BC FINANCE
Saved by @Alex1Powell

Why are states in Nigeria not paid their share of the oil and gas earnings in the currency it was earned in, i.e., the United States Dollars (USD)?

 Crude oil in Nigeria is owned by the Federation — the Federal, State, & Local Govt. Shared as follows: 13% is deducted & paid to the oil and gas producing States; next, the Federal Government (FGN) gets 52.68%; the States get 26.72%, & the Local Governments get 20.60%.
When Nigerian crude oil is sold, the proceeds are in USD and get paid to the NNPC/CBN/JPMorgan Account in the US. The Oil taxes, e.g., Petroleum Profit taxes, are also in USD and are collected by the Federal Inland Revenue Service and paid to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN
The same thing applies to the royalty bonus collected by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and paid to the CBN. The CBN then converts the USD sales proceeds to Naira.
The CBN and Ministry of Finance then fund Federal agencies like NEMA and the Consolidated Revenue Fund in Naira, even the 13% derivation is paid in Naira. In other words, while the CBN retains the USD, the Federal, States, and LGAs get Naira
The CBN thus becomes the biggest player in the Foreign Exchange (Forex) markets, with Forex “earned” from the Federation. Why is this the case? Is it their money?
Why not simply give Abia State its share of oil sales earned in USD? Abia State could sell or save its USD in her State Sovereign Wealth Fund (amen). The state can decide to sell or save her Forex as she desires on the Interbank Foreign exchange market, or sell to the CBN
Why is the CBN deciding what exchange rate to use in remitting to states and LGAs their share of Forex earned from exports? Is Nigeria not a Federation?
Ultimately, the States, as part of the Federation, should get to choose what to do with their Forex earnings. If the CBN wants Forex, let it also bid for it from the States.
Nigeria is a Federation on paper, but a Unitary state in practice. The FGN may receive 56% of the share of fiscal revenues, but it collects above 95% of the major fiscal taxes on behalf of the States, including the VAT, and then redistributes.
States as mere appendages of the FGN, running back and forth for bailouts, unable to build railroads to export, unable to build power plants and sell power, unable to mine solid minerals in their states, or even issue company business licenses without the consent of the FGN.
Nigeria has no business with 35 states and FCT if those states become mere spenders of FAAC allocations, unable to generate their own wealth.
Perhaps the States should consider holding a nonpolitical summit and confronting the Federal Government, as well as passing a constitutional amendment to force fiscal devolution of powers.
There are gold and iron ore sprinkled across Nigeria, yet states cannot touch them. Why? Well, the reason is that those are Federal property. Yes seriously
If states owned those assets, it would be reasonable to assume they would protect them, but gold mining goes on illegally across the nation because the FGN owns the assets on the land but the states own the land without the assets—a mismatch of revenues and responsibilities.
All states, except just a few, cannot meet their obligations from Internally Generated Revenues (IGR). These include States governed by the APC, and PDP political parties.
The states should be allowed devolved power; for instance, allow states to own mineral deposits on their land, thus retaining income of 65% via derivation on Company Income Tax and Mineral Tax generated. States must stop begging for bailouts.
A quick win will be to allow states to register companies via their State Corporate Affairs Commission. This will spur competition via efficiency where states compete to attract companies to list in their states and pay CIT in their State.
In summary, Nigeria needs a devolution of fiscal powers to empower the States fiscally, and then hold them accountable. As Nigeria seeks to diversify the FX earning sources of the Federation, it’s also important that the political economy is considered.

More from Finance

Christian Reshoeft
Christian Reshoeft
@reshoftc
(Thread) Why do I own individual stocks?

Thesis:

1. The digitalization of our world is 10% complete.
2. This megatrend will continue for at least another decade.
3. If you enjoy spending your free time on individual stocks, then the potential for outsized returns is possible.

What is my approach?

There are two parts to my portfolio.

- 40% in Vanguard All-World ETF. This is on autopilot w/ regular contributions.
- 60% in what I consider to be high growth stocks

I keep a balance by adding cash. No shuffling around unless it gets too out of whack.

The latter is the interesting part.

I invest in companies that can

1. successfully disrupt an industry with new business models $TTD $SQ $PTON $TDOC

2. further enable the digital transformation with their services and infrastructure $ZS $HUBS $TWLO $CRWD

I intend to hold my shares indefinitely and allow my investments to compound over time.

I don’t believe that it is possible to time the market. Markets go up and down. I hold on knowing that quality businesses tend to bounce back.

The list of reasons to sell is always long.

If you have full conviction in your holdings, then no single piece of “infotainment” should make you change your mind.

Ignore it + people who make predictions about the economy.
TRADING , FINANCE
10-K Diver
10-K Diver
@10kdiver
Get a cup of coffee.

Let's kickstart 2022!

To that end, here are 22 key concepts to help you appreciate and achieve Financial Independence.

Concept #1.

What is Financial Independence?

It's a state of *self-sufficiency*. It's when you have enough money, and enough income-producing assets, that you and your family can live comfortably for the rest of your lives -- WITHOUT needing a job.

Concept #2.

Financial Independence is not really about spending MONEY how we like -- although, to an extent, that becomes possible.

It's about being FREE to spend our TIME how we like.


Concept #3.

Financial Independence is not really about quitting our jobs and retiring from work -- although that's possible.

It's about being FREE to pursue *whatever* kind of work we find most fulfilling. Things we love to do. Things the world benefits from. Etc.


Concept #4.

For most of us, the path to Financial Independence consists of:

- Starting Early,
- Saving Diligently, and
- Investing Responsibly.

Here's an inspiring story of a janitor who amassed an $8M fortune by following this very playbook:
FINANCE
Advertisement
Bankinstein \U0001f1f1\U0001f1e7
Bankinstein 🇱🇧...
@bankinsteinlb
Last week Hizbollah's finance institution Al Qard el Hasan was hacked by Spiderz. A group of people took that Data and tried to make sense out of it. Below are the findings

https://t.co/eGLqvb28o5


Loans are provided to borrowers for gold deposits or other guarantees, to the association's members and to unsecured applicants.

AQAH had a carried forward loan balance of $450 million as of December 31, 2019. This balance has been increasing at a yearly rate of 13.4%.


AQAH laundered around $475 million in 2019 in the form of disbursed loans paid to more than 20,000 borrower accounts; mostly to borrowers with gold deposits.

Deposits accounts have been offered to 307,000 members of the association, 83,000 contributors as well as to 600 companies. AQAH closed 2019 with an overall depositors accounts balance of around $500 million.
FINANCE
Subhadip Nandy
Subhadip Nandy
@SubhadipNandy16
Ok here is the explanation. Grab a cup of coffee and read on. If you have not read/noticed this, you will see intraday options movement in a new light.


Say we have two options, one 50 delta ATM options and another 30 delta OTM option. Normally for a 100 point move, the ATM option will move 50 points and the OTM option will move 30 points. But in a high volatile environment, the OTM option will also move nearly 50 points

To understand why this happens, first understand why an ATM option is 50 delta. An ATM option has the probability of 50% of expiring as ITM. The price just has to close a rupee above the strike for the CE to be ITM and vice versa for PEs

Now think of a highly volatile day like today. If someone is asked where the BNF will close for the day or expiry, no one can answer. BNF can close freakin anywhere, That makes every option of an equal probability of being ITM. So all options have a 50% probability of being ITM

Hence, when a huge volatile move starts, all OTM options behave like ATM options. This phenomenon was first observed in the Black Monday crash of 1987 at Wall Street, which also gave rise to the volatility skew/smirk
FINANCE
Yash Mehta
Yash Mehta
@YMehta_
Screeners helps trader in saving lot of time in filtering best stocks out of 5000+ listed stocks.

Here is the list of top 7 Free Strategy and its respective screeners that I use:

Also, last screener is my favorite to pick early momentum stocks.

1/ Golden Crossover:

Golden Crossover of 20 EMA above 200 EMA is a good strategy used by the trader. This screener will help you in identifying stocks that has given golden

2/ CCI Momentum:

CCI is a good indicator to find out stocks that are bullish and are in momentum. I had already shared a thread on the same.

This screener will help in identifying stocks for which CCI has crossed above

3/ Bullish Engulfing:

Bullish Divergence is a setup used by contrarian traders.
This screener will help in identifying stocks in which bullish divergence is

4/ Bearish Engulfing:

Bearish Divergence is a setup used by traders to take contra trades.
This screener will help in identifying stocks in which bearish divergence is
CATAGORY TRADING , ALL , FINANCE

You May Also Like

Patrick McKenzie
Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
Most software founders, particularly in B2B, need to get radically better at sales. @Steli , who is the best person for explaining the scrappy stages in the beginning and then building out a team with scripts and processes, wrote a guide to:

For technical founders it is irrationally, obscenely hard to reverse years of programming (ba dum bum) that sales is a value-destroying activity. Sales is CLEARLY a value-creating activity, contingent on you have a value-creating product.

The world will not drop what they are doing to adopt your work. This is particularly true in B2B, where simply building a better mousetrap won't overcome the activation energy required to get people with additional non-mice problems to prioritize changing mousetraps today.

This is very non-obvious for founders because founders are not often people who *want* to be sold to. We often come from a background where trying out tools is a bit of a fun hobby. We like looking at all the options, making charts, and ripping out partially complete tests.

"This week I unsuccessfully trialed four software options for automating that thing that has been killing us. Our actual production process remains the same as last week. Don't worry; this was a great use of time." is not a thing you want to write in a progress report to manager.
TECH
Paras Chopra
Paras Chopra
@paraschopra
1/ Here are my notes from @robertwrighter's book - Nonzero: the logic of human destiny. I enjoyed the book very much.

The basic premise of the book is that history has a direction which favors co-operation and non-zero sum games, and that causes an increase in complexity.


2/ Starting from the first replicating molecule which co-operated with an outer layer to form first proto-cell, evolutionary and cultural history is full of examples where two entities come together to survive and progress a lot more than they would have done individually.

3/ This co-operative entity fares much better than two individual entities because of specialization. If two entities are in the same boat - that they win together or lose together - then trust is implicit.

4/ In a non-zero sum game, trust causes entities to focus on what they do best.

For example, eukaryotic cells - the ones animals and plants have - emerged when two proto-cells merged, and one took the role of energy generator (mitochondria), the other specialized in protection.

5/ Some scientists believe that even nucleus in a cell is a result of an early cell merging with another cell.

So M&A is not a recent phenomena, entities have been merging because of common interests ever since life started.
CULTURE
Advertisement
Jaya_Upadhyaya
Jaya_Upadhyaya
@Jayalko1
SRI LALITHAMBIGAI, THIRUMEYACHUR (TN)
#bharatmandir #navratri2021

Kshetram where Shiva is worshipped as Meghanatha and his consort is Lalithambigai seen in Abhay mudra.
Once, a demon Pandasura was harassing the Devas who went to Devi Parashakti for protection. 
@GunduHuDuGa


Devi rose from a Yaga Gunda, mounted on the Sri Chakra Rath with the name Lalithambika, waged a war against Pandasura and destroyed him.  When her fury did not subside, Shiva asked her to go to Earth, assume the name Manonmani, perform penance and shed her fury.


Shiva blessed Devi to be Shanta nayagi. There is a sculpture here depicting Shiva pacifying Devi. If you observe closely, you can see that from your left hand side there will be a smile on Her face and if you see from your right hand side you can see anger in Her face.


Hayagriva taught the greatness of Lalitha Sahasranama to Rishi Agasthya. Pleased with his devotion, Ma Lalithambikai appeared before Agastya. He is believed to have then sung Lalita Navaratnamala in praise of Devi. He has also composed a hymn named Rahasyanamasahasram.
ALL
\u0100\u1e0di \u015aloka
Āḍi Śloka...
@AdiShloka
Knowledge & Bharat : Part V

The Curriculum of Vedic Education :
According to the Ancient Indian theory of education, the training of the mind & the process of thinking, are essential for the acquisition of knowledge.

#Thread


Vedic Education System delivered outstanding results.  These were an outcome of the context in which it functioned.  Understanding them is critical in the revival of such a system in modern times. 
The Shanthi Mantra spells out the context of the Vedic Education System.


It says:

ॐ सह नाववतु ।
सह नौ भुनक्तु ।
सह वीर्यं करवावहै ।
तेजस्वि नावधीतमस्तु मा विद्विषावहै ।
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

“Aum. May we both (the guru and disciples) together be protected. May we both be nourished and enriched. May we both bring our hands together and work

with great energy, strength and enthusiasm from the space of powerfulness. May our study and learning together illuminate both with a sharp, absolute light of higher intelligence. So be it.”

The students started the recitation of the Vedic hymns in early hours of morning.


The chanting of Mantras had been evolved into the form of a fine art. Special attention was paid to the correct pronunciation of words, Pada or even letters. The Vedic knowledge was imparted by the Guru or the teacher to the pupil through regulated and prescribed pronunciation,
RELIGION
Vibhu Vashisth
Vibhu Vashisth
@VIBHU_Tweet
🌺कैसे बने गरुड़ भगवान विष्णु के वाहन और क्यों दो भागों में फटी होती है नागों की जिह्वा🌺

महर्षि कश्यप की तेरह पत्नियां थीं।लेकिन विनता व कद्रु नामक अपनी दो पत्नियों से उन्हे विशेष लगाव था।एक दिन महर्षि आनन्दभाव में बैठे थे कि तभी वे दोनों उनके समीप आकर उनके पैर दबाने लगी।


प्रसन्न होकर महर्षि कश्यप बोले,"मुझे तुम दोनों से विशेष लगाव है, इसलिए यदि तुम्हारी कोई विशेष इच्छा हो तो मुझे बताओ। मैं उसे अवश्य पूरा करूंगा ।"

कद्रू बोली,"स्वामी! मेरी इच्छा है कि मैं हज़ार पुत्रों की मां बनूंगी।"
विनता बोली,"स्वामी! मुझे केवल एक पुत्र की मां बनना है जो इतना बलवान हो की कद्रू के हज़ार पुत्रों पर भारी पड़े।"
महर्षि बोले,"शीघ्र ही मैं यज्ञ करूंगा और यज्ञ के उपरांत तुम दोनो की इच्छाएं अवश्य पूर्ण होंगी"।


महर्षि ने यज्ञ किया,विनता व कद्रू को आशीर्वाद देकर तपस्या करने चले गए। कुछ काल पश्चात कद्रू ने हज़ार अंडों से काले सर्पों को जन्म दिया व विनता ने एक अंडे से तेजस्वी बालक को जन्म दिया जिसका नाम गरूड़ रखा।जैसे जैसे समय बीता गरुड़ बलवान होता गया और कद्रू के पुत्रों पर भारी पड़ने लगा


परिणामस्वरूप दिन प्रतिदिन कद्रू व विनता के सम्बंधों में कटुता बढ़ती गयी।एकदिन जब दोनो भ्रमण कर रहीं थी तब कद्रू ने दूर खड़े सफेद घोड़े को देख कर कहा,"बता सकती हो विनता!दूर खड़ा वो घोड़ा किस रंग का है?"
विनता बोली,"सफेद रंग का"।
तो कद्रू बोली,"शर्त लगाती हो? इसकी पूँछ तो काली है"।
ALL