“To this end, the NMDC has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with the Centre for Automotive Design based in Zaria. We will be producing some steel parts for them such as crane shaft, crankshaft, connecting rods, block engines, brake drums, and wheels. These will all come to fruition very soon. “We will be able to produce corrugated roofing sheets which are made from Electroplated Zinc and other items,”

Twenty four equities appreciated in price during the week under review, lower than twenty seven equities penultimate week. PZ Industries which top the gainers’ chart recently recommended distribution of N794.1 million to shareholders as interim dividends for the current year ending May 31, 2015. The dividend recommendation was part of the third quarter interim report and accounts of the conglomerate released recently.

THE Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, has called on the newly-elected President, African Development Bank, AfDB, Mr. Akinwunmi Adesina, to focus on entrenching transparency in the management and utilisation of revenues from natural resources in Nigeria and other African countries.

The working age population of Nigerians stood at 101.77 million as at fourth quarter 2014 (Q4, 2014) of which 72.9 million were fully employed or underemployed translating into a labour force participation rate of 71.7 per cent. This rate was lower than what was reported in the preceding quarter and the corresponding quarter of 2013 by 20 and 180 basis points, respectively according to the joint research report by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

A total of N738 billion worth of agricultural products were imported into the country in the first quarter of 2015, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its latest foreign trade reports. Agricultural imports increased by N132.1 billion or 21.8 percent from N606 billion in Q1 2014 to N738 billion in Q1 2015, the data show.