Emefiele Elected IILM Governing Board Chairman

By Adedapo Adesanya The President of the Dangote Group, the owners of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals plant, Mr Aliko Dangote, has said that following the purchase of 1 million barrels of Agbami crude grade from Shell International Trading and Shipping Company Limited (STASCO), it will be looking to ramp up its production in coming months. The 650,000 barrels per day capacity refinery is not expected to hit full capacity until 2025, but with a gradual ramping, it is expected that it will begin with begin producing up to 370,000 barrels per day of diesel and jet fuel. “We

By Adedapo Adesanya African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has announced that the third Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2023) held in Cairo from November 9-15 witnessed the conclusion of business deals and transactions valued at $43.8 billion. The lender said in the final tallies released in Cairo, the organisers of the continental event said that the amount represented the value of 426 deals concluded in 21 sectors covering 52 countries. At a press conference to announce the results, Mrs Kanayo Awani, Executive Vice President (Intra-African Trade Bank) at Afreximbank, also announced that 130 countries participated in the trade fair, which attracted 1,939 exhibitors

By Adedapo Adesanya The federal government has exempted imported Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and its equipment from the payment of customs duty and value-added tax (VAT), a move expected to result in a drop in the cost of cooking gas in the country and bring much-needed succour to Nigerians. This was disclosed by the Minister of Finance, Mr Wale Edun, in a letter (dated November 28, 2023) to the Special Adviser to the President on Energy; the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS); and the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). Recall that in 2019, the federal

By Adedapo Adesanya The Nigerian Naira weakened to a new low on the American Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday, December 8, amid speculations that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has again devalued the local currency. In the previous trading session, there were reports that the exchange rate for clearing cargoes has been raised to N952/$1, sparking rumours that domestic currency would hit N1,000/$1 in the spot market. On the last trading session of the week, the Naira lost N255.98 or 30.4 per cent of its value on the greenback to trade at N1,099.05/$1

By Dipo Olowookere Nigeria plans to generate as much as $16.4 billion through asset sales in the next four years to reduce the burden on the public budget, a Budget Ministry document showed. The sales, according to Bloomberg, will help to tackle inefficiencies and stem “corruption in public enterprises,” which outlines the West African nation’s plans for economic recovery from 2017 to 2020. President Muhammadu Buhari will introduce the proposal on an unspecified date this month. It didn’t name the assets it may sell. Nigeria estimates its economy contracted 1.5 percent in 2016, partly because of a decline in the

By Adedapo Adesanya For the fourth straight session, the Naira traded flat against the US Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Wednesday. The Naira, despite coming under a significant forex demand yesterday at the market, it maintained its stability against the greenback to close at N415.10/$1, the same exchange rate on Tuesday. Data showed that the value of transactions recorded at the midweek trading session stood at $298.88 million and when compared with the preceding day’s turnover, it was $236.35 million or 377.9 per cent higher as trades worth $62.53 million

By Adedapo Adesanya  The Naira appreciated further at the black market, the Investors and Exporters (I&E) and the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segments of the foreign exchange market on Thursday, August 17, as the market received a major FX supply boost of about $3 billion emergency loan. Recall that on Wednesday, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited said it has signed a Commitment Letter and Term Sheet with Afreximbank for an emergency $3 billion crude oil repayment loan. This has injected some hope into the market as the local currency gained N19.19 or 2.5 per cent against the greenback at the

By Nneka Okumazie If Christ’s second coming does not happen soon, to immediately set in the Book of Revelation, there are likelihoods for the next one thousand years. The reason for this prognostication is how lost many are in the maximum of present day capability, knowledge, power, problems, etc. History is forgotten and future is disregarded. A century is diminutive in a larger scope, but a millennium explains better. The last one ending 1999 was thoroughly eventful. That thousand years starting in 1000AD could be referred to as M1-AD. This current millennium can be referred to as M2-AD, then next

By Adedapo Adesanya The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange extended its stay in the negative zone in Week 29 after losing 0.2 per cent in five days of trading. This shortened the market capitalisation of the Nigerian alternative stock exchange by N10 billion to N1.064 trillion from N1.074 trillion of the preceding week, as the NASD Unlisted Securities Index (NSI) went down by 1.56 points to wrap the week at 769.33 points from the 770.89 points recorded at the previous week. The loss printed by the bourse was caused by the poor outing of four companies trading their securities on

By Adedapo Adesanya Nigeria has been elected to host the next conference of Heads of Drug Law Enforcement Agencies Africa (HONLEA) in 2023. This was the unanimous decision of the regional network at the close of its 2022 annual meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. The move by other heads of anti-narcotics agencies in Africa to have Nigeria host the 2023 conference followed the country’s good relationship with others on the continent and NDLEA’s exemplary performance in the renewed fight against substance abuse and illicit drug trafficking. In the course of the weeklong conference, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug

By Adedapo Adesanya Oil prices marked another positive closing last week, pushed by indications of economic recovery in the world’s largest crude producer, the United States, amidst rising coronavirus cases and a fear of a weakening demand for the commodity. The international benchmark, Brent Crude, settled at $43.14 per barrel, while the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude finished at $40.65 per barrel last Friday ahead of the American Independence Day holiday over the weekend. However, gains were capped and there was careful approach by traders ahead of a long holiday weekend as a resurgence in the US coronavirus infections

By Dipo Olowookere Inflation rate in Nigeria suffered a slight decline in the month of August 201 after recording an 18th consecutive decline, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed. The inflation numbers released on Friday afternoon by the stats office said the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures the average change over time in prices of goods and services consumed by people for day-to-day living (inflation), increased by 0.09 percent to 11.23 percent (year-on-year) in August 2018 from 11.14 percent in July 2018. This is the first year-on-year rise in headline inflation following 18th consecutive disinflation