The Senate Committee on Finance on Monday rejected the revenue targets projected for the various revenue-generating agencies in the country to fund the Revised 2020 Budget, describing their proposed sums as grossly inadequate.

Members of the Senate panel also condemned in strong terms the explanation by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation that it spent $21 to produce a barrel of oil.

They spoke when the heads of the various revenue-generating agencies including the Federal Inland Revenue Service, the NNPC, and the Nigeria Customs Service, led by the Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed, appeared before the Senate panel to defend their proposals in the revised budget.

The Chief Operating Officer of the NNPC (Upstream), Mr. Yemi Adetunji, told the panel that the agency reduced the production cost per barrel of crude oil from $25 proposed in the approved 2020 budget to $21 in the revised budget in line with the current realities.

He said the NNPC was working with relevant stakeholders to reduce the administrative cost through a multi-disciplinary approach in terms of planning and engagement of various partners.

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies led by Russia are moving closer to a compromise on extending current oil output cuts and are discussing a proposal to roll over supply curbs for one to two months.

The international oil price benchmark, Brent crude, stood at $38.51 per barrel as of 9:30pm Nigerian time on Monday.

OPEC and its allies, a group called OPEC+, decided in April to cut output by a record 9.7 million barrels per day, or about 10 per cent of global output, to lift prices battered by a demand drop linked to lockdown measures aimed at stopping the spread of the coronavirus.

Reuters quoted OPEC sources as saying that rather than easing output cuts in July, the de-facto OPEC leader, Saudi Arabia, was leading discussions on sustaining them until the end of the year.

An OPEC+ source said there was support for Russia’s proposal for an extension of one month, but added that there no consensus on it yet.

The Federal Government on Monday said that it was increasing its borrowing in the year because of the effects of coronavirus on the nation’s revenue profile.

It also anchored the increased borrowing on unexpected spending on healthcare in a bid to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

The Director-General of the Debt Management Office, Patience Oniha, had in her presentation before the Senate Committee on Foreign and Local Debts, said the proposed new 2020 budget of N10.51tn now has a deficit of N4.56tn.

She said the deficit would be financed through domestic borrowing of N2.19tn and external borrowing of N1.98tn, amounting to N4.17tn.

According to Oniha, the increase in the new borrowing for 2020 is due to the increase in the deficit in the budget from N2.18tn to N4.58tn.

She said the revision of the 2020 budget became necessary due to the effects of COVID-19 on Nigeria’s revenues and the need for new spending on health to meet the health challenges occasioned by COVID-19.

The Federal Government, through the Department of Petroleum Resources, has put an offer on 57 marginal fields for licensing as part of efforts to develop oil and gas discoveries that had been left unattended to for many years.

The DPR disclosed this on Monday while announcing the commencement of the 2020 Marginal Field Bid Round.

It said the bid round is open to indigenous companies and investors interested in participating in the exploration and production business in Nigeria.

According to the agency, a marginal field is any field that has been discovered and has been left unattended for a period of not less than 10 years.

It said the exercise, which would be conducted electronically, would include expression of interest/registration, pre-qualification, technical and commercial bid submission and bid evaluation. The new licensing round is the first marginal field round since 2003.

The statistics department of the Central Bank of Nigeria said the economic activities in manufacturing, production, new others and other indices contracted in May after recording at least 36 months of consecutive growth.

This was disclosed in its Purchasing Managers Index survey report for the month of May 2020.

It stated that the Manufacturing PMI in May stood at 42.4 index points, indicating contraction in the manufacturing sector for the first time after recording expansion for 36 consecutive months.

Of the 14 surveyed subsectors, only the electrical equipment sector reported growth (above 50 per cent threshold) in the review month, while the remaining 13 subsectors reported declines in the following order of cement; petroleum & coal products; printing & related support activities.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has directed all banks to resolve all outstanding issues relating to failed Automated Teller Machine, Point of Sale terminal and other electronic banking transactions within two weeks, starting June 8, 2020.

It also revised timelines for reversals and resolution of refund complaints on electronic channels.

A statement signed by the Director, Corporate Communication, CBN, Isaac Okorafor, said this was to further enhance service quality, particularly quick refunds when customers experience failed transactions, dispense errors or disputes.

The CBN stated that all banks are directed to resolve backlog of all ATM, PoS and web customer refunds within two weeks starting June 8, 2020.”

It also said ATM transactions when customers use their cards on their bank’s ATMs shall be instantly reversed from the current timeline of three days.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has extended the timeframe for the submission of the 2019 audited financial statements of Other Financial Institutions due to the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on their operations.

The OFIs include microfinance banks, discount houses, bureau de change, payment service banks and primary mortgage banks.

The apex bank disclosed the extension in a circular on Friday titled, Extension of the timeframe for the submission of 2019 audited financial statements, signed by the Director, Other Financial Institutions Supervision Department, Nkiru Asiegbu.

The circular read that Pursuant to the provisions of Section 27 (1) (a) of BOFIA, all banks and OFIs are required to forward the audited financial statements of each financial year to the CBN for approval before the end of the fourth month following the year to which they relate.

The CBN said it would monitor compliance with the extended date, and defaulters would be sanctioned accordingly.

Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc has said its shareholders will receive $59m dividend payment, translating to 10 cents per share.

The company’s Chairman, Dr Ambrose Orjiako, disclosed this while addressing shareholders and other stakeholders during the company’s 7th Annual General Meeting held in Lagos.

According to Orjiako, amid the current headwinds occasioned by the prevailing global coronavirus pandemic and low oil prices, Seplat will continue to maintain strict financial discipline over investment decisions.

He said the company would continue to embed high standards of corporate governance and transparency; strong commitment sustainable business; and effective management of risks with a strong health, safety and environment culture.

A copy of the draft plan on Monday showed that the South African government has agreed to fund a restructuring of South African Airways (SAA), if a business rescue plan for the struggling state-owned airline is adopted.

SAA entered business rescue - a local form of bankruptcy protection - in December, after which administrators took over the running of the airline and have been working on a plan to save the business.

The draft plan said the government had agreed to make a working capital injection, which the administrators estimated at not less than 2 billion rand ($114.86 million), fund employee layoffs, which could cost up to 2 billion rand, and make an allocation of at least 600 million rand towards the repayment of general concurrent creditors.

Standard Bank on Monday said  half-year earnings are expected to be more than 20% down on the previous year due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The bank, Africa’s largest by assets said headline earnings per share (HEPS), the main profit measure used in South Africa, for the six-month period ending June, 30 is expected to be more than 20% lower compared with HEPS of 837.4 cents in the year ago period.

The company said there remains a high degree of uncertainty regarding the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated governmental responses will have on the economies in the markets in which the group operates, and in turn, on the group.