Naira Stable at Parallel Market, Interbank; Loses at I&E

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 The new Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Yemi Cardoso, has said he would adopt an evidence-based monetary policy as he assumed office upon confirmation by the Nigerian Senate on Tuesday. He said the new leadership of CBN would “adopt an evidence-based monetary policy and shall not be making decisions based on a whim.” The Godswill Akpabio-led Senate confirmed the nomination of Mr Cardoso’s nomination as well as that of the four Deputy Governors of CBN nominated by President Bola Tinubu. The four deputy governors whose appointments were confirmed by the Senate are Mrs

By Adedapo Adesanya A foreign oil company, Equinor ASA, has chosen a little-known Nigerian company, Chappal Energy, as the preferred buyer of its stake in one of the country’s largest deep-water oil fields, Agbami. According to a report by Bloomberg on Monday, the Norwegian energy giant is trying to sell its 20.2 per cent interest in the Agbami field – joining other international producers such as Shell Plc, Exxon Mobil Corporation and Eni SpA in looking to offload assets in Africa’s biggest crude producer, Nigeria. In January, Equinor launched the sale of its stake in an offshore Nigerian oilfield, joining

By Adedapo Adesanya OPay has announced suspending some of its business units in order to focus only on financial technology services. The Opera-backed startup said the business units that have been put on hold include all its ride-hailing platforms (ORide and OCar) as well as OExpress, its delivery business. This was disclosed in a press statement by the company released on Thursday. The firm blamed the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a recent regulation by the Lagos State Government banning commercial motorcycles in the state for its decision. The organisation said as a result of these factors, the management decided

By Dipo Olowookere UNIC Insurance Plc was on Monday, April 10, 2017, delisted from the daily official list of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). In a statement issued by the firm, UNIC Insurance Plc informed dealing members that it has now been relisted as “UNIC Diversified Holdings Plc (UDH).” The listing brought into effect the scheme of arrangement whereby the shareholders of UNIC received equal number of shares in UDH as they previously held in UNIC, and UDH becomes a holding company of UNIC. The listing also lifted the full suspension on the shares of UNIC. The NSE conducted a

By Adedapo Adesanya Nigeria’s candidate for the position of Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has made it into the final round. She will now face Mrs Yoo Myung-hee, South Korean Minister for Trade for the slot. According to widespread reports, both women emerged as the last two remaining candidates after Mr Mohammed Al-Tuwaijiri of Saudi Arabia, Mr Liam Fox of the United Kingdom and Kenya’s Mrs Amina Mohamed were unable to gain enough support in the second round of consultations leading to their elimination. The other candidates, Mr Jesus Saede Kuri of Mexico, Mr Tudor

By Modupe Gbadeyanka This morning of Monday, March 16, 2020, shareholders of Zenith Bank Plc with converge on Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja FCT for the company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM). At the gathering, participants will discuss the bank’s financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2019 and then approved the accounts. They will also vote on the dividend proposed by the company’s board. On February 11, 2020, Zenith Bank declared a dividend of N2.50 for the 2019 fiscal year, with qualification date fixed for March 9 and closure of register on March 10 and payment date on

By Dipo Olowookere President Muhammadu Buhari has written to the National Assembly, seeking its approval to borrow about $5.9 billion to carry out some upgrades of rails. His letter was read on Wednesday on the floor of the House of Representatives by its Speaker, Mr Yakubu Dogara. The President said the $5.851 billion he is planning to borrow “form part of the overall money for the rail strategy. We are in the process of completing the concession of the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri line to immediately link the eastern part of the nation. “We fully intend to source further concessioning funding to

By Nneka Okumazie It is likely that a key reason for Asia’s powerful rise in recent decades is that white people fell into a deep perilous sleep – with no wakefulness in sight. There is something significant to free enterprise – cold hard cash. And Asia continues to beat them at their own game. Capitalism, predicated on competitive productivity, found fertility in Asia, as the whites optimized for profit, which goes to some, and waned in – a – collective progress. Budget cuts, deficits, dismaying healthcare situations, austerity, unemployment, recession, etc. are bells of a decline, though strengths abound in

By Dipo Olowookere Nigeria’s Minister of Communication, Mr Adebayo Shittu, has disclosed that the Federal Government never gave any directive to telecommunications operators in the country to increase prices of data from Thursday, December 1, 2016 as claimed. Since the beginning of this week, Nigerians have continued to kick against messages sent to them via text messages by telecoms operators, informing them that from tomorrow, prices of data would go up and in some cases, by 100 percent. Network providers claimed they were ordered by the telecoms regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), to raise data tariffs. “Dear valued customer,

By Dipo Olowookere Chairman of Dangote Cement Plc, Mr Aliko Dangote, has disclosed that the cement giant plans to increase its production capacity in Nigeria by six million tons by next year. Mr Dangote, who is Africa’s richest man, said at a function in Lagos on Thursday that the firm was working to raise the installed capacity for cement production from the present 29 million tons to 35 million by 2020. “In Nigeria alone, we have 29 million tons installed capacity for cement production and we will be at 35 million by 2020,” Mr Dangote said while speaking at the