The Punch reports that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation saw its revenue from petrol sales plunge by 47.38 percent to N107.61bn in April as supply dropped amid the coronavirus lockdown and the reduction in the pump price of the product.
The Petroleum Products Marketing Company is principally engaged in the supply and marketing of refined petroleum products to the marketers/retailers on behalf of the NNPC.
Following the sharp drop in global crude oil prices, the pump price of petrol, which is still being regulated by the government, was reduced to N125 per litre from N145 per litre on March 18, 2020.
The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency further announced on March 31 a price band of N123.50-N125 per litre of petrol for the month of April.
The newspaper says that the Central Bank of Nigeria has said that women will be given 60 percent of the N220bn Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund as part of its developmental role and mandate of promoting a sound financial system.
It also said that two per cent of the wholesale component of the fund would go to economically active persons living with disabilities and 10 percent provided for start-up businesses.
The banks said this in a circular on, “Guidelines for micro, small and medium enterprises development fund for non-interest financial institutions,” which was signed by the Director, Development Finance Department of the CBN.
The circular said, “The sub-sector is characterised by huge financing gap which hinders the development of MSMEs. “Section 6.10 of the Revised Microfinance Policy, Regulatory and Supervisory Framework for Nigeria, stipulates that ‘a Microfinance Development Fund shall be set up, primarily to provide for the wholesale funding requirements of MFBs/MFIs’.
The Sun newspaper reports that Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, yesterday lamented the 65 percent decline in Federal Government’s revenue inflow in the first half of the year, warning the trend was likely to continue into the third quarter.
Speaking during a capacity building workshop for Special Advisers and Technical Assistants of Ministers of Federal Government in Abuja, the minister said that the full implementation of the lock-down and social distancing measures led to a near complete shut-down of economic activities, lay-offs across most sectors; including loss of income, and a drop in average household purchasing power.
“All of this took place against the backdrop of the most recent National Bureau of Statistics five-year household survey on poverty in Nigeria, which has found that the annual household income is less than N137,000 (equivalent to approx. N11,000 per month) for more than 40 percent of Nigerian households.
The Nation newspaper says that the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) has shared a total of ₦651.184 billion as June 2020 Federation Account Revenue to Federal, States and Local Governments Councils and relevant agencies in the country.
However it is unclear where the government got money to augment revenue shared for the month. In April, 2020 Minister of Finance Budget and National Planning Zainab Ahmed announced the government will approach the Nigeria Sovereign Investments Authority (NSIA) for $150 million to make for the expected shortfall in revenue as a result of coronavirus pandemic.
When contacted, Managing Director of the NSIA, Mr. Uche Orji, told The Nation: “We have not received a formal request. The funds are now in cash and ready for disbursement once we get the request we will release the money.
The newspaper reports that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has released N16 billion for Anchor Borrowers Programme.
The apex bank has also been applauded for its new foreign exchange policy restricting forex access for maize imports.
The Maize Association of Nigeria (MAAN) said the apex bank acted in the best interest of the economy, urging farmers to explore the opportunities presented by the restrictions to increase production capacity.
The MAAN President, Abubakar Bello spoke at a news conference in Abuja, listing the achievement of the last planting season. He said though the association was targeting about 25 million metric tonnes of maize production in this year’s planting season, it might suffer about 25 percent reduction due to COVID-19 pandemic.
ThisDay says that with an average daily loss of N2 billion to inadequate power infrastructure in the country, the Nigerian economy will be deprived of about N720 billion in 2020, an analysis of figures from the Advisory Power Team (APT) of the Office of the Vice President has shown.
Information from the office indicated that the losses were induced by problems associated with gas supply and grid infrastructure challenges in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).
A trend analysis in the industry, which ran from between January and projected to end in December showed a loss of at least N2 billion daily.
Gas unavailability tops the list of problems bedeviling the power sector coupled with failing transmission and distribution infrastructure. Although the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had recently intervened with the approval of over N200 billion to the power sector as a way of sorting out the challenges, the beneficiaries said it was for payments for debts owed in 2019.
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