Nigerian interbank rates stable on budget, matured T-Bills

Nigeria interbank rates held steady at 6 percent on average on Thursday, unchanged from last week following an increase in cash flow to the banking system from budgetary allocations and retired Treasury bills.
Traders said about 284 billion naira ($1 billion) was injected into the system from budgetary allocations to government agencies, while an additional 227 billion naira was paid out in matured government debt, boosting liquidity and keeping interest rates at a lower level.
"The system was very liquid and many banks had sufficient cash to support their transactions this week," one dealer said.
Traders said though the central bank made frantic efforts to mop up excess funds from the interbank market by selling about 828 billion naira worth of Treasury bills, the market remained sufficiently liquid to keep the interbank rate low.
"We expect the system liquidity to open on Monday at around 600 billion naira," another dealer said.
The secured Open Buy Back (OBB) closed at 6 percent, same level last week, same for overnight placement, traders said.
Dealers said rates should remain unchanged next week, unless the central bank takes action by mopping up excess liquidity.

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Airtel’s CEO sees more growth in Nigerian telecoms industry

The chief executive officer (CEO) Airtel Nigeria unit, Segun Ogunsanya has said Africa's biggest economy's telecoms market offers multiple growth opportunities, giving its untapped pontentials and vast investment options available in the industry.

He noted that with 78 per cent mobile penetration as at December last year, there was massive untapped market potential, saying broadband adoption is set to rise as demand for more stable Internet grows from the residential and business segments increases.

Ogunsanya said additional 47 million growth in subscribers level are expected within the next five years, saying this demonstrates massive untapped market potential and continued strong total telecoms revenue growth driven essentially by mobile data.
Providing insight on the theme, ‘Nigerian Telecoms Industry: Five Years Ahead,’ he noted that strong growth was expected from mobile financial services over the forecasting period and operators should ensure they are able to offer products to the large unbanked population of Nigeria, whilst growing demand for mobile apps and e-commerce will have a positive knock-on effect on mobile operators.
The Airtel CEO noted that Nigeria offers exciting opportunities for telecoms investors, giving her large population with rising incomes positions, the country is positioned as one of the most attractive destinations for investment on the African continent.
He said Nigeria has massive bandwidth capacity from the four undersea cables that has yet to be exploited and this will provide opportunities to domestic and international investors to take advantage of the growing broadband and data industry.
He, however, noted that key issues must be urgently resolved for the Nigerian telecoms industry to reach its full market potential.
Some of the issues, according to him are spectrum availability and adequacy, government commitment to the National Broadband Plan, tackling the monster of multiple-taxation, reliable and cost-effective power supply, protection of telecoms infrastructure from vandalism and resolving restrictions on telco activity in mobile money.
The Airtel chief also noted that due to explosive growth in mobile data traffic, operators require more spectrum to support this growth. Although he commended the NCC for making inroads towards spectrum availability and adequacy, he pointed out that there is an urgent need to expedite the release / award of frequency to operators as this will facilitate industry development.
Ogunsanya decried the incident of multiple-taxation, disclosing that revenue loss from idle or shut down base stations represent the main source of negative impact of multiple taxation and network vandalism for the industry. 2 to 3 percent of the country's sites are affected by arbitrary shutdown and vandalism at any given point in time.
An estimated cost of 9 billion naira in increased operating costs and lost of revenue costs yearly are recorded by the industry due to the arbitrariness in the implementations of government taxation policy.

He asked government to unify taxes under one code and also bring to book vandals who deliberately destroy telecoms infrastructure.

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Our government will not witch-hunt anyone – Buhari

Nigeria's President Elect, General. Muhammadu Buhari has inaugurated a 19-member transition committee with a charge to members not to engage in a witch hunt or fault finding.

He also announced that his administration would not witch-hunt anybody because he was aware that government is a continuum.

Buhari said this while inaugurating the Ahmed Joda-led transition committee in Abuja, on Wednesday.

While expressing gratitude to members of the committee for accepting to serve at very short notice, he explained that the change from one government to another always involves complicated operational challenges.

Members of the committee are: Ahmed Joda, Dr. Doyin Salami, Adamu Adamu,Wale Edun, Mrs. Bola Adesola, Dr. Festus Odumegu and Mrs. Nike Aboderin and the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Chief John Oyegun.

Others are: Rivers State Governor, Rotimi  Amaechi, Chief Audu Ogbeh, Boss Mustapha, Sen. Hadi  Sirika, Dr. Ogbonaya Onu, Alh. Abubakar Malami, Gen. Lawal Jafar Isa, Mohammed Hayatudeen, Solomon Dalong, Prof. Tam David West and the national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

According to the president elect, the incoming government needs to know where the previous government stopped so that it can know where to continue. 

He noted that Nigeria was blessed with outstanding men and women of competence and experience in different fields out of which his team has picked the nineteen to ensure a smooth process.

Buhari told committee members, “this assignment though onerous, it is well within your ability to accomplish, you are required to assess the information provided to you and advise me on its quality and accuracy.”
He also said, “It is a simple matter but you must have the right information if you are to shape appropriate policy decisions. Needless to repeat; that your committee and our government are not to witch-hunt or engage in fault finding.

“We want the facts and nothing but the facts, what has been done cannot be undone, our job is to learn from the mistakes of the past in an attempt to avoid similar errors.
“The time given for you to complete your assignment, two weeks, is short but because of the postponement of the election for six weeks from February 14 to March 28, the transition period has been truncated, we are obliged therefore to fast track steps to May 29.”
The President elect also charged the committee to ensure that it does not overlook “essentials.”
Buhari who spoke glowingly about Mallam Ahmed Joda the committee chairman, described him as one of the few surviving links of the first republic civil service to the present day.

He enjoined members of the committee to be prepared to work hard because Joda is an exerting task master adding that very few young men of his age can keep up with him.

Chairman of the Committee, Mallam Ahmed Joda who spoke on behalf of other members expressed appreciation to the President elect for considering them to be worthy to help prepare the ground for the incoming administration to take over smoothly on May 29, 2015.
He said, “We as a committee are determined to do the best we can within the time that is allowed to accomplish your wishes and to make it possible for you to achieve your vision and all that you wish for  our country.
“When I met you and you briefed me about this assignment, about the composition of the committee, I did observe that I’ve never served on a committee so weighty like this.

“I have people who are distinguished in their professions, who have their own enterprises and have their own businesses to look after and even serving governors and people in active service to the service of your incoming government and to the service of our motherland.”
He explained to the gathering that members of the committee met for the first time on Wednesday to get to meet and know one another and plan the committee’s schedule of activities over the next two weeks.

Joda also noted that members of the committee were committed and willing to work long hours even on weekends to deliver on their tasks.“I promise you that we’ll do our best because we are not only serving you, we are serving our people. We are going to try to begin to lay the foundation for a strong country where justice and peace prevail.” He said.

The chairman expressed the opinion that Nigerians entrusted general Buhari with the task of healing their wounds and wiping away their tears and leading our nation to greatness because of the confidence they have in his ability.
Joda also said, “I pledge every one of us will give you the best and most earnest advice from the bottom of our hearts in order that our country, together in peace and unity can realize our goals and aspirations.
“I thank you once again on behalf of my members and I wish you every success, your success is our success and the success of our children and grandchildren and the citizens of Nigeria.”

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IFC partners Zenith Bank Plc, boosts its lending portfolio with $100 million

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, on Tuesday signed an agreement to provide a $100 million loan facility to Zenith Bank, to increase its lending to a variety of important economic sectors, boosting economic growth and job creation in Nigeria.
The $100 million loan facility will be provided from IFC’s own account and Zenith Bank Plc will use the facility to reduce the lending gap in critical sectors, the corporation said in a statement. 

The facility will help reduce the infrastructure funding gap in the country in particular, the power sector. The lack of infrastructure has been identified as a key impediment to private sector development in Nigeria.
 “As reputable leaders in the African banking industry with superior performance, Zenith Bank will continue to explore business opportunities in strategic sectors that will bring the much needed

development to boost Nigeria’s economy. By partnering with IFC, we hope to increase our lending activities and further strengthen our leadership position," Group Managing Director of  Zenith Bank, Peter Amangbo said.

 “IFC is demonstrating its commitment to support the real sector in the country
through financial intermediaries. As part of that effort, IFC is working with Zenith Bank Plc, to help finance these critical sectors, and contribute to the development of the economy and especially to create a sustainable source of infrastructure finance in Nigeria," IFC Country Manager for Nigeria, Eme Essien Lore said.

Zenith Bank, with headquarters in Lagos, has more than 350 branches in Nigeria. The Bank grew its shareholder’s fund of N20 million in 1990 to N552.64 billion as at year end 2013.

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Lagos port still a bottleneck for Africa's top economy

Ruling party reforms improved Apapa port
Shippers still face delays and corruption
Buhari gov't will need to tackle extortion at port

The road leading to the Lagos port, which handles nearly everything that Africa's biggest economy imports, is one of the most congested in a megacity whose traffic jams are legendary.
Wide enough to accommodate only two lanes on either side, along it move the goods that Africa's top crude producer uses its huge oil receipts to buy -- everything from designer wear to dried fish, champagne and shampoo.
The Apapa port is also one of the biggest bottlenecks in an economy throttled by power cuts and institutional dysfunction.
Reforms to this behemoth by President Goodluck Jonathan and previous administrations of his People's Democratic Party (PDP) brought huge improvements over the past decade, shippers say, but bad roads and extortion by officials in a tangle of government agencies continue to pile up traffic and costs.
"Apapa port is hell on earth," wrote commentator Tokunbo Oloke in The Tribune late last year. "A place where people groan, curse, sweat, get infuriated, experience unending pain and sorrow."
That is a problem for foreign firms looking to cash in on the incipient consumer boom in Africa's most populous nation, and Jonathan's successor as president, former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, will need to crack down hard if he wants to keep a reputation as a man with zero tolerance for graft.
A Reuters trip to Apapa, a virtual city of piled up containers by a lagoon, took four hours past lines of fuel trucks. That was despite volumes being relatively low owing to a weaker naira and oil prices. Workers report much longer waits.

"ABANDONED CONSIGNMENTS"
Companies have to bring perishable goods through the port, where bureaucratic delays can mean a shipment spoiling.
Privatising the port operators in 2006 eased congestion dramatically, and Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in 2012 cut the number of government agencies allowed to inspect cargo.
"There were about 15 different agencies extorting money from importers, and each would do a separate inspection," former presidential adviser Sylvester Monye told Reuters.
"Now we have seven, and the president introduced a regime that all the inspections must happen simultanouesly."
Importers however, say that rule is not always followed, and those seven can still hold back shipments while they await bribes. A Reuters reporter saw a man in uniform hold up a truck for half an hour before the driver reluctantly handed over cash.
"They've all got a scam going, from the guy that wheels your trolley out to the senior customs officers," says an official at container company at Apapa who declined to be named.
He added that Nigerian authorities inspect 70 percent of cargo, compared with around 5 percent in the European Union.
"The reason is: that is the number that you find to be unclean," said Monye.
A spokesman for the Nigeria Customs Service did not respond to a request for comment, but the head of customs at Apapa, Eporwei Edike, was quoted in the local press last week as saying that "If we notice any irregularities anywhere, we tackle them immediately," and that "we are not sparing erring officers."
Monye said other improvements Jonathan introduced included making it a 24-hour operation instead of 9 to 5 and rebuilding the 30-year-old road with a foot of concrete underneath it.
But extortion remains the biggest gripe of importers.
Onyadinka, a durable goods importer from a small self-owned firm who declined to have his last name printed, told Reuters that once all the costs of shipping, formal and informal, are factored in, he needs to sell his second hand cars at four times the initial buying cost just to turn a profit.
The shipping and waiting charges are also huge because "Nigeria just exports oil, so many containers go back empty."
"The whole thing is a shake-down," he said. "If you don't pay, nothing gets done. Even if they find nothing untoward."
A fuel importer says every agency will ask for bribes.
"If you don't pay they will say, sorry sir, we're clearing your papers still, it may take a while," he said. "And they mean it will take an eternity. Your shipment will just rot there."
Monye said firms with proper paperwork had no problems.
"The problem is two dimentional," he said "And the other side is the bribe givers who don't do their documentation properly and are used to just paying their way out of trouble."
"The big companies operating in a straight and narrow way do not have these problems. Often they don't get checked at all."
Yet shipping agent Tolu Mustapha says long delays put everyone at a huge disadvantage, because it isn't long before the accumulated cost exceeds the consignment's value.
He said a client he worked for bringing in $25,000 worth of diapers gave up when demurrage took him over that threshold.
"A lot of people just abandon their goods. The port is full of abandoned consignments," he said, which authorities auction.
There is a long list of ills that Nigerians are hoping Buhari's incoming government will quickly address -- growing insecurity, an Islamist insurgency in the northeast and corruption in the oil sector.
But for Nigeria's dynamic and fast growing economy, finishing the job of port reform must be near the top.

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Continental Re sees huge growth as Africa's construction booms

Africa's Continental Re plans to double premium income from its property and engineering business to $80 million over the next five years, as it bets on the continent's infrastructure boom, its executive director said.
Insurance companies are pushing for growth in Africa where many people are uninsured, banking on growing premiums as the continent develops its infrastructure and a consumer class demanding protection from risk.
The property and engineering business contributed 44 percent of Continental Re's total revenue, but Executive Director Lawrence Nazare expected it to grow to 50 percent in five years.
"We are seeing growth across all our business lines. The opportunity primarily is in ... construction projects we are seeing on the continent," Nazare told Reuters.
Nigeria's second-largest insurer opened a branch in South Africa on Thursday with the aim of doubling its reinsurance market share to 10 percent over the next five years, he said.
African construction projects were worth $325 billion last year, Nazare said citing a 2014 Deloitte report, up nearly 50 percent from the previous year as power, transport, oil and gas and construction sectors expanded.
Continental Reinsurance, which also operates in Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Kenya and Tunisia, would underwrite risk in these sectors and would also increase deal sizes, Nazare said.
"We are in the process of arranging deals that would allow us to provide at least $100 million in each of the deals we are involved in this year," he said. Last year's transactions were of about $20 million each.
Continental Re was expanding so fast it would need to raise extra capital within the next 12 months, Nazare said, without giving an indication of how much was needed.
Low insurance penetration is also attracting foreign players such as Anglo-South African Old Mutual, which paid nearly $100 million for a 23.3 percent stake in Kenyan insurer UAP Holdings.
Other South African and European insurers such as Switzerland's Swiss Re and France's AXA have made similar ventures.

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Nigerian central bank orders lenders to get tough with bad debtors

Nigeria's central bank ordered banks on Friday to crack down on borrowers with non-performing loans (NPLs) in a move aimed at avoiding a repeat of a 2009 industry bailout that cost the government $4 billion.
A sharp drop in the global price of oil, Nigeria's main export, has triggered a currency crisis in Africa's largest economy and strained government's finances, while also harming the cash flow of some companies with foreign currency loans.
Ratings agency Fitch said in February it expects NPLs for Nigerian lenders to rise above a central bank cap equal to five percent of their total loan portfolio but to remain below 10 percent this year, driven by high credit concentration in oil and gas and power sectors.
Under the new plan, banks will give bad debtors three months to square up their accounts. Failure to do will result in them being named and shamed in Nigerian media and being barred from currency and government debt markets.
"The Central Bank of Nigeria has observed the rising trend of non-performing loans in the industry," Tokunbo Martins, director of banking supervision, said in a statement.
"Banks and discount houses are required with effect from May 1 ... to give delinquent debtors three months' grace to turn their accounts from non-performing to performing status."
They must then publish a list of those "delinquent debtors that remain non-performing in at least three national daily newspapers quarterly", the statement said.
The central bank gave no estimate of the current level of commercial lenders' NPLs.
In 2009, the central bank rescued several banks that had lent mainly to the oil and gas sector just before crude prices collapsed and as the stock market turned sour, triggering a near collapse of eight commercial banks.
Fitch has said the recent sharp drop in oil prices and pressures on the local currency could affect the profitability, asset quality and capital ratios for lenders.
The central bank has been battling to support the currency, which it has had to devalue twice despite spending billions of dollars from its reserves to defend the naira. However, demand for dollars, including for debt servicing, has not abated as oil prices and reserves remain low.
Last month, the central bank limited the amount individuals can spend abroad on their debit cards to $50,000 per annum, down from $150,000, in order to support the naira.

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Nigerian interbank rates fall on matured bonds, T-bills

Nigeria's overnight lending rates halved to an average 6 percent on Friday from 12.25 percent last week after central bank retired large matured bonds and treasury bills in the week, boosting liquidity in the market, traders said.
However, a technical glitch that hit the central bank's trading platform hindered major fund transfers and placement in the market.
"The market liquidity was boosted by repaid matured bonds and treasury bills worth about 806 billion naira ($4 billion), but because of the technical fault, many traders were unable to transfer or place money in the market," one dealer said.
Traders said the trading hiccup, which started on Wednesday, may spillover to next week and could delay more transactions.
The secured Open Buy Back (OBB) traded at 6 percent on Friday among some few commercial lenders who were able to place funds in the market, down from 12 percent last week. The secured fund traded 7 percentage points below the central bank's benchmark interest rate of 13 percent.
Overnight placement also traded at 6 percent against 12.5 percent last week.
"We hope the technical issue would be resolved by next week, otherwise it could threaten settlement in the market and stall trading," another dealer said.

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Technical glitch may affect Nigerian bond trade

Trade on local debt was stalled after the glitch affected central bank's trading platform, traders said, adding that they were concerned the problem that started on Wednesday could run into next week, threatening bond settlement in the interbank.
"(There is) no trading currently going on in the market as a result of the unresolved technical glitch on the central bank's platform," one dealer said.
For the periods that the market traded normally this week, yields trended downward after a total of 570 billion naira ($3 billion) in matured bonds was paid out, with many investors keen to re-invest in the market, traders said.
"We have seen fresh interest by some offshore investors, mostly a roll over of matured funds and local pension, which has driven up demand for local debt before the glitch," a senior traders said, referring to a technical fault that hit trading.

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Buhari will release full audit reports on NNPC says Fayemi

Nigerian President-elect Muhammadu Buhari’s administration will publish the full audit of the state oil company Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and expects it will need to repay the government more than previously recommended, his party’s policy director said.
Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) believes the NNPC may need to refund more than the $1.48 billion stated in the highlights of a PricewaterhouseCoopers report released by the auditor-general in February, policy director Kayode Fayemi said Tuesday in an interview at his residence in Lagos, the commercial capital. Ohi Alegbe, a NNPC spokesman in the capital, Abuja, declined to comment.
“I have a figure that’s more than $1.5 billion that’s been talked about,” said Fayemi, a former governor of Ekiti state. “We’ve seen credible information that what PwC says is more than that. We will release the report. We’ll make it available to Nigerians as soon as we have full information on this.”
Former central bank Governor Lamido Sanusi was suspended by President Goodluck Jonathan last year after he alleged the NNPC hadn’t turned over about $20 billion of oil revenue to the government, which earns two-thirds of its revenue from the commodity. Sanusi, now the Emir of Kano, the West African nation’s second-highest Muslim leader, said last month that the issue wasn’t addressed sufficiently.
The oil company said the PwC report, which Jonathan’s government hasn’t published in full, absolved it of Sanusi’s allegations.
NNPC Changes
The APC may also reorganize the NNPC, which regulates the petroleum sector and takes part in production through joint ventures with Royal Dutch Shell Plc., Exxon Mobil Corp., Total SA, Chevron Corp. and other companies, Fayemi said.
“NNPC will not be in the form or shape it’s currently in,” Fayemi said. “Some measure of unbundling will happen.”
During March elections, former military ruler Buhari, a 72-year-old northern Muslim, became the first opposition leader to oust a sitting president since the country’s independence from the U.K. in 1960. He will take power on May 29.
Buhari’s campaign focused on tackling corruption and Boko Haram’s insurgency. The Islamist group has killed more than 13,000 people, mainly in the northeast, since 2009. Nigeria is also battling graft, ranking 136th out of 175 countries in Transparency International’s 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index, in line with Russia and Iran.
Embarrassing Military
The military’s failure to defeat the militants is an “embarrassment” and it will be “re-professionalized” after a government audit of spending, Fayemi said. Buhari told delegates at a conference of the Nigeria Labour Congress in February that he would investigate how the military spent $32 billion over five years.
“Democratic control of the military is significantly lacking,” Fayemi said. “The leadership will change.”
Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy and largest oil producer, has been battered by the 47 percent fall in Brent crude prices since a one-year peak in June. Economic growth will slow to 4.8 percent this year, about half the average of the last 15 years, according to the International Monetary Fund. The naira has weakened 17 percent against the dollar in the past six months, more than any of the 24 African currencies tracked by Bloomberg.
Leftist Government
Buhari’s government will be “clearly to the left” of Jonathan’s outgoing Peoples Democratic Party and may boost social spending, including on free school meals and care for the elderly, Fayemi said. The APC will be able to fund its plans by saving about 3 trillion naira ($15 billion) from plugging “leakages” and by improving non-oil tax collection, he said.
“This will be deployed to the power sector, to the social safety net,” he said.
Nigeria spends as much as $7 billion a year subsidizing fuel, an expense several economists criticize. While the subsidies create “artificial” pricing at gas stations, there’s no guarantee the APC government will cut them, according to Fayemi.
“In the short term, I don’t see us removing any subsidy,” he said.
While the central bank’s independence is key, the new government will probably want it to focus less on developmental agendas such as funding agriculture and small businesses and more on pure monetary issues, Fayemi said.
System Stretched
The regulator “has undertaken a lot more responsibility than I believe it ought to,” he said. “It has become a be-all-and-end-all institution. It makes for less accountability in the system when you’re stretched that thin.”
Ibrahim Mu’azu, an Abuja-based spokesman at the Central Bank of Nigeria, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail requesting comment.
Buhari captured 52 percent of total votes cast compared to 44 percent for Jonathan, a 57-year-old Christian from the south. The APC’s supporters have high expectations and they will quickly be disappointed if the party doesn’t fulfill its promises, Fayemi said.
“This excitement that we’re seeing is going to wear off if we don’t start delivering,” he said. “In six months or one year, the language will change.”

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How the 'Godfather' of Lagos could shape Nigeria's government

Bola Tinubu alliance helped Buhari win presidential poll
Ex-Lagos governor now one of the most powerful godfathers
Seen as favouring technocrats who can solve problems


"I am a talent hunter. I put talents in office, I help them," says former Lagos state governor and opposition alliance leader Bola Tinubu, being quite open about his role as one of Nigeria's most powerful political godfathers.

"I use the best hand, the best brain, the best experience for the job," he told Reuters after voting this month in a governorship election in Nigeria's economic capital which, as expected, his hand picked candidate Akinwunmi Ambode won.

But it isn't only in his traditional fiefdom in the ethnic Yoruba southwest that Tinubu has sought to be a kingmaker. His support for former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari was seen as a key factor in the latter's win against President Goodluck Jonathan in the March 28 presidential election in Africa's biggest economy and oil producer.

The pro-Buhari alliance that Tinubu headed, the All Progressives Congress (APC), rallied elites around Buhari in the southwest, Nigeria's wealthiest region. That enabled Buhari to tackle a perception that his support lies only in the dust-blown, largely Muslim north. The religiously mixed southwest had voted overwhelmingly for Jonathan in the 2011 race.

So 'The Jagaban', an honorific title beloved of Tinubu's supporters, could have much say in what reform policies the new government will focus on, and who fills which cabinet posts.

"The party he led is half of the APC. He can ... lay claim to that power," said Clement Nwankwo of the Situation Room civil society group. "Buhari will feel (an) ... obligation to him."

To supporters Tinubu, a Yoruba Muslim, is a wily political operator with a passion for getting the job done and a knack for picking bright, committed technocrats to do it. To critics he is a ruthless godfather who doles out lucrative contracts to his friends' firms, insists on installing his man in office and is capable of sending in street thugs if he fails to get his way.

The APC, which came to power on anger over corruption and growing insecurity, has declined to speak publicly about policies.


THE JAGABAN

The Nigerian practice of political godfathering has long been criticised by rights campaigners as impeding democracy by enabling powerful oligarchs to capture state institutions.

But few deny that in Lagos, at least, the former governor managed to fix things no one thought fixable.

Under his tenure at the turn of the millennium and that of his successor Babatunde Fashola, a technocrat hand picked by Tinubu, the city scrubbed up dramatically. Trash got collected, crime fell, trees were planted and traffic was better managed.

"There were refuse mountains around, tax collection was very low," recalls Folarin Gbadebo-Smith, a former council leader under Tinubu. "But very quickly he seemed to sort things out."

Gbadebo-Smith noticed an advantage Tinubu has over other Nigerian "big men" is that you could disagree with him and he listened, changing his mind when faced with a good argument.

He also sets high standards, says Lagos waste management head Ola Oresanya, to whom Tinubu gave three months to make a noticeable difference or be fired.

"He likes to say 'I promised I would do this, and I have.'"

But like other powerful political figures in Nigeria, Tinubu's power resides largely in the huge patronage he wields, which has given him influence over, for instance, the 'area boys' -- Lagos street toughs who run rackets and guard cars. Ingeniously, he gave some of them uniforms and turned them into traffic cops.

After he voted on April 11, a group of area boys mobbed The Jagaban, and he lectured them on their disorderly behaviour.

"If you want me to do something for you, line up in an orderly manner. Then I can share my peanuts," he told them, adding: "some of you have not even voted."

A day later, when celebrations erupted outside his home, two groups of area boys got into a fight over money that had been distributed and they began hitting each other with planks of wood, a Reuters reporter saw. But interviewed later, many of them said they loved Tinubu since "he's a man of the common people."

A businessman close to him says although Tinubu runs a formidable business empire, he is often short of cash because he gives so much away to oil the wheels of patronage.

Yet Tinubu may have less influence over Buhari than he had hoped, argues Kayode Akindele, CEO of consultancy 46 Parallels.

"He didn't really deliver in the southwest. It was only a slight lead," he said, compared to the absolute thumping Jonathan received from voters in the largely Muslim north.

"The APC, post-elections, is now very northern," he added. That could limit any influence The Jagaban has -- and replicate the north-south rivalry that divided Jonathan's outgoing party.

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Nigeria's First Bank, others may require fresh capital raise to remain stable

Nigeria's First Bank may be required to raise fresh capital or restructure its balance sheets in the next 18 months as part of measures to combat low oil price, top rating agency Standard & Poor’s has said.

S&P increased its view of Nigeria’s Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment to nine from eight on April 15, in line with Kenya and one notch above the lowest level. 

According to the latest report by the ratings agency, the more than 40 percent plunge in Brent crude prices since June is weakening the economy of Africa’s biggest oil producer and may lead to an increase in bad loans portfolio of some banks.

Nigeria’s central bank, which requires lenders to have a Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) of at least 15 percent, last year removed some assets that count as capital as it sought to bolster the financial industry’s ability to withstand shocks. Banks should build a buffer of 1.5 to 2 percentage points above the regulator’s benchmark, according to Matthew Pirnie, a director in S&P’s financial services team.

“There will be a lot of capital raising,” Pirnie said in an interview in Lagos Thursday. First Bank “is one that in the next 12 to 18 months will have to do some sort of capital raising or come up with a balance sheet strategy” that may include “slowing growth or removing assets.”

First Bank’s CAR stands at 16.7 percent and will rise as the company retains more profit in future, Bello Maccido, chief executive officer of holding company FBN Holdings Plc., said in an interview in Lagos on April 13. “We are not going to sell shares to do that,” he said.

Loan Losses

Loan losses in Nigeria will increase to as much as 3 percent in the next two years from about 1.8 percent, according to Pirnie. The figure for South African banks is less than 1.5 percent, he said.

Several Nigerian lenders have already started to boost their capital buffers. United Bank for Africa Plc. started a 11.5 billion naira ($58 million) share sale in December, while Access Bank Plc. completed one of 53 billion naira on March 18. Skye Bank Plc., whose credit rating S&P lowered to B- on April 15, six levels below investment grade, plans to raise 50 billion naira in a rights issue, it said in March.

Nigerian banks have to contend with a weaker naira as well as increased risks from their lending to oil and gas explorers. The naira has fallen 17 percent against the dollar in the past six months as export revenues from oil plunged.

Non-performing loans will probably rise among power companies, many of which have borrowed in dollars, as well as small businesses, which are struggling to pay for imports, Pirnie said.

“There are a number of pressure points,” he said. “We are concerned about foreign-currency lending.”

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Yields on Nigeria's local debt seen falling

Yields on Nigeria's local debt are seen falling further next week, with renewed appetite from both local and offshore investors and increased liquidity from maturing bonds.

Nigerian bonds market has seen increase demand after a peaceful general election spurring interest from local investors and foreign investors.

"The market was all bullish from a range of interest by investors taking position after the successful election," one dealer said.

Traders said market could get a liquidity boost from maturing April 2015 bonds next Thursday, raising demand for local debt as holders are likely to reinvest in the market.

Nigeria raised 70 billion naira ($352 million) at lower yields across all tenors at a bond sale this week.

Yields at the secondary market have fallen across the maturities with the 2016 paper down to 14.06 percent from 14.96 percent last week, while the yield on the 2022 debt fell to 14.02 percent against 14.87 percent. The yield on the 2024 debt traded at 13.91 percent from 14.81 percent.

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EXCLUSIVE-How Nigeria's 'smooth' election nearly went wrong- Reuters

• Nigerian election came close to unravelling
• Plotters wanted to abduct election commissioner
• Aide alerted election monitors via text message
• Disruption could have ignited widespread violence

As Muhammadu Buhari closed in on Nigeria's presidency, an aide to election commission chairman Attahiru Jega sent a text message to an independent voting monitor, warning of an imminent threat to the electoral process.
The aide had unearthed a plot by supporters of President Goodluck Jonathan to disrupt the public announcement of the national election results and kidnap Jega in a bid to wreck the count, according to pro-democracy advocates and a Nigeria-based diplomat.
Central to the plan, the said, were Jega's security detail and Godsday Orubebe, a former cabinet minister from Jonathan's Niger Delta, an area whose leaders feared a change of power would mean an end to the perks it enjoyed under Jonathan's presidency.
Orubebe's role was to cause a disturbance at the headquarters of the commission as cover for the abduction of Jega. Orubebe did not respond to requests for comment on the details of the plot.
The commission, called INEC, also declined to comment and turned down requests for an interview with Jega, whom Reuters was unable to reach independently. Reuters found no evidence to suggest that Jonathan, who conceded defeat in the election, was involved. His spokesman and his party, the PDP, did not respond to requests for comment.
While the plot would likely not have changed the result, it could have unleashed fury among Buhari supporters in the north, where 800 people were killed in rioting after his last election defeat in 2011.
But the plot's failure enabled Africa's most populous country to complete its first credible vote since independence in 1960.

"NIGERIA ON TRIAL"
The plot to derail the election in its closing moments was pieced together by Reuters from the text message, events on the ground and interviews with democracy advocates and diplomats in the capital, Abuja.
When he sent the SMS, the election official, whom the sources declined to name for his own protection, hoped the outside world would hear of the plot, the text of the message made clear.
"Fellow countrymen, Nigeria on Trial," read the SMS sent on the morning of March 31 to Clement Nwankwo, head of the Situation Room, an Abuja-based coalition of human rights groups and democracy advocates monitoring the polls. Reuters later saw the SMS.
"Plans are on storm [sic] the podium at the ICC Collation Centre and disrupt the process," it continued, the official dropping words and letters in his haste.
"Nobody is sue [sic] what will happen. Please share this as widely as possible."
At that moment, INEC chairman Jega was about to preside over the announcement of results.

TALLY COUNT
Since the end of army rule in 1999, all four previous votes had been marred by violence and ballot-rigging.
The 2015 poll was different in two crucial aspects.
It was a genuine race, pitting Jonathan, saddled with an ailing economy and an Islamist insurgency, against a former general promising to get tough on corruption and the Boko Haram insurgents.
Voters had also been given biometric ID cards linked to their photographs and fingerprints, making it hard to inflate voter numbers significantly.
As tallies from around the country showed Buhari on course for a win, unidentified PDP hard-liners started to panic, seeking ways of manipulating the count, Nwankwo and the diplomat said, citing political contacts in the Delta and Abuja.
Realising they could not engineer an outright win, PDP agents set about doctoring the tally at collation centres in pro-Jonathan areas to ensure Buhari failed to meet a requirement for 25 percent support in two thirds of states, Nwankwo said, citing reports from election monitors on the ground.
A Reuters reporter witnessed and photographed one tally list in Port Harcourt with suspiciously similar totals for registered voters at polling stations: 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 450. In another tally centre in the city, 17,594 valid votes were recorded out of a registered voter population of 11,757, the Reuters reporter said.
Foreign election observers also noted the peculiarities - and contacted diplomats in Abuja who called in international intervention.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his British counterpart Philip Hammond - in Switzerland for talks on Iran - issued a tough statement saying vote counting "may be subject to deliberate political interference".

"CREATE A FRACAS"
But as Buhari's lead grew, some PDP supporters from the Delta, including Orubebe, decided on a final gamble: to create a disturbance in the main INEC hall and have thugs snatch Jega from the stage, according to Nwankwo and the Abuja-based diplomat.
What the group planned to do after the abduction is unclear, the diplomat and Nwankwo said, but the confusion could have triggered nationwide violence.
"It was a desperate thing, mostly by a group of people from the Niger Delta who were in the room," Nwankwo said, describing events that unfolded publicly in the minutes after he received the SMS.
When Jega opened proceedings on the morning of March 31, Orubebe, the former Niger Delta minister, grabbed a microphone and launched into an 11-minute tirade accusing Jega of bias.
"Mr. Chairman, we have lost confidence in you," he shouted, pushing away officials trying to make him surrender the microphone. "You are being very, very selective. You are partial," he continued, surrounded by three or four supporters. "You are tribalistic. We cannot take it."
Nigerians watched, aghast, on live television.
Meanwhile, Jega's security detail was approached by unidentified individuals telling them to stand down, according to Nwankwo and the diplomat.
But the bodyguards refused.
"Some of the guards who had been guarding Jega for years demanded a written order," Nwankwo said. "But it didn't exist."
Jega then rebuked Orubebe: "Let us not disrupt a process that has ended peacefully," he said as Orubebe slumped in his chair.
"Mr. Orubebe, you are a former minister of the Federal Republic. You are a statesman in your own right. You should be careful about what you say or about what allegations you make," he said.
Later, Orubebe congratulated Buhari on Twitter, expressing his "apologies to fellow Nigerians".

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S.Africa power cuts persist, utility races to fix plants

South African power utility Eskom resumed widespread electricity cuts for the fifth straight day on Thursday in Africa's most advanced economy, as it battles to repair aging power plants.
In one of its worst power outages in years, Eskom lost a quarter of its electricity supply on Tuesday in both scheduled maintenance and plant breakdowns.
The power supply shortages compounded South Africa's worst electricity crisis since 2008, under which homes and businesses are subjected to frequent controlled blackouts implemented by Eskom to prevent the grid from collapsing.
Eskom said in January it was faced a maintenance backlog but did not provide details of how many power plants needed repair.
The utility sets aside a reserve margin of 5,000 megawatts to allow for repairs to its creaking fleet but unexpectedly lost a further 9,500 MW of power on Tuesday because of breakdowns, which industry insiders attributed to poor maintenance.
"If you look at the number of post-maintenance outages, they are running away. There is no other reason for this than it (maintenance) is not of the requisite quality," said an industry insider.
"They rush because the problem is so big. They shouldn't be rushing and should be making sure that when the system is brought back online, it doesn't subsequently trip."
The insider said it could take up to 90 days to restart a unit that trips.
Eskom spokesman Khulu Phasiwe said the utility did not rush repairs and it was prepared to get the work done "properly" even if it was forced to cut power for longer.
"When you take a unit offline for service and start it up again, it does not give you the full capacity so engineers have to switch it off," Phasiwe said.
"People who drive cars do the same thing, after you have done an engine overhaul, sometimes when you try to start the car, it doesn't start. Then you have to go back and see what is wrong. It's complex and takes time."

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Nigeria auctions 70 bln naira bond at lower yields

Nigeria raised 70 billion naira ($352 million) at lower yields across all tenors during a bond auction on Wednesday, the Debt Management Office (DMO) said on Thursday.
The debt office said in a notice the total subscriptions stood at 184.72 billion naira, compared with 119.14 billion naira at the last auction.
The office said it had sold 20 billion naira worth of the 5-year bond at 14.44 percent, down from 16.49 percent at its previous sale on March 11.
The 10-year paper was sold at 14.22 percent against 16.84 percent previously, raising a total of 25 billion naira, while 25 billion naira worth of the 20-year debt note was sold at a yield of 14.45 percent compared with 16.99 percent previously.
The low yield at the auction was in tandem with prevailing yields at the secondary market, which have been falling after Nigeria held peaceful national elections.

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Ghana's consumer inflation rises to 16.6 pct in March on weaker cedi

Ghana's annual consumer price inflation rose marginally to 16.6 percent in March from 16.5 percent in the previous month, driven by the depreciation of the local currency, the statistics office said on Wednesday.
The West African nation started a three-year aid program worth $918 million with the International Monetary Fund this month to fix its economy, dogged by deficits, widening public debt and high inflation.
"The key drivers for the marginal rise are mainly imported goods whose prices are affected by the exchange rate," deputy government statistician Baah Wadieh told a news conference in Accra.
Wadieh said food inflation rose by 0.2 percentage points to 7.2 percent in March. The rate of inflation for non-food items was 23.1 percent, up from 23.0 pct the month before.
The monthly change rate was 1.0 percent compared to 1.2 pct in February, he said.
Ghana received the first disbursement of $114.8 million as part of the IMF program this week and the government said the funds would be used to boost the central bank's reserves.
The government also expects the deal to unlock additional donor and investor inflows in support of the local cedi currency, which is down around 14 percent since January.

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South Africa faces power cuts for 4th straight day

South African utility Eskom resumed widespread power cuts on Wednesday, leaving millions without electricity for a fourth day in a row but a government minister ruled out the chances of a total blackout.
Africa's most advanced economy is in the middle of its worst electricity crisis since 2008 and South Africans are subjected to frequent controlled blackouts, which Eskom implements to prevent the grid from collapsing.
South Africa on Tuesday lost a quarter of its power supply in one of its worst power outages in years in both scheduled maintenance and plant breakdowns. Some supply had been restored by Wednesday, but the power outages remained widespread.
Minister of Public Enterprises, Lynne Brown said despite the seriousness of the power supply constraints, South Africa was not at risk of facing a total blackout.
"Load shedding at stage 3 shows the seriousness of the constraints that we face but it is in no way an indication that we are close to a black-out," Brown told reporters on Wednesday," she told reporters in Cape Town.
South Africa's government has said its economic growth forecast for 2015 could halve to 1 percent from 2 percent because of power constraints.
An extended series of rolling power outages in 2008 cost the country billions of dollars in lost output.
The utility, which provides 95 percent of the country's power, has an installed capacity of 42,000 MW but its normal capacity is around 32,000 MW because some of its plants are usually under maintenance at any one time.
Eskom said on Tuesday it lost 9,500 MW of electricity due to unplanned outages in addition to the 5,000 MW it had lost earlier due to scheduled maintenance. The utility said it had restored 1,200 MW on Wednesday.
Cash-strapped Eskom faces a funding crunch as it races to bring new power plants online.
Analysts said the power crunch crisis was getting worse.
"The situation has not stabilised, it's getting worse," said independent energy expert Chris Yelland.
Eskom is scrambling to build new power stations to improve power supply but construction at its large Medupi plant has been beset by delays caused by labour disruption and technical faults. Workers at Medupi have stayed away from the plant this month, demanding higher pay and better living conditions.

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Buhari's Nigeria oil policy to focus on reform first, taxes last

New administration to root out corruption in NNPC
Foreign oil companies critical of existing tax proposals
Petroleum Industry Bill expected to be passed in parts
Top management to be changed, state oil company split

Oil firms keen to know how Nigeria's president elect Muhammadu Buhari plans to tax them could be waiting a long time as he makes ending corruption and reforming the opaque national oil company his most urgent sector priorities.

Four party sources from Buhari's All Progressives Congress (APC) told Reuters the issue of fiscal terms, seen as crucial by the industry, will have to wait on current thinking about oil and gas policies for Africa's leading producer.

Crude output has stagnated close to 2 million barrels per day over the past few years, owing partly to underinvestment.

"We need to address the structural issues and leave the fiscal for now," Senator Bukola Saraki, whose APC party controls both houses of parliament after a landslide win, told Reuters.

"A more transparent NNPC (Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation) is needed with reasonable accounting," he said.

Buhari owes his March 28 victory against incumbent Goodluck Jonathan partly to a perception that Jonathan allowed corruption to get out of control -- especially in the oil sector.

A string of multibillion dollar oil corruption scandals tainted the NNPC and other bodies that handle energy.

By contrast, Buhari was seen as one of the few Nigerian leaders to have cracked down on corruption during his military rule in 1983-1985. Many Nigerians hope he will again.

"The worry is that there's going to be a lot of time wasted in witch-hunting...That could take a year in which nothing else will happen," said a Nigerian investment banker focused on upstream oil and gas projects, who declined to be named.

APC leader Bola Tinubu, whose support was instrumental in Buhari's victory and wields huge influence, told Reuters a transtional committeee would be set up.

"No way will we discuss that now," he said.


FAILED OIL BILL

Jonathan's administration re-drafted a Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) in 2012 that had been in the works for a decade.

The PIB was meant to change everything from fiscal terms to overhauling the NNPC, environmental rules and revenue sharing, but its comprehensive nature caused disputes between lawmakers.

Yet the main thing the oil companies were worried about was tax. The bill proposes 20 percent tax on offshore projects and 50 percent for onshore. Shell, Exxon and other majors had all complained publicly that the terms are unfair, given the risk associated with operating in Nigeria.

Uncertainty over the fiscal terms of the bill have been holding back billions of dollars of investment, especially into capital-intensive deepwater offshore, leading some to propose the bill be broken up into several pieces debated separately.

"It doesn't need to be an omnibus, you can take things piecemeal," one APC source said.

Hopes that doing so would resolve the fiscal issue quicker look slim, since the voting public are much more concerned about cleaning up graft than making oil majors happy.

The average Nigerian benefits little from the country's huge energy resources while politicians wear gold watches and build monster homes in the capital Abuja.

Also, says Control Risks' Thomas Hansen, "The cabinet needs to strategise first and fiscal terms are likely to take longer and require discussions with the (international oil companies)."

APC sources say the new administration will first sack and replace the top management of the state oil company. Then it will review its accounts to restore credibility.

A bill will be drafted to break the NNPC into four entities, as already prescribed in the latest PIB draft. But it will also, crucially, remove the oil minister from the NNPC's board of directors to curb political interference, one APC source said.

Others said more generally that the minister's current powers would be heavily trimmed.

Oil and gas will have separate companies for upstream, with a third covering pipelines and refining, and a fourth will be an inspectorate. It could be submitted to parliament in the first quarter of next year, one parliamentary APC source said.

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Nigeria in talks with Russia's Rosatom for nuclear power plants

Nigeria is in talks with Russia's state-owned Rosatom to build nuclear power plants, as Africa's most populous nation tries to end of decades of blackouts that has blighted its economy.
Africa's biggest economy has no experience in developing and operating nuclear power plants but has a gamma facility and small reactors producing around 30 kilowatts for research, Franklin Erepamo Osaisai, chief executive of the Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission said on its website, adding that nuclear power will guarantee long-term energy supply.
"We have an intergovernmental agreement with Nigeria, but no concrete decisions have been made," a Rosatom spokesman said.
One nuclear power plant costs between $5 billion to $8 billion, a source at the company said.
80 percent of Nigeria's power plants are gas-fired.
Rosatom has a contract to build a new plant in Hungary and has agreed to build reactors in India and Kazakhstan. It is also planning to build more reactors in Iran in addition to the Russia-built Bushehr plant, Iran's first nuclear facility, launched there in 2011.
Rosatom's investment programme, sourced from the state budget, allows it to spend about $300 - $350 billion per year to build nuclear plants in Russia and abroad, a business that has been hit by global safety concerns after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. [ID:nL6N0OJ3NL]
Nigeria, with a population of around 170 million, has installed power capacity that fluctuates between around 6,000 to just over 7,000 MW, according to the transmission company.
South Africa's capacity is almost seven times greater for a population less than a third as big.
Nigeria broke up its monopoly on power generation and distribution by privatising the sector two-years ago, hoping to attract foreign investors. But the amount of power produced has stagnated at around half total capacity.
Some of the older plants, sold in October 2013, are in dire need of an upgrade while the fledgling generating firms lacking the cash as distributors struggle with non-paying consumers and inadequate gas supplies required to keep the plants running.

"We have an intergovernmental agreement with Nigeria, but no concrete decisions have been made," a Rosatom spokesman said.

    One nuclear power plant costs between $5 billion to $8 billion, a source at the company said.

    80 percent of Nigeria's power plants are gas-fired. 

    Rosatom has a contract to build a new plant in Hungary and has agreed to build reactors in India and Kazakhstan. It is also planning to build more reactors in Iran in addition to the Russia-built Bushehr plant, Iran's first nuclear facility, launched there in 2011.

    Rosatom's investment programme, sourced from the state budget, allows it to spend about $300 - $350 billion per year to build nuclear plants in Russia and abroad, a business that has been hit by global safety concerns after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. 

    Nigeria, with a population of around 170 million, has installed power capacity that fluctuates between around 6,000 to just over 7,000 MW, according to the transmission company. 

    South Africa's capacity is almost seven times greater for a population less than a third as big.

    Nigeria broke up its monopoly on power generation and distribution by privatising the sector two-years ago, hoping to attract foreign investors. But the amount of power produced has stagnated at around half total capacity. 

    Some of the older plants, sold in October 2013, are in dire need of an upgrade while the fledgling generating firms lacking the cash as distributors struggle with non-paying consumers and inadequate gas supplies required to keep the plants running.

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Nigerian interbank rates spike as central bank plans cash withdrawal

Nigeria's overnight lending rates rose sharply on Friday to 27 percent from 10.25 percent last week following a scramble for funds as lenders sought to meet a central bank cash reserve requirement.
The central bank was expected to withdraw about 72 billion naira ($362 million) from commercial lenders to enforce its cash reserves requirements (CRR) on April 16, triggering a surge in demand for funds on the interbank market.
The central bank requires commercial lenders to set aside 75 percent of public sector and 15 percent of private sector deposits in cash in their respective accounts with the regulator.
"Demand for funds was very high ... in anticipation of the CRR debit on Thursday," one dealer said.
The secured Open Buy Back (OBB) rate closed at 27 percent as liquidity thinned out, from 9 percent last week, four percentage points below central bank's benchmark interest rate of 13 percent.
Traders said the liquidity shortage was compounded by lack of cash flow to the banking system because there were no Treasury bills maturing during the past week.
"We expect the market to be tight next week, while rates should hover around 25 percent until central bank repays some matured Treasury bills," another dealer said.

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World rice trade to drop to 41.3 mln tonnes in 2015 -FAO

Global milled rice trade this year is forecast to drop 2.5 percent from 2014 to 41.3 million tonnes, due mainly to good stockpiles or higher production in Asia, the United Nations food agency said on Friday.
Global paddy output in 2015 is forecast to edge up 1.1 percent from last year to 749.8 million tonnes, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said in its rice market monitor report for April.
Thailand is expected to be the world's largest rice exporter this year with shipments of 11.2 million tonnes, followed by 9.3 million tonnes from India and 6.5 million tonnes from Vietnam.
As such, the three Asian nations would account for a combined 65 percent of the world's rice trade, down slightly from 68 percent last year.
FAO revised up India's rice exports last year to 11.3 million tonnes from 8.2 million tonnes estimated earlier, making it the world's largest exporter in 2014, followed by Thailand with 11 million tonnes and Vietnam with 6.5 million tonnes.
China, which was the world's biggest importer last year along with Nigeria, is forecast to raise its import volumes by 5.2 percent to 3.2 million tonnes in 2015 due to higher demand in the mainland, the report said.
Nigeria's purchases abroad are forecast to dip 3.3 percent to 2.9 million tonnes in 2015.
Rice output in China, also the world's top producer, is forecast to edge up 0.2 percent to 208.5 million tonnes this year, FAO said.
Last year China and Nigeria each bought 3 million tonnes of rice from abroad.

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Nigeria raises 183 bln naira in T-bills at lower yields

Nigeria raised 183.64 billion naira ($923 million) in Treasury bills with yields falling compared with the previous sale last month, the central bank said on Thursday.
The Treasury bill yields fell in tandem with declining yields on fixed assets on renewed investor interest in the local debt market after a peaceful presidential election in Africa's biggest economy and most populous country.
The central bank said it raised 20.15 billion naira in the 3-month debt at 10.5 percent at the auction held on Wednesday compared with 10.69 percent at the March 25 auction.
The bank also sold a total of 33.49 billion naira worth of the 6-month paper at 14.1 percent, lower than 14.55 percent at the previous auction.
The bank raised 130 billion naira of the 1-year note at 14.15 percent, down from 14.85 percent at the last auction.
Investors - mostly domestic banks and pension funds - submitted bids worth a total of 433.13 billion naira against 297.06 billion naira at last month's auction.

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Ghana's main oil refinery says shuts down due to breakdown

Ghana's main oil refinery has been shut down due to a mechanical fault at its and it will be closed for around a month, Tema Oil Refinery's spokeswoman Aba Lokko said on Tuesday.
The underlying cause of the breakdown in March at the government-owned refinery is lack of maintenance linked to a lack of investment, coupled with unreliable power supply in a country facing a power crisis, she told Reuters.
"We were refining the (oil) residue and then a unit within that plant developed a fault so there was some serious issue with it and so we had to shut down the plant," she said, referring to the fault in the residue fluid catalytic cracking plant.
Ghana produces around 100,000 barrels per day of crude oil at its offshore Jubilee field and it also imports oil for domestic consumption.
President John Mahama said last year the government was seeking an external partner for the refinery.
For years, Ghana was considered one of Africa's brightest economic prospects because of its rapid growth on exports of oil, cocoa and gold. The government last week sealed an aid deal with the International Monetary to fix severe fiscal problems.

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Nigeria's naira soars on black market after smooth election

The naira firmed sharply on the black market on Tuesday as Nigerians who had stockpiled dollars ahead of last week's elections sold off their holdings when the feared violence and instability did not materialise, dealers said.
Opposition leader Muhammadu Buhari defeated incumbent Goodluck Jonathan in the March 28 vote which passed off largely without incident, to the relief of investors in Africa's biggest economy and most populous nation.
The naira firmed more than 6 percent to 197 to the dollar on the unofficial market from 210 on Thursday, the day before an extended Easter holiday weekend.
On the official interbank market, the currency was trading at 199 to the dollar, in line with the tight range within which it has traded since February when the central bank introduced a de facto peg after a devaluation.
"There are too many dollars in the market with no naira," one black market dealer told Reuters, adding that he had bought dollars as low as 226 just before the elections.
As well as fears of political instability stemming from the polls, Africa's biggest oil producer has been suffering an acute foreign exchange shortage due to a halving of the oil price over the last 8 months.
Crude sales account for 95 percent of Nigeria's foreign exchange.
The black market rally will be welcome relief to the central bank, which had been spending billions of dollars to keep the currency on an even keel. As of the end of last month, foreign reserves had dropped by a third to below $30 billion.
Financial markets have also applauded the outcome of the election, the first time a sitting president has been ousted via the ballot box.
The stock market shot up more than 12 percent on Wednesday and Thursday in the immediate aftermath of Buhari's victory but ended its 10-day rally on Tuesday as investors booked in profits, stockbrokers said.
The index was down 2 percent at 35,009 points at 1232 GMT.
"The excitement from the elections has waned as valuations look stretched after the rally but investors are now taking positions," one broker said.

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Nigerian interbank rates ease on increasing liquidity

Nigeria's overnight lending rates fell to an average of 9.6 percent on Thursday from 12.5 percent last week, after the central bank retired some matured treasury bills, increasing liquidity in the money market.
Traders said a total of 148 billion naira ($744 million) in matured treasury bills was repaid by the bank.
"The market experienced a major liquidity boost today from matured treasury bills...rates on secured lending fell in tandem," one dealer said.
Nigeria's money market is closed for business on Friday and will reopen on Tuesday after public holidays.
The secured Open Buy Back (OBB) fell to 9 percent from 12 percent last week. The secured fund was four percentage points below the 13 percent central bank's benchmark interest rate.
Overnight placement also eased to 10.25 percent compared with 13 percent last week.
Dealers said rates could rise marginally on the expected recall of some funds from commercial banks by the central bank to meet the lenders' cash reserves requirements.
The central bank requires commercial lenders to set aside 75 per cent of public sector and 15 per cent of private sector deposits in liquid cash in their respective accounts with the regulator. The central bank debits commercial banks accounts twice every month to enforce this requirement.

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Nigerian markets extend rally after Buhari's election victory

Nigerian stocks leapt to an 18-week high on Thursday while the 5-year bond yield fell as investors snapped up assets in Africa's biggest economy after a peaceful presidential vote won by the opposition leader.
Muhammadu Buhari's election victory marks the first time in Africa's most populous nation where a sitting government has been removed from power through the ballot box.
Analysts said investors were hopeful that the scandals that undermined incumbent Goodluck Jonathan's popularity, including billions of dollars unaccounted for in missing oil receipts and the Boko Haram insurgency which has killed thousands, would be addressed under Buhari's administration.
"Buhari is a breath of fresh air for the markets and Nigeria as whole. Apart from peaceful elections, we believe it won't be business as usual, that's part of the positive sentiment," Ayodeji Ebo, head of research at Afrinvest said.
The yield on the 2019 bond, one of the maturities listed on JP Morgan's Government Bond Index-Emerging Markets (GBI-EM), has fallen more than 110 basis points over the past two days on renewed buying on news of Buhari's victory.
"It's a buyers market. Yields are falling across the board. Some banks have booked orders from offshore investors for bonds," one dealer at a major lender, told Reuters.
The naira firmed to 210 naira on the parallel market, from 217 to the dollar on Wednesday.
On the interbank market, the currency opened at 199.50 to the dollar, a range it has traded at since February, after the central bank pegged the rate, following a de facto devaluation.
The naira was officially devalued in November and had lost almost 20 percent since, under pressure from falling global oil prices and political uncertainty over a six-week delay of the presidential election which unnerved investors.
In a sign of relief, individuals who had stockpiled dollars to hedge against political risk were exchanging their funds for the naira, buoying the local unit, black market dealers said.

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Nigerian markets rally after Buhari wins presidential vote

Nigeria's main shares index soared to its single biggest daily gain this year on Wednesday while bond yields fell sharply and the naira currency surged in the black market as investors cheered Muhammadu Buhari's presidential election victory.

The main shares index rose 8.4 percent as financial markets in Africa's biggest economy welcomed the peaceful outcome of the closely-fought elections, marking the first time in Africa's most populous nation where a sitting president was voted out of power through the ballot box.

Buhari takes charge of Africa's biggest oil producer and one of the continent's most turbulent democracies, three decades after seizing power in a military coup.

The naira firmed 0.46 percent to 217 against the dollar on the parallel market, a black market dealer said.

The currency traded at 197 naira to the dollar on the interbank market, a level it has traded at since February, after the central bank pegged the rate in a de facto devaluation.

"The peaceful conclusion of the election has allayed the fears of foreign investors about the market," Ayodeji Ebo, head of research at Afrinvest said, referring to the bourse.

He said most listed firms, especially banks, were trading at a discount to their true values, attracting investors.

Analysts said foreign investors backed Buhari's victory and were taking position by snapping up shares across the board.

Foreign investors fled Nigerian markets starting late last year, unnerved by political uncertainty before the vote as well as the sharp fall in the global price of oil which negatively impacted the currency, triggering a devaluation in November.

"Investors were waiting on the sidelines to see election concluded in a peaceful manner. So everyone is taking positions now while those that are in are not willing to sell," he said.

The index crossed the psychological 34,000 points level to stand at 34,400 points, extending gains to a ninth consecutive session - its longest winning streak this year - after outgoing president Goodluck Jonathan peacefully relinquished power.

Nigerian dollar-denominated bonds issued by the government and banks rose for a second straight day, with sovereign issues hitting their highest levels since mid-December.

Yields on sovereign naira bonds fell sharply with the 5-year bond down 101 basis points after Buhari's landslide victory.

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