Buhari Reiterates Support for Sustainable Natural Gas Growth

By Adedapo Adesanya The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) has called on the newly appointed Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Yemi Cardoso, to clear the backlog of foreign exchange as well as guarantee another recapitalisation in the banking sector. “The clearance of the backlog of forex obligations should be accorded high priority to restore the confidence of domestic and foreign investors,” the Managing Director of CPPE, Mr Muda Yusuf said in a press statement titled Ten Point Agenda For The CBN Governor, released over the weekend. Mr Cardoso and four new deputies on

By Dipo Olowookere The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) kicked off the first trading session in the last week of the third quarter of the year on a negative note, with the key performance indices going down by 0.66 per cent on Monday. This was partly caused by the reaction of investors to the 30 Kobo interim dividend declaration of the board of Access Holdings Plc. A few days ago, its peer, UBA Plc, raised its interim dividend payment by 150 per cent to 50 Kobo and it was expected that Access Holdings would follow the same path. However, the company disappointed

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 Afrinvestor Research Hub Despite several OMO mop ups, SMIS sales and the NTB auction held during the week, financial system liquidity remained positive on all trading sessions this week. Interbank market rates remained at single digit at the start of the week but spiked to double digit mid-week following special OMO sales. At the start of the week, Open Buy Back (OBB) and Overnight (OVN) lending rates traded within a 5.0 percent – 5.8 percent range on the first 2 trading sessions due to surplus system liquidity as against a deficit of N115.4 billion from previous Friday’s close. The

By Adedapo Adesanya The Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) has lamented over the foreign exchange (forex) crisis facing the country, saying that supply from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has reduced drastically. The association’s president, Mr Aminu Gwadabe, made this disclosure during a recent interview on Channels Television. He noted that the forex crisis was as a result of massive speculation, hoarding and panic buying, which have put the local currency under serious pressure. He complained that about $3 billion was waiting to be wired offshore by investors should the pandemic disappear and economic activities

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Shares of University Press Plc performed well at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) last week, growing by 31.45 per cent or 39 kobo to close at N1.63 per share in the five-day trading week. The sudden demand for the stock pushed the equity price higher in the week. This was also the cash of FTN Cocoa Processors Plc, which recorded a 20.00 per cent growth to finish at 24 kobo per share. Champion Breweries appreciated in the week by 19.23 per cent to finish at 93 kobo per share, NEM Insurance gained 14.97 per cent to end

By Modupe Gbadeyanka A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr Anthony Idigbe, has been elected as the new Chairman of Ikeja Hotel Plc. Mr Idigbe replaces Mr Goodie Minabo Ibru, who retired few months ago. It was gathered that Mr Idigbe was elected as Chairman of the hospitality firm at a meeting of the board of directors of Ikeja Hotel Plc held on Monday, May 15, 2017, at the Sheraton Hotel Ikeja. During the meeting, some individuals were elected into different positions in the company, including Abatcha Bulama, Toke Ibru, Ufuoma Ibru, Alex Thomopholus, Waheed Olagunju, Kunle Aluko and Fadeke

By Modupe Gbadeyanka At least the sum of N160 billion has been raised by the Federal Government in local currency bonds at its second debt auction in 2017. According to figures released by the Debt Management Office (DMO), which performed the auctioning on behalf of the government, the bonds were raised at yields lower than inflation rate. From the figures analysed by Business Post, investors oversubscribed the bonds. While the DMO planned to raise N110 billion from the exercise, offers worth N337.03 billion were received from investors. In the analysis, N70 billion was realised from the notes maturing in 2036

By Adedapo Adesanya As economies faced the downturn of the coronavirus pandemic, the World Bank has disclosed that remittance inflows into Nigeria declined by 28 per cent in 2020 to $17.2 billion. The Bretton Wood Institution also said remittance flows fell for Sub-Saharan Africa by 12.5 per cent, according to its Migration and Development Brief 33 Phase 11 report titled COVID-19 Crisis Through a Migration Lens published on Thursday. The report said the decline in remittance flows to Nigeria was largely responsible for the fall in remittance flows to Sub-Saharan Africa as it alone accounted for over 40 per cent

By Adedapo Adesanya The Board of Directors of the African Development Fund approved an $11.02 million support package to the permanent secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to help it enhance effective implementation. The AfCFTA secretariat opened its doors in Accra, Ghana on August 17, 2020, with the initial support of $5 million to set up the secretariat, the programmes, and the tools and to raise stakeholder awareness. AfCFTA, the world’s second-largest free trade area has a potential market of 1.2 billion consumers. Still, Africa has the world’s lowest level of intraregional trade at less than 18

The three-day work and two-day farming for workers policy introduced by the Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, has been kicked against by president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ayuba Wabba. Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday, Mr Wabba said the policy was against the International Labour Organisation Convention and also against the rules and procedures in service. He said sending workers to farm by force should be rejected by all in strong term. “First, we have condemned in very strong terms what the Imo State governor tries to do by forcefully sending workers