1. Archbishop Uka Uka Osim of the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star, his wife, Anne Osim and son, Roland Uka Osim, have been kidnapped. They and three other clergymen of Brotherhood of the Cross and Star, were abducted in Abia State on May 1, 2024.

2. The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, on Saturday, urged prayers by Nigerians for the country and its leaders to be able to overcome the problems confronting the country. He said the current socio-political problems in the country were not peculiar to Nigeria and would be overcome with prayers and support of the generality of the people.

3. Gunmen have killed Malam Kabiru Mohammed, the village head of Marke in Dandamisa Ward, Makarfi Local Government Area of Kaduna State. It was gathered that the gunmen, suspected to be hired killers, entered the residence of the victim at about 12:30 am on Thursday and sent everyone out of the compound.

4. DStv and GOtv customers in Nigeria have been notified to expect disruption in service from Sunday, May 5, to Tuesday, May 7, due to the ongoing construction project on the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway. In a notice shared on social media on Friday, DStv assured customers that its technical team will be working to relocate its facility and minimise service disruptions during the process.

5. A woman, her toddler and a motorcyclist popularly known as Okada rider were reportedly involved in a car accident on the Festac Link Bridge in the Ammuo Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos State on Saturday night. It was gathered that the incident occurred at about 11:00pm. The victims were unconscious when they were rushed to the hospital.

6. Gunmen suspected to be bandits have reportedly killed three villagers in the Ogbaulu community of Agatu Local Government Area of Benúe State. A local who disclosed this on Saturday said that the victims were working on their separate farms on Friday afternoon when the bandits attacked them.

7. Organised Labour, weekend, fired back at state governors, warning them against inflammatory utterances that could set the nation’s industrial space on fire over the new national minimum wage. It faulted the statement credited to the governors through the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, NGF, that they were working on what individual states could sustainably pay

8. Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, has said that a “real” airport would soon be built in the state to ease the movement of goods and services. Otti who disclosed this while receiving the Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon Benjamin Kalu, in his country home, said he had already held a meeting with the Minister of Aviation in this regard.

9. The National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Dr. Ajibola Basiru, has accused the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP, Rabiu Kwankwaso of fuelling the purported call for the removal of the National Chairman of APC, Abdullahi Ganduje. Basiru said the call for the removal is a ‘mere circus’ orchestrated by Kwankwaso and his ‘dying’ party, NNPP.

10. The lawmaker representing Abakaliki North Constituency in Ebonyi State House of Assembly, Hon Victor Nwoke has dumped the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the All Progressives Congress, APC. The lawmaker joined APC with his supporters. He said the intractable crises in PDP forced him out of the party.

Fitch, a global rating agency, has reviewed Nigeria’s outlook to positive from stable.

A credit rating is a measure of how likely a company or government entity can pay back its debts, based on an independent assessment of its financial health.

Fitch, in a statement on May 3, said the positive outlook partly reflects reforms implemented over the past year to support the restoration of macroeconomic stability and enhance policy coherence and credibility.

“Exchange rate and monetary policy frameworks have been adjusted, fuel subsidies reduced, coordination between the ministry of finance and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) improved, central bank financing of the government scaled back and administrative efficiency measures are being taken to raise the currently low government revenue, as well as oil production,” Fitch said.

Fitch said the reforms have lessened distortions stemming from previous “unconventional monetary and exchange rate policies,” leading to the return of sizeable inflows to the official foreign exchange (FX) market.

“Nevertheless, we see significant short-term challenges, notably, inflation is high and the FX market has yet to stabilise, and the durability of the commitment to reform is to be tested,” the credit agency said.

“The CBN has stepped up efforts to reform the monetary and exchange rate framework following last year’s unification of the multiple exchange rate windows, and the large differential between the official and parallel market rates has collapsed.

“Average daily FX turnover at the official FX window has risen sharply from 2H23, and there has been clearance of USD4.5 billion of the backlog of unpaid FX forwards (the validity of the outstanding USD2.2 billion is being assessed by CBN), and weekly sales of FC to bureaux de changes (BDCs) have resumed (having been suspended since 2021).”

‘RETURN OF SIZEABLE NON-RESIDENT INFLOWS’

Fitch said increased formalisation of FX activity and monetary policy tightening has contributed to a notable rise in foreign portfolio investment inflows and a fast appreciation of the naira at the official FX window.

According to the company, this followed the 71 percent “post-liberalisation depreciation between June 2023 and mid-March 2024”.

However, the credit rating agency said the exchange rate remains volatile.

Fitch said the continued lack of clarity on the size of net FX reserves is a constraint on Nigeria’s sovereign’s credit profile.

‘FURTHER MONETARY POLICY TIGHTENING ANTICIPATED’

In March, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) raised the monetary policy rate (MPR), which benchmarks interest rates, from 22.75 percent to 24.75 percent.

Fitch said it expects further increases in the CBN monetary policy rate in the second half of 2024 and “strengthening of monetary policy transmission, after the recent resumption of open market operations at rates closely aligned to the MPR”.

“We project inflation, which rose to 33.2% yoy in March due partly to exchange rate pass-through and rising food prices, to average 26.3% in 2024 and 18.2% in 2025, still well above our projected ‘B’ median of 4.5%,” Fitch said.

In December 2023, Moody’s, a US-based rating agency, also revised its outlook for Nigeria from stable to positive.

1. The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, on Friday, suspended moves by the Kogi State High Court to commit the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede for contempt. The Appeal Court granted an ex parte motion for stay of proceedings of contempt application filed against the EFCC Chairman by the immediate past governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello.

2. An Ikeja Special Offences Court has adjourned the trial of the embattled former Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, governor, Godwin Emefiele, to May 9 over filing of additional proof of evidence served by the prosecution. Justice Rahman Oshodi adjourned the trial after taking arguments from the defendants’ counsel over additional proof of evidence of over 60 pages served on them in the morning by the prosecution.

3. Efforts for better efficiency in the electric sector received a boost on Friday as the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, announced the unbundling of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, with the establishment of the Nigerian Independent System Operator of Nigeria Limited, NISO.

4. The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris has said that no journalist has been incarcerated under the Bola Tinubu administration for practicing responsible journalism, stressing that the media is largely free in Nigeria. He assured that the federal government would continue to protect the interests of journalists and will not compromise press freedom.

5. A Kano High Court has granted an ex parte order restraining the Inspector General of Police, IGP; Assistant Inspector General of Police, AIG Zone 1 Kano; Commissioner of Police, Kano, from arresting, and harassing the All Progressives Congress, APC, Ward officers at Abdullahi Ganduje Ward, Dawakin-Tofa local government area of Kano State.

6. The Benue State government has demolished 40 illegal shanties and structures in different locations in Makurdi, the state capital. The General Manager of the Benue State Urban Development Board, UDB, Tarnongo Mede, who led his team yesterday to carry out the demolition exercise, said it came as a result of shanties springing up in some parts of the state.

7. Nigerian fintech companies have warned their customers against trading in cryptocurrency or any virtual currency on their apps, threatening to block any account found engaging in such activities. At least four fintechs— Opay, Moniepoint, PalmPay, and Paga communicated this development to their customers on Friday.

8. A man, Hamza Mohammed, has been sentenced to death by hanging for stabbing another man to death during a free-for-all in Niger State. Mohammed and one Baba Usman (now at large) were said to have chased after the deceased, Isah Mohammed, caught up with him and stabbed him several times until he died.

9. Ahead of the September 21 gubernatorial election in Edo State, the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Friday, inaugurated a 363-member campaign council, with Governor Goodwin Obaseki describing the Legacy Group as disorganised. The Legacy group, headed by the party’s vice chairman, South-South, Dan Orbih, had vowed not to work with Obaseki and the party’s candidate, Asue Ighodalo, unless their grievances were looked into.

10. The naira depreciated yesterday to N1,395 per dollar in the parallel market from N1,365 per dollar on Thursday. However, the naira appreciated in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market, NAFEM, to N1,400.4 per dollar.