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AFR Business

Court grants Umeh permission to serve papers on Ekwunife

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The Awka Division of the Court of Appeal has granted Victor Umeh, Anambra Central Senatorial Candidate of the Labour Party, the permission to serve his Notice of Appeal on Senator Uche Ekwunife of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) through substituted means.

Alex Ejesieme, counsel to the appellant in a motion experte with Appeal No. CA/AW/24/2023, told the court that the bailiff had made several efforts to serve Ms Ekwunife directly without success.

He accompanied the motion with a 13-paragraph affidavit to support his argument, as well as a bailiff affidavit of attempted service.

Mr Ejesieme described the trial court judgement as “rather unfortunate“ in the light of the numerous decisions of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court on the subject matter.

Justice Hannatu Sankey, Presiding Judge of the Appeal Court, granted that the Notice of Appeal should be posted at the entrance gate of Ms Ekwunife’s Campaign Office situated at the Uche Ekwunife Event Centre, Awka.

Ms Ekwunife and the PDP had gone to the Federal High Court, Awka, to contest the validity of Mr Umeh’s nomination in the Labour Party.

CBN advises Nigerians to open savings accounts and use POS machines

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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday advised Nigerians to exchange their old naira notes at Point of Sale (PoS) machines and open savings accounts.

This is as Nigerians continue to groan over steep charges ( at least 10 per cent for each withdrawn amount) imposed by PoS operators across the country.

Rasheedat Mangunu, the bank’s director of protection, gave the advice during the monitoring exercise of some PoS super-agents in Ilorin.

The CBN said it distributed PoS to 30,000 super-agents, with a cash sum of N500,000 each, to ease the naira cash swap on January 25.

Ms Mangunu said that in the last week, there had been progress in the money swap due to their enlightenment talks and accredited PoS agents.

She called on the people of Kwara, especially those in rural areas, to make judicious use of the super-agents and open a bank account with less stress.

“People can easily open a bank account through the PoS super-agents, with just a National Identity Card and save their old money in their accounts, without stress.

“Our super-agents will deposit all your old Naira notes with no charges and your money will be secure in your various bank accounts,” she said.

At one of the PoS centres visited in the Osere area, Ilorin, Sadiq AbdulRasheed, a user, said he was able to exchange his old naira notes without charges.

However, at Isale Bani, the Alore area of Ilorin, many residents complained of the inability to exchange their notes due to the unavailability of new notes.

An agent in the area, Saheed AbdulRazaq, explained that he had been exchanging notes with the residents since last week, but could not meet up with their demands.

“I started exchanging the notes with the sum of N500,000 given to me by CBN last week and continued since then, but all the people in the area are clamouring for more new notes.

“Their demand for new notes is more than the capacity that I can withdraw from the bank. I urge CBN to give more directives to commercial banks to be able to withdraw more,” he said.

Responding, Ms Mangunu assured that all financial institutions would be engaged and all agents would get enough cash for their operations.

She said enough money had been allocated to all financial institutions in Ilorin and people should be rest assured to have access to their money.

Buhari meets APC governors

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President Muhammadu Buhari has met behind closed doors with governors elected under the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Though the agenda of the meeting was not officially disclosed, it was gathered that some national issues including the ongoing currency swap, fuel shortages in some parts of the country and their possible effects on the February and March general elections might have been discussed at the meeting.

Some of the governors in attendance include the chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum and Governor of Kebbi State, Atiku Bagudu, governors of Ebonyi, Dave Umahi, Lagos, Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Imo, Hope Uzodimma.

Others are those of Zamfara, Bello Matawalle; Ogun, Dapo Abiodun; Yobe, Mai Mala-Buni; Kaduna, Nasir El-Rufai; Kano, Abdullahi Ganduje; Kwara, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq; Niger, Sani Bello among others.

Buhari to resolve cash swap crisis within seven days, says media aide Adesina

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President Muhammadu Buhari will within the next seven days take a ‘major decision’ to resolve the cash crunch that has become a problem across the country following the policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria to change high value naira notes with new ones.

This was revealed in a statement by his media aide Femi Adesina on Friday.

Mr Buhari pleaded with Nigerians to allow him study the worsening development during a meeting with the Progressive Governors Forum at the State House.

The APC governors were in the Presidential Villa to seek solutions to the cash crunch which they said was threatening the good records of the administration in transforming the economy.

According to President Buhari, the currency recolouring will give a boost to the economy and provide long-term benefits.

He, however, expressed doubts about the commitment of banks in particular to the success of the policy.

“Some banks are inefficient and only concerned about themselves.

“Even if a year is added, problems associated with selfishness and greed won’t go away,” he said.

He said he had seen television reports about cash shortages and hardship to local businesses and ordinary people and gave assurances that the balance of seven of the 10-day extension would be used to crackdown on whatever stood in the way of successful implementation.

“I will revert to the CBN and the Minting Company. There will be a decision one way or the other in the remaining seven days of the 10-day extension,” the president assured.

The governors told the president that, while they agreed that his decision on the renewal of currency was good and they were fully in support, its execution had been botched and their constituents were becoming increasingly upset.

They told the president that, as leaders of the government and party in their different states, they were becoming anxious about a slump in the economy and the series of elections that are coming.

They requested the president to use his powers to direct the concurrent flourish of the new and old notes till the end of the year.

The president said when he considered giving the approval to the policy, he demanded an undertaking from the CBN that no new notes would be printed in a foreign country and they in turn gave him assurances that there was enough capacity, manpower and equipment to print the currency for local needs.

He said he needed to go back to find out what was actually happening.

Mr Buhari told the governors that, being closer to the people, he had heard their cries and would act in a way that there would be a solution.

The October 26, 2022 policy decision by the CBN to redesign the N200, N500 and N1,000 denominations, and the subsequent announcements including the cash withdrawal limit – have continued to generate adverse reactions.

Manufacturers’ group warns against CBN’s cash policy

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The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has warned that the lingering cash strapping occasioned by new Central Bank cash policy could result in a 25 per cent downturn in purchase of locally manufactured products.

MAN director general Segun Ajayi-Kadir said in Lagos on Friday in Lagos failure of CBN to a seamless transition from old naira to new naira notes would be inimical to manufacturing.

He said should the current hardships being experienced in accessing money persisted for the next three weeks, there would be a possible drop of 25 per cent in monthly sales of made-in-Nigeria goods.

Mr Ajayi-Kadir noted that as purchases from the retail end, mostly transacted in cash, dry up; there would be a sharp drop in wholesale purchases leading to a glut of unsold inventories in factories.

He added that the situation which was not good for manufacturing, for the government and for the ordinary citizen would lead to a compounded crippling lack of patronage for the domestic manufacturer.

Mr Ajayi-Kadir also said that the development would also deny the government the revenue that would have accrued from consumption taxes and result in the disruption of the daily life and needs of the average Nigerian.

“To be clear, there is no doubt that the currency redesign is desirable; there are socioeconomic and political imperatives for the change.

“It is a critical element of the CBN cashless economy policy that should have far reaching positive results for the economy.

“However, the continued scarcity of the new redesigned naira notes is quite worrisome.

“With our growth prospects heading further south, we can ill-afford a downturn in our Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“The negative impact it portends for local producers, the agricultural and distributive segments of our economy is huge.

“It may worsen the bashing our economy has received from both external and internal shocks in recent times,” he stressed.

Mr Ajayi-Kadir cautioned that adequate measures should be put in place to ensure a smooth currency transition, particularly in the unbanked areas of Nigeria.

He charged the CBN and Bureaux de Changes to be most engaging at the highest level at this time.

According to him, there is a need for strategic communication and joint operations to ensure widespread and sustained availability and circulation of the redesigned naira notes.

“It is baffling to approach a bank only to be told that there is neither the old nor the new naira notes.

“We hope that the resumption of payment across the counter in the banks and the intensification of the CBN special cash swap arrangement in remote areas will yield positive results.

“I hope that what the country is experiencing is a temporary pain and that government will do well to bring the hardship to an end immediately.

“We must make haste to ensure that the price to be paid for this otherwise laudable policy does not outpace the gains,” he also cautioned.