A review of the recently released Company Income Tax (CIT) report for the first quarter of 2024 reveals that income tax payment by companies in manufacturing, agriculture and 12 others declined by a minimum of 16%. In total, CIT payments by companies in 14 out of 21 sectors decreased during the first three months of the year, resulting in a 12.87% decline in CIT collection for the quarter. CIT, collected by the federal government, is levied on companies with a turnover of N25 million and above. The CIT rate is 20% for companies with a gross turnover between N25 million…
Author: Temitope N.
The Managing Director of UAC Foods Ltd, Mr. Oluyemi Oloyede has stated that Nigerians should stop seeing food importation as evil in light of the high food inflation being witnessed across the country. Oloyede made this statement at the 10th Regional Food Science and Technology Summit/NIFST Day 2024 celebration on Thursday in Lagos. The event’s theme was “Attaining Sufficient, Safe, and Healthy Food for Nigerians Through Food Science and Technology.” According to him, Nigeria cannot produce all the foods and it must determine the foods to produce and those to export and create an open market that allows import and export.…
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has announced that the 2024 oil block licensing round has generated significant interest from both international and local investors. The head of the commission, Gbenga Komolafe, made this disclosure in a statement to Reuters on Thursday. Komolafe stated that Nigeria initiated the licensing round in April, offering a total of 19 onshore and deepwater oil blocks to investors. He noted that due to the high level of interest from investors, the bid has now been expanded to include an additional 17 deep offshore blocks in the 2024 licensing round. “We have undertaken more exploratory activities…
Olom Otane Egoro, a compliance officer from Access Bank has told the Federal High Court Abuja that the name of Daudu Sulaiman, a co-defendant to Ali Bello, did not feature on the bank statements of the Kogi State Government House in Access Bank, between 2019 and 2021. Egoro disclosed this on Thursday during cross-examination following an amended money-laundering charge instituted against the nephew of former Kogi state governor, Yahaya Bello, Ali and Sulaiman. Bello, who is currently the Chief of Staff to Kogi State Governor, Usman Dodo, and others were sued by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over…
The Federal Government has criticized Reynolds Construction Company (RCC) for failing to complete even 1km of the 15km East-West Road section from Eleme Junction to Onne Port Junction in Rivers State, despite receiving over N40 billion in mobilization funds. This announcement was made by the Federal Minister of Works, David Umahi, during his inspection tour of road projects that are currently ongoing in the South-South zone on Wednesday, as contained in a statement on the Ministry’s website. “We are very sad with the manners and behaviours of this contractor, RCC. The federal government has paid over 40 billion on this…
The average retail price of Premium Motor Spirit (Petrol) in Nigeria for May 2024 surged by 223.21% to N769.62 per litre, compared to N238.11 per litre in May 2023. This data is sourced from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Premium Motor Spirit (Petrol) Price Watch report for May 2024. The report also highlighted that, month-on-month, the average retail price in May 2024 increased by 9.75%, up from N701.24 in April 2024. “The average retail price paid by consumers for Premium Motor Spirit (Petrol) for May 2024 was N769.62, indicating a 223.21% increase compared to the value recorded in May…
The World Bank has indicated that it may cancel a significant loan of $1.5 billion if Nigeria fails to adhere to specific requirements outlined in the financing agreements. This is according to the financing agreement documents for the Nigeria Reforms for Economic Stabilization to Enable Transformation (RESET) Development Policy Financing Program (DPF) project. The documents were signed by Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Wale Edun and World Bank’s Acting Country Director for Nigeria, Taimur Samad. The $1.5 billion loan comprises two separate agreements between Nigeria and the World Bank: An International Development Association (IDA) credit of $750 million and an International…
The Debt Management Office (DMO) of Nigeria has announced that the nation’s total public debt has increased significantly to N121.67 trillion (approximately $91.46 billion) as of March 31, 2024. According to a statement from the DMO, this figure encompasses the combined domestic and external debts of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), the thirty-six state governments, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). In comparison, the total public debt as of December 31, 2023, stood at N97.34 trillion (approximately $108.23 billion). This represents a substantial increase of N24.33 trillion or 24.99% within a three-month period. The increase is driven majorly by naira devaluation,…
The Primary crypto asset, Bitcoin, has hit a monthly low of $65,000 as a result of several factors which include bitcoin miners selling off their assets at a rate never seen before in two months. Bitcoin has dropped by 6.1% in the past week partly due to the activities of Bitcoin miners who are selling off their assets due to several factors which include lower mining rewards following the halving event earlier this year. CryptoQuant reported that the amount of Bitcoin sold by miners in exchanges has hit a two-month high following factors like a reduced mining reward and lower transaction fees.…
Mr. Sam Onukwue is the Chairman of the Association of Securities Dealing Houses of Nigeria (ASHON) and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS). In this interview, he spoke on a range of market development issues including the current recapitalization process in the banking industry. Should we expect an active Primary Market any moment from now, following the directive of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), that banks should recapitalize? Sam Onukwue: The primary market has been relatively inactive over the years because of the general lull in the economy. Potential companies that would have floated initial Public…
The Board of Champion Breweries Plc has announced the completion of the acquisition of an 86.5% stake by EnjoyCorp Limited in the brewery firm. This was contained in the company notice to the Nigerian Exchange Limited seen by Nairametrics. This acquisition was achieved through the purchase of 100% shareholding in The Raysun Nigeria Limited, which holds the aforementioned stake in Champion Breweries Plc, listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX). According to the statement signed by Mr. Imo-Abasi Jacob, the Board Chairman, following the approval of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, the transaction has been completed, and EnjoyCorp now holds…
Ethereum, despite the general market bleed out, gained nearly 4% as the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) closed its investigation on the crypto asset without filing charges. The news was broken by Consensys via a tweet on X where they announced the closure of the “ Ethereum 2.0 “ investigation by the SEC without the latter filling any charges whatsoever. “ETHEREUM SURVIVES THE SEC. Today we’re happy to announce a major win for Ethereum developers, technology providers, and industry participants: the Enforcement Division of the SEC has notified us that it is closing its investigation into Ethereum 2.0. This means that…
Bybit, a major cryptocurrency exchange and player in the industry announced that it has hit over 30 million registered users globally expanding its market share in spot trading from 2% in 2023 to more than 12% in 2024. Bybit is the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by spot volumes. In addition to the announcement of the exchange hitting 30 million registered users, the project is also launching Copy Trading Pro, a new platform that enables investors to mirror the strategies of more experienced traders to potentially earn passive income with more consistent returns. Co-founder and CEO of Bybit Ben Zhou reacted to the news…
The combined profit of Presco Plc and Okomu Oil Palm Company Plc, two leading quoted agricultural firms rose by 94.32% during the first quarter of 2024 amid volatility in the economy. The rise in profits is attributed to inflationary pressures and the depreciation of the Naira which has led to astronomical rise in prices of agricultural products in the country. According to the companies’ latest financial statements, tracked by Nairametrics, the companies’ after-tax profit grew to N39.135 billion in Q1 of 2024 from N20.139 billion in the corresponding period of 2023. In terms of revenue, the top palm oil producers…
The world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, has been hit with a fine of 188.2 million rupees ($2.25 million) by India’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) for violating its money laundering law. This comes amid an ongoing trial of the exchange’s officials in Nigeria for the same charges. Aside from the case of tax evasion filed by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) accused Binance of laundering more than $35 million through its platform. In India, virtual digital asset service providers like crypto exchanges are required to be registered with the FIU as a reporting…
At the close of trading yesterday, the share price of VFD Group Plc closed at N40.60, an 80% decline from the previous trading session’s price of N202.90. From an observatory standpoint, this decline contravenes existing NGX trading guidelines, which stipulate that stocks cannot experience more than a 10% price change in a single day. However, in VFD’s case, there is a plausible explanation for this deviation. On June 19, as the stock’s share price plummeted by 80%, the outstanding shares surged by 400%, rising from 253,369,820 to 1,266,849,100. This increase occurred as the group created and issued four additional shares…
The team behind Tapswap, the trending web 3-clicker game joined an X space hosted by members of the Ton blockchain community yesterday drawing over 900,000 users. The X space is the first time millions of users who have been engaging in the Tapswap game will be hearing from the team behind the crypto project they have invested so much in. The X space was used as an avenue to clear certain doubts surrounding the project and also provide insight into the team behind the project which has garnered millions of players globally. The X space was hosted by Ton Blockchain the crypto…
Nigerian billionaire, Femi Otedola, the Chairman of FBN Holdings has regained his position as the majority shareholder of First Bank. He now holds a 9.41% stake in the bank, after acquiring N18.9 billion worth of the group’s shares in the NGX today, June 20. According to a corporate notice accessed, Otedola directly acquired 316,506,776 shares at a share price of N21.91 each, amounting to N6.935 billion. He then acquired 546,674,034 shares at N21.97 each, amounting to N12.01 billion, through his holding company, Calvados Global Services Limited. Otedola previously held a 7.01% stake in the bank, behind Oba Otudeko’s Barbican…
The Federal Government plans to raise at least N450 billion through its latest bond offer for June 2024, as announced by the Debt Management Office (DMO). The bond offer will be conducted by auction and comprises three different re-openings, each with distinct maturity dates and interest rates. Breakdown of the Bond Offer The June 2024 bond offer includes: N150 billion at 19.30% FGN APR 2029 (5-Year Re-opening) N150 billion at 18.50% FGN FEB 2031 (7-Year Re-opening) N150 billion at 19.89% FGN MAY 2033 (9-Year Re-opening) The auction date is scheduled for June 24, 2024, with settlement on June 26, 2024. The minimum subscription requirement is…
Germany’s rates for issuing multiple-entry visas have consistently remained high, as the latest statistics reveal that 90.4% of visas issued by German consulates in 2023 were multiple-entry. Also, the rejected ones were only 14.3% of the visa applications received globally, which falls below the Schengen average rejection rate of 16%. Moreover, Germany leads as the country with the highest proportion of multiple-entry visas issued and boasts a relatively low rejection rate. This rejection rate marks an improvement from 2022, when Germany had a higher rejection rate of 16.2%, compared to the overall Schengen rejection rate of 17.9% at that time. For travellers…