Nigeria | - Part 66

Nigeria’s Naira Slumps as 15-Month Currency Peg Ends in Lagos

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: Nigeria’s naira weakened 22 percent to 253.50 per dollar after the central bank allowed the currency of Africa’s biggest economy to float freely on Monday. Demand for foreign currency has built up to about $3 billion since capital controls were imposed 15 months ago to defend the currency’s peg of 197-199 per dollar, according to Chapel Hill Denham Securities Ltd. Even as the naira weakens, local stocks may extend the best three-day rally…

Nigeria Delays New Bank Capital Rules in Bid to Avoid Recession

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Lagos, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: Nigeria plans to delay new capital rules for banks as regulators in Africa’s biggest economy follow fellow oil producer Kazakhstan in trying to boost lending and avoid a recession. The Central Bank of Nigeria in 2014 ordered the country’s lenders it considered too big to fail to boost minimum capital adequacy ratios to 16 percent from 15 percent to increase their resilience to shocks. The new rules, which followed a banking crisis…

Nigeria | Out of Options Amid Economic Slump, Nigeria Abandons Naira Peg

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: Battered by the oil plunge, starved of foreign currency and with the economy headed into recession, Africa’s second-biggest crude producer said Wednesday it will allow the naira to float, setting the stage for the currency to weaken. Free trade in the naira, set for Monday, will mark the end of more than a year of resistance by President Muhammadu Buhari, who reiterated his opposition to devaluation as recently as two…

Nigerian Naira Devaluation Bets Surge Before Nigeria Unveils New Policy

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: Naira forward contracts surged to a record as traders anticipated Nigeria’s central bank would devalue the currency on Wednesday as part of a new foreign-exchange policy. Governor Godwin Emefiele will make a televised announcement from around 2 p.m. in Abuja, the capital, according to Isaac Okorafor, a central bank spokesman. Twelve-month non-deliverable naira forward contracts surged 3.3 percent to352 per dollar, a record on a closing basis, as of 11:27 a.m. in…

Nigeria Oil Militants Give Talk Terms, Threaten Bloodshed

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: Nigerian militants whose attacks on oil infrastructure have sent output plunging to its lowest level in 27 years said for the first time that they are considering peace talks, even as they threatened to rethink their policy of avoiding bloodshed. The oil minister said Monday that negotiations with the Niger Delta Avengers had begun. After rejecting talks with the government last week, the militants said they would need “a…

Nigeria | Airlines Exit Nigeria on Slow Economy Hit by Dollar Shortage

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: International carriers may follow the example of United Airlines and Iberia and halt operations in Nigeria or cut flights as they struggle to move revenue out of the country because the oil-price slump has depleted the West African nation’s foreign exchange reserves. Iberia suspended its route to Africa’s biggest economy on May 12, followed by United, which informed employees that it would end flights from the U.S. to Nigeria at the end of…

Nigeria Food-to-Logistics Company UAC Joins Naira Complaints

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: UAC of Nigeria Plc, an investor in foods, logistics and real-estate services in Africa’s largest economy, said the central bank’s delays in announcing details of a more flexible foreign-exchange system are holding back business decisions because of confusion over future costs. “They should have done it yesterday, rather than tomorrow,” Larry Ettah, UAC’s chief executive officer, said in an interview Wednesday in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital. “We are hopeful that…

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