Economy
Retirement Planning Specialist Urges Investors to Avoid Quick Returns
By Dipo Olowookere
A retirement planning expert, Ms Folashade Onanuga, has advised investors not to be tempted to invest in assets that offer quick returns as they wipe away their funds.
She gave this advice at the first virtual education summit organised by the Professional Insurance Ladies Association (PILA) themed Redefining Success in A Changing World.
During her presentation, she urged investors to consider diversifying their portfolio ahead of retirement as this would ease pressure on them when one asset class was doing badly.
“If you are planning for a good retirement, you must be able to distinguish between your needs and your wants right now.
“To retire well, you need money, you need assets and don’t put all of your assets in one basket, diversify. Always avoid the desire for quick returns and most importantly manage your health,” Ms Onanuga stated.
Another speaker at the conference, Ms Adetola Adegbayi, the Executive Director in charge of Corporate Services at Leadway Assurance, reminded the audience of the redefined place of women in the modern-day.
“Our society now requires and says women must come to the front and when they come to the front, they must be fearless, they must not say this is how things are done. They must be careful of dogmas, they must challenge everything.
“We have to see how we can create value and as we create that value, where we need to be, the ladder we need to step, the mountains we need to climb and the flag we need to fly on top of that mountain would obviously come,” she said.
On his part, a foremost Gambian Insurance expert, Mr Frederick Bowen John, while commenting on redefining insurance in Africa in the 21st century as well as gender diversity from an international perspective, highlighted the challenges facing insurance globally and in the African market and the possible solutions to address these challenges.
As for the CEO of Edumark Consult, Ms Yinka Ogunde, she detailed how professional women spoke can attain leadership positions and make a change.
“Preparation is very important if you want to get into the C-Suite. It is a place that requires extensive experience, proven impact, excellent leadership skills, strong management attributes and great problem-solving capacity, the vision to see what others see and before others see,” she submitted.
The president of PILA and MD/CEO of African Alliance Insurance Plc, Mrs Joyce Ojemudia, while setting the tone for the event, said, “As we all know, success, by its very essence is about meeting and exceeding set expectations.
“In this COVID-19 imposed new normal, the parameters for measuring success have become quite stricter. However, if there is one thing we all here have in common, it is that we are in the business of uncertainty being insurance practitioners.
“We, therefore, are supposed to naturally thrive in uncertainties due to our training and professional leanings. But you and I know this is usually not the case.
“It is with this at the back of our minds that PILA has put together this education summit to help us, reinvigorate us, remind us and indeed realign our thoughts towards success despite the uncertainties.”
The education summit organised by PILA was first held in 2002 as an educational seminar for women in insurance which later transformed into an international program where members would embark on an educational tour in an African country. This year’s summit was the association’s first virtual summit due to the restriction of COVID-19.
The event had other opinion leaders in the Nigerian insurance industry like Funmi Babington-Ashaye, MD/CEO, Risk Analyst Insurance Brokers; Adeyinka Adekoya, former MD/CEO, Coronation Insurance PLC and Ebelechukwu Nwachukwu, MD/CEO, NSIA Insurance, amongst others in attendance.
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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