The Nation Newspaper

Category: Money

  • Stanbic, Access, Coscharis in automobile finance deal

    Stanbic, Access, Coscharis in automobile finance deal

    Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc and Access Bank Plc have entered into a partnership with Cosharis Motors that will enable the lenders provide financial support for customers interested in buying cars and paying instalmentally.

    Speaking during a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing between the parties held at the weekend in Lagos, Stanbic IBTC Executive Director, Personal Banking, Obinnia Abajue said the pact is an opportunity for the lender to empower its customers. He said giving credit to consumers is part of what the lender does on daily basis, to ensure that standard of living of beneficiaries are lifted to new heights.

    The bank director said Stanbic IBTC Bank has a track record of success in automobile financing and that the lender will spread the payment for the vehicle across 48 months or less depending on agreement between the parities.

    He said that the financed vehicle will serve as collateral while the bank also ensures that there is comprehensive insurance for it. He said the interest rte for the transaction is 16.5 per cent and that the customer also gets three per cent reduction from the total cost for the car.

    Access Bank Executive Director, Personal Banking, Victor Etuokwu said the partnership will transform the vehicle finance scheme in Nigeria. He encouraged the bank’s customers to take advantage of the scheme and but cars of their choice at reduced prices adding that beneficiaries can only pay 10 per cent equity contribution, and gradually pay the balance.

    Deputy Group Managing Director, Coscharis Motors, Okey Nwuke advised bank customers to also take advantage of the opportunity and spread their payment for choice cars. He said the time has passed when people use their life savings to buy a car or wait for years to be able to but a car of their choice.

    “The scheme is offering good rates . Whether you are a large corporate or an individual, you cannot get a better deal than this,” he said.

     

  • ‘BVN boosts retail credit’

    ‘BVN boosts retail credit’

    The Bank Verification Number (BVN) policy is expected to boost retail credit in the banking industry, the Managing Director of the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS), Mr. Ade Shonubi, has said.

    The NIBSS boss, who is responsible for the implementation of the BVN, in a statement, explained that once banks are able to identify and blacklist fraudulent customers, they would be encouraged to extend loans to those customers that are credit worthy and do not have any record of being delinquent borrowers.

    He said the BVN protects bank customers and strengthen the banking system. Shonubi noted that apart from the challenge of identifying customers, a major hindrance to retail credit in the Nigerian environment was the perception that most Nigerians are crooks who would look for ways of failing to repay loans.

     He pointed out that the BVN would address this problem by helping to identify and distinguishing fraudulent Nigerians from law abiding and honest citizens.

    He said :”When the BVN project came up, there were three key things. First and most important of all is for us to identify our customers and to identify them uniquely across banks and across accounts. So, once you have BVN, even if you have 10 bank accounts, it is the same BVN that will be tied to the bank accounts. Now, relating to identifying is the possibility of banks blacklisting people who have committed financial infractions. It could be fraudsters; it could be people who have gone to forge documents because what happens today is that the same guy will go to a bank, commits fraud, then runs to another bank and because there is no way of tying all these activities across. So, we found out that there were quite a lot of losses related to these individuals from one bank to another.

     

  • Nigeria receives $21b in remittances, says WorldRemit

    Nigeria receives $21b in remittances, says WorldRemit

    Nigeria received $21 billion last year, accounting for two-thirds of all remittances to sub-Saharan Africa, an online money transfer service, WorldRemit has said.

    Its Marketing and Communications Executive, Martin Schmidbaur said Nigeria remains among the world’s largest recipients of remittances and that remittances to the region are projected to reach $36 billion in 2017. In 2013, remittances financed one-third of the country’s imports.

    In an emailed report titled: How Mobile Money will Power Global Remittances, Schmidbaur said global remittances will grow slowly this year, but accelerate again in 2016 and 2017.

    Furthermoore, Schmidbaur said global remittances will this year, reach $586 billion at a slower growth rate of 0.4 per cent due to economic conditions but will accelerate again to reach an estimated $636 billion in 2017.

    He said fees are far too high and that the average cost of sending $200 to sub-Saharan Africa remains at 12 per cent of the amount, higher than the G20’s target of five per cent.

    This, he attributed to the cost of bricks-and-mortar agent networks of traditional firms.  “There is a huge potential for mobile technology to reduce costs on both the send and receive sides,” he said.

    According to him, mobile money will grow to play a huge role in remittances and help to bring down fees.

    “Worldwide Mobile Money usage is exploding with 261 mobile money services now live across 89 countries with 103 million active users as of December 2014. More than half of these services currently in operation are in sub-Saharan Africa,” he said.

    He said mobile money helps to reduce remittance fees adding that the median cost of sending $100 via Mobile Money is $4, less than half the average cost to send money globally via traditional money transfer channels.

    Also, Senior Mobile Analyst at WorldRemit, Alix Murphy, explained that mobile money will play a pivotal role in global remittances, helping to reduce fees, improve speed and convenience for users.

    “Most importantly, mobile money is a key enabler of financial inclusion. There are currently two and a half billion unbanked people in the world  and that one billion of these people already have access to a mobile phone and so a potential means of accessing financial services,” she said.

    She added that for many people, mobile money remains the main or only means of accessing financial services. “That’s why WorldRemit has worked hard to connect to more mobile money services than any other money transfer firm.”

  • FirstBank supports women entrepreneurs

    FirstBank supports women entrepreneurs

    FirstBank Sustainability Centre has reinforced its commitment to promoting empowerment, entrepreneurship and financial inclusion among women through sponsorship of workshop for women entrepreneurs.

    The event, which is the second in the series for women-led Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is part of FirstBank’s SMEConnect Series programme scheduled for April 23 and 24 at the FirstBank Sustainability Centre, Lagos.

    In a statement, the bank said the workshop is designed to further equip women for enterprise development as well as assist in the transformation and expansion of women’s businesses into enterprises generating employment, economic benefits and social value.

    The event would offer a sustainable growth strategy for women-led SMES as well as teach the women to integrate financial success with societal and environmental advancement.

    Facilitators at the event will include Mrs. Ibukun Awosika, CEO, The Chair Center, Dr. Delia, Nzekwu, Sustainability Consultant and Mrs. Pauline Nsa, MD, FBN Microfinance Bank Limited. Other speakers are Mr. Valentine Ojumah, MD, FBN Insurance Limited, and Mr. Bayo Olugbemi, MD, First Registrars Limited.

     

    The bank’s Group Head, Marketing & Corporate Communications, FirstBank, Mrs. Folake Ani-Mumuney, SMEs are pivotal to economic development and this is why it is a major focus point in the Bank’s mass market segment.

    “We are keen on women economic empowerment and it is our desire to see businesses go beyond the narrow intent of profit-making to embed societal and environmental interests which would deliver long term growth. Women led SMEs in integrating a social dimension to their value proposition will make their businesses more sustainable than the ones run with conventional cost and quality gains”, she further stated.

  • Inflation rises to 8.5 per cent , says NBS

    Inflation rises to 8.5 per cent , says NBS

    The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the inflation rate in the country rose from 8.4 per cent in February to 8.5per cent last month.

    In a statement yesterday,   the Statistician-General of the Federation, Dr Yemi Kale, said the rate showed a 0.1 per cent increase between Febuary and March.

    It stated that on a month-on-month basis, the highest price increases were recorded in fruit, fish, potatoes, yam and other tubers, and vegetables groups.

    It further stated that the average annual rate of change on the food sub-index for the 12-month period ending in March over the previous 12-month average was 9.5 per cent.

    According to the NBS, the 12-month rate of change has held steady for 10 consecutive months.

    “On a month-on-month basis, the core sub-index increased marginally by 0.8 per cent after increasing at the same pace in the previous two months at 0.7 per cent.

    “The largest increases were recorded in the air passenger transport, miscellaneous services relating to the dwelling; appliances, articles and products for personal care, and repair of household appliances groups,’’ it noted.

    It said the average 12-month annual rate of rise in the index was recorded at 6.9 per cent for the 12-month period ending in March which did not change from the 12-month rate recorded in January.

    “On a year-on-year, both the urban and rural price indices recorded faster increases in March.

    “The urban index increased by 8.6 per cent and 0.2 percentage points from February.

    “The rural index increased marginally from 8.3 per cent in February to 8.4 per cent in March.

    “On a month-on-month basis, both the urban and rural indices increased at a faster pace in March, increasing by 0.9 per cent,’’ it said.

    The bureau said the pace of increases in all items less farm produce which excluded the prices of volatile agricultural produce increased at a faster pace for the third consecutive month.

    “Prices rose by 7.5 per cent (year-on-year), up by 0.5 percentage points from 7.0 per cent in February with the strongest increases recorded in the clothing and footwear, and miscellaneous goods and services divisions,” the statement added.

  • Nigeria makes list of top 20 economies

    Nigeria makes list of top 20 economies

    Bloomberg report on new world economic order has ranked Nigeria’s economy to be among top 20 largest in the world by 2030.

    Nigeria is the only African country on the forecast report, ranked 19th, just above Netherlands, which is 20th.

    Though the forecast falls below the 2020 projected by the Federal Government under former President, Olusegun Obasanjo to arrive at the top 20, this is the first time such report is projecting the country in the top global economies.

    Recent global economic reports have placed Nigeria as one of the fastest growing economy in the world, a report which tallied with last year’s rebased gross domestic product (GDP) figures placing Nigeria as the largest economy in Africa, pushing South Africa to second position.

    The Bloomberg report was derived from Economic Research Services (ERS), the United States international economic development research agency’s latest global economic research report.

    The ERS International Macroeconomic Data Se t provides historical and projected data for 189 countries that account for more than 99 per cent of the world economy.

  • DMO auctions N70b bond at lower yields

    DMO auctions N70b bond at lower yields

    The Debt Management Office (DMO) yesterday said it raised N70 billion bonds at lower yields across all tenors during an auction held the day before.

    The debt office said in a notice that total subscriptions stood at N184.72 billion, compared with N119.14 billion at the last auction.

    The office said it had sold N20 billion worth of the five-year bond at 14.44 per cent, down from 16.49 per cent at its previous sale on March 11.

    The 10-year paper was sold at 14.22 per cent against 16.84 per cent previously, raising a total of N25 billion, while N25 billion worth of the 20-year debt note was sold at a yield of 14.45 per cent compared with 16.99 per cent previously.

    The low yield at the auction was in tandem with prevailing yields at the secondary market, which have been falling after Nigeria held peaceful national elections.

  • NDIC: no sensitive document lost in fire

    NDIC: no sensitive document lost in fire

    The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) said neither life nor sensitive document was lost in yesterday’s fire incidence at its Lagos office.

    In a statement,its Head, Communications and Public Affairs, H. S. Birchi said the corporation did not lose any sensitive document because the fire mostly affected the Marina side of the building.

    He said the incident occurred in the morning at the Mamman Kontagora House, Marina, Lagos.

    “Luckily, no life was lost and no sensitive document was destroyed because the fire mostly affected the Marina side of the building,” he said.

    Birchi said the NDIC Managing Director/Chief Executive,  Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim and Managing Director of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Alhaji GimbaYau Kumo, have visited the building.

    He said though the fire had since been put out, it had relocated all its workers to NECOM House, also in Marina, to ensure continuity of service provision and enable the fire service and other experts to assess the level of damage.

    NDIC said: “It is hoped that the corporation’s normal activities will resume at the Mamman Kontagora House on Monday, April 20.

    “The NDIC management wishes to thank the public for their sympathy and concern. It also wishes to thank the Lagos State Fire Service, Nigeria Ports Authority, Julius Berger, Union Bank and Federal Fire Service for their tremendous assistance in putting out the fire.”

  • Union Bank pre-tax profit rises by 635% to hit N27.7b

    Union Bank pre-tax profit rises by 635% to hit N27.7b

    Union Bank of Nigeria has said its group profit before tax rose 635 per cent to N27.7 billion during the financial year ended December 31, 2014.

    The lender’s total asset was stable at N1 trillion while net loans and advances to customers up 36 per cent to N312.8 billion from N229.5 billion the previous year.

    Customer Deposits were up nine per cent to N527.6 billion from N482.7 billion as at December 2013 while Net Interest Income after impairment charge was up four per cent to N47 billion N45.2 billion as at December 2013.

    “Profit Before Tax was up by N24 billion for the group and N16 billion for the bank, including N6.3 billion from sale of subsidiaries. Loan book grows by 44 per cent while there was significant growth in net operating income,” the bank said.

    Its Managing Director/CEO, Mr. Emeka Emuwa said: “2014 was focused on implementing the foundational pillars of our transformation strategy with a vision to rebuild Union Bank into a highly respected provider of financial services in Nigeria. We optimised our talent base, making significant hires into key roles and ensuring we have the right people in the right functions, and aligned our staff compensation and overall costs to be competitive within the industry. We also overhauled operations and processes in order to consistently deliver quality service to our customers, and established a Central Processing Centre to provide streamlined, cost efficient, and consistent processing of branch operations.”

    He said going into this year, key financial indicators for the bank have been normalised and growth trajectory remains positive.

    He said:“As we continue to execute strategic transformation initiatives, we expect to see continued improvement in both our financial and operational performance as we roll out a new core banking platform which will markedly transform our customer service and product delivery capabilities.”

    Its Chief Financial Officer, Mrs. Oyinkan Adewale, said: “Having substantially cleaned up our loan book in 2013, we were able to reduce net impairment charge by 75 per cent and improve Non Performing Loans ratio from six per cent in 2013 to 5.1 per cent in 2014.

    “We have better leveraged our capital base, with a 44 per cent growth in the loan book, and growth in loan to deposit ratio from 48 per cent in December 2013 to 64 per cent at the end of 2014.”

  • March inflation may ease to 8.2%

    March inflation may ease to 8.2%

    LAST  month’s inflation rate is projected to moderate to 8.2 per cent, 0.16 per cent lower than the 8.4 per cent recorded in February, Managing Director, Financial Derivatives Company Limited, Bismark Rewane, has said.

    In the FDC Economic Report released yesterday, he said the decline is surprising given the economic trends such as currency devaluation, a fiercely contested election and the commencement of the lean season.

    In spite of these hitches, he said manufacturers, treasurers and the markets increased their inventories in anticipation of currency devaluation.

    He said the impact of the decrease in money supply (M2) for January this year and the lower prices of international commodities relative to the same period last year are factors that weighed in favor of the price moderation.

    He said there was speculative buying and fuel scarcity in March but had minimal impact on retail prices.

    He said Lagos urban inflation index also declined to 10.26 per cent in March, 0.53 per cent from 10.79 per cent in February. The year-on-year food and non-food indexes decreased by 8.68 per cent and 11.06 per cent respectively, in March, from 9.99 per cent and 11.19 per cent in February. The decline, he added is in line with the projected headline inflation which is attributed to the sustained lower global commodities and consumer prices.

    Rewane said headline inflation rate in April is expected to increase to 8.3 per cent due to the impact of currency devaluation and the intensity of the planting season. He said movement in sourcing of forex for raw materials from the Retail Dutch Auction System (RDAS) to the interbank market effectively increased their costs by 13 per cent. He said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has maintained a tight liquidity policy in April which has seen rates in the interbank market spike to 70 per cent per annum.

    “Our March outlook for inflation is unlikely to influence the exchanges rates. However, the naira will continue to experience volatility at the interbank and parallel markets as foreign investors continue to speculate and sustain the demand pressure in these markets. “We estimate that the naira will trade within N197 to 199 to dollar at the interbank market against the dollar and may subsequently depreciate further should oil prices fall below $50 per barrel,” he said.

    He said the equities market remained oblivious to inflation rate. “Intuitively, given that we expect no significant change in the money market, we anticipate stock market activities will be impervious. However, stock price decline in March was due to capital flight initiated by foreign investors as the elections drew near. The bearish position held by investors was also driven by reversal of capital flows by hedge funds and international investors,” he said.