N100bn Infrastructure Fund: Stanbic IBTC Promises Value for Investment

By Adedapo Adesanya The Nigerian Naira weakened to a new low on the American Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday, December 8, amid speculations that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has again devalued the local currency. In the previous trading session, there were reports that the exchange rate for clearing cargoes has been raised to N952/$1, sparking rumours that domestic currency would hit N1,000/$1 in the spot market. On the last trading session of the week, the Naira lost N255.98 or 30.4 per cent of its value on the greenback to trade at N1,099.05/$1

By Adedapo Adesanya The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange recorded a 1.6 per cent appreciation on Friday, December 8, as investors gained about N19.12 billion to push the valuation of the unlisted bourse to N1.202 trillion from the N1.182 trillion it closed in the preceding session. This achievement was influenced by the gains recorded by the trio of Aradel Holdings Plc, FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc, and Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc. Data showed that Aradel Holdings Plc improved its value by N30 to settle at N900.00 per unit compared with the previous day’s N870.00 per unit, FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria

By Aduragbemi Omiyale One of the players in the personal healthcare and consumer goods sectors, PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc, has published a list of its shareholders with unclaimed dividends. Unclaimed dividends are cash rewards given to investors, mainly from the profits from the company’s operations, but are yet to be collected by the beneficiaries. This has been a major source of sleepless nights for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which is working to bring down the number of unclaimed dividends. It has been reported that the value of unclaimed dividends in the nation’s stock market is over N185 billion.

By Saatah Nubari The first time this budget analysis series ran was for the 2016 budget; and it becomes visible each day that the 1810 page document was a horrid, hurriedly-put, corrupt-conduit-filled piece of executive cluelessness. Well, since I’m more of a realist than any of the other-ists, I’ll just say that the fact that the world lost an entire tree to the making of the paper it was inked on is a tragedy. We have been given a sequel; the 2017 budget was presented to the National Assembly by the President in the presence of the ministers who drafted

By Adedapo Adesanya The House of Representatives has set up an ad-hoc committee to investigate the disbursement of funds to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the federal government from 2015 to 2020. This followed a motion raised by Mr Henry Nwawuba (PDP–Imo), calling for the investigation into the disbursement of special funds for public interventions received by agencies of government on the floor of the lower chamber of the parliament in Abuja. He said that it was in a bid to ensure that such funds were properly utilised, expressing concerns that despite the huge amount of funds invested on

By Adedapo Adesanya President Muhammadu Buhari has revealed that the new Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited will guarantee energy security in the country. He made this disclosure on Tuesday when he unveiled the new company in Abuja. Mr Buhari, who was accompanied by the Senate President, Mr Ahmad Lawan; and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, among other dignitaries at the State House Conference Centre, said the new private company would also support sustainable growth across other sectors of the economy as it delivers energy to the world. “We are transforming our petroleum industry, to strengthen

By Adedapo Adesanya The Naira weakened at the opening trading session of the week against the US Dollar at the parallel market segment of the foreign exchange market on Monday, June 28. The local currency depreciated by N2 against the greenback to sell for N502/$1 compared with N500/$1 it traded last Friday. However, at the same unregulated segment of the market, the local currency closed flat against both the Pound Sterling and the Euro, trading at N710/£1 and N600/£1 respectively. It was a different outcome for the domestic currency at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window as it appreciated by

By Dipo Olowookere The money market rates recorded a significant appreciation last Friday, growing to a seven-month high at the close of business. This occurred as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intervened in the foreign exchange market via a retail SMIS, consequently taking system liquidity significantly lower into an estimated net negative position of nearly N100 billion. Specifically, the Open Buy Back (OBB) rate jumped to 65 percent from 16.67 percent, while the overnight rate went up to 73.42 percent from 18.88 percent in the previous session. Analysts at Zedcrest Research expect the rates to remain elevated this week

**Plans N459b Capital Raising Group Managing Director of Access Bank Plc, Mr Herbert Wigwe, has attributed the not-too-impressive performance of the lender in 2017 to residual effects of macro-economic conditions of 2016. Mr Wigwe gave this explanation at the bank’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) held this week in Lagos and attended by shareholders of the financial institution. The bank chief, however, said the bank’s fundamentals remain strong and the group remains poised for sustainable growth in the coming periods. According to him, despite the slight issue, Access Bank recorded well-rounded performance in 2017 with improvements in all key performance indices

By Adedapo Adesanya The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange recorded a marginal loss of 0.02 per cent on Tuesday, March 21, to remain in the red territory. Recall that a day earlier, unlisted securities in Nigeria depreciated by 0.05 per cent due to renewed profit-taking, and yesterday, this action persisted as investors make efforts to rebalance their portfolios due to the macroeconomic environment. As a result, the NASD Unlisted Securities Index (NSI) went down by 0.15 points on Tuesday to 730.94 points from the 731.09 points reported in the previous session, while the market capitalisation of the alternative bourse depleted

By Adedapo Adesanya Crude oil prices overlooked unpleasant news from the United States’ Energy Information Administration (EIA) which showed that there was another high crude inventory build of 13.8 million barrels for the week to March 5. On Wednesday, the international benchmark futures, Brent crude, gained 41 cents or 0.61 per cent to sell at $67.93 per barrel, while the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose by 45 cents or 0.7 per cent to trade at $64.46 per barrel. This is the second straight week of a massive crude oil inventory build, as the market was faced with an