CAPITALDIGEST, DAILY NEWS. 7TH, FEBRUARY, 2022

MONDAY 31/1/2022 – REFINERIES REHABILITATION GULPED N100BN IN 2021, SAYS NNPC The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has said it spent N100bn on refineries’ rehabilitation in 2021 and that funds were pumped into revamping the facilities on a monthly basis last year. It disclosed this in a report on the funding performance of the oil firm from January to December 2021, which was seen in Abuja on Sunday. Although no refinery was mentioned in the report, Nigeria’s refineries had been under the management of NNPC, as the rehabilitation of one of the facilities, Port Harcourt Refining Company, had been ongoing. The other refineries under the NNPC’s management include the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company, as well as the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company. In the NNPC’s latest funding performance report, the firm stated that N8.33bn was spent monthly for a period of 12 months beginning from January to December 2021 on refinery rehabilitation. The Federal Government has been making moves to get the country’s refineries back on stream, as Nigeria currently imports bulk of its refined petroleum products. This has resulted in humongous subsidy spendings by the NNPC, the sole importer of petrol into Nigeria for more than four years and counting. It was exclusively reported in Sunday PUNCH that the Federal Government had processed $98m and N17.2bn as part payments for the ongoing rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refining Company. The report stated that the government had made an initial payment of $194m, being the 15 per cent advance payment required for the rehabilitation of the facility, to Tecnimont SpA of Italy. This was contained in the financial status update of the rehabilitation of PHRC as the project was financed by an equity contribution by its sponsor and loan by lenders (AfreximBank).   TUESDAY 1/2/2022 – 243 FIRMS JOSTLE FOR CBN’S MULTIBILLION NAIRA LOAN SCHEME The Central Bank of Nigeria has disbursed a total of N23.2bn to 28 firms whose projects satisfied the apex bank’s criteria for ‘100 for 100 Policy for Production and Productivity.’ It disclosed that this was after 243 firms submitted applications with projects valued at N321.06bn for the 100 by 100 loan scheme. The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, disclosed this in Abuja on Monday while presenting the cheques to the beneficiary companies through seven participating financial institutions. The companies comprise 14 manufacturing firms, 12 agricultural companies, and two healthcare firms The PPP is CBN’s policy initiative unveiled last year at the launch of the E-naira initiative to accelerate manufacturing output, and promote further diversification of the nation’s economy to enable faster growth of non-oil exports. Under the policy, eligible companies in priority sectors are to be screened and 100 companies will be selected to receive funding from the CBN every 100 days, beginning from November 1 2021. The selection of subsequent beneficiaries will be rolled over every 100 days with new sets of 100 companies.   WEDNESDAY 2/2/2022 – N23.2BN LOAN: CBN RELEASES LIST OF BENEFICIARIES The Central Bank of Nigeria on Wednesday released a list containing details of the 28 firms that benefitted from the N23.2bn loans disbursed in the first cycle of the 100 for 100 Policy for Production and Productivity. The list was released on the apex bank’s official website. This is coming after the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, launched the PPP programme in Abuja on Monday. Based on the details of the companies, a total of 14 in the manufacturing sector, 12 companies in the agric sector, and two in the healthcare sector scaled through the screening process. The document also showed that only companies from 13 states including the Federal Capital Territory benefited from the first batch of disbursements. At the launch, the CBN Governor had expressed hope that the projects, when fully operational, would create over 20,000 jobs and generate about $125.8m in foreign exchange earnings.   THURSDAY 3/2/2022 – AS GLOBAL BANKS MOVE TO ASSESS DIGITAL CURRENCY With the continuous rejection of bitcoins by most central banks around the world, the International Telecoms Union is of the view that the recent move by some to assess the Central Bank Digital Currency, is a welcome development that will address global cryptocurrency fraud, writes Emma Okonji As the world embraces a cashless approach to transactions, digital currencies are taking centre stage, according to a news letter released recently by ITU, the United Nations’ agency responsible for all matters related to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). According to report from the ITU News Letter, “In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries are moving increasingly to introduce digital forms of fiat money issued by central banks that can be used as legal tender. To date, 68 central banks around the world have announced they are assessing central bank digital currency (CBDC), and 28 have already launched pilot CBDCs. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in October last year, launched the country’ digital currency called eNaira. CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, during the launch of eNaira, said the it would support a resilient payment ecosystem, encourage rapid financial inclusion, reduce the cost of processing cash, enable direct and transparent welfare intervention to citizens, and increase revenue and tax collection. “The eNaira is Nigeria’s CBDC and it is the digital equivalent of the physical naira.   FRIDAY 4/2/2022 – INVESTORS COMMIT N3.36TN TO FG BONDS IN 12 MONTHS Investors committed about N3.36tn to Federal Government bonds between January and December 2021, according to an analysis of the FGN Bond Auction results available on the website of the Debt Management Office. Bond oversubscriptions hit N1.61tn within the period under review, indicating the investors’ strong appetite for FGN bonds. An analysis of the breakdown for each month showed that Federal Government bonds for January worth N150bn were oversubscribed by N88.28bn. The total subscription received from investors for the bonds was N238.28bn, comprising N91.84bn for the 16.2884 per cent FGN March 2027 bonds; N106.37bn for the 12.5 per cent FGN March 2035 bonds; and N40.07bn for the 9.8 per cent FGN July 2045 bonds. The auction result added that out of the 125, 99 and 77 total bids for the tenures, 73, 44 and 28 bids were successful. The Federal Government bonds for February worth N150bn were also oversubscribed by N39.51bn. The total subscription received from investors for the bonds was N189.51bn, comprising N77.05bn for the  16.2884 per cent FGN March 2027 bonds; N72.33bn for the 12.5 per cent FGN March 2035 bonds; and N40.13bn for the 9.8 per cent GFN July 2045 bonds. The auction result added that out of the 78, 53 and 60 total bids for the tenures, 31, 20 and 30 bids were successful.