Economy
World Bank Investments in Nigeria hit $11bn
The World Bank has sunk a princely $11bn into Nigeria’s economy and development since its engagement with the country over the years.
Country Director, Rachid Benmessaoud, who disclosed this Thursday, in Abuja at the maiden edition of the Nigeria Portfolio Performance Award organised in partnership with the Ministry of Finance, said the bank’s investment was targeted at poverty alleviation projects and programmes that improved the living standards of the people.
The award was to recognise and honour outstanding performance from project implementation units of World Bank supported projects at states and federal levels.
Benmessaoud said 60 per cent of the bank’s programmes were implemented at the state level and another 40 per cent by the federal government adding the bank’s portfolio in Nigeria with over 30 operational projects was among the largest in the entire African region.
He said the projects were spread across health, education, agriculture, social protection, energy, infrastructure, and governance among others in the 36 states of Nigeria, including the FCT.
He also said the bank was working toward a new country partnership framework that would outline the new reform challenges that the government faces and how it could support it in implementing solutions to the challenges.
“The country partnership strategy is always anchored on the economic reform plan of the government and in this case, we have used the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).
“Which is the medium term programme of the government on which we are anchoring our country partnership framework.
“We have plans to scale up our commitment but you know the scale up is not only about funding.
“One can say it is really important to realise that even if we scale up, it will not be sufficient to address the large gap that is needed to be filled.
“We feel that the world bank can play a catalytic role in creating a conducive environment for private sector to finance infrastructure so that we can create the fiscal space for the government to put more money in human capital and in social spending.’’
Speaking about the awards, The country director explained that the awards were introduced to recognise the various entities that were involved in implementing the bank’s programmes in terms of their performance.
“We have a number of criteria with which we have evaluated these entities and we felt that bringing all of these entities together into an award ceremony would help us to recognise all of the good works that all of them are doing and recognise those that have done something special that others can replicate.
“There is a lot of learning that we are emphasising in our engagements, states have to learn from each other and that is what we would like to create, the space where the states can learn from each other’’, he said .
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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