Economy

Breaking News: Dollar Exchanges $1 to N184
Economy, News, Nigeria

Breaking News: Dollar Exchanges $1 to N184

In a shocking development, the exchange rate today dropped by half across board. Dollar to the Naira dropped from N360 to N184 while the Pound dropped from over N400 to N240. There is no clear indication of why this exchange rate is reflected on internation exchange rate calculators while the Central Bank website does not reflect these new exchange rate.   This looks like a move meant to influence the on-going elections. It will be recalled that the Presidency had earlier lamented the amount of foreign currency in circulation in the country. With this drop in the exchange rate, the value of any foreign currency in circulation is automatically halved. We shall await further developments on this issue.
Nigeria: Wike Snubs Media, Presents N.5 Trillion Budget
Economy, News, Nigeria

Nigeria: Wike Snubs Media, Presents N.5 Trillion Budget

Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State on Christmas eve presented the 2019 Appropriation Bill of around half a trillion naira to the state House of Assembly for necessary legislative action without inviting the press for the presentation ceremony. Wike does not seem to be enjoying getting the press closely involved in the activities of his administration. Neither his Special Assistant on Electronic Media, Simeon Nwakaudu nor Information Commissioner, Emma Okah, enjoys picking calls and responding to text messages from journalists. The cold shoulder the Wike administration has been offering journalists practicing in the state has been a matter of serious concern to the Correspondents Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists. Local sources in Port Harcourt, the state capital, say as...
Opinion:  Northern Sentiment Southern Ointment by Mansur Isah Buhari
Economy, News, Nigeria, Religion, Security

Opinion: Northern Sentiment Southern Ointment by Mansur Isah Buhari

A northern or southern president cannot solve our problems, a Nigerian president can. You can't have excuses and results. Sentiments don't solve problems; they compound them. Every region in Nigeria has its peculiar sentiment issues. I chose to talk about northern sentiment because I can authoritatively do so without the fear of being sentimental. The north is most interested in having a northern President rather than a Nigerian president. The only experience and qualification one needs to have the total support of an average northerner to become a president is "Alhaji" or "Malam" contesting against a "mister". Now that the north is gradually burning, we want the rest of Nigeria to join us in speaking up because Nigeria now belongs to all of us. Most times when they do spea...
Nigeria: Angry Youths Disrupt Oil Production As Akwa Ibom Crisis Takes Toll On American Oil Major
Economy, News, Nigeria

Nigeria: Angry Youths Disrupt Oil Production As Akwa Ibom Crisis Takes Toll On American Oil Major

The unfolding political crisis in Akwa Ibom State, one of the big oil states in Southern Nigeria that has been relatively very peaceful till the advent of a seeming czarist regime in 2007, could trigger off some dangerous economic consequences for Nigeria if not contained urgently. Though what is playing out in the state is being stoked by a few political demi-gods masking as the face of the All Progressives Congress (APC), President Muhammadu Buhari’s party, the crisis has no ideological basis other than incurable personal greed for accumulation of the common patrimony. From 1999 when the current democracy came into, political gangsterism was alien to the peoples of Akwa Ibom. But a club and dagger politics was foisted on the state when Obong Victor Attah left office in 2007. The po...
Nigeria: As Buhari Engages Big Oil Firms On PIGB, Concerns Are Growing In Niger Delta
Economy, News, Nigeria, Security

Nigeria: As Buhari Engages Big Oil Firms On PIGB, Concerns Are Growing In Niger Delta

Ahead of the 2019 general elections coming up in a matter of weeks, there are disturbing concerns in the Niger Delta, Nigeria's main oil and gas basin, as the restive circles are considering to return to the creeks to halt continued oil production if Abuja fails to play ball. Before now, President Muhammadu Buhari's administration was said to be locked in a backstage consultation with oil industry operators in the country on the new Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) which the Legislative arm of the Federal Government passed and communicated to him for his signature. The outcome of the secret parley is not yet public. But, it will determine whether President Buhari will sign the bill into law. Presidential Villa insiders say there is a political mileage to be gained by the All...
Nigeria: Stop Trying to Deceive Nigerians – PDP to Osinbajo
Economy, News, Nigeria

Nigeria: Stop Trying to Deceive Nigerians – PDP to Osinbajo

The People's Democratic Party has advised Vice President Osinbajo to stop trying to deceive Nigerians manipulated figures. According to the PDP, this was simply an attempt at covering the woeful performance of the APC led government of President Buhari. The party rather admonished Osinbajo to show Nigerians this administration's score card rather than try to confuse them with bogus figures. In a statement, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party's spokesperson said "the Buhari administration, which crippled our once robust economy, pushed it into recession, turned our nation from a growing economy to a debtor country and world’s poverty capital. "Despite being busted, Osinbajo is labouring to deceive Nigerians by converting domestic borrowings in Naira, under the APC, to US dollars, so that ...
Nigeria: N211 million Worth of Gold Seized at the Airport by the EFCC
Economy, News, Nigeria, Security

Nigeria: N211 million Worth of Gold Seized at the Airport by the EFCC

Gold worth about N211 million was prevented from being transported out of the country illegally by the EFCC at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos State. Commenting on the issue, the acting head of EFCC's Media and Publicity, Mr Tony Orilade, said "following intelligence reports, the operatives on November 9, 2018, uncovered the gold weighing about 35kg just at the point of departure of a suspect currently in the EFCC’s custody." According to him, the gold was heading to Dubai when it was intercepted. He noted that the suspect was providing the agency with useful information that will help it get to the bottom of the syndicate behind the operation. He further added "It will be recalled that the EFCC also in March 2017, intercepted bags containing a total of N49 milli...
Nigeria: Reliance On Imported Foreign Food Fuels Hunger, Says FAO
Africa, Agriculture, Economy, Nigeria

Nigeria: Reliance On Imported Foreign Food Fuels Hunger, Says FAO

Nigeria and all the other developing countries of the world will continue to experience hunger if they fail to shift from depending on imported foreign food. This is the underlying conclusion tumbling out of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) seminar on achieving a world of zero-hunger. Going by what the experts say, making hunger history, will greatly depend on local food systems. Indigenous food systems and indigenous traditional knowledge have survived hundreds and sometimes thousands of years, therefore they may have some of the answers we are looking for, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said on Friday. FAO, an agency of the United Nations, considers indigenous and tribal peoples as fundamental actors in the fight against poverty, hunger and all other form...
Nigeria: Warring Executive, Legislature Close Ranks To Combat Natural Resources Theft In Nigeria
Economy, News, Nigeria

Nigeria: Warring Executive, Legislature Close Ranks To Combat Natural Resources Theft In Nigeria

Despite the festering cold war between the Executive and the Legislative arms of the Nigerian government, the two organs of governance appear to be finding a common ground to rally together once more. The menace of piracy and theft of natural resources in the country’s territorial waters is bringing them together. Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, said in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city on Tuesday that the bicameral National Assembly will collaborate with the Executive to make new laws and strengthen existing ones in order to smash incidences of piracy and theft of natural resources in Nigeria’s territorial waters. Dogara, a stalwart of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) made this cherry deal public while speaking to a delegation from the Nigerian Ma...
Nigeria: Return Our Stolen Asset, Not Give Doomsday Prophecy On 2019 – Presidency to HSBC
Corruption, Economy, News, Nigeria

Nigeria: Return Our Stolen Asset, Not Give Doomsday Prophecy On 2019 – Presidency to HSBC

PRESIDENCY WANTS HSBC TO RETURN OUR STOLEN ASSETS, NOT GIVE US DOOMSDAY PROPHECY ON 2019 The Presidency wishes to make clear to all Nigerians, and particularly the global banking giant HSBC which said the second term of President Muhammadu Buhari would stunt the economy, that what killed Nigeria’s economy in the past was the unbridled looting of state resources by leaders, the type which was actively supported by HSBC. A bank that soiled its hand with ‘‘millions of US dollars yet-to-be-recovered Abacha loot’’, and continued until a few months ago to shield the stolen funds of one of the leaders of the Nigerian Senate has no moral right whatsoever to project that a “second term for Mr. Buhari raises the risk of limited economic progress and further fiscal deterioration.” Rather, ...