The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has declared that the dominance of foreign investors is the bane of Nigeria’s stock market. The Director General, SEC, Mounir Gwarzo, who stated this said “Dominance of the market by foreign investor is one of the reasons why our market is the way it is. Although it is the pattern of the market, but this dominance is a major factor because they are the ones that come in and come out. We need to upscale the participation of the retail investors in the market and that is why we are addressing some of their concerns. Anyone you meet today and tell him to come back, the issue of unclaimed dividends is always a major problem.”

In the latest Ease of Doing Business ranking from the World Bank, one country made a spectacular leap—from 143rd on the list to 67th. It was Rwanda, whose population and institutions had been decimated by genocide in the 1990s. On the World Bank list, Rwanda catapulted out of the neighbourhood of Haiti, Liberia, and the West Bank and Gaza, and sailed past Italy, the Czech Republic, Turkey, and Poland. On one sub=index in the study, the ease of opening a new business, Rwanda ranked 11th worldwide.

Barely 48 hours after the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, appeared before the senators last Tuesday, where he painted a gloomy picture of Nigeria’s economy, with inflation and stagnation being experienced simultaneously, the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, last Thursday appeared before the same Senators.

Fire works on how best to engage a recovery strategy for the economy begins tomorrow at the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, as its Monetary Policy Committee, MPC, appeared stretched into further review of its positions in the light of new developments in the economic and monetary sphere last week. MPC is the highest monetary policy making organ of the CBN while CBN in turn is the economic policy adviser to the federal government. Meanwhile, all financial market segments closed at the weekend on adverse numbers, meaning the markets would be opening tomorrow on gloomy sentiments as MPC members settle down to begin deliberations.

Less than a week after Lagos State Government directed all its agencies, ministries and parastatals to increase business relationship with Skye Bank, another State of the federation, Kogi State has re-appointed the Bank as its lead collecting Bank for the State Internally generated Revenue and services.