Naira dips against dollar by -0.12%
Naira exchanged at N419.00 to the dollar at the Investors and Exporters window on Friday, a -0.12 per cent depreciation, compared to 418.50 to the dollar on Thursday.
The open indicative rate closed at N417.30 to the dollar on Friday.
An exchange rate of N444 to the dollar was the highest rate recorded within the day’s trading before it settled at N419.00.
The Naira sold for as low as 410 to the dollar within the day’s trading.
A total of 158.55 million dollars was traded in foreign exchange at the official Investors and Exporters window on Friday.
20 Pension Fund Administrators meet deadline for N5bn minimum capital – PenCom
Twenty Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) met PenCom’s deadline to increase their Minimum Regulatory Capital (shareholders’ fund) from N1 billion to N5 billion by April 27.
Pension Commission (PenCom) made the declaration in a statement it issued in Lagos on Friday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that in 2021, PenCom approved recapitalisation for PFAs, with a 12-month transition from April 27, 2021 to April 27, 2022.
The commission declared then that the recapitalisation was expedient as the value of pension fund assets under management and custody had grown exponentially.
The assets had grown by 244 per cent from N3 trillion in 2012 (when the previous recapitalisation was done), to N12.29 trillion (as at Dec. 31, 2020).
The sustained growth in assets implies greater fiduciary responsibilities that require more operational capacity by the PFAs.
There was also an urgent need to ramp up PFAs capacity to manage the increasing number of registered contributors and value of pension fund assets in their custody.
PenCom explained that 10 PFAs had met the new regulatory capital requirement of N5 billion as at Dec. 31, 2021, while the others intensified efforts to meet the April 27, 2022 deadline.
The commission stated that then exercise resulted in some mergers and acquisitions, which led to the reduction of the number of PFAs from 22 to 20.
“The commission approved the acquisition of AIICO Pension Managers Ltd. by FCMB Pensions Ltd. and the merger between Tangerine Pensions Ltd. and APT Pension Funds Managers Ltd.
“It also approved a subsequent change of name of the merged entities to Tangerine APT Pensions Limited.
“In addition, the commission approved Norrenberger’s acquisition of IEI-Anchor Pension Managers Ltd. after its acquisition of majority shareholding.
“With the conclusion of the recapitalisation, stakeholders, particularly Retirement Savings Accounts holders should expect increased effectiveness and efficiency as well as improved service delivery from PFAs,’’ PenCom stated.
Read also: Do organizations need to provide support to working mums post maternity leave?
Zuma mismanagement exposes questionable deals worth $924 million at Eskom
According to a judicial investigation, former South African President Jacob Zuma was alleged to have promoted the large-scale looting and mismanagement of Eskom, the state power company.
Bloomberg, reported that Chief Justice Raymond Zondo revealed that during the former president’s administration, the state power company, Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., entered into some back-door contracts worth 14.7 billion rand ($924 million), primarily to benefit members of the Gupta family, who were Zuma’s friends and were in business with one of the ex-president’s sons. It is believed that the revelation of the extent of government corruption will put additional pressure on the law enforcement agencies to take punitive action against individuals involved in one of the biggest economic crimes in South Africa.
Zondo said, “The evidence proves a scheme by the Guptas to capture Eskom, install the Guptas’ selected officials in strategic positions within Eskom as members of the board, the committees of the board and the executives, and then divert Eskom’s assets to the Guptas’ financial advantage,”
“Central to the Guptas’ scheme of state capture was President Zuma, whom the Guptas must have identified at a very early stage as somebody whose character was such that they could use him against the people of South Africa.” He added
Zondo suggested that state prosecutors file criminal charges against Eskom’s former CEOs Brian Molefe and Matshela Koko, as well as ex-Chief Financial Officer Anoj Singh and other members of the company’s 2014 board. He also recommended that state law-enforcement agencies carry out further investigations with the view of finding out if Zuma was culpable in the fraud.
Since the former president abruptly left office, Eskom, which is responsible for 90 percent of South Africa’s electricity, has been struggling to repair the damage caused by embezzlement of funds and incurred debt of over 400 billion rand.The state company is also dealing with poor funding coupled with obsolete infrastructure, making it difficult for it to meet its ever-growing customer demand.
Since the investigation started four years ago, dozens of witnesses have testified before Zondo about how Eskom entered into deals acquired with bribery and kickbacks and avoided procurement procedures. An investigation revealed that the Gupta brothers, who fled to Dubai soon before the ruling party forced Zuma out of government in 2018, were the biggest culprits in the crime.
Zondo said: “It is clear that from quite early in his first term, President Zuma would do anything that the Guptas wanted him to do for them.”
Eskom has promised to implement to the fullest the recommendations of Judicial panel and informed all that steps to recover money irregularly paid to suppliers were currently ongoing.
“We look forward to working with the National Prosecuting Authority to ensure that the miscreants speedily face criminal charges,” Chairman Malegapuru Makgoba said in a statement.
Canada stocks close negative
Losses in the industrial and technology sectors pushed the S&P/TSX down 1.7 percent to 20,762 basis points, compared to its previous close.
One of the major stocks responsible for the drop was NFI Group, which lost over 15 percent of its share value after the company said that earnings and sales have now been downgraded in 2022 due to supply shortages that have affected production.
Another firm responsible for this drop was auto parts manufacturer Magna International, which lost over 3.5 percent after lowering its full-year profit forecast, citing the impact the global semiconductor chip shortage and rising raw material costs have had on the company’s bottom line.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Canada predicts that the Canadian economy will grow by 3% this year.
Africa Finance Corp. plans infrastructure funding from London, UAE IPOs
The Nigerian banking group, Africa Finance Corp., has revealed that it plans to sell shares of its project, which is involved in renewables, ports, and industrial parks, on stock exchanges in the United Arab Emirates and London.
The company has stated that it plans to raise capital from would-be investors and invest in already identified infrastructure development projects across the African continent.
The group plans to offer this investment to investors through a public offering over the next three years, Bloomberg reported.
In an interview with Bloomberg, the bank’s CEO, Samaila Zubairu, said that some of the projects are yet to be valued following that assessment, was still ongoing.
He said, “We have developed what we call a platform strategy, which is something that allows us to pull assets that are similar in scale and then raise capital on their own balance sheet.”
“We are looking at how we can get additional sources of funding.” He added believing that the bank can get additional funding through this IPO for the already identified projects and those to come in the future.
The company, which has an impeccable track record of development financing and prudent management, has invested over $9.5 billion in the logistics, exploration, and power sectors in more than 30 countries across the African continent, Bloomberg revealed.
To address the continent’s electricity funding gap, the company has successfully invested in a 60-megawatt wind farm project in Djibouti and a 44-megawatt hydropower project in Cote d’Ivoire, amongst other infrastructure projects located in Ghana and Gabon.
