Spicy Joe Vibes Blog

The police in Lagos have arrested a motorist, Adewole Awosanya, for allegedly crushing a man to death with his vehicle on Tuesday morning. PUNCH Metrolearnt that the victim, 64-year-old Ojo Eweola, died at the scene of the accident, which occurred at about 5am near Onigbongbo bus stop in the Maryland area of Lagos. According to eyewitnesses, Awosanya, who drove a Toyota Corolla, was suspected to be drunk and returning from a night party when he swerved off the road at the junction and killed Eweola. One of them, Mr. Ishola Lanre, said the police from the Ikeja Police Division later arrived to take the corpse away, and also towed the damaged vehicles. He said, “The victim is also a taxi driver. He parked his vehicle in front of a private hospital by the roadside and slept on the boot. The man was obviously drunk in the way he drove off the road and hit Eweola’s cab, killing him almost instantly. “About three vehicles were also damaged and the police have taken them away. The police hav...

The Federal Government has approved the payment of about N166bn to petroleum product marketers as reimbursement for outstanding subsidy claims. According to sources at the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, the payment was for batch I to part of batch M of the claims. It was learnt that the other part of batch M, and batches N, O and P, amounting to N105bn, were at the Debt Management Office awaiting payment. The part payment, according to PPPRA sources, was to ensure stability in fuel supply as well as to encourage banks and other financial institutions, which were hitherto reluctant, to issue letters of credit to the marketers to finance petroleum products’ importation. This is coming as the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani-Alison Madueke, has approved the release of the first quarter 2015 allocation to marketers for the importation of petroleum products into the country. A statement issued by the PPPRA stated that the earl...

As oil prices declined further on Tuesday to their lowest levels since May 2009, the global benchmark Brent, against which Nigeria’s oil is priced, tumbled below $58 per barrel. Oil prices have been in steep decline since June as a result of slow demand growth and the United States’ shale oil boom, which has increased supply. Global benchmark Brent crude slumped to $57.47, while the US benchmark, West Texas Intermediate crude, plunged to $53.61 a barrel following the Brent downward. The price of OPEC basket of 12 crudes, which include Nigeria’s Bonny Light, stood at $54.44 per barrel on Monday, compared with $56.03 last Wednesday, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations. Oil prices could hit $50 per barrel in 2015 and the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries will be effectively irrelevant, according to the Bank of America. Francisco Blanch, the bank’s commodity chief, warned that the consequences of OPEC’s decision not to stabilise prices at its last meeting would be “prof...

The total deposits at the Central Bank of Nigeria declined by 2.9 per cent to N6.683tn during the third quarter of 2014, the CBN stated in a new report. This was in contrast to the one per cent increase recorded at the end of the second quarter The CBN Third Quarter Economic Report, posted on its website, stated that the development reflected, largely, the 9.6 per cent fall in Federal Government deposits, which more than offset the 3.4 per cent and 4.4 per cent increase in the deposits of banks and ‘others’, respectively. Of the total deposits, the shares of the Federal Government, banks and ’others’ were N3.04tn (45.6 per cent), N 3.334tn (49.9 per cent) and N3.01tn (4.5 per cent), respectively. The central bank stated that the reserve money, at N4.88tn, also rose by 3.4 per cent, in contrast to the 6.2 per cent decline recorded at the end of the preceding quarter. The development, relative to the level at the end of the preceding quarter, was attributed to the increase of 3.4 per ce...

With the exposure of banks operating in the country to the oil and gas industry, the plunge in global oil prices poses risks to the lenders, Ecobank Research has said. It said the $50 per barrel plunge in oil prices since June 2014 presented “benign balance sheet risks to Nigerian banks, but the plunge may take a bite out of banks.” “Taking into consideration all the demand/supply dynamics, we forecast an average price of $65 per barrel in 2015. That price level may trigger a tempering of the oil and gas sector’s capital expenditure programmes, which in turn may take a bite out of planned capex borrowing from banks. Nigerian banks have grown their exposure to the oil and gas sector following the 2008/09 banking crisis. This growth has been driven by the exit of international oil companies from onshore production and the resultant entry of local indigenous players (marginal oil field operators). Upstream exposures account for more than half of banks’ overall exposures to the oil and ga...

Parents of pupils in the unity schools and the Federal Ministry of Education are now at loggerheads over the directive by the ministry asking parents to pay N5,000 insurance policy for their children. Under the scheme, which is being underwritten by NICON Insurance Plc, the money is to mitigate the effects of the Boko Haram insurgency and other forms of attacks on educational institutions. Though parents applauded the initiative, they however rejected the provision that stipulated that each of the pupils should pay N5,000 per annum to enjoy the scheme. For instance, the Chairman, Parent-Teacher-Association, Federal Government College, Jos, Plateau State, Mr. Mutla Habila, said parents were opposed to the scheme. He told one of our correspondents on the telephone that parents were opposed to the scheme because they could not see its value. He said, “As the PTA FGC Jos chairman, I was the first person to question the propriety of the scheme and I stand by my opposition to it. I am askin...

The running mate to the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, on Tuesday, said the poor state of the nation’s economy has plunged many Nigerians into poverty. He added that there must be a change of government at the federal level to liberate Nigerians from poverty. The former Attorney General of Lagos State spoke at a town hall meeting with artisans, tradesmen and farmers, organised by the Lagos State Government in Ikeja. He said only those who love poverty and would want to remain perpetually in hunger that would vote for President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015. Osinbajo said, “No one is ignorant of all that is happening in this country. No one likes hunger and poverty, but people are hungry. In 2015, only those who love to continue to be hungry that would prefer that the government in power at the centre remains there. “By God’s grace, we will remove them from the seat of power. The people there presently cannot do anything because they don’t know what ...