| |Economy|
National Assembly won’t approve $65 benchmark – House Committee: The House of Representatives Committee on Legislative Budget and Research made it clear on Thursday that the National Assembly would not approve the $65 set as the crude oil benchmark price for the 2015 budget proposal by the Federal Government. The Chairman of the committee, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele, who spoke in Abuja, said at best, the National Assembly would settle for a benchmark price of $50 per barrel of crude oil or slightly above that. He stated that his committee had reviewed the 2015 budget proposal by paring it with those of some oil producing countries and came to the conclusion that the $65 benchmark price was not realistic. For example, he said Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Venezuela, which had better micro-economic performance than Nigeria, pegged their budget benchmarks at $60. Source: Punch
Foreign reserves drop to $32.4bn: The nation’s foreign exchange reserves has dropped to $32.43bn, according to data obtained from the bank’s website on Thursday. The current stock of external reserves indicate a drop of about six per cent from $34.47bn of December 31, 2014. Source: Punch
Subsidy on petrol hits N1.2bn in two days: With the gradual appreciation of prices of crude oil in the international market, the subsidy on petrol that the Federal Government will pay has been rising after it slashed the price of the product by N10 per litre on January 18, 2015. According to figures from the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, the government will pay about N1.2bn as subsidy on fuel imported into Nigeria in the last two days. Source: Punch
Dollar now sells for N220 at BDCs: The naira on Thursday crashed further against the United States dollar from 215 to 220 at the Bureau de Change segment of the foreign exchange market, following the closure of the Retail Dutch Auction System and Wholesale Dutch Auction System window by the Central Bank of Nigeria. The naira also weakened to 199 to the dollar at the interbank market, compared to 197 on Wednesday. Source: Punch
NITEL investor gets April deadline to pay $176.76m: The preferred bidder for the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited, NATCOM Consortium, has till April to pay the balance of $176.76m for the acquisition of the national carrier and its mobile subsidiary, Nigerian Mobile Telecommunications Limited. The NATCOM Consortium had in January paid $75,756,300 for NITEL and M-Tel, representing 30 per cent of the $252,521,000 bid price for the acquisition of the assets and business units of the enterprises. The balance has yet to be paid. Source: Punch |
