Naira Redesign: ICPC Busts Sterling Bank, Discovers N258m, Makes Arrests

 As part of ongoing efforts at ensuring that commercial banks comply with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) directive on the distribution of the redesigned Naira note, operatives of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) last week Friday, discovered the sum of Two Hundred and Fifty-Eight Million Naira (N258m) stashed in the vault at the head office of Sterling Bank in Abuja.

This discovery followed one of the Commission’s operations at ensuring that commercial banks and other interest groups do not flout the apex bank’s directive.

When the ICPC monitoring team visited the bank and discovered the stashed new Naira notes in the bank’s vault, it was informed that the cash was the remnant of what the CBN had given the bank for onward distribution to its branches.

The team however found out that only the sum of Five Million Naira (N5m) each was distributed to their various branches.

Both the Regional and Service managers were arrested and later granted administrative bail while investigation continues.

Emefiele Meets Yakubu, Says CBN Will Not Be Used To Frustrate 2023 Elections

 Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emiefele has said that the apex will not allow itself to be used to frustrate the forthcoming general elections.

Emiefele, who spoke when the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof Mahmood Yakubu led 11 National Commissioners on a visit to the Bank, said the CBN will make available every cash needed to pay logistics for the success of the elections.

He was responding to a request from Yakubu that the CBN should find a way of addressing scarcity of currency across the country 17 days to the Presidential and National Assembly elections since some service providers to the commission were "unbanned".

He said: "The CBN will not allow itself to be used as an agent to frustrate the forth coming election which is a positive assignment.

"If you require cash to pay some of your service providers, we will make it available to you. We will not allow ourselves to be seen as agents that frustrate a genuine assignment".

The INEC chairman had told the CBN Governor the 2023 polls will be the best in Nigeria's history, adding that concerns have however been raised about the processes leading to the elections.

He said while the Commission has transferred all its accounts at the state and national level to the apex bank, some of the services being rendered to the Commission need to be paid for in cash.

APC Amasses N22bn Old Notes For Secret Swap With New Notes For Vote-Buying - PDP

 

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that it uncovered an alleged plot by the All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders led by its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, to exchange N22.5 billion stashed old Naira notes in Kano State for new ones to carry out vote buying during the general elections.

The PDP in a statement by its spokesman, Debo Ologunagba, said information available to the party revealed that the criminal act by the APC was responsible for the biting cash scarcity and was being coordinated in the North-West region by two APC state governors.

The statement reads: “The PDP has been made aware that the N22.5 billion in old N1000 notes was allegedly kept in a Kano State Government facility before being moved to a particular old generation and a certain new generation bank where the regional heads were contacted by the APC Presidential Campaign to swap the old notes with new ones.

“Further information revealed that the cash is being warehoused by the Tinubu Campaign for vote buying in Kano, Kaduna, Bauchi, Jigawa and Sokoto States. A particular APC State governor is reported to have taken delivery of N500 million new Naira notes to actualize the vote buying plot.

“Also, there is intelligence that arrangement has been concluded by APC leaders to move a substantial part of the old naira notes from Kano to Lagos State between today and tomorrow for the purposes of swapping them with new ones.

“It would be recalled that the PDP had earlier alerted Nigerians that corrupt APC leaders are compromising the system to mop up the new bank notes for their selfish vote-buying plans ahead of the February 25 presidential election.”

“The party alerts the security agencies and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) of this nefarious activity by APC leaders which is bringing untold hardship to Nigerians,” the PDP statement added.

The opposition party demanded that the APC stop "this criminal act," recover the money, and make the new Naira notes available to the public.” 

The PDP urged all Nigerians to stand firm against the APC's heinous attempt to buy their conscience and subject them to another harrowing tenure of killings, violence, kidnapping, and economic hardship that has become the APC administration's hallmark over the last seven and a half years.

Folarin Balogun: The English Youngster At Reims Outscoring Messi, Mbappe, Neymar

 Have you heard the one about the English youngster outscoring Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Neymar in France - and who is set to give Arsenal a "positive headache"?

When Reims signed a player on loan who had scored three times for Middlesbrough last season, it made few headlines - but now many eyes are on Folarin Balogun.

The England Under-21 international is the top scorer in France's Ligue 1 with 14 goals for a mid-table team managed by fellow Englishman Will Still, who is only 30 and never played professional football.

Balogun's past 10 days have included an injury-time equaliser against Paris St-Germain and a hat-trick against Lorient.

"The goals are great, but it is everything else," said French football writer Julien Laurens. "When you look at a striker you look at the goals - but the movement, the awareness, the intelligence, all of that is as important and he has all of that."

Across Europe's top five leagues, only Erling Haaland, Harry Kane and Victor Osimhen have scored more than Balogun this season.

Reims had only won one game when Still replaced Oscar Garcia as manager, initially as caretaker, on 13 October - and are unbeaten since.

But Balogun's form has been impressive throughout, starting his time in France with five goals in his first six games under Garcia.

The 21-year-old's importance to this Reims team cannot be underestimated. He has scored 54% of their league goals (14 out of 26) - a higher share of any player for a team in Europe's top five leagues.

Only six Reims players have scored in the league this season. Their next top scorer, Junya Ito, has scored four times.

"He is a super complete striker," said Still. "He is able to play with his back to goal and deep. He scores, he is decisive."

Glenn Hoddle is the only English player to ever score more goals in a Ligue 1 season, with 18 for Monaco in 1988-89. Balogun has 16 games left to score five goals and beat that record.

What next for Balogun?

On current form, Balogun could be returning to the English champions this summer, so what then?

"What do Arsenal do with him?" asked Laurens. "Do you give him a place in the squad, do you loan him, do you sell him?

"He would be worth a lot of money, an incredible talent, and a positive headache for Arsenal."

Balogun, who signed a four-year deal at Emirates in 2021, is two years younger than Eddie Nketiah, who is the Gunners' main striker at the moment with Gabriel Jesus out injured.

Nketiah is Arsenal's top scorer with nine goals in all competitions this season. Jesus has netted five.

Balogun has struck 15 goals this season, including one on his French Cup debut.

He would not be starting at Arsenal from scratch either, having played 10 times for the club over the previous two seasons.

Balogun netted in Europa League games against Molde and Dundalk and played in two Carabao Cup quarter-final ties for the club.

"Arsenal is my family," he told L'Equipe earlier this season. "For me, the club represents brotherhood and unity.

"I think by the time I go back I'll be in a better place to compete than I was before I left. I realised there were certain things I would struggle with, but I think that's a good thing."

Could there be a change of nationality too? He told the BBC in October he would consider playing for Nigeria if they called him up. He was born in the US to Nigerian parents but raised in England, who he has represented at four youth levels.

He would join good company if he made that move. The second-top scorer in Serie A, Atalanta's Ademola Lookman, is a former England Under-21 forward who now plays for Nigeria.

Could anyone have seen this coming?

Balogun's form seems a mile away from last season, when he netted three goals in 21 games for Middlesbrough after joining them on loan in January.

"Flo Balogun wasn't a regular starter for the Boro last season," says BBC Tees sports editor Paul Addison.

"Manager Chris Wilder would often deploy him from the bench, and his impact for the most part was limited.

"He scored three goals in four Championship matches towards the end of the campaign, which hinted at what he might be capable of.

"That spell led many fans to believe he might rejoin on loan for this season, but a move didn't materialise.

"The sacking of Wilder and subsequent appointment of Michael Carrick as head coach has seen the club head in a different direction but his current form will have many Boro supporters thinking about what might have been."

Nigeria To Emerge Africa’s Biggest Oil-Refining Hub

 Despite having no crude oil refining capacity currently, Nigeria is actually on track to becoming Africa’s biggest crude oil refining hub in the next two years, the latest research on African refineries, along with the continent’s outlook for 2023, stated.

Hawilti, a pan-African investment research agency and advisor to businesses, investors, public and private institutions, as well as governments in Africa, released a report on the research on Monday.

“Both the opening of the Dangote Refinery and the rehabilitation of state-owned refineries have the potential to make Nigeria Africa’s biggest refining hub by 2025,” the report, which was obtained by our correspondent in Abuja, stated.

It said there was a positive outlook in West Africa and that the region was notably on the verge of change as new capacity was expected to come on stream in 2023.


The report stated that the region already housed the largest refining capacity in sub-Saharan Africa, although only 23 per cent of it was currently operational.


Oil refining’s GDP contribution drops by 47.94% in one year
“The long-awaited Dangote Refinery, a 650,000 barrels per day single-train crude refining facility that has been a decade in the making, is finally expected to start production this year. Its commissioning is already sending hopes that it could finally start rebalancing Nigeria’s trade deficit.

“With all state-run refineries undergoing rehabilitation, Nigeria imports all its petroleum products, and heavily subsidises gasoline (petrol). It needs the Dangote Refinery to decrease imports, generate currency savings, fight inflation, and ultimately improve its macroeconomic outlook,” it stated.


It noted that Africa’s biggest oil producer had embarked on the rehabilitation of its three state-owned refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna – totaling some 445,000bpd of refining capacity.

“Tecnimont continues to make progress on bringing Port Harcourt’s complex back to 90 per cent of its capacity while Daewoo E&C was selected in 2022 to execute two ‘quick fix’ projects at both Warri and Kaduna,” Hawilti explained.

It, however, noted that the market was also driven by private oil producers and asset developers who were building modular refineries next to oilfields in the Niger Delta.

50% POS Operators Close Shops Over Naira Scarcity

 Over 50 per cent of Point of Sale operators have closed their shops as scarcity of new and old naira notes bites harder, it has been learnt.

The National Chief Aggregating Officer of the Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria, Hussein Olanrewaju, who made this disclosure on Monday, said the impact of the ongoing shortage of new and old naira notes had worsened the plight of their members.

While noting that agents should be given preferential treatment in access to the new notes, he lamented that some Nigerians had taken advantage of the situation to charge unreasonable fees.

He said, “Operators are licensed bodies that provide platforms which agents leverage on. Currently, agents do not have any preferential treatment to deliver this service, hence, more than 50 per cent of agent shops have been closed down as we speak.

Turned Down An African Singer That Made A Song With Ed Sheeran – American Model

 

An African-American socialite has disclosed that she turned down an African singer who collaborated with British singer, Ed Sheeran, on a song.

The lady took to her social media page to announce to all and sundry that an unnamed African singer made a pass at her.

She revealed that she had rejected the singer’s advances and danced in celebration of having been found attractive enough to be asked out by the musician.