Nigerian Equity Market Witnesses Low Weekly Turnover

By Adedapo Adesanya All is not well with the Naira in the parallel market and the peer-to-peer (P2P) segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market in Nigeria, with its exchange rate against the Dollar nearing N1000. At the black market on Thursday, the Nigerian Naira depreciated against the US Dollar by N25 to sell at N995/$1 compared with the preceding session’s value of N970/$1. It was a similar story with the local currency in the P2P wing of the forex market as it lost N22 against the greenback yesterday to quote at N992/$1, in contrast to Wednesday’s exchange rate of

By Adedapo Adesanya Oil prices settled lower on Thursday even after Russia announced a ban on fuel exports, with Brent crude down by 23 cents to $93.30 a barrel while the US West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) lost 3 cents to sell at $89.63 per barrel. Russia temporarily banned gasoline and diesel exports to all countries outside a circle of four ex-Soviet states with immediate effect to stabilize the domestic fuel market, the government said on Thursday. It said the ban did not apply to fuel supplied under inter-governmental agreements to Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union members, including Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia

By Dipo Olowookere Stock investors were swayed by the news of the indefinite postponement of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The quarterly rate decision meeting was supposed to occur next week, but it has been moved forward. There are speculations that the meeting was postponed to allow the new CBN Governor nominee, Mr Yemi Cardoso, to preside over the gathering. He is yet to be confirmed by the Senate, which resumes from a recess next Tuesday, the same day the rate decision is supposed to be announced. The confusion as to who

By Adedapo Adesanya President Bola Tinubu has been charged by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) to investigate the allegations that over $15 billion of oil revenues and N200 billion budgeted to repair the refineries are missing and unaccounted for between 2020 and 2021, as documented by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI). In the letter dated September 23 and signed by SERAP deputy director, Mr Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation urged him to “name and shame anyone suspected to be responsible for the missing and unaccounted for public funds and to ensure their effective prosecution as well as

**Offers to sanitise industry By Dipo Olowookere If given the needed support by the government and other stakeholders, the Compliance Institute, Nigeria (CIN) will help in the fight against corruption, terrorism, money laundering and other crimes in the financial industry. This was the submission of President of CIN, Mr Pattison Boleigha, during a world press conference in Lagos last week. “The financial sector is a conduit through which illicit finances pass through. The way the institute will assist is to train compliance officers who will be working in the banks and make sure the rules of the Central Bank of

By Dipo Olowookere A ground-breaking product, ‘CashToken’, a new age of hyper consumer centricity in Nigeria, has been launched by the nation’s fastest growing financial institution, Keystone Bank Limited. The product was unveiled in Lagos on Thursday, April 19, 2018, in partnership with a ‘Cash Reward as-a-Service firm, CeLD Innovations Limited. During the launch at a conference tagged ‘500 Top CEOs Conference – Unleashing the Age of Hyper Consumer Centricity,’ the lender explained that ‘CashToken’ is an electronic reward and celebratory gift commodity which costs only N30. The initiative, according to CeLD, creates an avenue for every customer in Nigeria

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has remained consistent in its support for the operations of the OTC FX Futures market by continuing to provide quotes for open contracts for the past 25 maturities, replacing matured contracts and actively refreshing its quotes on the existing 1-to 11-month contracts on a monthly basis. The 25th OTC FX Futures contract, NGUS JUL 25 2018, with notional amount of $405.66 million, matured and settled on FMDQ on July 25, 2018. This maturity brings the total value of matured Naira-settled OTC FX Futures contracts on FMDQ, since the inception of the

By Adedapo Adesanya  One of the most profitable businesses that a would-be entrepreneur can establish in Nigeria is a bar business because many Nigerians like to be happy amid the sufferings and drinks, especially those with alcohol, provide that happiness option. Like many other businesses, running a bar, usually called beer palour, has things one should put into consideration before venturing into and they would be highlighted in this piece. Interest The first consideration is interest. This comes in many forms. The interest of the entrepreneur will determine whatever mission and vision he or she has for the business. Without

By Dipo Olowookere The senator representing Kogi West senatorial district, Mr Dino Melaye, was on Wednesday arraigned by the police at the Chief Magistrate Court in Wuse, Abuja. The vocal lawmaker was brought before the court for alleged criminal conspiracy, causing damage to government property, attempted suicide and escape from lawful custody. His arraignment in court today was subsequent to his discharge from the National Hospital after he was confirmed fit for trial. It will be recalled that, on April 24, 2018, at about 12 noon, Mr Melaye, while in lawful custody of the Nigeria Police Force and being taken

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Managing Director of Fidelity Bank Plc, Mr Nnamdi Okonkwo, has expressed the bank’s intention to acquire some other financial institutions in the future as part of its determination to attain the tier-1 status. Addressing some financial reporters in Lagos on Thursday, the bank chief said whenever an opportunity opens for such acquisition, the bank would grab it without hesitation. At the moment, Fidelity Bank is in the tier-2 group. There are five banks in the tier-1 category in Nigeria and they are First Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA), Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank), Access Bank and Zenith

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Trading activities on the floor of the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) closed this week on a negative note. The NASD OTC Market ended with a decline in market metrics, as the NASD USI went down by 1.09 percent, closing at 656.55 points against 663.82 points last Friday. Consequently, the total market capitalisation shed 1.09 percent this week, closing lower at N444.30 billion compared to N449.23 billion last Friday. FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc was the biggest price loser during the week, losing N5 of its share value to close at N150 per share against the previous

By The Witness These are not the best of times for the Tokunbo Abiru-led Skye Bank Plc as the lender is said to be currently embroiled in a fresh crisis. Investigation by THE WITNESS revealed that the struggling financial institution has again failed the statutory requirements to file its results and accounts for the period ended June 30, 2018 with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). A top management staff of the bank who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity lamented, “Of a truth, all is not well with the bank. It is really struggling to stay afloat and