Naira Fall to N576/$1 at P2P, N416.67/$1 at Spot Market

By Adedapo Adesanya The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) has shared a total of N1.1 trillion from the revenue generated by the nation in August 2023 for September to enable the three tiers of government; the federal government, states, and local government councils, to have funds to pay salaries and others. The allocation of the funds was confirmed by the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation on Friday following FAAC’s September 2023 meeting. According to a statement by the OAGF’s Director of Press and Public Relations, Mr Bawa Mokwa, there was “N1100.101 billion (N1.1 trillion) total distributable revenue.”

By Adedapo Adesanya The oil market retreated on Thursday, as traders took profits after prices soared recently while the space worried that high interest rates may weigh on demand. During the trading session, Brent futures fell by $1.17 or 1.2 per cent to settle at $95.38 a barrel and the US West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) declined by $1.97 or 2.1 per cent to close at $91.71 per barrel. The market had reached a 10-month high as some traders worried high oil prices would stoke inflation, encouraging the US Federal Reserve and other central banks to persist with rate hikes.

By Adedapo Adesanya Brent crude futures surged by 2.8 per cent or $2.59 on Wednesday to the highest settlement in 2023 at $96.55 per barrel after a steep drop in crude stocks in the United States compounded worries of tighter global supplies. The price of the US West Texas Intermediate crude futures (WTI) climbed by 3.6 per cent or $3.29 to $93.68 as the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a crude oil inventory draw of 2.2 million barrels for the week to September 22 in the country. In the preceding week, the agency posted an inventory draw of 2.1 million

By Dipo Olowookere A programme aimed at reviving agro-allied industries and also agricultural productions in Kano State, the Nigerian Agri-business and Agro Industry Development Initiative (NAADI), has been launched by federal government. This was done on Monday by the Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Hajiya Aisha Abubakar and it is part of government’s efforts to accelerate the growth and diversification of the Nigerian economy. Mrs Abubakar, represented at the commissioning by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Edet Sunday Akpan, explained that the programme is intended to harness the enormous potentials inherent in the non-oil sector of the Nigerian

By Dipo Olowookere The Debt Management Office (DMO) on Wednesday conducted another sale of treasury bills via Primary Market Auction (PMA). During the exercise, the debt office offered the debt instruments worth N147.6 billion to investors with a total subscriptions valued at N204 billion received. As expected, the rates were 0.26 percent higher than the last PMA conducted earlier this month, according to Business Post analysis. Results from the exercise showed that 91-day bills worth N5.85 billion were sold to market players at 10.96 percent from the N5.92 billion worth of subscriptions received, while N19.25 billion worth of the 182-day

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State has ordered the immediate sack of some non-academic staff of the state university and college of education. Mr Umahi gave the order in Abakaliki on Saturday while receiving the report of a committee to review the activities in the institutions. “It is not economically viable for the institutions to recruit adjunct staff in the non-academic cadre, as the employees will be redundant in their duties. “It does not make ‘economic sense’ for the institutions to employ 400 cleaners as one wonders the scope and nature of work they will be doing.

By Dipo Olowookere An agricultural development programme tagged Green Imperative was launched on Thursday in Abuja. The scheme is a partnership between Nigeria and Brazil. The key objective of the scheme is to up-scale the country’s agriculture to boost food production, improve food security, expand job growth and ultimately boost household income in Nigeria. The project also aims to develop deep collaboration between Nigerian and Brazilian industries to deliver and use appropriate technologies to improve productivity in crops such as rice, cassava, cocoa, wheat, soya beans, and maize, sugar cane, tomatoes etc. It was gathered that the bilateral development programme

By Modupe Gbadeyanka A team from largest telecommunications company in the country, MTN Nigeria, is today visiting the University of Nigeria in Nsukka, Enugu State. During the visit, the team of top executives led by the Chief Operating Officer (COO), Mr Muhammed Zia Siddiqui, will have a meeting with Vice Chancellor of the institution, Professor Benjamin Chukwuma Ozuma, and other key members of staff. Thereafter, the team will hold talks with the Students’ Union Government (SUG) of the prestigious tertiary institution at the Prince Alexander Auditorium. A similar visit was made in 2017 by MTN Nigeria to the University of

By Dipo Olowookere The national scale ratings assigned to Union Bank of Nigeria Plc of BBB+(NG) and A2(NG) in the long and short term respectively have been affirmed by Global Credit Ratings. Also, the firm announced last Thursday that the ratings are with stable outlook and that they remain valid until June 2018. Commenting on the ratings, Global Credit Ratings disclosed that the rating took into consideration the lender’s successful capital raising exercise of N49.7 billion through a Rights Issue, which was concluded in December 2017, with 120 percent subscription. While the bank’s capital adequacy ratio had declined to 13.3

By Dipo Olowookere Trading activities on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed in the negative territory for the sixth consecutive trading session. Business Post reports that the local bourse is yet to record its first gain in 2019 as investors, mostly foreign portfolio investors, continue to pull out of the market to observe happenings in the country from the sidelines. This is because the anxiety created in the country by political gladiators is making some investors to jump out of the bus, while news of the exit of Teleology from 9mobile is also giving some of them

By Adedapo Adesanya The price of Brent crude oil reached $52 per barrel for the first time since February on Friday as efforts to pass another virus relief package in the United States added to optimism that the vaccine’s rollout will provide a long-awaited boost to demand. Yesterday, the price of the international crude benchmark improved by 76 cents or 1.48 per cent to sell at $52.26 per barrel while the US futures, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude, made a 1.53 per cent or 75 cents gain to trade at $49.10 per barrel. Talks in the US for relief package