Tag Archives: Pushes

Nigeria’s Recession Pushes Bonds To Lowest Point In More Than Two Weeks

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Nigeria’s dollar bonds have fallen to their lowest point in more than two weeks after official statistics  showed that the  economy had entered its first recession in 25 years.

  The official data showed that the economy contracted by 2.06 percent in the second quarter.

 According to a Reuters report “The 2023 issue chalked up the biggest losses, down 0.728 cents to trade at 99.417 cents in the dollar – its lowest since Aug. 15, according to Tradeweb data. The 2021 bond slipped by 0.489 cents to 102.156 cents while the 2018 issue lost 0.603 cents to trade at 101.167 cents.”

 The report further showed that “data from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed the non-oil sector declined due to a weaker currency while lower oil prices dragged the oil sector down.

Credit: dailytrust

EU Pushes Turkey On Rule Of Law After Coup Crackdown

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Turkey must protect the rule of law as it cracks down after the failed coup, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Monday, as the bloc said it looked like the government had prepared a list of people to arrest beforehand.

“We are the ones saying today rule of law has to be protected in the country, there is no excuse for any steps that take the country away from that,” Mogherini said as European Union foreign ministers met in Brussels.

“As we have been the first ones to say that in that tragic night (of Friday’s coup attempt), the democratic and legitimate institutions needed to be protected,” she told reporters.

“Today we will say together with ministers that obviously doesn’t mean that rule of law and the system of checks and balances in the country does not count. On the contrary it needs to be protected for the sake of the country.

“So we will send a strong message on that.”

Would-be EU member Turkey carried out fresh raids on Monday as the EU ministers were meeting, prompting growing international concern over the scale of the crackdown.

Judges and military commanders are among 6,000 people who were arrested over the weekend as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vows to stamp out the “virus” of the coup plotters.

The EU commissioner dealing with Turkey’s long-stalled bid for membership of the bloc meanwhile said it appeared that the government had already prepared a list before the coup of people to be rounded up.

“I mean, (that) the lists are available already after the event indicates that this was prepared and at a certain moment should be used,” EU enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn told reporters.

Turkey’s attempts to join the 28-nation European Union have been hobbled in recent years by concern over the increasingly authoritarian Erdogan’s record on human rights and press freedom.

But the EU agreed to speed up its membership bid and give visa-free travel to Turks as part of a migrant crisis deal in which Ankara agreed to take back people landing in the Greek islands.

Credit: Guardian

FG Pushes For Electricity Tariff Increase

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Minister of Power, Works and Housing Mr. Babatunde Fashola,   said Nigerians should expect increase in electricity tariff in no distant time. This is as he also indicated the Ministry of Petroleum has signified their interest to build certain critical pipelines to transport gas to the power plants that will add another 2,000 mega watts to the national grid within 12-15 months.

According to him, “By far the most complex challenge is the problem of tariff. It is complex because it is more in the hands of citizens than in the hands of Government.

“The role of Government is to set the tariff and in doing so, Government has committed to what is called a Multi-Year Tariff Order. This was done in order to attract investors to the market; otherwise we will not have achieved the privatization if the price of the product is not attractive to the investors.

“The tariff is the price of producing power. It covers cost of generation, gas purchase, transportation, transformers, staff costs and so on, disaggregated and charged per kilowatt/hour to make the business of power profitable.

“What Government did was to spread it over a number of years so that the impact is not felt at once but over a periodic incremental process. I know that it has been a contentious matter, but I make this fervent appeal to consumers to give us the benefit of doubt, to forbear and accept it.

As regards transmission network, the Minister noted that the amount of power that is available today is slightly larger than the capacity which the transmission network can support. He said,  “We have identified a total of 142 (One Hundred and forty-two) projects of which  45 are at 50 percent level of completion  and about 22 (twenty-two) can be completed within a year.

“The budget estimates are known and we intend to aggressively pursue completion to increase the carrying capacity from the generating companies, GENCOs to the distribution companies, DISCOs.

Credit: Vanguard