Fidelity Bank Plc on Wednesday said its application for an international licence had the full backing of its shareholders. The group head of marketing and communications in the bank, Emma Esinnah, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the bank’s application for the licence was approved by the shareholders in December. Mr. Esinnah said the ratification for…
Nigeria sold 66.5 billion naira in 5-year and 3-year sovereign bonds at its second debt auction of the year, the Debt Management Office (DMO) said on Thursday. The debt office sold 30 billion naira in the 5-year and 36.5 billion in the 3-year instruments at Wednesday’s auction with marginal rates of 11 per cent and 9.25 per cent respectively, slightly…
Zambia’s economy is expected to grow 6.5 per cent this year and 6.6 per cent next year on the back of a rally in copper prices and improvement in agriculture, a Reuters poll of 12 economists showed on Thursday. “We expect copper prices to remain elevated due to sustained global demand, particularly from China,” said Gregan Anderson, analyst at the…
The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) said it is seeking ways to check revenue collecting agencies who fail to remit all monies to the coffers of government. One instance of the abuses has been the refusal by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) management to pay to the Federation Accounts about N450 billion realised from its operations since…
Some market operators have urged investors to trade cautiously following the recent growth in transaction volume at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), despite the wobbly market performance. A recent data from the NSE showed that in the last two months the volume of shares traded recorded a growth of 31.93 per cent, while the market value recorded a growth of…
To make the Calabar seaport viable and busy all year round, the federal government should implement a deliberate policy of diverting smaller vessels from Lagos and other ports prone to congestion to Calabar. General manager of Eco-Marine Plc, Kingsley Iheanacho, said the lack of some basic facilities has made the Calabar Port unattractive to importers. Eco-Marine is one of the…
I have over the years taken pains to read more about our so called celebrities in the entertainment and showbiz world. Whenever I read a piece on such celebrities, I find their portrayal in the pieces of information about them shocking. Only last week, I read about an actress who said she flaunts her breasts as the only way to…
Kenya plans to connect an extra one million consumers to its national electricity grid in the next two years, the president said on Wednesday, as the country strives to boost rural electrification. East Africa’s largest economy is beset by regular power outages due to insufficient electricity generation and a dilapidated transmission network. Business leaders say the blackouts are curbing economic…
The Fadama III programme disbursed N4.2 million to two Fadama Community Associations (FCAs) in Maiha local government area of Adamawa State in 2010. Lawan Nasiru, the programme desk officer, disclosed this on Wednesday in Maiha in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). He said the money was for the construction of a bridge and road to link…
The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) in Cross River State said on Wednesday that it had trained 400 unemployed graduates under its Graduate Attachment Programme (GAP). The state coordinator, Edem Duke, said this in Calabar at the orientation and sensitisation workshop for graduates of the GAP at the Federal Secretariat, Calabar. He said that the training programme would help to…
Whether the voters’ registration exercise has ended or not is not the issue many Nigerians are talking about these days. The concerns about that exercise are largely about the huge sums spent on its execution compared to the number of voters actually registered. The electoral commission informed us that about 60 million Nigerians have been registered to vote in the…
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) yesterday indicated that it is working towards the harmonisation of the capital market rules and regulations to make for cross border listing of companies on stock exchanges across the sub-region. At the 27th meeting of the convergence council of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) last week in Abuja, Nigeria’s president and chairman…
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) continued its picketing of Union Bank yesterday after a similar action on Monday paralysed activities for a few hours at some of the bank’s branches across the country. As at close of normal banking hours, the doors to the head office in Lagos remained shut, as petroleum tankers and union buses were used to barricade…
The minister of petroleum resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke, says Nigeria’s energy sector will witness unprecedented transformation in the next four years. Mrs. Allison-Madueke said this on Monday in Abuja at the opening of the Chief Officers’ Management Development Programme Batches 063 to 068 of the NNPC. The minister said the federal government had prepared an enabling environment for the transformation initiative.…
The Ondo State government is to carry out soil treatment on 500 hectares of land for the planting of the Ghana high-yield cocoa at Oda Plantation in Akure. The state commissioner for agriculture, Julius Akinnigbagbe, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Akure that the government would also train farmers on the production of the cocoa type.…