TNN.ng: Business

Buhari’s TSA Directive Is Timely - By Odilim Enwegbara

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<b>For the first time in a long time, government money is going to be in government bank - the CBN. That is how good the news can be. No more can heads of revenue generating ministries, departments and agencies fix the revenues they generated in commercial banks' high-interest-yielding deposit accounts. And with that, illegally earn money.</b></div>
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Also imagine non-revenue generating MDAs, in copying their revenue generating counterparts, too place their budgetary allocations in multiple high-interest-yielding deposit accounts, and with that divert money meant for financing both capital and recurrent. And in doing so, not only are salaries and wages not paid but projects are either delayed or permanently abandoned.</div>
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Just imagine also how Section 22 (1) of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007, which allows revenue generating MDAs to remit only 80% of the operating surplus to the Consolidated Revenue Funds (CRF). And by driving operating costs so high close to 100%, which makes 80% of their operating surplus close to nothing, to the extent that at the end of the year these MDAs remit nothing to CRF. How bad will Nigerians feel on hearing that because of these lacunas and illegalities, government has been losing such mind-blowing revenues in their trillions of naira annually? For example, that between 2009 and 2012 government had ₦9.4trillion not remitted?</div>
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That is why Nigerians should applaud President Buhari for his boldness when on Sunday, August 9, 2015 he announced that all MDAs should transfer all their accounts with commercial banks to Treasury Single Accounts (TSA) with immediate effect. Yes, former President Jonathan gave similar directive in January with February 28, 2015 as the deadline but as usual, lacking leadership, he was ignored by most of these MDAs. The good news is that by August 11, most of these MDAs have started complying.</div>
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What this means is that henceforth, MDAs will no longer access public funds unless money from budgetary provisions. This is how it is supposed to be here in Nigeria as it is the case in modern economies around the world. This insistence on Treasury Single Account means fiscal discipline, efficiency, and accountability, on the part of government. In fact, this blockage of government revenue diversion and looting using TSA besides leading to the consolidation of government revenues, incomes, and receipts, it will also lead to the optimal utilization of government cash resources, including creative investment of public funds in the critical development sectors of the economy.</div>
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But with TSA leading to the closure of about 10,000 multiple bank accounts operated by MDAs in commercial banks, banks will have to wake up from their slumber. This is because the era when government’s money is either lent back to government or invested in forex speculations is over. It also means that no longer at Bankers’ Committee meetings member banks will demand that the CBN pursues their self-serving high interest rates to their benefits and those of heads of MDAs who placed public money in their high-interest-yielding fixed deposit accounts. With TSA, government can easily quarantine its revenues, with intended consequences including forcing interest rates to naturally nose-dive, since no serious business should be ready to borrow at such double digit rates when the economy is struggling at between 4 and 5 per cent. </div>
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TSA is forcing banks to leave their comfort zone caused by dependence on government money to now become as creative and inventive as it is the case in modern economies around the world, which is to seek private deposits through investing in the real sector of the economy. In fact, with economic financialization soon over, banks will discover that their survival is dependent on their embracement of fractional reserve banking, which is leaving a fraction of private depositors’ funds in reserve while using the main deposits to chase high profit-yielding investments.</div>
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This means that soon the era of economic diversification through industrialization will soon begin. What this also means is that at the next Bankers’ Committee meeting, banks will insist that the CBN revisits its current cash reserve ratio (CRR) on private deposits from 31% to possibly 0% so that they can begin to attract more private deposits.</div>
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But for this TSA policy to be maximized, we need it to be accompanied with the Fiscal Sunshine Bill, which if enacted will open up the financial activities of government in a way that there will be no more hiding place for those who divert or loot government money. For instead, with Fiscal Sunshine Act in place, budgeting process and implementation, including contract awarding should all be in the open for Nigerians to see both how revenues are generated and how public money is being spent by those in government, and why.</div>
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Posting government transactions online for millions of Nigerians anywhere in the world to see, means that the time for contracts and procurements to be done through the backdoor is finally over, especially with Fiscal Sunshine Act insisting on conducting contracts in the open, including having them recorded and televised. And with spending public money outside appropriation made a serious criminal offence, attracting not less than ten years in prison without an option of fine along with the repayment of the money, no doubt, Nigeria would have brought public corruption to a standstill.</div>
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<i><b>Enwegbara, a development economist, writes from Abuja</b></i></div>
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Culled from <b><a href="http://saharareporters.com/2015/08/12/buhari%E2%80%99s-tsa-directive-timely-odilim-enwegbara">SaharaReporters</a></b></div>
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Buhari’s TSA Directive Is Timely - By Odilim Enwegbara

For the first time in a long time, government money is going to be in government bank - the CBN. That is how good the news can be. No m...

NNPC Replaces MDs of Subsidiaries, Trims Management Staff

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<b>ABUJA, NIGERIA - President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday evening fired the managing directors of the subsidiaries of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and retired 38 top management staff of the firm, trimming down their number from 122 to 83.</b></div>
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The President also approved four new directorates for the national oil corporation and appointed four directors to man them.</div>
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Buhari further allowed the firm to recruit 12 private sector players into its management cadre to help it jump-start a new business outlook to enhance its operational environment as a profit-driven business and wean the firm from its present civil service orientation.</div>
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The four new directorates are Exploration and Production, Finance and Services, Refining and Technology, and Commercial and Investment.</div>
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As the restructuring at the corporation went on, <b><a href="http://www.punchng.com/news/buhari-fires-mds-of-nnpc-subsidiaries/">The PUNCH</a></b> correspondent observed that a good number of staff members of the oil firm stayed back on Tuesday evening, even after closing for the day’s job.</div>
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Many of them were spotted discussing in hushed tones, while a few visibly tensed workers made it clear that there was fear of job losses in the air at the NNPC, going by the downsizing of the executive positions from eight to four and the trimming of top management staff from 122 to 83.</div>
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<i>Saturday PUNCH </i>had reported exclusively that the approval of directorates and managers to occupy the positions were delayed by the President.</div>
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This, however, was confirmed by the corporation's Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ohi Alegbe, in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja.</div>
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The corporation, in the statement, said: "The management of the NNPC has appointed four new Group Executive Directors to man the four new Directorates that have been approved by the Presidency."</div>
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The new Group Managing Director, Dr. Emmanuel Kachikwu, disclosed that the new appointments were in line with the Federal Government's aspiration to transform the corporation into a lean, efficient, business-focused, transparent and accountable national oil company in keeping with international best practices.</div>
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The appointments which were approved by President Muhammadu Buhari include Dr. Maikanti Baru, Group Executive Director, Exploration and Production; Mr. Isiaka Abdulrazaq, Group Executive Director, Finance and Services; Mr. Dennis Nnamdi Ajulu, Group Executive Director, Refining and Technology and Dr. Babatunde Victor Adeniran, Group Executive Director, Commercial and Investment.</div>
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The statement noted that a new company secretary/legal adviser and managing directors were also appointed for the firm’s strategic business units.</div>
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It said they include Chidi Momah, Group General Manager, Company Secretary and Legal Adviser; Mrs. Esther Nnamdi Ogbue, Managing Director, Pipelines and Products Marketing Company; Mr. Chinedu Ezeribe, Managing Director, Warri Refining and Petrochemicals Company; Mr. Babatunde Bakare, Managing Director, Nigerian Gas Company; Mr. Inuwa Ibrahim Waya, Managing Director, Hyson; Mr. Abubakar Mai-Bornu, Managing Director, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company; and Mr. Ladipo Fagbola, Managing Director, NNPC Retail.</div>
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Others are Mr. Rowland Ewubare, Managing Director, Integrated Data Services Limited; Mr. Modupe Bammeke, Managing Director, NNPC Properties; Mr. Abdulkadir Saidu, Managing Director, Duke Oil; and Mr. Dafe Sejebor, Group General Manager, Nigerian Petroleum Investment Management Services.</div>
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The statement added that "the corporation also retired 38 top management staff reducing the number from 122 to 83. Also in line with the aspiration to reposition the corporation, 12 personnel have been recruited from the private sector into the top management cadre to jump-start a new business outlook to enhance the operational environment as a profit-driven business as against the current civil service orientation.”</div>
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The restructuring at the NNPC started last week Tuesday after Buhari fired the former GMD, Dr. Joseph Dawha, and replaced him with Kachikwu.</div>
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A day later, the President sacked the firm’s eight group executive directors but announced no replacement, although our correspondent reported that the eight departments were trimmed to four.</div>
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The restructuring continued on Friday as Kachikwu redeployed the Group General Manager, Crude Oil and Marketing Division, Mr. Gbenga Komolafe, and replaced him with Mr. Musa Usman, who was to serve in acting capacity.</div>
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About two weeks ago, President Buhari declared a strong stance to fix Nigeria's oil sector, rid the industry of rot and probe monies stolen by operators in the sector.</div>
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The President had in late June dissolved the NNPC board.</div>
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The Federal Government, through the NNPC, regulates and participates in the country's petroleum industry.</div>
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An Act to dissolve the former Nigerian National Oil Corporation and to establish the NNPC was promulgated in 1977.</div>
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The NNPC was established on April 1, 1977, as a merger of the Nigerian National Oil Corporation and the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel.</div>
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NNPC Replaces MDs of Subsidiaries, Trims Management Staff

ABUJA, NIGERIA - President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday evening fired the managing directors of the subsidiaries of the Nigerian Nationa...

[PHOTO OF THE DAY]: Tourists Go To Zimbabwean ATM With Sacks

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<b>ZIMBABWE - We found this photo of tourists going to the ATM in Zimbabwe with sacks to collect their cash withdrawals.</b><br />
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Photo courtesy a tweeter Eddie Mwangi (<a href="https://twitter.com/EddieMmwangi">@EddieMmwangi</a>)<br />
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[PHOTO OF THE DAY]: Tourists Go To Zimbabwean ATM With Sacks

ZIMBABWE - We found this photo of tourists going to the ATM in Zimbabwe with sacks to collect their cash withdrawals. Photo courtesy a ...

Government Officials Still Stealing Our Crude Oil - Buhari

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<b>ABUJA, NIGERIA - President Muhammadu Buhari has regretted that crude oil theft that characterised past governments was still thriving under his government. He expressed his regrets on Monday on <i>Good Morning Nigeria</i>, an NTA breakfast show.</b></div>
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The President, who was inaugurated on May 29, said the nation's crude was still being lifted illegally by government officials up until July 10.</div>
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He said the situation, which he described as a monumental fraud, was beyond comprehension.</div>
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He expressed the confidence that some developed countries would assist Nigeria to identify and repatriate looted funds.</div>
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This, he said, would however not be achieved without meeting some conditions.</div>
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He said: </div>
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The multiparty democracy system for developing countries has its advantages and relative disadvantages in the sense that for us to get the help of the developed countries, we have to get our facts: documents, complete and reliable investigation, take them to court and get these people prosecuted. </div>
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Meanwhile, the theft continues. Up to the 10th of this month, our crude is still being illegally lifted by people who are in government. </div>
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We are trying to get these documents; we are getting cooperation from the international community. We are going very soon to make sure that those who perpetrated this crime against Nigeria will be faced with facts and be taken to our courts. </div>
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We have got the cooperation of some of the countries that are the destinations of our crude and we are discussing with them. We have to maintain high confidentiality so that we don’t risk some of the people in Nigeria that are helping us to trace the destinations of this stolen crude and then the accounts where the proceeds are being paid instead of the Federal Government account. </div>
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I don't think the NNPC knows how many accounts are there in which payments are made on Nigerian crude. The monumental fraud has been going on for a number of years; a lot of Nigerians cannot comprehend it.</div>
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Buhari admitted that the task of getting looted funds repatriated had not been an easy one.</div>
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While saying his government was working hard to meet the demands of the foreign countries, the President promised that he would be updating Nigerians of developments as far as the repatriation process was concerned.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
He said:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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The countries are willing but I also said it has to comply with their own system; we have to get the documents, especially the shipping documents, how they load here in our terminals and the destinations. </div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Some of them even change the crude or the destinations on the high sea and then change the account, instead of the Federal Government account, they pay into individual accounts. </div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The cooperation we need is that once we get those shipping documents and we are lucky to trace them up to the countries where they sold the crude and which account it goes, then we will submit the evidence in terms of loading, the payment made and the account. </div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Once we do these, they are very willing to make sure that all those accounts are frozen and money repatriated to Nigeria. </div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
It is not an easy process but I assure you that we are working very hard. We cannot say we will wait until when everything is completed. Whatever we are able to get in a couple of months, we will bring it out for Nigerians to know.</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
On the planned breaking of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Buhari said the best way to go was to first establish the magnitude of the inexplicable way the NNPC had conducted itself.</div>
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He said after doing that, his administration would be on a higher moral ground to implement whatever recommendations made to it.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Buhari traced the continued problem of fuel scarcity to the destruction of infrastructure.</div>
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Buhari said: </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The problem of fuel scarcity is one of the problems. We all know we used to have four refineries refining daily on the average of about 450,000 barrels per day. </div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We had 25 depots all over the country from Maiduguri to Ilorin, from Gusau to Yola, from Makurdi to Port Harcourt to Ibadan. </div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
These entire infrastructure have virtually been vandalised and Nigerians are forced to buy products from world markets as if Nigeria hasn't invested in the industry. This is sheer corruption and inefficiency. </div>
</blockquote>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
This situation cannot be undone overnight. Firstly, we have to organise with our partners who had been developing the petroleum sector. </div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Nigeria was consistently losing on a daily basis millions of dollars. I think those who have been operating in the industry have been displaying lack of conscience and patriotism. Only God knows the amount of damage done to Nigeria.</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Buhari said he discussed the issues of unemployment, insecurity and corruption with President Barack Obama when he visited the United States last week.</div>
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He said he was impressed with the concern raised by the US and Europe about the situation in Nigeria.</div>
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Government Officials Still Stealing Our Crude Oil - Buhari

ABUJA, NIGERIA - President Muhammadu Buhari has regretted that crude oil theft that characterised past governments was still thriving u...

Seven More Factories Ready For Commissioning In Ogun

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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVa88eBLO_HLccUspjeHZ7sn2u3v9SS4r7racsSAwf1RdVJ0fOeZRwG-PlbuqdNG4IWsOipsrjZd9Mo8rdpIHH1djgyvkJ90UX1w0ROAYOubA9UIpd_RPiVye_f-Xuv9iJOTF511eJXWJX/s1600/Amosun+0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVa88eBLO_HLccUspjeHZ7sn2u3v9SS4r7racsSAwf1RdVJ0fOeZRwG-PlbuqdNG4IWsOipsrjZd9Mo8rdpIHH1djgyvkJ90UX1w0ROAYOubA9UIpd_RPiVye_f-Xuv9iJOTF511eJXWJX/s1600/Amosun+0.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b>ABEOKUTA, NIGERIA - Mojisola Dosunmu, the Director (Industrial Promotion) in the Ogun State Ministry of Commerce and Industry, has disclosed that seven factories, in addition to about 68 companies that have already opened shops across the state in the last four years, are ready for commissioning.</b></div>
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She spoke against the backdrop of the state government's commitment to the promotion and development of industrial activities, which have provided economic platforms for the industrial extension services and training of micro, small and medium-scale enterprises.</div>
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Dosunmu, who revealed that necessary infrastructure had been put in place at the three technical incubation centres across the state, said adequate information on basic raw materials available within the state were being exhibited at the State Raw Material's Display Centre at Oke-Mosan, State Government Secretariat in Abeokuta, for the benefits of would-be investors.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
"Presently, seven factories are ready for commissioning and this will further boost the state economy. I can also tell you that all our efforts have begun to yield great results as the state can boast of 68 companies facilitated by this administration in the last four years," she said.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Meanwhile, Governor Ibikunle Amosun has said that a total of ₦534 million had been disbursed as loans in collaboration with Bank of Industry (BoI) to about 108 qualified societies in the agricultural, non-agricultural and small-scale businesses across the state.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
The governor, who was represented by Modupe Adekunle, state Head of Service, at the 2015 International Co-operative Day celebration held recently in Abeokuta, also said government had approved the release of ₦500,000 as annual subvention for the State Co-operative Federation Limited (OGSCOFED).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
While explaining that government took the steps to fight poverty, promote industrialisation and food security, the governor said "this administration embraces co-operative business model as a weapon to fight poverty, promote industrialisation and food security.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
"Hence, the partnership of this state with the BoI has provided loans worth ₦534 million to about 108 qualified societies, both agricultural and non-agricultural productive cooperatives as well as small businesses. Even the ₦500,000 year 2015 annual subvention has been approved for release to the OGSCOFED Limited."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><a href="http://businessdayonline.com/2015/07/seven-additional-manufacturing-firms-ready-for-commissioning-in-ogun/#.Va5R-1Ofe3g">BusinessDay</a></b></div>
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Seven More Factories Ready For Commissioning In Ogun

ABEOKUTA, NIGERIA - Mojisola Dosunmu, the Director (Industrial Promotion) in the Ogun State Ministry of Commerce and Industry, ha...

Delta Airlines Reaffirms Commitment To Safety, Comfort and Reliability

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<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<b>LAGOS, NIGERIA - Delta has served the Nigerian market since 2007. We are the only airline to operate year-round nonstop service between Nigeria and the U.S. and we are committed to Lagos and our customers in this market. We operate a Boeing 767-300 (ER) on this route. It's a popular aircraft type with the majority of customers, particularly those flying in the Main Cabin on long-haul flights, because of its window/aisle configuration. More than 85% of the seats are either a window or an aisle seat.</b></div>
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The B767-300(ER) planes that we use on the Lagos route also rotate to serve other destinations around Delta’s international network including London Heathrow, Los Angeles and Brussels. This means that the onboard product to and from Lagos is exactly the same as enjoyed by customers flying on any Delta 767-300 aircraft flying throughout our international network. This includes fully flat-bed seats in Delta One; additional legroom and recline in Comfort +; and seat pitches of up to 33 inches in the Main Cabin. Additionally, Delta is the only U.S. airline to offer individual in-seat entertainment at every passengers' seat on every international flight. We will also be introducing Wi-Fi to our Lagos flights in the coming months.</div>
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We've listened to our customers and have made adjustments to the service we offer, both on the ground and in the air such as a generous baggage allowance and special services on the ground. We have also adapted our on board meal offerings to better suit the preferences of customers flying to and from Nigeria.</div>
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Delta has an impeccable safety record for its operations worldwide, including those in Nigeria. When delays occur, Delta deeply regrets the inconvenience this causes to passengers’ journeys when they are flying with us. Such is Delta’s commitment to Nigeria that during the recent fuel shortages at the airport, we put contingency measures in place to refuel in either Accra or Dakar in order to maintain our Lagos operations. We know that people’s time is valuable whether their travel is for business or for pleasure and operating on schedule is equally as important to Delta. However, these delays currently caused by these refueling stops cannot be avoided.</div>
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On occasion other external factors can cause unavoidable disruptions to our service such as changing weather patterns or mechanical faults. In these instances, we may need to make operational decisions that affect our service because Delta will not compromise on the safety or security of our Passengers and crew. We realize that this can cause regrettable delays to our customers’ journeys, however the safety and security of our passengers can crew remains our number one priority.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: '';">Delta Airlines Commercial Director for East and West Africa, Bobby Bryan, stated this in a press release made available to </span><i style="font-family: '';"><b>The Nigeria Newsroom</b></i><span style="font-family: '';">.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"> </span></div>
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Delta Airlines Reaffirms Commitment To Safety, Comfort and Reliability

LAGOS, NIGERIA - Delta has served the Nigerian market since 2007. We are the only airline to operate year-round nonstop service between...

[FULL TEXT]: We Must Kill NNPC Before NNPC Kill Us, Says El-Rufai

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<b>Below is the full text of the speech delivered by Malam Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State, at the 2015 Wole Soyinka Centre Annual Media Lecture, delivered on 13 July 2015.</b></div>
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There is every danger that addressing a topic like this might yield another exercise in vain lamentation when what our country needs to do is take and give effect to rational decisions about the oil sector. For instance, the discourse around the resource curse has had a deep resonance for many Nigerians because it vividly sums up the paradox between the huge earnings from oil and the reality of poverty and underdevelopment for most Nigerians.</div>
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Thus we have jobless growth, a fact that statistics touting high GDP growth rates tend to obscure but which is painfully real for many people. And we continue to suffer the consequences of our affliction with the Dutch disease. The easy money from oil has led to the neglect of other endowments, most especially agriculture.</div>
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Yet talk we must when a problem persists in the embarrassing dimensions that Nigeria’s oil debacle represents, in the hope that we can deepen understanding about the precise nature of the problem, and build national consensus about the possible solutions.</div>
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Even the crafters of the topic of this lecture imply that something is rotten in the governance and outcomes of Nigeria’s oil industry. Yet they helpfully infuse an air of optimism by not describing it as oil misfortune.</div>
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Thus I approach this assignment not as a fortune-teller, but as a Nigerian who has had the duty and the interest to pay more attention to this issue than most of my compatriots. During the Obasanjo years, I had the responsibility to constitute Oil and Gas Implementation Committee that led to the drafting of the original Petroleum Industry Bill as an instrument for reforming the oil sector.</div>
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Eight years after the exit of that government, the PIB has not become law, mainly through the wilful neglect of the successor governments that prioritized their personalized stranglehold on the sector’s revenues above its reform and efficient performance for national benefit.</div>
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We now have another chance to anchor our oil sector reform agenda on the current and projected realities in that sector. And we must do that in the knowledge that the world is not waiting for us, that while we dallied new suppliers have come in to the global oil business and buyers have more choice.</div>
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Some of our traditional customers have become self-sufficient, while others have developed alternatives thus reducing their reliance on our ‘light, sweet crude oil’.</div>
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<b>Is there an oil fortune?</b></div>
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In fiscal terms, the answer is a massive yes. That the revenues have declined, or not been used to build human capital or enduring physical infrastructure is another matter. Nigeria’s oil reserves relative to our population is puny by comparison to the Gulf states. But you only need to imagine what national budgets would look like without the oil receipts to appreciate the fact that some oil is better than no oil.</div>
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And we are not talking peanuts here. Despite a 60% fall in oil price between June 2014 and the end of that year, Nigeria still earned $77 billion from oil exports in 2014. <i>The Punch</i> newspaper of 2 April 2015, quoting figures from the United States Department of Energy, placed oil export earnings for the year 2011 at $99 billion. Indeed in the five Jonathanian years, Nigeria earned nearly $500 billion from crude oil and gas sales.</div>
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The 2014 earnings of $77 billion is rather small compared to the $246 billion that Saudi Arabia made, but it cannot be sniffed at. So there are oil fortunes and there are oil fortunes. What we need to interrogate is how responsibly we have managed that fortune, how diligently we have tried to expand and sustain it and whether having that national fortune has impacted significantly on the fortune of the average Nigerian.</div>
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About 40% of Nigerians are estimated to be very poor. That is about 70 million people living below the poverty line in a country that has earned at least 1trillion in current dollars from oil in 50 years. For our vast masses, oil is no fortune.</div>
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It is more of a mirage, but a more insidious kind, because the fortune is visible in the lifestyles of a few thousands of the privileged elite but is stubbornly inaccessible to tens of millions of ordinary people. Our rich enjoy the lifestyles of the richest in the world, while our poor are truly the wretched of the earth. This inequality is most unfortunate.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
That wide gulf in living standards is clearly problematic. It is, in my view, a major responsibility of a democratic government to strive to move more people away from the attrition that extreme poverty inflicts. This is not attained by wishful thinking, or by merely affirming the intent. It is about managing our resources in a way that sustainably builds our people, diligently collecting revenues and applying them in a determinedly cost-effective and result-oriented manner.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The best fortune a country can have is its people. But like many gems, they have to be polished and nurtured for their talents to glow. Spending efficiency and effectiveness is best reflected in outcomes such as more educated and healthy people, living longer lives productively and happily.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
That, for me, is the major reason we must seek to enhance and responsibly manage Nigeria’s oil fortune. It must become the people’s fortune.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Sketching the Oil Industry</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Let us examine some statistics to give us a picture of the oil industry in Nigeria. In 2014, Nigeria was producing on the average about 2.2 million barrels of crude oil per day, while importing most of its daily consumption of 43.5 million litres of refined petroleum products.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
That reliance on imports of refined products has seen unsustainable expenses on questionable subsidy payments, exemplified by $8.99 billion in the 18 months between January 2012 and June 2013.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
About ₦971 billion was budgeted for subsidy payments in 2014 alone (more than twice that was eventually paid). You all recall how trillions of Naira were paid out as oil subsidy in 2011, when only ₦254 billion was appropriated</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
No one has been successfully prosecuted for this scam. Huge deficits in gas supply have ensured that the country’s thermal plants cannot produce power at optimal levels. In the eight years leading up to 2014, joint venture production declined by 50.4%. Some 100,000 barrels per day, about five percent of total production, is estimated to be lost to organized theft.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And we all dread the ease and rapidity with which supply shortages lead to endless queues, widespread panic and mortal consequences for the many victims of tanker accidents.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The long and short of the situation of our oil industry is best exemplified by the parallel government called the NNPC. In 2012, it sold ₦2.77 trillion of 'domestic' crude oil but paid only ₦1.66 trillion to the Federation Account.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In 2013, it earned ₦2.66 trillion but paid ₦1.56 trillion to FAAC, in 2014 ₦2.64 trillion but remitted ₦1.44 trillion, while between January and May 2015, it earned ₦733.36 billion and remitted only ₦473.2 billion!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
That means that the NNPC only remitted about 58% of the monies earned between 2012 and the first half of 2015. A company with the audacity to retain 42% of a country;s money has become a veritable parallel republic!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The NNPC feels entitled to consume more resources than the 36 states, the FCT and the Federal Government combined! The example just given is only with respect to domestic crude oil sales. Similar leakages exist in NPDC, NAPIMS procurement and subsidiary budgets.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
How could a country so dependent on oil revenues have been so lax about the proper governance, efficiency and security of its oil industry?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
How can a mono-product economy be so relaxed that it takes up to 24 months or more to make decisions on vital oil industry projects? Why is it that in this most crucial of sectors it has been possible for briefcase companies to walk away with big assets, billion naira subsidy payments and 'local content' contracts?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Can an oil industry with virtually no serious barriers to entry yield fortunes beyond a narrow circle? For so great are the miracles that oil has performed in the lives of a few, there is not much left for the many.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Having strayed into lamentation in describing the Nigerian oil industry, let me quickly return to trying to draw lessons and to suggest ways by which we may successfully navigate a different track. We can agree that what passes for the oil industry is a mismanaged, costly, corrupt and grossly inefficient operation. These negatives are not the way to grow or retain fortune.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>So what should we consider doing?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Let us first learn the appropriate lessons. We are neither immune from the laws of economics nor from the consequences of sheer folly.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Now that more countries are producing and selling oil and gas, we can safely assume that barring a new phase of explosive global economic growth, oil will remain relatively cheap at the $50-$60 per barrel range, for the foreseeable future. What do we intend to do with these diminished earnings?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
If we persist in indulging our appetite to consume rather than save, import rather than produce domestically, or neglect to prioritize capital investments, we will simply sink deeper into poverty. We must resolve to spend wiser, and do more with less.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Our general national orientation has been impacted for worse due to our attitude to the oil cash cow. Let us firmly resolve that growing our people's potentials will be a primary goal, and that in the pursuit of that aim, we shall commit to an efficiently and transparently managed oil industry.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We can demonstrate this new purpose by slaying three huge dragons:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
1) A fixation with public ownership and control of every major oil asset</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
2) the corruption and distortion that oil subsidy is inflicting on our economy, and</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
3) the NNPC in its current form is in our collective national interest.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
End the fixation with public ownership: You will recall the outcry when the Obasanjo government sold two of our refineries shortly before it left office in 2007. The successor-government reversed the sale.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Eight years and millions of dollars in turn-around maintenance later, the refineries are at best a minor component of our supply sources for refined products while remaining a suction pump of our resources.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
One of the men whose purchase of the refineries was aborted is now building his own, and it can be expected to be more modern, far more efficient and more productive than the public facility we turned into an object of baseless veneration. Let us be realistic enough to choose the most pragmatic options when we confront national problems.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We should incentivize competent investors to acquire majority shares and management control in all our refineries and sell to them crude oil at market prices, and remit the proceeds directly into the Federation Account!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Tackle the corruption and distortion in subsidy regime: I daresay that the oil subsidy regime has neither grown our people nor guaranteed stability of refined product supplies. What subsidy has achieved is create a huge hole in the budget and a new array of overnight billionaires.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The downstream oil business in Nigeria has morphed into one optimised for the pursuit of subsidy payments. We see thinly-disguised periodic hostage-taking as the subsidy barons seek to pry open government coffers. It is time to tackle the corruption in the subsidy regime.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We can discuss how the resulting subsidy savings will be spent to improve lives, while guaranteeing stability of supply to the domestic market.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We have a president with both the integrity to responsibly manage the savings and the experience of managing special interventions based on subsidy savings.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Let us say bye to foreign exchange drains, opaque crude swaps, offshore processing agreements and other devices that have derailed and distorted the subsidy regime, to our national detriment.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Reverse missed opportunities: I have already highlighted the fact that our country has neither saved nor wisely invested oil proceeds from the five oil booms that my sister Oby Ezekwesili identified.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I may only add that the oil industry itself is a victim of this lack of proper investment. We have been as unable to utilize what it yields us as we are remiss about expanding what it can yield us, by prudent and focused re-investment.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Nigeria’s oil reserves are not growing at a fast enough pace. The gas potential is still largely that, an untapped potential amidst pressing needs. Since Bonny LNG we have not been able to complete and commission any other - Brass and Olokola LNG projects remain on the drawing board. The implementation of the national gas masterplan has stalled since 2009.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And so there is simply not enough natural gas collected and dried to feed our power turbines, industries and households. There has to be a commitment to sustained investments to stimulate a proper gas sector.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The multiplier effects of this will be immense, from contributions to improving the country’s power capacity, fuel homes and industries, create jobs and improve export earnings. We must be ambitious about what we can achieve here.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We similarly need to encourage more local refining, and not just to assure stability in the supply of refined products for the domestic market but to cut costs and save jobs.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We also have untapped potentials in petrochemicals, which can help fast-track domestic industrial activity and improve export earnings.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In short, we must take steps to reposition our oil and gas sector as one that is properly integrated into the national economy, helping to create jobs, raise skills level, drive industrialization and earn more from exports.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The rents therefrom can then be applied towards investments in human capital, physical infrastructure and economic diversification.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>How do we attain this wish list?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We need a mix of fresh strategic thinking and a firm commitment to reform. We need to define exactly what we want the oil industry to be and to achieve, and then define the structure that can best deliver it. An efficient and productive oil sector, able to create jobs, spur industrialization and earn more revenues requires that we tackle the monster that the NNPC has become.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This country can no longer afford to maintain an NNPC that arrogantly, unlawfully and unconstitutionally spends an unhealthy proportion of national oil earnings on itself.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We should replace the NNPC with brand new organizations that are fit for purpose: - among others - a commercialized and corporatized national oil company and new industry regulators.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This new national oil company should be capitalized once and for all, and then freed to fend for itself like other national oil companies do, seeking its financing independently from the financial markets and paying due taxes and royalties.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The corruption and nonchalance that have hobbled the NNPC are symptoms that its best days are over. We should give it a deserved funeral so that a new institution, active and nimble, can promptly replace it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
NNPC's subsidiaries and associated companies can be reviewed, restructured and privatized or commercialized as appropriate consistent with national interest and objectives.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The government should review the Joint Venture strategy, with the governing principle being to shift the financing and operational risks to the markets and operators respectively.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Government should avoid owing the oil companies, and should more proactively review the terms and implementation of the Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and concentrate on collecting the royalties and taxes due to it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
No one is better qualified to do this than the person that birthed the NNPC through the merger of the NNOC and the Ministry of Petroleum in 1977 - President Buhari himself.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
No one can appreciate the gap between the vision of NNPC's founding fathers, the beautiful baby of 1977 and the 38 year-old monster it has become better than President Buhari.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The NNPC of today must make Chief Sunday Awoniyi of blessed memory squirm in his grave. Something fundamentally decisive must be done to tame this monster.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We must have the political will to make all oil industry transactions transparent. There should be clear rules and processes for licensing, concessioning, procurement and contracting. Opaque systems tend to be corrupt, and it is time to shine the light.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The president has already taken the commendable step of directing that all revenues be remitted either to the Federation Account or the consolidated revenue fund as required by sections 80 and 162 of the Constitution.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
President Buhari is therefore clear that oil industry revenues will no longer be treated as some slush fund of the federal government.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It is the national consensus that we arrive at regarding the oil sector that we can finally codify in a new petroleum act, which should be a simply worded, concise piece of legislation that spells out the general governing principles for the industry. Specific matters can then be based on subsidiary legislation, regulations and agreements. Complex and densely worded laws conduce to opacity and should therefore be avoided.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I am by no means underestimating the titanic struggles that might be necessary to change the Nigerian oil industry. The vested interests will be all out to thwart change and uphold the status quo. The media and civil society organizations (CSOs) have the major role of pushing for transparent disclosures and adherence to due process.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
No other institutions have the power of CSOs and media to advocate, educate and enlighten the public to support and demand the most pragmatic, rational and effective measures that can make Nigeria’s oil fortune become the people’s fortune. The media in particular must lead from the front in this effort.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To be in a position to accurately educate, the media must itself be knowl-edgeable about the issues. Apart from the obvious advantages of having specialists leading the reporting of certain industries, the media performs an immense service when it affords the public the resources to partake in informed debate.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And the media must enhance its capacity for follow-up, to focus on an issue long enough to report its resolution. It must use the Freedom of Information Act maximally to ensure that wrong-doing and impropriety are not protected by official secrecy. If we successfully remake the oil industry, we would have significantly remade our country.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And our poverty stricken majority will be the better for it. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the burden of responsibility placed on us as leaders in our various spheres of influence.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Thank you for listening. God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.</div>
<br />
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[FULL TEXT]: We Must Kill NNPC Before NNPC Kill Us, Says El-Rufai

Below is the full text of the speech delivered by Malam Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State, at the 2015 Wole Soyinka Centre Annua...

Remove Oil Subsidy, Exchange $1 For ₦500, Dangote Warns

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<b>LAGOS, NIGERIA - Africa's Richest man, Aliko Dangote, has warned the current government from removing subsidy on the sale of petroleum products in Nigeria.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
"The issue with subsidy is that government needs to block all loopholes. If there's no subsidy, it will affect our foreign exchange, we'll end up buying a dollar at ₦500, because there's no VAT on petroleum products," he said in an interview published by <i><b>Vanguard </b></i>newspapers.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
"That's why the import of petroleum products is taking about 30% of our foreign reserve. We just need to make sure that there's no siphoning of money. The refining business requires volume. If you don't have a massive volume, there's no way you'll make money. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
"Most of the refineries in Africa are running at a big loss. It's not possible for government officials to successfully manage oil businesses. It's good enough if they remove the subsidy, but you can check with neighbouring countries like Senegal. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
"If a poor person in Senegal can afford to pay subsidy, why can't a poor person in Nigeria afford to pay. I think there must be something for the masses, which should be in terms of power, social insurance, good education system, good roads etc," he added.</div>
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Remove Oil Subsidy, Exchange $1 For ₦500, Dangote Warns

LAGOS, NIGERIA - Africa's Richest man, Aliko Dangote, has warned the current government from removing subsidy on the sale of petro...

Analysts: Nigerian Oil Shake-Up Shows Buhari Serious About Reform | VOA

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<b>DAKAR, SENEGAL - On the campaign trail, newly-elected Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari vowed to stamp out corruption in Nigeria. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To do that, analysts say he must reform the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation or NNPC, which has long been dogged by allegations of waste and graft. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Buhari showed he was serious late last month by firing the NNPC’s board.</div>
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Dolapo Oni, head of energy research at Ecobank, said that move effectively put him in control of the company.</div>
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“I think he has direct access to information from within them and possibly can also, to some extent, micromanage the administration of the NNPC himself,” Oni said.</div>
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Oil is the economic backbone of Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy. But proceeds from the petroleum industry are so poorly distributed that only the rich elite benefit from it, while millions live in poverty. </div>
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Cleaning up the NNPC has long been seen as crucial to fixing this disparity. </div>
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Former central bank governor Lamido Sanusi said in 2013 that the NNPC had not handed over billions of dollars in oil money it owed the government and was fired after making the allegation.</div>
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There are risks and rewards to President Buhari’s firing of the NNPC board, said Yvonne Mhango, sub-Saharan Africa economist at Renaissance Capital.  Reforming the NNPC may ultimately help Nigeria boost oil production and cut graft, she said. </div>
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Without a governing board or a petroleum minister to oversee it, however, the NNPC is at risk of being leaderless.</div>
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“For one, it brings around policy paralysis, because now, it’s a sit and wait mode,” she said. “And secondly, the shakeup of any industry would of course have some downside risks.”</div>
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Appointments for petroleum minister and other Cabinet postings are not expected until September.</div>
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<b><a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/nigerian-oil-shake-up-shows-buhari-serious-about-anticorruption/2847997.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter">VOA Africa</a></b></div>
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Analysts: Nigerian Oil Shake-Up Shows Buhari Serious About Reform | VOA

DAKAR, SENEGAL - On the campaign trail, newly-elected Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari vowed to stamp out corruption in Nigeria. ...

6 CBN Staff, 16 Others Face Trial Over ₦8 Billion Briquetting Fraud

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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfPnLV5Sn-rtcVWCJof6drkZ38Qj0xGIrvQzNk_c_yq-gChrO2Oe4gcLS8xYbZL1GzZ7P12lhxnVNz9wv3k6byMMHMdwVMTm_YxtyY7XIsIz7F2KTqq9soqYuCWF3-yKjDZ70h1LWA5jM4/s1600/CBN+Thieves.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfPnLV5Sn-rtcVWCJof6drkZ38Qj0xGIrvQzNk_c_yq-gChrO2Oe4gcLS8xYbZL1GzZ7P12lhxnVNz9wv3k6byMMHMdwVMTm_YxtyY7XIsIz7F2KTqq9soqYuCWF3-yKjDZ70h1LWA5jM4/s1600/CBN+Thieves.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b>Six Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) officials and 16 others from some commercial banks are to face trial for alleged ₦8 billion fraud, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said yesterday.</b></div>
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The suspects, the agency alleged, stole and recirculated defaced and mutilated currencies.</div>
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A statement by the Head of Media and Publicity of EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said: "The suspects drawn from various business units of the apex bank are to be arraigned by the anti-graft agency before a Federal High Court sitting in Ibadan, Oyo State, from Tuesday June 2, 2015 to Thursday June 4, 2015.</div>
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"They include Patience Okoro Eye (Abuja), Afolabi Olufemi (Lagos), Kolawole Babalola (Ibadan), Olaniran Muniru Adeola (Ibadan), Fatai Yusuf Adekunle (Head of Security, CBN Ibadan) and Ilori Adekunle Sunday (Akure).</div>
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"The remaining 16 suspects are drawn from various commercial banks who were found to have conspired with the CBN executives to swing the heist.</div>
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"All the suspects who are currently in the custody of the EFCC are now ruing the day they literally allowed greed and craze for materialism to becloud their sense of judgment and responsibility, when they elected to help themselves to tons of defaced Naira notes.</div>
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"Instead of carrying out the statutory instruction to destroy the currency, they substituted it with newspapers neatly cut to Naira sizes and proceeded to recycle the defaced and mutilated currency.</div>
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"The fraud is partly to blame for the failure of government monetary policy over the years as currency mop-up exercises by the apex bank failed to check the inflationary pressure on the economy."</div>
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The commission gave further details on how the fraud was perpetrated by the suspects.</div>
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The statement added: "The lid on the scam, which is widely suspected to have gone on unchecked for years, was blown on November 3, 2014 via a petition to the EFCC alleging that over ₦6,575,549,370 was cornered and discreetly recycled by light fingered top executives of the CBN at the Ibadan branch.</div>
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"The suspects, who were members of the Briquetting Panel, plotted their way to infamy on September 8, 2014 while carrying out a Briquetting exercise at the CBN Branch, Ibadan.</div>
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"In banking parlance, Briquetting is disintegration and destruction of counted and audited dirty notes. By this practice, depositor banks usually take mutilated notes to the CBN in exchange for fresh notes equivalent of the amount deposited.</div>
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"The depositor banks, in this instance, are Zenith Bank, FCMB, Wema Bank, Access Bank, First Bank, Skye Bank, Ecobank and Sterling Bank</div>
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"But while carrying out the assignment, the team was alleged to have found one of the currency boxes filled only with old newspapers rather than 20 bundles of ₦1000 notes.</div>
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A similar case, according to investigation, had been discovered on September 22, 2014 when a box that was supposed to contain ₦500 notes to the tune of ₦5billion was filled with old newspapers.</div>
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"Unlike in the past, this fraud could not be swept under the carpet, as a member of the Briquetting Panel from the Osogbo branch blew the lid on the illicit deal.</div>
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"In a statement, the informant stated that the exercise was designed to last between August 4 and 8, 2014. The 35-year-old, however, stated that she discovered a strange 'sight' while opening the third box on the second day of the exercise.   It was a discovery that beat her ken.</div>
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"She added that she confronted the other members of the panel, including Eye, who was the Head of the Briquetting Panel; Treasury Assistant; Coordinator and Head of Security at CBN Ibadan, who all assured her that they would look into it.</div>
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"But she later found out that it was all a ruse. She said she later found out that Eye not only maintained sealed lips over the matter but omitted it from her report.</div>
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"A five-count charge awaits the suspects."</div>
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<b>The Nation</b></div>
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6 CBN Staff, 16 Others Face Trial Over ₦8 Billion Briquetting Fraud

Six Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) officials and 16 others from some commercial banks are to face trial for alleged ₦8 billion fraud, th...

BREAKING NEWS: Nigeria's Akin Adeshina Elected AfDB President

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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzKIYPP46Yt8_lC5aq-Z6h0DD41FXBveG_Nk9xGKDh_cVF7j43Sf2mYD7Q-jsCpGD8IGEc150j5WrhPPXITGFYPN11KGXgbc_1WecWyTf8FfetmXfAYsXShSLOlDdBG8X8d7K8NpfA8kin/s1600/Adesina1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzKIYPP46Yt8_lC5aq-Z6h0DD41FXBveG_Nk9xGKDh_cVF7j43Sf2mYD7Q-jsCpGD8IGEc150j5WrhPPXITGFYPN11KGXgbc_1WecWyTf8FfetmXfAYsXShSLOlDdBG8X8d7K8NpfA8kin/s1600/Adesina1.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b>Nigeria's outgoing Minister for Agriculture, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has been elected the President of the Africa Development Bank.</b></div>
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The news of Adesina's victory was monitored on Victor Oladokun's facebook Page as embedded below.</div>
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Details coming up later...</div>
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<script>(function(d, s, id) {  var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];  if (d.getElementById(id)) return;  js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;  js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3";  fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><br />
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<blockquote cite="https://www.facebook.com/voladokun/posts/876046169103176:0">
Congratulations to my dear friend of 38 years, Dr Akin Adesina on his election as the next President of the Africa Development Bank. Congratulations Dr Adesina! Congratulations Nigeria! Congratulations Africa!<br />
Posted by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/voladokun">Victor Oladokun</a> on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/voladokun/posts/876046169103176:0">Thursday, May 28, 2015</a></blockquote>
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BREAKING NEWS: Nigeria's Akin Adeshina Elected AfDB President

Nigeria's outgoing Minister for Agriculture, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has been elected the President of the Africa Development Bank. ...

Telecom Operators Threaten Shutdown Over Fuel Scarcity

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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-AqATkiWfKQvY-8PjU45JvCW_8kblpdru_d-ZdOcHSmTZCvm9SgJc9hySVgaCDchIjswsO1RzMRz9CTKtzAR-UcomzyGEGEbD0tj3EejEr2uViSSg1c4dksjxXdIFG47NhE8ZBy99hh3o/s1600/Telecom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-AqATkiWfKQvY-8PjU45JvCW_8kblpdru_d-ZdOcHSmTZCvm9SgJc9hySVgaCDchIjswsO1RzMRz9CTKtzAR-UcomzyGEGEbD0tj3EejEr2uViSSg1c4dksjxXdIFG47NhE8ZBy99hh3o/s1600/Telecom.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b>Mobile phone operators in Nigeria, yesterday, warned that their networks face shutdown due to fuel shortages that have crippled the nation for the past few weeks.</b></div>
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The warning from MTN and Airtel is a sign that businesses across the nation are now being hard hit.</div>
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In its reaction, Airtel said  yesterday that the situation was impacting negatively on its commitments to delivering quality services and seamless telephony experience to Nigerians.</div>
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Airtel said in a statement: “We are currently doing everything within our means, as well as going the extra mile, to ensure that all our base stations and switches are up and running.</div>
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“It is sad to note that it is becoming increasingly difficult to replenish current stock of diesel due to the lingering scarcity of the products.</div>
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“We are also concerned that, if the situation persists, it may have adverse effects on our network, impacting both voice and data services.</div>
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“Airtel, therefore, wishes to assure all customers that we will continue working with all our partners and stakeholders to mitigate any negative impact, as we remain committed to our promise of providing exceptional services just as we seek the cooperation and understanding of all while apologising for any inconvenience at this time.”</div>
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Similarly, MTN has warned that its network faces shutdown due to fuel shortages that have crippled the nation.</div>
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The company, the biggest subsidiary of South Africa-based MTN Group, said it needed a “significant quantity of diesel in the very near future to prevent a shut-down of services across Nigeria.</div>
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“If diesel supplies are not received within the next 24 hours, the network will be seriously degraded and customers will feel the impact,” it added on its Twitter account, @MTNNG, weekend.</div>
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“Diesel generators power most of MTN’s base stations and switches across the country, but fuel supplies are running low,” MTN Corporate Services Executive, Akinwale Goodluck, said.</div>
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Meanwhile, at press time, attempt to get reaction from Glo and Etisalat failed.</div>
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<b>Vanguard</b></div>
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Telecom Operators Threaten Shutdown Over Fuel Scarcity

Mobile phone operators in Nigeria, yesterday, warned that their networks face shutdown due to fuel shortages that have crippled the nat...

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