Economy
50kg Bag of Rice to Cost N6,000 in Few Months—Farmers
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
National President of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), Mallam Aminu Goronyo, has disclosed that within the next few months, the price of 50kg of rice would crash to about N6,000.
However, he said if the Federal Government can put in place the necessary farm inputs to reduce the cost of production, price of the commodity will continue to drop.
At the moment, the price of 50kg of rice goes for N16,000 at the market, while the Lagos State government sells its LAKE rice for about N12,000.
Addressing newsmen on Wednesday after a meeting of his association with the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr Audu Ogbeh, as well as members of Rice Processors Association of Nigeria (RIPAN), Mr Goronyo noted that rice farmers only need government’s support to make the staple easily affordable for Nigerians.
“This is just the beginning, the actual and real price should even come down because we are expecting a bumper harvest this year and we have sat down with the millers and agreed that we are going to work together for the interest of Nigerians.
“We are expecting that the price of 50kg rice to drop to N6,000 per bag, just give us the next few months, you have heard what the Minister said, our major challenge is cost of production, the minister has promised to bring down the cost of production to the nearest minimum,” he told journalists.
On his part, National President of Rice Processors Association of Nigeria (RIPAN), Mr Mohammed Abubakar, explained that the meeting with the Minister was basically to inform him of the decision by the rice farmers and Processors to reduce the price of rice to N13,500 per 50kg bag.
“We came here to inform the Minister of our agreement with the farms on the price of paddy, to let the Minister know that we have agreed on a price per ton of paddy for this year 2017 and 2018 wet season harvest for N110,000 per ton, as against the N150,000 we buy initially, and we were selling the rice for N16,000 per 50 kg bag, so if this works, we will sell the bag of rice for N13,500 according to where you are buying from.
The Minister, while addressing newsmen, said government will continue to procure farm machines to assist the rice farmers to ease the stress of rice production, and consequently further crash the prices of rice in the market.
He noted that if the price of rice is crashed to N13,500, the smugglers’ margin will become too small.
Mr Ogbeh described smugglers as the biggest enemy of the Nigerian economy.
“The biggest enemy of the Nigerian rice farmers and processors are the smugglers, if the price of rice falls to N13,500, smugglers margin becomes too small and we hope that the measures we are going to take can end the smuggling of rice and many other things.
“We will help you ease the burden of rice farming, last year, we procured 8,000 threshers, this year we are going to procure another 2,500 threshers, and we are bringing small reapers to distribute to your farmers, so they can cut the rice with the machine thresh it with the machine, willow it and put it in the sack, and take away all that stress which makes rice farming very difficult.
“I assure you government will continue to procure and support rice farmers so that you can keep to the price you have agreed of a N110,000,” he said.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The domestic supply of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, from the Dangote Refinery increased by 64.4 percent in December 2025, contributing to an enhancement in Nigeria’s overall petrol availability.
This is according to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) in its December 2025 Factsheet Report released on Thursday.
The downstream regulatory agency revealed that the private refinery raised its domestic petrol supply from 19.47 million litres per day in November 2025 to an average of 32.012 million litres per day in December, as it quelled any probable fuel scarcity associated with the festive month.
The report attributed the improvement to more substantial capacity utilisation at the Lagos-based oil facility, which reached a peak of 71 per cent in December.
The increased output from Dangote Refinery contributed to a rise in Nigeria’s total daily domestic PMS supply to 74.2 million litres in December, up from 71.5 million litres per day recorded in November.
The authority also reported a sharp increase in petrol consumption, rising to 63.7 million litres per day in December 2025, up from 52.9 million litres per day in the previous month.
In contrast, the domestic supply of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) known as diesel declined to 17.9 million litres per day in December from 20.4 million litres per day in November, even as daily diesel consumption increased to 16.4 million litres per day from 15.4 million litres per day.
Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) supply recorded modest growth during the period, rising to 5.2 metric tonnes per day in December from 5.0 metric tonnes per day in November.
Despite the gains recorded by Dangote Refinery and modular refineries, the NMDPRA disclosed that Nigeria’s four state-owned refineries recorded zero production in December.
It said the Port Harcourt Refinery remained shut down, though evacuation of diesel produced before May 24, 2025, averaged 0.247 million litres per day. The Warri and Kaduna refineries also remained shut down throughout the period.
On modular refineries, the report said Waltersmith Refinery (Train 2 with 5,000 barrels per day) completed pre-commissioning in December, with hydrocarbon introduction expected in January 2026. The refinery recorded an average capacity utilisation of 63.24 per cent and an average AGO supply of 0.051 million litres per day
Edo Refinery posted an average capacity utilisation of 85.43 per cent with AGO supply of 0.052 million litres per day, while Aradel recorded 53.89 per cent utilisation and supplied an average of 0.289 million litres per day of AGO.
Total AGO supply from the three modular refineries averaged 0.392 million litres per day, with other products including naphtha, heavy hydrocarbon kerosene (HHK), fuel oil, and marine diesel oil (MDO).
The report listed Nigeria’s 2025 daily consumption benchmarks as 50 million litres per day for petrol, 14 million litres per day for diesel, 3 million litres per day for aviation fuel (ATK), and 3,900 metric tonnes per day for cooking gas.
Actual daily truck-out consumption in December stood at 63.7 million litres per day for petrol, 16.4 million litres per day for diesel, 2.7 million litres per day for ATK and 4,380 metric tonnes per day for cooking gas.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has introduced a comprehensive revision of minimum capital requirements for nearly all capital market operators, marking the most significant overhaul since 2015.
The changes, outlined in a circular issued on January 16, 2026, obtained from its website on Friday, replace the previous regime. Operators have been given until June 30, 2027, to comply.
The SEC stated that the reforms aim to strengthen market resilience, enhance investor protection, discourage undercapitalised operators, and align capital adequacy with the evolving risk profile of market activities.
According to the circular, “The revised framework applies to brokers, dealers, fund managers, issuing houses, fintech firms, digital asset operators, and market infrastructure providers.”
Some of the key highlights of the new reforms include increment of minimum capital for brokers from N200 million to N600 million while for dealers, it was raised to N1 billion from N100 million.
For broker-dealers, they are to get N2 billion instead of the previous N300 million, reflecting multi-role exposure across trading, execution, and margin lending.
The agency said fund and portfolio managers with assets above N20 billion must hold N5 billion, while mid-tier managers must maintain N2 billion with private equity and venture capital firms to have N500 million and N200 million, respectively.
There was also dynamic rule as firms managing assets above N100 billion must hold at least 10 per cent of assets under management as capital.
“Digital asset firms, previously in a regulatory grey area, are now fully covered: digital exchanges and custodians must maintain N2 billion each, while tokenisation platforms and intermediaries face thresholds of N500 million to N1 billion. Robo-advisers must hold N100 million.
“Other segments are also affected: issuing houses offering full underwriting services must hold N7 billion, advisory-only firms N2 billion, registrars N2.5 billion, trustees N2 billion, underwriters N5 billion, and individual investment advisers N10 million. Market infrastructure providers carry some of the highest obligations, with composite exchanges and central counterparties required to maintain N10 billion each, and clearinghouses N5 billion,” the SEC added.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The founder and chief executive of Austin Laz and Company Plc, Mr Asimonye Austin Lazarus Azubuike, has sold off about 52.24 million shares of the organisation.
The stocks were offloaded in 11 tranches at an average price of N4.36 per unit, amounting to about N227.8 million.
The transactions occurred between December 2025 and January 2026, according to a notice filed by the company to the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Friday.
Business Post reports that Austin Laz is known for producing ice block machines, aluminium roofing, thermoplastics coolers, PVC windows and doors, ice cream machines, and disposable plates.
The firm evolved from refrigeration sales to diverse manufacturing since its incorporation in 1982 in Benin City, Edo State, though facing recent operational halts.
According to the statement signed by company secretary, Ifeanyi Offor & Associates, Mr Azubuike first sold 1.5 million units of the equities at N2.42, and then offloaded 2.4 million units at N2.65, and 2.0 million units at N2.65.
In another tranche, he sold another 2.0 million units at a unit price of N2.91, and then 5.0 million units at N3.52, as well as about 4.5 million at N3.87 per share.
It was further disclosed that the owner of the company also sold 9.0 million shares at N4.25, and offloaded another 368,411 units at N4.66, then in another transaction sold about 6.9 million units at N4.67.
In the last two transactions he carried out, Mr Azubuike first traded 10.0 million units equities at N5.13, with the last being 8.5 million stocks sold at N5.64 per unit.
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