Aso Villa Reads for 5/9/19
Everyday we bring you the best news the media is reporting about the Government of Nigeria
Proshare reports that Enhancing Financial Innovation Access, EFInA, a financial development agency hosted its maiden geo-political zonal financial services forum for Agents in Lagos. It was an opportunity for stakeholders to discuss and interact on how to scale financial inclusion in the country through agents. The forum brought together bank officials, mobile money vendors, super agents, and other players in the financial sector. In his opening remarks, the CEO of EFInA, Mr. Essaie Diei, informed stakeholders that the forum was designed to support Agent Banking and make the Nigerian financial system work better especially for the poor, by way of increasing access to financial services. According to him, the 63.2% of Adults in Nigeria are financially included, while he assured stakeholders that the plan to achieve 80% financial inclusion by 2020 and 95% inclusion by 2024, is still a major priority for EFInA. Speaking further, Mr. Diei said EFInA supports all the initiatives to grow financial inclusion in the country while deepening service delivery across geo-political zones. He noted that from the 2018 survey, 26.6m adult Nigerians were financially excluded and close to 36.6m of the adult population did not have access to bank accounts or other means of payment. The survey also revealed that 3% of adults used bank accounts in the past 12 months, and 1% have used mobile money agents. It also showed that in the southwest region, 40.2% of the adult populations are not aware of having financial access. He welcomed the Shared Agent Network Expansion Facilities, SANEF objective which is to distribute over 500,000 financial access points and agents across the country in a bid to help close the gap in financial inclusion.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) plans to issue the Nigerian Treasury Bills (NTB) worth N1,002 billion for various tenor buckets in the fourth quarter of this year. The Nigerian Treasury Bills program released by the regulator on Wednesday show that the same amount will be maturing during the same period. However, the CBN noted that auction amounts are subjected to change without notice. A breakdown of the NTB programme revealed that N9.62 million will be issued for 91 days tenor while the same amount will mature during the same period. Business Day (September 5, 2019 page 37) reported.
Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources is set to host the 3rd Annual Nigeria Petroleum Summit (NIPS 2020). According to Folasade Yemi-Esan, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the countdown for the 3rd edition of the annual NIPS conference/exhibition has officially begun. The event which will take place in Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria, has rapidly grown to become Africa’s premier business and technology conference for not just oil and gas but for also automobile, banking and finance, power (electricity), pipelines, LNG, infrastructure, engineering and construction amongst others. Business Day (September 5, 2019 page 30) reported this.
According to Sahara Reporters, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is relocating its oil trading subsidiary to Dubai from London, United Kingdom, according to Reuters. Four sources revealed that the change of territory is driven by a need to get closer to its main buyers in Asia. The move was also brought on by the intent to cut down on taxes. Duke Oil Services, the London arm of the Panamanian registered firm, said in a filing made to the UK’s company house that it would wind down operations in the second quarter of 2019 and move to an unspecified location. The fully owned NNPC subsidiary, which was established in the 1980s to help sell Nigeria’s petroleum, had been based in London’s Hammersmith neighbourhood, which houses NNPC’s UK office as well. The choice of Dubai comes as the United States began pumping 12m barrels of oil per day, claiming Nigeria’s markets in Europe and competing with the West African producer in Asia as well. While the US spent six years developing the capacity to produce at the same level with Saudi Arabia, Nigeria has for a long time hovered around the 1.7 to 2m barrels per day threshold.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on Thursday said it had enough stock of aviation fuel to meet the needs of airline operators and other consumers of the product. NNPC’s spokesperson, Ndu Ughamadu, stated that the assurance became necessary to douse rumours in certain quarters that there was a shortage of aviation fuel across the country. According to Punch, the corporation stated that contrary to insinuations of shortage, there was a stock of over 80 million litres of aviation fuel in its storage, enough to last for over 37 days at current daily consumption. This, it said, was even if more cargoes of the product were not imported within the period. NNPC, therefore, enjoined airline operators and other consumers of the product to discountenance the rumours and go about their businesses without fear or distraction. Ughamadu urged marketers and other players sub-sector to desist from any action that could impede supply and distribution of the product. He noted that the corporation would do everything within its powers to sustain the seamless supply of petroleum products nationwide.
Punch reports that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the Nigerian Navy have pledged deeper collaboration to tackle crude oil theft and attacks on oil and gas facilities. The two organisations came to the resolution when the NNPC GMD, Malam Mele Kyari paid a courtesy call on the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok Ekwe-Ibas at the Naval Headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday. A statement by the corporation’s spokesman, Mr Ndu Ughamadu, noted that Kyari expressed gratitude to the Navy for its efforts at securing the nation’s oil and gas facilities in the creeks and deepwater. He said while the intervention of the Navy had restored sanity to the system, there was a need to do more as crude oil theft was still a potent reality in the nation’s oil and gas industry. He added that NNPC was ready to support the Navy in any initiative it could come up with to further check the menace. Ekwe-Ibas said the Navy was currently working at integrating its system with those of other maritime operators such as the Nigeria Ports Authority and Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency to facilitate efficient operation. He said the Navy had over 130 impounded vessels, some of which were laden with stolen crude oil and petroleum products.
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed has disclosed that the 2020 Appropriation Bill will be presented to the National Assembly by the end of this month. Delivering her opening remarks at a high-level roundtable on National Donor Coordination in Abuja on Wednesday, Ahmed said “the 2020 budget preparation process is well underway, and we intend to finalise and submit the 2020 appropriation bill to the National Assembly by the end of this month.” As a first step towards ensuring that donor programmes were aligned with “our strategic priorities, and are in turn reflected in our upcoming national budget, we will hold meetings in the next few days to better understand your ongoing and planned programmes. “Following this consultative meeting, a set of guidelines will be provided to support submission of your cost short to medium term plans, broken down annually. “This process will ensure that we consider on-going and planned aid interventions when making our 2020 budgetary allocations, and that said interventions are reflected in the Appropriation Bill.” Tribune reported.
