News Express

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 impos...

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...

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 likenin...

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...

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 (arou...

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...

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 predicta...

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,...

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...

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...

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 j...

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...

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...

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, G...

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 fina...

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...

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 F...

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 ear...

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....

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 dis...

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 parli...

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...

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...

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 st...

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 an...