Oil Surges as China Announces Lending Rate Cut

By Aduragbemi Omiyale The value of unsold finished products in the inventory of Nigerian manufacturers in the first half of 2023 increased by 44/9 per cent on a year-to-date basis to N272 billion from N187 billion in the same period of 2022. This information was contained in the report released by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) on Tuesday. According to Punch, the document also revealed that in the period under review, the manufacturing sector laid off 3,567 workers due to the harsh business environment triggered by high inflation, the foreign exchange (FX) crisis, and fuel subsidy removal. “This increase

By Adedapo Adesanya Crude oil prices settled gained almost one per cent higher on Tuesday as expectations of tighter supply outweighed worries that an uncertain economic outlook would hurt demand. Brent crude futures rose by 67 cents or 0.7 per cent to $93.96 per barrel and the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures increased by 71 cents or 0.8 per cent to $90.39 per barrel. Oil supply remains tight as Russia and Saudi Arabia have extended production cuts to the end of the year. Market analysts noted that oil supply is expected to underwhelm demand in the foreseeable future

By Dipo Olowookere The domestic currency had a breather in the peer-to-peer (P2P) and the parallel market segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Wednesday, with its value strengthening against the Dollar at the two windows. This was supported by the ease in the forex demand pressure during the trading session, which had the official market, the Investors and Exporters (I&E) arm of the market, non-operational yesterday due to the public holiday observed in the country for Eid el Maulud. Many customers who may have needed FX for their transactions stayed back to enjoy the work-free day, easing off

By Adedapo Adesanya The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has reaffirmed its support for the removal of fuel subsidy and the exchange rate unification of the administration of President Bola Tinubu, insisting that the policies are good for Nigeria’s economy. A representative of the global lender, Mr Ari Aisen, while featuring on Channels TV on Tuesday, maintained that the two policies must remain for Nigeria to reach macroeconomic stability. “After the position that needs to be well managed to avoid potential reversal, policies of subsidizing fuel, and controlling exchange rate will lead to a much better outlook for the Nigerian economy,”

By Dipo Olowookere The board of Dangote Cement, one of the companies owned by Mr Aliko Dangote, has announced the audited financial statements of the firm for the year ended December 31, 2018. The results, released today, showed an improvement from what was recorded in the 2017 financial year. For example, the revenue generated by the company improved by 11.9 percent to N901.2 billion from N805.6 billion achieved in the 2017 financial year. Also, the profit before tax improved to N300.8 billion from N289.6 billion, with the company getting a tax credit of N89.5 billion during the fiscal year to

By Aduragbemi Omiyale The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has refuted a rumour making the rounds that it plans to make financial services unavailable from Thursday, February 23, 2023, to Monday, February 27, 2023. There had been a message flying around that financial transactions would be disabled ahead of the presidential election on Saturday, February 25, 2023, to tackle vote-buying. Last October, the apex bank announced a redesigning of the Naira in a bid to frustrate vote-buying, corruption, and kidnapping. Nigerians were given till January 31, 2023, to swap their old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes for the redesigned banknotes.

In demonstration of its commitment to promote and support healthy living amongst Nigerians, Keystone Bank Limited has partnered with “The TunMicro Sickle Cell Foundation”, a UK-based humanitarian organization and ‘Slum2School Africa’ to create awareness about Sickle Cell Disorder (SCD) in Lagos. According to the lender, the initiative is part of its efforts to commemorate the 2019 World Sickle Cell Day which holds in June. World Sickle Cell Day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2008 in order to increase the awareness about the sickle cell disease and its cure among the common public. During the week-long awareness

By Aduragbemi Omiyale The founder of Teezee Elderly Care, Mr Adausu Emuobo Taiwo, has been given N15 million by Heritage Bank after emerging as the winner of The Next Titan Season 8. The expert in elderly care competed with four others in the final; Joy Badaki, Dolapo Quadri, Esin Mariah and Victor Emaye, to win the foremost entrepreneurial reality TV show tagged The Uncaged. During the premiere of the show, over 20,000 participants applied but 75 made it through auditions from six major cities in Nigeria which are Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Ibadan, and Lagos and was further trimmed

By Adedapo Adesanya The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has said there are no plans to stop the distribution of petroleum products as a result of the ongoing protests against police brutality in the country. This was disclosed today by Mr Chinedu Anyaso, Chairman of IPMAN, Enugu Depot Community in Awka, Anambra on Monday. Mr Anyaso, who was reacting to rumours on the social media said neither the leadership of the association nor Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) met to discuss or issue such notice. “We are aware of the rumour that IPMAN and

By Adedapo Adesanya Nigeria’s crude oil production has slumped below one million barrels per day, according to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC). The agency said Nigeria, which has now lost its Africa’s largest oil producer status, produced an average of 972,394 barrels per day in August 2022. The latest figure indicates that Nigeria’s daily crude output dropped drop 9.9 per cent when compared to July 2022 production, which was 1.08 million barrels per day. Amid the dynamic and rapidly evolving oil market fundamentals, Nigeria has not been able to achieve its production level that has been bedevilled by

By Dipo Olowookere The benchmark indicators of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), All-Share Index (ASI) and market capitalisation, depreciated on Monday by 0.23 percent. The negative performance of the bourse was mainly impacted by selloffs in the banking sector as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) raised the cash reserve ratio (CRR) for the sector to 27.50 percent from 22.5 percent for the first time since March 2016. At the close of transactions yesterday, the sector was the lone decliner, going down by 1.19 percent, while the energy index closed flat. The insurance sector appreciated by 0.51 percent, consumer goods

By Cordros Research First Bank of Nigeria Holdings Plc (FBNH) released unaudited Q3-17 results yesterday, wherein gross earnings grew marginally by 1.85% q/q and 0.40% y/y (1.77% above our estimate), while PBT and PAT rose 28.01% q/q (71.19% y/y) and 24.44% q/q (145.47% y/y), respectively. The growth in earnings is broadly supported by (1) growth in funding income (by 7.73% q/q and 17.43% y/y), which more than subdued the 6.57% and 37.91% y/y contraction in NIR (above our estimate by 13.30%) and (2) decline in opex by 3.51% q/q (+2.27% y/y) to miss our estimate by 4.14%. The contraction in