Economic News Update

Economic News Update: 16th January, 2017

news-brief

SEC Warns against Investments In Crypto-currencies, Others

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has warned the investing public against the risk involved in investing in digital currencies such as Swisscoin, OneCoin and Bitcoin, as vehicles of investment.

SEC warned that investments in these assets are likely to be of a risky nature with a high risk of loss of money, whilst others may be outright fraudulent pyramid schemes.

In a public notice on its website, SEC said, its attention has been drawn to radio advertisements and other modes of solicitations of the public to invest in crypto currencies such as Swisscoin, OneCoin, Bitcoin and such other virtual or digital currencies.

Read More

Fuel subsidy returns as landing cost hits N145

The Federal Government has resorted to subsidy regime following an increase in the landing cost of Premium Motor Spirit, also known as petrol.

This is coming about eight months after the Muhammadu Buhari-led regime stopped the fuel subsidy, which was costing the government millions of naira being paid monthly to oil marketers importing the product then.

The Federal Government has resorted to subsidy regime following an increase in the landing cost of Premium Motor Spirit, also known as petrol. This is coming about eight months after the Muhammadu Buhari-led regime stopped the fuel subsidy, which was costing the government millions of naira being paid monthly to oil marketers importing the product then.

Read More

New Investors to Float Domestic Airlines In 2017

There are indications that more airlines, especially domestic carriers, may join Nigeria’s aviation industry in 2017. Sources in the nation’s aviation sector told LEADERSHIP that the federal government’s decision to grant forex concession to both local and foreign airlines in the country has been a source of encouragement to operators in the sector.

Although it is still uncertain which airlines would come on board, industry sources are of the opinion that with the high desire for investment and partnerships from foreign investors, new airlines may join the fray.

Read More

Nigeria’s Forex Earnings Hit $24 Billion in Third Quarter 2016

The federal government aggregate foreign exchange (forex) inflow as at the third quarter of 2016 moved up remarkably to $24 billion, a member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Doyin Salami, has revealed.

This represents an increase by $8.67 billion when compared with the aggregate forex inflow into the economy of $15.33 billion recorded by the country in the second quarter of 2016, as indicated in the CBN’s economic report.

Read More

FXTM adds trading in index, commodities CFDs for ECN accounts

FXTM has launched a Naira denominated trading accounts solely for citizens and residents of Nigeria, indicating FXTM’s commitment in providing tailored products and services for investors within the country.

FXTM, is a forex broker specializing in forex trading, Contract For Differences (CFDs), and other trading services. This trading account, will allow Nigerian traders open cent accounts with N1,000, and Standard Accounts with N20,000, while also continuing to benefit from the excellent trading terms available across all FXTM’s Standard and Electronic Communication Network (ECN) accounts.

Read More

N458bn Lagos-Ibadan new rail project to begin Feb

The Federal Government will commence the construction of a standard gauge rail line from Lagos to Ibadan next month, the Managing Director, Nigerian Railway Corporation, Mr. Fidet Okheria, has said.

The project, which has been awarded to the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, is being jointly funded by the Nigerian and Chinese governments, and will cost about $1.5bn (N458bn).

Already, the Federal Government has made its counterpart funds available, while China promises to release its own by the end of this month, according to Okheria.

Read More

Value of Foreign Investments in Equities Fall   51% on Currency Challenges

The value of foreign portfolio investments (FBI) in the Nigerian equities market fell by 51.4 per cent between January and November 2016 following the tight foreign control policies of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Data from the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) released last week showed that foreign portfolio investments (FBIs) between January and November 2016 stood at N473.5 billion, down from N973.7 billion in the same period of 2015.

Read More

How kerosene, cooking gas scarcity’s crippling Nigerian households

Except the Federal Government takes urgent steps to address the current energy crisis, Nigerians may be forced to revert to the stone age of using firewood and charcoal as means domestic enrgy for cooking. For over two weeks, acute shortages of Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK) and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), popularly called cooking gas has hit major cities across the country.

Latest Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) monthly financial and operations report for last November indicated that the Corporation imported kerosene last in September of 2016 with a volume of 33,662,899.42 litres while total production from the three refineries for the over 170 million Nigerians was a paltry 42,313,316 as against 84,153,826 last October.

Read More

Underwriting companies urged to invest in informal sector

Insurance companies in the country have been urged to invest more in the informal sector of the economy.This, according to Commissioner of Insurance, Ms. Lydia Labriba Bawa, is to help increase their subscriber base.

She made the call the end-of-year staff get-together of the State Insurance Company (SIC) Life in Accra.The Insurance Commissioner indicated that, as of September 2016, the insurance penetration rate in the country was less than two per cent, with more than 88.8 per cent of Ghanaians, representing about 23 million people, being uninsured.

Read More

As Osinbajo Visits Niger Delta Today, Group Wants More Oil Blocks for Indigenes

As Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo begins an official visit to the Niger Delta region today with Delta State as his first port of call, a Niger Delta group, Izon-Ibe Oil and Gas producing Communities Association (IOGPCA) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to grant more licences to Ijaw people and other indigenes in the region in fulfilment and implementation of the Nigeria Content Development Monitoring Board Act.

Read More

Forex challenge heightens Nigeria’s inflation, says IMF

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has blamed the double digit inflation rate in Nigeria on the challenges around foreign exchange (forex), adding that efforts of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to defend the naira by forex rationing crumbled like soap bubbles.

About a year ago, its Managing Director, Christine Lagarde, met with the major players in the Nigerian economy, including President Muhammadu Buhari, Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, and CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele.

Read More

NUPENG strike, refineries’ closure caused products scarcity – NNPC

The current hiccups in the supply of petroleum products is due to the recent one-day industrial action by the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers and the shutdown of the nation’s refineries, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has said.

Many Nigerians had complained of kerosene and diesel scarcity, with some Abuja motorists on Sunday forming long queues at filling stations. Sunday PUNCH had exclusively reported that two out of the country’s three refineries were completely dormant in November 2016.

Read More

Investors Await N196bn Maturing Treasury Bills

Treasury bills valued at a total of N196billion are expected to mature this week. However, the impact of the maturing bills on liquidity level in the market is expected to be tapered by a rollover of the same amount in a treasury bills auction this Wednesday.

In addition, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is expected to mop-up liquidity by way of open market operations (OMO) auctions at the start of this week, in line with its tightening policy, due to relatively high liquidity, analysts at Afrinvest West Africa Limited have revealed.

Read More

Investors seek government’s intervention as indices plunge by N100 billion

Investors, at the weekend, renewed the call for Federal Government to make deliberate pronouncements that would stimulate economic activities and accelerate sustainable stock market recovery.

The shareholders, who lamented the free fall of equities’ prices, argued that since the economic meltdown that hit the local investors, the market has not recorded any significant level of improvement, rather, retail investors have continued to lose their investment in equities.

Read More

NNPC to fast-track repairs of vandalised pipes

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has promised to fast-track the repairs of all pipelines vandalised last year to ensure stable gas supply to thermal power plants for improved power supply.

The Corporation made the commitment during a closed door meeting of operators and stakeholders in the power sector with the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, in Lagos. A communiqué issued after the meeting, which was made available to The Nation, noted that the NNPC stated that work was ongoing on the repairs.

Read More

Seven power plants down, 1,899MW lost

The shutdown of seven power plants across the country has led to a total electricity load loss of 1,899.7 megawatts. According to the latest industry data on sector reforms/activities, four plants belonging to the National Integrated Power Projects are shut, while others have remained non-functional for some days.

The report, which was made available to our correspondent in Abuja on Sunday, indicated that a partial system collapse occurred on January 12 this year, adding that the system frequency dropped by eight hertz on the same day.

Read More

Presidency Threatens to Prosecute Anyone Selling SIP Forms

The presidency has declared that no scheme under the federal government’s Social Investment Programmes (SIP) attracts an application fee.

In a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, the presidency threatened to prosecute anyone found to be selling the forms under the SIP.

Read More

Illitracy, crude equipment bane of Nigeria’s agricultural revolution

The most enduring and damaging impacts of Nigeria’s oil and gas resource curse has been the long and steady decline of the country’s agricultural sector over the years.

Once the primary source of government revenue and foreign exchange earnings, agriculture in Nigeria has suffered from decades of underinvestment, corruption, policy neglect and lost opportunities. It is shocking that despite government talk about economic diversifiction and development of agriculture, Nigerian farmers are still using crude implements instead of modern farm machinery, which yield little results at the end of a farm season.

Read More

Comment here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.