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The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has sanctioned Access Bank Plc for violating the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act, BOFIA, 1991 in 2011.
This came as Dr Maduka Cosmas has retired from Access Bank’s Board of Directors.
The apex bank, in the sanction, fined Access Bank N3 million for violating its rules and regulations on granting of loans.
However, CBN told Vanguard, yesterday, that the issue at stake is not new. The CBN official said the said sanction was based on the examination the CBN carried out on the bank on September 30, 2011.
Vanguard gathered that the CBN wrote to Access Bank conveying the fine on August 8, 2012 and Access Bank paid the fine with a cheque on August 9, 2012. He wondered why the issue was just coming out now after the sanction was imposed and paid.
Access Bank, on its part, said that Cosmas Maduka stepped down from the board of the bank having spent 12 mandatory years as stipulated by CBN code of conduct for bank directors. According to Mr Segun Fafore, Access Bank spokesman, Maduka joined the board of Access Bank in 2000 and his term of service as a non executive director expired in December 2012.
Maduka had previously stepped aside as director of the bank following the mandatory 12 years service to the bank which some said was as a result of the controversy that surrounded a N34.4 billion loan he obtained from the bank to finance the importation of petrol in partnership with Ifeanyi Ubah, the CEO of Capital Oil.
In the CBN August 8, 2012 letter issued by the Banking Supervision Department of the apex bank to Access Bank, the CBN said the sanction was informed by the outcome of a risk-based examination carried out on September 30, 2011. The letter reads in part: ”The bank contravened Section 20(1) of BOFIA, 1991, as amended by granting credit facilities to Westcom Group to the tune of N38.4 billion which was above its single obligor’s limit of N36.4 billion.
“Contrary to the CBN circular No BSD/9/2004 of July 16, 2004 which stipulates that credits to directors and their related companies shall not exceed 10 per cent of the paid-up capital without the CBN approval, the bank granted to its following directors: Mr. Gbenga Oyebode, Dr. Cosmas Maduka and Mr. Tunde Folawiyo, facilities in excess of 10 per cent of its paid-up capital without the necessary regulatory approval. Consequently, penalties totalling N3,000, 000.00 is imposed on your bank for the above infractions.”
Access Bank had in a statement to the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, a few days ago announced Maduka’s “retirement” from the board of the bank, saying his “retirement” was sequel to his completion of the maximum 12-year term as provided by CBN’s Code of Corporate Governance for banks.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
FOR a very long time now I have stopped reading anything that is written by or about Barrister Godswill Akpabio the governor of Akwa Ibom State for the reason that I find most of those things sickening and I certainly wanted to avoid being provoked into making a response.
When I was first told that there was another of those write ups in THISDAY newspaper of Friday, January 18, 2013, I simply ignored it. Then again in Vanguard newspaper of Monday, January 21, 2013 my attention was drawn to what must be the same write up.
What alerted me and made me read this piece was the highlighted quote of what Governor Akpabio claimed was my response to him when he “over advised” me on a pending visit by the then president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.
Over advising somebody is an expression that I am not familiar with and honestly do not know what it means but I can say quite categorically that Barr. Godswill Akpabio was not one of the intellectuals in my cabinet.
He was, therefore, never, at any time made a member of any of my advisory committees. It is, therefore, quite difficult to figure out how he could have been in a position to advise me on an impending visit of the president.
These perceived inadequacies saw him moving from one ministry to another. In the time that he was in my cabinet, he had served in three different ministries. None of those ministries was the ministry of works.
It is not possible, therefore, for him to have been the one to fix the federal roads in my state and, with his own money for that matter. Furthermore I cannot think of any one policy drive in my government that can be attributed to Barr. Godswill Akpabio.
Besides, in the six years that he was my commissioner, the number of memos brought to Council by Barr. Godswill Akpabio can comfortably be counted with the fingers of one hand.
Vile and uncouth language
Be that as it may, the main point is that, even the worst of my detractors, some of whom he has chosen to surround himself with, cannot say that vile and uncouth language or behaviour is part of my character.
Barrister Godswill Akpabio has been reputed to be digitally brutal or is it brutally digital in his ability to mislead, to misinform and to misrepresent issues. Still I would have thought that there would be some respect for decency.
To accuse me of having behaved in such an uncivilized manner and having uttered such abusive words in reference to my president is, to say the least, quite despicable.
If he can allow this type of malicious misrepresentation to come out in print, I hate to think what must be going on in circumstances and situations where he knows I am not in a position to respond.
President Obasanjo will be the first to say that he and I have had some serious disagreements and I would not deny it. But it can never be said that I have been disrespectful to him.
I know better than that, and whatever I cannot say in front of a person I will not say behind that person’s back. It has always been my belief that it takes two to quarrel.
Within my right I have commented on some unsavory as well as some very good things that have happened in Akwa Ibom State but I have studiously refused to be drawn into a quarrel with Godswill Akpabio.
If the governor insists that he is quarrelling with me, he should look for a better reason than that, a long time ago, he had over advised me. What it seems like to me is that, the governor is troubled and he should ask himself why.
The governor says he is angry, but there is a world of difference between anger and blind fury. Even so anger remains one of the seven deadly sins and can never be superior to intellect as a driving force for good governance.
If the governor is angry, has he considered that the people may also be angry though for a different reason! The people are angry because in May 2009 the governor told them that he had built a dialysis centre in Uyo to which he donated 17 dialysis machines.
The people have since been searching and to date cannot find it. The people are angry because they remember that the first aircraft landed at Uyo airport in September 2009. During the tour of the facilities, Air Comdr. Idongesit Nkanga, the Chairman of the Airport Development Board, assured the audience that the Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) building would be completed and fully operational by the end of that year.
Till today the building is still in construction even though the steel for its erection had arrived since January 2008, and the country is now crying out desperately for such a facility.
The people are angry and resentful because the free and compulsory education that the governor hurriedly declared has since died with its declaration and is now a mirage.
They are also angry and disappointed because in 2008 the governor promised them 10,000 housing units to be built in 2009. In 2009 the number had reduced to 2,000 units. In the same year, 2009, the governor announced that money had been appropriated for the development of housing estates.
In year 2010 the people were told that contracts had been awarded in the sum of N26.9bn to party stalwarts for the construction of those houses. The people are resentful because till today they are still homeless.
In September 2009, by a full page newspaper advert the governor told the people that his much vaunted flagship project, the Tropicana, would open and provide jobs for 5,000 people in the first quarter of 2010.
In case he has forgotten, Tropicana was to have a sky scrapper hotel of 25 storeys, the first in the country if not in Africa. It was to have a 10,000 seat auditorium in which the governor said he would stage world heavy weight boxing fights for Samuel Peters. Today all the people have is a cinema which the people are being told compares favourably with Silverbird in Lagos.
Today the people are unhappy because right now they would be watching the soccer matches of the African Cup of Nations on the giant screen at their favourite Ibom plaza. But they cannot because, in anger the government of Godswill Akpabio had closed down the people’s favourite leisure spot.
The people cannot forget that instead of an ICT park, all they have is an E-library that is yet to start to function; the specialist hospital that they were promised is yet to receive its first patient; the Certificate of Occupancy for Ibaka deep sea port has since been handed over to the Nigerian Ports Authority by the government of Godswill Akpabio; the Ibom Power Plant which was fully completed and commissioned in 2007 is yet to be put into use.
Your Excellency, you should know that the people too are angry. They have a thousand and one reasons to be angry, resentful and unhappy.
They are angry because they are tired of being deceived. They are so angry and resentful that in December 2009, at the Niger Delta rock concert, damning the consequences and throwing all caution to the wind, they pelted you with missiles in Uyo township stadium.
This anger was carried into the way the people voted in the elections of 2011, particularly the gubernatorial elections. The people have become even more angry since the announcement of the results of those elections.
My governor cannot forget that quite early in his first tenure, I had, as an elder statesman and one who had occupied that lofty position, written a letter cautioning him against careless talk and unguarded speech.
I had in that letter suggested that a statement by a high office holder, such as a governor is, can be treated in much the same way as the Catholic Pope speaking excathedra.
Pronouncements that are taken as articles of faith. Unfortunately, I must say that by your utterances and indeed your actions too, you have portrayed yourself as a confused young man with a large burden of inferiority complex.
Six years ago you came into office with a determination to practice the well worn pull-him-down tactic by either repudiating or claiming the work of your predecessor.
Despite what success you may think you have gained in the media, to the extent of considering yourself as the messiah that has come to revive a failed state in Akwa Ibom, the fact remains that the people know the truth.
Permit me therefore to remind you of something that Albert Einstein had said which, at some time, you had quoted: that it is only a mad man that will keep repeating the same act and expect a different result.
If after six years, the technique that you had adopted at the beginning has failed you, wisdom would suggest that you consider a different course of action. I wish you well.
Arc (Obong) Victor Attah, former Governor of Akwa Ibom State
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
OGUN State Government, weekend, said it had lifted the suspensions placed on the embattled Olu of Itori, Oba Fatai Akorede Akamo, and the Baale of Lapeleke, Chief Adisa Akinremi.
A statement by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Taiwo Adeoluwa said the decision followed the recommendations of the administrative inquiry set up in October 2012 on the conduct of the two traditional rulers that necessitated their suspensions.
It would be recalled that the two traditional rulers threw the caution into the wind at Itori Police Station following a disagreement over chieftaincy tittles and engaged in fisticuff.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
The Ogun State Vigilance Service, Sunday, said it had arrested six suspected kidnappers including a final year student of Olabisi Onabanjo University, OOU, Ago-Iwoye, (name withheld) who demanded a sum of N25million ransom from their victim’s family.
The Public Relations Officer of the Service, Soji Ganzallo told newsmen in Abeokuta, that the suspects had on Thursday trailed one Aremu Peters from his office located at number 86 Ibadan road,Ijebu-Ode, at about 7.00p.m. and subsequently kidnapped him.
According to Ganzallo, the command on receiving the information moved in swiftly and was able to locate their hideout, rescued the victim and arrested the suspects.
Narrating his ordeals in the hands of the kidnappers, Peters said he got his freedom 48 hours after he was abducted, saying the kidnappers pointed a gun at him, collected his car key and immediately put him inside the car booth.
They later abandoned the car at Iwesi quarters, Ijebu-Ode, at around 8.00pm.
According to him, “I was blindfolded and on arrival at their hide-out, I was tortured and asked to put a call through to my family. The gang leader demanded for N25million ransom.
They called my family on my phone and ordered them to pay N25million ransom.
They tied my hands. But after much pleas, they reduced the ransom to N5million. At that stage, I asked my family to sell my house and other valuables to save my life before luck ran against them when the vigilance service burst the hideout and rescued me.”
Confessing to their crime, the gang leader said they kept their victim in the car booth before they took him to the hideout located at Ajobo village, in Odeda Local Government Area, along Abeokuta-Ibadan road.
He added that they fed their victim with bread, soft drink and sachet water within 48 hours of the victim’s captivity.
However, Ganzallo told newsmen that findings revealed that the victim’s car was abandoned by the gang in Ibadan. He said the suspects would be handed over to the police.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
THERE was pandemonium in Apapa area of Lagos State, weekend, when some armed naval personnel and policemen from Area B Police Command clashed.
Two policemen allegedly sustained injuries, police patrol vehicles and an Armoured Personnel Carriers, APC, were allegedly destroyed.
Vanguard gathered that the incident occurred last Friday, after a team of policemen attached to the Lagos State Task Force on Environmental and Special Offences, accosted two naval ratings on a motorcycle riding against traffic at Trebo Roundabout and allegedly impounded their motorcycle.
The incident was said to have thrown the entire area into panic.
Eyewitnesses said the angry naval personnel ran back to their base and reinforced but on arriving Trebo Roundabout, the task force officials had gone.
The aggrieved naval personnel allegedly descended on a team of policemen attached to the Rapid Respond Squad, RRS, manning an APC stationed at the Roundabout.
An eyewitness, who spoke to Vanguard on the condition of anonymity, said “The policemen, in their bid to escape, drove the APC dangerously and out of the roundabout to the Area B Command Headquarters. Some of the naval personnel went after them. A police inspector attached to a leading new generation bank, on Liverpool Road, was attacked and beaten to pulp while his rifle was taken from him.”
“The naval personnel on getting to Area B Command Headquarters, started shooting indiscriminately, sending motorists and residents scampering for safety.
“They smashed the windscreens of some patrol vehicles and one APC was completely demobilised as it tyres were destroyed.
“It took the intervention of the Area Commander, Ali Mohammed, who contacted the naval authorities for help.”
When contacted, the Western Command information officer, Jerry Omodara, told Vanguard that the Navy did not attack the police area command office.
According to him, “What happened was that two naval ratings were on their way home on a motorbike after the close of work and policemen manning a check point at Point Road junction towards Liverpool stopped them. The ratings tried to explain that they were personnel closing from work and the policemen refused to let them go.
The scene where the incident occurred was close to the Hydrographic office of the Navy and a Rear Admiral who saw it happened sent a lieutenant to the scene.
The lieutenant pleaded with the policemen, but they refused to listen. The lieutenant then demanded that they all go to the Area B police Command Headquarters.”
“But on their way to the Command, an RRS patrol van approached and hijacked the situation. The RRS policemen opened fire on the Navy and snatched the motorbike from them.”
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
The Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria, NPAN, has filed an appeal against the ruling of a Federal High Court in Lagos, declining jurisdiction over a suit it filed against the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria, APCON.
NPAN had, in the suit, faulted some provisions of a law by APCON, requiring media houses to summit advertisement materials for vetting by the council.
It argued that the provisions contained in Article 21 and 137 of the Nigerian Code of Advertising and Sales Promotion, NCASP, are inconsistent with the provisions of Section 39 of the Constitution, guaranteeing the freedom of expression and to hold opinion.
Delivering a ruling on January 10, Justice Musa Kurya upheld the preliminary objection raised by APCON, and held that NPAN lacked the locus standi to file the suit. He, therefore, declined jurisdiction and dismissed the case.
In its notice of appeal dated January 21, NPAN raised five grounds of appeal and prayed the appellate court to allow the appeal and grant an order setting aside the ruling by Justice Kurya.
NPAN also prayed the court for an order for the hearing and determination of its originating summons, as a court of first instance in line with the provision of section 15 of the Court of Appeal Act, 2004. It also asked the court for an order granting all the reliefs being sought on the originating summons.
The appellant argued that the trial judge erred in holding that it lacked locus standi or enforceable right to institute the suit against APCON.
It contended that, as a body established to promote the interest of its members, it was its right to challenge regulatory provisions that affect the interest of media houses in the country.
NPAN said: “It is in consonance with the objects for which the plaintiff was registered to institute an action to nullify any legislation or subsidiary instrument, which adversely affects the interest of its members.”
It faulted the lower court’s decision on the ground that the judge failed to consider all averments in its supporting affidavit, but relied only on paragraphs 12 to 17 in reaching a conclusion.
NPAN argued that the judge’s failure to consider all its processes, including its constitution, which it attached to the further affidavit dated November 21, 2012 was in violation of its right to fair hearing.
It contended that the trial judge erred in holding that it failed to seek and obtain the court’s leave to sue in representative capacity. It faulted the court’s decision that its suit was a representative one. It argued that the Federal High Court Rules 2009 did not provide that a plaintive must seek and obtain the court’s leave before suing in representative capacity.
NPAN argued that the trial judge erred in dismissing the suit on the grounds that the plaintiff lacked locus standi and that the court was without jurisdiction to hear the case. It argued that the judge ought to have struck out the case, upon holding that the plaintiff lacked locus standi, rather than dismissing the suit.
It also faulted the trial judge for dismissing its suit “when he ought, in law, to have proceeded to the hearing of the originating summons on its merit and grant all reliefs being sought by the plaintiff.”
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
No fewer than three Fulani herdsmen including a husband and wife were yesterday reportedly killed at Amla village in Otukpo Local Government Area of Benue State following an outbreak of a bloody crisis between Idoma farmers and the herdsmen.
Also killed in the clash which was sparked off by the alleged destruction of several farmlands belonging to the host community, were eight cows belonging to the herdsmen just as their settlements in the village were also razed.
Vanguard also gathered that farm produce including harvested yam, beans and cassava belonging to the aggrieved farmers in Otukpo had earlier been destroyed by grazing cows.
According to our source, “apart from farm produce, the Amla and Emichi communities had in the past persistently lamented the manner Fulani herdsmen and their cows trespass into their streams and ponds, making it difficult for them to have access to clean water for domestic use”.
Meanwhile, Vanguard also gathered that residents of neighbouring Otukpo-Icho, Otukpo-Nobi, Odudaje, including Amla and Emichi communities have fled their homes and taken refuge in Otukpo town for fear of reprisal attacks from the herdsmen.
Reacting to the development, the Och’Otukpo, Chief John Eimonye, expressed shock and called on residents of the area to remain calm, adding that the matter would be thoroughly investigated with the hope of bringing the culprits to book.
The Benue State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Deputy Superintendent of Police Daniel Ezeala, confirmed the killings, adding that investigations into the matter had commenced without any arrests made for now.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo weekend, said the turn of the Igbo to occupy the Presidency had come, warning that any attempt to rip the South East of its due after President Jonathan’s tenure would be resisted.
This came on a day former governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, insisted that it was the turn of Ndigbo to produce the president of Nigeria in 2015, urging the people to work hard to actualize it.
Speaking at a press briefing in Lagos, new National Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Prince Osita Oganah, stated emphatically that Igbo Presidency was not negotiable and, therefore, called on the Igbo to begin to prepare themselves towards achieving the goal.
He said: “As soon as President Goodluck Jonathan leaves office, be it 2015 or 2019, it is the turn of Ndigbo to take over power. Every part of the region has had its slot in government except the South East. It is only fair to ensure a level playing field for all regions. “After the South East might have had its slot at the Presidency, we can then begin to vote on merit. It is unfortunate that politics in Nigeria is run on tribal tripod. However, since that is the exigency of the moment, there is nothing we can do but to get our share for the sake of justice and equity. For the Igbo, we must sit down and organise ourselves to know who will represent us.”
He also, urged aggrieved members of the group who might have been piqued by actions of the group’s past leaderships, to sheathe their swords in the interest of Igbo unity and support the newly elected Chief Garry Igariwey- led executives.
Meanwhile, former governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, speaking at an award ceremony in Awka, organised by the South East zone of National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, urged Igbo people to accept that time had come for them to rule the country and then begin to work towards achieving it.
According to him, the Igbos have implicit confidence in Nigeria as a united country.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
As intrigues preceding the 2015 presidential election continued to play up, strong indications emerged weekend that the Presidency has succeeded in splitting the ranks of the leadership of the defunct Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND.
Asari Dokubo, Ebikabowei Victor-Ben(Boyloaf), Ateke Tom and Pastor Reuben, in the past three weeks, have expressed misgivings about the reported aspiration of President Jonathan to seek re-election in 2015, saying the President had done little or nothing to deserve a re-run in the next presidential election.
They have equally called on the President to ease out some of his ministers, particularly those of the Niger-Delta Ministry, Godsday Orubebe, and his Petroleum Ministry counterpart, Mrs Diezani Allison Madueke, accusing them of performance.
But one of the key commanders of the defunct MEND, Chief Bibopiri Ajube, alias General Shoot-at-Sight, warned government not to succumb to blackmail by his ‘compatriots’, alleging that the comments of the ex-militant leaders were borne out of ‘failed expectations’.
Ajube, who was reportedly the operational leader of MEND in a statement said, “Asari, Boyloaf, Ateke and others have lost the goodwill and character expected of leaders of freedom fighters”.
The statement read in part: “I am particularly amazed at some media reports to the effect that certain leaders of ex-freedom fighters have now resorted to smear campaign in the media against some targeted officials of the Federal Government, including President Jonathan.
“In all honesty, I do not hold brief for such government officials, however, as a matter of morality and conscience, it behoves on me to put the records in proper perspective.
“Boyloaf, Ateke Tom, Farah Dagogo and a few others either deliberately inflated the actual number of disarmed youths under them or shamelessly defrauded such youths in connivance with some bank officials by deducting from source illegal sums from the meagre monthly N65,000 stipend.
“Today, it is either that the boys feel cheated and vent their anger on the ordinary Niger Deltan, thereby heightening insecurity in the region or they have confronted most of these leaders mentioned above to the extent they no longer go to their respective communities. The noise about third phase amnesty is the consequence of this unfortunate development.
“As if this is not painful enough, these compatriots of mine also later became beneficiaries of the NNPC pipeline security contract. The idea of the deal was that all such jobless youths who did not partake in the amnesty programme be meaningfully engaged.
“It is, therefore, very sad that people like Asari Dokubo, Farah, Ateke and Boyloaf decided to show the failed side of leadership in this noble direction because in spite of the millions of naira paid to them by NNPC, they refused to justify the huge payments. They are the least qualified to label anyone as fraudulent and non-performing as they have done in the past few weeks.
“I submit that not only must they account for the huge sums given to them for job not done, the Federal Government should not renew the pipeline security contracts given to them because the contrary (renewal) can only send a dangerous signal of indulgence of corruption”.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Indications are that the 2013 budget is already facing challenges and may not be fully implemented. The budget may have to be reviewed with the oil bench assuming a far lower benchmark than the $75 proposed by the executive. This is because Nigeria crude oil sale is facing difficulty finding market.
The United States of America which takes a huge chunk of Nigeria crude will from this month, January add about 900,000 per day to its daily production of 6.5million barrel per day thus raising its total output to 7.4 million barrel per day.
Already on the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in March traded at $96.04 a barrel in the Globex electronic session. Also March Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.14 to $113.14 a barrel.
The crude oil production in the US, according to the latest monthly report of US Government’s Energy Information Administration (EIA, averaged about 6.5 million barrels per day in September 2012.
The EIA predicts the US to overtake Saudi Arabia and Russia as the world’s biggest producer of oil by 2017. Also, on the anvil: US becoming self-sufficient in oil by 2035 and North America trudging on to become a net oil exporter sometime around the year 2030. , for its part, expects North America as an exporter of oil and gas ‘by the middle of the next decade.’
Both these reports, if you care, are closely monitored by oil investors. If you’re one, do factor the EIA prediction of oil production at 6.8 million barrels per day in 2013, which will put in the at about $3.44 per gallon next year as against the 3.64 gallon in 2012. Yet, from the long- term perspective this is definitely a good time to be in a region with immense potential for growth.
This is coming on the heels of the warning issued by IMF Managing Director, Ms Christine Lagarde at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that the world economy will slow down again in 2013. The International Monetary Fund, she said, has cut its global growth forecasts and now projects a second year of contraction in the euro region as progress in battling Europe’s debt crisis fails to produce an economic recovery. The world economy, she said, will expand 3.5 per cent this year, less than the 3.6 per cent forecast in October, in an update of its World Economic Outlook report.
While the fund projects growth this year increasing from last year’s 3.2 per cent pace, it expects the 17-country to shrink 0.2 per cent in 2013, instead of growing 0.2 per cent as forecast in October. If Nigeria oil is to seek market in Europe, it certainly will have a hard job to do. To buttress why the budget may not be realisable in its present form, available data indicates that as at the middle of January 2013, the United States gets so much crude from its own shale deposits that Canadian exporters to US are compelled to sell as far afield as Europe, showing how deeply the U.S. energy revolution is transforming global oil flows.
According to EIA, as recently as 2011, close to 100 per cent of Canada’s crude exports went to its neighbour, the United States. But January trade and shipping sources said more than two million barrels of light crude from Canadian offshore oilfields have gone to Europe in the last month, in a taste of what is to come. The change is due to technological advances the U.S. expects will bring 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) record jump in its oil output to 7.3 million bpd in 2013, from places like the Bakken shale deposit in North Dakota that now feeds U.S. East Coast refineries served by Canada.
According to international oil market reports, US refineries’ traditional suppliers, Nigeria, is to seek alternative customers and is feeling the pinch of the new Canadian competition in its established
Informed Presidency sources said this is probably why the President is yet to sign the 2013 budget and may ask for a review of the budget benchmark to accommodate the new reality in the international oil market in order to edge against a foreseeable crash of oil prices. Looking at the global economic outlook from the IMF perspective, there is no hope that Nigeria may have the financial muscle to achieve the 2013 budget outlay.
Mr. Olivier Blanchard, chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, speaking at a news conference about an update of the IMF’s World Economic Report said the IMF cut its global growth forecasts and now projects a second year of contraction in the euro region as progress in battling Europe’s debt crisis fails to produce an economic recovery.
Blanchard said “In particular, the growth numbers are not enough to make a dent to the unemployment rate in advanced economies.” The IMF foresees Spain leading the contraction in the euro area, while growth slows in the region’s largest economy.
Economic Contraction The IMF forecast for a second year of economic contraction reflects “delays in the transmission of lower sovereign spreads and improved bank liquidity to private sector borrowing conditions,” as uncertainty remains over ending the turmoil that has engulfed nations from Ireland to Cyprus, according to the report. The fund expects the region’s outlook to improve, forecasting a return to 1 per cent growth in 2014. It sees the world economy expanding 4.1 per cent next year, 0.1 percentage point less than in October.
In the U.S., “underlying economic conditions remain on track,” the IMF said as it cut its forecast for the world’s largest economy to 2 per cent from 2.1 per cent in 2013 and raised it 0.1 percentage point to 3 per cent next year. The priority is for Congress to avoid too much deficit reduction too soon, reach an agreement between Republicans and Democrats to raise the debt ceiling and craft a plan to reduce debt over the medium term, according to the report.
Japan Forecast While the forecast for was left unchanged at 1.2 per cent this year amid fiscal and monetary plans to stimulate its economy, the fund cut the 2014 prediction by 0.4 percentage point to 0.7 per cent. Fiscal expansion is “going to help growth in the short run, no question,” Blanchard said. At the same time “when you start with such a level of debt and without a medium term credible fiscal consolidation plan, increasing the fiscal deficit in the short run is a very risky thing to do.”
Commodities exporters will feel the pinch of falling prices, with oil now seen slipping 5.1 per cent instead of 1 per cent, according to the report. While supportive policies have helped buoy growth in some emerging market countries in recent months, there’s less space for such action now, it said. Growth forecasts for were cut to 3.5 per cent this year from 4 per cent and to 4 per cent from 4.2 per cent in 2014. was lowered 0.1 percentage point to 5.9 per cent this year and was left unchanged at 6.4 per cent in 2014.
China Forecast The IMF didn’t change its forecast for seen growing 8.2 per cent this year and 8.5 per cent in 2014. “It’s not the rates that we saw before the crisis, but these rates are long gone,” Blanchard said of emerging countries. “Things in general are fine.” He also dismissed concerns about “currency wars” raised by last week as “very much overblown.” European policymakers had joined Japan in bemoaning the economic cost of rising exchange rates.
“Countries have to take the right measures to get their own economies back to health,” with measures including monetary and fiscal policies, Blanchard said. “To the extent that we think the policies are appropriate, then the implications in terms of exchange rates are also appropriate.” In , German growth was cut by 0.3 percentage point to 0.6 per cent in 2013 and is seen accelerating to 1.4 per cent next year, from 1.3 per cent.
Spain Contraction Spain will contract 1.5 per cent this year, compared with 1.3 per cent in October and is seen growing 0.8 per cent in 2014, 0.2 percentage point less than before. Italy will shrink 1 per cent in 2013 rather than 0.7 per cent seen in October, and expand 0.5 per cent in 2014, unchanged from three months ago, according to the IMF report released today.
Here at home, a Nigerian financial expert, Managing Director, Financial Derivative Company Limited, Mr. Bismark Rewane, said; “There is high potential of recovery in major sectors after 2012’s slow output. There will be improved power output; inflation would decline to about 9.5per cent, food prices to trend downwards and declining interest rate. Furthermore, Nigeria’s nominal GDP is estimated to reach $300 billion in 2013. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rebasing is expected to take place this year and as such, would alter the base year to 2008 from 1990.”
He said that by carrying out the exercise, Nigeria will be emulating Malaysia and South Africa which rebased their GDPs from 2000 to 2005 each and Ghana- from 1993 to 2006. He said rebasing the GDP would make the rich richer and poor poorer while the country’s growth trajectory will decline.
Professor Akpan Ekpo, Director-General, West African Institute of Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM), said, “Nigeria has potentials for growth. If things are right in this country, foreign investors will come into the country in 2013. There is no need for government to lavish money unnecessarily by taking government officials abroad to spend huge sums of money on accommodation, feeding and other allowances just to woo investors. Nigeria is a sleeping giant and there are potentials.”
Prof. Ekpo, however, called on the government to urgently address security problem, saying, “Foreign investors cannot come to Nigeria when the security of their lives is not guaranteed. “ Another issue bedeviling the country is governance. The issue of governance and leadership should be looked into. Our value system is not helping us where people worship corrupt leaders. I expect the CBN to reduce the interest rate so as to attract the manufacturing sector to borrow from the banking sector and also the inflation to fall so as to increase the purchasing power of the people. ”
Bade-Ajidahun noted that the trend so far in the Nigerian foreign exchange market has been quite disappointing. This, according to him, was caused largely by the poor economic performance of the country, insecurity issues, and poorly implemented economic policy.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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