FSD Africa, NAICOM Unveil R3Lab to Mitigate Insurance Regulation Risks

By Dipo Olowookere The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited commenced the first trading session in December 2023 on a bullish note, with a marginal growth of 0.08 per cent. Sustained buying pressure kept Nigerian stocks in the positive territory, extending the dominance of the bulls on Customs Street, though the turnover waned. Business Post observed that investors cherry-picked equities in the banking and the energy sectors during the session, leaving them rising by 1.14 per cent and 0.05 per cent, respectively. However, the insurance counter lost 1.10 per cent, the consumer goods index depreciated by 0.08 per cent, and the industrial

By Adedapo Adesanya Equinor and Chappal Energies have entered into an agreement for the sale of Equinor Nigeria Energy Company (ENEC), which holds a 53.85 per cent ownership in oil and gas lease OML 128, including the unitized 20.21 per cent stake in the Agbami oil field, operated by Chevron. Speaking on the deal, Equinor’s senior vice president for Africa Operations, Ms Nina Koch, said Nigeria has been an important part of Equinor’s international portfolio over the past 30 years, noting that, “This transaction realizes value and is in line with Equinor’s strategy to optimize its international oil and gas

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr Zacch Adedeji, has asked his counterpart in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ola Olukoyede, to support his agency to achieve the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu, who appointed both of them. Speaking during a courtesy visit to the headquarters of the anti-money laundering firm, Mr Adedeji said the EFCC has a role in ensuring that taxpayers’ funds are “judiciously utilised in line with the social contract with the people.” He assured that the FIRS would continue to strive to raise the revenue

By Aduragbemi Omiyale President Bola Tinubu has said the 2024 budget presented to the joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday was designed to achieve macroeconomic stability, a better investment environment, greater access to social security, poverty reduction and enhanced human capital development. According to him, if these goals are achieved, the standard of living of Nigerians will improve and the citizens will enjoy the dividends of democracy. While presenting the 2024 Appropriation Bills to the parliament yesterday, the President said this was why he christened the budget proposal as the Budget of Renewed Hope. Mr Tinubu told the

By Adedapo Adesanya The Governor of Kwara State, Mr Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, has emerged as the new Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF). He will replace the Governor of Sokoto State, Mr Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, whose tenure of office will elapse on May 29, 2023. This was contained in a communiqué signed by Mr Tambuwal at the end of the 7th emergency meeting of the state governors held on Tuesday night in Abuja. It was gathered that Governor Abdulrazaq emerged through consensus, while the Governor of Oyo State, Mr Seyi Makinde, was chosen as vice chairman of the forum. “On

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Customers of Airtel Africa Plc in Nigeria, Tanzania, and Zambia can now begin to enjoy ultra-fast and ultra-reliable internet connection as the telecommunications giant has commenced its 5G services. Recall that last year, Airtel Nigeria secured its 5G licence from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). The telco obtained the go-ahead to offer 5G services in the country after the regulator earlier gave similar licences to its main rival, MTN Nigeria, and Mafab Nigeria Communications Limited in 2021. Airtel Africa disclosed in a statement that its 5G network will initially go live in Nigeria, Tanzania and Zambia before

By Aduragbemi Omiyale One of the financial institutions in Nigeria, First Bank, has announced that customers may find it difficult to carry out financial services through its platform this weekend. In a message to its customers on Friday, the lender explained the planned downtime is to enable its engineers to maintain its platforms. However, it disclosed that this would downtime would be experienced between 9:00 pm on Saturday, March 4, and 7:00 am on Sunday, March 5, 2023. “We are running a scheduled maintenance on our platforms from 9:00 pm – 7 am on March 4 and 5, 2023. We

By Adedapo Adesanya Crude oil prices settled slightly lower on Tuesday as the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) discussed raising oil production. Earlier in the day, the price of the Brent crude hit a two-year high of $75 per barrel but it later dropped to $74.85 per barrel, losing 23 cents or 0.18 per cent while the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) declined by 0.29 per cent or 58 cents to trade at $73.08 per barrel. OPEC+ is discussing a gradual increase in oil output from August, but no decision has been taken on the exact

By Modupe Gbadeyanka President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday, October 14, 2016, attended a Business Forum in Berlin, the German capital. During the meeting, Mr Buhari met with representatives of Nigerian community in Berlin. The President told his audience that his administration would continue come up with policies that will improve the country’s economy. He also used the occasion to highlight some of his achievements in office. At the forum with Mr President were Governors Kashim Shettima of Borno State and Rochas Okorocha of Imo State. Also at the event were Chairman Senate Committee on Defence, Mr Ahmed Lawan and Minister

By Quantitative Financial Analytics The Nigerian stock market has been showing great improvement since the beginning of May 2017 with most of the indices showing double digit returns. The All-Share Index (ASI) now boasts of a YTD return of 27.02 percent, the NSE pension and Premium index are in an all-time high with returns of 49.65 percent and 35.4 percent respectively. The Banking index is home with a YTD return of 51.92 percent and the NSE 30 index is smiling with 30.31 percent return, YTD. It has never been this good, at least, in more recent years. The market rally

By Investors Hub European stocks are mixed on Tuesday as investors monitored currency movements and looked ahead to further progress in Brexit talks and U.S. tax reform. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index has inched up by 0.1 percent, the German DAX Index is down by 0.2 percent and the French CAC 40 Index is down by 0.4 percent. In economic news, business activity across the euro zone accelerated to its fastest pace in over six years in November, data showed. IHS Markit’s final composite PMI was confirmed at an earlier flash reading of 57.5. Allied Irish Banks has rallied

By Adedapo Adesanya The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed that it supplied $13.99 billion into the foreign exchange market between January and June 2020. The bank made the disclosure in its quarterly statistical bulletin on ‘Supply of forex’ for the month of June. According to the apex bank, the amount was supplied to the various levels ranging from the interbank segment, the Bureau De Change (BDCs) operators, and also the Investors & Exporters window, Small and Medium Enterprises and Invisibles markets. At the interbank from January to June, it supplied a total of $375.06 million. Giving a supply