Business

DMO Reveals How Petrol Subsidy Raised 2022 Borrowing By N1trn

Published

2 years ago

September 27, 2022

Editor

The nation’s public debt stock is being increased by the petrol subsidy as the government had to borrow N1 trillion to subsidise petrol this year, the Director-General of the Debt Management Office, DMO, Ms. Patience Oniha has said.

In a presentation at the Executive Course on Budgeting and Fiscal Transparency at the Army Resource Centre in Abuja, yesterday, she attributed the current debt stock to budget deficit, noting that the borrowing plan for 2022 was increased by N1 trillion to enable the government to pay the extra cost of petrol subsidy.

Despite the public debt stock of $42.8 billion, Ms. Oniha said remained within acceptable limits and sustainable,

Speaking on the topic, Debt Sustainability Challenges and Strategic Revenue Mobilisation Initiative, the D-G said that the federal government had to resort to borrowing to fund the budget due to revenue challenges.

She said that the DMO was deploying World Bank and International Monetary Fund tools to ensure the sustainability of Nigeria’s public debt.

According to her, “These tools include an annual Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA) and a Medium Term Debt Management Strategy (MTDS) every four years.”

In addition, she said, “Maturities in the Public Debt Portfolio are well spread to avoid bunching of maturities and to ease repayments of maturing obligations. The Domestic Debt portfolio has securities with tenors ranging from 91 days to 30 years, while the External Debt Portfolio has securities ranging between 5 years to 30 years.”

She explained that despite criticisms of the government’s borrowing, Nigeria’s debt to GDP ratio remains among the lowest globally.

She pointed out that while Nigeria’s debt to GDP ratio was 23.06 percent, countries such as Angola (136.54%), South Africa (69.45%), Ghana (78.92%), United States (133.92%) and United Kingdom (104.47%) have higher ratios.

She however stressed that Nigeria was not alone in rising levels of public debts, pointing out that across the globe, governments were borrowing more to meet with economic and social challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.

“Governments across the world borrow. Globally, debt levels are growing, but it is not a new trend. Debt levels were already rising prior to Covid-19 crisis when compared to 2014. Globally, sovereign debt grew from 49 percent of GDP in 2014 to 57.9 percent in 2019 and in sub-Saharan Africa, from 35 percent of GDP in 2014 to 55 percent in 2019. In Nigeria, this ratio rose from 13 percent in 2014 to 19 percent in 2019”, she stated.

The DG also explained that the government was not just borrowing for borrowing sake, emphasizing that the loans would enable the government to finance critical infrastructure with multiplier benefits (job creation, movement of persons and goods) and overall GDP growth.

She noted that the country was facing a revenue crisis, adding that it has become very important for the government at all levels to pay more attention on how to increase revenue generation as a means of reducing borrowing.

The DMO boss noted that Nigeria was performing poorly in terms of revenue, as she said that the country had a far lower revenue record than it could generate.

She said that the federal government has taken a number of measures to grow its revenue, while urging citizens and corporate bodies to pay their taxes in order to make funds available for the government to finance the various much-needed infrastructural facilities, across the country.

The D-G added that the issuance of federal government securities had several benefits for both the citizens and corporate organisations.

They included being safe investment opportunities with regular returns and being the vehicle for mobilizing large pools of funds from domestic and international sources for investments in capital projects

She added that the development of the domestic financial sector; Liquid assets for banks and other institutions who need to hold such assets; attracting foreign investors into the domestic markets; and providing sovereign yield curves in the domestic and international markets, against which other issuers such as State Governments, private sector entities and multilaterals can issue securities to raise capital were major advantages of the exercise.
VANGUARD

Business

Stock Market Review: FBN Holdings Leads 41 Others As Investors Gain N811bn

Published

2 hours ago

May 4, 2024

Editor

FBN Holdings Plc has topped 41 other advanced equities to pull the Nigerian Exchange Ltd.(NGX) market indices up by 1.46 per cent, week-on-week, making investors gain N811 billion.

The market, having opened for four days in the week, following the May Day holiday, had FBN Holdings leading the gainers’ table by 32.68 per cent to close at N27 per share.

Sterling Financial Holdings followed by 27.75 per cent to close at N4.88, while UACN gained 24.60 per cent to close at N15.45 per share.

Julius Berger added 23.76 to close at N72.40, while Flour Mills rose by 20.66 per cent to close at N36.80 per share.

Conversely, Nascon Allied Industries Plc led the losers’ table by 17.03 per cent to close at N43.60, University Press trailed by 16.67 per cent to close N2.05 per share.

Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals shed 14.14 per cent to close at N1.70, Berger Paints Plc declined by 9.87 per cent to close at N13.70 and Vitafoam Nigeria lost 9.81 per cent to close at N17 per share.

Meanwhile, 42 equities appreciated in price during the week, higher than 27 equities in the previous week.

Thirty-six equities depreciated in price, lower than 43 in the previous week, while 76 equities remained unchanged, lower than 84 recorded in the previous week.

Consequently, the All-Share Index and Market Capitalisation appreciated by 1.46 per cent to close the week at 99,587.25 and N56.323 trillion, respectively, in contrast to 98,152.91 and N55.512 trillion posted last week.

Similarly, all other indices finished higher with the exception of NGX Consumer Goods, NGX Oil and Gas and NGX Industrial Goods which depreciated by 0.26, 0.68 and 0.36 per cent, respectively, while NGX ASeM and NGX Sovereign Bond indices closed flat.

Meanwhile, a total turnover of 1.941 billion shares worth N32.644 billion in 35,807 deals was traded this week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 1.839 billion shares, valued at N34.258 billion, that exchanged hands last week in 37,528 deals.

The financial services industry measured by volume led the activity chart with 1.496 billion shares valued at N22.453 billion traded in 19,225 deals, thus contributing 77.08 and 68.78 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value, respectively.

The consumer goods industry followed with 144.722 million shares worth N5.063 billion in 4,966 deals.

In the third place was the conglomerates industry, with a turnover of 109.978 million shares worth N1.539 billion in 2,064 deals.

Trading in the top three equities, namely Abbey Mortgage Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Holdings Company Plc and Access Holdings Plc, measured by volume, accounted for 898.940 million shares worth N14.314 billion in 5,518 deals.

These contributed 46.31 and 43.85 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value, respectively.

(NAN)

Business

BREAKIN: NDIC Increases Maximum Deposit Insurance Coverage

Published

3 days ago

May 2, 2024

Editor

The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) on Thursday increased the maximum deposit insurance coverage levels for Deposit Money Banks from N500,000 to N5 million.

The Managing Director of NDIC, Bello Hassan, announced this in Abuja at a press conference, stating that it takes effect immediately.

He said, “For Deposit Money Banks, the increase of the maximum deposit insurance coverage from N500,000 to N5,000,000, would provide full coverage of 98.98% of the total depositors compared with the current cover of 89.20%.

“In terms of the value of deposit covered, the revised coverage would increase the value of deposits covered by deposit insurance to 25.37% compared with the current cover of 6.31% of total value of deposits.

“The increase of the maximum deposit insurance coverage from N200,000 to N2,000,000, would provide full coverage of 99.27% of the total depositors compared with the current level of 98.76% and would increase the value of deposits covered by deposit insurance to 34.43% compared with 14.38% of total value of deposit, currently covered.

“The increase of the maximum deposit insurance coverage from N500,000 to N2,000,000 would provide full coverage of 99.34% of the total depositors compared with the current 97.98% and would increase the value of deposits covered by deposit insurance to 21.04% compared with 10.77% of total value of deposit, currently covered.”

Hassan also stated that raising the maximum deposit insurance coverage for primary mortgage banks from N500,000 to N2,000,000 would provide full coverage for 99.99% of total depositors and increase the value of deposits covered by deposit insurance to 43.10% of the total deposit value, up from the current 40.60% cover.

The Corporation has also raised the maximum pass-through deposit insurance coverage for subscribers of Mobile Money Operators from N500,000 to N5,000,000 per subscriber.

Business

Dangote Speaks On Devaluation Of Naira

Published

3 days ago

May 1, 2024

Editor

Chairman of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote has said that the devaluation of Naira created the biggest mess for the company in 2023.

Speaking at the annual general meeting of Dangote Sugar Refinery, Dangote said this affected lots of companies in the country.

He said: “We are doing whatever it takes to make sure that at the end of the day, we will be paying dividends because if you look at our dividends last year, it was almost 50 percent more so we will try and get out of the mess.

“The biggest mess created was actually the devaluation of the naira from N460 to N1,400. You can see almost 97 percent of the companies, especially in food and beverages businesses, none of them will pay dividends this year for sure but, we will try and get out of it as soon as possible.

“We want to see that at the end of the day, no matter how small, we will be able to pay some dividends, especially if there is a rebound of the naira.”