Economy

Ambode Begs Ladipo Traders for Support

Published

8 years ago

13/01/2017

Modupe Gbadeyanka

**To Turn Yaba to Main Tech Hub

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, on Wednesday sought the support of traders at the popular auto spare parts market in Ladipo, Mushin.

Speaking at the market where he was received by hundreds of traders amidst pump and pageantry, Governor Ambode said from next month, his administration will commence construction of Alhaji Akinwunmi Street and Ladipo Street, as well as Obagun Avenue, off Fatai Atere Road.

He also said that a multi-layer car park will be constructed to address the chaos in the area in terms of parking of vehicles, but solicited the cooperation of the traders and residents of the area, saying that government would organize a stakeholders’ meeting to discuss modalities for the construction.

Also on Wednesday, Mr Ambode said plans were going on to transform the Sabo Industrial Estate in Yaba area of the state to a technology hub and another Silicon Valley where new set of entrepreneurs and innovators would be raised to address the challenges confronting the nation in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector.

Silicon Valley, which is in San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States, is home to many of the world’s largest high-tech corporations and thousands of startup companies.

Governor Ambode, who spoke during an extensive inspection tour across the state, said government will actualize the plan of transforming Sabo to the new hub for technology in 2017 and assist the already established technology incubators in the area to achieve their full potentials.

Some of the technology outfits visited in the area by the Governor included Ardela, IDEA and CC Hub, among others.

Mr Ambode, who was joined on the inspection by top government functionaries and former Minister of Communications and Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson, said government was desirous of assisting entrepreneurs in the ICT sector to become good startups, adding that his administration would explore all the available initiatives in that regard.

He said to start with, entrepreneurs in the sector would be allowed to access the N25 billion Employment Trust Fund (ETF), which is an initiative of his administration, to grow their businesses, as well as other interventions from the State’s Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment.

He said: “I decided to come here just for me to feel the state of things and to learn about your challenges. Our government is seriously committed to assisting entrepreneurs like the ones here to be able to be good startups.

“I want to also say that we will use our Employment Trust Fund to support this concept here.”

The Governor said one of the factors considered when government was setting up the ETF was the need to set up incubators, but with the progress made in that regard by the private sector, government would now only build on the existing technology incubators.

“All we need to do is to now send people here and also support by way of infrastructure to scale up this place and others like this that can help in churning out more people.

“Our aim is to create enabling environment for our youth to thrive, to be more creative and enterprising. We so much believe in innovation and creativity. We strongly believe that youths are the ones that can take us out of this economic recession and the truth is that we must create enabling environment for our youths to optimally utilize their talents.

“You can recall that throughout my campaign, I promised to use tourism, hospitality and entertainment to create employment and jobs for our youths. This is the fundamental basis our government is built upon.

“The whole idea is that these young ones here should not just leave this place and go back to where they started from. I think that value chain is what we as government must tap into and then we would be able to move this nation forward. I believe strongly that the youths are the future of this country and we need to pay greater attention to everything that they are doing and I also believe strongly that technology is the key that we are going to use to grow this economy,” he said.

The Governor said government would explore the possibility of addressing the power challenges confronting the area, especially by linking the estate to the Mainland Independent Power Project.

In her remarks, the former Minister commended the initiative of Governor Ambode on the plan to scale up the industrial park in Sabo, saying that the development signalled a new beginning for the technology sector.

Economy

NGX Closes Bullish, Gains 0.14% on Demand for Oando, Others

Published

12 hours ago

01/03/2025

Dipo Olowookere

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited reversed the loss recorded on Thursday, closing higher by 0.14 per cent at the close of business on Friday.

The bourse finished in green territory as a result of renewed bargain-hunting by investors, who showed appetite for energy and commodity stocks, leaving their respective sector up by 1.74 per cent and 0.52 per cent.

However, the others experienced profit-taking, with the consumer goods space losing 0.41 per cent, the banking index shedding 0.16 per cent, and the insurance counter declining by 0.13 per cent. When the market closed for the day, the industrial goods sector remained unchanged.

Business Post reports that the All-Share Index (ASI) appreciated by 145.93 points to 107,821.39 points from 107,675.46 points and the market capitalisation gained N91 billion to settle at N67.193 trillion versus Thursday’s value of N67.102 trillion.

Despite the growth recorded by Customs Street yesterday, investor sentiment was weak, as there were 26 price gainers and 34 price losers, indicating a negative market breadth index.

Austin Laz gained 10.00 per cent to close at N2.09, Oando grew by 9.94 per cent to N58.05, Caverton improved by 9.67 per cent to N2.95, John Holt expanded by 9.09 per cent to N7.98, and PZ Cussons appreciated by 9.09 per cent to N35.40.

On the flip side, Red Star Express shed 9.96 per cent to finish at N6.60, Learn Africa dropped 9.84 per cent to close at N3.30, Multiverse crashed by 9.72 per cent to N9.75, Cadbury Nigeria declined by 9.62 per cent to N26.30, and Linkage Assurance slumped by 5.80 per cent to N1.30.

It was quite a busy day on Friday at the bourse as Zenith Bank ended with a turnover of 122.2 million shares sold for N5.9 billion, FCMB transacted 50.2 million stocks worth N525.9 million, Access Holding exchanged 28.6 million equities for N734.8 million, Fidelity Bank traded 19.9 million stocks valued at N353.1 million, and Jaiz Bank transacted 17.6 million shares worth N59.8 million.

At the close of trading activities, investors bought and sold 458.3 million equities for N14.1 billion in 12,213 deals versus the 423.4 million equities worth N9.6 billion traded in 11,112 deals a day earlier, implying a spike in the trading volume, value and number of deals by 8.24 per cent, 46.88 per cent, and 9.91 per cent, respectively.

Economy

NASD OTC Market Maintains Positive Outcome, Gains 0.31%

Published

12 hours ago

01/03/2025

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

For another trading day, the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange ended on a positive note with a 0.31 per cent growth on Friday, February 28.

This raised the market capitalisation of the bourse by N25.85 billion to close the session at N1.866 trillion compared with the preceding day’s N1.861 trillion and the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) increased by 10.33 points to close at 3,295.32 points, in contrast to the previous trading day’s 3,284.99 points.

The volume of securities traded yesterday slumped by 50.2 per cent to 1.03 million units from the 2.07 million units posted a day earlier and the value of securities traded went south by 14.7 per cent to N39.9 million from the N46.8 million quoted at the preceding session, while the number number of deals increased by 166.7 per cent to 40 deals from 15 deals.

During the session, Okitipupa Plc continued its bullish run by adding N14.52 to its value to settle at N229.52 per share compared with Thursday’s value of N215.00 per share, NASD Plc rose by N1.70 to N18.76 per unit from N17.06 per unit, Afriland Properties Plc gained N1.09 to finish at N22.59 per share versus the previous price of N21.50 per share, and Golden Capital Plc increased by 50 Kobo to trade at N10.50 per unit compared with the N10.00 per unit it was sold a day earlier.

On the flip side, FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc depreciated by N1.84 to settle at N38.86 per share compared with the preceding session’s N39.86 per share, and Geo-Fluids Plc lost 4 Kobo to end at N3.20 per unit, in contrast to Thursday’s value of N3.24 per unit.

Impresit Bakolori Plc ended the day as the most active stock by value (year-to-date) with 533.8 million units worth N520.9 million, followed by Afriland Properties Plc with 16.4 million units valued at 335.2 million, and FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc with 8.3 million units valued at N329.2 million.

Industrial and General Insurance (IGI) Plc remained the most active stock by volume (year-to-date) with 69.7 million units worth N23.6 million, trailed by Geo-Fluids Plc with 10.9 million units sold for N51.9 million, and FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc with 8.3 million units valued at N329.2 million.

Economy

Naira Tumbles to N1,500$1 at NAFEM, N1,505/$1 at Parallel Market

Published

12 hours ago

01/03/2025

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

A loss of 0.12 per cent or N1.73 was recorded by the Nigerian Naira against the United States Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday, February 28.

In the official forex market, the domestic currency was exchanged with the greenback at N1,500.73/$1 during the session compared with the previous day’s rate of N1,499.00/$1.

However, the local currency appreciated against the British Pound Sterling yesterday by N17.78 to settle at N1,880.69/£1 versus Thursday’s closing value of N1,898.47/£1 and it gained N19.93 on the Euro to sell for N1,552.94/€1, in contrast to the preceding session’s N1,572.87/€1.

A look at the parallel market showed that the Nigerian Naira weakened against the Dollar yesterday by N5 to trade at N1,505/$1 compared with the N1,500/$1 it was transacted a day earlier.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was up on Friday, with analysts pointing out that historical data highlights the recent drawdown as a prime purchasing opportunity for many to stack up while others pointed out that the drawdown may not be over as developments in the political environment may impact sentiments.

During the trading day, Solana (SOL) chalked up 11.0 per cent to trade at $142.99, Dogecoin (DOGE) appreciated by 10.2 per cent to sell at $0.2044, and Litecoin (LTC) recorded an 8.9 per cent rise to trade at $126.43.

In addition, Ripple (XRP) gained 8.6 per cent to quote at $2.17, Cardano (ADA) added 7.9 per cent to finish at $0.6407, Bitcoin (BTC) improved its value by 7.3 per cent to $84,973.70, Ethereum (ETH) grew by 5.8 per cent to $2,234.20, and Binance Coin (BNB) went up by 4.8 per cent to settle at $595.50, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.