Nigeria external reserves to hit 54 months high of $45bn

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/02/eurobond-nigeria-external-reserves-hit-54-months-high-45bn/



NIGERIA’s external reserves will rise to 54 months high of $45 billion this month following the conclusion of federal government’s $2.5 billion Eurobond this week. The Eurobond, which commenced last week with the announcement of its pricing on Thursday, will be concluded on Friday. According to the Ministry of Finance, the $2.5 billion Eurobond, which attracted buying interest of $11.5 billion, comprises a $1.25 billion 12-year series and a $1.25 billion 20-year series.

The 12-year series comes with interest at a rate of 7.143 percent, while the 20-year series will bear interest at a rate of 7.696 percent, and, in each case, will be repayable with a bullet repayment of the principal on maturity. The offering is expected to close on or about February 23, 2018, subject to the satisfaction of various customary closing conditions. Eurobonds Though the purpose of the Eurobond issuance is to refinance domestic debts, proceeds of the bond will, among other things, accelerate accretion to the nation’s external reserves. Commenting on how the Eurobond issuance will impact the domestic economy, analysts at Lagos based investment firm, Afrinvest Plc, said: “The proceeds from the Eurobond issuance would be used to refinance relatively expensive short term domestic borrowings as the FGN plans to achieve an optimal mix of domestic and foreign debt and reduce overall debt servicing cost.

The impact of the debt refinancing, coupled with declining inflation rate and stability in foreign exchange rate, is anticipated to continue to anchor yield expectation lower in the near term and reduce crowding out of private sector borrowers.” External reserves accretion Financial Vanguard analysis reveals that the external reserves have grown by $3.5 billion or 8.9 percent since the beginning of the year.

According to the CBN, the external reserves which opened the year at $39.3 billion had risen to $42.8 billion last week. The sharp increase in reserves is driven by rising crude oil price, which touched $71 per barrel last month before retreating to $62 per barrel last week, as well as upsurge in dollar inflows through the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange market. Financial Vanguard analysis showed that turnover (dollars traded) in the I&E window rose by 10 percent last week to $789.9 million from $716.57 million the previous week. Consequently dollar inflow since the beginning of the year through the I&E window rose to $8.37 billion, from $7.58 billion the previous week. Mixed naira performance However, in spite of the increased turnover, the naira depreciated marginally in the I&E window last week. According to data from the Financial Market Dealers Quote, the indicative exchange rate for the window rose by 9 kobo to N360.36 per dollar last week from N360.27 the previous week. But the naira remained stable at N363 per dollar in the parallel market during the week.

The CBN on its part sustained its weekly intervention in the foreign exchange market by selling $210 million in the interbank market. According to Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, CBN, Mr. Isaac Okoroafor, “The CBN offered $100 million to authorized dealers in the wholesale segment of the market, while the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) segment got the sum of $55 million. Customers needing foreign exchange for invisibles such as tuition fees, medical payments and Basic Travel Allowance (BTA), among others, were also allocated the sum of $55 million.” Statutory allocation funds to lower cost of funds Cost of funds is expected to further trend downwards in the interbank money market this week courtesy of inflow from statutory allocation to the three tiers of government which would be released this week by the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC). The inflow, in addition to N56.3 billion inflow from maturing treasury bills (TBs) is expected to offset impact of outflow to be occasioned by N100 billion FGN Bond offer by Debt Management of Nigeria (DMO) this week; dollar auction by the CBN; and likely mop-up by CBN through secondary market (open market operations, OMO) TBs sale. Last week, cost of funds fell sharply by over 2,500 basis points (bpts) following upsurge in market liquidity to N371.5 billion on Friday from N46.4 billion the previous week.

The upsurge in liquidity was buoyed by inflow of N266 billion from matured TBs, which offset the impact of outflow of N176 billion through primary market (new) TBs sold by the CBN during the week. Consequently, interest rate on Collateralised (Open Buy Back, OBB) lending dropped by 2,516 bpts to 18.17 percent last week from 43.33 percent the previous week. Similarly, interest rate on Overnight lending dropped by 2,600 bpts to 19.5 percent from 45.5 percent the previous week.

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/02/eurobond-nigeria-external-reserves-hit-54-months-high-45bn/

sanpipita:


This isn't the issue, the issue is why is Buhari so nepotistic, mind I remind you nepotism is also corruption for a man who claims to be incorruptible nepotism should be off his list, why is buhari bent of dividing Nigerians between ethnic lines since 1983 why?

For your information, even if Buhari like let him appoint Togolese in the whole of the government ministry and top positions ... because that's not my problems what concerns me is more of good governance... I will never allow myself to be a pawn for this hungry politicians ok. Therefore, appointments is not and can never be my problems ok.

TonyeBarcanista:
By TonyeBarcanista


On November 4, 2017 the Presidency released names of 157 (wrongly calculated 159) political appointees appointed by the President with aim of dispelling a previous report that 80% appointees are from the Northern part of the country. 

After going through the list I realise that the aim of Mr Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser (media) that released the list was not to inform but to deceive and manipulate the minds of many Nigerians into believing that the government is non sectional. This writeup is meant to bring to fore the hidden fact about the sectionalism of President Muhammadu Buhari led government.

QUALITY VS QUANTITY:
Every exposed mind know that the President of the United States of America, President of Russia Federation, Chancellor of Germany, Prime Minister of Britain, President of France and even Prime Minister of Canada  are never considered as equivalent or equal to a President of any African country (Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa etc), South and Central America countries or Eastern European countries, though they are all Presidents/Head of Governments of sovereign countries. In fact, this classification is evident in the 15 member United Nations Security Council UNSC, where 5 Permanent members (United States of America, Russia, China, France and United Kingdom) have the final say in ANY resolution that affects the body over the other 10 members (temporary). The UNSC is the most powerful organ of the United Nations.

Similarly, in Nigeria's public service, not all ministries, departments and agencies are considered 'equal' or equivalent. The ministers of Defence, Interior, Works/Power/Housing, Justice/AGF and Petroleum resources are not in the same class with ministers of Trade/Investment, Science/Technology, Sport/Youth development, Tourism and Women Affairs, though all are 'ministers' in the cabinet. This is same way the Group Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) cannot be said to be in same class with someone in charge of Nigeria  Christian Pilgrimage Board. 


What is traditional in Nigeria is that QUALITY is factored when fairness in appointment is analysed over QUANTITY (just like in anywhere else).

In fact, I remember in February 2010 when the newly appointed acting President Goodluck Jonathan tookover, he "demoted" the then Attorney General/Minister of Justice Michael Aaondooka to Minister of Special duties, and "upgraded" Mrs Alison Diezani Madueke from Transport minister to Petroleum Minister. Only the insincere minds will disagree with me on this.


FACT ON BUHARI'S SECTIONAL APPOINTMENTS
When some of us accuse the President of being sectional in his appointment, we are simply saying the President only appoint his kinsmen in KEY/INFLUENTIAL/QUALITY positions to dominate key sectors without recourse to the Federal Character Commission. In fact, even the Federal Character Commission has no federal character- else how would a President from the Northwest appoint Alhaji Shettima Abba and Mohammed Tukur from Northeast as Chairman and Secretary of FCC respectively?

A look at the Presidency shows clear act of ethnic/regional supremacism of the President. Apart from Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who is from the Southwest and was elected alongside Buhari, the other TWO top positions are occupied by the Northeast. I mean the influential office of Chief of Staff that is occupied by Abba Kyari and Secretary to the Government of the Federation occupied by Mustapha Boss, both of the Northeast.

In the Defence/Military sector, the only positions given the south are the ceremonial Chief of Defence Staff (Abayomi Olonisakin from the Southwest) and Chief of Naval Staff (SouthSouth).  The others were given to the North.

Buhari appointed General Babagana Monguno from the Northeast as National Security Adviser (NSA), Tukur Buratai from Northeast as Chief of Army Staff and Sadiq Abubakar from the same Northeast as Chief of Air Staff. This is in addition to himself from Northwest as Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces, Dan Ali from the Northwest (Kano) as minister of Defence, Monday Morgan from Northcentral as Chief Defence Intelligence and Brigadier-General Musa Yusuf as Commander Brigade of Guard. In fact, he left NOTHING for the Southeast. If this isn't lopsided then someone need to enrol for English class.

In the internal security, the President was more brutal in his lopsidedness than he was in the Defence. 

The Interior Minister, who's the boss of all is Dr. Abdulrahman Dambazzau from Northwest, the Inspector General of Police is Ibrahim Idris from Niger state (North central), the Comptroller-General of Prison is Ahmed Jafaru from Kebbi (Northwest), Immigration is Mohammed Babadende from Jigawa (Northwest) and Abdullahi Muhammadu from North central heads Civil Defence. No paramilitary agency under the Interior is headed by a non-northerner.

Despite the above, Buhari still appointed Northerners as EFCC Boss (Ibrahim Magu from Northeast), DSS Boss (Lawal Daura from Katsina Northwest) and Custom Boss (Hameed Ali from Northwest).

Furthermore, Buhari craftily ensured  that the Petroleum sector, which is Nigeria main revenue sector is in the grip of the North. This he did by appointing himself from the Northwest as Honourable Minister and Maikanti Baru from Northeast as GMD. He trickishly gave Dr Ibe Kachukwu from SouthSouth the position of minister of state, an office everyone know is synonymous to minister without portfolio.

Even within the NNPC there are 7 Chief operating Officers, and of the 7, Northwest occupies 3, northcentral 1, while the southwest,southeast and SouthSouth have 1 each. Despite this, he still appointed Bello Gusau from North central as Executive Secretary PTDF, Isiaka Abdulrasak from North central as Chief Financial officer of NNPC and Modicai Ladan from same North central as Director, Department for Petroleum Resources. I dare not forget that the Head of Petroleum Product Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) is Abdukkadir Umar.

In FAAN, Baba Appointed Saleh Danjuma from Northeast Managing director/CEO and still appointed 3 Executive Directors from Northwest alone while the Southwest, Southeast and SouthSouth have 1 ED each.

I am certain that readers will be bored if I am to write extensively on the lopsidedness in appointment in all KEY sectors of the country.

I find it absurd that Femi Adesina will lump every appointees into one as if they are of same worth, influence, value and weight. If not to deceive how would Mr Femi lump the appointment of National Security Adviser, SGF, Chief of Staff, COAS with Registrar CAC, Senior Special Assistant (Diaspora), Senior Special Assistant (National Assembly), SA Economy, MD BOA into one category?

I am ending this piece by calling on the president to take a cue from the late Umaru Musa Yar'adua, his kinsman from the same Katsina state who never allowed tribal and religious affiliation overshadow his sense of judgement. If he feels too big to learn from Yar'adua, then he should learn from the late nationalist Aminu Kano. 




May God Bless Us All And Bless Nigeria

Inioribo Tamunotonye
National Coordinator,
Peoples Democratic Party National Youth League (PDPNYL)

Please for God sake , when are we as a people will learn to concentrate on issues that affect the common man. Why all this noise about appointments and how has this help us the common man on the street..... It is very clear that Democracy is never for Third world countries particularly , Africa. As long as we allow issues like religion, ethnicity and many other trivial issues to continue to affect our thinking and mindset.

But if re-structuring is our problem , why is it that PDP 16Years in Power could not Restructure Nigeria..... and where was this same Falea Btw 1999 - 2015 (16yrs ago) when PDP were in Power... Just too bad.

billyG:
kachukwu,has shoot himsef in d foot,he need 2 resign or b sack,he just want 2 unnecessary,embarass his boss.

Buhari.... Just need to sack him and very fast too.

Ibe Kachikwu, really have an hidden Agenda. It is very clear that he is working for the opposition or he is just working for the downfall of the same government that employed him.. Sincerely, the man need an outright sack.....

Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum resources and a lawyer for that matter, claiming he has lost the "Acknowledgement note" for such a sensitive letter is a clear indication that he is not economical with the truth... not to talk about the 25Billion contract Tag that is just no where in the this matter.... Kachikwu, need to explain to Nigerians how he arrive at his claim for the 25Billion contract tag. Except, he fully knows that he is making a false claims and statement to discredict the government...

Let's continue to promote peace and unity ..... Nobody ever gain from violence or breakdown of law and order in any form.