20 German Companies Seek Investments in Nigeria

By Adedapo Adesanya The Nigerian Naira opened the week stronger on the American Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Monday, December 4 as pressure eased amid continued foreign exchange (FX) liquidity squeeze in the market. In the official market, the Naira appreciated against the greenback by 9.6 per cent or N89.42 to settle at N837.77/$1 compared with last Friday’s closing price of N927.19/$1. Also, the Naira gained N172.53 against the Pound Sterling in the NAFEM segment of the market during the session to close at N1,031.57/£1 versus last Friday’s rate of N1,204.10/£1 and against the Euro,

By Adedapo Adesanya The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange recorded a 0.18 per cent gain to open the week in positive territory on Monday, December 4, with the unlisted security index rising by 1.59 points to end the day at 862.40 points compared with last Friday’s closing value of 860.81 points. The improvement recorded by the bourse yesterday raised the value of the unlisted stock exchange by N2.5 billion to close at N1.169 trillion, in contrast to the preceding session’s N1.166 trillion. The gain posted by the bourse was driven by the N13.70 added to the share price of 11

By Adedapo Adesanya The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said it would ensure that the next national minimum wage to be negotiated in 2024 reflects the prevailing cost of living. The union also lamented that following the removal of fuel subsidy by the federal government, life has become extremely unbearable for workers. Addressing participants at the opening of the 19th edition of the NLC’s Harmattan School in Abuja, President of the NLC, Mr Joe Ajaero, said it had become necessary for governments at all levels to recognise that life and living conditions were exceedingly difficult, especially for working people in

By Dipo Olowookere Scheduled flight operations by First Nation Airways have been suspended by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). At the moment, the company is only permitted to carry out charter services. The reason for the development is because of a reduction in the fleet size of First Nation Airways, but normal operations would resume as soon as the airline operator meets the requirements for scheduled services. Speaking on Monday at the commencement of the United States Federal Aviation Administration’s audit of the NCAA in Lagos, the Director-General of the Nigerian aviation agency, Captain Muhtar Usman, stated that company

By Dipo Olowookere Euromoney, a leading global financial publication, has named Access Bank Plc as winner of its Best Commercial Banking Capabilities award. Euromoney, in its recently released results of the annual Private Banking and Wealth Management Survey, noted that Access Bank’s Commercial Banking Capabilities showed significant improvement within the past year. The award is given to honour firms that have proven to be leading providers of exceptional commercial banking services and have also shown outstanding contribution to the banking sector. Group Managing Director/CEO of Access Bank, Mr Herbert Wigwe, was presented the prestigious award at the Euromoney Private Banking

By Nneka Okumazie Why aren’t there an abundance of stories of conqueror kingdoms in Ancient Africa, say a major kingdom in East Africa, conquering territories up to Central and West Africa, or say a powerful kingdom in Southern Africa in alliance with one in West Africa, to fight back against the East African power? It is known that there were wars around kingdoms in Africa long before colonization, but what kinds of wars, and to what ambitious extent? Across the world, a small community may have favourable accidents at some era, causing them to have certain advantages, where others need

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has taken huge steps to increase broadband penetration in the country from its present 6 percent to 30 percent by the year 2020. Group Managing Director of the oil agency, Mr Maikanti Baru, while receiving Minister of Communications, Mr Adebayo Shittu, stated that the NNPC would “commercialise our Fibre-Optics Cable Network utilizing NNPC pipeline Right of Way that cuts across the entire country” to achieve this. “Some of the benefits of this initiative include the opportunity to provide backbone carriage to meet the National 2020 Plan for broadband penetration in the

By Dipo Olowookere The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has disclosed that Gabon has suffered a significant decline in income after the sharp drop in oil prices starting in 2014. But despite this, the global financial institution is holding discussions with the country’s authorities on a possible financial arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF). From February 14-28, 2017, an IMF team headed by Mr Alex Segura-Ubiergo visited Libreville towards this and posited that short-term economic prospects remain challenging due to the negative performance of the oil sector (a traditional source of growth in the economy) and the sharp decline in

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC), a London- based organization, of the main church pastored by Mr Matthew Ashimolowo, has refuted the allegation that he was involved Ponzi Scheme. KICC, in a statement issued by Dipo Oluyomi, Chief Executive Officer and James Mcglashan, Chief Operating Offficer, said: “We wish to state that the headline was unfortunate and misleading and has caused damage to the reputation of Pastor Ashimolowo. The sensational headline suggests that Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo lost $5 million when in fact he did not and did not make the decision to invest. “Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo is

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Governor of Lagos State, Mr Banajide Sanwo-Olu has said his administration may decide to fully reopen the economy in the next two or three weeks. However, he stressed that this would only be possible if the state government is satisfied with the level of compliance with the guidelines already put in place to contain the spread of coronavirus in the metropolis. A few weeks ago, the government eased the lockdown in the state and put in place some rules, including the use of face masks in public places and social distancing. Addressing the state on Sunday, Mr

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has been urged to urgently repair the Celestine Omehia Road in Port Harcourt, the state capital because it would make life meaningful to citizens plying the road. This appeal was made by a non-governmental and advocacy group known as Citizens Quest for Truth Initiative, which visited the place and had talks with some residents of the area. The group said the road, popularly known as SARS Road, is currently in a deplorable condition, affecting the economic activities of the area. In a statement, Citizens Quest said it decided to check the