Inflation in Nigeria Jumps to 22.41% in May

By Adedapo Adesanya The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has postponed the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting scheduled to hold next week. In a statement, the apex bank noted that the MPC meeting, which was supposed to take place on Monday, September 25 and Tuesday, September 26, 2023, has been postponed until further notice. This is coming less than a week after President Bola Tinubu nominated Mr Olayemi Michael Cardoso to take over the role from Mr Folashodun Shonubi, who is filling the role following the ousting of Mr Godwin Emefiele, who is currently held in the custody of the

By Adedapo Adesanya Ahead of next week’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting scheduled for Monday, September 25 and Tuesday, September 26, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has called on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to pause its interest rate hike. In a statement signed by the Director-General, Mrs Chinyere Almona, the group said this was necessary to relieve Nigerians of the pressure on the supply side following a further surge in the inflation rate. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed last Friday that the average cost of goods and services rose by 25.80 per cent

By Dipo Olowookere Ellah Lakes Plc can now go ahead with its plans to raise fresh capital through a rights issue to shareholders, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has declared. In 2022, shareholders of the company authorised the board to source about N2.90 billion. The board later filed an application to the SEC to carry out the transaction. In an update on Wednesday, Ellah Lakes informed the investing community that the apex regulatory agency for the country’s capital market had approved its request. The firm, which operates in the agricultural sector, intends to get N2.90 billion from shareholders from

By Adedapo Adesanya Crude oil prices went down by more than 1 per cent on Monday after weaker-than-expected Chinese economic growth raised doubts over the strength of demand in the world’s second-biggest oil consumer. Brent crude lost 1.7 per cent or $1.37 to trade at $78.50 a barrel, and the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell by 1.7 per cent or $1.27 to finish at $74.15 per barrel. China’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 6.3 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter, slightly lower than the 7.3 per cent projected by some analysts, indicating that its post-pandemic growth

By Dipo Olowookere A permanent secretary from the Federal Secretariat in Abuja has been sacked by President Muhammadu Buhari, Vanguard reports. The senior government official was said to have used his office to award phantom contracts to himself worth billions of Naira. Vanguard quoted a source in the ministry to have stated that the sacked permanent secretary, appointed in 2015 by Mr Buhari, was fired on Tuesday and was taken away by two police officers. A Presidency source confirmed to Vanguard that the President ordered the immediate removal of the top civil servant, who presided over the affairs of one

By Ashemiriogwa Emmanuel The River State Government, on Tuesday, appointed Miss Sophia Awajibene, an 18-year-old secondary school leaver, as the Commissioner for Information and Communication. Miss Awajibene occupied the position for just 30 minutes after her outstanding performance in an intensive essay competition organized in the state, emerging the winner after scoring 79 per cent ahead of 14 others. To encourage her, she occupied the post and was also awarded a cash prize of N60,000, a plaque and declared an Ambassador of the Rivers State Ministry of Information and Communication. Applauding the performance of the candidate, the incumbent Commissioner for

By Adedapo Adesanya A non-governmental organisation, Feed Me, has started an initiative of sharing food items on a monthly basis to the vulnerable and the less-privileged in the society. Mrs Oluwatunmise Mafe, the convener of the NGO, said in a statement that FeedMe and its partners would provide monthly food supplies to families in various communities in Lagos to alleviate their needs and enhance their nutritional level “Our plan for the next two years is to provide 100 families with food items like rice, beans, garri, semovita, vegetable oil and seasoning that will last them for a month. “The strategy

By Dipo Olowookere The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited recorded a low trading activity on Friday, with the bears dominating the landscape amid profit-taking, resulting in a 0.11 per cent loss at the close of business. According to the trading data, the trading volume, value and number of deals went down by 34.91 per cent, 37.78 per cent and 17.35 per cent respectively as a total of 225.7 million units of Nigerian equities worth N2.4 billion were traded in 4,093 deals compared with the 346.7 million stocks worth N3.8 billion traded in 4,952 deals a day earlier. Fidelity Bank finished the

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The Federal Ministry of Finance has disclosed that the Federal Government has been able to record N20 billion reduction in its monthly wage bill across Ministries Department and Agencies (MDAs). This disclosure was made in Abuja on Tuesday by the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance, Mr Mahmoud Isa-Dutse. According to him, at the moment, the N165 billion monthly wage bill has now come down to N145 billion translating to N20 billion monthly savings. He said the feat was achieved with the assistance of the Presidential Committee on Audit of MDAs, which is saddled with

By Adedapo Adesanya The Secretary-General of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Mr Wamkele Mene, has called on countries on the continent to end their heavy dependence on export markets in Western countries. Mr Mene made this call on Saturday during a virtual session of the 13th Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government on AfCFTA. Mr Mene said the way to achieve that will be a comprehensive implementation and effective operation of the free trade agreement. “Africa has an over-reliance on the export of primary commodities to traditional markets of the North. In other

By Dipo Olowookere Readers of Pulse in Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya now have the opportunity to get contents published by New York Times. This was made possible as a result of an agreement signed between the New York Times News and Ringier Africa Digital Publishing (RADP), the parent body of Pulse. The deal, according to RADP was signed to further expands its news and media portfolio by publishing New York Times journalism under its new media brand Pulse in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria. Pulse informs and entertains Africa’s mass and mobile population with a reach of 100 million people every