Skyway Aviation Hopes to Rake N1.9b from IPO

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 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 The President of the Dangote Group, the owners of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals plant, Mr Aliko Dangote, has said that following the purchase of 1 million barrels of Agbami crude grade from Shell International Trading and Shipping Company Limited (STASCO), it will be looking to ramp up its production in coming months. The 650,000 barrels per day capacity refinery is not expected to hit full capacity until 2025, but with a gradual ramping, it is expected that it will begin with begin producing up to 370,000 barrels per day of diesel and jet fuel. “We

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 Adedapo Adesanya The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has said it is on high alert amid global concerns over new strains of COVID-19. This was made known yesterday at a press conference in Abuja, where the health body said over 663 million confirmed cases and over 6.7 million deaths had been reported globally. Speaking at the event, NCDC Director General, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, said: “Globally, more than three million new cases and ten thousand deaths have been reported in the week of December 26, 2022, to January 1, 2023. This represents a reduction in weekly cases and deaths

Thanks to a steady rise in the number of Canadian online casino players, gaming platforms are constantly introducing new and even more convenient ways for gamblers to deposit and withdraw funds. In fact, it’s not only the game selection that can make or break a casino but also the payment methods available. The days of waiting at the ATM, making a bank wire,  eCheck transfer or using any other traditional payments are long gone thanks to modern mobile device technology. With this in mind, let’s take a look at each popular payment method to move funds in and out of

By Adedapo Adesanya The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday morning declared Mr Bola Tinubu as the winner of Nigeria’s presidential election conducted on February 25 in what has been regarded as one of the most keenly contested elections in a generation. Mr Tinubu, who ran on the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) platform, scored 35 per cent of 24.97 million votes cast, 8,794,726 votes, beating Mr Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and Mr Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP). Mr Atiku polled a total of 6,984,520 votes in the election, while Mr Obi came

By Dipo Olowookere Reports say the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is on the verge of sealing $6 billion oil swaps deal with both local and foreign investors. The agreement, when finalised, would allow the investors bring into the country petrol and diesel in exchange for about 330,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil from the state oil firm. The deal would have been signed in April, but it was delayed to allow the NNPC and the oil traders negotiate the fuel specifications, among other issues. This development is under the Direct Sale-Direct Purchase Agreements (DSDP) formerly known as

By Adedapo Adesanya As Nigeria continues to tackle the proliferation of substandard products, the National Environmental Standards and Regulation Enforcement Agency (NESREA) disclosed that it turned back 15 vessels carrying hazardous materials into Nigeria. According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the Director-General of the agency, Mr Aliyu Jauro, explained that the vessels were laden with chemicals and electronics harmful to the environment. He cautioned that government would not allow any importer to turn Nigeria into a dumping ground for hazardous materials. “It is allowed to import electronics into Nigeria, but such electronics must be functional and safe. “Nigeria

By Dipo Olowookere The new management of Arik Air has announced the suspension of flight operations to the London and Johannesburg routes. This comes few days after Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) took over the airline in a bid to save the aviation industry. Addressing journalists on Tuesday in Lagos, spokesman of AMCON, Mr Jude Nwauzor, explained that the suspension would enable Arik Air to find a permanent solution to problems facing its passengers and carry out a thorough assessment of its situation. Mr Nwauzor emphasised that the international route remains very critical for the strategic turnaround, growth strategy

By Adedapo Adesanya The federal government has extended the deadline for the linkage of the National Identification Number (NIN) to the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card of mobile phone owners in the country by one month. This was announced on Friday in a statement jointly signed by the Director of Public Affairs of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Mr Ikechukwu Adinde, and the Head of Corporate Communications at the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Mr Kayode Adegoke. The statement explained that the approval to extend the period of the NIN-SIM linkage to the new date was given at the meeting

By Dipo Olowookere The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) conducted the first sale of treasury bills of the new decade on Thursday, January 2, 2020 via the primary market auction (PMA). During the exercise, the central bank offered for sale to investors the debt instruments worth N74.8 billion, but the demand pressures continued, though lower than what were achieved in the previous exercise held on December 18, 2019. Subscription worth N174.7 billion were received from market participants yesterday, indicating a subscription rate of 233.6 percent, lower that the 1428.6 percent rate at the last auction. This must have informed the