News |
15th February 2016
  • The creation of a two-tier foreign exchange market is one of the options being considered by the CBN to help stem a growing economic and currency crisis. The thinking behind the CBN’s proposal is to maintain the government’s “pro-poor policy” stance of inclusive growth and welfare, whereby FX will be allocated in the first market at N197/$ to priority areas such as fuel imports and local manufacturers, to keep a lid on inflation and boost domestic output. The second naira-dollar FX market would then have a more flexible exchange rate, where foreign investors, institutional players, importers and other participants, such as travelers and students can buy and sell FX more freely at a market determined rate.
  • A leadership tussle in the Abakaliki Rice Milling Company has deteriorated as two factions clashed in the Ebonyi State capital. A factional chairmen, Emeka Nwankashi, was taken to hospital following machete cuts he received on his head and face. Parallel elections have been held by the two factions produced two parallel executives. Ebonyi is one of the top rice producing states in Nigeria.
  • The CBN says that the introduction of mobile money in Nigeria has recorded huge impact on the economy despite the challenges associated with it as a result of technology. The Director of Banking and Payments System Department in the CBN, Dipo Fatokun said the average value of transactions carried out by the Mobile Money Operators (MMOs) was over N3 billion per month (inter-scheme), with about 100,000 agents across the country at the moment. The value of mobile money operation transactions for January 2016 stood at over N4 billion.
  • The National Pension Commission has recovered a total of N7.74bn from employers that have deducted pension funds from their employees but failed to remit the money to the workers’ Retirement Savings Accounts being managed by different Pension Fund Administrators. The Director-General of the commission, Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu said that PenCom would seek the support of law enforcement agencies to enforce the remittance of the funds. According to her, there are 6.637 million account holders in the Contributory Pension Scheme.