InterswitchSPAK 2.0 Hits Airwaves

By Adedapo Adesanya Irish author Paul Lynch won the 2023 Booker Prize for fiction for his novel Prophet Song, a dystopian work about an Ireland that descends into tyranny. The 46-year-old beat five other shortlisted novelists to the prestigious award at a ceremony in London. He becomes the fifth Irish writer to win the high-profile literary prize, which has propelled to fame countless household names, including past winners Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood and Hilary Mantel. “This was not an easy book to write,” Mr Lynch said after collecting his award, which comes with £50,000 (around $63,000) and a huge boost

By Bliss Okperan The resumption date of the National Diploma (ND) 2 students of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) in Ogba, Lagos, has been postponed by the management to January 2024. The affected students, who are currently undergoing their mandatory Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES), were earlier scheduled to resume for the 2023/2024 academic session on Monday, December 18, 2023. However, information gathered by Business Post from the Student Affairs Officer, Mrs Esther Eke, confirmed that this date has been moved forward to next year after discussions. According to her, the decision to shift the resumption date was

By Bliss Okperan The University of Calabar (UNICAL), Cross River State, has increase its tuition for undergraduates by over 100 per cent. A statement issued on Monday disclosed that the upward review of the fees was taken at an emergency meeting of the university’s Senate on Friday. In the statement issued by the school’s spokesman, Mr Effiong Eyo, it was disclosed that the management implemented this increase because of the current economic realities and the need to maintain the academic standard which the university was known for. The statement added that the new fees would be effective in the 2022-2023

By Dipo Olowookere The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has disclosed that it is seeking an approval to make it mandatory for any unclaimed dividends up to 12 years to be transferred into the Nigerian Capital Market Development Fund. But before this is done, the SEC has called for comments and input on the matter from stakeholders, which should be forwarded to the Secretariat, Rules Committee of the Commission, via, [email protected] or through the DG, SEC, not later than two (2) weeks from the date of publication. It said, “Pursuant to the provisions of Section 313(1)(n) of the Investments and

By Adedapo Adesanya Sixteen percent of mobile users in Nigeria experienced mobile malware attacks within the first quarter of the year, Kaspersky has stated. In a report release by the cybersecurity giant, it was stated that Nigeria ranked fourth among the top 10 countries with the highest number of inhabitants which most frequently encountered adware apps attacks in the world. The only country on the African continent higher than Nigeria was Algeria. Algeria had a higher percentage of 21.4 percent in second place, according to the report, which said Iran led the pack with 39.6 percent. The report noted that

By Dipo Olowookere Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) operating in Nigeria have been advised by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, to set realistic targets for their marketers. The number four citizen of the country gave this advice when he received the board and management of Standard Chartered Bank, led by the Chief Executive Officer, Mr Lamin Manjang, in his office in Abuja recently. The lawmaker from Lagos State lamented the current situation where commercial banks send out their employees to get new customers who must deposit a huge among of money within a specific period of

By Adedapo Adesanya It was a welcome party investors at the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange were not expecting on Monday from the bears. This was because the unlisted securities market opened the new week in the bearish territory, losing 0.44 per cent at the close of business. This loss was inflicted on the NASD investors by two bellwethers, Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) Plc and Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Group Plc. The duo ensured that the market capitalisation of the bourse was reduced by N2.87 billion to N652.58 billion from N655.45 billion and weakened the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) by

By Adedapo Adesanya Zimbabwe has launched a second stock exchange to solely trade shares in foreign currency. Business Post gathered from state media reports on Saturday that the move was aimed at luring external investors as the country grapples with a forex crisis. The new bourse has been named the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange and it will be a subsidiary of the Harare-based Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) and will start trading on Monday, October 26. Speaking on this, the country’s Finance Minister, Mr Mthuli Ncube, said, “We saw an opportunity to work with the ZSE in creating a global platform

By Aduragbemi Omiyale An initiative dedicated to empowering women and driving inclusive growth within Nigeria’s equity market, EquipHER, has been introduced by the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Regulation Limited. The scheme was launched by the leading self-regulatory organisation committed to advancing market development to address diverse facets of women’s financial inclusion in alignment with Nigeria’s National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Capital Market Master Plan, and several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) focused on promoting financial inclusion for the benefit of the National Economy and Market Development. On Friday, November 17, 2023, NGX RegCo, in

By Dipo Olowookere Manufacturing activities, as measured by the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), broadly increased in the month of December 2017 68.7 from 60.1 percent, FBN Quest has revealed. In its report released today, FBN Quest, which first started the indexing in the country, stated that all five sub-indices rose in December: the highest was 73 (stocks of purchases). The headline reading has been above 50 since March. The principal driver for this, according to FBN Quest, has been the use of multiple forex windows by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which has transformed liquidity. Manufacturers, or indeed any

By Dipo Olowookere The treasury bills market was bullish on Monday as investors prepare for the sale of the government’s debt instrument via primary market tomorrow. Business Post reports that market players are of high hopes that treasury bills yields will increase as towards the end of the year and early next year, when the general elections will hold. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had hinted recently that it would rate interest rate to curtail an anticipated rise in inflation likely to be caused by huge spending by politicians preparing for the polls. However, at the close of transactions