The market indicators of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed trading on Friday with marginal drop of 0.15 per cent. The market capitalisation shed N22 billion or 0.15 per cent to close N14.742 trillion compared with N14.754 trillion achieved on Thursday. Similarly, the All-Share Index lost 59.2 points to close at 40,814.89 against 40,874.09 recorded on Thursday.

President Cyril Ramaphosa brought his branding of a “new dawn” in South Africa to London as he promised to unveil incentives to attract $100 billion in investment.

Ramaphosa, 65, has been working to convince investors that he’s committed to reversing years of economic stagnation, policy uncertainty and looting of state funds since succeeding Jacob Zuma as president two months ago. So far he’s fired some ministers and replaced the boards of several troubled state companies.

In spite of the warning by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that debt levels in African economies were rising, Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun on Friday said Nigeria’s debt level was still sustainable and under control. Speaking to newsmen on the sideline of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meetings at the ongoing 2018 IMF and World Bank meetings in Washington DC, Adeosun said Nigeria had nothing to worry about.

The Lagos State Government has announced plan to award the contract for the construction of the Fourth Mainland Bridge in June.

State Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Mr Ade Akinsanya, gave the assurance at a ministerial press briefing at Alausa, Ikeja.

He said the state was collating technical proposals and evaluating costs toward awarding contract.

The improvement in Nigeria’s oil earnings is on course as prices held firm on Friday near three-year highs reached earlier this week as ongoing OPEC-led supply cuts, as well as strong demand, gradually draw down excess supplies. Brent crude oil futures were up at 73.79 dollars per barrel.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has intervened with another sum of $210m in the foreign exchange market to meet the requests of customers.

A breakdown of the figures obtained from the bank in Abuja on Tuesday, indicated that the CBN offered the sum of $100m to authorised dealers in the wholesale segment of the market, just as it allocated the sum of $55m each to the Small and Medium-scale Enterprises segment and the invisibles segment to meet needs for tuition and medical payments and Basic Travel Allowance, among others.

The European Investment Bank (EIB), the EU Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have signed a Letter of Understanding to pool their expertise and experience to promote sustainable economic development, financial stability and inclusive growth in Africa.

The EIB will contribute with EUR 3m to IMF economic institutions, namely the African Regional Capacity Development Centers (AFRITACs) and the Financial Sector Stability Fund (FSSF), and will launch a new course with the IMF on financial intermediation and financial inclusion. As well as funding, the EIB will provide guidance to the AFRITACs and FSSF by participating in their governing bodies.

Yudala and Konga.com at the weekend announced a merger between the two giant e-commerce outfits.

The decision emerged after Zinox technologies, owners of the Yudala brand, acquired Konga in February.

Former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), on Thursday expressed support for the N56,000 minimum wage being demanded by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC). Olanipekun who stated this, while speaking to newsmen in Ikere-Ekiti,

The Kano State Government in North-Western Nigeria says it is holding discussions with a delegation of investors from Egypt on a meat-processing project in the state. A statement by the Government on Tuesday said the Acting Governor, Prof. Hafiz Abubakar made the disclosure when the investors visited him at the Government House, Kano.