Anxiety as New Naira Notes Hit Circulation Today

By Adedapo Adesanya The average price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol, surged by 230.8 per cent on a year-to-year basis to N626.70 per litre in August 2023 versus N189.46 per litre in the same period of 2022. This is according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its Premium Motor Spirit (Petrol) Price Watch (August 2023), which showed that the average retail price increased on a month-on-month basis by 4.39 per cent from N600.3 per litre in July. The skyrocketing cost of petrol came as President Bola Tinubu, during his inauguration speech on May 29,

By Dipo Olowookere Stock investors were swayed by the news of the indefinite postponement of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The quarterly rate decision meeting was supposed to occur next week, but it has been moved forward. There are speculations that the meeting was postponed to allow the new CBN Governor nominee, Mr Yemi Cardoso, to preside over the gathering. He is yet to be confirmed by the Senate, which resumes from a recess next Tuesday, the same day the rate decision is supposed to be announced. The confusion as to who

By Adedapo Adesanya Crude oil prices went in different directions on Friday amid profit-taking as markets weighed supply concerns from Russia’s fuel export ban against demand woes from future rate hikes. While the Brent futures lost 3 cents to close at $93.27 a barrel, the US West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) futures rose by 40 cents to sell for $90.03 a barrel. However, both benchmarks closed downwards on a week-on-week basis, with Brent shedding 0.3 per cent, breaking a three-week streak of gains, and WTI sliding by 0.03 per cent for the week, the first decline in four weeks. Russia

By Dipo Olowookere The leadership uncertainty in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which some observers have said led to the indefinite postponement of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, further put investors off at the local equity market on Friday. Yesterday, the central bank said the person chosen by President Bola Tinubu to head the organisation, Mr Yemi Cardoso, has resumed in an acting capacity replacing the former acting CBN chief, Mr Folashodun Shonubi. Mr Shonubi was appointed by Mr Tinubu to take over from Mr Godwin Emefiele, who was suspended from office and was said to have resigned

Reports say ABB has agreed that an Italian company, FIMER, can acquire its solar inverter business. The transaction is expected to enhance the future prospects of the solar inverter business and will enable ABB to focus its business portfolio on other growth markets. ABB’s solar inverter business has approximately 800 employees in more than 30 countries, with manufacturing and R&D sites located in Italy, India and Finland. It includes the solar inverter business from Power-One which was acquired by ABB’s Discrete Automation and Motion division in 2013. The business offers a comprehensive portfolio of products, systems, and services for different

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The strategy adopted by the federal government to transform the nation’s economy through the Digital Economy has received the support of 9mobile, one of the key players in the telecommunications sector in Nigeria. The Chief Executive Officer of 9mobile, Mr Alan Sinfield, during a visit to the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, at his office in Abuja, expressed confidence that the strategy will propel the nation’s economy. Mr Sinfield, who was accompanied by members of the management team, commended the Minister for his passion and vision for the industry, which he

By Adedapo Adesanya The crude oil market settled lower for a fifth session on Thursday as concerns that global economic slowdowns would slash fuel demand outweighed disruptions. Brent crude lost 1.3 per cent or $1.02 to trade at $76.15 a barrel, while the United States West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude depreciated by 0.8 per cent or 55 cents to close at $71.46 a barrel. Traders shrugged off the closure of a major Canada-to-US crude pipeline on Thursday as Canada’s TC Energy said it closed the tap to its 622,000 barrel-per-day Keystone pipeline, which is the primary line shipping heavy Canadian

By Adedapo Adesanya Following a loss of N6.64 billion, the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) market capitalisation closed at N529.12 billion in the 27th week of trading this year. In the preceding week, the total value of securities on the exchange stood at N535.76 billion. The decline resulted from the negative movement in the price of Central Securities and Clearing System (CSCS) Plc, which outweighed three price advancers recorded in the week. Business Post reports that CSCS Plc lost 8.4 per cent last week to settle at N16.99 per share in contrast to N18.55 per share of the prior week. This depleted

The conviction of Moroccan Younes Rachidi for 135 charges of match-fixing has struck a chord with all sports fans. His lifetime ban from professional sports came as a surprise, even to the top sports betting sites in the Middle East. Although Rachidi was far from a household name, having never reached the top 1,000 rankings, he was a regular on the ITF Futures Tour, the amateur tennis circuit, where he managed to reach his highest doubles ranking of 475 on the ATP list. The Investigation The International Tennis Federation (ITF) conducted a thorough investigation and issued the ban in August

By Adedapo Adesanya No fewer than 40 students have completed a one-year diploma and certificate in Packaging Technology at the Institute of Packaging Professionals Nigeria (IOPPN). At a graduation ceremony held last week at the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel Victoria Island, Lagos, some of the graduating students were honoured for excellence. It was gathered that the awards ceremony tagged NaijaStar Awards for Packaging Excellence was put in place by IOPPN), Nigeria Packaging (NP) and the Nigeria Packaging Academy (NPA). It was designed to celebrate excellence in the packaging sector in Nigeria and to also recognise organisations and personalities who

By Dipo Olowookere The All-Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) crossed the 35,000-point threshold on Tuesday on the back of bargain hunting by investors. The market witnessed a huge buying pressure in shares in the financial services and industrial goods sectors yesterday and this increased the benchmark index by 381.78 points to 35,225.22 points from the previous day’s 34,843.44 points. It equally pushed the market capitalisation of the exchange higher by N200 billion to settle at N18.411 trillion in contrast to N18.211 trillion it ended on Monday. Business Post reports that apart from the consumer goods sector,

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The management of UACN Property Development Company (UPDC) Plc has concluded plans to have discussions with shareholders of the company on its proposed rights issue. The company is planning to raise about N16 billion from its shareholders through a process called rights issue. During the exercise, the company would be selling a total of 15,961,574,145 ordinary shares at a unit price of N1 and in order to convince shareholders on the importance of the rights issue, the management has called for talks to explain things that may be unclear to them. According to a notice obtained by