NEWS
Senate to Review Companies and Allied Matters Act
By Eze Okechukwu, Abuja
The Senate committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions on Wednesday gave assurances to review the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) in order to grant additional capacity to shareholders to oversee the operations of their business investments.
The Banking committee, chaired by Senator Mukhail Adetokunbo Abiru (APC, Lagos East) made this known during an interaction with the board members of the Bank Directors Association of Nigeria (LTD/GTE), led by its Chairman, Mr.
Mustafa Chike-Obi.Chike-Obi, while speaking on the challenges bedeviling the Banking industry said that there was an urgent need to amend the CAMA Act, in tandem with current realities.
According to him, “the CAMA Act states that one third of all the directors of companies (banks in this case) must be independent directors but unfortunately for banks, half of their directors are usually predominantly Executive Directors. Therefore, if one third are selected it will imply that one third of the half are independent.”
Seeking for a review of the law, the BDAN Chairman said; “What we thought was that one third of the non-executives should be independent, not one third of all the board members should be independent. So, shareholders are complaining that we only have 3 seats on the board. Five are independent and the eight are Executives.
In his response, Senator Abiru informed the Bank Directors that the Senate is currently amending the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation Act (NDIC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Act. He promised that the Senate Committee will also examine the current CAMA Act, with the view to bringing it in line with current realities.
He said; “The administration informed us that they want a 1 trillion dollar economy within eight years , which we have endorsed. Part of that is that we have to raise more capital, because the capital we have in banks today cannot support a 1 trillion dollar economy.
“All of us are going to raise capital to meet the objective within a year or two to meet the President’s objective. However, we want more synergy between measures to fight inflation and GDP growth.
Senator Abiru added that the problems will be addressed at completion of the amendments saying that the Senate would ensure synergy between the fiscal and monetary authorities.
Abia House of Assembly has denied social media report that it mandated the Deputy Governor, Ikechukwu Emetu, to issue a public apology over a misunderstanding between him and its member.The Deputy Speaker and Spokesperson, Austin Meregini, who debunked such report while addressing newsmen in Umuahia on Thursday, said the House did not reach any resolution to that effect.
He admitted that there was a misunderstanding between the deputy governor and Mr Mba Nwoko, member representing Ohafia South State Constituency, but said the matter had been taken care of Report says that there have been publications by social media of the House mandating the deputy governor to apologise to Nwoko for disrespecting the lawmaker during the recent state-wide local government elections. It was alleged that Emetu, who is from the same constituency with Nwoko, had instructed the security operatives to arrest the lawmaker for asking about the election result sheet.Condemning the report, Meregini, who is the Chairman, House Committee on Media, said that it was the imagination and figment of the mischief makers.He said that the deputy governor and the lawmaker are brothers, hence there was no need for the Assembly to pass a resolution mandating such an apology.Meregini said: “I was present at the Tuesday sitting, both at the plenary and executive session; there was no time we reached such resolution.“We do not condone any kind of misunderstanding, but as long as we co-exist, there’s bound to be misunderstanding every now and then.“When there is need, we do offer constructive criticism and constructive oversight on the activities of the government and the Executive and we expect that it will continue.”He reaffirmed the robust relationship between the Legislature and the Executive, saying that it would continue to exist for the benefit of Abia people.The deputy speaker commended the Executive on the level of implementation, while expressing satisfaction with the quality of bills passed by the Assembly.(NAN)
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has proposed the sum of N47.9 trillion for the 2025 fiscal year for submission to the National Assembly on Monday.The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu disclosed this after the Council meeting chaired by President Bola Tinubu on Thursday at the Presidential Villa.
According to him, the Council pegged the price of crude oil at 75 dollar per barrel and proposed N1400 as exchange rate to a dollar with oil production put at 2. 06million barrels per day.Bagudu said that the budget proposal included new borrowings of N9.2 trillion to finance the budget deficit in 2025.The minister added that with the growth rate of 3.19 per cent as at the second quarter of 2024, the Federal Government would continue to tackle Inflation, strengthen economic resilience and provide more support for the economy.He also said that government would continue to support high employment generation sectors, improve business environment and effective implementation of youths development and social investment programmes.Bagudu also disclosed that FEC reviewed the 2024 Budget implementation and acknowledged that the review revealed promising in revenue collection and expenditure management.” Despite lacks in prorated target, the overall trajectory shows that fiscal effort are on track with key non-oil streams performing better than anticipated.Similarly, the minister said FEC approved the medium term expenditure framework and the fiscal strategy paper to be submitted to the NASS.” This is in addition to the bills that are already at the National Assembly, the Economic Stabilisation Bill and Tax Reforms Bill , which we believe we will have a very strong growth in 2025,” he said. (NAN)
Gov. Monday Okpebholo of Edo has ordered immediate freezing of all the state bank accounts until further notice.Okpebholo gave the directive in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Fred Itua, on Thursday in Benin.He warned that non-compliance by commercial banks as well as heads of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) would result in severe penalties.
“All bank accounts in all commercial banks are now frozen. Commercial banks must ensure strict adherence and prevent any withdrawal from government accounts until further notice,” the statement said. Okpebholo stated that necessary investigations and financial reconciliations would determine subsequent actions.He also ordered the reversal of the Ministry of Roads and Bridges to the old Ministry of Works with immediate effect.The governor cited what he called lack of completed bridges or significant road projects as a justification for changing the ministry of roads and bridges back to ministry of works.“It is ironic that despite its name, the ministry did not construct a single bridge, not even a pedestrian one,” he said.The governor directed immediate implementation and reflection of the new name across official documents and platforms. (NAN)
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