XWAYCOMEDY

Cost of funds to fall as N606bn inflow boosts interbank liquidity THE rise in the cost of funds in the interbank money market last week will be reversed this week due to inflow of N606 billion inflows from maturing treasury bills (TBs) (CBN) Last week average short term cost of funds rose by 186 basis points (bpts) due to outflow of N549.03 billion comprising N100 billion outflow for foreign exchange purchase, N146.61 billion outflow through FGN bond sales by the Debt Management Office (DMO) as well as N302.42 billion liquidity mop-up by the CBN through secondary market (Open Market Operations, OMO) TBs last week. Reflecting the impact of the outflow which outweigh inflow of N422 billion through matured TBs, the interest rate on Colateralised (Open Buy Back, OBB) lending rose by 200 bpts to 8.43 per cent last week from 6.43 per cent the previous week. Similarly, the interest rate on Overnight lending rose by 172 bpts to 9.29 per cent last week from 7.57 per cent the previous w...

During the colonial era, the British evolved what they called the policy of ‘colonial self-sufficiency’ to ensure that British tax payers’ money was not used to develop any colony. To sustain the policy in what became Nigeria, the colonial governor, Sir Frederick Lugard decided in 1914 to merge the Northern and Southern Protectorates of the colony of Nigeria because he was convinced that the combined resources of both Protectorates would be enough to run the colony. He was neither bothered about the existing lop-sided structure of his creation nor did he care about the opinions of the inhabitants on the subject. Since then till date, Nigerians have continued to protest the forced merger which Chief Obafemi Awolowo described as ‘a mere geographical expression’ and not a nation. Painfully, each opportunity that arises for restructuring and making a true nation of the entity is always thwarted by those in authority who naively believe that they are fighting against the nation’s disintegra...