Category: Business

  • IMF further downgrades Nigeria’s 2022 economic growth prospect

    Global financial institution, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has downgraded to 3.2 percent, Nigeria’s economic growth projection for 2022, a 0.2 percentage points lower than the 3.4 percent projected in its July 2022 report.

    The Bretton Woods institution disclosed this on Tuesday in its World Economic Outlook (WEO) for October 2022 titled, “Countering the Cost-of-Living Crisis”.

    The report equally downgraded the economic growth projection for sub-Saharan Africa from 3.8 percent to 3.6 percent, citing tighter financial and monetary conditions.

    “In sub-Saharan Africa, the growth outlook is slightly weaker than predicted in July, with a decline from 4.7 percent in 2021 to 3.6 percent and 3.7 percent in 2022 and 2023, respectively — downward revisions of 0.2 percentage points and 0.3 percentage points, respectively,” the report said.

    “This weaker outlook reflects lower trading partner growth, tighter financial and monetary conditions, and a negative shift in the commodity terms of trade.”

    Unlike sub-Saharan Africa, the report projected that growth in the Middle East and Central Asia would increase to 5.0 percent in 2022.

    According to IMF, this reflects “a favourable outlook for the region’s oil exporters and an unexpectedly mild impact of the war in Ukraine on the Caucasus and Central Asia”.

    “In 2023, growth in the region is set to moderate to 3.6 percent as oil prices decline and the headwinds from the global slowdown and the war in Ukraine take hold,” it added.

  • SEC mulls new regulatory framework to boost capital market activities

    The Director General of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Lamido Yuguda, has said that the commission is considering a new regulatory framework that will further enhance the scope and operations of non-interest finance in the capital market.

    According to Yuguda, the new framework will address challenges and unleash the potential of non-interest capital market.

    He said the non-interest capital market has enormous potential capable of growing the capital market capitalisation by 25 per cent over the next three years.

    He said the Capital Market Master Plan has a target that by the end of the plan period, 25 per cent of market capitalisation in the capital market should come from the non interest sector.

  • Serena Williams invests in Nigerian intelligence startup

    Stears Business, a Nigerian data and intelligence startup, has announced the completion of its seed round funding, which raised $3.3 million.

    The round which was led by Mac Venture Capital had participation from other companies including Serena William’s Serena Ventures, Melo 7 Tech Partners, Omidyar Group’s Luminate Fund, and Cascador.

    Preston Ideh, CEO of Stears, expressed excitement about the development in a statement released on Monday and assured that the funding will allow the company to expand into other African countries.

    The statement read in part, “We’re excited to announce that we have closed our seed round funding of $3.3M led by @MaCVentureCap, with participation from @SerenaVentures.

    “Like all startups, it is our job to obsess over the problem we set out to solve and keep learning from our users. We know that the market wants more than just articles, no matter how well-researched. It isn’t just about building Stears 2.0 in the 54 African countries; that is not the goal.

    “To be the most trusted source of data and insights in Africa, $1 trillion economy with 1 billion people, the continent needs deep, reliable, regular streams of data, not just articles or reports. To provide this, we know what we must do next: focus on making proprietary data, models, tools and forecasts directly available to our users.

    “What does this look like? It means building the most valuable database on African economies and markets. It means expanding our intelligence team into Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt. It means developing local expertise that cannot be replicated with remote offices.”

    In an emailed statement by Serena Williams the Tennis champion stated that she did not invest in the company because of her love for Africa, but rather, “because Stears has strategically thought of how to increase the investment community on the continent.”

    “They’re aware of the complexities and have leverage with data and technology, and I truly respect what they’re doing,” she continued.

    The financing round places Stears’ total cumulative funding at $4 million, after an initial pre-seed round of $650,000 in 2019, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

    Launched in 2017, Stears was founded by four school mates, Michael Famoroti, an economist; Bode Ogunlana, a software engineer; Abdul Abdulrahim, a data scientist; and Preston Ideh, a corporate lawyer, who met during secondary school at Loyola Jesuit College, Nigeria, and at the London School of Economics and Imperial College in the United Kingdom.

    One of the company’s famous exploit is creating Nigeria’s first real-time election tracker, which drew two million unique users during the 2019 general election cycle.

  • Kogi State Government accuses Dangote Group of being behind razing of Assembly Complex, Company reacts

    The Management of Dangote Group has denied allegation by the Kogi state government that the company sponsored arsonists to burn its House of Assembly Complex.

    The group’s chief branding and communications officer, Anthony Chiejina made the denial a press statement made available to newsmen on Monday.

    “Our attention has been drawn to a circulating Press Statement issued by the Kogi State Government, wherein the Dangote Group was accused of allegedly sponsoring arsonists to set the Kogi State House of Assembly on fire in the early hours of Monday, October 10, 2022.” Anthony said

    He expressed worries that the Kogi State Government had in its statement titled “Obajana: Desperation sets in as imported hoodlums burn down Kogi Assembly” which was signed by the Kogi State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Kingsley Fanwo pointedly accused Dangote Group of burning the Complex “in an attempt to possibly destroy evidence relating to the ownership tussle between the Kogi State Government and the Dangote Group over the Obajana Cement Company.”

    The Group’s Chief Branding and Communications Officer posited that as a socially responsible corporate entity”, we totally refute this allegation and condemn this unprofessional and irresponsible attempt to smear our image before local and international investors and thus erode our brand value.”

    “Dangote Group would never stoop so low as to sponsor thugs to destroy any property, belonging to either government or any individual. This runs contrary to our business ethos and everything we stand for as a leading manufacturer with teeming customers and consumers across Nigeria and Africa.”

    Chiejina added that the group’s chief lawyers had been mandated to react appropriately to the alleged “damaging allegation from the Kogi State Government within the full extent of the law.”

    “We urge our stakeholders and the public to disregard such irresponsible and insane statements as we ask all our stakeholders, namely shareholders, customers, suppliers, employees, and the entire community of Obajana and Kogi State at large to remain calm while we follow the legitimate and lawful process to resolve this matter with the State Government.” the statement by Chiejina concluded.

    NewsClick Nigeria reports that the Kogi State Government and Dangote Group had been enmeshed in serious crisis over the ownership of the Obajana cement company.

    During the crisis, one person was said to have lost his life with many others sustaining various degrees of injuries

  • Nigerians spent $609.5m on foreign education in eight months – CBN

    Nigerians spent $609.5m on foreign education between January and August 2022, figures from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) show.

    The figure is based on the information provided on the amount spent on educational services under the sectoral utilisation for transactions valid for foreign exchange.

    In January 2022, the apex bank noted that a total of $60,202,730.84 was spent on foreign education, while noting that $69.9m was spent in February 2022.

    In March 2022, there was a significant increase as the bank stated that $87.26m was spent.

    In April, there was a little reduction as a total of $78.62m was recorded by the apex bank.

    The figure for May 2022 was stated as $82.70m.

    Further analysis revealed that in June 2022, the apex bank released $84.90m, while a total of $61.99m was released in July 2022.

    A slight increase was recorded in August 2022 when a total of $84.01 million was released.

    Recent data released by the home office of the United Kingdom revealed that the number of study visas released to Nigerians increased by 222.8 per cent, with 65,929 issued as at June 2022 as against 20,427 in the same period in 2021.

  • Polaris Bank announces new ‘Save & Win’ promo, commits Millions of Naira in Prize Money to Nigerians

    Polaris Bank announces new ‘Save & Win’ promo, commits Millions of Naira in Prize Money to Nigerians

    Polaris Bank has commenced a nationwide savings campaign tagged: Polaris ‘Save & Win’ Promo to give away Millions of Naira in cash rewards to its loyal and prospective customers who would partake and emerge winners in the promo.

    Four millionaires will emerge alongside 4,379 Nigerians who will be rewarded with other cash gifts from N100,000.00 up to N500,000.00 per person in a monthly, quarterly and special draws over a period of 12 months.

    The ‘Save & Win’ promo is aimed at making millionaires of everyday Nigerians by encouraging current customers of the Bank to grow their existing accounts by N5,000.00 in 30 days while prospective customers are encouraged to open and save in their account, a minimum of N2,000.00 and grow it to N5,000 within a month to qualify for the monthly draws, and stand a chance of winning N100,000.00. For the quarterly draw, existing and prospective customers stand the chance of winning N1m in rent as first prize; N500,000.00 for first runner up and N250,000.00 for second runner up within the promo period. The Campaign started from October 1, 2022, and will run till September 30, 2023.

    The first draw, which will herald the first set of winners for the month of October, will be announced in the first week of November. On that day, the first set of winners, 62 in all, will receive N100,000.00 as their reward in commemoration of the 62nd Independence Anniversary of Nigeria.

    The same process will be repeated in subsequent months where 100 Nigerians will win N100,000.00 each. In December however, the 1st quarter of the campaign draw will hold where 3 winners will go home with N1m in rent prize: N500,000.00 and N250,000.00 cash prizes alongside 100 winners of N100,000.00 each across the six geo-political zones in the monthly reward draw.

    There will also be Special draws for Nigeria’s Independence, Xmas, Valentine, Easter and Eid-el-Kabir seasons. Additionally, the campaign has a targeted draw component where 200 winners comprising of artisans, trade association members will emerge per month (10 winners per cluster with 20 clusters activated every month).

    The Group Head, Product and Market Development, Mrs. Adebimpe Ihekuna while kicking off the campaign, noted that “the essence of the exercise, is to give back to customers and encourage savings amongst Nigerians”. The campaign, she further explained, is a reward for the traders, artisans, public servants and indeed professionals who in spite of the challenging times, are able to put aside some money.

    She reiterated that in challenging times such as we are now, there is a compelling need to save, not only to win a prize, but also to plan for the rainy day.

    Explaining further on the dynamics of the campaign, Mrs. Ihekuna, noted that” both current and new savings account customers of the Bank are eligible to participate in the promo.

    She disclosed that the joy of winning lies in the ability to continuously grow savings to have greater chances of winning.

    According to her, “Winners will emerge from four routes or reward categories namely, Monthly draws, Quarterly draws, targeted draws and Special draws through a transparent electronically generated process that will be supervised by relevant regulatory institutions.”

    Opening a Savings Account is simple and swift in Polaris Bank. Prospective customers can dial *833*0# on their phones to follow the prompt or simply download VULTe on iOS and App store. If you have a dormant Account with the Bank, you can reactivate it from your devices by visiting https://accounts.polarisbanklimited.com/reactivate/ or any of the Bank’s branches across the country.

    Polaris Bank, adjudged the Digital Bank of the Year, is a future-determining Bank committed to delivering industry-defining products to individuals and businesses.

  • CBN warns banks against borrowing from it to fund forex, auctions

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has warned commercial banks as well as authorised dealers to desist from accessing its discount windows to fund foreign exchange as well as Treasury Bills and Open Market Operations auctions.

    This was made known to authorised dealers in a circular issued by the CBN Director, Financial Market Department, Angela Sere-Ejembi. The circular which was on access to the CBN discount windows noted that some authorised dealers have not been adhering to the stipulations according to its circulars dated August 1, 2012, and August 8, 2016, referenced FMD/DIR/GEN GIR/03/006 and FMD/DIR/GEN/CIR/07/005, respectively.

    The CBN discount window includes the Standing Lending Facility (SLF), the Automated Repo Conversion (AREPO), the Funding for Liquidity Facility (FfLF), and the Tenored Repurchase Transactions (REPO).

    The latest circular issued at the weekend stated that for “Open Market Operations: Participants with successful bids at the Open Market Operations (OMO) auctions are to refrain from accessing the discount window on the auction date. Failure to comply shall result in the reversal of allotment.”

    Also, on Government Securities it said dealers “with successful bids at the government securities auctions (e.g., Nigerian Treasury Bills (NTBs), Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) Bonds and Sukuk), are not permitted to access the CBN discount window on the settlement date. Requests for SLF, FfLF and REPO on the settlement date will not be permitted. AREPO and conversion of Intraday Liquidity Facility (IDF) to FfLF on the settlement date, as well as running REPO shall attract a penal charge of five per cent (5.00%) flat on the allotment value.

    “Participants with successful foreign exchange bids and transactions are not to access the discount window on both auction and transaction settlement dates. Failure to comply shall result in the cancellation of the bids or transactions.

    “This Circular takes immediate effect. All authorized dealers are hereby required to comply accordingly.”

     

  • Oil theft: Military, NNPC vow to investigate illegal pipeline connections, punish culprits

    The Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari have vowed to investigate the illegal insertions at the Trans-Escravos pipeline in the Yokiri area of Delta State.

    The duo made the promise after visiting the scene of the insertions on Friday.

    Speaking to reporters, General Irabor vowed to launch a full-scale investigation into the illegal activities.

    “This is an eye-opener and I’m glad that I’ve come here,” the General said. “This is really very sad and we are going to get to the root of it all. There will be an investigation that will go through the entire length of the chain to establish who did this and how long it has been, among several other issues.”

    Kyari, on his part, said anyone who is culpable, even among industry practitioners, will be brought to book.

    “The attachment on our Trans-Escravos line, that illegal connection, is professionally done,” he said. “And the end result is they connected this to an inactive test line which should never carry crude under normal circumstances. And we have seen that this line flows all the way, parallel to the other two active lines, into the Afremo platform. And we think this is a good revelation.

    “Anyone involved in this process, whether from the community members, our community contractors, government security agencies, workers of the oil companies, including NNPC and Shell, anyone that is involved with this will be dealt with by the law.”

  • Air Peace Resumes Flight to South Africa Today

    Air Peace Resumes Flight to South Africa Today

    Air Peace said it will resume flights to Johannesburg, South Africa on October 9, 2022.

    The airline, Air Peace announced the continuance of the flight via a statement signed by its management and released on Saturday.

     

    “This is to inform the flying public that our Johannesburg service resumes on Sunday, October 9, 2022,” the statement reads.

    “The schedules are now live on our website/mobile app, and you can now book your flights to South Africa.

    “For assistance with your flights or any other enquiries, kindly contact us via [email protected].

    assistance with your flights or any other enquiries, kindly contact us via [email protected].

    “We look forward to having you on board.”

    The news comes seven weeks after the airline halted flights on the route due to a delay in the issuance of South African visas to passengers, as well as an increase in aviation fuel prices.

    “However, having informed the South African high commission in Lagos of the effects of the difficulty in getting SA visas by Nigerians, which consequence is the abysmally low passenger loads on our flights to and from Johannesburg, we believe that the situation will have improved within the next 60 days.

    “Hence, our willingness to resume operations on October 8, 2022,” Air Peace had said in August, 2022.

  • Kogi Government shutdown Dangote Cement factory at Obajana, company officially notifies public

    Kogi Government shutdown Dangote Cement factory at Obajana, company officially notifies public

    Dangote Cement Plc has notified stakeholders and the public on the recent shutdown of its Obajana Cement plant in Kogi State.

    In a statement available on the website of the Nigerian Exchange, Dangote Cement stated thus:

    “On Wednesday, 5 October 2022, thugs and local vigilantes from the State Government invaded and sealed the Obajana Cement plant over alleged claims of unpaid taxes and Kogi State Government purported equity interest in Dangote Cement PLC. This development led to several of our staff being harmed by these thugs and local vigilantes.

    “While we reassure stakeholders and the public that we are taking firm action to address this situation, we reiterate that Dangote Cement PLC continues to perform its obligations as a compliant corporate organization.

    “The welfare of our staff remains our key focus as we work hard to minimise the further impact on our people and operations. However, we remain resolute in transforming Africa while creating sustainable value for our people, communities, investors and customers”.

    Meanwhile, some organisations, including Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN) have condemned the invasion of the factory.