Business
Troubled Banks Bail-Out: CBN To Get N74.4bn Yearly
The purse of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is expected to swell further by N74.4 billion on yearly basis, courtesy of the 12 percent interest per annum earning on the N620 billion it lent out to save eight troubled banks from going under.
The apex bank is expected to make more ‘profit’ from the bail-out funds if troubled banks take longer time in paying back the debt.
A source said since the interest is on annual basis, banks that fail to pay up within a year, will continue to pay interest on what is left for other years. On the other hand, any of the eight banks could decide to pay up earlier, in which case the interest accruable to the apex bank will be smaller.
But investigation shows that interest on loans to banks from the apex bank before now was given out at the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) which is currently 6.0 percent.
Some observers say the CBN may have decided to lift up interest rate in order to justify the reason it gave out the funds to the troubled banks.
It would be recalled that as soon as the loans were given out, critics hit out at the CBN for printing money and lending small out to the banks without approval from the Naitonal Assembly.
A House of Representative members, Femi Gbajabiamila took the CBN to court over the issue, wanting the court to, among others, decide whether the 1999 constitution empowers the defendants to raise money by printing and unilaterally spend it without the approval of the National Assembly.
But as it were, if these troubled banks pay the interest, the apex bank could easily argue that the venture was not a humanitarian one, but a business one.
On the other hand, other observers are worried that the apex bank is benefiting from the problem these eight banks are experiencing.
According to Isaac Oloko, a businessman who banks with one of the troubled banks, for the apex bank to make profit from an unfortunate situation smacks of being a shylock.
He is more saddened by the fact that these banks are laying off staff in droves, while the CBN’s purse gets fatter.
Lekan Ojo, a shareholder with one of the bailed-out banks, expressed sadness in that while the apex bank is happy shareholders are being taken to the dry cleaners, the fortunes of the central bank are jetting rosier.
For others like Harran Adamu, chairman, board of directors of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to inject N620 billion into eight ailing banks is not the solution, saying it would not guarantee against failure.
He said “pumping money into banks is not the only solution to banks’ failure. Big banks have failed and can fail again. We (CBN and NDIC) have to continue to put in place measures that would ensure healthy banks.”
He canvassed that instead of giving the stimulus package, the CBN should immediately put in place an enduring regime of proactive measurers to ensure that banks remain safe and sound, if the fund is to be safe guarded from going down the drains.
The Nigerian stock market began the week on a negative note as banking and consumer goods stocks, among others, triggered a N19.49bn loss.
At the end of trading on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited , the NGX All-Share Index dropped by 0.09 per cent to end at 43,270.94 basis points, while the market capitalisation declined to N22.58tn.
Market activities were mixed as the total volume of shares traded decreased by 30.19 per cent while the value traded rose by 34.05 per cent.
A total of 213.13 million shares valued at N2.36bn were exchanged in 4,105 deals, compared to 305.32 million shares worth N3.58bn in 4,450 deals last Friday.
FCMB Group Plc topped the traded stocks in terms of volume, accounting for 27.43 per cent of the total volume of trades while Airtel Africa Plc emerged as the most traded stock by value, representing 28.81 per cent of the total value of trades on the exchange.
14 firms gained compared to 21 losers.
AIICO Insurance Plc was the biggest gainer for the day, topping the gainers’ chart with a price appreciation of 8.57 per cent to N0.76 per share.
It was followed by LivingTrust Mortgage Bank Plc with a rise of 7.95 per cent, ending the day at N0.95 per share.
Analysing by sectors, three of the five major indices closed lower, led by NGX Oil & Gas (-0.56 per cent), NGX Consumer Goods (-0.23 per cent) and NGX Banking (0.18 per cent).
But the insurance (0.82 per cent) and industrial goods (0.002 per cent) indices gained at the end of trading.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has introduced the Tertiary Institutions Entrepreneurship Scheme (TIES), which provides undergraduates and graduates with a platform to access loans.
The TIES’ underlying aim is to provide access to capital for Nigerian undergraduates and graduates with innovative entrepreneurial and technological ideas from polytechnics and universities.
TIES intends to shift undergraduates and graduates away from white-collar job pursuits and towards a culture of entrepreneurship development for economic development and job creation.
In a national biennial entrepreneurship competition, the Developmental Component would be distributed in the form of awards to Nigerian polytechnics and universities.
The competition aims to increase undergraduates’ awareness and visibility of high-impact entrepreneurial/technological concepts, foster entrepreneurial talent hunts in Nigerian polytechnics and universities, and encourage commercially viable and transformative technologies.
Interested Nigerian polytechnics and universities shall apply to participate in the national biennial entrepreneurship competition on a dedicated online portal.
Outlining brief details of the project, potential impact and evidence of originality of project, CBN said it is an innovation for students entrepreneurs.
The Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) has lauded the Federal Government and tax authorities on the giant strides made on fiscal policy decisions and tax administration measures initiated this year in the area of Finance Act 2021 and the introduction of TaxPromax solution.
President of the institute, Adesina Adedayo, who gave the commendation at the institute’s yearly award ceremony at the weekend in Lagos, assured the government and tax authorities of aligning with the measures and promised to provide professional thoughts and insights on ways through which they could achieve an efficient and effective Nigerian tax system.
Adedayo emphasised the need to address the database, adding that without knowing who the tax-payers are, there is no way they can take money from unknown tax-payers.
Database is the aspect we have been emphasising on as an institute and in doing this, there are so many of pockets of data we have. All the data must be harmonised to have a simple unique tax-payers identification number,” he said.
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