₦airaland Forum

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) reported on Friday that its All-Share Index crossed to 35,000 mark for the first time after the capital market crashed in 2008.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NSE) reports that the index appreciated by 606.95 points or 1.76 per cent to close at 35,109.33 on Friday from the 34,502.38 posted on Thursday.
Similarly, the market capitalisation, which opened at N11.03 trillion, grew by N194 billion to close at N11.23 trillion as a result of price appreciation.
Guinness led the gainers’ table by N7.87 to close at N274.02 per share.
Dangote Cement appreciated by N6.80 to close at N185, while UACN inched by N5.88 to close at N64.68 per share.
Total gained N5 to close at N143, while Nigerian Breweries rose by N1.49 to close at N161.50 per share.
Analysts attributed the renewed interest in the equities to improved first quarter results released by some companies this week
They also attributed the new interest to the dividend of N1.50 and bonus of one for five shares proposed by UACN in the 2012 financial year.
Conversely, Beta Glass topped the losers’ chart by 67k to close at N10 per share.
Ashaka Cement dipped by 45k to close at N23.30, while ETI lost 24k to close at N15.21 per share.
RT Briscoe dropped 18k to close at N1.62, while UBA Capital lost 12k to close at N1.08 per share.
NAN reports that the volume of shares traded appreciated by 89.10 per cent due to the exchange of 573.47 million shares worth N5.41 billion in 4,958 deals.
This was against the 303.26 million shares valued at N3.75 billion traded in 5,756 deals on Thursday.
UBA was the toast of investors, accounting for 362.55 million shares worth N2.54 billion.
Skye Bank sold 33.01 million shares valued at N190.59 million, while FBN Holdings recorded a turnover of 22.20 million shares worth N434.12 million

omenka: Pot calling kettle black. Even the topic of the post itself is a big lie! Iweala sed 'nearly 50billion' and the OP said '50billion'! You people lie so much that the line which separates a lie from truth is completely blurred out.

And so what if it is 50bill?
She should tell us what our trade deficit is.
She should tell us what our life expectancy is.
She should tell us what our unemployment figures look like.
She should tell us what our external dept figures look like.
Not to forget, the poverty rate, income disparity, growth rate of the middle class, infant mortality rate, etc. These are the real indices used to measure economic progress and not all that crap she keeps spitting on CNN and elsewhere.

So disapointed in this woman.

Do you see their new drift? The same ACN/CPC red eyed e-thugs who made Ezekwesili an automatic hero because she stated (quoting wrong data) that GEJ/Yar'Adua depleted foreign reserve are the same people suggesting that there is no sense building up the foreign reserve. They are even suggesting that it should be used on infrastructure while they wait to accuse the same govt of squandering 50b USD foreign reserve if they do that. You see how easy Lie Mohammed and othe ACN e'warrior's jobs are?
The complaint of dead rail have changed to complaint of slow speed locomotive rail.
Complains of impassable Benin Ore road has changed to 'only 2 lanes?!!!'
'Why are the refineries not working' has changed to ' we have always refined at 10m capacity na'
'Prosecute subsidy thieves' changed to 'jail subsidy thieves'
'He is clueless and weak has changed' to 'he is too harsh and behaving like a dictator'
When inflation is in the mid to the high 10s, the screaming was 'this guy cannot even tame inflation', when it came down to 8:6, it changed to 'what is the gain to the masses on the streets'
If they search out a poor rating figure of the country, then GEJ is called names, but if we receive positive rating on the same data, they won't trust 'those compromised rating agencies'
When the time come, GEJ will sit down and play politics with you guys, for now, he is busy working on delivering his campaign promises

deb: If all you listed above is all that Nigeria needs right now, I would have commended your post. Sadly not.
At bolded how many youth have benefited? what is the system in place for it to reach all who needs it? Please educate me.

automaticcarzz: There is nothing that proves it is indeed Benin-Ore Road. I know people who ply that road everyday and it is one complain after another. Jonathan still have time to convince the masses that it is still Jonathan who promised "Fresh Air". I will be happy he deleivers, but I doubt it. If he does deliever, I will campaign for him. I don't live in Nigeria, but I canvassed for Jonathan from abroad during the election. My whole family and many friends voted for him.

Governor Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu of Niger State yesterday said he was quoted out of context over his comments on presidency on Monday.
[b]Aliyu said he was misquoted when he was reported as saying “anybody who thinks, whether at the party or presidential level, can clip the wings of the governors is wasting his time.”
Speaking in Minna when he received last year’s hajj report from the leadership of the state pilgrims’ commission, the governor said what he said was “nobody can clip the wings of the governors.”
He said in his capacity as Chairman of Northern Governors Forum he must protect the image of the governors and to make sure no governor ridicules the presidency.
“As Chairman of Northern Governors Forum I can go out of my way to protect the image of governors and make sure again no governor tries to ridicule the presidency... but again we must also make sure that we do not subject any governor to ridicule unnecessarily.
“We believe Nigeria is bigger than all of us and that governors must respect Mr. President and the presidency that is part of our oath of office. Any governor who tries to ridicule the presidency or to ridicule Mr. President is doing that at his own peril.
“None of us is fighting Mr. President and if any governor is fighting Mr. President on personal matter, we the governors are capable of dealing with that particular person at every level of our associations. We have the Northern Governors Forum, we have the PDP Governors Forum, we have South/East, South/West and South/south governors’ forums and I believe we are capable of handling situation like that,” he said.[/b]
The governor banned sponsoring pilgrims to Saudi Arabia, saying government would only provide subsidy of a certain percentage for the benefit of the state’s intending pilgrims.
Chairman of the pilgrims’ commission Mamman Mohammad commended the governor for the maximum support his commission had been enjoying from his government in carrying out its operations over the years.

http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/~trust/index.php/news-news/53356-aliyu-i-was-misquoted-over-comments-on-presidency

Michaeljones36: For a long time it looked like GEJ was really going to turn things around...

Two years later and he's just like the rest of them.

How long must black people suffer before we reach the promised land?

On the visit of the delegation to he president, the governor said the delegation was in Aso Rock to express appreciation to the president for some of he things he has done for Zamfara state recently.

"Recently, the federal Executive Council approved the establishment of a Federal university in Zamfara state. Since the establishment of the state, Zamfara has been struggling to get a university in place but as God will have it it did not happen until now. We came to express our appreciation to the president for this gesture.

You are also aware of our struggle with lead poisoning. Recently, the president approved about N900million for the remediation of some villages that were affected by poisoning.

As I am talking to you, work is on and myself and the Honouable minister of state for works and the Minister of Information will be at the site to see how the work is going. It is important for us as a community to come and appreciate these gestures by the president.

Mr president appreciates the way we came as a united team for progress in Zamfara state and he clearly said that he has not received this kind of team from any other state. It is good for people to appreciate when somebody does any good thing for you as prescribed in our religion Islam," he said.

Fidelity Bank Plc has expressed its readiness to finance a multi-million naira aluminium can project in Aba.

The bank explained in a statement yesterday that the factory, when completed, is expected to take off with an initial production capacity of 1.2 billion cans yearly.
This, it stressed, would surpass the Agbara Can Manufacturing factory that took off with an initial production capacity of 600 million cans per year.

The bank argued that the new plant, when completed, would be the largest aluminum can factory in Africa.

Managing Director/Chief Executive, Fidelity Bank, Reginald Ihejiahi explained that the financing options adopted by the bank were largely driven by its commitment and faith in the development of the Nigerian economy.

Ihejiahi added: “We are a bank operating in an emerging market and we believe that the industrial sector remains the heart of banking in such markets.”

[b]Ihejiahi, whose bank also financed the Agbara Can Manufacturing factory that was constructed by GZ Industries further explained that as an institution in business, the bank is mandated to report to its shareholders.

He said: “When we opened Agbara Can manufacturing factory constructed by GZ Industries and which was commissioned by President Goodluck Jonathan in 2010, it started with 600 million cans per annum, but the second phase of its development took its production to 900million cans and later to 1.2billion.

“However, the Aba Can manufacturing company which is nearing completion will take off from the first day with 1.2billion production capacity and we believe that with this pace Nigeria will soon be self-sufficient in aluminum can production.”

Ihejiahi said the facility would offer enormous opportunity for job creation and other economic benefits to the citizens of the country.
The Aba Can factory is expected to service the breweries and beverage companies in the South-eastern and South-south parts of the country, and by extension other parts of Nigeria.

“We are also not ruling out export opportunities to West African and other African countries because of the size of the factory,” he said[/b].

berem: abi o! Amaechi is becoming famous while our presido is becoming more clueless and stewpid.

how are you darling ? I have missed you badly .

MAYOWAAK: The story of Nigeria is like that of a father who has 36 children. He takes the income of his wealthy children to a central port and distributes it among his 36 children. A good father will encourage all his children to be creative and hardworking so that they can make the money to sustain themselves. A bad father will ignore the larger picture of every child being self-sustaining and insist on redistributing his children’s wealth. The ultimate danger is that you will have children who are extremely lazy and unwilling make good use of their talents and gifts. Every month, they will go to “papa” to give them their own share of the other children’s wealth. It will now reach a stage that they will start complaining that the money is not enough to buy the limousine of their dream.

I understand a bit of the logic of natural resources. The oil in the Niger Delta is a gift of nature, many will argue, since the people played no role in putting it under the ground. So let’s share it—it belongs to all. But so also can we say of human beings—we are not gifted the same way! Michael Jackson could sing better than his brothers and sisters. But it would be wrong to compel Michael to bring his income to the table so that his father could share it among all the Jacksons. If that were the case, Janet or Jermaine or LaToya would have no reason to do any work at all. They would all be waiting for the month to end to collect their own FAAC. But Janet honed her skills and became a success in her own right as an artiste. She may not be anywhere near the success of Michael, but she is certainly a success. The Jacksons can have a common purse where they can contribute resources for the common cause of the family. There is nothing wrong with that. But to make a policy of taking from one Jackson to sustain another Jackson is illogical.

There is no state in Nigeria that cannot sustain itself if the governors understand the art and science of development. If it is natural resources, every state has them. If it is value-added agriculture, every state can become an industrial host. These are the things that can generate employment, generate economic activities, generate tax revenue and shore up the incomes of the states. The real challenge for the governors is: how can they use what they’ve got to get what they need? How can they put the right policies in place to attract the needed investment? How do they spend wisely to make state economies viable? These are the questions they should be asking. But because of the ease of travelling to Abuja for federal allocation cheques every month, forward planning and critical thinking are no longer part of governance.

The eternal reliance on oil revenue has done a lot of damage to the federation. Every day now, we hear the Niger Delta people say “our oil, our oil”. During the petrol price hike crisis last year January, some Niger Delta person, trying to suggest that the protests were unjustly aimed at President Goodluck Jonathan, said something like: “If our son is not good enough to be president of Nigeria, then our oil is not good enough for Nigeria.” This warped logic—which tends to paint oil as the solution to all human problems—defies the fact that the most advanced countries in the world do not rely on oil revenue. Even Norway, the poster boy of successful management of oil revenue, survives on tax. Their oil money is saved largely for the rainy day.

But do you blame us? Why do we need to stretch our brain to dream of building our own Microsoft and Apple when we can look up to Abuja for the flow of petrodollars every month? Why should Bauchi bother to tap its tourism potential? Why should Bayelsa dream of feeding Africa with its FADAMA rice when there is a fat FAAC cheque to be collected in Abuja monthly? Why should we quicken Ajaokuta so that the fourth biggest steel company in the world can begin to operate fully and spice up the economy? Why should Aba be developed into our own Taiwan or Japan? There is no such incentive. The only incentive I can see in Nigeria is federation account.

It wouldn’t even matter if we are utilising federal allocations to develop the most important resource at our disposal: the human capital. Oil is not the real deal, no matter how dominant it has become in our lives. It was human beings that designed cars and made petrol as important as it is today. Human beings are now designing cars that run on bio-fuels, electricity and solar energy. By the time the cars become popularly accepted, the demand for oil could drop. It may not happen in the next 50 years but it would happen someday. So the wise person does not keep emphasising on oil and ignoring human capital. The wise person thinks about a future where our lives will no longer depend on oil but on the quality of the brain. It was human beings that invented aeroplanes, computers and phones, etc. If we are wise now, our energies should be devoted to getting out of this oil trap.

I wish we could discuss these issues honestly without trading insult and threat. The quality of public debate is very poor in Nigeria. We have a real problem in our hands but instead of engaging in fruitful debates to chart the way forward, we specialise in name-calling and blackmail as if that would solve our problem. Those of us who have no interest in politics or politicking will continue to make our point.