Small Business Owners Fret Over Exchange Rate Instability

By Dipo Olowookere The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited retreated by 0.44 per cent on Tuesday due to selling pressure on some bellwether equities during the session. Shares of Dangote Cement, GTCO, Zenith Bank, Access Holdings, Oando, Lafarge Africa and others experienced a pullback yesterday as a result of profit-taking activities by traders. As a result, the All-Share Index (ASI) receded by 312.76 points to 71,041.05 points from 71,353.81 points and the market capitalisation moderated by N165 billion to N38.875 trillion from N39.040 trillion. The level of activity at the market waned on the second trading session of the week, as

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The sum of N27.5 trillion has been approved for the 2024 budget by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Monday. The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Mr Atiku Bagudu, confirmed this development to newsmen after the FEC meeting in Abuja. He also disclosed that the council, which was chaired by President Bola Tinubu, said the 2024 Appropriation Bill should be funded from N18 trillion revenue expected to be generated by the country. “The federal executive council considered the 2024 Appropriation bill. The Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) was earlier approved by the National Assembly. It has

By Adedapo Adesanya The Nigerian Naira weakened further by 8.3 per cent or N67.28 on the American Dollar at the Nigeria Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Tuesday, as investors intensified their demand for the greenback ahead of the festive season rush. Amid a squeeze in the supply of the foreign currency to the market, the value of the local currency closed at N881.88/$1 yesterday compared with the preceding session’s N814.60/$1. Though the supply of FX into the official market improved by 17.9 per cent or $18.00 million to $118.06 million from $100.06 million quoted on Monday, it was not

By Adedapo Adesanya The duo of Aradel Holdings Plc and 11 Plc landed the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange in the green territory by 0.84 per cent on Monday, November 27. The two energy stocks overpowered losses posted by two other securities admitted to the alternative stock exchange, leaving the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) closing higher by 7.22 points to 864.51 basis points from 857/29 points, as the market capitalisation of the exchange increased by N9.78 billion to N1.171 trillion from N1.162 trillion. Aradel Holdings Plc saw its share price continue to soar as it rose by N28.80 to

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The last may not have been heard about the issues Oando Plc has with the capital market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This is because the oil firm has approved the court to stop the suspension placed on its share price by the apex market regulator. Last week, SEC directed the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) to stop trading on the shares of the energy firm. But on Monday, it relaxed the suspension, allowing trading of Oando stocks, but without price movement. According a report by Reuters on Tuesday, the Nigerian oil company has obtained a

By Dipo Olowookere The Nigerian Senate on Tuesday finally laid the 2018 appropriation bill after postponing it in the past two different times. The #Budget2018 Report was laid on the floor of plenary today by Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Mr Danjuma Goje. Last week, spokesman of the upper parliament, Mr Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, said the Senate would lay the report last Tuesday and pass on Wednesday and if it was not laid on Tuesday, it would be done on Wednesday to be passed today. However, the red chamber did not lay the 2018 budget report any of

By Adedapo Adesanya Global technology giant, IBM, has launched Watson Orchestrate, a new interactive Artificial Intelligence (AI) capability designed to increase the personal productivity of business professionals across sales, human resources, operations and more. This was announced by IBM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Arvind Krishna at the company’s Think 2021 conference. Requiring no Information Technology (IT) skills to use, Watson Orchestrate enables professionals to initiate work in a very human way, using collaboration tools such as Slack and email in natural language. It also connects to popular business applications like Salesforce, SAP and Workday®. Watson Orchestrate uses a

By Modupe Gbadeyanka In the month of January 2020, top 10 stockbrokers licenced to operate in the Nigerian capital market were responsible for 49.15 percent (8.3 billion units) of the total volume of shares transacted in the month and 58.83 percent of the total value (N138.1 billion). By volume, Mainstreet Bank Securities Limited contributed the highest with 8.38 percent, trading 1.4 billion units of stocks, while Cardinalstone Securities followed with 6.16 percent after transacting 1.0 billion units. Coronation Securities traded 852.0 million shares (5.05 percent), CSL Stokebrokers transacted 794.5 million shares (4.71 percent), Morgan Capital Securities 792.3 million stocks (4.69

By Dipo Olowookere Some stars in the Nigerian film industry have been nominated for the 2020 edition of the prestigious Best of Nollywood (BON) Awards. The likes of Toyin Abraham, Odunlade Adekola, Alex Ekubo, Adesua Etomi, Kehinde Bankole, Nkechi Blessing, Funsho Adeolu were among the notable faces on the screens nominated for the event, which has 33 different categories. The nominees were unveiled to the world at a virtual ceremony held recently with Joke Silva, Gbenga Adeyinka, Segun Arinze, Dele Momodu, Shina Peller, Wale Ojo-Lanre, Femi Akintunde Johnson and others in attendance. Convener of BON Awards, Mr Seun Oloketuyi, while

By Sundiata Post Heads may soon roll in the nation’s financial sector as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) investigates chief executive officers and directors of banks in the country over allegations of insider related loans and other offences, Sundiata Post is reporting. Already, the CBN has constituted a team to investigate the 21 commercial banks in the country to certain their level of solvency. The move followed revelations that directors and chief executives of four banks in the country are using their positions to award loans running into billions of naira to themselves and their cronies, which eventually end

By Dipo Olowookere The nation’s stock exchange retreated by 0.05 per cent on Wednesday as a result of the decision of investors to sell off some stocks across the key sectors of the market. This consequently brought down the All-Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited by 23.25 points to 43,707.30 points from 43,730.55 points and reduced the market capitalisation of the local stock exchange by N13 billion to N22.809 trillion from N22.822 trillion. Data showed that the banking sector was the most hit as it depreciated by 0.97 per cent, while the insurance index fell by 0.34

By Dipo Olowookere Transactions on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited further finished stronger by 0.38 per cent on Wednesday on the back of sustained bargain hunting. This pushed the All-Share Index (ASI) higher during the session by 154.23 points to 41,051.19 points from the previous day’s 40,896.96 points and raised the market capitalisation by N80 billion to N21.391 trillion from N21.311 trillion. It was observed that the demand for banking stocks, especially GTCO, FBN Holdings and others contributed to the growth the market witnessed yesterday, leaving the sector closing higher by 1.40 per cent. The energy space