Cash withdrawals in Nigeria limited to $225 a week to curb ransom payments

Nigeria’s central bank has imposed restrictions on weekly cash withdrawals to limit the use of cash in an apparent bid to curb counterfeiting and discourage ransom payments to kidnappers.

Under a new policy announced late on Tuesday, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said that weekly cash withdrawals for individuals had been slashed to 100,000 Nigerian naira ($225) from 2.5 million naira ($5,638).

A majority of Nigerians have no bank accounts and use informal markets where cash is preferred. This move aims to bring more people into the banking system, and will take effect on January 9, the CBN said.

“The maximum cash withdrawal per week via automated teller machine shall be 100,000 naira subject to a maximum of 20,000 naira ($45) cash withdrawal per day,” it said.

Only denominations of 200 naira and less will be loaded into ATMs, it said.

For businesses, the weekly limit has been cut to 500,000 naira ($1,128) from the current daily limit of three million naira ($6,766).

“Withdrawals above these limits shall attract processing fees of five percent and 10 percent, respectively,” the CBN said.

But in compelling circumstances individuals and businesses could withdraw a maximum of five million naira ($11,277) and 10 million naira ($22,553) respectively once a month, it added.

The central bank warned commercial lenders against violating the new cash limits, which it said were in line with its policy to promote cashless transactions.

The bank has expressed concerns in the past over currency counterfeiting, the volume of money outside the banking system and huge ransom payments to kidnappers and bandits.

Last month, Nigeria launched newly designed currency notes, another move the central bank said would help curb inflation and money laundering.

More than 80 percent of the 3.2 trillion naira ($7.2bn) in circulation in Nigeria are outside the vaults of commercial banks and in private hands, CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele said when he unveiled the new notes.

“The currency redesign will also assist in the fight against corruption as the exercise will rein in the higher denomination used for corruption and the movement of such funds from the banking system could be tracked easily,” he explained at the time.

The new notes – denominations of 200, 500 and 1,000 naira – come into use on December 15, but Nigerians have until January 31 to turn in old notes when they will cease to be legal tender.

Al Jazeera

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Faces of 108 missing Chibok girls sculpted in Clay in Nigeria Art Project

 

 

 

 

 

 

The faces of 108 Nigerian girls who are still missing eight years after they were kidnapped by Islamist insurgents have been sculpted in clay in a collaboration between an artist, a group of potters and university students.

The artwork, titled "Statues Also Breathe" and conceived by French artist Prune Nourry, consists of 108 life-size clay heads, made by 108 students from all over Nigeria, and now on display at an art gallery in Lagos.

Boko Haram militants abducted around 270 teenage girls from a school in the northeastern town of Chibok in 2014.

The mass kidnapping initially prompted worldwide outrage, with the slogan #BringBackOurGirls trending on social media and prominent figures including then U.S. first lady Michelle Obama pressing for their return.

Since then, about 160 of the girls have been released, some after years of captivity, but the story has faded from the headlines.

Nourry collected photos of the missing girls from their families and passed the images on to the students who created the sculptures at a one-day outdoor workshop on the campus of Obafemi Awolowo University in Ife, southwest Nigeria.

A small group of women who were among the abducted girls and were later released took part, as did some parents of the missing women.

Nourry said it was a cathartic experience for all involved.

"For the students, for all of us who felt so useless when something so incredible happened and you cannot do anything about it, the fact of being able to at least give a little thing through sculpture, through what we know how to do, was healing," she said.

The young artists took inspiration from photos of Ife heads - terracotta sculptures made in the region centuries ago and considered to be among Nigeria's most significant cultural artefacts.

They used clay from the Ife area - the substance that, according to the Yoruba ethnic group's creation myth, was used to form humans - sourced by a community of local female potters, who also contributed to the creative process.

"These girls have been in distress for eight years," said Habiba Balogun, coordinator of the Bring Back Our Girls campaign in Lagos.

"I am really happy that a project like this has come up that is really going to elevate the level of discourse and understanding, and have a permanent record in the history of this our country about something tragic like this."

Reuters, by Estelle Shirbon

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Service resumed for Abuja-Kaduna train service attacked by gunmen

Nigeria's state railway company on Monday resumed a popular train service between the capital Abuja and the northern state of Kaduna, suspended since in March after gunmen killed passengers and kidnapped several dozen.

Africa's most populous nation is battling insecurity in the north from armed gangs who attack villages and highways and kidnap people for ransom, and a long running insurgency that has killed thousands and displaced millions more.

The Nigerian military in October secured the release of the remaining 23 hostages from the train attack. President Muhammadu Buhari's government had said the train service would only start once all hostages were freed.

"We are starting afresh and I pray we will not have a re-occurrence of that ugly incidence by God's grace," said Ganiyat Adesina-Uthman, a lecturer who was travelling to Kaduna for the first time since March.

Passengers were required to provide national identification numbers, while armed security were on board the train. 

Reuters, by Abraham Archiga

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Student charged with defaming first lady of Nigeria freed

Nigeria has freed a student charged with “criminal defamation” over a tweet he posted about the physical appearance of the country’s first lady.

Aminu Adamu was arrested at his university in northern Jigawa state on 18 November after Aisha Buhari filed a complaint and then remanded into custody until January.


He walked free after she dropped the complaint against him on Saturday. Adamu then met Buhari and apologised for his comments in a series of tweets. Student groups had called for demonstrations this week to protest against Adamu’s detention.

According to the court documents, Adamu commented on a photo of Buhari on Twitter, suggesting she had “embezzled money meant for the poor to [her own] satisfaction”. It was not clear whether he had intended to make a joke or to accuse her of corruption.

The 23-year-old student’s detention sparked widespread outrage in Nigeria, which suffers a multitude of intractable economic and social problems that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari has been unable to resolve.

If convicted, Aminu could have faced up to two years in prison, according to Nigeria’s penal code.

Amnesty International had urged the authorities to release him, reporting that his family and friends alleged he being was held incommunicado and subjected to severe beating, torture and other forms of ill-treatment.

“The heavy-handed mistreatment of Aminu Adamu Muhammed is a clear attempt to strike fear into the hearts of young Nigerians who use social media to hold the powerful to account,” Amnesty said.

Allegations of mistreatment against detainees are not uncommon in Africa’s most populous country, despite it having had a stable democracy since 1999 after decades of military dictatorships.

President Buhari, a former army general who was elected as a civilian leader in 2015 and 2019, is stepping down next year after two terms allowed by the constitution.

Voted into office on a promise to crack down on corruption, Buhari leaves mounting problems to his successor, from rampant insecurity to an economy in shambles. Mass youth-led protests over police brutality and bad governance have been violently suppressed under his watch.

The Guardian, by Jason Burke 

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Presidential candidate Tinubu says presidential vote to test democratic gains

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ruling party presidential candidate Bola Tinubu said on Monday Nigeria's February election would be a significant step in consolidating democratic gains at a time when some other governments in the region have been ousted by military coups.

In a country with a long history of electoral fraud and a built-in advantage for the ruling party, Tinubu is the frontrunner for the All Progressives Congress party to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari, who is stepping down.

In an address at the Chatham House think-tank in London, Tinubu cited a worrying trend of attacks on personnel and infrastructure of Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in some parts of the country.

"The next election, which will take place in the first quarter of 2023, can be considered as especially significant in Nigeria's quest for democratic consolidation," said Tinubu.

He indicated that Nigerians in the diaspora abroad would not be able to vote, saying Africa's most populous nation was still building confidence in its voting system, 23 years after the end of military rule.

"INEC is still yet to assure us, during this election, that electronic transmission (of results), the technology being used for accreditation and total vote count, is reliable, dependable and assuring in our democratic process before we introduce complicated elements of mail-in ballots and so forth."

Nigerian democracy has also been marred by widespread corruption and an Islamist insurgency in the north.

Tinubu, 70, has been criticised at home for refusing to take part in television debates and not granting media interviews. On Monday, he referred most questions to his campaign team.

He promised to grow the economy by more than 7% annually, double the country's GDP in the next decade, expand agricultural output and continue with some of Buhari's policies.

Back in Tinubu's home state of Lagos, his main rival, People's Democratic Change candidate Atiku Abubakar, told a rally that his government would set aside $10 billion to help small businesses run by women and youth.

The money would come from privatising state oil refineries, Abubakar said.

Reuters, by MacDonald Dzirutwe