“The four months extension seems a long period, but customers should not delay or postpone their enrolment – it is better to do it now. Customers should not wait a few days to October 31st to avoid last minute registration rush and avoid spending hours in banking halls. They should also remember that they can enroll for their BVN from any branch of their bank, hence there is no need to wait till when you can visit the branch where the account is domiciled”, he said.

Among other things, Nigeria’s economic development is confronted with the challenge of huge infrastructure deficit. According to the Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic (AICD) Report for 2011, the country requires sustained spending of $14.2 billion per annum over the next decade in order to address the infrastructure challenge. Furthermore, it is estimated that Nigeria needs N10.63 trillion ($67 billion) for road upgrades, bridge repairs, the energy sector, hospitals and schools.

We are really working in collaboration with regulators and other stakeholders to ensure that the exercise is smooth. We succeeded in securing an extension of the recapitalization deadline. We are still at the fore front of engagements with the regulators to ensure that the interest of operators is protected. It will be pre-emptive to go beyond this information for now. But we are getting on well with the regulators.

Kwara State governor, Dr Abdulfatah Ahmed has commended President Muhammadu Buhari on the recent bailout of all tiers of government, to enable them offset outstanding salaries of workers.

Despite the avalanche of various beer brands in the market, Nigerian Breweries Plc has gone ahead to introduce a new beer brand; Star Triple X, thereby further dividing the taste line of consumers. The company says the beer is brewed with 14 natural extra African herbs of bitter kola, kola nut, ginger etc. The continuous development and introduction of new product (s) is an important source of improvement in consumer (s) welfare and company’s income.

What is clear from ‘The Economist’ story, however, is the overriding message that investors want more Naira depreciation, so that speculative overseas investors can readily expand their portfolio of Nigeria’s listed equity for less dollar values. In pursuit of this objective, “The Economist” is ‘righteously’ alarmed that ‘instead of allowing the Naira to devalue” (the writer probably means depreciate as a currency does not unilaterally devalue itself) “the Central Bank is trying to defend the Naira rate by blocking imports”.

Amidst lingering fuel supply dislocations and strike threats there are indications that Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and a few oil marketers have stepped up importation of the products. About 37 ships most of them laden with petroleum products are expected to arrive Nigerian ports between last weekend and July 25, 2015, according to Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).

Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, a member of Standard Bank Group, has released its six months unaudited results for the period ended 30 June 2015, with gross earnings at N68.3 billion, an increase of 11 percent over the N61.7 billion recorded in the comparable period of last year. According to the result, which was presented at the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE in Lagos weekend, profit before tax during the period stood at N9.5 billion, while profit after tax was N9.6 billion. Total assets went up nine percent to N1.03 trillion from N944.5 billion in December 2014.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has created NSE Pension 40 Index as part of key initiatives to drive market optimisation. The NSE Pension Index conforms with the requirements of the Pension industry as specified in the Pension Reform Act 2014 (as amended) and Regulation on Investment of Pension Fund Assets as prepared and amended by the National Pension Commission.

Turnover in the OTC market for the month of June 2015 was N9.67trn, a decline of 17 per cent or N1.95trn compared with the previous month’s and a 60 per cent or N3.62trillion increase compared to June 2014 Activities in the T.bills and FX segments of the OTC markets jointly§ contributed 64% to the total turnover, down from 67 per cent recorded in the previous month Repurchase Agreements/Buy-Backs recorded an increase over the review period whilst Forex , FX, Treasury , T. bills, FGN bonds and Unsecured Placements/Takings declined