Consequently, the margin between the parallel market and NAFEM rates narrowed to N1.57 per dollar from N55.79 per dollar on Monday.
Business
42 US states sue Meta for teens mental health crisis
42 US states sue Meta for teens mental health crisis
Dozens of States in the United States have filed a suit against tech giant, Meta for the alleged harm the company has done to teenagers in the country.
The company, which is parent to several social media platforms including Instagram, and Facebook, was sued on Tuesday by 42 states in the US. The Attorneys General of the states claimed that the company has contributed to the mental health crises facing young people in the country, ABC News reports.
A class suit was filed by 33 states in a California federal court, while the nine other states sued the company in their respective jurisdictions. Some of the states dragging Meta to court include California, New York, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and several others.
The states accused Meta of violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act by collecting data on children under the age of 13 without their parents’ consent.
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The filing read in part, “Meta has harnessed powerful and unprecedented technologies to entice, engage, and ultimately ensnare youth and teens. Its motive is profit, and in seeking to maximize its financial gains, Meta has repeatedly misled the public about the substantial dangers of its social media platforms.
“It has concealed the ways in which these platforms exploit and manipulate its most vulnerable consumers: teenagers and children.”
The states further alleged that the social media applications are designed by Meta to keep teenagers and young kids addicted to the platforms. They claimed that this effect was achieved through the apps’ algorithms, numerous alerts, notifications and infinite scroll features on feed pages.
Responding to the suit, the company expressed disappointment at the action stating that it also shared the states’ “commitment to providing teens with safe, positive experiences online.”
“We’re disappointed that instead of working productively with companies across the industry to create clear, age-appropriate standards for the many apps teens use, the attorneys general have chosen this path,” the Tuesday statement read.
This action comes two years after a report by The Wall Street Journal in 2021 which revealed that the company was aware of the harm Instagram causes teenagers in terms of body image and mental health. Meta itself had carried out an internal study which showed that 13.5% of teen girls using the platform stated that it makes thoughts of suicide worse while 17 per cent attributed worsening eating disorders to their usage of the app.
42 US states sue Meta for teens mental health crisis
Business
Naira drops further to N1,421.06 per dollar
Naira drops further to N1,421.06 per dollar
The declining fortunes of the Naira persisted yesterday with further depreciation in the parallel and official markets due to the re-emergence of speculation and hoarding, even as some Bureaux De Change, BDCs withdrew from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN’s, dollar sales program.
Vanguard also learnt that despite the sustained nationwide raids and arrest of street currency hawkers, the Naira further depreciated yesterday to N1,435 per dollar in the parallel market, from N1,415 per dollar on Tuesday, and also depreciated to N1,421.06 per dollar in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market, NAFEM.
Data from FMDQ showed that the indicative exchange rate for NAFEM fell to N1,421.06 per dollar from N1,416.57 per dollar on Tuesday, indicating N4.49 depreciation for the naira.
Consequently, the margin between the parallel market and NAFEM rates widened to N13.94 per dollar from N1.57 per dollar on Tuesday.
Dollar sales to BDCs
In a bid to intervene in the retail segment of the forex market, the CBN in February resumed dollar sales to BDCs. Since then the apex bank has held three editions of the dollar. At the last edition, the CBN offered to sell $10,000 per BDCs at directing them to sell at the maximum margin of 1.5 per cent.
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BDC operators however complained dollar disbursement from CBN is too slow that and takes three to four weeks between when they make payment and when the dollars are disbursed to them.
Vanguard reliably gathered that as a result of this delay and the uncertainty in the forex market, some BDCs, have asked the CBN to refund their Naira payment.
Top BDC operators who confirmed this development to Vanguard under the condition of anonymity said that some of the BDCs that asked for refunds have gotten their money.
Speaking to Vanguard on condition of anonymity, the Chief Executive of a BDC said, “I think the CBN is overwhelmed. You pay money and it takes one month for you to collect $10,000. It is over a month now since they intervened and they have not intervened again.
Business
Naira trades at N1,415/$ on parallel market
Naira trades at N1,415/$ on parallel market
The Naira yesterday depreciated to N1,415 per dollar in the parallel market, from N1,410 per dollar on Monday.
Similarly, the Naira depreciated in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market, NAFEM, to N1,416.57 per dollar.
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Data from FMDQ showed that the indicative exchange rate for NAFEM fell to N1,416.57 per dollar from N1,354.21 per dollar on Monday, indicating N62.36 depreciation for the naira.
Business
CBN extends suspension of cash deposit charges by bank customers
CBN extends suspension of cash deposit charges by bank customers
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed commercial banks to extend suspension of charges on cash deposit until September 30 this year.
This directive was conveyed through a circular dated May 6, signed by Adetona Adedeji, the Director of Banking Supervision at the apex bank.
The banks had reintroduced fees for deposits exceeding N500,000 for individuals and corporate account holders on May 1.
Following the banks’ decision, individuals were set to incur a two per cent charge on deposits exceeding N500,000, while corporate account holders faced the same levy on deposits surpassing N3 million.
The new circular read, “Please refer to our letter dated December 11, 2023, referenced BSD/DIR/PUB/LAB/016/023 on the above subject, suspending processing charges imposed on cash deposits above N500,000 for individuals and N3,000,000 for corporates as contained in the ‘Guide to Charges by Banks, Other Financial Institutions and Non-Bank Financial Institutions’ issued on December 20, 2019.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria hereby extends the suspension of the processing fees of two per cent and three per cent previously charged on all cash deposits above these thresholds until September 30, 2024.”
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