Analysts Forecast Oil to Reach $200 on Russia-Ukraine War

By Adedapo Adesanya The Nigerian Naira weakened to a new low on the American Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday, December 8, amid speculations that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has again devalued the local currency. In the previous trading session, there were reports that the exchange rate for clearing cargoes has been raised to N952/$1, sparking rumours that domestic currency would hit N1,000/$1 in the spot market. On the last trading session of the week, the Naira lost N255.98 or 30.4 per cent of its value on the greenback to trade at N1,099.05/$1

By Adedapo Adesanya The Naira recovered from the previous day’s loss after closing stronger against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Thursday, December 7, by 11.4 per cent or N108.15 to trade at N843.07/$1 compared with the previous day’s rate of N951.22/$1. This occurred as the value of foreign exchange (FX) transactions slightly increased during the session by $1.67 million or 39.5 per cent to $137.25 million from the $135.58 million achieved in the preceding trading session. Similarly, in the official market, the Nigerian Naira strengthened against the British Pound Sterling on Thursday by

By Adedapo Adesanya Nigerian crude output fell by 30,000 barrels per day to 1.43 million barrels per day in November, according to data from an S&P Global Commodity Insight. This was lower than the 1.46 million barrels produced in October by Africa’s largest oil producer and 312,000 barrels per day short of its 1.742 million barrels per day target in 2023. Angola, Africa’s second-largest oil producer, saw output drop 20,000 barrels per day to 1.13 million barrels per day, according to the survey, compared with its quota of 1.46 million barrels per day. The drops impacted the wider output of

By Adedapo Adesanya Crude oil prices rose more than 2 per cent on Friday after data from the world’s largest oil producer, the United States, supported expectations of demand growth. Brent crude futures settled at $75.84 a barrel after chalking up $1.79 or 2.4 per cent, as the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures traded at $71.23 after gaining $1.89 or 2.7 per cent. Despite the gain at the final session of the week, both benchmarks fell for a seventh straight week, their longest streak of weekly declines in half a decade, on lingering oversupply concerns. For the week,

By Bliss Okperan The FCT Minister, Mr Nyesom Wike, has vowed to put an end to illegal mining activities in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The immediate past Governor of Rivers State said this after he was notified of a landslide that claimed the lives of at least 30 persons a few days ago in the Kuje Area Council of the FCT. The Minister, at a meeting with the six area council chairmen in Abuja on Thursday, promised to work in collaboration with his counterpart in the Ministry of Solid Minerals, Mr Dele Alake, to put an end to illegal

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Nigerian oil mogul, Mr Femi Otedola, has announced the completion of the sale of his energy company, Forte Oil Plc. In a post on his verified Instagram page on Wednesday, the Chairman of Forte Oil Plc, a firm listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), said he was exiting the business so as to focus on his power generation ventures, Geregu Power Plc. In December 2018, Forte Oil said Mr Otedola, its controlling shareholder, was divesting his holdings in the company to another oil firm, Prudent Energy. “Otedola’s divestment from the downstream business is pursuant to his

By Dipo Olowookere It was a mixed session on Tuesday at the secondary market for treasury bills with the average yields marginally going down by 0.005 percent to settle at 14.66 percent at the close of business. Investors kept a watchful eye on outcome of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which ended yesterday. The apex bank chief, Mr Godwin Emefiele, who announced outcome of the meeting to newsmen in Abuja, said the benchmark rate was again left at 14 percent. On the treasury bills yields, only two tenors, the one-month and 12-month

By Investors Hub The major U.S. index futures are pointing to a slightly higher opening on Thursday, with stocks likely to continue to show a lack of direction following the mixed performance seen in the previous session. Traders may remain reluctant to make significant moves as they weigh lingering trade war concerns against largely upbeat corporate earnings news. Stocks showed a lack of direction during trading on Wednesday after trending higher over the past few sessions. The major averages spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line. The major averages eventually ended the session mixed. While the

By Adedapo Adesanya; additional report by Ahmed Rahma The local currency depreciated by 67 kobo or 0.17 per cent against the US Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the foreign exchange (forex) market on Tuesday, January 12, closing at N394/$1 in contrast to N393.33/$1 it ended at the segment on Monday. This weakening of the value of the domestic currency at the I&E window yesterday happened despite a decline in the demand for the greenback at the market segment. At the close of the session, transactions worth $36.07 million were recorded in contrast to the previous session’s

By Adedapo Adesanya The Debt Management Office (DMO) has revealed Nigeria’s total debt stock is now N72.7 trillion after the addition of the securitised Ways and Means of Advances of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). As of March 2023, the debt office said the country’s total public debt stock was N49.95 trillion ($108.30 billion), higher than the N46.25 trillion ($103 billion) on December 31, 2022, by N3 trillion. According to a statement obtained from the DMO official website, the total debt stock comprises the external and domestic debts of the federal government, the 36 states and the Federal Capital

By Nneka Okumazie Across Africa, citizens are most disappointed in their governments. Governments are blamed for corruption, underdevelopment, poverty, debt, etc. Some of the nations with democracies often have elections where hope for change is built around a candidate or party, with lots of expectations for development. But the mandate of any African leader is not development. The maximum and minimum role of any administration in Africa is to prevent internal conflict or, if it happens, to find a solution. This is the same mandate that the rulers of communities in Africa, hundreds of years ago, had to prevent or

By Dipo Olowookere Shareholders of Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc have approved the request made by board of directors of the company to source for additional funds of up to N5.6 billion. This authorisation was given by the highest decision-making organ of the organisation at the Extra-Ordinary General Meeting of Consolidated Hallmark Insurance on Thursday, November 21, 2019 in Lagos. Business Post gathered that the fresh capital raising would be of two parts; N1.057 billion rights issue and N4.500 billion, which could be sourced for through rights issue, private/public, special offering or any other means considered appropriate by the board. Before