Nigeria's Buhari signs delayed 2016 budget into law

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari signed the delayed 2016 budget into law on Friday, a Reuters witness said, ending wrangling with lawmakers that had lasted for weeks.
The record 6.06 trillion naira ($30.6 billion) budget triples capital expenditure in Africa's top oil exporter from 2015 and aims to stimulate an economy hit hard by the fall in global crude prices.
Nigeria is facing its biggest economic crisis for years after oil revenues, which make up about 70 percent of national income, slumped along with global crude prices.

President Buhari

Senior politicians including Senate President Bukola Saraki and Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun were present when the president signed the bill.
"This budget is a budget of faith for the Nigerian people," said Buhari.
Adeosun has said Nigeria is expected to post budget deficits for the next two to three years . In 2016, the deficit is seen at 2.2 trillion naira ($11.6 billion), slightly less than a previously estimated 3 trillion naira.
Buhari withdrew his original budget bill in January because of an unrealistic oil price assumption. Parliament approved an amended proposal in March but only submitted highlights, prompting Buhari to say he would only sign the bill after it was resubmitted.

*First Published by Reuters

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Nigeria raises 150.6 bln naira in T-bills at higher returns

Yields on Nigerian short-dated treasury bills rose marginally at an auction on Wednesday where the central bank sold a total of 150.6 billion naira worth of debt with maturities ranging between three months and one year.
The central bank said it sold 45.17 billion naira of 3-month paper at 7.99 percent yield, compared with 7.88 percent at the last auction on April 20.
A total of 23.43 billion naira worth of the 6-month treasury bill was sold at 9 percent against 8.99 percent at the previous auction, while 82 billion naira of the 1-year treasury bill was sold at 11.05 percent compared with 10.24 percent previously.
Investors demanded a total of 261.52 billion naira against 253.19 billion subscription at the last auction.

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Nigeria to raise 105 bln naira bonds on May 11

Nigeria plans to raise 105 billion naira in local currency denominated bonds on May 11, the Debt Management Office (DMO) said on Wednesday.
The office said it will sell 50 billion naira of a bond maturing in 2036, 40 billion of paper maturing in 2026 and 15 billion of debt maturing in 2020, using the Dutch auction system.
Results of the auction are expected to be released on the following day.
All the bonds on offer are reopening of previous issues.
Nigeria issues sovereign bonds monthly to support the local bond market, create a benchmark for corporate issuance and fund its budget deficit.
It plans to borrow about 900 billion naira locally to finance part of the 2.2 trillion naira deficit in its 2016 budget.

*First published by Reuters

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Nigeria's UBA plans African expansion - chairman

United Bank for Africa (UBA) plans to increase its presence in Africa outside Nigeria to 25 countries from 18 now and inject capital into its subsidiaries in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, its chairman said on Tuesday.
UBA Chairman Tony Elumelu said the bank was gearing up with a view to "harnessing the potential represented by the wider African economy through its expansion plans".
"Our intention is to be the leader in African financial services," Elumelu said on the sidelines of a news conference in Lagos late on Tuesday.
UBA, one of Nigeria's largest banks with more 700 branches, has subsidiaries across Africa in countries such as Ghana and Ivory Coast in the west, Kenya and Uganda in the east and Mozambique and Zambia in the south.
It also has offices in London and New York.
The banks operations in the 18 African countries outside Nigeria now contribute more than 25 per cent to group operating revenue, Elumelu said.
Last year, UBA's pretax profit rose 22 percent from a year earlier to 68.5 billion naira while gross earnings climbed 10 percent to 315 billion.
*First published by Reuters

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Nigerian stocks rise to 5-week high as MSCI keeps Nigeria on its frontier index

Nigerian stocks climbed 3.3 percent to a five-week high on Tuesday after index provider MSCI said will not implement changes for any Nigerian securities in its frontier market index following feedback from investors.
MSCI said last month it would seek feedback from investors on the ease of access to the Nigerian stock market in the wake of currency controls introduced last year which could lead to it removing Nigeria from its frontier market index.
*First published by Reuters

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IMF sees sub-Saharan Africa growth near two-decade low in 2016

Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa is likely to slow this year to its weakest in nearly two decades, hurt by a slump in commodity prices, drought and the after-effects of the Ebola outbreak, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.
In its African Economic Outlook, the Fund forecast growth would slip to 3 percent this year - the lowest rate since 1999 - from 3.4 percent in 2015.
Growth was expected to recover to 4 percent next year, helped by a slight recovery in commodity prices, and the IMF said it was still optimistic about the region's prospects in the longer term.
"However, to realise this potential, a substantial policy reset is critical in many cases," the IMF said.
Countries hurt by the drop in commodities prices needed to control their fiscal deficits, because the declines in revenue were expected to persist, the IMF said.
Louis Kasekende, the deputy governor of Uganda's central bank, agreed countries need to rebuild buffers, to help their economies deal with any external shocks.
"It would be preferable to fund higher public investment by making savings in recurrent budgets or by strengthening the domestic tax effort," Kasekende said when the IMF report was released in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.
Angola and Nigeria, both major oil exporters, were hardest hit by the commodities slump, the report said. So were Ghana, South Africa and Zambia.
Several southern and eastern African countries, among them Ethiopia, Malawi and Zimbabwe, were suffering from severe drought, the IMF said. And Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone were only gradually recovering from the Ebola epidemic.
However, the report said, Ivory Coast, Kenya and Senegal would see growth of more than 5 percent, mostly "supported by ongoing infrastructure investment efforts and strong private consumption," the report said.
"The decline in oil prices has also helped these countries, though the windfall has tended to be smaller than expected, as exposure to the decline in other commodity prices and currency depreciations have partly offset the gains in many of them," it said.

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Nigeria's vice president says $15 bln stolen in arms procurement fraud

Around $15 billion - equal to about half the country's foreign currency reserves - was stolen from Nigeria's public purse under the previous government through fraudulent arms procurement deals, the vice president said on Monday.

Osinbajo, Nigeria's VP

Africa's top oil exporter is going through its worst economic crisis in decades due to the drop in global crude prices and ministers say these problems have been exacerbated by the impact of fraud under previous administrations.
President Muhammadu Buhari, who last year won election fought on his vow to crackdown on corruption, has said the theft of "mind boggling" sums of oil money meant state coffers were virtually empty in Africa's biggest economy when he took office last May.
Corruption charges have been leveled against former military chiefs and companies accused of involvement in an alleged arms procurement fraud during the tenure of Buhari's predecessor Goodluck Jonathan. They have pleaded not guilty. .
The total sum lost to corruption related to the provision of security equipment to the military and amounted to around 15 billion US dollars, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said.
Endemic corruption over decades has enriched a small elite but left many Nigerians mired in poverty despite the country's oil wealth. Osinbajo's claims are the latest in a string of allegations by members of Buhari's administration.
In January, the information minister said 55 people who were government ministers, state governors, public officials, bankers and businessmen stole 1.34 trillion naira ($6.8 billion) over a seven-year period.
The fall in crude prices has eroded Nigeria's foreign reserves, since oil sales make up around 70 percent of national income, with the central bank adopting fixed exchange rate to protect further depletion of its reserves which stood at $27 billion in April.
Osinbajo, who was speaking at a university in the southwestern city of Ibadan, said the $15 billion figure which he alleged had been stolen "is more than half of the current foreign reserves of the country".
"It is important to send a message that no public officer can steal the resources of this country and expect to escape," he said.
Buhari's presidency ended a period from the end of military rule in 1999 until 2015 when the People's Democratic Party (PDP) was in power. The PDP, now in opposition, has accused the president of mounting a witch-hunt against its members.
*First published by Reuters

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