Economy

How Businesses, Govt Can Re-strategize After COVID-19—Amzat

Published

6 years ago

26/04/2020

Corporate organisations have been urged to rethink their business model and adopt technologies that would keep the green-light on, should another pandemic of COVID-19 scale ever happen again.

This advice was given by the Group Managing Director of Zedcrest, Mr Adedayo Amzat, during an Instagram Live Chat with the Editor of TechEconomy, Mr Peter Oluka on the theme, Implications of COVID-19 on Nigerian Economy: Way Forward for Businesses.

The capital market expert said the battle against COVID-19 was one that leaders today must win if we are to find an economically and socially viable path to the next normal.

“This is the worse than the worst case scenario that businesses plan for,” Mr Amzat said, noting that the last time the world experienced a pandemic like this was 1918 (the Spanish flu).

“No company or individual could have foreseen and made adequate preparations to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on economies and businesses.

“Businesses are shutting down in their numbers because this crisis is unprecedented. In order to stay alive, businesses will require a shift from a brick and mortar mind set to exploring digital channels to reach their consumers.

“What we have now are opportunistic winners. Digital business are taking over brick and mortar businesses,” he submitted.

He stated that very few insurance packages have pandemics in their contracts which unfortunately means that many businesses will struggle after the pandemic.

The financial expert also urged the government restructure its finances and to give more support to agriculture, mining and other sectors that can create jobs to cushion the effect of the COVID-19 crisis on the Nigerian economy.

“Before now, the government have been trying to move the economy from an export driven economy to a consumption driven one. There should be more local aggregate demand to drive the economy. Government has heavily invested in supporting the agricultural sector. With lessons that we have learnt during this COVID-19 crisis, it makes sense to deepen internal competences across different sectors.

“Agriculture has the capacity to employ a lot more people. Our first problem in Nigeria is unemployment, if we can develop our agriculture value chain, a lot more people will be employed.

“Almost 100 million Nigerians live in abject poverty, but remember, poverty isn’t just the lack of money, and it is also lack of access to information that can lift you out of that poverty. Agriculture can increase aggregate demand and we can generate more tax revenues, which can make our GDP more liquid.

“We have a GDP of $360 billion, but we don’t make up to $20 billion in tax revenue. We can make our GDP more liquid by ensuring that people get to work”, he explained.

Mr Amzat opined that the government also needs to increase funding and encourage more research in the health sector.

“There was a video by Bill Gates that he did after the Ebola crisis, everything he said is happening right now. There is this theory that anything that can go bad will one day go bad.

“We have to have a plan for every possible situation. We need to create our health sector response and model it after the military. The military is funded even when there is no war, it’s like an insurance. Every year there is one health crisis or the other so why do we not have the same response for the military? What if HIV comes back what are we going to do?” he queried.

“We have to have reserve health doctors that can be called upon for periods when there are health crisis that can overwhelm the health sector,” he urged.

The Zedcrest Group boss concluded that this is the best time to reduce the cost of governance by slashing the prodigious salaries and allowances of political officers; needless tours and other ostentatious expenses.

For now, Zedcrest Group has since activated its business continuity plan which amongst other elements include a work from home arrangement for staff.

The Group’s consumer finance outfit, Zedvance Finance Limited remains one of the lending firms that are still active at this time through their digital channels.

Economy

MRS Oil, FrieslandCampina Wamco Shrink NASD Index by 0.68%

Published

2 days ago

06/06/2026

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

The duo of MRS Oil and FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc weakened the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange by 0.68 per cent on Friday, June 5.

MRS Plc lost N19.00 during the session to sell at N171.00 per share compared with Thursday’s value of N190.00 per share, and FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc depreciated by N8.70 to finish at N181.68 per unit compared with the preceding session’s N190.38 per unit.

As a result, the market capitalisation further lost N22.59 billion to close at N2.607 trillion versus the N2.630 trillion it ended a day earlier, and the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) dropped 37.76 points to settle at 4,358.32 points, in contrast to the previous day’s 4,396.08 points.

The alternative stock market closed the last trading day of this week with a price gainer, Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc, which gained 6 Kobo to quote at N78.40 per share compared with the preceding session’s N78.34 per share. However, it could not prevent the market from going down at the close of business.

Yesterday, the volume of securities bought and sold by investors went down by 50.0 per cent to 140,345 units from the preceding day’s 280,714 units, the value of stocks decreased by 16.5 per cent to N17.9 million from the previous session’s N21.5 million, and the number of deals carried out by market participants fell by 35.7 per cent to 27 deals from the 42 deals recorded on Thursday.

When trading activities closed for the day, Great Nigeria Insurance (GNI) Plc remained the most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units exchanged for N8.4 billion, trailed by Infrastructure Credit Guarantee (Infracredit) Plc with 2.3 billion units sold for N6.5 billion, and CSCS Plc with 64.7 million units traded for N4.4 billion.

GNI Plc also ended the session as the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units worth N8.4 billion, followed by Infracredit Plc with 2.3 billion units transacted for N6.5 billion, and Resourcery Plc with 1.1 billion units valued at N415.7 million.

Economy

NGX Index Rebounds 0.15% on Renewed Interest in Financial Stocks

Published

2 days ago

06/06/2026

Dipo Olowookere

By Dipo Olowookere

Renewed interest in financial stocks and others lifted the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited by 0.15 per cent on Friday.

Customs Street closed higher yesterday despite the 1.37 per cent loss recorded by the consumer goods sector as a result of profit-taking.

This was offset by gains in the other key sectors of the local bourse, as the insurance counter chalked up 1,14 per cent. The banking space appreciated by 0.90 per cent, the industrial goods segment grew by 0.46 per cent, and the energy sector expanded by 0.01 per cent.

Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) went up by 366.00 points to 242,593.31 points from 242,227.31 points, and the market capitalisation gained N235 billion to close at N155.594 trillion compared with the previous day’s N155.359 trillion.

The trio of International Energy Insurance, Abbey Mortgage Bank, and DAAR Communications improved by 10.00 per cent each yesterday to N7.26, N9.35, and N1.98, respectively, while Zichis advanced by 9.39 per cent to N32.38, with Sovereign Trust Insurance up by 8.70 per cent to N2.50.

On the flip side, Academy Press lost 9.84 per cent to quote at N8.25, University Press depreciated by 9.73 per cent to N5.10, Africa Prudential dipped by 2.63 per cent to N12.95, Chams crumbled by 2.44 per cent to N4.00, and International Breweries slipped by 1.59 per cent to N12.35.

Business Post reports that the market breadth index was positive during the session after recording 37 appreciating equities and 14 depreciating equities, implying strong investor sentiment.

Abbey Mortgage Bank led the activity chart with a turnover of 164.1 million units worth N1.5 billion, Ellah Lakes sold 76.7 million units for N767.2 million, Access Holdings transacted 44.8 million units valued at N1.1 billion, Linkage Assurance exchanged 23.0 million units worth N41.2 million, and The Initiates traded 20.2 million units for N562.1 million.

At the close of trades, market participants transacted 608.5 million units worth N32.0 billion in 53,826 deals versus the 588.5 million units valued at N27.9 billion executed in 57,352 deals in the previous session. This showed that the number of deals eased by 6.15 per cent, the volume of transactions rose by 3.40 per cent, and the value of transactions soared by 14.70 per cent.

Economy

Naira Depreciates to N1,362/$1 at Official Market

Published

2 days ago

06/06/2026

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira further depreciated against the United States Dollar by N3.46 or 0.25 per cent to N1,362.21/$1 from N1,358.75/$1 in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Friday, June 5.

However, it appreciated against the Pound Sterling in the same market window during the session by N4.47 to trade at N1,823.59/£1 compared with the previous day’s N1,828.06/£1, and gained N7.00 against the Euro to sell at N1,574.58/€1, in contrast to Thursday’s closing price of N1,581.58/€1.

For another trading session, the Nigerian Naira maintained stability against the Dollar in the parallel market and the GTBank forex counter on Friday at N1,375/$1 and N1,372/$1, respectively.

The Naira is expected to remain strong in the near term, backed by a rise in external reserves, which are nearing $50 billion, enhancing analysts’ confidence about its outlook in the second half of 2026.

Heightened global uncertainty has reduced the incentive for importers and corporates to demand FX, as cautious trade weighs on import needs. Analysts estimate a $40 billion net FX position for the year, a projection anchored in oil windfall gains.

As for the cryptocurrency market, prices remained depressed following a strong US jobs report that spurred markets to price in higher-for-longer interest rates, sending Treasury yields and the dollar up while hammering stocks, especially AI-related names. Crypto markets saw heavy leverage washouts with about $1.6 billion in positions liquidated over 24 hours.

Ethereum (ETH) gave up 4.9 per cent to trade at $1,584.68, Solana (SOL) fell by 3.3 per cent to $63.22, Bitcoin (BTC) crashed by 1.9 per cent to $61,333.23, Dogecoin (DOGE) slipped by 1.8 per cent to $0.0821, and Ripple (XRP) moderated by 1.8 per cent to $1.09.

Further, TRON (TRX) dropped 1.6 per cent to sell at $0.3197, Binance Coin (BNB) slumped by 1.0 per cent to $581.18, and Cardano (ADA) declined by 0.4 per cent to $0.1589, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) gained 0.07 to sell at $0.9997, and US Dollar Coin (USDC) closed flat at $0.9998.