Economy
Sekibo Frowns at Nigeria’s High Wheat Import Bill
By Dipo Olowookere
The Managing Director/CEO of Heritage Bank, Mr Ifie Sekibo, has expressed concerns over the high wheat import bill of Nigeria, noting that it was for this reason the bank was collaborating with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to adopt a novel approach to boost local production capacity.
Speaking at the launch of the Wheat Seed Multiplication Project tagged the Brown Revolution Initiative in Jos, Plateau State, the renowned banker said the partnership with the central bank is expected to add about 750,000MTs via rain-fed cultivation and reduce annual import by 60 per cent.
He further said the strategic partnership would help reverse the huge amount of foreign exchange (FX) used to bring the wheat into Nigeria and upscale its domestic production to close the wide supply gap in the agricultural space.
As part of the bank’s efforts to support the high yield seed variety to national wheat seed stock, Mr Sekibo, represented by the Head Agricbusiness and Export, Ugonwa Ikegwuonu, explained that the lender sets out to cultivate a total of 1,000 hectares of farmland at the end of the year with at least producing about 5 tonnes of wheat seeds per hectare in terms of yield.
“We set out to cultivate a total of 1,000 hectares of farmland but at the end of the day because of time constraints & other challenges, we have been able to cultivate 357 hectares.
“The crops according to the project manager are doing very well and in a few weeks they will be ripe for harvest, in fact, part of the farm is already ripe for harvest. So, we set out with this partnership with two anchors which we call service providers,” he further explained.
Also commenting, the Deputy Governor, CBN, Mr Edward Adamu, stated that the short-term benefit is the addition of about 2,000 metric tonnes (MT) of high yield seed variety to the national wheat seed stock which is 20,000MT currently.
According to him, this effort has the potential to add about 750,000MT of wheat annually through rain-fed cultivation.
He noted that estimated that only one per cent or 63,000MT of wheat, out of the five to six million metric tons of wheat consumed annually was produced locally.
The Governor of Plateau State, Mr Simon Lalong, while also speaking at the event, affirmed that Nigeria was on the path of agricultural food sufficiency with the ‘Brown Revolution’ the rain-fed wheat would help curtail the $2 billion spent on importation of wheat.
He further noted that the target of his administration was to attain zero importation of wheat, attain wheat sufficiency in the economy and commence exportation to raise foreign reserve.
President of Wheat Farmers Association of Nigeria, Mr Salim Muhammad, stated that they have a good understanding with Heritage Bank for its proactive approach to the objective of the rain-fed wheat production in the agriculture value chain.
“I assure you that at the end of this programme, by next season, it will be a different scenario/story because we are now doing it on a very small scale but I’m sure by next season, the real revolution will start off and it will be seen all over Nigeria. Because currently, we are producing wheat in 16 wheat-producing states.
“By the coming of this wheat dry season, seeds available and practicable; we are going to expand our scope to cover other areas that can produce wheat during the dry season.
“I’m not saying that we are going to cover the whole 36 states of the country, but I assure you, by next season we will be thinking of about 20 to 27 states that we have,” he stated.
Business Post reports that the scheme was put in place to meet high demand amid the poor production capacity of wheat in the country.
The novel initiative that will boost wheat production annually is being processed via rain-fed cultivation, as this approach is actually the first-ever wheat programme that it would be planted in the wet season and as part of the pilot phase of the initiative, Heritage Bank financed the first-ever large-scale rain-fed wheat production in Nigeria.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Senate has passed a bill to repeal and re-enact the law establishing the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), paving the way for the regulatory agency to be renamed the Insurance Regulatory Commission (IRC).
The legislation, titled the Insurance Regulatory Commission (Establishment) Bill, 2026, was passed after the Senate considered and adopted the report of its committee on banking, insurance and other financial institutions.
The Chairman of the committee, Mr Adetokunbo Abiru, the senator representing Lagos East, who presented the report, stated that the proposed legislation was necessary because the existing National Insurance Commission Act of 1997 had become outdated and no longer reflected the realities of Nigeria’s evolving insurance industry or global regulatory standards.
According to the Senate, the decision to change the Commission’s name was informed by the need to eliminate confusion associated with the existing designation and to better reflect the institution’s regulatory mandate within Nigeria’s insurance industry.
The bill also provides legal protection for the commission and its officers against adverse claims arising from the lawful execution of their statutory duties.
However, he noted that the commission’s enabling law had become obsolete, exposing significant regulatory gaps that required urgent legislative intervention.
‘The current National Insurance Commission Act 1997 is outdated and does not adequately address the emerging economic growth, needs and development of the insurance business,” the lawmaker said.
He explained that the new legislation seeks to strengthen the independence of the commission by empowering it to make regulatory decisions without undue influence in the country’s insurance sector.
According to him, the bill also enhances the commission’s authority to exchange information and collaborate with domestic and international regulatory bodies, issue regulations, guidelines, standards and directives on insurance-related matters, and intervene more effectively in financially distressed insurance companies to protect policyholders and preserve financial stability.
This marks yet another move to strengthen the country’s insurance sector following the enactment of the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) of 2025 and the industry-wide recapitalisation exercise, which will wrap up by July 31.
By Adedapo Adesanya
About 143 companies that successfully passed the technical and prequalification stages of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission’s (NUPRC) 2025 Licensing Round will, today, compete for 50 oil and gas blocks at the commercial bid conference in Abuja, the final stage in the allocation process for the assets.
The commission said only the prequalified companies have been invited to attend the event, which will hold at the Conference Centre of the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, stressing that participation is strictly by invitation.
The commercial bid conference will determine the successful bidders for oil and gas assets located across Nigeria’s producing and frontier basins.
The 50 blocks comprise 16 onshore blocks and 18 shallow water blocks in the Niger Delta, one deep offshore block, three onshore blocks in the Benin Basin, four in the Anambra Basin, four in the Chad Basin, and four in the Benue Trough.
According to the commission, the winning bids will be determined through a transparent evaluation process based on clearly defined commercial parameters. These include the signature bonus offered by bidders, the proposed work programme commitment and the level of performance security provided. The final selection will be based on a weighted technical and commercial score.
The licensing round is being conducted under the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, which requires a transparent and competitive process for the award of petroleum assets.
NUPRC had announced the commencement of the 2025 Licensing Round on November 11, 2025, before opening the online bid portal on December 1, 2025, to enable interested companies to register and participate in the exercise.
To ensure prospective investors fully understood the requirements, the commission organised a pre-bid conference on January 14, 2026, at Eko Hotels and Suites, Lagos. The event provided detailed explanations on the licensing guidelines and bidding procedures to registered participants and other stakeholders.
Registration and submission of prequalification documents closed on February 27, 2026, while the prequalification evaluation was completed on March 16, 2026.
NUPRC disclosed that 286 companies initially submitted applications for prequalification.
Following the evaluation process, 196 companies were cleared to participate in the technical and commercial bid stages.
The prequalified 143 companies eventually submitted a total of 200 bids for the available oil and gas blocks. These companies are now set to compete at the commercial bid conference, where the financial offers will be opened and evaluated to determine the eventual winners.
The licensing round is expected to attract fresh investment into Nigeria’s upstream petroleum sector, boost exploration activities across both producing and frontier basins, increase crude oil and gas reserves, and support the country’s drive to grow production and government revenue.
It also underscores the regulator’s commitment to implementing a transparent, competitive and investor-friendly licensing regime under the Petroleum Industry Act.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has retained all key monetary policy parameters following the conclusion of its two-day meeting on July 21, 2026, on Tuesday, maintaining its tight monetary policy stance to curb inflation and support macroeconomic stability.
According to the Governor of the apex bank, Mr Yemi Cardoso, who chaired the committee, the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), which serves as the benchmark interest rate, remains at 26.50 per cent. The MPC also retained the asymmetric corridor around the MPR at +50 basis points and -450 basis points.
In addition, the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) for commercial banks was left unchanged at 45.00 per cent, while the CRR for merchant banks remains at 16.00 per cent. The committee also retained the CRR on non-Treasury Single Account (Non-TSA) public sector deposits at 75.00 per cent, with the liquidity ratio at 30.00 per cent.
The decision reflects the apex bank’s continued commitment to containing inflationary pressures through a restrictive monetary policy while safeguarding the resilience of Nigeria’s financial system amid ongoing macroeconomic adjustments.
By keeping all policy tools unchanged, the MPC signalled its intention to continue managing excess liquidity in the banking sector and maintain stability in financial markets.
The move is also expected to provide greater policy certainty for investors and businesses monitoring the country’s monetary policy direction.
The latest decision also means borrowing costs are likely to remain elevated in the near term as the central bank continues to prioritise price stability over monetary easing.
Analysts had expected the CBN committee to retain the rate after Nigeria’s headline inflation came in at 15.91 per cent as of June 2026, marking a slight decline from 15.93 per cent in May.
However, even as overall price growth has moderated significantly compared to previous periods, food inflation remains a persistent challenge, accelerating to 17.52 per cent in June.
