Household name and maker of Morning Fresh liquid wash, PZ Cussons, has announced the launch of a promotional campaign worth over N40m to reward consumers of the brand nationwide.
The campaign, tagged: ‘Morning Fresh Kitchen Makeover,’ will see customers rewarded with various gifts ranging from microwave ovens, gas cookers to airtime and a complete kitchen makeover comprising kitchen furniture, appliances and equipment.
Managing Director, Family Care Unit, PZ Cussons, Mr. Alex Goma, said the promotion is a sign of appreciation from the firm to consumers of Morning Fresh for staying faithful to the brand in spite of the harsh economic realities in the country, while the Brand Development and Activation Manager for Morning Fresh, Mina Georgewell, disclosed that the campaign would consist of regional draws taking place in Port Harcourt, Abuja and Ibadan.
She said, “For customers who buy two bottles of the promo pack, there is a code on the packs that they can text to a particular phone number. The text message is free because the customer gets an instant airtime reward as soon as the text message is sent.
Trading activities on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, on Thursday, March 3, maintained a positive momentum with the market indices soaring further by 1.65 per cent.
The All-Share Index, which opened at 25,396.83, soared by 419.46 points or 1.65 per cent to close at 25,816.29 following gains by major blue chip equities.
Also, the market capitalization jumped by N144 billion to close at N8.880 trillion compared with N8.736 trillion recorded on Wednesday.
Dangote Cement for the third day running topped the gainers’ table, appreciating by N8 to close at N168 per share.
CAP trailed with a gain of N1.78 to close at N37.56, while PZ Industries appreciated by N1.10 to close at N24.10 per share.
Unilever gained 50k to close at N27.50 and Dangote Sugar Refinery also appreciated by 50k to close at N5.99 per share.
On the other hand, 7UP led the losers’ chart, dropping by N8.50 to close at N161.50 per share.
Seplat came second with a loss of N2.78 to close at N349.52, while International Breweries declined by 38k to close at N18.15 per share.
Nigerian Breweries shed 20k to close at N98.20 and Air Service depreciated by 11k to close at N2.18 per share.
FCMB Group was most active, accounting for 75.62 million shares worth N51.99 million in 265 deals.
Zenith Bank followed with 45.79 million shares valued at N537.66 million achieved in 487 deals, while FBN Holdings traded 44.44 million shares worth N162.29 million achieved in 160 deals.
UBA sold 38.65 million shares valued at N123.27 million in 335 deals and GT Bank accounted for 26.61 million shares worth N425.69 million transacted in 308 deals.
The volume of shares traded closed higher as investors staked N2.27 billion on 317.48 million shares transacted in 3,335 deals. This was against the 275.09 million shares valued at N1.64 billion exchanged in 3,344 deals on Wednesday.
Policy Advocacy and Campaigns Manager of Action Aid, Tunde Aremu, said Nigeria lost 2.9 billion dollars yearly to tax incentives to multinational companies operating in the country.
Aremu disclosed this when he visited a member of the House of Representatives, Odeneye Kehinde (APC-Ogun) on Thursday, March 3, in Abuja.
He said that there was need for the National Assembly to review the laws that granted incentives to the multinational companies, adding that the legislature should also probe the processes of granting the tax incentives.
“How are these incentives negotiated? Our suspicion is that the processes of negotiating these incentives are not open.
“The companies go under the rugs to negotiate these incentives
“The Nigerian parliament should start querying the processes and demand that they should be open and transparent and that the representatives of the people should be informed when these incentives are being negotiated,’’ he said.
Aremu said that although that tax avoidances were legal, “they are actually legal means of stealing money’’.
He described e-trading, over invoicing, mispricing and price shifting as some of the technical terms adopted by the companies to encourage illicit financial flow from the country.
“The bulk of the money leaving Africa that we are losing contrary to impression, is not due to corruption, crime, drug trade or trade in human trafficking or other crimes
“Over 75 per cent of the money leaving Africa illicitly is actually through tax avoidance practices which unfortunately is not regarded as illegal,’’ he stated.
He also urged the legislature to demand for the audit of the incentives, saying that such measure would check abuses of the incentives.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has granted an Approval-in-Principle to Interswitch Financial Inclusion Services(IFIS), a subsidiary of Interswitch Group that has a mandate to grow an active Agent Network of 150,000 by 2020. Trading as Quickteller Paypoint, IFIS aims to increase the availability of digital financial services in financially-excluded locations in Nigeria from 44% to over 70% in five years.
Confirming the development, Divisional CEO, IFIS, Mike Ogbalu commented, “We are very happy to confirm that CBN has granted the required authorization for us to operate as a Super Agent. This is an ambitious undertaking and with Quickteller Paypoint, we seek to become the largest and most used agent network in Nigeria by YE 2016. This is the beginning of what promises to be a new chapter in Nigerian financial services and our national development as a whole new frontier of commercial activities will be opened up through Quickteller Paypoint.
We want to thank our numerous partners and stakeholders and the CBN for trusting our vision enough to give us the opportunity to unlock the value of agency banking and financial inclusion services in Nigeria. Issues around non-robust agent management platform, poor liquidity management, lack of agent interoperability, low agent value proposition, poor investment in agent branding and support have all been duly identified and would be addressed effectively. The hard work starts now but we are going to relish every moment.”
The nod from the Apex bank is expected to signal new levels of collaboration amongst Nigerian Banks, other financial and non-financial institutions to leverage the reach and product innovation offered by the Quickteller Paypoint network.
This would enable the extension of their services to previously unreached customers via a shared infrastructure. Interswitch deployed a similar model that delivered the successful rollout of ATM technology across Nigeria.
Adopting the Quickteller brand, which currently has over 5000 merchants and services such as funds transfer, airtime recharge and more recently, retail insurance, provides immediate value for the agents who from day one will have a rich bouquet of offerings for customers. Quickteller’s brand strength will also be a major leverage for the agents. To this extent, Quickteller Paypoint checks all the keys to agent success which include content, strong brand awareness and user-friendly agent interfaces.
In December 2015, IFIS was introduced to Nigerian e-business personalities at the 2015 Committee Of E-Business Heads Conference, which held in Uyo, and it will be recalled that Head of e-Banking, Fidelity Bank, Adedeji Olowe had this to say;
“If there is a Nigerian organization capable of taking this on, it’s Interswitch. Just like they have been able to do with switching and linking the banks, I expect them to be able to make this work.”
Interswitch has been known since its launch in 2002 to be one of the strongest proponents of the attainment of a truly cashless society and has been known to push the boundaries of technology in achieving this. The company in 2014 was listed by Deloitte as the fastest growing tech company in Africa with a year-on-year growth rate of over 1500%.
Interswitch has also made considerable inroads into the East African market with the acquisition of Paynet Kenya alongside a strategic partnership with KCB Bank across several East African countries.
Alhaji Gbadebo Olatokunbo Co-founder of Nigeria Shareholders Solidarity Association (NSSA).
Recently, the Director- General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mallam Mounir Gwarzo, was on the floor of the national Assembly (NASS), lamenting the low patronage of one percent of citizens in the country’s capital market and that the commission was targeting to increase it to five percent in the next 10 years.
Really, the targeted increase of another four percent in the next 10 years exposed the unpreparedness and short-sightedness of SEC in attracting Nigerians to the capital market and I sincerely wish to encourage them do more.
To be candid, SEC could do more if the issue is deeply and seriously reflected upon with the determination to make A BIG DIFFERENCE, and l have the following suggestions.
THE MAGIC
We could increase the participation from the current one percent to a higher figure of around 40-60 percent in the next 10 years, if it were the intention, vision and mission of SEC to seriously work on long-term-attractiveness-project on Nigerians in order to improve participation in the market from the current position of one percent.
Education on the capital market must be directed at both rural, urban, educated, less-educated, professional bodies, in both formal and informal sectors of the economy, while SEC/NSE and other stakeholders should specifically target the “less-privileged”, because they could free their resources for long-term investments (which is the bedrock of capital market) and might show less interest in speculative investments.
WORKERS & ALL INCOME EARNERS
Fixed income earners must be educated that it is another way to earn extra income while still working, and to encourage savings towards their retirement. Workers from day one of engagement should be educated and encouraged to get involved in capital market activities, no matter how small their investments might be as beginners.
Employers of labour – federal, state and local governments and agencies in the private sector, including the informal sectors – with the assistance and encouragement of SEC/NSE/Stockbrokers should be part of The Capital Market Activities Campaign and sell its benefit to the nation’s economy and her citizens.
ENLIGHTENMENT
The campaign should now be moved by SEC/NSE from “Overseas-Road-Shows” to the Nigerian schools, work-places, ministries, agencies, markets, mechanics, builders and vulcaniser workshops etc.., technical colleges, higher institutions, masons, petty traders, motor parks and all professional bodies with encouraging captions like “Extra Retirement Benefit for Workers” and “Retirement Opportunities for The Informal-Sector”.
NIGERIANS IN DIASPORA
SEC, NSE and other stakeholders should create platforms via Nigerian Embassies for them to get involved with great assurance on the safety of their investments, while all operational loopholes should be blocked with higher sanctions on defaulting operators.
OPPORTUNITIES
One of the greatest side-effects and opportunities is the likely reduction in corrupt practices in Nigeria when citizens know that they can get extra incomes through capital market investment, that will reduce pressure on their cash-demands.
It will also encourage savings that would then be a vehicle for creating more wealth and better retirement packages for citizen-investors and above all it will give the capital market the needed long-term investment regime and economic stability that is the hallmark of every progressive capital market, as well as discourage speculative activities.
CONCLUSION
The magic to making the capital market attractive to citizens is to refocus on the home-front with seriousness of purpose and great determination to achieve results, and to now run less after foreign portfolio investors, those that l tag: ‘Casino Players’. We should make policies that would discourage foreign investors from off-loading stocks that were bought less than A YEAR AFTER PURCHASE in the capital market.
If this is done, a lot of cash that is outside the banking industry would find its way to the capital market sooner than later. Believe me, WE CAN and WE SHALL.
Really, I wish SEC, NSE and other stakeholders the best of luck and much can be expected, with hard work and determination of purpose.
Alhaji Gbadebo OLATOKUNBO is a shareholder activist and co-founder of Nigeria Shareholders Solidarity Association (NSSA) in 1985. He can be reached on: 08055514565, 08099148585.
Oracle provides the world’s most complete, open, and integrated business software and hardware systems, with more than 370,000 customers including 100 of the Fortune 100 representing a variety of sizes and industries in more than 145 countries around the globe.
Oracle has an outstanding track record for delivering business value in the communications industry.
Oracle offers integrated hardware & software solutions that deliver end-to-end support for the key business processes for Enterprise companies from service creation, offer management, and order orchestration, through provisioning and service delivery, to charging, billing and reporting.
The Oracle Communications Global Business Unit (CGBU) has one of the most comprehensive footprints in the industry the recent acquisitions ensure that we are best placed to help enterprise customers deliver on their current & future communications strategies.
The Oracle Communications Applications portfolio consists of the following products:
Billing & Revenue Management
Service Fulfilment Suite
Order & Service Management
Inventory Management
Service Activation
Configuration Management
Network Intelligence & Network Integrity
Network Analytics
Unified Communications
The merger of enterprise IT solutions and enterprise communications is opening up many new opportunities for the CGBU and we are in the process of recruiting to take advantage of this market shift. This sales role will be to develop new business in the Enterprise market across EMEA.
Scope of the role
In this sales role, you will be the sales lead address the enterprise communications market for Oracle Communications and work in close cooperation with your colleagues from other Oracle lines of business.
You will be working with Oracle’s large enterprise customers across EMEA.
This is a sales role and requires a large degree of passion, customer intimacy and sales focus.
Responsibilities
Selling Oracle Communications Applications solutions to large enterprise customers across EMEA.
Responsible and accountable for achieving allocated quarterly and annual sales quotas for license software and first year maintenance.
Expand awareness of Oracle Communications’ products in EMEA, building a sustainable and pipeline of opportunities.
Work in conjunction with Oracle CGBU account teams and other Oracle lines of business to identify opportunities in the Oracle installed base and/or net new accounts.
Lead the development, presentation and sale of opportunity specific value propositions with your team.
Manage key sales negotiations, customer pricing and contractual agreements within the team.
Qualifications and Experience required:
Successful track record of selling (direct and indirect) solutions including software applications products into the enterprise market, ideally including billing/rating & or Unified Communications solutions.
Excellent organisation skills.
Strong business and technical acumen with a good understanding of the market drivers and company strategies.
Strong collaboration and networking skills.
Good English communications skills (written & spoken).
Established trusted relationships at various levels within large enterprise organisations.
Strong demonstrable sales acumen and ability to participate and influence cross-lines of business opportunities.
Demonstrable experience in selling to key influencers, stakeholders, committees and decision makers.
Consistently achieved or exceeded sales quota objectives.
International sales and sales management experience preferred.
Capabilities Expected:
Passion and enthusiasm.
Sales skills.
Working within a matrix organisation.
Proven ability to meet sales objectives.
Bid shaping and business case justification skills.
Detailed Description and Job Requirements
This position is responsible for new account development and/or expanding existing accounts within an established geographic territory.
Works as part of an account team to identify, qualify and deliver Hardware products/ solutions.
Responsible for the account plan to drive goal attainment in assigned territory. Coordinates with the other members of the sales team (employees and partners) to support account sales and business development strategies.
Helps identify and engage the appropriate partner to meet customer specifications.
Becomes trusted advisor to key customer influencers and decision makers.
Drives company’s strategy into assigned accounts.
Follows all companies’ methodologies and processes related to sales opportunity pursuit.
Ensures that the company’s sales programs are known and executed in assigned territory, including personal follow-up and engagement in selected opportunities.
Achieves or exceeds the quarterly and annual sales goals.
May travel frequently.
Leading contributor individually and as a team member, providing direction and mentoring to others. Work is non-routine and very complex, involving the application of advanced technical/business skills in area of specialization.
8 years relevant work experience.
BS/BA preferred.
Application Closing Date
Not Specified.
How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidate should APPLY
Bell Oil & Gas was incorporated in January 2002 and has experienced unprecedented growth in the Nigerian oil industry. The company is an independent oil services company which was formed and wholly-owned by Nigerians. We have quick access to international markets via our geographical spread and technology, together with access to international lines of credit.
We are recruiting to fill the position below:
Job Title: Assistant Business Development Manager
Location: Port Harcourt, Rivers
Functional Area: Business Development in Oil and Gas industry (Upstream)
Reports to: Business Development Manager
Overall Purpose of the Job
To assist the Business Development Manager (BDM) to ensure that company’s business targets are met and supervise Business Development Executives (BDEs) to ensure that Business Development Processes are followed and unit goals are met.
Responsibilities
Exhibit sound knowledge of the company’s business strategy.
Exploit opportunities to sell company’s services/products.
Exhibit sound knowledge of company’s offerings and coach BDEs in order to bring them up to speed.
Meet sales targets
Ensure that profiles are built for our customers by identifying immediate and long term goals.
Collate client-specific intelligence and map out ways of relating with them.
Generate request for quote on your assigned accounts and encourage other BDEs to do so on their accounts.
Effectively manage the accounts assigned to you to ensure sales targets are met and also supervise other BDEs to ensure they do the same.
Ensure full payment for all supplies and services
Reconcile customers’ accounts and ensure proper documentation
Prospect for and acquire new and financially viable high volume customers
Identify and recommend as most appropriate, technical assistance for key customers
Provide regular updates on plans and progress in your accounts and on other accounts in the unit.
Demonstrate consistent business development success and target – driven achievement
Build customer profile by identifying immediate and long term goals
Define strategy for relating with each customer group and create a Customer Relationship Plan per group
Generate Request for Quotation (RFQ) and Purchase Orders (PO) on your assigned accounts and ensure other BDEs do the same on their accounts.
Effectively manage each customer account to ensure sales targets are fully achieved
Collate and communicate business intelligence
Assist in the preparation of tenders where necessary
Be aware and responsive to threats to our business goals.
Prepare up to date reports on activities in the unit and agree on ways forward with the BDM.
Exhibit sound business report writing skills and coach other team members to do the same.
Attend presentations to and negotiations with prospective clients.
Assist the BDM in preparing reports for the monthly management meeting.
Represent the BDM at meetings as delegated.
Person Specifications/Competencies
A graduate
Minimum of five (5) years relevant experience in Upstream Oil and Gas Service doing business development/sales.
Super contacts in the IOCs, EPCs and E&P companies.
In-depth understanding of Business Development/Technical Sales in the Upstream subsector of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry
A graduate.
Analytical skills to define and solve problems.
Excellent relationship management skills.
Excellent intelligence gathering skills.
Good documentation skills.
Proven tenders preparation knowledge.
Passion to deliver
Good interpersonal skills
Excellent written, presentation and oral communication skills
Hamilton Lloyd and Associates – Our client is a multinational FMCG Company with major operations in Nigeria. Due to internal expansion; they are recruiting to fill the position below:
Job title: Finance Analyst
Location: Lagos
Job Summary
The Finance Analyst is accountable for the ongoing analysis of all costing elements in the factory, margin analysis, and tracing costs back to underlying activities.
The cost accountant must also construct and monitor those cost effective data accumulation systems needed to provide an appropriate level of costing information to management.
Job Responsibilities
Coordinate physical inventory counts and cycle counts.
Investigate cycle counting variances and resolve issues.
Update standard costs in the bill of materials.
Review standard and actual costs for inaccuracies.
Validate the cost of goods sold as part of the month end close.
Work with the supply chain to locate and dispose of obsolete inventory.
Help the Supply Chain controller to conduct ongoing process constraint analyses
Report on break even points by products.
Report on margins by product and division.
Report periodic variances and their causes, focusing in particular on spending variances.
Analyze capital budgeting requests.
Monitor the posting of spare parts to inventory and expense account.
Prepare the conversion cost report (fixed and variable)
Monthly overtime analysis.
Required Education, Knowledge, Skills & Abilities
B.Sc/HND degree in Accounting with minimum of second class lower degree/upper credit.
Minimum of 3years working experience in a multinational company.
Extensive knowledge about the costing rules and tools applied in the manufacturing area with Management accounting/Business administration background
Strong analytical skills, good understanding of processes and workflows.
Flexibility
Proactive person with ability to work independently.
Good personality and interpersonal skills.
Application Closing Date
16th March, 2016.
How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should forward CV’s to:angel@hamiltonlloydandassociates.com kindly make the subject of the mail the job title
Note: Only successful candidates will be contacted.
Tasty Time Nigeria Limited is a family-owned business with a continuous operation for more than two decades. In recent and past years, it has built and expanded its manufacturing facilities in order to serve and further emphasize product quality and service. Our products pricing has also become more competitive as a result of this.
We are recruiting to fill the following positions below:
Trading activities on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, closed in the Green Zone on Wednesday, March 2, as the All Share Index leaped by 2.25% to close at 25,396.83 points.
Consequently, the Year-to-date (YTD) depreciation dropped to 11.33%.
Similarly, the Market Capitalization appreciated by 2.24% to close at N8.74trn, compared with the appreciation of 1.09% recorded yesterday to close at N8.54trn.
The impressive Full Year (FY), 2015 earnings and dividend declaration of Dangote Cement Plc lead to a strong appreciation in the share price while other stocks that contributed to the appreciation in the market today include Zenith Bank, Dangote Sugar, ETI, and Access Bank.
The total value of stocks traded on the floors of The NSE today was N1.64bn, up by 48.78% from N1.10bn traded yesterday. The total volume of stocks traded was 275.08mn in 3,344 deals.
The three most actively traded stocks were: UBA (40.41mn), UCAP (40.12mn) and Zenith Bank (28.44mn). The most actively traded sectors were: Financial Services (248.19mn), Conglomerates (9.54mn) and Consumer Goods (6.82mn).
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, may see a significant reduction in its import allocation beginning from the second quarter of 2016,in a bid to find a lasting solution to the recurrent fuel shortages in the country.
This comes as the state-run firm, on Wednesday,March 2, said it loaded out about 1,180 trucks approximately, 41 million litres, nationwide, of which Lagos had about 462 trucks, Abuja 129, and the balance to the rest of the country.
A top management source at the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, told Vanguard that the decision followed a stakeholders’ meeting held at the agency’s headquarters in Abuja, as it became apparent that NNPC could not meet the 78 percent quota allocation it got for quarter One.
“Since it became obvious that NNPC cannot meet the quota allocated to it to import petroleum products, there was a stakeholders’ meeting on February 23 to discuss the issue.” the source said.
“All present agreed that PPPRA should free some more allocations in favour of the major and independent marketers who have the capacity to import.”
The School of Banking Honours, SBH, has accused the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System, NIBS, of suppressing N7.7 trillion Stamp Duty revenues for two years.
The SBH also called for the reversal of introduction of N50 stamp duty on electronic transfers, stating that this amounts to double charge.
The School of Banking Honours was appointed by NIPOST in 2012 to coordinate the collection of the Stamp Duty charge.
Rector, SBH Adetola Adekoya, who briefed newsmen in Lagos on Wednesday, March 2,said that the N7.7 trillion represented stamp duty collected by NIBSS on electronic transfers from 2013 to 2014.
“SBH is alerting the Presidency and all good Nigerians to begin popular action for the recovery of the said N7.7 trillion from NIBSS/CBN into the federation account while payment of agreed commission to SBH is effected”.
He said, “In 2012, NIPOST signed a Master Service agreement with SBH to coordinate collection of Stamp Duty on cash and cashless transactions.
The CBN thereafter CBN issued approval and No-Objection letters to SBH , dated 5th November and 3rd December 2012, respectively, to engage banks and other financial institutions on the statutory charge for government (through a two year services agreement signed with NIPOST).
“Furthermore, NIBSS, during a joint press conference with SBH on January 4th 2013, openly promised to support the statutory charges for government, in line with CBN approvals letters to SBH, and was engaged as official sweeping agent on the project immediately .
“Quite sadly though, the three year delay by CBN was then utilised by NIBSS to: Introduce new N70 charge on electronic receipts below N500, 000; and increase by 300 percent, charges on electronic receipts above N500, 000.
“Consequently, N IBSS is keeping N70 aggregate increased charges on electronic transfers for 2013 to 2015, against CBN financial inclusion policy, stated in CBN approval letters to SBH.
Nigerian player, Kelechi Nwakakli, has been signed to English Premier Club for a whooping £2million.
Nwakali has been in London for over a month trying to sort out a deal with Arsene Wenger’s team.
He has now put pen to paper after passing a club organized trial, with his academy Diamond Football Academy, set to receive over £2m as training and development fee.
His representative has confirmed the transfer of the 17 year old Under 17 World Cup star is a done deal and that the London club has agreed a 5-year contract with the Nigerian boy who was nominated for the 2015 CAF Youth player of the year.
“Kelechi has signed a five-year deal with Arsenal, his agent Klay Ekeocha told Sports Day. ‘I won’t be able to mention the exact transfer fee but it is above £2m.”
The President of Aviation Round Table, ART, Gbenga Olowo, has expressed optimism that Nigeria would sail through the forthcoming audit of the International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO.
The ART Boss, however, was not sure if the country will be able to sustain the high standards in the sector be rated high by other aviation authorities after the ICAO audit.
Olowo, who spoke in an interview, said that it was important for any aviation country around the world to have regular audit conducted, stressing that this would further enhance safety and standards in the sector.
The industry expert also called for enforcement of all recommendations of ICAO by respective authorities.
He said: “We have a way of passing exams in this country. But, after passing the exams, what do we do? Are our toilet facilities meeting international standards and other equipment.”
“It’s important to have regular audits and sustenance is also important. I expect to see better services after the audit, better behavior and change of attitude from our people. Also, I want to see them improve passengers’ processes. At present, we have too many checkpoints in our airports. I want to see most of them reduced,” Olowo added.
Indications have emerged that efforts by the Federal Government to boost the nation’s non-oil export earnings may not yield expected fruits due to the alarming rate of infrastructure deficit in the country, which makes movement of export produce very expensive.
The Nigerian Export Promotion Council, NEPC, which gave this indication, said that the high transport cost alone erodes over 30 per cent of the export value due to the poor infrastructure base.
This is against the backdrop of the fact successive goverments in Nigeria have over the years stressed the need to diversify the nation’s current mono product economy, which heavily relies on oil revenue.
The situation is even more worrisome, especially given the uncertainties in the global crude oil market, which led the the sharp decline in the price of the commodity from over $120 per barrel to less than $30 per barrel.
Director in charge of Project Development of the NEPC, William Ezeagu, who spoke at the just concluded two-day seminar organised by the Nigerian Shippers Council in collaboration with Tell Magazine on the opportunities in Nigeria’s maritime industry, expressed regrets that poor infrastructural base, especially in the area of transportation remains the bane of non-oil export promotion in the country.
According to him, apart from the failure of the government to provide necessary incentives and conducive operating environment, its in ability to provide transport infrastructure remains the greatest clog in the wheel of non-oil exports.
He said: “No nation develops without adequate and efficient transport system because this drives the wheel of the economy and commerce because it is not possible to move export goods from the hinterland to the airports and seaports without a cheap and efficient transport system”.
“It costs well over N35,000 to move a trailer load of plantain or pinneapples from a farm in Benue or Edo Sstate to Lagos due to the poor road infrastructure and by the time the exporter incurs other handling cost, he would find out that more than 30 Per cent of the value of the products would have been eaten up in moving the products within the country and when he pays for shipment, nothing would be left for him,”he added.
Market capitalization gained N192 billion to close at N8.736 trillion, compared to the rise of N92 billion recorded the preceding day to close at N8.544 trillion.
According to stock analysts, equities market sustained its rally for the fifth consecutive day, driven by increased activities in dividend paying counters ahead of the impending earnings season.
Investment analysts at United Capital said, “While we anticipate current momentum will extend a little further, we expect to see some profit taking in the near term as investors look to book profits and the market hits the overbought region.
“Thus current dynamics calls for caution especially for tactical and speculative plays,” the firm added.
The equities segment of the Nigerian Stock Market rallied in the Green Zone for the fifth consecutive day on Wednesday, March 2, with N400 billion gains since beginning of the week.
Equities value on the bourse gained N116 billion on Monday rose by N93 billion on Tuesday and closed yesterday with additional N191 billion.
Market turnover closed positive as volume moved up by 72.21 per cent against 65.81 per cent decline recorded in the previous session. Zenith Bank Plc, UBA Plc and United Capital Plc were the most active to boost market turnover. Guaranty Trust Bank Plc and Zenith Bank Plc topped market value list.
Market breadth closed positive as Dangote Cement Plc led 21gainers against 15 losers topped by Forte Oil Plc at the end of the day which was an improved performance when compared with previous outlook.
Top on gainers’ log was Dangote Cement Plc with a gain of N11.17 kobo to close at N160.00 kobo, followed by Zenith Bank Plc with N0.55 kobo to close at N11.63 kobo, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated Plc with N0.43 kobo per share to close at N18.01 kobo and Lafarge Africa Plc with N0.35 kobo to close at N82.00 kobo per share.
On the other hand Forte Oil Plc topped losers chart with N15.43 kobo to close at N293.23 kobo, Total Nigeria Plc with N7.25 kobo to close at N137.75 kobo per share, Unilever Nigeria Plc with N1.00 kobo loss to close at N27.00 kobo per share and Stanbic IBTC Plc with N0.45 kobo loss per share to close at N14.15 kobo.
The Transition Company of Nigeria, TCN, on Wednesday, March 2, said power generation soared to 4200 Megawatts (MW) on Tuesday, March 1.
Assistan. General Manager, Clement Ezeolisah, in a statement explained that power had dropped to 3,755Mw due to a ruptured gas pipeline that supplies gas to the power generating stations.
Ezeolisah noted that the electricity market had “experienced a drop to an average of 3,755Mw last week following scheduled maintenance programme on the gas pipelines supplying gas to the generating stations.”
Meanwhile, the Federal Ministry of Power in its power statistics of February 27, said power generation was 3,659.74Mw.
Ezeolisah said the TCN wheeled out 3,594.71Mw to the electricity distribution companies leaving 65.03Mw that it could not evacuate.
The impressive performance Dangote Cement Plc on Wednesday, March 2, lifted the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, market indices to a seven-week high jumping by 2.25 per cent.
Market watchers said that the market was driven by gains in Dangote Cement after the company proposed a dividend of N8 per share for the year ended Dec. 31, 2015 against N6 declared in 2014.
They said that investors were excited by the dividend pay-out declared by Dangote Cement which boosted interest in the company’s shares.
Analysis of the price movement chart indicated that Dangote Cement led the gainers’ table, increasing by N11.17 to close at N160 per share.
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has pegged monthly value of mobile money transactions in the nation at N40 billion.
CBN Deputy Governor, Operations, Suleiman Barau, who disclosed this at the maiden edition of the Electronic Payment Financial Incentives Scheme (EFIS) Efficiency Award, said mobile money is where the future of banking lies.
Barau called on banks and other stakeholders to ensure that the e-payment space is deepen.
He said the EPIS award would create healthy competition among banks and add more value to customer.
He said the mergence of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (GTbank) as the overall winner is a welcome development that should stimulate healthy competition in the industry.
He also lauded the performance of Zenith Bank Plc adding that both lenders have done exceptionally well in the e-payment space.
By Boluwatife Oshadiya | August 31, 2026, 5:12 PM
Key Points
Lionel Messi ends his 21-year international career with Argentina after 207 appearances and 125 goals
The...
