CBN Remains Adamant to Hike Rates to Boost OMO Sales

By Adedapo Adesanya The federal government has set plans in motion to raise $200 million from philanthropic individuals and organisations as part of efforts to create jobs and support Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria. Nigeria is home to over 36.9 million MSMEs, comprising 96.7 per cent of all businesses in Nigeria. According to data, 67 per cent of these businesses are youth-owned. MSMEs contribute over 45 per cent to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), with 98.8 per cent of them in the micro cadre. They account for nearly 90 per cent of the jobs in the

By Bliss Okperan, Adedapo Adesanya  The cost of cooking a pot of jollof rice, one of the most consumed foods daily in Nigeria, has surged by 37.4 per cent, according to research carried out by Business Post. Using market data and the most recent food price watch by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), major food items in making the delicacy, including rice, groundnut oil, tomatoes, and onions, among others have recorded a massive increase within the past year, making it hard for the average Nigerian to survive. According to NBS, 1 kilogram of Rice cost N757.06 in 2023 as

By Dipo Olowookere The positive momentum witnessed at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited continued on Monday with a 0.17 per cent leap at the close of business. Buying pressure, particularly in a few blue-chip equities, kept the bulls at Customs Street during the trading session, though the consumer goods space succumbed to profit-taking by 0.99 per cent. But hope was kept alive by the gains reported by the other key sectors of the market, with the banking counter growing by 1.71 per cent, and the industrial goods index appreciating by 0.01 per cent, while the insurance and energy sectors remained

By Dipo Olowookere Shares of MeCure Industries appreciated by 60.73 per cent last week on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited as investors began to see value in the company. Business Post reports that in the week, the price of the stock closed at N9.21 per unit compared with the preceding week’s N5.73 per unit, leading the gainers’ chart of 59 members, higher than 54 of the preceding week. On its part, Multiverse rose by 60.06 per cent to N5.81, Unity Bank improved by 57.26 per cent to N1.84, Secure Electronic Technology jumped by 52.78 per cent to

By Adedapo Adesanya Twenty-two oil and gas companies have been selected as successful bidders for the gas flare commercialisation programme of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission ((NUPRC). The 2022 Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialization Programme (NGFCP) auction process was for 49 Flare Sites put forward by the agency under the erstwhile administration of Mr Muhammadu Buhari. The immediate past government in December 2016 launched NGFCP to involve third-party investors or off-takers in harnessing gas released as a by-product of oil production, a crucial part of the seven big wins of the administration for the oil and gas sector. Launched by

By Dipo Olowookere For the fourth consecutive time this week, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) ended in the red territory despite a sharp increase in the volume and value of shares transacted during the trading session. The stock market closed 1.33 percent lower yesterday, sinking the year-to-date loss deeper to 19.96 percent at the close of business. This was as the volume of equities traded rose by 100.37 percent from 220.4 million to 441.6 million and the value of shares grew by 63.58 percent from N2.7 billion to N4.5 billion. Business Post reports that the expected release of the third

By Dipo Olowookere President Muhammadu Buhari has been urged to urgently carry out a cabinet reshuffle so as to deliver the good dividends of democracy to the citizens. At a press conference held in Lagos on Thursday, the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), which made this plea, also advised the President to relinquish his position as the Minister of Petroleum Resources so as to allow him focus more on other issues. Executive Director of CACOL, Mr Debo Adeniran, said President Buhari should resign as oil Minister so as to concentrate “his energy on supervisory roles over all ministries

By Adedapo Adesanya Following the recent deluge of criticisms of President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive directing ministers to channel all correspondence through the Chief of Staff, Mr Abba Kyari, the Presidency has assured that there has been no change to the functions performed by the Chief of Staff. Reacting to this issue, the Senior Special Adviser (SSA) to the President on Media, Mr Garba Shehu, disclosed that President Buhari merely pronounced one of the primary functions of the Chief of Staff. Mr Shehu clarified the inaccuracy in a series of tweets via his official Twitter handle, @GarShehu, saying, “Recent media and

By Adedapo Adesanya President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed that the proposed national carrier, Nigeria Air, is at 91 per cent completion and is expected to commence flight operations by December. Mr Buhari said this at the third ministerial performance review retreat on Monday in Abuja. This is coming more than six months after Mr Hadi Sirika, the Minister of Aviation, said the country’s proposed national carrier would take off by April 2022. However, with many challenges gripping the sector, it has missed the deadline. Ethiopian Airlines (ET) consortium was recently selected as the preferred bidder for Nigeria Air after scoring

In continuation of its efforts to create a network of developers across the world as part of its mission to give people the power to build communities and bring the world closer together, Facebook’s Developer Circles on Saturday, December 8 organised a Startups and Developers Summit in Lagos. The summit which took place at the Landmark Event Center and brought together about 600 Developers and Startup Tech founders, was held with the aim of re-establishing Facebook’s commitment in the region for the tech communities, inspiring developers and startups with the latest technology from Facebook as well as highlighting the Developer

By Jerome-Mario Chijioke Utomi Every May 27, the global community celebrates one of its ‘annual rituals’ tagged Children’s Day, aimed at promoting mutual exchange and understanding among children and secondly to initiating action to promote the ideals of the United Nations Charter and the welfare of the world’s children. Historically, the event has been celebrated since 1950; it is celebrated on June 1 in most Communist and post-Communist countries. World Children’s Day is celebrated on the 20th of November to commemorate the Declaration of the Rights of the Child by the UN General Assembly on 20 November 1959. In some

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Reports emerging from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) indicate that Nigeria has been ‘informed’ not to produce more than 1.8 million barrels of oil per day until the end of March 2018. However, nothing has been said about Libya, which is being speculated might also be given a limit. The African nation presently has an output target of 1.25 million bpd by December. Secretary-General of OPEC, Mr Mohammad Barkindo disclosed on Monday at a meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC members in St Petersburg, Russia that Nigeria has no intention of going beyond its oil