CBN Auctions N35.69b Bills as Overnight Rate Drops to 22.33%

By Dipo Olowookere Profit-taking activities brought back the bears to the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Monday as investors rebalanced their portfolios. It was observed that traders at Customs Street booked profits in shares mostly in the industrial goods sectors like BUA Cement and Lafarge Africa. This resultantly brought down the local stock market by 0.66 per cent at the close of transactions, with the industrial goods space losing 4.21 per cent, the insurance counter declining by 0.28 per cent, and the energy sector falling by 0.01 per cent. However, the consumer goods index improved yesterday by

By Adedapo Adesanya The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said it would ensure that the next national minimum wage to be negotiated in 2024 reflects the prevailing cost of living. The union also lamented that following the removal of fuel subsidy by the federal government, life has become extremely unbearable for workers. Addressing participants at the opening of the 19th edition of the NLC’s Harmattan School in Abuja, President of the NLC, Mr Joe Ajaero, said it had become necessary for governments at all levels to recognise that life and living conditions were exceedingly difficult, especially for working people in

By Adedapo Adesanya The trio of Newrest Asl Plc, FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc, and Acorn Petroleum Plc made the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange appreciate by 0.14 per cent on Friday, December 1. The three gainers pressed down the 8 Kobo loss reported by UBN Property Plc, which closed the trading session at N1.52 per unit compared with the preceding day’s value of N1.60 per unit. During the trading day, Newrest Plc gained N1.46 to close at N16.10 per share compared with Thursday’s closing price of N14.64 per share, FrieslandCampina Wamco Plc moved up by 60 Kobo to end the

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 Modupe Gbadeyanka The poultry business has been described as one of the avenues to tackle the various economic challenges facing Nigeria, as it could stimulate the economy if properly harnessed. This was the view of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Faruk Yahaya, when he spoke at the Poultry Management Workshop 2023 organised by the Nigerian Army Farms and Ranches Limited (NAFRL) at the Land Forces Simulation Centre Nigeria Conference Hall on Tuesday, May 2, 2023. The head of the Nigerian Army disclosed that authorities of the organisation were using the poultry business as one of the

By Adedapo Adesanya Nigeria has been tasked to boost its logistics industry as part of measures to boost its economic growth. This was made by the World Bank in its 2023 Logistics Performance Index (LPI) report, which showed countries’ ability to move goods across borders with speed and reliability. In Nigeria’s case, the country has a score of 2.6, which is slightly above the mid-point. In the report, the World Bank urged developing economies to boost their economic growth through improvements in logistics for goods transportation. The LPI report came after three years of unprecedented supply chain disruptions during the

By Dipo Olowookere Mrs Yetunde Olubunmi Ilori has been confirmed as the substantive Director-General of the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA). Her appointment was approved by the Governing Council of the association. A statement issued by the NIA disclosed that Mrs Ilori has over 32 years’ experience in the insurance industry and is expected to bring to the association her industry wide experience which has seen her take up many active roles and appointments during these past years. Until her appointment, Mrs Ilori was the Chief Executive Officer of Axa Mansard Insurance Plc, a member of the AXA Group. Mrs Ilori

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Senate President, Mr Bukola Saraki, has disclosed that the proscription of the group known as Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) by Governors of the South-east states and the categorization of the group as a ‘terrorist organisation’ by the Nigerian military are unconstitutional and does not follow due process. The Senate President made this disclosure on Monday in a statement he personally signed. In the statement, the number three citizen of Nigeria promised that the National Assembly would look into the crisis in the region. However, he called for calm and restraint by all Nigerians so that “we

By Adedapo Adesanya The crude oil market rose more than 1 per cent a barrel on Monday, boosted by the prospect of tightening supplies in Canada and elsewhere, although recession fears kept pressuring the market. Brent crude futures closed at $75.23 per barrel after gaining $1.06 or 1.4 per cent, as the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures traded at $71.11 a barrel after growing by $1.07 or 1.5 per cent. Wildfires raged in Alberta, Canada, shutting in large amounts of crude supply, and prices rose on fears they could worsen. At least 300,000 barrels of oil equivalent per

By Adedapo Adesanya MTN Nigeria has apologised to its subscribers, blaming the network outage experienced on Saturday, October 9 on a system error. In a video message sent to Business Post on Sunday, the Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mr Karl Toriola, said the downtime was a result of system error from its end and not a result of sabotage as many feared, especially because it occurred a day after Facebook suffered a similar issue. MTN users had October 9 experienced hours of network disruption, which affected calls and connections to the internet. Mr Toriola explained that the technical

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Quickteller has announced the launch of its new platform that allows Nigerians pay with the Naira for goods purchased directly from over 100 international stores like Amazon, Zara, eBay and Macy’s. Called the Quickteller Global Mall, this initiative will afford Quickteller users easy access to shop from leading international sites across the UK and the US. Quickteller Global Mall is a digital payments and commerce platform owned by Pan-African integrated digital payments and commerce company, Interswitch Group. It has been developed in furtherance of the company’s commitment toward solving existing challenges around digital payments and commerce in

By Adedapo Adesanya Total Nigeria Plc has formally changed the company’s name to TotalEnergies Marketing Nigeria Plc, a notice sent to the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Thursday has confirmed. The disclosure signed by Mrs Bunmi Popoola-Mordi, the company secretary (Executive General Manager), said that the shareholders of Total Nigeria authorised the name change on August 19, 2021. “The name change is accompanied by a new visual identity for all of our activities, aimed at anchoring our transformation to a multi-energy group, such transformation being based on a development strategy of two pillars, gas and renewable electricity, as well as