Nigerian Stocks End On a High For 2nd Consecutive Day

Nigerian stocks closed on a positive note today as the All Share Index (ASI) was up 3.91% to close at 23,335.01.

This is the second consecutive day this year that the exchange has closed on a positive note, following its 4% rise yesterday.

 

Here is a snapshot of today’s trading:

ASI: 23,335.01

DEALS: 3,865.00

VOLUME: 242,530,451

VALUE: 1,580,319,992.25

MARKET CAP: 8,025,345,618,419.41

Top gainers for the day:

NESTLE opened at N675.1 and closed at N708.85 gaining N33.75

DANGCEM opened at N123.51 and closed at N128.89 gaining N5.38

WAPCO opened at N80 and closed at N83.47 gaining N3.47

Major Losers for the day:

SEPLAT opened at N159.72 and closed at N151.74 losing N7.98

ASHAKACEM opened at N26.5 and closed at N24 losing N2.5

FLOURMILL opened at N17.85 and closed at N16.35 losing N1.5

Analysts believe that the dramatic recovery of the stock exchange is attributed to activities of bargain hunter taking positions on the oversold market.

Skye Bank Plans To Raise Fresh Capital Again

 

 

 

Skye Bank has revealed that it is seeking to raise fresh capital in the first quarter of 2016 in a bid to shore up its capital base. This was disclosed by the company’s  Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Bank, Mr. Timothy Oguntayo at an at an interactive session with top stockbrokers in Lagos on Tuesday.

According to reports, the CEO claimed that the bank is already in discussions with its key shareholders and some potential strategic investors who they believes provide the required capital. The sell-offs in the capital market has impacted negatively on fund-raising activities in the capital market with investors preferring to pitch institutional investors or shareholders with significant equity stake.

 

Skye Bank is said to have a capital adequacy ratio of 15.87%. The bank also reported an earnings per share of 91 kobo in the first 9 months of 2015 compared to 75 kobo a year earlier. The share price is down 46% in the last one year and closed just at N1.11 on Wednesday.

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NCAA warns airlines over arbitrary increase of air fares

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has warned scheduled commercial airline operators in Nigeria to desist from arbitrarily increasing miscellaneous charges on ticket payment content without the authority’s approval.
Airlines have variously been accused of padding charges to their tickets without any explanation to either the passengers or the regulatory authority.

NCAA has therefore directed that all airlines should file any proposed add-on charges, surcharges or other miscellaneous charges with the Authority, which must be approved before such charges are implemented.

NCAA said in the procedure of filing same, “all justifiable reasons for increment must be adduced in accordance with Parts 18.14.3.1 and 18.14.3.2.(i-iii) of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (Nig.CARs) which relates to the approval of charges on all flights within Nigeria or originating from Nigeria to international routes.”

 

As contained in the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations, (Nig.CARs) 18.14.3.1.”In requesting for approval of any add-on charges or surcharge, an air carrier is required to provide justifiable basis for the proposed increment with a consideration of all relevant factors including a new linear rationalisation for the specific aggregated costs sought to be recovered and consumer interests.”

1n addition, parts 18.14.3.2. of the regulation says, “When approving any application for an add-on charge or surcharge related to fuel, the Authority shall: Take into account changes in prices of aviation fuel, the relevant hedging policies of the air carrier, the justifications provided by the air carrier and other relevant factors; ensure that the revenue so generated would not exceed the additional fuel costs borne by the airline operators during the corresponding period; and approve on a short term basis, not exceeding a period of two (2) months in each instance.

“Therefore subsequently, NCAA wishes to notify all operators that any add-on charge, surcharge or any other miscellaneous added on passenger tickets without regulatory approval should cease forthwith. Any further breach would attract the appropriate sanctions,” the regulatory body said

Nigeria’s oil fields face shutdown amid price slump

With crude oil trading around $30 per barrel in the international market from a peak of $114 in June 2014, production from Nigeria now faces a decline as some fields face an imminent shutdown if the low oil price persists.

Industry players say operating some of the fields in the country is becoming uneconomic, with the selling price of oil being driven down close to the production cost level.

The price of the Nigerian crude oil, Bonny Light, has fallen to $29.47 per barrel, according to the latest data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

“When oil price drops, we are all in serious trouble, because if the oil price and your unit operating cost are almost the same, it means that when you sell the oil, there is little profit or you are at a loss. Many companies are not far from there,” the Project Director for the Uquo gas field development, a joint venture project by Frontier Oil Limited and Seven Energy, Alhaji Abdullahi Bukar, told our correspondent.

“The unit technical cost of many of our producers is not far from $30 per barrel. So many companies are in trouble,” he added.

According to Bukar, the average production cost for many of the fields in the country is $24 to $25 per barrel.

“For some fields, the production cost is well above $25, maybe $28. For some fields, it is well below $20 and $25. Many of the older fields, which are mostly with the International Oil Companies, have got high production costs,” he said.

Global financial services firm, Morgan Stanley, on Monday joined banks such as Goldman Sachs, City Group and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, in warning that prices could slide to $20 per barrel.

Bukar said, “The production in Nigeria is going to suffer. In the last five years, we have not invested as much as we should to develop additional reserves. Once, we keep going like that, whether there is price change or not, the amount of oil Nigeria is going to be producing will go down.

“When the price drops as low as $20-$30 range, people who have got those old fields or fields where oil production cost is above the selling price will shut them down. There is no point in producing oil to sell at a loss.”

Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer, relies on crude oil for most of its export earnings and government revenue. Oil production in the country has continued to hover between 1.9 million barrels per day and 2.3 million bpd in recent years.

President Muhammadu Buhari had projected crude oil production of 2.2 million bpd for this year’s budget, down from 2.2782 million bpd in the 2015 budget, with oil-related revenues expected to contribute N820bn.

Industry experts also say the continued decline in global oil prices would stall a number of deep-water projects in the country.

The Chief Executive Officer, Petrosystem Nigeria Limited, Mr. Adeola Elliott, said, “Obviously, the plunging price will affect investment in new fields. I had a discussion with a top official in one of the IOCs operating in the country. What they have done now is to just keep maintaining the facility they have now and producing what they producing now. There is no more new investment.”

 

Prior to the drop in prices, several IOCs had in recent times shifted more of their focus to the offshore areas of the Nigerian oil industry as a result of onshore risks, with a number of planned deep-water projects expected to come on stream in the coming years.

Deep-water oil projects that have yet to achieve Final Investment Decision include Bonga Southwest and Aparo (Shell); Zabazaba-Etan (Eni); Bosi, Satellite Field Development Phase 2 and Uge (ExxonMobil); and Nsiko (Chevron).

An energy expert and Technical Director, Drilling Services, Template Design Limited, Mr. Bala Zakka, said with oil at $30 per barrel, the profits and projects, including Corporate Social Responsibility activities of many oil firms would be negatively affected.

“Major deep-water projects will be affected because they are very expensive. If oil continues to fall, a lot of exploration and drilling campaigns will reduce. A lot of marginal field operators will not be able to drill new wells. There is every possibility that companies will retrench to be able to stay afloat,” he said.

The Head, Energy Research, Ecobank Capital, Mr. Dolapo Oni, said, “Our production is really having issues, and I think it might be worse in 2016. Our production is likely to reduce this year.

“There are not as many fields likely to come on stream this year. Most companies just want to focus on their existing production. So, it is possible we won’t see as much new production come on stream to reverse the trend of decline in major fields we have. That might make production go down.”

Oil prices could reach as low as $10, Standard Chartered warned, stating, “Given that no fundamental relationship is currently driving the oil market towards any equilibrium, prices are being moved almost entirely by financial flows caused by fluctuations in other asset prices, including the dollar and equity markets.”

Wood Mackenzie, the energy consultancy firm, said in a report last week that since the oil price collapse in 2014, 68 major upstream projects containing 27 billion barrels of oil equivalent had been deferred.

This, it said, amounted to $380bn of capital expenditure deferred by total project spend in real terms.

It stated, “As oil prices continue to fall and capital allocation tightens, we expect the list will grow further. The level of production impacted by these deferrals is material in a global context.

“The FIDs on many of these projects have been pushed back to 2017 or beyond. Deep-water is hit the hardest. Over the next five years, $170bn of potential investment currently hangs in the balance across these 68 projects.”

Wood Mackenzie says, in all, some 27 billion barrels of oil equivalent in reserves, or 2.9 million barrels per day of liquids production, will not come on stream until early in the next decade, later than envisaged.

High cost deep-water fields, particularly those in Angola, Nigeria and the Gulf of Mexico, requiring heavy upfront investment, account for more than half of that deferred production.

New owners inject $1bn in NITEL to revive telecoms firm

About $1 billion has already been expended on the revival of Nigerian Telecommunication Limited (NITEL) and its sister company, Mobile Telecommunication Limited (Mtel), which were recently acquired by NATCOM Development and Investment Limited from the Nigeria Telecommunications Limited (NITEL).

The injected funds and other efforts would see the company engage 4,000 employees by March, as it sets to roll out its mobile lines, and 4G/LTE services for broadband users.
The Chairman of NATCOM, Mr. Olatunde Ayeni, revealed these  during a presentation before the House of Representatives Joint Committees on Communication and Privatisation, where he added that the firm’s services would be rolled out on Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt before expanding to other parts of the country.

He disclosed  that the initial financial bid  was increased to $252.251 million from $221 million when juxtaposed with the liquidator’s reserved price of $256 million.
NATCOM acquired assets and licences of NITEL and MTEL, percentage interest held in South-Atlantic 3 (SAT-3) consortium, and identifiable assets capable of generating viable business units.

 

“NATCOM’s full submission was duly made to NITEL/MTEL’s liquidator and Nigeria’s Bureau of Public Enterprises on  November 7, 2014. NATCOM’s submission was accompanied by a bid bond in the amount of $10 million as stipulated in the liquidator’s RFP,” he said.
He disclosed that $10 million had been spent on SAT-3 system,  quarterly dues to the consortium, system expansion and upgrade since the acquisition, adding that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had assigned another set of microwave frequency ranges to NATCOM upon request for N176.8 million, computed on the basis of 800 bases station network in the first instance.

NATCOM was requested to pay an additional N6.6 billion to bridge the shortfall of the value of the Naira to the Dollar from N168 to N197, after the payment of the first installment of 30 per cent of the bid price within 14 days of approval by the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) and balance within the 90 days,  Ayeni said.

Higher food prices, transportation push inflation to 9.6%

The Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures inflation, rose further to 9.6 per cent in December compared to 9.4 per cent in the previous month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The 0.2 per cent increase in the headline index was attributed partly to higher prices in imported food items and an increase in transportation cost as a result of intermittent petrol supply shortages.
According to the latest CPI figures released by the statistical agency yesterday, food prices recorded significant pressure in December as the core sub-index rose to 8.7 per cent, the same rate for the third consecutive month.
Urban inflation increased at a faster pace relative to November, increasing by 9.7 per cent (year-on-year) from 9.4 per cent the previous month.

However, the rural index was relatively muted, increasing from 9.3 per cent in November to 9.4 per cent in December.
On a month-on-month basis, both the urban and rural indices increased at 1.0 per cent in December and 0.3 per cent from 0.7 per cent in November.

According to NBS, “The food sub-index increased to 10.6 per cent (year-on-year) during the month, 0.3 percentage points from rates recorded in November. All major food groups which contribute to the food sub-index increased at a faster pace during the month with the exception of the milk, cheese and eggs group.

 

“All groups which contribute to the food sub-index increased at a higher pace, with the highest rises recorded in the fish, vegetables, potatoes, yams and other tubers, and fruit groups. The average annual rate of change of the food sub-index for the twelve-month period ending in December 2015 over the previous twelve-month average was 9.9 per cent. This was marginally higher than the average annual rate of change recorded in November at 9.8 per cent.”

NBS data further showed that the highest price increases were recorded in the garments and vehicle spare parts as a result of replacement costs, passenger transport by road, and furniture and furnishings groups in the month of December.
The average 12-month annual rate of rise of the index was recorded at 8.2 per cent for the twelve-month period ending in December 2015, 0.2 percentage points higher than the rate of change recorded in November.

Also, the average monthly price paid by Nigerian households for a litre of petrol across the country increased to N119.61/litre in December compared to N115.35/litre in November, according to the NBS.
Yet, the official pump price of petrol stood at N87/litre, while figures provided showed that on a monthly average, Nigerians have continued to purchase petrol above the official rate in the period under review.

Bayelsa and Taraba States had the highest monthly average of N154/litre and N153.33/per litre respectively during the month in review while Plateau recorded a monthly average of N147.50/litre in December.
Katsina and Lagos recorded the lowest monthly average of NN89.17/litre and N89.80/litre respectively in the month under review.
Abuja and Rivers recorded a monthly average of N114.78/litre and N116.50/litre respectively in December.

Nigeria faces further revenue slump as Iran returns to oil market

Nigeria’s dwindling oil revenue is expected to fall further as Iran is set to commence immediate exports of at least 500,00 barrels of crude oil per day (bpd) following the lifting of international sanctions against the country at the weekend, thus worsening the oil glut in the global market.

The federal government’s 2016 budget, which is predicated on an oil price of $38 per barrel, is already under threat as crude oil prices fell below $30 last week due to an estimated 1.5mbpd excess inventory in the oil market.

With the lifting of sanctions against Iran, the additional one million barrels per day that the country is expected to add to the global market this year will depress prices further, thus worsening Nigeria’s already precarious economic situation.
The United Nations Nuclear Agency on Saturday certified that Iran had met all of its commitments to curb its nuclear programme, and the United States immediately revoked sanctions that had slashed Iran’s oil exports by around 2mbpd since their pre-sanctions 2011 peak to a little more than 1mbpd.
There were strong feelers a month ago that the removal of sanctions would occur earlier than oil traders initially expected.
This fuelled a sell-off which sent the price of Brent crude tumbling 24 per cent since the beginning of the year, the biggest fall since the financial crisis of 2008.

Iran has said that it hopes to increase its post-sanctions crude exports by around 1mbpd within the year.
UK-based Independent newspaper reported yesterday that Iran was set to flood the oil market with 500,000bpd after international sanctions were lifted in a move that has been hailed by the country’s president as a “golden page” in its history.
President Hassan Rouhani was quoted as saying that the deal “opened new windows of engagement with the world” and the country should “get ready to seize the opportunity to make an economic leap and development”, while speaking in Parliament yesterday.

Hours after sanctions imposed by US, UN and the EU on Tehran were lifted – thereby removing the obstacle to exports – the Deputy Oil Minister, Amir Hossein Zamaninia, announced that his country was ready to increase its crude oil exports by 500,000bpd.
“With consideration to global market conditions and the surplus that exists, Iran is ready to raise its crude oil exports by 500,000 barrels a day,” Zamaninia was quoted as saying by the Shana news agency.
Already there are some 38 million barrels of oil in Iran’s floating reserves ready to enter the market, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Rouhani said Iran should use the expected influx of money and investments following the end of sanctions to spark the “economic mutation” of the country, creating jobs and enhancing the quality of life for Iranian citizens, after the country suffered double-digit inflation and high unemployment rates for years.

Rouhani said his country needs up to £35 billion in foreign investment annually to reach its goal of 8 per cent annual growth.
More than £21 billion in assets overseas were understood to become immediately available to the Islamic republic, while official Iranian reports have set the total amount of frozen Iranian assets overseas at £70 billion.
But as Iran prepares to re-enter the oil market, Nigeria’s problems may be compounded by fears of rising militant attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta.

A few hours before a Federal High Court in Lagos ordered the arrest of former militant, Mr. Government Ekpemupolo, also known as Tompolo, who is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on allegations of corruption and money laundering, the Escravos gas pipeline operated by US multinational, Chevron, was blown up in the Niger Delta.
The attack on the pipeline was blamed on Tompolo who has denied the corruption allegations and threatened to go to war against the federal government if it prosecutes him.

Since the EFCC launched the probe in the award of contracts by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to Tompolo and his company, Global West Vessel Specialist Limited, among others, he has refused to honour the invitation of the EFCC.
He also failed to turn up for his arraignment at the court last week, compelling the presiding judge, Justice Ibrahim Buba, to issue a bench warrant for his arrest.

In a bid to stem further attacks on oil installations, troops of the military Joint Task Force (JTF) in the Niger Delta, termed Operation Pulo Shield, yesterday stormed some Ijaw communities especially the coastal settlements comprising Gbaramatu Kingdom in Warri South-West, Delta State, in search of Tompolo and other militants.

According to residents in the community, Kurutie, an island near Okerenkoko, as well as Okpelama and Oporoza communities, were also allegedly invaded by the military search team, which was said to have stormed the communities at about midnight yesterday.
Okporoza, which is the traditional headquarters of the oil-rich Gbaramatu Kingdom, is the home of Tompolo, who is one of the most influential community leaders in the kingdom.

However, sources said some of the youths allegedly hired to carry out the attacks on the Chevron oil installation were believed to hail from Okpelama, lending credence to the observation that the soldiers might have come in search of the culprits based on intelligence reports.

Although there was no independent confirmation of the nature of the military operation in the Ijaw coastal communities, THISDAY learnt that the soldiers kept surveillance on Kurutie and Oporoza.
Many residents were reported to have begun moving out of the area into nearby swampy forests after the sudden appearance of the soldiers.

A source said palpable anxiety enveloped the area yesterday, as residents still remember vividly the devastating invasion of Okporoza, Okerenkoko and other Gbaramatu communities by Nigerian soldiers in 2009 at the peak of militancy in the Niger Delta.
A source alleged that soldiers forced their way into homes during the invasion, “probably in search of arms and those responsible for the attacks on the pipelines belonging to Chevron and the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)”.

 

Community leaders yesterday expressed shock and disbelief at the military invasion on their communities and homes, maintaining that they were innocent of the reported attacks on the facilities.
“At the moment, my community is practically a ghost town; the people are running away to Warri and other places in the swamps,” a community leader said, adding that the soldiers did not talk to anyone about their mission in Gbaramatu.
Meanwhile, Tompolo has blamed a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and governorship candidate of the just-concluded Bayelsa election, Mr. Timipriye Sylva, for the attack on the Escravos pipeline.

Tompolo, in an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday further alleged that “a few young men” from his own local government area in Delta State have been aiding and abetting Sylvia, who decamped from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on whose platform he once served as the Bayelsa State governor.
He claimed that the said “young men” were among the local politicians who defected to the APC from the PDP shortly after the 2015 presidential election in the country.
He also alleged that an unnamed legal counsel to the EFCC was an accomplice in the renewed attacks and destruction of oil facilities in the region.

In the letter titled, “Beware of Some of Your Party Members in Bayelsa and Delta States,” Tompolo also addressed the EFCC probe.
He said: “I wish to inform you that it has come to my knowledge that the leader of your party and governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa and a few young men from Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State, who joined the party from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after the 2015 presidential election are hell bent on linking me to the renewed vandalisation (sic) of oil facilities in the Niger Delta region; whereas they are the ones carrying out the act to smear my name.
“They are doing this in connivance with the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) lawyer, who is also a member of your party, and is at the forefront of prosecuting me because I refused to buy property from him.

“The crux of this letter is to let you know them that they are dubious, mischievous, desperate, pretentious, manipulative and corrupt; and, therefore, do not share the same vision and mission with you, as well as do not believe in good governance.
“I will briefly tell you some of their antecedents in this letter. The leader of your party in Bayelsa State approached me shortly after my meeting with you in Abuja, that I should accompany him to meet you and plead for him to be appointed as Special Adviser and Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme Committee, which I refused to do because of his antecedents, as being not a reliable and trustworthy person.

“It was thereafter he forced his way into the governorship election of the state, which almost tore the state apart with violence, beginning with the party primary in which he demonstrated a high level of desperation as was recounted by the chairman of the committee and Governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
“As for the members of the party from my local government area, Warri South-West, they have been involved in illegal bunkering and oil theft activities over the years, which I have been fighting against because of love for (my) country. They know me as a no nonsense person.

“There is this particular one from the same Gbaramatu Kingdom with me that had sworn to kill me because I refused to manipulate the ascension to our traditional stool in his favour when he was not even qualified for it. And so, he looked for any opportunity to deal with me.
“As for the EFCC lawyer, he approached me some years back that I should come to Abuja and Lagos to buy some choice property worth billions of naira from him. I told him that I do not have such money to buy property. Besides, I was not interested in holding property in Abuja and Lagos, except in my village.
“Since then he has been looking for any opportunity to drag me into matters I do not know anything about. And this is one of the reasons why I have not appeared in the court because he is not qualified to prosecute me.

“The truth of the matter is that I do not know anything about the N34 billion EFCC is talking about. First, it was a N13 billion issue, now it is N34 billion. I am not a signatory to any of the companies mentioned in the said N34 billion case, so I do not know where this one is coming from. I know that God in His infinite mercy will see me through in this critical moment.”
However, the commander of the JTF, Major-General Alani G. Okunola, yesterday read the riot act to oil installation vandals while addressing journalists at Egwa II community in Warri South-West Local Government Area when he led his troops to inspect one of the blown pipelines.

He said Pulo Shield would henceforth hold community leaders where such bombings take place responsible for any acts of economic sabotage in their domain.
Okunola also vowed to bring the saboteurs of the national assets to book, saying his men were closing in on the criminals.
“Henceforth the extant law banning the use of outboard engines with 200 HP and above will be enforced,” he said, warning that the federal government would not condone any act of sabotage in the country.

He also appealed to government officials and community leaders to give JTF and other security agencies in the region useful information that would lead to the arrest of the perpetrators of the pipeline explosion for prosecution.
He said: “It was blown up three days ago. We are going to fish out those responsible. It was a massive sabotage and critical to national assets. There is no way we will fold our hands and allow the perpetrators to get away with it. We did not have our men deployed in the area, that is why they had the opportunity to do it.”

Dangote invests in tomato production to create jobs, tackle poverty in Kano

It is a situation that mirrors the giant oil industry, where Nigeria has abundant resources but has lacked the capacity, will or ability to exploit it, forcing a reliance on imports.

But Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote is hoping to change tomato production with a giant factory that will boost domestic output, create jobs, and even, indirectly, fight Boko Haram.
For the past five years, the Dangote Group conglomerate he heads has been working to build a $20-million (18.4-million-euro) tomato processing plant outside the northern city of Kano.

The city and state of the same name has been blighted by poverty and unemployment, seen as key drivers to radicalisation fuelling the Islamist insurgency in the wider north since 2009.
But it’s hoped the giant factory the size of 10 football pitches, set alongside 17,000 hectares (acres) of irrigated fields, will help by tapping a potential agricultural goldmine.

The country’s agriculture ministry puts annual current demand for tomato puree at 900,000 tonnes.
When the Dangote factory opens from next month, it will provide 430,000 tonnes of paste that is used widely in Nigerian dishes from jollof rice to fiery soups.
“Nigeria is such a huge market for tomato paste that we will find quite challenging to satisfy,” the factory’s general manager, Abdulkarim Kaita, told AFP.

“Already local tomato paste packaging companies have placed orders with us which we will have to work hard to satisfy.
“We are set to begin operations. We are only waiting for the tomatoes which are ripening in the fields.”
Nigeria grows some 1.5 million tonnes of tomatoes every year, making it the 14th biggest producer in the world.
But it’s forced to rely on imports of tomato puree, mostly from China, because of a lack of processing plants.
Dangote’s factory, built by Switzerland-based Syngenta, will directly employ 120 people and 50,000 farmers have been engaged to grow the tomatoes required for the process of making concentrate.

 

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has provided technical assistance such as soft loans for seeds and fertiliser. The factory will then buy the produce at competitive rates, said Kaita.
Currently, about half of the local tomato crop rots because of a lack of storage facilities, poor pricing and access to markets, which has prompted many farmers to stop cultivation, said the CBN.
The improved seed varieties to increase yields, access to chemicals, more up-to-date farming techniques and a ready market for the produce is designed to entice farmers back.

“Once we start production the factory will be providing employment to farmers and (the) tomato paste packaging industry, traders, haulage operators and many others to support the tomato value chain,” said production manager Ashwin Patil.
Plans to increase production – and acquire an idle tomato paste factory in neighbouring Kaduna state – are in the pipeline, he added.
For farmers such as Yusuf Ado Kadawa, it’s a lifeline.
“We really incur heavy losses from our yield, which rots away due to lack of (a) ready market for our tomatoes, which is a perishable produce. But now we have a market close to us,” he said.

President Muhammadu Buhari is keen to diversify Nigeria’s economy away from an over-reliance on oil as revenues have been severely depleted by the global slump in crude prices.
Former Minister of Agriculture, Akinwumi Adesina, now head of the African Development Bank, in 2013 described the sector as “the new oil”.

Some 30 per cent of Nigeria’s estimated 170 million people are employed in agriculture, mostly at a subsistence level, although moves have been made to commercialise production.
Erratic power supply, which Nigeria has been grappling with for more than two decades, and lack of import controls remain the factory’s main challenges.
The factory will have to rely on diesel-hungry generators for electricity, adding to production costs and reducing competitiveness with cheaper imports.

Both issues contributed to the collapse of hundreds of factories in Dangote’s home state of Kano in the past two decades, including his textile and wheat flour factories.

But the vice-president of Nigeria’s manufacturers union, Ali Madugu, said the future still looked bright.
“Once the government can place restrictions on the import of Chinese tomato pastes… the sky’s the limit for the Dangote tomato paste because the market is there for them to exploit,” he added.

FG Says 55 Nigerians Stole N1.34 Trillion From Treasury In 7 Years

The Federal Government said 55 people have stolen from the nation to the tune of 1.34 trillion Naira between 2006 and 2013, more than a quarter of 2015 national budget.

Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, gave the figure while addressing a world press conference in Abuja marking the beginning of the war against corruption in Nigeria.

Mohammed said persons linked to the loot were past government officials, bankers and businessmen.

The minister revealed that, out of the stolen funds, the minister said 15 former governors stole N146.84 billion; four former ministers took N7 billion; 12 former public servants both at federal and state levels stole over N14 billion; eight other Nigerians in the banking sector made away with N524 billion , while 11 businessmen cornered N653 billion.

Mohammed said: “This is the money that a few people, just 55 in number, allegedly stole within a period of just eight years. And instead of a national outrage, all we hear are these nonsensical statements that the government is fighting only the opposition, or that the government is engaging in vendetta.”

Some Nigerians are currently accusing the All Progressives Congress (APC) controlled government of engaging in a vendetta against the opposition People’s Democratic Party members, but the Minister said Nigerians should not be misinformed about the true state of affairs and the true cost of the stolen funds.