Business

Consumer Advocacy Foundation of Nigeria CAFON Set To Launch Another Consumer Protest Against CBN Charges

Published

7 years ago

May 25, 2017 10:35 am

In view of the public outcry against CBN’s directive to increase approved bank charges with effect from May 1 2017, Consumer Advocacy Foundation of Nigeria CAFON is set to launch another consumer protest tagged #CloseOneMillionBankAccountsIn2017.

The aim is to mobilse Nigerian consumers to resist what it described as “excessive charges’’ by Nigerian banks. The Consumer Advocacy NGO initiated the #NoBankingDay protest on March 1, 2016, to draw national attention to bank consumers’ dissatisfaction with excessive and illegal bank charges.

CAFON Founding President, Ms Sola Salako, in a statement stated that some of the disputed and unpopular charges include: a 600% increase in Debit Card Maintenance Fee from N100 per annum to N50 per month; Excessive Account Maintenance Charges; Mandatory SMS service charged at N4/SMS as against actual cost of less than N1 for bulk SMS; N65 per ATM other bank withdrawal after 3 withdrawals.

“The banks have dubiously altered this to ensure consumers exceed the monthly 3 free withdrawals quickly by programming their ATM to dispense only N10,000 maximum per transaction for other bank’s customers as against N40,000 maximum possible for their own customers’’, the statement added.

“A recent front page report in Vanguard stated that top ten banks raked in over N160bn from online transactions charges in 2016 alone! These excessive charges have been providing massive income for the banks from ancillary online platforms as against the core banking services, thus posing a significant threat to the success of CBN’s own Cashless Policy initiative’’, Salako added.

She explained that the proposed #CloseOneMillionBankAccountsIn2017 consumer action is predicated on the need to drastically reduce the numbers of active or live bank accounts from which “these unreasonably excessive charges are regularly deducted’’.

According to the group, Nigerian banks are known to be deducting multiple charges from every account open in their books irrespective of whether there was any transaction done in the month or not; adding that ‘’even dormant accounts are levied with SMS alerts and VAT charges’’;
saying consumers have also complained that they are often charged for an unsolicited birthday greeting SMS by most banks.

“Since the CBN has refused to stop the alleged sector extortion via excessive charges, we advise consumers to close all non-essential bank accounts immediately. That way, we can minimize the available channels from which they make such stupendous income at the consumer’s expense”, Salako further explained.

“The proposed protest is simple, non-confrontation and an exercise of the consumer’s right to choose. It is also pragmatic, frugal and can save consumers billions in excessive bank charges’’, she harped.

CAFON pointed out that most consumers operate more than one bank account, sometimes in multiple banks.

“All these bank accounts are subjected to multiple charges monthly even when they have not been active. We urge consumers to audit their numerous bank accounts, identify the most essential to their lifestyle, employment or business needs, keep those and initiate the process to close the non- essential accounts in their personal and business names immediately. Corporates must also do the same to minimize what they lose monthly to excessive bank charges’’, the group further urged consumers.

“If consumers take action immediately, we can prevent the charges for the month of May. All an account holder needs to do is write the Branch Manager a letter instructing the bank to close all non-essential accounts with immediate effect listing them by NUBAN numbers.

Make sure to take a copy of the letter to be stamped received with date and give the account Name, Number and Bank where your balance in the closed accounts should be transferred. Once this is completed, the banks have no right to charge that account again from date of receipt of your letter’’.

To ensure that the campaign is successful, CAFON promises to provide online support materials to assist consumers in enforcing their rights. ‘’We shall also provide a link for consumers to list their closed accounts as we countdown to our one million closed bank accounts target by Dec 31 2017. We expect all aggrieved consumers to join the protest and mobilize others to take action too. Collectively we can force a reduction of these obscene profiteering in the name of multiple add-on bank charges. Enough is Enough’’.

Business

TikTok won’t be sold, says Chinese owner as US ban looms

Published

10 hours ago

April 26, 2024 10:58 am

BodexNG

ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, says it has no intention of selling the social media platform.

“Foreign media reports that ByteDance is exploring the sale of TikTok are untrue,” the company wrote in a statement on Toutiao, a news aggregation app that it owns.

“ByteDance doesn’t have any plan to sell TikTok.”

The statement was in response to an article by The Information on Thursday saying “ByteDance is exploring scenarios for selling TikTok’s US business without the algorithm that recommends videos to TikTok users”.

The development followed after the US passed a law to force ByteDance to sell the hugely popular video app or be banned in America.

The sell-or-ban measure was signed into law by US President Joe Biden on Wednesday.

The bill, passed by the senate on Tuesday, follows concerns among US lawmakers that China could access Americans’ data or use the app for surveillance.

In March, the house of representatives passed a bill to ban TikTok unless the app parts ways with ByteDance.

The lawmakers voted — 352 in favour of the proposed law and 65 against it — in a rare moment of bipartisan unity.

In 2022, the US house of representatives ordered its staff to delete TikTok from any house-issued mobile devices.

TikTok recently said it would challenge in court the “unconstitutional” law.

Business

Dangote refinery ranked above 10 biggest European refineries

Published

11 hours ago

April 26, 2024 9:40 am

BodexNG

A financial data and media company, Bloomberg, has ranked the Dangote Refinery above the top 10 biggest refineries in Europe.

According to data compiled by the business news platform, the refinery has more capacity than many European ones.

The $20bn-worth refinery located in Lekki-Epe Expressway, Lagos State, can refine 650,000 barrels of petroleum products per day.

The report sighted by newsmen on Thursday stated that this is over 246,00bpd capacity, more than Shell’s Pernis Refinery, which is located in the Netherlands.

It added that the Pernis Refinery, which has an installed capacity of 404,000bpd, is the biggest in Europe. The BP Rotterdam Refinery in the Netherlands has a capacity of 380,000.

Bloomberg also reported that the GOI Energy ISAB Refinery in Italy was built with a refining capacity of 360,000bpd.

Also, the TotalEnergies Antwerp refining facility in Belgium can refine 338,000bpd.

Others listed in the report were the Orlen Plock Refinery in Poland with 327,000bpd; Shell’s Rheinland in Germany with 327,000bpd; Miro Refinery in Germany with 310,000 capacity; and the ExxonMobil Anterwep Refinery in Belgium with 307,000 capacity.

It added that the Saras Sarroch Refinery in Italy had 300,000 capacity; the ExxonMobil Fawley in England had 270,000bpd capacity.

The Bloomberg report described the Dangote Refinery as a ‘game changer’ and said it was taking advantage of cheaper US oil imports for as much as a third of its feedstock as it started up.

According to analysts, the refinery has been shipping products in recent weeks while readying two units to enable petrol output, which will deliver a long-promised transformation of the fuel market in Nigeria and the region.

“Dangote is going to influence Atlantic Basin gasoline markets this summer and for the rest of the year,” an oil expert, Alan Gelder, told Bloomberg.

According to the average estimate of analysts at WoodMac, FGE, and Citac, the refinery is running at about 300,000 barrels a day, nearly half its nameplate capacity.

The complex has started shipping jet fuel, diesel, and naphtha as it widens to a full slate of products.

Reuters recently reported that the Dangote oil refinery could end a decades-long petrol trade from Europe to Africa, worth $17 billion a year.

Reuters, quoting analysts and traders, said the Dangote refinery was heaping pressure on European refineries already at risk of closure from heightened competition, adding that the refinery would be the largest in Africa and Europe when it reaches full capacity.

About a third of Europe’s 1.33mbpd average petrol exports in 2023 went to West Africa, a bigger chunk than any other region, with most of those exports ending up in Nigeria, Reuters said, quoting Kpler data.

Dangote Refinery has begun selling diesel into the Nigerian market, crashing the pump price from N1,600 to N940 in less than a month.

Business

FG grants Air Peace approval to commence Abuja-London flights

Published

12 hours ago

April 26, 2024 8:32 am

BodexNG

The federal government (FG) says it has approved the commencement of flight services from Abuja to London by Air Peace.

Festus Keyamo, minister of aviation and aerospace development, spoke on Channels television on Thursday.

Keyamo said he gave the approval for Air Peace to add Abuja to its London route on April 24.

“Just yesterday (Wednesday), I approved Air Peace for the Abuja-London route, not only Lagos-London route,” the minister said.

“British Airways also come to Abuja.

“So, let Air Peace block that path and start a war. It’s all for the good of Nigerians.”

Speaking on the British government’s refusal to grant operation access to Heathrow Airport, Keyamo said the federal government agreed to operate the Gatwick Airport.

He said Air Peace or any interested local airline should be operating to Heathrow Airport and not Gatwick.

The minister said the Gatwick Airport is only a low-hanging fruit and a starting point.

Keyamo said he has been reviewing the bilateral air service agreement (BASA) between the United Kingdom (UK) and Nigeria and some decisions would be made after the exercise.

On March 30, 2024, Air Peace began direct flight operations from Lagos to Gatwick Airport in London.

Bodex F. Hungbo, SPMIIM is a multiple award-winning Nigerian Digital Media Practitioner, Digital Strategist, PR consultant, Brand and Event Expert, Tv Presenter, Tier-A Blogger/Influencer, and a top cobbler in Nigeria.

She has widespread experiences across different professions and skills, which includes experiences in; Marketing, Media, Broadcasting, Brand and Event Management, Administration and Management with prior stints at MTN, NAPIMS-NNPC, GLOBAL FLEET OIL AND GAS, LTV, Silverbird and a host of others