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Business News
Nigeria’s retail outlets risk CBN sanction, debit N50 PoS fee from customers
Investigations have disclosed that some retail outlets are still collecting N50 PoS Stamp Duty charge from customers despite CBN’s directive.
Following the directive of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that N50 Point of Sale (PoS) Stamp Duty charge should be collected from businesses and not customers, some retail outlets are still collecting the fee.
The retail outlets in the e-payment value chain such as filling stations and supermarkets, which are supposed to be paying the Stamp Duty fee themselves as it is a merchant charge, not a customer charge, have continued to collect the illegal fee from customers.
In order to avoid dispute between customers, what some do is to add it directly to the customer’s purchases while others just put up a notice of the payment for customers to see before purchasing anything.
Speaking on the trend, the President of the Bank Customers Association of Nigeria, Uju Ogubunka, said that the actions being carried out by the businesses in spite of the CBN’s directive were condemnable and that it should stop.
He called on the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to ensure compliance with the directive by marketers while also urging the CBN to ensure full compliance’s across retail shops.
[READ MORE: Bank CEOs, NCC, CBN to meet over USSD charges)
“I expect the CBN to move beyond its directive that bank customers reject the fee and fight for customers. Another option is for the customers to carry cash and avoid the fee where the risks are minimal.” Ogubunka said.
On the other hand, the CBN Director, Payment System Management Department, Musa Jimoh, according to The Nation, advised customers to reject the N50 PoS fee. He emphasized the fact that the stamp duty which is a fee regulated by an Act has been misinterpreted by many.
“Our circular that talks about merchants paying stamp duty according to the law does not say that the stamp duty should be paid by the consumer. That’s actually a misrepresentation of the CBN’s directive.
“What our directive says is that merchants should pay all necessary charges as regulated by the government agency, including stamp duty. When there is an electronic transaction to an account other than savings account and the transaction amount is more than N1,000, you have to pay stamp duty,” the CBN official said and quoted by The Nation.
What you should know: Data obtained from the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement Scheme disclosed that depositors across banks did transactions worth N97.32 trillion over the instant payment and Point of Sales (PoS) in the last 11 months.
While a total of N94.49 trillion worth transaction were conducted via the instant payment platform, another N2.83 trillion were carried out by banks’ depositors on the PoS platform within the same period under review.
Economy & Politics
Uganda Elections: Museveni re-elected for 6th term with 58.6% of the votes
Uganda’s President Museveni has won a 6th term in office as the opposition alleges wide-scale rigging.
Coronavirus
Combined Vaccine Manufacturing capacity to hit 6.8 billion doses in 2021
COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing capacity is expected to hit 6.8 billion doses in 2021.
Meristem Group disclosed that the combined effort in manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines for global use is expected to yield about 6.8 billion doses in 2021.
This was revealed in the Annual Outlook 2021 report presented by Meristem Group, titled “Bracing for a different future.”
According to the report, the existing manufacturing capacity will only be sufficient enough to immunize about 44% of the global population, which would create obvious vaccination gap and make the pandemic last longer than necessary.
The report states,
- “The cold temperature requirements for vaccine storage pose major logistics concern particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and other low-income countries. WHO estimates that about 50% of vaccines are wasted every year, largely due to a lack of temperature control.”
According to the report, the estimated 6.8billion doses are expected to be collaboratively manufactured as follows: CanSino – 0.2billion, AstraZeneca – 3.0 billion, Gamaleya – 0.3billion, Moderna – 0.4billion, Pfizer-BioNtech – 1.3billion, SinoPharm – 1billion, and SinoVac – 0.6billion.
What you should know
- The global population as of 2020 is 7.8billion and 70% is required to achieve herd immunity (otherwise called herd protection)
- Herd Immunity or herd protection is achieved when you have most of the population immunized against an infectious disease.
- 2 doses of the vaccines are required for each person for immunity.
- It is expected that between 11 and 15 billion doses would be required to achieve the desired herd immunity, globally.
- From all indications, herd immunity may not be achieved until mid or late 2022, with the subsisting 100% vaccine production capacity utilization in 2021 – with neither production nor distribution losses.
- To achieve regulatory approval, a vaccine must undergo a three-stage clinical development process after the exploratory and pre-clinical stages and the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sets a phase 3 efficacy benchmark of 50%.
Coronavirus
Covid-19: Global deaths surpass 2 million
Global casualty record for the Covid-19 pandemic surpassed 2 million deaths on Friday.
The Global casualty record for the Covid-19 pandemic surpassed 2 million deaths on Friday, with the United States accounting for 1 in every 5 deaths, as it has recorded over 386,000 casualties so far.
This was disclosed in a report by Reuters in its Covid-19 tally reported on Friday evening.
After the United States, Brazil, Mexico, India and the U.K contribute nearly 50% of the combined casualties.
The report also disclosed that an average of 11,900 casualties are recorded per day in year 2021, despite the fact that it took 9 months for the world to record 1 million casualties.
United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, said the 2 million death count was “a heart-wrenching milestone.”
- “Behind this staggering number are names and faces: the smile now only a memory, the seat forever empty at the dinner table, the room that echoes with the silence of a loved one,” he added.
The WHO warned that 2021 could be tougher due to the nature of new variants which transmit the disease faster.
- “We are going into a second year of this. It could even be tougher given the transmission dynamics and some of the issues that we are seeing,” WHO Chief, Mike Ryan, said.
Analysts expect the global death toll to surpass 3 million by April 2021.
What you should know
- Nairametrics reported that the total number of covid-19 cases in Nigeria had surpassed the 100,000 mark on Sunday 10th January 2021, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
- The African Union stated that it secured 270 million Covid-19 vaccine doses for the continent from drug manufacturers to supplement the COVAX programme, a step towards the commencement of the complex task of vaccinating over 1.2 billion people with limited financial resources.
- The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control on Friday 15th January 2021, announced that 1,867 new cases of the covid-19 virus were recorded across 24 states in the country. This represents the highest number of cases recorded in a single day.
Ogbeche Augustine
January 2, 2020 at 9:02 pm
This issue of Bank the C.B.N SHOULD COME up with a strong hand so that this rubbish we stop i went to my bank G T BANK today and there are still talking that THE C.B.N directive can not work there should obey the rule of law
PapaRash
January 3, 2020 at 10:34 pm
The CBN as a regulatory body is making the whole issue messy.
You have directed that merchants pay N50 stamp duty on products you don’t have fixed and regulated prices on and the merchant in turn increases prices on his products.
What is the fuse about the increase? Can Emiefele run his own business and accept this directive when cost has been push to him?
Which part of my business does CBN support me? Running capital, insurance, staff salaries, rentage, security etc.
To me, the apex bank is confused.