Nigeria’s GDP Growth Forecast | Rise in Import Duties | NIPOST Exempt From Tax Collection | Fall in Subscriber Base | Covid-19

Good Morning, Here are your top 5 news items for the day.

Nigeria’s GDP Growth Forecast

W’Bank raises GDP growth forecast for Nigeria to 1.8% - 

This Day The World Bank has increased Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth projection for 2021 to 1.8 per cent, higher than the 1.1 per cent it had estimated for the country earlier this year. The Washington-based institution, in its June 2021 Global Economic Prospects released yesterday, also forecast the GDP growth to hit 2.1 per cent for the country in 2022, compared with the 1.8 per cent it had predicted for Nigeria in the earlier report released in January. Nigeria recorded a GDP growth rate of 0.51 per cent (year-on-year) in the first quarter of 2021, (Q1 2021) compared with the 0.11 per cent recorded in the fourth quarter (Q4) 2020, according to figures the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released last month. But the World Bank hinged its positive prediction for Nigeria on the expectation that crude oil prices would remain high as well as the government effecting structural reforms and flexible exchange rate management.

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Rise in Import Duties

CBN raises import duty to N404 /$ as price hike looms- 

Leadership The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has increased import duty on cargoes imported into the country by N23 after the apex bank hiked the exchange rate from N381 to N404.97 per dollar. Experts believe such an increase will lead to a hike in the prices of goods imported into the country. The CBN, yesterday, officially increased the exchange rate for cargo clearance from its initial N381 per dollar to N404.97 per dollar, even as freight forwarders have raised an alarm over imminent inflation in the Nigerian market due to increase in the prices of goods. However, the public relations officer, Tin Can Island Customs Command, Mr. Uche Ejesieme, who confirmed the increase, said it was not the function of Customs to increase the exchange rate but that of CBN. 

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NIPOST Exempt From Tax Collection

Senate passes bill to bar NIPOST from tax collection – 

Daily Trust The Senate yesterday passed a bill to effectively restrict Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) to only postal operations in the country. The Nigerian Postal Service (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill, 2021, also unbundled the agency by creating a commission to regulate its affairs. The bill was passed following a clause-by-clause consideration of the report by the Senate Committees on Communications, chaired by Senator Oluremi Tinubu (Lagos Central). NIPOST and FIRS had been at loggerheads over which of the government’s agencies is constitutionally backed to collect stamp duty taxes in the country. Both are claiming ownership of stamp duty collection. Section two of the bill barred NIPOST from engaging in tax collection. It reads: “There is hereby established a body to be known as the Nigerian Postal Service (hereby designated as the Public Postal Operator). The Postal Operator shall be charged with the responsibility of providing UniversalPostal Service in Nigeria.” 

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Fall in Subscriber Base

15.8m subscribers lose telephone lines to ban on SIM registration in Q1 – The Guardian 

No less than 15.8 million subscribers have lost access to telecommunications services in the country, as a result of government policies, especially that of the ban on new SIM cards activation and replacement of subscribers’ damaged/missing SIMs. Similarly, the announcement of the National Identity Number (NIN)-Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) enrollment processes, that commenced last December, equally compounded the sector’s challenges. As a result of the access, the country’s telephone density dropped by 6.03 per cent in the last four months.

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Covid-19

Africa’s COVID-19 vaccination drive suffers setback as Nigeria gets $900m health grant – The Guardian 

The African COVID-19 Vaccine Development and Access Strategy of the African Union (AU), yesterday, admitted that its target of vaccinating at least 60 per cent of the continent’s population (about 750 million people) or the entire adult populace by end of 2022 had suffered a setback, as only less than two per cent of Africans had received the jabs. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said the vaccines available to the continent represent a small portion of global supplies, even as purchase, delivery and administration of the doses remain significant.

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