The Managing Director, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Alhaji Gimba Ya’u Kumo, said last week that some 68 million Nigerians were improperly housed. Ya’u Kumo stated this in Abuja at a civil society interface organised by Initiative for Leadership and Economic Watch in Nigeria (ILEWN), a civil society organisation.

A Dutch Appeals Court ruled weekend that Royal Dutch Shell can be held liable for oil spills at its subsidiary in Nigeria. Judges in The Hague ordered Shell to make available to the court documents that might shed light on the cause of the oil spills and whether leading managers were aware of them. Friday’s ruling overturned a finding by a lower Dutch court in 2013 that Shell’s Dutch-based parent company could not be held liable for spills at its Nigerian subsidiary.

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) says it expects to capture at least 500,000 new corporate accounts in its tax database by March 31, 2016. The Chairman of FIRS, Mr Babatunde Fowler, told State House correspondents in Abuja that the objective was to ensure timely collection of revenue on behalf of the Federal Government.

The council of the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria, NIMN, has stated that one of its focus in the next few years would be to strengthen its regional operations by further enhancing the status of its chapters. This, according to the Council, represents a way of deepening its membership drive outside Lagos, its traditional catchment area, as Agenmonmen is elected First Vice President.

The move by Federal Government to increase official pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) commonly known as petrol, from N87 to N97 per litre, as well as proposed removal of fuel subsidy has sparked controversy among Nigerians and stakeholders in the oil and gas sector. While some people said government should remove subsidy to invest the money in developmental projects, other said government’s action will bring more hardship on the citizens.

Dangote Cement Plc is beating its chest for leading an initiative that crashed the price of cement by about 40 percent. The move by the market leader cut cement price from about N2,000 to N1,300. The cement company explained the rationale behind its action on a day it empowered distributors with about 150 trucks. The trucks will aid the supply of cement to Dangote Cement Plc retailers. The 150 trucks represent the first phase of the trucks to be given to distributors. Another set of 250 trucks will get to the market leader’s distributors, according to the Group Chief Marketing Officer of Dangote Group, Oare Ojeikere, under the second phase of the Truck Empowerment Scheme.

The Chairperson of Ibom Deep Seaport Implementation Committee, Mrs. Mfon Ekong Usoro, who is also the pioneer Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA and the current the Secretary General of the West and Central Africa Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control, spoke to Sunday Vanguard’s Godfrey Bivbere, of efforts at the completion of the deep sea port, challenges so far and many more.

In line with the policy of the Federal Government to curtail smuggling of contra-band items into the country through the border lines, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Oyo/Osun Command, stormed a forest along Kishi- Igbeti area of Oyo State and intercepted five long trucks fully loaded with foreign rice, brought illegally into the country by smugglers.

By now, the new owner of Lafiagi Sugar supposed to have over 400 hectares of planted sugar cane in the site. It is supposed to have brought in its machineries by now. That is, by March 2015, it is supposed to have imported it’s machineries but nothing like that has happened.

The drive to deepen the Nigerian capital market through introduction of more asset classes has received a boost with the launch of Securities Lending product by Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc.