CAPITAL MARKET
CSCS reappoints CEO, aims to diversify business
The board of the Central Securities Clearing System has approved the re-appointment of the Chief Executive Officer, Mr Haruna Jalo-Waziri, for another five-year term. CSCS disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday, saying the company had seen a major boost in its revenue base and had also built strong strategic alliances with other financial market entities across Africa during Jalo-Waziri’s tenure. It said Jalo-Waziri led the company’s profit growth by 18 per cent compound annual growth rate and delivered a 20 per cent return on average equity in the 2020 financial year amidst the pandemic. The Chairman, CSCS, Mr Oscar Onyema, said the board was impressed with the CEO’s performance and that the foundation built by the team had positioned the firm for its next growth phase. Punch
BANKING
Reps threaten bank with takeover over debt, MD’s arrest
The House of Representatives, on Thursday, threatened that it will ask the Central Bank of Nigeria to take over the ownership of Heritage Bank of Nigeria for owing the Federal Government more money than its entire share capital. The threat was made by its ad hoc committee on the assessment and status of all recovered loots (movable and Immovable assets) from 2002 to 2020 by agencies of the Federal Government for effective efficient management and utilisation. The committee also threatened to issue an arrest warrant on the Managing Director of Polaris Bank for failing to appear before it to explain why the bank had not remitted over $32m owed to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. Punch
ECONOMY
Nigeria can’t produce COVID-19 vaccine now – Pfizer boss .
The Country Manager Nigeria and Cluster Lead West Africa for Pfizer, Mr Olayinka Subair, has said there is no technical capacity to develop a COVID-19 vaccine in Nigeria now. Subair said this during a courtesy visit to The PUNCH Headquarters in Magboro, Ogun State, on Thursday. He described vaccine development as a long and technical process with high underlying costs.He said, “Vaccine development takes, on average, about 12 years. From discovery to experiments and trials, COVID-19 was an exceptional one as it was a global pandemic that needed a quick solution. At Pfizer, for example, most of the processes were done in parallel. Normally, the processes are meant to be done in sequence. Punch
World Bank sees crude oil prices rising till June 2022, fuelling inflation
Energy prices soared in the third quarter of 2021 and are expected to remain elevated in 2022, adding to global inflationary pressures and potentially shifting economic growth to energy-exporting countries from energy-importing ones, the World Bank has said. In its latest report, tagged ‘Commodity Markets Outlook’ forecasts indicate that energy prices – expected to average more than 80 per cent higher in 2021 compared to last year – will remain at high levels in 2022 but will start to decline in the second half of the year as supply constraints ease. However, it observed that non-energy prices, including agriculture and metals, are projected to decrease in 2022, following strong gains this year. Guardian
Resolving the Naira exchange conundrum
The precipitous free fall of Nigeria’s currency particularly at the parallel segment of foreign exchange market is becoming a bitter pill that many Nigerians are finding difficult to swallow. Indeed businesses, households and other stakeholders are not finding it funny at all, particularly against the backdrop of its negative impact on cost of living. That however explains that the government and even the Central Bank of Nigeria are taking drastic steps to stem the tide of depreciation leading to the clampdown on bureau de change operators and lately the AbokiFX. According to the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Godwin Emefiele, the undue interrence and manipulation of this set of operators have been partly responsible for the sorry state of the naira in recent times, hence the regulators sledge hammer. The Sun
