Economy
Experts Preach Income Diversification to Employees, Entrepreneurs
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The importance of income diversification has been emphasised to salary earners, individuals, self-employed and small business owners by some experts who spoke at the workshop organised by Ecobank Nigeria to commemorate this year’s Worker’s Day.
At the event themed Maximising Your Income: the Power of Diversification, participants were urged to make deliberate efforts to diversify their income stream in light of the current state of the nation’s economy.
The keynote speaker, Dr Yemi Kale, in his presentation titled State of the Nigerian Macroeconomy: Implications for Consumers and Workers, pointed out that the nation’s economy has potential for growth based on its vast youth population, large market, abundant natural and human resources and significant developments in the tourism, telecommunications, manufacturing, and technology industries.
He regretted that such potentials are being hindered by macroeconomic dysfunctions, which include external contagion, political instability, improper planning and poor plan implementation and outright wrong decisions, policies, and strategies.
“Our GDP growth has been steady, slow, and fragile, with high inflation risks, rising public debt indicative of shrinking fiscal space and declining reserves and a slowdown in capital inflow.
“Households and workers must therefore explore multiple sources of income, invest to hedge inflation, buy food items in bulk to evade immediate upward price adjustment and avoid loan accumulation,” he stated.
He identified Ecobank as one of the financial institutions that parade diversified products and services, noting the bank’s decision to organise the webinar was quite laudable because of the attendant benefits.
Further, the former Statistician-General of the nation noted that “Nigeria has potential for strong economic growth. It is the biggest economy in Africa and the largest African market.
“Nigeria has abundant human resources as Africa’s most populous nation with a growing youthful population and low-cost labour. It is the 6th largest gas deposit in the world, the 8th highest producer of petroleum in the world and oil reserves are estimated to be 36 billion barrels.
“We are blessed with 34 solid minerals, over 44 exportable commodities and significant growth potentials in the tourism, telecommunications, manufacturing, and technology industries.”
Also speaking, Ms Daberechi Effiong, who heads Consumer Products at Ecobank Nigeria, highlighted the benefits of saving with the bank and how to diversify income to maximize returns.
She advised customers to spread their portfolios for multiple sources of income and also imbibe the habit of financial planning.
According to her, “Ecobank has a bouquet of high-yielding products with attractive interest rates which customers can invest in. They can take advantage of our savings and current accounts, local and foreign accounts, super savers, and so many others.
“We also have mortgage financing, either re-financing or outright purchase. They can access our services through our digital channels and Xpress points, our agency banking outlets, which are available all over the country. We also offer financial advice and grant loans with low-interest rates to customers.”
Ms Oluyemisi Ogunmola, Managing Director, EDC Fund Management Limited, stated the need for participants to invest in the money market and mutual funds as part of income diversification.
“You should have goals for diversification, either short, medium, or long term. We are also available for financial advice on where and how to invest. It is also important to know that you can start small with the fund you have,” she stated.
Earlier In her welcome address, the Head of Consumer Banking at Ecobank Nigeria, Mrs Korede Demola-Adeniyi, said the webinar focuses on practical financial planning insights on maximizing income and how customers and members of the public can key in as they go through their financial lifecycle.
She added that the webinar is further proof of the bank’s commitment to the financial well-being of its customers, and so urged the bank’s customers as well as non-customers, to make Ecobank their bank of choice.
Ecobank Nigeria Ltd is an affiliate of the Ecobank Group, the leading private pan-African banking group. Ecobank Nigeria offers a comprehensive suite of financial services and solutions to its Consumer, Commercial, Corporate and Investment Banking clients at over 200 branches and 50,000 Xpress Point agency locations in Nigeria.
The Ecobank Group was established in 1985 to drive financial integration and socio-economic development in Africa.
With a presence in 35 sub-Saharan African countries and in France, the UK, UAE and China, we have unrivalled expertise and experience across Africa. The Ecobank pan-African platform provides a single gateway for payments, cash management, trade and investment across Africa and beyond.
By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited remained in the green territory on Wednesday after it rallied by 0.31 per cent on the back of sustained bargain-hunting activities by investors.
Business Post reports that all the key sectors of the market closed higher at midweek as a result of the renewed interest in local equities.
Data showed that the energy index appreciated by 2.59 per cent, the insurance space grew by 2.34 per cent, the industrial goods sector improved by 0.15 per cent, the banking counter expanded by 0.06 per cent, and the consumer goods industry rose by 0.04 per cent.
At the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI) gained 302.71 points to settle at 98,509.68 points compared with Tuesday’s closing value of 98,206.97 points and the market capitalisation added N183 billion to close at N59.715 trillion versus the preceding day’s N59.532 trillion.
It was observed that the level of activity yesterday waned as the trading volume, value and number of deals decreased by 65.93 per cent, 49.22 per cent, and 12.70 per cent, respectively.
On Wednesday, a total of 320.1 million stocks valued at N6.5 billion were transacted in 7,943 deals, in contrast to the 939.4 million stocks worth N12.8 billion traded in 9,098 deals.
The busiest equity at midweek was eTranzact, which transacted 70.3 million units for N474.2 million, Universal Insurance traded 23.8 million units worth 8.1 million, Zenith Bank exchanged 21.2 million units valued at N933.5 million, FBN Holdings sold 18.6 million units worth N491.2 million, and UBA traded 14.0 million units valued at N465.8 million.
At the close of transactions, 34 shares ended on the gainers’ log and 17 shares finished on the losers’ chart, representing a positive market breadth index and strong investor sentiment.
Africa Prudential gained 10.00 per cent to quote at N14.30, Conoil also improved by 10.00 per cent to N352.00, and RT Briscoe expanded by 10.00 per cent to N2.42, as Golden Guinea Breweries jumped by 9.95 per cent to N7.18, while NEM Insurance grew by 9.74 per cent to N10.70.
However, Julius Berger lost 10.00 per cent to close at N155.25, Secure Electronic Technology shed 9.52 per cent to trade at 57 Kobo, Multiverse declined by 7.63 per cent to N5.45, Haldane McCall tumbled by 6.07 per cent to N4.95, and Honeywell Flour crashed by 5.62 per cent to N4.70.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Crude oil prices went up on Wednesday after the European Union (EU) agreed to an additional round of sanctions threatening Russian oil flows that could tighten global crude supplies.
During the session, Brent crude futures jumped by $1.33 or 1.84 per cent to $73.52 a barrel and the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose by $1.70 or 2.48 per cent to $70.29 per barrel.
EU ambassadors agreed on a 15th package of sanctions on Russia over its war against Ukraine, targeting its shadow tanker fleet and Chinese firms making drones for the country.
The sanctions would target vessels from third countries supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine and add more individuals and entities to the sanctions list. It will not be adopted until after foreign ministers approve the package on Monday.
The shadow fleet has aided Russia in bypassing the $60 per barrel price cap imposed by the G7 on Russian seaborne crude oil in 2022 and has helped keep Russian oil flowing.
Prices were supported by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) which reported an estimated inventory decline of 1.4 million barrels for the week to December 6. In fuels, however, the EIA estimated sizable builds.
The crude oil inventory figure compares with a draw of 5.1 million barrels for the previous week that pushed prices higher for a while but the gains soon got erased by weak global demand growth prospects.
A day before the EIA, the American Petroleum Institute (API) had estimated inventory changes at a positive 499,000 barrels for the week to December 6.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cut its 2024 global oil demand growth forecast for a fifth straight month and by the largest amount.
In its December report, the cartel expects 2024 global oil demand to rise by 1.61 million barrels per day, down from 1.82 million barrels per day last month.
OPEC also cut its 2025 growth estimate to 1.45 million barrels per day from 1.54 million barrels per day.
The 210,000 barrels per day cut in the 2024 figure is the largest of the five reductions OPEC has made in its monthly reports since August. In July, OPEC had expected world demand to rise by 2.25 million barrels per day.
Weak demand, particularly in top importer China, and non-OPEC+ supply growth were two factors behind the move.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has once again trimmed its 2024 and 2025 oil demand growth forecasts.
The bloc made this in its latest monthly oil market report for December 2024.
The 2024 world oil demand growth forecast is now put at 1.61 million barrels per day from the previous 1.82 million barrels per day.
For 2025, OPEC says the world oil demand growth forecast is now at 1.45 million barrels per day, which is 900,000 barrels per day lower than the 1.54 million barrels per day earlier quoted.
On the changes, the group said that the downgrade for this year owes to more bearish data received in the third quarter of 2024 while the projections for next year relate to the potential impact that will arise from US tariffs.
The oil cartel had kept the 2024 outlook unchanged until August, a view it had first taken in July 2023.
OPEC and its wider group of allies known as OPEC+ earlier this month delayed its plan to start raising output until April 2025 against a backdrop of falling prices.
Eight OPEC+ member countries – Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman – decided to extend additional crude oil production cuts adopted in April 2023 and November 2023, due to weak demand and booming production outside the group.
In April 2023, these OPEC+ countries decided to reduce their oil production by over 1.65 million barrels per day as of May 2023 until the end of 2023. These production cuts were later extended to the end of 2024 and will now be extended until the end of December 2026.
In addition, in November 2023, these producers had agreed to voluntary output cuts totalling about 2.2 million barrels per day for the first quarter of 2024, in order to support prices and stabilise the market.
These additional production cuts were extended to the end of 2024 and will now be extended to the end of March 2025; they will then be gradually phased out on a monthly basis until the end of September 2026.
Members have made a series of deep output cuts since late 2022.
They are currently cutting output by a total of 5.86 million barrels per day, or about 5.7 per cent of global demand. Russia also announced plans to reduce its production by an extra 471,000 barrels per day in June 2024.
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