As the Ministry of Aviation proceeds with plans to set up a national carrier that would operate international, regional and domestic services, it has emerged that Aero Contractors has been designated the nation’s flag carrier. It was gathered that the decision to designate Aero Contractors as the national carrier was supposed to have been announced during the October 1 national broadcast to mark Nigeria’s Independence by President Goodluck Jonathan, but it was deferred for another date. As a national carrier, Aero Contractors is expected to enjoy preferential rights or privileges accorded by the federal government for international operations.
Updated 6 Years ago

Julius Berger, Stanbic IBTC and Lafarge Cement WAPCO outperformed other large capitalised stocks on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in the third quarter (Q3) ending September 30, 2013, BusinessDay trend watch has shown. Performance indicators at the Nigerian bourse showed that Julius Berger opened the year 2013 with a share price of N34.65 kobo which rose to N76.99 kobo after nine months, thereby outperforming other large cap stocks with a 122.19 percent level of price appreciation.
Updated 6 Years ago

Italian football club Inter Milan has become the latest European club to be taken over by foreign investors. A trio of Indonesian businessmen led by media tycoon Erick Thohir have bought a 70% stake in the club. The club did not disclose the value of deal, but various reports estimated it to be between 250m - 300m euros ($340m; £210m - $405m; £250m).
Updated 6 Years ago

A total of 40,093 workers of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria have been cleared to receive their terminal benefits preparatory to the handover of 14 PHCN successor companies to private sector investors. The Director-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises, Mr. Benjamin Dikki, said this in a statement made available to our correspondent in Abuja on Sunday by the agency’s Head, Public Communications, Mr. Chigbo Anichebe.
Updated 6 Years ago

The race was not meant for the lily-livered investor companies. Only the courageous were expected to take a plunge into it. And courage here, under the President Goodluck Jonathan administration, is determined by the emplacement of, and adherence to due process. The Federal Government, through the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE), set the ground rules for the privatization of the 15 Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) successor (generation and distribution) companies.
Updated 6 Years ago

"I don't understand. Why is it that the media only seems to talk about Africa when bad things happen?" Continue reading the main story The man behind the counter at my hotel in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, was talking to me about my job, and why I was visiting. He looked genuinely pained. He told me he is a big fan of the BBC - in west Africa the World Service and language services have a big following - but it seemed to him that the media outside the continent often only noticed when bad things happened.
Updated 6 Years ago

The minister of Petroleum Resources Diezani Allison- Madueke has said the amount of the annual subsidy expended has been reduced by 59.05 per cent to N850 Billion. The Minister said in a statement at the weekend that the quantity of PMS consumed per day has also reduced by 34.17 percent to 39.66 million litres. “As at December 2012, the Nation had spent N5.27 trillion on products subsidy since the commencement of the Scheme in 2006. But the comprehensive reform programme put in place under her leadership as the Honourable Minister of Petroleum Resources, yielded outstanding results as the amount of annual subsidy expended was reduced by 59.05 percent to N850 Billion, while the quantity of PMS consumed per day was reduced by 34.17 percent to 39.66 million litres.”
Updated 6 Years ago

The Nigerian pension fund assets is being anticipated to grow to N10 trillion by December 2014 following expected increase in the return on investment by Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs). Mr. Abayomi Sanya, Chairman, Organising Committee of Stockbrokers Annual Conference disclosed this, weekend at a press briefing in Lagos, saying that pension funds which is being anticipated to grow to N10 trillion by December 2014 should not be allowed to lie idle in the banks as such fund could be used to finance the infrastructural needs of the country.
Updated 6 Years ago

US banking giant JP Morgan is set for a record $13bn (£8bn) fine to settle investigations into its mortgage-backed securities, US media reports have said. A tentative deal is believed to have been reached in talks with senior US Justice Department officials. The fine relates to the sale of securities based on home loans, which led to the near-collapse of the banking system in 2007.
Updated 6 Years ago

Choking smog all but shut down one of northeastern China's largest cities on Monday, forcing schools to suspended classes, snarling traffic and closing the airport, in the country's first major air pollution crisis of the winter. An index measuring PM2.5, or particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5), reached a reading of 1,000 in some parts of Harbin, the gritty capital of northeastern Heilongjiang province and home to some 11 million people.
Updated 6 Years ago