Author: Ogochukwu Ndubuisi

Delta Passes N979.2 Billion Budget for 2025 Fiscal Year The Delta House of Assembly passed the Appropriation Bill of N979.2 billion for the 2025 fiscal year for assent. The budget passed at plenary was a sequel to a report by the Chairman, House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Mrs Marilyn Okowa-Daramola. Presenting the committee’s report, Okowa-Daramola noted that out of the amount, N348.7 billion was for Recurrent Expenditure, while the N630.4 billion was for Capital Expenditure. She said that the amount showed an increase of N43.2 billion compared to N936 billion Gov. Sheriff Oborevwori earlier presented to the Assembly. ”The…

AP Unveils 150m Litres Lubricant Oil Blending Plant Ardova Plc, an indigenous integrated energy company in Nigeria, has unveiled its state-of-the-art lubricant oil blending plant (LOBP) with a production capacity of 150 million litres per annum and a storage capacity of 14 million litres. Ardova Plc’s Executive Chairman, Mr AbdulWasiu Sowami, announced this at the “AP Lubricant Distributors’ Forum” held at the company’s terminal on Tuesday in Lagos. Sowami said the LOBP sets a new benchmark in the lubricants market, having been designed to meet the evolving demands of the Nigerian market while ensuring consistent supply across all product lines.…

NGX Gains N8bn as Lafarge Africa, Haldane McCall Rally Nigerian Exchange rose by more than N8 billion as equities investors hunted after Lafarge Africa with Ticker: WAPCO, and Haldane McCall Plc with Ticker: HMCALL the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) index rebounded. The local bourse opened the week on negative note, losing N123 billion due to selloffs in some banking stocks. Today, key performance indicators improved slightly by 0.01% following benchmark interest rate hike to 27.50% by the Central Bank. Data from the local bourse revealed that Al-share index advanced by 13.61 basis points to close at 97,639.88 due to buying momentum.…

IBEDC Recorded 8,000 Energy Theft Cases in 10 Months—MD Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) says it recorded 8,000 cases of energy theft, including meter bypass and illegal meter tampering, between January and October within its network. IBEDC’s acting managing director, Mr. Francis Agoha, stated this in a statement issued on Tuesday in Ota. Agoha said that the development had resulted in financial losses running into hundreds of millions of naira. He said that consequent upon the challenge, IBEDC had partnered with the Special Investigative and Prosecution Task Force (SIPETO) to curb energy theft within its network. According to him, IBEDC…

Presidency Commends Moniepoint, Restates Commitment to Financial Inclusion The Federal Government has hailed the contributions and remarkable achievements of Africa’s fastest-growing financial institution, Moniepoint Inc in the financial technology sector, its commitment to advancing financial inclusion, and its ongoing collaborations with law enforcement agencies to combat financial fraud. This was stated by the Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, when he received the Moniepoint’s leadership team led by its Chief Executive Officer, Tosin Eniolorunda, on a courtesy visit at the Presidential Villa. The Moniepoint delegation included, Babatunde Olofin, MD Moniepoint Microfinance Bank; Didi Uwemakpan, Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Moniepoint Inc; Ross…

Sell Pressure Stops Bitcoin from $100K Price Flirting The market price of bitcoin retreated strong after days of flirting around $100,000 as retail investors took profit from orange coin.  Some analysts revealed that Bitcoin’s recent price drop is being attributed to long-term holders rather than institutional investors, despite initial speculation to the contrary. Bitcoin BTCUSD price fell over 5.6% in the past 24 hours to trade at $92,774, according to data from CoinMarketCap.com.  The price correction on the world’s largest crypto asset dragged down the entire market value of all cryptos at the same time. Reacting to negative price movement,…

Port Harcourt Refinery Begins Operation The Port Harcourt Refinery, managed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd.) through the Port Harcourt Refining Company Limited (PHRC) has commenced operations after undergoing rehabilitation and modernisation. The refinery with 210,000 bpd refining capacity located at Alesa, Eleme, in Port Harcourt, comprises two operational units which were established in 1965 and 1989. The old plant refines a capacity of 60,000 barrels per day (bpd), while the new plant refines 150,000 bpd. It would be recalled that the Federal Government, under former President, Muhammadu Buhari, had in March 2021 secured a 1.5 billion…

Israel Poised to Approve Ceasefire with Hezbollah, Israeli Official Says Israel looks set to approve a U.S. plan for a ceasefire with the Iran-backed Hezbollah on Tuesday, a senior Israeli official said, clearing the way for an end to the war, which has killed thousands of people since it was ignited by the Gaza conflict 14 months ago. Israel’s security cabinet is expected to convene later on Tuesday to discuss and likely approve the text at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the official said. This would pave the way for a ceasefire declaration by U.S. President Joe…

The naira depreciated to N1,675.62 per US dollar at the Nigerian autonomous foreign exchange market on Monday

Nigeria Ranks 6th on Africa Visa Openness Index- Report Nigeria ranked sixth among 54 countries in the African Development Bank (AfDB) and African Union’s 2024 African Visa Openness Index (AVOI) report. “Visa openness refers to the ease with which travellers can obtain authorisation to travel to and enter a country, pending final determination by the destination immigration officials. “The more visa-open a country, the easier it is for a traveller to visit that country. “There are different degrees of visa openness. “A more visa-open country has a generally more liberal or relaxed visa policy for visitors, meaning that visitors either…