BoI, Bayelsa Provide N2b to Fund SMEs

By Adedapo Adesanya The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) on Thursday asked Nigeria to produce about 1.5 million barrels of crude oil per day in 2024, lower than the 1.78 million barrels per day benchmark it proposed in the 2024 Appropriation Bill presented to the National Assembly on Wednesday for passage. The output ceiling was around 1.8 million barrels per day before it was cut down to 1.5 million barrels yesterday at the group’s virtual meeting, a huge blow to Nigeria’s revenue target for the fiscal year. OPEC had tasked three consultancies – IHS, Rystad

By Adedapo Adesanya The Naira started the first trading session in the last month of 2023 on a negative note after it depreciated against the Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), which is the official FX window, by 11.4 per cent or N94.87 on Friday, December 1, closing at N927.19/$1, in contrast to Thursday’s exchange rate of N832.32/$1. The December rush for forex contributed to the weakening of the domestic currency in the spot market yesterday, as the supply of foreign currency could not meet what customers needed. Data showed that the value of FX transactions recorded

By Dipo Olowookere The last trading day of November 2023 on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited ended on a bullish note by 0.11 per cent on Thursday. Mild bargain-hunting in industrial goods equities like Lafarge Africa, supported by Airtel Africa, GTCO and other financial stocks left the market in the green territory at the close of business. Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 81.91 points to settle at 71,365.25 points compared with the preceding day’s 71,283.34 points, and the market capitalisation grew by N44 billion to N39.052 trillion from N39.008 trillion. Business Post reports that the

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Business owners in Lagos have been assured of more incentives by the state governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who added that this is part of his administration’s commitment to reforms aimed at improving the ease of doing business and enhancing investment opportunities. Speaking at the commissioning of the newly-built wet hair production factory of Godrej Nigeria Limited, the Governor said his government would continue to pursue actions that would eliminate red tapes and regulatory impediments hindering the growth of businesses in the state, thereby demonstrating his willingness for continued collaboration with the private sector to improve the livelihood

By Adedapo Adesanya Oil settled lower on Thursday for the third consecutive day on the prospect of a large rate hike in the United States later this month. Brent depreciated by 47 cents or 0.5 per cent to $99.10 a barrel while the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude lost 52 cents or 0.5 per cent to close at $95.78 a barrel. The pressure on the oil market was previously building after a higher-than-expected US inflation data for June and crude inventories build both reported on Wednesday, weighed on market sentiment and prices on Thursday. In the world’s largest oil

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Organisers of the 2017 Spak National Science Competition have released names of 81 finalists with the highest scores out of those who wrote the qualifying examination. These finalists would be invited to participate at this stage of the competition, which would be recorded and transmitted on TV/ Social media across Nigeria and Africa. The SPAK competition was designed basically for senior secondary school students in charting the ideal career path and driving them towards full optimization of their potentials and the fulfilment of their dreams. SPAK is an annual competition used in encouraging the study of science

By Dipo Olowookere The management of BOC Gases Nigeria Plc has announced the increase of the stake of TY Holdings Limited in the company to 72 per cent. Business Post reports that TY Holdings, owned by a retired army general, Mr Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma, recently acquired 60 per cent of the organisation’s stocks amounting to 249,746,823 units from BOC Holdings UK. Before the purchase, he had only 12 per cent shareholding of the firm but the latest acquisition increased his stake to 72 per cent, making him the largest shareholder. A statement signed by the company secretary, Mrs Ronke Segun-Alabi,

By Ashemiriogwa Emmanuel The Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE) has urged the federal government to always outsource its project to professionals capable of executing the job well and stop patronising quacks. The group stated that the failure of the government to consult with NSE representatives when preparing a budget on infrastructure has resulted in poor infrastructural development in Nigeria. A member of the NSE, Mr Olufemi Babalola, said this at the 27th Arokodare memorial public lecture held on Monday, October 25, at the University of Ibadan. He said that a Chartered Institute of Project Management of Nigeria’s survey revealed that

By Adedapo Adesanya The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) bourse last week (Week 39) ended in the bullish territory as the unlisted securities index rose by 1.74 per cent to close the week at 732.57 points against 720.02 points. It was also a week of smiles for investors whose wealth rose by N9.22 billion in value and this led the NASD OTC market capitalisation to close at N538.12 billion compared to N528.90 billion in the previous week. However, there was a 75.9 per cent decrease in the total value of stocks traded during the week as investors transacted securities worth N26.0 million

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Job creation, Mr Afolabi Imoukhuede, has revealed that no fewer than 753,307 applications have been received from graduate job seekers in the country for the available 300,000 slots in the N-Power job scheme of the Federal Government. By 11:30pm on Tuesday, June 13, 2017, the N-Power portal was open for entries for one month, but as at Sunday, June 18, 2017, over 700,000 persons had submitted their applications, hoping to be among those to receive the N30,000 monthly stipend. Mr Imoukhuede, in his breakdown of the entries, informed journalists

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Currency traders on Wednesday in Lagos became apprehensive as the Naira depreciated thrice in six hours at the parallel market The traders were meeting in clusters, painstakingly trying to unravel the rationale behind the sudden depreciation of the naira after it had appreciated for about four weeks. The Naira exchanged at N467 to the dollar as at 4:30 p.m. after it traded for N455, and N460 in a couple of hours on Wednesday while the Pound Sterling and Euro closed at N560 and N505, respectively. The Nigerian currency, after weeks of sustained appreciation, stabilised at N455 to

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The sum of $250 million has been approved by the National Economic Council (NEC) to be injected into the Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWF). Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, made this known on Thursday in Abuja while addressing journalists. Mrs Adeosun noted that the approval was made after adopting the report and accounts of the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority presented by the Managing Director, Mr Uche Orii. She added that an approval was also given for the appointment of Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority board members. The Minister further hinted that the Excess Crude Accounts where the $250