Daily Watch – Nigeria loses almost $1 billion to oil swaps, Rice millers kick against Customs

12th October 2015

  • The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has announced that the Nigeria lost $966 million from the crude oil swap deals between 2009 and 2012. NEITI’s Communications Director, Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, explained that in 2012 alone, the cost of crude oil swapped was $6.4 billion, while value of refined products returned to Nigeria was $6.3 billion. Orji said that in 2006, N219.72 billion was spent on subsidy, in 2007, N236.64 billion; 2008, N360.18 billion; 2009, N198.110 billion; 2010, N416.45 billion, 2011, N1.9 trillion and in‎ 2012, N690 billion.
  • The inflow of foreign exchange into Nigeria fell by N678bn ($3.39bn) between January and June this year, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria. Although the fall in forex during the period was largely attributed to the significant drop in crude oil receipts, analysts believe that the economic landscape in Nigeria, particularly in the past three months, have not helped matters.
  • The National Rice Millers Association of Nigeria, NRMAN, believe that Customs made a mistake in its decision to lift the ban on importation of rice through Nigeria’s land borders. Chairman of the association, Mohammed Abubakar, said the NCS overreached its statutory mandate as an enforcement agency in taking such a policy decision. Besides, Mr. Abubakar said, if the customs succeeded in its decision, it would destroy the rice value chain achieved by the previous government.