Sugar infrastructure rehabilitation program commissioned

 The Federal Government's $73 million sugar intervention fund is likely to help Dangote Sugar, BUA Sugar, and other sugar sector players.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will distribute the $73 million (N30.7 billion) on behalf of the government to help build Nigeria's sugar industry infrastructure.

Niyi Adebayo, Minister of Industry, announced this in Abuja on Monday, 20 December 2021 during the ceremonial commissioning of the sugar infrastructure rehabilitation program.

Dangote and Rabiu control the sugar market in NigeriaCredit: Andrew Unangst Source: Depositphotos

The programme which is themed, Presidential Intervention on Irrigation Infrastructure to Accelerate Sugar Backward Integration Programme Projects will see the development of irrigation facilities on 10,000 hectares of the sugar plantation.

The facilities will be located in six sites in Northern Nigeria, as the FG reiterated its commitment to the National Sugar Development master plan,

Adebayo said:

"The intervention involves the establishment of a $73 million irrigation intervention fund for sugar backward intervention program operators."

He further stated that:

“The purpose is to fund the development of irrigation infrastructure on 10,000 hectares of sugar plantations in Numan, Adamawa State, Sumti, Niger State, Lafiagi, Kwara State, Bacita, Kwara State, and Toto and Tunga, both in Nasarawa State."

In October Aliko Dangote had called on Nigeria to return to its sugar master plan nothing that if it is adhered to, will save Nigeria between $600 million and $700 million annually as forex.

Investors billions 'trapped' in stocks for years with no returns

Except for miracles some Nigerian investors who had committed their money buying shares of public listed Nigerian companies will never get even a one tenth of what was invested.

Some of these investors had in their young age, just like every young persons today hoped in few years time they will become free from financial challenges.

It has, however, been a sobering experience for investors. One of the companies have in-fact stopped paying dividends to shareholders as far back as 1985, despite continuing to trade on the market.

Stock brokers on the Nigerian exchange Credit: NSE Source: Getty Images

Dividends are payments a company makes to share profits with its stockholders. They're paid on a regular basis, and they are one of the ways investors earn a return from investing in stock.

51 of the 153 companies currently listed on the Nigerian exchange are culpable in terms of dividends payments to their shareholders Premium Times reports

Ten of these firms have failed to announce a dime for its investors in the last ten years.

The companies are Champion Breweries , Golden Guinea Breweries, Juli Plc, Capital Oil, DN Tyre and Rubber, Premier Paints, Livestock Feeds, Union Dicon.

Others are Daar Communications, John Holt, Studio Press, Staco, RT Briscoe, Royal Exchange Insurance, Standard Alliance, Morrisons, FTN Cocoa, Guinea Insurance, FTN Cocoa, Omatek.

Chellarams, Ellah Lakes, NCR, RT Briscoe, Tantalisers as well as Vanleer (formerly Greif) since 2012

 Dangote Cement and MTN Nigeria are the two biggest publicly listed companies in Nigeria as of October 2021.

The two firms are among the five biggest companies in the exclusive club of over N1trillion market capitalisation.

Using data from Nigeria Exchange the report showed how much each of the top firms are worth and their share price for anyone looking to invest. Source: Legit.ng

New digital token to replace NIN- FG

The federal government on Wednesday, December 22, announced its plan to introduce a digital token that would replace the current 11-digit National Identity Number, with effect from January 2022, a digital token would serve as a replacement for the NIN for all Nigerians.

The new digitoken would be replacing the already existing NIN Photo: Dr Isa Pantami Source: Twitter

In a booklet released by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), the Nigerian government said it would become illegal for any company or agency to be found verifying NIN.

According to the Nigerian government, NIN verification by any agency or company would become a punishable offence.

The new digital token would comprise of 16 alphabets and numbers.

The vNIN is non-transferable and expires after 72 hours

It also reports that companies would only be allowed to store and verify virtual NIN or digitoken which is exclusively issued to an ID holder with the NIN.

The booklet read in part:

“The virtual NIN is issued by an ID holder who has onboarded the NIMC MobileID application or generated via the USSD service."

"The Digitoken is issued to a specific verification entity and may be only verified by that entity and no one else.”

The booklet also noted that parents could use their profiles to generate the virtual NIN for their children and wards who are minors on the NIMC application.

It said::

"The Digitoken issued by the ID holder (to be known as the Issuer) will now replace the raw 11-digit NIN in all databases around the country, with the exception of the National Identity Database domiciled at the NIMC.

The federal government has made commendable progress in its efforts to create a database for Nigeria.

There are about 51 million citizens who have been captured in the NIN enrollment since its inception in 2020.

In fact, the government revealed that 189 million SIMs have been registered so far.

The minister of communications and the digital economy has revealed the huge amount generated by his ministry.

According to him, the sector played a huge role in lifting the country out of recession in recent times.

Going further, the minister said that initiatives of the ministry are geared towards supporting the federal government in its 3 main focus areas- economy, security and anti-corruption.

Nigeria Uses N215.8trn to service external debts in 3 months

The Nigerian government has spent the sum of N215.8 billion on external debt servicing from September to December of 2021. This is an increase of 74.2 per cent compared to N124 billion in the second quarter of 2021, says the Debt Management Office (DMO).

Data shows that the sum of A look at the data shows that a sum of N755.3 trillion has been used to service external debts between January to September of 2021, according to a report by Nairametrics.

Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance Credit: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg Source: Getty Images

This represents a 3.9 per cent increase than the N527 trillion spent in the same period last year.

Domestic debt servicing increased very highly by 150.5 per cent from N322.75 billion recorded in the second quarter of 2021 to N808.49 billion in the third quarter of 2021.

This takes the year-to-date domestic debt service to N1.74 trillion from N1.53 trillion recorded in the same period of 2020.

The increase in debt service comes on the back of the significant jump in the country’s debt profile. Nigeria’s external debt rose to $37.96 billion as of Q3 2021, moving from $33.47 billion recorded in the previous quarter.

The 4 billion Eurobond raised from the international debt market to shore up Nigeria’s external reserve market drove the increase above N16.6 trillion.

Nigeria raised the sum of N1.6 trillion in Eurobond in September, a capital increase that was called one of the biggest financial trades in Africa after the order book plateaued at N415 trillion, which allowed the Nigerian government to raise an additional N5 trillion more than the intended N1.2 trillion.

On the other hand, domestic debts also recorded an uptick as federal government domestic debt stock rose to N18.4 trillion, while state domestic debts increased to N4.2 trillion

The Debt Management Office said that Nigeria’s public debt has hit N38.005 trillion at the end of Q3.

The debts include both external and domestic of the federal government, the 36 state governments and the FCT, Abuja.

The debt represents a spike of N2.54 trillion within three months compared to the N35.46 trillion recorded in the same period at the end of June of 2021.

FG declares Monday, Tuesday Christmas public holidays

 To celebrate Xmas and the New Year the federal government has declared Monday, December 27th, Tuesday, December 28th and Monday, January 3rd 2022 as public holidays to mark Christmas, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day celebrations in the country. 

The minister of interior, Rauf Aregbesola, made the declaration on behalf of the federal government.

This announcement was contained in a statement on Wednesday, December 22, signed by the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Interior, Shuaib Belgore.

President Muhammadu Buhari took the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine on March 6, 2021, and his second dose on May 29, 2021. Photo credit: Muhammadu Buhari Source: Facebook

It was titled, FG declares Monday, 27th, Tuesday 28th, 2021 and Monday, January 3rd, 2022 public holidays.

The minister was quoted as saying:

“We must emulate the life of Jesus Christ in His practice and teachings on Humility, Service, Compassion, Patience, Peace and Righteousness, that His birth signifies.

“This will be the best way to portray Christ and celebrate his birth.”

He urged Christians and Nigerians to make the best use of this festive period to pray for the total eradication of insecurity bedevilling the nation.

Aregbesola also enjoined all Nigerians to adhere strictly to and observe all the stipulated non-pharmaceutical COVID-19 protocols and guidelines.

Meanwhile, it looks already like a bleak Christmas with the rising cost of goods in most markets across the country.