Economy
FG Flings 41 Items Exempted From Forex Policy By CBN
By Dipo Olowookere
There are strong indications that the Federal Government may set aside the policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) regarding the 41 items exempted from foreign exchange market in its newly released 2017 Fiscal Policy Roadmap.
The policy document prepared by the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, will, instead, come up with fiscal measures to reduce pressure in the parallel market.
According to the document, the FG “will replace administrative measures on list of 41-items with fiscal measures to reduce demand pressure in parallel market.”
Presenting the document at a programme held in Lagos, Mrs Adeosun said, “The Federal Government’s Fiscal Roadmap is addressing barriers to growth that will drive productivity, generate jobs and broaden wealth-creating opportunities to achieve inclusive growth.”
She stated that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration was determined to return Nigeria to a productive economy rather than one steeped in consumption. To do so, government would tackle the infrastructure deficit to unlock productivity, improve business competitiveness and create employment.
She further said that government would actively partner with the private sector to achieve this by use of a number of new funding platforms, including the Road Trust Fund, which would develop potentially tollable roads, and the Family Homes Fund, which is an ongoing PPP initiative for funding of affordable housing.
According to the minister, the tax provision that allows companies to receive tax relief for investment in roads on a collective basis would be reviewed.
She explained that the existing provision that enabled companies to claim relief for road projects had only been taken advantage of by two companies, Lafarge and Dangote Cement. This was because few companies were large enough to fund roads alone.
The revision would now allow collective tax relief, such that companies will be able to jointly fund roads, subject to approval by FIRS and the Ministry of Works, and share the tax credit. It added that the government would revitalise refineries and increase Diaspora remittances through participation in the buyer support scheme for the Family Homes Fund with a view to increasing the supply of US Dollars to the Nigerian market.
The Roadmap also provides for a fresh audit of the federal government debt profile after which it would introduce a promissory note program to finance verified liabilities and issue debt certificates to contractors of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
These, according to the document, would positively impact on the economy by improving government’s cash flow of businesses, improve banks’ Non-Performing Loans, (NPLs); free up banks’ balance sheet for lending to private sector; and improve business interaction. These liabilities were estimated to be N2.2 trillion and would be addressed with a 10 year Promissory Note Issuance programme in conjunction with the CBN.
“Some contractors had not been paid in the past 4 years and in some cases the banks they were owing refused them access to the funds released, causing delays,” she explained, adding that those receiving the Promissory Notes would be expected to provide a material discount to government. The issuance was a solution to a long term problem that was ‘a drag on economic activity’.
It would also mobilise private capital to complement government spending on infrastructure, through the Roads Trust Fund, Family Homes Fund, while extending infrastructure tax relief to a collective model to attract clusters of corporate entities and expand the provision of infrastructure, in other to drive growth of non-oil sector, especially and the economy in general. There would be incentives for exports which would include restructuring the Export Expansion Grant (EEG) to a tax credit system, as well as rationalised tariffs and waivers in key export sectors. These have been designed to drive import substitution. The document indicated that the federal government would encourage investment in specific sectors through fiscal incentives especially in food processing, mining and power, and would rationalise tariffs and waivers in such priority sectors. In order to expand fiscal space through revenue enhancement and cost consolidation, it would enhance the Customs Single Window (being implemented through a Private Public Partnership (PPP) scheme), introduce template for non-allowable expenses for government agencies, control overhead costs by the Efficiency Unit and implement a continuous risk based audit by the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit.
In order to improve fiscal discipline at Sub-National level, the federal government would, from next year, extend the Efficiency Unit to Sub-National level; fast track municipal bond issues to deepen the bond market, as well as conversion to International Public Sector Accounting Standards by all state governments. The government plans to pursue its anti-corruption crusade in the new year with greater vigour and accelerate recoveries process, introduce a whistle-blower scheme, centralised database on recovered assets, asset tracking and a professional management of recovered assets. It also plans to rebalance debt portfolio to extend maturity and optimise debt service cost through rebalancing public debt portfolio with increased external borrowing with a target of 60:40 ratio and extend maturity profile of public debt portfolio, while deploying long-term debt instruments and depending more on concessionary loans.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/12/41-exempted-items-fg-dumps-cbns-forex-policy/
By Adedapo Adesanya
The domestic supply of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, from the Dangote Refinery increased by 64.4 percent in December 2025, contributing to an enhancement in Nigeria’s overall petrol availability.
This is according to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) in its December 2025 Factsheet Report released on Thursday.
The downstream regulatory agency revealed that the private refinery raised its domestic petrol supply from 19.47 million litres per day in November 2025 to an average of 32.012 million litres per day in December, as it quelled any probable fuel scarcity associated with the festive month.
The report attributed the improvement to more substantial capacity utilisation at the Lagos-based oil facility, which reached a peak of 71 per cent in December.
The increased output from Dangote Refinery contributed to a rise in Nigeria’s total daily domestic PMS supply to 74.2 million litres in December, up from 71.5 million litres per day recorded in November.
The authority also reported a sharp increase in petrol consumption, rising to 63.7 million litres per day in December 2025, up from 52.9 million litres per day in the previous month.
In contrast, the domestic supply of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) known as diesel declined to 17.9 million litres per day in December from 20.4 million litres per day in November, even as daily diesel consumption increased to 16.4 million litres per day from 15.4 million litres per day.
Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) supply recorded modest growth during the period, rising to 5.2 metric tonnes per day in December from 5.0 metric tonnes per day in November.
Despite the gains recorded by Dangote Refinery and modular refineries, the NMDPRA disclosed that Nigeria’s four state-owned refineries recorded zero production in December.
It said the Port Harcourt Refinery remained shut down, though evacuation of diesel produced before May 24, 2025, averaged 0.247 million litres per day. The Warri and Kaduna refineries also remained shut down throughout the period.
On modular refineries, the report said Waltersmith Refinery (Train 2 with 5,000 barrels per day) completed pre-commissioning in December, with hydrocarbon introduction expected in January 2026. The refinery recorded an average capacity utilisation of 63.24 per cent and an average AGO supply of 0.051 million litres per day
Edo Refinery posted an average capacity utilisation of 85.43 per cent with AGO supply of 0.052 million litres per day, while Aradel recorded 53.89 per cent utilisation and supplied an average of 0.289 million litres per day of AGO.
Total AGO supply from the three modular refineries averaged 0.392 million litres per day, with other products including naphtha, heavy hydrocarbon kerosene (HHK), fuel oil, and marine diesel oil (MDO).
The report listed Nigeria’s 2025 daily consumption benchmarks as 50 million litres per day for petrol, 14 million litres per day for diesel, 3 million litres per day for aviation fuel (ATK), and 3,900 metric tonnes per day for cooking gas.
Actual daily truck-out consumption in December stood at 63.7 million litres per day for petrol, 16.4 million litres per day for diesel, 2.7 million litres per day for ATK and 4,380 metric tonnes per day for cooking gas.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has introduced a comprehensive revision of minimum capital requirements for nearly all capital market operators, marking the most significant overhaul since 2015.
The changes, outlined in a circular issued on January 16, 2026, obtained from its website on Friday, replace the previous regime. Operators have been given until June 30, 2027, to comply.
The SEC stated that the reforms aim to strengthen market resilience, enhance investor protection, discourage undercapitalised operators, and align capital adequacy with the evolving risk profile of market activities.
According to the circular, “The revised framework applies to brokers, dealers, fund managers, issuing houses, fintech firms, digital asset operators, and market infrastructure providers.”
Some of the key highlights of the new reforms include increment of minimum capital for brokers from N200 million to N600 million while for dealers, it was raised to N1 billion from N100 million.
For broker-dealers, they are to get N2 billion instead of the previous N300 million, reflecting multi-role exposure across trading, execution, and margin lending.
The agency said fund and portfolio managers with assets above N20 billion must hold N5 billion, while mid-tier managers must maintain N2 billion with private equity and venture capital firms to have N500 million and N200 million, respectively.
There was also dynamic rule as firms managing assets above N100 billion must hold at least 10 per cent of assets under management as capital.
“Digital asset firms, previously in a regulatory grey area, are now fully covered: digital exchanges and custodians must maintain N2 billion each, while tokenisation platforms and intermediaries face thresholds of N500 million to N1 billion. Robo-advisers must hold N100 million.
“Other segments are also affected: issuing houses offering full underwriting services must hold N7 billion, advisory-only firms N2 billion, registrars N2.5 billion, trustees N2 billion, underwriters N5 billion, and individual investment advisers N10 million. Market infrastructure providers carry some of the highest obligations, with composite exchanges and central counterparties required to maintain N10 billion each, and clearinghouses N5 billion,” the SEC added.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The founder and chief executive of Austin Laz and Company Plc, Mr Asimonye Austin Lazarus Azubuike, has sold off about 52.24 million shares of the organisation.
The stocks were offloaded in 11 tranches at an average price of N4.36 per unit, amounting to about N227.8 million.
The transactions occurred between December 2025 and January 2026, according to a notice filed by the company to the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Friday.
Business Post reports that Austin Laz is known for producing ice block machines, aluminium roofing, thermoplastics coolers, PVC windows and doors, ice cream machines, and disposable plates.
The firm evolved from refrigeration sales to diverse manufacturing since its incorporation in 1982 in Benin City, Edo State, though facing recent operational halts.
According to the statement signed by company secretary, Ifeanyi Offor & Associates, Mr Azubuike first sold 1.5 million units of the equities at N2.42, and then offloaded 2.4 million units at N2.65, and 2.0 million units at N2.65.
In another tranche, he sold another 2.0 million units at a unit price of N2.91, and then 5.0 million units at N3.52, as well as about 4.5 million at N3.87 per share.
It was further disclosed that the owner of the company also sold 9.0 million shares at N4.25, and offloaded another 368,411 units at N4.66, then in another transaction sold about 6.9 million units at N4.67.
In the last two transactions he carried out, Mr Azubuike first traded 10.0 million units equities at N5.13, with the last being 8.5 million stocks sold at N5.64 per unit.
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