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Economy

NGX Modifies Mobile App X-Mobile for Better Efficiency

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NGX X-Mobile

By Sodeinde Temidayo David

Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited has released an improved version of its mobile app, X-Mobile, to enhance investors’ participation and access to the Nigerian capital market.

The X-mobile, a dynamic and user-friendly mobile app, which was first launched in 2019 in a beta state, now accessible on various mobile stores, provides market participants, especially retail investors with convenient, faster and real-time access to information about NGX, its listed securities and trading license holders.

According to the NGX, some of the key features of the X-Mobile include market news feed, snapshots and analytics, securities prices, financial and market news, including a trade engine simulator where users can learn or improve on their trading proficiency, using virtual currency.

It provides a directory of NGX authorised stockbrokers as well as aggregated access to their online and mobile trading apps.

With the app enhancement, users can create personalized watch lists to keep track of chosen securities, eradicating the need to access multiple information sources.

Also, the newly updated app features the latest statistics about the Nigerian exchange and serve as a personal companion on the NGX.

The new development is set to be well suited for investors who want to keep tabs with the NGX as well as prospective investors who want to learn about the exchange and how to get involved.

Speaking on the development, the Chief Executive Officer, NGX, Mr Temi Popoola, commended the hard work of the teams and individuals who have successfully driven the completion of the mobile app since its first launch.

“The delivery of X-Mobile is in line with NGX’s strategic intent to provide an exchange that is easily accessible to stakeholders leveraging digital technology.

“We are confident that the app will complement the NGX website and other NGX portals currently being used to provide information to market stakeholders,” he said.

On his part, the Divisional Head, Trading Business, NGX, Mr Jude Chiemeka, stated that X-Mobile affirms the commitment to make financial services more broadly and provide a superior customer experience in the access and use of capital.

According to him, the app has been enhanced to ensure that capital market players and potential investors have the requisite resources to make the most out of their engagement with the market.

Existing users of the beta version of X-Mobile are required to create new accounts as the app now requires password login.

Economy

NNPC Makes U-Turn, Says Port Harcourt Refinery Not For Sale

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Port Harcourt Refinery operations

By Aduragbemi Omiyale

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has disclosed that the Port Harcourt Refining Company is not for sale.

The chief executive of the NNPC, Mr Bayo Ojulari, said this during a town hall meeting on Tuesday at the Abuja headquarters of the organisation.

According to him, the facility, which is undergoing rehabilitation, would be completed to produce petroleum products for local and international consumption.

Recall that recently, Mr Ojulari, speaking with Bloomberg at the 2025 OPEC Seminar in Vienna, Austria, said the facility and others could be put up for sale because “all options are on the table.”

At the gathering yesterday, the NNPC chief said his latest remarks are not a shift from his interview with the international news platform but informed by ongoing detailed technical and financial reviews of the Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Warri refineries.

He noted that the ongoing review indicates that the earlier decision to operate the Port Harcourt refinery prior to full completion of its rehabilitation was ill-informed and sub-commercial.

Although progress is being made on all three refineries, the emerging outlook calls for more advanced technical partnerships to complete and high-grade the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery. Thus, selling is highly unlikely as it would lead to further value erosion.

At yesterday’s event, he stressed that Nigeria would keep the refinery, describing the position as a renewed sense of business-focused direction across the organisation.

The town hall served as more than a performance update—it was an opportunity for candid and constructive engagement. The Executive Vice Presidents presented progress reports from the Upstream, Downstream, Finance, Business Services, Gas, Power, and New Energy businesses, highlighting operational achievements, ongoing reforms, and areas requiring attention.

In a tone marked by honesty and leadership, challenges and earlier missteps were acknowledged, and a clear roadmap was outlined for the journey ahead.

Feedback during and after the session revealed a workforce energised and aligned with the leadership’s vision. Described as “reassuring,” “transformational,” and “sustainable,” the atmosphere reflected an optimist outlook among employees and hopefulness about the company’s evolving strategic direction.

 NNPC promised to continue to reposition itself as a commercially driven, professionally managed national energy company, grounded in transparency, focused on performance, and unwavering in its responsibility to its number one stakeholder group, Nigerians.

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Economy

Don’t Trigger Social Unrest in Quest to Raise Revenue—IMF Advises Nigeria, Others

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Rethink Relationship With IMF Nigeria

By Adedapo Adesanya

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned Nigeria and other Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries not to prioritise higher earnings over the poor living condition of their citizens so as not to trigger social unrest.

This call came from the Bretton Woods institution in its World Economic Outlook (WEO), July 2025 edition, where it upgraded its forecasts for Nigeria’s economic growth for 2025 and 2026 to 3.4 per cent and 3.2 per cent, respectively.

In the same vein, the IMF raised its forecast for the Sub-Saharan African region to 4.0 per cent for 2025 and 4.3 per cent for 2026, representing a 0.2 percentage point and 0.1 percentage point increase from 3.8 per cent and 4.2 per cent, respectively, projected in the April 2025 WEO.

“Growth is expected to be relatively stable in 2025 in sub-Saharan Africa at 4.0 per cent, before picking up to 4.3 per cent in 2026,” the IMF said.

However, the multilateral institution called for urgent structural and institutional reforms across SSA as the region grapples with a complex mix of economic challenges.

Commenting on the SSA region, Division Chief, Research Department, Ms Deniz Igan said: “Given the challenges Sub-Saharan Africa is facing, this is an important pillar for renewed growth in the region. There’s a need for both structural and institutional reforms. And what we mean there is to give some specific examples.

“Further, regional trade integration is one. More investment in infrastructure transportation is another one. And reform of state-owned enterprises, again, especially in the energy sector and transportation sector, is another priority.”

Ms Igan also stressed the importance of equitable fiscal reforms, noting that efforts to raise revenues must avoid deepening inequality or triggering social unrest.

She advocated the removal of poorly targeted tax exemptions, greater reliance on progressive income taxes, and the need to build public trust through transparent governance. According to her, engaging with stakeholders and sequencing reforms carefully would be essential to protect vulnerable groups and ensure broad-based support for policy changes.

“Now we understand that on the fiscal front, with high debt levels as well, there’s a need for mobilising revenues, and that can generate a sense of unfairness and inequity that could create social backlash.

“And on that front, our advice has been for the design of fiscal reforms that are equitable, that are efficient, and more specifically, there. What we have in mind is removing poorly targeted exemptions in the tax code, making use of progressive income taxes much more, and building trust and support, as we had covered in detail in our October 2024 report in one of our analytical chapters, by engaging with stakeholders, hearing what they need, improving governance and protecting the vulnerable, and at same time, bundling, sequencing and pacing different measures to make sure that the most vulnerable in the society are protected.”

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Economy

What You Need to Know About Nigerian Bureau of Statistics GDP Rebasing

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GDP Nigeria growth

By David Okon

Every economy evolves, shaped by changing consumption patterns, emerging industries, and shifting global dynamics. To accurately reflect these changes, countries periodically undertake a statistical exercise known as rebasing. This ensures that national accounts capture the current structure and performance of the economy rather than relying on outdated benchmarks.

For Nigeria, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has just completed a significant rebasing of its GDP figures, moving the base year from 2010 to 2019; a crucial update aimed at providing more relevant, timely, and accurate economic data.

Despite its importance, rebasing is often misunderstood by the general public. Many assume it automatically means economic growth or an improvement in living standards, which isn’t always the case.

To help clear up these misconceptions and provide clarity, we sat with an expert in national accounting, Mr Moses Waniko, to answer some questions that shed light on what rebasing truly mean, and why they matter for everyday Nigerians.

What is GDP and GDP growth, and why are these statistics important?

The Gross Domestic Product is the market value of all goods and services produced within a country in each period. It measures overall economic activity and signals the direction of economic growth. It is also a barometer to measure the health of the economy. It is an internationally recognized indicator for measuring the size of an economy in each period of time. The GDP growth rate is a measure of the rate of change that a nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) experiences from one period to another either annually or quarterly.

Is GDP growth synonymous with economic development?

No, GDP growth is not synonymous with economic development. Development encompasses broader measures of human progress beyond measuring output (GDP) growth, which mostly measures economic progress. In addition to measures of economic progress, development includes social and environmental measures that are not well captured by GDP.

What are the approaches for computing GDP?

There are three approaches to computing GDP, which are;

The Expenditure Approach: This approach captures spending by key economic agents in an economy. It is the sum of consumption expenditures by households, investments expenditures by firms, government expenditures, as well as the difference between exports and imports: GDP = C + I + G + (EX – IM).

The Income Approach: This approach measures the income earned by various factors of production. It is a sum of: compensation to workers, rental income, taxes on production and imports (less subsidies), interest, miscellaneous payments, and depreciation.

The Production or Value-Added Approach: Gross output (GO) less the purchase of intermediate inputs used to produce the final products.

Q4 What is GDP rebasing/re-benchmarking?

Rebasing/re-benchmarking of the national account series (GDP) is the process of replacing an old base year used to compile volume measures of GDP with a new and more recent base year or price structure. Economies are dynamic in nature. They grow, they shrink; they add new sectors, new products and new technologies, and consumer behaviour and tastes change over time.

Rebasing/Re-benchmarking is used to account for these changes, so as to give a more current snapshot of the economy, as well as improve the coverage of economic activities included in the GDP compilation framework. The base year provides the reference point to which future values of the GDP are compared. It is a normal statistical procedure undertaken by the national statistical offices of countries to ensure that national accounts statistics present the most accurate reflection of the economy as possible.

What are the key benefits of rebasing/re-benchmarking?

The key benefit of the rebasing exercise is that its results enable policy makers and analysts obtain a more accurate set of economic statistics that is a truer reflection of current realities for evidence-based decision-making. It also reveals a more accurate estimate of the size and structure of the economy by incorporating new economic activities that were not previously captured in the computational framework.

Rebasing will enable government to have a better understanding of the structure of the economy, an indication of sectoral growth drivers, sectors where policies and resources should be channeled in order to grow the economy, create jobs, improve infrastructure and reduce poverty.

How often should a country rebase?

The UN Statistical Commission (UNSC) recommends that countries rebase every five years. However, some countries do at intervals of less than five years.

Why is Nigeria rebasing the GDP at an interval more than recommended by the UNSC?

GDP rebasing is a resource intensive project. It requires major surveys that are highly capital intensive such as the Nigeria Living Standard Survey (NLSS), Agricultural Census and census/survey of establishments. The output of these surveys serves as input into the rebasing process. Sourcing the funds to conduct all of these surveys is always difficult hence the lag in rebasing interval.

What influenced the choice of the base year?

The last exercise was done in 2014. The UN Statistical Commission (UNSC) recommends that countries rebase their national accounts (GDP) estimates every five years. An “appropriate” base year is one for which data is readily available and which witnessed relative stability. Currently, Nigeria’s base year is 2010, but a new base year of 2019 has been selected for the rebasing exercise.

How long has it taken to complete this exercise?

The time from preparation to publishing of the result of the rebasing exercise took approximately five (5) years. The preparatory work for the rebasing exercise commenced in the last quarter of 2018. Since then, several activities have been undertaken some of which include field surveys for certain economic activities that were not adequately captured previously like the Research and Development (R&D), Trade and Transport Margin as well as Water Supply, Waste Management and Remediation. There was also validation with sector experts, and technical assistance from international development partners.

What methodology was used for this rebasing exercise?

The exercise was conducted in line with internationally-recognized methodology procedures and guides. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) started with an update of its survey frame, complemented by a listing exercise. Three major methodological pillars were used to compile the rebased GDP estimates: System of National Accounts (SNA 2008 version), International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC Revision 4), and Central Product Classification (CPC version 2). Construction of Supply and Use Tables (SUT) for Nigeria Balance of Payment Version 6 Government Finance Statistics Manual 2014. These are the most up to date methodologies in National Accounting. Less than half of the countries in the world have been able to make these upgrades successfully. The SNA is the internationally agreed standard set of recommendations on how to compile measures of economic activity.

The ISIC is the international reference for the classification of productive activities. Its main purpose is to provide a set of activity categories that can be used for the collection and reporting of statistics according to such activities. The CPC is a classification based on the physical characteristics of goods or on the nature of services rendered. Each type of good or service distinguished in the CPC in such a way that it is usually produced by only one activity as defined by the ISIC. The CPC covers products that are output of economic activities. All of the above are applied into the Supply and Use Table (SUT).

The SUT contains a pair of tables, namely, the Supply table and the Use table. It combines the product balances of all individual products (or group of products) in a matrix framework to present a coherent picture of how goods are produced and then supplied versus how they are used within the whole economy. The development of the Supply and Use Table (SUT) formed the basis of the final estimates. Other refinements that were incorporated include the estimation of public administration, the conduct of the National Census on Commerce, Industries and Businesses (NCCIB) and the National Agricultural Sample Census (NASC). The data from these censuses were utilized in this rebasing.

Do the new numbers imply that Nigeria is now a richer country?

No, rebasing will not change the facts of our economy overnight. It will not make poverty and unemployment to disappear overnight, but will give us the tools and the policy ability to tackle these problems in order to reduce poverty and improve the welfare of our people. The rebased GDP numbers imply that the level of economic activity is much higher than previously reported. It indicates a clearer picture of Nigeria’s economic landscape and the significant opportunity for growth and wealth creation in the Nigerian economy.

Why are poverty and unemployment “high” when the economy is “doing well” as shown by rebased GDP?

The rebasing exercise has revealed that the key determinant of the expanding output/GDP growth has been the dominance of capital-intensive rather than labour-intensive activities. This suggests that increasing adoption of technology is leading to an expansion of output without the need to employ more labour. Rebasing does not change the challenges of poverty or unemployment but rather measures the economy more accurately so that policy can be designed to address them.

Of what importance is the rebasing exercise to the “common man”?

Rebasing the GDP does not correct for inequality (where the benefits of a higher GDP may be concentrated in a few hands) or solve poverty problems; rather it brings the comparison of GDP estimates to the closest picture of reality as possible. Having a better (and more accurate) picture of the economy is crucial to informing policy makers, investors, and even consumers on the current economic trends, which will help them make better informed decisions regarding their economic choices.

For example, policy makers may identify inequality as a factor inhibiting a more inclusive distribution of output/GDP growth and consequently design policies and programmes to address that inequality so that output/GDP growth is shared more equitably. It is in this way, the “common man” will feel the benefits of GDP rebasing exercise.

What is the impact of the rebased numbers on the Nigerian economy?

Nigeria’s GDP is expected to be a more accurate reflection of the structure and size of current economic activities in the country, presenting a clearer sectoral distribution and performance. As a result, better investment choices are expected to be made, resulting in higher profitability and even higher investments. This will help create jobs and also reduce poverty in Nigeria in the medium to long term.

Given the rebased estimates, does it mean that Nigeria’s GDP for the last 10 years has been inaccurate?

The rebased numbers are a better reflection of the true size and structure of the economy. It does not mean the old series are wrong; it means we are capturing more activities and measuring better.

What is the implication of the rebased GDP estimates on the real and nominal GDP?

Nominal GDP measures the level of economic activity using the current year’s price level and quantities to obtain the total value of goods and services. Real GDP measures the level of economic activity by making reference to a pre-selected base year, for the purpose of “cancelling out” price effects in the computation of the value of goods and services (to obtain the “real” value). Thus, at the base year, the nominal and real values of the GDP estimates are equal. As seen from the above question and answer session, the rebasing plays a critical role in unlocking a clearer, more accurate picture of Nigeria’s economic reality; when the most recent structure of the economy is captured, it reflects the true size and scope of economic activities. This update is essential not just for statistical accuracy, but for improved policy making and more informed decisions across both public and private sectors. It enhances Nigeria’s ability to attract investment, as current data builds investor confidence and economic credibility.

Furthermore, rebasing affects major indicators like the debt-to-GDP ratio, offering a more realistic gauge of fiscal sustainability and supporting long-term strategies for inclusive and sustainable growth. The recent rebasing of GDP by the National Bureau of Statistics, therefore, is a necessary step toward transparency, informed policy making, and sustainable economic planning.  While misconceptions may persist, a better understanding of these tools empowers the citizens, investors, and leaders alike to engage with the economy from a place of knowledge rather than speculation.

David Okon is the Senior Consultant at Quadrant MSL

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