European Stocks Lose Early Gains to Close Lower

By Adedapo Adesanya The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has reaffirmed its support for the removal of fuel subsidy and the exchange rate unification of the administration of President Bola Tinubu, insisting that the policies are good for Nigeria’s economy. A representative of the global lender, Mr Ari Aisen, while featuring on Channels TV on Tuesday, maintained that the two policies must remain for Nigeria to reach macroeconomic stability. “After the position that needs to be well managed to avoid potential reversal, policies of subsidizing fuel, and controlling exchange rate will lead to a much better outlook for the Nigerian economy,”

By Adedapo Adesanya Brent crude futures surged by 2.8 per cent or $2.59 on Wednesday to the highest settlement in 2023 at $96.55 per barrel after a steep drop in crude stocks in the United States compounded worries of tighter global supplies. The price of the US West Texas Intermediate crude futures (WTI) climbed by 3.6 per cent or $3.29 to $93.68 as the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a crude oil inventory draw of 2.2 million barrels for the week to September 22 in the country. In the preceding week, the agency posted an inventory draw of 2.1 million

By Aduragbemi Omiyale The value of unsold finished products in the inventory of Nigerian manufacturers in the first half of 2023 increased by 44/9 per cent on a year-to-date basis to N272 billion from N187 billion in the same period of 2022. This information was contained in the report released by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) on Tuesday. According to Punch, the document also revealed that in the period under review, the manufacturing sector laid off 3,567 workers due to the harsh business environment triggered by high inflation, the foreign exchange (FX) crisis, and fuel subsidy removal. “This increase

By Aduragbemi Omiyale The Area Controller of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Western Marine Command, Comptroller Abubakar Umar, has said proceeds from the auctioning of 30 kegs of  Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol, recently seized from smugglers, have been remitted to the federation accounts. Mr Umar made this disclosure while addressing journalists in Apapa Lagos. He said the 30 kegs of petrol were auctioned after securing approval from the headquarters of the agency. He listed other items intercepted by his men as 32 sacks of cannabis Sativa with a street value of N168,000,000, 828 bags of foreign

By Adedapo Adesanya The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has announced the introduction of Self-Service Stations in all offices in the country to enable efficient service delivery for its IT tax solutions, including the TaxPro Max. This was disclosed in a statement by the FIRS on Thursday, February 10, 2021. The agency added the self-service options will come with a designated officer to assist taxpayers. The tax regulator stated that the introduction of the Self Service Stations in all of the FIRS tax offices nationwide is to support taxpayers in utilizing the TaxPro Max solution. To enhance voluntary tax compliance,

By Dipo Olowookere The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday conducted a primary market auction (PMA) for the sale of treasury bills to investors, with the rates tampered with. At the exercise, the central bank offered for sale N90.94 billion worth of the debt instruments across three different maturities. Business Post reports that N1.80 billion worth of 91-day bill, N4.50 billion worth of 182-day bill and N84.64 billion worth of the 364-day bill were auctioned at the PMA. However, the bills were oversubscribed by about 195 percent, reflecting the confidence market participants have in the government’s debt instrument and

By Adedapo Adesanya The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday morning declared Mr Bola Tinubu as the winner of Nigeria’s presidential election conducted on February 25 in what has been regarded as one of the most keenly contested elections in a generation. Mr Tinubu, who ran on the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) platform, scored 35 per cent of 24.97 million votes cast, 8,794,726 votes, beating Mr Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and Mr Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP). Mr Atiku polled a total of 6,984,520 votes in the election, while Mr Obi came

By Jerome-Mario Chijioke Utomi The debate on the interrelatedness of equity, justice; peace and development is among the most presently discussed topics on the surface of the earth. The reason for this unending debate stems from the time-honoured belief that without equity and justice, there will be no peace. And without peace, no society, group or nation should contemplate development. For Nigeria to achieve the above feat, there exists the need to think over the marriage of two unwilling brides who had no say in their forced and ill-fated union; the amalgamation of the northern and the southern protectorates on

By Dipo Olowookere Lagos State Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation has organized a one-day training programme for parents of children with disability in the state on how to manage and cater for their children. Welcoming participants at the opening of the programme, Commissioner for the Ministry, Mrs Lola Akande, stated that “in order to ensure that all children are adequately catered for, special consideration must be given to children with disability, which could be achieved by training their parents on signs to watch at the onset of disability, what to do, referral activities and networking as well as

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Popular Nigerian comedian, Mr Bright Okpocha, otherwise known as Basketmouth, has announced an end to his marriage to his wife, Elsie Uzoma. The showbiz star disclosed the crash to his union with Elsie in a post on his verified Facebook page on Thursday, stating that it was a “difficult” decision. However, he did not give any reason for the breakup but assured his fans that they would continue to work together for the growth of their children. “As much as it pains me to bring my personal life to the public space, this is an unavoidable situation.

By Modupe Gbadeyanka An ultimatum telling Nigeria’s Igbo minority in the north of the country to flee their homes is of “grave concern”, a group of United Nations human rights experts has warned. The experts also deplored a hate song and audio message being circulated on the internet and on social media. The Hausa-language audio message urges northern Nigerians to destroy the property of Igbo people and kill anyone who refuses to leave by 1 October, the same date given in the ultimatum. “We are gravely concerned about this proliferation of hate messages and incitement to violence against the Igbo