News Headlines

Stanbic IBTC granted mobile payment licence: The CBN has granted a licence to Stanbic IBTC Bank, a member of Standard Bank Group, to operate mobile payment services in the country. The bank was one of the final awardees fully licenced to operate mobile money services in Nigeria in accordance with the Mobile Payments Regulatory Framework. (Source: Businessnews)

FG plans coal-fired power stations: The minister of power, Barth Nnaji, on Tuesday disclosed that the federal government (FG) will build three coal-fired power stations in Enugu, Kogi and Gombe states with the capacity to generate 3,000 megawatts (MW), so as to diversify electricity sources in the country. (Source: Vanguard)

New import policy to favour manufacturers: President Goodluck Jonathan has revealed that the economic management team, led by finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was putting together a policy to allow the augmentation of imports. Under the policy, only manufacturers involved in large-scale production would be allowed to import to cover national shortfalls. (Source: Thisday)

NERC to remove service charge in new electricity tariff: The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) yesterday disclosed that some of the service delivery components which had contributed to the recurrent hike in the electricity tariff would not be included in the scheduled tariff review. NERC had, on July 1, reviewed the existing egime under the Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO) from N8.50 to N10 per kilowatt hour. as part of MYTO that came into effect in 2008. (Source: Thisday)

FG earned N3.5trn in six months: The minister of the national planning commission, Shamsudeen Usman said yesterday that the federal government realised a sum of N3.5trn (US$22.9bn) in the first six months of the year. Usman said the amount, which represented an increase of 9.4 per cent over the corresponding period of 2010 was 22.9 per cent of the country’s nominal GDP. (Source: Punch)

Nine states to raise N217bn in bonds: Nine state governments have received approval to raise N217bn (US$1.4bn) in bonds from the capital market in the last year. Information from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) showed that the states received approvals between April 30, 2010 and June 30, 2011. The Lagos State government, the first beneficiary of these approvals, is offering for subscription N57.5bn (US$375.8m) at a 10% fixed rate, under its N275bn (US$1.8bn) debt issuance programme for 2010/2017. Other states that have received approvals include Bayelsa, Edo and Ebonyi states. (Source: Punch)