Daily Watch – NNPC declares zero remittance to FAAC again, CBN raises MPR for first time since 2020

At least 50 people were killed by militants on Sunday around the town of Rann in Nigeria’s Borno state, in the country’s northeastern tip near the border with Cameroon, witnesses told Reuters. Residents blamed the latest attack on Boko Haram. Army spokesman Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu did not immediately respond to a request for comment. “We are all in pain over the killing of our innocent people who were working on their farmland. … We buried 50 people today in Rann. They were clearing their farmlands ahead of the rainy season, while others went for firewood,” Harun Tom, a local farmer, said. Agid Muhammad, a farmer who recently returned to Rann after living in an internally displaced person camp, described a scene of carnage. “A large number of Boko Haram on motorcycles armed with guns and machetes surrounded our people who were working on their farms and held them hostage before killing them one by one,” Muhammad said, adding that his uncle was still missing. “They were tied with rope and slaughtered. As I’m speaking to you, many people aren’t accounted for.” Since 2009, Nigeria’s northeast and Borno, in particular, have been the centre of an insurgency led by the militant Islamist group Boko Haram. Millions have been displaced and some 350,000 people have died from attacks and the subsequent humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations. Over time, Boko Haram has split with an active offshoot called Islamic State West Africa Province also claiming responsibility for attacks in Africa’s most populous country.

The NNPC has deducted another ₦271.13 billion as a shortfall for the importation of petrol (subsidy) in April 2022 meaning that so far this year, the NNPC has spent ₦947.53 billion on the petrol subsidy — more than half of 2021’s subsidy spending. NNPC said this in its monthly presentation to the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting yesterday. The FAAC document showed that this is the fourth time the oil company will not remit any fund to the federation account in 2022 — as subsidy payments continue to deplete revenue. NNPC also said it would deduct ₦371 billion for the shortfall in May 2022 during next month’s FAAC meeting. “The Value Shortfall on the importation of PMS recovered from April 2022 proceeds is ₦271,125,127, 487,58 while the outstanding balance carried forward is ₦371 billion,” the document reads. “The estimated Value Shortfall of ₦874,503,649,663.98 (consisting of arrears of ₦371 billion, plus estimated April 2022 Value Short Fall of ₦503,313,767,828.14 is to be recovered from May 2022 proceed due for sharing at June 2022 FAAC Meeting.” In January, February and March 2022, petrol subsidy gulped ₦210.38 billion, ₦219.78 billion, and ₦245.77 billion, respectively. This year alone, the federal government has budgeted to spend ₦4 trillion on costly petrol subsidies — as a result of high global oil prices due to the Russia-Ukraine war. In the month under review, the report said NNPC lifted overall crude oil of 8.80 million barrels (export domestic crude) in March 2022, representing a 10 percent decrease relative to the 9.77 million barrels lifted in February 2022.

Nigeria’s central bank on Tuesday raised the benchmark interest rate by 150 basis points to 13%, its first hike in more than two years, to combat rising inflation, sending markets tumbling. The move surprised analysts and traders who expected the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to keep the rate on hold. But Governor Godwin Emefiele told a news briefing that the rate hike was necessary to tame inflation, which quickened to 16.82% in April, its highest in eight months, amid a fragile economic recovery. Six members of the MPC voted to increase the main lending rate by 150 basis points, four of them by 100 basis points and one by 50 basis points. It was the biggest rate hike since July 2016 when the central bank increased rates by 200 basis points. “(MPC members) felt that tightening will help rein in inflation before it assumes a galloping trend,” Emefiele said. The asymmetric corridor of +100/-700 basis points around the MPR was retained as well as the Cash Reserve Ration (CRR) at 27.5% and the liquidity ratio at 30%

Somalia’s prime minister suspended the foreign minister on Tuesday, citing the authorisation of a ship exporting charcoal to Oman in violation of international sanctions. The U.N. Security Council banned such shipments a decade ago to cut funding for the Islamist militant group al Shabaab, an al Qaeda franchise fighting Somalia’s central government. Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble’s office said that as well as suspending Foreign Minister Abdisaid Muse Ali, he had ordered an audit and judicial investigation into the ministry’s authorisation of the shipment. The status of the shipment was unclear.