1. Federal Government has handed over National Theatre to banks for renovation
The Federal Government has handed over the National Theatre at Iganmu, Lagos State to the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Bankers’ Committee for rehabilitation.
During the handover ceremony on Sunday, the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, said the bankers were aiming to create one million jobs from the project in the next five years.
The event was attended by dignitaries, including the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, and the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
Emefiele said after the completion of the renovation works at the National Theatre, along with the supporting facilities that would be built around it, the banking sector intended to set up similar creative industries centres in Kano, Port Harcourt or Enugu.
According to him, the supporting facilities include a hotel and an expansive conference centre.
While thanking the Federal Government for its support, he said, “Our goal for the National Theatre is to create an environment where startups and existing businesses are rewarded for their creativity.
“The National Theatre, when fully renovated, will be able to support skills acquisition and job creation for over one million Nigerians over the next five years.
“These Nigerians will be empowered with funds at single-digit interest rate, high-level training, using state-of-the-art tools and networks that will enable them to turn their ideas into reality.
2. N46B JOBS: The reason Why Nigeria will never develop
“I have said it openly; what do they need more than that? They want to control the programme and I said no, except the President says I should leave it…” – F. Keyamo, SAN, Minister of State for Labour, Employment, June 30, 2020.
Mr Keyamo made this declaration shortly after he was thrown out of the chambers of the National Assembly for demonstrating bad manners. Readers must want to know what caused all the palaver. It was akin to disagreement among thieves regarding how to share the loot.
We now understand why the first five years of the Buhari administration had passed like a procession of mourners; and why the next three years leave patriotic Nigerians stricken with gloom. Any projections for 2020 to May 29, 2023 must be one of helplessness and despair. Nigerians have landed in an official one-chance bus called APC Transport Service. Buhari’s vaunted integrity had been sorely eroded to vanishing point by the people he had appointed to office.
3. Corona virus: BOI rolls out strategy for industry supports
The Bank of Industry (BOI) is reviewing its strategic priorities to ensure continuous support for enterprises, especially those hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Specifically, it is deepening penetration in agro-processing, food processing, technology, healthcare and pharmaceuticals to stimulate economic recovery and growth.
The bank’s managing director, Mr. Kayode Pitan who disclosed this at a webinar on overcoming business challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, said it is an additional response to the significant changes in the global and local operating landscape.
Soon after the outbreak of the pandemic, the bank responded with a number of measures to reduce the economic impact on customers.
Among them, the bank reduced interest on its direct line of credit by 2% for one year from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021; granted a three-month moratorium on principal repayment to all beneficiaries of the BOI Fund from April1, 2020 to June 31, 2020; with option to extend by up to 12 months for customers with proper justification on case by case basis.
For loans issued under the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intervention programme and in line with a CBN directive, the bank reviewed interest rate downwards to 5% per anum, with a 3-month moratorium.
4. Seized properties cornered by top EFCC officials and Magu’s friends says Panel
The suspended acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr Ibrahim Magu, could not give a proper account of missing 332 out of the 836 recovered properties in March, 2018, the News Agency of Nigeria has reported.
NAN reported on Sunday that the latest allegation against the suspended EFCC boss was contained in a report of the Presidential Committee on Audit of Recovered Assets.
It also stated that the panel alleged that recovered properties were taken over by some top EFCC officials or sold to Magu’s friends and cronies at giveaway prices.
The news agency had, on Saturday reported that the panel, in its report titled, ‘Final Report of the Presidential Investigation Committee on the EFCC Federal Government Recovered Assets and Finances from May 2015 to May 2020,’ alleged that Magu was unable to account for the interest generated from N550bn cash recovered from 2015 to 2020.
The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), set up the Justice Ayo Salami-led committee, which is currently investigating allegations of corruption against Magu, after the panel on the audit of recovered assets submitted its report.
Besides the Chairman, Alhaji Abdullahi Ibrahim, other members of the previous committee were Deputy Inspector General Anthony Ogbizi; a member from the Federal Ministry of Justice; Mualledi Dogondaji from the EFCC; Hassan Abdullahi from the Department of State Services; an unnamed member from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation; Chinedu Ifediora from the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, while Mr Kazeem Attitebi served as the secretary.
The Salami panel was constituted to enable the suspended EFCC chairman respond to allegations levelled against him in the report of the committee on audit of recovered assets.
5. POWER CRISES: More electricity woes as tariff backdrops N822bn
AGAINST the backdrop of the recent reversal of the new electricity tariff take-off,, the World Bank has indicated that Nigeria’s electricity tariff shortfall would rise by 56.9 per cent to N822 billion in 2023 from N524 billion in 2020.
Tariff shortfall is the difference between allowed tariffs and cost-reflective tariffs, which the Federal Government is responsible for funding. Government’s inability to pay the shortfalls over time has in a liquidity crunch on the industry.
6. Nigerian Naira to depreciate further in parallel market
The sharp depreciation of the naira in the parallel market is set to continue this week with the exchange rate projected to hit N470 per dollar.
Last week, the naira depreciated by N9 or 1.9 percent to N467 per dollar in the parallel market from N458 the previous week.
The sharp depreciation is driven by acute dollar shortage in the market following the 13 weeks suspension of dollar sales to Bureaux De Change (BDC) by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) since March 20, 2020. The situation was aggravated by the 5.5 per cent official depreciation of the naira to N380 per dollar in the official market last week by the apex bank in its bid to unify the official market and the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window exchange rates, a move analysts said could heighten speculation of further devaluation.
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