Economy
We’ve Attracted $30bn in Foreign Direct Investment in Nine Months—Tinubu
By Adedapo Adesanya
President Bola Tinubu says his nine-month-old administration has attracted $30 billion in Direct Foreign Investment (FDI) commitments to shore up the Nigerian economy.
Mr Tinubu said this at the 2023 Leadership Annual Conference and Award on Tuesday in Abuja themed An Economy in Distress: The Way Forward, organised by the Leadership Group, publishers of Leadership Newspapers.
Mr Tinubu, represented by Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mr Mohammed Idris, conveyed that the Nigerian economy is not in distress, but facing challenging times.
He explained that despite the challenging situation, the country has attracted unprecedented opportunities to reset the course and build a new and sustainable economy away from the rent-seeking and the waste that was once the order of the day.
“Since we assumed office in May 2023, we have attracted $30 billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) commitments into the real sectors of the economy, including manufacturing, telecoms, healthcare, oil and gas, and others.
“Those investments have already started coming into the country. Just a few days ago, I was in Qatar on an official visit, where the Emir assured me that a senior government delegation would visit Nigeria after Ramadan.
“I have asked the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy to directly interface with the Qatari authorities to ensure that speedy progress is made.
“The Nigerian economy saw a better than anticipated performance in the last quarter of 2023, growing by 3.46 per cent, compared with 2.54 per cent in the preceding quarter.
“Capital Importation into Nigeria was up by 66 per cent in Q4 2023, reversing a 36 per cent decline in the previous quarter.
“In January 2024, the Nigerian Exchange All Share Index (ASI) crossed the 100,000 points mark, its highest ever.
“There is no one who looks at this data who will conclude that ‘distressed’ is the accurate way to describe the Nigerian economy,” Mr Tinubu said.
He emphasised that these were the outcomes of ongoing reforms.
Mr Tinubu, however, said the government was aware of the hardships due to the reform, but assured that a lot of efforts and energy were being made towards alleviating the pains and setting the economy on firm footing.
“There are incredible opportunities for investment in every sector of the economy, as the Federal Government stabilise our foreign exchange market and macroeconomic indices.
“I ask for the continuing patience and support of all Nigerians, including the elite that is very well represented in this room today.”
The President also sought for understanding of the media as the government continues the reform of the economy.
“To the Nigerian media, I urge you to strive to report not only the challenges but also the solutions and the opportunities as well.
“Ours is a story of a country that is taking the right steps, and feeling the fleeting pains that will come with this course of action. A glorious dawn is indeed assured.
“Since the removal of petrol subsidies, our imports of petrol have dropped by about 50 per cent, which translates to roughly one billion liters of petrol every month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics,” Mr Tinubu said.
The president added that the revenues accruing to the three tiers of government – federal, state and local – had grown by between 50 per cent and 100 per cent since the removal of the petrol subsidy.
“This means more funds are available to directly impact the lives of Nigerians through investments in critical infrastructure, social security, and other areas.
“For example, the additional funding we are receiving is going into a new minimum wage for which negotiations have started, between the federal and state governments and organized labour.
“I have approved the disbursement of N200 billion, through three new special intervention funds established to support Nigerian businesses.
“The first is a N50 billion Presidential Conditional Grant Scheme that will provide business grants and loans to traders, food vendors, transport workers, ICT businesses, creatives, and artisans. Verification of all submitted applications is ongoing, and disbursements will commence through the Bank of Industry as soon as this verification is completed.
“The second is a N75 billion MSME Intervention Fund which will provide single-digit-interest loans to our MSMEs.
“The third is another N75 billion Manufacturing Sector Fund targeting manufacturing businesses, with selected beneficiaries eligible to access up to N1 billion each,” Mr Tinubu said.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has once again trimmed its 2024 and 2025 oil demand growth forecasts.
The bloc made this in its latest monthly oil market report for December 2024.
The 2024 world oil demand growth forecast is now put at 1.61 million barrels per day from the previous 1.82 million barrels per day.
For 2025, OPEC says the world oil demand growth forecast is now at 1.45 million barrels per day, which is 900,000 barrels per day lower than the 1.54 million barrels per day earlier quoted.
On the changes, the group said that the downgrade for this year owes to more bearish data received in the third quarter of 2024 while the projections for next year relate to the potential impact that will arise from US tariffs.
The oil cartel had kept the 2024 outlook unchanged until August, a view it had first taken in July 2023.
OPEC and its wider group of allies known as OPEC+ earlier this month delayed its plan to start raising output until April 2025 against a backdrop of falling prices.
Eight OPEC+ member countries – Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman – decided to extend additional crude oil production cuts adopted in April 2023 and November 2023, due to weak demand and booming production outside the group.
In April 2023, these OPEC+ countries decided to reduce their oil production by over 1.65 million barrels per day as of May 2023 until the end of 2023. These production cuts were later extended to the end of 2024 and will now be extended until the end of December 2026.
In addition, in November 2023, these producers had agreed to voluntary output cuts totalling about 2.2 million barrels per day for the first quarter of 2024, in order to support prices and stabilise the market.
These additional production cuts were extended to the end of 2024 and will now be extended to the end of March 2025; they will then be gradually phased out on a monthly basis until the end of September 2026.
Members have made a series of deep output cuts since late 2022.
They are currently cutting output by a total of 5.86 million barrels per day, or about 5.7 per cent of global demand. Russia also announced plans to reduce its production by an extra 471,000 barrels per day in June 2024.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
A minority equity stake in Chappal Energies Mauritius Limited has been acquired by a Nigerian energy firm, Aradel Holdings Plc.
This deal came a few days after Chappal Energies purchased a 53.85 per cent equity stake in Equinor Nigeria Energy Company Limited (ENEC).
Chappal Energies went into the deal with Equinor to take part in the oil and gas lease OML 128, including the unitised 20.21 per cent stake in the Agbami oil field, operated by Chevron.
Since production started in 2008, the Agbami field has produced more than one billion barrels of oil, creating value for Nigerian society and various stakeholders.
As part of the deal, Chappal will assume the operatorship of OML 129, which includes several significant prospects and undeveloped discoveries (Nnwa, Bilah and Sehki).
The Nnwa discovery is part of the giant Nnwa-Doro field, a major gas resource with significant potential to deliver value for Nigeria.
In a separate transaction, on July 17, 2024, Chappal and Total Energies sealed an SPA for the acquisition by Chappal of 10 per cent of the SPDC JV.
The relevant parties to this transaction are working towards closing out this transaction and Ministerial Approval and NNPC consent to accede to the Joint Operating Agreement have been obtained.
“This acquisition is in line with diversifying our asset base, deepening our gas competencies and gaining access to offshore basins using low-risk approaches.
“We recognise the strategic role of gas in Nigeria’s energy future and are happy to expand our equity holding in this critical resource.
“We are committed to the cause of developing the significant value inherent in the assets, which will be extremely beneficial to the country.
“Aradel hopes to bring its proven execution competencies to bear in supporting Chappal’s development of these opportunities,” the chief executive of Aradel Holdings, Mr Adegbite Falade, stated.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Afriland Properties Plc helped the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange record a 0.04 per cent gain on Tuesday, December 10 as the share price of the property investment rose by 34 Kobo to N16.94 per unit from the preceding day’s N16.60 per unit.
As a result of this, the market capitalisation of the bourse went up by N380 million to remain relatively unchanged at N1.056 trillion like the previous trading day.
But the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) closed higher at 3,014.36 points after it recorded an addition of 1.09 points to Monday’s closing value of 3,013.27 points.
The NASD OTC securities exchange recorded a price loser and it was Geo-Fluids Plc, which went down by 2 Kobo to close at N3.93 per share, in contrast to the preceding day’s N3.95 per share.
During the trading session, the volume of securities bought and sold by investors increased by 95.8 per cent to 2.4 million units from the 1.2 million securities traded in the preceding session.
However, the value of shares traded yesterday slumped by 3.7 per cent to N4.9 million from the N5.07 million recorded a day earlier, as the number of deals surged by 27.3 per cent to 14 deals from 11 deals.
Geo-Fluids Plc remained the most active stock by volume (year-to-date) with 1.7 billion units sold for N3.9 billion, trailed by Okitipupa Plc with 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with 297.5 million units worth N5.3 million.
Also, Aradel Holdings Plc remained the most active stock by value (year-to-date) with 108.7 million units worth N89.2 billion, followed by Okitipupa Plc with 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with 297.5 million units sold for N5.3 billion.
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