DAILY NEWS REVIEW

System Collapse: Power Supply Stabilises at 3,700MW – Thisday



Electricity supply has stabilised at 3,700 megawatts, after a recent system collapse of the facilities of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), which resulted in almost complete darkness across the country for three days. PHCN suffered the system failure after Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) closed the Utorogun Gas Plant in Ughelli, Delta State, following the discovery of “sabotage leak” at the gas pipeline. The incident disrupted gas supply to PHCN’s gas-fired power plants, resulting in substantial drop of electricity supply across the country. The Utorogun Gas Plant and Chevron’s Escravos Gas Plant are the main sources of gas supply to the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which supplies gas to PHCN’s gas-fired plants across the country. The gas plant, which is a joint venture between Shell, NNPC, Total and Eni SpA, (Agip), also supplies gas to industrial users.



NBC Names First Nigerian Managing Director - Thisday



Nigerian Bottling Company has appointed Mr. Segun Ogunsanya as the new Managing Director with effect from September 1st, 2011. In a statement signed by the Head, Public Affairs and Communications, Mrs. Adeyanju Olomola, Segun Ogunsanya, who is Nigerian, joins NBC from Coca-Cola Sabco, Kenya where he was Chief Executive Officer. Ogunsanya, a 1987 graduate of Electrical & Electronics Engineering from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife) and also a Chartered Accountant, is very well-versed in the Coca-Cola business, having spent a significant part of his career with The Coca-Cola Company. The new NBC helmsman started his career in Nigeria in the Tax and Business Advisory Division of Arthur Andersen & Co.

In 1994, he joined The Coca-Cola Company in Nigeria as Head of Treasury and subsequently spent some time in Atlanta on a short term assignment at the Corporate Office.



Governors Assemble Legal Team to Challenge SWF – Thisday



Governors are not relenting in their efforts to challenge the establishment of the Sovereign Wealth Fund, a special statutory account into which the three tiers of government are meant to save excess accruals from oil sales above the budget benchmark and other excess revenues. THISDAY gathered at the weekend that the governors, under the auspices of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, had reached out to some lawyers to challenge the legality of the wealth fund at the Supreme Court for them. Former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), heads the legal team, whose membership for now includes Rickey Tarfa (SAN).



Power: FG nears conclusion of Olorunsogo buyout deal – Punch



There are strong indications that the Federal Government is close to divesting from the Olorunsogo Phase I plant and transferring the ownership of the plant to a Chinese-led consortium,SEPCO-Pacific, in a buyout. Sources close to discussions on the deal told our correspondent on Sunday that the National Council on Privatisation might in two weeks’ time give the Bureau of Public Enterprises the approval to conclude the deal with the consortium. “ We have almost reached a conclusion on how much government wants from the divestment. And as soon as that is clear and approval is given to close the deal, we shall go ahead and meet with the consortium and conclude discussions on the terms of the deal ,” a source close to discussions on the deal, who asked not to be named, told our correspondent. The Federal Government provided 35 per cent funding for the construction of the project while SEPCO raised 65 per cent credit financing from Chinese banks for the completion of the project. But, because government has been unable to service the loan, it has decided to turn the debt into equity for the consortium and also sell its remaining stake to the consortium. “We are not envisaging any serious labour issue at Olorunsogo Phase 1 because most of the workers were seconded from other Power Holding Company of Nigeria’s stations. Thus, it may just be a matter of asking the workers to return to those stations,”the source further said. However, the buyout will not cover Olorunsogo Phase 2 because unlike Phase 1, it is wholly owned and funded by the federal and state governments under the National Integrated Power Project. The Olorunsogo Phase 1 has an installed capacity of 300MW while Olorunsogo Phase 2 has a capacity of 750MW.



Union Bank’s shareholders to approve core investor agreement – Punch



Shareholders of Union Bank Nigeria Plc will on the last day of September approve an agreement between the bank and its core investor, African Capital Alliance Consortium. The Deposit Money Bank in a statement said its shareholders were to deliberate on the specific number of equities which investors of the bank should possess. It added that they woud also decide on plans by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria to inject funds into the DMB. Union Bank, which was one of the five rescued DMBs that signed Transaction Implementation Agreements with core investors a couple of months back, had on Thursday received a Federal High court approval to go ahead with its forthcoming shareholders meeting. This, according to the bank, is in order to meet the recapitalisation deadline of September 30 set for the five DMBs by the Central Bank of Nigeria, as the apex financial institution had threatened to nationalise any bank that failed to meet the deadline. The bank noted that shareholders would be required to endorse a rights offer that would raise N10bn, adding that funds to be made available by AMCON would take the bank’s assets to zero capital.



Jonathan orders ministers to submit four-year plans – Nation



President Goodluck Jonathan has directed ministers to submit their plan of action in the next four years and how to implement the proposals. The defence of the targets set by the ministers will begin today, it was gathered. But there were indications yesterday that economic interest will also now drive the foreign policy of the Federal Government. Investigation by our correspondent revealed that the ministers were given one week by the President to highlight their four-year plans. It was gathered that although the ultimatum expired on Friday, the ministers will begin the defence of their proposals today. To meet the deadline, most ministers spent the weekend to rub minds with their directors and heads of parastatals to fine-tune their proposals.



CBN probes forex deals – Nation



The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has launched a special examination into banks’ foreign exchange transactions. Twenty-one banks are to be examined, beginning from today. In the first batch are banks that are top foreign exchange players. These are Stanbic IBTC, CityBank, Standard Chartered Bank, Guaranty Bank, Zenith Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA) and Access Bank. The other 14 banks will be examined in the second and third phases of the plan. The three nationalised banks (Keystone, Mainstream and Enterprise) are excluded because they are new in the system. The examination will be completed within three weeks. In banking parlance, special or target examinations are meant for a specific purpose. Other types include routine examination, which is conducted once a year by the CBN in collaboration with the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) and maiden examination, which is conducted six months after a new bank has been established. The examination, it was learnt, is to enable the banking watchdog authenticate the huge demands by banks at the foreign exchange market where the apex bank has continued to defend the naira with the country’s foreign exchange, which stood at $32.9 billion, as at August 29.