Headline1

The deal seeking to sell PZ Cussons Nigeria to core investors from Britain hit a brick wall midway after the Nigerian capital market watchdog sought clarification on some irregularities in the PZ board’s request for approval, sources familiar with the matter told PREMIUM TIMES. Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) raised an eyebrow after pinpointing flaws in the document by PZ Cussons Nigeria asking the regulator to endorse PZ Cussons (Holdings) UK, which has a 73.3 per cent interest in the company…

Nigeria’s annual inflation rate rose to 31.70 per cent in February from 29.90 per cent in January, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Friday. The statistics office said the February 2024 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 1.80 per cent compared to the January 2024 headline inflation rate. The NBS said on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 9.79 per cent points higher than the rate recorded in February 2023, which was 21.91 per cent. “This shows that the headline…

Nigeria’s crude oil daily output has increased by 200,000 barrels over the last six months due to security measures introduced in the Niger Delta, a presidential aide has said. Stability in the oil producing areas has also increased the availability of NLNG Trains 1-6 from 57 per cent in 2023 to 70 per cent in the first quarter of 2024, the Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Olu Verheijen, said. She stated this on Friday in Abuja at a media briefing on policy directives of the President Bola Tinubu…

Crypto exchange platform, Binance, on Tuesday disclosed plans to discontinue all Nigerian Naira (NGN) services on its platform, with a detailed timeline provided for users to take necessary actions. According to the notice it sent to its customers, Binance users are urged to withdraw their naira balances, trade their NGN assets, or convert naira into cryptocurrencies before the discontinuation of NGN services. It noted that this discontinuation affects NGN services exclusively, and users can continue to utilise…

Nigerian stocks shed 3.3 per cent last week after increased sell pressure from investors during a week in which many released corporate results failed to impress the market. The central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee, on Tuesday, raised the benchmark interest rate by 4 percentage points, a hawkish stance aimed at curbing inflation. But that had weighty impact on the market as investors seeking stronger yields ditched stocks for fixed-income securities offering higher returns. PREMIUM TIMES has assembled some…

MTN Nigeria joined the expanding list of financially distressed companies in the country after its entire shareholders’ fund was obliterated by a sweeping after-tax loss precipitated by a dollar scarcity in Africa’s biggest economy. The wireless carrier, which executes the majority of its transactions with trade partners in foreign currencies, incurred N740 billion in net foreign exchange loss last year following sharp jumps in the rates of exchanging the naira for the dollar. That turned its shareholders’ fund…

Transnational Corporation of Nigeria, the country’s biggest conglomerate by market value, will list the shares of its spinoff power generating arm Transcorp Power by way of introduction in Lagos on Monday, the Nigerian Exchange Limited said in a Friday statement. The plan is for 7.5 billion shares to be quoted at N240 per unit, putting its valuation at N1.8 trillion. Meanwhile, Transcorp which also has hospitality, agribusiness and real estate among its subsidiaries, and which is the parent company under which…

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revoked the operational licences of 4,173 Bureaux De Change operators in the country. The bank said the affected institutions failed to pay for licence renewal, submit returns or comply with CBN directives on anti-money laundering, countering financing of terrorism, and counter proliferation financing regulations. READ ALSO: CBN resumes sale of dollars to BDCs The CBN said it is revising the regulatory guidelines of BDCs. The move is part of efforts to restore confidence…

The Nigerian government is demanding at least $10 billion as retribution from Binance amid crackdown on the crypto exchange platform in desperate moves to salvage the value of the nation’s local currency. Bayo Onanuga, special adviser on information and strategy to President Bola Tinubu, made this known Friday morning in an interview with the BBC. Binance profited substantially from its “illegal transactions” in Nigeria while the nation suffered huge losses, Mr Onanuga said during the interview, monitored by…

The Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) on Thursday confirmed that the crypto exchange platform, Binance, is being investigated by Nigerian authorities. In its first official confirmation of the clampdown efforts on the activities of Binance and other crypto platforms, a top official of the ONSA confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES that the security adviser’s office is coordinating an interagency investigation into the operations of Binance. “I am confirming that the office of the national security adviser, as…