Ringier Africa, Partners Expand e-Commerce Activities

By Dipo Olowookere The Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in charge of Financial System Stability, Mrs Aishah Ahmad, has been apprehended by the Department of State Services (DSS). The central banker was arrested by the country’s secret police to harvest vital information from her over the sale of a first-generation bank, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, to a relatively new lender, Titan Trust Bank Limited. The acquisition of the more than 100-year-old financial institution by the less than 5-year-old bank raised eyebrows because the buyer coughed out $300 million to complete the transaction. Titan Trust Bank

By Aduragbemi Omiyale Despite the harsh operating environment and the unexpected policies of the government that affected businesses in Nigeria, Unity Bank Plc showed resilience in the first six months of 2023. In its half-year unaudited financial statements filed to the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited over the weekend, the bank marginally improved its gross earnings by 0.37 per cent to N27.5 billion from N27.4 billion in the first half of last year. It was observed that 10 per cent growth in the fees and income commission to N3.5 billion from N3.2 billion helped the lender jerk up its income in

By Adedapo Adesanya The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has unveiled a digital platform for the submission of Microfinance Bank (MFB) licence applications with effect from Monday, September 25. The apex bank made this known in a statement signed by its Director of Corporate Communications, Mr Isa AbdulMumin. “The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is pleased to announce the unveiling of a new online platform for submission of microfinance bank (MFB) licence applications,” the statement released on Wednesday said. According to the statement, the new online platform is called the CBN Licensing, Approval and Other Requests Portal (CBN LARP) and

By Adedapo Adesanya The Naira further came under pressure on Wednesday at the parallel market, crashing by N5 against the United States Dollar. At the segment of the foreign exchange (forex) market yesterday, the local currency was traded at N470/$1 in contrast to N465/$1 it traded on Tuesday. Also, at the black market, the domestic currency lost N2 against the Pound to close at N570/£1 versus N568/£1, while against the Euro, the Naira shed N5 to close N515/€1 compared with the previous rate, N510/€1. However, at the Bureau De Change (BDC) segment of the market, the Nigerian currency appreciated against

By Adedapo Adesanya Lagos State has signed the C40 Clean Air Cities Declaration alongside Abidjan, Accra, Addis Ababa, Dakar, Ekurhuleni, Freetown, Johannesburg, Nairobi, and Tshwane to improve air quality. Governor Babajide Sanwu-Olu in a statement revealed that he was committed to improving air quality for its citizens, adding that it is the responsibility of every citizen to maintain it because together it can be achieved. He explained that he was happy to join the mayors and governors of nine other African cities in making an unprecedented, ambitious commitment to improve air quality with the signing of the C40 Clean Air

By Adedapo Adesanya The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) says 161 companies have been shortlisted to advance to the next and final stage of the bid round process for 57 marginal oilfields in the country. This was disclosed by Mr Paul Osu, Head of Public Affairs, DPR in Lagos. He explained that the firms were selected from the over 600 companies which applied for pre-qualification. A marginal field is any field that has reserves booked and reported annually to the DPR and has remained unproduced for a period of over 10 years. ”The 2020 marginal oilfield bid round process is

By Adedapo Adesanya Eni, the parent company of Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC), has declared a force majeure on expected oil output at its Brass terminal in Yenagoa. This means a shortfall of 25,000 barrels of crude oil and 13 million standard cubic metres of gas per day from the terminal. A force majeure is a legal clause in contracts that absolves firms from legal liabilities due to circumstances beyond their control. “An incident occurred on the Ogoda/Brass 24 oil line at Okparatubo in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa. The incident was caused by a blast, consequently causing a

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 Adedapo Adesanya  The Naira depreciated against the US Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E), Interbank and the Bureaux De Change (BDC) segments of the foreign exchange market on Monday, January 20, 2020. This came after the local currency performed well at the market segments last week. Yesterday, the domestic currency dropped 54 Kobo equivalent to 0.15 percent against the American currency at the Investors window to trade at N362.38 per Dollar in contrast to N361.84 to a Dollar at the previous session. According to data gathered by Business Post from the Financial Markets Dealers Quotations (FMDQ) platform, the

By Adedapo Adesanya The United Kingdom has extended a helping hand to the federal government to collaborate on promoting and providing digital access to underprivileged communities in Nigeria. This was made known in the Digital Access Programme, where representatives and stakeholders were hosted including the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on Thursday. Serving as the first Nigeria Technical Conference on the Right of Way (RoW), the event was held to further aggregate views from key stakeholders, towards the advancement of policy and regulatory reforms on ROW and issuance of planning permits for