Daily Watch – Buhari appoints key men, Banks to sell defaulters’ properties

28th August 2015

  • President Buhari finally appointed a Chief of Staff to the President and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF). Political watchers say this raises hopes that the President will keep his word to announce ministers in September, indicating policy direction and unlocking confidence and investment to re-activate the economy. Babachir David Lawal has been appointed as SGF, while Abba Kyari is Chief of Staff to the President.
  • Some banks could have put up for sale, a number of big ticket properties used as collateral for loans made to borrowers who have become defaulters. This is a second step in recovering their funds, after they published names of debtors in the national dailies to force the defaulters to pay up their debts. But the slowdown in the economy is making sales of the properties difficult.
  • Guaranty Trust Bank will redeem its existing Eurobond at maturity and consider issuing a fresh one, its chief executive officer Segun Agbaje said. Agbaje also said he expected Nigeria to devalue the Naira again by another 10 percent owing to the persistent decline in crude oil prices, which have spooked foreign investors and prompted them to exit naira-denominated assets.
  • The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said that as part of measures to optimise the marketing of the country’s crude oil and secure new market potentials, the number of off-takers for the proposed 2015/2016 term contract, which would emerge after a planned rigorous competitive bid exercise has been pruned from 43 to 16. The NNPC also clarified that apart from the earlier listed industry operators whose performance trajectory impressed management to invite them to bid for the proposed Offshore Processing Agreements (OPA) the Corporation is extending the invitation for competitive bidding to Forte Oil and Mobil, among others.