Nigeria, Africa’s biggest crude exporter, is left with 36.89 billion barrels in its crude oil reserves, 110 million barrels deficit from the reserves strenght one year ago.

The Director, Department of Petroleun Resources (DPR), Auwalu Sarki, who in a virtual meeting of the DPR managment and oil and gas editors on Wednesday, gave this official data of reserves as at first of January, 2020, maintained that this same reserves had 37 billion barrels in them as at the first of January, 2019.

What Nigeria lost in crude reserves, Sarki said, it gained in natural gas reserves with 203.16 trillion cubic feet of gas as at January 1, 2020, compared to 210 trillion cubic feet of gas in reserves as at January 1, 2019.

Giving a breakdown of the reserves volume, the DPR Director said that the crude oil in the reserves stood at 31.418 billion barrels while the volume of condensate in the reserves was 5.476 billion barrels.

He attributed the fall in the reserves to the dearth of discovery in 2019.

The volume in our reserves as at January 1, 2020 is 36.89 billion barrels. In our gas reserves at this same period, we have 203.16 trillion cubic feet of gas. But as at January 1, 2019, we have 37 billion barrels in our oil reserves while at this same period what we had i  our gas reserves was 201 trncf. This fall in oil reserves is attributed to the fact that we never had discovery in 2019 and that is why we are putting a lot of strategies in place to increase the reserves,” he said while fielding a question from newsmen.

Stating that the DPR is the Regulatory agency responsible for the opportunities in the sector, Sarki maintained that there should be a focus the opportunities that the agencies create.

“We are not a regulator per se but an opportunity house, which guarantee investments as well as enbles participation of Nigerian and non-Nigerian companies in the industry,” he said, maintaining that having “put these together, we call DPR and opportunity house.”

Parts of DPR responsibilities, he continued, is “Upstream operations monitoring and regulations, downstream operations monitoring and regulations, and service providers monitoring and regulation.”

He added that COVID-19 has altered the 800mmscuf gas commercialisation deals.

“We are the first in the World with the success rate. In fact the World Bank, when it saw what we are doing, approached us and signified readiness to partner with us with other stakeholders.

“What is holding the programme is COVID-19 becuae with it there is no physical assesment of the lease (fields).  Without the assesment the process is halted,” he declared.

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, has said it can sell petroleum product at N123.5 per litre and not N121.5 new PPMC pump price.

IPMAN who reacted to the new price modulation announced by the Petroleum Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, says the agency has advised them to either sell at the new pump price or adjust to what will make Nigerians happy.

And as such, they accordingly instructed their marketers to comply with the advice of the government and adjust to N123.5 per liter pending the Deport Petroleum Marketers Association’s action on the new pump price.

This information was contained in a press release by IPMAN chairman, Kano chapter, Alhaji Bashir Danmallam in Kano.

Alhaji Bashir asked all marketers in his jurisdiction to comply with the new price modulation advice by making sure no one sells above the approved ceiling of 123.50 Naira per liter.

He further assured the public of a steady supply and distribution of petroleum products at all times and in all circumstances.

With the widespread incidence of COVID-19 in the country and its impact on healthcare delivery, the practice of telemedicine is being advocated as one of the quickest and effective means of accessing primary healthcare by the majority of Nigerians.

This position was canvassed by Mr. Adil Shaikh, the Chief Technology Officer of MeCure, at a recently held Webinar on “Managing Health care Business During and Post COVID-19 era” put together by Polaris Bank.

Mr. Shaikh believes that telemedicine offers a game-changing solution to our already overstretched medical services delivery in the country if properly explored and harnessed concertedly by stakeholders, including financial institutions.

With respect to expanding coverage, improved and timely access to primary health care services, it was explained that Telemedicine provides patients the opportunity to access online consultation, prescription and delivery of prescribed drugs from certified pharmacies across Nigeria.

Mr. Shaikh noted however that telemedicine comes with challenges especially for providers of medical services who wish to explore the initiative; ranging from technology infrastructure, user education & general awareness and connectivity issues on the part of the consumer.

He further identified three major areas financial institutions could assist to bridge the gaps. Financial institutions could leverage reach as a result of their large customer base to generate awareness; innovate on digital payments and partner with health institutions.

The objective of the webinar among other things was to deepen conversation on healthcare business in Nigeria and explore the huge potentials in the health sector.

The virtual engagement attracted participation from all over the world with about 5,000 participants across virtual platforms and social media handles comprising, individuals and business owners from different sectors of the economy but majorly from the healthcare value chain.

Polaris Bank is a future-determining Bank committed to the delivery of industry-defining products, and services, across all the sectors of the Nigerian economy.

First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Nigeria’s premier and leading financial inclusion services provider, has announced that it has reinforced its technology infrastructure to enable anyone in the country open a FirstBank account through their mobile phones, without visiting any of its branches nationwide.

The investment in the Bank’s mobile banking infrastructure is in furtherance of the need to deepen financial inclusion in the country, enabling account opening to be carried out on its *894# USSD banking, FirstMobile (self-service telephone banking), its website – www.firstbanknigeria.com – as well as the Bank’s staff, through the Direct Sales Executive (DSE) application installed on their mobile phone, ATMs and the bank’s over 55,000 FirstMonie Agents spread across the country. Opening an account with FirstBank through any of these means is seamless, convenient, fast, and user-friendly.

The DSE App is an end to end encrypted mobile application installed on the phone(s) of FirstBank staff which enables them to open an account for to-be customers. Upon the completion of the account opening process via the DSE App, the customer is notified of his or her account number through a text message on the mobile phone used to register the account.

With FirstBank’s *894# USSD banking, various banking activities are carried out on a mobile phone – across the four major GSM network operators in the country – without the use of the internet.

To open an account via this means, dial 894# then select ‘open an account’ to provide the information required or by simply dialling *8940#. The Bank currently has over 9.5 million of its nearly 20 million customers on its USSD banking platform.

The FirstMonie Agent Banking is an agent banking initiative from the bank that is designed to take banking closer to people, thereby bridging the gap between the banked and unbanked.

FirstMonie is a channel through which various banking activities like FirstBank account opening, funds transfer, bill payments, data and call credit recharge services, amongst others are carried out. The Agent Banking initiative has also contributed to reducing poverty, being responsible for the indirect employment of over 150,000 people across the country.

According to Chuma Ezirim, Group Executive, e-Business & Retail Products, First Bank of Nigeria Limited: “Beyond opening an account in any of our over 700 branches, we are delighted with the investments at reinventing our business processes over the years, especially with the use of technology. This has been critical to staying relevant in the industry for over 126 years and being the financial partner of the first choice to all our customers and Nigerians, irrespective of where they are.”

Creating these virtual ways of opening a bank account with us – thus; the staff DSE App, ATMs, FirstMonie Agents, *894# USSD banking, FirstMobile and our website – reinforces our resolve to ensure that more Nigerians and residents have access to banking, especially through our state of the art financial services and we remain resolute to being the key to banking, enabling business and financial activities that would continue to propel the country’s economic growth and development.

The Federal Government has asked the aviation sector to begin to develop protocols that will lead to the resumption of domestic flights any time from June 21.

The National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Sani Aliyu, stated this on Monday during a briefing Abuja.

He said, “The aviation industry is requested to start developing protocols to allow for domestic flights to resume anytime from the 21st of June onwards.

“Airlines must ensure physical distancing by reducing passenger capacity and ensure the provision of sanitisers and personal protective equipment as well as carrying out temperature checks at the point of entry and departure and ensuring that airports are not congested by either travellers or airports staff.”

The country’s airports and airspace were shut in March by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), as part of efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

Commercial flight operations, both local and international, had stopped forthwith but the President’s directive allowed the operation of essential flights including those for medical and evacuation purposes, amongst others.

On May 6, the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, announced that the closure of the country’s airports and airspace were further extended by four weeks after due consultations with experts.

Zenith Bank Plc, Nigeria’s leading financial institution, has emerged as the Best Bank in Nigeria in the recently released Global Finance Magazine World’s Best Banks Awards 2020.

The awards, which was published in the May 2020 edition of the Global Finance Magazine, was based on the performances of the banks in their respective regions and countries over the period from January 1 to December 31, 2019.

Global Finance’s “World’s Best Banks Awards” are recognized amongst the world’s most influential banking/finance and corporate professionals as the most coveted and credible awards in the banking industry, with winners chosen in more than 150 countries across Africa, Asia-Pacific, Central & Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, North America and Western Europe.

Founded in 1987, Global Finance regularly selects the top performers among banks and other providers of financial services and the awards have become a trusted standard of excellence for the global financial community.

Commenting on the recognition, the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive of Zenith Bank, Mr, Ebenezer Onyeagwu said that “this award is a clear demonstration of the bank’s market leadership, occasioned by our superior product offerings, best-in-class service and top-of-the-range technology which create value for our teeming customers.”

Zenith Bank has clearly distinguished itself in the Nigerian financial services industry through superior service quality, unique customer experience and sound financial indices. The bank, with a knack for setting the pace and raising benchmarks, is a clear leader in the digital space with several firsts in the deployment of innovative products, solutions and an assortment of alternative channels that ensure convenience, speed and safety of transactions.

As a testament to its resilience and market leadership, Zenith Bank announced an impressive result for the year ended December 31, 2019, with profit after tax (PAT) of N208.8 billion, achieving the feat as the first Nigerian Bank to cross the N200 billion mark. In the recently released Q1 2020 unaudited financial results, the bank also recorded an improved result over the corresponding period in 2019, with gross earnings rising by 6% to N166.8 billion and profit before tax (PAT) growing 3% to N58.8 billion.

Consistent with this superlative performance and in recognition of its track record of exceptional performance, Zenith Bank was ranked as the Best Commercial Bank in Nigeria 2019 by the World Finance and the Best Digital Bank in Nigeria 2019 by Agusto & Co. The bank was also voted as Bank of the Year and Best Bank in Retail Banking at the 2019 BusinessDay Banks and other Financial Institutions (BAFI) Awards.

Most recently, the bank was recognized as the Most Valuable Banking Brand in Nigeria, for the third consecutive year, in the Banker Magazine “Top 500 Banking Brands 2020” and the Bank of the Decade (People’s Choice) at the ThisDay Awards 2020.

• Marketers insist on free market as PPPRA fixes N102.13 per litre ex-depot price

Nigeria, Africa’s biggest crude exporter, on Monday released a new price band for retail stations across the country in which it slashed the least pump price for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol to N121.50, about $3, per litre.

The country’s agency in charge of fuel price, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), in a memo with reference number A.4/9/017/C.2/IV/701 addressed to marketers but obtained by meganews, advised that the product must not be sold outside the band of N121.50 to N123.50 per litre

It also fixed the band for ex-depot price at between N102.13 and N103.13 per litre.

The memo entitled: “Guiding Price for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) in the month of June,” and dated May 31 reads: “Please recall the recent approved pricing regime which became effective 19 of March 2020 and the provision for the establishment of a monthly price band within which Petroleum marketers are expected to sell PMS at the retail stations.

“After a review of prevailing market fundamentals in the month of May and considering marketers realistic operating costs as much as practicable, we wish to advise of a new PMS guiding pump price with corresponding ex-depot price for the month of June, 2020, as follows; “Price band N121.50 – N123.50 per litre.

“Ex-Depot Price N102.13 – N104.13 per litre. Ex-Depot for collection N109.78 – N111.78 per litre.

“All marketers are advised to operate within the indicative prices as advised by the PPPRA.”

Nigeria with profile of highest exporter of crude oil in Africa, ironically, export about 100 per cent of refined products due largely to corruption and epilepsy of its three refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna.

Marketers who operate within the tough business climate have, for the umpteenth time, call for total deregulation (free market) of the downstream sector in which the government ceases to “dictate” the price of the product.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, has congratulated the new members of the reconstituted Board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Alhaji Garba Deen Muhammad, his Special Adviser on Media, disclosed this in a statement in Abuja, on Sunday.
He said Sylva also praised President Muhammadu Buhari for the quality of his choices for the membership of the NNPC Board; as well as the timeliness of the appointment.

He assured the President of his readiness to work with the new Board to deliver on the key objectives in the Oil and Gas sector as set by the President.

According to him, the objectives include bringing down the cost of production of crude oil, eliminating vandalism, improving the National Crude Oil Reserve and passage of the PIB Bill, among others.

Buhari had on May 30 approved the reconstitution of the new NNPC Board.

The members are Mohammed Lawal (North West), Tajudeen Umar (North East), Adamu Mahmood Attah (North Central), Senator Magnus Abe (South South), Dr Stephen Dike (South East), and Pius Akinyelure (South West).

The minister is the Alternate Chairman of the NNPC Board, with the NNPC  GMD and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance as members.