₦airaland Forum

MPC Meeting: Experts Predict Rate Cut to 13%
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/22/mpc-meeting-experts-predict-rate-cut-to-13/

Local Equities Give up Early Gains to Close 0.40% Lower
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/23/local-equities-give-up-early-gains-to-close-0-40-lower/

T-Bills Yields Close Mixed Across Maturities
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/23/t-bills-yields-close-mixed-across-maturities/

By Dipo Olowookere

Another top member of staff of flagship broadcast platform, Television Continental (TVC), Mrs Azeezat Adebari Olaoluwa, has left the company, Business Post has learned.

This is coming few months after a top management staff of the firm, Mrs Morayo Afolabi-Brown, who is the main anchor of the award-winning show, Your View, exited the television station, but remained as the host of the programme afterwards.

Information available to our disposal said the charming broadcaster resigned from the powerful media house some days ago.

It was gathered that Azeezat, as she is fondly called by her friends and colleagues, pulled out of the organisation to pursue her career elsewhere on another level. However, her destination has been kept closely to her chest.

While at TVC for over seven years, Azzy, as she is also called by her former pals at the station, was popular for being the news caster for the TVC Prime Time News at 10pm.

Since moving to TVC News from Galaxy Television, she has won several awards including the Best Female Broadcaster award at the Nigerian Broadcasters Merit Awards in 2016.

In 2018, she was a runner-up in the television category of the Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Journalism, a category won by her colleague at TVC News, Sharon Ijasan.

https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/20/popular-broadcaster-azeezat-olaoluwa-resigns-from-tvc-news/

By Adedapo Adesanya

The prices of major food commodity declined across the states in Nigeria in the month of June 2019, compared with what was recorded in the month of May, a report released few days ago by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows.

In the report, which sampled some selected food items, it was discovered that the price of 1kg worth of tomato decreased by 9.40 percent to N226.07 in the month of June from N249.52 in May.

According to the data analysed by Business Post, prices of the various categories of rice sampled all dropped. For example, price of the medium rice suffered the heaviest drop of 2.80 percent to sell at an average N308/kg in the month of June followed by the local Rice which went down by 2.57 percent from the previous month to sell at an average of N271/kg. Other categories of the grain product, the Ofada rice saw a 1.13 percent drop to sell at N373.5 (per kg) while the agric rice fell by 1.03 percent in June to N318.25/kg.

Another major food commodity that saw a large drop in prices (per kg) was beans. The brown beans dropped by 6.16 percent to N342.62 in the month under review, while the white beans also recorded a price reduction of 5.54 percent to sell for an average of N311 per kg.

Yam, according to the NBS Data, recorded the largest fall in prices of selected food commodities in the sixth month of the year, as the price went down by a whopping 15.68 percent to go for as low as N182 per kg.

The yellow and white garri also saw double-digit decrease as both fell by 13.68 and 10.05 percent respectively to N156 and N145 per kg apiece.

Also, fish saw drop in prices between 0.91 – 3 percent on all the various types of the commodity studied. Frozen Titus fish went down by 0.91 percent to sell at N940/kg. Smoked catfish depreciated by 1.49 percent last month to N1530 per kilo. The price of frozen mackerel reduced by 1.7 percent to N925 per kg.

Bread, one of the major end products of flour, also recorded changes in both categories of the commodity studied (sliced and unsliced 500g). Sliced bread recorded a change of 1.53 percent from the price quoted in May to drop to N292.73 per loaf. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the case with the latter (unsliced) as prices went up by 0.88% percent to sell at a quoted N274.49.

Benue state, the food basket of the nation, saw the highest price range of beef (bone in) as price went as high as N1244 in the state, but the average price (per kg) for the animal produce across the nation was N1003, with an almost 2 percent change in price from the previous month. Boneless beef, on the other hand, recorded a higher drop of 2.3 percent to sell at an average price of N1240.

Dairy products like chicken, eggs, and milk were also studied and from the analysis, the price of chicken feet and wings both decreased by 4.69 percent and 3.06 percent to N693 and N905 per kilogram respectively while frozen chicken went up by 3 percent to as high as N1750/kg.

A dozen of egg also went up by 6.6 percent to go for N495 but the medium price of a single piece of the dairy product of N39 saw an 8.20 percent drop, according to the statistical report. The price of evaporated milk likewise dropped by almost 4 percent to go for almost N157 per unit.

Onions, Maize grain, oil, plantain, were also some of the food commodities that recorded various decrease in prices in the month of June 2019.

https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/22/prices-of-rice-tomato-beans-garri-others-drop-in-june/

N4.6bn Debt: Ecobank Takes Over Power Firm
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/22/n4-6bn-debt-ecobank-takes-over-power-firm/

ConRe to Seek Fresh Approval for Sale of Minority Shares
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/22/conre-to-seek-fresh-approval-for-sale-of-minority-shares/

Fidelity Bank Plans N50bn Bond Sale to Refinance Debts
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/21/fidelity-bank-plans-n50bn-bond-sale-to-refinance-debts/

LASACO Rises 6.45% w-o-w After NSE Lifts Suspension
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/21/lasaco-rises-6-45-w-o-w-after-nse-lifts-suspension/

Oando in Fresh Trouble
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/20/oando-in-fresh-trouble/

Cash Reserve Ratio of 22.5% for Nigerian Banks too High--Expert Tells CBN
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/20/lcci-to-cbn-cash-reserve-ratio-of-22-5-too-high/

Nigeria's Eurobonds Debt Rises to $10.87bn from $1.5bn in 2015
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/20/nigerias-eurobonds-debt-rises-to-10-9bn-from-1-5bn-in-2015/

One-Month Treasury Yield Falls to 8.99%
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/20/one-month-treasury-yield-falls-to-8-99/

By Adedapo Adesanya

The 2019 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) Report has revealed that the number of “multi-dimensionally poor” Nigerians increased by 12 million from 86 million to 98 million between 2007 and 2017.

The report, released in New York on Thursday by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, noted that the proportion of people who “are multi-dimensionally poor” had remained constant at just over 50 percent over the past decade up to 2017.

Multidimensional poverty includes the various deprivations experienced people in their daily lives – such as poor health, lack of education, inadequate living standards, disempowerment, poor quality of work, the threat of violence, and living in areas that are environmentally hazardous, among other indicators.

It explained that the global MPI highlighted inequalities at the global, regional, national, sub-national and even household level.

The study further revealed that the poorest countries exhibited not just higher incidence of multidimensional poverty, but also higher intensity, with each poor person deprived in more indicators.

This year’s MPI report presented that more than two-thirds of the multi-dimensionally poor – 886 million people – live in middle-income countries, while a further 440 million live in low-income countries.

In both groups, figures show simple national averages can hide enormous inequality in patterns of poverty within countries.

In Nigeria’s case, the report showed that even though the national average showed that around 50 per cent of Nigerians were multi-dimensionally poor, state and local government levels would reveal a completely different scenario.

It stated, “In Nigeria, even though the proportion of people who are multi-dimensionally poor has remained constant at just over 50 per cent over the past decade (up to 2017), the actual number of people who are multi-dimensionally poor increased from 86 million to 98 million over the same period.

“Also, important to note is that when compared to the national poverty line which measures income/consumption, a larger proportion of Nigerians (51 per cent) are multi-dimensionally poor than those that are income poor (46 per cent).”

The MPI, according to the UNDP, is the product of the incidence and the intensity of multidimensional poverty, and both are important aspects, noting that any reduction in intensity reduces MPI even if incidence remains unchanged and reflects progress towards moving people out of poverty.

https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/20/12-million-nigerians-became-poor-in-10-years-undp/

One-Month Treasury Yield Falls to 8.99%
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/20/one-month-treasury-yield-falls-to-8-99/

By Adedapo Adesanya

Nigeria’s external debt stock rose by 148 percent in almost four years of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, data from the Debt Management Office (DMO) showed.

The external debt soared to $25.61 billion as at March 31, 2019 from $10.32 billion as at June 30, 2015, according to the DMO, with Eurobonds worth $10.87 billion accounting for the largest chunk of the external debt, as it rose by 625 percent from $1.5 billion as at June 30, 2015.

The nation’s debt owed to the World Bank also rose to $8.90 billion from $6.19 billion in the period under review.

China, through its Export-Import Bank of China, is the third biggest lender to Nigeria with a loan of $2.55 billion as of March 31, 2019, up from $1.39 billion as of June 30, 2015.

Other lenders are African Development Bank ($1.25 billion), African Development Fund ($834.18 million), Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa ($5.88 million), Export Development Fund ($59.15 million), Islamic Development Bank (15.51 million) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development ($176.19 million).

Bilateral debts from France (Agence Française de Dévelopement), Japan (Japan International Cooperation Agency), India Exim Banking of India and Germany (KfW) stood at $366.07 million, $74.63 million, $26.46 million and $171.79 million, respectively.

Last month, the agency primarily responsible for coordinating the nation’s debt management said that the Federal Government would borrow $2.7 billion from foreign sources this year, adding that it planned to first access cheaper funding from multilateral and bilateral lenders while any balance would be raised from commercial sources, which might include securities issuance such as Eurobonds in the international capital market.

https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/20/nigerias-eurobonds-debt-rises-to-10-9bn-from-1-5bn-in-2015/

Nigerian Stocks Regain Freedom After 7-Day Hostage, Gain 0.20%
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/19/nigerian-stocks-regain-freedom-after-7-day-hostage-gain-0-20/

Africa Prudential Grows Net Profit to N1bn in Six Months
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/19/africa-prudential-grows-net-profit-to-n1bn-in-six-months/

Cadbury Nigeria Bounces Back to Profitability, Posts N669.9m PAT
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/19/cadbury-nigeria-bounces-back-to-profitability-posts-n669-9m-pat/

Japanese Firm Increases Stake in Fidson to 21.57%
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/19/japanese-firm-increases-stake-in-fidson-to-21-57/

Nigeria to Sell Fresh N145bn Bonds Next Wednesday
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/19/nigeria-to-sell-fresh-n145bn-bonds-next-wednesday/

United Capital’s Revenue, PAT Drop 17% in H1 2019
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/19/united-capitals-revenue-pat-drop-17-in-h1-2019/

Nigerian Stock Exchange Falls to 26-month Low
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/19/nigerian-stock-exchange-falls-to-26-month-low/

Oil Prices Continue to Fall on Global Tensions
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/19/oil-prices-continue-to-fall-on-global-tensions/

CBN N75bn OMO Sale Records 631% Subscriptions
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/19/cbn-n75bn-omo-sale-records-631-subscriptions/

H1 2019: Transcorp Records 57.57% Decline in Profit
**As Revenue Drops 30.19%
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/18/h1-2019-transcorp-records-57-57-decline-in-profit/

German Govt Acquires 39.25% Stake Nigeria's Royal Exchange
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/18/german-govt-acquires-39-25-stake-nigerias-royal-exchange/

Nigerian Banks Spend N427.8m on Adverts in One Month
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/18/nigerian-banks-spend-n427-8m-on-adverts-in-one-month/

These Are 184 Authorised, Active Stockbrokers in Nigeria
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/18/these-are-184-authorised-active-stockbrokers-in-nigeria/

FG Loses N6trn in Revenue to Apapa Gridlock
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/18/fg-loses-n6trn-in-revenue-to-apapa-gridlock/

Senator Danjuma Joins May and Baker Nigeria Board
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/18/senator-danjuma-joins-may-and-baker-nigeria-board/

By Dipo Olowookere

Transactions at the nation’s stock market remained bearish on Wednesday, with profit taking activities by investors weighing on the market.

The local bourse has been in severe pain for some days now, calling for help, which is nowhere in sight. The market is seriously expecting a positive trigger that will take it out of the dungeon.

One of these triggers is the appointment of ministers by President Muhammadu Buhari, which should send a positive signal to investors that the present government was serious about making the economy better. Unfortunately, there are no strong indications that the President will name his cabinet members anytime soon. It is nearly getting to two months after he took oath of office on May 29, 2019.

Yesterday, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) further lost 0.56 percent, bringing the year-to-date loss to 10.78 percent.

During the midweek trading session, the All-Share Index (ASI) went down again by 158.08 points to finish at 28,042.80 points, while the market capitalisation depreciated by N77.1 billion to close at N13.667 trillion.

An analysis of the proceedings on Wednesday on the floor of the NSE showed that the market breadth ended negative due to the losses recorded by 26 stocks and the gains printed by 8 counters.

Business Post reports that Nestle Nigeria was the day’s worst performing stock, losing N5 of its share price to settle at N1245 per share.

Julius Berger went down by N1.95k to finish at N18 per unit, while Guinness Nigeria depreciated by N1.50 kobo to end at N46 per share.

Unilever Nigeria declined yesterday by N1 to settle at N32 per share, while Flour Mills depleted by 60 kobo to close at N14 per unit.

At the other side of the coin, UAC Nigeria topped the gainers’ table after appreciating on Wednesday by 10 kobo to finish at N5.90k per share.

It was followed by A.G. Leventis Nigeria, which went up by 3 kobo to settle at 33 kobo per unit, and Chams, which rose by 2 kobo to end at 27 kobo per share.

Courtville and Consolidated Hallmark Insurance both increased their share value by one kobo each to close respectively at 22 kobo and 31 kobo.

Despite the poor performance of the market yesterday, the volume and value of shares transacted by investors improved significantly by 12.24 percent and 116 percent respectively.

While the volume of trades rose from 217.1 million to 243.7 million, the total value increased from N1.8 billion to N3.9 billion.

This was influenced by activities around GTBank yesterday as the company sold a total of 77.5 million units of its stock for N2.3 billion.

FBN Holdings transacted 29.5 million shares worth N163.8 million, while UBA exchanged 13.6 million equities for N76.5 million.

In addition, Zenith Bank traded 13.3 million shares valued at N247.4 million, while ASACO Assurance exchanged 11.3 million units worth N3.9 million.

https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/18/nigerian-stocks-remain-in-severe-pain-further-shed-0-56/

Nigerian Stocks Remain in Severe Pain, Further Shed 0.56%
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/18/nigerian-stocks-remain-in-severe-pain-further-shed-0-56/

CBN Massively Cuts Stop Rates of Treasury Bills at PMA
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/18/cbn-massively-cuts-stop-rates-of-treasury-bills-at-pma/

CBN Massively Cuts Stop Rates of Treasury Bills at PMA
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/18/cbn-massively-cuts-stop-rates-of-treasury-bills-at-pma/

Nigeria May Consider Issuing 40-, 50-Year Bonds
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/17/nigeria-may-consider-issuing-40-50-year-bonds/

Nigeria May Consider Issuing 40-, 50-Year Bonds
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/17/nigeria-may-consider-issuing-40-50-year-bonds/

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday said as at March 31, 2019, the total public debt portfolio of the federal and state governments stood at N24.95 trillion.

Breaking this down, the stats office said the total public debt showed that N7.86 trillion or 31.51 percent of the debt was external while N17.09 trillion or 68.49 percent of the total debt was domestic.

An analysis of the data by Business Post clearly stated that from the N17.09 trillion domestic debts owed by the country, 52.56 percent of it or N13.1 trillion is for the federal government alone, while the states and the FCT account for 15.92 percent or N3.97 trillion.

A further scrutiny showed that most of the domestic borrowings by the federal government was through the issuance of the FGN bonds, which accounted for 74.15 percent or N9.72 trillion, followed by the Nigerian Treasury Bills, which accounted for 20.22 percent or N2.65 trillion.

Promissory notes accounted for 2.80 percent or N366.85 billion of the debts owed local investors by federal government, while the FGN Sukuk bonds accounted for N200 billion or 1.53 percent.

In addition, the Nigerian Treasury bonds accounted for 1.15 percent or N150.99 billion of the total debts, Green Bonds accounted for N10.69 billion or 0.08 percent, while FGN Savings Bonds accounted for 0.07 percent or N9.71 billion.

In the report released by the stats office, of the N3.97 trillion total domestic debt, Lagos State accounted for 13.64 percent or N542.23 billion, while Yobe State has the least debt stock in this category with a contribution of 0.68 percent or N26.99 billion to the total domestic debt stock as at March 31, 2019.

https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/17/fg-owes-local-bonds-t-bills-investors-n13-1trn/

FG Owes Local Bonds, T-Bills Investors N13.1trn
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/17/fg-owes-local-bonds-t-bills-investors-n13-1trn/

Conoil Shareholders to Receive N2 Cash Dividend August 23
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/17/conoil-shareholders-to-receive-n2-cash-dividend-august-23/

FG Owes Local Bonds, T-Bills Investors N13.1trn
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/17/fg-owes-local-bonds-t-bills-investors-n13-1trn/

T-Bills Market Bullish as Yield Drops to 10.67% Ahead of PMA
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/17/t-bills-market-bullish-as-yield-drops-to-10-67-ahead-of-pma/

Flour Mills to Pay N1.20k Dividend to Shareholders Sept 6
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/16/flour-mills-to-pay-n1-20k-dividend-to-shareholders-sept-6/

Meyer Plc Appoints Alashe as Chief Financial Officer
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/16/meyer-plc-appoints-alashe-as-chief-financial-officer/

CBN Holds 268th MPC Meeting July 22
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/16/cbn-holds-268th-mpc-meeting-july-22/

By Adedapo Adesanya

Latest figures released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS) have revealed that there are over 122 million bank accounts in Nigeria as at June 2019.

This is a sharp increase from the figures recorded as at December 2018, which put the total number of bank accounts at 118.1 million.

However, there is a stack difference between the number of account holders and the active accounts in Nigeria. According to the NIBSS data, out of the 122.4 million bank accounts in the country, only 72.9 million accounts were active as at the end of last month.

It was gathered that 2019 has seen a fluctuation in the active use of bank accounts by customers since the year began.

For example, January recorded the lowest number in the year so far with only 71.8 million active bank accounts.

The month of February, by contrast, saw a surge in activity in over 73 million bank accounts, while over 74 million bank accounts were active in March, making it the month with the highest number of active bank accounts in the year so far.

However, the next two months saw drastic fall compared to March in the activities of bank users as April recorded 72.977 million active bank accounts with a slight gain over May, which saw a little drop by over 40,000 users to 72.936 million.

The NIBSS data further indicated that the month of June had a comparative advantage to May 2019 by over just 38,000, with a total active bank account of 72.974 million recorded across the country.

So far, there are a total of 29.3 million Current Accounts domiciled with Nigerian banks in contrast to the 89.8 million Savings Accounts.

According to a recent data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), there are 22 deposit money banks authorised to operate in the country as at June 30, 2019.

Business Post reports that there are eight banks given the approval to operate outside the shores of the country, 11 commercial banks have licences to offer financial services across the federation, while two have regional banking licence, with one having non-interest licence across the nation.

https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/16/nigeria-has-122-4-million-bank-accounts-nibss/

Investors Lament Resumption of 5% VAT on NSE Transactions
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/16/investors-lament-resumption-of-5-vat-on-nse-transactions/

Two Major Battles Ahead of Tier-2 Nigerian Banks
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/16/two-major-battles-ahead-of-tier-2-nigerian-banks/

Transcorp Hotels Appoints New Board Member
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/16/transcorp-hotels-appoints-new-board-member/

Stocks Shed N110bn as Investors Await Buhari’s Team
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/16/stocks-shed-n110bn-as-investors-await-buharis-team/

Onyema Tasks Newly Inducted 46 Stockbrokers on Integrity
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/16/onyema-tasks-newly-inducted-46-stockbrokers-on-integrity/

T-Bills Market Bullish as Overnight Rate Hits 3.43%
https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/16/t-bills-market-bullish-as-overnight-rate-hits-3-43/