Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Video - Global oil price decline affecting Nigeria's economy
Nigerian business are beginning to feel the effect of shrinking revenue as oil prices continue to tumble at the world market. The government has imposed quotas on the amount of hard cash Nigerians can spend abroad amidst scarcity of dollars in Africa's biggest economy.
Nigeria ends cruid oil swaps
The Nigerian government has jettisoned its policy of exchanging crude oil with refined petroleum products, from foreign suppliers, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, has said.
The controversial crude-for-products arrangement, popularly called crude swap, catered for a part of the country’s domestic need for petroleum.
Mr. Kachikwu, who is also the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, said in its place the government was adopting Direct-Sale–Direct-Purchase (DSDP) arrangement billed to take off from March 2016.
The Minister announced the new arrangement while appearing before the House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee set up to investigate NNPC’s offshore processing and crude swap arrangements for the period between 2010 to date.
The new DSDP arrangement, he said, was adopted to entrench transparency into the crude oil-for-product transaction by the corporation in line with global best practices.
Under the old order, crude oil was exchanged for petroleum products through third party traders at a pre-determined yield pattern.
The minister stated that the DSDP option would save the government over $1 billion, as all cost elements of middlemen would be eliminated, giving the NNPC the latitude to control crude oil sale and purchase transactions with its partners.
“On assumption as the GMD of NNPC, I met the Offshore Processing Arrangement (OPA). There is always room for improvement. My team and I came up with the DSDP initiative with the aim of throwing open the bidding process. This initiative has brought transparency into the crude-for-product exchange matrix in tandem with global best practices,” Mr. Kachikwu said.
“The DSDP initiative whittles down the influence of the Minister in the selection of bid winners as it allows all the bidders to be assessed transparently based on their global and national track record of performance before the best companies with the requisite capacities are selected,” he added.
Mr. Kachikwu said the introduction of the DSDP was necessary to reduce the gaps inherent in the OPA and the losses incurred by the NNPC in the past.
The new arrangement, he explained, would help the NNPC to grow indigenous capacity in the international crude oil business and generate employment opportunities for indigenous companies selected.
The DSDP initiative would also give other government agencies, such as the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) and Nigeria Extractive Industry and Transparency Initiative (NEITI), the opportunity to be a part of the bidding process in order to engender adherence to due process.
On the alleged non-transparent nature of previous crude oil-for-products exchange arrangements, the Minister assured that the reconciliation process was on-going, adding that going forward the Ministry would deploy technology to track cargoes and trans-shipment at the reception depots in order to forestall any incidence of round tripping.
On the price modulation policy introduced by the Federal Government, the Minister said this would eliminate the burden of subsidy on imported petroleum products.
Premium Times
The controversial crude-for-products arrangement, popularly called crude swap, catered for a part of the country’s domestic need for petroleum.
Mr. Kachikwu, who is also the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, said in its place the government was adopting Direct-Sale–Direct-Purchase (DSDP) arrangement billed to take off from March 2016.
The Minister announced the new arrangement while appearing before the House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee set up to investigate NNPC’s offshore processing and crude swap arrangements for the period between 2010 to date.
The new DSDP arrangement, he said, was adopted to entrench transparency into the crude oil-for-product transaction by the corporation in line with global best practices.
Under the old order, crude oil was exchanged for petroleum products through third party traders at a pre-determined yield pattern.
The minister stated that the DSDP option would save the government over $1 billion, as all cost elements of middlemen would be eliminated, giving the NNPC the latitude to control crude oil sale and purchase transactions with its partners.
“On assumption as the GMD of NNPC, I met the Offshore Processing Arrangement (OPA). There is always room for improvement. My team and I came up with the DSDP initiative with the aim of throwing open the bidding process. This initiative has brought transparency into the crude-for-product exchange matrix in tandem with global best practices,” Mr. Kachikwu said.
“The DSDP initiative whittles down the influence of the Minister in the selection of bid winners as it allows all the bidders to be assessed transparently based on their global and national track record of performance before the best companies with the requisite capacities are selected,” he added.
Mr. Kachikwu said the introduction of the DSDP was necessary to reduce the gaps inherent in the OPA and the losses incurred by the NNPC in the past.
The new arrangement, he explained, would help the NNPC to grow indigenous capacity in the international crude oil business and generate employment opportunities for indigenous companies selected.
The DSDP initiative would also give other government agencies, such as the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) and Nigeria Extractive Industry and Transparency Initiative (NEITI), the opportunity to be a part of the bidding process in order to engender adherence to due process.
On the alleged non-transparent nature of previous crude oil-for-products exchange arrangements, the Minister assured that the reconciliation process was on-going, adding that going forward the Ministry would deploy technology to track cargoes and trans-shipment at the reception depots in order to forestall any incidence of round tripping.
On the price modulation policy introduced by the Federal Government, the Minister said this would eliminate the burden of subsidy on imported petroleum products.
Premium Times
MTN hires top US fomer attorney to help fight Nigeria fine
MTN Group has hired a former top United States (US) law enforcement official to help challenge a $3.9 billion fine imposed by Nigeria for failing to disconnect unregistered users, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
Citing people familiar with the situation, the newspaper said former US Attorney General Eric Holder pleaded with Nigerian officials last month on behalf of the telecoms company.
Africa’s largest mobile phone company was handed a $5.2 billion penalty in October, prompting weeks of lobbying that led to a 25 percent reduction to $3.9 billion.
MTN, however, was still not prepared to pay the fine and launched a court challenge in December, saying the Nigerian telecoms regulator had no legal grounds to order the penalty.
A judge in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, last month gave MTN until 18 March to try to reach a settlement over the fine, which equates to more than twice MTN’s annual average capital spending over the past five years.
MTN spokesman Chris Maroleng was not immediately available to comment.
Holder, who led the US Justice Department from 2009 to 2015 and was one of President Barack Obama’s longest-serving cabinet members, returned to law firm Covington & Burling, where he was previously a partner from 2001 to 2009.
EWN
Citing people familiar with the situation, the newspaper said former US Attorney General Eric Holder pleaded with Nigerian officials last month on behalf of the telecoms company.
Africa’s largest mobile phone company was handed a $5.2 billion penalty in October, prompting weeks of lobbying that led to a 25 percent reduction to $3.9 billion.
MTN, however, was still not prepared to pay the fine and launched a court challenge in December, saying the Nigerian telecoms regulator had no legal grounds to order the penalty.
A judge in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, last month gave MTN until 18 March to try to reach a settlement over the fine, which equates to more than twice MTN’s annual average capital spending over the past five years.
MTN spokesman Chris Maroleng was not immediately available to comment.
Holder, who led the US Justice Department from 2009 to 2015 and was one of President Barack Obama’s longest-serving cabinet members, returned to law firm Covington & Burling, where he was previously a partner from 2001 to 2009.
EWN
EFCC recovers $2 trillion in 12 years
Nigeria’s anti-graft agency has recovered more than $2 trillion of stolen public funds in the last 12 years, the country’s justice minister said on Tuesday, Nigerian newspaper Vanguard reported.
Abubakar Malami, the Nigerian Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, said that the funds had been stolen by “criminal groups and public office holders” and praised the work of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)—which was established in 2003—in recovering the funds.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has made tackling corruption a key priority of his administration, and the EFCC is playing a prominent role in his anti-corruption drive. An EFCC report in 2015 found that more than $2 billion of government funds earmarked for procuring arms to fight Boko Haram had gone missing since 2007.
The report has led to a wide-ranging investigation and a number of high-profile arrests, including ex-national security advisor Sambo Dasuki and former defense minister Bello Haliru Mohammed. Nigerian authorities reportedly raided the office of former vice-president Namadi Sambo on Saturday in connection with the arms scandal.
Speaking at an anti-corruption event in Abuja on Tuesday, Malami said that the Buhari administration is committed to recovering “the fortunes that criminals have made illegally by returning every penny that belongs to the Nigerian public.” Malami also estimated that the country’s former military ruler, the late General Sani Abacha, had alone laundered around $2 million before his death in 1998.
A December 2015 report by corruption watchdog found that 75 percent of Nigerians believed that corruption in the government had increased over the previous 12 months.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was established in 2003 and investigates financial fraud in Nigeria. The agency is currently engaged in a wide-ranging investigation into an arms corruption scandal, which saw more than $2 billion of funds earmarked for procuring arms to fight Boko Haram.
Newsweek
Abubakar Malami, the Nigerian Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, said that the funds had been stolen by “criminal groups and public office holders” and praised the work of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)—which was established in 2003—in recovering the funds.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has made tackling corruption a key priority of his administration, and the EFCC is playing a prominent role in his anti-corruption drive. An EFCC report in 2015 found that more than $2 billion of government funds earmarked for procuring arms to fight Boko Haram had gone missing since 2007.
The report has led to a wide-ranging investigation and a number of high-profile arrests, including ex-national security advisor Sambo Dasuki and former defense minister Bello Haliru Mohammed. Nigerian authorities reportedly raided the office of former vice-president Namadi Sambo on Saturday in connection with the arms scandal.
Speaking at an anti-corruption event in Abuja on Tuesday, Malami said that the Buhari administration is committed to recovering “the fortunes that criminals have made illegally by returning every penny that belongs to the Nigerian public.” Malami also estimated that the country’s former military ruler, the late General Sani Abacha, had alone laundered around $2 million before his death in 1998.
A December 2015 report by corruption watchdog found that 75 percent of Nigerians believed that corruption in the government had increased over the previous 12 months.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was established in 2003 and investigates financial fraud in Nigeria. The agency is currently engaged in a wide-ranging investigation into an arms corruption scandal, which saw more than $2 billion of funds earmarked for procuring arms to fight Boko Haram.
Newsweek
Helicpoter crash in Nigeria - All crew and passengers survive
Crew members as well as passengers aboard a chartered Bristow helicopter which crashed Wednesday while flying from Port Harcourt to Lagos survived the accident, the Accident Investigations Bureau has said.
Tunji Oketunbi, the spokesperson for the Bureau told PREMIUM TIMES on telephone that all occupants of the craft survived the accident.
“They all survived, they all survived,” the AIB spokesperson said when contacted for updates.
Mr. Oketunbi said search and rescue were apace and that his agency was in the process of circulating a detailed statement about the crash.
An official of Bristow Helicopter had earlier confirmed the incident to PREMIUM TIMES but declined to provide details.
The official said the company was still collating details of the incident and would make same public at the end of the exercise.
Initial reports said about 13 passengers were on board the craft at the time of the incident.
The identities of the affected passengers were unknown at the time of this report.
The new crash occurred less than six months after another helicopter belonging to the same company crashed in Lagos.
The chopper had on August 12, 2015 plunged into the Lagos Lagoon, killing six of the 12 persons on board.
Premium Times
Tunji Oketunbi, the spokesperson for the Bureau told PREMIUM TIMES on telephone that all occupants of the craft survived the accident.
“They all survived, they all survived,” the AIB spokesperson said when contacted for updates.
Mr. Oketunbi said search and rescue were apace and that his agency was in the process of circulating a detailed statement about the crash.
An official of Bristow Helicopter had earlier confirmed the incident to PREMIUM TIMES but declined to provide details.
The official said the company was still collating details of the incident and would make same public at the end of the exercise.
Initial reports said about 13 passengers were on board the craft at the time of the incident.
The identities of the affected passengers were unknown at the time of this report.
The new crash occurred less than six months after another helicopter belonging to the same company crashed in Lagos.
The chopper had on August 12, 2015 plunged into the Lagos Lagoon, killing six of the 12 persons on board.
Premium Times
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