The demand made by the Middle Belt Forum on the Federal Government to yield to public demand of unveiling the sponsors of Boko Haram, especially the 400 Bureau de Change operators as identified by the United Arab Emirates authorities, and absolve itself of culpability is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Monday.
The Guardian reports that the Middle Belt Forum (MBF) has challenged the Federal Government to yield to public demand of unveiling the sponsors of Boko Haram, especially the 400 Bureau de Change (BDC) operators as identified by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities, and absolve itself of culpability.
This was contained in communiqué released after a two-day National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of MBF, at the weekend, in Akwanga, Nasarawa State.
Signed by the National President of the forum, Dr. Pogu Bitrus, the communiqué expressed grave concern, especially given the report by the United Nations (UN) that the Federal Government secretly engaged in ‘Sulhu’ (negotiations) with Boko Haram terrorists and allegedly offering them monetary rewards.
Opposing the project and any form of amnesty for insurgents and terror groups who have their hands dripping with blood, MBF said: “NEC is also vehemently opposed to any planned recruitment of so-called repentant terrorists into the national security architecture.”
The forum also demanded 100 per cent implementation of electronic transmission of election results.
“Since democracy is about the wishes and aspirations of the people, we call on both the National Assembly and the Presidency to reconsider their position on electronic transmission of election results and yield to the wishes of the Nigerians, who are demanding 100 per cent implementation of e-transmission of electoral results to ensure credibility and transparency in the electoral process.”
It observed that the country had been plunged into a critical situation of insecurity occasioned by the activities of terrorists, armed Fulani militia, kidnappers, and other criminal elements.
The Punch says that the Central Bank of Nigeria has assured members of the public that it will not convert the foreign exchange in the domiciliary accounts of customers into naira, as falsely purported on social media.
A circulation purportedly issued by the CBN claimed that the regulator had directed deposit money banks and international money transfer operators to convert domiciliary account holdings into naira. In a circular issued on Saturday, the CBN said it would never contemplate such a line of action, adding that the speculation was completely false and aimed at triggering panic in the foreign exchange market.
The circular titled, ‘CBN categorically denies and strongly condemns peddlers of rumour on domiciliary account holdings.’ was signed by the Director of Corporate Communication, Osita Nwanisobi. It read in part,
“We wish to reiterate that the bank has not contemplated, and will never contemplate any such line of action. “The speculation is a completely false narrative aimed at triggering panic in the foreign exchange market.”
It added, “Operators of domiciliary accounts and other members of the banking public are therefore advised to completely disregard these fictitious documents and malicious rumours and go about their legitimate foreign exchange transactions.
The newspaper reports that Twitter ban in Nigeria has extended to 100 days, and in that time frame the nation has lost N247.61bn.
The Federal Government had on June 4 suspended Twitter after the social media platform deleted a tweet by the President, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.). Consequently, telcos on June 5 blocked access to Twitter after receiving a directive by the Nigerian Communications Commission.
On this, the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria had said, “We, The Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria wish to confirm that our members have received formal instructions from the Nigerian Communications Commission, the industry regulator, to suspend access to Twitter.
“ALTON has conducted a robust assessment of the directive in accordance with internationally accepted principles.”
According to the NetBlocks Cost of Shutdown Tool, the blockade costs Nigeria’s economy N103.17m ($250,600) every hour. It has been 2,400 hours since the FG banned Twitter. ecently, the Presidency through the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said it was close to an agreement with Twitter and would soon lift the ban. Nigeria is a member of an exclusive list of countries such as China, Iran, and North Korea where Twitter is banned.
The Sun says that if all things were to work as planned, then the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will on October 1, this year unveil its e-Naira, the nation’s first digital currency for use by businesses, individuals and households longing for faster means of transactions settlement.
This much was confirmed by the bank on August 30, 2021, when it announced Bitt Inc. as technical partner for the formal introduction of the e-naira digital currency due to become a legal tender with non-interest-bearing asset status.
Governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, has since committing to achieve 95 percent financial inclusion by 2024 implemented several policies to realise this objective.
For him, the e-Naira offers yet another critical step in the efforts of the regulator towards closing the nation’s 8.5 percent financial inclusion gender gap to enable it achieve the 2024 financial inclusion target.
The Governor had listed other benefits of the e-Naira option to include faster cross-border transactions, accelerated financial inclusion, cheaper and faster remittance inflows.
Emefiele had at different fora where he had had the opportunity to market the electric naira product highlighted in his various presentations that the product would facilitate easier targeted social interventions, monetary policy effectiveness, payment systems and tax collection efficiency in addition to making governmental remittances easier.
The Leadership says that the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has called for adjustment in the current revenue sharing formula for states and local government areas.
The Chamber in a statement issued to LEADERSHIP, said that “A court judgment restrained the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) from collecting Value Added Tax (VAT) and empowered the Rivers State government to collect tax from within the state.
“Following this, the Rivers and Lagos states’ houses of assembly passed respective Bills into law in their states to start collection 0f VAT.
The Court of Appeal in Abuja has ordered a stay of execution of the court judgement pending the determination of the appeal filed by the FIRS.”
The director-general of LCCI, Dr. Chinyere Almona, said that “The first concern of the Chamber is the confusion that businesses face as to who is in charge of VAT collection. This is not healthy for the business community and planning.
“We, however, hail the swift intervention of the Court of Appeal to reduce the uncertainties surrounding these controversies.” She stated further those businesses should not be subjected to unnecessary hurdles and made to pay the same tax twice from different agencies, saying that the federal government should urgently establish an understanding with states on what is best for the nation and businesses.
ThisDay reports that the Executive Director, Sabre Works, Services, Kayode Fagbadebo, has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to create more funding windows to ensure that players in the real estate sector have different options of getting funds to drive investments in the sector.
Fagbadebo, who disclosed this in Lagos during the unveiling of a brand ambassador of the company noted that government has a lot of work to do especially in providing long term funding to players in the sector to finance projects.
He appealed to government to support players in the sectors in their bid to provide affordable housing for Nigerians, noting that affordable housing comes in different ways, it could come in terms of cheap rentals.
He hinted that there is a need for the government to setup an organisation to regulate rent to ensure that it is affordable in line with the actual cost of building those houses.
He further explained that as part of efforts to provide affordable housing government should give incentives to developers, people should able to able to pay conveniently in installment, and the prices should be affordable when compared to the actual cost.
GIK/APA