Meta launches Facebook Business Coach, which it described as an innovative and easily-accessible way for owners of small-and-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya and other English speaking countries to learn more about how to grow their business online with Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The Facebook Business Coach, available on WhatsApp, is a free-to-use, low data cost educational chatbot tool that users can interact within a simple, conversational and convenient way. SMBs have access to automated, self-paced lessons that teach them how to establish a presence in today’s ever-evolving digital economy. As a free curriculum platform, it features…
Author: Temitope N.
Nigerian Breweries (NB) Plc yesterday established that it had reached about 56 per cent in local sourcing of raw materials and injected up to $114 million (N55 billion) in capital investments and expansion projects to create more wealth for the economy. At a media parley to commemorate the firm’s 75th anniversary in Lagos, the company’s Corporate Affairs Director, Sade Morgan, said the company had invested up to N98 billion in the cultivation of local raw materials, in addition to sorghum and cassava value chains through commercial purchase and smallholder farming in the last five years. She said: “NB Plc, in…
The Federal Government, through the recently established Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) yesterday, said it would become mandatory for oil and gas companies operating in the country to state their owners under the Beneficial Ownership (BO) Reporting system. The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, said secrecy in the ownership of companies in the country remained a threat to economic growth linking it to money laundering and corruption. According to the Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Nigeria and other developing countries record losses in the region of $1 trillion yearly due to secret ownership…
The era of fake and adulterated petroleum products finding their way into the oil and gas delivery chain will soon become a thing of the past, going by the recent introduction of the 3P (Petroleum Product Passport) App by the Petroleum Products Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN). The app is a technology service solution that will enable PETROAN and indeed critical stakeholders in the oil and gas industry to monitor the quality and quantity of petroleum products sold at various outlets nationwide. The 3P App was unveiled at a high profile event at the Concord Hotel attended by…
Crude oil prices reduces as the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies known as OPEC+ collaborates to continue with the current output plan. Brent crude futures traded at $81.88 a barrel while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures shed 0.17 per cent to $80.29 a barrel at the end of the meeting. Three weeks ago, Brent crude topped $85 per barrel — the highest level since October 2018. The outcome of today’s meeting is against the United States call for more oil production to crash the rise in global oil prices. With this decision, the group…
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has encouraged the public not to panic buying Premium Motor Spirit, commonly known as petrol. The NNPC said it was also not aware of any plan by the government to cause an increase in the pump price of petroleum. A statement on Monday by Garba Muhammad, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, in Abuja, said that the NNPC had over 1.7 billion litres of petrol in stock. According to Muhammad, more of the product is expected to arrive in the country daily over the coming weeks and months. He said it was…
The Federal Government has established that it will soon commence monitoring the implementation of the National Minimum Wage Act 2019, which increased Nigeria’s minimum wage from N18,000 to N30,000. This was made known by the Chairman/CEO of the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, Mr Ekpo Nta, in Abuja, on Thursday. He added that the monitoring of the Minimum wage would be an interagency collaboration meant to gather evidence on compliance and difficulties faced by stakeholders; and also enable the federal government to plan the next national minimum wage act. Those who have complied fully will be put on honours list…
West African Power Pool (WAPP), at the weekend, vowed to interconnect Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Benin with transmission lines before the end of 2023. WAPPSpeaking at the 52nd WAPP Executive Board meeting which took place as part of the 16th Session of the WAPP General Assembly in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, the Chairman, Executive Board of WAPP and also the Acting Managing Director/CEO of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Engineer Sule Abdulaziz reiterated the commitment of the pool towards completing the WAPP North Core Project, a transmission line project that will link Nigeria to three countries. While highlighting key…
The Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission has established that Lagos, Rivers, Oyo and five other states received investment announcements worth $8.9 billion between July and September 2021. This was made known by the Director of Strategic and Services of the Commission, Abubakar Yerima, on Tuesday. Yerima spoke when he unveiled investments for the third quarter of 2021. According to the report, Lagos State took the lion share of the investment, accounting for 81 per cent (US$7.29 billion) of the total in manufacturing, information and communications, finance and insurance, human health and social services and electricity. In the same period, Rivers State…
As the world’s largest eCommerce company, Amazon, witnessed strong buyers’ pressures in recent months, Jeff Bezos experienced impressive gains in his net valuation. After the closing of Thursday’s trading session, the 57-year-old American billionaire earned $4.24 billion. Earlier this week, while Bezos attended the COP 26 climate summit in Glasgow, he sold shares of Amazon worth over $2 billion. In a speech at the summit, Bezos, the world’s second-richest person, declared he would invest $2 billion from his Earth Fund in restoring nature and transforming food systems. “We should protect what we have left, recover what we’ve lost, and grow…
The management of the West African Power Pool (WAPP), established that its North Core Project which is estimated to cost $586 million by completion would be finalized by 2023. This was disclosed by the Chairman, Executive Board of the West African Power Pool (WAPP) and Acting Managing Director, TCN, Mr Sule Abdulaziz, at the 52nd WAPP Executive Board meeting in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, part of the 16th session of the WAPP General Assembly. The North-Core transmission line project would link the electricity grids of Nigeria with Niger, Burkina Faso, and Benin. Abdulaziz said, “the WAPP North Core Project that seeks…
Semicolon Africa, an EdTech startup in Lagos, focused on creating employment and economic opportunities by training software engineers and techpreneurs has closed a $1.2 million seed round of funding to allow for an increase in its training, talent management, and project delivery capacity. The startup wants to bridge the gap in digital training in African which currently has a low count compared to other parts of the world where the number is high; as well as solve unemployment issues. This is as a joint report by Google and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in 2020 disclosed that there are only…
Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc. has made a $1 billion equity investment in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group, the exchange responsible for many crypto derivatives products. This marks the first time the company is investing in cryptocurrency-related products. In a press release by CME group, the company announced the $1 billion investment from Alphabet in addition to a 10-year strategic partnership with Google Cloud which is aimed at accelerating the exchange’s move to the Cloud and changing the way global derivatives markets operate. Google made the investment through the company’s non-voting convertible preferred stock. The announcement also stated, “Under the…
Uber discloses its third-quarter earnings. In after-hours trading, shares rose 1% after a dip. A drop in the value of Uber’s investment holdings, especially Didi, led to a net loss of $2.4 billion for the quarter. Some of those losses were offset by stakes in Zomato, Aurora, and Joby, according to the company. In the same quarter one year ago, Uber reported a net loss of $1.09 billion. According to Uber, it also met the end-of-year target for adjusted EBITDA profit. A company’s EBITDA is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. The car-hailing giant earned $8 million in adjusted…
The Federal Government has disclosed that it will soon begin monitoring the implementation of the National Minimum Wage Act 2019, which raised Nigeria’s minimum wage from N18,000 to N30,000. This was disclosed by the Chairman/CEO of the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, Mr Ekpo Nta, in Abuja, on Thursday. He added that the monitoring of the Minimum wage would be an interagency collaboration meant to gather evidence on compliance and difficulties faced by stakeholders; and also enable the federal government to plan the next national minimum wage act. Those who have complied fully will be put on honours list and sanctions…
Square generated $1.82 billion in Bitcoin revenue during the third quarter of 2021. Square’s payment application, Cash App was responsible for the revenue generation as the total revenue generated for the nine months now stands at $8.05 billion. Square’s Bitcoin revenue accounted for 47.22% of the total revenue generated in the third quarter while it also accounted for approximately 60% of the total revenue generated in the 9 months of 2021. Looking at its YoY performance, for the third quarter, its Bitcoin revenue grew by 11.13% while on its total nine months performance, its Bitcoin revenue is up over 185%.…
At closing of trade today, International Breweries Plc share price depreciated by 2.63% to close at N5.55 per share, taking the Market capitalization from N153.11 billion to N149.08 billion. International Breweries Plc, today, 5th November 2021 recorded a loss in share price which can be attributed to investors’ negative sentiment which triggered sell-pressures in the shares of the company, inducing a loss of N4.03 billion in market capitalization at the close of trading activities on the Nigerian Exchange. The shares of the quoted brewery declined from N5.70 per share at the start of the trading day, to N5.55 per…
Nigerian deposit money banks set to stop the acceptance of the old £20 and £50 notes as the legal tender status of these notes expire in less than a year. This is in line with the announcement by The Bank of England to withdraw the legal tender status of the paper £20 and £50 paper notes and replace them with their polymer equivalent, with a deadline of September 30, 2022. With the move in progress, Nigeria banks have a small window to discontinue acceptance of these notes, as some banks have already contacted their consumers about the development. According to…
An Ikoyi division of the Lagos State high court has threatened to sanction bank executives who fail to release the amount to the credit of Bamise and Elizabeth Ajetunmobi, owners of Imagine Global Holding Company Ltd. and Imagine Global solution Ltd. At the last adjourned date, the court had restrained commercial banks from releasing N11.79 billion funds to the couple. The judge also ordered banks to file and serve the amount on the applicants’ counsel, an affidavit disclosing the balance in the defendant account within seven days. The presiding judge, Justice Toyin Oyekan-Abdullahi expressed displeasure at the conduct of banks…
Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) held its sixth edition of its Market Data Workshop on Wednesday, 3 November 2021. This year’s event was held virtually in collaboration with Official Partners, Zenith Bank, Reliance Infosystems Limited, Infoware and MTN Nigeria; Gold Sponsor, CSCS Plc; and Corporate Sponsors, United Capital, NG Clearing, Cordros, Neulogic, Apel Asset Management and ARM. With the theme, “How Market Data Powers Investment Strategies Using Derivatives Products”, the workshop was designed to provide capital market stakeholders – particularly institutional investors, Actuaries, Portfolio Managers – with insights into price, valuation and investment strategies using Derivatives and Fixed Income Products, as…