The Labour Party and its standard bearer in the last presidential election, Peter Obi, have kicked against the offer of board slots to state governors, including those elected on the platform of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party, by President Bola Tinubu.

Kwara State Governor and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, disclosed at a meeting of the forum in Abuja on Tuesday night that the President asked the governors to nominate competent persons to serve in the boards and parastatals of Federal Government agencies which were dissolved last month.

The PUNCH reports that Tinubu announced the dissolution of the governing boards of over 153 agencies, parastatals, institutions and government-owned companies.

The dissolved boards were among the 209 constituted by former President Muhammadu Buhari in December 2017.

No fewer than 2,000 vacant positions on the boards were expected to be filled by new nominees.

Notable agencies include the North-East Development Commission with 12 vacant board slots, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission with seven board seats; Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, seven; Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, 21; Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, 12; National Universities Commission, 21 and Transmission Commission of Nigeria, 14; National Health Insurance Authority,12

Others are the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau, 7; Nigerian Meteorological Agency, seven; Nigerian College of Aviation Technology,8; Nigerian Police Trust Fund, 8; Nigerian Natural Medicine Development Agency,10; Federal Institute of Industrial Research, 11 and National Centre for Technology Management, 11.

Also on the list are the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute, 11; Nigerian Customs Service, 11; National Pension Commission, 17; National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking In Persons, 11; National Identity Management Commission, 19; West Africa Examination Council, 8; Niger Delta Development Commission, 13; National Institute of Sports,12; Nigeria Deposit Insurance Company,12; National Bureau of Statistics,15; Federal Inland Revenue Services, 15; Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, 8 and Nigerian Airspace Management Agency,7, among others.

In a communiqué issued at the end of the NGF meeting on Wednesday, Governor Abdulrazaq said the members of the forum resolved to commend the President for extending an opportunity to the governors to nominate board members across the party lines.

The governor also disclosed that that forum received briefings from the National Emergency Management Agency and the Nigerian Meteorological Agency on the cases of flooding across the country and moves adopted so far to curtail them.

This is just as they also played host to United Nations Deputy Secretary General, Amina Mohammed alongside Nobel Peace laureate and UN Ambassador of Peace, Malala Yousafzai who is in Nigeria for girl-child advocacy.

The state chief executives expressed their readiness to partner with the UN and Malala Fund in advancing gender-responsive and inclusive policies, including access to quality education for girls and other affirmative actions across the country.

At the end of the meeting, the governors resolved to adopt strategies to address incidences of natural disasters at the local government and community levels, to prevent the loss of lives and properties.

The communique read in part, “Members (of NGF) resolved to commend the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria President, Bola Tinubu for showing leadership by extending the opportunity to governors across party lines, by asking them to nominate competent people from their fold for appointment into boards of parastatals.

“The forum received a briefing from the Director Generals of the National Emergency Management Agency and Nigerian Meteorological Agency on the incidence of flooding across the country and deliberated on urgent proactive measures to save lives, livelihood, critical infrastructure and safeguarding national food security.

‘’Members resolved to collaborate with relevant agencies at arriving at a comprehensive and federation response while leveraging the 2023 Seasonal Climate Prediction, Annual Flood Outlook, flood risk maps, and the Climate-Related Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation Strategy.

“National Emergency Management Agency briefed governors on how to achieve shared goals of building a safer and more resilient Nigeria in the face of the growing rate of occurrence of disasters globally.’’

The statement further said, “NEMA called on state governors to set up functional State Emergency Management Agencies, Local Emergency Management Committees and community volunteers with adequate legal backing, funding and trained manpower to:

“Support knowledge, assets and experience sharing between states, NEMA and other responsible partners.

“Support the signing of Mutual Aid Agreements between states as disasters hit different geographical spaces at different times.

“Encourage private sector participation as part of its corporate social responsibility and foster policy alignment and community engagement for Disaster Risk Reduction.’’

“According to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, every United States dollar invested in risk reduction and prevention can save up to $15 in post-disaster recovery.”

The communique also noted that the governors urged NEMA and NiMet to develop a comprehensive partnership framework to drive their engagement with states.

The governors further commiserated with their Plateau and Zamfara states’ counterparts, Caleb Muftwang and Dauda Lawal, respectively, over the senseless killings in some parts of their states.

They solicited the cooperation of the Federal Government in safeguarding lives and properties across the country.

But commenting on Tinubu’s offer of board slots to the governors across party lines, the LP described it as a ‘gimmick’ to lure the opposition governments and chieftains into the ruling party.

The Chief Spokesman for Obi-Datti Campaign Council, Yunusa Tanko stated such a subtle move ‘’will not change the fact that Tinubu’s presidency is an illegitimate government.’’

He said, “APC is doing everything in their crooked book to ensure they legitimize this government, which we have resisted vehemently. We will only do what is rightfully ours when the court makes its decision and pronouncement.

‘’But as far as we are concerned, every attempt we see them do is a means to cajole people to believe and legitimize their government. That is the truth about it.’’

Tanko wondered why the APC would want to appease the sole LP governor with board offers when the party has hundreds of supporters in Abia State that could be given board appointments.

He added, ‘’Sending letters to state governors is part of the process of legitimizing their governance, which we are resisting. At the moment, LP has only one governor. The belief is that the governor may likely dance to their tune.

‘’But the truth about it is that will the APC tell you they don’t have party people in Abia State that they can nominate? Why must they go through the governor to do so? What they are aiming to do is to indirectly co-opt him into their party. That’s the truth.”

Speaking in the same vein, Obi’s media aide, Tai Obasi, said as much as what the president is attempting to do appears positive, it is not enough to legitimise his government.

“It is obviously a gimmick. Of course, you know the man (Tinubu) and the problem he is facing in court. It is easy for one to see what he is trying to do even though it looks positive though.

“But again, the oppositions are not fools. As we are concerned, we still see his government as an interim one,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party has said it cannot comment until its governors took a position on the offer.

The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Debo Ologunagba, said, “I am not even aware that the President has asked the governors to make their nominations to the boards of parastatals.

‘’I have not spoken with the PDP governors and until I do so, it would not be appropriate to make a comment on this on behalf of the party.”

On his part, the PDP presidential candidate in the last election, Atiku Abubakar said a reaction is unnecessary.

Speaking through his media aide, Mr Paul Ibe, the former Vice President said, “It is not within our purview to react to issues like this. So, no comment”

But the Social Democratic Party commended Tinubu for the initiative which it said would bring about national integration.

Speaking with our correspondent on Wednesday, the National Publicity Secretary of the Party, Rufus Aiyenigba, described it as a good development.

“This is a good development, and it shows the commitment of President Tinubu to engendering national integration and a government of national unity towards sustainable growth and development. It is commendable that he wants to harness all good hands to contribute their quota to national development,’’ the SDP spokesman submitted.”

The House of Representatives on Wednesday took steps to make the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board Examination (JAMB) results valid for three years.

Consequently, the House urged JAMB to rethink and allow its result to be valid for at least three years and conduct the entry exams at least twice annually.

This was sequel to the adoption of a motion by Hon. Akintunde Rotimi from Ekiti at plenary on Wednesday.

Presenting the motion, Rotimi said JAMB conducts an examination every year for intending undergraduates at a fee paid by the parent or by the candidates themselves.

“Also aware that the West African Examination Council (WAEC), and National Examination Council

(NECO) examinations results which are a precursor to the JAMB tests are valid Indefinitely.

“Concerned that the JAMB examination result is valid for only one year and if candidates cannot secure admission into any tertiary institution of their choice in the academic year the exam was taken, the result no matter how good becomes useless.

“Also concerned that despite the incessant strikes embarked upon by ASUU which led to the loss of a complete academic calendar, JAMB still went ahead to administer its examination without recourse to the vailing industrial action by ASUU.

“Worried by the backlog of candidates waiting for admission into the limited vacancies in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions and its attendant pressure on the education system and parents,” Rotimi added.

Adopting the motion, the House urged the Federal Ministry of Education to put mechanisms in place to ensure that the resolution is implemented.

Former Oyo State governor and Otun Olubadan of Ibadanland, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, has dragged the state governor, Seyi Makinde; Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Lekan Balogun, and 10 members of the Olubadan-in-Council, who were recently elevated to kingship position, to court over the State’s chieftaincy law review.

The Olubaban had last Friday crowned the High Chiefs as Obas, following the review of the state’s chieftaincy law by Governor Makinde.

However, Ladoja, one of the High Chiefs, who had kicked against the elevation of the High Chiefs as Obas, shunned the ceremony.

It would be recalled that Ladoja also dragged late Governor Abiola Ajimobi to court following the elevation of 33 chiefs to Obas in 2017.

The Otun Olubadanland, Rashidi Ladoja, had alleged that the Olubadan, Ọba Olalekan Balogun, was plotting to prevent him from ascending to the throne when it gets to his turn by altering the chieftaincy law.

In the suit filed by the former governor, he alleged that the plan was that if he refused to be crowned, he would be denied of his status as Otun Olubadan of Ibadan Land and that he would not be permitted to ascend the throne of Olubadan of Ibadan Land when it is his turn.

The first defendant in the suit was Olubadan of Ibadanland while the 12th defendant was Seyi Makinde, governor of Oyo State. The second to eleventh defendants were the elevated Obas.

He stated in the suit filed by his counsel that, “To the dismay of the claimant, he started hearing in the media that he would be crowned on the 7 day of July, 2023, when he has never consented to the untraditional act masterminded by the 1st Defendant.

“That since he has made it known to the first Defendant that the act of elevating any of the Olubadan in council or High Chiefs to this status of His Royal Majesty is untraditional the 1st Defendant has started plotting that if the Claimant refused to be crowned, he would be denied of his status as Otun Olubadan of Ibadan Land and that he would not be permitted to ascend the throne of Olubadan of Ibadan Land when it is his turn.

“That from Ekarun Olubadan of Ibadan Land after due consideration, the 12th Defendant is the approving authority to become a King in Ibadan, which is Olubadan of Ibadan and no other King. The 12th Defendant has not in any form consent to the illegal act that the 1st Defendant is out to perpetuate.

“That the entire Ibadanland is the domain of Olubadan of Ibadan Land and that the elevation that the 1st Defendant intends doing is to segregate Ibadan Land and cause disharmony. The Imperial Majesty that the 1st Defendant is appointing would be a royal father without domain.

“That the act of the 1st Defendant to elevate the 2nd to 11th Defendants is contrary to Oyo State of Nigerian Gazette No. 03 Vol. 47 dated 11th February, 2022.’’

According to him, the act of the first defendant to elevate the second to 12th Defendants to be royal majesty was against the tenor of judgment in M/317/2017 between High Chief (Senator Rashidi Ladoja Vs The Governor Of Oyo State & ANOR delivered on the 19th day of November, 2019.

He further stated that in order to stop this illegal act, through his counsel, he wrote a letter dated July 4, 2023 to the 1st Defendant.

“That it is only this Honourable Court that can protect the long-aged tradition of Ibadanland from being bastardized, by restraining the Defendants from carrying out this untraditional act.

“I make this written statement on oath in good faith, conscientiously believing the same to be true and correct pursuant to the Oaths Act.”

The National Vice Chairman (Northwest) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Lukman, has accused the party’s National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, of denying President Bola Tinubu and all candidates of the party financial support to execute the 2023 elections.

Speaking at a news conference in Abuja on Wednesday, Lukman disclosed that the party made over N30 billion from the sale of forms, yet it never supported President Tinubu and any of its candidates.

Lukman, who is a member of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the ruling party, asked Adamu to render a financial account of the party since he took over the helms of affairs.

He said; “We are expected to present a proposed national budget to the National Executive Committee NEC for approval by the provisions of Article 13(3A)(14) of the APC constitution. I felt embarrassed when I heard the National Secretary (Omisore) say the budget of the party has been sent to the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC. INEC is not the approving authority of the budget of the APC. The approving authority is the NEC. Till today we don’t have a national budget. Yet we made over N30 billion from sales of forms.

“Till today as a member of the NWC and majority members of the NWC, maybe with the exception of the Financial Secretary, Treasurer and or the Auditor who may have inside knowledge of how much was expended on the renovation of the National Secretariat of the party, we have no knowledge of what is being expended.

“Talking of national budget, we are just coming out of elections whereby we were not able to sustain past precedence. What was the past precedence? Under Comrade Adams Oshiomhole in 2019, every candidate of the party received something from the National Secretariat. In this last election, no candidate of the party received a dime from the party.

“Talking of finances, in our constitution the NEC is supposed to approve some form of sharing formula. I am aware that each state chapter has received about N20 million out of the N30 billion. Put together, that is about N700 million less than a billion which is less than 3 percent of the total income that has been earned. Yet we want to sweep this under the carpet.

“We are having states, zonal, local councils and ward levels who are left on their own. The whole question of funding of the party has not been addressed.

“Tinubu didn’t get a dime from the party. I am making this public. Let them challenge me and contradict me.”

Speaking further, Lukman said the party supported President Muhammadu Buhari financially when he was the party’s standard bearer in 2015 and 2019.

He said: “Look, in 2015, the party was truly a model party. President Buhari didn’t have money. People were assigned responsibilities to raise money. It is just like Asiwaju and you say Asiwaju has money. So there were people assigned with the responsibility of mobilizing money for the party.

“If anything was done in 2023 based on that, it would be the initiative of Asiwaju. I am not aware of it as a party. If you remember in between, we were busy causing distractions about what should be our roles in the Presidential Campaign Council.

“Unless we are humble and honest to admit that these are things that ordinarily shouldn’t have happened and admit we need to correct them and reshape the relationship between us and the government that emerged, we would continue to have the problems we are having.”

The Senate has again resolved to launch fresh probe into alleged uneven disbursement of N483 billion loan to the Medium and Small-Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) in the six geo-political zones by the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) in 2021.

This followed a motion by the Senate Chief Whip, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume (APC, Borno) and co-sponsored by 64 other lawmakers during Wednesday’s plenary.

It would be recalled that the 9th Senate had set up an ad-hoc panel to investigate the claim that the South-West, especially Lagos State, had the largest number of the loan beneficiaries of about 47 per cent of the entire loan.

The DBN officials then told the panel that they adhered strictly to the criteria set up by their regulators and not geopolitical considerations in giving out loans.

Senator Ndume, who was visibly dissatisfied with the outcome of the last investigation and the committee’s recommendations, said there was a need for the Senate to look at the issue critically again owing to the huge disparity in the loan disbursement.

He said the Bank’s Annual Integrated Statutory Report 2021 showed that it disbursed a loan worth N483 billion in 2021.

He said out of the N483 billion, only 11 per cent went to the 19 northern states totaling N53 billion while Lagos alone got 47 per cent, which amounts to N227 billion.

Ndume said breakdown of the loan disbursement, according to the Bank’s report, further showed that Southwest got the lion’s share with 57 per cent of the total loan, estimated to be N274.7 billion.

He said South-south accessed 17 per cent (81.9 billion); North central and FCT, 11 per cent (53 billion); South east, nine per cent (43.3 billion); North west, five per cent (24 billion) and Northeast, a paltry one per cent (4.8 billion).

He noted that the five sectors considered for the loan are oil and gas (42%), manufacturing (16%), agriculture, forestry and fishery (7.2%), trade and commerce (6.3%), and transportation and storage (3.5%).

According to Ndume, the DBN existed to alleviate financing constraints being faced by MSMEs in Nigeria by providing finance, partial credit guarantees and technical assistance to eligible financial intermediaries on a market-conforming and fully financially sustainable basis.

President Bola Tinubu yesterday on Wednesday requested the House of Representatives to amend the 2022 supplementary appropriation act for subsidy palliatives for the citizens.

The President, in a letter addressed to the Speaker of the House, Hon Tajudeen Abbas Abba, which he read at plenary, said that the amendment was to extract N500 billion from the 2022 supplementary budget to provide palliatives to cushion the effect of subsidy removal.

The letter reads, “I write to request to amend the 2022 supplementary Appropriation Act.

” The request became necessary to provide necessary palliatives to mitigate the effects of the removal of fuel subsidy on Nigerians.

“Thus, the sum of N500 billion has been extracted from the 2022 supplementary appropriation act of N819.536 billion for the provisions of palliatives to cushion the effects of subsidy removal. I seek the expeditious consideration of this request.”

The Nigerian Navy said its operatives have uncovered illegal crude oil tapping points at the Oil Mining Lease (OML- 18) oil field in Asari-Toru and Degama Local Government Areas of Rivers State.

The Navy said two wellheads at Kala Ekweama community in Asari Toru LGA and Krakama community in Delgama LGA operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company were tapped by suspected pil criminals

The Navy, however, said the national assets were recovered from miscreants through intelligence gathered from patrol of helicopters deployed in the area.

The Commander, Nigerian Navy Ship, Pathfinder in Port Harcourt, Commodore Sulaiman Ibrahim disclosed this while speaking to newsmen at the sites on Wednesday evening.

Ibrahim said people who have some technical skills were involved in the illicit activity, saying pipes were laid directly to the Wellheads and taken to about three different loading points.

Ibrahim stated that the Navy was fully on the ground, adding that the security outfit remained committed to putting an end to oil theft and other forms of economic sabotage.

He stated, “This terrain was actually discovered by our air assets. You all know what it took for us to get here

“Ordinarily this is difficult terrain, the Navy has put everything on the ground to ensure that it curbs crude oil theft in the Niger Delta region.

“Just yesterday we had one of our assets a naval helicopter on an Arial patrol it was in the course of the patrol that we discovered this site.

“Immediately gunboats were scrambled and we had our personnel sleep here to discontinue the oil theft process and their boats and other machines have taken away.

“At the same time, we have contacted OML- 18 who are the operators of this field to send their technical team and skilled manpower which you all saw on the ground to join in the collaboration.

“But the challenging report we got from the technical team sent is that the oil well head has been greatly compromised.

“So all efforts to get products out is quite difficult at the moment as oil exploration can not be carried except higher skilled and technical team are being brought in to do that.”

Continuing, the Commander, NNS Pathfinder said” We are here today at location OML-18 which belongs to the NNPC OML-18 resources at Okakara.

“This is one of the locations that was identified yesterday when we did an overflight using our air assets and you could see that the arrangement here is a bit more complex.

“You could see that there is a lot of technical skills have been involved when we found that pipes have been laid directly to the wellhead and then taken all the way to about three different loading points.

“There is no doubt that it has some very skilled technical people involved in this kind of operation because it is not something that a layman can just do as it stands.

“We would work with the company to investigate to find out who exactly is responsible for these connections.

“On the other hand we equally company we would get across to them almost immediately so that they can come and do the needful and also engage their local surveillance contractors who are ordinarily supposed to monitor the facility.”

On the allegations that the Nigerian Navy and other military officers are involved in illegal oil bunkering, Commodore Ibrahim appealed to members of the public to come forward with information and names of officers involved for prompt action.

[Punch]

An FCT High Court No 51,Jikwoyi,Abuja, presided over by the Hon Justice Zubairu Mohammed today granted Trademore International Holding Nigeria Ltd ( developers of Trademore Estate, Lugbe, Abuja ), an order for maintenance of status quo and an interim injunction  restraining all the federal government defendants and their  employees, agents, officials, privies and all those purporting to be acting for them or deriving title from them, and any other persons howsoever and whomsoever called, from trespassing, or further trespassing on, demolishing or further demolishing Trademore Estate, known as Plot 1981, Sabon Lugbe, Abuja.

Prof Mike Ozekhome, SAN, had on behalf of Trademore Estate filed a suit against some Federal Government functionaries and Agencies who had threatened to further demolish Trademore Estate,Lugbe, Abuja,over issues concerning flooding of the estate.

In the said writ of summons filed by Prof Ozekhome, Trademore International Holding had, amongst other  reliefs, asked the court to restrain the Hon Minister of FCT, the Federal Capital Development Authority ( FCDA), the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council ( AMMC ) and the Abuja Municipal Area Council ( AMAC ) from demolishing the estate with the buildings and appurtenances thereon; or evicting the occupants from the said Trademore Estate; or from trespassing on in any manner howsoever, into the Trademore Estate, Lugbe, Abuja; or from carrying out any further or fresh demolition exercise of any structures or buildings in the said estate; or in anyway interfering with the plaintiff's exclusive right of ownership and possession of the said property.

Trademore Holding in the main suit complained to the court about earlier illegal, wanton and unconscionable demolition of buildings belonging to innocent occupants in the estate by agents of the Defendants when it was manifestly clear that the three floodings ever experienced in the estate since it was built in 2007,were all caused, not by the Plaintiff or occupants of the estate, but by acts of gross negligence occasioned by the Defendants; or through outright inaction by agents of the Federal Government, by refusing to implement  any of the anti-flooding measures jointly devised and agreed upon at various meetings and through several correspondences by representatives of the Federal government and Trademore Holding International Ltd ( owners of the Trademore Estate ).

The Plaintiff argued, amongst others, that if the Defendants through the Ecological Fund had not built a very narrow carnal instead of a huge bridge to allow free passage of water coming from a now broken down and disused dam that runs through several adjoining settlements, coupled with several unstrained excavatory acts of other developers in the area, there would have been no incidence of flooding in the estate.

Trademore Holding therefore sought from the court an order for maintenance of status quo and also an ex parte order of interim injunction restraining all the Defendants,or their agents, servants, employees or privies howsoever and whomsoever, from any acts for further trespass or demolition of the estate or any part thereof, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction which was also filed alongside the writ of summons, statement of claim and the motion for interim injunction.

In the ex parte application argued today ( 12th July, 2023), by Benson Igbanoi, Esq, leading Miss Vivian Oluchi Uche ( holding the brief of the Plaintiff’s Counsel, Professor Ozekhome ), the learned trial Judge, Hon Justice Zubairu Mohammed  granted all the Claimant’s injunctive reliefs against  the federal government functionaries and agents. He also specifically granted the second prayer asked for, to wit, that "all parties maintain status quo, while the Motion on Notice and Writ of Summons be served on the Defendants forthwith".The Judge thereafter adjourned the motion on notice for hearing to the 22nd of September,2023.

Following the emergence of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), at the just concluded 63rd Ordinary Session, that took in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau, respectable constitutional lawyer, Dr. Kayode Ajulo, OON has congratulated President Tinubu, calling him Mr. Nigeria.

Ajulo, in a statement made available by his aide, Wole Adepoju, described the development as a major occurrence that has returned Nigeria to its natural status of leadership in West African sub-region and African continent.

He added that the development is a soothing one, and capable of inspiring Nigerians into total cooperation and absolute faith in the new leadership of the country.

The founder of Egalitarian Mission for Africa, a non-governmental organization that is a certified observer of ECOWAS, Ajulo expressed optimism in the ability of the new leadership of the African sub- region body, saying it will translate into a new dawn in the affairs of ECOWAS and achieving its set objectives, like economic growth of the region, trans border security and entrenchment of rule of law among member states.

“Mr Nigeria, President Tinubu’s election to chair a highly rated regional body is a reflection of his outstanding leadership qualities, visionary disposition, dedication, and commitment to the development of Nigeria and West African region. Mr. Nigeria gave an excellent impression through his clear and decisive speech on the way to go. The speech has reverberated and resonated with everyone”.

“I am hopeful Mr. President will keep to his words, so Nigeria, as well as other ECOWAS member states can benefit immensely from his visionary and purposeful leadership. I congratulate Mr. President and wish him, the government and good people of Federal Republic of Nigeria a successful reign,” Ajulo said.

Following increasing demand for the dollar on the parallel market, sometimes known as the black market, the naira sank on Tuesday to N800 per dollar, its lowest level in nine months.

Comparing this to N795, which was the price of one dollar stated during Tuesday’s intraday trade, the value of the naira has decreased by 0.62 percent.

“There is high demand for the dollar. Some people are buying the dollar for the summer holiday. Some are buying for other reasons, like importation,” a trader told BusinessDay.

In October 2022, naira fell to N800 per dollar due to a spike in demand by those who had naira stockpiles during the naira redesign programme of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

At the Investors and Exporters (I&E) forex window, the naira weakened by 5.62 percent as the dollar was quoted at N788.42 on Tuesday as against N744.07 quoted on Monday, data from the FMDQ indicated.

On June 14, 2023, the CBN abolished segments of the official FX market to the I&E Window, where the “willing buyer and willing seller” was re-introduced. Based on this adjustment, the official rate rose from N463.38/$ to N800 the current rate.

Until mid-June, exchange rate policy remained focused on keeping the official exchange rate little[1]changed and well below the market-clearing rate.

The Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Fixing (NAFEX) rate, which was notionally determined on a willing-buyer—willing-seller basis, continued to be managed by the CBN and did not move in tandem with market fundamentals, said the World Bank in a recent report.

The report said the FX market lacked a clear and predictable price discovery mechanism, primarily due to the use of multiple FX windows to serve multiple purposes. This continued to limit FX supply at the NAFEX window, pushing economic agents into the parallel market to meet their FX requirements, and generated arbitrage and rent-seeking opportunities.

As of June 13, 2023, the parallel market–NAFEX premium was 63 percent, indicating a significant overvaluation of the NAFEX rate. With the aim of reducing FX demand and preserving external reserves, while also maintaining a stable NAFEX rate, the CBN maintained administrative controls. These included restricting access to FX for importing 43 products starting in 2015 and reducing the size of its FX supply interventions since 2020.

The World Bank report said the previous exchange rate management approach impeded investment and growth and the recent changes to FX policy and management are a welcome development, capable of unlocking growth.