The Finance Dude

The Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison says out of the $2 billion (GHS10.1 billion) worth of loans taken by the receivers of some nine banks which collapsed in the country, only $142 million (GHS731 million) has been received. The Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Ernest Addison The nine banks were UT Bank, Capital Bank, Sovereign, Unibank, Construction Bank, The Royal Bank, Heritage Bank, Premium Bank and Beige Bank. According to him, the receivership process has been painstakingly slow with other loan defaulters and shareholders of the defunct banks engaging in frivolous legal cases to sabotage the process. “The process has progressed slowly as out of the total loans of $2 billion (GH¢10.1 billion) taken over by the Receivers, total recoveries so far is in excess of $142 million (GH₵ 731 million) and this has been achieved through loan repayments by customers; repayment of placements; sale of vehicles; liquidation of bonds; and from...

The newly re-appointed Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, over the weekend enumerated the things intends to accomplish during his second term in office. Emefiele enumerated his plans while speaking to journalists at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), on the sidelines of the institution’s Special Convocation which took place on Friday. The CBN Governor gave delivered a lecture at the event. Driving down inflation: According to Emefiele, he intends to focus on policies that would drive down the country’s inflation rate, improve price stability, and drive economic growth. Emefiele’s Stern Warning: The CBN Governor further disclosed that he plans to work with his team to drive down imports and encourage exports. He also used the occasion to issue a stern warning to those who meddle with policies aimed at achieving economic stability, telling them that they will be caught and punished by law. Mr Emefiele’s second term plans came just a few days after ...

Much as I appreciate what the media has done by publicizing the speech delivered by Dr Oby Ezekwesili at the Inaugural Business Lecture of the Lagos Country Club, I am still not quite certain about what that speech hoped to achieve. You see, Dr Ezekwesili did a fine job of detailing the current issues in the country. She even took it a step further by saying the problem did not begin with President Buhari’s government, but had been brewing when Goodluck Jonathan was in office. The former minister explained how bad policies had led to this downward spiral we now call ‘recession’.   Donning her advocacy cap, she called on the citizenry to ‘convict’ the government to retrace its steps and to sit up. At that point, I knew that this speech was a dud. I must hand it to her though, that she is a great communicator. Anyone who is able to analyse their audience and feed them what they want to hear is great, really. I mean, delivered in Lagos Country Club, I’m sure she ...

After months of wheeling and dealing, the member nations of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have finally agreed an average drop in production level of 1.2 million barrels per day, effective January. The agreement exempted Nigeria and Libya, but gave Iraq its first quotas since the 1990s, Bloomberg reports. Iran seems to be the greatest winner, as OPEC agreed for the country to raise output to about 3.8 million barrels a day as the country sought special treatment as it recovers from sanctions. However, Iraq OPEC’s second-largest producer, agreed to cut by 210,000 barrels a day from October levels despite its previous push for special consideration based on the urgency of its offensive against Islamic State. Saudi Arabia, which raised oil production to a record this year, will reduce output by 486,000 barrels a day to 10.058 million a day. The United Arab Emirates and Kuwait will reduce output by 139,000 barrels a day and 131,000 a day while ...

Research suggests that we have between 40,000-70,000 thoughts a day. We carry out most of our daily activities without even thinking. These can include brushing our teeth, driving a car or even breathing. So most of these 70,000 thoughts are new thoughts, how many do you pay attention to? Within all of these thoughts, there is at least one a day that could change your life or the world as we know it, but how many do we let slip through our fingers never to be thought of again? Here are some great ways to ensure that those ideas don’t pass you by: 1. Journal In The Morning You’ve been asleep for 8 hours, imagine what magnificent thoughts have been running through your mind all night. We need to get them down on paper. This is why it’s a perfect time to journal. Write anything down that you’re feeling or thinking. Go crazy and write as if no one else will read it. It doesn’t even have to make sense. When we wake up those thoughts can slowly dissolve as the day pr...

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that three tiers of government shared N420 billion as revenue for September as against N510.3 billion shared in August. The minister of finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun through her permanent secretary, Mr Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, said this in Abuja on Thursday, October 20, at the monthly revenue allocation to federal, states and local governments. She said the revenue allocation to federal, states and local government for September dropped by N90.2 billion. Adeosun credited the drop to the loss of 45.5 million dollars in federation export sales, despite the increase in average price of crude oil from 46.06 dollars per barrel in May to 48.4 dollars in June. Read more: https://www.naij.com/1017608-revealed-fg-others-shared-n420bn.html The News Agency of Nigeria reports that three tiers of government shared N420 billion as revenue for September as against N510.3 billion shared in August. The minister of finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun through her permanent se...

It’s official, the Naira is currently on track to ride on its longest running gaining streak against the dollar in the parallel market. From hitting a low of N490 against the dollar the naira has since gained by about N40 to close at N454 on Monday. If it sustains this gain this week,  then we are likely going to witness the longest streak of gain against the dollar in recent times. Analysts had expected the naira to cross the N500 band by October following a downward spiral that coincided with the ban of some commercial banks by the CBN as well as a spike in demand for dollars to meet up school fees for the fall. The liquidity bit so hard it was nearly impossible to buy dollars on the black market for the same price within a space of an hour. However, the naira regained strength after news that Travelex was going to commence operations in Nigeria and has remained strong since it commenced operations about a week ago. According to information from some BDC’s, m...

The Naira on Monday, October 17, recorded another gain against the dollar as it closed at N455/$1 in the black market. This is higher than the N460/$1 it was on Friday, October 14. According to economists, the steady gains recorded by the nation’s currency on the unofficial segment of the market in the past few days, can be attributed to improved dollar liquidity to the Bureau De Change (BDC) arm of the market. Read more: https://www.naij.com/1012394-naira-records-another-gain-dollar-pound-euro.html The Naira on Monday, October 17, recorded another gain against the dollar as it closed at N455/$1 in the black market. This is higher than the N460/$1 it was on Friday, October 14. According to economists, the steady gains recorded by the nation’s currency on the unofficial segment of the market in the past few days, can be attributed to improved dollar liquidity to the Bureau De Change (BDC) arm of the market. Read more: https://www.naij.com/1012394-naira-records-another...

In order to bring the economy out of recession, the rule of the thumb has always been that government can do two things; it is either government increases spending and/or cut the tax. By increasing government spending, government saves the idle production outputs and hence sustain the production activities. The continued productions benefit people by giving them wages, interest, rent, and profits. In the end, people’s income and buying power increase. In Nigeria however, it is a dire situation as operators in the real sector have to deal with hydra-headed challenges of low purchasing power from consumers, inflation and high cost of doing business. How are Nigerian firms coping in recession? FEMI ADEKOYA writes. When the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, in February argued in favour of the increase in electricity tariffs, describing government’s move as “a painful pill,” which consumers have to “swallow”, little did many know what is yet to bef...

Access to portable water is something every Nigerian is entitled to. The reality, though, is that millions of Nigerians have no access to portable water. The rural areas are usually the worst hit by this problem. Even in urban areas, access to portable water is dwindling with negative consequences to many aspects of Nigerian life. However, the Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu has explained how the FG proposes to reform the sector to meet with the demands of Nigerians. He did this in a public presentation of the water sector road map. The road map is entitled ‘Immediate and Long-term Strategies for Water Sector- 2016-2030’ He stated that there were about 116 water projects currently ongoing in the country. However, these projects would require about 505.6 billion Naira to complete them. Some of these projects have been lying idle for over 15 years. This was because outstanding fees to contractors a...

Bonds are issued by governments and companies to raise money to finance their operations or for capital projects. When an investor buys a bond, the bond issuer promises periodic (annually or semi-annually) interest payments on the money invested at the coupon rate stated in the bond certificate. A coupon rate is the yield paid by a fixed-income security; a fixed-income security’s coupon rate is simply just the annual coupon payments paid by the issuer relative to the bond’s face or par value. The coupon rate is the yield the bond paid on its issue date. This yield changes as the value of the bond changes, thus giving the bond’s yield to maturity. The bond issuer pays interest annually until maturity, after which the issuer returns the principal amount (or face value). The coupon rate of a bond is calculated on the bond’s face value (par value). Example of how Coupon rates is determined: If you own a 10 year – N100,000 bond with a coupon rate of 10%, you will re...

The exchange rate rebounded on Friday to close at N308 at the official interbank market. The local currency gained about 5.2% reversing the N325 it closed with on Thursday. According to reports, the gains was mostly due to a sale of forex by the Central Bank of Nigeria providing enough liquidity to meet the demand currently in the market. The naira has closed at an all time low of N364 to the dollar on Thursday following a surge in demand. The central bank has been selling dollars almost daily to boost liquidity and support the naira. Join our BBM channel for instant updates : C0030863D

The Federal Government is about to spend about N60 billion ($180 million) more spending on capital projects as part of the 2016 budget in a bid to boost the economy, Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun said on Friday. Government capital spending so far has exceeded 400 billion naira this year, Adeosun said, despite the budget being held up for months by wrangling between President Muhammadu Buhari and parliament. The Government’s 2016 capital expenditure Budget is about N1.8 trillion However, with oil prices dropping, the government has struggled to fund the budget. It is now seeking advisers to manage a $1-billion eurobond it intends to offer this year. “We are going for another capital allocation meeting where we are going to allocate another 60 billion. We are pumping money into the economy at a very rapid rate,” Adeosun told reporters. Buhari on Thursday said the country needed to balance monetary and fiscal policies in order to return to growth. Adeosun said apa...

The official exchange rate hit an all time low on Thursday after it traded for about N365.25 to the dollar in a single interbank market trade of $1 million,  according to data from Reuters. According to Reuters, the Interbank trading started two hours after the market opened and offered the naira sharply lower against the dollar. A total of $13 million had been traded at the time of Reuters reporting. A look at the official closing rate displayed at the CBN’s website also showed that the exchange rate closed at a price of N325 the highest we have seen in the website of the CBN since the flexible exchange rate policy was introduced. Naira closed at about N321.5 on the website of the FMDQOTC and N347.25 according to Bloomberg’s data. Also, the CBN website also confirms Nigeria’s foreign reserves dipped to as low as $25.78 billion, the lowest in over 10 years (July 2005 to be precise). We reached out to analysts to understand what was going on. Early ...

Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserve fell to $25,780,765,483 (25.78 billion) as of August 16, the lowest we have seen since 2005. The drop was down 2.11% from a month ago. The Nations external reserves dropped below $26 billion for the first time on the 5th of August 2016 after it closed at about $25,971,610,949. In fact, the external reserves has dropped by about $480 million dollars in August alone compared to just $100 million in the whole of July. Ironically, the current balance of $25.9 billion is worth about 80% more than what it was in Naira following the depreciation of the naira after it was floated. The CBN has in the past few days ramped up sales of dollars at the interbank in the hope that it will create liquidity in a market that is yawning gape to swallow forex after nearly almost two years of intense rationing by the CBN. The Naira weakened to its lowest ever at the interbank after it closed at about N362.5/$1 in midday trading. The Naira will eventua...