Economy
Keystone Bank Trains Small Business Owners on Digital Marketing
By Dipo Olowookere
As part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) aimed at creating a new breed of entrepreneurs in Nigeria, Keystone Bank Limited has held a series of capacity building trainings in digital marketing and bookkeeping for its micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) customers across the country.
During the workshops held across the country, the financial institution provided platforms for over 700 entrepreneurs to look inward, develop and deploy their business skills through practical trainings facilitated by experts and successful business owners in demonstration of its commitment to consistently promote and support the growth and development of the real sector.
It was gathered that the first phase of the workshops held in strategic locations in Nigeria such as, Lagos, Abuja, Benin, Enugu and Onitsha.
In Lagos, Benin, Enugu and Onitsha, Keystone Bank in partnership with social media giant, Facebook (Rabbington Media) and Google (Innovation Growth Hub) trained entrepreneurs and self-employed individuals on how to leverage digital social media to achieve their business goals. The participants (comprising of both existing and prospective customers of Keystone Bank) were trained on the advantages of internet marketing through the digital social media to achieve business growth.
In Abuja, the bank in partnership with Pundit Book-keeping Services Limited took its MSMEs customers on the importance and benefits of effective book-keeping and taxation.
Speaking at one of the sessions, the Executive Director, South & Corporate, Keystone Bank Limited, Mr Yemi Odusanya, said the bank was providing businesses and organizations the opportunity to expand their customer reach by projecting their message on global platforms such as Facebook thereby promoting widespread exposure.
“Globally, SMEs are established drivers of the strongest economies and Nigeria is not taking a back seat. With over 15million SMEs dotting the Nigerian landscape, we are poised to ensure our customers in this segment actively grow their businesses through our partnerships and focused initiatives in the segment, and this is the basis for our strong support of the MSME sector. MSMEs are the engines of socio-economic transformation, including industrialisation, as they provide vital platform to enhance technological and entrepreneurial capacity among various segments.
“We are committed to ensuring that our self-employed customers thrive at their various businesses hence we constantly seek ways and means to connect them to the market and ensure they succeed in reaching their customers.
“Giving them a social media presence will aid their appeal to the emerging middle-class customers in Nigeria who will most likely form a larger percentage of their customer base in the near future and are mostly upwardly-mobile youths who connect daily on these platforms at a reassuring rate.
“The capacity building trainings are available to all Keystone Bank customers who seek a competitive edge to transform their businesses and will be coming to other parts of the country soon.
“Our SME proposition, which is the “Growbiz Account” has three variants that address their cycles of growth from infancy through maturity and stability.
“We are also empowering SMEs through our Agency Banking initiative by signing them up as agents for basic off-site cash-in/cash-out services,” Mr Odusanya explained.
He further stressed that the bank recently re-launched her MSME drive to ensure businesses are well equipped with required knowledge and skills for their growth and survival.
Keystone Bank Limited is one of the financial institutions that has a long-running support for the growth and development of small businesses in Nigeria because of the recognition of critical roles of MSMEs as vital agents of economic development and transformation.
The bank, a technology and service-driven commercial bank offering convenient and reliable solutions to its customers, has a full-fledged SME banking division which over the years, has developed various engagement programmes focused on empowering entrepreneurs.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The federal government, the 36 states of the federation and the 774 local government areas have received N1.727 trillion from the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) for December 2024.
The funds were disbursed to the three tiers of government from the revenue generated by the nation in November 2024.
At the December meeting of FAAC held in Abuja, it was stated that the amount distributed comprised distributable statutory revenue of N455.354 billion, distributable Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue of N585.700 billion, Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL) revenue of N15.046 billion and Exchange Difference revenue of N671.392 billion.
According to a statement signed on Friday by the Director of Press and Public Relations for FAAC, Mr Bawa Mokwa, the money generated last month was about N3.143 trillion, with N103.307 billion used for cost of collection and N1.312 trillion for transfers, interventions and refunds.
It was disclosed that gross statutory revenue of N1.827 trillion was received compared with the N1.336 trillion recorded a month earlier.
The statement said gross revenue of N628.972 billion was available from VAT versus N668.291 billion in the preceding month.
The organisation stated that last month, oil and gas royalty and CET levies recorded significant increases, while excise duty, VAT, import duty, Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT), Companies Income Tax (CIT) and EMTL decreased considerably.
As for the sharing, FAAC disclosed that from the N1.727 trillion, the central government got N581.856 billion, the states received N549.792 billion, the councils took N402.553 billion, while the benefiting states got N193.291 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue.
From the N585.700 billion VAT earnings, the national government got N87.855 billion, the states received N292.850 billion and the local councils were given N204.995 billion.
Also, from the N455.354 billion distributable statutory revenue, the federal government was given N175.690 billion, the states got N89.113 billion, the local governments had N68.702 billion, and the benefiting states received N121.849 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue.
In addition, from the N15.046 billion EMTL revenue, FAAC shared N2.257 billion to the federal government, disbursed N7.523 billion to the states and transferred N5.266 billion to the local councils.
Further, from the N671.392 billion Exchange Difference earnings, it gave central government N316.054 billion, the states N160.306 billion, the local government areas N123.590 billion, and the oil-producing states N71.442 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange recorded a 0.65 per cent gain on Friday, December 13, boosted by three equities admitted on the trading platform.
On the last trading session of the week, Okitipupa Plc appreciated by N2.70 to settle at N29.74 per share versus Thursday’s closing price of N27.04 per share, FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc added N2.49 to end the session at N42.85 per unit compared with the previous day’s N40.36 per unit, and Afriland Properties Plc gained 50 Kobo to close at N16.30 per share, in contrast to the preceding session’s N15.80 per share.
Consequently, the market capitalisation added N6.89 billion to settle at N1.062 trillion compared with the preceding day’s N1.055 trillion and the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) gained 19.66 points to wrap the session at 3,032.16 points compared with 3,012.50 points recorded in the previous session.
Yesterday, the volume of securities traded by investors increased by 171.6 per cent to 1.2 million units from the 447,905 units recorded a day earlier, but the value of shares traded by the market participants declined by 19.3 per cent to N2.4 million from the N3.02 million achieved a day earlier, and the number of deals went down by 14.3 per cent to 18 deals from 21 deals.
At the close of business, Geo-Fluids Plc was the most active stock by volume on a year-to-date basis with a turnover of 1.7 billion units worth N3.9 billion, followed by Okitipupa Plc with the sale of 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with 297.3 million units sold for N5.3 million.
In the same vein, Aradel Holdings Plc remained the most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis with the sale of 108.7 million units for N89.2 billion, trailed by Okitipupa Plc with 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with a turnover of 297.3 million units worth N5.3 billion.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira appreciated further against the United States Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) by N1.50 or 0.09 per cent to close at N1,533.00/$1 on Friday, December 13 versus the N1,534.50/$1 it was transacted on Thursday.
The local currency has continued to benefit from the Electronic Foreign Exchange Matching System (EFEMS) introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) this month.
The implementation of the forex system comes with diverse implications for all segments of the financial markets that deal with FX, including the rebound in the value of the Naira across markets.
The system instantly reflects data on all FX transactions conducted in the interbank market and approved by the CBN.
Market analysts say the publication of real-time prices and buy-sell orders data from this system has lent support to the Naira in the official market and tackled speculation.
In the official market yesterday, the domestic currency improved its value against the Pound Sterling by N12.58 to wrap the session at N1,942.19/£1 compared with the previous day’s N1,954.77/£1 and against the Euro, it gained N2.44 to close at N1,612.85/€1 versus Thursday’s closing price of N1,610.41/€1.
At the black market, the Nigerian Naira appreciated against the greenback on Friday by N30 to sell for N1,650/$1 compared with the preceding session’s value of N1,680/$1.
Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was largely positive as investors banked on recent signals, including fresh support from US President-elect, Mr Donald Trump, as well as interest rate cuts by the European Central Bank (ECB).
Ripple (XRP) added 7.3 per cent to sell at $2.49, Binance Coin (BNB) rose by 3.5 per cent to $728.28, Cardano (ADA) expanded by 2.4 per cent to trade at $1.11, Litecoin (LTC) increased by 2.3 per cent to $122.56, Bitcoin (BTC) gained 1.9 per cent to settle at $101,766.17, Dogecoin (DOGE) jumped by 1.2 per cent to $0.4064, Solana (SOL) soared by 0.7 per cent to $226.15 and Ethereum (ETH) advanced by 0.6 per cent to $3,925.35, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.
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