Economy
Afreximbank, AAAM to Fund Automotive Industry in Africa
The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the African Association of Automotive Manufacturers (AAAM) have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the financing and promotion of the automotive industry in Africa.
A statement from the Bank made available in Abuja on Thursday, said the MoU also provides for them to support, in conjunction with the African Union Commission and the AfCFTA Secretariat, the development of coherent national, regional and continental automotive policies, and strategies.
With an integrated market under the AfCFTA, abundant and cheap labour, natural resource wealth, and a growing middle class, African countries are increasingly turning their attention to support the emergence of their automotive industries.
It further explained that the collaboration between Afreximbank and AAAM will be an opportunity to empower the aspirations of African countries towards re-focusing their economies on industrialization and export manufacturing and fostering the emergence of regional value chains.
President of Afreximbank, Prof. Benedict Oramah and Mike Whitfield, President of AAAM and Managing Director of Nissan Africa, signed the MoU in early February, formalizing the basis for a partnership aimed at boosting regional automotive value chains and financing for the automotive industry, while supporting the development of enabling policies, technical assistance, and capacity building initiatives.
Oramah, said “the strategic partnership with AAAM will facilitate the implementation of the Bank’s Automotive programme which aims to catalyze the development of the automotive industry in Africa as the continent commences trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).”
“The signing of the MoU with Afreximbank is an exciting milestone for the development of the automotive industry in Africa. At the 2020 digital Africa Auto Forum, the lack of affordable financing available for the automotive sector was identified as one of the key inhibiters for the growth and development of the automotive industry in Africa and having Afreximbank on board is a game changer and a hugely positive development,” commented David Coffey, CEO of AAAM.
“It is wonderful to have a partner that is as committed as the AAAM to driving the development and growth of our sector on the continent; this collaboration will ensure genuine progress for our industry in Africa,” added Mr. Coffey.
Under the terms of the MoU, Afreximbank and AAAM will work together to foster the emergence of regional value chains with a focus on value-added manufacturing created through partnerships between global Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM), suppliers, and local partners.
The two organizations plan to undertake comprehensive studies to map potential regional automotive value chains on the continent in regional economic clusters, in order to enable the manufacture of automotive components for supply to hub assemblers.
To support the emergence of the African automotive industry, they will collaborate to provide financing to industry players along the whole automotive value chain. The potential interventions include lines of credit, direct financing, project financing, supply chain financing, guarantees, and equity financing, amongst others.
The MoU also provides for them to support, in conjunction with the African Union Commission and the AfCFTA Secretariat, the development of coherent national, regional and continental automotive policies, and strategies. With an integrated market under the AfCFTA, abundant and cheap labour, natural resource wealth, and a growing middle class, African countries are increasingly turning their attention to support the emergence of their automotive industries.
The collaboration between Afreximbank and AAAM will be an opportunity to empower the aspirations of African countries towards re-focusing their economies on industrialization and export manufacturing and fostering the emergence of regional value chains.
By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) says it will henceforth issue Outline Business Case (OBC) Certificate of Compliance and the Full Business Case (FBC) Certificate of Compliance within seven days.This follows the charge by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the Director General of the Commission, Dr Jobson Oseodion Ewalefoh “to accelerate investment in National Infrastructure through innovative mobilization of private-sector funding”.
President Tinubu also charged him to work assiduously to boost infrastructure development in Nigeria as part of the renewed hope agenda of the current administration.In view of the above, Dr Ewalefoh-led management team of the ICRC has streamlined the approval processes of the commission to issue its certificates of compliance within seven days. This will accelerate the turnaround time for approvals by the Commission.“In line with the charge of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, and following his Renewed Hope Agenda, we have streamlined and updated our approval processes to issue either of the Outline Business Case Certificate of Compliance (OBC) and the Full Business Case Certificate of Compliance (FBC) to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that meet the requirements within seven days.“This is part of efforts by the current administration to accelerate infrastructure development, bridge the infrastructure gaps and stimulate the economy through investment of private sector funds in Public Private Partnership endeavours.“By streamlining our processes, the Commission is in no way foregoing any of its stringent approval steps or key requirements, therefore, only business cases that are viable, bankable, offer value for money and meet all other requirements will be approved.“The ICRC cannot do it alone, therefore I implore all chief executives of MDAs to match our momentum and align with this charge of Mr. President to accelerate Infrastructure development and ensure that PPP projects are not stalled at any point but delivered within record time.“The Commission is ready to partner and collaborate with all MDAs to actualize this,” he said.In a statement by Ifeanyi NwokoActing Head, Media and Publicity on Monday the ICRC DG in August rolled out a six-point policy direction which among others, focused on accelerating PPP processes, boosting inter-agency collaboration and ensuring innovative financing.The ICRC was established to regulate Public Private Partnership (PPP) endeavours of the Federal government aimed at addressing Nigeria’s physical infrastructure deficit which hampers economic development.
By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The federal government in the second quarter of 2024 generated a total of N1.56 trillion from Value Added Tax. This is a 9.11 percent increase from the N1.43 trillion in Q1 2024.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics report, local payments recorded were N792.
58 billion, foreign VAT payments were N395. 74 billion, while import VAT contributed N372. 95 billion in Q2 2024.“On a quarter-on-quarter basis, human health and social work activities recorded the highest growth rate with 98.44%, followed by agriculture, forestry and fishing with 70.26%, and water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities with 59.
75%,” NBS reported.“On the other hand, activities of households as employers, undifferentiated goods and services producing activities of households for own use had the lowest growth rate with 46.84%, followed by Real estate activities with 42.59%.
“In terms of sectoral contributions, the top three largest shares in Q2 2024 were
manufacturing with 11.78%; information and communication with 9.02%; and Mining and quarrying with 8.79%.
“Nevertheless, activities of households as employers, undifferentiated goods- and services-producing activities of households for own use recorded the least share with 0.00%, followed by activities of extraterritorial organisations and bodies with 0.01%; and Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities with and real estate services 0.04% each.
“However, on a year-on-year basis, VAT collections in Q2 2024 increased by 99.82% from Q2 2023.”
Investors’ sustained interest in MTN Nigeria, Zenith Bank, and FBN Holdings, among other key stocks, drove the Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX) market capitalisation to a gain of N270 billion or 0.48 per cent.
Specifically, the market capitalisation, which opened at N55.708 trillion, closed at N55.
978 trillion.The All-Share Index also advanced by 0.
48 per cent, or 476 points, to settle at 98,592. 12, compared to 98,116.27 recorded on Thursday.As a result, the Year-To-Date (YTD) return rose to 31.87 per cent.
Market breadth closed positive with 38 gainers and 18 losers.
On the gainers table, ABC Transport, Eterna Plc, Julius Berger, and United Capital led by 10 per cent each to close at 77k, N19.
80, N110 and N15.95 per share respectively.Mecure followed closely with 9.94 per cent to close at N8.52 per share.
On the other hand, Union Dicon Salt led the losers’ table by 9.88 per cent to close at N7.30, UPL trailed by 8.97 per cent to close at N2.18 per share.
Custodian dropped 8.59 per cent to close at N11.70, Omatek lost 7.14 per cent to close at 65k and Axa Mansard declined by 6.85 per cent to close at N5.03 per share.
Analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 46 per cent.
A total of 477.44 million shares valued at N8.17 billion were exchanged in 9,529 deals, against 791.78 million shares valued at N15.13 billion exchanged in 9,059 deals posted in the previous session.
Veritas Kapital led the activity table in volume with 103.24 million shares valued at N125.59 million, while Oando led the table in value with 52.39 million shares worth N2.13 billion. (NAN)
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