Author: Marketforces Africa

Inflation Fighting CBN to Hike Interest Rate 50bps -Analysts At double-digits, it is unlikely that the monetary policy committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will give up its inflation fighting mood too soon by keeping the policy rate on hold or reducing the benchmark interest rate. Analysts believe such a decision could attract backlash, though monetary policy tightening appears not to be effective in curbing the consumer price index from forming an uptrend. The monetary authority has been criticised for using wrong measures to fight inflation. Ahead of the policy committee meeting in the new week, the benchmark…

Tolu Osinibi, Chief Executive of FSDH Capital said there are still some credibility issues regarding whether foreign portfolio investors

Airtel Africa Falls to N4.4trn on Price Correction After hitting the rooftop earlier in the year, Airtel Africa Plc’s share price has been declining, losing 6% last week to close at N1,175 on Friday, trading data from the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) shows. Airtel Africa grows customers but the telecom company saw its profit reduced year on year, while management put up efforts to deleverage the balance sheet. In its financial scorecard, Airtel Africa’s customer base surged 9% to 140 million, while the mobile money customers base settled at 31.5 million, representing a 20.4% year-on-year growth. Its board of directors excite…

IBM Launches $100m Partnership with Global Universities to Develop Novel Technologies At the G7 Summit in Japan, IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced a 10-year, $100 million initiative with the University of Tokyo and the University of Chicago to develop a quantum-centric supercomputer powered by 100,000 qubits. Quantum-centric supercomputing is an entirely new, and as of now, unrealized, era of high-performance computing. A 100,000-qubit system would serve as a foundation to address some of the world’s most pressing problems that even the most advanced supercomputers of today may never be able to solve. For example, such a powerful quantum system could unlock…

The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, has said the concessioning of three ports

Foreign exchange rates move in favour of the Euro against the U.S. dollar in the market, Japanese Yen

Retail Price of Petrol Drops – NBS The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says the average retail price of a litre of petrol witnessed a drop from N264.29 in March to N254.06 in April 2023. This is according to the NBS Petrol Price Watch released in Abuja on Friday. It stated that the April 2023 price of N254.06 represented a 3. 87 per cent decrease over the price of N264.29 recorded in March 2023. However, the average retail price of a litre of petrol increased year-on-year basis from N172.61 recorded in April 2022 to N254.06 in April 2023. It stated…

Aliyu Dikko, the Chairman Board of Directors of the Bank of Industry (BOI) Group, said the group’s total assets

FAAC Shares N655.932bn among FG, States, LGCs for April The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) has shared N655.932 billion in revenue for April with the Federal Government, States, and Local Government Councils (LGCs). According to a statement issued by Bawa Mokwa, the Director, of Press and Public Relations, Office of the Accountant of the Federation (OAGF), this is contained in a communiqué issued at the end of the FAAC meeting for May 2023. The communique states that the N655.932 billion total distributable revenue comprised distributable statutory revenue of N364.654 billion. It said that it also contained distributable Value Added Tax…

IMF Approves $3bn Loan for Ghana The International Monetary Fund (IMF) executive board has approved a three billion U.S. dollar Extended Credit Facility for Ghana to help address its current economic crisis. In a statement, the IMF said the decision would enable an immediate disbursement of about 600 million dollars to Ghana. It added that the facility would support “a comprehensive reform programme” by the Ghanaian government to tackle the deep economic crisis brought on by a combination of large external shocks and preexisting fiscal and debt weaknesses. The statement said the Ghanaian government’s reform programme would focus on restoring…