The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said that macro-economic environment remains strong in Nigeria despite adverse conditions in the global economy and threat to security in the domestic economy. It noted that the global economy has, in the past few years, witnessed financial crisis characterised by rising debt profile worldwide. Tunde Lemo, the apex bank’s deputy governor, operations, who stated this in Abeokuta, Ogun State, at the Egba Economic Summit with the theme, ‘Leveraging Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) for Development: Prospects, Challenges and Opportunities’, noted that secretariesthe economy has seen over dependence on oil, inadequate infrastructure, high inflation, rising unemployment, huge import bills etc. A statement made available to BusinessDay quotes Lemo as saying that the development of MSMEs holds the key to structural transformation required to achieve the goals of Vision 20:2020. Continuing, he said, “MSMEs is the solution to the upward trend in unemployment in the country”, adding that MSMEs provide a platform for employment and wealth creation, reduction in poverty and rural-urban drift, arresting youth restiveness and crime.
Updated 6 Years ago

Foreign investors’ holding in the Federal Government Bonds has continued to grow, hitting $5.112billion as at the end of 2012 following the transformation of the market by the Debt Management Office (DMO). Prior to the establishment of DMO in 2000, debt management operations in Nigeria were undertaken in an uncoordinated fashion by various agencies of government leading to inefficiencies and less positive impact on the economy. However, through the transformation efforts of agency, the debt management system has improved leading to many benefits. And one of the benefits, according to Director-General of DMO, Dr. Abraham Nwankwo, is the increase in foreign exchange inflows that had led to growth in external reserves and stability of the naira through the participation of foreign investors in bond market. Nwankwo disclosed that as at the end of December 2012, foreign investors’ holding in FGN securities amounted to $5.112 billion, compared to about $500 million as at the beginning of 2012. He added that the share of foreign investors had been rising consistently moving from 1.66 per cent as at the end of 2011 to 10.26 per cent as at the end of 2012. This has improved to an average of 16.1 per cent and has been averaging 16.1 per cent between January and June 2013.
Updated 6 Years ago

The relentless drudgery of working nine 'til five is a common gripe all over the world, but according to a survey by recruitment website Monster.com, U.S. workers hate going to the office the most. The survey, which was sponsored by Monster.com and conducted by market research firm GfK, found that 15 percent of American workers said they disliked or hated their jobs. This was the highest level of job dissatisfaction among workers surveyed in seven countries. GfK interviewed 8,000 people as part of the survey over the telephone, including 1,007 respondents based in the U.S. For the countries profiled – Canada, France, Germany, India, Netherlands, UK and U.S. –respondents were asked to choose one of five options when asked how they felt about their jobs: love it, like it a lot, like it, don't like it, don't love it at all. Of the U.S. candidates, just over half said they liked or loved their jobs, while 31 percent said they were merely satisfied. However, despite having the highest level of dissatisfied workers, the U.S. also clocked the highest amount of workers who said they loved their jobs so much they would do it for free, at 22 percent. Canadians are the happiest workforce, according to the findings of the survey, with 64 percent liking or loving their jobs and only 7 percent saying they disliked or hated work. Other happier workforces included the Netherlands and India, where 57 percent and 55 percent of the respondents said they were happy in their jobs, respectively. India had the lowest level of respondents saying they hated their jobs, at 5 percent.
Updated 6 Years ago

A surge in car shipments spurred Japanese exports to their biggest annual increase in three years in October, suggesting a gradual pick up in global demand will help underwrite a sustainable recovery in the world's third-largest economy. The 18.6 percent increase in exports in the year to October blew past the median market forecast for a 16.5 percent rise and accelerated from a 11.5 percent gain in September, data by the Ministry of Finance showed on Wednesday. Significantly, exports also rebounded in volume terms, rising 4.4 percent from a year earlier, in a sign the global economy is gradually recovering mainly on strength in advanced nations. Sluggish exports have been a source of concern for policymakers as shipment volume has struggled to pick up despite a weak yen this year due to slowdown in emerging economies, which faced capital outflows on expectations the U.S. Federal Reserve would soon roll back its massive monetary stimulus. While the yen has fallen around 14 percent against the dollar in 2013, exports growth has largely disappointed early expectations. The Japanese economy has been humming along nicely this year on the back of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's massive monetary and fiscal expansionary policies, dubbed Abenomics. Still, headwinds from weak capital spending and depressed global demand have somewhat clouded the outlook. The October data should provide some relief for the government, which is hoping a recovery in overseas demand will cushion the blow from a sales tax hike next April, which could crimp private consumption "U.S. private-sector demand remains strong and European economies appear to be bottoming out. If advanced economies recover, Japanese exports can rise more," said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute in Tokyo.
Updated 6 Years ago

JPMorgan Chase & Co said it routinely overstated the quality of mortgages it was selling to investors, and it agreed to pay $13 billion to settle related charges with the U.S. government, federal officials said on Tuesday. The behavior that the largest U.S. bank admitted to, authorities said, is at the heart of what inflated the housing bubble: lenders making bad mortgages and selling them to investors who thought they were safe. When the loans started turning bad, investors lost faith in the banking system, and a housing crisis turned into a financial crisis. The civil settlement marks the end of weeks of tense negotiations between JPMorgan Chase, which is looking to move past the legal issues that have plagued it for more than a year, and the U.S. government, which is under pressure to hold banks accountable for behavior that led to the financial crisis. JPMorgan said it has set aside all the funds it needs to cover the settlement, meaning the deal will have no impact on its earnings. The deal resolves most of its mortgage issues with federal authorities, the bank said. JPMorgan's shares rose 0.7 percent to close at $56.15 on Tuesday. But even after the settlement, the bank faces at least nine other government probes, covering everything from its hiring practices in China to whether it manipulated the Libor benchmark interest rate. It may still also face criminal charges linked to mortgage matters. The bank said last month it had set aside $23 billion to cover litigation expenses. At issue in Tuesday's settlement was the long chain of parties between the original mortgage lender and the ultimate investor in the loan. Often smaller lenders would make a mortgage loan, and sell it to a bank, which would package loans into bonds, and in turn sell them to investors. This chain allowed capital to flow to loans that arguably should never have been made. "Without a doubt, the conduct uncovered in this investigation helped sow the seeds of the mortgage meltdown," said U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in a statement. The investors that bought these mortgage bonds demanded that the loans be of a particular quality. JPMorgan said the loans met the guidelines, but one of its employees said they did not, the bank admitted. Due diligence firms that reviewed some of those loans for JPMorgan in 2006 and 2007 said that 27 percent of them did not meet underwriting guidelines, but the bank still packaged at least half of those into mortgage securities, the government said.
Updated 6 Years ago

Finnish telecom company Nokia announced Tuesday that its shareholders had approved the 5.44 billion euro ($7.35 billion) sale of its mobile phone division to US software giant Microsoft. According to Nokia — which will now become a telecom equipment and services company — the deal was almost unanimously approved (99.7 percent) by shareholders who voted ahead of an extraordinary meeting in Helsinki. The “yes” vote was expected and analysts have judged the deal as positive for the ailing Finnish firm. Nokia’s share price has doubled since the plan was announced in early September with Microsoft agreeing to pay 5.44 billion euro ($7.35 billion) for the loss-making company’s mobile phone division. “It’s an excellent deal. It’s hard to imagine a better price for a division experiencing structural losses,” Pierre Ferragu, an analyst at the brokers Sanford Bernstein, told AFP. The sale of the assets, which include the Lumia smartphone trademark and technology, must take place in early 2014. Once the world leader in mobile phones, Nokia lost its top place to South Korea’s Samsung in 2012.
Updated 6 Years ago

The Central Bank of Nigeria has announced a tight monetary policy for the 2014 fiscal year, in a bid to check the excessive pressure on prices due to the 2015 general elections. The CBN Governor, Mr. Lamido Sanusi, who made the announcement on Tuesday in Abuja, said the decision was taken by the Monetary Policy Committee of the bank. The 12-member committee had met on Monday and Tuesday at the CBN headquarters to review the global and domestic economic environment from January to October 2013. It also re-assessed the short-to medium-term risks to inflation, domestic output and financial stability and the outlook for the rest of the year. The CBN governor said having considered the progress so far made this year in reducing inflation, the committee felt the outlook for 2014 would portend some challenges that could lead to further tightening in monetary conditions. He said, “It further noted the positive impact of monetary policy in engendering a stable exchange rate regime and attracting portfolio investment, thus driving the strong recovery of asset prices on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. “The outlook for 2014, however, portends some potential headwinds that may lead to further tightening in monetary conditions. It is also the year in which election spending is likely to take place domestically, thus bringing more pressure to bear from the fiscal side. “As a result, the MPC is of the view that we are not yet at the end of the tightening cycle and may need to tighten further in response to these eventualities next year.” The committee, Sanusi said, also noted that while the Federal Government’s overall spending in 2013 had not been significantly higher than in 2012, oil revenues had continued to decline in spite of the relative stability in oil price and output.
Updated 6 Years ago

Determined to tap into the huge business opportunities in the West Africa sub-region, the West African Insurers Companies Association (WAICA) says it will use its international educational Conference this year to promote investment opportunities in Africa, Nigeria as a focus. Secretary General of WAICA Mr. William Coker, said the conference with the theme: ‘An Integrated and Harmonized Insurance Industry in West Africa,’ will take place in Lagos, November 24 – 26. According to him, “The sub regional body is keying into the regional integration efforts of ECOWAS heads of government and insurance as a critical player in the economy must take its pride of place in the scheme of things”. “If we are promoting the concept of a global village, the insurance industry in the West African sub region needs to be seen as front runners in promoting efforts at regional integration. Charity must begin at home” he added. The three day educational Conference will feature papers which will be presented by two erudite scholars. According to the programme of events released by Mr. Rotimi Fashola, Chairman of Local Organizing Committee (LOC), Dr. Ibrahim Bocar BA, Commissioner, Macro-economic Policy, Ecowas, Abuja, will give the goodwill message while the Co-ordinating Minister of the economy and Honourable Minister of Finance, Dr. (Mrs.) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is expected to give the keynote address and declare the Conference open on Monday, November 25, 2013.
Updated 6 Years ago

Nigeria’s federal government has described recent statement by World Bank Country Director, Marie-Francoise Marie-Nelly that 100 million Nigerians are living in destitution or extreme poverty as “spurious claim” that “is astonishing on a number of levels.” In a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday, Dr. Nwanze Okidegbe, Chief Economic Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan said the claim contradicts the position of the World Bank on the level of poverty in Nigeria as declared by Bank’s Vice President for Africa, Makhtar Diop, in May 2013. The Chief Economic Adviser recalled that Diop had declared during the visit that the rate of poverty has fallen under President Jonathan administration from 48 per cent to 46 percent. “Given our current population of about 170 million people, the Country Director’s imagery of 100 million Nigerian destitutes seems to be based on a much higher poverty rate than that of her boss. The question that arises from this absurdity therefore is: who is right?,” queried Okidegbe.
Updated 6 Years ago

Standard Bank Securities (SBG Securities), a stock broking unit of Standard Bank Group, and Ünlü Securities, a division of Ünlü & Co of Turkey, will be collaborating on their equities research product to cover listed Turkish equities. “We firmly believe that to do this, SBG Securities has to attract and hire the best sector specialists to be able to provide our customers with new insights to make investment decisions,” said Marc Ter Mors, Standard Bank Group’s Global Head of Equity Research.
Updated 6 Years ago