US govt shutdown ends after three days - insurancewithboss

 The US senate voted overwhelmingly on Monday to end the three-day government shutdown and reopen funding for the federal government till February 8.

A government shutdown occurs when congress and the president fail to pass appropriations legislation funding government operations and agencies.

Democrats agreed to vote along with the Republicans to end the three-day stalemate after they secured assurance from Republican leaders to address the fate of young, undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers.

Chuck Schumer, the Democratic party leader, said “in a few hours, the government will reopen. We have a lot to do”.

Speaking on the senate floor, Schumer announced that he and Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, had “come to an arrangement” to adopt the three-week spending measure while continuing to negotiate a “global agreement”.

According to him, that agreement will include the fate of the Dreamers – undocumented immigrants brought to the country by their parents as children.

Monday’s vote came after a frantic weekend of work by a bipartisan group of more than 20 senators, who on Sunday night discussed a plan in which the government would stay open through early February.

This was in addition to a promise from McConnell to allow a vote on a measure to protect the Dreamers from deportation.

Responding to the development, Trump said: “I am pleased that Democrats in Congress have come to their senses and are now willing to fund our great military, border patrol, first responders, and insurance for vulnerable children.

“As I have always said, once the government is funded, my administration will work toward solving the problem of very unfair illegal immigration.

“We will make a long-term deal on immigration if, and only if, it is good for our country.”

Central bank sets fresh targets for commercial, microfinance banks - insurancewithboss

 Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has set state-by-state target for the 21 commercial banks and 942 Microfinance banks in the country to ensure that every Nigerian adult has access to financial services.

Mrs Elizabeth Agu, the CBN Branch Controller, Federal Capital Territory, made this known on Thursday in Abuja at the inauguration of the Financial Inclusion State Steering Committee (FISSCO).

She said CBN had broken down the target state-by-state “to ensure that the masses and people at the grassroots have access to financial services such as payments, savings, credit, insurance and pension.”

She added that target for banks was set because the CBN planned to achieve 80 percent financial inclusion by 2020, yet two years to the deadline, the country had only achieved 41.6 percent.

She explained that “the cut-cutting and diverse nature of the targeted services require collaborative efforts by stakeholders in the financial sector, especially at the grassroots.

“In particular, financial service providers at the state level are pertinent to achieving at least 80 percent inclusion of adult population by the year 2020.

“To achieve this, each of the Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) operating in the FCT have the target to get a minimum of 1,500 new savings customers by 2018, the Micro Finance Banks (MFBs) have the target to open at least 2,500 new accounts.

“The DMBs in the FCT have to also offer credit to at least 600 fresh individuals and for the MFBs, they have the target of ensuring that at least 1,000 customers are offered fresh credit.”

Agu said that the CBN also planned to adopt special strategies for the North East, North West and North Central, where financial exclusion rate was very high.

She noted that “we are also conceptualising on ways and means to reach out to women whose culture and religion require specialised products and channels.

“We remain committed to reaching out to everybody with appropriate financial products, even in the southern part of the country where significant progress is achieved in the last two years.”

Agu said that the newly inaugurated FISSCO, which would be responsible for ensuring that the targets were achieved at the grassroots in the FCT, would be chaired by the CBN Branch Controller for FCT.

Meanwhile, Mr Christian Ohaa, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Capital Territory Administration, pledged to work with the CBN to ensure that the target set for the FCT was achieved.

He said “it is expected that banks operating in the FCT should include 671,000 new savings customers and 266,000 credit customers before the end of 2018.

“This will form the focus of our struggle in the next months. The target for other products such as insurance, pension, capital market products will come later.”

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