FIRS Insists NIPOST Not Authorised to Collect Stamp Duty

By Adedapo Adesanya Brent crude benchmark dipped below $80 a barrel on Monday, precisely losing 60 cents of 0.7 per cent to trade at $79.98 a barrel as investors await this week’s meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies (OPEC+). The group is anticipated to maintain its ceiling on crude oil production by member countries into 2024. This affected the oil market, with the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures declining yesterday by 68 cents or 0.9 per cent to trade at $74.86 per barrel. Last week, the 23-man OPEC+ postponed its Sunday ministerial meeting

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The sum of N27.5 trillion has been approved for the 2024 budget by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Monday. The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Mr Atiku Bagudu, confirmed this development to newsmen after the FEC meeting in Abuja. He also disclosed that the council, which was chaired by President Bola Tinubu, said the 2024 Appropriation Bill should be funded from N18 trillion revenue expected to be generated by the country. “The federal executive council considered the 2024 Appropriation bill. The Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) was earlier approved by the National Assembly. It has

By Adedapo Adesanya  Nigeria’s economy, measured through its gross domestic product (GDP), witnessed a 2.54 per cent growth in the third quarter (Q3) of the year 2023. In a report published on Friday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the 2.54 per cent year-on-year growth in real terms in the third quarter of 2023 is higher than the 2.25 per cent recorded in the third quarter of 2022 and higher than the second quarter 2023 growth of 2.51 per cent. The bureau further said that the performance of the GDP in the third quarter of 2023 was driven mainly by

By Adedapo Adesanya  The federal government, through the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), has announced plans to invest $1.1 billion to fully rehabilitate decaying port infrastructure at TinCan, Apapa, Rivers, Delta, Calabar, and Onne ports as part of efforts to improve the efficiency of the nation’s existing ports. Out of the estimated 47,000 kilometres of coastline in Africa, Nigeria makes up about 853 kilometres, creating the perfect opportunity to get access to its much-needed revenue. This coastline and a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone make up Nigeria’s coastline in the Gulf of Guinea. The coastline equals a maritime area of

By Dipo Olowookere The nation’s stock exchange reversed the loss posted on Tuesday to close higher by 0.13 per cent on Wednesday on the back of renewed bargain hunting by investors. The positive outcome was partly triggered by the release of the audited financial statements of Ecobank to the market yesterday, with a significant number of cross deals witnessed at the close of business. The All-Share Index (ASI) increased during the session by 61.39 points to close at 46,904.48 points compared with the previous day’s 46,843.09 points, while the market capitalisation went up by N33 billion to finish at N25.279

By Adedapo Adesanya The Naira came out stronger against the US Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange market on Monday, November 2, gaining 37 kobo or 0.10 per cent to close at N385.63/$1 compared to N386/$1 it sold previously. This came on the back of a drop in investors’ appetite for the greenback as they demanded Dollars worth $104.20 million, according to data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange. This indicated that demand was down by 106.1 per cent, equivalent to $110.58 million, as the previous day’s turnover stood at $214.78 million. At another segment

By Aduragbemi Omiyale The Governor of Kaduna State, Mr Nasir El-Rufai, has disclosed that some persons in the corridors of power are working to weaken the chances of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in this year’s general elections. On February 25, 2023, Nigerians will head to the polls to elect a new president and members of the National Assembly, and on March 11, 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will conduct the governorship and state houses of assembly elections. While speaking recently in Ogun State, the candidate of the APC in the presidential exercise, Mr Bola Tinubu, claimed

By Dipo Olowookere After bleeding for two days as a result of profit taking, the equity market in Nigeria closed bullish on Thursday by 0.45 percent, supported by the strong performance put up by some blue-chip stocks. During the session, which had its market breadth closing at equilibrium,  14 price gainers and 14 price losers, the buying interests in energy stocks (+1.53 percent), industrial goods equities (+1.94 percent), consumer goods stocks (+0.37 percent and banking shares (+0.13 percent) gave the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) the needed tonic to bounce along despite the 1.77 percent loss suffered by insurance stocks. At

By Adedapo Adesanya In order to raise the amount generated as revenue from value added tax (VAT), from January 2020, Nigerians will start to pay a levy on online transactions, regardless of whether such transaction are domestic or foreign, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has declared. Executive Chairman of FIRS, Mr Babatunde Fowler, made this known yesterday at the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) technical workshop at the nation’s capital, Abuja. The FIRS chief acknowledged that many countries regard Nigeria as a good market and is a destination for online business services saying there is need to key into

By Adedapo Adesanya It was a bad day for the Nigerian Naira at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Friday. This was because the value of the Naira depreciated against the United States Dollar yesterday by 3 kobo or 0.01 per cent as it traded at N415.10/$1 compared with N415.07/$1 it traded on Thursday. It was observed that the local currency put up a poor outing during the session despite the value of transactions going down by 81.4 per cent or $368.94 million. Business Post reports that the turnover for the trading session

By Dipo Olowookere Trading activities resumed on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Monday, but when the market closed by 2:30pm today, it ended again in the negative territory. Business Post reports that the local bourse depreciated today by 0.75 percent as profit-taking activities continued, with the Year-to-Date (YtD) returns reducing to 2.05 percent. While the market capitalisation decreased by N107 billion to close at N14.137 trillion, the All-Share Index (ASI) went down by 295.11 points to settle at 39,028.51 points. The volume of shares traded by investors on Monday decreased by 24.89 percent, while the value

By Dipo Olowookere Swedish-Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in Zürich, ABB, has announced the acquisition of GE Industrial Solutions, GE’s global electrification solutions business. GE Industrial Solutions has deep customer relationships in more than 100 countries and an established installed base with strong roots in North America, ABB’s biggest market. GE Industrial Solutions is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and has about 13,500 employees around the world. In 2016, GE Industrial Solutions had revenues of approximately $2.7 billion, with an operational EBITDA margin of approximately 8 percent1 and an operational EBITA margin of approximately 6 percent1. ABB will acquire GE Industrial Solutions