Economy
Ecobank Nigeria Workforce Constitutes 46% of Women—Akinwuntan
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The Managing Director of Ecobank Nigeria, Mr Patrick Akinwuntan, has disclosed that the banking institution is one organisation that is promoting gender balance in its employment.
Mr Akinwuntan, while speaking at the launch of The Nigeria2Equal Gender Program last Friday, said at the moment, the lender is close to having 50 per cent of women in its workforce.
According to him, policies and structures have been put in place to promote gender balance in its employment, while the bank also has many initiatives and innovative products targeted at empowering and sustaining female entrepreneurs in Nigeria such as Ellevate and Ecobank Female Entrepreneurs Initiative (EFEI), which are designed to empower and support female-owned small-scale businesses.
“As a bank. we have deliberately focused on supporting women leaders within Ecobank. In Ecobank Nigeria 46 per cent of our workforce are women, 54 per cent of the Exco members are women.
“We have four regions in Nigeria, three Regional Heads are women, including the Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director.
“We also institutionalized our group’s advice to all affiliates to ensure that the board representation across all affiliates has a minimum of 30 per cent women representation. That has the potential to be exceeded in a short time.
“Facing the market, we launched the Elevate program. It is dedicated to women-owned businesses and companies that employ women as the majority of their workforce.
“We have plans to empower 40 million female entrepreneurs in the next few years with this program. So, it is all-encompassing,” Mr Akinwuntan, who was represented at the event by Mrs Korede Demola-Adeniyi, the Head of Consumer Banking at Ecobank, stated.
The Nigeria2Equal Gender Program was put in place by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited to reduce gender gaps across employment and entrepreneurship in the Nigerian private sector.
The program is the first multi-stakeholder country project focused on ensuring equality within Nigerian companies. It is organized into three components i.e. research, peer learning platform and firm-level support to companies.
In her welcome address, Regional Gender Lead, Africa, IFC, Ms Anne Njambi Kabugi, said the objective of Nigeria2Equal Gender Program is to work with the private sector to reduce gender gaps across employment and entrepreneurship, adding that the approach is to combine in-depth client work with peer learning to share best practices and create market learning.
She disclosed that the program which will last for about two and half years will focus on investigating gender balance in leadership and workplace; equal compensation and work-life balance; policies promoting gender equality as relates to commitment, transparency, and accountability among others.
She added that participating companies are expected to make two specific, measurable and time-bound commitments to reduce gender gaps across leadership, employment, and entrepreneurship in the corporate value chain.
The initiative has 18 partners in 10 sectors which cut across Banking and Finance, Construction, FMCG, Food Manufacturing, Hospitality, Insurance, Logistics, Oil & Gas, Ride-hailing, Telecommunication.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
Nigeria slightly surpassed its quota set by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in July 2026.
In the month under review, the country produced about 1.57 million barrels of crude oil per day.
It was the third consecutive month Africa’s largest oil-producing nation was meeting its monthly quota, set to stabilise the price of the commodity on the global market by the oil cartel.
Data released by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) on Wednesday showed that the 1.5 million barrels per day ceiling for Nigeria was surpassed last month.
The agency disclosed in a statement today that the country produced 1.505mbpd of crude oil and 0.17mbpd of condensate, bringing the combined daily production to 1.67mbpd.
In the month under review, the daily peak production of crude oil and condensate was 1.78mbpd, while the lowest daily production was 1.57mbpd.
Although Nigeria met its OPEC quota in the month of July, the statistics show that on a month-on-month basis, production fell by 4 per cent.
This was attributed to the decline in production due to operational challenges experienced at the Erha and Akpo fields, which impacted crude oil output during the period under review.
These disruptions constrained production volumes and contributed significantly to the overall reduction in national crude oil output.
Despite the challenges, production operations across most other producing assets remained relatively stable, with operators implementing measures aimed at maintaining production efficiency and minimising the impact of operational constraints, NUPRC stated.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The over 9 billion shares of Lasaco Assurance Plc issued to shareholders of the company via a rights issue have been listed on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited.
The equities were brought to Customs Street on Wednesday by the organisation, increasing its total issued and fully paid-up share capital.
Lasaco Assurance, which scaled the recapitalisation hurdle of the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) in July 2026, raised fresh capital from the capital market to shore up its capital base.
The underwriting firm got about N18.5 billion from the rights issue, which involved the issuance of 9,236,321,546 ordinary shares at a unit price of N2.00.
The exercise was on the basis of five new ordinary shares for every existing six ordinary shares held as of the close of business on Friday, February 20, 2026.
Confirming the listing of the additional stocks of Lasaco Assurance today, the Head of Issuer Regulation Department of NGX RegCo, Mr Godstime Iwenekhai, announced in a circular that, “Trading licence holders are hereby notified that an additional 9,236,321,546 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each of Lasaco Assurance Plc were today, Wednesday, August 12, 2026, listed on the daily official list of Nigerian Exchange Limited.
“The additional shares arose from the company’s rights issue of 9,236,321,546 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each at N2.00 per share on the basis of five new ordinary shares for every existing six ordinary shares held as of the close of business on Friday, February 20, 2026.
“With the listing of the additional 9,236,321,546 ordinary shares, the total issued and fully paid-up share capital of Lasaco Assurance Plc has now increased from 11,083,585,855 to 20,319,907,401 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each.”
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) has said the successful recapitalisation of the insurance industry will strengthen the sector’s ability to support financial stability and economic growth.
NIA Chairman, Mrs Ebelechukwu Nwachukwu, said a well-capitalised insurance industry would be better positioned to meet its obligations promptly, underwrite complex and large-scale risks and serve as a dependable pillar of the Nigerian economy.
She made the remarks while commending the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) for its structured implementation of the new minimum capital requirements under the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) 2025.
Mrs Nwachukwu said NAICOM’s clear guidelines, systematic verification process, defined timelines and rigorous supervision had provided operators with a credible framework for navigating the recapitalisation exercise.
She described the outcome as a major milestone for the industry and congratulated the 43 insurance and reinsurance companies that have successfully met the prescribed minimum capital requirements.
According to her, the exercise represents “a major win not just for regulators and operators, but for policyholders, investors and the wider Nigerian economy.”
Mrs Nwachukwu said the association would continue to work with NAICOM and other stakeholders to consolidate the gains of the exercise, with emphasis on sustainable industry growth, stronger market conduct and improved consumer confidence.
The official also expressed solidarity with the eight companies still undergoing final verification and regulatory review, urging them to remain confident as NAICOM completes the process within the 14-day review period.
The NIA chairman assured policyholders and the wider business community that the insurance industry would emerge from the recapitalisation exercise stronger, more resilient and better positioned to contribute to Nigeria’s economic development.
