Business News

Friday, 18 September 2020 05:22

Survival strategies pushing banks in Nigeria away from lending - Bloomberg

Economic downturn in Nigeria is forcing the nation’s lenders to rewrite their business plans. A shortage of dollars and declining demand for credit, along with a plunge in domestic bond yields, have taken a toll on their bottom lines. Most of the country’s biggest banks, including Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc and Access Bank Plc, reported profit declines in first half. Cairo-based EFG-Hermes Holding SAE forecasts lower industry income in 2020 compared to a year ago. Here’s how some of the country’s largest banks are confronting the troubles spawned by Covid-19 and the drop in oil…

Friday, 18 September 2020 05:14

NERC forbids landlords and DISCOs from imposing outstanding electricity bills on new tenants

Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has directed landlords to stop imposing outstanding electricity bills in an apartment on new tenants. The commission said this in a tweet on Thursday that “Landlord’s outstanding electricity bills cannot be enforced on a tenant. A judge recently ruled that the bills of a previous tenant cannot be enforced on a new customer. Send us details if you are in such a situation.” According to the Commissioner, Finance and Management Services, Mr Nathan Shatti, “a Landlord’s outstanding electricity bills cannot be enforced on a tenant.” This he said was in agreement with a court ruling that…

Friday, 18 September 2020 05:13

NNPC records N20.36bn trading surplus for July, 2020

Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on Thursday announced that it recorded an increased trading surplus of N20.36bn in July 2020 compared to the N2.12bn surplus it posted in the preceding month. It announced this in its latest financial and operations report for July, and added that 858 per cent overall increase in performance was largely due to the 178 per cent rise in the surplus posted by Nigerian Petroleum Development Company. NPDC is the flagship subsidiary of the national oil corporation. The report explained that NPDC’s impressive result was bolstered by the improvement in global crude oil demand for the third…

Friday, 18 September 2020 05:10

Currency in circulation dropped to N2.39tn in August – CBN

Currency in circulation dropped by N25.03bn from N2.39tn in July to N2.36tn as at the end of August, latest figures from Central Bank of Nigeria revealed on Thursday. The figure, which stood at N2.35tn as at the end of May, rose to N2.29tn as of the end of June. Currency-in-circulation on quarter-on-quarter basis fell by 6.0 per cent to N2.29tn at the end of March 2020, compared with a decline of 7.5 per cent at the end of the first quarter of 2019. According to CBN’s monthly economic report for May, extensive cash reserve ratio debits on banks that failed…

Friday, 18 September 2020 04:59

To help a new hire succeed, start with managing your expectations for them

An employee is not an owner. Stop expecting them to act like one. Who you hire matters, but what you expect of them makes an even larger impact. I recently hired for a new executive leadership position and had high expectations for what their role would look like. Even more so, I held high hopes around how this added contributor would impact my life for the better. After only a short period of time into bringing them on, I found myself feeling let down and began to question why. I'll be the first to admit I often set high expectations …

Thursday, 17 September 2020 05:45

Nigerian banks seen adding fuel to Kenya’s deal-making frenzy - Bloomberg

Nigerian banks seeking to escape the malaise gripping Africa’s biggest economy could find refuge by expanding in Kenya, where the industry is ripe for deals and a contraction might still be avoided. It will also offer lenders from Lagos a reprieve from rules that are far more onerous than what their counterparts in Nairobi have to contend with, said Adesoji Solanke, director for frontier and sub-Saharan African banks equity research at Renaissance Capital. “Nigerian banks are faced with a very punitive regulatory environment at home, so their thinking is to potentially scale-up their operations out of Nigeria so that those…

Thursday, 17 September 2020 05:44

NNPC says it got $5.4bn through court judgments

Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said Wednesday that its legal team had saved about $5.4 billion in court cases through the victories it recorded in four cases involving the company. A statement by the Corporation’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr Kennie Obateru, said the favourable judgements obtained in the cases also won the national oil company’s litigation team the “Leading Case Counsel Team” of 2020 Africa Arbitration Awards (AAA). Obateru noted that the award was given to NNPC team in recognition of its “stellar performance” at the 8th edition of East African International Arbitration Conference (EAIC) which…

Thursday, 17 September 2020 05:43

Fuel shortage looms in the North as tanker drivers suspend distribution to northern states

Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) on Wednesday ordered the immediate stoppage of distribution of petroleum products from Lagos to the northern part of the country till further notice. PTD in a statement by its National Chairman, Mr Salimon Oladiti, said that the action became necessary after Niger government stopped heavy trucks including tankers from using all the link roads in Minna effective midnight September 15, 2020. Trailers, tankers and other articulated vehicles were stopped from passing through the state once the stoppage came into effect. Governor Sani Bello personally supervised the closure of the road at Bida end in a brief…

Thursday, 17 September 2020 05:29

All highly intelligent people share this trait, according to Steve Jobs

Jobs offered surprising advice to those looking to maximize their intellectual potential. School smart and real-world smart are, as we all know, not the same thing. It's perfectly possible to ace every test in college and struggle in life after you graduate. So if academic grades aren't enough to prove a person is smart, how do the world's most successful people spot the truly, practically intelligent? Jeff Bezos looks for the ability to change your mind frequently. Elon Musk is all about examining skills over credentials. Steve Jobs, however, took another approach. The legendary Apple co-founder laid out how he…

Wednesday, 16 September 2020 05:13

CBN unveils N200bn facility for construction of 300,000 homes nationwide

Central Bank of Nigeria has said it will release a cumulative maximum limit of N200bn to provide construction finance facility to enable Family Homes Funds Limited to implement Federal Government’s Social Housing programme as part of Economic Sustainability Plan 2020. CBN disclosed this on Tuesday in a report on ‘Framework for the implementation of family homes financing initiative’. Part of the report read, “Funds would be released to FHF on project basis subject to the cumulative maximum limit of N200bn. “A project is defined as cluster of homes in the same geographical location and covered with the same title documents…

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Wednesday, 16 September 2020 05:11

CBN disburses N69bn Covid-19 fund to 140,000 businesses, households

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says it has disbursed N69 billion out of N100bn it set aside for Covid-19 intervention to small businesses and households. CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele disclosed this on Tuesday during Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), 13th conference opening ceremony in Abuja. Recall that during Covid-19 lockdown, CBN announced a N50bn facility at 5 per cent interest rate for small businesses and households. The money was disbursed through NIRSAL Microfinance Bank and had been exhausted based on earlier data released by the apex bank. Giving an update on CBN several interventions, Emefiele said the…

Wednesday, 16 September 2020 05:08

Despite CBN’s interventions, Naira plunges further in parallel market

Naira continued its downward trend, as it exchanged for dollars at N460 in the parallel market on Tuesday, despite resumption of forex sales to Bureau de Change Operators. Naira had earlier dropped from N480/$ following Central Bank of Nigeria’s announcement to resume forex sales to the BDCs, and exchanged at N440/$ as of Thursday. CBN on September 7, sold $51m to 5,180 BDCs when it commenced sales. Central Bank Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, on Tuesday, said the drop in crude oil earnings as well as the drop in foreign portfolio inflows significantly affected the supply of foreign exchange into Nigeria.…

Wednesday, 16 September 2020 05:03

Arik Air resumes flight operations

Management of Arik Air has announced resumption of flight operations following the shut down of its operations by aviation unions on Monday. Mr Adebanji Ola, Arik Air’s public relations and communications manager, said all early morning flights operated as scheduled on Tuesday. “All our early morning flights for Tuesday, September 15, 2020, operated in and out of Lagos on schedule and all other flights for the day will operate as scheduled,” Ola said in a statement on Tuesday. “Once again, we apologize to all our valued customers for the disruption to their travel plans on Monday and assure them of…

Tuesday, 15 September 2020 05:10

Nigeria reels from twin crises that threaten food availability

Shehu Ladan took a boat across what was, until this month, a growing rice paddy. Now, like thousands of hectares of rice in Nigeria’s Kebbi state, it is under water. “Almost all my farm has been flooded. I didn’t harvest any rice,” Ladan told Reuters. “It’s going to be devastating.” Floods early this month across northwest destroyed 90% of the 2 million tons that Kebbi state officials expected to harvest this autumn, head of the state branch of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria told Reuters. The loss amounts to some 20% of the rice grew last year, and the…

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