Category: Nigeria

ABUJA, Nigeria—Nigeria on Wednesday cut its forecast for oil prices and the value of its currency this year, an acknowledgment of the pain tumbling energy costs are inflicting on Africa’s top crude producer. The senate voted to cut its benchmark expectation for oil prices this year to $52 a barrel, from $65 in December. Senators also pegged the average value of the local currency, the naira, this year at 190 to the U.S. dollar, well below the previous target of 165 to the greenback. Brent crude traded at about $59 a barrel on Wednesday and one dollar was worth about 200 naira. The currency has plunged to record lows this year as oil prices have lingered at about half their value just six months ago. Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy, draws about 70% of government revenue and most of its foreign exchange earnings from its oil output. The plummeting value […]

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(Bloomberg) — Nigeria’s government revenue fell 15 percent in January as falling oil prices eroded the income of Africa’s biggest crude producer. Revenue fell to 416.1 billion naira ($2.1 billion) in January compared with 490 billion naira a month earlier, Accountant-General Jonah Otunla said Wednesday in an e-mailed statement. The volume of oil exports declined 33 percent in November and December, resulting in $159.88 million of lost revenue, Otunla said. Nigeria has “suffered a substantial loss in revenue as a result of the massive drop in crude oil price at the international oil market,” he said. The continent’s largest economy has been hit by the halving in Brent crude prices since the middle of last year as the West African nation prepares for presidential elections next month. Nigeria relies on export of the commodity for more than 90 percent of foreign exchange income and 70 percent of government revenue. […]

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Abubakar Shekau, leader of Boko Haram. The insurgents distributed leaflets in the town advising residents not to vote in the presidential and legislative elections, which were delayed from Feb. 14. Source: AP Photo (Bloomberg) — The leader of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram vowed in a new video to disrupt Nigeria’s rescheduled general elections starting March 28. “This election will not hold even if we are dead,” Abubakar Shekau said in the video posted on Twitter, which couldn’t be independently verified. “Allah will not even allow it to happen.” Shekau claimed responsibility for a Feb. 14 attack on the northeastern state capital of Gombe, where detained militants were freed. The insurgents distributed leaflets in the town advising residents not to vote in the presidential and legislative elections, which were delayed from Feb. 14. Boko Haram has escalated its six-year-old campaign to impose Islamic law on Nigeria, Africa’s biggest […]

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Despite a recommendation by a government-appointed auditor that it should refund $1.48 billion (about N248.6 billion Naira) to the federation account, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, insisted Wednesday that it was not indicted by the investigations carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The Group Managing Director, GMD, of the NNPC, Joseph Dawha, said the investigations carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers over the alleged missing $20 billion oil money, did not indict the corporation in anyway. Mr. Dawha said the report "has clearly vindicated our long held position that the alleged unremitted crude oil revenue was a farce from day one". He said the $1.48billion the corporation was directed to refund was actually the balance of the book value of the divested assets transferred to NNPC upstream subsidiary, the NPDC, excluding taxes and royalties. "This does not constitute indictment; rather this value is still being reconciled with the Department of Petroleum Resources […]

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Abuja — The Federal Government on Wednesday cried out over the continuing attacks on pipelines supplying gas to power plants across the country, declaring that there are forces undermining its effort to boost power supply to Nigerians. Minister of Power, Cinedu Nebo said in Abuja that pipeline vandals are targeting gas facilities to ensure that power generation do not exceed 4,000mega watt. To check this, Nebo said Government was deploying remote sensing technologies to assist security agents to curb the menace. He, however, stressed that Government efforts would amount to nothing without the collaboration of citizens. Nebo therefore called on Nigerians to join the Government in its fight against the vandals by promptly reporting incidences of vandalism in the areas. To achieve this, Government signed a memorandum of understanding with Charlie Boy, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and other youth groups to sensitize citizens on the activities of […]

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(Bloomberg) — Nigeria’s naira fell to a record after the West African nation’s decision to postpone elections increased risks the continent’s worst-performing currency will be devalued. The naira retreated as much as 1.5 percent to 199.10 per dollar before paring losses to trade at 199.01 by 11:12 a.m. in Lagos. The currency is depreciating for a seventh day to the weakest level since Bloomberg started compiling the data in January 1999, extending losses this year to 7.8 percent, the most among 24 currencies tracked by Bloomberg. “Traders are seeing higher uncertainties in the market with the postponement of the election,” Lanre Buluro, head of research at Primera Africa Securities Ltd., said by phone from Lagos. “There is speculation on the naira with many buying dollars in anticipation of imminent devaluation before the election or after.” Investors are delaying decisions to commit money to Nigeria as escalating violence by the […]

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DAKAR, Senegal — Nigeria ’s election agency on Saturday night put off a closely contested presidential election after weeks of pressure to postpone it from the ruling party, which analysts say was facing potential defeat for the first time in more than 15 years. The move is sure to anger the opposition, which has been arguing against a postponement, and inflame its supporters in a volatile electoral environment. The election, originally scheduled for next Saturday, will now be held March 28, the election agency head told a news conference in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, late Saturday night. The elections official, Attahiru Jega, after days of what were reportedly heated meetings with the government, cited “security” concerns for the delay. He said that Nigeria’s top military men — themselves close to the government — refused to ensure that security would be “guaranteed” if the vote went ahead as scheduled. The country’s […]

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ABUJA, Nigeria (Reuters) – In late 2013, Nigeria’s then central bank governor Lamido Sanusi wrote to President Goodluck Jonathan claiming that the state oil company had failed to remit tens of billions of oil revenues it owed the state. After the letter was leaked to Reuters and a local news site, Jonathan publicly dismissed the claim and replaced Sanusi, saying the banker had mismanaged the central bank’s budget. A Senate committee later found Sanusi’s account lacked substance. Sanusi has since become Emir of Kano, the country’s second highest Islamic authority, and has smoothed over relations with the president. He declined to discuss his earlier assertions. Before he was sacked, though, the central banker submitted to Nigeria’s parliament more than 300 pages of documentation in support of his claim. Reuters has reviewed that dossier, which offers one of the most comprehensive studies of waste, mismanagement and what Sanusi called “leakages” of cash in Nigeria’s oil industry. Detailed here, […]

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Lamido Sansusi (Bloomberg) — Nigeria’s state oil company operates an “unsustainable model” and should refund a minimum $1.48 billion to the government, a PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP audit recommends. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. spends 46 percent of domestic oil proceeds on operations and subsidies, according to highlights of an 18-month review between January 2012 and July 2013 released by the office of Nigeria’s Auditor General. The NNPC can’t sustain monthly remittances to government or meet operational costs from crude revenue and incurs third-party liabilities to fund the gap, according to the statement. “PwC therefore recommended that the NNPC model of operation must be urgently reviewed and restructured,” according to Auditor General Ukura Samuel’s statement. “The current model which has been in operation since the creation of the corporation cannot be sustained.” The audit came after the former central bank governor of Africa’s largest oil producer, Lamido Sanusi, wrote to President […]

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(Bloomberg) — Nigeria’s Finance Ministry isn’t wedded to an oil benchmark price of $65 per barrel estimated in this year’s budget and has plans on how it will respond if crude drops lower. The government has a “scenario-based approach with accompanying adjustment measures, given the uncertainty as to where the oil price would eventually settle,” Paul Nwabuikwu, spokesman for the ministry, said in an e-mail on Thursday. “The scenarios developed go as low as $45 per barrel.” Crude prices have plunged by more than half since June, cutting revenue in Africa’s biggest oil producer and forcing the government to tighten its budget. The currency has slumped 17 percent against the dollar in the past six months, the most of more than 30 African nations tracked by Bloomberg. The government will introduce additional measures to protect capital expenditure in the budget if oil prices remain below $65 a barrel, Nwabuikwu […]

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