Spokesperson for the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Charles Akpan, who disclosed this yesterday in Abuja, explained that the meeting will begin from 2:00 p.m. at the minister’s conference room, federal secretariat in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige, his Health counterpart, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, are leading the negotiations. JOHESU has given the Federal Government a 15-day ultimatum to implement the terms of agreement it had with the unions or face a massive industrial action. This came after the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and its affiliates issued a 21-day deadline to the government…
Author: Temitope Nlewemchi
Bill and Melinda Gates who are the co-chairs of the Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates have said that long-term investments in health and economies must be made by various governments to propel recovery efforts and get the world back on track to meet the development goals. They noted that while 90 per cent of advanced economies will regain pre-pandemic per capita income levels by next year, only a third of low and middle-income economies are expected to do so. According to them, an additional 31 million people were pushed into extreme poverty in 2020 as a result of Covid-19 compared…
The committee, according to the President, is charged with the responsibility of developing and implementing a Health Sector Reform programme for Nigeria in collaboration with state governments and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) administration in the next six months. To make sure that the committee meets its mandate, stakeholders are setting agenda for the project aimed at throwing up the various anomalies bedeviling the country’s health sector and drawing a roadmap for the sector. A consultant obstetrician and gynecologist and medical director, Optimal Specialist Hospital, Surulere Lagos, Dr. Ugochukwu Chukwunenye, told The Guardian: “The problems of the health sector cannot…
The Federal Government has encouraged insurance companies in Nigeria to surf the huge opportunities in African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) for market enlargement and improvement and economic stability. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who addressed the insurance industry leaders at the just-concluded investiture of Tope Smart as the 47th African Insurance Organisation (AIO), stated that more trade in goods would translate to more underwriting businesses. Osinbajo stressed that brokers, in particular, should expect a boom as trade facilitation services rise, but that companies that already have market presence in other African countries, even if by collaboration, would benefit more. “The…
The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has emphasized the need for regulatory restructuring to address the issues in African insurance markets. The Commissioner for Insurance, Sunday Thomas, declared at the 47th African Insurance Organisation (AIO) in Lagos last week that “the time for change has come in the regulatory challenges in the African insurance markets. “The regulators do not make laws; they are given laws to implement. So, they have limitations in that area. Of course, largely there has to be a lot of collaboration between the regulator and the regulated entities to foster the transformation that we all desire. “l…
According to the latest data from the exchange, four firms emerged from healthcare and services sectors each, while three firms from the ICT made up the 58 companies. Also, two firms each, under the natural resources, construction/real estate, agriculture and conglomerates sectors were among the 58 companies. The financial sector constituted the highest number of companies paying dividends as GTCO led with a payout valued at N79.46 billion, while Nestle led the seven companies in the consumer goods sector with N28.12 billion. Fidson led the healthcare sector with N521.59 million. Total Nigeria took the lead in oil & gas sector…
OPEC’s latest Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR), published yesterday, showed that Nigeria pumped 1.27 million barrels per day (mbpd) last month, lower than 1.38mbpd in July. Oil has continued to trade above $70 a barrel, with Nigeria unable to take advantage of the rally due to fuel subsidy and poor production capacity. According to the 2021 crude oil and condensate production report released by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Nigeria’s crude fell from an average 1.36 million barrels per day in January to 1.23 million b/d in August, representing a nine percent decline. The DPR report revealed that difficulties…
The body made the call during its 40th National Scientific Conference in Abeokuta, Ogun State. As part of the association’s (ACPN) scientific conference, the company offered certificate vaccination training to pharmacists in Nigeria via its seven modules CPR/BLS training programme to enhance pharmacy-based vaccination delivery. Speaking on the initiative, Dr. Adekola, said the aim of the training was to increase manpower in health delivery in Nigeria. According to him, “the training is essential to increase the manpower in health delivery in Nigeria. The training would go a long way to help the country to achieve the goals of universal health…
The Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc, which disclosed this noted that the fund, an N701.9 billion Payment Assurance Facility (PAF) and another N600 billion was implemented from 2017 to 2020. NBET disclosed in Abuja, that the development leapfrogged electricity generation capacity by 6500MW, pushing capacity to 7659MW. While the company named EKO Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) as the highest remitter in the June 2021 Electricity Market Payment received for grid distributed electricity in the Nigerian Power Sector, the agency’s Head of Corporate Communications Henrietta Ighomrore said ensuring efficient transactions in the sector remained sacrosanct. While the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission…
The mistrust that clouded the courageous roll-out as well as the widespread dip of the cryptocurrency market points to the increasing role of external variables in determining the value of money. The $30-in-bitcoin ‘bribe’ extended to every Salvadorian is also metaphoric of the emerging concept of money as a store of value, not only for the South American country but for other future adopters of the digital currency and businesses that are already accepting cryptocurrency payment. Few hours into the roll-out, the $30-incentives had shrunk to $25 as the coin dived from $52, 000 to $43, 000 in an hour…
Equities traded mixed as investors weighed hopes for better US-China trade relations against further regulatory clampdown from Beijing on the Chinese tech sector. Sentiment has been lifted by news that US President Joe Biden held talks on Friday with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in a bid to smooth relations between the superpowers. At the same time, market caution persisted after data showed inflation of goods leaving US factories had soared in August to an all-time high of 8.3 percent. The reading was fuelled partly by a sharp rise in commodity prices, a concern highlighted by news that aluminium has hit…
At the close of trading yesterday, the All-Share Index (ASI), dipped by 46.77 absolute points, representing a decline of 0.12 per cent to close at 39,204.52 points. Similarly, the market capitalisation value lost N25 billion to close at N20.426 trillion. Analysts at Vetiva Dealings and Brokerage said: “Despite market activity being lifted by some Tier-1 banking and small-cap names, we continue to see stronger sell-side pressure, hence the negative close. “We expect the market to trade in a similar pattern tomorrow barring any significant gain in any of the large cap names.” The market negative performance was driven by price…
The bears strengthened their hold on the equities sector of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), as more blue-chip stocks depreciated in price, causing investors’ fortune to dip further by N27 billion in four trading days. Specifically, the market capitalisation of listed equities declined by N27 billion to N20.424 trillion from N20.451 trillion at which it opened for transactions on Monday. Also, the All Share Index, which measures the performance of, quoted companies depreciated by 51.66 points or 0.13 per cent to 39,201.33 points from 39,252.89 points. Yesterday, investors traded 350.528 million shares valued at N3.347 billion in 3523 deals…
The Founder of Blockchain Nigeria User Group (BNUG), Mr. Chimezie Chuta has come out to say the state of crypto is still uncertain as the industry is currently under no regulatory purview of any government agency. He stated that Nigeria’s premium hybrid blockchain and crypto assets conference was birthed to explore the technology, value and innovation trends to shape the future of money across the world. He noted that the activities of blockchain have enhanced the growth and development of the ecosystem in the last four years in Nigeria and across Africa. “Now Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) has rolled…
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has stated categorically that it has no intention of converting forex in domiciliary accounts of bank customers to naira as a way of checking the shortage of US dollars in the country. This is according to a press release put out by the apex bank and seen by Nairametrics. In the press statement titled: CBN Categorically Denies, and Strongly Condemns Peddlers of Rumor on Domiciliary Account Holdings,’ the apex bank stated as follows: “The attention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been drawn to a fake circulation, in social media circles, of…
Payment giant, Mastercard seems to have its eyes set on cryptocurrencies as the company just acquired CipherTrace, a blockchain intelligence firm with crypto forensics capabilities. According to a business wire publication, the global payments giant has reached an agreement to acquire CipherTrace, founded in 2015 as the world’s first blockchain forensics company with insight into more than 900 cryptocurrencies. As part of the acquisition, Mastercard says it plans to integrate CipherTrace’s operations into its own cyber security solutions for digital assets. According to the announcement, Mastercard will combine its cyber capabilities with CipherTrace technology to differentiate its card and real-time…
Nigerian-based startup, OurPass, has closed a $1 million pre-seed round to scale their one-click checkout platform across the country. The round was led by Tekedia Capital and angel investors from Fortune 500 companies Founded by Samuel Eze, OurPass provides a mobile application that enables consumers to shop with one click. The e-commerce checkout problem is a major challenge when it comes to shopping online both for users and merchants. Yearly, about 75% of shopping carts are abandoned due to how cumbersome the checkout experience can be with long forms and re-log-ins. Eze told TechCrunch , “We built an identity layer…
The market capitalization of the top five banks, referred to as the Tier-1 banks decreased to N2.41 trillion at the close of business on the 10th of September 2021 as investors in these banks lost N30.02 billion during the trading week. According to data from the Nigerian Exchange (NGX), the market capitalization of the top five banks declined to N2.41 trillion, a depreciation of 1.2% during the week. The loss can be attributed to the sell-off witnessed in the share prices of most of the banks, during the five trading days. A summary of the performance of each bank is…
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has said that more scanners would be deployed in three ports and they would arrive in the country this month. The disclosure was made by the Zonal Coordinator of Customs, Zone A, ACG Modupe Aremu during a working visit to Apapa, Tincan Island and the Port Terminal Multiservices Limited (PTML) commands. Aremu said that the arrival and deployment of the scanners in Apapa, Tincan and Onne port would help strengthen the fight against smugglers. She said, “The scanner is a pictorial of everything that is in the container and that is why the scanner is very important and government…
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has ordered all the contending parties to maintain the status quo on the collection of Value Added Tax (VAT) pending the determination of the appeal filed before the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). The appellate court, in its order, which is the latest twist in the series of legal tussles over who has the responsibility to collect, asked the parties to refrain from taking action that would give effect to the judgement of the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, which states that Rivers State government and not the FIRS should collect VAT.…