TheNewsGuru

Tag: recession

  • World Bank: Nigeria’ll rebound from RECESSION, grow at a 1.0 percent pace

    A new World Bank (WB) report has forecast Nigeria will rebound from recession and grown at a 1.0 percent pace in 2017.

    The World Bank report said sub-Saharan Africa economy is expected to pick up modestly to 2.9 percent in 2017 as the region continues to adjust to lower commodity prices.

    However, growth in South Africa and oil exporters is anticipated to be weaker, according to the WB’s January Global Economic Prospects report released on Wednesday. Growth in economies that are not natural-resource intensive should remain robust.

    “On a per capita basis, regional GDP contracted by an estimated 1.1 percent. South Africa and oil exporters, which contribute two-thirds of regional output, accounted for most of the slowdown, while activity in non-resource intensive economies generally remained robust,” the lender said.

    The report says growth in South Africa is expected to edge up to a 1.1 percent pace this year and output will be held back by tight fiscal policy and high unemployment that is weighing on consumer spending.

    According to the WB, Nigeria is forecast to rebound from recession and grow at a 1.0 percent pace, as an anticipated modest improvement in oil prices, coupled with an increase in oil production, boost domestic revenues.

    Angola is projected to expand at a moderate 1.2 percent pace as high inflation and tight policy continue to weigh on consumption and investment.

    The WB said growth in the Sub-Saharan Africa region is estimated to have slowed to a 1.5 percent rate in 2016, the weakest pace in over two decades, as commodity exporting economies adjusted to low prices.

    The region’s two largest oil exporters — Angola, where growth slowed to a 0.4 percent rate, and Nigeria, which contracted by 1.7 percent — faced severe economic and financial strains.

    “Other oil exporters were also hit hard by low oil prices, with Chad contracting by 3.5 percent and Equatorial Guinea shrinking by 5.7 percent,” it said.

    According to the report, metals exporters struggled with low prices as well. Growth slowed to 2.7 percent in the Democratic Republic of Congo and to 3.6 percent in Mozambique, where a surge in government debt weighed on investor sentiment.

    The post-Ebola recovery in Guinea accelerated to 5.2 percent. Liberia picked up to 2.5 percent, and Sierra Leone, which expanded by 3.9 percent, was hampered by low prices for iron ore.

    Many agricultural exporters, such as Cote d’Ivoire, which expanded by 7.8 percent, and Ethiopia, which grew by 8.4 percent, registered strong output on the back of infrastructure investment.

    In other mineral and energy exporters, the outlook is generally favorable as Ghana is forecast to surge to 7.5 percent growth pace as improving fiscal and external positions help boost investor confidence.

    “Progress in developing Mozambique’s energy sector will help spur investment in that country’s natural gas production and contribute to an accelerated 5.2 percent growth rate. The post-Ebola recovery is anticipated to help Guinea grow by 4.6 percent, Liberia by 5.8 percent, and Sierra Leone by 6.9 percent,” the report says.

    It says large infrastructure investment programs will continue to support robust growth among agricultural exporters, with Cote d’Ivoire and Ethiopia growing at or above 8 percent.

    However, the report warns that political fragility will exert a drag on growth in countries such as Burundi and The Gambia.

    Among commodity importers, Cabo Verde is expected to grow at a 3.3 percent rate, Mauritius to rise moderately to 3.5 percent, and Seychelles to slow to a 3.5 percent clip as uncertainty in Europe weighs on tourism, investment, and trade flows.

    Lesotho, which is forecast to grow at a 3.7 percent pace, and Swaziland, which should exit recession and resume growing at a 1.9 percent rate, are anticipated to benefit from regional trade and infrastructure investment.

    The Bank warns that heightened policy uncertainty in the United States and Europe could lead to financial market volatility and higher borrowing costs or cut off capital flows to emerging and frontier markets.

    “A reversal of flows to the region would hit heavily traded currencies, like the South African rand, hard. A sharper-than-expected slowdown in China could weigh on demand for export commodities and undermine prices,” the report says.

  • Nigeria’ll get out of recession this year, says World Bank

    The World Bank has predicted that Nigeria will get out of recession and grow its Gross Domestic Product by one per cent this year after plunging into its worst recession in over two decades.

    The bank said in a statement on Wednesday, “Sub-Saharan African growth is expected to pick up modestly to 2.9 per cent in 2017 as the region continues to adjust to lower commodity prices.

    “Growth in South Africa and oil exporters is expected to be weaker, while growth in economies that are not natural-resource intensive should remain robust.

    “Growth in South Africa is expected to edge up to a 1.1 per cent pace this year. Nigeria is forecast to rebound from recession and grow at a 1 per cent pace. Angola is projected to expand at a 1.2 per cent pace.”

    The World Bank’s January 2017 Global Economic Prospects report also projected that growth in the advanced economies would edge up to 1.8 per cent in the current year.

    It stated that fiscal stimulus in major economies, particularly in the United States, could generate faster domestic and global growth than projected, although rising trade protection could have adverse effects.

    Growth in emerging market and developing economies as a whole should pick up to 4.2 per cent this year from 3.4 per cent in the year just ended amid modestly rising commodity prices, the bank stated.

    Emerging market and developing economy commodity exporters are expected to expand by 2.3 per cent in 2017 after an almost negligible 0.3 per cent pace in 2016 as commodity prices gradually recover and as Russia and Brazil resume growing after recessions.

    It, however, added that the outlook was clouded by uncertainty about policy direction in major economies.

    Commenting on the report, the President, World Bank Group, Jim Yong Kim, stated, “After years of disappointing global growth, we are encouraged to see stronger economic prospects on the horizon.

    “Now is the time to take advantage of this momentum and increase investments in infrastructure and people. This is vital to accelerating the sustainable and inclusive economic growth required to end extreme poverty.”

    The report noted the worrisome recent weakening of investment growth in the emerging markets and developing economies, which account for one-third of the global GDP and about three quarter of the world’s population and the poor.

    The World Bank’s Chief Economist, Paul Romer, said “We can help governments offer the private sector more opportunities to invest with confidence that the new capital it produces can plug into the infrastructure of global connectivity.

    “Without new streets, the private sector has no incentive to invest in the physical capital of new buildings. Without new work space connected to new living space, the billions of people who want to join the modern economy will lose the chance to invest in the human capital that comes from learning on the job.”

  • Nigerian Senate envisages 7.55 million additional employments

    Nigerian Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has said Nigeria is set to benefit from additional 7.55 million employments in the coming years.

    The Senate President made this revelation in his speech addressing the Senate on resumption of duties in Abuja today.

    TheNewsGuru Senate House correspondence quotes the Senate President Saraki as saying that new National Assembly Business Environment Roundtable (NASSBER) research findings reveal that economic reform bills, dubbed Priority Bills, will have an output impact equivalent to an average of 6.87% of GDP over a 5-year period on the economy.

    “The average annual growth in jobs is estimated at approximately 7.55 million additional employments as well as an average of 16.42% reduction in Nigeria’s poverty rate,” Saraki said, adding that over the projected 5-year period the Priority Bills would engender the addition of an average N3.76 Trillion to National incomes.

    “National Disposable Income was N85.62 trillion in 2014, equivalent to 4.39% of 2014 figures,” said Saraki.

    Senate President Bukola Saraki said that the NASSBER statistics make the delivery of the Priority Bills imperative and that the statistics confirm evidently that the Senate has gotten priorities right so far.

    “It is hoped that as we begin to turn our focus now towards the passage of the 2017 budget, these bills will be implemented simultaneously with the budget to enable us exit the recession quickly,” Saraki said.

  • Nigerian Senate celebrates 117 bills feat

    At the resumed sitting of Nigerian Senators for the first time in 2017, the Nigerian lawmakers, lead by Senate President Bukola Saraki, celebrated a total of 117 bills, which, some passed through third, and others passed through second reading in the House within the period of four months in 2016.

    In his speech to address the Senators as they resumed from Recess in the New Year 2017, the Senate President stressed that the four month feat of the Senate is historic.

    “It is already historic that within the last quarter, which incidentally is the second quarter of this session, we all rolled up our sleeves, with sweat on our brows and successfully passed 49 bills through 3rd reading and 68 bills through second reading,” Saraki said.

    TheNewsGuru Senate House correspondence reports that the Senators were seen to be overjoyed by the feat they have pulled in the quarter under review as evident at the Senate House sitting in Abuja today.

    “This is a record-setting feat, which has never been matched in the history of the National Assembly. That within a period of 4 months in the middle of the term of any past National Assembly, 49 bills are passed in a single quarter,” he added.

    Saraki said that 2016 was a very challenging year for the Senate, but said that the efforts of the Senate is compensated by the results achieved.

    The Senate President while reiterating commitment of the Senate of passing only laws that would make a difference in the lives of Nigerians assured that the achievement of 2016 has set a stage for greater and better accomplishment in the New Year 2017.

    “…as long as our economy is still in recession, our work is not done,” Saraki said, stressing that “Because our people are still being laid off; so long as factories are closing shop, for as the hardship in the land continues to bite harder, investment continues to dwindle and the foreign exchange market remains fragmented, I will be demanding even much more from us to get all our economic reform bills passed”.

    “Ideally, we would like to see them pass together with the 2017 budget,” he noted.

    Saraki, therefore, urged all committees involved with priority bills to double efforts to ensure that by the end of the first quarter of the New Year the bills are readied.

    “We promise to pass our priority economic reform bills to help aid our economic recovery. This is a promise we must keep,” the Senate President said.

  • ‘Abakaliki rice records high patronage…’

    ‘Abakaliki rice records high patronage…’

    Due to the harsh economic situation in the country, residents of Enugu are now patronising locally produced rice popularly called Abakaliki rice.

    A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), who visited some grain markets and shops in Enugu metropolis on Saturday, reports that the de-stone brand of the locally produced rice was in high demand.

    Abakaliki rice sells for between N12, 000 and N14, 000 per 50kg bag depending on the variety; as against foreign rice which is sold for between N20, 000 and N23, 000 per 50kg bag.

    Mrs Eunice Madu, who deals on rice in Mayor Market, told NAN that almost all the bags of Abakaliki rice stored in her shop were bought during the yuletide.

    She added that she is now left with foreign rice.

    “I must confess, we sold out almost all the available bags of Abakaliki rice during the yuletide as most customers prefer it because it is cheaper and free of stone,’’ she said.

    Chukwuebuka Okoye, a retailer of Abakaliki rice in the market, told NAN that the cheap price and good quality of the rice attracted customers.

    “With N70 you can buy a cup of de-stone Abakaliki rice as against N120 for a cup of foreign rice.

    “As a result of this patronage of the e-stone brand of Abakaliki rice is high,’’ Okoye said.

    Mr Okechukwu Ugwu, a resident of Enugu commended the federal government for encouraging local production of rice and imposing ban on the importation of foreign rice.

    He submitted that the policy was in the right direction.

    Ugwu noted that apart from saving scarce foreign exchange, encouraging local production of rice had helped to create jobs in the country.

    “It has been proven that the local rice is more nutritious and tasty and can be stored longer than foreign rice,’’ he added.

  • Recession didn’t stop Nollywood in 2016!

    Last year, the Nigerian economy experienced an economic downturn that threatened various facets of the economy. Despite the recession, it didn’t affect the box office revenue for the movies released last year.

    According to reports, 1billion was made from a record 50 locally-produced titles. The N1 billion represents nearly 30 percent of the N3.5 billion generated from just 28 cinemas across Nigeria, which includes movies from Hollywood and around the world.

    The most extraordinary result came from ELFIKE’s The Wedding Party that still continues to crash box office records weeks after its release on December 16, 2016. The movie broke AY Makun‘s record of N176 million by making N200 million in about two weeks.

    Moses Babatope, COO of FilmOne Distribution said:” 2016 has been an amazing year for Nigerian cinema. With returns of well over N200 million, The Wedding Party is on track to deliver numbers we have never seen before for a Nigerian film. It’s important to note that it is selling more tickets than Rogue One, part of the Star Wars franchise and the biggest film worldwide this season. For the first time, Nollywood is competing with Hollywood at the Nigerian box-office and winning.”

    Movies like Omoni Oboli’s Wives on Strike, Kunle Afolayan’s The CEO, Steve Gukas‘ 93 Days and Izu Ojukwu‘s ’76 have also contributed to Nollywood’s amazing revenue.

     

    Other movies that contributed to the record-breaking Nollywood gross revenue include Omoni Oboli’s Wives on Strike, Kunle Afolayan’s The CEO, Steve Gukas‘ 93 Days and Izu Ojukwu‘s ’76.

  • Recession: Gynaecologist advise Nigerians to embrace family planning

    Prof. Suleiman Adeniran of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), has advised parents to embrace family planning to ease the effects of economic recession.

    Adeniran gave the advice in Ilorin on Friday during a presentation at a UITH Seminar on: “Economic Recession: A healthy way out’’.

    The gynaecologist described family planning as a concept or programme of limiting the size of families through spacing or prevention of pregnancies, especially in times of economic recession.

    He said it comprised a group of activities that permitted partners to decide freely the numbers of children they desire to have as well as spacing of pregnancies.

    He listed health benefits of family planning contraceptives to include prevention of HIV/AIDs, sexually transmitted diseases, reduction in cases of unsafe abortions and attendant complications.

    Other benefits, according to him, are reduction of maternal morbidity and mortality, reduction of infant mortality, among other contraceptive benefits.

    Adeniran also mentioned the social and economic benefits of family planning as its supports health and development of the couples, especially mothers.

    According to him, it allows greater investment in each child that is key to slowing unsuitable population growth and its negative effects on the economy, environment and development efforts.

    “It mitigates adverse effects of population dynamics on natural resources including food and water, increases economic growth and social stability and a better security for all,’’ he said.

    The gynaecologist said contraceptive methods are available at UITH family planning clinic such as oral contraceptive pills, injectable contraceptive, barrier methods, male and female condom, implants, intrauterine device (IUD), surgical method and vasectomy.

    He added that family planning is one of the cost-effective health interventions that can guarantee the economic well-being of families and communities.

    In his opening remark, Prof. Ola Balogun, the hospital`s Head of Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, defined economic recession as a significant decline in economic activity.

    He explained that this activity spread across the economy visible in real Gross Domestic Product (GDP), real income, employment, industrial production and wholesale-retail sales.

     

  • We need to formulate, implement survival strategies to end recession in Oyo – Ajimobi

    Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State says the state needs to evolve survival strategies in the areas of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), restructuring and blocking of financial loopholes.

    Ajimobi stated this in Ibadan on Wednesday at the inter-religious service organised by the state government.

    He said that it was only through the initiation of such strategies that the state would surmount the prevailing economic challenges.

    The governor stated that efforts at improving infrastructure, welfare of the workforce and other developmental initiatives were increasingly hindered by paucity of funds as a result of the economic downturn.

    “The prevailing economic challenges bedevilling the nation have continued to pose financial threat to meaningful development. It is being made worse by the destructive activities of the Niger Delta militants,” he said.

    He called on Nigerians to use the New Year in reviewing the activities of the previous years with the great anticipation of improving upon such in the years ahead.

    Ajimobi said that the state now received an average of N2.5billion as federal allocation as against N3.5billion in January 2016.

    The governor stated that the abysmally low Internally Generated Revenue(IGR) has continued to pose additional challenges, hindering developmental efforts in the state.

    Ajimobi said that government as an enterprise requires fund to successfully and effectively function.

    “Government receives N2.5 billion monthly federal allocation and generates N1.5billion in terms of IGR to service a monthly wage bill of N5.2 billion.

    “I have told the finance ministry to suspend subventions to tertiary institutions, likewise car loans and all forms of assistance to cut cost and enhance service delivery,’’ he said.

    He debunked the claims that the state government had collected funds from the excess deductions made from the Paris Club refunds shared to states by the Federal Government..

    Ajimobi , however, expressed optimism that the state would be paid as promised.

    The governor promised to allocate 50 percent of the fund in settling outstanding salaries if the money was paid.

    He said that President Muhammadu Buhari had pleaded with the governors to ensure the money was used in settling outstanding salaries of workers, adding that he was passionate about the welfare of the people.

    “That was the same way he pleaded with us to use the bailout fund in settling outstanding salaries then. I am confident to tell you that the state used 100 per cent of the bailout fund in paying outstanding salaries,” he said.

    Ajimobi called on the workers and the people of the state to join hands with government in building the state.

    “Our state has the largest land mass in the whole of the southern Nigeria and comparative advantage in cassava production to make garri, starch and others. We must harness these potentials creatively.

    “Our people should engage in such productive ventures to help the state while eschewing laziness, idleness and rumour mongering,” he said.

  • Osun to intensify intervention programmes 2017 – Aregbesola

    Osun to intensify intervention programmes 2017 – Aregbesola

    In his 2017 New Year broadcast titled ‘From recession to recovery, growth and consolidation,’ the governor of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola, has voiced his government’s commitment to intensify intervention programmes in the State in the New Year 2017.

    “We are going to intensify our intervention programmes among the people. This year, we are going to initiate another batch of Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES).

    “We are going to create more opportunities for people in agriculture, commerce and information and communications technology (ICT),” the Governor said.

    Aregbesola said that since 2014, it is evident that there is no free money again, emphasizing that the way to go is to work hard and earn money.

    “No one should be under any illusion about this. Oil price doesn’t look like it will spike up very soon, as we have had in the past.

    “Even if it will, we should never find ourselves in a position of dependency again. If oil windfall should come, it should go into special projects and savings for the future,” he said.

    The Governor envisioned that “Many developments are coming to our world which we should be prepared for and for which new opportunities will arise for the discerning, the bold and the prepared”.

    For instance, governor Aregbesola said “there will be a quantum leap in technology in the foreseeable future which will produce self-driving cars, robots and automation in agriculture and construction industries, rendering jobs redundant in these areas,” calling on academics, researchers and investors to be prepared and provide leadership for this inevitable transition.

    The Governor was optimistic about the year 2017, stressing that it is going to be a year of consolidation.

    “We are going to consolidate on all our programmes, especially in education, agriculture and road infrastructure,” he said.

    “We are not going to abandon any of our projects,” he added, enthusing 2017 is going to be the busiest year ever in the history of Osun state.

  • Its good to see Nigerians eating rice despite recession – Oyegun

    Its good to see Nigerians eating rice despite recession – Oyegun

     

    The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun has stated that there is fun everywhere in Nigeria despite the nationwide outcry about recession.

    According to the party leader, Nigerians were no bothered by the hardship caused by the ongoing economic crisis.

    Speaking with newsmnen in Benin, the Edo State capital, Oyegun noted that Nigerians had leanrt to save because of the situation of things in the country.

    He said, “I hope it was low key, but what is important is that you could see signs of fun everywhere. Which means that inspite of everything, people are happy. That is not say that there is not some degree of belt tightening. I can feel it but what is also good is that people are still able to eat rice.

    “We have become a bit of wasteful society; now we are being forced to adjust, measure the way we spend money. People hardly fly business class these days.

    “These are signs of growing realism, growing change, an acceptance that it can no longer be business-as-usual. But, personally, what made me glad this Christmas is the existence of local rice; we now have Ebonyi Rice and the Lake Rice. Nigerians are beginning to domesticate their taste in the local rice they prefer, which is very good.

    “The fact that there was so much in terms of quantity of local rice all over the place is something that makes me glad. It means that there was good harvest, and that, next year, for the fact that the market has now been established, it means we can even export rice. So, thank God, out of every seeming adversity, the good Lord opens windows of prosperity.

    “I think we are at the start of a prosperous period, when this country will be depending not just on oil but on a broader base of production. Are you not scared that the recession may degenerate to depression? We are working hard. We are not even thinking of depression, we are thinking of getting out of the recession that we are in. And all government policies and projects are geared towards getting this nation out of the recession as soon as possible.

    “Perish the thought of depression, we will never get there. What is happening with rice now, the same thing is going to be replicated in the agricultural sector and, as soon as the power sector stabilizes, we will get industries like the textile kicking back into production. We can only look upward and not backward.”

    The party chieftain once again affirmed that the leadership of the APC was not threatened by the alleged plans by some persons to form mega party in the year 2017.

    He said, “Mega party, I don’t know where the name mega party suddenly came from in the lexicon of politics in this country. When two people gather to have a meeting, it is a mega meeting.

    “We don’t feel threatened; we will in fact encourage a mega party, because with the gradual collapse of the PDP, we want a party that can make us sit upright and be on our toes in terms of delivery of service to our people; a party that will make us feel challenged, that will make democracy real, offer the people a real choice.”