Press zooms in on evacuation of Nigerians from Sudan, others

APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The report that the Nigerian Government will today commence the evacuation of about 5,500 Nigerians, including students stranded in Khartoum and other cities in Sudan is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday.
The Punch reports that the Federal Government will today commence the evacuation of about 5,500 Nigerians, including students stranded in Khartoum and other cities in Sudan.
To facilitate the repatriation, the government has released N150m for hiring 40 buses to convey its desperate citizens from Sudan to Cairo in Egypt.
The money was paid to an undisclosed transport company on Tuesday at 12:37 pm by the Central Bank of Nigeria through the National Emergency Management Agency.
The Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, confirmed on Tuesday that the payment had been made, noting that the evacuees would take off on Wednesday morning.
The evacuation is taking place against the backdrop of the three-day ceasefire starting midnight Tuesday declared by the Sudanese armed forces and the Rapid Support Force.
Foreign countries are taking advantage of the temporary suspension of hostilities to move their nationals from Sudan as deadly fighting between the two forces entered the second week.
The newspaper says that the transactions done by foreign investors on the Nigerian Exchange Limited decreased by 53.16 per cent from N19.62bn (about $42.51m) to N9.19bn (about $19.94m) between February and March 2023.
This was disclosed in the March edition of the Domestic & Foreign Portfolio Investment Report of NGX, which was released this month.
The report said, “Total transactions executed between the current and prior month (February 2023) revealed that total domestic transactions decreased by 19.06 per cent from N169.29bn in February to N137.03bn in March 2023. Similarly, total foreign transactions decreased more significantly by 53.16 per cent from N19.62bn (about $42.51m) to N9.19bn (about $19.94) between February 2023 and March 2023.”
Also, as of March 31, 2023, total transactions at the local bourse decreased by 22.60per cent from N188.91bn (about $409.72m) in February 2023 to N146.22bn (about $317.09m) in March 2023.
The performance of the current month when compared to the same period in 2022 (N185.26bn) revealed that total transactions decreased by 21.07per cent. In March 2023, the total value of transactions executed by domestic investors outperformed transactions executed by foreign investors by circa 88 per cent; the figure for local investors stood at 96 per cent to the six per cent of foreign investors.
A comparison of domestic transactions in the current and prior month (February 2023) revealed that retail transactions increased by 51.85 per cent from N34.79bn in February to N52.83bn in March 2023. However, the institutional composition of the domestic market decreased significantly by 37.40 per cent from N134.50bn in February 2023 to N84.20bn in March 2023.
In 2022, total domestic transactions accounted for about 84 per cent of the total transactions, whilst foreign transactions accounted for about 16 per cent of the total transactions in the same period.
As of the end of the first quarter of 2023, foreign transactions stood at N53.71bn; with the figure for January being N24.90bn, February 2023 recorded N19.62bn and N9.19bn was reported in March 2023.
The Guardian reports that for the third time in less than a month, the rate of exchange (RoE) applicable to foreign airlines has ballooned, hitting N582/$1 with attendant spike in the cost of international air travel.
At the new RoE, registered by the Global Distribution System (GDS), a six-hour Lagos-London economy class ticket now fluctuates between N1.1 million and N2.97 million – subject to airline of choice, place and time of booking. Its business class variant sells for an average of N3.36 million to N4.8 million.
While stakeholders regretted that the development has further pushed international air travel beyond the reach of average Nigerians, they acknowledged the inherent respite on foreign airlines that are patronising the Investors’ and Exporters’ (I&E) FX window for fund repatriation, and reopening of naira inventories to travel agencies in the countries.
It will be recalled that the international segment of the aviation sector has been in a stuck fund crisis in the last one year, with knock-on effects on inventories, asking price, and near-collapse of local travel agencies.
Earlier intervention by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) did pledge $265 million in August 2022, leaving a balance of $200 million of the fund. But the stranded funds kept piling by daily sales of tickets, to warrant Emirates Airlines quitting the Nigerian route late October 2022. As at the last check, industry sources said the accumulated was well over $800 million.
The Guardian learnt that following a negotiation to end the logjam, the authorities recently conceded a shift from the official CBN window to the volatile I&E window for the repatriation of foreign airlines’ funds in Nigeria.
The push-pull effect has been evident in the applicable rate of exchange, and attendant cost of travel. At this time last month, the RoE was pegged at N462 to a dollar. About a week later, the rate climbed to N500/$1. Some days afterwards, it reached N551. Last week, the high vicissitude window hit a new high of N582/$1, with airfares tagging along.
Inquiries by The Guardian showed a varying price range across international
The newspaper says that Nigeria could be thrown into darkness in the coming days as the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), yesterday, said some distribution companies are at the verge of being disconnected over failure to comply with market rules.
Coming barely a few days after the generation companies threatened to down tools, the government-owned TCN, in a statement in Abuja, said guidelines governing the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), otherwise known as market rules, are being flouted by operators.
Last month, in an order (TCN/ISO/MO/2023/001), the Nigerian Electricity Market (NEM) – TCN’s arm, in charge of market operations – accused the DisCos of non-compliance with Conditions of Market Rules and Market Participation Agreements, which mostly border on remittances of payment for ancillary electricity services.
Privatised in 2013, the distribution companies are the revenue arms of the electricity industry in Nigeria. The intake from the firms funds the operations of TCN, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission and The Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) Plc, which in turn settles invoices from the GenCos and others, like gas suppliers and transporters.
In 2019, there was a similar situation, where TCN disconnected Port Harcourt, Kano and other DisCos over lack of compliance with market rules.
In the order issued, last month, the market operator named the defaulting Market Participants (MPs) as comprising nine DisCos, three GenCos and Ajaokuta Steel Company, a special electricity end-user/customer.
Head of Market Operation at TCN, Edmund Eje, said the rules governing the market are absolutely necessary for viability and sustainability of the sector.
GIK/APA