Economy
Heritage Bank Promotes Culture at 42nd Miss Nigeria Pageant
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Heritage Bank Plc, Nigeria’s most innovative banking services provider; has partnered with Folio Group, owners of Daily Times, the organizers of the Miss Nigeria beauty pageantto host the 42nd edition of the contest.
Speaking at the grand finale of the contest in Lagos, Mr. Fela Ibidapo, Head of Corporate Communications of Heritage Bank said the bank stands with anything that has to do with culture, adding that the bank is at the fore front of ensuring that it promotes and pushes the Nigerian heritage.
Ibidapo who commended the organisers and the contestants added that the bank would continue to support the contestants and the winner in their various dreams post the event.
Miss Chidinma Leilani Aaron emerged as the 42nd Miss Nigeria from the South East Zone at the keenly contested beauty pageant at the high brow Eko Hotel in Lagos, beating other 17 contestants that were unveiled at the grand finale.
Miss Aaron is a graduate of Business Administration from Lead City University, Ibadan, Oyo State and is the best graduating student in human resources among her set of enterprise students. She is an entrepreneur, business administrator and a chef and is currently undergoing her National Youth Service at Blencc Solutions Limited, Abuja.
She is also an associate member of IPO-CRM as well as a certified COMPTIA Project Management and a Customer Relationship Management.
The new Miss Nigeria has worked with top brands in television, fashion, hospitality and food industry as a presenter, model, actress and management staff. She has also served as the pioneer female president of the National Association of Business and Management Students of Lead City University chapter.
18 contestants from the six geographical zones of the country made it to the grand finale from which eliminated six to pruned down the number to 12 made up of: Ntan Nton, Egede Lagele, Thomas Mseve, Ameh Munirah, Otunba Ifunaya, and Shitta Remilekun.
Others are Tizhe Usa Miriam, Okudili Odinaka Doris, Agida Stephanie, Ugwu Ijeoma, Aaron Chidinma Leilani, and Dunu Chisom Olivia
This was subsequently later reduced to five by the panel of judges made up of Rita Dominic, Jasmine Tukur, Fade Ogunro, Tatiana Moussalli among others, from which Miss Aaron emerged.
The five finalists were Dunu Chisom, Ntan Sharon Nton, Ameh Munirah, Agida Stephanie and Aaron Chidinma Leilani. Dunu emerged the first runner-up while Ameh was named the second runner-up.
Miss Aaron, the winner of the pageant, took home N3 million from Heritage Bank. She takes over the crown from Mildred Ehiguese who won the 2017 edition.
The Miss Nigeria beauty pageant started in 1957 as a photo contest. Contestants posted photographs of themselves to the Daily Times headquarters in Lagos where finalists were shortlisted and were invited to compete in the live final. A UAC employee, Grace Oyelude won the maiden edition of Miss Nigeria and used part of her £200 prize money to travel to England to study Nursing.
By Dipo Olowookere
Bearish investor sentiment on Monday could not keep the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited in the red territory, as the bourse closed higher by 0.18 per cent.
According to data from Customs Street, there were 25 price gainers and 38 price losers, indicating a negative market breadth index.
Eterna expanded by 10.00 per cent to quote at N36.30, Caverton also improved by 10.00 per cent to N5.50, Omatek soared by 9.88 per cent to trade at N1.78, AVA Capital grew by 9.70 per cent to N9.05, and Vitafoam Nigeria appreciated by 7.90 per cent to N194.00.
Conversely, Ecobank declined by 9.95 per cent to N80.10, Cadbury Nigeria went down by 9.92 per cent to N58.10, Thomas Wyatt slumped by 9.82 per cent to N3.95, Coronation Insurance depreciated by 9.80 per cent to N2.30, and CMFC dipped by 9.79 per cent to N3.50.
Yesterday, market participants transacted 923.0 million stocks for N37.9 billion in 72,544 deals compared with the 943.0 million stocks worth N46.7 billion traded in 55,480 deals last Friday.
This indicated that the number of deals increased by 30.76 per cent, the trading volume shrank by 2.12 per cent, and the trading value dropped 18.84 per cent.
Access Holdings was the most active equity on the first trading day of this week and month, with a turnover of 166.6 million units worth N4.4 billion. Honeywell Flour sold 93.6 million units for N1.6 billion, Sterling Holdco exchanged 57.1 million units valued at N455.4 million, Universal Insurance traded 51.8 million units worth N45.8 million, and Chams transacted 33.8 million units valued at N152.5 million.
But when trading activities ended for the session, the All-Share Index (ASI) went up by 446.85 points to 245,730.53 points from 245,283.68 points, and the market capitalisation jumped by N289 billion to N158.615 trillion from N158.326 trillion.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Crude oil declined by about 7 per cent on Monday after US President Donald Trump held off on a fresh attack on Iran in the hope of sealing a quick deal that could boost oil supplies from the Gulf.
Brent futures fell by $6.35 or 7.0 per cent to settle at $83.77 a barrel, while the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude depreciated by $4.33 or 5.1 per cent to trade at $80.34 per barrel.
Over the weekend, President Trump repeated a pattern that has emerged throughout the past five months: announcing plans for “massive attacks” on Iran, only to cancel them at the last minute.
The US President on Monday said talks with Iran “are going on right now”, adding that Iran faced “decapitation” if Tehran did not agree to a pact to end the conflict.
However, Iran said there were no talks underway with the US and no plans for any meetings, contradicting the American leader who had cited talks he said would take place that afternoon as justification for calling off attacks.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said it also had no plans to host foreign delegations or send negotiators abroad in the coming days.
Despite this, the renewed hopes for diplomacy in the US-Iran conflict eased some concerns.
Six Saudi-flagged supertankers have changed course in the Gulf of Aden in recent days and are heading to southern Africa following threats by the Iran-backed Houthi movement in Yemen to target Saudi shipping.
However, over the weekend, two tankers laden with Saudi oil crossed the Bab el-Mandeb Strait between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, while traffic in the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and Oman slowed following reports of vessel attacks.
Russia said on Monday it was stepping up protection of ships in the Azov-Black Sea basin while also developing alternative cargo routes, in a move that follows a sharp escalation of attacks at sea by both sides in the war in Ukraine.
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC) approved an oil production quota increase on Sunday of around 188,000 barrels per day from September.
This means Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, Algeria, Kazakhstan and Oman have finished the phased rollback of a 1.65 million barrels per day supply cut originally agreed in 2023, when the group still included the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Due to export disruptions from the Gulf, Russia and Kazakhstan caused by the Iran and Ukraine wars, successive monthly OPEC+ hikes over most of this year have remained largely on paper with little impact on the market.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The Stanbic IBTC Bank Nigeria Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the Nigerian private sector in July 2026 contracted to 52.5 points from 53.4 points in June 2026, a statement made available to Business Post has shown.
This occurred despite the business environment sustaining its growth last month, with an increase in new orders experienced, as inflationary pressures softened, and output and employment modestly rising.
The Head of Equity Research West Africa at Stanbic IBTC Bank, Mr Muyiwa Oni, said the PMI indicated that the private sector recorded its slowest since March 2026, as businesses also increased their input purchasing activity to keep up with current demand requirements and prepare for future workloads.
“Nigerian businesses reported improved customer demand in July while better pricing and new product launches also helped them to capture new orders arising from the increase in demand. These factors helped to keep the private sector activity in an expansionary territory, although this moderated when compared to June,” he was quoted as saying.
It was stated that while input costs increased at their slowest pace in five months, panellists reported higher costs for fuel and raw materials. Selling prices also softened in line with the picture for input costs in July.
Headline inflation eased slightly to 15.91 per cent y/y in June from 15.93 per cent y/y in May, snapping three consecutive months of price increases.
Although July inflation is likely to be higher m/m, it is expected to print lower, likely at 15.72 per cent y/y, primarily driven by favourable base effects from the corresponding period of last year, because there are no expectations of the magnitude of m/m inflation witnessed in July 2025 (1.99 per cent) to materialise this year.
“We retain our 2026 growth forecasts at 4.1 per cent as we see the oil sector growing by 3.45 per cent y/y in 2026, from 8.50 per cent y/y in 2025, while the non-oil sector is likely to grow by 4.11 per cent y/y, from 3.71 per cent y/y in 2025.
“The risks to our outlook include country-wide insecurity which may constrain food production, exchange rate pressures resurfacing, extreme-weather related conditions and higher fertiliser prices impacting crop yield, and a volatile global environment which may affect sentiment and constrain capital flows,” Mr Oni noted.
