Economy
Nigeria’ll Save N8trn Yearly from Subsidy Removal, FX Unification—Oyedele
By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria will save N8 trillion annually from the fuel subsidy removal and exchange rate unification policies, according to projections offered by the Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Mr Taiwo Oyedele.
Mr Oyedele said this whole speaking during a panel session at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry 2024 Economic Outlook and Budget Analysis held on Tuesday.
He said, “The Nigerian people made sacrifices as a result of the fuel subsidy removal of the government; that is N4 trillion savings a year. We did naira floatation. It is not perfect. We are also saving another N4 trillion. So we are having about roughly N8 trillion transferred from the private pockets of the people to the government.”
He said it was critical for the government to spend the amount saved from the two policies to ease the suffering of the average Nigerian.
President Bola Tinubu had last year instituted both policies as an avenue to raise the much needed revenue and to block funds been haemorrhaged by the policies.
“So, what we are saying to the government is can we be intentional in spending this N8 trillion to make sure that it impacts the people most positively? Starting with the multidimensional poverty, why is it that more than 133 million people in Nigeria are living in multidimensional poverty?” he quipped.
“These are the conversations we are having now. We want to build a platform where we can track how these monies are being spent,” he added.
“In the committee, we tried to look at the most pressing issues we face as a country — inflation, forex instability, lack of investments. One of our recommendations is for the government to suspend some taxes. We call them nuisance taxes because they frustrate people, and we can’t even see the money in government treasury.”
According to Mr Oyedele, there is an urgent need to create digital opportunities for the Nigeria’s growing youthful population because the country has enough capacity to generate $20 billion annually from the technology sector.
Mr Oyedele also said there was an urgent need to promote exports, including services and intellectual property.
“Before you start exporting goods, you can export services and intangibles,” he said.
He also said that out of the $20 billion diaspora remittances recorded in 2023, more than 90 per cent of the funds did not arrive Nigeria in foreign currencies because of existing loopholes which allow middlemen to divert the foreign currencies and pay the recipients of the funds in Naira.
“For example, just asking Nigerian companies and businesses to pay taxes in Dollars is about $3.5 billion annually, but we sat and thought about it, and wondered how the idea came about.
“How does it help us, that a Nigerian company will go to the market to go and look for the little Dollars that is in Nigeria so it can use it to pay the government of Nigeria? So, just amend the law and you will take that pressure away.”
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
Data from the Debt Management Office (DMO) showed that the Nigerian government used about N13.12 trillion to service the various debts in 2024.
Business Post reports that this was 68 per cent higher than the N7.8 trillion paid by Nigeria to pay interests on debts in 2023 and higher than the N12.3 trillion approved by the National Assembly for last in the 2024 Appropriation Act.
Over the weekend, the DMO revealed that the total debt of the country as of December 31, 2024, stood at N144.67 trillion versus N97.34 trillion a year earlier.
This comprised an external debt of N70.29 trillion and a domestic debt N74.38 trillion.
The agency stated that the significant increase in the debt service was due higher interest rates and increased domestic borrowing as well as rising global interest rates and the depreciation of the Naira, which has made dollar-denominated debt more expensive to service.
About N5.97 trillion was used to funds borrowed by the government from domestic investors, higher than the N5.23 trillion used for the same purpose in 2023 by 14.15 per cent, while N7.15 trillion was used for paying interest on foreign loans, higher than the N2.57 trillion in 2023 by 167 per cent.
Analysis showed that about N4.69 trillion was paid to local investors for giving the federal government money to fund the 2024 budget deficit from the sale of FGN bonds at the local capital market versus the N3.66 trillion recorded a year earlier.
Following the FGN bonds was treasury bills, which recorded the use of N747.15 billion for the payment of interest to investors compared with N326.12 billion in 2023.
Debt servicing for FGN Sukuk gulped N158.43 billion last year, the sum of N6.38 billion was used to pay interest to investors who subscribed to the monthly FGN savings bonds, and N2.18 billion was for FGN green bonds, with N265.86 billion for promissory note principal repayments.
In the 2025 budget, the federal government has allocated about N16 trillion for debt servicing.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The market capitalisation of the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange recorded a 0.44 per cent or N3.87 billion decline to close at N1.911 trillion in the 14th trading week 14 of 2025 compared with the preceding week’s N1.915 trillion.
The drop was impacted by a markdown in the price of Capital Bancorp Plc for the company’s proposed interim dividend of 10 Kobo per share.
During the three-day trading week, the Unlisted Security Index (NSI) went down by 0.20 per cent or 6.71 points to 3,309.46 points from the 3,316.17 points recorded in Week 13.
The share price of Food Concepts Plc tumbled by 10 per cent last week to N1.17 per unit from N1.30 per unit, Geo-Fluids Plc slipped by 8.2 per cent to N2.48 per share from N2.70 per share, Capital Bancorp Plc slid by 4.7 per cent to N2.04 per unit from N2.14 per unit, and Afriland Properties Plc lost 2.6 per cent to end at N18.42 per share versus the preceding week’s N18.92 per share.
On the flip side, IPWA Plc gained 10 per cent to close at 55 Kobo per unit compared with the previous week’s 50 Kobo per unit, Lagos Building Infrastructure Company (LBIC) Plc went up by 9.9 per cent to N2.63 per share from N2.40 per share, First Trust Microfinance Bank Plc appreciated by 3.6 per cent to 58 Kobo per unit from 56 Kobo per unit, Industrial and General Insurance (IGI) Plc rose by 2.9 per cent to 36 Kobo per share from 35 Kobo per share, and FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria jumped by 0.2 per cent to N36.80 per unit from N36.73 per unit.
In the week, investors executed 82 deals in 14 different stocks as there was only a short trading week due to the Ramadan holidays.
The trading volume in the week increased by 262.8 per cent to 10.8 million units from 2.98 million units, but the value of transactions decreased by 76.1 per cent to N16.3 million from N68.2 million.
The most active stock by value last week was FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc with N6.1 million, followed by IPWA Plc with N4.9 million, 11 Plc recorded N1.4 million, Air Liquide Plc posted N1.3 million, and Nipco Plc achieved N1.0 million.
But the most active stock by volume was IPWA Plc with 8.8 million units, IGI Plc transacted 1.1 million units, Food Concepts Plc recorded 0.334 million, FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc traded 0.164 million units, and Air Liquide Plc exchanged 0.159 million units.
By Dipo Olowookere
The shares of Med-View Airline Plc, Capital Oil Plc, and Goldlink Insurance Plc have been delisted from the trading platform of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited.
This action followed the inability of the companies to meet the standards of the NGX for trading its securities.
In a notice, Customs Street delisted the equities of the publicly-quoted firms from Thursday, April 3, 2025, “on the grounds that they are operating below the listing standards of NGX, and their securities are no longer considered suitable for continued listing and trading in the market.”
It was stated that the removal of the three organisations was in compliance with the provisions of Clause 14 of the Amended Form of General Undertaking, for listing on Nigerian Exchange Limited General Undertaking.
This clause states that, “The exchange reserves the right to, at its sole and absolute discretion, suspend trading in any listed securities of the issuer, delist such securities, or remove the name of the issuer from the daily official list of the exchange with or without prior notice to the issuer, upon failure of the issuer to comply with any one or more of the provisions of this General Undertaking, or when in its sole discretion, The exchange determines that such suspension of trading or delisting is in the public interest, or otherwise warranted.”
Business Post reports that the last share price of Capital Oil on the Nigerian Exchange before its exit was 20 Kobo, Goldlink Insurance was also 20 Kobo, while Med-View Airline was N1.62.
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