Author: Businessam Staff

The Institute of Export Operations and Management (IEOM), Nigeria, revealed plans to partner financial institutions on the training of Edo youths on processing and packaging agricultural products, mineral resources, as well as art and craft products to meet international standards and quality for export.

The Institute, which also disclosed plan of providing the youths financial support upon completion of the training, said it is finalizing the deals with some financial institutions, including the Nigerian Export-Import (NEXIM) Bank and Bank of Industry (BOI).

Ofon Udofia, the executive secretary IEOM, said this when a delegation of the institute, including members of the Benin Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture, paid Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State a courtesy visit at the government house, Benin City.

According to him, “The decision has been reached to complement the laudable socio-economic projects being embarked upon by the Godwin Obaseki-led administration.

The plans to develop the Edo Inland Dry Port, Gelegele Seaport, and the Industrial Park are credible and will open the Edo economy to international markets.”

He said the partnership deals would include an arrangement with NEXIM and BOI to provide funding for the processing companies, noting that “the processing companies will be set-up at the completion of the training programme.”

Udofia said all that was required for the training was for the state to set up a centre to serve as the training ground on export commodities development, adding, “In the centre, youths would be taught and exposed to viable business opportunities and how to harness export opportunities in agriculture, solid minerals and art and craft sectors.”

The governor, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Osarodion Ogie, said that the state would support investors to drive products manufacturing to supply domestic and international markets.

Obaseki explained that the Benin Industrial park, Gelegele Seaport and Edo Inland Dry Port would boost exportation, provide jobs for the teeming youth population and create wealth.

“All of these cannot be achieved without empowering youths with requisite skills to prepare them to fit into the new job opportunities that would be created in the state,” he said.

Ahmed Idris, Nigeria’s accountant-general has disclosed Thursday that the balance in country’s Excess Crude Account (ECA) as at April 23 stands at $1.8 billion ($1,829,862,047.42).

Idris made this known at this month’s, April, National Economic Council (NEC) meeting presided by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, according to a statement signed by Laolu Akande, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity.

The accountant-general of the federation also informed the Council that the balance in the Stabilisation Account as at April 23 stands at N14 billion.

The current balance in the Natural Resources Development Fund Account as reported by the Accountant-General of the Federation as at April 23, stands at N134.9 billion.

Giving an update on Budget Support Loan Facility, he reported to the Council that 35 states commenced in 2016 and collected N1.39 billion. Thereafter, they collected N1.11 billion.

The repayment of the facility was extended from one year to two years.

He highlighted that an analysis of compliance level indicates that 52.5 percent was the highest, while 13 per cent was the lowest, with respect to the conditionalities for the Budget Support Loan Facility.

Excess Crude Account is a Nigerian government account used to save oil revenues above a base amount derived from a defined benchmark price. The Excess Crude Account was established in 2004, and its objective is primarily to protect planned budgets against shortfalls due to volatile crude oil prices. By delinking government expenditures from oil revenues, the Excess Crude Account aims to insulate the Nigerian economy from external shocks.

Nigeria’s cabinet, the Federal Executive Council (FEC), Thursday April 26, 2018 approved N10.7billion for the establishment of 10 new rice mills and N68.6 billion for road projects across the country, the ministers of state for agriculture, Heneiken Lokpobiri and minister of power, works and housing, Babatunde Fashola,said, following the meeting chaired by the President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Lokpobiri said the approved rice mills with a capacity to produce 100 tonnes per day would be managed by private rice millers, noting they would be cited in Kebbi, Zamfara, Benue, Kogi, Bayelsa, Anambra, Kaduna, Ogun, Niger and Bauchi states.

“A few years ago it was reported that this country needs a minimum of 100 large rice mills. As of today, we have about 21 but Federal Government in its wisdom decided that we approve the establishment of 10 at the total cost of N10.7billion. These would be given to the sector to manage which they will pay back within a given time frame as it would be agreed between the Bank of Agriculture and the Rice Millers,’’ he said.

According to Fashola, N64.108 billion was approved for additional work on 43 kilometers of section one of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. The new approval, he said, would accommodate the adjustments on the project including modification of bitumen for the road to withstand pressure.

“This covers glover leaves, pedestrian bridges, and toll plazas for that section so as to accommodate changing nature of that road since conception. So many new structures, religious institutions, factories, universities and increased human activities have come up along that road which the inherited design didn’t provide for,” he said.
The minister also disclosed that N4.57 billion was approved for Sumaila-Falala-Birnin Bako-Bauchi road, linking Bauchi and Kano States.

Garba Shehu, the senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, who also addressed the correspondents on the outcome of the meeting, disclosed that N10 billion had been approved to fight the scourge of erosion while $460 million was approved to facilitate usage of new buildings located at main airports in the country.

He said “This is the fourth quarter soil erosion, flood and pollution accelerated intervention projects worth about N10 billion. These are projects that cover the length and breadth of the country. So, government today awarded a new contract for variation and additional contracts for new passenger and cargo terminals and a lot of other works to facilitate their usage including in the case of Lagos and Abuja improvement to enable jumbo aircraft and Airbus 380 to be able to land in both cities. The rail terminal will be accessible from arrival hall in Abuja at the cost 460million dollars”.

Uday Mishra, the chief corporate service officer, Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company (KADECO), says distribution companies (DISCOs) lose about N20 billion monthly across the country due to collection gap.

Mishra, in an interactive session with newsmen in Kaduna on the various challenges surrounding DISCOs in the country, said the major challenge as regards electricity distribution in the country is the nonpayment of bills by about 60 percent of consumers.

He said all DISCOs are barely surviving because they have just 40 percent of legal consumers on their billing net while the majority of consumers are involved in bypassing, theft, nonpayment of bills and direct hooking.

He regrets that honest consumers suffer infrequent electricity supply because they have to subsidise with other non-payers and electricity thieves as he calls on consumers to take care of their duties by paying bills and disengaging in any kind of electricity theft, saying, the company disconnects as last resort which is also costly and time wasting.

Mishra called on the government to subsidise electricity tariff for agriculture-related projects, low-income groups and the poor masses residing in the slums.

Lawal, the head of compliance, KADECO, revealed that the company is only entitled to 8 percent of the power generated daily in the country, which it distributes to Kaduna, Sokoto, Zamfara and Kebbi States.

“We have no option than to ration supply because electricity is solely dependent on gas in Nigeria. Our total demand is 600 megawatts but we rarely receive 300 for distribution daily, Kaduna even gets more supply due to high population and other economic activities when compared to the other states, though the supply is poor”, Lawal, an engineer said.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) is to host the 2018 conference of African stock exchanges, the Association of African Stock Exchanges, following its winning of the hosting right, the NSE said in a statement released Thursday 26 April and made available to business a.m.

It would be the second time the NSE would be hosting the event in nine years, having also won the right to host the event in 2009, which it did satisfactorily in Abuja Nigeria’s capital city.

For this year’s hosting, the NSE has penciled down Lagos, the country’s business and financial capital and it said that it would take place from 25 to 27 November at Oriental Hotel.

According to the NSE, the annual conference is ASEA’s flagship event and Africa’s foremost capital markets. The theme of this year’s conference is“CHAMPIONS ON THE RISE: AFRICA’S ASCENSION TO A MORE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE”, and it will hold with a robust agenda and an impressive array of thought leaders as speakers, the NSE stated.

It noted that the two-day conference will feature keynote addresses and presentations, panel discussions and interactive sessions on burning issues around Africa’s global competitiveness, emerging technologies and inclusive growth, within the broader perspectives of sustainability. It will also provide a platform for networking and business opportunities.

Oscar N. Onyema, the chief executive officer of the NSE, who is also the president of ASEA,said: “TheASEA conference will continue to be a major platform of cooperation for the African business community. The conference will provide a great opportunity for investors, policy makers, Government, leaders of African exchanges, media and other market stakeholders to network, share valuable experiences, as well as discuss the future development of financial markets in Africa, with the goal of mapping a route to a sustainable future for the African economy.

“About 1,000 delegates are expected at the event which is considered one of the most important financial conferences of the continent due to its attraction to eminent thought leaders, important decision makers and investors interested in the African market.

“We will leverage the opportunity to reinforce the position of The Nigerian Stock Exchange as a sophisticated course, energize the Nigerian capital market eco-system, and showcase Nigeria as an attractive tourism destination amongst others,” Onyema added.

It will also be recalled that NSE successfully hosted the 5th Building African Financial Markets (BAFM) seminar from 28 to 29 April, 2016. It was the first time the capacity building seminar will be hosted outside of South Africa.

---

The Nigerian equities market bounced back from a slip in the previous session to record marginal 0.05 percent gain in the benchmark index, the NSEASI, to settle at 40,777.67, while YTD return remained unchanged at 6.6 percent.

Market capitalization gained N49.5 billion to advance to N14.8 trillion.

The day’s bullish performance was largely due to buying an interest in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+1.8%), UNILEVER (+3.6%) and OANDO (+5.2%). Similarly, activity level strengthened as volume and value traded increased 8.0 percent and 36.0 percent to 378.2 million units and N6.3 billion respectively.

The top traded stocks by volume were GUARANTY (63.5m), DIAMOND (59.7m) and FBNH (42.8m) while GUARANTY (N2.8bn), FBNH (N515.1m) and FLOURMILL (N474.7m) topped the chart by value.

Overall sector performance was bearish as all indices under our watch closed in the red save the Consumer Goods index, which trended northwards. The insurance index led laggards down 0.5 percent, following losses in CONTINSURE (-4.0%).

The industrial goods and banking indices trailed closely, depreciating 0.4 percent and 0.3 percent on account of sell-offs in WAPCO (-0.9%) and UBA (-1.7%) respectively while the oil & gas index shed 0.2 percent as a result of losses in ETERNA (-1.5%), 11PLC (-1.2%) and FORTE (-0.3%).

On the positive side, the consumer goods index appreciated 0.8 percent on the back of bargain hunting in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+1.8%) and UNILEVER (+3.6%).

However, investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) worsened to 0.5x from 1.1x recorded in the preceding session as 14 stocks advanced against 26 that declined.

The top performing stocks were OANDO (+5.2%), OKOMUOIL (+5.0%) and CILEASING (+4.7%) while NPFMCRFBK (-8.9%), JAIZBANK (-8.0%) and TRANSCORP (-5.0%) were the worst performing stocks.

---

The management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said Thursday that it will partner Osun state government on renewable energy development, which is aimed at linking the energy and agriculture sector through the commercial production of bio-fuel from selected energy crops like cassava, sugar cane, and oil palm.

Clara Eminike, the General Manager, Joint Venture of Renewable Energy Division of NNPC, said this when she led the corporation’s team on a visit to Rauf Aregbesola, the state governor in Osogbo.

Eminike said NNPC was ready to collaborate with the state government on the mass production of cassava for the industrial purpose of bio-fuel programme of the corporation.

Eminike assured that the collaboration would help to create wealth, diversify energy source and also create jobs for the teeming citizens of the state.

She said the partnership was necessary to efficiently and productively explore the agricultural potential of the state to drive the corporation’s diversification dream from oil and gas to renewable energy development in Nigeria.

“We know that oil and gas are not renewable and internationally, a lot of people are diversifying from oil and gas to other sources of energy.

“It might interest you that the NNPC is not left out as we have diversified from being an oil and gas company to be an energy company and that is how this comes into play too,” she said.

Aregbesola commended the management of the corporation for displaying a high sense of dexterity toward the diversification of the nation’s economy.

The governor described the partnership as a necessity to attract investors, create wealth and generate employment opportunities for the citizenry.

Aregbesola noted that the move would support the farmers, particularly the cassava outgrowers who hitherto faced challenges in marketing their agriculture produce.

Nokia suffered a “challenging Q1” as lower income from North America resulted in a hit to earnings, but Rajeev Suri, the chief executive officer, remained bullish about a strong full-year performance as momentum for 5G builds.

The company recorded 8 percent drop in sales, reducing revenue from €5.4 billion in Q1 2017 to €5 billion in the recent quarter. Its loss for the period did, however, narrow 26 percent from €435 million to €351 million.

Its networks business recorded a 12 percent drop in net sales to €4.3 billion. Breaking out the unit, net sales at its Ultra-Broadband Networks unit, which covers fixed and mobile products, slipped 17 percent, from €2.2 billion to €1.9 billion. Mobile Networks dropped 19 percent to €1.4 billion, attributed to lower sales in North America and reduced demand for radio networks.

Fixed networks revenue dropped 11 percent to €445 million because of lower sales in broadband access, services, and the digital home.

A bright spot for the company in the quarter was Nokia Technologies, with net sales for the unit rising 48 percent to €365 million due to new patent licensing agreements, along with brand and technology agreements.

The Finland-based vendor said it was seeing “further acceleration of 5G”, and an “excellent” order intake and backlog in Q1 2018, leaving it confident net sales in North America and overall profitability will “improve significantly in the second half of 2018”.

North America is expected to be among the first regions to deploy 5G, with commercial rollouts set to begin at the end of 2018.

Suri said in a statement Nokia had considerable confidence the company is “well-positioned” to “outperform” a strengthening networks market and meet its full-year 2018 guidance.

“Our end-to-end portfolio positions us very well for 5G and our efforts to accelerate global 5G adoption are clearly delivering results,” he said. “We will fuel that adoption in 2018 with investments in trial costs, as needed.”

He added those investments “will position us to capture opportunities in a 5G market that we believe will substantially accelerate this year in the United States, followed by large-scale commercial 5G rollouts starting in 2019 in multiple geographies”.

“Given these developments, we expect to see continued softness in the first half of 2018, followed by a much stronger second half.”

BP, world’s leading integrated oil and gas companies, has named Helge Lund, an energy industry veteran, as its next chairman, succeeding Carl-Henric Svanberg.

Lund, who has previously headed BG Group and was a longstanding chief executive at Statoil, will join BP’s board as chairman-designate and a non-executive director on September 1 before taking on the role of chairman on January 1 next year.

While at the helm of BG, the 55-year-old helped negotiate its 50 billion US dollar (£36 billion) sale to Royal Dutch Shell in 2015.

He is also currently chairman of healthcare company Novo Nordisk in Denmark, and will stand down from his directorship at global oil service group Schlumberger with immediate effect.

Lund, a Norwegian national, will have a base in London, BP confirmed.

He takes over from Svanberg, 65, who has held the role since September 2009 and presided over BP’s recovery from the Gulf of Mexico tragedy in 2010, which killed 11 workers and sparked the biggest oil spill in US history.

BP chief executive Bob Dudley said: “Carl-Henric has steadily led our board through BP’s darkest days and into this period of growth and modernisation.

“We owe him a debt of gratitude for his strong support and clear vision over the past nine years.”

He added that with Lund’s “strategic vision and a modern, global perspective, he has a clear understanding of the challenges and the opportunities facing our industry”.

BP said the search for a new chairman had been “worldwide and rigorous”, with candidates from the UK, continental Europe, and the US.Svanberg said his successor has “all the skills necessary” to lead the group.

He said: “Our industry is changing faster than ever as the world focuses on meeting the dual challenge of more energy with fewer emissions.

“Helge has a track record of leadership in addressing these issues, characterised by his open-minded and forward-looking approach.”

Lund was chief executive of BG Group from 2015 to 2016 when it merged with Shell, before which he served as president and chief executive of Statoil for 10 years from 2004.

Previous roles also include heading up industrial conglomerate Aker Kvaerner, while he has likewise worked as a consultant with McKinsey & Company and has served as a political adviser for the parliamentary group of the Conservative party in Norway.

He said: “BP has come successfully through a challenging period under the strong and committed leadership of Carl-Henric and Bob.

“I am looking forward to working with Bob and his team as they address the changing energy landscape.”

An unusually large number of gasoline-laden ships is floating off the coast of West Africa suspected to be Nigerian bound, as the country is reported to boosting imports to avoid shortages before a presidential election early next year, reports Reuters.

The report quoting industry monitor, Genscape, indicates that nearly 1.5 million tonnes of the motor fuel are on ships off West African shores, the highest level since it began tracking the data in January 2017.

The bulk of the gasoline will likely flow to Nigeria, the region’s most populous nation, and Africa’s largest economy, according to traders.

Sources in Nigeria said tanks on shore were also brimming after a major import push by state oil firm NNPC in the past few months.

“Local gasoline is oversupplied,” one importer said, adding that prices had fallen in some places in Nigeria to below the official price cap as retailers sought to sell the surplus.

Gasoline availability is a politically charged issue in Nigeria, an OPEC crude exporter that has to import gasoline and other oil products as it lacks refining capacity. Nigerians expect the government to provide plentiful, cheap fuel.

In recent years, Nigeria has faced regular shortages leading to queues at fuel pumps, as private firms have been deterred from importing due to government price caps on fuel sales and because of the difficulty sourcing dollars when a fall in global crude prices hit Nigeria’s hard currency revenues.

To fill the gap, NNPC has accounted for more than 90 percent of imports in the past year. With a presidential election due in February, trade sources said the government was keeping up the pace of imports to ensure ample availability.

“NNPC is being overly cautious with the presidential election less than a year away,” another importer said.

Traders in Europe said loadings for the region had reached 2.3 million tonnes in the past month, the highest level in two years of tracking the trade.

Thomson Reuters TradeFlow data showed a spike in early spring in gasoline loadings from Europe, a rise that had helped support sagging gasoline margins amid weak demand from other key destinations, such as the United States. Traders said volumes had started to dip in April. But they added that Nigerian purchases were unlikely to fall off sharply.

Indicating NNPC’s continued activity in the market, the state firm awarded a spot tender to buy 10 additional 37,000-tonne cargoes for delivery in May, on top of the shipments it typically receives via swaps for crude oil.