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Ni.g.erian Economy Stable despite 2011 elections Finance Minister welcomes new S & P rating

Posted by businessday9jabook on November 2, 2010 at 8:50pm

Barely two weeks after the country received and outlook downgrade by Fitch Ratings, Standard and Poor’s, another international rating agency has given the country a pass mark with a ‘B+/B’ Ratings affirmed on resilient economy. It also gave the country a stable outlook, despite what it called ‘high political risk’.

In the report published yesterday, S&P stated, “We consider that the ratings on Nigeria are constrained by high political risk, but supported by a strong balance sheet. We are affirming the ‘B+/B’ global scale ratings and the ‘ngA+/ngA-1’ Nigeria national scale ratings.” The report says Nigeria’s outlook is stable, “reflecting our expectation that Nigeria will maintain its strong external and fiscal balance sheet, and that budgetary performance will gradually improve over the next few years.”

Elections accentuate risk..

The report added that political risk in Nigeria may be exacerbated by the forthcoming presidential elections.

“The affirmation reflects our view that Nigeria’s economic performance and external liquidity has been better than we previously expected, although its fiscal performance has been weaker and political risk could heighten in the run-up to the 2011 presidential elections,” said Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Christian Esters.

It noted that Nigeria remains a low-income country, with GDP per capita estimated at $1.32 billion in 2010. Nevertheless, Nigeria has a strong fiscal debt position, despite the sharp deterioration in budgetary performance since 2009. “We estimate that Nigeria’s general government debt will increase to above 16 per cent of GDP by year-end 2010, which is still a comparatively low level.”

Comfortable external liquidity

The report said Nigeria also benefits from comfortable external liquidity, with continuous current account surpluses. “For 2010, we expect a surplus of approximately 14 per cent of GDP, and gross external financing needs at a low 54 per cent of current account receipts and usable reserves.”

The ratings firm said the stable outlook reflects expectation that Nigeria will maintain its strong external and fiscal balance sheet, and that budgetary performance will gradually improve over the next few years. “We also expect that tensions surrounding the forthcoming April 2011 presidential elections could increase political uncertainty and destabilise the country for some time after the elections,” said Mr Esters.

Finance minister, Olusegun Aganga had rejected the Fitch ratings report on the ground that it did not reflect the effort by government to address the concerns raised. Fitch cited the depletion of the Excess Crude Account (ECA), the decline in foreign exchange reserves and their own concern that the reform agenda of the current administration which they found to be very positive may not be implemented before the elections; the following as the major reasons for the revision of the outlook.

Mr Aganga said, “We do consider the decision to adjust the outlook downwards unduly punitive and disagree with it given the numerous positive features of the country’s economy and ongoing reforms.” He said government has taken a number of measures which include the proposed establishment of a Nigerian Sovereign Wealth Fund and urgent steps which are being taken to address the infrastructure deficit particularly in the power sector as outlined in the Power Roadmap that was unveiled by the President in August.

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World Cup Friendly: Nigeria 3-North korea 1 as Lagerback secures first win despite stampede

Posted by Choochoo Sports Book on June 6, 2010 at 2:04pm
Lead Image

Nsofor scored the second goal via penalty.

The Super Eagles continued their preparations for the World Cup with a 3-1 win against North Korea in Tembisa, Johannesburg yesterday. It was the Swedish born coach’s third game in charge and Aiyegbeni Yakubu was on hand to open scoring for the Super Eagles in the 16th minute before Obinna Nsofor extended the lead from the penalty spot in the 62nd minute. A momentary loss of concentration between Elderson Echiejile and Joseph Yobo allowed Jong Tae-Se to pull one back for the North Koreans but Obafemi Martins restored Nigeria’s two-goal advantage with a 90th minute header. Martins had only been on the pitch for three minutes when he scored.

The game, which was played at the Makhulong Stadium in Johannesburg, was however marred by a stampede which broke out shortly after the start of the second half.

According to police reports, at least 20 people, including one policeman, were injured during the stampede forcing the match officials to stop the game for around five minutes to attend to the injured and ensure the safety of fans in the overcrowded main stand where the fencing had been removed.

The match itself saw Lagerback making a few changes from the side that had played a 1-1 draw with Colombia in their previous game as he restored the duo of Yobo and Danny Shittu in the heart of the defence with Chidi Odiah and Taiwo at the right and left side of the defence. Dickson Etuhu and Lukman Haruna, whose work rate keeps increasing with every game, along with Sani Kaita who played from the right side of midfield and Nsofor, on the opposite end, were once again in the middle while Osaze Odemwingie and Yakubu led the forward line..

Great start

The predominantly Nigerian crowd at the venue were handed the best of starts after a sweet interchange of passes between Yakubu and Nsofor ended with Yakubu slotting the ball into the back of the net.

In the 24th minute Taye Taiwo’s audacious freekick from well over 40 yards almost proved more than a handful for the Korean goalkeeper. But two minutes later, the Olympique Marseille defender almost gifted the ‘Chollima’, as the North Koreans are known, an equalizer when he was too slow to prevent a cross across the face of the Nigerian goal by the crafty Mun In-Guk.

The second half saw Lagerback introducing Elderson Echiejile, Kalu Uche and Yusuf Ayila for Taye Taiwo, Sani Kaita and the enterprising Dickson Etuhu. Nsofor almost extended Nigeria’s lead four minutes after the restart but his deflected shot fell into the hands of the Korean goalkeeper.

Stampede

A minute later, the match had to be stopped after a stampede broke out in the stands. Five minutes following the restart, the referee awarded a penalty to the Super Eagles after a Korean defender inadvertently handled the ball and Nsofor was on hand to make it 2-0 for Nigeria.

A mistake in defence however saw Jong getting the better of Enyeama in the 64th minute, and three minutes later, the Koreans were denied a penalty after the referee erroneously awarded a free-kick for a foul by Chidi Odiah. A red card to Cha Jong-Hyok for a second bookable offence however left room in the Korean defence which Uche capitalised on to run rings round the backline before crossing for Martins to nod into a gaping net.

The game was the last warm-up match the Eagles will play before their opening match against Argentina on Saturday, June 12, 2010
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Obafemi Martins 3Trillion Naira Jamboree Extravaganza Lifestyle

Posted by Choochoo Sports Book on November 21, 2009 at 6:00am
It has been revealed how Super Eagles striker, Obafemi Martins, extranvagantly squandered about N3.1 trillions while a player of Newcastle.MartinsadvertisementHis former management company, NVA Management Limited who has dragged the player to court over breach of contarct, told the jury how the player’s account almost went red because of his lifestyle.Obafemi Martins was paid £75,000, but allegedly squandered the earnings on an extravagant lifestyleA former Premiership footballer routinely blew his £75,000 a week wages in a matter of days and was constantly overdrawn, a court was told yesterday.Obafemi, ex-Newcastle striker 25, was paid the handsome salary after he joined the club for a £10million fee in August 2006.But despite his extraordinary earnings, his former management team yesterday claimed they repeatedly bailed him out after his bank account continually slipped into the red.The High Court heard that the Nigerian international player would withdraw £40,000 in cash from his bank account at the end of the week.But that would only last him two days, the court heard, as he topped up with a further £25,000 on the Monday morning.He was always overdrawn and repeatedly relied upon NVA Management Limited to ‘manage his life’, the High Court was told.Martins, who owned several fast cars including a top of the range Porsche 4X4, spent the money funding an extravagant lifestyle of luxurious penthouse homes and fine dining.He is now being sued by his former management company which claims that he still owes them 300,000 for sorting out his finances.He told the court that Martins would withdraw £40,000 for the weekend, followed by another £25,000 on the Monday.‘Despite earning these vast sums of money he was constantly overdrawn,’ added Mr Tennink.He said the firm, which looks after the affairs of several footballers, film and music stars, said that Martins had agreed to pay them for simply managing his life.It was under their stewardship that Martins agreed a £2million image rights deal ‘simply for being Mr Martins’.It’s claimed Martins was constantly overdrawn despite earning £75,000-a-weekHe also had lucrative sponsorship deals with various companies including Pepsi and Nike but had not been paid.When the company stepped in to run his affairs they sorted the unpaid contracts, bringing in thousands of pounds.They also organised visas when he travelled to Italy, where he once played for Inter Milan, and sorted out his passport, his mortgage and property valuations.They even arranged critical illness cover and were constantly running up and down the motorway from their London offices to Newcastle in a bid to do all that he required.‘But surely these were things a secretary could do?’ asked Judge Richard Seymour QC, referring to the size of fees charged.‘It was a Jeeves-type of role that they performed.’Mr Tennink protested that managing every aspect of his life was just part of what they did, and asked the judge to bear in mind the sort of figures these players earned.He said Martins had come to them in July 2007 and had agreed a fee of around £300,000 plus 20 per cent of any sponsorship monies they managed to acquire on his behalf.“He asked for these services to be carried out,” Mr Tennink told the court.Before they managed his affairs, Martins had not been paid a penny for his image rights for the use of his name on Newcastle shirts and mugs and had received nothing from his sponsorship deals.He could not even find the contracts he had originally signed, Mr Tennink added.Martins paid the company £67,500 in January last year and another £25,000 in April last year.But the question for the court to decide, said Mr Tennink, was whether there was a ‘binding obligation’ for him to pay the outstanding bill of over £300,000.After Newcastle were relegated from the Premiership last summer Martins was sold for £9million to German Bundesliga Champions Wolfsburg.Martins, who once owned a penthouse apartment overlooking Newcastle’s exclusive Quayside, is fighting the claim.The hearing is scheduled to last for three days.
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Iran Ahmadinejad defends re-election as real, free despite violence

Posted by Akin Osunlaja WebLagosian on June 15, 2009 at 9:40pm
IN a second day of violence protesters in Iran yesterday defied heavy police presence setting fires and smashing store windows to challenge President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad' s re-election. Anti-riot police lashed back and the regime blocked Internet sites used to rally the pro-reform campaign. Scores of young people shouted "Death to the dictator!" and broke the windows of city buses on several streets in central Tehran. They burned banks, trash bins and piles of tires used as flaming barricades to block police. Riot police beat some of the protesters with batons while dozens of others holding shields and motorcycles stood guard nearby. Shops, government offices and businesses closed early as tension mounted. But Ahmadinejad said his re-election was "real and free" and cannot be questioned in comments yesterday during a press conference - his first since the government announced that he was re-elected to a second term in a landslide victory during Friday's vote. He dismissed the unrest - the worst in a decade in Tehran - as "not important." He said Friday's vote was "real and free" and insisted the results showing his landslide victory were fair and legitimate. Along Tehran's Vali Asr street - where activists supporting rival candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi held a huge pre-election rally last week - tens of thousands, according to the Associated Press (AP), marched in support of Ahmadinejad, waving Iranian flags and shouting his name. Mousavi released his first statement since two days of violent protests began, calling on authorities to cancel the election. He said that is the only way to restore public trust. Mousavi, who has accused authorities of election fraud, urged his supporters to continue their "civil and lawful" opposition to the results and advised police to stop violence against protesters. He has claimed he was the true winner of the election. The violence spilling from the disputed results has pushed Iran's Islamic establishment to respond with sweeping measures that include deploying anti-riot squads around the capital and cutting mobile phone messaging and Internet sites used by the Mousavi's campaign. There's little chance that the youth-driven movement could immediately threaten the pillars of power in Iran - the ruling clerics and the vast network of military and intelligence forces at their command - but it raises the possibility that a sustained and growing backlash could complicate Iran's policies at a pivotal time. United States (U.S.) President Barack Obama has offered to open dialogue after a nearly 30-year diplomatic freeze. Iran also is under growing pressure to make concessions on its nuclear program or face possible more international sanctions. Vice President Joe Biden yesterday said he had doubts about whether the election was free and fair, as Ahmadinejad claimed. He said the U.S. and other countries need more time to analyse the results before making a better judgment about the vote. In Paris, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said his country was "very worried" about the situation in Iran, criticising the Iranian authorities' "somewhat brutal reaction" to the election protests. So far, Mousavi has issued mixed signals through his Web site before it was shut down. He urged for calm but also said he is the legitimate winner of Friday's election and called on supporters to reject a government of "lies and dictatorship. " He has not been seen in public since a news conference shortly after polls closed. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, closed the door for possible compromise. He could have used his near-limitless powers to intervene in the election dispute. But, in a message on state television over the weekend, he urged the nation to unite behind Ahmadinejad, calling the result a "divine assessment." Israel, like the U.S., doesn't believe Tehran's claims that its nuclear program is designed to produce energy, not bombs. Netanyahu has said Israel would not tolerate a nuclear Iran and is thought to be mulling a military strike. A poll for an Israeli think tank published yesterday showed that 59 per cent of the Jewish public would support a military strike should Israel determine that Tehran possesses nuclear weapons. But less than one-fifth said they would consider leaving Israel should Iran develop nuclear weapons, said the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. The survey questioned 616 adult Jews and had a margin of error of three percentage points. But while Benjamin Netanyahu sees Iran and its anti-Israel proxies in Lebanon and Gaza as the crux of the Middle East's problems, Obama thinks serious effort toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could weaken Tehran. The Israeli leader has been under intense pressure from Washington to enter into negotiations on Palestinian statehood and end all settlement expansion in the West Bank - positions he opposes and whose adoption would almost surely fracture his hawkish governing coalition. Netanyahu had tried to parry that pressure by attempting to redirect attention away from peacemaking with the Palestinians and toward Iran's nuclear programme. But the U.S. was not won over to that point of view, and in his June 4 address to the Moslem world, Obama forcefully called for a Palestinian state and a halt to the settlement construction that has proven to be a major impediment to peacemaking. Any hopes by the Obama administration of gaining a result similar to Lebanon's recent election, won by a Western-backed moderate coalition, appeared to be in jeopardy. "We are monitoring the situation as it unfolds in Iran, but we, like the rest of the world, are waiting and watching to see what the Iranian people decide," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said at a news conference with Canada's foreign affairs minister, Lawrence Cannon. Minutes after Clinton spoke, the White House released a two-sentence statement praising "the vigorous debate and enthusiasm that this election generated, particularly among young Iranians," but expressing concern about "reports of irregularities. " Despite the challenge from reformist Mousavi to incumbent Ahmadinejad, many officials and experts thought a Mousavi victory would result in only incremental shifts toward the U.S. Because real power in Tehran is still wielded by religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, some say an Ahmadinejad re-election may make it easier to build an international consensus against Iran.
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