The $750 million approval for power recovery grant by the World Bank and the Ghanaian President’s apology for the demolition of the Nigerian High Commission’s staff building under construction are the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday.
The Vanguard reports that the World Bank has approved a 750 million dollars International Development Association (IDA) credit for Nigeria’s Power Sector Recovery Operation (PSRO) to improve electricity supply.
The Bank, in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday, said that the target was to also achieve financial and fiscal sustainability and enhance accountability in Nigeria’s power sector.
The Bank explained that about 47 percent of Nigerians did not have access to grid electricity and those who had access, faced regular power cuts.
According to the bank, the economic cost of power shortages in Nigeria is estimated at around 28 billion dollars, which is equivalent to two per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The newspaper also reports that the Presidency said yesterday that President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana spoke with President Muhammadu Buhari, expressing his sincere apologies for demolition of a building on the premises of Nigerian High Commission in Accra, Ghana.
The report quoted the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, as saying in a statement yesterday that President Akufo-Addo in a telephone call, told President Buhari that he has directed full investigation into the incident.
“Earlier in the day, it further emerged that some suspects had been arrested, and will be arraigned in court,” the statement said.
The Punch reports that President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday raised concerns over the planned single currency for the Economic Community of West African States.
He said the plan for the single currency, Eco, could be in serious jeopardy, unless member states complied with agreed processes of reaching the collective goal.
The Eco is the proposed name for the common currency that the West African Monetary Zone plans to introduce in the framework of ECOWAS.
According to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, the President delivered Nigeria’s position at a virtual extraordinary meeting of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the West African Monetary Zone.
The newspaper also said that the International Monetary Fund has stated Nigeria’s major fiscal challenge is its “very low revenue” and not so much of its debt profile. The low revenue, it explained, had led to low debt-servicing capacity and limited funding for critical sectors such as education, health and social welfare.
The IMF said it considered Nigeria’s public debt stock average at 29 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product as of the end of 2019, when compared to emerging and developing market average, which is about 53 percent of GDP.
It noted that the 29 percent includes not just government’s debt, but takes into account overall public sector liabilities, such as Central Bank of Nigeria’s overdraft, Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria’s debt and other things.
IMF’s Mission Chief and Senior Resident Representative for Nigeria, Jesmin Rahman, said these on Tuesday at a webinar hosted by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, Fiscal Policy Roundtable and Tax Investment and Competitiveness Policy Commission.
The Sun newspaper says that the Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) has raised the alarm over the country’s foreign exchange situation.
Its President, Mr. Aminu Gwadabe, who disclosed this during a live programme on Channels Television, Business Morning, monitored in Lagos yesterday, said the forex crises was as a result of massive speculation, hoarding and panic buying, which has put the currency under serious pressure.
He declared that about $3 billion was waiting to be wired offshore by investors should the pandemic disappear and economic activities resume fully.
He stated that supply from other sources and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has reduced drastically.
The newspaper also reports that the United States Census Bureau (USCB) has disclosed that Nigeria recorded a total of $7.79 billion in trade with the United States in the last four months.
In its latest data the bureau stated that total U.S export to Nigeria was $3.18 billion while import from Nigeria stood at $4.61 billion.
It also revealed that in spite of COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, Nigeria passenger vehicles imports rose by 8.08 per cent to $220.51 million compared to last year.
The US bureau said that in January 2020, the United States exported $186.9 million worth of goods to Nigeria, while $177 million goods received by Lagos ports and other seaports respectively.
ThisDay reports that Nigeria yesterday recorded 452 new cases of COVID-19, bringing to 21,371 the number of confirmed cases in the country.
This is coming as the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said the fight against COVID-19 has received a boost following “the recent finding that the steroid dexamethasone has life-saving potential for critically ill COVID-19 patients.”
Announcing the new cases yesterday, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said that “Nigeria has recorded 21,371 confirmed cases of COVID-19. 7,338 persons have been discharged, while 533 persons have died.”
GIK/APA