The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has finally honored the invitation of the House of Representatives on Tuesday, following a threat by the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, to issue a warrant for the governor’s arrest.

Emefiele was repeatedly invited by the House over the redesigned naira notes and weekly withdrawal limit – policies that have stirred chaos across the country.

Late last year, the CBN announced the redesigned N200, N500 and N1,000 notes and also the new policy limiting weekly individual and corporate withdrawal to N500,000 and N5 million respectively. However, the policies were faulted and Emefiele was invited by the lawmakers amid calls for them to be adjusted.

The central bank had earlier, fixed January 31 as the deadline for Nigerians to return old naira notes to the banks. This triggered chaos across the country as there was not enough redesigned naira notes in circulation, even as the deadline nears.

With these exigencies, the House was irked that the CBN governor has snubbed its invitations, which were meant to address the issues.

The Chairman of the House ad hoc committee looking into the matter, Alhassan Doguwa, had last week, vowed to ensure that Emefiele is arrested if he fails to appear before the House.

But following intense pressure from all corners of the country, President Muhammadu Buhari, on Sunday, approved the extension of the January 31 deadline to February 10. But the house, not satisfied with the gesture, insisted that Emefiele must appear before its committee.

“The 10-day extension for the exchange of the old naira notes is not the solution,” Doguwa said.

The threat appears to have forced the central bank governor to appear before the House, where he said commercial banks must accept the old Naira notes even after the expiration of the 10 February deadline.

In the extension announcement he made on Sunday, Emefiele said an additional 10-day window that will commence from February 10 to 17, 2023, is open to enable Nigerians to return the old naira notes in their possession to the CBN (not commercial banks) after the February 10 deadline.

Gbajabiamila had last week cited Section 20 (3) of CBN Act, which mandates the apex bank to redeem the face value of the recalled currency upon demand, even after the expiration of the notice of recall. He said notwithstanding the deadline imposed by the central bank, the House will see to it that this provision of the law is honored in full.

“Now let me explain that again: the CBN Act, under Section 20, allows the Central Bank to change the legal tender. It also says that after the expiration date, such naira notes changed will no longer be legal tender, but it also says that even five months, three months, or two months after, even in June, all the old notes presented to the bank shall be redeemed by the bank,” he said.

Based on this section of the CBN Act, which outlaws the February 10 deadline, Emefiele succumbed to the demand of the House committee.

He said: “The law which says even after the old currency has lost its legal tender status that we are mandated to collect these money. And I stand with the House of Reps on this. What does that mean? It could have lost its legal tender status which means we have moved on.

“But if you have your money that you have not been able to send to the bank we will certainly give you the opportunity to bring them back into the CBN to redeem it. Either you pay it to your bank account or you want to do an exchange—we will give you. You will not lose your money. This is the assurance I give to Nigerians.”

SpaceX’s satellite internet service Starlink has announced its availability in Nigeria, months after it signed agreement with the Nigerian government to bring in its satellite-based internet coverage.

Starlink announced the launch on Tuesday, making Nigeria the first African country to use the satellite internet and 46th in the world.

Starlink is now available in Nigeria – the first African country to receive service! ? https://t.co/slZbTmZmAt

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 30, 2023

The Minister of Information and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Ibrahim, acknowledged the development on Tuesday, saying the company hosted him in their Headquarters, USA in December 2022 to complete the logistics for the deployment.

We have made it again. @SpaceX thank you for hosting me in your Headquarters, USA in December, 2022 to complete the logistics for the deployment. https://t.co/gkp2sBkR8i

— Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim, CON (@ProfIsaPantami) January 31, 2023

The availability of Starlink internet now widens competition in the Nigerian internet market, which has been dominated by telecom-based internet service providers. The players, MTN, Airtel, Globacom and 9Mobile currently have 154.8m internet subscribers, according to National Communication Commission.

However, the new comer is expected to disrupt the market with speed. Starlink has 50-200 Mbps internet speed, dwarfing Nigeria’s 21.54 download and 10.10 upload Mbps, which respectively places Nigeria at 93^rd in December 2022 internet speed ranking, according to Speedtest Global Index.

With its speed edge over mobile and fixed broadband internet services in Nigeria, Starlink is expected to dominate the West Africa’s largest internet market in no time. But its biggest challenge remains affordability.

At the onset, Starlink had fixed $600 as the cost of its hardware and $43 dollar as the cost of its monthly subscription. Converted to naira, Nigeria’s local currency, the cost amounted to about N438,000 and N31,000, using the parallel market exchange rate.

The cost, which is highly unaffordable for an average Nigerian, was expected to force the majority of Nigerian internet users to stick to their local internet providers. However, Starlink ushered in the deal breaker upon launch. The Elon Musk-founded satellite internet company, which now makes its charges available in naira, slashed the costs of the hardware to N274,098 and subscription plan to N19,260 per month, making for the ultimate disruption.

Although the cost is still considered unaffordable for millions of individual internet subscribers, the move by SpaceX is expected to drive millions of Nigerian internet users to Starlink, especially the big corporations that made up the internet service providers’ biggest customers.

But the cost may defeat the objective, which is to deliver internet service to rural areas that lack broadband penetration.

The Minister of Communications last week said, with the operation of Starlink satellite internet, Nigeria has achieved 100% broadband. He said that through the National Broadband Plan (NBP 2020-2025), Nigeria was targeting 90% broadband coverage by the year 2025, but this has been achieved ahead of time through the licensing of Starlink as Nigerians can now have access to high-speed internet from any part of the country.

But that depends much on the affordability of the satellite internet service. Musk has been complaining that Starlink is losing a lot of money providing free or subsidized internet service around the world, suggesting that there could be a review of its subscription cost in the near future.

However, analysts said that the Nigerian internet providers can mitigate the impact of Starlink by deepening broadband penetration in remote parts of the country, where their services will become the preferred because it offers cheaper subscription costs.

The Federal Government of Nigeria has been recently hailed to have recorded more than one billion dollars’ worth of investments in the automotive industry.

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Finance, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo who disclosed the milestone achieved at the 20th edition of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration scorecard series which held on Tuesday in Abuja lauded and reiterated the ministry’s commitment toward enabling business environment to attract and retain investments.

“Over one billion dollars in investment has been recorded in the automotive sector and we are ready to move on to the next phase for the automotive industry,’’  Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo said. The minister also stated that the National Automotive Industry Development Plan (NAIDP) which is currently under validation process is nearly completed,

According to Otunba Adebayo, his ministry and the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC) are committed to attracting and protecting investments that genuinely benefit Nigeria and its citizens. He added that the revised Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) is poised to boost investments within the country. On this note, the minister gave the following remarks:

“Nigeria has successfully revised its model Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) to include a specific provision for investment facilitation, which institutionalizes the principle of assisting investors in completing their investments.

“We are proud to offer Nigeria’s first investment policy to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for approval.

“This strategic statement, which will outline our priorities, aims, commitments, and expectations, is a turning point for the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment and Nigeria as an investment destination.

“We have IPPAs with Singapore, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia to attract and retain investments. The president ratified both accords on Sept. 16, 2022 and we are developing more IPPAs.

“The ministry has distributed 5,571 acceptance certificates worth N7.7 trillion to 2,665,800 firms.

“The acceptance certificates allow businesses claim tax reduction when computing Company Income Tax.

“We also issued more than 130 Production Day Certificates, a crucial Pioneer Status Incentive step,’’ the minister said.

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