JPMorgan will eject Nigeria from its Government Bond Index (GBI-EM) by the year-end unless it restores liquidity to currency markets in a way that allows foreign investors tracking the benchmark to transact with minimal hurdles.
The bank said late on Friday it had extended the deadline to eject Africa's biggest economy by another six months to take into account the arrival of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Nigeria held closely-fought presidential elections in March, in which opposition leader Buhari defeated incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan, in the country's first transition of power through the ballot box.
JPMorgan, which runs the most commonly used emerging debt indexes, placed Nigeria on a negative index watch in January and then said it would assess its place on the index over a three to five months period.
"Nigeria's status in the GBI-EM series will be finalized in the coming months but no later than year-end," JPMorgan said.
Removal from the index would force funds tracking it to sell Nigerian bonds from their portfolios, potentially resulting in significant capital outflows. This in turn would raise borrowing costs for Africa's largest economy, already suffering from a sharp drop revenue following a plunged in oil prices.
Nigeria's forex and bond markets have come under pressure after the price of oil, Nigeria's main export, plunged. In response, the central bank fixed the exchange rate in February after devaluing the naira last year and tightened trading rules to curb speculation. The naira has lost 8.5 percent this year.
"If we are unable to verify these factors, a review of Nigeria's status within the benchmark for removal will be triggered," it said in report, adding that the factors included a liquid currency market.
Analysts did not expect JPMorgan to remove Nigeria.
JPMorgan added Nigeria to the widely followed index in 2012, when liquidity was improving, making it only the second African country after South Africa to be included. It added Nigeria's 2014, 2019, 2022 and 2024 bonds.
The bank said Nigeria continues to remain eligible for the GBI-EM index, which has around $210 billion in assets under management benchmarked to it, with a weight of 1.8 percent.
The central bank last week made a tiny adjustment to its exchange rate peg to the dollar, which one analyst said may indicate that it is beginning to think about how to loosen its currency regime.
Reuters
Monday, June 8, 2015
Friday, June 5, 2015
Dozens dead after suspected Boko Haram bombing in Yola Market, Nigeria
Two suicide bombers blew themselves up in the main market in Nigeria's northeastern city of Yola, killing 29 people and themselves, officials said Friday, blaming the extremist Boko Haram group.
Another 38 victims, some with serious injuries, are being treated in the hospitals in this city already swollen with refugees from the conflict, Sa'ad Bello of the National Emergency Management Agency told The Associated Press.
"I can see blood splattered everywhere, including my car, but I can't give any detail because we are all running," bread seller Ayuba Dan Mallam said shortly after Thursday night's blast.
The explosion was timed to go off as merchants were closing shop, others were hurrying to make last-minute purchases and commuters were catching tricycle taxis home.
Deputy Police Superintendent Othman Abubakar blamed the Boko Haram extremist group and said two suicide bombers were among 31 corpses recovered from the scene.
It is the first such attack on Yola, which has had its population doubled by some 300,000 refugees fleeing the insurgent violence in the northeast that has killed some 13,000 people and forced 1.5 million from their homes. Boko Haram has been fighting for nearly six years to impose Shariah law across Nigeria. Half the population of 170 million is Christian.
Two hours earlier, eight soldiers were killed by a suicide car bomb at a checkpoint outside a military barracks in Maiduguri, the biggest city in the northeast some 410 kilometers (255 miles) northeast of Yola.
The Islamic extremists have stepped up attacks after a months-long lull during which a multinational force drove them from the towns where they had declared an Islamic caliphate.
More than 60 people have been killed since the weekend in Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram. Daily attacks started after President Muhammadu Buhari declared at his inauguration May 29 that he is moving the command center for the war from Abuja, the capital in central Nigeria, to Maiduguri.
Buhari was in neighboring Chad on Thursday, urging more support for the multinational force in which battle-hardened Chadian troops have played a leading role.
AP
Another 38 victims, some with serious injuries, are being treated in the hospitals in this city already swollen with refugees from the conflict, Sa'ad Bello of the National Emergency Management Agency told The Associated Press.
"I can see blood splattered everywhere, including my car, but I can't give any detail because we are all running," bread seller Ayuba Dan Mallam said shortly after Thursday night's blast.
The explosion was timed to go off as merchants were closing shop, others were hurrying to make last-minute purchases and commuters were catching tricycle taxis home.
Deputy Police Superintendent Othman Abubakar blamed the Boko Haram extremist group and said two suicide bombers were among 31 corpses recovered from the scene.
It is the first such attack on Yola, which has had its population doubled by some 300,000 refugees fleeing the insurgent violence in the northeast that has killed some 13,000 people and forced 1.5 million from their homes. Boko Haram has been fighting for nearly six years to impose Shariah law across Nigeria. Half the population of 170 million is Christian.
Two hours earlier, eight soldiers were killed by a suicide car bomb at a checkpoint outside a military barracks in Maiduguri, the biggest city in the northeast some 410 kilometers (255 miles) northeast of Yola.
The Islamic extremists have stepped up attacks after a months-long lull during which a multinational force drove them from the towns where they had declared an Islamic caliphate.
More than 60 people have been killed since the weekend in Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram. Daily attacks started after President Muhammadu Buhari declared at his inauguration May 29 that he is moving the command center for the war from Abuja, the capital in central Nigeria, to Maiduguri.
Buhari was in neighboring Chad on Thursday, urging more support for the multinational force in which battle-hardened Chadian troops have played a leading role.
AP
Video - SaharaTV's Adeola Fayehun confronts President Mugabe in Nigeria
Adeola Fayehun’s ambush of ageing Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has catapulted the queen of Nigerian satire, already a star in many countries in Africa, into the international spotlight.
In a clip which has received 270,000 views on YouTube, Fayehun and her colleague Omoyele Sowore question Mugabe as he makes his way to and from new Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari’s inauguration on 29 May.
Sowore initially disarms Mugabe by asking: “Mr Mugabe, how are you?”
Smiling uncomfortably, he replies: “I am well, thanks”.
“Well, you know they also want elections in your country, when is it happening next in your country?” Sowore asks.
“In my country? Well, we had our elections…” He tapers off as an aide comes to his rescue.
After Buhari’s speech, as Mugabe made his way back to the car Fayehun delivers the next barrage of questions.
“Mr President, don’t you think it is time to step down?” “Is there a time limit?” “How’s your health?’ “When will there be change in Zimbabwe?” “Is there democracy in Zimbabwe?”
She ends the clip looking for her next victim, asking: “Is [South African president] Jacob Zuma here?”
While many Africans across the continent have been aware of the refreshing talents of Fayehun, who has presented around 150 episodes of her weekly satirical news show Keeping It Real since it launched on Sahara TV in November 2011, it took the daring ambush of Robert Mugabe for her to be noticed in internationally.
After the incident, The Telegraph’s chief political correspondent Colin Freeman wrote: “compared the BBC’s John Simpson or CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Adeola Fayehun from Nigeria is not exactly a global name in the world of television reporting. This week, though, she made broadcasting history as she did something that few African reporters have ever dared do: ask one their ageing dictators when the hell he is going to quit.”
Nigerian-born Fayehun is based in New York, where she has teamed up with Sowore, who launched the website Sahara Reporters in 2006 to encourage citizen journalists to report on corruption and mismanagement in Nigeria.
Fayehun’s talents helped launch Sahara TV’s hugely popular online comedy programme, the Dr Njakiri Damages Show. When Sowore later asked Fayehun if she was interested in hosting a news programme she jumped at the offer.
And Fayehun’s style has proved popular: pithy, well-researched social commentary and news combined with sharp satire and a dollop of comedy. All the ingredients that have seen hits like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report in the US become the favoured mediums for the delivery of political information and entertainment.
Guardian
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Video - PDP trying to reinvent itself after loosing presidency
Goodluck Jonathan's PDP party once dominated Nigerian politics. It had control of the presidency, the parliament and most states, but recent elections saw them kicked out of power at almost every level. Is the PDP ready to play its role in opposition?
69 dead in fuel tanker explosion in Nigeria
Sixty-nine people have been killed and 35 people injured after a fuel tanker crashed into a busy bus stop in Southeast Nigeria.
"There is a likelihood that the number will go up," said Umar Abdou Mairiga, Nigeria's Red Cross coordinator.
The state fire service responded to the accident where 12 buses were destroyed but no major buildings were affected in the city of Onitsha.
The accident comes as Nigeria struggles with a nationwide fuel shortage after fuel industry companies claimed the Nigerian government owed them$1 billion in unpaid bills.
Fuel prices have increased with the shortage, and at accidents such as this, often people run forward to try to siphon as much fuel from the spill in buckets as possible. It is unclear if that was the case this time.
In 2012, over 100 people died as they tried to collect fuel from an overturned tanker that caught fire in nearby Rivers state.
The injured have been taken to area hospitals.
CNN
"There is a likelihood that the number will go up," said Umar Abdou Mairiga, Nigeria's Red Cross coordinator.
The state fire service responded to the accident where 12 buses were destroyed but no major buildings were affected in the city of Onitsha.
The accident comes as Nigeria struggles with a nationwide fuel shortage after fuel industry companies claimed the Nigerian government owed them$1 billion in unpaid bills.
Fuel prices have increased with the shortage, and at accidents such as this, often people run forward to try to siphon as much fuel from the spill in buckets as possible. It is unclear if that was the case this time.
In 2012, over 100 people died as they tried to collect fuel from an overturned tanker that caught fire in nearby Rivers state.
The injured have been taken to area hospitals.
CNN
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)