Naira stablecoin, EFCC FX probe… 7 business stories to track this week

Here are the seven top business stories you need to track this week — January 8 to January 13.

TINUBU SIGNS 2024 BUDGET INTO LAW

President Bola Tinubu, on January 1, 2024, signed the N28.7 trillion 2024 appropriation bill into law.

Speaking after signing the document, the president said the implementation of the budget would be “efficiently pursued and vigorously monitored”.

Tinubi also said all institutional mechanisms “shall be held to account in ensuring diligent implementation”.

On his part, Wale Edun, minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, said the federal government will rely less on borrowing and more on revenue to finance the 2024 budget.

FG DIRECTS ‘SUPER AGENCIES’ TO REMIT 50% OF REVENUE TO FEDERATION ACCOUNT

The federal government has issued a circular directing a 50 percent remittance of the total revenue of all its self-funded enterprises to the federation account.

Previously, self-funded agencies, also called “Super Agencies”, were allowed to claim up to 50 percent of their revenue as expenditure and keep 20 percent of the balance as “operating surplus” — the excess of revenue over expenditure.

“Super Agencies” — so called because of the enormous financial resources at their disposal — keep a combined total of over N1 trillion annually from the revenues collected by them.

DANGOTE, BUA UNDER PROBE OVER FX TRANSACTIONS 

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is currently probing 52 companies over foreign exchange (FX) transactions.

Some of the big companies being investigated are Dangote Group, BUA Group, and Flour Mills.

The commission is investigating forex allocations to these companies during the tenure of Godwin Emefiele as governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The EFCC wrote to the various companies asking for documentation on their forex transactions in the last 10 years.

CBN APPROVES NAIRA STABLECOIN

In another development, the apex bank approved the launch of the Nigerian naira (cNGN) stablecoin.

The announcement was made in a statement by the Africa Stablecoin Consortium (ASC), a consortium of Nigerian financial institutions, fintechs, and blockchain experts.

The cNGN will be launched on February 27, 2024, ASC said.

The ASC also said the stablecoin has met the regulatory standards and requirements as established by the CBN, the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU).

NIGERIA TO PAY 11.85% ON AFREXIM-NNPC $3.3BN LOAN

Nigeria will pay an interest of 11.85 percent per annum on the $3.3 billion “pre-export finance facility” (PxF) facilitated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd and arranged by Afrexim Bank.

Until now, the fine details of the transaction, which has a five-year tenor, had been withheld by all parties involved.

A similar cocoa-backed $800 million facility arranged for Ghana by its cocoa marketing board attracts an interest of 8 percent per annum.

In the details seen by TheCable, Nigeria pledged a total of 164.25 million barrels of crude oil — at 90,000 barrels per day — starting from 2024 to repay the loan through Project Gazelle Funding Ltd, an “orphan” special purpose vehicle (SPV) incorporated in Bahamas for the PxF.

Effectively, the NNPC has pledged 38.58 percent of five years’ worth of tax and royalty oil to secure the loan.

NNPC REASSURES OF NO PLANS TO HIKE PETROL PUMP PRICE

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited says there is no plan to increase the price of petrol anytime soon.

In a statement on Wednesday, Olufemi Soneye, NNPC’s chief corporate communications officer, said there is no imminent increase in the cost of petrol, also known as premium motor spirit (PMS).

In a related report, the oil firm also denied clashing with any party over petrol subsidy removal.

The denial followed a reported dispute between the national oil company and oil marketers over whether the federal government was paying subsidy on petrol or otherwise.

More so, NNPC also announced that it will complete test runs at the Port Harcourt refinery this month.

DANGOTE REFINERY RECEIVES MORE SHIPMENT

The Dangote Oil Refining Company received the fifth crude oil shipment of one million barrels of Bonny Light from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.

In a statement on Friday, the company said it received the shipment on January 4, 2024.

The private oil plant said it is preparing to take delivery of its sixth one million barrels of crude oil by next week (this week).

Dangote said the latest shipment is a significant step for the refinery as it is set to begin operations.