Aso Villa Reads for 25/4/2019
Every day, we bring you the best stories that the Media is reporting about the Government of Nigeria
Daily Trust reports that “investors keenly contested for the N20 billion 30-year Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) bond offered by the Debt Management Office (DMO) at the April 2019 FGN Bond Auction. For the first time, the DMO introduced the 30-year FGN Bond into the market at the April 2019 FGN Bond Auction which held on Wednesday, April 24, 2019. A total subscription of N80.41bn was received from investors for the N20bn offered by the DMO for the 30-year bond, representing a 400 per cent subscription rate, a statement from the DMO indicated yesterday. The bulk of the subscriptions came from asset managers and insurance companies who have been looking for long-term, good quality assets to buy in order to match their liabilities. With the success of the 30-year bond offering, the DMO has reinforced its pioneering role in the domestic capital market by introducing another longer-dated instrument which for the government, represents appropriate funding for infrastructure and an effective tool for spreading out its liabilities, while for the private sector, it provides an avenue for other issuers, such as corporate bodies, to access longer-term funding for their projects.”
“The empowerment of petty and small-scale market traders by the Federal Government through the TraderMoni and MarketMoni initiatives of the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Program (GEEP), continued in Benue state, the food basket of the nation, with a special market activation in two popular markets — Markudi Modern Market and Wurukum Market.” According to Business Day, “this is in furtherance of the commitment of the Buhari-led administration, to growing the economy by providing interest and collateral free loans to petty traders. On April 18, 2019, Benue state experienced the enumerations of more traders and loan disbursements to previously enumerated ones by the Bank of Industry. Tradermoni is targeted at individual petty traders through loans starting at N10,000 while MarketMoni is aimed at traders who access interest-free-loans from N50,000 through their trading associations. Since the commencement of the programmes in 2016, there have been success stories of beneficiaries who are paying back their loans and accessing more loans. Worthy of note are the traders who have used the initial N10,000 loans efficiently, successfully repaid the loan and subsequently received the second loan of N15,000. Across Nigeria, over 30 Billion Naira has been disbursed to over 2 million traders. In Benue state alone, there have been over 40,000 disbursements for TraderMoni and more than 7,000 direct beneficiaries of MarketMoni.”
Punch reports that the “Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has presided over the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, as the deadline given to cabinet members for submission of handover notes expires. President Muhammadu Buhari had on April 17 asked for a comprehensive “status reports on policies, programmes and projects” from cabinet members on their respective ministries, departments and agencies. The 9th and 10th FEC meetings were rescheduled for April 25 and May 2 respectively in view of the Easter break and May Day celebrations. More so, ministers were directed to “ensure that all outstanding memoranda they intend to present to FEC are submitted to the Cabinet Affairs Office, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, not later than April 30.’’ No fewer than 21 ministers alongside the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, and the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Winifred Oyo-Ita, are in attendance.”
This Day reports that “in continuation of its mediation in the interbank foreign exchange market, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Wednesday intervened with the sum of $210 million to sustain liquidity in that segment of the market. According to the figures released by the Bank, authorised dealers in the wholesale segment of the market, as in previous deals, were offered the sum of $100million, while those in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) segment got a boost of $55 million. Customers purchasing foreign exchange for invisibles such as tuition fees, medical payments and Basic Travel Allowance (BTA), among others, were also allotted a total of $55 million. The Bank’s Director, Corporate Communications Department, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, in a statement, confirmed the transactions, reiterating that the CBN would continue to ensure the availability of foreign exchange in order to ensure continued stability in the markets. In its last intervention on Thursday, April 18, 2019, the Bank had injected the sum of $254.8million and CNY34.8 million into the Retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) segment. Meanwhile, the naira exchanged at an average of N360/$1 in the BDC segment of the market.”
