CBN to borrow N1.07tn via treasury bills in Q2

The Central Bank of Nigeria is planning to borrow N1.07tn via treasury bills issuance in the second quarter of 2016.

The CBN said it would auction N303.77bn worth of 91-day bills, N169.98bn worth of 182-day paper and N599.63bn of one-year paper between March 17 and June 2.

The Federal Government, through the CBN, had raised N1.22tn from treasury bills in the first quarter.

The Debt Management Office had on Wednesday said it would raise N100bn ($503.02m) in local currency denominated bonds with maturities ranging between five and 20 years on March 16.

The debt office said it would raise N40bn at par in the local bond maturing in 2036; N40bn of the paper maturing in 2026 and N20bn of the debt maturing in 2020.

The 2026 and 2020 maturing notes are re-openings of previously issued paper, while the 2036 maturing note is a fresh issue.

The Director-General, DMO, Dr. Abraham Nwankwo, had said the slump in crude oil prices in the international market had made a deficit budget inevitable this year, adding that the DMO was prepared to borrow on behalf of the government to fund the deficit.

Nwankwo dismissed the fears in some quarters that the government might not be able to borrow from the bond market to finance any shortfall in the budget because of the recent delisting of Nigeria from the JPMorgan Bond Index.

Economic retreat: Build 250 housing units yearly – Buhari tasks APC Governors

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday during the economic retreat urged the 22 states under the watch of the All Progressives Congress, APC, to erect 250,000 housing units in each year of their tenure.

He pointed out that the move will enable the party meet up with the election campaign promise of providing one million houses for Nigerians yearly.

Buhari also tasked foreign investors and local construction companies to be part of the new effort to overcome Nigeria’s housing deficit.

He said: “Some estimates put Nigeria’s housing deficit at about sixteen million units. In our successful campaign to win the general elections last year our party, the APC, promised to build a million housing units a year. This will turn out to be a very tall order unless:

“The Federal Government builds two hundred and fifty thousand units. The 22 APC States together manage another two hundred and fifty thousand units.

He added, “We invite foreign investors together with local domiciled big construction companies to enter into commercial housing building to pick up the rest.”

He highlighted the problems facing the housing sector to include severe shortage of housing, high rents, unaffordable prices for prospective buyers especially middle and low-income earners.

“In addition, red tape, corruption and plain public service inefficiency lead to long delays in obtaining ownership of title documents.

“Again, there are no long term funding sources for mortgage purposes.

“These hurdles are by no means easy to scale, but we must find solutions to the housing deficit. This Retreat might start by looking at the laws,” he stated.

Buhari urged to appoint chief information officer

President Mohammadu Buhari has been urged to establish the Office of the Chief Information Officer for the Federation. The federation’s CIO would oversee the spending of the Federal Government as well as the strategic planning of all federal Information Technology investments.

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Precise Financial Systems, Yele Okeremi, made this call at the maiden edition of the Information and Communications Technology retreat held in Ibadan, Oyo State.

He said that the CIO’s office should be charged with establishing a government-wide enterprise architecture that would ensure system interoperability, information sharing and maintain effective information security and privacy controls across the Federal Government.

He asked the Ministry of Communications, as presently constituted, to focus on development, implementation and evaluation of the relevant IT policies for the country.

Okeremi, who served for two consecutive years as the Chairman of the Local Organising Committee of DEMO Africa, which Nigeria hosted in 2014 and 2015, advised the Ministry of Communications to strengthen the Office of ICT Innovations and Entrepreneurship.

According to him, this would enable the OIIE to access the required resources and power to support incubation centres and hubs while facilitating collaboration between the incubation centres and hubs with industry practitioners, particularly the software houses.

Donors pledge $250m to fight Boko Haram

Donors at the African Union summit pledged on Monday $250m for the fight against Boko Haram insurgents, AU Peace and Security Council chief Smail Chergui said.

Boko Haram, facing the heat of a military onslaught in Nigeria, has in the past year stepped up cross-border attacks in Niger, Chad and Cameroon, while continuing shooting and suicide assaults on markets, mosques and other mostly civilian targets within Nigeria itself.

Despite offensives by the regional force with troops from Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria, the Islamist jihadists maintain strongholds in areas that are difficult to access.

On Saturday night, the terrorist group attacked Dalori, a village four kilometres outside Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, allegedly killing 86 people including children.

But Chergui praised the success of the force at the close of an AU summit on Sunday, saying territory had been wrested back.

“Great results have been achieved and we must consolidate these gains,” he said.

Chergui said $110m came from Nigeria, with the European Union offering €50m, as well as donations from Britain and Switzerland.

Chad’s President Idriss Deby, the African Union chairman, said it was crucial the money pledged was actually paid to show “our firm commitment in the fight against terrorism.”

Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama said gains had been made but much more needed to be done.

“Boko Haram is no longer able to operate freely as in the past or control territories as they did,” he said.

“We are making tremendous progress in this battle, but we still need to remain vigilant, we need to share information and cooperate.”

Consumers kick as power firms implement new tariffs

Power distribution companies have implemented the over 40 per cent increase in electricity tariffs despite protests against the development by consumers and labour unions as well as a directive by the Senate to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission to suspend the hike.

This is coming as consumers have kicked against the increase after some of them received their bills for the month of March, which showed an astronomical rise in their various tariffs.

The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria described the increase in tariffs as evil and reiterated its position against moves by NERC as well as the distribution and generation companies to increase raise the rates.

Consumers, who spoke at a forum organised by the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company on Saturday wondered why the Discos would raise tariffs beyond the abilities of their customers to pay.

A consumer at the forum, Nwachukwu Ngige, said his bill was increased from about N89,000 in February to N285,132 in March.

“Please tell me sir, how am I expected to cope with this kind of bill?” he asked the AEDC Regional Manager, who simply gave his name as Mr. D. Ibrahim.

Another customer, a hotel manager, who identified himself simply as Mr. Ogbulafor, said, “My own bill was increased from about N110,000 in February to over N400,000 in March. For crying out loud, I do not have the capacity to pay this bill.

“And why are the power firms increasing bills when the Senate has directed that the increase be suspended till there is visible improvement in supply?”

In his response, the AEDC regional manager pleaded with the visibly angry customers to try and visit the firm’s office for further clarification, but noted that the power firms did not disobey the directive of the Senate, as they were still consulting with the National Assembly on the matter.

Also reacting on the issue, the TUC said in a statement signed by its President, Bobboi Kaigama, that the increase in tariffs was anti-people and lacked every sense of logicality, hence the protests and picketing of offices of the NERC and the electricity distribution companies throughout the country.

The TUC said, “At a meeting held with officials of the NERC last Thursday, March 17, 2016, the congress described as lame the argument in some quarters that an Act of the National Assembly actually empowers the commission to unilaterally increase tariffs and that the Act cannot be tampered with even by the federal parliament.

“For us, any Act, policy or idea, if you like, that does not consider the poor masses is undemocratic and evil. It is evil because it further impoverishes the masses.

“Naturally, our thinking is that business is all about investment and profit, and not the other way round. Every business has its gestation period before it starts generating profit; unfortunately the NERC and the investors do not want to go through the pains. Again, if they need contributions from people to invest, it automatically makes the people shareholders of the companies. For the NERC, the Discos and Gencos to give the consumers crazy bills in order to muster enough money without making them partners is unacceptable.”

Barack Obama in Cuba at start of historic visit

President Barack Obama is in Cuba for a historic three-day visit to the island and talks with its communist leader.

He is the first sitting US president to visit since the 1959 revolution, which heralded decades of hostility between the two countries.

Speaking at the reopened US embassy in Havana, he called the visit "historic".

Mr Obama will meet President Raul Castro, but not retired revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, and the pair will discuss trade and political reform.

'Brighter future'

President Obama's visit is the high point of a recent easing of ties between the US and Cuba, which included the re-establishment of diplomatic missions last year.

Unsurprisingly, his first stop was the newly re-opened embassy.

Mr Obama, who is the first sitting US president to visit Cuba in 88 years, told staff: "It is wonderful to be here."

"Back in 1928, President [Calvin] Coolidge came on a battleship. It took him three days to get here - it only took me three hours. For the first time ever, Air Force One has landed in Cuba and this is our very first stop."

Later on Sunday, he toured Havana's old town with his family, huddling under umbrellas to shelter from a tropical storm before visiting the national cathedral.

Cuba is one of the most exotic places I have visited. The mix of crumbling but beautiful Spanish colonial, 1950s Americana, and 1970s Soviet utilitarian, all laced with plentiful mojito cocktails and the sound of salsa, is beguiling. It's fabulous.

I was here twice last year. The first time was just after Presidents Obama and Castro announced their desire to open a new chapter in relations; the second when Secretary of State John Kerry flew in to re-open the US embassy on the waterfront.

Now I am back for a third visit - and the cocktail that is Havana has a new ingredient. Well, two new ingredients actually. One is the smell of fresh paint. The other is shiny black tarmac on road surfaces where the potholes have been filled in.

For security reasons, no one is saying precisely where the president will go when he's here, but here's my top tip as a highly trained investigative reporter. The roads where the potholes have been filled in, that's where the president will be.

Win-win for US and Cuba

---

Security was tight and the historic city centre looked uncharacteristically empty. One Cuban shouted: "Down with the embargo!"

President Obama responded by waving.

The 54-year-old US trade embargo is one of the main sticking points in US-Cuban relations.

It can only be lifted by the US Congress, which is controlled by Republicans who have expressed their opposition to its removal.

Reduction in salaries’ll curb do-or-die politics –Murray-Bruce

The senator representing Bayelsa-East senatorial district, Ben Murray-Bruce, says the huge salary of politicians is responsible for electoral violence.

Murray-Bruce asked Nigerians to advocate for a reduction in salaries for political office holders.

Reacting to a statement credited to a former governor of Oyo State, Adebayo Alao-Akala, in which the former governor reportedly said he was happy to have lost in the last election because of the dwindling allocation to states, Murray-Bruce said it was apparent that money was the major reason why politicians contest elections.

In a series of tweets on his official Twitter handle on Saturday, the senator said, “This (Alao-Akala’s statement) vindicates my argument that money drives do-or-die politics. Close the treasury and do-or-die politics would end.

“If you really want to bid farewell to do-or-die politics, Nigerians must vehemently push for a ‘demonetization’ of politics at all levels. Money drives do-or-die elections. Those states with dwindling federal allocations will soon experience a decline in do-or-die politics.

“Do-or-die politics thrive because the president and governors have too much power over the treasury of their states. Remove that and it will end.”

Meanwhile, a political counsellor with the British High Commission in Abuja, Ben Llewellyn Jones, has asked the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress to investigate their members’ involvement in the violence that marred Saturday’s rerun election in Rivers State.

Jones, who described the violence as unacceptable, said the Edo State governorship election should be better than that of Rivers.

“Both major parties should investigate the disruption in the Rivers rerun and discipline their supporters as involved. Either way, what can be done now to make conduct of Edo

September governorship election better?

“If legislators salaries were cut, would the desire for violence at Rivers rerun collapsed like the tent of the Independent National Electoral Commission yesterday (Saturday)? The violence yesterday was unacceptable. In places, I saw only 10 percent of people willing to risk voting during the election,” he

stated on his official Twitter page on Sunday.

UK, US governments knew location of Chibok girls but refused to rescue them – Ex-British High Commissioner

A former British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Dr Andrew Pocock has disclosed that both the British and United States governments knew where some of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram members were but could not act as expected.

Pocock while speaking with The Sunday Times explained that both governments knew the whereabout of the abducted girls but were powerless to launch a rescue mission, stressing that it was too risky.

He said, “A couple of months after the kidnapping, fly-bys and an American eye in the sky spotted a group of up to 80 girls in a particular spot in the Sambisa forest, around a very large tree, called locally the Tree of Life, along with evidence of vehicular movement and a large encampment.

“A land-based attack would have been seen coming miles away and the girls killed, an air-based rescue, such as flying in helicopters or Hercules, would have required large numbers and meant a significant risk to the rescuers and even more so to the girls.

“You might have rescued a few but many would have been killed. My personal fear was always about the girls not in that encampment — 80 were there, but 250 were taken, so the bulk were not there. What would have happened to them? You were damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”

DAILY POST recalls that members of Boko Haram sect had in 2014 abducted over 200 girls from a boarding school in Chibok, in Borno State and they have since remained missing.

Nigeria records 5.2% fall in cocoa production

The drive to increase cocoa yield as a result of the slump in crude oil price may have suffered a setback as the production of the cash crop has dropped,

Nigeria’s cocoa production has dropped by 5.2 per cent from 248,000 metric tonnes in the 2013/2014 planting season to 235,000 metric tonnes in the 2014/2015 season, according to information gathered from stakeholders in the cocoa value chain.

Stakeholders had expected an increase to about 350,000 metric tonnes for the 2014/2015 season following the distribution of improved seedlings by the Federal Government with a target to increase yield and make the country the largest producer of cocoa in Africa before the year 2020, and to develop a globally competitive manufacturing industry around the Nigerian cocoa bean.

Cocoa is currently the country’s leading agricultural export, while Nigeria is the world’s fourth largest producer of the commodity after Ivory Coast, Indonesia and Ghana, and third largest exporter after Ivory Coast and Ghana.

Analysts noted that cocoa prices in the international market had risen but that supply would be a major challenge for producers in the coming years due to increasing demand.

The Federal Government, during the last administration, had targeted a yearly increase that would raise production to around 700,000 metric tonnes this year and one million metric tonnes in 2020 by distributing early-maturing, high-yielding and disease-resistant beans that mature in about 18 months to farmers to replace seedlings with four to five years maturity rate.

“We have distributed more than 140 million seedlings of high-yielding cocoa varieties to recapitalise the cocoa plantations, because they are old. That will give us a yield of almost five times. By 2020, Nigeria should be certainly in the one million metric tonnes cocoa production club,” the former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, had said in 2014.

The National Vice President, Cocoa Association of Nigeria, Cross River/Akwa Ibom zone, Mr. Godwin Ukwu, said the decline in production was not unconnected with aging trees and illegal mining on cocoa farms.

He said, “The ages of the trees are going down and production is declining, and there is no support from the government in any way to rehabilitate or replant the cocoa and it is affecting production.

“There is a difference between the government trying to do something and doing what it has to do. Last year, a lot of the seedlings did not get to many farmers. The government needs to ensure that its intervention gets to the farmers through monitoring to get the seedlings to the real farmers who need them and not to political farmers.”

According to Ukwu, production also went down in other cocoa producing countries such as Ghana, where the yield dropped from the usual 900,000 to one million metric tonnes to 700,000 metric tonnes.

Ukwu said if something was not done urgently about the production, demand would be more than supply, leading to more pressure on the farmers.

A consultant and Chief Operating Officer, Centre for Cocoa Development Initiative, Mr. Robo Adhuze, said increased rainfall would help production in the current season.

“We are expecting the weather to get better; we are trying to track rainfall across the country; when it begins to rain properly, it will get better. Across board, we are having issues,” he said.

According to Adhuze, despite the fact that cocoa prices are currently soaring in the international market, hovering between $2,900 and $3,000 per metric tonne, production across board is expected to drop in the next few years.

He said, “Prices are soaring in the international market, which is normal, because we are expecting a drop in production in the next four years and consumers are looking for more with the downward production trend.

“The weather and then the demand from East Asian countries such as India and China are also not helping the situation. More people are consuming more cocoa products, but production is going down.”

According to reports, the demand for cocoa is predicted to rise by 30 per cent by 2020, but without empowering and investing in small-scale farmers, the industry will struggle to provide sufficient supply.

A report by The Guardian of the United Kingdom indicated that steady growth over the last 100 years had transformed the chocolate confectionary market into an $80bn a year global industry, but that with demand expected to exceed supply, a crisis was looming for the industry.

The report stated, “Around 3.5 million tonnes of cocoa are produced each year. But rising incomes in emerging markets like India and China, combined with anticipated economic recovery in the rich North, have led to industry forecast of 30 per cent growth in demand to more than 4.5 million tonnes by 2020. This should be good news for farmers and businesses alike.

“But complacency and disregard for the livelihoods of more than five million small-scale family farmers who grow 90 per cent of the world’s cocoa mean that the industry may simply be unable to provide sufficient supply to meet the demand.”

According to Adhuze, the Nigerian situation is compounded by economic factors such as unstable foreign exchange.

“Nigerian cocoa investors are not smiling, as they get the money, they pay more to reinvest,” he said.

The Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Mr. Segun Awolowo, said 2015 was generally not a good year for agricultural production in the country.

According to him, a drop in production will adversely affect the target to increase yield.

“We need to scale up production; the idea is to surpass Ivory Coast and Ghana. Ghana is already at 700,000 metric tonnes, and we are still hovering around 240,000 metric tonnes but the idea was to get to 500,000 metric tonnes in the next few years,” he said.

Journalists have nothing to fear under Buhari – Lai Mohammed

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has assured that journalists practicing in the country have nothing to fear from the Nigerian government in the performance of their duties.

According to him, “Under this dispensation, we have never even contemplated stifling the freedom of the media not to talk of hounding them to death,” the Minister said in Doha on Sunday when he featured as a panelist at the ongoing 2016 Annual Congress of the International Press InstituteIPI) in the Qatari capital.

”Not a single journalist is in detention in Nigeria today. The government of the day is not a threat to the media, and it is not about to stifle press freedom or deny anyone his or her constitutionally guaranteed rights.”

A statement issued in Doha, Qatar by the Special Assistant to the Minister, Segun Adeyemi, on Monday quoteed him as declaring this at the session devoted to a debate on the implementation of the document on the ”International Declaration On The Protection of Journalists”’, which was presented at the Congress.

Mohammed said having identified lack of communication and mutual suspicion as part of the reasons for regular frictions between the government and the media in Nigeria, he had taken measures to enhance communication and also reduce suspicion between the two.

”These (measures) include strengthening the rapport between the government and the media, which I have done by meeting with the major stakeholders in the media industry, and setting up a committee between the media and the security/intelligence agencies to deepen communication and understanding,” he said.

The Minister also said while the government has ensured the protection of the premises of vulnerable media establishments when required to do so, that does not affect the independence of such organisaions.

Commenting on the role of governments which regularly targets journalists for their work, he said ”the state which ought to protect life should not be the one to snuff it out.”

Mohammed stressed the need for capacity building for media practitioners as a way of enhancing the performance of their duties, saying the local chapters of the IPI and other media organizations have a role to play in this regard.

NBC bans rapper's 'Don't stop' song

Just like 'Bobo', the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation has come down hard on Olamide's 'Don't stop'.

The Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) has bannedOlamide's 'Don't stop' song off his "Eyan Mayweather" album oweing to its  vulgar lyrics.

According to a statement by the NBC, which is the government agency in charge of broadcasting regulation, the song was banned from being played on the airwaves for its “obscenity, being indecent, vulgar languages, lewd and profane expressions like ‘Wa gba ponron’, ‘I just want to hit you now’, ‘Je kin wo be…”

The song in question has also been in the news of recent following the claims by D’banj’s producer Deevee that the rapper Olamide stole a part of the song from them.

 The NBC had some time last year  also placed a NTBB (Not to be broadcast) label ban on about 18 popular songs such asDavido’s ‘Fans Mi’, Lil Kesh’s ‘Gbese’ and Wizkid’s  ‘In my bed’amongst others.