Electron Native

Nigerian bond yields fell slightly on Wednesday, a day after the central bank unexpectedly announced an interest rate cut aimed at stimulating growth in Africa’s biggest economy, traders said. Central Bank of Nigeria According to Reuters, Nigeria’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points to 13.5 percent on Tuesday, its first reduction in four years. The rate has been held at 14 percent since July 2016 to support the naira and curb inflation. Bond yields dropped to around 13 percent across maturities on Wednesday on minor buying interest, traders said. They later recovered to 14.15 percent. The most liquid one-year treasury yield fell 15 basis points to 12.75 percent. “The markets opened lower but no one is buying as investors adjust their bids,” one trader said. ADVERTISEMENT Traders said low liquidity on the interbank market hampered deals, adding yields have already fallen from as high as 15 percent last month after the central bank l...

Trading in the shares of Diamond Bank Plc has been placed on full suspension following the court sanction of the Scheme of Merger with Access Bank Plc. The Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) in a notification to its dealing members posted on its website on Wednesday said that the full suspension takes effect from March 20. “Dealing members are hereby notified that following the court sanction of the Scheme of Merger (Scheme) between Access Bank Plc and Diamond Bank Plc, trading in the shares of Diamond Bank has been placed on full suspension,” it stated. The exchange said that the suspension was required to prevent trading in the shares of the bank in order to determine shareholders who would qualify to receive the scheme consideration. It noted that Diamond Bank obtained the court sanction of the scheme on March 19, being the effective date of the scheme. The NSE stated that the bank’s shareholders passed a resolution approving the merger between Diamond Bank and Access Bank Plc at th...

T he Acting Managing Director, Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), Niyi Ajao says that the company has upgraded its systems to accommodate an increase in the volume of Point-of-Sale (PoS) transactions. Ajao said told newsmen on Tuesday in Lagos that the company anticipated a rise in the volume of PoS transactions following the 285 million recorded in 2018. Point-of-Sale (PoS) Mobile Machine He said that the company’s plan was to double the growth recorded in 2018 with a projected 600 million PoS transaction volume in 2019. Ajao said: “In 2018, we had 285 million PoS transactions volume and that was the highest ever recorded in the country. “We are expecting that the figure will double in 2019 because we had half of 2018’s figure in 2017 and that was why we embarked on an upgrade of our systems.” On a system glitch that occurred between December to March while there was a system, Ajao noted that efforts were taken to ensure the issues were resolved ...

The issue of 5G licences marks a major step in the expansion of internet access in Germany, Jochen Homann, head of the Federal Network Agency, said in the western city of Mainz. Source: Dailymail.co.uk “The auction of the licences, which kicks off on Tuesday, will contribute to the gigabit society,’’ Hoffman said at a news conference in the city. Homann, when aAddressing concerns at the lack of mobile coverage in rural areas, said he was confident that mobile services would improve. He noted that conditions had been attached to the auction stipulating that all motorways had to have fast internet coverage. The auction is expected to last no less than three weeks and to result in revenues between 3 and 5 billion Euros (3.4 to 5.7 billion Dollars) for the state. Three established network operators and one newcomer have indicated an interest, including Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefonica, who already operate networks, and 1&1-Drillisch. Germany is looking to 5...

A home grown means of funding for Nigerian starts ups is now a possible, via Itanna. Itanna, is the Venture Capital Platform of Honeywell Group and it has earmarked 300,000 Dollars to boost growth of technology start-ups in 2019. The Director of Itanna, Tomi Otudeko, made this known on Monday in Lagos. Itanna is a platform to support technical start-ups through investment and mentorship programmes, nurturing their ideas, visions, expertise as well as resources. She said that the 300,000 Dollars would be invested in 10 start-ups across Africa. Otudeko said that the 2019 edition of its Accelerator Programme, which was the second edition had begun, hence, applications are needed from technology-enabled start-ups. She said that Itanna was launched in 2018 with four cohort companies chosen after a selection process that began with more than 200 applications. The director said that the 2018 cohort companies were Accounteer, KoloPay, Tradebuza and PowerCube while thre...

Delegates to China’s parliament are urging the overhaul or even scrapping of controversial family planning rules, they say steps are needed to “liberate fertility’’ and reverse a decline in births and a rapidly shrinking workforce. Guangdong Province Delegate, Li Bingji, said in a proposal that population was China’s number-one priority for the next four decades. With its ageing population  as a result of longer lifespans and a dwindling number of children, the world’s most populous nation decided in 2016 to allow all couples to have a second child. Chinese family This had relaxed a tough one-child policy in place since 1978. But birth rates plummeted for the second consecutive year in 2018. Policymakers now fret about the impact a long-term decline in births will have on the economy and its strained health and social services. In proposals submitted at the National People’s Congress, delegates from across the country urged leaders to improve healthca...

China’s automobile sales fell 13.8 per cent in February from the same month a year earlier, the country’s biggest auto industry association said on Monday, marking the eighth consecutive month of decline in the world’s largest auto market. China auto sales fall 14% in February, mark 8th month of decline Source: Reuters The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said sales fell to 1.48 million vehicles last month, after declines of 16 per cent in January and 13 per cent in December. Reuters report that sales of new energy vehicles, such as electric cars, rose 53.6 per cent year-on-year in February, the group said. “The trend experienced last year has continued into this year, and the economic situation has also been weak. This has dragged down consumption,” CAAM’s Deputy Secretary General Shi Jianhua told reporters at a news briefing in Beijing. “Consumers are also waiting for more government policies,” he said. China plans billions of dollars in ...

Free fatty acids in the blood appear to boost proliferation and growth of cancer cells, which could help explain obese women’s increased risk of developing breast cancer after menopause, research found. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute According to Xinhau News Agency, researchers at the University of Illinois obtained blood samples from a tissue bank and compared those of healthy women with the samples of women, who were healthy at outset but later developed breast cancer. They also analyzed additional blood samples from 37 non-obese and 63 obese postmenopausal women, as well as samples from 21 postmenopausal women, who previously were obese but lost weight. They found that obese women’s levels of free fatty acids were significantly higher. However, blood levels of all the fatty acids fell significantly in women, who were obese at the outset of the study but later lost a significant amount of weight. The findings were published in the journal Cancer Research, providing mo...

Facebook could become a gamers hub very soon. Considering, Facebook's decision to  s introduce Gaming Tab Feature, in the main navigation bar, for users to have fun. Facebook new Gaming Tab Feature. Facebook’s Vice President, Gaming, Vijaye Raji, said that the gaming feature was with the aim of making it easier for people to find and connect around their favourite games, streamers and groups, among others. Raji said that “The gaming tab is part of Facebook’s recent design update to provide personalised shortcuts for people to easily access the communities and content they interact with most. “The Facebook Gaming tab is a feed where users can quickly and easily find content that matters most to them, play games, watch gaming videos, as well as connect with gaming groups. ”New features in the Facebook Gaming tab expand on the gaming video destination we announced last year. ”As we learn from the community, we will test new experiences in the tab, add more type...

The Naira on Friday gained against the Dollar at the investors window, exchanging at N360.18 to the Dollar. The  Naira had exchanged at N360.36 to the Dollar on Thursday. Market turnover at the investors window stood at 458.95 million Dollars. At the Bureau De Change (BDC) window, the Naira traded at N360 to the Dollar, while the Pound Sterling and the Euro closed at N471 and N406, respectively. The Naira remained stable at the parallel market exchanging at N358 to the Dollar while the Pound Sterling and the Euro closed at N471 and N406, respectively. The Naira had remained stable at the foreign exchange market due to series of interventions by the CBN. 

16-year-old Janet Jumbo has become the first Nigerian model to walk the runway for international fashion brand, Louis Vuitton. Janet Jumbo Source: NAN News Agency of Nigeria reports that Jumbo strutted the runway in the high fashion label’s latest collections at a recent fashion show. The Rivers state indigene shared her experience on her instagram page @jumbojanet_. She said, “LOUIS VUITTON EXCLUSIVE Can’t believe I’m the first Nigerian model to walk for (@louisvuitton). “I’m so grateful to everyonethat made this happened (@raw_models) (@ashleybrokaw) (@nicolasghesquiere) (@imgmodels) I’m the happiest girl on the planet rigt now,” Jumbo said. The Lagos-born was recruited on her way from church when a scout spotted her walking. She was then signed to Raw Models. Celebrating the feat, Raw Models shared her story on their official instagram page. They wrote, “History has been made again. “Scouted this amazing beauty on the street of Lagos on her way back from churc...

Electricity generating companies in Nigeria released an average of 4,438 megawatts of power into the national grid on Wednesday, according to a daily energy report has said. kainji Dam The report, which was compiled by the Advisory Power Team, Office of the Vice President, was made available on Thursday in Abuja. It stated that the energy released by the companies was down by 4.82 megawatts from the figure delivered on Tuesday. It, however, indicated that 1,818 megawatts could not be generated due to unavailability of gas. The report said that unavailability of transmission infrastructure also accounted for non-generation of 42.7 megawatt during the period. Similarly, it said that 1,497 megawatts was not generated due to high frequency resulting from unavailability of distribution infrastructure. The report revealed that the power sector lost an estimated N1.6billion on Wednesday to factors such as insufficient gas supply, distribution infrastructure and...

The Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL) has resumed normal operations following the plugging of a leak which necessitated the shutdown of the facility on February 28. A spokesperson for Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production the operator of the 97 km NCTL,  Masade Odianosen  made this known on Sunday that the facility “is up and running’’. Nembe Creek Trunk Line The development has allayed fears of a major disruption of oil export on the export pipeline that evacuates up to 150,000 barrels of crude daily to the Bonny Oil Export Terminal. The Aiteo spokesperson said that the NCTL was restarted while the joint investigation of the March 1 explosion from Oil Well No.7 within Nembe Creek oilfields, a totally unrelated incident to the NCTL was in progress. The official explained that the NCTL was not in operation when the explosion from an oil well within the OML 29 oil block occurred. The National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) had said on Friday tha...

A popular Nigerian professor and columnist based in Canada, was on the Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed in the early hours of Sunday.  It has now emerged that Adesanmi, a native of Isanlu, in Yagba East Local Government area of Kogi State, was among the passengers. Pius Adesanmi Three different family members, plus a close friend of Adesanmi’s and a Canadian official, confirmed the sad development to SaharaReporters. Until his death, Adesanmi was a Professor of English at Carleton University. Flight ET 302 crashed near the town of Bishoftu, 62 kilometres southeast of the capital Addis Ababa, the airline said, identifying the plane was a Boeing 737-800 MAX. The airline confirmed that 149 passengers and eight crew members were aboard, as the plane took off from Addis Ababa at 8:38am local time (05:38 GMT), but crashed six minutes later. "At this time search and rescue operations are in progress and we have no confirmed information about survivors or any possible causali...

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday called for mergers among all 125 shareholders associations operating in the Nigerian capital market to form stronger alliances. Igbrude said the association is particular about using mediation, conciliation and negotiation as veritable tools in achieving its set goals and objectives. SEC’s Acting Director-General, Mary Uduk, made the call at the Issuers and Investors Alternative Dispute Resolution Initiative (IIADRI) annual symposium in Lagos last week, saying that mergers would make them stronger and more effective. Source: The Guardian Nigeria The theme of this first annual symposium was : “AGM Optimisation: The Roles of the Company Secretaries, Regulators, Registrars, Auditors, Media, Shareholder Associations and other Stakeholders’’. Represented by Maryam Sallau, Uduk said that mergers would make shareholders’ associations stronger, more influential, effective and also enhance shareholders’ value. ...

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has confirmed 39 new cases of Lassa fever, recorded between February 25 and March 3 in six states.  Source :  allAfrica.com NCDC’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, made this known in a statement on Friday in Abuja. Ihekweazu adds that 1,447 suspected cases had been reported from 33 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) from January 1 to March 3. He said that 420 of the figure were confirmed positive, 15 probable and 939 negative. According to him, from the onset of the 2019 outbreak, there have been 93 deaths in confirmed cases. Case fatality ratio in confirmed cases is 22.1per cent. Problem Areas The NCDC boss said that Edo, Ondo, Bauchi, Nasarawa, Ebonyi, Plateau, Taraba, Adamawa, Gombe, Kaduna, Kwara, Benue, Rivers, Kogi, Enugu, Imo, Delta, Oyo, Kebbi, Cross River states and FCT, had recorded at least one confirmed case in 66 Local Government Areas. He, however, noted that in repor...

The fate of the 50 missing people from the explosion around Nembe creek seems to have left the headlines of both local and international media.  Another problem is also lurking from the blast. This problem is centred around the National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) which alleges that operator of Nembe Creek Oilfields within OML 29 is resisting efforts to probe the cause of last week Friday’s explosion in Nembe. The Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), in 2015, divested its equity in OML 29 and transferred its interest for $1.7 bn to Aiteo, an indigenous Oil and Gas Exploration and Production firm. Source : Sweetcrudereports Head of NOSDRA’s Field Office in Bayelsa,  Francis Umeh, said that Aiteo had frustrated plans by the spill agency to visit the site for assessment. He regretted that the stance of the oil firm was slowing NOSDRA from promptly carrying out its mandate. “We are experiencing resistance from the operator and we ar...

South African telecommunication group MTN is finalising plans to list its Nigerian unit on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in the first half of 2019. But this will not be followed by any public offer at this moment from potential investors. MTN Nigeria has said that it will simplify its capital structure prior to the listing. The Nigerian company said its subscriber base now reads 58 million users at the end of 2018, up by 6 million. The Background The company had faced a number of fines from it's Nigerian operation which remains the most profitable on the continent if not globally. And it had been accused of not investing in Nigeria nor allowing Nigerian ownership. Source : Thisdaylive Also, about three years after being  fines $5.2 billion by the Nigerian Communication Commission for not registering subscribers with biometric, it fell short of the la again.  Last year, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) also hammered the telco to the tune of $8.134 billion conce...

An FCT High Court on Wednesday admitted the chairman Board of directors and Managing Derector of  the defunct Skye Bank PLC , Tunde Ayeni and Timothy Oguntayo , charged with four counts of money laundering, to bail in the sum of N500 million each. Source : NAN The EFCC charged Ayeni and Oguntayo with N456. 6 billion criminal breach of trust. Justice  Valentine Ashi, who admitted the defendants to bail,  ordered them to produce two sureties in like sum. She adjourned the case until May 14. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) prosecutor, Abba  Muhammed, told the court that the defendants committed the offence  between Jan.1, 2014 to Dec. 31,2016. He  alleged that the defendants being bankers, entrusted with depositors funds,  conspired  and criminally breach of trust in the aforementioned sum. Mohammed also said that in 2014, while being bankers, entrusted with property and depositors funds in the defunct Skye Ban...

Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) says it is spending $5 million (N1.8 billion) to finance some projects in the Nigerian Maritime University (NMU), Okerenkoko in Delta. Source : NAN SPDC’s Managing Director,  Osagie Okunbor,   disclosed this on Wednesday in Port Harcourt at the formal signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the university’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ongoebi Etebu. He said the projects would be executed in phases with the building of lecture theatre complex followed by several other high priority projects in the institution. “To this end, SPDC has committed five million dollars to the Nigerian Maritime University (NMU). This support and donation of infrastructure will be phased over three years. “The proposed lecture theatre complex which was designed by the university is a two-floor furnished building that comprises three lecture auditoria. “Other facilities in the complex include eight classrooms, one e-classroom, 14 offices and 1...

Rev. Fr. Michael Okonkwo of St Paul’s Catholic Church, Ebute-Metta, has called on Nigerians to have  sober reflections before casting their votes in the forthcoming gubernatorial and state assembly  elections. Source : The Catholic Company Okonkwo made the call on Wednesday,  after Ash Wednesday mass  at his parish. He said that it was a good coincidence that the gubernatorial elections would hold on the first Saturday after Ash Wednesday in the period of Lent. “It should be for us, a period of sober reflection. “We need to reflect on all that had happened in the past and go out to vote for our preferred candidates. “This is very important, especially, for us as Christians. “Those who share our values should be voted into power because governance is all about bringing out good values,” he said. He added that Nigerians should go out and vote so that they could begin to hold their  leaders accountable. “It is only when we vote appropriately...