Economy
Nigeria Needs More Dangotes to Grow Economy, Create Jobs–FG
**As Dangote Donates 150 Vehicles to Police
By Dipo Olowookere
Chairman of Dangote Group as well as the Aliko Dangote Foundation, Mr Aliko Dangote, has been applauded by Federal Government for doing much to grow the nation’s economy and provide jobs for youths of this country.
Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, while speaking in Abuja yesterday at handing over of 150 fully kitted operational cars worth several hundreds of Naira to the Nigeria Police Force, urged other entrepreneurs in the country to emulate the Africa’s richest man.
Mr Osinbajo lauded the Dangote Foundation for the rare gesture and expressed the Federal Government’s appreciation to Mr Dangote for his untiring support to the government, adding that the donation of cars patrol cars to the Nigerian Police Force will help the Force at combating crimes across the country.
The Vice President described Mr Dangote as a rare entrepreneur who has done so much to grow the economy of Nigeria. He said the Government needs people like him to join hands with it to grow the economy and also provide jobs to the youth.
“There have been a lot of talks on private-public partnership, but as we can see Alhaji Dangote is walking the talk,” Mr Osinbajo said at the ceremony.
Government’s role, according to him, is to provide the enabling environment while the private sector should take advantage of the opportunities that abounds in the country to grow and develop the economy.
“The donation of 150 cars to the Nigerian Police Force is laudable and we thank Aliko Dangote Foundation for this rare gesture, that is characteristic of the person of Aliko Dangote. He has shown over the years to be an entrepreneur with a difference, a man that gives willingly to the poor,” he added.
Also speaking at the event, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr Ibrahim Idris, said the donation was the single biggest donation ever by a private sector operator to the Police.
Mr Idris expressed the appreciation of the Police Force to the Aliko Dangote Foundation, with a promise that the cars will be well utilized for the purpose for which they were donated.
He urged Nigerians to go about their business lawfully, noting that the Police Force was now well equipped more than ever before to fight crime across the country. He assured that the Police Force will not disappoint Nigerians in the provision of adequate security across the country.
On his part, Mr Dangote explained that the gesture was informed by the fact that security was essential to economic development.
He said depending on how well the vehicles are maintained, his foundation may consider donating another batch of vehicles to the police.
“We are gathered here today to mark the formal handover of a total number of 150 GAC saloon cars to the Nigeria Police Force in order to help boost their operational efficiency. I am told that today marks the single biggest number of operational vehicles ever donated to the law enforcement agency by a private organisation.
“Considering the challenges government faces in meeting the entire needs of the populace for necessities like health, education and security, various Public Private Partnerships (PPP) initiatives have been developed. These are partnerships where the private sector collaborates with the public sector to provide services.
The Foundation, according to Mr Dangote, has been active in the four areas of Health, Education, Economic Empowerment and Disaster relief, and had expended upwards of N10 billion annually. This is in addition to the CSR efforts of our various business units.
While calling on other corporate organizations to rise up to the challenge of helping the security agencies in the country, Mr Dangote stated that his Foundation made a N50 million donation to the Lagos State Security Trust Fund, and built the Police Intelligence Hostel Complex in Kwara State, all of which are part of the collaborations by the Foundation.
“Today, we are deepening our intervention in security with the donation of these 150 fully kitted operational vehicles to the Police Force. These vehicles will support the Nigeria Police Force in surveillance, crime prevention and promote law and order,” he stated.
Chairman of the CIG Motors Nigeria Limited, Mr Diana Chan, commended the Dangote Foundation for the uncommon gesture to help the security agency and provide it with logistics to aid its operations.
He said the number of vehicles donated by the Aliko Dangote Foundation was unprecedented and that it has thrown the challenge to other private sector operators to come to the aid of the security agencies in the country.
Yesterday’s event was witnessed by top politicians including Governors, Ministers, business moguls and others.
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.
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.
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.
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