NAIJAFEED

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Economy of Nigeria picks up due to non-oil sector growth

* Nigeria GDP grows 7.68 pct in Q4 2011 vs 7.40 in Q3

* Oil output falls in Q4 from year earlier

* GDP expected to jump after rebasing later this year

* Poverty increasing, in spite of growth (Adds details, quote, background)

By Joe Brock and Tim Cocks

ABUJA/LAGOS March 13 (Reuters) - Nigeria's economy grew at a faster rate in the fourth quarter last year than the previous three months because of a stronger performance in the non-oil sector, particularly telecoms, data showed on Tuesday.

Gross domestic product (GDP) in Africa's second-largest economy rose to 7.68 percent in the fourth quarter 2011, compared with 7.40 percent in the third quarter, the national bureau of statistics (NBS) said in a report.

Africa's largest oil exporter pumped an average of 2.4 million barrels per day in the last three months of the year, down from 2.6 million barrels per day a year earlier due to production outages.

But the non-oil sector grew 9.07 percent in the fourth quarter, higher than the 8.93 percent recorded in the same period in 2010.

"This growth was largely driven by improved activities in the telecommunications, building and construction, hotel and restaurant and business services," the NBS said.

Nigeria's economy grew 7.36 pct in the full year 2011, down from 7.98 pct in 2010, largely in line with expectations. The decline in growth reflects global economic sluggishness. Growth in Nigeria outperformed most developing economies.

Nigeria is reliant on oil exports for more than 95 percent of its foreign exchange revenues but only 15 percent of GDP. Agriculture is the largest contribution to GDP, making up about 40 percent of it.

Telecoms surged in Nigeria in the past decade after private companies were allowed to take advantage of the huge mobile phone market potential in the continent's most populous country.

"This sector continued to perform impressively and has remained one of the major drivers of growth in the Nigerian economy, with its contribution to total GDP increasing continuously," the NBS report said.

"The telecommunication sector recorded a real GDP growth of 36.31 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011," it added, but did not give a comparative figure for the previous quarter.

Investors are optimistic about the consumer potential in Nigeria, but so far the telecoms surge has not been followed in other sectors.

BUDGET COMING UP

Nigeria plans to change the base year for its GDP this year from to 2008 from 1990, a move that could lead to a "huge jump" in the estimated size of the West African country's economy.

When Ghana made a similar move to recalculate its GDP last November, its estimated output shot up by 60 percent, catapulting it into the ranks of the middle income countries.

Nigeria's parliament is deliberating on an amended 2012 budget proposal put forward by Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala last month.

Okonjo-Iweala widened the fiscal deficit projection in this year's spending plans to 2.97 percent last month, from the 2.77 percent in a previous budget plan presented last year due to lower revenue expectations.

The government was expecting to receive more funds after removing fuel subsidies on Jan. 1, but it was forced to reinstate them partially after tens of thousands took to the streets in more than a week of protests.

And the National Assembly usually adds to the budget.

"This is a cause for concern at a time when the government is trying to at least freeze recurrent expenditure and initiate some fiscal consolidation," said Standard Bank's Samir Gadio, adding that if they do it this time, the central bank would most likely be "forced to tighten monetary conditions further".

President Goodluck Jonathan won an election last year pledging to create jobs, boost woefully inadequate power supplies, unlock the world's seventh largest gas reserves and reduce poverty.

But reform plans have stalled. A bill aimed at overhauling the energy sector has been stuck in parliament for years, while a proposed sovereign wealth fund, the 2012 budget and power privatisation plans are months behind schedule.

Despite record high oil prices last year, Nigeria's foreign exchange reserves remained flat and oil savings fell. Nigeria is vulnerable to an oil price dip, but with prices at over $125 a barrel, revenues remain strong.

Despite rocketing growth, poverty is increasing in Nigeria owing largely to bad governance.

An NBS report a month ago showed poverty rose to 60.9 percent in 2010, compared with 54.7 percent in 2004, with almost 100 million people living on less than $1 a day.

"Growth without tangible development is a major risk to Nigeria's outlook," Gadio said. (Writing by Joe Brock. Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.)

Reuters

Non-Oil Sectors to Boost Economic Growth in Nigeria

Britain deports 120 Nigerians

One hundred and twenty Nigerians were deported yesterday, by government of the United Kingdom, for various offences; including lack of valid papers, over stay and other related immigration rules.

The deportees arrived the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, aboard a chartered cargo aircraft.

It was gather that the deportees who arrived in the early hours of yesterday comprised mainly of young men and women.

As they waited along the main entrance into the cargo terminal, drawing unusual attention from airport workers who were rushing to resume work in the early hours, the deportees expressed reservations over the way and manner they were brought back home in the cargo aircraft, which they said is enough indication of the value government places on them.

Scores of airport workers stopped to interface with the deportees, as some of them expressed fears of not knowing what to fall back on, now that they are back in the country they left many years ago.

One of the deportees said, ' I am not interested in discussing why we were brought back home, but, my problem now is how to get out of this international airport without drawing unusual attention.

I must add that it is not a pleasant experience.'

Another deportee, a young man, who gave his name as Wale said 'How do I cope now that we have been sent home unprepared?

He blamed the leadership of the country for their predicament, affirming that if the economic situation at home were pleasant, Nigerians would have had no business traveling abroad to seek for greener pastures.

Cars, mainly commercial limousine operators, lined up at the main entrance of the cargo terminal, willing to ferry the deportees to their respective destinations.

The Moment

Related stories: South Africa deports 125 Nigerians

Nigeria criticizes South Africa deporting 125 Nigerians

Murderers of British and Italian hostages explain their reason for killing them

Suspected kidnappers of the two European engineers - a Briton, Mr. Chris McManus, and an Italian, Mr. Franco Lamolinara-have explained that they decided to kill the duo because they [kidnappers] came under attack and would be killed by security agents who stormed their hideout.

The suspects were moved to Abuja last Friday by security agents for interrogation:

The suspects, reports said, told their interrogators that they were under instruction of their leaders to shoot the hostages whenever they came under any attack from security agents.

"We had a standing instruction to kill the hostages immediately we sighted security agents around the building. We were to kill the hostages since we were not sure of being alive after an encounter with security men," one of the suspects was quoted as saying.

Heavily armed soldiers and men of the State Security Service (SSS), backed by British security operatives, in a commando-like operation last Thursday stormed a criminal hideout at Mabera area of Sokoto to free the two expatriates.

Both men had been kidnapped by the suspects in Kebbi State since May 2, last year. They remained in captivity until their death last Thursday in Sokoto.

The failed rescue operation was said to have started around 10am on Thursday when the securitymen sneaked into Mabera, a sandy suburb in Sokoto metropolis, without attracting the attention of the residents of the area. Soon, they cordoned off the un-tarred road leading to the detached building where the abductors were hiding.

Sensing the presence of the security personnel whose operation was heralded by an aerial patrol of the area with a military helicopter, the abductors opened fire on them.

They shot sporadically into the air. Consequently, the security men who had laid ambush on the abductors from all sides then reciprocated by shooting at the house where the abductors were with the abducted expatriates.

It was gathered that before the soldiers engaged the kidnappers in the gun duel, they asked residents who were attracted to the area by the gunshots to leave. Witnesses told our correspondent that the operators of a block factory opposite the abductors' residence had to lie face-down.

Residents who were watching the operation from afar, said the kidnappers killed the British and Italian engineers when the soldiers were about to overpower them. "They killed the foreigners and threw their lifeless bodies outside the gate. But before then, a woman who was among the kidnappers came out from the house and, from afar, we saw her talking to the soldiers. She had a gunshot injury on her leg," Kabir Mohammed who resides in the area said.

According to him, the soldiers took the woman aside and the gun battle continued. He said the gateman was shot shortly after the woman left when he was trying to close the gate from inside. At the end of the operation, he said, he saw the soldiers carrying the lifeless bodies of two of the abductors and that of the gateman.

The people I saw in the compound were more than 10. A civil servant, Mani Abubakar, who resides in the area said his attention was attracted to the house when a helicopter was patrolling only the building. "I was in my house when I noticed the helicopter and some minutes later I started hearing gunshots from the house," he said. "I was peeping from my compound and, throughout the operation, I did not see any military or security operatives."

Four hours into the gun battle, the kidnappers jumped the fence of their house to an uncompleted building near them. From there, they were shooting and the soldiers set tyres ablaze and were throwing them to them."

Residents besieged the area a day after the failed rescue operation. From across the state, residents of Sokoto yesterday trooped to the house out of curiosity; as early as 7am, spectators continued to troop to the destroyed building. When our correspondent visited, people were seen moving from room to room in the house.

There were numerous gunshot holes in the building close to the house. Tyres were seen in an uncovered soak-away pit in the building. At the main house of the abductors, also, gunshot holes could be seen on the walls. After entering the gate of the house, our correspondent saw a two-bedroom flat.

Inside the compound, our correspondent saw three rooms each with a toilet. In one of the toilets, there was blood splashed all over. Spectators said it was where the expatriates were believed to have been killed.

Efforts to get the landlord or caretaker of the house yielded no result as the occupant of the only house facing the building refused to talk to the press.

Leadership

British and Italian hostages killed in Nigeria during failed rescue attempt

Monday, March 12, 2012

President Goodluck Jonathan condemns church attack

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has condemned Sunday's bombing at a Catholic church and reaffirmed his government's determination "to end the spate of mindless attacks and killings".

The comments came a day a suicide car bomber attacked St Finbar's Catholic Church in Jos, killing at least four people and touching off retaliatory violence that claimed an additional 10 lives.

The bomb exploded as worshippers attended the final Mass of the day in Jos, a city where thousands have died in the last decade in religious and ethnic violence.

Security at the gate of the church's compound stopped the suspicious car and the bomber detonated his explosives during an altercation that followed, Pam Ayuba, Plateau state spokesman, said.

Several soldiers were also wounded in the blast.

The bombing sparked retaliatory violence in Jos later on Sunday, with angry youths burning down homes and soldiers guarding the city opening fire in neighbourhoods, witnesses said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility though the city has been targeted in the past by a radical Islamist group known as Boko Haram.

Jos lies in the so-called middle belt region dividing the mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south, and hundreds of people have been killed in clashes in the city between Muslim and Christian ethnic groups in recent years.

Boko Haram claimed a series of bombings in Jos on Christmas Eve in 2010 that killed as many as 80 people.

The group also claimed a similar church bombing on February 26 on the main headquarters of the Church of Christ, which killed three people and wounded 38 others.

Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege, reporting from Lagos, said that the bombings have the hallmark of Boko Haram, though no one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

"Bomb blasts are becoming a weekly occurrence in Nigeria and people in the affected states are feeling increasingly vulnerable," she said.

Violence blamed on Boko Haram has since 2009 has claimed more than 1,000 lives, including more than 300 this year, according to figures tallied by the AFP news agency and rights groups.

Aljazeera

Video - Bomb blast near Church in Suleja

Friday, March 9, 2012

President Goodluck Jonathan condemns killing of hostages, Kidnappers arrested

President Gooodluck Jonathan has condemned the killing of two kidnapped foreigners - an Italian, Franco Lamolinara, and a Briton, Chris McManus, in Sokoto State on Thursday, March 8, by their Boko Haram captors before they could be rescued by a joint security raid on the kidnappers' hideout.

Describing their death as "sad, unfortunate and regrettable", the President on behalf of the Nigerian government and on his own behalf, extended heartfelt condolences to the families of the bereaved and the people and government of Italy and Britain.

The President, who particularly commended the cooperation and understanding of the British and Italian governments, assured that the perpetrators of the murderous act, who have all been arrested, would be made to face the full wrath of the law.

President Jonathan also assured that the Nigerian government would take every necessary step to protect the lives of foreigners in the country.

Nigeria First

Nigerian pirates rob cargo ship and hold crew hostage