Daily Watch – Niger suffocates in bloody weekend of attacks, CBN launches new forex rebate scheme
28th February 2022
Armed groups have killed many people, including a father and his son, in separate attacks in Mashegu, Lavun and Wushishi local government areas of Niger State. Many residents were displaced in the attacks which occurred between Friday and Saturday. Residents said that in Mashegu Local Government Area, the villages attacked were Sahon-Rami, Igbede, Chekaku, Ubegi, Maishankafi and Poshi. The media aide to Mashegu local council chairperson, Mohammed Isah, told Daily Trust that the chief of staff to the council chairperson, Umar Ubegi, and his father were killed during the attack. He said the village head of Poshi was killed as well as seven others in Sahon-Rami and Maishankafi. “They moved from one village to the other on motorcycles, killing and kidnapping people. They also rustled cows belonging to villagers. About 13 communities were sacked and people have fled. “Tension is high in our local government now. These people have been operating since Friday. But only one village was attacked on Friday which was Sahon-Rami. The remaining villages were attacked today (Saturday),” he told the newspaper. In Lavun council area, ten villages were reportedly attacked, leaving no fewer than three persons dead while three others were kidnapped. On Sunday, at least eight worshippers, including a pastor, were abducted from a Baptist church in Gidigori in Rafi Local Government Area. Residents said the incident occurred after the Sunday morning service of the church at about 11 a.m. Premium Times reported that the Secretary to the State Government, Ahmad Matane confirmed the incident. A resident of the paper told the news site that the Sunday service was over but the pastor and some church officials were having a meeting when the gunmen invaded and whisked them away. Gidigori is part of the larger troubled areas bordering the restive Birnin Gwari Local Government in Kaduna and Zamfara State. Officials in the state said over 151,380 people, mostly peasant farmers, were displaced in the state by the activities of bandits in the last two years.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says exporters will now enjoy a rebate of ₦65 for every dollar of non-oil export proceeds sold to third parties at the importers and exporters (I&E) window. The regulator said this in a circular released on Friday and signed by O.S. Nnaji, director of the trade & exchange department. The rebate is part of the benefits under the non-oil export proceeds repatriation rebate scheme — a major anchor of the CBN’s RT200 FX programme aimed at attracting $200 billion in foreign exchange earning from non-oil exports proceeds over the next three to five years. The I&E FX window is the market trading segment for investors, exporters and end-users that allows for FX trades to be made at exchange rates determined based on prevailing market circumstances. Currently, naira trades at ₦416.52 at the I&E window (NAFEX) — which the CBN had adopted as the country’s official rate. The CBN said the rebate scheme was specifically designed to incentivise exporters in the non-oil export sector to encourage repatriation and sale of export proceeds into the FX market. “Eligible transactions that qualify for incentives under the scheme shall be export of finished and semi-finished goods wholly or partly processed or manufactured in Nigeria, except otherwise stated by the CBN; and export of goods and services (IT and creative businesses) that are permissible and excluded under existing export prohibition list,” the statement said. The CBN warned that any exporter that presents fraudulent documents would be banned from accessing the incentive for 24 months and all accounts shall be placed on post-no-debit (PND) for the same period.
Airtel Africa says it has signed agreements with telecoms infrastructure company Helios Towers Plc for the potential sale of its tower assets in Chad and Gabon. Simon O’Hora, company secretary at Airtel Africa, disclosed this on Friday in a corporate filing on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited. Providing updates about the transaction, the company said in Gabon, Airtel Africa, and Helios Towers have extended their memorandum of understanding arrangement, with completion still subject to Helios Towers obtaining a passive infrastructure licence. It added that the MoU arrangement relating to tower assets in Chad expired, and Airtel Africa and Helios Towers mutually agreed that this would not be renewed. “Airtel Africa will continue to provide further market updates as and when appropriate,” the statement reads. The deal comes less than two months after the telco announced the sale of its tower assets in Tanzania to SBA Communications Corporation. In January, the company sold its asset in Tanzania for $176.1 million.
Five staff members of the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres were kidnapped overnight in Cameroon’s Far North, a region where militant group Boko Haram operates, the aid group said on Friday. The workers were organising humanitarian projects in the area when armed men broke into MSF’s residence in the town of Fotokol, an MSF representative told Reuters. “Teams are mobilised to support our five colleagues,” they said. Neither the identity of the attackers nor their motives were immediately known, MSF said. The incident occurred in an area where a rise in inter-communal clashes has displaced nearly 100,000 people and in December killed dozens. Attacks by Boko Haram militants are also common.