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The night train to hell by Reuben Abati

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The railway used to be a very important part of transportation in Nigeria during the colonial era up until the collapse of everything that once worked in this country.

The collapse began, suspect, with the civil war and its aftermath and the introduction of a Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in the 80s which turned the country into a wasteland of poverty.

As young students, knowing the rail lines of Nigeria was a compulsory assignment if you were studying Civics or Geography. I recall how we were made to draw those winding lines with double bars across indicating the lines from Lagos to Nguru and Port Harcourt to Maiduguri.

We also memorized all the destinations along the line. We were taught that the first railway in Nigeria was opened between Lagos and Abeokuta in 1898 by the colonial authorities using the Cape gauge, a very narrow gauge.

In Abeokuta, Ibadan, Kano, and Maiduguri, the train terminal was a major cultural and social icon, a bustling centre of economic activity. Along the route to the major terminals, small communities developed along the rail routes, the trains linked towns and communities – Ifo, Ilaro, Mokoloki, Minna, Kaduna, Kaura Namoda, Kuru, Jos and the people in such places found jobs and opportunities.

During the civil war, the rail line was a ready route of escape from the pogrom in parts of the country as Easterners fled to their ancestral homeland. After the war, the railway was also useful. It provided not just a reliable alternative to road travel, it was also useful for the transportation of goods and services.

As a young lad, I travelled with my step mum from Abeokuta to Ibadan and to Lagos. At every major train station, hordes of sellers would knock on the windows and sell sugar cane, bean cake, maize, corn matte, and all kinds of fried materials. The signal that the disembarkation of passengers and the boarding of new ones had been completed was always signalled by the loud horn of the train and the clanging of bells to announce the continuation of the journey.

I found the movement of the train especially intriguing. I preferred to look out of the windows to soak in the sight of moving houses and trees. In my innocent mind, I thought the houses and trees moved along with the train.

The Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) was one of Nigeria’s biggest public sector employers at the time. We used to hear of such things as Railway Yard, and truly, it was quite prestigious to be a Railway Staff.

In Dugbe, Ibadan, Lafenwa in Abeokuta, Iddo in Lagos, Kafanchan, Jebba, and Minna, the Railway station was a 24-hour melting pot of culture, and commerce and engineering. The NRC could also boast of many rich assets. The trains were so slow it usually took about three days to get to Kano from Abeokuta.

But the people were happy with the services. The routes were safe, day and night. There were no regular accidents, and if any, very minor, but the most fatal that occurred was at Langa-Langa in present-day Nasarawa State on February 16, 1970. The train was on its way to the South East from Jos, when it suddenly derailed at Langa-Langa, resulting in the death of about 150 persons. It was a tragic accident.

Many had to be amputated before they could be rescued from the wreckage. But this did not deter people from patronizing the services of the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC). In due course, Nigeria happened to the Railway. Here is what that means: the Nigeria Railway became inefficient. Its coaches collapsed one after the other and they were not replaced. Many of the train stations from Lagos to Nguru, from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri were abandoned.

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Many of the train communities lost the commerce that the trains brought along. In the few places like Lagos, where a few coaches still moved between Agege and Iddo, rail transportation had become an expression of madness.

By 1990, the NRC could only boast of about 15 coaches in its entire national network. In many parts of the country, vandals stole the iron-on train tracks and melted them for their own selfish purposes. The tracks were already overgrown with weeds in any case.

The most shocking illustration of the failure of the NRC was the conversion of the rail lines into trading posts. In Lagos, at Agege, and in Yaba, Oshodi, and Mushin, as the rickety surviving coaches approached, the traders moved their wares out of the way.

As soon as the train passed, they would set up their wares again: tomatoes, pepper, second-hand clothes, chin chin, puff puff. Late in the night, the rail tracks were turned into public toilets! The dispossession of the Nigerian economy due to bad economic judgment, bad leadership and corruption within the public sector led to the collapse of the Nigerian Railway: unpaid salaries and allowances, unhappy pensioners, abandoned yards.

As the railways collapsed, Nigerians moved to the roads. The roads would also soon collapse under the weight of abuse.  Air travel has always been elitist. The majority of the people travel on the roads and by rail. In the 80s, the Lateef Jakande administration in Lagos, thinking ahead, tried to build a Metroline in Lagos. Jakande meant well, but the Buhari administration that came to power in 1985, aborted the project. About 40 years later, Lagos is still struggling to revive the dream.

Indeed, it has been long recognized that a multi-modal transportation system and a railway system, in particular, was crucial to Nigeria’s development process. This explains why since the return to democratic rule under the leadership of President Olusegun Obasanjo, concerted efforts have been made to strengthen transportation infrastructure in the country with the rail system as part of the design. Other administrations have followed suit with efforts and programmes to deliver efficient and solid railway infrastructure.

In 2006, the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) was brought in to build the Lagos-Kano Standard Gauge Railway. Before the Obasanjo Government left office in 2007, there had been an attempt to further expand railway operations in the country. In 2009, serious attempts began to restore the rail lines beginning with the Port Harcourt to Maiduguri, on the Eastern line.

At both state and federal levels, efforts were also made to rebuild Nigeria’s railway infrastructure. In fairness to the Buhari administration which assumed office in 2015, it has done a lot to sustain infrastructure projects that it inherited from its predecessors, including the Jonathan administration, the railway, included.

These include the Abuja-Kaduna rail line of 187 km, officially commissioned on July 26, 2016, the Warri-Itakpe line completed in 2020. It took 30 years to finish that particular construction. The Lagos-Ibadan line was launched on June 10, 2021.

The administration has also constructed major railway terminals in Lagos, Ibadan, Abeokuta and parts of the East. In a sense, what the Buhari administration has done with the Railways, in terms of structure, branding, reinvention, and promotion of communal ownership is meant to be one of its major legacies.

Unfortunately, all of that is coming unstuck in a very bad manner. The rail lines cited above and others are in place, and others are works in progress, but the efforts of the Buhari administration is taking the revival of the rail infrastructure in the country to a strong end is undermined by recent revelations and incidents about the integrity of railway operations in the country.

The most shocking development would be the attack on an Abuja-Kaduna bound train by terrorists last Monday. As reported, 398 passengers bought tickets, 362 boarded, but some media outlets reported that a total of 970 persons were on board. How?

Nigeria is one country where basic statistics is a ghost affair, we are a country where nobody knows how much crude oil is produced, how much is refined or imported, how many students are in school or out of school, how many policemen the country has, there is even no reliable data on retail sales, we don’t even know the country’s exact population! Almost a week after the attack on the night train to Kaduna, Nigeria remains in a state of confusion.

The only people that are most affected are those who lost their beloved ones- their only sin is that they belong to a country that does not care enough for its citizens.

The Abuja-Kaduna train tragedy speaks to all that is wrong with Nigeria: we have revived the railways, but in the very effort that has been made is the seed of failure. Who is going to explain this failure to the affected families? Who is going to tell them that it is okay to die needlessly in Nigeria?

The big lesson from the Kaduna-Abuja train tragedy is that the country is not safe. Not even in the Langalanga incident was there a report of the bombing. The rail tracks at the worst of times in the past used to be safe. Today, terrorists plant bombs either in trains or on rail tracks.

I painted the picture of a time when the Railway was considered one of the safest modes of transportation in Nigeria and the decline that followed. Despite all the investments and the attempts to revive the railway sector, it is sad to note that the best is not working.

A loud statement was made about the insecurity in the land when the Abuja-Kaduna train was bombed. There have been other cases of a train bombing in the world: the Minsk Metro bombing of 2011, the Chennai train bombing of May 2014, the Istanbul Metro bombing of 2015, the Brussels train bombing of March 2016, the Saint Petersburg Metro bombing of April 2017, all of them linked to terrorist attacks.

What rankles in the Nigerian case is that there was prior intelligence. Nobody acted on the intelligence. Both the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai and the Minister of Transportation have disclosed that the tragedy was avoidable because it was foreseen.

El-Rufai accuses the military of failing to do its duty by blatantly refusing to attack the hideouts of the terrorist despite having enough information about their location, identity and operations. El-Rufai barely stopped short of accusing the military of complicity.

He plans to see the President to make specific requests: he says military formations should be established in the North West, that the military should show greater determination, and that the NRC should stop night operations henceforth.

The Minister of Transportation says the problem is money: if only he had been given N3bilion as earlier proposed to address security and surveillance issues and to purchase sensors and other surveillance equipment, nobody would have been able to go near the trains to plant bombs or attack travellers.

The Inspector-General of Police now says he has deployed security men to protect the engineers who have been directed to make sure the trains start working again forthwith. He also wants to deploy drones. The Nigerian Air Force says it will use aircraft to provide backup security for trains in Nigeria. Minister Rotimi Amaechi has talked about engaging villagers along train routes to provide information to the security agencies.

Please where on earth does anyone build strategic railway lines across vast, ungoverned spaces of the country without working out a security arrangement, only to wait for tragedy to occur before considering security as an add-on? Only in Nigeria! We act first and think later, after a familiar fashion.

The terrorists in the North West and the North East have become more audacious because they know that Nigeria is negligent. They understand the weakness of the state better than the state itself. One whole week after the incident, with the President giving the Service Chiefs marching orders, nobody has been arrested, nobody has given us any positive information, no victim has been rescued! But we have evidence of cosmetic visits to the hospitals and promises made.

The House of Representatives acting patriotic asked the Service Chiefs and other stakeholders to show up in their Chambers to give account. The Service Chiefs and other stakeholders, with the exception of the DG of the Nigeria Airspace Management Authority (NAMA) sent Representatives!

The President has directed that services should resume. The Nigeria Railway Workers Union has sent back a rebuttal: its members are not going back to work unless their safety can be guaranteed. I doubt if many passengers would have the courage to travel by rail again, either along the Abuja-Kaduna route or elsewhere.

The problem is that the roads are not safe, air travel is expensive, and there are no other ready options. We are under the siege of bandits and terrorists and hapless security agents.

Apart from the bombing of the Abuja-Kaduna train, the Kaduna International Airport was also attacked by terrorists who according to a certain Army General were just passing by. Passing by!  Communities have also been tacked in Niger State, close to the Federal Capital Territory.

Governor el-Rufai says if the Federal Government would not do anything, he will arrange to get mercenaries to fight the terrorists. He is speaking out of frustration. He has no such powers under the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic.

The Nigeria Air Force says they are now prepared to deploy the Super Tucano jets that Nigeria bought from the US in 2021. When we see the jets in action, we will say so – seeing is believing as Nigerians would say. But all of this is reactive rather than proactive.

Insecurity remains the biggest problem Nigeria faces today. It is the same problem that any Presidential aspirant in the 2023 Presidential election must talk about with clarity and sense.

On this subject, the outgoing administration must eschew the temptation to abuse, harass, insult or intimidate anyone who chooses to speak truth to power either from the pulpit or from lecture halls at home and abroad, whether that person be a Sheik, an Overseer or a former President. We need to make the trains safe: leverage technology, put the best hands in charge and place a higher priority on the observance of best practices.

In 2019, the Nigerian government reportedly reviewed the National Security Strategy (NSS) to find lasting solutions to security threats. It was the first time since 2014 that such a review would take place. Three years later, where are the gains of that review?

Strictly Personal

In defence of fuel subsidy in Nigeria, By Chidi Chinedu

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This argument is for the people.

There is now a near-unanimous rejection of the petrol subsidy regime in Nigeria. This is now the popular position. I fear that with the deification of this position, some valid arguments in favour of petrol subsidy within Nigeria’s unique socio-economic context are being denied oxygen, with grave, even existential, threat to the people. To surrender the argument to a government uninterested in ending its imperial status— with all its attendant costs— and an egotistic liberal economic elite buoyed by affirmations within its intellectual bubble, and determined to test the furthest free market theories on the already pulverized masses, is a position I cannot accept.

There has been a growing socio-economic inattentional blindness among Nigeria’s ruling and liberal economic intellectual elite regarding the petrol subsidy issue. They have almost entirely embraced the Bretton Woods position on the petrol subsidy expenditure which isolates it as a drain on national resources, costing the country multiple other development opportunities. This position is flawed, I reckon. In Nigeria, isolating fuel subsidy as a purely wasteful consumption spend is an error. Within the context of Nigeria’s energy crisis, inflation surge, purchasing power squeeze, and general cost of production challenges, petrol subsidy cannot be so rightly isolated.

Caution and contemplation are key in this debate. Scholarly tentativeness and intellectual humility are paramount. One ideological strand in economics cannot be gospel. It cannot be unchallengeable. It cannot be treated as an absolute truth. Our pro-subsidy removal economists (who also champion free float of the currency and other free market reforms) must be realistic enough to recognize that economics is not an exact science. An economic proposal, more often than not, cannot solely determine its own destiny; it depends on some other variables. It is only this realization that will allow for expanded thinking and pragmatic, as against ideological, propositions. I reckon that what has become the subsidy conundrum has a hybrid solution, not an entirely free market solution, given the peculiarities of Context Nigeria.

The fuel subsidy regime does not exist in isolation. In Nigeria, it is simplistic, even inaccurate, to suggest that petrol subsidy is merely subsidizing consumption (not that it is entirely indefensible to argue for subsidy on consumption); it is subsidizing production as well. The Nigerian subsidy story is different. The Nigerian context strips some of the general oft-repeated theoretical principles against subsidy, like “don’t subsidize consumption”, “it is the rich that are being subsidized” and “government needs the money to drive development” of their force of truth; I will explain.

“In Nigeria, petrol subsidy is a purchasing power argument. It is a production argument. It is a local economy energizer argument. It is not merely a consumption argument”. 

Regarding production and energizing of local economies, petrol subsidy within the context of Nigeria’s energy crisis provides useful insights. According to the World Bank, 85 million Nigerians (43% of the population) do not have access to grid electricity, representing the largest energy access deficit globally.

To survive the grid energy exclusion, individuals, households and businesses resort to reliance on generators. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), generators powered by petrol, diesel and gas provide 48.6 percent of the electricity consumed by power users across the country. Of this figure, petrol-powered generators account for the bulk of the share, at 22.6 percent.

Overall, an estimated 60 million people use generators to provide electricity for their homes and businesses. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency’s (IRENA), 84% of urban households use backup power supply systems such as fossil diesel/ gasoline generators, while 86% of the companies in Nigeria own or share a generator, making Nigeria the highest importer of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and diesel generators in Africa as of 2022.

“Nigerian households and businesses spend an estimated $22 billion annually to fuel generators powering their homes and business”. 

The June 2022 report by Stears and Sterling, titled, “Nigeria’s State of Power: Electrifying the Nation’s Economy,” provides some useful insights. It reveals that:

“Over 40 per cent of Nigerian households own generators, and bear the associated costs. First, the cost of purchasing generators – an estimated $500m between 2015 and 2019, higher than the proposed capital expenditure in Nigeria’s 2022 budget.

“There is also the cost of powering these generators. Sources and estimates vary widely, but the African Development Bank estimated that Nigerians spend $14bn fuelling petrol or diesel powered generators.

“While PMS (Premium Motor Spirit) or petrol prices have been kept artificially low for the consumers through subsidies, variations in AGO (Automotive Gas Oil) or diesel prices can have a severe impact on households and businesses as Nigerians are currently experiencing.”

There is telling data from the report on how the largely stable price of petrol due to the subsidy regime helps small businesses survive. “These prices make the small petrol generators more attractive to households and MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises)”, the report stated.

“It is estimated that…In countries with low electricity reliability, the proportion of SMEs using a generator is higher, reaching 86 per cent in Nigeria.”

I have taken pains to show how inextricably linked access to electricity is to petrol subsidy because this point is hardly stated by anti-subsidy advocates. Only recently, the NNPC boss, Mele Kyari, in defending the removal of subsidy, said the country was mostly subsidizing the rich. He, like others, uses car-ownership status as one key measure of ‘the rich’. I’ve always found this argument puzzling. The number of small commercial vehicles relying on petrol belongs to the rich too? Millions of Nigerians relying on petrol-powered commercial vehicles because of the absence of public transportation are enjoying some subsidy luxury?

It is also curious that the argument about lack of capacity for local refining of petrol being largely responsible for the cost of subsidies is now being abandoned. The NNPC boss said the coming of Dangote refinery and eventual return of Nigeria’s refineries would not impact price of petrol significantly. So, what is being said is that the people will now be at the mercy of the markets, essentially having to deal with another heavy cost burden in the foreseeable future, within an already killing cost of living crisis. This is the new normal. An era of price hikes. The argument on how competition and market forces would swing price eventually to the consumer is a curious one too. Swing it to what range? If what has happened with the deregulated diesel and kerosene prices are anything to go by, the petrol price band will for the foreseeable future remain a menacing threat to the people’s standard of living.

The reliance of SMEs, especially, on petrol (as with owners and passengers of petrol-powered commercial vehicles) and petrol-powered generators is a counter to the argument that we are merely subsidizing consumption. SMEs within the formal and informal economies rely greatly on petrol. Removing the subsidy has just triggered an unprecedented price disruption with grave implications for these businesses and their consumers.

I have heard the argument about the unsustainability of petrol subsidy, given Nigeria’s revenue and debt crises. That’s a government argument, a convenient one. That’s not the fault of the people. If the government were serious about waste, prudence and efficiency, then a holistic reform proposal should be advanced. It must include, reining in the size of government, blocking leakages, cutting waste, fighting corruption, and ending subsidies for the actual rich.

“..the total waivers granted by the Nigerian government surpassed its total revenue by 71.3 per cent”

Speaking of subsidies for the actual rich, data from the nation’s Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP) 2023-2025 show that Nigerian government granted waivers, incentives and exemptions worth N2.296 trillion in 2021 to different beneficiaries through the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) while Customs’ total revenue collection in 2021 was only N1.34 trillion. This implies that the total waivers granted by the Nigerian government surpassed its total revenue by 71.3 per cent.

The Federal Government’s introduction of import Duty Exemption Certificate (IDEC) through the Ministry of Finance exempting critical players from payment of import duties and other statutory Customs charges has been alleged to have cost the country a whopping N16 trillion in fraudulent manipulation of the system. Some companies, individuals and other entities were alleged to have abused the system and shortchanged the Federal Government of revenue by hiding under the waiver policy to evade duty on imported goods that are dutiable.

“Senate Committee on Finance had frowned at the N6 trillion tax and import duty waivers proposed by the Nigerian government in the 2023 budget, while pushing for wastages and leakages in the nation’s public sector to be blocked”.

It helps to remember that the Senate Committee on Finance had frowned at the N6 trillion tax and import duty waivers proposed by the Nigerian government in the 2023 budget while pushing for wastages and leakages in the nation’s public sector to be blocked.

I have seen calls for interventions to cushion the impact of the subsidy removal on the people. Things like provision of public transportation and minimum wage increase have been proposed. I believe these proposals underestimate the multiplier force of petrol subsidy in Nigeria. With its removal, the price of virtually every commodity has gone up significantly. Yemi Kale, former NBS boss, estimates that the removal will take inflation to 30 percent. This is at a time the people have been battling high prices of commodities. How can limited provision of public transportation or marginal increase in minimum wage mostly for federal workers stem this system-wide disruption? There are structural issues, like electricity deficit and other cost of production issues, which put these interventions in their proper context— a dangling reed in a deserted island.

And if increase in minimum wage triggers further inflation, what value of the increase would be left? Won’t this just amount to a circular price movement— akin to taking us on a deluded journey to escape a cost of living crisis and arriving at the same point of departure ?

“how can the government which has failed to manage a subsidy regime that has inherent capacity for inclusive reach, design and manage a benefits system entirely dependent on its managerial capacity and integrity?”

Some have argued that the savings from the subsidy would be channelled to proper development priorities. This is the argument of the government as well. They seem to be arguing that the subsidy spending is a waste, a drain on national resources. While I can relate with the corruption part of the subsidy regime, I vehemently reject the dismissal of the petrol subsidy as a waste. They appear to be saying that unless we subject public expenditure to some government programme that plans the disbursement of funds and decides winners and losers, the spending is of inferior value. I reject this. This stems from unreasonable faith in the capacity of government; how can the government which has failed to manage a subsidy regime that has inherent capacity for inclusive reach, design and manage a benefits system entirely dependent on its managerial capacity and integrity?

“I believe petrol subsidy is the most direct, inclusive, impactful and far-reaching government benefits distribution system within the Nigerian context”

Contrary to this position, I believe the petrol subsidy is the most direct, inclusive, impactful and far-reaching government benefits distribution system within the Nigerian context. We have seen failed attempts at palliative distribution. The social welfare system of the Buhari administration continues to suffer credibility issues as many believe it has been neither widespread, verifiable, or inclusive.

Some have even pointed to how many hard infrastructure projects could have been executed with the monies used for subsidy payments. It is as if they are saying hard infrastructure takes precedence over human development. This is a flawed argument. There is a reason why HDI is deemed an essential measure of a country’s development. Both can, and should, be prioritized.

“In the long run, we’re all dead”.

Finally, to the economists who ask the longsuffering Nigerian masses to exercise further patience, to have faith that the government’s reforms would yield lasting fruits, and that the free market would resolve the issues in their favour in the long run, may I kindly remind them of John Maynard Keynes’ famous quote that “In the long run, we’re all dead”.

In fact, I reproduce it in full:

“But this long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run, we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us, that when the storm is long past, the ocean is flat again.”

Chinedu Chidi, public commentator, writes from Abuja, Nigeria and can be reached via chlobe24.cc@gmail.com

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Strictly Personal

Uganda’s expiration pandemic: Expired courses, drugs, brains…By Joachim Buwembo

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I swear, Ugandans on Twitter will not go to Heaven! And it is not just on account of the cruel comments they make when a prominent personality dies. It is about their views on everything and anything. They closed the month of May by dismissing everything as expired.

It started with an inadvertently ambiguous statement from the National Council of Higher Education, NCHE, which categorised many courses offered at both public and private universities as “expired”.

It transpires that courses are supposed to be assessed and periodically reassessed, but this has not been done for many courses by the relevant universities with approval of NCHE.

The clarification came quickly but not quickly enough. Whoever drafted that notice started regretting the minute it hit public media, as it became a feast of mincemeat on Twitter.

One of the earliest tweets was of resignation, saying that it was all obvious as expired courses had produced expired health workers who administered expired contraceptives to women, which led to the birth of expired babies, who are now offering expired services to the public.

You can say that this cruel diagnosis is itself logically expired. Unfortunately, there seems to be evidence around that expiry is the real malaise dogging our steps, whichever direction we want to take. With apparently expired experts directing the economy (locally pronounced enkonome), full national recovery from Covid-19 and Ukraine seems to be taking rather long.

The public debt has grown beyond 50 percent of GDP and the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) is not collecting enough. But how can it conceivably collect enough when the biggest taxable sources are themselves expired?

One of URA’s cash cows is importation of old cars that expired long ago in the countries of origin. The terribly fuel-inefficient contraptions thus guzzle sinful quantities of fuel — which is heavily taxed.

The fuel itself is expired, the type that was long abandoned by developed countries, with lots of sulphur, poisoning the poor Ugandan bodies, as it gets pumped into the air around us.

The other tax cash cow is beer, which is an expiry accelerator that makes humans age faster and the drinker’s brain to expire rapidly.

But a tax source even bigger than petrol, old cars or beer is expired mobile phone services. Although these services are the in-thing in a poor country, they are still rudimentary, as the digital capabilities are underutilised.

Things like 5G are more talk than reality and buying the best phone on the world market will not give you the experience it should when you use it here. But we cannot say much because many expired journalists are scared of criticising mobile service providers because they are big advertisers who, if annoyed, can hurt the journalists’ employers, it is often said.

With such expired sources of tax revenue, the country has little option but to rely on expired loan arrangements to finance its budget. The loans are designed in expired format by expired minds of the lenders. The lenders operate with the expired philosophy that the borrower is not supposed to think smartly, hence the skewed terms that are the cry of poor nations all over the globe.

They had started running away from major Western lenders, citing being given embarrassing “conditionalities” for the loans. They ran to new lenders whose mentality turned out to be even more expired, leaning more towards the Shakespearean Shylock from Merchant of Venice, whose method of loan recovery was to slice a pound (half kilo) of flesh off the borrower’s chest.

Now the borrowers are running back to the older expired lenders, as the expired debt pendulum swings back and forth ceaselessly. The borrowers themselves are exhausted with expiration and are even rumoured to be going to commercial money lenders next.

But, not to worry much, the NHE has clarified by rendering the expiry term itself expired. NHE now calls the courses “un-reassessed.”

So, expiry itself has expired.

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