Economy
Africa Still Attractive To Investors—PenCom Boss
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Nigeria’s National Pension Committee (PenCom) boss, Mrs Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, has disclosed that despite how people downgrade Africa, the continent was still very attractive to foreign investors.
Mrs Anohu-Amazu said, “There is a lot of talk around retrenching from Africa but I’m not seeing this at all,” pointing out that, “Look at what the International Finance Corporation (IFC) are doing in the region for instance. If you look at the amount of money they are putting into Africa, I wouldn’t say this meant that investment was scaling back at all.”
Her remarks come at a time when private equity, the long-term investment vehicle often heralded as complimenting Africa’s long-term development needs, in the continent appears to be losing its shine.
Most recently, the IFC has leant $25m to support the expansion of Nigerian dairy company, Promasidor, invested $200m in Guinea’s bauxite mining sector and arranged a financing package to expand Ghana’s seaport to boost trade.
Although the IFC as part of its mandate often invests in sectors and countries that are not as popular for mainstream investors, for Mrs Anohu-Amazu, this highlights an interesting point: “Institutions such as the IFC are coming into Africa because there are still obvious returns to be made – impact investing can still be profitable.”
In September, Marlon Chigwende announced his departure from Carlyle, and in August, Peter Baird was removed as Africa head from Standard Chartered private equity team. Meanwhile, it is rumoured that John van Wyk may be leaving his post as head of Africa at Actis.
According to the African Economic Outlook Report 2016, published by the AfDB, the OECD and the UNDP, portfolio flows into Africa have fallen from $23bn in 2014 to $13bn in 2015. In the second half of 2015, there was a net portfolio exit of equity while bond flows remained relatively stable. Remittances are still the most important source of external finance accounting for $64bn in 2015.
“Portfolio flows in and out of Africa can be more reactionary,” says Mrs Anohu-Amazu. “Many of these investors will be waiting to see how policy changes react to recent economic headwinds affecting the region.”
The recent fall in commodity prices, inflation and stringent foreign exchange policies that commodity producers have introduced in response to fiscal and economic pressure has been a turn off for some investors.
Nigeria, one of Africa’s major oil producers, has seen foreign direct investment fall 27% from $4.7bn in 2014 to $3.4bn in 2015.
“Foreign exchange receivables from oil in Nigeria have fallen which in itself reduces portfolio flows into the country, but the downturn in the global oil price marks a period of readjustment for commodity and oil exporters, and we hope that in Nigeria, this will mean that government policy will reinvigorate investment into agriculture and technology for instance,” says Mrs Anohu-Amazu.
“I don’t think there is a scaling back in terms of investment into Africa, more a realignment. Investment into the continent is changing,” she adds.
She further said in June 2016, total assets under management for PenCom reached N5.73 trillion up from N2 trillion in 2010 with an average annual growth of 20 percent.
Around 11.43 percent of Nigeria’s total labour force and 3.95 percent of the population contribute to a pension, but new initiatives coming in to increase this.
“Our micro pension initiative aims to attract contributions from the 20m Nigerians who work in the informal sector. The rules for these types of contributors will be more flexible, however, to fit in with the way in which they work,” says Mrs Anohu-Amazu.
“Education around pensions will also be a key part of the initiative,” she added.
By Adedapo Adesanya
NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange remained in the negative territory after it further depreciated by 0.64 per cent on Friday, July 24, despite recording four price gainers.
The NASD Security Index (NSI) dropped 27.4 points at the close of business to settle at 4,294.75 points versus the previous day’s 4,383.48 points, while the market capitalisation gave up N16.49 billion to end at N2.577 trillion, in contrast to the N2.594 trillion it ended a day earlier.
The bourse was down during the session amid heavy sell-offs, with the volume of transactions skyrocketing by 693.9 per cent to 2.99 million units from Thursday’s 377,635 units.
Equally, the value of trades went up by 71.6 per cent to N69.4 million from N40.4 million, and the number of deals increased by 41.0 per cent to 55 deals from the preceding day’s 39 deals.
Great Nigeria Insurance (GNI) Plc remained the most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units worth N8.4 billion, trailed by Infrastructure Credit Guarantee (Infracredit) Plc with 2.3 billion units sold for N6.5 billion, and Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc with 75.6 million units traded for N5.4 billion.
GNI Plc was also the most active stock by volume on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units exchanged for N8.4 billion, trailed by Infracredit Plc with 2.3 billion units transacted for N6.5 billion, and Resourcery Plc with 1.1 billion units valued at N415.7 million.
The market ended the session with four price gainers and two price losers, led by FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc, which lost N7.44 to trade at N136.19 per share compared with the previous day’s N143.63 per share, and CSCS Plc, which declined by N1.64 to N93.63 per unit from N95.27 per unit.
But MRS Oil gained N13.50 to sell at N148.50 per share versus N135.00 per share, Afriland Properties Plc advanced by 56 Kobo to N17.41 per unit from N16.85 per unit, UBN Property Plc surged by 18 Kobo to N1.93 per share from N1.75 per share, and Food Concepts Plc climbed by 1 Kobo to N2.50 per unit from N2.49 per unit.
By Dipo Olowookere
Nigeria’s stock exchange succumbed to profit-taking on Friday, losing 0.19 per cent when the closing gong was hit at 4 pm.
Shares in the banking and energy sectors influenced the decline suffered by the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited during the session, as they respectively closed lower by 0.40 per cent and 0.04 per cent.
The industrial goods index was flat yesterday, while the insurance counter gained 0.68 per cent and the consumer goods space chalked up 0.25 per cent. The gains by these two segments could not keep Customs Street in the green territory at the close of business.
As a result, the All-Share Index (ASI) retreated by 474.00 points to 247,357.40 points from 247,831.40 points, and the market capitalisation decreased by N306 billion to N159.588 trillion from N159.894 trillion.
Presco dropped 10.00 per cent during the trading day to close at N2,070.00, Thomas Wyatt crumbled by 9.93 per cent to N3.63, Trans-Nationwide Express plunged by 8.44 per cent to N2.82, Royal Exchange slipped by 7.86 per cent to N1.29, and LivingTrust Mortgage Bank shrank by 7.32 per cent to N3.80.
On the flip side, C&I Leasing improved by 9.48 per cent to N6.35, Cornerstone Insurance rose by 9.09 per cent to N6.00, RT Briscoe jumped by 8.61 per cent to N13.25, Honeywell Flour expanded by 7.38 per cent to N17.45, and Africa Prudential increased by 6.98 per cent to N13.80.
Despite the poor performance, the local bourse recorded a positive market breadth index after finishing with 35 price gainers and 25 price losers, representing strong investor sentiment.
It was a relatively quiet market on Friday, as the activity level dropped, with the trading volume down by 27.72 per cent to 565.5 million units from 782.4 million units, and the trading value contracted by 46.89 per cent to N29.9 billion from N56.3 billion, while the number of deals executed by investors soared by 16.03 per cent to 53,688 deals from 46,273 deals.
Access Holdings was the busiest stock for the session, with a turnover of 128.0 million units sold for N3.8 billion, First Holdco transacted 35.4 million units worth N4.3 billion, Chams exchanged 34.8 million units valued at N154.3 million, Zenith Bank traded 30.4 million units for N3.9 billion, and UBA sold 30.4 million units worth N1.5 billion.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira marked a whole week of appreciation against the United States Dollar on Friday, July 24, further gaining N5.67 or 0.41 per cent to close at N1,362.09/$1 in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) compared with N1,367.76/$1 it ended on Thursday.
Equally, the local currency appreciated against the Pound Sterling in the official FX market yesterday by N10.83 to trade at N1,813.62/£1 versus the preceding day’s N1,824.45/£1, and improved against the Euro by N7.68 to settle at N1,549.10/€1, in contrast to the N1,556.78/€1 it was exchanged a day earlier.
However, at the parallel market and GTBank forex counter, the Nigerian currency remained unchanged against the greenback during the session at N1,400/$1 and N1,379/$1, respectively.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) buffer has been strengthened with sustained foreign portfolio inflows and robust foreign reserves, which stand above $52 billion.
The apex bank’s policy signals that the Naira will be stronger in the near term, with Nigeria clearing hurdles with FX reforms and settlement of all backlogs.
However, some traders expect that pressure may come due to foreign-currency buying from fuel importers as they make Dollar purchases to build inventories.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin (BTC), in the digital currency landscape, trimmed recent gains as it fell by 2.3 per cent to $63,787.73.
The weak action in the AI momentum trade is feeding through to crypto as well.
Further, Cardano (ADA) dropped 3.7 per cent to close at $0.1615, Solana (SOL) dipped by 2.8 per cent to $73.71, Ripple (XRP) crashed by 2.3 per cent to $1.08, Ethereum (ETH) slid by 1.9 per cent to $1,851.58, Dogecoin (DOGE) retreated by 0.8 per cent to $0.0694, Binance Coin (BNB) contracted by 0.7 per cent to $564.18, and TRON (TRX) lost 0.5 per cent to trade at $0.3292, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00 each.
