All the major economic news from Nigeria in 5 minutes – 18/7/2017

Summary of the top business, economic and political news in Nigeria today.

1. Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has pledged to grant tax relief for willing investors in the creative sector of the economy. The decision, he said, is to boost investor confidence in the industry and grow the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 1.42 per cent to five per cent. Link
2. Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said the nation has recorded a budget deficit of N397.74 billion in May, contrary to provisional monthly budget deficit of N196.40 billion in the 2017 budgetary year. At N220.33 billion or 48.1 per cent of total revenue for the month, non-oil revenue was below the monthly budget estimate of N445.14 billion by 50.5 per cent. It was also below the April collection of N225.71 by 2.4 per cent. Link
3. The Federal Government on Monday said it had completed plans to harmonise road signage and markings in all states across the country and that this would become visible by next month. Link
4. Nigerian Shippers’Council (NSC) Executive Secretary Mr. Hassan Bello has called for the establishment of truck transit parks (TTPs) nationwide to boost cargo delivery from ports to their destinations. Link
5. FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange on Monday listed the Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund (NDIF), a mutual fund promoted by the Chapel Hill Denham Management Limited. Chapel Hill had established a N200 billion issuance programme for the NIDF and subsequently issued the first series under the programme- Series I 49.450 million units at N101.20 each. Link
6. In comparison with its peers, Nigeria’s investment rate lags the average of 23.3 per cent recorded for sub-Saharan African countries, and 28.9 per cent for BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), a report by the PwC titled, ‘Boosting Investment: Nigeria’s Path to Growth’ has revealed. It said between 2007 and 2016, Nigeria’s investment share of the Gross Domestic Product declined from 18.7 per cent to 12.6 per cent, reaching the lowest level in the past two decades. Link
7. The Senate yesterday raised the alarm over the disappearance of over 282 vessels from the custody of the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) within the last six years. Chairman, Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff, Senator Hope Uzodinma, noted that documents in the possession of the Senate showed that the vessels disappeared between 2010 and 2016 without traces. Link
8. The Federal Government on Monday expressed concern over the increased usage of drones by individuals and organisations for both commercial and private purposes. It stated that in order to check the dangers posed by such an act, it had commenced the formulation of regulations to address the development. Link
9. The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has revealed that companies operating in the country waste about 50 per cent of their energy in spite of epileptic power supply. Link
10. The International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, has rated Nigeria high in the area of nuclear energy deployment, radiation safety and emergencies, while it commended the country and the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Agency, NNRA, for its efforts and commitment to improving safety and the protection of people and the environment. Link
11. The federal government has elected to settle out-of-court, a N37billion contract for the supply and installation of about three million electricity meters it signed in 2003, and has also reviewed the contract for an immediate implementation, the Minister of Power, Works, and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has said. Link
12. Indigenous companies in the oil and gas industry will soon have access to more fund as the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) is planning to increase the funds lent to qualified oil and gas players under the Nigerian Content Intervention Fund (NCI Fund) from $100m to $200m. Link
13. Crude oil and non-oil income has cut Nigeria’s gross federally collected revenue in May 2017 by 13.42 per cent to N458.42 billion. Specifically, Nigeria’s crude oil earnings decreased from the N292.82 billion it recorded in February to N238.09 billion in May. Link
14. The Minister of Power, Works, and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has said that the electricity sector privatisation, which the federal government concluded in 2013, has failed to deliver the expected results because of various constraints. According to him, the privatisation exercise has largely performed below the expectations of most Nigerians because it has challenges, which included political interference; financial illiquidity; poor metering of consumers; debts owed in the market; inadequate market governance; and below par technical capacity of operators. Link
15. The Federal Government has developed a new strategy targeted at reducing gas flaring by the establishment of power plants adjacent to gas flare sites, which would supply electricity to host communities. Link
16. The federal and 36 state governments must remove bottlenecks to a functional sovereign wealth fund, SWF to provide cover against shocks during periods of instability in global oil prices, the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, said on Tuesday. It asked government to initiate a process in the National Assembly to amend Nigerian constitution to determine the legal status of the ECA and the SWF fund. Link
17. The Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, yesterday, sealed four companies in Lagos and Port Harcourt over their failure to meet their tax obligations totaling N630 million. The affected firms include Charcoal and Spices Restaurant Limited, GRA, Port Harcourt, and Cioscon Nigerian Limited at 14 Aba Road, Port Harcourt. Link
18. Africa’s largest integrated energy solutions provider, Oando PLc, has acknowledged it was being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over alleged petitions filed by investors over the shareholding structure that followed the multi-billion dollar acquisition of ConocoPhillips’ oil assets in Nigeria. Link
19. Nigeria’s telecoms regulator has approved Etisalat Nigeria’s name change after its Middle East parent pulled out following regulatory intervention to save the local company from collapse due to debt, the company said. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has been notified of the new name, 9mobile, the company said, adding that Etisalat Nigeria had started the process of rebranding. The company is due to unveil the new brand on Wednesday. Link
20. Some Distribution Company (DisCo) operators have frowned at their payment of ‘capacity charges’ for investments made by Generation Companies (GenCos) in the monthly bulk energy invoices. Link
21. Wimbledon legend Boris Becker lost a huge part of his £100 million fortune in dubious investments in Nigerian oil firms, it has been claimed. Link
22. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has asked an investigative committee of the House of Representative Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) to shift its investigations on the influx of adulterated kerosene into the Nigerian market to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), the petroleum industry’s regulator. Link
23. United Bank for Africa (UBA) has announced the crossing of 2,080,104,955 units of its ordinary share from the Staff Share investment Trust Scheme (SSIT) to the bank. Link
24. Nigeria’s central bank has extended guarantees to Skye Bank for another year while it considers the bank’s recapitalisation proposal, the mid-tier lender said in a statement. Link
25. For an improved service delivery and efficiency of its terminal, one of the leading terminal operators in Nigeria, Josepdam Port Services (JPS) has put up new measures to inject a $55million investment plan to increase the storage capacity of its terminal by 150,000 tonnes.  Link
26. The National Assembly and the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) have signed a $1.3 million project grant agreement for the National Institute of Legislative Studies (NILS) to enhance the lawmakers’ capacity in the West African Sub-region. Link
27. The House of Representatives yesterday took a significant step towards stopping an annual loss of about N7 trillion to insecurity on the nation’s territorial waters. Link
28. Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu  has dredged out the negatives about Lagos, Nigeria’s business capital and  urged investors to abandon it and flee to his Ondo State. In a rare sales pitch by the governor, Akeredolu wondered why investors are concentrating their investments in “traffic-ridden and human congested” Lagos State, and asked them to leave to come to his state, which “is blessed with abundant resources”. Link