CBN takes severe measure against UBA

Godwin Emefiele (CBN Governor)

In the latest development, United Bank for Africa Plc, the lender operating in 19 countries on the continent, was penalised by the Central Bank of Nigeria for delays in the transferring of deposits of government institutions to its account with the regulator.

The Lagos-based bank received a penalty of 2.9 billion naira ($15 million) or 5% of a balance of the deposits of 58.8 billion naira as of Oct. 15, UBA said Friday in a statement posted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange website. The bank’s management are in discussion with the central bank over the penalty, according to the statement.

President Muhammadu Buhari and central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele gave lenders until September 15 to move funds for state-owned bodies to the Treasury Single Account at the central bank in a move designed to clamp down on corruption and financial waste in the public sector. Interbank rates jumped before the deadline as banks sought cash.

Fewer than half the deposits had been transferred to the central bank a week later, according to Chibuike Uche, a member of the Monetary Policy Committee.

UBA is the fourth major company to run foul of Nigerian regulators this week. First Bank of Nigeria Ltd., Nigeria’s largest lender by assets, on Thursday was also fined by the central bank for the same offence as UBA.

Tanzania's Kikwete says 'so happy' to retire

Outgoing President Kikwete (Center) shakes hands with President-elect John Magufuli,

flanked by Vice President-elect Samia Suluhu

The outgoing President of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete said Friday he was “happy” to be leaving his job after a decade in power, having stepped aside after serving his two-term limit.

Ruling party candidate, John Magufuli won Tanzania’s hotly contested presidential elections with over 58% of votes, cementing the long-running Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party’s firm grip on power, officials announced on Thursday.

His running mate Samia Suluhu Hassan will become Tanzania’s first ever female vice president.

Kikwete, speaking at a ceremony to hand formal winning certificates to Tanzania’s new leaders, said he was now going to his home village of Msogo, some 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of the economic capital Dar es Salaam.

He dismissed a question as to whether he would miss the trappings of office.

FRCN's Lawyer furious over Stanbic IBTC Sanction

Professor Fabian Ajogwu

 It has emerged that the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) was too hasty in its decision to sanction Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc and its officials without fair hearing, compelling its legal counsel, Professor Fabian Ajogwu (SAN), to withdraw his law firm’s services to the regulator.

According to sources close to Ajogwu’s law firm, Kenna & Associates, Ajogwu was particularly concerned that immediately FRCN announced the suspension of the bank’s directors’ Financial Report Numbers on its website on Monday, on the same day, the council penalised Stanbic IBTC to the tune of N1 billion, in flagrant disregard of the Act setting it up and laid down procedures.

FRCN had sanctioned Stanbic IBTC over its audited accounts for 2013 and 2014 and suspended the Financial Reporting Numbers of the bank’s Chairman, Mr. Atedo Peterside, and its Chief Executive, Mrs. Sola David-Borha, and also barred them forthwith from vouching for the integrity of any financial statements in Nigeria.

BVN: Banks to Deactivate Unregistered Accounts as Deadline Expires Friday

First Bank Premises, Gboko-Benue State thronged

by Customers awaiting Registration

Bank customers that are unable to obtain their bank verification numbers (BVNs) before the close of business this Friday would not be able to operate such accounts as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has ruled out another extension of the deadline, which expires today, Friday.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in collaboration with the Bankers’ Committee had introduced the BVN on February 14, 2014. The initiative was aimed at ensuring unique identity for all bank customers and other users of financial services in the country by the use of the customers’ biometrics as means of identification.

At the expiration of the initial estimated 18 months after the launch, a good number of bank customers were reluctant in registering, which led to commotion and stampede in banking halls across the country towards the end of the previous deadline. That confusion necessitated the call for the extension of the registration dateline by four months to October 31.

Data from the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS), showed that 20,833,635 bank customers had enrolled as at October 25, 2015.

26-yr-old UniAbuja graduate rewrites Nigerian Law School history with 9 awards at Call to Bar

A 26-year-old female graduate of the University of Abuja(UNIABUJA), Fatima Bombom Sani, has set a new record at the Nigeria Law School (NLS) after winning nine individual awards at the 2015 Call to Bar.

Sani, who hails from Adavi-Ege in Adavi LGA of Kogi State, earned her Bachelor of Laws (LLB) at UNIABUJA with Second Class (Upper Division).

She bagged First Class Honours in the 2015 Bar final examination.

According to a report by Daily Trust, Sani was given a standing ovation by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mahmud Mohammed, members of the Body of Benchers (BOB) and the Council of Legal Education (CLE), dignitaries present at the ceremony and her fellow new wigs, when she received her honours.

The awards include:

• Best Student of the Year (1st Prize)
• Council of Education Star Award
• Corporate Law Practice Award
• Best Overall Female Student of the year award
• Best Female Student in Criminal Litigation award
• Best Student in Civil and Criminal Litigation award
• Prize for 1st Class Students

IMF for the Second Time Urges CBN and Others to Weaken Currencies to Absorb Shocks

IMF Headquarters

 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has advised the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other central banks in Africa to allow their currencies to depreciate in order to absorb shocks to their economies.

The multilateral donor agency pointed out that resisting currency pressure depletes foreign exchange reserves and results in weaker imports.

The IMF stated this in its 134-page Regional Economic Outlook for October 2015 posted on its website yesterday.

Tanzania ruling Party maintains lead as opposition rejects poll

The Tanzanian ruling Party’s presidential candidate maintained his lead in the country’s Oct. 25 elections with results from almost half of all constituencies counted, the National Electoral Commission said. 

The main opposition Party proposed it will reject the outcome of the poll.

John Magufuli of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi Party is beating opposition candidate Edward Lowassa, of Chadema, in 90 of the 115 constituencies counted so far, Damian Lubuva, chairman of the commission, told reporters on Tuesday in the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam. The nation has 264 voting districts. 

Chadema’s chairman, Freeman Mbowe, said on Tuesday that an independent count the Party is conducting at polling stations across the country is different from the official tally and the results won’t be accepted. 

While the poll was generally well organised, the electoral administration displayed “insufficient transparency,” the European Union’s Chief Observer Judith Sargentini told reporters. 

Ouattara re-elected as Ivory Coast President; took 84% of the vote

Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara about casting

his ballot in Cocody, a district of Abidjan

Alassane Ouattara was re-elected as president of Ivory Coast, official results showed on Wednesday, in a vote seen as key to cementing peace in the West African country after years of violence and upheaval.

The 73-year-old incumbent won the election outright by garnering almost 84% of ballots in the first round of polls Sunday, which saw 54.63% of voters turn out despite calls for a boycott by some opposition candidates.

Ouattara, who had been widely tipped to win, has been credited with reviving the country’s war-scarred economy but also accused of creeping authoritarianism.

His main challenger was ex-prime minister Pascal Affi N’Guessan, who garnered just 9.29% of ballots and ran on behalf of the Ivorian Popular Front, the party of former leader Laurent Gbagbo. 

Congo officials say over 90% backed president-for-life vote

Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguessou

arrives to cast his ballot on October 25, 2015 in Brazzaville

The actual battle in a weekend referendum to enable Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso to extend his 31-year stay in office looks to have been over the turnout, with the opposition claiming only 10% came out to vote, while the government put the figure at seven times that. 

But no matter the percentage, more than 90% of people voting in the controversial referendum in the Republic of Congo approved the bid, according to official results announced on Tuesday.

A total of 92.96% of voters approved the constitutional change, which has now been adopted, Interior Minister Raymond Mboulou said.

The draft text of the new constitution has been adopted and will come into force as soon as it is put into effect by the president of the republic, he added.

Official results showed turnout was high at 72.44%, though on Monday opposition leader Pascal Tsaty Mabiala had said only 10% of Congolese voted.

Civil Society Groups Seek Overhaul of Nigeria’s Judiciary

The Coalition of Civil Society Groups have appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari and the Chief Justice of Nigeria to overhaul the nation’s judiciary in order to weed out corrupt judicial officers.

Addressing a news conference in Abuja on Sunday, the National President of the Coalition, Comrade Bassey Edim, said there was an urgent need for judicial reforms.

He expressed the belief that the reforms would restore the confidence of all Nigerians in the sector.

Comrade Edim particularly advised the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the National Judicial Council to critically examine the activities of members of Election Petition Tribunals across the federation.

Tanzania set to have a new leader this week

Tanzanians voted Sunday for a successor to President Jakaya Kikwete as fears grow that the outcome of the closest election in a half-century in Africa’s third-biggest gold producer may trigger unrest.

The ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party’s John Magufuli and former Prime Minister Edward Lowassa, who defected to the opposition in July, are front-runners in what analysts have called the tightest contest since the nation gained independence from Britain in 1961.

One September poll showed Lowassa winning, an unprecedented prospect in a country where the CCM has swept every election.

Polling stations started closing across the East African nation at 4 p.m. for voting in presidential and parliamentary elections. Results are due within 72 hours after balloting ends, according to the National Electoral Commission, or NEC. The nation has 23.3 million eligible voters.

“The real risk and potential for political unrest will be when the NEC announces the result,” Ahmed Salim, a Dubai-based analyst at Teneo Intelligence, said in an e-mailed note. The opposition Chadema party has said it won’t concede defeat if there’s evidence of vote-rigging.

The unprecedented pressure

Tanzania’s $49 billion, mostly agrarian economy, grew more than 7 percent in 2014, according to the International Monetary Fund. It’s seeking to diversify into gas production, with an estimated 55 trillion cubic feet of reserves that are the biggest in East Africa after Mozambique.

Kikwete is stepping down after his two-term rule comes to a mandatory end, having overseen a period of relative stability. That means that either way, it will be a new man at the top in Tanzania when the counting is done.

“The NEC is under unprecedented pressure as the entity’s independence and transparency has been put into question,” Salim said. “Any scenario where glitches or delays occur will see the opposition immediately contest the results.”

Two September polls showed Magufuli, 55, backed by more than 60% of those surveyed, while another found support for Lowassa from just over half of those questioned.

Lowassa has built momentum with mass rallies, while Magufuli—nicknamed the Bulldozer because of the zeal he showed in his post as works minister—projects the image of a hard-working man seeking to revitalise a ruling party that’s been dogged by graft allegations.

CCM Secretary-General Abdulrahman Kinana described Magufuli as “down to earth” and a results-oriented civil servant who won’t hesitate to fire non-performers.

Rivers Petition Tribunal Nullifies Wike’s Election

The Rivers State Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja has nullified the election of Nyesom Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party as the Governor of Rivers State, on grounds that his election did not comply with  electoral guidelines.

Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Suleiman Ambrosa, has ordered INEC to conduct fresh elections in the state within 90 days of the ruling.

The petition challenging Mr. Wike’s victory was filed by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) Mr. Dakuku Peterside.

In the 2hrs:8mins judgment delivered in Abuja, the tribunal agreed that the evidence provided by the witnesses called by the respondent and INEC is incredible and unreliable.

Mourinho, Matic Sent Off As Chelsea Lose At West Ham

Jose Mourinho and Nemanja Matic were both sent off as Chelsea’s troubles deepened courtesy of a 2-1 loss at West Ham.

Argentine striker, Mauro Zarate, gave West Ham the lead in the 17th minute at Upton Park. The pierced through the edge of the box following a corner, and Zarate drove into the corner past Asmir Begovic.

Kurt Zouma’s header appeared to have crossed the line for an equalizer in the 35th minute but goal-line technology showed that part of the ball was still on the line.

Fayose Calls Buhari a Sectional Leader over Appointment of INEC Chairman

Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has described the appointment of yet another northerner, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, as the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as a vindication of his position that “President Muhammadu Buhari is a sectional leader, who sees himself mainly as leader of the Hausa/Fulani, and not that of the entire people of Nigeria.”

The governor, who said he had expected that the new INEC chairman will be chosen from one of the three Southern geo-political zones, especially the South-western part of the country being the only zone yet to produce chairman of the nation’s electoral umpire, posited that: “Nigeria has entered a one -chance bus and it remains to be seen who will save the country from its sectional president.”

Reacting to the appointment of Yakubu as the new INEC chairman, Fayose said in a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka that even the Yoruba leaders who promoted and made the Buhari’s presidency possible had been short-changed.

The governor, according to NAN, asked: “Shouldn’t he have considered someone from either South-east, South-south or South-west as chairman of the electoral commission now that we have a president from the North?

“For reasons of perception, equity and fairness, don’t we have credible people from the Southern part of Nigeria that can conduct credible elections as INEC chairman? Or do we assume that the 2019 elections have already been won and lost by the appointment of this Hausa/Fulani professor as INEC chairman? Or isn’t it regrettable that even in 2015, it is only in PDP controlled states that elections are being upturned?”

He said he was worried that the three arms of government - the executive, legislature and judiciary - are headed by northerners, leaving the three zones in the southern part of the country with nothing.