Business
Apprehension In Markets As CBN Holds First 2021 MPC Meeting
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) begins its first meeting in 2021 today with the apex bank’s monetary policy decision-makers expected to consider its monetary tools and make crucial decisions on benchmark interest and other monetary rates.
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the CBN is expected to decide on the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), which was retained at 11.50 per cent at the last meeting in November, last year.
The decisions of the apex bank, which are expected to be announced at the end of the two-day meeting tomorrow, Tuesday, January 26, 2021, are expected to have ripple effects across the markets. A decision to hold rates may retain the current market trend in favour of equities, but a hike in rates could moderate quoted equities’ rally in favour of fixed-income market.
The MPC traditionally reviews the developments in the domestic and global economies and the state of the financial markets, especially the domestic market, while making possible projections on the outlook as guidance for its decisions.
Cordros Group, a major investment banking group, said it expected the apex bank to hold the MPR unchanged.
According to analysts at Cordros, although rising inflationary pressures alongside fragilities in the balance of payments present a strong case for monetary tightening, it is rather too early for such a stance given the need to support economic recovery.
Analysts noted that monetary tightening would contradict previous heterodox policies targeted towards improving the flow of credit to the real sector of the economy and prolong the recovery phase.
“Monetary policy tightening will also create severe financial market turbulence and amplify deficit financing pressures for the government. On a balance of factors, we believe the Committee will keep policy rates unchanged and affirm the use of unorthodox measures such as CRR debits, Loan-to-Deposit Ratio (LDR), and direct intervention in employment-stimulating sectors to influence macroeconomic outcomes and ultimately attain macroeconomic stability,” Cordros stated.
Business
Minister of State For Industry Charges NEPZA on Impactful Performance
Throws Support Behind Current Management
Honourable Minister of State For Industry, Senator John Owan Enoh today Thursday the 19th of December, identified the importance of enhanced performance with direct impact on the lives of the Nigerian people as critical to the implementation of the core mandate of agencies within the Industrial sector of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.
Speaking when the top management of NEPZA led by the Managing Director/CEO, Dr. Olufemi Ogunyemi paid him a visit in his office to deliver a progress report on the activities of the authority, the Minister of State for Industry, charged the management of NEPZA to pay greater attention on delivering enhanced performance with focus on industrial matters that will impact the Nigerian people in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of the present administration. While expressing his readiness to work closely with the leadership of the authority to achieve this objective, he called for continued engagement with the management of NEPZA to achieve this shared objective.
Presenting his progress report to the Honourable Minister of State, Dr. Ogunyemi stated that NEPZA is committed to repositioning itself through various initiatives to ensure continued growth and excellence. He stated that in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of the present administration, the agency has expanded the Free Trade Zones and clusters to 55 across the nation and generated 13,720 jobs in the process
Within the year under review, the authority also registered 39 new enterprises, registered three new trade zones, facilitated the establishment of the Lekki Deep Sea Port development within the Lagos Free Trade Zone in record time and brought in significant Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow into the country’s economy. Within the period under review, the Managing Director informed the Minister that the work of the authority has led to the inflow of $1 billion worth of investment into the country from the trade zones this year alone. This, in addition to the sum of N425 billion, the trade zones paid as customs duty to the Nigeria Customs.
NEPZA, he said, is engaging with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NGX), and other stakeholders to draft regulations for listing Free Zone Enterprises on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
The listing he said will enable free zone entities, to access additional finance through the Nigerian capital market, create a framework for Free Zone Entities to contribute to the growth of the capital market and enhance NEPZA’s regulatory oversight of listed Free Zone Entities.
He appealed for the support of the Honourable Minister to enable the authority to overcome current challenges. These include outdated legal and regulatory frameworks, limited understanding of the Free Trade Zone concept, multiple taxation by revenue agencies, limited access to foreign exchange, and inadequate infrastructure, among others.
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