Business

Edo: Traders Reject Old Notes, Residents Groan Over Buhari’s Stance On S’Court Judgement

Published

3 years ago

March 9, 2023

Editor

Bank customers in Benin, the Edo State capital, on Thursday, appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to come out and address Nigerians on his stance on the recent declaration of the Supreme Court judgement asking Nigerians to use the old and the redesigned naira notes side-by-side till December 31, 2023 and save Nigerians from the current financial hardship.

Speaking, one of the bank customers, Elvis Omoregie, said after the Supreme Court judgement that made the old naira notes legal tender, some banks have started dispensing it to their customers.

He said, however, customers worry is that, traders have refused to accept it as a means of payment for goods and services.

According to him when he took the old naira notes withdrawn from the bank to the market, he was told that the president has not told Nigerians that the money is now a legal tender and that it could be used side-by-side with the redesigned naira notes.

“Just yesterday, I went to the First Bank to withdraw money only for me to be paid the sum of N10,000 and N8000 of it was old N500 denominations while N2000 was new naira notes.

“To me, it is quite unfortunate. The old naira notes, you take it to the market, they will not accept it from you and the banks that pay you the money will also tell you that even though they pay you with the old money, you cannot bring it back to them as a form of deposit and that they will not accept it from you until you pass through the Central Bank of Nigeria processes.

“It is sad. You do not do that. Fine, CBN has issued a statement that they have complied with the Supreme Court ruling and why can’t the commercial banks do the same by following the order?

“Why are they stressing the citizens of the country? To me, it is not the best. They should do something about it. As I speak with you, since yesterday, the N8000 they paid me at the bank, I am yet to spend it. No one is ready to collect the money from me. As I speak with you, I am stranded.

” Let the federal government of Nigeria come out and say something. Let them give Nigerians hope, let Mr. President come out and issue a statement even if he cannot come out directly just as he did the other time, let him through his media aide issue a statement compelling the banks or the Central Bank to do more by the way of cushioning the plights of Nigerians”, Omoregie said.

Also speaking Nurudeen Hassan, said if the commercial banks can give out the old naira notes, they should be able to accept them as deposit at the bank and not asking depositors to take it to CBN.

“I was at one of the branches of GTB this morning to queue up for what we have been doing for the past three weeks to collect the sum of N10,000 but to my surprise the branch manager came to tell us that they will be paying with the old naira notes but if we are returning it, we should take it to the CBN.

“So, we felt that this is not good enough for us. Once you can give, you should be able to accept it again.

” We are appealing to the authority concerned to come out and give a clear statement on what to be done to reduce the suffering of Nigerians as regards to this redesigning of this naira.

“We want the federal government to issue a statement and order the banks to give and to accept”, Hassan said.

Business

Okonjo-Iweala Reveals How Nigeria Can Dominate AfCFTA

Published

1 day ago

September 23, 2025

Editor

The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, WTO, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, says Nigeria has what it takes to lead Africa’s new era of trade if it tackles high logistics costs, develops efficient payment systems, and invests in value addition.

Okonjo-Iweala, who was speaking on the sidelines of the WTO Public Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, said Nigeria and other African economies must speed up the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA, and build stronger infrastructure to unlock billions of dollars in opportunities in manufacturing, services, and digital trade.

“The AfCFTA is a great step, but Africa trades only about 15–20 percent within itself — far below the European Union, EU’s 60 percent. We (Nigeria) need to speed up implementation so Africans trade more with each other.

“Take Lesotho: it exports around $200 million worth of textiles (jeans, etc.) to the U.S. — about 10 percent of its GDP — while Africa imports $7 billion of similar goods. Why not absorb Lesotho’s products within Africa? To unlock intra-African trade, we (Nigeria) need efficient payment systems (Afreximbank and others are working on this), better infrastructure and lower trade costs. It shouldn’t take longer to ship goods from Cape Town to Lagos than from China to Lagos.

“With critical minerals, energy, and new supply chains, plus opportunities in services and digital trade, there’s huge potential — if we invest in connectivity and implementation,” she said.

The former Nigeria’s Minister of Finance also cautioned that negative narratives about global commerce risk overshadowing recent successes achieved through multilateral cooperation.

Business

French Media Giant Canal+ Takes Over S.Africa’s Multichoice

Published

2 days ago

September 22, 2025

Editor

French media giant Canal+ said Monday it had taken effective control of South African television and streaming company MultiChoice, creating a group present in nearly 70 countries in Africa, Europe and Asia.

The companies said in a joint statement that the combined group will have a workforce of 17,000 employees and serve more than 40 million subscribers.

The acquisition is “the largest transaction ever undertaken” by Canal+, the statement said.

Canal+, which is already the sector’s leader in French-speaking African countries, now controls what it described as the leader in the continent’s English- and Portuguese-speaking regions.

“This acquisition allows us to strengthen our position as a leader in Africa, one of the most dynamic pay-TV markets in the world,” Canal+ chief executive Maxime Saada said in the statement.

The buyout was given a final green light by South Africa’s competition authority in late July, more than a year after Canal+ launched its bid.

Canal+ offered 125 rand ($7.2) per share for MultiChoice when it launched its offer last year, valuing the South African firm at around $3.0 billion.

Canal+ is present in 25 African countries through 16 subsidiaries and has eight million subscribers.

MultiChoice operates in 50 countries across sub-Saharan Africa and has 14.5 million subscribers.

It includes Africa’s premier sports broadcaster, SuperSport, and the DStv satellite television service.

AFP

Business

BREAKING: Nigeria’s GDP Grows By 4.23% In Q2 2025 – NBS

Published

2 days ago

September 22, 2025

Editor

Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product grew by 4.23 per cent (year-on-year) in the second quarter of 2025, the National Bureau of Statistics revealed in its Q2 2025 GDP Report.

According to the report released on Monday on its website, the figure shows a significant improvement compared to 3.48 per cent recorded in the second quarter of 2024 and the 3.13 per cent recorded in Q1 2025.

The figures signal a strengthening economy, driven by recent rebasing, rebound in oil production and a resilient non-oil sector.

The report said, “Following the rebasing of the Gross Domestic Product using 2019 as the base year, previous quarterly GDP estimates were benchmarked to the rebased annual estimates to align the old series with the new rebased estimates

“This procedure provided a new quarterly GDP series, which is compared to the 2025 second quarter estimates. Gross Domestic Product grew by 4.23% (year-on-year) in real terms in the second quarter of 2025.

“This growth rate is higher than the 3.48 per cent recorded in the second quarter of 2024. During the quarter under review, agriculture grew by 2.82%, an improvement from the 2.60% recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2024.

According to NBS, “The growth of the industry sector stood at 7.45% from 3.72% recorded in the second quarter of 2024, while the Services sector recorded a growth of 3.94% from 3.83% in the same quarter of 2024.”

The report said in terms of share of the GDP, “the Industry sector contributed more to the aggregate GDP in the second quarter of 2025 at 17.31% compared to the corresponding quarter of 2024 at 16.79%.”

It added, “In the quarter under review, aggregate GDP at basic price stood at N100,730,501.10 million in nominal terms. This performance is higher when compared to the second quarter of 2024, which recorded an aggregate GDP of N84,484,878.46 million, indicating a year-on-year nominal growth of 19.23%.”

Details later…