Q1 2017: Diamond Bank Grows Assets Despite Fall in Profit

By Adedapo Adesanya The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has alerted Nigerians of unauthorised bank withdrawals linked to Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card swap fraud. The commission issued the alert on Monday in a statement by the Head of Media and Publicity, Mr Dele Oyewale. According to the EFCC, fraudsters engaged in this activity typically keep a debit card from the same bank and, under the guise of assisting a confused bank customer at an ATM point, swiftly swap the card while memorising the PIN used with fake cards. “These cards get stuck in the machine due to a

By Aduragbemi Omiyale The popular Ajose Adeogun Street and Roundabout on Victoria Island, Lagos, is wearing a new look, thanks to Zenith Bank Plc, which designed the areas with beautiful Christmas decorations. The yearly ritual of the financial institution is a part of its Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives aimed at setting the tone for the Christmas and Yuletide seasons. Performing the Light-Up ceremony, the 17th of its kind recently, the chief executive of Zenith Bank, Mr Ebenezer Onyeagwu, expressed his delight in heralding the 2023 Yuletide season by lighting up the iconic Ajose Adeogun Street and Roundabout. He urged everyone

By Aduragbemi Omiyale The Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of Coronation Merchant Bank (CMB) has been downgraded by Fitch Ratings to ‘CC’ from ‘B-‘, with its Viability Rating (VR) also lowered to ‘cc’ from ‘b-‘. In a note released on Monday, the rating agency said it also demoted the bank’s National Long-Term Rating to ‘B+(nga)’ from ‘BBB-(nga)’, raising some red flags that prompted its latest decision. According to Fitch, CMB was moved down in the pecking order due to a “significantly weakened capital position”, which if not quickly addressed, “could lead to a material capital shortfall.” Already, the financial institution

By Modupe Gbadeyanka A Nigerian lender, Fidelity Bank Plc, has agreed to adopt the single framework for a sustainable banking industry developed through collaboration between banks worldwide and the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI). Called the UN Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB), the initiative is a structure for ensuring that banks’ strategy and practices align with the vision society has set out for its future in the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement. Banks which have signed the principles commit to being ambitious in their sustainability strategies, working to mainstream and embed sustainability into

By Adedapo Adesanya Towards the federal government’s plan to boost local food production and food security, President Muhammadu Buhari has unveiled rice pyramids comprising one million bags of paddy rice in Abuja on Tuesday. Considered to be the biggest of its type in Africa, the pyramids are located on the grounds of the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) on Airport Road. The one million rice paddy stacked in 15 separate pyramids at the ACCI is in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN). The bags of rice were planted

By Adedapo Adesanya The value of the Naira to the American Dollar grew on Monday at the parallel market and the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segment of the foreign exchange (forex) market. The Naira had taken heavy beatings in recent weeks as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sent people into panic mode by announcing plans to redesign the banknotes next month. This put pressure on the local currency as currency hoarders were making efforts to mop up Dollars to remain safe. In the black market yesterday, the Nigerian currency appreciated against the greenback by N15 to trade at N870/$1 compared with

By Dipo Olowookere The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the second straight day failed to conduct its usual sale of treasury bills via Open Market Operations (OMO). In the last exercise it conducted on Monday, where it offered for sale N30 billion worth of the debt instrument, the apex declared a no sale despite receiving considerable subscriptions from market players. In the absence of the absence of the OMO auction, the secondary market for treasury bills closed bearish on Wednesday. Business Post reports that the average T-bills yields appreciated by 0.18 percent yesterday to finish at 14.24 percent. This

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Trading activities on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed on a bearish note on Thursday, making it the third day in a row the stock exchange was recording losses this week as a result of continued selloffs of some high cap stocks at the market. The weakening of the local bourse has been influenced by investor sentiment towards the market, which has remained bearish in the absence of any significant market information to arouse any buying interest. Though the depreciation recorded by the stock market yesterday was marginal, 0.07 percent, it left the year-to-date

By Dipo Olowookere Equities at the bourse in Nigeria appreciated by 0.40 per cent on Thursday to reverse the losses printed at the previous session to boost the year-to-date return to 6.39 per cent. The gains were buoyed by MTN Nigeria, Stanbic IBTC and 18 other stocks, which overpowered the losses recorded by 10 equities led by GlaxoSmithKline. MTN Nigeria appreciated by N2 yesterday to settle at N140 per share, Stanbic IBTC gained N1 to close at N44 per unit, UAC Nigeria rose by 55 kobo to end at N7.15 per share, Lafarge Africa went down by 35 kobo to

By Adedapo Adesanya The recent outrage by customers of one of Nigeria’s top financial technology companies, Kuda Bank, has forced the company to issue a statement, appealing to Nigerians that the event superseded its capacity. It was recently rumoured that Kuda Bank ‘sold out’ its customers to the authorities and this did not go down well its customers and some Nigerians, who felt betrayed and raised questions about their safety. But reacting, Kuda Bank said it was important to obey the rules and regulations of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as it carries out its operations. The bank informed

By FBNQuest Research The hospitality sector, which is classified by the NBS as the accommodation and food services segment, is regarded as one of Nigeria’s vibrant industries. However, it did experience reduced patronage in the recent recession. The national accounts from the NBS show that the sector grew by 0.2% y/y in Q3 2017, compared with a contraction of -4.9% in the corresponding period of 2016. Now that the economy has emerged from the recession, we expect to see a pickup in consumer spending. Although the fx market is now relatively stable, we gather that restauranteurs have turned towards the

By Ashemiriogwa Emmanuel The price of maize per contract in the open market declined by 10.43 per cent week-on-week to N20,170 at the close of last week compared with the N22,518 it recorded in the preceding week. Data from the AFEX Weekly Commodities Price Report also revealed that the value of the product at the exchange dropped in the week by 3.3 per cent to N23,200 per contract from N24,000 per contract. It was gathered that the price of maize at the open market depreciated as a result of a supply glut, meaning more of the commodity was in the