Angola Becomes Africa’s Top Oil Producer, Displaces Nigeria

By Adedapo Adesanya The new leadership of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) signalled no confidence to traders and investors as the Naira was further dealt a heavy blow at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) and the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) arms of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Monday, September 25, though it maintained stability against the United States Dollar in the parallel market. In the official market, the Naira lost 3.41 per cent or N25.49 against the greenback to finish at N773.25/$1 compared with last Friday’s closing rate of N747.76/$1, as the value of forex transactions went down by 58.3

By Dipo Olowookere The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) kicked off the first trading session in the last week of the third quarter of the year on a negative note, with the key performance indices going down by 0.66 per cent on Monday. This was partly caused by the reaction of investors to the 30 Kobo interim dividend declaration of the board of Access Holdings Plc. A few days ago, its peer, UBA Plc, raised its interim dividend payment by 150 per cent to 50 Kobo and it was expected that Access Holdings would follow the same path. However, the company disappointed

By Adedapo Adesanya  The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is planning to use oil traders to fund a $3 billion loan to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, which is aimed at stabilising the weakening Naira. According to a Reuters report, the Cairo-based bank has made contact with traders to gauge their interest in lending their support to the oil-backed loan to Nigeria’s national oil company. The sources who spoke to the publication also disclosed that Afreximbank has made an attempt to come up with the terms that they will present to trading houses. “There is a lot of interest,

By Adedapo Adesanya Foreign trading and investment firm, Risevest, has acquired Chaka, a digital trading platform. According to Techcabal, which first broke the news, the deal, which was for an undisclosed sum, will see both entities operate as different products, though the capitalisation table of the acquiree will be updated in due course. Speaking on this, Mr Tosin Osinbodu, Chaka’s founder, said, “I’m excited about how Chaka’s product will evolve and how we’re going to learn from the Risevest team.” “With booming growth in many nations around the world, investors can now own a stake in the growth of other

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Owners of foremost payment platform in Nigeria, Quickteller Paypoint, Interswitch Financial Inclusion Services (IFIS), have announced that customers using its platform would no longer be charged a fee to complete some transactions. This is because the firm has sealed deals with key billers in various sectors (Betting, Energy and Electricity, Cable) companies that will enable customers transacting on its platform to conduct financial transactions at no charge. Transactions that will enjoy this new benefit include utility bill payments, betting, wallet funding and cable TV subscription. Before now, customers were required to pay a fee of N100 on

A scheme to promote and ensure the adoption of gender sensitive and responsive approaches towards engendering plans and programmes, in such a way that men and women have equal access and control of productive resources and facilities to bridge gender gaps have been launched by federal government. The initiative known as the National Gender Policy in Agriculture was inaugurated by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr Muhammad Sabo Nanono. According to him, the document will provide a policy direction for the different roles of women and men in agriculture for development and gender equality in access to resources

By Dipo Olowookere Trading activities at the local stock market ended bearish on Thursday following the 0.01 percent loss recorded at the session. Equities in the consumer goods and the oil/gas sectors contributed to the decline yesterday as their respective indices depreciated by 0.64 percent and 0.44 percent. Their outcome overpowered the gains printed by the insurance sector, banking index and industrial goods counter, which appreciated by 0.64 percent, 0.60 percent and 0.02 percent respectively. Business Post reports that the profit-taking witnessed yesterday caused the All-Share Index (ASI) to reduce by 1.51 points to 24,276.56 points from 24,278.07 points. It

By Jerome-Mario Chijioke Utomi It is a time-honoured belief that for an average Nigerian leader, once a direction is chosen, instead of examining the process meticulously and setting the right course, one that will allow us to overcome storm and reach safety before we can progress and achieve our goals, many obstinately persist with the execution of such plans regardless of a minor or major shift in circumstance. While the above scenario partially explains why Nigeria as a nation still has its head stuck in the mud of underdevelopment, there are, however, hopeful signs that not all public officeholders or

By Sodeinde Temidayo David Global technology company, Google, has revealed a new development on Google Mail (Gmail), which will enable its users to make voice and video calls through the electronic mailing platform. This was unveiled as part of a major expansion to Google Workspace, with the company saying it hopes to make spontaneous workplace meetings a more common occurrence. The new development will be embedded in the update of the app and the web version. This means when the update is done, users will be able to call friends and colleagues. As the company looks to make hybrid working

By Adeniyi Ogunfowoke Handling stressful or difficult clients is not something many businesses look forward. Regardless, they have no choice than to deal with the client’s complain because they are the oil that lubricates any business. Clearly, they exist in every business but you know that it is better to keep them if you can. This is why they say that the customer is never wrong. So, how may you keep your difficult clients? Jumia travel, the leading online travel agency, shares ways to keep your difficult customers happy. Allow them to vent  Sometimes, you have to just keep quiet and

By Olutayo Irantiola We woke up on Friday, April 12, 2019 when a Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) van was said to be involved in a Road Traffic Accident (RTA). I was awestruck at the various ways in which our lives have become trivialized as those who should reduce road carnages are the ones leading commuters to their early graves because of their ego that took over reasoning in an attempt to arrest an erring driver. The accident has brought up the memory of the various social media posts aimed at hoodwinking these safety officers. One of such pictures showed

By Aduragbemi Omiyale FBN Holdings Plc has changed its registrars and it is now Meristem Registrars Limited, replacing the long-time First Registrars and Investors Services Limited. This is coming at a time the company is battling with shareholding structure, especially with the news that oil mogul, Mr Femi Otedola, has acquired over 5 per cent shares of the group. Some hours after news went viral that the former chairman of the defunct Forte Oil Plc has become the single largest shareholder in the bank, a statement was released, stating that Mr Tunde Hassan-Odukale has a 5.36 per cent stake in