Economy

Lagos Prepares 12,000 Students for Labour Market

Published

8 years ago

17/06/2017

By Dipo Olowookere

Plans have been concluded by the Lagos State government to train 12,000 undergraduates in tertiary institutions in the state on entrepreneurship and employability skills.

Out of the 12, 000 students, it was gathered that 2,000 final year students would be selected for the training at the three designated centres, while the remaining 10,000 would be selected from students in their penultimate year at the institutions and trained.

The beneficiaries, Special Adviser to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode on Education, Mr Obafela Bank-Olemoh explained, would been chose from those who register for the 2017 edition of the Ready, Set, Work (RSW) scheme of the state government.

On Thursday, government opened the programme’s website, www.readysetwork.com.ng, for intending applicants to register.

Mr Bank-Olemoh told newsmen that while registration begins from June 16, the training will run from July 1 to September 16, 2017.

He said as an improvement on the initiative which started in 2016, students of six tertiary institutions in the State would benefit, while three centres have been designated to host the training.

The six institutions, according to Bank-Olemoh are Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (ACCOED), Lagos State College of Health Science (LASCOHET), Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH), Lagos State University (LASU), Michael Otedola College of Education (MOCPED) and University of Lagos (UNILAG).

“When the administration of Governor Ambode came on board, one of the issues he was confronted with from the private sector was that there were major gaps in the work readiness of graduates, and his immediate response was to come up with a scheme to equip graduates from our tertiary institutions with the right skills needed to add value to the society.

“And so, the vision of the RSW is that every graduate from a tertiary institution situated in Lagos must have the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to gain meaningful employment or be self-employed and our plan is to train all graduates in tertiary institutions through the RSW,” the Governor’s aide said.

He said beneficiaries of the scheme would be selected to participate only on competence, and would be trained for thirteen weeks on labour market, mindset reorientation, 21st century skills, entrepreneurship, employability skills and teacher track.

He said about 750 of the beneficiaries would be helped to secure internship placement and given skill for life, while there would also be seed funding for winners of the business pitch competition to be held as part of the training.

Responding to questions on sustainability of the scheme and the need to accommodate other tertiary institutions in the state, Mr Bank-Olemoh said plans are afoot to integrate the RSW into the education curriculum of the state, and also expand the modules as well as the benefiting institutions.

Out of the 500 students that were registered for the scheme in 2016, only 422 graduated after the rigorous training with Sarunmi Oluwafemi and Dada Samuel who emerged as the overall winners of the pitch competition walking away with N6 million seed funding and N100,000 monthly working capital for six months.

The second and third place winners also got N500,000 and N250,000 respectively with N100,000 working capital for six months.

Economy

Market Sheds 0.25% as Tantalizers Stocks, Others Shed Weight

Published

15 hours ago

15/03/2025

Dipo Olowookere

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited suffered a 0.25 per cent hair cut on Friday after investors offloaded some stocks, including Tantalizers, which topped the losers’ chart.

The company was the worst-performing equity during the session after it shed 9.85 per cent to settle at N2.93, Jaiz Bank lost 9.72 per cent to trade at N3.25, Neimeth declined by 9.45 per cent to N2.49, Dangote Sugar tumbled by 7.76 per cent to N35.05, and Lasaco Assurance shrank by 5.96 per cent to N2.68.

On the flip side, Royal Exchange gained 10.00 per cent to finish at 88 Kobo, Linkage Assurance soared by 9.57 per cent to N1.26, Guinea Insurance appreciated by 9.52 per cent to 69 Kobo, Enamelware inflated by 9.05 per cent to N25.30, and Red Star Express rose by 8.41 per cent to N5.80.

Business Post reports that the market breadth was negative on the last trading session of the week, with 24 depreciating shares and 22 appreciating share, showing a weak investor sentiment.

Apart from the insurance index, which closed higher by 0.12 per cent, and the commodity space, which closed flat, every other sector crumbled.

The consumer goods counter deflated by 1.08 per cent, the banking industry went down by 0.22 per cent, the energy sector fell by 0.18 per cent, and the industrial goods counter retreated by 0.03 per cent.

At the close of trades, the All-Share Index (ASI) decreased by 265.81 points to 105,955.13 points from 106,220.94 points and the market capitalisation dropped N166 billion to end at N66.352 trillion compared with Thursday’s value of N66.518 trillion.

A total of 750.6 million stocks worth N11.1 billion exchange hands in 10,584 deals during the session versus the 341.7 million stocks valued at N16.7 billion transacted in 11,233 deals a day earlier, implying a rise in the trading volume by 119.67 per cent, and a decline in the trading value and number of deals by 33.54 per cent and 5.78 per cent apiece.

Champion Breweries topped the activity chart with 350.4 million units worth N1.4 billion, Tantalizers sold 53.1 million units for N157.1 million, Custodian Investment traded 51.1 million units valued at N1.0 billion, Lasaco Assurance transacted 36.5 million units worth N97.7 million, and Access Holdings exchanged 30.7 million units valued at N723.0 million.

Economy

Unlisted Securities Bourse Down by 0.60%

Published

15 hours ago

15/03/2025

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

There was a 0.6 per cent decline at NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange on Friday, March 14, with the Unlisted Security Index (NSI) dropping 20.44 points to close at 3,363.74 points, in contrast to the previous trading day’s 3,384.18 points and the market capitalisation of the bourse losing N11.81 billion at session to settle at N1.942 trillion compared with the preceding day’s N1.954 trillion.

Yesterday, Okitipupa Plc went down by N30.00 to close at N300.00 per share compared with Thursday’s value of N330.00 per share, Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc shrank by 31 Kobo to trade at N21.69 per unit versus the previous day’s N22.00 per unit, and Geo Fluids slid by 31 Kobo to trade at N2.84 per share, in contrast the N3.15 per share it was traded a day earlier.

However, FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc rose by N2.66 to N38.23 per unit from N35.57 per unit, Afriland Properties Plc expanded by 30 Kobo to N23.20 per share from its previous rate of N22.90 per share, and AG Mortgage Bank Plc increased by 5 Kobo to close at 53 Kobo per unit versus 48 Kobo per unit.

During the session, the volume of securities traded at the bourse fell by 72.6 per cent to 652,237 units from the 3.9 million units recorded on Thursday.

But the value of securities traded went up by 40.5 per cent to N33.1 million from the N23.6 million quoted at the preceding session and the number number of deals increased by 11.7 per cent to 37 deals from 17 deals.

Impresit Bakolori Plc was the most active stock by value (year-to-date) with 533.9 million units sold for N520.9 million, the second position was occupied by FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc with 13.0 million units valued at N502.4 million, and the third spot was taken by Afriland Properties Plc with 17.4 million units worth N356.2 million.

The most active stock by volume (year-to-date) was also Impresit Bakolori Plc with 533.9 million units valued at N520.9 million, followed by Industrial and General Insurance (IGI) Plc with 69.9 million units sold for N23.7 million, and Afriland Properties Plc with 17.4 million units valued at N356.2 million.

Economy

Naira Appreciates to N1,522/$1 at Official Market on FX Liquidity Boost

Published

15 hours ago

15/03/2025

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira recorded its first gain against the United States Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) this week on Friday, March 14, firming up by 1.19 per cent or N18.31 to close at N1,522.37/$1 compared with the preceding day’s N1.540.68/$1.

This was supported by the injection of FX into the market by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Over the last few sessions, the local currency had depreciate following recent pressures in the market as interventions have failed to ease pressure welling in the market with the country’s foreign reserves losing over $2 billion in the last month.

However, there were fresh injections at the session, which boosted the value of the local currency in the official market.

Equally, the domestic currency appreciated against the British Pound Sterling at NAFEM yesterday by N25.93 to sell at N1,640.20/£1 versus the previous day’s N1,990.13/£1 and improved its value against the Euro by N22.30 to quote at N1,653.78/€1, in contrast to the preceding session’s value of N1,676.08/€1.

In the parallel market, the value of the Nigerian Naira remained unchanged against the US Dollar during the trading day at N1,590/$1.

As for the cryptocurrency market, sellers of risk assets took a breather yesterday, with crypto markets posting sizable gains after risk appetite returned to markets.

Solana (SOL) jumped by 6.7 per cent to trade at $133.10, Ripple (XRP) gained 4.1 per cent to finish at $2.39, Cardano (ADA) went up by 3.8 per cent to settle at $0.7356, Dogecoin (DOGE) rose by 2.5 per cent to sell at $0.1723, Bitcoin (BTC) grew by 2.3 per cent to end at $83,987.28, Litecoin (LTC) added 3.0 per cent to quote at $91.48, Binance Coin (BNB) appreciated by 1.8 per cent to $590.92, and Ethereum (ETH) improved its value by 1.4 per cent to sell at $1,919.80, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.