The head of Customs, Hameed Ali, has insisted that owners of vehicles seized or detained will pay the complete duty with 25 percent penalty levy. In a circular signed by AOB Fatade, assistant comptroller-general, all operations units were asked to report action on this to the headquarters on a weekly basis. However, according to the circular, all vehicles seized and taken into Customs custody, condemned by a competent court of jurisdiction in accordance with the provision of Section 167 of CEMA Cap C45 LFN 2004, shall not enjoy the above privilege. Operatives of the service recently carried out an operation on a Fraser Suites, a major hotel in Abuja, and seized four vehicles.
Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has said that funding constraints to rehabilitate the increasing number of dilapidated roads across the country has become a major challenge for the Buhari administration. Speaking with the Senate Committee on Works, Fashola said that while it is the responsibility of his ministry to ensure that roads in Nigeria are in good condition, the inability to complete the various road projects across the country was largely due to inadequate budget and release of funds. He called on all stakeholders in the Works sector to come up with a hard decision on prioritisation of roads for completion and rehabilitation on the basis of social and economic importance to Nigerians. The Chairman, Senate Committee on Works, Senator Mohammed Aliero, had earlier suggested sourcing for funds through local and foreign investors by granting concessions for the major roads.
Nigeria’s foreign investment inflow was ₦28.57 billion lower than outflows as of the end of the first half of 2019, the CBN has said. The decline was attributed to the uncertainties that surrounded the last elections in the country. According to the regulator, the financial services sector remained dominant in the first half of the year, accounting for 76.39 percent of the volume of equities traded, followed by the conglomerates with 6.65 percent, while the remaining sectors accounted for 16.96 percent. Foreign investment inflow accounted for ₦221.61 billion, while outflow was ₦250.18 billion at the end of June 2019, reflecting a net outflow of ₦28.57 billion. The foreign investment inflows amounted to ₦380.65 billion, while outflows amounted to ₦419.06 billion, reflecting a net outflow of ₦38.41 billion in H1’19. The total foreign portfolio investment in the stock market at the end of June 2019 was 43.38 percent of total market transactions, compared with 50.07 percent in the corresponding period of 2018, it added. According to the CBN, policy measures by the various regulatory authorities; enhancing financial inclusion, increasing fiscal revenue, strengthening insurance service delivery, and improving the quality of banknotes in circulation among others, geared towards the development of the financial system, influenced the conduct of operators and impacted on the financial markets generally.
Pension Funds Administrators have earned a profit of ₦1.69 trillion as at the end of June 2019 as return on investment accounts for more than 18 percent of Nigeria’s total pension assets. Total assets under the scheme stood at ₦9.32 trillion, including the total monthly contributions received from both the public and private sectors into the workers’ Retirement Savings accounts which amounted to ₦5.45 trillion, at the end of the period. Other components are the Approved Existing Scheme totalling ₦958.2 billion; the Closed Pension Funds Accounts of ₦1.24 trillion and return on investment, which amounted to ₦1.69 trillion in the period. The operators said the return on investment of ₦1.69 trillion was added to the workers RSA balances. The breakdown of the total monthly contribution showed that ₦2.73 trillion or 50.09 percent of the contributions came from the public sector, while the private sector contributed the remaining 49.91 percent or ₦2.72 trillion. The operators invested a substantial part of the pension funds in the FG bonds, treasury bills and state governments’ securities, adding that some of the funds were invested in agency bonds, supranational bonds, commercial papers, foreign money market securities and open/closed-end funds. According to PenCom data, currently, the RSA Fund 1 has the least at ₦15 billion; RSA Fund II has the largest share of ₦4.12 trillion; Fund III has ₦2.25 trillion, while Fund IV has ₦751.73 billion. Apart from the administration fee of ₦100 deducted by the PFAs per monthly contribution from workers the RSAs, investment management fees were charged and included in the unit price of the fund.