Monday, June 20, 2022

Nigeria blocking repatriation of $450 million in foreign airline revenue

Nigeria is withholding $450 million in revenue international carriers operating in the country have earned, an executive at the world's largest airlines association said on Sunday.

Africa's largest economy has restricted access to foreign currency for imports and for investors seeking to repatriate their profits as the nation tackles a severe dollar shortage.

The International Air Transport Association's Vice President for Africa and the Middle East, Kamal Al Awadhi, described talks with Nigerian officials to release the funds as a "hectic ride".

"We keep chipping away and hoping that it clicks that this is going to going to damage the country down the road," he told reporters in Doha on the eve of IATA's annual meeting of airline chiefs there this week.

Al Awadhi, a former chief executive of Kuwait Airways, said Nigerian officials had blamed the foreign currency shortage for not repatriating the airline revenue.

The Central Bank spokesperson in Nigeria did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Nigeria has previously blocked revenue from foreign airlines before later repatriating the funds.

IATA has so far had held two rounds of talks with Nigerian officials, including from the Central Bank, who Al Awadhi said were "not responsive" to releasing cash.

Another round of talks between IATA and Nigerian officials is expected to start soon, the airline lobby group said, without specifying when.

"Hopefully, we can get some sort of solution where it starts going down (but) it won't, I doubt, be paid in a single shot," Al Awadhi said.

IATA says $1 billion of revenue belonging to foreign airlines is being withheld across Africa, although Nigeria is the only country where the value of blocked funds has risen.

The $450 million, the largest amount withheld by any African nation, in May was 12.5% higher than the previous month.

Algeria, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, who combined are withholding $271 million from foreign airlines, in May marginally paid down what they owed. Eritrea was unchanged at $75 million, IATA said.

Reuters








Friday, June 17, 2022

Video - Reaction from Nigeria after a 10-0 smashing of Sao Tome and Principe

 

We turn to the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers where Nigeria smashed Sao Tome and Principe 10-nil for a record victory for the Super Eagles earlier this week at the Agadir Stadium in Morocco. Napoli forward Victor Osimhen grabbed four goals in the astonishing win. CGTN's Deji Badimosi brings us the reaction from Nigeria.

Nigeria's Abubakar picks southern governor as 2023 election running mate

Nigeria's main opposition presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar on Thursday picked a governor from the oil producing Delta state as running mate for next year's presidential election.

The choice points to a strategy by Abubakar, a northern Muslim, to generate support in the largely Christian south.

In Nigeria, with a population of 200 million and some 250 ethnic groups, geographical affiliations are crucial in calculations for political and electoral supremacy.

Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa, 62, has been governor of Delta since 2015 and is a veteran of the opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) party.

"I know that he will not only add excitement to our already energised campaign, but will also help bring focus, discipline and stability to our government come 2023," Abubakar said while presenting Okowa at the PDP offices in the capital Abuja.

Abubakar, a former vice president between 1999-2007 and former Lagos state governor Bola Tinubu, the ruling party candidate, are the leading contenders for the election to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari who steps down next year.

Abubakar said Okowa, a former senator, came with executive and legislative experience.

Okowa served in various posts in the Delta State government under former governor James Ibori, who was in office from 1999 to 2007.

Ibori was later extradited to Britain, where he pleaded guilty in 2012 to 10 counts of fraud and money-laundering in relation to corruption during his years as governor and received a 13-year jail sentence.

Okowa has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Nigeria's next president will face several security issues, including an Islamist insurgency, banditry and kidnappings, long-running unrest in the Niger Delta, herder-farmer confrontations and separatist agitation in the southeast.

By Macdonald Dzirutwe

Reuters


Nigeria police free 35 teenage girls from prostitution ring

At least 35 teenage girls held captive and forced to work in a prostitution ring in southeastern Nigeria have been rescued after police raided a hotel where they were being held, police said.

The girls between the ages of 14 and 17 were found by police acting on a tipoff in Nkpor town in Anambra state, according to a statement issued by Tochukwu Ikenga, Anambra police spokesman.

The girls were being used for prostitution and some were impregnated so their babies could be sold, said the statement. Four of the girls rescued are pregnant, police said.

Three suspects were arrested in connection with the incident, the police statement said. Rifles and 877,500 naira ($2,112) cash were also recovered, police said.

“The suspects arrested are being interrogated with a view to eliciting information on their involvement and unmasking other gang members,” said the police spokesman. The suspects arrested will be charged at the end of investigations, he said.

The girls freed will be handed over to Nigeria’s National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons for their care while, said the statement.

This is not the first time that police in Nigeria’s southeast have freed young girls who were being held captive and were sexually exploited and forced to have babies that were then sold.


A child trafficking syndicate was uncovered last month in Ebonyi state after it was discovered that a baby had been sold for 355,000 naira ($855), police said. Some babies have in the past been sold for as low as 70,000 naira ($168), police said.

By Chinedu Asadu 

AP

Related story: New Nollywood film shines a light on human trafficking in Nigeria

Video - Nigerian women trafficked to Europe for prostitution at 'crisis level'


Nigerians may arm themselves

Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, yesterday, warned the Federal Government that its inability to secure lives and property would soon force Nigerians to arm themselves in self-defence.

Akeredolu, in his keynote address at the meeting of the Attorneys-General of the 36 states of Nigeria, in Lagos, said the Police were overwhelmed.

The governor asked the Police to ‘close shop’ if the Federal Government could not meet its equipment needs.

Akeredolu insisted that the Police have failed in their constitutional role of protecting Nigerians and that if the situation does not improve, citizens would be left with no other option but to arm themselves in self-defence.

Akeredolu stated: “The current spate of insecurity in the country leaves us with no room for equivocation on the rights of the states to maintain law and order through the establishment of State Police. The growing distrust in the polity is a direct result of the disconnect between Federal Government and the constituent units of the country. The economic adversity currently experienced in the country points directly at the defective political structure.

“A unitary system cannot work, successfully, in a country like Nigeria. The 1999 Constitution has been amended twice. There is another promise of further amendments arising from the manifest irregularity in many provisions.

“This has compelled many lawyers and educated citizens to insist on having a new Constitution which will reflect the agitations of the various groups which make up the country. The law is becoming increasingly less certain under these circumstances.

“The crises created by the 1999 Constitution, as amended, have been unending. There have been agitations that the Exclusive Legislative List in this Constitution is limited to Nigeria’s external trade, customs duties, export duties, tax on incomes, profits and capital gains, interstate commerce, external borrowing, mining rents and royalties from mineral resources, among others.

“The Federal Government has, consistently, rejected this suggestion, presumably, because of the humongous 52 percent revenue allocation to it while the 36 States and the 774 Local Governments share the remaining 48 percent.”

Akeredolu challenged states to restructure the country by, among others, setting up their anti-graft agencies.

However, in his address, Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami , SAN, said governors cannot continue to agitate for restructuring and state police when they are responsible for the compromise and mismanagement of the current system.

Malami also stated that “State police will not work because state governors would abuse it, look at the way they treat local government, imagine what will happen if they control the police.“

The AGF advised the governors to utilise the existing structures through the National Assembly to press on with their demands for restructuring and other constitutional amendments.

By Innocent Anaba 

Related story: Video - Is Nigeria's security crisis out of control?