Business

CBN’s Naira Re-design Rendered Farmers Empty Financially – FG

Published

7 months ago

December 11, 2023

Editor

The Federal Government on Monday said the naira redesign policy carried out by the Central Bank of Nigeria from December 15, 2022, to early February this year when the Supreme Court ruled against it, ran farmers bankrupt.

In a similar lamentation, federal lawmakers declared that the rate of hunger and famine in the land is resulting in the deaths of the poor in rural areas.

Lamentations on the effects of the controversial naira re-design and hunger arising from insecurity came to the fore during the budget defence session the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, had before the National Assembly Joint Committee on Agriculture.

In his presentation before the joint committee chaired by Senator Saliu Mustapha ( APC Kwara Central), the minister said the focus of the 2024 budgetary proposals for the sector is to achieve food security in the country.

According to him, several factors like insecurity and the naira re-design policy carried out about a year ago, impoverished the farmers and severely threatened food security in the country.

“The cash crunch caused by the naira re-design made most of the farmers sold their farm produce at giveaway prices for survival since buyers couldn’t access cash to buy the produce from them.

“The policy which coincided with harvest season, ended rendering the farmers empty financially,” he said.

In their separate remarks at the session, Dahiru Haruna from Toro Federal Constituency in Bauchi State and Ademorin Kuye from Shomolu Federal Constituency, Lagos State, raised the alarm on urgent need by the Federal Government to address the high rate of hunger in the country largely caused by insecurity.

Haruna, in his remarks, said ” Minister, being from the North East, the picture I am about to paint shouldn’t be strange to you at all.

“The pathetic picture of people dying of hunger daily while majority of those surviving, feed once a day.

“Making it worrisome is the fact that even people from neighbouring countries like Chad, Niger, Benin Republic and Central Aftrica, are trooping in to mop up the little food, signalling total famine in the area if not urgently addressed by stockpiling the silos “.

But Ademorin, in his remarks, wrote off the silos by putting it to the minister that most of the silos built by President Jonathan’s administration are alleged to be concessions for N20 million each.

The minister, however, in his response, assured the lawmakers that all issues raised would be decisively addressed in the 2024 fiscal year.

Kyari said food security is the number one out of the 8- 8-point agenda of President Bola Tinubu’s administration and that the ministry has repositioned itself for actualisation of the agenda.

According to him, some of the action plans already being implemented to ensure food security in the country aside from securing the farmlands by security agencies are “certification of available planting materials for some food security crops in readiness for dry season farming.

“Reviewing the mechanisms and processes for delivering fertilizers and agro-pesticides input to farmers under a transparent and accountable regime.

“Fast-tract the take off and operations of the National Agricultural Development fund.

“Implement a joint action plan with the Federal Ministry of Water Resources to unlock the huge irrigation potentials of the River Basin Development Authorities and other flood plains in the country to guarantee all-year-round food production etc.”

Earlier in his submission, he told the committee members that for the 2024 fiscal year, a total of N362.940 billion was earmarked for the sector out of which N124.1 billion is for the Ministry.

The breakdown of the N124.1billion according to him, shows that N10.6billion is for personnel cost, N1.34 billion for overhead and N112.497 billion for capital expenditure.

Business

Video: Why I Returned $14k Mistakenly Sent To Me By Foreign Crypto Trader – Nigerian Man

Published

3 days ago

July 2, 2024

Editor

Anjola Femi, a Nigerian man, has returned $14,000 (approximately N21 million) that was mistakenly sent to him by a foreign crypto trader.

The incident, which unfolded on social media, has garnered widespread attention and praise.

The story began when Femi participated in a cryptocurrency giveaway organized by Rafael Alvi, a foreign trader known on social media as @raffayalvi.

Femi was initially awarded $100 worth of Solana, a popular cryptocurrency.

However, due to an error, Alvi accidentally transferred $14,000 to Femi’s account instead.

Upon discovering the mistake, Femi made the decision to return the substantial sum.

His act of integrity did not go unnoticed, as Alvi publicly praised Femi on social media for his honesty.

The incident has since attracted significant attention, with many applauding Femi for his commendable actions.

When asked about his decision to return the money, Femi explained that honesty and integrity are values he holds dear.

He expressed that keeping the money would have been wrong and that he believes in doing the right thing, regardless of the circumstances.

“My name is Anjola Femi, the guy that is known as Lucky, that is the Twitter handle @muchino67.

“So I won this giveaway on Solana, $100 worth of Solana from Rafael Alvi this morning. So, what happened was that he sent it to me.

“So, when he sent it to me, he now messaged me that he mistakenly sent 100 Solana which was $14k instead of $100. So, he requested me to hold 10 and send 90 to him in which I did…,” Femi narrated.

When asked why he returned the substantial sum of money, Femi said; “I cannot keep the money because it is not mine. I am child of God and we all know that righteousness exalts a nation and thank God for Apostle Chris Onofua, the Kingdom Spread World Ministry general overseer. He has taught us the way of righteousness, so I am very very happy about what I did.

“He is happy, I am happy. I am just trying to show to the world that we Nigerians we are still great and also have a lot of people with integrity. I am also a graduate of the Federal University of Technology, Minna, 2017 set, chemical engineering to be precise.

“Thank you and God bless you all.”

Why I returned $14k mistakenly sent to me by foreign crypto trader – Nigerian man pic.twitter.com/EmVD7Yf1Aa
— Vanguard Newspapers (@vanguardngrnews) July 2, 2024

Business

Naira Tumbles, Depreciates By 40% Against Dollar In First Half Of 2024

Published

5 days ago

June 30, 2024

Editor

The Naira depreciated by over 40 percent in the half quarter of 2024 at the foreign exchange market.

The FMDQ data showed that the Naira weakened to N1505.30 per dollar on Friday from between N896.6 and N907.11 it closed on 29th December 2023.

The figure showed that the Naira had continued its instability against other currencies in the last months despite a streak of months of appreciation before depreciation set in mid-April 2024.

The Naira reached its highest peak of N1,665.50 in February 2024 and lowest point in April when it stood at 1,140 and N1,230.61 at the official and parallel foreign exchange markets, respectively.

The development comes on the back of Central Bank or Nigeria policies, including the unification of the FX market, circular on the operation of International Money Transfer Operators, Intervention to Bureau De Change operators, regulation on excess FX to banks, and recently the withdrawal of Price Verification System Portal for importers.

Despite, the policy reforms by the apex bank, the Naira has continued fluctuations against the Dollar and other currencies in the foreign exchange market.

In April 2024, the Naira was adjudged as the best-performing currency, but slipped to worst-performing in May, according to Bloomberg.

This is as Naira closed at N1505.30 and 1515 at the official and parallel foreign exchange market, respectively on Friday.

The development comes despite the increase in Nigeria’s external reserve which stood at $34.07 billion on June 26, 2024.

Business

CBN Issues Fresh Foreign Currency Deposit Guidelines

Published

7 days ago

June 29, 2024

Editor

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued fresh guidelines to Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) on the deposit of foreign currency notes with the apex bank.

In circular no: COD/DIR/INT/CIR/001/016 issued by the Director of Currency Operators Mr. Mohammed Solaja seen on the bank’s website, it directed DMBs must notify the apex in writing of its intention to make such deposits, at least three working days before such a deposit is make.

Such foreign currency deposits can only be made at the CBN branches at Abuja and Lagos.

It further directed that each bank would be allowed a maximum deposit of $10 million threshold for USD 100 notes and USD 50 notes daily.

The CBN said that smaller denominations of $ 20 notes and belows would be at a maximum of $1 million daily.

British Pound and Euro were also pegged at GBP 1 million and Euro 1 Million per day per DMB.

According to the circular, each denominations would be in separate boxes and two representatives of a DMB wanting to make.deposits must be present to witness the counting and confirm the amount.

It added that only CBN-registered CIT companies for deposit of foreign currency notes would be allowed to representative the DMBs in the exercise.

CBN directed that the deposits would take place between 8.00 am and 12 noon and that the selected branches must confirm the deposits same day.

Handling charge, it.said would be at 0.30 percent and would be received from the Current Accounts of DMBs with the CBN.

The bank said that the new guidelines supersede the June 17, 2017 circular referenced: COD/DIR/GEN/CMF/11/094.