Zenith General Insurance Grows Profit 10% in 2019

By Adedapo Adesanya The Nigerian government is targeting an estimated $55.2 billion in oil and gas investments by 2030, according to the Special Adviser to the President Bola Tinubu on Energy, Mrs Olu Verheijen. She said the government has wrapped up a series of strategic engagements with 15 leading international and independent oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria. The President’s aide recently organised sessions in Lagos and Abuja in partnership with the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) to review ways to improve the sector and address the nation’s revenue emergency whilst contributing to stabilising Nigeria’s economy. Involved in

By Adedapo Adesanya President Bola Tinubu has been charged by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) to investigate the allegations that over $15 billion of oil revenues and N200 billion budgeted to repair the refineries are missing and unaccounted for between 2020 and 2021, as documented by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI). In the letter dated September 23 and signed by SERAP deputy director, Mr Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation urged him to “name and shame anyone suspected to be responsible for the missing and unaccounted for public funds and to ensure their effective prosecution as well as

By Adedapo Adesanya A foreign oil company, Equinor ASA, has chosen a little-known Nigerian company, Chappal Energy, as the preferred buyer of its stake in one of the country’s largest deep-water oil fields, Agbami. According to a report by Bloomberg on Monday, the Norwegian energy giant is trying to sell its 20.2 per cent interest in the Agbami field – joining other international producers such as Shell Plc, Exxon Mobil Corporation and Eni SpA in looking to offload assets in Africa’s biggest crude producer, Nigeria. In January, Equinor launched the sale of its stake in an offshore Nigerian oilfield, joining

By Adedapo Adesanya The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) has called on the newly appointed Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Yemi Cardoso, to clear the backlog of foreign exchange as well as guarantee another recapitalisation in the banking sector. “The clearance of the backlog of forex obligations should be accorded high priority to restore the confidence of domestic and foreign investors,” the Managing Director of CPPE, Mr Muda Yusuf said in a press statement titled Ten Point Agenda For The CBN Governor, released over the weekend. Mr Cardoso and four new deputies on

By Dipo Olowookere GH Capital, a diversified FinTech holding company, has announced that its online payment service subsidiary, ClickDirectPay (CDP), will launch its Bitcoin and alternative coin payment processing service in January 2018. Bitcoin, the world’s newest currency, is used by consumers and merchants around the world as an online-friendly alternative to credit cards. Bitcoin offers a fast and secure way to transfer funds around the world, and many use it as a store of value or portfolio asset. ClickDirectPay’s new Bitcoin support will be rolled out slowly to select merchants already active with CDP services while other companies can

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The election of Mr Bola Tinubu as the President of Nigeria has been upheld by the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal on Wednesday, September 6, 2023. On March 1, 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Mr Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the presidential election held on Saturday, February 25, 2023. This was challenged by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Atiku Abubakar, and that of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, at the appeal court. In his lead judgement, Justice Haruna Tsammani held that the petitions

By Modupe Gbadeyanka A leading global SaaS-based smart logistics management platform provider, Shipsy, intends to push its services aggressively across Africa and to achieve this, it has contracted the services of a former chief operating officer of Jumia Group. Mr Apoorva Kumar. The company is doing this as online commerce is gaining significant momentum on the continent and is opening up lucrative opportunities for SaaS-based logistics management platform providers. Since the last few quarters, Shipsy has rapidly grown its presence in African markets by onboarding customers in the courier, express and parcel, last-mile delivery, e-commerce, and retail segments. Its commitment

Digital commerce is becoming the fastest-growing commerce in the Nigerian market, as immense growth has been recorded in this sector in recent years. This growth is driven by the increasing adoption of technology and the rise of online payment platforms in Nigeria. According to statista.com, the e-commerce sector of the Nigerian economy is expected to peak at $9.02bn in 2023 with an annual growth rate of 11.74 per cent, resulting in a projected market volume of $14.06bn by 2027. Although the Nigerian e-commerce industry faces several challenges, including poor infrastructure, payment infrastructure, a general lack of trust in online transactions,

By Adedapo Adesanya For the second straight trading day, the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange closed bullish as it grew by 0.56 per cent on Thursday, December 30. This was influenced by the sterling performance of Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc during the session as its share price rose by 71 kobo or 3.8 per cent to close at N18.71 per unit compared with N18.00 per unit it finished on Wednesday. As a result of this, the NASD unlisted security index (NSI) moved up by 4.18 points to 745.57 points from 741.39 points, while the market capitalisation gained N3.54

By Dipo Olowookere Leading telecommunications company in the country, MTN Nigeria, has announced its financial statements for the first six months of 2019 and from the look of things, the firm delivered a strong performance across key parameters. The revenue recorded a double-digit growth of 12.2 percent to finish at N567.0 billion against N505.7 billion in the first six months of 2018. Also, the profit before tax improved by 30.8 percent to N141.8 billion from N108.4 billion, while the profit after tax appreciated by 34.7 percent to N98.9 billion from N73.4 billion. For the other income, N48.1 million was realized

By Adedapo Adesanya To mark Prostate Cancer Awareness Month this September, Medicaid Cancer Foundation (MCF) and global pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca, have launched the Project Icon initiative, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. The initiative will raise awareness of early warning signs, and support screening efforts. For Nigerian men, prostate cancer is both the most common and most deadly cancer and these facts highlight the importance and urgency of ensuring that those at risk or those who are experiencing symptoms have timely access to healthcare services. To address the gaps in care that prevent men of all backgrounds from being

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The office of the president-elect has confirmed that Mr Bola Tinubu has jetted out of Nigeria for a rest in the United Kingdom and France ahead of his swearing-in ceremony slated for May 29, 2023. An online platform on Wednesday reported that the winner of the February 25 presidential election travelled to Europe for urgent medical attention. But in a statement issued by one of his aides, Mr Tunde Rahman, it was emphasized that the former Governor of Lagos State only left the country to have a rest in London and Paris before going to Saudi Arabia