Amaechi accuses finance ministry of frustrating $200m cabotage fund disbursement – Newstrends
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Amaechi accuses finance ministry of frustrating $200m cabotage fund disbursement

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Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has said the ministry of finance is frustrating the disbursement of the $200million Cabotage Vessels Finance Fund.

The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency had in March this year said it received the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari to disburse the CVFF to qualified indigenous maritime operators in line with the treasury single account (TSA) policy and the CVFF guidelines of 2006.

However, the agency is yet to apply the over $200 million fund to acquire vessels for local ship owners who have been struggling to survive due to inadequate funds to run their business.

 

Speaking at the 2020 federal ministry of transportation ministerial retreat in Lagos, Amaechi said president Muhammadu Buhari and the attorney general of the federation, Abubakar Malami, have approved the disbursement of the fund but the minister of finance, Zainab Ahmed, protested against the disbursement, saying, it is a public fund and shouldn’t be disbursed to private operators.

He, however, advised ship owners to write a protest letter to the president seeking the disbursement of the fund and explain why the fund is a private fund.

“The owners of the fund should write to the president and copy me, and then I will go back to the president. The law says it is not a public fund, now that they are aware they should write to say we are aware of the approval, and we are aware of the protest by the minister of finance and if I have all these, I will go back to the president,” the minister said.

He maintained that with the commissioning of the Deep Blue Project, vessels that were unable to visit the eastern ports can now do so without fear of attacks.

“I said we will address the issue of security in the maritime sector because the reasons why vessels are not able to go to Port-Harcourt, Warri and other places is because of the high cost of insurance.

“High cost of insurance is a result of insecurity, so if we address the issue of insecurity which is the root cause, then the high cost of insurance will reduce and more businesses will go to the South-south where we have other seaports.

“Since we launched the equipment for the security architecture, we are now monitoring improvement and this is going to reduce because we have equipment and human beings managing them,” he assured.

Also speaking, the director general, NIMASA, Dr Bashir Jamoh, said the agency was doing everything possible to put the floating dockyard into use.

According to him, the quay to berth the floating dock at Continental shipyard is weak, rusty and old hence the need for rehabilitation.

“In summary, we are just trying to see how we can effectively and safely get a place where we can berth the floating dock and commence operations but, every other thing about the floating dock is complete except where to berth the vessel,” he explained

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CBN raises commercial banks’ capital base to N500bn

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CBN raises commercial banks’ capital base to N500bn

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has increased the minimum capital requirements for commercial, merchant and non-interest banks.

The CBN increased the capital base for commercial banks with international licences to N500 billion, while national and regional financial institutions’ capital bases were fixed at N200 billion and N50 billion, respectively.

This was announced in a statement on Thursday, noting that the increase was due to prevailing macroeconomic challenges and headwinds.

The statement signed by Haruna Mustafa, director, financial policy and regulation department at the CBN.

It said the upward review would enhance the banks’ resilience, solvency and capacity to continue to support the growth of the Nigerian economy.

Also, the CBN raised the merchant bank minimum capital requirement to N50 billion for national licence holders.

The financial regulator said the capital base for national and regional non-interest banks is N20 billion and N10 billion, respectively.

To meet the minimum capital requirements, the CBN advised banks to consider the injection of “fresh equity capital through private placements, rights issue and/or offer for subscription”.

The CBN also suggested merger and acquisition (M&A), as well as upgrade or downgrade of licences.

“The minimum capital specified above shall comprise paid-up capital and share premium only. For the avoidance of doubt, the new capital requirement shall not be based on shareholders’ funds,” it stated

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Tinubu orders creation of single-digit tax system

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Tinubu orders creation of single-digit tax system

President Bola Tinubu has directed a creation of a single-digit tax system with a maximum of nine taxes for a company or an individual.

Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Zacch Adedeji, disclosed this in Abuja while speaking with the management team of Guinness Nigeria who paid him a visit.

A statement on Wednesday by Dare Adekanmbi, Special Adviser on Media to the FIRS chairman, quoted Adedeji as saying, “The President gave a directive that he wants a single-digit tax in the country, meaning that the maximum number of taxes we will have after the work of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms will be nine taxes.”

The statement added that the plan was aimed at having a conducive environment “created for businesses to flourish and grow the economy.”

 

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Naira gains further against dollar

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Naira gains further against dollar

The Naira rose further in the official market on Tuesday, trading at N1,382.95 to the dollar.

According to data from the FMDQ’s official trading portal, the Naira rose by N25.09, or 1.78 percent, from the previous day’s rate of N1,408 versus the dollar.

On Tuesday, total turnover was $245.58 million, up from $222.15 million on Monday.

Meanwhile, at the Investor’s and Exporters (I&E) window, the Naira traded between N1,486 and N1,300 against the dollar.

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The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had, earlier on Tuesday at its 294th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), raised Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) by 200 basis points from 22.75 per cent to 24.75 per cent.

CBN governor Yemi Cardoso said that was meant to tackle the nation’s rising inflation.

Naira gains further against dollar

(NAN)

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