Emefiele made this known on Tuesday when he spoke at the unveiling of the FCT mega rice pyramids under the RIFAN-CBN Anchor Borrowers’ Programme.

Emefiele said rice exportation from Thailand to Nigeria as at 2014 stood at 1.3 million metric tons but has not reduced to just 58,000 metric tons at the end of 2021.

Emefiele said the drastic fall in importation was made possible by CBN’s intervention through its Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) which began in November 2015.

The CBN Governor disclosed that ABP has also revived and boosted the economy in the countryside and has built a sustainable framework for financing smallholder farmers in Nigeria.

He noted that the initiative has created an ecosystem among all the agricultural value chain and these connections can be better utilized through cooperation among all stakeholders.

Emefiele added, “We are delighted that these efforts have yielded fruits in not just increasing the availability of rice, but also in moderating prices, reducing imports and increasing job creation in the country. For example, Thailand alone exported 1.3 million metric tons of rice to Nigeria in 2014.”

The CBN Governor said aside from boosting the country’s national output from about 5.4 million metric tons in 2015 to over 9 million metric tons in 2021, the programme has also significantly improved the productivity per hectare of the smallholder farmer from about 2.4 metric tons per hectare in 2015 to between about 5 metric tons per ha in 2021.”

What you should know

Since the assumption of office in 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari-led’s government has made agriculture its priority as it strives to tackle the economic downturn and dwindling revenue from oil through investment in agriculture. The anchor borrower programme is one of the initiatives put in place to resuscitate a moribund agriculture sector and its value chain while also nudging a largely indifferent and disenchanted populace back to the sector.

The rice pyramid project, which has been described as the largest in the world, is an offshoot of the CBN’s Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP).

According to CBN, since its inauguration in November 2015, the ABP had increased the average yield of rice per hectare from 1.8 metric tonnes to five metric tonnes, while discouraging importation of the commodity.

The post Rice Importation Has Reduced With CBN Intervention – Emefiele appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.

Speaking with stakeholders on the sidelines of the 2021 Finance Bill in Abuja, Ahmed hinted that the Buhari-led government is considering modest increases in taxes and tariffs on certain businesses and individuals over the medium term.

While noting that a couple of reforms and amendments had been recommended in the draft 2021 finance amendment bill, she said more will be introduced in the middle of 2022.

Speaking further, the minister said more fiscal reforms were still in view as the ministry could not take all the proposals collected from stakeholders.

Her words: “While these issues may require most increases in taxes and tariffs on certain businesses, industries, and individuals over the medium term.

“Our aspiration is to do a midterm review with a possibility of another Finance Bill in mid-year 2022 to bring in more amendments.”

Should Nigerians be worried?

This is the worst that the Nigerian citizenry could expect from the government, especially as the world is still battling the effect of the raging COVID-19 pandemic.

It is, therefore, noteworthy to mention that in the midst of this looming development, food prices are skyrocketing at apocalyptic rate, inflation is not favourable to an average Nigerian, and electricity consumption tariffs have gone beyond the roof, wages remain stagnated, and not paid as at when due.

While the incumbent administration may have rationalise these taxes and levies on the grounds that they would aid infrastructures, uncertainty surrounds how advocates of these higher taxes and levies hope the people can endure for much longer.

The post Buhari To Impose New Taxes, Increased Tariffs On Nigerians Next Year appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Dubai UAE Expo 2020, tagged ‘Arise Fashion 2021’, Buhari expressed the pride he has in the creative industry, saying that there are increasing job opportunities for young people.

“There’s no doubt that Nigeria’s creative sector holds tremendous potential to unlock Nigeria’s economy and increase employment opportunities for young people.

“The projections are promising as the sector is expected to deliver over $10 billion by the end of 2021, making a tremendous contribution to the country’s GDP,” the President was quoted as saying by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, who represented him at the occasion.

Citing a recent report on Nigeria’s creative sector, Buhari further revealed that the industry is poised to become the second-largest employer with a potential to produce 2.7 million new jobs by 2025.

“After agricultural, the creative sector is the second largest employer of labour in Nigeria today,” he added.

It would be recalled that in March 2021, the Bank of Industry (BoI) collaborated with the National Council for Arts and Culture, to provide a loan facility for creative industry stakeholders.

The loan facility is a N300 million loan package that was put in place to accelerate the growth of Nigeria’s creative sector.

The post Buhari: Artistes, Filmmakers, Others Will Contribute $10bn To GDP appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.

While highlighting the role of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as it relates to forex stability, World Bank, in its November edition of its Nigeria Development Update, stated that the local currency is under pressure because of the apex bank’s constant increment of the exchange rate’s value.

World Bank argued that CBN is too rigid in its forex policies, and according to the international body, the rigidity is accelerating inflation in the country.

The report read: “The government’s exchange rate management policies continue to discourage investment and fuel inflation. Exchange rate stability is a key CBN policy objective, and to preserve its external reserves the CBN continues to manage FX demand and limit the supply of FX to the market.

“Pressure on the naira remains intense, and while the CBN has raised the nominal official exchange rate three times since the start of the pandemic (by 15 percent in March 2020, five percent in August 2020, and seven percent in May 2021), FX management remains too rigid to respond to external shocks. Meanwhile, exchange-rate management has emerged as one of the key drivers of inflation.”

Maintaining that the central bank is yet to introduce flexibility as it relates to responding to external shocks, World Bank stated that the NAFEX rate, which is the only officially acceptable one in the country, doesn’t represent the reality of the forex market.

“While the CBN supplied an average of $2.5bn to the Investors and Exporters forex window in the months just prior to the COVID-19 crisis, it only supplied an average of $0.5bn in the months thereafter.

“The NAFEX rate, which is now the guiding exchange rate for the economy, continues to be managed and is not fully reflective of market conditions. The parallel market premium over the NAFEX rate reached 29 percent in August 2021 after the CBN cut off its weekly supply of $20,000 per bureau de change. The CBN has intermittently supplied forex to BDCs since 2005, providing ample opportunities for currency round-tripping,” the report added.

The post Dollar To Naira: World Bank Faults Nigeria’s Forex Policies appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.

According to him, in spite of the enormous advantages African countries can leverage, Nigeria has not been positioned as the ‘real’ stakeholder for agro-export under this agreement.

Okakpu stressed that the country’s participation and gain from AfCFTA, in the agricultural value chain, depends on the effectiveness and implementation of government policies, especially in the agricultural sector.

He said that AfCFTA will form a $3.4 trillion economic bloc, which Nigeria cannot afford to be out.

Unmaskng.com understands that UNCTAD reports that trade between African nations in agricultural products as a percentage of Africa’s total agricultural trade remains below 20 percent, one of the lowest in any region. Total trade between African nations was only 2 percent in the period 2015–2017, compared with 67 percent in trade between European countries, 61 percent in Asian countries, and 47 percent in the America.

“Now, AfCFTA intends to change the narrative. It has created the world’s largest free trade area, representing the 1.2 billion consumer market, and mandates states to remove tariffs and non-tariff in order to boost shipments and services between nations and boost economic growth in doing so.

“If you look at the trend, Africa exports agricultural products such as tomatoes, onions, vegetables, cocoa, coffee, cotton, yam tobacco and spices to the nations of the world to earn significant foreign exchange. But the continent imports important foods such as cereals, vegetable oils, dairy products and meat in large quantities. Now, our neighbouring countries have positioned themselves to benefit from AfCFTA by building robust logistics and cost-effective export systems. So, looking at it critically, our logistics cost cemented our losses on AfCFTA unless we address it now, ”Okakpu explained.

Understanding AfCFTA Agreement

AfCFTA is a strategic framework adopted by 54 African countries to eliminate or reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers amongst themselves.

By doing this, the African countries believed that they would collectively build a single market for goods and services, facilitated by movement of persons in order to deepen the economic integration and prosperity.

The post How Nigeria Can Gain From AfCFTA -Abx World’s Okakpu appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.

According to the data at the FMDQ Security Exchange where forex is traded officially, dollar to naira exchange rate at N414.12/$1 on Monday, and closed at ₦415.10 on the same day.

This development represented a drop as dollar to naira opened at N414.49 on Friday, October 29, after it closed at N415.10/$1, a day before (Thursday, October 28).

How much is dollar to naira at black market today?

Sources at the black market where dollar to naira trades unofficially, confirmed to Unmask NG that it sold for N572/$1 on Monday, November 1.

Please note that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) does not recognise the black market, as it advised everyone to approach their respective banks for forex-related dealings.

The post Dollar To Naira Exchange Rate Today (Monday, November 1, 2021) appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.

In an interview with Punch, Shubham Chaudhuri, the Country Director for Nigeria, World Bank, said even though the international financial institution aligned with the country’s apex bank on the need to achieve price stability as one of its core mandates, it doesn’t agree with it on method and choice of policies in achieving this.

“Nigeria, like many other countries, has gone through a very tough time, especially last year, with the price of oil falling, which had an immediate effect in terms of foreign currency inflows into the country because sales of crude oil are one of the biggest sources of foreign currency inflows into Nigeria.

“So, we recognise that in the middle of the economic crisis, Nigeria was under tremendous pressure, alongside the naira. One of the core mandates of CBN is price stabilisation. However, we differ with the CBN on how best this aim can be achieved,” Chaudhuri was quoted as saying.

According to Chaudhuri, the naira should be allowed to respond to real pressures, instead of the CBN trying to bottle up the pressures.

He said, “In the FX market, the way it works is to let the naira respond to very real pressures but in a way that let the steam off rather than bottle it. Because if you bottle it, the pressure does not get released, and at some points, there has to be a massive adjustment.

“Over the last year, the pressures have been building up. Finding ways to release some of the pressures by letting the naira adjust more gradually would help and keep the naira, in a long run, from depreciating by a very large amount.”

He, therefore, advised that having a more predictable, clear mechanism for the FX market would help in restoring and enhancing the confidence in the market.

The World Bank director said, “We haven’t had foreign portfolio investors come back to Nigeria since the COVID crisis, not at the levels that we saw earlier. Some of that has to do with what is happening to interest rates locally but some of that also has to do with their confidence – that if they do come into the market, they will be able to get the FX out again, repatriate their profits.

“What’s more concerning is foreign direct investors. FDI has not recovered. That also has to do partly with the level of confidence in terms of the ability to predictably access foreign exchange. While we understand and see what the CBN’s overall objectives are, we do differ on how those objectives might be obtained.”

How much is dollar to naira exchange rate today (Thursday, October 28, 2021)?

At the Investors & Exporters FX window ( I&E FX Window), where the currency officially trades, dollar to naira opened trading today (Thursday, October 28, 2021) at N414.13, as against N415.07 it traded the previous day (Wednesday, October 27).

How much is dollar to naira at the black market?

Sources at the black market in Lagos confirmed to Unmask NG that a dollar sold for N565.00 and bought for N570.

Please note that the CBN does not recognise the black market, as it strongly advised members of the public to only seek forex information from FMDQ Security Exchange, or approach their respective banks.

The post Dollar To Naira: World Bank Advises CBN On How To Stabilise Nigeria’s Forex appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.

Unmask NG understands that within a period of six years that Buhari rode into power on the promise of making naira stronger as against the dollar, the local currency had lost its value by at least 250%.

However, as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) launched Africa’s first-ever digital currency in Abuja yesterday (Monday, October 24, 2021), there was excitement among the citizenry, as many opined that the newly-floated eNaira would save the naira.

But financial experts and market analysts thought otherwise, as they all shared the same sentiment on the topic.

According to them, the eNaira would not change or affect the value of the naira in the foreign exchange market.

The immediate past Director-General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dr. Muda Yusuf, said there was no relationship between the foreign exchange market and the eNaira.

He said, “There is no connection between the eNaira and the exchange rate. No relationship at all. The exchange rate is determined by the demand and supply fundamentals in the foreign exchange market.

“These are driven largely by imports, exports, and the flow of capital across borders. The naira, whether digital or physical, is just a means of exchange and to some extent, a store of value.”

He, however, noted that the eNaira was consistent with the current digitalisation trend across all sectors globally.

Yusuf, who is the chief executive officer, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprises (CPPE), explained that digital applications typically came with efficiency, cost-effectiveness, smartness in usage, and convenience.

“But it is still not clear what the value proposition of the eNaira is, beyond the psychological satisfaction of joining the league of countries with digital currencies,” Yusuf stated.

The CPPE boss noted that transactions on these platforms were already in trillions of naira, and still counting, adding that it remained to be seen what additional value the eNaira would bring.

He said, “A great deal of sensitisation and awareness need to be undertaken to generate trust and confidence in this new payment system initiative.

“International investors typically would prefer a currency that is acceptable globally and convertible such as the dollar.”

Corroborating Yusuf’s claim, Dr. Olalekan Aworinde, a senior lecturer at the Pan Atlantic University, explained that there was a need to do more sensitise the public more on the risks.

He said, “I think that the CBN should be aware of the fact that there is the risk of cyber attacks with the introduction of the eNaira.

“As a result, the CBN needs to properly educate the masses on how to use the eNaira in a way that would not put their safety and the safety of their funds at risk.

Another expert and the Chief Executive Officer of SD&D Capital Management Limited, Idakolo Gbolade, also said there was the need to sensitive the public more.

Dollar to naira exchange rate for Monday, October 24, 2021

Data from FMDQ securities exchange windows, where forex is officially traded, showed that naira exchanged hands with the foreign currency at N415.07 to a dollar on Monday, October 24, 2021. The same rate it exchanged in the past two sessions (Thursday and Friday) last week.

At the black market in Uyo, dealers said they exchanged dollar to naira at N560.00, as against the N565.00 it exchanged last week’s Friday.

“Dealers here are skeptical of buying the dollar due to the launch of the eNaira, they don’t want to buy and lose,” a dealer who does not want his name mentioned, was quoted as saying.

While at Abuja, dealers exchanged dollar to naira at the rate of N568.00.

The post Dollar To Naira: Can eNaira Influence Exchange Rates (Experts Discuss) appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.

The other financial institutions are –Zenith, Fidelity, FCMB, UBA, and Heritage banks.

While disclosing this during a recently-held interview, Festus Keyamo, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, said beneficiaries of the programme will only be paid only through their bank accounts using their Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) to avoid fraud and double payment.

Keyamo further revealed that the enlisted banks have successfully opened special accounts and captured the biometrics of successful applicants for the job.

“The clear directive of Mr. President to me was that to ensure a fraud-free process, we should ensure that there is a clear audit trail of all payments made to all beneficiaries and as such, we needed to engage selected banks who can share data with us and we needed to open special accountants for all participants in such a way that there will be an audit trail of all payments made through these selected banks,” he explained.

What you should know

The programme was established under the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) by SWP, to identify and exploit employment opportunities that abound in the public works sector by organizing the skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled persons that are unemployed to carry out utility, environmental, infrastructural development and sanitation works.

Under the programme, artisans (beneficiaries), will do public works for three months for N20,000 per month.

The 774,000 jobs which were scheduled to take off on Sunday, November 1, 2020, after been shifted from Thursday, October 1, 2020, will now kick-off, will now kick-off on Tuesday, January 5, 2020.

Announcing the new date of the programme, Festus Keyamo, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, said: “We have taken a firm decision to begin on January 5, 2021, but I am going to make an official announcement after FEC on Wednesday. We had a few hiccups in December but we have taken a decision to begin January 5 which is a Tuesday.

“The programme will run from January to March 2021 which is a pure dry season. So, we are ready. All the obstacles have been removed.”

But here’s our sentiment…

If the SPW’s 774,000 jobs programme is the best way or option to tackle Nigeria’s alarming unemployment rate, then, the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government’s ineptitude to address the country’s lingering economic challenges has again been brought to fore.

Recall that about 21,764,614 (21.7 million) Nigerians remain unemployed, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The post 774,000 Jobs: Access Bank, Others Enlisted For SPW appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.

For years now, despite billions of naira spent on maintenance and repair, the refineries have continued to perform below expectation which has resulted in the importation of petroleum products thereby causing a huge loss in the process.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the volume of petrol imported into the country in September stood at 1.46 billion litres. This means that Nigeria spends fortunes on the importation of pertrol from China.

While the import of petrol as remained a source of concern for economic experts and concerned Nigerians, African richest man, Aliko Dangote is daily advancing his commitment to start a refinery.

When the Dangote Refinery eventually becomes operational, it’s expected that local demands of petrol products will be satisfied, such that there will be surplus for exports.

This 65,000 barrel per day project will change Nigeria’s fortune, as the most populous country in Africa will become an oil refining country and oil exporter.

The post Nigeria Resumes Petrol Imports From China appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.