Economy

SONA Group Bolsters Nigeria’s Economy with Backward Integration

Published

7 years ago

28/03/2019

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

One of the leading manufacturing companies in Nigeria, SONA Group, has reiterated its commitment to supporting the various policies of federal government aimed at making the economy better.

One of the policies by government aimed at achieving this goal is the backward integration, where manufacturing firms operating in the country are encouraged to source for their materials locally.

As a major manufacturing company, SONA Group has vast product scope, panning across its 10 subsidiary companies, including Shongai Packaging Industry Limited, Euro Global Foods and Distilleries Ltd, Sona Agro Allied Foods Ltd, among others.

From March 12 – 14, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) in conjunction with Clarion Events West Africa, organised the 2019 Manufacturing & Equipment Expo at the Landmark Exhibition Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.

SONA Group was one of the exhibitors, where it showcased the company’s distinctive range of products and equipment to stakeholders.

Some of the products exhibited include Maltonic, Aqua Euro Water, high resilient injection moulded plastic pallets, Golden Choco Drink, Happy Family basins and buckets, cosmetic jars, storage crates and a host of others.

Speaking on the sole purpose of SONA’s participation at this year’s expo, Chief Operating Officer of SONA Group, Mr Ashok Manghnani, stated that, “We participate annually to display our products and innovations and in every edition, we have new additions to our line of products. We have some interesting products we recently introduced and the expo is a great platform to showcase them.

“A lot of people, including other manufacturers and consumers frequently visit our stand to take product samples which then go into the market. Umpteen times, many return for further enquiries, which in turn increases our visibility in the market space.”

Among the company’s new additions to its exhibition at this year’s expo is a variety of wafer and biscuits which include Milkie Bar Wafer, Duo Choco Wafers and Digestive Cookies; all manufactured by Sona Agro Allied Foods Ltd. The premium quality wafers are available in two sizes; 50g and 22g which are sold at affordable prices.

A new addition is the Happy Home line of dustbins which are designed to provide a more efficient way to store waste in the office and homes. Manufactured by Shongai Packaging Industry Limited, the dustbins come with a set of unique features, including reinforced rubber tyres with anti-skid serrations which precludes uneven or irregular rotation, sleek inside walls, which allows for easy discarding of waste and easy cleaning, strong body for durability, specially designed lid that enables easy lifting and prevents the ingression of water. Other noteworthy inclusions include sorghum flour, chocolates and plastic pallets.

The company revealed the ingredients for its products including the dustbins and wafers are locally sourced; partnering and supporting local employment to drive growth towards its Nigerian-made products portfolio. Also, with the implementation of Backward Integration in its manufacturing processes, SONA Group aims to bolster Nigeria’s economic growth by locally sourcing for over 90% of its raw materials used in production in all its subsidiaries.

Expounding SONA Group’s Backward Integration, Mr Manghnani commented “We strongly believe in the use of Backward Integration to maximize the quality of our products at SONA Group. A typical example is our line of biscuits and drinks as we manufacture the packaging and labels ourselves – we also manufacture labels and packaging for several other companies both local and multinationals, which sets us apart in the industry. We understand the imperativeness of agricultural development in Nigeria, hence we support local farmers, buying over 40, 000 tons of sorghum from the north.”

“We currently have two recycling plants where plastic wastes are processed into raw materials which are then used to manufacture our wide range of plastic products. This significantly truncates the cost of production, enabling us sell the products at incredibly affordable rates in the market. This, coupled with our backward integration directly improves the economy,” he added.

Further speaking on SONA Group’s contribution to economic and technological advancement in Nigeria, Ashok said “We espouse the use of technological advancement to harness the production of high quality products and as such, we do not settle for cheap machines at SONA Group.

“We import the latest cutting-edge industrial machines from Germany and Europe and participate in exhibitions whenever new technologies are invented or introduced, so as to provide our Nigerian consumers with utmost quality products.

“With all of this in place, we will continue to contribute substantially to the overall growth of the Nigerian economy.”

Other manufacturing companies at this year’s Manufacturing & Equipment Expo include Bank of Industry, Dangote, Procter & Gamble, Rite Foods, Real People Concept, West Africa Ceramics Limited, Wahum Group, Briscoe and several more.

Economy

Nipco, 11 Plc Crash OTC Securities Exchange by 4.76%

Published

54 minutes ago

06/12/2025

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

Energy stocks influenced the 4.76 per cent loss recorded by the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange on Friday, December 5.

The culprits were the duo of 11 Plc and Nipco Plc,with the former shedding N32.17 to end at N291.83 per share compared with the previous day’s N324.00 per share, and the latter down by N21.00 to sell at N195.00 per unit versus the previous session’s N216.00 per unit.

Consequently, the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) slumped by 170.16 points to 3,401.37 points from 3,571.53 points and the market capitalisation lost N101.81 billion to close at N2.035 billion from the N2.136 trillion quoted in the preceding session.

The OTC securities exchange suffered the decline yesterday despite the share prices of three companies closing green.

Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc was up by N1.80 to close at N39.80 per share compared with Thursday’s price of N38.00 per share, Air Liquide Plc appreciated by N1.09 to N11.99 per unit from N10.90 per unit, and FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc grew by 78 Kobo to N56.57 per share from N55.79 per share.

During the session, the volume of transactions rose by 6,885.3 per cent to 18.2 million units from 4.3 million units, the value of transactions ballooned by 10,301.7 per cent to N389.7 million from N347.2 million, but the number of deals declined by 29.7 per cent to 26 deals from 37 deals.

Infrastructure Credit Guarantee Company (InfraCredit) Plc ended the day as the most traded stock by value on a year-to-date basis with 5.8 billion units worth N16.4 billion, followed by Okitipupa Plc with 170.4 million units valued at N8.0 billion, and Air Liquide Plc with 507.5 million units worth N4.2 billion.

InfraCredit Plc also finished the day as the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis with 5.8 billion units transacted for N16.4 billion, followed by Industrial and General Insurance (IGI) Plc with 1.2 billion units sold for N420.2 million, and Impresit Bakolori Plc with 536.9 million units worth N524.9 million.

Economy

Naira Depreciates to N1,450/$1 at Official Forex Market

Published

1 hour ago

06/12/2025

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira depreciated further against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Friday, December 5, as FX demand pressure mounts.

The Nigerian currency lost N2.60 or 0.18 per cent against the greenback to close at N1,450.43/$1 compared with the previous day’s N1,447.83/$1.

Equally, the domestic currency declined against the Pound Sterling in the official forex market during the session by N4.48 to trade at N1,935.45/£1, in contrast to Thursday’s closing price of N1,930.97/£1 and shrank against the Euro by 43 Kobo to end at N1,689.17/€1 versus the preceding session’s rate of N1,688.74/€1.

Similarly, the local currency performed badly against the US Dollar at the GTBank FX counter by N2 to close at N1,455/$1 versus Thursday’s N1,453/$1 but traded flat at the parallel market at N14.65/$1.

As the country gets into the festive period, pressure mounted on the local currency reflecting higher foreign payments and lower FX inflows.

However, there are expectations that the Nigerian currency will be stable, supported by interventions by to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the face of steady dollar Demand and inflows from Detty December festivities that will give the Naira a boost after it depreciated mildly last month.

Traders cited by Reuters expect that the Naira will trade within a band of N1,443-N1,450/$1 next week, buoyed by improved FX interventions by the apex bank.

As for the crypto market, it was down yesterday due to profit-taking associated with year-end trading. However, the December 1-Year Consumer Inflation Expectation by the University of Michigan fell to 4.1 per cent from 4.5 per cent previously and 4.5 per cent expected. The 5-Year Consumer Inflation Expectation fell to 3.2 per cent from 3.4 per cent previously and 3.4 per cent expected.

With the dearth of official economic data of late, these private surveys have taken on a new level of significance and the market banks of them to make decisions.

Cardano (ADA) depreciated by 5.7 per cent to $0.4142, Dogecoin (DOGE) slid by 5.1 per cent to $0.1394, Ethereum (ETH) dropped by 3.9 per cent to $3,039.75, Solana (SOL) declined by 3.8 per cent to $133.24, and Litecoin (LTC) fell by 3.7 per cent to $80.59.

Further, Bitcoin (BTC) went down by 2.6 per cent to sell at $89,683.72, Binance Coin (BNB) slumped by 2.2 per cent to $883.59, and Ripple (XRP) shrank by 2.1 per cent to $2.04, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.

Economy

Oil Market Climbs on Federal Reserve Rate-Cut Signals, Supply Concerns

Published

1 hour ago

06/12/2025

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

The oil market was up on Friday on increasing expectations the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates next week, which could boost economic growth and energy demand.

Brent futures rose by 49 cents or 0.8 per cent to $63.75 per barrel and the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures expanded by 41 cents or 0.7 per cent to $60.08 per barrel.

Investors digested a US inflation report and recalibrated expectations for the Federal Reserve to reduce rates at its December 9-10 meeting.

US consumer spending increased moderately in September after three straight months of solid gains, suggesting a loss of momentum in the economy at the end of the third quarter as a lackluster labor market and the rising cost of living curbed demand.

Traders have been pricing in an 87 per cent chance that the US central bank will lower borrowing costs by 25 basis points next week, according to CME Group’s FedWatch Tool.

Investors also focused on news from Russia and Venezuela to determine whether oil supplies from the two sanctioned members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+) will increase or decrease in the future.

The failure of US talks in Moscow to achieve any significant breakthrough over the war in Ukraine has helped to boost oil prices so far this week.

A loss of Venezuelan oil production in case of a US military intervention will materially impact global benchmark prices as the market will have to replace Venezuela’s heavy crude.

Venezuela is estimated to pump about 1.1 million barrels per day of crude oil at present, so if the US-Venezuela tension escalation into an invasion in the South American country, this volume of crude would be at risk.

Reuters reported that the Group of Seven countries and the European Union are in talks to replace a price cap on Russian oil exports with a full maritime services ban in a bid to reduce the oil revenue that helps finance Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Any deal that could lift sanctions on Russia, the world’s second-biggest crude producer after the US, could increase the amount of oil available to global markets, weakening prices.