Economy
Senate Moves to Protect Local Retail Business Owners
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian Senate has taken a step to protect local retail business owners, who are getting threatened by the dominance of foreigners.
To achieve this goal, the upper chamber of the National Assembly is reviewing the Indigenous Act and it has charged its Committee on Trade and Investment to look into the matter critically.
In addition, the red arm of the parliament said it will also review other extant policies and institute a legal framework that will provide incentives and protect indigenous retail business investors in the country’s organised sector.
The decision to take this step followed a motion by Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, which called the attention of the legislative arm of government to the “urgent need to investigate the economic and security implication of an unregulated Nigerian retail sector and consider appropriate legislative measures to incentivize and protect indigenous retail traders.”
The Senate called on governments at all levels to put in place acceptable measures to protect traditional or open markets retailers to avoid contravention of environmental and health safety standards, promote revenue collection and prevent harassment constant disruption of retail trade activities by government revenue collectors or environmental and health enforcement officers.
It further mandated its committee on Trade and Investment to engage the Ministry of Trade and investment and other relevant stakeholders with a view to receiving a briefing on the extant policy and legal framework on retail trade in Nigeria and the protection offered to indigenous retail investors and report back within two weeks.
The Senate also asked the committee to engage local retailers on ways to further protect their interests as well as invite foreign retailers to ascertain their legal status.
Mr Ubah in his lead debate noted that the Nigerian retail sector remains unregulated with dire economic and security implications.
He said the Chinese, Indians and Lebanese companies have taken over the retail business from indigenous retailers in markets like Balogun Market, Trade Fair, ASPAMDA, Alaba, Coker, Computer Village, Dei -Dei Market, among others.
He said the foreign investors have shifted from production and wholesaling to retailing, observing that since independence, Nigerian retail businesses have been offering employment to Nigerians and generating revenue to the government via taxes.
He further said many African countries, including ECOWAS member states, such as Ghana, have policies and legislative measures in place to offer minimum protection to indigenous retail traders.
He argued that extant policies and legal frameworks at both national and sub-regional levels do not offer any minimum protection to indigenous retail business operators.
He said the implication was that the organised retail business in Nigeria made up of multiple branch supermarkets, shopping malls were dominated by foreigners through their popular retail outlets.
He expressed concern that if measures were not taken via the enactment of extant protective laws and policies, foreigners may continue to dominate the sector.
Seconding the motion, Mr Francis Fadahunsi, while congratulating the sponsor of the motion, frowned at the domination of the nation’s retail markets by foreign investors saying that government has to take steps to check such anomaly.
The Senate in its further resolutions on the motion called on governments at all levels to put in place acceptable measures to protect traditional or open market retailers to avoid contravention of environmental and health safety standards.
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.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
Shareholders of Unilever Nigeria Plc will receive an interim dividend of N2 per share, the board of the organisation has said.
The cash reward was announced after the company released its financial statements for the first half of the year ended June 30, 2026.
The payment will be made on Friday, August 14, 2026, only to investors whose names appear on the Register of Members at the close of business on Friday, July 31, 2026.
A quick look at the financial performance of the firm in the first six months of this year showed that revenue improved by 22.22 per cent to N119.9 billion from the N98.1 billion achieved in the corresponding period of last year.
A rise in earnings also resulted in a 16.43 per cent surge in cost of sales, though this did not shrink the gross profit, which rose by 29.93 per cent to N54.7 billion from N42.1 billion. The operating profit stood at N24.4 billion in the period under review, higher than N18.8 billion in the same period of 2025, while the net finance income contracted by 9.43 per cent to N4.8 billion from N5.3 billion due to elevated borrowing costs.
Business Post reports that despite higher taxes paid in the first six months of 2026, the net profit grew by 8.33 per cent to N15.6 billion from N14.4 billion, enabling the board to pass on value to shareholders for their faith in the firm.
