AU member-states sign new African maritime charte

Nigeria and other member-states of the African Union (AU) have signed an African Charter on Maritime Security, Safety and Development in Lome, Togo.
A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President, Mr Laolu Akande, said Osinbajo signed for Nigeria on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari. He noted that the Gulf of Guinea and the Horn of Africa in particular “are areas where there had been a lot of piracy and in our case, the Delta.” He explained that this was why Nigeria and other AU nations were devoted to the question of security of the oceans.
This Charter is devoted to ensuring security of all economic activities on the seas and oceans to overcome maritime crimes like piracy and smuggling. By signing the charter, African leaders intend to improve security of the coast and hope to inspire greater, coordinated economic activities and development. The charter is meant to ensure improved information-sharing between coastal countries and others in Africa. Out of the 54 AU countries, 38 are coastal.NIGERIAN BANKS SUSPEND USE OF ATM CARD ABROADDeposit Money Banks such as Stanbic IBTC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria and Guaranty Trust Bank announced suspension of their overseas Automated Teller Machine cards (debit and credit) as dollar scarcity continues to hit the economy.
The banks have also suspended online transactions priced in foreign currencies. This means that customers of the banks will no longer be able to use their debit or credit cards to make online transactions that are denominated in dollars, euros, pounds sterling and other foreign currencies. This is due to the current volatility in the foreign exchange market.
These banks have advised its customers seeking to carry out transactions denominated in foreign exchange to apply for dollar or pounds sterling debit credit cards which would be linked to the customers’ domiciliary accounts.
This means customers seeking to do foreign transactions will have to open domiciliary accounts and fund same with dollars, pounds or euros purchased from the parallel market at the prevailing exchange rates.
Findings showed that some banks had slashed their daily ATM withdrawal limit abroad from the $300 advised by the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Bankers Committee to $100 due to their inability to source for dollars to fund the transactions.
It is obvious that the banks were increasingly finding it difficult to fund their foreign-currency denominated services, especially online forex transactions and overseas ATM withdrawals, as well as PoS usage overseas by customers.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have before now, stated that bank customers who spent above the $50,000 annual forex limit it imposed would be barred from the nation’s forex market.

DIRECT CRUDE SALE SAVES NIGERIA N102.6BN

By putting an end to the crude-for-products exchange arrangement, popularly known as crude swap, Nigeria was able to save N102.6bn between April and July this year.
In February, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, announced the replacement of the crude swap arrangement with what he described as the Direct-Sale Direct-Purchase (DSDP) framework, which commenced in April.
The DSDP was adopted to replace the crude swap initiative and the Offshore Processing Arrangement in a bid to ensure transparency in the crude oil for product transaction by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
Under the old swap order, crude oil was exchanged for petroleum products through third party traders at a pre-determined yield pattern. However, the DSDP option eliminates all the cost elements of middlemen and gives the NNPC the latitude to take control of the crude oil transaction with its partners.

KANO AND KADUNA STATE GOVERNMENTS TO GENERATE ELECTRICITY FROM SOLID WASTE

Environmental officials in the two states have indicated plans to generate electricity from domestic waste, in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Environment, which in turn would create huge employment opportunities.
The large volumes of waste being generated in these states on a daily basis have become a nightmare to the government, residents and the environment as population increases.
The Kaduna recycling plant, located along Kaduna-Abuja Highway, had reached 80% completion as the needed machinery had been installed. Used plastic and nylons are being used as raw materials for the plant.
This initiative would also generate revenue for the state government as recycled products will be sold to residents at a cheaper price.
According to Yusuf Rigasa, General Manager, Kaduna State Environmental Protection Authority (KEPA), the state government has approved the construction of three new standard refuse dumping sites and ten transfer stations at the cost of N675 million.
In Kano State, the government said that it was exploring avenues of converting solid waste to electricity in collaboration with a Non-Governmental Organization with which it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The bulk of solid wastes were generated by the eight local government areas in Kano metropolis. In the meantime, the NGO had already installed one waste recycling plant in Gabasawa area of the state.

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