Wednesday, January 6, 2021
World Bank: Vaccine Deployment, Investment Key to Global Economy’s Recovery
The World Bank has predicted that the global economy will expand by four per cent in 2021, assuming an initial COVID-19 vaccine rollout becomes widespread throughout the year. It stated that top near-term policy priorities would be to control the spread of COVID-19 and ensuring rapid and widespread vaccine deployment.. Read more
Union Diagnostics Moves to Approve Buy-out of Minority Investors
Shareholders of Union Diagnostics and Clinical Services Plc will on January 25, 2021, approve a bid by Cedar Advisory Partners Limited to buy the 39.62 per cent held by minority shareholders. Cedar Advisory Partners had last March launched the N492.75 million buy-out bid expected to raise its stake to 59.66 per cent to make it the single largest shareholder of Union Diagnostics and Clinical Services Plc. Read more
Poor investments, low revenues, others threaten Nigeria’s 2021 growth – World Bank
The World Bank has said that Nigeria’s growth is expected to resume by 1.1 per cent in 2021 from a contraction of 4.1 per cent in 2020. It also said the global economy would expand by four per cent in the same period. The World Bank disclosed this in its January 2021 Global Economic Prospects report titled ‘Global economy to expand by four per cent in 2021; vaccine deployment and investment key to sustaining the recovery’. Read more
Paternity scandal: FCMB MD goes on leave as probe begins
The Managing Director, First City Monument Bank Limited, Adam Nuru, has volunteered to go on leave to enable the bank to investigate the paternity allegations against him. This was disclosed in a statement by the bank on Tuesday.
The statement read, “We are aware of several stories circulating across several media platforms about our bank’s Managing Director, Adam Nuru; a former employee, Mrs. Moyo Thomas, and her deceased husband, Mr. Tunde Thomas.. Read more
Stock market suffers N393bn loss on profit-taking
The equities market closed on a negative note on Tuesday, declining by 1.83 per cent as profit-taking hit the market following investors’ moves to increase capital gains.
The Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index dropped by 751.25 basis points or 1.83 per cent from 41,147.39bps the previous day to 40,396.14bps while the market capitalisation of equities depreciated by N393bn to close at N21.12tn from N21.52tn.
On the activity chart, the premium sub-sector dominated in volume terms with 106.03 million shares exchanged in 2,123 deals. The subsector was enhanced by the activities in the shares of Access Bank Plc and Zenith Bank Plc. Read more
Forex inflow through CBN hits $6.97bn in three months
Foreign exchange inflow through the Central Bank of Nigeria in the third quarter of 2020 stood at $6.97bn. The CBN disclosed this in the third quarter economic report. It said, “Foreign exchange inflow through the Central Bank of Nigeria decreased in the third quarter of 2020, largely due to a reduction in non-oil inflow.
“During the review period, aggregate foreign exchange inflow through the CBN stood at $6.97bn, a decrease of 30.7 per cent and 43.6 per cent below the levels in the second quarter of 2020 and the corresponding quarter of 2019, respectively. Read more
Oil rises above $53, OPEC+ agrees on output rollover
The international oil benchmark, Brent crude, surged above $53 per barrel on Tuesday as the Organisation of the Exporting Countries and its allies agreed to hold production steady in the face of new coronavirus lockdowns. Brent, against which Nigeria’s oil is priced, rose by $2.46 to $53.55 per barrel as of 9:30pm Nigerian time on Tuesday.
Saudi Arabia, OPEC de facto leader, will make additional, voluntary oil output cuts of one million barrels per day in February and March… Read more
