The Standard Bank Group, to which Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc belongs, has reiterated the importance of the Nigerian market in its growth strategy.

Skye Bank Plc is to raise $1.5 billion from international funding agencies for onward lending to its customers in 2011 as a result of rising demand and growing business fortunes of its customers.

THE Federal government has reiterated that if Nigeria must achieve the set target of becoming one of the top twenty largest economies of the world, there is the need for the promotion of value added export of locally produced goods.

Foreign investors are concerned about the sustainability of Nigeria’s budgetary spending pattern, says Razia Khan of Standard Chartered.

In the first five years of this decade, 37 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa together raised more than $11 billion through privatisation programmes. Although the bulk of this corpus was raised in low-value transactions in competitive sectors, the figure puts the region next only to Europe and Latin America in global privatisation trends .

Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole was last week quoted as saying the state government will revisit the privatisation of Edo Cement factory and would revoke the privatisation exercise if need be.

Although many people rejoiced when they heard of the bid by the Federal Government through the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to privatise the electricity company, Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), some concerned individuals have, however, called for caution as according to them, once beaten, twice shy.

Electronic payment firms have intensified competition for Nigeria’s $4.3 billion electronic payment market with new products aimed at increasing market share.

Alhaji Ibrahim Auyo has been a major player in the aviation industry both in Nigeria and the international scene, having served as the pioneer managing director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) between 2000 and 2001.
After stepping down as MD of NAMA in 2001, he moved to the aviation wing of the United Nations Organisation (UN0) and was part of the professionals that formulated policies for the global aviation industry

Driven by significant improvement in the share prices of listed companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), the market capitalisation, representing the value of listed equities, in 5 days trading appreciated to close last week by N69.62 billion.