Economy
N-Power: Beneficiaries To Undergo Physical Verification
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Federal Government has disclosed that the 200,000 unemployed Nigerian graduates selected in the first batch of the N-Power Volunteer Corps (NPVC) would undergo a physical verification before being deployed to their places of assignment.
The beneficiaries, according to the government, are expected to start work on Thursday, December 1, 2016 and would be paid N30,000 as salary for the next two years.
A statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant on Media & Publicity to the Vice President, Mr Laolu Akande, it was revealed that over 90% of the beneficiaries were first verified using the Bank Verification Number (BVN).
Mr Akande, who referred to a BBC report last week regarding the testimonials of some of the selected Nigerian graduates, noted that “it is most gladdening that those who were selected are now telling the stories of how they have not been employed for years, but now grateful to the President for this initiative.”
Some of them, he added, expressed satisfaction, according to the BBC report now online, that even though they knew no one in government, they were selected for the paid volunteer job program, attesting to the transparency of the selection process.
He said all the states and the FCT through the focal persons they appointed have since received the list of the 200,000, and now working on deploying the beneficiaries to their places of assignment.
He also explained that by using the BVN which is one of the most viable means of identification in the country today, there is hardly any way anything fraudulent can sail through in the process.
“We are confident that the selection process, all the way through with BVN, and physical verification at the points of deployment in the states and the local government areas, are both transparent and impossible to abhor ghost beneficiaries, or any kind of fraud,” he asserted.
Already, Mr Akande disclosed that 93% of those selected have been screened through the BVN, with the commendable assistance of the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS) and only authentic and verifiable beneficiaries will be paid the N30,000 monthly stipends starting December.
Responding to some allusions made in sections of the media about random searches conducted on social media platforms, the SSA dismissed them stating that such cannot be better than “biometric identification we have secured through the BVN.”
In any case, he continued, “besides the BVN, there is going to be physical verification, through an in-built component in our selection system that requires that information submitted online during the application would have to be authenticated at the point of deployment across the country, including verification of academic credentials and residence status.”
According to him, just as is normal when someone gets a job or even admission to school, he or she would proceed to present papers that have been submitted during application for verification.
“This is also going to be like that, so claims about some applicants claiming to be residents of states would be dealt with if it turns out such claims are false. If an applicant cannot supply proof of residence, the selection is terminated,” he remarked.
Besides, he explained that in a local government such as Abadam in Borno State, where there have been claims that non-residents applied and were selected, Mr Akande assured that there is no cause for alarm because such people would have to show up for verification on the spot.
He added that there was also a likelihood that a number of applicants may have inputted Abadam inadvertently considering that Abadam LGA is number one on the list of LGAs under the list as posted on the N-Power portal.
“There is a good chance,” he continued, “that some applicants may have failed to complete the forms online accurately.”
Such errors are being reviewed and anyone found not to be resident in the LGA would be removed and replaced using the waiting list of applicants, he assured.
Said he, “An important aspect of the application was that applicants were told in clear terms that any false information would be grounds for disqualification.”
On how the 200,000 first batch of the N-Power was selected, the SSA Media explained that the selection was not only fair and done transparently, but also with adequate care.
Firstly, 40% of those who applied for the N-Power Teach and Agric were selected, and 50% of those who applied for the Health category, all based on an assessment test.
Then to mitigate the adverse socio-economic circumstances in the North- East an additional 4800 applicants from the region were selected with Borno State getting 1200 and Adamawa, Yobe, Taraba 800 each and Bauchi and Gombe 600 each.
Also to bolster states with low application numbers, an additional 4208 was selected and shared between Bayelsa, Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara States.
The Federal Ministry of Agric also additionally allocated 6799 applicants in the Agric category to all states across specific crop, fish and livestock targets in order to support government’s self-sufficiency target in Agric produce, he explained.
Gender and disability factor were also key in the selection. 46% of those selected, Mr Akande disclosed, are females, while a total of 1126 were successful applicants with disabilities.
Mr Akande then assured that those not selected in the first batch are now in the waiting list until the subsequent batches when they would be considered again, since there are still 300,000 to be selected under this budget cycle.
On why the selection process was based on states of residence rather than states of origin, Akande simply noted that for example, over 42,000 Nigerians applied for the N-Power from Lagos but only 3568 of them originate from Lagos. “Would it then be tenable to say almost 40,000 Bona fide Nigerians who are applicants resident in Lagos should just forget it since they are resident but not origins of the Lagos State?
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira rebounded on Tuesday, January 20 in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) as it appreciated against the US Dollar by 93 Kobo or 0.06 per cent to N1,419.35/$1 from Monday’s N1,420.28/$1.
However, it depreciated against the Pound Sterling in the official market by N2.43 to trade at N1,908.31/£1 versus the previous day’s N1,905.88/£1 and lost N13.53 against the Euro to finish at N1,666.31/€1 compared with the preceding session’s closing price of N1,652.78/€1.
The Nigerian currency also weakened against the Dollar at the GTBank forex counter yesterday by N5 to sell at N1,429/$1, in contrast to Monday’s exchange rate of N1,424/$1 and maintained stability at the parallel market at N1,485/$1.
Market analysts said they expect the current trading range of the Naira to remain firm in the near term supported by stronger foreign inflows driven by higher oil receipts, improved FPI participation, and consistent FX management by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Boost from exporters’ and importers’ inflows in addition to non-bank corporate supply will also help enhance liquidity.
The Dollar also faced pressure in the international market in the midst of a dispute between the US and its European allies over Greenland, which President Donald Trump said “no going back” on his campaign thereby triggering selloffs to other safe haven assets.
As for the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin (BTC) dropped below $90,000 on Tuesday amid a sharp shift in global risk sentiment, triggering more than $1 billion in forced liquidations of leveraged crypto positions.
The crypto sell-off coincided with broader market jitters tied to renewed tariff threats from President Donald Trump and a sell-off in Japanese government bonds that pushed global yields higher and pressured risk assets, with the BTC down by 1.6 per cent to $89,456.08.
Ethereum (ETH) lost 4.7 per cent to trade at $2,974.67, Binance Coin (BNB) slumped by 4.1 per cent to $878.27, Solana (SOL) depreciated by 2.8 per cent to $128.14, Cardano (ADA) crashed by 1.9 per cent to $0.3595, Ripple (XRP) slipped by 1.8 per cent to $1.91, Litecoin (LTC) declined by 1.7 per cent to $68.92, and Dogecoin (DOGE) shrank by 1.5 per cent to $0.1251.
On the flip side, the US Dollar Tether (USDT) appreciated by 0.01 per cent to trade at $1.00, and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) gained 0.03 per cent to settle at $1.00.
By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited returned to green territory on Tuesday after it chalked up 0.09 per cent on the back of renewed buying pressure.
The market regained strength yesterday despite profit-taking in the banking space, which caused its index to close lower by 0.69 per cent.
Business Post reports that insurance counter was up by 2.80 per cent, the energy sector appreciated by 2.40 per cent, the commodity segment grew by 1.22 per cent, and the consumer goods industry improved by 0.03 per cent, while the industrial goods counter closed flat.
At the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) went up by 144.32 points to 166,256.82 points from 166,112.50 points and the market capitalisation gained N93 billion to finish at N106.436 trillion compared with the N106.343 trillion it settled on Monday.
During the session, investors transacted 795.5 million equities valued at N20.0 billion in 45,410 deals versus the 629.6 million equities worth N14.8 billion executed in 57,858 deals a day earlier, indicating a rise in the trading volume and value by 26.35 per cent and 35.14 per cent apiece and a decline in the number of deals by 21.52 per cent.
Tantalizers was the busiest stock yesterday with a turnover of 87.0 million units valued at N300.9 million, Secure Electronic Technology traded 74.2 million units worth N87.6 million, a new member of the NGX, Zichis Agro Allied Industries, transacted 69.6 million units for N138.5 million, Zenith Bank sold 49.1 million units valued at N3.5 billion, and GTCO exchanged 39.1 million units worth N3.8 billion.
On Tuesday, the market breadth index was positive after Customs Street ended with 39 appreciating shares and 25 depreciating shares, representing a bullish investor sentiment.
Deap Capital, NPF Microfinance Bank, and Red Star Express gained 10.00 per cent each to sell for N5.39, N4.73, and N15.95 apiece, as NCR Nigeria soared by 9.97 per cent to N155.50, and Morison Industries also increased by 9.97 per cent to N6.84.
Conversely, Aluminium Extrusion lost 9.95 per cent to settle at N17.20, Jaiz Bank declined by 9.88 per cent to N7.21, FTN Cocoa shrank by 8.44 per cent to N7.05, UPDC decreased by 8.06 per cent to N5.70, and Caverton slumped by 5.59 per cent to N7.60.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Oil prices rose on Tuesday on the temporary suspension of output at Kazakhstan’s oil fields and expectations of firmer global economic growth that could drive fuel demand.
Brent futures chalked up 98 cents or 1.53 per cent to trade at $64.92 a barrel and the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude contract for February, which expired on Tuesday, gained 90 cents or 1.51 per cent to close at $60.34 per barrel.
Kazakh oil producer Tengizchevroil said on Monday it had temporarily halted production at the Tengiz and Korolev oilfields after an issue affected power distribution systems.
The Chevron-operated joint venture operating the supergiant 700,000 barrels per day Tengiz field onshore Kazakhstan stated that it had suspended production as a “precautionary measure” after a fire broke out at the field’s power distribution systems.
Tengiz could be halted for another seven to 10 days, cutting crude exports via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC).
Market analysts noted that Tengiz is amongst the largest fields in the world and so the outage is certainly disruptive for crude flows.
The oil market also drew support from better-than-expected fourth-quarter Chinese gross domestic product data released on Monday as data showed that the economy of the world’s largest oil producer grew by 5 per cent last year and the country’s refinery throughput in 2025 climbed 4.1 per cent on a year-over-year basis, data showed on Monday. China’s crude oil output also grew 1.5 per cent.
Prices also gained on an upward revision of this year’s global economic growth estimate by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The IMF in its World Economic Outlook update forecast global GDP growth at 3.3 per cent in 2026, up 0.2 percentage point from its last estimate in October. That’s even with 3.3 per cent growth in 2025, which will also beat the October estimate by 0.1 percentage point.
The lender said that globally, inflation was forecast to continue to decline, from 4.1 per cent in 2025 to 3.8 per cent in 2026 and 3.4 per cent in 2027.
Investors continued to monitor US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats against European states that oppose his push to acquire Greenland.
The American president said he would impose additional 10 per cent levies from February 1 on goods imported from EU members Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands, as well as Britain and Norway, rising to 25 per cent on June 1 if no deal on Greenland was reached.
President Trump’s tariff threats have a negative bearing on crude prices as the levies could lead to lower global economic growth and therefore reduce oil demand growth.
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