AU Seeks Active Collaboration Between Public, Private Sectors

By Adedapo Adesanya The SBM Intelligence African Country Instability Risk Report Index (ACIRI) has ranked Nigeria as a stable African country based on select macro indicators benchmarks. The report which was published on Monday assesses the political, economic and social factors contributing to Sub-Saharan Africa’s political instability. It provides a framework for assessing the risk of coups d’état using factors such as ethnic tension, the country’s history of coups, dominant ethnic groups, economic concentration, ageing leaders and monoproduct, bi-product or multi-product economies. The 47 Sub-Saharan sub-region of Africa’s 55 countries were ranked on four benchmarks – leadership and governance, geopolitics,

By Adedapo Adesanya The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) have signed an agreement for a dual currency line of credit comprising $50 million and €50 million to support local agricultural businesses in West Africa. The credit lines are expected to strengthen food security, economic growth, and employment generation. The President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of EBID, Mr George Agyekum Donkor and Mr Solomon Quaynor, AfDB Vice President for Private Sector, Infrastructure, and industrialisation, formalised the agreement during a signing ceremony at the bank’s headquarters in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

By Adedapo Adesanya The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has urged entrepreneurs in Nordic countries and Ireland to make Africa their business and investment destination. According to a statement, the call was made by the lender’s Chief Economist, Mr Kevin Chika Urama, on a spate of official visits to Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway, and Sweden between September 25 – 29. He said Africa’s population boom is projected to make it the world’s most populous region by the end of the century, with up to 3.4 billion people offering huge business and investment opportunities to the rest of the world. “With

By Adedapo Adesanya Former prime minister of the United Kingdom, Mr David Cameron, has returned to government as Foreign Secretary amid a fresh cabinet shake-up by Prime Minister, Mr Rishi Sunak, on Monday. Downing Street announced on Monday that Mr Cameron would join the government, accepting a peerage in order to do so, as part of a wider reshuffle in which Ms Suella Braverman was sacked as Home Secretary and replaced by the Foreign Secretary, Mr James Cleverly. Business Post also confirmed that Mr Jeremy Hunt would remain as chancellor. Mr Cameron stood down in 2016 after losing the Brexit

By Dipo Olowookere The maiden edition of a talent hunt show organised by Zidora Group has commenced and auditions will hold in major cities in Nigeria. The programme is for those talented in different areas like music, dance, acting, magic, acrobatics, among others. Participants would be aiming to win different fabulous prizes. According to the organisers, auditions will hold in major cities like Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Calabar and Owerri. At the end of the auditions, successful applicants would be invited to the Zidora Talent Hunt Academy in Lagos for the grand finale and all processes shall be beamed live

**Proposes ‘shared purpose’ to create economic, social wealth for citizens By Dipo Olowookere Federal Government has been charged to, as a matter of urgency, fix the bureaucracy in its parastatals, which frustrates the ease of doing business in Nigeria, so as to promote, attract and retain investors willing to do genuine business in the country. This charge was made by Chairman of Heirs Holdings, Mr Tony Elumelu, during an event held in Abuja on Monday. Mr Elumelu, who delivered a speech on ‘Nigeria Open for Business’ at the 2017 National Insurance Conference organised by the Insurance Industry Consultative Council (IICC),

By Investors Hub Stocks are poised for an advance at the start of Wednesday’s trading, bouncing back from the profit taking recorded in the previous session. U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday, snapping a long winnings streak, as weakness emerged in the energy and banking sectors. Markets were in a cautious mood after data showed U.S. consumer confidence unexpectedly fell in May, the second consecutive monthly decline. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 50.81 points, or 0.2%, at 21,029.47, as banks struggled. The S&P 500 index finished down 2.91 points, or 0.1%, at 2,412.91, and the Nasdaq Composite Index closed down

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The sum of N350 million was earned by Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in the country as interest in the month of July 2019 from the Standing Deposit Facility (SDF) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). This amount was generated from the surplus cash kept with the banking sector watchdog by the financial institutions so as to earn interest of 8.50 percent. According to data sourced from the Economic Report for July 2019 released by the apex bank, the sum of N1.166 trillion, including Intra-day Lending Facility (ILF) converted into repo was the total SDF for the

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) will on Friday, February 7, 2020, hold an investment summit at the Stock Exchange House, Lagos from 10am to 1pm. The workshop is a collaboration with Meristem Wealth Management Limited and centred around Smart Ways to Invest, with a focus on Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). According to information gathered by Business Post, the programme is designed to help investing public appreciate how ETFs can be used as a proxy for investing in the Nigerian capital market. “It will also afford new and prospective investors the opportunity to understand the various smart investing

By Dipo Olowookere Shareholders of Presco Plc will soon receive reward for their investment in the company, information revealed by the firm has indicated. This week, the board announced that it was proposing to pay a cash dividend of N2 per share to shareholders of the company for reposing their confidence on the firm. According to the company, this proposed final dividend is for the financial year, which ended on December 31, 2018. However, the cash payment is subject to appropriate withholding tax and approval of the shareholders during the Annual General Meeting slated for Wednesday, July 24, 2019, at

By Adedapo Adesanya The Naira was pressured against the United States Dollar in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the foreign exchange (FX) market, the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) and the parallel market on Thursday, September 29. At the official market, the Nigerian currency fell to a new low of N437.03/$1 after it lost 0.15 per cent or 66 Kobo. In the preceding day, the exchange rate was N436.37/$1. Business Post observed that the domestic currency was weakened due to a surge in forex requests during the session by 95.2 per cent or $113.81 million to $223.30 million from $119.49 million.