National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Thursday declared that the country generated N254.10 billion as Value Added Tax in the fourth quarter of 2017. VAT is a type of general consumption tax that is collected incrementally, based on the increase in the value of a product or service at each stage of production or distribution. The NBS stated this in its “Sectoral Distribution of VAT Data for the fourth quarter, 2017’’ posted on its website.

The Consul General of Nigeria in Guangzhou, China, Mr. Wale Oloko on Monday warned young Nigerians intending to travel to China for employment purposes to bury such plans as there are no job for Nigerians in China. Oloko who stated this in a chat with NAN in Lagos said it was difficult if not impossible for unskilled Nigerians to get menial jobs in China.

Kenya shook off a downgrade and the loss of access to an IMF standby credit facility to raise a $2 billion dollar bond at competitive yields, but market participants said on Thursday it still needs a credible plan to tackle its fiscal deficit.

Kenya received $14 billion worth of bids. It took just $1 billion in a 10-year note with a yield of 7.25 percent, and another $1 billion in a 30-year tranche with a yield of 8.25 percent, Thomson Reuters news and market analysis service IFR reported.

“They were in line with the yield curve,” said a fixed income trader in Nairobi.

Nigeria’s external reserves will rise to 54 months high of $45 billion this month following the conclusion of federal government’s $2.5 billion Eurobond this week.

The Eurobond, which commenced last week with the announcement of its pricing on Thursday, will be concluded on Friday.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) expressed dissatisfaction with the plan to create a new agency to manage assets seized from corruption and other criminal cases.

The agencies made their stance known in Abuja at a public hearing organised by the House Committee on Banking and Currency on a bill seeking to establish the Nigerian Assets Management Agency (NAMA) to manage government assets, including those seized, forfeited or taken over by anti-graft and other federal security agencies.

Mr Godwin Emefiele, CBN Governor, advised the House to rather consolidate the bill with the Senate’s Proceeds of Crimes Recovery and Management Agency Bill or drop it.

Senate ad hoc committee investigating the $16 billion Egina Deep Sea Project has disclosed that the participating foreign firms in the contract would refund billions of dollars to the Federal Government or Total Upstream Nigeria Limited.

The project covered cost variations and local content elements.

Asian stocks slipped on Tuesday, their recent recovery stalling after European equities broke a winning streak, while the dollar edged further away from three-year lows.

Spreadbetters expected a mixed start for European stocks, with Britain’s FTSE seen rising 0.1 percent, Germany’s DAX dropping 0.1 percent and France’s CAC dipping 0.07 percent.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed 0.25 percent. Australian stocks were little changed, South Korea’s KOSPI lost 1.2 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.4 percent.

The Ondo State Government has called on the Federal Government to use intervention fund meant for cocoa buyers to set up a cocoa processing plant in the state.

Ondo State Commissioner for Commerce, Industries and Cooperatives, Chief Timehin Adelegbe who stated this at a programme organised by Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) with the theme “Repositioning Nigerian Cocoa to attain Global Competitiveness’’ said the intervention fund was enough to set up processing outlets so as to stop exportation of cocoa beans in the country.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has injected $210million into the various foreign exchange market to meet customers’ requests.

The CBN offered $100million to authorized dealers in the wholesale segment of the market, while the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) segment got the sum of $55 million.

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) on Tuesday fined 20 marketers N2.5 billion for diverting over nine million litres of petrol.

The Director of DPR, Mr Mordecai Ladan, said this on the sidelines of a meeting of zonal controllers from 28 states and all heads of division in Abuja.

Presenting the position of the meeting to newsmen, the DPR Head of Public Affairs Unit, Mr Saidu Bulama, explained that the marketers evaded detection because the products were intervention products meant for the market between Dec. 9, 2017 and Feb 3.