Daily Watch – Peugeot, Siemens eye Nigeria projects, NERC stands in defence of estimated billing
7th June 2018
- NERC says it intends to review the financial model used to determine the tariff payable by electricity consumers. Chairman, James Momoh, said the commission will not adopt the multi-year tariff order software in a bid to determine whether consumers are being cheated. The commission will instead, continue to use the MYTO as the framework for determining tariffs while it reviews the financial model, it said in a statement. This comes as NERC and the Power, Works and Housing Minister, Babatunde Fashola opposed a move by the House of Representatives to criminalise the use of estimated billing by DisCos, saying the financial challenges of metering must first be addressed and the move could destroy the entire power sector.
- AMCON says 2018 will be a busy year because it plans to dispose of assets like Aero Contractors and Arik Air. In April, AMCON said it is willing to exit the aviation sector if the owners of the companies pay their debts. In a statement by spokesman Jude Nwauzor, the corporation said its 2017 performance was boosted by selling Keystone Bank to Sigma Golf Nigeria Limited and Riverbank Investment Resources Limited in March 2017 for N41 billion. AMCON says it acquired 12,537 non-performing loans (NPLs) worth ₦1.7 trillion from 22 financial institutions after the 2009 banking crisis. The asset recovery agency said it will “pursue every obligor,” particularly the 350 debtors who account for almost 80 percent of its debts.
- FMDQ Clear Limited has been given operational approval by SEC. The company will be the first clearing house in Nigeria, and a subsidiary of FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange which is a big player in debt capital, currencies/derivatives as well as OTC exchanges. “The establishment of this clearing infrastructure, FMDQ Clear, will greatly contribute to making the Nigerian inter-bank market globally competitive, operationally excellent, liquid and diverse, in line with FMDQ’s GOLD Agenda for the transformation of the Nigerian financial markets,” FMDQ said in a statement.
- Siemens has signed more than ten cooperation agreements with Chinese companies as it seeks to benefit from deepening involvement with China’s “Belt and Road” infrastructure initiative, the German engineering group said on Wednesday. Siemens said the cooperation covers power generation, energy management, building technology and intelligent manufacturing and includes companies such as China National Chemical Engineering Group Corp, China Railway Construction Corp(International) and China Civil Engineering Construction Corp. The cooperation pact aims to target projects in countries and regions including Indonesia, the Philippines, Nigeria, Mozambique as well as South America.
- PSA Peugeot Citroen plans to start assembling cars in Nigeria by Q1 2019, via a joint venture with Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote and five state governments, one of the local partners told Reuters. The joint venture, Peugeot Automobile Nigeria will assemble 3,500 units in its first year and ramp up to about 10,000 units, said Jimi Lawal, an adviser to the Kaduna governor, where the plant will be located. The vehicles will be produced from semi-assembled kits of parts shipped from Peugeot’s plant in Spain. Nigerian production of additional models such as the 308 compact and 508 may follow later, Peugeot has said. Peugeot Citroen will own a 10 percent stake in the local joint venture company and operate the plant. PAN would start with ₦3.5 billion ($10 million) of equity and working capital of about $5 million.