Nigeria’s One-Year T-Bills Rate Clears at 13.50% at PMA

By Adedapo Adesanya The federal government has set plans in motion to raise $200 million from philanthropic individuals and organisations as part of efforts to create jobs and support Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria. Nigeria is home to over 36.9 million MSMEs, comprising 96.7 per cent of all businesses in Nigeria. According to data, 67 per cent of these businesses are youth-owned. MSMEs contribute over 45 per cent to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), with 98.8 per cent of them in the micro cadre. They account for nearly 90 per cent of the jobs in the

By Adedapo Adesanya Brent crude benchmark dipped below $80 a barrel on Monday, precisely losing 60 cents of 0.7 per cent to trade at $79.98 a barrel as investors await this week’s meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies (OPEC+). The group is anticipated to maintain its ceiling on crude oil production by member countries into 2024. This affected the oil market, with the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures declining yesterday by 68 cents or 0.9 per cent to trade at $74.86 per barrel. Last week, the 23-man OPEC+ postponed its Sunday ministerial meeting

By Adedapo Adesanya  President Bola Tinubu has written to the House of Representatives seeking the approval for an $8.6 billion and €100 million external borrowing plan for critical infrastructure in areas such as power, roads, water, railway, and health. The President also forwarded the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Supplementary Budget to the lower chamber for consideration. Meanwhile, the President will present the 2024 budget to the National Assembly on Wednesday. This was after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved a 2024 budget of N27.5 trillion. The approval followed the review of the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) earlier passed by the

It’s been a mixed season for Manchester United but there is still a chance that the Red Devils will end the campaign with some major silverware. Having briefly led at the top of the Premier League table, United have slipped back while bitter rivals Manchester City have established a big lead. The EPL title may be gone but United can now focus on the Europa League. Thanks to the misfortune of another English club, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side have a clearer path to the trophy. Spurs Slip Up Tottenham Hotspur had been favourites to win the Europa League for some

By Adedapo Adesanya The Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) has made an appeal to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to allow its members to trade foreign exchange (FX) electronically. President of ABCON, Mr Aminu Gwadabe, who made this appeal on behalf of his member, argued that electronic forex trading by BDC operators will ease the demand pressure on the local currency and create value for the economy. “Technology is a threat whether we like it or not and we have been urging the CBN to allow us to operate within the payment space. Our request

By Dipo Olowookere Delegates at the recently-concluded 2018 Africa Trade Forum held in Lagos have agreed that while governments need to set a conducive environment through collective and coordinated actions for the successful implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the private sector should be the main driver of the policy. During the event, they also agreed that complementary interventions to boost competitiveness and reduce the high costs of doing business on the African continent would be crucial to ensure win-win gains from the AfCFTA, saying these will require proactive policies and programmes in the areas of infrastructure,

By Angela Simpson and Lydia Shadrach-Razzino The impact of global geopolitical and economic turbulence and the challenges of the pandemic have led private equity (PE) investors to carefully assess which sectors are expected to do well in Africa and where they can find high-quality assets at the right price. Healthcare, technology, media and telecommunications (TMT), energy, infrastructure and financials have emerged as the most active sectors by value in Africa in the last few years, with PE investment, in general, rising substantially despite economic challenges. Rapid innovative developments in these sectors have attracted the attention of PE investors, and it

By Modupe Gbadeyanka In recognition of its innovative efforts in stretching the boundaries of big data and location-based analytics, front-running IT solutions and services provider ITWORX, has been named the 2017 ESRI Partner of the Year for Big Data & Analytics. ITWORX garnered the prestigious award at this year’s Esri Partner Conference, held recently in California-USA, crowning the Company’s successful implementation of its ‘InSite Suite’ a location-based behavioral analytics solution, in collaboration with Esri, for the Telco sector. “By bringing the power of Big Data to ESRI’s geo-spatial platform, ITWORX ‘InSite Suite’ significantly improves the way Telco Operators draw insights

By Dipo Olowookere One of the news items that has dominated the business space in the past few days is the rumoured takeover of FBN Holdings Plc, the parent company of First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Limited, by Mr Femi Otedola, a businessman in the country. It was reported that he has ‘acquired’ the lender by pumping about N30 billion into the shares of the company at the stock market, making him the single largest shareholder. This was linked to the recent rise in the trading volume and value of FBN Holdings equities at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited, which

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Relief is yet to come for investors in the Nigerian equities market as its bear run continued on Monday with the major market indicators plunging into the red zone. The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) all-share index, the major market indicator, depreciated by 0.15 percent or 38.54 points to close at 25,499.00 points, while another market indicator, the market capitalisation, declined by N13.3 billion to finish at N8.77 trillion. Mobil led the declining stocks today with a loss of N4.99k to close at N190.1k per share, Dangote Sugar fell by 32k to finish at N6.16k per share, International

By Investors Hub European stocks are turning in a mixed performance amid uncertainty about the outlook for U.S. tax reform plan and as traders assess messages from the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank meetings. While the French CAC 40 Index is down by 0.2 percent, the German DAX Index is up by 0.1 percent and the U.K.?s FTSE 100 Index is up by 0.2 percent. In corporate news, Hennes & Mauritz AB or H&M have fallen sharply after the Swedish retailer reported weak sales in its fourth quarter. The second largest fashion retailer’s results were hurt by fewer shoppers