Local Currency Gains 8 Kobo at Investors’ FX Window

By Dipo Olowookere The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited retreated by 0.44 per cent on Tuesday due to selling pressure on some bellwether equities during the session. Shares of Dangote Cement, GTCO, Zenith Bank, Access Holdings, Oando, Lafarge Africa and others experienced a pullback yesterday as a result of profit-taking activities by traders. As a result, the All-Share Index (ASI) receded by 312.76 points to 71,041.05 points from 71,353.81 points and the market capitalisation moderated by N165 billion to N38.875 trillion from N39.040 trillion. The level of activity at the market waned on the second trading session of the week, as

By Adedapo Adesanya  The federal government, through the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), has announced plans to invest $1.1 billion to fully rehabilitate decaying port infrastructure at TinCan, Apapa, Rivers, Delta, Calabar, and Onne ports as part of efforts to improve the efficiency of the nation’s existing ports. Out of the estimated 47,000 kilometres of coastline in Africa, Nigeria makes up about 853 kilometres, creating the perfect opportunity to get access to its much-needed revenue. This coastline and a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone make up Nigeria’s coastline in the Gulf of Guinea. The coastline equals a maritime area of

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By Adedapo Adesanya The Naira appreciated against the US Dollar in the Nigeria Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) and the unregulated Peer-to-Peer (P2P) and the parallel market segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Wednesday, November 29 as President Bola Tinubu reiterated his administration’s promise to meet its obligations. Speaking during the presentation of his administration’s N27.50 trillion 2024 budget proposal to the joint session of the 10th National Assembly on Wednesday, Mr Tinubu said, “Despite the challenges, we continue to meet our obligations.” In the official NAFEM segment of the market, the value of the local currency went

Nneka Okumazie There’s a chance that when African political leaders gather, some say to others that you’re not impoverishing your people enough. Those in that chatter can be said to be in the group of poverty. Then there is a committee of corruption, seeking or giving advice on ways to get gains off some investment, program, or policy. There is also a group of dictators, reemphasizing how to handle any kind of threat against their power. Yes, maybe it happens often, maybe not, but the very slow progress, especially against poverty across sub-Saharan Africa shows how much all the multiple

By Modupe Gbadeyanka A foremost economic analyst, Teslim Shitta-Bay, has knocked the federal government for saying its proposed plan to impose an additional 20 per cent ad-valorem excise tax on carbonated soft drinks was to control the consumption of sugar in the country. About two weeks ago, the soft drinks group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) alleged that the government was planning to generate more funds from the sectorial group. A few days ago, an organisation known as the National Action on Sugar Reduction held a peaceful demonstration in Abuja urging the government to increase taxes on sugary

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Global Credit Ratings (GCR) has revealed affirming the long term and short term national scale issuer ratings of A-(NG) and A2(NG) respectively, assigned to Transcorp Hotels Plc with the outlook accorded as Stable. The rating firm noted that concurrently, the national scale ratings accorded to the following bond Issuances were also affirmed: Series 1 N10bn Fixed Rate Bond –  A-(NG), Stable Outlook; and Series 2 N9.8bn Fixed Rate Bond –  A-(NG), Stable Outlook, pointing out that both the long and short term issuer and bond ratings are valid until August 2018. GCR, in a statement, said it

By Modupe Gbadeyanka President Muhammadu Buhari has assured Nigerians that the currency swap policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) would be beneficial to the country. In a statement posted on Saturday night via the verified Twitter handle of the presidency, @NGRPresident, it was emphasised that the policy was not meant to make the citizens undergo undue hardship but to tackle corruption, currency counterfeiting and others. According to the statement, the changing of the old Naira notes to the new ones will stabilise and strengthen the country’s economy. In October 2022, the central bank said it was redesigning the

By Dipo Olowookere Analysts at FSDH Research have predicted that inflation rate for the month February 2018 will slow further to 14.31 percent from 15.13 percent recorded in January 2018. The drop in the rate for the month is attributed to the base effect of previous year. FSDH said it observed decrease in some major food prices as well as the slowdown in the price movement in some categories of non-food items in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) basket. On March 14, 2018, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is expected to release the inflation rate for the month of

By Dipo Olowookere Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State has expressed his administrations readiness to set up an agency to manage the State health insurance scheme. The Governor made this known when he received Professor Khama Rogo, Lead Health Specialist and Head of the World Bank Group’s Health in Africa Initiative and his team at the government house in Ilorin on Monday. While expressing delight that the health insurance law has been passed, Mr Ahmed said a strong agency will be setup with adequate personnel provide strong healthcare service delivery and drive health sector funding away from supply end financing.

By Adedapo Adesanya Acting Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms Mary Uduk, has assured investors that they would still be able to get their unclaimed dividends of defunct companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). The SEC chief gave this assurance in a statement issued yesterday in Abuja, where she made it clear that shareholders must be paid what belongs to them no matter what so as to boost confidence in the capital market. “They invested in a company and since the company has gone under, there is no reason why they should not have

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr Timipre Sylva, has said the country expects prices of crude oil to rebound by at least $15 per barrel after producing nations agreed to an output cut last week. Last Thursday, members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-members, in an effort to stabilise the oil market, agreed to reduce production by nearly 10 million barrels per day. On Sunday, another meeting was held through a video-conference and Nigeria, which is part of OPEC, joined others to discuss modalities for the production ceiling. It was