Budget Threatened As Oil Price Sinks To $56

The international oil benchmark, Brent crude, tumbled on Wednesday to $56 per barrel, its lowest level in seven years as the United States-China trade war worries gripped the market. The decline in oil price imposes a serious threat to Nigeria’s economy as the 2019 budget is based on an oil benchmark of $60 per barrel. Click here for more.

AfDB offers AU $5m grant for AfCFTA implementation

The take off of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) got a notch better yesterday, when the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, signed a $4.8 million institutional support grant to the African Union (AU) for its implementation. Click here for more.

Expert Proffers Solution to Petroleum Downstream Sector’s Challenges

The Founder and Chairman of Fasmicro Group, Prof. Ndubuisi Ekekwe, has said Nigeria needs to leverage the opportunities offered by big data to fix perennial lapses in the downstream sector of its oil and gas industry. Ekekwe, also harped on the need to create an opportunity for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to thrive in the sub-sector. Click here for more.

Market Sentiment Remains Negative As NSEASI Dips Further By -0.42%

Equities market closed yesterday on a negative note, as NSEASI depreciated by -0.42% to close at 27,412.13 points as against -0.51% depreciation recorded previously. Its Year-to-Date (YTD) returns currently stands at -12.78%. Click here for more.

AMCON Gets More Powers As Buhari Assents To 2 New Laws

The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) yesterday got more powers to enforce recovery of debt from persons owing legacy banks or seizure of property subject of loan obligation. This followed assent to the AMCON (Amendment) Act, 2019. Click here for more.

Nigeria’s external reserves slip below $45 billion in just two months

Nigeria’s external reserves have continued to drop in recent weeks and slipped below $45 billion. Data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) shows that the external reserves now hover around $44.8 billion. Specifically, it took Nigeria 8 months to build the external reserves to hit $45 billion two months ago, after it fell below $45 billion in September 2018. Click here for more.

CBN sells N115bn T-bills to strengthen naira

The Central Bank of Nigeria held an unscheduled Treasury bill auction on Wednesday, selling a total of N114.6bn ($375m) worth of treasury bills to strengthen the naira. This auction is the apex bank’s first since mid-July as it seeks to boost dollar liquidity in the currency market after the naira fell, traders told Reuters. Click here for more.

Seplat delays LPG, exploration projects until 2020

Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc said it had deferred three planned exploration/appraisal wells targeting longer-term oil and gas production and the Oben and Sapele Liquefied Petroleum Gas projects to 2020. Click here for more.

MTN Nigeria hires KPMG to handle tax dispute as face-off with FIRS continues

MTN Nigeria has recruited KPMG as the tax dispute between the telecommunications company and the Federal Inland Revenue Service drags on. The network provider had previously asked a tax tribunal to interpret the decision to pay corporate tax on the N330 billion fine for SIM infraction. Click here for more.

Palm oil imports gulp N504bn in five years

Importation of palm oil into the country gulped $1.4bn (about N504bn) in the past five years, investigation has shown. Global import data from the United States Department of Agriculture indicate that Nigeria imported a total of 2.04 million tonnes of palm oil between 2014 and the first few months of 2019. Click here for more.

How to profit from a falling market with dollar-cost averaging

The Nigerian Stock Market has been witnessing a downward spiral this year. The Nigeria All-Share Index, which opened the year at 31,430.50 points ended the week of August 2, 2019, at 27,630.46 points. This represents a 3,800.04-point decline in the All-Share Index, or 12.09% decrease. Click here for more.