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Forex inflow: CBN tasks banks to support indigenous companies

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Forex inflow: CBN tasks banks to support indigenous companies

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) team at Lagos Free Zone, Ibeju-Lekki, for monitoring, evaluation and assessment

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has urged Nigerian banks to support indigenous companies in order to increase foreign exchange inflows and boost economic growth.

A CBN team on inspection of projects funded through Deposit Money Banks in Lagos gave the advice late on Friday.

Also read: OFIs: CBN sets criteria for enrollment in credit risk management system

It noted that the apex bank was counting on these companies to expand export earnings and achieve the goal of 200 billion dollars in foreign exchange repatriation in three to four years.

The newsmen report that the CBN team visited the Pinnacle Oil and Gas FZE, Candel Company Ltd., Lagos Free Zone and Sana Building Systems, all in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos State.

The Head, Legal Services Department of CBN, Mr Kofo Salam-Alada, during a visit to Candel Company Ltd., called on banks to support Nigerian companies to grow production in the country.

“With what the company is doing I believe that bankers should actually start coming for them; it’s not just the Central Bank’s Intervention Funds, Nigerian banks should actually seek them to see how they can partner with them to drive it forward.

“The key thing that Nigerians must also know is that we need to support our own, not just in terms of employment generation; for the CBN that is interested in increasing foreign exchange in this country, it is something that needs to be supported,” he said.

Director, Banking Supervision Department, Haruna Mustapha, said what the company was doing was quite complementary to the apex bank’s RT200, designed to boost the non-oil sector.

“Candel stands at two critical junctures; it is a manufacturing outfit. CBN recently introduced the RT200 designed to boost the non-oil sector and what Candel is doing here is quite complementary to that policy.

“Again, it is providing the needed support to the agricultural sector, which will feed into the policy of the government to diversify the productive base of the Nigerian economy.

“Ultimately we expect to see a solid impact, especially when you consider the various value chain this business touches.

“So, we need more support for companies like Candel and if we can have them insufficient critical mass, the future looks great for Nigeria,” Mustapha said.

Director of Development Finance, CBN, Yila Yusuf, noted that the bank, under its Commercial Agro Credit Scheme, disbursed N2 billion to Candel, adding that they were impressed with what the funds were used for.

“Candel is a company that we are aware of, we have given them N2 billion under our Commercial Agro Credit Scheme, fully paid through First Bank.

“We came here to see, essentially the manufacturing line; they have new products and we are impressed with what we have seen.

“The Central Bank will continue to support and work with them, quite a number of jobs, both direct and indirect that we have seen on the floor line,” he said.

Charles Anudu, Chairman, Candel Company Ltd., who noted that manufacturing companies suffered a lot of difficulties doing business in Nigeria, urged banks to be development-oriented as CBN.

“We suffer a lot of disadvantages manufacturing in Nigeria; our cost profile is very prohibitive.

You know in Nigeria you have to generate your own power and do everything, everything is expensive.

“Yet, we are still competing against countries, exporting to Nigeria, whereas my competitors elsewhere are getting export rebates.

“When somebody exports from China for instance, he already makes a profit because he gets the 15 per cent paid to him or her by his government, I get no such support.

“Meanwhile, here all sorts of regulators are on our neck; the exchange rate is a bottleneck because we still have to import a lot of the materials we use, and the interest rate is prohibitive,” he said.

The CBN team was also impressed with developments at Sana Steel Company.

Members of the team said they were happy that some of the finished materials were bound for export to neighboring countries, which according to them would increase foreign exchange inflow.

They were also delighted that most of the workers at the factory were all Nigerians operating advanced welding machines, different types of computers, and machines.

The CBN team, therefore, said with what it had seen on the ground, it was possible to meet the objectives of the real sector support facilities.

The team stressed the need for private sector involvement to grow and develop the economy.

President of Sana Building Systems, Ken Krieger, appreciated the team and pleaded for more funds for his company to do more.

“This factory is the result of the funding that we have received.

Without that support, honestly, we could not have made it happen.

“So, we are very grateful that the CBN is diligently rebuilding the economy, we appreciate and we look forward to some more loans,’’ he said.

Banking & Finance

CBN Revokes Licenses Of 4,173 BDCs

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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has announced the revocation of the operational licences of 4,173 Bureaux De Change (BDCs) for failure to observe some regulatory provisions.

According to a statement issued by CBN’s Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, Mrs Hakama Sidi on Friday in Abuja, the move is an exercise of the powers conferred on it under the Bank
and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA).

Sidi said that the list of affected BDC operators was available on the Bank’s
website.

Forex inflow: CBN tasks banks to support indigenous companies

She said that the affected institutions failed to observe at least one of the following regulatory provisions:

They are payment of all necessary fees, including licence renewal, within the stipulated period in line with the guidelines.

Others are the rendition of returns in line with the guidelines and compliance with directives and circulars of the CBN, particularly Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT), and Counter-Proliferation Financing (CPF) regulations.

“The CBN is revising the regulatory and supervisory guidelines for BDC operations in Nigeria.

” Compliance with the new requirements will be mandatory for all
stakeholders in the sector when the revised guidelines become effective.

“Members of the public are hereby advised to take note and be guided accordingly,” she said. (NAN

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Banking & Finance

NGX: Stock Market Performance Indices Up By 0.33%

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Stock Market Gains N18bn; FTN Cocoa Processors, Prestige Assurance lead Losers’ Chart 

…Guinea Insurance leads the losers’ chart

The stock market on Tuesday maintained a bullish trend, bringing the benchmark indices up by 0.33 percent, to close at N39.349 trillion as against N39.219 trillion recorded on Monday.

Specifically, the market capitalisation gained N130 billion, representing 0.33 percent.

Also, the All-Share Index gained 327.35 points or 0.33 percent to stand at 71,907.26 as against 71,669.91

The increase was due to sustained buying interest in MTN Nigeria and Tier-one bank stocks; namely Guaranty Trust Company(GTCo) Access Holdings, among others.

As a result, the Year-to-Date (YTD) return rose to 40.30 percent.

On top stock traders, Julius Berger led by volume with N42.54 million, valued at N14.73 billion, while GTCo was the most traded stock by value with N84.92 billion units traded.

The gainers table was led by Infinity with 9.79 percent to close at N2.13 per share.

SCOA Nigeria Plc followed with a gain of 9.45 percent to close at N1.62, while Daar Communication rose by 8.82 percent to close at N0.37 per share.

Royal Exchange increased by 8.47 percent to close at N0.64, while Neimeth appreciated by 7.89 percent to close at N2.05 per share.

Stock Market Gains N18bn; FTN Cocoa Processors, Prestige Assurance lead Losers’ Chart 

On the other hand, Guinea Insurance led the losers’ chart in percentage terms by 10 percent to close at N0.27 per share.

This was followed by Conoil with 9.83 percent to close at N78.00 per share.

Juli shed 9.72 percent to close at N0.65, Omatek closed at 8.75 percent, indicating a loss of N0.73, while Thomaswy lost 8.13 percent to close at N3.05.

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Banking & Finance

Reps Committee Issues Warrant Of Arrest On CBN Governor, Others

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Forex inflow: CBN tasks banks to support indigenous companies

The House of Representatives Committee on Public Petition has issued a warrant of arrest on the Central Bank Governor, Mr Olayemi Cardoso, the Accountant General of the Federation, Mrs Oluwatoyin Madein, and 17 others for refusing to appear before it to answer questions on their operations.

This followed the adoption of a motion by Rep. Fred Agbedi (PDP-Bayelsa) at the committee’s hearing on Tuesday.

Moving the motion, Agbedi said that the arrest warrant had become inevitable following the attitude of the invitees.

He said that the parliament worked with time and the CEOs had been invited four times but failed to respond.

He said that the CEOs should be brought to appear before the committee by the Inspector General of Police through a warrant of arrest after due diligence by the Speaker, Rep. Tajudeen Abbas.

In his ruling, the Chairman of the committee, Rep.    Micheal Irom (APC-Cross River)  said that the I-G should ensure the CEOs were brought before the committee on Dec. 14.

Earlier, the petitioner, Mr Fidelis Uzowanem, said that the petition was anchored on the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) report of 2021.

CBN confirms evacuation of banknotes, directs banks to open for weekend operations

He said that the report was a summary of the transactions in the oil and gas industry for 2021 which NEITI could to be challenged.

“We took up the challenge to examine the report and discovered that what NEITI put together is a report is only a consolidation of fraud that has been going on in the oil and gas industry.

“It dates back to 2016 because was have been following and we put up a petition to this committee to examine what has happened.

“The 2024 budget of 27.5 trillion that has been proposed can be confidently be funded from the recoverable amount that we identified in the NEITI report.

“It is basically a concealment of illegal transactions that took place in NNPCL, they have been in the sink with some oil companies where some companies that did not produce crude were paid cash core, an amount paid for crude oil production,” he said.
He added: “We also found that the cash core payment was used as a channel for laundering funds by NNPCL and we found out that NEITI was able to conceal it in its report.

“In 2021 NEITI reported that Total Exploration and Production Nigeria-Ltd was paid 168 million dollars but examination of submission by the company shows that it received 292 million dollars.

“In other words, 124 million dollars was laundered by NNPCL through Total because monies that have been officially paid to Total could not have been concealed if it were not meant for fraudulent purposes.

“Also for Chevron, the dollar payment NEITI puts forward in its report was 76 million dollars but document emanating from Chevron showed that they received as much as 267 million dollars.”

“In other words, 191 million was laundered under the cover of Chevron and NEITI concealed that; also, Nigeria Agip Company received 188 million dollars but none of it was reported by NEITI”.

Some of those to be arrested were the Chief Executive Officer, of National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), of Ethiop Eastern Exploration and Production Company Ltd, as well as the CEO of Western Africa Exploration and Production.

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