FG okays fresh N28bn budget support for 35 states

                     Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun; and CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele

Each state to get N800m to pay salaries, others

The Federal Government has approved a fresh budget support loan facility for 35 states across the country.

Each of the states will get N800m, totalling N28bn to meet their salaries and other obligations.

The Minister of Budget and National Planning,  Udoma Udoma, disclosed this to State House Correspondents on Thursday at the end of a meeting of the National Economic Council presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Udoma said the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun; and the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had been directed to effect payments.

Udoma said the Accountant General of the Federation reported to Council that approval had been received and CBN had been directed to pay N800 million to each of the 35 states of the Federation.

Only Lagos State is not taking the loan.

The minister said, “The Accountant General reported to the council that approval has been received and CBN has been directed to pay N800m to each of the 35 states of the federation.

“Governors expressed appreciation to the Federal Government for the restoration of the Budget Support Loan Facility for July and August 2017.”

Adeosun also informed the council that the country recorded the highest amount of Value Added Tax in October with over N89bn.

She added that the target was N120bn monthly.

On monthly was assets and declaration scheme, she said there was progress and the list of 500 Nigerians who are believed to have under declared their assets had been obtained.

The scheme will offer amnesty to all tax defaulters.

The Executive Vice-Chairman of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure was also said to have briefed the council about an homegrown proposal to the Independent National Electoral Commission  for the replacement of the card readers in the conduct of elections in the country.

The proposal is a made-in-Nigeria “Solar-Powered Electronic Voting System” to effectively mitigate current electronic woes.

The same proposal which has already been presented to INEC is also expected to be presented to the National Assembly.

The balance in the Excess Crude Account as of November 17 was put at $2,309,693,583.35, while the Stabilisation Fund Account was put at N6,689,072,836.11.

The balance in the Natural Resources Development Fund stood at N100,314,169, 190.23 as of November 17, 2017.

The council also discussed the audit of revenue generating agencies.

The NEC was informed that some of the agencies granted some “questionable loans.”

Out of the 18 agencies that were audited, the committee had completed work on 13 agencies; work is still ongoing in two while three are not revenue generating.

The 13 agencies where work has been completed include NIMASA, NNPC, NPA, FIRS, NPDC and DPR.

The two outstanding are Nigeria Customs Service and NCC.

Osinbajo, however, directed the committee to conclude its report under four weeks and report back to council at the next meeting.

Udoma also briefed the council on the growth being experienced in the economy.

He said, “Signs of recovery had been observed since Q3 2016 and the recovery consolidated in Q3 2017 with GDP doubling to 1.40 per cent Non-oil GDP contracts in Q3 2017 by 0.76 per cent after growing in Q1 R Q2 2017.

“While the Services sector is still in the negative, the Manufacturing Sector grows negative in Q3 2017 also.

“Due to high inflationary pressures Household consumption expenditures remain constrained, though it appears such pressure is easing. Headline inflation has declined since January reflecting tight monetary policy. Food price increases have remained persistent but slowing down.

“The total value of capital importation at the end 2017 of Q3 stood at $4.14bn (131.3 per cent growth year on year).”

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Bank customers kick against current account maintenance fee

Gov Central Bank of Nigeria, Central Bank of Nigeria

Bank customers have kicked against the introduction of Current Account Maintenance fee by the Central Bank of Nigeria, saying that this amounts to legalising illegality.
Speaking under the aegis of Bank Customers Association of Nigeria (BCAN), bank customers said that the implementation of the fee will erode the confidence bank customers have in CBN as an unbiased regulator; Affect negatively the budgets and other plans which had been prepared by customers on the certainty of a zero COT regime and expectation of CBN to stop unauthorised collection of Account Maintenance fee by banks; Amount to legalising an illegality- an illegality the Bank seems to have closed its eyes to for years perhaps, because it provided banking system viability and stability-but at the expense of our innocent members.

In a communiqué signed by President of the Association, Mr. Uju Ogubunka, and Executive Secretary, Onyema Okoroh, the Association  called on the CBN to, “ Withdraw the Circular  introducing the fee and allow bank customers to enjoy the free COT regime; Avoid legalising illegality of Account Maintenance Fee; Avoid replacing COT with Account Maintenance Fee;

Direct banks that had charged Account Maintenance fees not only to stop such charges but also to refund all the money they had collected from their customers since the introduction of the Guide to Bank Charges in 2004 (16 years); Endeavour to consult stakeholders before the introduction of charges/fees foreign to the subsisting Revised Guide to Bank Charges.”

Dismissing the reasons adduced by the apex bank to justify the introduction of the fee, the group said: “In the first place, banks are not the only economic entities in the country affected by declining crude oil prices and market turbulences. CBN ought to know best that banks and other economic entities are operating within the same environment. Thus, what affects one affects the others. “Consequently, it will be improper and unfair to short-charge one in favour of the other, in the guise of ‘maintaining viability and stability of the banking system’.

BCAN wonders how the banking system will be viable and stable if bank customers that lay the proverbial golden eggs are ‘killed’. In fact, bank customers and the various sectors of the economy they operate in need to be viable and stable for banks and the banking industry to see the light of the day.

“Beside the above, we consider it disingenuous for CBN to smuggle, through the back door, Commission on Turnover (COT) back into banks’ revenue line.  As acknowledged by CBN, COT had been phased out of Nigeria’s banking industry. From January 2016, COT which banks had appropriated from their customers’ accounts at N3/Mille for several years was abolished. CBN could not even allow the customers to enjoy a free COT regime for one month let alone a year before introducing Account Maintenance Fee which it also confirmed banks had been charging along with COT contrary to the provisions of the Original/Revised Guide to Bank Charges. Most banks collected from each of their customers a lump sum of N100/month for the unapproved charge.”

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SEC to penalise banks charging fees for e-dividend registration

The Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, is to penalize Deposit Money Banks and Capital Market   Registrars for charging fees in the on-going e-dividend registration exercise. Nigeria small investors’ unclaimed dividend currently stands at about N90 billion. Investigations revealed that SEC had been inundated with complaints from shareholders who heeded the campaign and went to banks and registrars to register for their e-dividend.

It was learnt that some registrars bluntly refused to register shareholders.   Their reasons ranged from lack of internet connectivity, inadequate instruments, non-availability of e-registration forms, to waiting for directives from their headquarters. It was learnt that some banks were charging as much as N1, 200 to register each shareholder.

Charging fees, under any guise for the exercise clearly contravenes the regulations SEC which has been campaigning that the registration exercise was free for the first 90 days.   The exercise started on December 14, 2015. Even if a shareholders were to go to any bank of Registrar for the registration, at the expiration of the initial 90 days, what SEC regulation provides for would be to pay a fee of N100, only.
It was learnt that the management of the SEC was furious and had decided to summon the banks and registrars, with a determination to make it abundantly clear that it viewed every infraction in the exercise seriously and would not hesitate to penalize any organisation that decided to collect unauthorized charges from shareholders.

The push for e-dividend, which would enable shareholders collect their dividend through their banks, is being undertaken by SEC, in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc, NIBSS, Committee of Heads of Bank Operations and the Institute of Capital Markets Registrars, ICMR.

It was learnt that quoted companies and their Registrars were in a league with banks to frustrate the e-dividend registration exercise in order to continue to keep the huge unclaimed dividend.   The e-dividend registration exercise is expected to eliminate the practice whereby companies and their registrars hold to shareholders’ dividend on claims that the owners failed to come forward for their dividend.

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First Bank Promotes Trade Financing, Supports Export Finance Conference

 

First Bank of Nigeria Limited, has stated its resolve to promote trade financing in the country.
To drive home its resolve, the bank, in collaboration with FBN Bank UK Limited, a subsidiary of FBN Holdings Plc, sponsored the 7th Annual West Africa Trade & Export Finance two-day conference held in Lagos, recently.

The event, organised by Exporta Publishing & Events Limited, brought together delegates from the market’s leading corporate, banking and financial services organisations, to discuss key market issues within agribusiness, hard commodities, risk mitigation and infrastructural development.
In addition to a speaker line-up of the market’s primary decision-makers and trade finance specialists, the event also featured a number of dedicated networking sessions, allowing attendees to establish new working relationships and re-acquaint themselves with old contacts, all with the prospect of developing business across West Africa.

In a statement, the Group Executive, Treasury and Financial Institutions, FirstBank, Ini Ebong, said the bank would continue to create and support initiatives that would create business opportunities and investments in Nigeria and the African continent.
“We will continue to grow our mileages in developing trade and commodity finance across the continent,” he said.

FirstBank’s Head, Structured Trade & Commodity Finance, Mr. Ikenna Egbukole, during the event, was a member of the panel that discussed the topic, ‘Tracking trends within West African banking sector.
The progress First Bank has made in trade finance is buttressed by its consistent win of the ‘Best Trade Finance Bank in Nigeria’ by Global Finance Awards for seven years including 2015. FBN Bank (UK) Limited has also been named Best Trade Finance Bank in West Africa for five consecutive years by Global Trade Review Awards.

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