Economy
Nat’l Sugar Development Council Completes $2.1m WASD Project

By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The $2.1 million West Africa Sugar Development (WASD) project embarked upon by the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) has finally been completed.
NSDC, in its efforts to reposition the Nigerian sugar sub-sector and reinvigorate the productive capacities of the industry to enable it compete effectively with other highly developed sugar industries of the world, secured a grant of $2.1 million from an intergovernmental finance agency of the United Nations, the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) out of which the CFC was to provide the sum of $1.6 million, while the participating institutions, the CNRA Abidjan, NCRI, Badeggi and USRI, Ilorin, were to provide $500,000 as counterpart contribution to finance a regional project titled ‘Development of Sugarcane Variety Improvement and Seed Multiplication Programme for Nigeria and Ivory Coast, which was approved in 2010 for a period of six years.
The WASD project was supervised by the International Sugar Organization (ISO), another UN body, which has global mandate of promoting the efficient production, marketing and utilization of sugar and its derivatives.
Information gathered by our correspondent revealed that the project execution was monitored and evaluated by various technical experts such as the Project Technical Consultant (PTC), the Project Supervisory Body, ISO represented by its Senior Economist Mr Lindsay Jolly and the funding agency, the CFC.
It was gathered that the NSDC identified the development of new, high yielding, disease and pest-free sugarcane varieties adaptable to the various sugarcane growing regions of the country as the foundation of higher productivity.
According to what Business Post learnt, the agency acquired 40 sugarcane varieties from some of the world best sugarcane breeding institutes like International Sugarcane Breeding Station, Combatoire, India; SBW do Brazil, Brazil; Mauritius Sugar Industry Research Institute, Mauritius, West Indies Sugarcane Breeding Station, Barbados; South Africa Sugar Research Institute, South Africa; USDA-ARS Sugarcane Breeding Station, Canal Point, USA and Kenana Regional Sugarcane Research Institute, Sudan.
The imported varieties were quarantined and screened for diseases at the point of entry into the country at the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service, Ibadan as required by Nigerian law and were evaluated in four sites in Nigeria (Agenebode, Ikenne, Tsaragi and Numan) and two sites in Cote d’Ivoire (Zuenoula and Ferke) for selection of best varieties to replace the old poor performing ones.
At the end of the project, it was adjudged to have largely met its objectives of providing higher yielding sugarcane varieties that will replace the old poorly performing varieties that are currently under cultivation by cane growers in the sub-region.
This assertion was made at the recent Project Completion Mission and Project Completion/Dissemination Workshop held in Abuja on October 9 and 10, 2016 to mark the end of the project.
At the end of the evaluation across the six trial sites, five best performing varieties were selected. All selected varieties generally out-performed the commonly grown varieties. Four of the test varieties; B80689 and M1176/77, Kn 93063 and D8687 were good enough to be selected across two or three test locations at Numan, Agenebode, Ikenne and Zuenoula.

Economy
BNB Price Reflects Changing Dynamics in the Digital Asset Market
Economy
NASD Unlisted Security Index Crosses 4,000-point Benchmark Again
By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange achieved a milestone on Friday, April 24, 2026, after five securities on the platform helped with a 1.85 per cent growth.
Data showed that the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) again crossed the 4,000-point benchmark yesterday.
The index chalked up 73.64 points during the trading day to close at 4,052.59 points compared with the preceding session’s 3,978.95 points, while the market capitalisation added N5.38 billion to finish at N2.424 trillion versus Thursday’s closing value of N2.380 trillion.
The price gainers were led by Okitipupa Plc, which grew by N25.00 to sell at N305.00 per share compared with the previous price of N280.00 per share. Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc gained N6.92 to close at N76.26 per unit versus N69.34 per unit, Afriland Properties Plc appreciated by N1.00 to N17.00 per share from N18.00 per share, FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc improved by 55 Kobo to N99.55 per unit from N99.00 per unit, and Food Concepts Plc increased by 5 Kobo to N2.70 per share from N2.65 per share.
However, there was a price loser, MRS Oil, which dipped by N21.75 to N195.75 per unit from N217.50 per unit.
During the final session of the week, the value of securities jumped 75.2 per cent to N41.3 million from N23.6 million units, and the number of deals expanded by 62.9 per cent to 44 deals from 27 deals, while the volume of securities declined marginally by 0.9 per cent to 447,403 units from 451,522 units.
At the close of trades, Great Nigeria Insurance (GNI) Plc was the most traded stock by volume (year-to-date) with 3.4 billion units worth N8.4 billion, trailed by Resourcery Plc with 1.1 billion units valued at N415.7 million, and Infrastructure Guarantee Credit Plc with 400 million units traded for N1.2 billion.
GNI was also the most active stock by value (year-to-date) with 3.4 billion units sold for N8.4 billion, followed by CSCS Plc with 59.6 million units transacted for N4.0 billion, and Okitipupa Plc with 27.8 million units exchanged for N1.9 billion.
Economy
Naira Slips to N1,358/$1 as FX Reserves, Policy Uncertainty Concerns
By Adedapo Adesanya
It was not a good day for the Nigerian Naira in the currency market on Friday, April 24, as its value depreciated against the major foreign currencies at the close of transactions.
In the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX), it lost N4.53 or 0.33 per cent against the United States Dollar yesterday to trade at N1,358.44/$1, in contrast to the N1,353.91/$1 it was exchanged on Thursday.
Equally, the domestic currency slipped against the Pound Sterling in the official market during the session by N8.14 to close at N1,834.02/£1, compared with the previous rate of N1,825.88/£1 and dropped N8.01 against the Euro to sell at N1,590.73/€1 versus N1,582.72/€1.
Also, the Naira depreciated against the US Dollar at the GTBank FX desk on Friday by N4 to quote at N1,370/$1 compared with the previous session’s N1,366/$1, and at the parallel market, it depleted by N5 to settle at N1,380/$1 versus the preceding day’s N1,375/$1.
Data published by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) indicated that NFEM interbank turnover surged to N43.562 million across 68 deals, up from N28.117 million the previous day.
Despite the CBN’s reassurance that the recent drop in external reserves is not worrisome, the market remains unsettled by persistent concerns over liquidity constraints, policy transparency, and weakening confidence in Nigeria’s FX market as gross reserves continue to decline to $48.4 billion.
The outlook for the Dollar appears supported by broader macro risks, including elevated oil prices tied to the tanker traffic disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and a continued US-Iran standoff over ceasefire negotiations.
A look at the digital currency market showed that investors are sitting on the edge as the US Dollar rebounded amid geopolitical and inflation risks despite continued inflows into US spot bitcoin Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).
Solana (SOL) rose by 1.2 per cent to sell $86.45, Cardano (ADA) appreciated by 1.1 per cent to $0.2517, Dogecoin (DOGE) grew by 0.9 per cent to $0.0989, Ripple (XRP) improved by 0.3 per cent to $1.43, Ethereum (ETH) soared by 0.2 per cent to $2,316.83, and Binance Coin (BNB) chalked up 0.1 per cent to sell for $637.44.
However, TRON (TRX) depreciated by 1.3 per cent to $0.3235, and Bitcoin (BTC) lost 0.2 per cent to close at $77,562.27, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) closed flat at $1.00 each.
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