NSE Index Sheds 0.07% as Investors Stake N94b on 594m Shares

By Aduragbemi Omiyale President Bola Tinubu has said the 2024 budget presented to the joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday was designed to achieve macroeconomic stability, a better investment environment, greater access to social security, poverty reduction and enhanced human capital development. According to him, if these goals are achieved, the standard of living of Nigerians will improve and the citizens will enjoy the dividends of democracy. While presenting the 2024 Appropriation Bills to the parliament yesterday, the President said this was why he christened the budget proposal as the Budget of Renewed Hope. Mr Tinubu told the

By Adedapo Adesanya Equinor and Chappal Energies have entered into an agreement for the sale of Equinor Nigeria Energy Company (ENEC), which holds a 53.85 per cent ownership in oil and gas lease OML 128, including the unitized 20.21 per cent stake in the Agbami oil field, operated by Chevron. Speaking on the deal, Equinor’s senior vice president for Africa Operations, Ms Nina Koch, said Nigeria has been an important part of Equinor’s international portfolio over the past 30 years, noting that, “This transaction realizes value and is in line with Equinor’s strategy to optimize its international oil and gas

By Adedapo Adesanya The boards of insurance companies operating in the country have been charged by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) to embrace the measures put in place to tackle the challenges of unpaid claims. The Commissioner for Insurance, Mr Sunday Thomas, expressed worry over the number of outstanding claims in the sector despite efforts by the regulator to address the issue. Mr Thomas, who is also the chief executive of NAICOM, said the organisation, in collaboration with members of the Insurers’ Committee, has taken decisions and incepted measures designed to tame the menace of unpaid claims. Speaking at the

By Dipo Olowookere The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited rebounded by 0.10 per cent on Friday as investors went for Ardova, MRS Oil, Transcorp, UBA, and other stocks. The growth posted by the stock market on the last trading session of the week was supported by most of the sub-sectors of the bourse, with the energy index rising by 1.36 per cent. The insurance sector appreciated by 0.65 per cent, the banking counter improved by 0.22 per cent, and the industrial goods space went up by 0.02 per cent, while the consumer goods sector depreciated by 0.13 per cent. When the

By Adedapo Adesanya The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) have signed a grant agreement to support a project for a unified financial market of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC). The deal, which was signed recently, is made up of $994,638 from the African Private Sector Assistance Fund (FAPA), funded by Japan and Austria and hosted at the AfDB. It is in addition to resources already released by the bank in support of the regional financial market. The resources are the technical assistance approved by the lender in 2019 to

By Dipo Olowookere The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Thursday conducted its much-awaited mopping up of excess liquidity in the system via the issuance of treasury bills via Open Market Operations (OMO). During the exercise, the apex bank offered the debt instrument worth N300 billion to investors, but was able to raise N249 billion from market players. Business Post reports that the investors mainly went for the half-year and one-year bills offered by the central bank, with the short tenor substantially ignored. It was gathered that N50 billion worth of the 91-day bills were auctioned by CBN today, but

By Adedapo Adesanya The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, known as OPEC+, may discuss countries which have lagged in reducing their oil output under a global oil cut deal when they meet next week. Co-chair of the alliance, Russian Energy Minister, Mr Alexander Novak, was quoted as saying this when asked if laggards have requested to extend the period for improving their compliance. He said, “I have no information on that, we have a planned meeting of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) on 17th. I think we will discuss all those issues.” Saudi Arabia,

By Dipo Olowookere An appeal has been made to the management of Ikeja Electric by customers in the Shomolu area of Lagos for a debt forgiveness on their accumulated outstanding bills. This followed the deployment of thousands of prepaid meters by the electricity firm to consumers in the area to further close the metering gap. Shomolu area of Lagos State is noted for its huge concentration of printers and other heavy electricity consumers. It was discovered that out of all the customers meter, about 660 are yet to migrate and utilize the new prepaid meters due to their inability to

By Aduragbemi Omiyale The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has completed the sale of Polaris Bank Limited to Strategic Capital Investment Limited (SCIL). In September 2018, the CBN revoked the operating licence of Skye Bank Plc and nationalised it to Polaris Bank. The financial institution was then transferred to the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON). After over four years, the apex bank has now announced a new core investor of the bank. The new owners will operate the financial institution. In a statement issued on Thursday, the Director of Corporate Communications at the CBN, Mr Osita Nwanisobi, disclosed that

How does the central bank retrieve 84.5% of a country’s currency in circulation in just 90 days? This was one of the many questions seemingly begging for answers when Nigeria’s apex bank announced its plan to redesign the three higher value notes of the naira (N200, N500 and N1,000) on October 26, 2022. Fast-forward three months and three weeks (a week before the general elections), and a majority of Nigerians are now confronted with a shortage of naira notes that is proving disruptive to lives and livelihoods. Given the analyst consensus that a 90-day window was simply insufficient to complete

By Dipo Olowookere The management of Multiverse Mining and Exploration Plc has announced the appointment of Mr Mamman Bukar Zargana as a Non-Executive Director of the company with effect from August 1, 2018. His appointment was approved during the 38th Board of Directors meeting of the firm held on July 10, 2018. Mr Zargana is currently the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Mainstreet Capital Limited and has almost 20 years’ experience in investment banking spanning investment banking practice, industry knowledge, strong corporate governance and compliance strategy. His core competence is in Leadership and Management; Valuation and Fairness Option; Portfolio/Funds Management;