News Headlines - Nigeria

Court rejects challenge to Jonathan win: Nigeria's Supreme Court threw out a challenge to President Goodluck Jonathan's election victory in April, upholding the result and rejecting calls by the main opposition party for a recount in several parts of the country. Jonathan was declared winner with 59.0% of the votes but his nearest rival, the former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, who scored 32.0%, refused to accept the outcome. The Supreme Court’s ruling ends the legal challenge against Jonathan's mandate, giving him a breather to focus on governance.

(Source: Reuters)

Naira strengthens on oil company’s dollar sales: The naira strengthened by as much as 1.7%, the largest

intraday gain since December 20, before paring its gain to 1.1% at N163.2 as of 1:42 p.m. yesterday. According to reports, the naira’s appreciation at the interbank market was due to dollar sales to lenders by a major oil company. (Source: Bloomberg)

Vehicles, fuel top imports for December: Used and new vehicles as well as premium motor spirit (PMS) topped imports for the month of December, rather than rice imports which historically tops the list at this time of the year. Data from the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) show that over 3,725 vehicles have either arrived at the ports or are expected through the Lagos Pilotage District. The list comprises of 1,000 new vehicles, with the balance used. The figures show that PMS came second behind vehicles with a total volume of 296,533 metric tonnes (mt), and rice third with over 233,000mt. (Source: Vanguard)

Ekiti’s bond to boost tourism, infrastructure: Ekiti State’s commissioner for finance, budget and economic development, Dapo Kolawole, has disclosed that the N20bn (US$128m) bond recently issued by the state government would boost the state’s tourism sector, which had been neglected by previous administrations. Kolawole revealed that the bond is designed to finance the government’s eight-point development agenda, and that the state took the option of issuing bonds to save funds and fast-track development.  The state had been borrowing short-term funds from banks with interest rates as high as 18.0% compared with the 14.0% marginal rate at which the bond was issued. (Source: Vanguard)