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Coverage of the Nigerian financial sector and the markets in more depth than other news publications and with more breadth than trade publications, distilling what’s on the agenda for key sectors including, Investment Banking, Trading, and Technology, Fund Management, Alternatives, Markets, Commodities, Companies, among others.
The power crisis in Nigeria is like a malignant disease, infecting the nation’s economy and causing its citizens untold suffering. Small businesses are especially vulnerable, as they struggle to shoulder the burden of providing their power, while individuals face daily frustrations and hardships. Every day, across Nigeria, the power situation has become like a slow poison, creeping into every corner of life. For businesses, it’s a death by a thousand cuts, as profits dwindle and costs mount. For individuals, it’s a constant reminder of their country's shortcomings, a constant frustration. And for the economy as a whole, it’s a drag on growth, an obstacle to progress. The broader consequences of the situation are far-reaching, affecting everything from the cost of living for ordinary citizens to the overall productivity of the economy. As a result, Nigeria’s ability to develop and grow economically is being seriously undermined by the challenges facing the electricity distribution companies (DisCos). These challenges have created a vicious cycle, in which the inefficiencies of the DisCos are leading to an even greater demand for government intervention, which in turn is further straining the country’s already tight finances.
A Dataset Showing Nigeria’s Top 10 insurers by gross written premium (GWP) is giving analysts the encouragement to suggest emerging dynamism in the country’s insurance landscape that could position it for enhanced growth and greater development. The data do not, however, show that insurance penetration in Africa’s most populous country and its largest economy by gross domestic product (GDP) size, is about to improve, but a combined gross premium of N472.6 billion by the 10 top insurers is given comfort to analysts to suggest that something positive lies ahead for the industry. Analysts say the emerging dynamism in the Nigerian insurance market going by the dataset can be seen in the increasing growth of life business against a general business which is traditionally the industry’s mainstay; the fact that indigenous insurers are still holding ground as far as industry leadership is concerned; that bankers have moved into insurance to dominate and bring banking industry Midas touch to the industry to give it a shakeout; and the data showing that the frontier for growth is in the composite model, while that of competition lies in microinsurance, Takaful and insurtech.
In a Nigerian Economic landscape where 2024 poses major challenges for businesses, a survey conducted by multinational insurance and risk management giant, Allianz, and published in its 13th Allianz Risk Barometer, Nigerian business leaders participating in the global survey have identified changes in legislation, cyber and microeconomic developments as the joint top risks that companies will face in Nigeria this year.
big issues facing companies right now – digitalization, climate change and an uncertain geopolitical environment. Many of these risks are already hitting home, with extreme weather, ransomware attacks and regional conflicts testing the resilience of supply chains and business models. The fast pace of change, and the growing interconnected nature of risk, likely necessitates a shift up in gear for many companies when it comes to risk management.
A disastrous eight years of Buharinomics, the clueless management of the Nigerian economy under former president Muhammadu Buhari, and a shaky Tinubunomics of the months-old current Presidency of Bola Tinubu are unravelling the extraordinary danger the Nigerian economy faces under the All Progressives Congress (APC) which appears to do more politics than economy management, multiple concerned analysts said over the weekend. “Buhari got us into this cul-de-sac. He was not only clueless about the economy, but there was a free reign of baseless economic policies driven by individual, rather than national, interest,” said a university politics professor who did not want to be named.
A Raft of Initiatives is emerging and getting launched at the ongoing U.N. climate summit, COP28, in Dubai aimed at boosting clean energy and reducing the world’s dependence on fossil fuels, details rolling out of the event show. One of the most widely supported initiatives is expected to lead to a cut in the share of fossil fuels in global energy production, and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change. Wide support for the initiative is bolstered by its ambitious goal of tripling the world’s renewable energy capacity by 2030 leading to a huge cut in fossil fuels’ contribution to the world’s energy mix. The pledge to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 was just one of many initiatives that have emerged at the COP28 summit aimed at decarbonising the energy sector and meeting the goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. One of the key commitments was made by the European Union, the United States, and the UAE, which pledged to phase out unabated coal power by expanding the use of nuclear power, reducing methane emissions, and ending investment in new coal power plants
Africa’s economic landscape as the next frontier for global investments was on song for three days last week in Marrakech, Morocco, where the African Development Bank (AfDB) led by President Akinwumi Adesina of Nigeria, and its development partners successfully showcased the continent’s value chains to international investors, attracting more than 1000 delegates to what is now globally recognised as a go-to annual event for serious financial deals closure, the Africa Investment Forum (AIF) Market Days. To underscore its now global attraction and success, this year’s AIF’s Market Days had no fewer than 80 Japanese companies including at least 50 business leaders, entrepreneurs and investors among the over 1000 delegates in attendance
Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan with a 2060 target could be really challenged by the need for a clear development policy approach. Early distinct gaps noticeable in the NETP programme include a lack of holistic legal framework; no incentives for transition to clean energy; absence of disincentives for the use of dirty energy; and centralisation of energy provision in Nigeria, according to a report by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group.
The federal government, though, had only this year enacted the energy decentralisation law. If properly administered, Nigeria stands to gain from the energy transition, which will offer an excellent opportunity to address its energy poverty by leveraging abundant renewable energy sources. However in the short to medium term, the country will lose significant revenues because of its over-dependence on fossil fuels. However, the NETP projects 340,000 jobs to be created in 2030 and 840,000 by 2060
Foreign investors appear to be carefully avoiding Nigeria’s oil and gas-rich states, also called the Niger Delta region, as data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on assessment of foreign direct inflows into the nation’s sub-nationals in Q2 of 2022 show that the region’s states were among 32 subnationals which attracted zero dollar foreign inflow since Q2 of 2015.
Additionally, the region, between 2015 and 2022, ranks among the least accessed in terms of foreign capital inflow (foreign direct investment (FDI). For example, another NBS data showed that the region received only 0.51% of the entire Nigeria FDI inflow between 2013 and Q1 of 2020. The region, which once held huge chunks of Nigeria’s FDI inflows in the 1970s and 1980s, barely received $474.13 million out of the $92.28 billion total inflow into Nigeria in the seven-year period.
Despite the challenges facing the Nigerian insurance market, microinsurance offers unique and exciting opportunities for both insurers and consumers, as well as the general economy, with its potential to reach millions of people excluded from traditional insurance products and other financial windows of the economy, multiple industry analysts have told Business a.m. The Nigerian market is rapidly expanding, with innovative new products and distribution models. For insurers, this represents an untapped market with significant growth potential, while for consumers, it offers a way to access much needed protection from financial hardship.
Global Banking Posted its best performance in the last 18 months since 2007 on the back of sharp increases in interest rates in many advanced economies, including a 500-basis-point rise in the United States, a world review of the banking sector by global management consulting firm McKinsey, has shown.
McKinsey’s just published “Global Banking Annual Review 2023: The Great Banking Transition”, found that on average global banking saw “long-awaited improvement in net interest margins” enabled by higher interest rates which boosted profits by about $280 billion in 2022, lifting return on equity by 12 per cent in the same year with a projection that this will post higher at 13 per cent at the end of 2023.
A new report by the European Investment Bank (EIB) based on a 2023 survey of Banking in Africa has found that banks on the continent have continued to show resilience despite operating in what the EIB described as “ a difficult environment.”
The report titled “Uncertain Times, Resilient Banks: African Finance at a Crossroads” released under the EIB’s eighth annual Investment in Africa report and covering the continent’s banking system, found that banking in Africa continues to show resilience and a desire to support private sector development despite operating in a tough environment.
Key banking indicators, such as capital ratios, profitability and non-performing loans, have not deteriorated despite the challenges the region is facing,” the EIB report noted.
This resilience, according to the report, may rightly be attributed initially to pandemic support measures to bolster the continent’s banking system, but it said such measures have been wound down, and that “most key bank metrics remain solid.”
The Group Of The World’s 20 Leading Economies has admitted the African Union (AU) as a permanent member, a development termed by many as a “later than never” acknowledgement of Africa’s relevance on the global stage.
Until now, South Africa was the bloc’s only G20 member and the AU had advocated for full membership for seven years in its quest to gain meaningful roles among the global bodies and also accord the 55 member states access to reforms in the global financial system such as the World Bank which had hitherto played a passive role in cushioning Africa’s debt profile.
The AU’s G20 membership which was granted following a concession at the 18th G20 heads of state and government summit in New Delhi, India, is expected to see Africa get investment and political interest from a new generation of global powers beyond the U.S. and the continent’s former European colonists.
The Combination Of Aggressive interest-rate hikes in developed countries, lack of sufficient affordable capital from the World Bank and a failure to consider and address the spillover effects are creating costly spillback economic consequences on low-middle income countries already at high risk of debt distress, a new analysis from One Campaign says.
The international, non-profit advocacy and campaigning organisation that fights extreme poverty, particularly in developing countries, finds that ‘rich countries’ actions to control domestic inflation through rises in interest rates are creating unsustainable economic realities for low-and low-middle-income countries.
The high interest rates, it explained, are gradually locking emerging economies out of low-cost financing options creating an increasingly divergent global economy and exacerbating an already dangerous debt crisis.
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After Over Two Years Of anticipation from the Nigerian populace, the National Bureau of Statistics eventually published Nigeria’s labour statistics, considered an official analysis of the employment level of Africa’s most populous country.
Prior to the report, economic and finance experts had difficulty assessing the real-time data on the nature of the labour market and how to measure the impact of government policies and numerous pledges to create jobs.
But from the country’s grim economic realities, it was as clear as crystal that the country was facing a dire risk of high unemployment. In fact, the International Labour Organisation had in January 2023, expressed worry that “current monetary tightening to fight inflation could overshoot, potentially leading to high levels of unemployment.”
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The new head of the Nigerian treasury, officially designated ‘Minister of Finance’, Wale Edun, will have fully taken charge. But in the quest to see that all the levers of economic policy management are well aligned, the attention of analysts and others following the unfolding direction of the Nigerian economy, will shift to the person to be appointed substantive governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, and consequently, the person to lead monetary policy during the President Tinubu’s administration.
Finance Minister Edun’s assumption of office has already raised high expectations, which will now be taken higher, with regard to the management of the fiscal policy side of executive governance, say multiple economic and financial analysts, many of whom hold the strong view that in the eight years that former president Muhammadu Buhari held sway in the political-administrative landscape of Nigeria, he was abysmally short on fiscal policy governance, with his two appointed ministers of finance arguably among the worst to have held the position in the country.
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An expert in the Africa department of the International Monetary Fund has expressed optimism for the future success of Nigeria's e-Naira, Africa's first central bank digital currency and the world's second.
Despite its underwhelming performance since its launch in October 2021, Jack Ree, a senior economist in the Africa department of the IMF, who conducted a study on the eNaira last year, suggested in an IMF podcast that with some adjustments to its current model, the digital currency could become popular.
However, since its introduction 21 months ago, the e-Naira has struggled to gain traction, with less than one million downloads indicating that Nigeria's vast population has not yet fully embraced it, as this number is less than one per cent (-1%) of the total bank accounts in the banking system.
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African currencies have lost ground against the US dollar year-to-date, thereby driving inflation in the import-reliant continent. Policymakers across the continent are left with limited options to arrest the decline as a result of depleting dollar reserves, according to a report adapted from DW.
As US interest rate hikes make the dollar more attractive to investors, sub-Saharan African currencies have been weakening. The downward spiral of the African currencies against the US dollar this year has been spelling trouble for citizens and businesses alike.
The Nigerian naira is, so far, the biggest loser, falling more than 70 per cent against the dollar this year, chiefly after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) removed trading restrictions on the official currency market.
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A Crescendo Of Expectations is building up over Aba, one of Nigeria’s major manufacturing hubs, which for decades has had its stars dimmed by the ill luck of bad and incompetent governance and total neglect of the social and economic infrastructure required to make a manufacturing hub thrive.
The expectations are being built around the provenance of having the banker, Alex Otti, on the saddle as governor of Abia State where the city is located and where vultures had reigned in the corridors of political power; of Geometric Power, promoted by the scientist, Barth Nnaji, a two-time former minister of power and of science and technology; and the unleashing of the exports easing African Continental Free Area (AfCFTA), all three coming into play at the same time.
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Former President Muhammadu Buhari who doubled as substantive minister of petroleum resources, assisted by a junior minister, Timipre Sylva and Mele Kyari, group chief executive officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited who was positioned to be running ground operations, may have been taken Nigerians for a big ride on the repairs and rehabilitation of government-owned refineries as work has long hit a dead end.
So as millions of Nigerians trudge under the heavy weight of mounting transportation costs, the fall out of the removal of petroleum products subsidy by President Bola Tinubu in his first major policy directive on inauguration day, any hopes of soon seeing a downward move on petrol pump prices from the restart of production at the Port Harcourt Refining Company, the nation’s first and biggest oil refinery, and later Warri Petrochemicals & Refining Company and Kaduna Refining & Petrochemicals Company, appear a forlorn dream.
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The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the two Bretton Woods institutions that have spent at least 20 years breathing down Nigeria’s neck to let its currency, the Naira free, are today still in celebratory mood joined by domestic analysts and the markets who continue to express joy over the decision by the new government of President Bola Tinubu to reform the country’s foreign exchange policies through the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The head of the IMF Nigeria office, responding to the reforms, said: “The Fund greatly welcomes the authorities’ decision to introduce a unified market-reflective exchange rate regime in line with our long-standing recommendations. We stand ready to support the new administration in implementing FX reforms.
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After at least eight years of the Nigerian economy drifting and feeling shortchanged by inept management, markets and economic analysts, both local and foreign, who trained their eyes and ears in expectation as Nigeria inaugurated Bola Ahmed Tinubu as its 16th president, have turned in a largely positive reception to the soundbites contained in the president’s inaugural address.
Analysts at FBNQuest Capital, Chapel Hill Denham, Cordros, CardinalStone and Cowry Assets, in separate research notes to clients which were examined by Business A.M. for this story, appear to express general positive sentiments with the policy directions contained in the president’s speech.
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Ahead of his inauguration as president, Business A.m. has learnt that President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his team have been inundated with tonnes of position papers and memoranda from a myriad of independent sources offering strong positions on what and how the incoming president should tackle a number of issues that have kept Nigeria’s economy down for at least eight years.
Business a.m. understands from sources close to the president-elect and his team that they are in receipt of several memoranda on one of the most people-resonating issues of the Nigerian economy, the Naira and its exchange rate against other international currencies, in particular against the dollar, the pound sterling and the Euro.
In the biggest positive outlook on investment inflow into Nigeria by international analysts in nearly a decade, the second half of 2023 and all of 2024 has been projected as periods in the country would attract record international capital inflow following the ease of uncertainty caused by recent general elections in the country.
Overall, we expect the second half of 2023 to already match Nigeria’s best six months in terms of attracting international capital, and 2024 to potentially see a record inflow of funds attracted by the more stable environment and the sheer quality of local growth companies still facing wide open market opportunities.
The rising spate of building collapse in Nigeria, especially in Lagos, the economic nerve centre of the country, is putting worrying shivers down the spine of investors, the government and the general public primarily in regard to the enormous financial, economic and social implications. According to documents from the Building Collapse Prevention Guild, at least 271 buildings have collapsed in Nigeria over the past ten years, accounting for 50 per cent of the 541 reported cases in Nigeria between 1974 and 2022.
The incidence of buildings collapsing in Nigeria has gotten to an alarming level that it comes as no surprise that the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction ranked Nigeria number one in the frequency and intensity of building collapse in Africa, a poor representation of a country striving for sustainable development and economic growth.
Except there is a last-minute miracle, the President Muhammadu Buhari government, already well known for being out of its depth on the economy, is very likely to hand over to the next government a highly risky economy, what economic analysts would rate as ‘junk’, and with a debt burden of at least N46 trillion.
Revenue and debt management have become persistent challenges that have remained one of the most critical policy issues threatening the debt sustainability of the Muhammadu Buhari-led government and a major headache awaiting the incoming administration
Data from the Debt Management Office, as at March 30 2023, showed Nigeria’s debt, comprising the domestic and external debt stocks of the federal government, sub-national borrowings by the federal and state
governments.
With wide reports Of voter suppression and armed attacks against voters in Nigeria’s February 25 presidential and national assembly and the March 18 governorship and state houses of assembly elections still seething, a new Freedom House report has revealed ‘global freedom’ declined for the 17th consecutive year in 2022, as 35 countries suffered deterioration in their political rights and civil liberties.
Widespread condemnation continues to trail the conduct and outcomes of the two elections held almost one month apart with reported incidents of violence, ballot box snatching and prevention of tens of thousands of voters from carrying out their civic responsibilities
Nigeria's 2023 general elections which began with the now disputed presidential and national assembly elections and which were to move to the gubernatorial and state assembly elections, suffered a little setback when initially scheduled for March 11, 2023, were postponed to March 18 by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), citing logistic issues stemming from its lack of time to carry out the reconfiguration of the bimodal voter registration system (BVAS) used for the first leg of the elections.
Now, analysts are saying that, though the second leg of the elections was shifted by a week, the abrupt decision by the electoral umpire has far-reaching consequences that could result in economic losses and adverse cost implications for Africa’s largest economy.
The postponement followed a ruling by the Court of Appeal in Abuja, sitting as the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT), that granted INEC the right to reconfigure the BVAS, backed by the commission’s statement that it will need five working days to reconfigure BVAS used in the 176,974 polling units where voting will take place for the election
Economists And Financial experts across the country continued over the weekend to hail the decision by the Supreme Court to extend the validity of the withdrawn N1,000 and N500 currency notes until December 31, 2023, describing the ruling as a positive development and one that provides relief from the cash crunch and helps stave off the severe repercussions for businesses and socioeconomic activities of Nigerians inflicted by the policy. But given the conflicting directives and orders exercised by the judicial and executive arms of the government in relation to the naira redesign policy, many Nigerians are still in the dark as to what happens next days after the judgement; mainly because the Central Bank of Nigeria is yet to react, thus further raising the anxiety of Nigerians.
One of united states leading think tanks, Brooking Institution, in an analytical article on Nigeria’s highly anticipated new government that will come into being after the forthcoming general elections, has placed a heavy weighting on fiscal and economic reforms, charging the incoming president to have an unwavering determination to implement policies that must deliver an inclusive and competitive economy, in what is described as a set of ‘must-do’ activities for the new leader of Africa’s largest economy by gross domestic products (GDP) and the continent’s most populated.
A supposedly harmless currency redesign policy for the Nigerian naira resulting in a cash swap program implemented by the Central Bank of Nigeria turned into a full-blown crisis that came to a head in the last seven days as scarcity and persistent difficulties in accessing the new notes led to disruptions in business and economic activities and the daily lives of Nigerians held captive by a policy the CBN assured would mop up illicit naira notes and promote a cashless economy.
The climax of the tension became apparent as the initial deadline of January 31, 2023, for people to turn in their old notes drew closer before the apex bank announced an extension of 10 days to allow Nigerians more time to change their old notes for the new designs.
A Potential trade volume estimated at $3.4 trillion packed into the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has now effectively received the attention and keen interest of ranking global chief executive officers from around the world, further putting pressure to deliver on African political and business leaders who will now have to do right by the pact, seen to have traveled rather too slowly on delivering quick wins since it was launched.
The chief executive officers of some of the leading global companies when meeting recently at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, drummed up massive support for strategies to unlock this potential seen through the AfCFTA arrangement.
Policymakers, business managers, and investors have been told that the landscape of the economy in 2023 remains mixed and corporate strategies in organizations navigating this landscape would require having a keen eye on a number of trends that are projected to emerge on the horizon of the Nigerian economy this year.
Nigeria is in the throes of a crucial year in its history going into a crucial general election that will lead to a change of government amid serious economic challenges across different indices of measurement and analysts are advising individuals corporate entities and the government to plan ahead to navigate the uncertainties that will shape the economy, policies and businesses in 2023 and beyond
After Many Decades Of relying on a revenue sharing formula that allocates funds from a central pool that has gradually become inadequate to meet basic and developmental needs, experts have challenged Nigeria’s subnational governments, comprising states and local governments, to put on their revenue generation creative cap and expand their view to see the capital markets as veritable exploration grounds to finance their small, medium and large ticket programmes.
At a recent webinar of the IGR Initia tive, an initiative supported by Business A.M. and convened by Martin Ike-Muonso, a professor of economics and an investment banking expert, Teslim ShittaBey, managing editor of financial information service hub, Proshare Nigeria, observed that there is currently a low rate of subnational governments (SNGs) using equity and other relevant long term capital instruments to produce significant fundings for development projects
In the Lead up to 2023, when elections are expected to take place for a new government to replace the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, now into its seven years and six months, it is becoming clearer that long before the outbreak of
COVID-19 in late 2019 in China and across the world in 2020, Nigeria has been suffering its own ‘long COVID’, long-lasting symptoms that afflict people who have suffered a case of covid-19.
With the economy in a tailspin since 2014, the Buhari government, it is now clear, has been unable to rise from an apprenticeship approach in economic policy formulation to deal with the major challenges that have confronted the economy in the last seven and a half years.
Nigeria's Power sector is expected to record a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 13 percent between 2022 and 2027, driven by government support for renewables-based power generation, according to analysts at Mordor Intelligence.
The market research company, in a report “Nigeria Power Market - Growth, Trends, Covid-19 Impact, and Forecast (2022-2027)”, said the Nigerian power market is largely driven by favorable government policies and a growing inclination toward privatization of the power sector, which can draw more investment in the sector.
Rising Inflation since the beginning of 2022 has sent the global economy wobbling, driven majorly by an unusual mix of supply shocks associated with the Covid-19 pandemic and, later, the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
From developed to emerging markets, multi-decades-high inflation and tighter monetary policy are threatening to tip the world into a recession by next year.
Recently, analysts at investment bank Morgan Stanley, in a series of reports said Britain and the eurozone economies are likely to tip into recession next year, but the United States might make a narrow escape
Cashless transactions in Nigeria have recorded appreciable growth since 2012 when the Central Bank of Nigeria introduced its cashless policy to give bank customers ease of transactions, eliminate long queues across banking halls, curtail the excessive movement of cash, and control the volume of cash in circulation.
Prior to this time, Nigerians depended largely on a cash-based economy which meant manual transactions across banking halls, whether it was cash deposit or withdrawal, cheque clearance, account opening, checking of balance, statement of account request, or any other transaction.
With every bank customer who had a business to transact in the bank trooping to the nearest bank branch, banking halls across the country, especially in heavily populated urban centers, became a nightmarish experience.
Economies across the world have taken a beating since the turn of 2022, exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, just as the world economy seemed to be recovering from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
From the US to China to the UK to Europe and emerging markets, it has been a tale of decelerated or negative headline GDP growth, spiraling inflation, interest rate hikes by central banks, and an overall cost of living crisis.
Major global financial institutions have cut their growth projections and economic experts are left guessing not just whether or not a major global economic crisis is in the offing in the coming year but how steep the downturn is likely to be.
The Central Bank Of Nigeria is not going back on its decision to withdraw, redesign and reissue the higher denominations of naira banknotes despite a welter of opposition that has greeted the policy move.
Last week Wednesday, the CBN announced that it has secured President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval to redesign the N200, N500, and N1,000 paper currencies and that the new notes would be in circulation effective December 15, 2022.
Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor, who made the announcement, noted that the decision, which is in line with sections 19, subsections a and b of the CBN Act 2007, was taken in order to control the currency in circulation, curb counterfeit notes, and check ransom payment to terrorists and kidnappers.
With enterprise Ngr proudly presenting Nigeria’s first State of Enterprise report which measures the country’s Financial and Professional Services sector, the performance of the FPS sub-sectors in 2021 validates its pivotal role in the economy. Its particular contributions are significant in governments, businesses and people. By providing a current-state assessment.
Obi Ibekwe, EnterpriseNGR’s chief executive officer, said the SOE 2022 offers a launch pad for discussions around policy and regulation with a view to expanding the depth and breadth of the sector
The report, the first of its kind in Nigeria, indicated that the FPS sector is central to the growth and broad-based prosperity of every economy. It considered FPS’ nine classified sub-sectors: Banking, Insurance, Capital Markets, Asset Management, Non-interest Finance, Pensions, FinTech, Professional Services (Legal Services Accounting and Management Consulting) and Sustainable Finance
As the global economy wriggles through uncertainties worsened by the protracted Russia-Ukraine war with its spillover effects seen in accelerating global inflation, aggressive tightening of monetary policies, worsening debt positions, the decline in capital importation and other adverse implications, the sharp slowdown in global growth raises the risk of a prolonged recession in emerging markets, and subSaharan Africa economies like Nigeria seem at greatest risk given their precarious fiscal conditions.
Apart from higher food and energy prices, rising interest rates, currency crises from dollar shortages, and capital outflows affecting emerging markets from Pakistan to Egypt to Ghana, Nigeria additionally faces rising insecurity, unpredictable FX exchange rates, shrinking earnings and profitability of corporate entities, as well as political uncertainties ahead of the 2023 general elections, according to analysts at Cowry Asset Management Limited, an investment banking firm.
Nigerian Public Universities'over-reliance on government direct funding has been
the major cause of constant disagreements between the university staff unions and the federal government, which has come to see university funding as a millstone around its neck.
These disagreements have led to lockdowns of the university system in the form of prolonged industrial actions, translating to time wastage on the part of students, poor learning outcomes, and loss of faith in the education system, with their attendant economic consequences.
Amid the over seven-month-old impasse between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the federal government over non-implementation of the previous agreements
Nigeria's active young population that is increasingly technology savvy is setting it up to rapidly play in the deep end of the contactless payment revolution now seen to be racing to $10 trillion in transaction value in the next five years to 2027.
According to a new study, contactless payments, the system which uses near-field communication for making secure payments, will reach some $10 trillion globally in the next five years to 2027, up from $4.6 trillion this 2022, Juniper Research found for
the study.
Nigerian subnational governments facing the dangerous consequences of the potential collapse of their much relied-upon revenue sourcing channel, the Federation Account Allocation Committee, must rethink their strategy and seriously consider the empowerment of different revenue sources domiciled within their boundaries.
The SNGs in the country, much better known as states, have historically relied on a revenue-sharing formula that was created by a country that has come to rely heavily on earnings from crude oil covering most of its revenues as well as foreign exchange reserve accretion.
Although regarded as a federation, Nigeria’s fiscal business has been all but that of a federal structure, with federating units (states and local governments) having to rely on the revenue allocation formula that puts all revenues in a pot and then shares them according to an arrangement many says has made most states and local governments lazy and unable to internally generate revenue for their own use.
Even though it produces historically low carbon emissions and contributes the least to the global climate crisis in comparison to more industrialised continents, Africa has been hard hit by extreme climate change effects, which have seen the continent emerge as the most drought-affected region and the second most flooded area in the world.
This is a huge concern for stakeholders within and outside the continent who have focused conversations leading up to the 27th edition of the United Nations climate change conference (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, in November on ways to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change on Africa.
The Nigerian presidency IS contemplating a return to supporting the establishment of modular refineries mainly by small-scale operators as an option to solve the country’s obdurate petroleum agony, according to a letter from the presidency.
The aim is to use the initiative to mop up hundreds of artisanal refiners that are strewn in most parts of Nigeria’s oil region.
An army of young people has engaged in the illegal business for some years now, which has caused thousands of barrels of crude oil per day to be lost from the production mainstream Nigeria is headed to losing more than $4 billion or N1.6 trillion this 2022 to crude oil thieves, according to a new survey on oil theft in the country
Nigeria's lack of capacity to compete in the international air travel space is responsible for its high outflow of foreign exchange to meet the needs of foreign airlines who are providing the services for international travelling passengers in Nigeria.
The painful stings on the country’s already fragile foreign exchange position are at
the heart of current moves by international carriers flying into the country to either suspend flights or task Nigerians to pay for flights in the United States currency, the dollar.
Multi-national destination carrier Emirates, faced with trapped funds believed to now be in excess of $85 million, only last week issued a statement announcing its planned withdrawal of flights into Nigeria from September 1 because it says it is unable to repatriate its funds from ticket sales in Nigeria.
Global airlines are expected to post a much lower aggregate loss this 2022, a year already in H2.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) revised the loss down to $9.7 billion, a sharp improvement from an earlier $42.1 billion, with global carriers expected to begin to see profit by 2023.
According to IATA, forecast yields, a proxy for airfares, will rise by 5.6 per cent this year globally. However, some aviation industry experts who spoke with Business A.M. are doubtful if the expected global positive scenario will rub off on Nigerian carriers, who are highly indebted and struggling with cost pressures from workers’ salaries, rising fuel prices –Jet A1–, rising aircraft maintenance costs, amid the worst inflation in many years, and a depreciated naira.
In the lame duck year of his presidency, President Muhammadu Buhari is finding out every day that all the indices of measuring his management of the economy are exposing him as lacking in the requisite capacity personally, and even in the ability to assemble men and women with the ability to deliver for him.
President Buhari had assured Nigerians when he first applied for the job in 2015 that he knew what the problems of Nigeria were and he had articulated them and then promised citizens and friends of Nigeria that he would approach them by tackling three issues, namely, insecurity, corruption and the economy (particularly, unemployment).
But as the President runs down the clock to bring his eight-year rule to a close in May, 2023, all three issues are all belly-up. The economy is in shambles and the indicators are flashing red in all areas.
Unemployment is still at an all-time high at over 32 percent with strong suggestions that total real unemployment could be in the 53 percent region.
The attention of the global community of investors focused on healthcare has been drawn by a new report to the window of massive opportunities in Nigeria where it says some doses of private capital could help close a funding shortfall for the country’s health sector. Opportunities are opening up on the back of efforts to strengthen the sector in recent years resulting in some progress being made on a number of health and wellness indicators, the report stated. Produced by Oxford Business Group (OBG) under the title “Nigeria Health: Focus Report”, it identified investment opportunities in different areas of the Nigerian health sector, including health infrastructure provision, local production of consumable items like syringes and needles, medical technology, and the pharmaceutical industry
The Ongoing Geopolitical Crisis in Europe has resulted in supply disruptions of various commodities, exacerbated inflation on a global scale, and resulted in multi-year high valuations of goods in the global market at a period the global community is beginning to recover from the economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The war, which began on February 24 when Russia launched its first of many attacks on Ukraine, has exposed the vulnerability of global supply chains and raised the spectre of food shortages in many countries, especially those dependent on Ukraine and Russia for imports of key staples.
In Africa, the impact of the crisis on food security has accelerated into a worrisome challenge, triggered by price shocks and disruptions in the supply chain of the food commodity, as the world’s second-most populous continent is heavily reliant on food imports from both countries.
The Nigerian economy, which had in recent times wobbled under inflationary pressure, was dealt yet another blow as inflation figures soared to an 11-month high, further tightening the purchasing power of the populace, according to the Consumer Price Index data, which measures the average change over time in the prices of basic consumer goods and services.
The latest CPI report from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that Nigeria’s inflation rate climbed for the fourth consecutive month to 17.7 per cent in May 2022 from 16.82, while the headline inflation rose 0.02 per cent month-on-month to 1.78 per cent.
Food inflation, which comprises over 50 per cent of the inflation rate, rose to 19.5 per cent, its highest in eight months, compared to 18.37 per cent in April.
The rise in the food index was led by increases in the prices of food commodities including bread, cereals, yam and other tubers, fish, meat, and oils.
Nigeria along with other African oil and gas producing countries are under mounting pressures over a global energy transition that is at once in acceleration, says a new report from the global consulting firm, McKinsey and Company.
The report says most of the countries affected, including Nigeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, South Sudan, Ghana, Libya, and Algeria, among others, are exposed to the global energy transition as their economies are highly dependent on oil and gas revenues, against the background of a global momentum building for sustainability.
McKinsey said Nigeria and the other producers in the continent have reserves that cost more to produce and are, on average, more carbon-intensive than oil and gas from other regions.
The report titled, “The future of African oil and gas: Positioning for the energy transition”, noted that Africa is also pressured by the fact that its energy demand threatens to outstrip supply, projecting that while the energy transition will see Africa’s crude and condensate production fall from 6.5 million barrels per day (2021) to 2.5 million barrels per day in 2040, demand is expected to grow by 1.4 percent over the next two decades.
The Covid-19 Pandemic, which hit the global economy ‘below the belt’, with the latter losing $12.5 trillion says IMF revised forecast, did not, however, undo account-able budgeting practices worldwide, according to a new survey by the International Budget Partnership (IBP), which it unveiled in its latest open budget survey (OBS) for 120 countries.
Most countries preserved accountable spending practices in their annual budget processes during the pandemic.
With South Korea spearheading inclusive practices for public consultation in the budget process, Nigeria, Benin, and the Gambia surprised financial bookmakers by being“among the biggest improvers in this round of the survey.
Could the weak macroeconomic fundamentals, runaway inflation and the constraints of the CBN to sustain a dovish stance, due to the external dynamics in operation, bring about a recession in Nigeria?
Almost six years after the CBN (July 2016), the monetary policy committee (MPC) raised policy rates by 200 basis points to 14 per cent, and it has again raised the policy rate by a high 150 basis points in line with the expectations of analysts, who have reacted to the hawkish stance of the policy committee at a time when inflation is on an uptrend, the national output is on a sluggish growth, indicating that the economy is still recovering from the effect of the 2020 recession and the coronavirus pandemic.
Members Of The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria will head into their meeting Monday and Tuesday knowing that for the first time in a long while Nigeria’s April inflation number served them à la carte ahead of their gathering. Inflation is the new kid on the block.
It is the talk of the town across many serious capital cities, across many central banks, not least the United States Federal Reserve, the United Kingdom’s Bank of England, the European Central Bank (ECB); and since inflation began to show signs that it would go rogue on the world, every serious central banker has been digging in, especially those who truly take their inflation targeting mandate and price stability remit seriously.
Household Consumption is still the major demand driver of the 3.4% year-on-year real GDP growth recorded by Nigeria in 2021, a detailed analysis of the report released by the National Bureau of Statistics has shown.
Indeed, the sector’s expenditure grew 19.36% and 7.3% in real terms during the third and fourth quarters of the year respectively, according to the GDP by expenditure approach for both quarters released by the NBS and analyzed by Business A.M.
According to the report, Nigeria’s real GDP at basic prices in the third quarter of 2021 grew by 4.03% on a year-on-year basis showing a steady improvement from the 2020 economic downturn.
The growth was across the board in the final three months of the year with a positive growth rate of 3.98% in real terms, showing that the economy has resurrected from the 2020 recession where there was a negative growth rate of -1.92% recorded, compared to the 2.27% in 2019 on an annual basis.
Nigeria’s Efforts, including a number of actions taken by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to attract an inflow of foreign exchange into the country appear to be running against the tides as data are seen and analyses by Business A.M. show that direct remittances into the country have been on a downward journey.
In one glaring instance, the country’s total direct remittances crashed by as much as 48 per cent from $249.52 million in December 2021 to $130.12 million in January 2022.
The country’s foreign exchange earning capacity has suffered in recent years, not only from challenging domestic and global economic climates but also from defective policies and half-hearted measures which some have said should be put on the doorsteps of monetary authorities.
Nigeria has found it difficult to wean itself from decades of addictive dependency on foreign goods which takes a large chunk of its foreign reserves.
The inability to meet the high demand for foreign exchange has led to a raft of interventions by monetary authorities to try to either conserve the limited foreign exchange or seek to attract forex into the country
Do it yourself (DIY) investors around the world have taken heightened interest with a responsive upswing in their sentiments in trading commodities such as gold, natural gas and oil on trading platforms since the February 24 invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
As a result of this strengthening of investors’ sentiment, global retail client participation in commodities across trading platforms climbed by 85 per cent in the first three months of the year 2022, a recent report by trading and investing platform, Capital.com, through its proprietary report, Pulse, which captures global trading patterns across 6,000 instruments, shows.
Commodities had the biggest influx of trades in the first two weeks after the invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February, the report states, adding that over the same period, DIY investors showed significant interest in higher-risk tech stocks with the Nasdaq 100 index emerging as the number one most-traded market among investors, followed by US crude oil and bitcoin.
The move by the President Muhammadu Buhari's government to spend N4 trillion on petroleum products subsidy payment, a payment he described as a ruse when he was on the campaign soapbox before he became president in 2015, continues to receive knocks and has now been labelled as having ‘significant negatives’ for Nigeria, its people and its economy.
The knocks for this non-productive but humongous expenditure are particularly being reinforced by the state of the Nigerian economy.
It comes at a time when the country’s fiscal revenue receipts are dwindling, the local currency continues to tank against the dollar at the parallel markets, and
The country’s external reserves are still below the $40 billion mark.
This move by the Nigerian authorities become so disturbing that it has attracted the attention of the World Bank, stakeholders in the country’s economy, and worried Nigerians.
The global surge in food prices is taking a toll on emerging and developing economies and Nigerians now deploy over 56 per cent of their total spending on food as food inflation in the country heads to 18 per cent after printing 17.20 per cent year on year in March 2022, current figures from the National Bureau of Statistics shows.
Average commodity prices in Nigeria rose by almost 127 per cent between 2020 and 2022 depicting the reality on the ground with consumers still getting stretched, squeezed and embattled at a time official inflation is at 15.92 per cent, rising for the third consecutive month in 2022.
The purchasing power of Nigerians remains eroded by the continued onslaught on the naira, a pressure that is trading at about N600 to the dollar in the parallel market.
The continuing face-off between Ukraine and Russia finally registering in the country, continues to mount pressure on commodity prices domestically
Nigeria’s debt service cost is putting severe pressures on the purse carrying its revenue, which continues to dwindle.
This is happening at a time when many indices show an economy that is worse for wear, with external reserves below $40 billion, the Naira weakening daily against the United States dollar, both at the parallel and the investors and exporters’ segments of the FX market, an inability to benefit from a rally in the crude oil price to above $100 per barrel, and the country’s daily oil production has dropped drastically.
With over $3 billion lost to oil theft alone in 2021, the country has been kept on a fiscal cliff. Nigeria’s spending problem is now becoming the new song in the mouths of many, including Nigerians and analysts, as they see the looming and about to be triggered macroeconomic instability in Nigeria, “If the trend of continued rising debts costs without a corresponding revenue increase remains longer
The pictures that have been coming out of the Nigerian economy and its investment climate in the last two weeks have left many local and international analysts worried about what they consider to be the deepening of the uncertainties that have surrounded Africa’s largest economy by gross domestic product and market size, as well as by population numbers, for nearly a decade.
Caught up in the current global economic misalignments as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war in Europe, Nigeria’s own domestic economic misalignments are continuously being exposed, say analysts.
It appears to be follow-through from a 2014-2015 dip in oil prices that ushered in, not one, but two recessions in the lifetime of the present government headed by President Muhammadu Buhari, a former maximum military ruler.
When the crisis finally settles, if indeed, it does, between Russia and Ukraine, analysts say there would be a lot of rebalancing to follow, in Europe and then globally. That rebalancing is already on somewhat.
The world has been rudely awakened in just a little over a month to the realisation that it is dependent on the Russian-Ukrainian axis for so many things. Europe’s wholesome dependence on Russia for its energy needs and, overall, the huge influence both countries have on global commodities markets has led many to question why it now looks like nobody saw any potential danger in it.
Now, for the first time, Business A.M. learned from sources in London, it is beginning to emerge that, concerning gas supply, a push is on to establish more supply sources that would ensure that Western European countries do not have to go through this kind of dependency crisis again.
Well over 48 hours after the Court of Appeal, Owerri Division ordered global oil
giant, Shell, along with its Nigerian alter ego, Shell PetroleuOim Development Company, to deposit with the court a judgement debt of N800 billion awarded in 2020 for oil spill and environment spoilage, and failing to carry out the order of the court, lawyers to the judgement creditors have returned to the court with a Form 48 notice on the consequence of disobedience of court order.
The notice seen by Business A.M. was registered at the Court of Appeal, Owerri Division on 17th March and the lawyers to the Egbalor Community in Rivers State, noted that it was brought in pursuant to Section 72 Sheriffs and Civil Process Act & Order IX Rules 13(1) & (2) Judgement Enforcement Rules and it is made out to Jan Van Bunnik, Finance Director, Shell Nigeria, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria
Away from pandemic induced effects and the pressures from Covid-19, the lingering Russia-Ukrainian watershed, yet to exert an immediate impact on Nigeria’s economy, is likely to have significant effects in the coming weeks and months as the conflict continues to worsen global supply disruptions, pushing prices of commodities higher than expected.
Even worse, Nigeria continues to be buffeted by currency pressures on the Naira, which has fallen to around N600 to the dollar at the parallel market despite the rise in crude oil prices to above $130 per barrel.
In what looks like they are out of their depth, Nigerian policy hunches, particularly on the fiscal side of the equation. have been caught off guard as international crude oil prices continue to rally while the country’s external reserves take a tumble.
A number of analysts say it the short view approach to policy cooking, as well as its eating, take that for implementation, where the long view that accommodates the interests of generations yet unborn is ignored for the here and now approach, often leaving the government and its policy eggheads railroaded, and unable to act meaningfully.
Crude oil revenue, The Nigerian government’s major source of revenue and foreign exchange earnings, appear to be facing serious underlying setbacks despite a positive rally in global oil prices to $100 per barrel, and well ahead of the 2022 federal government’s budget benchmark of $62 per barrel.
With the naira still exchanging at the rate of N410.50 to the dollar, the government’s fiscal managers are failing to help the country take advantage of the global oil play even as it grapples with ramping up production to expected capacity owing to continuous operational challenges being faced in the oil sector
Governor Godwin Emefiele, Central Bank of Nigeria honcho, simply gave it away as, perhaps, one of his many adventures in the fiscal policy space, when he announced another leg in the dogged pursuit of his chosen role as a ‘development’ central banker, the RT200 FX Programme, designed to see Nigeria accrete $200 billion within three to five years from non-oil exports
A total of $506 Million was generated as investment banking fees across sub-Saharan Africa in 2021, A report on investment banking performance by Refinitiv Deals Intelligence, a subsidiary of the LSEG’s (London Stock Exchange Group) Data & Analytics division, has revealed.
The just over half a billion dollars generated last year was still 8% down on the figure
recorded for 2020 and is the lowest generated as annual total fees since 2014, the Refinitiv Deals report shows.
Out of the $506 million fees raked in, the report showed that governments and their agencies accounted for 20%, those in the financial sector paid the largest (25%).
Also, the energy and power sector, technology, materials and other sectors generated 12%, 10%, 10%, and 23% respectively, Refinitiv, one of the world’s largest providers of financial markets data and infrastructure revealed.
The Prices of major grain commodities in Nigeria will experience a bullish trend this year driven by the carry-on effect of the inflationary pressure on food prices that marked 2021, says AFEX, a leading commodities market player, in its annual commodities outlook report for the 2022 crop production and market year.
The report titled, “Annual Commodities Review & 2022 Outlook,” asserted that the combination of a rise in energy prices in the global market, which ultimately results in a hike
in farming inputs, such as fertilisers; increased demand that has surpassed supply levels across
the country; FX rate deterioration; market uncertainty exacerbated by the fact that 2022 is
a pre-election year; hoarding activities by traders in expectation of higher valuations, are dominant factors that would lead to a significant surge in the prices of grains during the new
2021/2022 trading season.
Has the December inflation upswing presented a headroom for the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Monetary Policy Committee to manoeuvre on rates? One of the words out there is that there is a strong possibility that a rate tightening measure could be something the wise men and women would pull out of their shared magician hat on Tuesday, January 25, 2022, at the conclusion of the first Monetary Policy Committee meeting for the new year.
For the record, the MPC has maintained the status quo 25 times in the last 28 meetings and the recent unexpected surge in inflation could be the pedal mounting pressures on the monetary policy authorities to possibly hike rates after tomorrow.
Projection by leading African and Nigeria based credit rating agency, Agusto & Co, of huge potential foreign exchange inflows into Nigeria, appears to expose a serious lacuna in the management of the inflows and the economy by both fiscal and monetary authorities.
Agusto & Co will provide fuller details and explanations on its key projections on the economy for 2022 on Thursday, but in an advanced briefing note made available to Business a.m., the company projects that Nigeria’s foreign currency inflows of $90 billion will be more than twice its foreign currency debt of $44 billion at the end of 2022.
Nigeria is desperate for revenue. Its treasury does not have plenty of cash to provide for all its needs. The country is already highly geared on borrowing, both domestic and foreign, with also a high ‘ways and means’ exposure with the Central Bank of Nigeria which is unaccounted for in the debt profile released by the Debt Management Office.
Nigeria has been running deficit budgets for years and it now seems like a normal thing in the government’s revenue and expenditure management framework.
An Official public debt pile-up by federal and state governments that has raced to N38.01 trillion at the last time of counting by the Debt Management Office is being described as a knee on the necks of Nigerians in the lead up to 2022, the undoubtedly lame-duck year of the Muhammadu Buhari Presidency, when all attention is expected to be focused on the soapbox and politicians hold sway, jostling, scheming and manoeuvring towards the 2023 general elections.
President Mohammadu Buhari and Zainab Ahmed, his minister of finance, budget and national planning, appear set to go out all guns blazing in search of revenues in every available space for the federal treasury from the very first day of 2022 with a new Finance Bill 2021set to be passed into law this month.
Buhari and Ahmed will be seeking to squeeze revenues in the form of taxes that will be imposed on such things as bets, lottery, app stores, foreign digital coys, among others, in a desperate bid to generate funds to boost dwindling revenues and finance the huge N5.62 trillion estimated budget deficits for fiscal 2022.
Nigeria’s fiscal performance has been poor for more than six years and Buhari’s finance minister, Ahmed, has not particularly provided appropriate fiscal policy leadership for the economy, with a lot of the push seen to be provided by the monetary authorities, who have led on many occasions in place of the fiscal authorities. Even Ahmed’s predecessor, Kemi Adeosun, did not fare better either.
The International Monetary Fund has said the continued use of the global financial safety net will need to be kept in place until the global pandemic crisis comes to an end as the total stock of international reserve holdings has more than doubled to about $14 trillion at the end of 2020 since the global financial crisis, while other layers of the safety net rose tenfold to about $4 trillion.
The global financial safety net is a set of institutions and mechanisms that provide insurance against crises and financing to mitigate their impact and this safety net has four main layers.
The layers, according to the IMF, include countries’ own international reserves; bilateral swap arrangements whereby central banks exchange currencies to provide liquidity to financial markets; regional financial arrangements by which countries pool resources to leverage financing in a crisis; and the IMF.
Nigeria's Fiscal Authorities Appear to have clearly lost steam and now seem unable to find the permutation to come out of the economic maze they have been walking in for well over six years following a decision to go in with eyes wide open and unleash the wrath of inflation through an ill-prepared, less thought-out fuel subsidy policy set for the new year.
It is what some analysts are likening to a government acting out a ‘hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’ policy against its citizens.
Analysts warn that they see the government appearing to be acting in a knee jerk manner and would be extending the misery quotient for citizens, amidst avalanche policy permutations that have not been fit for purpose over the last six years.
The Last Central Bank of Nigeria's Monetary Policy Committee meeting in September saw members vote unanimously to leave the policy rate of 11.5 per cent and other parameters unchanged with the hope that a held posture would allow the recovery of output growth and the downward trend in inflation to continue smoothly.
For the sixth and final time in 2021, the committee is gathering again today (Monday) and tomorrow (Tuesday) to decide on major economic parameters in the face of recent domestic macroeconomic developments
Unsurprisingly, though, a myriad of economic analysts have in their assertions noted that the MPC at this final bi-monthly gathering for 2021 will, in the face of output expansion and moderating inflation, stick to the use of unorthodox tools within its arsenal, as all corners of the domestic economy lighting green, will give it no room for rates manoeuvring when members emerge from the gathering.
As COP26 Rounded off over the weekend, Nigeria and other member countries who are shareholders of the African Development Bank are to benefit from $136 million in additional donor commitments for the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa.
SEFA is a multi-donor trust fund managed by the African Development Bank. Denmark, SEFA’s founding partner and first donor, unveiled 100 million Danish kroner (around $14 million) in fresh commitments. Germany, another SEFA donor country, recently increased its
contribution to SEFA by another €100 million. The significant German contribution to SEFA was first announced during the UN high-level dialogue on energy last September.
Nigeria, though AfDB’s biggest continental equity holder and Africa’s largest economy, her citizens bear the brunt of poor access to electricity.
As of June 2020, the World Bank country update indicated that Nigeria had the world’s highest population of people without access to electricity.
A Group of Energy Sector experts have raised an urgent memo to President Muhammadu Buhari calling on him to immediately begin the full implementation here in his home country Nigeria, the laudable suggestion on micro-hydro power generation he made to the world in an article in the run-up to the on-going United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26, holding in Glasgow, Scotland.
The group under the nomenclature, ‘Nigerian Oil, Gas and Power Forum’, said Buhari in putting forward one of the strongest suggestions on how to approach the global climate crisis through micro-hydro power, had hit at what the group believes is low-hanging fruit for solving Nigeria’s power crisis, but which has been ignored for far too long.
According to the group, now that the president has told the world that it was a climate-friendly approach to solving power problems, especially in communities, he has shown that he is aware of the solution and should proceed to have it actualised in the country as his bold and genuine effort to make a dent on the intractable problem of power supply.
African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina has reminded developed countries to deliver on their promise of $100 billion per year for climate change in Africa, in view of the urgent need to finance climate adaptation on the continent.
Action to avoid the worst impacts of the climate disaster must start with developed countries making true on their commitment of new, additional and predictable climate finance from a floor of $100 billion per year.
Chinese Contractors developing projects in Africa have recently begun seeking out financing from European banks and export credit agencies, a departure from their typical sourcing of finance from China, according to a report by the Global Trade Review.
GTR cited sources in the export finance sector as say ing there are various reasons for the trend, including Chinese official lenders and insurers, such as the Export-Import Bank of China and the China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation (Sinosure), hitting exposure limits in some heavily indebted countries, cheaper offerings from international banks and a desire by some governments to diversify funding sources
A report by Economic Confidential on annual states viability index 2020 has shown that Lagos, Nigeria’s Financial Capital, with a sub-national gross domestic product in excess of $50.83 billion, is the most solvent and viable state in Nigeria year-to-date.
For the fifth year running, the littoral state with aquatic resources has led in the Nigerian states’ annual viability index.
According to the ASVI computation, Lagos, which is by far an industrial behemoth, can pull along successfully without the monthly disbursements from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee.
But this is not the case with eight other states: Adamawa, Benue, Jigawa, Katsina, Niger, Taraba, and Yobe, described as economically insolvent and unviable, and cannot survive without the federal monthly envelope, due to their very low IGR accretion compared to their FAAC receipts.
A universe of Business A.M.’s analysts' community says they see the situation in the long and broad view of consumer price pressure. According to them the rise in the price of the commodity only adds to the pressure faced by Nigerian consumers who are already buffeted in many areas of their daily life, especially in relation to the high prices of many items in the economy.
The reintroduction of VAT on imported cooking gas, say some economic analysts, only suggests that Nigerians should brace up for further price pressures on the commodity in the short term, with the attendant pass-on effect on other commodities in the economy.
In a stock exchange-styled ‘Fact-Behind-the figures presentation, Mele Kyari, group managing director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has said cost-cutting measures, efficiency, and strategic investment are the factors that led to the historic declaration of profit by the corporation for the first time in 44 years.
Kyari provided background information in a virtual briefing to scores of journalists across the world, in a form that has led not a few to challenge the chief executive officer of the state-owned oil giant to push for an initial public offering that would lead to a public listing and grilling by the investment analysts community, sooner than later.
He explained that the posting of N287 billion profit after tax by the national oil company in the 2020 financial year was achieved through management’s doggedness in prudent resource management.
The International Monetary Fund data shows that with the Economic downturn still pounding its economy, Nigeria’s foreign liabilities stood at $187.36 billion while its foreign assets amounted to $102.15 billion as of December 2020, leaving it with a staggering net figure of -$85.21 billion.
But it would seem that to get off this bind, the government needs to begin to look at how to grow and deepen the capital market and see it as a partner for progress rather than just a bunch of private sector profiteers whom it is in competition with.
A robust and sturdy capital market is seen as holding the key to build and retain capital in-country and the Nigerian capital market, estimated at $50 billion in size, needs to grow to $500 billion to help Nigeria post surplus in its net foreign liabilities readings.
A detailed analysis in a Wood Mackenzie Insight has shown that Anglo-Dutch Oil Giant Shell, which has been operating in Nigeria for 63 years under joint venture operation as Shell Petroleum Development Company is divesting its entire Nigerian JV portfolio, including 30 percent interest in 19 oil mining leases.
The energy giant, rather than sell single OMLs, is seeking buyers for asset packages in the eastern, western and shallow water delta.
The shallow water assets include OMLs 74 & 77 (undeveloped), and OML 79 (EA Area). All of these are up for sale.
Wood Mackenzie Insight analysts say they consider only 20 per ct of this to be commercial, due to a lack of investment, crude theft, insecurity, and gas market constraints. Also, five of the OMLs are undeveloped.
Wood Mackenzie says the valuation of Shell’s 30% in the Nigerian JV excluding export pipelines and terminals is $2.3 billion, NPV10, Jan 2021, US$50 long-term oil price.
Singapore, an economic giant city-state and gateway to Southeast Asia, says it is open for partnerships with Nigerian businesses in particular, and Africa in general, and is prepared to serve as a genuine gateway to southeast Asia, providing access to the fast-growing markets of China, India and Vietnam.
Jean Ng, regional director, West and Central Africa in Enterprise Singapore, based in Accra, Ghana, who spoke via a Zoom briefing, in the build-up to the 2021 Africa Singapore Business Forumholding on August 23 and 24, said the partnership model Singapore champions through Enterprise Singapore creates opportunities for a win-win situation for businesses on both sides of the divide.
She said the partnership model was already working as it has led to Singaporean businesses establishing a presence in Nigeria and in other parts of Africa for decades.
The wings of Bureau de Change operators in Nigeria may have been clipped by the Central Bank of Nigeria with the swift decision last Tuesday to halt the sale of foreign exchange to that segment of the market in an effort to curb the menace of roundtripping, including the facilitation of illicit money flows, profiteering and bleeding of the country’s FX resources.
However, as some economic and financial analysts have termed the move as a step in the direction towards the unification of Nigeria’s multiple exchange rates, others have begun sounding to the hearing of all stakeholders about the looming devaluation and dollar scarcity ahead in the short to medium term.
Egypt, the North African economic giant’s incoming Red Sea Petrochemicals complex, with total investments worth $7.5 billion will place it on top of countries in the world producing high-quality petrochemicals.
The country, which is Africa’s third-largest economy, signed contracts for engineering works with French energy solution giant, Axens Ink, relating to manufacturing licenses of the Red Sea petrochemical complex, a statement sent to Business A.M. by Corinne Garriga, Axens’ head of corporate communications quote the Egyptian ministry of petroleum and mineral
resources.
The incoming petrochemicals plant throws up a huge challenge to Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer but its only midstream effort in the petrochemicals
The sector is way behind, despite the massive opportunities it has in the sector.
Analysts in the Aviation sectors have expressed worry over the disparity in the charges of ground handling companies in Nigeria as well as in comparison with other countries in the West
African sub-region, saying the situation in Nigeria if not checked could impact safety as it was already impacting revenue generation negatively.
A cross-section of analysts who spoke on the matter noted that the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria was losing billions of naira annually from the 5 per cent gross annual turnover paid by the ground handling companies as some even say it is economic sabotage against Nigeria.
For instance, it is observed that ground handling rates in Nigeria is the lowest in the entire African countries, if not the world and this has been a thorny issue for over a decade.
A new report has shown that although there was a slump in its oil-driven revenue due to the onset of the Covid-19 global pandemic, Nigeria’s federal government, its 36 sub-nationals with their 774 local government councils shared in excess of N7.23 trillion in 2020.
But with a broken economic system and insincere governance the central government and its sub-nationals could not manage the huge earnings in 2020, but rather turned out to be the worst-off ever.
In its quest to meet the onerous target of raising N2.34 trillion towards the projected deficit of N5.6 trillion contained in Nigeria’s federal government’s 2021 budget, the Debt Management Office has been taking bold steps to deliver on the plan. The debt office has now raised N1.42 trillion at its bond auctions, including non-competitive sales to public agencies in just over a six months period.
However, when the smaller amounts it generates from the sale of other debt instruments, such as Sukuk and green bonds, are added to the amount realized, it is clearly on track to meet the target for the year, say analysts who have been tracking the DMO’s activities this year.
U.S. President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration in the state of Florida and ordered federal assistance to supplement state and local response efforts after a building collapse near Miami left at least one dead and nearly 100 missings.
The White House says the President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate all disaster relief efforts.
Rescue crews picked through tons of rubble on Thursday looking for survivors after the collapse of part of the oceanfront apartment tower in Surfside near Miami.
Algeria’s president has accepted the prime minister’s resignation, paving the way for the formation of a new government following parliamentary election results.
A statement by the Algerian presidency says Abdelmadjid Tebboune accepted the resignation of the government led by Abdelaziz Djerad and appointed him as caretaker premier until a new cabinet is formed.
Djerad’s resignation follows a parliamentary election on June 12 that was marked by a low turnout and no majority winner after two years of mass protests and political turmoil.
Afghan leaders Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah will meet United States President Joe Biden at the White House on Friday for a high-stake discussion likely to shape Afghanistan’s future as the US withdraws forces nearly 20 years after invading.
President Biden is expected to offer assurances of US backing for the Afghan government in Kabul and is likely to press Ghani and Abdullah to unify their rival political factions in the face of rising Taliban assaults, analysts say.
Ghani and Abdullah are expected to appeal to Biden for specific and concrete pledges of financial and diplomatic support, including continued technical assistance for embattled Afghan military forces.
Director of the Afghanistan programme at the US Institute of Peace, Scott Worden, says the security situation is alarming and it’s deteriorating.
A war of words between Moscow and London escalated on Thursday as both sides accused one another of giving inaccurate accounts of an incident involving a British warship and Russian forces in the Black Sea.
Russia says it fired warning shots and dropped bombs in the path of HMS Defender on Wednesday as it sailed off the coast of the Crimea peninsula, accusing the Royal Navy destroyer of breaching its territorial waters.
The United Kingdom disputed Russia’s account, saying no warning shots were fired and no bombs were dropped but suggested a Russian gunnery exercise had been taking place in the area.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters that HMS Defender was acting legally in international waters and described the vessel’s route as wholly appropriate.
The World Food Programme says Communities in Madagascar are on the verge of starvation, with women and children walking for hours to reach food after the worst drought in four decades devastated the south of the island.
The WFP says acute malnutrition has almost doubled over the last four months with more than a quarter of people suffering in one area.
WFP executive director, David Beasley in a statement says there have been back-to-back droughts in Madagascar which have pushed communities right to the very edge of starvation.
He added that families are suffering and people are already dying from severe hunger. WFP says $78.6 million was needed to fight the crisis.
The International Air Transport Association says the continent's aviation sector is unlikely to recover to pre-Covid-19 levels for another two years.
IATA says that vaccination should not become a mandatory requirement for air travel, owing to Africa’s slow vaccine rollout.
IATA’s vice-president for Africa and the Middle East, Kamil Al-Awadhi, says passenger numbers are unlikely to pick up any time soon.
IATA is now asking African governments to adopt a single digital platform for verifying coronavirus tests and vaccine certifications, as part of efforts to standardise ways to keep track of the health of passengers.
President Muhammadu Buhari has tasked the National Space Research and Development Agency to effectively utilise the satellite facilities at its disposal towards resolving the critical issues confronting Nigeria, particularly in the areas of security, improved communication, and digital penetration, as well as agriculture.
The President expressed a renewed commitment to the space sector, describing it as the foundation of cybersecurity and a vibrant digital economy.
President Buhari directed the Minister of Science and Technology to prepare and submit a revised 25-year roadmap for the implementation of the National Space Policy to the Federal Executive Council for consideration and approval.
He noted that there was a need to put in place the necessary infrastructure required for the actualisation of the goals and objectives of the nation’s space policy and programme.
President Muhammadu Buhari has allocated a three-bedroom flat each to members of the 1994 African Cup of Nations winning squad, 27 years after the federal government made the promise.
The President approved the allocations in their states of preference, noting that six players and three technical crews received their houses already.
Former Nigerian captain and coach Stephen Keshi, Uche Okafor, Wilfred Agbonavbare, and Thompson Oriha – all squad members who won the competition in Tunisia – have died.
President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has explained why it is important for the Nigerian government to continue to borrow responsibly to fund critical projects in the country.
He believes it is not feasible for the government to tax the people further in the face of the present economic situation and the nation’s infrastructure must be developed.
The Senate President says the options are really very limited for the country with no necessary revenue.
The Presidency says President Muhammadu Buhari will travel to London, the United Kingdom on Friday.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, explained that the President’s trip to London was for a scheduled medical follow-up, adding that he would be back in the country during the second week of July.
President Buhari’s scheduled trip to London comes almost three months since he last visited the United Kingdom for the same purpose.
He also stated that there was no need for the Nigerian leader to transmit power to the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, since he would not be away for so long to contravene the law.
Experts Knowledgeable within the electricity production, distribution and management value chain say that full privatisation, as it happened in telecoms in 2001, is the most viable and sustainable solution to Nigeria’s electricity deficit in its economy. T
heir expert-opinion stems from the June 2021 World Bank Resilience-through Reforms report on Nigeria Development Update. According to the latest Tracking SDG7 report, 85 million Nigerians (that is 43 percent of the population) have no access to electricity.
The global lender observed that electricity not only fuels productivity, it is a vital catalyst in health, education, and other forms of social development. Lack of reliable power stifles economic activity, it firmly maintains.
Economic and bilateral ties are to top the agenda of discussions between Nigeria and Vietnam when Vice President Yemi Osinbajo undertakes an official visit to the South-East Asian nation later in the year. The country, with a 70 per cent ease-of-doing-business ranking as of 2020, is ranked in the developing/emerging country group with a lower-middle-income economy, with the nominal gross domestic product (GDP) in excess of $355 billion and a purchasing power parity of $1.142 trillion in 2021.
With a population of 97.46 million by 2019, and an unemployment rate of 3.3% by 2020, the economy of Vietnam is a socialist-oriented economy, which is the 36th largest in the world as measured by nominal gross domestic product (GDP) and 23rd largest in the world as measured by purchasing power parity (PPP).
Vietnam is a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO)
Tax experts, analyst and legal practitioners are now seriously weighing in on the planned deduction of taxes from potential payers’ bank accounts by the Nigerian government through its Federal Inland Revenue Service, with varied responses to this newspaper’s series of inquiries across the country.
The system is one of the portions of the Tax Reforms Act 2020, signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari last December which took effect January 2021.
According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the tax, audit and financial advisory firm, in
a January 2020 note: The new law contains over 90 changes to 7 different tax laws including an increase in the rate of VAT from 5% to 7.5%; 0% CIT rate for small businesses; and a
lower rate of 20% for medium-sized companies; requirement of TIN to open and operate a business bank account.
The outcome of the gathering of the central bank of Nigeria's Monetary Policy Committee which takes place on Monday and Tuesday this week is not particularly expected to present any surprises to economic analysts, especially in the face of concerns over the current twists and turns in the nation’s economy and the need for the committee to thread the delicate path of pro-growth and anti-inflationary policies.
The MPC will be meeting for the 279th time amid several economic realities bedevilling the Nigerian economy.
The consumer Price index report for the month of April 2021 expected to be
released this Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics, analysts at Afrinvest Securities have projected that inflation will remain negative in the short-to medium term owing to the poor weather condition alongside the farmer-herder crisis, which they say will worsen harvests from the farm in 2021 as the pro-growth focus of the Central Bank of Nigeria continues to drive increased money supply in the economy,thus escalating the rate of inflation in the near term.
Access Bank and Zenith Bank, two of Nigeria’s leading Tier-1 banks, the former with a recent aggressive foray into the continent with a large acquisitive appetite, are believed to be sitting pretty at the table of talks that majority shareholder in Union Bank, the Bob Diamond controlled Atlas Mara, is intensifying efforts to sell its majority 49.97 per cent stake in the old horse.
Union Bank was once one of the three or four musketeers of Nigerian banking, popularly referred to as the old generation banks; the others being First Bank of Nigeria; United Bank for Africa and Afribank. hey were the golden behemoths of the industry with government controlling stakes and came to truly represent the meaning of too big to fail in those days, until the government sold controlling shares through a privatisation exercise.
Analysts say, following privatisation, rounds of banking consolidation and the global and local financial crises of 2007-2009, while its peers moved swiftly to reposition themselves in the financial services industry.
Nigeria and other countries in Africa offer enormous opportunities if they embark
on green growth which is investing in climate-smart crops to build more resilient food systems, climate-resilient infrastructure and energy transition.
The African Development Bank in an optimistic note of enormous opportunities inherent in green growth in Africa’s recovery pathway from its first recession in 25 years, energy, agriculture and infrastructure are key areas of investment potential for a post-Covid-19 recovery in Africa.
AfDB President, Akinwumi Adesina says with abundant solar, wind, hydro and geothermal energy resources, Africa’s energy transition alone presents a $100 billion per year investment opportunity.
He says Agriculture potentially offers massive investments in climate-smart crops to build more resilient food systems and climate-resilient infrastructure offers investment potential of between $130 billion and $170 billion.
Although the non-performing loans ratio of Nigerian banks stands at 6.3 per cent, above the prudential benchmark of five per cent,
Moody’s Investors Service has asserted that banks in Nigeria, as well as those in South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo, stand exposed to high risks environment as a result of their rising loan portfolios or their continuous lending to environmentally sensitive sectors. It says they are also vulnerable through outsized holdings of government bonds.
In a research study by the international agency on Africa’s financial institutions,
Moody’s highlighted that African economies have always been susceptible to environmental risk but that climate change makes shocks more frequent and more severe. For African banks, it stated, disclosure of the risks they face and management of those risks are not yet well advanced
Analysts sampled by Business A.M. have maintained that Nigeria's economic recovery will be moderate as it continues to embrace the new normal despite the country posting an 8-year historical 9.7 per cent quarter on quarter growth in its gross domestic product$443 billion in real terms, which helped to place the country’s GDP growth as the best in the world ahead of China (2.6%), Japan (3%), USA (4%) and Columbia (6%).
Nigeria’s rising joblessness rate has continued to add to its worsening misery index and low human capital development, forcing analysts to canvass for functional and structural policy changes to counter the huge unemployment which continues to defy several investment funds, policies, and initiatives by the federal government to curb the excess job losses through support for the economy.
The latest unemployment and underemployment statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics in Abuja showed that the labor force, which comprises of the population of working age between 15 and 64, increased to 122 million in the last quarter of 2020, 4.3% higher than the figure recorded in the second quarter of the same year, while the unemployment rate worsened to 33.3% from the 27.1% reported in the respective quarters, posting the worst performance on record.
Economic experts have expressed concerns about the current twist within the Nigerian economic landscape which continues to put the Central Bank of Nigeria Monetary Policy Committee in a tight corner, providing them little room for a rate maneuver as they converge for the second statutory meeting.
As the MPC meets Monday and Tuesday to deliberate on a number of indices to help
decide whether to hold or tweak the rates, inflation has gotten in the way already reaching a four year high at 17.33%, as well as other major talking points such as the recent exit from the recession with minimal growth at 0.1% in Q4 2020, depleting external reserves in the face of rallying oil price in the global market.
Augusto & Co., Nigeria's foremost credit rating agency, is projecting the country’s total output to grow at a rate of 2 per cent in 2021 on the back of the COVID-19 vaccine and the attendant improvement in investor sentiments globally and domestically, relatively higher prices of crude oil and consequently its demand. In its latest report released over the weekend, the agency highlighted that in the year 2021 some key industries in Nigeria will witness the impact of the global health crisis and that this will affect their performance.
Data from the Nigerian Communications Commission shows total active internet subscribers in Nigeria declined by 1.95% or 3,004,3 to 151,296,836 in January 2021 from 154,878,203 in December 2020 while broadband penetration steeped to 42.93% from 45.02% in December 2020.
Also, Nigeria's Foremost Gas Liquefaction company's incoming $7 billion Train 7, which is the country’s boldest effort in the gas business in nearly a decade, faces headwinds over alleged non-compliance yet with its core host’s participation in the construction of the multi-billion-dollar project.
The Bonny Kingdom, an island community in Rivers State which saw early trades with European explorers some 150 years ago, is the ‘core host’ of Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas's massive gas plant at Fatima. Other major facilities are the gas company’s water-wells, the residential area in Abalamabie.
Recent data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria shows that Nigeria's external reserves have continued a southward downhill climb dropping as much as $1.38 billion on this journey.
From $36.52 billion on January 25, 2021, the reserves fell to $35.14 billion exactly a
month later.
The decline represents a marginal one per cent over a 30-day watch, but it comes
amidst an environment that has witnessed increasing price of Brent crude, which has
rallied to about $66.28 a barrel in the global oil market.
The current shades of events that have shown a positive rally in the crude oil market amidst Nigeria’s near zero foreign direct investment and very poor foreign exchange inflows as a result of the country’s needle-eye exports, along with negative market reactions to the state of liquidity, and significantly, little or no shift in the naira-dollar exchange rates, has signposted the importance of keeping and maintaining appropriate FX buffers.
Nigeria's Economy showed resilience in the fourth quarter of 2020, beating the expectations of several economic analysts, including projections by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund by posting a historical 9.7 percent quarter on quarter growth in its gross domestic product in 8 years to N19.55 trillion in real terms.
The argument still holds but it could now be that the credit interventions of the Central
Bank of Nigeria, state development banks, and other financial institutions are starting to have an impact on the economy and consequently placing Nigeria’s GDP growth as the best in the world at this time, besting China at 2.6 percent; Japan at 3 percent; United Stated at 4 percent; and Columbia at 6 percent.
From the latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria, the
the largest economy in Africa exited from recession by the end of 2020 as its output growth
returned to positive territory in the fourth quarter of 2020, with a modest growth of 0.11
percent in the quarter, compared to the -3.62 percent contraction of the previous quarter.
Nigeria, ranked Africa's Largest Economy, possesses one of the world’s largest varieties of agricultural commodities from which it could earn over $242 billion in the global export market, a viable channel capable of efficiently bolstering the country’s revenue generation; but the country is woefully failing to effectively tap into this revenue source because of a largely uncoordinated and nonstrategic export earning approach to its agriculture management.
The Central bank of Nigeria has decided to go hawkish in the controversial global disagreement between some central bankers and market participants over what status to confer on digital currency trading and exchanges.
On Friday, it joined forces with a swathe of these central bankers who have remained
largely sceptical about the invisible money that has swept through the world, except
perhaps in Russia and North Korea, where a dictatorship holds sway, in the often unspoken war against what some major global financial institutions and burgeoning online marketplace and e-commerce platforms have already embraced in their daily trades
and transactions – crypto currency.
Zenith Bank’s ranks top performer with Tier-1 capital up 18% to $2bn while south Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria lead the continent’s top 10 banks
Nigerian banks have dominated the west and central African regional Rankings in the 2020 survey of Africa’s top 100 lenders conducted by African Business, with the overall result showing just a few surprises.
Data captured mostly full financial results as of December 2019 as all eyes now turn the final results of the African before December 2020 year-end.
One hundred and six (106) years since embryonic Nigeria began to form into the
opaque state that it has become today the country’s extraordinarily conservative, ancient thinking, middle way thinkers, and even some with a modicum of progressive economic minds, have failed to see and understand the need to wake up billions of dead capital held by governments – local, state and federal – in the form of assets, by listing them at least on the domestic stock.
We take a look at the business overview for the week starting from the MPC meeting, the International Monetary Fund prediction of the sub-Saharan Africa’s policymakers facing a difficult road to economic recovery.
The president of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, has stated that profit shifting, base erosion and tax avoidance by multinational corporations form a huge part of Africa’s missing taxes and they account for a large share of the over $60 billion in illicit capital flows that Africa loses annually.
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will hold its first meeting for 2021 on Monday and Tuesday, during which it is expected to assess its existing guiding principles in line with recent developments in the international space and their implications for the domestic economy.
Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy with a GDP size of over $475 billion, would require at least $4 billion annually to be able to provide universal access to sustainable renewable energy for its citizens, the minister of state for power. Goddy Jedy Agba at a UN hosted virtual global power sector players’ conference said with the total removal of petrol subsidy by the current administration, renewable energy sources have become more cost-competitive.
As Nigerians grapple with the incessant ascension in food prices, it is now no longer speculation that the menace of poor harvest and storage facilities, the disruptions from the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the recent flooding, which eroded several farmlands in the north in 2020 is continuing to reverberate, resulting in an adverse effect on price increases of agricultural commodities in the country.
The industry has over time battled with low yield and high expenses ratio, which could be tackled with, improved service quality, a rise in technical reserves, and higher investment yields.
But on the flip side, the high contingency liabilities and low policy reserve, coupled with regulatory actions, further threaten growth in the industry.
Consequently, rust deficit, low penetration, low investment yield, and high loss ratio constitute the weaknesses faced by many insurance firms.
As the year 2021 unfolds its potentials gradually, there are high expectations as to what the New Year beholds.
It is expected that 2021 would encompass a better experience for the insurance industry, according to industry analysts.
The Rouse of the new year 2021 began as a surprise to concerned Nigerians who woke to the news of a supposed 50 percent hike in electricity tariffs by the National Electricity Regulatory Commission after the revised Multi-Year Tariff Order signed by Sanusi Garba, an engineer, and chairman of NERC
The commission also claimed that they are aimed at cushioning the effects of the
pandemic, while providing more targeted interventions for citizens review and its supposed tariff increase.
The World Bank Says Nigeria is to grow by 1.1% this year and 1.8% in 2022. The forecasts are contained in the bank’s latest 2021 global economic
The Nigerian government has perfected ways to borrow funds from unclaimed dividends and dormant bank account balances unattended for at least six years, thanks to the 2020 Finance Act.
With the coming into force of the law, which empowers the federal government to borrow from the two sources, proceeds from the two sources will stand as special credit to the federal government through the Unclaimed Funds Trust Fund contained in the Finance Act 2020, recently signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.
AFCFTA takes off with 33 countries sealing the economic union of African countries.
According to the secretary-general of the trade bloc, he has said that it appears most of the African countries are not yet ready to implement the terms of the AFCFTA because many lack the customs procedures and infrastructure to facilitate free trade.
Amidst ailing economic performance, Inflation could climb to 16% in January
Growth in non-oil sectors to improve from Q1 21, electricity tariff hike. Experts point to an economy buffeted by stumpy oil price and the spillover effects of COVID-19.
AfCFTA, Zenith Bank, Afrimexbanks in talks over Currency differences. Nigeria opens four land borders in directive to the President's Orders based on the recommendation by Advisers. Experts say it helps to moderate prices on goods brought into the country. Naira expected to depreciate in the coming months. How does the reopening of the border affect the AfCFTA agreement which is set to commence on January 1?
The fifth annual meeting of the economic zones organization where the AFDB President Akinwumi Adesina gave a clear comparison between Chinese special Economic zones and that of Africa, giving a clear picture of why it is that Africa seems to be losing out from fully participating in that #3.5 trillion global special economic zones market and what can be done differently.
The annual report by rating agency moody’s, indicating that Nigeria’s deficit will remain high and debt levels will continue to rise quickly, albeit from a moderate level. The report however states instances where the B2- outlook could likely move to stable, bring us up to speed with that.
How will the report affect trading this week seeing that the bulls gained a strong grip all through last week?
A lot has gone on within the week, the bulls retained their grip in the markets up until this moment. The rise in forex turnover by about 9.6% of cos that’s a reaction to the new CBN guideline barring mobile money operators and payment service providers from accepting diaspora remittances.
Nigerian businesses are lamenting the intensity at which insufficient power supply, stifling competition, unfavorable economic laws, funding challenges, unfavorable political climate, poor access to credit, and insufficient demand have combined to constrain business activities in Africa's biggest economy and the earth's most populous black nation.
Nigerian Businesses have buckled under the pressure brought about by these challenges and what seems to many of them an intransigent situation defying the managers of the country's economy notwithstanding the global economic situation brought by the pandemic.
Access Bank plc which assumed that position following its merger and acquisition deal with Diamond bank is continuing its quest to clean up the Aegean stable of legacy issues brought upon it y the merger especially outstanding debt the latter consummated.
A 21-year-old violation of a human right in Nigeria's oil-rich Bayelsa state by Agip, the Nigerian affiliate of Italian International Company Eni, is getting to a dramatic finishing line that could set the company back in excess of 3o billion naira and north of 50 million naira as at last Friday.
A recent study by Standard Chartered, a leading international banking group with a presence in 60 of the world's markets has revealed that the united nations sustainable development goals are not getting the needed investment to aid the world in meeting with critical targets for fighting poverty and climate change by the year 2030.
Global Advisory and audit firm, KPMG said the Nigerian Economy faces a cocktail of domestic and global macro trends and developments that will combine to shape its economic outlook and outcomes in 2021.
The National Bureau of Statistics released the Q3 GDP result which showed a growth rate of -3.62% in real terms. it represents an improvement of 2.48% points over the -6.10% growth rate recorded in Q2.
It confirms that the Nigerian economy has officially fallen into a second recession in 5 years since 2016.
The Central Bank of Nigeria's Monetary Policy Committee is scheduled to hold its final meeting of the year on Monday, 23rd November 2020 facing a myriad of challenges such as the surging inflation numbers, the streak of pressures at the foreign exchange window, recent nationwide civil unrest, alongside several other factors that constrain an economic recovery.
Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation scrambled its communication team to provide assurance4 to the Nigerian Public that the strike by members of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Sector Staff of Nigerian which had started to result in panic buying of petroleum products especially petrol would not affect the supply of the product.
The food index rose by 0.66 basis point to 16.66%. The Surge was accursed to rising food prices occasioned by border closures and weakening of the Nigerian currency against the dollar in the foreign exchange market.
The International Monetary Fund says policymakers within the sub-Saharan Africa region are now faced with more difficulties of rekindling their economies with fewer resources and more difficult...
Cloud hangs over investment environment and the Economy faces possible downgrades by rating agencies
Insurers continue stock-taking of disaster losses while the Economy lost over N58bn daily to protest and Economist Says Crisis may roll back progress already made.
Story on the cover page points to the inflation numbers which were up in September and some analysts pointing to a number of factors one of which is the devalued domestic currency, and also the IMFs revised outlook for Nigeria from a decline of 5.3% to 4.3%.
Does this revised outlook make the inflation situation any less severe?
World Food Day.
What more can you tell us about this Feed Africa Initiative and is Nigeria tapping into this programme?
The ministry of finance in August had planned to spend 12.65 trillion as budgetary expenditure in 2021, but now theirs a much higher figure.
The president actually showed some interest in human capital development in the budget and we saw that when 545.1bn and 380.21bn was allocated for ministry of education and health respectively, what are your thoughts on these allocations considering how low Nigeria was plotted in the 2020 World Bank Capital Development Index released last month?
With the latest news from WTO, history is already been made as we have two female finalists for this position, Nigeria's Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, and South Korean Yoo Myung-Hee, how good are our chances?
The deliberations for the Petroleum Industry Bill has been shifted to 2021, did you see this one coming again. And what will this now mean for investors.
Nigeria celebrated its 60th anniversary in the build-up to this edition. In the midst of all the possibilities, the Fitch rating agency gave a glimmer of hope with a stable outlook, even in the midst of a pandemic.
Nigerian firms face new hurdles as IASB plans to amend IFRS. The amendment on the IFRS by the IAS Band the cost implication on Nigerian companies? How impactful is this fee structure expected to be on its fixed income securities market?
The planned strike by the Labour Congress over the Federal Government's decision to raise the price of fuel and increase the tariff on electricity. The labor unions are meeting tonight with FG to prevent a strike action which will is not what the Nigerian economy needs during a pandemic.
In anticipation of tonight's meeting, if the strike goes ahead or is called off:
What are some of the things you've heard that you can share on the strike (or suspension of the NLC-TUC strike)
Cross River seeks to harness the Gulf of Guinea's economic potential
The frontpage story talks about Cross River State in Nigeria looking at potentials in the Gulf of Guinea.
A rate cut to support growth in economy This story talks about the fallout of last week's MPC meeting.
This week, Nigeria will be 60. It's a diamond celebration which the federal government has said will be low-keyed but staggered, lasting an entire year.
Investors watch for surprises in the MPC meeting to deliberate on a number of indices which will help it to decide whether to hold or tweak policy rates of current economic realities facing the nation as well as the global economy, investors, analysts, and other wider stakeholders in the economy are anxiously keeping vigil and looking out for possible surprises from the government bankers. The Central bank of Nigeria has introduced the solar connection Intervention Facility to complement the government's affordable electricity to rural dwellers.
CBN’s B200bn fund to fast track 300,000 homes across 36states, FCT. This scheme is expected to create 1.5m direct jobs and 1m indirect jobs. The Central Conundrum of Covid-19 Entrepreneurship. This report talks about how the entrepreneurial ecosystem is responding to the pandemic. The report talks about investors facing a dilemma of whether to view the crisis as holistically or opportunistically. What are some of the findings from this report and what should entrepreneurs take away from it? Deploying ABP to secure 5m tonnes of rice in dry season farming. This report talks about Nigeria being the leading producer of rice on the Africa continent and the 13th largest producer globally. But being the biggest producer of rice on the continent might be hard to believe by the average person on the street, considering that a bag of the finished commodity costs over 20,000 naira, depending on who you ask.
DATA FROM THE CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA (CBN) shows that despite hitting a high figure of approximately $45.17 billion as of June 2019, Nigeria’s external reserve has been on a downward spiral since then, losing well over $11 billion in ten months. Recent statistics from the apex bank revealed
that external reserves have fallen below the threshold as required by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Act of 2007. In summary, the Act says that the CBN must at all times, maintain a reserve level that should be able to fund or sustain two (2) years’ worth of imports.