The report that one year after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) barred financial institutions from handling cryptocurrency-related transactions, the number of youths getting involved in speculative trading, a part of the fast-growing online gaming and gambling culture, has continued to grow in leaps and bounds is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Thursday.
The Guardian reports that one year after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) barred financial institutions from handling cryptocurrency-related transactions, the number of youths getting involved in speculative trading, a part of the fast-growing online gaming and gambling culture, has continued to grow in leaps and bounds.
The novel cryptocurrency blurs the line between gambling, speculation and investment. Whereas everybody playing in the psychological-trapping new culture believes they are investing. The Guardian learnt that the majority rarely know what they are betting their money on, but are merely influenced by unrealistic fantasies and pressure from equally amateurish ‘investors’.
Indeed, Nigerians trading such assets avoid terms that may give them away to the settlement banks to avoid the ban, while others deploy digital wallets and other forms of peer-to-peer platforms of functions.
The desperation for quick financial success has also renewed the historical scramble by foreigners for the country as techies and innovators from Asia and Europe especially, compete with one another, to market one trading bot or the other.
In one of the meetings held recently, Nigerian youths were invited to subscribe to a credit card launched a few months ago. The selling point of the card described as a lifestyle card is that it enables users to convert cryptocurrencies to five different benchmark currencies – dollar, pound, euro, yen and yuan.
A lead presenter at the meeting hosted on Zoom said each of the cards costs $79, and that it could also be used by any MasterCard compatible platform. He said it would be particularly useful to Nigerian youths, as the CBN “excludes the financial system from crypto trading.”
The newspaper says that worried about the trade tension between Nigeria and Ghana, members of the private sector in the two countries, many of whom are largely affected, have sought an end to imposition of restrictive trade rules and counter-actions between the countries.
While there are claims of resolution, private sector operators are worried about the effect on trade and the two countries’ economic development. Ghana High Commissioner to Nigeria, Rashid Bawa, expressed readiness by the Government of the Republic of Ghana to cooperate, collaborate and work closely with the Nigerian government for the sustainable development of the economies of both countries.
He stated this at the 2022 forum of Ghana Nigeria Business Council (GNBC) and Ghana Investment Promotion Council (GIPC) for Chief Executive Officers, in Lagos, yesterday.
Represented by Consul-General of Ghana in Lagos, Madam Samata Gifty Bukari, Bawa, said relations between the two countries have been sustained by collaborations between their private sectors, adding that this development has positioned Ghana and Nigeria as the two dominant economies in the West African sub-region.
He mentioned that the perennial tension between Ghana and Nigerian traders in Ghana are being resolved.
The Punch reports that between January and December 2021, the Nigerian banking sector’s credit to the private sector rose by N5.1tn or 16.67 per cent, according to data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
This was contained in the Money and Credit statistics released by the regulator. The report showed that credit to the private sector stood at N30.6tn during the first month of 2021.
The data, however, put credit to the private sector at N35.7tn by December of last year, indicating a N5.1tn increase.
A close analysis of the monthly credit value shows a continuous increase throughout the year, except for February when credit to the sector dropped by N100bn. In February, the figure fell to N30.5tn from the N30.6tn recorded in January.
However, bank lending to the private sector rose to N31.4tn in March, further to N31.9tn in April, N32.1tn in May, and N32.6tn in June.
The climb continued in July as credit to the sector rose to N32.8tn. It increased to N33.4tn in August, N34.39tn in September, N35.3tn in October and N35.7tn in November. On a year-on-year basis, credit to the private sector rose by N5.6tn, from N30.1tn recorded in December 2020 to N35.7tn in December 2021.
The newspaper says that pension assets under the Contributory Pension Scheme rose by N1.11tn in 2021, latest figures obtained from the National Pension Commission revealed on Wednesday.
PenCom, in its unaudited reports on pension funds industry portfolio, said the pension assets rose to N13.42tn on December 31, 2021 from N12.31tn at the end of 2020.
The reports showed that N8.77tn was invested in Federal Government’s securities, N943.34bn in corporate debt securities, N2.01tn in local money market securities, and N120.73bn in mutual funds.
PenCom said N915.31bn was invested in domestic ordinary shares while N122.49bn was invested in foreign ordinary shares.
The commission had said recently in a statement that it organised a retreat on the review of the Pension Reform Act 2014 in Abuja in January.
It said the retreat aimed to identify salient issues to be reviewed in the PRA 2014 as a prelude to advancing legislative action on the bill.
“It is expected that the National Assembly would subsequently organise a public hearing in order to provide an avenue for stakeholders to formally make input into the proposed amendments,” PenCom said.
ThisDay reports that the European Union (EU) Commission has said it would continue to partner Nigeria on business opportunities, investments and other developmental issues.
Executive Vice President of the European Union (EU), Ms Margrethe Vestager gave the assurance during a visit to the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investments, Adeniyi Adebayo at the Old Federal Secretariat Complex in Abuja.
Vestager who is completing her 5-day working visit to Nigeria reiterated EU’s commitment to intensify cooperation with Nigeria in the areas of agri-food, energy & infrastructure. According to Ms Vestager,
“I have trust in agriculture as it has the capacity to create access to trade channels that would otherwise be difficult.”
She said the EU was open to holding high-level talks with Nigerian authorities with a view to knowing specific priorities that benefit the citizenry.
“We are open to holding high level talks with Nigerian authorities to know specific areas of priority especially as it pertains the industrialization of the nation. In the coming days, we hope to intensify discussion that will lead to signing investment agreements with Nigeria, which will facilitate industrialization.
The Sun says that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC’s) injection of 3. 2 billion litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), into the domestic market Wednesday, failed to stem the current fuel scarcity of fuel in major cities of the country.
The current white products shortages which was triggered off by the withdrawal of adulterated petrol imported in the country by four marketers including a subsidiary of NNPC has left in its trail so much unintended consequences for business and the general public over the past two weeks.
NNPC had in a statement said that in line with its strategic restocking, over 2.3 billion litres of PMS would be delivered between now and end of February 2022, to restore sufficiency level above the national target of 30 days.
The statement added that members of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Depot Owners and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) and Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) have also commenced 24-hour loading and dispensing in some of their designated outlets.
The situation has left many motorists in Lagos, Markudi, the Benue State capital and several other states in quandary as the scarcity bites harder.
GIK/APA