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Uju Udeme, the
president, Asaba Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture
(ASACCIMA), said the association was committed to the promotion of
industrial and commercial activities in Delta State.

Mr. Udeme said this
in Asaba on Wednesday when members of the association visited the state
commissioner for special duties in-charge of Direct Labour Agency
(DLA), Ngozi Okolie.

He said that one of
the objectives of the association was the promotion of the interest of
its members and harnessing and strengthening of the resource base of
private sector operators.

According to him,
key areas in promoting the private sector-driven economy include
telecommunications, tourism, agriculture, oil and gas, transportation
and finance.

“We are aware that
your agency is involved in the construction and maintenance of roads
across the state. And we also know that the impact of road in the
development of the economy of the state cannot be over emphasised,” he
added.

Nigeria’s foreign
exchange reserves slipped slightly to $33.12 billion naira by the end
of January from $33.53 billion two weeks earlier, and remain down more
than a quarter from a year ago, the Central Bank said on Wednesday.

The foreign
reserves of Africa’s top oil and gas producer have fallen over the past
12 months despite rising oil prices and production, raising concerns
about government spending in the run-up to April elections. They are
now 27 per cent below year-ago levels.

The government has
said the decline is partly due to spending to maintain a stable naira
currency in the face of higher dollar demand, as well as spending on
the power sector and seed capital for a planned sovereign wealth fund.

Central Bank
governor, Lamido Sanusi, told Reuters last month monetary tightening,
higher money market yields, a recovering banking sector, and higher oil
prices and production should help stop the reserve depletion.

The National Health
Insurance Scheme says it has registered about five million federal
civil servants, representing about 95 per cent of the target
population.

Its executive
secretary, Dogo Muhammed, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in
Abuja on Wednesday that the figure covered family members of the civil
servants.

He said that the scheme had stabilised and that it had attained the target population given to it by government.

“We all appreciate
that NHIS has stabilised both in the target population we were given,
that is, the federal government employees and their families. We have
captured over 95 per cent of that and we have just been doing the
mop-up or when new people are employed, we have to register them,” Mr.
Muhammed said.

He further explained that the scheme had been experiencing some challenges in getting to the states.

Mr. Muhammed said
that they are working hard to ensure that the Act establishing it was
amended to accommodate other sectors and also to make it compulsory for
all.

Investors at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday
recorded more losses on the value of their equities, as market closed trading
on negative note.

The NSE market capitalisation of the 201 First-Tier equities
closed yesterday at N8.541 trillion after opening the day at N8.575 trillion,
reflecting 0.39 per cent decline or N34 billion losses. The market had lost
N168 billion at the close of trading session on Monday.

However, the transaction volume recorded yesterday appreciated by
16.87 per cent to close at 330.40 million units exchanged in 6,349 deals as
against a decline of 22.69 per cent recorded on Monday to close at 282.72
million units exchanged in 5,768 deals. Market value also moved up on Tuesday
by 5.38 per cent to close at N3.28 billion as against a decline of 8.93 per
cent recorded the previous trading session to close at N3.11 billion.

Analysts at Proshare Nigeria, an investment advisory firm, said,
“The southward trend continued though waning momentum in sell activities.”

Gainers unchanged

At the close of trading on Tuesday, the number of gainers remain
unchanged as the 16 gainers recorded the previous session while losers closed
lower at 39 stocks when compared with the 50 losers in the previous trading
day.

Air Service and Neimeth topped the price gainers’ table with an
increase of 4.98 and 4.96 per cent respectively. Afro Media and Guaranty Trust
Bank followed in the chart with an increase of 4.84 and 4.42 per cent.

On the losers’ side, Royal Exchange and UBA led the price
losers’ chart with a decline of 5.00 and 4.98 per cent respectively. Africa
Petroleum and Presco followed with a decline of 4.96 and 4.94 per cent.

Bank leads

The banking subsector led the market transaction volume on
Tuesday with 242.41 million units valued at N2.15 billion exchanged in 3,829
deals, as against the 208.28 million units valued at N1.84 billion exchanged in
3,275 deals recorded on Monday.

The volume recorded in the subsector was driven by transaction
in the shares of Guaranty Trust Bank, Zenith Bank, UBA, Fidelity Bank, and
Oceanic Bank. The total volume of 133.76 million units valued at N1.45 billion
traded in the shares of the five stocks accounted for 40.49 per cent of the
entire market volume and their value represented 44.27 per cent of the market’s
value.

Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced on Monday that
all registered capital market operators are required to provide, within two
weeks, current information about their organisation as it is “currently updating
their information on the commission’s database.”

The move by the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to introduce derivative foreign exchange
products will eventually allow for a more stable national currency.

According to the
Financial Market Dealers Association (FMDA), the body of financial
instruments brokers, the commencement will be beneficial to the end
users of foreign exchange.

Akinsowon Dawodu,
president of the FMDA, said the framework, as released by the Central
Bank, would also help to check speculation on the products.

“The problem is
people may be carried away to speculate using the product. What the CBN
has done by tying the trade to underlying transactions is to reduce
speculation and reduce panic demand. It will keep demand within proper
tenor limits,” Mr. Dawodu said.

According to him, this will help in the long term to reduce fluctuations in the value of the naira.

On the introduction
of the product, he said, “The substance is what we wanted. It is good
for the market, for the end users, and the companies and for the
economy.”

He said though hedge
products do not guarantee stability, but used properly, can help to
reduce the volatility: “Futures, options, forwards, swaps; all these
products are originated as hedge products to mitigate risk.”

Given the current
state of the Nigerian financial market, Mr. Akinsowon said trading
forward instruments could begin anytime soon.

“Options will take awhile. But forward can start in a few weeks with the regular WDAS (Wholesale Dutch Auction System).”

The CBN on Monday
released guidelines for Foreign Exchange Derivatives and Modalities for
CBN foreign exchange forwards. The guidelines cover products, practices,
regulation, and supervision of the foreign exchange derivatives market.

“The objective of
the CBN is to make our financial markets global, organised, liquid and
diversified. The development of the financial markets will enhance the
transmission of the monetary policy and minimise the risk to financial
system stability,” the CBN said.

According to the CBN
governor, Lamido Sanusi, the move is to discourage currency
speculation, which has been blamed for the volatility in the value of
the naira.

“Part of what we are
trying to do in the Central Bank is introduce a forward market so that
people can hedge that risk and then don’t feel any urge to pre-liquidate
outstanding dollar exposure,” Mr. Lamido said.

As part of moves to
reduce volatility, the CBN, at the last monetary policy committee (MPC)
meeting introduced some measures to tighten liquidity in the system.

Analysts are, however, skeptical about how far this would help mitigate demand for foreign exchange.

According to Razia
Khan, Regional Head of Research, Africa Global Research at Standard
Chartered, London, “we question whether this will be sufficient to quell
FX market nervousness.”

“In view of the wider risks, more ‘complementary measures’ may be needed to calm FX-market sentiment,” she added.

Nigerians’ embrace
of a single debit card to carry out transactions both locally and
outside the country would go a long way in transforming Nigeria into a
cashless economy. This is in line with the quest by the Central Bank of
Nigeria to reduce the quantity of cash in circulation by 2020.

At the conference,
held yesterday in Lagos, officials of Mastercard, the franchisor, said
the new card, which would be available through the banks from next week,
will provide Nigerians news levels of global debit card acceptance
while greatly reducing their need to rely on cash for everyday
purchases.

“We are aligning
with the Central Bank’s desire to reduce cash carried by individuals in
2020. The MasterCard /Interswitch alliance comes at a time when the
Central Bank of Nigeria is laying significant emphasis on its Financial
System Strategy 2020 (FSS 2020),” Charles Ifedi, director, payment
solutions and business expansion, Interswitch, said at the launch.

According to him,
the FSS 2020 seeks to advance the efficiency of the country’s e-payment
systems by reducing the reliance on cash and promoting interoperability
among financial institutions, an objective which would be realised by
the use of the new card.

Banking in recent
times has been undergoing radical transformation. Some obvious changes
like new products and service channels emerge daily. This transformation
is taking place across all aspects of the banking industry.

“Information
technology (IT) is one of the major issues banks have to deal with, as
it is more evident that only the banks that have and use their technical
resources effectively will be able to have a real competitive advantage
in this fast changing industry. IT in banks is used mainly for
improving business processes and reducing turnaround time,” Charles
Idem, a research analyst at Ciuci Consulting, a management consulting
firm, said.

According to him, Nigerian banks have to pay close attention to customer service processes and consid­er ways to improve them.

“They need to move
quickly with the new trends in technol­ogy that eliminate some of the
routine tasks. This will provide employees more time to deal with
customers. To avoid mediocre implementation of IT initiatives, solutions
need to be integrated or aligned with the bank’s overall strategy,” he
said, adding that Daniel Monehin, area head, East and West Africa and
Indian Ocean Islands, MasterCard Worldwide, said cardholders will have
the ability to use a single card for domestic and international
transacting.

“The MasterCard
Verve cobranded debit card is fully Nigerian and fully international.
The new debit card will also give cardholders peace of mind as it will
provide them with a secure and efficient way of using their debit card
for daily purchases and accessing their cash at over 12,000 point of
sale locations, 400 online merchants, and at 10000 ATMs throughout
Nigeria,” he added.