Business News

Friday, 27 August 2021 06:00

NNPC declares profit for first time, Buhari reports

Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has made a profit for the first time in its 44-year history, generating an income of N287 billion ($698 million) after tax in 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari said on Thursday. Buhari, who also holds the title of minister of petroleum resources, gave no explanation for the state company’s swing to profit in 2020, a year when the economic shock caused by the global Covid-19 pandemic triggered a slump in the oil price. At a virtual briefing in Abuja, NNPC’s chief Mele Kyari said the oil company saw opportunities to cut cost, improve efficiency as well…

Friday, 27 August 2021 05:45

9 customer service phrases that should be retired immediately

You're not fooling anybody with these canned lines, so why not just tell us the truth? I was recently on hold for customer service for a big website and the more I listened to their pre-recorded messages, the more I realized that the standard customer service on-hold verbiage was weasel wording of the worst stripe. Here are the 9 worst offenders and what they really mean: 1. "For your convenience..." Translation: "We are going to greatly inconvenience you in order to increase our profit margins by having you wait." 2. "Please remain on the line and we will be with…

Thursday, 26 August 2021 05:44

These are the 3 most vital techniques to retain employees

A critical part of growing any business is hiring the right people -- and then keeping them. After you get good employees on your payroll, your challenge is to keep them — the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that the number of “quits” has risen for 10 years in a row, going up by 1.8 million to reach 42.1 million in 2019. And although every situation has its own unique factors, there are a few strategies any leader should apply across the board to decrease the odds of workers jumping ship. 1. Pick the right people The “right”…

Wednesday, 25 August 2021 05:49

5 keys to seeing business problems as opportunities rather than burdens

Most business leaders see problems as a burden. Here's how to turn them into an asset. As a long-time business advisor, and an investor in startups along the way, I'm always on the lookout for an entrepreneur who is responding first to a problem in the marketplace, rather than bringing a new technology to the market, assuming it will find a problem to solve. I assert that problem solvers are more likely to succeed, since every business comes with plenty of problems. I personally love passion and technology, but these alone don't make a business. If you haven't yet realized…

Tuesday, 24 August 2021 05:51

Oil jumps 5 percent after 7 days of losses

Oil prices rose more than 5% on Monday, as a weaker dollar and strong global equities markets boosted crude futures after seven sessions of declines. Brent crude climbed $3.57, or 5.5%, to end the session at $68.75 a barrel after touching its lowest since May 21 at $64.60 during the session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for October delivery rose $3.50, or 5.6%, to settle at $65.64. Both benchmarks marked their biggest week of losses in more than nine months last week, with Brent sliding about 8% and WTI about 9%. But a drop in the U.S. dollar provided…

Tuesday, 24 August 2021 05:43

Everyone has the will to succeed. This type of will separates those who achieve from those who only dream

Why success starts with the desire to develop mastery and expertise. As legendary coach (and legendary curmudgeon) Bobby Knight once said, "Most people have the will to win. Very few people have the will to prepare to win." Hold that thought. Danny Meyer's parents were travel agents, so as a teen he spent weeks every year traveling. His mother made him keep a journal of those vacations, and in time, he realized all his entries were about food. When he went to college, he spent his weekends in New York City checking out restaurants. When he graduated and worked in…

Monday, 23 August 2021 05:57

Access, Zenith, 23 other banks lose N482bn in profits to CBN’s cash reserve requirement policy

Twenty commercial banks and five merchant banks’ profits dropped by N482 billion in 12 months over N9.5 trillion cash restriction policy implemented by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the 2021 Banking Industry Report (BIR) has shown. The funds were reserved by the CBN during the banks’ Financial Year 2020 in line with its Cash Reserve Requirement (CRR) policy. The measures were meant to moderate inflation and maintain exchange rate stability. The 2021 BIR released at the weekend by Agusto & Co. said the apex bank raised and standardised the CRR – a portion of banks’ deposits kept with the CBN…

Monday, 23 August 2021 05:57

Startup raises $10.5m series A to bring Nigeria’s informal sector online

The process of digitizing the operations of mom and pop stores in Nigeria is serious business right now. In fact, it might be the second-best thing after fintech at the moment. Today’s news is from Alerzo, a little-known B2B e-commerce retail startup based in Ibadan, Nigeria. The company is announcing a $10.5 million Series A round led by London-based Nosara Capital. FJ Labs and several family offices from the U.S., Europe and Asia, including Michael Novogratz’s, participated in the round. In total, Alerzo has raised more than $20 million since its launch. Early investors include the Baobab Network, an Africa-focused…

Monday, 23 August 2021 05:48

Emotional intelligence is more important for business success than mental ability, meta-analysis finds

A meta-analysis including data from over 65,000 business owners points to the importance of emotional intelligence in entrepreneurship. The study, published in the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, found that emotional intelligence was a stronger predictor of entrepreneurial success than general mental ability. General mental ability refers to the cognitive skills necessary for higher-order thinking, such as reasoning and problem solving. Emotional intelligence, by contrast, describes the ability to recognize, understand, and effectively manage one’s emotions. While general mental ability has been found to be most important for success in workplace settings, study authors Jared S. Allen and his colleagues proposed that…

Saturday, 21 August 2021 05:53

CBN orders freeze of bank accounts of 18 companies

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday ordered banks to place a post-no-debit on the bank accounts of 18 companies, which would only allow inflows but no withdrawals either from automated teller machines (ATMs) or by cheques or other methods. The directive to banks on the blockage of the 18 companies’ accounts is contained in a circular issued on Thursday and signed by CBN’s Director of Banking Supervision, Haruna Mustapha, which also instructed banks to send details of their accounts. CBN, which did not give reasons for directing the freezing of the accounts, said the affected companies’ accounts belonged to bureaux…

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Friday, 20 August 2021 05:59

A new bill from Nigeria’s tech regulator is alarming startup founders

Nigeria’s sudden bans on cryptocurrency trading and Twitter have already put some startups on alert this year, but a bill to reform the country’s technology regulator is sparking fears of a community concussion. The 26-page draft document (pdf) seeks to amend a 2007 law, in order to address opportunities and threats posed by recent digital technologies. “The kind of information we store on our phones and other technological gadgets make the human brain susceptible to the possibility of being hacked,” Kashifu Abdullahi, the regulator’s chief, told legislators in March. Seemingly innocuous at the time, Abdullahi’s statement now feels ominous after…

Friday, 20 August 2021 05:56

Oil hits three months low, as losing streak hits six days

Oil prices skidded on Thursday for a sixth session, hitting lows not seen since May, as investors pulled back over concerns about weakened global demand as Covid-19 cases climb and on the back of a rise in the U.S. dollar. The oil market rallied throughout the first half of 2021, but has lost about 15% since early July. The recent wave of coronavirus infections worldwide has sapped global travel and threatens economic activity, just as major oil producers are getting ready to increase supply. “There seems to be a lot of people getting squeezed out of long positions,” said Phil…

Friday, 20 August 2021 05:55

Naira falls again at parallel market

Naira fell against the U.S. dollar at the black market Thursday, data posted on abokiFX.com, a website that collates parallel market rates in Lagos showed. According to abokiFX.com, the currency closed at N520.00 per $1 as against the N517.00 rate it traded in the previous sessions on Wednesday. The currency’s performance on Thursday represents a N3.00 or 1.00 per cent devaluation from the N517.00 per $1 it exchanged hands with the greenback in the previous session on Wednesday. The last time the naira traded at N520.00 per $1 at the black market segment was on July 29. The currency also…

Friday, 20 August 2021 05:45

4 new skills to identify an employee worth hiring on the spot

Social skills are the new 'hard skills' required on the job. Five years ago, the World Economic Forum released the Future of Jobs Report, which predicted the employee skills and workforce strategy expected by 2020 -- the year the world was brought to its knees by the global pandemic. With new technologies forcing new ways of working, employees were projected to have new skills to keep up with the changes. Then the pandemic sacked the workforce and accelerated the need for such critical skills even further. Besides work-related skills in areas of cognitive ability (creativity, critical thinking, complex problem solving),…

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