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CBN ‘concludes’ payment of verified FX claims by foreign airlines

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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says it has concluded the payment of all verified foreign exchange (FX) claims by airlines with an additional $64.44 million to the concerned foreign aviation firms.

 

Hakama Sidi-Ali, CBN’s acting director of corporate communications, disclosed this on Tuesday.

 

Sidi-Ali said the latest amount paid to the airlines brought the total verified sum disbursed to the sector to $136.73 million, stressing that all the verified airline claims have now been cleared.

 

According to Sidi-Ali, Olayemi Cardoso, the CBN governor, and his team are committed and would stop at nothing to ensure that the verified backlog of payments across all other sectors are cleared and confidence restored in the Nigerian FX market.

 

She also assured that the CBN is working with stakeholders to ensure liquidity improves within the forex market, thereby reducing pressure on the naira — Nigeria’s local currency.

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While expressing optimism that the market would respond positively with the latest injection of over $64 million, she admonished actors in the FX market to guard against speculation as such actions could hurt the naira.

 

Siri-Ali, therefore, urged the public to support the reforms in the FX  market, adding that the CBN would continue to promote orderliness and professional conduct by all participants in the to ensure market forces determine exchange rates.

 

The latest update comes a day after the CBN released $500 million to various sectors to address the backlog of FX transactions on January 29, 2024.

 

Prior, the regulator, on January 7, 2024, disbursed $61.64 million to foreign airlines through various commercial banks.

 

Foreign airlines have struggled to repatriate their revenues since July 2022 when the total amount reportedly hit $464 million.

 

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), foreign airlines’ revenue blocked from repatriation by the Nigerian government increased to $743 million from $662 million in January 2023.

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IATA, however, said the figure increased to $2.27 billion in April 2023, adding that Nigeria had the highest amount of unrepatriated airlines’ funds worldwide.

 

The situation has led to disputes between the federal government and international airlines who have since blacklisted Nigeria in various ways.

 

After several engagements with the authorities, the CBN released the sum of $265 million to foreign airlines operating in the country to settle outstanding ticket sales on August 26, 2022.

 

But that was insufficient to address the impasse, forcing aviation companies like Emirates Airlines to suspend flight operations to Nigeria in November 2022.

 

British Airways (BA) also closed its inventory to Nigeria in the global distribution system (GDS) — preventing local travel agencies from making bookings from their portals.

 

 

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Tribunal stops MultiChoice from increasing DStv, Gotv subscription rates

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A competition and consumer protection tribunal (CCPT) in Abuja has stopped Multi-Choice Nigeria Limited from increasing its tariffs and cost of products and services scheduled to begin on May 1.

 

A three-member tribunal led by Saratu Shafii gave the interim order following an ex-parte motion moved by Ejiro Awaritoma, counsel to Festus Onifade, the applicant.

 

The tribunal, in the ruling, restrained Multi-Choice from going ahead with the impending price increase pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice filed before it.

 

“The 1st defendant is hereby restrained from taking any step(s) that may negatively affect the rights of the claimant and other consumers in respect of the suit pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice,” Shafii ruled.

Shafii also directed all parties in the suit to appear before the tribunal at 10 a.m. on May 7 for the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.

 

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Onifade, a legal practitioner, filed the suit marked CCPT/OP/2/2024, against Multi-Choice Nigeria Ltd and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) on Monday.

 

On April 24, Multichoice Nigeria announced an increase in the cost of subscriptions for its DStv and GOtv packages.

The pay-TV firm cited the rise in the cost of business operations as the rationale behind the price increase.

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How to check 2024 JAMB UTME results

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The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has released modalities for the checking of the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results via SMS.

For candidates who took part in the 2024 UTME organised by JAMB, the examination body said the results of the exercise can be checked following some simple steps.

 

“Candidates are advised to use the phone numbers they used to register to text UTMERESULT to 55019/66019. There is no need to approach any CBT centre or cybercafé to check results,” JAMB said.

 

“The following are the responses to be expected hence, a candidate with a result will receive the message: ‘Dear ‘Candidate X’, your result is as follows (and the details will be provided).’”

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JAMB releases 2024 UTME results, 8,401 score 300 and above

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The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has released the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results.

 

JAMB’s Registrar Ishaq Oloyede announced the release of the UTME results in a press conference held at the board’s headquarters in Bwari on the outskirts of Abuja.

 

According to Oloyede, over 1.94 million candidates registered and sat for the examination in 118 towns and over 700 centres across the country.

 

The examination which began on Friday the 19th of April ended on Monday the 29th of April. Out of the 1,989,668 registered candidates, 80, 810 were absent. A total of 1, 904, 189 sat the UTME within the six days of the examination.

“Out of the 1,842,464 released results, a paltry 0.4% scored above 300 while 24% scored 50% (200/400) and above,” the JAMB chief said.

 

He said 1,1,402,490, which is 76 per cent of the candidates got below 200. JAMB, however, re-echoed its resolve not to publish the name of the highest-scoring candidate.

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“It is common knowledge that the Board has, at various fora, restated its unwillingness to publish the names of its best-performing candidates, as it considers its UTME as only a ranking examination on account of the other parameters that would constitute what would later be considered the minimum admissible score for candidates seeking admission to tertiary institutions,” Oloyede noted.

 

More Female Enrolees
A further breakdown of the number of candidates who sat for the examination showed that the females were more than males.

The JAMB registrar said 982,393 males representing 49.4 per cent enrolled for the 2024 UTME as against 1,007,275 females which is 50.6 per cent.

 

Oloyede said “it is evident that there is a significant improvement in the enrolment of females, with over one million girls registering for the examination.

 

“This is the first time in three years that the number of females will be more than that of their male counterparts.

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“Out of the total registration, 3,164 were persons living with disabilities.”

 

“There is a 36.2% increase in the enrolment of PLWDs as compared to the last year,” the JAMB boss told the gathering.

 

 

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