LENDING RATE: Nigeria issues 32 bln naira debt to tighten liquidity

Nigeria's central bank sold 31.94 billion naira in treasury bills on Friday in a bid to tighten liquidity in the money market while overnight lending rate fell. Traders said the bank sold 31.52 billion naira of 349-day treasury bill at 18.59 percent and 440 million naira of 160-day treasury bill at 17.98 percent at an auction on Friday. Cost of borrowing among commercial lenders however dropped to around five percent on the interbank market from...

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Nigerian stocks shed gains as funds prepare H1 accounts

Nigerian stocks fell on Friday after a two-day rally, as asset managers booked profit ahead of their half-year fund returns, traders said. The index fell 1.07 percent by mid trades, down to 32,000 level, dragged lower by losses in the banking, cement and petroleum sectors. "The fall in the market is as a result of month-end profit-taking by some institutional investors and individuals," one stock broker said. Shares in household products maker Unilever fell...

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Nigeria's first Diaspora Bond starts trading on London Exchange

London Stock Exchange on Thursday welcomes Nigeria's first Diaspora Bond to start trading on the Main Market.  Nigeria raised its first diaspora five-year bond worth $300 million at 5.625 percent and said proceeds from the debt note will be used to fund infrastructure projects in the West African country.  The bond is the first from an African country that is registered with both the UKLA and the U.S. SEC and targeted at retail investors. Interest...

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Egypt raises fuel prices by up to 50 percent under IMF deal

Egypt on Thursday hiked fuel prices by up to 50 percent to help meet terms of a $12 billion IMF loan deal, a sharper rise than expected by many struggling with soaring living costs and a further test of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's popularity.Fuel price increases had been widely anticipated as part of Egypt's loan accord with the International Monetary Fund and Thursday's measures were the second rise since the government floated the pound currency...

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Oil prices rise to two-week high on dip in U.S. output

Oil prices rose to a two-week high on Thursday, extending a rally into a sixth straight session after a decline in weekly U.S. production eased concerns about deepening oversupply.Crude prices slipped to the lowest in 10 months last week but have since rebounded more than 7 percent, stretching their bull-run to the longest since April.Global benchmark Brent crude futures were up 35 cents at $47.66 a barrel at 1058 GMT, having touched a two-week high...

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Global borrowing hits record as big central banks prepare to tighten credit

Global debt levels have climbed $500 billion in the past year to a record $217 trillion, a new study shows, just as major central banks prepare to end years of super-cheap credit policies. U.S. Federal Reserve chief, Yellen World markets were jarred this week by a chorus of central bankers warning about overpriced assets, excessive consumer borrowing and the need to begin the process of normalising world interest rates from the extraordinarily...

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Nigeria's excess crude account fund one of world's least transparent

Nigeria's Excess Crude Account tied for the world's most poorly governed sovereign wealth fund, according to a report by the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) released on Wednesday.The $2.4 billion account was ranked alongside the Qatar Investment Authority as the worst in terms of oversight and transparency in NRGI's index of resource management. NRGI rated 11 sovereign wealth funds, managing least $1.5 trillion in total, as "failing". "The...

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Ghana asks IMF to extend aid deal, more money expected to be sought

Ghana's government has asked the International Monetary Fund to push back the end date of its $918 million aid programme from April 2018 to December 2018, IMF and government sources told Reuters on Wednesday.The request is expected to lead to talks aimed at a revised deal to include more money and fresh targets for fiscal consolidation, according to senior government officials.Any extension would further reassure investors that the new government...

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Nigeria to sell $100 mln at special forex auction

Nigeria's central bank will sell $100 million at a special foreign exchange auction on Wednesday, the bank said as the local currency held steady in all segments of the foreign exchange market.In a notice to commercial lenders, the regulator said the dollar auction would be for spot and forward deals which would be settled within the next 60 days.The central bank has been intervening on the official market in the last few months to try to narrow...

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Nigeria's central bank intervenes in Etisalat, banks face off as Mubadala pulls out

Nigeria's central bank said it has intervened in the face off between 13 banks and Etisalat after the telecoms firm failed to renegotiate a $1.2 billion loan taken out four years ago amid a report that the Dhabi state investment fund Mubadala has pulled out of Etisalat Nigeria. The central bank, which gave on the withdrawal of Mubadala Fund from the local firm, said it had intervened in the loan renegotiation talks to prevent job losses...

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Nigeria hopes to generate $1 bln from tax evasion amnesty -finance ministry

Nigeria hopes to raise at least $1 billion from a scheme that will give tax evaders a chance to make payments retrospectively, the finance ministry said on Friday.The OPEC member, which has Africa's largest economy, is in the second year of a recession brought on by low oil prices. Crude sales make up two-thirds of national revenue and the government is seeking to boost its income from non-oil sources.The finance ministry said a scheme would be launched...

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INTEREST RATE: Nigerian interbank rate eases on cash refund on bills and forex

Nigeria's interbank rate eased to around 9.5 percent on Friday from 15 percent last week after the central bank repaid 152.6 billion naira ($500.57 million) in matured debt and paid refunds to banks for their forex cash provisions. Traders said they expect a further drop in the overnight rate to around five percent in the next few days if the government, as expected, releases its May budget allocations next week to its agencies. "We are anticipating...

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CURRENCY: Nigeria's investor and black market FX rates near convergence

The rates at which Nigeria's naira currency was traded in the investor foreign exchange window and black market on Friday came close to converging, traders said, as the central bank continued its bid to improve dollar liquidity in Africa's biggest economy.The OPEC member, which has at least six exchange rates, is grappling with a currency crisis caused by low oil prices, which created chronic dollar shortages. It wants to attract foreign investors...

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EQUITY: Nigerian stocks extend losses as banking shares slide

Nigerian stocks extended falls for a third straight day on Friday, down 2.15 percent as investors booked profits following a recent rally, notably in the relatively liquid banking sector, traders said. The main index has risen 34 percent since end of April after the central bank lift currency restrictions for foreign investors and index provider MSCI increased the weight of Nigeria on its frontier market index. But sentiment has turned bearish. On...

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China cuts retail fuel prices

China will cut the retail prices of gasoline and diesel for the sixth time this year from Saturday following a drop in global oil prices, the country's top economic planner said Friday.Gas price will decrease by 250 yuan (about 36.76 U.S. dollars) per tonne, while the diesel price will be lowered by 240 yuan per tonne, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).China adjusts domestic retail oil prices when international crude...

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CURRENCY: Investors cheer Nigeria currency shift, want more

Nigeria's recent tentative steps to free up its naira currency, particularly via a new trading window, have gone down well with some adventurous stock and bond investors who are cautiously returning to the markets they fled two years ago. Once considered one of the most promising emerging markets, Nigeria was hammered when it introduced draconian foreign exchange restrictions to counter the effects of the 2014 oil price crash. These will take years...

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EXCHANGE RATE: Nigerian naira seen stable on central bank dollar support

Nigerian naira is seen trading around the prevailing level on both the black market and official interbank window as the central bank continues to inject more dollar liquidity to support the local currency. The local currency was quoted flat at 365 to the dollar on the black market, trading at 305.85 per dollar on the official interbank window against 305.70 a dollar last week. "The market seems to have reached a comfortable floor for now, except...

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DEBT: Etisalat Nigeria repaid nearly half of loan amount before default

Etisalat Nigeria had already repaid $500 million of $1.2 billion in loans owed to banks before it defaulted in February due to a currency devaluation, a senior executive told Reuters on Thursday. Talks between Etisalat Nigeria and lenders to restructure the $1.2 billion loan agreed in 2013 have failed to produce a deal, forcing the banks to step in this month.  Ibrahim Dikko, vice president for regulatory affairs, said the company currently...

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Nigeria sells five, 10- and 20-year bond at flat rate of 16.19 pct -DMO

Nigeria sold a five, 10- and 20-year debt at a flat rate of 16.19 percent at an auction on Wednesday to curtail borrowing costs as inflation declines, traders said on Thursday.The Debt Management Office (DMO) raised a total of 99.26 billion naira ($315.11 million), less than the 140 billion naira it wanted to raise, as it did not want to pay more for the notes.It sold 4.22 billion naira of the 2021 paper at 16.19 percent, compared with 16.30 percent...

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DEBT: Nigeria's Diaspora debut struggles in the secondary

Nigeria's Diaspora bond tumbled on the break as a combination of falling oil prices, sub-benchmark size and new format sent investors scurrying. The US$300m five-year priced at par to yield 5.625 percent on Monday. But it fell by nearly 2.5 points in the secondary, pushing the yield up to 6 percent. One trader said the small deal met a "lukewarm reception" and triggered "a wave of risk aversion across the [sub-Saharan Africa] space". Leads cited...

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ECONOMY: Nigeria out of recession in 4th quarter, says analyst

Nigeria's economy is seen out of recession at the end of the fourth quarter of the year as the Africa's biggest economy made efforts to reduce currency risk in the wake of improved dollar supply and falling inflation rate, head of Quantum Global Research has said. "Nigeria should bottom out of recession, say by the fourth quarter of the year and achieve the projection of 0.8 percent growth rate," Mthuli Ncube, former African Development Bank vice...

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AVIATION: Ethiopian Airlines places order for 10 Airbus planes

Ethiopian Airlines has placed an order for 10 Airbus A350-900 airplanes, it said on Tuesday, in addition to at least another 10 it already has on order. The extra A350-900s will be deployed on the airline's long-haul routes connecting Addis Ababa with destinations in Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, Chief Executive Tewolde GebreMariam said in a statement. The state-owned carrier is ranked the largest in Africa by revenue and profit by the...

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