BUHARI'S FAT COWS?

It appears Nigeria has come back full circle to the era of seeing investors and businesses as fat cows that should be milked to the last drop even when they are not well fed.
First, it was MTN Nigeria that was fined about one trillion Naira reportedly for failing to comply fully with official directives on sim registration.
Next we heard of First Bank being penalized by the Central Bank of Nigeria for not transferring MDA accounts to schedule as demanded by the presidency.
Now it is the turn of UBA PLC to be fined N2.9bn for failing to remit N58.1bn MDA funds to the CBN by October 15, 2015. The fine was 5% of the fund in question.
This is certainly becoming worrisome. One, punitive measures do not have the same impact with corrective measures especially when first offenders are involved. For example, claiming 5% for fund not remitted within days is certainly punitive because there is no way such money could  have earned even one per cent per day.
On the other hand, if this is being done because the federal government needs money desperately to execute its programmes and perhaps even reward those who bankrolled to power, then it becomes a case of seeing through blinkers.
Perhaps it needs be added that in the current Nigerian economic situation, investors are not the beggars but owners or overseers of investment outlets are.
Hence to adopt cow milking punitive measures now will amounted a very shortsighted move that will have implications for future investment and also help present investors reconsider their continued presence and scale of operations.
It does not augur well at all and deserves a second and very critical rethink.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2018: TWO BLOWS TO UNITED CAPITAL PLC.

When a child who in a previous examination scored 80%, comes home with a new report in which he now scores 67.2%, the parents have a right to sit him down and ask how come. So it must be between Nigeria's United Capital Plc and its discerning shareholders since the release of the company's 2018 audited figures. In 2018, all said and done, says the annual report, United Capital ended with 67.2 % profit margin compared to 80.2% in 2017. How come? What comes across from the figures was that the company received 2 blows to the jugular in 2018: Sharp drops in Investment income and fair value gain. Investment income dropped by 10.8% to N4422.8m from N4965.2m while fair value on financial assets plunged by 79.7% to N6.173m from 2017's N30.387m. In view of both drops, the group's gross earnings grew by only 33.9% to N9259.4m despite strong growths in net trading income, and net operating income leap to N757.5m from N143.5m  Other income streams ended with single digit increase....
Read more

KENYA AUCTIONS Ksh 13.84bn Treasury Bonds.

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) will from Tuesday December 18 to 27th 2018_ auction Ksh 13.84bn worth of fixed income Treasury Bonds with issue date December 17, 2018. According to official statement from the Director of Financial Markets Irene Njiru on Monday December 17, auction will continue throughout the stated period or close once the target money to be raised is reached, whichever comes first. Bid value will be paid for at most by 2pm December 31, 2018 while auction results will be made public on December 28, 2018 after the scheduled closing date. The bonds are being issued at 12.502% fixed interest at an adjusted average price of Ksh 100.468 for Ksh 100 bond. However, price payable after auction results publication will be average of successful bid prices based and allotment will be on first come first served basis. Meanwhile, the monetary operations and debt management department has released the interest payment schedule for 13 Treasury Bonds due January and February 2019. Th...
Read more

NAIROBI SE's HIGH PRICED EQUITIES.

In the wake of Nigeria's high priced quoted companies posted in this blog a while ago, Henates took a look to at Nairobi Securities Exchange June 23 official list to identify its high priced equities and the outcome was interesting too. Of the 66 companies quoted on the market by June 23, 15 or 22.7% were valued averagely at above 30 times nominal value. A word of caution though: There are two clear differences between the Nigerian stock market list and that of Nairobi: In the Nigerian one most listed companies have par or nominal value of N0.50 as is there is an implied agreement on this. On the other hand, at Nairobi most of the equities do not share common par value, they differ greatly. Then another thing, Nigerian equities are not valued below par, Nairobi ones can and many are so valued. Of the top 15 high priced equities at the Nairobi market, Safaricom topped with because by June 23, at 23.25 Ksh average price, it was valued 465 times its nominal value of just 0.0...
Read more