Business

Tunde Bakare The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has stated that it is committed to enhancing financial inclusion in the country through technology.  Director General of the SEC, Mr. Lamido Yuguda, stated this at the joint session of the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, Capital Market and ICT and Cyber Crime in Abuja, Tuesday. Yuguda said the SEC recognises the disruption of FinTech in the financial industry and aims to create an enabling regulatory environment that would ensure a balance between investor protection and technological advancement.

Emma Ihedirionye A high court at the Federal Capital Territory yesterday nullified Security and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) indefinite suspension of Oando Plc’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), two years ago, ruling that shareholders of the company have the rights of association as well as to assemble and hold an AGM. The judgment followed a suit filed by Mr. Patrick Ajudua, an Oando shareholder, who challenged SEC’s suspension order. The disgruntled shareholder had filed that the directive of the SEC suspending Oando’s AGM was in breach of his rights to freedom of association as guaranteed under Section 40 of the Nigerian Constitution and Articles 9, 10 & 11 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.

Bitcoin tumbled Tuesday from its record-breaking run after US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that the “highly speculative” unit could be used for “illicit” purposes. At about 1500 GMT, the digital currency slid 12.57 percent to $47,946, while rival ethereum declined 15 percent to $1,539. Tesla boss Elon Musk — whose company has invested heavily in bitcoin — tweeted Saturday that the prices of both cryptocurrencies “seem high”. Yellen hit out Monday over bitcoin, claiming it was inefficient and required a vast amount of energy — and she expressed fear it was used for “illicit” reasons. “I don’t think that bitcoin… is widely used as a transaction mechanism. To the extent it’s used, I fear it’s often for illicit finance,” she said at an event hosted by the New York Ti...

Tunde Bakare At no point in its 60-year history has Nigeria’s economy expanded slower than its population for a longer period than between 2015 and 2020, an indictment on President Muhammadu Buhari who has led the country in that time. With data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showing a 1.9-percent contraction in 2020, it means Africa’s largest economy has now failed to match its average population growth rate of 2.6 percent for six years. When economic growth fails to match population growth it means the economy is not creating new opportunities to accommodate a fast-rising population, and is a sign of worsening poverty levels.

Residents and landlords of Victory Park Estate, Lekki, Lagos have asked President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to call the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) to order over alleged disobedience to court orders. The estate spans almost 50 hectares and is one of the gated communities along the Lekki Peninsula Scheme 1. The residents are accusing AMCON and its receiver-manager of outright disregard for law and order and illegal use of official powers. They have also accused AMCON of harassment and persecution of the legitimate residents and owners of the estate despite pending court cases and orders. Two of such cases were filed by Mrs. Bose Ibude and Okechukwu Okoli alongside his wife against AMCON and its Receiver/Manager, Lanre Olaoluwa.

Jeff Bezos has reclaimed his title of world’s richest person, ending Elon Musk’s roughly six-week reign atop the list. Musk lost about $4.5 billion Tuesday after Tesla (TSLA)shares fell 2.4%, which was enough to knock him to second place on the Bloomberg Billionaires Indexranking. Bezos’ net worth also fell as the broader stock market lost a bit of ground — but his loss wasn’t as extreme, only taking a hit of about $372 million. That was enough to recapture his title that he held for about three years. The index currently says Bezos is worth $191 billion compared to Musk’s $190 billion.

Emma Ihedirionye The news of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directive on the prohibition of banks/individuals from buying, selling and using cryptocurrency came as a shock to young Nigerians and the world at large. Construe it as you may, be it an order to the banks only, or to the individuals alike was indeed a destructive policy in every sense of the word. In a world currently ravaged by the Corona virus with trillions of dollars lost in the world economy, and a mother of all recession looming after we get the vaccines right, such a policy is draconian and could cause a total collapse of the banking industry as well as the little faith we have in the banking system and its mother institution; the CBN itself.

Tunde Afolabi Nigeria’s economy re-bounded in the fourth quarter of last year (Q4’20) as the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew year-on-year (y/y) by 0.11 percent, with aggregate GDP at N43.5trillion. The development represents the first positive growth in the last three quarters of 2020 where GDP stood at 1.87 percent, -6.10 percent and -3.6 percent respectively. The economy however contracted by 1.92 percent for the full year 2020.

Tunde Bakare The Board of Directors of United Capital Plc has approved the payment of N4.2 billion as dividend to shareholders for the year ended December 31, 2020. The dividend, which translates to 70 kobo per share, is 40 per cent higher than the 50 kobo paid the previous year. In a notification to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), the investment banking firm said the dividend would be paid after approval by shareholders.

Tunde Bakare Nigeria is no longer in recession, official figures revealed Thursday, as the economy of Africa’s most populous country grew at the end of 2020. Hit by the coronavirus pandemic and falling oil prices last year, Nigeria slipped into recession in the third quarter of 2020 for the second time in four years. Nigeria’s Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed predicted at the time that the country would exit the recession by the first quarter of 2021 — but new statistics show that a timid recovery came earlier. “Nigeria Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 0.11 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2020, representing the first positive quarterly growth in the last three quarters,” the country’s National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement Thursday. “Though weak, the posit...