Shareholders Approve Lafarge Africa N100b Bond, N13b Dividend

By Adedapo Adesanya  Oil prices rose by more than $1 a barrel on Wednesday as investors focused their attention on an upcoming OPEC+ output policy meeting and looked past a jump in crude stockpiles in the United States. Brent crude futures were up by $1.01 or 1.2 per cent to $82.69 per barrel, and the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained $1.16 or 1.5 per cent to close at $77.57 a barrel. Prices were lifted by a media report that the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies such as Russia, known collectively as OPEC+, was considering

By Adedapo Adesanya The return of the bears was averted at the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange on Thursday by Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc, which helped the alternative bourse close marginally higher by 0.03 per cent. This slight growth increased the value of the OTC exchange by N380 million, closing relatively flat at N1.165 trillion, as the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) increased by 0.27 points to end the day at 859.58 points compared with the previous day’s 859.31 points. During the trading day, the value of CSCS Plc went up by 8 Kobo to settle at N17.08

By Adedapo Adesanya The House of Representatives has pledged to stop international oil companies (IOCs) operating in the Niger Delta from divestment of their offshore assets without being accountable to the environment. The Chairman of the House of Reps Committee on Host Communities, Mr Dumnamene Dekor, said this during a technical session on the implementation of the Host Communities Development Trusts (HCDT), organised by Spaces for Change (S4C) with support from Ford Foundation. Mr Dekor raised the alarm that since the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act in 2021, host communities have not experienced any positive change, rather have remained

By Adedapo Adesanya Crude oil prices fell on Thursday members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) agreed to voluntary output cuts for the first quarter of next year, falling short of market expectations. As a result, Brent crude futures lost 27 cents or 0.3 per cent to close at $82.83 per barrel, and the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures went down by $1.90 or 2.4 per cent to $75.96 a barrel. On a monthly basis, Brent fell by 5.2 per cent while WTI was down by 6.2 per cent. Saudi Arabia, Russia

By Investors Hub Asian stocks rose on Tuesday as hopes grew of progress towards resolving the U.S.-China trade war and reports suggested British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has prepared a blueprint for a new Brexit deal. Chinese and Hong Kong markets were closed for the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Japanese shares advanced despite the release of weak economic data. The Nikkei average climbed 129.40 points, or 0.6 percent, to 21,885.24, while the broader Topix closed 1 percent higher at 1,603. Japan’s manufacturing sector contracted the most in seven months in September, as firms

Many companies have asked for employees to come back to work, whether it be full-time, flexitime or on a hybrid model. And as everyone starts trickling into the office, it can be difficult to switch back to the pre-pandemic harmony that may have existed in your place of work. For the most part, we’ve grown used to working in our own space, on our own. To now have to share space with people who are not in our bubble, can be daunting for many. And while working in close proximity to others could potentially breed germs, it could also breed

By Okechukwu Keshi Ukegbu President Muhammad Buhari in his gun control efforts reportedly signed a law to revoke all firearm or shotgun certificates or licenses in Nigeria with executive powers recently. The said law is proposed to take effect from June, and the implication of the law is that nobody in the country is now allowed to own or carry firearms in the country, except only authorised officers of the Nigeria Police Force and the Nigerian Army, as well as select authorized agencies. The law also prohibits officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps [NSCDC], as well relevant

By Jerome-Mario Chijioke Utomi If there is any sign in recent times that proved beyond reasonable doubt that it is not yet a new dawn for widows in the country, it is the recent news report that some widows with placards of different inscriptions protested in front of the National Assembly over what they described as stigmatization against them due to some cultural practices. Speaking on behalf of the women, the President of the Widows Support Network, Bibiana Okereafor, said that the stigmatization against widows in Nigeria is getting worse by the day. Despite being an old practice that should have been

By Adedapo Adesanya Nigeria lost an equivalent of N289.7 billion, in 10 months as oil and gas firms operating in the country flared 201.5 billion standard cubic feet (SCF) of gas between January and October 2021. This was disclosed by the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) in its latest data which covers the first 10 months of the year. The NOSDRA report disclosed that the total gas flared in the 10-month period was capable of generating 20,200 gigawatts hour of electricity and equivalent to 10.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emission. The agency, which fact checks oil

By Aduragbemi Omiyale The chief executive of a digital financial services provider, Moniepoint Incorporated, Mr Tosin Eniolorunda, has disclosed that the firm has put in place mechanisms to detect fraudulent transactions on its platform. Mr Eniolorunda made this disclosure when he paid a courtesy visit to the chief executive of Fidelity Bank Plc, Mrs Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe, at the bank’s headquarters in Lagos. The visit came after Fidelity Bank prevented the flow of transactions from Moniepoint over issues relating to the identity of the neo bank’s customers. Fidelity Bank later removed the restrictions, allowing customers of the two banks and digital

By Adedapo Adesanya Twitter is officially delving into the world of podcasts as it announced the onboarding of the feature into its platform as part of its newly designed Spaces tab. Announced in a blog post on Thursday, the social media app is testing a redesigned Spaces tab that groups audio content together by subject, as well as includes podcasts feature for the first time. The social networking platform explained that, “We know that some discussions need more than 280 characters, and bringing people closer to the ideas, content, and creators they know and love is core to Twitter no

By Adedapo Adesanya Nigerians were thrown into a fit of worry when Barter card, the virtual dollar card service from a Nigerian fintech company on Sunday, July 17, 2022, became unavailable to users. The company in a mail said the shut down of the service was “due to an update from our card partner, which will cause the card service to be unavailable for an extended period of time.” This meant that Nigerians using the service are now unable to make online payments and purchases using the Barter virtual dollar card. They will also be unable to fund existing virtual