IMF Africa Director, Mrs. Atoinette Sayeh recently noted at a press conference at a World Bank event in Lima, Peru, that “…those measures introduced by CBN to restrict demand and limit access to official foreign exchange for certain imports are quite detrimental to economic activities and invariably led to a lot of unhappiness in the private sector”.

Cadbury Nigeria has moved out of a net loss of N250.7 million in the second quarter into a profit level that keeps it on the edge of slipping off again. The beverage manufacturing company suffered a big profit slash last year and this year another major profit drop is keeping it swinging between profit and loss. The company returned to profit in 2010 after many years of sustained losses. It seems to have run out of the operating steam again that empowered its turnaround five years ago.

Profit before tax rose to N13.17 billion as against N11.89 billion recorded in comparable period of 2014 while profit after tax increased from N11.79 billion to N13.08 billion. Other highlights of the results showed that net operating income was up two per cent to N55.5 billion from N54.5 billion in Q3 2014. Total expenses were down by two per cent to N42.3 billion from N43.1 billion in the corresponding period in 2014.

A survey conducted by Nigeria’s online vehicle marketplace, Carmudi.com has shown that Nigeria is the most expensive country to buy a car when compared to its neighbouring West African countries. The study which focused on the used car model manufactured between 2008 and 2013 provided insights into the price difference across some of the surveyed countries in West Africa.

The hospitality business in Nigeria is now peaking at N562 billion as at last year. This was disclosed by SlimTrader, West Africa Vocation Education, WAVE, a technology/e-commerce solution provider. In a chat with Vanguard, Femi Akinde, Managing Director, SlimTrader, said: “The Hospitality industry in Nigeria is worth approximately N562 billion ($3billion) in 2014 and still growing.

The capital market is a veritable tool for enhancing entrepreneurship in any economy, said Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS). Acting President and Chairman of Council, CIS, Mr. Oluwaseyi Abe, said this in his opening address at the 19th annual stockbrokers’ conference themed: ‘Entrepreneurship and the Capital Market: Fast Tracking a New Economy for Africa’ in Lagos.

To further drive the need for a cashless economy among Nigerians, Visa, Global payment technology company has entered into partnership with Total Nigeria Plc with a view to rewarding customers who use their Visa card to buy fuel at service stations in Lagos state.

One of the factors responsible for the huge housing deficit in Nigeria is that houses are not being delivered fast enough in tandem with population growth, especially in major cities like Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, etc. A probable solution to this problem is to adopt the use of prefab technology in housing delivery in the country. The prefab technology will make it possible to produce houses en masse across the country very fast.

International trade is a well-known path to economic prosperity for many countries, but in Nigeria, its warped practice, marked by smuggling and evasion of duties, have become destructive drainpipes for an ailing economy. At issue is the Economic Trade Liberation scheme (ETLS).

So usually bigger printing and design companies will turn down such projects because they consider that the time that would have been spent on such projects would be better used for blue-chip company projects. So we saw this opportunity and decided to launch a solution for small scale businesses. This does not mean that we cannot attend to the big companies but we have special tailored solutions for SMEs.