Economy

FG Commits to Transparency in Oil, Gas, Other Extractive Industries

Published

11 months ago

30/01/2024

By Adedapo Adesanya

The federal government has reaffirmed its commitment to deepen implementation of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) through the Nigerian chapter, NEITI.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr George Akume, made this commitment in Abuja while receiving a delegation from the global EITI, in Oslo, Norway on a working mission to Nigeria.

Mr Akume praised Nigeria’s performance in the recent EITI assessment and progress recorded by the country in the implementation of the initiative between 2019 and 2022.

“NEITI is an agency of the federal government, and the present administration is very proud of its impacts in providing reliable information and data that have helped tremendously in shaping the ongoing reforms in Nigeria’s oil, gas, and mining sectors.

“We have also found NEITI reports to be very useful in the areas of revenue generation, resource mobilisation, blocking leakages in the system, and a dependable data resource in the country’s sustained war against corruption.

“I want to acknowledge the report of the EITI Validation of Nigeria and to assure you that the federal government is already working on the report.

“From our preliminary reviews, we have noted with excitement that many areas that Nigeria excelled in that report, and the areas that our country requires improvements. The government is fully aware that we were assessed on three major indicators- outcomes/impacts, transparency as well as stakeholders engagements,” he said.

Mr Akume said that he was elated that Nigeria excelled on outcomes and impacts with a score of 92 per cent, over 70 per cent on transparency disclosures which shows that Nigeria is benefiting enormously from the implementation of the EITI, but requires more work and improvements in the areas of stakeholders engagements where Nigeria scored above 50 per cent.

He applauded the EITI for courageously highlighting specific areas where the country needed to correct and improve before the next validation which will take place in January 2026.

He further stated that Nigeria through NEITI is working assiduously to provide action plans that will remedy the gaps identified by the validation report before January 2026 the stipulated time given to Nigeria to address noticeable areas of improvement in the oil, gas, and mining industry sector reforms.

At an earlier media briefing at the NEITI House, the leader of the delegation, the Deputy Head of EITI Secretariat, Mr Bady Balde, explained that the team was in Nigeria to communicate to stakeholders as well as the Nigerian government, the outcome of the last validation exercise for Nigeria and proffer support for post-validation planning.

“We are also here to strengthen the country’s call to working with NEITI for the reconstitution of the MSG and to appeal to the government that the disruption of the NEITI structure and the Secretariat will always not augur well for continuity, institutionalisation, and sustainability,” he said.

He lamented that the NEITI Act 2007 establishes an independent entity that is supposed to function in a multi-stakeholder nature and supervise EITI implementation in the country. Unfortunately, that entity has not functioned as intended in the last two years due to the vacancy and sustained vacancy of the NSWG itself which is supposed to oversee the EITI in Nigeria.

“We hope that at the end of the mission, we will have a clearer sense of the timeline and the process of how quickly the NSWG can be reconstituted. This is a significant area of concern because NSWG is at the core of the EITI process,” he reaffirmed.

Economy

FAAC Disburses 1.727trn to FG, States Local Councils in December 2024

Published

22 hours ago

14/12/2024

Modupe Gbadeyanka

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The federal government, the 36 states of the federation and the 774 local government areas have received N1.727 trillion from the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) for December 2024.

The funds were disbursed to the three tiers of government from the revenue generated by the nation in November 2024.

At the December meeting of FAAC held in Abuja, it was stated that the amount distributed comprised distributable statutory revenue of N455.354 billion, distributable Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue of N585.700 billion, Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL) revenue of N15.046 billion and Exchange Difference revenue of N671.392 billion.

According to a statement signed on Friday by the Director of Press and Public Relations for FAAC, Mr Bawa Mokwa, the money generated last month was about N3.143 trillion, with N103.307 billion used for cost of collection and N1.312 trillion for transfers, interventions and refunds.

It was disclosed that gross statutory revenue of N1.827 trillion was received compared with the N1.336 trillion recorded a month earlier.

The statement said gross revenue of N628.972 billion was available from VAT versus N668.291 billion in the preceding month.

The organisation stated that last month, oil and gas royalty and CET levies recorded significant increases, while excise duty, VAT, import duty, Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT), Companies Income Tax (CIT) and EMTL decreased considerably.

As for the sharing, FAAC disclosed that from the N1.727 trillion, the central government got N581.856 billion, the states received N549.792 billion, the councils took N402.553 billion, while the benefiting states got N193.291 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue.

From the N585.700 billion VAT earnings, the national government got N87.855 billion, the states received N292.850 billion and the local councils were given N204.995 billion.

Also, from the N455.354 billion distributable statutory revenue, the federal government was given N175.690 billion, the states got N89.113 billion, the local governments had N68.702 billion, and the benefiting states received N121.849 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue.

In addition, from the N15.046 billion EMTL revenue, FAAC shared N2.257 billion to the federal government, disbursed N7.523 billion to the states and transferred N5.266 billion to the local councils.

Further, from the N671.392 billion Exchange Difference earnings, it gave central government N316.054 billion, the states N160.306 billion, the local government areas N123.590 billion, and the oil-producing states N71.442 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue.

Economy

Okitipupa Plc, Two Others Lift Unlisted Securities Market by 0.65%

Published

1 day ago

14/12/2024

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange recorded a 0.65 per cent gain on Friday, December 13, boosted by three equities admitted on the trading platform.

On the last trading session of the week, Okitipupa Plc appreciated by N2.70 to settle at N29.74 per share versus Thursday’s closing price of N27.04 per share, FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc added N2.49 to end the session at N42.85 per unit compared with the previous day’s N40.36 per unit, and Afriland Properties Plc gained 50 Kobo to close at N16.30 per share, in contrast to the preceding session’s N15.80 per share.

Consequently, the market capitalisation added N6.89 billion to settle at N1.062 trillion compared with the preceding day’s N1.055 trillion and the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) gained 19.66 points to wrap the session at 3,032.16 points compared with 3,012.50 points recorded in the previous session.

Yesterday, the volume of securities traded by investors increased by 171.6 per cent to 1.2 million units from the 447,905 units recorded a day earlier, but the value of shares traded by the market participants declined by 19.3 per cent to N2.4 million from the N3.02 million achieved a day earlier, and the number of deals went down by 14.3 per cent to 18 deals from 21 deals.

At the close of business, Geo-Fluids Plc was the most active stock by volume on a year-to-date basis with a turnover of 1.7 billion units worth N3.9 billion, followed by Okitipupa Plc with the sale of 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with 297.3 million units sold for N5.3 million.

In the same vein, Aradel Holdings Plc remained the most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis with the sale of 108.7 million units for N89.2 billion, trailed by Okitipupa Plc with 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with a turnover of 297.3 million units worth N5.3 billion.

Economy

Naira Trades N1,533/$1 at Official Market, N1,650/$1 at Parallel Market

Published

1 day ago

14/12/2024

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira appreciated further against the United States Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) by N1.50 or 0.09 per cent to close at N1,533.00/$1 on Friday, December 13 versus the N1,534.50/$1 it was transacted on Thursday.

The local currency has continued to benefit from the Electronic Foreign Exchange Matching System (EFEMS) introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) this month.

The implementation of the forex system comes with diverse implications for all segments of the financial markets that deal with FX, including the rebound in the value of the Naira across markets.

The system instantly reflects data on all FX transactions conducted in the interbank market and approved by the CBN.

Market analysts say the publication of real-time prices and buy-sell orders data from this system has lent support to the Naira in the official market and tackled speculation.

In the official market yesterday, the domestic currency improved its value against the Pound Sterling by N12.58 to wrap the session at N1,942.19/£1 compared with the previous day’s N1,954.77/£1 and against the Euro, it gained N2.44 to close at N1,612.85/€1 versus Thursday’s closing price of N1,610.41/€1.

At the black market, the Nigerian Naira appreciated against the greenback on Friday by N30 to sell for N1,650/$1 compared with the preceding session’s value of N1,680/$1.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was largely positive as investors banked on recent signals, including fresh support from US President-elect, Mr Donald Trump, as well as interest rate cuts by the European Central Bank (ECB).

Ripple (XRP) added 7.3 per cent to sell at $2.49, Binance Coin (BNB) rose by 3.5 per cent to $728.28, Cardano (ADA) expanded by 2.4 per cent to trade at $1.11, Litecoin (LTC) increased by 2.3 per cent to $122.56, Bitcoin (BTC) gained 1.9 per cent to settle at $101,766.17, Dogecoin (DOGE) jumped by 1.2 per cent to $0.4064, Solana (SOL) soared by 0.7 per cent to $226.15 and Ethereum (ETH) advanced by 0.6 per cent to $3,925.35, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.