By Dipo Olowookere

An underwriting firm, Guinea Insurance Plc, has submitted application for approval and listing of its proposed N5.8 billion rights issue.

Business Post reports that the application was filed to the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited by the insurer through its stockbrokers, Forte Financial Limited, and Mega Equities Limited.

Guinea Insurance is offering in the exercise a total of 5,295,200,000 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each at N1.10 per share on the basis of two new ordinary shares for every three existing ordinary shares held as of the close of business on Wednesday, January 21, 2026.

In a statement yesterday, the Head of Issuer Regulation Department of the stock exchange, Mr Godstime Iwenekhai, confirmed the development.

He said, “Guinea Insurance Plc has through its stockbrokers, Forte Financial Limited and Mega Equities Limited, submitted an application to Nigerian Exchange Limited for the approval and listing of a rights issue of 5,295,200,000 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each at N1.10 per share on the basis of two new ordinary shares for every three existing ordinary shares held as at the close of business on Wednesday, January 21, 2026.

“The qualification date for the rights issue is Wednesday, January 21, 2026.”

At the market at midweek, the shares of Guinea Insurance closed flat at N1.30 per unit, with a total of 2,313,400.00 units transacted by investors during the session.

Last month, the organisation held an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM), where shareholders authorised the board to “raise additional equity capital of up to N15.0 billion by way of rights issue and private placement, on such terms, pricing, allotment structure, and timetable as the board of directors may determine in the best interest of the company.”

This was after they passed a resolution for the firm’s minimum issued share capital be increased “from N4.0 billion made up of 8.0 billion ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each to N19.0 billion made of 38.0 billion ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each.

By Adedapo Adesanya

A 0.09 per cent or N1.34 loss was suffered by the Naira against the United States Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Wednesday, January 21, to close at N1,420.69/$1 compared with the preceding day’s N1,419.35/$1.

It was a similar scenario for the local currency in the official market, where is lost 53 Kobo against the Pound Sterling at midweek to sell for N1,908.84/£1 versus Tuesday’s closing price of N1,908.31/£1 and stumbled against the Euro by 83 Kobo to settle at N1,665.48/€1 compared with the previous session’s N1,666.31/€1.

But, in the black market and GTBank forex desk, the Nigerian currency traded flat against the greenback at N1,485/$1 and N1,429/$1, respectively.

Increased demand for Dollar was stemmed down by Naira demand by foreign portfolio investors that participated in the OMO bills yesterday.

In addition, the market has seen increased FX inflows from exporters, supported by sustained Dollar volume from non-bank corporate, individual and other sources.

As for the cryptocurrency market, prices rebounded after President Donald Trump of the United States softened tariff threats tied to Greenland during his Davos appearance.

The move capped a volatile 24 hours for crypto markets, which were dragged lower earlier in the week by a global risk-off wave sparked by Trump’s threats toward Europe, a jump in bond yields, and renewed anxiety across equity markets.

Ripple (XRP) appreciated by 1.9 per cent to $1.95, Cardano (ADA) improved by 1.5 per cent to trade at $0.3652, Solana (SOL) climbed by 1.3 per cent to sell $129.97, and Ethereum (ETH) went up by 1.2 per cent to trade at $3,014.51.

In addition, Binance Coin (BNB) improved by 1.1 per cent to close at $889.83, Dogecoin (DOGE) grew by 1.0 per cent to $0.1266, and Bitcoin (BTC) expanded by 0.5 per cent to end at $$90,031.72, while Litecoin (LTC) depreciated by 0.9 per cent to $68.40, with the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remaining unchanged at $1.00 each.

By Adedapo Adesanya

Crude oil prices closed higher on Wednesday on optimism around tighter supply after a temporary shutdown at two large fields in Kazakhstan, with Brent futures gaining 32 cents or 0.5 per cent to finish at $65.24 a barrel, and the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures rising by 26 cents or 0.4 per cent to $60.62 a barrel.

Kazakhstan, a member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+) halted output at the Tengiz and Korolev oilfields due to power distribution issues.

The market initially treated the Kazakhstan outage as a bullish catalyst, as Tengiz is one of the world’s largest oil fields, but it soon became clear that the interruption would be temporary, limiting its ability to underpin prices for long.

Reuters reported that output at the two fields could remain shut for another seven to 10 days, according to industry sources. The shutdown follows fires that damaged power infrastructure serving the Chevron-operated Tengiz site and the adjacent Korolev field.

Elsewhere in the country, oil from the vast Kashagan field has been diverted to the domestic market for the first time due to bottlenecks at the Black Sea CPC terminal, after equipment at the terminal was seriously damaged in drone attacks.

Prices also gathered support as low volume of Venezuelan oil exports highlighted slow progress in reversing output cuts in the South American country.

The volume of Venezuelan oil exported under a flagship $2 billion supply deal with the U.S. reached about 7.8 million barrels on Wednesday.

The world’s oil demand growth is set to rise by 930,000 barrels per day in 2026, thanks to lower oil prices and a normalization of economies after the 2025 tariff chaos, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday, raising its demand growth estimate by 70,000 barrels per day from last month.

Oil demand is forecast to grow by an average 930,000 barrels per day this year, accelerating from 850,000 barrels per day in 2025, the agency said in its closely-watched Oil Market Report for January.

In the December report, the IEA had expected global oil demand growth at 860,000 barrels per day for 2026.

Global oil supply is now projected to rise by 2.5 million barrels per day this year to 108.7 million barrels per day, following a jump of 3 million barrels per day in 2025, according to the IEA.

Meanwhile, the American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States saw a build of 3.04 million barrels in the week ending January 16. Official data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) will be released later on Thursday, a day later due to Monday’s federal holiday in the US.