint contributing system (Retirement Savings Account – RSA) has been met with an increase in patronage and adoption world over, be it in the private or public service.

Speaking on issues of unfunded pension liabilities, statutory government disbursements or deliverables, he noted that currently, the Government is saddled with heavy recurrent statutory expenditures as well as providing funding for necessary and important capital projects.

He said: “Currently, the Government is saddled with heavy recurrent statutory expenditures as well as providing funding for necessary and important capital projects. A 3– year review of our country’s budget performance has shown that a large chunk of the budget is dependent on borrowed funds by virtue of rising budget deficits..

On sustainability and cost of governance, he said there is no sustainability in budgeting for a monthly pension, adding that the Sustainability of a non- terminal pension scheme such as the defined benefit scheme in the midst of the various modern challenges in a developing country like Nigeria is simply non-existent.

“The Government is always finding ways to cut down cost of governance, overhead and recurrent expenditures in a bid to provide more for capital and developmental programs and projects. Incurring a life-long recurrent pension liability with increasing funding by the year is of no benefit to the economic viability of the nation as it also incurs its associated administrative costs.”

He further stated that DBS, which is where the police want to be, comes with the risk of fraud, corruption and lack of transparency as the government continually budgeted monies with no corresponding reduction in pension liabilities.