Category: Equities

Customers of First City Monument Bank (FCMB) across Nigeria are set to enjoy another phase of reward and financial empowerment  as the bank rolls out Season 7 of its bumper promotion package tagged, ‘’FCMB Millionaire Promo’’.

This follows the huge success recorded and the positive impact of previous editions of the promo since it commenced in 2013.

The ‘’FCMB Millionaire Promo Season 7’’, which will run from March to October, will produce another set of 16 lucky customers of the Bank as millionaires through winnings of cash ranging from N1million to N2million.

In addition, 152 LED televisions, 152 power generating sets, 912 smart phones and 760 decoders, are to be won. The winners will emerge through electronic selection of all qualified customers at bi-monthly zonal and regional draws to be held in May, July, September and November this year.

The ‘’FCMB Millionaire Promo Season 7’’ is designed to provide extra empowerment, reward and value for customers of the Bank, while encouraging financial inclusion and savings culture.

The promo is targeted at all segments of the society, especially existing and potential savings account customers of the Bank. This, however, excludes salary and domiciliary account holders.

Speaking on the ‘’Millionaire Promo Season 7’’, the Executive Director, Retail Banking, FCMB, Mr. Olu Akanmu, said: “The FCMB Millionaire promo is unique.

The promotion is decentralised to the nineteen zones of the Bank nationwide, increasing the spread of wins across several states in Nigeria. We reward the aspiration of our customers to save and fulfil their dreams.’’

Each year on International Women’s Month, corporate organisations around the world join activists and advocates to contemplate the place of women in contemporary life and what roles everyone must play in ensuring women are more represented in public spaces. It is a time for much celebration and introspection, and hopefully lasting solutions.

With all the activity around #IWD, it can become easy to lose sight of the real challenge we are trying to shed light on. Are we going to stop advancing conversations around equality for all? This year’s campaign theme for International Women’s Day, #EachForEqual, is the beginning of an ongoing conversation to foster equality. Each organisation has to play its part in getting the message out.

For Rubbin’ Minds, #IWD has always been an opportunity to offer their platform to women, amplify their stories and celebrate their successes.

This year, the show is taking things a little further by collaborating with a major lifestyle brand to air an explosive month-long series for women who have been front and center in the fight for equality and they are leading by example by ceding the show to a female guest host.

Zimbabwean actress, model and television personality, Vimbai Mutinhiri is a stellar example, highlighting the power of a platform. Ms. Muthinri’s career skyrocketed after she was featured on international reality showcase, Big Brother Africa, and she has leveraged the visibility it gave her to launch an impressive media career, hosting high profile events, interviewing aspirational guests and bringing a spotlight to issues dear to her.

For #IWD this year, she joins Ebuka Obi-Uchendu, Rubbin’ Minds resident host to feature and celebrate powerful women who have pushed beyond windy boundaries and rebuilt pyramids from the ashes of the unavoidable.

These women educate, motivate, mobilise and inspire a new generation of women to drive new realities for women in Nigeria – Africa too.

But Rubbin’ Minds is not doing this alone. Lipton is actively helping to push the equality narrative and will not be stopping anytime soon.

When most corporate bodies were paying lip service to ‘equality in the workplace place’, Unilever, Lipton’s parent company, was taking measured steps to ensure equal opportunity, treatment, and representation in all its global holdings.

And on March 3, a year ahead of its own target of 2021, Unilever announced that it has attained its goal. No wonder the company will partner Rubbin’ Minds to advance its goal.

With a lineup of formidable women from different walks of life, the special edition of Rubbin’ Minds celebrates history too. Being a home brand for generations, every story of success for these women could have a Lipton backdrop.

The International Women’s Month special has since began airing, beginning with a first episode featuring two powerhouses in their different fields, former World Bank Vice President and onetime presidential candidate, who is the co-convener of the unrelenting #BringBackOurGirls movement, Oby Ezekwesili, and Nollywood maestro Sola Sobawale, who made a power comeback onto the scene with her role in the box office hit – King of Boys – in 2018.

Subsequent episodes will feature business leader’s CEO Medplus, Joke Bakare, MD. Cadbury Oyemika Adeboye, Founder Genevieve Magazine, Betty Irabor, Founder Terra Kulture, Bolanle Austen-Peters, Chairman Access Bank, Dr. Ajoritsedere Awosika, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, among others.

New episodes air every Sunday at 3pm.  Be sure to tune in to catch some of the most inspiring stories of Generation Equality.

By Collins Nweze

The Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) has recorded improvements in the implementation of public procurement and funds expenditure.

Speaking yesterday at the three-day conversion course for procurement officers in Lagos, BPP Director-General, Mamman Ahmadu, said the training programme for officers converting to the procurement cadre in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) would institutionalise procurement reform in the Federal Civil Service.

According to him, the programme was designed to develop capacity for Procurement Officers in the MDAs, entrench professionalism and ensure that public procurement decisions by procurement experts are in line with strict provisions of the Public Procurement Act, 2007 (PPA).

This conversion training is one of the capacity development and training programmes organised by the BPP yearly to ensure that the public procurement system fulfills its purpose in a way that the Federal Government ensures the right allocation or use of resources, which is why the BPP is busy strengthening the Public Procurement Reform through continuous training.

Ahmadu, who was represented by Director Energy Infrastructure, BPP,  Babatunde Kuye, listed some of the improvements in the public procurement and expenditure of public funds, adding that due process  in the Public Procurement Act, 2007 is now followed in the award of contracts.

“You will recall that the nine essential steps of public procurement start with efficient procurement plan driven by needs assessment.

Then, there has to be Adequate Appropriation, followed by Advertisement, and Transparent Pre-qualification.  Bid Submission and Bid Opening Process followed by Bid Evaluation process have to take place as well.

Afterwards we have Tender Board or Federal Executive Council (FEC) Approval, and then Contract Execution. This is becoming entrenched in the Public Service as good credit for the reform,” he said.

He disclosed that only certified Procurement Officers will be allowed to be posted as Procurement Officers. “The Head of Procurement Department or Unit as you are aware reports directly to the Accounting Officer of their respective MDAs and no one else, but where there are no certified Procurement Officers as yet, the schedule officer in charge will have to take responsibility in the meantime and should report to the Accounting Officer as appropriate. We need to begin to get things right as it can no longer be business as usual,” he disclosed.

From Ogochukwu Anioke, Abakaliki

The Federal Government is set to construct  over 3,600 new low cost housing units across the 36 states of the federation.

Managing Director, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, stated this in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital during the inauguration of the bank’s new office complex in the state.

He said the plan was in line with the directive from President Muhammadu Buhari to the bank to construct at least 100 houses in each state.

“President of the country ordered us to build hundred houses in every state of the federation. Once we are given land in every state, we will build 100 bungalow for the state,” he said.

The MD said the scheme was established to provide affordable mortgages to drive home ownership among workers, particularly the low and medium income earners.

Read Also: Govt to prosecute violators of patients’ rights

He said this was being done through the National Housing Fund(NHF) scheme into which workers both in the public and private sectors contribute 2.5 percent of their monthly income.

“Through this scheme, the bank has continued to provide affordable mortgages to workers and construction finance for housing development,’’ he added.

“Our National Housing Fund (NHF) loans, granted at 6 percent, is the most affordable in the country. We also have the FMBN Home Renovation Loan(FHRL) with liberalised conditions for easy access by Nigerian workers while the rent-to- own product and individual construction loan have also been introduced to further facilitate home ownership for Nigerians particularly civil servants”

Mr Dangiwa said the active participation of Ebonyi State workers in the NHF scheme had resulted in a mutually beneficial relationship with the bank.

By Collins Nweze

As a further testament to its contributions in the credit sphere, CRC Credit Bureau Limited (CRC) was recognised for  ‘Outstanding Facilitation of Access to Finance’ in Nigeria.

The recognition came from the Policy Development Facility Phase II (PDFII) at the ‘Non-Oil Export Conference & Awards’ (NECA) in Lagos.

This comes after it received the Best Credit Bureau, Nigeria 2020 in January, by Capital Finance International (CFI.co), a print journal and online resource reporting on business, economics and finance with its Headquarters in London, United Kingdom.

CRC Credit has gained this recognition because of its contributions in driving access to finance for individuals and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises which are the largest employers.

The Theme for the event was ‘Growing Non-Oil Export Business in Nigeria: The Strategic Imperatives’’, which covered three plenary discussions, the non-oil export awards and exhibitions from Made-in-Nigeria, Small and Medium Enterprises.

The event had a cross section of private sector organisations, relevant government agencies, trade associations, development partners, members of the House of Assembly, along with other representatives in the non-oil export value chain as part of the dialogue at the event.

The event also saw the launch of The Network of Practicing Non-Oil Exporters of Nigeria (NPNEN) a body that will continue to champion advocacy and capacity development in the non-oil export space after PDF II closes.

According to the Managing Director/CEO, CRC Credit Bureau, Mr. ‘Tunde Popoola, who was represented by Mrs. Peggy Chukwuma-Nwosu, Head of Business Development at the event.

He said:’’‘CRC will continue to use our robust database of credit information and superior technology to champion the cause of access to finance for MSMEs which will help end our dependency on Oil.

‘’At CRC, we believe that MSMEs are the engine of growth for any economy and they can only thrive with access to finance, which is made easier with access to credit information for both the lender and borrower.’’

By Taofik Salako, Capital Market Editor

Notore Chemical Industries Plc plans to raise N40 billion to strengthen its balance sheet as the agro-allied company seeks to consolidate its operations.

Shareholders of Notore are scheduled to meet next week to consider and approve resolutions empowering the board of the company to raise new capital up to N40 billion.

While the company has not decided the other details of the new capital raising, it has however indicated that the additional capital could be raised through a public offering, rights issue or other methods as the board may deem fit. Besides, the company may issue debt or equity through issuance of shares, convertible or non-convertible securities, loan notes, bonds and any other instruments.

Shareholders are also expected to empower the board to apply any outstanding convertible loan, shareholder loan or loan facility due to any person from the company towards the payment for any shares subscribed for by such person under the capital raise.

According to the resolutions, where the directors deem fit, the rights issue or any other capital raise may be underwritten on such terms and conditions as the directors may approve while in the event that the company raises the additional capital by way of a rights issue, any shares not taken up by the existing shareholders within the stipulated period, will be determined and offered to interested shareholders of the company. Where the rights issue is underwritten, the shareholders will also waive their pre-emptive rights to enable the underwriter to take up any unsubscribed shares.

In order to create headroom for the new capital raising, shareholders are also expected to increase the authorised share capital of the company from N1 billion of 2.0 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each to N1.5 billion of 3.0 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each by the creation of additional 1.0 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each.

The Memorandum of Association of the company will subsequently be amended to reflect the new authorised share capital of N1.5 billion, divided into three billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each.

Notore had grown its top-line by 89.4 per cent to N8.18 billion in the first three months of its current business year as the agro-allied company begun to reap benefits of its production capacity development.

Key extract of the three-month report for the period ended December 31, 2019 showed that turnover rose to N8.18 billion in 2019 as against N4.32 billion recorded in comparable period of 2018. Notore’s 12-month business year runs from October to September. The top-line performance was due to improvement in plant’s reliability, which led to an increase in urea production volumes by 83 per cent from 44,076 metric tonnes in December 2018 to 80,777 metric tonnes in December 2019.

The report showed that Notore’s operating profit declined by 39 per cent from N3.34 billion to N2.04 billion. This was due to a drop in other income by 78 per cent. The company however recorded a loss of N1.39 billion in December 2019 with a net finance cost of N3.43 billion.

The company expressed optimism that opportunities for better performance are high as the domestic fertiliser market is yet to reach its full potential.

According to the company, the fertiliser market in Nigeria during the period under review was robust as Notore sold all the urea that it produced during the period in both domestic and international fertilizser market.

It added that the demand for urea and compound fertiliser, such as NPK, from the West African markets and neighbouring countries bordering the northern part of the country is also quite significant.

According to the company, constant natural gas, main feedstock for producing urea fertiliser supply has been one of its key strengths, as it is in line to achieve its 1,500 MTD name-plate production capacity following successful draw down of the Turn-Around Maintenance (TAM) facility, which will be utilised to increase the plant’s reliability.

The company stated that it has commenced the ordering of critical components of the items under the TAM scope in order to keep with the TAM schedule.

On the outlook for the 2020 financial year, the company said it expects to exceed its 2019 financial year urea production figures and is also working on various financial initiatives to reduce its finance cost.

By Taofik Salako, Capital Market Editor

Access Bank Plc plans to aggressively grow its customer base over the next two years with a target to increase customer accounts from 41 million to 100 million by 2022.

The bank at the weekend launched the 12th season of its DiamondXtra promo with a promise to splash more than N1 billion on more than 5,074 customers participating in the savings promotional campaign. The bank stated that the objectives of DiamondXtra remain encouragement of savings culture and reward of loyal customers.

Speaking during the launch of the 12th season of DiamondXtra at the weekend in Lagos, Executive Director, Retail Banking, Access Bank Plc, Mr. Victor Etuokwu, said the bank has introduced additional incentives and initiatives that will make the new season a more promising one for customers.

According to him, the new season will be exciting for the bank’s customers especially the ones who have DiamondXtra savings account.

Read Also: Access Bank declares N23b dividend as profit hits N115.4b

He said the bank’s savings and retail banking franchise aim at facilitating financial inclusion and access to finance by ensuring that every Nigerian has access to required financial products and services.

He said every household in Nigeria should aspire to have a DiamondXtra account because of the exciting benefits of the account.

“This new season we will have over 63 winners for rent for a year category, three people winning salary for life and we will introduce a free health insurance scheme that will cover the customer, spouse or husband and three children. We will have the same number of people winning N1 million as regards cash prizes like we had today. We also have a lot of loyalty schemes, we will introduce nine women winners who will be winning N300,000 each and we will be doing draws every month for the rest of this year and one of them will win a shopping allowance of N100,000. This year, we are introducing senior citizens, about nine of them will be winning N500,000 each and one of them will get a N100,000 a month,” Etuokwu said.

Head, Products Insights and Capabilities, Access Bank Plc, Robert Giles, said since the inception of DiamondXtra, customers have won prizes worth more than N5.7 billion.

He assured that Access Bank remains committed to impacting the lives of Nigerians through exciting products and services.

“We said we will stick to this initiative and this season we have made it bigger and better for Nigerians to participate and we are excited about it because we are driving financial inclusion as well as savings in every household. This year, we will be crossing the N6 billion of prize funds which will be distributed to our customers and we have tripled the number of people who would win in DiamondXtra Season 12 and we are happy because we are still going to impact the lives of Nigerians in our quarterly and monthly draws,” Giles said.

Head, Consumer Banking, Access Bank Plc, Adaeze Umeh, explained that the bank will be rewarding 5,074 customers with about N1 billion and about 21 customers with a health insurance package amounting up to N1.6 million.

According to her, new or existing customers can either open a DiamondXtra account in any one of the bank’s branches across the country or fund their accounts with a minimum of N5,000 which then qualifies them for the draw.

DiamondXtra is an interest-yielding hybrid account, which allows deposit of both cash and third party cheques. As hybrid, DiamondXtra combines features of both savings and current accounts. The DiamondXtra reward scheme was launched in 2008 and has been running till date

 Taofik Salako, Deputy Group Business Editor

APPLICATION list for the ongoing N16 billion rights issue by UACN Property Development Company (UPDC) Plc closes today. Application list had opened Monday, February 10.

UPDC is offering 15.96 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each to existing shareholders at a price of N1 per share. The rights issue was pre-allotted on the basis of 43 new ordinary shares for seven ordinary shares held as at the close of business on September 30, 2019.

Shareholders of UPDC had earlier approved a resolution authorising the board to raise up to N16 billion in new capital through issuance of equities, bonds and other convertible and nom-convertible securities. Shareholders also approved a resolution empowering the board to obtain a N16 billion bridging finance from its parent company, UAC of Nigeria (UACN).

Nigeria’s oldest surviving conglomerate, UAC of Nigeria (UACN) Plc had unveiled a massive restructuring programme that would see the unbundling of its publicly quoted real estate subsidiary, UPDC and its associated company- UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust (UPDC REIT).

Under the first part of the multi-structured restructuring plan, UPDC will float a rights issue of N15.96 billion to reduce outstanding debt to a level that it is serviceable from recurring cashflows. After this, UPDC will unbundle its shareholding in UPDC REIT by directly transferring the shares to its shareholders on the basis of post-rights issue shareholdings. Thus UPDC’s shareholders will become direct shareholders in UPDC REIT.

On the second part, UACN will unbundle its majority equity stake in UPDC by directly transferring its shareholdings in the real estate company to UACN’s shareholders, thus making the existing UACN’s shareholders the direct owners of shares in UPDC. UACN will also unbundle the shares of UPDC REIT allocated to it under the UPDC-UPDCREIT transaction to its shareholders, thus making UACN’s shareholders direct owners in UPDC REIT.