MTN to List N153b Shares on NSE Soon

By Dipo Olowookere The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) kicked off the first trading session in the last week of the third quarter of the year on a negative note, with the key performance indices going down by 0.66 per cent on Monday. This was partly caused by the reaction of investors to the 30 Kobo interim dividend declaration of the board of Access Holdings Plc. A few days ago, its peer, UBA Plc, raised its interim dividend payment by 150 per cent to 50 Kobo and it was expected that Access Holdings would follow the same path. However, the company disappointed

By Adedapo Adesanya President Bola Tinubu has been charged by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) to investigate the allegations that over $15 billion of oil revenues and N200 billion budgeted to repair the refineries are missing and unaccounted for between 2020 and 2021, as documented by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI). In the letter dated September 23 and signed by SERAP deputy director, Mr Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation urged him to “name and shame anyone suspected to be responsible for the missing and unaccounted for public funds and to ensure their effective prosecution as well as

By Adedapo Adesanya The Nigerian government is targeting an estimated $55.2 billion in oil and gas investments by 2030, according to the Special Adviser to the President Bola Tinubu on Energy, Mrs Olu Verheijen. She said the government has wrapped up a series of strategic engagements with 15 leading international and independent oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria. The President’s aide recently organised sessions in Lagos and Abuja in partnership with the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) to review ways to improve the sector and address the nation’s revenue emergency whilst contributing to stabilising Nigeria’s economy. Involved in

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 Brent Crude oil traded at $60.04 (9PM Nigerian Time) on Tuesday, giving Nigeria new hopes that funding its 2019 budget may no longer be under threat. The nation, which relies heavily on income made from the sale of its crude oil for revenue, set the benchmark for this year at $60 per barrel. But in the past few weeks, the commodity has been trading lower, casting doubts on the possibility of government to meet its obligations back home. At the market yesterday, the Brent Crude saw an increase of 30 Cents equivalent to 0.5 percent. Last

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The treasury bills market was relatively quiet on Monday as investors look ahead for a fruitful trading week. At the close of transactions, the average yields slightly went up 0.15 percent to settle at 11.97 percent. Business Post reports that the market players are anticipating the inflows of N452 billion on Thursday from OMO T-bills maturing on that day. Meanwhile, the money market rates marginally increased yesterday, but still remaining in single digit. While the Open Buy Back (OBB) rate rose to 7.92 percent from 4.33 percent, the Overnight (OVN) rate jumped to 8.50 percent from 5.33

Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ibrahim Magu, has promised Nigerians to end impunity in the country. Mr Magu gave this assurance recently while presenting a paper titled ‘This Is Our Chance’ at the Symposium organized by members of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers (NADL) in Lagos. The anti-graft agency boss noted that he was aware of the damage impunity has done to the country and that the Commission was doing everything possible to tackle it. He declared that that Nigerians will no longer be held hostage by the twin evils of corruption and impunity.

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Companies operating in the hospitality, tourism and entertainment sectors in Lagos will enjoy a 50 per cent discount for licence and renewal fees payable to the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture. This was disclosed by the Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mrs Uzamat AkinbiIe-Yusuf, at a press conference held in Alausa, Ikeja, on Wednesday. The Commissioner said the gesture was part of the N1 billion approved by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu as seed capital for investment in the tourism sector. She said palliative measure was approved for practitioners in the industry to drive the growth of

By Dipo Olowookere Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, has been elected as chairperson of the board of directors of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank). She was elected on Saturday at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) and 25th anniversary of the African lender held in Abuja. Mrs Adeosun will be succeeding the outgoing chairman and president of the financial institution, Mr Benedict Okey Oramah. Her election came exactly a week she was accused of forging a certificate to secure her present job as Finance Minister. She is yet to comment on the scandal as well as President Muhammadu Buhari, who

By Dipo Olowookere ‎Dubai-based airline operator, flydubai, on Friday made its inaugural flight to the Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO), increasing capacity to Tanzania and further expanding its network in Africa to 12 destinations. Flydubai said it would offer six flights a week to Kilimanjaro, three of which are via a stop in the capital, Dar es Salaam and will increase the total number of flights to Tanzania to 14 flights a week. The aircraft touched down at 07:45 (Kilimanjaro local time) and on board the flight was a delegation led by Sudhir Sreedharan, Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations (GCC, Subcontinent

By Aduragbemi Omiyale The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has been asked to immediately suspend the four companies accused of importing adulterated Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), better known as petrol, into the country recently. Long queues had resurfaced this week in Lagos and Abuja and the cause was because of substandard fuel in circulation and on Wednesday, the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mr Mele Kyari, accused Oando, MRS Oil, Duke Oil and Emadeb/Hyde/AY Maikifi/Brittania-U Consortium of bringing the bad product into Nigeria. However, MRS Oil, in a statement, denied the allegation, emphasising that as a responsible corporate citizen,

By Adedapo Adesanya It was a bad day for the Nigerian currency at the Investors and Exporters segment of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Tuesday. This was because the local currency depreciated against the United States Dollar at the market window by N1 or 0.24 per cent to trade at N411/$1 in contrast to N410/$1 it ended at the previous session. It was the first trading session of the week because the market closed for business on Monday to mark the Workers’ Day holiday declared by the federal government. It was feared that the Naira will come under demand