Recession: Operators uncomfortable as FG eyes N5.8tn pension fund

Pension operators in the country are increasingly getting uncomfortable with the moves being made by the Federal Government to use part of the N5.8tn Contributory Pension Scheme assets to fund infrastructure development and move the nation out of economic recession.

Operators, who spoke to one of our correspondents, said it was wrong for government officials and senators to accuse the administrators of the CPS of holding on to the fund when the economy was going through a difficult time.

They insisted that contrary to that position, the fund was actually not idle.

Full story on www.punchng.com

RECESSION - A BLESSING FOR TOP PALM OIL PRODUCER IN NIGERIA

Nigeria’s ban on importers accessing foreign exchange for certain products is proving a boom for the country’s biggest palm-oil producer as it stokes demand for domestic goods.

Profit at Presco Plc, a Benin City-based manufacturer of the edible oil, more than doubled in the six months through June as sales jumped 60 percent to 7.5 billion naira ($24 million), according to results published in July.

The outlook for the next four years is a 10 percent annual profit growth, Managing Director Felix Nwabuko said in a phone interview on Sept. 19 from the southern city. “The policy is bringing a boost to us in the sense that people who would ordinarily have imported, using government foreign exchange, are not doing that anymore,’’ he said.