JOY TO THE WORLD – Pastor Favour Onoja

By Pastor Favour Onoja

 

INTRODUCTION:
Christmas is the celebration of the birth of our saviour, Jesus Christ. This celebration has been on over Two Thousand (2,000) years ago.

It is a time for giving and not simply a day we exchange gifts. The spirit of Christmas is in “togetherness”.  It’s a period which you put into thinking about others. It’s a selfless time, where we forgive, take stock of what is important and become better.

Christmas is the most celebrated event in the history of the World by believers and non believers. It is a time of spiritual reflection on the important foundation of christian faith. We celebrate Gods’ love for the World through the birth of Jesus Christ.

The birth of Jesus Christ was recorded in Luke 2:4-19. He was born for the redemption of mankind. God sent His only begotten son to be the atonement for all our sins, so that we would not be separated from God. Meaning that without Jesus, we would all die for our sins, but thank God for this precious gift of God at Christmas.

THE ESSENCE OF CHRISTMAS:

Many celebrate Christmas without knowing the reason. The following are some of the reasons why we celebrate Christmas:

1. Celebrating Gods’ unconditional love for Humanity:

Christmas is a demonstration of God’s love to humanity, unconditionally. Out of the love for mankind, God sent His only begotten son to earth for the redemption of mankind.

Jesus’s birth was the greatest gift of God in His redemptive plan for the World.  “For God so love the World, that He gave His only begotten son, that whosever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”.

“For God sent not His son into the World to condemn the World; but that the World through him might be saved” (John 3:15-16).

Despite our short comings, God sent His son to be born and died for the sin of man. Therefore,  it behoves on man to respond to that love.

2. Christmas is a demonstration of Gods’ unspeakable joy to man:

“Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, through now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of joy” (1Peter 1:8).

The coming of Jesus Christ brought joy into the World. This joy cannot be taken or given by the world. The joy was also heralded by an Angel in Luke 2:10.

“And the angel said unto them, fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people”.

The joy that Christmas brought to mankind is priceless. In the midst of anarchy, turmoils, troubles and tribulations in the World, He brought us that joy. What a privilege!

3. It is a celebration of Victory, Abundance, Blessing and Rest.

His coming brought us all the above four, at Christmas.

“The thief cometh not, but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

His coming is the secret of abundance (blessings); the fullness of all that God has packaged for you in His redemptive plan; the termination or annihilation of the enemy’s captivity/verdict; and the restoration of human’s destiny and dignity (Isaiah 10:27; 42:22).

His coming brought us rest.

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your soul” (Matthew 11:28-29).

His coming is the termination of struggles and toiling in life and destiny (Luke 5:5-11).

4. Christmas is the celebration of Gods’ unprecedented presence with man. It gave man unhindered access to God.

“Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matthew 1:23).

We have undeniable and an unquantifiable access to His presence at Christmas; and His presence guarantees peace, tranquility and quietness.

What a joy at Christmas! You don’t need a mediator to go to God. We have direct access to His presence and in His presence there is fullness of joy.

5. Christmas brought peace to Humanity:

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting father, The Prince of Peace, of the increase of his government and peace, there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this” (Isaiah 9:6-7).

The peace that Jesus brought to us at Christmas is limitless. That peace, the World and it’s system of government cannot give it; United Nation cannot give it; wealth and accomplishments cannot give it; yet, Jesus gave it to us free of charge, at Christmas.

6. Celebration of God’s unquantifiable gift to Man.

“Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift” (2Corinthians 9:15).

God gave us the greatest gift of His son at Christmas. That gift that money, fame and influence cannot buy. It was a priceless gift. Jesus Christ was that precious gift to mankind at Christmas.

7. His birth was a call to Worship:

Christmas should be a season of worship and appreciation to God for His kindness, benevolence and generosity demonstrated towards humanity.

The Angel worshipped:

“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men” (Luke 2:13-14).

At Christmas, don’t be concerned and cumbered with what to wear or eat, where to go for your vacation or other activities during the festive season and miss His visitation and purpose for your life, just like Martha, who almost missed Jesus. Jesus even counseled her about being bothered and troubled with many things.

He said, “but one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41-42).

Brethren,  I counsel you at this Christmas, to let go of everything that bothers you and worship at the feet of the Master, by casting all your cares upon him (1Peter 5:7), because His steadfast love is better than life.

You shall praise Him as long as you live.

“Because thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.

Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.

My soul shall  be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:

When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.

Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice”. (Psalm 63:3-7).

HOW DO WE CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS:

1. With Joyfulness And Singing.

“And the angel said unto them, fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto us is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men” (Luke 2:10-14).

Let your Christmas be characterized with celebration and thanksgiving. Don’t let what you will eat, wear or other activities be the basis for your celebration.

Joy is a fruit of the spirit. It’s not based on what you have or does not have. Be joyful. Come before Him in a dance and sing unto Him for His unspeakable gift to humanity at Christmas.

2. With Appreciation And Giving.

“And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh” (Matthew 2:11).

Giving is living. God gave us the greatest gift at Christmas. Give to God, give to humanity. Give to the less privileged (orphans, widows, etc).

Demonstrate benevolence, liberality and generosity towards others at Christmas.

3. With Surrender And Submission To God.

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”. (Matthew 11:28-30).

Gods’ invitation to you at Christmas is to receive His gift (Jesus Christ) into your life as your Lord and personal Saviour.

He said come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  What a great invitation! What an honour and what a privilege!

It’s only in Him that you are secured and can find rest from troubles, struggling, trials and temptations. In the World, you have tribulations and trials (John 16:33).

Friends, note that, it is in absolute surrender to His perfect will for your life that you can find fulfilment.  His will for you at Christmas is that you should not perish and that was why He gave Jesus, a propitiator for your sin, as a precious gift for your salvation at Christmas; that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:15).

Beloved, if you have not received Jesus into your life, could you kindly pray this prayer with me from your heart at Christmas:

“Come into my life and make me a new person. Change my life and destiny today. I say ” NO” to sin and I receive the grace to serve and live for you by faith.

From today, I go forward and backward never.

Thank you for answering me, in Jesus Name.

If you prayed this prayer, you can reach me on my e-mail or telephone nos for further counseling and prayers.

E-mail: onojaaf@yahoo.com

Tel: +234(0)7034893375
+234(0)8055842594

H A P P Y   C H R I S T M A S / N E W   Y E A R

GOD BLESS YOU RICHLY.

PFAs Performance in Challenging Economy

By admin

 

The Contributory Pension Scheme administered by the Pension Fund Administrators has since inception 17 years ago recorded some achievements as well as met some obstacles. In this report, Ebere Nwoji takes a look at the performance of the scheme in the face of the down turn in Nigeria’s economy

The Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) regime in Nigeria was established by the Pension Reform Act 2004 amended in 2014, which put the management of pension fund in the hands of private organisations called Pension Fund Administrators (PFAS).

The investment of the contributed fund was also placed in the hands of different set of investment experts called Pension Fund Custodians (PFCs).

Both have their activities regulated by the National Pension Commission (PenCom), which also stands as federal government adviser on pension matters.

With the establishment of these bodies and enactment of laws guiding their operations, Nigerian pension system which hitherto was enmeshed in huge deficit of over N2 .56 trillion during the defined benefit pension scheme era, suddenly wriggled out of the deficit track to gain its present ground of conveniently sitting on huge accumulated N13 trillion assets.

This has automatically positioned the pension sub sector as a vibrant part of the finance service sector of the economy.
The above N13 trillion represents the quantum of contributions made by both employees and employers of over nine million Nigerian workers who have so far keyed into the scheme.

The fund contributors were all registered by the 22 licensed Pension Fund Administrators in the country and their investment into various investment portfolios specified by the law is managed by four registered pension fund Custodians in Nigeria.

Licensed PFAs

The 22 licensed PFAs include: AIICO Pension Managers Limited, APT Pension Fund Managers Limited, ARM Pension Managers Limited, CrusaderSterling Pensions Limited, FCMB Pensions Limited, Fidelity Pension Managers, First Guarantee Pension Limited, IEI-Anchor Pension Managers Limited, Investment One Pension Managers Limited, Leadway Pensure PFA Limited and Nigerian University Pension Management Company (NUPEMCO).

Others are NLPC Pension Fund Administrators Limited, NPF Pensions Limited, OAK Pensions Limited, Pensions Alliance Limited, Premium Pension Limited, Radix Pension Managers Limited, Sigma Pensions Limited, Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited, Tangerine Pensions Limited and Trustfund Pensions Limited and Veritas Glanvills Pensions Limited.

The PFCs

As stipulated by the laws guiding pension fund investments, the investment of the funds generated by these PFAs is determined by the following four PFC; First Pension Custodian Nigeria ltd, UBA Pension Custodian Ltd, Zenith Pension Custodian Limited, and Access Pension Custodian Limited.
They Play the role of undertaking the responsibility for keeping safe custody of pension assets on trust on behalf of contributors.
The main functions of PFCs are to receive pension contributions on behalf of PFAs; settle transactions and undertake activities relating to the administration of pension fund investments on behalf of PFAs and to notify the PFA within 24 hours of the receipt of pension contributions from employers.

The CPFAs

Operating side by side with these existing and licensed 22 PFAs are five other organisations called Closed Pension Fund Administrators (CPFAs)
These are managers of Pension schemes in the private sector existing prior to the introduction of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) in June 2004.

After Pension Reform Act 2001 was enacted, these were allowed to continue as CPFAs, subject to guidelines issued by PenCom.

The companies are required to have operated a fully funded existing pension scheme with assets of at least N500 million. A condition precedent on the issuance of a CPFA license is that the company must possess the requisite capacity for the management of pension fund assets and show that it had managed its pension scheme effectively for at least five years prior to the commencement of the CPS.

The CPFAs operate mostly as Defined Benefits Schemes with a guarantee from the sponsor companies over any funding deficit.

But the Pension Reform Act, 2014, an amendment of 2004 Act, has foreclosed new entrants into the CPFAs.

The amended Act stated that effective from July 1, 2014, all new employees of the sponsor companies are required to join the CPS and open Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs) with a PFA of their choice. Furthermore, an existing employee still reserves the right/option of pulling out of the CPFA to join the CPS.

Currently, there are five Closed Pension fund administrators in Nigeria, which are: Chevron closed PFA, Nestle Nigeria Trust Limited, Nigeria Agip CPFA Limited, Progressive Trust CPFA Limited, Shell Nigeria Closed Pension Fund Administrators ltd and Total (E&P) Nigeria CPFA Limited.
Pension experts said these CPFAs are still in good conditions as most of their employees and retirees are comfortable with their operation and management of their retirement Benefits.

PFA performance

Both the PFAs and PFCs have from their inception been doing well even up to the present time though currently they are faced with a lot of challenges.
Their impressive performance over these years was no doubt aided by the compulsory nature of pension contribution by both the public sector and private sector employers and employees.

The PRA 2014 mandated both the employers and employees to contribute 18 per cent in the order of 10 percent by the employer and eight percent by the employee.

Regular contributions to the CPS by both the private and public sector workers and their employers boosted the growth of the fund to the present level within a decade and half of CPS regime.

At present, the status of the Scheme is this in the past seven years, according to recent report released by the National Pension Commission, 19,000 workers from the public and private sectors joined the CPS Scheme (CPS) growing the asset by N470 billion.

Data obtained from the National Pension Commission (PenCom) have shown.

The PenCom data, said pension asset stood at N12.31 trillion as of December 31, 2020 but soared to N12.78 trillion by July 31, 2021
On the investment side, N8.13 trillion was invested in federal government securities as of December 2020. This increased slightly to N8.2 trillion by July 2021.

PenCom also noted that as of December 2020, N136.59 billion was invested in state government securities, N1.69 trillion in the local money market while N89.68 billion was invested in state government securities in July 2021 and N2.11 trillion in the local money market.

PenCom Director General, Aisha Dahir-Umar, noted that it was pertinent to reassure stakeholders that the implementation of the CPS remained on course.
She stated that the maintenance of consistent growth continues to justify the Commission’s overriding philosophy of ensuring the safety of pension fund assets.

Challenges

The CPS, which by all parameter of measurement has been adjudged the best scheme for pensioners, is not without challenges and these challenges dates back to its early years.

The downturn in the economy, which started in 2008 during the melt down in the global financial system made the scheme to lose some amount invested in the capital market. But not so much was lost, as the law guiding pension fund investment did not allow much investment in the capital market.

One of the challenges facing PFAs at present regarding the down turn in the economy is the fact that as a result of job cuts in various sectors occasioned by the COVID19 out break, inability of some firms to break even and weakened purchasing power of the masses, there has been low output and low return on investment by most firms, many firms also experienced low profit margin leading to loss of jobs by many Nigerians.

With the loss of jobs, there was pressure on the existing PFAs for withdrawal of 25 percent of their contributed funds as permitted by the law.
The PRA 2014 permits contributors into the CPS below 50 years who lost their jobs to withdraw 25percent of their contributions if they fail to get another job within four months of loss of the previous job.

Closely connected to this is the fact that as these withdraw demands were coming, new employees were not getting fresh jobs to add to the number of contributors and generate more funds for the scheme.

There was also the problem of volatility in the federal government investment instrument. Example is the fluctuation in the yields of federal government bond where over 70 percent of the pension fund was invested.

For instance, the pension fund declined from N12.306 trillion in December 2020 to N12.248 trillion in February 2021, showing N58 billion decline.
Giving explanation to this, the National Pension Commission (PenCom) attributed the decline to volatility in the market.

The commission’s head corporate communications, Mr Peter Aghahowa, however, said this was not a big problem, expressing optimism that the market would bounce back.

Stakeholders in the scheme said main challenges faced by the PFAs are low coverage of the scheme and compliance, inadequacy of benefits and poor awareness about the benefits of pension scheme.

Also the scheme operators themselves highlighted other challenges saying poor outreach of operators to Nigerian workers, the challenge of deepening investment to create impact and low exchange rate of naira to dollar.

They also identified non-compliance by various state governments, most of which are still operating the “pay as you go” system, as a major hitch to further advancement of the CPS scheme.

Accrued Rights

Before now, one of the key challenges of the scheme and the PFAs administration was inadequate or total non- funding of the Redemption Fund against the annual projected pension liability, arising from voluntary and mandatory retirements, death of employees in service and the right of pensioners to pension review in line with section 173(3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

Indeed, since the advent of the CPS scheme, the failure of the federal government and some state governments that have keyed into the scheme, to transfer to PenCom the accrued rights of government workers for onward transfer to the various Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) managing the workers’ contributed funds has constituted delays to immediate payment of workers’ lump sum benefits after retirement.

The Accrued rights are entitlement of workers from their employers before the enactment of pension Reform Act 2004 that established the CPS.
The result is that in most cases, because of much delay in the release of the accrued rights, most workers don’t receive their benefits two to three years after their retirement.

The situation was worsened by the fact that the Act establishing the scheme did not give room for payment of the fund contributed by the employee and his employer to keep soul and body alive pending the time government would have the necessary funds to pay their accrued rights.
This often makes the retiring workers feel that there is no difference between the CPS, which is funded, and the Defined Benefit Scheme, which is non funded, since the workers who constitute the contributors have to wait for some years for government to release their accrued rights before they can receive their retirement benefits.

But President Muhammadu Buhari recently gave approval for the release of workers’ accrued rights and backlog of differential based on 10 per cent employer contributions according to Pension Reform Act 2014 (PRA2014).

Achievements

With the recent approval of the accrued rights payment by the federal government coming on the heels of commencement of the transfer window, the pension industry has indeed recorded great achievement this year and in the views of the stakeholders stand the chance of tripling the current pension asset figure if other similar hiccups standing on the way of its advancement would be addressed.

Comparison with other countries’ Pension sector: in U.K, the political culture just like in Nigeria is not generally favourable to tax rises to fund welfare including pensions (and in any event both the short and medium term are likely to be dominated by other calls on revenue).

Pension experts in UK, said the savings culture just like in Nigeria is not strong and the pensions sector has been damaged by the unintended consequences of state action, miss‐selling scandals among others.

Similar to Nigerian employers, in U.K, Private employers are dramatically reducing the scale of their contributions towards the pensions of their general workforce.

The president, Pension Operators Association of Nigerian (PenOp ) Mr. Wale Odutola, who is also the Managing Director, ARM Pension Managers, said though the pension industry has raised the bar for professionals locally, as investment, risk and compliance professionals within the industry can favourably compare to their counterparts anywhere in the world. He said that there are many areas where the sector is behind its counterparts in other countries.

“One area is the level of pension penetration. Nigeria currently has a pension penetration rate of approximately 11 percent of its labour force. This pales in comparison to 19 percent in South Africa, 20 percent in Kenya and 77 per cent in the United Kingdom.

“Consequently, it goes without saying that the industry needs to deepen its level of penetration, especially in the informal sector.
Another area of improvement is the level of pension assets to GDP. Nigeria’s level of pensions assets to GDP is only a little over seven percent while in developed markets, it is typically above 100 percent.

“So, whilst the level of our pension assets are relatively large in absolute terms, when you look at it in relation to GDP, it is actually low. This further speaks to the fact that we need to increase the level of penetration of the pensions scheme in general, “Odutola stated.

Former Director General, National Pension Commission (PenCom), Muhammad Ahmad, said the micro pension segment market of the sector needs to be tapped in order to bring every Nigerian in both formal and informal sector into pension coverage.

He said pension operators have a lot of work in this regard, insisting that large chunk of their work is in the area of conviction and building trust.
He said operators’ starting point in tapping the opportunities in the informal sector is analysing the market.

But despite these challenges, the PFAs are not doing badly.

Their financial records in 2020 shows that despite the COVID-19 challenge, they posted impressive returns in the year 2020,
There is healthy competition going on among the operators.

Since the launch of the RSA transfer window in November 2020, the competition amongst Nigerian Pension Administrators has increased as contributors can now easily switch from one PFA to another. In less than two months of the launch, over 6,000 RSA contributors applied to switch over to new managers between November and December 2020 and currently, the number has doubled.

They are now on a very serious race for customer centric service delivery, as each PFA wants to outwit the other in service delivery.

From the recent data released by PenCom, there is every likelihood that before the end of this year, the pension asset will cross N13 trillion margins while number of contributors will be heading to 11 million according to pension experts.

CBN Stops Banks from Processing Form ‘A’ Hard Copies, NCX on TMS

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed that banks are no longer allowed to process hard copies of Form A and Non commercial Export (NCX) Form on the Trade Monitoring System (TMS) with a N5,000 processing charge also taking effect.

The apex bank in two separate circulars sent to the authorised dealers, the Nigeria Custom Service (NCS), shipping lines, airlines National Museum and Monuments as well as the general public, said henceforth, the forms will only be processed in electronic form.

In the circulars signed by the Director, Trade and Exchange department, CBN, Mr. O.S Nnaji, the central bank stated that the electronic form A will replace the hard copy of Form ‘A’ for invincible transactions such as Personal and business travel allowance (PTA/BTA) medicals, education, other remittances amongst other while the e-Form ‘NCX’ shall replace the hard copy of Form ‘NCX’ for non-commercial exports, with effect from November 30, 2021.

For those filling the e-Form A, the CBN said they are required to obtain o valid Bank Verification Number (BVN) from their banks, as the BVN is a prerequisite for customers to access the Trade System for e-Form ‘A’ application;

According to the central bank, “The e-Form ‘A’ is web based and allows the General Public to initiate the Form from their offices/homes and submit same to the Authorized Dealer Bank. A charge of N5,000 as fee per declaration of e-Form ‘A’ is applicable with effect from November 30, 2021 and henceforth.

“There will be a direct debit of the processing bank’s current account for each declaration which should be recovered from the customer by the bank. However, the charge on the Customer for the e-Form ‘A’ should be separated from other bank charges;

“All hard copies of Forms ‘A’ established on or before November 30, 2021, prior to the commencement of the e-Form ‘A’ shall be utilized within 15 working days of the establishment of the Form. For avoidance of doubt, all established hard copies of Forms ‘A’ for which disbursement had not been made within the transition period of 15 working days shall be deemed cancelled.”

For those filling out the e-Form NCX, the apex bank said, “Authorized Dealer Banks are to ensure that their customers obtain a valid Tax Identification Number (TIN) from Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS)/Joint Tax Board (JTB). The TIN is a prerequisite for customers to access the Trade System for e-Form ‘NCX’ application.

“The N5,000 charge is also applicable for the e-Form NCX and “there will be a direct debit of the processing bank’s current account for each declaration which should be recovered from the customer by the bank. However, the charge on the customer for the e-Form ‘NCX’ should be separated from other bank charges.

“All hard copies of Forms ‘NCX’ established on or before November 30, 2021 (prior to the commencement of the e-Form ‘NCX’) shall be utilized within 90 days of the establishment of the Form. For avoidance of doubt, all established hard copies of Forms ‘NCX’ for which shipment has not taken place within the transition period of 90 days shall be deemed cancelled.”

AfDB cautions Fed Govt against tax increase

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

African Development Bank (AfDB) President Dr.  Akinwunmi Adesina has cautioned the Federal Government to pull the brake on tax increment.

He said the fact that Nigeria taxes are relatively lower cannot be justification for incessant tax raise.

According to him, it will be double jeopardy to over tax citizens who provide basic amenities the government has failed to offer.

The AfDB boss gave the advice yesterday in Abuja while delivering a lecture at the annual conference of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).

He listed such facilities as portable water, electricity, security and neighbourhood roads among others.

Dr. Adesina said: “Low tax to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rate in the country is not an excuse for the Federal Government to keep increasing taxes.

“While other countries with high tax rates have functional free education and free health care system among others, such cannot be said for Nigeria.”

“In Nigeria, the inefficient system has imposed an implicit tax on the Nigerians as the people are made to provide basic essential facilities that should have been made available by government.

“While tax rates are relatively low in Nigeria, it simply is not an excuse to keep increasing taxes.

“Take the case of Norway for example. Its tax-to-GDP ratio is 39 per cent. Singapore’s tax-to-GDP ratio is 13.2 per cent. And Nigeria’s tax-to-GDP is 6.1 per cent. It is easy to make the comparison and say Nigeria needs to raise its taxes to similar levels as in Norway or Singapore.

“But, also consider the following: In Norway, education is free through university. In Singapore, a country that had only 1/3 of Nigeria’s per capita income at its independence in 1965; today has 100 per cent access to electricity and 100 per cent access to water.

“While progress is being made the challenge, however, is that in many parts of Nigeria, citizens do not have access to basic services that governments should be providing as part of the social contract.

“People sink their own private boreholes to get water. They generate their own electricity often times with diesel. They build roads to their neighbourhoods. They provide security services themselves.

“These are implicit taxes, borne by society due to either inefficient government or government failure. As such, we must distinguish between nominal taxes and implicit taxes — taxes that are borne by the people but neither seen nor recorded.

“It has become so common that we do not even bother to question it. But the fact is governments can simply transfer its responsibility to citizens without being held accountable for its social contract obligations.”

In an attempt to boost tax revenue in February last year, the federal government raised VAT from five per cent to 7.5 per cent.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been persistent in encouraging Nigeria to increase its value-added tax (VAT) rate to at least 10 per cent by 2022 and 15 per cent by 2025 to boost revenues after its recovery from a recession.

By admin

 

First Bank Nigeria Limited says it will leverage its vast experience in supporting trade businesses, especially the SME to support the Federal Government’s efforts to diversify the revenue base of the economy.

Dr. Adesola Adeduntan, Chief Executive Officer, FirstBank, said this during the bank’s Non-Oil Webinar Series on Tuesday.

The webinar was titled; “Roadmap to Building Sustainable Non-Oil Export in Nigeria: Harnessing AfCFTA and Agro Commodities.”

Adeduntan noted that the bank would leverage its expertise to drive discussions that would enable existing exporters to expand their export businesses and also encourage new entrants into the non-oil export industry.

According to him, the non-oil sector holds tremendous value and opportunities for the country to enhance job and wealth creation, foreign exchange earnings, and gross domestic product (GDP) growth.

He noted that the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) presents an opportunity for Nigeria to be deliberate and position itself appropriately to become Africa’s export hub.

“This can be achieved considering our population, resources, and economic size. At FirstBank, we have been at the front burner of driving economic growth and we will use our reach and connection to orchestrate growth in the non-oil sector,” he said.

Adeduntan said that to drive the goal, the bank had created an Export Desk to support the needs of exporters, including designing export products and solutions to cater for pre and post-export financing and services.

Also, Dr. Biodun Adedipe, Chief Consultant, B. Adedipe Associates Ltd., said that the country needs to change its orientation to an export-led growth or import substitution economy.

Adedipe noted that the world that Nigeria operated on pre-COVID-19 pandemic was fast disappearing, stressing the need to give more attention to the country’s non-oil export industry.

According to him, there is a need to build supporting infrastructure to aid export business, as deliberately done by China toward boosting economic growth.

He added that aggressive targets should be set and rigorous measures implemented.

“If Nigeria does not act, other countries will act on us,” he said.

Commenting, Dr. Ezra Yakusak, Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), said that the council in 2016 developed the zero oil plan as a strategy to shore up the foreign exchange in the non-oil sector.

Yakusak, represented by Mr. Folorunsho Akintunde, Deputy Director, NEPC, said that through the plan an export policy for 22 major products that could generate 30 billion dollars annually was evolved.

According to him, the council is preparing and positioning SMEs for AfCFTA through various training, programmes, and incentives.

He said that the NEPC was working closely with Afrexim Bank and ITC, to ensure that Nigeria was ready for AfCFTA, especially on the Export Trading Company.

Also, Comptroller Malanta Yusuf, Customs Area Controller, Apapa, advised exporters to familiarise themselves with items allowed to be exported and those on prohibited lists.

He also advised them on clear descriptions of goods and proper packaging to facilitate the acceptance of goods.

Also speaking, Mr Eric Intong, Regional Chief Operating Officer, Anglophone West Africa, the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), said the bank developed various products, programmes, and initiatives to boost intra-African Trade.

Intong said that to support AfCFTA, the bank would spend 40 billion dollars in intra-Africa trade and investment in the next five years.

He added that this was twice the amount disbursed for the same purpose in the last two years. (NAN

MTN targets over 2m shareholding base in Nigeria with public offer

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

Nigeria’s largest telecommunications company, MTN Nigeria Communications (MTN Nigeria) Plc has disclosed it’s plan to expand Nigerians participation in the shareholding of the company through a public offer.

The company will yesterday opened subscription for its public offering of 575 million ordinary shares to the general retail investing public at a price of N169 per share.

The offer period ends on December 14, 2021.

Minimum subscription is 20 shares and thereafter in multiples of 20 shares.

The offer includes a bonus share of one share for every 20 shares bought by a retail investor subject to maximum bonus shares of 250 per investor.

However, to qualify for the free share such retail investors must hold the shares allotted to them after the allotment date for at least a period of 12 months.

The public offer is an offer for sale by MTN Group, which is divesting part of its shares in MTN Nigeria to allow Nigerian institutional and retail investors to buy equities in the telecommunications giant.

The book building for institutional investors was done last week with a price range of N165 and N175.

Beside the inclusion of bonus share in the public offer, the MTN Nigeria’s public offer is also setting record as the first to be delivered through a digital platform, thus facilitating maximum participation by investors.

Speaking to journalists during virtual media.   debrief, Karl Olutokun Toriola, MTN Chief Executive Of-ficer explained that  the offer is not an exit of the company from the country but a move to ensure more Nigerians participation in MTN shareholding base. He said, “To be clear, we are not raising capital. This is a sell down by MTN group of its shareholding in a structured process from just under 79% to 65%.