Economy
Nigeria Ready to Grow African Trade via Standardisation—SON DG
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Director General of Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Mr Osita Aboloma, has expressed Nigeria’s willingness to continue to play its required role in ensuring the vibrancy of the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO).
ARSO is an organisation set up to promote development within the continent, through improved intra-African trade as well trading with the rest of the world.
Mr Aboloma, while speaking at the ongoing ARSO 56th Council Meeting taking place at Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, stated that Nigeria was also committed to the economic and social emancipation of Africa using the instrument of standardization as is being done in other continents of the world.
He noted the exemplary contributions of the founding fathers of ARSO of which Nigeria was one, for their vision in sharing and accepting common thoughts on the best ways to stimulate Africa’s development and competitiveness using the strong tool of standardization.
According to him, ARSO is playing a key role in the emancipation of the African Continent through facilitating the harmonization of National and regional standards and conformity assessment processes.
“I wish to add my voice to the need to sustain the existence and effectiveness of ARSO through our collective and selfless contributions” he said.
The SON DG reiterated that Nigeria will continue to support the effectiveness of organisation’s activities in promoting trade, particularly within Africa while also ensuring the competitiveness of its products in the international market place.
Speaking earlier, the President of ARSO who is also the Chief Executive of the Zimbabwe Bureau of Standards, Madame Eve Gadzikwa commended the Government and people of Burkina Faso for hosting the 56th Council meeting and 23rd General Assembly of the Continental standardization body.
The ARSO President stated the theme of the 2017 General Assembly as ‘Celebrating 2017 as the Year of Quality Infrastructure in Africa’ ‘Role of standardization for Better quality and Better life within a continental free trade Area.’
She disclosed that the ARSO five year strategic plan 2017-2022 seeks to build on new strategies to address the challenges of Quality Infrastructure in Africa, under the four goals, namely: to develop high-quality standards and related deliverables through ARSO members; to ensure that African standards are adopted and applied as national and sub-regional standards within the continent; to ensure that ARSO structures and operations are sustainable; and to ensure that Stakeholders are effectively engaged across the entire ARSO standardization community.
Madame Gadzikwa emphasized that the African Union (AU) and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) have variously expressed the need to reduce the Technical Barriers to trade among African Nations.
According to her, the two bodies have undertaken to emphasize on the responsibilities of the African countries, on the impact of standardization, in the expansion of global trade, regional integration as well as multilateral and bilateral free trade agreements.
They then called on the Continental Free Trade Area members to appreciate and recognize the important role of standards, metrology, conformity assessment and accreditation, urging them to harmonize their practices in these area to achieve mutual product recognition.
Also speaking at the occasion, the ARSO Secretary General, Dr. Hermogene Nsegimana enumerated the key programmes and activities of ARSO under the 2017-2022 as including; Technical Harmonisation Committee Meetings; the ARSO Conformity Assessment Programme (ARSO CACO); ARSO Documentation and Information Networks (ARSO DISNET); ARSO Consumer Committee (ARSO COCO); celebration of the African Day of Standardisation and National/continental Essay Competitions and ARSO Capacity Building and Training.
He commended the collaboration and support ARSO has been receiving from its member Nations and development partners towards the achievement of its set targets, promising to continue to promote openness and transparency in the activities of the secretariat.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Senate has passed a bill to repeal and re-enact the law establishing the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), paving the way for the regulatory agency to be renamed the Insurance Regulatory Commission (IRC).
The legislation, titled the Insurance Regulatory Commission (Establishment) Bill, 2026, was passed after the Senate considered and adopted the report of its committee on banking, insurance and other financial institutions.
The Chairman of the committee, Mr Adetokunbo Abiru, the senator representing Lagos East, who presented the report, stated that the proposed legislation was necessary because the existing National Insurance Commission Act of 1997 had become outdated and no longer reflected the realities of Nigeria’s evolving insurance industry or global regulatory standards.
According to the Senate, the decision to change the Commission’s name was informed by the need to eliminate confusion associated with the existing designation and to better reflect the institution’s regulatory mandate within Nigeria’s insurance industry.
The bill also provides legal protection for the commission and its officers against adverse claims arising from the lawful execution of their statutory duties.
However, he noted that the commission’s enabling law had become obsolete, exposing significant regulatory gaps that required urgent legislative intervention.
‘The current National Insurance Commission Act 1997 is outdated and does not adequately address the emerging economic growth, needs and development of the insurance business,” the lawmaker said.
He explained that the new legislation seeks to strengthen the independence of the commission by empowering it to make regulatory decisions without undue influence in the country’s insurance sector.
According to him, the bill also enhances the commission’s authority to exchange information and collaborate with domestic and international regulatory bodies, issue regulations, guidelines, standards and directives on insurance-related matters, and intervene more effectively in financially distressed insurance companies to protect policyholders and preserve financial stability.
This marks yet another move to strengthen the country’s insurance sector following the enactment of the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) of 2025 and the industry-wide recapitalisation exercise, which will wrap up by July 31.
By Adedapo Adesanya
About 143 companies that successfully passed the technical and prequalification stages of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission’s (NUPRC) 2025 Licensing Round will, today, compete for 50 oil and gas blocks at the commercial bid conference in Abuja, the final stage in the allocation process for the assets.
The commission said only the prequalified companies have been invited to attend the event, which will hold at the Conference Centre of the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, stressing that participation is strictly by invitation.
The commercial bid conference will determine the successful bidders for oil and gas assets located across Nigeria’s producing and frontier basins.
The 50 blocks comprise 16 onshore blocks and 18 shallow water blocks in the Niger Delta, one deep offshore block, three onshore blocks in the Benin Basin, four in the Anambra Basin, four in the Chad Basin, and four in the Benue Trough.
According to the commission, the winning bids will be determined through a transparent evaluation process based on clearly defined commercial parameters. These include the signature bonus offered by bidders, the proposed work programme commitment and the level of performance security provided. The final selection will be based on a weighted technical and commercial score.
The licensing round is being conducted under the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, which requires a transparent and competitive process for the award of petroleum assets.
NUPRC had announced the commencement of the 2025 Licensing Round on November 11, 2025, before opening the online bid portal on December 1, 2025, to enable interested companies to register and participate in the exercise.
To ensure prospective investors fully understood the requirements, the commission organised a pre-bid conference on January 14, 2026, at Eko Hotels and Suites, Lagos. The event provided detailed explanations on the licensing guidelines and bidding procedures to registered participants and other stakeholders.
Registration and submission of prequalification documents closed on February 27, 2026, while the prequalification evaluation was completed on March 16, 2026.
NUPRC disclosed that 286 companies initially submitted applications for prequalification.
Following the evaluation process, 196 companies were cleared to participate in the technical and commercial bid stages.
The prequalified 143 companies eventually submitted a total of 200 bids for the available oil and gas blocks. These companies are now set to compete at the commercial bid conference, where the financial offers will be opened and evaluated to determine the eventual winners.
The licensing round is expected to attract fresh investment into Nigeria’s upstream petroleum sector, boost exploration activities across both producing and frontier basins, increase crude oil and gas reserves, and support the country’s drive to grow production and government revenue.
It also underscores the regulator’s commitment to implementing a transparent, competitive and investor-friendly licensing regime under the Petroleum Industry Act.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has retained all key monetary policy parameters following the conclusion of its two-day meeting on July 21, 2026, on Tuesday, maintaining its tight monetary policy stance to curb inflation and support macroeconomic stability.
According to the Governor of the apex bank, Mr Yemi Cardoso, who chaired the committee, the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), which serves as the benchmark interest rate, remains at 26.50 per cent. The MPC also retained the asymmetric corridor around the MPR at +50 basis points and -450 basis points.
In addition, the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) for commercial banks was left unchanged at 45.00 per cent, while the CRR for merchant banks remains at 16.00 per cent. The committee also retained the CRR on non-Treasury Single Account (Non-TSA) public sector deposits at 75.00 per cent, with the liquidity ratio at 30.00 per cent.
The decision reflects the apex bank’s continued commitment to containing inflationary pressures through a restrictive monetary policy while safeguarding the resilience of Nigeria’s financial system amid ongoing macroeconomic adjustments.
By keeping all policy tools unchanged, the MPC signalled its intention to continue managing excess liquidity in the banking sector and maintain stability in financial markets.
The move is also expected to provide greater policy certainty for investors and businesses monitoring the country’s monetary policy direction.
The latest decision also means borrowing costs are likely to remain elevated in the near term as the central bank continues to prioritise price stability over monetary easing.
Analysts had expected the CBN committee to retain the rate after Nigeria’s headline inflation came in at 15.91 per cent as of June 2026, marking a slight decline from 15.93 per cent in May.
However, even as overall price growth has moderated significantly compared to previous periods, food inflation remains a persistent challenge, accelerating to 17.52 per cent in June.
