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Nigeria Needs More Dangotes to Grow Economy, Create Jobs–FG

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**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.

Dipo Olowookere is a journalist based in Nigeria that has passion for reporting business news stories. At his leisure time, he watches football and supports 3SC of Ibadan. Mr Olowookere can be reached via [email protected]

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Economy

Wale Edun Rules Out IMF Loan for Nigeria

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Wale Edun Monetary Policies

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, has said Nigeria may not run to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for any loan.

He disclosed this in a chat with Arise Television on the sidelines of the ongoing World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.

The Minister affirmed that Nigeria has no reason to approach the global lender, adding that the nation is currently relying on relatively cheaper borrowing sources from the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB).

He also argued that Nigeria does not have a balance of payments problem and therefore will not need the short-term financing intervention by the Bretton Wood institution.

“I can imagine the headlines if you saw a situation whereby you were saying Nigeria approaches the IMF for funding. But the reality is that, of course, as a developing country, requiring investment, funds for the government, and investment in key infrastructure to improve the enabling environment for business, we do need funds, and we have the need to borrow.

“We have relied on relatively cheap funding from the multilateral, from the World Bank, from AFDB, and the whole spectrum of funding has been used.”

He also said that the country will tap a range of instruments to help finance this year’s budget deficit and improve the economy.

“We have relied on Nigerian savings by convincing them of the macroeconomic plan of the president, and what it holds in terms of the prospects for growth of the economy and business, and improvement of the business environment.

“Of course, we have approached the Euro bond market, which is, of course, the commercial end of financing. So we’ve done that whole spectrum. When it comes to IMF financing, typically financing from the IMF is to help with short-term balance of payments issues and crises.

“In the case of Nigeria, we have a positive trade balance. We have a positive current account balance. Our reserves are growing. The Governor of the Central Bank recently announced that we had achieved upwards of $10 billion improvement and increase in the reserves.

“We need to use equity. We need to rely on crowding in the savings, particularly of the private sector in Nigeria and the private sector around the world in the form of foreign direct investment. We have to remember that at this time, we have had significant gains in terms of improving the economic environment,” Mr Edun stated.

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Economy

NASD OTC Exchange Rises 0.33%

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NASD OTC securities exchange

By Adedapo Adesanya

The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange rose further by 0.33 per cent on Thursday, January 23, as appetite for unlisted stocks continued to grow.

During the trading session, the value of the bourse went up by N7.6 billion to N1.767 trillion from the N1.76 trillion it closed in the preceding session, as the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) made an additional 10.33 points to wrap the trading day at 3,120.3 points compared with the 3,09.80 points recorded at the midweek session.

Business Post reports that the share price of Okitipupa Plc increased on Thursday by N4.35 to end the day at N47.90 per unit compared with the previous day’s N43.55 per unit, and Food Concepts Plc gained 14 Kobo to settle at N1.74 per share, in contrast to the preceding day’s N1.60 per share.

On the flip side, Impresit Bakolori Plc suffered a decline of 10 Kobo yesterday to trade at 95 Kobo per unit versus Wednesday’s closing price of N1.05 per unit.

When the exchange closed for the session, the volume of securities bought and sold by investors went up by 70,008 per cent to 407.4 million units from the 581,160 units transacted a day earlier.

Equally, the value of shares traded during the session jumped by 16,665.9 per cent to N391.2 million from the N2.3 million recorded at midweek, and the number of deals increased by 65 per cent to 30 deals from the 20 deals posted on Wednesday.

Impresit Bakolori Plc topped the activity chart as the most active stock by value (year-to-date) with 406.5 million units worth N386.1 million, followed by FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc with 4.3 million units valued at N170.4 million, and Geo-Fluids Plc with 9.1 million units sold for N44.3 million.

However, Impresit Bakolori Plc snatched the top spot as most active stock by volume (year-to-date) with 406.5 million units worth N386.1 million, as Industrial and General Insurance (IGI) Plc dropped to second position for selling 26.3 million units sold for N6.3 million, and Geo-Fluids Plc occupied third with 9.2 million units valued at N44.3 million.

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Economy

Naira Firms to N1,548/$1 at Official Market, Tumbles at Black Market

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Black Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira recovered about 0.26 per cent or N3.99 against the United States Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Thursday, January 23 after coming under pressure in recent times.

During the session, the exchange rate of the local currency to its American counterpart closed at N1,548.59/$1 in the official market compared with the previous day’s N1,552.58/$1.

Also, against the Pound Sterling, the domestic currency gained N3.32 yesterday to trade at N1,912.21/£1 compared with Wednesday’s value of N1,915.53/£1 and on the Euro, it improved by N3.82 to sell for N1,617.72/€1 versus N1,613.89/€1.

The forex market may be reacting positively to news that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) would launch a FX Code, which will serve as a guideline to the banking industry to promote ethical conduct of Authorised Dealers in the Nigerian FX market, next week.

The code will further reduce speculative activities, eliminate market distortions, and give the CBN improved oversight capabilities to effectively regulate the market.

The bank noted that authorised dealers would subsequently conduct all FX transactions in the interbank FX market on the EFEMS approved by the apex bank where transactions will be reflected immediately.

However, in the black market segment, the Nigerian Naira lost N5 against the greenback during the session to quote at N1,665/$1, in contrast to midweek’s rate of N1,660/$1.

As for the cryptocurrency market, it was lively yesterday as attention is increasingly centered on potential policy developments under the government of President Donald Trump of the US.

On Thursday, President Trump signed an executive order to ban the digital dollar and promote crypto and AI innovation in the country.

Meanwhile, the US data released recently showed the “all tenant rent” index, which leads the shelter inflation in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), rose at a slower pace last quarter. That has raised hopes that the US Federal Reserve will walk back on its hawkish December rate forecasts.

These helped Ethereum (ETH) gain 5.4 per cent on Thursday to sell at $3,394.79, Solana (SOL) appreciated by 4.4 per cent to $260.86, Cardano (ADA) jumped by 2.9 per cent to $1.00, and Litecoin (LTC) expanded by 2.6 per cent to $116.78.

Further, Bitcoin (BTC) rose by 2.1 per cent to $1o4,978.31, Ripple (XRP) leapt by 0.7 per cent to $3.16, Dogecoin (DOGE) increased by 0.6 per cent to $0.3572, and Binance Coin (BNB) soared by 1.6 per cent to $710.31, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00 each.

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