Category: Business

The African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group are collaborating to expand the number of linked African exchanges from seven to 15.

The Bank in a statement at the weekend, said the expansion was under the second phase of the African Exchanges Linkage Project (AELP).

According to the statement, both parties on June 28 signed an agreement for a 600,000 dollars grant for the project.

It said the funds would come from the Korea African Economic Cooperation Fund (KOAFEC) Trust Fund, managed by the AfDB.

The AELP is a flagship project of ASEA and the Bank Group to link African capital markets, thereby promoting cross-border securities trading, increasing liquidity and diversifying investment opportunities for investors.

According to the statement, AELP’s second phase will provide investors access to more than 2,000 securities listed on up to 15 capital markets.

It said this would be done through a cross-border securities trading platform tailored to the needs of regulators, central depositories, policymakers, and stockbrokers.

”Participating stock exchanges include the Botswana Stock Exchange, where the grant signing took place; the Ghana Stock Exchange and six other stock exchanges.

”The grant will also support capacity building of institutional investors and capital market operators,” it said.

Thapelo Tsheole, the President of ASEA and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Botswana Stock Exchange, signed on behalf of the association.

Tsheole said: “we express our gratitude to AfDB for their invaluable support and dedication to the development of African Capital Markets.

”With the generous grant funding, we are poised to expand technical connectivity and linkage among African stock exchanges, creating a broader pan-African network.

”Together, we are working toward a fully integrated Africa for the benefit of investors, businesses and governments across the continent.”

The Bank Group’s Vice President for Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialisation, Solomon Quaynor, signed on its behalf.

Quaynor said: “The Bank is pleased to extend its partnership with ASEA through the follow-on support for Phase 2 of the AELP.

”The AELP is facilitating regional integration through African stock exchanges linkage amounting to up to 1.3 trillion dollars in combined market capitalisation.

”The collaboration between the Bank and ASEA through the AELP aligns with our objective of leveraging institutional investor groups and capital markets financing into infrastructure and the real sector in regional member countries.”

According to Quaynor, the objectives of the AELP align with the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the African Continental Free Trade Agreement’s goal.

He said the goal was to establish a liberalised market to ease the movement of capital and investments and deepen the continent’s economic integration.

He said the project also advances the Bank Group’s High 5 strategic priority to integrate Africa.

The AfDB supported the first phase of the AELP, which was also funded with a KOAFEC grant.

Phase one supported the setup of an infrastructure interconnectivity platform involving seven stock exchanges and 31 stockbrokers.

It also offered training for more than 1,000 capital market operators.

Many stakeholders have described as illegal the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN)’s directive to Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) to scrutinise the social media presence of their customers.

The Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), said that the directive was against the law.

According to the National Commissioner of the NDPC, Vincent Olatunji, the directive by the CBN is illegal and against the Nigerian Data Protection Act (NDPA) recently signed by President Bola Tinubu.

Olatunji, who said this in a statement issued by NDPC’s spokesperson, Itunu Dosekun, said that the commission was already engaging the CBN on the issue.

“The whole idea of this law is to protect the rights, the interests of Nigerians who are data subjects.

“We are already engaging with the CBN to let them know that what they have done is against the law because there are basic principles you must meet when you want to collect citizens’ data.

“There is data minimisation, meaning you do not collect data beyond the purpose for which it was intended,” he said.

Also, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), an NGO, described the directive as unlawful and a violation of Nigerians’ rights to freedom of expression and privacy.

In a statement issued by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, SERAP called on the CBN Acting Governor, Folashodun Shonubi, to remove the social media directive from the regulations.

He said that the mandatory requirement of social media handles or addresses of customers did not serve any legitimate aim.

According to him, such information can be used to unjustifiably or arbitrarily restrict the customers’ rights to freedom of expression and privacy.

The directive was contained in a recent Customer Due Diligence Regulations, 2023 signed by the Director, Financial Policy and Regulations Department of the CBN, Chibuzo Efobi.

The CBN had directed all DMBs to obtain comprehensive information about their customers, including their social media handles.

According to the directive, commercial banks must henceforth obtain social media handles and digital identification of customers as a mandatory Know Your Customer (KYC) policy in the financial services sector.

The apex bank said that the directive was targeted at strengthening the fight against financial crimes as contained in its Customer Due Diligence Regulations 2023 report.

It said that financial institutions operating under the regulatory purview of the CBN were now obligated to collect and verify customers’ social media handles as part of their KYC process.

It said that the requirement applied to both individuals and legal entities, and sought to enhance the accuracy and depth of customer identification.

The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), has warned Nigerians against dealing with any person claiming to act on behalf of the Agency, saying it is not recruiting. 

According to a statement by the Agency’s management, anybody that does business with any purported representative is at their own risk. 

“For the avoidance of doubt, any party that puts itself forward as acting on behalf of NIMASA for the purpose of recruitment is completely false and NIMASA disclaims and bears no responsibility whatsoever for their action,” the statement said. 

The management stated that its “attention has been drawn to a fraudulent employment scheme currently making the rounds online, and especially on various social media platforms that the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) will soon commence ‘massive recruitment’ exercise.

“These fraudulent persons have also been known to contact innocent people through e-mail, social media and other forms of internet publication soliciting for payment, inducement, advance fees or other favours in exchange for employment. Victims stand the risk of extortion, hence, members of the public are warned not to make any payment whatsoever to unscrupulous persons parading themselves as employment agents.

“For the avoidance of doubt, any party that puts itself forward as acting on behalf of NIMASA for the purpose of recruitment is completely false and NIMASA disclaims and bears no responsibility whatsoever for their action. NIMASA does not communicate employment vacancies through third-party online channels, emails or social media platforms. NIMASA hereby expressly disassociates itself from such fraudulent online publications and posts and warns the unsuspecting public not to fall victim to such baseless and false schemes in the guise of employment opportunity. 

NIMASA urged members of the public to treat with suspicion any such offerings and verify their claims in order not to fall prey to these scammers, as the Agency has not designated any entity or persons to act on its behalf.

The Agency said it would not be held liable for any losses incurred by any person(s) as a result of reliance on such fraudulent e-mails/online publications.

Despite production cut by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), high-interest rate by central banks across the world, including China’s slow economic growth is causing a lull in the oil market 

The concerns of oil traders have shifted from under-supply to oversupply, the futures contract structure of the global benchmark Brent showed on Wednesday, as expectations of weak economic growth outweigh Saudi Arabia’s output cuts.

Saudi Arabia has said it will cut its output in July, deepening the impact of a broader deal among members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies including Russia (OPEC+) to limit supply into 2024.

But economic growth in China, the world’s second-biggest oil consumer, has not recovered as quickly as expected from the pandemic and central banks across the globe have hiked interest rates.

Higher interest rates can slow economic growth, which in turn can reduce oil demand.

For the first time since December, the six-month spread for Brent LCOc1-LCOc7 shows contracts for earlier loading are trading below those for later loading, a structure known as contango.

This encourages traders to pay for storing oil so it can be sold at higher prices when supplies are expected to have shrunk.

The same structure for the U.S. benchmark WTI crude oil contract CLc1-CLc7 fell into contango for the first time since March on Tuesday.

Brent’s and WTI’s front-month loading contracts settled down 2.6 per cent and 2.4 per cent, respectively, on Tuesday, having shed around 15 per cent each this year so far. O/R.

“Yesterday’s performance foresees a meaningful loosening of oil balance embodied in the ominous weakening of the structures of both WTI and Brent,” PVM oil market analyst Tamas Varga said in a note.

In a bid to ensure that more Nigerians are educated on the activities of the capital market and thereby attract more investors, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is set to hold an awareness programme tagged “Investor Safety” for Officers of the Federal Road Safety Corps formations across the country.

The event, which is the third in the series of sensitizing officers of the FRSC, is to hold on July 5th, 2023 in Enugu, Lagos, Osun, Port-Harcourt and Benin, respectively.

According to a statement by SEC, the officers would be exposed to knowledge on investments available in the capital market, identifying and avoiding Ponzi schemes, the roles and functions of the SEC, Non-Interest Finance, and complaints management framework.

“The Commission is organizing the event in collaboration with the Fund Managers Association of Nigeria (FMAN) to also expose the Officers to legitimate channels of investments and the Association of Dealing Houses of Nigeria (ASHON) to address issues that relate to investments and unclaimed dividends and other related matters.

“This enlightenment programme is part of our commitment to developing the capital market, appraising investors of the products available in the market as well as our functions and roles in restoring investors’ confidence” SEC stated.

The first tranche of the programme was held on November 30, 2022, at the SEC Head Office Abuja for the Abuja Sector Command of FRSC with over 50 officers in attendance. Participants shared experiences on their investments in the capital market pre-2008 meltdown and on Ponzi schemes.

On May 9, 2023, the second phase of the programme was organised for other officers in six (6) Formations of the Corps which are in Adamawa, Plateau, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kwara and Bauchi States.

The Lekki Deep Seaport Management on Friday announced that the Rimbaud became the first-ever transshipment vessel to berth at the port.

With its 270m length overall, 42.8m breadth, and a 6800 Taus capacity, the ship sailed from the Far East and berthed at the port at around 1 pm on Thursday evening.

The Nigerian Customs Agency boarded the vessel and completed the paperwork, verifying that the transshipment volume is 411 TEUs and it is destined for Cotonou on July 6th, 2023.

The tweet from the port management said, “Lekki Port is proud to actualize the objective of the Federal Ministry Of Transport, Nigeria and the Nigerian Ports Authority to bring transshipment volumes to Nigeria. We consider this to be the first of many more transshipment vessels that are set to berth at Lekki Port.”

“The Nigerian Customs Agency boarded the vessel and all paperwork was certified to be in order.

“The transshipment volume on the vessel is 411 TEUs and the eventual destination will be Cotonou on 6th July 2023.

“Lekki Port is proud to actualize the objective of the Federal Ministry of Transport, Nigeria and the Nigerian Ports Authority to bring transshipment volumes to Nigeria and this is the first of many more transshipment vessels to berth at Lekki Port,” the tweet added.

The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the yuan, weakened 50 pips to 7.2258 against the dollar Friday, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.

In China’s spot foreign exchange market, the yuan is allowed to rise or fall by two percent from the central parity rate each trading day.

The central parity rate of the yuan against the dollar is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening of the interbank market each business day. 

German high-end carmaker Mercedes is recalling more than 140,000 vehicles in the United States due to problems with the fuel pump.

According to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), up to 143,551 cars made between 2021 and 2023 are affected, the regulator announced in Washington on Friday.

The vehicles include models of the C-E- and S-Class as well as the SUV types GLC, GLE and GLS, G-Class SUVs are also listed.

Dealers would replace the fuel pump free of charge, the NHTSA said. A malfunction of the pump could increase the risk of an accident, according to the regulator.