Economy
House of Representatives to Pass PIB in April
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
All things being equal, the much-awaited Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) will be passed by the House of Representatives in April 2021.
Speaker of the lower chamber of the National Assembly, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, said this on Wednesday while declaring open a two-day public hearing on the bill organised by the ad-hoc committee.
He explained that the public hearing was put together to get the different views of stakeholders in the industry, urging the participants not to close their minds or ears to the views and the positions that may be advanced by various interest groups.
According to him, “We are in a world, an economic world, so there must be interest groups, they will be interest groups and we cannot deny that.”
He said after the public hearing, the legislative arm of government continue to engage stakeholders “to accommodate the diversity of interests and ensure all critical views form part of the deliberations that inform the final legislation.”
“We are not oblivious to the fact of many contending interests in this sector. These contentions do not need to result in conflict, especially when we know the objective of national prosperity benefits us all,” the leader of the green chamber of the parliament reminded the audience.
However, he assured that the House of Representatives will protect the interest of Nigeria in new PIB, which he said consumed a lot of energy and expertise to prepare.
“A lot of work has gone into the preparation of this Bill, but it’s not strait-jacketed. The idea of a public hearing is to have interests that may have not been accommodated prior to the introduction of the Bill to lend their voices and to understand perhaps the bigger environment where they are coming from,” he said.
According to him, “There have been various prior attempts to meet this obligation. Let us remember those attempts and be motivated by the knowledge that we can now correct past mistakes and fulfil the responsibility we owe these communities once and for all.”
Mr Gbajabiamila expressed confidence that the ad-hoc committee on PIB headed by the Chief Whip, Mr Mohammed Tahir Monguno, would do a thorough job because it was a national consensus that there should be a comprehensive reform of the oil and gas industry.
Business Post reports that the PIB has been long coming in the last 20 years, but due to contending and vested interests, nothing meaningful has been achieved.
By Dipo Olowookere
The second trading session of the week on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited ended on a positive note with a further 0.46 per cent surge on Tuesday.
The strong appetite for Nigerian stocks helped the market capitalisation of Customs Street to grow by N468 billion to N102.275 trillion from N101.807 trillion and the All-Share Index (ASI) soared by 732.86 points to 159,951.08 points from the previous day’s 159,218.22 points.
Yesterday, 65 equities ended on the gainers’ chart and 21 equities finished on the losers’ table, indicating a positive market breadth index and bullish investor sentiment.
Meyer expanded by 10.00 per cent to N14.30, Jaiz Bank appreciated by 10.00 per cent to N5.28, ABC Transport increased by 9.98 per cent to N4.96, and Austin Laz gained 9.94 per cent to close at N5.64.
Conversely, Aluminium Extrusion lost 9.96 per cent to settle at N21.70, Learn Africa decreased by 9.16 per cent to N5.95, Oando shrank by 7.69 per cent to N40.80, UBA weakened by 6.22 per cent to N43.00, and Access Holdings crashed by 6.00 per cent to N23.50.
Business Post reports that Linkage Assurance led the activity chart after it transacted 51.6 million shares worth N93.1 million, Sterling Holdings traded 49.2 million stocks valued at N368.5 million, Access Holdings sold 48.7 million equities for N1.2 billion, Mutual Benefits exchanged 34.7 million shares valued at N142.0 million, and Regency Alliance transacted 26.4 million stocks worth N33.6 million.
At the close of trades, market participants bought and sold 759.0 million equities for N19.9 billion in 54,212 deals during the session versus the 695.7 million equities worth N18.6 billion in 56,632 deals on Monday.
This showed that the volume of transactions and the value of trades went up by 9.10 per cent, and 6.99 per cent, respectively, while the number of deals went down by 4.27 per cent.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira recorded a N10.24 or 0.72 per cent gain on the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Tuesday, January 6, to close at N1,419.07/$1 compared with the previous day’s N1,429.31/$1, extending the stellar start to the year.
The local currency also improved its value against the Pound Sterling in the same market window yesterday by N2.98 to trade at N1,917.20/£1 versus N1,920.27/£1 and gained N7.12 on the Euro to end at N1,660.31/€1 compared with Monday’s closing price of N1,667.43/€1.
At the GTBank forex counter, the domestic currency appreciated against the greenback on Tuesday by N3 to finish at N1,435/$1 versus the previous value of N1,438/$1 and at the parallel market, it maintained stability on the Dollar at N1,470/$1.
The Naira gains come amid ease in demand seen in the softer market activity at the start of the year, alongside reduced participation from offshore investors.
FX inflows into the NFEM window declined by 20.67 per cent week on week to $593.70 million from $748.40 million in the previous week, according to a weekly report by Coronation Merchant Bank.
Market analysts expect that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will maintain its strategic interventions in the FX market and implement initiatives aimed at boosting liquidity and curbing speculative activities.
Meanwhile, the CBN’s gross external reserves edged up by 0.58 per cent, rising by $264.56 million at the start of the year to $45.50 billion, and increasing further to $45.56 billion as of January 2, 2025.
A look at the digital currency market showed that it was in red, triggered by renewed selling pressure with market analysts saying the digital currencies are starting the year in recalibration mode rather than retreat.
After earlier gains. Ripple (XRP) slumped by 5.2 per cent to $2.25, Cardano (ADA) declined by 2.9 per cent to $0.4111, Dogecoin (DOGE) shrank by 2.6 per cent to $0.1479, Bitcoin (BTC) slid by 1.4 per cent to $93,625.47, Litecoin (LTC) went down by 1.0 per cent to $82.90, and Solana (SOL) lost 0.4 per cent to sell $138.76.
On the flip side, Binance Coin (BNB) appreciated by 0.7 per cent to $914.53, and Ethereum (ETH) improved by 0.3 per cent to $3,248.36, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) closed flat at $1.00 each.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Oil was down on Tuesday as the market weighed expectations of ample global supply this year against uncertainty around Venezuelan crude output after the US capture of President Nicolas Maduro.
Brent crude futures declined by 69 cents or 1.1 per cent to $61.07 a barrel and the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude tumbled by 79 cents or 1.4 per cent to $57.53 a barrel.
Oil supply will be sufficient in 2026, with or without an increase in production from Venezuela, which is a member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
US President Donald Trump wants the big American oil firms to return to Venezuela and invest in rebuilding the oil infrastructure in the country holding the world’s biggest proven oil reserves, estimated at about 303 billion barrels.
Venezuela, a founding member of OPEC, has more oil reserves than each of its fellow OPEC members and top exporters in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Iran.
With Maduro out, US oil giants are set to invest billions of US Dollars to fix the oil infrastructure and start making money for Venezuela, according to President Trump.
Venezuela’s oil sector has long been in decline, due in part to underinvestment and US sanctions. Oil production from the country averaged 1.1 million barrels per day last year. Exxon, ConocoPhilips, and Chevron are some of the names that could make return to the South American country.
Morgan Stanley analysts said in a note on Tuesday that global oil demand likely grew by around 900,000 barrels per day last year, compared to a historical trend rate of 1.2 million barrels per day.
OPEC supply grew 1.6 million barrels per day and non-OPEC supply grew about 2.4 million barrels per day between the fourth quarters of 2024 and 2025, the Morgan Stanley analysts said.
The bank said oil markets could be in a surplus of as much as 3 million barrels per day in the first half of 2026.
Saudi Arabia has cut the price of its flagship crude grade Arab Light loading for Asia in February, in the third consecutive monthly reduction amid ample supply and weakened Middle Eastern benchmarks.
Saudi Arabia’s decision to cut the prices of all its crude grades follows this weekend’s short OPEC+ meeting, at which the eight producers implementing the cuts reaffirmed they would keep oil production steady through the first quarter of 2026.
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