Economy
DHL Express Rewards 4000 Employees
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Nearly 4,000 DHL Express employees in Sub-Saharan Africa have been recognized for their contributions to success of the company.
The workers were honoured at the annual DHL Employee Appreciation Week, where special meals, giveaways, fun team activities and long service awards were doled out to them.
Vice President, Human Resources, DHL Express Sub Saharan Africa, Mr Paul Clegg, said the rewards were “just few of the ways we are celebrating, recognizing and rewarding our employees across the continent.”
“While the focus is on fun, the initiative is meant to recognize and reward our teams across Africa who make it possible for us to deliver excellence to our customers.
“One of Deutsche Post DHL Group’s three bottom lines is to be the ‘Employer of Choice’, so our efforts are focused on creating a great place to work. We believe how we think influences what we say and do and the only way to maintain our ‘Insanely Customer Centric Culture’ is if we have highly motivated, well-trained, emotionally-engaged and happy employees,” he added.
In Deloitte’s, 2017 Global Human Capital Trends, it is shown that while employee engagement is increasingly being recognized across the globe as an integral component to business success, relatively few companies have begun to build programs, strategies and teams that understand and continuously improve employee engagement.
On top of recommending taking a proactive role in understanding and improving employee experience in the company, especially those that operate in competitive global economies—like DHL Express—the study also suggests that pushing out these engagement programs and strategies is becoming increasingly vital to business bottom-lines. This is because when companies succeed in attracting and retaining skilled employees, these employees will in turn provide excellent customer experiences.
“It’s easy to say that employees are at the heart of your business – but it still comes down to strategic planning and program implementation. Companies should have a robust employee engagement program in order to get the best out of their teams,” Mr Clegg adds.
“At DHL Express, we have a full scope of supporting programs, such as Certified International Specialist (CIS), a cultural change program that all employees across sub-Saharan Africa go through, along with regular reinforcement training and our Certified International Manager program, which focuses on ensuring that leaders have the right leadership and social skills to support and develop their teams. We also have an annual, independent Employee Opinion Survey and regular recognition schemes, such as Employee Appreciation Week and Employee of the Quarter/ Year. I believe a large part of our success lies in the fact that our leaders are measured on employee engagement as part of their performance criteria – this ensures that it remains top of mind.”
“While recognition of employees remains a key element, it is increasingly important to train and retain talent, especially in emerging markets; employees need to be continually engaged and developed in order to thrive. The transition from ‘Africa Rising’ to ‘Africa Thriving’ can only be achieved through the retention, recognition and development of talent on this continent,” concludes Mr Clegg.
DHL Express Sub Sahara Africa’s “Top Employer Africa 2017” certification for the third year running also reaffirms the company’s commitment to providing exceptional employee conditions on the continent.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Senate has passed a bill to repeal and re-enact the law establishing the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), paving the way for the regulatory agency to be renamed the Insurance Regulatory Commission (IRC).
The legislation, titled the Insurance Regulatory Commission (Establishment) Bill, 2026, was passed after the Senate considered and adopted the report of its committee on banking, insurance and other financial institutions.
The Chairman of the committee, Mr Adetokunbo Abiru, the senator representing Lagos East, who presented the report, stated that the proposed legislation was necessary because the existing National Insurance Commission Act of 1997 had become outdated and no longer reflected the realities of Nigeria’s evolving insurance industry or global regulatory standards.
According to the Senate, the decision to change the Commission’s name was informed by the need to eliminate confusion associated with the existing designation and to better reflect the institution’s regulatory mandate within Nigeria’s insurance industry.
The bill also provides legal protection for the commission and its officers against adverse claims arising from the lawful execution of their statutory duties.
However, he noted that the commission’s enabling law had become obsolete, exposing significant regulatory gaps that required urgent legislative intervention.
‘The current National Insurance Commission Act 1997 is outdated and does not adequately address the emerging economic growth, needs and development of the insurance business,” the lawmaker said.
He explained that the new legislation seeks to strengthen the independence of the commission by empowering it to make regulatory decisions without undue influence in the country’s insurance sector.
According to him, the bill also enhances the commission’s authority to exchange information and collaborate with domestic and international regulatory bodies, issue regulations, guidelines, standards and directives on insurance-related matters, and intervene more effectively in financially distressed insurance companies to protect policyholders and preserve financial stability.
This marks yet another move to strengthen the country’s insurance sector following the enactment of the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) of 2025 and the industry-wide recapitalisation exercise, which will wrap up by July 31.
By Adedapo Adesanya
About 143 companies that successfully passed the technical and prequalification stages of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission’s (NUPRC) 2025 Licensing Round will, today, compete for 50 oil and gas blocks at the commercial bid conference in Abuja, the final stage in the allocation process for the assets.
The commission said only the prequalified companies have been invited to attend the event, which will hold at the Conference Centre of the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, stressing that participation is strictly by invitation.
The commercial bid conference will determine the successful bidders for oil and gas assets located across Nigeria’s producing and frontier basins.
The 50 blocks comprise 16 onshore blocks and 18 shallow water blocks in the Niger Delta, one deep offshore block, three onshore blocks in the Benin Basin, four in the Anambra Basin, four in the Chad Basin, and four in the Benue Trough.
According to the commission, the winning bids will be determined through a transparent evaluation process based on clearly defined commercial parameters. These include the signature bonus offered by bidders, the proposed work programme commitment and the level of performance security provided. The final selection will be based on a weighted technical and commercial score.
The licensing round is being conducted under the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, which requires a transparent and competitive process for the award of petroleum assets.
NUPRC had announced the commencement of the 2025 Licensing Round on November 11, 2025, before opening the online bid portal on December 1, 2025, to enable interested companies to register and participate in the exercise.
To ensure prospective investors fully understood the requirements, the commission organised a pre-bid conference on January 14, 2026, at Eko Hotels and Suites, Lagos. The event provided detailed explanations on the licensing guidelines and bidding procedures to registered participants and other stakeholders.
Registration and submission of prequalification documents closed on February 27, 2026, while the prequalification evaluation was completed on March 16, 2026.
NUPRC disclosed that 286 companies initially submitted applications for prequalification.
Following the evaluation process, 196 companies were cleared to participate in the technical and commercial bid stages.
The prequalified 143 companies eventually submitted a total of 200 bids for the available oil and gas blocks. These companies are now set to compete at the commercial bid conference, where the financial offers will be opened and evaluated to determine the eventual winners.
The licensing round is expected to attract fresh investment into Nigeria’s upstream petroleum sector, boost exploration activities across both producing and frontier basins, increase crude oil and gas reserves, and support the country’s drive to grow production and government revenue.
It also underscores the regulator’s commitment to implementing a transparent, competitive and investor-friendly licensing regime under the Petroleum Industry Act.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has retained all key monetary policy parameters following the conclusion of its two-day meeting on July 21, 2026, on Tuesday, maintaining its tight monetary policy stance to curb inflation and support macroeconomic stability.
According to the Governor of the apex bank, Mr Yemi Cardoso, who chaired the committee, the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), which serves as the benchmark interest rate, remains at 26.50 per cent. The MPC also retained the asymmetric corridor around the MPR at +50 basis points and -450 basis points.
In addition, the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) for commercial banks was left unchanged at 45.00 per cent, while the CRR for merchant banks remains at 16.00 per cent. The committee also retained the CRR on non-Treasury Single Account (Non-TSA) public sector deposits at 75.00 per cent, with the liquidity ratio at 30.00 per cent.
The decision reflects the apex bank’s continued commitment to containing inflationary pressures through a restrictive monetary policy while safeguarding the resilience of Nigeria’s financial system amid ongoing macroeconomic adjustments.
By keeping all policy tools unchanged, the MPC signalled its intention to continue managing excess liquidity in the banking sector and maintain stability in financial markets.
The move is also expected to provide greater policy certainty for investors and businesses monitoring the country’s monetary policy direction.
The latest decision also means borrowing costs are likely to remain elevated in the near term as the central bank continues to prioritise price stability over monetary easing.
Analysts had expected the CBN committee to retain the rate after Nigeria’s headline inflation came in at 15.91 per cent as of June 2026, marking a slight decline from 15.93 per cent in May.
However, even as overall price growth has moderated significantly compared to previous periods, food inflation remains a persistent challenge, accelerating to 17.52 per cent in June.
