Economy
Ngige Confirms FG Borrows from World Bank, Others to Pay Salaries
By Dipo Olowookere
Minister of Labour and Employment, Mr Chris Ngige, has confirmed that the federal government under President Muhammadu Buhari borrows funds from international sources to pay salaries of workers because of a shortfall in the country’s revenue.
Mr Ngige, while speaking on Sunday night on a programme monitored by Business Post on Channels TV, stated that the government takes borrowed funds from foreign institutions like the World Bank to offset some recurrent expenditures.
Last week, after the Senate resumed plenary, a letter from President Buhari requesting approval for fresh offshore loans of $4 billion and €710 million was read to the lawmakers by their head, Mr Ahmad Lawan.
This generated different reactions from various quarters. The government defended the borrowings, arguing that they were being used to develop the country, especially in the area of infrastructure.
In the midst of these, the Debt Management Office (DMO) said the nation’s total debt at the second quarter of this year stood at N35.5 trillion.
Some Nigerians had argued that the penchant for this government for borrowing was becoming unbearable, especially when the country was using about 98 per cent of generated revenue to service the debts.
But the government has maintained that the loans being taken by the federal government were not above the limit and that the projects being executed with the funds, including rails, were capable of generating revenue to repay them.
Next month, Nigeria will borrow between $3 billion and $6.2 billion from local and international investors through the sale of Eurobonds, adding to the debts already on ground.
While speaking on Sunday Politics anchored by Mr Seun Okinbaloye, Mr Ngige admitted that the central government truly takes funds from international lenders to pay workers.
“Talk in terms of something like the residency training funds; that money was appropriated in 2021. It was delayed because the President signed the supplementary budget [late] but because the resident doctors did not want to listen, they wanted the money to go into their accounts immediately, according to them.
“I told them, no, when the budget office explained [that] we don’t have this cash, the borrowing agencies [like the] World Bank and the rest will give us this money through the CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in Dollars and we change it to give to you, to pay you and others that are involved because we are funding the budget through some deficits.
“So, I will tell the budget office, expedite action, do this in one week because this is an emergency, these people are not accountants, they don’t understand and we put it down and the budget office rises up to the occasion, works day and night and put it out, Minister of Finance approves, AIE (Authority to Incur Expenditure) and the N4.8 billion is there, waiting to be disbursed.
“Give us the names of those to be paid and they bring (sic) their names through the post-graduate medical college and when the names come (sic), their parent body, which is the Ministry of Health discovered that there were names that were no resident doctors. So, how do you pay?
“Okay, they submitted 8,000 names, they have cleaned them down to 5,800, which means about 2,000+ are not resident doctors. How do you pay them?
“Further investigation, according to the Minister of Health, revealed that some of them are medical officers, senior medical officers, principal medical officers, who hold full appointments, some of them are not resident doctors but because they have been captured in resident doctors association, they want them to be paid; that’s wrong.
“We tell (sic) resident doctors, ‘give them more time to clean up’. They are cleaning it (the list) up, the money is there. So, I expected the resident doctors to go and help them clean up and submit the authentic list,” Mr Ngige said on the programme.
On Monday, while speaking on Politics Today with the same anchor, the spokesman of the President, Mr Femi Adesina, while asked if the government borrows for consumption, answered that the larger part of the borrowed funds is used for critical projects capable of boosting the economy.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The duo of Geo-Fluids Plc and Afriland Properties Plc propelled the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange up 0.13 per cent on Friday, January 10.
Investors gained N1.4 billion during the trading session after the market capitalisation of the bourse ended at N1.053 trillion compared with the previous day’s N1.052 trillion, and the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) increased at the close of business by 4.07 points to wrap the session at 3,073.93 points compared with 3,069.86 points recorded at the previous session.
Geo-Fluids added 25 Kobo to its value to close at N4.85 per unit compared with the previous session’s N4.60 per unit, and Afriland Properties Plc gained 24 Kobo to close at N16.25 per share versus Thursday’s closing price of N16.01 per share.
There was a 35.4 per cent fall in the volume of securities traded in the session as investors exchanged 4.3 million units compared to 6.6 million units traded in the preceding session, the value of shares traded yesterday went down by 37.4 per cent to N17.2 million from the N27.5 million recorded a day earlier, and the number of deals decreased by 47.2 per cent to 19 deals from the 36 deals recorded in the preceding day.
FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc remained the most active stock by value (year-to-date) with 1.9 million units worth N74.2 million, followed by 11 Plc with 12,963 units valued at N3.2 million, and Industrial and General Insurance (IGI )Plc with 10.7 million units sold for N2.1 million.
IGI Plc closed the day as the most active stock by volume (year-to-date) with 10.6 million units sold for N2.1 million, trailed by FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc with 1.9 million units valued at N74.2 million, and Acorn Petroleum Plc with 1.2 million units worth N1.9 million.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira witnessed a depreciation on the US Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday, January 10.
According to data from the FMDQ Exchange, the local currency weakened against the greenback yesterday by 0.12 per cent or N1.80 to sell for N1,543.03/$1 compared with the preceding day’s N1,541.23/$1.
The pressure on the domestic currency came as the access granted to the Bureaux de Change (BDC) operators by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to purchase FX from the official market through the Electronic Foreign Exchange Matching System (EFEMS) platform prepares to end next week, precisely on January 19.
The CBN had given a 42-day window to the operators to access the platform to help stabilise the Naira in December, and this expires next week.
On Friday, the Nigerian currency tumbled against the Pound Sterling in the official market by N30.78 to sell for N1,889.29/£1 compared with the previous day’s N1,858.51/£1, but gained N5.48 against the Euro to finish at N1,583.81/€1, in contrast to Thursday’s rate of N1,589.29/€1.
As for the parallel market, the Nigerian Naira remained stable against the US Dollar during the trading session at N1,650/$1, according to data obtained by Business Post.
In the cryptocurrency market, it was bearish as the US economy added 256,000 jobs last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday, topping forecasts for 160,000 and up from 212,000 in November (revised from an originally reported 227,000).
However, the readings came after a number of recent economic reports triggered a broad-market pullback across asset classes such as crypto as investors quickly scaled back the idea of a continued series of Federal Reserve rate cuts in 2025.
Cardano (ADA) fell by 3.6 per cent to trade at $0.921, Solana (SOL) slumped by 2.8 per cent to $185.93, Ethereum (ETH) depreciated by 1.4 per cent to $3,233.27, Litecoin (LTC) lost 1.3 per cent to finish at $103.62, Dogecoin (DOGE) shed 0.5 per cent to sell at $0.3315, Bitcoin (BTC), waned by 0.2 per cent to $94,154.43, and Binance Coin (BNB) went south by 0.1 per cent to $693.30.
On the flip side, Ripple (XRP) jumped by 1.5 per cent to settle at $2.34, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) sold flat at $1.00 each.
By Dipo Olowookere
Profit-takers took control of Customs Street on Friday, plunging it by 0.08 per cent at the close of trading activities.
The sell-offs were across all the key sectors of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on last trading session of the week.
The insurance space went down by 1.53 per cent, the banking index depreciated by 0.41 per cent, the consumer goods sector weakened by 0.16 per cent, and the energy counter slumped by 0.08 per cent, while the industrial goods sector closed flat.
At the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI) tumbled by 79.68 points to 105,451.06 points from 105,530.74 points and the market capitalisation retreated by N48 billion to N64.303 trillion from N64.351 trillion.
Yesterday, investors traded 1.5 billion shares worth N19.4 billion in 12,877 deals compared with the 489.5 million shares worth N13.1 billion transacted in 13,010 deals in the preceding day, indicating a decline in the number of deals by 1.02 deals and a rise in the trading volume and value by 203.14 per cent and 48.09 per cent, respectively.
Wema Bank was the busiest stock with 976.2 million units valued at N9.8 billion, Tantalizers traded 53.0 million units worth 129.6 million, Universal Insurance sold 34.8 million units for N26.8 million, Access Holdings exchanged 33.9 million units valued at N843.8 million, and Nigerian Breweries traded 27.3 million units worth N873.3 million.
The heaviest loss was suffered by Sunu Assurances with a decline of 9.99 per cent to trade at N7.30, Eunisell shed 9.96 per cent to N17.35, SAHCO crumbled by 9.87 per cent to N30.15, DAAR Communications plunged by 9.28 per cent to 88 Kobo, and Sovereign Trust Insurance went down by 7.04 per cent to N1.32.
On the flip side, C&I Leasing gained 10.00 per cent to close at N4.51, Honeywell Flour appreciated by 9.99 per cent to N10.02, Trans Nationwide Express jumped by 9.89 per cent to N2.00, RT Briscoe rose by 9.83 per cent to N2.57, and Secure Electronic Technology grew by 9.46 per cent to 81 Kobo.
Business Post reports that the bourse ended with 33 price gainers and 25 price losers, indicating a positive market breadth index and strong investor sentiment.
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