WORLD NEWS:BREAKING News: EFCC Arrests Diezani Alison-Madueke's Husband

  Business: Nigeria: BDC Leadership Reveals What'll Make Naira Appreciate

 

           Head of the Association of Bureau de Change Operators of Nigeria, Aminu Gwadabe, has advised the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, on how to reduce the pressure on the naira. The local currency will appreciate if there's less pressure on it.The currency on Monday weakened further, exchanging at 345 units to a dollar at the parallel market, it's worst level ever."In my own view, the central bank should address the supply side of the market by allowing oil companies and banks to sell dollar to bureau de change operators as an immediate measure to reduce pressure on the naira," said Aminu Gwadabe.

             CBN had last month halted dollar sales to non-bank foreign exchange operators and allowed commercial banks to accept dollar deposits, in a failed effort to shore up dwindling foreign reserves.
Nigeria earns around 90 percent of its foreign exchange earnings from crude oil exports, but mismanagement of its refineries means it must also import expensive refined fuel, eating deep into its reserves.

 

 

Business: Hysteria as Nigerians Scramble for Dollars- Naira to Fall Harder

        The Nigerian naira is expected to continue depreciating as the demand for American dollar keeps getting higher. The local currency last week fell from 310 to 338 as acute shortage of the dollar lingered as Nigerians scramble to get the greenback.

               The local currency had closed at 325, 318, 313.5 and 310 on Thursday, Wednesday, Tuesday and Monday, respectively. “The situation has got to the point of hysteria now; everybody wants to hold dollars. So the demand is rising and piling up,” the Chief Executive Officer, Cowry Asset Management Limited, Mr. Johnson Chukwu, said. “We see the naira falling further in coming days if the central bank fails to lift the dollar restriction,” the Acting President, Association of Bureau De Change Operators, Aminu Gwadabe, said.
              Tumbling global oil prices have battered Nigeria’s oil-dependent economy, with external reserves down to an 11-year low at $27.89bn on February 9, Reuters reported.

Business: Nigeria: Minister Announces When Abuja City Railway Will be Open for Public Use

         The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) will open the Abuja railway for public use in the last quarter of 2017, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Muhammad Musa Bello, has stated. He said when the railway started working, the use of personal vehicles would become unattractive. He also disclosed that the rail transport would create employment for residents of the FCT.

           He spoke while receiving the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachichwu, who paid him a working visit in his office.

 

  BUSINESS: Nigerians Will No Longer Pay for Calls, SMS – Spectranet Boss

               The Managing Director (MD), Spectranet Ltd., Mr David Venn, on Wednesday said Nigerians would no longer pay for calls and Short Message Services (SMS), on mobile networks before the end of 2019.

Venn made this prediction at an interactive session with newsmen in Lagos.

He noted that with the fast growing usage of social media applications, such as Skype, Imo, Whatsapp, BlackBerry Messenger, Facebook Messenger, telecommunications had allowed subscribers to use their data service to make calls and sms.

Venn said subscribers spend a lot of money buying credit to make voice calls, send SMS and also subscribe to data services at the same time on a particular network.

               According to DailyPost, he explained that even though subscribers still patronised voice and SMS services from the mobile operators, data service was cost- effective, faster to send SMS and make voice calls.

Venn noted that presently, data service providers had been improving on the broadband network provided to customers due to increased patronage in the data services.

He noted that with the fast growing usage of social media applications, such as Skype, Imo, Whatsapp, BlackBerry Messenger, Facebook Messenger, telecommunications had allowed subscribers to use their data service to make calls and sms.

WORLD NEWS: Nigeria Will Burn If I Open Up on Arms Deal - Jonathan’s ex-ADC

        The Former aide-de-camp to former president Goodluck Jonathan, Col. Ojogbane Adegbe has said another Dasukigate may be imminent if he reveals what transpired in that administration. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) picked up Adegbe on Wednesday in Lagos where he was interrogated before he was flown to Abuja yesterday.
It gathered that ongoing interrogation of the former ADC by operatives of the EFCC could open up a new can of worms, which “could surpass what is now called Dasukigate.”

         The money, meant to purchase arms for the military fighting insurgency in the North-East, was allegedly diverted by the office of the NSA as 2015 campaign funds for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which was the ruling party then. EFCC sources said the former ADC may soon give details of all he knows with regards to financial transactions and the dramatic personae involved in the last administration.

             Preliminary findings, including recovered documents, were said to have hinted of large-scale questionable expenditure with funds sourced from and outside the arms purchase deals. Another source said “most of the funds were reportedly diverted soon after the election was postponed from the originally scheduled date of February 14, 2015 to March 28, 2015

Nigerian Army Arrests 2 Soldiers Working With Boko Haram in Adamawa

          Two soldiers suspected to be working with Boko Haram terror group have been arrested by the Nigerian Army in Adamawa. At a press conference held yesterday February 9th, the acting spokesperson of the Nigerian Army, Colonel Sani Usman, disclosed that the soldiers, 13NA/ 70/10183 Sapper Eric Nwokorie and 13NA/70/10263 Sapper Macauley Fortune, were arrested at Yola motor park in Adamawa state with some unauthorized explosive materials.

          Last Sunday 7th February 2016, two of our Explosive Ordinance Device personnel attached to 143 Battalion, 13NA/ 70/10183 Sapper Eric Nwokorie and 13NA/70/10263 Sapper Macauley Fortune were arrested at Yola park with the following unauthorised military items: 1 Smoke grenade, 2,136 live rounds of 7.62 (Special) ammunition, 50 live rounds of 7.6mm (NATO) ammunition, 5 magazines of AK 47 rifles, 2 Browning Machine Gun live rounds of ammunitions. Others include, 1 Axe, 1 Cutlass, 1 Jack knife, 9 Jungle hats, 11 pairs of Camouflage (9 Desert and 3 woodland green), 4 Military Pullovers, 1 Black beret, 1 Green beret, 1 Pair of number 7 dress, 2 General Duty belt, 12 Army T-shirts, 2 Rain Coats, 2 Water bottles, 1 Pairs of Rain boot and 5 Pairs of Desert boots", he said.

            Usman also announced that some Boko Haram members were recently killed in Kekeno, Kukawa Local Government Area and also in Budumri village while their hostages were set free.

Powerful Nigerians are Pressurizing Buhari to Stop Anti Corruption War - VP Osinbajo

         According to a statement by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo's Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, the government had been getting regular messages from some Nigerian elites urging it to take it easy. “We get regular messages from some Nigerian elites saying ‘cool down’. “It is a very strange morality, that some of those people have, very complicated but cutting across all tribes and religious differences,” he said. He, however, observed that the masses of the Nigerian people have a clearer understanding of right and wrong. “The masses don’t have that problem,” he said According to him, a new tribe of Nigerians who would not compromise their values but would maintain a sense of right and wrong is now emerging. “The man on the street is very clear, so whatever some of these elites say, we shall keep our focus on the masses who voted for us,” the Vice President said.

Nigeria: House of Reps Uncover 169 Ghost Companies on N1trn Rail Contracts

7 The House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on Rail Contracts, yesterday, uncovered 169 ghost companies that registered as contractors with the Nigeria Railway Corporation, NRC, for projects valued at N1 trillion. According to Vanguard, the ad hoc committee raised the alarm during the investigative hearing at the National Assembly, that none of the 169 companies invited by the committee had shown up. Chairman of the committee, Johnson Agbonnayinman, (Ikpoba/Okha federal constituency), said the need to invite the contractors was important, but lamented that efforts to reach them had so far proven fruitless. He added that so far, only the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, CCECC, responded to the committee’s letter. house-of-representative.jpg He said: “You are duty bound to produce the contractors. They are nowhere to be found; they are not faceless but yet they cannot be reached. “You gave them the job, so you should produce them; we are holding you responsible.”