Borno  State Governor, Prof. Umaru Zulum, has said plans are being concluded by governors from the North-East to establish a commercial airline for the region.Zulum who doubles as Chairman, North-East Governors’ Forum, made this disclosure on Friday while declaring its seventh meeting open.The ...

By James Emejo:The Consumer Price Index (CPI) which measures inflation rose to 20.52 per cent year on year in August compared to 17.01 per cent in the corresponding period in 2021,  the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Thursday.It said the 3.52 per cent rise indicated that the headline ...

By Deji Elumoye:The end appears to be in sight to the perennial scarcity of petroleum products across the country as the federal government yesterday gave an assurance that the rehabilitation work on the Port Harcourt Refinery would be completed for it to resume full production by December, ...

By Ndubuisi Francis and James EmejoPresident Muhammadu Buhari yesterday commended the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), alongside the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including other critical ...

By Sunday AborisadeThe Senate yesterday rejected the 2023-2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper(MTEF/FSP) which proposed a N6 trillion tax and import duties waivers proposed for in the N19.76 trillion 2023 budget which also contained a deficit of N12.4 trillion.The Upper ...

Nigeria has continued to waste the rare opportunity presented by the global rise in oil prices to grow its economy like other oil-producing countries, London-based The Economist has stated.While a surge in oil prices could do astonishing things, like in Saudi Arabia where a futuristic city was ...

By James Emejo:The federal government yesterday said it was working to improve the country’s earnings from cashew exports to about $4 billion annually.Nigeria currently generates about $450 million from the export of the commodity which had been described as too low for the country.Speaking at a ...

By Emmanuel Addeh:A report by Proshare, a market intelligence and data analytics firm, has said that oil theft persists in Nigeria because all the institutions of state lack the will and determination to end the menace.In the report which dived deep into the magnitude of crude oil theft in Nigeria, ...

The value of manufactured goods traded tumbled by 36 per cent from N4.51tn in the second quarter of 2021 to N2.87tn in the corresponding period of 2022, findings by The PUNCH have shown.This is according to the foreign trade report by the National Bureau of Statistics for the second quarter of the ...

FG Task NAIRAXI, Others On Interventions In Transport SystemBy Godson IkpontuFederal Government has charged Nigeria’s Indigenous tech-powered mobility company (NAIRAXI ) and other private sectors on the invention to deploy workable strategies aimed at tackling challenges of mass transit across the ...

By Deji Elumoye and Emmanuel Addeh:With Nigeria’s petrol subsidy bill skyrocketing in 2022, the estimates for the whole year would exceed the total expenditure by all the states of the federation in 2021, which was $9.8 billion, a new report by a member of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Economic ...

Nigeria’s underproduction of crude oil will persist as repair work on Forcados, a key oil terminal, will drag till the end of September, after months of halted flows contributed to hobbling the country’s supply performance in August.The repairs to a subsea hose have stopped exports of Forcados ...

By Omolabake Fasogbon:The Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administration of Nigeria (ICSAN), has said that it would address Nigeria’s increasing debt profile, with a view to proffering realistic solutions at its upcoming 46th National Conference. Vice President of the ICSAN, Mrs Funmi ...

By Tony ChukwunyemThe Federal Government expects the naira to weaken further over time even after the local currency showed signs of recovering from a record low on Thursday, Bloomberg reported the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, as saying yesterday.According to the ...

A total of N714.4 billion was generated from Company Income Tax (CIT) in the second quarter of 2022 a 29.53  per cent increase compared to N551.53 billion generated in the first three months of the year. Most of the income came from the manufacturing, financial services and information technology ...

By Don Silas The Naira on Friday lost slightly to the dollar, exchanging at N436.33 compared with N436.32 on Thursday.The open indicative rate closed at N433.83 to the dollar on Friday.An exchange rate of N437 to the dollar was the highest rate recorded within the day’s trading before it settled at ...

LAGOS-Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams on Friday said the issue of crude oil theft in the country would have been significantly reduced if the Federal government had not terminated the pipeline sur­veillance contract it had with the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) and some security ...

President Muhammadu Buhari says crude oil theft must be addressed.He made this statement during the inauguration of the Presidential Committee on National Economy which he inaugurated in his office on Friday.Acknowledging the impact of the menace on the nation’s revenue exchange, the President ...

Oil workers in Nigeria yesterday declared that they would begin nationwide rallies today in protest against the current massive theft of the country’s crude oil and destruction of oil assets, in a bid to force government to act and halt the menace.Coming under the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior ...

Many fillings stations were shut on Tuesday leading to lengthy queues by motorists for Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, at the few outlets that dispensed the commodity in Abuja and neighbouring states.Petrol scarcity resumed again in the Federal Capital Territory and environs on ...

Contrary to the present practice where Nigeria depends on operators for production data to determine daily volume and oil earnings, the Federal Government, through the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), yesterday, said it would commence the installation of its own flow ...

Two weeks after suspension of the nationwide strike by electricity workers that threw the nation into blackout, indications have emerged of a fresh looming strike over alleged unwillingness of government to resolve issues of unpaid entitlements to former workers of the defunct Power Holding Company ...

The e-valuation policy of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has been described as suffocating and retrogressive to both the vehicle dealers and the Nigerian economy.President, Association of Motor Dealers of Nigeria (AMDON), Prince Ajibola Adedoyin, who made this known during a media briefing  at ...

The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has decried Nigeria’s continued importation of petroleum products despite being one of the largest producers of crude oil in the world.The governor made the submission while speaking with journalists at Ewohimi, Esan South East Local Government Area of ...

The Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, is expected to lead stakeholders in the agricultural sector to discuss sustainable ways to boost the cocoa industry value chain in the country at the 2022 National Cocoa Festival.The festival is organised by the Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria, in ...

Economic activities in the manufacturing sector of the Nigerian economy experienced a fall in output levels in August as the productivity of the Nigerian private sector reduced marginally during the month when compared to the preceding month, a new report has revealed.The new report by the Stanbic ...

The Director-General of the Debt Management Office (DMO), Mrs. Patience Oniha yesterday confirmed that Nigeria’s total debt profile as at March, 2022 stood at N41.60 trillion.Oniha said this during her appearance at the ongoing engagement on the 2023 – 2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) ...

 In Nigeria, high inflation has  been one of the major challenges facing the nation’s economy. During an inflationary period, the domestic currency finds it difficult to act as a medium of exchange and a store of value without adversely affecting output level, income distribution and employment ...

Whenever I think of Lagos as a whole,series of things like the crowded people, open gutters, littered streets, poor drainage systems, stench saluting our nostrils,passenger buses painted yellow with black stripes around it.Place of crime and all forms of atrocities,a place where one comes to hustle ...

A big hope for Nigerians.NNPC's GCEO confirmed that the Dangote refinery - which is billed to resume in 2023 - and other state-owned refineries will help end the importation of petroleum products.Mele Kyari said: "If that happens and we are very optimistic it will happen, you would see that this ...

The Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mallam Mele Kyari, yesterday said the country would end importation of petroleum products by June 2023.He also said the Lagos-based 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Refinery under construction would ...

 Nigeria overtakes Egypt as the largest producer of rice in Africa

Katsina State Deputy Governor, Alhaji Mannir Yakubu, says the federal government has released N6.25 billion for the establishment of cattle ranches in local government areas affected by banditry in the state.Yakubu, also Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, disclosed this during the ...

By Funmilayo Fabunmi  A former Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Dr. Harold Demuren, has urged the Federal Government to allow first-class and business-class passengers to buy tickets in dollars, while passengers in economy class can pay in naira.Demuren proposed this as a ...

By Sami Tunji  The foreign exchange and fuel crises that have plagued the aviation sector seem to have led to a decline in the sector’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product by 61.47 per cent.The nominal GDP output of the sector crashed from N84.73bn in the first quarter of 2022 to N32.65bn by ...

   Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida Saturday pledged $30 billion over three years for Africa in a virtual address to a development conference in Tunis aiming to counter China’s growing continental influence.The eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD8) takes place ...

By Agency Report The National Bureau of Statistics says Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product grew by 3.54 per cent in the second quarter of 2022 on a year-on-year basis.This is contained in a statement issued by the Statistician-General of the Federation and Chief Executive Officer, National Bureau of ...

By Nike Popoola Aggregate foreign exchange inflows into the economy fell by 17.3 per cent to $6.58bn in April.The Central Bank of Nigeria disclosed this in its April monthly report on foreign exchange flows through the economy.It stated that, “The economy recorded a lower net foreign exchange ...

By OpeOluwani AkintayoDifferent government security outfits operating across the country have recovered stolen oil worth N86.2bn in August, according to The Punch’s findings.A total of 16, 000 litres of diesel valued at N800/litre (N12.8m) were on Monday reported to have been recovered by members ...

The Naira on Tuesday further depreciated against the dollar at the Investors and Exporters window, exchanging at N430.67.The figure represented a decrease of 0.29 per cent, compared with N429.43 it exchanged for the dollar on Monday.The open indicative rate closed at N429.09 to the dollar on ...

By Abdul SeyeThe holiday period has presented a temporary relief for parents with children in school as they will not have to deal with school runs and the attendant cost of prices of goods and services with students on holiday.However, this relief may be short lived in a couple of weeks as parents ...

By Deborah Tolu-Kolawole, Sami Olatunji and Damilola Aina • FG budgets N4tn for education in seven years, sector loses 837 days to strike• Education underfunded, FG may borrow to fund sector, economists warnThe Federal Government spent nothing less than N13.17tn between 2016 and March 2022 under ...

By John Owen NwachukwuHuman Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA) on Saturday, slammed the Presidency over comments that Chinese loans have helped to build infrastructure in Nigeria.HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a statement, said the South-East has been ...

By Sami Tunji The Federal Government’s total borrowing from the Central Bank of Nigeria through Ways and Means Advances rose from N17.46tn in December 2021 to N19.91tn in June 2022.According to data from the CBN, this shows that the Federal Government borrowed N2.45tn from the apex bank within six ...

By Temitayo Jaiyeola Budget deficit has risen to at least N30.58tn in the last seven years.This is according to data from budget implementation reports for the third and fourth quarters of 2015; the four quarters of 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020; the first three quarters of 2021; and the first four ...

•Unveils guidelines for HOSCOM fund •It’s a great day for local players, awardees By Obas Esiedesa, ABUJA Fifty-seven oil fields located onshore and swamps of the Niger Delta were yesterday handed over to local oil companies by the Federal Government, with a charge on them to quickly develop ...

Okechukwu Nnodim Operators in the oil and gas sector as well as other stakeholders are uncomfortable with the continued rise in the amount spent in subsidising Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, as it jumped to N947.51bn between January and April 2022. An analysis of data ...

By Babajide Komolafe Banks and other financial institutions excluding insurance, contributed N696.87 billion  to the nation’s real Gross Domestic Product, GDP,  in first quarter of 2021 (Q1’21), up by 3.35 per cent from N555.57 billion in the corresponding period of 2021 (Q1’21). The National ...

The Naira depreciated against the dollar at the Investors and Exporters window on Friday as it exchanged at N419.75 to the dollar, a 0.06 per cent depreciation, compared to N419.50 to the dollar on Thursday. The open indicative rate closed at N419.70 to the dollar. An exchange rate of N444.00 ...