Bank Closures

Standard Chartered’s 29 branches in Nigeria were closed, Diran Olojo, a spokesman for the lender said by phone from Lagos yesterday. Diamond Bank Plc’s 220 branches were also shut, Abdulrahman Yinusa, chief financial officer, said by phone yesterday from Lagos. Electronic banking facilities were still operating, he said.Gasoline prices in Nigeria, where two-thirds of the population of about 164 million live on less than $1.25 a day, more than doubled after Jonathan abolished the subsidy. The price had been capped at 65 naira a liter, undermining investment in refineries that forced the nation to import about 70 percent of its fuel.Thousands of protesters marched through the streets of major cities in the past three days, led by union leaders displaying banners and signs denouncing Jonathan’s government and demanding the reversal of fuel-price increases. Ugg Boots Sale A 24-hour curfew was imposed in Kaduna and Niger states after protests turned violent in the past two days. Police have shot dead three people and injured 25 since the strike began, London-based Amnesty International said yesterday.The strike’s cost to Nigeria’s economy may run above $1 billion a day, Gregory Kronsten, head of macroeconomic research at FBN Capital Ltd. in London, wrote in an e-mailed note today.Jonathan, who won a four-year term in April, is already under pressure to address an increase in religious violence in parts of the north. He declared emergency rule in some states in the region after a Christmas Day bombing of a church near Abuja killed 43 people. Islamist militants pose a worse threat to the country than the 1967-70 civil war, Jonathan said on Jan. 8.