Central Bank of Nigeria has revoked operating licences of 132 microfinance banks, four primary mortgage banks, and three finance companies in the country.

The revocation exercise was disclosed in the official gazette of the Federal Government published on the website of the CBN on Tuesday.

According to the gazette, licences of the financial institutions were revoked because they ceased to carry on in Nigeria, the type of business for which their licences were issued for a continuous period of six months.

They were also alleged to have “failed to fulfil or comply with the conditions subject to which their licences were granted; or failed to comply with the obligations imposed upon them by the Central Bank of Nigeria in accordance with the provisions of Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020, Act No. 5.”

The four primary mortgage banks whose licences were revoked are Resort Savings & Loans, Safetrust Mortgage Bank, Adamawa Savings & Loans and Kogi Savings & Loans.

The finance companies whose licences were revoked include HHL Invest & Trust Limited, TFS Finance Limited and Treasures & Trust Limited.

Meanwhile, some of the microfinance banks listed include Bluewhales Microfinance Bank, Igangan Microfinance Bank, Mainsail Microfinance Bank, Everest Microfinance Bank, Merit Microfinance Bank, Musharaka Microfinance Bank, Nopov Microfinance Bank, among others.

The gazette showed that the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, revoked the licences in the exercise of the powers conferred on the Central Bank of Nigeria under Section 12 of BOFIA 2020, Act No. 5.

PT

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russia coming together, national pride overflowing, says Putin

Russia is coming together as a country at this important moment in history, and national pride is on the rise, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.

"Yes, Russia is going through difficult times now; things have never been easy, but, still, today we are seeing a moment of our common consolidation, with our national pride being sharpened, when we are striving at all costs to strengthen the foundations of our spirituality, to create the conditions in the economy, manufacturing, and education of our young people in order to ensure the unconditional future of our country," he said at an awards ceremony.

The recipients of the state awards contribute greatly to this work, Putin noted, expressing his gratitude to them.

The head of state pointed out the remarks made by former head of Tatarstan, current head of the region’s state council Mintimer Shaymiyev, awarded with the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called about "the direction the country has been going in recent years."

"We have become much more self-sufficient. Without self-sufficiency, there can be no sovereignty, and self-sufficiency is being achieved in all areas: in art, in science, in industry and, of course, in the military," Putin said.

** US struggles to explain images of its destroyed hardware inside Russia

President Joe Biden’s administration has suggested that contrary to the footage shared by the Russian military and many other images posted on social media showing US-made military vehicles destroyed in the Belgorod Region, the equipment used by Ukrainian militants in their latest attack on Russian soil wasn’t likely supplied by Washington or its Western allies.

“We’ve seen some of the reports circulating on social media and elsewhere making claims that US-supplied weapons were used in these attacks,” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on Tuesday in Washington. “I will say that we’re skeptical at this time of the veracity of these reports.”

Miller suggested that footage of the destroyed vehicles might be fake. 

“We’ve seen a lot of reports on social media and fuzzy pictures on social media and a lot of kind of armchair intelligence analysts making claims,” he said. “We’re skeptical that they’re accurate.”

The images appear to clearly show the disabled US-made equipment, including Humvees and at least one MaxxPro MRAP armored fighting vehicle. Nevertheless, when questioned on why US officials haven’t made a definitive assessment, Miller stood by his claim.

“We don’t have perfect clarity on the information,” he told reporters. “We’re looking at the same pictures you see, the same fuzzy images, and at this time, we are skeptical of their veracity.”

Monday’s attack by a Ukrainian saboteur group targeted the Belgorod district of Grayvoron, where at least one resident was killed and several others injured. The Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday published an aerial footage purporting to show its destruction of the Ukrainian militant group, which left US-made armor on fire.

Another higher quality video showed multiple damaged and destroyed US-made vehicles scattered around in the aftermath of the attack. The Kiev regime has resorted to launching “terrorist actions” against civilian targets after its forces suffered defeat in Artyomovsk (known as Bakhmut in Ukraine), the ministry said.

US officials denied any responsibility for attacks in Russian territory. “We do not encourage or enable strikes inside Russia, and we’ve made that clear, but as we’ve also said, it’s up to Ukraine to decide how to conduct this war,” Miller said on Monday.

The Pentagon’s press secretary, Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder, said the US government hadn’t approved any transfers of equipment to paramilitary organizations outside the Ukrainian armed forces. He added that US officials “regularly communicate to Ukraine” that Washington’s security assistance must be used only inside the country to defend its sovereignty.

Like Miller, Ryder tried to cast doubt on the footage of US-made armored vehicles. “When you see imagery like that – you know, again, something we’ll look into –I don’t know if it’s true or not in terms of the veracity of that imagery.”

** Drone bombs Belgorod street – governor

A civilian vehicle was damaged in yet another suspected Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian city of Belgorod on Tuesday evening, according to the governor of the border region which suffered a deadly militant raid the day before.

“In Belgorod, an explosive device was dropped from a UAV onto the roadway… Bomb experts and emergency services are working at the scene,”Gladkov wrote on Telegram shortly after midnight.

There were no casualties in the attack, according to preliminary information, but at least one civilian car was damaged in the explosion, the official added, sharing a photo of the aftermath. Other footage posted by several Telegram news channels also showed what appeared to be debris of an improvised explosive device.

Some 30 minutes later, Gladkov wrote that the air defenses engaged and shot down a drone above the city. It was unclear if he was talking about the same device that dropped the bomb, but earlier on Tuesday he announced that several more drones had been intercepted in the area.

The incident follows a deadly cross-border raid by Ukrainian militants, which had forced the governor to briefly impose “anti-terrorism operation” regulations in the region.

A group of Ukrainian raiders crossed the border into the Grayvoron district, west of Belgorod city, on Monday, killing at least one villager and injuring several others in their attack. The Russian military described them as a “sabotage-reconnaissance group” and estimated their strength at around 50-200 men, using US-made armored cars. 

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine says Russia prevents Black Sea grain deal port operating

Ukraine accused Russia on Tuesday of effectively cutting the Ukrainian port of Pivdennyi out of a deal allowing safe Black Sea grain exports as Russia complained that it had been unable to export ammonia via a pipeline to Pivdennyi under the pact.

The Black Sea deal - brokered last July by the United Nations and Turkey and extended last week for two months - covers the wartime export of food and fertiliser from the Ukrainian ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi.

The U.N. expressed concern on Monday that Pivdennyi had not received any ships since May 2 under the deal.

Ukrainian Deputy Renovation Minister Yuriy Vaskov accused Russia of a "gross violation" of the agreement. All ships are inspected by a joint team of Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish and U.N. inspectors, but Vaskov said the Russian inspectors had refused to inspect ships bound for Pivdennyi since April 29.

"They (Russia) have now found an effective way to significantly reduce (Ukrainian) grain exports by excluding the port of Pivdennyi, which handles large tonnage vessels, from the initiative," Vaskov said in written comments on Tuesday.

Pivdennyi is the largest port included in the deal in terms of throughput. Restoration ministry data show it is storing about 1.5 million tonnes of food items for future export to 10 countries, with 26 ships due to come for them.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Tuesday that Russia's actions were "a clear violation of their commitments" under the grain deal, calling on Moscow to "stop holding global food supplies hostage."

The Russian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Miller's remarks.

AMMONIA

The Black Sea grain deal was agreed to help tackle a global food crisis aggravated by Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The pact also covers ammonia, which Russia transported to Pivdennyi via pipeline for export before the war.

Russia had threatened not to renew the Black Sea deal unless a list of demandsrelated to its own food and fertiliser exports was met. Restarting the ammonia pipeline is one of those demands, which the United Nations has been trying to broker.

Russia used to pump up to 2.5 million tonnes of ammonia annually for export via the pipeline from Togliati. Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia on Tuesday said that amount of ammonia could "produce 7 million tonnes of fertilisers."

"This amount of fertiliser would allow to produce enough food to supply to 200 million people. These deliveries should have started at the same time as those of Ukrainian food. However this never happened," he told the U.N. Security Council.

"The deficit of ammonia on the world markets stands at 70% due to the shortfall in volumes," Nebenzia said.

A Ukrainian government source told Reuters on Friday Kyiv would consider allowing Russian ammonia to transit its territory for export if the Black Sea grain deal was expanded to include more Ukrainian ports and a wider range of commodities.

Uralchem, Russia's biggest potash and ammonium nitrate producer, expects the opening of an ammonia export terminal near the Black Sea to make the pipeline across Ukraine much less important, the company's CEO said.

While Russian exports of food and fertiliser are not subject to Western sanctions, Moscow says restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance have amounted to a barrier to shipments.

Ukraine accused Moscow of slowing ship inspections under the Black Sea deal, which Russia denies.

"It is not working as it should. Russia continues to slow it down as much as possible," Vaskov said.

According to U.N. data, more than 30 million tonnes of food products have been exported so far under the Black Sea deal.

Tass/RT/Reuters

Sudan ceasefire brings some respite after weeks of heavy battles

Artillery fire could be heard in parts of Khartoum and warplanes flew overhead on Tuesday, residents said, though an internationally monitored ceasefire appeared to have brought some respite from heavy fighting in the Sudanese capital.

Night-time airstrikes were reported in at least one area after the ceasefire started late on Monday, but residents otherwise reported relative calm.

The truce was agreed at talks in Jeddah on Saturday after five weeks of fierce battles between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). It is being tracked by Saudi Arabia and the United States and is meant to allow for the delivery of humanitarian relief.

The two countries said in a joint statement late on Tuesday that preparations had begun for urgently needed humanitarian relief operations.

Sudanese activists wrote to the United Nations envoy to Sudan welcoming the ceasefire agreement but complaining of severe human rights abuses against civilians that they said took place as the fighting raged and should be investigated.

Volunteer groups that have been at the forefront of local aid efforts in the capital were preparing to receive supplies, though much of the aid that has arrived in Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast is yet to be distributed as agencies wait for security clearance, activists and aid workers said.

Medical humanitarian group MSF, which runs projects in 10 states in Sudan, said there had been violence in parts of the country including several cities in the western region of Darfur.

Sudan's health ministry said in a statement that the RSF raided and occupied the Ahmed Qassim hospital in Bahri just before the ceasefire and had stationed itself in another Bahri hospital, Alban Jadeed, on Tuesday morning. The RSF accused the health ministry of publishing "lies".

The ceasefire deal has raised hopes of a pause in a war that has driven nearly 1.1 million people from their homes, including more than 250,000 who have fled to neighbouring countries.

"Our only hope is that the truce succeeds, so that we can return to our normal life, feel safe, and go back to work again," said Khartoum resident Atef Salah El-Din, 42.

Although fighting has continued through previous ceasefires, this was the first to be formally agreed following negotiations and the first to include a monitoring mechanism.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the monitoring mechanism would be "remote", without giving details.

CEASEFIRE VIOLATIONS

"The Jeddah talks have had a narrow focus. Ending violence and bringing assistance to the Sudanese people. A permanent resolution of this conflict will require much more," Blinken said in a video message.

The U.S.-Saudi joint statement said the two Sudanese factions had failed to abide by commitments not to seek military advantage in the days before the truce began, and the monitoring committee was seeking to verify reported violations since it went into effect on Monday.

The U.S. will press the combatants to "stop the violence when we see violations of the ceasefire" and will use unspecified "additional tools" if appropriate, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters in Washington.

Since the start of the conflict on April 15, Sudanese activists have complained of indiscriminate shelling and airstrikes against residential areas as well as the taking of civilians as human shields, extrajudicial killings, torture and sexual violence.

MSF said violence, looting and administrative and logistical challenges had continually hampered efforts to increase its activities.

"We are experiencing a violation of humanitarian principles and the space for humanitarians to work is shrinking on a scale I've rarely seen before," said Jean-Nicolas Armstrong Dangelser, MSF's emergency coordinator in Sudan.

The crisis is also putting pressure on Sudan's neighbours.

Sudanese refugees are streaming into Chad so quickly that it will be impossible to relocate them all to safer places before the start of the rainy season in late June, a senior Red Cross official said on Tuesday, flagging the risk of a disaster.

Some 60,000-90,000 people have fled into neighbouring Chad, the U.N. refugee agency said this week.

Reuters

Africa has witnessed increased mobile internet coverage. The GSMA reports that “by the end of 2021, 22% of the total population in Sub-Saharan Africa was using mobile internet (and 40% of adults over 18 years of age).” The association also states that during the past five years, the proportion of the population covered by a mobile broadband network has more than doubled.

Today 3G, 4G and 5G mobile handsets make up over half of all connections in the region, according to the GSMA. This means greater connectivity across Africa and with the rest of the globe. But this easier access enables connections for fraudsters and scammers, making it easier for corrupt actors to swindle telcos and consumers. 

The bad news is that telecoms fraud occurs in diverse ways, making detection and prevention difficult. 

For the past six months, I have been getting one-ring calls from several international numbers from different nations: The Netherlands, Spain, Mozambique, Great Britain, South Africa and Morocco. 

Caught by the con

Two weeks ago, I woke up to another missed call from an international number. This time, it was Belgium (+32) and seemed legit, much like all the others before it. I didn’t have any friends based in this European nation, though. I took a chance, went with my instinct and dialled the number. Someone answered after the first ring but kept silent.

Previous calls lasted about 10 seconds before I ended it. But with the Belgium call, I held on for a full minute. After hanging up, I realised for the first time that my network provider charged me a higher-than-usual amount for this call. 

It was then that I realised I had fallen victim to the Wangiri scam. A common telecoms fraud tactic, careful inspection of my billing showed that the con artists had been running the scam for half a year before I noticed.

In 2020, Kenya experienced a surge of Wangiri calls. Essentially, the trick is to ring someone using an international number and hope their curiosity to return this foreign call kicks in. But calling back means unsuspecting victims may get billed a high charge instantly that the scammers cash in on because they claim this fee.

Reporting Wangiri calls in Africa rarely yields a positive outcome. The premium rate numbers scammers use are typically obtained from the dark web. But if the African-based telcos offered a call-block service, consumers would have a fighting chance against the con artists. 

Technology is a double-edged sword 

Africa is no stranger to technological advancements. We live in an age of mobile money payments, digital healthcare and emerging digital innovations that increase collaboration and connections. 

Africa’s burgeoning telecoms industry has grown into a multi-billion dollar sector, changing and opening up infrastructure. But this also makes this continent a prime target for telecoms fraud. This is because criminal minds now leverage the self-same technology propelling this continent’s growth.

Gavin Stewart, Vice President of Sales at telecoms software technology company Oculeus, explains technological growth helps scammers bypass existing defence systems more quickly than usual. “Advances in technology allow fraudsters to access the required tools to commit abuses. Bad actors now employ artificial intelligence (AI) innovations to outwit the traditional countermeasures telcos rely on.”

With AI-led tech, how can telcos possibly keep up with these scammers? 

Stewart offers insight: “As a society, the mechanics of daily life become more digitised, criminals also switch to the online world. Telecoms infrastructure provides a perfect access channel to the identities and riches in this digital world.”

Account Takeovers and Smishing/SMS Phishing are two other methods criminals use to acquire subscriber information and target potential victims.

Africa’s telecoms fraud threats 

Although telecoms fraud manifests in many ways, a few have standard features in Africa. According to Stewart, “Africa has special conditions which leave it even more exposed to the growing telecoms scam.” 

Below are three rising telecoms fraud issues on the continent today that businesses and consumers would be wise to familiarise themselves with:

1. International bypass fraud. Otherwise known as SIM Box Fraud, this happens when swindlers mask international calls as local calls to enjoy lower termination rates. “This is achieved by either pushing the traffic down illegitimate routings or impersonating a local caller ID, or both,” explains Stewart.
2. Exploiting Africa’s vast mobile money ecosystem. Based on the GSMA’s 2022 State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money, the continent has the highest number of registered users. 
   It’s understandable, given how many Africans were previously unbanked. As it is a viable market for telcos to extend coverage, scammers can exploit this to defraud users. 
   Stewart believes the mobile money system is easy to hack because it lacks the many security layers and controls in more formal banking sectors. “A mobile money fraudster needs only access to a mobile network to appropriate funds,” he says.
3. Africa’s overreliance on prepaid subscriptions. This model invites specific petty-fraud schemes that seek to empty a subscriber’s credit. 

Stewart shares a typical instance where the fraudster provides premium services like sports updates or romantic tips without consent from the customer. The victim is usually oblivious until they later realise they have a low or even empty account balance.

How to fight off fraud attacks

We must admit that telecoms fraud can’t be entirely eradicated, especially because fraudsters will always find loopholes to exploit and evolve new tactics. However, we can stop them dead in their tracks by being one step ahead. 

Telcos should invest in innovative technologies and lean into AI-led tools that mitigate risk. Although such commitments may require new investments, the gains can’t be overemphasised. 

Stewart reveals that telcos’ biggest mistake is “failing to continually review and refresh their anti-fraud solutions.” Fraudsters constantly reinvent their strategies to defraud the victims and escape without leaving a trace. He stresses that subscribers must play their part by exercising caution at all times and protecting their personal information.

Kolawole Samuel Adebayo is a content strategist and technology writer specialising in the software-as-a-service space. Adebayo explores emerging technologies and investigates the digital trends that drive business today and in the future.

Inc

The creators of ChatGPT say AI could surpass humanity in most domains within the next 10 years as "superintelligence" becomes more powerful than any technology the world has seen.

Cofounders of ChatGPT developer OpenAI, including CEO Sam Altman, said in a blogpost on Monday that it was conceivable AI could exceed the "expert skill level" of humans in most areas, and "carry out as much productive activity as one of today's largest corporations."

"Superintelligence will be more powerful than other technologies humanity has had to contend with in the past," the OpenAI executives said. "We can have a dramatically more prosperous future; but we have to manage risk to get there."

Since the release of ChatGPT, industry leaders have issued increasingly serious warnings about the potential for powerful AI to disrupt society by displacing jobsand helping fuel a wave of misinformation and criminal activity. 

In particular, concerns have grown as the release of generative AI tools like ChatGPT has fueled an AI arms race that has put companies such as Microsoft and Google in direct competition with each other. 

The concerns have prompted calls for AI to be regulated. OpenAI's leaders said in the blog post that "given the possibility of existential risk," there needed to be a proactive approach to managing the technology's potential harms.

"Nuclear energy is a commonly used historical example of a technology with this property; synthetic biology is another example," they said. "We must mitigate the risks of today's AI technology too, but superintelligence will require special treatment and coordination."

Last week, Altman made his first appearance before Congress to address concerns from lawmakers about the lack of rules in place to govern the development of AI. 

In the post, Altman and his colleagues suggested that there would eventually need to be an organization like the International Atomic Energy Agency to oversee the advancement of AI "above a certain capability," through measures such as audits and safety compliance tests. 

OpenAI did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment made outside of normal working hours.

Business Insider

When it comes to leading yourself and others, emotional intelligence – the ability to understand and manage our own emotions and understand and influence the emotions of others – is just as important as IQ, if not more.

Here's why: When you get good at being aware of your emotions and the emotions of others, you can connect with others much more effectively to reach solutions faster. A person's IQ, while certainly required in the role of a leader, cannot travel the same road as fast. It needs to partner with EQ.

Interviewing and Hiring for Emotional Intelligence

Organizations looking for an edge in hiring top performers should put more emphasis on EQ during the hiring process. Previous research conducted with more than 600 HR managers and over 800 office workers adds proof that emotional intelligence is critically important in work settings where professionals interact with a wide range of people. 

For example: 

• Nearly all of the more than 600 human resources managers (95 percent) and 800 workers (99 percent) surveyed said they think it's important for employees to have emotional intelligence.
• More than one in five employees (21 percent) believe EQ is more valuable in the workplace than IQ. Nearly two-thirds (65 percent) said the two are equally important.
• Most workers (92 percent) think they have strong emotional intelligence; slightly fewer (74 percent) believe their bosses do.
• Three in 10 HR managers (30 percent) feel most employers put too little emphasis on emotional intelligence during the hiring process.
• HR managers identified increased motivation and morale (43 percent) as the greatest benefit of having emotionally intelligent staff.
• Eighty-six percent of workers said when a colleague doesn't control his or her emotions, it affects their perception of that person's level of professionalism.

3 Questions to Ask

If you're in a management or HR role, and you'd like to evaluate whether your potential new hires have the EQ you need for top performance, scrutinizing candidates' answers to specific questions can reveal more than you think. Asking the following questions can help assess a potential hire's EQ: 

• How did you handle a day when everything went wrong for you?
• How comfortable are you asking for help at work?
• How well do you handle stress and pressure?

Candidates with high emotional intelligence will demonstrate how they've implemented the best solutions to their problems while keeping the dialogue positive and not blaming other people.

They also have extreme comfort in asking for help and are excellent at handling stress and pressure.

On the other hand, the following answers to the same questions above are clear signs that a job candidate may lack emotional intelligence:

• After a bad day, they couldn't stop thinking about how terrible things were and/or lashed out and blamed others for the things that were happening.
• They are not at all or are only slightly comfortable asking for help at work.
• They handle stress and pressure only fairly or worse and could not come up with concise examples of how they managed stress or conflict effectively at work .

When it comes to asking more open-ended questions about your job candidates' strengths and weaknesses, pay close attention: Those who demonstrate personal attributes like positivity, confidence and diligence in their abilities will typically have higher than average emotional intelligence than those who speak to different attributes.

Finally, a substantial shift (and learning curve) is needed for organizations to be introduced to the idea of an emotionally intelligent-driven work culture.

As more organizations adopt and embed the approach to hiring and growing employees with EQ, the upside over the long term will ultimately result in better team members, better leaders and better performance.

Inc

Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest person, announced the opening of a mega refinery in Nigeria — seven years late — to a backdrop of skepticism about how fast it will really be able to ramp up.

President Muhammadu Buhari, who leaves office later this month after serving two four-year terms, performed a commissioning ceremony at the refinery, which is near Lagos. The plant is 20% owned by Nigeria National Petroleum Co., the state oil company.

Dangote said the facility is aiming to satisfy the country’s domestic fuel demand by the end of this year. He didn’t immediately specify if he meant all the nation’s consumption. Were that to be the case, it would mean replacing millions of barrels of fuel supply and require a huge ramp-up. The plant will ship its first oil products by July or August, he said.

Despite the bullish comments, traders of West African oil said they’ve seen no commercial activity to suggest a major ramp up is at hand — either in terms of crude procurement or the hiring of traders to handle sales of finished fuels. Researchers, speaking before the ceremony, said they don’t expect any significant boost to fuel supply in the next few months.

“We view the upcoming commissioning as a symbolic gesture marking the end of Buhari’s term in office,” said Ronan Hodgson, an analyst at Facts Global Energy. “We continue to expect the Dangote refinery will not be producing anything meaningful for at least six months post-inauguration and, more likely, in the first quarter of 2024.”

Despite being Africa’s top oil producer, Nigeria’s state-owned refineries are in disrepair. That’s put the country at the mercy of local and international traders who deliver products like gasoline and diesel to the country in return for crude. When it fires up fully, Dangote should help to ease or even eliminate that dependence.

So-called commissioning is the first phase of getting a refinery up and running, involving the careful processing of relatively small batches of crude. From there, full ramp-up often takes months.

NNPC said it will fulfill its supply obligations to the refinery without elaborating.

Mega Project

The $20.5 billion refinery and fertilizer mega-project is designed to have a processing capacity of 650,000 barrels a day when it’s fully up and running, far exceeding any other plant in the continent. 

The NNPC has swap arrangements through which it trades at least 330,000 barrels of crude per day for gasoline. In some recent months, that figure has topped 450,000 barrels a day. When up and running, Dangote’s facility could go a long way to curtailing that reliance.

When a $3.3 billion loan for the refinery was agreed in 2013, the aim was to have it completed in 2016. In practice, construction didn’t even begin until 2017.

Petroleum products imports cost Nigeria $26 billion in 2022 and the refinery will help eliminate the cost, Godwin Emefiele, governor of Nigeria’s central bank, said at the ceremony.

At full capacity, Dangote could yield as much as 250,000 barrels a day of gasoline as well as around 100,000 barrels a day off of gasoil and diesel, FGE estimates.

Even so, with domestic gasoline output rising, fiscal savings from lower fuel imports may be limited because crude export revenues will be reduced at the same time, according to a report by the International Monetary Fund earlier this year. The IMF’s report assumed a slow ramp-up from 100,000 barrels a day 2024 and 200,000 in 2025, noting an upside risk in the medium term if this was achieved more rapidly.

Traders said the country’s crude exports may fall once the refinery is working because it will take a substantial proportion of Nigerian supply. The nation’s oil production averaged almost 1.4 million barrels a day so far this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Dangote refinery has a deal with NNPC, which will supply around 300,000 barrels a day of crude when the refinery is up and running. That’s expected to include mostly medium-sweet, distillate-rich crude as well as lighter varieties, according to Energy Aspects Ltd., a consultant.

The plant is expected to conduct a staggered start-up of secondary units through the second half of next year and into 2025, said Randy Hurburun, a senior refining analyst at the firm. Commissioning will continue for the rest of the year, followed by an operational startup in early 2024 at between 50%-70% of capacity, he said.

“We are not seeing any indication that the refinery is securing any oil to get operations underway,” he said.

Bloomberg

The supreme court has fixed May 26 to deliver judgment in a suit seeking the disqualification of Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima as presidential and vice-presidential candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The judgment will be delivered three days before the inauguration of the president-elect and the vice-president-elect.

PDP, in the suit filed on July 28, 2022, claimed that Shettima’s nomination as Tinubu’s running mate was in breach of the provisions of sections 29(1), 33, 35, and 84(1)(2) of the electoral act, 2022.

The party argued that Shettima’s nomination to contest the position of vice-president and Borno central senatorial seat — at the same time — contravened the law.

PDP, which sought an order disqualifying the APC, Tinubu, and Shettima from contesting the presidential election, also sought an order nullifying their candidacies.

However, Inyang Ekwo, the trial judge at the court of appeal, dismissed the suit on the grounds that the PDP lacked the locus standi to institute the suit.

Not satisfied, the PDP appealed the judgment.

Delivering judgment in the appeal, a three-member panel of the court of appeal led by James Abundaga held that the PDP failed to establish that it had locus standi to institute the case.

Abundaga described the PDP as a “busybody”, who dabbled into issues that were internal affairs of the APC.

“The appellant, having failed to disclose its locus standi, this appeal fails and it is hereby dismissed,” he said.

The judge also awarded N5 million cost against the appellant’s lawyer, J. O. Olotu.

The Cable

Presidential Election Petitions Court has rejected the application for live transmission of proceedings as made by the petitioners in the court.

In a unanimous ruling on the interlocutory applications, the five-member panel of justices held that the request hinges on policy decision which can only be made by the judiciary.

Both the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar and the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, had separately argued that the live transmission of the proceedings had become necessary due to the public interest and concern generated by the outcome of the February 25 presidential election.

In the lead ruling by the chairman of the panel, Haruna Tsammani, held that the applications lacked merit and ought to be dismissed.

The chairman observed that the applications, which were hinged on sections 36(3) and 39 of the Nigerian Constitution and Paragraph 19 of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act, 2022, which border on fair hearing, were outside the provisions of the concept and outside the claims brought by the petitioners for the determination of the court.

He said fair hearing involved both parties providing equal opportunity to present their cases before the court and not to dramatise the trial through installing cameras in the courtroom.

“The mere sentimental claim that it (live broadcast of proceedings) will benefit the voters has no utilitarian value on the matters before the court,” he said.

He said nobody could predict the implication of live broadcast of the proceedings, adding, “it is better for the avoidance of the trial by ordeal of live cameras in court.”

Daily Trust

When he steps down next week President Muhammadu Buhari will be leaving Nigerians less secure, poorer and more in debt than when he came to office in 2015.

The former military ruler became president after winning a momentous election which saw the defeat of underperforming incumbent Goodluck Jonathan.

Riding a wave of optimism that change was possible, he was supported by a powerful coalition and had the reputation of being a hard-man soldier, who would get things done.

After Buhari's brief stint in charge in the 1980s, his second coming was on the back of promises to curtail the rampaging Islamist insurgency in the northeast and tackle widespread corruption.

He is the last of a generation of British-trained military men who went on to govern the country.

But the 80-year-old's two four-year terms have left many disappointed.

There have been gains in tackling Boko Haram and other extremist groups in the northeast, aided by improved military hardware from the US.

While the groups still carry out attacks on communities and military installations in the region, it is a big improvement from the years when they operated freely and controlled a large portion of Nigerian territory.

Buhari also utilised Chinese loans to upgrade the ailing road and rail infrastructure, building a new port in Lagos, completing a crucial bridge in the southeast, and passing important electoral and oil-sector laws.

But whatever gains have been recorded in the northeast against the Islamist militants have been eroded by the emergence of equally violent groups in other parts of the country under his watch.

Clashes between farmers and cattle herders from the Fulani ethnic group, which had simmered for years, were allowed to boil over into deadly armed confrontations with an ethnic element, as the government ran out of ideas to solve the problem of where animals could graze.

Buhari, a Fulani from northern Nigeria, was accused of bias in the conflict and his proposal of grazing reserves for the herders were rebuffed by powerful southern state governors who saw it as a land-grabbing tactic.

Some of the armed groups created by the farmer-herder crisis have since transitioned into violent motorcycle-riding bandits targeting communities in the northwest and central states. These groups have helped turn a lucrative kidnap-for-ransom business into a behemoth that now extends countrywide.

It took hold during the first decade of the century when oil workers were kidnapped in the Niger Delta and blossomed under Buhari's watch as the targets changed.

For instance, thousands of school children were abducted between December 2020 and September 2021, according to the UN's children's organisation, Unicef. That eclipsed the 270 girls seized from a school in Chibok who made global headlines in 2014 - a crime that was a crucial factor in Buhari defeating Jonathan.

"I thought that as a former military ruler he would have the solution to Nigeria's security challenges," Musa Ahmadu a farmer now living in the northwestern state of Kano, told the BBC.

Ahmadu, originally from the president's home state of Katsina, abandoned his land and fled to neighbouring Kano alongside thousands of others because of the activities of armed groups in the region.

Many also believe that Buhari has mishandled the situation thrown up by separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu.

Kanu heads the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob), a group seeking secession in the southeast which is proscribed by the government.

He is a charismatic figure with a huge appetite for sensationalism which he fed devotees via his internet radio station.

Ipob was largely ignored by many Nigerians until Kanu was first arrested for treason by the Buhari government in 2015. A subsequent state-sanctioned attack on his home marked the beginning of an armed confrontation that has spiralled out of control, claiming hundreds of lives in the process.

After escaping in 2017, he was abducted in unclear circumstances abroad and returned to Nigeria in 2021 to face trial. A judge has ordered his release as the process of his return was illegal but authorities continue to hold him.

These security challenges made many question Buhari's handling of a sector that was supposed to be his area of expertise.

"I am surprised at the level of embarrassment he has brought to his constituency, the military, despite all the promises he made," said retired Colonel Hassan Stan-Labi, a security analyst.

"How can you fail in your own area of specialty?" he asked.

The countrywide insecurity under Buhari has largely been muted in the oil-rich Niger Delta where oil-militants and sea pirates held sway in the past.

But that peace seems to have coincided with a period of large-scale oil theft, with the government accused of looking away while different groups in the region steal crude from the pipelines. This led to Nigeria's production plunging to a 30-year low in 2022.

The shocking discovery last October of a kilometres-long pipeline used to steal oil was described by commentators as "nearly impossible" without help from authorities.

In one location, thieves built their own 4km-long pipeline through the heavily guarded creeks to the Atlantic Ocean. There, barges and vessels blatantly loaded the stolen oil from a seven-metre rig visible for miles on the open waters.

That theft on such a scale happened directly under Buhari, who also doubled as Nigeria's petroleum minister, undermined his claim to be fighting graft, Salaudeen Hashim of anti-corruption NGO Cleen Foundation, told the BBC.

Buhari's integrity was also impugned by his frequent medical trips to the UK despite spending large sums to refurbish a clinic in the presidential villa.

This lack of transparency "drained taxpayers' monies, encouraged illicit financial flows and other corruption-enabling activities the administration preached against", Auwal Rafsanjani, the head of Transparency International in Nigeria, told the BBC.

Rafsanjani scored the administration four out of 10 in fighting corruption, and said Buhari's appointment of people with ongoing corruption cases to his cabinet and his wife's long stays in expensive Dubai homes "contravened best practices by an administration that was fighting corruption and mismanagement".

As he leaves, Buhari's handling of the Nigerian economy will most likely be remembered for his botched attempt earlier this year at redesigning the local currency.

An otherwise rudimentary exercise descended into chaos as scarcity of the new naira notes, which have now almost disappeared, resulted in untold hardship for millions in the country who relied on cash for basic needs.

"The small business we were doing was destroyed by that man," said a university graduate in Abuja who made money by supplying banknotes to her customers before the cash crisis.

Her anger was fuelled by a common problem in Nigeria - a lack of work among educated young people.

Currently one in three Nigerians who want to work are unable to find a job. Before Buhari took over that figure was less than one in 10.

The government has blamed a drastic drop in oil prices in its early days, the Covid pandemic and Russia's war in Ukraine.

But some of its policies, such as currency restrictions and closing the land borders to boost local production, have contributed towards record inflation that has made millions poorer and depleted a once burgeoning Nigerian middle-class.

Last week, with the end in sight, Buhari pleaded with lawmakers to hurriedly approve an $800m (£640m) loan from the World Bank. Nigeria's public debt could pass $150bn this year - when he took over it stood at a little over $60bn.

His borrowing spree has drawn warnings from the World Bank that Africa's largest economy was using 96% of its revenue to service debts.

But the huge debt has been defended by the administration who say it is within acceptable limits, pointing to cash payments to poor people as justification for some of the loans.

"These welfarist interventions give a window into the kind soul of the president, a man some people have not bothered to discern, dissect and decipher," presidential spokesman Femi Adesina wrote last week.

Like him, many in the administration insist it has had a good eight-year run. Although both he and his wife have apologised for not delivering on promises made, Buhari has said that he tried his best.

"I want [Nigerians] to analyse how things were when we came in and how they are when we're leaving," he responded when asked about his legacy last year.

The fact is that Nigerians were safer, better off and less in debt before Buhari took over, and many will remember him for presiding over the toughest eight years they might ever face.

BBC