- BusinessDay is reporting that the FG’s anti-corruption war is scoring a major success as some people with questionable wealth hidden in banks have deliberately ignored linking their Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs) to their accounts, for fear of the EFCC tracing stolen monies to their accounts. Another fear, according to the paper, is the increasing surveillance on taxable corporates/individuals by the FIRS, which has raised its ante on closing the widening margin of the untaxed. Most banks are reportedly comfortable with the development because most of these idle monies were fixed over the years with accrued interests running in millions payable with standing instructions to the customers’ accounts provided.
- Over 300,000 barrels of crude oil and substantial volume of gas for domestic use have been shut–in as Shell has declared force majeure on Forcados crude lifting effective 1500 hrs February 21 2016, following last Sunday’s sabotage on the Forcados Terminal sub-sea crude export pipeline. The incident has also affected gas supply to major power plants in Nigeria.
- The naira firmed sharply to
N375 on the parallel market on Monday after importers started to reduce demand for dollars following the President’s defiance over devaluing the currency, hit hard by the fall in global oil prices, one trader said. The naira firmed 4 percent from Friday’s close ofN390 to the dollar, while the official interbank rate remained atN199.50 to the dollar at the close of trading on Monday. Speaking to the Reuters news agency, Aminu Gwadabe, the head of Nigeria’s bureaux de change association, said that retail currency operators were working to introduce a single quote across the parallel market and maintain a bid-ask spread of 3.5 percent for trades.
