AIICO Insurance Considers 40% Dividend Payout

By Adedapo Adesanya The cryptocurrency market witnessed an uptick on Wednesday, with Bitcoin (BTC) managing to stay above the $26,000 level even as the US Dollar index rose to a new year-to-date high. Data obtained by Business Post showed that the most valued crypto, BTC, posted a 0.7 per cent appreciation during the midweek session to trade at $26,408.37 in the last 24 hours. On the part of the second-most valued digital coin, Ethereum (ETH), it remained in the $1,600 mark and it improved its value yesterday by 1.6 per cent to sell at $1,610.94. At the trading session, the US

By Dipo Olowookere No fewer than 15 Nigerian Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs) will share the N75 million set aside by a tech giant, Google, in the 2023 edition of Hustle Academy Fund. The initiative was introduced in 2022 to provide equity-free funds to small business owners to scale up their operations and support entrepreneurial growth in Nigeria. Entries for the exercise opened on Thursday, September 28 and will close on Thursday, October 12, 2023, and to be eligible, businesses must be Nigerian-founded, operating within Nigeria for 1-5 years, and have a clear and scalable business plan. They should have

By Adedapo Adesanya The Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, has cleared the air regarding recent reports on the transfer of funds to the Joint Tax Board (JTB) by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) under the erstwhile chairman, Mr Muhammad Nami, for the tax reform committee. In a statement on Friday, he revealed that N5 billion was paid to the board to fund activities of the team set up by President Bola Tinubu, noting that “The committee’s budget includes provisions for a national Data for Tax project which the JTB had been

By Adedapo Adesanya The prices of Brent futures and the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures went down by about 1 per cent on Friday, due to macroeconomic concerns and sustained profit-taking. Data showed that Brent fell by 7 cents to $95.31 per barrel and WTI depreciated by 92 cents to $90.97. Prices rose about 30 per cent in the third quarter of the year helped by the production cuts by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+). This action squeezed global crude supply. Brent was about 2.2 per cent in the week and 27 per cent

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Last Friday, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sold about N51 billion Treasury bills in a bid to mop up liquidity as the overnight lending rate traded flat at 10 per cent. It was gathered that the country’s apex bank sold N25 billion of 174-day open market operation bills at 18 per cent and N26 billion of the 364-day paper at 18.5 per cent at an auction last week Friday. That brought the total of debt sales to N370.67 billion last week as the CBN had been trying to remove cash from the banking system to contain

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Friday, April 2 and Monday, April 5, 2021, have been declared as public holidays by the federal government to mark the Easter celebration. A statement issued on Tuesday by the Director of Press and Public Relations in the Ministry of Interior, Mr Mohammed Manga, disclosed that Christians have been urged to use the occasion to emulate the attributes of forbearance, forgiveness, kindness, humility, love, peace and patience demonstrated by Jesus Christ. The statement quoted the Minister of Interior, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, as saying that the Easter celebration should be used by Nigerians to pray for the peace,

By Dipo Olowookere Lafiaji Football Club has emerged the overall winner of the 2018 Oba’s Cup, which came to an end on Monday, October 22, 2018. The Oba’s Cup is a football competition inaugurated by Dr Kennedy Okonkwo, to celebrate the 25th coronation anniversary of Oba Tijani Adetunji Akinloye, the Sateru ӏӏ, Ojomu of Ajiranland. The competition kicked off on September 22, 2018 and had several football clubs in the area participating. The monarch, who congratulated all winners and participating teams in the competition, thanked the organiser for using the platform to foster the spirit of sportsmanship among the youths

By Adedapo Adesanya An Appeal Court in Milan, Italy, has dropped criminal proceedings in a Nigeria corruption case to the tune of $1.3 billion, finalising the acquittal of multi-national oil companies, Eni and Shell. Reuters reported on Thursday that the court acknowledged the dropping of the proceedings on Tuesday, adding that it also acquit managers of the oil majors including Eni’s chief executive officer, Mr Claudio Descalzi. According to the news agency, General prosecutor Celestina Gravina, in an unprecedented move in a Milan court, had filed a waiver request at the start of the appeal trial earlier on Tuesday, saying

By Sodeinde Temidayo David The average price paid by consumers for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as petrol experienced a calm last month as it decreased by 0.6 per cent to N164.91 per litre from N165.91 in July 2021. However, on a year-on-year basis, the average price increased by 10.9 per cent as the value stood at N148.78 in August 2020. Business Post gathered from the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its Premium Motor Spirit (Petrol) Price Watch for August 2021 that Abia, Ebonyi and Lagos States recorded the highest average price. It was

By Investors Hub Asian stocks ended mostly higher on Thursday as upbeat U.S. earnings news helped offset investor concerns surrounding Brexit and the U.S.-China trade war. While luxury electric car maker Tesla reported a surprise third-quarter profit, software giant Microsoft’s quarterly earnings were boosted by cloud and Office revenues. Chinese stocks closed on a flat note as caution crept in ahead of a crucial meeting of the ruling Communist Party next week. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index finished marginally lower at 2,940.92, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.9 percent to close at 26,797.95. Japanese shares hit over a

By Dipo Olowookere The total value of shares on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as captured by the market capitalisation depreciated on Monday by N55 billion. The loss, about 0.44 per cent, was influenced by profit-taking activities of investors, who quickly rebalanced their portfolios after the gains recorded in the past sessions. This led to the reduction of the market capitalisation yesterday to N12.625 trillion from N12.680 trillion it closed last Friday when the bourse appreciated by 0.12 per cent. Business Post reports that the losses came from 17 stocks led by Mobil Oil as the share

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Two financial institutions in Nigeria have been assigned ‘4 Star’ ratings by Agusto & Co Limited, the leading Pan African credit rating agency in the country for over 26 years. The ratings were given after the conclusion of the 2019 Consumer Digital Banking Satisfaction Index report of the agency, which highlights customer’s preferences and attitude towards digital banking platforms provided by banks in Nigeria. This Index in its second year was carried out following an extensive online and offline consumer survey carried out by Agusto and Co. Limited across various geopolitical zones in Nigeria. The survey was