NSE Index Grows to 24,143.37 Points

By Adedapo Adesanya  Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) has secured a $300 million loan from the Export-Import Bank of China (CEXIM) to drive increased trade finance and investment across the African continent, fostering economic growth and development. The infrastructure solutions provider on the continent announced the successful signing of the landmark agreement on the sidelines of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) Annual meetings in Egypt. The 3-year credit facility is a significant development in AFC’s long-standing relationship with CEXIM. The two institutions have collaborated since 2018, with AFC receiving $400 million in bilateral loans from CEXIM to date. According to

By Adedapo Adesanya Nigeria has repaid a total of $12.56 billion in external debt as of 2022, data from Intelpoint showed. According to the latest debt figures, Nigeria’s total public debt rose by 75.3 per cent to N87.38 trillion at the end of the second quarter of 2023 against N49.85 trillion recorded in the first quarter of the year. The rise came as the country securitised the N22.71 trillion Ways and Means Advances of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to the federal government. The overdraft is a loan facility through which the CBN finances the shortfalls in the government’s

By Dipo Olowookere The bears tightened their grip on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Tuesday, chopping off 0.34 per cent from the local bourse despite assurances from Mr Yemi Cardoso he would endeavour to ensure the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) restores its independence. Mr Cardoso was confirmed as the new CBN Governor by the Senate yesterday and he promised to formulate evidence-based monetary policies, a departure from his predecessor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, who was accused of romancing the President and coming up with trial-and-error policies. Business Post reports that investors were more interested in trimming their exposure to

By Bliss Okperan The exchange rate instability in the country is already giving small business owners sleepless nights and it threatens their investments. This concern was raised recently by the National Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Association of Small-Scale Industrialists, Mr Segun Kuti-George. He emphasised that business owners would have to increase their prices because of the unavoidable consequence of the current exchange rate crisis in Nigeria. According to him, if consumers are unable to meet up with the increase in the cost of goods and services, businesses would be forced to shut down their operations, which would, in turn,

By Dipo Olowookere Transcorp, Oando and Fidelity Bank stocks recorded an uptick in demand last week on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited. The three firms accounted for 378.9 million shares worth N995.5 million in 2,998 deals, contributing 27.57 per cent and 8.42 per cent to the total trading volume and value respectively. In the week, the total turnover was 1.4 billion units worth N11.8 billion in 22,982 deals in contrast to the 896.2 million units worth N5.2 billion traded in 11,714 deals a week earlier. Financial equities dominated the trading with 715.4 million shares valued at N4.8

By Modupe Gbadeyanka A special envoy has been sent to South Africa by President Muhammadu Buhari over the recent fatal attacks on Nigerians living in the former apartheid country. The team, according to a statement issued on Tuesday by Mr Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, is to express “deep concern” of Mr Buhari with his South African counterpart, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa. Mr Adesina said the Nigerian leader was deeply worried with the xenophobic attacks on his citizens and their properties in the country by South Africans, who accused foreigners of dominating their cities

By Dipo Olowookere Music acts at Publiseer are currently celebrating following the digital content distribution company’s giant leap in the business of distributing and monetizing their works across Africa. The music aggregator have recently released its subscription streaming numbers in excess of 1.5 million streams, as garnered from the amazing variety of contents on hundreds of digital stores worldwide. This comes barely a year into the business of digital content distribution and monetization, with the mission of promoting the creativity of the African people to the rest of the world. The digital content distributor reported 1,400,376 subscription streaming and 124,762

By Dipo Olowookere The federal government has increased the pump price of premium motor spirit (PMS) commonly called petrol to N212.61 per litre. This announcement was made on Thursday night by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), an organisation established by the government to control the price of petroleum products in the country. Before now, there had been rumours that the government was planning to hike the price of the commodity and this brought about the reemergence of queues at petrol stations in some parts of Abuja and Lagos. However, the government refuted the rumours and consumers were assured

By Dipo Olowookere A private initiative and strategic platform designed to reposition leadership in Nigeria, CITC Leadership Centre, recently held a capacity building programme for youths in Lagos. The event had the strong backing of one of the innovative financial institutions in the country, Unity Bank Plc. The workshop, anchored by ace comedian, Mr Ayodele Okundalaiye, also known as Sacco, was attended by top management staff of both Unity Bank and CITC Leadership Centre. Among these were the Dean of Programs at CITC Leadership Centre, Mr Steve Akoni; Head of SME Banking at Unity Bank Plc, Mr Opeyemi Ojeshina; Head

By Adedapo Adesanya The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange ended in the negative territory on Tuesday, September 12, as it depreciated by 0.29 per cent. Data showed that the value of the unlisted securities market went down by N3.25 billion to close at N1.119 trillion versus the N1.122 trillion it finished a day earlier, and the NASD Unlisted Securities Index (NSI) depreciated by 2.32 points to end the day at 798.45 points compared with Monday’s 800.77 points. During the session, market participants executed 10 deals at the bourse, 9.1 per cent lower than the 11 deals achieved in the previous

Every customer of leading telecommunications services provider, Airtel Nigeria, now stands a chance of winning amazing cash rewards as the company announces its new CashToken rewards under The AirtelThanks programme. AirtelThanks rewards customers with multiple tiered service benefits which include Invites to Special events, Birthday appreciation gifts, Priority Service access, Personalized Relationship Management, among other benefits. CashToken Rewards is being offered as a new feature in the AirtelThanks programme. Customers are now eligible for cash tokens that can be used to buy airtime and data as well as make purchases across 300 merchants. Each CashToken offered means guaranteed cash-back and

By Ephraim Okwuosa The recent initiative of the Delta State Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, in requesting the company of immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan for a joint visit to Gbaramatu kingdom in the oil producing area of Niger Delta in pursuit of peace, is clear demonstration that a new wave of patriotic support has emerged to boost the on-going efforts of the President Buhari’s leadership to restore peace in the Niger Delta region. Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s role as a new dove in the Niger Delta crisis despite his contrasting partisan interest with the Nigeria’s ruling government of President Buhari is