2021 Budget: Lagos Plans $137m Foreign Loan, N100bn Bond Sale

By Adedapo Adesanya Equinor and Chappal Energies have entered into an agreement for the sale of Equinor Nigeria Energy Company (ENEC), which holds a 53.85 per cent ownership in oil and gas lease OML 128, including the unitized 20.21 per cent stake in the Agbami oil field, operated by Chevron. Speaking on the deal, Equinor’s senior vice president for Africa Operations, Ms Nina Koch, said Nigeria has been an important part of Equinor’s international portfolio over the past 30 years, noting that, “This transaction realizes value and is in line with Equinor’s strategy to optimize its international oil and gas

By Adedapo Adesanya The Naira started the first trading session in the last month of 2023 on a negative note after it depreciated against the Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), which is the official FX window, by 11.4 per cent or N94.87 on Friday, December 1, closing at N927.19/$1, in contrast to Thursday’s exchange rate of N832.32/$1. The December rush for forex contributed to the weakening of the domestic currency in the spot market yesterday, as the supply of foreign currency could not meet what customers needed. Data showed that the value of FX transactions recorded

By Adedapo Adesanya  Oil prices rose by more than $1 a barrel on Wednesday as investors focused their attention on an upcoming OPEC+ output policy meeting and looked past a jump in crude stockpiles in the United States. Brent crude futures were up by $1.01 or 1.2 per cent to $82.69 per barrel, and the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained $1.16 or 1.5 per cent to close at $77.57 a barrel. Prices were lifted by a media report that the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies such as Russia, known collectively as OPEC+, was considering

By Adedapo Adesanya The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) on Thursday asked Nigeria to produce about 1.5 million barrels of crude oil per day in 2024, lower than the 1.78 million barrels per day benchmark it proposed in the 2024 Appropriation Bill presented to the National Assembly on Wednesday for passage. The output ceiling was around 1.8 million barrels per day before it was cut down to 1.5 million barrels yesterday at the group’s virtual meeting, a huge blow to Nigeria’s revenue target for the fiscal year. OPEC had tasked three consultancies – IHS, Rystad

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The African Development Bank Group will help the Union of Comoros Government to diversify its economy with a $20.4-million road network rehabilitation project grant approved by the Board of Directors on Monday, January 23, 2017. The project will be implemented in four years to 2020 in the islands of Grande Comore and Anjouan, which account for 94% of the country’s total population of almost 756,000 inhabitants. The project will focus on improving the quality of key roads infrastructure on the National Road-2 and Road-23 to boost trade and spur economic growth. The road network rehabilitation will improve

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) stopped its three-day losing streak at the end of trading on Thursday. This brought a relief to many stock market investors. The stock market recorded a gain of N41.322 billion on Thursday against N26.5 billion it lost on Wednesday this was also the case with the all-share index, which jumped by 0.44 percent today to close at 27,598.34 points, showing a gain of 120.3 points. Business Post correspondent reports that the market capitalisation, which ended yesterday at N 9.438 trillion, finished today at N9.479 trillion. A total of 16 stocks appreciated at

By Adedapo Adesanya The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was on the triumphant side of the verdict delivered by the United States Southern District Court of New York in a judgement between the corporation and ESSO Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited and Shell Nigerian Exploration and Production Company Limited (collectively ESSO). This was disclosed in a statement issued by Mr Ndu Ughamadu, the spokesman for the corporation on Sunday in Abuja. It will be recalled that a court hearing was held on February 1, in the protracted litigation arising from the dispute between NNPC and ESSO regarding the implementation of

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Lagos-based rating agency, Global Credit Ratings (GCR), has assigned an indicative public rating of ‘BBB+(NG)’ to both Union Bank of Nigeria Plc’s proposed N7.2 billion Series 1 Fixed Rate Bonds and N6.3 billion Series 2 Fixed Rate Bonds, with the outlook accorded as stable. A statement issued by GCR disclosed that it would accord its final ratings on the papers upon receipt of satisfactorily signed and executed final transaction documents. Union Bank, a commercial bank in Nigeria offering a portfolio of banking services to individual, SMEs, commercial and corporate clients, has filed an application with Securities and

By Ahmed Rahma The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, has presented a total of N253.4 million grants to successful beneficiaries of the Health Sector Research and Development Intervention Scheme on Tuesday, March 9, 2021. During the presentation of the grants at the bank’s headquarters in Abuja, Mr Emefiele said a vibrant and innovative healthcare system is vital for the country’s national security, hence the need to encourage research and innovation in the treatment of health conditions for Nigerian citizens. According to him, 68 proposals out of the 286 submissions received by the Body of

By Dipo Olowookere Part of the investment banking and asset management group (IBAM) of FBN Holdings Plc, FBNQuest Merchant Bank, held its 4th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lagos on April 24, 2019. During the meeting, the board presented the company’s 2018 year end results to shareholders and the analysis showed that despite the challenging operating environment in the year, the firm performed fair. Though the company achieved strong growth in other income which was driven by net gains from fees, commission and sundry income, a shortfall was recorded in the year under review when compared with the previous year’s

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The first phase of mass meters deployment currently being executed by Kaduna Electric will take six weeks to be completed, the company has assured. Speaking at the inspection of the meters installation exercise in Doka area of Kaduna, Head of Energy Metering and New connection of Kaduna Electric, Engineer Aliyu Abbas Abdullahi, revealed that “the meters’ deployment programme was going on simultaneously in Kaduna, Kebbi and Sokoto States.” He said at the occasion over the weekend that “the exercise will [also] be launched in Zamfara State before the end of the year.” Mr Abdullahi urged customers to

By Adedapo Adesanya Macroeconomic and fiscal reforms are urgently needed to lift Nigeria’s development outcomes, which are severely constrained by the inefficient use of resources, the World Bank said in its new Nigeria Public Finance Review report released on Monday. For years, a large share of Nigeria’s resources has been affected by inefficient and regressive subsidies for petrol, electricity, and foreign exchange. Not all these subsidies are accounted for in the budget, which makes them difficult to track and scrutinise. However, available data suggest that these subsidies, which accounted for more than the amount spent on education, health, and social