By Lydia Ngwakwe

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Friday took its awareness campaign of the newly redesigned notes (N1,000, N500, N200) to the Lagos Central Mosque at Balogun Market.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the redesigned notes came into use on Dec. 15, 2022, while the old notes will cease to be legal tender on Jan. 31.

NAN reports that the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele had said that the Jan. 31 deadline still remains.

A Deputy Director at CBN, Mohammed’Jamiu Solaja, who spoke before the commencement of Friday prayers, explained to the Muslim faithful the major reasons for redesigning the naira.

He urged them to deposit their old notes to beat the deadline and embrace the new notes due to its inherent benefits.

“The Central Bank’s reason for coming here is to get Muslim brothers and sisters in the Lagos Central Mosque acquainted with the newly redesigned naira notes and encourage them to embrace it.

“The aim of the currency redesign is generally to achieve specific objectives such as improving security of banknotes, mitigating counterfeiting, preserving the collective national heritage, controlling currency in circulation and reducing the overall cost of currency management,’’ Solaja said.

He recalled that the CBN governor announced the decision of the apex bank to redesign the highest denominations of the naira on Oct. 26, 2022.

Acknowledging the presence of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, who was at the mosque for a special prayer, Solaja noted that currency management was a key function of the CBN as enshrined in Section 2 (b) of the its Act 2007.

He said that some of the challenges to currency management which includes hoarding of the naira by some unscrupulous members of the public, showed about 85 per cent of currency in circulation was outside the vaults of commercial banks.

According to him, the worsening shortage of clean and fit banknotes with attendant negative perception of the CBN and increased risk to financial stability as well as increasing ease and risk of counterfeiting evidenced by several security reports are reasons for redesigning the notes.

Solaja told the worshipers that the  CBN had made sufficient bank notes available and was currently monitoring the banks to ensure that they push the same out to the banking public.

He gave out numbers they could call if there were   complaints around the newly redesigned bank notes,  urging people to report banks that fail to dispense new notes via their Automated Teller Machines.

Earlier, Chief Sikiru Alabi-Macfoy, Vice Chairman of the Lagos Central Mosque Executive Council, who received the CBN team, commended the apex bank for extending the exercise to the mosque.

He urged the bank to further enhance the campaign nationwide.

“CBN should continuously carry out orientations to everyone on the new policy so that people will know what is going on.

“Also, there should be more awareness on the policy that concerns abusing the naira such as spraying and squeezing of the naira.

“I must also commend the CBN cashless policy initiative. This will really reduce the incidence of naira abuse, and also, for a long time now, I have not been to the bank to carry out any transactions,’’ he said.

Alabi-Macfoy, a former Assistant Manager, Foreign Operations at the CBN in the 1970s, assured that the message of the CBN would be conveyed to the worshipers in different languages that would be easily understood.

The highlight of the exercise was a presentation of flyers and samples of the redesigned notes to some top members of the Lagos Central Mosque present.(NAN)(www.nannews.ng

Edited by Chioma Ugboma

By Lydia Ngwakwe

Lagos, Jan. 21, 2023 (NAN) The Chief Consultant, B. Adedipe Associates Ltd., Dr ‘Biodun Adedipe, has urged stakeholders in business to pay attention to the triggers causing slow down to Nigeria’s economy.

Adedipe gave the advice at an economic outlook webinar organised by the First Bank of Nigeria Ltd., on Friday in Lagos.

The event with the theme, “Nigeria Economy Outlook 2023: A look ahead,” x-rayed the performance and outlook of the Nigerian economy along major indices and provided useful insights for global developments.

“World Bank, in the global economy outlook issued last week, said this about Nigeria and it’s important to give attention to it.

“It said our latest forecasts indicate a sharp long-lasting slowdown with global growth declining to 1.7 per cent this year; that is what they see globally.

“They mentioned three major challenges there, and those are inflation, currency depreciation and under investment in people and the private sector.

“The World Bank says there are five factors that underpinned their own outlook for Nigeria this year- rising production costs, under-performing oil and gas sector, insecurity and policy uncertainty caused by what happened in 2022,’’ Adedipe said.

According to him, their forecasts brought out four important points.

He said, “oil and gas growth which will be restrained, growth in agriculture which will soften on the back of the flows of last year, happenings caused by insecurity, persistent fear, foreign exchange shortages, and weak fiscal position.”

Adedipe urged stakeholders to give more attention to end-to-end digitisation.

He said that they should deliberately tweak their business models to take into account whatever could be automated; the role Artificial Intelligence and the evolving metaverse.

Earlier, Mr Ini Ebong, Executive Director, Treasury and International Banking, FirstBank, said that the bank was known for supporting businesses to grow as the engine for economic growth and development in Nigeria, across sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.

Ebong said that the bank would continue to take the lead in driving the development of different sectors and industries within the economies where it operates.

“In line with our renewed vision, ‘to be Africa’s bank of first choice”, we will take the lead in driving the development of different sectors and industries within the economies where we operate, to support the nation’s overall economic growth and sustainability,’’ he said.

Ebong said that the meeting was aimed at demonstrating the bank’s commitment to, and collaboration with its esteemed customers and stakeholders as their partner of first choice.

He said that the bank’s would continue to play a dominant role in unlocking the opportunities that enabled their businesses to grow and thrive in 2023 and beyond.

He said, “we trust this opportunity will provide the necessary support to build our stakeholders to also become industry giants in their various spheres.(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Chinyere Joel-Nwokeoma

By Afusat Agunbiade-Oladipo

The Kwara Geographic Information Service (KW-GIS) has generated about N900 million in 2022 through application for land titles from prospective land owners in the state.

The Executive Chairman of the agency, Malam Mutalib Shittu, disclosed this while briefing newsmen on Thursday in Ilorin.

He said that the feat was made possible due to reforms introduced to achieve the vision of modern land administration in line with international best practices.

He added that full automated operations had made application and processing of Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) possible within 30 days.

“We have kind of stabilised the service to a certain extent away from the past.

“We make sure the income continues to grow, while we transition gradually by full automation; bringing all the paper work into computer, let the computer do it.

“That reduces the time. So what we are trying to do is reduce the time of production of C of O to 30 working days,” he said.

The chairman announced plans by the agency to establish additional zonal and area offices in both Kwara South and Kwara North senatorial districts of the state in order to bring services closer to people and make it more efficient.

Shittu said that the state government could lose investment opportunities without proper land administration.

He said that the mandate of the agency included proper planning of every community in the state.

He added that the new Ilorin masterplan would be ready in the first quarter of the year, adding that implementation is already going on after due consultations, workshops and exhibition with stakeholders.

He said further that the agency had trained 50 staff in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to ensure effective and timely automated operations.

He explained that the remaining staff would be trained on the job, because they are doing it in batches.

Besides, he promised that welfare of the staff would be given premium attention. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Muhammad Suleiman Tola