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The Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Stock Exchange, Mr. Oscar Onyema, said the capital raising at the NSE was dominated by the Federal Government in 2019 as it raised N2.98tn. Onyema, while speaking at the 2019 market recap/2020 outlook, said on Monday the Federal Government accounted for over 60 per cent of bond issuances on the NSE in a bid to finance fiscal and infrastructure deficits. He stated that the total amount of bonds issued in 2019 were N3.10tn, of which 60 per cent (or N1.86tn) was raised by the Federal Government through new listings of bonds. The Federal Government also issued N1.12tn supplementary bonds on the NSE, which represented 36 per cent of the total amount of bond issuances. Corporate bonds accounted for four per cent (or N124m) of the total amount of bonds issued in 2019. The Federal Government is also billed to issue about N510bn worth of bonds in the first quarter of the year. The Debt Management Office in a schedule said the bond issuance wou...

Available data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed that Nigeria spent $1.31 billion to service external debt obligations between January and November last year. According to CBN, the external debt service payment stood at $1.31 billion at the end of November last year, compared to $1.47 billion spent in the corresponding period of 2018. Nigeria’s external debt profile continues to snowball and its attendant cost is worrisome. Specifically, the country’s total debt stock constitutes both external and domestic debts. As of June last year, the country’s total external debt stood at N8.32 trillion. Nigeria’s total public debt stock stood at N25.7 trillion. This means external debt service payment alone rose by 245.9per cent between 2015 and 2019 while an accumulated $3.95 billion was paid between the periods. Experts continue to stress that while the country’s debt to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio is sustainable for now, the cost of servicing the debt eats deep into...

The Nigerian equities market recorded the best weekly performance in two years following sustained bargain hunting by investors.  The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index rose 9.1 percent to hit 29,415.39, while market capitalization rose by 16.5 percent to N15.175 trillion last week. The last time the market posted such a major weekly gain was January 12, 2018.  Investors’ appetite for risk assets increased significantly as traders continued to take advantage of low prices of equities that suffered major decline last year.  Against the backdrop of the increased demand and major gain last week, the year-to-date growth has risen to 9.6 percent.      All other indices finished higher with the exception of the NSE Oil/Gas Index, which depreciated by 0.04 percent and NSE ASeM Index which closed flat.

All the finance people that are still wondering if the Federal Government of Nigeria has signed the new bill into law, please note that it has been signed into law as confirmed by the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS). Income tax, electricity tariff to go up We have the lowest VAT rate in Africa – Experts  Nigerians will henceforth pay more in taxes while electricity rates will also go up in the course of the year as a new law signed by President Muhammadu Buhari to boost revenue for the government comes into effect. The president yesterday signed the 2020 Finance Bill into law at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. This is coming nearly two months after the National Assembly passed the bill and forwarded it to the president for assent in November 2019. The law has paved the way for an increase of the Value Added Tax (VAT) from five percent to 7.5 percent. The 2020 Appropriation Act amounting to N10.59 trillion ($35bn) is also based on the new VAT rate. The new law al...