Author: Julius Alagbe

Julius Alagbe is a senior financial journalist and Editor at MarketForces Africa with nearly two decades of experience in finance, accounting, and economics reporting.He is one of Nigeria's most prolific financial market reporters, covering capital markets, monetary policy, corporate earnings, banking, telecoms, and macroeconomic developments across Africa.Julius has built a strong footprint reporting on Nigeria's leading corporates and financial services sector, including coverage of the Nigerian Exchange Group, Central Bank of Nigeria monetary operations, MTN Nigeria, GTCO, and major investment banking transactions.He regularly monitors the CBN’s open market operations, interbank FX markets, and equity market movements, providing readers with real-time intelligence on Nigeria’s financial landscape.His reporting draws on direct access to institutional research from firms including Moody’s Ratings, CardinalStone Securities, Fitch, and other leading African investment houses.Julius brings analytical depth and editorial rigour to every story, making complex financial data accessible to professionals, investors, and policymakers across Africa.Julius Alagbe is based in Lagos, Nigeria.

Naira Plunged despite Foreign Currency Intervention Sales Naira plunged this week despite the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) foreign currency intervention sales. Pressures on the naira increased in the parallel market yesterday as the United States dollar to Nigerian Naira ask rate depreciated by N3 or 0.65% to 465. In the Investors and Exporters Window, the local currency continues to trade within a tight band, and closed flat at 386.00. After a 0.4% year to date increase, the nation’s external reserves printed at US$35.81 billion. Amidst expectation for improve foreign exchange supply into the market, naira has failed to gain…

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Zenith Bank Bolsters Performance as Profit Rises 17% to ₦103.83bn In what came as a surprise, Zenith Bank Plc bolstered first half performance as lender’s profit grew by 16.81% year on year to ₦103.83 billion. In the stock market on Thursday, Zenith Bank stock jumped from N16.95 kobo per share to N17.20 after the board of directors announced interim dividend. Compare with industry projections, lender beats analysts’ consensus estimates following an initial bearish stance on the industry outlook due to COVID-19 challenge. A slew of investment banking analysts had projected significant earnings miss for deposits money banks due to the…

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