United Capital Declares N1.99b HY Profit

By Adedapo Adesanya The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has revealed that a $1 billion facility would be used to provide insurance to more than 40 million farmers across the continent against severe impacts of climate change. Initially unveiled at the Africa Climate Summit held in Nairobi in September, the Africa Climate Risk Insurance Facility for Adaptation (ACRIFA) brings together governments, development agencies, the insurance sector and the private sector, said the president of the bank, Mr Akinwumi Adesina, while speaking during a side event at COP28 in Dubai. He said ACRIFA aims to mobilise $1 billion of concessionary financing,

By Adedapo Adesanya Bitmama Incorporated, a crypto exchange company, has confirmed the acquisition of Payday, a virtual card service provider. According to reports, the chief executive of Bitmama, Mrs Ruth Iselema, has offered PayDay investors $1 million worth of equity in the crypto company at a $30 million valuation. The news comes barely nine months after Payday announced its $3 million seed round and three months after its exploration of sale options was confirmed. Facilitated through Bitmama’s cross-border payments product, Changera, the acquisition marks a pivotal shift from earlier speculations, including a potential acquisition by lead investor, Moniepoint. Changera is

By Dipo Olowookere Profit-taking activities brought back the bears to the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Monday as investors rebalanced their portfolios. It was observed that traders at Customs Street booked profits in shares mostly in the industrial goods sectors like BUA Cement and Lafarge Africa. This resultantly brought down the local stock market by 0.66 per cent at the close of transactions, with the industrial goods space losing 4.21 per cent, the insurance counter declining by 0.28 per cent, and the energy sector falling by 0.01 per cent. However, the consumer goods index improved yesterday by

By Adedapo Adesanya Oil slumped by more than 2 per cent on Friday as traders showed scepticism about the depth of supply cuts by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) as well as concerns about sluggish global manufacturing activity. Brent crude went down by $1.98 or 2.45 per cent to close at $78.88 a barrel as the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude dropped $1.89 or 2.49 per cent to sell for $74.07 a barrel. For the week, Brent posted a decline of about 2.1 per cent, while WTI lost more than 1.9 per cent.

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The industrial action earlier planned for Tuesday, November 6, 2018 by the organised labour unions in Nigeria has been called off. The action was cancelled on Monday night after a marathon meeting with representatives of government and the organised private sector. The labour unions had asked Nigerians to prepared for an indefinite strike after government failed to agree to the N30,000 proposed as the new national minimum wage. After the meeting on Monday night, national president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr Ayuba Wabba, said agreements were reached during the tripartite committee set up to come

By Adedapo Adesanya The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said activities of oil vandals cost the country over $750 million in revenue in 2019. Managing Director of the national oil company, Mr Mele Kyari, speaking at the Executive Intelligence Management Course 13 of the National Institute for Security Studies, noted that the continued attacks on the nation’s pipelines has a detrimental effect on revenue as this will hinder development. Mr Kyari, who spoke on the topic Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea; Issues, Challenges for International Trade, National Security and Sustainable Development of Member States, stated that any threat

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Visa has announced results of an independent study conducted by Roubini ThoughtLab and commissioned by Visa examining the economic impact of increasing the use of digital payments in major cities around the world. The study estimates that relying more on electronic payments, such as cards and mobile payments, could yield a net benefit of up to $470 billion per year across the 100 cities studied – roughly the equivalent to 3% of the average GDP for these cities. “Cashless Cities: Realizing the Benefits of Digital Payments”, is a unique study that quantifies the potential net benefits experienced

By Dipo Olowookere A new report released on Wednesday in Abuja by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Monthly Financial and Operations Report has revealed that the Gas flare rate in Nigeria stands at 12 percent in August 2017. This gas flare rate translates to 919.73mmscfd compared to 10.03 percent for the preceding month of July 2017. The report gave an average gas flare rate of 10.15 percent, which is 734.56mmscfd, for the period August 2016 to August 2017. Nigeria was among countries with highest gas flare rates, but a number of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects aimed at appropriate

By Adedapo Adesanya The Governor of Edo State, Mr Godwin Obaseki, has called on stakeholders, especially investors, to take advantage of the geographical location of the Benin River Port project, a critical and strategic link to all parts of the country, to boost the Nigerian economy. Mr Obaseki made the call in Benin City during a courtesy visit of a team from the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) led by the Director-General, Mr Bashir Jamoh. In a statement issued by NIMASA’s Assistant Director, Public Relations, Mr Edward Osagie, the Governor said his administration was ready to partner with

By Dipo Olowookere The first executive Governor of Osun State, Mr Isiaka Adeleke, has been reported dead. He died on Sunday at a hospital in Osogbo, the state capital. Mr Adeleke, until his demise today, was a serving member of the National Assembly, representing Osun West Senatorial District, at the upper legislative chamber, where he head the Senate Committee on Capital Market. According to reports, Mr Adeleke, 62, a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), died at Bikets Hospital in Osogbo after suffering a heart attack. He was said to have attended a political meeting in Osogbo on

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr Maikanti Baru, has emphasised that his agency is not involved in the collection of signature bonuses (funds) paid by oil companies to the Federal Government upon their successful bid for oil blocks. Mr Baru made this clarification at a hearing of the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on Oil Prospecting Licenses (OPLs) and Oil Mining Leases (OMLs) on Monday. He maintained that the agency has no role in the collection of signature bonus. However, he said the arrangement allowed NNPC to lift the royalty oil

By Dipo Olowookere The official ICO launch of mCoin has been fixed for April 16, 2018 at the World Blockchain Forum to be held in Dubai. The World BlockChain Forum is the biggest blockchain event at the ongoing pre-ICO sale of mCoin has already attracted participants from more than 30 countries. mCoin reaches 5.8 billion people on mobiles of whom 3 billion people don’t have internet access and it works with ONEm services making blockchain technology available on any mobile. ONEm was founded in 2012 and developed and deployed a revolutionary mobile platform. The platform allowed mobiles without the internet