President Muhammadu Buhari has forwarded the name of the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, to the Senate for confirmation of his appointment.

His request for the confirmation of the appointment of Justice Ariwoola as CJN was contained in a letter that was read on the floor of the Senate during Tuesday’s plenary session at the National Assembly in Abuja.

According to the executive communication, the President is asking the lawmakers in the upper chamber to speedily confirm the appointment.

Similarly, the President forwarded the names of five nominees to the Senate for confirmation of appointment as non-executive directors of the board of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

He also sent to the Senate a list of 19 nominees for confirmation as Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Five of the REC nominees are for renewal of appointments while 14 are for fresh appointments.

Justice Ariwoola took the judicial oath of office on June 27 following the resignation of former CJN, Justice Tanko Muhammad.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has asked a Federal High Court in Lokoja, Kogi state for an order to freeze 157 accounts of Meter Asset Providers (MAPs) for allegedly diverting intervention funds meant under the National Mass Metering Programmme (NMMP) between January 1, 2020 to March 15, 2022

According to an exclusive court document seen by BusinessDay, the apex bank requested 15 commercial banks and the Bank of Industry (BOI) to freeze the accounts of the 157 companies for 180 days pending the outcome of its investigation.

The companies identified by the CBN include Mojec Meter Asset Management Company Limited, Integrated Power Nigeria Limited, Holley Metering Limited, Protogy Global Services Limited and Turbo Energy Limited.

Other companies include G Unit Engineering Limited, Koby Global Engineering Services Limited, FLT Energy Systems Limited, Smart Meters Asset Provider Company Limited and Cresthill Engineering Limited.

Nigeria’s economic growth forecast by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) remains unchanged amid the soaring global inflation.

Nigeria’s projection remains 3.4 percent for the year 2022 and is expected to decline to 3.2 percent in 2023 while Sub-Saharan Africa’s projection remains 3.8 percent for the year 2022 and is expected to further increase to 4 percent in 2023.

However, the IMF cut its global economic projections for 2022 and 2023 to grow 3.2 percent before slowing to a 2.9 percent GDP rate respectively. This marks a downgrade of 0.4 and 0.7 percentage points, respectively, from April.

A downgrade from the 3.6 percent and 3.9 percent it had previously projected in April for 2022 and 2023 respectively.

The IMF said the revised outlook indicated that the downside risks outlined in its earlier report were now occurring. Among those challenges are soaring global inflation, a worse-than-expected slowdown in China, and the ongoing fallout from the war in Ukraine.

Dangote Petrochemical Plant is set to boost Nigeria’s non-oil export earnings with the announcement last week that it will start producing polypropylene, petrochemical by-products which are highly sought-after by players in the global manufacturing, automotive, healthcare and food packaging industries.

The industrial materials will be produced by the $2 billion petrochemical plant located within the Dangote Refinery Complex in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos State, Nigeria’s commercial capital.

While making the announcement in Lagos last week, Devakumar Edwin, group executive director, strategy, capital projects & portfolio development, Dangote Industries Limited, said the petrochemical plant would produce 77 different high-performance grades of polypropylene in Nigeria.

The announcement was well received by players in the nation’s manufacturing industry who have been having difficulty sourcing foreign exchanges to import raw materials in the last two years due to the illiquidity in the forex market.