Market hits new high as Seplat, Cadbury, others gain
Nigeria’s equities market continued its northward movement on Thursday as investors bought shares of Seplat Energy, CAP, Cadbury and others.
Seplat shares rose most by 9.09percent or N100, from N1,100 to N1,200, followed by CAP which moved up from N19.95 to N21.90, adding N1.95 or 9.77percent; and Cadbury which moved from day-open low of N8.50 to N9.35, adding 85kobo or 10percent.
The market increased by 0.55 percent or N143billion. The market’s positive return year-to-date (YtD) increased to 14.33percent.
At the close of trading session on Thursday, the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) and Market Capitalisation increased from 48,571.75 points and N26.185trillion respectively to 48,837.76 points and N26.328trillion.
In 5,032 deals, investors exchanged 759,648,190 shares valued at N5.536billion. FCMB, Transcorp, Honeywell, Flour Mills Nigeria Plc and AIICO were actively traded stocks on the Bourse on Thursday.
Monday, Tuesday declared public holidays by FG
To celebrate Workers’ Day and Eid-el-Fitr, the Federal Government of Nigeria has declared May 2 and 3 as public holidays.
This announcement was made on Thursday by the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, through a statement presented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Interior, Shuaib Belgore.
The minister used the opportunity to praise the Nigerian worker for his commitment and dedication to building a productive work environment. He encouraged them to raise the bar in their profession as a way to not only drive up good governance but provide a good template for workers on the African continent to emulate.
The minister’s statement read, “Labour is the very essence of humanity. We are alive because we work, and only the dead are incapable of working.
I, therefore, enjoin workers to imbibe the culture of productivity. Workers are also urged to raise the bar of their trade in line with the President, Muhammadu Buhari-led administration’s drive to rev up the vehicle of governance and make all the people of Nigeria derive maximum benefit from the nation. The end of work is productivity. It is productivity that leads to the satisfactory provision of goods and services and wealth creation. It is therefore the path to national and individual prosperity.”
To also commemorate the end of the Muslim Ramadan fast, Aregbesola first congratulated them for completing the fast. He also appreciated them for following the preaching of the Holy Prophet Muhammed. He also used the chance to remind Nigerians that the federal government was making frantic efforts to tackle the security challenges currently ravaging the entire country.
“The minister expresses confidence that the security challenges in some parts of the country will soon be a thing of the past, noting that the government is putting determined efforts and all necessary measures in place for Nigerians to enjoy unfettered peace all round.
“Aregbesola assured Nigerians that the Buhari regime was fully committed to the security of life and property of every citizen and foreigners alike, urging Nigerians to be part of the nation’s security architecture by being vigilant and reporting suspicious individuals and activities to law enforcement agencies. ” The statement concluded.
Adesina lays out steps for collective global path on infrastructure financing
Akinwumi Adesina, President, African Development Bank (AfDB), laid out eight very important steps as a pathway to infrastructure funding in Africa.
He made his opinion known during a just-concluded virtual meeting moderated by the U.S. Assistant Secretary for International Trade and Development, Alexia Latortue, and co-chaired by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on behalf of the President Joe Biden administration and titled “Building Back a Better World Plan”. Also in attendance were the G-7 ministers and heads of multilateral development banks.
Before he outlined the steps, he used the opportunity to commend Secretary Yellen and the Biden Administration for drumming up development resources needed to expand infrastructure financing on the continent.
As reported by the African Development Bank, he informed participants that the bank has spent more than $44 billion to provide critical infrastructure across the continents in the last six years.
Areas that have been touched by the bank include transport, energy, water, and sanitation, he said.
The eight areas he pointed out were project preparation, mobilization of institutional investors, committing public finance to infrastructure, attracting more private sector investment, mobilizing financing for green infrastructure, dealing with risk, stretching the balance sheet of multilateral development banks, and finally enabling local currency for infrastructure financing.
However, he admitted that the continent still needed around USD68 billion and USD108 billion to close the infrastructure funding gap.
Read also: Six things Nigerians pay more for since Russia-Ukraine war started
War in Ukraine pushes public debt ratios to 20-year high in Africa
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that the ongoing war in Ukraine between Russia and Ukraine has driven Africa’s public debt ratio to its highest level in 20 years.
Bloomberg reported that the IMF attributed the continent’s growing debt profile and fiscal imbalance to rising commodity prices, fueled primarily by disruptions to food and energy exports from Russia and Ukraine.
The IMF believes that a prolonged war in Ukraine will drive inflation higher following an increase in fertiliser and energy costs.
The organisation believes that most countries are finding it difficult to accommodate the external shocks that the shortages resulting from the war are causing.
The fund had to downgrade the continent’s economic growth forecast from an estimated 4.5 percent in 2021 to 3.8 percent, owing largely to the war and its attendant effects.
A senior official of the IMF Africa department expressed concern over the worsening debt situation on the continent. He believed that even before the Russia-Ukraine war, the Covid-19 pandemic had played a major role in driving the continent’s debt profile.
Abebe Aemro Selassie, the fund’s African representative, believes that 20 countries are in a serious debt crisis, with six of them in debt distress with an elated chance of default in loan payment.
Selassie believes that this time around, debt renegotiation for distressed countries will be a difficult task as China and a “growing pool of private investors” are the holders of the continent’s debt.
He revealed that Sub-Saharan African countries’ external public debt to private agencies and domestic government debt have increased by exactly 11 percent of GDP in 2020, up from 4 percent in 2010 and 30 percent, respectively.
The fund attributed the continent’s current debt situation to an over-reliance on foreign loans, especially Chinese loans, and a depreciating exchange rate system.
The 2010 Arab Spring is a painful reminder of what rising food and energy prices, unemployment, and social tension can result in if not quickly taken care of.
Selassie believes that higher food prices will add to food insecurity and social tension given that food accounts for about 40% of consumer spending in sub-Saharan Africa.
New Omicron sublineages BA.4, BA.5, likely evade vaccines, natural immunity
There are fears that a new omicron variant likely to evade vaccines and natural immunity may be upon us.
This information was made available to Bloomberg by Tulio de Oliveira, a South African scientist who is the head of a gene sequencing unit that produced the study on the strains.
Oliveira said that the new variant-“BA.4 and BA.5 sublineages appear to be more infectious than the earlier BA.2 lineage, which itself was more infectious than the original omicron variant,”
The verdict out there is that the new variant is quite capable of evading the body’s defences and has the potential to create another pandemic despite the fact that most South Africans have been vaccinated.
The scientist alerted the scientific community about this new variant, informing them that mutations in the lineages allow the virus to evade immunity. “We expect that it can cause reinfections and it can break through some vaccines, because that’s the only way something can grow in South Africa, where we estimate that more than 90% of the population has a level of immune protection.” Tulio de Oliveira said.
According to further investigation by de Oliveira, over 70 percent of new coronavirus cases are associated with the new Omicron sublineages.
On his Twitter handle, he said, “Our main scenario for Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 is that it increases infections, but that does not translate into large hospitalizations and deaths.”
The new sublineages have already been detected in seven of South Africa’s nine provinces and 20 countries worldwide, Bloomberg reported.
