Economy
Senate Pass Bill to Establish National Rice Development Council
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Senate has passed a bill seeking to establish the National Rice Development Council as part of the federal government’s effort to cut down on rice importation and improve the country’s foreign exchange earnings.
The passage of the bill followed the consideration of a report by the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.
Speaking at the presentation, the Chairman of the Committee, Mr Abdullahi Adamu, said the council will support the comprehensive development of the rice sector and the organisation of rice stakeholders to enhance local production of rice in Nigeria.
He explained that the organisation will transform the activities of rice farmers, rice processors, millers, researchers, marketers and other important stakeholders across the entire rice value chain, particularly the clusters of smallholder rice farmers and small scale millers spread all over the country.
“Mr President and distinguished colleagues, with our natural comparative advantage in the area of rice production as a country, Nigeria should consider the need to put in place a National Rice Development Council and a fail-safe comprehensive national rice development roadmap that will guide us not only into a regime of self-sufficiency in production but also for export purposes, employment generation for our teaming youth and growth of our economy.
“The Nigerian rice industry exists in the abstract as there appears to be no form of coordination in the absence of a properly structured rallying point.
“Today, we have Paddy Rice Dealers Association of Nigeria (PRIDAN), Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), Rice Processors Association of Nigeria (RIPAN), Rice Millers Association of Nigeria (RIMAN) and many more.
“This Bill seeks to establish that rallying point and a comprehensive national operational and governance structure for a complete rice value chain process.
“Mr President and distinguished colleagues, this Bill on its own merit will improve government efforts for efficient policy and regulatory framework for the Nigerian rice industry; promote enabling business and investment environments for rice stakeholders; support the growth of the rice industry in Nigeria and in the sub-region as well as promote the sustainability of foreign exchange earnings put at about $2 billion annually for Rice related importation to the country.
“The framework created by thịs Bill will pull investment into rice production, provide the missing link between rice production and industrialization, provide employment, reduce migration from rural to urban cities and enhance socio-economic activities all over the country.
“Few countries having Rice Council include Rice Council of Tanzania, USA Rice Council, Directorate of Rice Development (India), Rice Association of Thailand, among others,” he said.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
Recently, shareholders of Sterling Bank Plc authorised the board of the company to transform its organizational structure into a holding firm to be known as Sterling Financial Holdings Company.
A holding company or Holdco is a company set up for the purpose of making and managing, for its own account, equity investment in two or more companies, being its subsidiaries, engaged in the provision of financial services, one of which must be a bank.
The Chief Executive of Sterling Bank, Mr Abubakar Suleiman, said with the new arrangement, shareholders would have value for their money as the company would have the opportunity to increase its income streams because of its involvement in new ventures.
He disclosed that the advantages of the newly formed holding company include value creation to maximise earnings through new businesses, agility to optimise for opportunities and adapt to a rapidly changing market, maximise current and future talent potential with opportunities within the group and subsidiaries to nurture and engage its wealth of young and innovative talent.
According to him, the holding company also affords Sterling another opportunity to leverage its successful HEART strategy, which has seen the bank make consolidated investments in the Health, Education, Agriculture, Renewable Energy and Transportation sectors, growing the company’s year-on-year profits to record highs despite strong economic headwinds.
With the adoption of a Holdco structure, Sterling now possesses the latitude to make inroads into other sectors within financial services, such as pensions, asset management, payment services, real estate, and different verticals, along with the current banking licenses held by the commercial and non-interest banking subsidiaries, Sterling Bank and The Alternative Bank.
In recent times, the bank has doubled down on digitisation with specialised products through the development and introduction of Specta, OneBank, I-invest, Gazelle and Omni X to fulfil the market’s needs for innovative retail and commercial banking solutions.
On his part, the Chairman of Sterling Bank, Mr Asue Ighodalo, said, “Following the implementation of the scheme, shareholders will exchange their shares in the Bank for shares in HoldCo in the same proportion as their current holdings in the Bank, which will be a regulated entity for CBN purposes.”
He added that the scheme would provide several benefits to the shareholders of the bank, some of which include facilitating diversification into other permissible business lines, thereby promoting growth and enhancing shareholder value and facilitating a consolidated financial strength of the group, which will improve access and ability to raise capital.
It was gathered that upon the final ratification by the regulators, the commercial banking subsidiary of the holding company, Sterling Bank; will continue to operate with its current name as a limited liability company, with shares transferred from the publicly traded company transferred to the newly formed Sterling Financial Holdings Company.
By Adedapo Adesanya
FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc extended the bulls’ presence at the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange by 0.98 per cent on Tuesday, September 27.
This expanded the market capitalisation of the bourse by N9.38 billion to N963.94 billion from N954.56 billion and jerked the NASD Unlisted Securities Index (NSI) up by 3.19 basis points to end the day at 762.12 points as against the 765.31 points it recorded in the previous session.
FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc appreciated yesterday by N4.90 to sell at N78.00 per unit compared to the N73.10 per unit it was transacted a day earlier.
Despite the growth posted yesterday by the NASD OTC securities, there was a price loser and it was Niger Delta Exploration and Production (NDEP) Plc, which declined by N1.00 to settle at N199.00 per share compared with Monday’s value of N198.00 per share.
During the session, there was a rise in the volume of securities traded by 408.8 per cent to 189,296 units from the 37,205 units transacted by market participants in the preceding session.
In the same pattern, there was a rise in the value of shares traded by 129.1 per cent to N6.2 million from the N2.7 million recorded on Monday.
These transactions were completed in 18 deals, the same amount of deals carried out in the previous trading session.
At the close of trades, AG Mortgage Bank Plc was the most traded stock by volume (year-to-date) with the sale of 2.3 billion units valued at N1.2 billion, Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc stood in second place with 687.6 million units worth N14.3 billion, and Mixta Real Estate Plc was in third place with 178.1 million units worth N313.4 million.
The most traded stock by value on a year-to-date basis was CSCS Plc with the sale of 687.6 million units worth N14.3 billion, VFD Group Plc was in second place with 27.7 million units valued at N7.4 billion, as FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc was in third place with 14.3 million units valued at N1.7 billion.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The value of the Naira appreciated against the United States currency in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segment of the foreign exchange market on Tuesday by N2 to close at N740/$1 compared with the previous day’s value of N742/$1.
However, it depreciated against the American Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the FX market yesterday by 33 Kobo or 0.08 per cent to trade at N436.33/$1 in contrast to Monday’s value of N436.00/$1.
Data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange disclosed that the value of forex transactions recorded at the spot market yesterday went up by 27.31 per cent or $21.33 million to $99.43 million from the $78.10 million reported a day earlier.
In the interbank segment of the market, the Naira closed flat against the Pound Sterling at N463.96/£1 and against the Euro, it also remained unchanged at N416.15/€1 on Tuesday.
In the same vein, the exchange rate of the local currency paired with the greenback closed flat at the parallel market yesterday at N722/$1.
Meanwhile, the digital currency market was bearish yesterday, with Bitcoin (BTC) falling below the $20,000 mark again after it managed to rise above that level a day earlier.
On Tuesday, its value went down by 6.5 per cent to close at $18,765.50 as Ripple (XRP) recorded a 10.1 per cent slump to trade at $0.4282.
Ethereum (ETH) saw its value go down by 6.9 per cent to sell at $1,284.29, Solana (SOL) recorded a 6.5 per cent slide to quote at $32.44, Cardano (ADA) recorded a 5.6 per cent decline to settle at $0.4312, Binance Coin (BNB) shed 5.1 per cent to sell for $270.03, Litecoin (LTC) went down by 5.0 per cent to trade at $52.07, and Dogecoin (DOGE) saw a 4.5 per cent slump to trade $0.0594.
But Binance USD and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) closed flat at $1.00.a
