CAPITALDIGEST, DAILY NEWS. 8TH AUGUST, 2022

MONDAY 01/8/2022-NNPC REMITS $2.7BN TO CBN IN SIX MONTHS The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited remitted a total of N2.7bn into its accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria from January to June this year, a document on NNPC remittances to CBN seen in Abuja on Sunday showed. Contradicting the claims of CBN that the weakening value of the naira was caused by the non-remittance of funds into Nigeria’s foreign reverses by NNPC, the document stated that out of the $2.7bn the oil firm remitted into its CBN accounts, $645m was for dividend paid by the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas company Limited. It added that $1.786bn was from the operational activities of the national oil company, which recently transited into a limited liability company. In its reaction to the crash in the value of naira against the United States dollar, the CBN had said the non-remittance of dollars by NNPC precipitated the forex crisis. In a report entitled, “The forex question in Nigeria: Fact sheet,” the apex bank reportedly stated that there had been “zero-dollar remittance to the country’s foreign reserve by the NNPC. TUESDAY 02/8/2022-EXTERNAL RESERVES ADDS $45.3M ON INCREASE IN DIASPORA REMITTANCES Nigeria’s external reserves added $45.3million in July, according to movement in reserves data released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The foreign exchange buffer as of July 28, 2022, moved to $39.22billion from $39.17billion it commenced the month under review. Analysts have attributed the steady increase in external reserves to CBN’s RT $200billion Foreign Exchange Programme, stressing that the policy unveiled in February 2022 has revived foreign exchange earnings from non-oil proceeds. In a chat with THISDAY, analyst at PAC Holdings, Mr. Wole Adeyeye said, “The increase in foreign exchange inflows from the non-oil sources, through the CBN RT200 FX programme and increase in diaspora remittances, may have contributed to the increase in Nigeria’s external reserves in July.” The CBN in February released the operating guidelines for the non-oil export proceeds repatriation rebate scheme as introduced in the RT200 FX programme. WEDNESDAY 03/8/2022-BANK BORROWING FROM CBN RISES 27% TO N4.5TN Amid a rising liquidity crunch, banks operating in Nigeria borrowed a whopping sum of N4.5tn from the Central Bank of Nigeria in July, an increase of 27 per cent Month-on-Month from N3.6tn borrowed in June 2022. Banks use Standing Lending Facility and Repo lending to access short-term lending from the apex bank. While the CBN lends money to banks through the SLF at an interest rate of 100 basis points above the Monetary Policy Rate currently at 14 per cent, it also lends money to banks through Repurchase Arrangement (Repo). Repos are usually considered less risky due to their short-term maturity status and the backing of the government. In the month under review, the CBN financial data shows that banks borrowing through the SLF dropped by 24.37 per cent MoM to N1.46tn in July, from N1.93tn in June, while borrowing through Repo arrangement rose sharply in July by 86.1 per cent MoM to N3.07tn from N1.65tn in June 2022. THURSDAY 04/8/2022-CBN URGES PRIVATE SECTOR OPERATORS TO REPATRIATE FX EARNING TO EASE PRESSURE The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has advised members of the organised private sector (OPS) to always ensure that they repatriate foreign exchange (FX) proceeds back to the apex bank in order to ease FX pressure in the country. Deputy Director, Banking Services, CBN, Mr. Egboagwu Ezulu, made the call at the Association of Corporate Affairs Managers of Banks (ACAMB) maiden national stakeholders’ conference held in Lagos yesterday. Speaking further, Ezulu also advised OPS to take advantage of the various intervention schemes of the CBN to through the Bank of Industry, the Development Bank of Nigeria and commercial banks, to boost their output. He said: “We are taking FX out of this country and dumping offshore; when we were told to bring them back. If Nigerians are bringing back FX, we would not be talking about challenges of FX. There is a challenge for individuals and businesses to do the right thing. FRIDAY 05/8/2022-FG EYES MORE FOREX EARNINGS FROM CASHEW EXPORTS The Federal Government, African Cashew Alliance and National Cashew Association of Nigeria on Wednesday expressed their commitment to make Nigeria’s cashew globally competitive, to grow the country’s foreign exchange earnings through cashew exports. They made the commitment during a courtesy visit by ACA and NCAN to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Abubakar Mahmood, in Abuja. The President, ACA, Babatola Faseru, told the minister that the vision of the alliance was to create a sustainable cashew industry that would deliver global competitiveness to secure profitability for all actors in the industry. He stated that through the ACA partnership, which had Nigeria as member, cashew producers had received support from both public and private stakeholders, advocacy, linkages, technical assistance and global networking. “ACA has successfully created a platform for accelerating growth and investments in the African cashew industry,” he stated.