Economy
Nigeria Will Flourish Very Soon—Osinbajo
By Dipo Olowookere
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has expressed confidence that though Nigeria Economy is presently facing structural challenges, the Buhari government is confident that Nigeria will return to positive growth very soon.
He made this assurance on Tuesday September 27, 2015, at the Joint Nigeria-India Business Forum which was held sequel to the signing of Bi-lateral Agreement between the two countries, at Sheraton Hotel Abuja.
He stressed that this will be possible because the Nigerian Government has responded by adopting policies that will boost economic activities and lay a long term growth.
According to him, “Our vision is anchored on a paradigm shift in government toward transparency and accountability and making it easier to do business as we diversify the economy”.
Throwing more light he stated that, there will be replicating of the skill, scale and speed of infrastructure development, focusing especially on power, road and rail.
Noting that this business gathering is at a time that Nigeria is pursuing reforms in the oil and gas sector while undertaking major social investment to tackle poverty, inequality and promoting social inclusion; it is expected that these policies will in turn support the private sector and greater domestic and foreign investment.
He stated that, the visit of the Vice President of India and his delegation further cements the historical ties and underscores the importance of promoting business cooperation between the two countries, hoping that the two sides will use the opportunity to work out any outstanding business issues relating to bilateral and investments including access to credit lines.
In addition, he observed the need to speedily address people to people relations including cultural ties while making it easier to import and export goods and services to be exchanged between the two countries.
While commending the Indian delegation, he stated that, “Our trading engagement are of vintage quality” because, as of the 19th Century Indian traders were visiting Nigeria bringing textiles and spices and the Indian High Commission was established in Nigeria in 1958.
He further revealed that, Nigeria-India relation was given impetus for the signing of the Abuja declaration on Strategic Partnerships in October 2007 which covered a gamut of relations between the two countries, the partnership was further cemented by the visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to New Delhi in October 2015 for the third India- Africa Forum Summit.
Prof Osinbajo observed that, “These high level engagements have contributed to the strengthening our Bi-lateral Relations and providing a good basis for mutually beneficial business ties”.
He also noted that, with the change in Global Economic Landscape, India has become one of the global growth poles and is therefore gratifying that the volume of trade between the two countries have increased to about $17bn as at 2015.
The Vice President further said that the rise of India as a significant source of investment into Nigeria makes a compelling case for expanding such growth into other areas; in his words, “We should in this regard scale up the involvement of the private sectors of our two countries in enhancing growth and sustainable developments”, the appointment of Alhaji Aliko Dangote as the Co-President of the India-Africa Business Council is therefore satisfying indeed because the development will give a major boost to development, he surmised.
Concluding, the Vice President invited members of the delegation to take full advantage of the occasion, to initiate lasting business partnerships with Nigerian partners especially in the areas of information and technology, agriculture and agro-allied business, health matters including investment in health services sector, energy especially oil and gas; including renewable energies such as solar power, education including capacity building and entrepreneurship, science and technology, and services generally.
Earlier in his address, the Vice President of India, Mr Hamid Ansari expressed satisfaction with the initiatives that Nigeria has launched under the sagacious leadership of President Buhari, assuring the cooperation and partnership of India. He further expressed a strong desire of his country to expand its commercial engagement with Nigeria.
He observed that, Nigeria is an important partner for India’s energy security requirement, saying about 12% of her crude requirement comes from Nigeria; over 100 companies have made Nigeria their base to operate in West Africa employing quite a large number of Nigerians, covering diverse sectors of the economy.
The Joint Business Forum was jointly hosted by Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industries, NACCIMA, Government of India, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and ASSOCHAM, India.
By Dipo Olowookere
A leading investment banking and capital markets solutions provider, Stanbic IBTC Capital, has been commended for its role in the Mandatory Takeover Offer (MTO) of minority shareholders of Guinness Nigeria Plc by Tolaram.
The deal underscored Stanbic IBTC Capital’s expertise in advising on complex transactions and delivering comprehensive financial solutions to clients.
Tolaram, acting through N Seven Nigeria Limited, contracted the services of Stanbic IBTC Capital as financial adviser for the transaction.
After acquiring a 58.02 per cent stake in Guinness Nigeria in 2024, Tolaram moved to take over the shares of minority investors of the brewery giant.
To make the minority equity boyout successful and meet regulatory requirements, Stanbic IBTC Capital provided comprehensive end-to-end support across both transactions, delivering a full suite of investment banking and capital markets solutions to facilitate the successful completion of this complex corporate action.
This helped Tolaram to, on May 20, 2025, to complete the purchase of the 283,099,431 shares held by minority investors for N22.94 billion, raising its shareholding in Guinness Nigeria to 70.85 per cent.
“We are grateful for the end-to-end support Stanbic IBTC Capital provided Tolaram throughout the MTO process.
“Their on-the-ground presence and expertise was invaluable in navigating the regulatory landscape and ensuring that interested Guinness Nigeria minorities were given the opportunity to sell their shares at the same price that Tolaram acquired the Guinness Nigeria stake from Diageo Plc.
“Guinness Nigeria has sufficient free float despite the MTO and Tolaram intends to continue to maintain Guinness Nigeria’s listing on Nigerian Exchange Limited,” the Group Finance Director of Tolaram, Mr Dinesh Rathi, stated.
In his remarks, the chief executive of Stanbic IBTC Capital, Mr Oladele Sotubo, said, “We thank Tolaram for the longstanding partnership and for trusting Stanbic IBTC Capital to handle this important MTO, having also advised Tolaram on its acquisition of Guinness Nigeria last year.”
By Adedapo Adesanya
Global payments solutions platform, Verto, has launched a new solution which will allow businesses to secure optimal foreign exchange (FX) rates automatically.
According to a statement shared with Business Post, Auto Exchange, as the new feature is called, was designed to help rate-sensitive customers secure their target FX rates without constant monitoring.
As a platform, Verto simplifies international money transfers and currency exchange for businesses of all sizes. With a focus on transparency, speed, and cost-effectiveness, Verto empowers businesses to thrive in the global marketplace.
The new tool allows users to set their desired exchange rate and trade amount within the Verto platform, enabling automatic execution when the Verto rate reaches their specified level.
Verto has automating the monitoring and execution process, empowering customers to capture their target rates even when they are not actively logged into the platform. It says this will allow many businesses prioritize achieving the most favorable exchange rates amid market fluctuations.
Auto Exchange provides a seamless and efficient solution, thereby making users can optimise their time and reducing missed opportunities.
“We’re thrilled to introduce Auto Exchange, a feature designed to bring both efficiency and peace of mind to our customers’ FX operations,” says Verto Product Director, Mr Tomasz Bilakiewicz, adding that “No more constant refreshing or fear of missing a target rate. With Auto Exchange, businesses can set their parameters and trust Verto to execute automatically, allowing them to focus on what truly matters – growing their business.”
Verto users can easily set up Auto Exchange orders within the platform by specifying the currency pair for exchange, their desired target exchange rate, the amount they wish to exchange, as well as the direction of the exchange (e.g., GBP to USD).
Auto Exchange is part of a suit of FX solutions offered by cross-border payment platform Verto. With the ability to exchange with bank-beating rates across 49 currencies, Verto is revolutionising cross-border payments with a focus one merging markets.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has said that the nation’s oil production rig has witnessed a 475 per cent rise from eight in 2021 to 46 in July 2025.
The chief executive of the agency, Mr Gbenga Komolafe, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja at the inauguration of a media workshop organised for journalists covering the oil and gas sector.
The rig countis a key metric for measuring vibrancy and performance in the oil and gas industry.
The rig which is a key equipment on which the oil is drilled reveals the level of vibrancy and the activities in the industry.
According to the commission’s data, about 46 active rigs are driving the current oil production in Nigeria.
Mr Komolafe, however, attributed the steady growth in the rig count to the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) enactment in 2021, and the commission’s commitment geared towards increasing oil production in the country.
He said the NUPRC through its Project One Million Barrels initiative had scaled up Nigeria’s oil production from one million barrels per day, oscillating around 1.7 million barrels.
The NUPRC boss said the initiative which was inaugurated in October 2024, was expected to increase oil production by one million additional units per year, adding that about 300,000 barrels of oil per day has been achieved since the inauguration of the programme.
He commended President Bola Tinubu for the Executive Orders 40, 41, and 42, which encouraged tax incentives and tax remission as well as redefined the contracting circle and the threshold in the industry.
Mr Komolafe said the 2024 Executive Orders: 40 on fiscal incentives, 41 on local content, and 42 on cost efficiency and contract timelines, had catalysed massive investment inflows.
“These have yielded positive results in terms of the Final Investment Decisions (FIDs) that have attracted huge amounts of money, billions of dollars to the country,” he said.
He urged the media practitioners to report the commission activities professionally in such a way that Nigerians would appreciate and understand its operations.
“As a regulator, we are wrongly perceived, often times people fail to understand the difference between a regulator and an operator.
“As a regulator, our activities put us in a quasi-judicial position, in position to mediate, it is an omnibus job,” he said
He reiterated that the commission will continue to play its role in Nigeria’s oil and gas development.
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