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PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2023 BU$IN€SS
By Abubakar Yunus Abuja
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President Muhammadu Buhari will on Tuesday depart Lagos to attend the second edition of the Dakar International Conference on Agriculture in Senegal.
Femi Adesina, presidential spokesperson, announced the development in a statement on Monday.
Buhari is expected to be in Lagos from January 23-24 on a working visit to inaugurate projects in the state.
The president will subsequently fly out to Dakar from Lagos.
“The high-level Dakar 2 Summit hosted by President Macky Sall of
Buhari to depart Lagos today for agriculture conference in Senegal
Senegal and the Chairperson of the African Union is holding under the theme “Feeding Africa: Food Sovereignty and Resilience,” the statement reads.
“The conference, which seeks to create favourable conditions toward achieving food security in Africa, is convened jointly by the government of Senegal and the African Development Bank.
“There will also be side meetings to discuss agreements on the delivery of food and agricultural products in some countries, including Nigeria.
“With Africa accounting for 249 million or a third of the 828 million hungry people in the world, the Summit, to be attended by African Heads of State and Government, Ministers of finance and agriculture, as well as several global development partners, is expected to make commitments on eradicating hunger in Africa by 2030.”
Adesina said Buhari would be accompanied on the trip by top government officials including Geoffrey Onyeama, minister of foreign affairs; Mohammad Abubakar, minister of agriculture and rural development; Babagana Monguno, national security adviser, and Ahmed Abubakar, director-general, National Intelligence Agency (NIA).
Buhari is expected back in the country on January 25.
BDCs: CBN currency redesign policy boosting Naira stability at parallel market
By Abubakar Yunus Abuja
The Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) says the currency redesign policy has stimulated the stability of the naira at the parallel market.
Aminu Gwadabe, ABCON president, disclosed this on Sunday in an interview with NAN in Lagos.
Over the past few weeks, the naira has been largely stable against the dollar — exchanging between N740/$ and N750/$ at the parallel market.
He spoke on the outlook of the naira as the January 31 deadline for the demonetisation of old naira notes approaches.
“The naira redesign and the security surveillance of the financial system have stemmed the volatile demand pressure in the parallel market,” Gwadabe said.
The ABCON president said the local currency had traded within a stable band of N750 to the dollar since the introduction of the policy till date.
He said the exchange rate had remained stable in the face of the shortage of supply of the greenback in the market.
According to Gwadabe, the unavailability of the new naira notes have continued to raise fears and concerns among average Nigerians.
He urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to continue its advocacy and stakeholders’ engagement to ensure a seamless transition of old notes to the new ones.
Yesterday, Mai Mala Buni, governor of Yobe state, appealed to the CBN to grant special concession to residents to enable them exchange their old naira notes for the redesigned notes.
Directors of Department of State Service (DSS) in a group photograph, during the four days Strategic workshop on preparedness of the 2023 general Elections, yesterday in Abuja.
Financial experts: Why CBN may retain 16.5% interest rate at MPC meeting
As the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) commences its two-day monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting on Monday, some financial experts have projected that the apex bank would retain the current policy rates.
Speaking in separate interviews with NAN, the experts said such a policy stance would allow for market stability in the new year.
The committee had raised the monetary policy rate (MPR) to a record high of 16.5 percent in its last meeting in November 2022, in an effort to tackle rising inflation.
The MPR is the baseline interest rate in an economy, every other interest rate used within the economy is built on it.
Uche Uwaleke, a professor of finance and capital market at the Nasarawa State University, Keffi, explained that increasing the MPR could jeopardise economic growth.
Uwaleke said the MPC is likely to hold all existing parameters.
“One, historical evidence suggests that the MPC seldom adjusts policy rates in January due to the need to allow the markets to stabilise in the new year,” Uwaleke said.
“Secondly, inflationary pressure is beginning to reduce as seen in headline inflation numbers for Dec. 2022, not only in Nigeria but also in the United States.
Also speaking, Tope Fasua, an economist, urged the CBN to shun the temptation to further increase the rates.
Fasua suggested that the rates should be retained and be guided by market trends.
He added that constantly increasing interest rate could spur recession.
“I hope they hold rates as is and watch what happens,” Fasua said.
“Already, inflation trended down 0.14 percent, they may be tempted to further increase rate to accelerate the fall.
On his part, Muda Yusuf, chief executive officer, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), said Nigeria’s cash reserve ratio (CRR) and MPR are among the highest in the world.
CRR is the share of a bank’s total customer deposit that must be kept with the central bank in the form of liquid cash.
“The CRR of 32.5 percent and MPR of 16.5 percent are among the highest globally. High CRR in particular has become a key impediment to financial intermediation by the banks,” Yusuf said.
Analysts at Financial Derivatives Company (FDC) also said inflation is expected to ease further in January.
However, they projected that high interest rates would have to be retained if the CBN intends to continue to tackle inflation.
“As long as the CBN remains committed to tackling inflation, the high interest rate environment will persist in 2023,” the analysts said.
Meanwhile, analysts at Cowry Assets Limited, said the MPC may be tempted to pedal softly on its tightening stance by a token hike of 25 basis points.
“We believe that a moderate reversal in the headline numbers will skew the voting pattern of the committee members in favour of maintaining a tightening stance,” they said.
NEWS
CBN takes sensitisation drive on new redesigned Naira notes to Jimeta ultra-modern market
From Umar Dankano,Yola.
With a view to ensure compliance by commercial banks on the dispensing of new redesigned Naira notes, officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN have conducted a sensitisation campaign to the public and on the spot assessment tour in Adamawa state.
The CBN officials led by a Director,Internal Audit department, Mrs Alfa Lydia Ifeanyichukwu urged Nigerians to report any commercial bank that does not dispense the new redesigned Naira notes at its business outlets for sanctioning.
Mrs Ifeanyichukwu stressed that the New Naira Redesign policy came at a time all Nigerians are in dare need and its economy faced with many challenges.
Ifeanyichukwu said some of these constraints are averting the goal and objectives of achieving a decisive growth calling on Nigerians to support and contribute toward a successful implementation of the policy.
She told the gathering that the current series withdrawn from circulation will cease to be legal Tender after January 31,2023 noting that the new design and current series (old notes) are to circulate side by side until same date.
“We advise members of the public to ensure that they deposit cash holdings in these denominations at their commercial banks.
“There is no limit to how much a customer can deposit between now and January 31,2023,as the CBN has suspended bank charges and we encourage the public to explore other payment channels such as eNaira,POS,electronic transfer,USSD,internet banking and mobile operators and agents for their economic activities”. Ifeanyichukwu stated.
In his remarks, state Branch Controller of the CBN,Mr. Sanusi Sah Nyashi announced that any commercial bank found not dispensing the new notes would be sanctioned noting that the CBN has directed all commercial banks to reintroduce Saturday’s banking to meet up with the high demand by Nigerians.
Mr.Nyashi said that apex bank will be keenly monitoring the full implementation of the policy with a view to satisfy the economic demand of Nigerians.
Also speaking at the sensitisation lecture held at the famous Jimeta Ultra Modern Market,Chairman of the traders Union of the Market,Alhaji Musa Yaro (Sarkin Kasuwa) advised that the CBN need to do more in ensuring the availability of the new notes in the banks.
Yaro said that many of their members (traders) have been coming to them as leaders complaining that the banks are not dispensing the new Naira notes noting that something urgent need to be done.
Yaro advised the Apex bank to do more sensitisation work that can reach the larger population at the grass root areas where he said do not use banks for the commercial activities.
Some of the traders at the occasion expressed satisfaction with the awareness campaign taken to them at their business premises pledging to support the Apex bank to succeed in its currency policy.
Our correspondent in Yola Thursday reported that the CBN team,stakeholders and journalists visited some commercial banks including GTB,ZENITH and JAIZ Banks where customers were monitored cashing the new Naira notes respectively
The Lekki Deep Seaport inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos,Inset (l-r): President Muhammadu Buhari; Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu; Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Cui Jian Chun; former Governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi and Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State during the unveiling of the plaque to inaugurate the Lekki Deep Seaport.
NAHCO workers suspend strike
From Abubakar Yunusa Abuja
The Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc (NAHCO) staff members have suspended their industrial action embarked on in a bid to demand for salary increases.
The aviation workers, under the aegis of the national union of air transport employees (NUATE) and air transport services senior staff association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), said the management of NAHCO had commenced negotiations with its workers.
Frances Akinjole, deputy general secretary, ATSSSAN, disclosed this to journalists on Monday.
“It has been suspended, and they have agreed to commence negotiation on the salary issue with us,” Akinjole said, giving updates on the strike.
Peoples Daily had reported that flights at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport were disrupted earlier today when the NAHCO staff members walked out of the international airport.
In a video seen by TheCable, several passengers were stranded at the international airport, moving about helplessly with their luggage.
The development grounded both inbound and outbound flight schedules.
Prior to the suspension, Peoples Daily also understood that the management of NAHCO had held an emergency meeting to work out a payment plan for the striking staff members.
The company later confirmed that it was engaging with the striking aviation unions to end the flight disruptions experienced by passengers.
In a statement, Olusola Obabori, group executive director, NAHCO, expressed “regret [for] all the inconveniences”.
He said some of its clients were being put through a difficult situation by the “insistence of some staff to embark on a strike action despite a subsisting order of court which restrained them from doing so”.
Obabori added that the company was already engaging the unions and other stakeholders and was positive the situation would be resolved within hours.
“We understand the power of negotiation. The company which has arguably the best welfare package among the local players in the aviation industry will do all that is absolutely necessary to make its workforce happy even as it delights its customers,” he said.
Last week, NUATE and ATSSSAN gave a five-day notice of strike to NAHCO management citing slow progress in negotiation for salary review.
