Daily Watch – FCMB rolls out zero interest loan scheme for women, UBA boss under fire in court

JP Morgan has approached a court in London to dismiss a $875 million lawsuit filed against it by Nigeria. In the lawsuit, the Nigerian government accused the lender of negligence in transferring funds from a disputed 2011 oilfield deal to a company, Malabu Oil & Gas, a firm controlled by the country’s former oil minister, Dan Etete. In its request, JP Morgan emphasised that it got the correct approvals from Nigerian officials before transferring the funds to the disputed receiver. In a Bloomberg report Monday, a lawyer for JP Morgan, Rosaline Phelps, said in court that the bank “had no duty to inquire into or investigate the validity or legality of the instructions it received,” adding that, “The only allegation that’s left is one of negligence.”

Women in Business at First City Monument Bank has initiated a zero-interest rate on loans to support grow and expand small and medium enterprises in Nigeria. The zero-interest-rate loan targets female business owners. The Group Head, Business Banking and SMEs of FCMB, George Ogbonnaya, said the zero-interest rate scheme is periodical, and explained that the initiative has a timeframe of three months. 80 women every quarter would have access to mentorship and training and 40 of these women will benefit from the loan. In all, in a period of one year, 320 women will be mentored, while 160 women would benefit from the loan. Aside from the loan, participating female customers would also undergo capacity building programmes through training, and receive financial advisory services.

The NNPC’s monthly financial and operational report, released on Tuesday, shows that the corporation made a trading surplus of ₦2.06 billion for the month of November 2018. The surplus, NNPC said, was a reversal of the previous month’s deficit of ₦12.66 billion. According to the report, the 116 percent rise in its bottom line figure is as a result of an improved efficiency in the operations of its upstream subsidiary, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company. The state oil firm noted that crude oil export sales contributed $574.95 million, comprising 86 percent of the dollar transactions, compared with $425 million contribution in the previous month as export gas sales amounted to $93.62 million in the month under review.

The Group Managing Director of United Bank for Africa, Kennedy Uzoka, faces jail for contempt for failing to honour a court judgement, which ordered the bank to release the sum of ₦347.4 million to Greenwich Trust as debt owned the company by the Zamfara State government. Greenwich Trust has asked Justice Saliu Saidu of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos to jail Uzoka and the Legal Adviser of UBA, Samuel Adikamkwu. The organisation said that since it obtained the ruling, the lender has frustrated its efforts to recover the money with interest, and hence, it initiated contempt proceedings against the bankers, asking the court to jail them for disobeying a court order.