Daily Watch – Coronavirus forces 2020 budget review, SW states pass Amotekun laws

Figures from the power ministry and the Transmission Company of Nigeria show that power generation on the national grid wobbled continuously in February as electricity distribution companies rejected a total of 17.657GW of energy allocated to them by the TCN in the 20 days between 3 February and 23 February. This indicated that the national grid persistently lost an average of about 1GW of electricity daily during the review period. Going by the analysis, the grid recorded a peak generation of 4.64GW on 1 February and then fell to 3.297GW the following day. Similar scenarios played out on other days of the month. The TCN had repeatedly blamed the instability of the grid on the continuous rejection of electricity allocation by power distributors. TCN boss, Usman Mohammed, has called for the recapitalisation of DisCos to enable the power firms boost their networks and distribute power efficiently.

Finance minister, Zainab Ahmed, says the outbreak of Covid-19 has negatively impacted Nigeria’s oil revenue, and that a mid-term review of the 2020 budget will be carried out to reflect the realities on the ground. Ahmed said this at the end of a cabinet meeting, Wednesday. Nigeria’s budget benchmark for 2020 is $57, while the benchmark Brent Crude closed at $51.85, with Nigeria’s Bonny Light Crude selling at $52.42. Ahmed said that the country’s oil production had increased between two million barrels and 2.1 million barrels per day.

Data from the Association of Small Business Owners of Nigeria has shown that at least 42 SMEs in Lagos were forced to shut down between 2014 and 2019 due to huge losses resulting from a stifling operating environment. Femi Egbesola, the association’s president, told the Punch that the businesses collapsed were in the manufacturing/production sector and are the registered members of the association in Lagos State alone. Others in the importation of commodities and consulting/services were also affected by the challenge. Giving a breakdown of the affected companies, Egbesola said, about 92% of the 42 businesses that closed shop were manufacturing/production companies; six percent were into importation of commodities, while the remaining two percent were in services. He added that about 40% of the 42 businesses crashed in 2019 as they all crashed out to repeated losses, leading to negative liquidity and inability to meet up with financial obligations.

Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu has signed the state Security Network Agency and Amotekun Corps Bill into law. Amotekun was initiated by the six South-West governors to tackle the security challenges facing the region. The Lagos, Ogun, Osun and Oyo Houses of Assembly have also signed their states’ versions of the bill. The Ekiti State House of Assembly had earlier passed the bill, and Speaker Funminiyi Afuye expressed confidence on Wednesday Governors Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Gboyega Oyetola (Osun), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun) and Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos) would follow in Akeredolu’s footsteps by signing the bill into law soon. The Oyo State Government said the others would agree on a date to sign the bill, according to the Governor Makinde’s spokesman, Taiwo Adisa. At the signing ceremony in Ondo, Governor Akeredolu said the security outfit would not be politicised or used for political purposes.