·
CBN
intervenes with Fresh $325.64m
By Obinna Chima with
agency report
Britain’s Export
Finance Agency will add the Naira to its list of “pre-approved currencies”,
allowing it to provide financing for transactions with Nigerian businesses
denominated in the local currency.
The Naira will become
one of three West African currencies that UK Export Finance has pre-approved
for its programme of funding transactions that promote trade with Britain, it
said.
Britain voted to leave the European
Union in 2016, which has forced London to rethink its trade ties with the rest
of the world. It has said it would start preliminary talks with India about an
eventual bilateral trade deal.
The
United Kingdom and the EU struck an agreement in December that opened the way
for talks on future trade ties.
“This
is a clear indication of how much value the UK places on its relationship with
Nigeria. It will provide a firm foundation for a significant increase in trade
and investment between both countries,” Reuters quoted the British High
Commissioner to Nigeria, Paul Arkwright, to have said in the UK’s credit agency
statement. The statement said the UK would provide up to 85 per cent of funding
for projects containing a minimum of 20 per cent British content.
“The
Naira financing will follow the same structure as someone buying in sterling,
except that Nigerian firms taking out a loan in local currency can benefit from
a UK government-backed guarantee.
“This
can enable businesses to manage foreign exchange risks and, many times, to
negotiate better terms with local banks.”
Meanwhile,
the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) once more intervened in the Retail Secondary
Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) yesterday to the tune of $325.64 million.
Figures
obtained from the bank indicated that the amount released was for requests in
the agricultural, airlines, petroleum products and raw materials and machinery
sectors.
The
figures were confirmed by the bank’s Acting Director in charge of Corporate
Communications, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, who noted that the continued intervention
were in line with the assurances made by the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, to
sustain market liquidity in order to boost production and trade.
According
to Okorafor, the feedback from the wholesale and retail segments of the
Nigerian Forex markets showed that customers were satisfied with their level of
access to foreign exchange.
He
said the degree of optimism displayed by all players underscored the fact that
everyone was happy with the level of transparency in the market. Speaking
further, Okorafor assured that, with the recession now over and foreign
reserves now standing at $42 billion, the CBN had enough in its arsenal to
maintain the international value of the Naira as well as guarantee access to
forex by those requiring it to meet genuine needs.
He
also reiterated that the desire of the bank to ensure that all, particularly
low end users, had access to foreign exchange to meet genuine needs prompted
the Bankers’ Committee, in its first meeting of 2018, to agree to sell United
States dollars to those requiring it for invisibles at the rate of N360/$1,
without any commission whatsoever.
It
will be recalled that the CBN in its last SMIS, in January 2018, injected the
sum of $304.4 million in the inter-bank Foreign Exchange Market.
From
a chaotic foreign exchange system in the first half of 2017, due to the
activities of speculators, currency traffickers among others, which saw the
naira dropping to as low as N525 to a dollar, the naira has since stabilised at
N360 to a dollar across various
segments of the forex market.
The
stability was majorly driven by a raft of forex policies that were introduced
by the Central Bank which included the I & E window.
The
surge in activities at the window had been attributed to offshore investor interest
in treasury bills and the primary market auctions (PMA) by the CBN, with the
resulting inflows leading to a convergence between the parallel market exchange
rate and the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) rate, also
known as the I&E Forex window.
Most
activities now occur on the I&E window, with Fitch Ratings recently
acknowledging that the rate on the I&E “should now be considered the
relevant exchange rate”.
2nd
lead
Jega:
Do-or-Die Attitude of Politicians, Threat to Democracy
Alex
Enumah in Abuja
The
immediate past chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, has said that the do-or-die mentality of most
Nigerian politicians was a major threat to the country’s democracy.
Jega,
who provided further clarification on his position at an event organised by the
Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) in Abuja yesterday, told THISDAY in
a brief telephone interview last night that the do-or-die attitude undermined
the whole essence of democracy, “especially the conduct of free and fair
election.”
The
former INEC boss, who joined others to express growing frustration at the
practise of democratic tenets by politicians in Nigeria, linked the do-or-die
attitude to the long years of military rule.
While
anchoring the panel on, “Three Decades of Democratic Transition in Africa’’
organised by the CDD, Jega said this negative political attitude was also
responsible for the poor state of democracy particularly in Nigeria and Africa
generally
“The
challenges most African countries are faced with is that democratisation in
most African countries are on account of legacies of military rule.
“Clearly
everybody knows that military rule is an aberration, and if it has done
anything in our continent here in Africa is that it has created very dangerous
legacies.
“In
Nigeria, we have been talking about militicians; many of the prominent
politicians now are people who learnt politics under military rule particularly
under the Babangida politics of transition.
“Many
of them now have a do-or-die mentality of engaging in election and it is a
mindset that was imbibed under the military rule”, he said.
While
stating that democracy is in a state of flux in the African continent, the
former electoral umpire wondered whether democracy was actually delivering the
dividends to the citizens.
“There
is growing frustration that democracy is not delivering what is expected of it
whether in terms of legitimacy of regimes, in terms of stability, peaceful
coexistence and quality of governance.
“Most
times the electoral process is just a routine because candidates who do not
represent the people are imposed on the people.
“So,
the lack of integrity of the election coming from a military approach is
responsible for undermining democracy in Africa”, he said.
Jega,
joined other speakers to call for a rethink of the practice of democracy in the
country, noting that “democracy does not equal good governance.”
They
submitted that democracy, just like in the developed countries, should be able
to drive development and impact positively on the wellbeing of citizens.
On
her part, Director, Centre for Democracy and Development, Idayat Hassan,
lamented that successive administration had continued to use democracy to their
personal advantage.
Hassan
said leaders may have assumed power through democratic principles but they are
however, autocratic in their conduct.
She
lamented that freedom of the press in the last two years across Africa,
particularly in South Africa and Nigeria had not been commendable.
Hassan
was also of the view that real democracy must be inclusive and deliver
development to the people, adding that it goes beyond building institutions and
economic growth.
“I
think we are practising a hybrid system. We practise democracy but when it
becomes necessary, we become authoritarian because when you look at the level
of press freedom in Nigeria in the past two years, it has not been commendable.
“When
you also look at social media monitoring request from Google, facebook on
accounts of citizens you find that Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt topped the
list. In fact, it is a fact to see that we are a hybrid system”, she said.
She
advised the citizenry to learn to hold elected representatives accountable, if
they must enjoy the dividends of democracy.
Check our new Website more updates http://insidearewa.com.ng/
No comments:
Post a Comment