Airtel Eyes NSE Listing

By Aduragbemi Omiyale President Bola Tinubu has said the 2024 budget presented to the joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday was designed to achieve macroeconomic stability, a better investment environment, greater access to social security, poverty reduction and enhanced human capital development. According to him, if these goals are achieved, the standard of living of Nigerians will improve and the citizens will enjoy the dividends of democracy. While presenting the 2024 Appropriation Bills to the parliament yesterday, the President said this was why he christened the budget proposal as the Budget of Renewed Hope. Mr Tinubu told the

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr Zacch Adedeji, has asked his counterpart in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ola Olukoyede, to support his agency to achieve the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu, who appointed both of them. Speaking during a courtesy visit to the headquarters of the anti-money laundering firm, Mr Adedeji said the EFCC has a role in ensuring that taxpayers’ funds are “judiciously utilised in line with the social contract with the people.” He assured that the FIRS would continue to strive to raise the revenue

By Dipo Olowookere Local equities rebounded by 0.34 per cent on Wednesday on the back of buying pressure on a few energy stocks and others at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited. According to data from the bourse, the bullish stance was attained despite profit-taking activities in the banking space amid plans by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to recapitalise the industry, leaving the market breadth index negative. This was because the number of price losers was more than the price gainers at 39 and 19 apiece, indicating a weak investor sentiment. Business Post reports that the energy counter grew

By Dipo Olowookere The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited retreated by 0.44 per cent on Tuesday due to selling pressure on some bellwether equities during the session. Shares of Dangote Cement, GTCO, Zenith Bank, Access Holdings, Oando, Lafarge Africa and others experienced a pullback yesterday as a result of profit-taking activities by traders. As a result, the All-Share Index (ASI) receded by 312.76 points to 71,041.05 points from 71,353.81 points and the market capitalisation moderated by N165 billion to N38.875 trillion from N39.040 trillion. The level of activity at the market waned on the second trading session of the week, as

By Adedapo Adesanya The federal government is planning to create five million jobs in the power sector for youths, according to the Minister of Power, Mr Sale Mamman. The massive job employment is said to be encapsulated from the five million Solar Home System (SHS) project, the Mass Metering Scheme, among others. This was disclosed by the Minister of Power during a stakeholder meeting in Jalingo, the Taraba state capital on Monday. Mr Mamman, while addressing the youths on the need to foster peace and harmony, stated that in line with their demands, the federal government is set to create

By Adedapo Adesanya The World Bank Group has discontinued the publishing of its Ease of Doing Business report after 18 years. The report measures regulations directly affecting the ease of doing business in 190 countries. The Bretton Wood institution said it reached the decision to discontinue the report after “internal reports raised ethical matters, including the conduct of former board officials as well as current and/or former bank staff.” It was reported that an independent investigation document found that Ms Kristalina Georgieva, who served as the bank’s chief executive officer from 2017 to 2019 and is now the managing director

By Dipo Olowookere The Lagos State government has announced the cancellation of resit examination of Secondary School Placement Test in the state, according to the Permanent Secretary of the State’s Ministry of Education, Mr Adesina Odeyemi. Mr Odeyemi, who disclosed this at the end of a recent meeting of stakeholders in the sector, said the cancellation was necessitated by the fact that most candidates scheduled for the re-write of the examination failed to show up after the government has invested heavily in human and material resources to re-conduct the exercise. He urged parents to groom their children properly for the

By Dipo Olowookere In order to make writing will easier and better, the management of Leadway Capital and Trusts Limited has unveiled a website to make this a reality. The company’s Head, Private Trusts, Ms Morenike Akinwande-Tomori, while speaking at the launch of the new initiative, stated that the platform makes it simpler to wrote a will against the traditional and more expensive way of going to a lawyer to have a will written. “It is easier, faster and you can do it at the convenience of your home or office, from your phone or laptops. You don’t have to

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The distribution channel of Nigeria’s Publiseer has been expanded with the addition of Romania’s very first subscription mobile reading app for ebooks and audiobooks, Voxa. Voxa joined Publiseer’s list of distribution partner stores, giving room for subscribers to have a wide range of books to access and through the new partnership, the Nigerian firm hopes to provide Voxa titles from independent writers from the African continent. The ebook market in Romania serves over two million readers, which is valued at over $63 million, with a 7 per cent annual growth rate. “We are all so excited at

By Dipo Olowookere The appeal brought before the Supreme Court by former Vice President of Nigeria, Mr Atiku Abubakar, has been dismissed by the apex court of the land. Mr Atiku’s appeal was thrown out on Wednesday, putting an end to the dispute resulting from the February 2019 presidential election. He contested against candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Muhammadu Buhari. The former number two citizen of this country partook in the poll under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but lost to his opponent. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Mr Buhari as winner

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Foremost diversified project development company, Mass Telecom Innovation (MTI) Plc, has now been admitted on the trading platform of NASD OTC Market. In its weekly newsletter, NASD explained that the firm, with the trading code of SDMASSTCOM, was admitted on its platform by way of Security Admission introduced by Apel Asset Limited. In the newsletter, NASD noted that the dematerialisation of MTI shares can commence through the Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS). “We are pleased to inform the investing public that the securities of Mass Telecom Innovation Plc (MTI) have been admitted to trade on the NASD

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Users of Smartcash Payment Service Bank Limited will now be able to receive international remittances in naira to mobile wallets. This has been made possible through the company’s collaboration with a cross-border payments infrastructure provider, Thunes, making Smartcash PSB one of the first financial services providers to offer naira payouts to wallets since the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) approved this payout method in June 2023. Smartcash PSB was launched in 2022 to help unbanked populations better access banking services and the digital economy.  It’s one of the fastest-growing digital wallet providers in the country with tens