Daniel Etim-Effiong inferred that the problem of Tbaj's quest for love that ended in devastation as seven suitors abandon her could be a problem with her.

The Big Brother Naija reality star and talented disc jockey, Tolanibaj fondly called Tbaj has expressed her deep disappointment as she reflects on her romantic history. The vibrant personality has candidly shared that, regrettably, none of the men she has been involved with in the past have taken the significant step of marrying her, leaving her feeling disheartened.

She shared that she has been involved in seven relationships, each one holding the promise of a lifelong commitment. However, to her dismay, fate had other plans as each of these suitors eventually departed, leaving her with a sense of heartbreak and disappointment.

Speaking in the latest episode of the Bahd And Boujee Podcast co-hosted by her and actress Moet Abebe, engaged in a thought-provoking conversation with an esteemed guest. During this captivating episode, the guest, whose identity remains undisclosed, made a striking statement regarding the current state of the dating scene. With conviction, she expressed her belief that the available dating options have dwindled to mere fragments, emphasising that the pool of eligible bachelors is now predominantly occupied.

She expressed her sentiments, stating, "Within the realm of dating, it seems that we are left with mere fragments, mere remnants." In a world where love seems elusive, it is often said that the most desirable individuals are already taken. This sentiment holds true as many believe that the best ones are, indeed, married. Regrettably, our arrival at the train station was delayed, resulting in a missed opportunity to board the train. The individual in question has disclosed their romantic history, stating that they have been involved with a total of seven individuals. With a sense of optimism and hope, they believed that each of these individuals held the potential to be their ideal partner.

During a recent podcast episode, popular actor Daniel Etim-Effiong made an intriguing statement regarding the ongoing issue at hand. He implied that the root cause should not solely be attributed to the actions of the seven individuals involved, specifically mentioning Tbaj. In a surprising turn of events, it appears that the source of the problem may lie within the individual making the statement.

Former Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Bola Akinterinwa, said he was not surprised that state governors, former ministers, and political associates of President Bola Tinubu are lobbying for ambassadorial appointments.

Akinterinwa said one of the reasons for lobbying for the positions is diplomatic protection, saying that those with corruption charges want continued protection after they leave their posts.

In an interview with The Punch, the former NIIA boss said another reason for lobbying to be an ambassador is to show off and reclaim the help rendered to the president during the election.

Akinterinwa asserted that the Foreign Service is not a place that should be treated like the civil service and asked President Tinubu to stop this special consideration given to political cronies.

He wrote: “There are many reasons why people lobby to be ambassadors. For instance, those who have corruption charges want continued protection after they leave service; they call it diplomatic protection, and this is of two types, as provided in the 1961 Vienna Convention and as provided by private international law. People complained when the service chiefs under former President Muhammadu Buhari were considered for ambassadorial positions.

“Governors who have stolen money still have immunity, but after their tenure, such an appointment gives them another four years of immunity. So, everybody is struggling to get an ambassadorial position for protection. Another thing is that people like titles in Nigeria. If Tinubu wants to succeed as President, he needs to stop this special consideration given to political cronies.

“The problem with Nigerian politicians is that they are more interested in self-survival than national survival, and there are many cases to illustrate that.

[NaijaNews]

Bank customers, as well as Point Of Sales (POS) operators have continued to lament the new directives by commercial banks pegging daily cash withdrawals to a maximum of 50 percent of what was previously obtainable.

In some states, the maximum amount of cash that can be withdrawn in a day is as little as N5,000, while in other states, customers are yet to notice any difference in their daily withdrawal limits.

In Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, the new directive according to some banks’ officials came into enforcement following the scarcity of bank notes (cash) which forced the deposit banks to evolve means of allowing their customers access to cash.

LEADERSHIP Sunday findings across the three senatorial districts of the state revealed that most POS operators cannot make a cash withdrawal beyond the sum of N50,000 per day, making it a total sum of N250,000 as against the previous total amount of N500,000 per week.

This is coming just as deposit bank customers are also finding it difficult to withdraw cash beyond a total sum of N40,000 per day through most of the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) that are also generally failing to dispense cash even where such a bank’s network is fully functional.

Sources within the commercial banks’ corridors confided in LEADERSHIP Sunday that the new banks’ directive allows customers using the ATM cards of specific banks and wants to withdraw from the same bank can make a maximum cash withdraw of N40,000, while those with a different bank’s ATM are restricted to a daily withdrawal of N20,000.

In an interview with LEADERSHIP Sunday, a female POS operator who pleaded anonymity for fear of being sanctioned by her deposit banks said her two banks emphatically told her that they would not issue her more than a total sum of N50,000 per day and that she should equally pass same condition on to her customers.

Lamenting that such a directive is already taking a toll on her business, the POS operator appealed to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to quickly intervene, stressing that such posses a danger to their daily income.

Also speaking in an interview with LEADERSHIP Sunday, Mr Soyemi Olusegun Owolabi who is into shoe-making and leather works under the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMSEs) in Ogun State lamented the trend which he said has scared away many customers intending to do business with him.

Soyemi explained that the non-availability of cash would cripple several businesses unless the appropriate authority quickly wades in.

“Even when you ask customers to make transfer, you would discover that the banks’ network is very unreliable as it usually takes close to 72-hours before you can see such transfer. Even in most cases, such bank’s cash transfers are reversed, thereby leaving you to continue to wonder. I have had occasions where I had to quarrel with customers and such is not good for business,” he said.

Soyemi appealed to the appropriate authorities to rise up to the challenge and safe the SMSEs from collapsing. 

To Mrs Oghenekome Ochuko, a business woman in Sapele, Delta State, she is unable to stock her shop for the festive period due to this new policy.

“I went to bank to withdraw about N500,000 last month, to buy goods, but I was told that I could not withdraw more than N5,000. What can I use just N5000 to do?” Mrs Ochuko queried.

A mechanic in Sapele, Sunday Emeka, also shared his ordeal with LEADERSHIP Sunday. He said, “After making trouble at the bank, I decided to go to the POS to withdraw my money. I walked up to five POS agents before one agreed to give me N40,000 for a fee of N1,000. The rest POS agents asked for as high as N2000 for withdrawal of N40,000.”

Meanwhile, in Ojota, Lagos, banks in that axis pegged withdrawals to only N50,000 per day.

For instance, a POS agent in Ojota, Lagos, Ms Mfon Ebong, lamented that it was only Zenith Bank that gave customers up to N50,000 on Friday. “I walked up to three branches of Sterling Bank and I was told there is no money. Only Zenith gave me N50,000,” she stated.

When asked if the ATMs were dispensing money, Ms Ebong told LEADERSHIP Sunday that since late November, most ATMs in Ojota do not dispense money as frequent as they used to, adding that, “For those that could dispense, we are allowed to withdraw as little as N40,000. What can that do for me?”

Ms Ebong appealed to the federal government to reverse this policy, adding that, “Nigerians cannot go back to what happened to us early this year. We do not have the resilience to manage another round of hardship.”

Similarly, POS operators at Arepo along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway are facing the same constraints. An attendant simply identified as Bisi said she is not giving more than N10,000 to any customer and if there is a need to collect more than that, it will attract more than the usual charges. 

When asked why, she said, she was told that there are not many notes in circulation. 

However, another attendant said she has no problem giving out more than N10,000 as she has access to cash supply. 

At Simbiat Abiola, Ikeja, Sterling Bank card users could withdraw N40,000 up to four times, while non-Sterling Bank card users could take a maximum of N10,000 up to four times. Zenith Bank cardholders could collect N20,000 per withdrawal, while non-Zenith cardholders could withdraw N10,000.

At Oba Akran Avenue, Fidelity Bank gate was locked because there was no cash in the ATM. FCMB, First Bank, Zenith Bank, GTCO, and Wema Bank were all not dispensing cash while only Access Bank was dispensing N40,000 to Access Bank card users and non-Access card users could access N5,000 four times. 

A customer voiced his displeasure at not being able to withdraw cash from the second bank he visited. He said, “These people have started their bosh again. No money in the ATM; is that not rubbish? People keep money in the bank and can’t have access to it; is that not rubbish? They can give POS merchants money, but to load money into the ATM, they can’t. No be Nigeria we dey? POS merchants and banks are doing business.”

LEADERSHIP Sunday observed that despite these banks not dispensing money, there was no long queue at the ATMs dispensing, and this could be attributed to the large number of POS merchants around.

Around Bariga in Lagos Mainland, ATMs in almost all the banks were not working while some POS attendants, hanging around the banks are using the non-availability of Naira in ATMs as loophole to make huge profits. 

No scarcity of cash in Kano

The recent problem of scarcity of cash that is showing itself in some parts of the country is yet to hit Kano as commercial activities continue without much challenges. 

The situation is such that it has not been visible to the public even if it exists as people patronise POS operators more than the banks when they need cash due to accessibility as it is easier to reach the next POS than a bank.

Some banks allow N150,000 withdrawal per week, which is normal depending on the type of account one is operating. There are procedures by which one could increase the amount he can withdraw from the bank. 

Although the public have complained of not having enough smaller denominations in circulation thereby getting change after small purchases or services become a bit of a challenge. This affects commercial vehicles operators and small-scale businesses the most. 

POS operators have not increased on the charges of N200 for every N10,000 collected, proving that there is reasonably enough cash in circulation.

At the POS, one is able to withdraw any amount depending on the available cash they have as long as he pays the required charges per transaction. 

In a lot of public places, including motor parks and markets, POS operators are readily available to give their services to their customers, cash, for those need it, and transfers for those who need it.

In Gombe State, although there is no any serious cash scarcity, POS operators lament that the cash withdrawal limit at the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) prevented them from making adequate cash available for their customers.

A POS operator, Sani Abdulrahman, told LEADERSHIP Sunday that the daily withdrawal limit at ATMs is N40,000 which he said is not sufficient to satisfy his customers.

He added that some banks do not allow them to withdraw from canters and even when they would do so, they waste precious time in queues or give token sum of money to the bankers to be given huge cash.

“As a result of the ATMs N40, 000 daily limit, I cannot provide my clients with sufficient cash and this also reduces my profits and gains from this business.”, he noted. 

Our correspondent gathered that many people have stopped going to banks or ATMs to withdraw money but patronise POS operators due to their proximity and availability everywhere as against the banks that are all sited in one location known as Bank Road in the state capital.

In Borno, the scarcity of the naira notes in banks has been a source of concern to both residents and POS operators. 

Although, the situation was far better last month when people could withdraw up to N500,000 cash limit placed by the banks to customers, the last one month according to residents and POS operators has been very difficult as customers were restricted to withdrawal of N5,000 to 20,000 for Automated Teller Machines (ATM), while others who want to withdraw across the counter are restricted to N50,000, when cash is available in the banks.

However, speaking on the predicament of bank customers, a resident, Umaru Abdullahi, alleged that the banks are selling the available cash to wealthy customers to the detriment of the common customers. 

“I have witnessed such atrocious act in one of the banks in Maiduguri. On that very day, we were waiting at the bank in turns for withdrawal when a wealthy customer came in to the bank requesting for a huge amount, and to our shock, the bank staff went as far as removing cash already stocked in the ATMs of the bank to service the customer. 

“Another contributing factor to the scarcity of naira notes in most of the banks is because customers have lost confidence in depositing their monies in the banks since they can hardly withdraw the required amount when the need arises due to the withdrawal limits,” Abdullahi said. 

Corroborating the scarcity of the naira notes, a POS operator at the Post Office area of the metropolis, Hassan Dennis, said most banks in Maiduguri were either complaining of not having cash or dispenses as low as N5000 to customers. 

He said the situation has forced many of his colleagues out of business while those still in it only survive on commissions from money transfers.

[Leadership]

Nigeria’s foreign exchange volatility may linger for a while due to low crude oil production and limited foreign exchange inflows into the country, Daily Trust on Sunday reports.

The development is weighing heavily on the financial standing of Nigeria and its international reputation as a country that is ready for businesses despite the recent assurances by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that all bottlenecks to investment had been removed.

“Africa has moved beyond the false past notions of business disincentivisation and poor adherence to the rule of law. We now fully recognise the nexus between the inflow of investor money and the sanctity of contracts,” Tinubu recently said during his visit to Germany.

But key to boosting investors’ confidence is the seamlessness in repatriation, which every investor doing business in Nigeria would be desirous of. In addition, foreign businesses would see a business environment with strong foreign exchange liquidity and one that guarantees not only a return on investment but predictability of returns.

As at last week, foreign businesses were said to have lost over N900 billion due to naira devaluation in 2023 alone.

Daily Trust on Sunday reports that Nigeria’s currency has suffered massive depreciation against the foreign currency. Exchanging officially at N800, it has recorded over 500 per cent depreciation in the last eight years. This was in addition to the debilitating inflation, which is now at 27  per cent.

At the heart of this is the liquidity challenge in the country’s forex market, which has seen the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) accumulating over $10 billion in forex forwards to commercial banks and businesses operating in Nigeria.

The effect has been much visible in the airline industry, earning Nigeria the notoriety of being the only country blocking the largest chunk of airlines’ $1.6bn blocked funds in Africa.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has been calling out Nigeria over the development, which is said to be responsible for the surge in airfares across international destinations as airlines had to adopt an anticipatory forex rate in pricing their tickets.

Beside the foreign airlines, local carriers are also baring the pangs of forex scarcity, leaving their aircraft stranded abroad while incurring huge demurrage on a daily basis.

Azman Air, for instance, has three of its aircraft stranded abroad. Manufacturers are unable to access foreign exchange to import raw materials. The president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Prof Cyril Osifo, told our correspondent that prices of drugs were on the increase because of the high forex price to import Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs).  He said it was high time Nigeria boosted domestic production.

 Why Nigeria’s crude export not translated into forex liquidity

An analyst, Babatunde Adeniji, said Nigeria’s Letters of Credit had become mere papers to foreigners as they no longer honoured them in doing business with Nigerian companies.

The National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, recently opened up that the Tinubu administration inherited a “bankrupt country” from his predecessor.

“We are facing very serious budgetary constraints. It is okay for me to tell you. It is fine for you to know. We have a very serious situation.

“We have inherited a very difficult country, a bankrupt country, to the extent that we are paying back what was taken. It is serious.

“But this administration is doing its best to meet our requirements, including that of the armed forces,” Ribadu said at the Chief of Defence Intelligence Annual Conference, hinting that the present administration is “paying back what was taken.”

Our correspondent reports that Nigeria’s public debt hit N87trn in the second quarter of 2023, up by 75 per cent from Q1 2023.

The Debt Management Office (DMO) said Nigeria’s total public debt rose to N87.38trillion in the second quarter (Q2) of 2023, recording an increase of 75.29 per cent. It was worsened by what experts call abuse of Ways and Means, which represents the loans taken directly from the CBN Act, and must not exceed five per cent of the previous revenue. But this was largely abused, prompting the Senate to quickly amend the act to increase it to 15 per cent.

For the 2024 budget, the federal government has proposed N26.01trn, with N8.25trn for debt servicing and other parameters as explained by the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Abubakar Bagudu.

“The assumptions include the oil price benchmark, which I said for 2024, we were assuming $73.96, oil production of 1.7 8million barrels a day at the exchange rate of $700.

“Then the inflation of 21 per cent and gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 3.76 per cent. The aggregate expenditure is estimated at N26.01trn for the 2024 budget, which includes statutory transfers of N1.3trn, non-debt recurrent expenditure of N10.26trn, debt service estimated at N8.25trn, as well as N7.78trn being provided for personnel and pension costs.

“Debt service increased because N22.7trn Ways and Means was securitized, meaning that it became a federal government debt at 9per cent.”

Analysts, however, said the parameters might not align with the current macroeconomic realities in the country.

Inflation has crossed 27 per cent; oil production is currently at about 1.3m barrels a day, lower than the OPEC Quota and the exchange rate, which is hovering around N800/$.

Crude swap, a serious trap

There are reports that Nigeria has entered into crude oil swap deals running into billions of dollars by previous governments.

Apart from the fact that Nigeria is not meeting the OPEC quota of 1.7m barrels per day, the ones being supplied currently are said to have been paid for in crude oil swap deals, which the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has promised to terminate.

But data from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) indicated that the NNPCL exchanged crude oil valued at N2.6trn for refined petroleum products in 2021 under the Direct Sale Direct Purchase Agreement (DSDP).

The NNPC allocated a total of 98.92 million barrels of crude oil valued at $7.11bn (N2.73tn) for the local market in 2021. However, no crude was delivered to any of the local refineries in 2021.

“Instead, the NNPC used 95.25 per cent of this crude for crude exchange for products at the international market under the DSDP arrangement, while 4.75 per cent was sold at the international market.

“This may be due to the fact that none of the refineries were operational in 2021. The sum of N2.23tn ($5.85bn) was the actual domestic crude sales receipts in 2021, out of which the sum of N1.64tn ($4.30bn) represents 2021 sales receipts, while the sum of N588.68bn ($1.55bn) relates to settlement of prior year receivables,” the report stated.

The report also showed that the NNPCL lifted and exported a total of 24.84 million barrels of crude oil valued at $1.70bn on behalf of the federation in 2021.

It stated that the sum of $1.58bn was traced to the respective bank accounts as the actual sales receipt in 2021, of which the sum of $1.55bn represents 2021 sales receipts, while the sum of $24.32m relates to settlement of prior year receivables.

While experts said this was not new in the international crude oil market, they said Nigeria must be able to ramp up crude oil production to service the local refineries, which are expected to come on stream in a few weeks time like the Dangote Petrochemical Refinery, the Port Harcourt Refinery and other refineries, which the federal government has promised to revive, as well as the tens of modular refineries being licensed across the country.

An oil and gas expert, Jasper Nwachukwu, said the crude oil market was a future market, which means that supplies of months to come must have been bid for by the prospective buyers.

But he said Nigeria was facing a forex shortage despite being an oil-producing state because of mismanagement.

The expert said the NNPCL, which should have been the saviour for Nigeria in terms of relieving the country in its present forex liquidity crisis, was also not “liquid.”

Nwachukwu said, “Crude oil is a future market. Oil of the coming months has already been sold to refineries; that is why eventually, if they can’t make it they have to declare a force majeure, but besides that, in the Nigerian context, I think the problem is that we are spending too much money on debt servicing. We have borrowed so much money during the last administration and we are expending almost 90 per cent of our incomes to pay for debt servicing.

“Secondly, the NNPC is also not very liquid. They have to export cash calls from their JV partners. So these cash calls are coming from that same point, and most importantly of course is the issue of corruption, not knowing how much oil we are selling on a daily basis. You may know what you are producing but you don’t know how much is sold because part of it is stolen by oil thieves. Essentially, you can only guess and your guess work will turn out to be false.

“Then we are also not able to meet our OPEC quota. We are short of our OPEC quota by almost 300,000 barrels a day, so that is also a huge amount of money you are going to get.

“Until these characters in government find a way to spend less because they are also spending more than they are earning to maintain their lifestyle – buying SUVs of N150m, spending money to buy a yacht, and so on.

“We are not earning the amount of money we should be earning from our oil, whatever we earn is used on servicing debts, and we are still borrowing more.”

‘Govt running on life support’

The expert said the implication of not making enough money from the sale of crude oil is that the government cannot meet its obligations to the citizens.

“At the end of the day, we will have a government that is not well conversant with what it’s supposed to do. The government is running on life support, like it is in an intensive care unit.

“You want to be throwing money at every opportunity, even the ones that don’t need money,” he added.

On the solution, he said, “I can’t tell you what I think is the solution because I don’t know it myself. I don’t see forex coming down soon because it is a business for some highly placed government guys. They jack up their prices for the common man and they want it to go on.

“There are refineries in Europe that need this oil; and you know refineries cannot shut down, so they are waiting for crude oil, and they are on 24/7. So it (advance crude oil sale) is an international way of doing business and not peculiar to only Nigeria. The little money we get is used to service debt and not to boost production.”

Dr Garuba Dauda, another oil and gas analyst and expert, said, “I am of the view that we need to do serious thinking on the forex liquidity thing. Why Nigeria’s situation seems to have defied solution is that we are facing artificial scarcity caused by hoarding. Privileged people are buying up dollars in circulation to secure themselves in the face of an increasing fall in the value of the naira. This practice is putting pressure on forex demand, thus compounding the situation.

“Nigeria needs to address this issue by adopting the approach of Singapore. The approach is buying up the dollars that pass through the CBN, while denying speculators access to information about the country’s foreign/forex reserves,” he said.

A chartered accountant and financial risk expert, Olabode Afolayan, said to optimise the forex earnings, citizens must cut their appetite for foreign made goods and also de-dollarise the economy.

He said importation was putting so much pressure on the naira, adding that there should be a change of mindset by Nigerians.

“We need to have a change of mindset and be more patriotic. We need to buy more homemade items than importation. Although people are not buying Nigerian made things due to quality, we need to do what the Chinese did by going local.

“We need to start producing our own televisions, our engineering students in the universities should be able to build local technology for this, we need to start manufacturing en masse,” he advised.

He also urged the government to clamp down on Nigerians hoarding the dollars as they are very powerful. The government is doing more to maintain momentum against the dollar.

“We need not sabotage the effort of the government; and the government should talk to those hoarding the dollar because they are the big boys of Nigeria and not ordinary Nigerians.

“When they hoard, the government should clamp down on them because the government is doing everything to make naira appreciate by clearing the forex backlogs and clearing trapped funds of foreign airlines. I learnt the government cleared some of this outstanding issue; hence the naira appreciated,” he added.

Forex liquidity rising – CBN

The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Olayemi Cardoso, speaking in Lagos on recently during the 58th annual Bankers Dinner, said there was an improvement in the forex market liquidity.

He said, “We have already witnessed improvements in FX market liquidity in recent weeks as the market responded positively to tranche payments, which have been made to 31 banks to clear the backlog of FX forward obligations.

“We have been subjecting these payments to detailed verification to ensure that only valid transactions are honoured. In a properly functioning market, it is reasonable to expect significant FX liquidity, with daily trade potentially exceeding $1.0bn.

“We envision that with discipline and focused commitment, foreign exchange reserves can be rebuilt to comparable levels with similar economies.”

[DailyTrust]