Nigerian press zooms in on call by WTO, World Bank for better trade deal for Nigeria, others

APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The call by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and World Bank for the advancement in trade negotiations for developing economies, including Nigeria is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday.
The Guardian reports that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and World Bank have called for advancement in trade negotiations for developing economies, including Nigeria.
They made this call in ‘Trade in Services for Development’, a quarterly report jointly released on Monday during a virtual meeting monitored by The Guardian.
The advancement, they said, would help developing countries gain more from expanded trade and investment in services. They noted that trade, economic diversification and deeper integration provide key channels through which broader developmental aims could be pursued.
The growth of developing economies’ services exports has exceeded the global average in the past two decades. But the report said more need to be done to fully realize the contribution of services trade to development.
The publication was launched by the WTO Director-General, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and the World Bank President, Ajay Banga.
“The future of trade is services, digital and green and it must be inclusive. This new publication translates that conviction into a call for action. It documents how services trade has become a key ingredient in our members’ growth and development strategies, including by helping countries diversify and expand their export baskets, making them more resilient to external shocks,” Okonjo-Iweala said.
“The single best way to drive a nail into the coffin of poverty is by giving people a job, and in today’s world and tomorrow’s economy, delivering jobs means a very sharp focus on services. We need to build the tracks for the services train to run on, to run smoothly, quickly and at scale,” Banga noted.
The newspaper says that in a renewed bid to avert disasters caused by floods across the country, Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency, (NEMA), Mustapha Ahmed, has sought a retightening of existing partnership with the Nigeria Air Force, (NAF), in the area of disaster management.
Leading a delegation to the office of the Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Hassan Abubakar, at the NAF headquarters in Abuja yesterday, the DG said recent events unflooding has well as the weather forecast has made it imperative for both agencies to re-strengthen their existing partnership towards safeguarding the lives and property of Nigerians.
In a statement signed by the Public Relations Officer, (PRO), of the agency, Ezekiel Manzo, the DG noted that in view of increasing occurrence of disasters including the weather forecast which may affect some parts of the country this year, “The time has come when NEMA will require the support of the Nigerian Air Force in the areas of search and rescue and transportation of personnel, equipment and other life-saving relief items.
“With the current growing rate of occurrence and increasing level of severity of disasters in Nigeria and across the world, it has become necessary for NEMA to strengthen its partnership with the Nigerian Air Force to save lives in times of emergency and to promote disaster risk reduction.”
Ahmed also revealed that the present situation of the rainy season has begun to confirm the earlier predicted floods as evidence in the havoc it wrecked in some states including the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT), Abuja.
He reaffirmed confidence in the existing partnership between the two organizations saying “NEMA and the Nigeria air force have conducted series of life saving simulation exercises to test the level of preparedness of emergency response and develop a common language of communication to foster better understanding of life saving roles and responsibilities of frontline actors in times of emergency.
The DG assured that NEMA will always support the NAF as a critical partner especially in the area of search and rescue operations, medical evacuation and the air drop of relief materials to inaccessible locations during emergencies.
Responding, NAF;s Abubakar said his agency would continue to discharge its responsibilities in the areas of providing supports to civil authorities whenever is required.
The Punch reports that a member of the Monetary Policy Committee, Adeola Adenikinju, has said Nigerian banks operating cost is higher than other countries and should be reduced.
The Central Bank of Nigeria released this in his personal statement made at the last MPC meeting.
In his report, he said, “Interest margins to total operating income declined from 58.1 per cent in March 2023 to 50.5 per cent in April 2023.
“However, operating cost to operating income declined marginally from 70.6 per cent to 70.5 per cent between March and April 2023.
“The high operating cost environment of the banking sector should be addressed. In other climes, the ratio is 23.5 per cent in Turkey, 50.6 per cent in Brazil, 41.0 per cent in Malaysia, 62.0 per cent in South Africa, 43.2 per cent in Angola, 35.2 per cent in Egypt, Kenya is 45.2 per cent and Ghana, 46.1 per cent.”
He said the report on the banking system stability review presented to members of the MPC members on financial soundness indicators remained positive, and showed that the banking system remained strong, sound, and resilient.
The capital adequacy ratio stood at 12.8 per cent in April 2023, still within the prudential requirement of between 10 per cent and 15 per cent, he said.
According to him, “Non-performing loans ratio declined from 4.5 per cent in March 2023 to 4.4 per cent in April 2023.
“Liquidity ratio rose to 45.3 per cent in April 2023, from 43.8 per cent in March 2023.”
The newspaper says that the International Air Transport Association has reported a significant increase in Nigeria’s passenger traffic and seat capacity, reaching nearly 60 per cent above the levels recorded in 2019. This growth marks a continuation of the positive results already seen in the final quarter of 2022.
The association disclosed this during its recent Focus Africa Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
It stated that African airlines witnessed a remarkable 87.1 per cent year-on-year growth in revenue passenger kilometres in the first quarter of 2023, bringing RPKs to only 9.4 per cent below their 2019 levels.
The conference, which attracted the participation of more than 400 aviation leaders and stakeholders, tackled critical issues affecting air travel and cargo transportation in Africa, covering topics such as safety, regulation, sustainability, trade, and economic growth in the region.
There are divergent outcomes in terms of origin-destination passenger traffic and airline-scheduled seat capacity for specific countries in Africa.
In Northern Africa, Egypt, and Morocco experienced a substantial increase of 29 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively, in passenger traffic during Q1 2023 compared to the same period in 2019.
Airline capacity in Egypt also kept pace with passenger traffic, growing by 30 per cent in comparison to the first quarter of 2019.
GIK/APA