Brent Returns to $45 as Disruptive Storms Shutdown Production

By Adedapo Adesanya The Naira put up a weak performance against the United States Dollar across the various segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Thursday. November 30, 2023, the last trading session of the month. In the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) window, which is the official market, the Nigerian currency lost 0.1 per cent or 85 Kobo against the greenback during the session to settle at N832.32/$1 compared with the preceding day’s value of N831.47/$1. A slight strain in the supply of forex into the spot market was partly responsible for the weakening of the local

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 Modupe Gbadeyanka Taxpayers, including organisations and individuals, who are yet to pay their outstanding taxes, will not pay penalties and interests if they make the payments on or before December 31, 2023. This tax default forgiveness was given by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), which explained that it created this window in “recognition of the challenges that many taxpayers have faced in settling their outstanding tax liabilities.” However, it stressed that if the full principal payment is not done before the deadline, defaulters would be forced to pay the outstanding tax liabilities. The Chairman of the FIRS, Mr

By Adedapo Adesanya  Angola, one of Africa’s top crude oil producers and a key member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), has officially rejected the proposed production quota for the year 2024 and may even exit the group. This was signalled by Mr Diamantino Pedro Azevedo, Angola’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, confirming the nation’s decision and indicating a divergence from OPEC’s suggested allocations for both member and non-member countries. The announcement was made during the 26th OPEC+ Meeting on Thursday, where the organisation proposed 1.11 million barrels of crude oil per day production quota for

By Dipo Olowookere The release of N100 million for the payment of severance packages of ex-political office holders across the 16 local government areas of Kwara State has been announced by the state’s Joint Accounts Allocation Committee (JAAC). TIC Chairperson of Ilorin South local government, Hajia Funmi Salau, who made this known in Ilorin, noted that they payment was from the July federal allocation to the 16 local government councils in the state. She added that owing to the increased allocation to the councils, members of Joint Accounts Allocation Committee resolved that N100 million be released to offset part of

By Dipo Olowookere The decision of Access Bank Plc to seal the corporate headquarters of Seplat in Lagos has not gone down well with the energy company. As a result of this, the indigenous oil firm has vowed to take legal action against the financial institution, which is known for its aggressive loan recovery strategy. On Wednesday, Access Bank sealed the office of Seplat on 16A Temple Road, Ikoyi, Lagos. The reason was that one of the companies offering drilling services to Seplat, Cardinal Drilling Services Limited, has allegedly failed to pay the credit facility it obtained from the bank.

By Dipo Olowookere Stockbrokers in the country have been urged to join hands with the Federal Government in improving tax-payer education and compliance, crediting their side customer network as a key advantage. This appeal was made by the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, in a message to the Conference of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers held at the Trasncorps Hilton Hotel in Abuja on Tuesday, July 4, 2017. Mrs Adeosun noted that to support the successful implementation of the recently-launched Voluntary Asset and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS), government will provide free training to stockbrokers, accountants, lawyers, wealth managers and

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The financial position of Transcorp Plc for the period ended March 31, 2019 was released by the board on Wednesday, with the company’s performance not looking impressive. In the results, the company said it generated N18.3 billion as revenue in the period under review, lower than N26.3 billion raked in the same period of 2018. With the sum of N10.2 billion used for cost of sales in the reviewed period, the firm said its gross profit dropped to N8.1 billion from N12 billion. From the above figure, administrative expenses gulped N3.1 billion against N3.6 billion a year

By Adedapo Adesanya As part of efforts to make business advertising better, Twitter has announced three new products that will further advance its optimisation models, conversion options, and measurement solutions. In a statement, the platform said, “We’re excited to share that the new and improved Twitter Pixel, Conversion API, and App Purchase Optimization are launching globally to all Twitter advertisers. We’ve been hard at work since our last update, and have now hit an important milestone that creates value on top of the measurement and optimization solutions we launched earlier this year.” The new Twitter Pixel is a measurement solution

By Adedapo Adesanya The first trading day of the new week closed flat on the floor of the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange despite the weekly gain posted by the market last week. On Monday, when activities resumed at the nation’s unlisted securities market, the main performance indicators, the market capitalisation and the NASD unlisted Security Index (NSI) ended at the same level they were last Friday, when investors last had any deal on the trading platform. Business Post reports that the market capitalisation remained at N498.04 billion at the close of transactions yesterday, while the index settled at 693.22

By Tenebe Anthonia Over 3,000 face masks have been donated to transport workers, teachers and artisans in Lagos State by members of staff of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). The items were given out by the employees of the exchange to raise awareness and support the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in the state and the country at large. It was gathered that the donation was made as part of the NSE Employee Giveback and Volunteering Programme which was instituted to encourage employees to make a positive impact in their communities whilst providing them with hands-on experience and the learning