Wednesday, September 16, 2020
Low yields push Nigerian banks to expand loan books
Some Nigerian banks are aggressively looking to expand their loan books, making it a key performance indicator (KPI) for their relationship officers who are constantly reaching out to individual and corporate customers. This new push by Nigerian lenders comes despite the Covid-19 pandemic, which has pressured many businesses into not meeting up with their loans… Read more
Food shocks, high energy cost to push prices higher in coming months
The persistent pressure on food supply coupled with the recent hikes in prices of essential utilities such as petrol and electricity, and foreign exchange restriction on food imports could further push domestic consumer prices, otherwise known as inflation, higher in coming months. According to analysts, petrol, power and food contribute a significant part of the… Read more
Two months after domestic flight resumption, airlines record 60% load factor
Two months after domestic flight operations resumed in Nigeria, airlines are recording about 60 percent load factor, BusinessDay’s findings show. A visit to the Terminal Two of the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos on Tuesday showed a reasonable number of passengers being processed for flights to Abuja, Port Harcourt, Owerri, and other frequently visited destinations…Read more
13.22% inflation rate: Address insecurity, forex, energy, experts tell Buhari
The consumer price index which measures inflation increased by 13.22 per cent (year-on-year) in August 2020. The National Bureau of Statistics disclosed this in its ‘Consumer Price Index August 2020’ report which was released on Tuesday. Read more
CBN unveils N200bn loan for FG’s social housing project
The Central Bank of Nigeria has said it will release a cumulative maximum limit of N200bn to provide construction finance facility to enable Family Homes Funds Limited to implement the Federal Government’s Social Housing programme as part of the Economic Sustainability Plan 2020. The CBN disclosed this on Tuesday in a report on ‘Framework for the implementation of family homes financing initiative’. Read more
Naira plunges further, exchanges for N460
The naira continued its downward trend, as it exchanged for the dollars at N460 in the parallel market on Tuesday, despite the resumption of forex sales to the Bureau de Change Operators. The naira had earlier dropped from N480/$ following the Central Bank of Nigeria’s announcement to resume forex sales to the BDCs, and exchanged at N440/$ as of Thursday. Read more
FG’s N250b gas intervention fund targets CNG, LPG as alternative fuels
The Federal Government has stated that its N250 billion intervention facility for the national gas expansion programme is targeted at making Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) the fuel of choice for transportation and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), domestic cooking, captive power and small industrial complexes. To this end, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has capped the maximum loan an obligor can access under its N250 billion intervention fund for the gas sector at N10 billion. Read more
Poultry farmers lose N1. 5 trllion to COVID-19 lockdown
The President of the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), Ezekiel Mann, during a news conference Monday, in Abuja, explained that the losses came from hatcheries, as they were forced to bury their day-old chicks and eggs because they were not up-taken from the farms, while some other chicks died while on transit due to suffocation. Read more