Business News
Dangote Canvasses Dismantling of Trade Barriers Among African Countries
Africa’s foremost entrepreneur and President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote has urged African countries to dismantle all economic barriers hindering free trade among the nations, in order to achieve sustainable growth and development across the continent.
The leading private sector player also expressed the irrevocable commitment of his Pan-African conglomerate, Dangote Industries Limited to solving some of the economic challenges faced by the African continent and her people.
To realise this goal, the organisation has committed over 20 billion dollars on investments in several key sectors of the African economy.Speaking in Lagos at the launch of a Special publication “The World Ahead 2023” by the renowned media outfit, The Economist, Dangote, who was represented by the Group Executive Director/Group Chief Risk Officer, Dangote Industries Limited, Dr.
Adenike Fajemirokun, noted that the crucial task of building a sustainable future that guarantees equitable growth and prosperity for all, should not be the exclusive role of the public sector alone, but should also involve the private sector.“Our massive investments of over 20 billion dollars across key industries, including Energy, Agriculture, and Infrastructure. Our recently commissioned 3Million Metric Tonnes’ Fertiliser Plant, expansions in cement production, and our soon-to-be commissioned 650,000 barrels per day world’s largest single-train refinery, are all set to empower farmers, foster backward integration, create thousands of jobs, eliminate our dependence on imported products, and improve our nation’s foreign exchange earnings significantly.
Dangote who made this disclosure said the massive investments were meant to turn around Africa’s economic fortunes in the quest for sustained economic growth of the continent through free trade and economic integration.
“We are also confronting environmental issues through our investment in alternative fuels, as well as unlocking enormous opportunities in the communities where we have our footprints, while ultimately ensuring that we keep delivering huge value to our shareholders.
“The multilayered issues that we face globally and across regions today, ranging from rising energy costs, food insecurity, supply-chain disruptions, access to quality healthcare, cybersecurity, inflation amongst others brought about by the pandemic or other human factors like the Russia-Ukraine war, call for an objective rethink of geopolitics and geo-economics, especially as they vastly affect policy execution and the ease of doing business in more vulnerable economies,” he stated.
Drawing the attention of the international audience to the need for all hands to be on deck towards lifting Africa above the various socio-economic challenges facing the member-countries, Dangote pointed out that the African population has been growing exponentially.
“Nigeria, for instance, is projected to be the world’s third largest population by 2050 surpassing the United States, only behind India and China, so the question of sustained economic growth has become increasingly critical and isn’t one for a single sector to tackle alone. To secure the future of our country and our continent we must forge strong public-private partnerships and dismantle regional barriers with vehicles like the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).”
Dangote advised that “going forward, the overarching conversations, whether at global or regional levels, in emerging markets or in OECD countries, must be refocused towards exploring the specifics of our fast-changing world, in order to align public-private perspectives and identify areas for collaboration for the collective good of people, planet, and profit.”
He commended ‘The Economist’ for putting together the publication that was being launched, describing it as a rich body of work that offers useful data for all sectors to draw insights from and synthesize the same towards arriving at cutting-edge action points.
In his remarks, Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat described the publication as a valuable document for policymakers and strategic planners, and noted that its contents reaffirm part of the strategies the Lagos State government has executed to make Lagos assume its status as the preferred destination of choice for investors.
According to him, Lagos has just 0.4 per cent of the land mass of Nigeria but has 11 per cent of the country’s population, which explains why some of the challenges in Lagos are peculiar to the metropolis, disclosing that some of the strategies adopted by the state government are geared toward solving the challenges.
He said Lagos is Africa’s fastest growing economy and added that a key policy of the state government is to improve its investment profile by providing an enabling environment. Hamzat also noted that the state has invested billions of Naira in infrastructure and technology, citing the Lekki Deep Seaport as one of the enablers which has made Lagos to attract 60 per cent of the Foreign Direct Investment into Nigeria.
Also speaking, the Regional Executive and Managing Director of Ecobank Nigeria Limited, Mr. Mobolaji Lawal hailed the Economist special launch, as it provides an opportunity for knowledge sharing for the government and private sector to explore emerging opportunities in the digital space.
“If we get it right, it will stimulate growth and drive transformation and ensure economic growth”, the Ecobank boss stressed.
Naira remained constant yesterday, exchanging at N464.67 to the dollar at the Investors and Exporters’ window.
The local currency did not change from its value on Monday, while the open indicative rate closed at N464.96 to the dollar yesterday.
An exchange rate of N467 to the dollar was the highest rate recorded within the day’s trading before it settled at N464.
67.The naira sold for as low as N460 to the dollar within the day’s trading.
A total of 186.02 million dollars was traded at the official Investors and Exporters’ window yesterday.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday in Kano carried out sensitisation campaign on the e-Naira at the Aliko Dangote University of Science and Technology (ADUST) Wudil.
The Kano Branch Controller of the bank, Umar Ibrahim-Biu, called on the university community to adopt the new e-wallet system in its payment of tuitions, salaries and other financial transactions.
He explained the need for the university community to migrate to the cashless system was for financial security and efficiency by adopting to the e-Naira initiative.
The controller said that e-Naira was a trail blazer now as it had come to stay and the bank was trying to make sure that everybody was brought on board.
“We’ve been to Universities of Nsuka and Jos and now we are here to also sell the idea of e-Naira wallet to both the students and staff of the institution,” he said
“Our target is where the students can use the facility to pay their tuition fees and other payments through the e-Naira wallet,” he added.
“This will help the students a lot, it’s the safest way of handling your funds. Nobody will steal it, it will eradicate corruption. One does not need to carry huge amount of cash,” he said.
“The VC has accepted it. With e-Naira they can get up to five per cent revert on every payment they make.
“Their money doesn’t go like that they save something out of it. There are a lot of other incentives they can enjoy,” he added.
Earlier, the Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Musa Yakasai, gave the assurance that the institution would key into the e-Naira initiative.
Yakasai appreciated the initiative and lauded the Bank for coming to launch the e-Naira initiative in the institution.
He said the students were already e-Naira compliant.
“They are doing a lot of things, some of the academic activities are via e-platforms. So its very easy for students to adopt this e-era.
The students asked some questions regarding the safety of their deposits in the initiative.
“We now understand the e-Naira concept and we are now convinced and we will call on our students and other stakeholders to key into this initiative.”
“It makes it easier for everyone to operate without having to move with a lot of cash,” Yakasai stated. (NAN)
Nigeria and other members of the Oganisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) as well as the Non-OPEC members have agreed to cut production volumes to ensure global oil market stability.
The agreement was reached at the 35th Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) meeting of OPEC held in Vienna, Austria on June 4.
Nigerian delegation was led by Amb.
Gabriel Aduda, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, who was also confirmed OPEC Governor for Nigeria at the meeting in Vienna.OPEC and its allies have agreed to cut global oil production by 1.
393 million barrels per day, reducing Nigeria’s oil production quota by 20.7 per cent.Aduda said Nigeria, Congo and Angola agreed that the highest production volumes of the last Six months (November 2022 – April 2023) be used as the basis for the determination of their 2024 production quota.
“This is subject to a review in November at the second annual meeting of the JMMC.
“However, the current OPEC quota would be maintained till the end of 2023.
“This implies that Nigeria can ramp up its production up to its current quota of 1742 Thousand Barrels Per Day (KB/D) and subsequently be capped at 10 per cent less as its quota for 2024 subject to verification by independent secondary sources,” he said.
Aduda expressed confidence that the security intervention under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu, would enable the restoration of Nigeria’s production to the 1580KB/D crude oil only.
This, he said would be complimented by condensate of about 400KB/D ultimately upping Nigeria’s crude oil and condensate production to about Two Million Barrels per day in 2024. (NAN)
Deposit Money Bank (DBMs) and merchant banks borrowing Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) increased to N7.5trillion in the first five months of 2023, an increase of 276 per cent from N1.99 trillion reported in the first five months of 2022.
Data from the CBN showed that DMBs and merchant banks borrowing through the Standing Lending Facility (SLF) witnessed significant increase as banks grappled with the fallout from the new naira notes policy in 2022, among other factors.
Analysis of CBN numbers showed that DMBs and merchant banks’ borrowings from the CBN surged by 276 per cent Year on Year (YoY), signalling that they faced a liquidity squeeze during the period as the country’s demonetisation drive triggered chronic cash shortages.
The CBN lends money to DMBs and merchant banks through the SLF at interest rate of 100 basis points above the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR).
Standing facilities (lending and deposit) are instruments of liquidity management, according to the CBN. They serve as avenues to invest surplus funds overnight and to square up whenever the system is short at the end of each business day.
The apex banking regulating body has SLF, a short-term lending window for DMBs and merchant banks to access liquidity to run their day-to-day business operations.
The CBN had on October 26, 2022 announced that the N200, N500 and N1,000 notes would be redesigned and introduced into the economy from December 15, 2022 while DMBs were directed to return existing denominations to the CBN.
The Governor, CBN, Godwin Emefiele at the first Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in 2023 had said money market rates oscillated below and within the asymmetric corridor of the standing facilities window, reflecting changing liquidity conditions in the banking system.
“The CBN has been aggressive in its intervention in the first two months of 2023. The CBN’s CRR debit has increased significantly this year when compared to last year. DMBs always visit the SLF window when CBN debit them CRR every two weeks,” Emefiele said.
Meanwhile, analysts attributes the increase in SLF to cash scarcity, stressing that DMBs and merchant banks were no longer enjoying the usual cash deposits that normally come from businesses and individuals that generate significant amount of cash from relationship with various third parties.
AfDB Reiterates Commitment to Support Women-led Enterprises in Africa
The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group has reiterated its commitment towards supporting women-led enterprises on the continent.
The bank in a statement on its website said it will provide grants to small businesses to ensure this was achieved.
“The AfDB’s Gender Equality Trust Fund (GETF) will provide a 950,000 dollars grant to the Africa Small and Medium Enterprise Business Linkages (SMEBL) Programme in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger.
”The grant, which will supplement an earlier 3.9 million dollars financing grant from the Bank’s Transition Support Facility, is expected to bolster 1,400 women-led enterprises.
”It will also contribute to the region’s economic resilience and social cohesion,” it said.
According to the statement, the GETF supports the delivery and scaling of the bank’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa, (AFAWA) program.
It explained that AFAWA aimed to close the 42 billion dollars gender financing gap for women-led African enterprises by promoting gender-transformative lending and non-lending operations.
The AfDB’s Director for Gender, Women and Civil Society, Malado Kaba, expressed the Bank’s excitement in impacting over a thousand women entrepreneurs across the Sahel region, through this programme.
“We believe one key to building resilient African societies is the inclusion of women in economic development.
”The programme’s wide range of business-related training and coaching, in addition to increasing access to finance will go a long way toward reaching that goal,” she added.
According to Kaba, women entrepreneurs in the Sahel region face significant barriers to accessing finance, markets, and business development services.
She said the Africa SMEBL Programme would provide women entrepreneurs with the tools and resources needed to overcome these barriers and grow their businesses.
”It will also help increase productivity and employment opportunities, especially for young women and men, including offering capacity building in entrepreneurship, core business functions and management training,” she said.
Kaba said the bank’s Gender, Women and Civil Society Department conducted three studies and consulted with Sahel region chambers of commerce to identify women-led businesses to participate in the program.
According to her, AfDB also supports national statistics offices to build more robust, gender-responsive data, which helps measure programme impact.
”The G5 Sahel Union of Chambers of Commerce will administer the programme in collaboration with financial institutions and intermediaries to directly support access to finance for local, small and medium enterprises.
”The Africa (SMEBL) Programme aligns with the AfDB’s 2021-2024 Private Sector Development Strategy, its 2021-2025 Gender Strategy and the 2022-2026 strategy for addressing fragility and building resilience in Africa.
”The Bank Group’s Board of Directors approved the grant on March 23,”Kaba said. (NAN)
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