November 2016 – SBM Intel

30 Nov

Daily Watch – Nigerians more interested in entertainment than education, NBS to survey SMEs

Nigeria lost 130 million barrels of crude oil worth about ₦3 trillion or almost half of the 2016 budget, using estimates of $50 per barrel and an exchange rate of ₦470/$ between January and October 2016, according to BusinessDay. The paper quotes Shina Bankole, general manager of security, Chevron Nigeria Limited, as stating this in a speech on addressing the burden of securing Nigerian oil and gas installations at the plenary session of an oil and gas health

29 Nov

Daily Watch – Data prices go up, Passports will now depend on tax

Travelex has cut the amount of dollars sold to Bureau De Change operators in the country from US$15,000 to US$8,000 per week. The move is to enable more BDC operators have access to dollars. Despite the cut in sales, the exchange rate of the naira to the dollar remained largely unchanged for the second consecutive week, at ₦399 to the US$ throughout the week ending November 25. On the inter-bank market, the dollar opened trading on November 11 at ₦305 to

28 Nov

Daily Watch – New figures highlight #Budget2017 funding gap, Lagos spends 30% of its time in traffic

Nigeria could suffer a revenue shortfall of US$9.18 billion in its 2017 budget, if the country is unable to boost crude oil exports above 1.6 million barrels per day that is scheduled for exports in January 2017, according to loading cargoes seen by Reuters. The January 2017 loading figure is 600,000 barrels below Nigeria’s target production of 2.2 mbpd, which the 2017 budget is based on. Consequently, if the country can’t ramp up production as from February,

25 Nov

The week ahead – Technical, victories or recessions, we need to face the reality

The Nigerian Army has officially declared one officer and 45 soldiers missing in a major Boko Haram attack on October 17. A Premium Times report quotes military sources as saying that the Army has formally informed the families of the 46 personnel of the fate of their loved ones and requested that their next of kin forward bank details for onward remittance of accrued payments. The notification is said to be contained in a November................ read more

25 Nov

Daily Watch – CBN settles $867 million in October FX requests, AIICO does victory lap

The CBN has given access to about 7,792 requests for foreign exchange valued at over $867 million to manufacturers and other strategic actors in the Nigerian economy. According to a statement by the regulator’s spokesman, Isaac Okorafor, the access was in continuation of the resolve to ease foreign exchange pressure on manufacturers. The access, Okoroafor noted, was given through inter-bank window to enable manufacturers and strategic actors to source

24 Nov

Daily Watch – #Budget2017 “unrealistic,” Airports’ concession paused over financing

The draft budget framework for 2017 submitted to parliament by President Muhammadu Buhari is based on unrealistic assumptions about oil production and the currency exchange rate, lawmakers said on Wednesday. The budget plans, which include spending a record ₦6.866 trillion ($22.57 billion) to pull Africa’s biggest economy out of recession, assume oil production of 2.2 million barrels a day and an exchange rate of ₦290 to the U.S. dollar. The framework must

23 Nov

Daily Watch – MPC keeps rates unchanged, Skye Bank wants to lose some weight

The CBN on Tuesday opted to retain all monetary policy instruments, despite new NBS figures on Monday which showed the country slipping further into a recession. The Monetary Policy Rate, which sets the lending rate for banks and businesses for a period, was left at 14 percent, while the Cash Reserve Ratio, the specified minimum fraction of customers’ total deposits commercial banks could hold as reserves either in cash or deposits with the regulator was retained

22 Nov

Daily Watch – CBN backtracks on forex law reform, Lekki Port prowling for financiers

Nigeria’s economic slump deepened in the third quarter as oil production continued to fall and factory output was hit by a dollar shortage. GDP contracted 2.2 percent in the three months through September from a year earlier, after shrinking 2.1 percent in the second quarter, the NBS said in an e-mailed statement Monday. The economy expanded a non-seasonally adjusted 9 percent from the second quarter, the statistics office said. Crude production fell for the

21 Nov

Daily Watch – Commodities exchange catches privatisation fever, 10 banks suffer ratings revision

Fitch Ratings has revised down the Support Rating Floors (SRFs) of 10 Nigerian banks to ‘No Floor’ and downgraded nine banks’ Support Ratings (SRs) to ‘5’ following a reassessment of potential sovereign support for the banking sector. The Long-Term Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) of First Bank, FBN Holdings, Diamond Bank, Fidelity Bank, FCMB, and Union Bank are downgraded to ‘B-’ from ‘B’, in line with their stand-alone creditworthiness as defined

18 Nov

The week ahead – There are no signposts where we are now

The NBS on Monday released new data showing that the Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation, rose to a 94-month high of 18.3 percent in October. The 18.3 percent inflation rate, which is about 0.48 percent higher than the 17.9 percent recorded in September, is the highest since January 2009 when the NBS started publishing the revised CPI. The bureau attributed the increase in inflation rate to pressures recorded in some sub-indexes such as housing, electricity,................ read more