By Henry Umoru

For shunning the directives of the Senate that it should suspend the proposed vehicle duty ultimatum due to begin on April 12, the Senate on Thursday summoned the Comptroller -General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali, rtd to appear before it on Wednesday next week.

The Senate ordered Ali who has refused to wear Customs Uniform to come to the Senate unfailing Wednesday in proper Uniform and not Babaringa or Kafta.

The decision of the Senate was sequel to a point of Order by Senator Dino Melaye, APC, Kogi West.

The Senators who spoke on the agency’s plans to collect duties on old and new vehicles already in the country, however condemned it, saying that such a directive goes contrary to the law establishing the agency.

According to the Lawmakers, the proposed policy was not only illegal, but lacked, what it termed, common sense, even as it said that policy which will not work, only exposed pure incapacitation and incompetence on the part of the agency.

It would be recalled that the Senate had on Tuesday this week, asked the Customs boss to maintain the status quo until he appeared before the relevant committees of the Upper chambers to explain why such a policy of government.

But the Customs on Wednesday at a press briefing said there was no going back on the decision which angered the Senate.

Khartoum — The first revenues for the export of cotton to the USA have reached the Central Bank of Sudan, according to a statement by the Sudanese Ministry of Finance on Tuesday.

Speaking at a workshop on the future of Sudan-USA relations in Khartoum, Acting Finance Minister Abdelrahman Dirar said “The economic transactions have actually begun. Today the first revenues of the operation of export of cotton to the US market arrived at the Bank of Sudan.

He pointed out that the losses Sudan has experienced due to US sanctions have exceeded $ 48 billion.

Dirar said that “there has been a rush by US companies and investors rush to Sudan before the expiration of the six- month deadline set by the US administration”.

Easing

In January, just days before leaving office, US President Barak Obama ordered the easing of financial sanctions against Sudan in recognition of “positive actions in countering terrorism”.

The executive order revoked parts of a US trade embargo, in place since the Bill Clinton administration in 1997. President Obama also lifted a freeze on certain assets of Al Bashir’s government, in light of Sudan’s “positive actions over the past six months.

“These actions include a marked reduction in offensive military activity, culminating in a pledge to maintain a cessation of hostilities in conflict areas in Sudan, and steps toward the improvement of humanitarian access throughout Sudan, as well as cooperation with the United States on addressing regional conflicts and the threat of terrorism,” Obama said at the time.

By Dorothy Nakaweesi

Kampala — If all undertakings made by the Tanzanian authorities are fulfilled, Ugandan traders may sooner than later see reason to exploit the second door to import and export their goods through the Dar es Salaam (Central-Corridor) again.

The Mombasa – Kampala route has always been preferred as the first door.

Dar es Salaam Port is Tanzania’s principal port with a rated capacity of 4.1 million down weight tonnage (dwt) dry cargo and six million dwt bulk liquid cargo.

The port serves the landlocked countries of Malawi, Zambia, DR Congo, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda.

Over a decade ago the Dar es Salaam – Kampala, popularly known as the Central Corridor, used to be the other option for Ugandan traders to do international trade.

Ugandan traders are now swarming at Mombasa Port as a seaport of choice. On average Uganda’s goods transiting through the Northern Corridor (Mombasa – Kampala) is about 5.9 million tonnes per day.

While meeting a delegation of Ugandan traders at the sidelines of President Yoweri Museveni’s visit to East Africa’s second largest economy at the end of February, Mr Deusdedit Kakoko, the Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) director general, said: “Previously, at least 30 per cent of the Ugandan cargo used to be freight through Dar es Salaam Port. It has dropped to a per cent that is lower than 2 per cent.”

Reason for decline

Industry observers say the Central Corridor has been plagued with a number of complaints ranging from delayed service, inefficiency, loss of cargo and insecurity.

Because of this, there was a decline in cargo flow through the Central Corridor and 98 per cent Ugandan destined cargo is now being handled through the Northern Corridor.

Ugandan businesspeople say the Central Corridor which is 1,680 kilometres long is very expensive and it makes no business sense to use.

At present Uganda uses the Northern Corridor, which is just about 1,150 kilometres, that runs from the Kenyan port of Mombasa to the Great Lakes which costs about $3,200 (Shs11 million) to transport a single container.

In an interview with Prosper Magazine, the president, Uganda Clearing and Forwarding Association (UCFA), Mr Kassim Omar, was doubtful about the promises made by Tanzania unless they are put into action, especially that of establishing the Standard Gauge Railway linking Uganda through Mwanza Port.

“Tanzania needs to come out of its hole and start meaning business. The Central Corridor will not work or succeed if authorities keep talking without fulfilling the promises. They should fix the railway,” Mr Omar said.

Tanzania’s effort

As part of a campaign to root out corruption and inefficiency in Tanzania, President John Magufuli introduced a series of austerity measures since his inauguration in 2015.

In 2015, the World Bank said inefficiencies cost Tanzania and her neighbours served by the port up to $2.6 billion (Shs9.3 trillion) a year. Because of this, the port of Dar es Salaam authorities received a share of President Magufuli’s wrath when its leadership was sent packing.

President Magufuli has tasked TPA to see the Central Corridor effectively operate by removing barriers and increase cargo volumes.

The contestation on the preferred route by traders in Uganda has now forced Tanzanian authorities to rethink strategies to win back their priced business partner Uganda.

Mr Kakoko shares: “Communication is a key factor in business of movement of goods and people faster along this route. We will be reducing costs to enable the traders quickly do other functions in time. If the road is good and the railway system is operating well Ugandan traders will be moving faster.”

He promised that with all the developments in place by July, cargo movement along this route will be cheaper in terms of time spent in transit.

“We hope movement of cargo along this route drops to only four days from Dar es Salaam to Mutukula and a day and half to Kampala from Mutukula. This is less compared to the 7-8 days the Northern Corridor takes. This makes it cheaper,” Mr Kakoko added.

He said: “A man cannot stay in a house that has one door. It must have a back door. We are ready to provide that door and maintain it. So this should be a starting point for us to do business.”

The Tanzanian authorities further said that they have more than 25,000 fleet of truck, the biggest in the region, and they are ready to ferry cargo.

Ms Angelina Ngalula, the chairperson of Tanzania Truck Owners Association, said: “Previously, we used to escort our trucks but this has since been stopped because there is security along the road.”

However, he was concerned about the exports from Uganda which are very low and this, to them, makes no business sense to ferry cargo from Dar es Salaam and return empty trucks.

“If there is no return cargo it makes no sense to ply that route. However, we are ready to work with the Ugandans to come up with a package to attract the use of the Central Corridor,” Ms Ngalula noted.

On this route, Ugandan traders largely transit coffee, motor vehicles, wheat, building materials and fuel, among other products.

Reacting to Mr Ngalula’s observations, Kampala City Traders Association publicity secretary David Lukyamuzi Wangi said: “What we need from you is service which is cheaper, faster, and efficient. Then our job will be made easy in Kampala.”

He added: “Once that is done, we are going to preach to the business community in Kampala about your promise and what you have fulfilled and to start using this route.”

Empty cargo shed

Tanzania Railways Limited’s managing director Masanja Kadogosa said they are prepared to serve.

He, however, said that they had a challenge in the Port Bell – Kampala line.

He explained that Rift Valley Railways (RVR) has continued to frustrate their operations to deliver cargo when it failed to provide a ferry from Mwanza to Port Bell to transport cargo.

Because of this, the Ugandan cargo shed at the port of Dar es Salaam which was once piled with coffee is the only one empty.

Cargo between Kampala and Dar Port has dropped to uncomfortable levels partly blamed on the reluctance by RVR and Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) over the Dar Port.

Mr Kadogosa said: “We are soon sitting with the URC/RVR this month to see how we shall work together to rehabilitate the railway line from Port Bell to Kampala in order to ease movement of goods.”

Developments

Work in progress

Tanzania is developing a place called Udungu Dry Port, hoping to handle dry cargo.

Also the Dry Port at Isaka which is about 970 kilometres from Dar es Salaam Port, is expected to start operating at the end of March. This is where traders will pick their cargo thereby cutting back on the distance to Dar Port.

Along the Central Corridor, a 1680 kilometre road has been tarmacked, with only a small stretch of about 12 kilometres between Nyakanazi and Rusawunga yet to be done.

The route which used to have 56 weigh bridges now has only three at Bigwano, Manyonyi and Nyakanazi.

If the Standard Gauge Railway is completed transiting cargo from Dar Port through Mwanza – Port Bell will take only 16 hours.

Ugandan traders speak

Mr Paul Munyoro, the Roofings Limited import manager, said that they abandoned the Central Corridor because of its challenges more than 10 years ago, and have since depended on the Northern Corridor for its advantages such as the shorter distance of just 560 kilometres. This means one has to spend less.

“We have to be certain about the security on the Central Corridor. The weigh bridges have been removed from 56 to three: Bigwano, Manyonyi and Nyakanazi. This is a welcome development. We also need to look at the upgrading and enlargement of the port at Mutukula to manage the volumes when they start,” he shared.

He added: “We have not been engaged as businesspeople and TPA has no office in Kampala. So their presence is not felt here. They need to work on this by ringing their bell continuously if the Ugandan businesspeople are to consider this route.”

More voices

In an interview with Prosper Magazine about Tanzania’s efforts to actively revive the Central Corridor, Mr Sam Sekasi, the operations manager Damco Clearing and Logistics, said it is important for Uganda to have an alternative route.

“The monopoly with the Northern Corridor is that they tend to determine the rates and there is always no option but to stick to what they have set. With competition it means better rates,” Mr Sekasi said, adding that seeing Tanzania improving the route and the rates, and saying that they can negotiate when there are delays, is something the Ugandan government should ensure that the route becomes a reality.

“For Tanzania to say that they will make an extra effort to speak to individual clients and giving them concessions should come in handy.

If the Dar es Salaam rates are subsidised then it is a viable alternative that we should exploit,” Mr Sekasi shared.

Houston — The president of French oil company Total, Patrick Pouyanné, Tuesday in Houston (Texas), expressed confidence in the strength and robustness of the Angolan market.

Patrick Pouyanné made these references to the press at the end of a meeting between delegations of Angolan oil company Sonangol, led by its chairperson of the Board of Directors, Isabel dos Santos, and France’s Total, on the fringes of Ceraweek, which is one of the major experts meetings of the sector.

He said that this was one of the aspects addressed at the meeting, noting that Angola is a good market for oil production and highlighted the fact that the company has been working in the Angolan market for some time.

In this regard, he mentioned the projects developed in Angola, with emphasis on the Kaombo, developed in ultra-deep waters in Block 32, whose investments are around US $ 15 billion.

“We discussed the progress in the blocks and production”, having also highlighted the work being done by the national oil company, aimed at reducing production costs.

In this regard, he reaffirmed that Total’s investments will continue, having in the meeting also addressed additional projects.

Regarding the current market momentum, Total official highlighted the fact that people are optimistic about their progress, despite the volatility of prices in recent years.

Britain’s commitment to tackling high-end money laundering through the City of London is under serious scrutiny after it emerged that regulators appear to have waved through an $800m bank transfer to a convicted criminal as the proceeds from one of the most corrupt deals in the history of the oil industry.

A joint investigation by the Observer and journalists from [http://%20www.financeuncovered.org/]Finance Uncovered, a non-profit organisation based in London, has discovered that prosecutors in Milan believe two payments of $400 million each were wired through JP Morgan in London as the spoils of a huge deal to develop a Nigerian oilfield involving Shell, its joint venture partner the Italian oil giant Eni, and the government in Abuja.

More than half the money was converted into bags of bribe cash via bureaux de change in Nigeria, while tens of millions were wired to buy a private jet and armoured cars in the US, according to documents compiled by the prosecutors. But ordinary citizens of Nigeria have not seen a penny from the deal – which, it is alleged, was partly negotiated by two ex-MI6 officers hired by Shell as “business and investment advisers”.

The astonishing allegations have been made by an Italian prosecutor, Fabio de Pasquale, whose previous scalps include former Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi.

De Pasquale and his team have spent more than two years following the money trail surrounding the murky sale of Nigeria’s prized Oil Prospecting Licence 245 (OPL 245), a huge block off the coast of west Africa estimated to contain 9.3 billion barrels of crude: enough to power the continent for seven years.

Oil giants from the west, China and Russia have coveted its riches for years. But Shell and Eni eventually prevailed, paying $1.3 billion to the Nigerian government to secure the field in 2011.

However, within days the bulk of the money was transferred through JP Morgan in London to a convicted Nigerian money launderer – a man with whom both Shell and Eni had been negotiating.

“The UK authorities have some serious explaining to do,” said Barnaby Pace, a campaigner with the anti-corruption watchdog Global Witness, which has investigated this case for several years.

De Pasquale has carried out raids on Eni offices in Italy and Shell’s headquarters in The Hague that have yielded tens of thousands of documents and emails.

Last month, he requested that an Italian court charge 10 individuals, including five high-ranking executives from Eni, with corruption-related offences. Shell, as a corporate entity, was also included in the request, which will be considered by a court in Milan next month. Shell, Eni and all the executives named by De Pasquale strongly deny the allegations.

De Pasquale has also formally warned four former Shell employees, who allegedly played significant roles in securing the deal, that they could be subject to separate proceedings. Among them are Guy Colegate and John Copleston, identified by De Pasquale in legal documents as having “previously worked for MI6”.

Copleston was a “strategic investment adviser” at Shell who, as the UK’s former intelligence representative in Nigeria, had nurtured contacts at the highest levels of the country’s military and government. Colegate worked as a “business adviser”, compiling regular intelligence briefings on the main actors in the OPL 245 negotiations.

As Shell eyed OPL 245, both the CIA and the Foreign Office were aware that Vladimir Putin and Russia were considering trying to snatch Nigerian assets from the west.

The OPL 245 licence had proved particularly elusive. In 1998, Nigeria’s then oil minister, Dan Etete, had awarded it to a shady new company, Malabu Oil and Gas, in which, it later emerged, he held a significant stake.

But after a new president came to power, Malabu lost the licence and it was assigned to Shell. Later the position reversed and Shell began legal proceedings against the Nigerian government.

Etete was convicted in a Paris court in 2007 for his part in a separate money-laundering scandal. But this did not appear to deter Shell and Eni from continuing to court him at luxury hotels in Europe and Nigeria. After one lunch with Etete in 2009 to discuss his asking price for OPL 245, it is reported that Copleston copied Colegate on an email to say it had gone well, helped along by “lots of iced champagne”.

In 2010, negotiations swung Shell’s way when Goodluck Jonathan, an ally of Etete’s, became Nigeria’s president.

The following year, the $1.3 billion deal was struck, with Malabu entitled to $1.1 billion and the Nigerian government a $210 million “signature fee”. Shell and Eni paid the money directly to the Nigerian government.

A fixer involved in the deal described this approach as putting a “condom” between the buyer and seller so that at no point would Shell or Eni make direct payments to Malabu or Etete, who was officially recognised as a criminal. But in May 2011, days after the Nigerian government received the money, its officials instructed JP Morgan to transfer the $1.1 billion to an account in Switzerland.

At this point red flags should have been raised in London. Under money-laundering regulations, banks are required to raise Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) for highly unusual transactions, especially involving what are called “politically exposed persons” such as Etete. These reports are raised confidentially with the UK Financial Investigations Unit, which in 2011 was part of the Home Office’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca).

Banks are forbidden from confirming whether they have raised SARs, and both JP Morgan and the National Crime Agency – Soca’s successor – have declined to comment on the matter.

However, a source indicated that JP Morgan had raised an SAR as soon as it received the request from Nigeria.

It is understood that the bank would not have proceeded without a green light from Soca.

Well-placed sources offer three possible explanations for why the UK authorities allowed the transfer to go through. Either they saw no problem with it; or they were aware of the money’s provenance but, because the Nigerian government itself saw no corruption, there was little that could be done to secure evidence for a freezing order; or they wanted to track how the funds were disbursed to help gain intelligence.

Whatever the explanation, the transfer immediately ran into difficulties. BSI Lugano, a Swiss bank, rejected the payment, citing Etete’s money-laundering conviction. In August, JP Morgan then made a second attempt via a Lebanese bank to pay the money to Malabu, but this too was rejected. However, a fortnight later the bank was able to transfer the money, in separate tranches of $400 million to two Nigerian banks.

Where all of it ended up will probably never be known. De Pasquale alleges that President Jonathan received some of the money, but he denies the claim.

Colegate did not respond to requests for comment. Attempts to reach Copleston were unsuccessful. It was not possible to contact Etete, while Eni declined to comment.

A spokeswoman for Shell said: “Based on our review of the prosecutor’s file and our understanding of the facts, we don’t believe a request for indictment is justified and we are confident that this will be determined in the next stages of the proceedings. We continue to take this matter seriously and cooperate with the authorities.”

Asked about its intelligence-gathering operations, Shell said: “Like most multinational organisations, Shell takes the duty to protect its people, assets and commercially sensitive information seriously and hires those with the most relevant experience to join its corporate security team, including on occasion former government personnel.”

Pace said the scandal highlighted the City of London’s failure to combat money laundering, something that the previous prime minister, David Cameron, had identified as a key priority and which development agencies say is vital if the assets of African countries are not to end up being lost to corruption.

“If we want to stop this kind of deal happening in future, we need to address the system that made it possible,” Pace said. “That means accountability for those that enable corruption in major financial centres like London.”

State Security Minister David Mahlobo’s intentions to regulate social media are “not good”, political analyst Ralph Mathekga said on Tuesday.

It was “rubbish” to regulate the media in order to filter out fake news, he said at a discussion on fake news at the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism, in Johannesburg.

“I think he is concerned about access to information in rural areas. He is concerned about the stories that make into mainstream media, like the City Press, being read by people in rural areas,” Mathekga said.

“His intentions are not good in any way.”

Mathekga said he trusted that his media colleagues would be able to distinguish between real and fake news, which is the deliberate dissemination of misinformation.

He said the biggest challenge to journalists was to ensure that conventional news reached people in rural areas, so they could make informed decisions. A large number of people still did not understand how corruption affected them daily.

“There is also this narrative that exists in the outskirts of South Africa, that the state is not a personal entity and you can steal from it, it is okay, and you can still build a political career out of stealing from the state.”

Mathekga said fake news was part of the intelligence machinery, espionage, and counter-espionage.

“My fear is that those who are trying to regulate fake news, they are not targeting fake news. Their target is to make sure that the information does not filter through to people in rural areas,” he said.

Huffington Post’s news editor Deshnee Subramany said the online publication had been a victim of fake news.

“We woke up to an onslaught on Twitter and we had to deal with it very quickly. We were lucky because we had an audience that reported it,” she said.

Eyewitness News editor-in-chief Katy Katopodis said fake news was used to distract the media and the public from real issues.

“It is because you don’t like the news that you call it fake news?” she asked.

Director in the Press Council, Joe Thloloe, agreed with Katopodis.

“Ultimately its intention is to discredit journalism, that’s all,” he said.

Source: News24

By Laurie Goering

London — LED streetlights, roof-top solar water heaters, and a push for Cape Town to get a fifth of its energy from renewables by 2020

National leaders may have been the ones to sign the Paris Agreement to combat climate change – but when it comes to putting the deal into effect, “it is cities that drive most of the change”, says Cape Town’s mayor Patricia de Lille.

Since taking charge of South Africa’s second biggest city in 2011, her administration has overseen the installation of LED streetlights on 25,000 roads, retrofitted 32 city buildings to make them more energy efficient and installed 46,000 roof-top solar water heaters.

A big plot of land in the city has been set aside for green companies that want to move in and build solar panels, wind turbines or other forms of clean tech.

Already U.S. electric car manufacturer Tesla has indicated it intends to open its first Africa office in Cape Town, de Lille said, and a Chinese manufacturer of solar-powered electric buses will come in next year.

Cape Town has an order in for 10 of the buses, the first of which will hit the streets later this year, she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone interview.

“They’re going to save us a lot of money,” said de Lille, 66, a former trade union leader and longtime South African politician.

“Our maintenance budget will be cut by 60 percent, as they’re very easy to maintain. And to recharge the batteries we’re also going to use solar energy.”

Around the world, cities are increasingly at the forefront of action to curb climate change – and a growing number, from Cape Town to Paris to Sydney, are now run by women.

In two years, the number of women in charge of large cities leading on climate action has risen from four to 16, according to the C40 Cities network of more than 80 cities committed to addressing climate change, which is organising a conference for women leaders in New York this month.

De Lille said that women leaders are far from “the panacea for all of our problems”. But when it comes to climate change, “you always see it is girls and mothers who are disproportionately affected. As women, we have to represent those voices of other women”.

The poor in Cape Town have much to lose if climate change is not effectively dealt with.

Worsening flooding has hit the poor particularly hard, she said, and now extended drought – the worst in 100 years over the last two winters – has left the city’s main water supply dam at just 23 percent of capacity. That is water for just 121 days, the mayor said.

The seaside city is looking for more water where it can – recycling water, treating effluent and pumping it back into the dam, tapping into old springs under the city and testing out desalination. But the solutions need to keep the poor in mind, de Lille said.

“Desalination is very expensive and once you go for expensive infrastructure and operating costs, it will put up the price of water” – something she would like to avoid, she said.

RENEWABLE AMBITIONS – AND OBSTACLES

One of de Lille’s key ambitions is to see Cape Town get at least 20 percent of its energy from renewables by 2020 – just three years away. Independent solar and wind power producers, hoping to feed energy into the national grid, have sprung up, including in Cape Town.

But Eskom, the national company that produces 95 percent of South Africa’s electricity, has yet to sign agreements to purchase much of the renewable power, arguing the deals could put Eskom’s finances at risk.

The company is waiting for the completion of two big and years-delayed coal-fired power plants it is building, designed to reduce energy shortages in the country.

The impasse has so far limited Cape Town’s ability to source renewable power – and has led de Lille and the renewable energy firms to threaten lawsuits.

“I don’t think they’ve got a right to block me buying clean renewable power from any independent power producer,” the mayor said.

De Lille said that she’s seen little pushback on her clean energy agenda at home and that, like many mayors, she spends her time focusing on “implementation, implementation, implementation”.

“In government, things don’t just happen by wishing,” she said. But with good leadership, “later on, you find that people have now bought into the idea and understand the benefit of what we are achieving. Then it’s much easier – you have leadership at all levels bought into the new way of doing things.”

One thing she wishes she had, however, is more money. International funding to help developing countries address climate change is only slowly getting flowing and what arrives at the national government level does not always trickle down to cities, she said.

To change that, the world’s mayors should work together “to say to these multilateral bodies that we want a say in how the resources are distributed”, she said.

De Lille’s term as mayor ends in 2021 – one reason her renewable energy goal is set for 2020.

“I’m going to push as hard as I can to get all or most of my targets embedded in this city so no one can change them again, so they can just come in and build on that,” she said.

With climate change impacts worsening fast and few years left to bring about a wholesale shift to clean energy, “there’s no time for trial and error”, she said. “We have to make sure we do it right the first time.”

THE Ministry of Justice Legal and Parliamentary Affairs has had water supplies to various stations around the country terminated by the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA), it has emerged.

The ministry owes the water utility hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid bills, a Parliamentary report has revealed.

According to the report by the parliamentary portfolio committee on Justice Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, some of the unpaid bills date back to 2013.

“Some stations had their water supplies disconnected by ZINWA for non-payment, thereby posing a very serious health hazard,” read part of the report.

Apart from ZINWA, the ministry also owes ZESA and local authorities countrywide.

“More than $5m is owed to ZINWA, local authorities and ZESA due to inadequate funding for the past four years,” the report said.

The legislators said the ministry – which has a total debt of more than $13 million – was wasting funds on travelling allowances to top officials at the expense of essential services.

“Travel and subsistence is also consuming a lot of resources and some of the money extended as advance payments has not been recovered as reported by the Public Accounts Committee from the Auditor General’s Report.

“We therefore recommend that expenditure allocation be increased under administration and general and that a stringent debt recovery strategy be put in place so as to resolve the matter,” read the report.

Vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa is responsible for the justice ministry.

By Fabian Ekeruche

On February 20, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) put in place a new foreign exchange (Forex) policy on personal travel allowances and school fees in a bid to strengthen the naira.

The bank said it took the decision to make foreign currency exchange easier for Nigerians and reduce the stress often caused by currency hoarders and speculators. The decision followed appeals by the Federal Executive Council to CBN to review its foreign exchange policy to boost the nation’s economic activities.

Before the new policy, the naira had been affected negatively by unfriendly global economic forces; somewhat defying fiscal and monetary policy formulations.

With the new policy, however, the naira has been able to gain some strength; forcing dollar to move down from N520 to between N300 and N350 per dollar within a short time.

Financial experts observe that the apex bank has the courage to implement the policy due to relative peace in the Niger Delta region of the country and the rise in the price of oil at the international market. This development notwithstanding, Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, President, Association of Bureau de Change (BDC) Operators of Nigeria, said the CBN should ensure the sustainability of the policy.

He also expressed doubts on the quantum of foreign currencies in the nation’s reserves that could sustain the policy in the long run.

“I don’t think we have enough buffers to continue with the approach, so the CBN should lift the ban on cash importation for banks.

“The CBN should lift the ban on autonomous sales of foreign currencies by banks only and allow bureau de change operators to do same with a peg of 50,000 dollars per week per bureau de change,” Gwadabe suggested.

He emphasised that the BDCs remained the laboratory apparatus of the CBN, adding that the apex bank should not technically edged them out of business by the new policy.

“The BDCs have partnered with the CBN by preventing the dollar to reach N1, 000 per dollar in the parallel market as predicted by some economists.

“It is only the BDCs that the CBN still have as an option to outwit the operators of the parallel market,” he said.

Sharing similar sentiments, Mr Harrison Owoh, an economist, said the CBN should sustain the new foreign exchange policy by ensuring uninterrupted foreign inflows into the economy. He advised the apex bank to deploy diaspora remittances to boost liquidity to Deposit Money Banks and the BDCs.

According to him, sustaining the peace efforts by the Federal Government in the Niger Delta region of the country will ensure stability in the sector and enable the country to produce oil optimally for the international market.

“Increase in the price of oil at the international market will translate to more foreign exchange for the CBN to fund dollar sales to genuine seekers.

“Unless the government musters the courage to match its diversification agenda with the expansion of the non-oil sector, the economy may have another setback.

“The gains recorded by the naira were predicated on the availability of foreign exchange and failure to sustain the policy will result in the depreciation of the naira,” he warned.

Similarly, Prof. Sherifdeen Tella, an economist at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun, said the new policy could only be sustained with a robust foreign currency reserve.

He, nonetheless, said that rather than introduce temporary measures in the foreign exchange market, the CBN should stimulate the local industry by lowering the benchmark of interest rate. He noted that the growth of the local manufacturing industry would promote export of goods and services which would boost the capacity of the country to earn foreign currencies.

But Prof. Anthony Monye-Elmina, the Head of Department of Economics, University of Benin, said most Nigerians were worried about the sustainability of the new foreign exchange policy. He noted that the CBN was intervening in the foreign exchange market by supplying somewhat sufficient dollars to the system, observing that the sustainability of the policy would turn around the economy.

“If the policy is not sustained, the naira will crash further than it was before the implementation of the policy,” Monye-Elmina said.

He explained further that permitting bank customers to deposit amount for foreign exchange in their domiciliary accounts by the apex bank would be a method of injecting foreign currency to the economy.

However, Dr Evans Osabouhien, A Senior Economist at Covenant University, Ota, Ogun, said that the CBN’s intervention in the foreign exchange market could be best described as a palliative measure. According to him, the gains already recorded by the new policy will be so short-lived if the government does not go back to the basics of encouraging local production.

In a different opinion, Dr Chijioke Mgbame of the Department of Accountancy, University of Benin, said the foreign exchange market in Nigeria was characterised by dual official rates that were not tenable anywhere in the world.

According to him, therefore, any efforts at sustainability should begin with the elimination of the dual rates prevalent in the market. He urged the CBN to exercise a strict oversight function on the banks to checkmate round-tripping.

“Government should finally eliminate the dual exchange rate since no country in the world operates a dual exchange rate system,” Mgbame said.

In his opinion, Mr Femi Ekundayo, a former President of Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, said the numbers of BDCs were many in the country. He said that BDCs should be able to generate foreign exchange currencies to meet the needs of their customers.

According to him, the CBN and the Nigerian Inter-bank Settlement Systems should develop a template of tracking those who get foreign exchange for what purpose.

However, most Nigerians observe that one thing that stands out from the new policy is the speed at which the naira continues to strengthen against the dollar at the parallel market.

Concerned Nigerians note that the onus then rests on the CBN to ensure the sustainability of the policy for the overall interest of the nation.

They believe that if the CBN can muster the strength to sustain the policy, it can influence the reduction in the prices of goods and services.

By Hamisu Muhammad

Sokoto — The sudden slide of the US dollar and other foreign currencies has made export to neighbouring countries such as Niger Republic, Burkina Faso and Chad unattractive, traders have said.

Visits to Tsohuwar Kasuwa and other markets in Sokoto recently revealed that the number of trucks that load goods to Niger and Burkina Faso on daily basis has dropped drastically from about 20 to about five trucks.

Merchants from the neighbouring countries had taken advantage of the depreciation of the naira in recent times to ship more goods out of the country with little amount of their currencies, especially the CFA.

Local traders who spoke to our reporter said merchants from neighbouring countries no longer found it attractive to exchange a CFA at N62 to do business in Nigeria even as the price of the goods still remained high at their markets.

Alhaji Usman Salihu Mai Sugar, told our reporter that patronage by the merchants dropped since last week when the naira began to appreciate, adding “Before now there was hardly space here, even to pass was difficult.”

He said some of the reasons why the export business has gotten less attractive was “Because we are still selling the old stocks in the market; the appreciation of naira is yet to bring down prices in the market.”

Ismaila Illela said some of his customers at Niger told him they were studying the market for now before returning to Nigeria.

Also, some traders in Kano said there is a sharp dropped in patronage by merchants from Niger Republic as well as Chad.

“About 20 to 30 trucks fully loaded usually leave Kano every evening before the appreciation of the naira but the number of trucks has reduced minimally as of last week,” a trader, Shuaibu Rijiyar Lemo, told our reporter recently.

The naira appreciated by about 20 percent since February 21 after the Central Bank of Nigeria released some new rules on the forex market.

Some Nigerians expressed joy over the naira appreciation hoping that things would get better in the nearest future.

Meanwhile, Nigerians have expressed joy over as the naira appreciated, saying that no one was happy with the high rate of inflation in the country due to forex scarcity.

According to Alhaji Salihu, “No one was happy with the high cost of materials in the market, even us the traders, we are not making much gain as speculated, we spend a lot to buy few goods.”

The naira jumped by about 18 percent at the parallel market – from N520 on February 23, to N425 a dollar Wednesday. However, some reports said the local currency closed the week at about 465 a dollar.