N263b Maturing Bills to Boost Financial System Liquidity This Week

By Adedapo Adesanya Oil slumped by more than 2 per cent on Friday as traders showed scepticism about the depth of supply cuts by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) as well as concerns about sluggish global manufacturing activity. Brent crude went down by $1.98 or 2.45 per cent to close at $78.88 a barrel as the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude dropped $1.89 or 2.49 per cent to sell for $74.07 a barrel. For the week, Brent posted a decline of about 2.1 per cent, while WTI lost more than 1.9 per cent.

By Adedapo Adesanya  Angola, one of Africa’s top crude oil producers and a key member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), has officially rejected the proposed production quota for the year 2024 and may even exit the group. This was signalled by Mr Diamantino Pedro Azevedo, Angola’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, confirming the nation’s decision and indicating a divergence from OPEC’s suggested allocations for both member and non-member countries. The announcement was made during the 26th OPEC+ Meeting on Thursday, where the organisation proposed 1.11 million barrels of crude oil per day production quota for

By Adedapo Adesanya The Naira put up a weak performance against the United States Dollar across the various segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Thursday. November 30, 2023, the last trading session of the month. In the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) window, which is the official market, the Nigerian currency lost 0.1 per cent or 85 Kobo against the greenback during the session to settle at N832.32/$1 compared with the preceding day’s value of N831.47/$1. A slight strain in the supply of forex into the spot market was partly responsible for the weakening of the local

By Adedapo Adesanya Equinor and Chappal Energies have entered into an agreement for the sale of Equinor Nigeria Energy Company (ENEC), which holds a 53.85 per cent ownership in oil and gas lease OML 128, including the unitized 20.21 per cent stake in the Agbami oil field, operated by Chevron. Speaking on the deal, Equinor’s senior vice president for Africa Operations, Ms Nina Koch, said Nigeria has been an important part of Equinor’s international portfolio over the past 30 years, noting that, “This transaction realizes value and is in line with Equinor’s strategy to optimize its international oil and gas

By Dipo Olowookere On the first trading of the year on Tuesday, the Nigerian local currency, Naira, exchanged for 490 to a Dollar on the parallel market. It was the same rate it closed on the last working day of 2016. It was a similar situation at the official interbank window, where the currency closed at N305 a Dollar on the official window. It had initially exchanged at N315.50 to the Dollar but gained after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sold $1.5 million in the market. The Naira lost around a third of its official value against the Dollar

By Investors Hub European stocks are mostly higher on Thursday as the easing of geopolitical and trade tensions prompted investors to cherry-pick shares ahead of the Easter break. While the U.K.?s FTSE 100 Index has risen by 0.3 percent, the French CAC 40 Index is up by 0.7 percent and the German DAX Index is up by 0.9 percent. French automaker Renault has jumped on a Bloomberg report that it is in talks to merge with Japan’s Nissan Motor. Rivals Peugeot, BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen have also moved higher. Swiss Re has rallied on a Bloomberg report that Japan’s Softbank

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The urgent need to softly reboot the nation’s economy through digital technology has been emphasised by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Mr Isa Ali Pantami. The Minister, speaking at a recent event in Lagos, stated that an economy driven by digital technology will help Nigeria to survive the present regressive economic outlook as a result of COVID-19 disruption. “Since the global lockdown earlier in the year, digital commerce has become the most efficient growth area providing the world new ways of doing things as encapsulated in the New Normal pseudo phrase,” Mr Pantami said at

By Aduragbemi Omiyale The benchmark interest rate, the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), has again been increased by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to 14 per cent. The anchor rate was hiked by the apex bank on Tuesday after the end of its two-day Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held in Abuja. The Governor of the CBN, Mr Godwin Emefiele, who announced the lifting of the rate while addressing newsmen, explained that the action was taken to curb the rising inflation in the country. Over the weekend, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the inflation rate in Nigeria rose

By Modupe Gbadeyanka A specialised incubator scheme with offerings to address the needs of startup businesses has been introduced by Keystone Bank Limited, a fast-growing financial services provider. The initiative tagged The Keystone Startup Advantage Programme (KSA Programme), will provide the necessary support for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and startups in Nigeria. This is in line with the vision of President Muhammadu Buhari for the growth of the SMEs sector and aligns with the United Nations Envision #2030 Sustainable Development Goal (UN SDG) 8 – to promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and

By Adedapo Adesanya The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has urged the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) to expose unscrupulous members hiding under the association to perpetrate heinous activities. This appeal was made by the Director-General of SON, Mr Farouk Salim, at an interactive session with executives of ANLCA in Lagos. He noted that exposing these clearing agents would serve to protect and improve the image of the association as well as safeguard lives and properties of Nigerians. He said, “The impact of substandard goods on the nation is huge, leading to loss of jobs and sometimes lives

By FSDH Research The drop in government’s revenue in the face of the rising government expenditure has led to an increase in Nigeria’s public debt (external and domestic debt). Consequently, the ratio of debt service-to-revenue has reached unsustainable levels. The Debt Management Office (DMO) in its 2016 Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA) report notes that the debt service-to-revenue ratio (external and domestic debt service) of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), excluding states and local governments breached the country’s specific threshold of 28%. However, the FGN is taking steps towards debt sustainability by diversifying its debt profile through the issuance of