Author: Olu Anisere

SEC to Broaden Access to Market-Based Financing Instruments for SMEs The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says it is working to broaden access to market-based financing instruments for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Dr Emomotimi Agama, the Director-General of SEC, said this during a meeting with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) on Tuesday in Abuja. Agama said the commission would make this happen through its newly established Office of Small Business Advocacy (OSBA). He said SEC would collaborate with SMEDAN to implement a joint nationwide sensitisation on ‘Financing SMEs through the Capital Market.’Agama said the…

Nigerian Exchange Expands as Equities Investors Gain N19bn The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) all-share index climbs as equities investors portfolio value appreciated by more than N19 billion. Stocks rebounded modestly from the previous day’s loss to close today’s session on a positive note, as key performance indicators advanced by 0.03%. This uptick is a result of the buying sentiment of investors in some mid- to high-capitalized stocks, including UNILEVER (9.65%), INTBREW (4.36%), WEMABANK (3.91%), ACCESSCORP (3.13%), JAIZBANK (1.69%), UBA (0.80%), FIDELITYBK (0.55%), NB (0.31%), STERLINGNG (0.19%), TRANSCORP (0.12%), among others. Today’s mild recovery was largely driven by renewed buying interest in…

Meta, MTN Partner to Enhance Voice, Video Calling Quality Meta and MTN Group have announced a groundbreaking partnership to enhance the quality of voice and video calls on real-time communication platforms, including WhatsApp, across 12 MTN markets. This is contained in a statement by the company on Tuesday in Lagos. Diego Mari, the Head of Network Ecosystem Engineering, Meta said the collaboration would allow them to deploy advanced solutions for an unparalleled real-time experience in Nigeria. Mari added that it would showcase Meta’s dedication to elevating service quality and improving user experience, while striving for continued efficiency in traffic delivery.…

FCCPC Raids Utako Market, Seals Shops Over Rebagged, Underweight Rice The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), has raided and sealed some shops at Utako market for selling re-bagged and under-weight bags of rice. Sealing the shops in Abuja on Tuesday, Mrs Boladale Adeyinka, the Director, Surveillance and Investigations Department of FCCPC, said the raid followed an intelligence gathered by the Commission. She said the intelligence showed that traders in the market were re-bagging local rice in foreign rice bags and selling them at exorbitant prices as imported rice. Adeyinka described the move as exploitative, and against consumer economic…

$17bn: Nigeria Positions as World Bank’s Largest Portfolio in Africa Nigeria has been named as the World Bank’s largest portfolio in Africa, with commitments totaling around $17 billion, Ousmane Diagana, vice president for Western and Central Africa, who led a high-level delegation from the World Bank to Abuja, said. Diagana met today with the Honourable Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, to reaffirm support for President Bola Tinubu’s economic reform agenda and development priorities.  Diagana praised Nigeria’s recent GDP growth of 3.4%—the strongest since 2014 — and commended the government’s progress in stabilising the economy…

Yield on Nigerian Treasury Bills Crosses 21% Ahead of Auction The average yield on Nigerian Treasury bills crossed 21% as investors continue to reduce the naira holdings in the secondary market. Trading activity was active ahead of a potential treasury bills auction. The market saw offers prevail at the long end (+18bps) and mid segment (+17bps) of the curve, causing the average yield to increase by 8 basis points (bps) to reach 21.13%, investment firm CardinalStone Limited told investors in an emailed note. The secondary market for Treasury instruments commenced the week with mixed sentiment—with foreign portfolio investors rotating out…

Trump Moots Attack on Iran’s Nuclear Facilities as Talks Continue U.S. President Donald Trump has reiterated his threat of drastic consequences for Iran over its nuclear programme, including a potential attack on Tehran’s nuclear facilities. During a meeting at the White House with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, Trump said, “They can’t have a nuclear weapon, and they’ve got to go fast, because they’re fairly close to having one, and they’re not going to have one. “And if we have to do something very harsh, we’ll do it. And I’m not doing it for us. “I’m doing it for the world,…

Bitcoin Climbs to $85K in Fresh Cryptos Market Rally Bitcoin and other major digital assets were broadly firmer late Monday due to a fresh rally in the cryptocurrency markets. Pushing the global market cap of all cryptocurrency near $2.7 trillion, trading data showed that Bitcoin (BTC/USD) was standing above the $85,000 level. The CoinDesk Market Index, which tracks dozens of digital assets including Bitcoin, increased 0.2% in the past 24 hours. The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.6%, the S&P 500 added 0.8%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 0.8%. Bitcoin rose 1.4% to $84,936, according to CoinMarketCap data. The most…

Oil Prices Increase as China’s Imports Rebound Oil prices increased in the global commodity market on Monday as traders weighed mixed signals about U.S. tariff implementations while data showed that China’s oil imports rebounded. The market expects demand in China to reduce impacts of higher OPEC+ supply in May. China’s crude oil imports in March rebounded sharply from the previous two months and were up nearly 5% from a year earlier, data showed on Monday, boosted by a surge in Iranian oil and a rebound in Russian oil deliveries. Total imports reached 51.41 million metric tons in March, according to…

Nigerian Treasury Bills Closed at 21% Ahead of Inflation Ahead of March inflation data, the average yield on Nigerian Treasury bills fell to 21% due to bullish momentum seen in the secondary market due to under-allotment at the main auction last week. The market ended trading activities on a bullish note in the just concluded week. Traders reported that local investors picked up papers offloaded by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) that rotated out from holding naira assets due to a shift in global investment sentiment. There was heightened demand for Treasury papers after the monetary authority under-allotted bills offered at…