Tinubu receives governors support on subsidy, other policies
President Bola Tinubu received endorsements and unequivocal support from governors on Wednesday over the fuel subsidy removal issue, promising to make a success out of this policy.
This endorsement comes as the president received and hosted members of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), led by its chairman, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara, at the State House in Abuja.
The governors expressed happiness with the president’s subsidy removal decision, all-inclusive leadership, and statesmanship.
They congratulated Tinubu for tackling the fuel subsidy debacle, promising to work with him to ameliorate the short-term impact of the decision.
Tinubu had earlier called on the governors to collaborate with the Federal Government in addressing the menace of poverty in the country, saying the level of impoverishment is unacceptable.
The president advised the political leaders to downplay their differences and jointly focus on alleviating the sufferings and pains of the people.
Read also: Peter Obi breaks silence over fuel subsidy removal, offers his opinion
Coys to begin sustainability reporting 2024, says FG
The Federal Government says companies involved in fighting climate change are to begin the disclosure of financial accounts on January 1, 2024.
The Executive Secretary of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN), Ambassador Shuaibu Ahmed, said this at the inauguration of the Adoption Readiness Working Group (ARWG) for the implementation of sustainability reporting standards on Wednesday in Abuja.
Ahmed said that the initiative, which is in line with the International Sustainability Standards Board, would promote transparency and accountability of financial information to investors.
He said that the latest development followed an explosion in the burden of non-financial reporting requirements on companies.
He said the programme could not have come at a more auspicious time other than now, when the primary users of general purpose financial statements are calling for more transparent, comparable, and verifiable sustainability-related financial information.
Global economy in a “precarious position,” World Bank warns
The World Bank has said that high interest rates all across the globe and the Russian war in Ukraine continue to significantly slow global economic growth.
This was contained in the latest report released on Tuesday, where the development bank said that the global economy is expected to slow to 2.1 percent in 2023 as against the growth of 3.1 percent recorded last year.
The figure for 2023 was, however, 0.4 percentage points higher than an estimate released by the bank in January.
It is still one of the weakest growth rates in the past five decades, said the World Bank’s chief economist, Indermit Gill.
“The world economy is in a precarious position,’’ Gill said.
In 2024, the global economy should recover slightly and grow by 2.4 percent, according to the report.
However, growth could also be lower than expected.
High global inflation is expected to decline gradually as demand eases and commodity prices weaken, the report said.
Data Protection Bureau contributed N5.5 bn to GDP, says Commissioner
Vincent Olatunji, the National Commissioner of the Nigeria Data Protection Bureau, has said that the data protection and gathering sector has contributed around N5.5 billion to the Gross Domestic Product of the country.
Olatunji gave this revelation during an executive session at the Nigeria-Netherlands Economic Consultation on Wednesday in Abuja. He used the opportunity to state how important the bureau is to the growth of the country’s GDP.
The National Commissioner echoed how Nigeria is far apart from other African countries when it comes to data protection.
“The EU countries have gone ahead with Data Protection but Nigeria gain the lead in Africa with over 200 million people. We have put in place an appropriate structure to create confidence and trust in whatever you are doing with us in terms of trade and commerce because one of the objectives of the NDPR is to increase the global competitiveness of businesses in the country.
“We have a combined earning of N5.5 billion in the sector, which is contributing to our GDP,” he said.
China’s exports tumble in May as global demand falters
China’s exports fell much faster than anticipated in May, while imports extended declines with a weak outlook for global demand, especially from developed markets, raising doubts about the fragile economic recovery.
According to Reuters, the world’s second-largest economy grew faster than expected in the first quarter thanks to robust service consumption and a backlog of orders following years of COVID disruptions, but factory output has slowed as rising interest rates and inflation squeeze demand in the United States and Europe.
Exports slumped 7.5 percent year-on-year in May, data from China’s Customs Bureau showed on Wednesday, much larger than the forecast 0.4 percent fall and the biggest decline since January. Imports contracted 4.5 percent, slower than an expected 8.0 percent decline and April’s 7.9 percent fall.
