MTN set to sell shares in the carrier’s Nigeria unit worth about 101 billion naira, following a plan to dispose of assets and pay down debt. Africa’s largest mobile-phone operator will offer 575 million shares in MTN Nigeria, which is listed in Lagos in 2019, according to a statement on Thursday. The move is part of a broader plan to sell about 14% of the parent company’s holding in its largest and most profitable unit, the group said. On Thursday morning, MTN shares rose as much as 3.6% in Johannesburg, the most in almost a month. The stock has surged…
Author: Temitope Nlewemchi
The Nigerian stock market yesterday remained unshaken at the uptrend with N252 billion or 1.12 percentage gain as investors staked more money in Airtel Africa and 23 others. In summary, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 483.68 absolute points, representing a rise of 1.12 per cent to close at 43,730.55 points. Similarly, the overall market capitalisation value rose by N252 billion to close at N22.821 trillion. The market positive performance was driven by price appreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks which are; Airtel Africa, MTN Nigeria Communications (MTNN), Ardova, Lafarge Africa and UAC of Nigeria (UACN). Analysts at Afrinvest…
BudgIT Foundation, a civic-tech organisation, has beckoned on the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) to publish data on FAAC allocations in Nigeria from March to August 2021. BudgIT disclosed this in a statement issued by Iyanu Fatoba, its communications associate, on Wednesday. The organisation said the publication will help “public oversight and provide CSOs and analysts with the opportunity to analyse revenue generation at the subnational level while holding respective representatives to the standards of fiscal responsibility.” Calling on the NBS and the office of the statistician-general, BudgIT said that the timely release of data by the bureau had been…
Ecobank Nigeria caught the spotlight at the prestigious Banks and Other Financial Institutions’ (BAFI) Awards 2021 held in Lagos weekend. At the keenly contested awards, Ecobank Nigeria emerged winner of the ‘Market Confidence and Capital Structure Transaction of the Year’ via its unsecured $300 million bonds, a fixed-rate five-year US dollar-denominated bond launched early in the year and ‘Female Economic Advancement Bank of the Year’ for its sustained support for female entrepreneurs and the development of savings and loans products specifically aimed at women through its Ellevate programme. The BAFI Awards, backed by the BusinessDay Research and Intelligence Unit (BRIU),…
Global food prices skyrocketed to a 10-year high in October, a UN agency disclosed this on Thursday as it said the world’s cereal stocks were set to contract. The Food and Agricultural Organization established its food price index, which tracks changes in the international prices of a basket of food commodities, rose three per cent over the month to 133.2 points. The third consecutive monthly rise in the index brought it to its highest level since July 2011. The sub-index for vegetable oils soared 9.6 per cent to an all-time high. The cereals sub-index rose 3.2 per cent, driven by…
Minister of finance, budget and national planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, has established petroleum under-recovery popularly known as fuel subsidy as a major drain on the nation’s economy, which ought to have been totally removed from the system to free up money for critical sectors like health and education. She said, “It is a major waste, a major drain on the economy. We are worried that we are spending money we should be spending on education and other areas.” The minister mentioned this yesterday when she appeared on the Politics Today programme on Channels Television. Ahmed said the lack of actual…
GAC Motor will make a debut at this year’s Abuja International Motor Fair with three notable vehicles, including a new market entry model as well as a finance scheme for interested participants. The fair, which started today at the International Conference Centre annex Garki, Abuja, is aimed at thrilling car lovers and automobile industry players in Nigeria while discussing the way forward for the sector. Through this five-day event, the firm noted that Abuja residents can experience what thousands of Nigerians are already privy to through GAC Motor’s well-established brand presence and strategic partnerships over the last seven years, including…
As the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) goes through gradual implementation, stakeholders in the oil and gas sector have established that the fiscal environment and decades of poor investment in the sector might undermine the prospects of the industry under the new fiscal regime. Speaking at this year’s pre-conference workshop organised by the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) and themed, “The next decade of oil and gas business in Nigeria: Impact of the energy transition”, the Senior Partner, Deloitte Nigeria, Olumide Esan, stated that except the Federal Government is intentional with infrastructure funding in oil and gas, not much should…
Local airlines, yesterday, at the ongoing Dubai Airshow fiesta, placed aircraft orders in excess of $1.2 billion.Akwa Ibom State-owned carrier, Ibom Air, was scheduled to table an ambitious bid for 10 brand new Airbus 200-300 aircraft. Similarly, Overland Airways placed a firm order for three new Embraer E175 regional jets, plus rights for the purchase of another three. The deal is worth $299.4 million, at list prices, if all purchase rights are exercised. The bid will fetch Ibom Air some of the latest modern and efficient airplanes made by the French commercial jet manufacturer, between 2023 and 2024 Akwa Ibom…
The Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCTA) is established to support the growth of airlines in the continent, boost trade and tourism, stakeholders have said. Air Transport specialist and former Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Richard Aisuebeogun said with AfCFTA, it becomes easier for airlines to grow in Africa just like what is obtained in the entire continent of Europe. Udoh, who spoke ahead of the fourth edition of the National Tourism Transportation Summit slated for 15th to 16th of November, 2021 at the International Conference Centre Abuja, said the Single African Air Transport Market…
Coscharis Motors has collaborated with Sterling Bank Plc to join in its vehicles on the bank’s non-Interest banking platform- AltDrive. The objective is to ease the road to ownership via e-commerce transactions which can be self-funded or financed by the bank. General Manager, Marketing and Corporate Communications, Coscharis Group, Abiona Babarinde, said the idea is to provide customers an online retail marketplace that gives customers a one-stop boutique to access and purchase any vehicular brand sold by Coscharis Motors either through self-funding or credit finance from Sterling Bank. According to Babarinde, the primary objective of this collaboration is to provide…
As new technology and processes moves forward, the Risk Management Association of Nigeria (RIMAN) has charged financial service providers, especially banks, to embrace best risk management practices in their operations. According to the association, the appeal was premised on the emerging risks confronting the nation’s financial system, especially as new technologies evolve. RIMAN also commended the management of Wema Bank for upholding best risk management practices in its operations. The commendation was made during a courtesy call by the RIMAN Executive Council led by its President, Dr. Ezekiel Oseni, on the Chief Executive Officer of Wema Bank, Mr. Ademola Adebise,…
Determined to address challenges posed by the outbreak of the coronavirus, underwriting firms have begun to adopt the use of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), to reach out to more Nigerians to increase market penetration. With the federal and state governments encouraging physical and social distance to limit human contacts to curb the spread of the virus, the underwriters chose to advance digital awareness, leveraging technology to give insurance a facelift. Under the arrangement, a prospective policyholder will have an easy, quick and convenient channel to buy new products and policies, renew existing policies and make payments for Value Added…
The Africa Insurance Organisation(AIO) has joined forces with the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) to build a strong market structure to benefit from African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The President, AIO, Tope Smart, on a courtesy visit to the association, said AfCFTA remains the market booster for the benefit of insurance consumers in the African market. He stressed that there is a need for the Nigerian insurance market to upscale its digitisation programme to fast-track penetration. According to him, the meeting with the Nigerian market is the beginning of AIO’s engagement with Key Markets in Africa to increase Insurance penetration…
Access Bank Group has declared its commitment to the growth of contemporary art in Nigeria through the sponsorship of Art X Lagos International Fair for the sixth time as a Gold Sponsor. Through this collaboration with Art X, Access Bank has brought to life its passion for helping Africans tell the African story through creative and innovative ways in line with the bank’s philosophy to offer ‘More than Banking’. The four-day event took place at the Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos. The Bank reaffirmed its commitment through its impactful presence at the 2021 edition of the Fair during, which…
In the midst of the growing rate of default in the micro-credit ecosystem, Configure, a bank-level core lending platform that enables users to build, launch, and manage any type of loan product end-to-end, has been unveiled. The product promises to offer the lender a single interface for assessing the creditworthiness and profile of a borrower at a speed and cost that is much higher than what the conventional credit bureaux offers. Speaking on the product, Founder and CEO of Evolve Credit, Akan Nelson, stated that the vision was to make access to credit and financial products more inclusive, accessible and…
About 35 African countries have made a commitment towards net-zero emission in the backdrop of the 2021 United Nations conference in Glasgow, the global plan may cost the continent $6.7 trillion in fossil fuel resources. Raising about $2.8 trillion energy transition fund needed to transit Africa to cleaner fuels to attain the goal may also remain a mirage, a new report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers has said. To achieve the 1.5°C global warming target under the Paris Agreement, studies suggest that a third of current oil reserves, half the current natural gas reserves and nearly 90 per cent of current coal reserves…
Acknowledging Nigeria’s market size despite continued downtime in the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, the AfCFTA secretariat has established that achieving the trade objectives is incomplete without Nigeria implementing the protocols. Almost one year after the implementation of the AfCFTA commenced, Nigeria is yet to unveil guidelines and implementation strategy for the trade deal, raising concerns for the organised private sector. The Secretary General, AfCFTA, Wamkele Mene, while speaking at the Africa Day of the Lagos International Trade Fair (LITF) themed, ‘Boosting intra-African trade’, noted that without Nigeria, the implementation of the AfCFTA would be…
With the Federal Government optimistic about December 13 Fifth Generation (5G) network spectrum auction in Nigeria, the reserve price (RP) bid of $194.7 million (N75 billion) has been ranked among the costliest in the world but topped prices from nations like India and South Africa. Though the environments vary, RP in the USA, China, Germany, Brazil appear to be the highest in the world. For instance, RP in the USA is around $81billion; UK, £1.1 billion; Germany, €1.5 billion and Brazil, $8.5 billion. On the other hand, RP in India was pegged at INR4.92 billion ($66.2 million), South Africa between…
SPAR Market, Nigeria’s leading supermarket and department store company, has officially disclosed its annual Black Friday Sales from November 19th to 28th, 2021. A spokesperson from the organization has affirmed that they are expecting this to be one of their biggest Black Friday events since they brought the event to Nigeria, with MASSIVE offers up to 70% in Electronics, Home Appliances, Mobile Phones, Computers, Wines & Spirits, Groceries, Clothing, Watches, Furniture, and more. The company has also organized several engaging games with customers to win prizes at their stores, ensuring that 2021 Black Friday at SPAR is going to be…