Unlisted Securities Market Closes Flat on April Fool’s Day

By Adedapo Adesanya  The Nigerian Naira weakened by 17.9 per cent or N144.49 against the American Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Wednesday, December 6 as confidence waned in the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) ability to boost the market with enough foreign exchange (FX). Yesterday, the exchange rate of the Naira to the Dollar closed at N951.22/$1 in the official market compared with the preceding session’s rate of N806.73/$1. This happened as the forex turnover slightly went down by 4.9 per cent or $7.05 million to $135.58 million from the $142.63 million reported in the

By Adedapo Adesanya African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has announced that the third Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2023) held in Cairo from November 9-15 witnessed the conclusion of business deals and transactions valued at $43.8 billion. The lender said in the final tallies released in Cairo, the organisers of the continental event said that the amount represented the value of 426 deals concluded in 21 sectors covering 52 countries. At a press conference to announce the results, Mrs Kanayo Awani, Executive Vice President (Intra-African Trade Bank) at Afreximbank, also announced that 130 countries participated in the trade fair, which attracted 1,939 exhibitors

By Adedapo Adesanya Nigerian crude output fell by 30,000 barrels per day to 1.43 million barrels per day in November, according to data from an S&P Global Commodity Insight. This was lower than the 1.46 million barrels produced in October by Africa’s largest oil producer and 312,000 barrels per day short of its 1.742 million barrels per day target in 2023. Angola, Africa’s second-largest oil producer, saw output drop 20,000 barrels per day to 1.13 million barrels per day, according to the survey, compared with its quota of 1.46 million barrels per day. The drops impacted the wider output of

By Adedapo Adesanya Securities totalling 39.2 million units were transacted on Friday, March 27, at the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange, 38,936 percent increase or 39.1 million units higher than the 100,380 units recorded at the previous session. However, the rise in the trading volume was not enough to push the key parameters up at the ended of the session as the market closed flat for the second straight day. Trading activities were done remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has forced many businesses and activities to shut down so as to stop the spread of the virus. At

By Dipo Olowookere A frontline chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State, Prince Tonye Princewill, has condemned in strongest of terms the recent alleged assassination attempt on the party’s governorship candidate for the 2019 poll, Mr Tony Cole. Mr Princewill in a statement signed and circulated to journalists called on security agencies to be extremely active in discharge of their constitutional responsibilities. The statement reads: I want to thank all those who reached out to our candidate with messages of sympathy and support after witnessing the act of sheer desperation the other day by our opponents during his

By Adedapo Adesanya The Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Access Bank, Mr Herbert Wigwe, and the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, have emerged winners at the 2020 edition of the African Banker Awards. The award ceremony held virtually on Wednesday was shifted to August to coincide with the African Development Bank (AfDB) Annual Meetings taking place this week, with the election of the president of the bank expected on Thursday. Considered as the Oscars of the African banking community, the big winners this year were Access Bank and women in the banking and finance

Leading payments technology and card business in Africa, Verve, and Discover Global Network, the payments brand of Discover, held an event to launch the Verve Global Card. With this, cardholders will now have the ability to use their Verve Global Cards on the Discover Global Network which provides acceptance in more than 190 countries and territories. This will expand Verve’s existing suite of tailored payment products and solutions for its customers. The first transaction occurred yesterday at Swarovski in New York City and senior executives from First Bank, Access Bank and Fidelity Bank purchased various items from Swarovski using their

By Dipo Olowookere The Joint Venture (JV) the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) will increase the Federal Government power generation aspiration by 480 megawatts (MW) through the completion of its Okpai Phase II Independent Power Project (IPP) by 2019. Group Managing Director of NNPC Dr Maikanti Kacalla Baru, speaking in Abuja on Thursday during the inauguration of the Okpai Phase II power project, stated that all partners were working round the clock to deliver on the project in terms of specifications, time and budget. He said the decision by the partners to embark

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The management of UACN Property Development Company (UPDC) Plc has concluded plans to have discussions with shareholders of the company on its proposed rights issue. The company is planning to raise about N16 billion from its shareholders through a process called rights issue. During the exercise, the company would be selling a total of 15,961,574,145 ordinary shares at a unit price of N1 and in order to convince shareholders on the importance of the rights issue, the management has called for talks to explain things that may be unclear to them. According to a notice obtained by

By Adedapo Adesanya The Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) has urged the government to provide adequate infrastructure nationwide to make small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) become viable so that the country reduce its reliance on foreign goods. This advice was given by the association’s president, Mr Ide Udeagbala, in his remarks at the first edition of the Abuja SME Conference and Exhibition on Monday. Mr Udeagbala said provision of the needed infrastructure would restrict massive importation of foreign goods which could be produced locally as well as engender SME global competitiveness, thereby bringing about

By Adedapo Adesanya  The Brent crude grade rose by about 2.29 per cent or $2.12 to $94.57 per barrel on Thursday as the International Energy Agency (IEA) cut its oil demand forecast and warned that tight supply would affect the global economy. Also, the United West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude grade appreciated by 2.1 per cent or $1.84 yesterday to sell for $89.11 per barrel after the IEA cut its oil-demand growth forecasts by 470,000 barrels a day for 2023 to 1.7 million barrels a day. It also lowered its 2022 oil-demand growth forecast by 60,000 barrels a day to