The National Assembly has revealed plans to increase its present total allocation for the health sector in the 2017 budget from N304billion (4.17% of total budget) to N1.1trillion. This increase falls in line with the 2001 Abuja Declaration, which recommends that a minimum 15% of total annual budgets be dedicated to the health sector. “There shall be increased appropriation by the National...

MTN Group is expected to report a full-year loss for the 2016 financial year mainly due to a $1 billion regulatory fine imposed on it by Nigerian authorities, after refusing to deactivate 5.1 million unregistered users. According to the company, the fine has cut off 474 cents from headline earnings per share. MTN’s shares had declined by 2.18% at 115.16 rand the lowest since December....

The Federal government has revealed plans to start using railway waggons to transport food items as part of measures to reduce the prices of food items across the country. This is coming after the Federal Executive Council last week set up a task force to advise the government on how best to address the rising cost of food items. According to the Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, the task...

The Federal Government of Nigeria is working on a policy under which $50 million will be set aside to fund and encourage investment in the production of biofuels in the country. Deputy Director of the Research Department at the CBN, Lawrence Odey, who spoke on behalf of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), disclosed this in Abuja at the National Capacity Building and Sensitization Workshop on...

Nigerian’s parliament has approved the issuance of a $1bn Eurobond to finance the nation’s budget deficit and infrastructure projects. This was announced on Feb 8 by the Senate spokesperson, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi (photo). “... the only request for approval from the executive was ... for the issuance of $1 billion Eurobond ... for the funding of the 2016 budget deficit, and we...

Efforts by Nigerian government to curb attacks on oil facilities by militants in the Niger Delta region have not yet been able to boost the country’s oil output to the level it is hoping to achieve. Peace process by the government has only been able to reduce the frequency of attacks in the region but the country’s third largest export terminal, Forcados, is still closed and shipments have...

The FINACTU Group is actively assisting the ATLANTIC Group in the acquisition of the Beninese life-insurance company ARGG and in obtaining a new accreditation for non-life insurance in Benin. As part of its long-term technical assistance mission carried out for the ATLANTIC Group since 2014, FINACTU had the honor of being mandated to conduct the acquisition process of the company...

The Government of Lagos State has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Paynesville, a city in Liberia, to facilitate information sharing on resilience in both cities, with the aim of achieving economic development. The state governor, Akinwunmi Ambode (photo), declared this after receiving a Lagos Certificate of Admission as one of the 100 Resilient Cities in the world (an...

The Federal Government of Nigeria has approved N650 billion ($2billion) for social and infrastructural development programmes in the country, the Minister of State for budget and planning, Zainab Ahmed (photo) has revealed. According to Ahmed, the fund falls under the 2017 budget which aims to restore the recession-hit economy. She added that the budget identified several challenges in 2016...

The Federal Government of Nigeria plans to reduce the importation of petroleum products by 60% by 2019, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Emmanuel Kachikwu (photo), revealed on Tuesday. He said the government aims to achieve this goal by creating an enabling environment that would promote local refining of crude. “We are looking at modular refineries, about 60 licences were given...