APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The report that the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr Iyorchia Ayu, will on Monday (today) lead some governors elected on the platform of the party on a protest march to the Independent National Electoral Commission headquarters, Abuja, over the outcome of the February 25 presidential election is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Monday.
The Punch reports National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr Iyorchia Ayu, will on Monday (today) lead some governors elected on the platform of the party on a protest march to the Independent National Electoral Commission headquarters, Abuja, over the outcome of the February 25 presidential election.
The development has, however, sparked apprehension in the Federal Capital Territory as residents feared the march may result in violence following the anger over the conduct and outcome of the polls.
Governors Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom), Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto), Godwin Obaseki (Edo), Bala Mohammed (Bauchi), Darius Ishaku (Taraba) and Ademola Adeleke of Osun State are expected to participate in the march scheduled to take off by 10am from the PDP headquarters, Legacy House, Maitama, Abuja.
The electoral commission had Wednesday declared the All Progressives Congress standard bearer, Bola Tinubu, the winner of the election after scoring a total of 8, 794, 726 votes, representing 25 per cent of the total votes cast in 30 states.
In separate press conferences, however, the PDP and Labour party rejected the outcome of the election, with both laying claims to victory and vowing to challenge the result in court.
But on Sunday, the PDP, in a memo signed by the Director of Administration on behalf of the Director General of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Tambuwal, invited Ayu, the PDP presidential running mate, Okowa and other governors to the protest march.
The newspaper says that the Central Bank of Nigeria has disbursed N114.17bn to beneficiaries under its 100-for-100 Policy on Production and Productivity since the commencement of the intervention.
This was disclosed in a communiqué issued by the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, after the last Monetary Policy Committee meeting held in Abuja.
He stated that the funds were expended on 71 projects across healthcare, manufacturing and agriculture sectors.
“Furthermore, under the 100 for 100 Policy on Production and Productivity, the Bank has disbursed the sum of N20.78 billion to nine projects in healthcare, manufacturing, and services. This brings the cumulative disbursements under the facility to N114.17 billion to 71 projects across healthcare, manufacturing, services and agriculture,” he said.
The CBN programme, launched in January 2022, is for a select 100 private sector companies with projects that have the potential to significantly increase domestic production and productivity, reduce imports, increase non-oil exports, and overall improvements in the foreign exchange generating capacity of the Nigerian economy.
According to the guidelines for the implementation of the initiative, the CBN fixed the maximum loan amount that a participant could get at N5bn.
“The initiative, which shall be bank-led, will be rolled over every 100 days (that is, quarterly) with a new set of companies selected for financing under the initiative,” it stated
The Guardian reports that amid huge financial turnover recorded in the first three quarters of 2022 by banks in the country and claims of N100 billion investment in electronic channels, digital banking has remained very challenging for many Nigerians in the last few weeks since the introduction of the new cash policy.
The events of the last six weeks, where access to cash has remained increasingly limited, compounded by inability of the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) to dispense cash and spiral failures of Point of Sales (PoS) machines as well as prolonged downtime in Internet banking, have reiterated the need for aggressive investments in the ePayment space of the banking sector.
Indeed, in 2022, the financial statements of some 10 banks revealed that in the first nine months, they recorded N900.92 billion Profit Before Tax (PBT) despite a slow economic performance in the nation. The N900.92 billion was a 21.40 per cent increase from the N742.95 billion PBT recorded in the same period of 2021.
While the banks smiled as profits continue to rise astronomically, Nigerians have in the last six weeks borne the brunt of negligence on the part of the banks and the regulator, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Amid this crisis, the Association of Corporate Affairs Managers of Banks (ACAMB) had, in a statement on the naira redesign, revealed that from Internet banking to mobile apps, ATMs, PoS merchants, mobile wallets, Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) codes, agents and digital franchises, among others, no less than 80 per cent of Nigerians now enjoy one form of digital or cashless transaction or another, powered by investments of over N100 billion by banks.”
ACAMB, in the statement by its President, Rasheed Bolarinwa, noted that these commitments by Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) have seen Nigeria rising steadily and recognised as having arguably Africa’s most advanced digital financial services industry and one of the world’s top 10 real-time payment markets.
Despite ACAMB’s claims, the CBN policies were testament that there was no prior stress test on banks’ infrastructure to check their capacity to sustain the cashless policy.
The newspaper says that in line with its drive to boost Nigeria’s non-oil exports, a delegation from the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) led by the Managing Director/Chief Executive, Mr. Abba Bello; Executive Director, Corporate Services, Bala Bello and other staff members undertook a strategic engagement with some International Development Finance Institutions in Saudi Arabia.
Significant milestones during the visit include signing a Memorandum of Partnership (MoP) with the Saudi Export–Import Bank. Key aspects of the MoU are collaborating in co-financing, club deals, syndication projects, and provision of buyer’s credit facilities to Nigerian institutions to purchase goods and services and financing for project development tied to Saudi exports.
Both parties also agreed to seek opportunities to secure financial guarantees or letters of intent for creditworthy beneficiaries for either Saudi or Nigerian exporters or international buyers, for purchases or project financing/execution.
The NEXIM team also paid a working visit to the Vice President of the Islamic Development Bank (ISDB), Dr. Mansur Muhtar, represented by Anasse Alsami, the acting Vice President and Director General, Vice President’s Office. Discussions focused on promoting African-Arab trade, mutual sharing of information, capacity building, and the ISDB Reverse linkage policy. The parties also discussed how Nigeria could benefit from ISDB’s programmes, such as the “She Trade” and “Women Tech Stars” programmes.
The bank also held technical meetings with various institutions under the ISDB Group. This includes the Islamic Solidarity Fund (ISFD) discussing modalities on how the bank and Nigeria can benefit from the ISDB Guarantee Facility Fund and Capacity Building Programmes.
The Bank also met with the Chief Operating Officer of the International Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), who also doubles as the acting MD of International Cooperation for The Development of the Private Sector (ICD) Nazeem Nordali, and other officials from both the ITFC and ICD.
During the meeting, the bank discussed progress on the $200m ISDB line of financing for Nigeria through NEXIM. Other discussion areas included opportunities for collaboration towards securing funding for port infrastructure in furtherance of the NEXIM Sealink project.
In his remarks, the NEXIM MD/CE said that the working visit to Saudi Arabia promises to provide many benefits for the Nigerian economy and the non-oil export sector.
“Besides the $200m line of credit, which is already being processed, the bank hopes to secure additional credit lines and leverage the guarantee fund of the Islamic Development Bank. We also have the opportunity for capacity building, particularly in developing Islamic banking products, which will provide financial inclusion for some of our exporters, who hitherto, have not benefited from our regular banking products,” Abba Bello, MD/CE said.
GIK/APA