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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said it is working with
the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) towards creating a single
registrar for all securities in the capital market.

Samuel Oni, CBN Director for Banking Supervision, who stated
this at a workshop in Benin, Edo State capital, said this is part of effort at
ensuring stability of the Nigerian financial system.

Registrars are
institutions that keep the register of shareholders of a company and coordinate
the payment of dividends and other fiduciary benefits that come with owning
shares in such companies.

There are currently over 10 registrars handling the register of
the over 200 listed equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange as well as several
other public companies in the country.

Pillars of reforms

Mr. Oni said this is part of the four pillars of the banking
system reforms which the Central Bank started on 14 August last year when it
intervened in some banks that were deemed to be weak. The four pillars,
according to him, are; ensuring the quality of banks, establishing financial
stability, enabling healthy financial sector revolution, and ensuring that the
sector contributes to the real sector. “To ensure financial stability, the CBN
would champion the development of the capital market through the improvement of
its depth and accessibility as an alternative to bank funding,” he said.

The CBN director also
stated that the single registrar would allow for better coordination and
regulation of market activities. “To restore public confidence and credibility
in the banking system, the CBN carried out an exercise to review, evaluate and
determine the quality of bank portfolios especially their exposure to margin
lending,” he said.

Arumah Otteh, the Director General of SEC, recently stressed the
need for close collaboration with all other regulatory agencies in the
financial sector towards maintaining close monitoring and regulation of
operators. Ms. Otteh said the Financial System Regulatory Coordination
Committee (FSRCC), which comprises the CBN, Nigerian Stock Exchange, National
Pension Commission, National Insurance Commission, Corporate Affairs
Commission, provides the platform for the regulators to do a better job. Mr.
Oni explained the Central Bank was working at reducing the informal sector and
ensuring greater financial inclusion as the economy size not captured by
official data is too large to be ignored. “Enhanced financial inclusion would
result in more accurate measurement of economic outputs, increase the tax base
and tax revenue as well as more effective policy development and more efficient
use of financial infrastructure,” he said.

Late intervention

Biodun Adedipe, managing partner of Biodun Adedipe and Co. said
the intervention of the CBN in the banking sector last year that resulted in
the injection of N620 billion to rescue eight distressed banks was inevitable.
“As far back as 2006/2007, I expected the Central Bank to have conducted a credit
audit which should have been the major plank of the stress test that the CBN
did between July and August last year,” he said. “So clearly, the fault was on
both sides of the divide not only on the part of operators alone.”

Mr. Adedipe added that the CBN should give current shareholders the right of
first refusal before inviting other interested parties to pick up the eight
rescued banks. “The CBN should engage operators more in dialogue and ensure
that its policy initiatives are inclusive rather than creating the impression
that the ideas are lacking here or that everyone around is a rogue,” he said.

Rising oil prices and increased production are expected to drive
the nation’s economic growth higher this year although headline inflation is
seen remaining in double digits, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday.

Sub-Saharan Africa’s second-biggest economy, which grew 6.66
percent in 2009, is expected to grow 7.0 percent this year and 7.3 percent
next, according to the median of forecasts from nine analysts who took part in
the survey.

Nigeria is expected to export an average of 2.1 million barrels
per day (bpd) of crude oil in September, up slightly from an anticipated 2.08
million bpd in August, trade sources said this week. “The latest national
accounts data from Nigeria reinforce our view that the economy will expand
strongly in 2010,” said Alan Cameron, sub-Saharan Africa analyst for Business
Monitor International (BMI). “Although seasonal factors related to agriculture
have historically seen growth dip in the first quarter of the year, a sharp
rebound in the oil sector helped lift the overall reading well above the 4.5
percent recorded in Q1 2009.”

Headline inflation was expected to reach 11.5 percent for 2010,
but dip to 9.5 percent in 2011, the survey showed. Consumer inflation eased to
10.3 percent year-on-year in June, its lowest level for more than two years.
Nigeria’s benchmark interest rate has been on hold at 6 percent for more than a
year as the central bank prioritises stimulating growth despite the
inflationary risks.

Higher spending

Nigeria’s fiscal deficit is expected to widen to 3.5 percent of
GDP this year from 3.02 percent last, the second year in a row it will breach a
3 percent target set under a 2007 fiscal responsibility act, according to the
polls. The deficit was seen narrowing to 2.4 percent in 2011.

The National Assembly, last week, approved N445 billion in extra government
spending for 2010, including pay rises for civil servants, doctors and
professors. The supplementary budget was partly offset by a separate bill
trimming the original spending plans by N200 billion to 4.4 billion, but the
net result is still a significant rise in spending over last year.

“Inflation is expected to continue to register in double digit territory; on
the one hand benefiting from a good agricultural performance, but on the other
hand bearing the brunt of expansionary fiscal policies,” said Thalma Corbett,
chief economist at NKC Independent. “The current account surplus is forecast to
remain sizable on the back of a robust trade surplus.” The median forecast for
Nigeria’s current account surplus was 10.4 percent of GDP in 2010 and 10.8
percent next year, according to the Reuters poll.

The struggle over
the location of a refinery in Kogi State has caught the attention of
many Nigerians. The governor is accused of taking the refinery away
from Lokoja to his hometown.

The submission of
this article is that the governor, and all those who made the deal with
the Chinese to build three refineries, should actually be forced to
locate these refineries in not just their villages, but on their own
private land as well.

Why?

Refineries are not
industrial installations that people should wish to be located even in
their enemy’s community. They are extremely toxic and poison everything
and everyone around them. This is well known in the communities close
to refineries in Warri, Kaduna, and Port Harcourt.

Apart from the
release of toxic gaseous emissions into the atmosphere, the liquid
effluents from these refineries are scarcely treated, and are dumped
into water bodies on which local communities depend. The case of Ubeji
community, behind the Warri Refinery, is particularly pathetic.

The community river
and their mangrove swamps were severely polluted and engulfed in flames
in July 2007. Till date, no remediation exercise has been carried out.
You may hear that some compensation has been paid, but what is that
pittance compared to the danger to which the community is permanently
exposed to? What would such minor compensations do when the livelihoods
of most of the citizens have been more or less permanently curtailed?

Other countries examples

The toxic impacts
of refineries are just as bad in other parts of the world. In South
Durban, South Africa, the refineries (owned by Shell/BP joint venture)
were located according to the dictates of the apartheid political
system.

A visit to these
communities today reveals a high incidence of cancers, blood disorders,
and respiratory diseases such as asthma. Indeed, the prevalence of
cancers and asthma is so high that you would hardly find a family
without members that have died from these diseases, or who are
suffering from them. One of the things kids pack as they head to school
is the pumps to use in suppressing asthmatic attacks.

The difference
between the refineries of South Africa and the ones in Nigeria is that
the communities there are organised against pollution and work to
produce evidence through the use of means such as the Bucket Brigades
(who use bucket-like equipment to collect air samples for measurements).

There have been
charges of environmental racism with regard to the location of toxic
factories in the USA. However, one of the most spectacular incidents
involving a refinery in the USA was the huge explosion that occurred at
the Shell refinery at Norco, Louisiana, in May 1988. The fire from that
explosion lasted for eight hours before it was contained. The blame was
placed on rusty pipelines and inadequate preventive maintenance
procedures.

There are several
examples around the world of the negative consequences of siting
refineries in neighbouring communities. One peculiar case is an aged
Shell refinery in Curacao (near Venezuela) now being run by the
Venezuelan state oil company, after Shell sold the refinery to the
Curacao government in the 1980s for less than one dollar. They sold the
refinery because they were faced with the need to clean up toxic dumps
they had created at a cost of about 400 million dollars.

Back to Nigeria, it
is mindboggling to find people fighting to have these installations in
their localities. Those from whose localities they are moved away from
should actually be engaged in thanksgiving and celebrations, rather
than blocking highways in protests! The Chinese have found a business
opportunity because the NNPC has been inept at managing the four
refineries in Nigeria. Must the need to meet increasing demand for
petroleum products force us to open ourselves to be ripped off?

The Chinese are to
build and run the refineries until they recover their investments.
Without terminal dates of when CSCEC would hand over the facilities to
the NNPC, there is a wide room for corrupt practices and unmitigated
exploitation.

Moreover, placing
the refineries on the banks of the River Niger in Kogi State, as well
as on the shores of the Atlantic at Lekki may be ways of democratising
pollution, but these are moves we can ill afford at this time.

Besides, we need
public debates and examination of environmental impact assessments for
these projects before they proceed further.

Nnimmo Bassey is
Executive Director, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth
Nigeria. He is also chair of Friends of the Earth International.

Just 24 hours after
gaffe-prone Chief Executive Tony Hayward’s head rolled from the
chopping block, candidates for the auction block hit the headlines, as
BP aims to slim down to recover from the thumping losses racked up in
the 100 days since the start of the environmental disaster.

Sources with direct
knowledge of the matter said BP was in talks with India’s Reliance
Industries and Essar to sell retail assets in Africa with an estimated
price tag of $500 million. Its Indonesian unit rushed to pre-empt
speculation its assets there might be for sale. “In Indonesia, there is
no change to our strategy and plans. Indonesia is an important area for
BP,” The company’s Indonesia president, William Lin, told Reuters.
Investment bankers said the assets BP could sell include its stake in
Alaska’s huge Prudhoe Bay oil field and its interest in Pan American
Energy in Argentina, as well as smaller assets in Vietnam, Pakistan and
Colombia.

Lawsuits

More than 5 million
barrels of oil have spilt into the Gulf of Mexico since the undersea
leak began in late April, according to U.S. government estimates. The
spill, caused by an explosion that killed 11 people, has devastated
communities and fragile ecosystems along the Gulf Coast and killed or
injured countless sea creatures and coastal birds. It has also prompted
a moratorium on deepwater oil drilling. The leak was plugged two weeks
ago, and later on Wednesday BP is scheduled to provide an update on
when it could begin the final procedure to permanently seal the well.
With private lawsuits piling up, attorneys hoping to lead the fight
against BP are heading to Boise, Idaho, as a special panel considers
how to handle the cases.

A group of seven
federal judges is convening on Thursday to consider which court, or
courts, should oversee the hundreds of spill-related civil suits
brought by injured rig workers, fishermen, investors and property
owners. The list of investigations surrounding the spill is also
growing. The Washington Post said several government agencies were
preparing a criminal probe of the action of at least three companies
involved in the spill, citing law enforcement and other sources. The
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice have
also launched “informal enquiries” into securities matters related to
the spill.

BP shares down

BP’s London-listed
shares were down 1.7 percent at 399.1 pence at 1:54pm, as investors
digested Tuesday’s news of a second-quarter loss of $17 billion,
including $32 billion in charges related to the oil spill. The company
has lost about 40 percent of its market value since the explosion. “The
critical question remains what BP will look like two years from now,”
analysts at Morgan Stanley said. “Investors will need more clarity on
the impact of asset sales and further reassurances of a cultural change
regarding safety … before BP can regain a multiple in line with its
industry peers.”

Industry executives said it was a good time to sell assets as
relative stability in the oil price in the past nine months makes it
easier for buyers and sellers to agree terms. BP agreed to a $7 billion
sale of oil and gas fields to Apache Corp last week, which valued the
assets at around $19.40 per barrel of oil equivalent. Bob Dudley, who
will replace Hayward as CEO on October 1, on Tuesday called the Gulf
oil spill a “wake-up call” for the entire industry and said safety
would be among his top priorities as the first American to lead BP
tries to patch up the British oil company’s battered reputation. Image
repair wasn’t helped when BP pointed out the cost of the spill would
reduce its taxes, leaving U.S. taxpayers $10 billion worse off.

A month after the
screening exercise to verify the exact number of NITEL workers has been
concluded, no salary has been paid to the workers, they said on Monday.

Some of the NITEL
workers, who spoke in Lagos, said they were made to think that the
screening exercise was carried out by the federal government to help
ease the payment of their 27 months’ salary arrears. A NITEL worker,
who spoke under anonymity said, “We had thought that by now we would
have received some payment of our salaries but right now nothing has
happened. This is so unfair and the worse human treatment to keep
people for over two years and don’t pay them. I have said this before;
the federal government should let us go than keeping us here to
suffer.” The worker added that the only service on NITEL that is
functioning is the South Atlantic (SAT-3) which the government still
gain some certain revenue from.

In his reaction,
Sule Shehu, NITEL spokesperson said, “Nothing has come out from that
exercise; we only carried out the screening exercise to ascertain our
strength and weaknesses. Nothing has been done about the workers up
till now, no salaries have been paid and no news about when government
would pay the workers or not.” “I know that when the NITEL management
was carrying out the screening exercise, a committee from the federal
government was carrying out its own assignment and they were also
looking at the labour restructuring, preparing ground to pay workers
salary and lay off some workers that I know,” added, Mr. Shehu.

Absenteeism at the workplace

Since last year,
only few workers resume for work in NITEL offices across the country as
the staff regularly complain over unpaid salary arrears. Consequently
NITEL management has turned a blind eye to the development as they
understand the difficult situation the workers experience.

“To be honest not
all of us are coming to work, it’s only some workers that are able to
and we don’t frown at those who don’t come to work,” said Mr Shehu.
“But, if there is any emergency and one of the workers needed is not
around we usually send a token to the workers to come and do their
assignment. We can’t be too hard on workers that don’t come to work
because they have not been paid for over 24 months. Right now, there
are very few workers around and we stay till about 4.00pm to 5.00pm
before closing for the day and this is the same situation in all NITEL
offices around the country.”

In December 2009 the federal government had promised to pay off five
months arrears before the end of January 2010. A total sum of N3
billion was taken from NITEL staff pension fund by Olusola Adekanola
& Co, the liquidator of NITEL which was used to pay their salaries
for one month as opposed to five months that was planned for. Some
workers were paid one month salary in December, while junior staff was
paid two months’ salary. The payment process failed as the liquidator
decided in February 2010 to stop all payment because of alleged
harassment by some NITEL workers.

A
transformation of the Nigerian banking landscape is imminent in the
next few months as banks get set to adjust to the review of the
universal banking model unveiled by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
in March.

The
reforms, for which the Central Bank expects inputs from operators, were
designed as part of its strategic initiatives for reforming the
Nigerian financial system to “enhance the quality of banks, ensure
financial system stability, and promote the evolution of a healthy
financial sector.”

The
guidelines, which were outlined in a circular signed by J. O. Ajewole,
acting director of banking supervision of the CBN, stated that the new
universal banking licence would be issued to institutions to operate
monoline banking and specialised banking operations.

For
the monoline banking, there would be national and regional banks, while
for the specialised banks, institutions would be allowed to operate
non-interest banking, microfinance banking, and primary mortgage
institutions.

Categorisation

National
banks would operate in Nigeria only with a minimum capital of N25
billion, while those with an eye on the international market would need
to muster N100 billion. Regional banks with a minimum capital of N15
billion, will only operate in minimum of five, and maximum of 10
contiguous states, in addition to having the word ‘regional’ in its
name.

Both
categories of banks are to have, as part of capital adequacy, a minimum
qualifying capital to risk weighted assets ratio of 10 percent, with a
single obligor limit of not more than 20 percent of shareholders’ fund.

National
banks will also be permitted to take current, savings and term
deposits, provide finance or credit facilities, deal in foreign
exchange, and act as a settlement bank. Regional banks can also perform
all these functions, except that they cannot act as settlement banks.

So
far, only First Bank, with N337.4 billion minimum capital, UBA with
N336 billion, Diamond Bank, with N104.8 billion, Guaranty, with N195.1
billion, Zenith, with N337.8 billion, and Access, with N185 billion,
have qualified to operate international banking licence based on the
current minimum capital base.

Banks
with foreign affiliation may naturally fit into this category. Stanbic
IBTC, with a shareholders’ fund of N80.5 billion, is part of the
Standard Bank Group of South Africa, while Standard Chartered Nigeria
is part of the Standard Chartered Group based in the United Kingdom.
Ecobank Nigeria will leverage on the strength of its holding company,
Ecobank Transnational Incorporated with headquarters in Togo, while
Citi will also bank on the strength of its parent company based in New
York.

Other players

Only
Wema had so far indicated interest to obtain a regional banking
licence. According to Tunde Olofintila, the head of corporate
communications, the bank, which has had its recapitalisation deadline
extended to 30 September, said it will shrink the size of its
operations to reflect that status. “A few of our branches will have to
go. Maybe 16 or 17 out of 154 branches,” Mr. Olofintila said.

Unity
Bank, the other bank with a similar deadline extension, has said it
will retain its national banking licence. The bank is currently raising
funds from the primary market through a rights issue, while it plans to
get additional funds from the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria
(AMCON).

Currently, other banks, including the eight rescued banks, have
shareholders fund below the requirements to operate as international
players. The Central Bank said the banks would be given 12 to 15 months
transitional period within which to adopt a new holding structure that
would incorporate the unbundling of the current banking structure. This
will entail the breakup of the activities of banks under the universal
banking regime into distinct and separate financial business lines, for
which specific licences must be obtained.