Economy
President Buhari Approves N656 Bn Fresh Budget Support Facility for States
The National Economic Council (NEC) says President Muhammadu Buhari has approved a fresh N656 billion Bridge Financing Facility to the 36 States.
Hajiya Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, disclosed this on Thursday at a virtual NEC meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and anchored from the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The minister said that the support was to help state governments to meet their financial obligations, especially the previous budget support facility due for repayment.
According to Ahmed, each state will receive N18.2 billion.
Ahmed said that the bridge facility was being processed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“The approved bridge facility of N656.112 billion will be disbursed in six tranches over a period of six months to the states.
“Expectedly, each of the 36 States will have a total loan amount of N18.225 billion; with a 30-year tenor, and a 2-year moratorium at an interest rate of nine per cent.
“The facility is to help the states afford the repayment of previous bailout facilities guaranteed for them by the Federal Government,’’ she said.
On July 15, the council had received updates on the budget support facility to states.
At that meeting, Ahmed informed NEC that the deductions for repayment of previous bailout facilities would commence soon.
Subsequently, the states sought further support leading to the idea of bridge financing.
Meanwhile, the Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib, has briefed the council on the status of the country’s COVID-19 vaccine roll-out.
Shuaib said that Nigeria had received over 100 million doses of COVID–19 vaccines from COVAX, AU and some countries, which was sufficient to ramp up vaccination for about 50 per cent of the targeted population.
“The total eligible population of Nigerians for the vaccine is over 111 million.
“Given the availability of vaccines, we have started rolling out a plan to vaccinate 50 percent of Nigerians, 18 years and above by Jan. 31, 2022,’’ he said.
The NPHCDA boss added that there would be a scaling up of over 3,000 health facilities nationwide.
Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, the Director-General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), also made a presentation to the council.
He said Nigerians must continue to maintain and sustain the COVID-19 response, especially as it entered the holiday period where there would be travels within and outside the country and mass events to herald the holiday season.
“The country should maintain visibility of the outbreak by testing, continuing to encourage adherence to public health and social measures, encourage vaccination and address vaccine hesitancy,” he said.
He added that the Delta variant of the COVID-19 was still the dominant strain of concern in the country.(NAN)
The Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX) continued its bullish trend on Wednesday, gaining N183 billion.
Accordingly, the market capitalisation, which opened at N59.532 trillion, gained N184 billion or 0.31 per cent to close at N59.715 trillion.
The All-Share Index also added 0.31 per cent or 303 points, to settle at 98,509.
68, against 98,206. 97 recorded on Tuesday.Consequently, the Year-To-Date (YTD) return increased to 31.
74 per cent.Gains in Aradel Holdings, Zenith Bank, United Bank For Africa(UBA), Oando Plc, Nigerian Breweries among other advanced equities drove the market performance up.
Market breadth closed positive with 34 gainers and 17 losers.
On the gainers’ chart, Africa Prudential, Conoil and RT Briscoe led by 10 per cent each to close at N14.30, N352 and N2.42 per share, respectively.
Golden Guinea Breweries followed by 9.95 per cent to close at N7.18, while NEM Insurance rose by 9.74 per cent to close at N10.70 per share.
On the other hand, Julius Berger led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent to close at N155.25, Secure Electronic Technology Plc trailed by 9.52 per cent to close at 57k per share.
Multiverse lost 7.63 per cent to close at N5.45, Haldane McCall dropped 6.07 per cent to close at N4.95 and Honeywell Flour shed 5.62 per cent to close at N4.70 per share.
Analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 49.44 per cent.
A total of 320.10 million shares valued at N6.48 billion were exchanged in 7,943 deals, compared with 939.41 million shares valued at N12.81billion traded in 9,098 deals posted in the previous session.
Meanwhile, ETranzact led the activity chart in volume with 70.27 million shares, while Aradel led in value of deals worth N1.22 billion.(NAN)
The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the Yuan, weakened 22 pips to 7.1870 against the dollar on Monday.This is according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.In China’s spot foreign exchange market, the Yuan is allowed to rise or fall by two per cent from the central parity rate each trading day.
The central parity rate of the Yuan against the dollar is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening of the interbank market each business day. (Xinhua/NAN)
Arewa Youths Initiative for Energy Reforms (AYIFER), has urged Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) to do everything possible to bring Kaduna Refinery back into operation.
National Coordinator of the group, Mr Bashir Al’Amin, stated this in a statement issued on Friday in Abuja.
Al’Amin specifically called on the Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mallam Mele Kyari, to do all within his powers to rejuvenate the refinery and bring it up to global standard.
He said that having delivered the Port Harcourt refinery, coupled with the establishment of Dangote Refinery in Lagos, attention should be shifted to Kaduna refinery for easy spread of petroleum products.
“We are calling on Malam Mele Kyari to expedite action on Kaduna refinery so we can be at par with other regions in the country.
“We equally beg the NNPCL to do professional work in rehabilitating the old refinery and deliver a standard and functional petrochemical refinery and not a blending plant.
“Kyari should resist any temptation that could make him do something that can jeopardise his good image,” he said.
Al’Amin said that since the extinction of groundnut pyramid and textiles in Kano State as well as PAN in Kaduna State and with the Kaduna refinery getting moribund, a lot of youths had lost their jobs.
According to him, all their hopes in the north are tied to the legacy refinery, expressing the hope that God would use Kyari to deliver it well and on time.
He said that the group was solidly behind NNPCL in prayer and would be ready to celebrate the company if its expectations were met. (NAN)
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