Daily Watch – Katsina issues ₦400 million ultimatum to Globacom, Inflation rate continues to drop

13th April 2018

  • Annual inflation in Nigeria stood at 13.34 percent in March, its lowest level in two years and its 14th straight drop in as many months, the NBS said on Thursday. It dipped from 14.33 percent in February. A separate food price index showed inflation was trimmed to 16.08 percent in March, from 17.59 percent the preceding month. Food inflation has been in double digits for almost three years but has slowed for the past six months. CBN Godwin Emefiele last week highlighted the slow moderation of food inflation amidst improving economic conditions. He noted the potential risk from rising global inflation on domestic prices. Yemi Kale, head of the National Bureau of Statistics, has said he expects the rate of inflation to fall faster this year compared with 2017, but activities leading up to presidential elections next year could stoke prices.
  • Delta’s finance commissioner David Edevbie said the state’s total indebtedness stood at ₦228.3 billion in March. This sum does not include the recent ₦600 million counterpart fund that was approved by the state House of Assembly as a guaranteed loan for Sustainable Development Goals projects. Speaking at a ministerial briefing in Asaba, said the commercial bank loan restructured into an FGN Bond stood at ₦68 billion; the CBN Salary Bailout was ₦10,428,704,931; an Excess Crude Account allocation of ₦8.6 billion, a 3rd Delta State Bond of ₦7.7 billion; contractors arrears of ₦110.8 billion and a commercial bank loan of ₦3.8 billion among others. Edevbie further disclosed that the state government has so far received a total of ₦51,072,882,220 in five tranches of the Paris Club refund, adding that ₦10.7 billion was shared to the state’s 25 LGAs.
  • Katsina has issued a one-week ultimatum to Globacom to either settle its outstanding ₦400 million in tenement rates or have its 105 base stations sealed. The General Manager of the state Urban and Regional Planning Board, Usman Nadada said the last payment made by the company was in 2014. According to him, the government follows due process to recover the debt, mainly tenement rates and other development levies adding that the payments are due every January. He said other outdoor advertising agencies are indebted to over ₦45 million.
  • AIICO Insurance has announced its financial results for FY 2017, reporting gross premiums of ₦32.1 billion compared to ₦27.06 billion for FY 2016, an increase of ₦5.03 billion or 19 percent and diluted earnings per share for the year were 13 kobo per share, down from 105 kobo per share in 2016. The company’s Executive Director Operations, Babatunde Fajemirokun noted that the company had improved performance in the life business, stressing that the life business grew by 15 percent from ₦18.8 billion to ₦21.6 billion in 2017, adding that the growth was driven by the increased popularity of the firm’s traditional life products, as the ordinary life business grew 29 percent in 2017 to ₦16.4 billion from ₦12.8 billion in 2016. The non-life business grew 15 percent from ₦7.6 billion in 2016 to ₦8.7 billion in 2017. The firm has declared a dividend of 5k per share for shareholders.
  • A study by the Employee MarketPlace shows that more than half of all Nigerian bankers are millennials. Group Head, Brand Management and Communication at the Employee MarketPlace, Nduneche Ezurike predicted that the millennials would constitute 72 percent of the global workforce by 2025. Ezurike stressed the need for improved employee engagement to accommodate this category of workers for job satisfaction and improved customer service.