A Federal High Court in Lagos has struck out a N1.86bn suit filed against the founder of the Living Faith Church, a.k.a. Winners’ Chapel, Bishop David Oyedepo, by a stock brokerage firm, Valueline Securities and Investment Limited.
Justice Jude Dagat, in a ruling on Friday, described the plaintiffs’ suit as incompetent and dismissed it for want of jurisdiction.
Valueline Securities and Investment Limited and its Managing Director, Samuel Enyinnaya, had in February 2015 sued Oyedepo and his family for an alleged breach of contract in a N9bn stock market deal.
Joined as the 10th defendant in the suit was the Security and Exchange Commission.
The plaintiffs, through their lawyer, Mr. Rickey Tarfa (SAN), sued for the enforcement of their fundamental rights and were claiming a total of N1.86bn from the defendants jointly and severally as professional fees and damages.
The plaintiffs, in their statement of claim, averred that Oyedepo, his family and organisations entered into an Investment Portfolio Management Agreement with them and appointed them as the portfolio managers to oversee and to ensure the profitability of the said investment worth about N9bn in the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
According to the plaintiffs, it was agreed that 2.25 per cent of the net asset value of the portfolio and an annual incentive fee of 10 per cent of the returns on the investment would be paid to the plaintiffs.
The plaintiffs said that in order to enhance the profitability of the investment, they obtained some margin loans from some Nigerian banks, which, they claimed, turned out to be a great boost to the investment.
They however said trouble started “when Oyedepo wanted to buy his first private jet and the World Mission Agency Inc ordered the sale of majority of the securities in the investment portfolio, and that despite the professional advice to the contrary, the plaintiffs were made to sell the securities to raise the N3bn needed to buy the jet, a development which brought about huge losses to the investment.”
According to the plaintiffs, following the said sale of the shares coupled with the global economic meltdown which caused stock market across the globe to crash at the time, the N9bn investment recorded losses.
The plaintiffs, however, alleged that in a bid to avoid their financial obligations to the plaintiffs, Oyedepo and his organisations accused them of fraud and mismanagement and wrote a petition against them to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
They however claimed that the EFCC found them innocent after six years of investigation after which Oyedepo further dragged them before the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
The plaintiffs alleged that the NSE unlawfully froze their business accounts and did not give them fair hearing.
They had urged the court to order the NSE to immediately unfreeze their accounts.
They also sought the payment of N1.86bn as their professional fee and damages.
But the Oyedepos, through their lawyer, Mr. Chioma Okwuanyi, filed a preliminary objection and asked the court to dismiss the suit for lack of jurisdiction.
Contrary to the plaintiffs’ claim, Okwuanyi maintained that the losses recorded on the N9bn investment were due to the plaintiffs’ recklessness, adding that the margin loan they took was without the consent of the Oyedepos and that the loan was not channeled into his clients’ investment.
In the three-ground preliminary objection, Okwuanyi contended that by the provisions of Section 34 of the Investment and Securities Act, only the Investment and Securities Tribunal had the vested authority to entertain a dispute between a capital market operator and his client and not a Federal High Court, to which the plaintiff had brought the matter.
The lawyer further argued that the plaintiffs’ suit, as constituted before the Federal High Court, was premature, as the plaintiff had yet to explore all the internal dispute resolution mechanism within the NSE before heading for the court.
In its own objection, the NSE, through its counsel, Mr. M.O. Liadi, also contended that the plaintiffs ought to have approached the NSE council to ventilate their grievances rather than rush to the Federal High Court.
“Given the complaints of the plaintiffs against the decision of the applicant, the plaintiffs ought to have approached the applicant’s council and if still unsatisfied, the plaintiff is obliged to proceed to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“If still unsatisfied, by the provisions of sections 284 and 289 of the Investment and Securities Act, the plaintiffs are permitted to proceed to the tribunal. We submit that the plaintiffs have failed to do this,” Liadi contended.
In his ruling on Friday, Justice Dagat upheld the defendants’ preliminary objections and dismissed the plaintiffs’ suit.
The judge agreed with the defendants that the plaintiffs ought to have taken their case before the Security and Investment Tribunal rather than the Federal High Court.
The judge also held that the plaintiffs failed to exhaust the internal dispute resolution mechanism provided in the Security and Exchange Commission before resorting to a legal action.
The judge held, “On the whole, I hold as follows: This suit is based on a simple contract between the plaintiffs and the 1st to 10th defendants, which the Federal High Court has no jurisdiction to entertain.
“The plaintiffs have not complied with the pre-action requirements of the 11th defendant under its rules and the Investment and Securities Act 2007. Even after satisfying both requirements, the appropriate venue to institute this action is the Investment and Securities Tribunal.
“The preliminary objection filed by the 1st to 10th defendants/applicants and that filed by the 1th defendant/applicant have merit. This court declines jurisdiction to entertain this suit. The court cannot further transfer the suit to the Investment and Securities Tribunal because even the pre-action requirements have not been satisfied. The suit is hereby struck out.”
Oil prices fell about one per cent wednesday after the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reported its September oil output at eight-year highs in its monthly Oil Market Report (OMR), thus eroding optimism over the carte’s pledge to bring a global crude oil glut under control.
This is coming as energy ministers from Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Venezuela and Russia yesterday began informal closed-door talks with the Secretary General of OPEC, Mr. Mohammed Barkindo, in Istanbul, Turkey, as part of the coordinated efforts to rebalance the oil market.
Also, concerns that the American Petroleum Institute (API) could report the first built in United States crude oil stocks in six weeks in preliminary inventory numbers have fueled possibility of worsening the glut in the market as Reuters reported that analysts expected the US government to report that crude oil stockpiles rose 300,000 barrels last week.
Global benchmark crude oil Brent crude fell 52 cents, or one per cent, to $51.89 a barrel while the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude slipped 68 cents, or 1.3 per cent, to $50.11.
However, despite the drop, Brent is still up nearly 13 per cent since OPEC announced on September 27 that the group and other major crude oil producers would agree on a sizeable output cut or freeze to reduce a global glut by November 30 when OPEC meets in Vienna.
OPEC’s latest monthly report, issued yesterday, showed an increase in its oil production in September to the highest in at least eight years and a rise in the forecast for 2017 non-OPEC supply growth.
In its monthly market report, OPEC said expected total world oil demand for 2016 was revised upward from its previous report by 10,000 bpd to 1.24 million bpd. Next year, world oil demand is expected to increase by 1.15 million bpd, a level unchanged from OPEC’s previous report.
The group produced 33.39 million barrels per day (bpd) last month, up 220,000 bpd from August, and as much as 890,000 bpd above the new supply target.
In a related development, energy ministers from Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Venezuela and Russia began informal closed-door talks with Barkindo in Istanbul as they try to coordinate efforts to rebalance the oil market.
OPEC officials are holding a flurry of meetings in coming weeks to nail down an agreement reached in Algiers last month on modest output cuts, the first such deal since 2008, for which they are seeking cooperation from non-OPEC producers.
The ministers were meeting on the sidelines of the World Energy Congress in Istanbul but no decision is expected from yesterday’s talks.
United Bank for Africa Plc yesterday became the first bank to announce its nine months results ended September 30, 2016. Leveraging its expansive footprint, the pan-African banking group, reported a profit before tax (PBT) of N61.55 billion, showing an increase of 7.3 per cent above the N57.366 billion posted in the corresponding period of 2015.
The results also showed significant efficiency gains with appreciable growth in operating income by 11 per cent to N183 billion, from N165 billion, while profit after tax rose by 7.6 per cent to N52.26 billion up from N48.557 billion in 2015.
Though partly driven by the depreciation in the value of the naira, UBA also recorded a significant 21 per cent growth in deposits to N2.496 trillion and a similar 26 per cent growth in total assets to N3.478 trillion. The bank also ensured that cost-to-income ratio remained flat year-on-year at 65 per cent despite external cost pressures which masked the positive results of its cost efficiency initiatives
Commenting on the results, the Group Managing Director/CEO of UBA, Mr. Kennedy Uzoka, said: “I am pleased with our performance in the first nine months of the year. Notwithstanding the negative economic growth in Nigeria, we maintained growth in earnings and sustained our asset quality. Increasingly, we are leveraging our unique pan-African platform to drive new customer acquisition and grow market share across our African subsidiaries.”
Also speaking on the results, Group Chief Financial Officer, Ugo Nwaghodoh, said: “The growth in deposits and total assets reflects the bank’s increased share of customers’ wallet and deepening banking penetration across all its chosen markets in Nigeria and Africa which again accounted for a third of the Group’s earnings.”
Nwaghodoh assured stakeholders that UBA will continue to balance its appetite for growth and profitability with the strategy of sustaining strong liquidity and capital ratios. The bank maintained 43 per cent liquidity ratio and 17.6 per cent BASEL II capital adequacy ratio, well ahead of regulatory requirement.
The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, has said that at the end of September, N3.9tn out of the N6.1tn budgeted for the year has been released.
The Director Special Projects in the ministry, who represented the minister, Mr. Mohammed Dikwa, a stakeholders’ forum on reducing the cost of governance in Abuja on Tuesday said only 18 per cent of the releases was for capital expenses against 82 per cent for recurrent expenditure.
In a paper, “Public Sector Financial Management Reforms as a Strategy for Cutting Cost of Governance in Nigeria”, Adeosun said that the releases to the productive sectors of the economy remained the highest in recent times.
She said that Nigeria’s inability to finance most of its development projects had been largely attributed to high cost of governance in the form of large recurrent expenditure.
She said, “In order to grow the economy and fasten the rate of growth and development, there is the need to reverse the trend.”
She said it was important to “allocate through the budgeting process, a larger proportion of funds for massive investment in infrastructure and other capital projects.’’
Adeosun said in the last two decades, costs associated with the running of the government in Nigeria had increased dramatically.
She added that there was a decline in the proportion of the budget allocated to recurrent expenditure.
Adeosun said that from 60 per cent in 1990 to 36 per cent in 1998, the budget increased to 80 per cent in 2003 but dropped to 74 per cent in 2016.
She said that the rising cost of governance had been a vexed issue in economic discourse in Nigeria.
She said, “Reasons for rising cost of governance in Nigeria are issue of inflation, misuse of public funds and corruption, increase in population, extra-large NASS, extra-large public bureaucracy and need for accelerated growth and development.
“Others are lack of economic efficiency and lack of well-defined rules and regulations.”
She said it showed that all tiers of government in Nigeria spent far more than they earned such that between 2011 and 2015 Nigeria had a consistent annual deficit of over one trillion naira in budget execution.
Adeosun also said that the country’s external and domestic debts amounted to over 30 per cent of national revenue during the period.
In an address of welcome, Mr Victor Muruako, Acting Chairman, Fiscal Responsibility Commission, said the forum was the outcome of a very critical review of the financial management framework of Nigeria.
Muruako said the country had failed to address critical issues, such as infrastructure challenges, as well as failure to set priorities right in the face of dwindling revenues.
Muruako said that the continued high expenditure on overhead cost against capital expenditure was unacceptable.
He said that the idea of managing public income and expenditure in a responsible and responsive way in the larger interest of the country was the sole responsibility of the commission.
“It is indeed about prudent management of resources based on fundamental rules of action that provides the framework for evidence based budgeting,’’ Muruako said.
He said in the past budgets were prepared not for the necessity and solutions required in the system but in such ‘’careless manner’’ that agencies only fixed figures on paper.
He said, “This is why we support the zero based budget which is replacing the incremental budget where no critical effort is made to look at issues.”
The naira continued its appreciation on the parallel market yesterday as it climbed to N468 to the dollar from N470 to the dollar the previous day, following the implementation of an arrangement that saw the intervention of Travelex in the Bureau De Change (BDC) segment of the market.
Also, the naira was calm on the interbank FX market as the spot rate of the naira closed at N304.75 to the dollar.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Travelex last Friday started implementing a new arrangement whereby the global FX dealer now sell the greenback to BDCs. The policy has seen an increase in level of liquidity in the market.
President, Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), Aminu Gwadabe, who disclosed this yesterday, said with each of the 3,000 BDCs now get $15,000 each, with total of $45 million will flow into the system weekly. He lauded the CBN for authorising Travelex to take responsibility of disbursing huge dollar inflows from the diaspora estimated at $21 billion annually to BDCs.
He said the development, which was an improvement from the initially approved $10,000 weekly, would deepen dollar liquidity in the system and strengthen the naira against the dollar.
Gwadabe, said the experience and integrity of Travelex would be key in getting the dollars down to BDCs. He urged all ABCON members and BDC operators, as a matter of urgency, to visit the apex bank’s branches in their respective zones to update or validate their en-cashers and signatories mandate card for Travelex biometric data capturing.
Gwadabe said the Travelex biometric data capturing would enable the BDCs access the International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs)/Travelex dollars window.
He said remittances have direct positive and significant impact on consumption, investment, and demand in the country as it could be used to address short-run output shocks, and even long run growth. He said remittances tended to be stable and could increase during periods of economic downturns and natural disasters.
President of ABCON commended the CBN for reaffirming the country’s commitment to building an enabling environment and level-playing field for international money transfer services to Nigeria. He said by increasing the number of IMTOs from three to 14, the CBN under the leadership of its Governor, Godwin Emefiele, would set the economy on the path of development in the medium- to long-term and also, restore integrity in the international money transfer business.
The Managing Director, Nigeria LNG Limited, Mr. Tony Attah, has said the company’s assets are now worth over $13bn.
A statement by the firm on Tuesday quoted him as saying this during a technical session chaired by the Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Maikanti Baru, at the 22nd Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja.
According to him, the NLNG Act provides incentives, assurances and guarantees, which significantly encourage investment in the project.
Attah said, “These incentives made it attractive for the international investors and financiers to invest even during a period Nigeria was perceived to be a pariah state. Those investments grew and they resulted in an inspirational Nigerian success story that the company is today, with assets now worth over $13bn.”
Commenting on attempts by certain stakeholders to undermine the NLNG Act, he said the courts had been firm on the provisions of the Act in instances where court cases were instituted by third parties to compel the company to pay levies.
“These attempts are apparently continuing outside the courts, but we are hopeful that the country’s leadership will protect its commitment through the Act as well as avoid the portrayal of the country as one that does not honour agreements,” he said.
He said the NLNG had been able to generate $85bn in revenue, pay $5.5bn in taxes as well as commit more than $200m to corporate social responsibility projects, especially in capacity building and infrastructure development.
Despite the fall in share value for 23 stocks, the Nigerian Stock Exchange market capitalisation appreciated by N38bn at the close of trading on the Exchange’s floor on Tuesday.
The NSE capitalisation rose to N9.629tn from N9.591tn, while the NSE All-Share Index closed at 28,034.32 basis points from 27,925 basis points as 15 stocks gain. A total of 234.188 million shares worth N2.719bn were traded in 3,335 deals.
The NSE ASI maintained the positive start to the week, up further 39 basis points as most key sectors held on to gains. Global markets traded mixed amid continued doubt that the potential oil output cut deal would be enough to erode existing surplus.
The financial services sector again spearheaded gains across key sectors following market reaction to the nine-month 2016 result of United Bank for Africa Plc, which recorded a rise in gross earnings and profit after tax by eight per cent year-on-year respectively, and an appreciation in share price by 1.95 per cent.
This was coupled with advances in Zenith Bank Plc and Access Bank Plc by 3.37 per cent and 2.21 per cent, respectively.
The consumer goods sector appreciated by 0.58 per cent, while the oil and gas sector also rose by 1.51 per cent. This was driven by 3.13 per cent gain in Nestle Nigeria Plc, 2.36 per cent gain by Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc shares and five per cent appreciation in Seplat Petroleum Development Company Limited.
The Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index received a 0.32 per cent boost on Monday after 17 stocks appreciated in value.
The ASI rebounded from previous session’s loss position following the positive close recorded across most key sectors.
The financial services and the industrial goods sectors led the ASI positive turnaround following advances across Zenith Bank Plc with 2.25 per cent gain, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc with 1.92 per cent gain and Lafarge Africa Plc with 3.81 per cent gain.
The consumer goods sector also closed modestly higher following mixed performances across Nigerian Breweries Plc with 1.52 per cent gain, Guinness Nigeria Plc with 9.75 per cent loss and Glaxo Smithkline Consumer Plc with 3.16 per cent loss.
However, the oil and gas sector lagged in Monday’s session after declines in Mobil Nigeria Plc by 3.15 per cent and Oando Plc by 0.93 per cent.
Market breadth turned negative with 17 advances and 23 declines.
On what would shape the next trading session, analysts at Vetiva Capital Management Plc, in the firm’s daily report, said, “With all key sectors, except for oil and gas closing higher in today’s session, we believe this somewhat suggests an improvement in market sentiment. On this note, we expect the NSE ASI to add more points in the session ahead.”
On the global front, Asian markets closed mostly lower after oil prices retreated during Asian trading hours on growing doubts that oil producers can reach a meaningful output cut deal. However, European markets eked out gains following a slight recovery in oil prices. United States futures pointed to a higher open.
Financial and investment experts have said listed Nigerian banks are trading at huge discount relative to their emerging counterparts. The economic and financial headwinds in the country affected the performance of some banks for the 2015 financial year and six months to June30, 2016.
But in their Its Banking Industry Report, FSDH Research said out of the 13 banks analysed based on their audited 2015 results, 10 have upside potential for equity investors.
THISDAY checks showed that most of the banks are trading significantly below their opening prices. Apart from Access Bank Plc, GTBank Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc, Stanbic IBTC Bank, the rest banks are trading below their opening prices.
For instance, Diamond Bank is 44 per cent lower that its opening price, ETI (33 per cent); Fidelity Bank (37 per cent); Sterling Bank (42 per cent); Union Bank (23 per cent); Unity Bank (33 per cent); Wema Bank (37 per cent); FCMB (31 per cent); FBN Holding (39 per cent).
But FSDH Research said: ”Our analysis of the Nigerian banks listed on the floors of the NSE shows that they are trading at huge discount relative to their emerging market counterparts. We analysed 13 banks based on their latest audited financial results as at December 2015 and adjusted for half year, 2016. Our valuation results show that 10 banks have upside potential for equity investors. We placed a hold rating on one bank and sell ratings on two banks.”
The experts said despite the recent challenges, there are huge banking opportunities in the Nigerian economy.
“Nigerian banks need to develop more constructive strategies to increase their share of the non-oil sector in their loan portfolios. We recognise that the current foreign exchange shortage in the country is a major problem facing the manufacturing and trading, sectors. However, lending to sectors that have local and export contents may be viable alternatives,” they said.
In their analysis of the banking sector, FSDH Research said as at December 2015, the total assets of the banking industry in Nigeria stood at N27.04 trillion, a decrease of 1.77 per cent from N27.53 trillion as at December 2014.
“The bank with the largest assets remains FBN Holdings with total assets of N4.17 trillion accounting for 15.41 per cent of the industry total assets. This was followed by Zenith Bank with total assets of N4.01 trillion and accounted for about 14.82 per cent of the industry size,” they said.
According to them, the five largest banks by assets size, FBN Holdings, Zenith Bank, UBA, Access Bank and GT Bank accounted for 59.33 per cent of the industry total assets size. The largest contributor to the industry total assets was loan and advances which stood at N12.56 trillion and accounted for 46.45 per cent of the total assets. The total customer deposits liabilities which represent depositors’ confidence in the banking industry stood at N18.07 trillion as at December 31, 2015.
In line with its determination to revive the Nigerian economy, the federal government yesterday revealed that the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN), a financial institution that would bridge the gap between the Bank of Industry (BoI) and other commercial banks as well as meet the funding needs of the micro, small medium enterprises (MSME) would soon become operational.
In fact, the recruitment exercise for the DBN has been finalised and a total of $1.3 billion would soon be released for the take-off of the institution.
The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, disclosed this while speaking to journalists in Washington D.C, on the outcome of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank annual meetings, said agreement on the DBN was reached at the meetings.
This is just as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele who was also at the briefing, assured Nigerians that the central bank would continue to look at how to fine-tune the flexible exchange rate regime so as to ensure exchange rate convergence.
The DBN is being supported by the World Bank and the European Investment Bank.
However, checks by THISDAY yesterday showed that a website has already been created for the institution, which is expected to go live soon.
“Agreement was also reached on the final steps for the take off of the Development Bank of Nigeria which had been stopped due to some issues, we have resolved all those issues, the recruitment process has now been finalised with management team put in place and this will release $1.3 billion which is aimed at supporting our SMEs and SMEs are part of the engine that will spur the growth of our economy, SME lending at low rates will now be facilitated through the DBN and we are ready to resolve the outstanding issues,” she said.
She also disclosed that the Nigerian delegation at the meetings met with the three biggest rating agencies – Fitch, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) and Moody’s in order to update them on developments in the Nigerian economy.
“We met with the rating agencies. As you know they recently had some rating actions on Nigeria. We met with Moody, Fitch and S&P had interactive session with them updated on our economic plans and giving them the picture of what we are doing, overall , it was very positive engagement we have some takeaway and we remain very confident that that the strategy we are pursuing will result in some quick recovery to the Nigerian economy.
“We had validation of our economic strategy. That is, our strategy to transform Nigeria from consumption driven to and investment driven model and while in the short term, there has been some pain and some dislocation, the long term economic outlook for Nigeria remains confident.
“We had a number of specific bilateral meetings with UK Department for International Development, the US treasury and other partners,” she revealed.
Furthermore, the finance minister disclosed that based on the federal government’s commitment to reverse the trend of illicit financial flows which had seen significant money flow out of Nigeria, some high level agreements on a number of initiatives, which she declined to disclose, were reached at the meeting.
Adeosun explained: “This, we believe can bring significant repatriation of money into the Nigerian economy, particularly money that has flown out as a result of tax evasion. And we would be briefing Mr president on specifics and I would be able to provide you with more detailed information when I have Mr President’s final and formal approval.
“The key attainments from this trip – we met with the World Bank and the country team as a group and one of the discussions was that there was an unacceptable low level of disbursement of funds on Nigerian projects.
“Indeed, the rate is 13 per cent at the moment which is unacceptably low. We agreed on a number of measures to reverse this, and these include, we would review process of originating projects, project designs and implementation issues to understand why certain projects are performing at such a low rate. We would consider restructuring, reallocating or even canceling irredeemable project components. We would strengthen our implementation capacity including our capacity for monitoring and evaluation.
Continuing, she said: “We would have regular monthly meetings now with the World Bank Group and there would be regular briefings of Federal Executive Council and the National Economic Council on the performance of Nigeria’s portfolios. And that’s because some of these projects are at state governments’ level.
“So its very important to bring to the attention of the governors failing World Bank projects in their states so that we can actually access this money which ofcourse is concessional money and is aligned to our development goals. We believe it is unacceptable that Nigeria should be drawing down on such a low rate especially at time like this when we really need these investments.”
In addition, she said the federal government has made counterpart funding on the $500 million irrigation project covering Bakalori, Kano River and Hadeja valley, which would enable the immediate take-off of the project, adding that agreement was also reached to expedite action for the take-of the $500 million North-east social safety net project.
Responding to a question, Adeosun dismissed the insinuation that there was lack of harmony between the central bank and the ministry of finance, saying that both agencies are always working for the greater benefit of the economy.
“For the foreign loans, we are through with the AfDB, ready to go to the Eurobond. It is just to appoint the parties. It is particularly the issue of pricing, not the volume. We are going to look into how we can refinance some of our existing Naira debt into the international market to take advantage of the low international rate now.
“This would less the pressure on the domestic market. We have spoken with a lot of lenders and the market is really very attractive now. The Eurobond issue is an issue of pricing, not volume, but on the top of that and back to the issue that I talked on interest rates, we are going to look at how we can refinance some of our existing naira debt into the international market, to take advantage of the fact that there are negative interest rates in a lot of markets, and we think we can significantly lower our cost of funds,” she said.
On his part, Emefiele said meetings were held with some group of foreign investors who have shown interest in coming in to Nigeria.
“Like I always say, the flexible exchange rate policy is not cast in stone. We can always go back and look at them. But we will make sure that they are policies that are done in the interest of Nigeria as well as Nigerians because that is what is important to us is how do we protect Nigerians, what do we do to ensure that we reduce the level of unemployment what do we do to ensure that manufacturers continue to improve their industrial capacities, how do we make it possible them to get foreign exchange for them to run their actories so that prices can be moderated at the level that the purchasing power of our people don’t look totally eroded.
“Like I said, the flexible exchange rate regime document that we have in place is a very sound document and truly speaking, I have not seen one person that has criticised the document,” Emefiele added.
Responding to a question by THISDAY on contingency measures being put in place to protect the banking system in view of the weak global economic environment, Emefiele pointed out that the central bank was closely monitoring the banks as part of its function.
“But I must say that for the Nigerian banking environment, it is not as bad as people may think, given that we have strong prudential guidelines and ratios in place. I think we can only continue to strenghten the banks by putti
