💸 Money in, Money out
Hi.
Brace yourself, Lagos
Blackout in some parts of Lagos: Ikeja Electric (IE) announced that for 8 weeks from the 11th of October, electricity supply — in Alausa, Oregun, Anifowoshe, Ojodu, Magodo, Omole Phase 1, Oba Akran, Oke-Ira, and parts of Ikeja GRA— will be shut between 8 AM and 6 PM daily. IE says they're shutting it down to make improvements they're sure will "improve power supply to customers". Yikes
In this week's edition
FG is paying people to go to university
CBN says Nigeria's external reserves have increased
Malaria, sickle cell vaccines
Nigerians in Pandora Papers
NASCO's founder is on major terrorism lists
Buhari offers more help to everyone but Nigerians
President Muhammadu Buhari told South Sudan that Nigeria is happy to extend a helping hand to South Sudan towards political and economic stability.
Recall that Nigeria is currently in a dire economic state and not at all secure.
On the situation in Guinea and Mali, President Buhari reiterated that African leaders must support efforts geared towards the return of democracy in the countries.
Recall that in Nigeria, Twitter is still banned and journalists and protesters are still getting harassed for exercising their civil rights.
Something positive, perhaps?
As a way of encouraging more Nigerians to take up a career in teaching, the Nigerian government has announced that from 2022, they'll pay students to study education
According to the Minister of education, people in Universities studying education programs will get N75,000, and college of education students will get 50,000 per semester.
They don't say anything about paying them if they become public sector educators, though. As recently as a month ago, Nigeria's Academic Staff Union of Universities went on another industrial action strike to protest unpaid salaries and unfavourable work conditions.
Speaking on strikes, after a 9-week run Nigerian doctors, under the umbrella of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), have called off their industrial strike.
The NARD president, Godiya Ishay said having reviewed the progress made so far — per their agreement with the FG and minister for health— they have decided to suspend the strike.
However, if demands are not met, the strike still stands a chance of resurfacing.
Money in: CBN says Nigeria's external reserves have increased
Nigeria's reserves have been suffering for a while. So much so that 2 weeks ago, opposition parties accused CBN president Godwin Emefiele of supervising foreign funds embezzlement and demanded his resignation.
But great news: according to the CBN, the total in Nigeria’s foreign savings accounts increased by about $587.8 million in one week.
According to the data published on the CBN website, the amount left in the reserves accounts increased by 1.6 per cent to $36.4 billion on Tuesday, September 28 from $35.8 billion recorded on Tuesday of the previous week.
Money out: President Buhari meanwhile is planning to increase the 2022 budget again.
In July, the federal executive council (FEC) approved N13.98 trillion for the proposed 2022 budget sum.
This week, President Muhammadu Buhari has raised the 2022 appropriation bill by N2.47 trillion, bringing the total for the fiscal year to N16.45 trillion— its highest ever.
This update will raise Nigeria's deficit to 6.26 trillion Naira (which is 3.39% of GDP) to be funded by new borrowing. The loan is to be funded by borrowing, proceeds from privatisations and drawdowns on loans secured for specific projects
Repaying the debts isn't looking up. In addition to the Pandemic, revenue from oil and gas—Nigeria's major revenue stream— is projected to drop by over N5 billion.
Worried? Buhari knows: "Some have expressed concern over our resort to borrowing to finance our fiscal gaps. They are right to be concerned. However, we believe that the debt level of the Federal Government is still within sustainable limits," he said.
Returns reports that Nigeria has hit many record budgets since Buhari took office in 2015, but nothing to show for it in terms of revenue.
Most of the 2022 budget is focused on tackling security issues and insurgency in the country. Buhari says until insurgency and insecurity are tackled, Nigeria will most likely be stuck in deficits.
The FG is also apparently secretly taking from citizens. According to a report from Leadership Newspaper, the government recently increased the National cost of electricity without telling anyone.
Malaria vaccine, Sickle cell vaccine... more, please!
Progress in much needed Malaria vaccine
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has approved the first-ever malaria vaccine, based on success from an ongoing pilot programme in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi that has reached more than 800,000 children since 2019.
Malaria remains a major cause of hospital attendance in Africa leading to over 260,000 African children under 5 dying from malaria annually.
Tribune reports that among children under five years and pregnant women, Nigeria records an estimated 94,070 deaths and 61 million malaria cases annually.
The RTS,S malaria vaccine has recorded a "strong safety profile"
Data from the pilot programme showed that more than two-thirds of children in the 3 countries who are not sleeping under a bednet are benefitting from the RTS,S vaccine.
WHO says they have secured financing and partnered with international health funding bodies — Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; and Unitaid— to begin distribution.
Long-awaited Sickle Cell strides
Novartis, a global healthcare company, has broken the twenty-year trial-and-error with the development of a new drug sickle cell treatment, crizanlizumab.
The drug helps reduce pain most sickle cell patients experience annually. In its trial phase, patients taking crizanlizumab had a sickle-cell crisis 1.6 times a year on average, compared to the nearly three times a year they normally experienced.
Worldwide, over 100 million people live with sickle cell disease (SCD), mostly black people of Sub-Saharan African descent. 1 in 365 black babies being born with it – a high occurrence compared to Hispanic-Americans’ 1 in 16,000.
There are concerns on how effective the treatment is as testing has only been going on for a year, so even though patients are already experiencing relief, there’s still the question of long-term side effects and how cost-effective the treatment would be for them.
Leaky leaks 💦
Pandora Papers expose global financial scandals
The largest financial data leak was released last week and exposed tax evasion, tax avoidance, offshore accounts and money laundering schemes by affluent people around the world, including Nigeria.
The Pandora Papers investigation— a collective effort from investigative journalists from The Washington Post, the BBC, The Guardian, Premium Times and others— is based on the leak of some 11.9 million documents from 14 financial services companies around the world.
The data reveals companies set up in tax havens like the British Virgin Islands and Panama, to help rich people hide their money from the taxman.
According to the Premium Times, the papers (expected to be released in batches) has names of Nigerian pastors, a former Chief of justice, many current and past political leaders and affluent entrepreneurs.
Premium Times says many of them have created cover-up companies and bought property to clean their tracks (hence, shell companies are working, but Pandora journalists are working harder)
The Premium Times reports that the first batch, released this week, includes secret property in the UK allegedly owned by a shell company owned by Former Federal Minister of Aviation and current senator Stella Oduah.
It also includes Peter Obi— the former Anambra State Governor who has a secret company in British Virgin Island— set up by a company that specialises in creating secret businesses for rich people looking to hide stuff, and assets he did not declare to Nigeria’s Code of Conduct Bureau.
Obi— whose company is named after his daughter—says he didn't do anything wrong. Its technically not his company, so not his to declare
“I don’t declare what is owned with others. If my family owns something I won’t declare it.”
The leak phase 1 also revealed shell companies owned by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta who has in the past publicly condemned anyone who has offshore accounts.
NASCO's founder is on major terrorism lists
By now you've probably heard or read about David Hundeyin's investigative article about the owner of NASCO involvement in terrorist financing. If you haven't read it, here are some key highlights
For over a decade, Eritrean CEO of NASCO Group Ahmed Idris Nasreddin has been identified as a terrorism financier by many major news outlets and agencies, including the BBC, Los Angeles Times and the UN.
Nasreddin who died in March 2021 initially lived in Jos where he set up his now extensive variety of products— cereal, biscuits, etc. But he was already an influential figure in Northern Nigeria before the money.
In the 50s, Nasreddin was an influential figure in Kaduna and publicly condemned Nigeria’s version of Islam.
During Nigeria's military regime he partnered with International Islamic influencers powered by Saudi funds to preach and retain the ‘purity’ of islam in Northern Nigeria.
In 1978, one of his prominent students, Sheikh Ismaila Idris took charge of this increasingly powerful but somewhat unofficial movement and named it and calls it Jama'atu Izalatil Bid’ah Wa Iqamatus Sunnah (Society of Removal of Innovation and Re-establishment of the Sunnah), also known as JIBWIS.
JIBWIS- a religious advocacy group that had a powerful place in Nigerian politics - politicking in the majority Islamic parts of Nigeria are greatly influenced by them.
This organisation has produced high ranking men in the Nigerian Armed Forces, Nigeria’s most respected imams, etc.
David Hundeyin's article implies that Nasreddin's teachings and funds from NASCO and his international Islamic partners funded the initial Boko Haram attacks.
Boko Haram’s first attack was in 2011, but according to a letter to the UN from the ng govt in 2016, it started almost a decade before. the letter states that in 2002 and 2005, the NG government arrested Taliban members who were trying to set up terrorist satellites in Katsina and kano.
Their leader, Yakubu Musa Kafanchan, is now one of the leading members of JIBWIS.
Wikileaks cable confirms that this arrest actually did take place, only for the suspect to be released inexplicably after 27 days in detention.
In 2003, a terrorist camp in Yobe was intercepted
Yakubu Musa Kafanchan is also friends with known terrorism supporters and Nigeria’s Digital economy minister Isa Ali Pantami.
The letter, written to outline Nigeria’s anti-terrorism efforts, also said the Government had frozen Nassredin’s account in 2016. The letter highlighted findings by the United States Embassy and the Un which found that the NASCO group had been moving money around to fund terrorism (read here)
In 2005, Lisa Myers and Aram Roston of the NBC News Investigative Unit discover that despite his designation as a terror financier in the US, Nasreddin’s Nigerian business empire and his Italian hotel are still operating as normal.
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Security updates
187 kidnap victims rescued in Zamfara state (Premium Times)
There were rumours that the Nigerian police was planning on reinstating SARS, but the Nigerian Police Force says that they have heard ENDSARS and have no plans of bringing back the agency* (The Cable)
Leaders of the South East have resolved to do everything within the law to ensure that there is no further sit-at-home order by non-state actors in the zone. They noted that the sit-at-home order was mostly issued by people in the diaspora, who are not affected by the economic consequences of the order. (Arise)
terrorist group*
Other news updates
UK relaxes COVID restrictions for vaccinated Nigerians. Vaccinated Nigerians no longer have to quarantine for a week when visiting the UK. Recognised vaccines: Pfizer BioNTech, Oxford AstraZeneca (including Covidshield), Moderna and Janssen (J&J) (Premium Times)
The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, has put forward a proposal to disqualify people under the age of 18 from registering and owning a SIM card in Nigeria to "protect minors from the liabilities of sim cards" (Premium Times)
As a way of giving thousands of Africans access to fast and cheaper internet, Google has promised to invest $1 billion in Africa over the next five years that will back startups and support the continent’s digital transformation (Arise)
FG threatens to declare a state of emergency in Anambra state (Nigerian Tribune)
Sanwoolu approved the bill preventing Police from parading suspects (The Cable)
More Governors have volunteered to support the state in the ongoing Rivers vs FIRS court case over who gets to keep state VAT (Premium Times)
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