Economy
Nigeria Rejects Moody’s Rating Downgrade
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Federal Government has strongly rejected the downgrading of Nigeria from a B1 stable to a B2 stable rating by Moody’s Investors Service Research.
In a statement dated Wednesday, November 8, 2017, the Nigerian authorities said the downgrade was not a true reflection of the current state of the country’s economy, which government said has improved.
“The attention of the Federal Ministry of Finance (FMF), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Debt Management Office (DMO) has been drawn to today’s announcement of the decision by Moody’s to downgrade Nigeria from a B1 stable to a B2 stable rating.
“This is equivalent to Nigeria’s existing B/Stable Outlook rating from S&P and slightly lower than Nigeria’s B+/Negative Outlook rating from Fitch.
“While we respect the right of Moody’s to make this decision, we strongly disagree with the premise and must address some of the conclusions upon which the decision rests,” the statement said.
It said further that, Since Nigeria was last rated by Moody’s (as B1 stable) in December 2016, Nigeria has successfully emerged from a protracted recession and recorded important improvements across a broad range of indices, including A return to economic growth of 0.55% in Q2 2017, and returning business confidence, as evidenced by a PMI index of 55.0; a stable foreign exchange window for importers and exporters, with improving liquidity and convergence of the parallel and official rates; significantly improved foreign exchange reserves, now totalling $34 billion; increased oil production, combined with stable and now improving oil prices; a slowly improving revenue profile, with non-oil revenue (principally taxes) up 10%; month on month improvements in inflation levels since January 2017, with inflation continuing to trend downwards; strong year on year improvement on the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Rankings from 169th to 145th place, a 24 place move in one year; and in 2016, the highest capital expenditure deployment since 2013, making investments in critical infrastructure to support further growth.
“At the heart of Moody’s rationale is the need for Nigeria to improve non-oil revenue aggressively. This is absolutely and directly aligned to the government’s priorities. This is critical to our economic development and is the basis for the establishment of a stable and inclusive economy, which can withstand global shocks and has the resources to increase investments in our infrastructure.
“We have put in place a number of measures to improve our collection and FIRS has made good progress in increasing revenues, particularly when considering that the economy is still recovering from the oil price shock.
“Examples include introduction of a Tax Amnesty (the on-going Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS)), which is showing positive results; plugging leakages and deployment of technology driven revenue management strategies. An example is Health Pay, a pilot cashless revenue project in the health sector, which has recorded material increases in revenue.
“We have seen improvements in revenue in 2017. Fiscal revenues are linked directly to both the performance of the economy and the number of tax payers contributing. As a result of the foundation that has been established in 2017, we expect, similar positive trends in 2018.
“Our revenue initiatives are changing the mix of revenue sources available to government from the traditional oil or debt to a combination of oil, debt and domestic revenue. For example, the 2018 budget includes N710 billion proceeds from the restructuring of the Government’s equity in the JV oil assets. The reform is aimed at increasing private sector equity participation to improve efficiencies in the sector and also provides revenue to the government which will be deployed solely and exclusively for creating new assets in Nigeria.
“Moody’s highlights that while our debt levels remain low, interest is consuming a larger portion of revenue.
“It should be noted we are implementing a very prudent fiscal and debt management strategy to reduce the cost of our debt. Given the relatively higher domestic interest rates, we are focusing on longer term external borrowing with an aim to re-balance our domestic and international debt portfolio to a 60:40 split over the coming years.
“Our existing proposal to refinance $3 billion of treasury bills through external borrowing is expected to reduce Nigeria’s debt servicing costs, further improving our fiscal position.
“We also expect this strategy to help to reduce the ‘crowding out’ effect of government borrowing in the domestic markets.
“The challenges that are highlighted in the Moody’s rating are clear, and are being addressed by the government, with the environment having improved significantly since the last period of assessment.”
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
Emerald Holdco has been authorised by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to proceed with its mandatory takeover offer (MTO) of shares of Beta Glass Plc worth N6.94 billion held by minority investors.
In a notice to the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited, it was disclosed that the MTO involves 11,741,509 ordinary shares of Beta Glass at a unit price of N590.94.
Shareholders of the company are required to fill out the MTO form for the exercise, which opened on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, and is expected to close at 5:00 pm on Tuesday, August 4, 2026.
Business Post reports that Emerald Holdco recently completed the acquisition of 100 per cent of the shares of Emerald Nigeria Intermediate Holdings B.V. (formerly Frigoinvest Nigeria Holding B.V), which owns 76.03 per cent of Packaging Industries Nigeria Limited (formerly Frigoglass Industries (Nigeria) Limited) from the Frigoglass Group.
As part of this transaction, Emerald Holdco has assumed indirect ownership of 331,260,999 ordinary shares in the company, previously held by Frigoglass Group, which represent approximately 55.22 per cent of the issued share capital of the organisation.
In accordance with the Nigerian Takeover Rules, Emerald Holdco is required to make a takeover offer to all other shareholders of Beta Glass. It is permitted to make an offer for all or a portion of the shares held by the other shareholders of the firm.
Following this requirement, Emerald Holdco sought and obtained approval from its board and shareholders to launch a takeover offer to all qualifying shareholders for the acquisition of up to 11,741,509 ordinary shares, representing 1.96 per cent of the total issued and fully paid-up share capital of Beta Glass.
The board and shareholders granted this approval on February 5, 2026, and March 3, 2026, respectively.
By Adedapo Adesanya
A plunge in the share price of FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc purged the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange by 6.11 per cent on Tuesday, July 7.
The milk producer, famed for brands like Peak Milk and Three Crowns, was the sole price loser during the session, shedding N12.41 to end at N139.41 per unit compared with the previous day’s N151.82 per unit.
As a result, the market capitalisation of the alternative stock market went down by N155.40 billion to close at N2.387 trillion, in contrast to Monday’s closing value of N2.543 trillion, and the NASD Security Index (NSI) fell by 258.90 points to close at 3,978.07 points compared with the preceding session’s 4,236.97 points.
Business Post reports that NASD Plc was the only price gainer for the day, gaining 80 Kobo to close at N34.10 per share versus N33.30 per share.
Yesterday, the value of securities surged by 98.3 per cent to N15.9 million from the preceding session’s N2.8 million, the volume of securities increased by 183.6 per cent to 323,780 units from 114.175 million units, and the number of deals grew by 61.1 per cent to 29 deals from 18 deals.
At the close of business, Great Nigeria Insurance (GNI) Plc remained the most traded security by value on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units valued at N8.4 billion, followed by Infrastructure Credit Guarantee (Infracredit) Plc with 2.3 billion units worth N6.5 billion, and CSCS Plc with 70.7 million units exchanged for N4.9 billion.
GNI Plc also ended the session as the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units sold for N8.4 billion, followed by Infracredit Plc with 2.3 billion units transacted for N6.5 billion, and Resourcery Plc with 1.1 billion units traded for N415.7 million.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira weakened by N7.48 or 0.55 per cent against the United States Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Tuesday, July 7, to N1,375.75/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s N1,368.27/$1.
Equally, the local currency fell against the Pound Sterling in the same official FX market yesterday by N14.66 to trade at N1,841.57/£1 versus Monday’s closing price of N1,826.91/£1, and against the Euro, it depreciated by N10.61 to close at N1,573.30/€1 compared with the preceding session’s N1,562.69/€1.
In the parallel market, the Nigerian currency lost N5 against the US Dollar during the trading day to settle at N1,395/$1 compared with the previous day’s N1,390/$1, and at the GTBank forex desk, it remained unchanged at N1,831/$1.
Liquidity fluctuations amidst sustained FX inflows from foreign portfolio investors, exporters, non-bank corporates and other sources weakened the Naira despite rising external reserves. Updated data showed that gross external reserves increased to $ 51.525 billion from $51.549 billion.
Daily interbank FX turnover stood at $54.180 million across 70 deals, from $70.430 million.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) signalled its intention in the first half of the year to slow the Naira rally and avoid capital flight by purchasing US Dollars from the market.
As for the cryptocurrency market, benchmarked tokens dipped following renewed strikes on Iran by the US after an attack on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz. The US Central Command forces said it began launching a series of powerful strikes against Iran to impose high costs for targeting and attacking commercial shipping crewed by innocent civilians in an international waterway.
The latest exchange of fire will test the fragile ceasefire as Iran struck back by targeting US bases in Bahrain and Kuwait. The renewed attacks in the Middle East have doused the flames of the recent rally, with markets losing $50 billion over the past 12 hours.
Cardano (ADA) fell by 5.8 per cent to $0.1695, Solana (SOL) dropped 3.4 per cent to sell at $78.24, Ripple (XRP) depreciated by 3.3 per cent to $1.08, Dogecoin (DOGE) declined by 3.2 per cent to $0.0724, and Binance Coin (BNB) slid by 1.9 per cent to $567.58.
Further, Ethereum (ETH) went down by 1.1 per cent to $1,751.40, Bitcoin (BTC) lost 0.8 per cent to quote at $62,538.88, and TRON (TRX) decreased by 0.4 per cent to $0.3289, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00 each.
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