News Express

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 investme...

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 NERCThe commission also claimed that they are aimed at cushioning the effects of thepandemic, while providi...

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...

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...

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...

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 ratin...

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 pressur...

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 En...

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 face...

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 meeti...

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 accur...

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 agenciesInsurers continue stock-taking of disaster losses while the Economy lost over N58bn daily to protest and...

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 Initi...

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 N...

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 ex...

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...

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 Cen...

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....

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...