Press spotlights warning that war in Europe will push more Nigerians into poverty, others

By Agence de Presse Africaine Last updated Jun 16, 2022

APA– Lagos The warning by the World Bank that the war in Europe could effectively push an additional one million Nigerians into poverty by the end of the year is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday. The Guardian reports that the World Bank has warned that the war in Europe could effectively push an additional one million Nigerians…

APA – Lagos (Nigeria) The warning by the World Bank that the war in Europe could effectively push an additional one million Nigerians into poverty by the end of the year is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday.

The Guardian reports that the World Bank has warned that the war in Europe could effectively push an additional one million Nigerians into poverty by the end of the year. The figure excludes the six million earlier predicted to fall into poverty this year owing to the rise in prices of essentials, especially food.

The bank also cautioned against inefficient exchange rate approaches saying: “Clarity on exchange rate policy, and transparency in its management are necessary to attract more significant capital inflows, including foreign direct (FDI).”

The concerns were contained in the latest World Bank Nigeria Development Update (NDU), tagged, ‘The Continuing Urgency of Business Unusual’, yesterday.

The report, which was launched at a function attended by Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, and other government functionaries, gave a scary verdict about the country’s fiscal and monetary outlook and warned that urgent reforms are required to save the economy.

The report notes that, “stagnating oil revenues harm fiscal accounts at both federal and sub-national levels” and that fiscal performance has suffered enormously from sluggish oil production and rising petrol subsidy, amid “expenditure pressures”, which remain high.

The newspaper says that overseas maintenance of commercial airplanes operating in the country currently costs Nigeria at least $2.5 billion or N1.52 trillion ($1:N608) in capital flight yearly.

The mandatory maintenance programme, ranging from minor to complex checks per session on an aircraft, costs about $2 million (N1.2 billion), and a cumulative burden on the industry in particular.

Besides, the misfortunes of the weak Naira-to-Dollar exchange rate, perennial lack of high-capacity Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facilities since the 90s has been the undoing of the country. Though the current administration promised to have one in place as part of the Aviation Roadmap initiative of 2016, the plan is yet to become a reality.

Speaking yesterday in Abuja, at the maiden edition of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) National Aviation Conference (FNAC), the Managing Director of FAAN, Capt. Rabiu Yadudu, said such capital flight would have been avoided if the country had MRO facilities that could adequately cater for all types of commercial airplanes.

Yadudu noted that to carry out C-check on Boeing 737 aircraft or its equivalent, airlines expend at least $1.8 million. The C-check is carried out on aircraft every 18 months.

He regretted that Nigeria’s potential and capacity in the global air transport industry was being grossly under-utilised, adding that if stakeholders in the industry are indeed desirous of attaining the status of a major player in the global aviation sphere, it was high time the country leveraged backward integration to move the industry forward.

The Punch reports that some groups in Nigeria, including the Christian Association of Nigeria and the Catholic Society of Nigeria have warned political parties against fielding a Muslim-Muslim ticket in the 2023 presidential election.

They gave the warning as President Muhammadu Buhari, the All Progressives Congress governors and the party’s presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on Tuesday intensified moves to pick Tinubu’s running mate ahead of Friday’s deadline by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Groups campaigning for Tinubu told The PUNCH that what mattered was a responsive and responsible government, not religion.

Since the emergence of Tinubu, a southern Muslim, there has been controversy over his running mate for the 2023 presidential election with CAN insisting that a Muslim-Muslim ticket was a recipe for crisis.

But the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, in an interview with Channels Television on Sunday, said competence not religion should be considered when picking a running mate.

CAN, in an open letter addressed to all political parties on Tuesday said it would take a Muslim-Muslim ticket as a declaration of war and would mobilise against political parties that adopted it.

The newspaper says that the dollar exchanged at N603 (average) at Lagos and Abuja parallel markets on Tuesday, indicating a worsening liquidity crisis in the foreign exchange market of Africa’s biggest oil producer.

Between June 2021, and June 2022, dollar-to-naira exchange rate has risen from N500 to N603 at the parallel market, signifying the greenback appreciated by 21 per cent within the period.

The margin between the official and the parallel market rates on Tuesday was N187.28, a situation believed to be fuelling arbitrage and worsening an already bad FX supply situation.

At the Importers and Exporters (I&E) widow, a dollar exchanged at N415.72, gaining N5.53 in three days. But year on year, the naira weakened by nearly one per cent in relation to the dollar, rising from N411 to N415.72.

One of the Bureau De Change operators at Zone 4, Abuja, which is the hub of the forex sales at the Federal Capital Territory, Mohammed Isah, gave the price of dollar as N604/$, lamenting that the rate had failed to fall after the primary elections conducted by the People’s Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress due to party delegates’ refusal to sell.

The Nation reports that Nigeria has lost its $1.7 billion claim against JP Morgan Chase Bank over the transfer of proceeds from the sale of OPL 245 in 2011.

In the judgment delivered yesterday, the Business and Property Courts of England and Wales Commercial Court said there was no proof that Nigeria was defrauded in the deal.

The Federal Government had sued JP Morgan on the ground of “Quincecare duty”, alleging that the bank “ought to have known” that there was corruption and fraud in the transaction, which saw Malabu selling its 100 per cent in OPL 245 to Shell and ENI for $1.1 billion.

Nigeria argued that there were enough “red flags” for JP Morgan to have halted the transfers. However, the bank rejected Nigeria’s claims, maintaining that due processes were followed and money laundering checks were done, arguing that allegations of fraud only came up after a new government took over in Nigeria.

In the judgment, Sara Cockerill ruled that the Federal Government could not prove that it was defrauded, saying it may be that with the benefit of hindsight, “JPMorgan would have done things differently” but declared that “none of these things individually or collectively amount to triggering and then breaching” the bank’s duty of care to its client.

Bloomberg reports that Cockerill said that by the time of the 2013 payments, the bank was “on notice of a risk” of fraud.

GIK/APA