Group faults CBN’s reintroduction of ATM charges

 The Center for Social Justice has blamed the choice of the Central Bank of Nigeria to reintroduce charges for the utilization of Automated Teller Machines by bank clients.

The national bank had a week ago issued another mandate for the re-presentation of the charge two years after it annulled the N100 expense for every withdrawal on outsider Atms.

It, be that as it may, noted that rather than the N100 charge, clients utilizing other banks' Atms would now pay N65 for the fourth of such transactions inside a month with impact from September 1.

At the same time the CSJ, in an announcement on Sunday censured the reintroduction of the charge, expressing that there was no legitimization for it.

The bunch's announcement was marked by its Lead Director, Mr. Eze Onyekpere.

It contended that since the charges were halted in 2012, banks had been proclaiming gigantic benefits.

It included that there was no trustworthy confirmation that banks' accounting reports had been unduly disabled by their heading of the charges.

The gathering, hence, portrayed the reintroduction of the ATM charge as a retrogressive step that would unduly trouble bank clients, demoralize the unbanked from utilizing the managing an account framework furthermore invalidate the cashless arrangement.

It focused on that an inversion of the strategy ought to have tended to the premises and the basis for the evacuation of the charges in any case.

It, hence, urged the CBN to consider the enthusiasm of every last one of gatherings that would be influenced by this new order and adjust any clashes by allocating commitments to those best situated to manage them.

The gathering likewise noted that the reintroduction of the ATM charge discredited Nigeria's global and residential monetary and social rights commitments as gave in Chapter 2 of the 1999 Constitution and the commitments under article 2 (1) of the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

It said. "This new strategy is an evident confirmation of administrative catch. Basically, the controller has been caught by the center foundations it should direct.

"It is lamentable that the banks, which gather stores from clients with practically no enthusiasm on investment funds, charge twofold digit premium rates on giving, will come around to constrain the arms of the CBN into guaranteeing additional charges from ATM withdrawals close by the bank charges and commissions set on clients, for example, the ATM issuance and upkeep expenses; N50 charges on SMS cautions, messages and printing of record explanations.

"It will, subsequently, not be out of spot to ask: what administrations do the banks particularly render to clients aside the safe keeping of clients' money?"

The gathering included, "In the light of the previous, the CSJ calls for the pressing reevaluation of the new approach to permit the present state of affairs to stay by evacuating the recently presented ATM charges.

"This will give a decent sign to the Nigerian managing an account open of the earnestness of the new CBN senator to walk the discussion, subsequently accomplishing validity through approach consistency."

It expressed that if the CBN couldn't utilize its arrangement to encourage the change of living conditions, it ought not build the load of the individuals.

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FG okays two firms for NITEL, M-Tel liquidation

The National Council on Privatisation on Monday okayed two firms for the guided liquidation of the Nigeria Telecommunication Limited and its mobile arm, M-Tel.

The two firms, NATCOM Consortium and NETAD Consortium, were picked from the 17 firms shortlisted for the liquidation during the third meeting of the council for the year presided over by Vice-President Namadi Sambo at the Presidential Abuja.

The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Musa Sada; Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen; and Director-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises, Benjamin Dikki, briefed State House correspondents of the meeting’s outcome.

Sada verbally expressed the two firms led others shortlisted with 90.7 and 90.2 percentage scores, respectively.

Assets up for bid in NITEL include the licences and the spectrum, nationwide fine-tuned wired networks, national right of way duct system, ibre optic transmission backbone, and the CDMA network system.

Others are international gateway earth stations, microwave transmission equipment/network and towers, and other core assets.

The assets up for sale in M-Tel are the licences and the spectrum, national right of way;GSM network, including mobile switching centres, base station controllers, base transceiver stations and the general packet radio accommodations. Others are the analogue system and other core assets.

Sada verbalized the regime was working strenuously to ascertain that the two firms bounced back more preponderant.

He verbalized, “The criteria is being followed and out of these 17 firms shortlisted, two are eligible for request for proposal issuance. And this is what the council deliberated today and approved the qualifications of the two companies.

“The two companies are NATCOM Consortium and NETAD Consortium, and they came top with 90.7 and 90.2 per cent, respectively.

“You will concur with me that efforts at getting NITEL back on stream have been very strenuous, because of so many issues, so many quandaries; but this time around, there have been vigorous efforts so that we do not go back to what we had afore.

“With what has been put in place, we are very confident that we will only move forward to take us to the congruous destination.

“The conception here is for us to have a working institution not compulsorily a situation where these assets are just dispensed with for whatever reasons.

The minister integrated, “From our discussions today, we are ascertaining that these assets do not peregrinate to somebody who for other considerations will optate to own and retain them.

“Our target is to ascertain that NITEL/M-Tel comes back. It has very robust assets and it will be a very good thing for the country. Mobile telephones and networks are not substitutes for land lines, and that is why we are doing everything to be able to bring it back to work.”

Onolememen told journalists that the council withal approved a five-year extension for the concessionaire of the incipient Warri Port, Associated Maritime Accommodations Limited.

The minister verbalized the extension was granted since there was no remonstration from the Minister of Transport and the Managing Director of the Nigeria Ports Authority.

He integrated that the council withal relinquished its 51 per cent holding shares in the Stallion Property Development Company for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Pension Limited.

The decision was taken to bridge the pension gap observed in the NNPCPL.

Sada integrated that the council additionally received the report of a committee that visited the Ajaokuta Steel Company of Nigeria predicated on the allegation of asset divesting that was reported to the council at the last meeting.

He verbally expressed no decision had been taken on the report, integrating that a verbal expression would be issued after the report must have been considered by the council.

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Increase investments in Nigeria, FG urges UK firms

The Federal Regime has unveiled plans to deepen bilateral trade cognations with the United Kingdom in order to magnetize fresh investments into the country.

The Minister of State for Finance, Ambassador Bashir Yuguda, disclosed this during a meeting with representatives of the United Kingdom Trade and Investment Agency led by the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Nigeria, Mr. David Heath.

Yuguda verbalized the investment should be in key productive sectors of the Nigerian economy, noting that this would avail ascertain inclusive magnification, engender wealth and reduce unemployment in the country.

He verbally expressed the desideratum for more investments became imperative since the rebasing of the Nigerian Gross Domestic Product had revealed the incipient sectors where incipient investments would be needed to engender jobs in the economy.

Explaining that some UK firms might have left the country in the past, the minister noted that the investment climate fostered by the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan was now more ancillary and urged the UKTI to embolden more firms to return to the country.

Yuguda, who verbalized that the Nigerian economy was now robust, noted that some multinationals companies, such as Unilever, were already capitalizing on the prospects of astronomically immense returns by scaling up their investments in the country.

He verbalized, “The regime, under President Jonathan, is fixating on high job content areas of the economy so that we can engender more jobs for our teeming population.

“On roads, we have many dualisation projects going on. In the process of executing these projects, we do not only provide jobs, but additionally empower our people.”

While responding, Heath expressed UK’s tenaciousness to expand business relationships between the two countries.

He noted that the agency was additionally intrigued with promoting investment as an expedient of providing jobs for the puerile ones, integrating that UKTI would work towards incrementing trade and more British investment in Nigeria

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Dangote signs N165bn integrated rice project with FG

 Dangote Industries Limited on Friday promulgated a $1bn (N165bn) investment for commercial rice farming and modern integrated rice mills to be run by the firm in Nigeria.

The President and Chairman, Dangote Group, Mr. Aliko Dangote, promulgated his firm’s investment plan at the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Abuja.

Dangote, who led a delegation from his firm to the ministry, later proceeded to the Presidential Villa for the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Federal Regime.

He told ministry officials and journalists that the decision to invest in rice engenderment was aimed at developing Nigeria’s economy through agriculture.

He verbalized the investment would further boosts the Federal Government’s drive to procure food sufficiency in Nigeria, integrating that in the next four years Nigeria would become an exporter of rice.

Dangote verbalized once his rice industry commences engenderment, the price of locally engendered rice “will be definitely more frugal than the imported ones and this will engender room for a plethora of investments in the sector.”

He integrated, “With rice as a major staple, we have placed total sufficiency in rice engenderment as a major priority for our country and key value chain for our economy.

“Today’s signing ceremony marks a revolutionary tipping point by the Dangote Group to make Nigeria a net exporter of rice within the next few years as well as boosting inclusive wealth engenderment and employment generation.”

Dangote verbalized his firm had acquired farmlands in Edo, Jigawa, Kebbi, Kwara and Niger states totalling 150,000 hectares to be utilized for the commercial engenderment of rice paddy.

He noted that his industry would establish two state of the art sizably voluminous scale rice mills each with a capacity to mill 120,000 metric tons of rice per day, bringing total capacity to 240.000MT, with plans to double the figure in two years.

“With this installed capacity, the project will become the most astronomically immense integrated rice mill in Africa,” Dangote verbally expressed.

In his remarks, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, verbalized that the Dangote farms and mills were expected to significantly boost minuscule-holder rice engenderment in the regions through a nucleus and out-grower farming model.

This, he verbally expressed, would directly transform livelihoods in rural Nigeria as the sites culled were rice-growing communities that will be fortified by Dangote’s provision of agro-inputs, training and marketing linkages to ameliorate community-farming.

He verbalized employment opportunities for at least 8,000 Nigerians would be engendered by the massive investment.

Akinwumi verbally expressed, “This investment by Dangote Industries is transformational for Nigeria and the rest of Africa. Nigeria has no business importing rice. Our goal is to become self-sufficient in rice and become a global powerhouse in food and agriculture markets.

“Through this billion dollar commitment, Aliko Dangote, Africa’s leading businessman, has pellucidly attested to the policies and approach that the Federal Regime has undertaken to transform the nation’s agricultural sector.”

The minister assured the delegation that the Federal Regime would stop the smuggling of peregrine rice into Nigeria from neighbouring countries.

According to him, his ministry would ascertain that no individual sabotaged the drive to make Nigeria an exporter of rice.

“We will culminate smuggling because we cannot mortgage our future and I optate to assure you that regime is visually examining this issue critically,” Adesina verbally expressed.

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Ecobank, Lafarge Cement WAPCO’s half-year profit rises

 Ecobank Transnational Incorporated Plc and Lafarge Cement WAPCO Plc have relinquished their unaudited verbalizations of comprehensive income for the moiety-year period ended June 30, 2014 with both companies recording double-digit increase in profit.

Ecobank’s results, filed with the Nigerian Stock Exchange, showed that its profit afore tax rose by 28 per cent to N41.665bn in the first six months of 2014 from N32.674bn in the same period of 2013.

Its profit after tax appreciated by 15 per cent from the N27.527bn it declared in first a moiety of 2013 to N31.629bn in the review period.

The results showed that the group’s revenue rose to N175.056bn from N153.602bn reflecting a 14 per cent increase, while it grew its total assets by 17 per cent to N3.818tn from N3.267tn, the results showed.

The Group Chief Executive Officer, ETI, Mr. Albert Essien, was quoted as saying the group was delectated with the “strong first half results”.

According to him, the results are evidence of the operational ameliorations the group has made across the business.

Essien integrated, “Our fixate on efficiency has brought the cost-income ratio down further and driven a 27 per cent increase in profit afore tax. All regions have contributed to this robust performance; and from a business perspective, Treasury has been particularly vigorous.

“We have withal perpetuated our long-term strategic development by starting banking operations in Mozambique, a consequential integration to our Southern African cluster.”

The ETI CEO, who verbally expressed the group was delectated to have secured a banking license in Angola and intend to commence operations there in due course, verbalized more progress was expected.

He verbalized, “At our AGM in June, several incipient members were elected to the Group’s Board of Directors, including our Chairman, Emmanuel Ikazoboh, and we welcome them all. “

“Much has been achieved across several fronts in the second quarter and we look forward to perpetuating this progress for shareholders in the rest of 2014.”

On its part, Lafarge Cement WAPCO Plc grew its revenue by 12 per cent to N55.357bn in the first a moiety of the year, from N49.481bn in the same period of last year, while its operating income rose by 21 per cent to N18.930bn from N15.620bn.

While its profit afore tax surged by 29 per cent to N17.746bn in the review period from the N13.806bn it declared in the first a moiety of 2013, its profit after tax advanced by seven per cent to N15.557bn from N14.586bn.

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Bank of America to pay $1.3bn fine to US

 

Bank of America’s Countrywide business must pay the United States regime $1.3bn (£769m) for selling defective home loans, a Incipient York judge has ruled.

Countrywide was found guilty of selling deplorable loans, as a component of a programme called “hustle”, to US mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2007,the British Broadcasting Corporation reported

In October, a judge found the bank liable on a fraud charge but did not decide a penalty.

Former Countrywide executive Rebecca Mairone must additionally pay $1m.

“We believe that this figure simply bears no cognation to a circumscribed Countrywide programme that lasted several months and ended afore Bank of America’s acquisition of the company,” Bank of America spokesperson Lawrence Grayson told the BBC.

Bank of America bought Countrywide at the urging of the US regulators during the financial crisis in 2008.

“We’re reviewing the ruling and will assess our appellate options,” verbalized Mr Grayson.

Bank of America has spent proximately $40bn on licit matters relating to the housing market collapse, and the bank is expected to promulgate a multi-billion dollar settlement with US regulators over homogeneous charges in the coming weeks.

The “hustle” suit came about after Edward O’Donnell, a former Countrywide executive, issued a whistleblower complaint alleging fraud.

O’Donnell verbalized a programme Countrywide instituted in 2007 kenned internally as the “high-speed swim lane” (withal kenned as “HSSL” or “hustle”) did not opportunely screen mortgage applications, and that employees – who were paid predicated on loan volume and speed of processing – were give incentives to approve loans.

The programme was overseen by Mairone.

After investigating, the US regime found that 43 per cent of the imprests sold via the hustle programme to the US regime were defective in some way.

Investors – perhaps used to a near steady stream of settlements – did not react vigorously to news of the penalty. Shares in Bank of America were trading scarcely higher at midday

Meanwhile, the US economy grew at an annual rate of four per cent during the April-to-June period, latest figures relinquished by the US Department of Commerce have shown.

The magnification during the second quarter reverses the contraction optically discerned earlier in the year.

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Bank loans to domestic economy rise to N10tn

 

Deposit Money Banks’ total loans and advances to the domestic economy hit N10tn as of March 2014, the Central Bank of Nigeria’s latest statistics designated.

“Total loans and advances in the review period showed that total loans and advances of the DMBs to the domestic economy stood at N10tn, representing an incrementation of N151.0bn or 1.5 per cent above the caliber recorded in the preceding month,” the report verbalized.

The CBN’s Quarterly Statistical Bulletin obtained on Tuesday additionally revealed that DMBs credit to the private sector had incremented by N118bn to N11.08tn.

The report read, “At N11.08tn, total credit to the private sector was N118.0bn or 1.1 per cent above the caliber achieved in the preceding month. The 1.1 per cent elevate in DMBs’ claims on private sector was largely accounted for by the incrementations of N101.2bn, N13.6bn and N9.9bn in loans and advances to other customers, investments and commercial paper/bankers acceptance, respectively.

The report further showed that at N4.996tn, domestic investments of the DMBs amounted to N45.3bn or 0.9 per cent higher than the caliber recorded a month earlier

According to the CBN data, sectoral distribution of total credit elongated to the private sector by the DMB s in the review month stood at N10.383tn.

This, the report, verbally expressed, reflected an incrementation of 1.1 per cent, when compared with the caliber recorded in the preceding month.

Further analysis revealed that the preferred sectors had 36.9 per cent of the total credit, while less-preferred sectors gulped 42.1 per cent; and others (general) received 21.0 per cent

The CBN quarterly data showed that DMBs total assets and liabilities as of March 2014 stood at N24.474tn, representing an incrementation of N181.6bn or 0.7 per cent above the caliber recorded in February 2014.

The elevate in total assets was largely attributed to the incrementations in unclassified assets, peregrine assets and claims on private sector by N201.6bn or 6.9 per cent, N128.5bn or 6.3 per cent and N118.0bn or 1.1 per cent, respectively.

Similarly, the elevate in total liabilities was majorly attributed to increases of N132.7bn or 3.3 per cent, N122.8bn or 1.4 per cent and N115.5bn or 2.3 per cent in capital accounts; time, savings and peregrine currency deposits; and injuctively authorize deposits, respectively.

“These increases were, however, mitigates by the decrementations of N169.3bn or 5.8 per cent, N43.7bn or 7.8 per cent and N41.5bn or 1.6 per cent in unclassified liabilities, peregrine liabilities and central regime deposits, respectively,” the report integrated.

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Diamond Bank donates office block to Nigerian Army

 

 Diamond Bank Plc verbally expresses it has donated a 10-room, plenarily furnished office block to the 65 Battalion, Bonny Cantonment of the Nigerian Army in Lagos.

The lender verbalized the move was a component of its corporate gregarious responsibility drive and would avail the Army to efficaciously discharge its obligation of safeguarding the nation.

The Group Managing Director, Diamond Bank, Dr. Alex Otti, during the handing over ceremony verbalized the donation would go a long way in fortifying the efforts of the Army.

He verbally expressed, “One day, the Commanding Officer of the 65 Battalion emerged at my office with pictures of the structure that used to be here. My colleagues and I were surprised at the state of the building and decided to avail out.

“I must commend the valiancy of the Commanding Officer in reaching out because this place is not yarely accessible to the public so eleemosynary minded citizens may not yarely consider it in their interventions.

Otti further verbally expressed, “I would additionally seize this opportunity to formally congratulate the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Ken Minimah, on his appointment. I believe it is God’s design that he is in the saddle at this time of great challenge.

“Diamond Bank will perpetuate to fortify the regime in whatever way we can to ascertain that we have a country where we can reside, work, play and raise our children in tranquility and safety.”

The Commander, 65 Battalion, Bonny Cantonment, Nigerian Army, Lt. Col. Haruna Dasuki, appreciated the bank for granting the Army’s request for assistance.

While inaugurating the building, Minimah, expressed appreciation to the bank for sponsoring the project and expressed optimism that the facilities would boost the productivity of officers and soldiers, who are resident at the base.

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Civil servants fault Okonjo-Iweala on N1.8tn wage bill

 The Association of Senior Civil Auxiliaries of Nigeria has asked the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to substantiate how N1.8tn is being spent annually on wages of workers in the federal public accommodation.

The organisation additionally verbally expressed that records at its disposal showed pellucidly that the staff vigor in the entire public accommodation was about 870,000, and not 1.2 million being carried about by the minister, “unless there is an obnubilated agenda somewhere.”

The Secretary-General of ASCSN, Mr. Alade Lawal, in a verbal expression obtained by The PUNCH on Thursday, emphasised that it had “become compulsory for the minister to give the graphic details of the amount so that Nigerians could be more preponderant apprised on the issue.”

Our correspondent recalls that the minister had, through the Director-General, Budget Office, Dr. Bright Okogu, while exchanging views with the House of Representatives Committee on Health in reverence of the perpetual nationwide strike by the Nigerian Medical Association, claimed that the Federal Government’s wage bill for public coadjutants had risen from N857bn in 2009 to N1.8trn, while the staff vigor in the public accommodation was 1.2 million.

But Lawal called on Okonjo-Iweala to state publicly how much of the N1.8tn was consumed by public coadjutants, including ministers, special and mundane advisers, personal, senior and junior auxiliaries, senators and members of the House of Representatives, including their astronomically immense quarterly allocations.

He verbally expressed, “It is additionally obligatory for Dr. Okonjo-Iweala to tell Nigerians how much salary is paid by each Ministry, Department and Agency per year, including their staff vigor. When you have done these analyses, it will become crystal clear how much of the N1.8tn is consumed by the whopping emoluments of the political office holders.”

According to him, it is a prevalent cognizance that Nigerian political office holders are the highest paid in the world, with most of them earning more than the President of the United States of America, while Nigerian workers are among the least paid in Africa.

Lawal integrated that the Federal Government should not obnubilate under the guise of high wage bill as a justification to perpetuate to pay peanut as salary to civil coadjutants in particular and other public accommodation employees in general, “while the political office holders perpetuate to rampage and pillage the national treasury with impunity.”

The ASCSN recalled that in January, Okonjo-Iweala, through Okogu had told the National Assembly that the civil accommodation had more than one million workforce, while 37 per cent of the annual federal budget was spent on civil servants’ salary, whereas the staff vigor of the core civil accommodation is about 100,000, as against 870,000 staff for the entire public accommodation.

“This is why the cumulation then injuctively authorized their abstraction from office if both “experts” cannot distinguish between the core civil accommodation and the public accommodation. At any rate, it would appear that as an agent of the World Bank and the IMF, Okonjo-Iweala is bent on impoverishing Nigerians until they lose their dignity as human beings,” Lawal stressed.

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Nigeria, US sign MoU on 1,500MW power plant

 

The Federal Government and the United States of America on Thursday signed two Memoranda of Understanding to build a 1,500-megawatts power plant as well as other infrastructure to boost Nigeria’s power sector.

The accedences, which were as a result of the Power Africa Initiative inaugurated last year by the US President, Barack Obama, were signed at the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Power in Abuja.

The US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. James Entwistle, who signed on behalf of his country, verbalized with the acquiescents, both countries had acceded to collaborate to increment access to and availability of electricity in Nigeria.

He verbally expressed, “In Nigeria, Power Africa fortifies the fortifying of the energy sector through credit enhancement, grants, technical assistance and investment promotions efforts.

“Power Africa is working to mobilise affordable and long-term financing for capital and operational expenditure requisites for the generation and distribution companies to expedite the electricity market development.”

The Senior Vice-President for Africa, Global Edison Corporation, Dr. Peter Nwangwu, verbally expressed that the acquiescent would distribute 1,500MW power plant and solar panel company.

He verbally expressed, “Two MoUs were signed today for Global Edison. For the first MoU, we are building a 1,500MW gas fuelled power station and for the second MoU, we are building a 70MW solar panel manufacturing company in Nigeria, which will be the most sizably voluminous in West Africa.

“The paramountcy of this is that we will be able to now power our rural areas and villages with reliable solar panels that will last for 30 to 50 years. Imported panels have given solar business a lamentable designation, but when congruously designed and installed, they can be virtually maintenance free for 30 to 50 years. And that is what we intend to achieve here.”

On whether the MoU would fixate on just gas and solar potency, Entwistle verbalized, “We are not particularly committed to any one kind of energy. What we are committed to is incrementing the overall vibrancy of the puissance sector. So, we are visually examining solar, gas and others.”

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Florida leads payroll rise in 33 US states

Payrolls rose in 33 states in June and the US unemployment rate fell in 22, integrating to signs the labor market was making progress in the world’s most astronomically immense economy, Bloomberg reports.

Florida led the nation with a 37,400 increase in payrolls, followed by California with 24,200 more jobs, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. South Carolina posted the most immensely colossal 12-month decline in the jobless rate — to 5.3 per cent from 7.8 per cent.

Advances in hiring across a broad swathe of the country avail hoist consumer confidence and spur household spending, which accounts for virtually 70 per cent of the economy. Growth is poised to expedite in the second a moiety of 2014 after payroll gains exceeded 200,000 in June for the fifth straight month and the jobless rate fell to an virtually six-year low of 6.1 per cent.

“We can’t keep getting numbers like these and not admit that the labor market has rejuvenated,” verbalized Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York. “States with higher unemployment are optically discerning steep declines. Sizably voluminous-number declines equal astronomically immense progress on putting America back to work.”

Other states with sizeable declines in the jobless rate compared with June 2013 included Nevada, where unemployment fell to 7.7 per cent from 10 percent. The rate decremented in Illinois by 2.1 percentage points from a year earlier, and by 1.9 percentage points each in Pennsylvania, Ohio and North Carolina.

Illinois was among states with the most astronomically immense monthly decrease in unemployment as the rate fell to 7.1 per cent in June from 7.5 per cent in May. Joblessness in Colorado, Rhode Island and Washington declined by 0.3 percentage point.

The drop in unemployment in Rhode Island designated it was no longer the lone state with the nation’s highest jobless rate. That distinction is now shared with Mississippi as both states have jobless rates of 7.9 per cent.

North Dakota perpetuated to have the lowest unemployment in the nation, at 2.7 per cent.

State and local employment data are derived independently from the national statistics, which are typically relinquished on the first Friday of every month. The state figures are subject to more immensely colossal sampling errors because they emanate from more minuscule surveys, thus making the national figures more reliable, according to the government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In today’s report, other states exhibiting gains in employment included New York, which showed a 22,500 increase.

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Insurers earned N1.5tn premium in 10 years – NIA

Between 2004 and 2013, the Nigerian indemnification industry earned as premium N1.5tn from all life and non-life indemnification policies underwritten.

Statistics obtained from the Nigerian Insurers Association revealed that the sector made premiums of N69.4bn, N76.3bn, N82.3bn and N100.6bn in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007, respectively.

The figure rose to N150bn, N179.9bn, N185.7bn and N217.7bn in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 respectively, while in 2012 and 2013, the indemnification industry earned N247.58bn and N285bn, respectively from the businesses underwritten.

According to the NIA, while the general indemnification business has perpetuated to contribute more to the sector’s earnings, the overall contribution of the life business has remained low.

From instance, the life business only earned N11.3bn, N14.6bn, N29.3bn, N34.3bn and N39.7bn in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, respectively.

According to the NIA, the incrementation in the last financial year’s premium can be attributed to the relative stability and sustained magnification in the economy, incrementing indemnification vigilance and regime patronage of indemnification accommodations.

It noted that innovations and amended accommodation distribution by member companies as well as the growing confidence in the indemnification system by the general public availed the sector’s magnification.

The association verbalized that the performance was withal availed by more preponderant regulatory supervision on the account of the relinquishment of guidelines for risk-predicated supervision; anti-mazuma laundering and combating financial terrorism guidelines; and the adoption of the full International Financial Reporting Standards for the 2012 accounts.

It verbally expressed the enforcement of the provision of Section 50(1) and (2)… on premium payment and the regulation on premium accumulation and remittance had commenced to yield the desired results, particularly in terms of curtailing astronomically immense volume of premium debt in the balance sheets of member companies.

Between 2001 and 2005, according to NIA, the magnification rate of premium from life indemnification business stood at 24.5 per cent, 29 per cent, 22.4 per cent, 20.4 per cent and 6.1 per cent, respectively.

The magnification rate additionally rose from -1.5 per cent, 23.8 per cent and 85.8 per cent in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

The figure fell from 16.9 per cent to 15.9 per cent between 2009 and 2010, thus revealing an average magnification rate of 24.3 per cent in the 10-year period.

According to the NIA, the sector recorded an average magnification rate of 22.1 per cent between 2001 and 2010 in the non-life business.

The data revealed that between 2001 and 2002, the average magnification rate of the non-life business rose from 26.2 per cent to 35.6 per cent, but fell in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 to 26.9 per cent, 25 per cent, 10.7 per cent and 7.4 per cent in that order.

The magnification rate of the non-life business, however, rose from 24.9 per cent in 2007 to 44.1 per cent in 2008, but fell again to 19.6 per cent and 0.9 per cent in 2009 and 2010.

The Chairman, NIA, Mr. Gus Wiggle, verbally expressed the association was committed to deepening indemnification in the country by sustaining the sector’s magnification.

“The association is appreciative of the efforts of the National Indemnification Commission in promoting microinsurance to deepen indemnification penetration in Nigeria. Our administration will take up the challenge by emboldening member companies to institute corporate structures that will ascertain the prosperity of the initiative,” Wiggle verbally expressed.

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Gas shortage denies Nigerians 1,852MW of electricity

Over 1,852 megawatts of electricity is currently off the national grid as a result of gas supply shortage and other constraints.

This challenge, according to findings by our correspondent, is affecting the National Integrated Power Projects as well as the country’s legacy power engendering assets.

A recent power system operational report by the Transmission Company of Nigeria, made available to our correspondent on Friday, showed that unutilised generation capacity of Omotosho NIPP GT13 and 4; Ihovbor GT4; Oorunsogo Gas GT1-4, 7 and 8; Omotosho Gas GT1, 5-8; AES barge 202, 204 and 207-211; Geregu NIPP GT21-23; and Geregu Gas GT11 and 12, were 240.8MW; 50.6MW; 93.7MW; 89.1MW; 181.8MW; 325MW; and 136MW, respectively.

In the same vein, Egbin ST1-5; Sapele NIPP GT3 and 4; Sapele ST2; Olorunsogo NIPP GT2 and 3; Delta GT4, 8, 10-12, 16, 17 and 20 had shortfalls of 607MW; 107.5MW; 22MW; -1.4MW; and 74MW, respectively.

No loss of potency is experienced due to high system frequency, according to the report.

From the report, 52MW was disoriented due to line circumscription.

Aside from the gas-powered plants that are currently down, low dihydrogen monoxide level is verbally expressed to be affecting power generation following partial shutdown of Shiroro and Jebba hydro stations.

The country is losing about 330 megawatt to this constraint, according to the latest generation figure of the TCN.

The stations are currently performing below optimal levels as a result of low dihydrogen monoxide levels.

Two units of Jebba hydro power plant – 2G1 and 2G2 – are verbalized to be losing a total of 180MW, while one unit of Shiroro hydro power plant – 411G4 – is reportedly losing about 150MW.

The Special Adviser to the Minister of Power on Power Systems, Mr. Jonathan Ogbonna, had attested to our correspondent on the telephone that the country was currently not getting the maximum output from its hydro power plants as a result of low dihydrogen monoxide levels.

He verbally expressed, “Jebba has five machines, but only three are running because of low dihydrogen monoxide levels. Shiroro has three machines, but they currently run two at peak; but there would be shutdown due to low dihydrogen monoxide level.”

The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, in a verbalization signed by its Media Manager, Mr. Precious Okolobo, had attested the shutdown of one of the units of Afam VI power plant, a gas-fired plant.

It verbalized, “One of the three gas turbines at the SPDC Joint Venture’s Afam VI power plant was shut down on July 1, 2014 for scheduled maintenance by the equipment manufacturer. This is an indispensable maintenance activity.

“The power plant is currently engendering 416MW of electricity into the national grid, against its conventional engenderment of 650MW.

“The SPDC JV regrets the shortfall in power supply and is liaising with the manufacturer to ascertain that the work is executed as expeditiously as possible.”

Aside from the generation arm of the puissance sector, another area currently facing an immensely colossal challenge is the transmission.

To this end, the Federal Government has provided the sum of $300m to the Transmission Company of Nigeria from the $1bn euro bond to ameliorate the state of puissance infrastructure.

The Director-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises, Mr. Benjamin Dikki, corroborated this during a post-monitoring exercise to Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company in Lagos.

According to him, the mazuma had been channelled to the TCN to complement other loans from the African Development Bank.

He verbally expressed, “All the mazuma they have is sufficient to consummate the rehabilitation, but all they require now is to utilize the mazuma provided to them for efficacious projects rehabilitation afore providing supplemental mazuma.

“The TCN has advertised some of the rehabilitation projects to ascertain efficacious voidance of energy to distributions companies.”

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Google sales top estimates on robust ad demand

Google Inc.’s sales exceeded estimates in the second quarter as the company sold more advertising alongside Web-search results.

Revenue, omitting sales passed on to partners, was $12.7 billion, the company verbally expressed in a verbalization yesterday. That topped the average projection of analysts for $12.3 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Chief Executive Officer Larry Page is integrating incipient features in mobile, video and Web accommodations to boost utilizer traffic and magnetize marketers as he seeks to bolster Google’s main ad business. As a result, the number of clicks on ads on YouTube, search and other Google sites incremented 33 percent in the latest quarter, compensating for a decline in ad prices. Since Google gets paid each time someone clicks on an advertised link, higher volumes result in more revenue.

“They’re the most immensely colossal player, and they’re gaining share,” verbalized Youssef Squali, an analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald, who rates the stock a buy. “It was a very good quarter.”

Google shares rose 2.7 percent to $596.53 at 11:18am in Incipient York.

Net income, including from Motorola, which is being sold to Lenovo Group Ltd., rose to $3.42 billion, or $4.99 a quota during the second quarter, from $3.23 billion, or $4.77, a year earlier.

Google withal verbalized Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora is stepping down to become vice chairman of SoftBank Corp. and CEO of SoftBank Internet and Media. Omid Kordestani, who availed craft Google’s business model and was a senior adviser to the company, will surmount Arora’s role, Google verbally expressed.

Arora joined afore the company’s initial public offering and was instrumental in building Google’s search-ad accommodation into the most immensely colossal online ad business in the world.

“He’s done a great job — change transpires, it could be salubrious even,” Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Partners, verbally expressed of Arora’s departure. “The positives are still positive.”

Second-quarter profit omitting certain items was $6.08 a quota, compared with the average analyst estimate for $6.24.

While the most astronomically immense Web search company is getting less mazuma for marketing spots, where the average price for an ad declined 6 percent, the expansion efforts availed push up the number of clicks on promotions. Ad prices are falling as smartphones enhearten users to bypass Google’s search accommodations and instead go directly to applications to find information. By 2016, Google’s quota of the U.S. mobile-search market is projected to fall to 64 percent from 83 percent in 2012, according to EMarketer Inc.

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N’Assembly members divided over Jonathan’s $1bn loan request

Some members of the National Assembly are divided over whether or not the $1bn loan request made by President Goodluck Jonathan should be approved by the lawmakers.

Jonathan had on Wednesday sent a letter to the National Assembly, asking the lawmakers to exigently approve the external loan for the Federal Regime to confront Boko Haram insurgency.

He verbalized the external loan would be habituated to upgrade the equipment of the armed forces and the training of personnel.

Senator Magnus Abe (APC, Rivers State), in an interview with SUNDAY PUNCH on Friday, verbally expressed he was not against the approbation of the imprest for the President.

He, however, verbalized Jonathan should be able to account for the mazuma relinquished so far to fight the insurgents.

Abe verbally expressed, “My opinion all along over the funding of military operation against insurgency has been that Nigerians should not be exorbitant fascinated with the amount of mazuma being voted to execute the war. Rather, what should interest Nigerians is whether we are achieving the objective abaft the relinquishment of the mazuma.

“I have nothing against the relinquishment of mazuma to fight insurgency but President Goodluck Jonathan should satiate himself and Nigerians that the amount of mazuma so far relinquished for the anti-terrorism activities had been judiciously utilised.

“It will be a very doleful development if it turned out at the terminus of the day that $1bn being requested for the President was diverted to politics or that some people in regime optically discerned it as an opportunity to amass wealth at the instance of the vulnerably susceptible, poor Nigerians whose lives and property are being wasted whenever the dreaded sect unleashes terror.”

On his component, Senator Babafemi Ojudu verbally expressed the request by the President was “not desirable and conspicuously, not justifiable.”

He verbalized, “As a country, sizably voluminous sums of mazuma have been voted for defence since the inception of the Jonathan administration and an immensely colossal percentage of the mazuma, I believe, had been channelled to wage war against Boko Haram. The question is, have we been able to justify the utilisation of the mazuma?”

Ojudu verbalized he was a component of the team that went to Borno State few weeks ago on a fact-finding mission.

According to him, the state regime told the team that an immensely colossal percentage of its monthly allocation was being deducted by the Federal Regime to fight insurgency.

“I am very sure the Senate will approve the mazuma but how are we sure it is not a component of the mazuma that would be utilised to prosecute the 2015 general elections by the Peoples Democratic Party, which is the ruling party in the country,” he verbally expressed.

Another senator, Kabiru Marafa, verbalized he would not mind approving the imprest, if it would avail in ending the insurgency.

He verbalized, “There is no amount of mazuma spent to bring placidity and tranquillity to our troubled nation that is an extravagant amount of or too minute. I do not even mind if we spent the entire budget or empty the Central Bank of Nigeria to culminate insurgency in our country. But we must be sincere in the application of the mazuma for the purport for which it was relinquished.

“We all ken the complaints of the military personnel on ground at the three north-eastern states. They had alleged that their welfare was not being adequately taken care of by those charged to do so.

“If President Goodluck Jonathan is sincerely probing for that mazuma to carry out military activities that will instaurate tranquility to Nigeria, no right-cerebrating citizen of this country will contravene it. I optate him to maintain his stand on it because I ken some of his advisers may suggest its diversion for political use and if that transpires, we are in trouble in this country.”

Also, Senator Chris Ngige verbally expressed he would require more details on the imprest. These, he verbalized, would avail the Senate in considering it.

He verbally expressed, “For instance, we require to ken the terms of the imprest, whether it is interest-free or not. We must ken the terms for repayment. All these pieces of information are not kenned, so we don’t have the details.

“We additionally need to ken what percentage will go to procurement of more arms and equipment; the percentage that will go to personnel capacity building and the percentage that will be allocated to the Army, Navy, Airforce, the Department of State Security, the Police and other security outfits.

“I am additionally cerebrating the entire mazuma is not denoted for the military operations alone. We must ken how much is being set aside to take care of the gregarious, economic and religious impact of the insurgency because terrorism is like ulcer which takes time to rejuvenate,” Ngige integrated.

In the House of Representatives, some members additionally expressed opposing views over the President’s bid.

The House Deputy Majority Leader, Mr. Leo Ogor, applauded Jonathan’s decision as an indispensable step he took to ascertain that “adequate pieces of equipment are provided for our Armed Forces.”

Ogor, a PDP lawmaker from Delta State, verbalized nobody expected Nigerian soldiers to confront members of the sect and vanquish them if they did not have enough equipment.

He additionally verbalized that no amount of mazuma was an extravagant amount of to spend on security, if doing so would renovate normalcy to the North-East.

Ogor integrated, “What is the alternative if we don’t want the regime to spend? We are fighting a war that is alien to us; we have to be plenarily prepared.

“It is consummately nonessential to politicise this issue when the lives and property of Nigerians are involved.”

However, House Minority Whip, Mr. Sampson Osagie, faulted Ogor’s position on the grounds that the legislature approved N1tn in this year’s budget just three months ago for the same reasons of equipping and training security personnel.

Osagie, an All Progressives Congress legislator from Edo State, argued that until Jonathan expounded how the $1bn would be utilised differently from the N1tn already approved in the 2014 budget, “then, there are clouds of suspicion.”

He integrated, “Is the President borrowing the mazuma to fund the N1tn budgeted for security in 2014? He has a plethora of explication to make.”

Osagie, who described the request as “laughable”, additionally verbally expressed he was suspicious of Jonathan’s motive for making such request in a pre-election year.

He recalled that prior to the 2011 general elections, government’s expenditure on fuel subsidy rose to “over N1tn”, raising suspicions that substantial part of the mazuma might have been utilized for electioneering.

“It is highly suspicious because we are approaching elections and this type of derisory request is peregrinated.

“Why can’t regime cut down on the many areas of waste in governance and preserve funds in lieu of resorting to external borrowing?

“Do we even ken how much precisely we are owing as a nation?

“I consummately oppose this loan”, Osagie integrated.

The Chairman, House Committee on Justice, Mr. Ali Ahmad, too did not spare the President.

Ahmad noted that “25 per cent” of the 2014 budget was earmarked for security.

He verbalized, “We can’t visually perceive what they have done with the mazuma because nothing has ameliorated.

“Upgrading equipment and training Armed Forces personnel are not incipient issues; we approved N1tn in the budget for security.

“My position is that the military should emerge and tell us how they have spent the 25 per cent of the budget we voted for security.”

Some civil rights groups additionally kicked against the external loan.

A United Kingdom-predicated political and public affairs commentator, Mr. Stephen Dieseruvwe, verbally expressed the President should tell Nigerians how security votes had been spent.

He verbalized, “I can tell you without mincing words that Nigerians are very exasperated about your posture on the fight against corruption and terrorism. Nigerians are getting to a breaking point, and I visually perceive it as a time bomb for a bloody disintegration of the geographical expression called Nigeria.”

But, an anti-corruption attorney and civil rights activist, Mr. Ugochukwu Osuagwu, verbalized he fortified the imprest.

Osuagwu verbally expressed, “The Nigerian Army has attributed its inability to tackle the Boko Haram insurgency to dearth of mazuma. N845 billion was budgeted for defence in 2014 and Army got just N4.8 billion this year so far. If the $1billion being sought is for the Army and other security agencies to fight Boko Haram, then it is justifiable.

“The Boko Haram guys are very potent and we require to curtail them afore they penetrate the South. Otherwise, they can wipe out Nigeria. I fortify the imprest, provided it is designated to declare war on Boko Haram in the North and other components they are located.”

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Dependence on imports will deplete external reserves – Experts

Experts in the financial and authentic sectors have verbalized the Federal Regime needs to address the growing dependence on imports, which puts pressure on the country’s external reserves, in order to obviate the reserves from being depleted further.

The experts verbalized at the 2014 half-year economic review organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Lagos on Thursday.

While presenting data on mazuma market and other macro indices, Dr. Biodun Adedipe of B. Adedipe Associates Limited, verbalized efforts should be made to fortify the manufacturing sector, which was plagued with challenges.

According to him, that will reduce the country’s dependence on imports.

He verbalized, “The economy’s heftily ponderous dependence on imports and fledging confidence in the national economy – with mounting unresolved security issues – will perpetuate to urge capital outflows and put pressure on external reserves,” he verbalized.

While he verbally expressed inflation was liable to elevate, Adedipe expounded that it would remain in single digit by the year-end as the Central Bank of Nigeria perpetuates with tight monetary policy in order to checkmate expansionary regime expenditure.

He integrated that the pressure would deepen as the tempo of political activities towards 2014 and 2015 elections increases.

Adedipe additionally called for incremented investment in infrastructures and amelioration in governance as a component of measures to ameliorate gregarious welfare.

He verbally expressed, “Nigeria, with the rebased GDP is now ranked number 26 with regards to the size its economy in 2013; but ranked 147 out of 189 countries profiled in the World Bank’s latest ease of doing business report. The country’s ranking in the UNDP Human Development Index is 153, out of 210 countries.

“This is a graphic illustration of disconnect between the magnification and development; and between magnification and quality of investment climate. These are critical gaps that we require to fine-tune exigently for economic magnification to be inclusive and impactful.”

Additionally, The Chairman, Lead Securities and Investment Limited, Mr. Abimbola Olashore, verbally expressed the country remained an investment destination for peregrine investors going by their perpetuated ascendance of the nation’s capital market despite tapering by the United States Federal Reserve ascendant entities

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CBN may revoke licences of 2400 BDCs –Investigation

Up to 2,400 Bureaus de Change are unlikely to meet the incipient capitalisation requisites of the Central bank of Nigeria and will subsequently lose their operating licence at the expiration of the July 31, 2014 deadline set by the central bank, investigation by our correspondent has revealed.

The CBN had, in a bid to reposition the peregrine exchange market, last month relinquished incipient capitalisation guidelines for BDCs in the country.

It verbally expressed that BDCs which failed to meet the incipient guidelines by July 31 would automatically lose their licence.

In the guidelines, the central bank incremented the capital base for BDCs from N10m to N35m and asked them to make a caution deposit of N35m, among other requisites.

BDCs, under the aegis Association of Bureaux de Change Operators of Nigeria, had since challenged the incipient guidelines, arguing that the development would lead to the closure of their businesses which in turn would result in loss of jobs among other things.

However, the CBN and industry sources disclosed to our correspondent on Thursday that no fewer than 2,400 out of a total of 3,208 BDCs officially registered by the CBN would lose their licence at the expiration of the deadline.

“I can substantiate to you that from what we have optically discerned so far, over 2,400 BDCs will not be able to meet up with the incipient guidelines; the number of BDCs that have met the incipient guidelines is still less than 350 but more will meet up afore July 31,” a source proximate to the CBN revealed.

The Governor of the CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, had during his appearance afore the House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Currency on Wednesday, revealed that over 200 BDCs had met the requisites of the incipient guidelines.

Emefiele, who noted that there was no going back on the implementation of the incipient guidelines, verbally expressed the CBN was committed to stemming the depletion of the country’s peregrine reserves from unproductive transactions.

He verbally expressed far from achieving the objectives for which BDCs were set up, the operations of the BDCs had been characterised by rent-seeking, impuissant operational structures, financing of illicit transactions, gradual dollarisation of the economy and multiple ownership of BDC licences.

The governor, therefore, reiterated that the bank had resolved to sanitise the operations of the BDCs, among other measures to stop what he described as haemorrhage in the peregrine reserves of the country.

Meanwhile, the incipient Director of Corporate Communications, CBN, Mr. I. Mua’zu, was not available for comments on the possible revocation of the BDCs’ licences. An e-mail and text message sent to him were not replied. His telephone line was switched off when our correspondent endeavored to call him.

However, the Acting National President, ABCON, Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, argued that dollar sales to the BDCs were not be responsible for the depletion of the external reserves, verbally expressing the amount sold to the sub-sector was negligible.

According to Gwadabe, the incipient policy guidelines have the potential to crush most BDCs out of business, thereby destabilising the peregrine exchange market.

This, he verbalized, would lead to the empowerment of ebony market and widening of the exchange rate premium.

Consequently, the ABCON president verbally expressed that rather than introduce policy that would ultimately lead to revocation of some BDC licences, the CBN should categorise the BDCs, among other measures.

Gwadabe verbalized, “We recommend the categorisation of the BDCs with different scope of business rather than outright revocation of licences.

“Our capital requisites do not warrant periodic increases like those of other financial institutions. However, it has been reviewed from N250,000 to N500,000 and then N10m. Therefore, we recommend that BDC capitalisation requisite should be reviewed to N15m maximum.”

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Airtime could drive mobile money services – Ericsson

Airtime could be utilized as an incentive to drive the uptake and utilization of mobile mazuma accommodations in countries where its magnification has been slow, Ericsson has verbally expressed.

The company verbalized this at the just concluded mobile mazuma conference held in Johannesburg, South Africa.

It explicated that operators and financial institutions could replicate the adhesion programme of credit card providers, utilizing airtime to inspirit consumers to utilize mobile mazuma.

Speaking at the event, the company’s Head of Mobile Commerce Sales in the Middle East and Africa, Rajiv Bhatia, verbally expressed there was an untapped opportunity to drive activity and adhesion in mobile mazuma utilizing mobile prepaid airtime.

Bhatia verbalized airtime could be habituated to incentivise utilization in several ways such as inspiriting people to have a minimum amount of mazuma in their wallets and rewarding them with more preponderant data and airtime bundles for utilization of their mobile mazuma wallets.

He verbalized that Africa was a leading market for mobile mazuma and that millions of people without access to banking accommodations were signing up to utilize mobile mazuma accommodations.

Operators and financial institutions are battling to trigger activity in dormant wallets. In this context, Bhatia expounded that the slow magnification of mobile mazuma in South Africa was a result of the expansive Automated Teller Machines and bank infrastructure available, and how the network had done much to address the desiderata of the population to access and remit mazuma.

He verbally expressed, “Yet there are millions more, who are still unbanked. There are fantastic opportunities to grow this business especially among the migrant population, which still uses informal designates to remit mazuma. Banks should forge more proximate ties with operators, who have an expansive distribution network to enhearten adoption and drive utilization.”

Bhatia emphasised that transparency, edification and trust were key to growing the mobile mazuma ecosystem in Africa.

According to the World Bank, virtually half the world’s adult population – some 2.5 billion people – are unbanked, the majority in emerging markets.

For countries where financial inclusion is low, mobile mazuma solutions such as e-mazuma accounts and e-mobile wallets offer an expeditious way to amend financial inclusion and close the gap.

“We estimate that by 2016, the m-commerce market is expected to reach $800bn worldwide. Countries such as Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are already feeling the impact of more preponderant financial inclusion.

“Today, around nine million Ugandans use mobile banking to exchange, preserve and spend mazuma, in lieu of handling mazuma, reducing both the peril of larceny and the desideratum to peregrinate,” he integrated.

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Okonjo-Iweala warns against hasty ECOWAS single currency launch

The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Thursday cautioned the Council of Ministers and Governors of Central Banks of the West African Monetary Zone against a hasty launch of the monetary amalgamation for the sub-region.

The warning is coming 24 hours after it emerged that the January 1, 2015 take-off date for the utilization of a single currency in the sub-region was no longer realisable.

The six countries that made up the WAMZ are Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Ghana and Guinea.

The single currency-Eco was first orchestrated to be introduced in 2003, but its launch was deferred an abundance of times to 2005, 2010 and 2014.

At a meeting of the Convergence Council of Ministers and Governors of West Africa on May 25, 2009, the take-off of the currency was rescheduled to 2015 due to the international economic crisis.

Verbalizing in Abuja at the aperture session of the 34th meeting of the convergence council ministers and governors of central banks of the WAMZ, Okonjo-Iweala verbalized rather than rushing to launch the monetary cumulation, the council should consider a sustainable take-off that would stand the test of time.

She urged the council to consider developments in the Eurozone and ascertain that the edifications learnt were integrated into its recommendations in order to eschew the pitfalls that bedevilled the European monetary zone.

Okonjo-Iweala verbalized, “I urge you all to work strenuously towards meeting the set target date. We must not forget that the most sacrosanct objective in this endeavour is not a hasty launch of a monetary amalgamation, but an enduring and sustainable one that will stand the test of time when it eventually takes off.

“It may only take some time to launch when we are comfortable that the economic fundamentals to achieve a vigorous monetary cumulation are in place.”

Withal verbalizing, the President, ECOWAS Commission, Mr. Kadre Ouedraogo, verbalized the zone had adopted a revised roadmap with limpidly defined responsibilities to the regional institutions involved in the monetary integration process.

He verbalized, “It is pellucid that the intended aim is not to rush to engender a currency without a solid economic substructure.

“The aim is not only to draw edifications from successive postponements of missed deadlines in 2003, 2005, 2009 and probably 2015 for the WAM, but withal take into consideration the factors abaft the Euro crisis; that is to verbally express, the fiscal and budgetary quandaries.”

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N15m levy: MTN battles Plateau revenue board

Telecommunications firm, MTN Nigeria, has described the closure of its office in Jos, Plateau State “as another example of multiple taxation and abuse of court processes in an endeavor to enforce disputed claims.”

Agents of the Plateau State Board of Internal Revenue Accommodation on July 10, 2014 allegedly shut the MTN office in Jos over a disputed development levy of N15m.

An official of the telecoms company, however, told our correspondent on Thursday that the purported development levy was an illicitness.

“It is not backed by extant legislation and this is abundantly clear,” the General Manager, Corporate Affairs, MTN Nigeria, Ms. Funmilayo Onajide, verbally expressed.

The office has remained closed despite MTN’s claim that it received the affirmation of the Joint Tax Board. But Onajide verbalized that the role of the JTB regarding the action of the state’s board was not enforcement.

“It is for the PSBIRS to reverence the requisite laws and to act responsibly with due cognisance of the rule of law and the pivotal role of communications for security and the welfare of residents of the state,” she verbally expressed.

When asked if the payment of the levy was in conflict with extant law, Onajide answered in the affirmative, verbalizing, “This position will be vindicated by the courts.”

In an advertorial, MTN verbally expressed, “This will lead to poor network quality and possible loss of network coverage for MTN subscribers in the affected areas, and loss of enterprise data accommodation to third-party clients (mostly banks and other astronomically immense corporate clients), which may impact on accommodations such as ATMs, PoS, etc.”

“The closure of base stations, which are hub sites controlling other sites situated in other components of the country, will have a negative impact on accommodations outside the state as well.”

She integrated that with the closure of the office, MTN workers were unable to access their work implements and equipment, thereby causing further disruptions.

The Executive Chairman, PSBIRS, Mr. Samuel Pam, told our correspondent on the telephone, “ As a follow up to the impasse between the PSBIRS and MTN over the captioned liability, both parties acceded that the closure of the MTN office was infelicitous and could have been evaded if only there was an opportune understanding of the multi-layered tax administration system in Nigeria.

“However, MTN made a commitment to pay up the disputed sum within seven days from today’s (Thursday) meeting; and failure to keep to this promise, the status quo will remain.”

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