Nigeria’s struggle with illicit financial flows as successive budgets suffer setbacks in the last 15 years and Austria’s hosting of the Super Eagles’ international friendly games against Tunisia and Algeria in October are some of the leading stories in the Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday.
The Guardian reports that Nigeria is struggling with illicit financial flows (IFF) as successive budgets suffer setbacks in the last 15 years.
Judging by the current exchange rate, the country’s cumulative budget, from 2004 to 2018, stood at about N60 trillion, while more than N103 trillion was stolen in illicit transfers.
The report noted that Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari had told audience at the 74th United Nations General Assembly that his country lost $157.5 billion dollars to illicit financial flows between 2003 and 2012. But stakeholders, at different interactions with The Guardian, insisted that the flow has maintained steady increase to date.
In the face of the ravaging effects of COVID-19, the United Nations (UN) had said curbing capital flight and illicit financial flows in Africa could generate new funds of up to $88.6 billion per year to respond to the COVID-19 crisis.
The newspaper says that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has disclosed that Austria is ready to host the Super Eagles’ international friendly games against Tunisia and Algeria next month.
NFF Media Director, Ademola Olajire, said the instant response of the Austrian embassy by issuing visas to players and officials travelling to their country for the warm up games indicated that it is keen to hosting the matches despite the spike in COVID-19 cases reported in the European country last week.
He assured Nigerians that the NFF would continue monitoring situations in Austria to ascertain its readiness to host the teams expected for the matches.
“I believe the Austrians are ready and that was the reason they granted visas in good time to our players and officials. Nevertheless, we are still watching the situation and as I said before, we will never endanger our players and officials,” Olajire said.
Also speaking on the friendlies, Super Eagles Spokesman, Toyin Ibitoye, said the logistics for the international friendlies have been taken care of, adding, however, that the games would be played without spectators.
ThisDay reports that in line with the agreement reached between the federal government and the organised labour, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) last night issued an order suspending the September 1, 2020 hike in electricity tariffs for 14 days.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the federal government had reached a truce on Sunday night to suspend the hike in electricity tariffs for 14 days.
The agreement led to the suspension of the planned industrial action by the organised labour, which should have commenced on Monday.
The electricity regulator issued Order Number: NERC/209/2020 late last night with the title, “NERC Order on suspension of the Multi Year Tariff Order 2020 for the electricity distribution licensees.”
NERC’s Chairman, Prof. James Momoh, and the Commissioner, Legal, Licensing and Compliance, Mr. Dafe Akpeneye, signed the order.
The commission said, “This order shall take effect from 28th September 2020 and shall cease to have effect on the 11th October 2020. The commission had approved a new tariff for power distributors that took effect from September 1, 2020, but this was resisted by labour unions and many power users.”
The Punch reports that a total of 4,668 workers who lost their jobs and could not get another after four months withdrew N2.56bn from their Retirement Savings Accounts during the second quarter of 2020.
The National Pension Commission disclosed this in its 2020 second quarter report on ‘Withdrawal of 25 per cent of RSA balances’. Part of the report read, “Approval was granted for payment of N2.56bn to 4,668 RSA holders who were under the age of 50 years and were disengaged from work but unable to secure another job within four months of disengagement during the second quarter.”
The workers comprised of 144 Federal Government employees, 261 state governments employees and 4,263 private sector employees. Despite the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on different sectors of the economy, the total pension assets under the Contributory Pension Scheme rose to N11.08tn as of the end of June.
The statistics showed that the bulk of the funds, totalling N7.45tn, had been invested in Federal Government’s securities including FGN bonds, treasury bills, agency bonds,
The Vanguard says that Nigeria’s solid minerals export dropped by 80.1 percent or N12.76 billion to N3.16 billion in the first half of 2020 compared to N15.88 billion recorded in the same period in 2019.
Data obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, indicates that exports in the solid minerals sector in Q1 2020, was N1.60 billion, while Q2 export was N1.56 billion.
Meanwhile, Q1 2019 export was N8.29 billion, while Q2 was N7.59 billion. According to the NBS report on external trade by sectors, solid minerals sector had export component of N1.6 billion.
The major products exported under this sector were cement clinkers, exported to Senegal, valued at N 0.44 billion. This was followed by manganese ores and concentrates exported to China, worth N0.42 billion and lead ores and concentrate exported also to China, and worth N0.39 billion.
GIK/APA