N-TIMZZYMEDIA BLOG

°The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday, intervened in inter-bank Foreign Exchange Market with the supply of 195 million dollars as part of effort to stabilise the market. CBN The acting Director, Corporate Communications of the apex bank, Mr Isaac Okorafor, in a statement, said 100 million dollars was offered through the wholesale segment. He said that Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) segment received 50 million dollars, while tuition fees, medical payments and Basic Travel Allowance (BTA), among others, got 45 million dollars. Okorafor said that the CBN was pleased with the state of the market, and assured that the bank would continue to intervene in order to sustain liquidity in the market and guarantee international value of the naira. He said the apex bank remained determined to achieve its objective of rates convergence, “hence the unrelenting injection of intervention funds into the foreign exchange market’’. Okorafor expressed optimism that the naira would sust...

THE contributions of Sterling Bank Plc to the growth of the Agriculture sector in the country has been recognised as the financial institution received the Agric Bank of the Year Award. The Bank was recognized at the third edition of the Nigeria Agriculture Awards held at Intercontinental Hotels, Victoria Island, Lagos last week Wednesday, attended by top government functionaries especially those in the agricultural and the banking sectors. The Award was received by Mrs. Bukola Awosanya, the Head of Agric Department of Sterling Bank. It will be recalled that Sterling Bank in 2015 won the Best Bank in Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS), a testimony of its soaring pedigree in the business of agriculture finance in the country. Same year, it received the Agriculture Bank of the Year Award. The award which was powered by the Agriculture Policy Research Network (APRNet) and Agro Nigeria Limited was conferred on the Bank in recognition of its critical role in the dispensing of...

SHAREHOLDERS of Fidelity Bank Plc have frowned at the high penalty fee imposed on banks for committing various offences by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, even as they approved the bank’s proposed N4.1 billion dividend for the financial year 2017. The shareholders, at the 29th Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Lagos approved the N4.1 billion dividend, which translated to 14 kobo per 50 kobo share and ratified all resolutions put before them at the meeting. Speaking, the shareholders’ associations’ leaders such as Mr. Boniface Okezie, Sir Sola Abodunrin, Mr. Alex Adio, Sir Sunny Nwosu and others commended the performance of the bank for the financial year under review, but tasked the board to declare interim dividend once the bank performs well in the first half of 2017. The shareholders also condemned the directive by the CBN for banks to set aside five per cent of their profit after tax for Export Fund, saying that the apex bank should not force the banks to do that ; rather ...

FOR one week running investors in the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, have remained bullish on the shares of United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) on the account of its impressive first quarter 2017 (Q1’17) results announcement previous week. Consequently, the bank’s stock ticked up about 18 percentage point increase in returns year-to-date (YtD), as the share price closed last weekend at N6.27, up from N5.50 pre-result announcement. YtD as at last weekend stood at 80.7%, one of the highest in the stock market. The bank released its unaudited Q1 2017 results, wherein gross earnings grew 37% year-on-year (y-o-y) with pre-tax profit expanding 41% y-o-y. The profit after tax, PAT, also grew by double-digit y-o-y (+62%) to N22.8 billion. The impressive results came on the backdrop of a 43% y-o-y growth in pre-provision profits to N72.6 billion. However, this indicated a significant spike in provision for loan losses by 489% y-o-y. But remarkably, brushing aside the spike in impairment charges...