Stakeholders Storm Abuja for Gemstones Business

By Adedapo Adesanya The distributors of petrol and other fuels in Nigeria said they can no longer sustain the distribution of the products nationwide as the price of diesel used to power their trucks is now N1,100/litre in many locations. The marketers, under the aegis of the National Oil and Gas Suppliers Association of Nigeria (NOGASA), raised the concern in a statement on Tuesday. The president of the group, Mr Benneth Korie, said that diesel has witnessed incessant hikes in recent months, lamenting that the development has been worsened by marketers’ inability to secure cheap bank loans that will enable

By Adedapo Adesanya The Dangote Group Executive, Mr Devakumar Edwin, has said that the Dangote Refinery will not rely solely on Nigerian crude for its operations. This was one of the points made by the official as he gave a detailed production timeline that shed light on crude and product flows as well as delays on the 10-year project to S&P Global Commodity Insights. The company had announced that it would begin producing up to 370,000 barrels per day of diesel and jet fuel in October and gradually reach 650,000 barrels per day by November. The $19.5 billion refinery, which

By Adedapo Adesanya Pressure further mounted on the Nigerian Naira at the different segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Tuesday as it depreciated against the US Dollar at the close of business. The scarcity of forex was responsible for the poor performance of the Naira in the Investors and Exporters (I&E), black market and peer-to-peer (P2P) segments of the market during the session. Business Post reports that the domestic currency lost N2.62 or 0.34 per cent on the greenback in the spot market yesterday to close at N776.60/$1 compared with the preceding session’s N773.98/$1, amid a 10.6 per

By Adedapo Adesanya The Flour Milling Association of Nigeria (FMAN) has said that it would establish wheat procurement centres across 15 Northern states of the country to off-take all grains from about 150,000 farmers under the Anchor Borrower Programme (ABP). This was disclosed by Mr Aliyu Samaila, FMAN’s National Programme Manager, Wheat Development Project, at the Green wheat farmers’ field day at Gawon-Bature near Dambatta Local Government Area of Kano state. According to Mr Samaila, the FMAN’s wheat programme was being implemented through the ABP of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and its beneficiaries include Kano; Kaduna; Jigawa; Kebbi;

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Chairman of the Board of Directors of Honeywell Flour Mills Plc, Mr Oba Otudeko, has disclosed that the deplorable state of roads around the Tin Can and Apapa ports was already seriously weighing on businesses operating in the vicinity. Speaking at the 9th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the firm held recently at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, Mr Otudeko said most companies operating in the area are counting their losses as a result of the traffic gridlock around the ports, which is affecting manpower, production and profit. However, he said despite this and other challenges,

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Global provider of contactless mobile payments and financial services software, Youtap, has launched a QR code solution and smartphone apps for mobile money services in Africa and Asia. Youtap’s solution enables customer-initiated or merchant-initiated QR code payments for smartphones and smart point-of-sale devices. T he solution conforms to the BharatQR industry standard developed by Bharat, Mastercard and Visa. Youtap’s apps can be white-labelled and branded with the logo and colours of the mobile money service. The new solution gives any merchant or small business owner with a smartphone the potential to download Youtap’s Merchant App, self-register, and

By Adedapo Adesanya More than 2,000 companies in the solid minerals sector owe the Nigerian government about N2.76 billion, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has alleged. The agency disclosed this in a statement issued by its Deputy Director/Head of Communications and Advocacy, Mrs Obiageli Onuorah. The NEITI Independent Solid Minerals Industry Report tracked and reconciled financial flows in the sector, checked quantities of minerals produced, utilised and exported in 2020. Presenting the report before its multi-stakeholders, Mr Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, Executive Secretary, NEITI, said the companies’ liabilities resulted from failure on the part of 2,119 companies to pay

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Oil and Gas Companies that default in the deduction and remittance of one percent of the value of contracts they executed in the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry will henceforth be disqualified from participating in tenders for new contracts. This warning was given by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and also indicated plans to conduct a forensic audit of the industry to track and recover due payments on the Nigerian Content Development Fund (NCDF) held by some companies. The NCDF was established by Section 104 of the Nigerian Oil & Gas

By Dipo Olowookere Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ibrahim Magu, has raised an alarm over the health of some Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) operating in the country. According to him, some banks in Nigeria were on the verge of collapsing because of huge non-performing loans (NPLs). However, Mr Magu, who spoke in Lagos on Thursday during an interactive session with Association of Chief Compliance Officers of Banks in Nigeria (ACCOBIN), said the anti-graft agency was ready to “assist the banks in recovering their debts.” The EFCC chief urged compliance officers of banks in Nigeria

By Dipo Olowookere President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday evening returned to the country from his 10-day vacation in London. Business Post recalled that Mr Buhari left the shores of this country on Friday, August 3, 2018, for a rest in the United Kingdom. While he was leaving Nigeria, he handed over presidential duties to the Vice President, Mr Yemi Osinbajo. On his arrival today, the President was received by senior officials of his administration at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja. Also, he was received with an enthusiastic reception from Nigerians on his arrival on Saturday. It is believed that

By Dipo Olowookere The first trading day of the new week at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited finished on a bad note due to the 0.71 per cent loss recorded on Monday as a result of profit-taking by investors. After recording gains in the past sessions, holders of FBN Holdings equities started to offload them gradually and with selloffs in MTN Nigeria, Nestle Nigeria, Oando and 20 others, the stock market succumbed to the authority of the bears. Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) went down by 293.48 points to 41,144.67 points from 41,438.15 points, while the market capitalisation fell by