Bill to Tame CBN Passes Second Reading at Senate

By Dipo Olowookere No fewer than 15 Nigerian Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs) will share the N75 million set aside by a tech giant, Google, in the 2023 edition of Hustle Academy Fund. The initiative was introduced in 2022 to provide equity-free funds to small business owners to scale up their operations and support entrepreneurial growth in Nigeria. Entries for the exercise opened on Thursday, September 28 and will close on Thursday, October 12, 2023, and to be eligible, businesses must be Nigerian-founded, operating within Nigeria for 1-5 years, and have a clear and scalable business plan. They should have

By Adedapo Adesanya The cryptocurrency market witnessed an uptick on Wednesday, with Bitcoin (BTC) managing to stay above the $26,000 level even as the US Dollar index rose to a new year-to-date high. Data obtained by Business Post showed that the most valued crypto, BTC, posted a 0.7 per cent appreciation during the midweek session to trade at $26,408.37 in the last 24 hours. On the part of the second-most valued digital coin, Ethereum (ETH), it remained in the $1,600 mark and it improved its value yesterday by 1.6 per cent to sell at $1,610.94. At the trading session, the US

By Adedapo Adesanya Brent crude futures surged by 2.8 per cent or $2.59 on Wednesday to the highest settlement in 2023 at $96.55 per barrel after a steep drop in crude stocks in the United States compounded worries of tighter global supplies. The price of the US West Texas Intermediate crude futures (WTI) climbed by 3.6 per cent or $3.29 to $93.68 as the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a crude oil inventory draw of 2.2 million barrels for the week to September 22 in the country. In the preceding week, the agency posted an inventory draw of 2.1 million

By Adedapo Adesanya Trading activities resumed at the official segment of the foreign exchange (FX), with the Nigerian Naira returning to familiar territory after the Eid-el-Maulud break due to forex demand pressure. The nation’s currency depreciated against the US Dollar in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) arm of the market on Thursday, September 28, by 2.68 per cent or N20.23 to finish at N775.31/$1 compared with the preceding day’s value of N755.08/$1. It was observed that the domestic currency crumbled during the session due to FX demand caused by the break, with the spot market recording trades valued at $144.55

By Modupe Gbadeyanka A renowned global rating agency, Fitch Ratings, says the management team of Nigeria-based Coronation Merchant Bank Limited has demonstrated “a high degree of credibility.” In a statement to announce the rating of the bank’s Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘B-‘ with a negative outlook, Fitch said the company’s “strategy is well defined although execution could be hampered under current difficult operating conditions.” In the statement made available to Business Post on Monday, it was stated that apart from the management quality being “a relative strength,” it was equipped with “experience and depth commensurate with the complexity

By Adedapo Adesanya Brent crude neared the $100 region after rising by $3.99 to trade at $98.57 per barrel on Friday amid uncertainty around future interest rate hikes by the United States Federal Reserve and a looming ban on Russian oil. Also, fresh employment data from the United States suggested some loosening in labour market conditions that could give the Federal Reserve cover to shift towards smaller rate increases, pushing the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures higher by $2.96 to $92.61 per barrel. The US Labor Department’s non-farm payrolls report on Friday showed a rise in the unemployment rate

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The national scale issuer ratings assigned to Forte Oil Plc of A-(NG) and A1-(NG) in the long term and short term respectively have been affirmed by Global Credit Ratings (GCR) with the outlook accorded as Stable. Concurrently, the Series 1 Fixed Bond rating has been affirmed at A-(NG) and placed on Stable Outlook. The ratings expire in June 2018. A statement issued by GCR explained that the ratings were accorded to Forte Oil Plc after taking cognisance of the firm’s top-tier position in the Nigerian downstream petroleum industry, underpinned by a visible brand, significant assets across the

By Dipo Olowookere Kwara State Governor, Mr Abdulfatah Ahmed, has directed the State Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM) to regularize the employment of personnel that were recruited into the Commission in 2014 without approval. The Governor also directed that the employment of 63 teachers, which was approved, but not implemented, should also be normalized. A Government House statement signed by Dr Muyideen Akorede, Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communication to the state Governor, said that while Governor Ahmed frowned at the authorized employment and had approved sanctions for the erring officials, he is reluctant to throw the affected staff into

By Dipo Olowookere An application, which offers West African students a holistic curriculum-relevant learning experience in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology, has been launched by Nigeria’s Ed-tech startup, uLesson Education Limited. The app, uLesson, allows students in Nigeria (SS1-3), Ghana (SHS1-3), Liberia (Grade 10-12), Sierra Leone (S1-3), and Gambia (S1-3) prepare for critical regional exams like WASSCE, SSCE, GCE and UTME as well as international tests like the SATs. A statement from app developer explained that uLesson employs a simple and personalised approach to learning, leveraging quality lesson plans from the best tutors to amplify each student’s learning ability. Thus,

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr Maikanti Baru, has disclosed that as part of strategies to shore up the nation’s reserve base, the state-owned firm will reinvigorate exploratory activities in the seven hydrocarbon basins in the country. Speaking on Thursday when he received Governor Ibrahim Geidam of Yobe State at the NNPC Towers in Abuja, Mr Baru said, “We are on target and we are looking at the prospect of the whole basins of Niger Delta, Chad, Anambra, Benue Trough, Benin, Sokoto and Bida. We are focused on delivering on these basins

By Adedapo Adesanya The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has revealed that as of December 31, 2021, the total value of unclaimed dividends in the Nigerian capital market increased to N180 billion. The Director-General of the agency, Mr Lamido Yuguda, however, pointed out that this amount only constitutes 5 per cent of the total dividends declared by companies trading their securities in the domestic exchanges. Though Mr Yuguda stated that this was giving the commission some sleepless nights, he said efforts are being taken to reduce the unclaimed dividends to zero per cent. According to him, SEC is collaborating with