Tinubu Promises to Resolve Nigeria’s LNG Challenges

By Adedapo Adesanya The Naira appreciated against the US Dollar in the Investors and Exporters (I&E), the Peer-to-Peer (P2P), and the black market arms of the foreign exchange (forex) market on Friday, September 29, as a turbulent third quarter ended. In the official segment, the local currency improved its value against the greenback by 2.6 per cent or N20.04 to close at N755.27/$1, in contrast to the preceding day’s N775.31/$1 amid a drop in the supply of FX into the system by 11.6 per cent or $16.73 million to $127.82 million from the $144.55 million published on Thursday. In the

By Dipo Olowookere The board of Capital Hotels Plc has announced the creation of an escrow account for the payment of about N1.6 billion to minority shareholders of the company. The hospitality firm is leaving the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited after years on the nation’s main stock exchange. In a notice signed by Alex Ugwuanyi, the organisation said the account was created with CardinalStone Registrars Limited and has been sufficiently funded for payment “to shareholders” who “have accepted to exit” the firm by selling their holdings. Recall that in March 2023, shareholders of Capital Hotels approved the request of the

By Dipo Olowookere No fewer than 15 Nigerian Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs) will share the N75 million set aside by a tech giant, Google, in the 2023 edition of Hustle Academy Fund. The initiative was introduced in 2022 to provide equity-free funds to small business owners to scale up their operations and support entrepreneurial growth in Nigeria. Entries for the exercise opened on Thursday, September 28 and will close on Thursday, October 12, 2023, and to be eligible, businesses must be Nigerian-founded, operating within Nigeria for 1-5 years, and have a clear and scalable business plan. They should have

By Aduragbemi Omiyale The Vice President, Mr Kashim Shettima, has said Nigeria is in dire need of foreign direct investment (FDI) more than ever before, tasking domestic and foreign investors to make Nigeria their investment hub because efforts are being made to formulate business-friendly policies. Mr Shettima, while speaking when he hosted the management of First Surat Group, as well as top management of MTN Nigeria at the presidential villa in Abuja, charged MTN Nigeria to facilitate and spearhead digital mobile money and digital education. He assured that President Bola Tinubu was willing to partner with various stakeholders in the

By Dipo Olowookere A resurgence in economic confidence was experienced by credit professionals in the final quarter of 2016, according to the UK’s latest Credit Managers’ Index (CMI). Yet bad debt remains a risk with only 13% of credit managers expecting a decline in 2017. Full results from the quarterly barometer of the Chartered Institute of Credit Management (CICM) have now been released; the CMI’s headline Index closed up 0.5 points to 59.8, ending a successive three-quarter fall. It is the highest result since Q2 2015 and only the fifth time in the CMI’s seven-year history it has climbed above

By Adedapo Adesanya The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange further depreciated by 0.84 percent on Tuesday, May 12, 2020, the second straight session the market was recording losses. Data from the exchange showed that the benchmark index of the unlisted securities market, NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI), decreased by 5.86 points to end the day at 688.32 points from 694.18 points recorded at the previous session. In the same vein, the market capitalisation shed N4.3 billion to close at N505.62 billion in contrast to N509.92 billion it quoted on Monday. However, despite the loss recorded at the market yesterday, none

By Dipo Olowookere Former Super Eagles Coach Clemens Westerhof, has disclosed how he helped former Nigerian international, Etim Esin, from going to jail in Belgium some years ago when he landed into trouble. Mr Westerhof, speaking with www.sportsxclusivetv.com, said he was called by Late Augustus Aikhomu, the then Vice President and Chief of General Staff under then Military President Ibrahim Babangida, to help Mr Esin. “Augustus Aikhomu, what a man, a man after my heart; that is a man, he knows about football, he knows what to talk about, he doesn’t talk nonsense bla bla bla. There are so many

By Dipo Olowookere One of the leading lenders in Nigeria, Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO), announced on Thursday that its gross earnings in the first six months of 2021 stood at N207.9 billion, 7.64 per cent lower than the N225.1 billion reported in the same period of 2020. Analysis of the half-year results of the company by Business Post showed that this was largely impacted by a 15.5 per cent decline in the total revenue from its Nigerian operations to N152.5 billion from N180.4 billion in H1 2020 despite improvements from the contributions of its business operations in Rest of

By Dipo Olowookere Global leader in providing mobility solutions, Comviva, has announced its foray into banking customer value management (CVM) by entering into a new partnership with Number Theory, an Artificial Intelligence and Enterprise Data Management firm. The partnership allows Comviva to enhance its MobiLytix Real Time marketing solution with new machine learning and AI capabilities built on Number Theory’s AI @ Scale Platform. The partnership aims to combine Comviva’s big-data enabled, multi-channel, customer value management (CVM) platform with Number Theory’s machine learning & AI capabilities, empowering banks to grow value from their customers through continuous, intelligent and engaging interactions.

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The foundation for the next success stories in Nigeria’s film industry was laid on Wednesday as Sahara Group announced Joseph Duke as winner of its ‘Grooming Film Extraprenuers with Kunle Afolayan’ project. Duke won with a documentary entitled ‘Give Us This Day’. Duke’s documentary, which beat entries from 20 finalists, highlighted the challenges faced by entrepreneurs, including a story about caring for special needs children. More than 150 entries were received in the competition which began in June 2016 following the partnership between Sahara Group and the award winning filmmaker Kunle Afolayan, designed to identify and empower

Unswerving in its quest to create a veritable platform for building an entrepreneurial spirit in the country’s teeming youths, Fidelity Bank Plc has expanded the scope of the Fidelity Youth Empowerment Academy (YEA) in a bid to accommodate new areas of vocational training. On February 10, 2020, the bank in strategic partnership with Gazelle Academy commenced the seventh edition of the highly successful YEA at the Sokoto State University (SSU), Sokoto. Apart from the typical training on tailoring and make-up, participants will also be provided with requisite skills and first-hand knowledge in Fashion Designing, Cloth Embellishment, Cocktail and Phone Engineering

By Adedapo Adesanya Oil prices extended gains on Friday on the back of assurance from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) that there were signs of growth in oil demand for 2020. After the comment, the international benchmark, the Brent crude, was up 37 cents or 0.57 percent to $64.99 per barrel, while the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose by 19 cents equivalent to 0.32 percent to settle at $58.72 per barrel OPEC Secretary General, Mr Mohammed Barkindo, said on Friday that worldwide oil demand could surprise to the upside this year. “By and large what