Author: Marketforces Africa

Court Forfeits Emefiele’s $2.04m, Properties, Investment in Shares The Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered the interim forfeiture of a cash sum of $2,045m linked to the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele. Justice Akintayo Aluko also ordered the interim forfeiture of seven landed properties linked to the suspended CBN Governor. The lands are listed as: “two fully detached duplexes of identical structures, lying being and situated at No. 17b Hakeem Odumosu Street, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos; an undeveloped/bare land, measuring 1919.592sqm with Survey Plan No. DS/LS/340 LYING, being and situate at Oyinkan Abayomi…

Oil Prices Fall as Geopolitical Risks Hangovers Persist In the global commodity market, prices of crude oil slid as geopolitical hangovers continued to put pressure on the supply and demand sides. Even with positive demand expectations in the U.S., the prices of crude oil nosedived while there are uncertainties about supply over tensions in the Middle East.  On Friday, oil prices fell as new cease-fire and prisoner swap talks began between Israel and Hamas, while uncertainty over the timing of a potential U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate cut increased. It is still unclear how and if Iran will retaliate against…

Tariff Removal: FG Sets Duty Rate Guidelines for Staple Food The Federal Government (FG) has unveiled guidelines for the implementation of the “Zero Percent Duty Rate and Value Added Tax” exemption on certain basic food items. The announcement is contained in a statement issued by the Spokesperson of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Abdullahi Maiwada, on Wednesday in Abuja. Maiwada said that President Bola Tinubu approved the guidelines through Wale Edun, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy. On July 8, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, announced the suspension of duties, tariffs, and…

Nigeria’s Economic Activities Fall for 13 Months –CBN’s PMI Nigeria’s economic activities contracted for thirteen months consecutively in July, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) composite purchasing manager index (PMI), which stood at 49.7 points.  However, the index shows improvement compared to the 48.8 points recorded in the previous month, as the PMI produced by the apex bank revealed. According to the PMI, output level, suppliers’ delivery time, and stock of inventory expanded in July. New orders and employment contracted at a slower rate compared to the levels recorded in the previous month. The sectoral breakdown shows that…

Dangote Cement Plc has launched a novel Internship Scheme for students of tertiary institutions in the country that will see the students undergoing a one-year

Investors Bet on Nigerian Bond as Debt Office Tightens Supply As investors take a bet on the naira assets, the average yield on the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) bond declined by 3 basis points in the secondary market due to buying interest at the mid-end of the curve. A slew of fixed income securities traders and analysts said the Nigerian government’s bond offering has decreased after the authority frontloaded its past issuances. Next week, the Debt Management Office is expected to conduct its monthly primary market auction, where it will offer investors N190 billion worth of government bonds. This…

Treasury Bill, OMO Yields Diverge ahead of Inflation Data The average yield on Nigerian Treasury bills and the OMO moved in different directions in the secondary market after the two naira assets saw their returns converge around 25% in the recent past.  On Tuesday, the average yield on the Treasury bills shrank as demand for naira asset increased in the secondary market. On the other hand, the market witnessed selloffs in the OMO market. Treasury investors were noted to be taking positions ahead of inflation data and the expectation that the economy will rebound in the second quarter. Nigeria’s consumer…

Money Market Rates Cross 36% over Tight Liquidity Interbank rates rose in the money market on Tuesday due to strain on liquidity levels in the financial system. According to data from the FMDQ platform, funding rates crossed 36% apiece over sustained liquidity tightening. The market witnessed N20.50 billion inflows from the matured OMO bills without the Central Bank refinancing it. Nigerian interbank offered (NIBOR) rates swing, leading cash-rich local deposit money banks to impose higher rates to part with their free cash. Consequently, the Open Repo Rate (OPR) and the Overnight Lending Rate rose by 47 basis points and 22…

United Capital Leads Issuance of Sierra Leone’s $1.4m Corporate Bond United Capital Group has successfully led the issuance of Sierra Leone’s first local currency corporate bond, valued at SLE32 million, or approximately 1.4 million dollars. The group, in a statement by the Group on Tuesday in Lagos, said that the historic milestone signified a transformative moment for Sierra Leone’s capital market. It stated that acting as the Financial Adviser, United Capital through its investment banking business, provided bespoke structuring, financial advisory, and fundraising services to the Issuer, LAPO SL. It said the Issuer, a microfinance institution serving micro, small, and…

Inflation Rate to Ease by 77 Basis Points in July—Forecast Nigeria’s inflation rate has been projected to decline by 77 basis points in July, as market consensus expected base effects to pull down the consumer price index trajectory. In the domestic economy, the headline inflation rate continued its upward trajectory, rising to 34.19% year on year in June 2024, up from 33.95% in May. This persistent increase was primarily driven by higher food prices, particularly for cereals and wheat, according to analysts. Several factors, including the ongoing insecurity in food producing regions, the continued depreciation of the Naira, and idiosyncratic…