CAPITAL MARKET
Seplat to pay 10 cents dividend, shareholders approve name change
Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc said on Thursday that it maintained its dividend at $0.10 per share for the financial year 2020 despite the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.The Nigerian independent energy company said it had returned $344m to shareholders in the form of dividends since 2014. Its Chairman, Dr Ambrosie Orjiako, said at the company’s hybrid 8th Annual General Meeting said Seplat’s cash position remained strong in the full-year of 2020, adding that the $318m of cash it generated from operations was significantly more than the $150m invested for future growth. Punch
Firms borrowed N258.59bn from bond market amid COVID-19 – SEC
More companies tapped the Nigerian bond market in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic as they raised a total of N258.59bn, the highest on record, according to data from the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC data showed that the corporate bonds issued in 2020 rose by 45.91 per cent from the N177.22bn raised in 2019, as companies leveraged the low yield environment to fund expansion objectives and pursue debt refinancing. Punch
BANKING
Bank of Industry Shows Resilience amidst Headwinds
The Bank of Industry yesterday announced a 2020 performance that showed its strength and resilience despite the headwinds generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, fall in crude oil prices and the general fall of business. At its 2020 Annual General Meeting, held virtually in Abuja, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, BoI, Mr. Aliyu Abdulrahman Dikko, noted that despite the challenging year, BoI’s Group total assets grew from N1.04 trillion in 2019, to N1.86 trillion in 2020. He attributed the 79.1 per cent growth increase largely to the successful debt syndif €1 billion and $1 billion that were concluded in March and December 2020 respectively. This Day
WorldRemit reaffirms commitment to CBN’s Naira 4 Dollar Scheme
Global cross-border payment company, WorldRemit, has said it would continue to reward customers who receive international money transfers through its partner banks in Nigeria. The promise is in line with the extension of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) Naira for Dollar Scheme. The scheme, which was launched on March 8, 2021, will run indefinitely following a notice released by the apex bank.The Naira 4 Dollar scheme was launched as a strategy to increase diaspora remittances and discourage the use of informal routes. The Guardian
ECONOMY
Experts carpet CBN, say serial naira devaluation threatens economy, Nigerians
Financial experts have decried the continuous devaluation of the naira by the Central Bank of Nigeria, stressing its adverse impact on the country’s economy.The reaction followed media reports on the possible devaluation of the currency by the CBN, after the apex bank removed the exchange rate of N379/$1 from its website. A financial expert, Prof Ovie Ogidiaka, who spoke with The PUNCH in a telephone interview on Thursday explained that the CBN had been doing the country a disfavour by devaluing the naira. Punch
Nigerians to pay N234 billion taxes monthly with petrol at N385 per litre
Tougher times are here and any pretension to the contrary has been ripped to shreds with Wednesday’s resolution of the governors giving full backing to complete deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry, which in effect may jerk the pump price of petrol to N385 per litre. The masses will face more challenging times in the coming months as government closes in on resolving the lingering downstream market deregulation crisis. The Guardian