NASD OTC Securities Exchange Opens Week 0.81% Lower

By Dipo Olowookere The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said Nigeria’s revenue–to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio of about 9 per cent was too low to trigger the economic growth projected by President Bola Tinubu in his Renewed Hope Agenda. Addressing journalists at its last press briefing for 2023 on Thursday, the global lender said the administration of Mr Tinubu must boost the government’s revenue to have funds to achieve his goals. On May 29, 2023, Mr Tinubu took over from Mr Muhammadu Buhari, promising to jump-start the economy and work tirelessly to address food security, end hunger, eradicate poverty, create

By Aduragbemi Omiyale Moody’s outlook on Nigeria has been upgraded from stable to positive after the federal government implemented a few economic reforms. In a statement on Friday, the rating agency said the decisions to remove the costly petrol subsidies, devaluation of the Naira and the unification of the foreign exchange (FX) market were good for the economy. When Mr Bola Tinubu assumed office in May 2023, he announced an end to the payment of subsidies on premium motor spirit (PMS). A month later, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced the unification of the forex market, while the Naira

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 Nigerian crude output fell by 30,000 barrels per day to 1.43 million barrels per day in November, according to data from an S&P Global Commodity Insight. This was lower than the 1.46 million barrels produced in October by Africa’s largest oil producer and 312,000 barrels per day short of its 1.742 million barrels per day target in 2023. Angola, Africa’s second-largest oil producer, saw output drop 20,000 barrels per day to 1.13 million barrels per day, according to the survey, compared with its quota of 1.46 million barrels per day. The drops impacted the wider output of

By Dipo Olowookere Investors in search of new investment opportunities can consider the Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) market for value creation, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has suggested. The market value of ETFs in Nigeria reached N24.5 billion last year and there is the possibility for it to grow bigger because a year earlier, the capitalisation was 270 per cent lower. In 2020, the space witnessed significant increases in traded values and volumes (i.e., 218.0 per cent and 51,830.6 per cent respectively between 2019 and 2020). The factor responsible for the rise was the adoption of ETFs, new product issuances

By Modupe Gbadeyanka At least 30 girls will benefit from a 12-month mentoring programme at the Methodist Girls High School (MGHS), Yaba, Lagos, in 2023. This is an initiative of family, friends and mentees of Mrs Ibukun Awosika, a renowned African entrepreneur, international leader, author, and businesswoman. This programme was established to honour the former Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria and founder of the Chair Centre Group for her 60th birthday. On Thursday, December 22, 2022, her associates unveiled the newly built Ibukun Awosika Sports Centre at MGHS, and she could not hide her joy for the honour bestowed

By Adedapo Adesanya The recent directive by the Nigerian authorities prohibiting the importation and exportation of goods through the nation’s land borders has continued to take its toll on some West African nations, which depend solely on the huge Nigerian market. Since the land borders were closed, many of them, especially Benin Republic, have made several efforts to get the ‘doors’ opened again, but Nigeria has remained adamant, insisting that things must be put in place first to stop making Nigeria being a dumping ground for smuggled goods through these neighbouring countries. Recently, Ghana called on Nigeria to reopen the

By Dipo Olowookere Recently, distributors of products of Promasidor were flown to South Africa for a programme called ‘Promasidor Distributors Forum’. At the event, the merchants were lectured on the latest trends in the world of distribution of products and marketing. Present at the occasion, which took place in Cape Town, was the Managing Director of Promasidor, Mr Olivier Thiry, who expressed the company’s gratitude to the wholesalers. He described them as part of the success story of the firm and further solicited for their continued support in moving the company forward. At the forum, some of the distributors were

By Dipo Olowookere The much-awaited share buy-back programme of Dangote Cement Plc will commence Wednesday, December 30, 2020, and end on Thursday, December 31, 2020, the board has confirmed. Recall that on January 21, 2020, the shareholders of the cement giant authorised the board to carry out the exercise at an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM). The company had said it was planning to mop up 10 per cent of its 17,040,507,404 fully paid-up ordinary shares of 50 kobo each. In a notice to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Monday, Dangote Cement said it would do the share buy-back in

By Adedapo Adesanya The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Gokada, Mr Fahim Saleh, has been gruesomely murdered in his apartment in New York on Tuesday night. According to reports, Mr Saleh was gruesomely murdered as his dismembered body was found in Manhattan’s Lower East Side on Tuesday, officials said. The 33-year-old technology entrepreneur was found by his sister at around 3:30 pm (GMT +6) when she went to check on him after not hearing from him for a day and after finding the body, she called the police, the officials added. The saw, which had been used, was still plugged

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Transactions resumed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday after the market closed last Friday. There were no trading activities on Monday due to the public holiday declared by the Federal Government to mark Eid-El-Maulud, a day set aside for Muslims to celebrate the birth of Prophet Mohammed. At the resumption of trading today, the stock market maintained its positive posture with the market indices jerking up by 0.98 percent. Business Post correspondent reports that at the close of transactions, the Financial Services industry was the investors’ delight as it dominated the most traded chart. Wema

By Dipo Olowookere Huawei has deployed its AI expertise with leading medical research bodies to help safeguard children’s eyesight. Huawei is working with IIS Aragon and DIVE Medical to co-create Track AI, an AI-powered assessment designed to detect and diagnose early signs of visual impairment in children. The World Health Organization estimates there are 19 million children in the world with visual impairment, of which 70 to 80 percent are preventable or curable. In most cases, these children will remain undiagnosed for years, resulting in more serious consequences with their vision, general development, educational and social opportunities. Less severe but