The Debt Management Office (DMO) says Nigeria has raised $2.2 billion in the international capital market through its latest eurobond auction.

The development comes two years after the federal government issued its last eurobond.

In November, Wale Edun, minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, said approximately $1.7 billion is expected from a eurobond offer and $500 million from a sukuk financing to strengthen the country’s finances and support economic reforms.

The sum is expected to be used to finance the N9.1 trillion deficit in the 2024 budget

In a statement on Monday, DMO said it auctioned two bonds including a 6.5 year eurobond which is expected to mature in 2031 and a 10-year eurobond in 2034, respectively, in the international capital markets on December 2.

According to the statement, although Nigeria priced the eurobond at $2.2 billion, the bonds recorded a peak orderbook of more than $9 billion.

“The Federal Republic of Nigeria (the “Republic”) successfully priced US$2.2 billion in Eurobonds (the “Notes”) maturing in 2031 (6.5-year) and 2034 (10- year) in the international capital markets on 2 December 2024, with US$700 million and US$1.5 billion placed in the 2031 and 2034 maturities, respectively,” the statement reads.

“The 6.5-year and the 10- year. The Notes were priced at a Coupon and Re-offer Yield of 9.625 per cent and 10.375 per cent, respectively.

“Nigeria is pleased to have attracted a wide range of investors from multiple jurisdictions including the United Kingdom, North America, Europe, Asia, Middle East and participation from Nigerian investors, which it views as an expression of continued investor confidence in the country’s sound macro-economic policy framework and prudent fiscal and monetary management.”

DMO said the transaction attracted “a peak orderbook of more than $9 billion,” underscoring the strong support for the transaction across geography and investor class.

Regarding investor class, the agency said demand came from a combination of fund managers, insurance and pension funds, hedge funds, banks and other financial institutions.

DMO said the notes would be admitted to the official list of the UK Listing Authority and available to trade on the London Stock Exchange’s regulated market, the FMDQ Securities Exchange Limited, and the Nigerian Exchange Limited.

“The proceeds from this Eurobond issuance will be used to finance the 2024 fiscal deficit and support the government’s budgetary needs,” DMO said.

“Nigeria mandated Chapel Hill Denham, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Standard Chartered Bank as Joint Bookrunners. FSDH Merchant Bank Limited acted as Financial Adviser on the issuance.”

The Cable

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Ecology and Climate Change, Seriake Dickson (PDP, Bayelsa West), has said the National Assembly will pass the tax reform bills despite opposition from different quarters.

Dickson, in an interview with newsmen in Abuja on Monday, said the bills would be passed like the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), stressing that heavens would not fall when the tax bills are consequently passed.

President Bola Tinubu had on October 3, 2024, transmitted to the National Assembly, four tax reform bills, in a letter, read by the Senate President Godswill Akpabio, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajuddeen Abbas, during separate plenaries of the two chambers.

Tinubu said the bills would bolster Nigeria’s fiscal institutions, adding that they were in line with his government’s broader development objectives for the country.

But Nigerians including some governors, traditional rulers, civil society organisations, federal lawmakers and others have kicked against the bills.

Recall that the Senate had last week passed the bills for second reading while the House of Representatives is yet to act on the bills.

Dickson also dispelled the claim that the planned public hearing on the bills could be chaotic if proper consultations were not done, and urged those opposed to the bills to attend the public hearing with facts if they have issues with any sections of the proposed fiscal legislations.

Dickson, former Governor of Bayelsa State said, “The PIA was passed. We wanted 10% which was what Yar’adua proposed. They (federal lawmakers) reduced it to 3%. Heaven did not fall. This tax reform bills will pass and heavens will not fall.

“The Senate has passed the bills for second reading. Public hearing will take place and people should get ready to present their positions. The tax bill is a proposed law like every other and it has to go through the normal legislative process.

“Right now, taxes from Bayelsa State are paid to Lagos State and I don’t want that to continue. When there is consumption of any goods or services from any state it should be calculated and paid to that state.

“Now there is an opportunity to review the tax laws, to correct the anomalies and that is why I’m in support. I know there are states that are feeling that when they apply the new sharing formula, they will earn less. It’s for them to raise those issues and bring the statistics. I don’t go by sentiments. I go by what is right and in the national interest.”

Daily Trust

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has secured the final forfeiture of an estate located in the federal capital territory (FCT).

Jude Onwuegbuzie, a judge of the FCT high court, delivered his verdict in favour of the EFCC on Monday.

In a statement, Dele Oyewale, spokesperson of the anti-graft agency, said the estate, which measures 150,500 square metres and contains 753 units of duplexes and other apartments, is the largest single asset the EFCC has recovered since it was set up in 2003.

The individual who forfeited the property was not mentioned, but Oyewale said it belonged to a “former top brass of the government”.

“The road to the final forfeiture of the property was paved by an interim forfeiture order, secured before the same Judge on November 1, 2024,” he said.

“The government official which fraudulently built the estate is being investigated by the EFCC. The forfeiture of the asset is an important modality of depriving the suspect of the proceeds of the crime.

“In this instance, the Commission relied on Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud And Other Fraud Related Offences Act No 14, 2006 and Section 44 (2) B of the Constitution of the 199 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to push its case.

“The Establishment Act of the Commission places huge emphasis on asset recovery.”

The EFCC spokesperson said the judge held that the respondent did not show cause as to why he should not lose the property.

Oyewale quoted Ola Olukoyede, EFCC’s chair, as saying that asset recovery is “pivotal in the fight against corruption, economic and financial crimes and a major disincentive against the corrupt and the fraudulent”.

The Cable

Hamas says 33 hostages killed in course of war in Gaza

Hamas said on Monday that 33 hostages in Gaza had been killed during the almost 14-month-old war between the Palestinian militant group and Israel in the enclave, without giving their nationalities.

Hamas added that other hostages had gone missing.

"With the continuation of your crazy war," it said in a statement addressed to Israel, "you could lose your hostages forever. Do what you have to do before it is too late."

Hamas shortly afterward published a video it said detailed when and how the hostages had been killed, blaming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for their fate.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment, which came as Israeli military strikes continued in Gaza.

Hamas has called for an end to the war and total Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as part of any deal to release remaining hostages. Netanyahu has said the war will go on until Hamas is eradicated and poses no more threat to Israel.

Israel launched its war after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's military offensive has killed more than 44,400 Palestinians and displaced most of Gaza's population, Gaza officials say. Vast swathes of the enclave lie in ruins.

Reuters

“All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies” – Arbuthnot, 1667-1735, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ, p 191. 

Note: This article started on the day of the Ondo State election. The result was not surprising. “You can’t beat something with nothing”. PDP is now nothing. Obong Victor Attah, a former governor of Akwa Ibom State and former Trustee of the PDP, is an internationally-recognised architect. He was the first African to be granted licence to practice as an architect in New York State.

Attah turned 86 on November 20 this year. Few Nigerians are aware that Attah designed the PDP flag. As a member of the G-34, a group led by late Alex Ekwueme, former Vice President, 1979-1983, and an artist like all architects, the flag symbolised an all-inclusive party. Its original constitution reflected the intention of the founding fathers to create a society in which glaring marginalisation of any group will not be allowed.

Ekwueme was on the way to becoming the first President elected under the PDP banner when powerful people intruded into the party; forced PDP to violate its own constitution and accept Olusegun Obasanjo as their candidate. The facts are detailed in PDP: CORRUPTION INCORPORATED. Self-righteous Obasanio was thus the first beneficiary of the corruption of a sacred set of political principles laid out by patriotic Nigerians. Obasanjo quickly moved to dismantle the PDP constitution and to substitute one which was an image of himself – a dictator at heart; despite his hypocritical pronouncements now.

He appointed and removed party Chairmen at will and approved candidates for elections at all three tiers of government. How he removed Audu Ogbeh would bring tears to anyone’s eyes. He sowed the seeds of the destruction of Nigeria’s democracy. Today, Attah is no longer active in politics. But, at 86, he must certainly feel disillusioned by what the PDP has become. The flag he designed is now a mockery of what the PDP has become in his life time. I was still writing this article when the result of the Ondo State election was announced.

It is predictable what will follow. There will be a massive desertion of the PDP to the APC. A few years ago, when the late Vincent Ogbulafor, then Chairman of the party, announced, as if he was God, that “PDP will rule for sixty years”, I told him that he will not live for 70 years, but, he might live long enough to see the party out of power. He did both. PDP had been living on borrowed time since (President) Jonathan lost control of the party and suffered defeat.

Now time has run out for the party. Even now, close to half of the leading members of the APC were once in PDP. More will now follow; leaving a party so weak as not to offer much opposition to the APC. Daniel Bwala, a former spokesman for Atiku, the presidential candidate of the PDP in the 2023 elections, who was blasting the APC as lustfully as he did since the elections in September this year, had been invited by President Tinubu to “come and eat”.

He quickly accepted the offer and is now eating in Aso Rock and singing the praises of his new paymaster. That raises the question: Which party will defeat APC in 2027? The answer curiously enough might be APC itself or a new party primarily northern based. In fact, we might be heading for regional parties such as we had before 1960. Two developments account for this position. One, the APC, never a political party, in just nine and a half years, has left the North reassessing its support for APC.

The eight years of Buhari blinded the people to assume that the party was working in their own interests. His departure had laid bare the truth. Under Buhari, APC was a party of the elite, by the elite and for the elite. Tinubu’s presidency has marginalised the northern elite; like never before. They want to redress the situation as soon as possible. Two, hitherto, northerners have lacked a rallying point; there was no common agenda. Tinubu’s Tax Reform Bills, considered anti-North by the vast majority, have provided the impetus for regional collective action.

It is doubtful if any northern politician will support the bills and survive politically. As one old friend from the North-West told me, “I canvassed for votes for Tinubu. He is holding a knife to our throats in the North. We will not allow him to get away with it.” It was, therefore, not surprising to me that all the northern governors are opposed to the Tax Bills. The real surprise was the unanimous opposition of southern governors as well.

Given the fact that the majority of governors belong to the APC, that has revealed the lack of principle within the party. It is doubtful if any Republican governor will oppose a Tax Bill proposed by (incoming US president) Trump because the party’s position on taxation has been consistent for over a hundred years. A situation in which the president’s own party governors and most National Assembly members might turn against him is worrisome – even if expected in a nation where politics without principles is the norm.

TAX REFORM: POSSIBLE ISOLATION OF LAGOS

“There are plans from Lagos to colonise the North” – Kwankwaso.

The presidential candidate of the NNPP is not alone in condemning the Tax Reform Bills; which most commentators, nationally, have not read; and very few understand. But, it now serves as a fulcrum for moving massive northern sentiments against the APC in the region. The Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, a few days after Kwankwaso spoke, made an even more unmistakable declaration.

2027: “North will be best served by northerners” – Report, November 21, 2024.

Just in case anybody in Abuja misses the point, the ACF Chairman said: “Notwithstanding the parlous state of Arewa’s glaring economic conditions, the policies of the current Federal Government has continued to make matters much worse, with little indications of needed sensitivity to the precarious existential conditions of Arewa people… economic reforms while indeed desirable, should not impoverish the same people they are meant to serve…” Battle line drawn. Elected, as well as appointed, APC northern politicians are now confronted with an unpleasant dilemma: Continue supporting Tinubu and his policies or bail out. Either way, there will be serious consequences. I don’t envy Vice President Shetimma or Ganduje. The attempt by the Board of Trustees, BOT, of the ACF to distance the old association from Mamman Osuman’s outburst by suspending the Chairman was a blunder.

The blowback by several northern groups, especially youth groups, points to the possibility that the more cautious and conservative elders might not be aware of the depth of hostility to FG’s reforms. Nigeria is getting ripe for demagogues. Historically, demagoguery triumphs when there is a very angry, dissatisfied section of the populace who want simple answers to very complicated problems; and when the section can identify another distinct group to blame for its problems.

Kwankwaso, focusing on the section of the Tax Bills which recommends the principle of derivation to be adopted for Value Added Tax, VAT, revenue allocation, represents the northern view that with Lagos accounting for over 50 per cent of the VAT revenue collected, any change in that direction will adversely affect their states. Kwankwaso has deliberately ignored the fact that not only northern states will be affected. Even all the rest of the South-West states will lose.

But, Tinubu is from Lagos State; so the conspiracy to further impoverish the North must be a Lagos agenda. That is most unfortunate; because it has shifted the discussion from addressing the merits of the tax proposal to North versus Lagos. More unfortunate is the fact that the northern leaders conveniently forget that the Nigerian economy was already ruined by the time Buhari finished his eight years in office. More importantly, as the Emir of Kano, Lamido, has warned repeatedly, the North was ruining itself – not Lagos.

Virtually all those in APC, NNPP and LP in the North were in PDP before; when the seeds of destruction of the economy were sown. Not to be left behind, the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, led by Ango Abdullahi, sent a chilling message. Read some of it; and it is clear why political lines have disappeared in the North: “The Tax Reform Bills are conceived in bad faith, poorly packaged and is a palpable threat to our unity and national cohesion.

The brazen way and suspicious manner in which the Tax Bills were imposed on the nation confirmed the sinister intentions of those promoting this outrageous Bill. The days are fast gone when such conspiratorial connivance against the vital and strategic interest of the region, either by those within or outside of the region, would be condoned or even tolerated”.

Non-partisan political war could not have been more brutally declared. The attackers have the advantage. Serious economic hardship, especially coming so suddenly and brutally, invariably gives rise to the search for scapegoats – people on whom to place the blame. Despite Benjamin Franklin’s, 1706-1790, position that, “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”, few people except government officials want to hear the word TAX. But, where there are political parties in the real sense of the word, the Tax Bills should have been discussed with party leaders of the ruling party; and everybody should now be out fighting for its passage. The party no longer counts in this struggle.

LAST LINE: Tinubu and his inner circle of advisers missed a vital step in advancing the Tax Bills. Now, the Bills are virtually dead on arrival.

Vanguard

Tom Huddleston Jr.

To become successful, you might have to learn to take yourself less seriously and be willing to keep doing the work, even when times get tough.

That’s according to Jake Loosararian, the co-founder and CEO of Gecko Robotics, a tech startup that makes wall-climbing robots for jobs too dangerous for humans, like scanning the inside of a power plant boiler or nuclear missile silo for critical structural issues.

After starting as a college engineering project, Gecko launched as a business in 2013. It ranked 42nd on the 2024 CNBC Disruptor 50 List and was most recently valued at $633 million.

Loosararian, 33, says Gecko never would’ve made it this far if he weren’t willing to “go into the unknown and the dirty and unexplored.” He means it literally: Loosararian spent parts of the last decade testing robots in dark, dangerous environments, soldering circuit boards in hot, grimy power plant boiler rooms.

Even launching the business in the first place was a risk — many of his closest friends and advisors thought it was a longshot, he says.

Ultimately, Loosararian says getting his hands dirty helped set him and Gecko apart from the many potential startups and prospective “innovators” who haven’t prospered. “So much of Gecko’s success and progress has been just through embracing that value of grit and gritting your teeth,” he says.

Grit, or the ability to persist in striving toward a goal over the long term, and in the face of any number of obstacles, is a trait that psychologists often associate with success. It can be even more important than skill or intelligence, according to University of Pennsylvania psychology professor Angela Duckworth.

“Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality,” Duckworth said in a 2013 TED Talk.

A company built on grit

Loosararian spent three years bootstrapping Gecko Robotics after graduating from college with a degree in electrical engineering. He had no money to pay himself, so he slept on friends’ floors and at the power plants where he tested early iterations of Gecko’s robots.

At times, Loosararian considered giving up. He remembers thinking to himself: “I don’t belong in this place. ... I’m a talented engineer with a hard hat on, steel-toe boots and covered in coal soot. I shouldn’t be here.”

Instead, he decided to embrace those challenges, leaning hard on his initial belief that he’d found an untapped, potentially lucrative market — “a secret hiding in plain sight,” he says.

Plenty of other successful businesspeople agree with Loosararian on the importance of endurance. “The most successful people have a lot of skill, but they also have grit,” billionaire and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt told CNBC Make It in 2022. “In other words, they’re willing to put up with the setbacks and the inevitable challenges that people deal with.” 

Unwelcoming environments, like the ones where Gecko’s robots typically operate, are “actually where we’re needed the most as innovators and designers and technologists,” adds Loosararian.

Gecko’s challenging origins helped shape its company culture for the better, he says: Determination and resilience now “permeate” throughout Gecko’s 300-plus employees.

“Everyone has to drive robots and run the software, and has to understand how the built world works. And, man, that’s exciting,” Loosararian says. “You want to get a group of people that are all convicted in that value.”

CNBC