Nigerian Bourse Finish Week Strong with N38b Gain

By Adedapo Adesanya A foreign oil company, Equinor ASA, has chosen a little-known Nigerian company, Chappal Energy, as the preferred buyer of its stake in one of the country’s largest deep-water oil fields, Agbami. According to a report by Bloomberg on Monday, the Norwegian energy giant is trying to sell its 20.2 per cent interest in the Agbami field – joining other international producers such as Shell Plc, Exxon Mobil Corporation and Eni SpA in looking to offload assets in Africa’s biggest crude producer, Nigeria. In January, Equinor launched the sale of its stake in an offshore Nigerian oilfield, joining

By Dipo Olowookere The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) kicked off the first trading session in the last week of the third quarter of the year on a negative note, with the key performance indices going down by 0.66 per cent on Monday. This was partly caused by the reaction of investors to the 30 Kobo interim dividend declaration of the board of Access Holdings Plc. A few days ago, its peer, UBA Plc, raised its interim dividend payment by 150 per cent to 50 Kobo and it was expected that Access Holdings would follow the same path. However, the company disappointed

By Adedapo Adesanya The new Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Yemi Cardoso, has said he would adopt an evidence-based monetary policy as he assumed office upon confirmation by the Nigerian Senate on Tuesday. He said the new leadership of CBN would “adopt an evidence-based monetary policy and shall not be making decisions based on a whim.” The Godswill Akpabio-led Senate confirmed the nomination of Mr Cardoso’s nomination as well as that of the four Deputy Governors of CBN nominated by President Bola Tinubu. The four deputy governors whose appointments were confirmed by the Senate are Mrs

By Dipo Olowookere The second Annual Workshop on International Economic Negotiations opened in Johannesburg on Monday under the theme, ‘Building Africa’s Negotiating Capacity for Improved Terms of Engagement with the Rest of the World.’ The event is part of activities led by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) to promote policies and programmes that strengthen the process of African economic integration, as explained by Stephen Karingi, Director of ECA’s Capacity Development Division (CDD): “We are basically assisting Member States in the development of common positions towards international negotiations as well as in enhancing the skills of African negotiators to get

By Dipo Olowookere Heritage Bank Plc has restated its commitment to the sustenance, growth and development of agricultural sector in Nigeria through the provision of funds to stakeholders in the industry. This reassurance was made in a statement issued by Heritage Bank’s Divisional Head of Corporate Communications, Mr Fela Ibidapo. Mr Ibidapo explained that Heritage Bank, in its determination to deliver on this promise, is currently funding various agricultural projects in several states of the country, especially in Oyo, Kaduna and Zamfara states. He said Heritage Bank has entered into a partnership with the Oyo State Government to support the

By Leadership The federal government has raised a total sum of N7.3 billion in the past 10 months from its savings bond introduced in March 2017 to boost domestic investors’ participation in the bond market. The government, this year, planned to use the savings bond to finance the budget deficit but investors’ appetite for investment in the savings bond diminished in the fourth quarter of 2017. The December allotment figure shows that N246.41 million had been raised, which is the lowest savings bond the Debt Management Office (DMO) generated this year over drop in coupon rate. Analysts attributed the drop

By Adedapo Adesanya The Naira depreciated to N420 a dollar at the parallel segment of the foreign exchange (forex) market on Monday, April 20. The local currency lost N4 yesterday from the rate it was traded at the previous session, N416/$1. At the same segment, the domestic currency closed flat against the Pound at N495/£1 and also remained unchanged against the Euro at N430/€1. At the Investors & Exporters (I&E) window, Business Post gathered from the FMDQ Securities Exchange that the exchange rate of the Naira/Dollar remained at N383.13/$1. At the same market segment, it was observed that the demand

By Dipo Olowookere The deadline for filing of Annual Returns for individual taxpayers including self-employed persons in Lagos State has been extended by two months. Statutorily, the filing of annual returns expires on the March 31 of every fiscal year, and attracts stiff penalties for defaulters. But the Lagos State Inland Revenue Service (LIRS) said taxpayers in the state now have till May 31, 2020 to do the needful. In a statement signed on Monday by its Head of Corporate Communications, Ms Monsurat Amasa, the tax agency explained that the shifting of the filing date was due to the coronavirus

By Dipo Olowookere Buying interest in some banking and industrial goods equities contributed to the marginal 0.05 per cent growth recorded at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Monday. Business Post observed that investors picked a keen interest in GTBank and Zenith Bank stocks at the bourse yesterday as their qualification dates for interim dividend payment draw closer. Also, shares of Dangote Cement and Lafarge Africa caught the attention of bargain hunters during the day and activities around them supported the upward movement. At the close of transactions, only the industrial goods and banking sectors closed in the green territory

By Adedapo Adesanya Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) Plc returned the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange to the bulls’ territory on Thursday, January 13 a day after the market derailed. The unlisted securities exchange appreciated by 0.39 per cent on the back of the N1 or 5 per cent growth posted by CSCS during the session as its share price ended at N20.00 per unit as against N19.00 per unit of the previous day. This development expanded the market capitalisation of the bourse by N2.47 billion at the close of business on Thursday to N633.52 billion from N631.05 billion. Also,

By Adedapo Adesanya The Naira closed at N463.75/$1 in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange window on Wednesday, April 5, compared with the previous day’s N463.30/$1, indicating a decline of 45 Kobo or 0.1 per cent. The Nigerian Naira further lost its value against the United States Dollar at the official market after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) slightly adjusted the local currency value a few days ago. This was noticed by Business Post on Monday, which was the first trading session of the second quarter of 2023, when the Naira finished at N463.50/$1 compared