Business
Forex: Speculation, Round-tripping, Account For Naira’s Continuous Fall
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Chief Executive Officer, Confederated Facilitators Limited (CFL) Group of companies, Lai Omotola has opined that the soaring dollar to naira rate, with adverse effects on Nigeria’s economy is not being driven by market forces but by wealthy elite businessmen whom he tagged, ‘market cabals’
He bared his mind at a media parley organised by his company in commemoration of its 25th anniversary.
According to him, “I have never seen elite business people whose only business they do is to speculate on their currency. That’s the only business they do. All of them, in everything they are doing, the underlying factor is that they are speculating.
“And this is how they do it. They may have a manufacturing plant, no doubt about it. For instance, the manufacturing plant needs $10 million, so they need to buy dollars. But the truth of the matter is that nobody is investigating if their actual need is $10 million or if they need something lesser than what they say they need.
“So, most likely, they only needed $1 million, but they will collect $10 million. They will send the $1 million to their supplier, convert the remaining $9 million to Naira, and go and sell it to the black marketers. Now, when you have a gap of over N300 in the exchange rate and you are selling $9 million, you are making N270 million without having a staff or investing anywhere, but just taking dollars in and out.”
“That business is sweeter than cocaine, which is why all of them are locked into it, and that is why Naira today is moving towards N1,200 for a dollar. When this present government was floating the Naira, it was to make the difference between the Naira at the official market and the parallel market not to exceed N2. That’s the meaning of floating. But this government has forgotten that when you float the Naira, there is no dollar in the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to back that Naira.
“And it’s a matter of demand and supply. Anything in life, if today more people are looking for a particular substance than what is available, the price of the substance would go up. It is fundamental economics. If fewer people are looking for it, the value will depreciate. That’s the issue of demand and supply. So when you now allow the Naira to float, when you don’t have enough dollars, guess those with the dollar. It’s with the market cabals, ”he said.
He added, “Nigeria’s economy is not powered by market forces. There is nothing called market forces in Nigeria’s economy. Nigeria’s economy is powered by market Cabals. Regulating the currency has moved from the hands of the CBN to the hands of the Market Cabals. Let me tell you how they operate. For instance, they know that Nigeria requires $100 million to have that floating that will keep the difference between the official rate and parallel market at N2.
“And the cabals are the ones that have the $100 million. So they will only release $50 million into the economy. Now, when you release $50 million, demand for the dollar will become much higher, and the supply will become lower, thereby influencing and increasing the price of the dollar to Naira. CBN cannot intervene because there is no dollar.
“So the market cabals always have dollars with them. And they work in circles. They have dollars with them, they are the ones supplying dollars to the market, and they make a hell of a profit from the circles. So which business can be better than that?”
He said in other nations, the need for dollars is only for raw materials, school fees payment, or other productive things. But in Nigeria, two things contribute to the need for dollars; corruption, which is bribery, and speculations.
He noted that productive need for the dollar is not up to 40 per cent, “and that is where the challenge is. How do you fight against this kind of behavioural pattern?
“So our business elites that have funded politicians to win an election that are doing this type of not too-tidy business are the ones that have held our Naira in captivity. And as long as they are in charge, it will be difficult for the Naira to gain strength against the dollar.
“The worst part of it is that if the government goes today, pump $20 billion into the economy, 80 per cent of that money will end up in their hands, and they will continue to use it in an unproductive means because they want that dollar to Naira gap to continue to exist.”
Tesla has set a 2028 commercial production date for its new Roadster sports car that can briefly rise into the air using rocket technology.
According to CNN, the date was revealed when the manufacturers demonstrated its functionality on Thursday at a SpaceX testing facility in Texas, United States, where the two-seater vehicle performed a series of manoeuvres, including driving upside down before making a short airborne movement.
The prototype was operated without a driver during the test, with Musk saying the decision was taken “to make sure we don’t kill anyone.”
“Success is not guaranteed. I mean that. It’ll probably work, but if it doesn’t work, we’re at a safe distance,” he said.
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CNN reported that the vehicle uses 10 nozzles and high-pressure air tanks to generate thrust, with Musk claiming it could accelerate from zero to 60 miles per hour in less than a second.
The Tesla boss attributed the development to cooperation between the electric vehicle manufacturer and SpaceX, the rocket company he also leads.
He described the project as “the results of what happens when you have a collaboration with the world’s best car company and the world’s best rocket company.”
Musk also sought to assure spectators that the demonstration was genuine, saying, “We need an audience to prove that it’s not AI or SI. So you guys can tell people you saw it with your eyes, because what you see with your eyes, you will not believe.”
Despite the display, questions remain about whether the vehicle can achieve sustained flight and how practical it would be for everyday transportation.
Roger Conner, curator for vertical flight at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, told CNN that combining the requirements of road vehicles and aircraft presented significant engineering challenges.
“Aircraft are extremely sensitive to weight, whereas with ground vehicles you want them to have bumpers and crumple zones and all that,” he said.
“Inevitably, something that is a hybrid between the two is going to be a poor performing aircraft and a poor performing vehicle, and also quite expensive,” he added.
Conner questioned whether the demonstration amounted to flying in the conventional sense.
“We’re not talking about sustained flight. We are literally talking about hopping,” he said.
However, Jim Dukhovny, chief executive of flying car startup Alef, said the technology was achievable, while pointing to the difficulties involved in making such vehicles transition safely from vertical take-off to forward flight.
“It absolutely is 100% feasible,” he told CNN.
“That being said, the hardest part on all eVTOLs, and for us, it’s a transition from (rising) vertical to (moving) forward. It needs to be extremely careful, making sure you do not lose lift, and making sure it’s very stable,” he added.
CNN also reported that Alef’s prototype weighs about 254 pounds, uses eight propellers and is designed to carry one person.
Musk said Tesla intended to begin production of the new Roadster in 2028.
CNN reported that the latest display adds to Musk’s ambitions to push Tesla’s vehicle technology beyond conventional electric cars, although the prototype’s ability to operate as a practical flying vehicle has yet to be established.
The Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) has urged the Federal Government to add its member-stations to the petrol discount programme.
It cautioned that the current arrangement could limit the reach and deny vast consumers in underserved communities the benefits of the 30-day discount window.
The PETROAN also urged the FG to allocate at least 30 percent of the discounted petrol volume to outlets operated by its members.
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The calls followed last week’s announcement by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, of a petrol discount at Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) retail outlets, with priority given to public transport operators nationwide.
According to the National Publicity Secretary, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Chinedu Ukadike, the exclusion of independent marketers could undermine the programme’s effectiveness, particularly in communities where NNPC retail outlets have limited presence.
He argued that independent marketers, with their extensive nationwide distribution networks, were better positioned to extend the benefits of the intervention to consumers in remote and underserved areas.
“Independent oil marketers have over 90 percent coverage and presence in the nooks and crannies of this country. You are giving NNPC that is situated only in the town. So how do the poor masses, whom you intend to ensure that this petroleum product will alleviate their sufferings, how would they now get it?” Ukadike asked.
He said the association was not opposed to the government’s policy but insisted that independent marketers should be included to ensure wider access to the discounted product.
“But it’s government policies; we are not against government policies, but let it be all-inclusive; let independent marketers be part of it,” he said.
Ukadike also urged the government to extend the discount period to 60 days, citing logistical challenges that could delay the movement of petrol from coastal depots to other parts of the country.
“And the 30 days should be extended to 60 days. Because of the circulation of petroleum products, most times it takes two weeks for a truck to leave Apapa and get to Gombe, Maiduguri, because of the bad road and all the rest of them and loading process,” he added.
Similarly, PETROAN National President, Billy Gillis-Harry, urged the Federal Government to allocate 30 per cent of the discounted petrol volume to the association’s retail outlets to facilitate broader national distribution.
In the bid to transform Tanzania into the East African regional energy hub, the country is on the verge of concluding an agreement with a consortium of energy companies, including a $42 billion LNG project.
It was gathered that the project is designed to tap the 47.13 tcf of gas discovered in Tanzania’s deep offshore fields, part of the country’s estimated 57.54 tcf in total discovered reserves, the sixth-largest in Africa, behind Nigeria, Algeria, Senegal, Mozambique and Egypt.
READ ALSO: Shell Identifies Keys to Nigeria’s Energy Future
Equinor and Shell would be the lead operators, alongside involvement from ExxonMobil Pavilion Energy and Medco Energi, while state oil major, the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC), would also hold an equity stake in the project.
“It’s almost there,” Khamis Mussa Omar, Tanzania’s finance minister, told Reuters.
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