Anxiety as Naira Nears N1000/$1 at Parallel Market

By Dipo Olowookere Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Limited will be listed on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited in the future, the Chairman of the company, Mr Aliko Dangote, has revealed. Mr Dangote, who is the richest man in Africa, confirmed this in an interview with the Financial Times published on Saturday. The refinery will join other businesses of Mr Dangote currently trading their equities on the NGX, Dangote Cement, Dangote Sugar, and NASCON. The oil facility, believed to be worth about $20 billion, was launched in May 2023 by the immediate past president of Nigeria, Mr Muhammadu

By Adedapo Adesanya  Oil prices fell on Friday as the release of some hostages in Gaza reduced the geopolitical risk premium and indicated that the Israel-Hamas tensions may not have much effect on the oil market. Brent crude futures depreciated by 84 cents or 1 per cent at $80.58 a barrel, while the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude dropped $1.56 or 2 per cent to close at $75.54. There was no settlement for WTI on Thursday owing to the US Thanksgiving holiday. Prices notched their first week of gains in over a month ahead of next week’s meeting of

By Bliss Okperan, Adedapo Adesanya  The cost of cooking a pot of jollof rice, one of the most consumed foods daily in Nigeria, has surged by 37.4 per cent, according to research carried out by Business Post. Using market data and the most recent food price watch by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), major food items in making the delicacy, including rice, groundnut oil, tomatoes, and onions, among others have recorded a massive increase within the past year, making it hard for the average Nigerian to survive. According to NBS, 1 kilogram of Rice cost N757.06 in 2023 as

By Adedapo Adesanya The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Olayemi Cardoso, has admitted that the country recorded a revenue drop of $1.4 billion between 2015 and 2019 after imposing foreign exchange (FX) restrictions for import of 43 items over eight years. The apex bank governor made this known on Friday while delivering his keynote address at the 58th Annual Dinner of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) in Lagos. The apex bank head, during the preparation of his monetary policy thrust, cited available data saying, “Studies have shown that during the period when the

By Aduragbemi Omiyale The presidential candidate of the opposition Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, has lamented the poor ratings of Nigeria, promising to change the narrative if elected president next year. Mr Obi, while speaking after he emerged candidate of the party in Delta State on Monday, said the greed of “forces of retrogression” have made Nigeria to “become a laughing stock among other nations.” “Yes, our country stands hijacked by forces of retrogression. We are almost zero in all indices of development. As a result, our future, especially those of the youth and generations unborn is in ruins. We

By Aduragbemi Omiyale One of the underwriting companies in Nigeria, African Alliance Insurance Plc, has disclosed that it is almost getting fresh capital of up to N7 billion from “an independent investor” to help shore up its capital base. The firm revealed this in its audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2022, filed to the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited and analysed by Business Post. The external auditors, Ukwuegbu, Ogbeleje & Co, in their note, pointed out that the existence of African Alliance Insurance was at risk because of a deficiency in its solvency margin. A solvency margin

By Andrew Bourne Of late, there have been a lot of headlines around major technology players putting customer privacy first and making data privacy one of their core values. The business landscape is hurriedly re-orienting itself to provide the digital consumer with a safe space where their data is protected round the clock. Meanwhile, there’s another important stakeholder whose privacy equally matters. Employees have just as much right to privacy in the workplace. Recent trends like remote working and hybrid models have heightened the importance of employee privacy Forced to switch overnight to remote work, organisations turned to digital collaboration

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Activities of profit takers on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday further left local equities bleeding by 1.22 percent. Some investors were ruthless during the trading session, which was the last for the month of April 2019. Even news of the eventual passage of the 2019 budget by the Senate yesterday could not pacify investors as they were bent on taking profit before re-investing on fundamentally sound stocks presently selling at low prices. At the close of transactions, the market capitalisation of NSE decreased by N136 billion to finish at N10.959 trillion against

By Adedapo Adesanya The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has said that two million children may die from pneumonia and other major diseases in Nigeria, citing a new analysis carried out by John Hopkins University. The disease is the leading killer of children in Nigeria, causing 19 percent of death for children under the age of five as more than 40 percent of one-year-olds in Nigeria are unvaccinated, while three in four children who suffer from pneumonia symptoms do not get access to medical treatment. According to the Fund, forecasts show that 1.4 million children under the age of five

Some employees of the University of Abuja on Monday morning staged a peaceful demonstration in Gwagwalada. The protesting varsity workers claimed they were being owed backlog of salaries. They asked the university authorities to meet their demands before things get out of hands. The demonstrating employees, carrying various placards with different messages, also urged President Muhammadu Buhari to swing into action and ensure their salaries, running into months, are paid promptly. They also called for the release of the 2015 White Paper and further asked the President to save the school from total collapse.

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The need for active collaboration between the public and private sectors for the growth of the continent has been emphasised by the African Union. Chairperson of the union, Mr Moussa Mahamat, said this during the commissioning of the new Ecobank head office in Lagos called the Ecobank Pan-African Centre (EPAC). According to him, the structure shows a clear demonstration of what could be achieved if the government creates an enabling environment for businesses to thrive. “[The] active collaboration between the public and private sectors across Africa is critical to shared prosperity,” Mr Mahamat, who was represented by

By Dipo Olowookere Getting a decent accommodation in Nigeria is a herculean task and when that is eventually solved, paying for it is another huddle one has to face. These and others are the main reasons housing has become a huge challenge in the country and efforts by the various governments to address them have not yielded the expected results. For example, getting land in Lagos is like a camel passing through the eye of the needle because of land grabbers, who dupe or harass people on their properties. They are like a bone in the throat. But one company