The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has decried the latest hike in the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) to 27.25 per cent from 26.75 per cent.

The association stated that the increase would compound the challenges faced by the sector, which included rising production costs in the face of declining consumer purchasing power.

Director General of MAN, Segun Ajayi-Kadir, said yesterday in public statement titled “Reaction of MAN on the Report of MPC Meeting on September 23-24, 2024” that MAN is worried about the implications of the continuous rate hikes on the productive sector and earnestly expects the CBN to stop the rate hike and explore more of the monetary-fiscal policy handshake option to curb inflation.  

Ajayi-Kadir said: “With the increase in borrowing costs, manufacturers will now pay over 35 per cent on their credit facilities.

‘Clearly, this will lead to increase in production costs, higher prices of finished goods, lower competitiveness and production capacity expansion.”

He noted that “the impact of higher interest rates goes beyond compounding the challenges of manufacturers; it stifles opportunities for investment in crucial areas such as technology, retooling, and expansion within the manufacturing sector.

“Manufacturers will, all the more, be compelled to choose servicing existing credit facilities over expansion and investment in new product lines.

“For instance, over the first six months of the year, manufacturers incurred more than N730 billion in capital expenses due to the continuous rise in interest rates imposed by commercial banks.

“This dilemma hampers innovation, productivity and growth.”

He added that the sector is grappling with depressed consumer demand, primarily driven by lower purchasing power. This decline has severely hampered capacity utilisation within the sector.

According to him, data from the first half of the economic review published by the MAN revealed a troubling trend: the value of unsold finished goods inventory surged by 42.93 percentage points, reaching N1.24 trillion compared to N869.37 billion at the close of 2023.

“This growing stockpile of unsold products underscores the difficulties manufacturers face in a weakening market. The broader implications of these challenges threaten not only the manufacturing sector but also the Nigerian economy as a whole.

“As higher borrowing costs lead to poor access to funds, lower capacities and potential business closures. Truth be told, the capacity to absorb the country’s growing youth population into meaningful employment has diminished significantly with the attendant adverse socioeconomic and security implications.”

MAN also expressed surprised that the CBN is increasing the MPR against the backdrop of the meagre improvement in inflation figures, which could be largely traceable to the onset of the harvest season.

“We also note that this increase is coming at a time that central banks in other climes are either retaining or cutting rates.

“It is, therefore, expedient that government adopt a holistic and balanced approach to policy formulation and decisions, with due consideration of their overall impact on the various sectors of the economy, particularly the productive sector.

“Undoubtedly, price stability is crucial, and so is the survival and growth of the manufacturing sector. This should be top priority at this time and is in line with the government avowed commitment to growing domestic production, creating more jobs and alleviating poverty,” Ajayi-Kadir argued.

Thisday

Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, says the Federal Government will toll all major roads in the country upon completion of construction and renovation.

“We have the Lagos-Ibadan (Expressway), we are completing it and we are tolling it,” Umahi said on Thursday in Abuja at an Inter-Ministerial Press Briefing, part of activities to mark Nigeria’s 64th independence anniversary.
He listed some of the roads as Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Second Niger Bridge, Abuja-Kano Road, and Makurdi-9th Mile, among others.

The former Ebonyi State governor said the tolling of federal roads “is going to bring a lot of money to the Federal Government”.

Umahi said private sector members have been engaged “to bring in funds, construct these roads, work with the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission and the Ministry of Works to toll these roads”.

The minister said the government would start with the Keffi-Makurdi Road that has been completed, stating that his ministry has been engaging with the Ministry of Finance for a paperless mode of payment.

He said, “For example, we are completing the Lagos-Ibadan, we are working on Makurdi to 9th Mile in Enugu State, we are working from Abuja to Lagos. These roads are going to be tolled. But we are not just tolling them, we are bringing confidence in the use of these roads.

“If people can travel at night because we are bringing security, where the response time will be 10 minutes on the entire corridor, where you have solar light permanently there and then reduce travel time, and through the tolling, the roads are maintained, then, there will be confidence because Nigerians will pay if the roads are good.”

He said before now, road developments have not been handled as investments but the administration of President Bola Tinubu has been handling road developments more professionally.

He said the present administration inherited a total of 300 damaged roads and bridges, adding that more road constructions would commence from October 1, 2024, across the six geopolitical zones of the country.

CTV

Israel rejects US-backed Lebanon ceasefire plan, hits Beirut again

Israel rejected global calls on Thursday for a ceasefire with the Hezbollah movement, defying its biggest ally in Washington and pressing ahead with strikes that have killed hundreds in Lebanon and heightened fears of an all-out regional war.

Despite Israel's stance, the U.S. and France sought to keep prospects alive for an immediate 21-day truce they proposed on Wednesday, and said negotiations continued, including on the sidelines of a United Nations meeting in New York.

An Israeli warplane struck the edges of the capital Beirut, killing two people and wounding 15, including a woman in critical condition, Lebanon's health ministry said. That took deaths overnight and on Thursday to 28 and over 600 since Monday.

The strike killed the head of one of Hezbollah's air force units, Mohammad Surur, Hezbollah said, the latest senior Hezbollah commander to be targeted in days of assassinations among the group's top ranks.

On the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, the army staged an exercise simulating a ground invasion - a potential next stage after relentless airstrikes and explosions of communications devices.

Israel's air force is planning to assist troops in the event of a ground operation and will stop any arms transfers from Iran, Air Force Commander Major General Tomer Bar said late on Thursday.

"We are preparing shoulder to shoulder with Northern Command for a ground maneuver. Prepared, if activated. This is a decision to be made above us," he told soldiers in a video distributed by the Israeli military.

Israel has vowed to secure its north and return thousands of citizens who have evacuated since Hezbollah launched a campaign of cross-border strikes last year in solidarity with Palestinian militants fighting in Gaza.

Arriving in New York before addressing the U.N. General Assembly on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters the military will keep hitting Hezbollah with "full force and we will not stop until we achieve all our goals, first and foremost returning the residents of the north safely to their homes."

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on X, "There will be no ceasefire in the north."

Israel's stance dashed hopes for a swift settlement and Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib appealed to the U.N. to win an immediate ceasefire "before the situation spirals out of control, with a domino effect, making this crisis impossible to contain."

"Lebanon is currently enduring a crisis which is threatening its very existence," Bou Habib said at a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly late on Thursday.

White House spokesperson John Kirby told a briefing earlier that Israel had been "fully informed and fully aware of every word" in the ceasefire proposal and allies expected it would be taken seriously. The U.S. is Israel's longtime ally and biggest arms supplier.

French President Emmanuel Macron said he did not believe Israel's rejection was definitive. "It would be a mistake by the prime minister to refuse it because he would be taking responsibility for regional escalation," Macron told reporters in Canada.

"We will do everything to ensure this proposal is accepted," Macron said, adding that France was ready to call a new U.N. Security Council meeting to endorse the proposal.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes during the heaviest Israeli bombardment of Lebanon since a major war in 2006.

Hezbollah has faced off against the Israeli military since the Shi'ite Muslim movement was created by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in 1982 to counter an Israeli invasion of Lebanon. It has since evolved into Tehran's most powerful Middle East proxy.

WASHINGTON STILL SEEKS CEASEFIRE

The White House said that U.S. and Israeli officials, including U.S. Mideast envoy Brett McGurk, were holding discussions. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken planned to meet with Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer.

In London, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned there was a risk of all-out war in the Middle East, but a diplomatic solution was still possible.

"So let me be clear, Israel and Lebanon can choose a different path, despite the sharp escalation in recent days, a diplomatic solution is still viable," Austin said.

Hezbollah has fired hundreds of missiles at targets in Israel, including its commercial hub Tel Aviv, although Israel's aerial defense system has ensured the damage has been limited.

Israel's military said it intercepted a missilelaunched from Yemen late on Thursday. Yemen's Houthi militants, allies of Hezbollah and Hamas, have fired repeatedly at Israel in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Israeli fighter jets on Thursday also hit infrastructure on the Lebanese-Syrian border to stop the transfer of weapons from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israel's military said.

The Lebanese health ministry said most of the victims on Thursday were Syrians killed in the town of Younine in the Bekaa Valley. Lebanon is home to around 1.5 million Syrians who fled civil war there.

Hezbollah said in a statement it had struck the town of Kiryat Shmona in north Israel and an Israeli military northern command base, as well as using air defense weapons to force two Israeli warplanes back.

In Beirut, thousands of Lebanese were sheltering in schools. Aid organisations distributed clothes and food, and checked on medications needed by elderly people who fled too quickly to bring prescriptions with them.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Kremlin says changes to Russia's nuclear policy are a signal to the West

The Kremlin said on Thursday that changes to Russia's nuclear weapons doctrine outlined by President Vladimir Putin should be considered a signal to Western countries that there will be consequences if they participate in attacks on Russia.

Putin said on Wednesday that Russia could use nuclear weapons if it was struck with conventional missiles, and that Moscow would consider any assault on it supported by a nuclear power to be a joint attack.

The decision to change Russia's official nuclear doctrine is the Kremlin's answer to deliberations in the United States and Britain about whether or not to give Ukraine permission to fire conventional Western missiles into Russia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said adjustments to a document called "The Foundations of State Policy in the Sphere of Nuclear Deterrence" had been formulated.

Asked by reporters if the changes were a signal to the West, Peskov said: "This should be considered a definite signal."

"This is a signal that warns these countries about the consequences if they participate in an attack on our country by various means, and not necessarily nuclear ones," Peskov said.

The world, Peskov said, was witness to an "unprecedented confrontation" which he said was provoked by the "direct involvement of Western countries, including nuclear powers" in the Ukraine war.

Outgoing NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Moscow was attempting to intimidate alliance members.

"Russia's nuclear rhetoric is dangerous and reckless," Stoltenberg said at the Council on Foreign Relations. "We are closely watching what Russia is doing."

Peskov said a decision on whether or not to publish the nuclear documents would be made at a later date.

Russia's current published nuclear doctrine, set out in a 2020 decree by Putin, says Russia may use nuclear weapons in case of a nuclear attack by an enemy or a conventional attack that threatens the existence of the state.

Asked if rejecting a post-Soviet moratorium on nuclear tests had been discussed as part of the changes, Peskov said he could not answer the question as Wednesday's meeting had been mostly top secret.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Putin's comments "totally irresponsible."

"I think many in the world have spoken clearly about that when he's been rattling the nuclear sabre - including China, in the past," he said in an interview with MSNBC on Thursday.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Zelensky has no ‘tangible’ peace plan – Kremlin

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has no genuine plan to resolve the conflict with Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters at a press briefing on Thursday.  

Peskov was asked whether Moscow would consider it a threat to Russia’s sovereignty if the West were to accept the Ukrainian leader’s “victory plan” which he reportedly presented during his visit to the US this week. 

According to The Times, Zelensky’s new scheme, which has not yet been made public, consists of four points – the continuation of Kiev’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region, Western security guarantees for Ukraine, the delivery of modern weapons, and international financial assistance for the country. 

Peskov stressed that Zelensky’s latest plan does not contain any specifics, even for Kiev’s Western backers. 

“Therefore, there can be no talk of any sort of adoption [of the plan],” he said. 

Bloomberg previously reported, citing sources familiar with Zelensky’s conversations with foreign leaders, that his ‘victory plan’ has underwhelmed Western officials as it contains no “real surprises” and is not a game-changer. One source described the initiative as nothing more than a “wish list” that underscores “a deepening sense of pessimism among allied nations” regarding the outcome of the Ukraine conflict. 

In an interview with ABC News earlier this week, Zelensky claimed that “we are closer to peace than we think.” However, he stressed that his latest scheme is not about negotiating with Russia but about “the strengthening of Ukraine.”  

Moscow reiterated on Tuesday that the only way the conflict with Kiev can end is with Russia achieving all the goals of its military operation “one way or another.”

Reuters/RT

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had barely finished announcing the result of last Saturday’s Edo governorship poll when I got a call to eat the humble pie. Adams Oshiomhole, the man I called a product vendor in my last article, had pulled off another big one!

Why? I had no dog in the fight. But I got the drift. I had warned that given Oshiomhole’s reputation for campaigning for candidates for whom he often ended up apologising, voters could hardly ignore the warning label on his candidate, Monday Okpebholo, and that, at any rate, if it wasn’t that in politics, crime multiplies grace, Comrade’s factory should have been sealed or closed long ago.

But he got this one, right? Okpebholo, who Oshiomhole carried on his back throughout the campaign, is now governor-elect. The Comrade is entitled to ask his critics to eat the humble pie. Fair enough. While I shop for the sugar-free variety, let’s review the poll, starting with issues we might agree on. 

Powershift 

Rotation or zoning is still a crucial factor in politics. The two leading parties in the contest—the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)—put forward candidates from Edo Central, which had not produced a governor before, except for the brief spell of Oserheimen Osunbor.

The governor-elect, Okpebholo (APC), and his rival, Asue Ighodalo (PDP), are from this senatorial district. But the Labour Party thought differently: the party put forward Olumide Akpata from Edo South, which, apart from being the home of Governor Godwin Obaseki, had also produced more governors than any other. Akpata invited the fight to his crowded backyard.

The first thing Saturday’s election taught was that Edo people wanted power to shift elsewhere. Ighodalo may not have reaped the full benefit, but the result showed that he defeated Okpebholo in Edo Central, even though he currently represents this zone in the Senate. That lesson – that zoning matters – was lost on Labour, and it paid dearly for it.

Godfather never sleeps

Godfathers matter, too. In elite circles and on TV discussion programmes, we can criticise godfathers and call them names, like I called Oshiomhole, a decorated vendor of lousy products. It doesn’t matter, as the results of the poll have shown. The election was a contest of godfathers: Oshiomhole vs. Obaseki, each with a hefty trail of other godfathers lurking in the shadows. 

If godfathers didn’t matter, Obaseki wouldn’t go, like a thief in the night, accompanied by Ighodalo, to the Abuja private residence of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, his interim godfather four years ago in a desperate attempt to curry favour. 

Complaining about the role of godfathers in our elections won’t change anything. Party members or their sympathisers must be prepared to put their money and energy where their mouth is. It’s a waste of time to disregard party funding and involvement in party organisation, only to complain at elections that Piper Godfathers are playing a disgusting tune. They will.

Oshiomhole has redeemed himself as a preeminent product vendor and godfather of Edo politics. He has also retired Obaseki to Afrinvest or whatever may be left of his investment company.

There’s a life lesson here, too: choose your fight. The question was not who Obaseki was fighting but who he was not fighting. He fought Oshiomhole, fought those who sheltered him from vagrancy four years ago, fought his deputy, fought relations of his deputy in the civil service, fought anyone remotely connected to Oshiomhole, fought the Palace, and fought anyone who advised him to stop fighting. Ultimately, he’ll have to deal with the echoes of what might have been – alone.

Over their dead body

The poll tells us yet another thing—something the PDP may learn over its dead body: that the division in the party that snatched its cap in 2023 may behead it sooner than later. The ruling APC has had problems, especially concerning the chairman's home troubles and the power tussle in the North Central. However, the gold for internal chaos must go to the PDP and the Labour Party. 

Even though PDP governors converged on Benin during the election to present a common front, the party’s core – the governors and its National Working Committee – has been wracked by divisions. The same problem has split the Labour Party down the middle, with each party's faction claiming to be the authentic one. On Saturday, the candidates of both parties were, strictly speaking, political orphans struggling to get to shore from the parties’ sinking boats.  

Broken 

Saturday also cleared any doubts that voter apathy is an increasingly severe problem. In a state with a population of about 4.4 million and over half registered voters, voter turnout was 24.49 percent. We have seen this trend in virtually every election. All that happens the day after is the parties and INEC trading blame. 

Until politicians restore trust and people begin to see elections as a viable means of making politicians accountable, the voter numbers will continue to drop. 

To make matters worse, elections have become warfare. For example, the ratio of voters to security personnel in the Edo election was 1:11. Ultimately, voters are either overwhelmed by indifference or lethargy or discouraged by fear. 

But who cares? Once the results are announced and the winner is declared, those who are displeased and have the money go to court. Voters go home until the next cycle.

Adding up

Discrepancies between the figures on the election result viewer portal (iREV), the number of accredited voters, and what INEC finally announces remain a severe headache. The bimodal accreditation system's whole point was to reduce significant disputes over figures and make the process more transparent. 

Some progress has been made since Mike Tyson was on the voter roll, and palm kernel shells were improvised as thumbprints. Yet, it’s a considerable irony that the same system, which seemed to work well in 2020 and was praised by the PDP and independent monitors as a contributory factor for the poll's success that year, was perhaps one of the most contentious in Saturday’s vote. INEC must get its act together.

Never say, never

And finally, we saw again on Saturday that interests are the only thing permanent in politics. And I’m not talking here about Philip Shaibu changing parties like underwear, although you would be right to cite that as a good example. I’m talking about Ighodalo and what might have been. 

In case you missed it, Babafemi Ojudu shared a viral message last week: Asue Ighodalo was a member of the Bola Tinubu transition committee after he was elected Lagos State governor in 1999. In another life, Ighodalo, a dyed-in-the-wool Lagos Boy, might have been on Tinubu’s side, as Obaseki once was. What politics cannot divide does not exist.

But who knows? Never say never. If lousy product vendors can get a second – even a third – life, you never know what the future holds. As they wrote on the tail of that famous mammy wagon to Eastern Nigeria many years ago: No condition is permanent!

** Ishiekwene is the Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP and the author of the new book Writing for Media and Monetising It.

Matthew Smith

While the business press tends to focus attention on macro strategic forces such as AI, geopolitics, and climate change, one of the biggest trends among experts in leadership development today is perhaps surprisingly a focus on building deeper, more “human” capacities. The call for leaders to embrace their humanity is not new. Next year will mark the thirtieth anniversary of Daniel Goleman’s book Emotional Intelligence, which popularized competencies such as self-regulation, empathy, and social skills as critical to leadership success. More recently, however, many leading thinkers on leadership development have suggested the need for leaders to undertake even more profound internal work that in prior years was seen more as the domain of psychotherapy or even spirituality.

In their most recent global study of CEOs, Egon Zehnder, an executive search and leadership advisory firm, found that 80% of CEOs felt the need to embark on a “dual journey” of personal and organizational transformation, up from 26% only three years prior, a jump that they called the “most striking finding” in their research. Their research highlights the importance of senior leaders slowing down, listening more, and exploring their blind spots with humility, which may seem counterintuitive in the face of the ever-increasing pace of change and strategic complexity they face.

Earlier this month, four senior partners at McKinsey published The Journey of Leadership: How CEOs Learn to Lead from the Inside Out, which makes an even more explicit argument for deepening the focus on the human side of leadership. The book synthesizes trends and lessons from over 500 CEOs who have attended McKinsey’s Bower Forum, which the authors describe as a “unique laboratory” for exploring the challenges that senior leaders face and how the most successful among them have flourished.

Kurt Strovink, one of the authors, notes that one of the surprising elements from the Bower Forum CEO discussions was the prevalence of topics related to what he calls the “personal and emotional side of how to lead.” Strovink observed that “almost 60% of the challenges raised were not business issues, but human-centric questions of how to operate with their teams, boards, families, and themselves.” This led the authors to focus on “leading from the inside out” as their core framework for successful leaders.

Leading from the Inside Out

Strovink insisted that the focus on more deeply human, inside-out leadership was not divorced from the strategic context, but rather was a direct consequence of the challenges that modern CEOs face. Strovink said, “Complexity is increasing. At the CEO level there used to be five or six big things that you were worried about. Now there are a dozen. The premium on balance and the emotional conditioning to do that well has gone up.”

Amy Elizabeth Fox, the co-founder of Mobius Executive Leadership and an expert on vertical development, makes a similar connection between the inner journey and the ability to thrive in complexity. Fox said, “Leaders with a strong inner core are more grounded and fluid. They are far better placed to guide an organization through the vast complexity and adaptive demands of the moment.”

The McKinsey authors describe a range of skills that the inside-out leader exhibits, including humility, vulnerability, selflessness, and resilience. Lest one mistakes this collection of traits as “soft,” they also note that the inner journey taken by these leaders imbues them with the confidence to make bold choices and stand up for what they believe is right. Strovink says that striking this balance of being “both bold and empowering” is one of the hallmarks of inside-out leaders: “It is amazing how much comes from their ability to govern themselves and create space within themselves to handle extra stresses and pressures.”

In a similar vein, Potential Project, a global research and leadership development firm with a focus on developing “human leaders,” describes the key task of leadership as “doing hard things in a human way.” Their Human Leader Compass describes a set of leadership mindsets and skills linked to awareness, compassion, and wisdom that leaders should develop to enhance their effectiveness.

Steps on the Journey toward Human Leadership

Both Fox and the McKinsey authors describe leadership as a journey and an exploration that requires both humility and curiosity. Fox said, “In leading from the inside out, executives turn meaningful attention to self-exploration and self-development. This enables them to understand their own emotions and habits, explore their core beliefs and values, and cultivate greater stillness and equanimity.”

Ramesh Srinivasan, another of the McKinsey co-authors, stresses both the importance and the challenge of embarking on this learning journey. “People usually don’t come and share feedback and tell leaders the truth,” Srinivasan said. “Holding up the mirror and helping people deeply reflect on tough issues is not easy.” Leaders must intentionally lower the barriers to receiving this deeper, more personal feedback and cultivate both “truth tellers” and a community of peers with whom they can open up and share challenges.

Srinivasan’s advice to those beginning their career is to start this process early by working on the muscles of humility and curiosity — “ask a lot of questions, be curious, and exercise the obligation to dissent” — and by remembering that learning is a lifelong journey with no end. “As Gandhi said, ‘Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.’”

Perhaps the most poignant piece of advice is the one that many leaders will find the hardest to accept: the need to slow down. Fox said that “leading from the inside out asks a leader to embody practices that call them to slowing down, asking deep questions, opening their hearts, and inhabiting a very different rhythm than the hyperdrive most leaders live in.” If the experts are to be believed, those leaders who do manage to achieve this different rhythm will be rewarded — and perhaps achieve a more sustainable and balanced life in the process.

Forbes

The Nigerian Naira's value continues to erode, reflecting a troubling trend that began shortly after President Bola Tinubu took office on May 29, 2023. Yesterday, the currency depreciated to N1,680 per dollar in the parallel market, down from N1,655 on Tuesday, marking another milestone in its downward trajectory.

The official Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) also recorded a significant drop, with the Naira falling to N1,667.42 per dollar. FMDQ data revealed an N8.94 depreciation from Tuesday's rate of N1,658.48. This decline was accompanied by a 39.6% decrease in trading volume, with only $100.47 million exchanged compared to Tuesday's $166.36 million.

The widening gap between the parallel market and NAFEM rates, now at N12.58 per dollar up from N3.48 on Tuesday, underscores the ongoing volatility in Nigeria's foreign exchange market.

This latest depreciation is part of a larger pattern that emerged following President Bola Tinubu's inauguration. One of his first major economic policies was to float the Naira and unify the country's multiple exchange rates. While this move was aimed at attracting foreign investment and stabilizing the currency in the long term, it has led to a sharp devaluation in the short term.

When Tinubu took office, the official exchange rate stood at around N465/$. The subsequent float saw the Naira's value plummet, losing over 70% of its value in less than a year. This rapid devaluation has had far-reaching effects on Nigeria's import-dependent economy, driving up inflation and the cost of living for average Nigerians.

As the Naira approaches the N1,700/$ mark, questions continue to arise about the effectiveness of the current forex policies and what additional measures might be needed to stabilize the currency and the broader economy.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Instant payments in Nigeria's banking sector reached N566.39 trillion in the first seven months of 2024, according to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS).

In July alone, instant payments surged to N89.50 trillion, a 12.45 percent increase (N9.91 trillion) from the N79.5 trillion recorded in June. This also marked an 89 percent year-on-year growth compared to N47.38 trillion in July 2023.

The total value of instant payments for 2024 so far brings the overall electronic transaction volume to N566.39 trillion. For context, in 2023, the country processed N600 trillion in electronic transactions.

In July, instant payment transaction volume rose by 4 percent, reaching 907.34 billion, compared to 871.66 billion in June. Year-on-year, the volume grew by 22 percent, up from 743.15 billion in July 2023. Additionally, cashless transactions surged to N238.61 trillion in July, a 4.6 percent increase from June’s N228.11 trillion.

A total of 27.56 billion transactions were completed through electronic payment channels in July. NIBSS also reported that point-of-sale (PoS) transactions hit 97.8 billion, with a transaction value of N1 trillion.

The Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) says Coca-Cola’s promise of a $1 billion investment in Nigeria is a hollow pledge.

In a statement on Wednesday signed by Robert Egbe, CAPPA’s media and communication officer, the non-governmental organisation (NGO) said Coca-Cola’s latest investment promise was made to the previous administration under President Muhammadu Buhari, but nothing came of it.

On September 19, Coca-Cola announced a $1 billion investment pledge to Nigeria over a period of five years.

According to CAPPA, the government has embraced the company’s latest pledge with undue fanfare, whereas their presence is allegedly harmful to Nigerians.

“It is a matter of grave concern that the news is once again awash with Coca-Cola’s promise of a $1 billion investment in Nigeria. This is the second time in three years that the company has made this hollow pledge to different ruling governments, and yet it failed to deliver the first time around,” CAPPA said.

“Despite the company’s failure to honour its previous commitment, the government of the day has not only embraced the company’s latest pledge with undue fanfare but also quickly risen to defend its dubious track record of dangling promises that never materialise with evidence.”

‘COCA-COLA USING INVESTMENT RHETORIC TO CLEAN UP POOR IMAGE’

CAPPA accused the company of using investment rhetoric to clean up its “dirty image,” marked by “multiple dishonest trade practices,” as recently revealed by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC).

“While the government may claim that Coca-Cola couldn’t fulfil its earlier commitment due to a ‘challenging business environment,’ the disturbing truth remains that, beyond its woeful record of unmet financial pledges, Coca-Cola’s presence in Nigeria has been defined more than anything else by its persistent onslaught against public health and regulatory infractions,” CAPPA said.

“In 2017, a Lagos High Court issued a damning judgement against the company, revealing that its products were unfit for consumption as they contain high levels of sunset yellow and benzoic acid which, according to European and American food and drug agencies, can form the carcinogen benzene when combined with ascorbic acid (Vitamin C).

“On this ground, the court mandated the company to place warning labels on its beverages, advising consumers against combining their intake with Vitamin C. But to this day, the corporation has refused to comply with this directive.

“This contempt and disregard for public health and judicial authority should ordinarily disqualify the company from receiving any form of state endorsement, let alone at the highest level of government.

“Moreover, barely two months ago, in July 2024, the FCCPC found Coca-Cola guilty of deceptive trade practices as usual. The Commission’s investigation, which began in 2019, revealed that the company had engaged in false and harmful marketing practices on multiple occasions that could mislead customers.

“For instance, the company had provided false information to the FCCPC in violation of the Commission’s rules and had also deceived consumers by dishonestly selling its ‘Less Sugar’ variant as identical to the original Coca-Cola product.

“Yet, despite being found guilty of violating multiple consumer protection laws and advised to apply remedies and clear product labelling, Coca-Cola has failed to take meaningful steps to correct its actions, further demonstrating its penchant for undermining regulatory interventions.

“To be clear, this promise-fail-promise tactic of Coca-Cola, including its operational character of disregard for national regulations, is not accidental. It is straight out of the big food industry playbook to interfere, undermine, and dilute pro-public health and consumer protection policies.

“Sadly, by endorsing Coca-Cola’s shady investment only months after the FCCPC indicted it, the Nigerian government is not only setting itself up as an image launderer for a dirty corporation but also, unbelievably, undermining and embarrassing its own regulatory authority,” the CAPPA statement said.

According to Akinbode Oluwafemi, executive director, CAPPA, the Nigerian government must ask itself what it truly stands to gain by endorsing the firm.

“The question the Nigerian government must ask itself in light of all this is what truly it stands to gain by endorsing a multinational corporation with a dark history of non-compliance, and whose products are even actively contributing to a public health crisis in the country?” he said.

“Sugar-sweetened beverages, like many of Coca-Cola’s products under such a category, are well known and documented contributors to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, obesity, and heart disease, and other associated health conditions that are already straining Nigeria’s healthcare system and economy.

“As such, while the company’s promises of an economic investment may sound appealing, the potential gains pale in comparison to the long-term public health costs and injury that the consumption of its products inflicts on the Nigerian population, as with elsewhere across the world.”

‘SUPPORTING COCA-COLA THREATENS EFFECTIVENESS OF SSB TAX’

Oluwafemi said Coca-Cola’s public support threatens the effectiveness of the sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) tax, which is crucial for saving lives.

“The SSB tax is a vital public health policy that must not be undermined by the sneaky tactics of Coca-Cola to infiltrate public health discussions and weaken enforcement of pro-public health laws through its calculated friendships with state authorities,” CAPPA said.

“The Nigerian state must reconsider its fawning over Coca-Cola, as its snug relationship with the corporation while simultaneously enforcing a pro-public health tax sends mixed signals.

“This kind of messaging is not only dangerous but also threatens the effectiveness of the SSB tax, which is crucial for saving lives.

“Even more so, the government’s fraternisation with the company despite its disrespect for national rules of engagement only serves to embolden the company’s exploitative practices in Nigeria without fear of accountability.

“President Tinubu’s administration has an obligation to protect Nigerians, not act as a cheerleader for companies with a proven history of unethical behaviour.

“We, therefore, call on the government to prioritise the interests of Nigerians by shunning questionable associations with corporate lawbreakers and adversaries of public health.”

Akinbode urge the state to defend public health without scruples and consider genuine ethical investments that rank the well-being of Nigerians over empty promises and profit-driven deception.

On July 1, CAPPA urged the federal government to increase taxes on sugar-sweetened products to protect the health of Nigerians.

The Cable

The Federal Government has raised the monthly allowance for National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members from N33,000 to N77,000, effective July 2024. The announcement was made Wednesday through a statement posted on the NYSC's official Facebook page.

According to the statement, "The Federal Government has approved the increment of Corps Members’ monthly allowance to Seventy-Seven Thousand Naira (N77,000) with effect from July 2024." This adjustment follows the enactment of the National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Act 2024.

The approval was conveyed in a letter from the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, dated September 25, 2024, and signed by the Commission's Chairman, Ekpo Nta. The increment follows an earlier advocacy visit made by NYSC Director General, YD Ahmed, to the Commission, where he requested an improved welfare package for corps members.

Ahmed expressed gratitude to the Federal Government, stating that the increase would provide much-needed relief to corps members, boost their morale, and encourage them to contribute even more in service to the nation.