Author: Julius Alagbe

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…

Lafarge Africa Delivers 90% Return, Recommends for Dec. Upside Lafarge Africa Plc (Ticker: WAPCO) has delivered a 90% gain for shareholders who held the stock at the price of N70 at the beginning of the year to date. The cement company lost 5% of its market value last week due to profit-taking activities.  Traded against the trend on the Nigerian Exchange, WAPCO closed lower at N133 from N140 at the beginning as sell-side actors exited their positions ahead of Q4 earnings. Equity analysts at Meristem Securities Limited recommend Lafarge Africa as a stock to buy with an expectation of more…

Tech Stocks Nvidia, Alphabet Drag Global Equities Markets With selloffs in U.S. tech stocks, global equity markets recorded a mixed performance this week, reflecting diverging regional dynamics as investors navigated softer inflation prints, end-year portfolio adjustments and monetary policy adjustments. Investors’ sentiments were twisted across the markets with global exchange rate dynamics, while huge AI bubble concerns amidst rising spending topped Wall Street discussions. In the US, major indices retreated week on week as technology-led weakness dragged sentiment lower.  The NASDAQ saw a -0.70% weekly drop, while the S&P 500 also slipped by -0.57%, as investors digested the recent softer…

Out-of-Pocket Health Spending Reduces in 2024 – Report Nigeria recorded modest improvement in health financial risk protection in 2024, as out-of-pocket (OOP) spending fell to 58.3 per cent of total health expenditure, the National Health Accounts (NHA) 2023–2024 revealed. The NHA report was made available to the news agency on Sunday in Abuja, by the Ministerial Oversight Committee (MOC) meeting of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF). NAN reports that the NHA is produced by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics, the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Budget Office,…

ICPC Invites Dangote over Petition Against Ex-NMDPRA CEO The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has asked Aliko Dangote to appear before its panel of crack investigators on Monday in Abuja over a petition written by him. Dangote had written a petition against Ahmed Farouk, former Managing Director of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) over alleged corruption. A source close to the commission, which confirmed this on Sunday in Abuja, stated that ICPC had set up a panel of crack investigators to handle the probe. According to the source, the commission’s Chairman, Dr…

African Eurobonds Yields Dip as Global Rates Dynamics Fuels Rally African Eurobonds rallied as foreign portfolio investors adjusted their portfolios to align with global interest rates dynamics, including fluctuations in oil prices. The U.S. cut fed fund rates by 25 basis points three times, and the European Central Bank (ECB) has continued to keep rates unchanged, while the Bank of England has suddenly become dovish. The economic condition in Africa is fast changing due to reform, with Ghana leading the rate cut with a 1000 basis point slash in the year. Nigeria is a bit tight on interest rate, which…