A coalition of aviation workers’ unions yesterday, raised the alarm over alleged imminent plan to ground Areo Contractors airline and further downsize another 40 per cent of its workforce. The coalition, made up of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) and the Air Transport Senior Staff Services Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), told reporters that the airline was already on its way to decommissioning following claims that its operating airlines and assets were too old to fly. The management, however, said that the claims were unfounded and carrier was still on the path of recovery. Recall that the Asset…
Author: Temitope N.
Nigerian and Swiss firms have signed a pact to develop precious metals and artisanal gold mining value chain. On the sideline of the Investing in African Mining Indaba at Capetown, South Africa, Dukia Gold & Precious Metals Refining Co. Limited Nigeria and Philoro Global Trading AG Switzerland, signed a Working Together Agreement to deepen participation in the extractive industry as well as consolidate strategies in the development of programmes needed to exploit the expected benefits in the sector. Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, said the signature was a simple affair but one with enormous significance. Adegbite described…
Unless Nigeria becomes structurally balanced by addressing various issues that have constrained the nation’s economic potential over the years, the country may not record any meaningful growth. Chief Executive Officer of Financial Derivatives Limited, Bismarck Rewane, while addressing participants at the Vetiva virtual 2022 Africa Macroeconomic Conference held at the weekend, stated categorically that the nation is currently beset by numerous structural issues, ranging from monetary policy framework, exchange rate processes, investment uncertainties and other impediments to growth. Rewane pointed out that the leadership of the country has failed to address these constraints that have hampered the nation’s industrialization and…
A consortium of Falcon Corporation, ND Western Midstream Limited and First Hydrocarbon Nigeria (FHN) Gas Limited, have signed a gas infrastructure development agreement worth over $25 million in the Lagos Free Zone (LFZ). According to the Chief Financial Officer, FHN, Kayode Olatunbosun, the investment, which is for the construction phase, would be funded through equity. He stated this during the agreement signing ceremony for the gas development infrastructure. The consortium has been selected to build exclusively, own, and operate a natural gas distribution infrastructure network within the LFZ and would incorporate a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV): Optimera Energy LFZ Enterprise…
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, has said despite the Federal Government’s efforts to leverage the benefits of tax exemptions and concessions, the incentive has rather led to huge revenue loss to the government. According to her, though the government is committed to reducing tax expenditure, the nation’s current revenue to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio of about seven per cent was poor and unsatisfactory. The minister stated this on Monday in Abuja, at the workshop on tax expenditure organised by the ECOWAS Commission under the Context of the Implementation of the Support Programme for Tax…
Stakeholders, yesterday, in Abuja, raised concerns about the growing level of deforestation triggered by activities in the oil and gas sector in Nigeria. This is coming as Seplat Energy said over five million trees would be planted in some oil producing and Northern states. Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, Board Chairman of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), Senator Margery Chuba Okadigbo and Chairman of Seplat, ABC Orjiako were among stakeholders who insisted that unless concerted efforts are made, achieving the 2030 target to end deforestation may remain elusive. Speaking as Seplat unveiled the tree planting initiative,…
Less than two weeks to the presidential primaries of the political parties ahead of the 2023 elections, the US dollar has broken the N600/$ mark at the parallel market and set the tone for a possible uptick in the coming days. The black market rate had traded between N570/$ and N590/$ since the beginning of the year while the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s intervention at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange (NAFEX) has kept its rate under N420/$. With the latest slump of the naira, the arbitrage between the parallel and NAFEX, which is regarded as the official window, is…
Microblogging platform, Twitter, has informed that it has suspended over half a million accounts suspected to be spam every day. In addition to this, Twitter said millions of accounts that are unable to pass human verification are locked each week. Twitter Chief Executive Officer, Parag Agrawal, who stated this, yesterday, explained the efforts of the company at reducing spam accounts. Agrawal said the company also faces the challenge of many accounts that look fake because they have no pictures, but are later verified to have real humans behind them. The Twitter CEO also admitted that fighting spam is incredibly dynamic,…
Poor implementation of the patronage policy, high cost of production, high level of importation, smuggling among other challenges have continued to undermine Nigeria’s textile sector, shrinking the number of viable textile firms to less than 20 from 175 firms in 1985. According to the Nigerian Textile Manufacturers Association (NTMA), the textile sector, which used to be the highest employer of labour, lost at least 117,000 jobs within 26 years, with more losses underway without government’s intervention. The association noted that the industry’s declining export capacity, having led to the loss of preferential market access in the EU and US, was…
Amid uncertainties in the global economy and rising insecurity in the country, the nation’s stock market continued its bullish run, giving hope to patient investors who endured long periods of downturn on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX). After getting to a rock-bottom low for several years, the equities market have recorded an unprecedented upbeat rally since the beginning of the year to emerge the best performing market in Africa and third in the world. The NGX’s All Share Index (ASI), an indicator used to track the general market movement of all listed equities on NGX, crossed 53,000 mark to hit a 14-year high…
Nigeria’s core inflation rate soared to a 5-year record high in April 2022 as the index rose by 14.18% year-on-year in the review month from 13.91% recorded in the previous month. This is according to information contained in the Consumer Price Index report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). According to the NBS, Nigeria’s “all items less farm produce”, otherwise known as Core inflation quickened by 0.26% points month-on-month in April 2022, largely due to significant increases in the prices of gas, liquid fuel, clothing materials, repair and hire of clothing amongst other clothing accessories. A cursory glance…
Nigeria’s inflation rose to 16.82% in April 2022, following a similar uptick recorded in the previous month as a result of the increase in energy and food prices. This represents the highest rate recorded since August 2021. This is according to the recently released Consumer Price Index report, released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The consumer price index, which measures the rate of inflation rose by 16.82% year-on-year in April 2022, which is 0.9% points higher than the 15.92% recorded in the previous month (March 2022). On a month-on-month basis, the headline index increased by 1.76% in April…
Nigeria’s Federal government incurred a sum of N4.22 trillion on debt servicing in 2021, increasing by 29.3% compared to N3.27 trillion spent in the previous year. On the other hand, revenue for the period only increased marginally by 9.3% to N4.39 trillion. This means that Nigeria spent about 96% of its revenue on servicing debt obligations in the year under review. Compared to the previous year, Nigeria’s debt service-to-revenue ratio increased from 81.1% in 2020 to 96% in the year under review. This is according to analysis carried out by Nairalytics, the research arm of Nairametrics on data from the…
Africure, a manufacturer and distributor of essential generic pharmaceutical products, has secured $15 million from BluePeak Private Capital’s $200 million targeted impact-linked fund. The new funding is expected to provide a vital capital boost to Africure and supports the company’s plan to strengthen its working capital and increase demand for pharmaceutical goods across over 10 African markets. The funding is also expected to help Africure to realise its growth ambitions to develop a range of innovative affordable Africure brands that target chronic disease profiles such as cardiac and diabetes conditions. Fulton Shiundu, Principal at BluePeak Private Capital explained that it…
0x Labs, a company that provides infrastructure for businesses to build in the decentralized exchange (DEX) space, has raised a $70 million Series B led by Greylock. The news caused excitement amongst its native token holders, as it gained 15% despite bearish market conditions. DEXs are cryptocurrency exchanges that allow for peer-to-peer transactions to occur without the need for an intermediary, as is the case for a centralized exchange such as Coinbase or Kraken. Other participants in the funding round include Pantera, OpenSea and Jump Capital. ZRX token has seen its market capitalization rally by over 15% to currently stand…
As the world celebrates the United Nations International Mother Earth Day, leading Cement manufacturer in Africa, Dangote Cement Plc has reiterated its commitment to protecting the earth through efforts aimed at mitigating environmental degradation. Speaking on the planned activities to observe the Earth Day in Lagos, the global headquarters of the Cement Company, the Group Managing Director, Mr Michel Puchercos noted one sure way to address the problems of the environment is through the conversion and co-processing of waste as alternative fuel. He remarked that poor waste management is a known environmental challenge on the continent and that “Dangote cement…
Ikeja Electric Plc, in its efforts to accelerate installation of meters under the MAP scheme, is offering willing customers the one-day metering initiative where they can complete their KYC and get metered in 24 hrs. The programme which is being done in collaboration with MOJEC International Ltd. commenced on Tuesday at the Ikeja Electric’s Shomolu Business Unit for customers in Ilupeju, Oworo and Igbobi areas of Lagos State. Felix Ofulue, the Company’s Head of Corporate Communications said it was to ensure that customers who were willing to make payments for their prepaid meters were metered as quickly as possible. He…
A cohort of leading tech founders and venture capitalists in Africa have concluded a 2-day immersion event in Dubai. The event, organized by Volition Cap in partnership with the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism, was designed to showcase Dubai as a destination for global expansion and alternative funding for the continent’s many innovative entrepreneurs and companies. “Dubai continues to introduce initiatives that enable confidence, resilience and agility that have been instrumental in the city’s emergence as a hotbed for talent, investment and market creation. The city’s robust public-private partnership policy and appetite for innovation, coupled with world-class infrastructure, financial…
FSDH Capital Limited, the investment banking and securities trading subsidiary of FSDH Group, has demonstrated its capital raising credentials by leading the successful financial close of the ₦46 billion (US$110.7 million) Series 1 Fixed Rate Senior Unsecured Bond Issuance in Nigeria’s capital market under the ₦200 billion (US$481.3 million) bond issuance programme for Shelter Afrique. Shelter Afrique, the pan-African development finance institution exclusively dedicated to providing affordable and adequate housing finance across Africa was established by African governments to address the need for a sustainable housing delivery system and related infrastructure projects in Africa. Its shareholders include 44 African countries,…
A subsidiary of Transnational Corporation PLC., Transcorp Power Limited is currently adding 590 megawatts (MWs) of electricity to the national grid. Speaking at the 2021 yearly general meeting, in Abuja yesterday, the Chairman of the group, Tony Elumelu, hinted that Transcorp Power increased its generating capacity from 390 MWs to 470 MWs in May 2021, consequently bringing the company’s combined generating capacity of its two companies to 590 MWs. He added: “We will continue our engagements with our existing gas suppliers and explored gas supply from other producers to diversify our supply base, thereby ensuring adequate gas supply to our…