Author: Julius Alagbe
Nigeria’s Half-Year Budget Performance Raises Fiscal Concerns Nigeria’s budget for the first half period was roughened by a wide gap between government revenue and spending, raising concerns over the country’s leadership and economic quality. Despite subsidy removal, the government has accelerated borrowings due to revenue non-performance. Bola Tinubu led administration has extended the path walked by his predecessor late Mohammadu Buhari in terms of national borrowings. Surprisingly, the government has been taunting its achievement to increase a significant increase in revenue collection by its agencies including Federal Inland Revenue Service, the Customs among others. A slew of analysts queried that…
NUPRC Under Komolafe Most Transparent Agency – ICPC An Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has ranked the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), under Mr Gbenga Komolafe, the most transparent and ethics-compliant agency in Nigeria. This is contained in the 2025 Ethics and Integrity Compliance Scorecard (EICS) report released in Abuja on Wednesday The report said contrary to speculations the ‘commission is not a den of corruption’. According to the report, NUPRC, with 91.83 points came tops after the evaluation of 357 Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs). “The score reflects “Substantial Compliance” with ethics, internal control…
Naira Appreciates by N7.93 at the Official Window The Naira opened positive at the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market (NFEM), recording significant day on day appreciation against the US dollar amid improved supply levels. The Naira strengthened by ₦7.93 per US dollar to close at ₦1,456.56/$, having traded within a range of ₦1,466.00 and ₦1,431.00 per USD during the session. The gross external reserve halted the three-day decline to increase by $7.90 million to $45.22 billion, pushing the Year-to Date (YTD) gain back to +10.61%. Global oil prices rose on Monday after the U.S. Coast Guard tried to intercept an oil…
Pound Rises Amidst Flat UK Economic Growth Expectation The British pound strengthened against the US dollar to around 1.345 on Monday, its highest in 11 weeks, benefiting from a weaker US dollar amidst flat Q4 GDP growth expectations in the UK. GBPEUR was flat on Monday as markets reacted to the UK’s last notable economic release of the year, the final GDP estimate for the third quarter. According to data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the UK economy grew by just 0.1% between July and September, in line with previous estimates. However, the latest GDP figures also…
CBN Raises N1.7trn from Oversubscribed OMO Bills Auction The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) raised N1.7 trillion from its oversubscribed open market operations conducted on Monday, according to outcome from its OMO bills sales. The action precedes market expectation of N1.04 trillion inflow from the 23-Dec-25 OMO maturity. In an effort to replace the securities, the CBN floated N600 billion auction across short and mid tenors. The auction was significantly over subscribed given about N2.6 trillion excess liquidity in the financial system. The liquidity position was expected to increase due to N281.53 billion from the 25-Dec-25 Treasury bills maturity, and…
Congo Unlocks Access to $442 Million IMF Disbursement Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has unlocked access to a total sum of $442 million disbursement from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) following the completion of the second review under the Extended Credit Facility arrangement and the first review under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility arrangement In a statement, IMF said DRC’s economy has remained resilient despite the persistence of the armed conflict in the eastern part of the country, which continues to exert significant pressure on public finances. The authorities have kept momentum on structural reforms, and all but one…
Ex-FIRS Chair Urges NASS to Cancel Gazetted Tax Administration Acts The immediate past chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), Mohammad Nami, has reacted to an unfortunate alteration of Nigeria’s new tax law, saying the action is regrettable. Nami asked Nigerian lawmakers to consider a resolution for cancelling the Gazetted Tax Administration due to material differences from the approved document. “We woke up to a shocking report from the National Assembly that specific provisions of the Tax Administration Act had been amended by an unidentified group before the legislation was gazetted by the government. “The implication of this unfortunate act…
BTC Hits $90k on Institutional Accumulation, Liquidity Influx Bitcoin (BTCUSD) crossed $90k on Monday due to institutional accumulation and a liquidity boost by the U.S. Federal Reserve acting as a catalyst for the fresh momentum. With buying interest in top cryptocurrencies, the market value of all cryptocurrencies surged to $3.04 trillion at the press time. The crypto market had dipped below $3 trillion due to sell pressures. The world’s largest crypto rally reflects institutional accumulation overpowering regulatory-driven outflows, with technical reinforcement of bullish momentum. Bitcoin reclaimed its pivot point during early trading hours, hovering above $90k, and saw a bullish…
Pocket Option Social Trading Tips: How to Copy Successful Traders and Learn from Their Moves There is a way to make money through trading without actually doing any trading yourself. This is called ‘social trading’ or ‘copy trading’. It involves duplicating trades from some of the most successful traders, and executing them on your account, sometimes automatically. This means you can ‘trade’ as successfully as any trader that is willing to let you copy their trades from them. The biggest downside of this process is often the fees. Top trades rarely want to let you copy them completely free of…
First Holdco Teleports as Directors’ Dealings Fuel 43% Gain First Holdco Plc’s market value teleported to about N1.9 trillion in a week-long fresh re-rating stirred by a significant increase in the stock trading activities in the local bourse. Data from the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) showed that the share price of the non-operating holding company of First Bank Limited surged by 42.92% to close at N44.95 on Friday from the opening price of N35 last week. In the midst of a steep bargain hunting, First Holdco briefly touched N46.90 in an all week rally, its highest value in the last 52…