Amidst growing disagreement among microfinance banking operators, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has indicated it is open to the idea of outsourcing examination of microfinance.

Low income earners, may now have cause to smile, as their hopes and dreams of becoming landlords is turning to reality at the emerging Nice Dreams Estate, in Ofada, Ogun State.

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) administration has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a Chinese firm, Chinese Global Group Corporation (CGGC), to deliver mass housing, boost development of infrastructure and power generation in the in the territory.

The Senate has faulted the N5 billion capital base of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), describing it as ridiculously low and an indication that government is only paying lip service to provision of affordable housing to the people.

In last week’s article, “Dollar Reserves: Who Owns What?” we endeavoured to lift the shroud over the amorphous concept of Nigeria’s foreign reserves. Incidentally, the Senate has lately in consonance with our position, also frowned at the illegality of the component of the reserves defined as excess crude account! (See Daily Independent headline of 23/10/2009, “Sharing of $2bn Excess Crude Fund Illegal – Senate”).

Insurers across the African Continent are bracing up to venture into the the delicate and risky business of political insurance as a means of curbing the huge loses associated with political violence, terrorism acts and internal war.

Shareholders have seen the current price of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc shares as a very good buy opportunity given the growth potential in the financial conglomerate.

Driven by substantial improvement on the share prices of majority of the listed equities, the value of listed equities on the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE), last week, rose by N152.80 billion.

Investors, market regulators, and market participants have learnt many lessons since 2007 about the relationships and interconnected nature of financial markets across the world. The near collapse of the global financial markets and the ripple effects that are still reverberating across our markets is one of the burdens that investors are still attempting to come to grips with.

Nigeria amongst other African countries and Organisation of Islamic Countries, OIC, is proposing what human rights organisations have described as a potentially dangerous bill to the United Nations on “defamation of religion .

As part of the post-amnesty arrangements and in its determined efforts to engage the youths of the Niger Delta, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development NEPAD has said it would engage 15,000 youths in establishing integrated farms in the three senatorial districts of Rivers State.

Prince Tonye Princewill is a personable young man that has the ability to charm people even when he is telling them bitter truths, as all other members of President Umoru YarAdua’s Niger Delta Technical Committee, on which he served, learnt…sometimes to their chagrin

I CALL my kind of woman the ‘Ordinary Woman.’ She’s not ordinary because she lacks the good things of life; she is the woman who is not yet fulfilled but has her own aspiration to get to the top cadre of life.

As Nigeria begins the defence of the FIFA Under-17 World Cup today in Abuja, football fans here are anxious to see the team that has been assembled by coach John Obuh. Sink or swim, one player Nigerians are eager to see perform is Stanley Okoro.

Coach Franklin Howard has said that Nigeria has the capacity to defend successfully the FIFA U-17 World Cup if the nationalU -17 team could go the extra mile of showcasing an improved and sharpened talents that the world has come to associate Nigeria with over time well here on home soil, as the Nigeria 2009 U-17 World Cup gets underway today with the Eaglets engaging their German opponents in Abuja.