The announcement by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies announced that they will return 400,000 barrels per day to the global oil market in the month of February is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday.
The Guardian reports that the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies announced yesterday that they will return 400,000 barrels per day to the global oil market in the month of February.
The alliance, therefore, decided to stick with its plan on gradual output increase first reached in April 2021.
Oil futures rose yesterday, with global benchmark Brent crude topping $80 a barrel to trade at its highest price in over five weeks.
Under the new plan, Nigeria is expected to pump 1.7 million barrels a day in February, although lingering challenges may undermine the country’s capacity to meet the target, going by recent performances.
Despite a projected 1.86 million barrels daily oil production in the country’s 2021 budget, Nigeria recorded a deficit of almost 200 million barrels in the first 11 months of 2021, due to production challenges.
The deadline for compensation over previous overproduction will be extended until June, according to reports. The alliance is scheduled to meet on February 2 to set production levels for March.
The newspaper says that with less than sixteen months to the end of his tenure, President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Dr. Doyin Salami to serve as his first Chief Economic Adviser.
The administration has witnessed two recessions in less than seven years of its reign with the country taking a bottom position in key economic indices – unemployment and inflation among many others.
The administration has also been consistently knocked for its lackluster management of the economy and dreary outputs of its policies, though the administration has consistently claimed to have inherited a “dying” economy.
However, all along, the office of the Chief Economic Adviser to the President had remained unoccupied. But two years ago, Salami, 59, a frontline economic scholar, was picked to head a hurriedly-inaugurated Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), which many said was established without reference to the National Economic Council (NEC) headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
Speaking on what difference Salami’s new appointment would make, a professor of economics and consultant to the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), Ken Ife, said that “he now has executive power unlike in his previous office, which was purely advisory and on a part-time basis.”
Salami, a 1989 doctorate graduate in economics of Queen Mary College, University of London, until his recent appointment, was Managing Director and Head, Markets Practice, at KAINOS Edge Consulting Limited. He was also a member of the Adjunct Faculty at the Lagos Business School (LBS), Pan-Atlantic University, where he recently attained the rank of a senior fellow/associate professor.
The Punch reports that Nigeria produced a total of 440.774 million barrels of crude oil valued at about N12.4tn between January and November 2021, an analysis of the latest oil production data released by the Federal Government showed.
A document on Crude Oil and Condensate Production for 2021, obtained from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission on Tuesday, indicated that the Federal Government raked in about N12.4tn from crude oil alone sales during the review period.
It was observed that oil production during the 11-month period kept fluctuating, hitting a high of 44.287 million barrels in March, while the least production volume of 37.405 million barrels was recorded in September. Production volumes in the months of January, February, April, May and June were 42.195 million barrels, 39.869 million barrels, 41.17 million barrels, 41.679 million barrels and 39.4 million barrels respectively.
For the months of July, August, October and November, the country’s crude oil production volumes were 41.026 million barrels, 38.406 million barrels, 38.06 million barrels and 38.247 million barrels respectively.
The Sun says that the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprises (CPPE) has projected that the ambitious budget size of N17.1 trillion and the unpredictable revenue outlook will elevate the risk of higher fiscal deficit than projected.
It said this has implications for macroeconomic outcomes of high fiscal deficits, a new round of monetisation of the deficit, pressures on the exchange rate and the general price level.
CPPE Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Muda Yusuf, made the statement in its outlook for the economy in 2022, which it said is largely positive.
He also noted that the pressure of debt service on government finances will persist in 2022 and beyond.
“The 2022 budget provided for the sum of N3.88 trillion as debt service. This is a substantial amount when compared with the capital budget provision of N5.46 trillion. Debt service payment is typically a first line charge in budget releases.”
This was even as the centre noted that the economic players will grapple with a number of headwinds in 2022. According to the centre, these have macroeconomic, policy, regulatory, structural and security dimensions.
ThisDay reports that the Central Bank of Nigeria has stated that banking industry credit in 2021 reached N 23.5 trillion with Other Financial Institutions (OFIs); comprising of Microfinance Banks, Development Banks, Merchant banks and mortgage banks contributing N2.79 trillion, representing 10.62 per cent of banking industry credit.
This was revealed in the personal statements of Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) members at their last meeting held in November last year released recently.
A member of the MPC, Adenikinju Festus, in his statement at the end of the meeting noted that as at October last year, banking industry credit had been on the rise.
He noted that the CBN intervention funds have been a major factor in the rise in the banking industry credit, stating, “All measures of industry size, bank credit, assets and deposits were higher than the corresponding values in October 2020.
Of particular interest is the growth in bank industry credit, which rose from N19.39 trillion in October 2020 to N23.49 trillion in October 2021.
The newspaper says that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, has reiterated the need for extensive structural reform this year to fast-track the country’s economic growth.
Emefiele stated this in his personal comment at the last Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, a copy of which was posted yesterday on CBN’s website.
Driven by base-year effect, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) had revealed that Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 4.03 per cent in the third quarter (Q3) of 2021, compared with 5. 01 per cent recorded in the preceding quarter.
And the federal government had listed the removal of fuel subsidy, which had been described as a major drag on the economy, as one of the reforms it expected to carry out this year.
However, in the MPC communiqué, Emefiele stressed, “Extensive structural reforms are also needed to ensure that long-run paths of growth surpass potential.”
The CBN governor noted that as business sentiments brightened, following the various supply-side supports by the apex bank and orderly implementation of macroeconomic policies, he expected domestic fragility to diminish with benign knock-on effects on welfare and livelihood.
GIK/APA