Economy
Private Sector, Key Drivers of Economy – SEC DG
By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
Acting Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, Ms Mary Uduk has described the Organized Private Sector (OPS) as key drivers for economic growth and development
Speaking at the inauguration of the SEC Private Equity Committee in Abuja at the weekend, the Acting DG noted that the private sector create jobs and pay the taxes that finance services and investments.
Uduk who was represented by Acting Executive Commissioner Corporate Services of the SEC, Mr.
Henry Rowlands, said the inauguration of the SEC Private Equity Committee is ahead of the planned National Private Equity Summit.She said the event is an epoch making one for the country as it underscores one of its objectives of facilitating proper understanding and appreciation by government of the importance of private sector activities as key drivers of private sector led economic growth.
According to her, the Nigerian government recognises the importance of private sector-led economic growth, hence it has put in place several partnerships and initiatives between the private sector and the government with a view to achieving optimal economic growth.
“The private sector remains the key driver of economic growth with the federal government providing enabling framework to galvanise and support private sector investors and participants through such vehicle as private equity funds.
“A McKinsey report highlights this fact by its data that reveals that private equity net assets grew as much as 70% from 2002 till 2018 and twice as fast as public equities. This underscores the high growth rate of private sector investment through private equity funds operations” she stated.
The Acting DG said that with a provision for allocation of $250 million of the pension assets under management of private equity investment, there lies huge potential for the sector to drive economic growth potentials of the Nigerian economy.
“I seize this opportunity to sincerely appreciate Henshaw Capital and Partners for this initiative and all the institutions and agencies that have accepted to participate in this working committee” she added.
In his remarks, Mr. Efiok Ekpenyong Efiok, Head, Investment Management Department, SEC said the SEC Private Equity Committee is a SEC driven Committee based on Private sector initiative led by Henshaw Capital Partners in collaboration with key financial sector stakeholders, Federal Government and private sector Institutions.
Efiok said the institutions include Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigerian Sovereign Wealth Fund, National Pensions Commission, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), and Nigerian Association of Securities Dealers.
According to him, the work of the Committee is geared towards organizing the Nigerian Private Equity summit with the objective of galvanizing the private equity ecosystem in Nigeria to proactively articulate, expand and harness the private equity opportunity in Nigeria.
“In line with this principal objective as articulated in the proposal document, the Summit aims among others to raise awareness of the private equity opportunity to meet a significant portion of the financing needs of Nigeria’s exponential growth Companies” he added.
The Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX) continued its bullish trend on Wednesday, gaining N183 billion.
Accordingly, the market capitalisation, which opened at N59.532 trillion, gained N184 billion or 0.31 per cent to close at N59.715 trillion.
The All-Share Index also added 0.31 per cent or 303 points, to settle at 98,509.
68, against 98,206. 97 recorded on Tuesday.Consequently, the Year-To-Date (YTD) return increased to 31.
74 per cent.Gains in Aradel Holdings, Zenith Bank, United Bank For Africa(UBA), Oando Plc, Nigerian Breweries among other advanced equities drove the market performance up.
Market breadth closed positive with 34 gainers and 17 losers.
On the gainers’ chart, Africa Prudential, Conoil and RT Briscoe led by 10 per cent each to close at N14.30, N352 and N2.42 per share, respectively.
Golden Guinea Breweries followed by 9.95 per cent to close at N7.18, while NEM Insurance rose by 9.74 per cent to close at N10.70 per share.
On the other hand, Julius Berger led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent to close at N155.25, Secure Electronic Technology Plc trailed by 9.52 per cent to close at 57k per share.
Multiverse lost 7.63 per cent to close at N5.45, Haldane McCall dropped 6.07 per cent to close at N4.95 and Honeywell Flour shed 5.62 per cent to close at N4.70 per share.
Analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 49.44 per cent.
A total of 320.10 million shares valued at N6.48 billion were exchanged in 7,943 deals, compared with 939.41 million shares valued at N12.81billion traded in 9,098 deals posted in the previous session.
Meanwhile, ETranzact led the activity chart in volume with 70.27 million shares, while Aradel led in value of deals worth N1.22 billion.(NAN)
The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the Yuan, weakened 22 pips to 7.1870 against the dollar on Monday.This is according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.In China’s spot foreign exchange market, the Yuan is allowed to rise or fall by two per cent from the central parity rate each trading day.
The central parity rate of the Yuan against the dollar is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening of the interbank market each business day. (Xinhua/NAN)
Arewa Youths Initiative for Energy Reforms (AYIFER), has urged Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) to do everything possible to bring Kaduna Refinery back into operation.
National Coordinator of the group, Mr Bashir Al’Amin, stated this in a statement issued on Friday in Abuja.
Al’Amin specifically called on the Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mallam Mele Kyari, to do all within his powers to rejuvenate the refinery and bring it up to global standard.
He said that having delivered the Port Harcourt refinery, coupled with the establishment of Dangote Refinery in Lagos, attention should be shifted to Kaduna refinery for easy spread of petroleum products.
“We are calling on Malam Mele Kyari to expedite action on Kaduna refinery so we can be at par with other regions in the country.
“We equally beg the NNPCL to do professional work in rehabilitating the old refinery and deliver a standard and functional petrochemical refinery and not a blending plant.
“Kyari should resist any temptation that could make him do something that can jeopardise his good image,” he said.
Al’Amin said that since the extinction of groundnut pyramid and textiles in Kano State as well as PAN in Kaduna State and with the Kaduna refinery getting moribund, a lot of youths had lost their jobs.
According to him, all their hopes in the north are tied to the legacy refinery, expressing the hope that God would use Kyari to deliver it well and on time.
He said that the group was solidly behind NNPCL in prayer and would be ready to celebrate the company if its expectations were met. (NAN)
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