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The Accountant-General of the Federation, AGF, Ahmed Idris, says the federal government plans to begin payment of staff salaries by the 25th of every month as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari. Mr. Idris, who disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday, said “this is going to be given a test, I believe, by this month”. The AGF also said the government was working on a new arrangement, which, if approved, would ensure payment of the salaries before the monthly meeting of the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC. According to him, salaries are usually paid after the FAAC meeting, where revenue accruing to the federation’s account is shared among the federal, state and local governments. “There is a standing instruction of Mr President to pay salary on or before 24 or 25 of every month and we will try as much as possible to comply and to abide by that. “We are taking a step further to make a provision whereby we can acco...

Last October, Nigeria’s biggest indigenous oil and gas company, Oando Plc, made history for the wrong reason when it announced a loss of N184 billion in the 2014 financial year. The loss was the biggest ever recorded by any Nigerian company. While its shareholders bore the brunt of the bleak financial year, the company’s group chief executive, Wale Tinubu and his deputy, Omamofe Boyo, might be doing just fine as they had for years incorporated and operated a cluster of shell companies in notorious offshore jurisdictions. Mr. Tinubu seems to be making so good a return from his shell companies that in 2008 he agreed to pay a front as much as $20,000 monthly to manage all of his offshore transactions. Details of the offshore assets of the two top bosses at Oando Plc were among the revelations contained in the leaked massive internal data belonging to Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca. The revelations are products of an investigation, spanning over a year by the International C...

The Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions on Monday summoned Danladi Umar, the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), who is presiding over Bukola Saraki’s corruption trial. Mr. Saraki, the Senate President, is facing 13 counts of false assets declaration and fraud before the CCT. According to The Nation newspaper, Justice Umar‎ was asked to appear before the Committee “unfailingly” by 2 p.m. on Thursday. The invitation came hours after the judge ruled that Mr. Saraki’s trial would sit daily between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., with a one hour break in between. The Senate president’s lawyer had argued for the trial to hold only when the Upper Chamber is not in plenary, but Mr. Umar insisted that Mr. Saraki, and not the Senate, was on trial. The letter of invitation requested Mr. Umar to “come personally” with 12 copies of any submission he wishes to present. The Senate Committee said it was inviting the CCT chairman following allegation of bribery agai...

Ekiti State Gover­nor, Ayodele Fay­ose, has described the All Progressives Congress (APC) Nation­al Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, the party’s Deputy National Chairman, Chief Segun Oni and other critics of his letter to Chinese Government to stop the $2 billion loan sought by the Federal Government as political hypocrites. Odigie-Oyegun, Oni and others had criticised Fayose for writing the Chinese Government to stop the loan and other scathing remarks on President Muhammadu Buhari. Reacting to their com­ments on Monday, Fay­ose described President Buhari’s non-signing of any direct loan agree­ment with the Chinese Government during his visit as a vindication of his position. He maintained that what Nigeria needs is the collaboration of the government of China in the area of technol­ogy transfer, rather than granting loan which will be mismanaged under the guise of building in­frastructure. In a statement issued in Ado Ekiti on Monday by his Special Assistant on Public Comm...

Crude tumbled the most in two months and currencies of oil-exporting nations slumped after talks between major producers ended in Doha without any agreement on limiting output. Asian stocks retreated from a four-month high as demand for haven assets boosted the yen and Treasuries. West Texas Intermediate plunged as much as 6.8 percent, while Canada’s dollar posted the biggest losses among major currencies. Japan’s yen climbed toward a 17-month high after Group of 20 finance ministers signaled opposition to curbing its strength. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index of shares fell for the first time in nine days as futures on U.S. and European benchmark stock gauges declined. An exchange-traded fund tracking Brazil’s equities rallied as President Dilma Rousseff lost a key impeachment vote. Global equities have moved largely in tandem with crude this year and both rebounded from multi-year lows over the past two months amid prospects oil-producing nations including Saudi Arabia and Russia woul...

The Niger Delta Avengers, a new militant group in the oil-rich Niger Delta region,  has threatened to make the country's economy worse by acts of sabotage, particularly in the oil sector. The threat, made via a statement issued by the group, is a response to comments made by President Muhammadu Buhari during his visit to China.  Niger Delta militants Tife Owolabi While in China, Buhari had said that oil saboteurs will be treated harshly like Boko Haram terrorists, a comment the group considers a denigration of the Niger Delta struggle and an indication that the Federal Government considers oil more important than the lives of people of the Niger Delta region. "The recent proclamation of the Federal Government to bombard the people of the Niger Delta, as stated in Beijing, China,  is a clear indicator that President Buhari and his Northern brothers-led government scales the oil in the Niger Delta far more important than the lives of the Niger Deltans," the group said. ...

As controversy continues to dog the budget transmitted by the National Assembly to the Presidency for assent, indications emerged, last night, that President Muhammadu Buhari was still furious with the high level of distortions inflicted on his estimates by the lawmakers. On new distortions found in the budget, the President was said to be considering measures to deal with those who masterminded the budget infractions, thereby drawing back the hands of his administration. Project  —   Distortion Lagos-Calabar Rail — Removed Lagos-Ibadan Exp. Rd — Reduced by N24bn Second Niger Bridge — Slashed by N3.9 bn Odukpani-Itu-I/Ekpene Rd — Reduced by N4.3bn Benin-Sagamu Rd — Reduced by N800m Itakpe-Warri Signalling — Cut by N302.9m Calabar-Ikom-Obudu Rail — N267m expunged Kano-Damaturu-Ngala Rail — N260m cut Source: VANGUARD