APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The report that barely three days after the Central Bank of Nigeria declared old N1,000, N500 and N200 notes as legal tender, Deposit Money Banks say they are beginning to run out of the old currencies is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Thursday.
The Punch reports that barely three days after the Central Bank of Nigeria declared old N1,000, N500 and N200 notes as legal tender, Deposit Money Banks say they are beginning to run out of the old currencies.
The development led to severe hardship and pains for several bank customers seeking to withdraw funds on Wednesday.
The CBN had on Monday directed banks to pay out and accept the old notes from their customers.
This came after the President Muhammadu Buhari said he did not stop the CBN and the Attorney General of the Federation Office from complying with the Supreme Court judgment ordering that old naira notes should remain legal tender till December 31, 2023.
However, commercial banks which began the disbursements of old N1,000, N500 and N200 notes to their customers on Tuesday told The PUNCH on Wednesday that had started running out of the old currencies.
This made several bank customers to become stranded in banking halls as well as in major cities and towns.
The newspaper says that headline inflation rose to 21.91 per cent in February amid a naira redesign policy that was meant to mop up cash and curb excess currency in circulation.
According to the Organised Private Sector in the country, the Central Bank of Nigeria’s naira redesign policy has contributed to a naira crisis that has driven inflation to record highs. Nigeria’s 21.91 per cent inflation rate for February is the highest in 18 years.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics revealed that this is the second consecutive month inflation is rising in the year after it fell in December 2022, after an 11-month rise. In January, inflation rose to 21.82 per cent from the 21.34 per cent that was recorded in December 2022.
The NBS, on Wednesday, disclosed that increases in the price of bread, cereal, rent, potatoes, yam, tubers, vegetables, and meat drove inflation up in February.
It said, “In February 2023, the headline inflation rate rose to 21.91 per cent compared to January 2023 head-line inflation rate which was 21.82 per cent.
“Looking at the trend, the February 2023 inflation rate showed an increase of 0.09 per cent points when compared to January 2023 headline inflation rate.”
The national statistics body of the country added, “The contributions of items on a class basis to the increase in the headline index are presented, thus: bread and cereal (21.67 per cent), actual and imputed rent (7.74 per cent), potatoes, yam and other tubers (6.06 per cent), vegetable (5.44 per cent), and meat (4.78 per cent).”
In February, food inflation rose to 24.35 per cent year-on-year basis. Food was more expensive in Kwara as food inflation hit 29.51 per cent, Imo (27.47 per cent), and Lagos (27.42 per cent). It was lowest in Sokoto (18.54 per cent), Jigawa (19.67 per cent), and Yobe (21.89 per cent).
While justifying the naira redesign policy, the CBN’s acting Branch Controller in Ondo State, Mr Giwa Ademola, explained that the “benefits of the currency redesign to the Nigerian economy are enormous given that this policy will help to control inflation, as the exercise will bring the hoarded currency into the banking system, thereby making monetary policy more effective.
“It will also help with better design and implementation of monetary policy as we will have much more accurate data on money supply and monetary aggregates.”
The Punch also reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission on Wednesday began the distribution of sensitive materials for Saturday’s governorship and house of assembly elections.
Also on Wednesday, political parties warned the electoral body against a repeat of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System glitches and other hitches that characterised the February 25 presidential and National Assembly polls.
The complaints about the conduct of the elections resulted in the rejection of the outcome of the polls by the parties which challenged the result in the court.
Findings by The PUNCH indicate that the INEC has commenced deployment of sensitive materials in Lagos, Sokoto, Ondo, Ekiti, Edo, Bauchi, Kebbi, Osun and several other states three days ahead of the exercise.
The commission took delivery of the ballot papers and results sheets from the Central Bank of Nigeria in Lagos on Wednesday.
The exercise, led by the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner for Lagos state, Mr Olusegun Agbaje and the Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, Idowu Owohunwa, was monitored by various stakeholders.
NAN reports that electoral officers from the 20 local government areas were on the ground to circulate the materials to their respective local government area offices in the state.
Agbaje, in an interview with journalists, noted that INEC was ready to conduct free, fair and credible elections on Saturday, and called for the cooperation and support of stakeholders.
He noted that the onward distribution of the materials from the councils to the 245 wards of the state would begin on Thursday.
The Guardian says that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), yesterday, said about $32.6 billion investment is required to overhaul refineries, pipelines and critical downstream infrastructure.
This was disclosed yesterday, in Cape Town, South Africa at a conference organised by the African Refiners and Distributors Association (ARDA).
Speaking at the event, Group Executive Director, NNPC Limited Downstream, Adeyemi Adetunji, who disclosed plans to co-locate an African Refinery around the Port Harcourt Refinery and a condensate refinery, said combined capacity of NNPC related refinery would hit 1.27 million barrels per day of crude processing.
In March 2021, the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government approved $1.5 billion for the overhaul of Port Harcourt oil refinery as NNPC later awarded the contract to Italy’s Tecnimont.
Adetunji told participants at the conference that overhaul of the refinery is in top gear and would be ready in the second quarter of the year.
Coming barely a month after the contract for the overhaul of the Kaduna refinery was awarded to Daewoo Engineering Nigeria Limited at an estimated maximum cost ceiling of $740,669,600.00, with a duration of 21 months, Adetunji stressed the need to improve refining capacity in Africa along growing demand.
“We are on a journey of renewal and growth. The plan is to revive the existing refineries, make them functional and grow our supply capacity. In the next couple of years, this will grow to about 1.27 million barrels per day throughput for all the refineries, including the much-celebrated Dangote Refinery.
“We have another project that’s been developed now and at an advanced stage called the Africa refinery, which will be co-located at the Port Harcourt Refinery,” he said.
While NNPC acquired a 20 per cent stake in Dangote’s oil refinery for $2.76 billion, the Warri Refinery with installed capacities of 125,000 bbl/d is under rehabilitation.
Nigeria is currently paying heavily for the lack of local refining capacity as the country, has in less than two years, spent above N10 trillion on subsidising premium motor spirit.
GIK/APA
Press focuses on pains caused by scarcity of new banknotes, others
