The Finance Dude

 By Anonymous  I first met my wife in university. She was beautiful and academic, extremely witty. One thing about her that was always difficult for me was her anxiety. You can’t blame her, some people are just born with too much stress nerves in their brains. She was the type that stressed about everything, literally paralyzing her sometimes with anxiety. When I was young, I was able to handle it. I didn’t see it as a setback quality in her, but just something that was part of her. After we married, we had a wonderful married life. Her mental health improved and she was less anxious. We had been married for 7 years when we were informed that she was infertile (a light bulb for us, after trying to conceive for many years). This obviously made us both upset, but I was ok with it after a while. For her, not so much. I think it was this bit of medical news that triggered her stress and anxiety again and it came like a full wave. She became very sus...

When her husband first joined a startup, a woman I’ll call Cindy had saved up a comfortable nest egg for her family. Even with several young children, their financial situation was stable enough that their personal risk in the venture seemed minimal. But a year later, when the seed funding dried out and no substantial revenue was forthcoming, things went downhill for them. Her husband stopped receiving a salary, yet continued working and traveling extensively for the company. Cindy had to care for their children, including two toddlers and two autistic preteens, mostly on her own. She begged her husband to find another job, but he didn’t want to leave a business that he had already invested so much in. She offered to go back to work and have him watch the kids; he refused. Within two years, their financial reserves and their children’s college funds had disappeared entirely. Their home was eventually foreclosed on, and the family had to move in with a relative. Onl...

Mr Zakari Nasiru, the Deputy Comptroller (Exports) at Tin Can Island, says export of agricultural products has now enhanced Nigeria’s revenue profile. Nasiru told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Friday that the Federal Government was making up revenues hitherto being lost due to Nigeria’s inability to export commodities overseas. According to him, Nigeria loses a substantial revenue when most containers bringing imports into the country return to their original countries without carrying goods back. “ The reason why the containers that came in with imports into Nigeria go back to their country of origin empty while the ones that carry goods from Nigeria out of the country to other countries come back with other goods into Nigeria is simple. “Nigeria used to be an import country, that is, we depend mostly on importation to the extent that most of our needs we import into this country. “But those (ships) that brought in these imported...

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday moved 190.68 million shares valued at N1.33 billion transacted in 2,978 deals. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) said this was in contrast with a turnover of 243.61 million shares worth N2.56 billion traded in 3,647 deals on Thursday. An analysis of the activity chart showed that Diamond Bank emerged the most-traded in volume terms, exchanging 51.35 million shares valued at N61.69 million. Wapic Insurance came second, accounting for 28.71 million shares worth N14.36 million and Guaranty Trust Bank sold 24.15 million worth N 579.73 million. Access Bank traded 13.76 million shares valued at N76.47 million and FBN Holding exchanged 10.45 million valued at N33.53 million. NAN also reports that major blue chip equities recorded price depreciation and this was led by Nestle with a loss of N5 to close at N820 per share. CAP followed with N3.03 to close at N28.70 and Nigerian Breweries dipped N1.42, to close at...

  The National Universities Commission (NUC) has released a list of unaccredited courses in Nigerian universities. The NUC warned that any certificate issued for these courses will be considered void. The university of Abuja has the highest number of unaccredited courses, having 15 of its courses, including Law, unaccredited. According to the NUC, 13 federal universities, 16 state universities and eight private universities were running courses that had not been accredited. The unaccredited courses pose serious danger to students who study them as the certificates issued by these universities for the courses will not be officially recognised. Reports has it that 2016 accreditation status report indicated that these unaccredited courses were taught in 37 out of 143 universities in the country. The Quality Assurance Department of the NUC is in charge of accrediting courses in the universities. The NUC insists that for a course to be accredited, it must meet the B...

With four major blue-chip companies losing as much as N51.86 billion in the first half of 2016, the lot of the manufacturing sector is getting bleaker. This is just as the firms continue to grapple with input cost pressure and weak consumer purchasing power, while earnings outlook for the second half of 2016 is dim. Indeed, companies like Nestlé Nigeria Plc, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Dangote Cement Plc, and Lafarge Africa, in the first half of the year, suffered combined profit losses to the tune of N51.86 billion, while there are indications that other unlisted equities may have incurred more losses during the period. A review of unaudited financial reports of many of the firms for the first half of 2016 revealed a struggle between balancing rising input cost pressures and passing the inflationary pressures on already constrained consumers by raising prices of some products during the period. Some of the input cost pressures being encountered by m...

Nigeria has lost its position as Africa’s largest economy to South African in dollar terms. This came as the rand recorded gains to close at 13.2805 per dollar, with the naira weakening at 2.7 per cent, to N320 to $1, at the close of business yesterday. From a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) value of $510 billion to the present assessed $296 billion due to weakened naira, Nigerian economy is believed to have contracted by about 42 per cent compared to the South African economy that contracted from the assessed $370 billion to $310 billion. Indeed, South Africa regained the position more than two years after losing it to Nigeria as the value of the nations’ currencies moved in opposite directions. Based on the countries’ gross domestic product at the end of 2015 published by the International Monetary Fund, the size of South Africa’s economy is $301 billion at the rand’s current exchange rate, while Nigeria’s GDP is $296 billion. Specifically, the r...

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has directed all registrars operating in the Nigerian capital market to end the issuance of e-dividend warrant to investors by June 31, 2017. This, according to the commission, will compel retail investors to embrace the exercise and stem the rising unclaimed dividend in the capital market, which is currently put at N80 billion. E-dividend is an electronic dividend payment which will enable an investor’s account to be credited after 24 hours that dividend is paid. The Director General of SEC, Mounir Gwarzo, while addressing journalists during the post Capital Market Committee (CMC), second quarter press briefing, held in Lagos yesterday, bemoaned the low level of patronage on e dividend registration in the market, noting that only 6,000 investors have accessed the platform. To encourage more participation in the exercise, the SEC boss explained that the CMC has agreed that all banks should...