The Central Bank of Nigeria says it has injected 210 million dollars into the interbank foreign exchange market, extending efforts to boost liquidity and alleviate dollar shortages.

Brent crude oil prices jumped above $65 per barrel after the shutdown of the Forties North Sea pipeline knocked out significant supplies from a market that was already tightening due to OPEC-led production cuts.

Brent crude futures on Tuesday, the international benchmark for prices of crude, were at $65.07 dollars a barrel at 0211 GMT.

The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) and Licensed Electrical Contractors Association of Nigeria (LECAN) said they are working to curb quackery and fake electrical installations while ensuring safe use of electricity. According to Dailytrust, the National Coordinator of LECAN, Chief Vitus Ofoedum said this during a sensitization campaign at Gudu market in Abuja on Wednesday.

The Central Bank of Nigeria under the auspices of the Bankers’ Committee has concluded plans to use the Bank Verification Number of customers to blacklist loan defaulters from accessing further loans in the nation’s banking system.

CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele made the disclosure at the end of a two-day annual retreat of the Bankers’ Committee in Lagos on Sunday.

The annual retreat had in attendance the CBN governor, deputy governors, the chief executive officers of the Deposit Money Banks in the country, the chief executive officers of development finance institutions, and some key stakeholders in the financial services industry.

As part of its commitment to programme implementation, the World Bank said it will continue the preparation of the proposed $1 billion Performance Based Loan (PBL) to support the Power Sector Recovery Programme (PSRP) in the country.

At the just concluded two days consultation on PSRP, the World Bank Group and the Federal Government said the PSRP is a comprehensive programme of policy, legal, regulatory, operational and financial interventions that will restore service efficiency and long-term power sector viability.

High soaring virtual currency, Bitcoin plunged as much as 15 per cent to below US$14,500 on profit-taking Friday, capping a roller-coaster week that saw the currency hit a series of record highs and underlining concerns about its volatility.

Bitcoin, which has no central bank backing and no legal exchange rate, briefly hit a new record of US$17,000 before plunging to US$14,480 in Asian afternoon trade, according to Bloomberg News.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) market indices on Tuesday recorded marginal growth of 0.03 per cent after dropping by 0.88 per cent on Monday, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports. The All-Share Index rose by 10.64 points or 0.03 per cent to close at 38,924.63 as against 38,913.99 on Monday.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres is seeking for a one billion dollars donor contributions to the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to fund life-saving works in Nigeria and other countries.

The UN chief said at a pledging conference in New York that over the past 12 years, CERF has been at the forefront of humanitarian response.

CERF is a pool of funding that supports critical relief operations in crises area around the world.

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has disclosed that electricity generation in the country has reached an all-time 7,000 megawatts while transmission stands at 5,155 megawatts.

Fashola stated this at the opening of the 22nd power sector stakeholders meeting held at the premises of Geregu Power Plc, Kogi State yesterday.

The minister said the statistics implied that 2,000 MW was stranded and must be evacuated for use as more power will be generated in 2018.

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), on Friday sealed no fewer than 10 filling stations in Benin for over pricing of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly called petrol.

Some of the stations sealed include; Foadal along Airport road, Asolyn in Sapele road, Raptor oil along Upper Mission and Saint Taiye Oil and Gas by Lawani Junction in New Benin.