MFBs laud CBN for stoping daily cash withdrawal limits

The National Association of Microfinance Banks (NAMB) has commended the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for waiving the daily cash withdrawal limit of N1 million for its customers.

Mr Olufemi Babajide, the Chairman of the Lagos chapter of NAMB, commended the CBN for the waiver in an interview in Lagos on Saturday.

CBN had on March 5 granted the waiver to some customers of the Primary Mortgage Institutions (PMIs) and Microfinance Banks (MFBs).

A circular issued by Mr Gaius Emokpae, CBN’s Assistant Director (Banking and Payment System), said that the waiver was due to the nature of their businesses.

“PMIs and MFBs are specialised banks under the new banking model and they have customers that maintain savings demand and time deposit accounts with them.

“As deposit-taking institutions, they are obliged to honour the withdrawal requests of their customers and other deposit obligations.

“It is imperative to note that the aggregate withdrawal by the depositors of MFBs and PMIs per day could exceed N1 million, thus necessitating those institutions to withdraw over N1 million from their correspondent banks in order to service their customers,” the circular stated.

Babajide said that the CBN’s waiver would enable microfinance bank operators in the country to perform their functions efficiently.

“It will also reduce the heavy cost that may overweigh the banks,’’ he said.

Babajide said that this would also boost the customers’ confidence in the microfinance banks.

He, nonetheless, called on CBN to continue with its sensitisation programmes on the cashless economy policy so as to foster a better understanding of the policy by the public.

“Many traders in the country still find it tough to operate Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), not to talk of other machine operations which require greater skills,” he said.

NAN reports that the cash withdrawal limit policy, which started in Lagos on Jan.1, will be extended to other states by June.

Under the directive, individuals are not allowed to withdraw more than N150,000 per day, while withdrawals by corporate organisations should not exceed N1 million.

Any withdrawal above N150, 000 for individuals would attract a penalty of N100 on every N1, 000 and N200 on every N1000 for corporate organisations

The objective of the policy is to reduce cash-based business transactions.

Read more »

Nigerian naira falls 12/03/2012

The Nigerian naira weakened against the US dollar on the interbank market on Monday, on strong demand by some banks filling their customers' needs for dollars, as dollar liquidity gradually dries up in the market, traders said.

The naira closed at 157.90 to the dollar compared with the 157.30 to the dollar on Friday.

Traders said the naira eased to 158.35 intraday before it finally settled at the 157.90 level, at the close of the market, on buying pressure from banks meeting their customers' demand for dollars.

A trader said the central bank was not meeting all demand for dollars at the auction, while more customers were resorting to the interbank to fill their needs.

The naira has performed well against the dollar since the start of the year, largely driven up by offshore investors into local debt instruments, which currently offer attractive yields.

“We expect that the naira will rebound this week as speculation is that there's an NNPC (state-owned energy company) plan to sell around $300 million to fill the market,” another dealer said.

At the bi-weekly auction, the central bank sold $150 million at 156.06 to the dollar, compared with $150 million sold at 156.01 to the dollar at the previous auction on Wednesday. - Reuters

Read more »

CNN to buy Mashable for $200m

According to reports, international news giant CNN, a unit of Time Warner, is in talks to acquire the social news website Mashable for $200 million. Mashable, an American news website and news blog founded by Pete Cashmore in 2005, specialises in technology and social media.


 However the blog now also covers business and entertainment. Mashable is said to have over 15 million monthly visitors and 4 million social media followers across Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

The Reuters blogger Felix Salmon has learned from an unnamed source that CNN will buy social media website Mashable for more than $200 million. The source said that the announcement is expected for Tuesday.

There is also a social media hint about this acquisition. Reportedly, Adam Ostrow, the executive editor of Mashable, "liked" Salmon's story for Reuters on Facebook.

However, according to New York Times, officials at CNN denied that an announcement would be made on Tuesday. Also, spokespeople from both CNN and Mashable declined to comment on the potential acquisition.But if it happens, this will be CNN.com's largest acquisition till date.

Last August, CNN acquired Zite, a company that made an iPad app to determine what its users want to read and view, for a price calculated to be between $20 million and $25 million.If the rumours turn out to be true, this will be the latest in the chain of tech news site purchases. The trend began with AOL, when it purchased popular technology blog TechCrunch in September 2010 for estimated $25 million.

Following this, SAY Media, a digital publishing company headquartered in San Francisco, bought the web tech blog ReadWriteWeb in December last year; and GigaOm purchased ContentNext, paidContent's parent company in February this year.

If CNN acquires Mashable, it will, however, be the highest amount paid for a tech news site.

Read more »

Zenith Bank posts N60bn profi - to pay dividend of 95k per share

Lagos – Zenith Bank has posted a Profit Before Tax (PBT) of N60bn which represents an increase of 21 per cent over the N50bn recorded in the corresponding period of 2010.

Profit after Tax (PAT) stood at N44bn over N37bn, an increase of 18 per cent. The Bank has proposed a dividend pay -out of N29.8 billion up from N26.7 billion paid out in 2010.

The result which was released on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in Lagos on Friday showed that the bank’s gross earnings rose by 27 per cent to N244billion, from N192billion, indicating an increasing dominance in its market share.

By this performance, Zenith Bank has surpassed analysts’ projections at Gabros Capital which had forecast a gross earning of N217.95 billion and a profit after tax of N51.63billion. Over the period, the Bank also grew its total assets (plus contingents) by 25 per cent to N3.5 trillion from the N2.8 trillion of the previous year. The result also shows the bank’s prudent approach to loan management as total non-performing credit facilities to total credit facilities stood at 4.00 per cent, a remarkable improvement over the 5.53 per cent recorded last year.

Net Interest Margin increased to 8.5 per cent in 2011 financial year end from 7.8 per cent in 2010. This highlights the bank’s ability to manage its funding cost resulting from its ability to generate cheap deposit liability. It is noteworthy, however, that the bank’s impairment charge increased to N24.3bn compared to N4.3bn in 2010 Financial Year.

The increase was largely caused by the N10.2bn general provision on Performing Credit Facilities and the haircut of about N5 billion on some legacy loans sold to the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) and further downgrade of already provisioned loans.

The provision on Performing Credit Facilities was waived for all banks in 2010 by the Central Bank of Nigeria to aid recovery from the huge provisions of the previous year on Capital Market facilities. Furthermore, the bank in making the general provisions on performing loan facilities took some conservative positions by booking its provisions at higher than 1 per cent, a push towards returning provisions coverage to historical high level.

Only last February, the Bank emerged one with highest capitalization on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) with market capitalization of N424billion. Analysts and investors have hailed the result, which enhances Zenith Bank’s reputation as a market leader especially with regards to return on investment.

Read more »

NSE: Market Rises Further By N44bn

Transaction on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange yesterday closed further on a positive note after mid cap shares recorded appreciation in the day, thus leading to both market performance indices appreciating by 0.66 per cent.

The All-share index rose by 142.03 basis points or 0.66 per cent to close at 21,068.34 from 20.926.31 recorded on Tuesday while the market capitalisation of equities appreciated by N44 billion or 0.66 per cent to close at N6.639 trillion from N6.595 trillion recorded the previous day.

Mobil Nigeria Plc and Cadbury Nigeria led on the price gainers’ table with a gain of five per cent and 4.99 per cent to close at N139.65 and N10.10 per share respectively while NCR Plc followed with a gain of 4.98 per cent to close at N10.74 per share.

Read more »

NNPC Rescues The Naira From Further Slide

State-owned oil firm, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday saved the naira from depreciation when it sold $350 million to select lenders.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) only offered $150 million at the official window – Wholesale Dutch Auction System (WDAS).

The intervention by NNPC raised the value of the naira by 30 kobo to close at N157.50 at the inter-bank market from N157.80 it closed Tuesday.

Traders said NNPC sold around $350 million to some lenders, which provided support for the local currency, while expectations of additional sales of $350 million by the energy firm before the end of the week boosted outlook for the naira at the interbank.

"The naira is set to strengthen further in the coming days if the NNPC and other oil companies sell more dollars to the market as being speculated in the market," one dealer said.

Traders said dollar inflows from oil companies and off-shore investors have consistently provided support for the naira despite strong demand built up at both the interbank and official window.

More offshore investors are investing in Africa's second biggest economy's local debt instruments because of attractive yields, helping to support dollar supply to meet domestic demand.

Read more »

Stock Market Rises By 0.35%

Trading activities on the floor on the Nigerian Stock Exchange closed upward yesterday, following price gains recorded by major blue chip companies, leading market performance indices to rise by 0.35 per cent.

Consequently, at the close of trading session, the NSE All-Share Index inched up by 0.35 per cent to close at 20,193.40 as against a decline by 1.11 per cent recorded in the previous session to close at 20,123.51. In the same vein, market capitalisation appreciated by N22.02 billion to close at N6.36 trillion as against a depreciation by N4.41 billion recorded in the preceding session to close at N6.34 trillion.

Read more »

Senate Accuses NIPP Of Frustrating Power Projects

The National Assembly Joint Committee on Power, yesterday, berated the Nigeria Independent Power Projects (NIPP), accusing them of frustrating government's effort at tackling the problem of power generation in the country.

Chairman of the joint committee, Senator Philip Aduda, who summoned the Minister of Power, the management of NIPP and Cartlark International Limited, over allegation of contract change, pointedly described the executive Of NIPP led by Mr. James Olotu, as having failed in their responsibility to supervise and monitor about 560 NIPP projects in the country.

They were summoned to the cause of the slow work on the N6.831billion 33KV Ikot- Ekpene/Akwa Ibom S/S (New), Afam/Ikot- Ekpene 330KV DC TL and 330KV Afam S/S (Line Bay Extension).

Aduda expressed worries at what he described as attempts by NIPP to scuttle the Ikot Ekpene power project, which was awarded to Cartlark International Limited at N6.8 billion even though it has not visited the site since it was awarded in 2006 to Cartlark.

On revelation that most of the executives, including James Olotu, were not engineers, Aduda said, “When square pegs are not put in square holes, when you as the head is not an engineer, then there is bound to be problems.

I am surprise that you were busy taking stock and making payment rather than supervising the projects. You have not visited the site of a contract you awarded six years ago.

“We wanted Nigerians to see what we are into and the people hindering us.”

Sen. Gobir, expressed amazement at the fact that most of the executives in NIPP were not engineers. He also decried that the only engineer, Louise Edozie, who was the director of engineering in NIPP was not a certified member of the Council for the Regulation of Engineers in Nigeria (COREN) contrary to the provisions of the law.

Read more »

FG Makes Fresh Move To Sell NITEL/MTEL

Nitel head office,Abuja

The National Council on Privatisation (NCP) has approved ‘guided liquidation’ as the strategy for the privatisation of Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd (NITEL) and its mobile arm, M-TEL, in view of the huge liabilities of both companies.

The Bureau Of Public Enterprises (BPE) revealed in a statement yesterday that the council had directed the management of Nitel and Mtel to submit detailed financial reports and other relevant information on the proposals for the resuscitation of both companies to the technical committee of the NCP.

Recall that BPE in June last year, terminated the sale of Nitel to Omen International Consortium, and since then nothing has been heard of the privatisation process.

At its first meeting for 2012, the Council approved that the technical committee and legal committee, two standing committees of NCP, work closely to determine the modalities for handling Nitel/Mtel’s guided liquidation, BPE said.

The Bureau added that the technical committee have been tasked to consider the submissions by Nitel/Mtel management and submit its recommendations to the next meeting of NCP.

The committee had recommended that ‘guided liquidation’ should be adopted as the strategy for the privatisation of NITEL/MTEL in view of the huge liabilities of both companies and that there was no viable financial alternative presented by the management of Nitel/Mtel.

The Ccouncil supported the recommendation of the committee that opted for ‘guided liquidation.’

BPE said the Council has also directed that all liquidators that have unresolved disputes with the Bureau be excluded from the process for the appointment of a liquidator for the Nitel/Mtel transaction.

Read more »