ABB to Exit Solar Inverter Business

By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh Russian language study is hitting magnificent roadblocks in Africa. For several years after the Soviet collapse, Moscow has been stepping up efforts to strengthen Russian language study and its culture across Africa. But there have been few tangible results largely due to low motivation towards the language, its usefulness is blurry compared to other foreign languages including French, English language and now Chinese. In the previous years, there has been an increasing concern about Russia’s extremely low presence in Africa. Russia’s initial interest was to become part of Europe and construct business ties from Lisbon to

By Professor Maurice Okoli Over the past few years, African Union, the continental organization, has made intra-African trade its newest flagship and has created the Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF), which provides a unique and valuable platform for potential investors to support the continent’s transformation through industrialisation and export development, for businesses to access adequate trade and market information, and operate in an integrated single African market of over 1.4 billion people with a combined gross domestic product of over $3.5 trillion under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Organized by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), in collaboration with the

By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh As stipulated by the guidelines, Russia takes over the rotating chairmanship of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) from January 2024. There are high hopes a lot more will change, especially towards widening its numerical strength and increasing support for the Global South. In addition, there is also the expectation that BRICS will consolidate its role within the emerging geopolitical processes and global competition for Africa. China and Russia are currently making efforts to assert influence more aggressively, despite the challenges and obstacles, in cooperating with Africa. According to authentic reports, a number of

By Dipo Olowookere The Nigerian stock market started the week bearish yesterday, with some equities being offloaded by investors as a result of political tension in the country. More stocks would be sold off as the nation gear up for the rescheduled presidential and parliament elections this weekend. In the midst of the uncertainty, analysts at Meristem Research have advised investors to sell, buy and hold some equities because of different reasons. “This week, we expect a reversal in the market mood recorded in the past few weeks. The strong gains recorded last week, unlocked opportunities for profit taking for

By Dipo Olowookere The hunger earlier shown by offshore investors to the treasury bills issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through Open Market Operations (OMO) is beginning to wane. Last year, the apex bank restricted local retail and non-financial institutions from investing in the liquidity management tool, but allowed only foreign portfolio investors to buy. This was ostensibly done to attract foreign exchange into the country to bolster the nation’s external reserves, which was getting threatened through depletion following reduction in the prices of crude oil at the global market. While the CBN left the stop rates of

By Adedapo Adesanya The Department of Petrol Resources (DPR) has estimated that residents of Nigeria consume a total of 38.2 million litres of premium motor spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, in one day. The figure, according to the petroleum resource regulatory agency, was only an estimate, saying it was difficult to know the official volume of commodity consumed daily. It explained that this was arrived at after the federal government set up a committee to determine Nigeria’s actual fuel consumption nationwide. In its National Stock Reports released on Wednesday, the DPR stated that as at Tuesday, February 25, 2020,

By Ayomide Oriade Life in the emerging post-COVID-19 era is proving as difficult as when the virus put a halt to economic and other aspects of human activities while at its peak. The pandemic is leaving in its wake economic realities the world might not recover from for a decade to come. To navigate this unanticipated reality, countries are reeling out shrewd economic measures which are resulting in diverse economic effects on their citizens. More stinging is the dire economic situation the pandemic enforced on the globe that everyone is becoming more frugal with what they dispense. The situation on

By Dipo Olowookere On January 11, 2017, the Council extended the mandate of the EU mission EUCAP Sahel Mali for two years, until 14 January 2019. The Council also allocated a budget of €29.7 million to the mission for the period from January 15, 2017 to January 14, 2018. The EUCAP Sahel Mali civilian mission assists and advises Mali’s internal security forces as they implement the reform in the security sector laid down by the government. It provides training and strategic advice to the Malian police, gendarmerie and national guard, and to relevant ministries, in order to support the security

By Aduragbemi Omiyale The nomination of Mrs Emily Chidinma Osuji as the Executive Director of the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has been confirmed by the Senate. Her confirmation followed the consideration of the report of the Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions. At the plenary on Wednesday, the Chairman of the Committee, Mr Uba Sani, in his presentation, said “the office of the Executive Director (Corporate Services) of the corporation remains vacant following the end of the tenure of the previous occupant.” He, however, explained that Mrs Osuji’s nomination by President Muhammadu Buhari was duly in accordance

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Analysts at Zedcrest Research have predicted that the treasury bills market will likely trade cautiously today as market participants keep an eye on the outcome of the sale of treasury bills by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) via primary market auction (PMA). During the exercise, the central bank will auction N9,54 billion worth of the 91-day bills, N69.57 billion worth of the 182-day bills and N136.52 billion worth of the 364-day bills. “We expect rates to clear between 10.00 percent-10.20 percent, 10.30 percent – 10.50 percent and 11.40 percent-11.60 percent for the 91, 182 and 364

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Stuart Symington, has described Nigeria’s system of democracy as unique. Mr Symington also said the West African nation’s democracy is very commendable. The US envoy made these comments when he paid a courtesy visit to the Governor of Ogun State, Mr Ibikunle Amosun, in Abeokuta, the state capital. Mr Symington acknowledged the role of the media in strengthening the country’s democracy and advocated the need for Nigerians to collaborate with the government in improving the economic base of the country through agriculture and allied matters. He explained that he was