All financial and stock markets news
The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group approves in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, a loan of US $300 million to finance the Transport Sector and Economic Governance Reform Program and the Nigeria Country Strategy Paper (CSP) for the period 2013-2017.
Gov. Mukhtar Yero of Kaduna State on Wednesday denied replacing the 2013 budget presented by late Gov. Patrick Yakowa with a reviewed one. The governor made the denial while receiving the 2013 passed budget from the Majority Leader of the state House o...
The Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) on Thursday shared N575.46 billion among the three tiers of government from the Federation Account for January 2013. Dr Yerima Ngama, the Minister of State, Finance, made this known to journalists in ...
Gombe State Government and Arik Air Ltd. will partner to ensure daily flights from Abuja to Gombe, the Commissioner of Works and Infrastructure, Alhaji Hadi Shehu, has said. Shehu disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Gombe on Friday. H...
Kaduna State Government is to spend over N11 billion this year to improve health care services, the Commissioner for Health, Mr Turaki Kalik has said.
Kalik said while defending the budget at the State House of Assembly on Friday that, N4 billon of the amount would be spent on capital projects while N6.1 billion would be for recurrent expenditure.
Kalik said part of the amount would be used to upgrade some primary health centres, as well as the Barau Dikko Specialist Hospital being upgraded to a teaching hospital.
He said the recurrent budget size when compared to 2012, had risen from N5.5 billion to N6.7 billion, due to plans to recruit more doctors, nurses and other health workers.
He said the ministry had established a monitoring and evaluation department to supervise health workers and healthcare facilities.
He added that the state had provided N1 billion to fund the new free health services programme for children and pregnant women.
The Chairman, House Committee on Health, Alhaji Shehu Adamu expressed satisfaction with the ministry's presentation.
Adamu assured that the assemby would appropriate the funds requested in order to enhance healthcare delivery in the state.
In a related development, the state government said it would spend N5.6 billion on the digitisation of its broadcast stations, and an additional N341 million for other works on the state radio.
The Commissioner for Information, Alhaji Saidu Adamu said while defending the budget of the ministry at the assembly that the aim was to fully equip the stations to provide quality services to the people. (NAN)
Nigerian interbank lending rates rose by about 100 basis points this week, to an average of 12.5 per cent, as dollar sales by the state-owned energy firm NNPC and treasury bills sapped naira liquidity. The NNPC sells the bulk of dollars traded on the i...
The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and the appointed auditors for the proposed audit of all revenues and disbursements of allocated funds to entities involved in the extractive industries are billed to meet this wee...
The World Bank has expressed satisfaction with the level of implementation of the 180 million dollars Science and Technology Education, Post-Basic (STEP-B) projects in selected federal institutions in Nigeria.
The World Bank Senior Education Specialist in Nigeria Dr Tunde Adekola, expressed the feeling in Abuja on Tuesday at a meeting of the National Education Sector Steering Committee on Donors' Assisted States Education Projects.
Adekola said that the bank was pleased with the level of implementation of projects since it started in 2007. He said for a long time, Nigeria went back and forth rating unsatisfactory and moderately satisfactory.
``World Bank is currently spending N55 billion on education projects in 10 states and we are planning to expand the intervention this year.
``We are basically spending 95 million dollars in the Lagos Eko project while 90 million dollars is for Lagos, five million dollars will be for federal.
``We are also spending 150 million dollars on Programmatic Result Learning project in Bauchi, Anambra, Ekiti and Edo and 100 million dollars on Global Partnership on Education in Kano, Jigawa, Katsina, Kaduna and Sokoto, ‘’he said.
Adekola said by June the bank would introduce a policy note on basic education and skills acquisition in Nigeria, where more than 100,000 households had been interviewed.
The Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufa'I, ,on her part, appealed to states to address the challenges of the education sector.
Rufa’I said that challenges that could hamper progress had been identified in the sector, including developing sectoral plans and conducting annual school census.
Others are improving literacy, building and equipping technical schools and access to matching grants. She thanked the World Bank for the continuous support of the Nigerian education sector.
The minister said that the federal component of the Lagos Eko project had also helped in the drive to enhance quality training of education personnel, including teachers.
``I expect the project to complete the work started on supporting the ministry in the provision of some infrastructure for its Education Management Information system,'' she said.
Also, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Dr MacJohn Nwaobiala, said that the World Bank was desirous of improving the quality and access of the Nigeria education.
``We believe that when we work in synergy and collaboration, development partners will always identify areas for which they can provide support to Nigeria.
``I want to say that the support we get from our development partners must be efficiently managed and utilised. ``We must review the World Bank strategy from time to time and adopt those that are viable, ‘’he said.
The Akwa Ibom House of Assembly on Tuesday passed the 2013 Appropriation bill of N470.08 billion. The budget comprised recurrent expenditure of N118. 79 billion and capital expenditure of N351.28 billion. Gov. Godswill Akpabio had on Nov. 20, 201...
Some operators of microfinance banks on Thursday expressed optimism that lending rates in the sub-sector would drop in 2013. They said that lending rates in the sub-sector would drop as soon as operators were able to access the Micro Small and Me...
A former President of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), Mr Samuel Nzekwe, wants the Federal Government to make policies that will reduce the inflation rate in 2013.
Nzekwe told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Lagos that the government needed to take aggressive measures that would address the increase in the nation’s inflation rate.
‘’Inflation undermines purchasing power and once the purchasing power is weak, it will affect the people’s standard of living,’’ he said.
Nzekwe said that the high rate of inflation had increased the level of poverty and devalued the nation’s currency.
NAN recalls that the inflation rate increased from 11.7 per cent in October to 12.3 per cent in November.
NAN also reports that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has retained the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at 12 per cent seven times in 2012.
The MPR is the rate at which the apex bank lends to commercial banks.
Nzekwe urged the government to make deliberate effort to stimulate the real sector to produce more goods and services for local consumption and export, in order to shore up the nation’s revenue.
``Once more goods and services are produced, the inflation rate will automatically come down,'' he said.
Nzekwe advised the government to make consistent policies that would impact positively on various sectors of the economy.
The Deputy Chairman, Senate Committee on Power Sen. Chris Ngige, says the Senate in 2013, will probe the implementation of the N262 billion supplementary budget to ensure fuel availability. He made the disclosure at a news briefing in Awka on Friday. &...
Gov. Isa Yuguda of Bauchi on Friday called on local government councils in the country to source for other means of generating internal revenues. He advised them to depend less on federal grants. Speaking in Bauchi at the closing ceremony of a workshop...
The Federal Government says it is committed to working closely with States to improve the quality and availability of timely statistics for policy formulation and implementation. Dr Shamsuddeen Usman, the Minister of National Planning Commission, said ...
Central Bank Governor Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi on Wednesday said there was the need for the ongoing constitutional review to address the high cost of governance in the country Sanusi made this known at the Financial Sector Forum at the just concluded...