SEC Blames Investors for Rise in Unclaimed Dividends to N170bn

By Adedapo Adesanya The Nigerian Naira weakened to a new low on the American Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday, December 8, amid speculations that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has again devalued the local currency. In the previous trading session, there were reports that the exchange rate for clearing cargoes has been raised to N952/$1, sparking rumours that domestic currency would hit N1,000/$1 in the spot market. On the last trading session of the week, the Naira lost N255.98 or 30.4 per cent of its value on the greenback to trade at N1,099.05/$1

By Dipo Olowookere The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited depreciated by 0.49 per cent on Thursday, driven by selling pressure on banking equities, especially those in the tier-1 category. The likes of GTCO, FBN Holdings, Access Holdings witnessed sell-offs during the trading session, contributing to the weak investor sentiment observed at the Nigerian stock market. According to data obtained by Business Post, the NGX ended with 29 price losers and 24 price gainers, indicating a negative market breadth index. FBN Holdings ended as the heaviest price decliner after it shed 9.86 per cent to settle at N26.50, Secure Electronic Technology fell

By Dipo Olowookere The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said Nigeria’s revenue–to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio of about 9 per cent was too low to trigger the economic growth projected by President Bola Tinubu in his Renewed Hope Agenda. Addressing journalists at its last press briefing for 2023 on Thursday, the global lender said the administration of Mr Tinubu must boost the government’s revenue to have funds to achieve his goals. On May 29, 2023, Mr Tinubu took over from Mr Muhammadu Buhari, promising to jump-start the economy and work tirelessly to address food security, end hunger, eradicate poverty, create

By Adedapo Adesanya Crude oil prices rose more than 2 per cent on Friday after data from the world’s largest oil producer, the United States, supported expectations of demand growth. Brent crude futures settled at $75.84 a barrel after chalking up $1.79 or 2.4 per cent, as the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures traded at $71.23 after gaining $1.89 or 2.7 per cent. Despite the gain at the final session of the week, both benchmarks fell for a seventh straight week, their longest streak of weekly declines in half a decade, on lingering oversupply concerns. For the week,

By Adedapo Adesanya The first trading session at the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange in 2023 closed on a positive note as it appreciated by 0.10 per cent on Tuesday, January 3. The NASD OTC market gained yesterday due to the rise in the prices of three securities led by FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc, which expanded by N2.54 to close at N70.00 per share, in contrast to last Friday’s N67.46 per share. Air Liquide Plc improved during the session by 5 Kobo to trade at N5.00 per unit compared with the preceding session’s value of N4.95 per unit, as UBN

By Modupe Gbadeyanka On Saturday, July 24, 2021, residents of Lagos State will not be allowed to move around from 8am to 3pm, the state government has declared. The reason for the restriction of movement is because of the elections into positions in the 57 local councils in the state. A statement issued on Thursday, July 22, 2021, by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Gbenga Omotoso, disclosed that people have to be caged to allow the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) to conduct hitch-free polls. This weekend, various political parties are vying to have their candidates elected

By Adedapo Adesanya African Development Bank (AfDB) will integrate the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) into its country and regional integration strategies. This was disclosed by the Group President, Mr Akinwumi Adesina, when he received the AfCTA Secretary-General, Mr Wamkele Mele, at the lender’s headquarters in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire on October 29. According to Mr Adesina, the implementation of the free trade area will become a key component of the Bank’s lending program. “We want to have a critical mass of AfCFTA-aligned investments,” he was quoted as saying. Mr Adesina said the multilateral bank would support the AfCTA Secretariat

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Mantis-ai.com has launched its Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool for the first time, which is available for advertisers during the #vivatech conference in Paris, May 2018 at startup booth: D17-001, Viva Technology Paris 24-26 May, 2018. Over the past year, SMOs released several official reports surrounding decisions by the largest global advertisers to withdraw ad campaigns from the top four online video publishers, due to failures in online video content vetting and lack of advertiser control over ad placement within relevant content. Mantis is a video moderation system that uses state-of-the-art AI techniques to identify video content that

The 100th solar power system has been installed in Nigeria by the West African solar energy company, Daystar Power, since its establishment in 2017. Daystar Power works with the region’s leading banks including Ecobank, Wema Bank, Unity Bank and Access Bank. Besides banking and manufacturing, clients in the agricultural as well as education and health sector have also indicated strong interest in converting to renewable sources of energy, adding to Daystar Power’s client base. In addition to Nigeria, systems have also been installed in Ghana, where Daystar Power opened a subsidiary in April this year. It was learned that the

By Adedapo Adesanya Creative digital technology giant, Adobe, has entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire Figma, a leading web-first collaborative design platform, for $20 billion in cash and stock. In a press release seen by Business Post, it was stated that the combination of Adobe and Figma will usher in a new era of collaborative creativity. “Adobe’s mission is to change the world through digital experiences. Today, the digital economy runs on Adobe’s tools and platforms, and throughout its history, the company’s innovations have touched billions of lives across the globe. From revolutionizing imaging and creative expression with

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The suspension placed in the trading of shares of Union Dicon Salt Plc has been lifted by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). The embargo on the trading of the company’s stocks was removed by the exchange on Monday, October 19, 2020, after the firm fulfilled the listing rules requirements. Union Dicon Salt was among the six publicly quoted organisations sanctioned by the local bourse on September 1, 2020, for failing to file its financial statements. The suspension placed on the firm made it impossible for holders of its stocks to trade them on the trading platform of

By Dipo Olowookere Investors were attracted to Fidelity Bank stocks on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday, mopping up 38.0 million units worth N67.2 million to lead the activity chart. Also, 28.0 million units of MTN Nigeria shares valued at N3.2 million were traded during the midweek trading session, while Lafarge Africa transacted 23.1 million equities worth N250.5 million. Furthermore, 18.2 million stocks of GTBank valued at N403.6 million exchanged hands yesterday, while 16.8 million shares of Zenith Bank worth N276.4 million were bought and sold by investors at the trading day. Business Post reports that