CAPITAL MARKET
Presco shareholders approve N2bn dividend payment
The shareholders of Presco Plc have approved a 200 kobo per share dividend, amounting to N2bn for the 2020 financial year just as its chairman announced revenue of N23.89bn. According to a statement, the shareholders gave the approval at the company’s 28th Annual General Meeting held by proxy at Obaretin Estate, Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area, Edo State on Wednesday. The Chairman, Paul Cardoen, announced to the shareholders that the firm’s revenue increased by 21 per cent from N19.72bn in 2019. Punch
Investors lose N5.80bn as 24 firms suffer decline
Investors in the Nigerian Exchange Limited lost N5.80bn as 24 firms saw their share prices decline at the close of trading on Wednesday. The NGX All-Share Index declined by 2.87 per cent from 38,802.15 basis points to close at 38,791.03bps. The total trading volume dropped by 2.24 per cent as 237.51 million shares with a value of N1.90bn were exchanged in 4,306 deals, compared to the previous day’s tally of 243.09 million shares worth N1.85bn traded in 4,326 deals on Tuesday. Punch
ECONOMY
Power grid collapses again amid lack of backup capacity
The national power grid has suffered another system collapse, worsening the blackout being experienced by households and businesses in parts of Nigeria. The collapse, which occurred early in the afternoon on Wednesday, was confirmed by two of the electricity distributions companies in the country. Eko Electricity Distribution Company, in a text message to its customers, said, “Dear customer, the present outage is due to a system collapse on the National Grid. TCN (Transmission Company of Nigeria) assures us that supply will be restored shortly.” Punch
Forex ban on BDCs: Our fate hanging in the balance –MAN
Manufacturers have lamented that their fate is now hanging in the balance accessing foreign exchange (forex) from commercial banks following the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) decision to stop supply to Bureau De Change (BDCs) operators. The manufacturers predicted more woes for the real sector of the economy, as the move would further accelerate hoarding and more end users, exporters and importers would also experience stifling forex allocation from commercial banks, leading to more forex squeeze in the country. The manufacturers under the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) emphasised the need for the apex bank to properly monitor and supervise the commercial banks for prompt release of forex to operators and the business community in a bid to curb hoarding. The Sun
OPEC: Nigeria May Be Hard-hit by Declining Investment in Oil Sector
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) yesterday warned that with declining investments in the global oil and gas industry, Nigeria’s economy as well as that of other resource-dependent countries may be the badly affected, especially if the current push against fossil fuels continues to gain ground.The international oil-producers’ cartel, therefore warned Nigeria to ramp up efforts to diversify its economy to avoid being caught off guard by the projected crisis. This Day
Anxiety as Nigeria’s foreign capital inflows decline 61% in H1 2021
With the current weak macroeconomic environment, it is certainly worrying times for the Nigerian economy even as its foreign inflows for first half (H1) of 2021 fell by 61.1 per cent from $7.15 billion recorded in the same period of 2020 to $2.78 billion. According to the capital importation report which was recently released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for first quarter (Q1) and second quarter (Q2) of 2021, foreign direct investments (FDIs) stood at $232.74 million as against $362.84 million recorded in the corresponding period of the previous year. The Sun