Business
CBN goes after states, farmers over N600b unpaid loans
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has begun an aggressive drive to recover the loans it gave out under its development finance interventions.
Top on the list of debtors are state governments whose monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) accruals are already being debited directly every month. The deductions will last six months.
Director, Development Finance of the CBN Yusuf Yila, who disclosed this during a post-Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in Abuja yesterday, did not name the debtor states.
Yila, who named the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) and Commercial Agric Credit (CAC) as some of the intervention programmes, said: “Every person(s) or state that took that loan (ABP) is going to pay. We have their BVN.”
Such persons referenced by Yila are smallholder farmers, who received funds for farming from state governments via the ABP, but have yet to pay them back.
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The CBN director added that the apex bank was collaborating with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to ensure that the loans were recovered.
Yila said while the ABP loan repayments were particularly poor, that of CAC was almost excellent.
Under the ABP, the CBN gave out about N1 trillion but recovered only N400 billion. But under the CAC, the bank. lent out about N800 billion and recovered N700 billion.
His words: “We have started recovering loans from state governments. We have been doing a loan workout programme with them and we are debiting their monthly FAAC accruals directly for the loans.
“If a state government has taken N1 billion and is already in default, over a six-month period, we debit them N150 million every month. So, we’ve started that programme..
“So, every single loan that has been given out through any of our intervention programmes must be paid back.
“There is the ABP which is a primary consumption element of our interventions. We lent out N1 trillion for the ABP of which we have gotten over N400 billion back.
“Every single person or state that took that loan (ABP) is going to pay. We have their BVN. In fact, we have started implementing the Global Standing Instruction (GSI).
“We will continue to pull the account in the bank that they lent to or whichever bank that they have account. Anytime we see money in that account, we will recover it.
“We are working with the EFCC. The CBN governor has approved the collaboration with the EFCC on loan recoveries.”
Yila also said that credit facilities extended to businesses and individuals have not performed poorly.
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According to him, out of the N9 trillion intervention fund to spur economic growth, about N5 trillion is still under moratorium.
Another staff member of the CBN, who did not want his name in print, said there was “an intervention facility that state governments accessed for projects but had failed to pay back.”.
He explained that “the CBN wrote to the states reminding them of payment as per our recovery drive but they decided to fight back by seeking the reduction of the bank’s powers.”.
The staff member made reference to the debate by the Senate on Tuesday on whittling down the powers of the CBN governor.
The Director, Banking Supervision of the CBN, Haruna Mustapha, spoke on the implications of Tuesday’s interest rate hike by the apex bank.
Mustapha said that “banks will make more profit from interest charged on loans and will reprice existing loans to borrowers.”
This, according to him, “will be transferred to bank customers and this will add to cost of borrowing. “
Adding that “interests on government securities will also go up, ” he said the CBN has given approval to banks to increase interest on savings deposits to 30 percent effective.
“We increased it from 10 percent to 20 percent and it stands to reason that since we hiked MPR yesterday(Tuesday) to 15.5 percent, it will change the equation. The effective date is September,” Mustapha said.
The Nation
Business
PH refinery: 200 trucks will load petroleum products daily, says Presidency
PH refinery: 200 trucks will load petroleum products daily, says Presidency
No fewer than 200 trucks are set to load petroleum products at the government-owned Port Harcourt Refinery, the presidency has said.
A presidential spokesperson, Sunday Dare, made this known in a statement through his official X handle on Tuesday.
Newstrends had reported that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company on Tuesday announced that Port Harcourt Refinery has resumed operations and crude oil processing after years of inactivity.
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Reacting, Dare said, “200 trucks are expected to load products daily from the refinery, Renewing the Hopes of Nigeria.”
He added that “the Port Harcourt refinery has two wings.
“The Old Refinery comes on stream today with an installed production capacity of 60, 000 barrels per day of crude oil.”
PH refinery: 200 trucks will load petroleum products daily, says Presidency
Business
Breaking: CBN increases interest rate to 27.50%
Breaking: CBN increases interest rate to 27.50%
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has raised the lending interest to 27.50 per cent from 27.25 per cent.
This latest increase in the Monetary Policy Rate came after a meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday and concluded Tuesday.
The Monetary Policy Rate measures the benchmark interest rate.
The CBN Governor, Yemi Cardoso, announced this in Abuja on Tuesday after the MPC meeting, last for the year, held at the apex bank’s headquarters.
He said the MPC voted unanimously to raise the MPR by 25 basis points from 27.25% to 27.50%; and retain the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) at 50% for Deposit Money Banks and 16% for Merchant Banks.
The CBN governor also said the MPC retained the Liquidity Ratio (LR) at 30% and Asymmetric Corridor at +500/-100 basis points around the MPR.
Business
Nigeria’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.3% in Q2 – NBS
Nigeria’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.3% in Q2 – NBS
Nigeria’s unemployment rate stood at 4.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2024, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said in its latest report.
The report released on Monday said the unemployment rate decreased compared to the 5.3 per cent recorded in the Q1 of 2024.
The NBS defined the unemployment rate as the share of the labour force (the combination of unemployed and employed people) who are not employed but actively searching and are available for work.
“The unemployment rate for Q2 2024 was 4.3%, showing an increase of 0.1 percentage point compared to the same period last year,” the report stated.
“The unemployment rate among males was 3.4% and 5.1% among females.
“By place of residence, the unemployment rate was 5.2% in urban areas and 2.8% in rural areas. Youth unemployment rate was 6.5% in Q2 2024, showing a decrease from 8.4% in Q1 2024.”
Report also said the unemployment rate among persons with post-secondary education was 4.8 per cent; 8.5 per cent among those with upper secondary education, 5.8 per cent for those with lower secondary education, and 2.8 per cent among those with primary education in Q2 2024.
Employment rate – 76%
The report showed that the employment-to-population ratio, which measures the number of employed workers against the total working-age population, increased to 76.1 per cent in Q2 2024.
“In Q2 2024, 76.1% of Nigeria’s working-age population was employed, up from 73.1% in Q1 2024,” the report stated.
Self-employment – 85.6%
The report further showed that Nigeria’s labour market saw a notable shift as the proportion of self-employed individuals increased in Q2 2024.
It stated, “The proportion of persons in self-employment in Q2 2024 was 85.6%.”
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