Economy
NSE Standstill for Pa Akintola Williams, Beats Closing Gong
By Adedapo Adesanya
Pa Akintola Williams, the doyen of accounting in Nigeria, was honoured at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) with a closing bell ceremony on Monday, September 30, 2019.
Pa Williams, who clocked a milestone of 100 years old in August, was specially celebrated by the NSE for his contribution to the establishment of the organisation.
The centenarian is the only surviving signatory to the founding of the Nigerian Stock Exchange and was honoured with closing Monday’s trading activity at the exchange.
This coincided with 58th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the NSE, where the CEO of the Exchange, Mr Oscar Onyema, expressed his gratitude for the presence of Pa Akintola Williams.
“Today is a big day for us at the exchange and it is a day we will cherish for a long time,” he remarked.
Speaking further, he said, “In a country where life expectancy hovers around 55 years, clocking the century mark is indeed a great landmark. For Pa Williams, an even greater achievement is the quality in his 100 years. He has lived a life worthy of emulation, resolutely serving our nation at home and abroad, promoting best practices, deterring limitations, and inspiring everyone in his circle to more responsibilities.
“This celebration presents another opportunity to reflect on his achievements and acknowledge the efforts that have brought him this far. It is my hope that we can continue to draw inspiration from his legacy to solve our pertinent socio-economic challenges”.
On his part, Otunba Abimbola Ogunbanjo said “Pa. Williams played a significant role in the incorporation of NSE. He served as a member of the committee set up by the Federal Government of Nigeria to carry out a feasibility study on the viability of establishing a stock exchange in Nigeria.
“Pa. Williams worked tirelessly and joined with several distinguished Nigerians to assess the promise and challenges associated with a new stock exchange in Nigeria. After six months of extensive research, the committee concluded that the establishment of a stock exchange in Nigeria was feasible, and timely.
“As a member of the National Council of the Exchange, he contributed in no small measure to the growth of its listing portfolio and established rules reducing barriers for companies to list on The Exchange.
“As the NSE continue to lead the advancement of the Nigerian capital market through inclusive products and services, we look back in gratitude to the contributions of visionary and patriotic icons like Pa. Williams.”
Pa Akintola, during his comment, congratulated all the members of the stock exchange for their contributions and called on the exchange to further continue its duties.
“I thank you all for assembling here today to celebrate my centenary. I am indeed happy and proud to see the progress our project of nearly sixty years ago has made, and I look forward to The Nigerian Stock Exchange’s future advancement with a great deal of anticipation and hope,” he said.
The event was also graced by Chris Ogunbanjo, the lawyer who incorporated the Stock Exchange; his son and President of the Exchange’s National Council, Otunba Abimbola Ogunbanjo; Ex-officio and Past President, Mr Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede; Second Vice President, Mrs Catherine Nwakaego Echeozo; Members of the Council, Erelu Angela Adebayo and Mrs Fatimah Bintah Bello-Ismail, among others.
Pa Akintola Williams was born on August 9, 1919, in Lagos Nigeria. He was born in an affluent family with generations working with white settlers and the government. His grandfather was a prosperous merchant and his father, Thomas Ekundayo Williams was a clerk who worked for the colonial office before setting up his legal firm in Lagos.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has once again trimmed its 2024 and 2025 oil demand growth forecasts.
The bloc made this in its latest monthly oil market report for December 2024.
The 2024 world oil demand growth forecast is now put at 1.61 million barrels per day from the previous 1.82 million barrels per day.
For 2025, OPEC says the world oil demand growth forecast is now at 1.45 million barrels per day, which is 900,000 barrels per day lower than the 1.54 million barrels per day earlier quoted.
On the changes, the group said that the downgrade for this year owes to more bearish data received in the third quarter of 2024 while the projections for next year relate to the potential impact that will arise from US tariffs.
The oil cartel had kept the 2024 outlook unchanged until August, a view it had first taken in July 2023.
OPEC and its wider group of allies known as OPEC+ earlier this month delayed its plan to start raising output until April 2025 against a backdrop of falling prices.
Eight OPEC+ member countries – Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman – decided to extend additional crude oil production cuts adopted in April 2023 and November 2023, due to weak demand and booming production outside the group.
In April 2023, these OPEC+ countries decided to reduce their oil production by over 1.65 million barrels per day as of May 2023 until the end of 2023. These production cuts were later extended to the end of 2024 and will now be extended until the end of December 2026.
In addition, in November 2023, these producers had agreed to voluntary output cuts totalling about 2.2 million barrels per day for the first quarter of 2024, in order to support prices and stabilise the market.
These additional production cuts were extended to the end of 2024 and will now be extended to the end of March 2025; they will then be gradually phased out on a monthly basis until the end of September 2026.
Members have made a series of deep output cuts since late 2022.
They are currently cutting output by a total of 5.86 million barrels per day, or about 5.7 per cent of global demand. Russia also announced plans to reduce its production by an extra 471,000 barrels per day in June 2024.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
A minority equity stake in Chappal Energies Mauritius Limited has been acquired by a Nigerian energy firm, Aradel Holdings Plc.
This deal came a few days after Chappal Energies purchased a 53.85 per cent equity stake in Equinor Nigeria Energy Company Limited (ENEC).
Chappal Energies went into the deal with Equinor to take part in the oil and gas lease OML 128, including the unitised 20.21 per cent stake in the Agbami oil field, operated by Chevron.
Since production started in 2008, the Agbami field has produced more than one billion barrels of oil, creating value for Nigerian society and various stakeholders.
As part of the deal, Chappal will assume the operatorship of OML 129, which includes several significant prospects and undeveloped discoveries (Nnwa, Bilah and Sehki).
The Nnwa discovery is part of the giant Nnwa-Doro field, a major gas resource with significant potential to deliver value for Nigeria.
In a separate transaction, on July 17, 2024, Chappal and Total Energies sealed an SPA for the acquisition by Chappal of 10 per cent of the SPDC JV.
The relevant parties to this transaction are working towards closing out this transaction and Ministerial Approval and NNPC consent to accede to the Joint Operating Agreement have been obtained.
“This acquisition is in line with diversifying our asset base, deepening our gas competencies and gaining access to offshore basins using low-risk approaches.
“We recognise the strategic role of gas in Nigeria’s energy future and are happy to expand our equity holding in this critical resource.
“We are committed to the cause of developing the significant value inherent in the assets, which will be extremely beneficial to the country.
“Aradel hopes to bring its proven execution competencies to bear in supporting Chappal’s development of these opportunities,” the chief executive of Aradel Holdings, Mr Adegbite Falade, stated.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Afriland Properties Plc helped the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange record a 0.04 per cent gain on Tuesday, December 10 as the share price of the property investment rose by 34 Kobo to N16.94 per unit from the preceding day’s N16.60 per unit.
As a result of this, the market capitalisation of the bourse went up by N380 million to remain relatively unchanged at N1.056 trillion like the previous trading day.
But the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) closed higher at 3,014.36 points after it recorded an addition of 1.09 points to Monday’s closing value of 3,013.27 points.
The NASD OTC securities exchange recorded a price loser and it was Geo-Fluids Plc, which went down by 2 Kobo to close at N3.93 per share, in contrast to the preceding day’s N3.95 per share.
During the trading session, the volume of securities bought and sold by investors increased by 95.8 per cent to 2.4 million units from the 1.2 million securities traded in the preceding session.
However, the value of shares traded yesterday slumped by 3.7 per cent to N4.9 million from the N5.07 million recorded a day earlier, as the number of deals surged by 27.3 per cent to 14 deals from 11 deals.
Geo-Fluids Plc remained the most active stock by volume (year-to-date) with 1.7 billion units sold for N3.9 billion, trailed by Okitipupa Plc with 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with 297.5 million units worth N5.3 million.
Also, Aradel Holdings Plc remained the most active stock by value (year-to-date) with 108.7 million units worth N89.2 billion, followed by Okitipupa Plc with 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with 297.5 million units sold for N5.3 billion.
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