Archive: Page 2
FG earned N2.4trn in 3 months, incur a deficit of N284billion
—-oil revenue exceeded budget estimate
—-non oil revenue drops
By Omoh Gabriel
The total federally collected revenue stood at N2. 425.3 trillion in the first three months of 2013 the Central Bank of Nigeria has reported in its first quarter 2013 report on its website. The report however said that “the Federal Government retained revenue was N908.1 billion, while total expenditure was N1.192.9 trillion. Thus, the fiscal operations of the Federal Government resulted in an estimated deficit of N284.8billion or 2.9 per cent of estimated nominal GDP for first quarter 2013, compared with the quarterly budgeted deficit and the preceding quarter’s deficits of N276.1billion and N76.9billion, respectively”.
According to the CBN, the federally collected revenue for the
Nigeria: Too many ideas
Nigeria is a country of 167 million people by the current population estimate. Just as the population is fast growing, so are the ideas of how to grow the economy. Just as every Nigerian is a football coach, so is every Nigerian a development economist. Each person has his/her own idea and whether they are motor park economists or classroom economists, whichever group gets the ears of the powers-that-be has its way. Since the inception of civil rule in the country, Nigeria has articulated about four economic policy agenda. When Obasanjo became the president, he sold to Nigerians the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS). NEEDS became the nation’s policy support instrument on which the International Monetary Fund as is its practice, was evaluating the nation’s economic
Will Nigeria fail again in 2030 to reduce extreme poverty?
At the end of the 2013 Spring Meetings of World Bank Group/IMF, world financial leaders avowed to two specific global agenda. First, a historic opportunity to end extreme poverty within a generation, the global target of reducing extreme poverty rate, the number of people living on less than $1.25 a day to three per cent by 2030. Leaders at the meeting agreed that this is ambitious. Achieving this goal will require strong economic growth across the developing world, as well as translation of growth into poverty reduction to an extent not seen before in many low-income countries.
World financial leaders, including those from Nigeria, equally endorsed the second proposed goal, to promote shared prosperity. This will entail fostering income growth of the bottom 40 per cent of the population in
World Bank, IFAB pledge $1.9bn to boost agriculture in Nigeria
The World Bank has said that it would commit one billion dollars to support Nigeria’s agricultural sector in the next five years. Ms Marie-Francoise Marie- Nelly, its Country Director, said this at a workshop on Gender and Agriculture Technical Dialogue in Abuja. Also the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) said that it would support the Federal Government’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) with new programmes that would cost $88.5 million.
President of IFAD, Dr Kanayo Nwanze, said this in Abuja when he led a delegation on a visit to Dr Akinwumi Adesina, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.
“I am very delighted with the conversations that we have just had progress in the Transformation Agenda and the value chain development programme that IFAD
NAICOM issues new operating guidelines for takaful firms
National Insurance Commission, NAICOM, has issued new guidelines to oversee the operation of takaful industry in Nigeria. Takaful is a type of Islamic insurance, where members contribute money into a pooling system in order to guarantee each other against loss or damage.
The guidelines favour a centralised format that is being used across the Islamic finance world. NAICOM is trying to establish Nigeria as the African hub for Islamic finance, having approved rules for issuing sukuk in March. By this, NAICOM hopes the guidelines will boost insurance penetration in the country. Its insurance sector had total assets of N621 billion ($3.9 billion) as of December 2011, according to official data. The guidelines require each takaful firm to establish an advisory council of experts; at least two
We are licensed to do everything a bank can do in London
By Omoh Gabriel
On the 16th of April, Diamond Bank hosted investors at Famous Merchant Taylor’s Hall in London. It was a gathering of prominent investors, friends and well wishers of the bank to celebrate its presence in the financial hub of London. The Managing Director had a brief session with Nigeria journalist who were there
What next, diamond bank in UK?
I think we need to celebrate this first, before we will be thinking of what next. I think it is a big feat because we have worked on it for a very long time, and we are very happy that we are here.
The reason why we are here is because of our customers. We will always be where our customers want us to be. So, it is the customers that determine where we will be and today in the UK, we have a large chunk of our business done by somebody
Nigerians push federal character to the extreme
By Omoh Gabriel
At the conclusion of the April 2012 Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group/IMF, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of Economy, Dr Okonjo-Iweala and Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi had an interactive session with the Nigeria press. They discussed the high points of the meetings and other financial issues affecting the Nigerian economy.
Excerpts:
What was the center of discussion at this Spring Meetings?
Dr Okonjo-Iweala: I will mention three points. From our perspective, I think these meetings are still focused on the economic recovery in the global environment and the uncertainty of it. The fact is that some countries like the USA are recovering, but the Eurozone is still marred in crisis, and the emerging markets are decelerating in their
Foreign remittance to Nigeria hit $21billion
By Omoh Gabriel
Nigeria and five other countries have named by the World Bank as top recipient of global remittance. In a report released on Friday the Bank said “The top recipients of officially recorded remittances for 2012 are India $69 billion, China $60 billion, the Philippines $24 billion, Mexico $23 billion,and Nigeria and Egypt $21 billion each. Other large recipients include Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Lebanon”. Remittance flows to developing countries have more than quadrupled since 2000. Global remittances, including those to high-income countries, are estimated to have reached $514 billion in 2012, compared to $132 billion in 2000.
Remittance flows to Sub-Saharan Africa have been recovering from the contraction associated with the global financial crisis, but
Budget 2013 may be frustrated, if crude prices continue to drop
By Omoh Gabriel
In an article on this column on May 30, 2012, titled “The proverbial rains are here many Nigerians including the federal government did not take the warning seriously. In Washington DC on Thursday, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the economy called an emergency press conference to warn the nation of the impending drop in the nation finances as a result of falling oil prices and the continued vandalisation of pipe lines by oil thieves.
Dr. Ngozi Okonzo-Iweala said that the ability of government to finance the 2013 budget has came under threat as Nigeria was losing N160billion ($1billion) a month in revenue following the drop in oil production and the falling the prices of crude oil at the international market. Oil price has dropped to close to the $79
World Leaders Call for Urgent Action on Global Learning Crisis
By Omoh Gabriel
At one of the several schedule meetings of the 2013 IMF/World Bank Group Spring Meetings, an unprecedented gathering of heads of global development agencies and ministers from eight developing countries that account for nearly half the world’s 61 million out-of-school children, leaders called for urgent action to remove the barriers to achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG2) of universal primary education by 2015 and to close the gap between rich and poor in learning access and outcomes.
They disclosed that an estimated 250 million children worldwide are unable to read and write. One in five have young people ages 15 to 24 have not completed primary school and lack the basic skills necessary for life and work.
The eight developing countries participating in the Learning
