Nigeria: Press spotlights arrest of Binance executive by Kenyan police, others

The report that the Kenya Police Service has arrested fleeing Binance executive, Nadeem Anjarwalla, as the International Criminal Police Organisation moves to extradite him to Nigeria within the week is one of th trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Monday.
The Punch reports that the Kenya Police Service has arrested fleeing Binance executive, Nadeem Anjarwalla, as the International Criminal Police Organisation moves to extradite him to Nigeria within the week.
Government sources familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak on the matter confirmed the development to our correspondent on Sunday night.
One of the sources said, “Binance executive, Nadeem Anjarwalla, has been arrested by the Kenya Police Service, and he would be extradited to Nigeria this week by INTERPOL.”
Another source noted, “As we had said before that Anjarwalla would be extradited, he has been arrested in Kenya, and he’ll be extradited to Nigeria this week.”
The PUNCH had exclusively reported that the Federal Government had traced Anjarwalla to Kenya, following his escape from lawful custody in Nigeria.
Following the development, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the International Criminal Police, the Nigeria Police Force, and the Kenyan Police Service have deepened talks to quicken Anjarwalla’s extradition.
The newspaper says that the Presidency has said it is set to launch about 2,700 Compressed Natural Gas-powered buses and tricycles before May 29 when President Bola Tinubu turns one year in office.
It said the federal government was set to deliver 100 conversion workshops and 60 refuelling sites spread across 18 states before the end of 2024.
The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, revealed this in a statement he signed on Sunday titled ‘Presidential CNG initiative set for rollout.’
“From the end of May, Nigeria will take some baby steps to join such nations that already have large fleets of CNG vehicles.
“All is now ready for delivery of the first set of critical assets for deployment and launch of the CNG initiative ahead of the first anniversary of the Tinubu administration on May 29.
“About 2,500 of the tricycles will be ready before May 29, 2024…working towards delivering 200 units before the first anniversary of the Tinubu administration,” said the Presidency.
It added that in all, over 600 buses are targeted for production in the first phase which will be accomplished in 2024.
In October 2023, about five months after the removal of petrol subsidy, Tinubu launched the Presidential CNG Initiative to deliver cheaper, safer and more climate-friendly energy.
The CNG Initiative was designed to deliver compressed natural gas, especially for mass transit.
The Guardian reports that the manufacturers of consumer goods are counting their losses to high cost of raw materials due to inflation and exchange rate volatility, which resulted to N266 billion loss in 2023, from profit of 320.5 billion in 2022, a development which would likely keep the prices of goods high in the months ahead despite positive trends in exchange rate in recent weeks.
The manufacturers have recorded about 25.5 per cent rise in cost of raw materials in 2023 and Financial Vanguard findings indicate that current stocks of raw materials in their warehouses were procured at even higher cost through first quarter of 2024.
While most of them tracked by Financial Vanguard have recorded erosion of profit, declaring massive losses in their full year financial statement, the companies have strategized to recover the losses through inflation targeting price mark ups in 2024.
Nigeria’s headline inflation surged to 33.2 percent at end of First Quarter 2024, from 21.8 percent at the beginning of last year while exchange rate surged to average N1500/$1 in the Q1’24 from N650/ $1 in the corresponding period of last year.
The manufacturers said these two developments resulted in an unprecedented rise in the cost of raw material inputs and cost of producing consumer goods, thereby resulting in massive rise in prices of goods and services which Nigerians have continued to bear.
Financial statements of some leading Fast Moving Consumer Goods Companies, FMCG, showed that the amount spent by the companies on raw materials’ procurement rose to N2.77 trillion in 2023 up from N2.21 trillion in 2022, indicating a 25.5 percent increase.
The newspaper says that Mr Aigboje Aig-Imokhuede, Chairman of Access Holdings Plc, has expressed confidence about raising 300 million dollars in capital for Access Bank, considering the bank’s strong market position and shareholders’ support.
Aig-Imokhuede said this in an interview on the sideline of Access Holdings’ second Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Lagos.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on March 29, directed commercial banks in Nigeria with international authorisation to shore up their capital base to N500 billion and national banks to N200 billion.
Similarly, non-interest banks with national and regional authorisation will increase their capital to N20 billion and N10 billion, respectively.
The recapitalisation exercise is expected to commence from April 1, through March 31, 2026.
Consequently, the shareholders of Access Bank at the AGM unanimously backed the Group’s plan to establish a capital raising programme of up to $1.5 billion.
They also agreed to the subset initiative to raise up to N365 billion specifically, through a Rights Issue of ordinary shares to its shareholders.
The proceeds of the rights issue will be used to support ongoing working capital needs, including organic growth funding for the group’s banking and other non-banking subsidiaries
Aig-Imokhuede explained that having announced to embark on a capital raising through Right Issue, he was confident that the group’s shareholders would support the bank in the journey.
GIK/APA