Businesses hopeful as Naira extends gains at forex market

Some business persons in Lagos on Thursday expressed hope that the economy would soon rebound as the Nigerian currency continues to appreciate in all the major segments of the forex market.

In separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos, they called on their fellow business persons to exercise patience and act to salvage the naira.

Uche Mba, a motorcycle spare-parts dealer noted that the appreciation of the naira at the forex market was gradually breeding calm in the economy.

According to him, the development will sooner than later lead to price stability of goods and services.

Obi Edwards, an importer of gas cylinders said that the liquidity challenge in sourcing forex was already reducing as most Bureau De Change (BDC) operators were selling forex.

Mr. Edwards expressed the hope that if the situation continued unabated, it would reduce the fluctuation in the prices of goods and services.

Stella Shogunle, a dealer in female handbags, said that it was good news that the naira had continued to appreciate at the forex market for about three weeks.

She called for patriotism from all Nigerians to ensure that currency speculators do not thwart the wind of progress in the forex market.

The naira on Thursday continued to hedge against the dollar in all the major segments of the forex market.

At the parallel market, the naira closed at N460 to the dollar, from N468 it posted on Wednesday, while the Pound Sterling and the Euro traded at N560 and N510 respectively.

About 1700 BDCs in Lagos and Abuja sold dollar at N380 controlled rate, while the Pound Sterling and the Euro exchanged at N558 and 500, respectively.

The naira closed at N304.50 at the official interbank market, maintaining same rate as at Wednesday.

Aminu Gwadabe, President, Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) called on all genuine forex buyers to purchase it from its members at the official price.

Mr. Gwadabe called on currency hoarders to sell the forex at their disposal as the naira was steadily on its way to full recovery.

SOURCE: Premiumtimesng

No Nigerian bank is undercapitalised – CBN

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said that there is no truth in a report that seven Nigerian banks are undercapitalised.

The Director, Banking Supervision, Mrs Tokunbo Martins, told journalists at the end of the Bankers Committee Meeting in Lagos on Wednesday that there was no truth in the report.

 A Dubai-based International Investment Bank, Arqaam Capital, had reported that seven Nigerian banks were undercapitalised to the tune of N1tn about 3.2 billion dollars.

The stress test by Arqaam Capital also reported that two banks were close to being insolvent. Martins said that commercial banks were facing some challenges that were not peculiar to Nigeria, adding that Non Performing Loans (NPL) at 11 per cent was not the focus for now.

“As Director Banking Supervision, I wish to state that the report that seven banks are undercapitalised is not true.

“That our banks have non-performing loans at 11 per cent is not the focus for now. We should totally ignore such a story,’’ Martins said. The director said that commercial banks in the country had huge capacity to generate income to absorb any losses that could arise from such loans.

“The fact that a country has non-performing loans at this period is expected. So, I don’t think that any jurisdiction should be demonised because of NPL,’’ Martins said.

SOURCE:Vanguardng

Nigeria confirms release of 21 Chibok girls from Boko Haram

Nigerian officials have confirmed the release of 21 girls who were kidnapped from Chibok by Boko Haram militants in 2014.

A presidential spokesman confirmed their release follows negotiations between the Nigerian government and Boko Haram members, brokered by the International Red Cross and Swiss government.

He added: "The negotiations will continue."

Around 270 girls were taken from their school in Chibok. Dozens escaped in the initial melee and more than 200 are still missing.

SOURCE:itv

‘I thank God that the Police arrested me’ – Armed Robbery Suspect

A suspected armed robber, Sunday Onu, has said that he thanked God over his arrest, as he had tried several times to quit armed robbery but failed.

The suspect who hailed from Benue state claimed that he joined the armed robbery gang a week after his traditional wed­ding.

He noted that his arrest was divinely arranged as he had sev­erally attempted to quit the evil act but could not.

Onu who is now 34 year old, revealed that his four man armed robbery gang always disguised as NEPA officials in their overalls, knock at the gate of their victims for engineering services only to hold the house hostage at gun point and rob them.

The suspect who claimed to be the driver of the armed rob­bery gang disclosed that his own share at the end of every opera­tion ranges between N450,000 to 500,000 depending on how much the group made during the operation.

“I joined the gang after my traditional wedding in 2013 and since then we have been working together and each time I wanted to quit something tends to stop me.

“I was the driver of the gang and also use my own car to carry them to any place they want to go for operation, but I don’t fol­low them for the operation. My duty was to drop them and go out of the operation zone to wait and after operation they called me and I quickly rushed to take them away.

“During the first operation I received the sum of N450,000, I am aware the use guns but we don’t kill,” he explained.

However, luck ran out of him after a resident of one of their victims sent a distress call to the police which swiftly responded and rounded him and one other suspect up while their leaders es­caped

Federal government frustrated my efforts to free Chibok girls trice – Boko Haram close pal, Salkida

Freelance journalist, Ahmad Salkida, has revealed that several attempts made by him to free the abducted Chibok girls from captivity had been frustrated by the federal government.

Salkida, who is believed to have direct links to Boko Haram terrorists, said he met the girls and their captors at the instance of the federal government.

In an email to Daily Trust on Sunday, Salkida faulted the narratives of the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and President Muhammadu Buhari’s biographer,Professor John Paden, on why the rescue of the Chibok girls is yet to be actualised.

“At least, today, I am probably the only one who has gone to location of swaps with detainees and I set my eyes on the girls in their early days in captivity, under a presidential cover to negotiate,” he said.

Salkida, who had been in the United Arab Emirates on self-exile since 2013, recently returned to Nigeria after he, with two others were declared wanted by the Nigerian Army for having “links” with the Boko Haram and not divulging certain information.

Salkida said it was not true that the leadership of Boko Haram demanded 5 billion Euros (roughly N1.7 trillion) as ransom for the release of the abducted girls as stated by Paden in his book “Muhammadu Buhari: The challenge of leadership in Nigeria”.

According to him, “I’m not sure I understand why our leaders choose to declassify important aspects of this negotiation when the girls are still in captivity, but I can categorically say that the claim of a demand of 5 billion Euros as published by President Buhari’s biographer is not the truth.

“While it is true that the captors of the Chibok girls have shifted the goal post several times when a swap deal was near, we must ask ourselves, what was responsible for the volatility that has denied the rest of the surviving Chibok girls and other captives’ freedom?

“How did I know this and write with such audacity? I was the only negotiator that was flown to Maiduguri with some detainees in an Air Force plane and I stayed in the Maimalari military barracks for over three weeks with the detainees, trying to reach a deal.

“From my professional experience with both parties namely government authorities and the insurgents, I can state that these abducted girls would long have returned home if political and security officials in government had shown better understanding of what is at play.

“Never, even from the days of former President Goodluck Jonathan to today’s dispensation has government accepted a window of say two, three weeks and abided by it. So, we are dealing with insurgents who do not recognize your bureaucratic heritage and continue to shut out the windows each time the indicated timelines elapsed, and also dealing with political and security authorities that never considered it expedient to do their housekeeping ahead of acceptance of negotiation windows that are tied to timelines.

“There is no point to delve into much detail at this point, but suffice it to state that both sides have their share of blame. My experience is that both the Buhari led government and the preceding Jonathan administration desired a negotiated end to this imbroglio but none ever showed any hunger in tracking the footprints and understanding the tendencies of the enemy.

“I was not only involved in one or two attempts to free the Chibok girls with the current government, but on three separate occasions and even as recently as May/June, 2016, few months before I was declared wanted for allegedly refusing to cooperate with the same government and for having “links to terrorism” by the Nigerian Army,” Salkida said.

SOURCE: Dailypostng

Ethiopia Declares State of Emergency Amidst Ethnic Protests

Ethiopia has declared a state of emergen­cy following months of anti-government protests by members of the country’s two largest ethnic groups.

The Oromo and the Am­hara make up about 60% of the population. They com­plain power is held by a tiny Tigrean elite.

Violence has intensified since last Sunday when at least 55 people were killed in clashes between police and protesters at an Oromo festival.

Hundreds have died in months of protests, human rights groups say.

Tens of thousands have also been detained, they say.

Declaring the state of emergency, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam De­salegn said in a televised ad­dress: “We put our citizens’ safety first. Besides, we want to put an end to the dam­age that is being carried out against infrastructure pro­jects, education institutions, health centres, administra­tion and justice buildings.”

The state of emergency will last for six months.

BBC World Service Afri­ca editor Mary Harper says the violent protests are the most serious threat to Ethi­opian stability in a quarter of a century.

The protesters have been attacking foreign companies, she says, threatening Ethio­pia’s reputation as a growing economy, ripe for interna­tional investment.

The details of the state of emergency remain unclear, but she adds that protesters have already shown they will not back down when faced with force.

Many roads into and out of the capital, Addis Ababa, are blocked by protesters.

The protests are for man­ifold reason, and include: Muslims unhappy at the imposition of government-approved leaders; Farm­ers displaced to make way for commercial agricul­ture; Amharic communi­ties opposed to their inclu­sion in Tigre rather than the Amhara region and discon­tent among groups in vari­ous parts of the vast Oromia region.

SOURCE: thebreakingtimes

Nigeria: Boko Haram - World Bank Donates $50 Million to States Affected By Insurgency

The World Bank has donated the sum of $50 million Dollars to assist six states of Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Bauchi, Taraba and Gombe affected by Insurgency under the FADAMA programme.

The leader of the World Bank delegation, Dr. Adetunji Oredipe, who stated this to Journalists in Yola, Adamawa State, said the reason for carrying out such project is to deal with the negative impact of insurgency that have affected the people of the North-eastern states.

Oredipe further explained that the project is a combined effort of the federal government and international community to revive livelihood in the North-east due to losses incurred as a result of the activities of insurgents.

According to him, the world Bank has targeted 600 communities and 24000 households in the North-east region of Nigeria.

"Our idea is to work with 600 communities in the six states and we have agreed to do more in the directly affected states: Borno, Yobe , Adamawa and do a little in Taraba, Bauchi and Gombe who are the receivers of the displaced people,"Oredipe stated.

"For us as World Bank, you know we are not into humanitarian programme, but we support activities based on needs," he added

He explained that the purpose of the project was not just to reach out to the six affected states but to bring all key stakeholders and team players on the same page on what the project intends to achieve and how to go about the implementation and approach exercise.

When asked why the project is being implemented under FADAMA 3, he replied that they saw FADAMA 3 as a good platform "that has established links in the rural areas to run the initiative that is why we use such platform to reach out to farmers affected by insurgency in rural communities."

On how they tend to reach out to the exact beneficiaries, he said there would be an open and transparent process where people would meet at the village square in the presence of all the traditional rulers and key actors of the community, who would be there to identify 40 households that are basically agricultural households and the assistance would be disbursed.

SOURCE: Thisdayng