Eni Declares Force Majeure After Oil Spill in Bayelsa

By Adedapo Adesanya Crude oil prices rose more than 2 per cent on Friday after data from the world’s largest oil producer, the United States, supported expectations of demand growth. Brent crude futures settled at $75.84 a barrel after chalking up $1.79 or 2.4 per cent, as the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures traded at $71.23 after gaining $1.89 or 2.7 per cent. Despite the gain at the final session of the week, both benchmarks fell for a seventh straight week, their longest streak of weekly declines in half a decade, on lingering oversupply concerns. For the week,

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 Some Nigerians have expressed anger over the upward review in the foreign exchange (FX) rate, a move that could see imported goods and by extension, domestic products record surge in prices at a time when the country is battling a high cost of living. The federal government, through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has hiked the duties payable on imported goods at Nigerian ports. Business Post gathered that the upward review of prices showed the US Dollar equivalent had been put at N951.941/$1 while for the Euro, the rate was pegged at N1,030.762/€1 and the Pound

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

It has been predicted that by 2025, Nigeria will experience 50 percent growth in population in urban areas to emerge the fastest urban growth rate globally, ahead of China and India. At an event held recently in Lagos by Nielsen, a global measurement and data analytics company, it was stated that this anticipated occurrence would shape the consumer landscape in the country because by that time, about 55 percent of Nigerians would live in cities or towns. “Everyone is fighting for growth and competition for consumers’ wallets has never been tougher. In a challenging environment, finding opportunities with the right

By Dipo Olowookere The need for African leaders to engage youths in agriculture and make them see the sector as a profitable business venture and not a sign of lacking ambition has been emphasised by the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Mr Akinwumi Adesina. According to this, apart from tackling food security in the continent through this, it would also stem migration of African youths to Europe and the United States of America (USA) in search of greener pastures. AfDB, while commenting on the occasion of the 2017 World Food Day, highlighted how Africa’s food security depends on

By Aduragbemi Omiyale Mid-level lender, Ecobank Nigeria Limited, is offering Nigerians living abroad highly competitive interest rates on mortgage loans, investment in the money market, capital market, real estate and treasury products. The Head of Consumer Banking at Ecobank Nigeria, Mrs Olukorede Demola-Adeniyi, explained that the bank came up with these exciting offerings to support Nigerians in the diaspora. She said the lender is ready to assist them to finance property ownership in the country, stressing that the terms and conditions are flexible and easily accessible and encouraged them to open a domiciliary account with the bank to access the

By Adedapo Adesanya The House of Representatives has disclosed that it will summon the European Community Ship Owners Association (ESCA) due to the recent hike in Peak Period Surcharge (PSS) on containers set for Nigeria. Over the past few weeks, shippers have been complaining about the hike in PSS, which in addition to ocean tariff rates as well as bunker-related surcharges, security-related surcharges, terminal handling charges, among others have spiked the cost of shipping in Nigeria. The PSS was $200 but jerked to between $1,000 and $1,500 per container, a situation that has drawn outrage from importers. In an interview

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has extended deadline for the filing of financial statements for the first quarter of 2020 by 60 days. The exchange made this announcement at the weekend, explaining that the reason for this extension was because of the devastating effect of the Coronavirus disease. Normally, companies listed on the nation’s stock exchange are supposed to file their financial results on or before April 30, 2020. But due to the disruption caused by the virus on businesses in most parts of the country, especially in Lagos, Abuja and Ogun, where there are total lockdowns,

By Dipo Olowookere The first trading session in the month of December 2020 started on a positive note on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). At the market on Tuesday, the upward trend was sustained with a 0.30 per cent growth, which pushed the year-to-date return higher to 30.94 per cent, though the negative sentiment persisted as there were more price losers (21) than the price gainers (16). However, this did not affect the All-Share Index (ASI), which rose by 105.48 points to 35,147.62 points from 35,042.14 points. It also did not reduce the market capitalisation, which was

By Adedapo Adesanya The aggregate price of 13 crudes belonging to member states of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) rose 0.7 percent to $43.44 per barrel on Wednesday, compared of with $43.15 the previous day, according to latest OPEC Secretariat calculations. The OPEC Reference Basket of Crudes (ORB) is made up of the following: Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Djeno (Congo), Zafiro (Equatorial Guinea), Rabi Light (Gabon), Iran Heavy (Islamic Republic of Iran), Basra Light (Iraq), Kuwait Export (Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (UAE) and Merey (Venezuela). This increase can

By Dipo Olowookere More than 38,800 internally displaced persons (IDPs) are sheltering at the UN protection of civilian (PoC) sites in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, according to a recently completed biometric registration exercise. While the majority of these IDPs have been sheltering at the UN base, known as UN House, since the crisis erupted in December 2013, approximately 10,000 arrived following the four-day resurgence of violence in Juba this July. To obtain updated and accurate information on the IDP population in Juba, IOM led a biometric population registration at the UN House PoC sites from 10 September to