Oil Prices Mixed Despite Tight Supply, Strong Fuel Demand

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Taxpayers, including organisations and individuals, who are yet to pay their outstanding taxes, will not pay penalties and interests if they make the payments on or before December 31, 2023. This tax default forgiveness was given by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), which explained that it created this window in “recognition of the challenges that many taxpayers have faced in settling their outstanding tax liabilities.” However, it stressed that if the full principal payment is not done before the deadline, defaulters would be forced to pay the outstanding tax liabilities. The Chairman of the FIRS, Mr

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Business owners in Lagos have been assured of more incentives by the state governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who added that this is part of his administration’s commitment to reforms aimed at improving the ease of doing business and enhancing investment opportunities. Speaking at the commissioning of the newly-built wet hair production factory of Godrej Nigeria Limited, the Governor said his government would continue to pursue actions that would eliminate red tapes and regulatory impediments hindering the growth of businesses in the state, thereby demonstrating his willingness for continued collaboration with the private sector to improve the livelihood

By Adedapo Adesanya The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has revealed that a $1 billion facility would be used to provide insurance to more than 40 million farmers across the continent against severe impacts of climate change. Initially unveiled at the Africa Climate Summit held in Nairobi in September, the Africa Climate Risk Insurance Facility for Adaptation (ACRIFA) brings together governments, development agencies, the insurance sector and the private sector, said the president of the bank, Mr Akinwumi Adesina, while speaking during a side event at COP28 in Dubai. He said ACRIFA aims to mobilise $1 billion of concessionary financing,

By Adedapo Adesanya The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said it would ensure that the next national minimum wage to be negotiated in 2024 reflects the prevailing cost of living. The union also lamented that following the removal of fuel subsidy by the federal government, life has become extremely unbearable for workers. Addressing participants at the opening of the 19th edition of the NLC’s Harmattan School in Abuja, President of the NLC, Mr Joe Ajaero, said it had become necessary for governments at all levels to recognise that life and living conditions were exceedingly difficult, especially for working people in

By Dipo Olowookere The lawmaker representing Kaduna North Senatorial District of Kaduna State at the upper chamber of the National Assembly, Mr Suleiman Abdu Kwari, has kicked against the plan by the federal government to use the unclaimed dividends of investors in the nation’s stock market to finance the 2021 budget. The Senator, who is a public finance management expert, argued that the government has no right to spend funds belonging to private persons all because it oversees the affairs of the nation. Mr Kwari, while giving his views on the Finance Bill submitted to the parliament on Wednesday at

By Dipo Olowookere For the third consecutive day this week, the local stock exchange ended in the negative region, closing 1.17 percent lower on Thursday to shrink the Year-to-Date (YtD) gain to -0.24 percent at the close of business. Business Post reports that profit taking activities took over the market and stocks in the oil and gas, banking and industrial goods sectors suffered for it. At the close of trading activities, the market breadth ended negative with 26 price gainers and 28 price losers. Just like the previous session, Seplat suffered the heaviest depreciation, going down by N32.20k today to

Modupe Gbadeyanka As the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) commences today, experts at FSDH Research are optimistic that the committee will likely support the reduction in the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) by 50 basis points. At its last meeting on May 20 and 21, 2019, the MPC retained the benchmark interest rate at 13.50 percent, and retained the asymmetric corridor of +200/-500 basis points around the MPR. It also left both the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) at 22.5 percent; and the Liquidity Ratio (LR) at 30 percent. Within the last few weeks, the

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By Modupe Gbadeyanka The National Assembly has been asked to investigate the increase in Nigeria’s debt profile to N24.4 trillion in 2018 from N12.1 trillion in 2015. In 2015, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) took over power from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Last week, the Debt Management Office (DMO) released the nation’s debt stock and since then, many commentators have expressed worry over the rise in four years. On Tuesday, the PDP, through its spokesman, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, described the figure as overburdening, calling on the parliament to investigate how the debt rose to its present level. Mr

By Nneka Okumazie Across Africa, people in different countries disagree with each other over elections, political parties and candidates, forgetting that whatever they complain about in the quest for change is not unique to their country. There are several disagreements too over the state of the nation in respective countries, but they forget that most of the same ways that things are at present run parallel to what they were hundreds of years ago in ancient Africa. People in those times, it seemed, had a low threshold of satisfaction. It was not that they were not intelligent or diligent in

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Chief Executive Officer of 9mobile, Mr Boye Olusanya, has disclosed that the Nigeria’s innovative and customer-friendly telecommunications company has zero tolerance for fraudulent and unethical activities. Mr Olusanya said 9mobile, which was recently rated as Nigeria’s number one Mobile Network Operator with clearest voice quality and overall best telco by P3 Communications, will continue to work hard to protect its subscribers and give them quality services. P3 Communications is the largest European and international leader in mobile telecoms benchmarking. “At 9mobile, we continuously review our internal control and processes to protect the business as well as the

By Adedapo Adesanya The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange returned to the positive zone on Wednesday, August 16 as it recorded a 0.46 per cent gain. The bourse added N5.22 billion to its value to close at N1.092 trillion compared with the preceding session’s N1.087 trillion, and the NASD Unlisted Securities Index (NSI) improved by 3.59 points to end the day at 789.54 points, in contrast to Tuesday’s 785.95 points. FrieslandCampina Wamco Plc appreciated during the session by N2.47 to settle at N76.50 per share versus Tuesday’s closing price of N74.03 per share, and Industrial and General Insurance (IGI) Plc