Recapitalisation: STI Considers Various Capital Raising Options

By Adedapo Adesanya The Naira put up a weak performance against the United States Dollar across the various segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Thursday. November 30, 2023, the last trading session of the month. In the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) window, which is the official market, the Nigerian currency lost 0.1 per cent or 85 Kobo against the greenback during the session to settle at N832.32/$1 compared with the preceding day’s value of N831.47/$1. A slight strain in the supply of forex into the spot market was partly responsible for the weakening of the local

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr Zacch Adedeji, has asked his counterpart in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ola Olukoyede, to support his agency to achieve the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu, who appointed both of them. Speaking during a courtesy visit to the headquarters of the anti-money laundering firm, Mr Adedeji said the EFCC has a role in ensuring that taxpayers’ funds are “judiciously utilised in line with the social contract with the people.” He assured that the FIRS would continue to strive to raise the revenue

By Adedapo Adesanya President Bola Tinubu is targeting to grow Nigeria’s economy by 3.76 per cent next year and moderate the country’s inflation to 21.4 per cent. Speaking at his first budget speech to lawmakers on Wednesday, President Tinubu also projected higher oil production and tax collection, noting that this will boost government revenues and cut down on reliance on borrowing to finance budget deficits. Nigeria plans on spending N27.5 billion in the 2024 fiscal year, with priorities on security, infrastructure and easing the high cost-of-living crisis. The country will borrow around N9 trillion and N18.5 billion generated from internally

In furtherance of my sacred duties and obligations as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, it is my honour to be here today to present my administration’s 2024 Budget Proposal to this Joint Session of the 10th National Assembly. This moment is especially profound and significant to me because it is my first annual budgetary presentation to the National Assembly. Distinguished Senators and Honourable Members of the National Assembly, I commend your swift consideration and passage of the 2023 Supplementary Appropriation Bills and the 2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper. Your prompt action underscores your devotion

By Adedapo Adesanya The Naira depreciated against the US Dollar in the Peer-2-Peer (P2P), parallel market, and the Investors and Exporters (I&E) arms of the foreign exchange market on Thursday, June 15, as the country moves very closer to the harmonisation of these segments. On Wednesday, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) released the local currency from its long-time shackles, allowing market parameters to determine its true value. The apex bank announced the unification of all segments of the forex exchange (FX) market by collapsing them into the I&E window. The CBN also eliminated schemes like the RT200 Rebate Scheme

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Trading of equities on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) resumed on Monday, however, bears still maintained their dominance at the market. At the close of business today, the stock market went down by 0.48 percent as sell pressure mounts, leaving the year-to-date return at 35.49 percent. The All-Share Index (ASI) depreciated on Monday by 175.58 points to close at 36,411.73 points, while the market capitalisation declined by N60.4 billion to settle at N12.5 trillion. But despite the bearish sentiment today, the volume and value of shares traded by investors appreciated with 253.5 million shares

By Dipo Olowookere Sequel to successful outing of season-2 of the Big Brother Naija (BBNaija) last year, Heritage Bank Plc has again partnered with MultiChoice Nigeria Limited, owners of the DSTV and GOTV brands to bring the third season of the entertainment to viewers across Africa and beyond. The Big Brother Naija 2018 was launched on Sunday night with Ebuka Obi-Uchendu as the host with 20 house mates battling for the winning prize of N45 million which include a cash gift of N25 million and SUV Jeep among others. The theme of this year’s edition is “Double Wahala.” The host

By Adedapo Adesanya Moving away from the norm of funding public higher education institutions, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has announced plans to provide research support to four public agencies for the purpose of enhancing drug manufacturing in the country. TETFund listed the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) as one of the agencies that will benefit from the support. This was disclosed by the Executive Secretary of the Fund, Mr Suleiman Bogoro, during a virtual meeting on the institutionalization of research and development in Nigeria’s pharmaceutical subsector thematic group, which coincided with the one-year anniversary of

By Dipo Olowookere The board of Guinness Nigeria Plc said it is very confident of the strategies put in place to turn the fortunes of the company around in the midst of the overwhelming operating challenges. Since the Mr Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government introduced an excise duty for the alcohol sector in the Nigeria few years ago, operators have been struggling to remain profitable. Also, the low purchasing power of consumers in the country has compounded the woes of beer makers, recording low turnover and profit. In the third quarter of the 2020 financial year of Guinness Nigeria, things went

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The government of Senegal has been applauded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for its strong economic growth. This commendation was given after a staff team from the IMF led by Mr Michel Lazare visited Dakar from April 26 to May 11, 2018. The team was in the tiny West African country to engaged authorities in discussions as part of the sixth review of the IMF’s Policy Support Instrument (PSI) approved in June 2015. The IMF team met with President Macky Sall, the ministers for the economy, finance and planning, Amadou Ba, the civil service, Mariama Sarr,

By Modupe Gbadeyanka In order to further optimize operations through adequate maintenance of installations and reduction of downtime, Nigeria’s leading Electricity Distribution Company, Ikeja Electric Plc (IE), has commenced the electronic tagging of electricity poles across its network. The exercise known as E-Pole Tagging Project entails labelling of all 11KV and 33KV High Tension (HT) poles with electronic Quick Response (QR) Code stickers. It will accelerate fault clearing, ensure proper record keeping for poles and feeders that need urgent maintenance to bring about stable power distribution to customers. Speaking on the initiative, Head of Corporate Communication at Ikeja Electric, Mr

By Adedapo Adesanya Prices of major crude oil were mixed on Tuesday after Russia and the United States agreed to discuss the falling prices of the commodity at the global market as a result of coronavirus outbreak over three months ago. As at the time of writing, Brent Crude was trading down by 38 cents or 1.44 percent to $26.04 per barrel, while the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) made a slight recovery, up by 21 cents or 1.05 percent to sell as $20.30 per barrel. There were reports that Presidents Donald Trump of the US and Vladimir Putin of Russia