Access Bank, GTBank Stocks Attract Investors as Market Rises 1.09%

By Adedapo Adesanya  Appreciation in the stock prices of Newrest Airline Services & Logistics (ASL) Plc, Food Concepts Plc, and UBN Property Plc saw the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange extend its gain by 0.47 per cent on Tuesday, December 5. Data showed that Newrest increased its price by N1.61 during the session to settle at N17.71 per unit compared with the previous day’s price of N16.10 per unit, Food Concepts Plc (owners of Chicken Republic) gained 15 Kobo to close the day at N1.65 per share versus N1.50 per share, and UBN Property Plc rose by 13 Kobo to

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 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 Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited will alter how its crude cargoes are priced from January 2024. According to a new circular, the state oil company will start pricing its supplies against the monthly average of Dated Brent, the physical crude benchmark, raising worries that the nation’s barrels may become more risky. Prior to this latest move, Nigeria prices its crude cargoes based on Dated Brent’s average settlement in the five days after loading. NNPC plans to stick with the initial nominated loading dates for pricing purposes, according to the circular. Bloomberg reported that traders said

By Investors Hub Asian stocks closed mostly lower on Tuesday as oil prices extended declines for a second straight session, worries over the U.S.-China trade war persisted and investors looked ahead to Congressional testimony from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell for clues on the interest rate outlook. Chinese stocks fell for a third straight session, with energy firms pacing the declines. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped 15.42 points or 0.6 percent to 2,798.61. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index tumbled 357.98 points or 1.3 percent to close at 28,181.68. Australian shares fell as weak commodity prices weighed on resource stocks. The

By Adedapo Adesanya Apple announced its four-model iPhone 12 line up on Tuesday, October 13, bringing back the iPhone’s design since 2017’s iPhone X, which introduced face unlocking and better screen technology. The newly designed iPhone 12 models feature expansive edge-to-edge Super Retina XDR displays for a brighter, more immersive viewing experience, and a new Ceramic Shield front cover, providing the biggest jump in durability ever on iPhone. In addition to more models, the phone came with 5G wireless support. 5G on iPhone boasts improved speeds for faster downloads and uploads, higher quality video streaming, more responsive gaming, real-time interactivity

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The Managing Director of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mr Rabiu Yadudu, has been sacked by the federal government. He has been replaced with Mr Kabir Mohammed, who is expected to resume office in the coming days, according to reports. It was gathered that Mr Yadudu was asked to leave office last Friday alongside five other directors of FAAN. The reason for their removal could not be immediately confirmed by Business Post. The sacked FAAN chief was appointed in 2019 by President Muhammadu Buhari. The new chief executive of the agency was, before his latest

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Nigeria’s labour market had been plagued with precarity and informality. With over 30 million youths (people aged between 15 and 29 years of age) projected to enter the labour market in 2021 (which accounts for over 53% of that age group), the COVID crisis couldn’t have hit at a worse time. The impact of COVID-19 felt on the labour market is not without precedent for Nigeria’s young workers. At the onset of the oil recession in 2016, young people entering the labour market in Nigeria faced similar hardships. In consequence, a significant number of young

By Adedapo Adesanya The promise by President Bola Tinubu that Nigeria was expecting inflows of $10 billion in the coming weeks to ease tensions in the foreign exchange (FX) market could not save the Naira from further decline in the parallel market on Monday. The local currency lost N77 against the United States Dollar in the black market yesterday to sell at N1,230/$1 compared with last Friday’s exchange rate of N1,153/$1. At intraday, the Nigerian currency was exchanging against the Dollar on the streets at N1,220/$1 but things later got worse after the news of the expected $10 billion inflows.

By Modupe Gbadeyanka A graduate of microbiology from Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu, has won the Season 4 of the Next Titan, Nigeria’s entrepreneurial reality TV show sponsored by Heritage Bank Plc. The winner, Mr Iyeh Kennedy, is a 22-year-old fledgling entrepreneur, who is the Managing Director of Blue Leaf Herbs and Spices, which is into 100 percent organic cultivation, production and packaging of spices with the objective of reducing importation of spices from outside the country. He beat three other contestants at the grand finale of the season 4 of the Next Titan held in Lagos recently to win the

By Adedapo Adesanya The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has blamed the slow economic growth in Nigeria on the infrastructural deficit, noting that it was making efforts to address this issue. The Governor of the CBN, Mr Godwin Emefiele, while speaking at the Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria’s (FICAN) 30th-anniversary conference and awards, said part of the ways of tackling the issue was the release of N424.14 billion to improve the power and gas infrastructure in the country while reducing the nation’s estimated $100 billion annual infrastructure deficit. At the event themed Financing Infrastructure & SMEs for inclusive growth in

The organic and acquisitive growth plans of Equity Invest in the medium-term has received a receive boost with the provision of €8.0 million of mezzanine funding to the company by Africa’s largest mezzanine fund manager, Vantage Capital. The funding package has enabled founder of Vantage, Mr Ali Bettahi, to secure a controlling equity stake in one of Equity Invest’s flagship subsidiaries by facilitating the buy-back of equity from an existing private equity investor, PME Croissance, managed by AfricInvest. Equity Invest, which is the holding company for six Moroccan technology companies, plans to reinforce its position in the Moroccan market by