Oando Plc Favour Ifeoluwa & Akinola Ajibade Oando Plc says it has completed and won the bid for the operatorship of oil block KON 13 in Angola. The firm which recently acquired Eni of Italy’s oil assets in Nigeria, said that the award of the oil block located in Angola’s onshore Kwanza Basin followed a competitive bidding process by the country’s oil and gas sector regulator. It further said hat the asset in which it owns 45 per cent participating interest, has estimated prospective resources of 770 to 1,100 million barrels of oil. Oando is handling its operations relating to the asset through its upstream subsidiary, Oando Energy Resources (OER). “Oando Plc, Africa’s leading indigenous energy solutions provider listed on both the Nigerian Exchange Limited and Johannesburg Stock Exchange is pleased to announce that its upstream subsidiary, Oando Energy Resources (OER), has been awarded operatorship of Block KON 13 in Angola’s Onshore Kwanza Basin, following a...
By Favour Ajibade
Nigerians, yesterday (Sunday) felt relieved when President Muhammadu Buhari extended deadline for the exchange of old currency from January 31st, 2023.
Reason: They have been having a harrowing experience changing their old naira notes to new ones, despite spending many valuable time and hours in the banking halls without success.
Many, as a result of this, are complaining that it is extremely difficult to get hold of the new naira notes.
The issue worsened last Friday, as the currency faced rejection from members of the public, specially traders and even bus drivers.
The situation looked hopeless at weekend given the number of people that thronged all the banking halls across the country, either looking for new note or what to deposit old money..
First Bank for instance had sent notices to its customers that its branches would be opening to customers on Saturday and Sunday in order to beat the deadline of January 31st.
So also other institutions such as Access , Sterling, Zenith and other financial institutions.
A Point of Service ( PoS) operator, Hamed Adio by named, was unable to express his joy when the news hit hit that the president has extended the deadline.
Adio's experience was not different from that of Esther Ogunleye, a PoS operator around in Benson area of Ikorodu, Lagos
The situation was very bad in Ibadan, Ogbomoso, Oyo town, as traders in the markets refused to collect the old notes thereby frustrating individuals that went to the market to shop for what they would need to cook food with.
Queues were long at some banks, as Nigerians struggled to meet the original deadline of Tuesday. However, with the postponement of the deadline for old for new cash, many Nigerians are feeling more excited about the issue.
Recall that the redesign of the higher denomination naira notes has been heavily criticised with analysts saying six weeks was not enough time for Africa’s most-populous country to phase out the old currency.
It is happening a few weeks before the country goes to the polls in presidential and parliamentary elections.
Local media has been reporting that there are not enough of the new notes in circulation, with people unable to withdraw them from banks.
The move by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is seen as a push to encourage Nigerians to embrace digital payments in a society where cash is king.
It hopes the exchange will bring some of the cash currently being hoarded by individuals and companies back into the banking system.
When the bank announced in October that the 1,000 ($2.18, £1.75), 500 and 200 naira notes were to be replaced, it said 80% of the notes in circulation were outside banks.
The CBN believes that with the redesigned currency it will have a better understanding of the money circulating in the economy so it can better manage inflation.
The bank governor said the new deadline of 10 February would allow more people in rural areas, where there are very few bank branches, to exchange the old notes.
He added that Nigerians would then have a further seven days to deposit old notes directly with the CBN.
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