Court Orders FG to Return OPL 245 to Shell, Eni

By Bliss Okperan Nigeria’s internet speed averages 25 megabits per second (Mbps), according to data from Surf Shark, a cybersecurity company focused on developing humanised privacy and security solutions. The ranking, contained in the 5th annual (Digital Quality of Life Index (DQL), showed that the country dropped two places to 7th from 9th within the last two years. A quick average analysis shows that at an average of 25 Mbps, Nigeria is far from the world’s fastest fixed internet Singapore, which is 300 Mbps and is ahead compared to the slowest fixed internet in the world, Yemen, which is 11

By Adedapo Adesanya The average price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol, surged by 230.8 per cent on a year-to-year basis to N626.70 per litre in August 2023 versus N189.46 per litre in the same period of 2022. This is according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its Premium Motor Spirit (Petrol) Price Watch (August 2023), which showed that the average retail price increased on a month-on-month basis by 4.39 per cent from N600.3 per litre in July. The skyrocketing cost of petrol came as President Bola Tinubu, during his inauguration speech on May 29,

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 Adedapo Adesanya Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Mr Wale Edun, has said the country is unable to clear up to $6.8 billion of overdue forward payments in the foreign exchange market, noting that this is preventing the Naira from gaining stability. Speaking in an interview on Thursday, Mr Edun lamented that the country’s FX market is facing a serious liquidity crisis due to low flows. “The issue we have now is that the market is not liquid enough,” he said in an interview in New York, per Bloomberg. The Minister said that resolving the overdue contracts would allow the Naira

By Dipo Olowookere Acting President, Mr Yemi Osinbajo, has expressed Federal Government’s determination to now concentrate on agriculture and food security, energy, (power and petroleum), industrialization and transport infrastructure in the next two years. Mr Osinbajo made this disclosure on Tuesday at the commissioning of the N10 billion WACOT Rice Mill in Kebbi State. The Acting President noted that government will work closely with the private sector to bring development to the country and as well give them the necessary incentives and creating an enabling environment for them to invest and do business. He commended the TGI Group for supporting

By Adedapo Adesanya One of Nigeria’s leading insurance companies, Veritas Kapital Assurance Plc, has introduced an interactive WhatsApp platform that will enable people to buy insurance policies in Nigeria in five minutes. According to a press statement, Veritas noted that the WhatsApp channel is the fastest and most secure way to buy an insurance policy on the go. The insurer explained that this initiative was introduced to make subscribing to insurance packages seamless and further deepen insurance penetration in the country. “In a bid to further the company’s mission of putting insurance at the fingertips of everyday Nigerians, Veritas Kapital

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State has disclosed that a stakeholder’s conference on girl child education will take place in the state. Speaking with VON in Ilorin shortly after his private visit to his Kwara State counterpart, Mr Abdulfatah Ahmed, Mr Tambuwal noted that the forum would be used to address challenges confronting the state education sector, particularly Girl child education. According to him, the conference is in partnership with the UNICEF and the Sultan Foundation in Sokoto. Already, he said, a bill had been forwarded to the State House of Assembly to establish an education agency

By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh In late August, the US government donated 1.3 million doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines and plans another 3.5 million more doses in the coming weeks in tremendous and recognizable efforts to support the goal of vaccinating approximately 5 million children between the ages of 12-17 in the Republic of Mozambique. This donation obviously marks a significant expansion in Mozambique’s COVID-19 effort by extending protection from adults to adolescents. Critical to ensuring the safe preservation of these vaccines, UNICEF and the Government of Germany via COVAX, supported the Ministry of Health to establish the necessary ultra-cold

By Dipo Olowookere In 2020, one of the mid-level financial institutions in Nigeria, First City Monument Bank (FCMB), witnessed a surge in the number of complaints it received from its customers. The analysis of a document released by the lender by Business Post showed that some of the outstanding complaints were from failed bill payments, dispensing errors on other bank terminals, excess charges, amongst others. Last year, many organisations, including banks, were forced to operate remotely and this made many residents of the country to carry out financial transactions with the use of technology, especially mobile phones. The use of

By Modupe Gbadeyanka A partnership has been entered into between the Oyo State government and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) for the development of an agricultural policy roadmap for the state. As part of the contribution towards this 20-year blueprint, the state government has given IITA the sum of N20 million. At a meeting held with the Oyo State government, IITA was charged with the establishment of an agribusiness park to be funded by the state government. It was gathered that the integrated agribusiness park would be developed in phases, from the primary production of roots, construction and

By Adedapo Adesanya The performance of the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange in the month of November 2019 was not impressive, closing bearish for the seventh month. The major market indicators, the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) and market capitalisation both declined by 0.92 percent in the month on the back of the decline in the price of three stock bellwethers and two others. At the close of transactions last month, the market capitalisation depreciated by N4.62 billion to close at N497.75 billion against N502.37 billion it opened the month with. In the same vein, the NSI went down by

By FSDH Research We expect the May 2017 inflation rate (year-on-year) to drop to 16.13 percent from 17.24 percent recorded in the month of April 2017. The drop is expected to come mainly as a result of base effect from the increase in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) in May 2016 despite the elevated consumer prices recorded in May 2017. The sharp increase in the prices of consumer goods in May 2017 show that inflationary pressure persists in Nigeria. Based on the data release calendar on the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) website, we expect the NBS