Nigerian Stocks Give up Early Gains to Close 0.44% Lower

By Dipo Olowookere The domestic currency had a breather in the peer-to-peer (P2P) and the parallel market segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Wednesday, with its value strengthening against the Dollar at the two windows. This was supported by the ease in the forex demand pressure during the trading session, which had the official market, the Investors and Exporters (I&E) arm of the market, non-operational yesterday due to the public holiday observed in the country for Eid el Maulud. Many customers who may have needed FX for their transactions stayed back to enjoy the work-free day, easing off

By Aduragbemi Omiyale The Vice President, Mr Kashim Shettima, has said Nigeria is in dire need of foreign direct investment (FDI) more than ever before, tasking domestic and foreign investors to make Nigeria their investment hub because efforts are being made to formulate business-friendly policies. Mr Shettima, while speaking when he hosted the management of First Surat Group, as well as top management of MTN Nigeria at the presidential villa in Abuja, charged MTN Nigeria to facilitate and spearhead digital mobile money and digital education. He assured that President Bola Tinubu was willing to partner with various stakeholders in the

By Dipo Olowookere No fewer than 15 Nigerian Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs) will share the N75 million set aside by a tech giant, Google, in the 2023 edition of Hustle Academy Fund. The initiative was introduced in 2022 to provide equity-free funds to small business owners to scale up their operations and support entrepreneurial growth in Nigeria. Entries for the exercise opened on Thursday, September 28 and will close on Thursday, October 12, 2023, and to be eligible, businesses must be Nigerian-founded, operating within Nigeria for 1-5 years, and have a clear and scalable business plan. They should have

By Adedapo Adesanya Trading activities resumed at the official segment of the foreign exchange (FX), with the Nigerian Naira returning to familiar territory after the Eid-el-Maulud break due to forex demand pressure. The nation’s currency depreciated against the US Dollar in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) arm of the market on Thursday, September 28, by 2.68 per cent or N20.23 to finish at N775.31/$1 compared with the preceding day’s value of N755.08/$1. It was observed that the domestic currency crumbled during the session due to FX demand caused by the break, with the spot market recording trades valued at $144.55

By Dipo Olowookere A Senator representing Bayelsa Central constituency of Bayelsa State in the National Assembly, Mr Emmanuel Paulker, has described most assumptions in the 2018 budget presented to the parliament by the executive as wrong. On November 7, 2017, President Muhammadu Buhari presented a budget proposal of N8.6 trillion to a joint session of the National Assembly for consideration and approval. During his presentation, the President said the 2018 budget deficit is about N2.01 trillion and will be financed mainly through new borrowing of N 1.7 trillion while the balance of NGN 306 billion is expected to come from

A veteran of the payments technology sector with more than 18 years of experience, Olaseni Alabede, has joined Global Technology Partners (GTP), an MFS Africa company, as chief technology officer (CTO). Acquired by MFS Africa in June 2022, the US-based GTP is the largest processor of prepaid cards in Africa, with more than 80 banks – including UBA, Ecobank, BIA, Stanbic, Coris, NSIA and Zenith Bank – using its platform. Prior to joining the GTP executive team, Alabede was the Vice President of Product Development in MasterCard’s Instalments business. In this New York-based role, he was responsible for the design

By Sodeinde Temidayo David The House of Representatives has mandated its committee on sports to investigate the immediate and remote cause of the failed doping test in order to prevent the future occurrence of such an incident. The House also called for an investigation into the activities of the Federal Ministry of Sports and Youth Development on failed doping tests by Nigerian athletes at the recently concluded Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. In competitive sports, doping is the alleged use of banned athletic performance-enhancing drugs by athletic competitors or to illegally improve athletic performance in competitions. Nigeria is set to

By Adedapo Adesanya The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has launched an investigation into the conduct of dominant pay-TV service providers for possible unfair price increases. This was made known in a statement by Mr Babatunde Irukera, the Chief Executive Officer of FCCPC in Abuja, saying that the move was to address the commission’s concerns and publicly expressed consumer dissatisfaction with Pay TV services. He said the investigation was in pursuant to sections 17(b), (e), (g), (s), (x), (y), 18(3), 59, 61, 62, 69,70(1)(2), 72, 73,74, 108,109 and110 of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act (FCCPA). Mr

By Dipo Olowookere Last week, which had only four trading sessions, shares of FTN Cocoa Processors and Japual Gold & Ventures Plc appreciated by over 40 per cent on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). In the previous week, the companies’ stocks grew by double-digits at the market, causing some investors to begin to probe the rationale behind the sudden rise in the equities of the firms. Business Post reports that a few days ago, the NSE lifted the suspension placed on FTN Cocoa after it filed its outstanding financial statements, while Japual changed its trading symbol to

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The equities market finished in the negative territory on Wednesday for the fifth consecutive session with the All-share Index (ASI) and market capitalization losing 0.25 percent. This occurred despite the improving macroeconomic environment in Nigeria with 1.95 percent GDP growth in Q1 2018 and the inflation moderating to 12.48 percent, according to figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) few days ago. Specifically, the ASI went down by 98.74 points to close at 40,150.55 points, while the market capitalisation depreciated by N36 billion to end at N14.544 trillion. Business Post reports that apart from the

By Dipo Olowookere Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State has revealed his plans by his administration to accelerate development in the Gateway state. Mr Amosun, who spoke recently at a Budget Town Hall meeting, in preparation for the state’s 2018 budget, tagged it the 2017-2030 Sustainable Development Plan. He explained that the plan will focus on the areas that have not received much attention from his administration, after a thorough review of his government’s activities in the past years. Mr Amosun highlighted increased agricultural production and industrialisation, economy diversification to reduce dependency on oil revenues as well as the creation

By Adedapo Adesanya The Court of Appeal in Abuja has granted a request by the Lagos State Government to join Rivers State in the appeal filed by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) against a Rivers State High Court, which said states were the right tier of government to collect Value Added Tax (VAT) in the country. The FIRS had filed an appeal at the appellate court to challenge the ruling by the lower court and Lagos filed a suit to be joined in the matter. At the resumed hearing of the matter on Thursday, the court granted the request