The Lumine News

Category: Business

  • CBN To Sanction Banks Dispensing Old Naira Notes In Cross River

    CBN To Sanction Banks Dispensing Old Naira Notes In Cross River

    Culled From Leadership 

    Arrangements have been concluded by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to sanction any commercial bank, which still dispenses old Naira notes to its customers in Cross River State beginning from Thursday, January 19, 2023.

    CBN Branch Controller in the State, Mrs Glory Iniunam, disclosed this on Thursday in Calabar, while answering questions from journalists shortly after sensitizing Calabar market women on the re-designed new Naira notes.

    Mrs Iniunam, who though did not mention the kind of punishment to be meted out to any erring bank, threatened that the apex bank would from Thursday not hesitate to wield its sledge hammer on any bank, which fails to adhere to the directive of dispensing new Naira notes to customers.

    She added that the CBN would henceforth not take it lightly with any of the commercial banks that dispenses old Naira notes to its customers via Automated Teller Machine (ATM).

    “Visit the nearest bank or any Shared Agent Network Expansion Facilities SANEF agent, to deposit your old N200, N500 and N1,000 banknotes.

    “We are here to sensitize the people about the redesigned Naira notes and its acceptance. Let them know that as at January 31, 2023, old notes will cease to be legal tender.

    “As at February 1, 2023, new notes will come to bed completely. There will be no acceptance of old notes anymore.

    “Anybody who carry old notes should carry the old notes to bank.

    “From now, banks are not supposed to dispense old notes. We have given them new notes,” she maintained.

    The CBN Branch Controller added, “You can still collect the old notes from over the counter and use. But before January 31, take it back to the banks, by then, they must have received enough. We have given them new notes.”

    Iniunam further warned that it has become a sanctionable offense for any bank ATM to dispense old Naira notes given the fact that banks have been given enough new Naira notes to dispense to thier customers.

    She urged villages, towns and communities without banks to group themselves together and write to the CBN for the apex bank to make PoS machines available to them, so that they can have access to new Naira notes.

  • FG Signs €9.3m Agreement With Eight Indigenous Solar Delvelopers For 23-Mini-grids

    FG Signs €9.3m Agreement With Eight Indigenous Solar Delvelopers For 23-Mini-grids

    By Inyali Peter

    Poised to improve electricity supply to rural communities in the country, the Federal Government has signed Interconnected Mini-grid Acceleration Scheme (IMAS) award grant agreement with eight (8) indigenous Solar Mini-grid developers for the development of twenty three (23) mini-grids across eleven states of the federation.

    Expected to generate a 5.4-kilowatt peak to connect about 27,600 households, and impact over 138,000 Nigerians in two years, the €9.3 million project is coordinated by the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) with support from the European Union and the German government through the Nigerian Energy Support Programme (NESP).

    Speaking at the grant award signing ceremony, Honourable Minister of State, Power, Goddy Jedy-Agba, OFR, said that he was pleased with the development which is geared towards achieving the country’s vision of generating at least, 30, 000 megawatts of electricity by 2030.

    The Minister who commended the management of REA for their efforts and actions towards ensuring power reaches the off-grid Communities in the country, noted that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is always open to opportunities that will achieve the acceleration of electricity in Nigeria.

    He maintained that “according to the developed National Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Policy, the vision 30:30 aims at achieving 30,000 Mega Watts of electricity by the year 2030, with renewable energy contributing 30 per cent of the energy mix. To achieve this, Nigeria will have to construct over a thousand mini-grids of 100 Killowatts”.

    While admitting that government cannot achieve the target alone, he however, said that it was important to continue to find creative and innovative ways to achieve it, and one of which is through collaborating with development partners and the private sector.

    “We understand that one of the major bottlenecks for the private sector’s involvement is financing, hence, the reason the NESP and REA have worked closely to develop and implement the Interconnected Mini-grid Acceleration Scheme.

    The eight (8) local solar mini-grid developers, Acob Lighting Technology Limited, Gve Projects, Nayo Tropical Technology Limited, Rubitec Nigeria Limited, Darway Coast Nigeria Limited, Havenhill Synergy Limited, Sosa-Protergia Joint Development Company Limited, and A4&T Power Solutions Limited will receive in-kind grants through REA with support of the European Union and the German Government within the framework of the NESP.

    These eight solar mini-grid developers will develop 23 mini-grids across eleven states which include, Zamfara, Niger, Plateau, Kwara, Kogi, Osun, Ogun, Lagos, Delta, Anambra, and Cross River, the indigenous developers”, he added.

    Earlier, the Managing Director of REA, Engr. Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad said that the scheme is aimed at bridging the funding gap which is affecting indigenous developers in the renewable energy sector.

    Ahmad said that” it is our hope that the signatures we put down today in these documents set a precedent for the new and improved power and energy sector in Nigeria.

    As an agency, we encourage investors to explore the solar mini-grid sector. However, one major constraint to this is usually financing. This is why the Rural Electrification Agency, with the support of NESP, is working together to alleviate this bottleneck.

    We do this by providing in-kind grants to selected mini-grid developers on favourable and encouraging terms as contained in the Grant Agreement”.

    The MD explained that “the main objective of the intervention is to design and test a tender model for interconnected solar mini-grids, invariably leading to the foundation of the Scheme. The wonderful thing about the iMAS project is that we have ensured that all the developers are Nigerians. This is to say that the Nigerian energy sector has come a long way from what it used to be and we are proud of this”.

    Head of programme, NESP, Benjamin Duke assured that his team will continue to work to build investors confidence in the sector by developing an accurate electricity market intelligence that will provide investors with accurate data about the country’s electricity needs.

  • Business Is Hard: This Is The Part Many Coaches Do Not Tell Us BY TINA JB OFEM

    Business Is Hard: This Is The Part Many Coaches Do Not Tell Us BY TINA JB OFEM

     

    That part where you’ve exhausted all proven strategies yet no results.

    That part where you have the ideas and startup skills, yet no capital.

    That part where you started successfully then because they said business is risk, you got involved in one investment hoping for the best and unfortunately you lost everything.

    These are the parts no one, absolutely no one tells us about.

    But we are still hopeful, we wouldn’t give up.

    We are going to keep pushing, if this is you too.

    Hang in there.
    I’m rooting for you 💕

    #tjsvendor

  • CROWEI/Asuquo Ekpenyong Foundation Provides N50,000 Micro Grants For 1,000 Women In Cross River

    CROWEI/Asuquo Ekpenyong Foundation Provides N50,000 Micro Grants For 1,000 Women In Cross River

     

    No fewer than 1,000 women active in micro and small businesses have received a grant of N50,000 each from a collaborative scheme of the Cross River Women Emancipation Initiative (CROWEI) and Asuquo Ekpenyong Foundation (AEF).

    At the launch of the scheme for 2022 in the commercial city of Ikom, the Wife of Cross River State Governor, Her Excellency, Dr Linda Ayade, who was full of enthusiasm for the training and support of women in business to boost their productivity commended the Asuquo Ekpenyong Foundation for partnering with CROWEI to empower women across the 196 wards of Cross River State.

    She disclosed that “CROWEI will continue to stand firm with women in all their endeavours while calling for more participation of women in leadership/business positions that would grow the local economy”.

    The Founder of the Foundation, Mr Asuquo Ekpenyong disclosed at the event that he was motivated to inaugurate the project designed to support 1,000 micro & small business women across the state by the challenges businesses were going through.

    “A wise man taught me that ‘we don’t give because we have enough, we give because we care enough.’ We must find ways to alleviate the suffering of our people. I am convinced that one of the ways to do this is through supporting our women. As primary caregivers in the home, uplifting women will uplift entire families because they extend those resources across the members of the home.

    “In my experience, people do not want to be given fish. They want to be taught how to fish. They want to be given the tools to improve their lives and the lives of their families.

    “Therefore, it is highly imperative that businesses become more sustainable as well as scalable in order to drive growth in the local economy,” he said.

    “At the height of the lockdown in 2020, CROWEI was very instrumental in alleviating the hardship women faced across Cross River State. During the lockdown, Asuquo Ekpenyong Foundation also supported the State Government with a donation of N25 million in cash and medical supplies to assist in its welfare interventions.

    “Today, we go a step further. The Asuquo Ekpenyong Foundation has trained 1,000 women who are currently engaged in micro & small business on financial management to enable them access loans and grow their businesses. We carefully selected these women who are resident and doing business across the 196 administrative wards of Cross River to ensure that we develop a model case”, he said.

    He noted that at the end of the training programme, the Foundation disbursed N50,000,000 in Micro Grants of N50,000 each to all 1,000 beneficiaries to scale up their working capital.

    He concluded by saying “In all, I am very excited to begin 2022 on this note. Our disbursement partner is Ekondo Microfinance Bank, and it occurred to me that Ekondo is the Efik word for universe. Women make up more than half of our universe. If they don’t prosper, we can’t thrive.”

    One of the beneficiaries, Mrs Nkoyo Okon from Akparabong Ward but married from Calabar, said the grant would help her to expand and meet up with the demands of the season, especially her yam trading business.

    Another young lady Ms Favour Ushie, from Bekwarra, expressed gratitude to CROWEI and the Foundation for the financial assistance at a time like this. According to her, the Coronavirus has been a big setback to businesses, saying the financial aid was what she needed to relaunch her business.