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Tag: Diamond

  • 2024  Diamond League starts  April 20th

    2024  Diamond League starts  April 20th

    After a historic season came to a dramatic climax in Eugene earlier this month, athletes and fans can now set their sights on the 2024 Wanda Diamond League season.

    The 2024 calendar will feature 15 of the most prestigious one-day meetings in global track and field.  As in previous years, athletes will compete for points at 14 series meetings, with the most successful in each discipline qualifying for the Wanda Diamond League Final at the end of the season. The season will begin with a Chinese double bill, with meetings in Xiamen on 20th April and Shanghai on 27th April. Following meetings in Doha, Rabat and Eugene, the series will then head to Oslo and Stockholm for the first European meetings on May 30th and June 2nd.

    Read Also: Adesanya faces up to three months in jail for drunk-driving

    In July, meetings in Paris, Monaco and London will give athletes the chance to prepare for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. After the Olympics, there will be four more chances to earn points in Lausanne, Silesia, Rome and Zurich before the season finale on September 13th-14th.

    2024 will see the Wanda Diamond League Final return to Brussels for the first time since 2019, with all 32 Diamond League champions set to be crowned over one weekend at the Allianz Memorial Van Damme.

  • Access, Diamond host female entrepreneurs

    Access and Diamond Bank commemorated the International Women’s Day by hosting female entrepreneurs to a conference held in Lagos.

    The event themed ‘Think W… Build Smart and Innovate’ featured insightful sessions, as the speakers highlighted issues and solutions on how women can effectively leverage on technology and finance to build profitable and innovative businesses.

    While delivering the keynote speech, the CEO/ Group Managing Director of Access Bank, Herbert Wigwe said “Women, over the years, have continued to break boundaries, reinvent the status-quo and take advantage of the opportunities provided by technology and quality financial systems to make things better in the society.

    Read also: Our Girls; Census fiction; politics vs governance

    This year, the International Women’s Day Conference, has been designed to educate women on how best to leverage innovations because we have come to the realization that female-owned businesses also hold the key to the growth and stability of our economy”.

     

  • Access, Diamond offer free ATM services to customers

    Access Bank Plc and Diamond Bank Plc customers will from today have access to 3,100 Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) that will provide free and seamless banking services to them.

    This follows the planned merger of the two Systematically Important Banks (SIBs) which is expected to be concluded in the first half of this year. The merger of the two lenders will give their customers access to the largest ATM network in the country.

    According to the two lenders, starting from today, their customers will have access to 3,100 ATMs free of charge.

    “Access Bank and Diamond Customers now have access to over 3,100 ATMs free of charge. This means that from January 1, 2019, you can use any Diamond Bank ATMs without paying the usual charges that apply on withdrawals from other banks’ ATMs. We are closer to you than ever before,” the bank said in emailed note to The Nation.

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had last month, gave a “No Objection” nod to the merger plans of Access Bank Plc and Diamond Bank Plc, the boards of both banks said yesterday.

    The deal is expected to be completed in the first half of this year.

    The merger will form a leading Tier 1 Nigerian bank and the largest bank in Africa by number of customers, spanning three continents, 12 countries and 29 million clients.

    The combination of our two businesses will create the largest retail bank in Africa by customer base and a very significant player in the Nigerian market.  This is a huge step towards the delivery of our goal to bring the power of banking to millions of people across Nigeria and an exciting transaction for Access Bank and Diamond Bank’s customers, staff and shareholders.

  • Tinubu, Diamond, Branson discuss global investment trends at FII

    The Group Chief Executive of Oando Plc, Wale Tinubu; Founder, Virgin Group Richard Branso; former Group Chief Executive, Barclays Plc, Bob Diamond and former President, Republic of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, were among the top speakers at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference held in Saudi Arabia.

    The Future Investment Initiative (FII), hosted by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia, is a pioneer new global investment event aimed at connecting the world’s most influential business men and women, under the leadership of Crown Prince of Saudi, Prince Mohammad bin Salman Al-Saud, Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the Council of Economic and Development Affairs and Chairman of PIF.

    Tinubu, who represented Nigeria’s private sector, spoke on: “Expanding Opportunities on the African Continent”, with focus on Nigeria as one of the leading economies on the continent.

    He said: “We gained from high crude prices, but rather than invest and save as much as we should have, we focused on financing consumption. We had petrol subsidies, and at the same time the infrastructure decayed, the refineries couldn’t keep up with demand, and we were growing five per cent per annum in population terms.”

    He acknowledged that the Nigerian economy sustained “self-inflicted” wounds, saying “…we end up producing what we don’t need and exporting what we need.  We export 70 per cent of gas but we only have 40 per cent electricity penetration. We export two million barrels of crude per day, but import a billion tons a month, of refined petroleum products (mainly petrol), so there is a mismatch, and this exists primarily because of policies that are self-inflicted.”

    “The key to alleviating Nigeria’s gasoline shortage is to expand its refining capacity. Analysts have also said if current refinery projects are successful, Nigeria could become an exporter of gasoline and other petroleum products.”

    Tinubu added that deregulation was a priority to ensure that Nigeria attracts a growing volume of overseas capital. “Movement of capital should be free at the entry point and people should be able to export capital; they should be free to sell at the market price,” he added.

    Tinubu closed the session on a positive note by noting that in Nigeria, “The focus today is on soft issues, such as “the ease of doing business” to attract foreign investment, while at the same time learning from past errors to ensure the country is poised for growth on all parameters.”

     

     

     

  • Diamond Bank unveils Diamond Future

    Diamond Bank unveils Diamond Future

    Diamond Bank has opened a window of money management opportunity that enables parents and guardians plan and save for the future of their children through a simplified and high interest yielding target savings plan.

    The financial product, known as Diamond Future does not only enable parents to save but also to teach their children to develop healthy savings habit  and build prudent expenditure profile and diverse investment portfolios.

    According to the Bank, Diamond Future was created and launched into the market in 2014 but now refreshed to help parents meet set savings targets for their children and easily accomplish their future financial goals and needs with excitement.

    Information about the financial product on the bank’s website revealed that the product is a savings account designed for children between ages 0-17, and offers a well guided and structured plan with the opportunity of earning high interest rates. The plan is known as Diamond Future Target Savings Plan.

    Its chief spokesperson, Chioma Afe, stated that a major reason for creating the product was to instill in children the value and dignity of starting early to chart healthy financial course in life, and also deepen financial inclusion by integrating the children into the banking community.

    “We want young people to know that Diamond Bank is not just for adults, Diamond Bank is your Bank too. We have worked hard to be the bank that understands the financial needs of parents and their children and to provide the right products and support to help them save to achieve their dreams,” the bank stated.

    The new offerings in the refreshed savings plan, provides customers with an opportunity to be rewarded with an additional interest accrual on agreed monthly savings. The reward increases as the number of years the customer has set in the savings plan increase.

  • Diamond partners FG on entrepreneurship programme

    Diamond partners FG on entrepreneurship programme

    Diamond Bank has thrown its weight behind the Federal Government’s entrepreneurship development programme tagged the “Aso Villa Demo Day”.

    The event, which is intended to encourage economic diversification and celebrate creativity and innovation by young Nigerians, took place at the Banquet Hall of the State House in Abuja.

    Diamond Bank, alongside other companies, was one of the key supporters of the event which was graced by a host of  personalities, including the Vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, the Chairman of Diamond Bank, Dr. Chris Ogbechie, and the Founder of Facebook, Mr. Mark Zuckerberg.

    The Vice President, in his address, said the Federal Government was discussing the possibility of a partnership with Facebook in a bid to improve the Information Communication Technology connectivity in Africa and expressed the government’s resolve to anchor the country’s development around energy, innovation and creativity of its young people.

    Three of the 30 start-up businesses earlier shortlisted in Lagos, Port-Harcourt and Abuja were eventually selected and given a cash prize of N3 million each.

    Addressing the select start-ups, the Facebook founder  said it was inspiring to see what Nigerian youths have been able to do with technology.

    The Presidency created the platform of the “Aso Villa Demo Day” in order to boost technology and encourage innovative ideas and had previously selected the top 30 Nigerians among the hundreds that pitched at three different events in Lagos, Abuja and Port-Harcourt in June.

    The events were held in Lagos on June 23, Abuja June 25 and Port Harcourt June 29. The 30 selected Nigerians were finally hosted by the Presidency at the weekend, where three emerged finalists.

    During the pitch events, participating Nigerian youths presented their ideas and solutions for technology, agriculture, communications, power, fashion and entertainment which revealed their talents, skills and critical thinking.

  • Fitch rates Diamond ‘BBB’+, Bol gets AA+

    Fitch rates Diamond ‘BBB’+, Bol gets AA+

    Diamond Bank’s strong fundamentals have been reaffirmed by the global credit ratings and research agency, Fitch Ratings.

    In the recently released 2016 Ratings Review of Nigerian Banks, Flitch affirmed a ‘B’ Rating, with Stable Outlook for Diamond Bank’s Short-term and Long-term Foreign Currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDR).

    The bank’s national long-term rating was also affirmed at ‘BBB+ (nga)’; while the national short-term rating was affirmed at ‘F2 (nga)’. Viability rating was affirmed at ‘b’; support rating affirmed at ‘4’; support rating floor: affirmed at ‘B’; while the senior unsecured notes rating was affirmed at ‘B’/’RR4′.

    The ‘B’ IDR rating indicates that Diamond Bank has the capacity to meet financial commitments, subject to the country’s business and economic environment; while the ‘BBB+ (nga)’ national ratings denote a “moderate default risk relative to other issuers or obligations in the same country”. Further, the ‘F2 (nga)’ national short-term rating “indicates a good capacity for timely payment of financial commitments relative to other issuers or obligations in the same country”. These ratings were premised partly on Fitch’s downgrade of Nigeria’s sovereign ratings (to ‘B+’) on 23 June 2016, in addition to the bank’s strong capital, operational and liquidity positions.

    Reacting to the report, the Bank’s spokesperson, Ayona Trimnell said: “These ratings affirmed the precision of our corporate strategy in deploying new technologies and digital applications to drive financial inclusion, convenient banking, enhanced customer friendly services and our overall retail banking approach.”

    Fitch noted that the strong regulatory capital ratios of the Bank have helped offset the one-off impact from the devaluation arising from Nigeria’s new foreign exchange regime. Nevertheless, the buffer between Nigerian banks’ capital ratios and the regulatory minimum is reducing.

    The Bank of Industry (BoI) has issued a clarification about the report regarding its performance rating, insisting that the nation’s foremost development finance institution still maintains AA+ credit rating by Fitch.

    It stated that rating posted on the Fitch website, which was misconstrued in some quarters  as indicating a slip in the performance of the bank, was merely a sovereign rating for the country in general and not for a stand alone institution.

    The bank maintained that the DFI is very virile and better repositioned to push the frontier of the nation’s industrial sector through aggressive business financing.

    According to the bank, the Fitch’s rating of AA+, and Moody’s BA3 remain the best among the nation’s indigenous financial institutions.

  • School marks diamond jubilee

    Old students of Oyan Grammar School (GOYANS) have mapped out seven days of activities to celebrate the achievements of their alma mater since its establishment 60 years ago.

    Chairman, Organising Committee for the event, Prof Wole Atoyebi, said in a statement that a major feature of event scheduled to hold from May 24 to 28, would be the launch of a N250 million Development Fund on May 28 at the school premises.

    The launch is expected to be attended by Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, and Olatunji Shittu, Director, King Guards, who is the chief launcher for the event.

     

  • Zenith, Diamond banks drive forex disbursement with $41.2m

    Zenith Bank Plc and Diamond Bank Plc disbursed the highest volume of foreign exchange (forex) worth $41.2 million to 802 customers cut across different segments of the economy, published forex utilisation data for last week showed.

    The funds were sourced from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and sold to the beneficiary customers at the official rate of N197.50 to dollar. The beneficiaries used the funds to the importation of goods, services and other items that fall within the CBN-stipulated import approval list.

    Zenith Bank Plc took the lead with $24,547, 235.36 allocations disbursed to key players in the economy ranging from manufacturing, oil and gas, school fees payment as well as Personal Travel Allowances (PTAs) and Business Travel Allowances (BTAs).

    The bank gave the lion share of $4.4 million to Dangote Gropu of Companies (Dangote Cement, Dangote Flour Mills Plc, Dangote Sugar Refinery) among others. The funds were disbursed to the company in 13 tranches for Letters of Credit (LCs) approved for the importation of different production raw materials ranging from spares parts for textile machines, cement plant machinery, roll crusher plants among others.

    Another $2 million allocation went to Oando Marketing Plc for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) import. The funds were disbursed in two tranches of $1 million each.

    Zenith Bank financed a total of 472 items within the CBN import approved list. Of this, payment for school fees abroad got the highest allocation in terms of volume, but it also sold dollars to some of its corporate customers for visible items such as the importation of raw materials, pharmaceutical and agricultural products, among others.

    Diamond Bank Plc funded imports worth $16,872,037.50 for 330 customers. Swift Oil Limited; Dozzy Oil & Gas Limited; Rahamaniya Oil & Gas  Limited and Obat Oil & Petroleum Limited and got $2.2 million; $1.5 million; $1.41 million and $1.25 million respectively for the importation petroleum and gas products. The bank also made several allocations to individuals and companies needing the funds for school fees, BTAs, PTA among others.

    The next was Access Bank Plc which got and disbursed about $12.5 million to 184 customers that cut across oil and gas, education, manufacturing among others. The lion share of $6 million went to MRS for gasoline import followed by Blakeney Management which received$1.5 million for school fees payment among others.

  • World’s second-biggest diamond discovered in Botswana

    World’s second-biggest diamond discovered in Botswana

    The World’s second-largest gem-quality diamond has been discovered in Botswana, a Canadian company, Lucara, has said.

    Lucara’s Chief Executive Officer, William Lamb, in a statement, said the 1,111-carat diamond was second in size only to the 3,106-carat one unearthed at Cullinan mine in neighbouring South Africa in 1905, was cut into British crown jewels.

    The diamond, slightly smaller than a tennis ball, was recovered by machines in the Karowe mine in central Botswana.

    However, experts said that it was too early to estimate the value of the diamond.

    “I am truly at a loss for words; we are truly blessed by this amazing asset.

    “Our focus, mining the south lobe has been perfectly timed with the commissioning of our recent plant modifications, enabling the recovery of large, high-quality exceptional diamonds,’’ Lamb said.

    An expert in the Belgian city of Antwerp, one of the world’s main diamond trading centres, said the diamond was “of exceptional quality.’’

    Christopher Gemerchak from the Antwerp Diamond Jewellers Association said that a diamond half that size was sold for 35 million dollars recently.

    “The historic significance of the Botswana diamond as the world’s second-largest makes it difficult to evaluate how much buyers might pay for it.

    “The value of the diamond also depends on factors such as possible cracks or dark spots, which need to be evaluated,’’ he added.

    “Too large to be used as such, the diamond is likely to be cut into 200-carat, core diamond and other smaller ones.

    “That decision will be taken by the buyer, the diamond polisher and designer,’’ Gemerchak said.

    Botswana is one of Africa’s top diamond producers, with diamonds making up about 80 per cent of its export income.