The proposed amendments, which were however consolidated into one bill, equally sought to reposition the bank for efficiency.

One of the consolidated bills titled ‘Central Bank of Nigeria (Establishment) (Amendment) Bill 2023’ was sponsored by Senator Steve Karimi (APC – Kogi West).

The second one was titled: ‘A Bill to amend the Central Bank of Nigeria Act 2007, and for matters connected therewith, 2023’ was sponsored by Senator Darlington Nwokocha (LP – Abia Central).

The former governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, had attempted to contest the 2023 presidential primaries on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) while in office.

The move was widely condemned by Nigerians who wondered how a serving public servant can seek an elective office contrary to extant provisions of the constitution.

Karimi, one of the sponsors of the consolidated bills, explained that it was aimed at amending the CBN Act to allow for greater accountability and transparency in the running of the bank and to prohibit the use of foreign currency in local transactions in Nigeria.

Karimi’s proposed amendment to section 9(2) of the  CBN Act read: “Notwithstanding the provisions of this Act or any written law in existence, theo governor and the deputy governor of the bank shall not participate directly or indirectly in partisan politics, nor contest any election, during their tenure in ottice.”

The Kogi West lawmaker’s bill also seeks to prohibit the use of foreign currency for domestic transactions in Nigeria.

The bill seeks amendment of Section 20 of the CBN Act, by inserting Section 20(A) immediately after the existing section 20, before the existing section 21.

The proposed amendment read: “20(A) Prohibition of the use of foreign currency in democratic transactions:

“(1) No person or body corporate shall use any foreign currency as a means of exchange for goods,

services and other transactions in markets supermarkets, hotels, restaurants, airports and other places of business in Nigeria except by a bank, licensed bureau de change and other financial institutions duly authorized by the Central Bank of Nigeria to trade, deal and use such currency and no individual or business entity in Nigeia shall advertise, denominate or price

its goods or services in any currency other than the Nigerian naira and kobo.

“(2) Any person who contravenes subsection (1) of this section commits an offence and shall be liable on conviction to: (a) in the case of an individual, to a fine of N250,000.00 or a term of imprisonment not exceeding six months or both such fine and imprisonment;

“(b) in the case of a corporate entity to a fine of N1,000,000 and a conviction of three months to its officers or directors who authorized or undertook the transaction.”

On his part, Nwokocha, who sponsored the second bill,  listed the general principles of the his bill to include: “This bill seeks to address all anomalies that has hindered the advancement of the apex bank to handle the ailing economy of our nation.”

He said: “The thrust of this amendment is to create a people-centred Central Bank by delivering price and financial system stability and promoting sustainable economic development.

“As the nation grapples with economic issues, we need to reposition the CBN to grow the economy, regulate the exchange rate and unauthorize financial transactions and dollarizing the economy.

“This bill seeks to provide for among other things: Separate the head of management from the head of the governing board in line with national and international good corporate governance practices;

“Establish a proper governance architecture for the monetary authority for optimal policy and operational effectiveness;

“Enshrine real-time controls and effective accountability in the conduct of central banking in Nigeria

“Reposition the CBN towards pursuit and advancement of its core mandates given the bank’s pivotal role in the economy; and

“Position the CBN as an apolitical entity that will become a worthy example in national and international monetary policy, banking sector regulation, currency management and supervision.”

The post Senate moves to bar CBN Governor from partisan politics appeared first on New Mail Nigeria.

In a letter to Senate President Ahmad Lawan, the senior lawyer said if Nigeria can recover the money lost to oil sale, there would be no need to seek foreign loans.

Nigeria is currently planning to secure the first tranche of a $3 billion loan from World Bank in April. According to Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, who disclosed this, the facility is meant to improve the power sector.

But Falana said Nigeria lost a larger part of the proceeds from oil as a result of the non-implementation of the deep offshore and inland basin production contracts act.

In the letter dated October 18, Falana said in 2015, he had raised the alarm that both government and international oil companies in the country failed to stick to the agreement for an upward review of loyalties whenever crude oil was sold beyond $20 per barrel in the international market.

“In his reaction to our allegation of economic sabotage by the public officers who deliberately refused to implement the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Act the immediate past Minister of State in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachukwu admitted that the non implementation of the law by some unnamed public officers had led to a loss of oil revenue of over $60 billion,” he wrote.

“But due to the reluctance of the federal government to enforce the law the governments of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa and Rivers States instituted an action at the Supreme Court in 2016 to compel the Federal government to recover the accrued royalties.

“In the judgment delivered in the case on October 18, 2018 the Supreme Court directed the Federal government to recover the royalties that had not been collected from the International Oil Companies for the past 18 years. Based on the judgment of the apex court the Federal government has demanded for the immediate payment of the sum of the sum of $62 billion by the defaulting oil companies.

“But the affected oil companies have filed fresh suits in the federal high court challenging the claim of the federal government. It is hoped that the federal high court will speed up the hearing of the new cases in view of the categorical pronouncement of the Supreme Court on the right of the federal government to recover the outstanding royalties.

“The National Extractive Industry and Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has disclosed that sum of $22 billion and N481 billion has been withheld from the Federation Account by the NNPC and some oil companies. Without any justification whatsoever the federal government has ignored the findings of the NEITI.

“If the National Assembly, under your able leadership, is prepared to resist pressures from vested interests and muster the political will to recover the said fund Nigeria will have no business begging for foreign loans from China, African Development Bank and the World Bank. Therefore, the National Assembly may wish to collaborate with the anti graft agencies in the recovery of the said sum of $103.7 billion without any delay.”

Falana alleged that in the course of their work on leakages in the national economy, they also discovered that sometime in 2006, the management of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) illegally withdrew $7 billion from the nation’s foreign reserves and fixed same in 14 commercial banks.

He said Godwin Emefiele, CBN Governor, had also ignored their demand for the recovery of $7 billion and the accrued interests from the 14 commercial banks.

Apart from the expected revenue of $1.5 billion from the implementation of the amended deep offshore and inland basin production contracts act, Falana said the outstanding royalties, fixed deposit and other funds withheld or diverted from the federation account are not less than $103.7 billion.

The post No need for loans if we recover $103bn oil sale loss, Falana writes Lawan appeared first on New Mail Nigeria.

He gave the charge in Emure-Ile, Ondo State, on Friday, shortly before he and the Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, performed the ground-breaking ceremony of Greenfield Integrated Poultry and Powderized Egg Facility.

Speaking on “Engendering the Growth of Nigeria’s Poultry Industry”, Emefiele emphasized the need for interested State Governments to take advantage of the many opportunities to develop the agricultural sector in their States in order to provide jobs, reduce the level of unemployment in the country and drive growth.

According to him, through such moves, the Nigerian economy would receive massive boost through the non-importation of agricultural produce, which he stressed Nigeria had no business importing.

While reiterating the charge of the President, Muhammadu Buhari, to Nigerians to “produce what we eat and eat what we produce”, Emefiele emphasized that the attention focused on agriculture was a good strategy. “Agriculture can still be used as a catalyst for creating jobs, reducing unemployment and driving growth in Nigeria,” he noted, even as he recalled that the ban on the importation of chickens in 2003, with the exception of day old chickens, boosted the poultry industry in Nigeria.

With the commencement of the Greenfield Integrated Poultry Facility, Emefiele expressed optimism that the implementation of the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme in the State would be tremendously expanded.

He also disclosed that a cumulative sum of N55.526 billion had been disbursed to over 250,000 farmers who cultivated almost 300,000 hectares of farmland for rice, wheat, maize, cotton, soybeans, cassava, etc. since commencement of the Programme in November 2015, noting that the implementation in partnership with State Governments and several private sector groups, had contributed to the creation of an estimated 890,000 directand 2.6 million indirect jobs.

Emefiele reiterated the commitment of the CBN to work with State governments in supporting small holder farmers and processors across otheritems that can be produced in the respective States. According to him, the move was directly in harmony with the Bank’s resolve and vision to create a professional and people-central Central Bank that will act as a financial catalyst for job creation and inclusive economic growth.

In his remarks, Governor Akeredolu, SAN urged all states to support ranching as a way of boosting the quality of meat produced in Nigeria.

He also emphasised the need for other State govt to key into agriculture as a way of boosting and diversifying the Nigerian economy.

Also speaking, the Managing Director of Greenfield Assets Limited, Dr. Paul Obanha thanked both the CBN Governor and the Ondo State Governor for supporting the project, which he noted was the largest in Africa and the Middle East.

Highpoint of the ceremony was the cutting of the tape and unveiling of theplaque to formally flag-off the construction of the Greenfield Egg Pasteurization and Powderization Facility with the capacity of producing 10million broilers per annum farm with 4,000 birds per hour meat processing plant; a 600,000 layers farm for the production 100 million eggs per annum;two 20 tons per hour Feed-mill and a 500,000 Eggs per day.

The plant would create about 25,000 jobs, earn the country over $1billion in foreign exchange savings and boost increased incomes for poultry farmers in Nigeria. The Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with a capital requirement of N28,369,276,360 to be invested in capital equipment and working capital, involves Big Dutchman International providing technical and operational management of the project.

Other parties to the project are Marel Food Processing Company BV, a leading global provider of advanced processingsystems and services to the Poultry, Meat and Fish industries, and Actini SAS.

The post CBN Gov Emefiele tasks state govt on agriculture appeared first on New Mail Nigeria.