The naira has on Wednesday, December 30,
2015, strengthened against the dollar on the parallel market, the News
Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
This is coming at a time when Nigerian are groaning about the
increasing exchange rate of the dollar to the naira and as currency
speculators are expressing fears that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
might come up with policies that might be unfavourable to them in 2016.
Naira strenghtens against the Dollar at the parallel market.
In the new development, the naira gained N1 to appreciate about 0.4
per cent, to exchange at N226 to the dollar against the previous N227.
At the official inter-bank window however, the naira remained at N197
to the dollar just as available apex bank’s record puts the price of
crude oil at 36.09 dollars.
The currency speculators are now envisaging that the apex bank might
come up with policies that would affect them negatively in the new year.
Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen and his wife, actress Isla Fisher, have donated £670,000 ($1m) to two charities.
The couple have given £335,000 to Save The Children to help vaccinate against measles in northern Syria.
They
are also giving the same amount to the New York-based International
Rescue Committee, run by former UK foreign secretary David Miliband.
This will fund education, health care, shelter and sanitation for refugees in Syria and neighbouring countries.
More
than 250,000 people have been killed since an uprising against
President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011 and more than 11 million
others have been forced from their homes.
Mr Miliband said those caught up in the conflict were "victims of terror".
He added: "Sacha and Isla's donation is a great expression of humanity, and a challenge to do more for the most vulnerable.
"I
hope it is an example to many others seeking practical ways of making a
difference during the Christmas and new year season."
Justin
Forsyth, CEO of Save the Children, said Syria's health system had
collapsed and deadly childhood diseases such as measles had returned,
threatening the lives of many children.
"By allowing us to make
their generous donation to Syrian children public, Sacha and Isla are
helping highlight the tragedy of the issue today," he said.
"These
are desperate times for Syrian families facing bombs, bullets and
torture in Syria. The couple's donation will save many thousands of
lives and protect some of the most vulnerable children."
President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the immediate payment of December salaries to Federal Government workers.
The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, who spoke yesterday in
Abuja at the end of the monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee
(FAAC) meeting, said salaries were already being paid in response to the
Presidential directive.
She said salaries were being paid, and that people have already
started getting alerts. “We are very conscious of the need that people
are paid in time for the festive season,” she stated.
Mrs. Adeosun said the balance in the Excess Crude Account (ECA), was
$2.258 billion as at December 22, adding that the amount remained
unchanged from what it was in November. She said $150 million dividend
from the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) was also shared at the
meeting.
While giving the breakdown of what was shared for November among the
three tiers of government, Mrs Adeosun lamented that there was revenue
decline of N103.95 billion, indicating the difference of the
N473.83billion for October and the N369.88 billion shared in November.
Yesterday, the three tiers shared a statutory revenue of N297.45
billion, Value Added Tax (VAT)-N61.18 billion, exchange gain-N4.92
billion and refund made by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC) for debt owed the Federation Account-N6.33 billion.
From the statutory revenue of N297.45billion, the Federal Government
after deducting the cost of collection to the Nigerian Customs Service
(NCS) and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) received N139.5
billion; states N70.76 billion; and local government areas- N54.55
billion.
Also, N25.6 billion was allocated to the oil producing states as the
13 per cent derivation fund. For VAT revenue of N61.18 billion, the
Federal Government, after deducting cost of collection of FIRS got N8.8
billion, while states pocketed N29.36 billion and local governments got
N20.55 billion.
The finance minister attributed the decline in allocation to
reduction in revenue which was caused by shutdown and shut-in of
production at various terminals during the period.
She however painted an optimistic picture when she said: “Even though
the revenues were currently down, non oil revenue is beginning to make
up for the shortfall in oil revenue.
Ongoing maintenance and the shutdown and shut-in of production for
repairs at different terminals during the month continued to impact
crude oil and gas revenue negatively.
“We don’t have to rely on oil with its price going down and very
unstable. We are focusing on revenue from non-oil and you can see
impressive N369.882 billion compliance with tax.”
Apart from repairs and maintenance, members of the FAAC were told
that there was also a revenue loss of $19.43 million as a result of
reduction in export even though the average price of crude oil increased
from $46.96 in September to $49.58 in October while non oil revenue
also decreased by N114.2billion in November in comparison to the
previous month of October. Source: TheNation
Star Wars: The Force Awakens” may rake in $528 million in worldwide
ticket sales over the weekend, Walt Disney Co Chief Executive Bob Iger
said on Bloomberg TV.
That would beat the record opening weekend sales of
$525 million that dinosaur film “Jurassic World” garnered earlier this
year in its worldwide release, including in China.
The force will awaken in China, the world’s
second-largest movie market, on Jan. 9. The last “Star Wars” movie in
2005 collected just $9 million there.
The first “Star Wars” film in a decade recorded the
biggest domestic opening in Hollywood’s history, collecting $238 million
over the weekend in the United States and Canada.
It also set records in Britain, Australia, Russia and
elsewhere as fans embraced a new chapter in the galactic battle between
good and evil.
The film’s financial and critical success mark a
victory for Iger’s strategy of acquiring proven brands, including Pixar
Animation and comic book powerhouse Marvel, to fuel Disney’s
entertainment empire.
Disney purchased “Star Wars” producer Lucasfilm for $4 billion in 2012 as part of his bet on big-budget films.
Disney plans four “Star Wars” movies through 2019, plus
major expansions at its U.S. theme parks to incorporate the droids,
spaceships and otherworldly creatures of the universe Lucas invented.
“Force Awakens” toys, clothing, home accessories and video games already
pervade stores ahead of Christmas.
The movie could become the highest-grossing movie of
all time, box office analysts said. “Avatar” holds that title with $2.8
billion in global sales.
CDMA operators sustain downward growth profile
FUND paucity and regulatory challenges were identified yesterday as
factors that compromised the actualization of $210 million (N41.5
billion) merger deal, targeted at reviving Nigeria’s moribund Code
Division Multiple Access (CDMA) sub-sector of Nigeria’s
telecommunications sector.
The merger deal, mooted in 2012, and was scripted to bring together
CDMA operators including Starcomms, Multilinks and MTS, to revive their
dying operations in Nigeria.
The merger was actually initiated by an American investment group,
CAPCOM Limited, which planned to invest $210 million in the business
company. If it had succeeded, Starcomms would have survived as the brand
name.
CAPCOM was a special purpose vehicle established in 2012, for the
acquisition of Starcomms shares and related transactions, with money
raised from investment funds, hedge funds, family offices and industry
partners around the world.
In an interview with The Guardian, the supposed Chief Executive
Officer (CEO) designate for CAPCOM, Demola Elesho, reiterated that the
deal was to help merge the CDMA operations of Starcomms, Multilinks and
the property of former MTS.
Elesho, who is no more with the team on the deal, however, said the
needed funding, both local and foreign, which didn’t come on time, was
actually what halted going forward with the merger. Besides, The
Guardian also gathered that slow regulatory interventions from both
Securities and Exchange Commission and the Nigerian Communications
Commission (NCC) also served as clog to the merger’s actualization.
“Unfortunately, up until the time I left them, which was till
December 2014, the funding both local and foreign total achieved was not
sufficient to realise the ambition”, he stated.
According to Elesho, who chairs ConSol, an indigenous call centre
operator, though lots of money was raised but, “it was not just enough
to realise that dream of buying an old company, pay off the debts and
still have enough money to launch a new 4G/LTE technology. I know the
other partners are still trying. Anything can still happen. I wished
them luck.”
Meanwhile, the NCC statistics further showed a sustained downward
profile from the operations of the CDMA operators. The remaining
operators are Visafone and Multilinks.
According to NCC, while Nigeria’s teledensity is now about 108 per
cent, the CDMA operators, which had 2, 125,941 subscribers in August
lost 83,926 of them within a month, resulting to 2,042,015 by September.
On why the CDMA operations continued to nose dive in the country,
Elesho said: “What we call the CDMA operator in Nigeria is just a bad
tag because they are another operator using CDMA technology. So, I think
CDMA technology in Nigeria was not successful not because the
technology was not good, but it never saw the kind of investment both
capital inflows and people investment like other technology in GSM.”
According to him, the CDMA technology came from second to third and
to fourth before it lost the race completely, which is the consequences
of competition, “and we must leave with the result and move on.”
It will be recalled that at the formal announcement of the merger
plan in December 2012, the Acting Chief Executive Officer of Starcomms,
the leading firm in the merger, Olusola Oladokun said that by April
2013, the $210 million investment from CAPCOM would reposition the
company’s operations. He stressed that the company will be providing 4G
LTE services. But the deal failed to fly.
Indeed, CAPCOM was expected to invest $112 million to the CDMA assets of
Multilinks and MTS, while $98 million cash would go into Starcomms as
part of the transaction.
Furthermore, Capcom was expected to raise $50 million of equity from a
limited number of key investors, while additional funds will be
provided through a $62 million loan from Africa Export Import Bank
(Afreximbank).
Emir
of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II says if embattled former Minister of
Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke is jailed and convicted for
corrupt charges, it will send a signal to other corrupt officials in
Nigeria. Sanusi said this in an interview with US TV news, PBS Newshour
"If she (Diezani) goes to court and is jailed for example, it sends a
signal I think that there is a day of reckoning. In Nigeria, there is no
accountability at all and that is why I think Nigerian corruption is
worse than in many parts of the world because it is the worst type of
corruption. Its stealing".
He went on to say that under the last administration, a billion dollar was stolen every month.
"Frankly, I think a billion dollars under Jonathan a month was about what we were losing.”
Sanusi
said the stealing of oil money was done via the award of oil blocs to
groups of friends who do not have any knowledge of oil wells.
"Basically what it does is to allow a group of friends who do not have
any kind of operating background to pay $50 million to access to crude
oil in blocs valued at over $2 billion. and they just take the crude,
ship it out and don't return the money. and there is no trace of where
the money has gone. Someone gets a contract to lift crude from the
terminals to the refineries. and in-between that crude is stolen in the
high seas".
Goldsmith has staged concerts for the likes of Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Diana Ross
Concert promoter Harvey Goldsmith has called secondary ticketing websites "a national disgrace".
He said tickets to U2's recent London shows were advertised for up to £3,300 on resale sites, despite a face value of £182.
"We're
asking the government to pass a law which says you cannot sell a ticket
for more than 10 per cent of its face value," he told Radio 4's Front
Row.
The government is running a public consultation on secondary ticketing.
Fans have until Friday, 20 November to submit their views on the issue.
Goldsmith's
comments come a week after rock star Prince postponed the sale of
tickets to his European tour over concerns about tickets being resold on
third-party websites.
He later pulled the tour in the wake of the terror attacks in France.
You need to install Flash Player to play this content.
Media captionTicket toutsEarlier this month, consumer magazine Which? called for a
crack-down on ticket resale sites, arguing consumers face a "stitch-up".
The
group spent eight weeks monitoring four of the biggest secondary
ticketing websites and said it found "some really unusual behaviour".
"We
found things like tickets appearing on resale websites before they were
even officially released," report author Peter Moorey told Front Row.
"And
we found tickets that were appearing simultaneously on the primary and
the resale websites, as soon as tickets went on sale."
The
magazine also found that resale restrictions - such as the requirement
to show photo ID at the venue - were not being disclosed.
"This is
really worrying," said Mori, "because people could go onto these resale
websites, spend as much as £1,500, then go to the venue and be turned
away."
Market 'distorted'
Paul
Reed, general manager of the Association of Independent Festivals said
he felt fans were being "defrauded" by sites that sell tickets at vastly
inflated prices.
He said some of the association's members -
which include events such as Sonisphere, The Secret Garden Party and The
Eden Sessions - had encountered fans buying fake tickets online.
"We
had an event this year where 27 people bought tickets on a secondary
platform. They showed up at the festival - and the secondary ticketing
platform had essentially facilitated the sale of a piece of paper. It
wasn't worth anything," he told the BBC.
"The secondary platforms weren't contactable, they weren't accountable. But these tickets were fraudulent." Prince has protested at ticket resellers, calling them "vultures"
"I don't think parasitic is too strong a word for
the secondary ticketing industry. Our view is that this is an industry
that's been allowed to grow on the back of the creative arts without
reinvesting anything into it."
"We're all dependent on genuine
fans and if they're constantly banging their head off a wall trying to
get a ticket, they're going to give up."
Phil Hutcheon, who runs
the ticketing website Dice, told the BBC he had seen his own tickets
appear on secondary sites "either before the concert's gone on sale or
literally seconds afterwards".
"Then we ask questions about it and they disappear."
He called for more transparency from resale sites, with more information about who is listing tickets for sale.
"We
don't want to stop people re-selling tickets," he insisted. "There's
lots of situations where fans can't make a show and want to pass the
tickets on to another fan.
"Our thing is that, when someone is
buying dozens or thousands of tickets and reselling them and distorting
the market, that's a real issue. And they can get away with it because
no-one knows who's doing it."
Dice sells tickets with no booking
fee, with the passes stored in an app, ready to be scanned at the venue.
It also allows fans to return tickets if they cannot make a show. These
are then put back on sale at the original face value.
"This isn't an attack on big business," said Hutcheon. "We just want something that's more transparent and fair for fans."
Guarantees
In response to the Which? report last week, ticketing site StubHub said it was "committed to transparency".
"It
is very clear in our terms and conditions that sellers are not
permitted to list or sell tickets that they do not own or that have not
been allocated to them, known as speculative selling.
"If we are
made aware of speculative selling on our site for specific events, we
will investigate and remove the listings where appropriate.
"However,
there are many cases where fans will have access to priority tickets in
advance of an official on-sale and this is one reason why tickets can
be listed so quickly."
Meanwhile Ticketmaster, which owns Get Me
In and Seatwave, said the resale market in the UK had "developed high
levels of consumer protection over recent years, with incidents of fraud
being very rare."
"Ticketmaster's resale marketplaces, Get Me In
and Seatwave, offer fans full consumer protection, with guarantees of
full refund or ticket replacement," the statement continued.
The 156 years old Riemann Hypothesis, the most important problem in
Mathematics has been successfully and, if you like, accurately solved by
a respected Nigeria Scholar, Dr Opeyemi Enoch.
With this breakthrough, Dr Enoch, who teaches at the Federal
University, Oye Ekiti (FUOYE), has become the fourth egghead to resolve
one of the seven Millennium Problems in Mathematics.
The mathematician had, before now, worked on mathematical models and
structures for generating electricity from sound, thunder and Oceanic
bodies.
An officially statement in Ado Ekiti said Dr Enoch presentation of
the Proof on November 11, 2015 during the International Conference on
Mathematics and Computer Science in Vienna, Austria becomes more
symbolic coming on the exact day and month 156 years after the problem
was delivered by a German Mathematician in 1859.
The Riemann Zeta Hypothesis is one of the seven Millennium problems
set forth by the Clay Mathematics Institute with a million Dollar reward
for each solved problem for the past 16 years.
According to the statement, “Dr Enoch first investigated and then
established the claims of Riemann. He went on to Consider and to correct
the misconceptions that were communicated by Mathematicians in the past
generations, thus paving way for his solutions and proofs to be
established.
“He also showed how other problems of this kind can be formulated and
obtained the matrix that Hilbert and Poly predicted will give these
undiscovered solutions.
He revealed how these solutions are applicable in cryptography,
quantum information science and in quantum computers,” it stated.
Three of the problems had been solved and the prizes given to the
winners. This makes it the fourth to be solved of all the seven
problems.
Dr. Enoch, from Kogi State, had previously designed a Prototype of a
silo for peasant farmers and also discovered a scientific technique for
detecting and tracking someone on an evil mission.
Enoch has succeeded in inventing methods by which oil pipelines can
be protected from vandalism and he is currently working on Mathematical
approaches to Climate Change. Kudos!
London’s world famous Sunday market, better known as Liverpool Street
Market, in East London is facing hard times as some of its businesses
are folding up while many others are struggling to stay afloat due to
the low patronage of Nigerians, a Daily Trust findings have shown.
The 400-year-old market, which sells mainly clothes for women, men
and children; designer goods, as well as bric-a-brac and household
goods, is patronised mainly by Nigerians and other customers from around
the world.
A recent survey by Daily Trust showed that the change of government
in Nigeria, coupled with cash and financial policies that placed
restrictions on the amount of money one can travel with or withdraw
abroad have led to a drastic reduction of Nigerian customers at the
market.
In one of the big textile shops in the market, an employee who craved
anonymity told Daily Trust that their sales had slumped by more than 40
percent since the inception of the President Muhammadu Buhari
administration, adding that the few Nigerian customers who come in now
buy only a fraction of items they used to buy in the past.
In another top textile shop with a reputation of serving tea to big
time customers while they shop, a manager who wouldn’t like his name
published said their business has been going through “tough times” in
the last few months due to a “significant” drop in the number of
Nigerian customers.
“When the going was good, a lot of Nigerian customers bought assorted
items in bulk and opted for door- to- door courier or cargo delivery in
Nigeria,” but lamented that they hardly have such customers now.
Hajiya Rabi, a store operative, while confirming the decline in sales
owing to a drastic drop in the number of Nigerian customers, said the
future of businesses, especially textiles shops in the market looked
very bleak without robust patronage by Nigerians and other customers.
Speaking in the same vein, a shop owner, Chief (Mrs.) Franca Aina,
said sales had “really, really gone down,” and attributed the trend
partly to restrictions on credit card spending and the limited amount of
cash Nigerians are allowed to carry or withdraw abroad.
Aina, who is Nigerian, said the situation was so bad that some shops
and businesses were closing down, stressing that: “I think it’s because
of the new government’s war on corruption.”
“In the past, Nigerians used to come here and spend (money) anyhow.
But now only a few come and they spend very little. In many shops, 90
percent of sales are by Nigerian customers. So you can see why the
businesses are folding up,” she narrated.
The shop owner appealed to the Nigerian government to look into the
cash and financial restrictions placed on its citizens travelling
abroad, stressing that people should be allowed to carry as much money
as they wish as long as they could prove ownership of the money.
“We go to Switzerland and other countries to buy goods and carry as
much money as we need and the UK does not stop us as long as we can
prove it is our money,” she said, pointing out that placing a blanket
restriction victimises innocent people who earn their money
legitimately.
Daily Trust reports that in most of the shops visited, operatives
were seen idling away as very few customers were in the shops, unlike in
the past when such shops were a beehive of activities as the operatives
struggled to cope with customers’ demand.
A couple seen seated in one of the shops told Daily Trust that they
were from Nigeria and they came to the market to buy some fabrics and
other items for personal use and gifts (tsaraba) for family and friends
at home.
It is recalled that businesses at the market recorded very poor sales
for a few days in January 2012 during the fuel subsidy removal protests
in Nigeria when flights into the UK were suspended, and it took weeks
before the situation became normal.
The management of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation,
NNPC has commenced the sale of kerosene to residents of Ogun State,
Southwest Nigeria at 50 Naira per litre.
At an exercise monitored in Sagamu Local Government Area, residents
commended the efforts of the Buhari led administration in keeping with
his electioneering campaign promises.
They however asked the management to the NNPC to ensure the
continuity of the initiative to bring a new lease of life to the people.
Kerosene a major component used for domestic cooking has in recent
times been in short supply and has forced many women to seek alternative
measures.
Residents who seemed to be savoring this latest development however
appealed to the federal government to ensure the continuation of the
exercise which they said would go a long way in assuaging the suffering
of residents.
The Election Commission today asked its officials to
ensure deployment of central para- military forces (CPMFs) at all
polling stations in Bihar during the remaining phases of the Assembly
polls to ensure free and fair voting.
Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi and Election Commissioners AK
Joti and Om Prakash Rawat directed the district magistrates and
superintendents of police to ensure deployment of CPMFs inside all
polling stations.
"That would instill confidence among voters, especially those belonging
to the weaker sections," Mr Zaidi told reporters in Muzaffarpur after a
review meeting along with the two other Election Commissioners.
CPMFs
have already been deployed in the Naxalite-affected areas and would be
further strengthened, he said. On the second day of their Bihar visit,
the Commission held meetings to review poll preparedness for the fourth
and fifth phases of Bihar elections and expressed satisfaction with the
arrangements, especially on the law and order front.
Mr Zaidi said a large number of non-bailable warrants have been executed
and more than 50 per cent of the licensed arms have been deposited with
the authorities, which has helped ensure free and fair polling in the
earlier phases.
He also praised the authorities for taking action in an unbiased manner
in around 1,700 cases of violation of the Model Code of Conduct.
The CEC said that Rs 38-39 crore has been seized in the state so far.
Various teams have seized Rs 18 crore while Income Tax officials have
seized Rs 18-19 crore of unaccounted for cash, which could be a 'hawala'
transaction.
"However, I am still not satisfied (with expenditure monitoring)," he said.
Stating that the EC has found negligible number of complaints in the
preparation of electoral rolls, Mr Zaidi said the voter turnout has
increased this time due to distribution of voters' slip of up to 98 per
cent and poll awareness campaigns.
There are three phases of voting remaining in the Bihar polls on October
28, November 1 and November 5. The counting of votes will be done on
November 8.
In the new development, the naira gained N1 to appreciate about 0.4
per cent, to exchange at N226 to the dollar against the previous N227.
The Election Commission today asked its officials to
ensure deployment of central para- military forces (CPMFs) at all
polling stations in Bihar during the remaining phases of the Assembly
polls to ensure free and fair voting.
