My Blog

Category: Business

  • Environmental Degradation: Sanwo-Olu Seals Mile 12, Owode Onirin Markets

    Environmental Degradation: Sanwo-Olu Seals Mile 12, Owode Onirin Markets

    Lagos State government has sealed the Mile 12 International Market and the Owode Onirin Market on Friday for creating environmental malfeasance.

    The Ministry of Environment and Water Resources stated in Ikeja, that the markets were sealed because of indiscriminate dumping and burning of refuse, the filthy environment, and blocked drains.

    It stated that the Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Mr Tokunbo Wahab, directed the Lagos Waste Management Agency and “KAI’’ to seal the markets.

    “The reasons for sealing the markets are not unconnected with the indiscriminate dumping and burning of refuse, filthy environment, blocked and littered drains.

    “The action also followed illegal and indiscriminate parking and abandonment of trucks on the highway leading to the two markets, impeding free flow of traffic,’’ the ministry stated. 

  • SMEDAN Empowers 40 Entrepreneurs With Laptops, ICT Skills

    The Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has trained and empowered 40 entrepreneurs with Information Communication Technology (ICT) and digital skills in Ebonyi.

    The Director-General of SMEDAN, Dr Olawale Fasanya, said this during the closing ceremony of a three-day training and empowerment programme held in Abakaliki on Friday.

    The programme was targeted at young entrepreneurs to improve micro small and medium enterprises.

    Fasanya, who was represented by Mr Chigozie Asochukwu, SMEDAN Coordinator in Ebonyi, said that the importance of ICT in doing business cannot be over-emphasised.

    He said the empowerment programme, which was in collaboration with Dole International Company Ltd., was aimed at giving business owners e-commerce know-how to increase their contributions to the nation’s GDP.

    He reiterated the agency’s commitment to business growth, urging the beneficiaries to practice what they had learnt.

    “This will go a long way in enhancing productivity, customer engagement and give the entrepreneurs a competitive advantage in doing businesses.

    “It will help in digital knowledge and tools needed to grow businesses online as well as enable efficient communication, data management and analysis.

    “This is a three-day training and the participants were engaged in three module including Google digital skills, digital market fundamental and business formalisation,” Fasanya said.

    Mr Njoku Ozoemena, who spoke on behalf of “City Boys Movement”, said the training became necessary to enhance e-commerce in the country.

    Ozoemena hailed the Federal Government for putting up the programme and urged the trainees to utilise the knowledge.

    One of the beneficiaries, Kelechi Njoku, lauded SMEDAN for exposing them to modern skills for business and pledged to utilise what she had learnt.

    The agency later gave laptops to the trainees to enable them promote their businesses. 

  • NDIC Boss Urges ICAN To Integrate Deposit Insurance System Courses

    The Managing Director/Chief Executive of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Mr. Bello Hassan, has called upon the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) to incorporate courses on the Deposit Insurance System (DIS) into its educational programs and modules.

    Mr. Hassan made the call during a courtesy visit by the Governing Council Members of ICAN, led by the President of the Institute, Mr. Innocent Iweka Okwosa, to the Corporation’s Management in Abuja.

    Director, Communication & Public Affairs Department, Bashir A. Nuhu, in a statement Thursday in Abuja, quoted Mr. Hassan saying that including DIS courses within ICAN’s training programmes would enhance the understanding of DIS not only within the banking sector but also among professional accountants.

    He described it as critical to bridging the knowledge gap on the mandate and achievements of DIS, its critical role in protecting depositors and its contribution to financial system stability. He added that it would also address misconceptions of the benefits and limitations of the deposit insurance system.

    Mr. Hassan further stressed the significance of public awareness in maximizing the impact and reach of the deposit insurance system throughout the general public and the financial sector as a whole. He stated that given the novel nature of the scheme in Nigeria and globally, collaboration with ICAN and other stakeholders had become imperative to strengthen the effectiveness of the Corporation’s operations to fully implement its mandate.

    Mr. Bello Hassan congratulated Mr. Okwosa on his assumption of office as the 59th ICAN President. He encouraged him to ensure that chartered accountants uphold the Institute’s values of accuracy and integrity in all aspects of their work. He also reassured the Institute of the Corporation’s unwavering support and partnership in furthering the practice of accounting in the country. He also extended condolences to the Institute on the recent passing of the first chartered accountant in Nigeria, Mr. Akintola Williams who left a legacy of excellence and professionalism that has paved the way for the growth of the profession in Nigeria.

    Mr. Hassan commended ICAN’s commitment to maintaining zero tolerance for professional misconduct, asserting that this stance would continue to provide confidence to the Corporation and other stakeholders in relying on the work of accountants in fulfilling their mandates.

    In response, Mr. Innocent Iweka Okwosa praised the NDIC MD for his exemplary leadership and the professionalism he has instilled in the Corporation’s operations. He noted that under Mr. Hassan’s leadership, the Corporation has made substantial contributions to ensuring the safety and stability of the Nation’s financial system, a crucial element for the growth and prosperity of the Nigerian economy.

    The collaboration between NDIC and ICAN holds the promise of strengthening the knowledge base among accountants and financial professionals while fostering the growth and stability of Nigeria’s financial sector.

  • Yuguda Tasks Private Sector On Infrastructure Funding

    Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr. Lamido Yuguda has tasked the private sector to rise up to the challenge of sourcing long term financing from the capital market that would fund the provision of infrastructure in the West African Sub region.

    Yuguda stated this at a pre-event press briefing on the forthcoming West Africa Capital Market Conference scheduled to hold in Lagos October 25-26 with the theme ‘Infrastructural deficit and sustainable financing in an integrated West Africa Capital Market’.

    According to Yuguda, “Infrastructure deficit refers to a situation where there is insufficient infrastructure relative to the needs of the population. Availability of infrastructure, such as power, telecommunications, roads, rail, schools, hospitals, shopping malls, hotels etc. is crucial to raising the living standards of the people”.

    He disclosed that in many countries, the responsibility for the provision of infrastructure has been steadily moving away from government to the private sector owing to increasing demand and reduced ability of the government to fund infrastructure alone, adding that the need to tackle the infrastructure deficit in the sub-region as well as embrace principles of sustainable finance to promote economic development are some of the issues to be discussed as the conference.

    The conference is being jointly organised by the  West Africa Securities Regulators Association (WASRA) comprising  the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Nigeria, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Ghana, and Autorite de Marche’s Financiers or AMF-UMOA, in collaboration with Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the West Africa Capital Market Integration Council (WACMIC), and the West African Monetary Institute (WAMI) are jointly organizing the 3rd biennial West Africa Capital Market Conference (WACMaC) 2023.

    The SEC boss said, “This deficit also poses a significant challenge to the region’s sustainable development. To address this gap, there is a growing need to adopt innovative financing mechanisms, and sustainable financing options to mobilize the desired funds to meet the region’s critical infrastructure needs, foster economic growth, and achieve sustainable development goals.

     “The Conference will bring together a distinguished array of experts, regulators, policymakers, and industry leaders who will share their insights, experiences, and strategies to proffer solutions to the region’s massive infrastructure deficit. The WACMaC 2023 provides a unique platform to engage in meaningful discussions, share insights, and forge partnerships that will help shape the future of our capital markets.

    The DG added that this year’s conference is particularly significant, as over 300 stakeholders will converge at the Eko Hotels and Suites, Lagos from October 25-26, 2023 to hold discussions around the general theme with a view to contributing significantly to infrastructural development in Nigeria.

  • 9 Years After, CBN Removes Restriction To FX On 43 Items

    The Central Bank of Nigeria says it has removes restriction to foreign exchange placed on forty-three in 2015.

    According to a statement signed by Director, Corporate Communications, Isa AbdulMumin, importers of those items are now free to access the FX market to purchase foreign exchange.

    Former CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele had in 2015, placed a restriction on 43 items that cannot access forex at the FX market. According to Emefiele, at the time, it was part of effort to encourage local production.

    “Importers of all the 43 items previously restricted by the 2015 Circular referenced TED/FEM/FPC/GEN/01/010 and its addendums are now allowed to purchase foreign exchange in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market,” the Apex Bank said.

    The regulator added that it will continue to promote orderliness and professional conduct by all participants in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market to ensure market forces determine exchange rates on a Willing Buyer – Willing Seller principle.

    “The CBN reiterates that the prevailing Foreign Exchange (FX) rates should be referenced from platforms such as the CBN website, FMDQ, and other recognised or appointed trading systems to promote price discovery, transparency, and credibility in the FX rates.

    “As part of its responsibility to ensure price stability, the CBN will boost liquidity in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market by interventions from time to time. As market liquidity improves, these CBN interventions will gradually decrease.

    “The CBN is committed to accelerating efforts to clear the FX backlog with existing participants and will continue dialogue with stakeholders to address the issue.

    “The CBN has set as one of its goals the attainment of a single FX market. Consultation is ongoing with market participants to achieve this goal. Participants and the general public are to be guided by the above,” it further said.

  • Bulls Return As Equity Market Gains N63bn

    The domestic equity market witnessed a positive upswing on Wednesday, resulting in a gain of N63 billion in market capitalization. This represents a 0.17% increase, with the total market capitalization rising to N36.864 trillion from N36.801 trillion recorded the previous day.

    The NGX All Share Index also appreciated by 115.87 basis points, closing at 67,100.49 points compared to the previous day’s 66,984.62 points.

    Top gainers for the day included Thomas Way, which led the gainers’ table with a 9.81% increase to N2.35 per share. Daar Communication followed with a gain of 9.52% to close at N0.23 per share. Cornerstones Insurance added 6.45% to close at N1.65 per share, Transnational Corporation of Nigeria increased by 5.41% to close at N6.43 per share, and Union Bank of Nigeria added 5.30% to close at N6.95 per share.

    On the flip side, Omatek was the top loser, dropping by 8.33% to close at N0.44 per unit. Oando Plc trailed with a drop of 8.08% to close at N9.10 per share. AfriPrudential fell by 7.80% to close at N6.50 per unit, Caverton Business Solutions dipped by 6.92% to close at N1.48 per share, and Chi Plc went down by 6.25% to close at N1.05 per share.

    Total trading volume increased as investors exchanged 410.320 million shares valued at N4.456 billion in 5637 deals, compared to the previous day’s 257.423 million shares worth N7.799 billion in 6498 deals.

    Neimeth International Pharmaceutical led market activities with 163.200 million shares valued at N259.494 million, followed by AccessCorp with 38.974 million shares worth N611.819 million. Zenith Bank traded 32.273 million shares valued at N101.858 million, Fidelity Bank exchanged 23.523 million shares worth N194.178 million, and United Bank for Africa traded 19.822 million shares valued at N341.185 million.

  • SFTAS: Gombe State Attracts N26bn World Bank Grants In 4 Years – Commissioner

    Gombe State received N26 billion as grants on its achievements under the performance-based grant component of the World Bank-assisted States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) programme in four years.

    The Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development, Mr Muhammad Magaji, made this known in Gombe shortly after the inaugural State Executive Council meeting.

    Magaji said that the grants were attracted as a result of the Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) programme reforms implemented in the state.

    “The various reforms initiated by the Gov. Inuwa Yahaya made the state transparent enough to attract such grants.

    “The grant has helped the state government execute a good number of projects from infrastructure to improved healthcare amongst others which had impacted positively on the lives of the people of the state.

    “We were able to implement the SFTAS reforms and earned over N26 billion for Gombe State in grants.

    “The grant is between 2019 and 2023, that’s the first administration of Gov. Yahaya and it had helped in executing good projects for the benefits of the people,” he said.

    This, he said, means Gombe state is more transparent, accountable and whatever we are doing is out in the public for people to see and we are not hiding any skeleton.

    “We have initiated reforms and abided by them. Our account books are there for everyone to see according to the national chart of accounts.

    “We publish our annual accounts for the state government. Our budgets are in order and also published on time and regularly for everyone to see.”

    He also added that the state government had adopted the SFTAS requirements that ensured that the state cleared up its arrears while paying contractors on time.

    The commissioner said the reforms had essentially helped the state government to continue to move forward in the transparency index.

    “We were also able to reform a lot of areas in governance and we achieved a lot making Gombe the first in ease of doing business, ranking Gombe in the transparency index from 36 to number seven.

    Magaji said that the state government going forward would concentrate efforts at driving in more investments that would lead to establishment of industries and creation of jobs for youths in the state.

    The SFTAS programme is a hybrid with two components of activities that support Nigerian states to achieve the key result areas of the programme.

    These are a performance-based financing component for state governments, which will be implemented as a PforR; and a technical assistance (TA) component for states and selected national-level institutions, which will be implemented as an investment project financing (IPF).

    The programme also supports the full and sustained implementation of a strategic subset of reforms from the FSP and the open government partnership (OGP) commitments that are implemented at the state-level.

    The programme also provides performance-based financing on an annual basis to states which have been verified through the annual performance assessments (APA) as having: (1) complied with the annual eligibility criteria; and (2) achieved the annual disbursement linked results. 

  • Equity market sheds N64bn

    Trading activities on the floor of Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Tuesday returned to a negative trend, declining by N64 billion.

    Market capitalisation of listed equities declined by 0.17 per cent to N36.801 trillion from N36.865 trillion reported the previous day.

    The NGX All Share Index also depreciated by 116.71 basis points to 66984.62 points from 67101.33 points traded the previous day.

    An analysis of the investment indicated that Ncnichols led gainers table in percentage terms, gaining 10 per cent to close at N0.66 per share, Capital Hotel followed with a gain of 9.83 per cent to close N3.02 per unit, Chams Plc added 9.38 per cent to close at N1.40 per unit, ABC Transport added 8.82 per cent to close at N0.74, Oando Plc appreciated by 7.61 per cent to close at N9.90 per share.

    On the contrary, JohnHolt topped losers chart dropping by 10 per cent to close at N1.44 per unit, Presco Plc trailed with a loss of 9.54 per cent to close at N182.00, Daar Communication dipped by 8.70 per cent to close at N0.21 per unit, Deep Capital declined by 7.41 per cent to close at N0.25 per share, Jaiz Bank fell by 6.25 per cent to close at N1.50 per share.

    Volume of transactions increased by 11.24 million, representing a drop of 4.18 per cent as investors traded 257.423 million shares valued at N7.799 billion in 6498 deals against 268.663 million shares worth N3.463 billion in 6911 deals.

    Fidelity Bank led market activities with 53.396 million shares valued at N442.890 million, AccessCorp followed with 31.088 million shares cost N490.503 million, United Bank for Africa exchanged 26.772 million shares cost N459.677 million, Oando Plc traded 13.564 million shares worth N133.363 million while Zenith 11.266 million shares cost N358.983 million.

  • We’re Not Running Any Promo Sales, Dangote Debunks Rumours

    Leading cement production company, Dangote Cement Plc, has denied reports that it recently embarked on a sales promotion leading to a price adjustment.

    Unconfirmed reports say, the company in response to the price reduction announcement by BUA Cement had also slashed the price of its product to about N3,450.

    However, in a swift reaction, the company says it is not embarking on any sales promotion as is been reported.

    In his response, the Chief Branding and Communications Officer of the Dangote Group, Anthony Chiejina described the reports as mischievous, malicious, and false.

    He added that the Management has formally notified the law enforcement agents to track down, name, and shame the perpetrators of this devious and deceptive information.

    He urged Dangote’s Cement customers and other stakeholders to continue patronising the high-quality cement brand and be careful of scammers, who are bent on defrauding them of their funds.

  • Nigerian Maritime Industry On Right Path – Jamoh

    The Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Dr Bashir Jamoh, has described Nigeria’s maritime industry as one of the fastest growing on the African continent.

    Dr Jamoh, who stated this during an interactive session with the Senate Committee on Marine Transport noted that the Agency has embraced collaboration and peer review exercises with other MARADs on the African continent and globally.

    A statement by Assistant Director, Public Relations, NIMASA, Osagie Edward, quoted the NIMASA DG as saying that “We regularly undertake peer review exercises amongst maritime Administrations not just on the African continent, but globally. We have learnt a lot from reviews with the South African Maritime Administration SAMSA, and Maritime Port Authority of Singapore MPA. We have also provided mentorship for maritime administrations on the African continent. Countries like Gambia, Sierra Leone and Ghana amongst others have come for mentorship on various issues such as Port and Flag State Administration and the SPOMO Act,” he said. 

    The Senate Committee on Marine Transport is in Lagos, as part of their oversight functions, to receive briefings from the Parastatals under the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy Ministry.

    Speaking earlier, Chairman Senate Committee on Marine Transport, Senator Wasiu Sanni Eshinlokun noted that the interactive session is to ensure that the legislature and the implementing organs of government are on the same page to ensure Nigerians enjoy benefits accruable from the blue economy.

    “With the determination and commitment of the Federal Government under the able leadership of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu towards reviving the economy, I believe that better days are ahead and the current difficulty will surely come to pass.  It is in this regard that the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy was created with the mandate of coordinating and supervising the activities and operations in the maritime sector. The creation of the Ministry is born out of the enormous opportunities that are in the marine and blue economy and the desire to fully harness them”, Eshinlokun said.