Daily Watch – Nigeria avoids international debt markets, Miyetti Allah apologises to Benue

A report from the NNPC has shown that the combined yield efficiency of the country’s refineries; Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company, Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company, and Port Harcourt Refining Company, has crashed to zero. They also performed woefully in terms of the volume of crude oil they processed. The monthly financial and operations report for July 2019 said that the three refineries processed no drop of crude oil and produced no product during the month under review as their combined yield efficiency dropped from the 31.19 percent in June to zero percent in July 2019. Analysis of the combined performance of the facilities also showed that after they recorded an opening stock of 212,165 metric tonnes, the refineries posted zero percent as crude processed, finished and intermediate products. They also recorded zero percent as plant consumption, losses and capacity utilisation. Their combined plant capacity was put at 445,000 barrels per day. The NNPC said that in July 2019, the three refineries processed no crude and produce no product for the month as against 38,977MT processed in June 2019. The state oil firm insisted that the poor output of the facilities was due to the work being carried out on the refineries as the refineries posted a loss of ₦13.84 billion in July 2019. The combined value of output by the three refineries (at import parity price) for the month of July 2019 amounted to ₦830 million. No associated crude plus freight cost for the three refineries since there was no production while operational expenses amounted to ₦14.66 billion. This resulted in an operating deficit of ₦13.84 billion by the refineries. The Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mele Kyari, has announced that the corporation engaged Russian investors and the foreign nation’s state company to rehabilitate Nigeria’s refineries.

Fulani socio-cultural group, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, has apologised to Benue’s Governor Samuel Ortom for killings in the state. Giving the apology on behalf of the association at a peace meeting held in Makurdi, the group’s secretary, Saleh Alhassan, expressed regret over the killings. He pledged to ensure peaceful coexistence between farmers and herdsmen in the state. On his part, Ortom told the Miyetti Allah group that the enactment of the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law in the State was to end the killing of innocent people and encourage ranching as the global best practice of animal husbandry. He said any person or group wishing to rear livestock in the state was free to acquire land and build a ranch, according to the provisions of the ranching law of the state.

Access Bank is set to acquire a bank in Kenya seven months after its merger with Diamond Bank. This move is expected to expand the Nigerian lender’s footprint across Africa. Access Bank received the approval to acquire Transnational Bank after confirmation from Competition Authority of Kenya. The acquisition, which will see Access Bank takeover 93.57 percent of Transnational Bank, follows a series of mergers in the East African nation’s banking industry. The country has recorded merger between NIC Group and Commercial Bank of Africa and KCB Group Limited’s acquisition of National Bank of Kenya. Kenya’s Central Bank has been pushing for a merger between the country’s banks because it has more banks per person than South Africa and Nigeria. Transnational Bank only lends to the agricultural sector, but its non-performing loans increased by 58 percent to 1.85 billion shillings, while loans rose 0.5 percent to 6.63 billion shillings, according to a report. Also, in 2018, Transnational Bank recorded a full-year pretax loss of 98.5 million shillings ($951,690).

The Debt Management Office has said the FG will not tap international debt markets for the remainder of the year as it struggles to plug a widening budget deficit. The FG approved a three-year plan in 2016 to borrow more from overseas, with 40 percent of its loans expected from offshore sources to lower borrowing costs and help to fund record-high budgets. Bloomberg quoted DMO boss, Patience Oniha, as saying that the government would not sell international debt this year because the implementation of the 2019 budget was drawing to a close. The country issued a record $10.7 billion of international bonds in 2018, and some investors were betting the country would sell more papers in 2019 to cover the shortfall, projected at ₦2.5 trillion ($6.9 billion). The FG would stick to its new domestic borrowing plan to raise ₦802.8 billion in 2019, Oniha said. Eurobonds worth $10.87 billion as of June 2019 accounted for the largest chunk of the nation’s external debt, rising from $8.5 billion at the end of June 2018, data from the debt office showed.