ECL PRESSREVIEW FOR 13TH OCTOBER 2014. LEADERSHIP SON Commences Implementation Of Compulsory Products’ Certification The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has commenced compulsory product certification in its offices across the nation. This is also as it has called on manufacturers and importers of goods to ensure the importation and production of quality goods in the country by subscribing to its Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme (MANCAP). SON said that Nigerians deserved to get value for their hard earned money adding that the MANCAP was put in place to ensure that all manufactured products conformed to the relevant Nigerian Industrial Standards (NIS) prior to sales in the markets or export. Director- general of SON, Dr Joseph Odumodu, made this disclosure weekend in Abuja at the flag-off of “The Walk for Standards,” held to mark the 2014 World Standards Day. The DG, who was represented at the event by the director of operations in the agency. DMO To Raise N73bn Through Bonds The Debt Management Office (DMO) will raise N73.6 billion through 3, 10 and 20-year bonds on Wednesday, October 15, 2014 according to a statement by the debt office. The three bond offers are re-openings. DMO said it would raise N18.61 billion through the 13.05 per cent FGN August 2016 3-year bond, N30 billion through the 14.20 per cent FGN March 2024 10-year bond, and N25 billion through the 12.1493 per cent FGN July 2034 20-year bond. The debt office in the offer document said it would receive application for the auction which would take place on Wednesday October 15, 2014, and be settled on October 17, 2014. According to the offer document, “For re-openings of previously issued bonds, where coupon is already set, successful bidders will pay a price corresponding to the yield-to-maturity bid that clears the volume being auctioned, plus any accrued interest on the instrument.” ‘Nigeria Spends Over N500bn To Import Building Materials Yearly‘ Nigeria spends over N500 billion ($3.3 billion) every year to import building items such as roofing sheets, nails, roof tiles, headpans, gauze wire, the minister of industry, trade and investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, has disclosed. He said that these building materials were produced from steel and iron ore minerals. Aganga made this known in Ilorin, Kwara State during a pre-commissioning visit of the cold roll mill project of Kamwire Steel Industries, Ilorin. He said the money spent on the importation may increase from $3.3 billion to $15 billion in the next few years if necessary measures were not put in place in the nation’s industrial policy. The minister, who said that despite Nigeria being the second largest producer of steel and iron ore in Africa, it imports products from steel and iron into the country, added that any country that relies entirely on exporting raw materials without having a strong industrial and related services sector would remain poor. BUSINESSDAY Local component manufacturers seek tie-in to auto policy With the Federal Government’s new automotive policy gradually gaining traction, local component manufacturers are seeking for the tie-up of the new automotive policy to ensure synergy among the two major drivers of the policy. The component manufacturers argue that the benefits of the new policy will be fully appreciated when the auto components manufacturers are protected through legislative backing that will prevent undue competition from traditional rivals, China and India, urging that deliberate policy of backward and forward integration be encouraged. They also call for the single-digit credit as directed by government to be monitored so that banks would not take advantage of the present situation to exploit them. From a global perspective, many African countries have been driven away from their local markets in the past because they could not match competition from goods and services imported from abroad, many of which were of substandard quality. Building, raw materials, electronics grow Nigeria’s containerised imports by 97% Imported fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), electronics for household use, and building and raw materials for the construction and manufacturing industries have been identified as the drivers of the growing volume of imported containerised cargoes into Nigerian ports, BusinessDay has learnt. The volume of imported containerised cargoes has significantly grown by 97 percent to 1,010,836 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) annually in nine years, covering 2004 to 2013. Analysts say this is as a result of Nigeria’s growing population as well as a burgeoning middle class. “The volume of containerised cargoes is growing by at least 10 percent every year. The throughput has doubled in the last few years and is growing year-on-year,” Obiageli Duru, deputy commercial manager. THE NATION Nigeria to earn N31.15tr from Lekki port project When the Lekki port in Lagos comes into operation in 2016, it will grow the national economy by contributing $20 billion (about N31.15 trillion), a source close to the project promoters has said. But he lamented that the project is now being threatened by lack of financiers as most of the banks and other financial institutions that initially showed interest in bank-rolling the multi-billion naira project have since backed out because they are not sure of the viability of the project, especially since it does not hold the prospect of an early return on investment (RoI) to them. A source close to the promoters of the port lamented that some of the banks approached by the managers of the port were not willing to give financial assistance based on their fear that they would not be able to recoup their money on time. Aside bridging the capacity deficit, he said, the port would have significant positive macro-economic impact estimated at over $360 billion over the entire concession period. THISDAY BOI Disburses N692bn Loans in 10 Years The Managing Director, Bank of Industry (BOI), Alhaji Rasheed Olaoluwa, yesterday said the bank had disbursed N692 billion as loans to industrialists nationwide in the past 10 years. Olaoluwa made this known to journalists in Ilorin during the pre-inauguration visit of the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, to Kam Industries. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that Aganga was in Ilorin to inspect the Cold Roll Mill project of Kam Industries. Olaoluwa said the bank had financed about 2,000 projects amounting to N296 billion in the last 10 years across the country. The managing director also said one million jobs were created through the loans accessed by the industrialists. THE GUARDIAN Ecobank, others secure mandate to manage N793.89b export facility ECOBANK Nigeria Plc and 20 other financial institutions around the globe have secured the mandate of United Kingdom Export Finance (UKEF), an arm of the UK Government that works as an export credit agency, to help deliver £3 billion Direct Lending Facility (DLF) support to UK exporters. Some of the other selected 20 financial institutions include Citibank, Bank of China, Barclays Bank Group, Deutsche Bank; JPMorgan Chase Bank Group; The Royal Bank of Scotland Group; and Lloyds Banking Group, among others. Ecobank is the only selected Nigerian financial institution. Under the DLF, UKEF will provide loans to overseas buyers in order to finance the purchase of goods and services from UK exporters. Loans are available to cover new international sales by any business exporting from the UK, to any country where UKEF medium term cover is available, and can be made in Sterling, US Dollars, Euro or Japanese Yen. Dangote Cement remains most capitalised firm on the Exchange DANGOTE Cement remains the most capitalized company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), as it closed the year, 2013, with a market capitalization of N3.73 trillion. Nigerian Breweries and Nestle Nigeria, all in the manufacturing sector, trailed Dangote Cement with market capitalization of N1.3 trillion and N951.2 billion respectively. Dangote Cement Plc was also ranked as the Most Profitable Company in Nigeria, with a profit of N201billion in 2013. Zenith Bank Plc and Guaranty Bank Plc (GTBank), ranked next with profits of N95billion and N90billion, respectively. Recent stake by Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), the main investment arm of the Emirate of Dubai, which acquired 243,500 million units of Dangote Cement Plc sold by Dangote Industries Limited for $300 million (about N48 billion) was indeed a boost to the company and its shareholders. Nigeria records steady increase in crude oil production NIGERIA has seen a steady rise in crude oil production in the last few months, which is a sign that the country is on the verge of achieving its target. The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, had promised to work towards ensuring that the country produces a minimum of four million barrels of crude oil a day. According to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Nigeria’s crude oil production based on secondary sources increased by 24.8 barrels per day in September. This, OPEC said in its monthly report released at the weekend, that Nigeria has assisted the oil cartel in recording a rise in its crude oil production in the month under review. Specifically, the country’s crude oil production increased from 2,006 million barrels per day it recorded in August to 2,030mpd in September. The country had earlier recorded 1,982mpd during the third quarter of 2014. NATIONAL MIRROR CBN advocates SWIFT’s sanctions screening to Nigerian banking community The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is implementing Swift’s Sanctions Screening service and is mandating use of the hosted service by the country’s banking community in order to strengthen the Nigerian financial market and ensure it meets global best practices for financial crime compliance. SWIFT Sanctions Screening is a hosted subscription service that filters messages in real time and checks against customers’ selected sanctions lists. Once active, the Sanctions Screening service automatically routes messages in certain predefined categories to a centrally hosted fi lter where the messages are matched against a client’s choice of sanctions lists. Sanctions screening combines a highly sophisticated screening engine with SWIFT’s security, resilience and reliability to create a world-class shared service. The screening engine checks for possible matches from sanctions lists information using logical tests to detect anagrams, inversion of letters, missing letters, misspellings, abbreviations and phonetic similarities. Skye Bank pays mandatory deposit of 20 per cent for Mainstreet Bank acquisition Following the signing of an agreement for the purchase of 100 per cent shares of Mainstreet Bank with the state owned Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Skye Bank Plc, the preferred bidder, has paid the mandatory deposit of 20 per cent for the acquisition of the target bank. The payment, which was made well ahead of the deadline, confirms Skye Bank’s commitment and ability to consummate the transaction. The bank has also confirmed its ability to meet the remaining fi nancial commitment on the acquisition within the specified time frame. A statement from the bank said the agreement for the purchase was signed at the Lagos office of AMCON. The bank’s executive management team led by the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Timothy Oguntayo, signed on behalf of the bank, while AMCON was represented by its executive management. BBC Chinas September trade data beats expectations Chinas exports and imports in September were far higher than expected, according to official data. Exports were 15.3% higher than last year, while imports rose 7%, giving a trade surplus of $31bn for the month. The data beat analysts expectations, who had expected a 12% rise in exports and a fall of up to 3% in imports. Chinas economy has struggled this year to maintain growth rates, with weak factory activity and slowing domestic demand from a cooling housing market. This has led to repeated warnings that China could miss its economic growth target of 7.5% this year. Despite the impressive trade figures, Louis Kuijs, chief China economist at RBS, said he was still hesitant to be very bullish on export growth, because of the state of the economy. This seems to be very strong export growth, though underlying momentum in export growth is a bit less impressive than the headline number suggests because we had a very weak base 12 months ago, Mr Kuijs.
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 07:58:23 +0000