The declaration by the Nigerian government that there is no plan to increase the pump price of petrol, at least during the Yuletide season is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Thursday.
The Punch reports that for the first time in weeks since the scarcity of petrol began, the Federal Government opened up and declared on Wednesday that there was no plan to increase the pump price of petrol, at least during the Yuletide season.
However, the government’s comments came amid a worsening and persistent fuel scarcity, which spread further on Wednesday across the country. Also, the cost of the commodity rose to as high as N285/litre in some filling stations in Abuja.
Oil marketers stated that the black market cost of petrol in Lagos had risen to about N450/litre, while it sold for more than that price in some other states.
But the government disclosed on Wednesday that there was fuel supply stock that could last the country for 34 days.
This came as a senior official of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited confided in The PUNCH that subsidy on the PMS was becoming unbearable for the oil firm, amid product diversion.
As concerns around fuel price and supply heightened, the government declared that it had no plan to increase the price of petrol, describing comments on petrol price and its availability as speculations.
However, the government, through its Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority, did not state any approved pump price for petrol, neither did it condemn the hike in petrol price by marketers nationwide.
The PUNCH had exclusively reported on Wednesday that the pump price of petrol could hit N400/litre at most filling stations before the end of this year, going by the continued scarcity of the product, according to oil marketers.
The newspaper says that the Central Bank of Nigeria injected $11.24bn into the economy to stabilise the value of the naira from January 2022 to July.
This was obtained in the banking regulator’s monthly economic reports on foreign exchange market developments.
The report showed that $7.6bn was used to stabilise the naira in the first five months of the year.
It stated, “Total foreign exchange sales to authorised dealers by the Bank were $1.75bn in July, a decrease of 15.4 per cent relative to $2.07bn in June. A breakdown shows that foreign exchange sales at the interbank/invisible window and matured swaps decreased by 22.0 per cent and 59.1 per cent, respectively, to $0.13bn and $0.27bn, below their respective levels in the preceding month.
“In contrast, FX sales at Investors and Exporters, Secondary Market Intervention Sales and Small and Medium Enterprises windows rose by 5.8 per cent, 0.6 per cent and 65.7 per cent, respectively, to $0.44bn, $0.72bn, and $0.19bn, compared to their levels in June.”
In earlier report, the CBN said it had intervened in the markets with $1.65bn, $1.39bn and $1.82bn in January, February and March, while the interventions were $1.56bn and $1.18bn in April and May respectively.
The report read, “Total foreign exchange sales to authorised dealers by the bank were $1.18bn, a decrease of 24.4 per cent, below $1.56bn in April.
“A breakdown shows that foreign exchange sales at the Investors and Exporters and interbank/invisible windows decreased by 37.9 per cent and 0.7 per cent to $0.16bn apiece, below their respective levels in the preceding month.
“Similarly, SMIS and matured swap contracts fell by 7.0 per cent and 71.4 pto er cent to $0.64bn and $0.10bn, respectively, compared to the amounts in April. However, foreign exchange sales at the Small and Medium Enterprises window rose by 8.4 per cent to $0.12bn in the review period.”
The CBN has been intervening in the foreign exchange market to stabilise the economy and respond to a growing demand in the market.
Nigeria is mainly an import-dependent country, which makes demand for dollars to import inputs and buy finished products high.
The Guardian reports that the Director of the Bank Examination Department, the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Company (NDIC), Michael Oladele, has disclosed that no less than N911.45 billion has been lost to various Ponzi schemes and related frauds across the country in the last 23 years.
The revelation came as the NDIC sought stronger collaboration among relevant agencies in the financial regulatory space and public support to achieve a breakthrough in the war against Ponzi schemes.
At the workshop for financial correspondents and business editors, which ended yesterday, Oladele said promoters of the schemes have become so sophisticated and creative in their tricks that broad base collaboration is needed to stay ahead of them.
In a paper on ‘Rising Ponzi Schemes and Investment Scams in Nigeria’, Oladele said Nigerians have lost at least N911.45 billion to different Ponzi schemes and related schemes in the last 23 years.
While he admitted poor data on the trends, he said N700 billion was reportedly trapped in private placements in Nigeria in 2016 just as MMM swindled investors of N18 billion. Also, MBA Forex defrauded investors of N171 billion, while another N22.45 billion was lost to Nospecto.
He x-rayed local and global case studies of Ponzi schemes, which are popularly referred to as wonder banks in Nigeria, the history of the frauds, their modes of operation, enablers of the schemes as well as regulatory approaches.
Other areas covered were specific actions by the regulatory authorities, expectations of regulatory authorities, pre-conditions for effective deterrence and responses and possible countermeasures by the investing public.
The newspaper says that President Muhammadu Buhari’s nonchalance to public criticisms of his last trip to London, United Kingdom for a routine medical check-up speaks volumes of his unpresidential attitude and penchants against Nigerians.
In its Editorial entitled “The shame of Buhari’s foreign medical trips”, the newspaper said that public reactions to the trip were largely constructive and predicated on the need to lift up Nigeria’s medical healthcare system from its current morass, along with the thinking that Nigeria’s health facilities should be good enough for the president and Nigerians; and that so long as highly placed public officers can go abroad for routine medical checks using state resources, they will not be motivated to provide standard healthcare at home.
Those arguments are well-intended and ought not to be treated with apparent disdain by the president.
The frequent foreign medical trips of Buhari are not only unprecedented but also demonstrate his disinterest in improving the healthcare system of Nigeria. His preference for foreign, rather than local treatment is unpatriotic and has exposed Nigeria to ridicule among the comity of nations. It paints a poor picture of the country’s healthcare sector and casts doubts on the competence of local medical professionals before the world.
Despite the repeated protests of Nigerians, Buhari’s fondness for medical tourism has not waned, but has rather garnered further momentum. He appears to be either oblivious of, or completely nonchalant about the legal, economical, political and moral implications of this unapologetic attitude.
Another backlash of Buhari’s trip was his failure to transmit power to the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, before embarking on the London trip. According to the leader of Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark, this is unconstitutional and that the President leaving the country without handing over to his deputy on the ground that the President may not exceed 21 days is an act of illegality as there is no place in the Constitution where 21 days was mentioned.
He emphasised that Buhari cannot import his own idea into the Constitution because Section 145 simply provides that the President shall transmit to the National Assembly, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, whenever he will be away on medical vacation.
He asserted that since 2016, Buhari has not missed a single year in his medical sojourn abroad save for 2020 which was a result of the travel restriction arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
GIK/APA