PenCom Gives PFAs One Year to Raise Capital Base to N5bn

By Adedapo Adesanya President Bola Tinubu has been charged by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) to investigate the allegations that over $15 billion of oil revenues and N200 billion budgeted to repair the refineries are missing and unaccounted for between 2020 and 2021, as documented by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI). In the letter dated September 23 and signed by SERAP deputy director, Mr Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation urged him to “name and shame anyone suspected to be responsible for the missing and unaccounted for public funds and to ensure their effective prosecution as well as

By Aduragbemi Omiyale Mr Tokunbo Akande, the Special Adviser to the Executive Chairman of the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS), Mr Ayodele Subair, has waded into the controversies surrounding stamp duty. The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) have been at loggerheads at to which of them should collect the revenue charged on financial transactions in the country. Mr Akande, while commenting on the matter, described stamp duty as ‘a revenue stamp and not a postage stamp.’ While featuring as a guest on The Tax Talk programme on Channels Television recently, he emphasised that

By Adedapo Adesanya The Naira closed mixed at the foreign exchange (FX) market on Friday, depreciating against the US Dollar in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segments and appreciating in the parallel market amid a new leadership at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). On Friday, the CBN announced the resumption of Mr Olayemi Cardoso as the next head of the apex bank, in an acting capacity pending his confirmation by the Nigerian Senate. He is taking over the role amid a worrying FX market, high inflation, and increased call to halt interest rate hikes which currently

By Adedapo Adesanya The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange continued its weekly positive run as it extended its gains by 0.41 per cent in the 38th week of trading in this year. The bullish posture was supported by the improvements in the share prices of six companies admitted to the alternative stock exchange in Nigeria. This increased the NASD Unlisted Securities Index (NSI) by  2.30 points from 805.65 points in the previous week to 808.95 points, as the market capitalisation of the bourse was relatively unchanged on a week-on-week at N1.140 trillion. Food Concepts Plc led the price gainers’ after

**Don’t Turn Lagos to Living Hell By Modupe Gbadeyanka Governor Akinwunmi Ambode may have bitten more than he can chew with the new land use charge law he assented to last month. This is because the Ikeja branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has given the state government seven days to reverse the law of face mass protest from them. Addressing journalists at a news conference yesterday in Lagos, the lawyers described the hike in the land use charge as “Pharaoic.” “Few weeks ago, Lagosians woke up to learn about the hyper-inflated rate of the so called ‘Land Use

By Dipo Olowookere One of the telecommunications giants in Nigeria, Etisalat, has finally launched its 4G LTE network services. This comes barely 72 hours after Glo announced it was offering the same service to its customers in the country. Recall that last month, nTel, a new entrant into the industry in Nigeria, announced that its 4G LTE was compatible with Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. Before now, few of the networks were operating on 3G, which made browsing the internet slow. The announcement by Etisalat now leaves Airtel as the only network provider yet to join the 4G LTE

By Adedapo Adesanya Crude oil prices dropped yet again on Wednesday as the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) revised downward its 2021 estimate for oil demand. Brent crude lost 17 cents or 0.2 per cent to trade at $83.25 per barrel, while the United States West Texas Intermediate (WTI) lost 11 cents or 0.14 per cent to sell for $80.53 per barrel. The cartel expects this year’s global oil demand to grow by 5.8 million barrels per day from the low 2020 levels, down from last month’s estimate of 5.96 million barrels per day annual growth. In its

By Dipo Olowookere The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, has said he expects the inflation rate in Nigeria to begin to ease from next year. The nation’s chief banker made this disclosure over the weekend in Lagos while delivering a speech at the 55th Annual Bankers Dinner organised by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN). Mr Emefiele expressed confidence that the inflationary pressure will begin to moderate from the first half of 2021 because of the steps being taken by the fiscal and monetary authorities. According to him, one of these moves

By Adedapo Adesanya The Naira appreciated against the United States currency by 0.97 per cent or N7 on Wednesday, September 14 at the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segment of the foreign exchange (FX) market. Business Post reports that the Nigerian currency was exchanged with its American counterpart yesterday at N717/$1 compared with the preceding day’s N724/$1 as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) makes efforts to boost liquidity in the official market windows. At the parallel market, the Naira also appreciated against the US Dollar on Wednesday by N1 or 0.14 per cent to trade at N709/$1 in contrast to Tuesday’s value

By Adedapo Adesanya The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, has said that at least 60 percent of the 2019 budget may be rolled over to 2020. Mr Ngige hinted at this at a meeting with management and staff of the Ministry in Abuja. Speaking on the budget performance, he disclosed that the executive arm of government would always find it difficult to implement the budget if it suspects that it had been tampered with during presentation at the National Assembly. “The 2019 budget has not been aggressively executed and 60 percent of it will have to be

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Okechukwu Enelamah, has disclosed that in a bid to increase local production of fresh tomato fruit required for fresh fruit consumption and processing; increase local production of tomato concentrate and reduce post-harvest losses, the Federal Government has increased the tariff on importation of tomato concentrate to 50 percent. The Minister, speaking on Tuesday, said further that the government has also approved an additional levy of $1,500 per metric tonne on tomato concentrate from May 7. He pointed out that the Federal Government classified greenhouse equipment as agricultural equipment in order