The misery index, otherwise known as the economic discomfort index, is used to measure overall hardship in an economy.
During rare instances unemployment and inflation increase together. In fact, it is no coincidence that the misery index came into popular use during the 1970s, an era of high unemployment and inflation known as “stagflation.”
Nigeria’s inflation rate increased by 15.75% (year-on-year) in December 2020, the highest rate recorded in 3 years.
This was the highest inflation rate since November of 2017, based on increasing prices in food (19.56 percent vs 18.3 percent), despite President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent order to reopen the country’s borders to trade.

Watch Our YouTube Videos
According to the latest consumer price index report, released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria Consumer Price Index (CPI) growth was measured at 15.8% YoY in Dec 2020, compared with a rate of 14.9 % in the previous month.

The rise in the consumer price index indicates that consumers spent more in the month of December compared to the previous month.
This recorded high inflation rate could be attributed to:
Dollar shortages
Surging unknown gunmen attacks in farming areas.
Lingering disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read Also:

We Will Face All Challenges Head-on – Buhari(Opens in a new browser tab)

Omo-Ghetto Leads Top 10 Nollywood Films of 2020(Opens in a new browser tab)

Naira slumps further, exchanges for 473/$(Opens in a new browser tab)

Rice Farmers Urge FG not to Re-open Borders(Opens in a new browser tab)

According to the Finance Act 2020 recently signed into law by President Buhari, the unclaimed dividends and deposits in dormant bank accounts will be available as special credit to the Nigerian government through the Unclaimed Funds Trust Fund
The trust fund will be a sub-fund of the Crisis Intervention Fund.
The trust fund will be managed by the Debt Management Office (DMO).
The DMO’s responsibility also includes payment of claims for such dividend and the accompanying compensation for accrued interest.

The Act states that the monies transferred to the trust fund will be a “special debt owed by the Federal Government to shareholders and dormant bank account holders”.

YOU CAN ALSO FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK
It also said that the original owners of the money can claim it at any time.
Major Reason for FG’s decision:
To mitigate Nigeria’s fiscal frailties (weakness) and the economic crunch caused by the emergence of Covid-19.
In 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a rule which stated that:
“Companies and Registrars in custody of dividends which remain unclaimed by shareholders 12 years after the date of declaration or subsequently attain the 12 years threshold shall upon the coming into effect of this Rule transfer such monies into the Nigerian Capital Market Development Fund (NCMDF)”.

As at the end of 2019 from 2002, the total value of unclaimed dividends stood at 158.44bn.
What this means that,
• Importantly, with these funds, it is expected that the government would have more financial capacity to handle cost-intensive projects and infrastructural developments that would directly impact the well beings of Nigerians if the funds are well utilized.
• The era of unclaimed dividends and dormant bank account balances is over.

Read Also:

The President of the African Development Bank Warned Against Misinformation(Opens in a new browser tab)

Aftermath of ASUU Strike FG Suspension: READ ALL HERE(Opens in a new browser tab)

[BREAKING] Missing fund: Court martial orders Gen. Otiki dismissal, with ‘disgrace and dishonour’(Opens in a new browser tab)

Elon Musk just became the richest person in the world, with a net worth of more than $185 billion.

YOU CAN ALSO FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK
On Thursday, Tesla’s share price increased and it pushed Musk past former richest person, Jeff Bezos.
Musk started 2020 worth about $27 billion.

Read Also:

Customs Intercepts ‘COVID-19 Vehicle’ Smuggling Poultry Products in Ogun(Opens in a new browser tab)

N1.2billion Cannabis has been intercepted by the Nigeria Customs service(Opens in a new browser tab)

Customs Report: Smuggled Items worth N17.6bn seized by the customs in Q1(Opens in a new browser tab)

Nigeria Customs seizes items worth over N200m in Kebbi State(Opens in a new browser tab)