The Director General of the Debt Management Office (DMO), Dr. Abraham Nwankwo, explained in a statement Monday that the diaspora bond, which was 130 per cent subscribed, was targeted principally at Nigerians abroad, to provide them with the opportunity to contribute to national development.

According to Nwankwo, the bond was structured as a retail instrument to appeal to a wide range of investors and was offered through private banks and wealth managers, rather than institutional investors, which normally deal in large volume transactions.

He revealed that there was considerable interest from investors from all over the world, with the issue attracting initial orders of about 190 per cent of the offered amount.
Final subscriptions were about 130 per cent of offer at the final price for the transaction.
“The diaspora bond has opened a new source of financing for the Federal Government of Nigeria for funding projects for the development of the country.

“This new window further enhances funding liquidity and flexibility of the Nigerian economy, which are necessary characteristics as the country gathers momentum towards the attainment of advanced economy status,” he said.
Nigeria is the first African country to issue a bond targeted at retail investors in the United States, a market highly regulated by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (U.S. SEC).

The only previous U.S. SEC registration for an African country was targeted at institutional investors.
The issuance of a bond registered by the U.S. SEC provides an opportunity to access a wide range of investors, Nwankwo explained.
With this development, Nigeria can now routinely access funds from private banks and wealth managers in the U.S. and European markets: this opportunity is not available to other developing countries that have only issued Eurobonds.

Reacting to the successful debt raising, the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, said: “To have received the approval of the U.S. SEC was indicative that the highest level of transparency and accountability in the economic process has been attained.”
She explained that the bond should positively impact the country’s credit rating, transparency rating and financial market development index rating.

“The Diaspora Bond is the first bond issued by an African sovereign registered with both the U.S. SEC and the United Kingdom Listing Authority (UKLA) and targeted at retail investors,” she stressed.

With the successful issuance of the debut Diaspora Bond, Nigeria will establish a programme for raising funds from Nigerians and Friends of Nigeria in Diaspora, as an avenue for continuous participation in the development of the economy.
Market experts also hailed the move by the country, pointing out that Nigeria was able to raise the sum under the very restricted U.S. retail market.

This, according to experts, opened new window for programmed sourcing of diaspora funds.
“Unlike the Eurobond which restricts you to only institutional investors, to be authorised by U.S. and European regulators to issue a retail product means you can now approach wealth managers and private banks. In short, you have no more real restrictions,” one analyst who preferred not to be named, explained.

The international Joint Lead Managers to the issue were Bank of America Merrill Lynch and the Standard Bank of South Africa Limited.
The Nigerian Joint Lead Managers were First Bank of Nigeria Limited and United Bank for Africa Plc.
Prior to its issuance, the presidential aide for foreign affairs and diaspora, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, had urged all Nigerians to take advantage of the first ever diaspora offer by buying into the bond.

She said her office and Nigerians in the diaspora were excited about the offer, adding that it was a unique way of lubricating the interest of Nigerians abroad to participate in the development projects being carried out by the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

Preparatory to the debt issuance, Nwankwo had led the federal government delegation, comprising officials of the DMO, Ministry of Finance, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and the Budget Office of the Federation on investor roadshows that took place in major cities of the world, including London, New York, Miami and Geneva

Source:THIS DAY

China and US: face-to-face

The world’s largest two economies meet to discuss trade, security and North Korea’s growing nuclear missile threat.

Donald Trump, the US President is meeting Xi Jinping, the Chinese President, at President Trump's Mar-a-Lago retreat in a highly anticipated meeting between leaders at odds over trade, China's strategic ambitions and how to deal with North Korea's weapons programmes.

On the military

Trump is seeking an additional $54 billion to spend on the US military in the coming year, roughly a 10 percent increase. China has said that it will increase its military spend by 7 percent, the second consecutive year in which its military spending will be under 10 percent.

China's upgrading of its forces and projected expansion of its naval fleet have been a cause for concern in the region as Beijing continues to push it’s assertive stance in regional disputes. In the past year, there have been several incidents involving the US and China in the South China Sea. In one, a Chinese ship captured a US drone close to the Philippines, which was later returned.

  

On the economy

China's Premier Li Keqiang has warned of a further slowdown in Chinese economic growth this year.

Addressing the annual National People's Congress, he said the growth target would drop to 6.5 percent, compared with last year’s goal of between 6.5 and 7 percent.

Trump on the other hand has been promising to bring jobs back to America and increase taxation on imports from China.

However, there are approximately 2.6 million American jobs that rely on trade with China.

 Source: aljezeera

Presidency, Senate feud: Matters Arising

Nigeria has within the last few months witnessed consistent Executive-Legislature feud which appears to threaten the nation’s democracy. IGNATIUS OKOROCHA examines the unfolding events

By May 29, 2017, the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) would have been two years in office and an in-depth appraisal of the successes recorded by the Muhammadu Buhari’s administration within the period under review leaves much to be desired. Unfortu­nately, the administration which won the overwhelming support of Nigerians appears to be fast diminishing.

Nigerians have within the last three months been treated with what many political watchers re­gard as a show of shame between the executive arm and the legis­lature. For many analysts, most of the people hired by President Buhari to work with him have continued to display signifi­cant arrogance. Most of these appointees of the President ex­hibit actions that tend to portray them as having no knowledge of the principles of separation of powers which is the hallmark of democracy. Modern democracy is built on a tripod of three arms of government consisting of the Legislature, the Executive and the Judicary.

The essence of this system of government finds its bear­ing in the power of each of the arms playing the role of checks and balances. Each of the arms plays the role of watchdog on the other. But most of the people recruited by President Buhari on taking over the mantle of leadership from the immediate past President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan ironically still feel that they are working for a military dictator who has no need of other arms of government to work with.

Recent events in the nation’s polity have shown that the Ex­ecutive arm of government con­sisting of the President and his deputy who are elected on a sin­gle ticket with a bloated number of appointees have continued to exhibit actions that portray the country as if under a military regime.

A classical example of what Nigerians have witnessed in the Buhari-led government within nearly two years of his adminis­tration was first, the probe of an alleged diversion of huge sums of money meant for the recon­struction and rehabilitation of the internally displaced persons by the dreaded Boko Haram insurgency by the contractors handling the projects under the close watch of the Secretary to the Government of the Federa­tion (SGF),Engr. Babachir La­wal.

To get to the root of the al­legation, the Senate in the dis­charge of its constitutional role

of over-sighting the Executive arm, set up Senator Shehu Sani-led Adhoc-committee to con­duct a public hearing in order to ascertain how much has been released to the Presidential Ini­tiative on the North East (PINE) And also to ascertain how these funds have been utilized from in­ception to date.

The committee was also ex­pected to investigate the diver­sion of grains and other food items from the Strategic Grain Reserves, NEMA and other sources for the IDPs. Conse­quently, the committee held a three-day public hearing be­tween 6th to 8th, December, 2016, even though some of the invited stakeholders refused to attend the event, the probe panel went ahead to carry out its man­date.

The Senate had in the find­ings of the Ad hoc, indicted the SGF of corruption and abuse of office in the handling of the funds earmarked for tackling the humanitarian crisis in the North East, and subsequently called on President Muhammadu Buhari to sack him and also that the Attorney-General of the Federa­tion (AGF), should immediately commence his prosecution.

According to the lawmakers, the SGF violated some of the provisions of Public Procurement Act and the Federal Govern­ment’s Financial Rules and Reg­ulations guiding award of con­tracts. The Senate said that some of the contracts were awarded to companies belonging to highly placed government officials, their friends and family members.

The chamber pointed out that the committee discovered in the course of its investigation, that Rholavision Engineering Lim­ited, a company, that has Lawal as Director, was awarded consul­tancy contract, with no tangible work on ground done to justify the money spent. However, Presi­dent Muhammadu Buhari, in January, wrote to the Senate and defended the SGF while accusing the Chamber of bias and alleged that the SGF was not given a fair hearing.

Sequel to this, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, man­dated the committee to conduct a fresh public hearing and invite relevant stakeholders, including the SGF to defend themselves. Also the Senate was saddled with the task of confirming the Acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ( EFCC) Ibrahim Mangu as sub­stantive chairman of the commis­sion by President Buhari.

The Senate had in an attempt to carry out its constitutional role of screening Magu before pro­ceeding to confirm him received a letter from the Directorate of State Security Services ( DSS) which abruptly halted the ex­ercise and the high point in the letter was that Magu has some uncleared security issues and as such should not be confirmed. The Upper House had to write to Buhari with a resolution that it has rejected the confirmation of Magu for the EFCC job.

The President on receiving the Senate report wrote back resub­mitting the name of Magu for the same position saying that he has looked at the allegations on Magu and absorbed him of such allegations. However, the Senate was again dissuaded from go­ing ahead with the confirmation of Magu by a fresh letter from the DSS asking the Senate not to confirm the Acting chairman of EFCC.

The upper chamber in total submission to the advice of the DSS rejected the nomination of Magu for a second time and asked President Buhari to send another nominee for headship of EFCC this to say the least was unprecedented as the nation in its journey to democracy has never witnessed many of such experi­ences

As if that was not enough tonic the Senate again was con­fronted with a policy that many political watchers view as not only anti-people but would if al­lowed inflict untold hardship on Nigerians. And that new policy was unleashed on Nigerians by the Nigeria Customs Service popularly known as retrospec­tive payment of import duty on vehicles and the upper chamber of the National Assembly had to appealed to the Service to sus­pend the implementation of such policy.

And to ensure compliance to this directive the Senate had to direct its committee on Customs headed by Senator Hope Uzodin­ma to meet the Comptroller of Customs, Col. Hammed Ali(rtd) and convey the resolution of the parliament to him. Surprisingly the Customs Boss was quoted in some national dailies the follow­ing day to have dared the Senate by saying that there was no going back on the policy.

Unfortunately this demon­stration of Executive rascality incurred the wrath of the Senate and it then demanded that Ali should appear at its plenary in his Customs complete uniform to shed light on why the policy must be implemented despite its negative impact on the Nigerian public the resolution of the legis­lature.

Ali who some political analysts described as reluctantly appeared before the Senate on the day after been threatened with a warrant of arrest appeared without his cus­toms uniform was turned back by the upper House and asked to re­peat the invitation in few days af­ter in his complete customs outfit.

But rather than honour that in­vitation the customs boss decided to seek legal protection from the Attorney General of the Fed­eration through a letter the SGF wrote to the Senate. This letter of the nation’s number one lawyer (Counsel) rather than proffer so­lution to the already brewing feud with the Executive appeared to have added salt to the injury.

Reacting on the content of the letter to the Senate by AGF most view the letter as a direct affront of the presidency on the Senate and there and then the Upper House resolved to declare the Customs CG, Col. Ali unfit to oc­cupy any position in the nation’s public service while asking him to resign his appointment as CG of the Customs Service. Mean­while one of the Senators who many Nigerians said spoke their mind on the happenings in the presidency is Senator Isa Hamma Misau (Bauchi Central).

He said:”The President re­cently left for London for holiday and attend for medical attention and while he was away for about 59 days the nation did not record any crisis from any part the coun­try. The herdsmen did not attack any community and you didn’t hear of any militancy attack from the Niger Delta Avengers nor any other crisis and those who were antagonistic to Buhari’s ad­ministration went silent and the President just came back about two weeks ago and since he came back there has been a lots of ten­sion in the county.

“I feel that those who are cre­ating this tension in the polity are within the presidency and as such, those people don’t want the president to work. I think the enemies of this country are within the presidency and people very close to the president. They are the enemies of this govern­ment and they are enemies of Mr. President and I submit that we should continue to pray for the President.” It is instructive to note that these developments are hap­pening under the watch of Presi­dent Buhari and he appears to be nonchalant about them.

No wonder the Senate recently refused to honour President Bu­hari’s request for the confirmation of 27 nominees for Resident Elec­toral Commission (REC) for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)until the President takes appropriate ac­tion against the continued stay in office of the Acting Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission( EFCC), Ibrahim Magu the upper chamber has recommended for his sack.

The Authority gathered that President Buhari has set up a Peace Initiative Presidential Committee on Executive-Leg­islature Relations headed by his Vice, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo com­prising of former Senators and Ministers in his cabinet to meet with the National Assembly del­egation.

Many see the reconciliatory move as commendable but query the use of the reconciliation when constitutional breaches have be­come the order of the day under the close watch of Mr. President. Why should a parliament issue a resolution that a nominee of the presidency be dropped for se­curity reasons and the President goes ahead to re-nominate such a person as if the nation is bereft of capable hands to fill the gap. 

Source:THE Authority

Buhari back home

President Muhammadu Buhari returned to the country on Friday morning from London.

The plane conveying him landed in Kaduna at 7:40am.

He immediately took off in an helicopter to Abuja.

On arrival in Abuja, he was received by top government officials including Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Service Chiefs, Zamfara State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Muhammad Bello and Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali.

Source: The Nation

Alleged mismanagement of Paris Club Funds:PLSG clears air

Using system approach and communication theory to explain what is obainable in political system,that is Transparency: clears air
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Alleged mismanagement of Paris Club Funds: PLSG clears air
News available to ViewPointNigeria indicates that the Government of Plateau state under Rt. Hon. Simon Bako Lalong has declared that its financial books are open for scrutiny and investigation by anti graft agency over alleged mismanagement of Paris Club loan refund by 35 state governors saying it has no skeletons in its cupboard over the fund received by the state.

It would be recalled that a human rights advocacy group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, has urged the Attorney General of the Federation to initiate legal proceedings against 35 state governors, who allegedly diverted or mismanaged the N388.3bn London Paris Club loan refunds.

Apparently reacting to the inclusion of Plateau State among states that mismanaged the fund, the State Governor, Barrister Simon Lalong who spoke through his aide, Special Adviser on Media, Hon. Dan Manjang told journalists that the money was judiciously utilized contrary to the insinuation in some quarters.

According to him, the state government received $74,756,013.98 (Being 50% of State and LGAs) with its Naira equivalent of N10, 497,000,000.00. The State got N6, 304,498,200.00 and LGAs N4, 192,501,800.00 representing 60.06% and 39.94 %, respectively.

He said the money was used for arrears of 3 months civil servants salaries, arrears of 7 months pensions adding that there was a shortfall of N1.4 billion which the state government had to borrow to complement.

“It is mischievous to include Plateau State among states that mismanaged the fund. What we used the money for had further helped to stabilize the state, the civil servants are happy. The benefits go to the entire state.

“Because of the action of the governor, especially on the judiciously use of the money, Governor Lalong was recently nominated as the chairman of Good Governance of Progressive Forum. You can’t earn the leadership of the group if you don’t lead well” he said.

The Special Adviser on Media said because of the magnanimity of the governor some of his colleagues are not happy with him adding that for the first time in a very long time the state is not owing and at the same time paid January 2017 salary on 25th of the same month.

He further disclosed that the government has commenced compilation of gratuity arrears adding that this would be paid as soon as fund is available.
Source:viewpoint Nigeria

Protecting your child from cyber terrorism

I was at a Parents Teachers Association meeting some time ago, when an argument broke out on the need for e-learning in the school.

Some parents were against it, as they felt it might expose their children to certain dangers amongst other reasons. But one young mother stood up to defend the need for introduction of e-learning platforms. She said that it is backward mentality to be against the use of e- learning as technology is fast advancing and children need to be in tune with the advancement.

She said all her children age 9, 11 and 12 have smart phones and she buys enough data for them to use to surf the internet. According to her, this has made her children quite brilliant and internet savvy.  

At that juncture, I interrupted her and asked her a simple question, Madam did you teach your children internet safety? ‘’erm! erm! not yet” she replied.’’ Did you filter bad sites on their phones” I continued, ‘’filter kwa! She exclaimed’’ I’m just hearing that for the first time’’ she said scratching her head. ‘’Do you monitor what they do online’’? I further asked, ‘’Hia oh! I’m too busy for that, my children are smart and they know what they shouldn’t do,’’ she said arrogantly.  shook my head slowly and wondered how ignorant some parents can be. Why would a mother buy smart phones for children ages 9, 11 and 12 and give them free access to the internet. How careless can some parents be? She obviously has extra cash to splash on phones and data but doesn’t know the right thing to do. I thought to myself, if something goes wrong as a result of her carelessness, she’ll start blaming her village people.

We can’t deny the fact that the internet is a great resource for children. They can use it to research school assignments, projects and read a lot of educational e books and articles and play interactive brain boosting games. At the same time, we can’t deny the numerous dangers that are inherent on the internet, such as cyber crime, cyber bullying and cyber terrorism. I read a chilling story of how young boys in UK became victims of cyber bullying. Many of the children got into bad gangs and some got killed in the process.

It is not advisable to buy smart phones for children below the age of 18 and even if you allow them to go online to do a research or to read, you have to check their activities online.

Unsupervised access to the internet can pose hazards to your child. You have to be aware of what your child is doing online. You have to know who they chat with and what they share online. Something shocking happened in my neighbourhood last year.  A teenage girl was manipulated by an older man to send her nude pictures to him and she fell for it and sent her nudes with her face showing. The man started threatening to upload the picture online if she doesn’t sleep with him and this girl scared of her pictures surfacing online started sleeping with this man. 

There are so many sexual predators online looking for children to prey on.  They prod children to send their personal information such as addresses and phone numbers to them thereby putting themselves and family members at risk. Some even convince them to meet with them privately. 

Aside from sexual predators, there are millions of sexually explicit materials online, so there is need to get softwares that helps block access to certain sites based on a bad list site that your internet service provider creates. Filtering programs also block sites from coming in and restricts personal programs from being sent online. Schools that allow children access to the internet must offer online protection as well.

The best person to protect your child from the dangers online is you. BY talking to them about the potential online dangers and monitoring how they use the internet, you will help them use the internet safely

Soo