Why Nigeria Needs $2Billion World Bank Loan – Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Coordinating minister for the economy and minister of finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has rationalized a new $2 billion loan from the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Announcing this in an interactive session with journalists in Abuja, Okonjo-Iweala, the loan was part of the approved 2012-2015 external borrowing plan of the federal government and was in line with its efforts to strengthen the naira.

“We have entered negotiations with international financial institutions, specifically, the African Development Bank and World Bank. You know they have some resources for us already programmed, which is in the borrowing plan,” she said.

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Total's Nigeria says 2014 pretax profit down 32 pct

 

Nigerian fuel retailer Total said its 2014 pretax profit fell to 31.6 percent to 5.5 billion naira ($27.9 mln), compared with a year ago.


Revenues rose to 240.6 billion naira during the period to December 31, against 238.16 billion naira last year, the unit of French oil company Total said in a statement.

The firm said it would pay a dividend of 9 naira each, unchanged from last year.

Shell reopens Nigeria's Nembe Creek oil pipeline

Royal Dutch Shell reopened the Nembe Creek oil pipeline on Thursday after planned maintenance, a Shell spokeswoman said in an email.


Shell said on March 19 it had closed the pipeline, which carries Nigeria's Bonny Light crude, for "short term" engineering work.

There was no indication that the work affected exports of Bonny Light, one of the larger crude streams from Africa's top producer.

South Africa's Eskom halts work at strike-hit power station

South Africa's Eskom said striking workers had destroyed property at the Medupi power plant it is building, the state-owned group closing the site on Thursday to assess the damage.

Labour disruption and technical faults have increased costs at the long-delayed Medupi coal plant, expected to start generating 800 megawatts of extra electricity by July. It would become South Africa's first new power station to come online in 20 years and help to address a chronic supply shortage.

About 21,000 contract workers went on a one-day strike on Wednesday over poor living conditions and seeking higher pay.

Eskom is facing a leadership crisis after four of its most senior executives were suspended, including the chief executive. Sources say the company's chairman Zola Tsotsi could face a vote of no confidence.

Sterling Bank declares N103.7b gross earnings in 2014

 

Sterling Bank Plc has announced N103.7 billion as its gross earnings for the financial year ended December 31, 2014. The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the amount is 13 per cent higher than the N91.6 billion it declared in 2013. The figure was contained in the company’s audited result released by the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Wednesday in Lagos. The bank’s profit before tax rose by 15.4 per cent to N10.7 billion against N7.5 billion posted in the preceding period of 2013. Also, its net interest income rose by 20.1 per cent to N43.0 billion in contrast to N35.8 billion recorded in 2013. The bank’s cost of funds dropped to 5.3 per cent from 6.1 per cent declared in 2013. Similarly, the non-interest income grew by 18.3 per cent to N25.7 billion against N21.8 billion in 2013.

Culled from: The Eagle Online

Sterling Bank Plc has announced N103.7 billion as its gross earnings for the financial year ended December 31, 2014. The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the amount is 13 per cent higher than the N91.6 billion it declared in 2013. The figure was contained in the company’s audited result released by the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Wednesday in Lagos. The bank’s profit before tax rose by 15.4 per cent to N10.7 billion against N7.5 billion posted in the preceding period of 2013. Also, its net interest income rose by 20.1 per cent to N43.0 billion in contrast to N35.8 billion recorded in 2013. The bank’s cost of funds dropped to 5.3 per cent from 6.1 per cent declared in 2013. Similarly, the non-interest income grew by 18.3 per cent to N25.7 billion against N21.8 billion in 2013.

Culled from: The Eagle Online

Sterling Bank Plc has announced N103.7 billion as its gross earnings for the financial year ended December 31, 2014. The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the amount is 13 per cent higher than the N91.6 billion it declared in 2013.

The figure was contained in the company’s audited result released by the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Wednesday in Lagos.

The bank’s profit before tax rose by 15.4 per cent to N10.7 billion against N7.5 billion posted in the preceding period of 2013. Also, its net interest income rose by 20.1 per cent to N43.0 billion in contrast to N35.8 billion recorded in 2013.

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UBA 2014 pretax profit up marginally

Nigeria's United Bank for Africa (UBA) said on Thursday its 2014 pretax profit rose marginally by 0.26 percent to 56.20 billion naira ($282 million) compared with a year ago.

It said revenue rose to 290 billion naira in the period to December 31, up from 264.68 billion naira a year ago.

UBA cut its 2014 dividend payment to 0.10 naira per share, down from 0.50 naira it paid a year earlier.

Shell completes $1.7bn sale of onshore assets in Nigeria

Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary has closed a $1.7bn sale of oil mining lease (OML) 29 and Nembe Creek Trunk Line, a week after it completed divestment in OML 18.

Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) sold OML 29, the Nembe Creek Trunk Line and related facilities in the Eastern Niger Delta to Aiteo Eastern E&P.

Covering an area of 983km2, OML 29 includes the Nembe, Santa Barbara and Okoroba fields.

The 100km long Nembe Creek Trunk Line was commissioned in 2010. It evacuates crude to the Bonny Crude Oil Terminal (BCOT) at the rate of 600,000 barrels per day.

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Skye Bank Issues N100 Billion Commercial Paper

NIGERIA'S next mega bank, Skye Bank has today signed an agreement with StanbicIBTC Bank and Financial Market Dealers Quotation System (FMDQ) to issue N100billion in commercial paper to increase its ability to do more transactions.

The first tranche of the transaction is in the size of N20b, which opens on March 23rd and closes on March 27th, 2015.

Speaking to newsmen on the transaction, Skye Bank GMD/CEO, Timothy Oguntayo, says Skye Bank is taking advantage of the Commercial Paper window to expand the number of instruments on its Balance Sheet.

According to him, the bank is driven "to take advantage of this programme to increase awareness of the availability of this innovative product in the market place and to help them acquire investments that are tradable without suffering penalty".

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2015 Budget: Nigeria Approaches AfDB, World Bank for $2bn Loan

Following a dwindling revenue and unfavourable economic conditions, Nigeria has approached the World Bank and the African Development Bank for a $2bn loan to finance its 2015 fiscal year budget.

According to Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said yesterday Nigeria has now advanced negotiations with both banks for the loan which will enable it implement its N4. 4 trillion 2015 budget.
The loans are soft, coming at reasonable conditions of 3 to 4 percent interest rate, five years moratorium and over 25 years repayment period.

The terms have not been agreed completely but “these are the standard terms for us at this time,” she said in Abuja.

The loan will be disbursed in two tranches and according to her, is already captured in the government’s present borrowing plan.

The loan will come in foreign exchange through the Central Bank of Nigeria and is expected to bring in some needed foreign exchange that can be available also for the private sector, especially manufacturers.

Nigeria's Dangote Cement 2014 profit falls, cuts dividend

 

Nigeria's Dangote Cement said on Thursday its 2014 pretax profit fell to 184.68 billion naira ($928 million), from 190.76 billion naira a year earlier.

Revenues rose to 391.63 billion naira during the period to December 31, compared with 386.17 billion naira the previous year, Nigeria's biggest firm by market capitalisation said in a statement.

The cement firm, majority owned by Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote, cut its dividend payment for 2014 to 6 naira per share, from the 7 naira it paid a year earlier.

Nigeria's Bonny Light Under Pressure of Crude Oil Price Decline

NIGERIA's crude oil grade, bonny light is under pressure of price decline and insufficient export, due to force majeure regularly declared by Nigerian oil companies as a result of vandalism.

Besides, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, has sold Oil Mining lease (OML) 29 and the Nembe Creek Trunk Line (OML29 and NCTL) and related facilities in the Eastern Niger Delta for $1.7 billion.

The company said in a statement yesterday, that its interests in OML 29 and the Nembe Creek Trunk Line were assigned to Aiteo Eastern E&P Company Limited.

The price of Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) basket of twelve crudes, including Nigeria's bonny light has dropped to $50.92 a barrel on Tuesday, compared with $83.50, $80.42 and $63.28 per barrel it recorded in October, November and December last year.

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Julius Berger Nigeria 2014 pretax profit falls 19 pct, pays dividend

 

Nigerian construction company Julius Berger said on Tuesday its 2014 full-year pretax profit fell 19 percent to 13.13 billion naira ($66 million).



Turnover fell to 196.81 billion naira compared with 212.73 billion naira a year ago, the firm said in a statement, adding it would pay a dividend of 2.7 naira, unchanged from a year ago.

Nigeria holds rates at 13 pct, worried by economic growth outlook

Nigeria's central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 13 percent as expected on Tuesday, saying tight monetary policy should offset the inflationary effects of elevated spending ahead of a March 28 election.

Governor Godwin Emefiele said the Monetary Policy Committee was also satisfied with the bank's attempts to stabilise the naira, which has come under major pressure in the last six months due to the collapse in oil prices.

The currency has dropped from around 165 to the dollar a year ago to 198 this week, but spiked as low as 206 in the interbank market last month and is trading weaker than 220 in the black markets on the streets of Lagos and Abuja.

The weakness of the currency in Africa's top economy has fuelled the illegal use of dollars in day-to-day domestic transactions, such as paying rent or school fees, Emefiele said, adding that action would be taken against transgressors.