Category: General News

Speaker of the Zamfara State House of Assembly, Alhaji Sanusi Rikiji has announced the state government plans to immediately rehabilitate villages recently destroyed by bandits in Zurmi local government area of the state.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 18 villages in the three districts of Kwashabawa, Birane and Mashema were attacked by bandits last week where scores of people were killed.

NAN further reports that following the attacks, over 12,000 villagers from the affected areas deserted their homes and are now being camped in schools, hospitals and offices in Zurmi, the local government headquarters.

The speakerm who made the announcement at a press briefing in Gusau on Sunday, described the Zurmi attack as the worst in the state since 2012.

“As we are talking now, these districts are no longer under government but bandits control and we are mobilizing with security personnel to go and flush them out, ” Rikiji said.

He said while efforts were being made to rebuild the affected villages, the communities would remain at the local government headquarters where they would be catered for.

” At this moment, even if they go back to their villages, there will be no food or shelter for them because the bandits have burned down most of the houses along with foodstuff and animals, ” he said.

“We are also going to bring doctors so that the victims will be treated out of the trauma they went through especially the women and children,” the speaker further said.

He said, at the moment, both the state and the national emergency agencies were providing services to the victims.

Rik ii said the IDPs would remain in place until the arrival of a federal government delegation which he said was being expected for an on-the-spot assessment of the situation.

He said another camp in Shinkafi was holding 7,500 IDPs persons.  (NAN

Former First Lady, Hajiya Maryam Abacha, has pledged to collaborate with the State Government in the fight against drug abuse.

Maryam, founder of the ‘Sani and Maryam Abacha Support Foundation’, made the pledge during the launch of the the Foundation on Saturday night in Kano.

She said the collaboration was necessary in order to complement the state government’s effort in tackling the menace of drug abuse and other social vices prevalent among the youths.

The former first lady said the decision to establish the Foundation was informed by her commitment and desire of other members of late Gen. Sani Abacha family to render more services to humanity.

She said the new Foundation would equally collaborate with the Kano Emirate Council in areas of Community self-help, basic education, Islamic education and campaign against drug abuse especially among youths and married women.

The former First Lady said the various awards conferred on her and by extension, her family had not only been a great source of pride and inspiration but a source of encouragement and motivation for her to further render more services to society.

In his remarks, the oldest son of the former First Lady, Alhaji Muhammad Abacha said the idea behind the establishment of the Foundation, was to promote national unity as well as social and economic advancement of communities regardless of ethnic origin.

“The Foundation was also established to promote high moral standards and improvement of the welfare of the most vulnerable in the society.

He said the Foundation would also focus on tackling problems associated with illiteracy, poverty, school drop-out and the age long problem of the girl-child and drug abuse, among others. (NAN)

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) said that the total pension fund assets stood at N8.14 trillion as at May, 2018.

PenCom in a statement signed by its spokesman, Mr Peter Aghahowa, on Sunday said  the assets rose from N7.52 trillion in December 2017, to N8.14 trillion in May 2018.

The commission said,”the pension assets as at December 2017 stood at N7.52tn, it moved up to N7.8 trillion as at February and soared to N7.94 trillion in March, then to N8.14 trillion in May.”

It also posited that N5.2 trillion has been invested in Federal Government Securities by the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs)

It said the investment represented 70.08 per cent of the N8.14 trillion pension assets.

“A breakdown of the investment is FGN bonds got N3.96 trillion; treasury bills, N1.68 trillion, agency bond like the Nigeria Mortgage Refinancing Company (NMRC) and the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) got N6.54 billion, Sukuk bonds got N51.98 billion and green bond got N8.26 billion.

“The state government securities gulped N154.02 billion; corporate bonds, N393.27 billion; corporate infrastructure bonds, N8.36 billion; banks, N662.80 billion; commercial papers, N71.75 billion and estate properties, N228.86 billion.

“Other classes of assets include, supra-national bonds, N8.21 billion; open/close end funds, N10.16 billion; mutual funds, N1987 billion; private equity fund N3727 billion; infrastructure fund, N8.95 billion and cash & other assets N96.13 billion,” the commission said. (NAN)

The Debt Management Office (DMO), says only three corporate entities accessed the domestic bonds market in 2017 with a total issuance of N23.15 billion.

This is according to its recently published 2017 Annual Report and Statement of Accounts, made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Sunday in Abuja.

The report added that the bonds segment of the domestic bond market witnessed a slowdown in activity in 2017, compared to 2016, which had N108.04 billion issued by nine corporates.

It said that this represented a percentage decrease of 78.57 per cent, adding that the decline in the issuance by corporates could be attributed to the high borrowing cost prevalent in the domestic capital market in 2017.

It listed the three corporates to be Dufil Prima Foods Plc, Viathan Funding Plc and LAPO Micro Finance Bank SPV Plc.

It, however, said it expected  corporate bonds issuances would increase in the near term with the  easing of inflationary pressure and reduction in yields of sovereign benchmark.

The report stated that allotments of Federal Government bonds by residency classification showed that resident holders accounted for N1.35 million or 87.20 per cent of bonds in 2017, compared to N1.29 million or 98.62 per cent in 2016.

“On the other hand non-resident investors held N198.39 million or 12.80 per cent of the bonds in 2017, compared to N18 million or 1.38 per cent in 2016, indicating an increased participation by the non-resident category of investors at the auctions.

“This was on account of the relative stability in the Foreign Exchange Market and the improving macroeconomic indicators, which have enhanced investor confidence in the Nigerian economy.”

The DMO also said that the size of the Domestic Bond Market was N13.51 billion as at Dec. 31, 2017, compared to N12 billion as at Dec. 31, 2016, representing an increase of N1.48 billion or 12.30 per cent.

It added that the share of Federal Government of Nigeria’s securities relative to the total size of the domestic bond market increased from N11 billion in 2016 to N12.58 billion in 2017 due to the introduction of new debt instruments in the market.

It said that while corporate and States Government bonds recorded minimal issuances relative to the redemption of existing instruments, the Supra-national bond witnessed no new issuance during the period under review.

The report stated that in five consecutive years, the Federal Government’s bonds witnessed over subscription.

Giving an analysis of the bonds primary market activities, it said that benchmark bonds of five, 10, and 20 years were issued by the Federal Government in the primary market in 2017.

The report added that sub-national bond issuance rose from N47 billion in 2016 to N97.39 billion, in 2017, an increase of 107.21 per cent in the volume of issuance.

It, however, said that only the Lagos State Government accessed the domestic bond market in 2017.

Nigeria issues sovereign bonds monthly to support the local bond market, create a benchmark for corporate issuance and fund its budget deficit.

The DMO’s primary responsibility is to manage public debt. This it does by introducing initiatives and products to support the development of the domestic market. (NAN)