MPC Urges FG to Quickly Implement 2017 Budget

By Adedapo Adesanya Crude oil prices went in different directions on Friday amid profit-taking as markets weighed supply concerns from Russia’s fuel export ban against demand woes from future rate hikes. While the Brent futures lost 3 cents to close at $93.27 a barrel, the US West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) futures rose by 40 cents to sell for $90.03 a barrel. However, both benchmarks closed downwards on a week-on-week basis, with Brent shedding 0.3 per cent, breaking a three-week streak of gains, and WTI sliding by 0.03 per cent for the week, the first decline in four weeks. Russia

By Adedapo Adesanya  The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has confirmed the resignation of Mr Godwin Emefiele as its governor and the resumption of Mr Olayemi Cardoso as the next head of the apex bank, albeit in an acting capacity. The apex bank’s Director of Corporate Communications, Mr Isa AbdulMumin, said Mr Cardoso will act as governor pending his confirmation by the Nigerian Senate, which is away on recess until Tuesday, September 26. This also confirms the exit of Mr Folashodun Shonubi, who was acting in that position following the ousting of Mr Emefile three months ago. “Dr Olayemi Michael

By Adedapo Adesanya The Naira closed mixed at the foreign exchange (FX) market on Friday, depreciating against the US Dollar in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segments and appreciating in the parallel market amid a new leadership at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). On Friday, the CBN announced the resumption of Mr Olayemi Cardoso as the next head of the apex bank, in an acting capacity pending his confirmation by the Nigerian Senate. He is taking over the role amid a worrying FX market, high inflation, and increased call to halt interest rate hikes which currently

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Nigeria’s equities market ended on a positive note on Monday with the all-share index growing by 0.32 percent after it ended last Friday at 27,835.22 basis points, gaining 89.78 points today to finish at 27,925.00 points. In the same vein, the market capitalisation added N30.835 billion to end at N9.591 trillion against N9.560 trillion it closed on Friday. A total of 171.461 million shares were traded today on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in 3,045 deals valued at N1.730 billion. A careful look at shares that performed well today on the NSE showed Nigerian Breweries leading the

By Dipo Olowookere The All-Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited depreciated on Friday by 0.33 per cent or 180.87 points to 54,232.34 points from 54,413.21 points. This loss was mainly triggered by the 3.59 per cent decline recorded by the industrial goods sectors as Dangote Cement saw a markdown for dividends during the session, having such a negative impact on the outcome of the market. In the same vein, the market capitalisation went down by N98 billion to settle at N29.544 trillion compared with the previous day’s N29.642 trillion. However, the investor sentiment remained strong as the

By Dipo Olowookere Former chief executive of data centre operator Telecity, Mr Michael Tobin, has disclosed that Lagos State offers more potential for datacentre investment in Sub-Saharan Africa. Mr Tobin is a key speaker at the upcoming TMT Finance Africa 2017 event in London. According to him, large scale datacentre investment opportunities are increasing in Sub-Saharan Africa as key commercial hubs benefit from the critical combination of high quality international backbone infrastructure (subsea cable) connectivity and mushrooming local demand for data. He noted that in the datacentre investment in Sub-Saharan Africa, there markets especially standout. “Clearly South Africa is the

By Dipo Olowookere The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has admitted additional 7.43 billion ordinary shares of Lafarge Africa Plc on its trading platform. The new shares of the company came from the N89.2 billion rights issue exercise carried out by the cement maker recently, which recorded 100 percent subscription, according to a recent statement. The new 7.43 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each were sold to existing shareholders of Lafarge Africa at N12 per unit from Monday, December 17, 2018 to Monday, January 28, 2018. Business Post reports that the company issued 6 new shares for every 7 shares

By Modupe Gbadeyanka President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday inaugurated the newly appointed members of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) with a task to “focus on primary data collection.” Mr Buhari, while administering oaths on his economic squad today in Abuja, said the 8-man council chaired by Prof. Doyin Salami must develop reliable data that will properly reflect what is happening in the country. According to the President, “Today, most of the statistics quoted about Nigeria are developed abroad by the World Bank, IMF and other foreign bodies. “Some of the statistics we get relating to Nigeria are wild estimates

By Adedapo Adesanya Middle East Energy, the leading energy industry event in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region, will make its anticipated return to the Dubai World Trade Centre on March 7—9, 2023, to guide energy transition conversations across the globe. The event, which is the 48th of its kind, is organised by Informa Markets, the leading global exhibitions organiser. It will bring together buyers and sellers from across different countries to explore the latest advancements in energy products and solutions. The programme will provide opportunities to network with international energy suppliers, discover products and solutions that are changing

By Nneka Okumazie Life may not seem to matter to many or some until they happen to see or stand next to the dead. The dead are not sleeping, resting or temporality unavailable but gone, left, out and over. It is not a situation of coming back or of reversal or just joking around. At that point or looking at that point, from other times, it is just to see how wonderful it is to be living, walking, breathing or just simply alive. It may seem really uninspiring to many – desirous of status, power, health, etc. to talk about

By Modupe Gbadeyanka No fewer than 215 workers on its payroll have been sacked by one of the commercial banks in Nigeria, Unity Bank, on Wednesday. The dismissed workers were those who “achieved less than 40 per cent of their performance target, which affected the lender’s overall profitability in recent years,” The Nation reports. It was also reported that Unity Bank asked the affected workers to go due part of its reengineering strategy for greater performance. The development comes on the first day at worker from the two-day public holidays declared by the Federal Government to mark Eid el-Kabir. The