Ban on ATM card use abroad can’t be reversed – CBN

The Central Bank of Nigeria says it has no power to reverse the restriction placed on the use of Automated Teller Machine cards abroad.

The apex bank said it’s in support of the Deposit Money Banks’ decision to place a restriction on the use of ATM cards abroad.

The CBN said the move which will help in reducing the pressure on the naira, became necessary due to a scarcity of foreign exchange.
Director, Monetary Policy Department, CBN, Moses Tule, while speaking with journalists over the weekend, explained that the restriction may continue until the country is able to increase its foreign exchange earnings.

“The limitation on the use of debit or credit cards outside the country was not a limitation that was placed by the CBN.

“They were restrictions that Deposit Money Banks placed because they have to settle whatever transactions you make with your debit cards with their corresponding banks in foreign currency. And if the banks do not have the foreign currency to do that, then you create a liability problem for them.”

“Given the level of current flow into the reserves, by the time we meet these priority areas, you will discover that people who are using their debit cards overseas for shopping can never be on the priority list,” he added.

“If you read the budget speech of the President, there was one sentence there where he said we must make hard choices in 2016. The budget is designed to open the growth potential of the economy and the President has said we must make hard choices.

“As policymakers, we are going to make those hard choices so at the right time, the CBN will take the appropriate decisions that will strengthen the foreign exchange market.”

Obasanjo's message for rich and successful Nigerians

Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has urged wealthy Nigerians to participate in the development of their local communities.

Obasanjo said rather than wait for the government to develop every region of the country, the rich can assist in rural development.

The retired politician made the call over the weekend, while delivering a goodwill message at the 2015 edition of the Ibogun-Olaogun Day, in Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun state.

“Successful individuals who have made it in life will be doing the country a lot of good in reducing the menace of unemployment, only if they can interact with the rural areas and establish businesses in the rural communities without waiting for government.

“We don’t need to wait for government before developing our communities, particularly some of us who were raised from the village. We should not wait for any government ticket.

“Let us think of what we can do for ourselves and our communities; what we can do for ourselves to make our rural communities more habitable for us.

“When I was growing up in this community, there was no latrine, no bathroom, and no clinic. But today, there are over a dozen of people who would have died if the clinic we constructed through the community’s self-effort had not been in existence.

“Each of us can encourage village renewal; we don’t need to wait for government if we don’t want to tarry for too long. The need to raise fund for our community secondary school is borne out of the need that we cannot wait for government to do it all. We have to carry our load by ourselves before we say government should come to our aid. That is the reality today.”

Military Treated Buhari Badly Under PDP — Presidency

The Presidency on Saturday said Nigeria’s military hierarchy did not treat President Muhammadu Buhari well during the tenure of Goodluck Jonathan as president of the country.

The Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Mr. Garba Shehu, in a Facebook post, described the military’s action as shameless.

In the run in of the March 28 presidential election, the Nigerian military claimed that it did not have the record of President Buhari’s West African Examination Council result.

Reacting to online criticisms against Buhari for receiving some vehicles from the embattled ex-National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, Shehu stated that the President was entitled to what he received.

“Cars are just a few in a litany of entitlements written in that law, although it is contestable to say that General Buhari had been given his due entitlements by successive administrations as provided thereunder. Regime after regime treated him as if he was not a former Head of State.

“The military in particular treated him so badly that its leaders kept silent when the PDP charged that he didn’t have WAEC papers. One shameless Army Records officer said the former Head of State had no records at all under their system.”

Shehu added that Buhari went without a full complement of armed guards from the Army until the April bomb attack on his convoy.

“It was at this time that the Chief of Army Staff (at that time) thought it necessary to reinstate the armed convoy to protect him. When they brought the two cars within a few days of his being bombed, the staff of the General were merely informed that this was from the Federal Government in fulfillment of its obligation to him,” he said.

Doctor dies after attending to patient in Lagos

A Lagos-based medical doctor identified as Dr Akingbade of Veritas Clinics Limited, College Road, Ifako-Ijaiye Lagos died inside his office shortly after attending to a patient recently. According to a report by Vanguard, family sources say he might have died from exhaustion and stress but also had a history of hypertension. ‎One of the nurses on duty, Toyin Ifesan, while narrating what happened said

“Our boss died at about 10.30pm shortly after he had closed for consultation. He went to see a patient on admission. Thereafter, he retired to his office and sat down. A nurse later went in there to ask him to go upstairs, where we have sleeping facilities, to sleep, having been working since morning.
‎ On getting to the office, the nurse spoke to him but she got no response. She then pushed him, only to find that Dr Akingbade had passed on. The situation attracted everybody in the clinic. He was not sick before death. The only thing we noticed was that, on that day, he was not jovial as he used to be. Unlike him, he talked to the staff without looking at their faces. He looked at the floor while talking to the staff. Our late boss was a very jovial person. He joked a lot with the staff as well as with patients before attending to them. He would ask the patient where he came from, and when he told the place the patient came from, always had one or two things to say about the patients place and people. He was a problem solver when it came to illnesses. If you cry to his office, you will smile coming out. He hardly attended social functions because of the fear that a critically ill patient that may be bought to his clinic may die before returning. So, he was always in the clinic most of the time. Even anytime he hired a doctor to help attend to patients, most of patients still preferred his consultation because of his wide experience. Some would wait, no matter how long, to see him. Others would go and come back.”she said He will be buried early next year.

President Muhammadu Buhari-- Jonathan’s Govt Provoked Soldiers Into Mutiny

President Muhammadu Buhari has accused the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan of deliberately provoking Nigerian soldiers into mutiny by its actions and turning round to arrest and prosecute the soldiers.

He said the past administration, while fighting terrorists, sent soldiers to the battlefield without arms and ammunition.

Buhari made the accusation in an interview he granted the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation and monitored by The PUNCH.

He said his administration’s investigation into the activities of the immediate past government revealed that instead of procuring arms and ammunition for the soldiers, funds meant for the equipment were shared by government officials.

He said, “We investigated and discovered how funds that were pencilled down for arms procurement were diverted and shared by government officials who served the last administration.

“The government at that time sent the soldiers to the battlefield without arms and ammunition to prosecute the war. That was what led some of them to mutiny. They were arrested and detained because of this.”

Despite the December deadline he had earlier given the military to end terrorism in the affected part of the country, Buhari admitted that the country might not win the war completely by the end of the month.

He however said a lot of progress had been made by the military.

He said the terrorists themselves were aware that they could no longer take over communities and local governments like they were doing under the past administration.

“If people are going to be fair to us, they themselves know that the Army is winning the war. You can no longer find any huge number of Boko Haram members in Adamawa and Yobe; only may be, in about three local governments of Borno in the area around our borders with Chad Republic. They are no longer in position to threaten the country, so we have won,” he added.

Justifying the arrest and ongoing prosecution of arms scandal suspects, Buhari said the government would use documents that were already in its possession to prove to the courts that the suspects stole.

He added that their ill-gotten wealth would be confiscated and they would be jailed.

On the economy, the President said out of the nation’s N2.2tn debt, his administration inherited N1.5tn domestic debt while foreign debt accounted for N0.7tn.

He restated his position that Nigeria was not poor, but said the country was rich, lamenting that corruption remained the bane of development.

The President added that that was why his administration had been busy plugging the leakages in the revenue-generating agencies such as the Nigerian Customs Service and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation among others.

He explained that the money saved from the exercise would be properly utilised to run the country, especially in this era of dwindling oil price.

On the N5,000 monthly his administration promised to make available to the unemployed and the most vulnerable Nigerians, Buhari admitted that not all those who were in need of the money would get it.

He said governments at all levels would collaborate to identify those who would benefit.

In his reaction on Sunday, however, Jonathan said he didn’t plan to lose the Boko Haram war as being suggested by Buhari’s comments.

Rather, he said he tried to protect the constitution, which he said he sworn to defend when he assumed office.

The former President spoke through his Minister of National Planning, Dr. Abubakar Suleiman, in a text message sent to one of our correspondents.

The former minister said the ex-President did everything within his power to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country.

He said, “No responsible government would strategise to loose a war. President Jonathan sworn to defend Nigeria sovereignty and territorial integrity and he did everything possible to achieve that height in the fight against the insurgents.

“It is unfair therefore for Mr President to perceive such efforts by his predecessor as criminal and treasonable.

“The President should, in an attempt to build this country, make such pronouncements that would further unite us as a people than that those that would divide us. Posterity will judge everybody.”

IMF- Crude Oil Price Could Fall To $20 In 2016

Nigeria may be in for harder times than previously envisaged as the International Monetary Fund has predicted that crude oil prices may slump to as low as $20 per barrel in 2016.

In the ‘IMF Executive Board Concludes 2015 Article IV Consultation with Iran’ report, the body highlighted that the price of crude oil could drop by between $5 and $15 in 2016, cableng.com reports.

As of Thursday, the price of crude oil in the international market averaged $37. On December 17, the price fell to $36 per barrel.

The Federal Government 2016 budget had based the 2016 budget on a benchmark oil price of $38 per barrel. If the IMF prediction comes true, the country will be in serious trouble as there won’t be any buffer for the budget.

Crude oil revenue accounts for about 90 per cent of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings. Nigeria is projected to produce 2.2 million barrels of crude oil per day in 2016. If it sells at $38 per barrel, it will generate around $83.6m daily or $30.51bn in the entire year. At $20 as predicted by the IMF, Nigeria will generate $44m daily or $16.06bn next year. This will mean that the country will get at least 47.4 per cent less revenue from oil than what is projected, adding more pressure to the nation’s need to go borrowing in 2016.

According to President Muhammadu Buhari, oil related revenues are expected to contribute N820bn to the economy, while the budget deficit, which is projected at N2.22tn, will be funded by foreign and domestic loans.

If the N820bn expected from oil revenues is cut by 47.4 per cent as a result of the IMF projected decline in oil prices, the nation’s budget deficit will climb by N388.68bn to N2.59tn.

photo of Benita Okojie All Grown

Remember the little girl who charmed the world with her melodious voice years ago when she turned Gospel music to house hold jams with top hits like, Osamudiame, Emmanuel and many more.

A graduate of Redeemers University, Benita started singing at age 12, but has grown up to become a beautiful young lady.